All stories by Roy Maurer on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Chekhov like you’ve never seen – Three Sisters at Studio Theatre (review) by Roy Maurer

The women chant their lines over one another above a rising swirl of offstage clamor that reaches a crescendo pitch. Masha (Caroline Hewitt),—the most troubled of the three Prozorov sister…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PM

No Sisters, Posner’s real-time riff on Chekhov’s Three Sisters at Studio Theatre (review) by Roy Maurer

Hey theater geeks, you’ll want to pay attention to this one! Did you ever think it’d be cool to sit back with the characters you had just seen on stage and just shoot the shit for a whil…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PM

Kevin McAllister: playing Coalhouse Walker, Jr in Ragtime by Roy Maurer

Once an accidental role, Kevin McAllister’s turn as raging pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr., in the expansive, Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime at Ford’s Theatre will be the third go-aroun…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:24AM
Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Kevin McAllister: playing Coalhouse Walker, Jr in Ragtime by Roy Maurer

  Once an accidental role, Kevin McAllister’s turn as raging pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr., in the expansive, Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime at Ford’s Theatre will be the third g…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:06PM
Monday, February 13, 2017

Watch on the Rhine at Arena Stage (review) by Roy Maurer

The problems that vexed Lillian Hellman’s “sound the alarm” play Watch on the Rhine at its debut in 1941 still apply to the handsome production at Arena Stage today. Worse yet, it’…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:24AM
Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Daven Ralston adds musical flavor to Folger’s Cajun stew of an As You Like It by Roy Maurer

Actor and musician Daven Ralston glows when she talks about connecting with people through music. An accomplished pianist and violinist, Ralston is performing in Folger Theatre’s productio…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:12AM
Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Synetic’s silent Sleeping Beauty (review) by Roy Maurer

  Arlington’s Synetic Theater transports audiences to the fairy tale realm of enchanted forests and love at first sight in its latest wordless adaptation. Sleeping Beauty gets the vis…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:42AM
Monday, December 5, 2016

Jennifer Clements works puppets into new Christmas Carol adaptation at Creative Cauldron by Roy Maurer

Christmastime is officially upon us, heralded by the copious variants of Charles Dickens’ Yuletide classic A Christmas Carol springing up around the Washington, D.C. metro area. Offerings …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:48AM
Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Broadway Bound sets another high point for 1st Stage (review) by Roy Maurer

Director Shirley Serotsky’s touching Broadway Bound at 1st Stage is a captivating mix of coping humor and tragic poignancy, borne aloft by Teresa Castracane’s soaring performance as Kate…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:02AM
Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Jack Sbarbori gives rare interview on McPherson’s Night Alive by Roy Maurer

Bethesda, Md.-based Quotidian Theatre Company opens its 2016-2017 season with The Night Alive, the most recent, critically acclaimed drama from Conor McPherson, one of contemporary theater�…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:24PM
Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The Little Foxes at Arena Stage (review) by Roy Maurer

The Little Foxes is at once an old-fashioned melodrama and a biting critique, seemingly written for today, of the hotly resented “1 percent”. The play’s set up and mechanics feel l…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:00PM
Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Moxie, a Happenstance Vaudeville (review) by Roy Maurer

A variety of unrelated acts—song and dance, comedy, acrobatics, pantomime, magic—vaudeville was the popular American entertainment before radio, film and television. Happenstance Theater…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:22AM
Monday, May 2, 2016

Disgraced at Arena Stage (review) by Roy Maurer

There’s a lot of serious stuff exposed in Ayad Akhtar’s incendiary Disgraced, currently at Arena Stage. The 90-minute one act asks tough questions, presents thorny dilemmas, uncorks usua…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:49AM
Tuesday, April 5, 2016

David Auburn’s Proof at 1st Stage (review) by Roy Maurer

I’ll get right to it: For all the big-time awards bestowed upon it and its marketing promising profound discoveries at the end of an artful journey, David Auburn’s Proof is puzzlingly fl…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:34AM
Thursday, March 3, 2016

Othello from Shakespeare Theatre Company (review) by Roy Maurer

The play’s final words sum it up best: “This heavy act with heavy heart relate.” The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s Othello is decidedly heavy on…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:07AM
Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Glass Menagerie at Ford’s Theatre (review) by Roy Maurer

The narrator clues us in at the outset that what we’ll be watching are the shadows of memories. This “truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion” are Tom’s sheltered remembrances of …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:57AM
Monday, December 21, 2015

The music shines in Bright Star at The Kennedy Center by Roy Maurer

Unapologetically uplifting songs like the Act II opener “Sun’s Gonna Shine” have pressed a consensus judgment that Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Broadway-bound period musical Brig…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:30AM
Saturday, November 7, 2015

No Exit, a closeup of Satre’s Hell from Nu Sass (review) by Roy Maurer

Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit is one of those canonic icons that most theater-literate folks are familiar with but probably haven’t seen. When intellectuals of Sartre’s type attempt to ma…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:38PM
Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Tiny Island at Washington Stage Guild (review) by Roy Maurer

Michael Hollinger’s Tiny Island certainly fits the theme chosen for the Washington Stage Guild’s 30th year—“A Season of Past & Future.” The premise of estranged sisters reuniti…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:54AM
Friday, August 28, 2015

Dogfight at Keegan Theatre (review) by Roy Maurer

It pains me to write this review of Dogfight at the Keegan Theatre. I’ve been a Keegan patron for years and was happy to experience its newly renovated space for the first time (it debuted…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:26PM
Wednesday, July 15, 2015

‘This Lime Tree Bower’, early McPherson gem at Quotidian (review) by Roy Maurer

Not as well known or as often produced as Conor McPherson’s later works The Weir, Port Authority or Shining City, this superb production of This Lime Tree Bower is every bit as worthy, in …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:37AM
Monday, June 8, 2015

Merde! Spooky Action’s Jarry Inside Out gets lost midst the murk by Roy Maurer

Spooky Action Theater’s spirited dive into the addled mind of avant garde playwright and nonsense man Alfred Jarry provides an experience of the provocateur’s life and art in a manner th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:30AM
Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Studio’s Murder Ballad rocks the cabaret experience (review) by Roy Maurer

Studio Theatre Artistic Director David Muse’s inspiration to “bring the 14th street nightlife” onto the stage and immerse its audience in a rock musical cabaret experience pays off big…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:49AM
Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Outstanding production of Doubt at 1st Stage by Roy Maurer

John Patrick Shanley’s thought-provoking dialectic on the dead-end of certainty vs. the revelatory nature of doubt is masterfully handled by director Michael Dove in a production at Tysons…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:25AM
Friday, December 12, 2014

A spectacular Tempest at Shakespeare Theatre by Roy Maurer

By Act IV’s wedding masque celebrating the betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda, I fully capitulated to the spell of enchantment director Ethan McSweeny has conjured for The Tempest, his lat…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:03PM
Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Washington National Opera’s La bohème by Roy Maurer

Giacomo Puccini’s abiding tale of tragic love proved its unassailable endurance as the Washington National Opera’s restrained, ashen La bohème received an enthusiastic standing ovation …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:53AM
Tuesday, October 28, 2014

1960’s Hedda Gabler at Quotidian Theatre by Roy Maurer

I was all ready to declare Quotidian Theatre Company’s boldly imagined if awkwardly self-conscious reworking of Hedda Gabler as a fatal misstep in transference. But after revisiting Henrik…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:00AM
Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Seven Guitars at No Rules Theatre by Roy Maurer

The reflective moments after a funeral open and close August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, the opening production of No Rules Theatre Co.’s 2014-15 season. And that’s wholly appropriate, as …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:02AM
Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Highlights from Signature’s Open House and season intro video by Roy Maurer

Chalk up another success for Arlington Va.’s Signature Theatre, which welcomed loyal subscribers and curious newcomers alike August 2nd for its annual free Open House event. Music, fun and…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:05PM
Thursday, July 31, 2014

Signature Theatre’s free Open House celebrates the musical this Saturday by Roy Maurer

Arlington, VA’s Shirlington Village is the place to be this Saturday, August 2nd, for Signature Theatre’s Open House, an annual celebration of theater and music. From noon to 10 p.m.…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:42AM
Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The Veil by Roy Maurer

Is The Veil firstly a ghost story? Hard to say, but it is appareled in those trappings, and some fine creepy moments are conjured, too. Is it historical metaphor? One may be led to believe s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:53AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards