With the passing of Alan Berman, one of America's great lyricists, and with all the accolades and testimonials appearing in our news feeds about his work (especially with composer Michel LeG…
 Chicago's Mary Zimmerman is no stranger to the D.C. stage. Her productions of "Moby Dick" at Arena Stage and "Argonautica" at the Shakespeare Theatre Company come vividly to mind. What …
The summer of 2022 has been a time to reconnect with live theatre, and especially live, community theatre. This year, The Bard's Wagon Players returned to Reisterstown and Catonsville with a…
In a way, the idea of reviewing a show that is soon to be sold out seems redundant. Everyone knows this is an awesome piece of work"a Broadway classic in the making"so why bother? If for any…
If you think you've been in Hell lately, guess again. The Rude Mechanicals have pulled out all the stops, left no Web- or Zoom-based stone unturned to bring you a truly delightful, live vers…
 If you're a denizen of Mark Zuckerberg's infernal world, by this point you may have had a couple friends who have been tossed into "Facebook Jail" for a few days. They usually announce …
One of the silver linings of theatre closures from COVID " one of the few, mind you " was the decision to capture productions on film. When the production is as high-caliber as the Harold Pi…
Just as every premiere of an August Wilson play on Broadway was a major event, every film based on his plays should shake the earth beneath our feet. Especially for those of us who, being wh…
Among the many treasures of world theatre, the tradition of shadow puppets is one of the most fascinating. From Southeast Asia to the Mediterranean, the deceptively simple spectacle of f…
One of the great pleasures of being part of the Washington, D.C. theatre scene for so long is that I get the chance to kick back and talk shop with former colleagues"especially those whose c…
Once upon a time Anton Chekhov, the Russian playwright, had a huge problem: his director, Konstantin Stanislavsky (not his real name, by the way) kept on treating his comedies as if they wer…
Given the plethora of productions this time of year, it's a struggle to make Charles Dickens' classic story your own. The characters of Scrooge, Marley, Cratchit et al. are practically i…
To appreciate what Lauren Gunderson has accomplished with her latest historical play, “The Book of Will,” it pays to leaf through your Norton Facsimile of the First Folio, as the…
So when did the 60's end for you? When Jimi and Janis died? When the Beatles broke up? When Reagan got elected? Or did it take the election of Donald J. Trump to the presiden…
Oh, for the days when a snappy prologue got you in the mood for a night of great theatre. Time was when someone would come out before curtain with a little witty patter, a bit of poetry …
The great French novelist Victor Hugo was a notorious provocateur; when he wasn't writing plays so partisan the government banned them after one night, he was firing up the popular imaginati…
Normally when a theatre company rolls out its new season there's little to do but listen to boring speeches, nosh a little, drink a lot, and pretend to schmooze with Board members you'll nev…
Broadway hits have a mixed record when it comes to longevity. Some capture the zeitgeist but don't maintain a strong presence in the repertory in later years; others appeal to New Yorker…
Deep down we're all apes, right? Kissing cousins with the monkeys, gorillas and of course those adorable chimps. We've got the bananas, we've got our instincts, our sense of turf and…
Playwriting being a solitary task, it should come as no surprise that playwrights often enjoy pursuits that are equally solitary. Take fishing, for example " given the crush of audiences…
Watching President Obama's farewell address from Chicago this week was an occasion to think of all the progress we have made in this country over the past eight years"as well as the vast, un…
Face it, we've all survived a brutal presidential election season; it was especially brutal if you found yourself on the losing side. You look around at your neighbors, wondering who vot…
'Tis the season for nostalgia, it seems; hipsters of a certain age are flocking to the Avalon Theatre to catch the Beatles documentary “Eight Days a Week” coming face-to-f…
Director/artist Thomas W. Jones II is a theatrical threat on many fronts: he choreographs, he directs, he writes scripts and lyrics"you name it he does it. What's more, he has some o…
One of the attractions of the Contemporary American Theater Festival is Artistic Director Ed Herendeen's willingness to challenge his audiences with audacious work that takes you right up to…