222 stories by "Anne Valentino"
Weddings (as the reception wears on and the alcohol flows) tend to be drama-filled, emotionally-charged events that can, with the mere flip of a switch, devolve into overly confessional hotb…
Eleanor Burgess' "The Niceties" is a deeply intense two-hander that deftly blurs the line between hero and villain, as it is nearly impossible to completely ascribe any one category to the c…
Pulitzer Prize finalist "Rapture, Blister Burn" gives playwright Gina Gionfriddo a theatrical platform from which to explore the topic of feminism from just about every conceivable angle"as …
The sheer staying power of three actors playing countless characters over the course of three and a half hours is perhaps the most astounding part of Shakespeare Theatre Company's production…
Anna Julia Cooper became principal of M Street High School in DC in 1902. Deemed by many the "mother of Black feminism," Cooper was a staunch proponent of young students of color pursuing de…
 Jane Martin is the pseudonym for a playwright who, among other honors, has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. That very same anonymous "Jane Martin" is the author of "Anton in Show…
Jonathan Spector's "This Much I Know" is currently having its East Coast premiere at Theater J. It was the winner of the 2023 Theatre Bay Area Will Glickman Award for best new play premiere.…
Plays centering exclusively on people "of a certain age" are admittedly few and far between. "Morning After Grace" heavily mines the lives of those who fall into the 60+ category and comes u…
Audra McDonald's star just keeps rising. With a record six Tony Awards along with two Grammys and an Emmy adorning her mantle, the soprano powerhouse absolutely brought down the house in her…
The final day of the Folger Theatre's Reading Room Festival proved as plucky and spirited as ever. At the center of this Shakespeare-filled Sunday was a staged reading of "Everything That Ne…
This is the second year the Folger has produced The Reading Room Festival, "with new work and conversations inspired by or in response to the plays of William Shakespeare." The four-day fest…
Jordan Harrison's play "Marjorie Prime," a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is one that teasingly flirts with the boundaries between past and future, between artificial intelligence and the far "mes…
Questions of parentage, heritage, and of one's past are hauntingly mined throughout Sun Mee Chomet's one-woman show "How to Be A Korean Woman." Sun Mee brings audiences 85 minutes of raw emo…
Shows that attempt to capture a slice of history are most intriguing when they manage to sincerely transport audiences and are able to not only recreate the milieu, but hit upon that essenti…
Usually, when reviewing a play, I will sleep on it. The next morning, if I have lingering questions, I want to see the "sequel" or I am unusually reflective about what I saw"then I know it w…
Last week I had the opportunity to see four shows. Three of them were larger-budget productions. The fourth was a much smaller show staged in a fairly intimate space. In my humble opinion, b…
Some musicals don't fit inside of a neat little box. Some musicals actually blow up said box in presenting a show that dares to defy conventions. Tony Winner (for Best Orchestrations) "Girl …
The trend for turning movies into big-budget Broadway musicals has definitely been picking up steam in the past few years. From "Beetlejuice" to "Mrs. Doubtfire," numerous iconic 90s movies …
The idea of wrestling with one's inner demons is given a slightly different spin in acclaimed Irish playwright Conor McPherson's "The Seafarer," now playing at Round House Theater. For those…
Shakespeare has something for everyone"a  little romance, some sword fighting, jealousy, greed, the most tragic of deaths, but is Shakespeare suitable for children? What's more, can Shake…
While technically there is no public obscenity in this play, the content offers a complex, edgy, and, at times, risqué look at modern Indian culture as framed through the literal and metaph…
The world premiere of Iris Bahr's "See You Tomorrow" at Theater J invites audiences along on a frantic, guilt-driven, and semi-neurotic journey about a woman who is determined to help her mo…
Nicole Burton's "Wednesdays in Mississippi" depicts a snapshot of the Civil Rights movement as experienced by a group of women from northern regions of the country who traveled to cities and…
Perisphere Theatre's production of "Hazardous Material" by Beth Kander paints a post-World War II, Lavender Scare-era portrait of two women whose "scandalous" behavior sets the tone for thei…
Spooky Action Theatre has deemed this season, under new Artistic Director Elizabeth Dinkova, as one that extends "Beyond Borders""both literal and also more metaphorical as far as the border…
