42 stories by "Chris Williams"
Peter Brook has been called "our greatest living theatre director", so his inclusion in The Kennedy Center's "Spotlight on Directors" series is a straightforward one. Nonetheless, it is not …
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's "Petrushka" on Saturday night was a masterclass in 'how to do' orchestral music. An exciting and intelligent program, a captivating soloist and flawless pl…
I hope that – from time to time – everyone else has the nagging concern that they might secretly be 'a Mrs. Miller', because I certainly do. A housewife from Claremont, Californi…
The time is the present, the place a 'sacred site'. Part religious rite, part parable, part Gospel musical and part Greek tragedy, "The Gospel at Colonus” is a rich tapestry, and yet, …
The caricature of classical music is that it is 'serious' music. The serious conductor conducts the serious musicians, while the audience looks on, seriously. Revealing the lie of this, Nich…
Gaveaux's opera comique "Léonore, ou L'Amour conjugal" has become something of a historical footnote to Beethoven over the years. Wildly popular in late to post-revolutionary France, its li…
Both the Artistic Director of Arena Stage, Molly Smith, and the director of their powerful new production, “Watch on the Rhine”, Jackie Maxwell, emphasize the importance of conte…
Finegan Kruckemeyer's "At Sea, Staring Up" is about the in-between places. The place – physical and emotional – between people, the place between the real and the unreal, the pla…
The planned Parisian premiere of Enrique Granados' one-act opera "Goyescas" was canceled because of World War I, opening instead at The Met in 1916. It was so positively received that the…
Ivo Van Hove's "A View From the Bridge" is flawless theatre. It is visceral, detailed, and beautifully wrought with acute clarity of intent and singularity of vision. Arthur Miller's 1955 pl…
Constellation Theatre's latest offering is a screening of Fritz Lang's iconic film "Metropolis," to live original music composed, improvised, and performed by Tom Teasley. When "Metropolis" …
A story of old-fashioned love overcoming circumstance with catchy tunes and moments of emotionally moving music amidst a background of well-crafted silliness. What else could you ask for? If…
"Rameau's Nephew," translated and adapted by Shelly Berc and Andrei Belgrader, after Denis Diderot's "Le Neveu de Rameau," is an imaginary dialogue between "I," The Philosopher, and "…
The In Series' latest offering is a real treat for a Sunday afternoon. Performed at Source Theatre, "The Romantics III" features the songs of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), in a salon-style co…
The American University Department of Performing Arts production of Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart's "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" goes for the spirit …
The four violin concerti that make up Vivaldi's “The Four Seasons” seem to be somehow firmly lodged in our cultural collective unconscious. I have friends who have never attended…
There is much to love in Dial R for Robot, billed variously as "a sci-fi Hitchcock rock opera" and a "multimedia rock opera re-boot." At its (beating, digital) heart is the eclectic local ba…
The Forgotten Opera Company is the "alter-ego" of The Victorian Lyric Opera Company, and could perhaps be described as the 'new music wing' of the company. A community theatre company based …
Unexpected Stage Company's production of 8 STOPS, written and performed by Deb Margolin, tackles universal themes, but through a very personal experience of birth, illness, and above all, gr…
35mm: A Musical Exhibition is a concept musical written around a series of photographs by Matthew Murphy, which are projected in this production onto the back wall as the songs are sung, wit…
Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre, at the Community College of Baltimore County, has been making theatre for the greater Baltimore area for more than forty years. One of their diverse offering…
Ahrens and Flaherty, the songwriting team behind Ragtime the musical, are probably best known outside of the theatre for their Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated work on the animated f…
There is something exciting happening over on 14th Street. This year's Source Festival, organised by CulturalDC runs from June 8 to July 3, and has the kind of energy than can only be wrough…
Theater Alliance's production of Bekah Brunstetter's Going to a Place where you Already Are may begin at a funeral and end in heaven, but it covers a lot of ground in between. It is also muc…
The Pallas Theatre Collective exists not just to stage new musical theatre, but to go through the vital process of developing it. This is a tricky, and often untold, part of every suc…
