216 stories by "Christopher Henley"
Last night, the Helen Hayes awards took place at the National Building Museum, a new venue for the annual ceremony, now in its 30th year. The format was also quite different, but one thi…
For the next couple of weeks, we in DC have the chance to experience something special:Â Tovah Feldshuh's truly remarkable performance as Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony, William Gibson's s…
"This is our crowning achievement," Mark A. Rhea told me the day after I had seen Hair at Keegan Theatre. I saw the show on a Wednesday night, at one of the performances that had been ad…
There are a lot of theaters in and around this city. Many have identities and missions that overlap, or that may even be seen as indistinguishable from one another. The American Cent…
The story of Kneehigh Theatre's Brief Encounter, familiar to older readers and film buffs, is about a man and a woman, respectable, middle-class English folks, each married to other people, …
My husband and I brought our just turned 20-month-old twins to a performance of Inside Out, a Theatre for the Very Young production at Imagination Stage in Bethesda. Our family is no strange…
"I can't tell you how incredibly, outrageously funny this show is."Â So said Ann Randolph about her solo show Loveland, which recently opened at Arena Stage as part of its Kogod Cradle se…
"Eric tends to be attracted to dark, poetic worlds." Matthew Gardiner is directing Tender Napalm at Signature Theatre, where he is the Associate Artistic Director. I began our conversati…
"Look at that face! Look at that happy face!" This was my husband, Jay Hardee, speaking about our daughter after a recent performance of Under the Canopy. Much hand wringing occurs a…
Since its inception, Washington Stage Guild has done 22 productions of 27 plays by the playwright with whom the group is most closely associated, George Bernard Shaw. (Some of the produc…
"It's a rock concert for people who don't go to rock concerts anymore." Kevin Casey is the Music Director of the touring production of Mamma Mia!, currently ensconced at the National Theatre…
Around WSC Avant Bard, where she was Managing Director for several years and directed a number of productions, Lee Mikeska Gardner is known simply as LMG. Among her legacies is what has …
"Here's a representation of a culture that doesn't get a lot of stage time. We had an audience last week that included 51 deaf community members. That was about three-quarters of the…
“It’s a story that is largely about a character who is trying to steal a baby. Â We’re not shying away from how disturbing that can be.” Â Matthew Pauli was talki…
"How to Succeed at Olney Without Really Trying," is how Jason Loewith described his game plan for Olney Theatre Center, the venerable Montgomery County institution whose reins he took over r…
Peter and the Starcatcher is a lot of fun. It's creatively staged, wonderfully acted, impressively designed, genuinely funny, and anytime it felt as if a little something different was n…
What can you expect to see at Shakespeare Theatre Company next season? Plays by Shakespeare, of course. However, you will also have a chance to see the work of Stoppard and Cervantes…
Violet is a musical that's not big and brassy and flashy. Based on a short story, its concerns, like that form's, are more with character and local color than with, say, life and death e…
"Top billing Monday, Tuesday you're touring in stock…" If there was a Helen Hayes category for quick turnaround, the award would undoubtedly go to Sherri L. Edelen. Last weekend, she c…
Folger Theatre is extremely excited about its upcoming production of Richard III. And the play's director, Robert Richmond, seems to be the most excited of all. "It's one of the most…
"It's the greatest anti-war play of all time," Molly Smith said about Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage, is directing a cast led b…
We've all heard about the actor's nightmare, a dream during which the actor is about to go on stage without having learned the lines. At the opposite end of the spectrum, what might the …
"At one point, he even said, 'No more singing pretty songs." Daniel Beaty was speaking about Paul Robeson, the legendary actor-singer-activist who is the subject of The Tallest Tree in the F…
“Summertime and the living is easy…” That is, of course, the beginning of “Summertime,” the song which is the most recorded in Broadway history, Sumayya Ali tol…
Stephen Sondheim is the Shakespeare of musical theatre, Joe Calarco told me. To extend the comparison, does that make the role of Mama Rose in Gypsy Sondheim’s Lear? Certainly the powe…
