Signature sings out: The 25th anniversary concert by Nelson Pressley

Notes from Signature Theatre's cast-of-thousands 25th anniversary concert Monday night, an event that featured 70 artists, a full orchestra, flashbacks from favorite musicals, and knockout p…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:43pm on October 21, 2014☆⚑

From "Ragtime" to "Rocky" to "Dancer": Flaherty and Ahrens, together 30 years by Nelson Pressley

NEW YORK " Just around the corner from Broadway, the Kennedy Center's original new musical "Little Dancer" is under construction. A waltz tune fills the bright rehearsal studio, and director…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:51pm on October 16, 2014☆⚑

The Baltimore apocalypse: Small theaters, wild visions by Nelson Pressley

Baltimore: where the theater is weird, the tickets are cheap and the world is going to hell. That's the snapshot as some of Bal'mer's small but rising troupes opened shows last weekend " pla…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:42pm on October 13, 2014☆⚑

'Dr. Moreau' sinister but static at Synetic by Nelson Pressley

Has Synetic Theater worked its proficiency for hardcore, cold-blooded sensations into a dull groove? The renowned physical troupe spins and writhes and floods its Crystal City stage with sha…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:33pm on October 7, 2014☆⚑

Odets still in full voice with 'Awake and Sing!' at Olney Theatre Center by Nelson Pressley

Could Arthur Miller have written "Death of a Salesman" if Clifford Odets hadn't come out first with "Awake and Sing!"? Maybe: In the 1930s, the Depression-rattled American theater churned wi…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:40pm on October 3, 2014☆⚑

Sing out, sinners! 'Elmer Gantry' musical revived at Signature Theatre by Nelson Pressley

For more than a quarter of a century, Washington has had a recurring dream of an "Elmer Gantry" musical. The show, based on Sinclair Lewis's 1927 novel " perhaps better known as the 1960 Bur…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:34pm on October 3, 2014☆⚑

Under director Michael Grandage, "Evita" almost reclaims power at Kennedy Center by Nelson Pressley

That politically ambitious spitfire Evita and her crocodile tears have returned, and her reappearance at the Kennedy Center's Opera House is magisterial. The settings around her are stately.…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:33pm on October 2, 2014☆⚑

'Driving Miss Daisy': A safe, entertaining ride at Ford's Theatre by Nelson Pressley

Steady there. Easy does it. We're just moseying to the Piggly Wiggly, or creeping crosstown for a comically dreaded family visit. Leave the fussing to that prim and addled back-seat driver. …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:58pm on October 1, 2014☆⚑

Boneyard Studios' tiny D.C. houses host Pinky Swear's 'Tiny House Plays' by Nelson Pressley

The mini plays are nearly upstaged by the tiny houses in "Tiny House Plays," a 90-minute theater piece and house tour set in the aggressively downsized enclave called Boneyard Studios. In a …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:19pm on September 29, 2014☆⚑

Locally grown 'Evita' star travels the long road to the Kennedy Center by Nelson Pressley

Howard County's Glenelg High School sits only 35 miles from the Kennedy Center, but actress Caroline Bowman has taken the long way around " you know, stopping on Broadway. And in Turkey. And…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:01pm on September 25, 2014☆⚑

A mod 'Marie' in bikini and wigs at Woolly by Nelson Pressley

The spectacle of Marie Antoinette in a striped bikini certainly announces a brash updated view of the notorious French queen at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. In the lively extravaganza of …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:38pm on September 22, 2014☆⚑

"Marie Antoinette" at Woolly: Losing her head again by Nelson Pressley

'You lead a dissipated life," Marie Antoinette's mother railed in a 1775 letter to her royal daughter. "I hope I shall not live to see the disaster that is likely to ensue." "I know people t…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:37pm on September 19, 2014☆⚑

Angela Lansbury coming to National Theatre next spring by Nelson Pressley

The National Theatre is adding a burst of star power to its theatrical lineup this season in the ageless form of Dame Angela Lansbury. Next March the five-time Tony Award winner and TV icon …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:11pm on September 16, 2014☆⚑

Jayne Houdyshell, late-blooming Broadway baby by Nelson Pressley

Jayne Houdyshell was well into her 40s when she took the gamble of her life. Abandoning the sturdy connections she had forged over two decades performing throughout the East and Midwest, she…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:34pm on September 12, 2014☆⚑

'Fool for Love' at Round House, taking the edge off Shepard by Nelson Pressley

Like a faded postcard, "Fool for Love" at Round House Theatre has capably captured that vintage Sam Shepard desperation-at-the-edge-of-the-desert look. Meghan Raham's set deliberately cramps…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:30pm on September 10, 2014☆⚑

For D.C. couple, musicals take center stage by Nelson Pressley

Musicals have always been the bottom line for John Hance and Maggie Boland. He's the Kennedy Center's general manager for theater productions, including the retooled "Side Show" that's bound…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:41pm on September 5, 2014☆⚑

Honors Class of '14: Al Green, Tom Hanks, Patricia McBride, Lily Tomlin, Sting by Nelson Pressley

A movie star, a rock star, a prima ballerina, a TV-stage-film comedienne and a soul legend who has been serenaded by President Obama make up this year's class of Kennedy Center Honorees, the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:12am on September 4, 2014☆⚑

Olney's smashmouth drama 'Colossal' tackles football, disability and sexuality by Nelson Pressley

It's nearly September " are you ready for some football? With dancing? That's the unlikely combo in an Olney Theatre Center rehearsal room as director Will Davis drills "Colossal," a new pla…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:20am on August 29, 2014☆⚑

Terri Allen, executive director of the D.C. Cabaret Network, dies at 63 by Nelson Pressley

Terri Allen, executive director of the D.C. Cabaret Network, a group that has promoted cabaret-style entertainment in the region since 1997, died Aug. 22 at a hospital in Washington. She was…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:52pm on August 28, 2014☆⚑

Fallon, Seinfeld among comedians to salute Leno with Kennedy Center's Twain Prize by Nelson Pressley

Jay Leno will be sociably sassed by fellow TV staples as he accepts the Kennedy Center's 17th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Oct. 19. Wednesday the Kennedy Center named a half…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:10am on August 27, 2014☆⚑

On the road in a musical: The time of her life by Nelson Pressley

Last winter, 20-year-old Jersey girl Jillian Mueller was a bright point of light in "Flashdance," the national tour that swiveled through the Kennedy Center. Mueller powered through the absu…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:42pm on August 22, 2014☆⚑

Chesapeake Shakespeare among troupes banking on Baltimore by Nelson Pressley

Baltimore's historic 1885 Mercantile Trust and Deposit building has spent most of the 21st century remodeled as a mega-nightclub, ripe for hundreds of revelers grooving to deep beats. Yet wh…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:07pm on August 15, 2014☆⚑

Shakespeare here and there: Classical troupe has toeholds all over D.C. by Nelson Pressley

The Shakespeare Theatre Company maintains two major stages, Sidney Harman Hall and the Lansburgh Theatre, a few blocks apart in Penn Quarter. They are the public face of the acclaimed operat…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:12am on August 8, 2014☆⚑

Decades in the Broadway biz, and still we want more of Stephen Sondheim - The Washington Post by Nelson Pressley

Now 84, the colossus of the American musical theater has spent the past two decades being celebrated in nearly every conceivable way, from star-studded tribute concerts to having a theater n…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 9:05am on August 3, 2014☆⚑

Decades in the Broadway biz, and still we want more of Stephen Sondheim by Nelson Pressley

"God. I mean, the man's a god," Stephen Sondheim puckishly wrote in the 2010 Broadway revue "Sondheim on Sondheim," sending up the long ascending, stratospheric image of himself that include…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:55pm on August 1, 2014☆⚑