Attend the tale, and turn it up: New prog metal 'Todd' premieres in D.C. by Nelson Pressley

The progressive metal arrangements are ready for "Sweeney Todd," the throat-slitting musical thriller that's getting a headbanging musical arrangement this month by D.C.'s Landless Theatre C…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:37pm on August 1, 2014☆⚑

Fifth-grader's fiction leads to tragedy in 'Gidion's Knot' by Nelson Pressley

What do you do about a fifth-grade Marquis de Sade? That's the question that playwright Johnna Adams eventually comes around to in her popular but erratic 75-minute drama "Gidion's Knot," no…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:39am on July 22, 2014☆⚑

Those aren't mine! Sex tape play at Fringe is a comic hit by Nelson Pressley

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a married man in possession of a giant box of pornographic videotapes may encounter trouble with his wife. In the Capital Fringe Festival comic dr…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:18am on July 21, 2014☆⚑

San Francisco storyteller Varon in 'Feisty Old Jew' at Capital Fringe by Nelson Pressley

"It all started at breakfast," begins the aptly titled "Feisty Old Jew," a wry bit of storytelling from San Francisco-based solo performer Charlie Varon about an elderly man named Bernie. He…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:48pm on July 18, 2014☆⚑

Oh, Say Can You See: National anthem's back story in sharp Fringe play by Nelson Pressley

Good new history plays are hard to find, but the New York-based Hunger & Thirst Theatre Collective has one in its Capital Fringe Festival entry "Contrafact of Freedom," the back story be…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:17pm on July 16, 2014☆⚑

Sixth-grade politics: Sweet and lowdown in gentle play at Capital Fringe by Nelson Pressley

Dirty tricks start early in politics " very early in "The Inaugural Election for President of Mrs. Jacobson's Sixth Grade Class," a windily titled Fringe show that is as innocent as it sound…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:34pm on July 16, 2014☆⚑

Cuddly 'Monster Songs' from married musicians at Fringe by Nelson Pressley

Can you be sinister and winsome at the same time? Yes, if you are a married couple skilled at clowning and music, and you put together a droll 45 minutes' worth of ambitious yet kid-friendly…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:43am on July 14, 2014☆⚑

We're doomed, happily: Ron Litman's protest act in 'Armageddon' at Fringe by Nelson Pressley

In the early stages of the Capital Fringe Festival show "Waiting for Armageddon," Ron Litman looks like a freaked out monk. Wearing a sackcloth and ranting into a microphone that the end of …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:38am on July 14, 2014☆⚑

'Cross the Line': Be a better person at Fringe fest by Nelson Pressley

Brothers and sisters of our isolating, dehumanizing new millennium, come save your frozen souls. Cross the line to a more connected and more peaceable being at "Cross the Line," a collection…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:03pm on July 13, 2014☆⚑

'Tina and Amy': The 'b' word and sort of getting things done in Fringe dramedy by Nelson Pressley

"What Would Tina and Amy Do?" is a click-bait title. Invoking Fey and Poehler raises hopes of something frisky and sharp, or " this being a fringe festival " maybe a loopy, campy takeoff. In…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:31pm on July 13, 2014☆⚑

'Dream' of Poe in haunted house at Fringe by Nelson Pressley

"A Dream Within a Dream" is one of the Capital Fringe Festival's site-specific projects, and this visually smart, absorbing project unfolds over two floors of an empty building called the Un…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:08pm on July 13, 2014☆⚑

Silent take on 'Old Man and the Sea' at Capital Fringe festival by Nelson Pressley

The 2014 Capital Fringe festival launched in earnest Thursday night with roughly 30 shows, one of them a wordless adaptation of "The Old Man and the Sea" directed and performed by deaf actor…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:28pm on July 11, 2014☆⚑

Q&A with Roger Guenveur Smith on solo show, 'Rodney King' by Nelson Pressley

Actor and solo performer Roger Guenveur Smithlikes his topics hot. His one-man stage shows include "A Huey P. Newton Story" and "Frederick Douglass Now," while his screen credits include Spi…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:28pm on July 8, 2014☆⚑

D.C. Fringe Festival's move puts it in the middle of burgeoning Atlas District by Nelson Pressley

For years, Capital Fringe has been able to plant its flag on New York Avenue thanks to a favorable rental agreement on a block where redevelopment has long been expected. The arrangement was…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:13pm on July 3, 2014☆⚑

D.C. Fringe Festival finds its new home in Connersmith gallery by Nelson Pressley

Capital Fringe, the rowdy summertime performance festival that has been headquartered a block from the Washington Convention Center since 2008, has signed a contract to purchase Connersmith,…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:46pm on June 24, 2014☆⚑

'The Lion King' roars at the Kennedy Center by Nelson Pressley

In October 1997 the musical "Side Show" officially opened on Broadway the very day after "The Lion King" began previews. "Side Show" closed in three months. "The Lion King" has been doing ro…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:54pm on June 22, 2014☆⚑

Ed Dixon, now playing multiple roles for 'Cloak and Dagger,' has a past full of transformations by Nelson Pressley

As the curtain rises on the big shock-value scene midway through Ed Dixon's long, eventually happy showbiz life, it's the late 1980s, and our man is hitting bottom. Dixon is in a huge Broadw…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:01pm on June 20, 2014☆⚑

Jay Leno to get 2014 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at Kennedy Center by Nelson Pressley

Recently retired "Tonight Show" host and longtime stand-up club comedian Jay Leno will receive the Kennedy Center's 2014 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Leno, 64, is best known for host…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:03pm on June 18, 2014☆⚑

Actors Emily Townley and Dawn Ursula talk about 'The Totalitarians' and D.C. theater life by Nelson Pressley

Emily Townley and Dawn Ursula are the kind of in-demand actors who make Washington theater run. You often see them at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: This season Townley was one of the subur…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:59am on June 13, 2014☆⚑

'Boeing Boeing' by No Rules Theatre review by Nelson Pressley

Like a plane in a holding pattern, the comedy "Boeing Boeing" is slowly circling D.C. Last season it was at Rep Stage in Columbia, and now this 1960s French farce about a calculating bachelo…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:44am on June 10, 2014☆⚑

Hugh Jackman opens Tonys: 'Wolverine in tap shoes' punts by Nelson Pressley

He did bounce! Viewers tuning in to the Tony Awards tonight on CBS were probably as keyed in to why Hugh Jackman was bouncing in his YouTube video tease as to what would win best musical. An…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 9:45pm on June 8, 2014☆⚑

'Healing Wars,' at Arena Stage, traces the nation's steps in coping with combat's toll by Nelson Pressley

Actor Bill Pullman, rehearsing a dance piece upstairs at Arena Stage, gracefully sinks into a crouch. So does his wife, dancer Tamara Hurwitz Pullman. Moving slowly, they gracefully sweep th…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:17pm on June 6, 2014☆⚑

Splendid production of 'The Last Days of Judas Iscariot' at Forum Theatre by Nelson Pressley

"The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" is a splendid storm of a play, a full three hours examining the proper fate of the man who betrayed Jesus and, by conspicuous extension, the fate of unforgi…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:02pm on May 27, 2014☆⚑

Director Maria Aitken, keeping Coward's blithe spirit alive by Nelson Pressley

Maria Aitken " first name pronounced with a long "i," as in Mariah " looks rehearsal-casual in blue jeans and a zip-front hoodie. But she sounds as posh and funny as a Noel Coward heroine. H…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:53am on May 23, 2014☆⚑

Kennedy Center blesses Stephen Schwartz's 'Children of Eden' by Nelson Pressley

Stephen Schwartz fans are legion, thanks to the box office dynamo "Wicked" and the jillions of "Godspells" and "Pippins" that give so many stagestruck kids their first real musical …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:42pm on May 20, 2014☆⚑