It's a rare year when D.C. theater generates a lot of news, but 2015 was that year. Artistic director Ari Roth launched a substantial new troupe after being fired last December by Theater J.…
Even in a year with a streamlined theatergoing schedule " owing to a book-writing leave " a reviewer could find enough work of real merit to fill out a best-of list. So here, in my slightly …
The perfect Tony. A Maria of pure enchantment. So, yes, it's truly love at first sight in director Matthew Gardiner's riveting new "West Side Story" " and not just for that star-crossed pair…
NEW YORK " That director Bartlett Sher should be considered a master of the Golden Age musical is reaffirmed with his latest handiwork, the deeply affecting revival of "Fiddler on the …
Before we get to the multifarious delights of "Matilda," the musical making a holiday splash at the Kennedy Center Opera House, I have to utter a couple of words about the Opera House itself…
A muse and a band seemed to battle it out for Savion Glover's affection Saturday night. At times during the now-rapt, now-meandering "Dance Holiday Spectacular" performance at George Mason U…
"Pretty" is a word that comes to mind all through an encounter with "Bright Star," the, well, very pretty new musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Everything about the show is pretty: …
"Pretty" is a word that comes to mind all through an encounter with "Bright Star," the, well, very pretty new musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Everything about the show is pretty: …
In "The Gospel of Lovingkindness," playwright Marcus Gardley throws his arms around the appalling murder rate in Chicago. His plot is partly based on the tragedy of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-ye…
If you'd like an alternative to Washington's seasonal shows and big musicals, Baltimore's two most established theaters are keeping the new plays coming. The NFL's concussion crisis is the s…
WILMINGTON, DEL. " A moment of silence, please, for Older Boogie.The character who served as narrator in last winter's Signature Theatre world premiere of "Diner," the musical, is no more. B…
When in the spring of 2002 it began the delightful series that has become its signature " movement-based interpretations of ShakesÂpeare, performed without dialogue " Synetic Theater went…
NEW YORK " As an antidote to the hateful rhetoric spewing from the presidential campaign, you should take in a Broadway musical.Not to escape the viciousness " to better understand its conse…
And then there was the time Natascia Diaz danced for Jerome Robbins.She was still a kid, only a few years out of Carnegie Mellon's drama program. But she had already toured Europe in a produ…
In a bit of bumbling political theater, Arlington's Synetic Theater is being caricatured in Sen. James Lankford's new "report" on government waste, "Federal Fumbles." The report is a kind of…
NEW YORK " The ecstatic noise emanating from West 45th Street may just have enough seismic force to shake foundations all the way to West 145th. It's the strength, collective and in…
Somewhere in clothesline heaven, assorted long fibers are giving thanks for the existence of the Neo-Futurists. Because the adventurous Chicago troupe has elevated the status of the entire s…
You can feel when a director is in sync with a script, and that's the situation with Tom Prewitt's staging of Truman Capote's "Holiday Memories." Prewitt handles Capote's nostalgic first-per…
The smooching is sensational in "Stage Kiss," Sarah Ruhl's backstage comedy about ex-lovers cast as the leads in a ditzy 1930s romance. In the amusing new Round House Theatre production of t…
It's not the season to be pitting versions of "A Christmas Carol" against one another. Interpretations of the Dickens classic must run into the thousands, and if you have a favorite " well, …
The words "belligerence" and "banana" may not usually appear in the same sentence. But among the noteworthy traits of Daphna, the opinionated, fervently Jewish 22-year-old at the heart of Jo…
NEW YORK " The new musical version of "School of Rock" is now in session, and all of the required elements are in attendance " almost. High-octane exuberance? Here! Decent songs? Present!…
NEW YORK " Nobody reaches a boiling point with more gleefully righteous ferocity than Al Pacino, a facility he " and we " can still count on, in his 75th year on the planet. As Mickey …
Is there any chance that people buying tickets for "Motown the Musical" at the National Theatre don't know exactly what they're getting? Jukebox musicals are mechanical things, ritually unpa…
No chess set appears in the 1960s living room that's the setting for director Stephen Jarrett's staging of "Entertaining Mr Sloane." But you could almost swear that the board game was underw…