Women's Voices: Getting it done, at least for now by Nelson Pressley

It would be easy to be blasé about the Women's Voices Theater Festival that has taken over Washington's stages. New plays? Written by women? In 2015 America? You don't say.In many ways, mov…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:49am on October 16, 2015☆⚑

Salome, We Hardly Knew Ye by Peter Marks

With a stunning lyricism, South African director Yael Farber applies her formidable imaginative talents to a well-traveled biblical story and propels it on a revelatory new path. It's the ta…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:12pm on October 14, 2015☆⚑

Review: 'Trish Tinkler Gets Saved' and 'The Long Way Around' by Celia Wren

Is there something about mini-marts that prompts soul searching? You might almost think so after watching Jacqueline Goldfinger's "Trish Tinkler Gets Saved" and Julia Starr's "The Long Way A…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:08pm on October 13, 2015☆⚑

'Cake Off': Signature's new musical is lively, but not fully baked by Peter Marks

Food fight! The oven gloves come off and the flour flies in "Cake Off," the new musical at Signature Theatre that is only sporadically tasty. A man cooks his way into the finals of a nationa…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:10pm on October 12, 2015☆⚑

Signature Theatre adds show about Broadway's George Rose by Nelson Pressley

George Rose's life included Tony Awards in the 1970s and 1980s for the musicals "My Fair Lady" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." His death came violently in 1988 under murky circumstances in…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:18am on October 9, 2015☆⚑

'Beautiful' is one fine night by Peter Marks

If certain musical phrases fail to raise any tingles on the back of your neck " such as "stayed in bed all morning just to pass the time" or "it would be so fine to see your face at my door"…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 9:55pm on October 8, 2015☆⚑

From Maytag to Macbeth in Women's Voices Festival: Can't complain by Nelson Pressley

Small talk looms large in three intimate shows playing as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival. A grown woman deals with her hospitalized mother in Christine Evans's imaginative "Can'…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:32pm on October 8, 2015☆⚑

Synetic's sweeping, sinister 'Alice' by Celia Wren

Lewis Carroll, who was an Oxford University mathematics lecturer, might have delighted in calculating the speeds that cascade through Synetic Theater's darkly hallucinatory "Alice in Wonderl…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:13pm on October 8, 2015☆⚑

Murky mystery 'Animal' examines why Rachel is crazy by Nelson Pressley

Structuring the puzzle is the trouble with "Animal," a quizzical new play at Studio Theatre. It's a medical mystery that plunges you right into the mind-set of a woman named Rachel who's los…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:25pm on October 6, 2015☆⚑

At Olney, addiction tale 'Bad Dog' wags and snaps by Nelson Pressley

Don't go into "Bad Dog" lightly, and don't be fooled by its easy-access sitcom style. Yes, the dialogue by TV writer Jennifer Hoppe-House ("Nurse Jackie," "Grace and Frankie") bounds and gli…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 8:38pm on October 5, 2015☆⚑

Looking beyond the ecstatic whirling; viewing African artists via their books by Celia Wren

The dervish ethos goes way beyond whirling.That's likely to be one takeaway from "Dervishes and Their Belongings," an exhibition of about 300 historical artifacts at the Turkish American Com…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:00pm on October 2, 2015☆⚑

How Gina Rodriguez sees herself by Jessica Goldstein

When actress Gina Rodriguez was a kid growing up in Chicago, she would turn on the TV and wonder: "Why does no one look like me?" The youngest of three daughters of Puerto Rican parents, she…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:58am on October 2, 2015☆⚑

For two replacements with D.C. cred, a hit Broadway play is the place by Peter Marks

NEW YORK "Their text messages to each other that day conveyed the excitement known so well by actors scrambling for their next job."I was called back!" Andrew Long typed out to Nancy Robinet…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:58am on October 2, 2015☆⚑

Life is short, so touch the painting by Nelson Pressley

Don't touch the art. That's the cardinal rule in museums, especially with masterpieces such as Rembrandt's "Aristotle With a Bust of Homer" hanging on the walls. But in Jessica Dickey's pens…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:36pm on October 1, 2015☆⚑

Inching closer to gender parity in Washington, but is this year an aberration? by Peter Marks

To boost the producing of plays written by women, it really does take a village.The village in this case encompasses the city of Washington, D.C. and its surrounding suburbs. A new stu…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 9:27am on October 1, 2015☆⚑

Inaugural offering from Convergence Theatre is whimsical, resourceful by Celia Wren

Launching a career is tough. And the last thing an ambitious young professional needs is a chatty ghost elephant seeking to transform the 9-to-5 landscape into a mythological killing field.T…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:27pm on September 30, 2015☆⚑

Images tell the story in 'Phoebe in Winter' by Nelson Pressley

By the end of "Phoebe in Winter" the stage at Single Carrot Theatre is so trashed that Friday's opening night audience couldn't exit the way they had entered, across the set. That's appropri…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:33pm on September 29, 2015☆⚑

The four faces of Queen Elizabeth by Celia Wren

A dignitary should know how to make a proper entrance, and Elizabeth I " all four of her " gets the business right in "texts&beheadings/ElizabethR." Created and directed by the adventuro…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:23pm on September 29, 2015☆⚑

Playwright and psychotherapist addresses mental health issue by Celia Wren

A messy office is an ominous signifier in "The Point," a play with the good intentions, and much of the bluntness, of a public-service announcement. Currently on view in a stiffly acted, pau…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:23pm on September 29, 2015☆⚑

Lure of telenovelas drives Arena's 'Destiny' by Nelson Pressley

"Destiny of Desire" wants to be your guilty pleasure. Her eyes flutter and her bosom heaves, but you resist even though you don't yet recognize the horrible truth " ay, caramba, she's your c…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:03am on September 28, 2015☆⚑

A "Spring" Reawakening on Broadway by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Their hands fluttering up to form what look like little arches, the cast members of Deaf West Theatre's "Spring Awakening" offer an initial glimpse of how American Sign Lang…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:40pm on September 27, 2015☆⚑

Estonian musician finds her voice digging in the library stacks by Celia Wren

Not many young musicians find their muses in a university archive, but fiddler and singer Maarja Nuut is indebted to the University of Tartu's Viljandi Culture Academy, in her homeland of Es…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:10am on September 25, 2015☆⚑

A theater export from D.C. that turns out to be a late bloomer by Peter Marks

If you don't believe in life after death, then you aren't acquainted with the fate of "Glory Days."The modest musical, born in early 2008 at Signature Theatre, about four high school buddies…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 5:45pm on September 24, 2015☆⚑

Signature Theatre Wants Your New Musical by Peter Marks

There's another place for you in Arlington to hone your new musical.Signature Theatre revealed details on Thursday of its new SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab, a project that begins ne…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:40pm on September 24, 2015☆⚑

D.C.'s secret export: theater by Peter Marks

As word of mouth steadily grew in early August and tickets started to fly out of Arena Stage's box office, Stacey Mindich knew that the musical she helped nurture, "Dear Evan Hansen," would …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:34pm on September 24, 2015☆⚑