Irish author James Joyce unfairly gets a bad rap for being "too difficult" to read. His first draft of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was rejected with a note from the editor saying…
When director Bartlett Sher mounted an acclaimed production of the classic Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center last year, it reminded many theater lovers why " with songs…
A brilliant musical can only be cheapened by a surfeit of screen effects and novelty casting. But Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats is a mediocre musical, brilliantly packaged, and it benefits nice…
The message of the production of Black Nativity that is currently playing at Anacostia Playhouse is clearly stated in the words of the gospel composition by Edwin Hawkins: "Jesus Christ Is t…
The Magical Piñata at Keegan Theatre is a fun-filled romp that fits the holiday season with lessons for all to treasure and enjoy. Karen ZacarÃas presents an incredibly rich story …
No holiday season would be complete without a viewing of Charles Dickens' 176-year-old classic, A Christmas Carol. And while my heart will forever hold true to the George C. Scott movie-vers…
"This is how I approach Blackness:Â It's celebratory…It's something that I don't want to move away from, I want to move closer to." E. Ethelbert Miller, Washington, DC-based poet activi…
The Washington, DC area is one of the major theatre hubs in America. How did we do this year? As we have done for the past three years, we dove into our records for 2019 to see how robust ou…
Wanda Wheels bristles when Mateo calls her "kind" in this sprawling, funny, foul-mouthed, messy, moving ensemble piece, Stephen Adly Guirgis's first new play in New York since his Pulitzer P…
There's a joke Maggie and her son Joe like to tell on their tours of the local mine in Samuel D. Hunter's latest play: "Guy falls down into the mine. His boss yells at him, 'did you break an…
Like it or not, the New Year is rapidly approaching, which means our minds will shortly be turning toward making resolutions and setting intentions for the decade to come. After seeing Taylo…
The husband and wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein's sole theater credit a decade ago was a Toronto Fringe Festival breakout called My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding. Before that…
Is it possible for everyone to be right at the same time? How do we hold society together when people can't agree on basic facts? Mosaic Theater Company's whip-smart Eureka Day takes a darkl…
An easy rapport with the audience, gentle-ribbing included, and feats of mentalism that would surprise even the biggest skeptic " these are just a few of my take-aways from Brian Curry's ent…
Over the course of its 20-year run, Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants has been blamed for everything from causing ADD to promoting violence. Despite these criticisms, the show has su…
In the 1980s, my parents fled the Soviet Union to begin new lives in the United States. Though they spent years learning English and acclimating to American culture, their identities remaine…
In truth, I never before thought of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan as a particularly masculine, or anti-feminist, story. Most of us have warm recollections of the far-off Neverland, reached onl…
This holiday season in New York means at least ten Christmas Carols, including one this year on Broadway, and 15 Nutcracker Suites. Holiday shows in the city range from family fare to of…
It was a type of morning that many parents of small children are familiar with: a morning full of questions. The Shark (my ever-moving, ever-hunting, and ever-curious almost-3 year old) was …
Gifted actor and storyteller Paul Morella has once again donned the coattails and top hat of Charles Dickens to usher us into the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab at Olney Theatre Center. The lob…
Nix the candy canes, the carols, and the seasonal folderol. This year, get into the holiday spirit with a juicy murder. We need a little Christie, right this very minute. Everyman Theatre fu…
We few; we happy few. Six performances times sixteen seats comes to fewer than 100 people who will see The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers, which is a very early one-act by Tennesse…
When Army Captain Jack Ludwig (Jake Epstein) first speaks his full name early on in playwright Ken Ludwig's new dramedy Dear Jack, Dear Louise, audiences probably realize that this World War…
In the spirit of the holidays, Goldstar has donated two $50 Goldstar gift certificates for readers of DC Theatre Scene. These are good for any already discounted tickets listed on Goldstar a…
No men. No boats. No man-splaining. That's part of the concept of the high-energy and low testosterone of Jaclyn Backhaus' adventure saga, Men on Boats. All the roles in John Wesley Powell's…