Everyone has an idea of how Shakespeare "should" be performed: from the gorgeous flashiness of Shakespeare Theatre Company to the original practice imitations of American Shakespeare Center …
All rise! Not so much for an associate Supreme Court Justice, but for Edward Gero, the man currently embodying the late Antonin Scalia in the remounted and revised production of The Original…
Break out your pink pussy hats! Wonder if Gloria Steinam and Florynce Kennedy started this way? The production of Portraits of Grrrls felt like I walked into a high school guidance counselor…
Some people find the Fringe festival to be an intimidating environment. Sure there's a ton of great art and stuff going on, but how can one truly connect with the people behind the art and f…
I've just spent a most unexpectedly engaging evening at the theatre, seeing the "dragapella beautyshop quartet" known as The Kinsey Sicks in their return to Theater J, whereat they've been i…
Jon Johnson here, managing to score an interview with the director of Shakespeare in the Pub's "Fringe" offering – Titus Andronicus, as well as the head honcho of the company itself. I…
Times is hard in Bonnie and Clyde. Some would say not so different from now. Climate shifting, turning the land into a dustbowl. Whole businesses destroyed. Banks going under. People out…
By nature of being a Fringe festival, DC's Capital Fringe often sees provocative or pioneering work that pushes the envelope. This year, one unsuspecting play in particular has struck a …
Fifty years since Cabaret debuted on Broadway and almost as long since the 1972 film adaptation emblazoned its haunting imagery and seductive score across our collective consciousness, the j…
BON VOYAGE! A Happenstance Escapade is a soupçon, a patisserie, a confection, and, in its smellier moments, a big fromage! But most of all it is Mark Jaster's love letter to Paris. And th…
Lorraine to John's idea of writing a piece about getting to Fringe: "Yes! Public transportation! Very funny!" 4:15 p.m. It's pouring rain and I need to be at Atlas by 6:30 for a Hexa…
Billie Holliday experienced extreme poverty, racism, sexual abuse, a drug addiction, and prison, yet still had a legendary career as one of the great jazz singers of the 20th century. If…
Wig Out! is beautiful, raw, and real. And magically human, bonding me to the sadness, joy, and fear of wonderfully deep characters. To be candid, this is a world"the underground Ball Culture…
Night Seasons is forty years in the history of the unpleasant Weems family, reduced to two hours, more or less. Notwithstanding this compression, the two hours traffic of our stage seems lon…
Lakeboat was thought controversial when it debuted 40 years ago, but now it seems almost quaint, verging on classy. The very first script by David Mamet, it features many of the hallmarks…
It's a sold out house, the second performance of Numesthesia, my third Capital Fringe Festival show. The audience is great. I'm feeling their energy; the musicians and I are riding a synergi…
With P.I.C. : The Prison Industrial Complex, the Conciliation Project hits the cruelty of the American criminal justice system hard with just about everything they can throw at it: Scores of…
What would have happened if Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination had failed " but the danger wasn't over? Lancer and Lace pulls on this historical thread and weaves an interesting yet …
When we are young we do not hide our naked souls from the Godlike scrutiny of our parents, so we do not lie about our thinking. We lie only about our acts. Since we are all sinners, our acts…
A man wanders onstage, a mad look above his riotous beard. Another man comes on, petrified with fear, not seeing the disturbing maniac. With lightning speed, the bearded man pounces and …
Ally Theatre Company's second-ever production is radically different from the first, Miz Martha Washington, a darkly comedic historical play. Conceived and directed by Taylor Reynolds from a…
Douglas Stafford is a very talented juggler. If that is an interest of yours, if you like juggling, and you've got an hour, then you may like this show. Stafford is pretty good as a magician…
"Torture numbers," author Gregg Easterbrook once wrote, "and they'll confess to anything." David S. Kessler, a masterful storyteller aided by onstage musicians and projections in his new sho…
Four hundred years ago, William Shakespeare wrote a play about a King four hundred years before him, and thus in King John we are thrust into a barely imaginable past, before the invention o…
Willie Carlisle is an astonishing performer, and if I were only reviewing his performance of mountain folk music, I'd recommend this show with the entirety of my full heart. Guitar, banjo, s…