118 stories by "Brian Bochicchio"
It's not often that a performer has a biopic written for him while he can still go view it. The pioneering comic and civil activist Dick Gregory had the chance to do just that last year in N…
I walked onto a pirate ship last Sunday and a Jimmy Buffet beach party broke out… “The Pirates of Penzance” have set shore in the unlikely enclave of the Olney Theatre Center. …
What was in the water in the 1930s America??? Extra gin from the speakeasys? Awash in booze and a returning economy, excited by technological breakthroughs, artistic triumphs, and an era of,…
When “Chicago” comes to town, you just want to sit down, strap in, and prepare yourself for an experience. One of the most successful musicals in theatre history, it chalked up s…
Springtime in Washington, DC means a lot of things. Of course, there is the annual Cherry Blossoms, Embassy Tours and Fun Runs. Challenging them all is Hexagon. The six-sided show, in its 63…
Some works of theatre are given the dreaded label 'period piece'"destined to stay locked in the time they were created. But others age quite nicely"as a well-shaped, tanned piece of leather,…
What a year it has been! Would you call the recent news cycle"oh, I don't know, fake-arcial? We have been regularly been bombarded with salacious dossiers, hand sizes, libs threatening to mo…
Leave it to the British Players to give us a holiday treat that is heartfelt, uproarious, artistically pleasing and–gets all of ye people in the seats in the act, mate! The Christmas s…
The holiday season is an easy excuse to hearken back to memories of Victorian times, what with the classic Dickens story permeating our brains. Cockney accents mugs of wine and holiday singa…
When mischievous merriment intersects with immorality, the results can be marvelously maddening. I am convinced that Sondheim's legendary wordplay would have made that less clunky but…
Great theatre sometimes just needs a classic mix of opposites. Could this one be any more diametric? Sit back and enjoy the ride. A little bumpy, but those 1940s Cadillacs had big springs. M…
Who doesn't like a musical revue? It's akin to going to a buffet, where you can sample that suits your tastes. You might get a surprise. And if one serving is not to your liking, another dis…
Two words come to mind when describing the experience of the musical “Cabaret.” Entertaining. Unsettling. The intertwining of both at a high level is what launches the show to it…
One would not initially think that advanced Mathematics involving mind-numbingly complex formulas would be a 'prime' subject for riveting theatre. And then we are usually surprised at our cl…
"It was December 4, 1957. And it was the first time all my boys were together at one time, and it was the last." The bittersweet retrospective comes from the enterprising owner of Sun…
Fairy tales naturally call out to our imaginative earlier days of youth. Larger than life heroines are put in sketchy circumstances set in woodlands, usually with ghastly creatures or nasty …
Need to break up the usual winter theatre choices that abound with Christmas favorites and holiday nutcrackers? Alexandria's MetroStage is shelving its usual holiday chestnut, “A Broad…
Like a gentle sledgehammer, Conor McPherson's “The Night Alive” is a masterwork of daily life juxtaposed with transcendent issues deep in our soul. McPherson has a singular gift …
Let's get this out of the way right away. There will be ample writhing. In fact, beaucoup writhing. An oddly sounding word, but of course never heard onstage, only experienced in the unendin…
It was truly another world back then. New musical styles, upward mobility, a clash of cultures. Or, then again, it could sound a lot like today. That may be why one is so comfortable walking…
In a word, exhilarating. Without a word, it was challenging but fascinating. Using my words, the group at Synetic Theater, those purveyors of movement, sight and sound, have now put on  t…
Full of sizzle and sparkle and hope, Arena Theatre's newly reworked musical Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story looks and feels like a homey family reunion. And like most family get-tog…
Yes, they stomped by again. If you were within hailing distance of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna you likely may have heard the syncopated cacophony that is the da…
There is always a place for inspired silliness. Who knew it would come from an inside out, upside-down look at a famous Hollywood bromance? Flying V Theatre's Matt & Ben mines our kitsch…
Chock full of the mind expanding calling cards that are Synetic Theater, The Man In The Iron Mask bursts onstage to give us an altogether immersive experience. From its beginning as the …
