293 stories by "Jayne Blanchard"
The Wicked Witch of the West was more than just green skin and cackle. Similarly, there's more to Glinda the Good Witch than a simpering smile and a twinkly wand. The backstories of these tw…
You know a dysfunctional family drama is working when you think to yourself "My family is crackers, but they are nothing compared to this brood." That's what happens during the second act of…
Rajiv Joseph's 2010 play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, is one of the most inventive meditations on war you're likely to encounter. Set in 2003 in Iraq, the play depicts the ravages of wa…
Some things just can't be put in a frame. Intimacy, for example, or the messiness of normal life. After a devastating bomb injury in Iraq, war photographer Sarah Goodwin (Beth Hylton) is…
Good ole boys and good time gals are a match made in chicken-fried heaven in Signature Theatre's racy and randy revival of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the 1978 musical that combines…
He's the dude on the $20 bill, had the nickname "Old Hickory" (which referred to his orneriness, not, as the musical insinuates, his male organ) and helped create what is now known as the De…
There's a moose on the loose in Glen Echo and he's mad for muffins. No need to call animal control, just make your way to Adventure Theatre and prepare to be bowled over by the funniest, mos…
Playwright Lisa Kron knows what it's like to live in a sick house. Growing up with a chronically ill mother, Miss Kron endured the endless bad days and the rare good days, the tip-toeing aro…
You think your family's crazy? Compared to the purposefully pixilated Sycamore-Vanderhof clan " the characters, and I mean characters, populating George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's exuberant …
What do you do when the black eyeliner fades, the safety pins tarnish, and everyone"not just Johnny Rotten"is pretty vacant? That's the dilemma for Jamie (Deborah Randall), a former punk roc…
Everybody in the pool! It's a pool party of a sublimely archetypal sort in Constellation Theatre's entrancing staging of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, directed with flair and a fanciful ai…
True story: My mother took my sister and my seven year-old self to see “Mary Poppins” in 1964 at a downtown Baltimore movie palace"who knows, it could have been the Hippodrome. T…
New Center Stage artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah gets off to an astonishing start with his directorial debut production of Matthew Lopez's mesmerizing play The Whipping Man. Atmospheric a…
Like Willow Smith, Rapunzel (Felicia Curry) loves her hair. And why shouldn't she? It is her crowning glory, her plaything, a transportation system, and until Prince Brian (Jonathan Atkinson…
Pinocchio may have wished to be a real boy, but Basil Twist's puppets have the best of both worlds. They are all too human, with souls that burn bright as jewels. But they are also impossibl…
Cherry blossoms and the perfumed air of a new spring pale in comparison to the enchantments awaiting indoors at CenterStage, home of a beautiful and liltingly fiendish production of the Sond…
Nothing wishy-washy about Olney Theatre Center's exuberant, child-sized production of the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Here, the Peanuts gang is rendered with such bright, broad…
There is nothing more thrilling than watching paint dry in Red, the riveting bio-drama by John Logan about the cerebral abstract expressionist Mark Rothko (1903-1970) and his determined youn…
"When Jane Goodall Goes Bad!" could be the banner headline for The Gallerist, a delectably lurid tale about demonic possession and soul survival by playwright Fengar Gael that is staged with…
A night off. No kids, no responsibilities. Just a husband and wife, Chinese takeout, and a bottle of wine. This rare "just the two of us" evening proves to be a dark night of the soul in Mic…
The Apollonian and the Dionysian co-exist more or less peaceably in the body of 26-year-old Chicago actor Patrick Andrews, who plays the pliant assistant Ken to Washington favorite Ed …
– This is an encore review, originally posted Nov 3, 2011, Â of the touring production at the Hippodrome in Baltimore – You'd kill for those shoes. And those legs. That's your …
If you think sex conversations in relationships are cringeworthy, try throwing religion into the mix. Talk about awkward. Renee Calarco Washington playwright Renee Calarco delves into the…
Who better than the Prince of Puke to put you in the Christmas spirit? Forget that weenie Michael Buble or heartwarming holiday pageants. The true spirit of the season is embodied by filmmak…
It takes a tough man to be a tender drag queen. And local television and radio personality Robert Aubry Davis does Edna Turnblad's cha-cha heels and bazooka-sized bra proud in Signature Thea…
