The production of Suzan-Lori Parks' acclaimed three-part saga now having its regional premiere at Round House Theatre is some of the most amazing storytelling I've seen on stage. Amazing on …
What's the best way to stage a modern classic that is both reverential and revelatory? How does one mount a production that is respectful of the author's intent yet freshly insightful. How c…
It was a record-setting blizzard, not prescient season planning, that resulted in Mosaic Theater Company's rescheduling the opening of I Shall Not Hate to last night, International Holoca…
When I first saw Love in Time of HIV in May 2012, I was deeply impressed. Giving voice to a young generation's encounter with the health crisis left them by their elders, the play by Kieyont…
I just love it when theater laughs at itself. Who can forget the clockwork guffaws of Michael Frayn's Noises Off, or Shakespeare's enchanting send-up of theatrical conceits in the "Pyramus a…
"It's complicated." So begins"on a note of supreme understatement"Writer/Performer Aaron Davidman's captivating and insight-rich solo show, Wrestling Jerusalem, the third provocative product…
The event had a provocative hashtag in its title: As if to reference an emergency that is tragically trending worldwide. As if to signal the evening's explicit link to a global community of …
Stars of David: Story to Song"a rapturously beautiful concert musical now in a limited engagement at Theater J"is a unique blend of thrilling singing and insightful biography. Illuminating i…
Rorschach Theatre has produced another one-night-only show in its adventurous and eclectic Klecksography series, and Saturday night I went to report on what I saw. If I had to encapsulate th…
Signature Theatre's production of West Side Story is every bit as eye-filling and ear-thrilling as any lover of this great American musical could wish. On a spacious thrust stage inside the …
There is a shibboleth shared by liberals and conservatives alike that when a young black man shoots to death another young black man in the inner city, the fault lies in themselves. Somethin…
This being a show meant for kids, I defer to a critical opinion I overheard right afterward, voiced by a child not yet 5: Â "That was really cool! Really funny too!" Coauthored by Mario Ba…
‘Tis the season for jolly laughter, and if you like humor that's loopy, irreverent, quick-witted, and fresh, you'll fit right in at Washington Improv Theater's annual Seasonal Disorder…
Plays about playmaking have an enduring appeal. Think Noises Off, Six Characters in Search of an Author. Shows about shows on the musical stage have indelible charm. Think Chorus Line, Kiss …
When I first saw Joshua Harmon's brilliant play Bad Jews at The Studio Theatre about this time last year, I could not contain my enthusiasm. I praised it to the skies: Bad Jews is so over-th…
On my explorations into the local universe of university theater, I've sighted some terrific stuff. Most of it I've written about for DCMetroTheaterArts (see links to my recent faves…
If it is true that theater originated as worship and ritual"as a healing form of human communion with sacred mystery"then that history is surely raising the rafters of the Anacostia Playhous…
When a dark farce titled Entertaining Mr. Sloane opened in London in 1964, it was viewed as rude, scandalous, and repugnant because of its homosexual content and its three main characters' b…
Theater J's first triumph of the season was Caleen Sinnette Jennings' semi-autobiographical Queens Girl in the World. Its second is also loosely autobiographical: Stephen Karam's Sons…
Appomattox, the magnificent and powerful opera by Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton that premiered at The Kennedy Center last night, looks at American history with a breathtaking urgency …
When an actor comes on stage and tells you to silence your cell phone, etc., then identifies himself as a newt, you might be a bit perplexed. And when, further, he announces that all the hum…
Back in December 2014 I had a conversation with the Director Kevin Finkelstein that has stayed with me. I had just seen his staging of A Klingon Christmas Carol, a one-night-only seasonal no…
You know that feeling you get when you go to something"you attend it as a visitor or you drop in as an interloper"and by the time that something ends, you feel as if you belonged to it? W…
To judge by social media, love and madness are a thing. Here are few choice examples now making the rounds in the meme-osphere: "Love is merely a madness…." (William Shakespeare) "There is…
There comes a moment early in Act One when Raymond, a young man who left his family in Rwanda to learn film making at NYU, returns to his homeland, which has become a devastation. The 100-da…