Review: EVITA at Shakespeare Theatre/Harman HallSeptember 15, 2023What did our critic think of EVITA at Shakespeare Theatre/Harman Hall? The two hour show packs 17 years of her life into a constantly moving, theatrical matrix including social, political, and women's fashion history which can often be quite affecting because Pimentel's acting finds simple moments of true emotion amid the bustle and action.
Review: SWEAT at Keegan TheatreAugust 21, 2023What did our critic think of SWEAT at Keegan Theatre? No matter what year an audience sees Lynn Nottage's (her second Pulitzer) Sweat, something will be going wrong someplace for some part of the American workforce.
Review: THE CRUCIBLE at Eisenhower TheaterMay 25, 2023What did our critic think of THE CRUCIBLE at Eisenhower Theater? Choreographer Helen Pickett does in her ballet The Crucible just exactly what Arthur Miller attempted in his 1953 play, her source. Both try to make a new language to express the Salem witch trials of 1692 because those events were too extraordinary for regular English or garden-variety ballet.
Review: FINDING NEIL PATRICK HARRIS at Nu SassApril 17, 2023What did our critic think of FINDING NEIL PATRICK HARRIS at Nu Sass? Whether or not Edmund Gwenn (he played Santa in Miracle on 34th St.) verifiably said on his deathbed that dying is easy but comedy is hard doesn't change the truth, and Donna Hoke's ninety-minute play Finding Neil Patrick Harris proves it. Somewhat thoughtful nevertheless, Finding Neil Patrick Harris considers promises, friendship, competition, the nature of both comedy and happiness, along with the role that being a fan of a TV celebrity can have in a life. Staged by Nu Sass in its 30-seat space, the scene changes run the risk of exhausting the actors, but there really is nowhere to put a stagehand.
Review: SHOUT SISTER SHOUT! at Ford's TheatreMarch 22, 2023What did our critic think of SHOUT SISTER SHOUT! at Ford's Theatre? Four lady singers dominate in the very best way SHOUT SISTER SHOUT!, a musical biography of Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973). at Ford's Theatre through May 13. Sister Rosetta began singing in church alongside her mother, Katie Bell, who traveled and preached in the rural South before women could vote.
Review: GISELLE at Opera House/Kennedy CenterFebruary 3, 2023What did our critic think of GISELLE at Opera House/Kennedy Center? Giselle, like Hamlet for actors, Carmen for mezzo-sopranos, and Mrs. Lovett for musical theatre singer/actors of a certain age, brings audiences to the theatre to get to know the skills of the latest acclaimed ballerina. (Previous Giselles include: Makarova, Fracci, Julie Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Alonso, Markova, Misty Copeland, Fonteyn, Virginia Johnson, Pavlova.) Ukrainian-Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, former director of the Bolshoi Ballet, current artist in residence for American Ballet Theatre, soon to be artist in residence for New York City Ballet, has brought three ballerinas to dance Giselle with a company of exiled, excellent Ukrainian dancers to the Kennedy Center through February 5.