Mary Lincer - Page 2

Andrea Stolowitz's 90-minute autobiographical play, The Berlin Diaries, challenges her two actors, and Dina Thomas and Lawrence Redmond meet the heck out of all the challenges; they play multiple roles readily and skillfully.

Andy Warhol really did go to Iran. In 1976, the Shah's wife, Farah Pahlavi, arranged to sit for Polaroid photos which Warhol would then use as a basecoat for a series of prints, and Andrew Cohen reproduces Warhol's image of her as a permanently present part of his set design. Warhol also could really order reasonably priced caviar from his hotel's room service

Late in Julia Izumi's play, Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (with live and active cultures!), one of the characters asks, 'Is that what the whole yogurt thing is about because I'm not getting it?' It's one of several goofball/meta moments in this very theatrical play and marks the spot where Izumi acknowledges that her chosen title may not make sense. But the play itself very much makes sense.

A superb troupe of five actors and a great trumpet player (Michael A. Thomas) do everything in their toolkit to realize Dominique Morisseau's significant play, Paradise Blue, about a Detroit jazz club caught in the post-World War II 'urban renewal' which tampered with Black neighborhoods and lifestyles in American cities nationwide.

What did our critic think of ON YOUR FEET! at St. Mark's Players?The absence of melody underneath them frequently gets these singers into intonation trouble, especially given the opening night technical problems with the sound.

Experience a compelling take on censorship with Round House Theatre's Bad Books, exploring free speech's pitfalls during National Library Week.

What did our critic think of YOUR NAME MEANS DREAM at Theater J?

Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence was published about a week before she was able to vote for the first time in 1920.  The following year, she became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize.  Now, playwright Karen Zacarías has adapted Wharton's complex tragedy of manners into Arena's elegant, 3 hour production ably directed by Hana S. Sharif.  Set mostly in New York in the 1870s, Wharton, Zacarías, and Sharif recognize the ways in which the old fashioned social constructs of a still-young country could entrap individuals and crush their inner lives in contrast to the apparent success and prosperity of their day to day.  Wharton's title, ironic a century ago, remains that way today.  If this sounds dour, be reassured that it's often lightened by SNL-worthy Staten Island barbs and hoot-inducing stabs at Washington, DC, where a character briefly resides to avoid a husband in Europe and a clan in New York.

In the late 1960s (in her late 60s), cabaret étoile Mabel Mercer added the utterly goofy 'Wait 'til We're 65' (by Lerner & Lane) to her sets; when she was well past 50, Barbara Cook began including Harper & Zippel's wildly funny 'The Ingenue' to her shows, simultaneously sending up her rivals and ageism.

With Ken Ludwig's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile, Arena Stage's new Artistic Director, Hana S. Sharif, debuts as Director. The sumptuousness of the production may not quite balance with the slightness of the script, but as amusement during the holiday season, Death on the Nile offers fine performances, the fun of puzzling out a mystery, and stunningly beautiful visual elements.

What did our critic think of A HANUKKAH CAROL, OR GELT TRIP! THE MUSICAL at Round House Theatre?

What did our critic think of SUMMER, 1976 at Studio Theatre?

In an elegant coincidence (or a charming conspiracy by the theatre gods), DC audiences will be able to see two absolutely engrossing plays about Jewish family life in 20th and 21st century Europe, back to back: Tom Stoppard's Tony award-winning Leopoldstadt next month at the Shakespeare Theatre and Joshua Harmon's Drama Desk award-winning Prayer for the French Republic through November 24 at Theater J.

What did our critic think of ASTRO BOY AND THE GOD OF COMICS at Flying V?

What did our critic think of THE PLIANT GIRLS at Theatre Prometheus/Nu Sass?

At 55 minutes, Karen Zacarias' play, Frida Libre, runs the perfect length for the young people (age 5 and up) that Gala Hispanic Theatre wants to cultivate as the audiences of the future.

What did our critic think of MARLENE at ExPats Theatre?

What did our critic think of THE WAVERLY GALLERY at 1st Stage?