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Roger Catlin

Roger Catlin

Roger Catlin, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is a Washington D.C.-based arts writer whose work appears regularly in SmithsonianMagazine.com. and AARP the Magazine. He has also written for The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and Salon and was a staff writer for The Hartford Courant in Connecticut for 25 years. 






MOST POPULAR ARTICLES


Review: AN IRISH CAROL at Keegan Theatre
Review: AN IRISH CAROL at Keegan Theatre
December 7, 2024

Of the too-many stage variations of Charles Dickens’ Scrooge story this time of year, the one that’s found its place in my cold, black heart is the Keegan Theatre’s “An Irish Carol.”

Review: SHAW'S SHORTS at Washington Stage Guild
Review: SHAW'S SHORTS at Washington Stage Guild
November 26, 2024

What did our critic think of SHAW'S SHORTS at Washington Stage Guild?

Review: I'LL TAKE YOU THERE: STAX RECORDS CO. at Signature Theatre
Review: I'LL TAKE YOU THERE: STAX RECORDS CO. at Signature Theatre
November 16, 2024

Signature Theatre’s cabaret series has been mining the riches of the 1960s for some time, from Bacharach to Woodstock, with repeat visits to Motown. A new show diverges to Memphis for its own flavor of gritty soul and the gems that came from its own indelible record label.

Review: THE SECOND CITY: DANCE LIKE THERE'S BLACK PEOPLE WATCHING at Woolly Mammoth
Review: THE SECOND CITY: DANCE LIKE THERE'S BLACK PEOPLE WATCHING at Woolly Mammoth
November 12, 2024

The latest Second City production at Woolly Mammoth aims to bring “Black joy” in the tradition of its past successes there, such as 2016’s “Black Side of the Moon.” That show came to D.C. on the teeth of a dispiriting election, as does the new one, “Dance Like There’s Black People Watching.”

Review: BEN FOLDS AND THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Kennedy Center
Review: BEN FOLDS AND THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Kennedy Center
October 29, 2024

As the first person to serve as Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra, Ben Folds has had several opportunities over the past few years to perform with the organization.

Review: MEAN GIRLS at National Theatre
Review: MEAN GIRLS at National Theatre
October 17, 2024

t was 20 years ago when “Mean Girls” first hit movie theaters, cementing a certain kind of malevolent high school clique even as it launched a million memes, introduced a generation of actresses and established a pink dress code for its female fans years before “Barbie.” A rite of passage in itself, “Mean Girls” has never really gone away.

Review: PINK MARTINI'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY at Kennedy Center
Review: PINK MARTINI'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY at Kennedy Center
October 17, 2024

It was 30 years ago this week that a stylish Portland, Ore. lounge combo played its first gig, motivated by something with which Washington D.C. audiences could easily relate: politics.

Review: THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH at Taffety Punk
Review: THE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH at Taffety Punk
October 3, 2024

It figures that a Riot Grrrls version of “The Tragedie of Macbeth” at Taffety Punk would focus on the witches — or three wyrd sisters, as they’re called here 

Review: EXCEPTION TO THE RULE at Studio Theatre
Review: EXCEPTION TO THE RULE at Studio Theatre
September 25, 2024

But the new play by Dave Harris at Studio Theater is framed the same way: Six people marooned in an afterschool detention classroom on the Friday before Martin Luther King weekend, who bicker, flirt, nearly fight, and wonder if the presiding teacher will ever come to sign forms allowing them to go home. 

Review: Bandhouse Gigs 20th Anniversary Tribute to DC Legends at Strathmore
Review: Bandhouse Gigs 20th Anniversary Tribute to DC Legends at Strathmore
August 20, 2024

Bandhouse Gigs, an outfit that assembles top local musicians to honor a variety of artists from Bob Dylan to the Stones, began its life outdoors at the Strathmore, honoring Nils Lofgren. For a big event Saturday with the full title “Strathmore Presents A BandHouse Gigs 20th Anniversary Tribute to DC Legends,” an attempt was made to honor no less than 24 acts over three and a half hours, involving, by one count, 75 different musicians. 

Review: THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS FAREWELL TOUR at Strathmore
Review: THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS FAREWELL TOUR at Strathmore
August 18, 2024

The latest Righteous Brothers farewell tour pulled into the Strathmore in Bethesda Thursday, entertaining an elderly crowd who enjoyed hearing their hits from the 1960s.

Review: SUMMERTIME: AWA SAL SECKA SINGS LADIES OF JAZZ at Signature Theatre
Review: SUMMERTIME: AWA SAL SECKA SINGS LADIES OF JAZZ at Signature Theatre
July 29, 2024

The talented actress and sometime playwright has appeared in dozens of shows in D.C. — and several at Signature, including an award-winning performance in its Ragtime last year. Here, she shares her passion for jazz singers from the golden era that have never gone out of style in a personable revue backed by a couple of ace musicians.

Review: THE MOORS at Faction Of Fools
Review: THE MOORS at Faction Of Fools
July 24, 2024

The Faction of Fools Theatre Company specializes in the arcane form of the Italian Renaissance, commedia dell’arte, with elaborate masks, exaggerated movements and a kind of extreme reading of what often are classic texts. The troupe’s “Commedia Romeo and Juliet,” revived earlier this year, was a good example of that. 

Review: THE COLORED MUSEUM at Studio Theatre
Review: THE COLORED MUSEUM at Studio Theatre
July 11, 2024

It’s hard to imagine the impact George C. Wolfe’s razor-sharp satire “The Colored Museum” must have had when it opened in New York nearly 40 years ago. 

Review: BROADWAY IN THE PARK at Wolf Trap
Review: BROADWAY IN THE PARK at Wolf Trap
July 2, 2024

The intent of Wolf Trap’s annual “Broadway in the Park” event is to blend the star power of the Great White Way (if it’s still called that) with the rising stars of the local co-presenter, Signature Theatre.

Review: BLACKSTAR SYMPHONY: THE MUSIC OF DAVID BOWIE at Kennedy Center
Review: BLACKSTAR SYMPHONY: THE MUSIC OF DAVID BOWIE at Kennedy Center
July 2, 2024

It was a one-two punch to fans of David Bowie in early 2016 when the rock star was suddenly pronounced dead and two days later, on what would have been his 69th birthday, released his final album, “Blackstar,” a preordained farewell addressing his demise.

Review: MUMMY IN THE CLOSET: EVITA'S RETURN at GALA Hispanic Theatre
Review: MUMMY IN THE CLOSET: EVITA'S RETURN at GALA Hispanic Theatre
May 14, 2024

After the former First Lady of Argentina died in 1952 at 33, after a life that inspired plays, books, movies, musicals and dance productions, she was such a charged figure everybody knew that simple burial would not do.

Review: DIXIE'S TUPPERWARE PARTY at Kennedy Center
Review: DIXIE'S TUPPERWARE PARTY at Kennedy Center
May 12, 2024

What did our critic think of DIXIE'S TUPPERWARE PARTY at Kennedy Center?

Review: HOMELESS GARDEN at Avant Bard
Review: HOMELESS GARDEN at Avant Bard
May 7, 2024

What did our critic think of HOMELESS GARDEN at Avant Bard?

Review: HERE IT IS: A TRIBUTE TO LEONARD COHEN at Kennedy Center
Review: HERE IT IS: A TRIBUTE TO LEONARD COHEN at Kennedy Center
April 29, 2024

The producer Larry Klein honored the memory of Leonard Cohen with a 2022 tribute album that had a hushed sensibility and taste, as well as an impressive array of vocalists. Hoping to continue that feel, he began work on an equally fine performance version with the same title, “This is Now: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen,” which played two nights with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center over the weekend. 



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