Roger Catlin
Latest Articles
Review: MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM at Round House Theatre
Amid August Wilson’s ambitious and towering 10-play American Century Cycle, each one representing a different decade in the Black experience, “Ma Rainey’s Black Botton,” set in 1920s blues recording studio, is perhaps most dynamic.
Review: A BEAUTIFUL BLUE MORNING SKY at The Keegan Theatre
Besides the massive geopolitics of it all, the terror attacks also jolted individual emotions , almost to a person.
Review: GARBO: THE ACTOR WHO SAVED THE WORLD at GALA Hispanic Theatre
The world premiere production kicking off the 51st season at GALA Hispanic Theatre, “GARBO: The Actor Who Saved the World,” is not, it turns out, about Greta at all.
Review: WOODY GUTHRIE'S AMERICAN SONG at Theater Alliance
On the park lawn on a summer’s night you can hear them faintly approaching: Nine singers and musicians, some with protest signs, singing “All You Fascists Bound to Lose,” gaining volume as they approach.
Review: TOSCA at Wolf Trap Opera
She bounds on stage in sunglasses, fur and foulard like she’s just taken a Vespa from the Trevi Fountain.
Review: WHEN I WAS at District Fringe
Teenage years are no picnic for anyone.
Review: THE ROARING GIRL at Theatre Prometheus
Theatre Prometheus, a company devoted to queer and feminist art, celebrates Pride Month 2026 with a production that’s more than 400 years old.
Review: A FINE MADNESS at Woolly Mammoth
“It’s not a play,” Justin Weaks declares fairly early in his one-man “A Fine Madness” presented by the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
Review: OTHELLO at Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company has had a rich history of stars lured to its stage — not just to sell tickets through big names.
Review: AMERICAN OPERA INITIATIVE: THREE 20-MINUTE OPERAS at Washington National Opera
The separation of the Washington National Opera from the overrun-and-soon-to-close Kennedy Center has meant next season’s eight planned productions, including five full length operas, will occur on five different stages in the D.
Review: GET DOWN TONIGHT: CLASSIC FUNK at Signature Theatre
The current production ,“Get Down Tonight: Classic Funk,” is a engaging array of familiar songs from the 60s and 70s that didn’t have any trouble getting people to clap along, and a few to eventually get up and groove.
Review: AGUARDIENTE: WHERE MAGIC TRANSCENDS BORDERS at GALA Hispanic Theatre
Aguardiente is the name of a firey drink from Colombia that’s sugary and strong.
Review: DRAGON PLAY at Rorschach Theatre
Dragons are fire-breathing their way back into the culture, from the animated series “How to Train Your Dragon” to the fierce special effect triumphs in “Game of Thrones.
Review: HAMNET at Shakespeare Theatre Company
It’s a little surprising that in 40 years, that a production from the Royal Shakespeare Company has never before visited Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company (though the opposite is true — a Shakespeare Theater Company production of “Love’s Labor’s Lost” played Stratford-upon-Avon
Review: INHERIT THE WIND at Arena Stage
The sign of a good play is that it can ring out its truth through different eras and still seem utterly relevant to the moment.
Review: CAKE EATERS at The Welders
The title of Rebecca Dzida’s play “Cake Eaters” of course borrows from the “Let them eat cake” phrase that originates from before the French Revolution and was often attributed to Marie Antoinette.
Review: STORIES FROM THE BRINK! at Theater J
It was a harrowing winter storm that blocked streets, closed schools and generally paralyzed the city for days.
Review: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY at Shakespeare Theatre Company
Ghosts are not infrequent in Shakespeare’s work, from the spirits of Hamlet’s father to Banquo in “Macbeth.
Review: BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD at Best Medicine Rep
What are the odds of two cartoonists submitting to the New Yorker both living in Cleveland? Or that one was hired to be the caretaker of the other?
Review: DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL at National Theatre
What did our critic think of the national touring company production of DR.
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