Roger Catlin - Page 2

The best-selling book series in history, which in turn became one of the highest-grossing franchises of filmdom would naturally spawn a big Broadway hit, the nationally touring version of which is playing D.C. at the National Theatre after four months each in Chicago and Los Angeles. 

Two years of cancellations because of Covid helped lead to the dissolution of Capital Fringe in January after 20 years. To salvage the idea — and help the creators who had in some cases spent years on creating their own upcoming Fringe productions — a new, smaller District Fringe was established this summer up at the University of the District of Columbia.

Inappropriate crushes are best left to oneself, especially when it involves a married person — a lesson never learned by Owen (Ryan Sellers), the lead character in Greg Kalleres’ comedy “Apropos of Nothing” making its DC premiere at the Keegan Theatre.

The final play of the season at Studio Theatre comes with some environmental warnings. The production includes “nontoxing vaping, loud music, and controlled water spray, some of which might hit the audience.”

When it came to gender fluid plays, William Shakespeare was way ahead of the curve even 400 years ago. At the time, young males routinely played the female roles anyway. He had already made cross-dressing  hidden identity a part of “The Merchant of Venice” and would do so again in “As You Like It.” 

Among its other achievements, the world premiere of the Spanish language “Choke” at GALA Hispanic Theatre should also be noted as perhaps the first play to incorporate the collapse of Baltimore’s Key Bridge.

It’s not so strange, really, that there’s  a serious opera about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. His life’s work is usually invoked before every production of the last decade or more, when audiences are asked to silence their smartphones.

After “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” first premiered on Broadway in 1998, Signature Theatre became one of the first regional theaters to stage the brash hit in its own very successful production in 2002.

At a time when the reckless cruelty of the current administration has been decimating the city of federal workers and shuttering NGOs, there may not be much appetite for a comedy romp about infighting among such agencies.

The Flint, Michigan water crisis began when the city decided to save money by switching its source of water from Detroit to the Flint River in 2014. It resulted in highly elevated lead levels and essentially toxic waste coming from the household taps on which tens of thousands of residents had depended. 

Devotees of Downton Abbey may be be surprised when Hugh Bonneville pops up as title character in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s first rate staging of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.

Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show continues through April 13 at Spooky Action Theatre, operating at the Universalist National Memorial Church. Check here for the review.

It’s fitting that the Theater Alliance’s terrific new offering “The Garbologists” is presented in a temporary pop-up in the sprawling ground floor of a new apartment building — an industrial, no-frills empty retail space that could serve as a truck garage for the two workers featured in Lindsay Joelle’s sharp play.

The latest offering from Washington Stage Guild, “Escape from the Asylum: A Madcap Mystery,” is a sequel to the Patricia Milton play presented there last season, “The Victorian Ladies Detective Collective.”

Health care systems and society in general has never adjusted to just how long people are living these days. It’s fallen largely to family members to do their best to help their elders stay at home as long as possible. The strained efforts have had a huge effect on all these volunteer caregivers, trying to help loved ones, in addition to life’s usual work and family obligations.

Even after serving jail time, they get something of a life sentence with ankle bracelets monitoring every move, large swaths of the city cut off from them because of proximity to elementary schools, forced to live with no WiFi among people they probably wouldn’t have chosen and forever carry the scorn of passerby.

What did our critic think of STEP AFRIKA! MAGICAL MUSICAL HOLIDAY STEP SHOW at Arena Stage?