Roger Catlin - Page 9

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. 






BWW Review: Druid's Vivid WAITING FOR GODOT at Shakespeare Theatre Company
BWW Review: Druid's Vivid WAITING FOR GODOT at Shakespeare Theatre Company
April 27, 2018

It seemed like a clever in-joke when the first lobby announcement at the Shakespeare Theatre Company began, 'We appreciate your patience...'

BWW Review: First Rate Revival of Bergman's AFTER THE REHEARSAL / PERSONA at Kennedy Center
BWW Review: First Rate Revival of Bergman's AFTER THE REHEARSAL / PERSONA at Kennedy Center
April 20, 2018

For being the centennial of Ingmar Bergman's birth, there seems to be very little evidence of the Swedish director's work around. It's hard to find even his best known films; his name is known to some generations only as a reference in the work of Woody Allen.

BWW Review: EN EL TIEMPO DE LAS MARIPOSAS at GALA Hispanic Theatre
BWW Review: EN EL TIEMPO DE LAS MARIPOSAS at GALA Hispanic Theatre
April 17, 2018

The four Mirabal sisters, who resisted the oppressive dictatorship of Gen. Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic in the mid 20th century, became folk heroes decades after three of them were murdered by the regime nearly 70 years ago.

BWW Dance Review: DEMO: NOW Finds Kennedy Center's DIRECT CURRENT
BWW Dance Review: DEMO: NOW Finds Kennedy Center's DIRECT CURRENT
March 10, 2018

Curator Damian Woetzel chooses dancers and choreographers presenting excerpts of new pieces, works in progress, or in the case of the event in conjunction with the inaugural Direct Current series, a world premiere.

BWW Review: Taylor Mac's A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC: ABRIDGED at the Kennedy Center
BWW Review: Taylor Mac's A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC: ABRIDGED at the Kennedy Center
March 8, 2018

The Kennedy Center kicked off its multidisciplinary contemporary cultural assault Tuesday with something thought to embody the approach, Taylor Macs 'A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (1776-2016).'

BWW Review: Avant Bard's Timely Revival of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS
BWW Review: Avant Bard's Timely Revival of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS
March 1, 2018

What if gospel music was taken out of church? What if its structure, soul and power were applied to some other ancient stories, such as, for example, Sophocles, where actors talk about gods plural?

BWW Review: Powerful History in Theater Alliance's THE RAID
BWW Review: Powerful History in Theater Alliance's THE RAID
February 22, 2018

There is something to be said about being present in historical plays. But when the characters in the Theater Alliance's powerful production 'The Raid,' begins with the characters sitting alongside the audience in the seats that ring the performance space and announce their impending demise, we realize we are in for a more visceral experience than history books often provide.

BWW Review: Vibrant Adaptation of THE LATHE OF HEAVEN at Spooky Action
BWW Review: Vibrant Adaptation of THE LATHE OF HEAVEN at Spooky Action
February 20, 2018

Of her dozens of books over a long career, just one title by the esteemed science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin has been adapted a couple of times -- her 1971 'The Lathe of Heaven,' the futuristic story about the power of dreams.

BWW Review: LBJ Completes His Term in Arena Stage's THE GREAT SOCIETY
BWW Review: LBJ Completes His Term in Arena Stage's THE GREAT SOCIETY
February 11, 2018

It will take biographer Robert Caro five volumes to complete his portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson, so it's no surprise that there's a second LBJ play from Robert Schenkkan.

BWW Review: Clever LA FOTO: A SELFIE AFFAIR at GALA Hispanic Theatre
BWW Review: Clever LA FOTO: A SELFIE AFFAIR at GALA Hispanic Theatre
February 5, 2018

While every theatrical performance these days is prefaced by a request to turn off cell phones (which somebody invariably ignores), few plays have really delved into how the devices have so rapidly changed everyday life.

BWW Review: American Ballet Theatre's Eye-popping WHIPPED CREAM at Kennedy Center
BWW Review: American Ballet Theatre's Eye-popping WHIPPED CREAM at Kennedy Center
February 3, 2018

It must be galling for many ballet companies that their very operation is dependent on extended holiday performances of 'The Nutcracker' year after year.

BWW Review: Teen Playwright's THE DOG MUST DIE at Highwood Theatre
BWW Review: Teen Playwright's THE DOG MUST DIE at Highwood Theatre
January 29, 2018

During the first Women's Voices Theatre Festival in 2015, the youngest playwright was Madison Middleton, then a sophomore in Silver Spring. Her new play, while apparently not part of the current festival, comes as a seasoned 18-year-old high school senior.

BWW Review: IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER ... WALKIN' TALKIN' BILL HAWKINS at Atlas
BWW Review: IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER ... WALKIN' TALKIN' BILL HAWKINS at Atlas
January 27, 2018

W. Allen Taylor's one man play 'In Search of My Father ... Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins' is more than personal genealogy. His father, unknown to him most of his lifetime, was also a significant figure in black radio -- one of the first such DJs in the country, whose jive talking show show in Cleveland had legions of fans and likely influenced another DJ at his station, Allen Freed, in presenting the day's upbeat rhythm and blues as rock 'n' roll.

BWW Review: 4615 Theatre Company's WAXING WEST
BWW Review: 4615 Theatre Company's WAXING WEST
January 24, 2018

Of the two dozen stages participating in the Women's Voices Theater Festival this year, the one for the 4615 Theatre Company in Silver Spring must be the smallest.

BWW Review: Washington Stage Guild sequel SEE ROCK CITY
BWW Review: Washington Stage Guild sequel SEE ROCK CITY
January 23, 2018

Washington Stage Guild had a hit last year with the 1940s Americana romance 'Last Train to Nibroc,' so it's natural to want to stage the sequel by Arlene Hutton featuring the same pair of actors as the appealing couple, Lexi Langs and Wood Van Meter.

BWW Review: THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY Returns to the Kennedy Center
BWW Review: THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY Returns to the Kennedy Center
December 31, 2017

Individually, they might amuse the captive audience of a cruise ship. But combining five magicians in one show under the name The Illusionists has proven to be a popular attraction worldwide ever since it was first devised in Australia nearly six years ago. With its revolving casts of not quite household names in magic, the show gained a whole new cachet (ad name) when it briefly appeared on Broadway two years ago.

BWW Review: In Series Visits DUKE ELLINGTON'S NEIGHBORHOOD
BWW Review: In Series Visits DUKE ELLINGTON'S NEIGHBORHOOD
December 10, 2017

One of my first big assignments after I moved to Washington was tracking all the places that Duke Ellington lived, went to school, worked, hung out and performed with his orchestra in the city. I could walk to most of them.

BWW Review: FOREVER BALANCHINE: FAREWELL PERFORMANCES at Kennedy Center
BWW Review: FOREVER BALANCHINE: FAREWELL PERFORMANCES at Kennedy Center
December 10, 2017

When the opening night curtain rose on the final work of an emotional night - the last performances of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet that has been in residence at the Kennedy Center for 15 years - there was applause even before there was any movement.

BWW Review: Explosive NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN at Arena Stage
BWW Review: Explosive NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN at Arena Stage
November 20, 2017

Nina Simone didn't write her most iconic song inside Birmingham's bombed out 16th Street Baptist Church just after four girls were killed there in 1963. But she was so full of rage she could have. It's not the only flight of fancy in Christina Ham's dynamic theatrical work 'Nina Simone: Four Women' at Arena Stage.

BWW Review: The Second City's NOTHING TO LOSE (BUT OUR CHAINS) at Woolly Mammoth
BWW Review: The Second City's NOTHING TO LOSE (BUT OUR CHAINS) at Woolly Mammoth
November 18, 2017

So one expects nothing more than laughs when an original show called 'The Second City Presents: Nothing to Lose (But Our Chains)' takes up residence at Woolly Mammoth.



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