Review: THE NEWLYWED GAME Wins at B St. Theatre
by Courtney Symes - June 15, 2024
I’m old enough to remember when “The Newlywed Game” was live on television…before reruns. It was fascinating to discover how well couples knew each other; so, when the B St. Theatre announced their production of The Newlywed Game, the winner of the 2023 New Comedies Festival, I knew it was going to ...
Review: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at Big Idea Theatre
by Courtney Symes - June 14, 2024
‘Tis the season for Shakespeare! Big Idea Theatre is now showing their gender-bending version of Much Ado About Nothing, just in time to celebrate Pride. This modernized take is playing through June 29th....
Review: Come On Along to 42ND STREET at Broadway At Music Circus
by Courtney Symes - June 13, 2024
Glamour, glitz, and gams galore! You’ll get this and more with 42nd Street, which opens up the 72nd Broadway at Music Circus season. This love letter to Broadway actually didn’t start there. It took over forty years after the film was released to be made into a Broadway musical. It made its debut at...
Review: THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO at Freefall Stage
by Courtney Symes - June 11, 2024
Long before Walt Disney, Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio entertained children in a weekly Italian magazine. In 1883 it was turned into a novel and has since inspired many adaptations, including the play currently running at Freefall Stage. The True Adventures of Pinocchio, adapted by Louis Lippa, is showi...
Review: THE GOAT is Brilliant Comedy at The Stage At Burke Junction
by Courtney Symes - June 08, 2024
Edward Albee, whose odd middle-aged characters have fascinated American theatre-goers since 1962’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, explores what is perhaps his most interesting family dynamic in the 2002 Tony Award-winning play The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? The play is, as you might imagine, about a ...
Review: THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM at Black Point Theatre
by Courtney Symes - May 15, 2024
Death becomes her…I think. Or maybe it becomes him. Someone might be dead. Or not. Florian Zeller’s The Height of the Storm leaves many unanswered questions at the Black Point Theatre, ones that I’m not sure I will ever understand. I suppose that’s the point, as Zeller said, “…For me the theatre is,...
Review: CRY IT OUT Delivers the Laughs at Capital Stage
by Courtney Symes - May 10, 2024
Just in time for Mother’s Day, Capital Stage has revealed a play that is perfect for celebrating mothers. It also happens to be my favorite of their offerings to date. Cry it Out, by Molly Smith Metzler, tackles an important conversation that often gets overlooked, and does it with insight, grace, a...
Review: COME FROM AWAY at Gallo Center For The Arts
by Courtney Symes - May 06, 2024
September 11, 2001, is a date that is seared into the consciousness of everyone old enough to remember the events of that day. While the tragedy was overwhelming, the courage and solidarity that emerged was overflowing. Come From Away shows some of the best of humanity and leaves us with hope that h...
Review: THE ODD COUPLE-FEMALE VERSION at Women's Theatre Collective
by Courtney Symes - May 02, 2024
When we hear The Odd Couple, most people imagine the 1970s television series starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney. What some might not know was that it originated as a Neil Simon play on Broadway in 1965. After the success of the film and television versions, Simon adapted the play in 1985 to feat...
Review: Student Spotlight on ALICE BY HEART at The Stage At Burke Junction
by Courtney Symes - April 27, 2024
I had a unique opportunity last weekend to experience a completely student-run production of a show that has intrigued me since I first heard of it. Alice by Heart is a musical with music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics and book by Steven Sater (with Jessie Nelson), the duo responsible for Spring Awakeni...