WASHINGTON, DC THEATER REVIEWS

There's a lot to like at the World Stage Theater right now. While this production and any subsequent national tour stops is likely to find its most receptive audience in people with an upbringing and faith similar to my own, it's not only for those that can recite every verse of the title song ...

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's DRAW THE CIRCLE marks Mosaic Theater Company's first time featuring a transgender artist telling their own personal story, which alone makes the work noteworthy. But Deen's extreme vulnerability and creativity coalesce to make it a vitally important piece of theater....

In Synetic Theater's Hansel and Gretel, based loosely on Grimm's fairytale version, Hansel (Justin J. Bell) and Gretel (Sharisse Taylor) go from being in the mall with their distracted babysitter (Raven Wilkes) to being in a mysterious wonderland with no mall or babysitter to be found. While Synetic...

A modern day holiday season might include such activities as camping out at Walmart for a 3:00 AM special on a flat screen TV for $25.00 or playing with the latest electronic gadgets that are out there. DC's little jewel of a theater, Washington Stage Guild, takes us back to a time when people actua...

It can be difficult to write a review without some sort of spoiler. With 'The State' it's nearly impossible, but I'm going to try. This is a show where, for better or worse, what's being said takes a back seat to how it is being said. Alexander Manuiloff's experimental concept 'The State' is part of...

All told, 'Curve of Departure' is an eighty-minute emotional rollercoaster that packs more of a punch than any play I've seen this season....

My Name is Asher Lev is easily digestible and fast-paced. There are moments of inspiration and reflection throughout the production that make the play a worthwhile trip to the theater....

E. B. White's Charlotte's Web has been adapted in many ways. There was an animated movie musical back in the 70s, a live action film a few years back, and a stage adaptation that Theatreworks USA toured around the country for years. Imagination Stage in Bethesda is currently presenting the latter as...

Washington Concert Opera brings a nicely performed La Straniera to Lisner Auditorium nearly two hundred years after its premiere at La Scala Milan. Vincenzo Bellini's first Milanese success took place in 1827 in the form of Il pirata. Two years later, he stood in a shadow of his own making. He neede...

Gene Autry's famous song, Frosty The Snowman (written by Jack Rolling and Steve Nelson) first the radio in December of 1950 and since then there have been many incarnations of Frosty: from famous recordings like The Chipmunks or The Jackson 5 to the beloved 1969 animated special, which airs on TV ...

Back in the late 90's I went to the old Vat Room at Arena Stage to see this Christmas show that my Catholic University professor talked about. Being the grandchild of a British war bride, I had many British Christmases growing up, so I knew what to expect. What I didn't expect back then was how en...

This weekend The Kennedy Center offers GOBSMACKED!, an a cappella and beatboxing collaboration that works to remind audiences why they love Pitch Perfect, Pentatonix, and other popular acts. That said, if you're going to use those acts as a draw, you need to make sure your show is strong. And this o...

The Shakespeare Theatre Company's TWELFTH NIGHT is a fresh look at a familiar story a bit darker with less over-the-top mirth. It is well worth revisiting Shakespeare's comedy for a new take on the familiar story....

'It looks like they forgot to clean up from the last performance!' joked a man in the audience. It's true. The stage at the Dance Loft on 14 looks like the remnants of a bad garage sale. It's littered with cardboard boxes and paper scraps, an old table and chairs, and a huge heap of empty Fanta cans...

What happens when the cr me de la cr me of the DC theater community come together to create a brand-new theater for young audiences musical at the Kennedy Center? The answer is theatrical magic, that's what....

If you think the late Texas-born playwright Horton Foote and his fictional home town of Harrison, Texas are little more than genteel curiosities, think again. In Quotidian Theatre's season-opening production of Foote's A Coffin in Egypt, we are confronted with a life that is complex, dark and unapo...

The famous comic strip 'Little Orphan Annie' comes to life at Olney Theatre Center....

I hope this one has great success on Broadway. It has the potential to be an audience favorite....

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' ...

It's what's on the inside that counts. THE UGLY ONE by German playwright Marius von Mayenburg skewers that idea, and Nu Sass brings us an energetic take on the satirical play. Renata Fox directs actors who embrace their roles with effervescence, three out of four of them playing multiple characters,...

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....

In ST NICHOLAS, McPherson's twisted sense of Irish humor, flawlessly executed by Beall, is so watchable because it is so bizarre....

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When actor and writer Dan Hoyle left San Francisco on a three-month trip through small-town Middle America several years ago, he couldn't have predicted that many of the disillusioned real Americans he encountered on his travels would be part of a nationwide movement to elect Trump in 2016. Hoyle'...

Alcina showcases all the best aspects of Handel's skill without getting bogged down by melismatic asides. Every aria has a purpose. Every word moves the plot forward or gives depth to the characters. Indeed, the show moves briskly. (The 'approximately three hour' run time is a bit of an overstatemen...