WASHINGTON, DC THEATER REVIEWS

It's an old-fashioned musical comedy - but not....

DC Culture's Source Festival likely gets its name from its central place of operation, the Source Theatre on 14th St NW. But the name also pays homage to the source of the festival itself: the dozens of playwrights whose work are being produced....

'Flying V Fights: Heroes & Monsters' marks a return to truly exciting form, performed by this year's Aniello Award-winning emerging theatre, a thrilling evening devoted to stage combat.  If you are a big fan of action on the screen, on your hand-held, wherever, this is just the dream spectacle  y...

Brent Barrett, John Cudia, and Kyle Dean Massey bring a little bit of Broadway to Baltimore for one night....

The Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan's classic romp of an opera is pleasure enough; but the lovely open air setting of Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center on a pleasant summer's eve makes the frolics of tender-hearted pirates, not-so-naive maidens and a constabulary force who seem to have misp...

"Can you fall in love if you don't know what love is?" That question is the central theme in the new play, (a love story), playing as part of the Source Festival.  Playwright Kelly Lusk has woven an intricate look at the lives of three couples, who seemingly are unrelated. The impetus of which i...

Marius Petipa first staged Don Quixote for the Imperial Bolshoi Theater in 1869 to great acclaim, and it immediately entered the ballet canon.  Almost every ballet enthusiast has seen a version of this work--new productions run the risk of seeming stale and mundane.  This general familiarity made ...

Disney musical is full of energy and entertainment.The first time I saw a snippet of this Disney produced musical based on the 1992 film (which I had always enjoyed) was on the Macy's 'Thanksgiving Day Parade'. I knew then that I had to see this show and it was exactly what I expected. It features a...

Every June, curious Washington, DC area theatregoers can experience the work of emerging local and national playwrights at the Source Festival, organized by CulturalDC. Divided into three themes - this year it's Mistakes and Media, Love and Botany, and Science and Soulmates - the festival comprises ...

Countess Aurelie and her fellow madwomen are back to save Chaillot, Paris and the world in a stylishly realized theatrical tour-de-force. As directed by Christopher Henley, WSC Avant Bard's THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT is a feast for the eyes and ears. The production, in an exciting and vibrant translat...

Summer in DC brings great opportunities to celebrate and discover new plays, the first of which is CulturalDC's Source Festival, which opened June 5 and runs through June 28 with varied offerings of full-length plays, 10-minute plays and artistic blind dates. Based on Love & Botany, a collection of...

It's surprising that in its 45 years, D.C.'s venerable Shakespeare Theatre Company has yet to produce either of Moliere's most famous plays. Perhaps, artistic director Michael Kahn suggests, they were waiting for the right one....

?Washington DC's Theater J wraps up their 2014-2015 season with Charles Busch's THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE....

MISTAKES & MEDIA perfectly resembles the culture it attempts to speak out against: it's loud, has a short attention span, is obsessed with pop culture and completely unable to step away from it's smartphone, even in the theater. ...

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Ambassador Theater, with their production of Polish poet Tadeusz Rózewicz's masterpiece The Trap, introduces Washington audiences to a theatrical genius of Samuel Beckett's stature. The Trap traces key elements in Franz Kafka's life, and Rózewicz's masterstroke is to weave the much darker future-t...

How would they turn iTunes most downloaded podcast "Serial" into a stage show? "All Things Considered" or "60 Minutes" never went on the road quite like this....

Old Blue Eyes might not be back but if you are a fan of his catalog of songs, MY WAY: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO FRANK SINATRA may give you high hopes and fly you to the moon with nearly 60 signature tunes. An attractive cast covers all phases of Sinatra's musical legacy with style backed up by a killer t...

Featuring direction by Meredith McDonough, the Round House production brings out the best of Lucy Kirkwood's provocative play....

For over one hundred years Alfred Jarry has set the gold standard for profanity, riotous provocation and just plain weirdness. Putting on a play about him is daunting but Richard Heinrich of Spooky Action Theater has taken on this heady task. 'Jarry Inside Out' offers us an evening that is likely t...

If the dystopian future of Robert O'Hara's new satirical look of American politics come true, there will be a few changes to the nation as we know it. The Presidency will return to Lordships and Ladies due to removing all nuclear weapons because of the 'India Incident'. The west coast of the US will...

It is the sixteenth century in England and our rag tag tour guide is the Common Man. The Common Man takes you along as a witness to Sir Thomas More's clashes with King Henry VIII. Will Sir More, a prominent lawyer and statesman, stand up for his heartfelt beliefs or will he allow his fellow politic...

Nobody really says we get the theater we deserve (they do say that about government, though). But that's one way to approach The Shipment, the purposely provocative current show at Forum Theatre in Silver Spring....

Mitchell Brunings brings the man and his music to life....

Historian Andrew Carroll's endeavor to turn his best-selling collections of wartime letters into a theatrical piece proves to be a most satisfying theatrical experience for audiences....