Snow Child at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater seems like the potential little sister to 2015’s breakout smash Dear Evan Hansen, destined to take wing from the boards of DC direct to the bright lights of Broadway. Under the sure direction of Molly… Read More
The Shakespeare Theater Company’s highly stylized and absurdist production of Waiting for Godot is a visual feast, if such a thing can be said for a stage that at most contains two set pieces and four actors. Francis O’Connor’s striking, simplistic design is the visual embodiment of… Read More
“There are always and only two trains running. There is life and there is death. Each of us rides them both. To live life with dignity, to celebrate and accept responsibility for your presence in the world is all that can be asked of anyone.” –… Read More
I always like a play where I can’t wait to exit the theater and research the history behind the story. Written by Jeanne Sakata, Hold These Truths at Arena Stage is such a play. The script offers the straightforward tale of Gordon Hirabayashi, a University of Washington… Read More
I really loved Arena Stage’s last season production of All The Way, the story of Lyndon B. Johnson’s ascent from Vice President to the Oval Office and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So, I looked forward with Great Anticipation to Robert Schenkkan’s sequel play, The Great… Read More
If you love Shakespeare and you love musicals, then Tony nominated Something Rotten! at the National Theater is ripe for your enjoyment. Sizzling with bawdy puns and egg-stravagent dance numbers, brother sister Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick’s book, music and lyrics are a valentine to Broadway and literature.… Read More
The Monty-Pythonesque opening of playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Revolutionary War drama does not prepare you for the weight of Jefferson’s Garden. The ensemble play brilliantly stages a sweeping study of how America won its battle for universal freedom . . . ultimately without granting universal freedom. Jefferson’s Garden is a drama… Read More
“How,” my theater companion asked, “is Hamlet still relevant today?” To my mind there are two answers to this question, and The Shakespeare Theater Company’s current production strives to highlight them both. Michael Urie (Buyer & Cellar, Ugly Betty) stars as an impassioned, impetuous Hamlet in this contemporary… Read More
A full-scale production of The Skin of Our Teeth can feel like purgatory, with Thornton Wilder’s 1942 script weighing in at close to 3 hours. Thankfully, the Constellation Theater has revived a peppy, eye-popping version that keeps things moving as the human race grapples with madcap challenges for… Read More
A musical play about the deep-strung voice of Nina Simone is enough to get you in the door, but Christina Ham’s Nina Simone: Four Women at Arena Stage goes beyond song and storytelling, cracking apart the veneer of “black women” and “the civil rights movement” to show… Read More
