Barbara Papendorp

S-T-U-P-E-N-D-O-U-S AND S-I-D-E-S-P-L-I-T-T-I-N-G The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a delightful and unconventional musical comedy that debuted in 2005. With music and lyrics by William Finn and a book by Rachel Sheinkin, the show is set at a fictional spelling bee in Putnam Valley Middle School. It follows an eclectic group of middle…

DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE, DOUBLE YOUR FUN The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare’s earliest and most farcical comedies, centered around themes of mistaken identity and slapstick humor. The play tells the story of two sets of identical twins who were separated at birth, leading to a series of misunderstandings, wrongful accusations, and chaotic…

A FABULOUS FEVER DREAM Soft Power at Signature Theatre is a meta-theatrical production that begins with a semi-autobiographical portrayal of David Henry Hwang, who, following a near-fatal incident, envisions a future where China has risen to become the world’s dominant superpower. The narrative then transitions into a futuristic “Chinese musical,” offering a perspective on how…

NINE IS A TEN AT THE KEN CEN Following Broadway Center Stage‘s delightful production of Bye Bye Birdie, here comes a musical on the opposite spectrum in every way. Presented by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Nine, the musical adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 1963 film  8 ½ now playing at the Eisenhower, is…

AH, BOHÈME! Last Friday, Wolf Trap Opera Company, the summer residency program for emerging opera professionals hosted at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, offered a lovely production of Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Bohème, which poignantly depicts the struggles and joys of young bohemians trying to pursue their dreams while facing harsh…