D.C.
(Maryland / Virginia)

A POIGNANT LOOK AT FEMALE FRIENDSHIP What are the makings of female friendships? What holds them together and what causes them to shift off course? These are just two of the philosophical questions raised by David Auburn’s latest masterpiece and recent Broadway hit Summer, 1976, currently at Studio Theater. Known best for his heady play…

THE GOOD-NATURED BUFFOONERY IN FORUM IS THE TONIC FOR WHAT AILS YOU A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, currently at Signature Theater, is knee-slapping farcical fun à la vaudeville and the Marx Brothers mixed with ancient Roman escapades, all set to the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. Sound like a…

SURE, LET SILCON VALLEY DO ITS JOB WITH THE GOVERNMENT. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Along with The Other Americans, Arena Stage is offering yet another world premiere. A highly relevant corporate thriller that makes the Enron financial scandal look tame, DATA plunges viewers into the ethically complex world of Silicon Valley at a time when our…

SEEN THROUGH A LATINO CONTEXT, THE OTHER AMERICANS IS A UNIVERSAL GLIMPSE INTO FAMLY TRAUMA The world premiere of John Leguizamo’s newest endeavor, The Other Americans, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, packs a hard punch in the gut while exploring familial dysfunction and immigrant survival. John Leguizamo (Nelson) and Luna Lauren Velez (Patti) Leguizamo stars as…

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…

BEMUSING, DISAPPOINTING, SUPERFICIAL, AND FULL OF CONTRADICTIONS After all the hype about Matthew Broderick starring in the title role of Babbitt, presented by Shakespeare Theatre Company at Harman Hall, the production — which had its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse last November —  is a disappointment. Yet, the fault doesn’t lie solely with Broderick’s acting….

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…

AN EXCERCISE IN PURPOSEFUL FUTILITY Welcome to the world of underserved K-12 education where punitive actions abound with no end in sight. In Exception to the Rule, playwright Dave Harris (Tambo & Bones) brings us into an existential, self-imposed detention room, where its victims’ enforcer never shows up.   It’s an adolescent Waiting for Godot, where…

WEAVING TOGETHER THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE JaJa’s African Hair Braiding – beginning a regional tour after Broadway success and Arena Stage’s season starter – is a peek into the immigrant experience in America, served up with laughter and fears of deportation. Written by Ghanaian American Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Whitney White, the play is both…

UNIVERSAL, YES, BUT ALSO ESOTERIC Who’s to say what constitutes a monumental event – something as vast as a meteor shower versus the provincial act of trying to go home again? This is the unspoken question posed by British Playwright Casey Jay Andrews in her intimate tale Oh My Heart, Oh My Home currently playing…

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…

A FANTASIZED LOOK INTO BLACKNESS IN AMERICA The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, currently at The Studio Theatre, is a wild, satirical glance into African-American experiences, dating back to slaves in Africa to the present (which was 1986 when Wolfe penned it). The experiences are how Blacks are portrayed to a white public, as…