D.C.
(Maryland / Virginia)

“IT SHALL GO HARD BUT I WILL BETTER THE INSTRUCTION” Deep into the world premiere of Aaron Posner’s variation on The Merchant of Venice last Saturday, Shylock pointed at me from the stage and demanded my name. I said, “Rohrer.” Shylock spent 30 seconds heaping calumny upon the name of Rohrer: “Dirty Rohrer, stupid Rohrer,…

NEW ORLEANS IN VIRGINIA Like many operas in the last 100 years, Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire  – recently produced by Virginia Opera  – is through-composed with  very little straight dialogue, declamatory vocals, and text set to music so that the words and sense are both clear (this is also known as  Literaturoper).   Before Debussy’s Pellas et Melisande…

I WILL SURVIVE In the opening act of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, a group of campers sits by the warm glow of a trashcan fire and tries to retell a favorite episode of The Simpsons. Matt (the ever-energetic Steve Rosen) recalls and reperforms “Cape Feare” with entertaining accuracy. Maria (Jenna Sokolowski) and Jenny (Kimberly…