Light Fantastic

Arena Stage shines a very bright Light in Crystal City, while Good for the Jews? leaves the audience puzzled

Published on March 18, 2010, 1:00am

Hitchcocked

The ''comedy thriller'' Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps stops at the Warner Theatre

Published on March 18, 2010, 12:56am

Crowning Achivement

The Shakespeare Theatre's Richard II and Henry V are powerful, memorable, and provocative on myriad levels

Published on February 24, 2010, 11:14pm

There are a litany of reasons to see both Richard II and Henry V, currently in rep at the Shakespeare Theatre. Among them, the joy of immersion in Shakespeare's deeply contemplative and poetic study of two of England's ancient kings, the chance to compare and contrast leadership in this juxtaposition of two very different men, and the unique theatrical experience of seeing each play rendered by a different director with one actor carrying both title roles. But perhaps the best ...[more]

Nirvana

High Fidelity is a musical with serious cult potential making it perfect for the Landless Theatre Company

Published on February 24, 2010, 11:10pm

Here are the top five reasons to make your way to the DC Arts Center in Adams Morgan to check out Landless Theatre Co.'s production of High Fidelity: A Musical. 1. You get to see a set that includes actual, honest-to-goodness vinyl albums. Or, at least, covers that used to hold actual, honest-to-goodness vinyl albums. (If you're particularly lucky you may actually catch a glimpse of André Previn and John Williams' soundtrack for Valley of the Dolls.) 2. It's an ...[more]

Latino Flair

Pultizer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz desires to open new doors and uncover untold stories

Published on February 17, 2010, 11:54pm

There is an undeniable excitement that comes from talking to playwright Nilo Cruz. It's not a kind of idol worship. Not the realization that one is talking to the first Latino to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama (Anna in the Tropics, 2003). Not the fact that this is an openly gay man who has rightly earned respect for his unique vision and talent. It's not even the gracious generosity he demonstrates when answering the kinds of small, sometimes awkward ...[more]

Bloodshed, Bigotry and Beauty

Signature's Sweeney is bloody brilliant, Beauty is heartbreaking, and Collection an intense meditation on race

Published on February 17, 2010, 11:49pm

Signature Theatre's Sweeney Todd is a nightmare drawn by Edward Gorey and colored by a shipwrecked orchestra. A lonely fairy tale featuring a peculiar assortment of murderers, madmen and the morally bankrupt, it's a bloody, brilliant valentine. Benjamin Barker, now known to the world as ''Sweeney Todd'' (Edward Gero), has returned to that ''hole in the world like a big black pit'' of London to seek revenge on the man who caused his wrongful conviction and exile. As it turns ...[more]

Money Pit

Moliere with an art-house edge, Washington Shakespeare's The Miser is an entertaining way to spend a winter's eve

Published on February 17, 2010, 11:42pm

Although there will, without doubt, be many advantages to the Washington Shakespeare Company's move next season to the high-profile theatrical spaces of Rosslyn's Art Space for Everyone, there are many among us who will dearly miss their code-baiting warehouse. Perhaps sensing this, they have made the most of their atmospheric lair in their latest production -- Moliere's comedy The Miser -- by turning their space and surrounds into the comically creepy mansion of a 21st century hoarder.This vaguely unhinged and ...[more]

Pyramidic Victory

Powerful, cerebral and riveting, Synetic's Antony and Cleopatra is performance art for the dark at heart

Published on February 10, 2010, 9:52pm

If rumors of Synetic Theater's Euro-Slavic techno scores, not-so-classical dancing, and penchant for interpreting Shakespeare minus the spoken word have repelled rather than attracted you, it's time to relent. True though the rumors may be, Synetic's powerful, cerebral, and always riveting physical theater belongs amid the season tickets of anyone considering themselves patrons (and indeed students) of culture. The troupe's latest production, a danced/mimed impression of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, is a perfect case in point. A piece of dark ...[more]

Slay Ride

With a gorgeously modern, comedically surreal version of Orestes, Folger brings new life to a play 2,400 years old

Published on February 10, 2010, 9:48pm

Depending on where you were when the first flakes began to fall you may find the timing of Folger Theatre's newest production, playwright Anne Washburn's gorgeously modern version of Orestes, oddly timely. Not so much the bit where one member of a family decides to murder another member of the family with the assistance of his sister and best friend. It's one thing to say, ''If I don't get out of this house I'm going to kill somebody...'' and an ...[more]

Siblings and Rivalries

The Rivalry dramatizes the great Lincoln-Douglas debates, while Three Sisters is simple without being austere

Published on February 3, 2010, 9:51pm

When watching a play that includes Abraham Lincoln, the question begs to be asked: Is this a play about Lincoln the politician, or Lincoln the symbol? In the cold light of day these are actually two very different men. Norman Corwin's 1958 play The Rivalry, which sets as its revolving point the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, offers a carefully measured cocktail of each. There are the clever self-deprecations of the near-mythic showman (''If I were two faced would I be ...[more]