Stage section: Metro Weekly

Review: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

P.J. Paparelli's reimagines Shakespeare's comedy as a tragic destination with too much bloodshed

Published on February 3, 2012, 9:15am

Two Gentleman from Verona at Shakespeare Theatre Matters of the heart take a rather bloody turn in director P.J. Paparelli's vision of Shakespeare's comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona, now onstage at the Lansburgh Theatre. Contemporary references abound, as Paparelli correlates social status and royal power in 16th century Italy to the corporate-dominated culture of today (logos incorporated into Walt Spangler's industrial-chic set reference everything from Apple to ING to Campari). And when things get complicated after Valentine (Andrew Veenstra) ...[more]

Review: The Elephant Room

In ''The Elephant Room,'' the humor is outlandish, cool irreverent and nerdy – plus there's fun and funky magic

Published on February 2, 2012, 7:34am

Part magic show, part witty performance piece, part hilarious guy-silliness, The Elephant Room is the theatrical equivalent of 3 a.m. in the basement ''rec room'' with your older brother and his friends at their funniest. Of course, this would be the brother and friends who are accomplished magicians, actors and comics – but you get the idea -- the humor is outlandish, cool irreverent and just the right amount of nerdy. Yet with every joke, gag and inventive piece of slapstick, there ...[more]

Review: Red

Arena's ''Red'' is bracingly effective as a reflection of the creative and destructive forces faced by artist Mark Rothko

Published on February 2, 2012, 4:52am

Paint splatters and spills like blood in Red, soaking skin and canvas alike as an aging artist and his young assistant toil in a Manhattan studio. Subtle symbolism it's not in playwright John Logan's exploration of a pivotal period in the life of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, but it's bracingly effective nonetheless as a reflection of the creative and destructive forces he faced. It's 1958 when Ken (Patrick Andrews) goes to work for Rothko (Edward Gero), who is immersed in ...[more]

Riffing on Republicans

The Kinsey Sicks try to be funnier than Michele Bachmann

Published on February 2, 2012, 4:49am

How could anyone be funnier than Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain? ''I kid you not,'' says Ben Schatz of the Kinsey Sicks, ''there were jokes that we wrote for this show when we first drafted it over the summer that candidates [later] actually said. {Kinsey Sicks (Photo by Erez Ben Or)} ''It has been a comedic challenge to be even more extreme than those we are parodying,'' he continues. ''But I think we have managed.'' In fact, Schatz thinks the ...[more]

Review: Wit

In ''Wit,'' now playing on Broadway, Cynthia Nixon reveals herself to be an incredibly expressive actor of great range

Published on February 1, 2012, 6:44pm

Cynthia Nixon laughs and laughs and laughs in one late scene in Wit. The actress even seems genuinely tickled, too. (Maybe she's reveling in the controversy she stirred up in the past week, about her contention that she chose to be a lesbian.) Laughing may not be as hard to pull off for an actor as crying – though, it should be noted, Nixon also succeeds at that here, during a few brief moments. But it still can be difficult ...[more]

Drag Race

Christopher Sieber is the not-so-secret powerhouse in the entertaining, wholly engaging revival of ''La Cage aux Folles''

Published on January 26, 2012, 4:16am

Ooh la La Cage. It's holding up remarkably well for a nearly 30-year-old musical, especially one that reflects an era of gay life often written off as ancient, outré history. Alas, the show's themes of marriage and family -- and how to define and defend them amid conservative political machinations -- remain all too familiar. Nevertheless, the touring version of the 2010 Broadway revival, now at the Kennedy Center, still treats La Cage aux Folles as a period piece -- ...[more]

Rising Star

A memorable role in the film Camp set Robin de Jesús on an acting path that has already garnered two Tony nominations

Published on January 26, 2012, 4:14am

''I can't even straighten my hair,'' the unforgettable Afro-headed character Michael Flores joked in Todd Graff's endearing indie film Camp from 2003. ''That's kind of where it all started, a movie about kids at a performing arts theater camp,'' says Robin de Jesús, who played the gay Flores. ''The movie was the perfect blending of both worlds.'' And de Jesús has been blending the worlds of theater and film ever since. At the moment, he's in a couple of films ...[more]

Channeling a Legend

Rita McKenzie pays tribute to Broadway powerhouse Ethel Merman

Published on January 19, 2012, 8:12am

''Growing up I wasn't a big fan of Ethel Merman,'' says Rita McKenzie. ''It wasn't that I didn't like her. I just thought, 'Wow, she's loud, you know? I liked Julie Andrews [more].'' The irony is that McKenzie is far more like Merman than Andrews. ''As I started performing in the theater, people would say that my spirit was like a young Ethel Merman,'' says the New Jersey native, laughing, ''And I thought, wait a minute.'' {Rita McKenzie as Ethel ...[more]

Review: Little Murders

With ''Little Murders,'' TACT delivers on Feiffer's clever and amusing fantasy of an urban middle-class meltdown

Published on January 19, 2012, 5:37am

A small company with an intrepid spirit, The American Century Theater taps another piquant time and mood in America's 20th century with Jules Feiffer's Little Murders. One of Feiffer's few plays - he was best known for his clever and provocative cartoons - Murders is Feiffer's satirical state-of-play for a late 1960s America. Set in a New York City decades removed from today's family friendly tourist destination, this was New York when drugs, guns, and general mayhem were on the ...[more]

Review: Time Stands Still

After watching Donald Margulies's stunning play, you just might walk away contemplating changes in your own life.

Published on January 12, 2012, 4:51am

''Happy trails.'' ''Be careful!'' Two ways to say goodbye to someone – one playful and lighthearted, the other cautionary and concerned. Those are also the last two lines uttered in Time Stands Still, succinctly capturing the yin and the yang of Donald Margulies's stunning play. Chiefly about two war correspondents struggling to make sense of a wild world and their places in it, Time Stands Still will likely cut any thinking person to the core. Margulies explores moral and ethical ...[more]

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