WEST PRACTICES: Danny Scheie, Cody Nickell, and Kate Eastwood Norris (Jeff Malet)
In Deadwood’s poetically vulgar patois, Aaron Posner’s Deadwood-inspired new The Taming of the Shrew at the Folger Theatre is “beholden to no human cocksucker.” I review it in today’s Washington City Paper, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away gratis. Continue reading
Chris Genebach and Hyla Matthews in Studio Theatre’s THE BIG MEAL. (Carol Pratt)
With three reviews in today’s City Paper, you’d think all I did last weekend was go to plays*. Besides Studio’s wonderful production of Dan LeFranc‘s The Big Meal, I saw Faction of Fools‘s Commedia take on Hamlet, repurposed as Hamlecchino, Clown Prince of Denmark. Plus a Shavian two-fer from Washington Stage Guild. Continue reading
I write in this week’s City Paper that Signature Theatre’s God of Carnage is an admirable, well-acted production of a thin play . I felt much the same way about their production of Art, from the same playwright, at this time last year.
Both plays were worldwide hits and Tony Award winners. So perhaps Yasmina Reza is French for “not for me.”
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Tagged God of Carnage, Signature Theatre, Washington City Paper, Yasmina Reza
Cara Francis, Lauren Sharpe, Erica Livingston, Brendan Donaldson (floor), Jacquelyn Landgraf, Connor Kalista and Daniel Burnam perform "Before Breakfast.
I reviewed the NYC Neo-Futurists’ contribution to Arena Stage’s Eugene O’Neill Festival, which focuses on the playwright’s habit of filling his plays with things that are impossible to manifest corporeally on a stage. I’ve written about the original, Chicago-brand Neo-Futurists on prior occasions.
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Tagged Arena Stage, Eugene O'Neill, NYC Neo-Futurists, Washington City Paper
The maid isn’t young or buxom in Arena’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, in defiance of Eugene O’Neill’s famously specific casting specs, but Helen Carey‘s unforgettable performance as Mary Tyrone makes it worthwhile.
I reviewed the American Century Theater’s production of On the Waterfront — not exactly a straight adaptation of of the Oscar-winning 1954 film written by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan, but one of the several, separate versions Schulberg reworked for the stage beginning in 1995.
This one differs from the film in a few significant ways. Read on.
"44 years of performing experience! 30 years of psychiatric evaluation!" Photo by Erica Bruce.
Last Thursday, I road-tripped up to Philadelphia for what I think was my 15th Bruce Springsteen concert (but only my 14th with the pants-droppin’, heart-stoppin’, Earth-shakin’, booty-quakin,’ love-makin’, Viagara-takin’ etc., etc. E Street Band) since 1999. Three nights later, I saw my 16th (15th) here in DC at the Verizon Center.
For the City Paper, I wrote up some thoughts on the DC show, which differed significantly from the Philly one as you can see from the handy setlist table I have prepared below. Clip it out of your iPad’s retina display and post in your cubicle as a source of hourly inspiration! Continue reading
Wait, wait, I'm still apologizing! Don't start the music yet!
It was an interesting hour highlighted by a fascinating exchange near the end, which I reproduce in my Washington City Paper Arts Desk post about it.
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Tagged lies lies lies, Mike Daisey, theater, theatre, This American Life, Washington City Paper, Woolly Mammoth
Sheldon Best & Manny Brown in Studio's SUCKER PUNCH (Scott Suchman)
I did a follow-up to my Washington City Paper feature about the fight choreography in the Studio Theatre’s current U.S. premiere of Roy Williams’s boxing play Sucker Punch after the play had opened, and after the Washington Post had run their subsequent story on the same topic.
Strain & Tolaydo in Theater J's NEW JERUSALEM.
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Tagged Alexander Strain, Baruch de Espinoza, David Ives, theater, Theater J, theatre, Washington City Paper
The God of Comics and Astro Boy -- Clark Young and Karen O'Connell -- in ASTRO BOY AND THE GOD OF COMICS
In today’s City Paper, I review Studio Theatre‘s world premiere sci-fi spectacle-cum-artist biography Astro Boy and the God of Comics, along with Banished? Productions‘ dance piece/memory play Into the Dollhouse.
Sarah Ulstrup and Ricardo Frederick Evans
I reviewed Doorway Arts‘ world premiere of Allyson Currin‘s play Hercules in Russia for the Washington City Paper. Needs a rewrite, but I think it’s got plenty going for it and I’d like to see how it evolves in subsequent productions.
If you’re curious, Robert K. Massie‘s nonfiction book Nicholas and Alexandra, which helped inspire the play, is available via Google Books. Continue reading
Personally — and professionally, come to that — I had more fun with the imported comic illusionism of Elephant Room at Arena (“would look far more comfortable in some ramshackle, claustrophobic space, where its raw aesthetics and ironic sensibility might … Continue reading
Nick Dillenburg & Miriam Silverman, fine actors in a shaky production
Reviewed for the Washington City Paper.
Jon Langford's portrait of Hank Williams
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Tagged artisphere, Arts Desk, artwork, Jon Langford, mekons, Richard Byrne, theater, Waco Brothers, Washington City Paper
Holly Twyford is a wounded photojournalist (SCOTT SUCHMAN)
What I ran out of room to say in my Washington City Paper review is that the book the character played by Greg McFadden starts working on during his convalescence, an examination of the political subtext of horror cinema, sounds an awful lot like Shock Value, the one published by the New York Times’s Jason Zinoman – son of Studio Theater founder Joy Zinoman – last summer. Continue reading
Christian Conn and Erica Sullivan in VENUS IN FUR. (SCOTT SUCHMAN/Studio Theater)
What was the Number One Topic under consideration by DC theaters in 2011? Why, the theater, of course.
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Tagged Arena Stage, Bob Mondello, David Ives, David Muse, essays, Studio Theatre, theater, Trey Graham, Washington City Paper, Woolly Mammoth
Danny Scheie as Nero and Susannah Schulman as Poppaea. (SCOTT SUCHMAN/Arena Stage)
Or maybe it’s about how a bad upbringing can damage you beyond the reach of art’s rehabilitative prowess.
Or mediocre art’s rehabilitative . . . I’m still thinking about this, is the point. Which suggests Freed was successful, even if the ending is kind of a mess. Continue reading
Elvis Costello and the Spectacular Spinning Songbook at the Warner Theatre last night.
Surely you know all about Elvis Costello‘s fantastical, angle-free song-selecting device. I wrote about some of the lesser-known jams it chose for him to play at Warner Theatre last night.
In 2008, I wrote about Elvis’s first Warner Theatre gig in 1978. (I wasn’t there, but I’ve heard it.)
Dana Levanovsky, Mark Halpern, Stephanie Rosewell and Alexander Strain in Forum Theatre's MAD FOREST
My Washington City Paper review of Forum Theatre‘s production of Caryl Churchill‘s Mad Forest is here. Forum’s productions are always admirably ambitious, but this one largely failed to connect with me emotionally despite uniformly strong performances.
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Tagged Caryl Churchill, Forum Theatre, Romania, Washington City Paper
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