Reviews

Review: The Spoof, The Whole Spoof, and Nothing but The Spoof at Hexagon

Reviews March 16, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

60 years is a very long time to be poking fun at politics and not have gotten arrested. In a form that is true to satire, where absolutely everybody leaves offended, Hexagon is proud to present their 60th Anniversary show: The Spoof, The Whole Spoof, and Nothing but The Spoof. As Washington’s only original political satirical musical comedy revue, Directed by Malcolm Edwards with Musical Direction by Brock Holmes, this zippy,

Review: Rumors at The Heritage Players

Reviews March 15, 2015 Lauren Beward

The Go-Go’s may have had their lips sealed, but The Heritage Players are letting theirs loose in their latest production of Neil Simon’s “Rumors.” Directed by Damien Gibbons, with Assistant Director Katie Sheldon, “Rumors” tells the story of a group of wealthy socialites who gather for the anniversary party of their good friend Charlie Brock, Deputy Mayor of New York, and his wife Myra. Unfortunately, the poor guests show up to find that Charlie has attempted suicide and Myra has gone missing.

Review: The Revelation of Bobby Pritchard at Iron Crow Theatre

Reviews March 15, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

There are some things that have to be said. Baltimore playwright Rich Espey is saying them loudly and clearly with his striking new drama The Revelation of Bobby Pritchard. Receiving its world premier at Iron Crow Theatre, this poignant life-altering play is a reckoning of the times; a true engagement of lifestyles juxtaposed against religious beliefs. Espey’s work will not be done justice in print and must be seen to be fully appreciated,

Review: 13 Dead Husbands at Cohesion Theatre Company

Reviews March 13, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s a little too fantastical to be true. A theatre company that sprouts up overnight on the side of Charm City where there’s no theatre, and then proceeds to do incredible work like the regional premier of 13 Dead Husbands. But it is true at Cohesion Theatre Company where they are launching the Tom Horan absurdist fairytale. Meet Deedee, the world’s most beautiful woman, and her 12 dead husbands,

Review: Doctor Caligari at Pointless Theatre

Reviews March 12, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Ladies and Gentlemen! Step Right up! Witness the marvelous morose, the wondrous strange, the nightmares that inspire ephemeral fantasticality! Pointless Theatre presents an honest theatrical masterpiece with their production of Doctor Caligari, a devised theatrical ensemble extravaganza that entrances the mind, stimulates the senses, and shakes the core of reality in a surreal and fascinating fashion. Directed by Matt Reckeweg, this homage to the 1920 German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr.

Review: Time Stands Still at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

Reviews March 11, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

The camera is there to record life, not change it. A startling fact of life when dealing with war-torn unsettled countries; but in all facets of life, whether it is war or theatre, are not our recordings merely meant to document the ephemeral rather than shift the outcome? Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions presents Pulitzer Prize-Winning playwright Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still; a compelling drama that investigates the purpose and conflicts that arise from living the life of the observer in a world of terror.

Review: Spamalot at Silhouette Stages

Reviews March 7, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Life is really up to you, you must choose what to pursue! Set your mind on what to find and you’ll find an epically entertaining production of Monty Python’s Spamalot at Silhouette Stages in Columbia. Directed by Debbie Mobley and Conni Ross, with Musical Direction by Michael Tan, the humor of Monty Python, Book and Lyrics of Eric Idle, and Music of John Du Prez come shining through to the brighter side of life on the narrow stage of Slayton House.

Review: Sunset Boulevard at Reston Community Players

Reviews March 4, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

It’s magic in the making over at Reston Community Players as they teach the world new ways to dream with their production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard. With Book and Lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton based on the film by Billy Wilder, the tragic story of Norma Desmond is played out in vivid vibrant life with a score by one of Broadway’s longest running composers. There is intrigue,

Review: The Beauty Queen of Leenane at Spotlighters Theatre

Reviews March 4, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Aye, if ye be in the mood for a poitìn bit o’ good theatre, ‘specially the dark and funny like— now mind you, not the haha out loud sort o’ funny, but the ‘oh…’ sort o’ funny— then The Spotlighters is the place to be goin’. Though bundle up, ye’ll be needin’ th’ heat once ya’ get there. Despite several setbacks, the Martin McDonagh black comedy The Beauty Queen of Leenane carries on upon the stage-in-the-square with a vigorous shake that’ll light a fire in your belly.

Review: 33 Variations at Silver Spring Stage

Reviews February 28, 2015 Patrick Albright

The past and the present collide very graciously on the Silver Spring Stage with a remarkable presentation of Moises Kaufman’s 33 Variations. The production effectively twists a gap of almost 200 years together, showing that emotions and life situations don’t change all that much through time. The play is a fictional piece inspired by Ludwig Van Beethoven’s work. It takes place in two time periods; the present, and the later part of Beethoven’s career in 1819-1822.

Review: Rabbit Hole at The Vagabond Players

Reviews February 28, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

People want things to make sense. People need things to make sense, especially when the universe upends all logic and forces grief upon life through loss. A poignant and evocative drama written by David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole examines loss and more importantly coping and moving forward with loss in a world that no longer makes sense to those that have suffered. Directed by Eric C. Stein, this Vagabond Players production hits the mark in taking a myopically focused drama and making it readily available for everyone who has suffered loss in their life.

Review: Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp at The Puppet Company

Reviews February 21, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

The Puppet Company in Glen Echo will show you a world; shining, shimmering, splendid! Their production of Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp is a truly unique and magical experience for young audiences. Working brilliantly with hand-crafted rod-puppets, Company Co-Founder Christopher Piper Directs and performs in this enchanted fairytale written by Vera C. Hughes and Allan Stevens. Sticking closely to the original story as featured in 1001 Nights,

Review: Spamalot at The Milburn Stone Theatre

Reviews February 21, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

God, the all-knowing, has misplaced a cup and has tasked King Arthur of Camelot, along with his rag-tag bunch of British knights, to find it. As it turns out, it’s hiding at the Milburn Stone Theatre way up in North East Maryland. Look no further on this quest for grails, Broadway shows, and knights who say “Ni” as Monty Python’s Spamalot has been found. Directed by S. Lee Lewis with Musical Direction by Shane Jensen,

Review: Bucket of Blood at The Yellow Sign Theatre

Reviews February 20, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Life is an obscure hobo bumming a ride on the omnibus of art. But what makes art? And who determines what is art? The artist makes the art and the critics determine if it is actually art or not; or so I’m told. The Yellow Sign Theatre is making art of a bold and bloody variety. In this darkly unsettling, albeit humorous, stage adaptation of Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood,

Review: Shrek at The Suburban Players

Reviews February 17, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Let your freak flag wave! Let your freak flag fly! And it’s waving high and proud over at the St. Demetrio’s Suburban Players as they celebrate their 40th season with a production of Shrek the musical! Directed by John Desmone, this fairytale masterpiece has a happy ending for everyone who comes to see it. A truly remarkable production, the Suburban Players are getting their happily ever after on and it’s a giddy delight.

Review: The Arsonists at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Reviews February 16, 2015 Joshua Engel

Maryland Ensemble Theatre picks up in the back half of their 2014/201g season with a fiery smart and dark comedy. The Arsonists is Max Frisch’s satirical look at the banality of evil. Directed by Gerard Stropnicky, the new translation by Alistair Beaton is sure to light a fuse of laughter through the audience with its twisted elements of absurdism. Intent on proving how simple it is for human beings to be manipulated into bringing about their own destruction,

Review: Cherokee at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Reviews February 15, 2015 Betsy Marks Delaney

We sometimes think we visit our souls when we enter a museum, take a stroll on a beach, or walk through a forest. We search for a key to connecting with our roots or with reality when we take that drive-by study of unfamiliar culture or lifestyle. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company‘s new world premiere work, Cherokee by Obie Award-Winning playwright Lisa D’Amour, directed by John Vreeke, seeks to expose the subtext beneath those superficial whims that drive us to seek that connection.

Review: The Addams Family at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Reviews February 14, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Full Disclosure: The Addams Family has risen up from the shadows and gloom and descended upon the stage of Toby’s Dinner Theatre. This wickedly entertaining new musical comedy is making its regional premier in the round; a tour de force of hilarious comedy, intoxicating dancing, and the creepiest of kooks all on one stage! Directed and Choreographed by Mark Minnick, with Musical Direction by Ross Scott Rawlings, this charming, feel-good family fun musical is a tremendous success with extraordinary talent to be enjoyed all evening long.

Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Kensington Arts Theatre

Reviews February 13, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Sensational— adj. “extraordinarily good; conspicuously excellent; phenomenal.” The latest production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Kensington Arts Theatre is sensational. S-E-N-S-A-T-I-O-N-A-L. Truly a gift to the musical theatre performance genre, this highly engaging and entertaining musical, with Music and Lyrics by William Finn and Book by Rachel Sheinkin, will put a smile on the audience’s faces. A delightfully comic and touching fun show, this audience-interactive and fully immersive experience is one of the best to cross their stages and an excellent representation of the impressive talent and concepts that are conceived in community theatre.

Review: Boeing, Boeing at Montgomery Playhouse

Reviews February 11, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Attention all passengers: Arts Barn Airline would like to welcome you aboard flight Montgomery Playhouse 1969. Boarding now through the main stage boarding gate, this flight’s final destination is Paris. The in-flight entertainment will feature the uproarious farcical comedy Boeing, Boeing. Your flight’s Captain, Lisa Holland, ensures a roaring good time will be had by all throughout the duration of the flight. Please ensure to remain seated for the duration of the flight,

Review: The Metromaniacs at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Reviews February 11, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

A call has been issued throughout Washington DC to all the dames and dandies

Grab your tickets, get your seats; don’t forget your drinks and candies

A troupe of actors, performers in tights, as you’ll read here on this page

Perform for you an evening’s comedy; they shall traipse across the stage.

Shakespeare Theatre Company, running David Ives’s new comic jewel

The Metromaniacs,

Review: Ruined at Everyman Theatre

Reviews February 9, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

The door never closes at Mama’s Place. Everyman Theatre is holding that door wide open as the 2015 New Year starts. Entering the back end of their 2014/2015 with Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, Everyman brings to the stage the harrowing and haunting tale of life in a small town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where civil war is eminent, every man is danger, and the palm wine and the dancing are the only things that chase away the horrors of reality.

Review: Other Desert Cities at Highwood Theatre

Reviews February 8, 2015 WDL WDL

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that exceptional theatre doesn’t have to have to be a spectacle of lights, effects and sound. Sometimes exceptional theatre can happen on a tiny stage in a black box style theatre in an unassuming storefront. Such is the case with The Highwood Theatre’s current production of the drama Other Dessert Cities by John Robin Baitz and Directed by Ryan Gunning.

Set against the hot,

Review: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! at Epic Productions Inc.

Reviews February 6, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Love is a delicious and vicious act. And it is devouring up its audience over in Little Italy. Hilarity never landed so well as it does with the inaugural production of a brand new company called Epic Productions Inc. Their debut show, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, is an uproarious hoot; a musical comedy that showcases the dysfunctions of love and marriage through a series of hilarious anecdotes and hysterical songs.

Review: The Symposium at Sudden Satyrs

Reviews February 5, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Come, blessed deities, share our minds on the thoughts and praises of love. Experience Plato the way he was meant to be experienced; in a 70’s style conversation pit. The love nest is open, so to speak, as Agathon invites the whole of Athens into his home for a celebratory dinner and wine party wherein the finer points of love may be discussed among good learned men. Sudden Satyrs, an ephemeral production company that may be swept in and out of Baltimore with the change of seasons,

Review: Dunsinane at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Reviews February 4, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Be very, very careful about the way in which you hear and use words. It can be the key to understanding victory or misinterpreting failure in battle. And a battle of epic proportions is what the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC has set out to display with their national premier of the National Theatre of Scotland and The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Dunsinane. A thrillingly dramatic sequel to one of the Bard’s bloodiest tragedies,

Review: Disney’s Mulan Jr. at Pumpkin Theatre

Reviews February 3, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Let’s get down to business! We’ll defeat the Huns! But only if we band together and write our own destiny! Pumpkin Theatre is doing exactly that with their second annual “For-Kids-By-Kids” production. This time it’s Disney’s Mulan Jr. coming to the stage with all the wonderful things a Disney musical entails. Directed by Erin Confair, with Music and Lyrics by Matthew Wilder, David Zippel, Stephen Schwartz, Jeanine Tesori, and Alexa Junge, this children’s adaptation of the classic film brings honor to all at Pumpkin Theatre.

Review: Gigi at The Kennedy Center

Reviews January 30, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

The night The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts welcomed Gigi, the stars came out to shine! Thank heaven Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, the clever masters of Book & Lyrics and Music respectively, have found their way to a stage adaptation through Heidi Thomas and the iconic film classic known as Gigi has made its pre-Broadway engagement in Washington DC! Directed by Eric Schaeffer with Musical Direction by James Moore,

Review: The Widow Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre

Reviews January 29, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Who is dead in the White House? A haunting question that repeats itself in the grief-stricken mind of a recently widowed first lady. Commemorating the 150th year since President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Ford’s Theatre has commissioned a work that captures the essence of the aftermath as told through the eyes of the eyes of Mary Todd Lincoln. Written by James Still and Directed by Stephen Rayne, this powerfully evocative drama enchants the audience into a surrealistic world of grief and mourning;

Review: August: Osage County at Milburn Stone Theatre

Reviews January 24, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Life is very long. Incidentally Tracey Letts’ work August: Osage County only takes up roughly three hours of said life as it is trafficked across the Milburn Stone Theatre stage this winter season. Directed by S. Lee Lewis, Letts’ compelling familial drama addresses afflictions and ailments to the dysfunctional degree of existence. It’s not a party until something gets spilled and family secrets are spilling out all over the place in this poignant timely production.