Articles Tagged With: The Eisenhower Theatre

Nine at The Kennedy Center

Reviews August 5, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

The answer that you’re after is the music lights and laughter— and they’ve got it— all you have to do is… be Italian! Well, not even that, just get your tickets to Nine now appearing in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a part of the Broadway Center Stage series. Directed and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler with Musical Direction by Lily Ling, this visceral and evocative musical exploration of one man’s existence and his perceived madness of the women that create,

The cast of Girl From the North Country ???? Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade

Girl From The North Country at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 16, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Inspiration comes in dreams. Or maybe the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. Be it fever dream or disjointed wind that blows you into The Kennedy Center this December holiday season, you’re in for something a bit unusual when it comes to the National Touring production of Girl From the North Country. Now playing in The Eisenhower Theatre through new year’s eve, this ‘jukebox musical’ (and I use that term very,

The Play That Goes Wrong ???? Jeremy Daniel

The Play That Goes Wrong at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 22, 2023 Steven Kirkpatrick

“When going to see The Murder at Haversham Manor at the Kennedy Center, presented by the Cornley University Drama Society (as made possible by the British-American Cultural Exchange Program), I was expecting an elevated evening of mystery with fine acting and a dazzling script. I confess that I loved what I saw, though what I saw was perhaps not what the playwright had intended. To say that there was a misfortunate moment or two in the production would be putting it mildly,

The National Tour Cast of 1776. ???? Joan Marcus

1776 at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 4, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

Is anybody there? Does anybody care? That certainly seems to echo the sentiments of our country at present where large groups of people are concerned. When the Founding Fathers of this infantile country set out to free themselves from the tyranny of King George and the mighty English Empire… well, what we’ve got here in 2023? I’m sure they never could have dreamed of this. The story is history, that much is true.

A Soldier’s Play at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 17, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“Any man ain’t sure where he belongs must be in a whole lotta pain.”

“War! Huh, (good God), What is it good for?” Well, that’s a loaded question for another day. But back in 1944 on a segregated southern Louisiana Army Base, the promise of deployment to the battle front is a dream for many of our young characters of color that yearn for a chance of serving their country, and perhaps getting the chance to see a part of the world that doesn’t follow Jim Crow laws.

Freestyle Love Supreme at The Kennedy Center

Reviews May 12, 2022 Charles Boyington

In name and beyond, FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME pays homage to John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” with a nod to musical roots in jazz, soul, blues, and hip hop.

Improvisation games are a standard part of theatre and music. Not all theater has improvisation nor do all forms of music but they can be great training tools and occasionally create something that is performance worthy. The key to creating really good improvised performances is a set of rules and a set routine,

Heidi Schreck in What The Constitution Means to Me. Photo: Joan Marcus

What The Constitution Means To Me at The Kennedy Center

Reviews September 15, 2019 Mark Briner

Like the play being revieweditself,
this review is by necessity going to be different. No cute opening paragraph.
No clever parallels. No history lesson to set the stage. Let me start right out
by saying that in 2019, this play couldn’t be more important. After two
off-Broadway incarnations and a Tony-nominated Broadway debut last spring
(winning the Obie Award for best new American play, the New York Drama Critic’s
Circle for best American play, and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for best new
play as well as a Pulitzer nomination along the way),

Dear Evan Hansen at The Kennedy Center

Reviews August 14, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Dear Washington DC,

Today is going to be a good day and here’s why:

#youwillbefound

Dear Evan Hansen has arrived for a limited-run
engagement at The John F. Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts just as summer
comes to an end. This Tony Award-Winning musical has stunning emotional impact
and will take your breath away with its poignancy and overall relevance to
everyone from every walk of life,

The Band’s Visit at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 14, 2019 Amanda N. Gunther

Once, not long ago, a group of musicians came from Broadway
to The Kennedy Center— but you will hear about this as it is pretty important.
The Tony Award-winning musical The Band’s Visit comes to the Eisenhower
Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts this summer, with
Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek and Book by Itamar Moses, the poignant and
striking tale of two cultures meeting by mistake is brilliant and relevant in
today’s ever-changing,

The Who’s Tommy at The Kennedy Center

Reviews April 28, 2019 Mark Briner

After two solid seasons, it’s
established that the Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage series is a major
component of the Baltimore/DC theatrical landscape. Acquiring first rate
Broadway and Hollywood talent in intensely-assembled one week runs of home-grown
musicals in “concert” form that frankly rival and even exceed many current
national touring productions has brought unique, exciting new possibilities for
musical theatre to our region. They have given us superior mountings of
classics like How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and The
Music Man.

Lila Coogan (center) as Anya in the National Tour of Anastasia

Anastasia at The Kennedy Center

Reviews November 5, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Have you heard? There’s a rumor that St. Petersburg— is coming straight to Washington D.C.! No longer far away or long ago, glowing brighter than an ember, it’s here to see, a breathtaking show, one you will always remember… Anastasia— a wintery wondrous fairytale arriving in time for the Thanksgiving season now on the Eisenhower stage of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Commissioned by Dmitry Bogachev, with Book by Terrence McNally and Music &

Carla R. Stewart (left) as Shug Avery and Adrianna hicks (right) as Celie in The National Tour of The Color Purple

The Color Purple at The Kennedy Center

Reviews August 3, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Hey, sister, whatcha gon’ do? Goin’ down by the Potomac River, gonna see The Color Purple with you. In a striking reimagination of the iconic novel turned film turned stage musical, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts proudly presents The Color Purple, a Menier Chocolate Factory Production. Directed and Conceptualized by John Doyle, with Musical Direction and Pit Conduction by Darryl Archibald, this stunning story is reinvented with simplicity at its aesthetic core,

Ain’t Too Proud at The Kennedy Center

Reviews June 30, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

You can achieve many successes in the music industry. You can climb to the top, you can enjoy the view from the top once you get there, but to be the top? There’s only group in the history of rhythm & blues that has been touted continually, through to this very moment, as the best group in the entire history of rhythm & blues: The Temptations didn’t climb to the top they became the top.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at The Kennedy Center

Reviews June 8, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Well it’s been a long— been a long— been a long— been a long time…since How To Succeed in Business Without Really trying has seen boards the likes of a Broadway-style stage. Six years may not seem that long ago to some, when Harry Potter film legend Daniel Radcliffe teamed up with Emmy-star John Larroquette as the big-name duo starring in the 2012 Broadway revival. Landing in The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre as a part of the 2017/2018 Broadway Center Stage Concert Series initiative,

Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet at The Kennedy Center

Reviews May 5, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

Words, words, words. Not to read, but to hear, and Shakespeare did write so many of them, five act’s worth for arguably his most infamous tragedy, Hamlet. Appearing now as a limited engagement, the Royal Shakespeare Company brings their evocative conflagration of a production to The Eisenhower Theatre inside The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Directed by Simon Godwin, this spellbinding, razor’s edge modernity casts new light on the Bard’s most treasured tragedy,

Chess at The Kennedy Center

Reviews February 16, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

2018: the entire world— of Washington DC— is on high alert. No one can deny these are difficult times, especially if you’re trying to snag a ticket into the pre-Broadway trial engagement of Chess now appearing at The Kennedy Center for its limited five-day run. With a new book by Danny Strong, the musical— originally conceived by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus— is more potent than ever in its political charge,

Nicholas Hayes (center left) and Joanne Evans (center) right in Gobsmacked!

Gobsmacked at The Kennedy Center

Reviews November 25, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Gobsmacked! By the rhythm of you! Gobsmacked! By what they can do! Mind blown! How do I react? Silenced by the impact! All true statements when it comes to the high-octane explosive acapella performance happening in The Eisenhower Theatre this weekend at The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Direct from London and led by the ferociously tenacious and fearlessly flawless beat-boxing legend, Ball-Zee— GOBSMACKED lands in time to pump up the volume,

The King & I at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 28, 2017 Mark Briner

A theatrically inclined, over the top leader is called upon the carpet by a strong, oppositional feminist for policies that are alternately deemed sexist, racist, tyrannical, oppressive, and a throwback to less enlightened times as their country struggles to enter a new era of ideology under the watchful eyes of the rest of the free world. No, this is not this week’s headline at The Huffington Post, but the underlying dilemma at The Kennedy Center in Washington,

Cabaret at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 17, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play. Life is a cabaret, old chum! Come to the Cabaret! The Roundabout Theatre Company is pleased to give to you— and be sure to give it back when you’re finished with it— Kander and Ebb’s stunning Cabaret. Directed by BT McNicholl, this production is showing the nation’s capital that life is beautiful, the girls are beautiful,

Hedwig and The Angry Inch at The Kennedy Center

Reviews June 16, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

To walk away you have to leave something behind. Be prepared to leave your judgements behind as you walk away from mainstream life and step into the glory, the glamour and pure wonderment that is Hedwig and The Angry Inch now appearing in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts this summer of 2017. Directed by Michael Mayer, with Musical Staging by Spencer Liff and Musical Direction by Justin Craig,

Not Throwing Away Their Shot: The Kennedy Center announces their 2017/2018 Theatre Season

News April 24, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Not throwing away their shot— no! Not throwing away their shot— whoa! The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts announced what the world of Washington DC theatergoers has been waiting to hear for months now: their official schedule for the upcoming 2017/2018 season, which of course includes the ever-coveted, infamous Broadway touring production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. Storming Broadway, the nation, and the world with its wonders, the incomparable musical sensation of the 2010’s will be making an extended 14-week stay in the Opera House theatre during the summer of 2018— all but concluding the 2017/2018 theatre season for The Kennedy Center.

Teatro El Público: Antigonón, un contingente épico

Antigonón, un contingente épico at The Kennedy Center

Reviews March 22, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

There is time for everything in this life. There is even time to believe. Find the time to put your belief in Alicia Adams the current curator of the Spotlight on Directors series now debuting at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Adams, who is the Vice President of International Programming and Dance, has brought together a series of theatrical features to appear in this festival-style collection, with each running just a few performances in and out of the various houses of The Kennedy Center in the months of March and April.

Laurie Veldheer as Cinderella in Into The Woods. Photo by Joan Marcus

Review: Into the Woods at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 11, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther 1 Comment

Oh, if life were made of moments— even now and then a bad one! But if life were only moments? Then you’d never know you’d had one! And have one you shall, providing you take a moment to see The Fiasco Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods appears for but a moment— until January 8, 2017— on the Eisenhower Theatre stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

(L to R) Catherine Combs as Catherine, Dave Register as Rodolpho, Alex Esola as Marco, and Frederick Weller as Eddie

Review: A View From the Bridge at The Kennedy Center

Reviews November 23, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

All the law is not in a book, and perhaps the oldest law of them all— that blood runs thicker than water— is what Arthur Miller truly meant to showcase in his riveting drama, A View from the Bridge. Or perhaps it was the notion of betrayal and justice that he was harping upon in this masterful classic, topics much too close to home in the present day political climate in Washington DC.

Review: The Merchant of Venice at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 28, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Hold the world but as the world, where every man must play a part. The actor his character, the characters their plots, and to you— dear audience— the part of enchanted for an evening’s merriment and mirth masked in the enthralling guise of the Bard’s tragicomedy The Merchant of Venice. For a whirlwind three performance engagement in The Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Shakespeare’s Globe on Tour doth set down this remarkable expression of performance before the eager eyes of an audience.

Review: The Bridges of Madison County at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 6, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Striking and inspiring beauty isn’t just in the covered-bridge landscape of Winterset, Iowa. It’s possessed wholeheartedly in the stellar music of Jason Robert Brown’s The Bridges of Madison County musical, now appearing live on stage in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Based on the novel by Robert James Waller with Book by Marsha Norman, Brown’s stunning score of the heart-melting and utterly emotionally mesmerizing love story is populated with bittersweet poignancy and the closest thing to true American Opera the stage has heard since the 80’s.

Review: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at The Kennedy Center

Reviews January 16, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Blood may spill and spines may chill but that’s not a good enough excuse to skip town during the run of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder now appearing live— until poisoned, pushed, dispatched or otherwise— in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Based on the novel by Roy Horniman, with Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and Music and Lyrics by Steven Lutvak,

Review: Bright Star at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 21, 2015 Amanda N. Gunther

Trouble and happiness tend to walk hand in hand because liars sometimes make good story tellers. Making its pre-Broadway debut with a whole lot of trouble, happiness, and one hell of a good story, Bright Star, premieres in the Eisenhower Theatre of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts this holiday season and sets the soul ablaze with a backwoods tale of love and truth in a time the world has nearly forgotten.