Articles Tagged With: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Alexander Matrosov, Peter Rykov, Alexander Arsentyev in Measure for Measure

Measure For Measure at The Kennedy Center

Reviews October 11, 2018 John Nunemaker

Raw emotions and a powerhouse of a production on display!

The 2018-2019 World Stages season opens with Measure for Measure, produced by Cheek by Jowl and the Pushkin Theatre Moscow, a production filled with raw emotions and powerful performances. This production is superbly directed by Declan Donnellan and extraordinarily designed by Nick Ormerod. In the politically charged atmosphere that we are currently living in, this timeless piece is presented in such a relatable,

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.

Hamilton at The Kennedy Center

Reviews June 18, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

There are moments that the words don’t reach. Seeing the musical sensation that’s sweeping the nation with its razzle-dazzle rhyme in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s prime is supposed to be one of them, and not just one of them, but the biggest one of them, all the people coast to coast begging for the musical with the most finally have their shot— and they are not throwing away their shot— not this summer— because Hamilton has arrived.

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,

Digging Up Dessa at The Kennedy Center

Reviews February 8, 2018 Amanda N. Gunther

“History is the domain of rich, white men, who as a breed, are allergic to change.” Who said it? Her name is: MARY ANNING! MARY ANNING! She knows what it is like when the world won’t acknowledge you. But the universe is impartial, the universe does not care. It’s the people that populate the universe that are not impartial, the people that care. So what do you do when the people won’t acknowledge you?

The Humans at The Kennedy Center

Reviews January 18, 2018 Mark Briner

Be it Christmas, Thanksgiving, Passover, or Festivus, the family convening for an annual anticipated holiday ritual that begins with good intentions, love, and thanks for all those gathering, but will inevitably devolve into a miserable airing of deeply-buried, lifelong grievances is one of the most tired and overused tropes in the cannon of American theatrical comedy or drama. When creativity comes to a halt, have a family dinner to force the blowup. Steven Karam’s 2016 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning The Humans,

On Your Feet! at The Kennedy Center

Reviews January 18, 2018 Spencer Nelson

Cold winter blues got you down? Feeling the urge to “shake it” but don’t have a good beat? Would you like to experience a range of emotions, but ultimately leave happy and dancing your way to your car? Wonderful! The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has just the cure for you! Right now in their Opera House you can go feel the rhythm of On Your Feet! The Emilio and Gloria Estefan Broadway Musical.

The Illusionists at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 28, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Are you ready to witness the next generation of magic? Forget card tricks as you know them, and illusions as you’ve come to see them…or not see them…as the case may be. Returning to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, direct from Broadway with a whole new routine and series of new magicians, The Illusionists will razzle you, dazzle you, and perform mind-blowing defeats of magic that simply must be seen to be believed!

An American in Paris at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 18, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

When you think of Paris, what comes to mind? Is it the irresistible city of lights? Parisian art? The people? All of those miraculous, wondrous, lively attributes that radiate from the cultural capital of France are what vividly and readily come to mind. But what about when the city of light was darkened by the days of war? When Nazi occupation dimmed even the brightest bulbs of creativity? In the stellar screen-to-stage adaptation inspired by the motion picture,

Twist Your Dickens at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 11, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

God bless you, theatre patrons of DC. You’ve been blessed that for another year, The Second City’s Twist Your Dickens is bringing tiding of holiday hilarity to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts! Appearing now through New Year’s Eve in the Theatre Lab, this uproarious mishmosh of Dickensian tomfoolery and modernity will have you splitting seams as you chuckle with Christmas cheer all through the nonsensical two hours of silliness they traffic across the stage.

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,

Me…Jane at The Kennedy Center

Reviews November 21, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Animals, animals, animals, animals. Animals, Animals, Animals, Animals. ANIMALS, ANIMALS, ANIMALS, ANIMALS! It’s all about those animals, well, actually, you see, it’s all about those wild and incredible animals that Jane Goodall will spend her life researching and understanding as she evolves into being a Naturalist. But first she’s got to eat her breakfast! Bring the whole family for a fun and thrilling adventurous musical all about young Jane Goodall, who would later in life grow to be one of the world’s most renowned Naturalists,

The Book of Mormon appearing live now at The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts

The Book of Mormon at The Kennedy Center

Reviews October 27, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Ding Dong! Hello! My name is Elder Gunther and I would like to share with you— the most amazing musical. Ding Dong! Hello! My name is Elder Bloom; it’s a musical about America a long, long time ago— dating all the way back to 2011! It has so many awesome parts you won’t believe how much this musical can change your life! Ding Dong! Hello— we’re all going to die someday,

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,

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.

The Company of Peter Brook's Battlefield

Battlefield at The Kennedy Center

Reviews March 30, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

To hell with the state of humanity. Peaceful Mother Earth has tired of the war men wage upon her surface; she has revolted, leaving the bloodied carcasses of mankind as the only spoils of a bloody, bloody war. Appearing as a part of the Spotlight on Directors Series, Peter Brook’s evocative work Battlefield is an hour’s exploration of the human condition when faced with the one thing no man can escape: destiny.

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.

The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family at The Kennedy Center

Reviews January 10, 2017 Amanda N. Gunther

Don’t write words; try to write people. Playwright Richard Nelson has written people— six ordinary people whose lives are no different from our own, whose stories are the same as our stories— and in writing these people, has taken everyday life, ordinary existences, captured them and made them extraordinary. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents The Public Theatre production of The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family.

Review: Wicked at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 16, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Fellow Washingtonians! Let us be glad! Let us be grateful! Let us rejoicify that the city has brought onto you— the wicked workings of you know who! (Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, that’s who!) Isn’t it nice to know, that good has come to DC, in the form of the Tony Award-Winning musical Wicked just in time for the holidays? And you will mourn for Wicked if you miss your chance to experience the national tour as it drops into the Opera House of The John F.

Twist Your Dickens_Photo by Theresa Castracane

Review: Twist Your Dickens at The Kennedy Center

Reviews December 16, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

There’s going to be some haunting as they terrify a miser, but hopefully by the end, everyone will leave just a wee bit wiser! If not wiser, most definitely lighter of heart and happier of spirit as The Second City presents Twist Your Dickens in the Theater Lab of The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. With stick-to-your-ribs, feel-good comedy, this brilliant bastardization of Dickens’ iconic Christmas Carol and a Saturday Night Live style sketch comedy show is high-octane hilarity achieving its holiday heights just in time for Christmas.

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 Phantom of the Opera at The Kennedy Center

Reviews July 23, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

Masquerade! Paper faces on parade, masquerade…take your fill let the spectacle astound you. In the newly reimagined touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, spectacle is the one thing the show does not seem to shy away from. Directed by Laurence Connor, with Choreography by Scott Ambler, this newly approached production attempts to drive at the heart of Webber’s story, based on the novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux.

Behind the Mask: An Interview with Phantom of the Opera’s Julia Udine & Storm Lineberger

Interviews July 14, 2016 Amanda N. Gunther

In sleep it sang to me, in dreams it came— dream no further for The Phantom of the Opera has arrived at last on the Opera House stage of The John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center for a six-week summer engagement. In a TheatreBloom exclusive interview, we have taken a moment to talk with Storm Lineberger and Julia Udine, playing Raoul, Vicomte de Changy and Christine Daae respectively, about the Phantom experience.

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.