This hybrid of monologue and musical chronicles the life of Bessie Smith. Although Smith experienced troubled times in her life, THE DEVIL’S MUSIC is mostly upbeat—chock full of raunchy innuendo and humorously sexual dance moves. This makes for a perfectly lovely evening of theater…
View More THE DEVIL’S MUSIC (People’s Light): 60-second reviewCategory: Reviews
HANDS ACROSS VERONICA (Walking Fish/Nakedfeet): 60-second review
Lunging onto the stage with the gusto of 1000 aerobics classes, HANDS ACROSS VERONICA sets the tone for a high energy, neon fueled performance. A joint production of Walking Fish Theatre and Nakedfeet Productions, HANDS ACROSS VERONICA is primarily concerned with how women relate to food and deal with their body image,
View More HANDS ACROSS VERONICA (Walking Fish/Nakedfeet): 60-second reviewTRUE STORY (Passage): A Multi-Layered World-Premiere Whodunit
Though EM Lewis’s 80-minute thriller TRUE STORY pays homage to Raymond Chandler’s detective-story and film-noir tradition of the 1930s and ‘40s, the play offers a more current (cell-phone era) exploration of the genre. It combining the twists and turns of a gripping murder mystery with the profound human issues of coping with loss, assuming responsibility, the nature of truth, and the desire for justice. Passage Theatre Company’s world-premiere production, directed with wit and suspense by Damon Bonetti, succeeds in delivering all the surprises, humor, emotion, and psychology inherent in the script.
View More TRUE STORY (Passage): A Multi-Layered World-Premiere WhodunitMAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): A play not just about cake
Ten seconds into Murmuration’s inaugural production of Jessie Bear’s brand spankin’ new play, MAKESHIFT, Brian David Ratcliff, stands like a little boy by his lonesome on stage in what he describes as a devastated post-apocalyptic earth donning a royal blue super hero cape, goggles strapped to his head, holding a tape recorder up to his mouth declaring: “I, Michael Bolton will save the world.” I thought: “Wow, we are really on the edge of a cliff here, and Oops, I think we fell off into—I don’t know what.”
View More MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): A play not just about cakeADDRESS UNKNOWN (Meadowbrook Productions): Letters from the edge of history
Reading history is like watching a familiar play: the fascinating thing is that the characters don’t know what’s going to happen. But sometimes you come across a work of fiction written on the cusp of great historical events imbued with a clear sighted vision of how the epoch is unfolding. Adapted by Frank Dunlop from a 1938 novella by Kathrine Kressman Taylor, ADDRESS UNKNOWN is one such work.
View More ADDRESS UNKNOWN (Meadowbrook Productions): Letters from the edge of historyI AM MY OWN WIFE (Theatre Horizon): A story of perserverance
In Berlin in the wake of German reunification, American John Marks writes to his friend “Doug Wright” (I AM MY OWN WIFE’s playwright) about the eccentric Charlotte. Having “grown up gay in the Bible Belt”, Wright is fascinated by the transgender Berliner and spends grant money and savings to pay her a series of visits, hoping to turn his interviews into a play.
As related in act one of this short two-act piece, Charlotte’s tale fascinates Wright (and the Theatre Horizon audience).
View More I AM MY OWN WIFE (Theatre Horizon): A story of perserveranceTHE WOMAN IN BLACK: A GHOST PLAY (Act II): 60-second review
THE WOMAN IN BLACK: A GHOST PLAY is a cleverly constructed stage production by Stephen Mallatratt based on a novel by Susan Hill. It is a story within a story with Arthur Kipps (Dan Kern) seeking the assistance of an actor (Jered McLenigan) to tell his terrifying and sorrowful tale he’s compiled into a five hour manuscript. The actor encourages Kipps to tell the story through acting; the actor playing the role of Kipps and Kipps playing the roles of the people he encountered during his experiences.
View More THE WOMAN IN BLACK: A GHOST PLAY (Act II): 60-second reviewMAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): 60-second review
Strange games are afoot upstairs at Plays and Players. Not light or fun games, either—we’re talking full-on Don’t-talk-about-our-son-Martha! games here. Murmuration Theater’s new play MAKESHIFT throws us right into the middle of two different stories, and figures we’re smart enough to figure out what’s going on. The show doesn’t dole out much information, and when it does, it’s timed for maximum effect. Once you get enough to realize the show’s central conceit (which is quite nice, and unfolds so organically that I’d hate to spoil it), the earlier scenes come into better focus and make more sense.
View More MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): 60-second reviewTHE GARDEN (Nichole Canuso Dance Company): Offer your hand…
Six audience members isn’t an empty house; that’s the full load for Nichole Canuso Dance Company’s THE GARDEN. The basement below us is an expansive concrete stretch, a network of small rooms and squared pillars, and we’re sent down into a smallish room scattered with chairs. We’re invited to sit wherever we like.
View More THE GARDEN (Nichole Canuso Dance Company): Offer your hand…RFK (New City Stage): An American tragedy
Director Ginger Dayle and sound and video designer Ren Manley intersperse audio and visuals from the 1960s in New City Stage Company’s RFK, complementing Widdall’s powerful performance with a great soundtrack and contextualizing video clips. Following pre-show newsreels from JFK’s assassination, the play begins in 1964—eight months after the fateful day in Dallas.
View More RFK (New City Stage): An American tragedySTICK FLY (Arden): An inventive, relentlessly funny look at race and class
The immaculate Martha’s Vineyard home of the African American LeVay family is the set for Lydia R. Diamond’s STICK FLY at Arden Theatre Company. Plush sofas and pristine white cabinetry are the trappings around which the evening’s drama unfolds. The audience has a window into the kitchen, living room and porch where at times multiples scenes take place at complementary intervals; sometimes echoing their counterparts in the next room. The characters in the play are a complex set, all with different but overlapping backgrounds—some more than they realize.
View More STICK FLY (Arden): An inventive, relentlessly funny look at race and classNICE AND FRESH November (SmokeyScout): Get punched in the face by art at SmokeyScout Productions’ NICE AND FRESH
SmokeyScout is named after artistic director Josh McIlvain’s cats: Smokey and Scout. The program of the November NICE AND FRESH thanks them, along with Moving Arts of…
View More NICE AND FRESH November (SmokeyScout): Get punched in the face by art at SmokeyScout Productions’ NICE AND FRESHRevisiting New City Stage Company’s RFK
Since my original review of New City Stage Company’s stellar production of RFK in October 2012 (reprinted below), the show was featured in Washington, DC’s…
View More Revisiting New City Stage Company’s RFKTHE JERSEY DEVIL (Berserker Residents): 60-second review
The three troupe members of the FringeArts-famous Berserker Residents will do pretty much anything to get a good laugh out of the audience. Their recently…
View More THE JERSEY DEVIL (Berserker Residents): 60-second reviewSHE STOOPS TO CONQUER (Quintessence): A contemporary 18th-century comedy
SHE STOOPS is an 18th-century comedy of manners and mistaken identities by Oliver Goldsmith. It is considered by many to be the most enduring of…
View More SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER (Quintessence): A contemporary 18th-century comedyCOCK (Theatre Exile): Spatial choreography reveals isolation, influence, and alliances.
Here’s the setup: A young man has lived with his male lover for a few years. During a spat he falls for a woman. Things…
View More COCK (Theatre Exile): Spatial choreography reveals isolation, influence, and alliances.MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET (Plays & Players): 60-second review
Is life sweet when you live in the Louisiana Bayou before an unprecedented storm hits? For Marcus (Eric L. Fleming), life at 16 years of age…
View More MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET (Plays & Players): 60-second reviewCOCK (Theatre Exile): A Provocative Fight for Love and Identity
Finding love and self-knowledge beyond the fixed categories of sexual identity (gay, straight, or bi) is the central theme of Michael Bartlett’s COCK, now in…
View More COCK (Theatre Exile): A Provocative Fight for Love and IdentityWE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT (InterAct): Are You Black Enough?
Drury’s funny, traumatic, inventive and timely play will stab at you, personally, at least once. She asks whether it is important that a story be told, or if it is more important that it be told in a certain way. She uses the events in Namibia to illustrate the cracks in our own culture, the divides caused by racial issues even among a group of people who would probably all vote for the same candidate..
View More WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT (InterAct): Are You Black Enough?MACBETH (Hedgrow): An ambitious and effective take on the Scottish play
Director Dan Hodge does not mind imposing his vision upon a text. His bold decision to combine the Ariel and Miranda characters proved surprisingly effective.in…
View More MACBETH (Hedgrow): An ambitious and effective take on the Scottish play