Norfolk Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

BWW Review: STRAIGHT WHITE MEN at Conciliation Lab
by Susan Haubenstock - December 06, 2021

Young Jean Lee's 2014 play made it to Broadway in 2018 and now afflicts the comfortable at Conciliation Lab....

BWW Review: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY at Virginia Repertory Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - December 06, 2021

A sweet and sentimental Christmas play geared to fans of the classic movie...

BWW Review: WINTER WONDERETTES at Swift Creek Mill Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - November 24, 2021

This crowd-pleaser is lightweight, fizzy fun—maybe not so much Champagne as sweet sparkling cider, but effervescent nonetheless....

BWW Review: SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS at The Illuminated Stage Company
by Susan Haubenstock - November 30, 2021

Michael and Lily are an odd couple--they irritate each other, but this play's familiar plot signals that they'll be great friends....

BWW Review: A CHRISTMAS KADDISH at Richmond Triangle Players
by Susan Haubenstock - November 22, 2021

For a change of pace, Richmond Triangle Players’ holiday offering is an original musical, “A Christmas Kaddish.” Using flashback elements from seasonal favorites like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Carol,” the show takes an unusually serious look at life, death and love....

BWW Review: PIPELINE at Virginia Rep
by Susan Haubenstock - October 26, 2021

Dominique Morisseau's 2019 play--one of the most-produced plays of that year--hurls the audience into the emotions that surface when schoolteacher Nya's son Omari is threatened with being diverted from his private boarding school into the notorious school-to-prison pipeline....

BWW Review: THE NICETIES at The Conciliation Lab
by Susan Haubenstock - October 03, 2021

'The Niceties' is Eleanor Burgess's 2018 drama in which a white professor and a Black undergraduate argue over provocative issues of race and history--an excellent choice for The Conciliation Lab's season opener....

BWW Review: WAR IN PIECES at Firehouse Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - September 30, 2021

Firehouse Theatre presents a program of four world-premiere one-act plays written by military veterans, taken from their lives in service in different eras....

BWW Review: VINCENT RIVER at Richmond Triangle Players
by Susan Haubenstock - September 28, 2021

Philip Ridley's emotional two-character play confronts homophobia and searing loss....

BWW Review: EVERY BRILLIANT THING at Illuminated Stage Theatre Company
by Susan Haubenstock - September 20, 2021

Perkinson Center for the Arts and Education presents Illuminated Stage Theatre Company's one-actor play, showcasing the new facility...

BWW Review: I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE at Swift Creek Mill Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - September 20, 2021

The 1995 revue 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change' was to open four days before quarantine shuttered Swift Creek Mill Theatre in 2020, but it's the season opener for 2021....

BWW Review: THE PINK UNICORN at Richmond Triangle Players
by Susan Haubenstock - August 12, 2021

Marie Lucas gives a lovely performance as the devoted mother of a genderqueer youth...

BWW Review: THE BOTTOM SHOW at Quill Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - July 20, 2021

In true repertory fashion, nine of the ten actors who perform Quill's 'Twelfth Night' are also presenting 'The Bottom Show,' featuring the rude (in this case, very rude) mechanicals from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'....

BWW Review: TWELFTH NIGHT at Quill Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - July 12, 2021

The reliable Shakespeare comedy is half of a summer repertory season, with a company of ten actors rotating between two plays....

BWW Review: ELLA AND HER FELLA FRANK at Virginia Repertory Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - July 12, 2021

Richmond favorites Desiree Roots and Scott Wichmann, as Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, swing audiences through a delightful selection of beloved songs....

BWW Review: WALLED IN at Firehouse Theatre
by Susan Haubenstock - June 15, 2021

Richmond's Firehouse Theatre, which has presented live theater throughout the pandemic, now presents the world premiere of 'Walled In,' with material from Thoreau's 'Walden'...

BWW Review: 4000 DAYS at Richmond Triangle Players
by Susan Haubenstock - May 03, 2021

Richmond Triangle Players has had occasional live productions going through the pandemic, but its new '4000 Days' is the first in-person show for many newly vaccinated theatergoers. The socially distanced, masked patrons in the audience seemed happy to be in a theater at all, but '4000 Days' is only...