Washington, DC Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 30

BWW Review: An Act of God at NextStop Theatre Company
by Timothy Treanor - August 23, 2021

Is it time to hold God (inhabiting the body of Jacob Yeh) to account?  God knows – forgive the reference – we have occasion to do so.  Even as we hunker, masked, vaccinated and socially distant, within the confines of NextStop Theatre Company, we add more counts to our indictment – a terrible diseas...

BWW Review: Spooky Action Theater's THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND
by Timothy Treanor - August 20, 2021

How could you not love a play about theater critics? Especially where, as in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound, now available in virtual format through Spooky Action Theater’s website, the critics are pompous, abrasive and criminally uninformed. Moon (Robert Bowen Smith) and Birdboot (Steve Be...

BWW Review: MOON MAN WALK at Constellation Theatre is a Wonderful Re-entry to In-Person Theater
by Pamela Roberts - August 18, 2021

Constellation Theatre welcomes audiences back to in-person performances with MOON MAN WALK, a sweet, funny, tender meditation on love, connection, and the people in our lives we need to get by. MOON MAN WALK brings together a gifted cast, beautiful scenic elements, and deep and endearing storytellin...

BWW Review: SIDE-WALKS at Solas Nua
by Sarah Murphy - August 12, 2021

Written by Jeremy Keith Hunter, a DC-based multidisciplinary artist, and John King, a theatre-maker from Dublin, Side-Walks is a “visual short story about finding yourself after a year of isolation” and is the culmination of a pandemic-long collaboration between the two playwrights and Solas Nua....

BWW Review: Kensington Arts Theatre's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE is Murderous Fun
by Andrew White - August 09, 2021

It’s time to get out, people.  I mean, let’s face it – you can only get by for so long on Disney+ or Netflix before you want a taste of living flesh—er, live theatre. With their production of 'And Then There were None,' Kensington Arts Theatre has got a great evening out – if you don’t mind the occa...

BWW Review: Quotidian Theatre Company's THE DAY EMILY MARRIED a Beautiful Swan Song
by Andrew White - August 07, 2021

Bethesda's own Quotidian Theatre, which has been a true labor of love and art, after nearly 25 years on the D.C. theatre scene, is making an appropriately subtle, and grand, exit. Horton Foote's intensely psychological drama, The Day Emily Married, is a piece that Artistic Director Jack Sbarbori fam...

BWW Review: DETROIT '67 at Signature Theatre
by Roger Catlin - August 02, 2021

Inspired in part by August Wilson's 10-play depiction of Pittsburgh life, Dominique Morisseau embarked on a similar ambition reflecting the Motor City in her 'Detroit Project.'...

BWW Review: NORM LEWIS AND THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Wolf Trap's Filene Center
by Alexander C. Kafka - July 31, 2021

A selection of Broadway standards by this accomplished singer and actor is a welcome summer treat....

BWW Review: CLOWNTIME at Dance Loft On 14
by Roger Catlin - July 17, 2021

Dire statistical upticks remind us that we're not quite out of the Pandemic Era. Live theater is still largely virtual; tickets are being sold for the fall but with crossed fingers the performances will actually go on....

BWW Review: FAIRY TALES IN THE SUN at Adventure Theatre MTC
by Hannah Wing - July 15, 2021

Adventure Theatre MTC presents their first in-person show of the season, Fairy Tales in the Sun, directed by Stan Kang. The production features two one-act plays, The Future in the Flood, written by Lyra Yang, and From Cinders to Ella, written by Michelle Lynch....

BWW Review: SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD at Monumental Theatre Company
by Rachael F. Goldberg - July 06, 2021

Monumental Theatre Company’s production of 'Songs for a New World' comes at a unique time in our society, and expertly capitalizes on this. With its strong cast and creative team, this adaptation rises to our moment and taps into our emotionality. It brings us the emotional connection and comfort th...

BWW Review: TENDER AGE at Studio Theatre
by Hannah Wing - July 05, 2021

Studio Theatre wraps up their 2020-2021 virtual season with George Brant's Tender Age, directed by Henry Godinez....

BWW Review: THE LAST FIVE YEARS at Constellation Theatre Company
by Rachael F. Goldberg - June 15, 2021

Constellation Theatre Company’s production of 'The Last Five Years' is a fun and engaging performance, but the lopsided cast undermines its core charm. That said, fans of the show will still enjoy the production, and newcomers will still find the it engaging, if a bit unbalanced....

BWW Review: WHERE WE BELONG at Woolly Mammoth Theatre
by Roger Catlin - June 15, 2021

It's becoming common for theaters to pause before each production and include, alongside the usual cell phone reminders, a land acknowledgement, recognizing indigenous people that came before....

BWW Review: WE'RE GONNA DIE at Round House Theatre
by Roger Catlin - June 15, 2021

You can tell things are getting better in the world just by watching the Round House Theatre's latest production. It's the last of their filmed productions, for one thing. At its start, more people are seen coming into the theater to react to the performance - some 25 instead of the five or 10 in pa...

BWW Review: AFTER MIDNIGHT at Signature Theatre
by Russell Smouse - June 13, 2021

After Midnight at Signature Theatre is a revue featuring the music of Harold Arlen, Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh, and DC’s own Duke Ellington, and is set around the poems of Langston Hughes. The show features some of DC’s finest talent including Nova Y. Payton (a Signature regular) and Hamilton star...

BWW Review: Will on the Hill and Far Away at Shakespeare Theatre Company
by Timothy Treanor - June 08, 2021

“What’s past is prologue” Prospero says in The Tempest, but when the present passes into the past what’s left is Will on the Hill and Far Away, the earnest and frequently successful effort by Congressmen to do Shakespeare funny. In this annual exercise, designed to raise funds for arts education, me...

BWW Review: IN THE MOMENT: A DRAWING DANCE at The Kennedy Center's Digital Stage
by Alexander C. Kafka - June 08, 2021

'In the MOment: A Drawing Dance' will inspire its intended audience of 4-and-ups with its delightfully sleek, bouncy, playful universe of human movement and green-screen geometric exploration....

BWW Review: A SURPRISE PROGRAM by the NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Kennedy Center
by Roger Catlin - June 04, 2021

The biggest surprise about the surprise program at the Kennedy Center by the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction fo Gianandrea Noseda may have been that it was happening at all....

BWW Review: LUTHER'S TRUMPET at Mason Arts At Home And George Mason University's School Of Theater
by Rachael F. Goldberg - May 31, 2021

'Luther's Trumpet' is a fair production with an interesting premise - some parts are more intriguing than others, so the overall impression leaves a little more to be desired. But those electric moments when Luther confronts his adversaries and his stirring speech at the show's close definitely elev...

BWW Review: FLOW at Studio Theatre
by Barbara Trainin Blank - May 23, 2021

Flow, which saw its second production, in 2004, at Studio Theatre, is back! Part of Studio Theatre’s first digital season and more specifically featuring a trio of eclectic solo performances, Flow might be called a mixed metaphor. It blends the old West African tradition of griot — an oral tradit...

BWW Review: IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELDS at Solas Nua
by Mary Lincer - May 24, 2021

It doesn't get more site-specific than this, people: Solas Nua's doing a play called In the Middle of the Fields in the middle of a field! Starring as the field, P Street Beach; who knew she's been waiting for her close-up as a legit house all this time?...

BWW Review: ANIMAL WISDOM at WOOLLY MAMMOTH
by Elizabeth Seablom - May 22, 2021

While this production can be viewed only as a movie currently, I can't help but feel like we are missing something by not being gathered in the same room as Christian for this production....

BWW Review: Washington Stage Guild's HOW HE LIED TO HER HUSBAND a Perfect Pre-Summer Diversion
by Andrew White - May 20, 2021

How He Lied to Her Husband is a charming, 40-minute diversion which will enliven any home, and should be at the top of your to-watch list for this weekend.  Available only until Sunday night (per hyper-strict Equity guidelines), it features three of DC’s great talents and offers us a tantalizing gli...

BWW Review: 2.5 MINUTE RIDE at Studio Theatre
by Sarah Murphy - May 07, 2021

Without a doubt, this production is one of the most successful adaptations to the virtual theatre space, going beyond just a filmed version of a live play and embracing this new medium in a truly moving way....