Washington, DC Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 31

BWW Review: MAIMOUNA YOUSSEF aka MUMU FRESH at Kennedy Center
by Roger Catlin - May 06, 2021

The penultimate program in the Kennedy Center's Young Audiences streamed season features the music of Baltimore-born and D.C. raised singer Maimouna Youssef. ...

BWW Review: THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP at Round House Theatre
by Roger Catlin - May 06, 2021

In the most trying of times, the Round House Theatre has managed to put together a pretty remarkable season, entirely online but leaning on one-person showcases that eliminated the need of distancing among cast members. ...

BWW Review: LA TIA JULIA Y EL ESCRIBIDOR (AUNT JULIA AND THE SCRIPTWRITER) at GALA Hispanic Theatre
by Roger Catlin - May 04, 2021

In Mario Vargas Llosa's novel about his early days as a writer, his main character tries and tries again to get his work right. To present a live production of that tale, 'La Tía Julia y el escribidor (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter)' at the GALA Hispanic Theatre required the same patience and dete...

BWW Review: dwb (driving while black) film at UrbanArias
by Barbara Trainin Blank - May 03, 2021

The title and content of this filmed opera reminded me of a friend with a young biracial relative. Whenever he ventures out, whether by foot or car, his mother provides him with a letter explaining who he is and asserting that his purpose is benevolent in case the police may approach him....

BWW Review: MIDNIGHT AT THE NEVER GET at Signature Theatre
by Dara Homer - May 01, 2021

Midnight at The Never Get begins as a cabaret act that transforms into a love story and concludes as a meditation on the way we grieve our past selves. The entire show takes place in a 1960s nightclub where things are not quite as they seem: the star of the act, singer Trevor Copeland (Sam Bolen, wh...

BWW Review: Shakespeare Theatre's BLINDNESS a Once-in-a-Lifetime Theatrical Experience
by Andrew White - May 01, 2021

Director Meierjohann has choreographed Juliet Stevenson’s movements through a space as palpable as it is imaginary. The quality of the sound recording is so acute that you know exactly where she is at every moment. Stevenson’s performance is a marvel as she careens from the soothing, caring, den-m...

BWW Review: Simon Godwin's Production of ROMEO AND JULIET
by Timothy Treanor - April 26, 2021

The thing about Romeo and Juliet – but you know this, Grasshopper – is that it isn’t a love story – not at all, not even a little bit. It is rather a story of desperation, ego and self-regard. Juliet is a thirteen-year-old girl who has just been given the alarming news that she will be forced to mar...

BWW Review: 10 SECONDS at Imagination Stage
by Rachael F. Goldberg - April 25, 2021

'10 Seconds' is the product of workshops and discussions between law enforcement, activists, and DC metro youth under the Imagination Stage Youth and Police program....

BWW Review: FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE streamed from MetroStage
by Roger Catlin - April 23, 2021

MetroStage is starting to wind down its lockdown era with a second streamed work of Terrence McNally, the esteemed American playwright who himself died of COVID complications a year ago....

BWW Review: SUPER CELLO: HERO PRACTICE at The Kennedy Center
by Rachael F. Goldberg - April 21, 2021

Kennedy Center’s latest digital stage contribution is a fantastic display of how art and education can go hand-in-hand....

BWW Review: UNTIL THE FLOOD at Studio Theatre
by Barbara Trainin Blank - April 20, 2021

DC’s Studio Theatre is known as a leading contemporary theater, and the subject matter of its current production can scarcely be more so. Inspired by the police killing of young Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., and based on dozens of interviews conducted in its aftermath across the city’s co...

BWW Review: HINDSIGHT IS at Roundhouse Theatre
by Elizabeth Seablom - April 20, 2021

Hindsight is explores exactly that, what we would have done differently, what we would have told our 2019 selves, and what we should celebrate about how we've pushed through the dumpster fire that was 2020....

BWW Review: CHILDREN OF MEDEA at Constellation Theatre Company
by Hannah Wing - April 19, 2021

Constellation Theatre’s Children of Medea, written and performed by Sue Jin Song, and directed by Allison Arkell Stockman, transcends the usual humdrum of these stories into pure surreal art. ...

BWW Review: ARENA RIFFS: A MORE PERFECT UNION at Arena Stage
by Rachael F. Goldberg - April 17, 2021

'A More Perfect Union' is very short, but its brilliance is that it takes viewers on a full, deep emotional roller coaster in that brief period of time. Rona Siddiqui was given free creative reign over this project, and enlisted artists she entrusted with the same autonomy. The result is nothing sho...

HERE I AM: A Virtual Live Performance Produced by The Lab and GU Theater & Performance Studies
by Hannah Wing - April 14, 2021

HERE I AM, produced by The Lab and GU Theater & Performance Studies, is a generational story on how slavery and racism impacted Short-Colomb’s family, including her heavenly mothers....

BWW Review: NECESSARY SACRIFICES at Ford's Theatre
by Roger Catlin - April 13, 2021

Ford's Theatre will forever be tied to the legacy of Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated there 156 years ago this week. So amid a lingering pandemic, the otherwise closed stage is offering a radio version of a work it commissioned nine years ago to coincide with the opening of the theater's Center ...

BWW Review: URINETOWN THE MUSICAL at The Landless Theatre Company
by Rachael F. Goldberg - April 12, 2021

The Landless Theatre Company's sock puppet rendition of 'Urinetown' feels like a joke gone too far, with no clear audience in mind....

BWW Review: FALU: A JOURNEY THROUGH INDIA at Kennedy Center
by Roger Catlin - April 06, 2021

The third of the Kennedy Center’s six online Performances for Young Audiences this spring is a musical one — and one that can be enjoyed by a much wider age range....

BWW Review: Happenstance Theater's A ROSE FOR ERGENSBURG A Charming Escape
by Andrew White - April 06, 2021

Step into Happenstance Theater’s dreamscape; enjoy the lush colors and charm of their short film, “A Rose for Ergensburg.” Devised by company founders Mark Jaster and Sabrina Selma Mandell, with Sharon Crissinger as its eagle-eyed cinematographer and co-author, you will encounter a world of the past...

BWW Review: RICH KIDS: A HISTORY OF SHOPPING MALLS IN TEHRAN at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
by James McQuillen - April 05, 2021

The British have a culture of creating plays that explore ideas rather than dramatize a series of events. Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem or Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll come immediately to mind - plays that wrestle with concepts (English identity and the diversities of passion) rather than the connect-...

BWW Review: 'Arena Riffs' Offers Psalmayene 24's Compelling THE FREEWHEELIN' INSURGENTS
by Andrew White - March 31, 2021

Playright Psalmayene 24’s contribution to Arena Riffs is “The Freewheelin’ Insurgents,” a day in the life of four actors as they cope with the pandemic and the forces arrayed against them, both as artists and African-Americans....

BWW Review: Studio Theatre's COCK is a Raw, Raunchy Rant on Choice, Need and Identity
by Lora Strum - March 26, 2021

It's crass and callous, heart-breaking and hilarious as it examines the nomansland where choice and identity collide....

BWW Review: A BOY AND HIS SOUL at Round House Theatre
by Roger Catlin - March 24, 2021

This is the 50th anniversary year for Philadelphia International Records, the outfit founded by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff that gave us, among many other things, 'TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia), the ebullient instrumental by MFSB, given life as the theme of 'Soul Train' and used to great effect ...

BWW Review: Flying V's INITIATIVE is a Fitting Tribute to Dungeons & Dragons
by Andrew White - March 22, 2021

For now, we will have to settle for the Zoom version of 'Initiative' – that’s how the D20 rolls these days. But it would be positively criminal if it weren’t eventually staged by a company as multi-talented as Flying V. Your imagination is the key—which come to think of it is rather the point of liv...

BWW Review: LEONARDO AND SAM: THE TERRIBLE MONSTER AND THE MOST SCAREDY-CAT KID IN THE WHOLE WORLD, RE at The Kennedy Center
by Brandon Horwin - March 19, 2021

Leonardo and Sam: The Terrible Monster and the Most Scaredy-Cat Kid in The Whole World, Respectively is a superb choice for children to watch, learn, enjoy, and re-create as a pandemic activity. The website offers the same “lesson” video found at the conclusion of the performance as well as a questi...