Come Fly Away is perfect for anyone frustrated by bad dancing in a musical or bad acting in a ballet. In the touring version of the 2010 Broadway show now at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater, there's not a painted-on smile or half-assed pirouette in sight. That's because Come Fly Away is a high-quality hybrid [...]
What lessons to draw from last night's Helen Hayes Awards at the Warner Theatre? There were only two ties—compare that to five in 2011. And no company dominated outright—although Synetic, with its four wins, and Signature, with its five, are the evening's clear champs. The region's most prominent theater houses—the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Shakespeare [...]
It's not usually a compliment when a reviewer says, “This performance is best enjoyed with alcohol.” But the kaleidoscopic works of puppeteer Basil Twist are an exception. The swirling shapes and puppet sex are just more enjoyable after a beverage or two.
Besides, try saying with a straight, sober face, "I missed the NCAA tournament games [...]
Today, Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet is easily one of North America’s top five ballet companies. But in October 1956, the troupe was just six dancers in a station wagon, making its company debut at—of all places—Frostburg State. The 55 ensuing years saw choreographer Robert Joffrey’s peripatetic company not just uproot its base of operations, but overturn [...]
Hedda Gabler would never be caught dead wearing a hair scrunchie. Even if Henrik Ibsen had written his seminal drama in 1989 instead of 1889, his fastidious, fashion-conscious protagonist would not hastily twist her hair back with a tacky, fabric-covered elastic.
Yet a scrunchie is just what Hedda wears in Scena Theatre’s production of Ibsen’s parlor [...]
So much for that slow arts news week after Christmas.
Arena Stage announced today that David Dower, right-hand man to artistic director Molly Smith, will leave the theater in April for Emerson College. Also departing for cold academic climes: the American Voices New Play Institute director Polly Carl, and several key elements of the institute. Exactly [...]
Have you wished Maggie Thatcher a merry Christmas yet this holiday season? No? Well, humbug. You must be an American Democrat who’s never seen the musical Billy Elliot. And you might want to consider doing something about that.
Do something about the seeing Billy Elliot part, not the American Democrat part, or the part about sending [...]
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Arena Stage played host Saturday evening to some super-wonky yakking that started out with 140-character thoughts on theater but quickly expanded to cover all aspects of theater journalism. Peter Marks, The Washington Post's sometimes curmudgeonly lead critic, and Howard Sherman, a former executive director of the American Theatre Wing [...]
Vincent was supposed to be a two-actor play, not a one-man show. Or so our solo host informs us not too far into his 75-minute monologue about artist Vincent van Gogh. Who’s skipped the eulogy? Why Paul Gauguin, that pompous bastard! "“He has refused to come here tonight.”
Thus we are left, in this Theatre du [...]
If winning a “best of” award at the Capital Fringe Festival were really important to a performing artist, the category to enter this year was dance. In what should have been an even-odds contest, DC Aerial Collective’s UPHeaval ended up tying with an all-female modern dance show called SHE.
Those were the only entrants.
Dance participation in the [...]
