New York

Review: ‘One More River to Cross: A Verbatim Fugue’ at The Latvian Society of Philadelphia

Lynn Nottage wrote One More River to Cross: A Verbatim Fugue a decade ago, yet oddly enough, it has never been produced onstage before. As Nottage’s fame has grown – she just earned a Pulitzer Prize...

Review: ‘See How They Run’ at Vagabond Players

We all need a good laugh these days – not a snicker or a snarky smile. A series of side-splitting belly laughs that leave you exhausted and smiling. See How They Run aptly named for the nursery rhyme...

Review: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

What do you remember most about the movie Saturday Night Fever? Is it the dynamic direction, the earthy dialogue, or the gritty story about a working-class Brooklyn kid trying to escape a menial job...

Review: ‘A Chorus Line’ at Tantallon Community Players

Packed with pizazz, energy, and downright sizzle, A Chorus Line, as performed by Tantallon Community Players (TCP) and directed by Christopher Gerken, is the MVP of musicals on DC area stages this...

Review: ‘Golden Cockerel’ at New Opera NYC

Golden Cockerel (Coq d’Or) is a musical fantasy that was popular in the first half of the twentieth century but rarely seen since. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed it in 1907 with splashy orchestral...

Review: ‘Can You Forgive Her?’ at Vineyard Theatre

“I’ve made bad choices. And I’ve made them . . . knowingly,” says 27-year-old Tanya – a single mom and bar waitress in a South Jersey beach town – in the opening scene of Gina Gionfriddo’s latest dark...

Review: ‘The Dollar Princess’ at Concert Operetta Theater

Leo Fall’s music is not likely to return to Broadway. It did, however, provide pleasant vocal opportunities for gifted young singers of the Concert Operetta Theater in Philadelphia this weekend, along...

Review: ‘RENT’ at Gateway Playhouse

The Gateway Playhouse opened its 68th Season with the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning musical, RENT. With book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, this artistic musical is loosely based on Giacomo...

Review: ‘Building the Wall’ at New World Stages

Out of his imaginative mind comes another powerful theatre piece by Robert Shenkkan, author of 15 plays including two dealing with LBJ (All the Way and The Great Society.) This time, he proposes what...

Broadway Producer Jack Viertel to Appear in Conversation with Jason Loewith at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, This Saturday, May 20th at 2:15pm

This Saturday, at 2:15pm, noted Broadway Producer Jack Viertel will appear at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in conversation with Olney Theatre Center Artistic Director Jason Loewith to discuss...

Review: ‘The Lucky One’ at Mint Theater Company

Every now and then it’s refreshing to turn on the time travel clock and return to what we then called “civilization” circa 1920. You know, after the war to end all wars, before the jazz babies really...

Review: ‘Little Women: The Musical’ at Third Wall Productions

Mother’s Day afternoon was spent in a Baltimore church basement where we gathered for the musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic tale, Little Women. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have wanted to...

Who’s in Town?: Morgan James Performing at the Hamilton, Thursday, May 18 at 7:30pm

Morgan James has one versatile voice. It is a voice that that can slip effortlessly from light lyric coloratura to Broadway belting, to Soul singing. Take a look at her career: James earned a coveted...

Review: ‘Dream: A Phonograph Musical’ at Ritz Theatre Company

Celebrating the 90th anniversary of its historic building, Ritz Theatre Company presents Dream: A Phonograph Musical, an original prequel to the genre of the ‘jukebox musical’ inspired by the hits of...

Review: ‘Marry Harry’ at The York Theatre Company

With apologies to James Morgan and the York Theatre Company (“York Theatre”) for this very late review of their current offering Marry Harry. I saw this new musical on April 30, but in the last-minute...

Review: ‘The Secret Garden’ at Memorial Players

If you’re looking for a musical of Broadway quality in the Baltimore area, look no further than some of the work being produced by Memorial Episcopal Church’s drama ministry, Memorial Players, now in...

Review: ‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’ at the Golden Theatre

In 1982 a distinguished group of Broadway pros, including Hal Prince, Betty Comden and Aldolph Green, came up with what was then thought to be a misbegotten idea: what happened to Nora Helmer after...

Review: ‘Bandstand’ at the Bernard F. Jacobs Theatre

Eleven new musicals have opened since War Paint and here comes the last before the April 30th deadline for Tony Nomination. It’s called Bandstand and it didn’t offer us Bette Midler or Patti LuPone or...

Review: ‘Marry Harry’ at The York Theatre Company

If you’re in the mood for some pure light-hearted entertainment, Marry Harry, now making its Off-Broadway debut in a limited engagement with The York Theatre Company, is a delightful new musical...

Review: ‘Anastasia’ at the Broadhurst Theatre

As the theatre season races to the end of its nomination deadline for the Tony Awards, musical shows are exploding all over the place. We’ve had half a dozen in the last two weeks, and Anastasia...

DC Favorites ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and ‘Come From Away’ Vie for Best Musical as the 2017 Tony Award Nominations Are Announced

DC Mega-hits Dear Evan Hansen and Come From Away, which wowed audiences during their sold out runs at Arena Stage and Ford’s Theatre, will be vying for Best Musical, as the 207 were Tony Award...

Review: ‘Baghdaddy’ at St. Luke’s Theater

“Alternative facts” and “fake news” are nothing new with the current presidency; they led to the Bush administration’s justification for the war in Iraq and its still-ongoing dire consequences....

Review: ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

The night I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the new musical based on Roald Dahl’s novel, the theatre was packed with moms and dads with little kids in tow. All of them seemed to know the story...

Review: ‘Groundhog Day’ at the August Wilson Theatre

Andy Karl is a delightful musical theatre leading man, but he’s been having a bit of bad luck lately. During a late preview of Groundhog Day, his latest outing on stage, he suffered severe damage to...

Review: ‘Return to Spoon River’ at Theatre Row

Published in 1915, Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology – a collection of free-verse poems in which the deceased residents of a fictional rural town in Illinois recount episodes from their lives...

Review: ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ at the Barrymore Theatre

John Guare’s masterpiece from 1990 solidly launched his career, earning a run of 155 performances off-Broadway which extended to a run at the Beaumont Theatre on Broadway of 485 additional showings....

Review: ‘The Little Foxes’ at the Manhattan Theatre Club

I’ve seen this play so many times. As a youngster of 19 I played “Horace” at NYU in a production that helped me along in my burgeoning acting career. Someone saw me in it, and suddenly I was playing...

Review: ‘The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking’ at New World Stages

Did you ever wonder what happens when “a duck walks into a bar”? Anthony Caporale (performer, playwright, and Director of Beverage Studies at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education) will tell you,...

Review: ‘Hello, Dolly!’ at the Shubert Theatre

I’m going to tell you a short story before I get to my review of Hello, Dolly! which is now playing at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway. I do so to give what’s now called “transparency” to my words in...

Review: ‘The Reckless Season’ at TheaterLab NYC

What’s so funny about suicide, cremation, drug addiction, PTSD, and familial dysfunction? Playwright Lauren Ferebee finds the dark comedy in all of that, along with the innate tragedy and irreality,...

Review: ‘West Side Story’ at The Media Theatre

Earlier this season, The Media Theatre presented Shakespeare’s classic Romeo & Juliet. Now they’re concluding their 2016-2017 season with a production of West Side Story, the musical that put a 20th...

Review: ‘I Ought to Be in Pictures’ at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

Is it nature or nurture? Is it innate personality or fearless optimism? Is the ability to see the glass half full, the willingness to take a chance, the inclination to ask or speak your mind without...

Review: ‘The Assignment’ at A.R.T./New York Theatres

Socially relevant and thought-provoking, profoundly heartrending and often funny, playwright Camilo Almonacid’s The Assignment – inspired by a true story and developed by Houses on the Moon Theater...

Review: ‘Annie’ at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric in Baltimore

This was the first time this reviewer had seen a show with a large, and largely young audience of elementary, middle and high schoolers. Hundreds swarmed into the cavernous Victorian-era building,...

Review: ‘Indecent’ at the Cort Theatre

Playwright Paula Vogel has been writing plays for almost forty years, in which she has dealt with issues that fueled her life. She’s been particularly interested in exploring the need for theatre to...

Review: ‘War Paint’ at the Nederlander Theatre

This project began with a fine title, one that conjurs up a fun musical once you know it’s about the battle for supremacy in the field of female skincare and beauty. It sounded like even more fun when...

Review: ‘Something Rotten!’ at Hippodrome Theatre

Fans of Broadway musicals won’t get more bang for their entertainment buck this whole season than at Something Rotten! Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre has been on a roll when it comes to offering great...

Review: ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ at the Forrest Theatre

When John Cameron Mitchell (book) and Stephen Trask (music and lyrics) were developing their gender-bending rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch for its Off-Broadway premiere in 1998, the Berlin...

Michael Biello and Dan Martin Are Grooming for the Opening of ‘Marry Harry’

Philadelphia-based artists Dan Martin (composer) and Michael Biello (lyricist) are about to make their Off-Broadway debut this month with Marry Harry at The York Theatre Company. The longtime creative...

Review: ‘Oslo’ at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center

I had only dim memories of the 1993 agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, which had been secretly arranged by a Norwegian couple, who had spent from April 1992 until September of the...

Review: ‘Daniel’s Husband’ at The Cherry Lane Theatre

Family plays have changed so in the past few decades. They once concerned themselves with sibling rivalry for power and control (The Little Foxes), long held lies that are finally unearthed (All My...

News Release: DCMetroTheaterArts Is Here to Stay!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DCMetroTheaterArts Squelches Rumors of Closing, Announces Plan for Future Leadership and Growth Staff Rallies in Response to Founding Editor’s Diagnosis, Thanks Local Theater...

Review: ‘The Odd Couple’ at Vagabond Players

Awakening spring with rollicking laughter, the Vagabond Players revive Neil Simon’s Tony Award-winning, classic comedic The Odd Couple, recreating the brilliant magic and pandemonium of the beloved...

Review: ‘Detroit ’67’ at The Stagecrafters Theater

Two young black men stumble upon an expensively dressed but badly beaten young white woman in the ghetto. What do they do? If it’s Detroit in 1967, you certainly can’t involve yourself with the...

Review: ‘Present Laughter’ at the St. James Theatre

It doesn’t take much to create a smash Broadway hit. All you need for starters is a witty script that isn’t in a hurry (not a 90-minute mini-play, but a full-size evening that keeps you interested and...

Review: ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ at The Lyceum Theatre

The Lyceum Theatre on Broadway is playing host to a most unusual guest.. It has brought in the Cornley University Drama Society’s production of The Murder at Haversham Manor and because of a number of...

Review: ‘AMÉLIE’ at The Walter Kerr Theatre

Based on a charming French film, Amélie the musical begins with a narrator letting us know we’re going to be in Paris and its surroundings for the next 90 minutes, and as he and the music box music...

Review: ‘Jerry’s Girls’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3

There’s just no tune As exciting As a showtune In two-four… For Jerry Herman, the lyrics of this early composition, “Showtune,” represent a kind of mission statement. In song after song, in Broadway...

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at the Academy of Music

Some shows never get old or lose their impact. The national tour of Roundabout Theatre Company’s Tony Award-winning revival of Cabaret, making its Philadelphia premiere for a limited run this week at...

Review: ‘Luft Gangster’ at the Sheen Center

Developed out of a conversation playwright and lead actor Lowell Byers had with his cousin Lou Fowler – a Sergeant in the US Army Air Corps during World War II – upon their first meeting in 2009, Luft...