In StageCoach Theatre Company’s recent production Legends and Bridge, playwright C. Stephen Foster imagines the iconic trainwreck if big-screen divas Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, and Bette Davis got together to devise a comeback. Massive egos, jealousy, and bitterness reign as the former screen queens catfight their way through the back-stabbing comedy. The art of impersonation is the highlight of the show. The actors emulate the legends with their appearance, attire, mannerisms, and vocal cadence to good effect, and it is this aspect of the show that provides the most entertainment. Eri ..read more

It is not hard to see why directors want to update period plays to make them more palatable to modern audiences. Lavish costumes and long-gone settings can be alienating to some theatergoers — not to mention threatening to a company’s budget! But of all the eras in which to set The Beaux’ Stratagem, the apotheosis of Restoration comedy with all its luxury, elegance, and extravagance, why choose the 1970s, the decade that taste forgot? And yet, Jaki Demarest’s adaptation for the Rude Mechanicals at the Greenbelt Arts Center works, for the most part, due to the gameness of the actors and the su ..read more

Signature Theatre announces the cast and creative team for the musical Passing Strange, with music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald and book & lyrics by Stew. Passing Strange is directed by Raymond O. Caldwell (Producing Artistic Director of Theater Alliance, Theater Alliance’s Blood at the Root), with Music Direction by Marika Countouris (Signature’s The Color Purple, Woolly Mammoth’s A Strange Loop), Music Supervision by Mark G. Meadows (Signature’s The Color Purple, RENT) and Choreography by Tiffany Quinn (Olney Theatre Center’s The Diary of Anne Frank, Theater Alliance’s Blood at the Root ..read more

It’s hard to imagine a comedy that takes place during the Civil War, but that’s exactly what Richard Strand’s Ben Butler is. Director Kasi Campbell (The Dazzle, Rep Stage), a Helen Hayes Award winner, has brought a woman’s perspective to this all-male play. She evokes marvelous performances from her cast, whose charms and foibles are apparent from the start. The flawed and self-aggrandizing Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818–1893) was a controversial figure. But his successes were notable; he was a member of Congress and governor of Massachusetts. As a major general in the Union army, he supporte ..read more

By Gaelyn Smith While physical newspapers have become a thing of the past, Sunday morning cartoons can make even the most serious adult become a kid again. In a few words scribbled beside colorful pictures, comic book artists and writers make astute and comical observations about the world around us. This is the world of Drew Anderson and Dwayne Lawson-Brown’s new hip-hop musical, Push the Button, directed by Duane Richards II. A product of the Keegan Theatre’s Boiler Room Series, the show is a hilarious social commentary on power dynamics and the appearance of good versus evil in a world dri ..read more

By Ahryel Tinker Rooftop Productions’ By the Way, Meet Vera Stark presented the effervescent glamour of 1930s Hollywood while providing a biting commentary on racism and privilege in the film industry of the time. Lynn Nottage’s script begs for quick, conversational players, and debut director AnuRa Harrison’s casting certainly brought it to life. Scene from ‘By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.’ Photo by Kimberly Kemp. In the close quarters of the ARTfactory venue, audience members are right in the action watching this compelling tale unfold. Technical director Jimmy Conroy effectively executed a ri ..read more

When’s the last time you saw precipitation in the theater? Singin’ in the Rain is a cinema classic, largely due to Gene Kelly’s iconic song-and-dance performance of the movie’s titular musical number. Singin’ in the Rain is a lovable reminder of how much fun a musical can be, and also a comical satire of Hollywood’s transition from silent movies to sound. Sometimes it’s hard to live up to expectations. However, under the direction and choreography of John K. Monnet, this production by the Arlington Players did not disappoint. Tim Lewis as Don Lockwood, Rachael Fine as Kathy Seldon, and Daniel ..read more

True story: Hans Christian Anderson — the Danish teller of such famous tall fairytales as The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling — lived a distraught life of unrequited crushes. Among his dashed infatuations were the great Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind and a young man named Edvard, whose marriage to a woman broke Hans Christian’s latently queer heart. No one ever loved him back. (Anderson sublimated his lovelorn sorrow in many of his stories.) A naturalistic play that told the truth about his lovesick loneliness would be a Nordic downer, not something even Ibsen could pull off. But playwr ..read more

Presented by Overtone Industries with the support of BARE opera, the world premiere of Iceland: a re-Creation Myth – an interdisciplinary opera/theater work by composer/librettists O-Lan Jones and Emmett Tinley – marks the LA-based company’s NYC debut, with a brief engagement at La MaMa. It’s an exquisitely beautiful and haunting piece that makes me hope they’ll be back again soon, and often, with more of their original creations. The ensemble. Photo by Bronwen Sharp. The bittersweet tale interweaves figures from Icelandic mythology and personifications of the forces of nature with a human lo ..read more

Set in the “exceptionally beautiful kingdom of Belleville” (French for “beautiful city”), Bad Cinderella – the updated reimagined take by Andrew Lloyd Webber (music),  Emerald Fennell (book), and David Zippel (lyrics) on the popular folk tale dating back to antiquity, included in the collection of Grimms’ Fairy Tales published in 1812, and adapted for a TV musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1957, based on Charles Perrault’s 1697 French version of the story – has transferred from London’s West End (where its pandemic-delayed run played under the original title Cinderella) to Broadway’s ..read more