I have never started a review with a rave about bathrooms — but, wow, the newly renovated 1st Stage now has four beautiful ones, plus an airy, artful, stylish, and expanded lobby. It was all lovely, making the experience of discovering this theater and its expansive offerings feel fresh and new.

Now, on to the business of reviewing the plays in the annual Logan Festival of Solo Performance, which began on September 18 and continues through September 28.

George – Don’t Do That! is a bonhomie of song, sketches, anecdotes, and narration on the life and work of the beloved British entertainer Grenfell from the 1940s to the 1970s. I learned something I didn’t know about this charming, witty, upper-crust Brit (granddaughter of an American railway magnate) who entertained British troops in World War II in Italy and the Middle East, who earned one of the highest honors from the British Crown for her war work, and who in 1954 starred in her own hit one-woman West End show, Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure, then brought it to Broadway, where it was also a hit. After a career as one of Britain’s most beloved performers, Grenfell passed away on November 30, 1979.

I also learned that Catherine Flye, performer and deviser of this show, is an absolute delight on stage. Flye has a deep résumé with extensive acting and directing credits throughout the DC area and numerous honors for excellence, and I might be one of the few in the audience learning this for the first time.

In fact, she has been playing Joyce Grenfell in productions throughout the United States, British Isles, and South Africa since 2003. She channeled all Grenfell’s charm into this production. While George – Don’t Do That! leaned heavily into nostalgia, with a voice, especially a singing voice, scratchy like old-time radio, and with a script that held little introspection, Flye’s performance was still splendid. I yearned for a cup of tea and a crumpet afterward.

A much different look at the past followed in The Jewish Dog. In a breathtaking performance of 28 characters by Adam Meir, including the central point of view of a dog, Cyrus, the devastation of European Jews from the 1930s through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 comes alive in the heartbreaking insight and simplicity of man’s best friend.

The play is adapted by Yonatan Esterkin from the acclaimed 2007 novel of the same name by Asher Kravitz. Estherkin also directs the play with such meticulousness that as Meir inhabits the characters,  moving rapidly through horrific events from freedom to imprisonment, to transport to the concentration camp Treblinka, to fighting in the forest with partisans, to hiding out the last weeks of war on a farm, the audience knows exactly who is talking and where we are — in unexpectedly tender and funny moments — and in moments of despair. It is a brilliant feat of directing a solo performance that delineates a range of friends and foes, as well as a brilliant acting performance.

The cast of characters includes the dog’s first owners, a German Jewish family, notably a young boy, who must give up his puppy as the Nuremberg Laws in Hitler’s Germany tighten around them, to the sympathetic Nazi who trains the dog to hunt down Jews, to the much less sympathetic, and historically accurate, commandant of Treblinka. The most touching scenes are those of a young man who reunites with his dog while a prisoner in Treblinka and escapes with him.

Ultimately, we are rooting for Cyrus to find food, safety, and love, though first food, as he notes wryly — he is a dog. As Cyrus shares, “Food. Food. Food. The most important thing in life — especially if you have experienced starvation.”

Of course, a dog may not be able to think or feel as fully as the one portrayed on stage. However, through his dedication to physical acting and the clever use of a versatile trapper hat and a drab bathrobe as costume, Meir becomes Cyrus, and in doing so, offers us another perspective on history. Even more so, I do believe that dogs show us how we should care for one another —  how we should be better humans — and The Jewish Dog certainly does that and so much more. 

Spadura is the third play in this year’s Logan Festival, written and performed by Dahéli Hall, an acclaimed Los Angeles–based performer, writer, and producer who performs a show that has been touring nationally and was recently adapted into a docu-comedy special. I wish I had seen this — as someone who fought infertility in my early 40s for several years, I am sure I could have related. I am confident that I would have appreciated the mix of comedy and tragedy that goes into a show, which, as the notes share, is about “fertility, aging, and the baby industrial complex.” I am also sure that I would have wanted nothing less than to call my daughter immediately afterward.

This year, I could carve out enough time for a double-header of theater, but next year, I will plan better. Though in sharing some of my fertility travails, one might guess that I am not a planner. Be one. Go see all three plays in the Logan Festival of Solo Performances. 

Running Times
George Don’t Do That!: Two hours with a 15-minute intermission.
The Jewish Dog: 75 minutes, no intermission.
Spadura: 75 minutes, no intermission.on.

The Logan Festival of Solo Performances plays through September 28, 2025, at 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road, Tysons, VA. Purchase tickets ($10-$20 for individual seats; special Logan pass for all three shows $36) online.

SEE ALSO:
1st Stage announces 2025 Logan Festival for Solo Performances lineup (news story, August 1, 2025)

The post This year’s ‘Logan Festival of Solo Performances’ impresses at 1st Stage appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Get ready to be charmed by the warm and witty cabaret-style duo of Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp in their American-standard-style set, Are You Out of Your Mind?

Mainly featuring the original lyrics of Levine, a jazz pianist, the songs speak to relationships between men and women in the bright, toe-tapping phrases of Cole Porter, Kander and Ebb, or even at the brightest moments, Stephen Sondheim. While I wished that there was a more cohesive narrative arc to the set (an early song relating to COVID and being able to see one another in person felt awkwardly dated), there is a snappy range of solos, duets, and patter. Papendorp’s bubbly renditions hit all the right notes, especially on the comic moments.

High points of the revue were the duets, notably “How Do You Have a Conversation?,” which showcased the smooth and engaging chemistry between the two, who have performed together across the DMV for over 15 years. Levine’s solo performance of “The Last Banana,” confessing to just that fact, was punchy, fun, and showcased this veteran cabaret performer’s charm, topped off by a porkpie hat and gravelly voice. “No Ducks,” for Papendorp, provided a poignant solo moment to highlight her dramatic range as she sang about aging and carrying on.

If you’re looking for a show with edge, angst, or profound insight into the human condition, this is not it. Are You Out of Your Mind? is more of a funny retort, not a question for our anxious times.

If you are looking for a delightful, upbeat revue, this is it. At just under an hour, it’s an easy-listening aperitif for any evening.

Are You Out of Your Mind?
A cabaret by Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp

Running Time: 60 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Thursday, July 17, 6:00p
• Friday, July 18, 7:45p
• Saturday, July 19, 7:15p
• Sunday, July 20, 1:00p
• Friday, July 25, 10:00p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: Are You Out of Your Mind?

Genre: Cabaret, Circus

Written and performed by Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘Are You Out of Your Mind?’ by Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp (4 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Cursed. The Friday night review date I was assigned predicted rain — what actually occurred, about 15 minutes into August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson at 1st Stage, was massive downpours that drowned out the actors, shook the roof, sent emergency alerts buzzing to our phones, cut the electricity, and canceled the performance. Kudos to all the actors and the behind-the-scenes folks for handling the situation with grace, even as I grumbled and trudged out into the downpour, unhappy about the unexpected circumstances.

I was back the following Friday night. I soon realized that the curse metaphor extends through the essence of the show — and that my own minor inconvenience of the week prior was nothing next to its characters’ stories.

This family is cursed by the violence of racism, of generational trauma, of their enslaved ancestors, who lived only a generation or two earlier, torn apart on plantations in the South. What brings them together — an intricately carved upright piano — is also what threatens to tear them apart. This powerhouse production, directed by Danielle A. Drakes, now extended through June 29, was worth a second trip to 1st Stage.

With only one week remaining, do not wait to see it in the intimate 1st Stage theater, where, thanks to the genius of the set design (Nadir Bey), you feel like you have a seat at the table. Not only will this production wrap up the season, but the theater will be closed for major renovations until the fall.

The Piano Lesson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is part of the acclaimed playwright’s ten-play Century Cycle in which he charts the Black experience across the 20th century. This production, tightly and powerfully directed and acted, packs an emotional and intellectual punch that transcends the play’s setting in 1936 Pittsburgh.

It’s the story of a Black family, at its center a brother and sister, played with charged emotional heart, anger, grief, and moments where music and joy overcome all. Deidra LaWan Starnes stars as Berniece, recently widowed, a mother to 11-year-old Maretha (sweetly played by recent Catholic University graduate Hannah Taylor). They live in the house of her uncle Doaker (wisely played by James J. Johnson), who is startled awake by an unexpected visit from her Mississippi-based country brother Boy Willie (Ronald Eli) and his buddy Lymon (Shawn Sebastian Naar). Boy Willie has shown up with a truck full of watermelons and a plan to sell the family heirloom, the piano at the center of the living room — and the play — to fund the purchase of a farm.

It’s not the piano, though it has its own dark secrets, that fires up the anger between brother and sister — two heart-rending, achingly layered, and deeply felt performances by Eli and Starnes — but rather what it represents to each of them. Boy Willie shares that “all he’s trying to do with that piano is make his mark in the world.” However, Berniece, who refuses to play the piano, will not sell it. Both siblings want to move up in the world, and while the piano represents the family’s past, it is also the family’s future. Yet, as the steady and cautious Doaker observes with dramatic irony, “If everyone would just stay in one place, it would be a better world.”

One of the most moving scenes is an extended one featuring the key men in the cast — Doaker and his newly arrived brother Wining Boy (Addison Switzer, in a wonderfully rakish performance as the drinking and gambling piano-playing brother) along with Boy Willie and Lymon, as each reveals a piece of their past — from love of women lost to injustices and run-ins with the law down South to chain gangs. The scene evolves into a pantomime depicting the ominous prison work crews.

Lymon morphs from his easygoing sidekick country bumpkin character to revealing all the pain of a man unjustly imprisoned. The grief and anger emanate from Lymon as he sings and pounds his arms as if wielding a sledgehammer to a rail spike. The acting of all four men, stellar — the pain and injustice they shared, a testament to our American history.

Yet, it is not all pain in this family — there is also joy and tenderness. The moments featuring Berniece and her suitor, Reverend Avery (Johnnie Leon Hill), are played with a big heart. A key late-night scene between Lymon and Berniece ignites with desire. As an old saying goes, where there is life, there is hope. Even with the weight of history and its ghosts upon us, this is ultimately a hopeful play. By the end of this superb production, I felt the opposite of what I had felt a week prior — I felt blessed to have shared the time with this powerful cast and this masterful American play.

Running Time: Three hours and 15 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.

The Piano Lesson plays through June 29, 2025 (Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Saturdays/Sundays at 2 pm), at 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road, Tysons, VA. Purchase tickets ($55 for general admission, with limited tickets for $15, $25, and $40 at each performance) by calling the box office at 703-854-1856, going online, or in person before each performance. Select performances are open-captioned and/or audio-described. Open seating.

The digital playbill is downloadable here.

COVID Safety: 1st Stage is now a mask-optional space with select mask-required performances offered for each show. See 1st Stage’s complete COVID Safety Information here.

The Piano Lesson
By August Wilson
Directed by Danielle A. Drakes

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A sumptuous gold gown. An ornate gold throne. A queen, alone.

This is the resonant last image of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s riveting new production of Mary Stuart. This production, adapted by Peter Oswald from Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 masterpiece and directed by Ian Gallanar, is for this moment.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this Machiavellian drama speaks to our times. Judges are damned. The court of public opinion is called upon. Sycophantic courtiers have the ear of the inconstant, wily, capricious, vain ruler. Mercy is exchanged for political expediency. What could go wrong?

We know the outcome of this play because it is history. Elizabeth I, known as the Virgin Queen for fending off all male suitors to her throne, has one rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, bound to her by blood.

Mary, a devout Catholic, has schemed for a united throne of Scotland and England, and the play opens with her banished, imprisoned, and under threat of death. She will be executed at the end, but only after a protracted struggle and a protean performance by Mary Stuart (Lise Bruneau).

Elizabeth I (Lesley Malin) has spent her life solidifying her own disputed grip on power as a female ruler and heir to the newly established Church of England. Her performance is less subtle but no less effective. Elizabeth yields raw power over those around her. This Elizabeth knows how to manipulate and bend those to her will, all except Mary Stuart.

The absolutely most powerful scenes in this play about absolute power involve the one wholly fictional character, the invention of a widely lauded English playwright who adapted this work — Mortimer (Joshua Williams).

Mortimer is a young nobleman who leaves puritanical England for Italy’s richness, idolatry, and artistry to rediscover Catholicism and Mary, Queen of Scots. He has the belief of a convert in her. A fanatic for her cause, Mortimer is also the nephew of Amias Paulet, knight and guardian of Mary (played with earnest conviction by Steven Todd Smith). He devises a plan to rescue Mary Stuart even as she does not want to be rescued by him.

In the process, Joshua Williams as Mortimer gives the play’s breakout performance. All the complexities of power, justice, desire, and want are present in his Mortimer. His belief in and passion for Mary Stuart take an ugly turn in an emotionally charged scene where his physical desires clash with his political ones. This actor has a slow-burning fire in him that lights up the stage alongside Lise Bruneau’s fiery and feisty Mary Stuart.

Indeed, the scenes throughout the play with Mortimer are breathtaking, delving into the machinations of power and showcasing the breadth of its possibilities — and this actor’s.

On the other hand, the explosive climactic meeting between the two queens left this reviewer rooting for Mary over Elizabeth as she at first begs her cousin for a reprieve, for compassion, then refuses to bend to her. Anything but another narcissistic autocratic head of state, no matter the historical accuracy. When Mary is led to her death by her faithful confidante, played with heartfelt Scot toughness by Jamie Virostko, one mourns not only the death of her political ambition, but the death of mercy in all political spheres.

The other courtiers who are gathered around Elizabeth — Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (DeJeanette Horne), an insipid and convincingly conniving William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (Michael P. Sullivan), and an aging and eloquent George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury (Gregory Burgess) — each have their moment to challenge Elizabeth. However, this Elizabeth is no virgin to power. They must each, in turn, bend to her will or whim or lies.

The brisk directorial pacing and the spitfire poetic lines move the action at a fast pace. The minimalistic staging is well-suited both to this theater as well as to placing the two Queens front and center. The costumes are anything but minimal. All the silk and lace, pomp and circumstance, of Elizabethan royalty are captured in Elizabeth’s gowns and are a perfect contrast to Mary’s reserved, spartan simplicity, and dazzling next to her noblemen’s flamboyant attire. Costumes are designed by Kristina Lambdin, and hair and wigs are by Hannah Brill.

On a final note, this performance of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Mary Stuart is dedicated to Joanne Malin, a “queen of the theatre,” and mother of Lesley Malin, who not only plays Elizabeth I but is CSC’s Producing Executive Director. An honor to note this, for all the mothers who encourage us to do our best in this challenging world.

Running Time: Two hours and 45 minutes, one 15-minute intermission.

Mary Stuart plays through May 18, 2025, at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, 7 South Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD. Adult tickets start at $59, tickets for youth 25 and under start at $31. Purchase tickets by calling 410-244-8570, visiting the Box Office in person, or ordering online. For directions, parking, transportation, and other plan-your-visit information, click here.

The program for Mary Stuart is online here.

Mary Stuart
By Friedrich Schiller
Adapted by Peter Oswald
Directed by Ian Gallanar

CAST LIST
Queen Elizabeth I: Lesley Malin *
Mary Stuart: Lise Bruneau +
Robert- Dudley, Earl of Leicester: DeJeanette Horne*
George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury: Gregory Burgess *
William Cecil, Lord Burleigh: Michael P. Sullivan *
William Davison: Isaiah Mason Harvey *•
Amias Paulet: Steven Todd Smith
Mortimer: Joshua Williams *
Count Aubespine: Lloyd Marcus *•
Count Bellievre: Kaitlyn Fowler
O’Kelly/Lord Kent: Nicolas Dureaux Picou
Drugeon Drury/Sherif: Michael Changwe
Melvil: Paul Diem
Hanna Kennedy: Jamie Virostko
Understudies: Adrian Bagarić, Jacqueline Chenault, Chris Rio Liu, Laura Malkus*, Nicolas Dureaux Picou, Nathan Rosen

CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Ian Gallanar*
Production Manager: Lauren Engler*
Assistant Director/ Production Associate: Dawn Thomas Reidy *•
Production Stage Manager: Caroline Johnson
Set & Projection Designer/Technical Director: Dan O’Brien*
Lighting Designer: Dean Leong
Costume Designer: Kristina Lambdin*
Music Director: Grace Srinivasan*
Props Artisan: Paige Stone
Sound Designer: Sarah O’Halloran*
Fight & Intimacy Director: Lorraine Ressegger–Slone
Dramaturg/Text Coach: Abraham Stoll
Dialect Coach: Gerrad Alex Taylor*•
Style Coach: Mary Ann Jung
Hair/Wig Designer/Wardrobe Supervisor: Hannah Brill
Assistant Stage Manager: Tyrel Brown *•
Assistant Technical Director: Chester Stacy *
Board Operator: Kai Singleton
Production Intern: Preaundrea Franklin
* Notes a CSC Company Member
• Notes a CSC Black Classical Acting Ensemble Member
+ Notes Actors’ Equity Association Member

The post A riveting ‘Mary Stuart’ for right now at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Last week, I ventured back to a student matinee at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore to see their latest production of Romeo & Juliet, directed by Molly Moores. It’s an annual rite of spring for this talented group to perform one of the greatest love stories of all time for high school students at 10 o’clock in the morning.

I arrived just as busloads of students from Bowie High School, Patterson High School, and Mount Washington were swept boisterously into the theater, taking their seats on the red velvet seats surrounding the Elizabethan-style stage.

All the tumult emanating from Washington, DC, seemed far away. I could sense the annual disengagement of spring fever in the air among the students. That was about to change.

Once all were seated, in a serious nod to Shakespeare, a jester appeared, followed by a joyful live music performance by the cast in full costume. The actors, especially Benvolio (Tyrel Brown), demonstrated that they could connect the 16th century with these 21st-century young adults through their shoutouts from the stage. His robust performance in the pre-show hinted at the bristling, high-energy stage presence he would later share in the play.

From this moment on, the students knew this was not their parents’ Shakespeare. And that’s the beauty of these first-rate student matinee performances. They make Shakespeare relevant, meaningful, and engaging to students — they know their audiences as well as they know the original Shakespeare.

According to Troy Jennings, director of education, over 13,000 students this school year, 2024–2025, have experienced their matinees.

Now, I will confess. I once played Juliet. I was nine or ten in a free summer-in-the-parks camp program in my hometown, New Rochelle, New York. Someone had the idea to bring all the free camps in the parks together for a summer Shakespeare competition and performance. My brother, a year younger than me, was cast as Romeo. I don’t think he ever learned his lines. I, an unkempt tomboy of a Juliet, never forgot hers.

Wearing a white, itchy dress some cousin once used for her first confession, I belted out: “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name, / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”

As I was recalling my own glory days (actually the one and only time I have ever been on stage), the actors were splitting the students into opposing groups — the Capulets and Montagues, the warring families at the heart of Romeo & Juliet. The students in this performance would take sides, though ultimately, the side they chose was that of the star-crossed lovers.

And then the play began, and I was just as swept up in the oft-told story as were the students. Mercutio (Josh Williams) just stole hearts as the charming, swaggering, over-the-top Mercutio. His gallant, loyal bravado was matched by the love-struck and tender Romeo (Lloyde Epke).

The play, running a crisp hour and 45 minutes without intermission, never let the students sit back in their seats, startling them with well-choreographed sword fights, entrances from the multi-leveled theater, and the sly politicking of Juliet’s parents, Lord Capulet (James Stringer) and Lady Capulet (Molly Trice) plotting to marry her to the charming Paris (Danny Sakamoto-Wengel) against her wishes. A special shoutout to the Nurse, played with aplomb by Emily Erickson.

And Juliet. Oh, Juliet. I have saved you for last. This Juliet (Amber Smithers) is someone I once co-taught with in a middle school theater class. She was the reason I traveled here in the fall (though she had COVID and did not appear in the performance of Macbeth that I saw then).

But here she was as Juliet — beautiful, on the balcony, projecting all the innocence of romantic ideals and combining it with all the power and smarts of a 21st-century girl who knows herself. Her Juliet is wise to a young man’s love. When she emphasizes that he must show up the next night for marriage, and when he swears that he will, she commands. “O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes her orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.” She is in charge. This is her moment. She is a powerful Juliet.

Some actors one can never imagine playing Shakespeare; Amber Smithers is an actor born to this manor.

This Romeo & Juliet neared its end as all traditional performances of Romeo & Juliet near their end — in tragedy — and there was a rapt silence in the theater. The Capulets and Montagues may now agree to end their war, but it is too late. Paris, Mercutio, Romeo, and Juliet — the next generation — their future is dead. It might be that in this moment, surrounded by high school students — perhaps the spirit of these performances — this Romeo & Juliet felt so much more than a romantic tragedy. Still, as I exited the theater’s dark into the bright-lit spring amid a now more pensive group of students, this Romeo & Juliet felt like a warning for us adults: Look to the future, not the past.

Looking to their future, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will announce their 2025–2026 season in late April, and tickets will go on sale at that time for student matinees. However, one thing is for sure: Romeo & Juliet will return next school year.

Running Time: One hour and 45 minutes, no intermission

Romeo & Juliet plays through April 28, 2025, at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, 7 South Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD. Admission ($20–$26) is limited to schools for student matinee performances at 10 a.m. Baltimore City public school students are free via a grant from the Mayor’s Office.

The cast and creative credits are here (scroll down).

Created by Summer 2024 Interns Naima Gordon and Teagan McCabe

Romeo & Juliet
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Molly Moores

SEE ALSO:
I visit a student performance of ‘Macbeth’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (feature by Caroline Bock, November 8, 2024)

The post I visit a student matinee of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it — the famous quote by the philosopher George Santayana — was running through my mind as I watched/witnessed #CHARLOTTESVILLE, written and performed by Priyanka Shetty, in its world premiere at the Keegan Theatre under the creative direction of Yury Urnov.

#CHARLOTTESVILLE was developed in part by Voices Festival Productions, which produced a workshop production of the play for the Capital Fringe Festival in July 2023.

With the the current administration’s flood-the-news-zone strategy, yesterday seems a decade, and August 11 and 12, 2017, seem like ages ago, but as the play’s last line resounds ominously: these two days “were not an anomaly, but a warning.”

The Unite the Right rally on August 11, James Alex Fields’ subsequent vehicular murder of Heather Heyer on August 12, and his trial in 2018, which laid all the blame on a lone-wolf driver, all happened in the “second-friendliest town in the United States” and feel like old news. What Shetty does in this innovative, avant-garde solo production is make it urgent.

She also makes it entertaining. Inhabiting over a dozen characters, this performance artist makes an Anna Deavere Smith star turn as an actor-writer.

The most entertaining scene was the most absurd — the Cabaret-style takedown tribute to the “Crying Nazi’ Christopher Cantwell, alt-right radio host and provocateur at the Charlottesville rally. The subsequent video of him sobbing at his arrest warrant went viral. Shetty’s mocking is sharp and witty and offers the relief and power of laughter and cheers.

The most touching and moving scenes of the play are when Shetty gives us her younger self struggling with “Susan,” the department chair in the dramatic arts programs at the University of Virginia. These moments provide insights into #CHARLOTTESVILLE’s development as well as the actor-writer’s life as an immigrant, as a student facing racism among her peers and professors, and her struggle to find her own voice in the university community.

The emotional center of the play is with Shetty’s portrayal of Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro. Here we witness not just a powerful actor-writer at work but the personal cost of hate, senseless violence, and illiberalism. Her loss is our loss. It’s searing.

At points, a few of the characters that Shetty inhabits get lost in the shuffle of history and information overload. The courtroom moments leave one wondering which side is arguing for who and what. The satire could have been sharper with her portrayal of the 45th, now 47th, president — though these days, he takes the oxygen out of the room even in satire. However, when the play pulls into the personal, into the impact on those who were there as witnesses from the community, into her own sense of anger and outrage, the experience is effectively immersive.

Yury Urnov’s directing skillfully leans into the one-person drama. Multiple screens display video, and black-and-white images work with a minimum of sound and lighting shifts on a stage bearing a single key prop — the American flag — to signal character and mood shifts. The intimate setting of the Keegan Theatre is perfect for this one-person show.

While this play might have benefited from going deeper into fewer characters and employing more absurdity to contrast with, it has overall a deep, meaningful, and moving message to convey: August 11 and 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a warning. Are we remembering?

Running Time: 70 minutes, no intermission.

#CHARLOTTESVILLE plays through April 13, 2025, at the Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St NW, Washington DC, with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 3:00 pm, and select Mondays and Wednesdays at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $59 ($49 students and seniors) and may be purchased online, by phone at 202-265-3767, or in person at the Keegan Theatre Box Office, which opens on the day of the show one hour prior to the performance.

Cast and production team credits and bios are here (scroll down).

COVID Safety: Masks are optional but encouraged. Keegan’s Health and Safety policies are here.

SEE ALSO:
World premiere of ‘#CHARLOTTESVILLE’ to open at Keegan March 22 (news story, March 16, 2025)

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The answer is always “to be,” asserts Ophelia in Lauren M. Gunderson’s new play A Room in the Castle, now in a powerful world premiere production at the Folger Theatre.

Ophelia is, of course, answering Hamlet’s famous soliloquy “To be, or not to be…” In this case, the Prince of Demark is unseen and unheard since the women — Ophelia (Sabrina Lynne Sawyer), Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude (Oneika Phillips), and the newly imagined lady’s maid to Ophelia, Anna (Burgess Byrd) — take center stage.

This is a female-centered play, though one could argue how feminist. While these women of Hamlet may have a space of their own, the troubled, grieving Prince is never far from their thoughts — he is their obsession, their reason for being, hovering over every scene. Gunderson does a masterful job re-imagining the women trapped by class, circumstances, and desire within the castle’s walls. Each, in their own way, follows the Queen’s edict for women — to “obey, agree, assist” — until they do not.

First presented at the Folger Theatre’s inaugural Reading Room Festival three years ago, A Room in the Castle is directed by Kaja Dunn, who draws the three women close to one another’s secrets and intrigues in Ophelia’s room/prison in the castle. The moments between Ophelia and Anna, her lady’s maid, are filled with a young girl’s yearning to figure out life, love, marriage, and sex, and here the formidable Burgess Byrd is often a perfect comic foil to the overplayed angst of youth.

The most thrilling scenes, however, are solitary ones focused on Queen Gertrude, played with majestic fierceness by Phillips and framed in wind-swept near-silence. She is a presence to be reckoned with, this Queen, this mother.

The center of A Room in the Castle is Queen Gertrude, torn between her king/husband and son. Her story demands our attention — how far will any woman go to protect her son? What will she sacrifice? The machinations of a powerful woman who is steps from the seat of power at the Folger is intrinsically more compelling than a rebellious ingenue’s futile love for her troubled prince, no matter how fully — and in the more reflective moments, how profoundly — she is played by the talented actress to watch Sabrina Lynne Sawyer.

This review will not reveal if this play follows the original, or if all ends well, as tragedy rarely does, but the playwright does offer a clever Shakespearean twist to the original story. The women of Hamlet do have moments that are wholly their own. They do own the stage — and our hearts — in A Room in the Castle.

Nicole Jescinth Smith’s range of power-dressing costume design for Queen Gertrude must be noted as well as Samantha Reno’s scenic design, Max Doolittle’s lighting design, and Sara O’Halloran’s sound design, which were all transporting back to the bleak, isolated Elsinor.

A Room in the Castle can best be enjoyed with a rudimentary Hamlet refresher prior. A number of the funnier lines — and there are several wise and witty ones — are predicated on some familiarity with the original. So seek thee a summary then get thee not to a nunnery but to A Room in the Castle.

Running Time: 85 minutes with no intermission.

A Room in the Castle plays through April 6, 2025, presented by Folger Theatre and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company at the Folger Theatre, 201 E Capitol Street SE, Washington, DC. To purchase tickets ($20–$84, with many discounts available), go online or call the Box Office at (202) 544-7077.

To see credits for the cast and creative team, click here.

COVID Safety: While Folger audiences and employees are no longer required to wear masks at most events, masks are welcome and remain an important preventive measure against COVID-19. Anyone needing or choosing to wear one is encouraged to do so. Folger’s current safety protocols are here.

SEE ALSO:
Lauren M. Gunderson on unmasking the women in ‘Hamlet’ (interview by Nicole Hertvik, February 25, 2025)
Folger Theatre to premiere Lauren Gunderson’s ‘A Room in the Castle’ (news story, January 30, 2025)

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Go, greased lightnin’! What absolute fun the Montgomery College performance of the musical classic Grease is!

For those who are familiar with the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John movie, you will not be disappointed with the high-energy cast, the jukebox of a band, and the kickin’ choreography of this production directed by Ian Anthony Coleman, music directed by Dr. Jay Crowder and choreographed by Melrose Pyne. On stage to watch for: Payton O’Keefe as Danny, Desiree Claggett as Sandra, Hedy Valentine as Rizzo, and most of all, bringing on the heat, charging up the engines, Cameron Franklin sizzling as Danny’s pal and Rizzo’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, Kenickie.

As director Coleman shares in his notes, “Grease is often dismissed as a lighthearted romp, but beneath its candy-colored exterior lies a story of class struggle, teenage rebellion, and the transformative power of Black music in the 1950s.” Coleman and his cast achieve that “something more.” But at its heart, Grease and this production are a timeless romance between two teens, Danny Zuko and Sandra Dee, trying to figure out who they are that still speaks across generations today. And it romps. And, even more so, this production rocks.

From it’s very open, where two of the teachers (Isabella Desando and Michelle Brink) in perfect schoolmarm tones, address their welcome to the class of 1959 and direct us cleverly to shut down our “celluar devices” (this reviewer enjoys when the oft-repeated warning about devices is done cleverly), and the “greasers” blast down the auditorium’s aisle, the tone is set. Romp. Rock. Roll.

And they are off in Act I to rockin’ numbers, including: “Summer Nights” with Sandra and Danny and their high-spirited crews. “Greased Lightin’,” with terrific choreography, is a showpiece for O’Keefe’s Danny and even more for Cameron Franklin’s Kenickie. The comic timing in “Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” performed by Valentine’s Rizzo, strikes the right note of teen sarcasm and is played and sung to feisty mean-girl perfection. “We Go Together” performed by all is like Rama, lama, lama/Kadingy, Kading-a-dong… Remember forever…that’s the way it should be…flat out fun.

Act II opens with the high school dance and “Shakin’ at the High School Hop,” and the energy — and the fab costumes, a mix of greaser black leather, skinny ties, duck-tailed hair, poodle skirts, and saddle shoes — does not stop with credit to costume designer Ashlynne Ludwig. In particular, in Act II, look for “Alone at the Drive-in Movie,” a ballad performed with power and sweetness by Danny and his crew, and “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” another ballad that nails it, showcasing again this performer and her sassy and brassy Rizzo.

If there were a few flat notes, they were few and more about how Grease, first performed in 1971 and harkening back to 1959, feels dated. The role of Vince Fontaine (Alexander Hardman), a local radio DJ, seemed almost anachronistic in our social media age. His between-scene riffs needed more context or cutting as they slowed the production, particularly in Act II. The big last scene reveal of the tough girl Sandra Dee could have taken another beat or two for dramatic effect. Still, Montgomery College student Desiree Claggett pulled off the transformation with professional class — and head-turning black leather.

Ultimately, what never feels dated is first love. These Montgomery College performers all hit greased lightnin’ with this production of Grease.

Running Time: Two and a half hours, with one 15-minute intermission.

Grease plays through March 2, 2025, presented by the Montgomery College Performing Arts Series at the Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center, Montgomery College – Rockville Campus, 51 Mannakee Street, Rockville, MD. Purchase tickets ($5–$10) online.

COVID safety: Masks optional.

Grease
Book, Music and Lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
Directed by Ian Anthony Coleman
Music Direction by Dr. Jay Crowder
Choreography by Melrose Pyne

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The last play of the year at 1st Stage, Laughs in Spanish, directed by Elena Velasco (she/ella), is a rollicking, code-switching, witchy, and wonderful 90 minutes of fun.

Over-the-top diva matriarch Estella (Fran Tapia) is the play’s heart and soul. The fun begins when the Hollywood movie star unexpectedly whisks into Miami for Art Basel, the most monied and prestigious art happening, and into her daughter’s gallery, which should be having its biggest show of the year — except the art has been stolen.

This leads to some soul-searching and comic eruptions among the five-person ensemble. The gallery owner, Estella’s only daughter, Mariana (Pepin, they/he/she), is beside herself. Her intern, Carolina, an MFA student (a delightful Lenny Mendez), is all too ready to step in with her own art. Her boyfriend, Juan (Camilo Linares, he/him), a policeman, is investigating the crime — and with perfect soulful, clueless side-kick comic timing, steals almost every scene he’s in.

But the essence of this comedy is female and witchy. Estella has too often been relegated to playing stereotyped cleaning women, though with her big personality, she should be a star. This is her moment.

In key dramatic scenes with her daughter, who has felt distanced and abandoned by her mother, Estella is called a bruja, a witch. It’s in the scenes between mother and daughter that we see the power of both women (and these two actors). The daughter’s emotional depth, breadth, and pain are revealed as are the mother’s. In comedy, there is always tragedy.

And there is also love. A sweet love story unfolds between the hard-charging Mariana and Estella’s assistant, Jenny, played by a sure-fired Laura Artesi.

Ultimately, the witchy is centerstage. And it’s brought to life in Estella’s surreal, funny, and deeply moving monologue, when the play has its most thrilling moment. A nod to the scenic design, especially in this incantatory monologue, should go to Jessica Alexandra Cancino.

The play by Alexis Scheer, which won the Kennedy Center’s Harold & Mimi Steinberg Award, gives a big nod to the Jewish Columbian roots of this native-born Miami playwright. A key part of the play’s fun — and social satire — is how the characters all code-switch and move from the white world and its cadences and accents to their own.

However, this is a comedy, and the humor is joyful, one of the connections gained — and missed, of true identities and motives revealed, and of the long-lasting and endearing love of a mother and daughter for one another rediscovered and celebrated. The major issues and conflicts of the day, of identity and racism, are skimmed over and left for another play to delve into. Family and love are the order of the day. The Laughs in Spanish are familial, uncontained, and insistingly joyful.

Lastly, the sound design by Tosin Olufolabi adds perfectly to the Miami Latin vibe of the show, and when the ensemble breaks out into a salsa at the end of the show, and they urge the audience to break in and dance too, most of us, this reviewer included, are eagerly awkward but ready to join in the fun.

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

EXTENDED: Laughs in Spanish plays through January 5, 2025 (Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Fridays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 2 pm and 7:30 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm), at 1st Stage, located at 1524 Spring Hill Road, Tysons, VA. Purchase tickets ($55 for general admission, with limited tickets for $25 and $40 at each performance) by calling the box office at 703-854-1856, going online, or in person before each performance. Select performances are open-captioned and/or audio-described. Open seating.

The playbill for Laughs in Spanish is online here.

Laughs in Spanish is performed in English con un poquito de español.

COVID Safety: 1st Stage is now a mask-optional space with select mask-required performances offered for each show. See 1st Stage’s complete COVID Safety Information here.

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“Sweet Caroline.” I cannot hear this song without reaching out, pointing to you, and then to me, shouting out “Sweet Caroline, bum-bum-bum…” at every ballgame, wedding, or bar. It’s an anthem to many. To me, it’s my namesake song. You can play this song at my funeral, and I’d be happy.

Years ago, I saw Neil Diamond perform at a sold-out Madison Square Garden. I’ve been a fan ever since, but only Tuesday night at Broadway at the National’s top-notch presentation of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical did I learn that he wrote “Sweet Caroline” in a half-hour, in deep despair, in a motel room in Memphis after breaking up with his first wife. He was pressured to write three songs under a sleazy contract with Bang Records, a mobbed-up music label. He spotted the name Caroline on an old magazine cover, strummed two unexpected chords, and his future was sealed “where it began…” and music history was made.

The framing of A Beautiful Noise is a therapy session between the aging and ailing Neil Diamond (a spirited Robert Westenberg) and his psychologist (Lisa Reneé Pitts), who must pry the facts of his depression from him via his songbook and give us a full-blown life story via his lyrics and songs. Created in conjunction with Diamond, A Beautiful Noise was launched after Parkinson’s disease “prematurely ended my touring career… ‘prematurely’ because my heart and soul and would tour until the day I die,” as shared in the Playbill’s touching “Letter from Neil.”

From a lonely childhood with immigrant parents in Flatbush, Brooklyn (the inspiration for
“America”), to his breakthrough moment at the famous Brill Building in Manhattan with his first song sale, “I’m a Believer,” performed by The Monkeys, and on to being one of the most popular recording and performing artists in the world — he boasts he was the biggest box office draw in the world, ahead of Elvis — A Beautiful Noise gives a high-flying overview of Diamond’s life.

But what gives this bio-musical about a chart-topping hitmaker true heart is the revelations of loneliness, depression, and despair woven throughout.

With Nick Fradiani, the 2015 winner of American Idol, as the younger Diamond, the musical gives us the life of a great performer from the vantage of his life’s lowest points. Diamond’s voice, described as “gravel wrapped in velvet” by Ellie Greenwich (played by Kate A. Mulligan, pitch-perfect, in her fast-talking New York yenta-producer role), soars from Fradiani. His voice is big, and just gravelly and velvety enough.

As the young Diamond, he is a charmer through and through. At the end of the first act, Fradiani brings down the house with the all-cast rendition of “Sweet Caroline” (I’m not sure how many times I can mention this song in one review!).

There is so much more — from “Kentucky Woman,” showing us Diamond’s musical grit (and Fradioni’s range) to the duet of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” with his second wife, played with a scene-stealing voice and stage presence by Hannah Jewel Kohn (originally performed between Diamond and Barbra Streisand, his high school classmate), to the poignant end scene with the older Neil Diamond having a therapy breakthrough moment when he realizes that he will never perform again and he is okay with that as he shares in a faded, soulful voice, “I Am…I Said.” It’s a beautiful noise, making music together, and it keeps the wolves of loneliness and despair at bay. This reviewer would add that it brings us together in a way few things do anymore.

And “Sweet Caroline,” well, after the play officially ended, there were two encores, and one included an all-cast, all-audience sing-along to “Sweet Caroline,” bum bum bum….

A Beautiful Noise doesn’t quite end. The band, under the direction of conductor/keyboardist James Olmstead, which had given a knock-out performance, rocking all night, played us out of the National Theatre. It’s where it began.

Running Time: Two and a half hours with a 15-minute intermission.

The North American tour of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical plays through December 8, 2024, at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington. Tickets ($75–$245) are available online, at the box office, or by calling (202) 628-6161.

Enter the Digital Lottery for a chance to purchase $29 tickets. Learn more here.

The cast and creative credits for the touring production are here.

COVID Safety: Masks are strongly recommended but not required for all ticket holders. For full COVID protocol, go here.

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Last year, I undertook one of the most unusual projects of my life. In a career as a television executive, writer, editor, and educator full of the unexpected, I became an Olney Theater teaching artist at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in Montgomery County, which is dedicated to the performing arts.

Throughout the 2023/24 school year, I co-taught with an extraordinary up-and-coming actress and playwright, Amber Smithers, eighth graders in Ms. Robyn Paley’s first-period theater class. Twice a month, we ran classes focused on the novel-in-verse, Long Way Down, by the acclaimed young adult author Jason Reynolds; we culminated in May with student-written plays inspired by the novel performed by the students on the Olney Stage. Jason Reynolds attended the production and met with the students — a thrilling end. And I felt a special kind of loss, not only for the inspiring Ms. Paley, not only for her students and their energy, imagination, and talent but for my co-teacher. So when Amber shared that she would be in the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth production for student audiences, I thought that I must see her perform.

I traveled to Baltimore for a 10 a.m. Friday production. I didn’t check my emails before getting on the road. When I arrived in Baltimore, I read her message — she would not be in that day’s show. COVID. She urged me to attend anyway.

Why go? I am no longer teaching, choosing instead to focus on my writing and editing projects. My middle school and high school years were decades ago. I attended very large, overcrowded schools in New Rochelle, New York, and we never went on a field trip much less to see a Shakespeare performance. Did I want to spend the morning with raucous, inattentive high school students?

Amber’s invite was a gift.

I will stop now and say that every middle school and high school in the DMV should be attending these productions. In the fall, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Theater Company, the leading classical theater company in Maryland, performs Macbeth, and in the spring, Romeo and Juliet. These student performances are open only to school groups and invited guests of the cast and crew.

The theater space itself is a marvel. The restored former bank space, just a few blocks from Camden Yards, is multitiered with red-velvet seating and feels as much like a postmodern rendition of Shakespeare’s Globe as any venue I have ever been in. Two schools, one Baltimore City school and one suburban Maryland school, were attending the performance today. I caught a student saying as they ambled in from the downtown city street and stared at the sparse stage, “This isn’t at all what I was expecting.”

The players soon gathered on that stage for live music, modern songs with a bent toward the madrigal. As the director of education, Troy Jennings, later pointed out to me, during Shakespearean times, popular songs of the day were always performed before the shows to warm up the crowds. “At every turn, our goal is to engage these students in Shakespeare.”

I sat in the second tier at the edge of the high school students, their teachers, and their chaperones. Around me, the students leaned forward in their seats and began to snap their fingers. I figured that they liked the music’s beat but waited until the play started. That would be trouble. As the witches would soon chant, “Double double toil and trouble/fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

The play, adapted for high school students, would be followed by a talkback. According to Jennings, 12,000 students attended the student performances in 2023. Schools as far as Delaware and Virginia have been in the audience. Tickets for Baltimore City Schools are free via a grant from the mayor’s office.

Now, Macbeth. The performance was stunning and fully engaging. Of course, I missed watching my former co-teacher perform. But somehow, Amber was with me, her witchy presence encouraging my close listening and observance of the actors and scene development, which is what she always did in our class.

The students never leaned back. They giggled and guffawed some when Macbeth, played with a passionate, skilled rigor by Joshua Williams, kissed the tempting and tempestuous Lady Macbeth (Lauren Erica Jackson). They winced as the fight scenes with swords, daggers, and shields ensued with authenticity and grit, and bloodied hands and costumes.

Directed by Katie Keddell, the versatile actors, most in multiple roles, appeared both on stage and in the tiers, surprising and delighting the students (and me), and taking full advantage of the theater. On the edge of their seats, the students cheered as Malcolm (Daniel Sakamoto) and MacDuff (Lloyd Ekpe) boldly played, and their armies stormed the woods outside Macbeth’s castle, and the murderous Macbeth — the last act’s soliloquy heart-bracingly recited — “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” — was vanquished.

No scrolling phones. No social media. These students were fully engaged.

Benny Pope, who has a commanding presence as Duncan, shared with me, “I love the matinees because they inspire me, and I hope there’s that one young person out there, who hasn’t had the opportunity to attend theater before, that a performance like this plants a seed…that it inspires them to think more widely about their possibilities.”

This morning’s performance of Macbeth ended with loads of questions for the actors, moderated by the skillful director of education. The students were then encouraged to come on stage to talk more, get autographs, and, yes, take selfies before climbing back on their waiting school buses at about noon.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s performance of Macbeth was an inspiring, engaging, and joyful field trip — especially for this writer.

Running Time: One hour and 20 minutes, no intermission.

Macbeth plays through November 13, 2024 — and Romeo and Juliet plays from March 10 to April 28, 2025 — at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, 7 South Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD. Admission ($20–$26) is limited to schools for student matinee performances at 10 a.m. Baltimore City public school students are free via a grant from the Mayor’s Office.

The cast and creative credits are here (scroll down).

Created by Summer 2024 Interns Naima Gordon and Teagan McCabe

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A timely and timeless take on The Great Gatsby awaits in the intimate black box theater at Poulton Hall at Georgetown University. The F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, adapted for the stage by Simon Levy, is the centerpiece of the 173rd season of Mask and Bauble, the nation’s oldest continuously running collegiate theater group.

With over 80 students involved in the production, first-time director and Long Island native Briana Sparacino shared in her show notes how eager she was to bring to the stage the classic story set on the Gold Coast of Long Island, New York. Overall, Sparacino directs this American classic that explores wealth, status, class, and sexism in the roaring 1920s — themes that resonate brightly and, at times, bitterly at this moment in America — with an ambition that belies this is her first foray. One hopes it isn’t her last.

The actors embody these big themes with flair. Notably, Nick Carraway, played with reflectively soulful grace by Rishu Nevatia, serves as our observer and witness to the adulterous Tom Buchanan, played with admirable swagger by Massimo D’Onofrio, and to the nouveau riche wealth of Jay Gatsby, played by the suave Nate Findlay, in his white linen suit, flinging his signature line “old sport” with panache.

The scene stealer was Daisy Buchanan, played by the intensely magnetic Emma Erdoes. As she wavered between her husband and Gatsby, as she struggled with her choices and the lack of choices for a woman in the 1920s, she transformed the black box stage back to a time when women were freer than their forebears but not truly free of societal expectations.

The other standouts included Claire Cable, as the best friend and ear to Daisy; Kait Delaney, as the unhappy mistress of Tom Buchannan; and Colin Wechsler, who gives a nuanced, emotional performance as the cheated-on George Wilson.

The costumes, designed by Maya Dow and her crew, were also standouts. They evoked the Prohibition era in all its jazzy flapper finery.

Perhaps the only off-note was the use of jazz renditions of Billy Joel compositions, which were threaded through several scenes. The Long Island–based performer is known more for his working-class pop anthems and working-class commentary on the uptown girls than as a postmodern provocateur. Admittedly, it might also be an age factor since Joel is a contemporary more of mine than of these talented young adults, and his music in the background served only to tease me out of the fictive dream of this production.

It might also be that some of the most powerful moments were without a soundtrack, especially when Nick Carraway spoke directly to the audience about his doubts, hopes, and desire to lead a good and authentic life. All his questioning and pain are there on the stage; no modern musical commentary is needed. The power of these scenes resonated in the actor, in his words, and in the sure-handed direction.

The Great Gatsby is alive and well at Georgetown University in this delightful and thoughtful student-run production by Mask and Bauble.

Running Time: Approximately two hours with a 10-minute intermission.

The Great Gatsby plays Friday–Sunday, November 1–3; Wednesday, November 6; and Friday–Sunday, November 8–10, 2024, presented by Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society  performing at Georgetown University in Poulton Hall, Stage III, 1421 37th Street NW, Washington, DC. The run is sold out, but there is waitlist registration (tickets $10) online.

The program for The Great Gatsby is online here.

The Great Gatsby
Adapted by Simon Levy
Directed by Briana Sparacino (SFS ’25)
Produced by Ruby Lillie (CAS ’27)
Stage Managed by Ava Schneiberg (CAS ’27)
Technical Direction by Alex Wang (CAS ’25)

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