A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  Cedric Neal (center) as the Leading Player with the company of Pippin at Signature Theatre. Photo credit: Daniel Rader. “We’ve got magic to do / Just for you” is a lyric from the opening number of the 1972 musical Pippin , now onstage at Arlington’s Signature Theatre. And the show delivers – with literal gasp-producing magic illusions interspersed throughout the show. Based on a couple of real historical characters from the 9 th century, King Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire and his son Pippin, everything else is a theatrical invention. The musical was the first by composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz who would eventually write Godspell and Wicked , to name the two most successful follow-ups. Although Roger O. Hirson is credited with the libretto, the fingerprints of original director/choreographer Bob Fosse are all over the material. Fosse’s contributions essentially breathed life into the framework that Hirson and Schwartz created, pushing the show into riskier and darke...

 \ Jacob Ming-Trent in How Shakespeare Saved My Life at Folger Theatre. Photo credit: Erika Nizborski. In September 2025, I reviewed Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Merry Wives , an updated adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor as filtered through award-winning playwright Jocelyn Bioh. I wrote the following about the actor playing one of the leading roles: “Jacob Ming-Trent is having a wonderful time as Falstaff, the crude, disheveled mountain of a man whose presence is so real one could almost smell his stench. Ming-Trent gives a charismatic performance in his first STC appearance.” How Shakespeare Saved My Life is Ming-Trent’s personal story of his relationship to Shakespeare, as introduced by a high school teacher. The high school student found his inspiration in the words of the world’s most famous playwright and began to consider (and call) himself from an early age “a Shakespearean actor.” Shakespeare served as a beacon for a young man ...

  Justin Weaks, who created and performs A Fine Madness at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Photo credit: Christina Daniels. It should come as no surprise that the current offering by the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, which will be performed at various DC locations, is something that defies easy classification. A Fine Madness , conceived and performed by Justin Weaks, is not a play (as he makes clear early on), but it is a kind of storytelling.   Weaks is a talented actor who memorably impressed me in his Helen Hayes Award-winning performance in Arena Stage’s 2023 production of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches . Here, he takes on the role of himself. A Fine Madness is a personal, timely, insightful, 90 minutes of group therapy, audience participation, reflection, and triumph, not just for Weaks, but for the audience as well. A Fine Madness has its roots in the lockdowns of 2020 in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the memory of which every audience member over 15 or so ...

  Ben Turner as Iago and Wendell Pierce as Othello in The Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Othello . Photo credit: Teresa Castracane. Back in March (which now seems like many months ago), I reviewed Folger Theatre’s As You Like It , noting that I had seen eight productions or adaptations of Shakespeare, but what plays the productions all had in common is occurring in contemporary or familiar places, but not a single one in what I would consider a “classic” Shakespearean location. Now, with the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Othello , currently onstage at STC’s Sidney Harman Hall, make it nine: six at STC and three at Folger, including two adaptations/updates, one at each venue. In this production, according to the program,  the play takes place,   in “a modern capital,” with the time designated as “now.” Othello , the shortened name of what Shakespeare titled The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice , could well have been titled The Tragedy of a ...

  Barzin Akhavan, Peregrine Teng Heard, and Nancy Robinette in The Motion at Arena Stage. Photo credit: Kian McKellar. Is it ethical to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to research a review about a play that, in part, takes AI as its subject matter? That is one of many questions about the subject of AI, which seems to be increasingly asking for our attention. In this instance, I was searching for definitions of “motion,” given that The Motion is the new play by Christopher Chen currently being performed in the Fichandler Theatre space at Arena Stage, directed by Arena artistic director Hana S. Sharif. At the beginning of the play, “motion” takes on the second of two primary definitions: a proposal for a discussion or resolution at a meeting. As The Motion begins, the motion up for discussion is whether animals should be used for medical testing. Two “debaters” from each side make their cases, with a moderator keeping the discussion focused and balancing the time afforded to ea...

  Constance Zayroun in A Good Day to Me Not to You in the Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage, through May 3. Photo credit: Daniel Rader. A Good Day to Me Not to You (into which I would desperately like to insert a comma), the title of Arena Stage’s current offering by Lameece Issaq in its Kogod Cradle space, draws its title from a conversation conveyed by the central character early in the play. In a bit of conflict with a woman whose space she has disturbed, the offended one wants to ensure that the woman infringing on her space understands that she is by no means wishing “a good day” to the offender, but only to herself. That contretemps is just one of many our central character will relate to us during the 90 minutes in which we, her audience, become her confidante and to whom she will relate the story of her life in intimate and sometimes painful detail. The playwright keeps her anonymous – the program calls her “the Narrator.” She doesn’t even have a name, or, if she does, finds ...