A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  Britney Coleman as Bobbie (center) and the North American Tour of Company . Photo credit: Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade. Director Marianne Elliott’s “gender swapped” production of Company was in previews on Broadway in March 2020, scheduled for an official opening on the 90 th birthday of its composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, when the pandemic caused the closure of all theatres. Previews resumed in November 2021, just a few days before Sondheim’s death. The production was acclaimed, winning five 2022 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival and Best Director of a Musical. Sondheim had worked on (and approved of) Elliott’s production in London when it opened in 2018. In truth, though, I would argue that this production, the national company of which is currently playing in the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, is not, in fact, a revival, but a significant revision. It shares the score and most of the libretto with the original, but it is a total re-conception, updating t...

  Derrick D. Truby Jr. (Seymour) in the 2024 Ford's Theatre production of Little Shop of Horrors , directed by Kevin S. McAllister, choreographed by Ashleigh King, and music directed by William Yanesh. Photo by Scott Suchman. Little Shop of Horrors had its origin as a cheaply made B-movie, a comedy/sci-fi/horror film, by Roger Corman, filmed on the leftover set of another film, on a budget of less than $30,000. The original 1960 film became a camp cult classic, known for its wicked humor and outlandish premise, as well as helping introduce a young Jack Nicholson, appearing in his third film. As if comedy/sci-fi/horror was not enough of a genre collision or mash-up, librettist/lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken decided it should be a musical, too, which was originally produced off-Broadway in 1982. Why not? Its success introduced its creators to the Disney Animation Studios, where it inspired a Renaissance of animated musical films (“The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty a...

  Edward Gero, Mark Nelson, and Rene Thornton Jr. in The Lehman Trilogy , produced by Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Teresa Castracane Photography. “Epic” is a word I mostly think of as something episodic, giant, sweeping, and larger than life, so to use it to describe the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current three-actor play, The Lehman Trilogy , may seem an odd choice. But despite the small number of actors involved, the play is sweeping in terms of the events and personalities involved. Its length (a bit more than three and one-half hours, including two intermissions) and the density of its often-poetic language, does, in fact, take on epic proportions, portraying events from the 1840s to the early 21 st century. “Lehman Brothers” as a financial entity attained its greatest prominence by its failure, becoming synonymous with the 2008 financial crisis due to its bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history. But “Lehman Brothers” was more than just a name on a giant cor...

  Tracy Olivera (center) and the cast of Next to Normal . Photo Credit: Margot Schulman Photography. One of the special joys of getting to see a number of productions at different venues in the Washington area is getting to see many actors demonstrating the versatility and range of their talents as they perform different roles in different venues. I don’t know how easily it works from the actors’ standpoint, but they appear to slide seamlessly from one company to another.   When I saw that the Round House Theatre Company in Bethesda, MD, would be staging Next to Normal this season  (in a co-production with Barrington Stage Company) , starring Tracy Lynn Olivera and Kevin S. McAllister, I knew that I would be making the trek to Bethesda for my first visit at the Round House. Unfortunately for me, McAllister’s understudy went on for him at that performance, thus, instead of seeing two long-time favorites, I would see one and become acquainted with an actor I had not prev...

  Gina Daniels as Anna Julia Cooper in Tempestuous Elements  at Arena Stage. Photo credit: Kian McKellar. I can’t remember ever having used the word “elegant” in describing a theatrical production. To make sure I was using the word correctly, I consulted some online resources, where my instincts were confirmed. “Elegant,” to me, includes elements of grace, refinement, dignity, and luxuriousness. My summary of Arena Stage’s current production of Tempestuous Elements is this: it is an elegant production centered on an elegant lead performance by the very talented Gina Daniels, elegantly directed by Psalmayene 24. Tempestuous Elements , written by Kia Corthron, is the latest in Arena’s “power plays” series, now in its world premiere run. Based on real characters and situations regarding the appropriate role of education in the lives of DC’s African American children around and shortly after the turn of the century (19 th to 20 th ), the play focuses on DC educator Anna Julia ...

  Madeline Sayet in Where We Belong at Folger Theatre. Photo Credit: Erika Nizborski Photography. Where We Belong , the title of the current offering at the Folger Theatre presented in association with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, could easily have become a question: Where [do] we belong? Instead, the title is an assertion, a claim of dominion, a statement that where “we” belong is precisely where “we” are: in a Shakespearean theatre in the capital city of a nation that was built by the displacement and genocide of indigenous people and much of their culture, on land that was once the home of the Piscataway tribe, only a few blocks from Woolly Mammoth Theatre, which nurtured this play before it was originally performed digitally, at the height of the pandemic. After a tour with runs in places like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle, “We” belong here , on the stage at Folger Theatre, because in figurative and literal ways, Washington is “home” for this and where it “be...

  (From top) Sabrina Lynne Sawyer, Kalen Robinson, Lauren Fraites, Kimberly Dodson, Khalia Muhammad, and Billie Krishawn in The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes. Photo by Teresa Castracane. The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes , a new play by Vivian J. O. Barnes having its world premiere at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, provides an unexpected series of events and indelible characters. It is a very funny character study of six college students at an HBCU (historically black college or university). They are the step team preparing for the upcoming Homecoming celebration, in which they will be featured as part of the football game’s half-time show. The pressure is on because they will be performing for an audience that will include Sea Mink-ettes from previous years (and generations). There are serious and timely themes at play: teamwork, camaraderie, body image, peer pressure, bullying, tradition, depression, and coping with stress from the need to succeed at school. The play defies easy ca...