Stage section: Metro Weekly

Art Imitates Life

With Nathan Lane in the lead, Douglas Carter Beane's The Nance is an entertaining, must-see spectacle

Published on June 13, 2013, 4:06am

Nathan Lane is playing a flamboyantly gay character on Broadway, one who feels compelled to be closeted, or at least discreet. No, his name is not Albert, and he doesn't try to pass as Mrs. Coleman, the mother of his lover's son. The Nance is definitely not a retread of The Birdcage. In fact, Douglas Carter Beane's The Nance is much gayer -- and far more sophisticated -- than The Birdcage, the 1996 movie that made Lane a celebrity, at ...[Read]

Metal Musical Monster

Landless Theatre Company offers a ''prog-metal opera'' version of ''Frankenstein''

Published on June 13, 2013, 3:50am

''That's pretty much what we do, a lot of rock operas and rock musicals, anything with a little punch to it,'' says Melissa Baughman of Landless Theatre Company. But Richard Campbell's Frankenstein, the quirky local theater company's latest production, is slightly different still -- and a lot punchier. ''It's a 'prog-metal opera,' which is pretty specific,'' Baughman, the show's director, laughs. While this sub-genre, progressive metal, is not widely known, audiences might recognize the band Tool as possibly its best-known ...[Read]

Bird Brain

Aaron Posner's ''Bird'' is edgy and endearing, while Sarah Wayne Callies steals ''The Guardsman'' at the Kennedy Center

Published on June 6, 2013, 3:06am

A gloriously neurotic, hilariously self-aware cri de coeur as told through a cleverly irreverent adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, Aaron Posner's Stupid Fucking Bird is the kind of bold that pays off. Speaking directly and unapologetically to an oft-neglected demographic – the swearing literate – Posner is, without doubt, an original American wit. He is dryly funny, educated and yet oozing the soulful sensibility and unpretentious frankness of an increasingly elusive species: the sensitive East Coast male. But much as ...[Read]

Sensually Cerebral

Rarified, unapologetically wedded to the world of ideas and the process of seeking truth, The Real Thing is Tom Stoppard on love

Published on May 30, 2013, 4:47am

One of the things that separate playwright Tom Stoppard from the herd is his near ruthless assumption of his audience's intelligence, his plays racing with thoughts and ideas that wait for no man. For those starved for such challenges, his plays are like sex for the brain -- tangos in which the experience is not passive but active. To see The Real Thing is to go synapse-to-synapse or risk missing out on the intellectual ecstasies that lay beneath the witty ...[Read]

Wintry Mix

Rebecca Taichman approaches the hurdles in The Winter's Tale with boldness and imagination, but can't overcome its inherent flaws

Published on May 30, 2013, 4:44am

There are two challenges to Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. The first is protagonist King Leontes's near-instantaneous and murderous conviction that his pregnant queen Hermione is having an affair with his childhood friend Polixenes, and the second is bringing cohesion to a plot that diverts from tragedy to comedy and back again. Though director Rebecca Taichman approaches these hurdles with a certain boldness and imagination, neither is wholly surmounted. Take Leontes's jealousy. Unlike Othello, where Shakespeare gradually builds his unhappy husband's ...[Read]

Olney's Edge

The gay-themed play The Submission is a departure for the Maryland theater

Published on May 23, 2013, 7:19am

''[Some] were a little concerned that this might not be the kind of show you should take your children to,'' says David Elliott. ''Another person argued that this is exactly the kind of show you should take your 16-year-old to.'' Elliott is talking about early crowd reaction to The Submission, now playing at Olney Theatre Center. The exurban Maryland theater company is known for staging high-quality productions, even the occasional provocative play. But Olney is best known for staging surefire ...[Read]

Long Story Short

DC Queer Theatre Festival offers short plays for the whole community

Published on May 23, 2013, 7:16am

''There's no real local GLBT theater company that's producing regularly,'' says Matt Ripa. ''When you do see theater companies that are doing plays with gay themes, it's very specifically gay-white-male themes. We want to be a voice for the rest of our community.'' Ripa is referring to the DC Queer Theatre Festival, which he started last year with Rebecca Gingrich-Jones and Alan Balch at the behest of The DC Center. ''When we did the first year of the festival we ...[Read]

All for One

Synetic's Musketeers dazzles with storytelling that is not simply entertaining, but transporting

Published on May 16, 2013, 7:29am

Though the urge to wax lyrical is almost overpowering (and follows below), let's cut to the chase: Synetic's The Three Musketeers is a joyously accessible adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's classic swashbuckler and is simply, absolutely, the most superb fun, whether you are a diehard Synetic fan or chose this as your first foray into the unique world of this one-of-a-kind theater company. With an adaptation (by Ben and Peter Cunis) of the novel delivered in a whirl of wild and ...[Read]

Arid and Overwhelming

This Palm Springs play needs both far less and much more

Published on May 16, 2013, 7:25am

It's always a little disconcerting when you don't get what all the fuss is all about. A case in point, Jon Robin Baitz's Other Desert Cities is an award-winner with a successful Broadway run, and yet beneath its flamboyant premise, flaming one-liners and starkly delineated characters, there is only a tentative foray into its subjects: the bond between parent and adult child and the harsh edge between public and private lives. Of course, the play's popularity suggests that the flaws ...[Read]

Gilgamesh Follies

Constellation's latest epic is only worth it for the visual stimulation provided by the cast

Published on May 16, 2013, 7:23am

Right now, there's a work of art gracing the stage at the Source on 14th Street. And I don't mean Gilgamesh, the fantastical show created around Yusef Komunyakaa's flowery prose poetry. Well, not the script or the story of Gilgamesh anyway. Based on an ancient written epic from Mesopotamia, Komunyakaa's work is too fanciful and over-the-top to fully draw you in or even really understand. You may find yourself asking what's the point? There's no clear answer, even with a ...[Read]

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