Metro Weekly

Stage

  • Domestic Drama

    By on January 8, 2003

    Maternal instinct: Coleman as BettyAnn (Photo by Carol Pratt) ''You don't have a family,'' says the successful R&B singer Paul (Sekou Laidlow) to BettyAnn (Rosalyn...

  • Sorry Sunday

    By on January 1, 2003

    Poor Alice Ripley. The Tony-nominated Broadway veteran made such a charming impression last summer in the Sondheim Celebration as the rattled bride-to-be Amy in Company....

  • Going Mental

    By on January 1, 2003

    Probing for answers: Mendenhall, Roy and Brown. Photo by Stan Barouh      Existential farce.      Now there's a couple of words to strike terror in...

  • Stage

    By on January 1, 2003

    Head of the Class: The Shape of Things (Photo by Carol Pratt) Another year, another hundred shows scrutinized. Luckily for local audiences, there was a...

  • Shore to Please

    By on December 18, 2002

    On the halfshell: Redmond as Luther Billis. Photo credit: Scott Suchman For all the familiarity such a hit-laden musical theatre warhorse brings with it, Arena...

  • Winter Blunderland

    By on December 11, 2002

    An off-the-wall, casual approach to tried-and-true Shakespearean comedy can certainly work wonders. I still feel a surge of giddy delight whenever I recall last season's...

  • Frustrating and Timid

    By on December 11, 2002

    Scena Theatre introduces Washington audiences to the controversial 1996 British play Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill, and the company comes frustratingly close to an...

  • Grounded Lyricism

    By on December 11, 2002

    Edward Sanchez's new play Icarus strives to be a lyrical, surreal meditation on dreams and beauty, fueled by the tale of a physically disabled young...

  • Garden Grub

    By on December 4, 2002

    Olney Theatre Center reminds us of what a lovely and sublime Broadway musical The Secret Garden is. If only the company's production could adequately match...

  • Willy-nilly

    By on December 4, 2002

    In the flesh: NBS! cast (Photo by Christopher O. Banks ) There's nothing particularly novel about nudity these days, right? You get a hunkering for...

  • Epic Experience

    By on December 4, 2002

    I love Les Misérables. Even after seeing two touring productions in the '90s and the Broadway production in 2000, the prospect of seeing Boublil and...

  • Toilet Humor

    By on December 4, 2002

    Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: LaForce, Murray and Painter (Photo by Ian Armstrong ) There's a lot to be said for taking a taboo subject...

  • Blah Humbug

    By on November 20, 2002

    Signature Theatre playwright Norman Allen has taken Dickens's A Christmas Carol, updated it to 1911 New York City, illustrated it with ragtime-era songs, and re-christened...

  • Home Run

    By on November 20, 2002

    The Studio Theatre Secondstage has emerged for its new season in outstanding form with Bat Boy The Musical, the ultra-quirky off-Broadway hit inspired by the...

  • Bottom Less

    By on November 20, 2002

    Rainey Days: Fabrique (Photo by Scott Suchman) By design, playwright August Wilson's work is never going to move at anything even resembling breakneck speed. His...