The annual affection of what’s accident on Washington stages.
With big new musicals across-the-board the city, the holidays can’t be far off. In a adapted key, you can analysis out Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina in the Belarus Free Theatre’s “Burning Doors” Oct. 26- and 27 at the University of Maryland; see the ETC. class below.
READ MORE: Peter Marks with Tina Fey and the “Mean Girls” team
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PREVIEWING
“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.” The 1986 Billie Holiday concert drama. Nov. 2-19 at Rep Stage, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. Tickets $15-$40. Call 443-518-1500 or appointment repstage.org.
“Mean Girls.” Headed for Broadway abutting spring; book by Tina Fey, based on her 2004 movie. Music by TV composer-producer Jeff Richmond (“SNL,” “30 Rock” — and Fey’s husband), lyrics by Nell Benjamin (“Legally Blonde”), directed by Casey Nicholaw (“Book of Mormon”). Oct. 31-Dec. 3 at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets $48-$128. Call 202-628-6161 or appointment thenationaldc.org.
“Mystery School.” Nora Achrati plays the bristles women in Paul Selig’s one-woman drama, presented by the Edge of the Universe Players 2 in Woolly Mammoth’s call hall. Oct. 29-Nov. 20 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St. NW. Tickets $25. Appointment universeplayers2.org.
“The Pajama Game.” The 1954 agreeable ball about a activity blast in a PJ plant, featuring such numbers as “Hey There” and “Steam Heat.” Directed by Shakepeare Theatre Company accessory aesthetic administrator Alan Paul (“Kiss Me, Kate,” “Man of La Mancha”). Donna McKechnie, the aboriginal Cassie in “A Chorus Line,” is on lath in a acknowledging role. Oct. 27-Dec. 24 at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW. Tickets $40-$120, accountable to change. Call 202-488-3300 or appointment arenastage.org.
“The Ravens.” A ball from “Soft Revolution” biographer Alana Valentine about a woman aggravating to leave the sex assignment trade. Nov. 2-26 at the Venus Theatre Ball Shack, 21 C St., Laurel. Tickets $40. Call 202-236-4078 or appointment venustheatre.org.
“Vicuña & An Epilogue.” “Other Desert Cities” author Jon Robin Baitz’s Trump banter “Vicuña” — about a businessman-presidential applicant affairs what he hopes will be a bewitched clothing — debuted in L.A. aftermost October; Mosaic Amphitheater stages the D.C. premiere, and the apple premiere of Baitz’s epilogue. Nov. 1-Dec. 3 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets $20-$65. Call 202-399-7993 or appointment mosaictheater.org.
CONTINUING
“The Adventures of Peter Pan.” “A funny, fast-paced, visually arresting new Synetic Amphitheater production. Among the adaptation’s arresting appearance is a cogent backstory for Tinker Bell. Portrayed with brownie action by Ana Tsikurishvili, the bogie is a arresting amount whose lime-green dress swirls with tiny lights and whose antsy movements adumbration at the beastly activity she channels.” (Celia Wren) Through Nov. 19 at Synetic Theater, 1800 S. Bell St., Arlington. Tickets $20-$60. Call 866-811-4111 or appointment synetictheater.org.
Celia Wren reviews “Peter Pan”
“An Act of God.” “More like a ‘A Riff From God,’ a 75-minute ball amateur set delivered Vegas-style by the Lord. Its one-liners acquire from ‘The Daily Appearance With Jon Stewart’ Emmy champ David Javerbaum’s Twitter annual @TheTweetOfGod (3 amateur followers). Tom Adventure wryly delivers the angelic shtick, but this glossy assembly cries out for added convincing comedy-club rapport.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Nov. 26 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets $40-$104, accountable to change. Call 703-820-9771 or appointment sigtheatre.org.
Nelson Pressley on “An Act of God”
“Antony & Cleopatra.” “You could accomplish ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ arena-scale and get abroad with it; the passions and prima donna reversals are that grand. Administrator Robert Richmond goes the added way at the Folger, authoritative a attenuate about-face of the 250-ish seat
Elizabethan date to a comfortable in-the-round space. Cody Nickell and Shirine Babb beautifully
embody the able lovers in Mariah Hale’s aces and adulatory costumes, and they command our absorption as if by birthright. But they don’t generally acquisition tones amid joy and anger.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Nov. 19 at Folger Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE. Tickets $35-$79. Call 202-544-7077 or appointment folger.edu.
Nelson Pressley reviews “Antony and Cleopatra”
Profile of “Antony and Cleopatra” administrator Robert Richmond
“Are You Now or Accept You Anytime Been.” “Carlyle Brown’s torn-from-the-archives ball about artist Langston Hughes adverse interrogators on Capitol Hill during McCarthyism’s heights. Composer and keyboardist William Knowles food an aboriginal account of applesauce and dejection while bristles actors ball and coast about Marcus Naylor, who is appalling and afflicted as Hughes. The access gives the 90-minute appearance a agitated clip that emphasizes Hughes’s anxiety.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Nov. 5 at MetroStage, 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria. Tickets $55-$60. Call 800-494-8497 or appointment metrostage.org.
Nelson Pressley reviews “Are You Now . . . ”
“Assassins.” Not a knock-‘em-dead staging of the Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical, yet the actual charcoal arresting, absolutely in the deathwatch of addition cursory amazement about addition accumulation accessible shooting. Guns are advisedly coiled and articulate about as the casting plays presidential assassins from John Wilkes Booth to John Hinckley; the delineation of off-kilter American affliction still gives you pause. The atramentous carnival atmosphere and best of the performances assume right. The squeaky, complete accent of the Americana music sounds wrong. Through Nov. 12 at Abutting Stop Theatre, 269 Sunset Park Drive, Herndon. Tickets $20-$60. Call 866-811-4111 or appointment nextstoptheatre.org.
“The Book of Mormon.” “South Park” does Broadway in this accepted agreeable comedy, aback at the Kennedy Center for its third tour. “Money can buy happiness. You’ll not alone laugh; you’ll additionally curiosity at the accomplishment with which this appearance is constructed. Yes, the jibes alight into the juvenile, and the jokes at the amount of religion, AIDS and Third Apple abjection may bulldoze you to admiration how that sweet-looking beforehand brace at the end of your alley is demography to all the acutely cursing profanity. But the hasty affair about ‘Book of Mormon’ is that admitting all its anarchic swagger, it’s a agreeable with a soul.” (Peter Marks) Through Nov. 19 at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House. Tickets $59-$199. Call 202-467-4600 or appointment kennedy-center.org.
Peter Marks on “Book of Mormon” in 2013
“The Effect.” “Lucy Prebble’s acute and aesthetic ball apropos the science of love, and how abundant the amoebic elements of allure that advance through our bodies ability be adapted by substances added to our systems. In the sexy, well-synchronized performances of Rafi Silver and Katie Kleiger, Studio Theatre’s beautiful production, directed by David Muse, has no botheration immersing us in the story’s axial mystery: whether the acute affection that develops amid Silver’s Tristan and Kleiger’s Connie has been triggered by the heart, or a canteen of pills.” (Peter Marks) Through Nov. 5 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Tickets $20-$55. Call 202-332-3300 or appointment studiotheatre.org.
Peter Marks reviews “The Effect”
Lucy Prebble chats with Nelson Pressley
“Electra.” The arising 4615 Theatre Company presents a adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy by Nick Payne. Through Nov. 4 at the Highwood Theatre, 914 Silver Spring Ave., Silver Spring. Tickets $10-$16. Appointment 4615theatre.com.
“Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Activity Tonight.” “Lauren Gunderson’s bracing, able ball based on real-life 18th-century French accurate ability Émilie du Châtelet, whose achievements included authoritative bare fixes to Newton’s physics. Gunderson’s ball demands an amateur who can assuredly arm-twist Emilie’s active ability and wit, and in Avant Bard’s accepted production, Sara Barker rises to the task.” (Celia Wren) Through Nov 19 at Gunston Arts Center Amphitheater II, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington. Tickets $35. Call 703-418-4808 or appointment wscavantbard.org.
Celia Wren reviews “Emilie”
“Hello, My Name Is . . . ” “A affecting accession by artist Deb Sivigny that roams through an old abode in the District’s Takoma Park adjacency for audiences of about 15 at a time, immersing admirers in the apple of mostly Korean adoptees growing up in America. Sivigny accurately sets the table for nuanced arguments about acceptance behavior in Korea and the American bureau that insists it’s accomplishing good.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Nov. 12 at Rhizome DC, 6950 Maple St, NW. Tickets $40. Appointment thewelders.org.
Nelson Pressley reviews “Hello, My Name Is . . .”
Geoffrey Himes talks with Deb Sivigny
“Our Town.” Thornton Wilder’s around-the-clock aloof drama. “Director Aaron Posner’s assembly contains accomplished moments of affable ball and balmy animal truth, and some amount performances are winning. But as advised by Aaron Cromie and — added chiefly — accurate and activated by the seven-actor cast, the puppets who characterize the tale’s acknowledging characters generally appear beyond as cutesy. Their ambrosial folk-art attending and appropriate choir — lots of lovable-old-coot speaking patterns — ultimately ambit us from the simple but abstruse absoluteness of Grover’s Corners.” (Celia Wren) Through Nov. 12 at the Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd. Tickets $54-$74. Call 301-924-3400 or appointment olneytheatre.org.
Celia Wren on “Our Town”
“The Price.” Arthur Miller’s 1968 ball of average age-old brother advancing to agreement as they cash ancestors assets, with Hal Linden as 89 year old acclimated appliance banker Gregory Solomon. “Miller knew salesmen, and Solomon’s a beauty: he charms, he jokes and he philosophizes as he nibbles a adamantine above egg from his briefcase. Solomon brings amusement and ablaze to a ball that’s abounding of abundant showdowns, and mostly the role fits Linden like a bendable covering glove. Of advance the guy who played Barney Miller in one of TV’s smarter sitcoms knows how to bead dry punchlines into the prevailing inanity. Linden additionally knows how to acclaim complete addendum of time and loss, which abroad in this achievement blast like gongs.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Nov. 12 at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW. Tickets $40-$111, accountable to change. Call 202-488-3300 or appointment arenastage.org.
“The Price” advised by Nelson Pressley
“Safe as Houses.” “Gets ashore answer itself afresh and afresh as a adapted affectionate of burst ancestors has a ‘Twilight Zone’ moment. It’s Valentine’s Day, and Isabel is adulatory with her additional bedmate aback her aboriginal bedmate walks in out of a storm — not acumen 10 years accept passed. Too little of author Natalie Ann Piegari’s fantasy (debuted by Pinky Swear Productions) passes basal believability tests, and too abundant overwritten chat is composed of addled variations on ‘I don’t understand.’” (Nelson Pressley) Through Nov. 11 at Trinidad Amphitheater in the Logan Fringe Arts Space, 1358 Florida Avenue NE. Tickets $35. Call 866-811-4111 or appointment pinkyswear-productions.com.
Nelson Pressley on “Safe As Houses”
“The Very Aftermost Days of the Aboriginal Colored Circus.” A revised adaptation of the appearance presented by Restoration Date beforehand this year, a new ball with music chronicling the challenges faced by African American bazaar performers in 1920s La Plata, Md. Through Nov. 12 at the Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE. Tickets $45-$55. Appointment restorationstage.biz.
CLOSING
“Clover.” “Written by Laura Rocklyn and Ty Hallmark, ‘Clover’ is an advisory and alive but formally banausic bio-drama about Marian ‘Clover’ Hooper Adams, the wife of Henry Adams. The ball recounts Clover’s career as a association hostess in Washington, the alleviation she begin in photography, and her closing suicide. In the appellation role, Rocklyn suggests Clover’s intelligence, wit, acrimonious abasement and annoyance with activity as a accessible figure.” (Celia Wren) Through Oct. 28 at Caos on F, 923 F St. NW. Tickets $25. Appointment allytheatrecompany.org.
Celia Wren reviews “Clover”
“I’ll Get You Aback Again.” “Playwright Sarah Gancher’s adventure of the alliance of a ’60s bedrock accumulation and the afflicted babe of one of its members. Gancher doesn’t abundantly ascertain who, exactly, it’s about and what after-effects we’re declared to be cat-and-mouse for. Administrator Rachel Chavkin is a agitating orchestrator of agreeable spectacle. But this affectionate of structural casualness is no way to sustain an black that stretches to about three hours.” (Peter Marks) Through Oct. 29 at Round Abode Theatre, 4545 East-West Hwy., Bethesda. Tickets $36-$65. Call 240-644-1100 or appointment roundhousetheatre.org.
Peter Marks on “I’ll Get You Aback Again”
“Great Comet” administrator Rachel Chavkin makes her DC debut
“The Lover/The Collection.” Harold Pinter one-acts, directed by Michael Kahn. “‘The Lover’ draws us apace and alluringly into the busy charades of a white-collar British brace who assume to be in connected charge of alternate reassurance, or added aroma in the bedroom, or both. Impeccably manicured housewife Sarah (Lisa Dwan), in the abbreviate and ample apparel of adept artist Jane Greenwood, sends accepted bedmate Richard (Patrick Kennedy) off to assignment with austere kisses and reminders that her lover will be accession in a few hours, for a matinee of animal engagement. Kennedy and Dwan are beautifully matched: They can about-face the beef on and off at will. While abundantly Pinteresque in the array of curveballs it pitches, ‘The Collection’ hasn’t age-old absolutely as well.” (Peter Marks) Through Oct. 29 at the Lansburgh, 450 Seventh St. NW. Tickets $44-$118. Call 202-547-1122, 877-487-8849 or appointment shakespearetheatre.org.
Peter Marks on the Pinter plays
“The Mistress Cycle.” “Five performers singing about actuality the ‘other’ woman. The fashionable Manhattan columnist and the 12th-century boyish Chinese bedmate are blended characters. Others are real: French biographer Anais Nin, New Orleans madame Lulu White and Catherine de Medici’s battling Diane de Poitiers. The alien angle has a alive brooding in the book and lyrics by Beth Blatt and the account (played on keyboard) by Jenny Giering.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Oct. 29 at Creative Cauldron, 410 S. Maple Avenue, Falls Church. Tickets $30. Call 703-436-9948 or appointment creativecauldron.org.
Nelson Pressley reviews “The Mistress Cycle”
“Sotto Voce.” “In 1939, about 1,000 Jewish refugees on the SS St. Louis were denied access to Cuba and the United States; instead they were affected aback to Europe and the Nazis. That’s the actual accomplishments of Nilo Cruz’s ‘Sotto Voce,’ a quiet ball that could calmly accept been a barrage of resentment, but instead is a absorbed flit with ghosts. Administrator Jose Carrasquillo’s affected assembly is active to Cruz’s anapestic effects, and Brigid Cleary is beaming as an aging, antisocial German biographer in New York with ties to the St. Louis.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Oct. 29 at Amphitheater J, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets $39-$69. Call 202-777-3210 or appointment edjcc.org.
Nelson Pressley reviews “Sotto Voce”
“Widowers’ Houses.” “George Bernard Shaw’s ball comes on like a adventurous comedy: A handsome and affluent adolescent man meets an absorbed and affluent adolescent woman. Their bout is blocked, oddly, by the economics of hole housing. The appearance is devilishly anchored by Lawrence Redmond as the ancestor of the ambitious bride, and the absolute achievement is able-bodied balanced, with anniversary amateur blithely putting alternating self-interests and contradictions.” (Nelson Pressley) Through Oct. 29 at the Undercroft Theater, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Tickets $50-$60. Call 240-582-0050 or appointment stageguild.org.
“Widowers’ Houses” advised by Nelson Pressley
“The Wild Party.” “Allison Arkell Stockman directs the agreeable that Andrew Lippa based on the 1928 anecdotal composition by Joseph Moncure March. The adventure centers on two amphitheater performers who, in hopes of reigniting their once-sizzling animal relationship, bandy a disorderly brawl that ends in violence. Choreographer Ilona Kessell makes able use of the baby date area, devising Roaring Twenties ball sequences that accurate the characters’ restlessness.” (Celia Wren) Through Oct. 29 at Source Theatre, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets $25-$55. Call 202-204-7741 or appointment constellationtheatre.org.
Celia Wren on “The Wild Party”
TYA (Theater for Adolescent Audiences)
“The Smartest Girl in the World.” A brother and sister try to advice their parents. Through Oct. 29 at Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. Tickets $12-$30. Call 301-280-1660 or appointment imaginationstage.org.
Jane Horwitz on the fall’s TYA offerings
ETC.
“Burning Doors.” Belarus Free Amphitheater presents its appearance on aesthetic freedom, with Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina. “A multimedia canticle to those who attempt for the rights of the alone and adjoin the atrocity of the state. If you’re analytical about how Pussy Riot survived a alarming ordeal, this is your befalling to ask about it. The anecdotal black builds to a hypnotizing finish, with the actors agreeable in an anytime added physically ambitious set of routines.” (Peter Marks) Oct. 26-27 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, 8270 Alumni Dr., University of Maryland, College Park. Tickets $25. Call 301-405-2787 or appointment theclarice.umd.edu.
Peter Marks reviews “Burning Doors”
The Capitol Steps. The longtime political satirists, disturbing action from the headlines. Fridays and Saturdays in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Barter Center Amphitheater, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets $40.50. Call 202-397-7328 or appointment www.capsteps.com.
“Shear Madness.” The abiding alternate ball whodunit, at 12,000-plus performances. Ongoing in the Kennedy Center’s Amphitheater Lab. Tickets $50-$54. Call 202-467-4600 or appointment kennedy-center.org.
READ MORE:
Springsteen on Broadway, advised by Peter Marks
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom” aftereffect “Love Never Dies” sneaks through Baltimore
A complete adviser to DC’s 2017-18 amphitheater season, with addendum from Post critics
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