“Where the fuck is she?” whispers pianist Otto (Heath Saunders) after performer Erika Stern (Alexis Fishman) fails to appear following his grandiose introduction. “Let’s do it from the top” he instructs the band members and this time Erika does appea …Read more

When a play asks its actors to play multiple characters of opposing type, age, and time period, the results go in one of two directions. If the actors succeed, the versatility and character choices feel seamless and in support of the story; for the a …Read more

The Project Rushmore Theatre Company presents plays that “offer inspiration and insight into American culture”, and their latest production, World of Sinatras by Sean O’Connor, certainly lives up to the company’s goal. O’Connor’s play, a slice of dys …Read more

Take a story about historic art restoration, communism, and human misery, add a ton of heart, humor, hope and hubris, and you might get something approximating David Edgar’s Pentecost. The PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project) revival of Edgar’s 1994 pla …Read more

We hear the notes of a piano followed by an announcement, “ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see is real magic”, exclaims Avi Leiter (Travis Stuebing) before adding, “but don’t despair, it’s still just a trick”. With the playfully ominous t …Read more

Derek Ahonen’s The Qualification of Douglas Evans is a modern take on the morality play that feels like 8 ½ by way of Days of Wine and Roses. As in Blake Edwards’ 1962 film (based on a teleplay by JP Miller), Ahonen presents us with characters full o …Read more

Mark Roberts’ Enter at Forest Lawn is a play that examines the darkest confines of human nature through the prism of the entertainment industry. Set inside the cavernous office of megalomaniac television producer Jack Story (Mark Roberts), the show c …Read more

A few minutes into The Long Shrift, Robert Boswell’s new play at the Rattlestick Playwright’s Theatre, and Sarah and Henry, a middle aged couple, are in the midst of what is surely not their first argument over their son, barely out of high school an …Read more

About midway through the opening number of Academia Nuts, you will think: “It’s A Chorus Line for nerds.” Here’s a collective of kids hell-bent on giving their all to win, not a dancing gig, but a scholarship; surely the songs and confessions of pers …Read more

In Feather Gatherers, presented at The New Ohio Theatre as a part of the Ice Factory Festival, Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanagin, along with The Drunkard’s Wife, their troupe of actors, dancers, and musicians, remind us that sometimes the best sto …Read more