All stories by Anne Valentino on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Paradise Blue' at Studio Theatre by Anne Valentino

Immersive theatre experiences can be somewhat tricky to do well. There's the logistics of it all, having actors disciplined enough not to be distracted or thrown off by less-than-conventiona…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:02AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Choke, Or, SUCEDE HASTA EN LAS MEJORES FAMILIAS' at GALA Hispanic Theatre by Anne Valentino

Passion, raw emotion, and utter frustration need no translation in GALA Hispanic Theatre's latest production, "Choke, Or, SUCEDE HASTA EN LAS MEJORES FAMILIAS." The actors pour their hearts …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:06PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 20, 2025

Theatre Review: 'How to Transcend A Happy Marriage' presented by Iron Crow Theatre at Baltimore Theater Project by Anne Valentino

Sarah Ruhl is not one to shy away from more risqué subjects. Her Tony Award-nominated "In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)" deals with, you guessed it, a controversial moment in the his…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 02:35PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Pipeline' at Vagabond Players by Anne Valentino

Dominque Morisseau's "Pipeline" dives straight into the lives of an utterly exhausted mother and her beleaguered son. Nya (Melissa Scott) is a teacher at a NYC public school. As we learn in …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:55PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 13, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Fake It Until You Make It' at Arena Stage (in association with Center Theatre Group) by Anne Valentino

Larissa FastHorse's widely produced "Thanksgiving Play" has helped establish the playwright as someone who expertly deploys sardonic humor and cleverly nuanced sarcasm, particularly when dea…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 03:07PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 11, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Bad Books' at Round House Theatre by Anne Valentino

Should a play strive to present all sides of a given issue? In other words, is any audience experience made more meaningful if no one message or position is prioritized over another, if we g…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:20AM[SHARE]
Friday, April 4, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Uncle Vanya' presented by the Shakeseare Theatre Company in Association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre by Anne Valentino

Of Anton Chekhov's work, Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen insightfully observed that he made "subjectivity edit and rule experience." Moving away from more totalizing abstract themes and events …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:18PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Sleepova' at Olney Theatre Center by Anne Valentino

Playwright Matilda Feyiá¹£ayọ Ibini explains that with this play about four young Black British women, she at last felt the "freedom" to write in a style and language that represents…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:56AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Theatre Review: 'It's a Motherf**king Pleasure" presented by FlawBored at Woolly Mammoth Theatre by Anne Valentino

A meta-theatrical farce that searingly pokes fun at the things people do in the name of trying to quell their mistakes and their anxiety, "It's a Motherf**king Pleasure" hits some truly laug…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:08AM[SHARE]
Friday, March 28, 2025

Theater Review: 'Your Name Means Dream' at Theater J in association with TheaterWorks Hartford by Anne Valentino

Playwright José Rivera's resume is certainly an impressive one. The Obie Award-winning "Marisol" sticks out in my mind as representative of a body of work that brilliantly brings together t…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:34AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Blood at the Root' at Fells Point Corner Theater (FPCT) by Anne Valentino

Though written in 2014, Dominique Morisseau's "Blood at The Root" proves an incredibly timely play. Dealing with themes of racial equality, homophobia, and the crackdown on student protests,…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:55PM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 20, 2025

Event Review: 36th Annual Mock Trial presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company by Anne Valentino

TEACHING THE CREATURE'S BRAIN"WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER?Elizabeth Frankenstein v. Victor Frankenstein Originally conceived in 1994, Shakespeare Theatre Company's Mock Trial event this year tur…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:10PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Concert Review: 'Passports' presented by The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC at The Lincoln Theatre by Anne Valentino

For some, resistance is protesting, for others it's making their voices heard through whatever channel possible during times of strife, and still for others resistance might be as simple and…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:45AM[SHARE]
Sunday, March 16, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Wombat Drool' presented by Nu Sass Productions and Uncle Funsy Productions at the Dance Loft on 14th by Anne Valentino

Wombats, who knew? Former small mammal, zoo biologist David S. Kessler happens to be a pretty ardent supporter of the wombat"of all small mammals really, but perhaps most fondly, the wombat.…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:21PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 14, 2025

Theatre Review: 'The Magriad; or, The Tragedy of Queen Margaret' presented by Avant Bard Theatre at the Gunston Arts Center by Anne Valentino

Boundlessly creative is the only way I can think to describe Avant Barde Theatre's production of "The Margriad." A complex assemblage of four of Shakespeare's history plays"the three "Henry …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 06:05PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Theatre Review: 'The Dumb Waiter' presented by Theatre Du Jour at the DC Arts Center by Anne Valentino

Characters in Harold Pinter's plays tend to have a shorthand when it comes to their conversations. That is, the words they say to one another are generally packed with a lot more meaning tha…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:41PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Art' at Vagabond Players by Anne Valentino

What is "art?" This is the question that Tony award-winning, French playwright Yasmine Reza puts front and center in her quirky drama, "Art" (translated by Christopher Hampton). The Vagabond…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 06:06PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Got it Good' presented by Bethesda Little Theatre at The Writer's Center by Anne Valentino

Getting a new musical on its feet is notoriously difficult. Generally speaking, this is why smaller regional theatres don't often try it. In the case of Bethesda Little Theatre's mounting of…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 12:34PM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 22, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Kunene and The King' presented by Shakespeare Theatre Company at Klein Hall by Anne Valentino

Often, we have difficulty seeing beyond the challenges and barriers specific to our own situation or to our own country. Plays like Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "Kunene and Th…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:29PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Theatre Review: 'The Lake Effect' at 1st Stage by Anne Valentino

Perhaps best known for his Pulitzer-finalist "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," playwright Rajiv Joseph walks a different artistic path with "The Lake Effect" now playing at 1st Stage. A rel…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 06:02PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 17, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Love and Vinyl' presented by Bob Bartlett at Byrdland Records by Anne Valentino

Immersive theatre can take a number of shapes and occur in any number of venues. Bob Bartlett's "Love and Vinyl" is immersive, record-store theatre with a quirky, highly entertaining edge. S…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:43PM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 15, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Hand to God' at Keegan Theatre by Anne Valentino

Given this incredibly challenging artistic and national moment, it is so good to see that DC theatres aren't afraid to embrace material that may be considered on the more controversial side …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:24PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Native Gardens' at NextStop Theatre by Anne Valentino

Acclaimed DC playwright Karen Zacarias's "Native Gardens" has been well produced in regional and community theatres across the country"with good reason. While on its surface, this is the sim…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:02PM[SHARE]
Sunday, February 2, 2025

Theatre News: The Reading Room Festival at The Folger Theatre: Day 1 by Anne Valentino

The Reading Room Festival at the Folger Theatre kicked off Thursday with a deep dive into the historic-minded Shakespeare. Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels invited a few friends to help h…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 08:48AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Downstate' at Studio Theatre by Anne Valentino

The mood as audience members were leaving Studio Theatre following the production of Bruce Norris's "Downstate" was somber to say the least. Given the play's themes and several of the events…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:36PM[SHARE]
Sunday, December 22, 2024

Theatre Review: 'Laughs in Spanish' at 1st Stage by Anne Valentino

Playwright Alexis Scheer seems to possess uncanny insight into what it means to exist with a foot in two different worlds, or more, depending on how many feet you can muster. The characters …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:18PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Concert Review: 'The Holiday Show' presented by The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC at The Lincoln Theatre by Anne Valentino

Always putting on a show full of spirit, heart, and an abundance of feel-good vibes, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC (GMCW) delivers yet again with their holiday extravaganza. Presente…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:30PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 16, 2024

Theatre Review: 'Strange Tales VI (The Strangest Holiday Special (N)ever)' presented by The Coil Project at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop by Anne Valentino

The Coil Project's newest "Strange Tales" installment brings four new short plays with equally bizarre, sometimes macabre, and definitely unconventional twists to the stage of Capitol Hill A…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 12:20PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Theatre Review: 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' presented by Rockville Musical Theatre at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre by Anne Valentino

Musicals don't get much darker than "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Stephen Sondheim's 1979 show, based on a 19th-century penny dreadful, reveals the secret life and diabol…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:47PM[SHARE]
Friday, November 8, 2024

Theatre Review: 'Prayer for the French Republic' at Theater J by Anne Valentino

Joshua Harmon's 2024 Tony-nominated, epically expansive script, "Prayer for the French Republic," investigates the horrors of the Holocaust, albeit as more of a side note than headline, hold…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 03:03PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Theatre Review: 'A Bright Room Called Day' presented by Nu Sass Productions & Pinky Swear Productions at the DC Arts Center by Anne Valentino

The intellectualism of Tony Kushner's work can sometimes obscure the bigger-picture themes and stories and yet, it is this intellectualism that brands his work as distinctly of its time in a…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 06:11PM[SHARE]

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