All stories by Michael Poandl on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Review: 'The Trump Card' at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

The Trump Card, an original solo performance by monologist extraordinaire Mike Daisey, is a searing punch in the gut to rival any leaked Access Hollywood tape. The current production, which …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:28AM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 23, 2016

Review: 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' at American University by Michael Poandl

A funny thing happens on the way out of American University's fabulous new production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. You find yourself humming along to "Comedy Tonight" o…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:18AM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 16, 2016

Review: 'Kiss' at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

I go to see live theatre for a lot of reasons. I go to laugh and to be moved, to feel excitement or empathy, to be entertained in a way that just isn't possible with podcasts or Netflix. I a…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:12AM[SHARE]
Monday, October 10, 2016

Review: 'An Iliad' at Taffety Punk Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

Surprisingly little greets the audience as they enter the intimate black box space at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop where Taffety Punk Theatre Company makes their home. Set, Costume, and Pr…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:09PM[SHARE]
Saturday, October 8, 2016

Post-Play Palaver: 'Angels in America: Part Two: Perestroika at Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center by John Stoltenberg and Michael Poandl

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Metro Theater Arts writers who saw the same performance, got really into talking about it, and decided to continue their…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:32PM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 25, 2016

Review: 'Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s' at Flying V by Michael Poandl

Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s is less a stroll down memory lane and more of a flying leap into an exploding memory bomb. Just a few steps into the Writer's Center, where Flying…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:24PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 19, 2016

Review: 'Rock the Line' at Venus Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

In the program note for Rock the Line, Playwright Kathleen Warnock describes her new play as, "Kind of like Waiting for Godot, if Godot really came and played electric guitar." As it turns o…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Review #2: 'Going to a Place Where You Already Are' at Theater Alliance by Michael Poandl

The main reason I adore live theatre, in comparison to other art forms like cinema, is that the fiber and ligaments that make up this thing we call life – truth, in other words –…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:02AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Review: 'Garbage Kids' at Venus Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

The new play Garbage Kids by Baltimore-based playwright Jayme Kilburn, now receiving its world premiere at Venus Theatre Company, is a cleverly plotted emotional booby trap. The first act is…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:12AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 16, 2016

Review: 'War of the Worlds' at Scena Theatre by Michael Poandl

Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds is infamous for having incited a mini UFO panic due to its vivid and realistic descriptions of a fictitious Martian invasion. The i…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:09PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Review: '12 Angry Jurors' at St. Mark's Players by Michael Poandl

There is probably no clearer distillation of classic American courtroom drama than Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men. The classic tale of a seemingly cut-and-dry murder case turned upside d…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 06:55PM[SHARE]
Monday, May 2, 2016

Review: 'Wild Sky' at Solas Nua by Michael Poandl

Exactly one century ago, on Easter Week 1916, Irish nationalists staged uprisings in Dublin and some surrounding areas in defiance of centuries of British rule, and in particular their consc…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:52AM[SHARE]
Monday, April 25, 2016

Review: 'Hugo Ball: a Dada puppet AdveNTuRe!!/?1!!?? at Pointless Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

The whooshing, passionate ride that is Hugo Ball: a Dada puppet AdveNTuRe!!/?1!!?? " an original piece by DC’s perennial enfant terrible, Pointless Theatre Company – masquerades …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:00PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 10, 2016

Review: 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' at The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts by Michael Poandl

The Island of Dr. Moreau is kind of like a 19th century Jurassic Park. In fact, it's more grisly than the latter – Moreau involves the forcible creation of human/animal hybrids –…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:14PM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 9, 2016

Review: 'Jersey Boys' at National Theatre by Michael Poandl

Jersey Boys, the 2005 Broadway smash hit and preeminent "jukebox musical", is now bringing its signature blend of tough guy brashness and doo-wop dazzle to the National Theatre for a brief r…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:54PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Review: 'Proof' at 1st Stage by Michael Poandl

At one point in David Auburn's multiple award-winning drama Proof, which is currently being given an exceptionally gripping treatment at 1st Stage in Tysons, Hal Dobbs gushes to Catherine…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:42PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 4, 2016

Review: 'in a word' at The Hub Theatre by Michael Poandl

By the time you realize that you've been emotionally captured by in a word, the breathtaking drama now playing at The Hub Theatre in Fairfax, it is too late to escape. Not that you would wan…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:45PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Review: 'Fur' at Venus Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

Venus Theatre's new tour de force production of Migdalia Cruz's Fur opens with a characteristically jarring scene: Michael, a white-suited animal lover, wheels a giant industrial strength ha…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:46PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 14, 2016

Review: 'The Pillowman' at Forum Theatre by Michael Poandl

Martin McDonagh, the erstwhile enfant terrible of millennial European drama who is now a staple of contemporary theatres across the globe, is the sort of playwright whose words need little m…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:17PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Review: 'You, Or Whatever I Can Get' at Flying V and National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts by Michael Poandl

You don't have to work very hard to find your way from the box office to the theater in Flying V Theatre and the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts' new co-production of You, or Whate…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:50AM[SHARE]
Sunday, February 14, 2016

Review: 'Romeo and Juliet' at Virginia Opera by Michael Poandl

Few stories have been as revised, re-told and reconstructed as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. But a rendition that is not as performed as it should be is the 19th century opera by French Ro…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:18AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Review: 'Agents of Azeroth' at The Washington Rogues at Flashpoint by Michael Poandl

Now, in DC theatre, video games are hot. From Rorschach's She Kills Monsters to Flying V's The Oregon Trail and Molotov's Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, audiences (and Artistic Directo…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:34PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 18, 2016

Review: 'Equus' at Constellation Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

Since Peter Shaffer's Equus made its striking return to the Anglo-American imagination in 2007, when then-17 year old Daniel Radcliffe stirred international controversy by appearing nude in …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 06:28PM[SHARE]
Sunday, December 13, 2015

'Hansel and Gretel' by the Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center by Michael Poandl

Once upon a time, dozens of children streamed into the elegant Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center, all of them paragons of excitement and curiosity. Were these holiday tots rushing in to …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:45PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 8, 2015

'A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular' at Pointless Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

I don’t usually go in for all of that holiday crap. If you ask me, 'tis the season for saccharine platitudes and interminable carols that all serve to mask the consumerist orgy that is…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:15AM[SHARE]
Saturday, December 5, 2015

'Declassified: In Motion featuring Ben Folds' by The National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center by Michael Poandl

The National Symphony Orchestra/The Kennedy Center Declassified series, launched on Saturday with its performance of In Motion featuring Ben Folds, is a bold initiative to counter the fundam…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:38PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 16, 2015

'The S* Show' at Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) at Atlas by Michael Poandl

As the days get shorter and the weather gets chillier, my favorite antidote to the encroaching winter is a strong dose of theatrical comfort food. Luckily for me, this is exactly what the Ga…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:16PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 27, 2015

'Avenue Q' at Constellation Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

Avenue Q is that rarest of Broadway hits that captivates everyone, theatre geek or casual fan, who has blushed at its racy tunes or busted a gut seeing the hilarity firsthand. I am pleased t…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:45AM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 25, 2015

The Women's Voices Theater Festival: 'Raw' at Venus Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

Among other notable experiences I've had during the Women's Voices Theatre Festival, I can now say I've been admonished by a cow. Please don't think I'm being derogatory. Because in Venus Th…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:09PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 22, 2015

'Antigone' at The Kennedy Center by Michael Poandl

Renowned Belgian director Ivo van Hove is famous for his radical re-imagining of classical works, and his rendition Sophocles' Antigone  is no different. Academy Award winner Juliette Bin…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:50PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 21, 2015

"Capers' at Forum Theatre by Michael Poandl

'Capers, a one-person show performed with stunning virtuosity by Anu Yadav and co-produced with dog & pony dc, is not playing for long at Forum Theatre " three more performances between …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:56PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off