All stories by Nelson Pressley on BroadwayStars

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sutton Foster offers finely crafted finishes at George Mason concert by Nelson Pressley

Sutton Foster, Broadway's busy leading lady turned hopeful TV star (ABC Family's "Bunheads"), chose to glow softly rather than to beam white-hot Saturday night at George Mason University's C…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:51PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 27, 2012

'Fly' at Ford's Theatre is uplifting story of Tuskegee Airmen by Nelson Pressley

Tap is an earthy, feet-on-the-ground style of dance, yet it helps lift the drama "Fly" at Ford's Theatre. Omar Edwards plays a figure called the Tap Griot, and as the show's opening montage …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:27PM[SHARE]
Friday, September 21, 2012

Rain Pryor: Drought buster for Baltimore's Strand Theater? by Nelson Pressley

BALTIMORE " You probably don't know the Strand Theater Company in Baltimore. Tiny joint, converted storefront in the Station North area, 55 seats, just entering its fifth season. The person …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:13AM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 20, 2012

Sutton Foster, from Broadway to 'Bunheads,' anything goes by Nelson Pressley

NEW YORK " Sutton Foster, the musical theater dynamo with the long legs and cheery smile, has won Tony Awards playing indomitable leading ladies in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (2002) and "Any…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:39AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

'Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris' is quintessential urbane cabaret by Nelson Pressley

"Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" has always known that embassies are under attack, that diplomatic and romantic relations are chronically strained and that survival is ro…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:26AM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 13, 2012

Annie Baker, the playwright with a gentle eye for cruelty by Nelson Pressley

NEW YORK " Playwright Annie Baker, at 31 a sudden darling of the country's new-play scene, is charmingly laid-back until you bring up a word that often characterizes her barbed, often comic…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:12AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 4, 2012

At Rep Stage, 'The Temperamentals' traces pre-Stonewall gay rights movement by Nelson Pressley

No spoilers, but let's skip straight to the end of "The Temperamentals" because that's the most interesting part. The characters in the play by Jon Marans address the audience and explain wh…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:33PM[SHARE]
Friday, August 31, 2012

'Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity' climbs into the ring at Woolly Mammoth by Nelson Pressley

Clues that James Long, making his theatrical debut as a wrestler in the Pulitzer-nominated drama"The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity," is in fact a real-life wrestler: His hair is tied in a…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:07PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 30, 2012

'Body Awareness' at Theater J: Real problems couched in funny business by Nelson Pressley

At first glance, the ingredients of playwright Annie Baker's "Body Awareness" may seem sitcom simple. Take a Vermont lesbian couple " Joyce, a high school cultural studies teacher, and Phyll…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:45PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 20, 2012

Review: 'Goldfish Thinking' from Longacre Lea by Nelson Pressley

The trippy new drama "Goldfish Thinking" opens with bodies on the floor and a detective inspecting the wreckage. Clues: pay attention to them. Try to keep up. By the end of this cheerfully i…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:42PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Theater review: 'A Maze' and the special nature of artists by Nelson Pressley

More than halfway through Rob Handel's agreeably ramshackle drama "A Maze," a debate breaks out about the special nature of artists. Are creative people different from the rest of us? Are th…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:31AM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 12, 2012

Olney Theatre Center's 'Little Shop of Horrors' takes itself too seriously by Nelson Pressley

"Fun" was the word that book and lyrics writer Howard Ashman used to describe his goal, with composer Alan Menken, for the man-eating plant-from-outer-space musical "Little Shop of Horrors."…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:43PM[SHARE]
Friday, August 10, 2012

Theaters look for new ways to draw in subscriptions by Nelson Pressley

"Subscribe Now!" was the title of a 1977 book by Danny Newman that became the marketing bible for performing-arts institutions in the United States. "No!" comes the answer from audiences a g…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:55PM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 26, 2012

Capital Fringe Festival will stay put for another year by Nelson Pressley

The Capital Fringe Festival just heaved a sigh of relief: This won't be the last year the quick-hit performance extravaganza occupies its ramshackle compound on New York Avenue NW after all.…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:49PM[SHARE]

'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' reprised for Election 2012 by Nelson Pressley

For hard-boiled, up-to-the-minute social relevance, a 1978 musical comedy about a "lil' ole bitty pissant country place" populated by hearts-of-gold hookers might not be the first place you'…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:07PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 25, 2012

'Arlen and Berlin Occupy the Fringe': A five-singer cabaret at Source Theatre by Nelson Pressley

The grand American tradition of singing bright songs through hard times gets a pleasant workout in "Arlen and Berlin Occupy the Fringe," a five-singer cabaret at Source Theatre. An early ton…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:14AM[SHARE]
Friday, July 13, 2012

The Rant: Proven plays, major writers often edged off D.C.'s marquee by Nelson Pressley

It is not the job of Washington theater to be New York lite. There is no reason for our top-flight professional stages to simply replicate last year's Manhattan hits. On the other hand, ther…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:34PM[SHARE]

Signature Theatre hosts Sizzlin' Summer Cabaret by Nelson Pressley

Life is not a cabaret in buttoned-down Washington. Or is it? The show tune and its close cousins may be making more inroads around town than you'd guess. More than ever, it's possible to fin…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:16PM[SHARE]

'D.C. Trash': Ron Litman's treasure at Capital Fringe Festival by Nelson Pressley

The bliss you feel at the end of Ron Litman's "D.C. Trash" is his triumph, and not just the kind of sentimental uplift of watching an actor in his early 60s who's been hauling garbage lately…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:56AM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 12, 2012

Mike Daisey on the truth and facts of 'The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs' by Nelson Pressley

It's impossible to gauge precisely how Mike Daisey's controversial one-man "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" will be different this week when the Apple-Exploits-Chinese-Workers expos…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:40PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 6, 2012

3 acts to catch at the Capital Fringe Festival by Nelson Pressley

It unfurls all over again Thursday, the swarming arts and humanity carnival that is the Capital Fringe Festival. The anything-goes event is in its seventh summer season, headquartered for …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 09:19AM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 5, 2012

Andrew Lippa, the musical force behind 'The Addams Family' by Nelson Pressley

It used to be audiences knew the names of the people who wrote the shows: Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Nowadays, the musicals that aren't ripping…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:36PM[SHARE]
Friday, June 29, 2012

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company: The charming Bards of Baltimore by Nelson Pressley

In less than 10 years, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has become a winsome local poster child for the classic outdoor, family-friendly theater experience. Before a recent Sunday night pe…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:20PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 21, 2012

'Sleuth' at Olney Theatre is intriguing play by Nelson Pressley

No clue why suburban Maryland's two big theaters are staging vintage mysteries at the same time, but plainly something's afoot. Bethesda's Round House Theatre is still in the clutches of the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:26AM[SHARE]
Friday, June 15, 2012

'Memphis' at Kennedy Center: Tony winner takes a spin through D.C. by Nelson Pressley

The Broadway musical "Memphis" may be strutting into the Kennedy Center's Opera House with the 2010 best musical Tony Award in its pocket, but it doesn't do much with the ancient terrain of …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:31AM[SHARE]
Friday, June 1, 2012

Theater review: Actors make magic in 'The Illusion' by Nelson Pressley

Rapture comes naturally to playwright Tony Kushner, and in "The Illusion," he plants a big swoony kiss on the lips of the theater. At Forum Theatre, director Mitchell Hebert kisses right bac…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:37AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 28, 2012

'Flora the Red Menace': 1st Stage musical doesn't hit high points by Nelson Pressley

"Flora the Red Menace" is the rarely revived musical John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote immediately before breaking through with "Cabaret" in the mid-1960s, so hard-core musical theater buffs ma…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:37PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 17, 2012

No Title by Nelson Pressley

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SOURCE: Washington Post at 09:54PM[SHARE]

At 28, Matthew Gardiner has rising role at Arlington's Signature Theatre by Nelson Pressley

The yin and yang of young Matthew Gardiner: ●He's precociously unrushed and composed, a slender dude in boots and jeans. Signature Theatre's 28-year-old associate artistic director sit…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 09:54PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

At Artisphere, the dawning of the age of Dionysus by Nelson Pressley

The musical "Hair" turns out to be a good way to think about the largely wonderful staging of "The Bacchae," now at WSC Avant Bard's intimate Artisphere home in Arlington. Shaggy actors scam…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:44PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 4, 2012

Washington Stage Guild gives George Bernard Shaw " and his strong-minded women " a home by Nelson Pressley

Atypical George Bernard Shaw woman, on love: "Change the subject, or I shall go to sleep." Another Shavian female, poor and uneducated, to a professional writer: "I'm never wrong when I see …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:03PM[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