All stories by Peter Marks on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Kushner's 'Guide': Long, gabby and intelligent by Peter Marks

It's been perilously gusty this week outside the confines of Theater J " and within. A great torrent of words is whooshing across the company's stage, courtesy of Tony Kushner and his garrul…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:10PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 17, 2014

A big, beautiful "Side Show" on Broadway by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " "Side Show" looks fabulous and sounds gorgeous on Broadway, the place it establishes through director Bill Condon's sterling handiwork that it truly belongs. Let's hope a substant…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:58PM[SHARE]
Sunday, November 16, 2014

Hugh Jackman, back on Broadway and gone fishing by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Entrance applause is the theater world's People's Choice Award, the accolade bestowed by audiences on celebrities they admire as they glide into sight for the first time. Or maybe…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:24PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 12, 2014

'Collidescope' has Ferguson in its focus by Peter Marks

It may set some kind of speed record for turning a news event into a theatrical one. Three months after Ferguson, Mo., became a household name, the city's unrest over a white police officer'…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:03PM[SHARE]
Monday, November 10, 2014

New playwright's biting 'Bad Jews' hurts so good by Peter Marks

Just as you're advised to stand back from an electrified third rail, you might want to maintain a safe distance from Daphna and Liam, the hazardous kibitzing cousins of Joshua Harmon's devas…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:48PM[SHARE]
Thursday, November 6, 2014

Keith Alan Baker, longtime Studio fixture and Zinoman protege, departs by Peter Marks

After 28 years as a key figure in Studio Theatre's management and programming, Keith Alan Baker has left the company and been replaced as managing director by Meridith Burkus, who joined Stu…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:34PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Into the woods with 'As You Like It' by Peter Marks

The amorous tussle that is "As You Like It" never comes more vigorously to life in the Lansburgh Theatre than when two guys strip off their shirts and go at it on the mat. It's the wrestling…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:22PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 23, 2014

Pulitzer-winning 'Disgraced' opens on Broadway by Peter Marks

NEW YORK"The brisk and bristling "Disgraced" confers on Broadway a quality in far too short supply: topicality. Ayad Akhtar's spiky drama, which had its official opening Thursday night at…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:44PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 21, 2014

'The Wolfe Twins' at Studio Theatre: A smart trip by Peter Marks

Give "The Wolfe Twins" time. What begins as a seemingly innocuous story of American tourists in a pensione in Rome eventually gains in power and depth and richness, to the point at which dec…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:57PM[SHARE]
Monday, October 20, 2014

Frisky 'Sex With Strangers': A bodice-ripper with a brain by Peter Marks

Lots of theatergoers will envy the life-changing lightning that strikes Olivia in Laura Eason's scrumptious "Sex With Strangers." Snowbound in a Michigan cabin where she's working on her nov…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:47PM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 19, 2014

'Fetch Clay, Make Man': An unusual sparring match by Peter Marks

"Unlikely" doesn't begin to describe the friendship struck up in the mid-1960s between heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and movie actor Stepin Fetchit. One was an empowering figure of stren…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:01PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 16, 2014

Signature Theatre's 'Elmer Gantry' steps up to the melodic pulpit by Peter Marks

As a fable about evangelism-as-show-business, the musical version of "Elmer Gantry" is for much of the evening at Signature Theatre a smooth and confident ride, especially when it's cruising…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:11PM[SHARE]

Tiler Peck, spinning in new directions with the Kennedy Center's 'Little Dancer' by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " When Tiler Peck was 18 and a rising star of the dance world, something happened to her that nobody was quite prepared for. A setback. See, this precocious golden girl from the Gol…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:51PM[SHARE]

'Oh, God,' a touring Israeli play, comes to University of Maryland by Peter Marks

It isn't every day that an American stage director has the notion of producing an Israeli play and taking it on the road. But Guy Ben-Aharon isn't every American stage director. Tired of hea…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:43AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 15, 2014

"Tail! Spin!": A romp through the political peccadillos of our time by Peter Marks

 NEW YORK"What the heck is with these guys? The thought is inescapable as you watch "Tail! Spin!", Mario Correa's juicy exercise in satirical target practice, at the Lynn Redgrave T…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:25PM[SHARE]
Monday, October 13, 2014

'Uncanny Valley': From Shepherdstown to Manhattan by Peter Marks

NEW YORK"Deeply absorbing drama may not be the export that comes most vividly to mind when one thinks of West Virginia. Certainly, though, "Uncanny Valley," Thomas Gibbons's cerebrally chall…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:27AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 10, 2014

Retooled 'Side Show' gets a second chance on Broadway by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Darren Bagert saw "Side Show" in San Diego " five times, in fact. Night after night he sat in the La Jolla Playhouse last fall, taking notes on director Bill Condon's revamped ver…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:17PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 9, 2014

Nathan Lane, Rupert Grint in Terrence McNally's 'It's Only a Play' by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Some theater lovers' idea of heaven just may be a soigné Manhattan apartment where for all eternity Nathan Lane is perched on a lounge, holding a tumbler of scotch and chattil…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:09PM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 5, 2014

Broadway's bountifully imaginative 'Curious Incident' by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " As she did with "War Horse," director Marianne Elliott devises in the stimulating new stage adaptation of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" a luminous t…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:53PM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 28, 2014

Review: Vintage is the operative word for Broadway's "You Can't Take It With You" by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " One person's charming escapade is another person's cloying chestnut. In the case of the new Broadway revival of "You Can't Take It With You," count me with that other person. F…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:10PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 22, 2014

Slight 'Shoplifters' alights at Arena Stage by Peter Marks

Any enterprise that begins with Jayne Houdyshell offers the possibility for true happiness. And indeed, Arena Stage's "The Shoplifters" does start off on an amusing footing, with Houdyshell …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:51PM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 21, 2014

Denied visas, Syrian refugees still get a platform by Peter Marks

You can't stop the drama " even when the government tries to. An example of this phenomenon presented itself on Friday night at Georgetown University, where a Syrian refugee, speaking by vid…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:22PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 16, 2014

'Toast': Not fully cooked by Peter Marks

"Toast," the latest interactive performance piece from dog & pony dc, takes audience participation into a new arena " or maybe not so new, to anyone who's ever been on one of those corpo…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:57PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 15, 2014

South Africa's Isango Ensemble beautifully remolds 'The Magic Flute' by Peter Marks

You haven't heard Mozart until he's been played on marimbas. You're in luck, too, because the opportunity presents itself this week in Washington in the Isango Ensemble's remarkable "The Mag…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 08:04PM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 14, 2014

Signature hires Joe Calarco, adding more directing muscle by Peter Marks

Tony-winning Signature Theatre has always gone its own way, musically speaking " especially when it comes to scouring the countryside for original material. This season alone, the Shirlingto…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 01:43PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 11, 2014

Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin in a crackling Broadway "This Is Our Youth" by Peter Marks

NEW YORK"That kid you loved on "Arrested Development" is now that guy you'll adore on Broadway. Michael Cera makes a sublime debut on the theater world's biggest stage alongside two other sp…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:31PM[SHARE]

Michael Cera makes sublime Broadway debut in 'This Is Our Youth' by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " That kid you loved on "Arrested Development" is now that guy you'll adore on Broadway. Michael Cera makes a sublime debut on the theater world's biggest stage alongside two other …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:01PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Amy Herzog's 'Belleville' is strong on atmosphere but short on plot by Peter Marks

"Belleville" is the sort of ­atmospheric thriller that comes to a delicate boil under a slender flame and leaves you, after all is ominously said and done, a bit creeped out but less than…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:39PM[SHARE]

Vanessa Hudgens is musical's Gigi by Peter Marks

Thank heaven for teen movie sensations: They grow up in the most theatrical ways. Take, for instance, Vanessa Hudgens, star of Disney's "High School Musical" franchise, who will headline the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 02:22PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 9, 2014

A well-played, compact 'King Lear' at Folger Theatre by Peter Marks

The solid "King Lear"at Folger Theatre is so modestly mounted, it could fit in the pockets of other recent productions of Shakespeare's darkest tragedy. Eight actors play all of the roles in…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:33PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 8, 2014

'Colossal' at Olney Theatre Center aims for the goal post, and succeeds by Peter Marks

It's the halftime show that's really got game in Andrew Hinderaker's exhilarating new football play, "Colossal." The actors portraying grunting college linemen and cornerbacks become, in the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:16PM[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