All stories by Peter Marks on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Theater review: 'The Gallerist' at Atlas Performing Arts Center by Peter Marks

So, was the comely Selena Featherstone possessed by a pygmy capuchin monkey named Iago? Not the sort of question one wrestles with on a typical night out. But then, "The Gallerist" strives m…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:42PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 20, 2012

'La Cage aux Folles' revival at Kennedy Center is vivacious, endearing by Peter Marks

The party starts early at the vivacious and endearing revival of "La Cage aux Folles." An impossibly leggy actor in drag is waiting at the lip of the stage as the audience files into the Ken…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:43AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 13, 2012

A war photographer struggles back to the ordinary in 'Time Stands Still' by Peter Marks

Why is it that a loving relationship is more apt to withstand bombs than the dormant aftermath? Playwright Donald Margulies poses this question in the steadily engrossing "Time Stands Still,…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:15PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Renee Calarco's 'Religion Thing': Cutesyness drags down comedy about faith by Peter Marks

Renee Calarco is onto something when she suggests in her new play, "The Religion Thing," that America's biggest taboo isn't talking about sex " or even, as plays such as "Clybourne Park" mig…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:49AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 6, 2012

Kennedy Center cancels centerpiece 'Pal Joey' by Peter Marks

The Kennedy Center has had to scrap the centerpiece theater event of its 2011-12 season " a major, reworked revival of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical "Pal Joey" " after its director, Chri…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:28PM[SHARE]

The state of D.C. theater by Peter Marks

In just 10 short years, Washington's theaters have undergone a transformation unlike any in the city's history. Gleaming new palaces of drama have sprung up or been spruced up all over the r…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:42PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Arena Stage modifies research role as major players depart by Peter Marks

Underlining the challenges it faces in realizing its aspirations to be a national center for research, Arena Stage announced Wednesday that major components of its 2½-year-old American Vo…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 04:36PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 26, 2011

New York Notebook: Only a few sparks in the fall theater season by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Although the power stayed on all through the topsy-turvy weather patterns of the fall, the city's theater district has found a key ingredient in the making of plays and musicals i…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:49PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Shakespeare Theatre's 'Much Ado' raises question of Latino stereotypes by Peter Marks

Reversing a decision that had enraged Latino playwrights, directors and others, the Shakespeare Theatre Company has taken the unusual step of restoring in mid-run the original names of two c…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, December 16, 2011

'Billy Elliot' lands at Kennedy Center in well-made dancing shoes by Peter Marks

"Billy Elliot the Musical" moves " and MOVES. When one of the astonishing young dance machines who rotate in the role of Billy is pirouetting or tapping, executing kickboxing steps or litera…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:14AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, December 14, 2011

From Chicago, a comedy collective second to none by Peter Marks

Whether they are crooning a love ballad to Chipotle's burritos or asking the essential cosmic questions, such as "How come all the addicts on 'Intervention' have better apartments than me?,"…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:22AM[SHARE]
Monday, December 12, 2011

A Funny Thing Happens in Arena's 'You, Nero' by Peter Marks

Amy Freed gives zaniness a good name. Her new comedy, "You, Nero," is a silly-savvy lark assembled out of shards of Roman history, scraps of acting argot and a soupcon of naughty business be…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:28PM[SHARE]
Saturday, December 10, 2011

Peter Marks's best theater of 2011 - The Washington Post by Peter Marks

Of all the Top 10 lists I've assembled over the years, compiling this year's drove me the craziest. That's how strong 2011 has been for Washington theater " the best, in fact, in my decade o…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:51AM[SHARE]
Friday, December 9, 2011

Theater's Top 10 by Peter Marks

Of all the Top 10 lists I've assembled over the years, compiling this year's drove me the craziest. That's how strong 2011 has been for Washington theater " the best, in fact, in my decade o…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:21PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 6, 2011

'Much Ado' with a Cuban flavor at Shakespeare Theatre Company by Peter Marks

No Shakespeare comedy depends on spontaneous romantic combustion as crucially as does "Much Ado About Nothing." Yes, "The Taming of the Shrew's" Kate and Petruchio must fall desperately in l…

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

'Follies' revival bound for Los Angeles by Peter Marks

Although the Kennedy Center's highly regarded revival of "Follies" closes on Broadway on Jan. 22 after a 4 ½-month run, the production isn't going into retirement just yet. Los Ang…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:49PM[SHARE]

'Bust' brings an L.A. story to Studio Theatre by Peter Marks

If Lauren Weedman is an acquired taste, I've acquired it. She's a gust from the satiric jet stream, blown east from Los Angeles for an 18-day stand at Studio Theatre. Imagine the agitated te…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:57AM[SHARE]
Friday, December 2, 2011

A modest affair is set to melody in 'A Second Chance' by Peter Marks

As direct and warmly intended as a letter from a friend, "A Second Chance" is a heartfelt new chamber musical about a middle-aged New York banker who lost the love of his life and slowly fou…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:14AM[SHARE]
Thursday, December 1, 2011

The gentle authority of John Hurt in 'Krapp's Last Tape' by Peter Marks

What is that man of mature vintage thinking as he sits in the stark rectangle of light, staring out at us with those wistful, hooded eyes? The miracle of superlative acting is that an audien…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:15AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A lot to ponder about Shakespeare through 'Equivocation' by Peter Marks

Just when you thought nothing more could be said about the origin of Shakespeare's plays comes "Equivocation," Bill Cain's exhaustive and exhausting philosophical fantasia about authorial tr…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:21AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Holiday gifts of a dramatic kind by Peter Marks

Oy, it's been a year. We're beleaguered. Beaten up. Depressed by the economy, distressed by political dithering, swirled by tornadoes, slammed by hurricanes, shaken by earthquakes. Things mu…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:49PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Arena Stage's funding outlook prompts cancellation of spring play by Peter Marks

In a drastic move for a major regional theater, Arena Stage is dropping one of the spring plays from its current season, an action prompted by the anticipated cancellation of $500,000 in fed…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:21AM[SHARE]
Friday, November 11, 2011

Ken Ludwig world premiere to be at high school by Peter Marks

The new plays of Broadway-proven writers find many paths to success. But not until Ken Ludwig pulled up to Sideburn Road had anyone thought one such path might be the stage of a public high …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 03:43PM[SHARE]
Thursday, November 10, 2011

Hugh Jackman, back? He IS Broadway by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " For proof that life's unfair, consider the case of Hugh Jackman. The guy's in the 99th percentile of, like, everything. He's dashing, rugged, rich, well-mannered, famous, at ease …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:14PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 8, 2011

'Golden Dragon' at Studio Theatre by Peter Marks

"Drama's vitallest expression is the common day," poet Emily Dickinson wrote. It's a sentiment that contemporary German dramatist Roland Schimmelpfennig takes to heart in his writing, notabl…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:22PM[SHARE]
Sunday, November 6, 2011

'Boys from Syracuse' at Shakespeare Theatre Company by Peter Marks

Long before an actor blurted out "Shakespeare!" from the stage of Harman Hall, we fully understood why a Washington theater company that bears the Bard's name would give us a sweet concert v…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:38PM[SHARE]
Friday, November 4, 2011

Arena Stage bans media, public from new-play conference by Peter Marks

This promised to be a fascinating weekend at Arena Stage, where 30 leading lights of the American theater world were gathering " playwrights, Broadway producers, leaders of nonprofit compani…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 07:14PM[SHARE]

Playwright Jon Robin Baitz's 'Other Desert Cities' is a strong serio-comedy by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " When the eternally promising playwright Jon Robin Baitz was lured to network television to write the series "Brothers and Sisters," the signs pointed to another excellent stage cr…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:28AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 28, 2011

Constellation's curious choice, 'Arms and the Man' by Peter Marks

For a young company, Constellation Theatre sure can feel old. Its current offering, a revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man," is the kind of unremarkable production you'd expect…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:35PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 27, 2011

Blake Robison to leave Round House for Cincinnati by Peter Marks

Blake Robison, who became producing artistic director of Bethesda's Round House Theatre in 2005 and has spearheaded a repertory built on literary adaptations for the stage, announced Thursda…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 06:28PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

'Oklahoma!' makes a joyful return to Arena Stage by Peter Marks

That bright golden haze is just as radiant the second time around. "Oklahoma!," the surprise autumn smash at Arena Stage, is back on the Fichandler stage for a summertime fling, looking as s…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 05:35PM[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