All stories by Peter Orvetti on BroadwayStars

Monday, July 13, 2026

District Fringe Review: ‘Please Clap!’ at Phoenix-UDC Mainstage Venue by Peter Orvetti

One of the secrets to successful stage sketch comedy is troupe cohesion. Comedy is hard, and it relies on mood, timing, delivery, and many other intangibles. To be funny on stage, performers…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:48PM[SHARE]

District Fringe Review: ‘Aye Aye: A Musical Pirate Adventure!’ at Firefly-UDC Performances Amphitheatre by Peter Orvetti

  The biggest disappointment in pirate fiddler Sage O’Silver’s opening show at District Fringe 2026 was that there were no children in the audience. O’Silver (a character developed by…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:39PM[SHARE]

District Fringe Review: ‘Tall Tale of a Wolfman’ at Phoenix-UDC Mainstage Venue by Peter Orvetti

“Tall Tale of a Wolfman,” a play by Ben Ribler making its world premiere at District Fringe 2026, cleverly updates the ancient fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” for the era of fake news…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:32PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 1, 2026

Theatre Review: ‘Once’ at NextStop Theatre Company by Peter Orvetti

The plot of “Once,” the 2012 Tony Award-winning musical now playing at Reston’s NextStop Theatre, is as thin as a Czech pilsner next to a Guinness from the tap. This guy-meets-girl sto…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:06AM[SHARE]
Saturday, May 23, 2026

Theatre Review: ‘Ghost Limb’ presented by Avant Bard Theatre at Gunston Arts Center Theatre Two by Peter Orvetti

In the nine years between 1974 and 1983, some 30,000 Argentinians disappeared in a meticulous campaign of state-sanctioned erasure. Anyone seen as a threat to the right-wing military leaders…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:34PM[SHARE]
Monday, May 4, 2026

Theatre Review: ‘Aesop’s Fables’ at Adventure Theatre MTC by Peter Orvetti

In my time as a theatre critic, performer, and director in both professional and non-professional roles, one misconception I encounter more than many others is that theatre for young audienc…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 02:36PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 27, 2026

Theatre Review: ‘I & You: The Musical’ at Olney Theatre Center by Peter Orvetti

“I & You: The Musical” is making its world premiere at Olney Theatre Center in a co-production with New Jersey’s McCarter Theatre Center. It boasts of strong production values, ins…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 12:09PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 5, 2026

Theatre Review: 'Guards at the Taj' at NextStop Theatre Company by Peter Orvetti

"Just following orders." It has become modern history's most indefensible defense, a much-maligned attempt to shake off responsibility for one's participation in the banality of evil by clai…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:09PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Theatre Review: 'The H Twins' by Pinky Swear Productions at Spooky Action Theater by Peter Orvetti

Hope Campbell Gundlah's new play "The H Twins" made its debut at the inaugural District Fringe Festival last summer. Writing here at the time, I called it "promising and important," a searin…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:48PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 30, 2026

Theatre Review: 'Jonah' at Studio Theatre by Peter Orvetti

Rachel Bonds's "Jonah," which premiered off-Broadway in 2024 and makes its regional debut at Studio Theatre, is a masterful puzzle box of a play about trauma and the healing power of the ima…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:32PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Theatre Review: 'Annie' at Theatre@CBT by Peter Orvetti

The cast and crew of "Annie" at Theatre@CBT had a hard-knock tech week, missing a few vital nights to the winter storm, but they stuck out their chins and grinned and put on an impressive, s…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:21PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 29, 2025

Theatre Review: 'The Snowman and The Snowdog' at Imagination Stage by Peter Orvetti

"The Snowman and The Snowdog" at Imagination Stage is a gentle and touching original adaptation of the 2012 animated short film that is a perfect choice for families of young children lookin…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:24AM[SHARE]
Monday, November 3, 2025

Theatre Review: 'The Last 5 Years' at NextStop Theatre Company by Peter Orvetti

Everyone who appears on stage in NextStop Theatre's production of Jason Robert Brown's "The Last 5 Years" does a phenomenal job. Ben Clark as Jamie and Caelyn D. Williams as Cathy are exc…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 12:30PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Mary Shelley's Monsters' presented by Bob Bartlett at the Congressional Cemetery by Peter Orvetti

Playwright Bob Bartlett and director Alex Levy made a wise choice in selecting the chapel at the historic Congressional Cemetery to stage Bartlett's "Mary Shelley's Monsters," a rumination o…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:38AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 21, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Play On!' at Signature Theatre by Peter Orvetti

Signature Theatre's production of "Play On!" takes place in the Shirlington company's MAX Theatre, but you will forget that as soon as you step through the door. The space has been transform…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:27AM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 27, 2025

Theatre Review: "'Be Good' with Paulette'" Daniel Maseda at District Fringe by Peter Orvetti

Daniel Maseda's impressive credentials were on full display in "'Be Good' with Paulette," a solo performance at the just-ended inaugural District Fringe Festival. Maseda is a local, but he s…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:15PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Prey Most Difficult' presented by Sad Druid Productions at District Fringe by Peter Orvetti

The District Fringe Festival welcomes an inventive solo performance with "Prey Most Difficult," Corvin Kevlihan's retelling of the Irish legend of Oisin. With its spare staging and modern fl…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:51PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 15, 2025

District Fringe Review: 'The H Twins' at Phoenix-UDC Lecture Hall by Peter Orvetti

Twin sisters Hilda and Helga like their preadolescent lives. They live in a clean, safe place, and though they have lost the parents they never knew, they are cared for by a kindly doctor an…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:21PM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 29, 2025

Theatre Review: 'A Wrinkle in Time' at Arena Stage by Peter Orvetti

  Midway through the second act of "A Wrinkle in Time" at Arena Stage, three giant puppets, each roughly nine feet tall, quietly enter the Kreeger Theater from the rear. They make their w…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:06AM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 12, 2025

Theatre Review: 'The Play That Goes Wrong' at The Little Theatre of Alexandria by Peter Orvetti

It is customary during the curtain call of stage productions for the cast to gesture to the booth or backstage to call for applause for those behind the scenes who do so much of the heavy li…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Ethiopia' presented by IN Series at Theater Alliance by Peter Orvetti

IN Series, a company committed to making "theater from music," devoted its just-concluded season to the staging of works that were once banned. The season, with productions mounted in both W…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:59AM[SHARE]
Friday, May 16, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (with live and active cultures!)' at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Peter Orvetti

Julia Izumi's "Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (with live and active cultures!)" is not really about Akira Kurosawa and it's not really about yogurt. It is mostly about Julia I…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:05PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 13, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Constellations' presented by Constellation Theatre Company at Source Theatre by Peter Orvetti

Nick Payne's "Constellations" opens with Cambridge cosmologist Marianne pitching an endearingly bizarre pickup line at a series of men. But we soon learn that these are not different men but…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 02:57PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 3, 2025

Theatre Review: 'The America Play' presented by Perisphere Theater at The Writer's Center by Peter Orvetti

Suzan-Lori Parks is one of today's most relevant and most produced playwrights, but one of her earliest works, 1993's "The America Play," has never been performed in the D.C. area until now.…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 03:40PM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 25, 2025

Theatre Review: 'Ajax' presented by Scena Theatre at Atlas Performing Arts Center by Peter Orvetti

A talented cast and some clever production concepts cannot overcome the confusion of ideas present in Scena Theatre's production of Sophocles's "Ajax," translation by John Tipton, currently …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:08PM[SHARE]
Sunday, December 15, 2024

Theatre Review: 'The 36th Annual Nutcracker' by The Puppet Co. at Glen Echo Park by Peter Orvetti

The Puppet Co.'s annual presentation of "The Nutcracker" is making its 36th appearance this year, and it continues to be a clever and innovative production that is ideal both to introduce yo…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:46PM[SHARE]

Theatre Review: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' by Adventure Theatre at Glen Echo Park by Peter Orvetti

Some years ago, Adventure Theatre's then-Artistic Director Michael Bobbitt approached playwright Ken Ludwig and asked him to write a show for the children's theatre at Glen Echo. Ludwig agre…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:16PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Theatre Review: 'Astro Boy and the God of Comics' presented by Flying V at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre by Peter Orvetti

I have reviewed more than 100 productions in my seven years with this publication, and "Astro Boy and the God of Comics" is among the best of them. Created by Natsu Onoda Power, author of th…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:17AM[SHARE]
Monday, July 22, 2024

Theatre Review: 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Rover, or the Banish'd Cavaliers' presented by Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy by Peter Orvetti

For the first time in its 24 years in existence, Shakespeare Theatre Company is presenting the final performances of the STC Academy's Master of Fine Arts program on one of the theatre's mai…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:44AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Capital Fringe Review: 'The Call of Cthulhu' presented by North Shore Theatre Productions at Capital Fringe Bliss by Peter Orvetti

North Shore Theatre Productions, a D.C.-based company specializing in one-person performances through its Solo Classics Series, presents a chilling and captivating adaptation of H.P. Lovecra…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 06:05PM[SHARE]

Capital Fringe Review: 'Tom Lehrer Is Alive And Well And Has Given Away All Rights To His Music' presented by the Landless Theatre Company at Capi by Peter Orvetti

The title says it all. Tom Lehrer, the biting musical satirist who took on Jim Crow, the Catholic Church, and the nuisance of urban pigeons in a three-decade heyday spanning from the end of …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:56PM[SHARE]

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