By ELIZABETH SCHABINGER Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived! The six wives of British King Henry VIII are back in Washington, D.C. at the National Theatre, fresh from their out-of-town previews in Elmira, New York. Six The Musical tells the story of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England through a Eurovision-style song […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) Thirty-seven years after the scandal-ridden story of televangelists Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker and their popular PTL Club made headlines, an unlikely musical on Broadway tells the tale in song. An improbable venture to say the least, the music is being furnished by none other than Sir […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The dark days of the COVID shutdown brought the theatre community to its knees. Unable to perform in front of live audiences or to connect to one another due to health restrictions, some performers kept themselves occupied by baking, writing or, in James Monroe Iglehart’s case, watching […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Jamie Lloyd has made a reputation for himself as a visionary minimalist director, winning a remarkable collection of Olivier Awards on the West End. His inspirational production last year of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Blvd. garnered major buzz for its sleek and slimmed staging and his improbable casting […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There are a few Off-Broadway shows that rise above the fray even though they are silly in concept or lack the kind of production values that won’t pass muster among Broadway producers. The current production of Little Shop of Horrors is the latest of these kinds of […]
By AARON KRAUSE Forget ghosts and goblins. Deborah Zoe Laufer’s frightening and moving drama, The Last Yiddish Speaker, centers on a real horrific scenario. Specifically, the playwright imagines that the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol was successful. As a result, a white supremacist regime came into power. Under its rule, authorities enforce ethnic, ideological […]