All stories by Roy Maurer on BroadwayStars

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Review: Timon of Athens. Simon Godwin’s vivification rescues one of Shakespeare’s minor plays by Roy Maurer

Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Simon Godwin’s choice of directorial debut wasn’t a stretch. Godwin’s newly minted tenure at STC begins with a vivid and zesty restaging o…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:36PM
Saturday, February 1, 2020

Review: Next to Normal, a triumphant performance and all-out production can’t mask a generic score by Roy Maurer

On the positive side, there’s nothing “scaled down” about the Kennedy Center’s latest Broadway Center Stage series presentation of Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s 2008 steamrolling tea…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 04:36PM
Friday, November 29, 2019

Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Round House Theatre by Roy Maurer

The big takeaway from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is the glimpsed exposure to what goes through the mind of a special person—in this case someone with an autism spect…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:42AM
Thursday, October 31, 2019

Review: Conor McPherson’s confessional Port Authority from Quotidian Theatre by Roy Maurer

A doleful ballad fittingly eases you into Quotidian Theatre Company’s (QTC’s) lovingly rendered production of Conor McPherson’s Port Authority. Three generations of Irishmen then intro…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:36AM
Monday, October 7, 2019

Review: Fences at Ford’s Theatre by Roy Maurer

The staging of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Fences at Ford’s Theatre seemed made-to-order for a grand slam home run. The memorable backyard drama of father and s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:12PM
Monday, September 23, 2019

Review: Jitney at Arena Stage by Roy Maurer

Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s restaging of his 2017 Broadway production of Jitney at Arena Stage—bringing to town much of the design team and several of the actors—is a terrific kic…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PM
Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Review: Sondheim’s Assassins at Signature Theatre. Something just broke. by Roy Maurer

There are so many weirdly gleeful moments stuffed in Assassins, composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book writer John Weidman’s darkly comic and brilliant musical vaudeville exposing the…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:12PM
Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Review: The Mollusc from Quotidian Theatre by Roy Maurer

Over 100 and some years ago, The Mollusc was the best-known work of an Englishman considered to be in affinity with the likes of Oscar Wilde. About 10 years ago, my colleague at DC Theatre S…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:33PM
Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Review: Falsettos, the Lincoln Center tour at The Kennedy Center by Roy Maurer

I guess I just don’t get Falsettos. The Tony Award® winning musical may have been fresh at its 1992 Broadway debut—it’s mainstream depiction of gay couples was certainly trailblazing�…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:03AM
Thursday, May 9, 2019

Review: The Children at Studio Theatre by Roy Maurer

Admittedly, the synopsis for the dystopian kitchen-sink drama The Children at Studio Theatre didn’t tremendously excite me initially, notwithstanding the interest in acclaimed British play…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PM
Saturday, March 23, 2019

Review: Into the Woods. Enchantment and enlightenment await at Ford’s Theatre by Roy Maurer

Enchantment awaits those who enter Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim’s wildly inventive, darkly comic thicket of life lessons sprung from children’s fairy tales in a new revival at Ford�…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:44AM
Friday, February 15, 2019

Review: Richard the Third, David Muse’s grisly version at Shakespeare Theatre Company by Roy Maurer

Director David Muse’s Richard the Third is clearly rendered, scored to propulsive industrial rock and sets itself apart from previous productions by a series of grisly execution scenes, b…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:48AM
Monday, January 21, 2019

School of Rock: The Musical review by Roy Maurer

I normally don’t like dumb movies of the kind in which the actor Jack Black has made a conspicuous brand. But School of Rock, the sleeper hit from 2003, wasn’t that dumb—it was funny a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:42AM
Friday, December 14, 2018

Review: David Ives’ The Panties, the Partner and the Profit disappoints by Roy Maurer

The streak is broken. Playwright David Ives’ winning series of brilliant, hilarious “transladaptations” performed at the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) over the last decade ground t…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PM
Friday, November 16, 2018

Review: Anything Goes. stylish, silly musical serves up Cole Porter’s de-lightful music by Roy Maurer

The revival of Cole Porter’s 1934 madcap romp Anything Goes at Arena Stage manages to be everything that it can be—an anachronism, tiresomely silly and outright dumb in places, but also …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:06PM
Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Review: Pulitzer Prize winner Silent Night from Washington National Opera by Roy Maurer

As I write this, leaders from around the world are marching down the Champs-Élysées in Paris under a canopy of umbrellas in the rain, gathered to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the p…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:18PM
Monday, August 27, 2018

Review: Sondheim’s Passion. Signature’s ravishing production by Roy Maurer

Actress Natascia Diaz’s bold performance breathes transformative life into Fosca—one of musical theater’s most remarkable creations—in Signature Theatre’s resplendent revival of St…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:06AM
Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Jennifer Mendenhall on her first play, #poolparty by Roy Maurer

In 2015 the president of Prince George’s Community Pool in Mt. Rainier, Md., discovered copies of decades-old correspondence between pool officials and Raymond Bowlding, a local black man,…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PM
Thursday, June 21, 2018

Review: Other Life Forms at Keegan Theatre by Roy Maurer

Other Life Forms, local actor and playwright Brandon McCoy’s new play, is likable—sweet, goofy and well-intentioned—but still needs a lot of work to have any lasting impact. The comic …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:48AM
Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Review: The Remains at Studio Theatre by Roy Maurer

Playwright Ken Urban’s absorbing new play starts strong and keeps you hooked during most of its snappy real-time runtime before slogging down in a closing exhalation and then abruptly comi…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:36AM
Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Waitress star Desi Oakley talks about playing Jenna and her favorite pie by Roy Maurer

Broadway actress and singer-songwriter Desi Oakley is over 200 performances in on the national tour of the fan-favorite musical Waitress, now at The National Theatre. She plays the lead rol…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:54PM
Monday, April 9, 2018

Review: August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at Arena Stage by Roy Maurer

Seeing Two Trains Running at Arena Stage marks the halfway point of my consummation of playwright August Wilson’s decalogue of dramas expressing the 20th century black experience in Americ…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:30PM
Monday, March 26, 2018

In the Heights makes a brief stop at the Kennedy Center (review) by Roy Maurer

Referenced more now as “the first show from the guy behind Hamilton,” the decade-old In the Heights created by current cultural darling Lin-Manuel Miranda burst spirited and joyful durin…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:19AM
Monday, February 19, 2018

Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention (review) by Roy Maurer

The Farnsworth Invention, showbiz writer Aaron Sorkin’s misfired attempt to retrofit a screenplay about the patent battle over television transmission into a stage drama was a dud when it …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:44PM
Wednesday, January 24, 2018

The Wolves at Studio Theatre (review) by Roy Maurer

Much of the fumbling journey of growing up as a teenager is done around other teenagers, not parents or other adults, at least in my experience. And the essence of that pubescent collective …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:55AM
Monday, October 30, 2017

Review: The Book of Mormon. If you’re not into South Park, will BOM win you over? by Roy Maurer

  There was reason behind the fact that I had not yet seen The Book of Mormon. The show, a pop culture lodestone and the apex theatrical event until it ran up against the wave of adorat…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:36AM
Friday, September 15, 2017

Skeleton Crew at Studio (review) by Roy Maurer

A skeleton crew is the minimum number of people needed to maintain something in operation—to keep something alive. The title of Dominique Morisseau’s appealing, thought-provoking drama…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:06PM
Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Roundabout Theatre’s tour of Cabaret (review) by Roy Maurer

Fifty years since Cabaret debuted on Broadway and almost as long since the 1972 film adaptation emblazoned its haunting imagery and seductive score across our collective consciousness, the j…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PM
Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson at 1st Stage (review) by Roy Maurer

Black rage—internalized, until it’s not. Stories that carry like the blues. Language that ricochets like jazz. Penetration into the trauma of the black experience in America. This is the…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:12AM
Monday, April 10, 2017

A Raisin in the Sun at Arena Stage (review) by Roy Maurer

Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking portrayal of a black working-class family and its “dream deferred” in mid-20th century America maintains its timeless grace in a new revival at Aren…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:31PM
Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Chekhov like you’ve never seen – Three Sisters at Studio Theatre (review) by Roy Maurer

The women chant their lines over one another above a rising swirl of offstage clamor that reaches a crescendo pitch. Masha (Caroline Hewitt),—the most troubled of the three Prozorov sister…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards