All stories by Tim Treanor on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Tim Treanor reviews his life as a theatre critic by Tim Treanor

After death, two professionals spring into action. The undertaker applies makeup, and puts formaldehyde in the veins, so that the forgetting may begin after a celebration. If the undertaker …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:36PM
Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Close reading of the $15 Billion for Save our Stages shows relief for area theatres by Tim Treanor

Congress has included a $15 billion grant package for performance and related arts, including theaters, in the $900 billion coronavirus relief package it passed on Monday. The program, calle…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:42PM
Friday, December 11, 2020

Review: I Hate It Here: Stories from the End of the Old World by Tim Treanor

Do you remember the old Firesign Theatre? On their records (do you remember records?), an absurd scene would dissolve into another absurd scene, until you dissolved in laughter. To put a per…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:24AM
Monday, December 7, 2020

Review: a very merry Christmas Carol from American Shakespeare Center by Tim Treanor

Scrooge was right, you know; it is humbug to fall like jackals upon each other for eleven months of the year, but on the twelfth to feign good will and generosity of spirit. He was a skinfli…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:32PM
Friday, December 4, 2020

DC Theatre Scene to cease publication Dec 31 by Tim Treanor

After fifteen and a half years and more than ten thousand articles, DC Theatre Scene will cease publishing on December 31, 2020. After December 31, there will be no more reviews, no more art…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:54PM
Monday, November 30, 2020

Review: Independent Claus from Best Medicine. Not one of its best by Tim Treanor

You’re never quite sure which Claus is independent in Jackob G. Hofmann’s meandering, pointless 70-minute video comedy until the very end, and by that point it doesn’t matter. In Best …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:03AM
Tuesday, November 24, 2020

With GALA’s cancellations, all DC-area theatres are now closed to in-person performances by Tim Treanor

Shakespeare Theatre Company announced yesterday that it will cancel its limited in-person production of Blindness in light of an increase in the number of DC coronavirus cases. The increase …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:48PM
Sunday, November 22, 2020

Can theatres survive the pandemic? For Brave Spirits, the answer is no. by Tim Treanor

The economic havoc caused by the coronavirus has claimed another local victim – Brave Spirits Theatre. The nine-year-old company was in the midst of an ambitious project to produce Shakesp…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:12PM
Thursday, November 19, 2020

Review: The Marriage Proposal, a Chekhovian comic soufflé by Tim Treanor

Brothers and sisters, think back to the day you asked your Heart of Hearts to join you in eternal matrimony, if there was such a day. Did you do it in the traditional way, at a restaurant, k…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:32AM
Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Ari Roth resigns from Mosaic Theater of DC by Tim Treanor

An embittered Ari Roth today announced that he has resigned as Artistic Director of Mosaic Theater Company, the company he founded six years ago after parting with Theater J.  Board of Dire…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:48PM
Thursday, November 12, 2020

Tom Prewitt, Avant Bard’s leader, has died by Tim Treanor

Tom Prewitt, Avant Bard Theatre’s Artistic Director, died suddenly yesterday, the company announced on Facebook. W. Thompson Prewitt, wAvant Bard’s Executive and Artistic Director since …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:32PM
Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Keegan’s about to go live (stream) with Trans Am and Gumbo to Mumbo by Tim Treanor

Live theater is a dangerous place. We know it as a place where audacious ideas and forms – The Seagull, Death of a Salesman, Angels in America, A Strange Loop – saunter their risky walks…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 04:42PM
Monday, November 2, 2020

Gonzales Cantata: A moment of profound American shame gets set to music by Tim Treanor

Melissa Dunphy’s The Gonzales Cantata, which will begin its run on In Series’ website November 3, is an opera with a unique libretto – transcripts of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:18AM
Friday, October 30, 2020

Review: Capturing the conscience of Studio’s Kings by Tim Treanor

There are not many towns which could be riveted by a tale which revolves around the tax treatment that carried interest gets, but, by God, Washington is one of them. Of course, the carried i…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:06PM
Thursday, October 29, 2020

Simon Godwin’s next thing: Directing National Theatre’s film Romeo and Juliet by Tim Treanor

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s peripatetic Artistic Director Simon Godwin, having instituted a six-production 2020-2021 season for STC notwithstanding the pandemic, has decided to use his s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 04:33PM

Review: Midnight Dreary series continues with Poe’s creepiest tales by Tim Treanor

All stories are about the loss of power – or, more correctly, loss of the illusion of power, and the more fundamental the loss, the more heart-wrenching the story. Here we are, in the prim…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:54AM
Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Everyman Theatre to resume live Queens Girl performances November 19 by Tim Treanor

Everyman Theatre today announced that it would resume producing theater live and in person by continuing the run of Caleen Sinnette Jennings’ Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains on N…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:42PM
Sunday, October 18, 2020

Review. Poe’s Dreary Midnight: A Doom for Our Times by Tim Treanor

Halloween has a special resonance this year, as the horrors are close at hand, funerals are more numerous than weddings, and at times the whole world seems to be a sepulcher. In this context…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:03PM
Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Shakespeare Theatre announces its 2020-2021 virtual and in person season. by Tim Treanor

Like spring crocuses peeking out of the melting snow, DC-area theaters are beginning to formulate a path back to their audiences, tentative but real.  Shakespeare Theatre Company is among t…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:06AM
Monday, October 12, 2020

Rorschach’s “trail blazers” discount for its real life DC treasure hunt ends Oct 13 by Tim Treanor

The pandemic has turned theater into a treasure hunt for some companies as they scramble to find new modes of presentation which are both safe and rewarding for their audiences. But one area…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:54AM
Saturday, September 26, 2020

The Helen Hayes Awards night plus reaction you didn’t see from 4615 Theatre Company by Tim Treanor

The Helen Hayes Awards were last night, so I slipped into my good tux, straightened my black tie, and took the Metro down to the waterfront. I hoofed it to the Anthem; saw some buddies; shoo…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:42AM
Friday, September 18, 2020

DC citizens speak through Arena Stage’s new film The 51st State by Tim Treanor

Statehood for the District of Columbia has always been a fraught enterprise. It wasn’t until 1961 that Washington residents could vote for President; and before 1973, Congress appointed DC…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:54AM
Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Actors and politicians in STC’s Will on the Hill. Can The Bard guide us in these tempestuous times? by Tim Treanor

If you are inclined to self-righteousness – and, really, who isn’t? – you might be prepared to look down your nose at the various Senators, House Members and other political high rolle…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:36PM
Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Review: American Shakespeare Center twists Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s already complex comedy by Tim Treanor

We think of Shakespeare as a romantic. He was anything but. As portrayed in the canon, love is an affliction, which clouds the reason and destroys discrimination and judgment. If we take a c…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:18PM
Monday, August 17, 2020

Othello, live performance review at American Shakespeare Center by Tim Treanor

To frame a story about the triumph of lies over truth, jealousy over love, anger over generosity of spirit and – let’s put it plainly – the insidious reach of racism over all decent im…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:24PM
Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Theater J offers classes to help audience members embrace changes coming to area theatres by Tim Treanor

Changes which might come about in theaters once the plague is over may affect ways in which audiences see and experience the art. To prepare patrons for these changes, Theater J will be offe…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:12AM
Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Save Our Stages bipartisan bill calls for $10 Billion in rescue funds. by Tim Treanor

When the pandemic struck America, Congress was quick to help out the airline industry (to the tune of $50 billion) and cruise ships – two businesses which were financially devastated by th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:12PM
Saturday, August 1, 2020

Attend a play? During the COVID plague? A personal reflection of a terrified critic by Tim Treanor

Into the valley of death rode the six hundred…no, no, no, that’s not it at all. I’m looking for a poem to help me decide what to do – poetry is the oldest form of literature, after a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:03PM
Friday, July 31, 2020

Review: ACA Radio Reps takes on the challenges of Hamlet by Tim Treanor

Since art, like life itself, constantly renews itself, new generations of artists arrive on stages, and in studios and publishing houses, whether we are ready for them or not. They are not d…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:06PM
Thursday, July 23, 2020

When will DC audiences return? What changes do they support? Shugoll Research revisits its audience survey by Tim Treanor

A new survey from Shugoll Research shows that area theatergoers are even more reluctant to return to theater in the face of the coronavirus than they were when the survey was conducted last …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 04:42PM
Monday, July 20, 2020

Arena Stage starts its 5-play season, January, 2021. by Tim Treanor

Arena Stage, whose ten-play season was cancelled earlier this year by coronavirus, has announced that it intends to restage in 2021 three of the plays it lost this year. To that contingent, …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:42AM

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