All stories by John Stoltenberg on BroadwayStars

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Studio’s new audio play is an anthem for a world on the brink by John Stoltenberg

As the world collectively plans to close the door (and maybe throw away the key?) on 2020, Studio Theatre offers a reflection on this complicated, unexpected, and consequential moment in h…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:28PM
Monday, November 23, 2020

‘This Zoom Life’ could be the the best comedy web series since COVID by John Stoltenberg

These days, in lieu of live scripted comedy, I’ve learned to feel lucky whenever I find online theater that gets me LOLing all alone. To be honest, that happens rarely, and never all the w…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:45PM
Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Mosaic Theater to move on without its founding artistic director, Ari Roth by John Stoltenberg

In a meeting Tuesday night, November 17, 2020, the 26-member board of Mosaic Theater Company of DC unanimously accepted the resignation of Ari Roth, who founded the company six years ago “…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:54PM
Sunday, September 20, 2020

Can laughter be lethal?: Dr. Linsey Marr on aerosol transmission of COVID by John Stoltenberg

I first learned of Dr. Linsey Marr when I read a startling opinion piece that appeared in the New York Times July 30: As “a civil and environmental engineer who studies how viruses and bac…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:11PM
Sunday, September 6, 2020

A critic at play by John Stoltenberg

During the past seven-odd years that I’ve contributed to DC Metro Theater Arts, I’ve written about upwards of 600 shows—sometimes as the designated reviewer (when I followed criticism …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:53AM
Friday, June 12, 2020

A war-wounded woman meets myth in ‘Circular’ by Laura Shamas, livestreaming Sunday from Spooky Action Theater by John Stoltenberg

Interview by Roberta Alves Spooky Action Theater’s livestreamed New Works in Action play-reading series continues  Sunday, May 14, at 3 pm with Circular by Laura Shamas. Her heritage incl…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:25PM
Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Theatermakers of color call white theater to account for systemic racism by John Stoltenberg

The cultural momentum powering protests that followed the May 25 murder of George Floyd has galvanized a national and local movement for transformational change in American theater led by Bl…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:15PM
Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Whitney White on directing James Baldwin’s classic ‘The Amen Corner’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company by John Stoltenberg

In 1955 James Baldwin had just turned 30 and had written a play about a storefront church in Harlem that he could not get produced in New York. There was “no market” for it, he was told.…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:47PM
Monday, March 9, 2020

A harrowing ‘Pass Over’ powerfully performed at Studio Theatre by John Stoltenberg

There is a drama on stage right now at Studio Theatre—Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu—so harrowing it will stop your heart. In it, Christopher Lovell and Jalen Gilbert give two of the mos…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:53PM
Sunday, March 8, 2020

Another lost female genius found, in ‘Einstein’s Wife’ at ExPats Theatre by John Stoltenberg

The history of science is studded with female geniuses snubbed by sexism. There’s biophysicist Rosalind Franklin, geneticist Nettie Stevens, chemist Alice Ball— And several such brillian…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:08PM
Wednesday, March 4, 2020

“I want to make space for women who make mistakes”: A Q&A with Dani Stoller, author of ‘Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes’ at Signature by John Stoltenberg

Dani Stoller’s world-premiere comedy Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes is funny and witty and in its own quirky way quite deep. Plus it puts the screw in screwball. Discovered in the Sig…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:32PM
Monday, March 2, 2020

‘Boys Don’t Cry’ at Dance Place rejoices in macho detox by John Stoltenberg

Boys Don’t Cry made this boy cry. It happened near the end. I had been watching a performance by the French dance company Cie Hervé Koubi. Seven shirtless male dancers, all from different…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:18PM
Sunday, March 1, 2020

Theater Alliance’s heartrending ‘This Bitter Earth’ portrays two gay men in loving color  by John Stoltenberg

A poetic and politically charged same-gender-loving love story, This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers—now playing in a powerfully moving production at Theater Alliance—strips bare t…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:56AM
Sunday, February 23, 2020

Actor Mikéah Jennings unpacks his powerful performance in ‘Shipwreck’ by John Stoltenberg

Anne Washburn’s Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017 is an epic, scorching, and surreal satire of white liberalism in the era of Trump. It takes place at that ominous juncture in recent Am…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:00PM
Saturday, February 15, 2020

In ‘Boy’ at Keegan Theatre, the anguish of a gender experiment gone wrong by John Stoltenberg

“Oh, god. Maybe it didn’t work,” the mother exclaims in alarm. It’s the moment in this hold-your-breath drama when she realizes the gender experiment done on her child, one of two id…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 06:45PM
Friday, February 14, 2020

‘The Boy Detective Fails’ is a charming success at American University by John Stoltenberg

“I’m good at finding out the truth,” says Billy Argo (Spencer Coben), the boy-prodigy detective, near the beginning of this clever, quirky, and quite touching musical. So observant of …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:12PM
Thursday, February 13, 2020

‘Heroine’ at The Kennedy Center tells the searing true story of a woman’s rape in the U.S. Army by John Stoltenberg and David Siegel

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Metro Theater Arts writers who saw the same performance, got really into talking about it, and decided to continue their…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:55AM
Saturday, February 8, 2020

Who is Black? Signature Theatre’s ‘Gun & Powder’ hits a national nerve by John Stoltenberg

It may surprise you (as it did me) that the title of this melodic world-premiere musical does not refer to gunpowder. The word gun means there’s a pistol (which gets dramatically deployed)…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:13PM
Friday, February 7, 2020

Cliff Cardinal’s solo ‘Huff’ at Kennedy Center offers a theatrical high by John Stoltenberg

At the start of this brave performance, we see on a dark stage a young man who is making a suicide attempt. He is wearing cargo pants, a tee, and sneaks and has a food-storage bag over his h…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:05PM
Tuesday, February 4, 2020

‘The Royale’ at 1st Stage bares a Black brother’s big heart by John Stoltenberg

This play about a boxer packs so many emotional punches into its compact six rounds, you might not know what hit you. As fists fly, bells clang, terse words burst, and the cast claps out eac…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:30PM
Monday, February 3, 2020

‘Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson’ at Dominion Stage rethinks how racist history rocks on by John Stoltenberg

Dominion Stage has given this rowdy, irreverent, and rollicking rock musical a remarkably woke production that is as rousing as it is reflective and as satiric as it is unsettling. Set in 18…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:01AM
Sunday, January 26, 2020

Clayton LeBouef’s dreamy ‘RS/24’ returns to Anacostia Playhouse by John Stoltenberg

Summoning a galaxy of African American recording stars, this poignant one-act sometimes seems like a sublime dream with vintage music. There are ethereal visions, vivid Afrofuturist visitati…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:40PM
Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Mosaic goes rom-com with ‘Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World’ by John Stoltenberg

This thoroughly delightful offering from Mosaic has all the makings of a lighthearted rom-com. Boy meets girl. He invites her to his place. She initiates sex. It’s hot. Though they come fr…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:54PM
Monday, January 20, 2020

In the ‘Pipeline’ at Studio Theater, a Black son’s legacy of rage by John Stoltenberg

The set for Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline at Studio Theatre could not be any whiter. Its white walls of freshly painted concrete blocks span the breadth of the stage and extend around the…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:03PM
Sunday, January 19, 2020

4615 Theatre’s gripping ‘A Measure of Cruelty’ rips open three men’s wounds by John Stoltenberg

The casual cruelty that constructs men’s certainty they’re real men—and the cost of that violence to others and to themselves—comes under scathing scrutiny in Joe Calarco’s shatter…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:35AM
Wednesday, January 15, 2020

‘Sheltered’ at Theater J hits home in America right now by John Stoltenberg

A gathering stormcloud looms over this exquisitely wrought play by Alix Sobler. “How bad is it going to get?” a character wonders aloud. No one can answer. “It can’t go on like this …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:53AM
Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Step Afrika!’s ‘Magical Musical Holiday Step Show’ is a winter wonderland of joy by John Stoltenberg

Now in its eighth year, Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show has established itself as the season’s most joyful and lovable family festivity in DC. Exuberant music, adorable …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:02PM
Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Taylor Mac puts on the glitz in ‘Holiday Sauce’ at The Kennedy Center by John Stoltenberg

“Have you seen this before?” I heard an audience member ask his friend just before Holiday Sauce, Taylor Mac’s sold-out alt-holiday extravaganza at The Kennedy Center. “Prepare your…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:38PM
Monday, December 16, 2019

Isabella Star LaBlanc, who plays Tiger Lily in ‘Peter Pan and Wendy’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company, on why Native stories matter by John Stoltenberg

When Playwright Lauren Gunderson took on the challenge of adapting J. M. Barrie’s 1904 Peter Pan, she knew she had to fix what she has called the “deeply harmful misrepresentation of Ind…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:53PM
Sunday, December 15, 2019

At Mosaic’s ‘Eureka Day,’ a class in laughs and spats is in session by John Stoltenberg

The five adults seated onstage in a children’s classroom each have a kid enrolled in this  private day school, which like the play we’re watching is named Eureka Day. These earnest pare…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:22PM
Tuesday, December 10, 2019

‘Peter Pan and Wendy’ at Shakespeare wows with wonder in a woke dream by John Stoltenberg

J. M. Barrie imagined a lot when he wrote his 1904 play about the boy who wouldn’t grow up, but he could not have imagined how many childhoods have been etched by its enchantment. Now in P…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:17PM

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