All stories by Keith Loria on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

N’Jameh Camara on playing Celie’s younger sister in The Color Purple by Keith Loria

N’Jameh Camara is playing Nettie in The Color Purple, now concluding its national tour at The Kennedy Center. “Nettie is the younger sister of Celie and looks at her environment and won…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:36AM
Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Kathleen Akerley’s Interstellar Ghost Hour travels to a time when it wasn’t too late to ask one last question by Keith Loria

“We either repeat mistakes or don’t update our own sense on what love is for,” Kathleen Akerley, artistic director at Longacre Lea, said in our recent interview about her upcoming deb…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PM
Thursday, July 26, 2018

Holly Bass on how the Starbucks arrest references her latest, The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company by Keith Loria

The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company, Holly Bass’ latest work, conceptualizes one of the most urgent ideas of our time: what it means to be free and how we can all move towards a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:12AM

Cast member Rachel Flynn from the cast of new musical Dave, staged version of the popular movie by Keith Loria

Musicals based on movies are all the rage these days with titles like Mean Girls, Pretty Woman, Bronx Tale and King Kong dominating Broadway marquees and the ads in Times Square. Arena Stage…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:12AM
Friday, July 20, 2018

Latest news on severe water damage to Synetic Theater. Oz will remain at Georgetown by Keith Loria

Last January, Synetic Theater’s performance space (1800 S. Bell Street in Arlington) experienced somewhat of a theatrical disaster when a sprinkler system situated above the theater, p…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:24PM
Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Ephraim Sykes is back into R&B with Broadway-bound Temptations musical, Ain’t Too Proud by Keith Loria

Ephraim Sykes can’t seem to leave the ’60s. He played Otis Williams in the Broadway show Motown the Musical, was a critical darling as Seaweed in NBC’s Hairspray Live, and now can be s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:12PM
Friday, June 22, 2018

Rick Hammerly’s back in heels, fab gowns and boas for Georgia McBride but directing brings out his serious side by Keith Loria

When two-time Helen Hayes winner Rick Hammerly woke up recently, a “morning” after taking the stage as fiercely  funny drag queen Miss Tracy Mills in Round House Theatre’s The Legend…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:36PM
Thursday, June 21, 2018

Tinker Bell gets her own play. Director Nick Olcott tells the story by Keith Loria

Director Nick Olcott was intrigued when he learned that playwright Patrick Flynn had a different take on the Peter Pan stories, a new play written from Tinker Bell’s point of view. Michae…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:42AM
Saturday, June 16, 2018

Why the Current Stop On the Hamilton Tour Has Director Thomas Kail the Most Excited by Keith Loria

The Tony-winning director explains the special place D.C.’s Kennedy Center holds in his heart.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM
Friday, June 8, 2018

Maggie Dransfield gets her big break at Toby’s as Mamma Mia! star by Keith Loria

Thanks to a 14-year run on Broadway and an even longer 19-year run in London’s West End—which continues to this day—Mamma Mia! is one of the most beloved jukebox musicals ever. It’s …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:32AM
Tuesday, June 5, 2018

From painting to stepping, Step Afrika! closes its season with its acclaimed The Migration by Keith Loria

In 1941, Jacob Lawrence became one of the first black artists to have his work shown in a New York City art gallery, with his powerful Migration Series on display, a sequence of 60 paintings…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:18AM
Thursday, May 31, 2018

Christopher Henley, Prospero in The Tempest, talks of WSC Avant Bard’s dramatic history with Shakespeare’s comedy by Keith Loria

As William Shakespeare’s only comedy set in the new world, The Tempest deals with a major act of betrayal, ill treatment, the development of magic arts and a revenge plot that other playwr…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:04PM
Thursday, May 24, 2018

How playwright Bob Bartlett’s personal story became part of Swimming with Whales by Keith Loria

D.C. Playwright Bob Bartlett has always been curious about the ways humans respond to injured or distressed animals, and that theme seems to find its way into his writing again and again. In…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:48AM
Monday, May 14, 2018

Kander & Ebb’s musical The Scottsboro Boys uses minstrel show to throw harsh light on our light on the justice system then and now by Keith Loria

The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers who were accused of raping two white American women on a train near Alabama in 1931. The boys were falsely accused of the crim…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:36PM
Tuesday, May 8, 2018

400 Cuban artists at the Kennedy Center for Artes de Cuba by Keith Loria

Cuba is flush with artistic richness but because of travel limitations over the years, few Americans have been able to experience the abundance of great painters and performing artists that …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:42AM
Thursday, April 26, 2018

Next of Kin theatre festival plays tribute to sci-fi writer Octavia Butler by Keith Loria

Writer Octavia Butler is that rare African American woman who found success in the normally male-dominated science fiction literature genre; her work is beloved by fans of all ages and races…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:06AM
Wednesday, April 25, 2018

UpClose with Sam Shepard’s True West at Rep Stage by Keith Loria

“This season is our 25th anniversary and when I was planning it, I was really committed to representing what I thought was true to the history of the type of work that Rep Stage has produc…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:48AM
Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Matthew Gardiner on directing Girlfriend at Signature Theatre by Keith Loria

In 1991, singer/songwriter Matthew Sweet became something of a radio staple after the release of his third album, “Girlfriend,” which was hailed by critics and fans alike, and establishe…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:42AM
Thursday, April 12, 2018

Luzia’s U. S. artistic director guides us through Cirque du Soleil’s latest show now open in Tysons II by Keith Loria

Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia is opening tonight and here through June 17, performing under its familiar big top in Tysons II, McLean, VA.  And just like every Cirque show, this one promises…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:36PM
Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Riding the Metro inspired this playwright. The result: Use All Available Doors opening at Dupont Underground by Keith Loria

Brittany Alyse Willis used to commute to work by riding the Red Line from Maryland into Metro Center to work at one of the shops at the Natural History Museum, and although she didn’t know…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:13PM
Thursday, March 22, 2018

Translations: Director Matt Torney on what Brian Friel’s play, set in 1830s Northern Ireland, has to say to us today by Keith Loria

When Studio Theatre decided to stage Irish master Brian Friel’s Translations this season, the timing seemed like a perfect fit for Studio’s Belfast-born associate artistic director Matt …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:18AM
Monday, March 12, 2018

Christopher Michael Richardson on being the Lion in The Wiz by Keith Loria

Christopher Michael Richardson is “easing on down the road,” nightly as the Lion in Ford Theatre’s imaginative production of the Tony-winning, The Wiz, which runs through May 12. “Th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:47PM
Friday, March 9, 2018

Gospel recording artist featured in Avant Bard’s revival of The Gospel at Colonus by Keith Loria

After Avant Bard’s successful Helen Hayes Award-nominated production of The Gospel at Colonus last season (the original cast was nominated for  “Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical �…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:58AM
Friday, February 23, 2018

Ryun Yu on Hold These Truths at Arena Stage. A 1940’s Japanese American’s protest of government actions speaks to our time by Keith Loria

Although Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi might not be a name people recognize, many know his story and the historic Supreme Court case which bears his name— Hirabayashi v. United States. The so…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:28AM
Monday, February 19, 2018

What Naomi Jacobson is uncovering in her first solo show, Becoming Dr. Ruth by Keith Loria

Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a beloved ’80s icon. The tiny, yet big-opinioned sex therapist was a fixture on late night talk shows and the radio throughout the decade, and even fronted several o…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:49PM
Friday, February 16, 2018

Noura playwright Heather Raffo, bringing Iraqi women’s stories to the stage by Keith Loria

It was more than a dozen years ago that actor Heather Raffo, whose  family is from Iraq, recognized a void of female Iraqi protagonists in American theater. That propelled her to write and…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:00AM
Thursday, February 15, 2018

An off-script love story from Something Rotten! Husband and wife Rob McClure and Maggie Lakis by Keith Loria

Most theater performers don’t get to spend Valentine’s Day with their significant other, but that’s not the case for Rob McClure and Maggie Lakis, who spent the night kissing, embracin…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:04AM
Wednesday, February 7, 2018

“It’s a MUUUSICAL!” Something Rotten! at National Theatre (review) by Keith Loria

You can’t judge a show by its title, and never was that more the case than with Something Rotten!, the musical farce now appearing at the National Theatre, which provides a rip-roaring, la…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:25PM
Friday, January 26, 2018

Natsu Onoda Power on her adaptation of Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven by Keith Loria

In 2007, Richard Henrich adapted the Ursula K. Le Guin book, The Lathe of Heaven, for a production at Spooky Action Theater, which he directed. But the show didn’t completely fulfill his v…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:49AM
Thursday, January 18, 2018

Creating the Wolves all-girls soccer team. How the cast got their game. by Keith Loria

Put a group of high school junior girls together and the conversations could range from anything from boys to movies to selfies, but when those girls are part of a win-now, demanding soccer …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:01AM
Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Washington, D.C. 2018 Spring Preview by Keith Loria

From Ramin Karimloo and Ruthie Ann Miles at the Kennedy Center to new works by Tony winner Robert Schenkkan and Heather Raffo, here’s what to see in the Capitol city.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AM

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