All stories by Anne Valentino on BroadwayStars

Monday, July 28, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Apropos of Nothing, a Comedy’ at The Keegan Theatre by Anne Valentino

The DC premiere of Greg Kalleres’ “Apropos of Nothing” at The Keegan Theatre may be just what this summer ordered in the nation’s capital. Forget the politics, forget the chaos, forg…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 06:06PM
Sunday, July 27, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘A Guide to Modern Possession’ by Caro Dubberly at District Fringe by Anne Valentino

Caro Dubberly’s “A Guide to Modern Possession” takes us musically and theatrically where I have yet to see many productions of its kind tread. The setup is unique, the songs are well-c…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:29AM
Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular’ by Lisa Sanaye Dring with Rogue Artists Ensemble at the Contemporary American Theater Fest by Anne Valentino

People don’t often think about the ones behind the scenes of big-budget films—particularly not the stunt people who fight the fights, take the hits, and fall from bone-breaking heights d…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:54AM
Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Side Effects May Include…’ at the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), Shepherd University by Anne Valentino

Most people have likely never heard of the condition known as Akathisia. The mother in Lisa Loomer’s new play, “Side Effects May Include…” at the Contemporary American Theater Festiv…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:32PM

Theatre Review: ‘Dead Inside’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Anne Valentino

No one talks about infertility, not really. Poignantly, actor, writer, and singer Riki Lindhome wiped away tears as she concluded her one-woman show about what she faced over the course of n…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:17PM

Theatre Review: ‘Now to Ashes’ presented by Theatre51 at District Fringe by Anne Valentino

The history of abolitionism in the United States can be a difficult one to trace, not to mention writing a play about it. The intersection between abolition and women’s suffrage is a parti…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:40PM
Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Performance Review: “Out of My Wheelhouse” (District Fringe Festival) at Phoenix-UDC Lecture Hall by Anne Valentino

Improv, when done right, can be a laugh-out-loud journey that constantly keeps you guessing. At the first annual District Fringe Festival, the improv performance of “Out of My Wheelhouse�…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:11PM
Sunday, July 6, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Duel Reality’ by The 7 Fingers at Shakespeare Theatre Company (part of the DC International Theatre Festival) by Anne Valentino

“Duel Reality’s” tagline, “never was a story of more whoa,” a clever play on the final line of “Romeo and Juliet,” perfectly encapsulates the experience of watching The 7 Finge…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:43AM
Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘The Rocky Horror Show: Pride Edition 2025’ presented by Iron Crow Theatre at Baltimore Theatre Project by Anne Valentino

Ask anybody what “The Rocky Horror Show” is about and generally answers run along the lines of: “it is such a good time,” or “you get to throw toilet paper!” or “the songs are …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 01:52PM
Friday, June 13, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘The Berlin Diaries’ at Theater J by Anne Valentino

Penning a memoir-style journey into one’s ancestral past is an intriguing way to approach a key historical moment. Using a blend of two distinct and, at the same time, blurred voices that …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 12:14PM
Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘The Piano Lesson’ at 1st Stage by Anne Valentino

One of August Wilson’s most celebrated plays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “The Piano Lesson,” takes audiences to 1930s Pittsburgh. Set in a modest home centered around an ancestra…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:49AM
Monday, June 9, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Bull in a China Shop’ presented by The Montgomery Playhouse at The Gaithersburg Arts Barn by Anne Valentino

Mary Woolley isn’t exactly a well-known historical figure. Most would be hard-pressed to say who she was. Still, her life and legacy make for absolutely fascinating theatrical material. In…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:52AM

Performing Arts News: Pride Plays, Pop-Ups, and a Strathmore Extravaganza – WorldPride 2025 by Anne Valentino

As WorldPride 2025 came to a close, it’s safe to say that the art and artists marking the events of the past two weeks were just as varied, beautiful, and spectacularly unique as the queer…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 09:22AM
Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘King James’ at Round House Theatre by Anne Valentino

The term “buddy comedy” usually denotes a story about the enduring bond between two generally different, generally male characters as we watch them embark upon some sort of journey, life…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 05:12PM
Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Andy Warhol in Iran’ presented by Mosaic Theater at Atlas Peforming Arts Center by Anne Valentino

  Capturing the essence of a character like Andy Warhol (who arguably was as much self-conceptualized character as he was actual human being) can go one of two ways: either the portrayal wi…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:59AM
Monday, June 2, 2025

Performing Arts News: A Gender-Defying Shakespeare and an Iconic Gay Men’s Chorus or Two, WorldPride 2025 by Anne Valentino

This year Google did not mark the start of Pride month with some whimsical rainbow-colored send-up of its home page, per their usual. If you’ve checked out the National Park Service’s St…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:12AM
Thursday, May 22, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Juxtapose: A Theatrical Shadow Box’ presented by Happenstance Theater at Joe’s Movement Emporium by Anne Valentino

Happenstance Theater’s “Juxtapose: A Theatrical Shadow Box” is said to have been influenced by the shadow box art of Joseph Cornell, the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Jacques Tati, a…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:32AM
Monday, May 12, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Hamlet’ presented by Avant Bard Theatre at Gunston Arts Center Theatre Two by Anne Valentino

Avant Bard Theatre has a reputation for offering a malleable Shakespeare that speaks to an array of issues, stagings, and audiences. With their production of Kathleen Akerley’s conception …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 08:08PM
Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Baby With The Bathwater’ at Spotlighters Theatre by Anne Valentino

A pioneer in modern absurdist theatre, Christopher Durang can be seen as polarizing. You either love his work or hate it. Indeed, attend a production of one of his plays and you’re apt to …

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:28AM

Theatre Review: ‘Paradise Blue’ at Studio Theatre by Anne Valentino

Immersive theatre experiences can be somewhat tricky to do well. There’s the logistics of it all, having actors disciplined enough not to be distracted or thrown off by less-than-conventio…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:02AM
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Choke, Or, SUCEDE HASTA EN LAS MEJORES FAMILIAS’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre by Anne Valentino

Passion, raw emotion, and utter frustration need no translation in GALA Hispanic Theatre’s latest production, “Choke, Or, SUCEDE HASTA EN LAS MEJORES FAMILIAS.” The actors pour their h…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 07:06PM
Sunday, April 20, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘How to Transcend A Happy Marriage’ presented by Iron Crow Theatre at Baltimore Theater Project by Anne Valentino

Sarah Ruhl is not one to shy away from more risqué subjects. Her Tony Award-nominated “In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)” deals with, you guessed it, a controversial moment in the…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 02:35PM
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Pipeline’ at Vagabond Players by Anne Valentino

Dominque Morisseau’s “Pipeline” dives straight into the lives of an utterly exhausted mother and her beleaguered son. Nya (Melissa Scott) is a teacher at a NYC public school. As we lea…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:55PM
Sunday, April 13, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Fake It Until You Make It’ at Arena Stage (in association with Center Theatre Group) by Anne Valentino

Larissa FastHorse’s widely produced “Thanksgiving Play” has helped establish the playwright as someone who expertly deploys sardonic humor and cleverly nuanced sarcasm, particularly wh…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 03:07PM
Friday, April 11, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Bad Books’ at Round House Theatre by Anne Valentino

Should a play strive to present all sides of a given issue? In other words, is any audience experience made more meaningful if no one message or position is prioritized over another, if we g…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:20AM
Friday, April 4, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Uncle Vanya’ presented by the Shakeseare Theatre Company in Association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre by Anne Valentino

Of Anton Chekhov’s work, Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen insightfully observed that he made “subjectivity edit and rule experience.” Moving away from more totalizing abstract themes and e…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:18PM
Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Sleepova’ at Olney Theatre Center by Anne Valentino

Playwright Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini explains that with this play about four young Black British women, she at last felt the “freedom” to write in a style and language that represents t…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 11:56AM
Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure” presented by FlawBored at Woolly Mammoth Theatre by Anne Valentino

A meta-theatrical farce that searingly pokes fun at the things people do in the name of trying to quell their mistakes and their anxiety, “It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure” hits some trul…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:08AM
Friday, March 28, 2025

Theater Review: ‘Your Name Means Dream’ at Theater J in association with TheaterWorks Hartford by Anne Valentino

Playwright José Rivera’s resume is certainly an impressive one. The Obie Award-winning “Marisol” sticks out in my mind as representative of a body of work that brilliantly brings toge…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 10:34AM
Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Theatre Review: ‘Blood at the Root’ at Fells Point Corner Theater (FPCT) by Anne Valentino

Though written in 2014, Dominique Morisseau’s “Blood at The Root” proves an incredibly timely play. Dealing with themes of racial equality, homophobia, and the crackdown on student pro…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:55PM
Thursday, March 20, 2025

Event Review: 36th Annual Mock Trial presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company by Anne Valentino

TEACHING THE CREATURE’S BRAIN—WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER?Elizabeth Frankenstein v. Victor Frankenstein Originally conceived in 1994, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Mock Trial event this ye…

SOURCE: mdtheatreguide.com at 04:10PM