All stories by Michael Poandl on BroadwayStars

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Sketches! Or It Didn't Happen at Magnetic by Michael Poandl

The original and timely “Sketches!” is a well-built comedy machine that will have you laughing uproariously into your mask.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 01:06PM
Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Kore at The Magnetic Theatre by Michael Poandl

The Magnetic Theatre resumes live, indoor performances with this modern telling of the Persephone myth.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 11:58AM
Thursday, March 4, 2021

Wandering With Magnetic: something i cared about by Michael Poandl

After a long pandemic winter, the Magnetic’s outdoor theater show, “something i cared about,” feels authentic and radical.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 01:11PM
Tuesday, February 16, 2021

TheSharedScreen’s ‘Tape’ unspools tense and scorching storytelling by Michael Poandl

TheSharedScreen’s scorching new Zoom production of Tape — the 1999 play turned 2001 indie film starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman — is a successful experiment in embracing the presen…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:03AM
Monday, February 1, 2021

‘Hi, Are You Single?’ at Woolly Mammoth is hugely moving and entertaining by Michael Poandl

Ryan J. Haddad’s incredible one-person show, Hi, Are You Single?, is the first time any performer has set foot on the Woolly Mammoth stage since March 2020. This gem of a show, presented b…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:20AM
Sunday, January 24, 2021

Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: Safe by Michael Poandl

This one-woman show about a nun during a worldwide pandemic really deserves your full attention. It definitely touches a nerve.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 04:13PM

Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: Kaleidoscopic Bone House by Michael Poandl

Musical duo Cookie Tongue combine their songs with a variety of mediums, and if you abandon yourself to the chaos, it’s really quite beautiful.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 12:34PM

Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: When Your Love Sets You on Fire by Michael Poandl

A fascinating retelling of the last witch burning in Ireland takes on additional meaning in the COVID era..

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 12:20PM
Saturday, January 23, 2021

Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: #txtshow (on the internet) by Michael Poandl

Brian Feldman’s immersive solo Zoom performance fully embraces the digital medium.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 05:05PM
Friday, January 22, 2021

Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: Basket Case — The Musical by Michael Poandl

The musical adaptation of the 1982 B-movie is creative, engaging, weird, and more than a little grotesque.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 02:11PM
Sunday, October 4, 2020

Fresh and funny ‘👨🏾‍💻😷👨‍💻’ from Solas Nua creates a flash community by Michael Poandl

There were a number of factors that led Solas Nua, the 15-year-old theater company dedicated to presenting contemporary Irish arts, to abandon their previous project, Being Here, and devise …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:51PM
Monday, June 1, 2020

Please Don’t Touch the Artist: “My Heart Goes Zoom” via The Magnetic Theatre by Michael Poandl

Siobhan O’Loughlin is the artist who, thus far, has come closest to creating an intimate virtual theatrical experience.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 05:07PM
Saturday, May 23, 2020

‘My Heart Goes Zoom’ tells a funny, relatable story of a COVID-era crush by Michael Poandl

Siobhan O’Loughlin is no stranger to unconventional performing arts spaces. For the past few years, her theaters have been neither proscenium nor black box. Instead, the venue for her inte…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:59PM
Monday, May 18, 2020

Catching up with Round House Theatre’s ‘Homebound’ by Michael Poandl

Note: Your critic apologizes for his tardy publication of this ongoing Homebound series. Being homebound himself, he fell into a deep comatose state after consuming every piece of food in hi…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 06:46AM
Sunday, May 3, 2020

In virtual ‘Borders,’ the radical realism of a gay meetup on Grindr by Michael Poandl

Borders, a play by Nimrod Danishman, tells the story of two young men—Boaz (Eli Schoenfeld), an Israeli, and George (Adrian Rifat), who is Lebanese—who meet on Grindr and fall in love de…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:33PM
Saturday, February 15, 2020

Goodnight, Troublemaker from The Sublime Theater by Michael Poandl

Local playwright Peter Lundblad’s world premiere is like hanging out with a smart friend who makes you feel a little smarter, too.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 01:00PM
Sunday, January 26, 2020

Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: Saturday by Michael Poandl

With Dinner Bell, Taproot taps into the duality of the South: honey-sweet hospitality coupled with hypocrisy. Plus: Visits to Centrifuge and Monsters Under the Bed.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 12:29PM
Monday, December 9, 2019

The Bernstein Family Christmas Spectacular at The Magnetic Theatre by Michael Poandl

The beloved, annual vaudeville-style holiday sketch show comes to a glorious end after a 10-year run.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 05:11PM
Friday, December 6, 2019

Handle With Care at NC Stage Co. by Michael Poandl

The English/Hebrew romantic comedy is a satisfying little stocking stuffer.

SOURCE: ashevillestages.com at 04:35PM
Sunday, April 23, 2017

Conversations with Five Makers of ‘Forgotten Kingdoms’ at Rorschach Theatre by Michael Poandl

RANDY BAKER, Playwright Michael: Introduce yourself, Rorschach, and the play Forgotten Kingdoms in under 140 characters. Go! No, just kidding…just tell us something about yourself and abou…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:13PM
Sunday, April 9, 2017

Review: ‘Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays’ at Venus Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

This review comes after I saw the final performance of Venus Theatre’s remarkable, inspiring, supremely artistic vision: Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays. But in …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:06PM
Friday, March 10, 2017

Review: ‘Intelligence’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater by Michael Poandl

Intelligence, the new play at Arena Stage about the Valerie Plame CIA scandal, comes at a very timely moment in politics. As Donald Trump appears increasingly clownish, the presidency of Geo…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:15PM
Sunday, February 26, 2017

Review: ‘Brother Mario’ at Flying V Theatre by Michael Poandl

At first consideration, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly Chekhovian about Mario, the iconic red capped plumber whose mustachioed visage has been imprinted on the mind of ever…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:29PM
Monday, February 6, 2017

Review: ‘Fucking A’ at Iron Crow Theatre by Michael Poandl

There is so much than can be talked about when it comes to Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2000 riff on The Scarlet Letter, the half-jokingly entitled Fucking A. There is the unsettling setting, the sur…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:43AM
Friday, January 27, 2017

Review: ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ at Ford’s Theatre by Michael Poandl

A sampling of the audio from the packed house should serve as ample description for Ford’s Theatre’s stunning new production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: raucou…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:06PM
Friday, December 16, 2016

Review: ‘King Ubu’ at Pointless Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

The season of giving? Joy to the world, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men? By the time the first snowflake actually falls, the holiday schmaltz can be as cloying as the Macy’s fragr…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:40PM
Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Post-Play Palaver: ‘Soft Revolution: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah’ at Venus Theatre by John Stoltenberg and Michael Poandl

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

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:59PM
Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Review #1: ‘A View From the Bridge’ at The Kennedy Center by Michael Poandl

Act fast: Director Ivo van Hove’s visionary production of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, which won plaudits on both Broadway and the West End since it opened in 2014, is only pl…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:13PM
Sunday, November 13, 2016

Review: ‘Little Thing, Big Thing’ at Solas Nua by Michael Poandl

The DC premiere of Donal O’Kelly’s Little Thing, Big Thing, playing now at Solas Nua performing at Flashpoint Mead Theatre Gallery, is an impressively entertaining dark Irish comedy. A c…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:21PM
Monday, October 31, 2016

Review: ‘Eurydice’ at NextStop Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

The hypnotic new production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice at NextStop Theatre Company is more like a painting or a poem than a movie or a book. It’s a fantastical canvas of broad brushstrokes…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:03PM
Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Review: ‘The Trump Card’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Michael Poandl

The Trump Card, an original solo performance by monologist extraordinaire Mike Daisey, is a searing punch in the gut to rival any leaked Access Hollywood tape. The current production, which …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:28AM

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