All stories by Ravelle Brickman on BroadwayStars

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Behind the lines: Laura C. Harris talks about seeing stars in ‘Silent Sky’ at Ford’s by Ravelle Brickman

When Laura C. Harris bursts onto the stage in Silent Sky at Ford’s Theatre, she is Henrietta Leavitt—hoop skirt and all—fresh out of college, brimming with confidence, and determined t…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:08PM
Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Beyond the script: Playwright Steven Dietz talks about ‘Bloomsday,’ a love story in which past and present collide, now in its DC debut at Washing by Ravelle Brickman

You don’t have to read Ulysses—or, for that matter, know anything about James Joyce, its author, or Leopold Bloom, its hapless hero—to love Bloomsday. The play, a gentle romance now bl…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:39PM
Thursday, January 30, 2020

Behind the lines: A talk with Hend Ayoub, the actor whose performance in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ radiates fury, hope, and joy at Arena Stage by Ravelle Brickman

“Read the book. But see the play first!” That’s what Hend Ayoub—the actor who plays Mariam, the empowered first wife of A Thousand Splendid Suns—told me about the show, now in its …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:55PM
Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Channeling chutzpah in ‘Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World’ at Mosaic by Ravelle Brickman

Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World—the award-winning play now enjoying its DC debut at Mosaic Theater—is as delicious a romp as any that’s come along in a while. Billed as a roma…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:56PM
Thursday, December 26, 2019

Playwright Jonathan Spector on the shadows that lurk behind the laughter in ‘Eureka Day.’ by Ravelle Brickman

There’s no doubt about it. Eureka Day is a very funny play. The show, now having its DC debut at Mosaic Theater, features five perfectly-attuned actors, a director who understands comedy, …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:48PM
Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Ken Ludwig on ‘Dear Jack, Dear Louise,’ his parents’ unlikely romance by Ravelle Brickman

There’s a lovely new play at Arena Stage, but you’ll have to rush if you want to see it. That’s because the play—Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise—will be off and running befor…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:17PM
Wednesday, December 11, 2019

4615 Theatre Company presents ambitious adaptation of Irish legend in ‘Infinite Tales’ by Ravelle Brickman

If the notion of compressing 900 years of Irish mythology into a single two-hour show sounds like a lot to take on, that’s because it is. In fact, tackling the entire pantheon of Irish leg…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:53PM
Sunday, December 8, 2019

Not your father’s ‘Fiddler’ – The latest Broadway tour of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ comes alive at the National Theatre by Ravelle Brickman

When Fiddler on the Roof opens at the National Theatre next week, the village of Anatevka—the fictional setting for one of the most successful Broadway musicals in history—will not be th…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:25PM
Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Reflections on a terrifying role: Susan Rome talks about ‘becoming’ Louise Nevelson in Edward Albee’s ‘Occupant’ at Theater J by Ravelle Brickman

When Susan Rome bats her eyelashes—as she often does in Edward Albee’s Occupant, now at Theater J—she becomes Louise Nevelson, the iconic sculptor whose life and work were inseparable.…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:17PM
Thursday, November 7, 2019

Variations on villainy with Ian Merrill Peakes from the Folger Theatre’s ‘Amadeus’ by Ravelle Brickman

Villainy takes many forms. And Ian Merrill Peakes – now plotting revenge against a gifted rival in the Folger Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Amadeus – has played more than a few. …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:04PM
Thursday, October 31, 2019

‘Port Authority,’ Conor McPherson’s tale of lust and loss, returns to Quotidian by Ravelle Brickman

Storytelling is a gift. And Conor McPherson—the Irish playwright, screenwriter and long-time ‘bad boy’ of the British stage–is one of the most gifted tale-tellers ever known. His Por…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:19PM
Thursday, September 19, 2019

Ed Gero Delivers Stunning Performance as Falstaff in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV Part I’ at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre by Ravelle Brickman

Henry IV Part I, which opened at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre last week, is superb. (Click here for DCMTA’s review.) This production, starring Ed Gero, is equal to any I’ve seen. In fa…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:30AM
Tuesday, September 10, 2019

REACH Report: ‘Storytelling for Seniors with Candace Wolf’ by Ravelle Brickman

More than 50 seniors crowded into a storytelling circle inside one of the Kennedy Center’s new REACH buildings on Monday, and I, as a card-carrying member of the reduced-fare generation, s…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:15PM
Thursday, September 5, 2019

Feature: Good News, Bad News and Coming Attractions at 4615 Theatre by Ravelle Brickman

First, the bad news. Enron, the farcical, scary and all-but-unbelievable romp through the biggest fraud in corporate history, has closed. The good news is that there’s still time—four mo…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:52PM
Friday, August 30, 2019

‘Fabulation’ Brings a Tale of Comic (and Cosmic) Comeuppance to Mosaic Theater Company of DC by Ravelle Brickman

Although it sounds serious on the surface, Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine, is one of the funniest plays ever to grace a DC stage. That’s the opinion of my colle…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:56PM
Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Feature: Directing ‘Ann’ at Arena Stage by Ravelle Brickman

Ann Richards, the late governor of Texas, and the first woman in that state to be elected in her own right would be howling with glee if she could see the pandemonium unleashed in government…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:30PM
Monday, July 22, 2019

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Inferno the Musical’ by Ravelle Brickman

“Heaven is so boring.” That’s the complaint of a modern-day version of Dante Alighieri in Inferno the Musical, a look at the vagaries of life and love and the inevitability of fate. Wr…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:49PM
Friday, July 19, 2019

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘If These Balls Could Talk’ by Ravelle Brickman

There’s plenty of beef in Carolann Valentino’s one-woman musical, If These Balls Could Talk, about her life as a young actress from Texas working at a steakhouse in New York.  This was …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:52PM
Tuesday, July 16, 2019

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Acuña Acuna’ by Ravelle Brickman

Whenever Erick Acuña is asked to play Peruvian music, he launches into a burst of rock. Why not, he wonders, since rock is his country’s favorite sound. But rock is not what his hosts ex…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:27PM
Monday, July 15, 2019

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Iphigenia in Splott’ by Ravelle Brickman

Set in a blighted corner of Wales, Iphigenia in Splott is a breathtaking one-woman show, imported from the UK and written by Gary Owen, a Welsh playwright and winner of the Meyer-Whitworth A…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:45AM
Saturday, July 13, 2019

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘She Sings Light’ by Ravelle Brickman

She Sings Light, written by Claudia Rosales-Waters and directed by Josh Sticklin, is one of four ‘curated’ shows in the 2019 Capital Fringe Festival. That means that this highly symbolic…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:20AM
Thursday, July 11, 2019

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Heist’ by Ravelle Brickman

Improv, as any actor knows, is harder than it looks. And dramatic improv—in which actors invent their roles as they go, expanding on a basic situation in ways that are both comic and sad�…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:21PM
Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Review:  The Second City’s ‘America; It’s Complicated!’ at the Kennedy Center by Ravelle Brickman

There’s not much to laugh at in politics today. Nor is it easy to make fun of diversity, gender, Putin, or Pepsi.  But that doesn’t prevent the team of talented comedians at Second City…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:54AM
Thursday, June 20, 2019

Dressed To Plunder, and Maybe Kill: Costuming Signature’s ‘Blackbeard’ by Ravelle Brickman

When the actor playing Blackbeard first appears on stage at the Signature Theatre in the new musical bearing his name, smoke literally curls out of his matted black hair. It’s a terrifying…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:00PM
Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Review: ‘We’re Gonna Die’ by Flying V at The Writer’s Center by Ravelle Brickman

When Farrell Parker steps out onto the black box stage at The Writer’s Center in Flying V’s version of We’re Gonna Die, something explodes. Light and sound—literally—erupt. And whi…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:46PM
Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Review: ‘Mary Stuart’ at Olney Theatre Center by Ravelle Brickman

What does a 200-year-old literary classic have to do with the chaos of the US Congress today? A lot, according to Jason Loewith, Olney Theatre Center’s Artistic Director, who has adapted F…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:19PM
Monday, May 6, 2019

Helen Hayes Tribute Recognizes Jennifer L. Nelson as a DC Theater Trailblazer by Ravelle Brickman

Actors, by definition, play all sorts of roles. But for Jennifer L. Nelson—a theater veteran who’s been working on stage and off ever since she landed in DC at the age of 22—the multi-…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:19PM
Friday, April 12, 2019

Director Laura Giannarelli Muses About ‘Ghost-Writer,’ Michael Hollinger’s Tale of Mystery and Love at Quotidian by Ravelle Brickman

Laura Giannarelli is a woman of many roles. A founder of Washington Stage Guild, she’s been a fixture of the DC stage for almost four decades. She’s been the mother-in-law from hell in G…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:03PM
Monday, March 18, 2019

Yiddish Translator Nahma Sandrow Talks About Bringing a 19th-Century Masterpiece to a Modern English-Speaking Audience by Ravelle Brickman

It took a little over 120 years. But—thanks to Theater J—Jacob Gordin’s wildly popular Yiddish drama, celebrated as The Jewish Queen Lear, has made it onto the English-language stage. …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:57PM
Friday, March 1, 2019

Nancy Robinette, Winner of Last Year’s Top Theater Award, Triumphs as Aunt Lavinia in ‘The Heiress’ at Arena Stage by Ravelle Brickman

From the moment she enters—decked out in widow’s weeds and descending a carpeted stairway—Nancy Robinette commands attention. That’s not unusual, since this actor—awarded the 2018 …

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:48PM
Thursday, February 14, 2019

‘Nell Gwynn:’ A London Hit Brings Laughter, Love (and a Few Flying Oranges) to the Folger Theatre by Ravelle Brickman

Nell Gwynn – as brash and bawdy as a play could be – has arrived on Capitol Hill. And what a triumph it is! The play, which had a successful run in London’s West End and won Br…

SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:08AM

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