Warily We Roll Along: "Strategic Love Play," reviewed.

Danny Gavigan and Bligh Voth. (Christopher Mueller)

Strategic Love Play, an enigmatic one-act two-hander from Mancunian playwright Mriam Battye, has had a few of the Britishisms combed out of its since its debut in 2023 but is otherwise intact. My Washington Post review of Signature Theatre’s regional premiere is here.

Food of Love: "Play On!", reviewed.

Jalisa Williams and Awa Sal Secka play reimagined versions of Viola and Olivia, respectively, in a riff on Twelfth Night set in the Cotton Club in 1930s Harlem. (Christopher Mueller)

I generally don’t care for jukebox musicals, but Twelfth Night is my favorite Shakespeare, and adding 22 Duke Ellington compositions don’t hurt it any. My Washington Post review of Signature Theatre’s Play On! is here.

A Walk on the Wild Side: "Hedwig," reviewed.

Sawyer Smith is Singature’s new Hedwig. (Daniel Rader)

I reviewed Signature Theatre’s new revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It’s the whole nine yards! 324 angry inches! Check my math!

Signature's "Private Jones," reviewed.

Johnny Link and the company of Private Jones. (Christopher Mueller)

Signature's world-premiere musical Private Jones had me pondering (again) François Truffaut's claim that a war film can't be antiwar. Reviewed for the Washington Post.

Honey, Believe Me: Girlfriend, reviewed.

James Lukas Miller (standing) and Jimmy Mavrikes sing Sweetly to one another in Signature's Girlfriend.

My review of Signature Theatre's production of Girlfriend, wherein book writer (and songwriter, though not here) David Almond takes a (then) 20-year-old album Matthew Sweet wrote about his divorce and retcons it into a minimalist musical about two boys falling in love in Nebraska the summer after high school, is in this week's Washington City Paper. A fine little show. Nothing wrong with that sort of appropriation. But everyone I've heard from who really loves it has never heard the album from which Almond borrowed its music.

Less Is More: John and Underground Railroad Game, reviewed.

Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard, the writers/performers of The Underground Railroad Game. (Scott Suchman)

Criticism imitating art imitating life: My Washington City Paper review of Annie Baker's John at Signature Theatre is three times as long as my review of the touring Underground Railroad Game at Woolly Mammoth, just as John is three times as long as Underground Railroad Game. And roughly a third as rewarding.

Your mileage, as ever, may vary.

Unsinkable? Unthinkable! Signature Theatre's all-singing, all-dancing Titanic, reviewed.

Christopher Bloch, Nick Lehan, Lawrence Redmond, and Bobby Smith in Signature's Titanic. (Christopher Mueller) 

Signature Theatre has revived Titanic, a multi-Tony Award-winning musical from 1997 that almost no one remembers. Apparently it was upstaged by some movie? My Washington City Paper review is here.

All that (Inventor of) Jazz: Jelly's Last Jam and The Lonesome West, reviewed.

Jelly's Last Jam, a celebrated but rarely-revived musical biography of seminal jazz artist Jelly Roll Morton.

My reviews of Signature Theatre's new production of George C. Wolfe and Susan Brikenhead's early-90s Jelly Roll Morton bio-musical Jelly's Last Jam, and Keegan Theatre's production of Martin McDonagh's late-90s black comedy The Lonesome West, are in today's Washington City Paper.  Notice is served.