An Imperative, Not a Noun: Beth Henley's Laugh, reviewed.

Jacob Ming-Trent, Creed Garnick, Helen Cespedes, and Evan Zes in Laugh. (Igor Dmitry/Studio)

Pulitzer Prize-winner Beth Henley's new play Laugh is not like her other plays. It's wacky. How you feel about wacky will be a better predictor of your experience than you feel about Henley. 

My Washington City Paper review is here.

The Hard Sells: Back to Methuselah, Part 2 and Kid Victory, reviewed.

Jake Winn and Jeffry Denman are prey & predator in Kid Victory (Margot Schulman/Signature).

In today's snow-day edition of the Washington City Paper, I review the second installment in Washington Stage Guild's three-part, three-year presentation of George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah and of the world-premiere John Kander-Greg Pierce musical Kid Victory. Around Town videos wherein Robert Aubry Davis, Jane Horwitz, the gigantic lapels of my shirt, and I dissect these differently taxing shows are here and here.

On Around Town, talking King Hedley II, Mary Stuart, and Cherokee

On this trio of Around Town discussions, host Robert Aubry Davis, Washington Post arts writer Jane Horwitz, and I dissect Arena Stage's powerful King Hedley II, Woolly Mammoth's meandering Cherokee, and Folger Theatre's intriguing Mary Stuart.

(My Washington City Paper reviews of are here, here, and here, respectively.)

I'm sorry my hair wasn't as concise and insightful on this day as I strive at all times for it to be.These videos are no longer embeddable, so you'll get links and like it.

King Hedley II:

http://watch.weta.org/video/2365433218/

Cherokee:

http://watch.weta.org/video/2365433239/

Mary Stuart:

http://watch.weta.org/video/2365433276/

Feline Fatale: The Lieutenant of Inishmore, reviewed.

Megan Dominy and Thomas Keegan get bloody (Constellation Theatre Co.)

I reviewed Constellation Theatre Company's new production of Martin McDonagh's bloody 2001 farce The Lieutenant of Inishmore in today's Washington City Paper. The fine Washington Post story I cite (by David Segal, not long after he'd handed off his gig as the paper's pop music critic to my pal Josh du Lac) about the blood work in the play's U.S. premiere back in 2006 is here.

Bleak-Ass House: King Hedley II and Cherokee, reviewed.

My reviews of Arena Stage's unsparing new production of August Wilson's "century cycle" tragedy King Hedley II and Woolly Mammoth's premiere of Lisa D'Amour's shaky Cherokee are in today's Washington City Paper, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away gratis.

The Feminine Critique: Rapture, Blister, Burn, reviewed.

Maggie Erwin & Michelle Six represent two different generations (Danisha Crosby/Round House).

When I saw Round House Theatre's production of Becky Shaw two years ago, I found in Gina Gionfriddo a playwright whose humor and unpredictability made me want to read everything she'd written. I got the scripts for After Ashley and U.S. Drag, and I read them both during the same flight. My review of Round House's new production of her latest – 2012's Rapture, Blister, Burn – is in today's Washington City Paper.

There're Two Things About Mary: The Widow Lincoln and Mary Stuart, reviewed.

Mary Bacon & Caroline Clay as Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley in The Widow Lincoln.

My reviews of The Widow Lincoln, a world premiere play from writer James Still at Ford's Theatre, and of the Folger Theatre's new production of Mary Stuart, are in tomorrow's Washington City Paper, and also right here.

FURTHER READING: My review of Still's prior Lincoln play for Ford's, The Heavens Are Hung in Black, from 2009. And my 2010 review of WSC Avant Bard's Mary Stuart.