Too Much Is Not Enough: Bad Dog and Alice in Wondlerland, reviewed.

My reviews of Bad Dog, a tough new comedy about alcoholism from prestige-TV writer Jennifer Hoppe-House, and Alice in Wonderland, Synetic Theatre's watery take on the Lewis Carroll classic as reinterpreted by former Washington Post film & theatre critic Lloyd Rose, are in today's Washington City Paper. I got paid to write them but you can read them for free. Everybody wins.

Personal Is Geopolitical: Chimerica and Women Laughing Alone with Salad, reviewed.

My review of the U.S. debut of Lucy Kirkwood's sprawling, ambitious drama Chimerica at the Studio Theatre is in today's Washington City Paper. Also reviewed: Women Laughing Alone with Salad, a surreal feminist comedy from Sheila Callaghan making its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. For those keeping score, that's one great play by a woman that's not officially part of the Women's Voices Theatre Festival, and one pretty good play that is. Read those pieces here, or pick up a dead-tree WCP, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away gratis — and you don't even need to have an Amazon Prime subscription!

Each of these shows contain very specific plot and/or production elements I expect their playwrights and directors would prefer for audiences to discover for themselves, but if you abhor surprises and would like to have these things spoiled for you, by all means, go find their Washington Post reviews instead.

Gun Play: One in the Chamber, reviewed.

Grace Doughy, Adrienne Nelson, and Dwight Tolar. (Ian Armstrong)

Director Michael R. Piazza's new production of Marja-Lewis Ryan's all-medicine, no-sugar play about the long aftermath of an accidental shooting is a tough sit, but well-performed. Does that matter? My review is in today's Washington City Paper.

I've Got You Under My Skin: Silence! The Musical, reviewed.

Tally Sessions and Laura Jordan as Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling in the musical parody The Silence of the Lambs demanded. (Igor Dmitry)

Studio Theatre served fava beans as snacks on press night of Silence! The Musical. Tasteful! fuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuh.

I review the show in today's Washington City Paper.

Fringe World: I wrote the cover story for this week's Washington City Paper

I'm a few days late posting this. For the past two weeks I've been taking part in the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's National Critics Institute — a professional boot camp for early-to-mid-career critics under the command of Chris Jones, the Chicago Tribune's chief theatre critic and a fine teacher of the craft of criticism, too. It's been an intense couple of weeks of living in a spartan dormitory with a roommate, and hitting overnight deadlines almost every night. I'll write about that a bit more once I've recovered.

In the midst of all that, I had to finish the cover story in this week's Washington City Paper, about the 10th Capital Fringe Festival, which kicked off Thursday evening. I hope you will find it answers all your most pressing questions about Capital Fringe and co-founder/Executive Director Julianne Brienza's plan to take it higher. I mean that literally. She wants to add three floors to the building she bought last year in Trinidad on Florida Ave. NE.

I wrote a prior cover story about CapFringe in 2010, and I covered the festival every summer from 2010 through 2014 as the editor of Fringeworthy (née Fringe & Purge),  WCP's dedicated all-things-Fringe blog. This year, I decided I'd rather attend the NCI than run the blog a sixth consecutive time. I've handed off the keys to a very capable successor.

A-choo: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, reviewed.

Paul Morella, Lise Bruneau, Susan Rome, and Barbara Rappaport (Theater J).

My review of Theater J's updated production of drag-playwright Charles Busch's 2000 mainstream breakthrough The Tale of the Allergist's Wife is in today's Washington City Paper. God bless you.

In the Flesh: Zombie: The American and NSFW, reviewed.

Sean Meehan, James Seol, and Tim Getman in Zombie: The American (Stan Barouh).

Two satires, each alike in indignation. My reviews of Robert O'Hara's world premiere Zombie: The American at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Lucy Kirkwood's 2012 NSFW at Round House Theatre are in today's Washington City Paper, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away gratis.