Ah, February, the shortest, coldest, snowiest month. No, I’m not just bitter at not having anything to do for Valentine’s day. Why not call out sick for your next meeting of the Polar Bear ice swimming club and take in a nice show inside. Here are our top picks to catch over the next few weeks.
Keith Antone, Jonathan Burke, Jelani Alladin, Jaysen Wright, and Alan Wade in Choir Boy. Photo: Igor Dmitry.
Now Playing
>>WALKING THE CITY OF SILENCE AND STONE: This podcast/play/walking tour via Forum Theater is available via download online, and can be experienced anytime you please, though we officially recommend waiting until temperatures are back above freezing. Read our mid-season feature on the experience here.
>>CHOIR BOY: Here’s what we said last month: “Marking the fourth show Studio Theatre has produced by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, this play is a coming-of-age tale set at an all-male, historically black prep school. Expect an exploration of the unique mix of forced politeness, innate wildness, and occasional male nudity endemic to all-male schools.” Check out our review here. Through February 22.
>>DUNSINANE at Shakespeare Theatre Company is a play and sort-of sequel to Macbeth, with no knowledge of the Bard’s original play required. We spoke with Associate Director Luke Kernaghan earlier this month to learn more. Through February 21.
>>BASKERVILLE: One of the most interesting stories in the Sherlock canon (and probably the worst episode of the otherwise brilliant British series), “The Hound of the Baskervilles” has been adapted into a new comedy where five actors take on over 40 roles. The show will see its world premiere at Arena Stage. Through February 22.
>>RAPTURE BURN BLISTER: I’m told that writing the word feminisim two times on the internet will summon the angry ghost of Phyllis Schlafly. Let’s not risk it. Instead, I’ll say this Pulitzer-nominated farce that is running at Round House Theater is a comedic take on, ahem, gender politics. Read our review of the show here. Through February 22.
>>LAST OF THE WHYOS at Spooky Action Theater promises the theater company’s signature blend of mind-bending fantasy; this time around, the leader of an 1880s New York gang finds himself flung 100 years into the future. Through March 1.
>>CHEROKEE at Woolly Mammoth. A followup to Lisa D’Amour’s Pulitzer Prize finalist Detroit, this play also plops two couples of suburbanites down together and stirs them up, this time in the North Carolinian wilderness. Unfortunately, not much else happens to them. Look for a full review later this week. Through March 8.
>>THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE: This comedic play, via Constellation Theatre, about a violent man who is very fond of his cat features copious amounts of stage blood and live cats, as we’ve covered in a preview and review earlier this month. Through March 8.
>>THE METROMANIACS at Shakespeare Theatre Company. David Ives’ adaptation hits all the notes you’d expect of a Shakespearean comedy, with plenty of love plots and mistaken identities explored in rhyming verse. The show has been recently extended through March 15*.
>>MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING The rule of thumb for Synetic Theater‘s vibrant, weird, and sexually charged dance adaptations is that they generally tend to do better when nobody talks, which is to say, every other show. This nonverbal take on Shakespeare in ’50s Las Vegas is the latest in their series of wordless adaptations. Through March 22.
>>FROZEN: No, not THAT Frozen. Byrony Lavery’s classic is currently showing at the Anacostia Playhouse. The play explores the disappearance of a young girl and the fallout in the world she leaves behind. Through March 1.
Other Picks
For such a short month, February has a lot of plays to offer. Here’s a short list of other shows that have caught our eye:
TXT at American Poetry Musuem. Every Sunday in 2015.
HALF LIFE at Mead Theatre Lab. Through February 21.
THE WIDOW LINCOLN at Ford’s Theatre. Through February 22.
THE TEMPEST at Taffety Punk. Through February 28.
THE PIRATE LAUREATE AND THE KING OF THE SEA at Flying V Theatre. Through February.
HOUSE OF DESIRES at GALA Hispanic Theater. Through March 1.
MARY STUART at Folger Theatre. Through March 8.
KID VICTORY at Signature Theatre. Through March 22.
KING HEDLEY II at Arena Stage. Through March 8.
*Corrected
