It may not give us the complexity we want; but it delivers the catharsis we need.

The new musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell is headed to Broadway after its run at the Kennedy Center.

Is A Chorus Line gospel? Director Bob Avian seems to be treating it as such in the touring production of the Broadway revival, now playing at the National Theatre. This, for all intents and purposes, is the same show that surprised and delighted Broadway audiences back in 1975. No attempts at modernization, no choreographic tinkering. Even the leotards are the same. The loyalty will be appreciated by A Chorus Line purists who never got…

Arena Stage’s entire Next to Normal cast is heading to Broadway. D.C.-based Arena Stage proudly announced earlier today that for the first time in the theater’s history since 1979, two productions that recently played at Arena will be on Broadway at the same time: Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda, and Next to Normal featuring the entire Arena Stage cast. You can read our reviews of both Arena productions here and here. Hopefully…

In West Side Story at the National Theater, a bilingual production is hardly a language barrier. In fact, the directorial choice of Arthur Laurents to set some of the dialogue and a number of the musical numbers performed by the Sharks (the Puerto Rican contingent of the two warring gangs) and their women in Spanish, is easily the most innovative and powerful aspect of this Broadway-bound production. The show is getting an early debut…

Damn their warnings, damn their lies. Signature Theater has proven that it doesn’t take a turntable stage and a National Tour to produce a dazzling and, more importantly, individualized production of one of the theater’s most beloved musicals, Les Miserables. The company is only the second theater to stage a regional production of the ubiquitous musical, now that the rights are available for more than just a touring show to grace local stages. And…

Ace runs at Signature Theater through Sept. 28. Signature Theater’s Broadway-bound musical Ace has a story that is so much more appealing than its lyrics, that it’s tempting to wonder whether the whole thing might have worked even better as a play. Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker have crafted a tale that reveals itself bit by bit, almost like a detective story. It centers around the ancestry of a young boy, Danny, who never…

Signature Theater’s Glory Days was only the second show in history to transition from D.C. to Broadway – and its run only lasted one night. The musical both opened and closed its doors this Tuesday, after running for 17 preview performances. What happened? Producers attributed the show’s short shelf life to poor advance sales and negative overnight reviews. We didn’t get the chance to catch the show when it was in D.C., but SanDiego.com theater…

We’ve got a secret for you: Sweeney Todd is a musical. We understand there might be some confusion about that, seeing as how the television ads don’t have a single note of singing in them, and if you blink during the theatrical trailer, you’ll miss the five seconds of Johnny Depp singing buried in the clip. Make no mistake, though. The vast majority of this film is told in song. On the one hand, it’s…

Yarrrrrr. Forget Jacob Marley and Sugarplum Fairies. What DCist wants for Christmas this year is pirates. And Round House is more than happy to oblige. Their production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (a new version by Broadway vet Ken Ludwig) fully embraces the pirate fascination that our culture has embraced even before Johnny Depp made the word “savvy” his own. The story is one familiar to many who grew up with the tale –…