Special to The Washington Examiner
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Synetic's dynamic 'Musketeers'
Barbara Mackay
Published: Tue, May 14, 2013
Playwrights Ben Cunis and Peter Cunis have done an extraordinary job adapting Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Three Musketeers" to the stage at Synetic Theatre. As in the original, it is a sprawling historical saga, a swashbuckling adventure tale, an intense romance and a fascinating drama of...
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An enchanted Illyria at Folger Shakespeare Theatre
Barbara Mackay
Published: Sat, May 11, 2013
Shakespeare wrote about love in all its guises, from the young love of Romeo and Juliet to the mature love of Antony and Cleopatra. In "Twelfth Night" he examined the very nature of love, how it is desired, needed and chased by everyone. As the brilliant, whimsical "Twelfth Night" at the...
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The community on and off the 'Show Boat'
Barbara Mackay
Published: Wed, May 8, 2013
The world has celebrated Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Show Boat" since 1927, but the Washington National Opera's new version, directed by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, is fresh, vigorous and distinctive, emphasizing the world that existed around the showboat performers of...
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Teatro de la Luna's 'Gentlemen's Club: Love Torn' at Gunston Arts Center
Barbara Mackay
Published: Mon, May 6, 2013
Many of the finest productions that Teatro de la Luna has produced over the years have existed in a realm best described as unconventional and tending toward the absurd. So it is with its latest sprightly creation, "Club de Caballeros: Rotos de Amer" ("Gentlemen's Club: Love Torn") by...
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'Other Desert Cities' at Arena Stage
Barbara Mackay
Published: Sun, May 5, 2013
The final production of Arena Stage's 2012-2013 season is an intense, funny drama about generational conflict, political turmoil and familial survival. Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities" takes place in the well-appointed Palm Springs home of a conservative, wealthy ex-actor, ex-politician...
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'Ghost-Writer' at Metro Stage
Barbara Mackay
Published: Thu, May 2, 2013
MetroStage's final play of the 2012-2013 season is a witty, wry, enigmatic comedy by Michael Hollinger that muses on the process of writing, from the inception of idea to the choice of punctuation. A light-hearted homage to the novelist Henry James and his relationship with his typist, Theodora...
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'DC7: The Roberto Clemento Story' at GALA
Barbara Mackay
Updated: Thu, Apr 25, 2013
As all good baseball fans know, Roberto Clemente is one of the sport's greatest success stories. The right-fielder who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 through 1972, Clemente was awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player Award in 1966, was a National League All-Star for 12...
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'Shadows' of the past at Theater J
Barbara Mackay
Published: Tue, Apr 16, 2013
More than 25 years ago, Ari Roth began writing a play. Now after going through rewriting, workshops and readings, that play has emerged at Theater J, where Roth is the artistic director, as "Andy and the Shadows." Roth's semiautobiographical drama is about a young man named Andy Glickstein...
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Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus': A perfectly political play
Barbara Mackay
Published: Sun, Apr 14, 2013
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is running a related double bill about leaders who are also considered enemies of the state, called the Hero/Traitor Repertory. The first play, "Coriolanus," is a great, sprawling action play, full of sword fights, knife fights and social upheaval between Rome...
