Theatre in Review 2016

January
8 - The Critic/The Real Inspector Hound, Shakespeare Theatre Company
10 - Bad Jews, Studio Theatre
13 - The Sisters Rosensweig, Theater J
14 - Bad Jews, Studio Theatre
28 - Equus, Constellation Theatre Company

February
4- The Glass Menagerie, Ford's Theatre
8 - Dogg's Hamlet/Cahoot's Macbeth, Shakespeare Theatre Company ReDiscovery Reading
11 - Between Riverside and Crazy, Studio Theatre
12 - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Folger Shakespeare Theatre
13 - Monsters of the Villa Diodati, Creative Cauldron
14 - As You Like It, Center Stage
16 - Father Comes Home from the War, Parts 1, 2, and 3, Round House Theatre
19 - Guards at the Taj, Woolly Mammoth Theatre
21 - The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, National Theatre of Scotland on Tour (Richmond)
25 - Collaborators, Spooky Action Theatre
26 - Othello, Shakespeare Theatre Company
27 - The Maid's Tragedy, Brave Spirits Theatre
28 - Road Show, Signature Theatre

March
3 - Constellations, Studio Theatre
8 - The Merchant of Venice, Faction of Fools Workshop
13 - The Flick, Signature Theatre
14 - 110 in the Shade, Ford's Theatre
18 - 1984, Headlong Theatre Company on tour at Shakespeare Theatre Company
25 - Constellations, Studio Theatre
26 - The Pillowman, Forum Theatre

April
7 - 110 in the Shade, Ford's Theatre
8 - Discord, Washington Stage Guild
14 - Moment, Studio Theatre
15 - After the War, Mosaic Theatre Company
16 - 110 in the Shade, Ford's Theatre
17 - The Mystery of Love and Sex, Signature Theatre
19 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Round House Theatre
28 - 110 in the Shade, Ford's Theatre
29 - Disgraced, Arena Stage

May
1 - Fool for All, Faction of Fools
5 - Journey to the West, Constellation Theatre Company
13 - Phaeton, Taffety Punk
16 - Fortinbras, Shakespeare Theatre Company ReDiscovery Reading
20 - James Plays, National Theatre of Scotland on Tour (Canterbury)
22 - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Globe Theatre
27 - The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Theatre Company

June
3 - Wild Sky, Solas Nua
4 - Bakersfield Mist, Olney Theatre Center
9 - Hedda Gabler, Studio Theatre
10 - District Merchants, Folger Theatre
12 - The Miser, Faction of Fools
15 - The Who and the What, Round House Theatre
19 - La Cage aux Folles, Signature Theatre
22 - Chalk, We Happy Few
25 - Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National Theatre of Scotland on Tour (New Haven)
26 - An Octoroon, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
26 - Floyd Collins, 1st Stage

July
3? - Moxie, Happenstance Theatre at Round House (how is this not on my calendar? Guessing at the date)
15 - Evita, Olney Theatre Center
17 - The Good Devil (In Spite of Himself), WSC AvantBard
18 - Henry VI, Part 1, Taffety Punk Bootleg Shakespeare
27 - The Merchant of Venice, Globe Theatre on Tour (Kennedy Center)
29 - Hand to God, Studio Theatre

August
20 - Fun Home, Broadway
25 - The Lonesome West, Keegan Theatre

September
7 - The Last Schwartz, Theater J
9 - Satchmo at the Waldorf, Mosaic Theater Company
13 - Come from Away, Ford's Theatre
16 - Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare Theatre Company
17 - Anthony and Cleopatra, Brave Spirits Theatre
23 - Sense and Sensibility, Folger Theatre
25 - The Gulf, Signature Theatre
28 - The Little Foxes, Arena Stage

October
1 - Come from Away, Ford's Theatre
1 - Urinetown, Constellation Theatre Company
3 - Watch on the Rhine, Arena Stage THEatrical sELECTIONs Reading
6 - Cloud 9, Studio Theatre
13 - What We're Up Against, Keegan Theatre
14 - An Iliad, Taffety Punk
17 - The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, Shakespeare Theatre ReDiscovery/THEatrical sELECTIONs Reading
18 - Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches, Round House Theatre/Olney Theatre Center coproduction
25 - Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika, Round House Theatre/Olney Theatre Center coproduction
31 - Warrior Class, Kennedy Center THEatrical sELECTIONs Reading

November
7 - Ivanka: A Medea for Right Now, Studio Theatre THEatrical sELECTIONs Reading
10 - Rameau's Nephew, Spooky Action Theatre
16 - The Christians, Theater J
17 - Metropolis, Constellation Theatre Company
18 - The Secret Garden, Shakespeare Theatre Company
19 - Eurydice, Next Stop Theatre
23 - A Christmas Carol, Ford's Theatre
25 - A View from the Bridge, National Tour (Kennedy Center)
26 - The Merchant of Venice, Faction of Fools
27 - Silver Belles, Signature Theatre

December
1 - The Second Shepherds' Play, Folger Theatre/Folger Consort
6 - Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Round House Theatre
8 - Straight White Men, Studio Theatre
13 - A Christmas Carol, Ford's Theatre
17 - The Secret Garden, Shakespeare Theatre Company

95 performances this year, which is considerably more manageable than the past couple years. Especially since scheduling all this has to include at least one costuming event per month (most of which have involved needing to make appropriate attire in time for the event).

Best show this year, hands down, was Come from Away. "Uplifting" sounds cheesy as fuck, but goddamn, I needed this show after the election rather than the two times before that I did get it. The music is fantastic, the stories Sankoff and Hein select don't shy away from how hard September 11 was on so many people, but it is, overall, about how we come together in adversity. I saw some great work: View from the Bridge was jaw-dropping virtuoso acting, Aaron Posner's Dream for Folger had such pure delight and joy in the Rude Mechanicals (directed with a love and seriousness I've never seen before), An Octoroon sure as hell drove home "sensation". I finally saw Fun Home and it was fantastic! But Come from Away is an entirely different level of feels - never manipulative, always earned, upbeat music but never papering over the horror, funny without making fun of the Islanders, and I end up crying every time I think about it. It is the best.