No Jacket Required, Apparently: Talking Death of a Salesman, In the Heights, and The Wild Party on Around Town

You can see for yourself what a business-casual mood I was in the day Robert Aubry Davis, Jane Horwitz, and I convened at WETA to shoot a fresh batch of Around Town segments. Perhaps you are correct that I should have chosen a shirt that is not the same shade as our studio backdrop. Hey, I don't tell you how to do your part-time job.

I reviewed Ford's Death of a Salesman and Constellation's The Wild Party for the Washington City Paper. For In the Heights, the musical I herein refer to as "Lin-Manuel Miranda's THX-1138," I didn't write about it. I just bought four more tickets the morning after to take my folks.

Mercy Is For Closers: Ford's Death of a Salesman, reviewed.

Craig Wallace, Kim Schraf, Danny Gavigan, and Thomas Keegan as the Lomans. (Carol Rosegg)

What can you do with Death of a Salesman, a play that has never really fallen out of circulation since it debuted almost 70 years ago? Just stay out of its way. Here’s my Washington City Paper review of Ford’s Theatre’s new Craig Wallace-starring production, which I loved.

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.

This Was Supposed to Be the New World: Theater J's After the Revolution and Woolly Mammoth's Detroit, reviewed

Nancy Robinette & Megan Anderson in After the Revolution. Photo: Stan Barouh/Theater J. 

I was a bigger fan of Studio Theatre's production of Amy Herzog's 4,000 Miles earlier this year than I am of Theater J's new staging of its companion play, After the Revolution.

I can't fault director Eleanor Holdridge's staging of the latter for that; I just connected more strongly to the material in 4,000 Miles. Getting to see two marvelous actors, Tanya Hicken and Nancy Robinette, offer their takes on the same character -- a close approximation of Herzog's grandmother -- in 4,000 Miles and Revolution, respectively, within a half-year of each other was fun.

I review After the Revolution in today's Washington City Paper, along with Woolly Mammoth's production of Lisa D'Amour's Detroit, which is a nice showcase for some of Woolly's favorite actors -- and mine, too.