When You're a Jet Something Something: West Side Story, reviewed.

(Signature Theatre/Christopher Mueller)

I brought my folks to Signature Theatre's reverent, rapturous production of the Broadway classic West Side Story the week before Christmas, but due to vagaries related to two issues falling on holidays between then and now, my Washington City Paper review is only now surfacing. I filed on time, dammit. At least I think I did. Who can remember anything from before Christmas now? Holiday-time usually brings a conventional but deeply satisfying revival of a proven crowd favorite, and this winter, West Side Story is the one to beat.

For what it's worth, the first time I heard "America" was when Bono was singing a snippet of it during "Bullet the Blue Sky" on U2's PopMart Tour in 1997.

Petty Hurts: Girlstar and Avenue Q, reviewed.

In this week's Washington City Paper, I size up a pair of musicals: Signature Theatre's Girlstar is a confused mess borne aloft by a strong cast, and Constellation Theatre's revival of the hit Sesame Street parody Avenue Q is funnier and more soulful than The Muppets. (The dour 2015 version, not The Muppet Show.) More words, if not necessarily more insight, on these subjects here and here.

On Around Town, talking Laugh, Man of La Mancha, The Originalist, and Soon.

My regimen of smiling and sentence-speaking practice continues as I join host Robert Aubry Davis and Washington Post arts writer Jane Horwitz for another Around Town panel discussion of what's happening on stage here in Our Nation's Capitol and its close suburbs. In this batch of videos, which have also been airing irregularly on your public television, we discuss three shows I reviewed for the Washington City Paper and one I didn't: Beth Henley's homage to silent film comedies Laugh, the Shakespeare Theatre's new production of the classic musical Man of La Mancha, Arena Stage's world premiere play about divisive Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, The Originalist, and Soon, a new musical about the end of the world, kind of, at Signature Theatre.

These links no longer play nice with my blogging platform, so they're not embeddable.

Laugh

http://watch.weta.org/video/2365462454/

Soon

http://watch.weta.org/video/2365462413/

Man of La Mancha

http://watch.weta.org/video/2365462437/

The Originalist

http://watch.weta.org/video/2365462393/

Judgment Days: Signature Theatre's Soon, reviewed.

Alex Brightman and Joshua Morgan in Soon.

My review of all-rounder Nick Blaemire's world premiere apocalypse musical Soon is in today's Washington City Paper. Or you can save an already-killed tree and read it here.

The Hard Sells: Back to Methuselah, Part 2 and Kid Victory, reviewed.

Jake Winn and Jeffry Denman are prey & predator in Kid Victory (Margot Schulman/Signature).

In today's snow-day edition of the Washington City Paper, I review the second installment in Washington Stage Guild's three-part, three-year presentation of George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah and of the world-premiere John Kander-Greg Pierce musical Kid Victory. Around Town videos wherein Robert Aubry Davis, Jane Horwitz, the gigantic lapels of my shirt, and I dissect these differently taxing shows are here and here.

The Good Books: Sex with Strangers and Elmer Gantry, reviewed.

Luigi Sottile and Holly Twyford in Signature Theatre's Sex with Strangers.

Mary Kate Morrissey, Charlie Pollack, and Jessica-Lauren Ball with the ensemble of Elmer Gantry.

This is my last pair of Washington City Paper theatre reviews to be edited by departing managing editor Jonathan L. Fischer, who as I mentioned last week is moving on to become a senior editor at Slate. I'll miss having him edit me every week but I know he'll do great things there. Godspeed, Jon.