Wake Up: Studio's Skeleton Crew and Theatre Alliance's Word Becomes Flesh, reviewed.

Caroline Stefanie Clay and Tyee Tilghman in Skeleton Crew. (Teresa Wood)

You've got two, two, two big shows written by and starring people of color up in the District just now: Skeleton Crew, the third entry in Dominique Morisseau's Detroit series, has the same concerns as Lynne Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat but it's a better play, and Studio Theatre's production is built to last. And Psalmayene 24's multi Helen Hayes Award-winning production of Marc Bamuthi Joseph's Word Becomes Flesh is back at Theatre Alliance for a remount starring the same superb cast it did last year. I review both in this week's Washington City Paper. For which I also wrote the cover story, for some reason. It's not like I get paid by the word, people.

Sisters of No Mercy: Three Sisters and No Sisters, reviewed.

Kimberly Gilbert and Todd Scofield in No Sisters. (Studio Theatre)

Studio Theatre is putting on a ballsy experiment for the next month or so, running a new production of Three Sisters and No Sisters—Aaron Posner's companion play—not in rep but literally on top of one another. I review both in this week's Washington City Paper.

FURTHER READING: My April 2015 review of Round House's Uncle Vanya. My January 2015 review of Posner's Life Sucks, or the Present Ridiculous at Theatre J. My June 2013 review of Stupid Fucking Bird. And my August 2011 review of the Sydney Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya, starring Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving.

Visions of Diana: King Charles III and I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart, reviewed.

I'm putting y'all on notice: My reviews of King Charles III—Mike Bartlett's marvelous blank verse political drama at the Shakespeare Theatre—and Studio Theatre's world premiere production of Morgan Gould's I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart are in this week's Washington City Paper.

Epic-in-the-Brechtian-Sense Failure: Kiss, reviewed.

Lelia TahaBurt, Shannon Dorsey, Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey, Tim Getman, and Ahmad Kamal in Kiss. 

Feeling compelled to write a play about war or genocide? You've got your work cut out for you, but God bless. Feel compelled to turn your frustration over how hard it is to write a good play about war or genocide into a play? Please stop. A lot of things are about you, but not everything.

Woolly Mammoth's American premiere of Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón's Kiss is not as bad as Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present, because nothing I've ever seen on a stage is as myopic and offensive as Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present. But it ain't good. I break it down in today's Washington City Paper, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away gratis.

Bad Times, Good Times: Studio's Cloud 9 and Constellation's Urinetown, reviewed.

For various critic-related, theater company-related, and publication-related reasons, my reviews of Studio Theatre's production of Caryl Churchill's anticolonial sex romp Cloud 9 and Constellation Theatre Company's new production of the Y2K-era Greg Kotis-Mark Hollman musical Urinetown have taken a long time to see print. But they're in this week's Washington City Paper, and online, too.

Sock Pulpit: Hand to God, reviewed.

Liam Forde is affixed to a demonic puppet in Studio's Hand to God. (Amy Horan)

My review of Studio Theatre's terrific production of Robert Askins' Broadway hit Hand to God is in today's Washington City Paper.

A Horse of a Different Color: Between Riverside and Crazy and Equus, reviewed.

Frankie R. Faison, Emily K. Townley, and David Bishins in Between Riverside and Crazy. (Allie Dearie/Studio Theatre)

Among my other inspired headline ideas was the immortal "Race, Horse." Washington City Paper editor-in-chief Steve Cavendish came up with the winning entry: "Crime Doesn't Neigh." Bravo, Steve. Herewith, my reviews of Studio's Between Riverside and Crazy, the 2015 Pulitzer winner from Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Constellation's new production of Peter Shaffer's Equus.

How You Like Them Apples? Sorry and Regular Singing, reviewed.

Sarah Marshall, Elizabeth Pierotti, Rick Foucheux, and Kimberly Schraf in The Apple Family Cycle, part the second, at Studio Theatre. (Allie Dearie)

My review of Sorry and Regular Singing, the latter two entries in Richard Nelson's Apple Family quartet, is in today's Washington City Paper. I reviewed the first pair, That Hopey Changey Thing and Sweet and Sad, when the same director and cast staged them here in Washington two years ago; see here. If I've little more to say now than I said then, it's only because the magnificent strengths of the whole are also the strengths of its magnificent component parts.