Category: 2025-2026
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There’s More Than One Way to Crack An Egg and There’s More Than One Way to Peel An Orange, But There’s Only One Place in Hampton Roads to Catch “Purlie” (And That’s Downing-Gross)
When we got home from “Purlie”, playing now at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center, our cat Pepper was up in arms. “How offensive that they would do a song called ‘Skinnin’ a Cat’! Unbelievable!” she meowed at us. When we finally got her settled down enough to listen, and explained to her that it was just…
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Unsettling Thy Name is Rhoda – Williamsburg Players Presents the Psychological Thriller “Bad Seed”
After a few starts and stops in my attempt to write a review of “Bad Seed”, currently showing at Williamsburg Players, I’ve concluded that is it just a difficult show to write about. Not because of any lack of skill, talent, or effort on stage or behind-the-scenes – this show had plenty of each. But…
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It’s Never Easy to Meet the Parents as LTVB Showcases with “Stick Fly”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) As the pre-snow cold bore down on Virginia Beach, we were welcomed into the warm and well-appointed house that is the set of LTVB’s show “Stick Fly”. Seriously – set designer Sandy Lawrence and Set Dresser Lisa Stafford should have a show on HGTV. The house they built…
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Shakespeare Goes West! Check Out “Desperate Measures” at Generic Theater
Photo courtesy of Donald Campbell (https://www.instagram.com/duck.duck.soup/). Things I knew about “Desperate Measures”, currently playing at Generic Theater, when I walked in… The rest was a mystery, including the fact that it is a musical, only discovered upon opening the program and seeing a list of musical numbers. (I was also thrilled to see a cat…
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Eight Characters Head into the Forest of Arden. Will They All Find Marriage? Find Out at “As You Like It” Playing Now at Little Theatre of Norfolk
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) Is there a limit to the number of couples that I can shoe-horn into a play with a single wedding at the end? And can I make the play still appealing to those who hate love by adding a character whose whole deal is to be a foil…
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The Winter Wonderettes Headline Harper’s Hardware Holiday Happenings at Smithfield Little Theatre
*Note: As per the performance eligibility requirements laid out here, this production is not up for HRACT Award consideration.* Smithfield Little Theatre loves a four woman show, and this year, they filled their two weekend-only holiday spot with “Winter Wonderettes”, a show sprinkled with classic Christmas songs tied together with a loose plotline wherein the audience…
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PCT Tells a Scary Ghost Story (Along with some Tales of Glory) this Christmas Season with “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol”
This time of year, the world is flooded with versions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” – and oftentimes, lost in the musical numbers and the production value, it is easy to forget that, at its core, this is a ghost story. Peninsula Community Theatre’s “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol”, told from the perspective of that…
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Just in Time for Thanksgiving, “Nolan’s Wake” Will Make You Thankful for the Family You Have
*Note: As per the performance eligibility requirements laid out here, this production is not up for HRACT Award consideration.* “Nolan’s Wake”, playing as part of the Curtain Up! New Play Series at Zeiders American Dream Theater, begins with a familiar scenario – a family showing up at a house they’ve rented, with immediate drama over who…
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Little Theatre of Virginia Beach Taps the Night Away with “Crazy For You”
A quirk in the scheduling of HRACT-Award eligible shows this year meant that it had been over two months since we’d seen a musical – “much too long” I said to my wife as we walked toward the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach to see “Crazy For You”. I do love a play, but there…
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Williamsburg Players’ Remarkable Acting and Strong Storytelling Will Keep You Guessing Throughout “Rehearsal for Murder”
Theatre, at its core, is a game of imagination. You have a group of people – large or small – on stage, pretending to do something, and hoping that the audience is interested enough in the game to stay for a couple of hours. Sometimes, you add fancy sets lit by the most complicated of…
HRACT Awards 