Alexandra Bowman

1 week ago | dctheaterarts.org | Alexandra Bowman

Rachel Luann Strayer’s Drowning Ophelia opens with a young woman going about typical young-woman stuff — being worried about having enough time to make dinner after work, yada yada — meanwhile, there’s a sweet, virginal maiden frolicking in a bathtub behind her and vocalizing operatically about Valentine’s Day. The contemporary young woman seems to absolutely hate the maiden, yelling at her to “shut up” regularly — and the maiden absolutely won’t stop.

Jan 20, 2025 | dctheaterarts.org | Alexandra Bowman |Neil Simon

It’s so easy to make a story about wealthy people’s foibles exhaustingly on-the-nose and more preachy, depressing, or frustrating than entertaining. Neil Simon’s Rumors premiered before Seinfeld and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — and was likely an inspiration for the former — but now that these stories have dominated the “stories about terrible people” genre in our 2025 consciousness, others must fight for relevancy and unique excellence. With a play, this fight comes down to performance.

Nov 25, 2024 | dctheaterarts.org | Alexandra Bowman

I finally saw Wicked on Broadway in early 2022. I went in blind, and as I left, I was sad to find that I felt underwhelmed. Unmemorable, plotless songs plagued the performance, and the show centers oversimplified, cartoony characters in a story about leading causes of America’s current, renewedly urgent crisis. The Wicked movie released this past week, directed by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) and starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, has erased these issues.

Sep 22, 2024 | dctheaterarts.org | Alexandra Bowman

As with any screen-to-stage adaptation, Shrek the Musical differs significantly from its source material. But it should be evaluated not merely based on what it’s done differently but for what its changes amount to in this new work of art. What particularly fascinates me are the changes that differentiate Shrek the Musical’s 2024 non-Equity tour from its original Broadway production: this version comes across as, and was intended to resemble, children’s theater.

Sep 21, 2024 | dctheaterarts.org | Alexandra Bowman

The Waverly Gallery — a play by Oscar-winning screenwriter of Manchester by the Sea Kenneth Lonergan first produced on Broadway in 2000 — centers on a family who have run an art gallery in Greenwich Village for many years.