Zachary Pincus Roth

Washington, D.C., United States

Senior Editor, Style at The Washington Post

Senior editor for Style at @WashingtonPost. Written for @NYTimes @LATimes @Slate @WSJ @Variety @Newsday @LAWeekly & more. In a relationship with Giselle Odum

Articles

This corn musical is salty but doesn't quite pop

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article.
Review | This corn musical is salty but doesn’t quite pop

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

You could tell a story of American culture through corn, tracing it through the first Thanksgiving, bourbon, the Iowa caucuses, the stalks “as high as an elephant’s eye” that heralded the modern musical and were plowed over to build a field of dreams in Hollywood, which has been propped up by a high-calorie buttered version — eventually landing at a 2022 viral video in which a child eloquently points out that the “big lump with knobs” “has the juice.” This history serves as the ethanol fuel...
‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ at Signature Theatre, reviewed

Nov 8, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

Cameron Loyal, left foreground, with Erin Weaver and the cast of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” at Signature Theatre. (Christopher Mueller)Review by Zachary Pincus-RothNovember 8, 2024 at 6:44 p.m. ESTThey are licking lips in Arlington, Virginia, flailing arms, rubbing nipples, humping spears, humping columns, humping feet and pantomiming diarrhea. Faces end up in breasts. Swords in butts.
A gender-bending take on a Sondheim musical farce

Nov 8, 2024 | yahoo.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

They are licking lips in Arlington, Virginia, flailing arms, rubbing nipples, humping spears, humping columns, humping feet and pantomiming diarrhea. Faces end up in breasts. Swords in butts. All get an appearance or two or five in Signature Theatre’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” a production most intriguing for its gender-bending updates to the Ancient Rome-set farce, even as (unrelatedly) the belly laughs don’t come as easily as expected amid the carnal antics.
The ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ songwriters are in their 90s - and still best friends

Jun 4, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

Lee Adams, the 99-year-old lyricist of “Bye Bye Birdie,” doesn’t remember much about creating the show in 1960, but he can quote the New York Times review that came out during the opening night festivities: “‘Bye Bye Birdie’ is neither fish, fowl nor good musical comedy.”“He simply did not get it,” Adams says, adding, “That was the kiss of death. And he was the number one reviewer. Then the other reviews started to come in. They all were positive.
Can’t get to Broadway? There’s a ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ in D.C., too.

Feb 8, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

Two decades ago, my mom and I wanted to see something in the Kennedy Center’s landmark festival of Stephen Sondheim shows, so we picked the title being performed on a convenient day, one we only vaguely recognized: “Merrily We Roll Along.” After experiencing its stirring melodies, its poignant tale of three friends told backward in time and a memorable comic performance by Raúl Esparza as Charley, I was stunned that it was stuck in obscurity. In fact, there was a reason.
Town alive with Old World charm

Sep 24, 2023 | sandiegouniontribune.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

Paul Davis is a lawyer at the Department of Energy, but he’d always wanted to play Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.” His dad was a naval officer, like the character, and Davis’ family would watch the movie over popcorn and root beer when it came on TV at Christmastime. “I grew up identifying as a von Trapp,” he says. Davis finally got his dream part, at a community theater in 2014.
Bavarian-themed town in Washington performs 'The Sound of Music' every year

Sep 18, 2023 | bendbulletin.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

LEAVENWORTH, WASH. — Paul Davis is a lawyer at the Department of Energy, but he’d always wanted to play Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.” His dad was a naval officer, like the character, and Davis’s family would watch the movie over popcorn and root beer when it came on TV at Christmastime. “I grew up identifying as a von Trapp,” he says. Davis finally got his dream part, at a community theater in 2014.
The Bavarian-themed town that performs ‘The Sound of Music’ every year

Aug 22, 2023 | seattletimes.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

LEAVENWORTH, WASH. — Paul Davis is a lawyer at the Department of Energy, but he’d always wanted to play Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.” His dad was a naval officer, like the character, and Davis’s family would watch the movie over popcorn and root beer when it came on TV at Christmastime. “I grew up identifying as a von Trapp,” he says. Davis finally got his dream part, at a community theater in 2014.
The Bavarian-themed town that performs 'The Sound of Music' every year

Aug 21, 2023 | lmtonline.com | Zachary Pincus Roth

Peaks loom behind the stage in this amphitheater, which is tucked near a hill that once hosted U.S. ski jump championships. Davis, 60, snagged the role last summer, relocating from his home in Kennewick, Wash., a few hours away to burn through his vacation days before returning again this year.