Penelope at Signature Theatre

Penelope

Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Avenue Arlington

Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, is fed up and has some things she wants to say. With glass of bourbon in hand, she takes the microphone to chronicle those twenty years waiting on the small island kingdom of Ithaca. With soulful music, this witty and thoughtful musical flips the script on the dutiful wife, as Penelope steps out of the background to claim her time in the spotlight.

Thru - Apr 21, 2024

Show Type: Musical

Box Office: 703-820-9771

www.sigtheatre.org

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Penelope Reviews

Average Rating based on 6 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Highly Recommended

"...This is “Penelope,” a wonderfully ingratiating new musical from songwriter Alex Bechtel and his co-bookwriters Grace McLean and Eva Steinmetz, who’ve set out to center the heroine a little more firmly than that. And while the result isn’t quite a revolutionary reframing, Steinmetz’s staging for Signature Theatre — the show’s area premiere, after an initial production at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival last fall — makes an intelligently emotional case for the shift in focus."

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- Trey Graham

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...The gifted singer and actress Jessica Phillips takes on Bechtel's stunning songs with total mastery. In "Penelope," she draws a quick, vivid picture of her lonely life behind the castle walls while she watches for Odysseus' ship to return. Trapped by her identity as a wife and mother, she has no real future other than as the mate to a warrior who has taken an extra decade to meander home after winning a war."

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- Amy Kotkin

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...Jessica Phillips is a magnetic presence at the heart of this rapturous solo musical, now in the ARK Theatre at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. With the assistance of five onstage musicians who also occasionally provide supporting vocals, Penelope finally gets the chance to speak (and sing) for herself."

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- Susan Berlin

Washington City Paper - Recommended

"...In performance, Phillips is a skilled storyteller, which she demonstrates as she monologues about the famous bargain Penelope made with her suitors: She will decide who to marry once she finishes weaving her tapestry-her fingers illustrate this work with a precise mime as she narrates all the images she renders in thread by day only to secretly unravel at night. Likewise, Phillips is effective as Penelope fantasizing about leaving the palace and having a one-night stand with a traveler, or even taking a ship and leaving Ithaca for good. Whereas Homer showed character through speech and action, Bechtel gives these characters the interiority of imagination."

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- Ian Thal

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"...This is an inauspicious start, but thanks to the exceptional creative team and the peerless performance by Jessica Phillips, “Penelope” is a must-see production."

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- Peter Orvetti

BroadwayWorld - Not Recommended

"...Perhaps my biggest frustration with Penelope can be summed up in a single question: why? It’s really unclear what the purpose of this show is – obstinately, it’s to tell Penelope’s side of The Odyssey, to explore what she did during those long years while her husband was off having his adventures. But this production only superficially touches on each of the many avenues it could have explored: her relationship with Helen, raising Telemachus as a single mother, how she handled running Ithaca in Odysseus’ absence, her clever plans to keep the suitors at bay while she waited for his return."

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- Rachael F. Goldberg

Penelope at Signature Theatre

Penelope

Penelope Reviews

Washington Post - Highly Recommended

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

Washington City Paper - Recommended

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

BroadwayWorld - Not Recommended

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