Theater Minis

NOW PLAYING:

Antebellum — Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company — ★ The South and persecuted Jews will rise again — in indignation after seeing the shallow sensationalism of Robert O’Hara’s play “Antebellum,” a full-tilt Technicolor spectacle. Where does one begin to describe the plot? It’s a time-traveling mystery set in 1939, interweaving ingrained racism in the South, the premiere of the movie “Gone With the Wind” in Atlanta, and medical experiments at concentration camps in Nazi Germany. It would take special brilliance to make a soap opera out of the Holocaust and institutionalized slavery in America. The broadly farcical treatment and turgid dialogue make a mockery out of suffering and manage to be an equal-opportunity offender. Through April 26. 202/393-3939.

The Civil War — Ford’s Theatre — ★★½ The 1998 musical “The Civil War” is a song-cycle with lyrics based on actual Civil War-era letters and diary entries, sung at Ford’s by a cast of 16 whose ensemble singing is consistently fine. The drama of this oratorio, directed with an eye toward current tastes by Jeff Calhoun, is heightened by sepia-toned projections of photos from the war and haunting archival images of the people. There is an emphasis on rousing pop anthems — the kind sung by Bob Seger — which works electrifyingly in the numbers “Old Gray Coat” and “Last Waltz for Dixie,” but after a while, everything tends to blend in a blur of vague passion. Through May 24. 800/899-2367.

Lysistrata — Rosslyn Spectrum — ★★★★ Revel in the frisky side of celibacy and forced abstinence in a flirty and deliciously bawdy new adaptation of Aristophanes’ sex comedy “Lysistrata,” an inspired collaboration between Synetic Theater and Georgetown University’s Theater and Performance Studies Program. Synetic’s trademark articulate, movement-based theater can be seen in the production’s choreography by Irina Tsikurishvili, a sinuous swirl of undulating hips and arms, arabesques and balletic extensions. Through April 26. 202/687-2787 or 800/494-8497.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — Round House Theatre, Bethesda — ★★★ Though you might think Jack Nicholson’s performance in the 1975 Milos Forman film is the be-all-and-end-all “Cuckoo” experience, Round House Theater’s revival of the stage play, directed by Jerry Whiddon, is powerful and immediate and features some of the best ensemble acting you are likely to see in the area this spring. “Cuckoo” centers on the turf battle between McMurphy (Matthew Detmer), a fatally overconfident transferee from the prison work farm who fakes insanity to get out of the fields, and Nurse Ratched (Kathryn Kelley), a routine-loving fussbudget who controls her patients through shame. Through April 26. 240/644-1100.

MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS

• Compiled by Jayne Blanchard