Kendall Mostafavi

Review: ‘Under(world): The Lost and the Found’ by TBD Immersive

TBD Immersive presents their new adventure, Under(world): The Lost & The Found, in Dupont Circle. The Dupont Underground has been transformed into a series of settings representing the inter-crossings...

Review: ‘Ripcord’ by Vienna Theatre Company

Vienna Theatre Company has just opened David Lindsay-Abaire’s hilarious play, Ripcord, for the last production of their current season. The show takes place in an assisted living facility, with two...

Review: ‘Time Stands Still’ at Reston Community Players

Many plays try to capture the complexity of the human spirit and the Reston Community Players production of Donald Margulies’, Time Stands Still, does just that. The poignant tale examines an...

Review: ‘Robin Hood’ by Encore Stage & Studio

Encore Stage & Studio was founded in 1967 and produces “theatre by kids, for kids.” Their current show is Robin Hood, the classic tale of the brave archer who steals from the rich to give to the poor....

Review: ‘Ouroboros: Dawn of the Cabaret’ by TBD Immersive

Remember the choose-your-own-adventure books from grade school? Well, imagine that but in a live scenario where you are a character in the story, not just an observer guiding the action. This is the...

Review: ‘Anatole: Mouse Magnifique’ at Imagination Stage

Imagination Stage is currently playing Anatole: Mouse Magnifique, a musical adaptation of the children’s book series “Anatole” by Eve Titus. Book and lyrics are by John Maclay and Lee Becker, with...

Review: ‘An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly’ at American Pops Orchestra

The American Pops Orchestra recently presented their original adaptation of the children’s story, An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. Writer, Claybourne Elder, has taken the madcap rhyme and transformed...

Review: ‘Visions of Love’ by Pointless Theatre

Pointless Theatre has produced a stage adaptation of Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, City Lights, called Visions of Love. Using the original score, adapted and composed by Chaplin himself, and...

Review: ‘Peter Pan’ by Vienna Theatre Company

J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan is a classic tale whose title character first appeared in a 1902 novel from the same author. Peter is a carefree spirit, who never wants to grow up and embodies innocence,...

Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ by Castaways Repertory Theatre

The Castaways Repertory Theatre opened their production of Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare’s better-known romantic comedies, this past weekend. The story is packed with chicanery. There are...

Review: ‘She Loves Me’ at Fauquier Community Theatre

From the same source of inspiration for the Jimmy Stewart classic, “Shop Around the Corner,” and 1998 Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie, “You’ve Got Mail,” is the 1963 musical She Loves Me. The show, with...

Review: ‘My Father’s Dragon’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic Theater produces another visually captivating and emotion-filled journey in their newest show, My Father’s Dragon. The story, adapted by Ryan Sellers, is based on the children’s book of the...

Report: ‘Jingle ARRGH the Way’ by Encore Stage and Studio

Nothing says Christmas like Pirates, am I right?! Well, Encore Stage & Studio’s production of Jingle ARRGH the Way follows Captain Braid Beard and his crew as they sail to the North Pole in search of...

Review: ‘Elf the Musical’ at Olney Theatre Center

The Holidays are upon us and with them comes the rush of themed movies, music, and theater. Olney Theatre Center welcomes the holiday season with their production of Elf the Musical. Based on the 2003...

Review: ‘Sing To Me Now’ by Rorschach Theatre Company

What happens when human imagination runs dry? When the concept of artistic expression and creativity is stifled in a world that has become overwhelmed with frustration, anger, and despair? That is the...

Review: ‘Hairspray’ by Reston Community Players

Reston Community Players has built a reputation of presenting professional-quality theater that surpasses expectations of volunteer-based community theater, and their most recent production is no...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ by L.A. Theatre Works at George Mason University Center for the Arts

Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias is a heartbreaking story that exemplifies the female bond and illustrates the resilient strength that bolsters six women from a small southern town through times of...

Review: ‘Sleepy Hollow’ at Synetic Theater

It is officially Fall and nothing says Halloween season like Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Synetic Theater has taken this American horror classic and adapted the story into their own...

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast Jr.’ by BRAVO Productions

Watching young artists perform carries its own level of excitement beyond the entertainment itself. There’s the shared love of arts which compels people to participate and support learning theatre...

‘Hamlet Project: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Mixtape’ by We Happy Few

In 2012, Hannah Todd and Raven Bonniwell founded a small theater company, We Happy Few, with the desire to revive classic texts and find new ways to interpret and present the material. While We Happy...

Review: ‘Flip Flop: A Miscast Cabaret’ at Monumental Theatre Company

For the fourth year in a row, Monumental Theatre Company has hosted their annual event, featuring top millennial talent from the DC area. Flip Flop: A Miscast Cabaret is the latest presentation of the...

Review: ‘Rock of Ages’ at the Workhouse Arts Center

Rock of Ages is more of a rock concert than a musical. The musical comedy, created by Chris D’Arienzo, is currently running at the Workhouse in Lorton to sold-out audiences, and with good reason. With...

Review: ‘Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies’ by Mosaic Theater Company

In today’s political climate, discussions of race and privilege between those with opposing views have become near to impossible. Our battles of conflicting perspectives, opinions, and impassioned...

Review: ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ by Reston Community Players

Reston Community Players is currently showing the amusing and energetic Thoroughly Modern Millie, with original book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlon, new music by Jeanine Tesori, and new lyrics...

Review: ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at Folger Theatre

One would not expect a tale full of heartbreak, betrayal, abandonment, and death to be a comedy. But that is exactly what Folger Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is....

Review: ‘The Big Apple Circus’ Brings Fun to the National Harbor

The Big Apple Circus has come to the DC area for their 40th Anniversary Celebration. Original founders, Paul Binder and Michael Christensen, established the BAC in 1977. Their European styled, one...

Review: ‘Godspell’ at NextStop Theatre Company

NextStop Theatre is reaching the end of their July 2017 to June 2018 “Point and Counterpoint” season. Their third and final show pairing explores the contrasting effects that religious teachings can...

Review: ‘The Farnsworth Invention’ at 1st Stage

In 1920, a fourteen-year-old boy in Idaho, named Philo Farnsworth, asked his science teacher for advice on a design he was working on for an electronic television system. Seven years later, that kid...

Review: ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

Have you ever had a day where absolutely every little thing goes wrong? Well, Alexander has. In the musical version of Judith Viorst’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad...

Review: ‘Hairspray’ an Adventure Theatre ATMTC Academy Student Production

Adventure Theatre and ATMTC Academy presented their student production of Hairspray over the weekend. Young artists, ranging from grades four through twelve, hit the stage with all the energy and...

Review: ‘This Is All Just Temporary’ at Convergence Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Convergence Theatre, as a part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, has produced a new play by Olivia Haller called This Is All Just Temporary. The original work focuses on college graduate Lauren,...

Review: ‘Fiddler on the Roof, Jr.’ at Bravo Productions

Bravo Productions had their first of two productions in 2018 this past weekend. Fiddler on the Roof JR ran for four shows in two days to completely packed houses. The Junior musical is a condensed...

Review: ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ at The American Pops Orchestra

Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days is a classic novel that has stood the test of time–one hundred and forty-five years, to be exact–and been adapted into multiple media forms since its original...

Review: ‘Foolish Fairytales’ at Faction of Fools Theatre Company

If you have yet to experience a Faction of Fools Theatre Company production, then you are missing out on something truly brilliant and one-of-a-kind. With a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Emerging...

Review: ‘A Tuna Christmas’ at Parlor Room Theater

Classic holiday productions, like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, always show up around the theater circuit this time of year. But there are also many modern...

Review: ‘Holiday Follies’ at Signature Theatre

It’s that time of year again. Signature Theatre opened their annual Holiday Follies this week. The seasonal cabaret is packed with a set of over twenty songs including Christmas classics, tunes from...

Review: ‘In Conversation with Samantha Bee…A Moderated Q&A’ at The Kennedy Center Concert Hall

It was a match made in heaven: Rebecca Traister, author and commentator on feminism and politics; and Samantha Bee, Canadian-American writer, comedian, producer, and (according to TIME) one of the top...

Review: ‘Me…Jane: The Dreams & Adventures of Young Jane Goodall’ at the Kennedy Center

The story of Jane Goodall – primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist – has been told numerous times in various media forms. The British born naturalist is said to be the leading expert on...

Review: ‘A Little Princess’ at Creative Cauldron’s Learning Theatre

Creative Cauldron’s Learning Theatre has put on an original version of Francis Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess. Ellen Selby, who co-directed the show, wrote the book, with music by Matt Conner and...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Little Theatre of Alexandria

The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s most recent production, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang, is an interesting look at family dynamics and the lingering effects that being a...

Review: ‘Assassins’ at NextStop Theatre Company

NextStop opened their production of Assassins over the weekend and (all the cheesy pun intended) absolutely killed it. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, the musical...

Review: ‘Emilie’ at Avant Bard

Life is full of unanswered questions. But in Lauren Gunderson’s play, Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, the title character is given a second chance. Avant Bard is currently...

Review: ‘Wilderness’ at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater

The Kennedy Center recently presented En Garde Arts’ touring production of Wilderness, a multimedia show that discusses the real-life accounts of young teens who struggle with mental health. The piece...

Review: ‘Pippin’ at The Arlington Players

The Arlington Players are entering the last weekend of their production of Pippin, a show that promises magic and fantastic feats, with book by Roger Hirson and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz....

Review: ‘The Wild Party’ at Constellation Theater Company

In 1928, Joseph Moncure March wrote a racy narrative poem that was received quite successfully, despite a ban resulting from its controversial content, called “The Wild Party.” And in 2000, a musical...

Review: ‘Anne and Emmett’ at MetroStage

Anne and Emmett, by Janet Langhart Cohen, is a play about an imagined conversation between two figures from history – teenagers, who were the victims of institutional terrorism. MetroStage produced...

Review: ‘A Grand Night for Singing’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II have been called the greatest writing partnership of the 20th century. Their work spans from 1943 to 1959 and includes some of the most...

Review: ‘Bonnie & Clyde The Musical’ at Monumental Theatre Company at the Ainslie Arts Center

The history of Bonnie and Clyde is well-known. Lovers, living a life of crime. Since their infamous streak of robberies and murders, which ended with the two being killed in an ambush on May 23, 1934,...

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at McLean Community Players

Oh the years of awkward adolescence. Who doesn’t look back on that time and cringe? No one! Which is why The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is the perfect combination of hilarity and...

Review: ‘The Little Mermaid JR’ at BRAVO Productions

Theater is a vital part of our culture. Imagination is discovered. History revealed. New ideas expressed. And the limitless lessons to be garnered from our fundamentally flawed human selves are...