Featured

Review: ‘Man of La Mancha’ at Workhouse Arts Center

Man of La Mancha has long been an icon of mid-20th century American musical theater with its share of 1966 Tony Awards. This show about a man marching forward for “a heavenly cause” is a staple of...

Review: ‘Miss Saigon’ at The Kennedy Center

Miss Saigon is all grown up. Sort of. It’s been almost 30 years since Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s blockbuster opened in London’s West End and took the world by storm. But times have...

Review: ‘A Christmas Messe’ at Folger Shakespeare Library

This time of year, it can be challenging to keep your spirits merry and bright through the commercialized din of holiday exhortations. Well, I may have found an antidote to the seasonal fog....

Review: ‘Oh, God’ at Mosaic Theater Company

Theater and theology have been boon companions for eons. Ever since religion was invented, humans have wanted divinities with drama. Way back in polytheistic antiquity, playgoers imagined gods as...

Review: ‘Kings’ at Studio Theatre

Kings at Studio Theatre is both entertaining and thought-provoking in every sense. Beautifully acted and directed, it reminds us that politicians, even though it may be hard to believe at times, are...

Neil Goldberg: A Most Wonderful Conversation with the Man Behind Cirque Dreams ‘Holidaze’

This holiday season, New York City isn’t the only town with a seasonal spectacular. Cirque Dreams is bringing you the 11th season of Holidaze – the winter entertainment explosion that celebrates all...

Review: ‘Striking 12’ by Free Range Humans at BlackRock Center for the Arts

Striking 12 is a striking exception to the mandatory Christmas sappiness occupying most entertainment venues this time of year. It’s set at holiday time, but the holiday in question is New Year’s Eve,...

Review: ‘Christmas in Hell’ at the York Theatre Company

Oops! When eight-year-old Davin is rushed to the ICU on Christmas Eve for eating a piece of tainted re-gifted fruitcake, he is erroneously taken down to Hell in place of mass murderer Charles Manson,...

Review: ‘Talley’s Folly’ at Theater J

As Talley’s Folly opens, 40-something-year-old, self-described “hairy Jewish accountant” Matt Friedman (John Taylor Phillips) steps onto the stage and informs the audience that he has 97 minutes to...

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...

Review: The Gay Men’s Chorus Holiday Show

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC presented their annual Holiday Show on a cold winter’s night and the warmth exuded by this very polished and respected chorus obliterated any bitter winds. Since...

Review: ‘The Panties, The Partner and The Profit’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Just in time for an escape from too many holiday-spiked eggnog toasts, Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) provides an appealing, sugar-coated farce to indulge audiences. It will especially ring with...

Soloman Howard: Southeast’s Operatic Superstar Reprises ‘The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me’ at the Kennedy Center

Growing up in Southeast DC, Soloman Howard had a godfather who saw to it that the young singer’s obvious basso gift did not languish for lack of training and opportunity. “My godfather, Thomas Dixon...

Review: ‘Ruben & Clay’s Christmas Show’ at the Imperial Theatre

Well known to tens of millions of television viewers as the top two contenders on American Idol’s blockbuster second season in 2003, BFFs Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken are celebrating the fifteenth...

Indicoe: Networking Organization Gets Artists from A to B

Whether you are an actor, a dancer or a painter – being an artist can be a lonely business, characterized by short-term jobs, self-doubt and a constant need to hustle. To remedy these difficulties,...

Review: ‘Madeline’s Christmas’ at Creative Cauldron

This holiday season, Creative Cauldron reprises Madeline’s Christmas, with book and lyrics by Jennifer Kirkeby and music by Shirley Mier, based on the beloved children’s book by Ludwig Bemelmans....

Review: ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’ at Everyman Theatre

The Importance Of Being Earnest, often touted as a perfect comedy, plays at Everyman Theatre in downtown Baltimore through the end of the month. Oscar Wilde’s final play, as performed by Everyman’s...

Review: ‘The Christmas Revels: An Elizabethan Celebration of the Winter Solstice’ at Washington Revels

Washington Revels rings in the holiday season with their 36th annual production of The Christmas Revels. For those unfamiliar with the revels format, the show is an annual tradition which revolves...

Review: The Second City’s ‘Love, Factually’ at the Kennedy Center

The Second City lights up the Kennedy Center’s holiday season again this year with their new production, Love, Factually. Featuring a top-rate cast directed by Frank Caeti, The Second City delivers a...

Report: ‘2018 DC Queer Theatre Festival’ at The DC Arts Center

Now in its sixth year, The DC Center’s DC Queer Theatre Festival delivers on its promise to unleash and celebrate underrepresented voices and diversity. After evaluating over thirty submissions, seven...

Review: ‘She The People’ at the Second City at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

It’s common knowledge that the female cast members of Saturday Night Live like Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones practically run the high-profile comedy sketch show. The myth that women cannot be funny...

Review: ‘A Wonder in my Soul’ at Baltimore Center Stage

“We fight like cats, but we love like dogs.” Marcus Gardley, the author of A Wonder in my Soul has just the right way of putting things. Baltimore Center Stage continues its standard of excellence...

DC-based Conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez Brings Classical Music to 40th Annual Havana Film Festival

When patrons of the 40th annual Havana Film Festival in Cuba enter the city’s Cine la Rampa on December 8, they’ll be treated to an unexpected viewing experience – a conductor and an orchestra beneath...

Review: ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by the Arts Collective at Howard Community College

If Narnia was one of your beloved childhood worlds, you have the opportunity to share it with your nearest and dearest without anyone having to actually (perish the thought!) read–but only for a...

Review: ‘The Nutcracker’ by Ballet West at The Kennedy Center

Ballet West’s Nutcracker, conducted by Jared Oaks, is one of the most unique productions to hit the stage this season at the Kennedy Center. Steeped in lush colors, with a gorgeous set design and...

Review: ‘Anastasia’ at The Hippodrome Theatre

There’s nothing wrong with Anastasia: The New Broadway Musical that a little modern relevance wouldn’t cure. It certainly looks sensational inside the grand proscenium framing of Baltimore’s historic...

Review: ‘Gem of the Ocean’ at Round House Theatre

There are only ever seven characters onstage in this majestic production—three of them former slaves—but it is as if multitudes of Africans lost crossing the ocean or sold in chains are evoked and...

‘Indecent’ at Arena: Victor Raider-Wexler Returns to Washington in the Role of a Lifetime

The role of Otto in Paula Vogel’s Indecent—the Tony Award-winning play at Arena Stage—is an actor’s dream. The play, about a Yiddish melodrama that scandalized Broadway nearly a century ago, opened on...

Review: ‘Christmas at the Old Bull & Bush’ at MetroStage

Back by popular demand, MetroStage has Christmas at the Old Bull & Bush again for its 2018 holiday season. Written and directed by Catherine Flye, Christmas is reflective of British variety music hall...

Magic Time!: On Acting with a Conscience: A Q&A with Lianne Harvey, now appearing in ‘An Inspector Calls’

The character Lianne Harvey plays in J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, Sheila Birling, really fascinated me. Sheila stands out as no ordinary ingenue. During the course of the play, Sheila goes...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas’ at Olney Theatre Center

The entryway to the Muritz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab at the Olney Theatre Center is lined with holiday lights and garnish. The cozy lobby is adorned with electric candles and sprigs of holly, creating a...

Review: ‘How to Keep an Alien’ at Solas Nua

Love is unique. It is an intense bond of emotion, desire, and care between two people, deeply special to one another, that for them cannot be duplicated anywhere on Earth. Bureaucracy must routinize...

Review: ‘The Cher Show’ at the Neil Simon Theatre

A biographical jukebox musical about a Pop icon who’s lived her life in the public eye since the age of sixteen, The Cher Show, making its Broadway debut at the Neil Simon Theatre, has all the glitz...

Review: ‘Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas’ at Adventure Theatre

If you are looking for some holiday merriment that is fun for all ages, dance and sing your way over to Adventure Theatre’s Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas. Fancy Nancy, with book by Cara Lustik...

‘Hamilton’ Front and Center at 2018 Kennedy Center Honors

A mini Hamilton reunion took place at the Kennedy Center last night as actors from Hamilton’s original Broadway cast took part in the 41st Kennedy Center Honors Awards that recognized the co-creators...

Review: Paula Vogel’s ‘A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration’ at 1st Stage

A Civil War Christmas at 1st Stage is a strong addition to plays that connect with the holiday season. Playwright Paula Vogel embraces and examines provocative themes in this piece, looking at all of...

Review: ‘Indecent’ at Arena Stage

The controversial scene that ends this “true story of a little Jewish play” has been foretold at length throughout the show and mentioned in much publicity, so it’s no spoiler to report that we all...

2018 DC Queer Theatre Festival Runs December 7 and 8

The 2018 DC Queer Theatre Festival is presenting performances of 7 ten minute plays on Friday, December 7, at 7:30 pm and Saturday, December 8 at 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm at DC Arts Center. With the...

Artistic Director Alex Levy on Bringing Paula Vogel’s ‘A Civil War Christmas’ to 1st Stage

With the holiday season upon us- whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year’s- the performing arts calendar is full of productions that help connect an audience to the larger, diverse...

Magic Time!: ‘An Inspector Calls’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

J. B. Priestley’s classic An Inspector Calls—a drawing-room drama set in England in 1912 and written there in 1944—has landed in DC with uncanny currency. Now at Sidney Harman Hall in a touring...

Interview: Playwright Sonya Kelly on ‘How To Keep an Alien’ at Solas Nua

Can love really cut through red tape and conquer all even when there are stringent immigration rules? D.C.-area audiences will find out in Solas Nua’s upcoming production of How to Keep an Alien from...

An Interview with Jeffrey Higgins of ‘Jeffrey Higgins: A Deafening Sound’

Jeffrey Higgins: A Deafening Sound is an apt title for the anguish and turmoil that singer and pianist Jeffrey Higgins went through after being fired as a singer in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC...

Review: ‘The Choir of Man’ at The Kennedy Center

If you’re in a mood for some boisterous joy this holiday weekend—some soul-rousing solos and heartbreaking harmonies in the tenor/bass range—nab a ticket to The Choir of Man. The touring concert show,...

Magic Time!: ‘Cry It Out’ at Studio Theatre

Cry It Out—an exhilaratingly funny and touching comedy about new parenthood—is a joyous reminder that when a playwright of Molly Smith Metzler’s skill and compassion writes “close to home,” as she...

Review: ‘All Save One’ at the Washington Stage Guild

It was another time. It was a time of high anxiety. Even private lives were far from private in the treacherous, early 1950’s with the likes of Senator Joseph McCarthy and columnist Hedda Hopper...

Review: ‘Running on Glass’ at Venus Theatre

Cynthia Cooper’s Running on Glass, playing at Laurel’s Venus Theatre, celebrates six pioneering female athletes, all of whom had to overcome barriers not only of gender but of race, class, illness, or...

Review: ‘Cry It Out’ at Studio Theatre

In the bleak Long Island backyard that serves as their coffee-klatch confessional, neighbors Lina and Jessie chat daily about the alternately hilarious and heart-wrenching emotional terrain of new...

Raymond O. Caldwell Named Theater Alliance’s Next Producing Artistic Director

Theater Alliance announced today that Raymond O. Caldwell would be the company’s next producing artistic director. Caldwell currently serves as Theater Alliance’s Associate Artistic Director. He...

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: ‘The Waverly Gallery’ at the Golden Theatre

Now making its stellar Broadway debut at the Golden Theatre, The Waverly Gallery, Kenneth Lonergan’s award-nominated memory play of 1999, told from the perspective of a grandson reflecting on the...