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Review: ‘Dave’ at Arena Stage

The real news getting you down? Do you have a plentitude of cares and woes hanging over your head? Are you an addicted MSNBC watcher who wants to get off the couch and away from the cell for a few...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Perfecting the Kiss’

This comedy about bad theater and inappropriate backstage behavior is just gobsmacking good. Laugh-a-minute is an underestimation. Don’t miss it. Perfecting the Kiss, a production from New York...

Holly Bass Celebrates Black Sisterhood in ‘The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company’

District-based solo performer Holly Bass creates in so many media and art forms I can’t keep up with her—and I’ve been covering her for nearly a decade. Her latest devised work, a dance-theater piece,...

Review: ‘Be a Good Little Widow’ at Unexpected Stage

It’s anybody’s guess what goes through a person’s mind in their final moments. Most of us are very familiar with what goes through the mind of a person who has lost someone. This grief, in all of its...

Review: ‘The Theory of Theories’ at District of Columbia Arts Center

An unnamed academic (Cristen Stephansky), in town for a conference, lounges on a sofa taking notes for her presentation. Her host, (Karoline Troger) a similarly unnamed Austrian scholar now teaching...

Magic Time!: Mike Daisey Takes Aim at ‘The Story of the Gun’ in America

Masterful monologuist Mike Daisey returns to DC to skewer with humor another burning issue of the day. This time it’s America’s thing about guns. What’s that all about, anyway? How did guns get to be...

DC Playwright Patrick Flynn Finalist in Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival

Editor’s Update, August 26, 2018: At the 43rd Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival this week, Patrick Flynn’s The Ferberizing of Coral was one of six plays chosen for publication by Samuel French. 850...

Review: ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ at Olney Theatre Center

Something for everybody. That’s what comes to mind when I think about the Chicago-based The Hypocrites’ whiplash-inducing, gender-flipped spin on Gibert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore. Trying to...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Spook’

Actor-Writer-Revolutionary Meshaun Labrone has done it again. Two years ago he brought back Power! to Fringe. That drama about Stokely Carmichael I called “one of the best-written, best-acted, and...

Review: ‘Damned If You Do’ by Upright Citizens Brigade at Woolly Mammoth

By Beatrice Loayza “So, what are we seeing again?” my friend asks me at dinner prior to the show. Pause. I scrape the corners of my mind for a suitable answer, but the reality is– “I have no clue.”...

The Ultimate Guide to Shepherdstown for the Contemporary American Theater Festival

by Allison Considine Ready for your next summer adventure or weekend getaway? Each July, the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, presents new plays in the state’s...

Who Were the Schuyler Sisters? Fact and Fiction in ‘Hamilton’

One of the myriad things Lin-Manuel Miranda does so beautifully in Hamilton: An American Musical is his portrayal of the profound symbiosis among the Schuyler Sisters: Angelica, Eliza, AND Peggy. The...

Review: ‘Why is Eartha Kitt Trying to Kill Me? A Love Story’ by UrbanArias

Getting audience attention these days with a title few likely know is no easy task. So know that once again UrbanArias has found a terrific little musical gem: a chamber opera called Why is Eartha...

Monumental Theatre Company Styles ‘Pippin’ for a New Generation

Fresh off its 2018 Helen Hayes Award win for Outstanding Emerging Theater Company, Monumental Theatre Company will close out its season with Pippin (July 13-30). Monumental describes itself as a...

Free Events in NYC This Week: ‘Broadway in Bryant Park’ and ‘Broadway Barks’

Along with the heat and humidity of summer in the city comes the return of two popular annual events that will make you forget all about the weather. You can catch your favorite Broadway and...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Accidental Pilgrim’

Theatre Du Jour’s The Accidental Pilgrim is an ensemble-devised work, directed by company co-founder B. Stanley. The ensemble’s style is heavily indebted to such twentieth-century theater innovators...

2018 Capital Fringe Review: ‘50 Ways to Date Your Aubrey’

Aubri O’Connor lights up the tiny stage at Caos on F, drawing us into this quirky, funny, and poignant play within a play starring her alter ego, Aubrey. During a 70-minute romp through Aubrey’s...

Review: ‘Secrets of the Universe (And Other Songs)’ at the Hub Theatre

Secrets of the Universe (And Other Songs), a new play by Marc Acito having its world premiere at the Hub Theatre in Fairfax, explores the friendship between two 20th century greats in very different...

Get Ready, DC: The 2018 Capital Fringe Festival Opens This Weekend

Get ready Washington, DC: July is hot and about to get even hotter. The always spicy Capital Fringe Festival opens this weekend, delivering 80-some experimental, mostly self-produced shows to the...

Can a Community Theater Go Professional?

With NextStop Theatre Company celebrating its 30th anniversary, I chatted with Evan Hoffmann, NextStop’s producing artistic director, to learn about the company’s journey. Founded in 1988 as the...

Prepare for the Unexpected: An Interview with Christopher Bell, Artistic Director and Conductor of The Washington Chorus

Even in Washington, DC, a town unofficially known as the choral capital of the United States, Christopher Bell stands out as a milestone hire for The Washington Chorus (TWC). Bell, who just finished...

Capital Gazette Shooting Victim Was Also A ‘Humorous, Witty’ D.C. Theater Reviewer

By Rachel Kurzius Wendi Winters was one of five staff members murdered while working at the Capital Gazette newsroom on June 28. But in addition to her thrice-weekly columns as a staff writer for the...

Review: ‘Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations’ at The Kennedy Center

Ain’t too many surprises in Ain’t Too Proud, the new jukebox musical about the supergroup The Temptations and their rise to meteoric heights. Their music defined a generation and gave voice to the...

Statement on the Death of DCMTA Staff Writer Wendi Winters

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Capital Gazette Reporter and DC Theater Arts Senior Reviewer Wendi Winters. Winters was killed in the shooting incident which took place...

Love and Friendship IRL: A Q&A With Brandon McCoy and Brianna Letourneau About ‘Other Life Forms’ at Keegan Theatre

I went to see Other Life Forms, the new comedy at Keegan Theatre, not expecting to write about it. But the play changed my mind. I wasn’t even home yet when on an impulse I tweeted that Other Life...

Perfecting the ‘Burn’: Props Master Jay Duckworth on Styling the Iconic ‘Hamilton’ Song

As a Props Master, you try and read through a script and see where the big “what ifs” are, but there is always a human factor that you just can’t predict. In Hamilton, one big “what if” was the song...

Review: ‘On the Town’ at Olney Theatre Center

D.C.–area audiences are notorious for their too-free-and-easy awarding of standing ovations. But last night’s prolonged, enthusiastic, standing, whooping, hollering, response to Olney Theatre’s...

Is DC Theater Getting Addicted to Trump?

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Theater Arts writers. In this one, Senior Writers and Columnists John Stoltenberg (Magic Time!) and David Siegel (In the Moment)...

Exclusive: ‘Hamilton’ Through the Eyes of Original Broadway Cast Member Betsy Struxness

In part one of our “Summer of Hamilton” series, original cast member Betsy Struxness recalls the show’s earliest days. Hamilton. What’s to be said that hasn’t been said? Phenomenon. Game Changer....

“The Queerest Role I’ve Played”: A Q&A with Jon Hudson Odom About ‘Botticelli in the Fire’ at Woolly Mammoth

Jon Hudson Odom’s performance in Jordan Tannahill’s new play Botticelli in the Fire just blew me away. And it wasn’t the first time that had happened. I’ve been following his work for several years,...