Reviews

Review: NSO Pops and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds at the Kennedy Center

The NSO Pops presented its first-ever collaboration with superstar Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds on Friday night for a two-night run in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center. Under the musical direction...

Review: ‘Copenhagen’ at Lantern Theater Company

With most of the performances sold out before the show even opened, Lantern Theater Company has already announced a one-week extension of its current production of Copenhagen, and that’s good news for...

In the Moment: Interviews with Women’s Voices Theater Festival playwrights – Part 1

This is the first part of a multi-part series of interviews with Women’s Voices Theater Festival playwrights. In this series, I asked the same questions to a number of Women’s Voices Theater Festival...

Review: ‘Imogen’ by Pointless Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Imogen, Pointless Theatre’s adaptation of Cymbeline, places one of Shakespeare’s most confusing heroines at the center of a battle for her independence. As in Cymbeline, Imogen has to contend with a...

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: ‘Quartet’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Quartet is an amusing comedy that offers plenty of food for thought. Written by Ronald Harwood and first performed in 1999, the play revolves around four...

‘Everything Is (Finally) Illuminated’ – Aaron Posner’s Setting of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Masterpiece Makes Its DC Debut at Theater J

Twelve years after it was first adapted for the stage by British playwright Simon Block, the play Everything Is Illuminated – based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer – has arrived at Theater J,...

Review: ‘Let Freedom Ring!’ MLK Celebration Featuring Vanessa Williams at the Kennedy Center

The 16th Annual Let Freedom Ring! Celebration honors the life, legacy, and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hundreds of people from all walks of life filled the pews of the Kennedy Center’s...

Review: ‘Seussical Jr.’ at ACCT

Having grown up on Dr. Seuss and having seen the 2008 Horton Hears a Who movie a dozen times, I feared Seussical Jr. (book by Leslie Aherns and Stephen Flaherty, based on the works of Dr. Seuss) might...

In the Moment: Helen Murray, Artistic Director of The Hub Theatre Discusses Her Departure

The DC performing arts scene will be losing one of its visionary artistic directors this summer. Hub Theatre’s artistic director Helen Murray will be moving on to become the Executive Director of the...

Enter the TodayTix Free First Preview Lottery for ‘Jefferson’s Garden’ at Ford’s Theatre

What is the TodayTix Free First Preview Lottery? There’s nothing better than seeing a great show for free. TodayTix and Ford’s Theatre are offering a mobile lottery for each first preview production...

Review: ‘Everything Is Illuminated’ at Theater J

A young Jewish American writer named Jonathan arrives by train in the Ukraine on a quest to find a woman named Augustine who helped his grandfather Safran escape the Nazis. He has only a faded...

Review: ‘Mamma Mia!’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents Mamma Mia!, with music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and book by Catherine Johnson, with some songs by Stig Andersson. Riverside...

Review: ‘Morning’s at Seven’ at People’s Light

Morning’s at Seven fits the definition of “quaint.” With its elderly characters and its winsome setting – a Midwestern town in the 1930s, where everybody knows each other’s problems a little too well...

Review: ‘The Way of the World’ at Folger Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

The Way of the World, a deft satire of the mating habits and financial vicissitudes of the 1%, arrived at the Folger Theatre last night. It was a hilarious evening. Theresa Rebeck’s comedy, very...

Review: ‘Love is a Blue Tick Hound’ at Rapid Lemon Productions (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

No garden gnomes were injured in the writing of this review As part of the 2018 Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Rapid Lemon Productions is presenting the regional premiere of Love is a Blue Tick...

Review: ‘The Skin of Our Teeth’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Thornton Wilder’s allegorical paean to humanity’s survival “by the skin of our teeth” has itself become a marvel of endurance. First staged in 1942, when times were decidedly dire, the determinedly...

Review: ’45 Plays for 45 Presidents’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Throughout American history, the office of the president has served as the living embodiment of the American dream. The central tenet of our democracy, it demonstrates that any person can rise up and...

In the Moment: Report on ‘Declassified’ with Ben Folds and Sara Bareilles at The Kennedy Center

Under the masterful, musical code-switching curation of National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) Artistic Advisor Ben Folds, the future for new audiences finding their way to the usually buttoned-up, High...

Review: ‘The Humans’ National Tour at the Kennedy Center

Lights rise on The Humans and there, center stage, is Erik Blake (Richard Thomas), a fish out of water Pennsylvanian Dad in a New York apartment. What is he doing there? And why is he in an apartment...

Review: ‘Wit’ at Silver Spring Stage

Wit, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play written by Margaret Edson and directed at Silver Spring Stage by Jeff Mikoni, graces the stage with a darkly comedic tale of a strict university professor dying of...

An Interview with ‘The Summer Club’ – Previewing ‘A Big Band Valentine’s Day’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Since its premiere in the Jersey-shore town of Cape May in July 2014, The Summer Club has been bringing the retro sound of the Big Bands, the sophisticated stylings of the Swing era, and the...

Review: ‘On Your Feet!’ National Tour at the Kennedy Center

The rhythm is gonna get you! Expect to find yourself dancing in your seat, because the energy from this show is infectious. On Your Feet! at the Kennedy Center is electric, and audience members...

Review: ‘John Lithgow: Stories by Heart’ at Roundabout Theatre Company

In 2002, when his 86-year-old father was gravely ill, award-winning actor John Lithgow read stories to him at his bedside – the same stories his dad Arthur Lithgow, a regional theater artist to whom...

In the Moment: ‘Passport to the World Festival’ at The Creative Cauldron

In the midst of its ninth year producing and presenting live theater and music at its ArtSpace Fall Church venue, the Creative Cauldron has just opened its annual, mid-winter Passport to the World...

Review: ‘Guilt, an opera without music’ at Scena Theatre

With its teasing, click-bait provocative subtitling, “an opera without music,” John Shand’s Guilt, having its world premiere by DC’s Scena Theatre, is a meaty, passionately provoking tale. Overall,...

Review: ‘Queens Girl in Africa’ at Mosaic Theater Company (Women’s Voices Theater Festival Production)

Playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings serves up an ace with the world premiere of Queens Girl in Africa – a riveting, semi-autobiographical account of her experience living in Ibadan, Nigeria in the...

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: ‘House.’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Reality TV shows have been described with many different words since they have pervaded the airwaves over the past two decades – crass, stereotypical, unreality. Maryland-based playwright Daniel...

Review: ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’ at Ensemble for the Romantic Century

Robert Fairchild, a lead dancer with the New York City Ballet Company, burst upon the Broadway scene two years ago by playing the lead in the stage version of An American In Paris. He was immediately...

Review: ‘Inherit the Wind’ at Baltimore’s Vagabond Theatre

On a cold winter’s night, nothing heats up faster than a fiery debate. And when it comes to political grandiloquence – as timely today as 100 years ago – the Vagabond Players opening night performance...

Review: ‘The Reluctant Dragon’ at The Montgomery Playhouse

Barely two months ago, the call went out for auditions to this cast. This is worth mentioning because in that short time, considering all the holiday distractions and scheduling challenges, the...

In the Moment: Arts Council of Fairfax County Announces 2018 grant awards

As we well know, funding for the arts from all levels of government sources are under assault. Government funding is either static, or in worse cases has been reduced. As government revenue has still...

Review: ‘The First Christmas’ at the Music and Drama Ministry of Shiloh Baptist Church of Landover

Written and directed by Fay Brake, The First Christmas, performed recently at Shiloh Baptist Church of Landover, speaks to the essence of Christmas – inspiring its audience to remember that Jesus is...

In the Moment: The National Symphony Orchestra at The Hamilton Live This Thursday, January 4th, 2018

Ready to un-compartmentalize your music tastes? Open to thinking differently about what some may call stodgy “High Art” for the well-fixed? Ready to have some new musical experiences that fuse classic...

Review: ‘Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert’ at Strathmore

Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert, conducted by Maestro Bernhard Schneider and featuring the vocal talents of German tenor Tilmann Unger and soprano Micaëla Oeste, waltzed in to The Music Center at...

Review: Comedy at The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage with Gary Vider and Sara Armour

Now in its 21st year, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage is the Center’s gift to everyone in the Washington area, offering live entertainment at no cost every single day. It’s also a great way to...

‘Einstein!’ Returns to Under St. Marks Theatre

Sew and Sew Productions and the Horse Trade Theater Group present the return of Jack Fry’s highly-acclaimed Einstein! to New York City in January. Playing again at Under St. Marks Theatre, where it...

Review: Tom Teasley and Seth Kibel present Tiny Planet at Strathmore

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole...

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: ‘Les Misérables’ at the National Theatre

One does not simply review Les Mis—at least, not when it’s this stunning revival of the epic that took the world by storm when the novel debuted in 1862 and again when the musical premiered in London...

Review: ‘Farinelli and the King’ at the Belasco Theatre

I believe there’s a reason the name of the countertenor Farinelli precedes that of King Philippe V of Spain in the title of the play running currently at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway. Unlike The...

Review: ‘Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol’ at Casabuena Cultural Productions

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol proves that damnation can be funnier than hell. Casabuena Cultural Productions’ irreverent take on the beloved Charles Dickens classic follows Marley on a redemptive...

Review: ‘Holiday Cheer!’ at National Chamber Ensemble

The National Chamber Ensemble’s Holiday Cheer! on December 16 was a celebration of great music. The charming and witty Artistic Director and leading violinist, Leonid Sushansky, sees each performance...

Review: ‘The Summer Club: A Winter Holiday’ at Venice Island Performing Arts Center

Don’t let the name fool you. They’re not just “the boys of summer,” they’re here year-round to keep the spirit of Swing, the sounds of the Big Band era, and the camaraderie of the “Rat Pack” alive,...

Review: ‘A Billion Nights on Earth’ at FringeArts

Thaddeus Phillips’ and Steven Dufala’s spectacularly enjoyable, glowing world of far out, fantastical adventure unfolds and forms like theatrical origami within the FringeArts black box theater....

Review: ‘Bad Dates’ at Act II Playhouse

Bad Dates, by Theresa Rebeck, is the third one-person play I’ve seen in the past two months. The others were 2.5 Minute Ride, an autobiographical drama by Lisa Kron which was produced at Theatre...

Review: ‘A Hunger Artist’ at Baltimore Theater Project

Reviewed by Jason Williams Sinking Ship’s production of A Hunger Artist is a dark comedy that balances self-deprecation with self-awareness. Adapted from a short story of the same name from Czech...

Review: ‘The Children’ at Manhattan Theatre Club

The Manhattan Theatre Club has imported the London Royal Court Theatre’s production of The Children by Lucy Kirkwood, and with it have come the highly acclaimed original cast (Francesca Annis, Ron...

Review: ‘The Gift of the Mad Guy’ at Building Better People Productions

Christmastime is promoted by many as a time to let go of, at least temporarily, the practice of excessive self-cherishing. It is a time to reflect on the wants and needs of others. Many...