Reviews

Review: ‘Our Town’ at Temple Theaters

Temple University Department of Theater’s production of the Pulitzer Prize winner Our Town would have pleased its author, Thornton Wilder. This American classic was written in the early 20th century...

Review: ‘Side Show’ at The Media Theatre

Come look at the freaks Come gape at the geeks Come examine their aberrations Is this any way to begin a Broadway musical? Well, if the subject matter is any individual who has been the victim of...

Review: ‘It’s So Learning’ at FringeArts

It’s So Learning, written and performed by comedic mavericks The Berserker Residents, is a wild, immersive ride through the Berserkers’ vision of the K-12 system. Even people who avoid...

Review: ‘Booty Candy’ at Montgomery College

In a particularly lapel-grabbing scene in Montgomery College’s Booty Candy, a preacher tells his congregation that he’s tired of hiding from the “what they heard” crowd and shows them who he really...

Review: Discovery Artist in The Kennedy Center Jazz Club: Elena and Samora Pinderhughes

Siblings Elena and Samora Pinderhughes are young, both in their early 20s. Samora is a composer and pianist and sister Elena is a vocalist and flutist. Despite their youth, the pair has been creating...

Magic Time! ‘Intelligence’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

Lately I’ve been thinking that there are two key questions that must be asked of every season-programming choice by every theater’s artistic director: 1) Why now? 2) So what? There is no single right...

Review: ‘Intelligence’ at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

Intelligence, the new play at Arena Stage about the Valerie Plame CIA scandal, comes at a very timely moment in politics. As Donald Trump appears increasingly clownish, the presidency of George W....

Review: ‘Spring Awakening’ at Howard County Community College Theatre

The Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening (The Musical), with Book and Lyrics by Steven Sater, and Music by Duncan Sheik, based on the play by Frank Wedekind, and directed by Jenny Male, opened last...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Arden Theatre Company

In 1998, Arden Theatre Company opened their F. Otto Haas Stage with a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Widely considered one of William Shakespeare’s lightest and most accessible plays,...

Review: ‘Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing’ at Signature Theatre

With gentleness and clear affection for an unexpected heroine, Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner James Lapine has written and directed with a disarming touch an endearing new play “with music”;...

Review: ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ at Ovations Theatre

How often are you torn between the demands of a profession and finding a satisfactory work/life balance? James Lapine’s book about George Seurat examines the difficulty of finding a solution to this...

Review: ‘Cirque du Soleil Toruk – The First Flight’ at Wells Fargo Center

An original prequel based on James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster film Avatar, Cirque du Soleil’s touring production of Toruk – The First Flight, now in Philadelphia for a five-day stop at the Wells Fargo...

Review: ‘Linda’ at Manhattan Theatre Club

I don’t know all the works of author Penelope Skinner, but based on The Village Bike and the currently running New York production of Linda, I suspect she is now on the short list of the best female...

Review: ‘Bigoudi’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center

Is it just me or do the French have a way of taking the most mundane, everyday objects and making poetry out of them? Consider the humble plastic hair-curler, those tiny, porous tubes that feature...

Meet the Cast: The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.’ Part Three: Rinaldo Martinez

In Part Three of a series of interviews with the cast of The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, meet Rinaldo Martinez who plays J. Pierrepont Finch....

Review: ‘If I Forget’ at The Laura Pels Theatre in the Steinberg Center

I know Playwright Steven Levenson only from his work as librettist on the musical Dear Evan Hansen, so this for me is his first play. It more than fulfills the promise shown in the musical, where his...

Review: Suitland High School’s ‘Mid-Winter Concert’

Prince George’s County Public Schools are filled with young talent. An excellent example of that talent is Suitland High School’s Center for the Visual and Performing Arts’ musicians and choirs. As...

Review: ‘koma’ at Solecalibur

It’s 2 a.m. His mind is racing, overwrought with memories of situations, conversations, and images of her. Music and film merge with poetry, rap, and movement to explore one half-hour inside one man’s...

‘COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY:’ Memories of My Twenty Years as Agent For John Kander by Richard Seff: Part One: The House Lights Dim’

COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY: Memories of My Twenty Years as Agent For John Kander by Richard Seff OVERTURE. John Kander and Fred Ebb have written some fifteen musicals for Broadway as well as an...

Review: ‘The Giver’ at NextStop Theatre Company

I loved the book and hated the movie, so I was really curious to see how The Giver, Lois Lowry’s Newbery award-winning story about a dystopian society where everything has gone to “sameness”, would...

Review: ‘Fickle: A Fancy French Farce’ at Olney Theatre Center

Modernizing Comic Antiquity, Or What Would a Classic French Farce Look Today: Fickle Brings the Laughs at Olney Theatre Center In an age where it seems like all the classics are getting reboots of...

Review: ‘Champion’ at Washington National Opera

In the fascinating contemporary opera Champion, the external world of the often-violent sport of boxing and the inner turmoil of the self-loathing and self-denial of the lead character collide to...

Review: Beethoven’s ‘Leonore’ at Washington Concert Opera

Washington Concert Opera (WCO) concluded its 30th anniversary season with a rare performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore on stage at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium...

‘Come Hear The Music Play’-A Behind-The-Scenes Look at Kander and Ebb’s Musicals by Their Former Agent Richard Seff Begins Tomorrow on DCMetroTheaterArts

On March 18th composer John Kander will mark his 90th Birthday and to honor that happy occasion I’m going to unearth some of the memories I have of the twenty years in which I represented him as his...

Review: ‘Cave of the Heart’ By the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

“Archaic/Modern” is not only the title of the estimable exhibit of Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi mid-20th-century works at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. Archaic/modern describes...

Review: ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ at Ritz Theatre Company

Adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel, Harper Lee’s 1960 classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird, set in the Deep South in the 1930s, still sounds a resonant call for integrity, compassion,...

Here Are This Year’s WATCH Award Winners

Announcement Of Awards 17th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors THE WATCH AWARDS Nominations Announced January 15, 2017 – 7:30 pm at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA Award Ceremony Sunday,...

Review: ‘Tomfoolery’ at Act II Playhouse

“Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. “ ~ Tom Lehrer Tom Lehrer’s Tomfoolery, as directed by Tony Braithwaite, is a wickedly wonderful celebration of musical wit...

Review: ‘Avenue Q’ at Montgomery College

Well lately it has “sucked to be me” with new health challenges, the political climate ain’t pretty, and you-know-who has moved to DC, so I desperately needed me a dose of Avenue Q to clear the dark...

Review: ‘La Périchole’ at Victorian Lyric Opera Company

The Victorian Lyric Opera Company’s (VLOC) staging of the operetta La Périchole was a testament to the idea that opera can be a light affair. Composed by 19th Century, Paris-based composer Jacques...

Review: ‘Evil Dead: The Musical’ at Dominion Stage

I don’t even know how to describe what took place at Theatre on the Run last night. All I know is that it was one of the most fun nights I had in the theatre in a very long time. Evil Dead: The...

Review: ‘The White Snake’ at Baltimore Center Stage

It was a thrill and a privilege to be at the grand reopening of Baltimore Center Stage last night. I felt like a movie star walking up the red carpet, past the searchlights, into the shiny new lobby....

Review: ‘Irish-ish’ at Manayunk Theatre Company

Just in advance of St. Patrick’s Day, Manayunk Theatre Company brings its tradition of Irish pub entertainment to Roxborough’s Tavern on Ridge with Irish-ish: A Trio of Irish Tales. Showcasing three...

Review: ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ at Old Academy Players

What did happen to Sebastian last summer? This sounds like a murder mystery, right? But if Tennessee Williams writes the mystery, one can be certain that it will be highly poetic, and involve...

Review: Dionne Warwick: The 4th Anniversary Celebration of the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club

One of the natural vocal wonders of the world, the legendary entertainer and vocal artist Dionne Warwick beguiled the audience at the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club. The occasion to celebrate was...

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

For the past year, Greenbelt Arts Center (GAC) has been on a fantastic streak as a venue for top-notch shows. GAC’s current show is an addition to that streak. With music and lyrics by William Finn, a...

DCMetroTheaterArts: Best of 2016 #17: Special Awards/Best High School and University Performances/Best Community and Professional Theaters of 2016

Here Are DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s Best of 2016 Honorees: BEST PERFORMANCES IN HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCTIONS: Katie Abramowitz as Molly in Peter and the Starcatcher at Georgetown Day School. Gabby...

Magic Time!: ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises)’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

F. Scott Fitzgerald was among the first to take an editorial whack at Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises (then called Fiesta). Among other things cut out by Fitzgerald was the entire...

Review: ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises)’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Elevator Repair Service’s production of The Select (The Sun also Rises) opened at the Lansburgh Theatre Monday, and I’m certain that Earnest Hemingway’s 1926 debut novel, known for its spare,...

Review: ‘Significant Other’ at the Booth Theatre

It’s hard to accept the realization that your BFFs aren’t really F, especially if you’re the single, and more-than-somewhat-neurotic, Jordan Berman. Feeling increasingly alone and abandoned after...

Review: ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’: The FATS WALLER Musical Show’ at Howard University

Coming out of the Howard University Department of Theatre Arts production of Ain’t Misbehavin’: The FATS WALLER Musical Show, we checked googlemaps to be absolutely sure we hadn’t accidentally...

Review: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ at the Academy of Music

Words like breathtaking, awe-inspiring, and touching only begin to describe the epic journey experienced in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, currently playing at the Academy of...

Review: ‘The Bodyguard’ at Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Fans of The Bodyguard, The Musical are legion. And boisterous. Also very loyal. Large numbers of them turned out for opening night in Baltimore February 28, when the national tour arrived for a...

Review: ‘Connected’ at Take the Stage Performance Company

Take the Stage Performance Company’s latest production, Connected, took place last weekend at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington. A musical review of 15 songs from current Broadway hits such as...

Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra Performs Brahms’ Eleven Chorale Preludes, Bach’s Cantata No. 150, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4

The Philadelphia Orchestra set of concerts during the last weekend of February was one of the most imaginatively conceived in recent memory. The program consisted of selections from Brahms’ Eleven...

Review: ‘Sh*theads’ at Azuka Theatre

The characters in Sh*theads don’t mind being called shitheads. True, that may not be a word you’d use in polite company… but these people aren’t polite company. They’re the employees of Bert’s Bikes,...

Review: ‘Nibbler’ at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Making the transition from high-school graduation into adulthood can be a challenge, especially for teens who haven’t quite yet found themselves. Ken Urban’s Nibbler, a world-premiere production by...

Review: ‘Dead Man Walking’ at Washington National Opera

It is certainly a “Dark Night of the Soul” (St. John of the Cross) for Sister Helen Prejean in the contemporary opera Dead Man Walking. A meditative, spiritually resonant study of our common humanity...

Review: ‘The Little Mermaid’ at Ballet Theatre of Maryland

Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s production of The Little Mermaid, at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, is a gorgeous spectacle of storytelling through dance. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen...

Review: ‘Jonah and Otto’ at The Lion Theatre

Robert Holman is a British playwright whose plays have been done under the auspices of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, he’s had productions of his many plays at half a dozen...