Virginia

Review: ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ by NextStop Theatre Company

How do you replicate perfection—especially when it involves dumping gallons of water onstage? Any theater company that undertakes a production of Singin’ in the Rain, the beloved movie musical about...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ at Sterling Playmakers

So many stories can be started with “boy meets girl.” It’s a trope that almost clutters literature – and drama for that matter. Even in shows with almost exclusively off-stage men, they are often the...

Signature Theatre Announces 2019-2020 Season

Signature Theatre Announces 30th Anniversary Season, including new and inventive stagings of: ASSASSINS A CHORUS LINE HAIR NIJINSKY’S LAST DANCE The DC Premiere of: CARYL CHURCHILL’S PLAY ESCAPED...

Review: ‘Grand Hotel’ at Signature Theatre

Time may be running out for the denizens of Berlin’s swanky Weimar era Grand Hotel who wonder if life has passed them by. But Signature Theatre’s roaring, non-stop rendering of the musical Grand Hotel...

Synetic Theater Hires Jason Najjoum as Managing Director

Synetic Theater is pleased to announce the hiring of Jason Najjoum as Managing Director. Mr. Najjoum comes to Synetic with over a decade of experience in the arts and culture space and valuable...

Review: ‘Fallen Angels’ at NextStop Theatre Company

If there could be a single word to describe NextStop Theatre Company’s production of Noel Coward’s 1925 comedy, Fallen Angels, it would be symmetry. Emily Lotz’s delightfully realized period set,...

Laura Benanti on Motherhood and Performing with Her Mom

There is one role that Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti cherishes above all others: Mother. The My Fair Lady star gave birth to daughter Ella Rose in 2017. “Becoming a mom changed me in every possible...

Review: ‘Grand Concourse’ at Prologue Theatre

Prologue Theatre presents Grand Concourse, by Heidi Schreck. This show kicks off the inaugural season for Prologue, a new Arlington based non-profit professional Theatre company. Artistic Director...

Review: ‘The Brothers Size’ at 1st Stage

Offering timely explorations of important topics, 1st Stage continuously produces memorable plays. They are always solid, but The Brothers Size will knock you out. In it, a young man newly released...

Review: ‘Three Sistahs’ at MetroStage

MetroStage’s Three Sistahs is a marvelous musical, an evening of vocal and dramatic excellence. Written and directed by Thomas W. Jones II – with a story by Janet Pryce – and music by William Hubbard,...

Local Favorite Margo Seibert Comes Home for Signature Theatre Concert

Fans of Margo Seibert – the Broadway star of Rocky and In Transit – may face some unusual competition for tickets to her upcoming concert at Signature Theatre. That’s because metro DC is no touring...

Review: Aquila Theatre presents Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ at George Mason University Center for the Arts

New York-based Aquila Theatre has been hailed by The New Yorker for its innovative staging of the classics. Founded in London in 1991, the company has a regular season of productions as well as a...

A Great Weekend for Theater at George Mason University

George Mason University Center for the Arts has three stirring works of theater November 15-18 on the Fairfax campus. Friday features A Rap on Race, a modern spin on a monumental conversation about...

Review: The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek at MetroStage

There is a good, rather grim, chance that The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek will be Athol Fugard’s last play; well into his eighties, Fugard has wryly admitted as much in recent interviews. If that...

Eric Schaeffer Discusses Signature Theatre’s Upcoming ‘Passion’

Starting August 14, Stephen Sondheim’s musical Passion will play at Arlington, Virginia’s Signature Theatre, starring Natascia Diaz (West Side Story) as Fosca and directed by Associate Artistic...

Review: ‘Footloose’ at City of Fairfax Theatre Company

Footloose – the 1984 movie starring Kevin Bacon about a disaffected teen who moves to a small town where dancing is outlawed and aims to change the law – occupies a curious place in the American...

Avant Bard Responds to Immigrant Family Crisis

Avant Bard today announces its “Welcome Tempest-Tossed Campaign”: For the final weekends of its production of The Tempest, Avant Bard commits to donating one-half of all full-price ticket proceeds to...

Review: ‘The Nance’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The “double bind” of being gay in an oppressive climate of prejudice against gays and, yet, choosing to turn down any hope of redemption with a loving partner (or a political party that does not...

Review: ‘California Suite’ at Providence Players of Fairfax

Providence Players of Fairfax presents Neil Simon’s California Suite, a quartet of play-lets set in Suite 203-04 of California’s famed Beverly Hills Hotel. Director Beth Gilles-Whitehead updates the...

Review: ‘Swimming With Whales’ at 1st Stage

In its world premiere first professional performance, Swimming With Whales at 1st Stage has already built an impressive record in its preparation. It was part of the Sigworks Readings at Signature...

Magic Time!: ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ at Signature Theatre

The musical The Scottsboro Boys tells a true story of heinous injustice driven by race hate, and the theatrical form is a minstrel show—bouyant upbeat dancing, rousing melodic singing, and buffoonish...

Review: ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ at Signature Theatre

“Strip me naked. Take my name. Make me an animal. So you can kill me. Then forget all about me. Like I never happened. Like I don’t matter.” No, those unsettling words are not reactions to a racially...

Review: ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at Creative Cauldron

I first read E.B. White’s classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web in my second grade English class. I remember being amazed by how a story so simple could be instilled with something so beautiful. I...

Magic Time!: ‘Republic Undone’ at The Metropolitan Club

Going back to Ancient Greece, theater has functioned as a forum for informed public debate—about war, religion, politics, all the issues relevant to the citizenry of the day. The Greeks had a word for...

Review: ‘Bad Jews’ at NextStop Theatre

What must their mothers have been like? Certainly, cousins Daphna and Liam (Sophie Schulman and Noah Schaefer), the antagonists in Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews, now playing at Herndon’s NextStop Theater –...

Review: ‘Today’s Classical and Jazz Masters’ by the National Chamber Ensemble

As was announced at the beginning of the National Chamber Ensemble’s recent musical offering Today’s Classical and Jazz Masters —in a veiled reference to the British Royal Wedding —the audience was...

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...

News: Avant Bard to Conjure a ‘Tempest’ for Our Changed Climate

Culminating its 28th season making theatre on the edge, Avant Bard proudly presents Shakespeare’s classic comedy The Tempest at Gunston Arts Center May 31 to July 1, 2018, directed by Artistic and...

Review: ‘How I learned to Drive’ at Dominion Stage

Dominion Stage presents Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive. This raw, piercing piece won Vogel the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1998, and after experiencing it at Dominion Stage, I understand why. An...

Review: ‘The Adams Family’ by Rooftop Productions

Full Disclosure? The Addams Family was a wild romp for the whole family! I made my way down to Oldtown Manassas to see Rooftop Productions’ take on The Addams Family. The story feels like a great...

News: Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, VA, Presents ‘Always…Patsy Cline’

Emmy Award-winning actress Sally Struthers returns for her fifth engagement at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia, as Louise Seger in Always…Patsy Cline opening...

Review: ‘Titus Andronicus’ at Synetic Theater

“A work of art has value only if tremors of the future run through it…” — André Breton (1896–1966) French writer, poet, and founder of Surrealism. Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili likened...

Review: ‘Girlfriend’ at Signature Theatre

The rock musical Girlfriend celebrates the tentativeness and exuberance of a budding romance between two gay teens in a small town Nebraska in the 1990s. Just after graduating from high school, Will,...

Review: ‘Outside the Lines’ at Arts on the Horizon

Arts on the Horizon is a non-profit theater company that provides a professional, safe, and interactive theater experience for children ages six and under. Known for their vibrant nonverbal...

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...

In the Moment: ‘Witch’ at Creative Cauldron

With an astute, quality production of Witch, its latest Bold New Works for Intimate Stages creation, the Creative Cauldron continues to show what a nimble, un-fossilized theater company can do, even...

Review: ‘Harvey’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The imaginary friend is a staple of childhood play. In Harvey, currently playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, the adult version of the childhood friend emerges when the “oh so pleasant” Elwood...

Review: ‘Witch’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron presents the world premiere of Witch, the fourth installment in their Bold New Works for Intimate Stages commissioning project. Written by Co-Directors Matt Conner (Music and Lyrics)...

Interview: Actor Sara Barker Discusses Upcoming Performance of Lauren Gunderson’s New Play Against Gun Violence (1st Stage April 23)

On February 14, 2018, a gunman entered Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 17 students and teachers. On April 3, Playwright Lauren Gunderson made her new play involving gun violence, Natural...

Review: ‘I Did It My Way In Yiddish (In English)’ by Deb Filler at MetroStage

Deb Filler’s love note to the world wends through near-universal musical touchstones, bawdy humor, the joys (or not) of Yiddish, coincidental connections, and the impact of one important musical...

Review: ‘Fly By Night’ at 1st Stage

Recipe for a vexing evening of musical theater: combine cuteness, sweetness, quirkiness, clever and funny dialogue, and a sprinkling of amusing and melodic songs. Add a heavy dose of sentimentality....

Review: ‘The Mountaintop’ by L.A. Theatre Works at George Mason University

On April 3, 1968, a rainy night in Memphis, Tennessee, in a dingy hotel, there was a man working on a speech. This man had missed birthdays and anniversaries in pursuit of his dream. He was a man who...

Review: ‘Luzia’ at Cirque du Soleil in Tysons

For a Cirque-head such as myself, anticipation of a new Cirque du Soleil show coming to town kicked in months ago. It had been two long years since Cirque last pitched its Big Top here, with Kurios –...

Review: ‘Border’ by Jane Franklin Dance at Theatre on the Run

Using interviews of real community members wanting to live a full life here in America as her source of inspiration, Jane Franklin and her eponymous dance company have developed an engaging evening...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ by The Arlington Players

Stephen Sondheim himself felt some uncertainty in categorizing Sweeney Todd, the 1979 show that many regard as the masterpiece of his long and spectacular career. In his annotated book of lyrics,...

Reston Community Players to Present ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ April 20-May 12

Raise your skirts and bob your hair, because the toe-tapping flapper frolic Thoroughly Modern Millie is ready to take the stage at Reston Community Players. Based on the 1967 Academy Award-winning...

Review: ‘John’ at Signature Theatre

An eerie sense of the supernatural combined with an almost ritualistic sense of the minutiae of daily living combine to form the aesthetic ambiance of playwright Annie Baker’s haunting and disarming...

Review: ‘The Front Page’ by Providence Players

There are few perfect things in life, let alone in theater. But Providence Players’ The Front Page comes darn close. Every aspect of the production is first-rate. The newspaper world created for this...

A View From ‘The Mountaintop’: Actors Gilbert Glenn Brown and Karen Malina White on Martin Luther King’s Life, Death, and Legacy (Interview)

50 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot on the balcony outside of his room at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. His death at age 39 still reverberates throughout the country, which still battles...

News: Lauren Gunderson’s ‘Natural Shocks’ Reading to Address Gun Violence

WSC Avant Bard will present a reading of Natural Shocks, a new play by Lauren Gunderson, on Monday, April 23, 2018, at 7:30 pm at 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Rd, McLean, VA 22102, as part of a...