Virginia

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at McLean Community Players

Oh the years of awkward adolescence. Who doesn’t look back on that time and cringe? No one! Which is why The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is the perfect combination of hilarity and...

Review: ‘Bon Voyage! A Happenstance Escapade’ at Round House Theatre

Sunny and cheerful is how I felt after an hour or so with Happenstance Theater’s Bon Voyage! A Happenstance Escapade. The original production, currently at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, made this...

Review: ‘Oklahoma!’ at Prince William Little Theatre

Feel jaunty and energized after Prince William Little Theatre’s production of Oklahoma!. Enter into a land of wide open prairie fields, great company and even greater gossip. This cheery town blooms...

Review: ‘Empanada For A Dream’ at 1st Stage

Proust may have had his mother’s madeleine, but Juan Francisco Villa has his mother’s empanada to stir up memories of his gritty, hard scrabble childhood in New York’s City’s Lower East Side. It was a...

Review: ‘Hick: A Love Story’ at 1st Stage

What was hidden away as a purposefully invisible sidebar of decades-old history, is brought to well-deserved notice by 1st Stage’s inaugural Logan Festival of Solo Performances. With Hick: A Love...

Review: ‘A Little Princess’ at Aldersgate Church Community Theater by Debra Cope

The timeless story of kind and courageous young heroine Sara Crewe comes to life on an Alexandria stage in A Little Princess, a new adaptation of the classic Frances Hodgson Burnett novel by Lauren...

Review: ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’ at The Hub Theatre

Set in a fictionalized American magical kingdom, The Happiest Place on Earth, now playing at Hub Theatre, is a wonderfully bittersweet family saga that actor Tia Shearer crushes in her solo...

Review: ‘Fabulation or the Re-education of Undine’ at Port City Playhouse

Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation or the Re-education of Undine is an outrageously hilarious romp into the fabulated life of Undine Barnes Callas, a feisty, successful African American woman whose comeuppance...

In the Moment: Report on ‘Declassified’ at The Kennedy Center

A hearty bro-hug to The Kennedy Center and to the National Symphony Orchestra’s (NSO) new Artistic Advisor, Ben Folds, for having the joint jumping at the recent late night Declassified event. It was...

Interview: Landis and Jennifer Smith Discuss ‘The Beast in the Bayou’ to play at Wolf Trap July 6-7th and Penn’s Landing July 11th

The great thing about fairy tales is their malleability. Fairy tales have been around for millennia and are often transported from country to country, morphing with each region and time that they...

Review: Sheryl Crow at Wolf Trap

In support of her latest album, aptly entitled Be Myself, nine-time Grammy Award-winning, singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow returned to Wolf Trap. The sold-out crowd at the Filene Center eagerly embraced...

Review: ‘Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein, a gorgeous, glamorous revue that celebrates the works of two greats from the Golden Age...

Review: ‘Gilligan’s Fire Island’ at Dominion Stage

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a cheeky flip, begun with fun by castaways, who do everything but strip. Gilligan’s Fire Island is a parody, bringing back nostalgic memories of...

Review: ‘Red, White, and Tuna’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The title alone is fair warning. Red, White, and Tuna is irreverently reverse-patriotic. Let’s break it down: red state (Texas), mixed with a dash of white supremacy and a tangy, Southern flavor that...

Review: ‘Bernadette Peters’ at Wolf Trap

There’s something special about outdoor summer concerts: the light breeze, the chirping crickets, the enjoyment of good music in summer. But when you have all that and the performer is Broadway legend...

Review: ‘The Jungle Book’ at Encore Stage & Studio by Emma Kiely

Man’s desire to know the ways of the jungle and its creatures has been captured in Encore Stage & Studio’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. The story of Mowgli’s (Ryely Rogers)...

Review: ‘King Lear’ at Avant Bard

The tempest in my mind / Doth from my senses take all feeling else. King Lear, Act 3, scenes 4–5. Avant Bard’s King Lear is a bracing, piercing production of a family and realm in heightening...

Review: ‘Urinetown: The Musical’ at Nextstop Theatre Company

Imagine a musical about a revolution, where a few scrappy rebels fight for the dignity of their fellow man against a tyrannical few. Now add a score that satirizes every musical under the sun, a...

In the Moment: Interviews with Flying V’s Jason Schlafstein and Sydney Moore

With monikers like, Become Awesome and The Theatre for People Who Don’t Think They Like Theatre, Flying V burst onto the DC-metro area theater scene. In 2015, Flying V received the Helen Hayes Award...

Magic Time!: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Signature Theatre

There’s an extraordinarily tender and touching moment in Signature Theatre’s ebullient Jesus Christ Superstar when Mary Magdalene (Natascia Diaz), after singing her gorgeous ballad “I Don’t Know How...

In The Moment: A Report on ‘ReBirth of a Nation’ at The Kennedy Center

It was an evening like few others in the company of of hundreds at The Kennedy Center on a recent evening. What took place was a performance meant to strike a hot chord for cultural and political...

In The Moment: Interviews With the Creative Cauldron ‘Bold New Works in Intimate Space Artistic Teams: Laura Connors Hull, Matt Conner, and Stephen Gregory Smith

Creative Cauldron continues to dazzle critics and audiences with its “Bold New Works for Intimate Stages” – a series of premier musicals. It is certainly rare when a smaller professional theater...

Review: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Signature Theatre

Signature Theatre’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar is an impressive beauty of a rock opera. It successfully takes a Biblical phrase such as, “Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in...

Review: the National Chamber Ensemble Mother’s Day Concert ‘Music of Our Time’ at the Spectrum Theatre

For their Mother’s Day theme and as a tribute to the conclusion of their 10th anniversary season at Rosslyn’s Spectrum Theatre, the National Chamber Ensemble (NCE) selected a program inspired by film...

Review: Two One-Act Plays at Greenspring Players

This isn’t the first time that Greenspring Players have focused their expertise on one act plays, nor the first time I have reviewed such shows for our website. Each show was about 45 minutes long,...

In the Moment: Strauss Artist Grant Bestowed on Scenic, Costume, and Puppet Designer Margaret (Margie) Jervis

The Arts Council of Fairfax County announced a $5,000 Strauss Artist Grant award to Falls Church-based theater designer Margaret (Margie) Jervis. Jervis, a Falls Church native, is the resident Scenic,...

Review: ‘Kaleidoscope’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron presents Kaleidoscope, a “Bold New Works” ​World Premiere Musical with Music and Lyrics by Matt Conner and Book and Lyrics by Stephen Gregory Smith, who also co-direct the...

Here Are The Recipients of the 2017 Helen Hayes Awards

Here are the 2017 Helen Hayes Recipients in RED. __ Outstanding Choreography, Musical-Hayes Christopher d’Amboise, Evita, Olney Theatre Center Kelly Devine, Come From Away, Ford’s Theatre Parker Esse,...

Dangereuse: Playing Gloucester Female: A Q&A With Cam Magee About Her Regendered Role in Avant Bard’s ‘King Lear’

Much of the publicity for the much-anticipated Avant Bard production of King Lear has focused on Rick Foucheux’s Lear. I recently saw Foucheux play Gloucester in a production at George Washington...

Review: ‘The Tempest’ at Encore Stage & Studio

Encore Stage & Studio closed their most recent production, Shakespeare’s comedy The Tempest, this past weekend. As the self-proclaimed “Theatre for kids, by kids,” Encore works with young local talent...

Review: ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’ at the Kellar Theater at the Center for the Arts by Leslie Ann Ross

Delightful and charming. Those are the words I would use to describe Rooftop Production’s current offering You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown which comes to life at the Kellar Theater at the Center for...

Review: ‘Master Class’ at MetroStage

Welcome to the rehearsal hall. You are a student at a prestigious school for the performing arts. You have mastered your technique, but you are young. You have not thought through the circumstances,...

Review: ‘Private Lives’ at Reston Community Players

Some plays are like peeping through your eye doctor’s phoropter — layer upon layer of filters. Say, a playwright of the Roaring Twenties borrows a style of the 1660s English Restoration period that...

Review: ‘Guys and Dolls’ at Fairfax High School

Fairfax High School Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls had the audience roaring with laughter. Set in 1930’s New York, the show was based on short stories by Damon Runyon about the gangsters and...

Joel Markowitz’s Acceptance Speech Upon Receiving the Gary Maker Award

I am very honored to receive the Gary Maker Award, and I want to thank the committee for this incredible Lifetime Award. Gary Maker was such a mensch and he fought a dreadful disease with such courage...

Review: ‘Billy Elliot the Musical’ at West Potomac High School’s Beyond the Page Theatre Company

West Potomac High School’s Beyond the Page Theatre Company gave us the “old razzle dazzle” in their production of Billy Elliot the Musical, with music by Elton John, and the book and lyrics by Lee...

Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the City of Fairfax Theatre Company

There’s the daily ordeal of truth, imaginary facts, and shifting identities. There is wealth and privilege and assumptions based on hearsay, without understanding. Within all of this lies the...

Interview: Jazz Chanteuse Changamiré

I met jazz chanteuse Changamire’ at a networking event. She quickly warmed up to me and gave me her latest jazz album “Love” to listen to. I was blown away. In our interview she shared how she got...

Review: ‘Taking Sides’ at Port City Playhouse by Wesley Cobaugh

Taking Sides by Ronald Harwood is a stark look at post-war process and what is really meant by getting at the truth of what happened, why, who knew and when. Director Mary Ayala-Bush has crafted a...

In the Moment: ‘Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors’ to Benefit National Network to Prevent Domestic Violence

Launching an anthology of stories entitled Roar: True Tales of Women Warriors to benefit the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the professional story-telling group, Better Said Than Done will...

Review: ‘I Ought to Be in Pictures’ at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

Is it nature or nurture? Is it innate personality or fearless optimism? Is the ability to see the glass half full, the willingness to take a chance, the inclination to ask or speak your mind without...

Review: ‘She Loves Me’ at The Arlington Players

The Arlington Players have put on a delicious production of the musical She Loves Me. The 1964 musical by Fiddler on the Roof Composer Jerry Bock and Lyricist Sheldon Harnick and book writer Joe...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at McLean Community Players

Spring has sprung, the dogwoods are in full flower, and there’s a truly delicious cat-fight to be had in McLean—take my word for it. Now that the solemnities of the season have been properly observed...

Review: ‘The Late Wedding’ at The Hub Theatre

Once again, Artistic Director Helen Murray and The Hub Theatre are producing a seductive play meant to kindle sparks for adventurous theater-goers. The Hub is constantly on the hunt for small gems...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Publisher and Editor Joel Markowitz To Receive The Gary Maker Award From DCTheatreScene At A Benefit Cabaret at MetroStage TONIGHT Monday, May 1st at 7 PM

DCMetroTheatreArts’ Pubisher and Editor Joel Markowitz has received the Gary Maker Award from DCTheatreScene. In her announcement Publisher and Editor of DCTheatreScene Lorraine Treanor wrote: Joel...

Review: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ at Brave Spirits Theatre

Brave Spirits Theatre (BST) has recently opened two productions, performing in tandem, to present what they refer to in their press release as “Theatre for the Game of Thrones fan.” Calling this combo...

News Release: DCMetroTheaterArts Is Here to Stay!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DCMetroTheaterArts Squelches Rumors of Closing, Announces Plan for Future Leadership and Growth Staff Rallies in Response to Founding Editor’s Diagnosis, Thanks Local Theater...

Review: ‘Boeing Boeing’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Oh, what fine comic talent and an attuned director can do to bring pleasure. Under the sure hands of NextStop’s Evan Hoffmann and a talented six-member ensemble, there is enjoyable life to an old...

Review: ‘Godspell’ at Encore Stage & Studio by Emma Kiely

The message of Easter came early this year as Encore Stage & Studio’s (Encore) Musical Theatre Intensive presented John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell. Performed in the sparsely set...

Review: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

There’s no doubt in my mind that all of the attendees at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts were there because of the 1977 film version of Saturday Night Fever: https://youtu.be/op5FxEs1aR0 and...