DC

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: ‘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....

Meet the Cast of The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ Part Two: Shawn Morris

In Part Two of a series of interviews with the cast of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, meet Shawn Morris. Please introduce yourself and tell our...

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...

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...

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,...

WATCH Award Winners To Be Announced Tonight Beginning at 7 PM. Here Are This Year’s WATCH AWARD Nominations

HERE ARE THE 16TH ANNUAL WATCH AWARD 2017 NOMINATIONS Nominations for outstanding technical achievements. ____ Outstanding Set Design in a Musical (5) Jared Davis – Man of La Mancha – Arlington...

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...

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

In a series of interviews with the cast of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s (GMCW) production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, meet Michael Aylward. Please introduce yourself...

Monumental Theatre Company’s ‘SEX SWAP’ TONIGHT AT 8 PM, AT COBALT

Monumental Theatre Company’s annual Gender Bender Cabaret, Sex Swap, is back for a third time! This year, we are making the one-night event bigger and better than ever. Monumental Theatre Company is a...

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: ‘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...

In The Moment: Elevator Repair Service’s ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises’) at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Come April 7th, it will be a full century since the United Stated entered World War I or The Great War as it was known until WW II came along. The Air and Space Museum here in DC is having an...

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: NSO Pops: An Evening with Ledisi at The Kennedy Center

“Peaches” was in the house. Inspired by the spirit of Nina Simone, acclaimed American R&B and jazz recording artist, songwriter and actress, Ledisi performed an eclectic program of blues, jazz and R&B...

Review: ‘Famous Contemporaries: Music by Gliere, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tcherepnin’ at the Russian Chamber Art Society

As a novice opera aficionado, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Masterpieces of Russian Vocal Music: Famous Contemporaries, the Russian Chamber Art Society’s most recent offering at La Maison...

The Subplot Quickens: A Q&A with Michelle Beck About Her Remarkable Role in ‘King Charles III’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

I greatly admired both the writing and the acting in Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III, but to be honest it was the character of Jessica and Michelle Beck’s...

Review: ‘SISSY Accompanied by Johann Sebastian Bach and a Mouse’ at The Catholic University of America’s Hartke Theatre

If you can imagine a play that captures bits and pieces of The Wizard of Oz and Greek Mytholgy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a Tom and Jerry comic, then you will have some idea of what goes into...

Magic Time!: ‘The How and the Why’ at Theater J

The very title poses a puzzle. How what? Why what? Yet the definite articles assert certitude. The what. The how. Turns out in this brainy play about two smart women, perplexity and uncertainty...

Review: ‘The How and the Why’ at Theater J

The How and the Why – Sarah Treem’s celebrated play about science, feminism and generational rivalry – has just made its long-awaited DC debut at Theater J. The two-handed play is billed as a “fitting...

In the Moment: Atlas Intersections Festival 2017: Four Dance Troupes: Company Danzante, Jane Franklin Dance, Gin Dance Company, and Rebollar Dance.

This year’s Atlas Intersections Festival has a theme of “where the art world and the real world intersect. The Festival aims to “engage audiences and artists alike by sparking conversation, deeper...

Review: ‘The Trojan Women’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

The feminist movement has been on the rise for decades, but with our current political and social climate, saturated with patriarchal overreach into women’s lives (and even their bodies), years of...

Review: ‘The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus’ at Restoration Stage

A long-ago love story inspired this richly textured play with 1920s music. When Playwright Steven A. Butler Jr. was growing up, he heard family stories about how his great-great grandparents, Ruby...

Review: Regina Carter: ‘Simply Ella’ at The Kennedy Center

Regina Carter and her violin: a human voice has never sounded so true. If you get a chance to experience Regina Carter: Simply Ella, the jazz quintet composed of Regina Carter (violin), Marvin Sewell...

Review: ‘Little Women’ at The Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music’s production of Little Women is nearly three hours of spectacular musical merriment. Directed by faculty member Jay D. Brock and with a book by...

Review: ‘All My Sons’ at The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance

Some plays survive the test of time. Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is such a play. And the production mounted by The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance makes that point...

Review: ‘Dracula’ at American University

The famous novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, has been adapted for countless film and stage productions, thrilling audiences since 1897. With a cinematic look and feel, some stand out performances, and...

Interview: Meet ‘The Duskwhales’

I first ran across the Duskwhales when they performed at the 9:30 Club on the Circus Life Podcast 3rd Anniversary Show in the Fall of 2016. I was mesmerized by their psychedelic dress, sound and...

In the Moment: ‘King Charles III’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s (STC) production of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III is a stunner. It is a clever look into a usually unseen political hall-of-mirrors. It is also a most telling tale of...

Spine: ‘King Charles III’ at The Shakespeare Theatre Company

They sure don’t make kings like they used to. And maybe that’s a good thing. Mike Bartlett’s historical fantasy, King Charles III, based loosely (very loosely) on the current royal family of England,...

Review: ‘Eclipsed’ at Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts

Howard University presented the powerful new play, Eclipsed, in their black box theater this past weekend. Eclipsed was written in 2015 by Danai Gurira (well-known for her role as Michonne on AMC’s...

Michael Kahn Will Retire as Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) in July 2019

Michael Kahn will retire as Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) in July 2019. A national search for Mr. Kahn’s successor will begin in 2017. His successor will be announced in...

Review: Jazzmeia Horn at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club

To understand the voice of Jazzmeia Horn — whether it’s embodying her own ballad, the cleverly romantic, soft “Legs and Arms,” or taking on the role of an instrumentalist — is to understand what it...

Review: ‘King Charles III’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Ghost in the Machine Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III premiered in 2014, at London’s Almeida Theatre. Both the original production and the Broadway production won numerous awards. This new...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Black Stache is bringing his pirate ship to Source Theatre, in Constellation Theatre Company’s fantastic production of the 2012 Tony Award-winning play Peter and the Starcatcher. Equipped with lost...

Review #2: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

The beloved Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is back at The Kennedy Center for a week-long run. Now 57 years old, the company pulls from a repertoire dating back to 1960. Using a combination of...

NSO: An Evening with Joshua Bell at The Kennedy Center

It has been said that Joshua Bell may be the greatest violinist active today. After listening to him play, as well as conduct, at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra...

Review: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is looking as strong and beautiful as ever in its annual February visit to The Kennedy Center Opera House. Now in his sixth year as artistic director of the...

Review: ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine came to DC for a command performance on January 25, 1942. The occasion: Franklin Roosevelt’s 60th birthday. America had just entered World War II and the fight...

Magic Time! ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

Whatever this play meant to Broadway audiences when it debuted in 1941, just prior to America’s entry into a war of resistance to fascism abroad, what matters now is what it means to audiences just as...

Shakespeare Theatre Company Unveils its 2017-2018 Season Lineup

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MICHAEL KAHN ANNOUNCES THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY’S 2017-2018 SEASON Othello The Collection and The Lover Twelfth Night Hamlet Waiting for Godot Camelot Final production to be...

Review: ‘I Too Speak of the Rose’ (‘Yo También Hablo de la Rosa’) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

US Premiere of Mexican Classic Now Playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre Some might think of it as a Mexican version of Rashomon—Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1950 film in which each of the characters describes...

Review: ‘RIN: Tales From the Life of a Troubadour’ Starring Rinde Eckert at The Kennedy Center

The acclaimed writer, composer, librettist, physician, performer, and director Rinde Eckert delighted and amazed the crowd on Friday evening at the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater. Eckert allowed the...

Here are the 2017 Helen Hayes Award Nominations

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

Magic Time! ‘I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart’ at Studio X

Friendships between fat girls and gay boys really are a thing, practically a cliché actually—or a trope, as Playwright Morgan Gould dignifies them when referring to just such a queer pairing in her...

Review: ‘I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart’ at The Studio Theatre

They are longtime friends who share an apartment, a hearty back-and-forth, and a splendid repartee of tease, criticism, support and jealousy, and multiple emotions that swirl as individuals...