DC

Review #1:’Copenhagen’ at Perisphere Theater

The storytelling in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen—which won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Play—is ingeniously done. The play’s three characters are deceased. They are actual historical figures whom Frayn...

‘Take A Bow!’ Part 1: The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ DC/MD/VA Fall 2016 Favorite Performances/Directors/Designers

Here is the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ first series of ‘Take A Bow!’ Fall 2016 honorees: ____ Edwin Aparicio, as Choreographer, Flamenco Dancer, and Co-Director of Salvador, at GALA Hispanic...

Magic Time! ‘Arguing with God’ at Woman’s National Democratic Club

Always on the lookout for provocative theater in improbable places, I went to the one-night-only DC premiere of a politically edgy and surprisingly funny send-up of Yahweh, the God of the Old...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Ford’s Theatre

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is back at Ford’s Theatre in a production that is guaranteed to fill your heart with Yuletide cheer. Michael Wilson’s adaptation tells the classic tale of Ebeneezer...

Review: ‘Black Nativity’ at Theater Alliance

I saw Black Nativity last year at Anacostia Playhouse and was so thrilled by it (as I wrote in my rave review), I had to go again this year. I went expecting to see a reproduction of a splendid show...

Review: ‘It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ at Washington Stage Guild

It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play Shares Timeless Message Adapted by playwright Joe Landry, Washington Stage Guild’s It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is a retelling of the classic tale...

Spine: ‘Moby Dick’ Inside Jonah’s Whale at Arena Stage

“Jonah,” I said to myself as soon as I laid eyes upon the set of Lookingglass Theatre Company’s Moby Dick. Large, curved rib-bones thrusting upward, form a cradle: “It’s happening inside the whale.”...

Review #2: Chocolate City Burlesque’s Third Annual ‘Black Friday’

There ain’t nothin’ wrong with a little bump and grind and Chocolate City’s Burlesque & Cabaret (CCBC) had a whole lotta shakin’ going on. G strings and pasties and a skin show with feathers galore...

Dangereuse: “That Burnett Woman: The Magical ‘Secret Garden’ at the Shakespeare Theatre Company”

The Shakespeare Theatre’s production of The Secret Garden is like a dream in which miraculous things happen, old grudges are swept away, and children rediscover childhood. The book, a revered classic,...

Review #1: Chocolate City Burlesque’s Third Annual ‘Black Friday’

Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret (CCBC) is a troupe that excels at putting on the most sensational burlesque shows it can on D.C. stages. The troupe did just that in their third annual Black...

Review: ‘Once’ at National Theatre

From the moment one enters the National Theatre, it becomes clear that Once is not your typical Broadway fare. Rather than seeing closed drapes and hearing piped-in pre-show music, the first view of...

Review: The NSO Pops: ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’: Film with Live Music at The Kennedy Center

The most significant difference between entering your neighborhood cinema to catch the latest PG film offering and traversing the Hall of Nations to enter the Grand Foyer at The Kennedy Center in...

Review: ‘Moby Dick’: A Co-Production with the Alliance Theatre and Southcoast Repertory at Arena Stage

A complex rigging of interlocking cables, ropes and steel clamps is harnessed by a skeletal steel structure. The structure is at once minimal and abstract, intricate and unambiguous, to suggest the...

TONIGHT AT 8 PM AT GALA HISPANIC THEATRE: Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret Presents the Third Annual ‘Black Friday’ Burlesque

Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret (CCBC) likes to do things a little differently. The troupe is known for its spectacular semiannual burlesque shows housed at the GALA Hispanic Theatre. Chocolate...

Anya Rothman on Playing Mary Lennox in ‘The Secret Garden’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Anya Rothman is playing the spunky Mary Lennox in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s The Secret Garden. She takes is on her journey. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell us how old you are and tell our...

Review: ‘The Nutcracker’ by the Cincinnati Ballet at The Kennedy Center

We know the holiday season is upon us when theaters around the country begin to put on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s classic The Nutcracker. The Cincinnati Ballet’s production at The Kennedy Center,...

Review: ‘DanceWorks Fall 2016’ at The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance

This past weekend, The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance presented DanceWorks Fall 2016. The program consisted of nine separate dance pieces, each by a different...

Review #2: ‘The Secret Garden’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company by PJ McMahon

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a story that has fascinated and moved people for the last hundred years, from the original novel, to the various film adaptations, and a Broadway...

Review #2: ‘A View From the Bridge’ at The Kennedy Center

The stripped-down, minimalist and auteur-driven interpretation of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge delivers a tragic, elemental, and mythic dimension to this stirring play that delineates the...

Review #1: ‘A View From the Bridge’ at The Kennedy Center

Act fast: Director Ivo van Hove’s visionary production of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, which won plaudits on both Broadway and the West End since it opened in 2014, is only playing at The...

In the Moment: ‘A View From the Bridge’ at The Kennedy Center

Even having inklings of what to expect, there was no protecting myself from the shattering production of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge at the Kennedy Center. I don’t think even wearing a...

Magic Time!: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

A debate about the existence of hell is combusting in the nation’s preeminent Jewish theater. And that particular drama in that particular venue could not be more anomalous. There is in Judaism no...

Review #1: ‘The Secret Garden’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

While most are familiar with The Secret Garden either from reading the book or watching the movie, the latest musical production by the Shakespeare Theatre Company raises the bar with a wonderful cast...

Review: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

Yes, the rumors are true. The Christians—now making its DC debut at Theater J—is amazing. It’s amazing for its sheer audacity—first, in turning the nation’s leading Jewish theater into a...

Review: The Choral Arts Society of Washington Presents ‘Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5’ at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall

It was a chilly night, fitting for a change of pace, when the Choral Arts Society of Washington performed Hector Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5 Grande Messe des Morts to a buoyant crowd at The Kennedy Center...

In the Moment: ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

‘Inspired’ is the word that comes to mind for Adam Immerwahr’s selection of The Christians by Lucas Hnath for this, his first full season as Artistic Director for DC’s Theater J. What an exceptional...

Review: ‘The Outcasts of Poker Flat’ at The Catholic University of America

The Outcasts of Poker Flat is the story of six uncanny people trapped together as they take shelter during a blizzard. Adapted from Bret Harte’s 1869 story of the same name, the one-act chamber opera...

In Context: ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ at The Keegan Theatre

John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation was widely admired as an ingenious, penetrating look at contemporary society when it premiered in New York back in 1990. Based on a true story, it concerns a...

Review: ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at Faction of Fools

Audiences can usually expect something distinct, and full of chutzpah, from the folk at DC’s scrappy Faction of Fools theater troupe with its Comedia dell’Arte mission. The recipient of the 2012 Helen...

Review: ‘Metropolis’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Percussion and film enthusiasts, listen up! For five nights only, Constellation Theatre Company presents a unique combination of the silent-film Metropolis set to a new score by renowned percussionist...

Review: ‘Love Jones: The Musical’ at The National Theatre

Nearly 20 years after the cult classic, romantic comedy Love Jones made its big screen release, a celebratory musical reinterpretation takes stage at the National Theatre, showcasing award-winning...

Spine: The Second City’s ‘Black Side of the Moon’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

“We are not a monolith! We are not a monolith! We are not a monolith!” chanted the six-member cast at the start of Woolly Mammoth’s Second City’s Black Side of the Moon. And, indeed, that large...

Magic Time! ‘Straight White Men’ at The Studio Theatre

Playwright Young Jean Lee’s audacious title refers to the particular—the white widowed father (Ed) and his three grown sons (Drew, Jake, and Matt) who are on stage for most of this naturalistic...

Henry Baratz on Playing Colin Craven in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s ‘The Secret Garden’

In our second interview with cast members of The Secret Garden at Shakespeare Theatre Company, meet Henry Baratz. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell us how old you are and tell our readers what...

Interview: David London and Francis Menotti Discuss ‘Cerebral Sorcery’

Magic shows are often full of tricks and spectacle, “smoke and mirrors.” Going to a David London show though tends to take more of a psychological turn. There are still plenty feats of magic but, not...

Review: The Second City’s ‘Black Side of the Moon’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The Second City’s Black Side of the Moon— the Chicago-based comedy troupe’s first foray into post-Obama politics—launched the holiday season this week with an African-American cast and a show that is...

Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret Presents the Third Annual ‘Black Friday’ Burlesque on Friday, November 25th

Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret (CCBC) likes to do things a little differently. The troupe is known for its spectacular semiannual burlesque shows housed at the GALA Hispanic Theatre. Chocolate...

Interview: Tom Teasley on his Percussion Composition for ‘Metropolis’ playing at Constellation Theatre Company through November 19th

For five nights only, world renowned percussionist Tom Teasley is performing an original composition set to Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis. I saw the first performance at Constellation...

Review #2: ‘Straight White Men’ at The Studio Theatre

If your empathy for straight white men was strained by last week’s elections, go see Young Jean Lee’s 2014 play at The Studio Theatre. You’ll be privy to a rare, funny and poignant look under the fig...

Review: ‘Let’s Misbehave! True Confessions of GMCW’ at The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

I can’t vouch for the truth of the confessions, at Let’s Misbehave! True Confessions of GMCW (The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC), but having each performer bare a bit of his soul as lead in to...

Review: The Washington Chorus Presents Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 5

On Sunday, November 13, 2016, the pulsating, transcendent and visionary music of the modern musical giant of minimalist music, Philip Glass —came to vivid life in a unique and powerful concert event....

Review: ‘Urinetown’ at Wilson Theater at Woodrow Wilson High School

Urinetown,The Musical, the totally odiferous sounding but truly entertaining musical, comes up smelling like a rose in its production by the students and faculty at Woodrow Wilson High School. The...

Spine: ‘Straight White Men’ by Young Jean Lee at The Studio Theatre

Young Jean Lee’s theatre, entitled Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company (2003-2016), was dedicated to producing “shows written and directed by Young Jean Lee.” The company produced 12 of Ms. Lee’s...

Meet the Cast of Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s ‘A Delicate Balance’: Part 5: Janet Constable Preston

In Part 5 of a series of interviews with the cast of Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s A Delicate Balance, meet Janet Constable Preston. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell readers where they have...

Review: ‘Straight White Men’ at The Studio Theatre

In these jagged days immediately after the election, Studio Theatre’s richly revealing production of Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee is bracing, to say the least. It deserves our attention no...

Review: ‘What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice’ at Dance Place

Walking into Dance Place for the world premiere of choreographer and dancer Vincent Thomas’s What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice, an homage to Marvin Gaye, the great Northeast D.C. native...

Review #2: The Washington National Opera’s ‘The Daughter of the Regiment’ at The Kennedy Center (Cast #2: Sunday, 11/13/16)

Sometimes a relationship between a child and a parent is truly uplifting. Multiply those emotions times twenty, and you experience the heartwarming plot of The Daughter of the Regiment. Broadway...

Review #1: Washington National Opera’s ‘The Daughter of the Regiment’ (Opening Night Cast-11/12/16)

If your operatic desire is to hear one glorious aria after another sung by two operatic voices that would make the gods envious –set against a deliriously “light-as-air” comically sentimental soufflé...

Review: The American Pops Orchestra Presents ‘I’ll Be Seeing You: A World War II Love Story’ at Lisner Auditorium

I’ll Be Seeing You is a delightful portrait of the love and sacrifices of a newlywed couple separated by military service during World War II. The letters between Spark and Charley while Charlie is...

Review: ‘Little Thing, Big Thing’ at Solas Nua

The DC premiere of Donal O’Kelly’s Little Thing, Big Thing, playing now at Solas Nua performing at Flashpoint Mead Theatre Gallery, is an impressively entertaining dark Irish comedy. A cast of two...