DC

Magic Time! ‘Kiss’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Kiss is a work to be reckoned with. Its power and importance, its comedic wit and caustic intelligence, make it a major theatrical event of the season. For anyone who prefers shows to have substance...

Review: ‘POTUS Among Us’ at Washington Improv Theater

A quick but firm handshake, a genuine embrace, a passing glance to own the room and most of all a nudge, wink and leaning in to make me feel welcome; I have met my first candidate and I haven’t even...

Review: ‘Cirque Spooktacular’ at The Kennedy Center

Like The Nutcracker at Christmastime, Cirque Spooktacular, the NSO Pops’ Cirque de la Symphonie Halloween Extravaganza, is bound to become a seasonal tradition at The John F. Kennedy Center for the...

Review: ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater

Kathleen Turner is back at Arena Stage, and that is always good news for Washington theater-goers. Having starred in Mother Courage and her Children, and Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly...

Review: ‘Speech and Debate’ at George Washington University Department of Theatre and Dance

“Why can’t we talk about anything real in school?” The question is posed by Solomon, a nerdy high school student and wannabe journalist, whose teacher has forbidden him to report on the topic he wants...

Review: ‘¡Viva Cesar, Viva Kennedy!’ Featuring Eugenia León and La Santa Cecilia at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater

It is Hispanic Heritage Month at The Kennedy Center; as soon as you enter you can feel there is something different in the air. As soon as you enter you are greeted with some powerful artwork...

A Celebration of Life for Zelda Fichandler This Sunday October 23rd From 2-7 PM and Monday, October 24th From 2-4 PM at Arena Stage

ARENA STAGE AND THE FICHANDLER FAMILY HOST A CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR ZELDA FICHANDLER AT THE MEAD CENTER FOR AMERICAN THEATER Open reading of her words on Sunday, October 23 from 2:00-7:00 p.m. Public...

WAPAVA Presents Its List of 2015-16 Season Archives 50 Productions from Washington, DC Area Theaters Preserved

Do you love DC-area theater, but missed seeing one of this season’s performances? Are you a theater professional and need to review the blocking or set design of a particular show? Or perhaps you are...

Review: ‘DEMO by Damian Woetzel: Heroes’ at The Kennedy Center

The New York City Ballet’s “main man” for 25 years, Damian Woetzel is a hero to many, certainly one of my favorite dancers. Dressed in stylish jeans and midnight blue t-shirt, his dark curly hair...

Review #2: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’

Now and then there comes a production of a play that is so spectacularly original it confounds one’s every expectation of what can be achieved in theater. The story—a marvel in itself—could not be...

Review: Fringe POP (Performance over Projection) Private Track at the Logan Fringe Arts Space by PJ McMahon

FringePOP has started its run at Capital Fringe in Washington, DC. POP stands for Performance over Projection. The evening blends theatre and film, with 4 short plays and 4 short films that play...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at St. Mark’s Players

When the cast of St. Mark‘s Players’ new production, Peter and the Starcatcher, charges out from behind deep red curtains for their opening scene, that is your cue. Stop right here and suspend your...

Review: ‘An Iliad’ at Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Surprisingly little greets the audience as they enter the intimate black box space at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop where Taffety Punk Theatre Company makes their home. Set, Costume, and Prop...

Review: Fringe POP (Performance over Projection) Private Track at the Logan Fringe Arts Space by Jane Franklin

The Logan Fringe Arts Space, now offering year-round programming, has launched a new annual series. Julianne Brienza, CEO/Founder of Capital Fringe, has a vision for experiment and the courage to make...

Review: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ at The Kennedy Center

The national tour of the critically-acclaimed, five-time Tony Award-winning production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time made its sojourn to The Kennedy Center’s Opera House this...

Review: “Volcanes: Cuentos de El Salvador (Volcanoes: Tales of El Salvador)” at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Cornelia Cody’s Volcanes: Cuentos de El Salvador is the latest offering of GALA Hispanic Theatre’s GALita children’s theater. Volcanes centers on a Salvadoran family split between the US and El...

Review: The Gary Bartz Quartet at The Kennedy Center Jazz Club

The KC Jazz Club opened its 14th season last Friday with a soul-tossing river of jazz. Gary Bartz starts the evening with a prayer: “Sadness must leave this room,” as Paul Bollenback’s guitar, James...

Review: The Gary Bartz Quartet at The Kennedy Center Jazz Club

The KC Jazz Club opened its 14th season last Friday with a soul-tossing river of jazz. Gary Bartz starts the evening with a prayer: “Sadness must leave this room,” as Paul Bollenback’s guitar, James...

Review: ‘The Blues Project’ by Dorrance Dance with Toshi Reagon and BIG Lovely at The Kennedy Center

If you want to know how America dances, don’t tune in to those kitschy television competition shows So You Think You Can Dance? and Dancing With the Stars. Check out Dorrance Dance in The Blues...

Review: ‘Fringe POP [Performance over Projection]’ at Capital Fringe-

Fringe POP [Performance over Projection] is an interesting and laudable new theatrical experiment from the Capital Fringe creative team. Fringe POP, which launched last night at the Logan Fringe Arts...

Review: ‘Radio Golf’ at Howard University

August Wilson made it his lifelong project to chronicle the African American experience in every decade of the 20th century with his Pittsburgh Cycle. With its production of Radio Golf, Howard...

Spine: For the Love of ‘Angels in America: Perestroika’ at Round House Theatre

Part II of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America opened last weekend at the Round House Theatre. A joint production with the Olney Theatre Center, the restaging of Kushner’s modern day epic has been long...

‘Hexwork – A Spellbinding Burlesk Revue’ Interviews with Eyrie Twilight and Mab Just Mab

There is a spiritual element and aspect of ritual to burlesque and sideshow, two artforms linked to Carnival (literally translated – a farewell to the flesh). Hexwork pushes those elements front and...

Director Sun King Davis on ’43 1/2: The Greatest Deaths of Shakespeare’s Tragedies’ Playing 10/20-11/13 at Nu Sass Productions by Clare Shaffer

Clare Shaffer interviews Sun King Davis on Nu Sass Productions’ upcoming production of 43 1/2. Clare: What inspired you to create 43 1/2? Sun King: A lot of things went into the creation of 43 1/2....

Review: ‘The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence’ Co-Presented by Washington Performing Arts and StepAfrika! in Cooperation with the Phillips Collections

There’s a pulse, a simple rhythm. It is both complex syncopation that rushes on, and an inviting and relaxed embrace of the moment. The percussive energy of StepAfrika!, a professional company...

Review: National Symphony Orchestra: ‘Shakespeare at the Symphony: From Tchaikovsky to Elgar’

It may be a little known, but hardly surprising, fact that the works of William Shakespeare have inspired more music than any other work of literature perhaps except for the Bible. The Bard’s most...

Review: ‘The Little Foxes’ at Arena Stage

The enduring popularity of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes offers proof positive that themes of greed, racism, and misogyny continue to resonate with contemporary audiences. Though set in a small...

Review: ‘MotherStruck’ at The Studio Theatre

I happen to like solo performance pieces a lot and I’ve seen many. There’s something I love about the immediacy of a single performer claiming my attention—and maybe stirring my emotions or...

Review: ‘Love’s LaBEERS Lost’ at LiveArtDC and Grain of Sand Theatre at DC Reynolds

Get Thee to This Beer Fest – er – Show! Love’s LaBEERS Lost is a production in danger of becoming a hot, must-see show that will bring the fire department roaring down on DC Reynolds to clear everyone...

SPINE: Theresa Rebeck’s ‘What We’re Up Against’ at Keegan Theatre

Theresa Rebeck’s sharp-knuckled comedy, What We’re Up Against, received its regional premiere at Keegan Theatre this week, and the laughs abound. An architectural firm hires a young talented architect...

Review: ‘What We’re Up Against’ at The Keegan Theatre

Near the end of What We’re Up Against, Theresa Rebeck’s incisive comedy about workplace sexism—just opened in a kick-ass production at The Keegan Theatre—a question is posed by Eliza, a very talented...

Craig Wallace on Playing Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong in ‘Satchmo at the Waldorf’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

He is one of my favorite actors and now Craig Wallace has received rave reviews and standing ovations for his riveting and tour de force performance as Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong in Terry Teachout’s...

The Opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture: Watch the Entire Ceremony Here

Hollywood actors, singers and local talent fuel the opening ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture One-hundred years in the making, the National Museum of African...

Review: ‘National Symphony Orchestra: Season Opening Gala Concert’ at the Kennedy Center

In a political season where talk of building walls sometimes trumps the optimism of building bridges, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, named in honor of a President whose civil...

Review: ‘Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s’ at Flying V

Be Awesome: A Theatrical Mixtape of the 90s is less a stroll down memory lane and more of a flying leap into an exploding memory bomb. Just a few steps into the Writer’s Center, where Flying V makes...

Review: Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ “A Cat’s Attic” Concert at The Kennedy Center

Cat Stevens (as he was known then) last performed at The Kennedy Center back in November 1971 just months after it opened. Much has changed since then, including his name (which became Yusuf after he...

Review: Anaïs Mitchell With John Gallagher, Jr. at The Hamilton

Anaïs Mitchell and John Gallagher, Jr. brought their five-stop East Coast tour to the Hamilton in Washington, DC for a one-night performance on Thursday, September 22, 2016. The two immersive...

Spine: Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Oh, what a difference 200 years make! Jane Austen’s novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published anonymously in 1811. Folger’s Sense and Sensibility, adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by Eric Tucker,...

Review: ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ at Washington National Opera

“Perdono no merita chi agli altri non da.” So say the words carved into the wall above the stage in the Washington National Opera’s stunning production of The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze de Figaro)...

Dangereuse: ‘The Lovers with a Thousand Faces’: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre is a revelatory theatre experience. Director Alan Paul’s version of Romeo and Juliet has a complexity and richness that reaches deep into the meaning of the...

Who’s in Town?: An Interview With Anaïs Mitchell, Appearing with John Gallagher, Jr. Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

Anaïs Mitchell is a singer-songwriter and musician who has been called the queen of modern folk music. Her 2010 album Hadestown, a folk-opera based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and set in the...

Who’s in Town?: John Gallagher, Jr. on Appearing with Anaïs Mitchell Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

John Gallagher, Jr. is a Tony-Award winning actor and musician. He won a Tony-Award in 2007 for his portrayal of Mortiz Stiefel in the rock musical Spring Awakening and was recently back on Broadway...

In the Moment: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Folger Theatre’s take on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is just gonna charm you with its ingenious high-velocity agility, while depicting the tastefully hide-bound, tart world of gossip and...

Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene… For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. A man, walking onstage with a vacuum, recites the...

Magic Time! ‘How To… Sex Education’ at Rabble Crew Productions

Rabble Crew Productions has a proclivity for mounting edgy, sex-themed theater in fringey places around town. Last December they did Madeline Farrington’s Glory Us at The Fridge in Eastern Market, set...

Review: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Hey Girl, I Hear You Read Jane Austen; Sense and Sensibility at the Folger Theatre The appeal of Jane Austen’s heroines lies in their lovability. In Sense and Sensibility, the two sisters, Elinor and...

Review: ‘brownsville song (b-side for tray)’ at Theater Alliance

Yesterday at The Anacostia Playhouse, the real world and the world onstage converged. It was like a communal emotion-meld through theater, the human heartbreak untold in too many headlines become the...

Review #2: ‘Collective Rage’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

“Can feminism be funny?” inquiring minds at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company want to know. For that is the conundrum that connects Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone With Salad, Woolly’s cheeky hit...

Review #1: ‘Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Let’s just get this out of the way. Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops (its full title is Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops; In Essence a Queer and Occasionally Hazardous...

Review: NSO Pops: The Second City Guide to the Symphony Starring Colin Mochrie

What happens when you put together famous improv comedian Colin Mochrie, Canadian comedy troupe The Second City, and the National Symphony Orchestra? A night of music and sketch comedy at the John F....