DC

Review #2: ‘Boots, Class & Sass’ at Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

Having reviewed the outstanding Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) many times in the past, it was a delightful diversion to review an evening of country music escapism entitled Boots, Class &...

Review: ‘Twenty Years with Love’ at Bowen McCauley Dance

Lucy Bowen McCauley celebrates 20 years as a choreographer and artistic director of her own company, with Twenty Years with Love, Bowen McCauley Dance, an evening of three pieces including one world...

Review: ‘La Serva Padrona’ and ‘Gianni Schicchi’ at Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

The Catholic University of America presents an operatic double bill La Serva Padrona and Gianni Schicchi for their Spring 2016 production. La Serva Padrona composed by Giovanni Pergolesi was...

Magic Time! ‘1984’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Shakespeare Theatre Company has missed no opportunity to issue advisories to audiences about to attend the spectacularly intense Headlong production of George Orwell’s 1984, now on stage at the...

Review #2: ‘110 in the Shade’ at Ford’s Theatre

As the opening song exclaims, “Gonna Be Another Hot Day”- and like a refreshing breeze, the lilting lyrics and melodious music of the prolific theatre songwriting team of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt...

Spine: One ‘American Idiot’ to Another, at The Keegan Theatre

Let me admit this right from the start. I’m 60 years old. I don’t go to concerts much. I had heard of Green Day (I’ve worked with teenagers for decades), but had not listened intentionally to their...

Review: ‘110 in the Shade’ at Ford’s Theatre

Glorious vocals and a strong cast heat up Ford’s Theatre with the musical gem 110 in the Shade. With music and lyrics by The Fantasticks creators Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, this rollicking musical,...

A Master Class with Renée Fleming at The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America’s (CUA) Benjamin T. Rome School of Music presented a master class by Renée Fleming on Sunday, March 13, 2016. Dr. Grayson Wagstaff, Dean of the School of Music, gave...

In the Moment: ‘1984’: A Loud Flash-Bang Grenade of a Theater Experience

Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) has a loud flash-bang grenade of a theater experience for audiences. It comes with a chilling take on gloomy lives lived in a world of law and order under total...

Review: ‘American Idiot’ at The Keegan Theatre

The Keegan Theatre’s American Idiot speaks to collective genius. Hardly a no-brainer to mount this explosive, war-weary work, weaned in the Bush II era, at the height of today’s media-hijacked,...

An Interview with Gigi Holliday on ‘La Boum’ at The L’Enfant Café

Gigi Holliday is one busy lady! From running a burlesque academy, to producing a regular show for performers of color to running three different shows at L’Enfant Café the only chance we had to chat...

Review: ‘Annie’ at National Theatre

There are two things they always say never to work with: animals and children. There are exceptions, obviously. For six days at The National Theatre, Annie and Sandy — the bright red-headed,...

An Interview with Maki Roll on ‘Bump & Grimes II: A Burlesque Tribute to the Walking Dead’ at The Black Cat This Friday, at 10 PM

DC hearts its nerdlesque! Do a Doctor Who-, Game of Thrones-, or Walking Dead-themed show and the fanboys and girls are sure to show up. I got a chance to chat with Maki Roll recently who has made a...

Review: The Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center

Who needs to skip around musical history in a concert? A hundred years ago the musical world was in ferment, with shocking new developments right before and after World War I. The Montreal Symphony...

‘Shylock Agonistes’: Howard Jacobson and Aaron Posner at Folger Theatre

On the stage of the Folger Theatre, with the vestiges of the set of Aaron Posner’s just-closed Midsummer Night’s Dream in the background, well-known director and playwright Aaron Posner and Man Booker...

Review: ‘1984’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Prepare to be assaulted! Head-on by Headlong Theatre’s 1984, now on stage at STC’s Lansburgh Theatre. George Orwell’s novel has become the iconic symbol of the totalitarian surveillance State. Big...

Review: ‘The Pillowman’ at Forum Theatre

Martin McDonagh, the erstwhile enfant terrible of millennial European drama who is now a staple of contemporary theatres across the globe, is the sort of playwright whose words need little massaging...

Review: ‘Hexagon 2016: Red, White, & Voters’ Blues’

America’s fascination with mobile phones, drones, and Fitbits were all parodied in the 2016 Hexagon show, but in this year of unprecedented political rancor, the group’s new revue, adeptly titled Red,...

Review: ‘The Flick’ at Signature Theatre

Like the seismic shift in the theatrical terrain that I experienced when I saw the Steppenwolf Theater’s production of Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead off-Broadway, or the excitement I felt when I saw...

Review #1: Boots, Class & Sass at The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

Yee-Haw! Saddle up and come see the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s (GMCW) ‘Boots, Class & Sass at the Lincoln Theatre. Fortunately there are three performance left next weekend, so you’ll have...

Review: Vân-Ánh Võ’s ‘The Odyssey: From Vietnam to America’ at The Kennedy Center

Vân-Ánh Võ’s The Odyssey: from Vietnam to America conjures, to a Western audience, images of Odysseus, returning from victory at Troy, being punished by the gods, losing his army, his loot, his...

Review: Patti LaBelle Headlines Greater Washington Urban League “Unsung Heroes” Awards Fundraiser Gala

Recipes for the Good Life. That’s actually the title of a cookbook written by the legendary Godmother of Soul, Patti LaBelle. It’s also a metaphor for a music career spanning more than half a century;...

Review: ‘Advance Always: A Celebration of Frank Battisti and Garwood Whaley’ at The Kennedy Center

The Baldwin Wallace University Symphonic Wind Ensemble (BWUSWE), conducted by Dr. Brendan Caldwell, and the Bishop Ireton Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Randall Eyles, performed the concert...

Magic Time! OpenStage New Works Showcase

The theater term “packed house” took on all new meaning for me the night I caught this month’s OpenStage New Works Showcase. Not only was there no empty folding chair; the show went on stage in what...

Review: Monica Bill Barnes & Company: ‘Happy Hour’ at The Kennedy Center

Monica Bill Barnes & Company Serving Up Food for Thought … and Cake In life some things that are easy look hard and others that are hard look easy. That’s also the case for choreographer and dancer...

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Announces its 2016-2017 Season

A WORLD PREMIERE, ACCLAIMED NEW PLAYS, AND THE RETURN OF BOTH NILAJA SUN AND THE SECOND CITY Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is pleased to announce its 2016-2017 season, beginning with a world premiere...

Prokofiev Spring in Washington: A Preview of Seven Musical Events

When Andrew Lloyd Webber recently told a group of teenage rock musicians on Broadway that he wanted to talk about the music of Sergei Prokofiev rather than his own musicals, he was the latest in a...

Review: Fortas Chamber Music Concerts: eighth blackbird at The Kennedy Center

eighth blackbird‘s performance on Monday night at The Kennedy Center was introduced with the theme of murder and mayhem, which explained the state of the set. Rickety looking ladders, dead clocks,...

Housewives Get Desperate in Dario Fo’s ‘They Don’t Pay, We Won’t Pay’ at Ambassador Theater

“Our homeland is the whole world. Our law is liberty. We have but one thought, Revolution in our hearts” – Dario Fo If Dario Fo were to cast a vote in the forthcoming US Presidential election his...

National Chamber Ensemble Presents ‘American Landscape’ This Saturday 3/12@7:30 PM at The Rosslyn Spectrum

National Chamber Ensemble Presents ‘American Landscape’ This Saturday 3/12@7:30 PM at The Rosslyn Spectrum, Doors Open for seating at 7:00 PM Join us in Celebrating Great Music of American Composers...

In the Moment: A Look at Jack Viertel’s “The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built”

Revealing the concealed underpinnings and durable structures of American musicals is no easy undertaking. Let alone covering and analyzing the past seven decades of musical theater history. But,...

Review: ‘They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay!’ at Ambassador Theater

How fortunate we are in the DC area, a locale that seeks status as a world class city, to have the Ambassador Theater in our midst. The Ambassador Theater has a mission to build international cultural...

Magic Time! ‘They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay!’ at Ambassador Theater

In politics, the expression “Marxist farce” could well be a slur hurled by some puerile and petulant presidential hopeful (you never know these days). In theater, however, the term “Marxist farce” has...

Review #2: ‘Sarafina!’ at Howard University

“Freedom is coming tomorrow!” exclaims the students of Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts in Sarafina! a musical written by Mbongeni Ngema and directed by Eric Ruffin that explores the...

Review: Laurie Anderson’s ‘Language of the Future: Letters to Jack’ at The Kennedy Center

Cellist Rubin Kodheli joins the legendary performance artist Laurie Anderson on stage at The Terrace Theater for a presentation of her new multimedia work, the memory-haunting Language of the Future:...

Review: ‘The Lion’ at Arena Stage

Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist Benjamin Scheuer electrified Arena Stage’s Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle last night, debuting his one-man musical, The Lion. Affable, handsome and...

This Sunday, 3/6@7PM: 2015 WATCH AWARD Winners Announced: Here are the 2015 WATCH AWARD NOMINATIONS

This Sunday, March 6th at 7 PM The WATCH AWARDS CEREMONY. Visit DCMTA to see the winners as they are being announced. _____ Announcement of Nominations: 16th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community...

Review: ‘Sarafina!’ at Howard University

Even if you already know how inspiring and moving this show is, from seeing the film or the musical on stage, you are in for a spirit-lifting, heart-leaping, foot-stomping thrill when you experience...

An Interview with Local Musician Jason Masi

Jason Masi, a former standout soccer star found his calling in music and hasn’t looked back since. He delves into his music life and what he finds through it by living the dream as a full-time...

Meet The Cast of Spooky Action Theater’s ‘Collaborators’: Part 2: Joe Duquette

In Part 2 of our series with the cast of Spooky Action’s Collaborators, meet Joe Duquette. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on the stage? Joe:...

Review: ‘New York City Ballet Program A’ at The Kennedy Center

The Yankees of ballet are in top-notch form after a successful winter season in Manhattan. Someone recently asked me why I favored the New York City Ballet above all other American ballet companies. I...

Review: ‘Othello’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

General Othello breaks up a drunken duel. The crowd of cheering military men disperses, and all that remains are Iago, Othello’s trusted advisor, and Lieutenant Cassio, who was also the instigator of...

Review: ‘The Silver Age in Russian Poetry in Music’ at the Russian Chamber Art Society

The musical imagery of the material presented by Washington’s Russian Chamber Art Society is so distinctive that its substantial audiences actually crave the work that goes into listening to it as...

Review: Aaron Reeder in ‘Beyond the Lights: Discovering Sammy Davis, Jr.’ at The Anacostia Community Museum

On Saturday, February 27, 2016, a fortunate group of people were treated to Baritone Aaron Reeder’s one-man show Beyond the Lights: Discovering Sammy Davis, Jr., a mixture of show and lecture,...

Review: ‘Word Becomes Flesh’ & ‘for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf’ at Theater Alliance

There is a critical conversation going on in Anacostia right now that may be one of the most urgent and honest exchanges between black women and black men the American theater has ever known. The...

Review: Pianist Steven Osborne Plays Rachmaninoff at the Phillips Collection

Given a choice between the intellectual and the emotional, most concert-goers, in their heart of hearts, will want to hear something that moves them. They got their wish on Sunday afternoon at the...

Review: ‘Director’s Cut’ at The Washington Ballet at The Kennedy Center

Ballet Elevated Earlier this month, the dance world rumbled a bit upon learning of the resignation of The Washington Ballet’s high-energy, effervescent Artistic Director Septime Webre. Since his...

Review: ‘NSO Pops: Broadway Today with Darren Criss & Betsy Wolfe’ at The Kennedy Center

While most of the week here in Washington, DC has been dreary and rainy, the weekend is off to a bright start as Darren Criss and Betsy Wolfe joined the National Symphony Orchestra, under the...

In the Moment: Véronneau and Company Danzante at Atlas’ INTERSECTIONS Festival

Having separately followed two of the DC area’s delightful performing arts groups, one a jazz ensemble and the other a dance troupe, I was intrigued to learn they would be performing together at this...

In the Moment: Gin Dance Company at Atlas’ INTERSECTIONS Festival on March 5th at 5 PM

Gin Dance Company (GDC) is a Metropolitan DC/Northern Virginia based performing arts modern dance company. Founded in Reston, Virginia in 2011 by Artistic Director Shu-Chen Cuff, GDC performs works...