DC

Jay Leno at The Kennedy Center

A magnificent stage usually filled with a full orchestra and a hundred-person chorus might feel empty with just a stool, a microphone, and a lone person, but not when Jay Leno is in control. With the...

New York City Ballet at The Kennedy Center-Program A: 20th Century Classics

There’s no company like the New York City Ballet, performing the old, new, and, especially, Serenade. Last night was one of those magical evenings of ballet and beauty. First it was a smooth ride to...

The Philadelphia Orchestra with Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center

Subtext abounded as the Philadelphia Orchestra arrived at The Kennedy Center Tuesday night. In Washington, rising politicians are “mentioned for president.” In classical music, rising conductors are...

Here Are The Recipients of This Year’s 2015 Helen Hayes Awards – in Order of Presentation With 2 Videos

Here are the recipients of the 2015 Helen Hayes Awards in the order they were announced tonight at The Lincoln Theatre. THE RECIPIENTS ARE IN RED! https://youtu.be/acNtQ0cq6Tw Outstanding Supporting...

“What, Mr. Todd, What is that Sound?” Arranging The Prog Metal Version of ‘Sweeney Todd’: Part Two: Andrew Lloyd Baughman

It has been over a year since Stephen Sondheim gave DC’s Landless Theatre Company unprecedented permission to create a Prog Metal orchestration of Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The...

Recipients of 47 Helen Hayes Awards to Be Announced Tonight at The Lincoln Theatre Beginning at 8 PM. Here Are the Nominees

The 2015 Helen Hayes Awards recipients will be unveiled tonight beginning at 8 PM at The Lincoln Theatre. This is the first time that the new Awards Process will be effect, and there are 47 categories...

‘Being Leonardo da Vinci (An Impossible Interview)’ at The Kennedy Center

Italian director and actor Massimiliano Finazzer Flory brought his latest project, Being Leonardo da Vinci (An Impossible Interview), to The Kennedy Center on April 2, 2015, for a single engagement....

Spine: ‘The Margins’ at Molotov Theatre Group by Robert Michael Oliver

David Skeele’s The Margins opened this Saturday at Adams Morgan’s DCAC with its own brand of intimate terror. Take the small theatre — and I mean 45-person tiny; put 4 psychics around a table; throw...

‘The Margins’ at Molotov Theatre Group by John Stoltenberg

There be eerie goings-on inside the DC Arts Center black box where Molotov Theatre Group is staging a spell-binder of a show about a psychic experiment to create a ghost by occultish committee....

DCMTA Scene Stealers-Week Ending March 31, 2015 Part 2

Here is Part 2 of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Scene Stealers ending March 31, 2015. Congrats to our honorees! ______ Charles Edwards as Charles in a Ghostly Encounter he National Theatre “Not even Angela...

Magic Time! ‘Lights Rise on Grace’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by John Stoltenberg

Now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a depiction of eroticism so intimate and artful that it left me woozy with awe and wonder. No one takes their clothes off. There are no phony porny...

‘Lights Rise on Grace’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by Robert Michael Oliver

Lights Rise on Grace, the world premiere by Chad Beckim, now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, has all the elements of a compelling drama. The play takes us into the dynamics of an intricate set of...

‘The Nemo Effect and Music for Grand Guignol Theatre: Horror, Horror Everywhere’ by Gregory Thomas Martin

Horror is one of my favorite genres to compose music for. It is always an exciting challenge to compose something that the audience not only has certain expectations for, but also is still something...

Author Gretchen Rubin at Sixth and I Synagogue on Her New Book ‘Better than Before’

Gretchen Rubin is on a mission to change people’s lives for the better. Her insight for learning and curiosity is benefiting millions. One day she realized her life was passing her by and she didn’t...

Ari Roth’s Mosaic Theater Company Takes Off: Serge Seiden, Jennifer Nelson, Lorna Mulvaney, and T. Chase Meacham Join the Mosaic Theater Team

MOSAIC THEATER COMPANY OF DC TAKES GIANT STRIDES ON PATH FROM VISION TO LAUNCH Key financial support and acclaimed leadership team of Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth and Producing Director Serge...

DCMTA Scene Stealers-Week Ending March 31, 2015 Part 1

Here is Part 1 of our favorite ‘Scene Stealers’ in March 2015. Congrats to our honorees! ______ Alex Alburqueque, as Leporello, in Don Giovanni at The In Series singing “Lovely Lady” “Don Giovanni...

‘In the Moment’ An Interview with Choreographers Erica Rebollar and Helanius J. Wilkins on ‘Everything for the First Time’ at Atlas on 4/11 at 8 PM

The artistry and craft of two masterful choreographers are coming together for a stimulating, one night only performance at the Atlas Performing Arts Center with the tantalizing title, Everything for...

‘Slow Falling Bird’ at Georgetown University

The final production of the 2014-2015 Georgetown University Theatre season is Slow Falling Bird, as part of the 2014-15 Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program’s “Where We’re From:...

‘Don’t Die in the Dark’ Plays April 11-26th at Studio 1469 in Columbia Heights by Joe Brack

History lessons typically share the tale of the victor. Perhaps, the wrong side has a lesson as well. This new play is a glimpse into the wrong side of Our Great Emancipation. During America’s civil...

Directing Molotov’s ‘The Margins’ – The Rules (?) of the Ghost Story by Carl Brandt Long

I’ve wanted to direct a thriller for years, so I jumped at the chance to direct Molotov Theatre Group’s upcoming production of The Margins by David Skeele (opening April 2 at DCAC in Adams Morgan; for...

Interview with Musician and Contestant on ‘The Voice’ Jack Gregori

DC based musician Jack Gregori is a self-described “singer-songwriter, guitar picker, and the creator of Human Country Jukebox” whose music focuses on “rabble-rousing outlaw country bands from the...

Magic Time! ‘The Norwegians’ (‘Da Norvegians’) at Scena Theatre by a Norvegian

So dere’s dis play goin’ on in town called Da Norvegians, and it’s set in Minneapolis and it’s got Norvegian characters in it, so I tought I should go check it out, on accounta I vas born dere and...

Post-Play Palaver: A Passionate Response to Forum Theatre’s ‘Passion Play’ by Michael Poandl and John Stoltenberg

After Michael Poandl and John Stoltenberg, both DCMTA writers, saw a recent performance of Passion Play at Forum Theatre, they found themselves chattering back and forth trying to figure out why the...

‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ With The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center

For more than 30 years, the music of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg has uplifted, inspired, and invoked passion in audiences and artists alike. Under the baton of conductor Steven Reineke,...

Barbara Cook Spotlight Series: ‘Malcolm Gets: Come A Little Closer’ at The Kennedy Center

Malcolm Gets is one of the most underrated stars in musical theater today. Fortunately, he got a well-deserved chance to display his exceptional talents during his solo cabaret show, Come a Little...

Cassandra Wilson-Coming Forth by Day: A Tribute to Billie Holiday at The Kennedy Center

The legacy of the brilliant and iconic jazz legend, Billie Holiday, coupled with the cool, classic styling of the very contemporary and experimentally-inclined jazz artistry of Cassandra Wilson fused...

‘Cinderella’ at American Ballet Theatre at The Kennedy Center

Just as the cherry blossoms come out, pure romance is in the air with Cinderella at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is performing this three-act ballet...

‘Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead’ at The George Washington University

You’d be hard pressed to find a better theatrical catharsis for high school angst than Dog Sees God, Bert V. Royal’s funny/poignant reimagining of characters from the Peanuts comic strip playing this...

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Announces Its 2015-2016 Season by Justin McCarthy

WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES 2015-2016 SEASON ACCLAIMED NEW PLAYS, WORLD PREMIERE CHALLENGE CONCEPTS OF BEAUTY, POWER, AND DESIRE Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is pleased to announce its...

‘G-d’s Honest Truth’ at Theater J

Illusions and dreams are often enough the stuff needed to help us keep on truckin’ through life. Certainly Prospero in The Tempest and Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon suggested it was so. But, neither...

‘Man of La Mancha’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

“Too much sanity is madness!” This counterintuitive declaration is made by Don Quixote, the iconic lead character in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current production of Man of La Mancha. Portrayed...

‘Passion Play’ at Forum Theatre

During the Roman times, theatre was a savage sport: need a crucifixion, grab a slave. During the Dark Ages, theatre disappeared under the cloak of Catholicism: better to have no fun, if having fun...

‘Hexagon 2015: The Spoof, the Whole Spoof, and Nothing but the Spoof!’ at Woodrow Wilson High School Auditorium

If fast-paced apps, tweets, and glowing screens have your eyes abnormally a-glaze (yes, millennials, you can admit this, too) trade Facebook for good-feeling farce and be sure to pop over to Hexagon’s...

‘Five Years of Monologue Madness: Reflections from Former Competitors’ By Rachael Murray

Monologue Madness—the DC acting competition modeled after college basketball’s March Madness—is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. Local actor Edward Daniels started the event in 2011. He...

Interview with DC-Area Musician Paul Pfau and Contestant on ‘The Voice’

I’ve seen Paul Pfau play locally at Gypsy Sally’s and with The Nine Songwriter Series with Justin Trawick. He is a well-respected musician in the DC area. In 2011, Paul was nominated Best New Artist...

‘Ode Maritima’ at The Iberian Suite Festival at The Kennedy Center

Lovers of poetry! Lovers of the long line! From his deck on The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre, Diogo Infante calls, “Ahoy!” And the spirit of Alvaro de Campos, aka Fernando Pessoa, rises from an...

‘Rigoletto’ at The Catholic University’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

The Catholic University of America, Benjamin T. Rome School of Music had its opening night of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto this past Thursday night at the Hartke Theatre, in a wonderful showcase...

‘The Winter’s Tale’ at HalfMad Theatre

Just a couple of blocks north of the now bustling H-Steet corridor in Northeast Washington, tucked away on Florida Avenue, you’ll find one of Capital Fringe’s newest venues: The Trinidad Theatre. If...

In The Moment: ‘The Originalist’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater

Arena’s resident playwright John Strand has developed an affectionate, quite delightfully complex, fictionalized account about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Strand’s The Originalist has plenty...

‘The Norwegians’ at Scena Theatre

Norway is one of those small, gentle countries that we may not think of too often. In its Scandinavian quiescence, it hums along with its cold weather and sterling social services. But in C. Denby...

‘The Originalist’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater

Over 2500 years ago, Aristophanes put “living” contemporary power-brokers into his comic masterpieces and then skewered them with their own foibles. The results were scandalous and provocative. Then...

Mahler’s Ninth with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center

If you choose to let it, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 can scare you to death. Or you can let its vast scope and its ethereal beginning and ending that sandwiches raucous and even sarcastic episodes...

‘MindFluctuations’ at Maida Withers Dance Construction Company

Last night, on Thursday, March 19, 2015, at Lisner Auditorium, Maida Rust Withers, artists from Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (MWDCCo), and Composer/Musicians John Driscoll and Steven C....

‘Blithe Spirit’ at The National Theatre

No matter how low your spirits these days, Angela Lansbury will raise them. That’s the professional promise now drawing people into Washington, D.C. from all over the Mid-Atlantic region to catch one...

‘Freedom’s Song: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War’ at Ford’s Theatre

With a glorious mélange of words and music, Freedom’s Song: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War tells the story of America’s struggle to keep our nation together and abolish the wretched and cruel...

An Interview with Charlotte Parry of ‘Blithe Spirit’ at The National Theatre

When did you first get the ‘theatre bug’ and what are some of your earliest experiences and memories of appearing on the stage? Any favorites? I’d always been the entertainer of the family as a little...

Nibbles And Sips Around Town: Tonight: Goût de/Good France! Chooses DC Chef Franck Loquet for Grand Gastronomic Dinner

Goût de/Good France! Chooses DC Chef Franck Loquet for Grand Gastronomic Dinner Tonight – Thursday, March 19, 2015 – 1300 chefs from around the world will express their love of French cuisine by...

An Interview with Melissa Woodbridge of ‘Blithe Spirit’ at The National Theatre

When did you first get the ‘theatre bug’ and what are some of your earliest experiences and memories of appearing on the stage? Any favorites? As a kid with a loud voice I was often the narrator in...

‘Laugh’ at The Studio Theatre

To be sure, name a play Laugh and the gauntlet is thrown. Laugh or die trying. The Studio Theatre’s world premiere production of Beth Henley’s new play, based on the antics of silent films from the...

Nathan Blair: Preparing to Conduct ‘Rigoletto’ on Saturday, March 21st at Catholic University’s Hartke Theatre

Nathan Blair is a young conductor who is about to take the podium to conduct The Catholic University’s upcoming production of Rigoletto. He is an amazing talent, and you can see him conduct Verdi’s...