Washington DC

Reston Community Players delivers a powerful ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’

There are some pieces of theater that elicit such raw emotion that describing the experience properly is next to impossible. Reston Community Players’ production of The Diary of Anne Frank, newly...

‘Moonlight and Magnolias’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria blends comic antics and human drama

Hollywood, 1939. The production of Gone with the Wind — arguably the most eagerly anticipated movie of the decade — is in chaos. Producer David O. Selznick (Griffin Voltmann) has just fired the...

Theater Alliance’s heartrending ‘This Bitter Earth’ portrays two gay men in loving color

A poetic and politically charged same-gender-loving love story, This Bitter Earth by Harrison David Rivers—now playing in a powerfully moving production at Theater Alliance—strips bare the hearts,...

Annapolis Symphony Orchestra explores connections between past and present

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s continuing Masterworks Series, as part of this season’s celebration of Beethoven’s two hundred fiftieth birthday, takes the theme, “Beethoven Discovers America,” in...

All under one roof in Signature Theatre’s ‘Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes’

Marian’s cheery Florida home – an over-decorated retirement nest she shares with second hubby Richard – has become a tropical haven for two adolescents in crisis. Richard’s pregnant niece Kitty, whose...

Opera Lafayette debuts sophisticated recreation of Beethoven’s ‘Leonore (1805)’

Thanks in part to the bold addition of a missing tenor aria, Opera Lafayette’s elegant production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore (1805), last night at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater,...

Taffety Punk’s ‘suicide.chat.room’: A unique, haunting, and compelling dance play

Highly recommended. An unsettling dance play. The phrase “sorry you’re here” takes on new meaning. It is not typical for me to write “highly recommended” at the top of an article. However, Taffety...

Beyond the script: fine-tuning farce in ‘The 39 Steps’ at Constellation

“I’ve never laughed so hard in rehearsal,” said Nick Olcott, describing some of the antics performed by a tiny but talented cast — four actors in 48 roles — in the wickedly funny send-up of Alfred...

‘Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth’ returns to Imagination Stage

Imagination Stage brings back its Helen Hayes nominated show, Zomo the Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth, written by Psalmayene 24. With the title character, Zomo, inspired by a Nigerian folktale, the...

Shakespeare Theatre stages a stunning ‘Timon of Athens’ for modern audiences

Among Shakespeare’s plays are a special few whose relevance waxes and wanes with the times. They disappear from the stage for years, only to re-emerge when they are ready to speak to our issues, our...

A formidable production of ‘The Wanderers’ at Theater J

“Isn’t it OK to sometimes be selfish?” asks a character in Anna Ziegler’s cunningly devised The Wanderers. With Amber McGinnis’ discerning, sympathetic direction, Theater J’s production provides...

Pianist Aaron Diehl cross-cuts jazz styles with a dive into their baroque and classical roots

The easiest thing for many highly qualified, especially classically trained, musicians to try to do is to cross genres in an effort to be relevant to the cultural world of 2020. Demonstrably harder to...

Actress Tai Alexander and director Angelisa Gillyard provide insight into reprise performance of ‘Welcome to Sis’s’ by Ally Theatre Company

In an effort to illuminate the historic and ongoing impacts of racial discrimination in land and property use laws in Hyattsville, MD, Mapping Racism Project, an initiative led by the Hyattsville...

A sexless sex comedy in ‘No Sex Please, We’re British’ at Kensington Arts Theatre

Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott’s farce No Sex Please, We’re British premiered in London’s West End in 1971. It was unanimously panned by critics, although it played to full houses until 1987 at...

‘Ordinary Days’ at NextStop Theatre: Ah, to be young and tuneful in New York City

Adam Gwon’s 2009 show Ordinary Days could serve as the prototypical Off-Broadway chamber musical: four young characters navigate the Big City in search of their lives, in 19 songs over 80 minutes. The...

Caught between worlds in ‘Kill Move Paradise’

Don’t let those off-putting promos for Kill Move Paradise at Rep Stage stop you from turning out for its solid regional premiere at Howard Community College. This 2016 piece of theater is less a...

Nu Sass’s world premiere of ‘Weep’ is an arresting, unflinching peek into complicated lives

Trigger warning. Nu Sass’s world premiere of Weep is an arresting, unflinching peek into complicated lives with emotionally charged scenes and character collisions. It is a slowly building...

Walt Whitman’s vivid accounts of the Civil War come to life in ‘Leaves of America’

Chris Dwyer uses Walt Whitman’s poetry and his many hospital visits to bring vivid accounts of the Civil War to life in Leaves of America: Walt Whitman’s Stories of the Civil War. Whitman fans be...

Colonial Players of Annapolis stages a powerfully ambitious ‘Book of Days’

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Book of Days is powerfully ambitious. Lanford Wilson’s 2000 play follows the lives of several residents of the small town of Dublin, Missouri, over a...

Actor Mikéah Jennings unpacks his powerful performance in ‘Shipwreck’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

Anne Washburn’s Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017 is an epic, scorching, and surreal satire of white liberalism in the era of Trump. It takes place at that ominous juncture in recent American...

‘Perfect Arrangement’: Silver Spring Stage explores perfect present, future dreams

Recipe for a Perfect Evening: Take heaping cups of American mid-century corn (straight from the pages of Good Housekeeping), place it in a beautifully crafted Dutch Oven (from the pages of the...

Victorian Lyric Opera’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’ elicits laughter, delight

There’s no doubt that The Pirates of Penzance is one of the most beloved of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works. Like most Gilbert and Sullivan tales, it takes clever jabs at the politics of its time while...

NSO: Noseda’s homecoming mints the ‘NSO sound’ in spectacular Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

Even though being a classical music reviewer often feels like a gig too good to be true, I don’t recall ever forgetting my purpose for attending a performance. There’s a first for everything, however,...

Creative Cauldron successfully “finishes the hat” in ‘Crowns’

“Hats reveal and they conceal,” Crowns playwright Regina Taylor states in an interview. Crowns is derived from a book of photographs and stories of African American women, compiled by journalist Craig...

Better Said Than Done’s Women’s Storytelling Festival: giving voice to women storytellers for all to hear

Who Tells Our Story is the theme of Better Said Than Done’s upcoming, first-of-its-kind, two-day Women’s Storytelling Festival. Audiences can expect stories that have been crafted for a solo spoken...

James Baldwin’s ‘Amen Corner’ bears witness to the Beloved Community

Corners can be safe spaces for hiding. There’s comfort in corners because they’re out of sight and out of danger. In The Amen Corner, James Baldwin’s dilemma is whether to embrace the inner life of...

The room where it happens: ‘Henry IV, Part 2’ at Brave Spirits Theatre

The HBO hit Succession centers around a wealthy media family reportedly based on the Rupert Murdoch dynasty. Its central dilemma: who will succeed the ruthless Logan Roy as the head of his...

West-Eastern Divan Ensemble’s first American tour features Kennedy Center performance

The world is so full of intractable political and cultural issues, with deep chasms making understanding, let alone peace, seem so far away. But the venerable Washington Performing Arts (WPA)...

Arena Stage announces 2020-21 season

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie have announced the theater’s ten-show 2020/21 Season. This season, more than half of the playwrights and directors are...

Despite killer performances, ‘Shipwreck’s’ political message falters

Shipwreck: A History Play About 2017, the new play by Anne Washburn in its US premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, summons the dread and dysphoria of primarily white liberals following the 2016...

Natsu Onoda Power’s adaptation of ‘Thumbelina’ captivates audiences of all ages at Imagination Stage

By Kelly Hanson Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina, a beloved fairy tale about a tiny girl searching for a place to belong, has been captivating children for hundreds of years. Though this story has...

‘The 39 Steps’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company is a delightful evening of laughter

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of The 39 Steps is a hilarious send-up of Alfred Hitchcock movies. Adapted by Patrick Barlow in 2005 and based on John Buchan’s 1915 adventure novel and...

‘Cinderella’ (La Cenerentola): Well-sung Rossini at Virginia Opera

Spoiler alert: Cinderella and the Prince live happily ever after. Of course, since Virginia Opera, like all opera companies of any size, prints a detailed synopsis in the program each patron receives,...

In ‘Boy’ at Keegan Theatre, the anguish of a gender experiment gone wrong

“Oh, god. Maybe it didn’t work,” the mother exclaims in alarm. It’s the moment in this hold-your-breath drama when she realizes the gender experiment done on her child, one of two identical twins born...

Megan Hilty and Cheyenne Jackson in NSO Pops: Broadway and Beyond at the Kennedy Center

If your ideal Valentine’s date is cheerful, charming, and looks fantastic in formal wear, then get thee to the Kennedy Center to spend an evening with Megan Hilty and Cheyenne Jackson. The Broadway,...

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s ‘Mother Road’ brings powerful journey to Arena Stage

William Joad is a proud Oklahoma farmer with roots to the land as old and deep as the fields his family has tended for generations. But after decades of dedication, dust and sweat poured into the...

‘The Boy Detective Fails’ is a charming success at American University

“I’m good at finding out the truth,” says Billy Argo (Spencer Coben), the boy-prodigy detective, near the beginning of this clever, quirky, and quite touching musical. So observant of clues is Billy...

A fascinating rendering of ‘The King’s Speech’ at the National Theatre

Given that so many plays and films these days are based on, drawn from or inspired by each other, it is worth examining the differences between these media and the treatments they require. The King’s...

The New Orchestra of Washington presents a love so powerful it hurts in ‘A Poet’s Love: It’s Complicated’

While much of the city is abuzz with romantic romping this Valentine’s Day weekend, the New Orchestra of Washington will concern itself with the transformative power of love and loss when it presents...

‘Heroine’ at The Kennedy Center tells the searing true story of a woman’s rape in the U.S. Army

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Theater Arts writers who saw the same performance, got really into talking about it, and decided to continue their exchange in...

The power of romantic love endures in American Ballet Theatre’s ‘Giselle’

After almost two centuries of gracing the ballet world, American Ballet Theatre’s Giselle, sometimes called the Hamlet of ballet, still has the redemptive power to transform a story of deception and...

DC theater community mourns passing of Victor Shargai

Update: February 13, 2020: The Washington theatre community remains in mourning over the loss of Victor Shargai, long-time theatreWashington board chair, theater lover, and philanthropist, who passed...

Monumental Theatre Company Presents Regional Premiere of ‘Head Over Heels’

Head Over Heels, a jukebox musical comedy featuring music by The Go-Go’s, will launch its first D.C. metro area production opening Monumental Theater Company’s 2020 season. With a book by James...

Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz discusses his new play ‘Exquisite Agony,’ now playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre

In a particularly poignant scene in Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz’s Exquisite Agony, a heart transplant recipient named Amer has an intimate conversation with Romy, the pregnant daughter...

‘The 39 Steps’ at Constellation: a walk on the hilarious side

For an evening of dry wit and sophisticated, subtle humor, make your way…Oh forget it. Just come to Constellation Theatre’s The 39 Steps for a couple hours of cheesy lines, old situations, new...

Megan Hilty on her upcoming Kennedy Center concert, ‘Smash,’ and love

Football and musicals rarely overlap, but it was eight years ago this month – in the coveted slot right after the 2012 Super Bowl – that Smash, the NBC series about developing a Broadway musical,...

Synetic Theater delivers visually stunning, ballet-driven adaptation of ‘Phantom of the Opera’

As Synetic Theater races through its rowdy teenage years (not quite 20, yet), they have earned a reputation for finely-honed narrative dance, brilliant original music, and spectacular visual effects....

Women wow in all-female production of ‘A Doll House’ at the University of Maryland

Director Kathryn Chase Bryer’s bold staging of A Doll House—beginning with the alternative translation of the traditional title of this classic by Henrik Ibsen—transforms a 19th-century firebrand of a...

‘Exquisita Agonía’ at GALA examines two families connected by one heart

Playwright Nilo Cruz labels his latest work, Exquisita Agonía, a “family drama.” Actually, the show that is currently playing at GALA Theatre is two family dramas that converge. The first family...

Pianist Ahmad Jamal celebrates seven decades of playing ‘American Classical Music’ in Kennedy Center performance

Nothing speaks louder about a musician’s accomplishments than receiving a standing ovation and cheers from the audience before he plays a single note. NEA Jazz Master and recipient of the Officer de...