Washington DC

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ’52 Pickup’

So here’s the deal: the card game 52 Pickup is, technically, not a game so much as it is a mess. You grab a deck of cards, say “52 pickup!” and scatter the cards every which way. Sometimes it’s in...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘CRAPSHOOT!’

It turns out Al Stone (Todd Blakesley) is that guy – the one who admits to voting for Donald Trump in 2016. His participation in the democratic experiment turns his life upside down. Stone lives in an...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Amelia’

By Rebecca Kurtz There is a lot to love about historical fiction, and writer/director Robert McNamara chose a good branch of history with the beautifully open-ended story of Amelia Earhart’s...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Body.’

If you’re not familiar with devised theater, it’s when an ensemble collaborates on the script, movement, and even score of the production, often through improvisation and storytelling. If you’ve never...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dust’

Don’t believe your program! Dust is not, in fact, a collection of surreal daydreams to trip your imagination. It is a thought-provoking drama worthy of your attention. It’s the end of the world as we...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Soul Redeemer’

The road to redemption can be an arduous one, especially when you’ve burned so many bridges in the past. LA TI DO Productions’ Soul Redeemer, with a book by Paul Handy, music and lyrics by Neal...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Neverlanding’

Years after Wendy’s tales of lost boys, pirates, and mermaids, Michael Darling is grounded and committed to a hospital when his brother, John, finds him on the roof. In the world premiere of...

2019 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Journey to Long Nose’

By Helen Ganley Labeling the DNA sample bottle and depositing it gingerly into the mail slot feels almost like a rite of passage for many Americans. The masses of inhabitants that bask under Lady...

Magic Time!: Why ‘A People’s History’ Is “Painful”: A Q&A With Mike Daisey

John: Before you brought A People’s History to DC, you performed all 18 parts three times—once through in Minneapolis and twice through in Seattle. I can imagine people could be picking and choosing...

Interview: Alec Wild, Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy for Classical Acting at the George Washington University

Soft, behold! This summer DC offers first-rate Shakespeare everyone can enjoy. The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting (ACA) at the George Washington University, starting in...

Review: ‘Vivian’s Music 1969’ at The Essential Theatre

It was 50 years ago. Lost deep in the pages of the June 26, 1969 edition of The New York Times was this, “Firebombings, rock throwing and rifle shots marked a third straight night of racial violence...

Review: ‘Support Group for Men’ by Ellen Fairey at Contemporary American Theater Festival

Given the seemingly endless parade of creeps and pervs we see in the news every day, it might seem surprising that a woman would write a sympathetic play about guys. The kind who think of themselves...

Review: ‘A Welcome Guest: A Psychotic Fairy Tale’ by Michael Weller at Contemporary American Theater Festival

Eat your heart out, Christmas Carol. Hang up your dancing shoes, Nutcracker. Change the channel on reruns of It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s Christmas in July in Shepherdstown, as the Contemporary...

Review: ‘Antonio’s Song/I Was Dreaming of a Son’ by Dael Orlandersmith and Antonio Edwards Suarez at Contemporary American Theater Festival

The Antonio in question is Antonio Edwards Suarez, the writer (with Dael Orlandersmith) and actor in this one-man autobiographical piece, part of the Contemporary American Theater Festival in...

Review: Josh Groban at Wolf Trap

Josh Groban seems to have hit his stride with his latest album Bridges. Uplifting melodies and covers of pop standards have created another recording that is more than worthy of the experience he...

Review: ‘My Lord, What a Night’ by Deborah Brevoort at Contemporary American Theater Festival

My Lord, What a Night, a new play by Deborah Brevoort at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, explores the relationship between two 20th-century greats in very...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ by Sandy Spring Theatre Group

Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013, is a comedy about neurotic, middle-aged, well-off white people whining about their lives. In...

Review: ‘Wrecked’ by Greg Kalleres at Contemporary American Theater Festival

Ah, the perfect relationship – not yours, of course, never yours. I’m talking about the one that other couple has; you know who I’m talking about, they’re always such great fun, always quick with a...

Review: ‘Chester Bailey’ by Joseph Dougherty at Contemporary American Theater Festival

One of the true gems at this July’s Contemporary American Theatre Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia is the East Coast premiere of Joseph Dougherty’s battle of heart and wit, Chester...

Review: ‘Hairspray’ by Rockville Musical Theatre

Rockville Musical Theatre’s Hairspray is musical dynamite. The winning trio of Director T.J. Lukacsina, Musical Director Marci Shegogue, and Choreographer Rikki Lacewell make this show ovation worthy....

Review: ‘Never Thought I was Black Till I Came to America’ (DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival)

The joyful spirit of Kenyan actress and storyteller, Anna Mwalagho filled the black box theater at Anacostia Arts Center as she performed her one-woman Black woman’s rites of passage message play,...

Summer Festival Season Begins at the American Shakespeare Center

The American Shakespeare Center is promising audiences a Roman adventure this summer with their Festival Season. The season opens with Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra....

Mark G. Meadows Wants To Change the World

In 2016, after the presidential election that put Donald Trump in the White House, musician Mark Meadows felt lost. He believed that his voice, and the voices of other artists “weren’t heard and...

Mara Bayewitz On Playing ‘Dolley Madison, Presidentress’

How does an actor prepare to embody of of the United States’ most famous first ladies? We spoke to Mara Bayewitz about her upcoming solo turn as Dolley Madison playing at Best Medicine Rep one weekend...

Review: ‘The Negroes Are Congregating’ (DC Black Theatre & Film Festival)

Midway through this fast, furious, in-your-face poetic explosive about anti-black racism, one of the three cast members stops the action and says: “I’m sorry, I’m trying to keep up the pace with this...

Review: ‘Matilda’ at Olney Theatre Center

A young hero in her own story who redeems the lives of others around her, the title character in the musical adaptation by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin of Roald Dahl’s novel Matilda uses her...

Review: ‘The Heroes’ Tale’ (DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival)

This power plant of a play knocked me out two years ago during the Capital Fringe Festival and knocked me out all over again in the DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival. The Heroes’ Tale debuted in 2011,...

Review: ‘Land of Promiscuity’ by Soul-Satisfying Productions at DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival

Family history, like any history, has a tendency to repeat itself. Filled with pathos, generational curses, and touches of humor, Land of Promiscuity, directed by LaRay McDaniel and written by...

Review: ‘Intimate Apparel’ at Silver Spring Stage

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage is a bittersweet and brilliantly acted dramedy at Silver Spring Stage, featuring insightful direction from Seth Ghitelman for this period piece with a modern message...

Magic Time!: ‘The Boy from Troy’ (DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival)

One looks for hope where one can find it. And sometimes hope pops up on its own, unexpected. That kind of hope, not sought out, can catch in one’s throat, can even move one to tears. Such was what...

Review: ‘Songs for A New World’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s production of Songs for A New World is something different. Jason Robert Brown’s first musical, which appeared in 1995, has been described as a “song cycle,” a series...

Review: ‘Macbeth’ by Britches and Hose Theatre Company

By Katie Crabb Something wicked this way comes in Britches and Hose Theatre Company’s gender-blind version of Macbeth, which breathes new life into one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. The classic...

Review: ‘L’homme Cirque: The One-Man Circus’ at Strathmore

Glory days of diminutive touring tent circuses visiting small towns return with David Dimitri and his L’homme Cirque: The One-Man Circus, currently at Strathmore. In a cozy tent set up on the...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Oversees Unanimous Jury Decision About Ancient Greek Crime

On June 24, 2019, the Shakespeare Theatre Company presented its summer Mock Trial at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW). Guests were invited to hear the appellate case Murder in Mycenae: Did Electra...

Review: ‘Blackbeard’ at Signature Theatre

I have no idea who the “real” Blackbeard might have been. But I raise a cup (and maybe a cutlass) to Signature Theatre’s epic, cheeky vision of the dude and his derring-do. Envisioned by Signature...

Dangereuse: Brecht and the History Behind ‘The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) left Berlin in February 1933, the day after the Reichstag fire, an attack on the home of the German Parliament. President Paul von Hindenberg had named Hitler Chancellor on...

4615 Theatre Company Announces 2019/20 Season

4615 Theatre is proud to announce a sprawling, form-breaking new season of theatre, designed to thrill and challenge artists and audiences alike. The rapidly emerging company has garnered a reputation...

Review: Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Douglas’ at the Kennedy Center

You know that Hannah Gadsby’s new show, Douglas is different from anything you’ve seen before, even before you enter the theatre, when the ushers inform you that your cell phone must be placed inside...

Review: ‘The Cat in the Hat’ at Adventure Theatre

To transmogrify Seuss, What a difficult task! Just how do they do it? And well might you ask! This master of mayhem Who leaps from the page, How could he be possibly Put on the stage? In drawings and...

Magic Time!: The Mind-Blowing Stagecraft in ‘Twisted Melodies’ at Mosaic Theater

Twisted Melodies is a spectacular finish to Mosaic’s fourth season. Written by and starring Kelvin Roston, Jr., the show sweeps us into Donny Hathaway’s world of magnificent music-making and mental...

Review:  The Second City’s ‘America; It’s Complicated!’ at the Kennedy Center

There’s not much to laugh at in politics today. Nor is it easy to make fun of diversity, gender, Putin, or Pepsi. But that doesn’t prevent the team of talented comedians at Second City – now in their...

A New Home For Soulful Symphony at Merriweather Post Pavilion

Top-rated Columbia amphitheater Merriweather Post Pavilion has forged a new partnership with Maryland’s Soulful Symphony, a visionary orchestra that celebrates, elevates, and reimagines American music...

Review: ‘Twisted Melodies’ at Mosaic Theater Company

A foreboding, wide-open hotel window overlooking the Manhattan night skyline beckons you to enter the tender interior space of ’70s soul singer, composer and recording artist, Donny Hathaway. Twisted...

Review: ‘Baldwin’s N*gger’ (DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival)

With the recent release of I Am Not Your Negro and If Beale Street Could Talk, the eminent writer James Baldwin received significant cinematic attention. This has been followed in DC by two...

Playwright Sam Hamashima and Director Kathryn Chase Bryer Discuss Hub Theatre’s ‘American Spies’

Once again Fairfax’s Hub Theatre will be introducing a new playwright, and a new play that highlights America’s common humanity, to a wider DMV audience. This time the playwright is Sam Hamashima and...

‘A People’s History’ at Capital Fringe Will Rock Your Worldview

I remember being so bored by my high school American history class that I got a D in it. This was not normal. My report cards always had A’s and B’s. So the kindly elderly woman who taught the course,...

Review: Happenstance Theatre Goes Greek with ‘Pantheon’

They’re at it again. The Happenstance Gang: troublemakers, every stinking one of ‘em. And this time, they’re going Greek. Mythologically speaking, that is. Nix on the keggers and beer pong, their...

Review: ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ at Studio Theatre

When Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe planned to tackle the subject of depression, they decided to avoid more familiar approaches: plays about self-destructive superstars who are too far removed...

Arena Stage To Host 11-Hour Marathon Reading of the Mueller Report, Volume II, July 11, 2019

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in association with activist and actress Jjana Valentiner, will hold a public, nonpartisan 11-hour marathon reading of Special Counsel Robert...

Dressed To Plunder, and Maybe Kill: Costuming Signature’s ‘Blackbeard’

When the actor playing Blackbeard first appears on stage at the Signature Theatre in the new musical bearing his name, smoke literally curls out of his matted black hair. It’s a terrifying look and...