Washington DC

Review: ‘The Oresteia’ by Shakespeare Theatre Company

To theater historians, dramaturgs, and lovers of all things Greek, the promise of a production of Aeschylus’ The Oresteia is enough to drive one mad with joy. To begin with, of all the Greek plays...

Compass Rose Theater Benefit Performances of ‘Love Letters’

Love Letters, A. R. Gurney’s two-character play chronicling the tumultuous lifelong friendship between a couple who never marry will be performed May 31 and June 2 as a special benefit for Annapolis’...

Review: ‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ at Folger Theatre

Ready for teasing mockery and romantic conflict that crosses economic classes and genders with an added dash of some re-imagined blurred lines? Then step up to the wit and words of William...

Review: ‘P.S. Your Cat is Dead!’ by Dominion Stage

P.S. Your Cat is Dead!, written by James Kirkwood, Jr. and directed by Michael Page, is a great look at different manifestations of schadenfreude (pleasure derived by someone from another person’s...

Constellation Theatre Company Announces 2019-2020 Season

Constellation Theatre Company, led by Founding Artistic Director Allison Arkell Stockman and Managing Director A.J. Guban, is thrilled to announce its thirteenth season of epic, larger-than-life...

Review: ‘The Honey Trap’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

The Honey Trap, a World Premiere at Greenbelt Arts Center, clearly has the best set I’ve seen in years: a mixture of ’50s kitsch, photos of ’50s-era entertainers, a record player console, plush-period...

Helen Hayes Tribute Recognizes Jennifer L. Nelson as a DC Theater Trailblazer

Actors, by definition, play all sorts of roles. But for Jennifer L. Nelson—a theater veteran who’s been working on stage and off ever since she landed in DC at the age of 22—the multi-tasking involves...

Review: ‘The Children’ at Studio Theatre

Three retired nuclear physicists meet in a quaint cottage not far from the nuclear power plant where they once worked and where a catastrophe has occurred. Earthquake, tsunami, tidal wave,...

Review: ‘Treasure Island’ by We Happy Few Productions

By Andy Arnold Ahoy Washington landlubbers! Prepare to set sail on the Hispaniola with Jim Hawkins (Alex Turner), Long John Silver (Wyckham Avery) and the Treasure Island crew: if you dare. Robert...

Review: ‘Strathmore Annual Spring Gala’ featuring Matthew Morrison and Shoshana Bean

Though it was storming outside, the stars shone brightly inside for Strathmore’s Annual Spring Gala Saturday night. Raising funds for the educational and artistic programs that impact over 30,000...

Review: National Chamber Ensemble performs ‘The Contemporaries’

By Ross Heath Arlington’s Gunston Arts Center was the place to be on Saturday night. Always a joy to hear the National Chamber Ensemble which delivered joy with its season finale concert of...

Ally Theatre Company Earns the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company (Interview)

Ally Theatre Company will receive the 2019 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company at the 35th Annual Helen Hayes Awards. At its core mission, Ally Theatre Company is committed to...

Interview: It’s Been a ‘Monumental’ Year for This DC Theater Company

In 2018 Monumental Theatre Company was the recipient of the prestigious theatreWashington John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company. The Aniello Award aims to give public recognition...

‘The Oresteia’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company: Not Your Typical Chorus Line (Interview)

The Oresteia, freely adapted by Ellen McLaughlin from Aeschylus (c. 525 BCE-c. 456 BCE) promises to be a fitting conclusion to Michael Kahn’s last season as Artistic Director of the Shakespeare...

‘Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead’ by Wolf Pack Theatre Company

What happened to the characters in Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang when they entered adulthood? We find out in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, written by Bert V. Royal and...

Review: ‘The 39 Steps’ at Rep Stage Co.

For Rep Stage Co.’s The 39 Steps, disaster is never more than one step away. With only four actors re-enacting an entire vintage spy movie right before our eyes and assuming some 140 different...

Avant Bard Announces Full Cast and Creative Team for ‘A Misanthrope’

Avant Bard Theatre announces the full cast and creative team for its season finale, A Misanthrope, a world premiere adaptation of Molière’s The Misanthrope by Manhattan-based playwright Matt...

Review: ‘Rooming House’ by Lucky Plush Productions at the Kennedy Center

Lucky Plush Productions is a dance/theater company currently performing at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. But this is no conventional company. Compared to dance troupes, they are at the...

Review: ‘Under(world): The Lost and the Found’ by TBD Immersive

TBD Immersive presents their new adventure, Under(world): The Lost & The Found, in Dupont Circle. The Dupont Underground has been transformed into a series of settings representing the inter-crossings...

Review: ‘Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven’ by Rorschach Theatre

There are two things every teenager knows are true: you can’t choose your parents and you can’t choose the jerks you go to school with. Such is life for Annie Jump in small-town Strawberry, Kansas....

Theater and Policy Salon To Host Conversation with Alliance for New Music-Theatre This Saturday

The post-show Salon conversation, in partnership with the Alliance for New Music-Theatre, will take place on Saturday, May 4, at the Spooky Action Theater space at the Universalist National Memorial...

Magic Time!: ‘Oslo’ by Round House Theatre

It is rare that theater seriously asks us to believe something far beyond itself. Typically we are asked to suspend disbelief about let’s-pretend that happens on stage. The gripping and inspiring play...

Improvised Excellence: Matthew Morrison Brings His Signature Style to Strathmore This Weekend

Broadway fans are in for a treat as Matthew Morrison (Glee, The Light in the Piazza) and Shoshana Bean (Wicked, Waitress) will be headlining Strathmore’s Spring Gala Concert this weekend. Morrison and...

Review: ‘Oslo’ by Round House Theatre

For those wanting to be absorbed into a highly recommended, fictionalized account of events surrounding the 1993 Oslo Accords and the inconceivable peace between Israelis and Palestinians that bloomed...

Review: ‘The White Snake’ by Constellation Theatre Company

Trained in the mystical arts, two snakes, one white and one green (puppeteered and acted by Eunice Bae and Momo Nakamura, respectively) look longingly down from their mountain top at the hustle and...

Review: ‘The Great Commedia Hotel Murder Mystery’ by Faction of Fools

As much as modern culture claims to worship novelty, innovation and even disruption, there is a lot to be said for the tried and true. From an imaginative rendition of a beloved Shakespeare play to...

Washington Performing Arts Announces Its 2019-2020 Season

Washington Performing Arts has just announced its 53rd season, comprising 45 main stage events across six venues in the Greater D.C. region. The season includes the world premiere of Christopher Tin’s...

Review: ‘Curtains’ at The Arlington Players

The Arlington Players’ new production of Curtains brings all that musical theater promises an audience: gorgeous sets, outsized talent, big production numbers, and memorable musical pearls strung...

Review: ‘The Burn’ by the Hub Theatre

The Hub is off to a remarkable start under new Artistic Director Matt Bassett with their production of The Burn by Philip Dawkins. Featuring snippets from the Arthur Miller classic The Crucible...

Review: ‘Annie’ at Reston Community Players

Reston Community Players (RCP) serves up a tasty dish of that ultimate Broadway comfort food, Annie. Cooked up by Thomas Meehan (book), Charles Strouse (music) and Martin Charnin (lyrics) in 1977, and...

Review: ‘The Savannah Disputation’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

If you never thought the words “theological comedy” could go together, think again. The Savannah Disputation, playing now at The Little Theater of Alexandria, bills itself as just such a comedy. And...

Review: “14” by Theatre Prometheus

Arresting, provocative, and hauntingly relevant, 14 by playwright José Casas weaves a tale of sixteen characters living or born in Arizona who express their divergent views about immigrants and...

Magic Time!: 10 Questions for the Brains Behind ‘The Tarot Reading’

Even in this theater town abounding in innovation, The Tarot Reading stands out as an original. I can’t think of anything it’s quite like. After I saw an iteration last year (The Tarot Reading IV), I...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ at Sterling Playmakers

So many stories can be started with “boy meets girl.” It’s a trope that almost clutters literature – and drama for that matter. Even in shows with almost exclusively off-stage men, they are often the...

Review: Broadway Center Stage: ‘The Who’s Tommy’ at Kennedy Center

Fifty years ago Rolling Stone reported completion of a new album by Pete Townshend and called it “probably the most important milestone in pop since Beatlemania. For the first time, a rock group has...

Nu Sass To Perform ‘Marx in Soho’ at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DC-based theater company Nu Sass Productions is taking Marx in Soho to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. Marx in Soho, by American Historian Howard Zinn, will feature Mary Myers as Karl Marx...

‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ Director Vivienne Benesch Finds Inspiration in Folger Reading Room

Actor, director, and administrator Vivienne Benesch has many credits to her name. She is the Producing Artistic Director of the PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For twelve...

Review: ‘STOMP’ at the National Theatre

Started by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1991, STOMP is a cacophony of sounds produced by common objects in lieu of musical instruments. An amalgam of music, dance,...

Woolly Mammoth Announces Its 2019-2020 Season

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its 2019-2020 season, which features an energizing array of plays by new voices and Woolly veterans. The premiere season curated by Artistic Director María...

Review: ‘Ripcord’ by Vienna Theatre Company

Vienna Theatre Company has just opened David Lindsay-Abaire’s hilarious play, Ripcord, for the last production of their current season. The show takes place in an assisted living facility, with two...

Magic Time!: Disrupting the White Comfort Zone: A Q&A about ‘P.Y.G.’ at Studio Theatre

I have an ongoing interest in how theaters in DC with predominantly white audiences raise and represent the issue of race. And one of the things I’ve been noticing is how the white comfort zone...

Review: ‘Black Pearl Sings!’ At Alliance for New Music-Theatre

Black Pearl Sings! by Frank Higgins, at Alliance for New Music-Theatre, is an absorbing production with an uplifting message. This witty play was successfully produced here in 2016 at MetroStage,...

Interview: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik at the Kennedy Center

Many artists cite their family as one of their main sources of inspiration, but violinist Yevgeny Kutik can make a stronger claim than most. Even some of the repertoire he performs stems directly from...

Review: ‘The Mighty Five and Friends’ by the Russian Chamber Art Society at the French Embassy

With the concept of nationalism hovering uneasily in the political air, it was as edifying as it was gratifying to hear four first-rate musicians celebrate in song some of the masterworks of what...

Behind the Scenes at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Props Warehouse

Staging an epic that involves a bloody chain of events in “a deluge of violence,” as the Shakespeare Theatre Company describes The Oresteia, requires not just the skills and talents of the actors on...

Magic Time: ‘Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son’ at Mosaic Theater Company

The splashy opening is spectacularly preconception-smashing. We know we’re about to see a play premised on a 1953 meeting in a Paris café between the literary lion Richard Wright and James Baldwin,...

Review: ‘Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son’ at Mosaic Theater Company

In Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son, Playwright Psalmayene 24, Director Raymond O. Caldwell, and Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth take on the risky task of staging a well-known and...

Who Gets To Feel Safe? A Conversation Inspired by Mosaic’s ‘Native Son’

Theater and Policy Salon partners with New York University Washington Center to organize a conversation on “Who Gets to Feel Safe?” in conjunction with Mosaic Theater Company’s productions of Native...

Review: ‘Beckett Trio, Part 2’ by Scena Theatre

Ready for your Samuel Beckett fix? A fix for the lesser-known, very short-form works by the winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature? If you are the least bit curious and open to a quieter form...

Review: ‘A Comedy of Tenors’ at Olney Theatre Center

Things are getting silly at the Olney Theatre Center these days. Very, very, silly. Very skillfully silly, in the production of Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors. A follow-on to Ludwig’s highly popular...