Washington DC

Kelsey Hunt Dresses the Stars in Ford’s Frothy Revival of ‘Born Yesterday’

“Born Yesterday is a winner.” Those are the words of my colleague, David Siegel, whose review of the gloriously effervescent comedy that just opened at Ford’s Theatre is full of superlatives....

BlackRock Center for the Arts Presents “Signature Theatre Cabaret: Streisand Songbook”

Barbra comes to BlackRock with Signature Theatre Cabaret’s Streisand Songbook BlackRock Center for the Arts officially kicks off its versatile 2018-19 season with Streisand Songbook, from the...

Review: ‘Labour of Love’ at Olney Theatre Center

Just when Americans think we have a monopoly on political rancor, along comes a show from across the pond to remind us that we aren’t the only ones dealing with extreme political partisanship....

Review: ‘Summerland’ at Washington Stage Guild

What began as a mundane two-hander focused on stiff argumentative males in an investigative procedural play, develops into something pleasingly knotty and intense. All it takes is one new character...

Senator Chris Van Hollen To Cut The Ribbon at ATMTC’s Ceremonial Grand Reopening October 15th

Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC) announces its grand reopening on October 15th in Glen Echo Park after seven months of renovations due to an electrical fire. Executives from Adventure Theatre MTC’s...

Magic Time!: ‘Safeguards’ by Brave Soul Collective at Anacostia Arts Center

Brave Soul Collective is a hidden gem of theatrical truthtelling about black men who are LGBTQ. Periodically the collective surfaces with a one-night-only showcase of work by local writing and...

Review: ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ at Rockville Little Theatre

Anne Frank’s immortal words about love, fear, and hope come alive once again at Rockville Little Theatre’s new production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Based on the words of World War II’s most famous...

Review: ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ at Aldersgate Church Community Theater

When a story is so well-known and well-loved by many people, audience members tend to have high expectations and Aldersgate Church Community Theater’s production of The Count of Monte Cristo will...

Review: ‘Heisenberg’ at Signature Theatre

Simon Stephens’ Heisenberg, now playing at Signature Theatre, begins with two souls in hiding. Georgie Burns (Rachel Zampelli) hides whatever pains and losses she has suffered behind her frenetic...

Review: ‘Born Yesterday’ at Ford’s Theatre

What a sparkling production of Born Yesterday at Ford’s Theatre. Written in 1946 as the United States was standing powerful after the carnage of WWII, Garson Kanin’s script is delightfully subversive;...

In the Moment: ‘Lincolnesque’ at the Keegan Theatre

Separating a theater company’s production from the playwright’s script is crucial when evaluating a performance. After all, an engaging full production can do the old razzle-dazzle to cover a script’s...

Review: ‘Lincolnesque’ at the Keegan Theatre

In Lincolnesque, a play written by John Strand and directed by Colin Smith, the art of lying for one’s country succeeds in fusing a deceptively light touch and inside-the-Beltway political humor with...

Review: ‘Blueberries for Sal’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

Adventure Theatre MTC presents the world premiere musical Blueberries for Sal, written by Michael J. Bobbitt and Sandra Eskin, and featuring new music and lyrics by William Yanesh. Based on the...

Review: ‘The Last American Hammer’ by UrbanArias

Stick a right-wing conspiracy theorist, a curator at a Toby jug museum, and a rookie FBI agent in the same porcelain-filled room in a no-name town in rural Ohio, then make them talk over tea and...

The American Pops Orchestra ‘You’ve Got a Friend: A Singer-Songwriter Celebration’ at Arena Stage

The American Pops Orchestra kicked off its fourth season with You’ve Got a Friend: A Singer-Songwriter Celebration featuring a diverse lineup of local and national talent at Arena Stage. Maestro Luke...

Interview: Circus Artists Hannah Robinson and Sarah Kathleen Hluchan on TSNY-DC’s All-Aerial Student Showcase

What makes a circus act great is it looks humanly impossible. Yet, Trapeze School New York (TSNY) Washington DC regularly trains students to do the impossible on a daily basis. Their next student...

Magic Time!: ‘How to Win a Race War’ at The Klunch

I know from my feminist antipornography activism that there is plenty of misogynist hate literature around. (The hard-core stuff is brutal, sadistic propaganda marketed to men arousing them to violate...

Review: ‘How to Win a Race War’ at the Klunch

How To Win a Race War—a whopping 3-hour, 15-minute ordeal—indulges in the world of white supremacy, wheels and deals in astoundingly racist and horrifying caricature, and expects a pat on the back for...

THE ROSE THEATRE CO Brings FIRST DRAFT Reading Series to 1st Stage

Love new plays? Then THE ROSE THEATRE CO’s Reading Series|FIRST DRAFT has great news to report. The series will begin its 2018-19 season of new play readings with a new Northern Virginia location to...

Review: ‘Tape’ at Dominion Stage

Tape is not a play with perfect characters or comfortable resolution. What makes Tape uncomfortable to watch is that the characters all feel like people we know. We all went to school with Vince, Jon,...

Review: ‘Living and Dying with Tricia McCauley’ at Venus Theatre

Living and Dying with Tricia McCauley is a raw and personal journey through grief. Tricia McCauley, the local actress whose brutal 2016 murder rocked the theater community, was a personal friend and...

Review: ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ by the National Players

It seems particularly appropriate that the National Players should be mounting a production about an imperturbable, peripatetic gambler who takes every mishap in stride while journeying as far as it...

Next Reflex Dance Collective Now In Residence at Workhouse Arts Center

Continuing to expand their regular offerings of performance events, the Workhouse Arts Center now has an official dance company-in-residence, Next Reflex Dance Collective. Stepping out to find new and...

Magic Time!: ‘The Events’ at Theater Alliance

Theater Alliance’s The Events, now playing at Anacostia Playhouse, is one of several plays this season that deal with a mass shooting. (There’s also Pinky Swear’s Blight, coming October 20 to the same...

Review: ‘Viva V.E.R.D.I. – The Promised End’ by the In Series

Theater can be many things: challenging, and then restoring; transcendent, and yet—fundamental. A platform for the cutting-edge and a welcoming home-fire for the familiar. Rarely does a single show...

Tour de Theatres Bike Ride Combines Physical Exercise with Love of Theater

Halfway through the 2018 Helen Hayes Awards ceremony, a bike whizzed onstage, jolting the audience to attention. On the bike was Theatre J Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr, clad in bike shorts and a...

Magic Time!: ‘If I Forget’ at Studio Theatre

To paraphrase the famous Passover Seder line, “Why is this domestic drama different from all other domestic dramas?” Or, to put the impudent question another way, “What makes If I Forget a uniquely...

Adventure Theatre MTC Conducting DC-Wide Search for Teen Musical Theatre Stars

Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC) seeks eight middle and high school students (aged 11 – 18) for the roles of Huckleberry Finn, Jim, Mary Jane, and Alice in Huckleberry Finn’s Big River, a world premiere...

Review: ‘If I Forget’ at Studio Theatre

When I grew up in a small New Jersey shore town with a single synagogue to serve many surrounding communities, I recall a particular question uttered within my family and my own Jewish tribe. This...

Review: ‘The Events’ by Theater Alliance at the Anacostia Playhouse

A wrenching agitation pervades the gray clouded confines of The Events, in which a diverse chorus group is slaughtered by a gunman. Claire (Regina Aquino), the church chorus leader, is the sole...

Review: “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” by Theater J

Storytelling is one of the most ancient of the performing arts, distinct from that of the dramatic actor, and when Mona Golabek makes her entrance, it is not as an actor playing a character but as a...

Review: ‘Kindertransport’ by Sandy Spring Theatre Group

Kindertransport by Diane Samuels is being presented by Sandy Spring Theatre Group at the Arts Barn in Gaithersburg in partnership with the City of Gaithersburg. The play is produced by Jerry...

Review: ‘Pramkicker’ by Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Imagine a pram catapulting down the stairs and the sweet instant of satisfaction that the kick initiates. A fragment of a second later, the realization of the tumble hits home. The kick is, after all,...

Review: ‘The Wedding Singer’ at NextStop Theatre Company

A wedding singer spurned by love becomes unlikely friends with the waitress at the local banquet hall and, from dumping to dumpsters, finds that love might be worth another try. Celebrating their 30th...

Review: ‘Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight’ at Silver Spring Stage

Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson, produced by Bill Hurlbut and directed by Erin Bone Steele is presented at Silver Spring Stage. The company has recently...

Review: ‘The Last Five Years’ by Montgomery Playhouse

The Last Five Years is a modern musical that follows the 5-year romantic relationship between Catherine, an aspiring actress, and Jamie, an aspiring writer, from their first date to the final days of...

Who Was Sir William Davenant and What Did He Do to ‘Macbeth’?

If you want to get yourself in the mood for the Folger Theatre’s current hit production of Macbeth – a famous adaptation from the 1660’s of William Shakespeare’s original tragedy, by his godson...

Review: ‘Turn Me Loose’ at Arena Stage

Long before Hannah Gadsby premiered her anti-comedy stand-up special Nanette, in which she lambasts the sexist entertainment industry and forces audiences to reckon with their own complicity, there...

Timothy Douglas: The Voice Behind ‘Small Mouth Sounds’ at Round House Theatre

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a disembodied voice floating above the seats at the Round House Theatre this month. The voice belongs to Timothy Douglas, an award-winning director whose work has...

Review: ‘Spring Awakening’ by Wolf Pack Theatre Company at Greenbelt Arts Center

Wolf Pack Theatre Company’s production of Spring Awakening is a powerfully moving show. The 2006 musical, with Book and Lyrics by Steven Sater and Music by Duncan Sheik, is based on the 1891 play of...

Review: ‘Cirque De Nuit’ by PrioreDance at Atlas Performing Arts Center

Figures emerge into the light. They are remarkably similar and without guise, and as the bodies accumulate in number; it is as if one has been multiplied by ten. The variations are obvious but the eye...

Beltway Barks: Smooch a Pooch or Take One Home

When Rusty the celebrity dog goes looking for kisses this Saturday, he won’t be alone. Joining Rusty will be a cadre of adoptable dogs and animal-loving actors brought together by Lisa Carrier Baker,...

Review: ‘Macbeth’ at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre

In January 1666, famed diarist Samuel Pepys saw a performance of the William Davenant Macbeth and called it a “strange perfection.” The production that just opened at the Folger Theatre is strangely...

Magic Time!: ‘Gloria’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Count on Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to leave you whiplashed and shell-shocked. He hits nerve after nerve then goes for the jugular. Whatever he writes, see it. Woolly’s previous productions of...

Review: ‘Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

The current offering from the justly renowned GALA Hispanic Theatre, Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water For Chocolate) is a veritable feast for the senses and a savory mixture of theatrical...

Review: ‘Rumors’ at the Colonial Players of Annapolis

Colonial Players’ production of Neil Simon’s Rumors is a hilarious farce of a play, a wonderful way to start their 70th season. First appearing on Broadway in 1988, this version, directed by Atticus...

Review: ‘Gloria’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Director Kip Fagan opens this production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria with a clever conceit: Miles (Justin Weaks), an office intern, is at his desk, as the contrapuntal woodwinds and strings of a...

Review: ‘August: Osage County’ at the Little Theatre of Alexandria

The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of August: Osage County, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Terry Letts, pulls off the condensed, soap-opera feel of a family forced to deal with a...

Avant Bard Announces Full Cast and Creative Team for ‘Illyria’

Avant Bard theatre announces the full cast and creative team for its 2018/2019 season opener, Illyria, or What You Will, freely adapted from Twelfth Night by Jonelle Walker and Mitchell Hébert and...

Review: ‘Engaging Shaw’ at Best Medicine Rep

There is an engaging sub-genre of theater, that one might call the battle of wits or the comedy of intellect, that takes some of the greatest minds in history and brings them to life, with all their...