Washington DC

Magic Time!: ‘The Emperor of Atlantis’ at The In Series

The Emperor of Atlantis—an operatic takedown of autocracy—is relevant to our times in freaky and haunting ways. And its backstory is chilling. Near the end of World War II, the Czech composer Victor...

Wolf Trap Opera and Halcyon to Perform Kurt Weill Opera at Union Market

After their highly successful partnership in 2017 on Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher, Wolf Trap Opera and Halcyon reunite to present Kurt Weill and Bertholt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly...

Review: The Rude Mechanicals Production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

The Rude Mechanicals production of The Merchant of Venice, now playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center, is an engrossing exploration of Shakespeare’s most controversial characters and the (still)...

Review: ‘The Wild Party’ by Ovations Theatre Senior Company

By Andy Arnold Ovations Theatre’s Senior Company ended the 2017-2018 season with Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party playing June 15 – 17. And what a party it was thanks to Darnell Patrick Morris’...

Review: ‘5 Courses of Funny Fare’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

5 Courses of Funny Fare, written by Jim Wise and produced by Maureen Rogers and John Cusumano, and playing through this Sunday at Laurel Mill Playhouse, is really five One Act Plays, loosely tied...

Review: ‘Portraits’ by Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company at the Kennedy Center

The portraits hang solemnly, unmoving at the Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery. Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess breathes life and movement into these two-dimensional works of art with a triptych of...

Review: ‘Leather, Sand, Metal: An Audible Exploration of Tap Dance’ by Capitol Tap at Dance Place

Tap is its own beast. Any dancer can tell you that they can transfer training in ballet to jazz or contemporary, or swing into hip-hop, but they cannot transfer anything to tap. You either do it, or...

Review: ‘Hamilton’ at the Kennedy Center Lives Up to the Hype

Legacy. It is the central theme of Hamilton. One has to ask—could Lin-Manuel Miranda have known while penning this masterpiece that Hamilton would one day become his legacy? If so, that is quite the...

Kennedy Center to Honor World Refugee Day with Free Performance by Melat

In a special Kennedy Center Millennium Stage performance commemorating World Refugee Day on June 20, 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and The Kennedy Center will present...

Interview: Playwright Patrick Flynn Shines New Light on ‘Tinker Bell’ at Adventure Theatre

Tinker Bell has been a part of children’s lives since J. M. Barrie first introduced her to the literary canon in his 1904 play and 1911 novel. The Tinker Bell character has been ever present in the...

In the Moment: Another look at Round House’s ‘The Legend of Georgia McBride’

Round House is the current Promised Land for anyone wanting to get happy. With its divine, illusion rich production of The Legend of Georgia McBride helmed by Tom Story, Round House is a divine, sunny...

Review: ‘Switch’ at The Welders

The gender-flip trope has been a staple on stage for much of theater history, and just when you thought it had been trotted out every which way imaginable, along comes a delightful surprise. Brett...

Party On! ‘Will on the Hill’ at the Shakespeare Theatre Company

Romeo and Juliet, Beatrice and Benedick, and even (don’t say it) Macbeth were on hand for a Shakespearean love fest on Monday night, all to benefit the wonderful education programs the Shakespeare...

People Respect and Appreciate Authenticity: A Q&A with Storyteller Anne B. Thomas

While hitchhiking across Europe by herself at 18, Anne B. Thomas fell asleep in the back of a car, and when she woke she was lying by the side of the road. She tried to stand up but found she couldn’t...

Review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at Damascus Theatre Company

Directed by Stephanie Bonte-Lebair and presented in conjunction with Gaithersburg Arts Barn/Arts on the Green, Dasmascus Theatre Company’s The Bridges of Madison County is a crowd-pleasing musical...

Review: ‘The Legend of Georgia McBride’ at Round House Theatre

In The Legend of Georgia McBride, a theatrical cornucopia of camp, country music, drag, domestic dilemmas, and larger-than-life divas await you. This disarming and sexually-charged excursion into the...

In the Moment: Chamber Dance Project Brings ‘Chant’ to the Lansburgh Theater

The summer season of DC’s very own Chamber Dance Project will be in residence this month at the acoustically rich, 450-seat Lansburgh Theater in downtown DC. The contemporary ballet troupe will be...

Review: ‘The Vagrant Trilogy’ at Mosaic Theater Company

The vagrant of the title is a Palestinian scholar named Adham who, while on a trip to London as a grad student, must decide, when war breaks out in his homeland, whether to stay or go. Will he remain...

“The Queerest Role I’ve Played”: A Q&A with Jon Hudson Odom About ‘Botticelli in the Fire’ at Woolly Mammoth

Jon Hudson Odom’s performance in Jordan Tannahill’s new play Botticelli in the Fire just blew me away. And it wasn’t the first time that had happened. I’ve been following his work for several years,...

Indicoe Artist Mix n’ Mingle Coming Up on June 16, 2018

After launching seven months ago, arts organization Indicoe is hosting its first event: an Artist Mix N’ Mingle at Woolly Mammoth Theatre on June 16th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. The event is held in...

‘A Night at the Gaming Tables’ at The Russian Chamber Art Society

Love and money: when fated to compete, can the fight ever be fair? Or is it—and are the parties caught between them—invariably, if not inevitably, doomed? The Russian Romantic poet, playwright, and...

Review: ’53rd Annual Old Time Music Hall’ by the British Players

Sick of cynicism, vitriol, and vulgarity? The British Players has an antidote: their 53rd Old Time Music Hall (directed by Malcolm Edwards and produced by Sue Edwards). The latest installment of their...

Review: ‘Dancing in my Cockroach Killers’ at GALA Hispanic Theater

By Ellie Milewski Today, theater has grown into an extravagant event. It’s normal to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets, go to a fancy Broadway Theater, and wait after the show by the stage door to...

Review: ‘Ever in the Glades’ at the Kennedy Center

Whether we grew up in the heart of DC, Manhattan, Evanston, on a midwestern farm, or in the Everglades, we all seemingly arrive at adulthood after spending years on an isolated island, cut off from...

Review: ‘Patience’ at The Victorian Lyric Opera Company

If you’ve ever found fleeting social trends to be disconcerting- never fear, so did Gilbert and Sullivan. In their comedic operetta Patience, now on stage at The Victorian Lyric Opera Company, they...

Review: ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’ at the Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center advertises its Broadway Center Stage series as presenting shows in a “semi-staged concert format.” For Frank Loesser’s 1961 satire of mid-20th century New York corporate life, How...

Review: ‘The Tempest’ by Avant Bard

How does a nimble theater company retool an often produced Shakespeare classic such as The Tempest? Well, Avant Bard found a way under Tom Prewitt’s inviting direction, with gender-swapping and...

In the Moment: Another Look at Theater J’s ‘Trayf’

I looked forward to taking in the premiere stage production of Lindsay Joelle’s Trayf at Theater J. The title Trayf alone brought me smiles then and now. After all, trayf is the Yiddish word for food...

Review: ‘The Miser’ by Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of The Miser, performed at the outdoor patio of Reynolds Tavern, is a fun farce of a French play. Written by Molière, and first performed in 1668, the comedy...

Tom Teasley to Bring His Signature Sound to Workhouse Arts Center This Weekend

Spend a one-of-a-kind musical evening with Helen Hayes recipient Tom Teasley at the Workhouse Arts Center, Teasley will add fresh musical life to silent comedy films in a mini-film festival tribute to...

Review: ‘Trayf’ a World Premiere at Theatre J

New York, 1991: Zalmy (Tyler Herman) and Shmuly (Josh Adams) are two young men, best friends since childhood, excited to get behind the wheel of their newly acquired RV. What makes them different from...

Review: ‘The Nance’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The “double bind” of being gay in an oppressive climate of prejudice against gays and, yet, choosing to turn down any hope of redemption with a loving partner (or a political party that does not...

Review: ‘A Delicate Balance’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage’s production of A Delicate Balance brings Edward Albee’s 1966 play to vivid, powerful life. Directed by Fred Zirm, it combines excellent acting with a detailed set, clever lighting...

Playwright Audrey Cefaly Wins Lambda Literary Award for ‘The Gulf’

Washington, DC-based Playwright Audrey Cefaly is the winner of this year’s Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBTQ Drama for her play The Gulf which had its world premiere at Arlington,...

Review: ‘An Iliad’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center

The setting (designed by Daniel Prosky) is not a battlefield in Anatolia in modern day Turkey, but what appears to be the office of an academic – perhaps a classicist. There is no computer on the...

Review: ‘California Suite’ at Providence Players of Fairfax

Providence Players of Fairfax presents Neil Simon’s California Suite, a quartet of play-lets set in Suite 203-04 of California’s famed Beverly Hills Hotel. Director Beth Gilles-Whitehead updates the...

Review: ‘Lea Michele & Darren Criss – the LM/DC Tour’ at the Kennedy Center

Cue the dramatic backdrops because the lights of Broadway were sparkling this past Sunday at the Kennedy Center in DC. Crackling with infectious energy, the newly launched LM/DC Tour with Lea Michele...

Review: ‘Botticelli in the Fire’ at Woolly Mammoth

Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” is a painting famous for its youthful beauty and artistic mastery. When I stood in front of it in Florence, I struggled to look away –...

Review: ‘Swimming With Whales’ at 1st Stage

In its world premiere first professional performance, Swimming With Whales at 1st Stage has already built an impressive record in its preparation. It was part of the Sigworks Readings at Signature...

Magic Time!: ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ at Signature Theatre

The musical The Scottsboro Boys tells a true story of heinous injustice driven by race hate, and the theatrical form is a minstrel show—bouyant upbeat dancing, rousing melodic singing, and buffoonish...

Review: ‘Flip Flop: A Miscast Cabaret’ at Monumental Theatre Company

For the fourth year in a row, Monumental Theatre Company has hosted their annual event, featuring top millennial talent from the DC area. Flip Flop: A Miscast Cabaret is the latest presentation of the...

Review: ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ at Signature Theatre

“Strip me naked. Take my name. Make me an animal. So you can kill me. Then forget all about me. Like I never happened. Like I don’t matter.” No, those unsettling words are not reactions to a racially...

Breaking News: Kennedy Center Announces ‘Hamilton’ Ticket Lottery in Washington, DC

The Kennedy Center Announces a #HAM4HAM Hamilton ticket lottery in Washington, DC. 40 tickets will be sold for $10 each to every performance at the Kennedy Center Opera House (June 12-September 16)....

How Do You Like Me Now Productions Presents ‘Breaking the Code’ at Chesapeake Arts Center (news)

BREAKING THE CODE APPEARING AT CHESAPEAKE ARTS CENTER How Do You Like Me Now Productions, Inc. presents Breaking The Code by Hugh Whitemore, on weekends, June 8, 9 and 10 and on June 15, 16 and 17 at...

Review: ‘Don Quixote’ by Ballet Nacional de Cuba at the Kennedy Center

With apologies to T.S. Elliot, Ballet Nacional de Cuba ends the Kennedy Center Ballet 2017-2018 season not with a whimper but a bang. A big bang! An explosive Don Quixote opened last night and repeats...

Review: ‘Camelot’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Last month marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech. As threats to his life mounted, King seemed resigned to his fate. “I’m not concerned about...

Profile: Naomi Jacobson Lends Laughter and Innocence to ‘The Remains’ at Studio Theatre

The Remains, a brand new one-act play that’s been generating rave reviews since its opening at Studio Theatre two weeks ago, is a witty and wise meditation on marriage. By turns funny and sad, this...

Magic Time!: ‘The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs’ at Spooky Action Theatre

The mystery at the center of this adroit drama keeps getting mysteriouser and mysteriouser: What’s in the small room at the top of the stairs? Playwright Carole Fréchette has crafted a cagey...

Review: ‘Charlotte’s Web’ at Creative Cauldron

I first read E.B. White’s classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web in my second grade English class. I remember being amazed by how a story so simple could be instilled with something so beautiful. I...

Review: ‘New Releases Choreographers Showcase’ at Dance Place

Back in the ’60s, Bob Dylan wrote “The Times They Are a-Changing,” an ode to protest, social change and the country’s mood moment. Dance Place’s New Releases Choreographers Showcase vamped Dylan’s...