Washington DC

Interview: Dancer Sebastian Haynes on ‘Nederlands Dans Theater’

Nederlands Dans Theater makes its Kennedy Center debut April 4-6. Artistic director Paul Lightfoot brings a program of distinctive works: “Shoot the Moon” (Glass/León & Lightfoot), “The Statement”...

Review: ‘Migratory Tales’ at GWU Corcoran School of the Arts & Design

The inspiration for Migratory Tales comes from multiple sources, according to the play’s creator and director, Leslie Jacobson. Our current and painfully divisive debate on immigration was foremost...

Interview: A Conversation with Gianandrea Noseda, Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra

The orchestra that makes its home in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall has only had one American music director in the last two generations. So it’s easy to forget that the 100-strong band is, after...

Review: ‘Works by Balanchine, Martins, and Peck’ by New York City Ballet

In this era of #MeToo, a review of the New York City Ballet can’t begin without noting the allegations of abuse against now-retired Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins. Late last year, the company...

Review: ‘410 [Gone]’ at Rorschach Theatre

A young Chinese-American woman identified in the playbill as “Twenty-one” but named Jamie (Linda Bard) is attempting to use her MacBook to contact her dead younger brother through a video chat app....

Review: ‘The Wiz’ at Ford’s Theatre

Ford Theatre’s The Wiz, the Tony-Award-winning musical based on L. Frank Baum’s novel, will leave you enthralled, amazed, and bedazzled. The show is a cornucopia of colors, dancing, singing, sizzle,...

Review: ‘Translations’ at Studio Theatre

Studio Theatre’s take on Translations by Brian Friel (1929-2015) is one crackling fine production. It begins as an intellectually stimulating comedy, then ultimately turns tragic after weaving through...

Review: ‘Alabama Story’ by the Washington Stage Guild

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin Southern humor, gentle charm, and the awkward silences of discussions...

In the Moment: Interview with Grace Gonglewski, Folger’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’

For this writer, Grace Gonglewski as Paulina in the Folger Theatre production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is one rock solid, indispensable presence. As the bravest truth-teller in The Bard’s...

Review: ‘Moon Over Buffalo’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

Moon Over Buffalo, written by Ken Ludwig, opened at the Laurel Mill Playhouse, directed by Larry Simmons and produced by Maureen Rogers. Moon Over Buffalo is a farce in the Shakespearean tradition....

Review: ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ by the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music

W.A. Mozart’s opera, Le nozze di Figaro, came to life last night in the Hartke Theatre. Based on Beaumarchais’s scandalous and once-banned play, it depicts intrigue, class conflict, and domestic...

Review: ‘Love in the Time of Coloring’ at Trinadad Theater

Review by Betsy Lizotte Heather Frank’s solo cabaret of witty observations about the state of social interactions in a perplexing, high-tech world, combined with songs that she personally selected...

Review: Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ by The National Symphony Orchestra

A nominally ecclesiastical work written by an essentially non-religious man, the Verdi Requiem has come, in the nearly century and a half since its completion, to be beloved by church-goers and...

Review: ‘Layla and Majnun’ by the Mark Morris Dance Group with the Silkroad Ensemble

A tapestry of poetry, chant, music, and dance drawn from a swath of the ancient Silk Road has provided vivid inspiration for influential choreographer Mark Morris. His re-envisioning of Layla and...

Review: ‘In the Heights’ at The Kennedy Center

Celebrating 10 years since taking Broadway by storm with its exploration of New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, In the Heights, directed by Stephanie Klemons, takes the stage at The...

Review: ‘The Beckett Trio’ at Scena Theatre

Nanna Ingvarsson is so phenomenal in these three harrowing short plays by Samuel Beckett that one can easily imagine the Nobel Prize-winning minimalist—notoriously persnickety about his stage...

In the Moment: Interview with Andrew Baughman, Landless Theatre’ ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood [Symphonic Metal Version]’

Moving into its 18th year of producing exciting and accessible alternative theater to cultivate new and diverse audiences, the Landless Theatre will present the world premiere of The Mystery of Edwin...

Review: ‘Brooklyn the Musical’ at Monumental Theatre Company

From the moment you step into the graffiti-laced environment and make yourself comfortable among the sofas, lawn chairs, and lounge seats, you are surrounded by the aesthetics of a post-modern fairy...

Review: ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at Folger Theatre

One would not expect a tale full of heartbreak, betrayal, abandonment, and death to be a comedy. But that is exactly what Folger Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is....

Review: ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and book by Peter Parnell. Based on the Victor Hugo novel and...

Review: ‘Nat Turner in Jerusalem’ at Forum Theatre

The unsettling sight of a young man in shackles sitting on a bare, plank-wood floor; a glimmer of night sky piercing the darkness through the barred window of a simple jail cell; and the tense,...

Magic Time!: ‘Nat Turner in Jerusalem’ at Forum Theatre

By coincidence, Nat Turner in Jerusalem opened at Forum Theatre the day that The Raid closed at Theater Alliance. The two plays seen in succession are powerfully connected. Idris Goodwin’s The Raid...

Review: ‘Quartet’ at The British Players

Growing old isn’t for sissies. In South-African-born, British playwright Ronald Harwood’s smart 1999 comedy Quartet, he gently wrestles with the indignities of aging in a British senior-citizens’...

Review: ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’ at Prince William Little Theatre

As the play starts, Morrie Schwartz is dying from ALS. That such a heart-warming, honest, and funny play would begin with such a premise is startling. In Tuesdays with Morrie, produced by the Prince...

Review: ‘The Glass Menagerie’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of The Glass Menagerie is a quietly powerful rendition of Tennessee Williams’ classic play, which premiered in 1944. Directed by Donald Hicken, this show...

In the Moment: Ann Timmons, Pipeline Playwrights, Discusses Upcoming MetroStage Reading

Pipeline Playwrights, a Northern Virginia-based collective of accomplished women playwrights who support productions that explore the variety of women’s experiences, is undertaking a new series of...

John Kadlecik on the Living, the Dead, and the Beauty of Improvisation

While American folk band the Grateful Dead officially disbanded shortly after the death of frontman Jerry Garcia in 1995, the Dead has lived on in numerous “post-Jerry” incarnations. Few people have...

Review: ‘Chicago’ at The Keegan Theatre

With its snappy-saucy take on Chicago, The Keegan Theatre shows it knows how to give an audience the ol’ razzle-dazzle. And Keegan has done the durable musical proud. In fact in Keegan’s mounting of...

Review: ‘Anthracite Fields’ at The Kennedy Center

It was a haunting, atmospheric triumph. It was an urgent, yet respectfully accomplished multimedia exploration of American cultural issues rarely presented on DC stages about the unknown laborers in...

Review: ‘Breathe: The Musical’ at THEARC

Breathe is a brilliantly conceived and beautifully executed gospel musical that celebrates black resilience even as it revisits the traumas endured by the black family in a nation built on slavery. At...

News: Monumental Theatre Company to Stage ‘Brooklyn the Musical’ March 15-31

Monumental Theatre Company’s latest offering, Brooklyn The Musical will be presented March 15-31, 2018. Directed by Michael Windsor, Brooklyn follows our lead character on her journey to find her...

Review: ‘KC Jazz Club: Myra Melford with Snowy Egret’ at The Kennedy Center

Myra Melford’s avant garde approach to music is filled with moments of intensity and light. Melford’s career is an illustrious one, with a Fulbright scholarship, a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship, and an...

Review: ‘Mason Bates’s KC Jukebox: California Mystics’ at The Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts Atrium was transformed into a bohemian, Bedouin-style venue, where pillows for seating were splayed across the floor and the audience was lulled into an...

Review: ‘The Snow Queen’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron’s Learning Theater Ensemble presents The Snow Queen, an original adaptation based on the tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Written by Ellen Selby, this production joins a long list of...

Review: ‘The Tarot Reading (IV)’ at Anacostia Arts Center

Despite its occultish name, The Tarot Reading is not a cabalistic rite for mystics. It is actually an ingenious theater game for hipster questers who are psyched to play along. To be sure, the...

Review: ‘George – Don’t Do That!: The Music and Magic of Joyce Grenfell’ at MetroStage

George! Go see this! George – Don’t Do That!: The Music and Magic of Joyce Grenfell is part two of MetroStage’s three-part Spring Solo Series featuring three artists telling stories of the remarkable...

Review: ‘Adult Entertainment’ by The Klunch at Caos on F

D.C. theater collective The Klunch’s mischievous production of Adult Entertainment tells the story of a group of four pornographic actors and one producer who hope to make a good movie, and bring in...

Review: ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ at Reston Community Players

Reston Community Players present Tennessee Williams’ classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Sharon Veselic directs a talented cast for this insightful production. While a lot has changed in the nearly 65...

Review: ‘Death by Design’ at Aldersgate Church Community Theater

“There is nothing whatever beneath my exterior.” So proclaims a character in Death by Design, now playing at the Aldersgate Church Community Theater (ACCT) in Alexandria. How right he is, not only for...

Here Are the Winners of the 2017 WATCH AWARDS

THE 18th Annual WATCH AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED Sunday, March 11, 2018 – 7:00 pm at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA HERE ARE THE WINNERS (IN BOLD) Outstanding Set Design in a Musical (5) Skip Gresko –...

Post-Play Palaver: ‘Silence Is Violence: Whose Earth Is This, DC?’ at Young Playwrights’ Theater

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...

Review: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Other Voices Theatre

Frederick’s Other Voices Theatre puts a very large cast and a complex technical scheme to excellent use in its production of the 1971 Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice rock operetta Jesus Christ Superstar....

‘Peter Pan, Jr.’ Flies at the Kentlands Arts Barn (A KAT-2nd Stage Production)

KAT-2nd Stage is back at the Kentlands Arts Barn with their latest family offering: Peter Pan, Jr. Peter Pan tells the story of the flying boy who never wants to grow up, the magical world he...

Review: ‘Frankenstein’ by Bowie Community Theatre at Bowie Playhouse

Frankenstein by Bowie Community Theatre has blood, violence, and drama, all wrapped up in a Gothic shell. This version was adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel by Victor Gialanella and Director Brian...

Review: ‘This Little Light’ at Venus Theatre

This Little Light by Jennifer Faletto opened this week at Venus Theatre. Deborah Randall is the director of this remarkable play. In her director’s notes, Randall calls This Little Light a comedy....

Review: ‘DEMO by Damian Woetzel: Now’ at The Kennedy Center

An eclectic excursion into choreographic experimentation, innovative instrumental accompaniment, and exciting vocalizing is all part of DEMO by Damian Woetzel: Now at Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater....

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington Performs Durufle’s ‘Requiem’ with Soprano Breanna Sinclairé

Maurice Durufle’s Requiem, adapted for tenor and bass chorus by Artistic Director Thea Kano and presented by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, was performed at the Church of the Epiphany on March 3,...

Review: Taylor Mac’s ‘A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Abridged)’ at The Kennedy Center

I doubt the Eisenhower Theater was ever more queered than the night Taylor Mac came to town. The outrageously gifted and fabulously attired theater artist brought “a radical fairy realness ritual...

News: Woolly Mammoth Appoints Maria Manuela Goyanes to Succeed Howard Shalwitz as Artistic Director

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is thrilled to announce the selection of Maria Manuela Goyanes to succeed co-founder Howard Shalwitz as the organization’s Artistic Director. Goyanes is currently...

News: The Welders Receive Grants for the Development of New Work

(Washington, D.C.) The Welders—Washington’s only playwrights’ collective devoted exclusively to developing and producing new plays—has received funding for artistic development of projects by...