Washington DC

Adventure Theatre’s first in-person show to be two fairy tales, outdoors

Maryland’s premiere musical theater academy and family theater to open ‘Fairy Tales in the Sun’ July 11.

Colonial Players to address dressing in ‘Love, Loss, and What I Wore’

Funny, wistful, and heart-to-heart stories about the nostalgic power of women’s clothing.

In-person performance to resume at Ford’s Theatre in October

Season to feature Civil Rights icons Marian Anderson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., world premiere musical ‘Grace,’ and return of ‘A Christmas Carol.’

IN Series sets season of live theater centering DEI

Marking its 40th year, the innovative company plans new collaborations and world premieres to play a dozen DC and Baltimore venues.

Synetic to produce next season both in person and on film

The award-winning physical theater will welcome audiences back to its Crystal City venue while delivering Synetic-curated content to home TVs.

Woolly Mammoth, Spit Dat, and THEARC join for ‘Homegrown’ live July 7–11

What is home to you?’ Local legends of DC’s spoken word scene answer the question together with emerging Ward 7 and 8 spoken word artists.

New comedy about the afterlife from new company born during COVID

Laurence Klavan’s hilarious ‘What Comes Next’ premieres as audio play from 21st Century Players.

Timely new play from Studio Theatre to confront U.S. immigration crisis

George Brandt’s ‘Tender Age’ looks back to Trump-era policies to ask how much has truly changed.

Foursome to sing ‘Songs for a New World’ from Monumental

Jason Robert Brown’s powerhouse song cycle comes to a screen near you.

A Juneteenth benchmark of local #WeSeeYouWAT action

A measure of antiracist work underway and a reminder of work yet to be done.

An achingly beautiful ‘Last Five Years’ from Constellation Theatre

The solid voices of Adelina Mitchell (as Catherine) and Alex Stone (as Jamie) convey the evening’s exhilaration, hope, and grief.

‘White Rabbit, Red Rabbit’ hops next to NextStop

A different actor reads the script cold for the first time each performance. There’s no director, no set, and it’s 100 percent unrehearsed.

‘We’re Gonna Die’ at Round House is a thin take on a big theme

After the harrowing events of the last year, the production is a noble effort—but something of a misfire.

Arena Stage to roar back with mix of bubbly and soul

2021/22 season to feature inspiring dramas, a high-energy musical, contemporary dance, electrifying music, diverse voices.

The fun begins ‘After Midnight’ in big band musical from Signature

The singing, dancing, and songs are all highpoints. The filming, editing, and lighting are all superb.

‘Always…Patsy Cline’ live from Creative Cauldron is heady and sweet

If you’re a fan of live music and looking to reenter society after a long and stressful year, this show is a great choice.

Olney Theatre’s open-air summer is open invitation to all

‘Olney Outdoors’ offers something for everyone, live on the Root Family Stage.

Opera Lafayette to offer 12 hours of free classical music online June 20

The international Fête de la Musique, marking the start of summer, comes to DC.

‘Will on the Hill’ asks, ‘What’s the deal with Shakespeare?’

Members of Congress and A-list actors join Shakespeare Theatre Company in fun and frolic for a good cause.

A sensational seance and powerful storytelling in ‘Animal Wisdom’

Animal Wisdom is a sensational Southern seance with moving original music and heartwrenching storytelling. Animal Wisdom is a collision of traditional storytelling and modern lenses, bursting into a...

‘GMCW Turns 40’ celebrates equality, justice, and joy

GMCW turns 40 is a joyous, and bittersweet, survey of the breadth of the work of Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC. Photographs, newpaper clippings, and video footage of the Chorus singing, acting,...

‘Variant Strains’ comedy about a vaccine race is a booster shot of fun

I didn’t think I was ready to attend live theater again — only the prospect of a new play by the always reliable John Morogiello performing in a winning combo with the irrepressible Rebecca Herron at...

Wolf Trap marks 50th anniversary with first live performances in a year and half

A full summer season of concerts to reopen America’s only national park for the performing arts.

Post-Play Palaver: A double take on ‘Blindness’ at STC

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...

Creative Cauldron presents ‘Always…Patsy Cline’ live and outdoors

Creative Cauldron presents Always…Patsy Cline, written and originally directed by Ted Swindley and based on a true story. This musical play follows the unlikely friendship between Patsy and a devoted...

An elegently sensual ‘Ella es tango (She Is Tango)’ from GALA

GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Ella es tango (She Is Tango) is the tale of two centuries of music, dance, and female liberation from the origins of Tango as a macho form of entertainment, for the patrons of...

1st Stage reveals cast of surprise-filled ‘Duck Harbor’ web series

Actors Geoffrey Rivas and Deidra LaWan Starnes met for the first time live online.

‘A More Perfect Union’ from Arena is a thrilling musical accomplishment

I love what you stand for, but I hate the way you lie. to save our soul your secrets need to die. I still love you. God, I still love you. Look me in the eye. Tell me where you’ve been. — lyrics from...

NSO reunites with live audience after 15 months of silence

For the first time in more than a year, audiences lined up outside the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall to hear the National Symphony Orchestra perform last week. Musicians and their public were together...

Bowen McCauley Dance to take last bows, gives penultimate performance

As the dance world eases back to stages, Bowen McCauley Dance was among the first to dip a toe in to test the waters, dancing together on the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater stage before a very...

In Mosaic’s darkly funny ‘Inherit the Windbag,’ an epic bickerfest (ep. 8)

Mosaic Theater Company’s web series Inherit the Windbag is a darkly funny revisitation of a debate between two larger-than-life figures. During the 1968 Democratic and Republican National Conventions,...

Women composers to revel this weekend at WoCo Fest 2021

Cellist Amanda Gookin joined the legions of artists whose lives were upended when the pandemic robbed them and their public of sharing music in the same space. But that all changes on Saturday, June...

A feel-good podcast from theatermakers Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith

Do you have those friends who are so crazy talented, smart, and wonderful that you wonder how in the world you are lucky enough to have crossed paths with them? That’s Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory...

Rorschach Theatre hits the jackpot with immersive ‘Distance Frequencies’

Rorschach Theatre’s current production is not a show. Well, not yet. It’s more of an adventure of the mind and, if you wish, the body. Since October 2020, patrons could receive seven chapter boxes of...

An exhilarating ‘Freewheelin’ Insurgents’ by Psalmayene 24 from Arena Stage

Nobody knows how the crisis that we are currently experiencing is going to turn out. The questions What are we to do? and How are we to go on? are at the center of The Freewheelin’ Insurgents, the...

Love goes to and fro in ‘The Last Five Years,’ up next from Constellation

Following the success of Sue Jin Song’s one-woman show Children of Medea, Constellation Theatre Company presents Jason Robert Brown’s beloved two-person musical The Last Five Years as the second...

Shakespeare Theatre Company to resume full-capacity shows in September

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Artistic Director SIMON GODWIN announced the Company’s 2021/22 Season in a virtual townhall meeting for season subscribers, donors, Board members, and STC staff. The Tony...

My impromptu evening when the show couldn’t go on at American Shakespeare Center

One by one, our beloved live theaters are reopening, and the level of anticipation cannot possibly be higher. This summer, Staunton, Virginia’s company at the American Shakespeare Center is starting...

An independent woman faces cancer in Solas Nua’s intimate outdoor drama

There couldn’t be a more perfect setting for Irish playwright Deirdre Kinahan’s In the Middle of the Fields than the grassy, clovered slope of P Street Beach, a sliver of Rock Creek Park a quick walk...

Studio Theatre’s ‘Flow’ feels like a hip-hop feast for the senses

Director Psalmayene 24 and actor-poet Justin Weaks join forces again in Flow, bridging the gap between Old Skool rappers and new age Flowetry performers to trace the tragic footsteps of seven...

A close look at ‘City in Transition,’ Theater Alliance’s love letter to DC

Transition as a noun means “the process or period of changing from one state to another.” As a verb it means “to undergo or cause to undergo a process or period of transition.” Both definitions, from...

GALA’s ‘She Is Tango’ to highlight women composers and singers

Tango—called by one Argentinian tango instructor “a caricature of the patriarchy”—will dance to a distaff tune in GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Ella es tango (She Is Tango), a sizzling original musical...

Martin Luther to lock horns with the Pope in ‘Luther’s Trumpet’ from GMU

Edward Gero and Craig Wallace—two of the most prominent actors in DC—go head-to-head as Martin Luther and Pope Leo X in Luther’s Trumpet, presented May 28 to June 5, 2021, by George Mason University’s...

A summer of free weekend mini-festivals at Kennedy Center’s The REACH

Millennium Stage returns to the Kennedy Center with weekly, free, outdoor performance experiences curated by artists and organizations from around the DMV. Every Thursday to Saturday, May 27­­ to...

32 actors to perform Alan Sharpe’s ‘Screen/Plays’ on Black Pride Weekend

African-American Collective Theater (ACT) begins its 29th consecutive season with readings of Screen/Plays—12 original short plays by Founding Artistic Director Alan Sharpe. The latest installment of...

Women’s collective Pipeline Playwrights to premiere magical comedy

Pipeline Playwrights announces its first production in its Our Time, Our Stories Zoom production series: the world premiere of Ann Timmons’s A Very Present Presence, directed by Catherine Tripp. This...

A highly entertaining ‘How He Lied to Her Husband’ from Washington Stage Guild

Washington Stage Guild continues its run of online performances with a one-act comedy from George Bernard Shaw, whose works they perform so frequently that he’s affectionately known as their “house...

‘Duck Harbor’ from 1st Stage to serialize the surprise of a bicoastal love

1st Stage embarks on a surprise-filled new web series, Duck Harbor, by renowned playwrights E. M. Lewis and Bob Bartlett, who collaborate on the clever, humorous, and heartwarming story of...

Women dish their exes in ‘To the New Girl’ from Peace Mountain Theatre

Peace Mountain Theatre Company presents a weekend of performances of To the New Girl by Samantha Macher, the company’s first foray into film. The play features a series of monologues from eight...

GALA presents stunning one-man ‘Aliens, Immigrants & Other Evil Doers’

José Torres-Tama’s genre-bending sci-fi Latino noir satirizes the absurd status of immigrants as “extraterrestrials.”