Washington DC

Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret Presents the Third Annual ‘Black Friday’ Burlesque on Friday, November 25th

Chocolate City Burlesque and Cabaret (CCBC) likes to do things a little differently. The troupe is known for its spectacular semiannual burlesque shows housed at the GALA Hispanic Theatre. Chocolate...

Interview: Tom Teasley on his Percussion Composition for ‘Metropolis’ playing at Constellation Theatre Company through November 19th

For five nights only, world renowned percussionist Tom Teasley is performing an original composition set to Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis. I saw the first performance at Constellation...

Magic Time! ‘(Re)Acts: Where Do We Go From Here?’ at Forum Theatre

“We certainly didn’t prepare ourselves for this,” said Forum Theatre Artistic Director Michael Dove Monday night at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre. He was addressing a packed house of folks who...

Review #2: ‘Straight White Men’ at The Studio Theatre

If your empathy for straight white men was strained by last week’s elections, go see Young Jean Lee’s 2014 play at The Studio Theatre. You’ll be privy to a rare, funny and poignant look under the fig...

In the Moment: A Report on The Edge of the Universe Players 2’s Workshop Production of Young Jean Lee’s ‘Pullman, WA’

The Edge of the Universe Players 2‘s workshop production of Young Jean Lee’s Pullman, WA was an evening that defies easy categorization. It was charming one moment, annoying the next. It was a...

Review: ‘Let’s Misbehave! True Confessions of GMCW’ at The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

I can’t vouch for the truth of the confessions, at Let’s Misbehave! True Confessions of GMCW (The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC), but having each performer bare a bit of his soul as lead in to...

Center Stage’s November ‘Wright Now Play Later’

Last month, after several seasons of success with their Wright-Right-Now (“WRN”) program – the micro-commissioning series in which playwrights produce patron-prompted short plays on demand, Center...

Review: The Washington Chorus Presents Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 5

On Sunday, November 13, 2016, the pulsating, transcendent and visionary music of the modern musical giant of minimalist music, Philip Glass —came to vivid life in a unique and powerful concert event....

Review: ‘Urinetown’ at Wilson Theater at Woodrow Wilson High School

Urinetown,The Musical, the totally odiferous sounding but truly entertaining musical, comes up smelling like a rose in its production by the students and faculty at Woodrow Wilson High School. The...

Review: ‘Disney’s The Little Mermaid’ at Mount Vernon Community Children’s Theatre

Mount Vernon Community Children’s Theatre opened their production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid this weekend, and I had the pleasure of seeing their show with my three young boys. The musical is...

Review: ‘A Delicate Balance’ at Peace Mountain Theatre Company

Laurie T. Freed knows Edward Albee’s work and has directed his plays several times. Her brilliant direction is evident in the exceptional moving and powerful production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A...

Spine: ‘Straight White Men’ by Young Jean Lee at The Studio Theatre

Young Jean Lee’s theatre, entitled Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company (2003-2016), was dedicated to producing “shows written and directed by Young Jean Lee.” The company produced 12 of Ms. Lee’s...

Meet the Cast of Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s ‘A Delicate Balance’: Part 6: Devora Zack

In part 6 of a series of interviews with Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s A Delicate Balance, meet Devora Zack. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell readers where they have seen you perform before...

Meet the Cast of Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s ‘A Delicate Balance’: Part 5: Janet Constable Preston

In Part 5 of a series of interviews with the cast of Peace Mountain Theatre Company’s A Delicate Balance, meet Janet Constable Preston. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell readers where they have...

Review: ‘Oliver Twist’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron presents Oliver Twist, an original adaptation based on Charles Dickens’ classic novel. Directors Laura Connors Hull and Ellen Selby and tailored this production for the performers of...

Review: ‘Straight White Men’ at The Studio Theatre

In these jagged days immediately after the election, Studio Theatre’s richly revealing production of Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee is bracing, to say the least. It deserves our attention no...

Review: ‘What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice’ at Dance Place

Walking into Dance Place for the world premiere of choreographer and dancer Vincent Thomas’s What’s Going On: Life, Love, and Social Justice, an homage to Marvin Gaye, the great Northeast D.C. native...

Review #2: The Washington National Opera’s ‘The Daughter of the Regiment’ at The Kennedy Center (Cast #2: Sunday, 11/13/16)

Sometimes a relationship between a child and a parent is truly uplifting. Multiply those emotions times twenty, and you experience the heartwarming plot of The Daughter of the Regiment. Broadway...

Dangereuse: She Will Rock You: ‘TAME.’ at WSC Avant Bard

One of Shakespeare’s greatest gifts is the inspiration he offers to other artists. In the case of Tame., playwright Jonelle Walker has captured the essence of Shakespeare’s Kate in The Taming of the...

Meet the Cast ‘Spring Awakening’ at Ovations Theatre: Part 1: Marjorie Long and Josie Weinberg

In part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Ovations Theatre’s Spring Awakening, meet Marjorie Long and Josie Weinberg who share the role of Ilse. Joel: What is your name, age, high school...

Review #1: Washington National Opera’s ‘The Daughter of the Regiment’ (Opening Night Cast-11/12/16)

If your operatic desire is to hear one glorious aria after another sung by two operatic voices that would make the gods envious –set against a deliriously “light-as-air” comically sentimental soufflé...

Review: The American Pops Orchestra Presents ‘I’ll Be Seeing You: A World War II Love Story’ at Lisner Auditorium

I’ll Be Seeing You is a delightful portrait of the love and sacrifices of a newlywed couple separated by military service during World War II. The letters between Spark and Charley while Charlie is...

Review: ‘Broadway Bound’ at 1st Stage

As self-conscious plays go, Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound is both a self-fulfilling prophesy and a cross-examination of the creative process. The play, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a...

Review: ‘Little Thing, Big Thing’ at Solas Nua

The DC premiere of Donal O’Kelly’s Little Thing, Big Thing, playing now at Solas Nua performing at Flashpoint Mead Theatre Gallery, is an impressively entertaining dark Irish comedy. A cast of two...

Review: ‘Black Violin’ at Strathmore

‘Black Violin’ serves up a musical potpourri at Strathmore “This is a party!” said Wil B (Wilner Baptiste) one half of the group Black Violin, which performed a genre-mashing amalgam of hip hop and...

Meet the Cast of ‘Dinner With Friends’ at Greenbelt Arts Center: Part 4: Jim Adams

In Part 4 of a series of interviews with Greenbelt Arts Center’s Dinner With Friends, meet Jim Adams. Joel: Please tell our readers where they may have seen your work on our local stages. Who did you...

In the Moment: ‘Birdman Live! at George Mason University Center

There has been a wealth of films about Broadway over the decades. Many oft these Broadway-related movies are from a too distant past even if still shown on AMC or Turner Classics. If the older films...

Review: ‘War Virgin’ at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop

In honor of Veterans’ Day, I took in a showing of War Virgin. I first met the playwright, West Point grad and Iraqi War veteran Laura Westley, at the Army/Navy game in Philadelphia several years ago....

Magic Time: ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ at The Keegan Theatre

Having been watching a con man on the national stage for too long now, I found myself last night watching a con man on a local theater stage from an unusually timely point of view. To put it simply:...

Meet the Cast of Avant Bard’s ‘TAME.’ Part 4: Madeline Burrows

In Part 4 of a series of interviews with the cast of Avant Bard’s production of TAME., meet Madeline Burrows. Joel: Where have local audiences seen you perform recently on stage? Madeline: Most...

Review: ‘Carousel’ at Arena Stage

Life happens. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s, Carousel, is a timeless interlude that explores the human spirit’s indomitable will to go forward no matter life’s circumstances. Director Molly Smith’s...

Review: BSO at Strathmore: Mahler Symphony No. 6

Some critics go to music performances as a modern day Shakespearean Brutus: They come to bury the performance, not praise it. And, bury it they do with raised pinky, off-putting, arcane phraseology...

The American Pops’ “I’ll Be Seeing You-A World War II Love Story” Tonight at 8 PM at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium

TONIGHT, Friday, November 11th at 8:00 PM LUKE FRAZIER AND THEAMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA PRESENT “I’LL BE SEEING YOU – A WORLD WAR II LOVE STORY” FOR VETERANS DAY TO OPEN THEIR ALL-STAR SECOND SEASON....

Meet the Cast of ‘Dinner With Friends’ at Greenbelt Arts Center: Part 3: Michelle Johncock

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of Greenbelt Arts Center’s Dinner with Friends, meet Michelle Johncock. Joel: Please tell our readers where they may have seen your work on our local...

Meet the Cast of ‘Children of Eden’ at Damascus Theatre Company. Part 2: Kevin Sockwell

In part two of a series of interviews with the cast of Damascus Theatre Company’s Children of Eden, meet Kevin Sockwell. Where have local theatergoers seen you perform before on our local stages? What...

Composer/Librettist Andrew Earle Simpson on ‘The Outcasts of Poker Flat’, His New One-Act Chamber Opera Playing at Catholic University Through Sunday 11/20

New opera: The Outcasts of Poker Flat at Catholic University (Or, “Two Prostitutes, a Thief, and a Gambler Walk into a Bar…”) This month, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, a 70-minute one-act chamber opera...

“It’s Our Most Jewish Play This Season”: A Q&A With Adam Immerwahr About ‘The Christians’ at Theater J

For the second show in his first season as artistic director of Theater J, the nation’s largest and most prominent Jewish theater, Adam Immerwahr picked a play with the counterintuitive title The...

‘Our Place in the Universe’: An Interview with Flying V’s Jason Schlafstein

Founded in 2011, Flying V Theatre strives to inspire people to live life more through theater that unites high concepts and intimate moments. This year, the company was chosen as a NextLOOK artist...

Review: ‘Salvador’ by Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company at GALA Hispanic Theatre

There’s good news and bad news floating out of GALA Hispanic Theatre this week. First, the bad news. Salvador—the full-length autobiographical dance drama, choreographed by the great Flamenco dancer,...

Review: ‘Tame.’ at Avant Bard

Audiences of all generations and emerging Millennial-aged playwrights should rejoice at Avant Bard’s production of DC playwright Jonelle Walker’s TAME. Avant Bard took a risky budgetary and audience...

Magic Time! ‘Milk Like Sugar’ at Mosaic Theater Company

This beautiful play about black teenagers with bleak futures left me with such a melancholy sadness that two days later (on what was then Election Day), it had not gone away. I share that not to keep...

Spine: ‘Milk Like Sugar’ at Mosaic Theater Company

America is but an expensive iPhone. If you’ve got that, and its Pink with a sexy ringtone, then you’re in, as in the “in” crowd. Now, all you need is a baby. Or so seems the mind-set of Margie,...

Review #2: ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ at The Keegan Theatre

In John Guare’s wonderfully enigmatic and slightly precocious play, Six Degrees of Separation, now playing at The Keegan Theatre—the ripples of interconnection run rampant as the author intended. This...

Review: ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ at The Keegan Theatre

We’ve all heard of this idea before—that there are six degrees of separation between everyone in the universe, from the president of the U.S. to a “gondolier in Venice.” John Guare’s play, named after...

Review: ‘Where Words Once Were’ at The Kennedy Center

This past weekend, The Kennedy Center opened a newly commissioned show for young audiences from Playwright, Finegan Kruckemeyer. The piece titled, Where Words Once Were, touches on the often...

Review: Sheila Jordan at the KC Jazz Club

Sheila Jordan loves jazz. Sheila Jordan loves singing. Sheila Jordan really loves jazz singing. And we feel truly blessed to have spent an evening in the presence of that love. For those who have not...

Review: ‘Milk Like Sugar’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Milk Like Sugar, the Obie Award-winning play that just opened at Mosaic Theater Company of DC, starts off as badass comedy, the kind where the word “shit”—repeated like an “amen” at the end of each...

Review: ‘The Wild Party’ at the University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at The Clarice

Dim lights, warm hues and the soft murmur of conversation and clanking glasses lured us into Queenie’s – the decadent speakeasy formerly known as The Clarice’s Kogod Theatre. Waiters greeted guests,...

Review: ‘Mary Poppins’ at Olney Theatre Center

How do you make a stage musical from a movie that was “Practically Perfect in Every Way”? A movie that won five Academy Awards, including Best Visual Effects for cinematic magic tricks and a sequence...

Meet the Cast of ‘Children of Eden’ at Damascus Theatre Company. Part 1: Cheryl J. Campo

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Damascus Theatre Company’s Children of Eden, meet Cheryl J. Campo. Joel: Where have local theatergoers seen you perform before on our local stages?...