Washington DC

Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at Aquila Theatre at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts

‘Much Ado About Nothing’ brings amusement, merriment and mirth Appearances can be quite deceiving, especially in the realm of love. Deception, misunderstandings and much merriment were on display in...

Celebrate the Pulitzer Prize: Staged Readings of Six Pulitzer Prize-Winning Plays/Musicals Tonight Through Sunday at Olney Theatre Center

Happy Birthday, Pulitzer Prize! This weekend only, Olney Theatre Center and Maryland Humanities celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes with Celebrate the Pulitzer Prize: Staged...

Review: National Symphony Orchestra: ‘Shakespeare at the Symphony: From Tchaikovsky to Elgar’

It may be a little known, but hardly surprising, fact that the works of William Shakespeare have inspired more music than any other work of literature perhaps except for the Bible. The Bard’s most...

Review: ‘The Little Foxes’ at Arena Stage

The enduring popularity of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes offers proof positive that themes of greed, racism, and misogyny continue to resonate with contemporary audiences. Though set in a small...

Inbal Pinto Speaks on Shimon Peres and her ‘Wallflower’

The eyes of the world have turned to Israel this week following the death of Shimon Peres. Twice the prime minister of Israel and a member of the Israeli parliament for more than thirty years, Peres...

Review: ‘MotherStruck’ at The Studio Theatre

I happen to like solo performance pieces a lot and I’ve seen many. There’s something I love about the immediacy of a single performer claiming my attention—and maybe stirring my emotions or...

Review: ‘Love’s LaBEERS Lost’ at LiveArtDC and Grain of Sand Theatre at DC Reynolds

Get Thee to This Beer Fest – er – Show! Love’s LaBEERS Lost is a production in danger of becoming a hot, must-see show that will bring the fire department roaring down on DC Reynolds to clear everyone...

Magic Time! ‘The Gulf’ at Signature Theatre

One measure of the quality of a play is how it stays in one’s mind the next few days. Or the next weeks or months or years. Not just how it plays on stage. How it remains in the brain. There are no...

Review: ‘The Gulf’ at Signature Theatre

Signature’s premiere of The Gulf written by Audrey Cefaly is a daring dark venture about two women entwined with heartache and sadness. It is a scorching two-hander character study that takes place in...

Meet the Cast and Director of Providence Players’ ‘Amadeus’ Part 4: Debora Crabbe and Bobby Welsh as The Venticelli by Chip Gertzog

Amadeus, the late Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award and Academy Award-winning masterpiece opens this Friday, September 30, 2016 at the James Lee Community Center Theater and kicks off the Providence Players...

SPINE: Theresa Rebeck’s ‘What We’re Up Against’ at Keegan Theatre

Theresa Rebeck’s sharp-knuckled comedy, What We’re Up Against, received its regional premiere at Keegan Theatre this week, and the laughs abound. An architectural firm hires a young talented architect...

Review: ‘What We’re Up Against’ at The Keegan Theatre

Near the end of What We’re Up Against, Theresa Rebeck’s incisive comedy about workplace sexism—just opened in a kick-ass production at The Keegan Theatre—a question is posed by Eliza, a very talented...

Interviews with the Cast of McLean Community Players’ ‘Comic Potential’ Part 1: Frank Gorrell

In Part 1 in a series of interviews with the cast of McLean Community Players’ Comic Potential, meet Frank Gorrell. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell us where our readers may have seen you...

Craig Wallace on Playing Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong in ‘Satchmo at the Waldorf’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

He is one of my favorite actors and now Craig Wallace has received rave reviews and standing ovations for his riveting and tour de force performance as Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong in Terry Teachout’s...

The Opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture: Watch the Entire Ceremony Here

Hollywood actors, singers and local talent fuel the opening ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture One-hundred years in the making, the National Museum of African...

In the Moment: NextStop Theatre Company’s ‘Paper-Free Programs’

Seeking out budget efficiencies with the often limited resources of a non-profit is a constant. Many of us known this from our own experiences as non-profit board members or on staff. In these current...

Duane Richards II on Playing Willie and Simon in ‘Blackberry Daze’ at MetroStage

Duane Richards II is a native Washingtonian who is appearing in Blackberry Daze at MetroStage. Here’s his journey… Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers about your theater and vocal...

Review: ‘Knuffle Bunny’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

To the delight of children and children at heart, Adventure Theatre’s 2016/17 season kicked off yesterday with Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical. Based on Mo Willem’s first Knuffle Bunny book, the...

Review: ‘National Symphony Orchestra: Season Opening Gala Concert’ at the Kennedy Center

In a political season where talk of building walls sometimes trumps the optimism of building bridges, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, named in honor of a President whose civil...

Review: Martha Graham Dance Company at The Alden Theatre

Heraclitus may have said it first, but 20th century modern dance pioneer Martha Graham followed his dictum: “Change is the only constant.” The company the iconic dancer and choreographer founded in...

Magic Time! ‘How To… Sex Education’ (Weekend Two)

Having enjoyed the first weekend of Rabble Crew Productions’ How To… Sex Education, I went back for seconds—another set of four short plays on the ever popular theme of sex…and the never popular topic...

Review: The Midtown Men at ‘Arts By George’ at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts

One of Northern Virginia’s bright jewel arts events, ARTS by George! returned to the Center for the Arts, George Mason University Fairfax campus with plenty of sharp, crisp, musical style from the...

Review: ‘Man of La Mancha’ at The Arlington Players

In the early 1600s, Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes wrote what would become his masterpiece, the novel Don Quixote. The novel was a huge success and has become a staple in the literary world. In...

Review: ‘Memories & Legends’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Director William Leary returns to Greenbelt Arts Center (GAC) with Wolf Pack Theatre Company’s world premiere of Writer/Composer Stephen Geddes’ inspirational new musical, Memories & Legends. Memories...

Review: Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ “A Cat’s Attic” Concert at The Kennedy Center

Cat Stevens (as he was known then) last performed at The Kennedy Center back in November 1971 just months after it opened. Much has changed since then, including his name (which became Yusuf after he...

Review: ‘Eleanor Roosevelt: Her Secret Journey’ at Compass Rose Theater

This remarkable one-woman show is a testament to the power of theater. Using language and a few props, including a movie screen, this production, written by Rhoda Lerman and directed by Rick Wade,...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Imaginary Music’ by PhEAD at the Philadelphia Art Alliance

A one-night-only multimedia concert that paired Minimalist music–a movement that originated in downtown New York in the 1960s–with visual imagery and current digital technology, Imaginary Music by...

Spine: Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Oh, what a difference 200 years make! Jane Austen’s novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published anonymously in 1811. Folger’s Sense and Sensibility, adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by Eric Tucker,...

Review: ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ at Washington National Opera

“Perdono no merita chi agli altri non da.” So say the words carved into the wall above the stage in the Washington National Opera’s stunning production of The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze de Figaro)...

Meet the Cast and Director of Providence Players’ ‘Amadeus’ Part 3: Julia Buhagiar as Constanze by Chip Gertzog

Amadeus, the late Peter Shaffer’s Tony and Academy award winning masterpiece opens next week, September 30, 2016, at the James Lee Community Center Theater and kicks off the Providence Players...

Dangereuse: ‘The Lovers with a Thousand Faces’: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre is a revelatory theatre experience. Director Alan Paul’s version of Romeo and Juliet has a complexity and richness that reaches deep into the meaning of the...

An Interview with Frankie Sin and Donny Vomit on ‘Shocked and Amazed: Strange for Hire’ at AMP This Saturday, 9/24

One of the things I love most about the burlesque and sideshow community is the sheer love for the craft and joy of performing that shines through when performers talk about their chosen artform. And...

In the Moment: ‘The 100th Meridian Project’ at George Mason University

Climate change is a sharp pointed object in the current 2016 political season. The language strewn about is often hot and more often than not, ad hominem to say the least But climatic issues are not...

In the Moment: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Folger Theatre’s take on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is just gonna charm you with its ingenious high-velocity agility, while depicting the tastefully hide-bound, tart world of gossip and...

Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene… For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. A man, walking onstage with a vacuum, recites the...

Magic Time! ‘How To… Sex Education’ at Rabble Crew Productions

Rabble Crew Productions has a proclivity for mounting edgy, sex-themed theater in fringey places around town. Last December they did Madeline Farrington’s Glory Us at The Fridge in Eastern Market, set...

An Interview with FringeArts President and Producing Director Nick Stuccio

Henrik: What inspired you to create FringeArts, Philadelphia’s annual theater arts festival—“a city-wide celebration of innovation and creativity in contemporary performance”? Nick: We went to the...

Review: ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ at Olney Theatre Center

Olney Theatre Center is on a roll this autumn. Their production of The Diary of Anne Frank, opening on the heels of their recent success with Angels in America (in a joint production with Round House...

Review: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Hey Girl, I Hear You Read Jane Austen; Sense and Sensibility at the Folger Theatre The appeal of Jane Austen’s heroines lies in their lovability. In Sense and Sensibility, the two sisters, Elinor and...

Review: ‘Rock the Line’ at Venus Theatre Company

In the program note for Rock the Line, Playwright Kathleen Warnock describes her new play as, “Kind of like Waiting for Godot, if Godot really came and played electric guitar.” As it turns out, this...

Review: ‘Bad Jews’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Maryland Ensemble Theatre (MET) launches into its new season with fabulous flare, opening with lauded young playwright Joshua Harmon’s critically-acclaimed, off-Broadway drama/comedy hit Bad Jews....

Review: ‘brownsville song (b-side for tray)’ at Theater Alliance

Yesterday at The Anacostia Playhouse, the real world and the world onstage converged. It was like a communal emotion-meld through theater, the human heartbreak untold in too many headlines become the...

Review: ‘Balloonacy’ at NextStopTheatre Company

NextStop Theatre Company has been producing theatre for young audiences for almost 30 years. Their most recent show is a sweet and enjoyable story called Balloonacy from Playwright Barry Kornhauser....

Review: ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ at Brave Spirits Theatre

Love is a battlefield in the vivid, high heat of Brave Spirits Theatre’s striking, fencing-match take on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Once again Brave Spirits (BST) is true to its mission;...

Review #2: ‘Collective Rage’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

“Can feminism be funny?” inquiring minds at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company want to know. For that is the conundrum that connects Sheila Callaghan’s Women Laughing Alone With Salad, Woolly’s cheeky hit...

Review #1: ‘Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Let’s just get this out of the way. Jen Silverman’s Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops (its full title is Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops; In Essence a Queer and Occasionally Hazardous...

Review: National Philharmonic: Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 7’ with Brian Ganz at The Music Center at Strathmore

The National Philharmonic kicked off its 2016-2017 Fall/Winter season with three of Beethoven’s most celebrated works, featuring a special appearance by pianist Brian Ganz performing Piano Concerto...

Review: NSO Pops: The Second City Guide to the Symphony Starring Colin Mochrie

What happens when you put together famous improv comedian Colin Mochrie, Canadian comedy troupe The Second City, and the National Symphony Orchestra? A night of music and sketch comedy at the John F....

Review: ‘The Emperor of North America’ at Silver Spring Stage

Friday night was a very special night at Silver Spring Stage as they opened their 49th Season with Thomas Hischak’s play, The Emperor of North America. This production was presented as part of the...

Review: ‘The 39 Steps’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Laurel Mill Playhouse offers up a pleasing mix of comedy, melodrama, pathos and mystery in their amusingly fun production of The 39 Steps written by Patrick Barlow and directed by Stephen Deininger....