Washington DC

Review: ‘You Have Made A Story on My Skin’ at Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint

You Have Made a Story on My Skin, created by the Production Team and led by writer/performer Rachel Hynes, uses personal stories to explore lingering memories and physical scars. This collaborative...

Magic Time! ‘The Last Schwartz’ at Theater J

What is it that’s so tried and true about plays about siblings? Must be something universal, because there are so gosh darn many of them. Structurally they obviously make for auspicious cast lists,...

Post-Play Palaver: John Stoltenberg and Michael Poandl on ‘Angels in America: Millenium Approaches’ at Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center

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...

Meet The Cast of Castaway’s Repertory Theatre’s ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’: Part 3: Catherine Lyon

In Part 3 of our series of interviews with the cast of Castaways Repertory Theatre’s production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, meet Catherine Lyon (Big Mama). Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our...

Chatting with Rupert Holmes About Landless’ Symphonic/Metal Version of his Musical ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’

He’s a triple threat! He’s won Tony awards for writing the book, score, and lyrics for his Tony award-winning Best Musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, not to mention Tony nominations for the musical...

Review: ‘Who’s the Boss’ at The In Series

The In Series’ production of Who’s the Boss? is a fusion of two comic operettas, Giovanni Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury, re-imagined as companion pieces though...

Tony Award Winner Rupert Holmes Joins Post-Matinee Discussion This Sunday, 9/18 at ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood-The Symphonic/Metal Version’ at The Arts Barn

This Sunday, after the September 18th matinee performance of The Mystery of Edwin Drood there will be a post-show discussion with the MetalDrood team and acclaimed mystery novelist Rupert Holmes,...

Manifesting Premieres Works by Mauceri, Graf, and Reid at NextNOW Festival at The Clarice

On Saturday, September 9, 2016, at the University of Maryland’s NextNow Festival, three playwrights premiered first drafts of new commissioned works. The plays were commissioned by the University of...

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts Presents ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ 9/28-11/6 With Karen Grassle, Bill Grimmette, and Alan Hoffman-Directed by Rick Hammerly

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia is proud to present Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Driving Miss Daisy, starring Karen Grassle. Located at 95...

Review: ‘The Last Schwartz’ at Theater J

There have been so many plays about dysfunctional families—think about August: Osage County, for example, or The Sisters Rosensweig—that it’s hard to believe that anyone would try to produce another...

Review: Amos Lee with Lauren Talese at The Kennedy Center

American music at its best is alive and well as showcased by last night’s Amos Lee concert at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. The evening was off to a good start with an opening performance by...

Spine: Anguish, Angels, and the Reagan Revolution: ‘Angels in America’ at Round House Theatre

Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center have teamed up for a truly remarkable Washington event: Parts 1 & 2 of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Angels in America. On Monday, September 12th,...

Magic Time! ‘Cloud Nine’ at The Studio Theatre

Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine, which premiered in London in 1979, is rightly considered a landmark play. It is pivotal for me personally as well, ever since I saw the legendary Tommy Tune production...

Arts Collective @ HCC’s “Underground Rooftop Coffee House” – An Artistic Collage, On Thursday, September 22, 2016

Arts Collective’s “What Improv Group?!?!” partners with HCC’s Creative Writers, Performing and Visual Artists, and HoCoPoLitSo Howard Community College’s (HCC) Arts Collective (AC) kicks off its 22nd...

Review: ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches’ at Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center

Social, political, and historical forces collide and converge to mirror the conflicted inner worlds of the fascinating characters in Playwright Tony Kushner’s audacious, insightfully subversive, and...

Review: ‘A Bid to Save the World’ at Rorschach Theatre

Imagine a world in which death no longer exists. Rorschach Theatre’s current production of A Bid to Save the World – a new play by California based playwright Erin Bregman – asks audiences to do just...

Review: ‘Cervantes:The Last Quixote’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

If you’re like most Americans, you’ve probably never heard of Cervantes. Or you know him only as the creator of Don Quixote, a book you last picked up in high school. But don’t let that deter you from...

Review: ‘I Call My Brothers’ at Forum Theatre

Forum Theatre has a knack for picking trenchant works of theater that buzz with relevance to hot-button topics. Its current offering is a perfect case in point. Given this nation’s rising tide of...

In the Moment: An Interview with BalletNova’s Artistic Director Laveen Naidu

Area non-profit arts organizations continually develop fresh ideas to reach children who may not regularly have access to the wonders of the performing arts. One new such effort is by Northern...

Meet The Cast of The Castaways Repertory Theatre’s ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’: Part 2: Lisa Arnold and Zell Murphy

In Part Two of a series of interviews with the cast of Castaways Repertory Theatre’s production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, meet Lisa Arnold (Dixie) and Zell Murphy (Reverend Tooker). Joel: Please...

Review: ‘Cloud 9’ at The Studio Theatre

Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9, now playing at Studio Theatre, is a fabulous, funny, smart, and ever more relevant vision of a world in the midst of upheaval. Director Michael Kahn, always the exquisite...

Review: Culture Club at The Music Center at Strathmore

Culture Club channels the 80s at Strathmore The UK pop-soul music group Culture Club has been grooving for over 30 years with hits like “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, “Time,” “Karma Chameleon,”...

Review: “Weird Al” Yankovic at Wolf Trap

“All bets are off,” says Wolf Trap’s website, when “Weird Al” Yankovic, King of Parody, takes over the concert hall. Absolutely anything can happen. 35 years on, the polka-dancing, accordion-playing...

Review: ‘Gypsy’ at Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater and Children’s Theater

Washington County Playhouse Dinner Theater and Children’s Theater has just opened their new production of Gypsy, the classic 1959 musical. Often listed among the greatest musicals ever written, Gypsy...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Deep Blue Theater Collective

A lost Blanche DuBois greets you at the door, as you make your way upstairs, live piano music plays loudly as the troupe of performers dances and lightly interacts with the audience, asking simple...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Exile 2588’ at Almanac Dance Circus Theatre

Inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Io, the principles of existential risk and human enhancement ethics considered by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrum, and the popular genre of science fiction,...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Set in the pleasantly pastel-colored world of Truvy’s beauty salon, The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias starts out by introducing us the everyday life of...

Review: ‘Lobby Hero’ at 1st Stage

The imposing lobby of a tony Manhattan apartment building—all sleek gray marble, glass, and stainless steel—commands the spacious 1st Stage stage. Sound Designer Neil McFadden has created a...

Review: ‘Catch Me If You Can’ at NextStop Theatre Company

The story of Frank Abegnale, Jr., was first brought to America’s attention in Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Catch Me If You Can. It gained a new lease on life in 2011 with the Broadway musical version...

Review: Bryan Adams at Wolf Trap

If you’re looking for the fountain of youth, look no more, it’s called Rock ‘N Roll. Boyish and Renaissance man Bryan Adams transported through a time machine from the 1980s to grace Wolf Trap’s stage...

Review: ‘The Other Place’ at Rep Stage

Today’s playgoers are used to solving puzzles in the theater. So perhaps Playwright Sharr White spends a bit longer than necessary to get us to The Other Place promised by the title of his 2011 drama....

Review: Angelique Kidjo at The Music Center at Strathmore

The raves never stop pouring in for Grammy Award-winning singer, composer, and humanitarian Angelique Kidjo – nor should they. Called by NPR “Africa’s greatest living diva,” Kidjo’s ample gifts – her...

Review: ‘Come From Away’ at Ford’s Theatre

Nestled in the northwestern part of the island of Newfoundland, lies the small town of Gander. In 2001, the population of Gander was 9,651. On September 11, 2001, that population increased by over...

Meet the Cast and Director of Providence Players’ ‘Amadeus’ Part 2: Mike Rudden (Mozart) by Chip Gertzog

Amadeus, the late Peter Shaffer’s Tony and Academy award winning masterpiece opens September 30, 2016 and kicks off the Providence Players 2016-2017 season. In Part 2 of interviews with the cast and...

Review: Don Henley at Wolf Trap

Seeing American icon in concert Don Henley is a must! He is Americana at its best! A musician to the core, his musical craftsmanship holds up to the test of time. A founding member of one of the most...

‘Take A Bow’ Part 7: The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ Favorite Spring/Summer 2016 Performances

Here’s Part 7 of the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts’ favorite Spring/Summer 2016 performances. To our honorees: TAKE A BOW! _____ Caitlin Carbone as Hamlet in Hamlet at Cohesion Theatre Company. Caitlin...

NextNOW is the Final Arts Festival of the Summer at The Clarice September 9-10

For many of us, summer means hot evenings out attending arts festivals. Music fans travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles to attend big music festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo. And locally, the...

Meet The Cast of The Castaways Repertory Theatre’s ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’: Part 1: Jay Tilley and Matthew Scarborough

In part 1 in a series of interviews with the cast of Castaways Repertory Theatre’s production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, meet Matthew Scarborough and Jay Tilley. Please introduce yourself and tell our...

Page-to-Stage Festival: ‘Wendy: The Girl Who Grew Up’ at Monumental Theatre Company

The Kennedy Center’s 15th Annual Page-to-Stage Festival took place on Labor Day weekend, with over 50 D.C. area theaters participating. Through free readings and open rehearsals, the Festival offers a...

Page-to-Stage New Play Festival: ‘Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Mosaic Theater Company of DC Unveils Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies. Full Production Set for World Premiere in January 2017 One of the most highly anticipated new plays of the 2016-17...

Page-to-Stage New Play Festival: Brave Soul Collective and African-American Collective Theater

Two of DC’s most important independent theater collectives bearing witness as black artists to #BlackLivesMatter are Brave Soul Collective and African-American Collective Theater (ACT). Both...

Review: ‘Urinetown’ at Constellation Theatre Company

In the not too distant future there will be a drought so long and severe that water use will become strictly regulated. So regulated that even your right to pee will be in doubt. How will you handle...

Review: ‘Blackberry Daze’ at MetroStage

MetroStage’s Blackberry Daze adapted by novelist Ruth P. Watson and Director/Choreographer/Lyricist Thomas W. Jones II from Watson’s best-selling novel, and with a soulful, beautiful, and emotional...

A Report on Landless Theatre Company’s Symphonic Metal ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’

Following the success of last year’s Sweeney Todd Prog Metal Version, Landless Theatre Company is back with their latest metal adaptation of a Tony® Award-winning musical. This time, the company...

Review: ‘Kraftwerk’ at The Music Center at Strathmore

Review: Kraftwerk brings electro-pop and 3D imagery to The Music Center at Strathmore The electro-pop group Kraftwerk has been shredding the envelope of what is possible in electronic instrumentation...

Review: Disney in Concert: ‘Tale as Old as Time’ With the Wolf Trap Orchestra

On the first cool evening in the DC area in a while, what better way to spend it than at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap? Tonight’s concert, Disney in Concert’s Tale as Old as Time, with the Wolf Trap...

Review: ‘Report to an Academy’ at Scena Theatre

Scena Theatre opens the company’s 30th Anniversary Season with Report to an Academy, an emotionally powerful drama. Report to an Academy is based on the 1917 classic short story by Franz Kafka....

Review: ‘Henry V’ at The Rude Mechanicals

With Henry V, actor Rebecca Speas marks her directorial debut with an energetic, well-choreographed production featuring an outstanding cast. After bringing their critically acclaimed production of...

In the Moment: ‘Satchmo at the Waldorf’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Satchmo at the Waldorf, at Mosaic Theater Company of DC, is not timid. Nor should it be. With a script by Wall Street Journal arts critic Terry Teachout, the strong hand of Eleanor Holdridge guiding...

Magic Time! “I Think About How Badly I Can Break a Heart Today”: A Q&A with Audrey Cefaly, Author of ‘The Gulf’ at Signature Theatre

John: I first discovered your writing when I saw Maytag Virgin during the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, and as I said when I interviewed you back then, “it was one of those experiences of an...