Washington DC

Review: ‘I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk’ at Strathmore

From Handel’s Giulio Cesare to Donizetti’s Anna Bolena to Adams’ Nixon in China, real-life historic figures have often been the subjects of operas. The multi-talented actor, singer, composer, and...

Review: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Nestled into a quiet corner of Old Town Alexandria, the production of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird (adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel) at The Little Theatre of Alexandria was...

Review: Theater Triebewerk’s ‘Moby Dick’ at The Kennedy Center

A big theatrical story created on a small space is no easy matter. For the too-short stay of Moby Dick at the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, it was accurate what the Kennedy Center staff...

Review: ‘Looking for Roberto Clemente’ at Imagination Stage

Searching for something fun, informative, and meaningful to do with the family this spring? Imagination Stage’s current production of Looking for Roberto Clemente is a touching show centered on a...

Review: ‘The Flying Dutchman’ at Virginia Opera

How should we deal with the storms of life? Should we go through life content and yet oblivious to the suffering of ourselves and others? Or, do we allow ourselves psychic disturbance over the plight...

Review: DEMO: Place with Damian Woetzel starring Lil Buck at The Kennedy Center

Damian Woetzel’s DEMO Place starring Lil Buck uses art as a platform to explore geographical locations in the midst of authentic human emotions. A 90-minute jam session of dance, music, and dramatics,...

Review: ‘C.S. Lewis Onstage: The Most Reluctant Convert’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre

Believe it or not, this is one terrific piece of theater. It’s a one-man play about an influential, world-class thinker that’s every bit as smart, fascinating, and satisfying as the best such solo...

Review: ‘Our Town’ at Reston Community Players

When I walked into the Reston Community Center at approximately 7:30 to see Reston Community Players’ production of Our Town, there was an immediate sense of theatricality that was taking effect. As I...

Roz White and Teresa Castracane on Appearing in ‘Black Pearl Sings!’ at MetroStage

Roz White and Teresa Castracane star in Black Pearl Sings! at MetroStage playing two extraordinary strong women from very different backgrounds. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers...

Review: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ at The Catholic University of America’s Drama Department

On Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, CUADrama opens one of the most iconic English-language stories in the canon, Pride and Prejudice. Darcy and Elizabeth get a brand new Pop Art twist in this refreshing...

Sarah Lasko is ‘Over the Rainbow’ Coming Home and Playing Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at The National Theatre

You may have seen Sarah Lasko perform on our local DC area stages, but now you can see her in Oz when she returns home to appear as Dorothy on the National Theatre stage in the eye-popping tour of...

‘New Voices Old Muses’ at The Kennedy Center’s KC Jukebox

This year, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts began an innovative concert series called KC Jukebox, curated by The Kennedy Center’s first proclaimed Composer-in-Residence, Mason Bates....

Andrew Lippa on ‘I Am Anne Hutchinson’/’I Am Harvey Milk’ at Strathmore on 4/23 & 24

Andrew Lippa is bringing I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk to The Music Center at Strathmore this Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 8 PM and on Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 4 PM. Andrew tells us about...

In the Moment: A Look at ‘The Mystery of Love & Sex’: Jonny I Hardly Know Ye

Revelations are many in the admirable production of Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love & Sex currently at Signature Theatre. Directed by Stella Powell Jones, The Mystery of Love & Sex has its share...

Review: ‘The Mystery of Love & Sex’ at Signature Theatre

Do you want to feel good? Do you want to forget for a couple of hours the political hate speech that’s currently filling the airways, or the vast economic inequality and the rise of a political...

‘Talking Shop and Taking Stock With Ari Roth’ by John Stoltenberg and David Siegel

There was a buzz of high energy as we walked into Ari Roth’s office at the Atlas Performing Arts Center to meet with the Founding Artistic Director of Mosaic Theater Company of DC. We wanted to talk...

Review: ‘Laughter and Reflection with Carol Burnett-A Conversation Where the Audience Asks the Questions’ at Strathmore

Comedienne extraordinaire Carol Burnett brought her distinctive and legendary persona to the Music Center at Strathmore last night and the audience responded with glee and deserved appreciation....

Review: ‘Middletown’ at Lumina Studio Theatre

Middletown is a series of vignettes powered by a strong ensemble Middletown, which played at The Silver Spring Black Box Theater through April 17th was a glorious, energetic crowd pleaser. Directed by...

Review: ‘Cloud Nine’ at Gallaudet University Theatre and Dance Program

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

Review: ‘Twelfth Night’ at The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre

There are few plays in the Shakespearean canon as beloved as Twelfth Night. It’s a comedy that uses mistaken identities, trickery, and a healthy dose of romance to captivate its audience. And it’s one...

Review: ‘The Mousetrap’ at Prince George’s Little Theatre

The Mousetrap Weaves a Tangled Patchwork of Suspense The Mousetrap, now playing at Bowie Playhouse and produced by Prince George’s Little Theatre, is a purist’s take on late mystery writer Agatha...

Review: Buddy Guy and The Damn Right Blues Band at The State Theatre

Buddy Guy is a man who does not act his age of 79 years young! He is a cool cat and an American blues legend. He played to an enthusiastic capacity crowd Wednesday night at the State Theatre and the...

Review: ‘Oedipus ROX!’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Take one-part glam rock, one-part Mad Max: Beyond Thunder Dome, and one-part A Clockwork Orange, and you have Oedipus ROX! at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre. Oedipus ROX! is a modern Rock musical...

‘My Queer Body’ at The Rainbow Theatre Project

Inside the beltway bubble of local theater making, it’s easy to forget how many U.S. citizens are indifferent, if not antipathetic, to live theater. Mainly they express this by voting with their...

“This is Spinal Tap” Tribute: An Interview with Anna Steasya and Phil Lander

I’m a big fan of Christopher Guest, master of the mockumentary, and yet had shamefully never seen the movie that started it all, This is Spinal Tap, until my friends at Black Market Burlesque decided...

Review: ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five thirty in the morning… So begins one of the most powerful works of literature ever written. Chronicle of a Death Foretold was...

In the Moment: ‘The Nether’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The seeds of Jennifer Haley’s award-winning The Nether now at DC’s Woolly Mammoth and Philly’s InterAct were planted long, long ago. Twenty years ago in fact, The War of Desire and Technology at the...

Review: ‘Enchanted April’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

Are you ready to ditch this cold, rainy weather we’ve had and enjoy an Enchanted April? Vicariously escape to Italy to appreciate wisteria and sunshine in the Greenbelt Art Center’s charming rendition...

Review: ‘The Secret Garden’ at The Colonial Players of Annapolis

The children’s timeless classic, The Secret Garden, comes alive on stage at The Colonial Players of Annapolis, in the musical version written by Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman. Director Lois Evans and...

Review: ‘A Wedding To Die For’ at Kentland’s Mansion and Arts Barn

Murder at the Mansion Dessert Theater’s A Wedding to Die For featuring the talents of A Taste For Murder Productions was an entertaining and intimate production about a wedding gone terribly wrong. It...

Review: ‘Regina’ by The Maryland Opera Studio at The Clarice

Marc Blitzstein’s Regina is a hard show to characterize. Some call it an opera; others might call it a musical. After a paltry 56-show run on Broadway in 1949, the show finally succeeded in a 1953...

Review: ‘Cirque Zuma Zuma’ at The Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center

As scientists continue to seek out new forms of alternative energy I would suggest they check out Cirque Zuma Zuma. From the time the troupe hits the stage they are dancing and don’t stop until their...

Review ‘Nice Work If You Can Get It’ at The Arlington Players

The Arlington Players (TAP) is taking on the feel good musical, Nice Work If You Can Get It. The book is written by Joe DiPietro with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. The musical is based...

Quotidian Theatre Company’s ‘A Lesson from Aloes’ Opens on April 29th

Quotidian Theatre Company Presents Athol Fugard’s Compelling Drama, A Lesson From Aloes, Opening April 29, 2016. Quotidian Theatre Company continues its dynamic 2016 season with the moving...

‘The Long View’: A Look at Motti Lerner’s ‘After the War’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

It’s a lot like Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, when Nora sounded the door-slam heard round the world. A similar shocking noise punctuates the end of Motti Lerner‘s new play, After The War, with the...

Review: ‘Snow White’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Adapted from the Brothers Grimm classic, originally published in 1812, NextStop Theatre’s current family-friendly production of Snow White is by no means an untold story. Yet, this version by Kyle...

Review: ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ at The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts

The Island of Dr. Moreau is kind of like a 19th century Jurassic Park. In fact, it’s more grisly than the latter – Moreau involves the forcible creation of human/animal hybrids – but the message is...

Review: ‘Dial M for Murder’ at Olney Theatre Center

If Frederick Knott had only written the classic thriller, Dial M for Murder, it would have been enough. Knott actually went on to write only two great mystery dramas – Write Me a Murder and Wait until...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ at Red Branch Theatre Company

Red Branch Theatre Company has dubbed its new season “Paint It Red” with an eye toward the blood and mayhem in its selected slate of musicals. Up and running now is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of...

Spine: ‘The Nether’ and its Virtual Revolution at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

In the middle of Jennifer Haley’s beautifully poetic The Nether, now playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the detective quotes Theodore Roethke’s “In a Dark Time:” Dark, dark my light, and...

Magic Time! ‘The Nether’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Playwright Jennifer Haley has seen the future and it’s The Nether, her cerebrally chilling thriller about future tech and future sex. Just opened at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in a fantastical...

Review: ‘The Nether’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Imagine a place where you could be anything you ever dreamed of and do anything you desired in total anonymity and without fear of reprisal or consequence. Imagine the retreat you crave, that you...

Review: ‘Drift’ at Howard University

Howard University’s annual spring dance concert, held this weekend at the Ira Aldridge Theater, brings forth emerging artists. In collaboration with The Washington Ballet’s Studio Company, the concert...

Review: ‘Hunting and Gathering’ at Rep Stage

Nostalgia for the rigors of big-city apartment hopping is the last thing one expects to find out in the suburbs of Howard County. But Rep Stage offers up that and more with its D.C.-area premiere of...

Meet the Cast of 1st Stage’s ‘Proof’: Part 2: Liz Osborn

In Part Two of a series of interviews with the cast of Proof at 1st Stage, meet Liz Osborn. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform before on our...

Review: Pianist Bruce Levingston Presents ‘Creating An American Citizen’ at Georgetown University

Bruce Levingston, Pianist – True Southern Gentleman and Cosmopolitan Musician On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, a captive audience was treated to a performance by acclaimed pianist Bruce Levingston, in...

Review: ‘Macbeth’ at The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre

When you go to see Macbeth, you probably take a few things for granted. You might expect to be impressed by the splendor and beauty of Shakespeare’s language, and you might expect to be drawn into a...

Review: Clarinetist Valentin Uryupin at the Phillips Collection

The Music Room at the Phillips Collection is such a distinctive and up-close venue to hear performers that you can forget how momentous the events there can turn out to be. That may well have been the...

Review: ‘All the Way’ at Arena Stage

Lyndon Baines Johnson, popularly known as “LBJ,” was one of our best presidents, and also one of our worst. Truly a study in contrasts, he could evince both strength and weakness at the same time. LBJ...

Meet the Cast of 1st Stage’s ‘Proof’: Part 1: Sam Ludwig

In Part One of a series of interviews with the cast of Proof at 1st Stage, meet Sam Ludwig. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform before on our...