Keegan Theatre

DCMTA’s 2021 Holiday Theater Guide

A wishlist of great offerings in the DMV for every taste and price range.

Who’s getting DC theaters to do the work that undoes racism?

Among consultants working with local arts organizations to end racist and oppressive practices, Young Playwrights’ Theater is playing a leading role.

‘N’ at Keegan sheds light on a forgotten history of racism in theater

A compelling play based on the fascinating connection between renowned white playwright Eugene O’Neill and stellar Black actor Charles Gilpin.

Keegan Theatre to stage ‘N,’ a drama about first Black actor on Broadway

A hundred years ago he made history. Now a descendant reveals his story.

‘Good People’ kicks off Keegan’s 25th season with a blazing success

A play deeply attuned to the ways people from disparate backgrounds interact and feel, it will bring you straight to the essence of what it is to be human.

Keegan Theatre delays ‘Good People’ two weeks as COVID precaution

Season opener by David Lindsay-Abaire rescheduled to prepare policies and procedures that comply with safety guidelines and regulations.

Make December merry and bright with local holiday arts offerings

When the holiday season approaches, we tend to turn to things that give us joy and comfort. The arts always seem to take center stage during these darker months – providing togetherness, light, and...

In two live shows at Keegan Theatre, a transwoman and two Black men get real

The Keegan Theatre’s streamed live performances from their stage are the closest thing I’ve seen so far to theater as we remember it avant le deluge. They are presenting two pieces in repertory, which...

Keegan Theatre’s fall rep to stream in real time from onstage

Keegan Theatre returns to mainstage programming with a pair of productions streaming live in rep November 12 to 29, 2020. Performed from the Keegan stage, the fall repertory includes the world...

Theater and the risk of breath, by Kari Ginsburg

There is a moment in theater that I live for. I’m onstage, responding truthfully in the moment as if for the first time, embodying my skin as another person and existing in a brilliant...

UrbanArias’ new chamber opera ‘Glory Denied’ now streaming for free

The critically acclaimed production of Glory Denied from UrbanArias will stream until April 16, 2020. The streaming is viewable for free here on Vimeo and on the Urban Arias website. Glory Denied is a...

In ‘Boy’ at Keegan Theatre, the anguish of a gender experiment gone wrong

“Oh, god. Maybe it didn’t work,” the mother exclaims in alarm. It’s the moment in this hold-your-breath drama when she realizes the gender experiment done on her child, one of two identical twins born...

‘The Magical Piñata’ at the Keegan Theatre celebrates Mexican culture and teaches about sharing

The concept of gratitude and sharing can be one of the hardest things for a child to learn. But in a world full of greed, these principles are vital to maintaining a semblance of peace and prosperity....

UrbanArias delivers fun, deeply human evening of music and voices taking on the modern condition

How prescient of the innovative UrbanArias. To be ahead of a major Washington Post Sunday Business section about a modern-day retail apocalypse: the dying of America’s suburban retail malls. Yes, you...

Review: ‘West by God’ at The Keegan Theatre

The economic and social plight of America’s white rural working class has been the subject of recent blockbuster books from J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy to Educated, by Tara Westover. Now this...

Review: ‘Legally Blonde’ at the Keegan Theatre

In this summer of our discontent – what with unchecked climate change, racist politics, and mass murders – a bit of cheer in the form of a frothy tale of a privileged white girl who, through dint of...

Review: ‘Ripcord’ at Keegan Theatre

The cute little old ladies are up to something at the sunny nursing home. They share the same room and enough wit to fight over the turf like two college roommates. If only we all could grow old with...

Review: ‘God of Carnage’ at Keegan Theatre

Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning God of Carnage is a cautionary tale for modern times. Written in French and translated into English by Christopher Hampton, Reza’s razor-sharp black comedy has...

Magic Time!: ‘God of Carnage’ at Keegan Theatre

The set foreshadows the coming fracas. There’s a fault line down the middle where this living room seems sliced in two. And something’s out of whack. The halves do not align. Like two stressed...

Keegan Theatre Announces 2019-2020 Season

The Keegan Theatre is proud to announce its 2019-2020 season, featuring a groundbreaking collection of plays and musicals, including one world premiere, three Washington DC premieres, and its...

Review: ‘Hands on a Hardbody’ at the Keegan Theatre

The title of this show, if you have never heard of it, doesn’t mean what you might think. It’s not about fitness. It’s not about sex. It’s a country-western musical about ten hard-up Texans trying to...

Keegan Theatre To Offer Regional Premiere of ‘Hands on a Hardbody,’ In Which Only the Strong Survive.

The musical Hands on a Hardbody opens at the Keegan Theatre on March 9. Based on a contest held in small-town Texas in 1995, Hands on a Hardbody chronicles a group of people participating in a...

In the Moment: ‘The Baltimore Waltz’ at the Keegan Theatre

How any of us deal with the death of a loved one is so very personal. With the passing of her beloved brother Carl, playwright Paula Vogel found her own sui generis way to let the world know how much...

Review: ‘The Baltimore Waltz’ at the Keegan Theatre

Anna always wanted to go to Europe. See the City of Lights. Drink a pint of authentic German beer. Have a rendezvous (or two, or five) with strange men who whisper unintelligible sweet nothings into...

Review: ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ at Keegan Theatre

Capitalism. Exploitation. Greed. It’s the holiday season, folks, and your kids shouldn’t lose out on the fun. At Keegan Theatre’s The Elves and the Shoemaker, they won’t. Written by Kristin Walter and...

Review: ‘An Irish Carol’ at Keegan Theatre

With a heart as cold as the blustery winds blowing people in and out the door, An Irish Carol by Matthew J. Keenan finds David, a pub’s miserly owner, confronted by guests of his past and glimpses of...

Review: ‘As You Like It’ at Keegan Theatre

The paradise in Shakespeare’s Arden Forest, a beautiful place where everybody is happy, communal, and fed, doesn’t exist in reality. But if it did, you’d want to be there. And since you can’t, here’s...

Shaina Taub Lovers Rejoice! ‘As You Like It’ Lands at Keegan

I’m a big fan of composer Shaina Taub. Her unique blending of socially conscious theater and pop-folk tunes has brought her great acclaim in recent years. After adapting and musicalizing two...

Senator Chris Van Hollen Cuts Ribbon to Re-open Adventure Theatre MTC After Devastating Fire

Adventure Theatre MTC announced its grand reopening on October 15th in Glen Echo Park after 7 months of renovations due to an electrical fire. Senator Chris Van Hollen joined executives from Adventure...

In the Moment: ‘Lincolnesque’ at the Keegan Theatre

Separating a theater company’s production from the playwright’s script is crucial when evaluating a performance. After all, an engaging full production can do the old razzle-dazzle to cover a script’s...

Review: ‘Lincolnesque’ at the Keegan Theatre

In Lincolnesque, a play written by John Strand and directed by Colin Smith, the art of lying for one’s country succeeds in fusing a deceptively light touch and inside-the-Beltway political humor with...

In the Moment: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at the Keegan Theatre

Iowa can seem such a mythical place. That crossed my mind as I took in the Keegan Theatre’s top-notch production of the bittersweet, mystical romance of The Bridges of Madison County. Sure, Bridges is...

Review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at the Keegan Theatre

Based on the novel by Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County finds Francesca, a World War Two war bride from Italy, living on a farm in Winterset, Iowa in 1965 with a husband and two...

Love and Friendship IRL: A Q&A With Brandon McCoy and Brianna Letourneau About ‘Other Life Forms’ at Keegan Theatre

I went to see Other Life Forms, the new comedy at Keegan Theatre, not expecting to write about it. But the play changed my mind. I wasn’t even home yet when on an impulse I tweeted that Other Life...

Review: ‘Other Life Forms’ at the Keegan Theatre

When asked recently what he hoped audiences will get from watching Other Life Forms, playwright Brandon McCoy answered, “I hope they laugh, and I hope they have a really good time.” Mission...

Magic Time!: ‘Republic Undone’ at The Metropolitan Club

Going back to Ancient Greece, theater has functioned as a forum for informed public debate—about war, religion, politics, all the issues relevant to the citizenry of the day. The Greeks had a word for...

Profile: Chris Stezin Plays a Rock Music Diehard in the ‘Undeniable Sound of Right Now”

Chris Stezin is a prolific playwright whose last play—produced at The Keegan Theatre in January of 2017—was Mack,Beth, a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Now he’s back at the Keegan, this...

Review: ‘The Undeniable Sound of Right Now’ at The Keegan Theatre

If KISS were starting out today, they’d be trying to get noticed on a streaming music site like Spotify. And followers would find their tour dates on apps like Bandsintown. Or maybe the masked marvels...

Review: ‘Chicago’ at The Keegan Theatre

With its snappy-saucy take on Chicago, The Keegan Theatre shows it knows how to give an audience the ol’ razzle-dazzle. And Keegan has done the durable musical proud. In fact in Keegan’s mounting of...

Diverse City: A Chat with Matt Ripa, Founding Artistic Director of the DC Queer Theatre Festival

Welcome to the Diverse City column on DC Theater Arts. My name is Darby DeJarnette and I created this column to highlight, through interviews, the different experiences of individuals from various...

Review: ‘Translations’ at The George Washington University

There’s a lovely scene just before intermission that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It is 1833 in agricultural County Donegal Ireland, and two star-crossed lovers—Maire (Samantha Gonzalez), a...

Review: ‘Unnecessary Farce’ at The Keegan Theatre

With one two-act-long scene, eight loudly slamming doors, and countless head-over-heels tumbles, Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith makes its hilarious D.C. premiere at the Keegan Theatre. Directed...

Report: Keegan Theatre’s ‘An Irish Carol’ Performance on December 29 to Benefit Nonprofit Shatterproof

The holidays are a difficult time for those with loved ones fighting with the effects of addiction. The Keegan Theatre will be holding a benefit performance of An Irish Carol this Friday, December 29,...

Review: ‘An Irish Carol’ at Keegan Theatre

Now in its seventh year, the Keegan Theatre’s annual production of Matthew J. Keenan’s An Irish Carol has become a favorite Washington DC holiday tradition. It’s easy to see why. A quintessentially...

Review: ‘Top Girls’ at Keegan Theatre

Only the indubitable Caryl Churchill could, in a play about a contemporary dysfunctional British family, give us an opening restaurant scene that includes the likes of: Dull Gret (a warrior peasant...

Review: ‘Stones in His Pockets’ at Keegan Theatre

Engaging with warm-hearted humor and disarming in the depth of scenes about lost boys and bitter men with their dreams crushed, the Keegan Theatre production of the Marie Jones’ Stones in his Pockets...

Magic Time!: ‘Big Fish’ at The Keegan Theatre

The musical Big Fish is by any measure a feel-good show for the whole family, as evidenced by the buoyant and beautiful production now playing at The Keegan Theatre. But the main narrative arc in Big...

Review: ‘Big Fish’ at The Keegan Theatre

Family-friendly musicals are relatively rare these days. Family-friendly musicals that have adult themes are even rarer. Big Fish, with book by John August and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, is a...

Spine: ‘When We Were Young and Unafraid’ at The Keegan Theatre

Stepping back 45 years, America is in the midst of a social revolution, and feminist consciousness-raising sessions are underway. Radical feminists, cultural feminists, and political feminists are all...

Magic Time!: ‘When We Were Young and Unafraid’ at The Keegan Theatre

On the top floor of The Keegan Theatre is a cork board labeled “What Does Feminism Mean to You?” Pushpins, pens, and slips of paper are provided so that patrons can have their say, and they do. Lots...