2016

Review: ‘The Lion’ at Arena Stage

Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist Benjamin Scheuer electrified Arena Stage’s Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle last night, debuting his one-man musical, The Lion. Affable, handsome and...

WSC Avant Bard Presents FREE ‘Scripts in Play Festival’ From March 26-April 23, 2016

Discovery is in the air! And it’s all FREE! Avant Bard proudly presents four weeks of theatrical experimentation with our inaugural Scripts in Play Festival–-more than a dozen readings of plays,...

Filichia on Friday: ‘We Love You CONRACK’ by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: We Love You, CONRACK Purchase Peter Filichia’s New...

This Sunday, 3/6@7PM: 2015 WATCH AWARD Winners Announced: Here are the 2015 WATCH AWARD NOMINATIONS

This Sunday, March 6th at 7 PM The WATCH AWARDS CEREMONY. Visit DCMTA to see the winners as they are being announced. _____ Announcement of Nominations: 16th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community...

Review: ‘The Humans’ at Roundabout Theatre at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York City

“Suddenly there is God so quickly” is one of those gems in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, and it flashed into my mind as I watched Stephen Karam’s play, his first on Broadway. The...

Review: ‘Sarafina!’ at Howard University

Even if you already know how inspiring and moving this show is, from seeing the film or the musical on stage, you are in for a spirit-lifting, heart-leaping, foot-stomping thrill when you experience...

Behind the Scenes of Arts Collective @HCC’s Workshop Production of ‘House’: Part 2: Cast Members Gabrielle Amaro, Alex Becker, Courtney Branch, and Jordan Colea

In Part 2 of 4 interviews with the Playwright/Director and cast members of House at Arts Collective @ HCC, meet Gabrielle Amaro, Alex Becker, Courtney Branch, and Jordan Colea Please introduce...

An Interview with Local Musician Jason Masi

Jason Masi, a former standout soccer star found his calling in music and hasn’t looked back since. He delves into his music life and what he finds through it by living the dream as a full-time...

Review: ‘Capriccio’ at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia

What’s a countess to do? Should the young widow, Countess Madeleine, marry the poet Olivier or the composer Flamand? Such is the dilemma of Richard Strauss’s final opera, Capriccio–a clever allegory...

Meet The Cast of Spooky Action Theater’s ‘Collaborators’: Part 2: Joe Duquette

In Part 2 of our series with the cast of Spooky Action’s Collaborators, meet Joe Duquette. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on the stage? Joe:...

Liz Filios Takes on Shakespeare in ‘As You Like It’ at Lantern Theater Company in Philadelphia

A multiple Barrymore Award winner, Liz Filios has twice been recognized as Best Actress in a Musical for her lead roles in Midsummer [a play with songs] at Inis Nua Theatre Company in 2014–the same...

Review: ‘New York City Ballet Program A’ at The Kennedy Center

The Yankees of ballet are in top-notch form after a successful winter season in Manhattan. Someone recently asked me why I favored the New York City Ballet above all other American ballet companies. I...

An Interview with ‘Collaborators’ Playwright John Hodge by Roberta Alves

Playwright John Hodge fills us in on his play Collaborators which has just extended through March 13th at Spooky Action Theater. How did a film script about Joseph Stalin became the play...

Meet the Cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s ‘Man of La Mancha’: Part 2: Alan Barnett

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s Man of La Mancha, meet Alan Barnett. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Review: ‘Othello’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

General Othello breaks up a drunken duel. The crowd of cheering military men disperses, and all that remains are Iago, Othello’s trusted advisor, and Lieutenant Cassio, who was also the instigator of...

Review: ‘Jerry Blavat: Salute to Street Corner Harmony’ at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia

It’s easy to see that Philadelphia native Jerry Blavat loves bringing his favorite music back to town, and in turn the city of Philadelphia loves to welcome back one of its own. Blavat’s Salute to...

Review: ‘The Silver Age in Russian Poetry in Music’ at the Russian Chamber Art Society

The musical imagery of the material presented by Washington’s Russian Chamber Art Society is so distinctive that its substantial audiences actually crave the work that goes into listening to it as...

Review: ‘Ladybug Girl & Bumblebee Boy: The Musical’ at Hylton Performing Arts Center

Hylton Performing Arts Center’s Hylton Family Series presented a one-day showing of Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, the Musical. The musical, produced by Bay Area Children’s Theatre, was a high-energy...

Review: ‘Baltimore’ at The University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at The Clarice

I saw the whole of Baltimore From May until December Of all the things that happened there That’s all that I remember. — Countee Cullen, “The Incident” It’s interesting how one negative incident can...

Review: Pianist András Schiff with Washington Performing Arts at Strathmore

If there is a spiritual content to music – music by itself, no lyrics, just abstract sound – then many listeners down through history have claimed to hear it in the final works of great composers. The...

Erik Ransom Discusses his Staged Reading of ‘More Than All the World’ on March 15th at York Theatre Company in New York City

Known for his bold cutting-edge artistry and glam-rock/drag personae, Erik Ransom commands the stage as a singer, musician, and actor, and behind the scenes as a composer, lyricist, and playwright....

Review: Aaron Reeder in ‘Beyond the Lights: Discovering Sammy Davis, Jr.’ at The Anacostia Community Museum

On Saturday, February 27, 2016, a fortunate group of people were treated to Baritone Aaron Reeder’s one-man show Beyond the Lights: Discovering Sammy Davis, Jr., a mixture of show and lecture,...

Review: ‘Word Becomes Flesh’ & ‘for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf’ at Theater Alliance

There is a critical conversation going on in Anacostia right now that may be one of the most urgent and honest exchanges between black women and black men the American theater has ever known. The...

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ at The Puppet Company

The Puppet Company presents Beauty and the Beast, with script by Terry Snyder and adapted for the Puppet Co. by Eric Brooks and Ora Fruchter. This production is a winner of a Citation of Excellence...

Review: Pianist Steven Osborne Plays Rachmaninoff at the Phillips Collection

Given a choice between the intellectual and the emotional, most concert-goers, in their heart of hearts, will want to hear something that moves them. They got their wish on Sunday afternoon at the...

Jane Franklin Dance’s ‘Wash Over You Part I and 2.0’ at Intersections on 3/5 and on 3/12-13 &19 at Theatre on the Run

Movement and Theatre in Stop Motion Saturday March 5, 2016 at 2 pm Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St NE, Washington DC Tickets On Sale What: Wash Over You Part I...

Behind the Scenes of Arts Collective @HCC’s Workshop Production of ‘House’: Part 1: Playwright/Director Daniel Johnston

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the Playwright/Director and cast of Arts Colective@HCC’s play House, meet Playwright/Director Daniel Johnston. Joel: Please introduce yourself. Daniel: My name...

Review: ‘The Dancing Princesses’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron presents The Dancing Princesses, a Learning Theater production adapted by Ellen Selby and Laura Connors Hull, with music by Matt Conner and lyrics by Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory...

Review: ‘An Evening with Groucho’ at Hylton Performing Arts Center

“Groucho, please don’t die!” a woman is said to have begged the great comedian near the end of his seventy or so years in show business. She had grabbed on to him, clutching his arm. Frank Ferrante –...

Review: ‘Treasure Island’ at Encore Stage & Studio

Encore Stage & Studio first began in 1967 as The Children’s Theatre of Arlington and has produced over 175 shows. Their most recent production is a clever and fun adaption, by Playwright and Composer...

Review: ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

It is funny! Building from a witty start to a raucous, hilarious ending, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at The Little Theatre of Alexandria offers a joyful send-up of all the...

Review: ‘Crimes of the Heart’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Before there was Desperate Housewives, before there was Sex in the City, before there was Thelma and Louise, there was the play, Crimes of the Heart. Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize winning play opened...

Review: ‘Smoke’ at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia

For more than a decade, Theatre Exile has made pushing the envelope their specialty. They’ve made themselves the city’s go-to company for sexy – and occasionally sexually explicit – theatre. Last...

Review: ‘Local Girls’ at Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia

Diskit (Anna Zaida Szapiro) is a high-school junior and a wiz at chemistry; Riley (Mary Tuomanen) is a senior in a heavy metal band who is failing her chemistry class. When Diskit (“It’s a family...

Meet the Cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s ‘Man of La Mancha’: Part 1: Fred Nelson

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Laurel Mill Playhouse’s Man of La Mancha, meet Fred Nelson. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on...

Review: Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarelli: ‘Straighten Up and Fly Right-The Nat King Cole Tribute’ at the Merriam Theater

There are few artists who have honored the legacy of Nat King Cole into the modern era the way singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli has. Early in his career he recorded two Cole tribute albums, Dear Mr....

Review: ‘The Normal Heart’ at Vagabond Players

Motivational Speaker David Joseph Schwartz once wrote, “To fight fear, act. To increase fear, wait, put off, postpone.” In their latest production during their 100th year of being America’s Oldest...

Review: ‘Director’s Cut’ at The Washington Ballet at The Kennedy Center

Ballet Elevated Earlier this month, the dance world rumbled a bit upon learning of the resignation of The Washington Ballet’s high-energy, effervescent Artistic Director Septime Webre. Since his...

Review: ‘NSO Pops: Broadway Today with Darren Criss & Betsy Wolfe’ at The Kennedy Center

While most of the week here in Washington, DC has been dreary and rainy, the weekend is off to a bright start as Darren Criss and Betsy Wolfe joined the National Symphony Orchestra, under the...

Review: ‘Man of La Mancha’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Laurel Mill Playhouse proves the dream is possible in their powerful production of Man of La Mancha. This 1964 musical with its book by Dale Wasserman and music and lyrics by Mitch Leigh and Joe...

Review: Filter Theatre’s ‘Twelfth Night’ at The Clarice

Everything about Filter Theatre’s Twelfth Night, playing at University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, is unconventional. It’s part-musical, part-performance art, part-audience...

Review: ‘Hick: A Love Story’ at Baltimore Theatre Project

Eleanor Roosevelt, beloved First Lady, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was a surprisingly layered woman. Seems she had a relationship with a (clutch the pearls!) woman! No big surprise that...

Review: ‘Lobby Hero’ at Theatre Horizon in Norristown, PA

A complex new production of Lobby Hero at Theatre Horizon takes an exacting look at just how delicate an instrument a moral compass can be. The setting is a commonplace lobby of a Manhattan apartment...

Review: ‘Robin Hood’ at Victorian Lyric Opera Company

Rob from the rich, give to the poor ̶ a theme with universal and enduring appeal, at least among 99% of us. The centuries-old legend of benevolent British outlaw Robin Hood has pranced across diverse...

Review: ‘Red’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio 3 in Philadelphia

Mark Rothko, the acclaimed abstract expressionist painter returns to Philadelphia in Red, the Tony Award-winning play by John Logan, at the tiny Independence Studio black box of the Walnut Street...

Filichia on Friday: ‘February’s Leftovers and March’s Brainteaser’ by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: February’s Leftovers and March’s Brainteaser...

Filichia on Friday: ‘Let’s COPE Again, Like We Did Last Century’ by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: Let’s COPE Again, Like We Did Last Century...

In the Moment: Véronneau and Company Danzante at Atlas’ INTERSECTIONS Festival

Having separately followed two of the DC area’s delightful performing arts groups, one a jazz ensemble and the other a dance troupe, I was intrigued to learn they would be performing together at this...

Review: ‘In the Heights’ at Montgomery College

Montgomery College’s current production is The Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights, with book by Quiara Alegria Hudes and music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Many may be familiar with...

Review: ‘Women Without Men’ at The Mint Theater Company in New York City

Playwright Hazel Ellis is not a name that comes readily to mind. Her play, currently running at City Center under the auspices of the Mint Theater Company, was first produced in her native Ireland by...