2017

Review: ‘Champion’ at Washington National Opera

In the fascinating contemporary opera Champion, the external world of the often-violent sport of boxing and the inner turmoil of the self-loathing and self-denial of the lead character collide to...

Review: Beethoven’s ‘Leonore’ at Washington Concert Opera

Washington Concert Opera (WCO) concluded its 30th anniversary season with a rare performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore on stage at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium...

‘Come Hear The Music Play’-A Behind-The-Scenes Look at Kander and Ebb’s Musicals by Their Former Agent Richard Seff Begins Tomorrow on DCMetroTheaterArts

On March 18th composer John Kander will mark his 90th Birthday and to honor that happy occasion I’m going to unearth some of the memories I have of the twenty years in which I represented him as his...

Review: ‘Cave of the Heart’ By the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

“Archaic/Modern” is not only the title of the estimable exhibit of Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi mid-20th-century works at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum. Archaic/modern describes...

Review: ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ at Ritz Theatre Company

Adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel, Harper Lee’s 1960 classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird, set in the Deep South in the 1930s, still sounds a resonant call for integrity, compassion,...

Here Are This Year’s WATCH Award Winners

Announcement Of Awards 17th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors THE WATCH AWARDS Nominations Announced January 15, 2017 – 7:30 pm at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA Award Ceremony Sunday,...

Review: ‘Tomfoolery’ at Act II Playhouse

“Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. “ ~ Tom Lehrer Tom Lehrer’s Tomfoolery, as directed by Tony Braithwaite, is a wickedly wonderful celebration of musical wit...

Review: ‘Avenue Q’ at Montgomery College

Well lately it has “sucked to be me” with new health challenges, the political climate ain’t pretty, and you-know-who has moved to DC, so I desperately needed me a dose of Avenue Q to clear the dark...

Review: ‘La Périchole’ at Victorian Lyric Opera Company

The Victorian Lyric Opera Company’s (VLOC) staging of the operetta La Périchole was a testament to the idea that opera can be a light affair. Composed by 19th Century, Paris-based composer Jacques...

WATCH Award Winners To Be Announced Tonight Beginning at 7 PM. Here Are This Year’s WATCH AWARD Nominations

HERE ARE THE 16TH ANNUAL WATCH AWARD 2017 NOMINATIONS Nominations for outstanding technical achievements. ____ Outstanding Set Design in a Musical (5) Jared Davis – Man of La Mancha – Arlington...

Review: ‘Evil Dead: The Musical’ at Dominion Stage

I don’t even know how to describe what took place at Theatre on the Run last night. All I know is that it was one of the most fun nights I had in the theatre in a very long time. Evil Dead: The...

Review: ‘The White Snake’ at Baltimore Center Stage

It was a thrill and a privilege to be at the grand reopening of Baltimore Center Stage last night. I felt like a movie star walking up the red carpet, past the searchlights, into the shiny new lobby....

Review: ‘Irish-ish’ at Manayunk Theatre Company

Just in advance of St. Patrick’s Day, Manayunk Theatre Company brings its tradition of Irish pub entertainment to Roxborough’s Tavern on Ridge with Irish-ish: A Trio of Irish Tales. Showcasing three...

Review: ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ at Old Academy Players

What did happen to Sebastian last summer? This sounds like a murder mystery, right? But if Tennessee Williams writes the mystery, one can be certain that it will be highly poetic, and involve...

Review: The Escher String Quartet Chamber Music at The Barns at Wolf Trap

While quartets abound, that quality of coming together and making four musicians truly come together through music is still a difficult task to achieve. This is where The Escher String Quartet stands...

Review: Dionne Warwick: The 4th Anniversary Celebration of the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club

One of the natural vocal wonders of the world, the legendary entertainer and vocal artist Dionne Warwick beguiled the audience at the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club. The occasion to celebrate was...

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

For the past year, Greenbelt Arts Center (GAC) has been on a fantastic streak as a venue for top-notch shows. GAC’s current show is an addition to that streak. With music and lyrics by William Finn, a...

DCMetroTheaterArts: Best of 2016 #17: Special Awards/Best High School and University Performances/Best Community and Professional Theaters of 2016

Here Are DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s Best of 2016 Honorees: BEST PERFORMANCES IN HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCTIONS: Katie Abramowitz as Molly in Peter and the Starcatcher at Georgetown Day School. Gabby...

Meet the Cast: The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC’s ‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.’ Part One: Michael Aylward

In a series of interviews with the cast of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s (GMCW) production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, meet Michael Aylward. Please introduce yourself...

Monumental Theatre Company’s ‘SEX SWAP’ TONIGHT AT 8 PM, AT COBALT

Monumental Theatre Company’s annual Gender Bender Cabaret, Sex Swap, is back for a third time! This year, we are making the one-night event bigger and better than ever. Monumental Theatre Company is a...

Meet the Cast of Greenbelt Arts Center’s ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’: Part Two: Pamela Northrup and Jim Adams

In part two of a series of interviews with the cast of Greenbelt Arts Center’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, meet Pamela Northrup as Rona Lisa Peretti and Jim Adams as Vice Principal...

Magic Time!: ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises)’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

F. Scott Fitzgerald was among the first to take an editorial whack at Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises (then called Fiesta). Among other things cut out by Fitzgerald was the entire...

Review: ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises)’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Elevator Repair Service’s production of The Select (The Sun also Rises) opened at the Lansburgh Theatre Monday, and I’m certain that Earnest Hemingway’s 1926 debut novel, known for its spare,...

Review: ‘Significant Other’ at the Booth Theatre

It’s hard to accept the realization that your BFFs aren’t really F, especially if you’re the single, and more-than-somewhat-neurotic, Jordan Berman. Feeling increasingly alone and abandoned after...

Review: ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’: The FATS WALLER Musical Show’ at Howard University

Coming out of the Howard University Department of Theatre Arts production of Ain’t Misbehavin’: The FATS WALLER Musical Show, we checked googlemaps to be absolutely sure we hadn’t accidentally...

In The Moment: Elevator Repair Service’s ‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises’) at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Come April 7th, it will be a full century since the United Stated entered World War I or The Great War as it was known until WW II came along. The Air and Space Museum here in DC is having an...

Review: ‘The Gospel at Colonus’ at Avant Bard

In 1983, experimental theatre director Lee Breuer wrote and directed a musical that became a worldwide sensation. Blending Black church gospel music and Motown with a story of Greek tragedy, Breuer’s...

Review: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ at the Academy of Music

Words like breathtaking, awe-inspiring, and touching only begin to describe the epic journey experienced in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, currently playing at the Academy of...

Interview: Playwright Jonathan Leaf Discusses His New Play ‘Deconstruction,’ Playing at The Storm Theatre Company in NYC March 3-25th

Full disclosure – I’ve known Jonathan Leaf for a long time. We hung out in New York City in the early 2000’s when he was a budding playwright and I was finishing up grad school. Since then, Jonathan...

Review: ‘The Bodyguard’ at Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center

Fans of The Bodyguard, The Musical are legion. And boisterous. Also very loyal. Large numbers of them turned out for opening night in Baltimore February 28, when the national tour arrived for a...

Review: ‘Connected’ at Take the Stage Performance Company

Take the Stage Performance Company’s latest production, Connected, took place last weekend at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington. A musical review of 15 songs from current Broadway hits such as...

Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra Performs Brahms’ Eleven Chorale Preludes, Bach’s Cantata No. 150, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4

The Philadelphia Orchestra set of concerts during the last weekend of February was one of the most imaginatively conceived in recent memory. The program consisted of selections from Brahms’ Eleven...

Review: ‘Sh*theads’ at Azuka Theatre

The characters in Sh*theads don’t mind being called shitheads. True, that may not be a word you’d use in polite company… but these people aren’t polite company. They’re the employees of Bert’s Bikes,...

Meet the Cast of Greenbelt Arts Center’s ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’: Part One: Director Jeff Lesniak

In part one of a series of interviews with the cast of Greenbelt Arts Center’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, meet Director Jeffery Lesniak. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our...

Review: ‘Nibbler’ at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Making the transition from high-school graduation into adulthood can be a challenge, especially for teens who haven’t quite yet found themselves. Ken Urban’s Nibbler, a world-premiere production by...

Review: ‘Dead Man Walking’ at Washington National Opera

It is certainly a “Dark Night of the Soul” (St. John of the Cross) for Sister Helen Prejean in the contemporary opera Dead Man Walking. A meditative, spiritually resonant study of our common humanity...

Review: ‘The Little Mermaid’ at Ballet Theatre of Maryland

Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s production of The Little Mermaid, at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, is a gorgeous spectacle of storytelling through dance. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen...

Interview: Dionne Warwick on Performing Tomorrow, 2/28 and Wednesday, 3/1 at 8 PM at Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club’s 4th Anniversary Show

I recently had the privilege to interview the music legend, Dionne Warwick. The occasion for the interview is to celebrate Ms. Warwick’s illustrious career, ask some related questions, and to...

Review: ‘Jonah and Otto’ at The Lion Theatre

Robert Holman is a British playwright whose plays have been done under the auspices of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, he’s had productions of his many plays at half a dozen...

Review: ‘Brother Mario’ at Flying V Theatre

At first consideration, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly Chekhovian about Mario, the iconic red capped plumber whose mustachioed visage has been imprinted on the mind of every casual...

Review: ‘The Gift’ at Walnut Street Theatre

The fun, and perhaps coyness, of The Gift, Will Stutts’ gentle and constantly engaging play at the Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio through March 19th, is the way it uses the personae of...

Review: ‘Colorblind: The Katrina Monologues’ at Arena Players-ONE MORE PERFORMANCE TODAY AT 4 PM

One More Performance – See Colorblind: The Katrina Monologues at Arena Players TODAY at 4:00 PM This Friday, it was my good fortune – courtesy of Artistic Director Donald Owens – to experience Arena...

Review: ‘The Women’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Fangs for the Memories The Women by Clare Booth Luce, which opened on Broadway Christmas week in 1936 after its premiere in Philadelphia three weeks earlier, and included an actress named Doris Day in...

Review: “Key for Two” at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

When I hear the words “British” and “Farce” together, I usually think of the stereotypical over-the-top show involving: a. slamming doors, b. cheating spouses, and c. people running around a couch....

Review: ‘Motherhood Out Loud’ at Vagabond Players

There’s no one like your mother, as an old song goes. Vagabond Players’ production of Motherhood Out Loud, wonderfully directed by Rikki Howie Lacewell, explores that theme and nearly every angle of...

Review: ‘R.U.R.’ and ‘The Insect Play’ at Once More Theatre

It’s a theme which has appeared in countless books and movies: If we build robots to do all of our work, what would happen if those robots grew smarter and rose up against their masters? This concept...

Review: ‘Anton in Show Business’ at Silver Spring Stage

Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin opened last night at Silver Spring Stage. The show is produced by Jim Robertson and directed by Erin Bone Steele. The plot is a strange one that satirizes the...

Review: ‘I Hate Hamlet’ at Dundalk Community Theatre

“It’s Shakespeare! Which is like algebra on stage!” If you’ve ever struggled with The Bard, you’ll appreciate the character Gary Peter Leftkowitz’s sentiments on the subject. In I Hate Hamlet, by Paul...

Review: LiveConnections Presents Harlem Quartet + Arturo Stable

Once again, LiveConnections Presents (“LCP”) curator Mary Wheelock Javian’s musical matchmaking has produced a lively evening of musical discovery. This time it was the pairing of the Harlem Quartet...

Review: ‘Lost Girls’ at Theatre Exile

For Maggie, life has been, ever since childhood, one crisis after another. Now, as a winter storm is blanketing her New Hampshire hometown, several more crises have struck at once: her car has been...