2017

Interview: Meet the Cast of ‘Two Rooms’ at Kensington Arts Theatre: Part 2: Sandra Cox True.

In part two of a series of interviews with the cast of Kensington Arts Theatre’s Two Rooms, meet Sandra Cox True. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on...

Review: ‘Waiting for Godot’ at Curio Theatre Company

Waiting for Godot is generally considered a comedy. Samuel Beckett himself called this, his most famous play, a “tragicomedy.” But its reputation as an important, monumental piece of art can have a...

Arts Collective @ HCC’s What Improv Group?!’s ‘Love Synchs!’

As part of a 2-show Valentine Affair on Feb. 10 and 11, What Improv Group?! of the Howard Community College’s Arts Collective performed the second half of their venue, “Love Synchs!.” (The first part...

Review: ‘White Guy on the Bus’ at Delaware Theatre Company

White Guy on the Bus, at Wilmington’s Delaware Theatre Company through Sunday, February 19, is easily the prolific Bruce Graham’s most important and most accomplished play, even more than Coyote on a...

Review: ‘Eclipsed’ at Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts

Howard University presented the powerful new play, Eclipsed, in their black box theater this past weekend. Eclipsed was written in 2015 by Danai Gurira (well-known for her role as Michonne on AMC’s...

Review: ‘Top Girls’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

The adage, “more things change, the more they stay the same” comes to mind when weighing British playwright Caryl Churchill’s seminal Obie-winning classic, Top Girls, which was first produced in 1982...

Review: ‘Last of the Red Hot Lovers’ at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts

Neil Simon writes terrific comedy. Tonight, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, directed by Theater J’s Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr, performed by Walnut Street Theatre at George Mason University’s Center...

Michael Kahn Will Retire as Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) in July 2019

Michael Kahn will retire as Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) in July 2019. A national search for Mr. Kahn’s successor will begin in 2017. His successor will be announced in...

Review: Jazzmeia Horn at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club

To understand the voice of Jazzmeia Horn — whether it’s embodying her own ballad, the cleverly romantic, soft “Legs and Arms,” or taking on the role of an instrumentalist — is to understand what it...

Review: ‘King Charles III’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Ghost in the Machine Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III premiered in 2014, at London’s Almeida Theatre. Both the original production and the Broadway production won numerous awards. This new...

Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at The Clarice

Oscar Wilde’s final show is subtitled “a trivial comedy for serious people,” and when it premiered in 1895, it was comparatively trivial. Two men, each pretending to be a man named Ernest, two women...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at Constellation Theatre Company

Black Stache is bringing his pirate ship to Source Theatre, in Constellation Theatre Company’s fantastic production of the 2012 Tony Award-winning play Peter and the Starcatcher. Equipped with lost...

Review: ‘Blues in the Night’ at Creative Cauldron

Ready for top-notch singing talent that brings the “blues” to vibrant, spicy full life? Then high tail-it to Creative Cauldron (Falls Church) to take-in a cabaret-like revue called Blues in the Night....

Review: ‘The Freshest Snow Whyte’ at Imagination Stage

Far off the radar of most grownup theatergoers, the writer/director Psalmayene 24 has been creating an extraordinary body of work for children. I’ve been an admirer of the trenchant work he has...

Review #2: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

The beloved Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is back at The Kennedy Center for a week-long run. Now 57 years old, the company pulls from a repertoire dating back to 1960. Using a combination of...

Review: ‘After Birth of a Nation’ at City Theater Company

Today’s audiences need farce. Wild men chasing beautiful women through many doors, visual running gags, women dressed as men, and vice versa, all enhanced by a desperation throttled performing style...

NSO: An Evening with Joshua Bell at The Kennedy Center

It has been said that Joshua Bell may be the greatest violinist active today. After listening to him play, as well as conduct, at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra...

Review: ‘Tancredi’ at Opera Philadelphia

A company premiere and part of its Opera at the Academy series presented in the historic Academy of Music, Opera Philadelphia’s production of Tancredi, from Opéra de Lausanne and Teatro Municipal de...

Review: ‘Richard III’ at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

It’s notable that a play based on England’s War of the Roses has many parallels to power plays that take place today, both in everyday life and TV and film. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s (CSC)...

Review: ‘Willy Wonka’ at Other Voices Theatre

From the opening moments of the Other Voices Theatre’s production of Willy Wonka, the audience is swept away into a “world of pure imagination.” The show is based on s classic children’s novel, with...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at 2nd Star Productions

2nd Star Productions’ over-the-top presentation of Peter and The Starcatcher is a recent addition to the cannon of lore surrounding the first appearance of that ever-young, pre-tween character, Peter...

Review: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Kennedy Center

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is looking as strong and beautiful as ever in its annual February visit to The Kennedy Center Opera House. Now in his sixth year as artistic director of the...

Review: ‘I Love You, Because’ at Damascus Theatre Company

Pop-rock musicals are having a moment. With Dear Evan Hanson ruling on Broadway and Freaky Friday recently debuting at Signature Theatre, fun, upbeat musicals are all the rage. While lesser known than...

Review: ‘Lagan’ at Villanova Theatre

About halfway through Villanova Theatre’s ultimately engaging production of Lagan, by Northern Ireland playwright Stacey Gregg, is a scene between two young people, Emmet (Patrick McAndrew) and Fiona...

In the Moment: The Soundscape of MetroStage’s ‘The Gin Game’ Rocks!

I love being surprised when I go to theater. Recently, I went to a play, MetroStage’s comely The Gin Game, and became totally smitten with the textures of its music design. It was a soundscape that...

Review: ‘The Enchanted’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium

A colorful clearing outside a provincial French village is visited by the spirit of a murderer who enthralls Isabel, an innocent young schoolteacher obsessed with the enigma of death. Aided by the...

Review: ‘Grand Concourse’ at Theatre Horizon

Heidi Schreck’s fascinating play Grand Concourse is set in a church soup kitchen, among people who need a hand and those who help them. The play deals with poverty, but its biggest concern is the...

Review: ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine came to DC for a command performance on January 25, 1942. The occasion: Franklin Roosevelt’s 60th birthday. America had just entered World War II and the fight...

Magic Time! ‘Watch on the Rhine’ at Arena Stage

Whatever this play meant to Broadway audiences when it debuted in 1941, just prior to America’s entry into a war of resistance to fascism abroad, what matters now is what it means to audiences just as...

Review: ‘Sans Everything’ by Lightning Rod Special + Strange Attractor at FringeArts

Sans Everything is a collaboration between the theater companies Lightning Rod Special (“LRS”) and Strange Attractor Theatre Co. (“SATC”). The title comes from Jaques’ famous “Seven ages of man”...

Meet the Cast of ‘Two Rooms’ at Kensington Arts Theatre: Part One: Sean Dynan

In Part One of a series of interviews with the cast of Two Rooms at Kensington Arts Theatre, meet Sean Dynan. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on the...

Review: ‘The Object Lesson’ at New York Theatre Workshop

As an avid collector of art, antiques, and memorabilia, with a PhD in Art History, I have spent a lot of time around objects, studying, explaining, and appreciating them. And I’ve always known that...

From the Artful Dodger and Peter Pan to Romeo: An Interview with Brandon O’Rourke of The Media Theatre’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’

Henrik: You left quite an impression portraying the Artful Dodger in Oliver! (2009) and Peter in Peter and the Starcatcher (2016) — both at the Walnut Street Theatre. Seen from the perspective of...

Meet the Cast of ‘The Miracle Worker’ at Rockville Little Theatre. Part 5: Heather Andrews

In a series of interviews with the cast of The Miracle Worker at Rockville Little Theatre, meet Heather Andrews. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you...

Interview: Musician Rachel Levitin

Musician Rachel Levitin embodies passion. She is passionate about her music, life, and friends and is grateful for everything. When she sings, her whole body is enraptured in the music. It is a...

Review: ‘The Seagull’ at EgoPo Classic Theater

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull is one of the most durable of all 19th century plays. But it’s a play that producers, directors, and playwrights love to tinker with. In the last few years, audiences in...

Review: ‘Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose’ at The Loft at the Davenport Theatre

There is a delightful surprise in store for any of you who can manage to get to the Davenport’s 75-seat Loft Theatre to watch Ed Dixon’s one-man play in which he brings to vivid life the late great...

Shakespeare Theatre Company Unveils its 2017-2018 Season Lineup

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MICHAEL KAHN ANNOUNCES THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY’S 2017-2018 SEASON Othello The Collection and The Lover Twelfth Night Hamlet Waiting for Godot Camelot Final production to be...

Best Medicine Rep, A New Professional Theater Company, Is Coming to Gaithersburg, MD; Free Reading of Jennifer Faletto’s ‘Bathroom Hate’ This Sunday, 2/12@3 PM

A new professional theater company is coming to Montgomery County, Maryland. Best Medicine Rep, helmed by playwright John Morogiello, will focus on new comedies and judging from my conversation with...

In the Moment: ‘What’s Going On: The Marvin Gaye Project’ at Reston’s CenterStage

As DC area performing arts companies continue to grapple with advancing issues of social justice into the public realm in these stressful days, DC is certainly not alone. In 2015 the Ford Foundation...

In the Moment: ‘Trevor’ at 1st Stage

Under the crafty direction of Alex Levy, 1st Stage’s production of Trevor, penned by Nick Jones, had me in agreement with a recent American Theatre headline calling Jones the “Deadpan Puppet Master of...

Review: ‘The Bikinis’ at Westchester Broadway Theatre

Currently playing on the Westchester Broadway Theatre stage is The Bikinis: A New Musical Beach Party. Produced by The Bikinis Tour Company, The Bikinis was created by Ray Roderick and James Hindman,...

Review: ‘I Too Speak of the Rose’ (‘Yo También Hablo de la Rosa’) at GALA Hispanic Theatre

US Premiere of Mexican Classic Now Playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre Some might think of it as a Mexican version of Rashomon—Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1950 film in which each of the characters describes...

Review: ‘Company’ at McLean Community Players

Stephen Sondheim’s gloriously urbane, stylistic and sophisticated musical Company was groundbreaking when it first arrived on Broadway in the Seventies and it still remains relevant today. McLean...

Review: ‘RIN: Tales From the Life of a Troubadour’ Starring Rinde Eckert at The Kennedy Center

The acclaimed writer, composer, librettist, physician, performer, and director Rinde Eckert delighted and amazed the crowd on Friday evening at the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater. Eckert allowed the...

Here are the 2017 Helen Hayes Award Nominations

Here are the 2017 Helen Hayes Nominations: Outstanding Choreography, Musical-Hayes Christopher d’Amboise, Evita, Olney Theatre Center Kelly Devine, Come From Away, Ford’s Theatre Parker Esse,...

Review: ‘Ella Enchanted’ at Adventure Theatre

Glen Echo Park is a hidden gem that’s a blast from the past. As if Ella Enchanted at Adventure Theatre MTC wasn’t enough fun on its own, the park was a delight to walk through on the way to the...

The 2017 Helen Hayes Award Nominations To Be Announced Tonight/A Look Back at The 2016 Recipients

The 2017 Helen Hayes Awards nominations will be announced TONIGHT during a festive gathering beginning at 7 pm on Monday, February 6, 2017, in the Helen Hayes Gallery of Washington’s historic National...

Magic Time! ‘I Wanna Fucking Tear You Apart’ at Studio X

Friendships between fat girls and gay boys really are a thing, practically a cliché actually—or a trope, as Playwright Morgan Gould dignifies them when referring to just such a queer pairing in her...

Young Artists of America Performs at The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on February 27th; Tickets on Sale for ‘The Circle of Life: The Songs of Tim Rice in Concert’ at 4 PM at The Music Center at Strathmore

The only program of its kind, Young Artists of America at Strathmore presents symphonic theatrical productions featuring young performing artists from the Greater Washington, DC area alongside...