2018

Review: ‘Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations’ at The Kennedy Center

Ain’t too many surprises in Ain’t Too Proud, the new jukebox musical about the supergroup The Temptations and their rise to meteoric heights. Their music defined a generation and gave voice to the...

Statement on the Death of DCMTA Staff Writer Wendi Winters

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Capital Gazette Reporter and DC Theater Arts Senior Reviewer Wendi Winters. Winters was killed in the shooting incident which took place...

Review: ‘On a Clear Day You Can See Forever’ at Irish Repertory Theatre

Irish Repertory Theatre’s new production of the 1965 Broadway classic (and 1970 movie remake starring Barbra Streisand) On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, with music by Burton Lane and book and...

Review: ‘Motown the Musical’ at Wolf Trap

Motown the Musical is one irresistible playlist of infectious chart-topping music performed by a bevy of fine singers and dancers who have plenty of acting chops as well. While too-sweet nostalgia...

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast Jr.’ by BRAVO Productions

Watching young artists perform carries its own level of excitement beyond the entertainment itself. There’s the shared love of arts which compels people to participate and support learning theatre...

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: ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’ at Imagination Stage

Imagination Stage presents You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, based on the comic strip “Peanuts” by Charles M. Schulz. Clark M. Gesner provides book, music, and lyrics, with additional dialogue by...

The 2018 Jimmy® Awards at the Minskoff Theatre: And the Winners Are!

The 10th Annual Jimmy® Awards, presented by The Broadway League Foundation and Pittsburgh CLO on Monday, June 25, at the Minskoff Theatre, provided an evening of high-energy entertainment showcasing...

Review: ‘Tinker Bell’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

As a parent, it’s hard to watch yet another adaptation of Peter Pan without fixating on the fact that he essentially kidnaps children and leaves grieving parents (specifically mothers, constantly...

DC Theater Arts Launches New Logo, Website Design, and TodayTix Partnership

Washington, DC—DC Theater Arts, the most comprehensive source of performing arts coverage in the Washington, DC, and Baltimore metro areas, is pleased to announce a thorough redesign of its website to...

Review: ‘#poolparty’ by Ally Theatre Company

“No diving. No running. Absolutely no cannonballs,” the pre-show announcement at Joe’s Movement Emporium orders. But get ready to dive deep for the world premiere of #poolparty as it unpacks the...

Synetic’s New Voice Series production of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’

With the announcement of its New Voice Series, Synetic Theater is taking its own unique approach to the development of the richly talented pool of emerging theater-makers and budding theater...

Perfecting the ‘Burn’: Props Master Jay Duckworth on Styling the Iconic ‘Hamilton’ Song

As a Props Master, you try and read through a script and see where the big “what ifs” are, but there is always a human factor that you just can’t predict. In Hamilton, one big “what if” was the song...

Review: ‘On the Town’ at Olney Theatre Center

D.C.–area audiences are notorious for their too-free-and-easy awarding of standing ovations. But last night’s prolonged, enthusiastic, standing, whooping, hollering, response to Olney Theatre’s...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Who can resist entertaining theater on a warm, summer night? An outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is especially apropos for such nights, and Chesapeake Shakespeare Company...

Review: ‘A Swellegant, Elegant Party: An Original Musical Revue’ by Bethesda Little Theater

Why don’t community theater companies do more revues? They are entertaining for audiences, fun for actors, and although permissions to use the songs are needed, they don’t carry the hefty royalties of...

‘Hamlet Project: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Mixtape’ by We Happy Few

In 2012, Hannah Todd and Raven Bonniwell founded a small theater company, We Happy Few, with the desire to revive classic texts and find new ways to interpret and present the material. While We Happy...

Review: The Second City’s ‘Generation Gap…Or, How Many Millennials Does It Take to Teach a Baby Boomer to Text Generation X?’

The Second City’s Generation Gap is everything you’ve ever mocked your parents, grandparents, recent grad intern and tween niece for, but wittier and with better lighting. Generation Gap has you...

Previewing The 2018 Jimmy® Awards at the Minskoff Theatre

Broadway celebrates the next generation of musical theater artists with the 2018 Jimmy® Awards on Monday, June 25, at the Minskoff Theatre. Recognizing talented high-school students and teachers from...

Review: ‘The Other Mozart’ at Columbia Festival of the Arts

The Columbia Festival of the Arts began last week in Columbia, Maryland. After a wonderful weekend of music and other performances as well as a place for local artists to display their work at the...

Avant Bard Responds to Immigrant Family Crisis

Avant Bard today announces its “Welcome Tempest-Tossed Campaign”: For the final weekends of its production of The Tempest, Avant Bard commits to donating one-half of all full-price ticket proceeds to...

Review: ‘Laura Bush Killed a Guy’ at The Flea Theater

Yes, she really did, and Washington DC-based theater collective The Klunch brings its acclaimed original production of Laura Bush Killed a Guy, keenly written by company Artistic Director Ian Allen,...

Is DC Theater Getting Addicted to Trump?

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Theater Arts writers. In this one, Senior Writers and Columnists John Stoltenberg (Magic Time!) and David Siegel (In the Moment)...

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...

Review: ‘Vitaly: An Evening of Wonders’ at The Westside Theatre

Russian-born, Israeli-raised, and now-Canadian resident Vitaly Beckman, known to US audiences from his successful appearance on the hit TV show “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (he did!), is making his New...

Tony-Nominee Eva Noblezada in Her Own Words

On Sunday, June 24, Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada, best known for her portrayal of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon in London’s West End, then in the 2016 Broadway Revival, will present her final...

Review: ‘Lonesome Blues’ at The York Theatre Company

The latest incarnation of Alan Govenar and Akin Babatundé’s evolving musical tribute to Blind Lemon Jefferson, following their award-winning productions of Blind Lemon: Prince of Country Blues (2001)...

Review: ‘The Emperor of Atlantis or Death Goes on Strike’ and ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ by The In Series

“In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.” ― Bertolt Brecht With unsettling powers of persuasion, compelling is the watchword for patrons at...

It’s “A Swellegant, Elegant Party” with Bethesda Little Theatre

Have you heard? Bethesda Little Theatre (BLT) is putting on A Swellegant, Elegant Party June 22, 23, 24, 29, 30 and July 1 at the Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center – and it’s one you won’t want...

Magic Time!: ‘The Emperor of Atlantis’ at The In Series

The Emperor of Atlantis—an operatic takedown of autocracy—is relevant to our times in freaky and haunting ways. And its backstory is chilling. Near the end of World War II, the Czech composer Victor...

Wolf Trap Opera and Halcyon to Perform Kurt Weill Opera at Union Market

After their highly successful partnership in 2017 on Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher, Wolf Trap Opera and Halcyon reunite to present Kurt Weill and Bertholt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly...

Review: The Rude Mechanicals Production of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

The Rude Mechanicals production of The Merchant of Venice, now playing at the Greenbelt Arts Center, is an engrossing exploration of Shakespeare’s most controversial characters and the (still)...

Review: ‘La serva padrona’ at Loudoun Lyric Opera

La serva padrona (or “The Maid as Mistress”) by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi opened for a special engagement this weekend at the Loudoun Lyric Opera, performing at the Carver Center in Purcellville,...

Review: ‘The Wild Party’ by Ovations Theatre Senior Company

By Andy Arnold Ovations Theatre’s Senior Company ended the 2017-2018 season with Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party playing June 15 – 17. And what a party it was thanks to Darnell Patrick Morris’...

Review: ‘5 Courses of Funny Fare’ at the Laurel Mill Playhouse

5 Courses of Funny Fare, written by Jim Wise and produced by Maureen Rogers and John Cusumano, and playing through this Sunday at Laurel Mill Playhouse, is really five One Act Plays, loosely tied...

Review: ‘The Quickening’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

By Andy Arnold Amanda Spellman, a DC-area theater veteran, is sensational as pregnant wife Beth Wells in The Quickening, now playing its world premiere at Fells Point Corner Theatre. Beth had to...

Review: ‘Portraits’ by Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company at the Kennedy Center

The portraits hang solemnly, unmoving at the Smithsonian’s Portrait Gallery. Choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess breathes life and movement into these two-dimensional works of art with a triptych of...

Review: ‘The Maid’s Tragedy’ at Access Theater

With its all-too familiar themes of ambition and power, sexual misconduct and attempted cover-up, disclosure, remorse, and ultimate retribution, the plot of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s...

Review: ‘Leather, Sand, Metal: An Audible Exploration of Tap Dance’ by Capitol Tap at Dance Place

Tap is its own beast. Any dancer can tell you that they can transfer training in ballet to jazz or contemporary, or swing into hip-hop, but they cannot transfer anything to tap. You either do it, or...

Review: ‘Disney’s Beauty and the Beast’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre

Pure enchantment is the watchword as Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre presents Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. With music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and book by Linda...

Review: ‘Hamilton’ at the Kennedy Center Lives Up to the Hype

Legacy. It is the central theme of Hamilton. One has to ask—could Lin-Manuel Miranda have known while penning this masterpiece that Hamilton would one day become his legacy? If so, that is quite the...

Kennedy Center to Honor World Refugee Day with Free Performance by Melat

In a special Kennedy Center Millennium Stage performance commemorating World Refugee Day on June 20, 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and The Kennedy Center will present...

Review: ‘Bullets Over Broadway’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s production of Bullets Over Broadway is a funny romp of a musical. Written by Woody Allen, and based on his 1994 movie co-written by Douglas McGrath, it features...

Interview: Playwright Patrick Flynn Shines New Light on ‘Tinker Bell’ at Adventure Theatre

Tinker Bell has been a part of children’s lives since J. M. Barrie first introduced her to the literary canon in his 1904 play and 1911 novel. The Tinker Bell character has been ever present in the...

In the Moment: Another look at Round House’s ‘The Legend of Georgia McBride’

Round House is the current Promised Land for anyone wanting to get happy. With its divine, illusion rich production of The Legend of Georgia McBride helmed by Tom Story, Round House is a divine, sunny...

Exclusive: ‘Hamilton’ Through the Eyes of Original Broadway Cast Member Betsy Struxness

In part one of our “Summer of Hamilton” series, original cast member Betsy Struxness recalls the show’s earliest days. Hamilton. What’s to be said that hasn’t been said? Phenomenon. Game Changer....

Review: ‘Switch’ at The Welders

The gender-flip trope has been a staple on stage for much of theater history, and just when you thought it had been trotted out every which way imaginable, along comes a delightful surprise. Brett...

Review: ‘Romeo & Juliet’ at New York Classical Theatre

For nineteen seasons, New York Classical Theatre has delivered free performances of more than 40 revered masterworks to sites throughout the city, enjoyed to date by nearly a quarter-million people....

Party On! ‘Will on the Hill’ at the Shakespeare Theatre Company

Romeo and Juliet, Beatrice and Benedick, and even (don’t say it) Macbeth were on hand for a Shakespearean love fest on Monday night, all to benefit the wonderful education programs the Shakespeare...

People Respect and Appreciate Authenticity: A Q&A with Storyteller Anne B. Thomas

While hitchhiking across Europe by herself at 18, Anne B. Thomas fell asleep in the back of a car, and when she woke she was lying by the side of the road. She tried to stand up but found she couldn’t...