2018

Review: ‘SOUL The Stax Musical’ at Baltimore Center Stage

Holy Mother of all that is funky! SOUL The Stax Musical is the most fun I’ve had as a reviewer. A musical this magnificent comes around once in many a shady blue moon. SOUL The Stax Musical has a...

Interview: Director Mickey Lund Discusses His New Show “Casa Valentina” at Colonial Players of Annapolis

Mickey Lund is a driving force in the Annapolis theater scene. He was one of the founders of Dignity Players, which put on productions exploring themes of social justice and equality, such as Dustin...

Directors Marcos Santana and Luis Salgado Share Heritage and Helen Hayes Nominations

When the ceremony ends and the last guest makes his or her way out of the Anthem on Monday night, many members of DC’s theater community will go home happy, clutching the trophy that proves they are a...

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...

News: Avant Bard to Conjure a ‘Tempest’ for Our Changed Climate

Culminating its 28th season making theatre on the edge, Avant Bard proudly presents Shakespeare’s classic comedy The Tempest at Gunston Arts Center May 31 to July 1, 2018, directed by Artistic and...

Review: ‘Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies’ by Mosaic Theater Company

In today’s political climate, discussions of race and privilege between those with opposing views have become near to impossible. Our battles of conflicting perspectives, opinions, and impassioned...

Review: ‘Interplay: Poetic Resistance and In Lieu of Flowers’ by Washington Improv Theater

Washington Improv Theater’s productions of Poetic Resistance and In Lieu of Flowers at D.C. Arts Center are funny, yet thoughtful shows with incredibly talented performers. With two different shows...

Review: ‘The Speed Twins’ at Venus Theatre

The Speed Twins by Maureen Chadwick is presently playing at Venus Theatre in Laurel Maryland. This is the National Premiere of the British drama and is directed by Deborah Randall who is also the...

Review: ‘South Pacific’ at St. Mark’s Players

By Andy Arnold You know the story. South Pacific brings a classic tale, outstanding voices, lively music, and a living set to Capitol Hill this month. Opening night offered plenty of energy for...

In the Moment: ‘An Evening with Mavis Staples’ at the Kennedy Center Spring Gala

The 2018 Kennedy Center Spring Gala was a dandy one, celebrating the recipients of the third annual Kennedy Center Award for the Human Spirit. The award recipients, Gary Sinise and Eli and Edythe...

In the Moment: Conversation about Diversity with Laveen Naidu, Artistic Director, BalletNova

It started with a conversation with Laveen Naidu, artistic director for Northern Virginia’s BalletNova. Naidu said he wanted to change this observation: “ballet is often perceived as being for and...

Someone’s Got To Be the Bad Guy: An Interview with Waitress’ Nick Bailey

To be honest, and I know this may sound strange, my favorite characters are usually the bad guys. The antagonists. The seemingly irredeemably flawed. I’ve always thought that they were the most...

Who’s in Town? Michael Feinstein Talks Music and His Upcoming Strathmore Performance

Spring is here and with it gala season: that time-honored tradition wherein arts organizations close out their season with a celebrity affair intended to highlight their work and refill their coffers....

Review: ‘Kiss Me, Kate’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of Kiss Me, Kate is a treat for the eyes and ears. Directed by Sally Boyett, this version of the 1948 musical with a book by Sam and Bella Spewack and music...

Review: ‘Weird Romance’ at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s MAD Theater

There’s a powerful scene in MAD Theater’s Weird Romance in which a computer-simulated woman, who may or may not contain a reincarnated spirit, bemoans the precarious fate of her newly born child – in...

Review: ‘Candide’ by the Washington National Opera

Washington National Opera concludes its 2017-2018 season with a fresh production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide directed by Washington National Opera’s Artistic Director Francesca Zambello. If it’s...

Review: ‘How I learned to Drive’ at Dominion Stage

Dominion Stage presents Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive. This raw, piercing piece won Vogel the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1998, and after experiencing it at Dominion Stage, I understand why. An...

Review: ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Pointless Theatre Company

When The Rite of Spring, a ballet with a score by Igor Stravinsky, premiered in 1913, theater-goers were so shocked by Stravinsky’s relentless, stabbing music and Vaslav Nijinsky’s avant-garde...

Review: ‘Follow No Strangers to the Fun Places’ by The Acme Corporation

Seeing an Acme Corporation show is like attending a graduate class for which you never got the reading list, but still have to take the exam. Those who have studied theater academically will get a lot...

Review: ‘Iron & Coal’ at Strathmore

The sheer magnitude of the concert event was enough to inspire wonder and awe. More than 200 musicians packed the Strathmore stage and a balcony above—two orchestras, three choirs, a rock band—plus...

Review: ‘The Adams Family’ by Rooftop Productions

Full Disclosure? The Addams Family was a wild romp for the whole family! I made my way down to Oldtown Manassas to see Rooftop Productions’ take on The Addams Family. The story feels like a great...

Review: ‘Hamlet’ by the Royal Shakespeare Company

The fabled Royal Shakespeare Company brought its Hamlet to the Kennedy Center this week, in a production fully worthy of its glittering reputation. The RSC Hamlet is lavish, bursting with freshness,...

Review: ‘The Barber of Seville’ at the Kennedy Center

The current production of the Washington National Opera –Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville plays like a frenetically captivating musical dreamscape of schemers, clowns, and romantic lovers....

News: Gaithersburg Book Festival Returns May 19 with Books, Poetry and Music

Singer-Songwriters and Poets Take the Stage at 9th Annual Gaithersburg Book Festival Gaithersburg, Md. – May 4, 2018 – Singer-songwriters and poets will share their talents at the 9th Annual...

A Modern Classic Takes on Epic Proportions: Constellation Theatre Brightens Brecht’s Manifesto, Adds Musical Makeover to ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’

Last week, I decided to venture off my usual path and check out the Constellation Theatre, which performs at Source in the lively 14th Street corridor. What lured me there was the chance to see a new...

In the Moment: Meet the 2018 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre eligible companies

For over three decades, Helen Hayes nominations and awards have represented the pinnacle of professional excellence in Washington, DC area theater. What began as public recognition of a small...

News: Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, VA, Presents ‘Always…Patsy Cline’

Emmy Award-winning actress Sally Struthers returns for her fifth engagement at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia, as Louise Seger in Always…Patsy Cline opening...

Review: ‘Unexpected Joy’ at The York Theatre Company

Though gynocentric themes featuring lead roles for women are a welcome new trend in contemporary theater, there’s little new or unexpected in Unexpected Joy, an original musical by Bill Russell (book...

Interview: Actress Gayle Carney Discusses her Off-Broadway show ‘The Promised Land’

Gayle Carney has played a myriad of roles in her many years as an actress. She’s been seen most recently in The Dog Must Die at Highwood Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland. That play is a dystopian...

On Her Own: Judy Kuhn’s Solo Cabaret at Dumbarton Concerts

Maybe you can go home again. Broadway’s original Cosette from Les Miserables, Bethesda native Judy Kuhn, returns for a solo concert, A Broadway Cabaret With Judy Kuhn, 8 PM May 5 at Dumbarton United...

Review: ‘It Came from Beyond’ at St. Luke’s Theatre

Mid-century aficionados and other interested earthlings can take a time-traveling trip back to the ‘50s at St. Luke’s Theatre with the Off-Broadway premiere of It Came from Beyond, a silly musical...

Review: ‘Derek Jeter Makes the Play’ by Best Medicine Rep

The resources of upstart Best Medicine Rep are optimized in this charming production of Robin Rothstein’s new work, Derek Jeter Makes the Play. Tucked in a corner of Lakeforest Mall, Best Medicine’s...

In the Moment: Interview with Shakespeare Theatre Company Wig Master Dori Beau Seigneur

How important can a wig be to a theater production and an actor’s performance? What better way to answer that question then with a section from the recent book, The Ascent of Angels in America: The...

Review: ‘An American in Paris’ at the Hippodrome Theatre

Think of the latest “new” Gershwin touring show up at the Hippodrome Theatre — An American in Paris — as a G.I. “jukebox musical” with legs. About a hundred of them, it seems. And, boy oh boy, have...

Review: ‘1984’ by Scena Theatre

Big Brother. Newspeak. Thoughtcrime. Doublethink. Orwellian. Those words have floated around the public lexicon for years, and at a time when the political zeitgeist contains phrases like “alternative...

Review: ‘Titus Andronicus’ at Synetic Theater

“A work of art has value only if tremors of the future run through it…” — André Breton (1896–1966) French writer, poet, and founder of Surrealism. Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili likened...

Hosting the 2018 Helen Hayes Awards: Michael J. Bobbitt and Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan Talk About their Lives On and Off the Stage as They Prepare for DC Theater’s Big Night Out

Forget the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Tonys. Here in the nation’s capital, there is only one award worth talking about. And that’s the Helen Hayes, honoring the best of DC’s theater professionals for...

Review: ‘Peter Pan: Wendy, Peter. Peter, Wendy’ at Single Carrot Theatre

The idea behind Single Carrot Theatre’s Peter Pan: Wendy, Peter. Peter, Wendy. is one of the most interesting and exciting concepts in recent Baltimore theater history. The company commissioned writer...

Review: ‘Vietgone’ at Studio Theatre

There is so much in this show to flip over, you could be dizzied by its delights. The fantastical story and kooky characters, the wicked humor and badass music, the frisky cast and musicians, the...

In the Moment: ‘Iron & Coal’ Creator Calls His Work an Ode to a Ravaged Soul (at Strathmore)

How does anyone cope with the unthinkable: Whether the unthinkable is The Holocaust, The Killing Fields, chemical bombs dropped on children, slavery or lynchings. How does one survive even somewhat...

Review: ‘Radium Girls’ at Rockville Little Theatre

Throughout history, the term ‘Cover-up’ has evoked feelings of frustration, sadness and often horror once the truth is brought to light. Public perception changed drastically about products like...

Review: ‘THE RESTLESS HEART: A program of Old Russian, Gypsy (Romani) and Folk Songs of Passion, Longing and Love’ at The Embassy of France

“This concert series is dedicated to Russian chamber vocal music, which is rarely heard in America,” states the program; a regrettably true state of affairs. The Russian Chamber Art Society (RCAS),...

Review: ‘True West’ by Rep Stage

America lost its most distinctive theater voice of the 1980s with the passing of Sam Shepard. But that voice still resonates through works like True West, getting a welcome return by Rep Stage at...

Review: ‘Twelfth Night’ at Imagination Stage Acting Conservatory

Imagination Stage’s production of Twelfth Night is an inventive update of Shakespeare’s classic play. Adapted and directed by Randy Baker, the show features the teenage actors from the Acting...

Review: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Follow the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole for an enchanting Alice in Wonderland performance. It was a surreal evening on Friday evening, the Opening Night of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s...

Review: ‘Goldberg Variations – ternary patterns for insomnia’ with Andersson Dance and Scottish Ensemble

Making the extraordinary ordinary appears to be a notion we can’t shake. If it isn’t dumbing down, it’s taking down, mashing up or just plain copying. Thursday, April 26 at the Kennedy Center’s...

In the Moment: ‘Girlfriend’ at Signature Theatre

Girlfriend is a sensitively constructed and gracefully performed coming of age musical about two late teen boys having an unexpected first crush that turns into love between them. Girlfriend’s arc is...

Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ at the Lyric Theatre

Amazing bursts of magic that dazzle in the darkness, distinctive characterizations of a host of eccentric, endearing, and evil personalities by an enthralling cast, a complex and compelling tale of...

Review: ‘Snow Child’ at Arena Stage

The Russians have a folktale called Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden). Prominent in the 19th Century, many versions of the Snow Maiden folktale centered around the appearance of a young girl who served as...

Review: ‘Girlfriend’ at Signature Theatre

The rock musical Girlfriend celebrates the tentativeness and exuberance of a budding romance between two gay teens in a small town Nebraska in the 1990s. Just after graduating from high school, Will,...