2018

Review: ‘SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical’ at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

As with all of the shows in its genre, the latest offering in the surge of biographical jukebox musicals on Broadway, SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical, holds appeal for a built-in audience of the...

Review: ‘Outside the Lines’ at Arts on the Horizon

Arts on the Horizon is a non-profit theater company that provides a professional, safe, and interactive theater experience for children ages six and under. Known for their vibrant nonverbal...

In the Moment: ‘Waiting for Godot’ Interviews with Creative Production Staff

Bleak? Nope, not at all. Galway, Ireland-based theater company Druid’s touring production of Samuel Beckett’s warhorse of postwar failure and ennui, Waiting for Godot, at Shakespeare Theatre Company...

Review: Druid’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ at the Shakespeare Theatre Company

“Nothing is funnier than unhappiness,” says Nell in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. Druid’s production of Waiting for Godot at the Shakespeare Theatre Company proves the truth of this statement again and...

Review: ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ by Reston Community Players

Reston Community Players is currently showing the amusing and energetic Thoroughly Modern Millie, with original book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlon, new music by Jeanine Tesori, and new lyrics...

Review: ‘Judy Moody & Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

Adventure Theatre MTC’s production of Judy Moody & Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt is sure to please both children and parents. The play, a first-of-its-kind, collaborative creation in...

Interview: Composer Gregory Spears Unpacks Thoreau in Upcoming DC World Premiere

On Saturday, April 28th at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Vocal Arts DC will present their newly commissioned, world premiere of composer Gregory Spears’ song cycle, WALDEN (based on Henry...

In the Moment: ‘Witch’ at Creative Cauldron

With an astute, quality production of Witch, its latest Bold New Works for Intimate Stages creation, the Creative Cauldron continues to show what a nimble, un-fossilized theater company can do, even...

Review: Tracy Morgan at The Kennedy Center

Following up his nationwide tour, Picking Up the Pieces, and Netflix special, Staying Alive, actor, writer, producer and comedian Tracy Morgan, celebrated for in his roles in Saturday Night Live and...

Review: ‘Harvey’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The imaginary friend is a staple of childhood play. In Harvey, currently playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, the adult version of the childhood friend emerges when the “oh so pleasant” Elwood...

Profile: Can Storytelling Change Our Response to Mass Shootings?

“No major social change in this country has ever happened without the aid of storytelling,” said Kimmel. “That’s one of the reasons why I’m using a play to tell this story.”

Review: ‘The Crucible’ at Olney Theatre Center

Fanaticism grows in a society fractured along fault lines of political and religious authority, property, status, gender, generational change, and belief, creating a fertile climate for persecution....

Review: ‘Witch’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron presents the world premiere of Witch, the fourth installment in their Bold New Works for Intimate Stages commissioning project. Written by Co-Directors Matt Conner (Music and Lyrics)...

Review: ‘Love, Loss, and What I Wore’ at the Montgomery Playhouse

The Montgomery Playhouse presents an intimate, funny, and moving night of theater through its production of Love, Loss, and What I Wore. The award-winning play, first produced in 2009 and the second...

Review: ‘Amanuensis’ at Georgetown University

Time has not been kind to Great Dead White Male Artists, poor things. Nosey feminist historians have been poking around in these guys lives and digging up dirt about how they treated women! And now...

Review: Young Artists of America Presents ‘Ragtime in Concert’

Young Artists of America and the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras of Strathmore joined forces to present a concert version of Ragtime last Sunday, April 15th. The performance, which took place in the...

Review: ‘The Little Mermaid, Jr.’ at Ovations Theatre

Ovations Theatre closed out their 2017-2018 junior season with a rousing and colorful production of The Little Mermaid, Jr. Featuring truly impressive set design and sparkling costumes, the Ovations...

Review: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ by Pamoja Productions at Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis

Pamoja Productions’ presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar is an entertaining spectacle of dance, song, and music. Valerie Mills Cooper directs this version of the 1970 rock opera with music by Andrew...

Review: ‘After the Rehearsal’ and ‘Persona’ at The Kennedy Center

Back in college in Minnesota, I was so into the forlorn films of Ingmar Bergman that I think he affected my mental health. I could relate to his bleak Nordic worldview, which I associated with long...

Best Medicine Rep Presents ‘New Plays/New Voices’: A Festival of Plays by Students, (Gaithersburg, MD, April 21)

Join Best Medicine Rep this Saturday at 1 pm for a free and funny celebration of arts education! New Plays/ New Voices, a second annual festival of work written by Montgomery County Public School...

Living Dolls: A Conversation With the Five Actors Who Breathe Life Into ‘Paper Dolls’ at Mosaic

Paper Dolls, the bittersweet new musical that opened at Mosaic Theater Company two weeks ago, has produced standing ovations—and laughter and tears—at every production so far. Yet the show, which...

Review: ‘Altar Boyz’ by Rockville Musical Theatre

Promoted as a hilarious send-up of Christian boy bands, Altar Boyz, with music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker, delivers witty lyrics sprinkled among twelve songs. The storyline...

Review: ‘The Seafarer’ at Irish Repertory Theatre

Mystic realism and metaphor meet the Irish gift of gab and a dire predilection for alcohol in Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer, a disturbingly dark and devilish comedy about lost souls, drunken...

Review: ‘Three Tall Women’ at the Golden Theatre

Brilliant. Extraordinary. Ingenious. Superb. The best. Yet all adjectives and superlatives pale in comparison with the truly unsurpassed quality of the script, performances, direction, design, and...

Magic Time!: ‘ “Master Harold”…and the Boys’ at Round House Theatre

One of the most quietly profound moments in Athol Fugard’s anti-apartheid play “Master Harold”…and the Boys—just opened in a powerfully moving production at Round House Theatre—happens in a simple...

Interview: Actor Sara Barker Discusses Upcoming Performance of Lauren Gunderson’s New Play Against Gun Violence (1st Stage April 23)

On February 14, 2018, a gunman entered Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 17 students and teachers. On April 3, Playwright Lauren Gunderson made her new play involving gun violence, Natural...

News: Adventure Theatre Rallies and Rebuilds After Devastating Fire

It was 6:45 am on March 2nd when Managing Director Leon Seemann received the call informing him that a fire had broken out at Adventure Theatre MTC. Artistic Director Michael Bobbitt was on the other...

Review: ‘Master Harold…and the Boys’ at Round House Theatre

On a rainy afternoon in 1950, two middle-aged black servants slowly scrub the floor and wipe tables in an empty South African tea room. They banter about an upcoming ballroom dance competition and the...

Review: ‘I Did It My Way In Yiddish (In English)’ by Deb Filler at MetroStage

Deb Filler’s love note to the world wends through near-universal musical touchstones, bawdy humor, the joys (or not) of Yiddish, coincidental connections, and the impact of one important musical...

In the Moment: Report on The Kennedy Center’s 2018 Arts Summit

The time is most certainly right for the arts to be disruptive; to assert and insert itself in national discussions about social justice and inclusion. Turbulent times call out for the arts–not merely...

Review: ‘SOON’ at The Highwood Theatre

Depending on whom you ask, climate change is either ongoing, its devastating progression towards the inevitable oblivion of life on Earth all but inarguable, or a hoax perpetrated by the ignorant or...

Washington Performing Arts Presents the Return of Kronos Quartet Featuring Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man in ‘A Chinese Home’

Collaborative multimedia work is a powerful reflection on tradition and transition. The Grammy-winning Kronos Quartet returns to D.C. on April 19, 2018, with longtime collaborator Wu Man to perform...

Review: ‘Hoodoo Love’ at Arena Players

Katori Hall’s Hoodoo Love is like a three-hour, heartache-filled blues song. Set in Memphis in the 1930s, the memories of slavery still linger and the reality of life in the south for African...

Review: ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’ at Constellation Theatre Company

With admirable nerve and imagination, Constellation Theatre Company has mounted an endlessly inventive production of a work by a playwright who dares us to enjoy him. Bertolt Brecht wrote plays to...

Previewing ‘Stepchild, A New Musical’ in the Rough Draft Festival at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center: An Interview with David James Boyd, Chad Kessler, and Kim Weild

As part of LaGuardia Performing Arts Center’s Rough Draft Festival, IRT Theater and TGF 12 Productions have teamed up for a workshop presentation of Stepchild, A New Musical, inspired by the popular...

Review: ‘En el tiempo de las mariposas’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

The play En el tiempo de las mariposas (In the Time of the Butterflies), making its D.C. debut at GALA Hispanic Theatre, tells one of the most inspiring and heart-wrenching stories to come out of the...

Review: ‘Shear Madness’ at The Kennedy Center’s Theatre Lab

Let’s face it: things have been a little stressful lately. Everywhere we turn we see violence, corruption, investigations, allegations. Shear Madness, a long-running (over 13,200 performances and...

Review: ‘Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

By Andy Arnold If you enter Greenbelt Arts Center expecting Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery to focus on Holmes and Watson, you will be disappointed. What you will find instead is a...

Review: ‘A Chorus Line’ at Compass Rose Theater

Compass Rose Theater’s production of A Chorus Line is an entertaining spectacle that also leaves audiences thinking. With music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James...

Review: ‘10x10x10’: A Ten-Minute Play Festival at Fells Point Corner Theatre

In its sixth year, Fells Point Corner Theatre’s 10x10x10, a collection of 10-minute plays by Baltimore-DC area playwrights, is a feast for theater lovers. The setup of this must-see show is ten...

Review: ‘Use All Available Doors’ by Pinky Swear Productions at Dupont Underground

Sherry (Lady Davonne), a WMATA train driver, starts her day at Shady Grove in Derwood, MD. She has a word with the lead car of her train, “Forty-Twenty”: a soon to be decommissioned vehicle which she...

Review: ‘Fly By Night’ at 1st Stage

Recipe for a vexing evening of musical theater: combine cuteness, sweetness, quirkiness, clever and funny dialogue, and a sprinkling of amusing and melodic songs. Add a heavy dose of sentimentality....

Review: ‘The Mountaintop’ by L.A. Theatre Works at George Mason University

On April 3, 1968, a rainy night in Memphis, Tennessee, in a dingy hotel, there was a man working on a speech. This man had missed birthdays and anniversaries in pursuit of his dream. He was a man who...

Magic Time!: Bedroom Talk with Actors Dimitri Gann and Ryan Townsend About ‘Top and Bottom’ at Rainbow Theatre Project

Top and Bottom is a new gay comedy by Kevin Michael West and directed by Christopher Janson. It’s set in a hotel room where James, a wannabe “dom,” has planned an S&M-ish hookup with Tommy, supposedly...

Review: ‘The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence’ at Silver Spring Stage

Thematically, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence is simple and relevant: the frightening trend toward rejecting selfless, mutual, unconditional love with a person in favor of a mechanical...

Review: ‘Luzia’ at Cirque du Soleil in Tysons

For a Cirque-head such as myself, anticipation of a new Cirque du Soleil show coming to town kicked in months ago. It had been two long years since Cirque last pitched its Big Top here, with Kurios –...

Review: ‘Robin Hood’ at Imagination Stage

Long live King Richard! Robin Hood (Chris Dinolfo) and his Merry Men (Jon Jon Johnson, Jason B. McIntosh, Nick DePinto) embark on their quest to steal from the rich, give to the poor, and join (not...

Review: ‘Sweet Charity’ by The Heritage Players

The minute I walked in the joint, I could see this would be a play of distinction. Indeed, a high kicking, rollicking good time at the 1960s Fandango Ballroom was had by all on the opening night of...

Review: ‘Border’ by Jane Franklin Dance at Theatre on the Run

Using interviews of real community members wanting to live a full life here in America as her source of inspiration, Jane Franklin and her eponymous dance company have developed an engaging evening...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ by The Arlington Players

Stephen Sondheim himself felt some uncertainty in categorizing Sweeney Todd, the 1979 show that many regard as the masterpiece of his long and spectacular career. In his annotated book of lyrics,...