2018

Interview: Playwright Sonya Kelly on ‘How To Keep an Alien’ at Solas Nua

Can love really cut through red tape and conquer all even when there are stringent immigration rules? D.C.-area audiences will find out in Solas Nua’s upcoming production of How to Keep an Alien from...

Review: ‘Oliver!’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, produced by Maureen Rogers and directed by John Cusumano, is strutting its stuff across the boards of the Laurel Mill Playhouse. The iconic musical is based on Charles Dickens’...

Report: ‘Jingle ARRGH the Way’ by Encore Stage and Studio

Nothing says Christmas like Pirates, am I right?! Well, Encore Stage & Studio’s production of Jingle ARRGH the Way follows Captain Braid Beard and his crew as they sail to the North Pole in search of...

Review: Aquila Theatre presents Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ at George Mason University Center for the Arts

New York-based Aquila Theatre has been hailed by The New Yorker for its innovative staging of the classics. Founded in London in 1991, the company has a regular season of productions as well as a...

An Interview with Jeffrey Higgins of ‘Jeffrey Higgins: A Deafening Sound’

Jeffrey Higgins: A Deafening Sound is an apt title for the anguish and turmoil that singer and pianist Jeffrey Higgins went through after being fired as a singer in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC...

Review: ‘The Choir of Man’ at The Kennedy Center

If you’re in a mood for some boisterous joy this holiday weekend—some soul-rousing solos and heartbreaking harmonies in the tenor/bass range—nab a ticket to The Choir of Man. The touring concert show,...

An Interview with Prize-Winning Playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger: Providing Support for Her Colleagues

Born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, Jacqueline Goldfinger is an award-winning playwright, dramaturg, poet, and educator based in Philadelphia, whose plays have been developed and produced both...

Magic Time!: ‘Cry It Out’ at Studio Theatre

Cry It Out—an exhilaratingly funny and touching comedy about new parenthood—is a joyous reminder that when a playwright of Molly Smith Metzler’s skill and compassion writes “close to home,” as she...

Review: ‘All Save One’ at the Washington Stage Guild

It was another time. It was a time of high anxiety. Even private lives were far from private in the treacherous, early 1950’s with the likes of Senator Joseph McCarthy and columnist Hedda Hopper...

Review: ‘Running on Glass’ at Venus Theatre

Cynthia Cooper’s Running on Glass, playing at Laurel’s Venus Theatre, celebrates six pioneering female athletes, all of whom had to overcome barriers not only of gender but of race, class, illness, or...

Review: ‘Cry It Out’ at Studio Theatre

In the bleak Long Island backyard that serves as their coffee-klatch confessional, neighbors Lina and Jessie chat daily about the alternately hilarious and heart-wrenching emotional terrain of new...

Review: ‘A Christmas Story, The Musical’ by Charm City Players

A more dazzling display of heart-warming family entertainment and memories may not be found this Christmas Season than Charm City Players’ A Christmas Story, The Musical. With deft direction by...

Raymond O. Caldwell Named Theater Alliance’s Next Producing Artistic Director

Theater Alliance announced today that Raymond O. Caldwell would be the company’s next producing artistic director. Caldwell currently serves as Theater Alliance’s Associate Artistic Director. He...

Review: ‘Elf the Musical’ at Olney Theatre Center

The Holidays are upon us and with them comes the rush of themed movies, music, and theater. Olney Theatre Center welcomes the holiday season with their production of Elf the Musical. Based on the 2003...

Review: ‘A Rap on Race’ at George Mason University

The intersection of dance and drama is intentionally harsh in A Rap on Race, the fused performance created by luminaries Anna Deveare Smith and Donald Byrd. Scripted from a 1970 public conversation...

Review: ‘Machinal’ at George Mason University

Taut and remarkable is the production of Sophie Treadwell’s expressionistic play Machinal (1928), performed by George Mason University School of Theater and Mason Players. A student production,...

Review: ‘The Waverly Gallery’ at the Golden Theatre

Now making its stellar Broadway debut at the Golden Theatre, The Waverly Gallery, Kenneth Lonergan’s award-nominated memory play of 1999, told from the perspective of a grandson reflecting on the...

Interview: Ken Kemp, ‘A Christmas Story’ Director at Rockville Little Theatre

You’ll shoot your eye out! Get ready fans of holiday fun, Rockville Little Theatre is bringing A Christmas Story to the Arts Barn just in time for the holiday season. Based on the 1983 movie, A...

Review: ‘The Imbible: Christmas Carol Cocktails’ at The Producers Club Theaters

Now back for its fourth year, The Imbible’s Christmas Carol Cocktails, inspired by Charles Dickens’ beloved novel of 1843, is becoming a favorite New York tradition for anyone (over 21!) interested in...

Commemorate Armistice Day with The Washington Chorus This Sunday

This November, as Americans prepare for Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, arts organizations across the Washington area will commemorate a more somber occasion: the 100th anniversary...

“I Never Expected to See a Shakespearean Lover Like Me”: An Actor Declares

By Ezra Tozian Editor’s note: In Avant Bard’s production of Illyria, or What You Will—freely adapted from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night by Jonelle Walker and Mitchell Hébert—the character of Cesario...

Review: ‘Anything Goes’ at Arena Stage

“De-Lovely” doesn’t even begin to cover it. Arena Stage’s production of Anything Goes is as close to musical theater heaven as you can get. Cole Porter’s classic melodies and innuendo-laden lyrics, a...

Review: ‘King Kong’ at the Broadway Theatre

Inspired by the 1933 film classic, the new musical retelling of King Kong, by the illustrious international team of Jack Thorne (book), Marius de Vries (score), Eddie Perfect (songs), and Drew McOnie...

Man Shouts ‘Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!’ at Hippodrome’s ‘Fiddler on the Roof’

A man reportedly shouted “Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!” at last night’s performance of A Fiddler on the Roof at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a man stood up in the...

Trying to Fall Out of Love in a Laundromat: Playwright Bob Bartlett on ‘The Accident Bear’

With its title, The Accident Bear, and its performance location, a laundromat in Annapolis, I was most intrigued to learn more about local playwright Bob Bartlett’s new work. The production of The...

Review: ‘L’amico Fritz’ at Baltimore Concert Opera

The Baltimore Concert Opera has every reason to be proud as it moves into its 10th season of operations. From the concert hall at the Engineers Club, the company provides a unique experience for local...

Review: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at The Hippodrome Theatre

The spirits of displacement and change hang heavily over Fiddler on the Roof these days. What keeps it all from becoming, well, dispiriting is the heartfelt humanity evident in every timeless bar of...

Review: ‘As You Like It’ at Keegan Theatre

The paradise in Shakespeare’s Arden Forest, a beautiful place where everybody is happy, communal, and fed, doesn’t exist in reality. But if it did, you’d want to be there. And since you can’t, here’s...

In the Moment: Looking Forward to ‘A Night of Suffrage Theater’ at Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument

It has been 100 years since suffrage pickets began in front of the White House for women to have the legal ability to vote in the United States. Over 70 of the suffrage picketers were arrested and...

Review: The Welders’ ‘In This Hope: A Pericles Project’ at Spooky Action Theater

From the moment the audience enters the large square room that is Spooky Action Theater’s church basement home, Environmental Designer Colin K. Bills has already communicated to the audience for In...

Review: ‘Silent Night’ at the Kennedy Center Washington National Opera

The Washington National Opera’s current production of the opera Silent Night is a shattering indictment of the futility and waste of war set during the historical truce that occurred during World War...

A Great Weekend for Theater at George Mason University

George Mason University Center for the Arts has three stirring works of theater November 15-18 on the Fairfax campus. Friday features A Rap on Race, a modern spin on a monumental conversation about...

Review: ‘The Other Josh Cohen’ at the Westside Theatre

Making an absolutely sidesplitting return to New York for a limited engagement at Off-Broadway’s Westside Theatre, after its original development in the New York Musical Festival and world premiere at...

Review: ‘Our Class’ at Georgetown University

Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class opens in 1926 in a kindergarten classroom in a small town in northeastern Poland. Whereas most of Europe’s Jews had experienced a long history of expulsions and...

Review: ‘Reditum’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre Flamenco Festival

No more than ten minutes into Reditum – a Flamenco dance performance by José Barrios and Company, at the GALA Hispanic Theatre on Friday night – the man of the hour is drenched in sweat. Barrios, who...

Review: ‘Endgame’ at United States Naval Academy

The Masqueraders’ production of Endgame, performed at the United States Naval Academy, is a powerful piece of theater. Samuel Beckett’s classic 1957 play, considered one of his best after Waiting for...

Five Fabulous Things to Do in NYC before Curtain Time!

If you’re planning a November outing to the theater in New York, there’s plenty to do in the city this month before the curtain goes up! From celebrations of the holiday season to a theater-themed...

Review: ‘the end of things.’ at Charm City Fringe Festival

by Ciahna Heck Three Princes Theatre presents the end of things. at the Charm City Fringe Festival, a daring new piece of theater which touches on the termination of multiple relationships and the...

Review: ‘Mt. Rushmore’ at The Charm City Fringe Festival

Mt. Rushmore, activist-artist Monica Hunken’s one-woman show at the Seventh Annual Charm City Fringe Festival through Sunday, has it all: badass women, time travel, punk rock, political activism,...

Review: ‘Crankie Cabaret’ at The Charm City Fringe Festival

Listening to Katherine Fahey recount personal memories, ghost stories, and a lovely tale about Baltimore’s arabbers while grouped around The Lantern Sisters’ gorgeously adorned crankie box, feels as...

Review: ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ by Sterling Playmakers

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, by Sterling Playmakers and produced by Shanna Christian, is an intense musical experience with just enough blood, murder, mischief, and mayhem to please...

Charm City Ballet Presents ‘A Christmas Carol’ December 15-16

While it’s Nutcracker season for most dance companies across the region, Charm City Ballet presents something unique: its original full-length ballet, A Christmas Carol. Directors, founders, and...

Review: ‘Billy Elliot’ at Signature Theatre

Signature’s Billy Elliot the Musical soars with expressive, youthful dance energy and a liberating message of doing what you need to do to be who you want to be. Directed and choreographed by Matthew...

Review: ‘Forgive Us, Gustavito!’ at Charm City Fringe Festival

For a play about a hippo, it’s pretty dark. Forgive Us, Gustavito! is bookended by the primal howling of a grieving animal, as the audience is enveloped in a blackout. This is not to say, however,...

Review: ‘Natural Shocks’ at WP Theater

WP Theater’s world-premiere production of Natural Shocks by Lauren Gunderson, America’s most-produced playwright of 2017-18, has been advertised as “darkly hilarious,” but there’s nothing funny about...

Ally Theatre Company Commissions Playwright Doug Robinson for Mapping Racism Project

Ally Theatre Company is pleased to announce Doug Robinson as the commissioned playwright for our 2019 Mapping Racism Project, produced in partnership with the Hyattsville Community Development...

Review: ‘The Male Gaze’ at Charm City Fringe Festival

The title of BlueShift Dance’s show, “The Male Gaze,” refers to the objectification of women by cis-hetero men. The idea of the “male gaze” isn’t new to women. The premise is “what happens when ‘the...

In the Moment: Sound Design Enriches ‘King John’ at The Folger Theatre

Folger’s rendering of the seldom-produced King John is more than impressive Shakespearean rhetoric and the checking off on a bucket list of plays to produce. With a deft touch, director Aaron Posner...

A Youthful Fresh Take on ‘Our Class’ at Georgetown University

Long before the recent shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Derek Goldman had planned to direct a production of Our Class with student actors at Georgetown University. It is a play...

Today we light a candle in our hearts in memory of Joel Markowitz, our beloved founding editor, whom we lost one year ago.