2019

Review: ‘Rock of Ages’ at New World Stages

The outrageously funny and wildly audacious jukebox musical Rock of Ages is back in New York to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its Broadway debut in 2009, in an open-ended Off-Broadway engagement...

Review: ‘Matilda’ at Olney Theatre Center

A young hero in her own story who redeems the lives of others around her, the title character in the musical adaptation by Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin of Roald Dahl’s novel Matilda uses her...

Review: ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Baltimore Shakespeare Factory

Not to be confused with the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival (1993-2011), the current “BSF” – Baltimore Shakespeare Factory – has another hit on its hands with their new production of Romeo and Juliet...

Review: ‘The Heroes’ Tale’ (DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival)

This power plant of a play knocked me out two years ago during the Capital Fringe Festival and knocked me out all over again in the DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival. The Heroes’ Tale debuted in 2011,...

Review: ‘Land of Promiscuity’ by Soul-Satisfying Productions at DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival

Family history, like any history, has a tendency to repeat itself. Filled with pathos, generational curses, and touches of humor, Land of Promiscuity, directed by LaRay McDaniel and written by...

Review: ‘Intimate Apparel’ at Silver Spring Stage

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage is a bittersweet and brilliantly acted dramedy at Silver Spring Stage, featuring insightful direction from Seth Ghitelman for this period piece with a modern message...

Review: ‘I, Candy: Peppermint Live in Concert with Cazwell’ at the Gramercy Theatre

What better way to kick off Stonewall50/WorldPride weekend than with the return of the sensational Peppermint to the live concert stage for the first time in a decade? None, bitch! I, Candy:...

Magic Time!: ‘The Boy from Troy’ (DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival)

One looks for hope where one can find it. And sometimes hope pops up on its own, unexpected. That kind of hope, not sought out, can catch in one’s throat, can even move one to tears. Such was what...

Review: ‘Songs for A New World’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s production of Songs for A New World is something different. Jason Robert Brown’s first musical, which appeared in 1995, has been described as a “song cycle,” a series...

Jess Hill of Big Teeth Performance Collective Discusses Myths, Monsters, and ‘Ordinary Creatures’

Big Teeth Performance Collective’s exploration of monsters without and within, Ordinary Creatures, is coming to Baltimore for one night only Saturday, July 13. Earlier in the day, the members of Big...

Review: ‘Macbeth’ by Britches and Hose Theatre Company

By Katie Crabb Something wicked this way comes in Britches and Hose Theatre Company’s gender-blind version of Macbeth, which breathes new life into one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays. The classic...

Review: ‘L’homme Cirque: The One-Man Circus’ at Strathmore

Glory days of diminutive touring tent circuses visiting small towns return with David Dimitri and his L’homme Cirque: The One-Man Circus, currently at Strathmore. In a cozy tent set up on the...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Oversees Unanimous Jury Decision About Ancient Greek Crime

On June 24, 2019, the Shakespeare Theatre Company presented its summer Mock Trial at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW). Guests were invited to hear the appellate case Murder in Mycenae: Did Electra...

Review: ‘Blackbeard’ at Signature Theatre

I have no idea who the “real” Blackbeard might have been. But I raise a cup (and maybe a cutlass) to Signature Theatre’s epic, cheeky vision of the dude and his derring-do. Envisioned by Signature...

Review: ‘Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise’ at The Shed

For its opening 2019 season, The Shed – a central feature at the new Hudson Yards – presents the world-premiere of Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise, in keeping with its mission of “commissioning original...

Dangereuse: Brecht and the History Behind ‘The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) left Berlin in February 1933, the day after the Reichstag fire, an attack on the home of the German Parliament. President Paul von Hindenberg had named Hitler Chancellor on...

Review: ‘Hamilton’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

The notion that “history has its eyes on you” animates and obsesses the title character in Hamilton. A similar shadow of destiny heralded the Maryland debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s unstoppable,...

4615 Theatre Company Announces 2019/20 Season

4615 Theatre is proud to announce a sprawling, form-breaking new season of theatre, designed to thrill and challenge artists and audiences alike. The rapidly emerging company has garnered a reputation...

Review: Hannah Gadsby’s ‘Douglas’ at the Kennedy Center

You know that Hannah Gadsby’s new show, Douglas is different from anything you’ve seen before, even before you enter the theatre, when the ushers inform you that your cell phone must be placed inside...

Review: ‘The Cat in the Hat’ at Adventure Theatre

To transmogrify Seuss, What a difficult task! Just how do they do it? And well might you ask! This master of mayhem Who leaps from the page, How could he be possibly Put on the stage? In drawings and...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with ‘Rock of Ages’ Rock Star P.J. Griffith

Now celebrating its tenth anniversary in an open-ended engagement at New World Stages, Rock of Ages has far surpassed its Pop fifteen minutes of fame. With a high-energy high-decibel score covering...

Magic Time!: The Mind-Blowing Stagecraft in ‘Twisted Melodies’ at Mosaic Theater

Twisted Melodies is a spectacular finish to Mosaic’s fourth season. Written by and starring Kelvin Roston, Jr., the show sweeps us into Donny Hathaway’s world of magnificent music-making and mental...

Review:  The Second City’s ‘America; It’s Complicated!’ at the Kennedy Center

There’s not much to laugh at in politics today. Nor is it easy to make fun of diversity, gender, Putin, or Pepsi. But that doesn’t prevent the team of talented comedians at Second City – now in their...

A New Home For Soulful Symphony at Merriweather Post Pavilion

Top-rated Columbia amphitheater Merriweather Post Pavilion has forged a new partnership with Maryland’s Soulful Symphony, a visionary orchestra that celebrates, elevates, and reimagines American music...

Become Immersed in Waves of Adventure and Imagination at ‘Pip’s Island’

For children’s theater to be successful, it must have an age-appropriate theme that appeals to kids, be engaging enough to hold their interest, and have a running time that is not so long as to exceed...

Review: ‘Twisted Melodies’ at Mosaic Theater Company

A foreboding, wide-open hotel window overlooking the Manhattan night skyline beckons you to enter the tender interior space of ’70s soul singer, composer and recording artist, Donny Hathaway. Twisted...

Review: ‘Baldwin’s N*gger’ (DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival)

With the recent release of I Am Not Your Negro and If Beale Street Could Talk, the eminent writer James Baldwin received significant cinematic attention. This has been followed in DC by two...

Opening weekend at the DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival (photo feature)

The opening weekend of the DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival was a lively family reunion of art, food, music and drama. DCBTAF chair and dancing diplomat Nana Malaya served as ring leader and founder...

Playwright Sam Hamashima and Director Kathryn Chase Bryer Discuss Hub Theatre’s ‘American Spies’

Once again Fairfax’s Hub Theatre will be introducing a new playwright, and a new play that highlights America’s common humanity, to a wider DMV audience. This time the playwright is Sam Hamashima and...

‘A People’s History’ at Capital Fringe Will Rock Your Worldview

I remember being so bored by my high school American history class that I got a D in it. This was not normal. My report cards always had A’s and B’s. So the kindly elderly woman who taught the course,...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ at Spotlighters

It’s the mid-1980s. The Oval Office is occupied by a former movie star, Al Gore has yet to create the Internet, and an aspiring actor from Alabama named Robert Harling lost his younger sister....

Review: Happenstance Theatre Goes Greek with ‘Pantheon’

They’re at it again. The Happenstance Gang: troublemakers, every stinking one of ‘em. And this time, they’re going Greek. Mythologically speaking, that is. Nix on the keggers and beer pong, their...

Talking ‘Be More Chill’ and ‘Broadway Bounty Hunter’ with Jason SweetTooth Williams

Currently featured on Broadway in the original cast of Be More Chill, Jason SweetTooth Williams is an actor, singer, writer, and long-time member of the wildly popular and talented Joe Iconis family,...

Review: ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ at Studio Theatre

When Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe planned to tackle the subject of depression, they decided to avoid more familiar approaches: plays about self-destructive superstars who are too far removed...

Arena Stage To Host 11-Hour Marathon Reading of the Mueller Report, Volume II, July 11, 2019

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in association with activist and actress Jjana Valentiner, will hold a public, nonpartisan 11-hour marathon reading of Special Counsel Robert...

Cancellation of 2019 ‘Broadway Barks’ Announced

Because of the ongoing construction in Shubert Alley, it was announced that the annual summer pet adoption event, Broadway Barks, has been cancelled this year, after attempts to find an alternate date...

Review: ‘The Mountains Look Different’ at Theatre Row

The Mint Theater Company’s American premiere of The Mountains Look Different by transplanted Irish playwright Micheál mac Liammóir (born Alfred Willmore in London, 1899) is a classic production that...

Dressed To Plunder, and Maybe Kill: Costuming Signature’s ‘Blackbeard’

When the actor playing Blackbeard first appears on stage at the Signature Theatre in the new musical bearing his name, smoke literally curls out of his matted black hair. It’s a terrifying look and...

‘Musica Viva Kentlands’ Puts Classical Music Outdoors in Gaithersburg, Maryland

Traveling through the south of France one glorious September, regardless of where my companion and I found ourselves, it seemed that at one point in the afternoon, there would be a classical music...

Mud and Blood: Guest Posts from The Welders Document Process in Upcoming Shows

Over the next few months, DC Theater Arts will invite guest writers from two Welders projects-in-process to share their creative process with our readers. The Welders, DC’s only dedicated playwrights’...

Review: ‘Ripcord’ at Keegan Theatre

The cute little old ladies are up to something at the sunny nursing home. They share the same room and enough wit to fight over the turf like two college roommates. If only we all could grow old with...

Bring Your Kids to the Theater in NYC This Summer!

If you’re spending summer in the city and are looking for some family-friendly shows to enjoy with the kids, rest assured that you’ll find an array that is right for all ages. From Broadway hits to...

Review: ‘Byhalia, Mississippi’ at The Kennedy Center

The pivotal character in this profoundly moving comedy is Laurel, a young woman who has relocated from Jackson to Byhalia, Mississippi, to make a life with the young man she plans to love for the rest...

Review: ‘Broadway by the Year: Broadway Musicals of 1987 & 2015’ at The Town Hall

Scott Siegel closed this 19th season of Broadway by the Year at The Town Hall with a tribute to the shows and songs of 1987 and 2015, bringing his appreciative audiences up to the current decade in...

‘Mamma Mia!’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre

The musical Mamma Mia! is playing in Frederick, Maryland for the first time at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre. If opening night is any indication, WOB has a hit on its hands. Director Jordan...

Review: ‘HERstory: Love Forever, Hip Hop’ at The Kennedy Center

I have to marvel at all the ways the national culture temple named for our 35th president reaches out to an audience that looks like America. There’s no such uniform audience, of course—no performing...

‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ by the Rude Mechanicals at the Greenbelt Arts Center

Tennessee Williams famously wrote fragile female leads: Laura, delicate and easily shattered; Blanche, already defeated before she is forced to rely upon the kindness of strangers. Not so with Maggie...

Capital Fringe Basics: How To Buy Tickets and More

Tickets are on sale now for the 2019 Capital Fringe Festival bringing over 500 individual performances, 89 productions, and five Capital Fringe curated shows across 13 stages in Southwest DC. Do not...

DC Theater Arts and DC Theatre Scene Announce Joint Coverage of 2019 Capital Fringe Festival

DC Theater Arts and DC Theatre Scene are pleased to announce that they are joining forces to cover the 2019 Capital Fringe Festival. Each online publication will review half of the 89 shows in the...

Due to Urgent Financial Issues and Need to Change Business Model, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to Lock Out Musicians on June 17

The Board of Directors of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra approved a lockout of the organization’s musicians, Local 40-543, if an agreement between the musicians and management was not reached by the...