2019

Bassist Carlos Henriquez and His All-Star Octet Pay Tribute to Dizzy Gillespie June 1 at Sixth and I

Last week, DCMTA caught up with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) bassist Carlos Henriquez via telephone on a rainy day in Chicago to chat about his Washington, DC tribute performance to...

Review: ‘The Pirates of Penzance (or the Rascals of the Rappahannock)’ at Riverside Center

Riverside Center of the Performing Arts reprises Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, a two-act comic operetta that was first produced in December of 1879, and remains in production to this...

Broadway’s Michael Urie To Return to Shakespeare Theatre Company for Free For All Hamlet

Free For All, one of the capital’s cherished annual traditions, will return for its 29th annual summer to Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), offering two weeks of free performances of the Company’s...

Opening Night Photos: ‘FAME’ at GALA Fires Up Columbia Heights

Tony Award-winning director and Nuyorican choreographer Luis Salgado brings his New York creds to Columbia Heights with the power of a New York City subway platform Flash Dance as over 20 dancers and...

Saxophonist Trey Sorrells, Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore

I had the pleasure to speak with saxophonist Trey Sorrells about his participation in the residency program at the Mansion at Strathmore and about his unique blend of jazz, gospel, and R&B. Sorrell is...

In the Moment: ‘Last Out’ by The Heroes Journey

Last Out is a raw emotional journey with no illusions as its core value. It is an intense confessional about military service and the effects on family, told from multiple perspectives. It is no...

Review: ‘We’re Gonna Die’ by Flying V at The Writer’s Center

When Farrell Parker steps out onto the black box stage at The Writer’s Center in Flying V’s version of We’re Gonna Die, something explodes. Light and sound—literally—erupt. And while much of the...

Review: ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ by NextStop Theatre Company

How do you replicate perfection—especially when it involves dumping gallons of water onstage? Any theater company that undertakes a production of Singin’ in the Rain, the beloved movie musical about...

Review: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre

All the familiar characters are there: Lizzy Bennet, her sisters and parents; suitors Darcy, Bingley, Collins, and Wickham; the de Bourghs and Charlotte. The basic plot lines and period setting are...

Review: ‘Antigonick’ and ‘The Fragments of Sappho’ by Taffety Punk Theatre Company

Antiquity is in the house and what’s old is new again. Taffety Punk is presenting two short theater pieces featuring its signature integration of dance, drama, and music based on voices from Ancient...

Review: ‘Ghost Light’ by Parlor Room Theater

A play is ephemeral. The written words momentarily dance off the page as they are given body and voice, transformed into experience, and witnessed by an audience. The conclusion arrives, the play is...

Review: ‘Queens Girl in Africa’ at Everyman Theatre

As the middle section of Caleen Sinette Jennings’ “Queens Girl Trilogy,” Queens Girl in Africa is presented in rotating rep with the first piece, Queens Girl in the World (read our review by Belle...

Review: ‘Crazy for You’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s production of Crazy for You is a fabulous celebration of song, music, and dancing. The 1992 musical, with a Book by Ken Ludwig and Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin...

Review: ‘Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem’ at Theater Alliance

Dane Figueroa Edidi is one of DC’s most original and multitalented theater artists. A dancer, actor, poet, playwright, and choreographer, she is also a teacher, novelist, political commentator as well...

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

Fells Point Corner Theatre’s 10x10x10, a collection of 10-minute plays by Baltimore-DC area playwrights in its seventh year, always succeeds in creating energy born of audience anticipation. For...

Best Medicine Rep Theater Company Announces 2019-2020 Season

Best Medicine Rep, Gaithersburg’s professional theater company, is proud to announce the lineup for its third season: Helen on Wheels by Cricket Daniel, The Crater Sisters’ Christmas Special by John...

Interview: Sean-Maurice Lynch of ‘Jubilee’ at Arena Stage

The reviews are in: Jubilee is being praised for honoring and preserving the impact of the Negro Spiritual upon the American Songbook. In the Arena Stage production, Director Tazewell Thompson gives...

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at Silhouette Stages

Bless playwrights John Van Deuten/ Joe Masteroff, composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb who give us a specific piece of theatre, which is chilling in its applicability to the social climate of...

Five Reasons to Kick Off Pride Month With Monumental’s ‘Flip Flop’

Get ready kweens! For the fifth year in a row, Monumental Theatre Company will be presenting its annual Flip Flop cabaret. This is THE Pride month kickoff event you won’t want to miss. Let’s face it:...

In the Moment: ‘Richard iii’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic Theater’s Richard iii is a potent conspiratorial theatrical experience for an anxious age such as ours. It is the ultimate in theatrical paranoia, set in a time out of joint. It’s as if...

Words Matter: Contemporary America Theater Festival 2019 Season Preview

For nearly 30 years, the Contemporary American Theater Festival in nearby Shepherdstown, West Virginia has offered audiences some of the most breathtaking, insightful and pointed dramas you’re likely...

Review: ‘Sooner/Later’ at Mosaic Theater Company

A rom-com about manhunting…at Mosaic? That’s probably not the sort of fare you’d expect from DC’s preeminent theatrical platform for social-justice programming. But who is to say that fair should have...

Review: ‘Hand to God’ by Fredericksburg Theatre Ensemble

Fredericksburg Theatre Ensemble (fte) was established in the Spring of 2011. They’re a nonprofit organization, focusing on guilty pleasures and “celebrating the art of the uncomfortable through...

Review: ‘Richard iii’ at Synetic Theater

“The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.” –William Gibson, author of Neuromancer. Synetic Theater, a beloved DC-area institution, has come up with a luxuriantly detailed...

Review: ‘Broadway by the Year: Broadway Musicals of 1965 & 1978’ at The Town Hall

Luminaries from a new generation of the Great White Way revisit classic songs from the hit shows (and a few notable flops!) of years gone by, in impresario Scott Siegel’s popular series Broadway by...

Staging an Epic: A Four-Part Documentary Series from Shakespeare Theatre Company

After 33 years as Artistic Director, Michael Kahn has directed nearly all the world’s greatest classical plays, worked with some of the biggest actors in the world and built the Shakespeare Theatre...

Review: ‘Oliver!’ at Kensington Arts Theatre

The question when reviving a classic musical is always how much to preserve and how much to adapt. Audiences can often have fond memories of famous original productions, but times change, and...

Review: ‘NOC-tURNE’ by NFT Dance & Company at Atlas Performing Arts Center

The airy-fairy world of contemporary ballet takes a turn toward the macabre in Nancy Flores-Tirado’s darkly romantic NOC-tURNE, performed by NFT Dance & Company in follow-up to Atlas’ INTERSECTIONS...

Review: ‘I Am What I Am: The Music of Jerry Herman’ by The American Pops Orchestra

The American Pops Orchestra’s presentation of I Am What I Am: The Music of Jerry Herman was nothing short of spectacular. Maestro Luke Frazier created an uplifting and thrilling show, with a fresh...

Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at Silver Spring Stage

For a play so interested in the parameters of boredom endured by English high society, Silver Spring Stage’s rollicking production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is anything but...

Review: ‘Jubilee’ at Arena Stage

In 1871, Fisk University – an all-Black institution of higher learning in Nashville, Tennessee – was in dire financial straits. To raise money for the institution, Treasurer and Music Professor George...

WNO Gala Demonstrates America’s Solid Standing on Opera’s World Stage

From the nexus of divas, dollars, and diplomats at this year’s Washington National Opera Gala, there arose a thrilling truth: The finely frocked foreigners in attendance might question America’s role...

Monumental Theatre Announces Host and Performers for ‘Flip Flop’ Cabaret

Monumental Theatre Company will present its fifth annual Flip Flop cabaret, hosted by local actress Dani Stoller, on June 1, 2019, at Pitchers Bar in D.C. Stoller’s previous theatre credits include...

Local Arts Institutions Among Recent NEA Grant Recipients

The National Endowment for the Arts recently announced more than $80 Million in arts funding awarded across the United States. This is the second round of NEA grant announcements for this year. The...

Review: ‘Vinegar Tom’ at Spotlighters Theatre

Mount Vernon at the heart of Baltimore City is home to many fabulous jewels. One of these, tucked away below street level, is the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre. Distance-wise, it’s hardly a far...

Photo Highlights from the 2019 Helen Hayes Ceremony!

Visual highlights from the 35th Annual Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony. A complete list of recipients can be found here. Photos of the before and after parties can be found here. All photos by Mukul...

Photos: Behind the Scenes at the 2019 Helen Hayes Awards!

Visual highlights from the 35th Annual Helen Hayes Awards! Party guests brought their glam selves to The Anthem on a lovely spring night to mingle and greet friends before the ceremony. After the...

Imagination Stage Announces 2019-2020 Season

Imagination Stage celebrates its 40th anniversary season in 2019-2020 with an exciting lineup of shows for children of all ages. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show September 28-October 27, 2019 Eric...

Review: ‘Mary Stuart’ at Olney Theatre Center

What does a 200-year-old literary classic have to do with the chaos of the US Congress today? A lot, according to Jason Loewith, Olney Theatre Center’s Artistic Director, who has adapted Friedrich...

Review: ‘Fame’ Is Full of Heart at GALA Hispanic Theatre

There is something very “meta” about Gala Hispanic Theatre’s production of Fame. See, you’ve got this group of scrappy young artists with talent, so much talent. And they are determined to show the...

National Theatre Announces 2019-2020 Broadway Season

The National Theatre’s 2019-2020 “Broadway at the National” season continues its history as the nation’s oldest touring theatre with a lineup of a dozen shows. Notably, eight productions will make...

Review: ‘The Member of the Wedding’ at 1st Stage

It was nearly 70 years ago that Carson McCullers adapted her beloved 1946 novel The Member of the Wedding into a prizewinning Broadway play. Set in a small Southern town, the story centers on two...

Review: ‘Variations on Myth’ at Rapid Lemon Productions

This weekend at Baltimore Theatre Project, Rapid Lemon Productions opened Variations on Myth, both the second show in RLP’s Season of Belief and the historic 15th annual production of The Variations...

Review: ‘Oliver!’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of Oliver! is a fun, colorful treat. The 1960 musical by Lionel Bart, based on Oliver Twist, here directed by Donald Hicken and Sally Boyett, with...

Review: ‘On Air’ at Creative Cauldron

Dancing and singing over the wireless airways–how might it have happened? What might have been a dry history lesson is given delightfully appealing musical charm in Creative Cauldron’s world premiere...

2019 Helen Hayes Award Winners

Outstanding Choreography in a Musical – Hayes Parker Esse Anything Goes Arena Stage Outstanding Choreography in a Musical – Helen Rachel Leigh Dolan Chicago The Keegan Theatre Outstanding Choreography...

Take Ten With The Creator of the ‘Take Ten’: theatreWashington’s Michael Kyrioglou

We’ve all read his columns, now get to know the person behind them! In the midst of last week’s Helen Hayes Awards-fever, I asked theatreWashington’s Michael Kyrioglou to answer some questions...

WNO’s ‘Tosca’ Serves Up Classic Opera Comfort Food Done Right

The Washington National Opera’s (WNO) fine opening night performance of Puccini’s Tosca provided an opportunity for catharsis and reflection, two things our overwrought city needs right now. My...

Review: Local Students Let Their Freak Flags Fly in KAT – Second Stage’s ‘Shrek the Musical, Jr.’

Sometimes, true perfection can be found where we least expect it. Whether you know it as a movie or a musical, Shrek has a pretty clear message for audiences: If you keep waiting for a perfect happy...

Review: ‘Queens Girl in the World’ at Everyman Theatre

The mark of good theatre, of a truly transformative piece, is how universal it is. How much it speaks to the then and the now. Queens Girl in the World by Caleen Sinnette Jennings – currently playing...