2019

Review: ‘The Heiress’ at Arena Stage

Women are on the move today. A US Congress reflects the voices of women as never before. #MeToo movements everywhere are fighting the forces that would stifle those voices. So, on the surface, it...

Pianist Lara Downes on ‘Holes in the Sky’

With a singular mission to expand the music universe for diverse audiences, ground-breaking pianist Lara Downes will be gracing DC’s Sixth & I Historic Synagogue stage in a live event co-commissioned...

Review: ‘Richard the Third’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Did ever a villain so enjoy his murderously evil ways as Shakespeare’s Richard III? In the Shakespeare Theatre’s production, Matthew Rauch’s Richard teaches a master class in duplicity and...

Review: ‘Anatole: Mouse Magnifique’ at Imagination Stage

Imagination Stage is currently playing Anatole: Mouse Magnifique, a musical adaptation of the children’s book series “Anatole” by Eve Titus. Book and lyrics are by John Maclay and Lee Becker, with...

‘Nell Gwynn:’ A London Hit Brings Laughter, Love (and a Few Flying Oranges) to the Folger Theatre

Nell Gwynn – as brash and bawdy as a play could be – has arrived on Capitol Hill. And what a triumph it is! The play, which had a successful run in London’s West End and won Britain’s top award for...

Studio Theatre To Close Its Acting Conservatory

Raise your hand if you studied at Studio Theatre’s Acting Conservatory? For the 10,000 plus performers whose careers started at Studio’s 43-year-old conservatory, the news that Studio would be closing...

Signature in the Schools Premieres ‘The Spoken Word’ February 22

Regional Tony Award recipient Signature Theatre continues its singular Signature in the Schools program with another original production written and directed by Joe Calarco. Calarco is the Resident...

Review: ‘Reykjavík’ by Rorschach Theatre

The Reykjavík conjured up in Steve Yockey’s new play Reykjavík is not the family-friendly destination the Iceland tourist bureau might try to sell you. But if you’re 18 or older—and if you wish to be...

News: Simon Godwin Announces His Debut Season for Shakespeare Theatre Company

Incoming Artistic Director Simon Godwin today announces Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 2019-2020 Season. Godwin’s debut season highlights his artistic aspirations for the company to create “high...

Monumental Theatre Company Announces Cast for ‘Daddy Long Legs’

Monumental Theatre Company’s Daddy Long Legs tells the story of Jerusha Abbott, her mysterious young benefactor and the affection that grows between them by way of handwritten letters. John Caird’s...

From Amsterdam to the Kennedy Center: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Performs February 13

In a 2008 poll of the world’s leading music critics by Gramophone Magazine, the Amsterdam-based Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) was selected as the greatest in the world. Luckily, the orchestra is...

Review: ‘Huckleberry Finn’s Big River’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

The excellence of this world premiere of Huckleberry Finn’s Big River ensures that it will become a family theater classic. Not only are the script, songs and choreography expertly crafted and...

Young Artists of America Launches ‘Hear the People Sing’ Civic Engagement Project with ‘Les Miserables’

Young Artists of America (YAA) is proud to announce that the Greater Washington Foundation’s (GWF) Donors InVesting in the Arts (DIVAS) Fund has awarded them a grant for a civic engagement social...

Review: ‘The Old Man, the Youth, and the Sea’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

As the clouds have gathered over the past two years, we have witnessed the coarsening of our politics as one party promotes an increasingly strident brand of nationalism, corruption, and incompetence...

Review: ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at Theatre@CBT

Everything about the Theatre@CBT production of The Wizard of Oz (book by John Kane based on L. Frank Baum’s classic novel, music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg) was thoroughly...

Shu-Chen Cuff and Gin Dance Company Return to Atlas Intersections Festival with ‘Next’

Shu-Chen Cuff and her Gin Dance Company are returning to perform at the celebrated DC Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival. “We are thrilled to be part of the 10th anniversary of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS...

Review: ‘Grand Concourse’ at Prologue Theatre

Prologue Theatre presents Grand Concourse, by Heidi Schreck. This show kicks off the inaugural season for Prologue, a new Arlington based non-profit professional Theatre company. Artistic Director...

Review: ‘Working’ by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC has presented a production of the musical Working that perfectly captures the individual and collective spirit that embodies the strength and dignity of the...

Review: ‘NEA Jazz Master Archie Shepp’s All-Star Tribute to John Coltrane’ at the Kennedy Center

Moments in jazz performances punctuate the annals of jazz history. There are some performances that you wished you had attended because they will be talked about for years. “Archie Shepp’s All-Star...

Review: ‘Sorrow of Love, Joy of Love: Love Songs of the Great Entertainers’ by the Russian Chamber Art Society

Ah, l’amour! In what could be called a perfect DC description of, and introduction for, a perfect Valentine’s Day concert, Russian Chamber Art Society president Mary Kruger welcomed the sizable and...

Review: ‘The Wolves’ at NextStop Theatre

Sarah DeLappe’s first play, The Wolves, was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for drama, and has subsequently been produced all over the country. The production at NextStop Theatre Company is,...

Review: ‘Once’ at Olney Theatre Center

If you’ve never heard of the musical Once, written by Enda Walsh, with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, you aren’t alone. Despite receiving eleven 2012 Tony Award nominations and...

Review: ‘First Date’ by Other Voices Theatre

Anyone who has ever been on a blind date knows the nerve-wracking anxiety that usually goes with it. “What will my date be like? Will we have anything to talk about? Will we be compatible? Will this...

Review: ‘My Very Own British Invasion’ at Paper Mill Playhouse

Based on an idea by Peter Noone, front man of the 1960s English pop-rock band Herman’s Hermits, the world premiere of My Very Own British Invasion has opened for a limited engagement at New Jersey’s...

Review: ‘Nell Gwynn’ at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre

Nell Gwynn (1650-1687) was not only one of the most talented actresses in Restoration Theatre, but also one of the most beloved. That was because “pretty, witty” Nell, as diarist Samuel Pepys called...

Not Just ‘Dead White Guys’: Kennedy Center Artistic Directors Defend 2019-2020 Season

The Kennedy Center’s artistic directorial staff defended their calculus for choosing their collective 2019-2020 classical-music season during a media briefing and panel discussion earlier this week....

Review: ‘BLKS’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

BLKS is gonna be a blockbuster. Let’s get that out of the way. BLKS is a rapid-fire, laugh-out-loud comedy about a quartet of twenty-something black women in New York City who are roommates, gal pals,...

Review: ‘Plaza Suite’ by Sandy Spring Theatre Group

Those who aspire to great heights of theatrical art tend to look down on comedy. They don’t take it seriously, which is understandable, since it is, by definition, not serious. Famed comic actors...

Review: ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ at Synetic Theater

Edmond Rostand’s tale of a consummate wordsmith achieves profound new eloquence in Synetic Theater’s wordless production of Cyrano de Bergerac. As they have done in so many previous productions, from...

In the Moment: Impressions on STC’s ‘Richard the Third’

Complex villains are irresistible on stage and screen. They can be so magnetic. Their restlessness and shadings of evil keep my brain’s neurons firing. I have always thought of the fictional King...

Review: ‘The Music Man’ at the Kennedy Center

We’ve got trouble, right here in the Capital City. That might be true – mind-numbingly true – but it’s not at the Kennedy Center where Jeffrey Finn has produced a charming, energetic production of...

Review: ‘Philosophus’ at Best Medicine Rep

One of the things Best Medicine Rep does best is comedies about historical and literary figures, such as last year’s Engaging Shaw. They are now presenting another, Philosophus, by Colin Speer...

Review: ‘SHAME 2.0 (With Comments From the Populace)’ at Mosaic Theater Company

“You have to be a good Arab,” says Morad Hassan of the stigma he faces trying to have a career as an Arab actor in Israel—the very country where, he says, “we are the Jews of the Jews.” “FREE...

Review: ‘Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Program B)’ at The Kennedy Center

“Who will tell our grandmothers’ stories?” The phenomenal Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater soulfully responds in memory of its iconic founder with dignity, power and enough creative energy to light...

Theater and Policy Salon Conversation on Criminal Justice to Follow ‘Twelve Angry Men’ at Ford’s Theatre

Ford’s Theatre is partnering with the Theater and Policy Salon for a special post-performance discussion on “Justice” in Criminal Justice, following the 7:30 pm show of Twelve Angry Men on February...

Braden Chapman Brings ReTHEATRE’s Acclaimed ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ to the Laurie Beechman Theatre

Having achieved widespread popularity on RuPaul’s Drag Race as his larger-than-life alter-ego Mimi Imfurst, Braden Chapman is a critically-acclaimed actor, singer, director, writer, and producer of...

Review: ‘Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Program A)’ at The Kennedy Center

A cough, a gasp, the sound of a heartbeat. A sudden flash in the darkness. These sounds and images begin “Lazarus,” the brand-new work from hip hop master Rennie Harris, which opened a glitzy...

Preview: Piano Legend Leon Fleisher’s 90th Birthday Celebration

Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor has long been a feeder line for pilgrimages by aspiring performing artists to Juilliard and other New York institutions. Not everyone realizes, though, that the pilgrimages...

Just in Time for Valentine’s Day: First-Ever #ShowLove Fest Comes to Gaithersburg Arts Barn

“Don’t forget to show love!” Austin Perine reminds us, as he distributes food across the nation to homeless individuals. “President” Austin’s caped crusade to help the homeless is going global, but...

Jane Franklin and Fax Ayres Meld Dance and Photography in ‘Second Glance’

The upcoming Second Glance at Alexandria’s Athenaeum promises to cross artistic boundaries to produce the uniquely dramatic in a highly original venture. So what is Second Glance? It is strikingly...

Review: ‘The Master and Margarita’ at Constellation Theatre

The devil figure masquerading as Woland, the professor of black magic, in Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita loathes skeptics, so much so that he travels around the world with the intention...

Review: ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

The Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a witty, entertaining show with much to say about drama and the theater. Directed by Donald Hicken, Tom...

Review: ‘Everything is Wonderful’ at Everyman Theatre

Having helmed last season’s widely-acclaimed The Book of Joseph, Everyman Theatre Associate Artistic Director Noah Himmelstein has returned to the director’s chair for Everyman’s latest offering. Told...

Maestro Antony Walker Previews ‘Le vin herbé’ by Wolf Trap Opera and Washington Concert Opera

Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the composer’s operatic meditation on the metaphysical nature of love, sex, and death, is generally accepted to be the “before/after” point in the history of Western...

Magic Time!: ‘The Brothers Size’ at 1st Stage

“You fucked up! You fucked up! You fucked up!” rails the older brother, berating the younger. “You fucked up! You fucked up! You fucked up!” he goes on, as if he cannot rage enough, as if he can’t get...

2019 Helen Hayes Nominations Are Announced

Tonight, at a celebration honoring theater excellence on stages across the Washington area, theater artists, administrators, patrons, and special guests gathered in the National Theatre’s Helen Hayes...

Review: ‘The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940’ by Rockville Little Theatre

When you go to see The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 at Rockville Little Theatre — and you should — prepare to be confused. This is not a bug, it’s a feature. The comedy takes your brain on a loopy...

Review: ‘The Brothers Size’ at 1st Stage

Offering timely explorations of important topics, 1st Stage continuously produces memorable plays. They are always solid, but The Brothers Size will knock you out. In it, a young man newly released...

Review: ‘Perfect Arrangement’ at the Greenbelt Arts Center

The title of Topher Payne’s play is, of course, ironic. Set during the early 1950s “Lavender Scare,” a purge of gay and lesbian Federal employees coinciding with the Red Scare of that era, the...

Review: ’12 Incompetent Jurors’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

Laurel Mill Playhouse delivers a madcap, hilarious examination of judicial frailty in Ian McWethy’s 12 Incompetent Jurors. The twelve jurors are a rollicking physical ensemble that makes you feel the...