2019

‘GRINDR: The Opera’ by New York’s Erik Ransom Wins London’s Offie Award for Best New Musical

It was just announced at London’s ninth annual Off-West End Awards (or Offies – the English equivalent of New York’s Obies), presented this evening in the Grand Hall at Battersea Arts Centre, that...

Avant Bard Announces Casting for ‘Topdog/Underdog’

Avant Bard theatre announces that veteran screen actor Khalil Kain will star with award-winning stage actor Louis E. Davis in Suzan-Lori Parks’s acclaimed Topdog/Underdog, led by award-winning...

In the Moment: One Song Lifts ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ from Jukebox Musical Status

By all means, go, have a great time at Signature Theatre’s grandly jaunty Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show, a musical revue centered upon the prolific composer Fats Waller (1904-1943)...

Review: ‘Gypsy’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

We can hold our breath but we’re never likely to get another musical as perfect as Gypsy. Sixty Broadway seasons ago it caught the unique charms and pathology of show business in a magic bubble that...

Misha Kachman: A Russian-born Designer Sets the Stage for ‘Kleptocracy’ at Arena Stage

One of the scariest moments in Kleptocracy – Kenneth Lin’s drama about the struggle for power in post-Soviet Russia – occurs when the shadow of a tiger prowls the length of an elevated cage. The cage...

Review: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ by the Arlington Players

A quaint house at first glance is anything but when it is discovered that Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha are serving their guests something a little stronger than tea in Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Broadway’s Derrick Cobey

Soon to open back on Broadway at Studio 54 – where Andy Warhol, who coined the phrase “famous for 15 minutes,” spent more than a minute in the late 1970s, when it was the hottest club in New York...

Review: ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Signature Theatre

Outside, the Polar Vortex reigned. Inside, the jazz was hot and smoky and funny and sexy. Ain’t Misbehavin’, celebrating the work of Fats Waller, brought his music and the feel of his life and times...

Review: ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ at The Sheen Center

Presented by Blackfriars Repertory Theatre and The Storm Theatre at The Sheen Center, Ah, Wilderness!, Eugene O’Neill’s coming-of-age three-act comedy, offers an opportunity for diehard fans of the...

Review: ‘Harlequinade’ by American Ballet Theatre at The Kennedy Center

Marius Petipa must have been smiling from his grave last night when the American Ballet Theatre presented another brilliant Russian choreographer’s staging of Petipa’s Harlequinade. This sweet,...

Review: ‘An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly’ at American Pops Orchestra

The American Pops Orchestra recently presented their original adaptation of the children’s story, An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. Writer, Claybourne Elder, has taken the madcap rhyme and transformed...

Magic Time!: ‘Twelve Angry Men’ at Ford’s Theatre

Cross-racial casting can be totally wrongheaded—as when white actors impersonate characters of color. It can also be speciously universalizing—as when actors of color play all the parts in a work...

Tracy Lynn Olivera To Perform One-Night Cabaret at BlackRock This Friday, Feb 1

BlackRock will be kicking off its jam-packed February with Broadway Gold, a musical cabaret spun together by Signature Theatre’s own Tracy Lynn Olivera. On Friday, February 1 at 8 PM, Olivera and her...

Review: ‘Visions of Love’ by Pointless Theatre

Pointless Theatre has produced a stage adaptation of Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, City Lights, called Visions of Love. Using the original score, adapted and composed by Chaplin himself, and...

Review: ‘The Screwtape Letters’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre

When the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” comes on the pre-show soundtrack, it’s a tipoff that C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters is going to be a diabolically delightful evening of theater and...

Review: ‘Gilligan’s Island: The Musical’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre

Imagine sitting in your home watching a rerun of Gilligan’s Island when suddenly, the characters come through the screen, stand in your living room, and sing about their adventures while engaging in...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Broadway’s Kyle Taylor Parker

Wisconsin-born and New York-based award-winning actor Kyle Taylor Parker is well known to lovers of musical theater and to all loyal KTPEEPS for his featured roles in the original Broadway casts of...

Addison Janney’s ‘Yes, But I Have To’ To Premiere at Hard Bargain Amphitheater February 15-18

Yes, But I Have To, a new drama, will premiere at Hard Bargain Amphitheater in Accokeek, MD from February 15 to 18, 2019. Written and directed by emerging DC playwright Addison Janney, and starring...

Review: ‘La Cage Aux Folles’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents La Cage Aux Folles, with Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman and Book by Harvey Fierstein. Based on Jean Poiret’s farcical play by the same name, La Cage...

Review: ‘Three Sistahs’ at MetroStage

MetroStage’s Three Sistahs is a marvelous musical, an evening of vocal and dramatic excellence. Written and directed by Thomas W. Jones II – with a story by Janet Pryce – and music by William Hubbard,...

Broadway Legend Baayork Lee Comes to Reston CenterStage February 9

An evening of conversation with Broadway legend Baayork Lee is coming to Reston’s CenterStage. Baayork Lee has performed in some of the most far-reaching musical theatre events of the past decades....

Review: ‘Kleptocracy’ at Arena Stage

A young Vladimir Putin (Christopher Geary) steps onto the stage, wearing a 1980s tracksuit, quoting a passage from the Soviet absurdist and surrealist writer Daniil Kharms (1905-1942) “How a Man...

In the Moment: ‘The Baltimore Waltz’ at the Keegan Theatre

How any of us deal with the death of a loved one is so very personal. With the passing of her beloved brother Carl, playwright Paula Vogel found her own sui generis way to let the world know how much...

Review: ‘Gulf View Drive’ at Washington Stage Guild

Gulf View Drive is the third and final play in Arlene Hutton’s highly-acclaimed Nibroc Trilogy, which opened this week to waves of laughter and applause at the Washington Stage Guild in downtown DC....

Review: ‘The Mystery of Love and Sex’ at the Iron Crow Theatre

Human beings are mysterious creatures: how deeply can we know even those closest to us, or ourselves? What’s the cost of knowing? In Bathsheba Doran’s 2015 play, The Mystery of Love and Sex, having...

Review: ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ by Maryland Lyric Opera

The Maryland Lyric Opera’s stated raison d’etre is to find and nurture good singers, then give them a place to test their mettle on masterworks such as those by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, and the like....

Review: ‘Livin’ La Vida Grande’ at The Green Room 42

Following his appearance in two sold-out runs of Titanique, Frankie Grande has returned to The Green Room 42 with an updated revival of his solo cabaret act Livin’ La Vida Grande for two sold-out...

Review: ‘Chess’ at 2nd Star Productions

Chess, the complicated Cold War tale with music by Abba alumni Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and lyrics by the unstoppable Tim Rice, bursts on to the stage at 2nd Star Productions under the...

Review: ‘Fun Home’ at the Baltimore Center Stage

“Welcome to our house on Maple Avenue.” With this lyric, the Bechdel family invites the Baltimore Center Stage audience into their home – free of judgment and with all their family dysfunction on full...

Review: ‘Twelve Angry Men’ at Ford’s Theatre

Some sixty-five years since its original premiere as a black-and-white teleplay, Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men remains timeless; all too intriguingly relevant as ever. In the Ford’s Theatre...

Review: ‘The Baltimore Waltz’ at the Keegan Theatre

Anna always wanted to go to Europe. See the City of Lights. Drink a pint of authentic German beer. Have a rendezvous (or two, or five) with strange men who whisper unintelligible sweet nothings into...

Review: ‘Peter Pan’ by Vienna Theatre Company

J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan is a classic tale whose title character first appeared in a 1902 novel from the same author. Peter is a carefree spirit, who never wants to grow up and embodies innocence,...

Photo Feature: Behind the Scenes at ’19 the Musical’

In honor of last week’s Women’s March, DC Theater Arts sat in on a workshop performance of 19, a musical in development highlighting the fight to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to...

‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

With a winning young actor in the lead role, any ticket to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is good as gold. Eleven-year-old Rueby Wood made the perfect Charlie Bucket the night we attended at...

Magic Time!: ‘Admissions’ at Studio Theatre

“Some of my best friends are white men,” says Sherri, the very liberal white woman who handles admissions at a small New England prep school. Avowedly antiracist, Sherri is on a mission to increase...

Yael Weiss Premieres “32 Bright Clouds: Beethoven Conversations Around the World” at Strathmore January 24

At some point in their careers, most concert pianists tackle some, if not all, of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas. Many pianists also commission new music for their instrument by living composers, to...

Review: ‘Admissions’ at Studio Theatre

It’s an odd thing, as a Latina here in Washington, D.C., to observe the mental wrestlings of liberal white folks struggling to come to terms with their privilege. How in muted voices they make sure to...

Review: ‘Colin Quinn: Red State Blue State’ at the Minetta Lane Theatre

Brooklyn-born comedian Colin Quinn, familiar to TV viewers everywhere for his regular appearances on Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central, and MTV’s Remote Control, continues to ignite New York theater...

Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ by Castaways Repertory Theatre

The Castaways Repertory Theatre opened their production of Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare’s better-known romantic comedies, this past weekend. The story is packed with chicanery. There are...

Review: ‘Submission’ by Scena Theatre

Go with no preconceived notions to best absorb Scena Theatre’s Submission, the American premiere theater adaptation of the 2015 European best-selling novel by French author Michel Houellebecq. Adapted...

Big Apple Circus Returning to National Harbor

The Big Apple Circus is back in the DC region for its second year. From February 14 through March 24, the Big Apple Circus will transform National Harbor into a big top with a modern twist for their...

Russwin Francisco on Art, Creativity and Receiving LA TI DO’s 2019 Joel Markowitz Award

LA TI DO Productions will present its second annual Joel Markowitz Award at LUCKY: A 7th Anniversary on January 28, 2019. Russwin Francisco, a film actor, producer and business owner, was chosen to...

LA TI DO to present Joel Markowitz Award at ‘LUCKY: A 7th Anniversary’

LA TI DO will present its second annual Joel Markowitz Award at LUCKY: A 7th Anniversary on January 28, 2019. Washington, DC’s premiere cabaret series will award DC business owner Russwin Francisco...

‘It’s a Man’s World’ – Or Is It? An Interview with Lindsay Lavin and Ilana Gabrielle, Bringing their Cabaret Act to The Green Room 42

BFFs since their school days at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Lindsay Lavin and Ilana Gabrielle make their return to the stage together at The Green Room 42, Broadway’s newest urban cabaret club,...

Magic Time!: ‘Jeffrey’ at Rainbow Theatre Project

If there’s such a thing as gay wit, Paul Rudnick’s got a load of it. Imagine Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward if they could be out about it. Yeah, Rudnick ranks with them and then some. As proof, check out...

Review: ‘Stonefish’ by The Coil Project at Greenbelt Arts Center

On Saturday, January 19, I had the pleasure of seeing Erica Smith’s years-in-the-making play, Stonefish, produced by The Coil Project and Greenbelt Arts Center. Director David Dieudonne and assistant...

WATCH Awards Nominations: 19th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors

The nominees for the 19th Annual WATCH Awards were announced tonight at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia.

‘Jeffrey’ at Rainbow Theatre Project

Jeffrey, the current offering of the Rainbow Theatre Project by playwright Paul Rudnick, casts a humorously defiant eye towards the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic – as set in the New York City of the...

Review: ‘Company’ by Stillpointe Theatre

When you go downtown to the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore City, you might not immediately think of the Wilkes School on Park Avenue as a theatrical venue, especially with the Baltimore School for the...

Review: ‘Secret Identity’ at The Flea Theater

The oldest professional LGBTQ+ theater company in New York, TOSOS (The Other Side of Silence) addresses the enduring issues and psychological impact of bullying and homophobia in its world-premiere...