2019

Review: ‘Jerusalem’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

People staying when they need to go; people going when they long to stay. People hanging on to bits of myth and legend, or a bit of land, in the face of overwhelming forces of economic logic....

Review: ‘Superior Donuts’ by Reston Community Players

In Superior Donuts, which opened at the Reston Community Players last night, the new Starbucks across the street is taking business from a 60-year-old family-owned shop. It is a familiar story in...

Pipeline Playwrights Presents Winter/Spring 2019 Reading Series at MetroStage

Join Pipeline Playwrights on Monday nights for readings of exciting new works, featuring some of the area’s most talented actors and directors! The series opens with a play by Pipeline’s newest...

Review: ‘School of Rock: The Musical’ at National Theatre

Kicked out of the band and facing eviction from “his” apartment, Dewey Finn questionably intercepts a substitute teacher assignment at a prestigious local academy to pay the rent. With no teaching...

Review: ‘The Fantasticks’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s The Fantasticks had a legendary 42-year Off-Broadway run (and then an 11-year revival), suggesting that there’s something strangely captivating about this sweet and...

Step Afrika! Kicks Off 25th Anniversary Season With Showcase at Strathmore

When Step Afrika! began performing nearly 25 years ago, founder C. Brian Williams couldn’t have imagined his now-famous dance company would bring the art of step to audiences around the world. “When I...

In The Moment: ‘Image China: Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage’ Makes U.S. Premiere at The Kennedy Center

A far-reaching cultural exchange production from China by the China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) is making its United States premiere at The Kennedy Center. It is Image China: Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage,...

Review: ‘Cinderella’ at The Kennedy Center Opera House

Don’t walk into the Kennedy Center Opera House expecting a Disney-esque, happily-ever-after retelling of the evergreen fairytale Cinderella. British director/choreographer Matthew Bourne has spent his...

Shakespeare Theatre Company Hosts Annual Mock Trial

On January 14, 2019, the Shakespeare Theatre Company presented its Winter Mock Trial at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW). Guests were invited to hear Richard the Third: A Good Name Restored – Was...

Review: ‘Silent Sky’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

Colonial Players’ production of Silent Sky is a beautiful combination of wonderful acting, direction, lighting, and sound. The 2011 play, written by Lauren Gunderson, is based on the real-life stories...

The Al Hirschfeld Foundation Pays Tribute to Carol Channing

With this morning’s passing of Broadway legend Carol Channing (1921-2019), just two weeks shy of her 98th birthday, The Al Hirschfeld Foundation pays homage to the star with its release of the work of...

Monumental Theatre Company Presents New Children’s Musical ‘Dress Up Day’

Monumental Theatre Company will present Dress Up Day beginning March 2, 2019, as part of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival and Monumental’s New Work Series. Dress Up Day follows a spunky first-grader...

Review: ‘The Bad Seed’ at Zemfira Stage

Zemfira Stage is producing an uncommon sighting in the DC area: a production of the offbeat mid-1950’s play, The Bad Seed by Maxwell Anderson. An unconventional nightmare of a melodrama especially for...

Review: ‘Maestro’ at The Duke on 42nd Street

Presented by the Ensemble for the Romantic Century in a limited engagement at The Duke on 42nd Street, Maestro, written by Eve Wolf (the company’s Founder and Executive Artistic Director), examines a...

Review: ‘And Then There Were None’ at Vagabond Players

By Andy Arnold If you fancy a trip to Broadway to see a play, a less expensive offering is the Vagabond Players’ adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. This production is faithful...

Review: ‘Dan Domenech: Bootleg Famous’ at Feinstein’s/54 Below

Following his New Year’s Eve blow-out in Palm Springs with the touring Rock of Ages Band, Dan Domenech (who was a lead in the Broadway production at the Helen Hayes Theatre) returned home for the...

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts Presents ‘La Cage aux Folles’

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia is excited to present the Tony Award-winning La Cage aux Folles, beginning January 9th and running until Sunday, March 3rd. The...

Local Favorite Margo Seibert Comes Home for Signature Theatre Concert

Fans of Margo Seibert – the Broadway star of Rocky and In Transit – may face some unusual competition for tickets to her upcoming concert at Signature Theatre. That’s because metro DC is no touring...

Dante’ Pope Is Center Stage in Strathmore’s Artist in Residency Program

Raheem Devaughn. Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Erykah Badu: Soul vocalist and Strathmore Artist in Residence Dante’ Pope has performed or shared the stage with them all. From sideman to...

Review: ‘Thank You, Dad’ at Rapid Lemon Productions

In 2018, the 40th anniversary year of what’s become known as The Jonestown Massacre, Rapid Lemon Productions commissioned its first full-length play. Emerging local playwright Aladrian C. Wetzel was...

Review: ‘American Moor’ at Anacostia Playhouse

American Moor, in a return engagement at Anacostia Playhouse, lambasts the audience with a series of provocative questions: can an actor play a role without tapping into the darkest parts of their...

Review: ‘Proof’ by St. Mark’s Players

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” implies that a child has similar qualities or characteristics as his or her parents. A particular talent may be handed down through the genes, but less...

Review: ‘Equivocation’ by Bill Cain at Silver Spring Stage

It is 1605. The Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of disaffected Catholics attempted to blow up King James I, his wife, his children, and all the political and religious leaders of the age, has just...

Magic Time!: ‘ 19: The Musical’

It was “a century of struggle” before women in the United States won the right to vote in 1920, and the centenary of the amendment that cinched it, the nineteenth, is just around the corner. An...

Review: ‘Heathers: The Musical’ at Dominion Stage

High school never changes. This is abundantly clear in Heathers: The Musical. With book, music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy, this edgy and fun musical comes to Dominion Stage under...

‘The Enchanted Bookshop’ at Encore Stage & Studio

Encore Stage & Studio’s polished and playful production of The Enchanted Bookshop is funtertainment for the whole family! The Enchanted Bookshop by Todd Wallinger tells the magical tale of Margie, the...

Review: ‘Cartography’ at The Kennedy Center

With its premiere of Cartography, The Kennedy Center continues to be a welcoming venue for theatrically devised civic discourse on often fraught issues. Cartography is a unique live documentary about...

Review: ‘Choir Boy’ at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

Making a soul-stirring Broadway debut with the Manhattan Theatre Club after its Off-Broadway premiere with MTC in 2013, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s revised Choir Boy has already extended its limited...

Review: ‘Judy Garland: A Star Is Born’ at Signature Theatre

Signature Theatre’s Cabaret Series is a relaxed affair. Pull up a chair and put your elbows on the table because Awa Sal Secka and Katie Mariko Murray are going to make you feel right at home. The two...

Past Is Prologue in New Musical About Suffragists

When Nancy Pelosi accepted the gavel as Speaker of the House last week, she expressed pride at presiding over Congress during the 100th anniversary of women having the right to vote (coming in 2020)....

Theater J Names Jojo Ruf New Managing Director

Theater J, the nation’s pre-eminent professional Jewish theater, announced yesterday that Jojo Ruf will become its new Managing Director on January 28, 2019. Ruf joins Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr...

Avant Bard Announces 2019 Scripts in Play Festival

Avant Bard theatre is proud to announce the 2019 edition of Scripts in Play Festival, its signature play-reading series, February 8 to 24, 2019. This year’s selection features seven plays over two...

American Opera Is Becoming Its Own Genre and It’s Happening Here in DC

Opera in America has had the stink of death upon it for some time now. Lavish productions of period piece love stories and power struggles set largely during the time of kings and courtesans in Europe...

DCMTA 2018 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Design Elements in Professional Productions

As the year draws to a close, we asked DCMTA writers to think back on the shows that left an indelible impression on them in 2018. In this category, outstanding professional design, we recognize:...

Review: ‘[title of show]’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Like TV’s “Seinfeld,” [title of show] is a show, to a degree, about the mundane. [title of show] is a musical about four friends creating a musical – the one the audience sees. Along the way, they...

Review: ‘From U Street to the Cotton Club’ by The In Series

Rising from its roots in the Deep South, African American music journeyed north with the Great Migration, invigorating urban culture with rhythms derived from shouts to spirituals, work songs and...

Review: ‘Craving for Travel’ at Dark Horse Theatre Company

Craving for Travel, written by Greg Edwards and Andy Sandberg, and directed by Natasha Parnian immediately piqued my interest from the first time I read the tagline used in promotional materials: “2...

Review: ‘Catch Me If You Can’ at the Montgomery Playhouse

In Montgomery Playhouse’s production of Catch Me If You Can, now playing at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn, Director Ed Starr has once again sprinkled fairy dust on an erstwhile gaggle of ordinary...

Review: ‘The Comedy of Errors’ at the American Shakespeare Center (Staunton, VA)

If you’re a fan of stand-up comedy, you know the highs and lows that come with artists working the crowd with fresh material they’ve been practicing for weeks. With their eyes on you and yours on...

Review: ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at the American Shakespeare Center

For all his brilliance, Shakespeare still suffers from the occasional whining of critics about his later “problem” plays. Longer and more complex, with familiar plot lines splintered and grafted into...

Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ at the American Shakespeare Center (Staunton, VA)

We all have our own holiday traditions – lighting candles one night after the next, caroling, choral concerts, dreidel-spinning, Christmas Revels, Christmas-day Chinese fare, etc.—and they all bring...

Theaters Offer Discounts to Furloughed Government Employees

With no end to the government shutdown in sight, many DMV arts organizations are offering free or discounted tickets to federal government workers. DMV theaters recognize that government employees...

DCMTA 2018 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Performance in a Community Theater Production

As the year draws to a close, we asked DCMTA writers to think back on the shows that left an indelible impression on them in 2018. Here are the community theater performances that made the biggest...

David Lowery of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven Is Not Afraid to Testify

Musician David Lowery is a fascinating mix of contradictions. The co-founder of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven is a learned college math professor and a cool rocker musician, a proud and loving...

‘Passport to the World of Music’ Kicks Off 2019 at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron invites you to join them on a musical tour of the world in their intimate cabaret space, with a diverse musical lineup specially curated by Ken Avis and Lynn Veronneau of the Wammy...