2019

Review: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ at Rockville Little Theatre

Although three murders, or “helping lonely men to find peace,” as the aunts see it, take place in the first two minutes, Rockville Little Theatre’s current presentation of Joseph Kesselring’s classic...

Review: ‘Unexpected Turbulence’ at The Fridge DC

What a charmer is the fringy play Unexpected Turbulence. It’s an engaging, first-class “flight” with personable service provided by flight attendant Crystelle Desjardins (Alexander Burnett) who is on...

‘The Willard Suitcases’ Starring Nancy Anderson To Have World Premiere at American Shakespeare Center

The Willard Suitcases, a new musical by Julianne Wick Davis, will make its world premiere debut at the American Shakespeare Center on October 4, directed by Ethan McSweeny and featuring Nancy Anderson...

Review: ‘The Height of the Storm’ at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

“For better or worse” is a promise couples make when taking their wedding vows, but few comprehend how bad the worst can be when old age, dementia, and death bring shattering change to a longtime...

Review: ‘Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company

Wolf Pack Theatre Company gives audiences a reason to explore the darker depths of the human mind with season-opener Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical. With book and lyrics by Leslie Briscusse and music by...

Review: ‘Mike Birbiglia’s The New One’ at The National Theatre

Mike Birbiglia’s The New One is at The National Theatre in DC for just a few nights so let’s cut to the chase: go see it. Those not wildly familiar with Birbiglia’s work might be confused. Am I going...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by Britches and Hose Theatre Company

By Brianna Lau See the greatest show with Britches and Hose Theatre Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream! Magic and mayhem run rampant in this William Shakespeare comedy, and the setting...

Review: ‘The Bodyguard’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

Suspense-thrillers used to make up a sizable portion of every dinner theater menu, but the days of Death Trap and Agatha Christie yarns have given way to a nearly non-stop diet of musical...

Review: ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play’ at Round House Theatre

Teenage girls can be mean – just ask Broadway’s Tina Fey. But if you ask Jocelyn Bioh, the award-winning playwright of off-Broadway’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, you’ll get an...

Getting the Scoop on Broadway’s ‘The Lightning Thief’ with Writer Joe Tracz

Known to millions of fans for creating the book for the musical stage adaptation of viral sensation Be More Chill (based on the young-adult novel by Ned Vizzini), writer Joe Tracz is about to open his...

Review: ‘Caesar & Cleopatra’ at Theatre Row

The Gingold Theatrical Group honors its mission of presenting works inspired by the socio-political principles espoused by George Bernard Shaw with its new adaptation of the Irish playwright’s rarely...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Musicians Reach One-Year Agreement: Concert Season to Open This Weekend

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Inc. (BSO) and members of the Orchestra and the Musicians’ Association of Metropolitan Baltimore, Local 40-543, announced at a joint press conference on September 23,...

Review: “Elephant & Piggie’s ‘We Are In A Play!'” by Adventure Theatre & ATMTC Academy

Elephant and Piggie, two delightful characters based on the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems, come to life in Adventure Theatre’s musical theatre production, Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are In A...

Review: The American Pops Orchestra ‘Coat of Many Colors: The Music of Dolly Parton’ at Arena Stage

Luxurious! No rags here, only riches. Luke Frazier, the Pops’ magnificent maestro, once again wove a rich tapestry of talent to compose APO’s Coat of Many Colors: The Music of Dolly Parton. If you...

Review: ‘Trying’ at 1st Stage Tysons

You could approach Trying at 1st Stage as a realistic, two-character play about a real-life character, Judge Francis Biddle, and his new secretary, Sarah Schorr. Born to a life of wealth and...

Review: ‘The Finger’ at Venus Theater

Ambiguous loss that binds two people together while pushing them apart. Incompatible paths of grief that alienate each other’s only source of connection. The dominating presence of someone who is...

Review: Book ‘The Book Club Play’ at Silver Spring Stage

Whether you’re an avid reader or a theater buff or both, there’s a supersmart, superfunny show up in Silver Spring that should be on your short list. Marking its 52nd anniversary (!), community...

Review: ‘Cats’ at The Kennedy Center Opera House

Andrew Lloyd Webber catapulted to unprecedented West End and Broadway success with his musical extravaganza Cats, based on a 1939 collection of light verse by the otherwise modernist poet, T.S. Eliot....

Review: ‘Jitney’ at Arena Stage

When the opening moments of a play are a super loud blast of bluesy music and a checkers game on the verge of anarchy, you know you are in for a lively ride. But it was the acting in Jitney, Arena...

Review: ‘Miss You Like Hell’ at Baltimore Center Stage

Theater – including musical theater – has long been used as a medium for analysis of societal issues and concerns in a way that is more entertaining than an essay or lecture. Miss You Like Hell, now...

First look at the fierce performers of ‘School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play’… and their fabulous dresses

DC Theater Arts spent a day at rehearsal with the cast of Round House Theatre Company’s season opener: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play. Not only is this play a fabulous female-centered...

Review: ‘Isn’t It Romantic’ by Theatre@CBT

Isn’t It Romantic, written by Wendy Wasserstein and directed by Arielle Katz, follows Janie Blumberg (Elizabeth A. Weiss) and Harriet Cornwall (Betsy Ryan), both in their late 20s and both trying to...

Review: ‘NSO Pops: Maxwell: A Night at the Symphony’ at the Kennedy Center

There’s something way-cool seeing a full classical orchestra accompany a cornrowed, ponytailed R&B crooner in a bow-tied tux on the stage of the hallowed Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center. These...

Maria Manuela Goyanes on ‘Fairview,’ race, and what’s next at Woolly Mammoth

I saw Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview opening night at Woolly, and I cannot stop thinking about its originality—not only in form but in intent. I’m not writing about the production—my colleague Amy...

Ed Gero Delivers Stunning Performance as Falstaff in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV Part I’ at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre

Henry IV Part I, which opened at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre last week, is superb. (Click here for DCMTA’s review.) This production, starring Ed Gero, is equal to any I’ve seen. In fact, it is...

Review: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ at the Colonial Players of Annapolis

Should you see Colonial Players’ production of Arsenic and Old Lace in old town Annapolis before it closes? That depends. Are you opposed to comedy, physical, situational and verbal? Don’t go. Do you...

Flying V Theatre: Pushing the Boundaries of Theater One Podcast Episode at a Time

Imagine a world where pop culture and high culture intersect. A world in which wrestling, comics, and gaming meld seamlessly with the performing arts, allowing people of all backgrounds to experience...

Review: ‘Life is a Dream’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

In our world-class DC area, the GALA Hispanic Theatre continues to be a beacon with a mission to produce playwrights and plays often unknown to English-speaking audiences. GALA is a National Center...

Review: A Simmering Production of ‘The Gulf’ at Peter’s Alley

Silences speak loudly in the first Maryland production of The Gulf by Audrey Cefaly at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda. This professional production by Peter’s Alley Theatre group, features two...

REACH Report: DC Playwrights Forum

It’s true. The DC area has moved into the forefront of the nation’s theater communities. A recent report from Actors’ Equity Association named DC the “fastest-growing theater city.” It was in the...

Review: ‘Meatballs and Music’ at Creative Cauldron

“Sing your song… be someone big on earth” is one of the centering lyrics that Tom Sweitzer sang in his one-actor, cabaret-like performance of Meatballs and Music on September 13 & 14, 2019 at Creative...

Review: ‘Derren Brown: Secret’ at the Cort Theatre

When I was a kid, enthusiastically attending every show on Broadway, I never would have predicted that, in the new millennium, theaters on The Great White Way would be home not just to great plays and...

Review: Pulitzer-Winning ‘Fairview’ Jump-Starts Woolly Mammoth’s New Season

The Woolly Mammoth Theater Company has rocket-launched its 40th anniversary season with a searing production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama....

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ by The Arlington Players

After a highly successful animated film, a long-running Broadway show, a live-action movie version, various spin-offs, and innumerable theme park, cruise ship, and school productions, the Disney...

Review: ‘Surfacing’ at Expats Theatre Depicts the Desperation of the Displaced

It isn’t every day you see a play that merges Becket and Martha Graham. That’s my takeaway from watching the hybrid form of Surfacing play out at the Atlas: Three actors are strictly circumscribed in...

Review: ‘The Girls of the Garden Club’ at Laurel Mill Playhouse

The Girls of the Garden Club, written by John Patrick, directed by Larry Simmons and produced by Maureen Rogers, is presently playing at Laurel Mill Playhouse located on historic Main Street in...

Review: ‘Helen on Wheels’ at Best Medicine Rep

The central character in Best Medicine Rep’s (BMR) DC-area premiere of Cricket Daniel’s Helen on Wheels, Helen Wheeler (Liz Weber), is a 74-year old Oklahoma widow full of vim, vigor, and strong drink...

REACH Report: Renée Fleming, Angélique Kidjo, and Jason Moran

Two of the world’s biggest voices blended beautifully Thursday night on the Main Stage at the Kennedy Center’s REACH Opening Festival, demonstrating the power of song to unify and inspire disparate...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with The Amazing Kreskin

For the past six decades, world-renowned mentalist The Amazing Kreskin has been an icon of pop culture, whose fame was spread through his recurrent TV appearances with Johnny Carson, Regis Philbin,...

Signature Theatre Announces Plays Selected for SigWorks: Monday Night New Play Reading Series

Signature Theatre continues its commitment to new work and developing local talent by presenting the fifth season of SigWorks: Monday Night New Play Reading Series. This season Signature is proud to...

The August Wilson Society Introduces August Wilson Lecture Series at Howard University

The August Wilson Society (AWS) is thrilled to announce the September 19, 2019 launch of the August Wilson’s Ground Annual Lecture Series, a forum whose mission is to advance August Wilson Studies by...

REACH Report: ‘The Just and the Blind’ Aims to Save Black Sons

“How does a black boy become an American?” asks spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph. “How does he learn his role to play?” For Joseph the question is personal and visceral. In The Just and the...

A Conversation with Music Man John Miller: “Stage Door Johnny” Gives his Takes on Broadway

In honor of the tenth anniversary of its release, Stage Door Johnny: John Miller – Takes on Broadway has been reissued on CD and for download and streaming on digital platforms. The acclaimed debut...

Review: ‘Decky Does a Bronco’ at The Royal Family Performing Arts Space

Boys will be boys, until a shocking event thrusts them into the harsh realities of life and continues to traumatize them throughout adulthood. The US premiere of Decky Does a Bronco by Scottish...

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre To Host Free Staged Reading of ‘Mids and Johnnies’ on September 20

Looking for an uplifting original musical? Check out Mids and Johnnies, a new musical about life in Annapolis. The plot revolves around Roman, a Ruritanian foreign-exchange student at St. John’s...

Review: Raise a Glass to ‘The Smuggler’ at Solas Nua

The bar is open and there’s 100-proof theater on tap. It’s a stirring play about an Irish immigrant bartender, and it’s shaking up a classy new cocktail bar where only 30 patrons at a time can see it....

Review: ‘Love Sick’ at Theater J Offers a Contemporary Look at the Biblical Song of Songs

Celebrating the lushness of love without shying away from the moody darkness that might befall lovers, Theater J opens its new season with the East Coast premiere of the musical Love Sick. Love Sick...

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts Presents ‘Annie’

Leaping Lizards! Riverside Center for the Performing Arts is thrilled to be presenting Annie, starring Sally Struthers as Miss Hannigan, opening Wednesday, September 25 and running until Sunday,...

REACH Report: ‘Storytelling for Seniors with Candace Wolf’

More than 50 seniors crowded into a storytelling circle inside one of the Kennedy Center’s new REACH buildings on Monday, and I, as a card-carrying member of the reduced-fare generation, squeezed in...

Review: ‘1 Henry IV’ at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre

1 Henry IV at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, directed by Rosa Joshi, is perfectly cast and beautifully executed. Edward Gero is a superb Falstaff, and he is surrounded by gifted actors and strikingly...