2019

REACH Report: ‘The Second City and Kennedy Center’s Jazz Comedy Experiment’ at The REACH at The Kennedy Center

The Opening Festival of the new REACH complex at The Kennedy Center featured a plethora of live performances and films, including the laugh-until-you-break-your-funnybone The Second City and Kennedy...

Review: ‘Souvenir’ at Rep Stage

Rep Stage presents a strong introduction to their 2019/2020 season with a charming production of Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir, directed by Joseph W. Ritsch. This play details the meteoric rise of...

REACH Report: ‘Spotlight on Jazz’ Events at The REACH at The Kennedy Center

DCMTA joined the teeming crowd at the Kennedy Center’s “unprecedented new expansion,” the REACH, on the second day of a 16-day multi-genre festival to check out the spotlight on jazz. From the morning...

Review: ‘Doubt: A Parable’ at Studio Theatre

In 2003, John Patrick Shanley started writing a play about an America full of opinionated people, people who were certain they were right, people who shunned intellectual debate. From Shanley’s point...

Review: ‘A Few Good Men’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

OORAH and HOOYAH! Integrity and a code of honor is at the heart of the play A Few Good Men, showing now at The Little Theatre of Alexandria. Many Marines and a few Naval officers share the focus of...

Review: ‘Proof’ at Everyman Theatre

No gift comes without a cost. And that lesson courses through every moment of Proof, David Auburn’s very fine Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which is being given a thrilling revival at Everyman Theatre....

Review: ‘Butterfly’ by the IN Series Presents a Radical Restructuring of the Original Puccini

While considered one of the classics in opera’s storied canon, Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini is simultaneously acknowledged to be one of the most problematic for its depictions of race and...

Alliance For New Music-Theatre Will Be First Theater-in-Residence at Dupont Underground

Alliance for New Music-Theatre (ANMT) is delighted to announce it has been named Dupont Underground’s first Theatre-in-Residence. The residency coincides with the launch of its 2019-2020 season. It is...

Review: ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by the Potomac Playmakers

Bringing Little Shop of Horrors to life is no small feat for any theatre company, and it’s even more difficult when performing in a very limited space, but the Potomac Playmakers and Director Nic...

Opening night at Mosaic’s ‘Fabulation’

Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation: or, the Re-education of Undine follows a successful African-American publicist named Udine as she falls on hard times after her husband steals her fortune. Penniless and...

Everybody Knows Somebody: Wendi Winters

Responding to the mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH on August 3 and 4, songwriter Amanda Palmer dropped a single last month called “Everybody Knows Somebody.” The song’s premise is that the...

Review: ‘Bobby Gould in Hell’ by Providence Players of Fairfax

Eternal questions are being hotly debated in the back room of the Italian Café in Falls Church, where the Providence Players of Fairfax have once again set up shop for a “pop-up production” of a David...

Review: Jennifer Hudson and the NSO at Wolf Trap

Gracious, engaging, and a powerhouse of a voice, Jennifer Hudson brought the house down and left the audience standing and cheering while in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap...

Review: ‘Drunk Shakespeare’ at The Lounge

If you’re a theater-lover expecting a traditional performance of a classic work by Shakespeare, with just one chosen actor struggling to remember the lines after downing multiple shots of whisky and...

In the Moment: Peter’s Alley Theatre moves to The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and opens with ‘The Gulf’

Peter’s Alley Theatre has moved its base of performances to The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. Founded in 2012 by Aly B. Ettman, Peter’s Alley is a non-profit professional theatre company dedicated to...

Review: ‘Betrayal’ at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre

London’s acclaimed revival of Betrayal – Harold Pinter’s 1978 drama about the devastating effects of infidelity, inspired by the playwright’s own seven-year extra-marital affair in the 1960s – has...

Feature: Good news, bad news and coming attractions at 4615 Theatre

First, the bad news. Enron, the farcical, scary and all-but-unbelievable romp through the biggest fraud in corporate history, has closed. The good news is that there’s still time—four more...

Ruben Santiago-Hudson on Directing August Wilson’s ‘Jitney’

Perhaps it is his distinctive voice or the fact that he has been called the “best storyteller of his generation” that makes Ruben Santiago-Hudson the apparent inheritor of the body of work produced by...

Review: ‘A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn’ at Anacostia Playhouse

Director Stephawn Stephens has deep family roots at the Dew Drop Inn, having started as a performer in A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn. When asked how he pulled off the latest edition he said he simply...

Review: ‘Laughing Liberally: Make America Laugh Again’ at The Theatre at St. Clement’s

New York’s longest-running political comedy stand-up act brings its brand of incisive topical humor Off-Broadway to The Theatre at St. Clement’s for a fifteen-show engagement (in association with Eric...

Open To All: The Kennedy Center’s New Addition Encourages Community Engagement

Sensuous and just a bit sly, the smooth white pavilions of the Kennedy Center’s new REACH complex wink at us amidst undulating grassy berms. One rises up from the green lawn, curling like an oncoming...

Page to Stage Festival 2019: Tastings from a Buffet (Part Two)

Kennedy Center’s annual Page to Stage Festival is always chock full of tempting offerings, and the challenge of deciding what to see is daunting. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet…except you really...

Shakespeare Theatre Company To Air National Theatre Live’s “Fleabag” as Part of Film Series

Shakespeare Theatre Company is delighted to announce the lineup of three National Theatre Live screenings in anticipation of the 2019/20 Season: FLEABAG, ANTONY & CLEOPATRA, THE LEHMAN TRILOGY, and...

News: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Names Emika Abe as New Managing Director

After a nationwide search run by Greg Kandel, David Mallette, and Management Consultants for the Arts, Woolly Mammoth will welcome their new Managing Director, Emika Abe, on October 7, 2019. Abe...

Page to Stage Festival 2019: Tastings from a Buffet (Part One)

Kennedy Center’s annual Page to Stage Festival is always chock full of tempting offerings, and the challenge of deciding what to see is daunting. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet…except you really...

Review: Olney Theatre Center’s ‘Cabaret’ Is Among the Show’s Best Productions

It’s been 54 years since Cabaret first opened on Broadway, but this season is the first time the Olney Theatre Center has staged the show. I have always loved this Kander and Ebb masterpiece, but of...

Review: ‘Perfect Arrangement’ at Fells Point Corner Theatre

Long a mainstay of the Baltimore community theater landscape, Fells Point Corner Theatre has been on quite a roll recently – delivering knockout productions like Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem last...

‘Fabulation’ Brings a Tale of Comic (and Cosmic) Comeuppance to Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Although it sounds serious on the surface, Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine, is one of the funniest plays ever to grace a DC stage. That’s the opinion of my colleague, John...

News: Charm City Fringe Announces 2019 Festival Lineup

Charm City Fringe announces the lineup for the eighth annual festival, now in its third year in the Bromo Arts District. Charm City Fringe will present 22 productions and over 90 performances during...

The 2019 Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage Festival

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts its 18th annual Page-to-Stage New Play Festival from Saturday, August 30, 2019 through Monday, September 2, 2019. The festival is a free...

Round House Theatre Unveils Major Renovation

Round House Theatre reopened this week after an eight-month renovation that revamped nearly every aspect of the Bethesda, MD theater space. What began as a desire to improve the acoustics in the...

Review: ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ by ArtsCentric at Motor House

ArtsCentric’s Little Shop Of Horrors, a bouquet of beauty, lush with rich vocals, indicates a growth of collective greatness at MotorHouse and beyond. I’m sorry you missed it. It was amazing and...

Fall for These Theater Week Discounts!

Ah, autumn in DC. The temperatures fall, the leaves fall, and the ticket prices fall at dozens of theaters! Theatre Week, a program of theatreWashington, celebrates the beginning of each new theater...

Review: ‘Fabulation’ at Mosaic Theater Is an Outright Joy

It takes a certain talent to turn topics that are no laughing matter into laugh-out-loud comedy that doesn’t condescend, doesn’t ridicule, and yet imbues life with meaning as only art can. That kind...

Review: ‘Beehive’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Let yourself drift back and be carried away to another time–the time when music with its rhythms was the center of a young life. Now with that thought, take yourself to the vibrant, energetic...

The REACH Opening Festival at The Kennedy Center: How Not to Be Overwhelmed

The Opening Festival of the new REACH at The Kennedy Center is truly exciting, but it’s a lot. All those buildings, all the goings-on. What’s a newbie to do? There’s no dearth of info about the...

Casting Director Kelly Crandall d’Amboise on Signature Theatre’s ‘Assassins’

The splendid, bone-chilling darkness of Signature Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins is lifted into reality by a most unexpected source: a 10-year-old character named Billy. He does...

Ray Anthony Thomas Discusses August Wilson and Playing Turnbo in ‘Jitney’ at Arena Stage

He has had major stage roles in everything from The Crucible to Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow, Moscow. He has appeared in films as different as “Isn’t It Romantic?” and “Shutter Island.” Now...

Review: ‘Nuthin’ But The Truth!’ by Black Carpet Productions

As the Gospel stage play Nuthin’ But The Truth! opened, the fictional Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church in Mississippi had figuratively seen many literal and emotional battles in its one-hundred...

Review: An Audacious and Urgent ‘Assassins’ at Signature Theatre

Nearly thirty years after its premiere, Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins still astonishes. An audacious meet-up of nine successful and would-be presidential assassins – from the narcissist John Wilkes...

Teatro de la Luna: Providing Spanish-Language Theater to DC Since 1991

Nucky Walder and Mario Marcel are household names to many Spanish-speaking residents of Washington, DC. For more than 60 years, Marcel, who is from Argentina, has dedicated himself to acting, theater...

News: Arena Stage Kicks Off 2019/20 Season with Free Community Day and Props Sale

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater kicks off the 2019/20 Season with a free Community Day and Props Sale on Saturday, August 24, 2019 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Mead Center (1101...

Review: ‘Da Vinci & Michelangelo: The Titans Experience’ at St. Luke’s Theatre

Images, information, and interpretations are the main ingredients of Da Vinci & Michelangelo: The Titans Experience, which has now arrived in New York. Though presented Off-Broadway at St. Luke’s...

Providence Players’ Julie Janson Previews Pop-Up Production of ‘Bobby Gould in Hell’

With the success of their first pop-up theatrical venture, the Providence Players of Fairfax are ready for a second pop-up production. This time the Providence Players, a Northern Virginia staple for...

Review: ‘Ephemeral Fatale’ by Area Woman

Area Woman is a group of four local DC artists who came together to premiere their “comedydramadance,” Holon!, for the 2018 Capital Fringe Festival. This August at various venues throughout DC, they...

Review: ‘No Exit’ by Dark Horse Theatre Company

Dark Horse Theatre Company knocks it out of the park again with this atmospheric trip to the afterlife. No Exit, written by Jean-Paul Sartre and directed by Natasha Parnian, is weird and dark and will...

Review: ‘Jaime Lozano: Songs by an Immigrant’ at Joe’s Pub

For his smashing debut at Joe’s Pub, Mexican-born and New York-based composer and music director Jaime Lozano gathered a roster of his talented family, friends, and collaborators to join him in his...

Review: ‘Waiting for Johnny Depp’ in the Rave Theater Festival

This month marks the premiere of the Rave Theater Festival, playing Off-Off-Broadway at The Clemente Solo Velez Cultural Center, the former home of FringeNYC. Among the 20 works chosen to perform in...

American Shakespeare Center Announces 2020 Programming

In a Sunday presentation broadcast from the stage of Staunton, Virginia’s Blackfriars Playhouse – the world’s only recreation of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre – American Shakespeare Center (ASC)...

Review: ‘Betrayal’ at 4615 Theatre Company

Betrayal, one of Harold Pinter’s finest works, will open on Broadway September 5 after an extended run in London’s West End. Thanks to 4615 Theatre, a young professional company, you can see a...