2021

New recordings from Kyle Taylor Parker, Jane Monheit, and Collard & Rosenblatt

A must-hear selection of new and recent album releases offers the latest from a Broadway luminary, a top Billboard jazz and pop vocalist, and a writing team of rising stars. Kyle Taylor Parker,...

Black women reimagine artistic programming in ‘Reset’ at Woolly

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company has launched Reset, a new, free digital assemblage of Black artistry featuring historical resources, excerpts, and video performances. Curated by six Black cisgender...

‘Broadway Princess Party’ cast shares the joy and magic behind the show

By Kirstin Franko (guest author) and David Siegel Nothing can stop the Broadway Princess Party with its celebration of empowerment for who you are or want to be. It’s a performance that aims to kick...

Jennifer Ashley Tepper’s ‘The Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 4’ released tomorrow, discussed on Keen After Hours tonight

On Tuesday, March 9, Dress Circle Publishing (founded by Broadway producers Brisa Trinchero and Roberta Pereira in 2011, and the only publishing company dedicated solely to producing books with...

To be young, gifted, and Black in a white theater—YPT breaks the silence

In Silence Is Violence: The Future of the Field—the latest installment of Young Playwrights’ Theater’s (YPT) social justice performance series—three Black characters in the early stages of their...

How Imagination Stage is making sure the kids are okay during COVID

A new guard is stepping in at Imagination Stage, led by longtime Artistic Director, now Producing Artistic Director Janet Stanford. Rounding out the leadership trifecta are Meghann Babo-Shroyer as...

Food for Thought opens season with Christopher Durang and Tennessee Williams

Founded by writer Susan Charlotte in the fall of 2000, Off-Broadway’s award-winning Food For Thought Productions (FFTP), now in its 21st year, was the first theater company back in live action in NYC...

Washington wonks and Bard buffs to meet in mock trial Thursday

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s annual Mock Trial—“the funniest, most entertaining event in Washington” (Roll Call) and “a Washington wonk’s dream (The New York Times)—will be in session virtually March...

Japan Society’s ‘Ludic Proxy: Fukushima’ streams live beginning on Saturday

In association with PlayCo (an Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway theater producing adventurous new plays from the US and around the world), Japan Society (founded in 1907, to foster the exchange of...

How do we love in the time of COVID? Rep Stage counts ten ways.

For its first production since shutdown, Rep Stage explores how love can help us connect and heal in a time of isolation and unrest. The fully produced, filmed theater event of ten original...

Cuomo announces April 2 reopening of Broadway Flex Venues, Equity calls for vaccines

As part of the NY PopsUp initiative, which began on February 20, with free public surprise performances across New York City and State, Governor Cuomo has announced that select Broadway theaters,...

A family in ‘Jericho’ shares a traumatic Thanksgiving dinner

With its inaugural production of Jack Canfora’s Jericho (which made its debut Off-Broadway at 59E59 in 2013), New Normal Rep – a new streaming theater company created during the pandemic and dedicated...

No mansplaining in this all-women’s storytelling show

The question is, Who Tells Our Story? In a response to that question, Better Said Than Done is presenting the 2021 Women’s Storytelling Festival. The virtual event will be live online March 19–21,...

Video release of ‘Broadway Baby’ all-star reading for World Book Day

To commemorate World Book Day on Thursday, March 4, theater operator, producer, and author Russell Miller has released a video of One Grand Books’ February 21st virtual all-star reading of his...

Recipients named for NYSAF NEXUS grants and The Kleban Prize

The 2021 recipients of two prestigious theater initiatives for developing artists – one new, one well-established – have been named by New York Stage and Film and The Kleban Foundation. Lauded as “one...

Virus and racism have dramatically reshaped local audience views on theater

The findings of a new study of DC-area theatergoers reveal a dramatic shift in attitudes toward theater as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. The study...

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of ‘Rent’ with the New York Theatre Workshop

2021 marks a major date in American theater history: the 25th anniversary of the opening of Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking rock musical Rent, which will be celebrated with a spectacular virtual...

Two must-see streams on Monday give perspectives on empathy and Shakespeare

As says the old English proverb – popularized by Jacobean playwright John Fletcher in his 1624 play A Wife for a Month – March is coming in like a lion this year, with two must-see events streaming on...

An enchanting ‘Little Mermaid’ from Ballet Theatre of Maryland

Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s production of The Little Mermaid is a beautiful celebration of dance and storytelling. Performed at the Westin Annapolis Hotel to a mask-wearing, limited audience, with...

First annual ‘LGBTQ Short Play Festival’ from Triangle Rainbow Productions

In partnership with Van Dirk Fisher (Founding Artistic Director of the Riant Theatre/Strawberry One-Act Festival), Triangle Rainbow Productions Executive Director Anthony Fusco is presenting the...

Applications now open for new performance venues in Tysons

In a unique public-private partnership, a new world-class performing arts destination is nearing completion in the Tysons-Mclean area of Fairfax County. It is Capital One Hall scheduled to open in...

Off-Broadway offerings for the weekend

There’s a full slate of streaming options coming this weekend from Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway, with a multi-faceted variety that truly offers something for everyone, from an audio drama to a...

How to enjoy dinner theater in your home kitchen

Tired of figuring out what to cook for dinner? Bored with everything Netflix has to offer? Then Francesca Chilcote and Connor Hogan have just the show for you. In Dinner! Franny and Connor Write a...

The relevance of ‘The Mountaintop,’ beautifully played at the Arts Barn

Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own (2020) and a Princeton professor, writes in The New Yorker about an encounter at a fundraiser...

In Matthew Bourne’s ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ the lovers are teens in juvey

“For never was there a tale of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” Who doesn’t know the tragic ending of star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet? Yet we continue to be besotted by the...

Chapter two of ‘Myths and Hymns’ from MasterVoices

MasterVoices – the country’s first interracial and interfaith chorus, founded by famed American choral conductor Robert Shaw in 1941 – continues its presentation of Myths and Hymns by award-winning...

A riveting E. Faye Butler lifts up Black history as Fannie Lou Hamer

Sarasota, Florida’s Asolo Rep continues its 2021 outdoor season with the Rolling World Premiere of Mississippi native Cheryl L. West’s Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. Originally...

Three womxn get back at their ex in ‘Drowning Girls’ from Strand Theater

Continuing its 13th season as the only brick-and-mortar company in Baltimore dedicated to celebrating womxn’s diverse voices and perspectives, The Strand Theater Company presents the regional premiere...

Classic plays from Red Bull and Mint streaming on Monday

Two acclaimed Off-Broadway companies continue their mission of presenting rarely produced plays from the past, and works by undeservedly forgotten women dramatists, with virtual productions on Monday....

Three lauded local actors to go solo in spring season from Round House

Round House Theatre plans a spring 2021 season with virtual productions of three moving one-person performances: Colman Domingo’s A Boy and His Soul, directed by Craig Wallace; Lucy Alibar’s Throw Me...

Observing Purim with NYTF and the Congress for Jewish Culture

In celebration of Purim next week – the spring festival held to commemorate the defeat of Haman’s plot to massacre the Jews, as recorded in the Book of Esther (also known in Hebrew as the Megillah, or...

Imagination Stage strikes gold with ‘Spy Academy & the Lost Treasure of Atlantis’

There are jumping dogs, ninja fights, and double crosses. The story is fast-paced and offers many moments for kids to chime in on how the story should advance (remember Choose Your Own Adventure...

All-star virtual reading of ‘Broadway Baby’ children’s book on Sunday

A star-studded online reading of the new best-selling illustrated children’s book Broadway Baby, written by theater operator and producer Russell Miller (Guys & Dolls, Blood Brothers, Paramour, On The...

Avant Bard Theatre regroups with new leadership team

After the double blow of the pandemic and the death of Artistic Director Tom Prewitt in November, Arlington’s Avant Bard Theatre is moving ahead under a new model of artistic partnership. The Avant...

New play festivals from TRU and LAByrinth streaming next week

On Sunday, February 21, beginning at 5 pm, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) – the leading non-profit network for developing theater professionals – presents its annual fundraising gala via Zoom as a...

#WeSeeYou antiracist accountability report includes 11 DMV theaters

An accountability report released by the We See You, White American Theater collective (WSYWAT) points to more than 100 theater institutions nationwide that have responded to the group’s BIPOC Demands...

GMU students have a winner in ‘Sing Happy! The Music of Kander & Ebb’

The joys of a new online musical await: Sing Happy! The Music of Kander & Ebb, an engaging, confidently performed, energy-filled one-hour revue performed by the talent-rich students of George Mason...

Model Majority celebrates the Lunar New Year with a Saturday night of comedy

On Saturday, February 20, at 8 pm, NYC’s premiere Asian American sketch comedy team, Model Majority, founded by Veronica Dang in 2018, presents a night of laughs and more to celebrate the Lunar New...

TheSharedScreen’s ‘Tape’ unspools tense and scorching storytelling

TheSharedScreen’s scorching new Zoom production of Tape — the 1999 play turned 2001 indie film starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman — is a successful experiment in embracing the present virtual...

Florida’s Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe plays outdoors to ‘Light Up the Night!’

The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota, Florida, took advantage of balmy 75-degree evenings to perform a special Valentine’s weekend open-air concert series titled Light Up the Night! A...

A university’s need to ‘Adjust the Procedure’ amidst pandemic crises and cover-ups

A co-presentation by JCS Theater Company and Spin Cycle, the world premiere of Adjust the Procedure, written and directed by Jake Shore (award-winning Off-Broadway playwright and Director of the...

Intrepid Museum’s Kids Week offers performing arts programs on Wednesday

Kids Week (February 15-19) at the Intrepid Museum is going virtual this year, with dozens of streaming demonstrations, shows, workshops, performances, and special guests that will keep kids of all...

A virtual remount of ‘Borders’ examines international separation and connection in online dating

Amidst the ongoing pandemic shutdown of live performance venues, Off-Off-Broadway’s Dirty Laundry Theatre adapted emerging Israeli playwright Nimrod Danishman’s original stage play Borders, which the...

A great stage flick from AmaZing Theatre rips U.S. racism in ‘Torn’

AmaZing Theatre Company is presenting an original movie/play hybrid that they have dubbed a stage flick: Torn, by local playwright John Becker. The show is based on the momentous event in 1901 when...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to play composers silenced by Nazis

Four composers who died in Nazi concentration camps are known to have written entire compositions while imprisoned there, and the Washington–Baltimore region deserves its share of credit in bringing...

Ken Ludwig on his parents’ love story and the lost art of letter-writing

When I interviewed Ken Ludwig about his latest play, Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which opened at Arena Stage more than a year ago, I was curious about his parents—the Jack and Louise of the title—and the...

Marsha Mason leads an all-star cast in Keen Company’s ‘Sorry, Wrong Number’ benefit broadcast

Off-Broadway’s Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company continues its 21st season with an all-star audio presentation of Lucille Fletcher’s classic radio thriller Sorry, Wrong Number. The...

Meet the talented teens who won Mosaic’s playwriting contest

Mosaic Theater Company announces and celebrates the talented winners of its inaugural Playwriting Contest for high school students. Each winning play will receive a reading by professional actors as...

A weekend of Valentine concerts from Broadway favorites

Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday this year, but the celebration is not limited to just one day. Three favorites from the NYC stage are offering a full weekend line-up of romantic concerts you’ll love,...

‘Tape’ is tailor-made for Zoom but not to this critic’s taste in theater

Jon, a filmmaker just starting to make a name for himself, comes home for the premiere of his latest film at the Lansing Film Festival. His old high school friend Vince, now a small-time drug dealer,...