Washington DC

Review: ‘Hamlet’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet is a wonderful way to kick off their new season. Directed by Sally Boyett, the show sets Shakespeare’s classic play in modern dress, combining...

Review: ‘Annie’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents Annie, the beloved Broadway darling that has enchanted audiences through generations! With its Book by Thomas Meehan, Music by Charles Strouse, and...

Review: ‘The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice,’ presented by the Taffety Punk Riot Grrrls

The all-female production of Othello at Taffety Punk, directed by Kelsey Mesa, is a breath of fresh air. Because all the characters are played by women, you forget that they are female after a few...

Review: ‘The Tempest’ at Synetic Theater

What an inspired creative jewel. What a brave new world. What a daring technical and artistic production. That is Synetic’s The Tempest; Shakespeare’s tale of shipwreck and magic, power grab and...

Washington Stage Guild Refreshes Shaw’s ‘Candida’

George Bernard Shaw published Candida in 1898. Though it was not performed in London until it was a hit in New York in 1903, where it inspired what Shaw called “Candidamania,” the play’s American...

The Sorrow Beneath the Surface of ‘School Girls’ at Round House Theatre

Can one laugh heartily at a satirical comedy—be thoroughly engaged by the entertaining characters, story, and performances—and then after it’s over mourn what it was about? That was for me the...

A Last-Minute Program Change Helps Showcase NSO’s Evolving Signature Sound

The National Symphony Orchestra’s third season opener signaled a distinctively bright and cohesive sound is developing under Maestro Gianandrea Noseda. Noseda explained to the crowd that his...

Review: ‘The Giver’ at Aldersgate Church Community Theater

In The Giver, Eric Coble’s adaptation of the Newberry Award-winning novel by Lois Lowry, Aldersgate Church Community Theater offers a family-friendly production about a future society that has gained...

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: ‘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: ‘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...

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...

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: ‘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...

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: 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...

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...

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...

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...