Kennedy Center

Review: NSO Pops: The Second City Guide to the Symphony Starring Colin Mochrie

What happens when you put together famous improv comedian Colin Mochrie, Canadian comedy troupe The Second City, and the National Symphony Orchestra? A night of music and sketch comedy at the John F....

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts Presents ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ 9/28-11/6 With Karen Grassle, Bill Grimmette, and Alan Hoffman-Directed by Rick Hammerly

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia is proud to present Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Driving Miss Daisy, starring Karen Grassle. Located at 95...

Review: Amos Lee with Lauren Talese at The Kennedy Center

American music at its best is alive and well as showcased by last night’s Amos Lee concert at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. The evening was off to a good start with an opening performance by...

Page-to-Stage Festival: ‘Wendy: The Girl Who Grew Up’ at Monumental Theatre Company

The Kennedy Center’s 15th Annual Page-to-Stage Festival took place on Labor Day weekend, with over 50 D.C. area theaters participating. Through free readings and open rehearsals, the Festival offers a...

Page-to-Stage New Play Festival: Brave Soul Collective and African-American Collective Theater

Two of DC’s most important independent theater collectives bearing witness as black artists to #BlackLivesMatter are Brave Soul Collective and African-American Collective Theater (ACT). Both...

A Report on ‘Handsome Hound’ at Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center

Handsome Hound, a local band piloted by twenty-somethings Claire Daviss and Cuchulain Kelly, gives millennials a better name. Self-described as having “roots in folk, rock, pop, Americana, country and...

Review: ‘Fear’ at Longacre Lea

Let’s say a wealthy patron approaches an ensemble theatre company with a proposition: “Shakespeare? Why so much Shakespeare? Why so revered? Surely, other playwrights deserve having theatre companies...

Dangereuse: Globe Theatre’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at The Kennedy Center

W.H. Auden once said ,“Shylock is the outsider because he is the only serious person in the play.” Jonathan Pryce’s Shylock is a deeply serious person, and Pryce’s magnificent portrayal of Shylock’s...

Review #2: ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at The Kennedy Center

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart.” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of...

Review #1: ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at The Kennedy Center

The appropriately psychologically penetrating and vivid production of The Merchant of Venice (now playing at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater) embraces all the conundrums of William...

Review: ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ at The Kennedy Center Opera House

In fact, a perfect opera! Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera dazzled the Kennedy Center’s Opera House this Friday, bringing the beloved and longest running Broadway musical to the delight...

Review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at The Kennedy Center

The Bridges of Madison County is a romantic, sexy, and unapologetically sentimental musical. Most likely you know The Bridges of Madison County from either Robert James Waller’s 1992 novel and/or the...

Review: Dick Gregory: An Evening of Comedy & Jazz at The Kennedy Center

Internationally known comedian and civil rights activist, Dick Gregory, closed out the last of a series of five District of Comedy Festival performances along with a young all white jazz trio who...

Capital Fringe Preview #23: ‘Glacier’ at MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet

DANCING CLIMATE CHANGE: Merging Ballet, Science, and Film in MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet’s “GLACIER” at the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival This groundbreaking, multimedia production puts an immersive,...

Review: ‘See Jane Sing’ at The Kennedy Center

It’s hard to imagine what to expect at a cabaret debut from a television actor turned Broadway performer turned television game host. Jane Lynch—who some know as Sue Sylvester from the hit-television...

Review: The District of Comedy Roast of James Carville at The Kennedy Center

How do you make fun of someone who always makes fun of himself? Well, last night, Roastmaster Bob Saget and The Kennedy Center’s District of Comedy Festival managed to do just that, roasting Chester...

Review: “Celebrating Joan: A Tribute to Joan Rivers” at The Kennedy Center

Celebrating Joan: A Tribute to Joan Rivers, which left the audience of admirers howling last night at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater, was an evening for “mature audiences” and fans of the...

Review: Musicians of National Orchestral Institute Perform Two Dances and a Titan

The lobby is packed. The line for ticket pick-up is a few dozen deep. The lobby is filled with plush lounge furniture and lit with low-hanging, contemporary chandeliers. While this could be a scene...

Review: ‘Kinky Boots’ at The Kennedy Center

In The Kennedy Center’s current production of the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots, a cornucopia of vibrant color runs riot through this exuberant and defiant celebration of diversity and...

2016 Capital Fringe Preview #10:’The DOMA Diaries’ by Kevin Michael West

On June 26, 2013, when the Supreme Court announced its decision on the constitutionality of “The Defense of Marriage Act” (or “DOMA”), it was a unique moment for LGBT Playwright Kevin Michael West. A...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Gloaming’ at The Kennedy Center

The Ireland 100 closes this weekend with new Irish sensation Ireland 100: The Gloaming who made their Kennedy Center debut with a lovely mix of traditional music, improvisation, and new classics....

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Hunger’ at The Kennedy Center

The East Coast concert premiere of The Hunger begins with a harsh, discordant note, immediately conveying that this will be a performance about pain. The short opera, from modern Irish composer...

Review: ‘Juliet and Romeo’ by the Royal Swedish Ballet

The Swedes take on an old classic and make it relevant. Mats Ek’s Juliet and Romeo for the Royal Swedish Ballet, at The Kennedy Center for only four more shows, is a bold retelling of Shakespeare’s...

Review: Paul Taylor Dance Company at The Kennedy Center

The last living – and working – link to the founding generation of modern dance choreographers, Paul Taylor remains true to his values as a consummate dancemaker imbuing his works with impeccable...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘riverrun’ at The Kennedy Center

DC audiences last saw Olwen Fouéré in Yaël Farber’s Salomé at the Shakespeare Theatre Company playing the narrator character Nameless Woman. With her striking long white hair, deep vocal register, and...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘Tiny Plays for Ireland and America’ by Fishamble: The New Play Company

Fishamble: The New Play Company opened its “Tiny Plays for Ireland and America” last night as part of Ireland 100. Act I consisted of 20 short, Irish plays in 90 minutes, and each play shed some light...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Girl Who Forgot To Sing Badly’ at The Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center is currently presenting IRELAND 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts & Culture, through June 5, 2016. The festival includes a wide range of events focused on Irish Culture, as a...

Review: ‘Boyz II Men’ at The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra

Motown Philly came to DC full-blast as the best-selling R&B group of all time, Boyz II Men graced the Concert Hall stage of The Kennedy Center on Friday, May 20, 2016, accompanied by the dynamic...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘All That Fall’ by Pan Pan Theatre

All That Fall is quite the most quite unique, powerful, and delightful experiences I’ve had at the theatre. Director Gavin Quinn, the Co-Artistic Director of Pan Pan Theatre, brings this radio play by...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Plough and the Stars’ at The Kennedy Center

Make no mistake about it. World War I kicked the crap out of patriotic idealism. Just ask Wilfred Owen. His “Dulce et Decorum et” is one of the most powerful denunciations of the concept of “the...

Review: ‘Some Enchanted Evening: The Music of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the American Songbook’ with Renée Fleming and Norm Lewis With The Choral Arts Society of Washington

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II pioneered a flair that was all their own in the golden age of musical theater. From 1940 to Hammerstein’s death in 1960, this musical duo dominated the musical...

A Preview of RebollarDance’s ‘2077’ Premiering on The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on May 17th at 6 PM

RebollarDance, described by Erica Rebollar as “a modern dance collaborative where multi-genre artists can make innovative work,” has cooked up a truly unique evening of offerings for their upcoming...

Encore Chorale Gets Ready to Take Another Bow at ‘With a Song in My Heart’

There are always community gems we rarely hear about, but Encore Chorale, which was founded in 2001, has become a treasure chest of talent. They began as a study to see what the impact of...

Review: Washington Performing Arts Presents Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax

You can feel the excitement in a room when witnessing the performance of an icon. With over 100 years of combined experience bringing classical music’s greatest pieces to life, Itzhak Perlman on...

Review: ‘Carmina 35’ at The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

It was an extremely innovative and conceptually brilliant idea to celebrate 35 wonderful years of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) in a sophisticated, elegant and somewhat serious mode...

Review: ‘The Ring Cycle’: ‘Twilight of the Gods –The Ring of the Nibelung –Part Three’ at Washington National Opera

Mother Earth is crying in despair and degradation in Director Francesca Zambella’s audaciously brilliant interpretation of the final opera of Wagner’s artistically magnificent Ring Cycle—Twilight of...

Reviews: The Washington Ballet’s ‘Carmina Burana’ and ‘Bowie/Queen’

Going Out With a Bang: The Washington Ballet’s Carmina Burana and Bowie/Queen The standing ovation came before a single dancer took the stage. It lasted about two minutes to honor the final time The...

This Sunday at 8 PM at The Kennedy Center: GMCW’s Restrospective Concert featuring ‘Carmina Burana’

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW) commemorates its milestone 35th anniversary with Carmina 35 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall on Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 8...

Review: ‘The Ring Cycle’: ‘Siegfried-The Ring of the Nibelung-Part Two’ at Washington National Opera

The epic tale continues as the Washington National Opera’s production of Siegfried –The Ring of the Nibelung-Part Two played to a very appreciative audience last night at The Kennedy Center Opera...

Review: ‘The Ring Cycle’: ‘The Valkyrie –The Ring of the Nibelung-Part One’ at Washington National Opera

Love in all of its many manifestations runs rampant throughout the Washington National Opera’s most recent offering in the continuing tale of The Ring Cycle—-namely, The Valkyrie –The Ring of the...

Review: ‘The Ring Cycle’: ‘The Rhinegold’ at Washington National Opera

German composer Richard Wagner’s much heralded and talked about (over the past many decades!) Ring Cycle opened at The Kennedy Center Opera House on Saturday evening with the first opera in the cycle,...

Review: Theater Triebewerk’s ‘Moby Dick’ at The Kennedy Center

A big theatrical story created on a small space is no easy matter. For the too-short stay of Moby Dick at the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, it was accurate what the Kennedy Center staff...

Review: DEMO: Place with Damian Woetzel starring Lil Buck at The Kennedy Center

Damian Woetzel’s DEMO Place starring Lil Buck uses art as a platform to explore geographical locations in the midst of authentic human emotions. A 90-minute jam session of dance, music, and dramatics,...

‘New Voices Old Muses’ at The Kennedy Center’s KC Jukebox

This year, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts began an innovative concert series called KC Jukebox, curated by The Kennedy Center’s first proclaimed Composer-in-Residence, Mason Bates....

Review: Buddy Guy and The Damn Right Blues Band at The State Theatre

Buddy Guy is a man who does not act his age of 79 years young! He is a cool cat and an American blues legend. He played to an enthusiastic capacity crowd Wednesday night at the State Theatre and the...

Review: ‘Superman 2050’ at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater

The Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences is currently presenting an imaginative theatrical experience, Superman 2050, produced by Theater Unspeakable. Founded in 2010 by Marc Frost, Theater...

Review: ‘Bright Star’ at The Cort Theatre in NYC

If you insist on edge in your musicals, Bright Star is not for you. On the other hand, if you care to spend a couple of hours in the mid 1940s and the early 1920s in rural areas of North Carolina with...

Review: ‘The Illusionists’ at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre has reassurance for anyone out there asking where the magic went. Its “direct from Broadway” engagement of The Illusionists is packed full of caped conjurers,...

Review: The Kennedy Center and Pro Musica Hebraica Present ‘Wandering Stars: Two Centuries of European Jewish Song’

I left The Kennedy Center Terrace Theater last night walking about in that peaceful sort of glow one gets after an experience of great beauty; a kind of encounter that seems to refocus the world in...

Review: Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Frances Ruffelle at The Kennedy Center

Totally “lopping –the –top” off conventional cabaret concert conventions, Broadway star and musical artist Frances Ruffelle presented a radically deconstructed, immersive and jazz-infused “tone poem”...