Kennedy Center

Washington National Opera: American Opera Initiative: Three 20-Minute Operas

The fourth annual American Opera Initiative launched this month to sold out performances of three new works. It was a heartening look at the future of the art form – from the librettists and composers...

In the Moment: Liel Leibovitz, Author of ‘A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption and the Life of Leonard Cohen’ to Appear at JCCNV on December 5th at 8 PM

The man with the famous blue raincoat who wrote many a reflective, if not prophetic song over the past decades will be arriving at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Northern Virginia....

‘Elephant & Piggies We Are in A Play!’ at The Kennedy Center

I could not say for sure whether my 6 year-old son or I had the most fun watching The Kennedy Center’s production of Elephant & Piggies We Are in A Play! We laughed, we cheered, we wiggle-waggled, and...

‘Catone in Utica’ by Opera Lafayette at The Kennedy Center

In Opera Lafayette‘s Catone in Utica, which opened last night at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, the greats have come out to sing. And Antonin Vivaldi’s opera bursts with beauty and excitement....

David London’s ‘Magic Outside the Box’ at The Writer’s Center

How many magic shows have you seen where the magician spends an inordinate amount of time making up magic words to distract you while performing his trick? Big news… David London does not use magic...

Cellist Amit Peled and Pianist Noreen Polera with Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Cellist Amit Peled is one of those practitioners of “serious” music who brings a kind of pizzazz that’s probably needed in the 21st century world of what’s generically dubbed classical music. His...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: John Lloyd Young

John Lloyd Young, Tony-Award winner and musical wonder of the Broadway never-ending (and well-deserved to be!) musical hit Jersey Boys, enthralled the crowd at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater...

The National Symphony Orchestra with Guest Conductor Jiri Belohlavek and Pianist Igor Levit

The National Symphony Orchestra is doing one of its best guest conductors, Jiri Belohlavek, mostly proud this week with music from his Czech homeland. In the first of its three concerts this week, the...

Spine: ‘Appomattox’ Cracks the Color Line at The Kennedy Center

Appomattox, the world premiere opera now playing at The Kennedy Center Opera House in a new production by the Washington National Opera, tackles that most epic of America’s sins, “the color line.” And...

Blake Hammond on Playing Sebastian in ‘Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella’ at The National Theatre

Blake Hammond is playing Sebastian in the Tour of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella which is about to open at The National Theatre. Joel: Hi Blake. Where may have some of our readers seen you perform...

‘Dangereuse’: ‘Appomattox’ at The Kennedy Center by Sophia Howes (Review #2)

In the wake of Ferguson and the Black Lives Matter movement, it is the perfect time for an opera which tells the truth about race in America—Appomattox. Philip Glass, the internationally acclaimed...

‘Appomattox’ at Washington National Opera by David Friscic (Review #1)

Oh, the tears, trauma and travail of the issues brought to the fore in the revised World Premiere of the opera Appomattox at the Kennedy Center Opera House Friday night. This challenging World...

Dorado Schmitt and the Django Festival All-Stars at The Kennedy Center

Dorado Schmitt and the Django Festival All-Stars came to The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater last night. And for a beautiful 80 minutes, the terror of the day vanished, syncopated out of existence by...

Spine: JOY and Twyla Tharp’s 50th Anniversary Tour

Twyla Tharp’s 50th Anniversary Tour came to the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre last night. Four pieces: two short “Fanfares,” a Preludes and Fugues, and a Yowzie. And the stage was aflutter with...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Michele Lee: ‘Nobody Does It Like Me, The Music of Cy Coleman’

Broadway, Television, Film and Concert artist Michele Lee beguiled at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater with a disarming and engaging set of songs written by the prolific Broadway composer Cy...

In the Moment: Adam Turner Conducts ‘La Boheme’ at the Virginia Opera‏

The major joy in writing this column comes from getting to know the up and coming creative artists in the DC area, especially since a whole new generation is sweeping into the area. One does not need...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Randy Graff at The Kennedy Center

Tony Award-winning (City of Angels) Broadway, concert, and cabaret artist Randy Graff dazzled the crowd Friday night at the Kennedy Center’s intimate Terrace Theater. Graff is utterly unique and...

Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Darius & Twig’ at The Kennedy Center

Darius & Twig, now playing at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater, tackles issues confronted by inner city kids throughout the country. And it does so with a mixture of hope and hard truth that is as...

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet: ‘Balanchine, Béjart, and the Bard’ at The Kennedy Center

Suzanne Farrell – still fairest of them all From the early 1960s until the late 1980s (except for a five-year escape to Belgium), Suzanne Farrell reigned as George Balanchine’s muse at the New York...

NSO Pops: ‘Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers’ at The Kennedy Center

It was an evening of American classics – from the pops program the National Symphony Orchestra played under the sure baton of Steve Reineke to the guest of honor himself, Steve Martin, winner of the...

‘Antigone’ at The Kennedy Center

Renowned Belgian director Ivo van Hove is famous for his radical re-imagining of classical works, and his rendition Sophocles’ Antigone is no different. Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche stars as...

Meet the Cast of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ at The Catholic University of America: Part 3: Drew Stairs

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of The Most Happy Fella, meet Drew Stairs, who plays Joe in Catholic University’s upcoming production, which plays this weekend October 23-25, 2015....

Meet the Cast of ‘The Most Happy Fella’ at The Catholic University of America: Part 2: Emma Nadine Onasch

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of The Most Happy Fella, meet Emma Nadine Onasch, who plays Rosabella in their upcoming production, which plays this weekend October 23-25, 2015....

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Terri White’s Farewell Performance at The Kennedy Center

The ebullient, sassy, brassy and joyously life-affirming Broadway and cabaret star Terri White (resplendent in a stylish, sharply-edged purple pantsuit) launched into her ninety minute show at The...

‘Latin Heat’ at The Washington Ballet

Latin Heat does what the Washington Ballet does best: spotlight its dancers’ strengths and individual personalities. However, Latin Heat also illumines the WSB unhinged and unrestrained. Never before...

‘Flowers Stink’ at The U.S. Botanical Garden

A middle school girl from the big city, named Liz, becomes frustrated when trying to write a poem about nature for school. But when she turns to technology to vent and tweets, “#natureisboring...

‘Beautiful-The Carole King Musical’ at The Kennedy Center

Beautiful–The Carole King Musical takes the audience on a ride through songs that in three minutes or so, framed and reflected many a life; especially of the Baby Boomer generation. As directed by...

‘New York Variety All Stars’ at AMP Tomorrow Night at 8 PM

This Saturday, for the first time ever, the Strathmore’s new venue AMP will be featuring sideshow and variety when Atomic Doll Productions brings the New York Variety All Stars to town! We got a...

Violinist Aleksey Semenenko at the Embassy of Ukraine in the Embassy Series

Hearing the rising Ukrainian violinist Aleksey Semenenko perform is like a visit to a musical laboratory. At age 25, the monstrously talented Mr. Semenenko is still exploring various approaches to...

The National Philharmonic’s ‘Rienzi, A Concert Opera’ at Strathmore

Artistic risk-taking in Washington extends across many genres to numerous performing groups. The region’s vocal music scene certainly got a flavor of that on Saturday night in a one-time concert...

‘Mariko’s Magical Mix: A Dance Adventure’ at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater

Mariko’s Magical Mix: A Dance Adventure is an original piece by Sarah Fornace, Julia Miller, and Princess Grace Award –winner Robyn Mineko Williams, presented in this world premier Kennedy Center...

Magic Time!: A Report on the Women’s Voices Theater Festival Reading of Lisa Loomer’s ‘Roe’ at The Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center’s entry in the Women’s Voices Theater Festival was a one-night-only reading of Roe, a new two-act play by Lisa Loomer that dramatically personalizes pivotal chapters in the...

Columbia Festival of the Arts’ ‘British Invasion’ Explodes This Weekend 10/2-4 by Robert Neal Marshall

This coming weekend, October 2-4, 2015 officially launches Columbia Festival of the Arts’ British Invasion themed Fall Festival. The British Invasion presents eleven dynamic events offered in multiple...

Magic Time!: An Interview with Playwright Stacy Jewell Lewis On ‘7 Layers Captive’: Her True Story of Being Sex Trafficked, Playing at The Kennedy Center on October 10th at 7 PM

Back in summer of 2014, I discovered an extraordinary play, playwright, and performer—7 Layers Captive, written and performed by Stacy Jewell Lewis based on her own true story of being abducted into...

NSO Pops: ‘Rajaton: Best of The Beatles’ at The Kennedy Center

I had never seen an a cappella group accompanied by a symphony orchestra before and I was thrilled to see that happen last night when the Finnish a cappella group Rajaton sang The Beatles hits backed...

Review: ‘Wagner, Max! Wagner’ a Song Cycle at The Kennedy Center

Even those familiar with the work of Stew and Heidi Rodewald, the duo behind Obie and Tony-award winning musical Passing Strange, might find a description of their newest song cycle Wagner, Max!...

‘Carmen’ at Washington National Opera (Cast #2-9/20/15)

Washington National Opera opens its 60th season with Georges Bizet’s iconic verismo opera, Carmen, directed by E. Loren Meeker. Arguably the most popular work in the operatic repertoire, Carmen is a...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘The Requiem’ at The Highwood Theatre

Think the promise, even the future of American theater lies in the hands of those imaginative, impassioned, gutsy young Millennials who for the last several years have musically and dramatically set...

‘The Cerulean Time Capsule’ at The United States Botanic Gardens

I had the great pleasure this weekend of exploring the United States Botanic Garden with my three boys, who are 10, 8, and 6. It was a first for all of us and you would think we had gone to the...

‘Seuls’ at The Kennedy Center

To witness Seuls is to witness a gifted artist toss his tools—la vie banale, literary idols, childhood—into the same spot in a stream. Each tool, each influence, creates a new circle on the surface....

‘Carmen’ at Washington National Opera (Cast 1-9/19/15)

The Washington National Opera launches their 60th season with a visually gorgeous and vocally stunning Carmen. Clémentine Margaine takes on the role of the gypsy seductress – a role that every mezzo...

Meet the Cast of The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s ‘Laughing Stock’: Part 9: Brian Selcik

In Part 9 of a series of interviews with the cast of The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of Charles Morey’s Laughing Stock, meet Brian Selcik. Joel: Where have local audiences seen you on...

Women’s Voices Theater Festival: Pat Connelly’s ‘Princess Margaret’ Opens September 19, 2015

What happens when a religious institution like the Catholic Church puts the reputation and status of its priests and nuns ahead of the needs of their most vulnerable members, children? In her new...

‘An Easy to Read 2015 Page-to-Stage Festival’ Schedule for Saturday, September 5-Monday, September 7, 2015 at The Kennedy Center

This year’s 14th Annual Page-to-Stage Festival takes place: Saturday, September 5th from 10:30 a.m.–11 p.m. Sunday, September 6th from 6–7 p.m. Monday, September 7, from 11 a.m.–10:30 p.m. Venues...

Meet the Director and Cast of ‘Kiss Me Kate’ at NextStop Theatre Company: Part 2: Hasani Allen

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Kiss Me Kate at NextStop Theatre Company, meet Hasani Allen. Joel: Where have local audiences seen you on the stage? Hasani: Professionally, this...

The Edge of the Universe Players 2 Opens ‘Entertaining Mr. Sloane’ November 21st at The Writer’s Center

The Edge of the Universe Players 2 Announces its Fall 2015 Production Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton Plays November 21 through December 13, 2015 It’s the Swinging Sixties in London’s West End,...

Meet the Cast of McLean Community Players’ ‘Calendar Girl’: Part 1: Diane Sams

Meet the cast of McLean Community Players’ Calendar Girls. In Part 1, meet Diane Sams. Joel: Tell our readers where they may have seen you on local stages. Diane: I have been around the area for a...

‘2015 Page-to-Stage Festival’ Schedule for Saturday, September 5-Monday, September 7, 2015 at The Kennedy Center

This year’s 14th Annual Page-to-Stage Festival takes place: Saturday, September 5th from 10:30 a.m.–11 p.m. Sunday, September 6th from 6–7 p.m. Monday, September 7, from 11 a.m.–10:30 p.m. Venues...

Meet the Cast of ‘Spamalot’ at the Port Tobacco Players‏: Part 2: Ryan Dolan

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of The Port Tobacco Players’ Spamalot, meet Ryan Dolan. Tell our readers where they may have seen you on local stages. I’ve performed all around the...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #55: ‘Neighborhood 3: Part 5: ‘The Music of Neighborhood 3: Video Game Fever, Driving Me Crazy and Making It Scary’ by Gregory Thomas Martin

How does one create a sonic world on something that is such common place to our homes today? Video games are such a large part of our popular culture, and with their popularity come a lot of baggage....