Kennedy Center

‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’ at Washington National Opera

A penetrating and extremely lucid psychological austerity permeates the current production of the Washington National Opera’s (WNO) Dialogues of the Carmelites by composer and librettist Francis...

‘Shear Madness’ at The Kennedy Center

Even prior to the opening of Shear Madness, the audience is drawn into the world of the play. A realistic set is built on the thrust stage of the Kennedy Center’s Theater Lab. The aqua blue walls,...

Tonight at 7:30 PM: Chita Rivera Performs “A Legendary Celebration” at The Alden in McLean, VA

TONIGHT AT 7:30 PM! LIVE ON STAGE! THE ONE AND ONLY CHITA RIVERA IN A UNIQUE SOLO CONCERT EVENT A LEGENDARY CELEBRATION TONIGHT, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2015 AT 7:30 PM AT THE ALDEN 1234 INGLESIDE...

‘Sleepy Hollow’ at The Washington Ballet

‘Sleepy Hollow’ ballet premieres at the Kennedy Center: D.C. Ballet shakes up expectations Yes, even classical ballerinas let their hair down once in a while. They relish tossing off those stiff upper...

Howard Community College Presents Arts Collective’s Dance Company Concert March 5 to 8, 2015 by Susan G. Kramer

Ninth-annual dance concert to feature inspiring contemporary works from locally and nationally recognized choreographers – performed by outstanding HCC students, and guest artists Continuing its...

Kurt Elling’s ‘Passion World’ at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater

On the most romantic night of the year, Grammy Award- winning jazz vocalist, Kurt Elling’s Passion World concert at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater was a warm toddy to take the chill off the...

‘Jack’s Tale A Mythic Mountain Musical Adventure’ at The Kennedy Center’s Performances for Young Audiences

The Kennedy Center and Nashville Children’s Theatre (NCT) have joined forces to bring a new premiere family show called Jack’s Tale A Mythic Mountain Musical Adventure to the Kennedy Center’s...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: LaChanze at The Kennedy Center

The lithe and dynamic Tony Award -winning (The Color Purple) Broadway musical star (Once on This Island, IF/Then), LaChanze, proved herself to be almost a volcanic, spontaneous force of nature as she...

‘The Mage Knights of the Eternal Light’ at The Catholic University of America

The Mage Knights of the Eternal Light is a smart, funny play by M.F.A. playwriting candidate Amanda Zeitler. This is her senior thesis project in Catholic University’s Department of Drama, but she has...

‘Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape’ at The Kennedy Center

Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape, a new work written and directed by renowned Japanese visual artist Miwa Yanagi, made a brief Washington D.C. premier this past weekend at The Kennedy Center. The...

‘Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’ at The Kennedy Center

Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater returned to The Kennedy Center last evening with a tribute to its famous six-foot tall Texan director. Ailey died 25 years ago and filling his size-12 shoes has...

‘Gigi’ at The Kennedy Center

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe‘s Gigi, the Oscar-winning 1958 film musical that was later adapted for the Broadway stage over 40 years ago, premiered for a pre-Broadway engagement in the...

National Symphony Orchestra with Violinist Arabella Steinbacher at The Kennedy Center

It’s almost a cliché to sit smugly in a 21st century theater or concert hall enjoying a work that some original critic destroyed to his everlasting infamy. And audiences at this week’s National...

Mariinsky Ballet Featuring Hodson’s ‘Le sacre du printemps,’ Fokine’s ‘Le Spectre de la Rose’ and ‘The Swan,’ and Petipa’s ‘Paquita Grand Pas’ at The Kennedy Center

Russians return to the glory days of ballet Ulyana Lopatkina could have wrapped up The Kennedy Center and taken it home with her after her performance in The Swan, a.k.a. The Dying Swan, created by...

‘Dizzy Gillespie™ Afro-Cuban Experience’ at The Kennedy Center

I write about theatre because I know theatre, intimately and over many years. I’m writing about Jazz because I love Jazz, the way a man might love a goddess, fleetingly and in hot pursuit. If you have...

‘Penny’ at Washington National Opera

The world premier for the Washington National Opera’s newest American Opera Initiative takes a new look at the power of music in the touching, engrossing drama Penny, which follows an autistic young...

An Interview with ‘Shocked and Amazed Presents: Strange for Hires’ Producers Alex Doll and James Taylor

Sideshow is one of the oldest and most intriguing forms of performance. Think it’s a 19th century relic? Think again. On Saturday, January 31, 2015, Shocked & Amazed Presents: Strange For Hire will...

‘Mockingbird’ at The Kennedy Center

Kennedy Center’s World Premiere of Mockingbird Is a Must See Play for All Ages Brilliant: very bright, flashing with light; very impressive or successful; extremely intelligent. Moving: having a...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Will Chase

With a vigorous veneer of Broadway polish and a subtle touch of “down-home” country warm –heartedness, acclaimed singer/actor (Broadway, television’s Smash and Nashville) Will Chase captivated the...

‘The Illusionists-Witness the Impossible’ at The Kennedy Center

The Illusionists – Witness the Impossible, now playing at The Kennedy Center’s Opera House, is not your typical abracadabra magic show, and when you leave after the show is over…you will most likely...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2014: Dance by Carolyn Kelemen and Rick Westerkamp

The Best Dance of 2014: Let’s hear it for the boys and other memories of sexy dancers This was the year for lust, passion, and flesh. Septime Webre has a gift for creating titillating works (or...

The Choral Arts Society of Washington Presents:’ A Family Christmas’

The young boy behind me had just celebrated his 10th birthday the day before and Mom and Dad took him to the ultra-entertaining holiday concert: A Family Christmas by The Choral Arts Society at The...

‘The Little Prince’ at Washington National Opera

If you saw a drawing of a lumpy hat, would you assume it was just that? As an adult, you might. In the Kennedy Center’s Washington National Opera: Holiday Family Opera production of The Little Prince,...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2014: Special Awards

The staff of DCMetroTheaterArts is honored to announce that their 2014 Special Awards have been awarded to: Since it opened in July 2013, The Anacostia Playhouse has become home for several of our...

‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ at The Kennedy Center

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is both transcendent and transplendent! This fun and funny, family-friendly musical lights up the stage at The Kennedy Center this holiday season, bringing...

Nibbles and Sips: ‘Christmas Thrills And Chills For Every Theatregoer’

One of the best ways I know of to get excited about the Christmas season is to get thyself (and thy family) to the theatre where you can watch dancers soar in Septime Webre’s The Nutcracker performed...

‘Pippin’ is Playing at The National Theatre: A Chat with John Rubinstein on Coming into the Broadway Production, Playing Charles, and Playing Pippin in the Original Broadway Production

[Editor’s Note: Press Night for The National Tour of Pippin is tonight at The National Theatre in DC, and John Rubenstein is here to play King Charlemagne direct from The Tony Award-winning Broadway...

‘A Capital Christmas’ at The Choral Arts Society of Washington at The Kennedy Center

According to Artistic Director Scott Tucker, music is what makes it truly feel like Christmas. The Choral Arts Society of Washington’s splendid performance of A Capital Christmas filled The Kennedy...

‘A Candlelight Christmas’ at The Washington Chorus at The Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center Hall is decked in evergreen, but The Washington Chorus brings the candles as they file into to the solemn song of “Once in Royal David’s City” to begin A Candlelight Christmas. They...

‘Megan Hilty’s A Kennedy Center Christmas’

“You know, today is a special day: 12/13/14,” Megan Hilty nonchalantly announces with her contagiously winning smile, reminding everyone that it was the very last sequential day of the century....

‘NPR’s A Jazz Piano Christmas’ at The Kennedy Center

There are many types of applause one hears in a concert hall—polite clapping, raucous applause, the awkward slow clap. Felix Contreras, the host of last night’s cheerful NPR’s A Jazz Piano Christmas,...

Top Scene Stealers of the Week Ending 12/12/14-Part 1

Her are our new list of Scene Stealers honorees for the week ending 12/12/14. Congrats to all our honorees! ______ Noah Bird as George Bailey Shares A First Kiss with Rachel Bailey as Mary Hatch in...

NSO Pops: ‘Happy Holidays! Cirque de la Symphonie’ at The Kennedy Center

It seems DC is on the nice list this year. From classics (See: Olney) to new inventions (See: Pointless), there really is something for everyone on local stages this season. Not to be outdone, the...

Ballet West’s ‘The Nutcracker’ at The Kennedy Center

Ballet West blends old & new in holiday classic Remember the way the holiday season used to make you feel? Remember walking around full of expectation, certain that wonderful, impossible, magical...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Andrea McArdle at The Kennedy Center

The original star of the Broadway smash hit Annie, Andrea McArdle, has grown into a mature and super-talented singer who can belt with the best of them. At The Kennedy Center’s Barbara Cook’s...

‘The Great One-Man Commedia Epic’ at Faction of Fools

The Great One-Man Commedia Epic is a one-man show that is so endearing that I felt like my Dad had just told me a bed-time story. Like my Dad, Matthew R. Wilson pretended to have an argument with the...

NSO Pops: An Evening with Sutton Foster at The Kennedy Center

NSO Pops Electrifies with An Evening With Sutton Foster at The Kennedy Center When two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster takes the stage, anything goes, and she served up a delightful mix of charm,...

DCMTA Scene Stealers-Week Ending 11/27/14-Part 2

Here is Part 2 of our new list of Scene Stealers honorees for the week ending 11/27/14. ______ Simon Diesenhaus as Tobias Ragg, Singing “Not While I’m Around” at Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet...

‘The Gift of Nothing’ at The Kennedy Center

Looking for a new, fun and entertaining way to spend the afternoon in a historic setting with the kids this holiday season? Introducing a brand new musical for the first time anywhere, The Kennedy...

‘Missa Solemnis’ at The Washington Chorus

Wow, talk about a moving experience! Sunday night, the Grammy Award-winning The Washington Chorus performed Missa Solemnis by Ludwig van Beethoven to a sold-out and appreciative crowd at The Kennedy...

The Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig at Washington Performing Arts

You have a right to be skeptical when a symphony orchestra claims to have a unique sound. Down through the centuries most composers of symphonic music have given specific directions about what...

The Choral Arts Society of Washington Performs ‘Bach’s Mass in B Minor’ at The Kennedy Center

The Choral Arts Society of Washington brought forth a momentous occasion to The Kennedy Center Concert Hall on yesterday afternoon with their undertaking of Johann Sebastian Bach’s legacy masterpiece,...

Barbara Cook’s Spotlight: Faith Prince: Have a Little Faith at The Kennedy Center

Tony Award winner and Broadway virtuoso and Tony Award winner Faith Prince beguiled and dazzled the audience at her concert entitled Have a Little Faith at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. Ms....

‘Beijing Dance Theater’ at The Kennedy Center

Chinese dancers meander through the grass without a GPS It can be a long ride home to Baltimore from the Kennedy Center, especially on a rainy night. After last evening’s Wild Grass presentation by...

‘Vanishing Point’ at The George Washington University

The George Washington University Department of Theatre and Dance is presenting the world premiere of Vanishing Point. This production has a clear purpose well beyond providing students the opportunity...

Meet the Cast of ‘Carousel’ at Catholic University: Part 4: Meet Catherine Purcell

In Part 4 in a series of interviews with the cast of Carousel at Catholic University, meet Catherine Purcell. Joel: Introduce yourself to our readers and tell them what other shows you have appeared...

‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well’ at Creative Cauldron: Meet Alan Naylor

In Part 5 of a series of interviews with the Co-Directors and the cast of Creative Cauldron’s Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, we meet cast member Alan Naylor. Joel: Where have...

National Symphony Orchestra: David Zinman, conductor: Angela Hewitt, piano, plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 / Works by R. Strauss & Schoenberg at The Kennedy Center

Last night, the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman with a solo performance by the famed Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, delved into the works of three separate composers including...

‘Evita’ at The Kennedy Center

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s tango drenched Evita has achieved an iconic status that rivals that of its own subject, Eva Peron, the social-climbing, deeply flawed, yet popularly beloved wife of...

‘Chéri’ at The Kennedy Center

Revisiting Chéri – and a Baltimore visionary The venerable Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts turned avant-garde last night with the return of modern dance maven, Martha Clark, and her latest (and...