Katherine Riddle News

Some pieces of theater require your undivided attention because of some deep underlying message that the playwright doesn't want you to miss. This is not the case for MetroStage's return holiday engagement of Catherine Flye's Christmas at The Old Bull & Bush and that's totally ok. This British Variety Music Hall Entertainment is full of music, good performances, and some really corny jokes. In other words, it is everything you would expect from a show set in 1918 in Hampstead, London.

If your interest is piqued by the words "Edgar Allan Poe" and "musical" and "October", you're likely to enjoy the Matt Conner-directed NEVERMORE at Creative Cauldron. It returns seven years after its first production with a set of top-notch actors delivering verses of Poe's poetry set to Conner's haunting melodies.

Creative Cauldron opens its 2018-2019 season with Nevermore, the hauntingly beautiful musical written by resident composer and director, Matt Conner and writer, Grace Barnes. Nevermore draws from the poetry and short stories of the iconic Edgar Allan Poe. After its premiere at Signature Theatre in 2006, The Washington Post hailed Nevermore for its 'romantic music, ablaze with feeling.' Following its 2011 run at Creative Cauldron, Nevermore earned Creative Cauldron its first Helen Hayes Award recommendation. This imaginative musical delves deep into Poe's psyche and explores his gripping obsession with the pivotal women who seemingly haunt his tortured existence. The production will run through October 28 at Creative Cauldron, Falls Church, 410 South Maple Avenue. Performances are Thursdays at 8:00PM, Fridays at 8:00PM, Saturdays at 8:00PM, and Sundays at 2:00PM & 7:00PM. 

Creative Cauldron's Annual Summer Cabaret and Concert Series will be held on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from July 6th through September 15th at Creative Cauldron, 410 South Maple Avenue. The Summer Cabaret and Concert Series treats audiences to performances by some of the finest musical theatre talent in the Washington, DC-Metro area.

The new opera Florida with music by Randall Eng and libretto by Donna Di Novelli, premiered last week at Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street. With its heavy handed melodrama and awkwardly balanced narrative, Sunday's matinee plodded along (well over Urban Arias' usual 90-minute-or-less promise) before concluding rather lukewarmly. This said, the production was not without its merits.

Back in the late 90's I went to the old Vat Room at Arena Stage to see this Christmas show that my Catholic University professor talked about. Being the grandchild of a British war bride, I had many British Christmases growing up, so I knew what to expect. What I didn't expect back then was how enjoyable that night would be. Sometimes you go to the theater to have fun and escape from the troubles of your day.

Bradley Smoak, 32 of Cary, NC, won First Prize in the 2017 Lotte Lenya Competition, sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Smoak took home $20,000, the largest single prize amount given in the competition's nineteen year history.

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will continue their lunchtime concert series "THIRD THURSDAYS" to highlight the unique musical personalities and special talents of the members of their acclaimed ensemble at Live! at 10th and G (First Congregational, UCC Washington - 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001) - this Today, November 17 at 12:15 PM. 

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will continue their lunchtime concert series "THIRD THURSDAYS" to highlight the unique musical personalities and special talents of the members of their acclaimed ensemble at Live! at 10th and G (First Congregational, UCC Washington - 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001) - this Thursday, November 17 at 12:15 PM. 

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will launch the 12:15 PM lunchtime concert series "THIRD THURSDAYS" to highlight the unique musical personalities and special talents of the members of their acclaimed ensemble at Live! at 10th and G (First Congregational, UCC Washington - 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001). Admission to the 30 minute events are free, but a free-will offering will benefit the DC Youth Orchestra Program, where Mr. Frazier is an Artist-in-Residence. 

Maestro LUKE FRAZIER and THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA - Washington, DC's innovative hometown orchestra - will launch the 12:15 PM lunchtime concert series "THIRD THURSDAYS" to highlight the unique musical personalities and special talents of the members of their acclaimed ensemble at Live! at 10th and G (First Congregational, UCC Washington - 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001). Admission to the 30 minute events are free, but a free-will offering will benefit the DC Youth Orchestra Program, where Mr. Frazier is an Artist-in-Residence. 

The characters are all compelled by circumstances to go back into the woods, and this time they encounter there such things as infidelity, divorce, the death of parents, the death of children, abandonment, catastrophe - and overarching this the absence of a narration (the narrator becomes a casualty) or any other authoritative guidance as to the choices that need to be made. As one of the characters observes: 'The path has strayed from you.' The unsettling conclusion: 'You decide what's right / You decide what's good.' This is all incredibly sad and confusing, not to mention frightening, and yet as the core of surviving characters gels, so does the indomitability of the human spirit they evince.

In a record-breaking year for the number of prizes and total cash awarded, Lauren Michelle, of Los Angeles, won the $15,000 First Prize in the finals of the 2015 Lotte Lenya Competition, sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and held on April 18, 2015, in Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. Robin Bailey, of London, U.K., and Jordan Davidson, of Philadelphia, N.Y., both won Second Prizes of $10,000, and two Third Prizes of $7,500 each were awarded to Adam Fieldson, of Lincoln, Neb., and Michael Maliakel, of New York.

Fourteen exceptionally talented singer-actors from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany have been selected as finalists in the 2015 Lotte Lenya Competition, held annually by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. They will compete for top prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500 on Saturday, April 18, 2015, in Rochester, New York.

It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!

Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 4th.

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 4th.

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Columbus Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 25th.

The average temperature of the state of Oklahoma is in the high 80s. The temperature of the Valerie Accetta directed OKLAHOMA! at the Weathervane Playhouse in Newark, Ohio, is much, much hotter.