Jade Jones News

School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play recently opened at Round House Theatre. Find out what the critics had to say!

Playwright Jocelyn Bioh long wanted to name her 2017 work about the social interworkings of young women in Ghana simply 'School Girls.' But it wasn't until she added the subtitle, 'African Mean Girls Play,' that she fully nailed what she was doing.

For RAGTIME, director Mark Edward Smith and his crew have crafted one of the most appealing and stately sets I've seen at the Garden Theatre. The blocking is clever and thoughtful - important when you have a big ensemble cast on a small stage - and the lighting and costumes are on point. The vaudeville era must be the Garden's charm, because this is certainly the best staging I've seen here since the last season opener, Gypsy. But whether you've seen RAGTIME or not, it's the cast here that is really going to wow you...

The Neverborn is a new, creepy comedy written by Kelleen Conway Blanchard and directed by Catherine Blake Smith, premiering at Annex Theatre on August 2 and running until August 31. 

On Sunday, June 16, Washington, D.C.'s theatre community gathered to celebrate the end of MICHAEL KAHN's 33-year tenure as Artistic Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company with musical and dramatic performances, special guests from the worlds of entertainment, politics, and media, and a mayoral proclamation.

St. Luke's United Methodist Church presents Children of Eden, the story of a big family making mistakes, learning to forgive, and embracing new beginnings. The show, directed by Steve MacKinnon, features music by Grammy award-winning, Tony-nominated composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell).

Cafe Nordo is known for their sumptuous meals combined with fun, lighthearted shows and rollicking music. A Nordo show basically promises a good time, or so I thought. While I didn't have a terrible time at their most recent offering, "Jitterbug Perfume", since I don't think it's possible to have a terrible time at a Nordo show, I will say I feel they bit off a little more than they could chew (pun intended). With a convoluted story and an overpowering band, the show failed to offer their usual evening that you could melt away into, but instead I found myself having to work way too hard.

Peter Flynn tackles Sondheim's darkly imagined INTO THE WOODS at Ford's Theatre and the result is sensational. Flynn leads an exceptional cast and, with support from Michael Bobbitt's choreography, Milagros Ponce Leon's set design, and Wade Laboissonniere's costume design, has a hit on his hands.

Ford's Theatre Society presents Into the Woods, directed by Peter Flynn and choreographed by Michael Bobbitt.

Caf Nordo is proud to present its first ever solo adaptation, Jitterbug Perfume at Caf Nordo's Culinarium in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square. The show runs from March 14 - May 12, 2019. Set during New Orleans' Mardi Gras, Jitterbug Perfume titillates the senses as it immerses you in the experience of living each day to its fullest; great food, passionate love, great sex, and passionate living.

Emma Bunton releases the first sensational song and video from her brand new album My Happy Place, ''Baby Please Don't Stop''.

Caf Nordo is proud to present its first ever solo adaptation, Jitterbug Perfume at Caf Nordo's Culinarium in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square. The show runs from March 14 - May 12, 2019. Set during New Orleans' Mardi Gras, Jitterbug Perfume titillates the senses as it immerses you in the experience of living each day to its fullest; great food, passionate love, great sex, and passionate living.

If you're going to put up a new musical, such as Annex Theatre's current world premiere 'The Devil and Sarah Blackwater' you need a few things on board. First, an editor, to make sure that the show and the story is as tight and clear as you can make it. And second, a music director to present the vocals of the show in their best light. After seeing opening night, it seems to me that Annex had neither of these elements for a show that, while having some potential and talent, just seemed to wander around purgatory in search of its next bit.

Monumental Theatre Company will present 'Black Girl Magic,' a fundraising concert for their upcoming season, on November 27, 2018. The concert will feature local Black artists Jade Jones (Mrs. Lovett in Rep Stage's Sweeney Todd), Awa Sal Secka (Simon Zealotes in Signature Theatre's Jesus Christ Superstar) and Ines Nassara (Dorothy in Ford's Theatre's The Wiz). The women will be performing popular songs and standards, as well as audience favorites from hit musicals. The concert will be music directed by Chris Urquiaga, a singer songwriter whose album "I'm Here" is currently available on all platforms.

The Keegan Theatre's 2018-19 season continues with the announcement of the cast and creative team for Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery's musical adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Directed by Josh Sticklin and Cara Gabriel, with music direction by Tiffany Underwood Holmes and choreography by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, As You Like It will run November 1 - December 2, 2018 at The Andrew Keegan Theatre in Washington, DC.  Previews are November 1 and 2, 2018, with the press opening on Saturday, November 3 at 8:00 p.m.  

"I wanted to write a story about a black woman who was searching for her place in the world." - Madison Jade Jones, Playwright

The Keegan Theatre's 2018-19 season continues with the announcement of the cast and creative team for Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery's musical adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Directed by Josh Sticklin and Cara Gabriel, with music direction by Tiffany Underwood Holmes and choreography by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, As You Like It will run November 1 - December 2, 2018 at The Andrew Keegan Theatre in Washington, DC. Previews are November 1 and 2, 2018, with the press opening on Saturday, November 3 at 8:00 p.m.

REP delivers a punk treatment of Sweeney Todd that is astoundingly compact, hideously dynamic and impressively submersive. The set is efficiently arranged, a versatile, vertically integrated playing space, full of grunge and London-isms. The Company members display powerful, accurate and impressive vocal prowess. Every one of them is physically precise, flexible and compelling. Director Joseph Ritsch has confidence in his cast's ability to manage multiple roles, so they form the Ensemble as well. This retro-modern treatment of Sondheim's popular opera makes salient points about who are the most fragile and disenfranchised people of a community and the destructive powers of a personal agenda.

Rep Stage Producing Artistic Director Joseph W. Ritsch Directs, Choreographs, and does the Set Design for a 'hair-raising' rendition of this Stephen Sondheim classic musical.

Rep Stage, the professional regional theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), has announced casting for its first show of the upcoming season, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Set in modern-day East London, this production of the Tony Award-winning musical features an ensemble of eight in an intimate setting laced with brilliant wit, diabolical humor, and extraordinary music.