Good cast, good technical work, some funny jokes, but there's something missing.

Shenandoah Conservatory's production of CABARET runs from Friday, September 29th through Sunday, October 2nd, in the Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre on the campus of Shenandoah University!

Something is clearly rotten in the state of the DFL and perhaps America itself. Whipping, or the Football Hamlet, written, directed, and choreographed by Kathleen Akerley, is entertaining and humorous as it is stirring and thought-provoking.

The exhilarating musical The Gospel at Colonus returns, Lauren Gunderson's fiery genius Emilie makes her DC debut, and Shakespeare's fantastical The Tempest takes the stage by storm

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's stunning remount of AN OCTOROON by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Nataki Garrett reunites the principal cast and production teams from Woolly's sold out 2016 run. Boy, did I move to DC just in time. The Washington Post declares Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company 'a national champion of the new-and frequently provocative-American play' and after laughing, crying, and thinking through Woolly's AN OCTOROON I would be hard pressed to find better descriptors. In the heart of the nation's capital, a stone's throw from The White House, AN OCTOROON is a living, breathing, vital dialogue about racial tension in America.

The concert delivered some great performances and is a wonderful example of how unique the Kennedy Center is within our national arts landscape. Where else, except for maybe Lincoln Center, could you hear some of Broadway's best sing with a top-notch orchestra and get a dose of comedy too?

A couple of things intrigued me about HalfMad Theatre's entry into this year's Capital Fringe. First off, the name Trey Parker was attached to it. After all, he created the totally non-politically correct TV show South Park and the mega- hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon so it seemed interesting that a company would present the piece that started Parker on his meteoric rise to fame while in college. Second, the show is primarily performed with puppets with a few human characters. That just seemed like my kind of show. The show is the wonderful and slightly off-color extravaganza, Trey Parker's Cannibal the Musical!

Anytime a company presents something I don't expect to see in a festival setting, it generally peaks my interest. The Laramie Project is one of those shows I never thought I would see performed in Capital Fringe. When The Wandering Theatre Company presents the piece and then disrespects the material by doing things to the show that are not needed it results in the following diatribe even if the production features some strong performances.

Horton Foote's NIGHT SEASONS, directed by Jack Sbarbori at the Quotidian Theatre Company, examines the nature of a life defined by money and greed, and the notion that perhaps living is the greatest punishment of all. Foote, best known for his 1962 screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird, delivers a quiet critique of capitalist culture and asks us to consider what "home" means. NIGHT SEASONS places us in Harrison Texas, 1963 on Josie Weems' (Jane Squier Bruns) 93rd birthday, though the play deals in flashbacks and the setting easily slips back and forth through 1923-1963 and the years in between. Josie Weems (Jane Squier Bruns) is the manipulative glue that holds the rambling Weems family together by subtly managing finances and allowing and prohibiting marriages at her discretion.

The current national tour, based on the recent Broadway revival at Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54 and taking up residence at the Kennedy Center through August 6, does just that - explore and provide a unique take. While there's never been anything particularly cheery about the musical, this version wonderfully embraces its darkness and cold undertones more so than a few others I have seen.

Unlike in your real life, there is someone onstage able to give voice to your concerns and make you laugh when you feel like you want to cry. The Second City wants you to know you're not alone!

The cast and the rocking band pour every ounce of energy into everything they do.

Simply put, get thee to the Kennedy Center to experience it for yourself.

Important content and several exceptional performances outweigh 1st Stage's flawed production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. 

DC is a topsy-turvy, satirical farce; or so it seems this morning. Happily, so is The School for Lies. At least The School for Lies is fiction and man, it felt good to laugh.