WASHINGTON, DC THEATER REVIEWS

Certain shows are practically foolproof bets for audiences. A Midsummer Night's Dream, for example, is such an exquisitely crafted play on the page that a good time is all but guaranteed. Singin' in the Rain, the stage musical based on the 1952 film directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, is one o...

Rare as it is to hear Handel's opera 'Serse' at all - it was scarcely performed at all for 200 years following its 1738 debut - it's even more unusual to hear it melded to the poetry of Rumi, the Sufi mystic who predated the composer by half a millennium....

In another edition of Ballet Across America, the Kennedy Center welcomed the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Miami City Ballet to the Opera House stage at the iconic venue on the banks of the Potomac River for a week a classic and cutting edge dance....

Taffety Punk, the insurrectionist yet classically trained company now in its 15th year does what it does best in a pair of striking Greek adaptations by Anne Carson, presented in one invigorating sitting....

The Miami City Ballet put on a varied and entertaining performance as part of the Kennedy Center's Ballet Across America on Saturday, June 1, 2019....

Notable for being the final selection of Woolly's incomparable Founding Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz, Rajiv Joseph's 'Describe the Night' is a must-see for any serious DC area theatergoer...

There's several places to see Greek theatre in DC right now. It's not uncommon for artists to find relevance in the centuries-old works of Aeschylus and Sophocles and use their stories as a way of examining our lives today. But Klytemnestra: An Epic Slam Poem, now playing at Theater Alliance, does m...

The Miami City Ballet began its Friday Ballet across America evening with George Balanchine's Walpurgisnacht Ballet (1980), 'definitely the world according to Balanchine,' wrote Suzanne Farrell in her autobiography. The Miami ensemble got off to a ragged start, literally not up to speed, but once Pr...

While ballet could spend another century beginning with Balanchine, the Dance Theatre of Harlem's latest commissions offer a different future, one where ballet is more daring and more perceptive than ever before....

Can a show about death and dying leave you dancing in the aisles? Well, actually it can - and blowing bubbles and tossing beach balls in the air, too. Fur real. Just come on down to Bethesda's Writer's Center for Flying V Theatre's latest offering, New York playwright Young Jean Lee's We're Gonna D...

Sooner/Later, written by Allyson Currin and directed by Gregg Henry, catapults the audience into the life of a single, working, middle aged mother Nora (Erica Chamblee), her charming, possessive, teen-aged daughter, Lexie (Cristina M. Ibarra), and a sarcastic and dubious suitor-turned-companion, Gri...

When Scott Tucker, in his pre-concert introductory remarks before Sunday's Choral Arts Society of Washington performance, said that composer Florent Schmitt's style in Psalm 47 is 'off the wall,' he wasn't kidding. The 1903 setting for chorus, soprano, orchestra, and organ also includes brass, percu...

Shakespeare's Richard III has been no stranger to DC theatre goers this season. In true Synetic fashion, their current production turns a well known tale on its...crown....

There's a glorious sound coming from Arena Stage. From out of the mists of time, in monochromatic colors as if from a tintype, comes the sublime harmonizing of 13 voices, giving an idea of the transporting power of the Fisk Jubilee Singers....

Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding centers around several steamy post-World War II Southern days as seen through the eyes of twelve-year-old Frankie Addams. Frankie, or F. Jasmine as she requests we call her, is on the cusp...of what she does not know....

It's easy to see why 'Tosca' is one of the most popular works in opera.Its very musical style, broken free from the strict opera house rules before it, allows it to breathe. Singers are not urgently singing every moment. The supertitles person can take a break as it goes dark from time to time. Stil...

The cast of The Gala Hispanic Theatre's bilingual production of Fame -- The Musical takes this marathon show at a dead sprint, bucking Broadway bluster to deliver on the idea fame is an illusion, and hard work is what we seek....

I've never been disappointed by a show at Signature Theatre. Even their ongoing Grand Hotel, which is working with some less-than-stellar source material, is elevated by the wonderful craftsmanship and talented artists this theater welcomes. The same can unfortunately not be said of the disappointin...

Creative Cauldron's On Air needs tinkering with its storyline and songs in order to broadcast its message loud and clear....

At a time when Motown Records just marked its 60th anniversary with a lavish TV special, and with 'Ain't Too Proud: The Temptations Musicals' getting a raft of Tony Nominations, following the Broadway success of 'Motown the Musical' and 'Dreamgirls,' based on the Supremes, any fan of the sound would...

A child injures another in a playground confrontation. The parents of each meet to discuss. It's a parenting moment so universal that the familiar premise in Yasmina Reza's 'God of Carnage' was originally written in French and first presented in London. It was a Tony-winner on Broadway a decade ago ...

Michael Kahn's final production at Shakespeare Theatre Company deeply understands the underlying questions and humanity of the tale, and draws out an emotional, sympathetic performance that rings with a relevance to our lives today. Under his direction, 'The Oresteia' is not just insight to our shar...

The model that We Happy Few Productions has built and perfected over the last seven years is, for my money, one of the most admirable and sustainable of any theatre company in DC. Their goal is to make classical stories (traditionally Shakespeare, though they've wisely branched out of late) accessib...

Studio Theatre's current production of Lucy Kirkwood's contemporary play THE CHILDREN benefits greatly from a strong director (the company's Artistic Director David Muse) guiding three exceptionally talented actors that work together as a singular unit to present the story. Strong production values...

Folger Theatre's Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Vivienne Benesch, compliments the uniqueness of this comedy through a delightfully funny cast and production set during the 1930's....