WASHINGTON, DC THEATER REVIEWS

Having spawned a Disney movie, The Sleeping Beauty is likely the most well known of ballet's "big three."  Almost every ballet company and ballet school has produced a version of this piece.  American Ballet Theater was founded in 1939 to create a repertory of ballet's best historical works and to...

Over the past season or two, we've seen our fair share of professional productions of OLIVER in the DC area. Adventure Theatre MTC took a stab at it over the summer and Arena Stage offered up a steampunk version of the classic musical a few months ago. While the Kennedy Center's current TYA produc...

Artistic director Ari Roth's dream of a vibrant and important theater group addressing the most vexing problems of the world, is coming to full flower this year at the Mosaic Theater Company, where he has revived the Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival that he developed at Jewish Community C...

Whether belting out musical hits, showcasing her classically trained coloratura soprano, or taking on songs with a country sort of flair, the versatile performer had the audience in the palm of her hands and for good reason....

Playwright Michael Hollinger's play is about love, family, and forgiveness....

Playwright Lynn Nottage notches another feather in her cap of outstanding work....

WSC Avant-Bard's magical production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream offers is an absolute delight. It doesn't matter if you are the most hardened grown-up or the most precocious, spoiled brat the world has ever seen. You will be entranced by this production's creativity for much of the s...

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As a society, we often view extreme acts of 'passion,' whether it be motivated by anger, lust, or sadness, as negative, resulting in pain, or as something to be 'fixed.' Instead, we strive for normalcy and balance, obliterating any despair and following our established routine of life. What we often...

We spend a lot of time thinking about the end and the beginning, in kind of self-aggrandizing ways. We talk about the miracle of birth and the mystery of death. But, by definition, all of our lives take place in the middle of those two sort of unknowable events, in this great and often unexamined mi...

It's a family and friends-based drama of the best sort....

It's fitting that Shakespeare Theater's Artistic Director Michael Kahn has created an evening that bookends the pathetic theater critics of the 18th century with criticism in our own day.  His cracker-jack, double casting results in a fun evening with star turns-and slapstick routines-galore....

Signature Theatre's world premiere production of Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose, directed by Eric Schaeffer and written by Ed Dixon, is a powerful and passionate production that isn't the typical story of a mentor and mentee....

A risky theatrical endeavor of some worth.......

The Washington National Opera has always been a champion for young artists, both on stage and off. The WNO's American Opera Initiative's premier production of Better Gods is a testimony to that. Composed with ethnical truth by Luna Pearl Woolf, Better Gods is a stirring portrait of a determined Quee...

The American Shakespeare Center's current 'Dangerous Dreams' tour-featuring Julius Caesar, The Life of King Henry the Fifth and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest-is an absolute blast from start to finish. Packed with some seasoned talent and boundless energy, you'll be swept up in the dr...

Donald Hicken directs the delightful romantic comedy written by John Patrick Shanley is a regional premiere....

Musical is infused with talented young people who will delight everyone....

Signature Theatre's WEST SIDE STORY brings freshness and exuberance to the classic work. The exceptional production in an intimate space allows us to consider anew the songs and scenes that have been part of our lives for half a century....

I wish this 'little musical that could' well....

With their searing new drama, Marcus Gardley's The Gospel of Lovingkindness, Mosaic Theater confirms that their vision is solid, their commitment to the community steadfast.  And the talent assembled under the sensitive, energetic direction of Jennifer L. Nelson is everything one could ask for.  I...

A comic bouquet of theatrical fluff that Shakespeare tossed off, as its title suggests, solely to please his audience, Synetic takes the story and gives it the contemporary edge that we've come to know and love. But given its gritty, urban setting and new characters, I strongly advise you re-acquain...

This holiday season, Dublin, Ireland has its own 'Scrooge' to reform on a windy Christmas Eve in the Keegan Theatre's beloved holiday tradition, AN IRISH CAROL. Written by Matthew J Keenan and directed by Mark A. Rhea, AN IRISH CAROL is back on stage for its five year anniversary....

Every artistic company wishes it could come up with a seasonal title that could be come a holiday tradition - their own Nutcracker, Messiah or Christmas Carol to rely on every December....

Mame Dennis Burnside has coaxed the blues right out of the horn many times since the late 1960s and Riverside Center for the Performing Arts has brought the ditzy, glitzy and glamorous free-spirit back for a big, old fashioned musical hit. This new production of MAME looks and sounds like a million ...