WASHINGTON, DC THEATER REVIEWS

Nostalgia is a funny thing. It catapults the ordinarily rational into webs of what-ifs and immobilizes presence in the now. But what if you could turn back time to fix that one regret or evaluate outcomes of disparate decisions. Would you do it, or would you choose to accept your past as part of you...

Séamus Miller’s THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF KILLARNEY at Avant Bard Theatre threads staying true to “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” source material while creatively expounding upon it. A musical testament to resilience, Shakespeare himself would stand in line for a ticket....

What did our critic think of TREEMONISHA at Washington National Opera At Lisner Auditorium?...

The sign of a good play is that it can ring out its truth through different eras and still seem utterly relevant to the moment. ...

The third production of Adventure Theatre MTC’s 25/26 season Freckleface Strawberry The Musical keeps up the company’s winning streak with a show that features a stellar cast, a good message, superb direction, and more....

The Washington Ballet’s Artistic Director, Edwaard Liang, has added another ballet to his repertoire of re-imagined classics. Giselle through Liang’s eyes is a dramatic, whimsical rework which raises the stakes and strips back the stage to show the heart of the hauntingly stunning piece....

How far would you go to keep your loved ones happy? To ensure the very thing that binds you when all else fails, has a satisfactory ending? In the Kennedy Center’s World Premiere Commission, The Sea Beyond the Ocean, 9-year-old Scooter (Ty’Ree Hope Davis) tests those limits to help his sick fath...

Yes, Rent opened on Broadway thirty years ago. Having seen its final preview with a rapt and frequently weeping audience, it was fun to share it with an audience that knows the score (and when to moo)....

Master illusionist Dendy gives you the gift of a stone in your shoe. See what our critic had to say....

“So I’ve got a story to tell you. It’s a good one.” Marcus Kyd paces the small stage of the black box theater at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop where the house has been arranged like a comedy club. ...

As part of their self-ascribed “year of world premieres,” Olney Theatre Center is debuting the profoundly peppy, wonderfully messy, coming-of-age celebration Little Miss Perfect, written by Joriah Kwamé. The musical has been in development for more than five years, originally based on the catch...

Krapp’s Last Tape is Scena Theatre’s contribution to a mini-Beckett festival that has popped up in our midst this past week, and it’s a poignant reminder of how Beckett foresaw demise—his, ours, everyone’s—with a combination of wry humor, and a resignation that sometimes borders on relie...

An embarrassment of theatrical riches, bordering on sensory, stimulating overload, is on display in an exceptionally bold and satisfying reimagining of the very influential musical Pal Joey—now reconceived as Chez Joey. The show still takes place in the 1940’s Chicago music/nightclub scene, but ...

What did our critic think of SNAPSHOTS: A MUSICAL SCRAPBOOK at Creative Caudron Stage?...

With TAMBO & BONES, Spooky Action Theatre takes on a satirical and biting piece that refuses to play by the rules, whether it be of narrative, of genre, or of comfort. What starts as a minstrel show quickly mutates into a centuries-spanning interrogation of race, capitalism, and the hunger for auton...

What did our critic think of THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA at Gala Hispanic Theatre?...

Friendship as Resistance in a Powerful World Premiere - The World to Come, a world-premiere co-production by Woolly Mammoth and Theater J, delivers powerful, honest performances and an intriguing story in an extraordinary, deeply touching production that shouldn’t be missed....

American Ballet Theatre, the country’s great ballet company of theatrical stars and story ballets, returned to DC this week to present Christopher Wheeldon’s retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. A star vehicle with six leading roles, the ballet succeeds in delivering sumptuous danci...

What did our critic think of ON BECKETT at Shakespeare Theatre?...

The heightened reality replete with elongated pauses –(do people really wait this long in real life to answer one another?) that emanates from the stage of the Pulitzer- Prize and Tony -winning production of Stereophonic –now being produced in a touring /edited two hour and 50-minute version at ...

The title of Rebecca Dzida’s play  “Cake Eaters” of course borrows from the “Let them eat cake” phrase that originates from before the French Revolution and was often attributed to Marie Antoinette.  ...

The cast of John Doe don't know they're in a play about the effects and impacts of death on survivors; they're all in “just keep living” mode, and, thanks to Angelle Whavers (wise playwright), their experiences form a kind of map of getting through stuff....

What did our critic think of HAPPY DAYS at Washington Stage Guild?...

What did our critic think of ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER'S 2026 DC PERFORMANCES at Warner Theatre?...

Thirty years on, 'Still/Here' refuses easy categorization or comfortable distance. It demands that we bear witness — not to victimhood, but to the full spectrum of human resilience in the face of mortality....