Areas We Cover
Categories
D.C.
(Maryland / Virginia)
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Theater Review: CHEZ JOEY (Arena Stage)
A CLASSIC MUSICAL REBORN AS A RHYTHM-DRIVEN NIGHTCLUB EXPERIENCE A propulsive, jazz-infused staging that reclaims Pal Joey’s cultural roots At Arena Stage, Chez Joey is less a revival of Pal Joey than a sleek, rhythm-driven reinvention that returns the material to the cultural currents that shaped it. Drawing on John O’Hara’s original stories—first published in…
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Theater Review: OCTET (Studio Theatre in DC)
DAVE MALLOY’S A CAPPELLA SUPPORT-GROUP MUSICAL ABOUT INTERNET ADDICTION Intimate, exacting, unplugged, emotionally bracing— an in-the-round ritual that is a communal act of listening Dave Malloy’s Octet is a bold and quietly unsettling chamber musical that explores the anxiety, isolation, and fragile intimacy of life online. From the Tony Award–winning composer of Natasha, Pierre &…
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Theater Review: GUYS AND DOLLS (Shakespeare Theatre Company)
A MUSICAL FABLE FOR THEN — AND NOW A cornerstone of the American musical theater canon. Corny and sexist? Undeniably. But it’s still thrilling, still brassy, still Broadway. Guys and Dolls bills itself as “a musical fable of Broadway,” and that framing matters. Based on the stories of Damon Runyon, the 1950 show doesn’t aim…
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Theater Review: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA)
A SHTETL REBUILT IN THE ROUND Douglas Sills leads Signature’s spare, deeply felt Fiddler on the Roof that puts Anatevka’s communal heartbeat at the center The beauty of tradition, Tevye the Milkman tells us, is that “everyone knows who they are.” At Signature Theatre, where Fiddler on the Roof unfolds in the round, that certainty…
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Theater Review: THE WILD DUCK (Shakespeare Theater Company in D.C.)
FOWL PLAY: WHEN THE TRUTH TAKES AIM IN THE WILD DUCK Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, now at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre (in a co-production with Theatre for a New Audience), is an excellent, superbly acted rendering of one of his rarely produced tragedies — a work as cynical and heavy-handed as it is…
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Theater Review: STRATEGIC LOVE PLAY (Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA)
STRATEGIC LOVE PLAY SHOULD COME WITH A WARNING As the old love adage goes: Boy meets Girl, Girl interrogates Boy, Boy tries to leave unsuccessfully, Girl and Boy reconvene… oh, wait, this is the new love adage. Or at least the modern dating app version presented in Miriam Battye’s new work, Strategic Love Play. Directed…
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Concert Review: STEVE WINWOOD (Wolf Trap)
Multi-Instrument Maestro Steve Winwood Closes Wolf Trap’s Season in Style Under a sky dotted with stars and the gentle glow of the Filene Center’s stage lights, Steve Winwood closed Wolf Trap’s summer season on September 20, 2025, with a performance that felt both timeless and deeply alive. The evening wove seamlessly through his extraordinary career,…
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Theater Review: DAMN YANKEES (Arena Stage)
DAMN YANKEES SWINGS BACK IN STYLE: ARENA’S REVIVAL IS MORE THAN A MUSICAL — IT’S A MILESTONE When Damn Yankees first opened on Broadway in 1955, it was the ultimate baseball fantasy: a middle-aged fan makes a Faustian bargain with the devil to turn into a young slugger for the Washington Senators and finally beat…
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Theater Review: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (Shakespeare Theatre Company)
THE WIVES HAVE NEVER BEEN MERRIER The point of The Merry Wives of Windsor was to give Jack Falstaff a bit more time on the stage, beyond the bounds of Shakespeare’s history plays, where his comic genius is hemmed in by the serious matter of battles for land and succession. The character is a big…
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Concert Review: CYNTHIA ERIVO & THE NSO (Wolf Trap)
CYNTHIA ERIVO CASTS A SPELL AT WOLF TRAP Cynthia Erivo returned to the Filene Center at Wolf Trap for two performances with the kind of fire, artistry, and vocal power that turned her into one of Broadway and Hollywood’s most luminous stars. Backed by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) under the baton of Australian conductor…
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Concert Review: JOHN LEGEND (Get Lifted 20th Anniversary Tour at Wolf Trap)
A LEGEND AT WOLF TRAP Two decades after Get Lifted announced him as a singular voice in modern R&B, John Legend is celebrating the album with a tour that feels both polished and personal. At Wolf Trap’s Filene Center, the blend of natural beauty and architectural warmth provided a setting worthy of the music. Under…
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Concert Review: JAMES TAYLOR AND HIS ALL-STAR BAND (Wolf Trap)
STILL CAPTIVATING WITH A MELLOW GENIUS James Taylor brought the baby boomers and their families out in droves at Wolf Trap’s massive Filene Center Aug. 21 and did not disappoint. During a night of nostalgia beneath the stars, the icon who rose to fame in the 1970s delivered old favorites mixed with lesser-known tunes. He…
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Theater Review: PARADE (Tour at Kennedy Center, D.C.)
A stark and haunting Parade marches into the Kennedy Center, the final stop of this Broadway tour, confronting history with stripped-down staging and searing urgency The national tour of Parade, now at the Kennedy Center, arrives with an intensity that refuses to let its audience settle. Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s 1998 musical has always…
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Concert Review: JACOB COLLIER (With Sammy Rae & The Friends at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center)
On a warm summer night in Vienna, Virginia, Wolf Trap was filled to capacity — both lawn and pavilion brimming with joyful fans of all ages. Young families, grandparents, couples on date nights, and groups of friends gathered under the stars to witness something extraordinary: Jacob Collier live in concert. And what unfolded was far…
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Concert Review: ONE NIGHT ONLY (Sutton Foster & Kelli O’Hara with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap)
A GLORIOUS NIGHT OF BROADWAY, FRIENDSHIP AND FEMALE ICONOGRAPHY Wolf Trap could not have conjured a more exquisite evening last night for Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara’s long-awaited joint concert with the blazing National Symphony Orchestra under Emil de Cou’s impeccable direction. After a relentless midsummer heatwave, the Filene Center welcomed its audience with a…
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Event Review: DAVID SEDARIS (Wolf Trap in Virginia)
THE WIT AND THE HUMID: AN EVENING WITH DAVID SEDARIS An expert in turning the mundane into something paramount and inevitably humorous, David Sedaris uplifted an immense audience at Wolf Trap’s cavernous Filene Center on July 19. Best known for his biting humor and biographical essays, Sedaris – American author, humorist, playwright, and radio contributor…
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Theater Review: A WRINKLE IN TIME (Arena Stage)
CAST TRAVELS LIGHT-YEARS, SCORE FINDS A NEW UNIVERSE, THE BOOK GETS LOST IN SPACE. CAN THE WRINKLES IN THIS NEW MUSICAL BE IRONED OUT? Round about a lifetime ago, in the shadow of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War, Madeleine L’Engle wrote a fable for precocious children that she was pretty sure no one…
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Concert Review: DIANA KRALL (International Tour at Wolf Trap)
DIANA KRALL BRINGS OLD-HOLLYWOOD ELEGANCE TO WOLF TRAP On the warm evening of July 3, the Filene Center at Wolf Trap filled nearly to capacity, its 7,028 seats glowing under the soft shimmer of vintage brass footlights. Crimson velvet curtains and old Hollywood spotlights gave the stage the feel of a bygone movie palace—setting the mood…
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Concert Review: BROADWAY IN THE PARK (Signature Theatre and Wolf Trap with Lindsay Mendez and Jessie Mueller)
BROADWAY WELL-REPRESENTED IN A NIGHT OF MUSIC AND COMARADERIE From the first gleaming brass notes of Bernstein’s Candide Overture, music director Jon Kalbfleisch deftly led the Wolf Trap Orchestra through the piece’s shifting tempos and moods, setting the stage for an effervescent evening of mostly classic musical theater numbers written by Broadway’s best, including Styne, Berlin, Sondheim, and Finn….
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Dance Review: RED ANGELS (Chamber Dance Project)
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF CLASSICAL BALLET Founded in New York in 2000 as a means to put professional ballet dancers to work during their summer hiatuses, Chamber Dance Project, now based in Washington D.C., combines art forms to offer live, spontaneous performances, says Project Founder Diane Coburn Bruning. Dwellings, choreographed by Christian Denice (photo Rachel…
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