D.C.
(Maryland / Virginia)

THE PLACES WE CARRY A tender portrait of family, memory, and the ties that survive distance and time. What Became of Us, Shayan Lotfi‘s intimate new play at Signature Theatre, explores identity, memory, and belonging through the lives of two siblings grappling with the fallout of immigration. Their struggles and successes—told through memories and present-day…

IAGO’S GAME A terrifyingly gripping production driven by a mesmerizing villain and a devastating descent into jealousy Who can resist a good villain? Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current rendition of Othello is a bone-chilling, goosebump-worthy success, largely due to the Bard’s poetry and the acting chops of Ben Turner, who plays the antagonist Iago. Although Wendell…

CORNER OF THE SKY, CENTER OF THE RING Signature’s dazzling revival embraces Pippin‘s whimsy, darkness, and enduring search for meaning A sort of ninth-century, one-ring circus crammed with presentational glee, Pippin has always been an unusual musical. Premiering in 1972 with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson, it…

ONE ACTOR, A KINGDOM OF SOULS Eddie Izzard’s virtuosic solo turn reframes Shakespeare with clarity and control Eddie Izzard’s Hamlet is far from a traditional staging of William Shakespeare’s tragedy. Instead, it becomes a riveting solo performance—an exercise in precision, imagination, and endurance. Portraying every role alone, Izzard crafts a theatrical experience that feels both…

WHEN THE LAW PUTS IDEAS ON TRIAL A clear-eyed revival that finds urgency in an old argument about truth and belief The recent production of Inherit the Wind at Arena Stage offers a compelling and timely revival of one of America’s most enduring courtroom dramas. Directed by Ryan Guzzo Purcell, the production highlights the play’s…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…