DCMetroTheaterArts
Your source for theater news, reviews, and interviews in DC, MD, Northern VA, and New York
Adam Pascal is no stranger to iconic roles, having originated roles in Rent and Aida on Broadway, and stepped the role of the Emcee in Cabaret. He is now portraying an icon of a different sort: William Shakespeare in the national tour of Something Rotten!, which begins its two-week stint at DC’s National Theatre this […]
Countering the brisk winter temperatures outside, Tony-nominated Broadway jukebox musical sensation Mamma Mia! unleashed flash bolts of pulsating heat with bold bright lights, zesty dance numbers and energetic performers, as it embarked on its farewell national tour making a three-day stop at the Hippodrome. Featuring the incredibly infectious music of ‘70s (and early ‘80s) Swedish […]
With shows like Green Day’s American Idiot and Carole King’s Beautiful, musicals based off of pop hits have become more popular in recent years. However, there is one show that is the mother of jukebox musicals: Mamma Mia!. It has the perfect balance of story and showcasing the famous hits of ABBA such as “Gimme, […]
Roz White and Teresa Castracane star in Black Pearl Sings! at MetroStage playing two extraordinary strong women from very different backgrounds. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you perform on our local stages. Roz: Hello everyone. I’m Roz White. I have performed throughout DC at Studio Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Source Theatre, […]
Here are the DCMetroTheaterArts Staff’s honorees for Best Plays in Professional Theaters in 2015: A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas at Olney Theatre Center. A Conversation With the Man Who Killed My Son at Dynamic Wellness. A Man for All Seasons at NextStop Theatre Company. A Very Pointless Holiday Spectacular at Pointless Theatre Company. […]
Blake Hammond is playing Sebastian in the Tour of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella which is about to open at The National Theatre. Joel: Hi Blake. Where may have some of our readers seen you perform on the stage? Blake: My name is Blake Hammond I have performed throughout the country many times on Broadway, regional stages and […]
Capping a spectacular career spanning nearly 60 years of bravura showmanship, legendary 81-year-old Australian comedian, actor, satirist, artist and author Barry Humphries performed as his charismatic, flamboyant alter ego Dame Edna Everage in the debut of Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye: The Farewell Tour at National Theatre Tuesday night, which is scheduled to run through April 26th. Set on a simple stage, […]
Two nights before we chatted, Sasha Allen was burning up The National Theatre Stage and doing some fancy moves on a high-hanging trapeze while wowing the crowd as the Leading Player in the Tony Award-winning revival of Pippin, which has made DC its home through January 4th. Joel: How are you doing? You were terrific on […]
Winner of four 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival, Pippin captivatingly combines the jaw-dropping effects and breathtaking acrobatics of Les doigts de la main (7 Fingers) with the soaring songs of Stephen Schwartz and sizzling Bob Fosse-like choreography of Chet Walker, in its DC debut at the National Theatre. With music and lyrics by […]
I recently experienced Motti Lerner’s The Admission, Theatre J’s production remounted by Busboys & Poets at Studio Theatre (my review is here). The controversy that the play generated was surprising only in the fact that a controversy existed at all. I mean, for the most part, American theatres (Washington theatres included) steer clear of explosively controversial […]
With today’s article, we welcome Robert Michael Oliver as he inaugurates his new column SPINE: Theatre, Culture, and History in the Belly of the Beast on DCMetroTheaterArts. Anacostia Is the New Downtown I recently had the pleasure of attending (not as a critic) a preview performance of Factory 449’s production of The Amish Project at the new […]
theatreWeek 2014 begins today. Here is information and a list of discounts that are available during and after theatreWeek. from theatreWashington. PERFORMANCES & EVENTS PRIOR TO AND INCLUDING APRIL 14-20 Tickets available for purchase in advance of theatreWeek. American Century Theater Judgement at Nuremberg $20 discount on full-price tickets during the run, excluding performances May 30 – […]
Let’s be honest-this performance is legendary and Hal Holbrook’s performance as Twain is one for the ages! What an honor it was to be in his presence. And for two hours he had me and the audience in the palm of his hands and his bushy mustache. What has contributed to the longevity of the […]
If/Then, the musical with the biggest heart you can imagine, is now back home in the Big Apple, and just like its main character, Elizabeth (the incomparable Idina Menzel), it is starting over in Manhattan, right where it belongs. I admit to having first met and fallen in love with If/Then during its out-of-town fling […]
The music of ABBA never fails to get toes tapping and listeners dancing. Last night at The National Theater was no different. Mamma Mia! is the ultimate love story written by Catherine Johnson, around the snappy tunes and beautiful lyrics of the 1970s pop sensation opened last night to a packed audience. The words of 1977’s […]
Among the exhilarating pleasures of seeing American Idiot now on tour at the National Theatre is experiencing this angsty, amped-up ode to antiestablishment disaffection performed full force in DC’s treasured temple of high culture. It’s a discombobulating blast. And Billie Joe Armstrong’s wildly imagined lyrics—scathingly antipathetic to conventional patriotism—keep detonating like verbal grenades. Don’t want to be […]
Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of those involved in the theatre, yet the number of female playwrights being produced is dramatically lower. Welcome back to the conversation, and The Playwright’s Playground – an in-depth Playwright interview series with female playwrights in the D.C. theatre community. This month it is my pleasure […]
There are many ways of presenting blackness on stage and defining blackness, and the theater remains a venue in which to challenge, question, and probe. Yet, before The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess made its Broadway debut, the reexamination of Porgy and Bess generated an intense cultural commentary and controversy as to whether this iconic work […]
History hit an astounding “rewind” and “refresh” button last night at The National Theatre. An abundantly assorted audience of Washingtonians rose as one to applaud an iconic work of musical theater with a past so complicated and conflicted that such heartfelt unanimity would have been unthinkable back in 1936 when the show first came to […]
Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of those involved in the theatre, yet the number of female playwrights being produced is dramatically lower. Welcome back to the conversation, and The Playwright’s Playground – an in-depth Playwright interview series with female playwrights in the D.C. theatre community. In this continuing Series, I will […]