Washington, DC Theater Reviews

Review: MAMMA MIA at Kennedy Center
by Ken Kemp - August 21, 2024

Jukebox musicals generally fall into one of three categories: tribute shows which try to reproduce the music and staging of an iconic musical act as closely as possible (Rain, the Beatles Tribute, for example), biographical narratives (Beautiful, the Carole King Musical and Ain't Too Proud being two...

Review: Bandhouse Gigs 20th Anniversary Tribute to DC Legends at Strathmore
by Roger Catlin - August 20, 2024

Bandhouse Gigs, an outfit that assembles top local musicians to honor a variety of artists from Bob Dylan to the Stones, began its life outdoors at the Strathmore, honoring Nils Lofgren. For a big event Saturday with the full title “Strathmore Presents A BandHouse Gigs 20th Anniversary Tribute to DC...

Review: MJ: THE MUSICAL at National Theatre
by David Friscic - August 19, 2024

The myriad music, moods, and motifs of the “king of pop” (not to mention generic mastery of soul, rhythm and blues, funk, rock, disco, and dance-pop) Michael Jackson, are electrifyingly on display in the ingeniously cutting -edge musical MJ: The Musical now playing at the National Theatre. Not at al...

Review: THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS FAREWELL TOUR at Strathmore
by Roger Catlin - August 18, 2024

The latest Righteous Brothers farewell tour pulled into the Strathmore in Bethesda Thursday, entertaining an elderly crowd who enjoyed hearing their hits from the 1960s....

Review: SOFT POWER at Signature Theatre
by Pamela Roberts - August 15, 2024

Soft Power at Signature Theatre, is lush and polished, wacky and worrisome, absurdist and cautionary. It’s a tightrope of high political stakes and a zany montage of the US and China. As we head into high season of the 2024 election, the timing is perfect for staging the recently revised musical by ...

Review: New York Circus Project's HAMLET an Exhilarating Debut
by Andrew White - August 13, 2024

We usually associate circuses with acrobats and clowning; it never occurs to us to think of circuses as an art form, with tremendous expressive potential. The New York Circus Project (NYCP), takes the art of the circus one dramatic step further.  Currently on its first national tour with their produ...

Review: Edge Of the Universe Theater's A NUMBER
by Hannah R. Wing - August 12, 2024

Edge of the Universe Theater, in association with Avant Bard Theatre, turns up the family drama in an intimate, edgy production of A Number, directed by Stephen Jarrett, starring a real-life father and son.  ...

Review: NINE at Kennedy Center
by Elliot Lanes - August 07, 2024

It’s been 40 years since the national tour of the 1982 Arthur Kopit/Maury Yeston Tony Award winning Broadway musical Nine played at the Kennedy Center. It is currently the latest entry into the Broadway Center Stage series and boasts an all-star cast, a large orchestra and an “interesting” concept b...

Review: NOISES OFF at Keegan Theatre
by Mary Lincer - August 05, 2024

Noises Off remains the hardest to perform play ever written, as well as one of the easiest and most fun to watch. The Play That Goes Wrong tried to surpass it, but it can't be done. Playwright Michael Frayn's 1982 play could be called a love letter to theatre people if it weren't the play that threa...

Review: SUMMERTIME: AWA SAL SECKA SINGS LADIES OF JAZZ at Signature Theatre
by Roger Catlin - July 29, 2024

The talented actress and sometime playwright has appeared in dozens of shows in D.C. — and several at Signature, including an award-winning performance in its Ragtime last year. Here, she shares her passion for jazz singers from the golden era that have never gone out of style in a personable revue ...

Review: BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL at Opera House/Kennedy Center
by Mary Lincer - July 26, 2024

The DeLorean in the photo looks cute, but the car star of Back to the Future: The Musical (BTTF), at the Kennedy Center through August 11, goes extremely way past cute when Marty McFly and Doc start driving. ...

Review: THE MOORS at Faction Of Fools
by Roger Catlin - July 24, 2024

The Faction of Fools Theatre Company specializes in the arcane form of the Italian Renaissance, commedia dell’arte, with elaborate masks, exaggerated movements and a kind of extreme reading of what often are classic texts. The troupe’s “Commedia Romeo and Juliet,” revived earlier this year, was a go...

Review: CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL - Dance Highlights at Cafritz Hall And Delirium
by Emily Berger - July 23, 2024

While Fringe proudly does not screen for quality, from what this reviewer saw, this year's dance offerings including two strong works and another mediocre one....

Review: MY CAT NAMED LUCY at Capital Fringe Festival
by Jake Bridges - July 22, 2024

I don’t think anyone will object when I become hyperbolic to say that we, as humans, love our pets. For most people, their cat or dog (or reptile or goldfish or whatever) becomes part of the family once a human assumes the role of pet owner....

Review: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA at Woolly Mammoth Theatre
by David Friscic - July 22, 2024

Steeped in a European existential sensibility, with healthy doses of theatre of the absurd, and an eerie ambience, --performance artist Julia Masli alternately entrances and provokes the audience with her finely honed comedic skills in the deliciously interactive production entitled ha ha ha ha ha h...

Review: LA BOHÈME at Wolf Trap
by Emily Berger - July 20, 2024

Directed by John Caird and, for this revival, Katherine M. Carter, the production featured a talented cast of emerging opera stars, Studio Artists (many of whom were in featured roles), additional chorus members and the Children’s Chorus of Washington. This large cast filled the stage with excitemen...

Review: WHO DID IT? at Capital Fringe - Theater J
by Rachael F. Goldberg - July 20, 2024

'Who Did It?' is a fun, silly, and engaging experience, and its improvised nature ensures it continues to entertain, even for those who make it an annual tradition....

Review: PONDERING ABOUT MY MEMORIES at Capital Fringe Festival
by Pamela Roberts - July 20, 2024

Rodin Alcerro’s PONDERING ABOUT MY MEMORIES is lush, powerful and deeply moving. Premiering at the Capital Fringe Festival, the play explores past, present and future. Like flecks of glitter in a snow globe, in this production thoughts, memories, and fragments drift peacefully or swirl turbulently ...

Review: RE: WRITING at Capital Fringe Festival
by Pamela Roberts - July 19, 2024

RE: WRITING is a moving and assured new work at the Capital Fringe Festival. The play delves into trust and memory. It asks who gets to tell your story, it reflects on the ethics of writing, and it looks at how we surface and articulate the major moments of our lives....

Review: PARTINGS: DANCES OF LETTING GO at Cafritz Hall
by Michela Dwyer - July 18, 2024

What did our critic think of PARTINGS: DANCES OF LETTING GO at Cafritz Hall?...

Review: THE HABER CONUNDRUM at Capital Fringe
by David Friscic - July 18, 2024

The complications of culture, career and conscience cut through fierce nationalistic pride in the heart and mind of the complex and committed Nobel -Prize winner Fritz Haber in the variegated one-person performance of David Kaye in The Haber Conundrum....

Review: PILOBOLUS AT WOLF TRAP'S FILENE CENTER at Wolf Trap
by Emily Berger - July 16, 2024

The company's signature athletic partnering and haunting effects were on display across five works whose power was diminished by the same beauty and craft that made them worth noticing....

Review: A GOOD WOMAN By Nerissa Tunnessen and Samantha Xiao Cody at Cafritz Hall
by Michela Dwyer - July 15, 2024

In A Good Woman, a new work of dance theater premiering at this year’s Capital Fringe Festival, Nerissa Tunnessen and Samantha Xiao Cody construct a space of rich significance in which they reexamine a classic tale. ...

Review: LOOKING FOR JUSTICE (IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES) at Bliss - Capital Fringe Festival
by Rachael F. Goldberg - July 20, 2024

Oppenheimer gives a great performance and a wonderful perspective on some of the core issues that many of us struggle with today, but flails a little when she tries to project onto others. Which, in a way, makes sense – after all, it’s harder to see the other sides of the story beyond your own....

Review: DEMOCRACY at Cafritz Hall @ DCJCC
by Mary Lincer - July 14, 2024

What did our critic think of DEMOCRACY at Cafritz Hall @ DCJCC?...