Washington, DC Theater Reviews

Review: HERE IT IS: A TRIBUTE TO LEONARD COHEN at Kennedy Center
by Roger Catlin - April 29, 2024

The producer Larry Klein honored the memory of Leonard Cohen with a 2022 tribute album that had a hushed sensibility and taste, as well as an impressive array of vocalists. Hoping to continue that feel, he began work on an equally fine performance version with the same title, “This is Now: A Tribute...

Review: FRONTIERS SANS FRONTIERS at Spooky Action Theater
by Tavish Young - April 29, 2024

Frontiers Sans Frontiers is good. It's refreshing, biting, funny, and relevant. From April 25th to May 19th, under a few trashbags and discarded cups of tea, DC theatre goers may be able to find Spooky Action Theater's production of Frontiers Sans Frontiers....

Review: MARJORIE PRIME at Prologue Theatre At The Atlas
by Mary Lincer - April 28, 2024

What did our critic think of MARJORIE PRIME at Prologue Theatre At The Atlas?...

Review: SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY: IMPERMANENCE at The Kennedy Center
by Tavish Young - April 28, 2024

A beautifully asynchronous and turbulent super-organism, Impermanence opened its weekend at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on April 16th....

Review: AMM(I)GONE at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
by David Friscic - April 28, 2024

The semantics and silence that delineate love and disclosure are operating at full throttle in the probing personal story of playwright and performer Adil Mansoor in the theatrical experience that is entitled Amm(i)gone. As the uber-talented Mansoor invites his very traditional Pakistani mother to t...

Review: HAIR at Signature Theatre
by Pamela Roberts - April 27, 2024

Signature Theatre’s revival of the groovy Vietnam-era musical HAIR is wildly energetic, colorful, and full of spirit. The cast’s gorgeous voices and exuberance uplift songs that we know as the soundtrack of the times, from the opening “Aquarius” to the final “Let the Sunshine In.”...

Review: THE ILLUSIONISTS at Opera House/Kennedy Center
by Mary Lincer - April 25, 2024

Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages, The Illusionists brings the fun of magic and the magic of fun at a time when a little voluntary, recreational misdirection sounds like a great idea. Indeed, through the magic of a big screen and a little camera, The Illusionists have solved the problem ...

Review: VENUS AND ADONIS at Taffety Punk Theatre Company
by Jackson Malmgren - April 23, 2024

What did our critic think of TAFFETY PUNK THEATRE COMPANY'S VENUS AND ADONIS at Taffety Punk Theatre Company?...

Review: PAN AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S TODO TANGO at Kennedy Center
by Hannah R. Wing - April 22, 2024

On Saturday, April 20, 2024, PASO brought their program, Todo Tango, an intimate and fiery evening of tango to the Kennedy Center. ...

Review: DANA TAI SOON BURGESS DANCE COMPANY at Kennedy Center's Family Theater
by Emily Berger - April 21, 2024

This new work featured three episodes in Asian American history....

Review: A JUMPING-OFF POINT at Round House Theatre
by David Friscic - April 17, 2024

An exploration of what constitutes the writer’s role and ownership of material, issues of representation in the arts, racial politics and the messiness of friendship and caring are all threshed out in Inda Craig -Galván’s play A Jumping-Off Point. Now being presented at the Round House Theatre, this...

Review: AN UNBUILT LIFE at Washington Stage Guild
by Roger Catlin - April 18, 2024

It’s the painting Girl with a Flute, long attributed to Vermeer, that adorns the program cover of the Washington Stage Guild’s world premiere production of “An Unbuilt Life.” ...

Review: DISTILLATION at Solas Nua
by Roger Catlin - April 17, 2024

You meet in the hotel lobby and go up the elevator in two groups of 10 to the fourth floor. Once assembled there, you’re led to a community room where you take your seat around a table covered in clumps of black earth that we’ll soon come to learn is peat. Irish peat, from the bogs. Three hundred po...

Review: CHICKS IN HEAVEN at Creative Cauldron
by Jake Bridges - April 15, 2024

What did our critic think of CHICKS IN HEAVEN at Creative Cauldron?...

Review: UNKNOWN SOLDIER at Arena Stage
by Rachael F. Goldberg - April 15, 2024

'Unknown Soldier' is a beautifully performed show with a fascinating exploration of memory, love, and loss, but its main flaw is that it is a show seeking out answers to a mystery it not only fails to resolve, but further convolutes at every turn. While there’s truth in that, it’s also a little diss...

Review: ISLANDER at Olney Theatre Center
by Itai Yasur - April 14, 2024

Now on tour, a new musical makes landfall at Olney Theatre Center with a fantastical song worthy of our attention...

Review: MACBETH at Shakespeare Theatre Company
by Dara Homer - April 15, 2024

STC’s Macbeth highlights brutal pairs: war and domestic life, grief and humor, brief words and permanent consequences. While the setting could feel unassuming—indeed, audiences must make their way through the parking lot of a Home Depot when arriving via metro—it also shows how extravagant it is to ...

Review: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE at Kennedy Center Opera House
by Emily Berger - April 13, 2024

Message in a Bottle, a narrative dance work set to music by Sting, with choreography by Kate Prince ranging from hip hop to break dancing to contemporary, is sometimes maddening but often exhilarating....

Review: PETER PAN at Broadway At The National
by Peter Rouleau - April 12, 2024

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Summer News: CATF Contemporary American Theater Festival Rolls Out Another World Premiere Season!
by Andrew White - April 12, 2024

Believe it or not, Summer is coming.  After we sneeze our way through a way-too-flowery Spring, we get to contemplate the joys of those little weekend getaways here and there, sneaking out of town to enjoy some solid artistry in friendly locales. ...

Review: WEBSTER'S BITCH At The Keegan Theatre
by Jake Bridges - April 09, 2024

What did our critic think of WEBSTER'S BITCH at The Keegan Theatre?...

Review: THE NANCE at 1st Stage
by Mary Lincer - April 07, 2024

What did our critic think of THE NANCE at 1st Stage?...

Review: CIVILIZING LUSBY at Best Medicine Repertory
by Peter Rouleau - April 08, 2024

A lone man taking on a developer to keep his property. A woman being courted by a man of means favored by her parents and a rogue. A couple whose  prosperous appearance masks deep insecurity, secrets, and recriminations. These are all familiar elements, perhaps even cliches, but in Best Medicine Rep...

Review: LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO TO THE KENNEDY CENTER at Kennedy Center Opera House
by Emily Berger - April 06, 2024

Thursday’s return of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo to the Kennedy Center brought a full house and lots of laughs to the DMV....

Review: STOMP at Capital One Hall
by Pamela Roberts - April 06, 2024

STOMP is here for a brief five-performance run through April 7 at Capital One Hall in Tysons. In STOMP, anything can be used to drive a beat and set the rhythm. Brooms, trashcans, grocery carts, inner tubes, suitcases – everything including kitchen sinks are objects to play with and explore. Zippo ...