Summer Performing Arts Preview
• May 24, 2017

In the summer, the venues change, the interests change and the sound changes. Below is a by-the-numbers guide to some of the performing arts pleasures of the coming summer season. THREE […]

Wide Winners’ Circle at Helen Hayes Awards
• May 18, 2017

When the Helen Hayes Awards expanded into two categories — Hayes for mostly Equity productions and Helen for mostly non-Equity productions — the first-time result was chaotic. Doubling the number […]

City Choir and Shafer Hit 10-Year Mark
• May 3, 2017

Seasons come and go and time flies and the cityscape changes — as do tastes in music and the arts and audiences — so that in Washington (as probably elsewhere) […]

‘In the Heights’ in Columbia Heights
• April 19, 2017

In the beginning, there was “In the Heights.” Before there was “Hamilton,” composer-lyricist-writer-performer Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop- and pop-fueled musical take on the founding father — which vaulted him to the […]

Band Kids From the Heartland at Russia’s Embassy
• April 13, 2017

Washington’s Embassy Series brought about an electric and hopeful meeting of cultures April 5.

An Old Friend, ‘Chicago,’ Plops into Our Laps
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Touring versions of long-standing Broadway musical hits present peculiar dilemmas and rewards for audiences. Conversely, new audiences present both opportunities and pitfalls for artists on the tour. The main pitfall: […]

Tazewell Thompson Directs Arena’s ‘Raisin in the Sun’
• April 6, 2017

The former Arena Stage assistant director is directing Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” the classic play of a striving, struggling, vividly portrayed African American family living in Chicago in the 1950s

Shift Festival Showcases Innovative Orchestras
• March 30, 2017

Ensembles from Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia and New York (Brooklyn, that is) will perform and teach through April 1.

‘Ragtime’ at Ford’s, a Stellar Historical Musical
• March 27, 2017

The music and songs seem fresh, but the themes echo almost every day and loudly through our daily  social, cultural, individual and — God knows — political lives.

Trocks Set to Tumble Into Kennedy Center
• March 20, 2017

“Swan Lake, Act II: Le Lac des Cygnes” (Tchaikovsky/Choreography after Ivanov). “Le Corsaire Pas De Deux” (Drigo/Choreography after Chabukiani). “Esmerelda Pas de Six” (Pugni/Choreography after Petipa). “Don Quixote” (Minkus/Choreography after […]