Beginning on June 8 and running through June 30, 2024, at Universalist National Memorial Church (1810 16th Street NW, Washington, DC) Voices Festival Productions presents a world premiere double-bill that looks at how women of color rise to power, its precarity, and what must be sacrificed in the name of change. From one of America’s freshest, most daring voices, Yale Prize winning playwright Rachel Lynett’s Letters to Kamala/Dandelion Peace presents two alternate visions of politics. First with a critical eye and then a provocative comedic touch, Rachel Lynett’s riveting, newly com ..read more

Among the many Broadway shows that opened in April during this busy awards season are three slightly fictionalized autobiographical works by women playwrights dealing with the theme of single motherhood and children abandoned by their fathers, all of which serve as a kind of self-reflective release and healing for their creators and have garnered critical acclaim and multiple awards nominations. In Mary Jane, playing an extended run with MTC at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre through June 16, Amy Herzog tells an uplifting story of a loving, caring, and optimistic young mother building a suppor ..read more

Phillip Howze’s Frontiéres Sans Frontiéres almost seems a play made for Washington. Running at Spooky Action Theater in the District through May 19, the play appears to skewer the cultural and linguistic imperialism that, too often, accompanies the humanitarian and philanthropic efforts of large powers. In this case, it is three “orphaned, stateless youth” who live “at the corner of a country that feels both foreign and familiar” who are the recipients of the questionable largesse. What happens to them when various characters from the wider world transverse their “corner” is the subject of th ..read more

Play readings and workshops offer a chance to see exciting new work at various stages of development. Want to see the next big thing while it’s still being crafted? Get in on the ground level and see the creative process in action. Featuring new plays and musicals by local and national artists, here are the upcoming play readings and workshops in the DMV. MAY African American Collective Theater (ACT) marks its 32nd anniversary with its 2024 DC Black Pride Weekend Showcase, Sunday, May 26 at the Undercroft Theatre, 900 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC. Over 25 talented local “ACT’ers” pre ..read more

The 2024-2025 season at Studio Theatre will maintain the momentum established this year with hits like Love, Love, Love and Fat Ham, bringing a diverse array of fresh, fascinating, buzzworthy productions to DC audiences. The 2024-2025 season slate demonstrates Studio’s ongoing commitment to advocating for uncompromising contemporary artists and providing a home for plays that get you to think by asking you to feel. “It’s a season of extraordinary range,” said Studio Artistic Director David Muse. “We’ve got David Auburn’s recent Broadway hit, starring DC stalwarts Holly Twyford ..read more

The 39 Steps — a 1996 parodic adaptation for the stage by Patrick Barlow of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film — has a lot going on. And at the Vienna Theatre Company, the show claims to feature 150 characters, all played by a cast of four: Joe Gallagher, who plays accidental-spy protagonist Richard Hanny; Jessie Duggan, who plays three parodies of the femme fatale trope throughout the show; and ensemble players Haydn Dollery, Kevin Lukacs, and Kim Paul, identified in the playbill as “clowns,” who each play a truly incredible number of characters. When the VTC’s 39 Steps, co-directed by Katie and N ..read more

Play readings and workshops offer a chance to see exciting new work at various stages of development. Want to see the next big thing while it’s still being crafted? Get in on the ground level and see the creative process in action. Featuring new plays and musicals by local and national artists, here are the upcoming play readings and workshops in the DMV. MAY African American Collective Theater (ACT) marks its 32nd anniversary with its 2024 DC Black Pride Weekend Showcase, Sunday, May 26 at the Undercroft Theatre, 900 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC. Over 25 talented local “ACT’ers” pre ..read more

The latest edition of creator, producer, director, and host Scott Siegel’s ever entertaining and educational Broadway by the Season, presented at the Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall on April 29, celebrated the famous songs born on Broadway in the 1948-49 season in Act 1, and the 1954-55 season in Act 2, from the hit musicals South Pacific, Carousel, Kiss Me Kate, Damn Yankees, and Peter Pan, and the lesser known Where’s Charley?, Fanny, Plain & Fancy, and Hayride. The cast. Photo by Ray Costello. As always, Siegel assembled a top-notch cast of performers from the stages of Broadway and ..read more

Who knew poking fun at cultural imperialism could be so much fun? Who knew satirizing humanitarian egomania could be so satisfying? Who knew spoofing do-gooders doing bad could be such a good time? Certainly not I — not until I took in Spooky Action’s enchantingly sardonic production of Phillip Howze’s Frontiéres Sans Frontiéres. Directed by Spooky’s artistic director Elizabeth Dinkova displaying a knack for comic irony worthy of Howze’s wickedly wry script, Frontiéres Sans Frontiéres (Borders Without Borders) tells a captivating fable about a ragtag trio of ragamuffins surviving with grit an ..read more

Airing live from Sofitel New York on the Tony Awards official YouTube page, Tony winners Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Renée Elise Goldsberry announced the nominations for the 77th annual Tony Awards this morning (Tuesday, April 30) at 9:00, with a selection of six categories also read live on CBS Mornings at 8:30. The cut-off date for the 2023-2024 season’s Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, was Thursday, April 25, for a total of 36 Broadway productions that met all eligibility requirements, as determined by the Tony Awards Administration Committee: An E ..read more