In its current production, The Puppet Co. presents “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” based on a Norwegian folk tale and is, in some ways, similar to the far-better known “Three Little Pig…
The classic book, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (written in 1943), is read by many in school, whether in English or perhaps in French class in the original French. Bas…
On the evening of June 6, 2026, it was decided with a coin toss. Singer Bryan Wade tossed a coin which would determine whether Glen Boswick and his riveting Sound of Swing or Joe Enroughty a…
Gangsters and Broadway, a natural combination for entertainment! Enter “Guys and Dolls,” the classic, Tony Award-winning show, captivating with every roll of the dice. Whether you are ne…
“On July 17, 1794, sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne were executed by the guillotine.” This information, projected onto the screen at Hartke Theatre of Washington’s Catholic University …
Based on “Pseudolus,” “Miles Gloriosus,” and several other farces by the ancient Roman comedy playwright Plautus, Stephen Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Fo…
 In a chapter appropriately entitled "Burdens" in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March are determined "Rich or poor, we will keep together and be happ…
Bel Cantanti Opera's current production of "Princes, Queens, and Demons" introduced Washington-area audiences to three Russian nineteenth-century operas" that is, excerpts from three thrilli…
It was two weeks past New Year's Eve and some 320 miles away from Times Square. Yet on January 16, 2026 at Richmond's historic Art Deco Henrico Theatre, Joe Enroughty and His Royal Virginian…
It is now early January. Do you want to go briefly "Back for Christmas?" The loosely holiday-themed story by John Collier of that name may be just for you! "Back for Christmas" is a classic …
"White Christmas" is one of the best-known Christmas songs of all time. What is it about this holiday standard that has held its popularity so tenaciously for more than eighty years? Is it t…
"Producing 'Jesus Christ Superstar' this fall felt like an appropriate theatrical celebration for our 40th anniversary season of the musical theatre program at the Catholic University of Ame…
Verdi's "Aida" is one of the most beloved works of the operatic repertoire, and it has an unusual history, having premiered in Cairo before being performed in Europe. The setting of the oper…
After a year hiatus in search of a new venue, the 2025 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention returned for its twentieth year! The event was a glorious opportunity to bask in nostalgia for entert…
For the waning days of summer, Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents a world-famous musical which is a favorite of many"Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music." Most will …
 The spectacular RVA Big Band Weekend took place this past Saturday at Seven Hills School in Richmond, Virginia. Featuring two big bands, Glen Boswick and the Sound of Swing and Joe Enro…
Many know individual songs from George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess." "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Got Plenty of Nuttin'" have long been staples of the Great American Songbo…
"Roméo et Juliette" by Gounod is based on Shakespeare's famous tale of the two star-crossed lovers from feuding families. Romeo of the Montague family falls in love with Juliet of the Capul…
"Is it a crime to love, father?" So asks the innocent and pure Luisa Miller in Friedrich Schiller's tragedy, "Court Intrigue and Love." Presented by Washington Concert Opera (WCO), Verdi's "…
As we are in the season of Lent with Holy Week upcoming, Riverside Center for the Performing Arts is staging a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's famous, rock opera, "Jesus Christ…
"Piano-accompanied song is no longer part of everyday domestic life and has lost its one-time supremacy in the concert hall. Art song, as Americans call it"what Germans know as Lieder"is a n…
"Love at last its power asserts!" "I burst out into song!" "Ladies and gentlemen a toast!" "Champagne, the king of wines. Long…
Loveday Brooke is back in "The Mystery of the Black Bag." The Literary Adventure Society invites audiences to "match wits with Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, by examining clues alongside th…
This production of "Heartbreak Hotel" at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, produced by artistic director Patrick A'Hearn, presents the biography of Elvis Presley, the "King of Ro…
"White Christmas," now playing at the Classic Theatre of Maryland and wonderfully directed and choreographed by Sally Boyett, follows the story of two talented World War II army buddies, Bob…
 It has been an exciting summer at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts. In July, the theatre, now celebrating its twenty-sixth year, announced its transition to a non-profit organiz…
Gilbert and Sullivan's "Ruddigore," currently presented by Victorian Lyric Opera at Rockville's F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, has an unusual combination on offer"comic opera and gothic supern…
 "The Wizard of Oz" is one of the best-known classic American tales for children, and just about everyone, from young to old, seems to love this slice of Americana. In Riverside Center f…
The Shakespeare Theatre Company concludes its season with "The Matchbox Magic Flute," based on the well-known and final opera by Mozart. It features a fantasy plot of two unlikely adventurer…
During the corona virus pandemic, when theatres around the world were closed, the Capitol Hill-based theatre troupe, We Happy Few, hit upon a unique idea: to present audio versions of classi…
"The Elixir of Love" is one of the funnier operas you will see among the classic opera repertoires. The presentation of it by students at the Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art at Catholic…
Lady Rosalinda (Christa Beveridge) lounges on an elegant divan in a dress of jacquard satin and cuffs of embroidered organza. Rare viands are at her table, and the parrot above her is like a…
"Long and tenderly he gazed at it, with unspeakable love. At last, he felt that he must go a little nearer to it…" We quote but speak not of the "The Blue Flower," but of another of Henry …
"Miracle on 34th Street," celebrating as it does Christmas and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which precedes it, is a perennially popular, holiday film. In the early 1960s, Meredith Will…
Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" is currently being performed by Bel Cantanti Opera. The one-act opera is in the tradition of many a work based on the fictionalized accoun…
"The Sound of Music" recently delighted audiences at Catholic University of America's Hartke Theatre in a production directed superbly by Tracy Lynn Oliviera. Students from the university's …
 The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention at first presents a panoply of opportunity for the connoisseur of yesteryear"symposiums (histories of Wonder Woman and Captain Midnight); vintage f…
"Guys and Dolls" is a popular musical based on several stories by Damon Runyan, a writer enormously popular in the first half of the twentieth century for his comic tales of gangsters, gambl…
Bel Cantanti Opera was very active producing operas last season and is preparing an ambitious new season as well. Even in the summer, it seems the Montgomery County-based opera company does …
In the Hollywood-musical-turned-Broadway show "42nd Street," Peggy Sawyer, a young girl from Allentown, PA, dreams of being in a New York Broadway show in the theatre district of 42nd Street…
 Victorian Lyric Opera Company (VLOC) is famous for producing a full spectrum of comic operas, some of them little performed and less widely known. Such is not the case with the "H.M.S. …
During the 1930s and 1940s, there were the famous Battles of the Bands. In these jazz performances, two swing bands would set up in the same ballroom and play rotating sets. Such a battle of…
 "Elvis: A Musical Revolution" takes its audience on a nostalgic road trip (we like to imagine in a pink Cadillac) back to the 1950s. Staged at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster, P…
The academic year is winding down at area universities, but before the summer break begins, Catholic University of America presented their production of the famed Cole Porter musical comedy,…
 Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, VA is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. It is including some very special shows this year, including the current prod…
 Last weekend, Catholic University of America's Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art produced a Baroque opera, Handel's "Serse," in a way which made it highly accessible to a modern audi…
"The King's daughter shall in her fifteenth year prick herself with a spindle and fall down dead." Thus reads a frightening line in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of "Little Briar Rose" or "S…
Fans of "Sister Act" will be delighted to know that Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre has brought the musical version of the film to stage in Lancaster, PA. It is based on the 1992 film of the same…
It is in Louisiana, just prior to the French Revolution, where we meet the nobleman Robert Mission who is himself on a "mission" to start a new life and a new society of a quality, fraternit…
"It is a far greater pleasure to repay injustices suffered by good deeds than to compensate evil by more evil." Thus speaks the voice of Enlightenment reason in Mozart's "The Abduction from …
