"Glee" star Matthew Morrison smacked of Justin Timberlake at the beginning and Gene Kelly at the end of his Friday concert with the National Symphony Orchestra's Pops series. Neither persona…
Maurice Hines loves you. He loves his family, he loves his life and he loves the spotlight. He's an old-school entertainer, the life of the party. He wants to make you smile, and he won't ta…
Q: How do you navigate the unlikely path from the 1967 movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" to Arena Stage in 2013? A: Through Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Bedrock decency and easy likability wer…
Original "Rent" stars Idina Menzel and Anthony Rapp are onstage at the National Theater in "If/Then," a brand-new musical by the creators of the acclaimed "Next to Normal." It's been running…
"I like the look of agony, because I know it's true," says the murderous heroine of the new play "No. 731 Degraw Street, Brooklyn." If you recognize that line as Emily Dickinson, then this V…
Nobody bristles and barks orders, but a military aura governs the rehearsal room of "A Civil War Christmas" at Baltimore's Center Stage. A snare drum raps out a martial beat; actors move in …
Role-play is what goes on throughout the 60-minute "Bondage," so let's pretend. You're playwright David Henry Hwang; it's 1992, and you're still basking as the Tony-winning author of the 198…
"A cumba, cumba, cumba" and "A bongo, bongo, bongo" go the lyrics of "Cumbanchero," a lively Latin number that Lucie Arnaz used as the irrepressibly upbeat finish to her 90-minute set at the…
The cast of nine lines up straight across the stage and belts for all they're worth to open "Crossing," the brand-new musical at Signature Theatre. The setting of this ambitious yet intimate…
Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife" premiered in New York in 2003, appeared at the National Theater in 2005, was produced by the Olney Theater Center in 2007 and Baltimore's Everyman Theatre in…
Tommy Tune has always broken the mold, and the 6-foot-6-inch-tall singin'-dancin' Texan did it again Friday night at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. In a loping tempo, Tune, 74, danced…
It's too early to tell whether the new musical "If/Then" is the Next Big Thing, even with original "Rent" stars Idina Menzel and Anthony Rapp on the National Theatre stage, along with "The C…
The new musical "If/Then" at the National Theatre isn't only a pre-Broadway tryout, that now-rare specimen of a new show alighting in Washington on a circuit that often included New Haven, B…
It is tempting to contrast "The Argument" at Theater J with its spiritual sister, "The Night Watcher," just two blocks away at the Studio Theatre. In writer-performer Charlayne Woodard's sol…
Romance at first sight usually means being taken by surprise " "gobsmacked," as one of the characters puts it in the awkwardly swoony new "Love in Afghanistan" at Arena Stage. And the four f…
The actress playing Mary Patrick, the peppiest nun in the comedy "Sister Act," may look familiar to local audiences when the musical brings its 1970s disco groove to the Kennedy Center's Ope…
Sentences fizz like champagne bubbles in Marcus Gardley's "dance of the holy ghosts: a play on memory" at Baltimore's Center Stage. It's all about a blustery, isolated 72-year-old bluesman n…
The Molotov Theatre Group's staging of "Extremities" begins with a suitably horrifying image of the classic rape scenario. Sherry Berg, the actress playing the victim, Marjorie, is petite. A…
Actress Charlayne Woodard has been married for nearly 22 years, and she doesn't have children " at least not exactly. "I have 13 godchildren, 21 nieces and nephews, and 15 people who call me…
Enter, in an unlikely place, Christine Lahti: tall, lean, radiating just the right touch of glamour in a sleek, low-key charcoal sweater dress that looks like cashmere. The face " dark eyes …
"The Two-Character Play" is a modest title for Tennessee Williams's 1975 psychodrama about a brother and sister locked in mortal combat with familiar Williams demons: debilitating fear, sord…
Let's just say it: The Riot Grrrls are taking a fierce bite out of "Titus Andronicus," Shakespeare's grisly revenge tragedy. The Riot Grrrls are the all-female wing of the Taffety Punk Theat…
The people in line at 10th and G streets NW look happy, and why not? They're queueing for free tickets to the Ford's Theatre's new production of "The Laramie Project." Two blocks down the st…
"I'm old-fashioned," Tony Award-winning singer Laura Benanti crooned Saturday night at George Mason University's Concert Hall, a jazzy quartet swinging lightly behind her. That was funny, be…
Why so much huffing and puffing about performance-enhancing drugs? "Red Speedo," the new play premiering at the Studio Theatre, wants to know. "There are people who will never be good at bas…