'Dear Evan Hansen': Original story, high hopes for Benj Pasek and Justin Paul by Peter Marks

NEW YORK " Is this the one?Read full article >>

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:49pm on July 10, 2015☆⚑

Can Misty Copeland be both a celebrity AND a great artist? by Sarah Kaufman

Misty Copeland is having a Beyoncé kind of moment. But does the media attention she has whipped up have anything to do with her art?Read full article >>

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:48pm on July 10, 2015☆⚑

Bridging the differences between people by Celia Wren

There is hope in hell " or so it seems, given the upcoming premiere of "Burning Desire to Be Touched," a performance-art piece by the artistic duo known as Mwangi Hutter. The work is set to …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:48pm on July 10, 2015☆⚑

2015 Capital Fringe Festival Day 1: Shakespeare, gentrification and D.C. Mayor Bowser by Nelson Pressley

The 10th-annual Capital Fringe Festival launched up and down Northeast D.C. on Thursday night, with nearly two dozen acts on stages from Trinidad to Brookland. This weekend we'll offer notes…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:25pm on July 10, 2015☆⚑

'Once' again bares the soul of a Dublin busker, this time on stage

In the half-hour before the musical "Once" begins, you can hit the cash bar on the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater stage and hang out with musicians serving up foot-stomping songs. The p…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 9:29am on July 10, 2015☆⚑

'Once' again bares the soul of a Dublin busker, this time on stage by Nelson Pressley

In the half-hour before the musical "Once" begins, you can hit the cash bar on the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater stage and hang out with musicians serving up foot-stomping songs. The p…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:00pm on July 9, 2015☆⚑

It shouldn't be Patti Lupone's job to call out inconsiderate texters at the theater by Peter Marks

News reaches us that Patti LuPone is mad as hell and isn't taking it anymore. Wednesday night, during a performance of the off-Broadway play she's appearing in, "Show for Days," she spied a …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:10pm on July 9, 2015☆⚑

First stop, Adventure Theatre. Then, on the road and to New York.

"Caps for Sale," a new musical debuting at Adventure Theatre MTC in September, may soon be a top ticket seller in Washington and New York. Adventure announced last week that the musical had …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 8:06pm on July 7, 2015☆⚑

Colombian artworks rich in meaning by Celia Wren

Colombian curator José Roca doesn't want visitors to bring too cerebral of a mind-set to the exhibition "Waterweavers: The River in Contemporary Colombian Visual and Material Culture.""I th…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:13pm on July 2, 2015☆⚑

Fringe festival's new cry: Eastward Ho! by Nelson Pressley

How do you move an annual summertime festival of 100-plus acts in dozens of downtown venues?Pretty easily, it seems. Capital Fringe has fully abandoned its makeshift warren of converted stor…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:13pm on July 2, 2015☆⚑

DC Council approves funding to create first "unified cultural plan" by Nelson Pressley

The budget passed Tuesday by the D.C. Council includes up to $200,000 in funding for "researching and drafting a first-ever unified cultural plan for the District," to use language on the…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:12pm on July 2, 2015☆⚑

Little Shop of HURRAHS! Greene & Gyllenhaal are sublime in concert version of Ashman-Menken show. by Peter Marks

NEW YORK"The decades melted away at City Center Wednesday night, as the astonishingly ageless Ellen Greene returned in all her glory to the role she made famous"the doomed, cutey-pie-voiced …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 1:57pm on July 2, 2015☆⚑

Newly renovated Keegan Theatre looks great, but first show a bit of a bore

On Friday night, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton attended a ribbon-cutting for the renovated Keegan Theatre downtown. On Saturday, rains flooding Pepco conduits overflowed into Keegan's new …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:54pm on July 1, 2015☆⚑

Newly renovated Keegan Theatre looks great, but first show is a bit of a bore by Nelson Pressley

On Friday night, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton attended a ribbon-cutting for the renovated Keegan Theatre downtown. On Saturday, rains flooding Pepco conduits overflowed into Keegan's new …

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:50pm on July 1, 2015☆⚑

Backstage: Leaving Ireland to stage Irish plays

Belfast native and director Matt Torney is quite proud of the theater that has come out of Ireland, both historically and during the country's current dramatic renaissance.But Torney realize…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 8:09pm on June 30, 2015☆⚑

Misty Copeland promoted to highest rank at America Ballet Theatre by Sarah Kaufman

It has a musical ring to it: Misty makes history. Indeed, with bad news pressing in on so many fronts, the just-announced promotion of Misty Copeland to principal status at American Ballet T…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:05pm on June 30, 2015☆⚑

Sending in the clowns with 'Impossible!' by Nelson Pressley

An escape artist gets locked inside a water tank in "Impossible! A Happenstance Circus," and it's ridiculously suspenseful and witty because . . . well, there's no actual water. It's all pre…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 11:59am on June 30, 2015☆⚑

Hitler musical caper rides again in 'The Producers' at Olney by Nelson Pressley

Playing a stage-struck Führer in the great Mel Brooks number "Springtime for Hitler," Jason Graae beams like a rocket headed straight for showbiz heaven. The eyes twinkle and the smile gush…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 3:03pm on June 29, 2015☆⚑

Why Obama's singing of 'Amazing Grace' is so powerful by Sarah Kaufman

"This whole week, I've been reflecting on this idea of grace," said President Obama today, just before he broke into song at the funeral for South Carolina State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, a pa…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 10:18pm on June 26, 2015☆⚑

When the dancers let loose, this performance flowed more smoothly by Sarah Kaufman

The pleasures of improv proved the saving grace of Chamber Dance Project, a plucky pickup group in performance through the weekend at the Lansburgh Theatre. While the dancers hail from vario…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 4:00pm on June 26, 2015☆⚑

An American in Mexico by Celia Wren

The silver jaguar carries six amethysts: one in each paw, and on its back and tail. The brooch is remarkable on its own merits, but as part of a new exhibition at the Mexican Cultural Instit…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 12:44pm on June 26, 2015☆⚑

Arena Stage's 'Camp David' headed to Broadway? by Nelson Pressley

The Arena Stage production of "Camp David" is making its Broadway dreams plain: On Thursday producers announced hopes to take journalist Lawrence Wright's drama to the Great White Way.…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 6:21pm on June 25, 2015☆⚑

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago whips up a storm at Wolf Trap by Sarah Kaufman

A bird thought the empty orchestra pit at Wolf Trap would be a nice place to rest on Wednesday night, but it was mistaken. As soon as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago stomped out the vigorous op…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:07pm on June 25, 2015☆⚑

Polish National Ballet's uplifting humanity by Sarah Kaufman

The surreal, yellow post-storm sky over the Kennedy Center Tuesday night, glimpsed at intermission, felt like an extension of the ballet atmosphere in the Eisenhower Theater. There, the Poli…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 2:58pm on June 24, 2015☆⚑

Theater's year-long renovation faces dramatic finish

Because everyone loves a good suspenseful drama, it appears that Keegan Theatre's year-long $2.4 million construction project will be finished just days, or maybe even hours, before the c…

SOURCE: Washington Post at 7:39pm on June 23, 2015☆⚑