Blood is thicker than water " but how does it stack up against the power of thought? That question is getting a satisfying theatrical workout at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, t…
Suitcases hurtle through the air in a joyous game of catch. Dancers line up to mimic a locomotive, arms churning like wheels. A round of leapfrog frolics across a space that, moments before,…
The Mrs. Grundys of this world might want to give a wide berth to the Church Street Theater for a few weeks: The two spirited and affecting productions running in that venue, courtesy of the…
Two clowns scuffle, falling to the floor in a snarl of kicks and slaps. One of the brawlers is a misfit tramp in a bowler hat and oversize jacket. The other, sporting a bright orange wig and…
How fitting that a play at the Source Festival should speak about sources " the origins of the universe, the wellsprings of personality, the roots of our feelings about other people. Those m…
To get a sounding on the mood of Europe, you could turn to the daily news coverage of the region's economic woes. But there are other options for pulse-taking: In a mini-festival that kicks …
Like a pair of pearl-studded garters worn beneath a thrift-store nuptial gown, there's a morality play and a pop-psychology manifesto tucked beneath the surface of the acid comedy "Bachelore…
How do you light the apocalypse? That's a question that D.C.-based lighting designer Colin K. Bills has pondered repeatedly of late. This in-demand artist, who masterminds lighting for about…
Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. Captain Bluntschli and Raina Petkoff. Napoleon and the Strange Lady in "The Man of Destiny." Some divertingly incongruous duos gravitate toward each other …
Sure, Hamlet does a headstand while yearning for his too sullied flesh to melt. Claudius puts a champagne cork down the neck of Gertrude's dress; and Elsinore's sentinels skulk and bumble li…
Sharks rarely swarm onto theater stages. But darned if some Great Whites (or approximations thereof) haven't torpedoed their way into the delightfully irreverent stunt occupying the Arlene a…
Love sure takes a lot out of you. That truth must dawn on the tempestuous suitors portrayed in "Come Fly Away," the efficient fireball of a dance musical created by Twyla Tharp and set to so…
Does the heroine of "John & Beatrice" need a psychiatrist, or does she need a lamp with a genie in it? That's a question you'll ponder as you watch Carole Frechette's intriguing but arid…
If you have to have a witch for a mother, you could do a lot worse than the enchantress in Imagination Stage's "Rapunzel." Sure, this black-arts virtuoso has a bad habit of turning acquainta…
A white fox romps amid the telescoping screens of an antique Japanese art form. A drag queen rockets through a jungle, a sci-fi Manhattan and hell. Abstract colored shapes undulate in water …
John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe's new rock musical had a twisty genesis. How many works can trace their inspiration to Russian literature, a grocery run in Queens and an episode of "The Sopran…
At Ford's Theatre Museum, decorous glass-cased displays and solemn recorded voices chronicle the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Whiffs of the exhibits' earnest, tidily instructive aura also …
Never try to beat actress Carolyn Cole in a klutzy-daze competition. Early on in Signature Theatre's zesty, aerosol-buoyant "Hairspray," Cole's character, Tracy Turnblad, a full-figured 1960…
Don't expect 19th-century decorousness or gingerbread-scented sentiment from " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas," Adventure Theatre's latest production. Ken Ludwig's children's entert…
Let's hope the U.S. Croquet Association is not meeting in Washington in the next few weeks: Happenstance Theater's second "Cabaret Macabre" might send the group's members into shock. The che…
An industrious arachnid might be proud of the unassuming high-wire act Joseph Robinette pulled off with his dramatization of "Charlotte's Web" at Adventure Theatre. Into an hour-long show th…
A king in masquerade; a double agent with a drinking problem; an actress in gold-and-turquoise menswear " historical eccentrics zip in and out of a closet and other hiding places in "Or," th…
When a Georgia native named Freddie settles down on a chair near the wrought ironwork of a Southern veranda, carefully adjusting the rings on his fingers as he recalls his turbulent childhoo…
If there were a Williams-Sonoma for witches, the cauldron in Synetic Theater's wordless "Macbeth" would be a bestseller. Consider: In an early moment of this darkly incantatory production, S…
Think dream ballets went out with the likes of Jerome Robbins and Agnes de Mille? Think again. There's an example of the genre in "Mirandy and Brother Wind," the enchanting new children's mu…