Actor Richard Thomas first rose to fame as John-Boy Walton in the Emmy-winning series The Waltons (1973–1981), a role that made him a household name and launched a career spanning decades across film, television, and theater.

Stage success, however, came even earlier. Born into show business — the son of the founders of the New York School of Ballet — Thomas made his Broadway debut at age seven in Sunrise at Campobello (1958) and has remained a Broadway mainstay ever since. His recent stage credits include Mr. Webb in the star-studded revival of Our Town, a Tony-nominated turn in The Little Foxes (2017), and a leading role as Atticus Finch in the 2022 national tour of Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Now, Thomas returns to Washington, DC, for a two-night engagement of Mark Twain Tonight!, the one-man show created by Hal Holbrook in 1954. Holbrook performed the piece — a dramatized evening with Twain, drawn entirely from the author’s own writings — for more than six decades until shortly before his death in 2021.

The production also marks a homecoming for Thomas: he last appeared at DC’s National Theatre as an 8-year-old in Sunrise at Campobello, when the show toured after its Broadway run.

DCTA spoke to Thomas about his playing Mark Twain, his love for the American theater, and the pros and cons of life on tour. This conversation has been condensed for clarity and brevity.

You are the first and only person that the Holbrook Estate has authorized to play this role since Hal Holbrook’s passing. How did you get involved in the production?

Hal Holbrook’s estate reached out to me during the tour of To Kill a Mockingbird. Hal was a collegial friend of mine, and his estate said he would have been happy for me to play the role based on my other work and on our mutual admiration.

What have you learned about Mark Twain in preparing to play this role?

Actors are avid researchers. Give us a historical character or something to investigate, and we will go down the rabbit hole. I am on my third Twain biography right now. I had read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn both when I was doing the Mockingbird tour, and I fell in love with both of them all over again. The great thing about playing Mark Twain and reading his work on the road is that you feel like he’s right there traveling with you. He’s so forthcoming about himself as a person in his writing. He put his whole personality on display in his writings and in his lectures, and it makes it fun to embody him. You don’t have to invent much. He’s putting himself right there on the paper for you. 

Hal Holbrook played this role for over six decades, from the time he was in college until 2017, five years before his death. Those are also some big shoes to fill.

The longevity of this show is a testament to Hal Holbrook’s abilities as a performer and how he put this piece together. It’s not a play script; it’s a collection of materials that he curated from Twain’s writings. He would take a piece from this and add it to that and create a bridge from subject to subject. It’s like a deck of cards. You can reshuffle. And he did that over the years. He would learn new things, put new things in, take things out, depending on what was going on. I don’t have that luxury, so I based my work on his 1967 PBS televised performance as a starting point, and then I added and removed stuff and moved things around. My performance, I’m sure, will be quite different from Hal’s, which is unavoidable. But Mark Twain is a big tent, and there are lots of opportunities.

What gives this show its staying power?

It begins with Twain, of course. He is just a quintessentially American figure who stands right at the watershed of the beginning of American literature in the 19th century. Mark Twain was the first writer to begin writing and speaking in a language that Americans spoke, not just in their best efforts to write good European prose.

Also, as a character, he embodies us as Americans. The evolution of his social consciousness mirrors that of the country in so many ways. As he evolved and became more progressive and inclusive in his social ideas, so did the country. We see ourselves in him.

What is your favorite thing about Mark Twain?

His humor. He’s not a curmudgeon, but he’s definitely a provocateur. It’s a humor of inversion, taking what you would expect and turning it upside down. And in that sense, his ability to provoke is really rich.

I also like his humanity. I like his warts and his contradictions because they are the contradictions of America. For example, he could be a real Victorian about women, but he was also a really avid early feminist and suffragist. He was always going on the warpath against corporations, insurance companies, and oligarchies, but he spent his whole life trying to be a mogul. His feelings about religion and authority were very conflicted and complex. It’s amazing how salient his work is right now. People come up to me every night and ask if I added the part about “the monarchy of the rich and powerful sitting on the throne of the country.” They will say, “Did you add that?” And I say, “No, that’s all Twain.”

You have had a very successful screen career. What keeps you coming back to the American stage?

I have an affinity for the stage which goes way back to spending my whole infancy and toddlerhood backstage at the ballet where my parents were performing. I love the community coming together for a play, both the artists and the audience. If you do a TV show, you meet other actors at the wrap party that you’ve never met before, but when you’re doing a theater piece, the whole company comes together to tell the story together. There is nothing like it. It gives me a lot of pleasure.

The touring production of To Kill a Mockingbird that you recently headlined was very successful. What’s it like to be on the road with a show?

Touring has been a big part of my life, and unlike a lot of people, I like the road a lot. There is a primal feeling when you pull up stakes and move to the next town, like a circus. You aren’t playing for tourists when you tour. You are playing for people in their own home theater. In many cases across the country, local audience members have saved their historic theaters from destruction. So there is a particular municipal pride that people feel when they go to their home theater and that is a very rewarding thing. And when you are traveling with a company, touring creates an incredible bond. This one is a little different; it’s me and my wife and my stage manager, but that just means it’s fresh again.

Mark Twain also famously traveled the country on his lecture tours. Will you be visiting any of the places he visited?

I’m basically doing what Hal did, and Hal did what Twain did. We are all doing the same thing. Twain called them lectures and he would put them together and take them all over the country. He played in all kinds of venues, just like Hal did. Hal did stuff in high school gymnasiums and community centers, as well as theaters. So many of the cities where we are playing are places that Twain performed back in the day. We are really retracing his steps in a lot of ways.

Mark Twain Tonight! plays September 20, 2025, at 7:30 pm and September 21, 2025, at 2:00 pm at The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Tickets start at $29 and are available at the National Theatre box office or online at BroadwayAtTheNational.com. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday 12:00-6:00pm with extended evening and weekend hours during performance days.

Richard Thomas in
Mark Twain Tonight!
By Hal Holbrook

SEE ALSO:
Richard Thomas to star in ‘Mark Twain Tonight!’ at National Theatre (news story, August 13, 2025)

The post Richard Thomas on his return to DC in ‘Mark Twain Tonight!’ appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Kicking off DC’s inaugural District Fringe Festival is Caro Dubberly’s A Guide to Modern Possession — a musical that embodies everything a Fringe production should be: it’s raw, unfinished, and really fucking good.

Caro Dubberly may be known around town as an actor and director, but who knew they were also a powerhouse composer, lyricist, and book writer? Well, now we do.

A Guide to Modern Possession is a rock-infused musical packed with catchy tunes, whip-smart lyrics, and a coming-of-age story that flips the script to center characters long left out of the musical theater spotlight.

Oh — and it’s got demons.

The show follows Cody, a nonbinary young adult coping with the trauma of a past sexual assault and a fraught relationship with their religious, cancer-stricken mother. To numb the pain, Cody turns to weed and alcohol. Enter the demons — first as a snarky Greek-chorus-style peanut gallery, later as darker manifestations of Cody’s internal struggle. On their website, Dubberly explains that they and Director/dramaturg Laley Lippard (who’s been developing the show with Dubberly since 2021) are using “demonic imagery as a vehicle for exploring PTSD.”

Audience members should be aware that this is a staged reading of Act One only. That means no costumes and no choreography — but what you do get is the chance to witness a sharp, promising new musical in its early form. And the show already has accolades to back it up: it was a semifinalist for the 2023 Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Music Theater Conference and a finalist for Olney Theatre’s Vanguard Arts Fund.

Leading the cast as Cody is Jayson R. Broadnax, a recent Howard University grad with more lighting design credits than acting ones. But hey, DC casting directors, let’s change that. Broadnax is a phenomenal talent. Their rich voice is perfectly suited to Dubberly’s rock-driven score, and they bring a raw emotional honesty to Cody’s vulnerability.

Backing up Broadnax is a strong supporting cast: Sophia Early as Cody’s loyal best friend Anna, Christian Montgomery as Dee and the Demon, and Geocel Batista and Adrian Jesus Iglesias as Cody’s mom and dad. Every one of them delivers with professional polish.

As a staged reading, design elements were sparse, but the uncredited lighting design subtly amped up the tension. Dubberly accompanied much of the score live on keyboard, with prerecorded instrumental tracks strategically layered in to heighten key emotional beats. Stage Manager Willow McFatter kept everything running smoothly.

If A Guide to Modern Possession is how District Fringe is starting its run, it’s poised to become a standout fixture on DC’s theater calendar.

A Guide to Modern Possession 
A new musical by Caro Dubberly

Running Time: 75 minutes
Dates and Times:

• Friday, July 11, 7:00p
• Sunday, July 13, 7:45p
• Sunday, July 20, 5:15p
• Thursday, July 24, 7:15p
• Sunday, July 27, 7:00p

Venue: Phoenix – UDC Lecture Hall (44A03)
Tickets: $15
More Info and Tickets: A Guide to Modern Possession

Genre: Musical, Dark Comedy
Content Warnings: Suicide, physical and sexual violence, profanity

Directed by: Laley Lippard
Playwright: Caro Dubberly
Performed by: Jayson R. Broadnax, Sophia Early, Christian Montgomery, Adrian Iglesias, Geocel Batista, Max Burchell, Lila Cooper, Ava Wilson, Luís Córdovez, Nessa Amherst

The complete 2025 District Fringe Festival schedule is online here.
The 2025 District Fringe Festival program is online here.

The post 2025 District Fringe Review: ‘A Guide to Modern Possession’ by Caro Dubberly (5 stars) appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Staging a new musical is no small feat for a regional theater, carrying significant financial and creative risk but also opening the thrilling possibility of putting one’s unique stamp on the American stage. It’s the high-stakes creative blank slate that makes artists giddy with the possibility of injecting something new and fresh into the world.

Larger DC-area theaters have had recent successes launching new works that went on to national success, A Strange Loop at Woolly Mammoth and Dear Evan Hansen at Arena Stage, to name a few. Now, Olney Theatre Center, after developing the teenage-Jesus tuner A.D. 16, is again dipping its toes into the new-work waters with the world premiere of Senior Class, an upbeat musical with book, music, and lyrics by Melvin Tunstall III and music and vocal arrangements by Greg Dean Borowsky.

Senior Class is a high-octane show infused with large ensemble dance numbers designed to lift spirits and inspire. Set at a New York City high school, the show follows a group of teenage thespians who are forced to get creative when the school loses funding for an upcoming production of My Fair Lady. Not one to be deterred by a setback, G.B., the privileged son of a successful opera singer, decides to write his own version of My Fair Lady based on the George Bernard Shaw source material. His BFF, the loud and proud Colin Crosby, is determined to use the show to catapult himself to stardom. When the duo meet Alizé, a scrappy Harlem-based dancer who performs in subway cars to raise cash and lift her own profile, they cast her as their Eliza Doolittle, and the three begin the determined journey to create a masterpiece.

Employing a play-within-a-play structure, Tunstall’s book cleverly mirrors the source material of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady, reenvisioning Shaw’s central characters as modern-day high schoolers with Colin, Alizé, and G.B. serving as contemporary versions of the elitist Henry Higgins, the determined but impoverished Eliza Doolittle, and the besotted Freddy. While the trio rehearses for their own production, their real-life interactions mirror those of the characters they are creating, with love blooming between the wealthy G.B. and the streetwise Alizé.

In this respect, Senior Class offers a fresh take on a familiar story, and the production elements in Director Amy Anders Corcoran’s production are uniformly top-notch. However, Senior Class’ script and score still need significant work before the show is ready for prime time. The show is, at its heart, a cute rom-com designed to leave us rooting for the protagonists and the eventual coming together of G.B. and Alizé. But the storytelling is not yet crisp enough, and the characters are not fleshed out enough for that storyline to truly soar.

For example, a major plot point in the show is the fact that G.B., who generally comes across as a nice guy, repeatedly alienates Alizé and other cast members by making elitist comments. This is a clear nod to Henry Higgins and the show’s My Fair Lady source material, but the insertion of snobbery into G.B.’s otherwise endearing personality feels like a forced way to create conflict in the plot. You just don’t believe G.B. is the sort of insulated snob who would say things like “You don’t look like Juilliard material” to someone he clearly loves and respects. Some nuancing of this characterization could solve this. Similarly, some of the comedic characters, such as G.B.’s opera singer mother and Colin, the ultimate drama kid, are too flat to be authentically entertaining caricatures and come across instead as tired tropes.

The score features a variety of musical styles, including ballads, duets, and several large dance numbers. Tunstall and Borowsky’s combined musical backgrounds lend contemporary sounds to a score that includes traditional show tunes, R&B, rap, and soul sounds. Unfortunately, several of the dance numbers feel repetitive, and the choreography (by Karla Puno Garcia and Voltaire Wade-Green), especially in the all-important opening number, “Downtown,” often fails to jump off the stage in a satisfying way.

While the opening number does succeed in introducing the show’s two protagonists and setting us firmly in modern-day New York City, the scene could do much more to establish what should be a seismic opposites-attract encounter between G.B.’s upper-crust yearning and Alizé’s drive to forge a better life for herself. In other songs, such as G.B.’s Act Two ballad “Where Do I Go from Here,” lyrics like “I’ve tried my best but sometimes life hands you a test” don’t rise to the level of pathos needed to fully ensnare our emotions.

None of this means that Olney’s production is not worth seeing, because it very much is, first and foremost for the insanely talented young cast. Lauryn Adams as Alizé and Jeffrey Cornelius as G.B. both have outrageous talent and supremely entertaining chemistry, making their journey toward togetherness a joy to watch. Adams, a recent college graduate who already made her Broadway debut (and earned a Grammy nomination) in last year’s revival of The Wiz, is an immense talent who shines in all aspects of the role. This is a performer who’s got it all. As G.B., Cornelius performs several ballads that show off a pristine tenor voice, and his onstage piano playing reinforces the impression that his is a singular talent. He also does a great job with sometimes clunky dialogue, giving what could have been a two-dimensional character deep authenticity.

Several of the large cast’s supporting members, such as Jordyn Taylor (Ty’Quasia) and Mia Goodman (McKenna), shine in prominently featured solo parts. Bradley Adam Stein goes full throttle as Alizé’s ego-driven foil, and Gwynne Wood is the embodiment of a mousy stage manager in a quiet role that steals the show and adds the perfect amount of levity to the script.

Kendra Rai’s costumes were exceedingly beautiful, from Colin’s British-dandy duds to the period costumes designed for the high school play. My only complaint is that the “high school costume department” outfits were so good that they diminished what is meant to be a wow-factor moment when the scrappy troupe is bequeathed some actual fancy costumes. There just wasn’t enough contrast between old and new. I also scratched my head a bit at the fact that G.B.’s opera singer mother (a talented Taylor J. Washington) was constantly decked out in floor-length opera gowns, even while lounging in her own living room and riding the New York subway. This is another example of an area where the play needs to reinforce the element of caricature in the role. An over-the-top, opera-obsessed mother could be a fun source of comedic relief, but in its current iteration, it is not.

Lawrence E. Moten III’s impressive set design features a massive rotating set piece that pivots from a perfectly rendered NYC subway car to the facade of a school building. Sound designer Kevin Alexander nails the iconic feel of the NYC subway but needs to pull back a bit on the number of trains running through the station prior to curtain. Trains don’t run continuously like that.

All in all, Olney’s Senior Class is a fun night out and a showcase for immense talent. The story of young artists creating new work after losing expected funding is timely now that federal budget cuts are having detrimental effects on arts institutions across America. In fact, in his pre-curtain speech on opening night, Artistic Director Jason Loewith shared that the grant that funded Senior Class was among those rescinded by the Trump administration’s recent cancelation of NEA grants. Luckily, the funds for Senior Class were eventually paid out just a week before the show opened. But as the arts embark on an uncertain future in an America that deprioritizes creative work, the arts sector will become increasingly reliant on the spunk and determination of young creatives like G.B. and Alizé, and the risk-taking creativity of artists like Melvin Tunstall III and the Senior Class team. May their willingness to defy the odds inspire us to do the same.

Running Time: Approximately two hours and 15 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

Senior Class plays through June 22, 2025, on the Roberts Mainstage at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD. Tickets ($41–$110) can be purchased online, by calling the box office at 301-924-3400, or at TodayTix. Discounts for students, seniors, military, veterans, first responders, and educators are available here. Regular performances are Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30 PM and matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 PM. There are also performances on Wednesday, June 4 and 18, at 1:30 PM, and Sunday, June 15 and 22, at 7:30 PM.

The cast and creative credits are here (scroll down).

Senior Class
In association with Kevin Duda Productions, Inc.
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Melvin Tunstall III
Music and Vocal Arrangements by Greg Dean Borowsky
Conceived by Kevin Duda
Music Directed by Dolores Duran-Cefalu
Choreographed by Karla Puno Garcia
Directed by Amy Anders Corcoran

SEE ALSO:
Olney announces cast and creative team for new musical ‘Senior Class’ (news story, April 17, 2025)

The post Olney’s new musical ‘Senior Class’ features a talented cast but needs work appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Sheer madness is an apt description for what is going on at the Kennedy Center these days, so it was fitting that Shear Madness, the long-running whodunit, was the show that led me to return to the venue last week for the first time in months.

Like many arts lovers in Washington, DC, I’ve been grappling with an existential question since February: Whether to attend the Kennedy Center or not. On February 12, just three weeks into his second term in office, Trump fired all 18 Democratic board appointees at the traditionally bipartisan institution and replaced them with his own political cronies, who immediately elected him chairman of the board. Because, as the new leader of the free world, a top item on his political agenda was deciding whether DC audiences will get to see Legally Blonde next year?

This move immediately sent DC’s artists and audiences into a tailspin. How should we react to this unprecedented political interference with the crown jewel of our arts scene?

Politics and art have always collided in Washington but even in divisive times, institutions have worked hard to keep that involvement bipartisan. Kennedy Center board appointees have always included Republican and Democratic political figures, The Shakespeare Theatre Company hosts two annual events featuring politicians, and up until his death in 2016, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia regularly attended theater and opera with Ruth Bader Ginsburg (ideologically opposed but culturally aligned) at venues across DC.

But now that bipartisanship was dead at the Kennedy Center, and worse, that it was smashed under the boot of Trump’s announced goal of eradicating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, should DC’s arts community continue to support the Kennedy Center? Or, in doing so, are we implicitly condoning an administration whose actions are the antithesis of the Kennedy Center’s very mission of providing world-class art to all Americans? For me, this question really hit home since I have a lot of friends who worked at the Kennedy Center. While I didn’t want to support Trump’s effort to strip the Center of inclusion, I also knew that a mass boycott would result in lost jobs for many of my friends and colleagues. So, what to do?

In one of the strangest twists of fate I’ve experienced since becoming a parent, my 15-year-old daughter made that decision for me last week. My daughter, whose dubious life choices typically veer toward the dangerous and illegal, asked me to take her and her boyfriend to see Shear Madness, the interactive mystery play that has been playing at the Kennedy Center since 1987.

“You… want to see a play?” I asked, just to make sure I was hearing her correctly. (This is the child who, since birth, has resisted all forms of culture, despite my best attempts.) It turns out it was her boyfriend’s idea. He had seen the Back to the Future musical at the Kennedy Center and thought it would be fun to get all dressed up and see Shear Madness. (Bonus points, boyfriend. You have earned serious bonus points.)

It took me about ten seconds to mull over the ideological implications of attending the Kennedy Center before jumping into my car with the teens. Politics be damned. My daughter asking to see a play with me? This was a parenting win for the ages. “Get in, kids, we’re going to the Kennedy Center!”

My daughter has little idea that her innocent night out brought us into the crosshairs of the largest cultural shift at an American arts institution in decades. Our trip to see Shear Madness happened on the very day that the Center’s new leadership fired a majority of its DEI team, the program specifically tasked with diversifying the Center’s programming. That loss was fresh on my mind as I stepped into the Center’s Grand Foyer, leaving me feeling like the Kennedy Center was no longer the institution I had long known and loved. I decided to approach my visit like a sociological experiment. How would it feel to spend time in this brave new world of artistic repression? Would the changes be noticeable, or would everything seem business as usual?

In some ways, stepping into the Kennedy Center felt like coming home. But not like returning to your cozy home after a long day of work. More like nervously inspecting your house after a tornado hit it while you were on vacation.

I chatted with old friends who were there to review Twyla Tharp Dance Company while my daughter canoodled with her boyfriend on the balcony. The friendly box office agent smiled while handing me my tickets, and patrons filled the gift shop. But was it my imagination, or was the smile on that agent’s face a bit… forced? Yes, looking just slightly beneath the surface, there were clear signs of Trump’s influence, starting with the straws.

Dear readers, Trump has BROUGHT REAL STRAWS BACK to the Kennedy Center. I know this because at every bar in the Center, there is now a giant sign next to the cash register proclaiming (in all caps, with the exclamation mark) STANDARD STRAWS NOW AVAILABLE! Because Trump knows that what every arts lover really wants from a night out is a chance to suck through a plastic straw. And god blessed America.

Moving beyond the straws, I noticed that the red-carpeted Grand Hall seemed emptier than usual. The thin crowds were dominated by older white patrons heading to the two mainstage productions programmed that evening: Twyla Tharp and the ballet Coppélia.

And then I noticed the teenagers. Hordes of teenagers on spring break trips from across America, all wearing the lanyards of various tour groups, and many sporting MAGA hats. Out of curiosity, I followed one group of raucous teen Trumpsters down the Grand Foyer to the famous Kennedy bust, where they excitedly snapped photos. You’ve never seen so many young Republicans so excited to see John F. Kennedy.

Most of these tour groups, it turned out, were there to see Shear Madness, so we all took the elevator up to the Theater Lab, the teens (mine included) raucously knocking into each other and engaging in more teenage canoodling.

Even though I’ve been to the Kennedy Center dozens of times, it had never occurred to me to see Shear Madness. As the longest-running show in America, it was never a pressing need, the kind of thing that is always there, so you never actually see it. But now that I was there, I was actually excited for the experience.

About halfway into our elevator ride, surrounded by tourists from Louisiana and Missouri (according to their lanyards), it occurred to me that DC’s tourism industry is probably why Shear Madness has been playing at the Kennedy Center since 1987. It’s the perfect way to end a day visiting DC’s major monuments. White House? Check. Jefferson Monument? Check. See a play at the Kennedy Center that will entertain you but not make you think too much? Check.

After hearing Trump declare that he wanted “less woke programming” at the Kennedy Center, I had been scratching my head. What do “non-woke” shows even look like? Isn’t provoking thought and pushing boundaries kind of the whole point of the performing arts?

Well, folks, with Shear Madness, I think I found a perfectly non-woke play. The plotline — a murder is committed at a hair salon, leaving everyone in the salon a suspect — would have a hard time offending anyone. This is Scooby Doo– or Jessica Fletcher–style murder, the kind that somehow makes you feel all cozy inside even though some poor sap offstage just bit the dust. It is safe to say that there is nothing in Shear Madness that will trigger Trump’s censorship detector and that the show will remain a balm to tired Midwestern tourists for the next four years.

The one slightly DEI element in the show is the character of Tony, the gay barber. But Tony is written in the way many gay characters were written in the decades when homosexuality was either something to be ignored on the stage or exaggerated into a caricature and therefore made palatable. Tony is every exagerrated gay stereotype: He is always horny and constantly flirting with the straight beefy cop. He is loud and effeminate. He loves Carol Channing and community theater. He gives up glitter for Lent and shops at Joann Fabrics closing sales. You get the picture.

“Do you know how to whistle?” Tony asks the beefy cop at one point. “It’s easy. Just put your lips together and blow.”

“Get back in the closet!” the cop replies.

(Cue raucous laughter.)

I’m not mocking the show to minimize it in any way. I actually had a really good time, and the actor playing Tony was a hoot from start to finish. There are many reasons that Shear Madness is the longest-running show in Kennedy Center history, and while the appeal to tourist groups is among them, it wouldn’t have lasted this long if it weren’t anchored in a clever script and engaging execution.

Written in 1963 by the German writer Paul Pörtner, Shear Madness began as Scherenschnitt oder Der Mörder sind Sie before its English translation became a DC staple. The play is most notable for its unique interactive element. Act Two opens with the lights up on the audience, who are invited to interrogate the cast and vote to determine who the villain will be each night. Even the jaded teens in the room were gleefully shouting out theories. Fun!

In addition, the script is continually updated to reflect current events and politics, making it a hit with audiences already on a tour of the nation’s political capital. The version that I saw had at least three Elon Musk jokes. One joke aimed at former President Joe Biden got a huge laugh from the MAGA crowd: “She used to babysit Joe Biden. That’s how old she is.”

I really enjoyed my night at Shear Madness, but I had the uneasy feeling that I was watching the kind of vanilla, non-woke, non-envelope-pushing content Trump has in mind for the Center’s future programming. Because, while I do enjoy an occasional night of silly fun, I think most people who attend the Kennedy Center want a combination of entertainment and growth, whether that be an opportunity to introduce your kid to a form of art, or to challenge yourself to see the world through a new lens.

As journalists are wont to do, I did a bit of snooping after the new administration took over, reaching out to friends and contacts who work at the Center. The mood behind the scenes was grim; everyone worried about losing their jobs and terrified to say the wrong thing to a journalist. One person, who I believe has since resigned, confided over Signal (Pete Hegseth’s favorite app), “If you had told me six months ago that I would be working for the Trump administration, I would have told you you were crazy. This is not what I signed up for.”

As with the rest of America under Trump 2.0, uncertainty seems to be the order of the day at the Kennedy Center. The new leadership, when I spoke to my sources a few weeks ago, was not communicating with staff and somehow also micromanaging them. This lack of top-down communication put seasoned staffers in the tricky position of fielding questions from disgruntled patrons and left them unable to respond to public frustration over cancelations that occurred in the first weeks of the Trump takeover.

So who are these new leaders who will decide what content is non-woke enough to pass muster at Trump’s Kennedy Center? Will it be Roma Daravi, the News Max pundit recently appointed as VP of communications, whose Instagram page is basically a MAGA altar? Richard Grenell, the interim executive director, who until last month had no association with the arts and who is now making headlines for his belligerent replies to emails, or Donald Trump himself, whose favorite musical is Cats because ballerinas look gorgeous in tights? Call me crazy, but none of these people seem particularly qualified to curate art at an institution whose mission includes educating young people and making the arts accessible to all Americans.

Back in the day, I myself was an angsty teen who visited the Center on a school field trip from the Midwest (Ohio, represent!). I traveled with the classical a cappella group from my high school. We thought we were huge celebrities because we actually got to perform at the Kennedy Center, and my mom bragged about it for years. One of my most cherished artistic memories is rehearsing “Ave Maria” in a small room before we performed. We held hands and closed our eyes, and let me tell you not a teen had a dry eye when the final harmony rang out in that tiny rehearsal room. I still get shivers remembering that early encounter with the power of music. It was possibly the closest I have ever felt to a higher power.

Flash forward a few decades and I was back on a Kennedy Center stage to introduce a Hamilton sing-along I organized on the Center’s Millennium Stage at the height of Hamilton-mania. This time, it was my kids who felt like VIPs when they were ushered past crowds of Hamilton fans to front-row seats.

Since then, I have attended many events of different types at the Kennedy Center, each one bringing together people of varied backgrounds who all shared a love of art. There was the time in 2017 that I got to cover the inaugural performance of the Center’s Hip-Hop Initiative that featured Jason Moran, the Center’s Artistic Director for Jazz, on a Steinway Grand, and Q-Tip, Artistic Director for Hip-Hop Programming, on a turntable. Together, they created a mind-bending series of jazz and hip-hop mashups before the public was invited to a free dance party where Q-Tip made a surprise appearance as DJ and turned the Kennedy Center into DC’s hottest nightclub. It was a party for the ages.

And I have never enjoyed a more glorious clash of cultures than the night that The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir performed at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, attracting an audience of patchouli-scented hippies on the same night that the Broadway Center Stage production of Guys and Dolls performed for the Center’s most esteemed board members and donors. The audiences for the two shows intermingling on the red carpet was a chef’s kiss juxtaposition of cultures, with tuxedoed doyennes of the arts bemusedly observing tie-dyed Grateful Dead fans and sipping champagne on a balcony that smelled suspiciously like weed.

None of these events will appeal to everyone, but each of them will appeal to someone. I, for example, have never been to a drag show at the Kennedy Center, or an opera for that matter. They just aren’t my thing. Or maybe, like Shear Madness, the opportunity just hasn’t come up yet. But I’m glad they are there for the audiences whose lives they will enrich. Claiming that an art form is dangerous and needs to be banned, as Trump has repeatedly said about drag performance, is a tired trope of authoritarian regimes, antithetical to democratic principles, and an excuse to manufacture outrage among Trump’s constituents.

So back to the original dilemma this essay is meant to address: is it in the best interest of DC’s arts community to support or to avoid Trump’s Kennedy Center? As I’ve been writing this essay, I’ve been grappling with my own feelings. I want to say that I’ll continue to frequent the venue, because a mass exodus of patrons and experienced staff could threaten the long-term sustainability of the Kennedy Center. But the truth is that the news coming out of the Center now makes it hard for me to feel good about that decision. Richard Grennell’s vitriolic email responses, Trump posing on the Opera House balcony like it’s his own personal fiefdom, the firing of skilled professionals for ideological reasons: All of these things make me feel like it would be a violation of my own core beliefs to ignore all of that and attend.

There are plenty of other performing arts venues in DC, and I suspect those places will see an uptick in attendance as patrons consciously avoid the Kennedy Center. Why deal with a political shitstorm when you can go somewhere else and just focus on the art? But while other venues in town offer comparable opportunities to see high-quality art, none of them can replicate what happens at the Kennedy Center, because no other institution in America has the Kennedy Center’s specific mission to produce art, support artists, and provide arts education to ALL Americans. If we lose the Kennedy Center, we lose something truly unique and unreplicable.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I admit that it will be hard for me to commit to attending the Kennedy Center over the next few years. And if I do go, I will be there to support the artists and the staffers. And I’ll be there for my daughter, who deserves access to art and culture for decades to come. And if she wants me to take her to a drag show or an opera someday, I will jump at the chance to broaden her worldview. I just hope that a future Kennedy Center will be able to offer her more than the sheer madness Trump is peddling now.

SEE ALSO:
How can theater talk back to Trump? (interview feature by Deryl Davis, March 31, 2025)

The post To Kennedy Center or not to Kennedy Center? For DC audiences, that is now the question. appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Chances are that if you spend time at the Folger Shakespeare Library, you know that there is a play called Hamlet that was written by William Shakespeare more than 400 years ago.

But even those with the most rudimentary knowledge of Shakespeare’s masterpiece will appreciate Playwright Lauren M. Gunderson’s latest girl-power drama, A Room in the Castle, a re-examination of Hamlet that puts the women front and center.

Whereas Shakespeare’s tragedy focuses on Hamlet’s descent into madness after his father, the King of Demark, is murdered, A Room in the Castle asks: What if things had been different? Specifically for the women in the play — all two of them. What if the ending didn’t have to be all tragedy for Ophelia, Hamlet’s doomed sweetheart, and his regal mother, Gertrude?

Opening at Folger Theatre on March 4, A Room in the Castle is a co-production with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, which commissioned Gunderson to write a script focused on a Shakespearean character of her choosing. “Ophelia was a mystery to me so I started looking at her,” Gunderson told DC Theater Arts in a recent Zoom interview. “I realized that Shakespeare put all these secret doors into the play that you can open and find a whole other version of Ophelia. She is a creative, she is a romantic, she’s smart, she’s a little weird and quirky. She’s not this perfect ingénue.”

Gunderson is one of the country’s most prolific and frequently produced playwrights. Her plays, including Ada and the Engine and The Revolutionists, frequently feature female historical figures, offering a new perspective on lives that were discounted due to gender.

“In Hamlet, we don’t see the women in a private space,” Gunderson says. “We only see the mask of the characters they have to be in public. So what happens when they are alone in their rooms?”

Gunderson’s answer to that question became a briskly-paced, comedic one-act in which the men remain in the shadows. The play features just three characters: Ophelia, Gertrude, and a maid named Anna who acts as Ophelia’s confidante and cheerleader. Adding the character of Anna underscores how isolated Ophelia has been in Hamlet and asks how things may have been different if she had had a confidante in the castle.

Limiting the cast to three characters allowed Gunderson to give each woman a depth of character, staying true to Shakespeare’s portrayal of Ophelia and Gertrude while mining the characters’ own strengths and motivations. Ophelia is a singer/songwriter on the cusp of womanhood. “Ophelia’s womanliness is weaponized so quickly against her in Shakespeare’s play that we don’t see the beauty and humor of that shift from girl to woman,” Gunderson observes. And Anna is a fierce protector who is able to hold her own with the Queen and “find great agency from a place of subservience.”

Gunderson’s interpretation of Queen Gertrude takes issue with the character’s historical reputation as a manipulative woman who married her dead husband’s brother for selfish reasons. “Hamlet was written from her son’s perspective, and of course, Hamlet sees the worst version of his mother,” Gunderson says. “But there is no way that her marriage was a lust-driven choice. That was fully about survival and about protecting herself and her son. She is throwing herself on the bomb to save them for sure.”

When asked what Gunderson looks for in choosing new projects, she has a quick answer: Dream and drive. “What makes a good main character is big desire, big want, lots of internal conflict,” she says. “Also characters have to have room to grow. Having that journey from the beginning of a play to the end is imperative. I’m not interested in people who don’t change because why tell that story? Good stories come from the moment when they are forced to or choose to reckon with themselves.”

Hamlet famously ends in a bloodbath with nearly every character in the play dying. Newly empowered through Gunderson’s script, will Gertrude and Ophelia circumvent their tragic fates?

No spoilers here, but Gunderson takes issue with the idea that tragedy is always the highest form of art as it was seen in Shakespeare’s time. “A lot of my work is about doing the harder, braver thing: finding a way out. My favorite stories are not about the consequences of actions but the consequences of resilience and survival.”

Gunderson is grateful for programs like Folger Theatre’s Reading Room Festival, where A Room in the Castle had its first staged reading in 2023, citing the importance of being able to mount plays quickly in response to rapidly changing events in the country. A self-described activist playwright, Gunderson notes that “we will always be in need of plays like this one or like Cabaret which are about desperate moments in time and how people find their way.”

Gunderson hopes that her play will be seen as not “just” a play for women but rather a universal story of bravery and redemption that just happens to have a female protagonist.

“It’s important to show the hard work of survival,” Gunderson adds. “The hard work of maybe not all of us get out but the ones who do, that is a hard hope that we have won.”

Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes with no intermission.

A Room in the Castle plays May 4 through April 6, 2025, at the Folger Theatre in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capital Street, SE, in Washington, DC. Tickets range from $20-$84 and are available online or by calling the box office at (202) 544-7077.

A Room in the Castle
by Lauren M. Gunderson
Directed by Kaja Dunn
Co-produced with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

SEE ALSO:
Folger Theatre to premiere Lauren Gunderson’s ‘A Room in the Castle’ (news story January 30, 2025)

The post Lauren M. Gunderson on unmasking the women in ‘Hamlet’ appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody play The Music Center at Strathmore on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2024, at 8 pm. Find tickets ($28–$128) and more information online.

Interview originally published September 26, 2023

Stage and screen star Mandy Patinkin has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My love for musical theater can be traced back to the hours of my early childhood spent lying in the backseat of my mom’s car (no seatbelt, it was the ’80s) staring at clouds and listening to Evita on cassette tape. Then there was the time my mom dragged me, a jaded teen by then, to a back alley stage door in Cleveland to meet the man. When Patinkin came out after his concert, we were the only people there: a mortified 14-year-old and a mother who was so excited that I would not have blamed him for taking out a restraining order. Instead, he was kind and gracious, chatting with us and thanking us for coming to the show.

“It’s always a risky thing to get to know your heroes,” my mother used to say. “You never know if they will live up to your imagination.” What a joy then to discover, decades later, that Mandy Patinkin is every bit the white knight my mother imagined him to be.

Patinkin has been in the public eye across a variety of mediums his entire adult life. He first earned fame on Broadway, with iconic turns in Evita and Sunday in the Park with George. Then there was that role in The Princess Bride: “My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father. Prepare to die!” and a long spate of hit TV shows: Chicago Hope, Criminal Minds, and Homeland to name a few.

Now, Patinkin and wife Kathryn Grody, both in their 70s and both self-proclaimed social media neophytes, have achieved celebrity status in a sphere more typically associated with folks much younger than the septuagenarians: social media. The couple credit their son Gideon Grody-Patinkin with coaxing them into sharing their lives on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram while the three of them shared a home in the early days of COVID.

And it turned out people loved to watch them. Their content combines efforts to promote political causes with more homespun videos documenting their history as a couple and their daily lives. A quick look at their recent TikTok content shows videos supporting the Hollywood writer’s strike, the International Rescue Committee, and individuals displaced in the recent Moroccan earthquake, with clips of Mandy puttering around the house, Kathryn asking him to change a cartridge in the printer, and the couple snuggled on a sofa discussing how they first met.

It’s the self-described “third act” of a couple who, 45 years into married life, define themselves through family and love.

By all appearances, the Grody-Patinkin home is idyllic and disheveled, cozy and chaotic. They give off the energy of people who have known each other for so long that they finish each other’s sentences without thought. They bicker but in the adorable way of people who love each other’s quirks and who will always have each other’s backs. Maybe it’s that in a world where so much is unstable, Grody and Patinkin feel like a safe harbor, a voyeuristic way for us all to feel like we are wrapped up in a warm blanket of safety. Thirty minutes into our conversation, I felt the urge to call everyone in my family and give them big virtual hugs.

I spoke to Mandy, Kathryn, and Gideon before their upcoming appearance at the Reston Community Center from their woodsy home where they all joined around one Zoom screen and barely let me ask questions. It was like being a fly on the wall at a boisterous family dinner where conversation zinged from one family member to another and I loved every minute of it. Here is just a bit of what we talked about.

This conversation has been abbreviated for clarity.

Gideon, I would like to start with you because I feel like you are the mastermind behind this third act in your parents’ lives. How did they get started on social media?

Gideon: I came back here during the COVID lockdown to look after the folks. I saw that Dad [Mandy] had a small social media presence and was making some posts about the IRC [International Rescue Committee]. My parents are both pretty unusual and authentic people so I thought that if I recorded some videos of them being themselves, it might bring some more eyeballs to causes they are interested in promoting. To our great surprise, it took off. Then it became a project for me to document my parents and make a diary of their existence. There was extra motivation because, in 2020, we felt like we might be getting COVID at any time.

Kathryn: At that time, I had no idea how social media worked. I wasn’t interested and I thought it was just garbage. But it felt like a good social service. We were all so frightened, we were all so isolated, in our homes. So it felt like, OK, whatever this thing is, if we can give some comfort and perspective during this particular time, that is a legitimate use of this weird thing.

Was your content political from the outset?

Mandy: My social media platforms were begun in 2015 by the people I work with at the International Rescue Committee. But they had hit a plateau in terms of followers and then Gideon came along and exploded it.

Kathryn: It’s an interesting thing, Nicole. Mandy said he wasn’t political when I first met him. This guy [gestures to Mandy] is six years younger than me. He missed the ’60s, which were pivotal for me. When I first met him, I asked him if his parents were Democrats or Republicans and all he knew was that they were members of the sisterhood and brotherhood of his Temple. I mean, we are both Jews, but he grew up in Chicago in a very conservative, loving shtetl-like community. I grew up in Southern California where being Jewish meant Passover, Rosh Hashana, and social justice. You couldn’t be a prejudiced person because of your religion.

One day soon after we met, we were getting on a bus in NYC and Mandy saw an elderly lady running to catch the bus and he asked the bus driver to stop. The driver didn’t stop so Mandy pulled the cord so this woman could get on the bus. I just looked at him and said “That’s political.” Being political is the way you behave, it’s kindness towards others, it’s your point of view about sharing resources. You can’t separate politics from your whole being.

That’s wonderful. Who decides what you are going to publish on your social media accounts?

Mandy: Gideon and our good friend Ewen [Wright] are the puppeteers, the arbiters. Gideon knows how to push our buttons and ask the right questions. The TikTok started after we were on a Zoom fundraiser with [former NYC mayoral candidate] Ruth Messinger during the 2020 election. We were talking about getting out the vote and Ruth jumped in and said, “You aren’t reaching young people and that’s a big part of the population.” The next morning Gideon and Ewen said to us, “We’re going to ask you to do some interesting things. You just need to trust us.” So they launched a TikTok site and it went crazy.

Gideon: Well, things have changed since those early days. They have issues and organizations that they believe in so they put stuff out now. It’s interesting to see them, people in their ’70s, learning about these platforms and what is or isn’t popular. It can be very confusing. They got 350K followers in one day for shaking their butts to a song to get people to register to vote.

Kathryn: It was so embarrassing! What you won’t do for Democracy!

Gideon: It’s interesting as people who are already known to the public, our dad in particular, it’s this new wave of attention but in this medium that they are still working to understand and it’s very amorphous. And it’s a way for these two people to see their own relationship in a different light.

What has that been like for you guys? Are you surprised at anything?

Mandy: Well, I have been surprised. There have been times when I’ve been completely overwhelmed by what Gideon and Ewen capture on film. I remember saying to Gideon and Kathryn, “My god, when we are gone, this is everything I would have wanted my children and grandchildren to know about us. We are not here anymore but this is who we were.” Gideon and Ewen did that for us and it’s such a gift.

Kathryn: It’s a strange thing because my parents died in 1972 when few people had movie cameras, but now Gideon has archived us in such an amazing way that, god willing, our great, great, great-grandchildren will know what we were like.

And they’ll know about the time you struggled to put in a lightbulb with a dimmer switch!

Mandy: Well, yeah, since you mention that, I do get excited about those things. I’m not performing in those videos. I’m concentrating on making that fucking dimmer switch work. The other day I spoke to a buddy of mine who is a washer and dryer repairman. He gave me an amazing piece of information on what one has to do to get rid of mold in the washing machine. I said, Gideon, I think this would be really helpful to people. Most people have washing machines and they don’t clean them properly so why don’t we make a video about that? I think that would be a wonderful public service.

Gideon: And then I say, Oh yes, that sounds great. I would love to spend 27 hours editing footage of you cleaning the washing machine.

Mandy: And he will!

And this cozy content, the clips of you puttering around the house, brings in an audience for the causes that are important to you.

Mandy: To have a platform that inspires people to contribute to the world is an extraordinary privilege and to not take advantage of it is a little criminal. Five minutes ago we posted a little clip to support dear friends of ours who live in the Atlas Mountains in Morrocco that was recently hit by an earthquake. They started a GoFundMe Page, so we made a little video saying this is where we shot parts of Homeland and these people are beautiful and they’ve suffered a tragedy so please help them.

And now the three of you are inviting live audiences in to share these experiences with you in person. What is that like?

Gideon: What is interesting about doing these live interviews compared to the social media content is that the live programs are unedited. Most people would be uncomfortable having their parents talk about their childhood to a room full of strangers, but we are able to have fun, vulnerable, and sometimes difficult conversations in front of an audience.

Mandy: And Gideon plans each event. Kathryn and I don’t know where he’s going with it or what he’s going to say. We have no preparation whatsoever.

Gideon: We thought we would only do a few of these live events and then run out of things to say, but once I saw how available they were to have fun, to be surprised, to try new things, to get into a family argument onstage and recover from it, I was like, OK, these are great collaborators because they are down for whatever. After working together for a while, you can take risks because you know if you mess up or calculate something wrong…

Mandy: Then we bring out chocolate chip cookies and pass them out to the audience! [Addressing Kathryn:] If you had said to me when we first met, “Listen, I would like to record everything we do. Are you willing to do that?” I would have said you are out of your mind! That is our private life. If you had told me that one day we would have social media platforms and be able to communicate with people on a variety of levels from fundraising to registering people to vote, to entertaining during the pandemic, I would have said, You’ve got to be kidding me! So you don’t know what life holds for you.

Kathryn: The truth is that this is not a “show.” It isn’t rehearsed. It’s basically a three-person trust exercise. We go out there in front of people and we have no idea what this extremely daring, creative person [Gideon] is going to do. And he has done some things which were not easy.

Mandy: I’ve wanted Kathryn to have a larger audience my whole life, but she just didn’t want to deal with certain aspects of show business and avoided it. She loves off-Broadway and writes and does other people’s plays and her own. But I wanted the world to know her in the way I did, and I couldn’t succeed in making that happen. But Gideon has made my dream come true. Gideon got the world to know the woman that I love. I couldn’t make it happen and he did.

Kathryn: I write solo shows, and I wrote one called “The Unexpected Third,” which was what I expected this period of my life to be like, what it actually is like. I did a production for three nights near our home [in Upstate New York], hoping maybe 50 people would come, but because of Gideon sharing it on social media, there were 250 people there every night. It was the only time the theater had ever sold out. It was quite thrilling and shocking.

Mandy: Kathryn said something a minute ago that I wanted to riff on. She used the word trust. Well, if I had to look at one word that defined this journey of being public and free form with my wife, son, and our dear friend Ewen, it is trust. This is all possible because of the trust that we have in each other.

Kathryn: It’s a full circle from when we got married.

Mandy: [raising his hand to the Zoom camera and taking off his wedding ring] It’s written right here on my finger if I take off my wedding ring…

Kathryn: I didn’t know what to inscribe on our rings and this baby, who was 26 years old at the time…

Mandy: 25 when you met me!

Kathryn: He suggested “in loving trust,” And that is a big thing, trust. It doesn’t come easily. You earn it, and you mess up sometimes, and you splinter it up and it comes back… what is that thing the Japanese do where they take pottery and splinter it up and then put the pieces back together?

Gideon: Kintsugi!

Kathryn: Yes, Kintsugi. Where they mend broken things with gold? Well, that’s kind of what I feel we are. We are a mended thing put back together with gold.

Mandy: Or Krazy Glue!

A Conversation with Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody – Moderated by their son Gideon Grody-Patinkin plays on Saturday, September 30, 2023, at 3 pm and 8 pm at Reston Community Center – 2310 Colts Neck Road, in Reston, VA. For tickets ($40-$60) go online.

The post Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody: A third act defined by love appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Gone are the days when you open a paper with your morning coffee to peruse the day’s news. We’ve known that for decades, and yet DC theatergoers have tenaciously hung on to The Washington Post — and longtime Post critic Peter Marks — as the ultimate word on theater in town. Yes, the Post is a national treasure with resources, reputation, and readership greater than any other publication in town. Getting your name in the Post brings visibility it is impossible to get elsewhere. And yet, the economic model that enabled papers like the Post to pay critics a living wage is crumbling before our eyes, and as it crumbles, the amount of theater content featured in DC’s premiere publication will continue to decrease. Marks’ departure, precipitated by a generous buyout offer, is just the latest episode in a trend that is pushing theater criticism out of large publications, and we are unlikely to have another critic of his singular stature on the scene again.

So where else can theatergoers turn for local theater news and criticism? Well, on the surface, things are pretty grim. In recent years, local publications as diverse as Washington Jewish Week, The Washington Diplomat, and DCist, stopped publishing theater reviews. Other publications, notably District Fray Magazine, once a stalwart supporter of local theater under Editor-in-Chief Monica Alford, folded entirely.

Talk to any journalist and they will tell you that the main problem in the industry now is monetization: the old model (print newspapers) no longer works, and no one can figure out a new model that will pay the bills. When it comes to theater coverage, this results in a field that is populated by local news outlets struggling to survive and scrappy individuals “working” for the love of the art and little else.

But maybe, just maybe, these scrappy arts entrepreneurs will lead us to develop new models of arts journalism. There is no telling which of these diamonds in the rough will shine with enough support. At the very least, it means that we will never again live in a world where one singular view — usually the view of an older white male — dictates the success or failure of a show. The evolving, decentralized, and, let’s be honest, for the moment completely chaotic, new reality of theater criticism means that very, very few will make a living off it, but that many more will have the space for their voices to be heard. And that is a good thing.

As theatergoers adjust to a world without a staff critic at the Washington Post, we all need to adjust how we stay informed about the intellectual and cultural events in our community. Here are some outlets I turn to for local theater news. These individuals and organizations are still here, working against pretty tough odds to inform and engage the community in robust conversations about the arts.

Washington City Paper

Despite its own financial woes, Washington City Paper has bucked the trend of decreasing local arts coverage. City Paper maintains a roster of great arts writers who benefit from the editorial prowess of Arts Editor Sarah Marloff. Veteran writers like Chris Klimek and Ian Thal and newcomers including Colleen Kennedy, Jared Strange, and D.R. Lewis continue to pump out reliable, readable reviews and feature articles that tap into the very pulse of the city.

How to access: While City Paper discontinued its print edition in May of 2022, it is still free to access online. Sign up for City Paper’s newsletters to get theater info directly to your inbox. (Side note: As a member-supported outlet, City Paper relies on readers to sustain it. Consider becoming a member to help maintain this reliable source of local news.)

Metro Weekly

Metro Weekly, DC’s LGBTQ magazine, has produced professional theater criticism from skilled writers for decades. André Hereford, Metro Weekly’s contributing editor, is a particular favorite, offering balanced reviews of both theater and film and cover-story interviews.

How to access: Metro Weekly does not employ a paywall. Theater reviews can be found here.

DCist

While DCist has suspended its theater reviews for the time being, it does still employ a staff arts and culture reporter, Elliot Williams, who regularly reports on local theater for DCist and on WAMU’s “Get Out There” segment. (Look out for Elliot’s upcoming article on Woolly Mammoth’s world-premiere production of The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes.)

How to access: Elliot Williams’ arts and culture coverage for DCist can be accessed here. 

The Washington Post

The Post may no longer have a full-time theater critic, but larger theaters in the region will likely still benefit from coverage by skilled freelance writers like Celia Wren and Rhoda Feng and staffer Thomas Floyd. What other changes can we expect from the Post? Only time will tell. DCTA reached out to the Post to inquire about its plans for covering theater going forward and got this stock reply: “The Washington Post remains committed to delivering impactful theater coverage to its readers and the community.” Sigh…

How to access: Washington Post theater coverage can be found online or in print form. Most of it exists behind a paywall. (But you know this already.)

Unprofessional Opinion

Like DC’s own masked theater superhero, Unprofessional Opinion is the nom de plume of a mystery writer who returned to the scene after a hiatus about a year ago. The writer publishes succinct, well-written, and highly opinionated theater reviews on the self-publishing platform Medium with content summaries on Instagram. While I don’t always agree with Unprofessional Opinion’s perspectives, I have come to admire them for the quality of their prose and insight. Bonus points for the intrigue behind the persona! Who is this masked theater bandit in our midst!?

How to access: Follow Unprofessional Opinion on Instagram at @unprofessionalopinion and on Medium here. Reviews published on Medium are then delivered to your email. Easy peasy.

DC Theater Arts

DC Theater Arts publishes reviews of nearly every show (professional, university, and community) produced in a 30-mile radius of Washington, DC. Yes, that means if a show has not been reviewed elsewhere, you can probably find a review of it at dctheaterarts.org. The publication (which, full disclosure, you are reading right now) is also a nonprofit that strives to spread awareness about DC theater, poke into the issues embroiling the industry, and train a new generation of arts writers.

How to access: DCTA maintains a website, a free twice-weekly newsletter, and a social media presence on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Threads (and has a currently inactive account on X). Follow what suits you best.

TheatreinDC

TheaterinDC.com kept popping up at the top of my Google feed. So I reached out to learn who was behind this website that is winning the Google algorithm game. It turns out TheatreinDC is run by Mark Meyer, a tech consultant and theater aficionado based in Chicago who uses his automation skills to aggregate information on theater in several cities across the country. His goal with TheatreinDC (and Boston, Chicago, and LA) is to gather logistical information for theatergoers to facilitate outings to the theater. By all accounts, his efforts are a success, most notably in the way that he aggregates reviews for readers to compare, Rotten Tomatoes style. It’s not fancy, but it’s clear and gives readers an easy way to compare reviews in one spot. Hmm… maybe I should have paid more attention in computer class.

How to access: Bookmark TheatreinDC’s comprehensive Now Playing page for easy access to a roundup of reviews on each show. (Side note: TheatreinDC’s review aggregator is reminiscent of the wonderful Didtheylikeit.com aggregator, which is my favorite way of comparing reviews of Broadway shows.)

Theater District (podcast)

Theater District is a brand-new podcast produced by Yale-trained dramaturg Chad Dexter Kinsman (who also writes about theater for DC Theater Arts and other publications). The podcast features interviews with a wide range of theater makers and advocates. “DC is such a great theater city, and it’s the people who make it so,” Kinsman shares. “I want to spotlight them and all the unacknowledged work that often goes into making a production or a company work.”

How to access: New episodes drop every other Thursday. Access podcast episodes through Theater District’s website and on all major streaming platforms. Follow them on Instagram at @theater_district.

Embracing Arlington Arts (podcast)

Former radio personality Janet Kopenhaver has produced a solid podcast for the past six years in which she interviews local arts professionals from all arts genres, from actors to directors to musicians to behind-the-scenes staff. The podcast’s 300th episode aired in October 2023 and new episodes drop every Tuesday at noon.

How to access: Find podcast episodes on the Embracing Arlington Arts website or on streaming platforms like Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Nothing for the Group

You should read Lauren Halvorsen’s Nothing for the Group newsletter just for the pleasure of Halvorsen’s wry, singular humor. But the former Studio Theatre dramaturg’s newsletter also offers much more. While technically a national publication (Halvorsen compiles lists of openings at regional theaters around the country each week), the publication does include a lot of DMV content and also hot takes on the big conversations happening in the industry. Recently, Halvorsen has brought in guest writers, like playwright Annalisa Dias, with articles that speculate on solutions to industry woes.

How to access: Subscribe to the newsletter on Substack and each new post will arrive in your inbox like magic.

Theatre Washington

Theatre Washington, DC’s theater service and partnership organization — best known for producing the annual Helen Hayes Awards — revamped its website last year, creating a comprehensive “What’s Playing” calendar. The website also features partner updates from DC Theater Arts and theaters around the region.

How to access: Sign up for Theatre Washington’s weekly newsletter here. Additional resources, like the Theatre Washington “Show Selector” calendar, can be found here. News updates from the region’s theaters can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the Theatre Washington homepage.

 WETA Arts, hosted by Felicia Curry (PBS Television)

The world keeps changing and somehow PBS stays the same. For me, PBS is like a reliable blanket, something I know I can always return to when life feels a bit too much. DC’s local PBS station, WETA, has produced WETA Arts, a 30-minute weekly show detailing aspects of the local theater industry since 2013. Now hosted by DC favorite actor Felicia Curry, the show airs a new episode each Monday from September to December and February to May.

How to access: Turn on your TV and tune into PBS! Or, for a more high-tech option, all episodes of WETA Arts stream on the WETA website here and on YouTube here. WETA’s YouTube channel also offers a theater-heavy “Things to do in the DMV” page here.

Maryland Theatre Guide and Broadway World DC

Maryland Theatre Guide and Broadway World hark back to the days when there were a handful of theater “blogs” on the scene churning out reviews on low-budget websites. The quality of writing in each review varies from very good to “Where was the editor?” and the websites could do with an upgrade, but all in all, these are reliable resources for theatergoers who want to keep abreast of what’s going on in town. Andrew Walker White, who writes for both publications and DCTA, is a favorite.

How to access: Maryland Theatre Guide maintains a website, a newsletter, and Twitter and Facebook accounts, and Broadway World DC has a website and a newsletter you can sign up for on its homepage.

Instagrammers and TikTokers

A few intrepid fans have begun creating their own content on social media, primarily on Instagram and TikTok, platforms that allow people to share content without the burden of creating a website. Emerging voices on Instagram include @dctheatregoer, @dmv_theatre_review, @morristheatredc, and the aforementioned @unprofessionalopinion. And on TikTok: @broadwaybekahchica and @dctheatergoer.

How to access: Give them a follow and their content will appear in your social media feeds, immediately increasing the number of opinions you encounter before deciding what to see. (Side note: I also love the TikTok content being created by Signature Theatre and Baltimore Center Stage. These theaters hired young TikTokers and gave them free rein to do their thing. The result is often very fun.)

Just as there is a lot more theater going on in town than most people realize, there is also more theater news and criticism. We don’t need to rely on a single source. Check out these outlets and curate your favorites. Here’s to a new era of diverse, informed theatergoing!

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Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley is quickly becoming a holiday theater staple. Written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon in 2017, the show had a major production at Bethesda, Maryland’s Round House Theatre a few years ago. It is now back in the area with Montgomery Playhouse’s production at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn through December 10.

Fans of Jane Austen will immediately prick up their ears when they hear “Miss Bennet,” but the first thing you need to know about Christmas at Pemberley is that the Miss Bennet in question is not Elizabeth Bennet, of Pride and Prejudice fame, but her oft-overlooked middle sister Mary.

Playwright Gunderson is known for crafting plays about female historical figures whose accomplishments have been undervalued because of their gender. For Christmas at Pemberley, Gunderson sets her sights on a fictional character who was similarly “underwritten.” In Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Jane, the two older sisters, are mature characters sketched out in detail by Austen. The two youngest sisters, Lydia and Kitty, were tempestuous, immature, and prone to embarrassing the family. In the middle there was Mary, whom Austen describes as “the only plain one in the family,” and possessing “a pedantic air.”

Gunderson and Melcon have given Mary a new lease on life, and matrimony, in Christmas at Pemberly. The play takes place a few years after the events in Pride and Prejudice which culminated with Elizabeth Bennet’s marriage to Mr. Darcy. The play is set at the Darcys’ country estate, Pemberley, where four of the Bennet sisters reunite for Christmas and where Mary finally, after centuries of neglect, finds a very Austen-like romance.

Jennifer Georgia is the mastermind behind this lovely production. Georgia, a recent WATCH Award winner, designed the costumes and set. She also directed the production, pulling together a group of mostly novice performers into a cohesive Regency-era story that was as charming as it was entertaining.

As set designer, Georgia crafted elegant canvas panels to look like Regency-era bookshelves and wall coverings with fine detailing. Parlor furniture befitting the Regency era (1795–1837) formed the center of the play’s action while a large Christmas tree (apparently a novelty in Regency England and the subject of many of the play’s jokes) rose at the rear of the stage. As costume designer, Georgia compiled an assortment of lovely Regency-era dresses denoting the different attitudes and financial circumstances of the show’s five female characters. Elizabeth Darcy, as the most established married woman in the group had the finest dress whereas Lydia, the young, flamboyant sister living in poverty, showed her circumstances through a dress made of cheap white cloth festooned with gaudy red trim and feathers.

The two leads, Meredith Iodice as Mary Bennet and Taylor Peppers as Lord Arthur de Bourgh (the love interest), gave nuanced and mature performances that grounded the show. I did wish that the instant connection between the two had been more clearly enunciated in their first scene together, but by the time we reached the predictably happy ending, I was rooting for them to get together. Iodice in particular, who credits this as her first performance outside of high school or college productions, is endearing and believable.

Many of the other performers in the show are relatively new to community theater. Some of the performances were exaggerated in a way that distracted from the show’s storyline and a few of the character choices didn’t seem to sync with my recollection of Pride and Prejudice. In Gunderson and Melcon’s script, many allusions are made to Elizabeth (Aparna Sri) and Mr. Darcy’s (Gary Brick) apparently lusty sex life. These jokes just came across as awkward in this production, and the Elizabeth Darcy portrayed here was a surprising departure from the original. It is unclear, however, if those choices were inherent in the script, the performances or the direction.

The cast is rounded out by Jay Thaiyod as the very pregnant Jane Bingley, John Rocco as her husband Charles Bingley, Carolos Espinoza as the Footman, and Jenn Robinson as the enjoyably haughty Anne de Bourgh.

Nadia Palacios as the flamboyant Lydia Wickham shows promise as a comedic actor. In the supporting role of the Butler, Steve Kaufman elicits laughs throughout the show for the many ways he defies convention when the family’s back is turned.

All in all, this production is a charming option for your holiday viewing. It’s appropriate for all ages, and although prior familiarity with Pride and Prejudice will deepen your understanding of the show, it is not required.

Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley plays through December 10, 2023, presented by Arts on the Green in partnership with the Montgomery Playhouse performing at Arts Barn, 311 Kent Square Road, Gaithersburg, MD. For tickets ($22; $20, students 15–21; $15, youth 14 & under), buy them at the door, or purchase them online.

Recommended for ages 12 & up.

COVID Safety: Masks are encouraged but not required.

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The DC theater community is mourning the passing of Dorothy (Dot) Neumann. A director and pioneer in DC’s early regional theater scene, Neuman died peacefully on October 23, 2023.

Neumann was most closely associated with The Theatre Lab, where she was an educator and director.

The Theatre Lab Director Buzz Mauro shared the following statement with DC Theater Arts:

The Theatre Lab lost a dear friend and member of our family this week. Dorothy (Dot) Neumann was one of our first teachers in the ’90s and remained a central teacher in our curriculum until she recently became ill.

Dot was a leading voice in women’s theater in Washington from the ’70s onward, beginning with her pioneering work at Horizons Theater Company. She went on to direct extensively at Source Theatre, Signature Theatre, Clear Space Theatre Company in Rehoboth, and many other companies, and her direction earned her multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations. Her Intro to Acting class at The Theatre Lab inspired literally hundreds of students over the years, and her many other classes, including Anyone Can Act, Explorations in Scene Study, and Creating a One-Person Show, were equally popular. One of her most beloved contributions to our curriculum was The Holocaust Project, through which she trained Theatre Lab students to use first-person testimonials to create a new work performed at Theater J in 2007. Dot’s exceptional artistic and educational spirit will continue to permeate our work, and our love and care go out to all who knew and loved her.

The Washington Post published an obituary of Neumann, noting that she was “drawn to the Washington, DC area in the early 1970s to join a cadre of artists looking to establish and nurture small professional theater.”

According to the Post, Neumann is survived by her partner of 40 years, Barbara Klein, nephew John Neumann, and niece Dawn Neumann as well as “countless others who were enriched by her passion, creativity, and determination.”

Donations in Dorothy Neumann’s honor may be made to The Theatre Lab.

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Spooky season is here and Olney Theatre Center couldn’t have picked a more appropriate autumnal selection than The Brothers Paranormal, which takes on that trickiest of all theater genres: the horror play.

Incorporating horror into live theater has always been a challenge. The elements that make for a good suspense flick are harder to produce in front of a live audience where you can’t rely on camera angles or clever editing to spice up the spook value, especially in a venue as intimate as Olney’s Lab Stage, where some audience members are a mere foot or two from the performers.

But playwright Prince Gomolvilas and co-directors Hallie Gordon and Aria Velz pull it off… mostly… by blending the spooky stuff — a woman believes her house is haunted by a ghost — with relatable characters who invite us into the lives of two endearing but troubled families.

The year is 2007, the location somewhere in the American Midwest. Brothers Max and Visarut are Thai Americans who started a “ghost busting” business six months ago and have yet to snag any clients. They are hired by Delia and Felix, an African American couple who were forced to abandon their home in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Delia is convinced that a ghost, possibly that of a young Thai-speaking woman, has taken up residence in the couple’s new home. Felix is worried that Delia might be losing it.

And let me be very clear about this: there is most definitely a ghost haunting Delia and Felix’s home, a ghost named Jai who in the corporeal form of local performer Justine “Icy” Moral, who is creepy as hell, if underutilized, in a performance that caused one audience member seated two rows behind me to scream so loudly that I thought she was part of the cast. Yes, jump scares on stage are possible, and The Brothers Paranormal has enough of them to satisfy any thrill-seeking theatergoer.

The real achievement in Gomolvilas’ script, however, lies in the way that the playwright connects a simple ghost story to a complex introspection of what it means to “move on” whether from this life to the afterlife or from one’s home to a place where one is a stranger. Both families at the center of the story are trying to move on after displacement. Delia and Felix, longing for their former home in New Orleans, are played with great chemistry by seasoned local actors Lolita Marie (Delia) and DeJeanette Horne (Felix). The couple are equal parts funny and earnest, Marie at her best when embracing her character’s sarcastic side and Horne turning what could have been a staid, supporting roll into a highlight of the production.

Brothers Max and Visarut, meanwhile, along with their mother Tasanee, struggle with their family history as immigrants from Thailand. Younger brother Max (played with nonchalant humor by Tommy Bo), the only one in the family who was born after they moved to the U.S., struggles to understand the ways in which his mother and brother feel unmoored. Older brother Visarut (played with jaded weariness by Eymard Cabling) and his mother Tasanee are each battling demons. The result is an endearing glimpse into a fractured family and the mental load that comes with being uprooted. Cindy Chang’s Tasanee delivers an epic monologue about Thai funerals (the bodies are kept at home for days while family members gather to help the deceased make the transition to the afterlife) that beautifully summarizes the play’s exploration of family and belonging.

What kept this production from being A+ was the awkward and slow pacing during scene changes. The audience is literally left in the dark at times as the set (Misha Kachman’s scenic design centers on a swinging wall) rotates between the two families’ homes. Black streamers on one side of the stage look amateurish and distracting.

And while the script cleverly ping-pongs between ghost hunting and sentimentalizing, it struggles at times to make the tonal shifts necessary to fully immerse us in both atmospheres. I don’t know whether writing or direction is responsible for this tonal dissonance, but it is a minor complaint in what is otherwise a thoroughly unique and entertaining theater experience. Clever special effects by illusions consultant Jim Steinmeyer and illusions instructor Robert Ramirez add to the atmosphere and are impressively real in the small intimate space.

The audience left the theater giddy with excitement and I’m still buzzing inside days later. The Brothers Paranormal is the perfect spooky-season adventure. It’s a good thing Olney doesn’t serve popcorn because I would have flung mine across the room at the first jump scare.

Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.

The Brothers Paranormal plays through October 29, 2023, at Olney Theatre Center’s Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD. Tickets ($70–$85) are available online or through the box office at 301-924-3400, open from 12 pm – 6 pm Wednesdays through Saturdays. Discounts are available for groups, seniors, military, and students (for details click here).

The program for The Brothers Paranormal is online here.

COVID Safety: Face masks are recommended but no longer required to attend events in any Olney Theatre Center performance spaces.

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It was a dark and stormy night in Gaithersburg, Maryland. My teenage girls were having problems with friends and I was exhausted. Did I feel like trekking to the Arts Barn, my neighborhood theater, to see the Kentlands Community Players’ production of Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem? Let me tell you that I did not.

But I had made a commitment, so at 7:40 pm, I dutifully marched out my door and walked the few tree-lined blocks to the Arts Barn. For those of you who don’t know, the Kentlands is one of America’s premier “neo-urbanist” communities, meaning it was designed to allow people of all stages of life and income brackets to live together in a walkable neighborhood that engenders a feeling of community. It is a delightful place to live.

It is also a delightful place to see theater, and Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem turned out to be just the thing to distract me from life’s problems. With stellar performances, spot-on accents, and sumptuous Victorian costumes, this production exceeded my expectations in every way.

The story finds Sherlock Holmes (let’s assume you already know who he is) in London on the eve of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (a quick Google search tells me this happened in June of 1887). Many Americans are visiting London for the festivities including Wild West Sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, and a Pinkerton detective. Also visiting are several nefarious members of American crime syndicates. Holmes gets involved in a mystery that connects all the Americans and solves it much in the way you would expect him to if you have ever seen or read a Sherlock Holmes story.

R. Hamilton Wright’s script is solid, if a bit wordy and convoluted. I admit to scratching my head a few times trying to figure out who did what, but it all tied up nicely at the end. My jaw also dropped with amazement at the skill with which Cor Estoll handled this mountain of dialogue. Estoll plays Holmes with such conviction that you would swear he was a neurotic British Victorian detective rather than an FDA employee who first started acting only four years ago. Estoll’s accent was spot on, and as he was onstage for nearly the entirety of the production, he really carried the show. A disappointing performance in this role would spell disaster for the entire show, but Estoll rose to the occasion and then some. Estoll had great rapport with Avery Morstan, who was thoroughly entertaining as Dr. Watson.

Also turning out a stellar performance was Pauline Griller-Mitchell as Holmes’ housekeeper Mrs. Hudson. Griller-Mitchell, a WATCH Award winner and a seasoned local actor and director, is one of those performers who can make people laugh with a mere twitch of her head. As Holmes’ dotty, aged housekeeper, she conjured plenty of laughs from the audience and made a small role a major part of this production’s success. Griller-Mitchell also served as the production’s dialogue coach, a big job that she executed successfully, given the many accents (refined London, Irish-American, standard American) required by the script.

Direction by Vanessa Markowitz contributed to the convivial feel of the show, with the entire cast working together and utilizing every inch of the Arts Barn’s small stage. I did find the scene changes to be unnecessarily cumbersome and frequent, however. The play’s action ping-pongs between Holmes’ rooms at 221B Baker Street, London docks, and other locations. In this production, set pieces were carried on and off stage manually during each scene change. This caused a lag in the play’s action and was often awkward when cast members were seen onstage lugging tables to and fro.

Faring much better were the production’s costumes by Stephenie Yee. Lee assembled a sumptuous collection of Victorian frocks, from ladies’ dresses to Holmes’ signature hat and cloak. The only outfit that seemed out of step was the suit worn by Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft Holmes, which felt better suited for a 1970s disco than a Victorian parlor.

Strong supporting performances by Jenn Robinson as Mayhem Maggie Malloy, Chuck McCarter as Major Thaddeus Isaac Ramsey, Sam Kuhr as the Pinkerton detective, and Katherine Rogers as Miss Charlotte Lichter led to a thoroughly entertaining experience and one of the best community theater productions I have seen so far this year.

The Kentlands Community Players are a newish company and one that embodies “community” in the truest sense of the word. This production is a testament to the hard work and dedication that must have gone in to growing this company from a mere idea in producer Meredith Fogle’s head just a few years ago. The company is now attracting strong talent and ready to make itself a real presence in the local theater sphere.

Sometimes a night out at the theater is the perfect respite from life’s woes. For me, Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem was that and more. As I walked back home after the show, enjoying one of the first crisp nights of the fall season, the world felt just a little bit brighter.

Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.

Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem plays through October 1, 2023, presented by Kentlands Community Players performing at the Kentlands Arts Barn, 311 Kent Square Road, Gaithersburg, MD. Purchase tickets ($22, general admission; $20, students ages 15–21; $15, youth 14 and under) online or in person at the Arts Barn box office.

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Renée Elise Goldsberry, best known for playing Angelica Schuyler in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton — a role that won her a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy — has amassed a lifetime of successes on stage and screen: from lauded Broadway performances in The Lion King, Rent, and Hamilton, to major roles on popular TV shows including Ally McBeal, The Good Wife, and most recently, Girls5Eva. And anyone who has heard her belting, jazz-inflected voice knows she is a master vocalist.

But more than a singer, TV performer, or theater performer, Goldsberry considers herself a storyteller.

“I call myself a storyteller because that term best encompasses my goals,” Goldsberry shared during a recent phone interview. “Throughout my entire life, my goals have been to tell stories of human beings, Americans, women, and Black women, in whatever I do.”

Goldsberry’s upcoming concert appearance on September 30 as part of George Mason University’s ARTS by George! benefit event will reflect the breadth and diversity of her talents. The concert will feature songs by artists as varied as Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan, great jazz and pop vocalists, and the theater tunes that made her a Broadway icon, including songs from Hamilton, Rent, and The Lion King. In a wink and a nod to her standout solo number from Hamilton, Goldsberry jokes, “Everyone will leave the show feeling ‘Satisfied.’ ”

Goldberry has been touring with her band since 2017, refining and evolving a 90-minute set that she hopes will feel like a huge party for audiences.

One of the best things about the success of Hamilton, Goldsberry says, is that it opened up opportunities for her to connect with audiences who shared her love for the show. “Hamilton started off as inaccessible to most people [who couldn’t get to NYC or afford tickets]. It’s beautiful that it is everywhere now. I love to feel like I’m part of the tradition of opening the show to the world.”

Goldsberry brings her concert to the DC region on the heels of her first return to a New York theater production since Hamilton. At the Public Theater last month, she took on the lead role of Prospero in a musical adaptation of The Tempest.

Goldsberry feels a deep connection to the Public Theater, which she credits for first putting her on the radar of a young Lin-Manuel Miranda when she performed in a 2005 production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. Returning to the Public Theater for The Tempest allowed her to work with the theater’s Public Works Program, which brings together a handful of professional performers to work with NYC residents who often have no theater experience at all.

“The result is a thrilling and exhausting community-building adventure,” Goldsberry says. “By the end of the run, the entire company felt like family.” Most exciting for Goldsberry was the fact that her two children were in the ensemble. “It was the first time in my life that I didn’t have to choose between the two passions in my life!”

GMU’s ARTS by George! benefit event isn’t the only charitable work Goldsberry has been championing lately. She credits the Hamilton team, and the Miranda family, for modeling the importance of using their visibility to contribute to the world in a positive way. Goldsberry recently visited Puerto Rico in a fundraising effort with Lin-Manuel Miranda, his father Luis Miranda, and other members of the original Hamilton cast, the first such reunion of original cast members since 2017. “Being a part of the Hamilton family and being able to participate in these efforts is a gift,” the actress says.

Goldsberry’s decades-long television career is also keeping her busy. Since 2021, she has starred in Girls5Eva, a musical comedy in which Goldsberry plays a member of a one-hit-wonder girl band trying to get its mojo back. Other Broadway luminaries appearing on the show include Sarah Bareilles, Ashley Park, and Andrew Rannells. Girls5Eva aired on Peacock for two seasons. The third season, picked up by Netflix, has been filmed and will air when the current Hollywood writers and actors strike concludes.

In the meantime, Goldsberry is having a ball touring the country with her band, a team she has performed with since 2017 at numerous events like the September 30 ARTS by George! benefit event. We “blow the roof off!” at every performance, she says.

Renée Elise Goldsberry in Concert plays one night only on Saturday, September 30, 2023, at 8:30 PM at George Mason University, Center for the Arts Concert Hall, 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax, VA. For tickets ($55-$105), go online. A limited number of free tickets are available to George Mason University students.

The concert is part of George Mason University’s annual ARTS by George! benefit event supporting student scholarships at the College of Visual & Performing Arts, the Mason Community Arts Academy, Green Machine Ensembles, and the Great Performances at Mason season at the Center for the Arts.

Band:
Jordan Peters, Music Director, Guitar
Addison Frei, Keyboard/Piano
Kenneth Salters, Drums
Jeff Hanley, Bass
Kristina Nicole Miller, Tasha Michelle, Adee David, backing vocals

Renée Elise Goldsberry in Hamilton

https://youtu.be/oAu3_H5ECpw?si=J5VKJt2X4QZrkmPq

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