Film, Stage, Music, Dining, more

Music | Rah-Rah for Rye Rye

Baltimore's high-energy rapper makes her Strathmore debut

Published on March 6, 2014, 8:05am

''My show is really high-energy, a lot of dancing -- Baltimore club dancing,'' Rye Rye says. Anyone who's seen the Charm City rapper perform knows she speaks the truth. It was Rye Rye, after all, who stormed the stage and fired up the crowd at the 9:30 Club in 2012 as opening act for the Scissor Sisters. She was a similarly irrepressible dancing/rapping dynamo at last year's SMYAL benefit at U Street Music Hall and at Capital Pride's party at ... [Read]

Dance | Anglophilic

The Washington Ballet celebrates British rock -- and choreography

Published on March 6, 2014, 8:01am

''All three of these choreographers are at the top of their game,'' Septime Webre says, referring to Trey McIntyre, Christopher Bruce and Christopher Wheeldon. As artistic director of The Washington Ballet, Webre has put together a program featuring works by these three choreographers, two of whom -- the two Christophers -- are British. And as it turns out, Anglophilia is the driving force behind the program, titled British Invasions. The focus is on ''the two greats of British rock and ... [Read]

Stage | Unromantic Comedies

Folger Theatre's unprecedented in-the-round staging makes Richard III an immersive experience -- and a wake-up call

Published on March 6, 2014, 12:39am

Have you ever nodded off at the theater? Do you worry that you might be particularly prone to doing just that during Shakespeare, the bard of long, complicated, verbose plays? Well, especially if you manage to snag front-row orchestra seats, you don't have to worry with Folger Theatre's new well-staged production of Richard III. Director Robert Richmond has aimed to please by bucking tradition and offering an in-the-round staging of Shakespeare's epic history play. In an unprecedented move, he had ... [Read]

Opera | Whale Song

Spectacular projections, a score that swells, and a familiar tale make Moby Dick a highly theatrical and watchable opera

Published on February 27, 2014, 8:30am

There is a special hell for serious music-lovers, and in one molten corner resides a certain kind of contemporary classical that puts more emphasis on atonality and stridency than any actual reason for it. Anyone who has felt those particular flames licking at their heels will be forgiven for thinking twice before allowing themselves to be sealed into the red cocoon of the Opera House with modern fare on the menu. Thus it is with much relief that one finds ... [Read]

Film | Oscar's Glamorous Night

The DC Center's Glamour, Glitter & Gold Oscar-watch party teams up with talent

Published on February 27, 2014, 6:45am

''It's not your regular old Oscar party,'' Michael Fowler says of Glamour, Glitter & Gold. ''It's The DC Center's Oscar party – but on hyper-drive.'' The ''hyper'' speed, it turns out, comes courtesy of local drag act Team Peaches. ''It's going to be the first year that we actually have a live performance,'' says Fowler, new chair of the board of directors for The DC Center, Washington's LGBT community center. ''The Team Peaches performance during the show is going to ... [Read]

Books | Big Apple's Late-Bloomer

Kenneth Walsh shares adventures in realizing a dream deferred

Published on February 27, 2014, 6:43am

''Sometimes people get this idea in their head,'' blogger and journalist Kenneth Walsh says. ''Oh, if I get a nose job, my life will be so much better.'' Almost immediately, naysayers chime in: ''Don't put so much focus on this one thing that you think you want.'' {Kenneth Walsh (Photo by David J. Martin)} Walsh's advice? Ignore them. ''It's everything I dreamed it would be, and everything I wanted to have happen in my career,'' he says about his life ... [Read]

Art | Creative Capital

WPA's Select 2014 at Artisphere focuses on contemporary art

Published on February 27, 2014, 6:39am

''It's a great place for people who are interested in starting to build a collection,'' Lisa Gold says of Select 2014. ''Or people who are just interested in seeing what's happening in the region.'' At least 75 percent of the works on display at this Washington Project for the Arts event, held this year at Artisphere, comes from artists in the D.C. region, more than 100 strong. Nine curators, also mostly local, were tapped to select the works for the ... [Read]

Stage | Porter House

The InSeries's new show pays tribute to the legendary Cole Porter

Published on February 20, 2014, 1:08pm

''He lit up like a child on Christmas morning about the idea of getting to work with Cole Porter music,'' Steven Scott Mazzola says. He's talking about Greg Stevens, whom Mazzola tapped last year to help create and direct The Cole Porter Project, a new commission by The InSeries. {InSeries: Steven Scott Mazzola (Photo by Angelisa Gillyard)} ''I've loved Cole Porter since I was in high school,'' Stevens explains, adding that, of all things, it was a disco version of ... [Read]

Stage | Magic Act

Jose Carrasquillo returns to GALA with a picturesque puzzle

Published on February 20, 2014, 12:59pm

''I don't do realism well, but I do magic realism very well,'' theater director Jose Carrasquillo says, by way of touting his latest show, The Girl from Tacna, now at GALA Theatre. ''It's really worth seeing because of that: Whether you like this play or not, visually it's very impressive.'' The play, written by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, is a somewhat surreal, time-shifting exploration into one Peruvian family's rich history. ''It's a memory play,'' Carrasquillo says, ''and the way ... [Read]

Stage | The Power of Charisma

Aside from its two leads, Keegan Theatre has assembled another strong ensemble for its latest production

Published on February 13, 2014, 9:01pm

As written, Gore Vidal's The Best Man ultimately intends viewers to root for William Russell over Joseph Cantwell in their knock-down, drag-out fight to become their party's candidate for president in 1960. But as performed at Keegan Theatre, we unquestionably root for outgoing President Arthur Hockstader instead. The reason is simple: Kevin Adams plays Hockstader with such command, conviction and Bill Clinton-esque charisma, you'd love to vote for him in real life. Has Adams ever been a politician? Is he ... [Read]

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