DCist's October Theater Preview
Dysfunctional relationship musicals...the Odyssey revisited...a one-nun show...one can't say the D.C. theater scene is relying only on Halloween for their October programming inspiration (though we do, at least, have some Poe still playing). Here's an overview of what's opening this month.
Not only a new show, but a new theater! Bethesda Theatre hopes that I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, a relationship musical which has been compared to Seinfeld in its sensibilities, will become a permanent fixture in Montgomery County (Oct 4).
It's that other Jonathan Larson musical...Metro Stage is trying its hands at Tick Tick Boom (Oct. 11).
In keeping with its pledge to become a more expansive, inclusive arts group, Ganymede Arts (formerly Actors Theater of Washington) will host its first GLTB Arts Festival featuring plays, readings and more (Oct. 19-28).
Can you spell A-N-T-I-D-I-S-E-S-T-A-B-L-I-S-H-M-E-N-T-A-R-I-A-N-I-S-M? No? Well, if you just like a good laugh, you'll be equally at home at The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the National Theatre (Oct. 23).
Also This Month
- Signature's The Word Begins is talking about spoken word performance (Oct 2).
- Catalyst's next challenge is a Kafka-esque one, The Trial (Oct. 3).
- Late Nite Catechism at Olney may prove to be habit-forming (Oct. 4).
- Teatro de la Luna's International Festival of Hispanic Theater begins (Oct. 9).
- Have a toga party with WSC as they stage Caligula (Oct. 11).
- Theater Alliance's Ambition Facing West moves between Croatia, Japan and...Wyoming (Oct. 12).
- Classical theater company Natural Theatricals has a new musical premiering, Will You Know It's Me? (Oct. 13).
- Pastoral comedy, anyone? Folger theater performs As You Like It (Oct. 17).
- Mamet-lovers will be thrilled to discover Theater J is staging Speed The Plow (Oct. 18).
- Meat and Potato's doing Rashomon? That's not how I remember it. (Oct. 18).
- Arena's got a new musical about African-American women living together, The Women of Brewster Place (Oct. 19)
- Kennedy Center's musical cabaret series, "Barbara Cook's Spotlight," features Cook herself (Oct. 19-20) and Chess alum Judy Kuhn (Oct. 26).
- He may not have written Hamlet, but Kit Marlowe should still provide plenty of fodder for Rorschach's next production (Oct. 28).
- Take the Odyssey, swap the hero's gender, and focus on the working mom -- you've got Current Nobody, opening at Woolly Mammoth (Oct. 29).
Still Playing
American Century Theater assembled a strong cast for Ah, Wilderness!, which closes Oct. 6; Oct. 14 is the last weekend to see the wacky Batboy: The Musical, the innovative Well at Arena, Gala's recent Blind Date and the well-received A Lesson Before Dying at Round House Bethesda; My Children, My Africa! at Studio and No Exit by Scena close Oct. 21; two days later, it's the end of Of Mice and Men at Olney; Constellation Theatre company's The Arabian Nights bows Oct. 21 as well; the haunting The Fall of the House of Usher closes, appropriately, on Halloween; and both Toby's Dinner Theater's Titanic the Musical and Shakespeare Theater's The Taming of the Shew stretch into November.