Signature Theater's Glory Days was only the second show in history to transition from D.C. to Broadway - and its run only lasted one night. The musical both opened and closed its doors this Tuesday, after running for 17 preview performances. What happened? Producers attributed the show's short shelf life to poor advance sales and negative overnight reviews. We didn't get the chance to catch the show when it was in D.C., but SanDiego.com theater......

We've got a secret for you: Sweeney Todd is a musical. We understand there might be some confusion about that, seeing as how the television ads don't have a single note of singing in them, and if you blink during the theatrical trailer, you'll miss the five seconds of Johnny Depp singing buried in the clip. Make no mistake, though. The vast majority of this film is told in song. On the one hand, it's......

Yarrrrrr. Forget Jacob Marley and Sugarplum Fairies. What DCist wants for Christmas this year is pirates. And Round House is more than happy to oblige. Their production of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (a new version by Broadway vet Ken Ludwig) fully embraces the pirate fascination that our culture has embraced even before Johnny Depp made the word "savvy" his own. The story is one familiar to many who grew up with the tale --......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

Forget Christmas shopping, paying your bills, reading articulate reviews on your favorite local blog. The Internet is for porn. Such is one of the life lessons the delightful Avenue Q, now playing at the National Theater, provides. The now-famous show is a Sesame Street for the post-college, ennui-ridden 20 or 30-something. This means it teaches us not to spell and know our colors, but instead how to cope with useless liberal arts degrees, commitment-phobic boyfriends......

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Romance & Cigarettes John Turturro's third film as a director is the sort that seems tailor made to become a cult classic. Not nearly polished or glamorous enough to be the sort of Broadway to big screen musical hit that Chicago or Hairspray was, it was too oddball to fit into the heads of most......

It's hard to believe that a musical could get you hooked on phonics. But spelling suddenly becomes irresistible in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," the touring production of the Broadway hit, now playing at the National Theater. The pleasing, goofy show takes an amalgam of precocious, oddball kids and makes you root for them all. There are archetypes for sure -- the obsessive Asian kid, the nasal, self-important geek -- but each one......

Have you heard? Geeks wish they were hot. Men love their cars, and don't seem to call after a first date. And women have to wait in long lines for the bathroom, while men are stuck waiting around for them to finish shopping. I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, the new Bethesda Theatre's first production, has been playing off-Broadway for, well, forever, and the show doesn't offer any startling revelations into the opposite sex......

Anyone at Steven Blier's latest Wolf Trap recital this past August likely wanted to hear more from mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Washingtonians had that wish fulfilled by Young Concert Artists, who sponsored her Sunday afternoon recital in the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. Cooke and her excellent associate artist, pianist Pei-Yao Wang, presented an attractive program of relative rareties from the 19th- and 20th-century song repertory to a relatively full house. The concert opened memorably with a......

>> The YMCA National Capital at 1711 Rhode Island Ave NW is hosting Mario Lopez and some one-named Broadway star for some dancin', and hoping you won't laugh. [via BrightestYoungThings] >> Salmon Try to Send Larry Craig Up the River [Wonkette] >> Mayor Fenty promised to speed up renovations on D.C.'s oldest pipelines, after low water pressure cost firefighters valuable time in last night's four-alarm Adams Morgan blaze. [WaPo] >> October 1 Means Its......

When Open Circle Theater company announced it would be reworking Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World to revolve around the Iraq war, it was hard to squelch images of flag-waving, canons booming, and rewritten lyrics resembling "I’m not afraid of anything/be it religious extremists, guns or sand." Fortunately, Open Circle’s take has much more sincerity, skill and imagination driving their interpretation, though ultimately, the work stands up better unadorned. Songs, which recently was......

The American Century Theatre’s update of the FDR-era Broadway smash Hellzapoppin’ kicks off with a terrible joke: An announcer on the P.A. who thinks he’s there for another show throws a fit when he sees the copy he’s supposed to read. It’s forced. It’s painful. It’s not funny. Then — Mercy! — a man in a gorilla suit shows up. Man in gorilla suit = crazy hilarious. But if you don't agree, then perhaps......

If you consider yourself a fan of The Fiery Furnaces, chances are, you’re the type of person who appreciates a good surprise. Though the siblings Friedberger debuted in 2003 with Gallowbird’s Bark, a fairly straightforward (if surprisingly literate) take on bluesy garage rock, things quickly took a turn for the weird. The band returned only a year later with the 76-minute Blueberry Boat, a delightfully overstuffed homage to the rock operas of the Who that......

Between remakes of The Stepford Wives, and sitcoms ranging from "Desperate Housewives" to "Weeds," it’s easy to think the catty, sterile, back-stabbing nature of suburbia has been played out recently as a topic for satire. It turns out that all you need is some super show tunes and some women who can fly to keep the genre fresh. The Witches of Eastwick, making its U.S. premiere at Signature Theater, after a successful run in London......

At this week's concerts, the National Symphony Orchestra premiered the new harp concerto that it commissioned from Mark Adamo. Adamo dedicated Four Angels to conductor Leonard Slatkin, who helped make the commission happen, and the NSO's principal harpist, Dotian Levalier, for whom the solo part was created. On Friday night at the Kennedy Center, Slatkin led the NSO through a sensitive reading of this rather traditional but hauntingly lovely score. The first movement is named......

It's a weird month when you've got no Broadway tours hitting Warner or National, but still can easily fit in four musicals. And if you're not a song and dance man (or woman), there's always three versions of Hamlet to choose from. Welcome to June in D.C. theater! Here are the highlights: About those musicals: Lloyd Webber descends upon D.C., with Kennedy Center staging The Phantom of the Opera (June 20) and Wolf Trap hosting......

When you grow up an obsessive musical theater fan, sometimes it can be a rude awakening when your artistic tastes mature. Appreciation for the best shows' haunting melodies, clever wordplay, or epic spectacle remains; unconditional love for the shows heavy on the schmaltz factor can fade (suddenly Phantom of the Opera doesn't seem like the world's most enduring love story anymore). But for recovering musical theater lovers, enduring lifelong fans, or even skeptics of the......

As April was the month of 80 zillion new play openings, we kind of thought things would slow down a bit for the theater community in May. Not the case – we’ve got lots of exciting productions to share with you, from post-modern Hamlet comedies to, well, Hamlet itself. Plus, something new from the guy behind “Schindler’s List”. Here’s what’s playing. Catalyst Theater impressed all its larger competitors by taking home the award for best......

If you walk past a theater marquee and the sign displays something ridiculous, like Beverly Hills: 90210: The Musical, three little words should make you put your reservations aside and rush to the auditorium: "Starring Carolee Carmello." The overwhelmingly talented musical theater star, known for her Broadway work in such vehicles as Parade and Urinetown, could sell just about anything. Unfortunately, she's got her work cut out with her in Kathie Lee Gifford's stab at......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In......

Well, they don’t call it Shakespeare in Washington for nothing. This month brings quite the selection of Bard-tastic choices. We’ve got Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare Theater (April 3), The As-You-Like-It-inspired She Stoops to Comedy at Woolly Mammoth (April 1), and The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Coriolanus at the Kennedy Center (April 13). Plus, Edward III just opened this week at Washington Shakespeare Company, and even Lord John Marbury's in DC this weekend, doing the......

I arrived to a half filled Black Cat last night, unsure what to expect from Danish superstars Mew. Their album, And The Glass Handed Kites, was one of the most interesting albums I heard last year, their fey yet bruising style of jangle prog a combination of Jeff Buckley's tenderest falsetto moments and the whiplash of Bloc Party's best Wedding Present imitation in one album that sequences connecting songs to great effect. However, the......

Seriously. Who doesn't love the law of supply and demand? We all learned about it in Econ 101. Yet so few seem to understand it. Maybe that's because so few of us took Econ 102 . Or maybe just because its more fun to simply twist it to justify whatever policy or proposal you want. Either way, after the jump we have this week's supply of transit news. The Examiner offers up more transit wisdom,......

It's officially December, so we find our thoughts turning to holiday shopping. Will you be giving the gift of local theater (or hoping to receive it) this season? Here are a couple of things on our wish list for the D.C. theatre community: 1. For tiny companies like Meat & Potato and Natural Theatricals to have their seats filled more frequently, and for small but innovative companies like Rorschach to get Helen Hayes nods this......

There's something strangely Disney-like about Arena Stage's production of She Loves Me. Is it the candy-colored sets? The cartoonish dancing? The opening song, "Good Morning, Good Day," which calls to mind Beauty and the Beast's "Bonjour" number? Or maybe it's just that leading lady Brynn O'Malley seems to have taken her recent performance as Belle in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast and transplanted it in D.C.? She Loves Me, a classic, romantic musical adored by......

If you do, or just enjoy hearing them, you may want to attend the Roast of Anthony Williams on October 18th at the Marriott Wardman Park. The event is part of a Southeastern University gala, and for the low price of $250, will feature jokesters like Adrian Fenty, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Councilmembers David Catania and Jack Evans, GWU President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Broadway actor and D.C. native......

Those familiar with the spectacular 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret might leave the first act of Arena Stage's current production wondering if the local theatre company played it entirely too safe with their version. The tone of that first act is one of frenetic, unadulterated fun, a sort of harmless debauchery. And Brad Oscar as our trusty emcee, while he seems to be have a grand old time in the role, takes a clown-like......

Well, classical music fans, your weekly agenda is back, and there are actually a few things to tell you about this week. Now that the rain has cleared out, you could get an early start on the season with the National Symphony's free National Labor Day Concert this evening (September 3, 8 p.m.) on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Bring something water-resistant to sit on, as the ground may still be wet. In......

Can the "tale as old as time" survive a Broadway musical makeover? True, the stage version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast has been around for some time, but those who have yet to make the nostalgic pilgrimage can head to Wolf Trap this weekend and answer that question for themselves. Love it or hate it, this is Broadway spectacle at its most elaborate. From lavish costumes to looming sets, the show exudes dollars and......

Just as it's back-to-school time for area students, it's back-to-the-boards time for the area's theatre community. September brings with it a host of new productions to get you through the lingering heat. Arena Stage bids us Willkommen, Bienvenue and Welcome with their inaugural production of Cabaret (Sept. 8). The presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson was just crying for a Shakespearean take, at least according to American Century Theatre, who will stage Macbird! (Sept. 8). Two......