Parade is a musical that wreaks havoc on the emotions. more ›

D.C. does red carpet movie premieres just a little differently. We don't get many of them, and if a movie is having a star-studded debut in Washington, chances are it was filmed in the city, there's a political connection, or both. This means that the usual high-gloss glamour of these kinds of events ends up mixing, with the effectiveness of oil and water, with the stodgy blue-suited anti-glitz of the Washington elite. more ›

The creaky Pennsylvania farmhouse where my great-grandmother lived, and had since the Depression, had a room that I never really understood when I was young. It seemed to have no functional purpose; you didn't cook, eat, sleep, or watch TV there. Whatever could it be for? It was, of course, a parlor -- a room no one seems to have anymore, the room where you went to sit, and to talk, and to hear stories. That tradition of sitting down and listening to a headful of memories -- some wistful, some funny, some tragic -- is the experience of Horton Foote's The Carpetbagger's Children. Ford's Theatre serves as rather cavernous version of great-grandma's parlor. more ›

What happens when a show often relegated to high school auditoriums gets main stage treatment? Well for one thing, that man-eating plant sure looks impressive. more ›

It was a classic case of the lanky, brainy, agitating underdog versus the stouter, more experienced, more appeasement-minded line-tower. more ›

When you've got multiple Helen Hayes Awards nominees listed in your cast — as understudies — you know a production isn't exactly going to be lacking in fantastic performers. more ›

In the handy study guide that accompanies the world premiere production of The Heavens Are Hung in Black, now running at the newly reopened Ford’s Theatre, playwright James Still observes that his subject, Abraham Lincoln, is "probably the most written-about person in the world after Jesus." If that’s true, then Still's creaky but still richly rewarding drama more resembles the 16th president's The Last Temptation of Christ than his New Testament: It's a humanizing portrayal that ennobles its mighty subject by cutting him down to size. more ›