Armed with some outstanding new material, and having grown into a more confident and capable live performer than she was her previous local appearances, Sharon Van Etten enthralled a capacity crowd at the Black Cat on Saturday night, showcasing the vocal gifts and evocative songcraft that have made her one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters in independent music. more ›

In Richard Hellesen's Necessary Sacrifices, making its world premiere at Ford's Theatre, the fight to end slavery is boiled down into a dry, declamation-heavy script that rarely jumps off the historic stage. more ›

Pina, Wim Wenders' gorgeous 3D document of the Tanztheatre Wuppertal, might not leave you in tears, but it may well convert the uninitiated: fans of Wenders who know nothing of the late choreographer; devotees of Bausch unfamiliar with the German’ director’s arthouse favorites Wings of Desire and Buena Vista Social Club; and finally, film skeptics who feel 3D adds nothing but a gimmick to the moviegoing experience. more ›

Take Doug Henning's magic, the goofiness of Wayne's World, add a healthy dose of '70s kitsch, and you have Elephant Room, a charming and funny show currently running at Arena Stage. more ›

Jeff Magnum made his long-awaited return to a D.C. stage on Friday and Saturday, and his memorable, mostly solo-acoustic performance was worth the wait. more ›

Long Island’s Twin Sister have deftly perched themselves on a fine line between kitschy pastische and artful eclecticism, forging a distinctive and winsome musical aesthetic which they put on convincing display at the Rock and Roll Hotel on Monday night. Currently touring behind their first full-length record, In Heaven, the quintet delivered a dynamic performance that affirmed their place amongst the most promising young bands on the current indie scene. more ›

Described as a "comedy about relationships, faith and the fine line between compromise and regret," Theater J's production of The Religion Thing is, in fact, a melodrama that's about as subtle as a sledgehammer. more ›

Can the rich imagery of Haruki Murakami's complex novels be well served by the movie camera? We find out with an adaptation of Norwegian Wood. more ›

Two master painters at the Phillips are more different than alike. more ›

Best known as a late addition to indie-rock “supergroup” The New Pornographers, and before that as a member of Victoria, BC-based indie-rock outfit Immaculate Machine, Kathryn Calder has embarked on a burgeoning solo career over the past couple of years. more ›

The Shakespeare Theatre Company's beautifully staged production of Much Ado About Nothing entertains and amuses, making for an evening well-spent. more ›

Are We There Yet? explores the childhood dreams and real-life heroism that is space travel and a commentary on consumerism. more ›

The highly successful reworking of Pride & Prejudice, currently running at the Round House Theatre, respects Jane Austen's rich language and characters while keeping the audience engaged and entertained. more ›

As a connoisseur of fried-egg sandwiches like Spike's Sunnyside and Paila's Chemilico, I recently took on a new contender in this unfairly maligned category: the Godzilla at recently-shuttered Nouveau Vietnamese joint Ba Bay. more ›

Their most recent release may be titled Hello Sadness and their sense of humor may be nihilistic, but Los Campesinos!' dedicated following still pogoed their way around the Black Cat. more ›

For the better part of two decades, The Sea and Cake's records have been so consistently, if unspectacularly, good that it's easy to take them a bit for granted. Yet each of the band's live shows seems to come as a welcome reminder of why they stood at the forefront of Chicago's vital, cross-pollinated post-rock scene of the 1990s. more ›

You can't choose family. But you can choose whether or not to see Jack and Jill. more ›

We certainly don't blame anyone who gave up on Sting after his musical missteps of the past few years, but on Saturday night, the 60-year old pop icon proved that he's still got game. more ›

The term "short and sweet" was an all-too-apt description of EMA's blistering five-song set at the 9:30 Club on Monday night. more ›

Wild Flag's D.C. debut back in March was already one of the most riveting local shows of the year, but the indie-rock "supergroup" arguably managed to top it during Thursday night's return engagement. more ›

Can a graphic novel successfully make the transition to a live action feature film? more ›

The label "1990s revivalists" follows Yuck around inexorably, sometimes an epithet, often a term of endearment, always an apt descriptor for their retro-leaning indie-rock sound. At the Black Cat on Wednesday night, the London-based four-piece wore it as a badge of honor, more ›

D.C. natives Trans Am remain a potent and versatile live band capable of quoting from a wide array of styles and genres -- a fine compliment to the droning noise-rock instrumentals of The Psychic Paramount and the usual antics of Les Savy Fav at the 9:30 Club last Friday. more ›

I'm generally a proponent of the notion that if there is information essential to the understanding of your movie that isn't contained in your movie, then there's a good chance you've failed to do your job as a filmmaker. Andrei Ujică's The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu would be one of the exceptions to that rule. more ›

It didn't take Jens Lekman long to figure out that he was working within an austere venue more conducive to echoes than to dancing. He made the most of it by turning his set at Sixth & I into an alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking storytelling session. more ›

A large percentage of us spend our days in offices, so if a movie is going to spend much of its time there, it had better ring true. Lapses in accuracy about criminal underworlds might fly past us unnoticed, but lazy, fake workplace settings will take you out of the movie just as surely as a boom mike hanging in the frame or a reflection of a cameraman obviously visible in the mirror. more ›

50/50 has a well-meaning script that gets a lot of the details right. But it's so wrapped up in Hollywood convention that not even Seth Rogen can make this more than Lifetime for Hipsters. more ›

As he did while fronting Pavement during their 2010 reunion tour, Stephen Malkmus once again passed over D.C. in favor of Maryland. But it was worth the trip. more ›

Always an acoustically superb and visually striking place to see a show, the 800-seat Sixth & I Historic Synagogue felt like a more intimate venue than usual on Tuesday night as Laura Marling effortlessly engaged a rapt capacity crowd with her poignant songcraft and endearing stage presence. more ›