Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women began life here in Washington, as a subject suggested to the composer by Elaine Walter, artistic director of Summer Opera Theater Company, when Adamo was still in Washington. For various reasons, Adamo withdrew the opera from the little company, in favor of a later premiere in 1998, at Houston Grand Opera. This was a wise decision, because the greater media exposure from the larger company undoubtedly played some part in…

From the moment the overture begins for The Light in the Piazza, and you hear its rolling piano medleys, and see the gentle lighting fall just right on a perfect marble sculpture, you know just what this musical is going to be: lush, beautiful, and impossibly romantic. Such is the appeal of The Light in the Piazza, making its stop at the Kennedy Center this month. Whether it be the exquisite paintings that drop from…

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…

Is there any working actor with a more powerful, beautiful voice than Broadway’s “Last Great Leading Man,” Brian Stokes Mitchell? The handsome baritone’s performance last night at the Kennedy Center leaves little room for doubt. All gushing aside, Mitchell delivered a wonderful concert, pairing with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by another Broadway great, A Chorus Line’s composer Marvin Hamlisch. Though the pair’s banter was occasionally hokey and strained, this hardly detracted from the…