So the big winners at last night’s Helen Hayes awards were… puppets? Indeed, Aaron Posner’s unique vision for Measure for Measure, produced at the Folger this year, where puppets took on many of the play’s roles, earned him a best director trophy (he tied with Michael Kahn, for his zany take on Love’s Labor Lost), as well as the award for Outstanding Resident Play. Signature Theater’s Assassins won the most awards of the night with…

Tonight, the D.C. theater community will descend on Warner Theater, decked out in tuxes, kilts, ball gowns and whatever else the artsy crowd comes up with to approximate “black tie” attire. It’s the night each year they get the chance to party their brains out and recognize the outstanding contributions they’ve made this year; it’s the Helen Hayes Awards. As busy theater critics with day jobs, we don’t get the chance to attend and review…

If you’re going to stage a free reading of Twelfth Night, having it January 6 to kick off the city’s “Shakespeare in Washington” festival counts as pretty good timing. Plus, it has Balki. The event will take place at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall at 6 p.m. tomorrow, and will star Bronson Pinchot, Veanne Cox, Jennifer Dundas, as well as a number of our favorite D.C. actors, like Will Gartshore, Scott McCormick and Regina Aquino….

With its period costumes and lilting music, you might expect The Beaux Stratagem, now being staged at Shakespeare Theatre, to be a very civilized little British comedy, a kind of gently amusing work rather than anything particularly uproarious. It might earn a chuckle here or there, but didn’t seem like the kind of work to have you doubling over in your seat at any of its antics. So much for expectations – Beaux is extremely…