It’s rare to find a musical which thinks exploring adult friendships is more interesting and relevant than focusing exclusively on romantic relationships. Then again, not too many musicals move back in time, either; Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along has its share of attributes that make it not your average show. That isn’t to say it’s a masterpiece. Merrily We Roll Along, now being staged by Eric Schaeffer at the Sondheim-loving Signature Theater, has plenty…

They’re baaaaack. The area’s theater companies, that is. September marks season opener time for quite a few groups around town. Here are some of the highlights: This weekend kicks things off with the Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage festival. Get a free first look at some of the new plays premiering around town this season. Lots of stuff looks interesting — a new take on Kafka’s The Trial from Catalyst, Ken Ludwig’s version of The…

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….

DCist theater critic Missy Frederick contributed to this report. Signature Theatre’s production of Urinetown took top honors at last night’s Helen Hayes Awards, D.C.’s local theater awards ceremony, taking home 8 prizes including director of a musical (Joe Calarco), choreographer (Karma Camp), four different acting awards (Will Gartshore is pictured right accepting his award for lead actor in a musical, which he shared in a tie with Michael McElroy from Big River), and outstanding resident…

In its production of The Sex Habits of American Women, Signature proves that women’s sexual desires and exploits, hidden and otherwise, were just a whole lot more complicated and interesting in the prudish 1950s than they are today. Well, not really. But the story of a female sexuality-fixated psychotherapist and the women around him to whom he’s oblivious does prove to be a lot more gripping then the tale of a struggling forty-something single mom…

It’s easy to scare children with talk of Boogeymen and Bloody Marys, creatures in the closet, or things that go bump in the night. But we adults are immune to such terrors, right? Right? The Velvet Sky, making its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, borrows liberally from such classic childhood nightmares, from bony fingers that grab from out of nowhere to fierce, raptor-like birds which glide in ominously during many moments of the production….

“I don’t think too many people are going to come see this musical, Officer Lockstock,” Little Sally whines during the second act of Signature Theatre’s production of Urinetown. And sure, it has what Sally calls an “awful title” and is, after all, about a town where times have gotten so tough, people have to pay in order to pee. But D.C. theater lovers should certainly beg to differ with young Sally’s assessment; Signature’s current…