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3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Journals
D.C.'s 2025-26 theater season brings world premieres Broadway hits and bold new voices on stage
As summer winds down in Washington, D.C., one silver lining is that the city is about to have a lot more theater on its stages. Most companies and venues run their theater seasons from fall to summer, meaning the 2025-2026 theater season is about to kick off, with the unofficial start being the annual DC Theatre Week by local theater boosting group Theatre Washington. The event, which runs from Sept.18-Oct. 5, offers tickets to more than two dozen shows at discounted prices and includes related free events. For the rest of the season, local theaters have a great lineup in store: world premieres, including 'CrazySexyCool — the TLC Musical,' 'John Doe,' a new play that couples an anthrophobe with a people-loving ghost, and drag icon Sasha Velour's show 'Travesty'; classics such as 'Inherit the Wind' and 'Othello;' and twists on time-old stories including 'Julius X,' which marries the story of Julius Caesar with that of Malcom X. Though the below preview outlines the offerings from many of the local companies, several Broadway show tours are also coming through D.C. next year, including: 'Hadestown,' November 18–23, 2025 at The National Theatre November 18–23, 2025 at The National Theatre 'Some Like it Hot,' Nov. 25–Dec. 7, 2025 at The National Nov. 25–Dec. 7, 2025 at The National 'Clue,' Jan. 27–Feb. 1, 2026 at The National Jan. 27–Feb. 1, 2026 at The National 'Monty Python's Spamalot,' Dec. 16, 2025 - Jan. 4, 2026 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Dec. 16, 2025 - Jan. 4, 2026 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 'Chicago,' Mar. 31 - Apr. 5, 2026 at Kennedy Center Mar. 31 - Apr. 5, 2026 at Kennedy Center 'Moulin Rouge! The Musical,' Jun. 16 - Jul. 5, 2026 at Kennedy Center There are also some milestone anniversaries at D.C. theaters: Arena Stage in Southwest D.C. is celebrating its 75th season, Columbia Heights' GALA Hispanic Theatre is hitting its 50th season, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company just ended its 45th anniversary season. Here are some shows to consider seeing: Arena Stage: Arena's season is a vibrant blend of reimagined classics and contemporary musicals. It includes: ' Inherit the Wind,' (Feb. 25-April 5, 2026): The intense courtroom drama about the famous Scopes trial over teaching evolution in schools wrestles with faith and free thought. (Feb. 25-April 5, 2026): The intense courtroom drama about the famous Scopes trial over teaching evolution in schools wrestles with faith and free thought. 'CrazySexyCool – The TLC Musical,' (June 12-Aug. 9, 2026) This high-energy tribute to the most successful female music group of all time makes its world premiere at Arena Stage with the epic tag line 'No Scrubs. Just Legends.' Shakespeare Theatre Company: In addition to a Harlem-set update to 'Merry Wives,' and a new play set in the 'Paranormal Activity' universe, STC has once again pulled in a big name for its blockbuster show of the season: 'Othello,' (May 19-June 21, 2026): This retelling stars Wendell Pierce of 'The Wire,' and more recently 'Elsbeth' fame. Directed by Simon Godwin, this production promises a deeply resonant exploration of jealousy, love, and betrayal through Pierce's powerful presence. Ford's Theatre: In addition to staging its annual tradition of 'A Christmas Carol' and running classic revolutionary musical '1776,' Ford's Theatre will put on a work that was developed as part of its new playwrights series: 'The American Five,' (Sept 19–Oct 12, 2025) dramatizes the inner circle behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as they prepare the March on Washington and craft his iconic speech. The play by Chess Jakobs, which was honed at the theater's Legacy Commissions: A First Look series, underscores the collective effort behind a defining civil-rights moment. Ford's Theatre GALA Hispanic Theatre: The theater celebrates its 'golden season' with a mix of some of the most iconic works the Spanish language theater has put on over the years, as well as new plays. Highlights include: 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' (Sept. 4-28, 2025), which portrays two inmates in a Buenos Aires prison, including one who is a political prisoner. The play was the first Spanish language play to win a local theater association Helen Hayes award in 1994. 'Aguardiente: Soul of the Caribbean,' (April 30-May 31, 2025), is a new musical that follows two immigrant writers from Colombia and Puerto Rico living in New York City as they journey back to their childhoods. The music-filled production features traditional Caribbean rhythms such as cumbia, bomba, and currulao. Studio Theatre: The season at this 14th Street NW theater whose longtime artistic director, David Muse, announced he will leave Studio at the end of the 2026-2027 season, includes: 'Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions,' (Nov. 12-Dec. 21): The is semiautobiographical work from Pulitzer Prize-winner and D.C.-area native Paula Vogel 'traces 40 years and five evictions in a very funny play about a very unhappy family.' (Nov. 12-Dec. 21): The is semiautobiographical work from Pulitzer Prize-winner and D.C.-area native Paula Vogel 'traces 40 years and five evictions in a very funny play about a very unhappy family.' 'Jonah,' (March 11–April 19, 2026) by Rachel Bonds, is a deeply felt story of intimacy, desire, and survival, tracking one woman's life across decades. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: This downtown D.C. theater puts on its last season programmed by departing artistic director Maria Manuela Goyanes, which features: 'Sasha Velour's Travesty,' (Mar 24–Apr 12, 2026): Created and performed by drag icon and 'RuPaul's Drag Race' winner Sasha Velour, this multimedia drag performance traces a single location's queer history — from witch burnings to underground bar raids — in a fierce, theatrical reflection on resistance and identity. Theater J: The season for this theater company that performs at the Edlavitch DCJCC in Northwest D.C. includes: 'An Enemy of the People,' (Oct. 29–Nov. 23, 2025): In Amy Herzog's adaptation of Ibsen's classic, a small-town doctor risks everything to alert his community to a public health catastrophe — echoing timely concerns around truth, society, and integrity. (Oct. 29–Nov. 23, 2025): In Amy Herzog's adaptation of Ibsen's classic, a small-town doctor risks everything to alert his community to a public health catastrophe — echoing timely concerns around truth, society, and integrity. The World to Come (Feb 3–Mar 1, 2026): This world premiere co-production with Woolly Mammoth by Ali Viterbi is set in a retirement home. It celebrates the power of friendship amid chaos, prophecy, and resistance. Mosaic Theater Company: This company in residence at Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE has a season that includes: 'Dodi & Diana,' (Sept 4–Oct 5, 2025): This taut, astrological-inflected drama is a new work that explores the lives of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed through the lens of a modern day Egyptian couple marking the 25th anniversary of the tragic accident that killed the famous pair. (Sept 4–Oct 5, 2025): This taut, astrological-inflected drama is a new work that explores the lives of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed through the lens of a modern day Egyptian couple marking the 25th anniversary of the tragic accident that killed the famous pair. 'Young John Lewis,' (Mar 26–Apr 26, 2026): This bold new musical from Mosaic playwright-in-residence Psalmayene 24 chronicles the early life of Civil Rights icon John Lewis — highlighting activism, heartbreak, and "good trouble." Mosaic Theater Rorschach Theatre: The itinerant theater company's next work on the docket is: 'So Late into the Night,' (Oct 3–Nov 2, 2025): A rock-seance set as 'Frankensteing' author Mary Shelley huddles with friends — and someone from the future — for an otherworldly pre-masterpiece gathering, staged in an unconventional space with live music. Keegan Theatre: Dupont Circle's neighborhood theater offers this premiere this season: 'John Doe,' (Jan 31–Feb 22, 2026): A quirky world premiere about Zia, who fears human connection, and Doe, a ghost only she can see. Commissioned by Keegan's Boiler Room Series to develop new work by emerging playwrights, it promises intimate, haunting comedy and introspection. Folger Shakespeare Theatre: The Capitol Hill theater dedicated to the Bard is offering several plays, including:
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
A look inside the new groundbreaking reality show ‘King of Drag'
Drag queen Sasha Velour sits down with Gio Benitez to talk about the groundbreaking new show 'King of Drag,' a first-of-its-kind competition series focusing on the artistry of drag kings. June 21, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sasha Velour's ‘Big Reveal' redraws the boundaries of drag and theater
Other performers might dread glitches during shows. Sasha Velour makes them her co-stars. Her 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' offers no straightforward lip sync. Phone rings, TV static and vertical colored bars, smashed dishes, recording skips, computer viruses and flickering lights constantly interrupt her drag numbers, video art, autobiographical anecdotes and mini lectures on drag history and theory. But if these on-purpose mistakes rip the fabric of the mostly solo show, which opened Wednesday, June 4, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' champion, author and Berkeley native widens them into wormholes and crawls inside to do battle with them. As she tries to claw back control of her bit, she might wind up on the floor in tears, but she's the winner all the same. It's partly a clown show: the garish makeup, the padded body parts, the nightmarish facial expressions, the wordless physical theater fight against absurdist forces too large to understand. But in all those gaffes, larger ideas are also at work. Imperfection is key to understanding drag and camp more generally, Velour says at one point. The art form doesn't work if you don't have self-awareness — if you don't understand your flaws but 'press on' anyway. (The implied corollary: Someone like Trump couldn't do camp even if he wanted to.) In a tough time for theater locally and nationwide, with companies scaling back or closing as funding sources dwindle, 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' suggests that institutional theater programming more drag might be one way forward. Audience members certainly showed up on Wednesday, some even glammed up in drag as opposed to the standard Berkeley Rep audience uniform of earth tones and sensible shoes. And Velour's show itself is more daring, artistic and intellectual than a lot of straight plays. Some of her patter — 'After so many years of backlash,' 'Drag serves as a mirror,' 'We are here, and we are not going away' — is boilerplate; the points might be more effectively made without didacticism. But other bits of monologue evince the scholarly yet frisky understanding of drag that undergirds her book, also called 'The Big Reveal,' with the subtitle 'An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag.' 'Queerness isn't shocking or groundbreaking at all,' she says in the show. 'It's normal. It's boring.' Cultures throughout history have had some kind of drag performance, she points out — even the American military in World War II. It only becomes threatening, she says, when it's no longer performed by straight men. Her costumes — by Diego Montoya Studio, Pierretta Viktori, Jazzmint Dash, Gloria Swansong and Casey Caldwell — are celestial wonders. One skirt hem resembles the orbit of the sometime-planet Pluto, both elliptical and noncoplanar, forming part of an outfit that looks like a bottle of pink Champagne frozen right in the moment of exploding. Another piece blurs the boundary between human and furniture. In one heart-stopping moment, she lines herself up with an outline of a human form projected on a large screen behind her. Without any perceptible change in lighting, she seems to change color, blazing in the gold of a desert sunset. Graffiti gets written on her, and ropes wrap around her; body parts metamorphose and enlarge. Your eyes search for signs as to what's projected and what's tangible. She dissolves in flames. By the end, you half expect her to be able to step through the screen and get swallowed whole, the wormholes covering their tracks like magic. As Velour finds the deviant in the familiar — talk shows, Disney princesses having animal friends, audio montages of iconic phone calls in film, the pixelated desktop of 1990s-era Windows — she makes the case that drag is available to everyone, no matter how weird or normie you are. That thing that tickles you? That you find yourself returning to again and again? Drag is a way you can talk about it, and it belongs on every stage and in every sitting room in America.
