Academy Award and Tony Award nominee Kathleen Turner portrays the late, liberal Texas newspaper columnist Molly Ivins. Twin sisters and journalists Margaret Engel and Allison Engel created this show, first staged in Texas and directed by David Esbjornson at Arena Stage as the company's season opening production. To Oct. 28. Kogod Cradle in the Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 ... [Read]

On August 23, Kathleen Turner will take to the stage at Arena Stage playing late, legendary, liberal newspaper columnist Molly Ivins in Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins. But next week she stops by the Newseum for a discussion about Ivins and the show with the show’s co-creator Margaret Engel, a former Washington Post reporter and ... [Read]

Cast members from the two shows currently playing the Arena Stage complex -- The Music Man and The Normal Heart, will stick around after performances this Wednesday, July 11. Why? To sing showtunes around a piano, of course. Metro Weekly sponsors the free event, giving theatergoers added incentive to see either show (though you don’t have to see a show ... [Read]

Arena Stage's Molly Smith picks up where she left off with last year's stunning revamp of Oklahoma!, this time reviving Meredith Wilson and Franklin Lacey's musical classic The Music Man, featuring such timeless tunes as "76 Trombones" and "Ya Got Trouble" and "Shipoopi." Burke Moses (Broadway's Beauty and the Beast) stars as smooth-talking "professor" Harold Hill, out to swindle the ... [Read]

Kyle Donnelly directs Eugene O'Neill's sweet-tempered, romantic comedy Ah, Wilderness!. The show stars Rick Foucheux, Nancy Robinette and June Schreiner as the Connecticut-based Miller clan. The play is O'Neill's only comedy, a coming-of-age love letter to a simpler time. To April 8. Arena Stage -- Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 6th St. SW. Call 202-488-3300 or visit arenastage.org. Follow ... [Read]

It's become so difficult to get tickets to Arena Stage's production of the Tony-winning Red, the theater has already extended the run an extra week -- and it hasn't even opened yet. A co-production with Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Red stars Edward Gero as the brilliant and passionate painter Mark Rothko facing the biggest challenge of his career. Robert Falls directs. ... [Read]

It's become so difficult to get tickets to Arena Stage's production of the Tony-winning play Red, the theater has already extended its run an extra week -- and it hasn't even opened yet. A co-production with Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Arena's Red stars Edward Gero as the brilliant and passionate painter Mark Rothko facing the biggest challenge of his career. Robert ... [Read]

Arena Stage will launch the national tour of the 2011 Tony Award-winning production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, to coincide with AIDS 2012, the international AIDS conference. The show is replacing Like Water for Chocolate, which will be postponed. "The creative process for a new musical and the economic climate can sometimes be nearly impossible to predict," said Artistic ... [Read]

Aaron Posner directs his adaptation of this beloved play based on the novel by Chaim Potok about two boys, two fathers and two very different Jewish communities in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood. Theater J offers a 10th anniversary staging of the production, with a stellar cast including Rick Foucheux and Edward Gero, at Arena Stage as the first local guest company ... [Read]

In creating a final cut of this week's Edward Albee cover story, we had to lose a few passages for space. One of those was this interesting exchange about critics: METRO WEEKLY: I guess you could also argue that in the case of a critical flop, it's not always necessarily the fault of the play. It could be the production. ... [Read]

Well known to some from NBC's The West Wing, Anna Deavere Smith is a triple threat actress/playwright/author. But she's also a storyteller and historian, capturing and recording ideas and passions and those small elements of people's lives that might otherwise go unremembered, unnoticed. In her one-woman show Let Me Down Easy, Deavere Smith brings 20 different individuals to the stage, ... [Read]

On the surface, Marcus Gardley has written with every tongue confess a kind of Southern fairy tale about hatred and racism and rejection in this world premiere play christening Arena Stage's new Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. It's an emotionally difficult work that guards itself against obvious message or sympathy. Evil is as complicated as good, and understanding either requires ... [Read]

New York theater troupe Tectonic Theater stops at the brand new Arena Stage as part of the national tour of both the original Laramie Project and the revision The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later by Moises Kaufman. The play examines the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, which focused attention on hate crimes against the LGBT community. Scott Barrow and Jeremy ... [Read]

Arena Stage's Molly Smith sets her production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's great American musical Oklahoma!in the robust world of territory life filled with a dynamic cast as rich and complex as the great tapestry of America itself. "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'," "People Will Say We’re In Love" and of course the title tune are all on tap in this ... [Read]

Arena Stage's Molly Smith sets her production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's great American musical Oklahoma! in the robust world of territory life filled with a dynamic cast as rich and complex as the great tapestry of America itself. "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'," "People Will Say We're In Love" and of course the title tune are all on tap in ... [Read]

The President and First Lady help open Arena Stage's sparkling new Southwest complex with a gala ceremony on Monday, Oct. 25, but first comes a public Homecoming this Saturday, Oct. 23, with free performances, events, demonstrations and tours. The festivities start with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11:30 a.m., and conclude with a special performance featuring the cast from the new ... [Read]