Since it opened a few weeks ago the Howard Theatre has been on a tear spinning through music legends. Last weekend, for example, offered a performance by rock-and-roll legend Chuck Berry. But we're especially feeling for the venue this Saturday, May 5, when soul diva Chaka Khan will serenade the celebrated space with her repertoire of hits, including "Ain't Nobody," ... [Read]

For the May edition of Gaylarious!, their popular monthly gay and gay-friendly comedy show at the new Riot Act Comedy club, Chris Doucette and Zach Toczynski present a "ladies night" with comics Lori Sommer and Emma Willmann. Wednesday, May 2, at 8:30 p.m. Riot Act Comedy Theater, 801 E St. NW. Tickets are $15. Call 202-697-4900 or visit riotactcomedy.com. Get ... [Read]

Merriweather Post Pavilion kicks off its 2012 season with its annual Sweetlife Food and Music Festival, sponsored by delicious local salad chain Sweetgreen and headlined by Swedish electronic whippersnapper AVICII, rapper Kid Cudi and indie darlings The Shins. Also on the bill: Fun., Zola Jesus, Ben Browning of Cut Copy and local band BLUEBRAIN offering a DJ set. Local farmers ... [Read]

Singing to recorded music signals that you can't afford live musicians. What Twyla Tharp has done in Come Fly Away, putting a big band onstage to accompany recorded vocals by Frank Sinatra, signals that she couldn't afford not to have live musicians. Not if she wanted a commercial product that could justify hefty ticket prices, anyway. But it's a superfluous ... [Read]

Following on its insanely popular brunch house party La Boum every Saturday and the annual Bastille Day French Maid Relay Race, L'Enfant Cafe and Bar offers this social dining event on select Sundays each month. Speak Easy transforms the space into a Prohibition Era venue -- complete with back door entrance, dim lighting and drawn shades -- serving drinks, a ... [Read]

Every Monday night the 17-piece Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra performs a variety of music from the big band repertoire -- including pieces by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billy Strayhorn and Maria Schneider, plus originals from band members. Founded by baritone saxophonist Brad Linde and club owner Omrao Brown, the orchestra features some of D.C.'s best jazz musicians, including Linde and ... [Read]

GALA Theatre presents Puro Tango, a celebration of the tango, directed by Hugo Medrano and featuring singer Nelson Pino and other internationally acclaimed musicians, dancers and actors from Argentina and Uruguay. To April 29. GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $38. Call 202-234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org. Get Spotlight in your inbox. Join our ... [Read]

Jason Gray Pratt's Crown of Shadows: The Wake of Odysses is having its world premiere at the Round House Theatre. It offers a gripping, modern take on The Odyssey using contemporary language and leanings to paint a chilling portrait of the family the warrior leaves behind. Blake Robison directs this production starring Michael Morrow Hammack, Deborah Hazlett, Julia Proctor and ... [Read]

Masculine Impressions is the latest titillating exhibit to come to Vitruvian Gallery, the gallery devoted to male figurative art. Gary Fisher's latest series of artworks, mostly oil paintings and charcoal drawings, grows from the command "take off your clothes and make yourself comfortable." Fisher's strokes capture models doing exactly that -- stretching, flexing and relaxing in a sensual display of ... [Read]

The real estate firm Washington Fine Properties celebrates design and home furnishings offered by merchants on or near 14th Street NW and including free in-store lectures and hands-on demonstrations on topics from interior painting to bathroom design to spring trends. Among the participating stores are Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Goodwood, Home Rule, Lux Stone & Tile, Millennium, Miss Pixie, ... [Read]

One Direction, the British boy band -- and not the California pop group, suing Simon Cowell and co. for stealing their already established name -- tours in support of its totally unjustified overnight success. There's just no accounting for taste, no matter how beautiful a particular fan may be. Tickets on sale Saturday, April 21, at 10 a.m. for June ... [Read]

The eccentric pop singer/songwriter, 16 years after her debut, plans to release her first album in seven years this summer and tour to support it. Why did it take her so long? It's not clear. But clearly, she likes it long: Her fourth set follows the pattern set by her second, When The Pawn…, whose full title was an 83-word ... [Read]

The resident company of D.C.'s CityDance, Christopher K. Morgan & Artists , closes its season with Morgan's first evening-length work, Limited Visibility, exploring what we hide in our everyday lives. "Of course, like many other gay people," the openly gay Morgan told Metro Weekly, "there's a period of life where you're hiding that or revealing that or grappling with that. ... [Read]

Kathleen Akerley directs an American Century Theater production of Budd Schulberg's On the Waterfront, which has some significant differences from Elia Kazan's 1954 Oscar-winning film, but enough similarities to appeal, including all the vivid characters, speeches and drama, set in the Mob-infested New York dockyards. The ensemble cast includes Dan Corey, Joe Cronin, Cyle Durkee, Jack Powers and Caitlin Shea. ... [Read]

Opera In Cinema offers opera lovers a rare treat: select screenings of some of the most notable current productions at venerable opera houses across Europe, with some of today's greatest stars. Next up: David McVicar's popular production of Verdi's Rigoletto from the Royal Opera House. Live simulcast Tuesday, April 17, at 2:30 p.m., with an encore screening Saturday, April 21, ... [Read]

Jesus Hernandez sings with The InSeries in From My Latin Heart. The show runs to April 21, but an LGBT-geared OUT at InSeries performance, including post-show discussion, is this afternoon, Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m. Source, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $30. Call 202-204-7760 or visit inseries.org. Read an interview with Hernandez here. Follow @metroweekly ... [Read]

Puppets, dancers and a seven-piece jazz band weave together Cab Calloway's most famous songs to tell the story of a "frail" named Minnie the Moocher and her "hepcat" beau Smokey Joe in this Pointless Theatre production. Matt Reckeweg directs a cast including Aaron Bliden, Thony Mena, Sadie Leigh Rothman and Maddie Whiting telling a jazz age tragic love story. Opens ... [Read]

This weekend into next week the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre screens the legendary British comedy troupe Monty Python's popular movies, which took smart absurdity to new heights. Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life screen along with And Now for Something Completely Different, which features re-staged sketches from ... [Read]

The City Choir of Washington presents Johann Sebastian Bach's powerful, exciting "Magnificat." The evening will include variants by Mozart, Stanford and Berio. Sunday, April 15, at 5 p.m. at the National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Avenue NW. Tickets are $15 to $25. Purchase online at thecitychoirofwashington.org. Follow @metroweekly ... [Read]

Man, if we had a dollar for every time we've seen a drag queen onstage simulating a three-way with satanic puppets, we'd have... a dollar to loan you. Which would best be applied to the purchase of your mind-altering drug of choice, if you’re inclined to check out Arias With a Twist, the eye-popping collaboration between two bastions of New ... [Read]

In the past dozen years, Amy Ray has released several solo albums in between Indigo Girls records and tours, all informed more by her punk predilection than the sweet harmonious folk bliss of her work with Emily Saliers. As a solo artist Ray is best when she finds the common ground in between punk and folk: usually soft rock, edgy ... [Read]

Intended as a "holiday for space," the annual event Countdown to Yuri's Night celebrates the world's first manned space flight by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in the most non-scientific of ways: through a zany night of visual art, performance and music. Among the festivities: an art/science exhibit of local contemporary artists at Artisphere's Mezz Gallery focused on "retro-future visions of ... [Read]

In the past dozen years, Amy Ray has released several solo albums in between Indigo Girls records and tours, all informed more by her punk predilection than the sweet harmonious folk bliss of her work with Emily Saliers. As a solo artist Ray is best when she finds the common ground in between punk and folk: usually soft rock, edgy ... [Read]

After decades of abandoned decay, the Howard Theatre, the former "Black Broadway" venue, now 102 years old, will finally re-open on Monday, April 9, with a Community Day ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by a performance by D.C.'s homegrown rapper Wale. After an all-star Grand Opening Gala and Tribute Concert exclusively for donors on Thursday, April 12, D.C. native lesbian comic Wanda ... [Read]

Last we heard from Tiffany, the '80s four-hit-teen sensation was caught essentially outing her one-time boyfriend Jonathan Knight, the sensitive New Kid On The Block. She did that in an interview a year ago while promoting a SyFy Channel movie that co-starred her late-'80s teen pop rival Debbie Gibson. As you might have guessed, Tiffany's managed to make a modicum ... [Read]

In the one man show, Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You!, Jorge "Jay" Alvarez recounts his family's escape from Fidel Castro's Cuba in 1964. Gay writer and actor Alvarez impersonates a remarkable range of characters, from his stubborn abuela to an American ship-captain to his ever-persevering father Humberto. The show has toured the country, winning accolades at both New ... [Read]

Film and television actor (and Bethesda native!) John Michael Higgins (Happily Divorced, Best in Show), serves as emcee and Law & Order's Jesse L. Martin offers a special musical performance at the annual gala and auction to benefit the award-winning children’s theater. The theater's 15 past presidents of the Board of Directors will be honored with its annual Spirit of ... [Read]

The Moody Blues, the English prog-rock band, is still around -- featuring one member from the original 1964 band and two from the 1967 lineup. If you love nights in white satin, well then, you must love that they've never reached the end. Tuesday, April 3, at 8 p.m. D.A.R. Constitution Hall, 1776 D St. NW. Tickets are $60 to ... [Read]

"What if God was one of us?" Joan Osborne asked in her 1995 hit. Since then, she's gone on to tour with the Motown band the Funk Brothers, including appearing in the band's 2002 documentary film Standing In The Shadows of Motown, and supporting the Dixie Chicks a year later. Now, she's touring on the Bring It On Home tour. ... [Read]