Ladies might still love Cool James, but they’ve found a place in their hearts for their girl Cardi B. Single ladies, married ladies, ladies who love ladies, all kinds of grown-and-sexy ladies were at Capital One Arena for the D.C. date of the Grammy-winning rap diva’s “Little Miss Drama Tour.”
Yes, plenty of guys, and gays, pulled up, too, but it was “the ladies!” that Cardi addressed most often once she took the stage a Madonna-like ninety minutes past the advertised start time (said with love, no shade, from one who’s seen Madonna on tour four times).
Pre-show, the Cap One crowd got a good warmup from the track-suited DJ spinning hip-hop and R&B. Although, based on my section — and the lady in super-short schoolgirl attire twerking on her man while strangers shouted, “Work, bitch!” — people came already warmed up by other means.
Twerking has figured prominently in the career of Bronx-born stripper-turned-reality star-turned-cultural icon Cardi, who introduced herself to the crowd, appropriately enough, opening with a fiery “Hello,” off her latest Billboard chart-topping album Am I the Drama?.
Twerking, whining, and shaking, Cardi, her wavy hair an electric blue, had the crowd up and dancing throughout the show, a raucous, sometimes risqué, but not raunchy, run through Am I the Drama?, and tracks off her multi-platinum debut Invasion of Privacy.
Rather than a straight-up rap concert, with an artist bounding from one side of the stage to the other, trailed by hype men, Little Miss Drama is built like a true pyrotechnic pop-star spectacle, with jaw-dropping costumes and a lineup of over a dozen backup dancers.
The sets are modest, and Cardi hits the choreography with more poise and enthusiasm than precision, but the show gives bold, liberating joy constantly.
The well-ordered setlist hits solid combos, like the sequence of Drama tracks “Magnet” and “Salute” performed alongside her dancers as shirtless soldiers, sliding into the more laid-back “Check, Please,” before taking the crowd back to the heights with top-ten banger “Enough (Miami).”
At every turn, Cardi, rapping over backing tracks, commanded the room, her irrepressible personality filling the space. Dressed as a native goddess, she took Cap One back to her Afro-Caribbean roots with a self-described Latina sequence highlighted by a boisterous “Bongos,” one of her hit collabs with Megan Thee Stallion, followed by a festive, flag-waving “Bodega Baddie.”
Then, diving into a run of hard rap tracks, Cardi, of course, couldn’t leave out “WAP,” another racy Megan collab. That grinding performance proved the perfect precursor to one of the night’s highlights: a twerking contest judged by the audience.
While Cardi took a break, contestants drawn from the crowd took their shot at $5K, shaking what their mama gave them. To the crowd’s screaming delight, a lady whose crop top revealed she was twerking for two won by overwhelming applause, though she got decent competition from one free-wheeling fellow contestant.
There was no competition for Little Miss Drama, however. Cardi returned for the show’s final act gleefully announcing, “This is my 30th sold-out show, motherfuckers!”
Leading her line of dancers through a triumphant “Outside,” she closed with her lovably cocky debut single “Bodak Yellow.” The ladies all rapped along, “I don’t bother with these hoes/Don’t let these hoes bother me/They see pictures, they say ‘Goals’/Bitch, I’m who they tryna be.”
The Little Miss Drama Tour acts up in just four more cities, Raleigh (4/11), Charlotte (4/12), Ft. Lauderdale (4/14), and Atlanta (4/17-18). Visit cardib.com/tour.
Little Monsters filled Capital One Arena to the rafters for D.C.'s second night of The Mayhem Ball, Lady Gaga's blockbuster world tour in support of her sixth solo studio album, Mayhem.
An ornate gothic dance party staged among the towering remains of some Romanesque opera house, the Mayhem Ball is as gorgeously grandiose as the superstar herself. Yet, also like Gaga, the show throughout reflects the sincere, down-to-earth sensibilities of an artist dedicated to her craft, her music, and to making a human connection.
Sounds earnest, but so is Stefani Germanotta, even when she's rolling onto stage fitted into a blood-red hoop skirt two stories tall to sing the first banger of the night, "Abracadabra."
Set in the not-quite-literal shadow of the Capitol, the Folger's young and zingy As You Like It delivers Shakespeare's rom-com amid the people of D.C., not the politicians. It's a pointed nod to the fact that Washington may be the nation's capital, but it's also a living, breathing city with its own microcosm of love, lives, and family hierarchies.
Artistic director Karen Ann Daniels' vision, directed by Timothy Douglas, delivers the kind of intimate, gently interactive theater that pairs so well with the Folger space, one that says, "Come right in, this is for you."
Even better is the team's decision to go full-bore classical and keep the adaptation cute but judicious. There is no question this is set in today's world with scenic designer Gisela Estrada's painted city murals and Celeste Jennings' costuming, but this is Shakespeare without compromise, and it deeply respects its audience.
At its annual reveal party, the Capital Pride Alliance unveiled the theme for 2026 Capital Pride: "Exist. Resist. Have the Audacity!"
The theme is rooted in what the organization calls "the undeniable truth that our existence is not up for debate," and serves as a call for the community to "live loudly and proudly, stand firm against injustice and erasure, and embody the collective strength that has always defined the LGBTQ+ community."
"This year's theme is both a declaration and a demand," said Ryan Bos, CEO and president of the Capital Pride Alliance, in a statement. "'Exist. Resist. Have the Audacity!' reflects the resilience of our community and our responsibility to protect the progress we've made. As we look toward our nation's 250th anniversary, we affirm that LGBTQ+ people have always been and always will be a part of the United States' history, and we will continue shaping its future with strength and resolve."
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