DC Theatre Scene . Washington’s liveliest theatre web site

DC Theatre Scene Founder Moves On to Other Projects

Jan 1, 2008 -  Walter “Ronnie” Ruff, who founded DC Theatre Scene nearly four years ago as a small-theater blog titled DC Theatre Reviews and grew it to a 9-reviewer arbiter of Washington theatre, announced today that he is leaving the website in order to pursue his own projects. (more…)

DC Theatre Scene Announces Its First Audience Choice Awards

Aug 19 — With the new season barely begun, we at DC Theatre Scene want to take some time to honor the incredible Plays and Performances of the 06/07 season.

The nominations were chosen by our staff from all professional productions in the DC area which opened between August 1st, 2006 and July 31st, 2007 (excepting Festival-only productions and Children’s Theatre). The final choices will be made by our readership.

We chose the top 3 out of 5 picks from each staff member, and compiled it into 4 polls  Best Play, Best Musical, Best Actress and Best Actor.  Details on the nominees, and the full slate of nominations are on our Audience Choice details page. The polls are in the next column to the right. (You may need to scroll down).

The polls opened today, and close Wednesday, September 5th at 6 pm. 

Help us give one last round of applause to everyone who worked to bring us the incredible Season 06/07. 

Please tell everyone about the Awards.  And don’t forget to vote.

DC THEATRE REVIEWS IS DEAD!   LONG LIVE DC THEATRE SCENE 

All right, it’s not that big a deal.  It’s just that this site has become so much more than reviews - it’s podcasts, news flashes, ticket deals, color and atmosphere - and “DC Theatre Reviews” just seemed kind of limiting.

So we changed our name and URL. And we changed web hosts - so those slow loads and disconnects should be a thing of the past.  We’ve changed our email too.  Reach us now at  theshow@dctheatrescene.com.

If you’ve bookmarked our site among your favorites, you don’t have to change a thing.  “Dctheatrereviews.com” will still take you to us.  Enjoy!

The staff of DC Theatre Reviews  Scene

This week’s Schmooze, with news from 6 musicals,  could almost be a musical in itself. A columnist unites twins separated at birth, then watches while a shoe factory musical is born, finds out the butcher and a mysterious cell phone man can be pretty scary in the dark, gets lessons from kids about ensemble work, and gets to say ‘I knew it!’ to his favorite theatre buddies. 

That’s Joel’s roundup of Blood Brothers, iMusical: The Improvised Musical, 1776, Sweeney Todd, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and Spring Awakening, appearing now in this week’s Theatre Schmooze.

Fans of Broadway musicals have just been given a tremendous present from Blue Gobo.  The musicals video archive lists more than 200 clips; the earliest ones, ranging back as early as 1935 (Jumbo), are taken largely from the Tony Awards, and the Ed Sullivan Show.  Whether you missed Tammy Grimes in Unspeakable Molly Brown, or last year’s Lestat, the collection of outstanding performances is invaluable.  We’ve added the link to our Theatre Links section.

Mon, June 4 — DCTR has just unveiled its newest column - Next Season At A Glance - a comprehensive list of the upcoming theatrical season.  Perfect for looking ahead, or, as we get into the season, for looking back.  The column will be updated as the last of the announcements comes in, as we add new companies and venues.  

Today we say goodbye to a much-praised bargain of our own - Karen Shod’s column Karen’s Hot Tips ‘n’  Tix.  Karen’s mushrooming responsibilities have obliged her to take a hiatus from her column.  Karen has been a wonderful asset to DCTR and continues to be one to the Washington theater community.

Next week, Wendy Liebowitz, a lawyer, writer and ardent theatre fan, will be assuming responsibility for DCTR’s new discount ticket column, Hot Ticket Deals.  DCTR and Wendy will continue Karen’s tradition of bringing you the latest news about money saving theatre opportunities .

The American National Theatre Critics (ANTC) today announced that it would be sponsoring worldwide theatre criticism of political events for the next two years. "Since theatre is becoming more political, and politics is becoming more theatrical, we thought the next logical step would be to have theatre critics critique political events.", an ANTC spokesperson, who asked not to be named or otherwise identified, said.  "The first set of criticism will be aimed at the Iraq War.".

(more…)

          Washington’s CityPaper, which provides the area’s most comprehensive print coverage of the arts, recognized the contributions of DCTheatreReviews.com to theater journalism in its year-end theatre round-up.

          In a December 29 column entitled "Arch History", CityPaper theater critics Trey Graham and Bob Mondello hailed "the maturation of DCTheatreReviews.com as a valuable clearinghouse for critical opinion, podcasts, photos, and bloggage."  (more…)

Once a week we send out an update of all the new reviews and news, Joel and Karen’s columns and more. Sign up by clicking here