Necessary Sacrifices

Nothing truly prepares one for the remarkable resemblance of the actors David Selby and Craig Wallace to the characters they portray, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass in the world premiere Necessary Sacrifices just opened at Ford’s Theatre.  [Read more...]

Looming government shutdown means loss for Liberty

The impending shutdown of the Federal Government would also close Ford Theatre’s performances of Liberty Smith, the Ford Theatre Society announced last night. The announcement reverses a previous decision to continue the show regardless of whether the government is authorized to spend money after midnight on Friday, April 8. [Read more...]

Liberty Smith

As many in the music-theatre world will tell you, three main genres of musicals are being produced today.  There’s your “classic” fare from the golden days of 30’s and 40′s American musical.  There’s your Sondheim and Sondheim spinoffs.  And then there’s Disney. The last is marked by amiable tunes supported by somewhat witty if anachronistic lyrics in a book packed with political correctness and family values. [Read more...]

Director Matt August on Liberty Smith

Matt August returns to direct Ford’s Theatre’s world premiere of the musical Liberty Smith following up on the popular run of his direction of A Christmas Carol, that played at Ford’s from 2004 through 2008.  His previous directorial credits include the Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2006, 2007) and subsequent national tours (2008-2010).  Off-Broadway credits include Sixteen Wounded, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Judith and Meet John Doe.  August has served as a Killian Fellow for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a Robert Wilson Watermill Directing Fellow, and was a recipient of a Drama League Fellowship. [Read more...]

History will haunt Ford’s 2011-2012 Season

The ghosts of American history will join the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Be in Ford Theatre’s 2011-2012 season which the Company announced yesterday. [Read more...]

The Carpetbagger’s Children

The past and present don’t collide in Harrison, Texas so much as they come to an uneasy truce. In the early years of Reconstruction, when townsfolk feared and distrusted the southern migration of Union families, the challenge to overcome the recent past was steep indeed. A few decades later, swept up in the industrial boom of another, bigger war, the tenant farmers in agricultural towns like Harrison began to fear that the values of their small-town present were slipping into the past. [Read more...]

A Christmas Carol

Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits. Watch for when the clock strikes one… then two… then three. You won’t believe what emerges from the dark shadows.

Well, Scrooge won’t believe it. Not for a few scenes. As for us, we’ll eat it up, no questions asked. I can think of few stories more drained of suspense than A Christmas Carol. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. [Read more...]

Sabrina Fair

Ford’s Theater opened its 2010-2011 season last week with a charming production of Samuel A. Taylor’s romantic comedy Sabrina Fair.

Written in the early 1950s, Sabrina Fair opened on Broadway in 1953 and tells a Cinderella-esque story about a young girl who is looking for true love but finds her hopes and dreams stunted by the class and social conventions in place at the time. [Read more...]

Tuesday’s performance of Sabrina Fair is canceled

Ford’s Theatre announced today that it has canceled the October 12th performance of Sabrina Fair, due to a death in the immediate family of one of its cast members.

Anyone holding tickets to this performance have until October 17th to either exchange them for any other performance – the show closes October 24th – or arrange for a refund or a donation to Ford’s Theatre.

To exchange the tickets, contact your point of purchase:

  • Ticketmaster (online or by phone) buyers should call (202) 397-SEAT.
  • Ticketmaster outlets (Macy’s, etc) buyers should return to the outlet.
  • Ford’s Theatre buyers should contact (202) 347-4833 (please leave a message if you are unable to speak directly to a customer service representative).

Little Shop of Horrors

Ripped from the pages of a 50’s pulp comic, Ford’s Theatre’s Little Shop of Horrors is a colorful explosion of retro humor and sci-fi horror. This delightful production offers a simple, important lesson: whatever you do, “Don’t feed the [alien] plant.” [Read more...]