There are certain theatrical presentations you can always depend on for sheer holiday joy at this time of year. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is definitely high on that list. The music has spawned many different interpretations over the years, including Duke Ellington's version featuring a swinging saxophone section. The music is also used in many television commercials so even if you didn't know the music was from the classic ballet, chances are you at one point or another have been exposed to The Nutcracker.

How far would you go to be with the one that you love? Sonya Kelly's autobiographical How to Keep an Alien, now being presented by Solas Nua, explores this question with warmth, humor, and a tour-de-force performance from DC acting goddess Tonya Beckman. This production marks the first time Kelly has not performed in the show herself.

There are some plays in the history of Broadway that you just scratch your head as to why they didn't have a longer run. Paula Vogel's Indecent is definitely one of those plays. It opened to rave reviews on Broadway, won the Tony Award for best direction and only ran 128 performances. The award win gave the show a considerable box office bump, but not enough to convince the show's producers to make a run of it in the summer heat. Thankfully, PBS preserved the Broadway production for posterity and the play is now getting a much deserved second life in regional theaters across the country.

Any one of us that has ever seen an animated feature or short produced by the Walt Disney Animation Studios knows that the music is always a big component in making the film a success. Let's face it, aren't you all still singing 'Let it Go' from Frozen even though the film is now five years old? Songs like that one and classics like 'Heigh Ho' and 'A Whole New World' are etched in our collective memories for a lifetime.

I had two main questions about the world premiere Kennedy Center commission of HOW TO CATCH A STAR: would it match the original children's book's ability to appeal to kids and adults alike, and would it be as visually charming as Oliver Jeffers's illustrations? I'm pleased to report that the answer to both is a resounding yes. Appropriate for ages three and up, HOW TO CATCH A STAR uses stunning projection design (Olivia Sebesky) and quirky choreography (Orange Grove Dance Company) to tell the story of how a boy's seemingly impossible dream of catching a star leads him to discover important lessons about life.

Now playing at the Atlas Performing Arts Center is an all-female, 1930s Tinseltown take on Oscar Wilde's WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, directed by Robert McNamara. It's an undeniably creative angle to approach Wilde, in the vein of Scena's previous gender-bending production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, and it has its share of funny and dramatic moments. However, its busy design and occasionally manic delivery miss the mark at times.

Long Way Down delves deeply into the circumstances surrounding urban gun violence, and the impacts which it has on those left in its bloody wake.

600 Highwaymen's THE FEVER, which has made its way to Woolly Mammoth for a limited run after a national and international tour, is a collaborative piece requiring full audience participation. I can't say much about its content, as the slightest spoiler would either ruin the effect or fail to do the show justice. But I can say for certain that it's well worth experiencing as an exercise in empathy and a reminder that, yes, we're in this together. Are you intrigued?

Over the past few years DC's Constellation Theatre Company (CTC) has branched out from its mostly classical offerings by presenting a few musicals. They include the blockbusters Avenue Q and Urinetown and one lesser known entity – the Andrew Lippa version of The Wild Party. In all three cases, the shows fit perfectly into CTC's home at Source.

Few and far between are the times that we reviewers have a perfect night in the theater. Generally, we can find something to complain about in any given production. It could be we love the performances, but not the script or vice versa.

For many high school students, just the dream of seeing a Broadway show is something pretty awesome. Now I want you to imagine you not only being able to see the national tour of the smash hit juggernaut musical known as Hamilton onstage in the Opera House at Kennedy Center but being able to perform on that very stage on the set where it happens.

Theater J's production of The Pianist of Willesden Lane, adapted and directed by Hershey Felder, is a timeless piece of storytelling.

The late great comic genius/activist Dick Gregory was a trailblazer for so many reasons. He told it like it was and didn't care what you thought.

Sometimes a show comes along on Broadway that leaves you saying, 'Hmm I wonder what it would be like without the large scale production?' The 2014 Jason Robert Brown/Marsha Norman musical The Bridges of Madison County is one of those shows. It had a large production concept that I felt swallowed the small story it was trying to tell. Mind you Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale gave incredible performances as the two leads and Jason Robert Brown rightfully deserved his two Tony Awards for Best Score and Orchestrations after the show had already closed.

I think it's safe to say that guns in America might be one of the most divisive and important topics today. Nowadays school shootings are on the news more frequently than ever and there is usually a story every week about some kind of incident involving a gun.

You might say that Arena Stage's Artistic Director Molly Smith is responsible for some of the most socially and politically conscious theatre produced in the DC area. Her Power Plays initiative is just one example of how she presents work that entertains, educates and promotes discussion after viewing.

So far, in our four part Vblog series on the making of The Theatre Lab School of  the Dramatic Arts' upcoming production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, we've seen much happen in a short time. The production is part of Theatre Lab's Summer Musical Institute.

We all know how hard the life of a performer can be. You inevitably have to take gigs you don't want to take in order to make some income. So, what happens then when you are a classically trained actress and the only jobs you can get are on crime reenactment shows? The good folks at Guillotine Theatre show you with their entry into this year's Capital Fringe Festival, Deadlie Affairs: Arden of Faversham.

Last week, we started a four part vBlog series on the making of The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts' upcoming production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.The production runs July 19th to 21st for four performances as part of Theatre Lab's Summer Musical Theatre Institute for Teens.

It's no secret that I think the Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts offers the best educational theater experience in our area. Their offerings this summer, as part of the Summer Musical Institute for teens, is no exception - and it's a big one. They're presenting the DC premiere of the Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz musical adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The company only has three and a half weeks before it's four performance run beginning on July 19th.

Throughout theatrical history there have been many cases where the acting and physical elements of a show have hidden the woes of a bland script. Playwright Laura Schellhardt needs to thank Northwestern University's Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts profusely for taking Ever in The Glades and giving it a killer world premiere production to hide her script's inequities.

A cast of Broadway and television actors with vocal, dance, and comedy chops to spare join with a much-loved featured local theater star to deliver a must-see, entertaining semi-staged performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning (1962) musical comedy.

The older I get, the more ornery and unforgiving I become. When the American Pops Orchestra (APO), under the direction of Luke S. Frazier, played the opening bars of their Let's Misbehave: Cole Porter after Dark concert in the Fichandler at Arena Stage this past Saturday evening I was concerned.

The company that makes great theater for everyone is at it again. Taffety Punk Theatre Company's mission is, and always will be, to put out a good product while making it affordable for everyone. Tickets are $15 and there are also “pay what you can” performances. The current production, well worth the ticket price and then some, is a knockout version of Moliere's tale of the great lover Don Juan. It stars the superb DC actress Tonya Beckman in what, so far, is the role of her career.