D.C. is in the middle of Theatre Week, as the city offers low-cost tickets to dozens of shows to put a spotlight on the performing arts.
Musicals, comedies and other shows are selling tickets at $25, $45 or $65 now through Oct. 5.
“People have theaters near where they work and live, and this is a great chance to discover them,” Amy Austin said.
Austin is president and CEO of Theatre Washington, the organization behind Theatre Week. The group describes itself as “an alliance of theatre organizations, theatre-makers, and theatre supporters that promotes and nurtures a creative, equitable, healthy, and diverse regional theatre community.”
Austin said theater brings people together as an escape from everyday stress and being on their phones, and is a reminder of how much “music and performance can really change how you feel.”
Some of the standout shows include familiar scores, such as “Damn Yankees” at Arena Stage along the Southwest Waterfront.
“It’s been rewritten and redone for more of this time and this place, but it’s beautifully rendered,” Austin said. “It captures the spirit of the musical. It just has so much heart.”
Another show that puts a modern twist on a familiar story is “Merry Wives.”
“It’s set in the Bronx, but has like this African diaspora sensibility about it, with all these cultures coming together, but it’s very funny,” she said.
Another standout in the lineup is the Gala Hispanic Theatre, Austin said. That theatre puts on shows in Spanish and English.
“They’re doing ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman,’ which is a beautiful piece with two actors. The playwright is from Argentina, and it’s just a sublime time in the theater watching them tell us this story,” she said.
A new show making it’s debut in the D.C. area is “Red Pitch,” a play about soccer.
“Audiences are really eating it up,” Austin said. “It’s a great play to take your whole family to.”
Theatre Week comes amid what Austin described as a movement toward suppression of speech in the U.S., which has included book bans and temporarily taking Jimmy Kimmel off the air due to his comments on the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Some of the shows, she said, may resonate deeper with the audience, such as “American Five.” That show tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr. and his allies. It premieres Wednesday night at Ford’s Theatre in D.C.
“At a time when rights are being challenged, we’re being challenged about what we mean when we say ‘democracy,'” she said. “Those kinds of stories are just wonderful to take the time to sit and watch and learn and really feel these struggles.”
You can find a full schedule of events on Theatre Week’s website.
