Kennedy Center: Last News

To Kill a Mockingbird (★★★★☆), Aaron Sorkin’s riveting adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.At some point in U.S. history, the race, class, and gender dynamics driving Lee’s combustible scenario might feel quaint, laughably antiquated, obsolete.

Wilson Chapman editorFunny Or Die owner Henry R. Muñoz III will donate $1 million dollars to establish a theater at the Smithsonian’s future National Museum of the American Latino.Muñoz, who is a health care entrepreneur, announced the news with his husband Kyle Ferari-Munoz on Wednesday.

Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear are taking their popular musical theater album “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” to The Kennedy Center.The two will perform a one-night only concert event at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, set for July 26. The event will see Barlow and Bear perform the songs from their album with accompaniment by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Reineke.

Carmen. Fabiano is Don José, the humble soldier who spurns everything and everyone else after becoming infatuated with the titular seductress, played by fellow opera superstar Isabel Leonard.“In light of the way the world is right now, Carmen could seem taboo for some people and some sensibilities, as a man basically violently murders a woman at the end of the opera,” he says. “But we still today face huge problems with violence against women in our society, where men stalk women until they’re murdered.

When the White House Correspondents’ Association hosts its first dinner in two years on April 30, it’ll be matched by the return of another D.C. tradition: pre- and post- event receptions, dinners and brunches that have made for a weekend of socializing and schmoozing.

Mean Girls, the musical adaptation of Tina Fey’s iconic 2004 film, is now back in “fetch” action.The show’s First National Tour, which had kicked off in Buffalo in the fall of 2019, has finally resumed for a run including a three-week stop at the Kennedy Center.Fey adapted her screenplay to create a plucky and wry book further enhanced by songs as appealing as the story, all developed in hodgepodge pop pastiche fashion by Fey’s husband, composer Jeff Richmond working here with lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde).With Casey Nicholaw as director/choreographer, the musical Mean Girls moves with the same exaggerated, kinetic energy as that of an earlier Nicholaw production, The Book of Mormon.The show also calls to mind Dear Evan Hansen due to Scott Pask’s digitally driven set design, a marvel developed with video designers Finn Ross and Adam Young and using sophisticated and colorful projected LED imagery to frame scenes in the jungle, in school, and at home.Danielle Wade stars as Cady Heron, the Janus-faced heroine who works to infiltrate the “Queen Bees” clique led by Nadina Hassan as Regina George.Megan Masako Haley plays Gretchen Wieners and Jonalyn Saxer plays Karen Smith, while Eric Huffman is “almost too gay to function” as Damian Hubbard and Mary Kate Morrissey plays misfit sidekick Janis Sarkisian.The main cast is rounded out by Adante Carter as Aaron Samuels, Kabir Berry as Kevin G., Lawrence E. Street as Mr.

Don Quixote.In honor of the center’s 50th anniversary season, the acclaimed New York-based company once again revives the signature duet of bravura dancing between the spirited maiden Kitri and her charming amour Basilio — this time performed in its proper place as the stirring climax to the full-length Don Quixote.A sweeping and romantic tale, the rollicking, high-spirited ballet was developed by legendary Russian choreographer Marius Petipa, with further refinement by Petipa’s former student and regular assistant Alexander Gorsky.Set to music by Ludwig Minkus in a staging by ABT’s Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie and longtime Regisseur Susan Jones, Don Quixote offers what the company calls “a feast of choreographic fireworks.”A different coupling of dancers from the company’s starry roster will be featured at each of five performances in the Opera House, kicking off with Isabella Boylston as Kitri and Daniil Simkin as Basilio on Thursday, March 31.The premiere dance organization, decreed “America’s National Ballet Company” by an act of Congress in 2006, will mark its return to the Kennedy Center earlier this week with two evening performances of the mixed-repertory program “ABT Forward.”Billed as a showcase of “the company’s artistry in three dazzling works by today’s modern masters of choreography,” the program includes Bernstein in a Bubble, a work by Alexei Ratmansky developed in pandemic quarantine and inspired by the variety, charm, and quintessentially American spirit of Leonard Bernstein’s Divertimento; ZigZag, a joyous piece, set to songs by iconic crooner Tony Bennett, from Jessica Lang, hailed as a “master of visual composition” by Dance Magazine; and Single Eye, a new, innovative work by Alonzo King and set

Funnier Than Fiction: Real Hot Girl Sh*t, presented in Studio K of the REACH, includes Rabia Chaudry, bestselling author of Adnan’s Story and executive producer of HBO’s The Case Against Adnan Syed, sharing her side of the story of a 1999 Baltimore County murder that got amplified in 2014 through the popular Serial podcast.Another standout is the mononymous Meshelle, self-styled as “the Indie-Mom of Comedy,” as seen on Martin Lawrence Presents The First Amendment Stand Up on STARz and Search for the Funniest Mom in America 3 on Nickelodeon.Also taking the stage is wife and mother Gabby Shea, the “Best Storyteller in Philly” Marjorie Winther, the 2022 Moth StorySLAM Champion Ansa Edim, therapist and DC Writers’ Salon lead Ali Cherry, and Shabnam Aslam, a second-generation Iranian-Pakistani-American passionate about her work grounded in humanitarianism, human rights, and empathetic actions.Friday, March 18, at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $25.

Joe Biden has appointed 14 members to the President’s Advisory Committee on The Arts, in which they will serve as representatives for the Kennedy Center.

Jesus Christ Superstar took shape as a landmark album.Released in 1970 to resounding success, that recording captivated audiences worldwide, spawning the original Tony-nominated production, the cult classic 1973 film, and countless concerts, adaptations, and revivals — including, nearly 50 years later, director Timothy Sheader’s acclaimed London production staged by Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.Now, Sheader and choreographer Drew McOnie’s driving, modern-dress iteration is repping the musical’s 50th anniversary on a North American tour, currently anointing the Kennedy Center Opera House with dulcet voices and shredding guitars.Performed by a youthful cast wielding microphones and playing instruments, supported by a stellar orchestra stacked behind them on scaffolding, the show strikes an agreeable balance between concert and theater.“Our production is based off the original concept album,” says Paul Louis Lessard, whose gold-lamé-frocked King Herod is an impish delight in the show, challenging Jesus to prove himself the miraculous Christ. “The idea was, if you put on the record at the beginning of our show and pressed play, what you experience with our production is what it would be like to listen to that record all the way through without stopping.”Because the production’s focus is honoring Webber and Rice’s score, Lessard adds, “our creative team was very encouraging about every performer bringing themself to the role, and making the music the priority of the show and this interpretation.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaEdie Brickell has penned “38 Minutes,” a new musical about her personal experience living through the 2018 false alarm nuclear missile alert that shook Hawaii.The title is a reference to the length of time between when the state’s residents were advised to seek shelter and the moment when officials finally announced that a miscommunication during a drill at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency had triggered the terrifying warning.“38 Minutes” will receive a workshop this February in Los Angeles following a successful 2019 reading. The workshop cast will be led by Tony nominee Carmen Cusack, who starred in “Bright Star,” the 2016 Broadway musical that Brickell wrote with Steve Martin.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATERThe acclaimed modern dance company, founded more than 60 years ago, has been an integral part of programming at the Kennedy Center from the very start, performing at the arts complex’s formal opening ceremony in 1971. This year, the company returns to celebrate the center’s 50th anniversary with a week-long run of performances in the Opera House.Per tradition, every performance ends with Revelations, the signature masterpiece Ailey created in tribute to his African-American heritage, drawing inspiration from childhood memories of growing up in the Black church in Texas as well as from the writings of James Baldwin and Langston Hughes.

Kourtney Kardashian looks super stylish in a black ensemble during a date night out with boyfriend Travis Barker in New York City on Friday (October 15).

Pussy Noir is no stranger to the Kennedy Center. “I went to Duke Ellington School of the Arts for high school, so we sang there quite often,” says the D.C.

By Ted Johnson

Jesus Christ, Superstar at the Kennedy Center