Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s Matilda the Musical brings plenty of charm, comedy, and commitment to the stage, led by a hardworking cast and a strong group of young performers. The production offers big laughs, memorable character work, and moments of real heart, even as the musical’s dense storytelling and tonal shifts occasionally make for a more complicated evening. A lively, family-friendly production with plenty to admire, especially in the performances carrying it forward.

Aurora Fox and Phamaly Theatre Company’s Violet is a visually stunning, deeply thoughtful co-production that treats access, disability, and healing with care, complexity, and theatrical grace.

Town Hall Arts Center’s Avenue Q heads into closing weekend with a sharp, funny, and technically impressive production that finds fresh heart in the Tony-winning puppet musical.

A personal reflection on DCPA Theatre Company’s Somewhere, Matthew López’s moving portrait of a Puerto Rican family chasing dreams while their neighborhood disappears around them. Written from an artist’s perspective, this essay explores displacement, realism, memory, and the kind of theater that asks us to look harder at the world.It All Begins Here