Washington City Paper

The Fall Arts Guide is here. We’re looking at what’s happening across D.C.’s arts scene—from the return of punk on the Mall, to how comedians are laughing at the Trump admin, and the case for theater education in the age of AI. Plus, 70 concerts, exhibitions, and events for your fall calendar.

“That Wicker is almost as sexy as it is funny is a surprising and delightful plus,” writes critic Chris Klimek. Klimek reviews the grown-up fairy tale about a middle-aged sexual awakening set in the Middle Ages.

Menopunks founder Alicia J. Rose is “making a movement to start a hormonal revolution.” As Rose arrives in D.C. for a show with punk bands Heavens to Betsy and Calamity Jane at the Black Cat on Oct. 30, she talks Menopunks’ podcast, documentary, and Hormonal Bill of Rights.

On Background features Kara Swisher, Inner Spaces bring Iraqi Italian music to Hill Center, and a pair of photography exhibitions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hirshhorn. Check out our picks for this week in D.C.:

Detroit’s alternative rock band Sponge woke up Wednesday to find their trailer broken into outside the Holiday Inn in College Park. Six of the band’s instruments were stolen. Christina Smart has the story:

Since its founding in 1988, the Miss Adams Morgan pageant has been an underground affair. But this Halloween, the 38th iteration of the annual drag pageant is coming out at the Washington Hilton. City Paper contributor D.R. Lewis digs into the history of the event:

“Staggering and provocative, Fjord is the kind of movie where viewers cannot think about it without first considering their personal baggage,” writes critic Alan Zilberman. Read Zilberman’s review of Cristian Mungiu's Palme d’Or-winning courtroom drama, Fjord:

D.C.’s only dancewear store opened last month inside the Dance Institute of Washington’s Columbia Heights studio. Owner Kiara Ebron is on a mission to make shopping for dance classes easier for dancers of all races, sizes, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“Whalefall—which Daniel Kraus adapted, with co-writer-director Brian Duffield, from his own 2023 novel—is truly its own warm-blooded beast,” writes critic Chris Klimek. “Call it Ishmael.”

D.C. AG Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit against defunct Ward 7 child care center Little Samaritan alleging its owner failed to pay six workers wages they were owed when it closed. More here:

Post-COVID, the local music scene has wondered about the future of DC's house shows & DIY venues. To understand who's picking up the torch, you need to know who lit the flame & who kept it burning. @taylorruckle.bsky.social tells the story for @wcp.bsky.social here

Ticket Policy Forum, the organization representing third-party ticket resellers SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, and TickPick, filed a lawsuit to block enforcement of the RESALE Act, which the D.C. Council passed in July. Christina Smart has the story:

Making my debut at @wcp.bsky.social by reviewing the new Sense and Sensibility, which doesn't reach the heights of Ang Lee's 1995 classic, but is a worthwhile watch all the same. Esmé Creed-Miles deserves to be such a star:

The Social Reckoning is a sort-of sequel to 2010’s Best Picture-nominated landmark The Social Network, but it hardly “ever recalls the collisions of ego that made The Social Network so enduring,” writes critic Chris Klimek. His review:

4️⃣ stories for day 4️⃣ of the Homeless Crisis Reporting Project! Thanks @ggwash.org and @wcp.bsky.social for your reporting. Read all 10 stories now at https://bit.ly/4n3QWYE.

In NAZA, filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor talk to members of the IDF about the modern methods they use. They “may not overwhelm the audience with horrifying imagery, but their dogged quest to document Israel’s recent tactics still has genuine power,” writes Alan Zilberman.

The District’s supply of housing vouchers has finally been replenished. Since April, caseworkers and residents have been without access to essential programs. While this may be a win, the new vouchers still don’t meet the city’s needs. City Paper contributor Madi Koesler has the story.

Music has found a home in ordinary houses in D.C. for decades. “There’s been a tradition of, by hook or by crook, looking for places to play,” says Ian MacKaye. Amid D.C.’s fast-changing landscape, local artists tell us about the past, present, and future of the area’s DIY music venues.

Today is the last day to take our reader survey and help shape the future of City Paper. Make your voice heard: What do we need to know, and what should we do more of? As a thank-you, you’ll be entered to win a $50 gift card to Lyman’s Tavern or a local bookstore of your choice.

Director Psalmayene 24 relocates Shakespeare’s Vienna to the Jim Crow South in Folger’s fresh production of Measure for Measure. “This treatment is as cohesive and compelling as any we’ve seen in a very long time,” writes critic D.R. Lewis.

In Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights, five women join forces to tell stories of nefarious djinns, resourceful townsfolk, and death-defying escapes to save themselves from a bloodthirsty king. “Every piece of Hakawatis serves to embrace you in the warmth of a good story,” writes Jared Strange.

This week’s page three photo @wcp.bsky.social

“A day of peace, love, justice, and music.” Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters headlined Tom Morello’s sold-out Power to the People festival benefiting HeadCount and VoteRiders. Contributor Christina Smart was in the crowd at Merriweather Post Pavilion to capture the scene:

Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson elevate Colleen Hoover’s trashy erotic thriller, but not too much. Critic Alan Zilberman reviews Verity, out now:

Tom Cruise plays a petrol-pushing oligarch in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s climate-collapse satire Digger. It’s “a bold, half-successful film” that critic Chris Klimek has decided to spoil for you in his review:

The Spirit are in third place heading into the final month of their season, local players get national team call-ups, and Trinity Rodman is giving away hats on Fan Appreciation Day. Here’s the latest Footie Report:

Somewhere Over the Border merges the American dream “with the bitter reality many of its seekers’ face,” writes critic Daniella Ignacio. Ultimately, Brian Quijada’s new musical “reminds us that choosing optimism is not naive or childlike—and joy can be defiant.”

“The familiarity of a bar experience, but with cannabis.” An alternative to D.C.’s bar scene is quietly growing in the city’s newly expanded medical cannabis market: weed lounges and summer gardens. Contributor LJ Dawson has the story.

Loosely inspired by the titular blues maven, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom uses the singer as a conduit to explore racial power structures, masculinity, and living through cultural shifts. Critic Stephanie Rudig reviews the current co-production from Round House and Olney Theatre.

Our Carryout Critic tries Norma’s Homestyle Breakfast, a no-frills spot just off of Minnesota Avenue NE that’s all about family and comfort—and pancakes the size of your head.

“A slap-happy staging with dazzling design elements and a standout cast, Some Like It Hot is a big ol’ song and dance,” writes critic Melissa Lin Sturges. Sturges reviews Olney Theatre Center’s production running through Nov. 7:

Swing Beat columnist Michael J. West writes that the 2026 D.C. Jazz Festival “was exponentially the best iteration of the DCJF since the pandemic.” “It was arguably the best in the festival’s 22-year history,” West writes.

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This week’s page three photo @wcp.bsky.social

“The new thriller Primetime is a queasy portrait of a deviant sociopath who in the view of director Lance Oppenheim represents a clear and present danger to the public,” writes critic Chris Klimek. “That sociopath is Chris Hansen.” Read Klimek’s review:

Spot LIT columnist Hannah Grieco rounds up some mini poetry and prose collections by local writers. Always under 75 pages, chapbooks are often highly thematic, experimental, and offer a taste of an author’s voice rather than an entire meal. Try these:

Ahead of the Commanders’ Sept. 27 home opener, let’s go deep and consider a few plot points from the team’s storied history. In honor of the team’s 95th season, we present a Washington Football Team nod to the Harper’s Index with all the usual apologies and disclaimers.

“The only way you can fight absurdity is with more absurdity.” For the Fall Arts Guide, co-authors Bryce Taylor Rudow and Hil Horvath spoke with local comedians, guerrilla sculptors, and professional rabble-rousers turning ridicule into civic resistance.

When Franklin Park reopened in 2021 after a $21M makeover, a restaurant structure was built, but the eatery slated to open in the space is still pending. The Downtown D.C. BID and CM Brooke Pinto tell us the project is moving forward.

Our newsroom wants to hear from you! Please take this quick survey to let us how we’re doing. At the end of the survey, you’ll have a chance to enter to win a $50 gift card to Lyman’s Tavern (our staff’s favorite watering hole) or the local bookstore of your choice: buff.ly/8wdc6l8

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11, Come From Away at Ford’s Theatre “has a heartbeat of its own,” writes critic Melissa Lin Sturges. “This D.C. production infuses local personality that brings us back to the roots of togetherness,” Sturges writes. Her review:

As AI permeates our lives, D.C.’s theater companies are fighting back with acting and backstage classes that empower students and build community. Melissa Lin Sturges talks with local theater educators about their work and why it’s critical to invest in young people right now:

This week's page threephoto @wcp.bsky.social

Venus, a new play running at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company through Oct. 4, asks: Would you kill for a great first date? Would you die for one? Playwright Steve Yockey’s “dramatic instinct is instantly obvious,” writes critic D.R. Lewis.

Thousands of protesters gathered at the Kennedy Center on Friday to demand the Trump administration take its “hands off” the performing arts institution. City Paper’s @darrow-m.bsky.social was there to capture the moment.

On Sept. 26, Glitterer, Posición Unida, and Somebody’s Daughter play the first punk show at the base of the Washington Monument since Fugazi played there in ’95 “There’s no better time to remind both the city and country that this is a town for punks, says co-organizer Caroline Liaupsin

Two D.C. landlords will pay a total of $9.3 million to settle an antirust lawsuit filed by D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb in 2023. The suit alleges the companies used RealPage to conspire to keep rents artificially high.

This week’s page three photo @wcp.bsky.social

Garbo: The Actor Who Saved the World follows a failed actor who becomes a double agent during World War II.  GALA Hispanic Theatre’s new play “is a head-spinning thriller that blends history and humor with the writer’s unabashed love and respect for theater,” writes Melissa Lin Sturges.

Staff photographer @darrow-m.bsky.social went through his photo archive to find the images that captured how D.C. and its neighbors fared on and after September 11. "We all have memories, I have some photographs to go along with them," Montgomery writes.