FAQ

Morris Theatre DC is an independent review outlet covering performing arts in the DC metro area. Since 2022, I've been writing reviews out for everything I can get my eyes on, from scrappy community plays to Broadway-caliber megamusicals. It's a testament to the strength of the arts in our region that we have such diversity to choose from, and I love writing about it!

Fun fact, I only got into theatre in college, when my sister started listening to Hamilton after a teacher played it for her class. From there, I took some electives in theatre just to learn about the medium some more. It wasn't long before I started hauling my ass to New York to see shows on my meager college job wage, and after each show my extended family would ask for thoughts on Facebook. I would write these extremely long-winded comment reviews as sort of a word dump; as disorganized as they were, I found it helped me develop media literacy and a critical eye for a seemingly-underrated art form, so I didn't mind doing it. People then suggested I collect and put them somewhere. I promptly did no such thing and ended up falling off of seeing showes entirely once I graduated and moved abroad, where the theatre secene in that country was not as developed. I came back to the US right as the Pandemic hit. But eventually theatre came back, and while Broadway struggled to get back on its feet, my partner suggested I go check out Arena's <em>Catch Me If You Can</em>. It reawoken the passion for the art form, and I started writing long-winded instagram reviews. When my friends there got tired of it, I moved it to "Morris Theatre DC", a name I planned on changing but never did. The reviews kept coming, as did the followers, and here we are three years later!

At the end of the day, this began as a means for me to improve my own media literacy by digesting the theatre I consume and writing out the resulting analyses. I still write to this effect, and so my takes are uniquely my own. I definitely will not be universally agreed-with, wshich is Good, Actually, but I do write in an attempt to uplift theatre in DC. Critcism I give is never intended to put down, offend, or besmirch a production or individual, and there are several instances of reviews that I have been more critical of whose elements I have later praised in a different production. I love this community, and it deserves to be documented, for better or for worse.

Each review scores four categories out of 10: Book / Music (book and if applicable, music, and lyrics), Acting (performances), Production (direction, choreography, and technical stagecraft), and Viz (the marketing, identity, and visual development of the specific production). Scores are added up for a total out of 40. I judge each show in a vacuum, so to speak; St. Mark's, for example, does not have the budget of Signature Theatre, so they aren't directly compared. Sometimes, a smaller-scale show outperforms a bigger goliath theatre running at the same time, and that should be reflected in the score. I want to note that I don't operate on American education-style scoring: a 20/40 isn't a 50%, ergo an "F". Rather, a 20 should represent the baseline. Above 20 is better than the average show, and below means it had some elements less impressive than what audiences should expect (in my singular opinion). But at the end of the day, I encourage everyone to see a show, no matter my score! The more voices, the better.

🎭 indicates a house that primarily does lower-budget productions. 🎭🎭 indicates a mid-size professional company that has generally higher production values than a single-mask house. 🎭🎭🎭 indicates a Broadway-tier or major LORT organization. This is NOT a quality ranking, more of a indicator of how much spectacle they tend to provide.

The League of Resident Theatres (LORT) is the largest professional non-profit theatre association in the US. LORT theatres operate under collective bargaining agreements with Actors Equity Association and are classified by budget and seating capacity into tiers A through D. The DMV is home to six LORT theatres: Arena Stage, Ford's Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, and Round House Theatre. A LORT designation is more of a specific industry club that represents a certain standard, and there are plenty of theatres in the region that aren't in it that still reach those same heights (like Woolly, for example).

The Actors Equity Association, also known as "Eq", "Equity", or "AEA" for short, is the principle union for stage performers in the US. All Broadway shows, most originating National Tour casts, and the largest non-profit theatres in DC work exclusively within these contracts. They dictate higher wages and better work guarantees than non-union performers, but should not be seen as an exclusive marker of quality, only a specific tier of professional status.

I cover theatre all around the DC metro area, including Virginia and Maryland. I tend to stick to venues within the Beltway and that are Metro-accessible, but I have been known to venture to West Virginia or even international destinations. I see a handful of shows in New York each year, and I have started including more Baltimore content as well. I'm just one guy, though, so I can't catch everything unfortunately.

Theatre in DC runs roughly parallel to the school year and the Broadway season, which is generally from September to May. This being said, there are frequently shows that run deep into the summer.

Every May, Theatre Washington -- the principle advocacy body for DC theatre -- hosts the Helen Hayes Awards, a snazzy red-carpet event down at the Wharf that recognizes shows from the previous calendar year. For the Awards taking place in May 2026, the shows being recognized all played in 2025. The awards are split into two categories: Helen, for shows with less than half of the cast on an Equity contract, and Hayes, for shows with more than half. They are considered a very prestigious award within American theatre. I cover them in the Awards tab up top, where I track nominations and winners compared to my own stats.

Hit my line over at morristheatredc@gmail.com.

Me! As much as this is an exercise in writing, my most passionate artistic outlet has always been design and illustration, so nearly everything from the brand is entirely my work: the colors, this website, my Instagram posts, and my year in review videos were all devised and executed by me. The typeface is Wallop by Displaay Foundry and the out-of-40 rating scale is inspired by that of Famitsu, a prestigious video game review in Japan. I don't use AI for any creative processes, nor do I supoprt its use.