Arts & Entertainment

Calendar: Oct. 29

Events through Nov. 4

Published

16 years ago

October 28, 2010

Editor’s note: Go here for Halloween events.

Today

Margaret Cho will be at the Warner Theatre (513 13th St., N.W.) tonight at 7:30 p.m. with her show, “Cho Dependent.” Tickets are $40.50 or $57.60 and can be purchased at livenation.com. An after party will be held at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets (1824 Half St., S.W.).

Zoom Urban Lesbian Excursions hosts “Night at the Museum” tonight at 8:30 p.m. at the Museum of Crime and Punishment (575 7th St., N.W.) as it turns into a haunted torture chamber. Attendees are welcome to wear costumes, but masks are prohibited. Tickets are $23 and can be purchased at zoomexcursions.com.

Caron is holding its annual Metro D.C. community awards breakfast today at 8 a.m. at Maggiano’s (5333 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.) featuring Tara Conner, former Miss USA as the keynote speaker. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington will receive the Educational Excellence Award for their performance of “Through a Glass Darkly.” Daniel O’Neill, chair of the D.C. Center HIV Working Group will receive the Unsung Hero award.

Peach Pit, a monthly ’90s dance party, will be held at Hirshhorn Museum (Independence Avenue and 7th Street, S.W.) tonight from 8 p.m. to midnight. DJs Matt Bailer and Robert Bozick will be teaming up to celebrate the first anniversary of the party. Members can get in for free. Tickets for quests are $18 and can be purchased online, by calling 202-633-4629 or from the Smithsonian IMAX theater box offices. For more information, visit hirshhorn.si.edu/afterhours.

Blackout, a blacklight and glow party will be at Ziegfeld’s/Secrets (1824 Half St., S.W.) tonight hosted by Latroya Nichole with music by DJ Steve Henderson. There is a $5 cover from 9 to 10:30 p.m. and $10 afterward.

Level One (1639 R St., N.W.) will be hosting a special dinner show with Sherry Vine tonight at 8:30 p.m.

Ganymede Arts presents Gerald Duval’s “Edie Beale Live at Reno Sweeney” starring gay actor Jeffrey Johnson, is tonight at Noi’s Nook at go mama go! (1809 14th St., N.W.) at 8 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ganymedearts.org.

Busboys & Poets will be hosting ASL open mic poetry tonight from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. at its 14th and V streets location (2021 14th St., N.W.). Anyone with sign language knowledge may sign up to recite a poem or sign a song by e-mailing [email protected]. There is a $5 cover.

Saturday, Oct. 30

Women in their 30s will be having its monthly outing today to the Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall in D.C. from noon to 3 p.m. The group is meeting up at the Archives Metro Rail stop around 11:45 a.m.

Douche Bag City, an exhibition of video-animation, painting and sculpture by Federico Solmi, opens today with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Conner Contemporary Art (1358 Florida Ave., N.E.).

Tom Paxton and Janis Ian, “Together at Last,” will be at the Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave.) in Alexandia, tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com.

Busboys & Poets will be holding a post-rally event with Amy Goodman and Van Jones at 7 p.m. at its 5th and K streets location (1025 5th St., N.W.). Busboys & Poets will be participating with ColbertRally.com in an effort to raise funds for DonorsChoose.org, an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need.

Sunday, Oct. 31

Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: the Art Exhibit, inspired by Alice Walker’s new book of the same name, is showing at Busboys & Poets at the 5th and K streets location (1025 5th St., N.W.) featuring work by artists such as Liana Cohen-Matteini, Charles Jean-Pierre, Innocent Buregeya and JJ Tiziou.

Blonde Redhead will be performing at 9:30 Club tonight at 10 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at 930.com.

“Hair,” 2009 Tony award winner for Best Musical Revival will be at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) today at 1 p.m. Tickets range from $25 to $115 and can be purchased at kennedy-center.org.

Monday, Nov. 1

Hope Operas, whose founder is openly gay, has its fourth week of five new shows tonight to raise money for charity. The shows are at 8 p.m. at the Comedy Spot, in Ballston Mall (4238 Wilson, Blvd.), in Arlington. Each show benefits a different charity. Tickets are $12 per show. For more information call 323-788-8970 or e-mail [email protected].

Cloud Cult, a band established as a non-profit, will be performing at Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) tonight with Fort Wilson Riot on the mainstage at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 and can be purchased at blackcatdc.com.

Tuesday, Nov. 2

The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) will be having a discussion about crystal meth use in the LGBT community tonight from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The meeting will be facilitated by Michael Giordano and David Schwartz.

DC Cowboys Dance Company will be holding auditions from 7 to 8:30 p.m. tonight in Dupont Circle. The group is looking for dancers of all levels interested in performing with an exciting, high-profile dance group. Broadway-style or jazz training or experience preferred but not required. E-mail to [email protected] for audition information.

Wednesday, Nov. 3

The Tom Davaron Social Bridge Club will be meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E. across from Marine Barracks) for social bridge. No partner is needed. Visit lambdabridge.com and click “Social Bridge in Washington, D.C.” for more information.

Busboy & Poets will be holding an organic beer happy hour today at 4 p.m. at its Shirlington location (4251 S. Campbell Ave.) featuring Peak, a nut brown ale, Wolavers, a brown ale, and Bison, a chocolate stout.

Thursday, Nov. 4

The gay-helmed Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company will be performing works by Anna Sokolow in the Ina and Jack Kay Theatre in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. Tickets are $30 or $24 for subscribers, and can be purchased online at claricesmithcenter.umd.edu. There will be a pre-performance discussion led by dance professor Sandra Perez at 7 p.m. in the Lead M. Smith Lecture Hall, room 2200, in the same building. No ticket is required for this discussion.

In conjunction with the exhibit, “The Very Queer Portraits of Heyd Fontenot,” a discussion “The Queerest of Discussions: A Curator’s Talk with Heyd Fontenot and Anne Goodyear” will be held at the Art Gallery at the University of Maryland tonight from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This is a free event. For more information, visit, artgallery.umd.edu.

Photos

PHOTOS: Capital Pride Festival and Concert

Annual LGBTQ celebration held on Pennsylvania Ave.

Published

12 hours ago

June 22, 2026

Washington Blade photography department

Maren Morris performs at the 2026 Capital Pride Concert on Sunday, June 21. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 2026 Capital Pride Festival was held on Pennsylvania Ave. on Sunday, June 21.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Landon Shackelford)

Photos

PHOTOS: 2026 Capital Pride Parade

Large crowds attend annual LGBTQ march in Washington, D.C.

Published

2 days ago

June 21, 2026

Washington Blade photography department

David Archuleta is one of the Grand Marshals of the 2026 Capital Pride Parade. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The 2026 Capital Pride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 20.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key, Robert Rapanut and Landon Shackelford)

Theater

‘Feeling Afraid’ explores life of a neurotic stand-up comic

Navigating sex, work, and possibly love in London

Published

3 days ago

June 20, 2026

Patrick Folliard

Steven Webb in ‘Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen’ (Photo by DJ Corey)

‘Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen’
Through July 12
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St., N.W.
$55-$102
Studiotheatre.org

Wordily yet rightly titled, solo show “Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen” dives deeply into the world of a neurotic stand-up comic as he navigates sex, work, and possibly love in London.

Busy arranging hookups and dates on “The App,” the 36-year-old gay funnyman juggles a full dance card; still he’s never been in a romantic relationship. While he’s willing to give love a shot, he’s not pressed about it. As he says, he harbors no fear of dying alone.

Currently making its American premiere at Studio Theatre, this darkly humorous Edinburgh Fringe import features terrific out English actor Steven Webb as The Comedian who’s about to explore what it means to spend all his time with one man.

At Studio’s intimate Mead Theatre, Kat Heath’s minimal set says standard comedy club (fluorescent tube lighting, the mic with a long cord, a single stool backed by a rose-colored curtain), but gay playwright Marcelo Dos Santos has conjured something much more than a live comedy set.

Yes, The Comedian bounces onstage in his red Converse high tops, jeans, and pink shirt with a huge mouth emblazoned on the back, but he delivers more than jokes. At times hilariously self-deprecating, then dark, and occasionally a lesson on what makes standup work, this is a layered, well-acted piece.

With Webb (a keen caricaturist of types and voices) playing all the parts while conducting The Comedian’s hilariously frenetic interior monologue, “Feeling Afraid” takes us through a summer of love. It seems after six chaste dates with The American, our nervous hero has found Mr. Right. The American is earnest, smart, hesitant to initiate sex. He’s also well built with a beautiful smile. And strangely, he’s been medically advised not to laugh aloud.

The Comedian delights in the joys of new love: dates, first kisses, sex, and then suddenly spending all of his time with the adored. Visits to art galleries become fun. Eating home cooked meals followed by grim documentaries is a thing. The Comedian is beguiled as his own boyish figure fills out, but something isn’t right. He can’t entirely relax.

Along the way we meet the Aussie doctor, our protagonist’s longtime hookup; a young runner with some exceptional body parts; the random third in a failed threesome; grumpy working comics, male and female; and an ineffectual counselor.

Webb gives a lightning-fast performance that boggles the mind (in terms velocity and virtuosity). He can be impish, very impish. He’s nervous energy incarnate, flashing jazz hands, grimacing but handsome when still. He’s likeable, a necessity when delivering a hilariously rude joke just feet away from two stone-faced audience members. (Perhaps they were laughing on the inside? At any rate, they stayed through the end the show.)

Produced by the team behind Fringe hits “Fleabag” and “Baby Reindeer,” small stage works that were developed into major TV screen successes, “Feeling Afraid” is funny for sure, and it’s also highly confessional, sexually explicit, and raw.

Written by Dos Santos during COVID lockdown, the piece was a smash hit in the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe before finding further success in London. Its depiction of a youngish queer guy navigating the big city rings entirely true. Like so much Fringe stuff, the one-man show is delightfully lewd and standup inspired.

One little moan: the show closes cleverly but too abruptly with its star dashing offstage without sufficiently basking in the admiration and applause of his thoroughly chuffed audience.

They say third time’s a charm, and regarding “Feeling Afraid,” I’d agree. After two performance cancellations (first for laryngitis and the second involving faulty air conditioning on an especially muggy June evening), I made my third trek to Studio where I found both the actor and AC in very fine fettle. And truly, Webb’s work was more than worth the wait.