‘The Cradle Will Rock’ 
Goldman Theater DCJCC (10/5-13) and
Baltimore Theatre Project (10/18-20)
Inseries.org

Robin McGinness, an accomplished Baltimore-based transfemme baritone, knows a lot about music. Also, as a gender nonconforming performer she’s learned how to navigate and carve out a career in opera. 

Currently, she is playing Mr. Mister in the IN Series production of “The Cradle Will Rock,” a 1937 Brechtian allegory of corporate greed written and composed by Marc Blitzstein who was openly gay when that wasn’t an easy thing to be.

IN Series, D.C.’s innovative opera theater, which happens to rank high among McGinness’s favorite companies, infuses its take on a seldom seen classic with new energy, humor, melody, and a thirst for justice. The production features a cast of some the area’s best young vocalists and is helmed by Shanara Gabrielle (stage direction) and Emily Baltzer (musical direction).

Growing up in southern New Hampshire, McGinness started off performing in Waldorf school, followed by Vermont’s progressive Putney boarding school, and then Oberlin College where she focused in vocal performance after having been singled out as a well-rounded baritone. 

WASHINGTON BLADE: What drew you to IN Series?   

ROBIN MCGINNESS: They [out artistic director Timothy Nelson and other company members] were doing work that didn’t take opera too preciously. No kid gloves. The theater world has large productions collapsed down to smaller audiences. That’s a mode that opera might follow. IN Series was doing things that excited me. 

My first show with them was two years ago. I’d just moved back from being a young artist with an opera company in Arizona when IN Series needed someone for “Nightsong of Orpheus.” Truly a wild piece of theater that I loved. Since then, I’ve been talking them up with everyone I meet, and enthusiastically engaging with them when I can. 

BLADE: How is it to be transfemme in the opera world?

MCGINNESS: Performing hasn’t always been easy for me. There was a time when my self-image and identity aligned with composing, to produce beautiful complex music behind the scenes and not have to be center of attention.

Coming into my undergrad years, my intention was to pursue music and divorce myself from certain parts of identity including my gender identity that I didn’t think would help my career. But that would change. 

I had awareness and had for years but made a choice that being a musician was the most important part of my identity. As I got to the end of undergrad my picture of what success meant had changed and I couldn’t live with this absolutist way of living my life. 

BLADE: And how has that worked out? 

MCGINNESS: I’ve been trying to break down barriers between the personal and professional sides and try to combine that into something more functional. It can feel dangerous. 

Early on when trying to figure out how to present as a female baritone in the opera, the question I got most was won’t that effect your voice? People are more understanding now. And I’m grateful to those who have broadened this space for gender nonconforming singers. 

BLADE: Does it take courage?

MCGINNESS: Yes, but I’m not pursuing the same career that I was. I’m interested in performing with IN Series now. I’m not trying to pursue a full-time touring opera career. 

It seems that either opera companies wouldn’t want to hire because they feel they couldn’t bring you out to donors or companies would want to hire but for the identity politics of it. Both would be anathema to me. 

It’s a ridiculously competitive industry. But I’m building a career in the area where I am now, and it’s going well. With people who know my work and hire me for the work. 

BLADE: What can we expect from “The Cradle Will Rock”? 

MCGINNESS: If you’re expecting Puccini, it won’t be that. It’s gritty. A lot of spoken dialogue. Closer to spoken theater with some music thrown in than it is an opera.

It pokes out power and dynamics that queer audiences might enjoy seeing be deconstructed, particularly when it’s done in a really smart way. 

BLADE: What’s ahead for you? 

MCGINNESS: I’m 33. Musically, I’m just hitting my prime so I have some good years of singing ahead of me.

I like my work to be complex, interwoven and layered. In addition to performing, I teach career courses and work in the career office mentoring students at Peabody Institute in Baltimore. All of us who do that here are practicing performers. As long as I have performance work coming in and have money to put bread on the table, I’m happy — way too busy — but happy.

“Something for everyone.” It’s a tired tagline, but in the case of this fall’s DMV theater season, it happens to be pretty much true. And a lot of the work is queer, directly or tangentially. Here’s a sliver of what’s already opened and what’s in store. 

Theater J jumps into the new season with “How to Be a Korean Woman” (through Sept. 22), Sun Mee Chomet’s comic and heartfelt telling of searching for her birth family in Seoul, South Korea. edcjcc.org

Woolly Mammoth Theatre opens with “The Comeuppance” (through Oct. 6), the latest work from Tony-winning out playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. 

“On the night of their 20th high school reunion, the self-proclaimed “Multi-Ethnic Reject Group” reconnects while they pregame in Prince George’s County, Md. But amid the flow of reminiscing, an otherworldly presence forces these former classmates to face the past head-on and reckon with an unknowable future.” Woollymammoth.net 

Signature Theatre kicks off with the D.C. premiere of Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer-winning play “Primary Trust” (through Oct. 20). Booth’s contemporary humor-filled tender tale of self-discovery and connection is followed by Signature’s big musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (Oct. 29-Jan. 12), Stephen Sondheim’s classic Roman-set musical comedy staged by Signature’s out artistic director Matthew Gardiner. Sigtheatre.org 

GALA Hispanic Theatre’s season opener, Gustavo Ott’s “The 22+ Weddings of Hugo” (through Sept. 29), is based on a true story. Performed in Spanish with easy-to-follow English surtitles, Ott’s raucous tale seeks to cover the various scenarios immigrants experience through many weddings. The cast features out actors Carlos Castillo as Hugo, a quiet postal clerk, and Victor Salinas who plays Elmar, a gay writer seeking refuge. José Zayas directs.  Galatheatre.org.

Mosaic Theater Company at Atlas Performing Arts Center presents “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” (through Oct. 6), a play with music about jazz legend/queer icon Billie Holiday starring Roz White. Mosaic’s out artistic director Reginald L. Douglas directs. Mosaictheater.org 

Ford’s Theatre presents “Mister Lincoln” (Sept. 20-Oct. 13), a “witty and revelatory” one-man show starring Scott Bakula (stage and screen actor famous for TV’s “Quantum Leap”). Fords.org  

ExPats Theatre (also housed at Atlas) opens with “Marlene” (Sept. 28 through Oct. 20) featuring Karin Rosnizeck as the legendary Dietrich, a great star who famously defied social and gender conventions while dazzling the world with her glamorous career. Expatstheate.com 

There’s a lot on offer at George Mason University’s Center for Arts this autumn, not least of all “An Evening with Lea Salonga” (Saturday, Sept. 28).

Tony-winning singer and actress Lea Salonga headlines the 2024 ARTS by George! benefit concert, performing songs from a four-decade career on Broadway and in animated movie hits. Born in the Philippines, Salonga originated the lead role of Kim in Miss Saigon, and she was the first Asian cast member to perform the role of Eponine in Les Misérables on Broadway. 

Other promising one-day-only GMU entertainments include Ballet Hispánico (Oct. 5) and Mark Morris Dance Group and Music Ensemble (Oct. 19). cfa.gmu.edu

Creative Cauldron in Falls Church presents “Sondheim Tribute Revue” (Oct. 3-27) a celebratory salute to musical giant Stephen Sondheim with eight performers singing 20 titles from the gay composer’s brilliant songbook including “Company,” “Follies,” “Into the Woods,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd,” and the recent Tony Award Winner, “Merrily We Roll Along,” and more. Creativecauldron.org 

Olney Theatre explores what makes a president great with “Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground,” Sept. 27-Oct. 20. And for Disney fans, don’t miss “Frozen,” Oct. 24-Jan. 5. Olneytheatre.org

The Kennedy Center offers laughs and nostalgia with “Clue” (Sept.17 through Oct. 6), a whodunit based on the fan-favorite 1985 Paramount movie and inspired by the classic Hasbro board game. Next up is “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” (Oct. 11 – 20). 

Other Kennedy Center treats include “An Evening with David Sedaris” (Oct. 15).  The gay humorist is slated to share his inimitable brand of satire and hilarious observations, and then it’s out sound healing artist Davin Youngs with “The Reset” (Oct. 28), his take on a “sound bath” including improvisational singing, looping devices, and healing instruments. Kennedy-center.org 

Fall is the best time at the beach, so plan a weekend in Rehoboth and visit the phenomenal Clear Space Theatre. “Venus in Fur” runs Sept. 19-29 followed by “Sweeney Todd” Oct. 11-27; and “Shrek” runs Nov. 8-10. Clearspacetheatre.org

Fall cabaret will be in full swing at the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., as soloists share heart-warming stories and songs about their travel adventures (Oct. 19 at 2, 5, and 8 p.m.). And, of course, no holiday season is complete without the Chorus’s annual holiday celebration set for Dec. 7, 14, and 15. Gmcw.org

Folger Theatre presents Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (Oct. 1-Nov. 10) staged by inspiring out director Raymond O. Caldwell. A large, versatile cast features Cole Taylor and Caro Rayes Rivera as the star-crossed lovers, and a host of familiar local faces including Luz Nicolas, Deirdra LaWan Starnes, and out actor Fran Tapia as Lady Capulet. folger.edu

Studio Theatre serves up “Summer, 1976,” (opening Nov. 13), a memory play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn (“Proof”).  Directed by Vivienne Benesch, the two-hander features longtime D.C. favorites Kate Eastwood Norris and out actor Holly Twyford playing disparate women whose unlikely friendship and ensuing connection changes the course of their lives. Studiotheatre.org 

And on Wednesday, Dec. 4, Strathmore in North Bethesda presents “A Swingin’ Little Christmas,” a fun takeoff on kitschy, classic ‘50s and ‘60s holiday specials, featuring out TV star Jane Lynch (“Glee,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) alongside Kate Flannery (“The Office”), Tim Davis (“Glee’s” vocal arranger), and The Tony Guerrero Quintet. Strathmore.org