On the Horizon: Hexagon Turns 60, Idina Menzel Comes to Jiffy Lube Live

For six decades, the local group Hexagon has been putting on its politically satirical revue of original songs and donating all proceeds to charity—more than $3.5 million so far. The troupe celebrates its 60th anniversary at a new venue—DC’s Woodrow Wilson High School—with eight performances over three weekends in March.

Laugh Lineup

The Kennedy Center delivers on its new attention to comedy, funded by a $5-million donation from Capital One, with an appearance by Jay Leno—who received the 2014 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor—on April 8. Kathy Griffin is booked for June 20.

Retail Follows Realty

As the ritzy condo market grows in downtown Bethesda, retailers are moving in. Kate Spade will open its fourth Washington-area store in Bethesda Row this year, joining Calypso St. Barth in the rapidly upscaling shopping area.

Malleable Modernist

Beginning April 3, the Smithsonian American Art Museum presents an exhibit centered on Japanese-American artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi, the first overview of his work in more than a quarter century. The collection includes nearly 70 drawings and paintings that chronicle Kuniyoshi’s journey from early innocence and humor to post-World War II anger and disillusionment.

U Street Canyon

That prefab trailer coming to the corner of 13th and U streets isn’t the latest fashion pop-up: It will be a temporary home for the Rite Aid being displaced while the drugstore and four other buildings on the south side of U are demolished to make way for a long-heralded, eight-story mixed-use building by the JBG Companies.

Second Time in Forever

Wicked and Disney’s Frozen made Idina Menzel a superstar with the ten-and-under set, but the belter who opened the musical If/Then in Washington before it moved to Broadway in 2014 offers plenty to please adult ears, too. She comes to Jiffy Lube Live July 18 to perform a mix of pop, Broadway hits, and her own favorite songs.

Photograph of Leno by Kevin Foley/NBC/Getty Images. Photograph of Kate Spade jewelry by Lauren Joseph. Photograph of Yasuo Kuniyoshi, “Self-Portrait as a Photographer,” 1924, Licensed by VAGA/Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Photograph of building Rendering courtesy of The JBG Companies. Photograph of Menzel by Rick Diamond/Getty Images.

This article appears in the January 2015 issue of Washingtonian.