Fall Arts Guide: 10 Essential Things to Do in the DC Area

Museums

“Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment”

September 8, 2024–January 19, 2025

In Paris 150 years ago, an exhibition featuring works by Cézanne, Degas, Monet, Renoir (above), and others shook the art world. This anniversary exhibit, co-organized by the Musée d’Orsay, celebrates what was once considered an avant-garde shock to the senses.

Music

Shaboozey

September 21

Woodbridge native Collins Obinna Chibueze’s year has been a real shadoozey: He showed up on two tracks on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, then scored a monster number-one hit with his country anthem “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”

Theater

Life of Pi

December 17, 2024–January 5, 2025

While Washingtonians await the new pandas’ arrival, theater­goers will be astounded by the sight of a Bengal tiger on the Kennedy Center stage. Okay, it’s not a real animal: This hit musical uses puppetry to bring to life the novel about a boy stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and that magical tiger.

Theater

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Babbitt

October 1–27

In this production of playwright Joe DiPietro’s take on the Sinclair Lewis satire, Matthew Broderick stars as the eponymous everyman who tries to break out of American conformity. While the novel may be a classroom staple, this production should have plenty of contemporary resonances.

Music

Magnetic Fields

October 17–20

Shuffling effortlessly from synth-pop to folk-rock over the course of a three-hour tour de force, the 1999 triple album 69 Love Songs remains an indie-pop landmark. The band, led by Stephen Merritt, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a four-night stand.

Theater

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The Other Americans

October 18–November 24

Actor John Leguizamo wrote and directed this play, which is having its world premiere here. He’ll also star as the main character, a Queens laundromat owner who tries to keep his family afloat in a hard world.

Museums

“Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return”

October 18, 2024–July 6, 2025

This Cuban-born artist was 38 when he died in 1996 from an AIDS-related illness. His unconventional sculpture and installation art creates minimalist portraits through found objects, as with his “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.),” above, which is made out of candy. This is the first major DC exhibit of his work in more than 30 years.

Books

Richard Powers

October 10

From The Gold Bug Variations to The Overstory, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist weaves sprawling tales that push in unexpected directions. Playground, his latest dramatic puzzle, imagines a world in which floating cities are sent out onto the ocean.

DC-born rapper Woods and Rockville-raised producer Segal made Maps, one of last year’s best-reviewed albums. But this tour celebrates the five-year anniversary of their previous acclaimed collaboration, Hiding Places, which they’ll perform in its entirety.

Music

HFStival

September 21

Radio station WHFS may be long gone, but the popular alt-rock festival named for it is making an unexpected return after having hung up its Doc Martens back in 2004. The bill includes Death Cab for Cutie (above), the Postal Service, Incubus, and Garbage.

A version of this article appears in the September 2024 issue of Washingtonian.