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The final days of July and first weekend of August bring a packed slate of concerts, exhibitions, theater, outdoor movies and waterfront events across Northern Virginia and Washington. Highlights include two nights of major performers at Wolf Trap, free community concerts, a sunset cruise and a shark-themed Wharf celebration.
Live music
Emmylou Harris and Graham Nash share a double bill at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road in Vienna, at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 31. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets start at $49.50, including fees.
Wolf Trap follows that show with Tony Award winners Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara performing alongside the National Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1. Emil de Cou conducts a program featuring Broadway favorites and music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Jason Robert Brown and Joni Mitchell. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., with tickets starting at $49.50, including fees.
Creative Cauldron’s 14th annual Summer Passport Music Festival continues at 127 E. Broad St. through Sept. 14. Its next performance, Matt Trimboli’s Big Night Out, begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1. A 10-piece band and vocalist Jason Paul Curtis will perform big-band standards associated with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald, along with Latin selections. Tickets range from $25 to $30, while livestream access costs $15. Tables with wine are available for two people at $90 and four at $180.
Founders Groove continues from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays at Founders Row, 110 Founders Ave. in Falls Church. On The Edge performs pop, rock and dance music July 31, followed by the Mardi Gras Kings on Aug. 7 and country musician Ty Sherwood on Aug. 14.
The 33rd Concerts in the Park series closes with rock and blues band Big Tow at 7 p.m. July 31 in Cherry Hill Park, 312 Park Ave. Blankets, folding chairs and picnic dinners are welcome, and advance registration is not required.
Free concerts also continue from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays in Glen Echo Park’s Bumper Car Pavilion. Halley’s Hot Gumbo Swingtet performs July 31, followed by Kiti Gartner and the Drifting Valentines on Aug. 7, Justin Trawick and The Common Good on Aug. 14, and the James Bazen Big Band on Aug. 21. The rain-or-shine series offers limited seating and free parking. Guests may bring chairs, but not outside alcohol.
At Arlington’s Lubber Run Amphitheater, 200 N. Columbus St., progressive bluegrass group Big Howdy performs a free concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1. The award-winning band blends traditional material with original songs, contemporary selections and instrumentals.
Rock The Dock brings free music to Transit Pier at The Wharf at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Labor Day. So Fetch performs 2000s hits July 30, followed by The JoGo Project on Aug. 6, DuPont Brass on Aug. 13, Uncle Jesse on Aug. 20 and Pink PaLiSh on Aug. 27. Seating is first-come, first-served. The concerts welcome all ages and leashed dogs, with alcohol restricted to guests 21 and older.
Art across the region
The Reston Art Gallery, 11400 Washington Plaza West, presents “Textile Paintings” through Aug. 31, with an artist reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 10.
At the National Portrait Gallery, “Meserve Collection Highlights: Modern Prints from Mathew Brady’s Portrait Negatives” remains on view through 2028. The exhibition features nine modern prints made from Brady’s original negatives, including portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ulysses S. Grant and Emma, Queen of Hawai‘i. An original glass-plate negative and one of Brady’s wooden storage boxes are also displayed. The museum acquired more than 5,400 Brady studio negatives in 1981.
Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art marks two decades since its predecessor, the Greater Reston Arts Center, opened its Market Street gallery with “IMPRINT 2.0.” The exhibition revisits the careers of Maggie Booth, Adam Grossi, Elizabeth Kendall, Pete Petrine, Marco Rando and Yumi Janairo Roth through paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, photography and video. The main Reston gallery presentation runs through Aug. 10, while the Tephra ICA at Signature installation continues through Aug. 30.
New paintings by Susanne Kamalieh remain at Idylwood Studios, 7617 Idylwood Road in Falls Church, through Aug. 16. Falls Church Arts’ second All-Member Show, featuring 67 artists whose surnames begin with M through Z, continues at 700-B W. Broad St. through Aug. 10.
Photographer Jessica Caso’s “Côte d’Azur Mon Amour” is on display at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 W. Broad St., through Sept. 28. The series explores Nice, Èze and other locations along the French Riviera.
At George Mason University’s Fenwick Gallery, “NEITHER/NOR” brings together MFA candidates Traci Reynolds and Liz Johnson through Sept. 5. Johnson’s photographic self-portrait series “Ripe and Rot” uses decaying fruit to examine fertility, time and bodily change. Reynolds’ large handmade-paper sculpture “Raise” incorporates hair and latex while considering trans and gender-nonconforming bodies, identity, protection and transformation.
The Phillips Collection presents “Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest” through Sept. 28. Paintings, prints, works on paper and archival material trace Browne’s career as an artist, activist, educator and founder of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition.
The National Gallery of Art hosts a free virtual discussion of Rembrandt van Rijn’s “The Mill” from 1 to 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1. The interactive program is open to adults regardless of their art-history experience, but registration is required.
Theater
“Kinky Boots” runs through Aug. 16 at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe St. The Cindy Lauper and Harvey Fierstein musical follows Charlie Price as he tries to save his family’s failing shoe factory with help from drag performer Lola. Performances begin at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Reserved tickets cost $36, and the show lasts about two and a half hours with intermission.
Greg Kalleres’ comedy “Apropos of Nothing” continues at Keegan Theatre, 1742 Church St. NW, through Aug. 10. The story follows the turmoil unleashed when Owen admits that he loves his best friend’s wife. Performances are offered Thursdays through Saturdays, Sundays and select Mondays and Wednesdays. Tickets cost $54 for adults and $44 for seniors, students and patrons under 25, plus a $5 service fee.
Synetic Theater’s wordless production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” runs through Aug. 10 at Olney Theatre Center’s Roberts Mainstage. Adapted by Ben Cunis and Paata Tsikurishvili, the Helen Hayes Award-winning production uses physical storytelling to depict Shakespeare’s tangled romance and fairy mischief. The 100-minute show has no intermission and carries guidance comparable to a PG film.
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” plays the National Theatre through Aug. 3. Performances begin at 7 p.m. July 30 through Aug. 2, with additional 1 p.m. shows Aug. 2 and 3. The six-time Tony Award winner follows Harry Potter’s son Albus after he befriends Draco Malfoy’s son and becomes entangled in an attempt to alter the past and future.
Riki Lindhome’s “Dead Inside” has been extended through Aug. 3 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St. NW. Presented by Ali Wong and Bill Hader, the musical and solo comedy explores Lindhome’s experience with infertility through stand-up and original songs. Shows begin at 8 p.m. The production contains explicit language and discussions of infertility, miscarriage, abortion and sexual acts.
Movies under the stars—and indoors
The 2025 “I Know What You Did Last Summer” is showing at Paragon Theaters Founders Row. Screenings begin at 3:40, 6:45 and 9:35 p.m. July 30, and at 11:30 a.m., 2:15, 5, 7:45 and 10:20 p.m. July 31. Set 27 years after the Tower Bay murders, the franchise’s fourth installment follows friends targeted by a hook-wielding killer one year after they conceal a fatal car crash.
Sunset Cinema presents free outdoor films at The Wharf’s Transit Pier at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 28. “Shrek” screens July 31, followed by “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” on Aug. 7, “Pitch Perfect” on Aug. 14, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on Aug. 21 and “La La Land” on Aug. 28. Limited chairs become available at 7 p.m., and visitors may bring blankets or folding chairs. All ages and leashed dogs are welcome.
The Library of Congress screens “The Muppet Movie” from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, July 31, on the Thomas Jefferson Building’s southeast lawn. The 1979 film follows Kermit and Fozzie on their journey to Hollywood. Admission is free without tickets, though space is limited. Guests may bring chairs, blankets, food and nonalcoholic drinks.
Waterfront diversions
A sunset cruise aboard the historic Chesapeake Bay buyboat Mildred Belle departs Yards Marina, 301 Water St. SE, at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1. The Potomac cruise is limited to guests 21 and older, and only a few tickets remain.
Georgetown’s free Dancing on the Waterfront series continues from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays at 3200 K St. NW. The remaining makeup classes feature Latin and African dance on Aug. 5 and line dancing on Aug. 12. The program welcomes participants of all ages and experience levels.
The Wharf closes the weekend with Shark Bites & Brews from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at Transit Pier. The free, all-ages celebration includes a mechanical shark, music from the 7 Deadlies Band, games, a dunk tank, shark hats and a shark-themed doughnut-eating contest. Leashed dogs are welcome, and alcohol is limited to attendees 21 and older.