When politicians began using the term theater kid earlier this year, a certain subset of Washingtonians took appropriate offense. For DC’s theater community, the term is not a slur, but a long-held badge of honor earned through years spent in high school auditoriums, theater camps, and children’s community theater productions. The theater bug bites hard and, once bitten, the thrill of performance rarely subsides.
At least it hasn’t for Zack Ford, the Wednesday evening pianist at Sid Gold’s Request Room, a Union Market piano bar that carves out one night each week to devote (almost) entirely to showtunes.
“So many of us fostered our love of showtunes when we were young,” Ford said. “Then adulting comes in and depresses us and distracts us from that hope and possibility that musicals portray and the way the songs tug on your heartstrings.”
Sid Gold’s: Where Wednesday nights are for showtunes
Wednesday nights at Sid Gold’s offer a welcome respite for Washington’s (real) grown-up theater kids, who step back into the spotlight, free of judgment from the outside world and competition from those in the room. For hours, they approach the mic and perform selections from shows as wide-ranging as Dear Evan Hansen and The Bridges of Madison County to Li’l Abner and The Music Man, handpicked from a database of over 2,000 songs curated by Ford and accessed by a QR code on the bar’s cocktail tables.
The flagship Sid Gold’s opened in New York in 2015. The venue has since opened outlets in Detroit, Nashville, and DC. It primarily offers standard piano bar fare — Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, and similar pop and rock requests — but when Ford approached the bar’s owners requesting to program a showtunes-only set, they took his request to heart.
“I had my first trial run around Thanksgiving of 2024, then in early 2025, I was playing about one weekend afternoon a month,” Ford said. He joined forces with another Sid Gold’s pianist, Jill Parsons, and took on the Wednesday evening happy hour shift. Together, Ford and Parsons have built up a devoted audience of “regulars,” who come to Sid Gold’s after work. While solo turns are the norm, it’s not uncommon for singers to cruise the room looking for duet or trio partners, and Ford is keen to throw in a big group number, like Les Misérables’s “One Day More,” to get everyone involved. Fostering an inclusive atmosphere is his foremost priority.
“I try to emphasize an even playing field,” Ford said. “I’m always determined to make sure everyone has a chance to sing before granting repeats, and if I’ve missed someone or someone has to leave soon, my crowd is good about letting me know so we can accommodate. I also don’t make any assumptions about anyone’s ability, so even when an experienced singer comes up who insists they know the words, I always make sure we still pull up the lyrics on the tablet because we really want to convey to everyone that the stakes for performing (i.e., impressing) are low.”
Among Ford’s regular patrons is Luke Lukens, a West Virginia native who has found an insightful, encouraging community in the room.
“When I’m singing solo or listening to somebody else up there, it’s the ability to make novel choices that can turn a standard you’ve heard over and over into something meaningful that conveys something about the person or character,” Lukens said. “I love it when somebody tries a new technique or simply grows as a singer.”
Still, signing up for a solo can be intimidating. “Social media is filled with folks manipulating their voices to perform to an unrealistic standard,” said Lukens. “Nobody who goes up there is going to land a perfect rendition. Failing is good. Fail as a community. And most importantly, support your people in their failure.” The experience at Sid Gold’s stands in stark contrast to the rising loneliness many young people feel, and it may be a balm for some. Lukens even sees group singing as a key component in an aspirational worldview. “In my dream world,” Lukens said, “we are sung to in our cradles by a community that loves us.”
JR’s Bar: Where Musical Mondays reign supreme
While the “showtunes-only night” at Sid Gold’s is rare in mixed-crowd piano bars, many gay bars with live music have historically embraced musical theater as core programming. The legendary dive Marie’s Crisis and more buttoned-up Townhouse Bar in New York, as well as Philadelphia’s cozy Tavern on Camac, have centered live showtunes for years, and video bars like Chicago’s Sidetrack and San Francisco’s The Edge have long hosted marquee showtunes nights. And in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, JR’s Bar’s Monday night showtunes extravaganza has reigned supreme, beginning at 9 p.m. (and playing again at 5 p.m. on Saturdays). It was from friends at JR’s that Ford first heard about Sid Gold’s, but if the piano bar is the ideal venue for a star turn, JR’s is better suited for those most comfortable in the ensemble.
On Monday nights, the television screens that line the walls of the narrow two-floor barroom turn from their usual pop music videos to clips from Broadway and movie musicals. In the VJ booth, Helen Hayes Award–nominated actor Wood Van Meter — who was most recently seen in Ford’s Theatre’s 1776 — curates a four-hour set. His mind is on maximizing joy, of course, but he’s not blind to the inherent spirit of defiance in being a proud “theater kid.”
“I think, culturally, there’s still so much stigma around liking musicals,” Van Meter said. “So many queer people have been made to feel some sort of shame about it. Getting to come to JR’s and sing along to showtunes you know and love with your friends, in a space where no one is going to judge you, can almost feel radical.”
Years before he began VJing in 2021, Van Meter was introduced to JR’s not by fellow theatermakers, but friends in the LGBTQ community. “There’s always been such a strong tie between the queer community and musicals. There’s just something about breaking into song onstage or onscreen that feels so free when done correctly, and I think a lot of us connected with that in our youth. Getting to participate in it as an adult, even at a gay bar, can be such a source of joy and comfort.” Van Meter remembers playing the Glee cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” the Monday after World Pride last year and hearing the room explode in song. “I completely broke down in tears,” he said. “It was such a beautiful moment of community, joy, and freedom. I feel like I’m constantly chasing that feeling up in the booth.”
From that elevated vantage point, Van Meter has gained insight into his craft as an actor.
“While I think the ‘audiences’ are completely different between a noisy gay bar and the theater, working showtunes nights at JR’s has reminded me not everything is for everyone, and as long as you are trying to entertain people and make them feel something, you’re doing something right,” Van Meter said. He wishes more people realized that “showtunes” is an expansive term that spans styles, eras, and genres. You’re as likely to see clips from Glee, Saturday Night Live, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in one of Van Meter’s sets as you are from a Golden Age musical. But some things remain traditional. For more than a decade, patrons have stood along the railing of the second-floor balcony to sing Evita’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” to the patrons — standing in for the role of Eva Perón’s descamisados — below. In more recent years, a stuffed Young Simba from The Lion King has been hoisted over the room during “The Circle of Life.” For many, it’s a joyous start to a long workweek. “If I can play a song or video that unlocks a memory or touches a nerve — that makes someone go, ‘OMG I love this song or show’ — then I’ve done my job right.”
Highball Productions: Where drag stars sing out, Louise!
But there are plenty of “theater kids” who are happy to eschew performance. For them, Highball Productions, a “theatre group that brings to life drag parodies of beloved musicals, films, and more live on stage,” offers a perfect opportunity to be in the middle of the action without the pressure to perform (no matter how low the stakes). Founded in 2019 and led by Executive Producer and local drag star Citrine, the troupe has transformed venues like JR’s and Shaw’s Tavern into stages, where drag performers dance on the bars, embrace the odd nooks and crannies of these found spaces, and maneuver around stools and tables for an ultra-immersive audience experience.
Their raucous and randy takes on beloved properties have included Defrosted (a riff on the Disney animated film Frozen), Shecago (an ode to John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse’s Chicago), and Queeney Todd, a “love letter” to Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. They have grown to be regarded as one of the premier showcases of local drag talent, not only in performance, but in costume, makeup, and hair design as well.
When Theater Washington released its most recent impact report, it highlighted that nearly 90 professional theaters call the DC region home. But the enduring spirit of musical theater, forged in classrooms and school auditoriums, lives on far beyond the black boxes and resident theaters scattered throughout the region. For the many grown-up theater kids who chose not to make performing their career, these venues offer the chance to rekindle their childhood passion. Theater kids are everywhere. Just perk up your ears and listen for their voices, wafting down a quiet alley or out of some corner bar on a sleepy street in Washington.
Where to Find Showtunes In Washington, DC
Sid Gold’s Request Room
1262 5th St NE, Washington, DC (enter in the Alley between 5th and 4th Sts NE)
Wednesdays – 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.
(Note: Zach Ford will not be performing on Wednesday, June 4, 2026)
JR’s Bar
1519 17th St NW, Washington, DC
Mondays – 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Saturdays – 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Highball Productions
Rotating venues
See website for upcoming shows
About the Wendi Winters Memorial Series: DC Theater Arts has partnered with the Wendi Winters Memorial Foundation to honor the life and work of Wendi Winters, a DC Theater Arts writer who died in the Capital Gazette shooting in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 28, 2018.
To honor Wendi’s legacy, the Foundation has funded the Wendi Winters Memorial Series — articles produced by DC Theater Arts that make an identifiable contribution to local theater journalism, uplift the local LGBTQIA+ community, or highlight theater companies and practitioners in our region who engage in exemplary work that makes our community a better place.
