Gary Tischler • December 4, 2014

“Little Dancer,” the ravishing,from-the-ground-up, entirely original Kennedy Center musical with Broadway hopes has finally had its official opening—and not a moment too soon.

In the age of Disney and Spiderman, “Little Dancer” is a musical that’s about something—in fact, several things, that matter. The musical, a radically and beautifully imaginative example of the form, tells the tale of a wispy, but gritty, adolescent, one-step-from-the-gutter aspiring ballerina in the La Belle Epoch Paris Opera Company who inspired Impressionist painter and sculptor Eduard Degas to create one of his most enduring works, the sculpture “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” (now the center of a mini-exhibition at the National Gallery of Art).

Carrying on that idea of inspiration, everyone involved in this production seems to have been inspired into daring acts of the imagination. This is as show about art—not just the ballet and ballet dancers—but also artists and their work, famous ones including Degas, and his good friend, the American expatriate impressionist Mary Cassatt. Like “Follies,” a revival of “Ragtime” and the currently on-Broadway “Sideshow,” “Little Dancer” is a Kennedy Center production. All are marked by originality of a sort that you rarely encounter in musical theater.

Factually, we know that a 14-year-old girl named Marie van Goethem was the model for the Degas sculpture and that she was a member of the dance troupe, one of the so-called “rats,” young girls dragged up from the depths of poverty to fill the ranks of the corps de ballet, girls often the focus of predatory toffs in black top hats and tuxes who prowled backstage. The real Marie disappeared from history only to have a kind of forever re-incarnation in the form of the famous sculpture. “Little Dancer” purports to tell how this journey across time happened.

A terrific team has been assembled to make this enterprise a success. A passion for dance, for instance, obviously fuels director Susan Strohman, who gave us the wonderful dance show, “Contact,” a number of years ago. “Little Dancer” is in the end about movement, from the mobile and dazzling sets of Beowulf Boritt, to the keenly sharp and detailed, and pleasure-inducing moments when we see the dancers truly dance. It’s about getting from here to there, from mind-to-heart, from song to feeling. Lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty have come up with a book and songs and music that define the show and is in service to the story, smart, witty, empathic and passionate, reminiscent of their work on “Ragtime.”

The focus of “Little Dancer” is Marie, and in the elfin, dynamic American Ballet Theatre star Tiler Peck, the show has found its heart, its dazzler, who embodies all of Marie’s hopes, fears, dreams and travails. When she takes to the air, the show goes right with her. Small and beautiful, she still has the look of an urchin on the verge of becoming a special artist. Some observers have grumbled that she’s neither a singer or an actress. I beg to differ—her singing more often than not is of the sort that’s folded into duets or groups and doesn’t need to stand out, but her acting, that’s another matter. Peck acts the way dancers act—with their bodies, with their moves and movements, and Peck surely does this with her dances (she has the hang time of Michael Jordan at apogee), which illustrates human aspirations of flight. But she carries this over into what Marie does—she’s never still. Some part of her body—expressive face, butterfly hands, fluttery feet and legs, head out or down—some expression and emotion is making its move. Only when she poses for Degas—for drawings, sketches and the sculpture itself does she become peaceful, attaining some sort of sense and picture of herself.

The production and all of its aspects paints a gaudy, detailed picture of Paris in the Impressionist age. The sets have aspects of paintings, and it achieves something remarkable—you can get giddy watching that world, without being able to ignore its harsher aspects. That would be the plight of Marie’s alcoholic laundress mother, the deflating punch of poverty without hope, the prowling men in their silk hats, the overbearing patrons of the arts.

That world is the world of Degas, too, who was obsessed with painting the world and its inhabitants. He takes an interest in Marie after she steals his watch and has her pose for him. Ultimately, Degas starts to lose his sight and despairs of painting. The pushy Marie says, “Why don’t you use your hands?”

Throughout , there is an older, more imagined Marie, dressed in middle class finery, who has returned to her beginnings upon the death of Degas, wanting to find out what happened to the sculpture which she’s never seen. Broadway veteran Rebecca Luker makes her a warm, and fine-voiced presence. She’s our guide through Marie’s world and her own past.

Boyd Gaines as Degas gives a sharp portrait of a genius at work and his relationship with Marie. He is inspired but also maddened by her and determined to show people and things as they are without having to prettify Marie.

In all its components and parts, “Little Dancer” sweeps you up, carries you along and brings you to where we are today in a theatrical way that at its end is such a pleasurable, generous act of magic—a perfect execution of an act of arrival and ending that shines.

“Little Dancer” is at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater through Nov. 30.
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Gary Tischler •

American soprano Alyson Cambridge is one busy opera star these days.

Talking during a brief stay in Washington—she performed before the Supreme Court in a recital, sponsored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—Cambridge, who grew up in Arlington, Va., went to Sidwell Friends School and the Levine School of Music, was preparing to go to Chicago this week. She will return Dec. 1 to take part in the “2014 Christmas Concert for the Troops” at the Kennedy Center. That still leaves her performance in Las Vegas at the 2014 Soul Train Awards, which will air Sunday, Nov. 30, on BET at 8 p.m.

“It’s been kind of amazing, that’s for sure,” Cambridge said in an interview with The Georgetowner. “To be able to do all this in so many different venues and occasions. It’s a great opportunity for myself and opera. I feel very lucky, and I’ve worked very hard.”

Cambridge, a rangy soprano with red-carpet beauty and style, has of late become especially familiar with roles for the Washington National Opera, where she just finished up an acclaimed performance as Musetta in Puccini’s “La Boheme.” Before that she had been a highly effective and affecting, moving Julie in WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello’s s production of “Showboat.” Zambello also directed her in London as Mimi in”La Boheme,” which she will also do for the San Diego Opera this season, as well as performing as Bess in “Porgy and Bess” with the Spoleto Festival USA.

“I absolutely love working with Francesca,” Cambridge said. “She is such a risk taker, such a visionary. I guess in a way I think of her as my opera godmother. She has had so much faith in me, and I’ve learned not to be afraid to take risks from her.”

One of those risks is a burning desire to branch out into other genres, other kinds of music. “I would never give up opera,” Cambridge said. “But I like to explore other kinds of music the great American songbook, jazz and pop. And it’s also a way to broaden your audience, to give other people a chance to hear you and see you. I know ‘Showboat’ and certainly ‘Porgy and Bess’ can be seen technically as operas, but they’re also seen as musicals in the traditional sense of the word. The singing, the songs and the music is different from traditional opera music. They’re truly American works.”

With Cambridge, the seeing is part and parcel of the entire package. She is a vivacious presence—and voice on the phone—who’s often been compared to the equally glamorous pop star Vanessa Williams in her style and looks, which, from a host of images on the web, seems equally sexy, high-cheek-boned exotic, and classy, combined with an original sense of style and fashion. “I like trying new things, new looks,” said Cambridge, whose father is African-American-Caribbean and whose mother is Scandinavian-American.

Her opera career was launched auspiciously, when she became one of the youngest ever Grand Prize winners of the international opera competition at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. This recognition led to seven seasons at the Met along with a major, still growing national and international career, abetted with recitals, recordings and performances at the great opera houses.

“The BET thing was very different,” Cambridge said. “I had performed in BET and Centric’s documentary and concert ‘Of Thee We Sing: The Marian Anderson Story,’ which they liked. So, they asked me to do this.” The show celebrates the musical accomplishments of R&B, soul and hip-hop artists. It will include performances by Chris Brown, Elle Varner, Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliot and MC Lyte. “And then there’s me,” Cambridge said. “This will be the first time an opera singer has been on the Soul Train awards. I’ll be doing some selections from ‘La Boheme’ and a vocal arrangement in which hip-hop connects with classical, which is a challenge for me. But I heard that the show gets something like an audience of 4.5 million—which is probably more than I’ve had in my whole career. But think of the opportunities for opera in this. It’s like being an opera ambassador to the world of contemporary pop and hip hop.”

On Monday, Dec. 1, Cambridge will be doing something very different at the Kennedy Center, joining stars like Charlie Daniels, Marlee Martin, Kristin Chenoweth, Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra and Medal of Honor recipient SFC Sammy Davis for the Christmas concert for the troops. The concert is sponsored by the Gary Sinise Foundation, which honors the country’s defenders, veterans, first responders and their families.”

“I am so glad to be able to do this and feel honored,” said Cambridge, who will sing “Ave Maria” and “White Christmas.”

“I love being in the world of opera,” she said. “But I also love the great American Songbook composers like Gershwin. Cambridge lives in New York and remembers walking her dog Lucy—a poodle-bichon—and strolling past the Gershwin home on her route. “It gave me goose bumps,” she said.

Gary Tischler •

Director Robert O’Hara’s version of the Louis Jordan-based musical, “Five Guys Named Moe,” now at the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage is said to be very different from the original which proved to be popular on Broadway and on tour and in the West End in the 1990s and in revivals.

Sad to say, I didn’t see the original, and Jordan, the man and the music and precursor of rock and roll, was just a little before my time. So basically, what I saw was as brand new as a baby, more or less, although a pretty energetic and loud baby.

What O’Hara has done is to place the music—it’s a heady, stewy mixture of blues, R&B, a little bit of big band oomph—into the hands of what purports to be a contemporary (or at least 1980s style boy group), echoing with contemporary swagger and style, who pop out of a radio being listened to by one very sad sack guy who’s heading towards hangover at five in the morning, lost his girlfriend, and is generally moe-aning the blues.

The five Moes—No Moe, Big Moe, Little Moe, Four-Eyed Moe and Eat Moe—are dazzling in white smooth outfits and decide to help out the lost guy, by the name of Nomax by giving him free musical advice about life, women, drinking, women, dancing, women, attitude, and oh, yes, women. Count the audience as the sixth moe—More Moe.

The Moes are all terrific singers with a lot of range, and even more moves. They dazzle with attitude. Try, for instance, Little Moe with “Messy Bessy” and the classic “Saturday Night Fish Fry” and Sheldon Henry as Big Moe, hooking up with Kevin McAllister, as the befuddled Nomax on “What’s the Use of Getting Sober When You’re Gonna Get Drunk Again.”

There’s a bit of contemporary flash and dazzle here—all achieved with the help a scintillating group six musicians to help glide things along. You might think Kanye or Jay-Z could come waltzing out to try their hand at some Jordan tunes. Yet, the songs have echoes—they have some of that bounce and rhythms of early rock, to be sure along the Bill Haley and Chuck Berry lines—but they dig back, too, with riffs and dollops of urban and southern blues and a little male Bessie Smith lamenting.

All the Moes can do their splits and spins, their cool moves—with sunglasses or not—they shine like a group of charmers who could talk and sing you into just about anything. They do just that when they persuade audience members—women all—to come up and do a conga line, in the calypso-raggae flavored first act closer “Push Ka Pi Shi Pie.”

The Moes— Jobari Parker-Namdar, as No Moe, Henry as Big Moe, Clinton Roane as Little Moe, Travis Porchia as Four-Eyed Moe, and Paris Nix as Eat Moe—are terrific entertainers and look great in white dinner jackets to boot. They embrace the music with their own sense of style, while leaving all the fun Jordan parts including the bluesy, often funny lyrics in.

And Nomax—as sung and performed by Kevin McAllister—does his part too. He’s got a deep and impressive bass voice that’s surprisingly evocative and affecting, and his stumble-bum act comes close to being endearing

What’s maybe missing from this—given that so much of the songs and material is about women of all shapes, sizes and dispositions—is an-in-the-flesh female performer. I’d say E. Faye Butler, who’s been at Arena enough to be comfortable, would be right at home with this bunch.

“Five Guys Named Moe” runs through Dec. 28.

Gary Tischler •

If there was one man, one politician, who in the annals of home rule in the District of Columbia personified the struggles and human makeup of this city, it was Marion S. Barry, Jr.

Through all the turbulent years of his public life in the city he seemed to love with a great passion, as school board member, city council member and four-time Mayor of the District of Columbia (1979 to 1991; 1995 to 1999.)

Through his triumphs of which there many, and through his troubles, of which there were an equal amount, Barry remained, up and down but not always all around the town, the most indelible, inspiring, divisive and unforgettable political figure of this town, the town inhabited in its neighborhoods, not its federal presence as capital city of the United States of America.

Even now, a day and some hours after he died early on Sunday morning a little after midnight, it’s hard to believe that he’s gone. He died of heart problems associated with his various medical issues including diabetes, after just being released from the hospital after complaining that he was not feeling well. In Washington, in the latter part of Barry’s life, the news of Barry landing in the hospital was practically a standing headline, but the news of his death was a shock.

He lived a big, big life here, footprints, imprints, images, accomplishments that irrevocably changed the city, and reckless and wounding acts that divided the city.

Long-term, the landscape changed. The geography of opportunity changed for the better for a time for African Americans in general, and those living in poverty, looking for jobs, for the elderly, the sick, the disadvantaged youths whom he inspired with his outsized presence, his outsider ways, his often in-your-face approach to white establishment types. He opened up opportunities for jobs in the District government which did not exist before, in its bureaucracies and its police and fire departments. When he was first elected—narrowly over the District’s first popularly elected mayor, Walter Washington—he was young and electric, running on a slogan of “Take a Stand.” When he took office, the city was a town that was still suffering from the effects of the 1968 riots. Although no longer segregated, it had the look of a segregated city, complete with the desolation of run-down neighborhoods along the 14th Street corridor.

It turned out that Marion Barry, as a politician, was something of a natural, like Bill Clinton, a man who couldn’t live without the hurly burly of crowds, meetings, face-to-face contacts. He was more often than not supremely confident in the pubic arena. If his major share of constituents was among the less affluent, heavily black areas of the city, especially when his last base of power became Anacostia and Ward 8, he was comfortable, and uniquely himself in just about any setting. We can recall Barry coming to Citizen Association of Georgetown meetings, where he had some vehement foes, and controlling the meeting by dint of his presence.

The city continued to change. And after the 1990 scandal—the videos of the Mayor of the District of Columbia taking a hit from a crack pipe, “The bitch set me up,” which became a t-shirt slogan, the trial, the journey to prison and the triumphant release—Barry had changed, too. He would be re-elected mayor for a term that was highlighted by the imposed presence of a federally mandated control board which took away almost all his power.

He opted out, not to run again. In 2004, he won the Ward 8 council seat and had been there until his death.

He felt himself redeemed often, and often stumbled, here and there. His talk got him into trouble. His bad habits got him into trouble. He could be racially divisive.

But he was always in the arena. Always.

Everybody who lived here during the Barry years has strong feelings about him, one way or the other, which came as no surprise. Often, it depended on where you lived, who you were or what you were. Often, opinions fell along racial lines.

All that aside, we remember him. Very little time passed over the years when he did not make news. But in Ward 8, he had returned and found a home. His personal life was as turbulent as his public life—four marriages, all ended, and one son, Christopher Barry.

We interviewed him in 2004, when he was seeking to gain the Ward 8 seat. He had said then that he was running because people kept asking him to, that he couldn’t get through a trip to a grocery store without talking for hours with residents.

We met him at his campaign headquarters which was only a block away from the Players restaurant, where we would have lunch (chicken dumpling soup, a favorite). It took us 45 minutes to get there. People at bus stops would hail him or come up to him. An elderly woman touched his hand to “God bless” him, and Barry knew her by name and asked after her grandchildren and health. Young men would look at him in awe. Nothing that happened on that walk was anything less than genuine. Pressing the flesh, a respectful listening to problems. Barry was in his element.

Outgoing Mayor Vincent Gray, who experienced his own share of political and personal troubles, choked up announcing his friend’s death. There was a similar, and emotional moment in 2010, when Barry was stripped of a chairmanship and censured by the District Council as a whole. Gray, stoic but dignified, read off the bill and Barry’s colleagues, one by one, voted (often whispered and muttered) yea on the censure motion, while Barry pleaded with Gray not to proceed.

We remember him too taking on a DPS employee during hearings on potential large-scale layoffs of teachers—in another room, teachers in danger of being fired cheered him in.

We remember him not so long ago over lunch for a story about his autobiography, “Mayor for Life.” He was walking slower but ate with a hearty appetite. He recalled the details of growing up in the segregated south as a poor African-American child, daring to drink out of a whites-only fountain just to see what it was like. He said he had no faith in the idea of the slogan, “One City,” as touted by Mayor Gray. He called it a pipe dream.

There will be no more quotes, outrageous or inspiring. There will be commemorations and vigils to come. Many are saying that the big memorial will come next week after Thanksgiving.

But there will be no more headlines except the last one. In the minds of the people who were there over the course of his time in this city, he will remain the mayor—not for life—but of our lives in his times.
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Gary Tischler • December 3, 2014

Nutcrackers and Scrooges

At the Washington Ballet, it’s the 10th anniversary of Artistic Director Septime Webre’s production of “The Nutcracker” (Nov. 29-30, THE ARC, and Dec. 4-28, Warner Theatre). It’s set in 1882 Georgetown, no less, and features George Washington as the heroic Nutcracker.

Olney Theatre Center will present Mary Day’s “The Nutcracker,” directed by Patricia Berrend with choreography by Washington Ballet founder Mary Day, performed by students and dancers from Washington-area ballet schools (Dec. 12-24). Also at Olney: actor Paul Morella’s one-man version of “A Christmas Carol, A Ghost Story of Christmas,” in the tradition of Dickens himself (Nov 28-Dec. 28).
“A Christmas Carol” has been a traditional mainstay at Ford’s Theatre (Nov. 20-Jan. 1). For the last five years, in an adaptation by Michael Wilson directed by Michael Baron, Edward Gero has taken on the role of Scrooge, the misbegotten miser who must learn the meaning of Christmas. One of the Washington area’s most brilliant actors, Gero will play Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia this spring at Arena Stage.

The 21st Century Consort presents Jon Deak’s “A Christmas Carol” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum with baritone William Sharp as Scrooge (Dec. 6), along with Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and George Crumb’s “Little Suite for Christmas.”

At Bethesda’s Round House Theatre,“The Nutcracker,” a new version created by Tommy Rapley, Jake Minton, Phillip Klapperich and Kevin O’Donnell weaves together “spellbinding spectacle, riveting dialogue, astonishing puppetry and an original score” (Nov. 26-Dec. 28).

At Adventure Theatre, “Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol,” adapted by prolific Washington playwright Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me a Tenor,” “Crazy About You”), adapted Dickens’s classic tale with Jack Ludwig, telling the story through the eyes of Tiny Tim. Directed by Jerry Whiddon, the show runs through Jan. 1.

More for the Family

The Gift of Nothing (Nov. 22-Dec. 28, Kennedy Center Family Theater) – A world premiere Kennedy Center commission, this musical – conceived and written by Patrick McDonnell, Aaron Posner and Erin Weaver, directed by Posner with music and lyrics by Andy Mitton – tells the tale of Mooch, a cat, who wants something special for his friend Earl, a puppy. Both are characters from the comic strip “Mutts.”

The Little Prince (Dec. 19-21, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater) – Washington National Opera’s holiday family opera is based on the magical, mystical book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Originally staged by WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, the production, with a remarkable score by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman, is sung in English.

Musicals, Musicals, Musicals

It has been 50 years since the American musical classic “Fiddler on the Roof” first became a smash on Broadway, with the late, great and iconic Zero Mostel starring as Tevye, the much-put-upon Jewish shtetl milkman with his five daughters, his daily conversations with the Man Above and the constant threat of eviction and pogroms. Since that time, the musical has been revived and redone and restored many times. This time, Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith continues her exploration of the American musical with a new, in-the-round production at the Fichandler (through Jan. 4). Jonathan Hadary heads an exceptional cast, which in this setting becomes an intimate, as well as a musically rousing experience.

Five Guys Named Moe (through Dec. 28, Arena Stage Kreeger Theater) – This highly original, soul-and-blues-flavored musical showcases the music and lyrics of Louis Jordan. Known as the King of the Jukebox, Jordan was one of the great composers of songs that make you jump. The Five Guys Named Moe? Count ’em: Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, No Moe and Little Moe.

Diner (Signature Theatre, Dec. 9-Jan. 25) – Pop-rock chanteuse Sheryl Crow and film director Barry Levinson provide the sound and feel of this world-premiere musical based on Levinson’s classic film about growing up in Baltimore.

Pippin (Dec. 16-Jan. 4, National Theatre) – This all-new production of Roger O. Hirson and Stephen Schwartz’s “Pippin” was directed by Diane Paulus with choreography by Chet Walker in the style of Bob Fosse. It stars Kyle Dean Massey in the title role, John Rubinstein (the original Pippin in 1972) as his father and Lucie Arnaz as Berthe.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dec. 16-Jan. 4, Kennedy Center Opera House) – Husband-and-wife team Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young star in the groundbreaking rock musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

More in the Christmas Spirit

Theater Alliance’s Black Nativity (Nov. 29-Dec. 7, Bowie State University; Dec. 11-Jan. 4, Anacostia Playhouse) – The Langston Hughes Christmas classic “Black Nativity” comes to life, directed by Eric Ruffin with music director e’Marcus Harper-Short and choreographer Princess Mhoon.

Donny & Marie: Christmas at the National (Dec. 2-7) – Still going strong, siblings Donnie and Marie Osmond mix holiday songs with music from their Osmond family days, brother-and-sister act and solo careers. There’s a good chance that “Paper Roses” and “It Takes Two” will slip in with the seasonal tunes.

Wolf Trap Holiday Sing-A-Long (Dec. 6, Filene Center) – Sing along with the United States Marine Band and D.C.-area choirs and vocal groups.

NPR’s A Jazz Piano Christmas (Dec. 12, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater) – Top jazz pianists Harold Mabern, Kris Davis, Lynne Arriale and Cyrus Chestnut perform holiday favorites.

The Embassy Series will commemorate the heroic spirit of the Battle of the Bulge with a special holiday program of songs and cabaret, “I’ll Be Seeing You,” at the Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Dec. 12-13). The Thomas Circle Singers will appear on Dec. 13.

Megan Hilty’s A Kennedy Center Christmas (Dec. 13, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater) – The sassy, classy and classic Broadway star ushers in the season with holiday music and songs from the American songbook.

The Cathedral Choral Society’s “Joy of Christmas” (Dec. 13) brings the Washington Symphonic Brass and the C.D. Hylton High School Troubadours to the National Cathedral for a program that includes the procession of the Advent wreath and carol sing-alongs.

The Folger Consort’s “A Renaissance Christmas” at the Folger Theatre (Dec. 16-23) is a program of music of Flanders and Italy performed by winds, viol, lute and a quintet of voices.

A Kennedy Center tradition, the National Symphony Orchestra will perform Handel’s “Messiah” (Dec. 18-21).

“Christmas with the King’s Singers” (Dec. 21) is a concert of traditional and modern Christmas carols performed by the renowned English a capella sextet at the National Cathedral.

Coming up at the Music Center at Strathmore – Pianist George Winston (Nov. 30), Dave Koz and Friends (Dec. 9), Motown celebration with the Temptations and the Four Tops (Dec. 12), Mannheim Streamroller Christmas (Dec. 13).
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Gary Tischler • December 1, 2014

Almost from the moment he arrived in Washington, D.C., as a young, firebrand civil rights activist, Marion S. Barry, Jr., captured the imagination of the city, as he made headlines and news, for better and worse. He was mayor of D.C. for four terms and dubbed “Mayor for Life.”

He was at the center of a political firestorm in the infamous 1990 drug bust at a downtown D.C. hotel room. He went to prison and returned in a kind of triumph to become mayor again. He would rise again to become Ward 8 City Council member, and time and time again, through sickness and health, a censure by the District Council, and most recently, a controversial autobiography, Barry made news. He was admired and loved and often when spoke, he outraged more than a lot of people. He was a seemingly endless fodder for stories and headlines.

Here is the latest—but not probably not last—headline about him: “Marion Barry, Four-term Mayor of the District of Columbia, Dead at 78.”

Barry, who had entered the hospital over the weekend, died in the early hours of Nov. 23, after being released to his home. He had been battling various illnesses for a number of years. He died at United Medical Center.

The last time we saw Barry, we interviewed him during lunch at the Fours Seasons Hotel in Georgetown about his autobiography, “Mayor for Life: The Incredible Life of Marion Barry Jr.” It is a book which proved revealing about his deep South upbringing that forged his politics and thinking. It also provides some shocking details about that 1990 sting operation that led to his prison term.

Mayor Vincent Gray issued this statement about Barry’s passing: “Marion was not just a colleague but also was a friend with whom I shared many fond moments about governing the city. He loved the District of Columbia, and so many Washingtonians loved him.”

As the Ward 8 Councilmember, Barry supported an embattled Gray in his bid for re-nomination as the Democratic candidate in the April primary, which was won by Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser, who was then supported by Barry and went on to win the general election.

Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser, “shocked and deeply saddened” by Barry’s passing, said in a statement: “Mayor Marion Barry gave a voice to those who need it most and lived his life in service to others. … He has been a part of my family for decades, and he will continue to be an example to me and so many others.”

Former mayoral candidate and the longest-serving member of the District Council, Jack Evans wrote: “Mayor Barry never backed down from the belief that Washington, D.C., should do more, should be more, for every person who lives here.”

Barry is survived by his wife, Cora, and one son, Marion Christopher Barry.

Memorial services are pending. Mayor Gray said that he will speak with the Barry family and the District Council about government ceremonies that would be “worthy of a true statesman of the District of Columbia.”

Gary Tischler •

The 7th Annual Living in Pink luncheon and boutique, benefiting breast cancer research, was held at the Washington Fairmont on October 8.

Gary Tischler • November 26, 2014

It’s fair to say that violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has reached iconic status. According to one writer: “If Yo-Yo Ma is the reigning god of classical music, Anne-Sophie Mutter is the goddess.”

Mutter would probably decline either honor – goddess or icon. “I don’t like looking back every day,” she said in a telephone interview with The Georgetowner. “Music to me is about moving forward.”

It’s not that she’s notably restless, but that she believes in living a full life. The program for her Nov. 23 Kennedy Center performance, under the auspices of Washington Performing Arts, is emblematic of her passions and interests, musical and otherwise.

She will be playing with the Mutter Virtuosi, a 14-member string orchestra of young scholars and professionals, alumni of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. Supporting young musicians is one her passions. Another is giving exposure to the works of contemporary composers. The program includes “Ringtone Variations,” written in 2011 by Mutter favorite Sebastian Currier on the theme of everybody’s favorite possession and irritant, the cell phone.

Juxtaposing “Ringtone Variations” with Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and Mendelssohn’s “Octet” may be a little dizzying. Majestically romantic, Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is as familiar as a waltz. “I know everybody loves it, but it’s not that simple. It’s a complicated work. I think it’s been somewhat abused by people who used it as elevator music,” she says. “‘Ringtones’ to me, I’ve never heard music that is so dense. The notes seem to be traveling from the moon.”

On the phone, Mutter is fully engaged. Her voice is warm, with a hint of a German accent. She was raised in the Black Forest region and today lives in Munich. Apart from her extraordinary talent, some of her fame comes from being a classically beautiful woman that age has made few intrusions upon.

“I think sometimes there’s too much emphasis and too much talk about that, the appearance, how musicians look and appear on stage,” she said. “The music is everything, and live performance is unique and central to this.”

In some critical quarters, there are grumbles about her having something of a cool persona as a performer. “I don’t understand that,” she said. “I’m not an actress. It’s always about the music. I saw a woman, a violinist, once, who sat absolutely on a chair, hardly moved at all, except with bow and fingers. And the most remarkable music would come forth, and it was to me an act of magic.”

The 2011 Deutsche Grammophon release of a huge boxed set of her recordings was a long way and time from 1978 when, as a teenager, she began her performing career at the Lucerne Festival. A year later, she performed at the Salzburg Whitsun Concerts under famed conductor Herbert von Karajan.

She’s performed at the Kennedy Center frequently over the years. “This is a wonderful city to perform in, to visit. I head straight to the museums when I’m here.”

She also exercises (passionately, we’re guessing), loves Rilke, reads Marquez and for a time was listening to Elvis. Lately she has been listening to jazz vocalist Madeleine Peyroux.

Mutter herself sounds a bit jazzy at times. She’s funny, with a sly sense of humor, and says she once – before her destiny took over – wanted to be a clown. Her life in full comes across in her voice and, of course, in her playing, which always brings out the bottomless depths of the music. She says: “How you play a piece changes all the time and so does the music. But it’s that connection that’s important: musician, violin, composer, audience.”

Gary Tischler •

Mike Nichols died Wednesday at the age of 83, leaving behind a mountain of stuff—plays, movies, musicals and comedies, television movies, some jokes and shticks, pearls of wisdoms, a few flops here and there, having lived a big life fully rounded out so that it leaves a big imprint in the world, and in particular, the world of theatrical art—be it movie theaters, a flat-screen television or a cineplex.

Still, when you contemplate that mountain of work with the honors it engendere —pictures pop in your mind: the young Nichols (with his partner in standup and recorded comedy Elaine May), a kind of smart and confident grin on his face, thin black tie, as if he knew something and what it was would be smart and funny. Even though many of the films and movies (some were films, some were movies) treaded into dark and moody waters, there was something sharp as well as insouciant about his directorial touch, a distanced lightness that often proved irresistible.

And a question arose: Who knew he was 83?

In his pictures—even though in his last years, he looked frail, such as when he received the Tony for best direction for the 2012 revival of “Death of a Salesman” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman—he still managed also to look like somebody who could take over the role of Puck from “Midsummer,” still boyish in his years.

We all—some more than others—remember his first successes—the film version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” Edward Albee’s poetic screaming match, the Liz and Dick show at its apex, with Burton giving one of his finest performances in 1966 and the groundbreaking “The Graduate,” starring Dustin Hoffman as a naïf who was seduced by Mrs. Robinson—aka Ann Bancroft—and told to go into “plastics” in 1967. That film spoke to a generation of young people as much as Bob Dylan did—they listened to him and Simon and Garfunkel, if they happened to be less political but more sensitive. Nichols won an Oscar for Best Director.

In 1967, he made his Broadway debut directing a slim romcom of the theater called “Barefoot in the Park,” starring the soon to be uber-star Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. Nichols won a Tony for Best Director, the first of nine. (“Death of a Salesman” was the last). He achieved EGOT, winning four Emmys, one Grammy, one Oscar and Nine Tonys.

This from a guy who entered life as one Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky, born in Berlin, the son of soon-to-be-Russian-Jewish immigrants to New York. The record has it that he and his younger brother were sent to the United States in 1939, to escape the Nazis. He was an actor, bought horses, and was married four times, the last to the elegantly blonde newscaster Diane Sawyer, since 1988.

His forays into theater began with his stand up act with his good friend May from a troupe in Chicago which eventually became Second City, from which a generation of Saturday Night Live performers erupted.

But it’s the work on screen, the work on stage (and two spectacular forays into cable films, “Angels in America” and “Wit,” adapted from plays) that mattered and are, if not exactly revealing or telling about Nichols, the private man, certainly about Nichols and his ingenious gift for diversity and versatility.

Yet, the lightness prevails in almost everything he touched. It prevailed in an obvious way in directing Neil Simon plays for instance, and any number of classic plays, but also in some of his sharper work on screen—the dark, almost ugly “Carnal Knowledge,” in which Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel played harried and competitive skirt chasers, the smart comedy “Heartburn,” set mostly in Washington (with some of it filmed in Georgetown), with Nicholson and Meryl Streep channeling Carl Bernstein and Norah Ephron, and the hugely popular “Working Girl,” starring Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford.

He could do anything—the song “Be A Clown” comes up for air often, especially in the gut-splitting “The Birdcage,” a sort of straight (no music) version of “La Cauge aux Folles”, which featured Robin Williams, the irrepressible Nathan Lane, and a very funny Gene Hackman.

You never knew with Nichols: there would be the Simons-“Plaza Suite” and “The Odd Couple,” followed by a production of “Uncle Vanya,” the horrifyingly tough anti-war play “Streamers,” Tom Stoppard’s incisive play about marriage, “The Real Thing,” “The Seagull” and, finally, “Death of a Salesman.” Of course, who could have predicted in this bunch a producing credit for “Annie,” or a directing credit, yes, for “Spamalot.”

He also had duds: “Billy Bishop Goes to War” and “Fools” on stage, ‘Day of the Dolphin” and “What Planet are You From?” in film.

Nichols’ version of Joseph Heller’s cult classic “Catch 22” is considered one of his duds by many critics. But if a criteria for a fine film is the fact that, after a number of decades, you still remember World War II bombers, rising and falling at an Italian airfield, Alan Arkin as the anarchic hero, Yossarian trying logically and helplessly to stay alive, and a bewildering Major Major, then failure, though it might have been, it succeeded in capturing an elusive book. It operated like a giant hallucination in 1970, which now seems like a hallucination, too.

That mountain that Nichols left behind, that’s no hallucination. That’s real.

Gary Tischler • November 24, 2014

It’s been quite a time for celebration at the Washington Ballet for artistic director Septime Webre and his company.

The big news came this past week when it was announced that the Washington Ballet would mount its first-ever production of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” on April 5. The production marks an even more historic occasion with the presence of star American Ballet Theatre ballerina and celebrity Misty Copeland in the starring roles of Odette/Odile. Copeland, still on the raise to becoming one of America’s most celebrated ballerinas, is only the second African-American ballerina to be promoted to soloist at the American Ballet Theatre.

She’ll be matched with TWB Company dancer Brooklyn Mack, a pre-eminent African-American male dancer.

“The pairing of these two great African-American classical dancers redefines the typical notions of what a ballet dancer should look like, and is a model for where classical ballet is going,” Webre said.

Copeland said, “I am charmed about this pairing for my U.S. debut in ‘Swan Lake,’ a historic production with two African-American leads who will perform this unique production. It certainly goes against traditional casting and I am incredibly excited to share the stage with Brooklyn Mack.”

Webre said that this production—which the company has never attempted—was about five years in the works. “I knew Misty, but not that well until she did some work with youngsters in Anacostia. Watching her dealing with the kids was amazing. She’s a marvelous dancer, and it’s just amazing to have her for this.”

In addition, “Swan Lake” will also launch a creative collaboration between the Washington Ballet and the S&R Foundation’s Evermay Chamber Orchestra, which will perform the famed Tschaikovsky score. The Evermay Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble of solo-caliber artists from five continents, assembled by the S&R Foundation Washington Award Grand Prize Winner Tamaki Kawakubo.

“We have been leading up to ‘Swan Lake’ for some time,” Webre said. “We have been slowly and carefully working the classic 19th century repertoire into our company—we did ‘Le Sylphides,’ ‘Don Quixote,’ ‘Le Corsaire,’ and ‘Giselle’ last year, in which our company excelled so beautifully.”

“It’s a big step forward for us—it requires tremendous resources, of course, a depth of dancers, and I think we’re ready to do so. It’s challenging and it tests everybody, it may be a stretch, but a stretch is what makes dancers and the company better. And it’s wonderful to have Misty be a part of this. It’s totally historic for us. You seize the moment when it comes. This changes how we look at what dancers should be and look like.”

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the company’s staging of Webre’s own production of “The Nutcracker,” which has featured George Washington in the form of the Nutcracker prince and a setting of Washington in the mid-19th century.

“This year, there will be some surprises and different thing,” he said. “I’ve never gotten tired of doing this. It’s always fresh and challenging. There’ll be some new party guests—ambassadors of the period, Frederick Douglas. There’ll be cherry blossoms, American clowns, alley cats, Native Americans from Anacostia. We’ll have a fresh crop of bumble bees, and we’ll have different casts—the total number of people involved is 500 or more, many coming from our school.”

This season also marks Webre’s 15th as Artistic Director of the Washington Ballet. “I do think we’ve come a long way. We always move ahead, doing new things, but bringing in as much of classical ballet as we can. ‘Swan Lake’ and having Misty Copeland with us for it, will mark a significant step forward.”