Gary Tischler • October 10, 2014

Who knew that a couple of wayward steaks could be peppered with so much moral weight, spiced up with so much laughter, maybe even a dash of romantic wine and layers of nuance?

The matinee audience at Arena Stage’s world premiere production of “The Shoplifters” by playwright-director Morris Panych certainly seemed to get what was going on in this often riotously funny play, alternating between ripples and riffs of laughter with intense attention at the quiet, perilous moments, then breaking out in whoops of celebration like a seasoned sitcom audience, when two of the characters surprised them by locking lips.

Matinees—as opposed to the tenser, and perhaps more dramatic, atmosphere of an opening night—may be a truer test of audience appeal, at least with these various groups of seniors, many of whom seemed to take the plight of the characters to heart. Panych—while loading the play with verbal comedy of pain and tort and retort, as well as hapless physical comedy—has something on his mind in this play.

The setup seems simple—two female shoplifters, one of them a middle-aged veteran, the other a nerves-gone-to-hell, younger first timer—have been caught with the goods by two security guards at a supermarket, about to make off with the aforementioned steaks, plus the makings of breakfast and a birthday cake, discovered dropping from the ladies’ skirts.

What to do? What to do? With shoplifters like these—the wily, justice-minded Alma who has a reason and an answer for everything and the hyper-ventilating and twitchy Phyllis—and security guards like these—Dom with all the eagerness and vehemence of the really-holier-than-thou young Jesus born again, which he is, and Otto, the live-and-let-and-live, sanguine old pro who’s on his way out—the answer isn’t self-evident or easy.

Dom sees the women as criminals, and handcuffs one of them, while Otto, much more sympathetic to the women, finds a way to look at both sides now, less eager to call in the police for help and haul them off to jail.

“It’s just a pair of steaks,” Otto says. “You’re a security guard,” Dom says. “How can you think like that?”

Alma often gives away what she’s pilfered for months in the store. Phyllis wanted to celebrate her birthday. She didn’t have the ingredients for a cake, and out pop the sugar, the flour, familiar goods from familiar stores.

Let’s not forget to mention that Otto has more than a passing interest in Alma—he’s been watching her case the joint for months. “Why do you think you’ve never gotten caught before,” he said.

“The Shoplifters” is a gem in a minor key, as a work of literature and a play. Panych isn’t trying to get the characters to stand for the downtrodden, the picked-on, the unlucky, the poor, the 90 percent . Life, he recognizes, is unfair, which doesn’t mean we have to contribute to the unfairness.

In the end, what he’s done is make us see all four characters in full, beyond the issue of why Alma never says she’s stealing—or shoplifting for that matter—but always insists she’s taking things. Even Dom, who has more troubles than even he deserves, what with the twitchy eye, his desire to convert Phyllis to Jesus. He is, as Alma notes, two sizes too small for his job and is bathed if not immersed in compassion.

It’s easy for regular folks—as opposed to critics—to see themselves on that stage, there’s no unearthly beauties here, only quirks, and the skip-a-beat hearts of real people, quirky as they may be.

The set—by Kelly McDonald—is a marvel of modern mass consumption, a store room back lit in sections, a mountain of packages that are instantly familiar from weekend and daily shopping—the brand names immediately make you visualize Safeway, Giant and CVS aisles: Utz Potato Chips, Scott towels and Raisin Bran.

None of this, of course, would work were it not for the cast, a brilliant quartet perfect for the parts as written, doing honor to Dom, Alma, Otto and Phyllis. Broadway star Jayne Houdyshell is the play’s sturdy tree, nothing can shake her or embarrass her, including finding herself growing fond of Otto. She is the play’s hockey goalie—nothing gets by her, no insult or assertion goes unchallenged or unquestioned, including her own reasons for being. Television and screen veteran Delaney Williams (he had a recurring role on “The Wire” as well as “SVU”) is a man who knows himself well. He’s unwilling to strike matches around a gasoline puddle or make Grand Theft out of the loss of a couple of steaks “that will start rotting any time now.” He thwarts Dom in his law-and-order posturing, calms Phyllis and warms up to and sidles up to Alma. He’s sneaky-sly and as warm as bread fresh out of the oven.

Adi Stein makes Dom, if not likeable (that’s a too-tall order), understandable. It’s not about law and order, but about order, and doing something important, at all costs to decorum, kindness, logic and reality. And let’s not forget Jenna Sokolowski, a local favorite, who brings out the funnies in a gawky, physical way. This Phyllis wants to escape. She needs to go to the bathroom, and it’s as if no part of her body is immune from twitching and shaking, especially as she turns herself into a pretzel trying to reach a stun gun.

All the laughter aside—and there is a lot of laughter—“The Shoplifters” gives you plenty of food for thought. It’s not steak, mind you, stolen or not. It’s more like that special, unidentifiable ingredient in your mother’s homemade soup that you can’t quite get out of your mind or your taste buds.

You walk out. You see an Utz truck double-parked, and you smile all over again.

“The Shoplifters” runs at Arena’s Kreeger Theatre through October 19.

Gary Tischler • October 9, 2014

A number of Washington area theater groups have begun their seasons. Here’s a look at what’s playing now.

Arena Stage—“The Shoplifters,” a new play and world premiere about the haves and have nots, a security guard and shoplifters, written and directed by Morris Panych, in the Kreeger Theater, through Oct. 19.

Theater J—Theater J’s season of Epic Expressions opens with “Yentl,” by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer, through Oct. 5.

Scena Theatre—“Shining City,” by Conor McPherson and world premiere of “Molly,” about Irish playwright and poet’s J.M. Synge’s lover, in repertory through Sept. 21 at Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Olney Theatre—“Colossal,” by Andrew Hinderaker, world premiere, through Sept. 28.

Signature—Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George,” launches Signature’s 25th Anniversary Season, through Sept. 21.

Folger Theatre—“King Lear” starring Joseph Marcell of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” through Sept. 21.

National Theatre—“Dirty Dancing-the Classic Story on Stage,” through Sept. 14.

Studio Theatre—“Belleville,” by hot playwright Amy Herzog, directed by David Muse, through Oct. 12.

Round House Theatre—Sam Shepard’s brazen, “Fool for Love,” through Sept. 27.

KENNEDY CENTER

Theater—There’s no question that the buzz at the Kennedy Center is around its own production of “Little Dancer,” which debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre Oct. 25-Nov. 30. There’s also a new touring production of “Evita” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, with Caroline Bowman in the starring role, Sept. 30 through Oct. 19 at the Opera House.

The National Symphony Orchestra—The NSO’s fifth season under Music Director Christoph Eschenbach includes: The NSO’s Season Opening Ball, welcoming new K.C. President Deborah F. Rutter, featuring star violinist Joshua Bell, conducted by both Eschenbach and NSO Pops conductor Steven Reineke. Sept. 21 in the Concert Hall.

Eschenbach conducts works by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Mozart, featuring violinist Midori Oct. 30 and Nov. 1.The NSO Pops Orchestra will showcase the music from the films of Tim Burton (“Beetlejuice,” “Batman”), with conductor John Mauceri, Oct. 23-15.

KC Jazz
Kennedy Center Artistic Adviser for Jazz, Jason Moran launches the jazz season with a multitude of programs: Crossroads Club: Mehliana, with Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, Oct. 4; Jazz Select Series, with Muhal Richard Abrams, Terrace Theater, Oct. 10; The San Francisco Jazz Collective, Terrace Theater, Oct. 17; Lou Donaldson Quartet, Terrace Theater, Nov. 14; KC Jazz Club, George Cables Songbook featuring Victor Lewis, Nov. 8.

WASHINGTON PERFORMING ARTS

Rising star classical pianist Steven Lin performs a diverse program of Mozart, Schuman, David Hertzberg, Chopin and Ravel at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Sept. 27.

The Danish String Quartet, considered one of the hottest string quartets going, performing at the Terrace Theater with works by Mendelssohn, Shostakovich, and Beethoven, Oct. 15.

On Nov. 1, the gifted jazz singer Cecile McLorin Salvant returns by way of WPA in a much anticipated concert at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

STRATHMORE

Strathmore kicks off its 2014-2015 Season with the irrepressible comedy of Wanda Sykes on Sept. 20 in the Music Center.
Ground-and-boundary breaking guitar groups California Guitar Trio and Montreal Guitar Trio perform at the Music Center, Oct. 10.

If Clint Eastwood’s movie version of “The Jersey Boys” wasn’t enough for you, check out the one and only original Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons at the Music Center, Oct. 15 and 16. In the Mansion on Oct. 23 are the sweet sounds of “The Moon & Seven Stars,” featuring Ronn McFarlane on lute and Mindy Rosenfeld on flute. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will feature world-class star violinist Hilary Hahn and soprano Tamara Wilson performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with Marin Alsop conducting, at the Music Center, Sept. 18. The National Philharmonic starts its season at the Music Center under director Piotr Gajewski performing Dvorak’s New World Symphony with violinist Chee-Yun Oct. 18 and 19.

OPERA

The Washington National Opera begins its 2014-15 season with the company premiere of “Florencia in the Amazon,” by composer Daniel Catan. WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello directs this opera, based on works by Nobel Prize winning Columbian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which she also directed at its premiere at the Houston Opera Company in 1996. Two-time Grammy Award-winnner American soprano Christine Goerke stars as a famous opera singer in search of a former lover on a riverboat trip down the Amazon. At the Opera House, Sept. 20, 22, 24, 26, 28.

More familiar but also fresh and youthful will be the WNO’s production of Puccini’s opera about young bohemian lovers, “La Boheme,” directed by Joe Davies, with Phillipe Augin conducting. Nov. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Washington Concert Opera—This critically recognized company will present Vincenzo Bellini’s, “I Capuleti e I Montechi,” Sept. 28 at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. It’s an Italian, operatic version of the tale of Romeo and Juliet which stars Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko as Giulietta, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as Romeo, and David Portillo as Tebaldo, with WCO Artistic Director Antony Walker conducting.

UPCOMING THEATER

Arena Stage—“Fiddler on the Roof,” directed by Molly Smith, Oct. 1 through Jan. 4. A 50th anniversary production of the play.

Theater J —“The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures,” by Tony Kushner. Nov. 13-Dec. 21.

Folger Theater—“Julius Caesar,” directed by Robert Richmond, Oct. 28-Dec. 7.

Constellation Theater—“Absolutely (perhaps),” by Luigi Pirandello, Oct. 9-Nov. 9.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre—“Marie Antoinette,” by David Adjimi, starring Kimberly Gilbert. Sept. 17-Oct. 12.

Shakespeare Theatre Company—Isango Ensemble Repertory, “The Magic Flute,” with Impempe Yomlingo and “Venus and Adonis,” September 12-21. “As You Like It,” directed by Ethan McSweeney, Oct. 28-Dec. 7.

Olney Theatre—“Awake and Sing!,” by Clifford Odets, Sept. 24-Oct. 19.

Forum Theatre—“Walking in the City of Silence and Stone,” fall through summer 2015; “How We Got On,” by Paige Henandez, Oct. 30-Nov. 23.

Gala Hispanic Theatre—“Cancun,” by Jordi Galceran, Sept. 11-Oct. 5.

Signature Theatre—“Elmer Gantry,” Oct. 7-Nov. 7; “Sex With Strangers,” D.C. Premiere, Oct. 14-Dec. 7.

American Century Theatre—“The Seven Year Itch,” by George Axelrod, Sept. 20-Oct. 11.

Ford Theatre—“Driving Miss Daisy,” starring Nancy Robinette and Craig Wallace, Sept. 26-Oct. 26.

Studio Theatre—“Bad Jews,” by Joshua Harmon, begins Nov. 4. “The Wolf Twins,” by Rachel Bonds, begins Oct. 15.

MUSIC

The Embassy Series—Now in its 21st season under Jerome Barry, the Embassy Series continues to offer a unique yearly program of concerts which combine world-class music with the opportunity to conduct musical diplomacy during trouble times. The venues—the city’s embassies and ambassador residences—provide rare opportunities for audiences to hear great music and come face to face with embassy officials from around the world.

This year, the series begins with a group of concerts that amount to a journey through Eastern Europe beginning with the Embassy of Slovakia (baritone Martin Babjak and pianist Daniel Buranovsky), Sept. 18; Embassy of Ukraine (Oleh Kaskiv, violin and Oksana Skidan, piano), Oct. 10; Embassy of Hungary (Hugo Kauder Trio), Oct. 14; Embassy of Bosnia-Herzegovina, (singer Azra), Nov. 7.

In addition, there is a special concert on Nov. 14, at the Residence of the Japanese Ambassador, with violinist Nanae Iwata.

The S&R Foundation—The S&R Foundation will hold its Overtures Fall Concert Series beginning with Char Prescott & the Ryo Yanagitani Duo, Sept. 12, at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, followed by the Urban Tango Trio with Kazuma Miura, Sept. 24; Mohamed Shams, Oct. 2; METRio, Oct. 4; Outstanding DC Artists, Oct. 17 and Ayane Kozasa with Michael Djupstrom and Paul Wiancko, Oct. 24, all at Everyman Estate.

The In Series—The In Series is presenting “The Cole Porter Project,” through Sept. 20, and will stage the unusual “Fatal Songs: The Great Opera Murders,” through Sept. 21.

DANCE

Kennedy Center Terrace Theater—The iconic, edgy choreographer Martha Clarke brings a big cast—actress Amy Irving anddancers Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo in a production of “Cheri,” Oct. 1-4.

Washington Performing Arts presents the sixth annual Velocity Dance Festival at Sidney Harman Hall Oct. 9-11, featuring over 20 of the area’s top dance companies and ensembles, from ballet to hip hop to flamenco.

Gary Tischler • September 29, 2014

For Washington audiences, “Florencia in the Amazon,” the season-opening offering of the Washington National Opera which debuts Saturday, Sept. 20, will be something new and different, the first-ever production here of this singular work by composer Daniel Catan.

For WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, however, who is directing, the project was practically something of an old home-week effort, a way to return to a work she had first directed in its 1996 debut at the Houston Grand Opera.

At the time, “Florencia in the Amazon” was the first ever Spanish-language commission by major American opera companies. The Cincinnati Opera was the other participant.

“It was a very challenging, original work, of the kind people had not heard or seen before,” Zambello said. “I wanted to return to the work, to look at it with fresh eyes and insight. We had this wonderful, lush and new work by an American composer, Daniel Catan, and we had a great libretto, by Marcela Fuentes-Berain. And, then, there was Marques.”

That would be Gabriel Garcia Marques, the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novelist, a giant figure in Latin American and world literature. The opera was based very loosely on several of his works, most notably “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera.”

One look at the plot, and you can almost feel the longing of lovers trying to find each other in the course of time and separation, a feeling aided and abetted by the magical realism atmospherics and the landscape surrounding a journey on the Amazon River. That’s what Florencia, a famous opera singer, is doing as she embarks on a river journey and a return to her native Brazil, all the while searching for her long-lost lover of long time ago, a butterfly hunter—yes, there’s that—who has disappeared into the jungle. Along the way, there are forces of nature—heat, storms, the river itself and a cholera outbreak, which besets the travelers on their way to the capital, where Florencia will sing. Their guide? Rilobo, a mystical river creature.

“It’s very much guided by the spirit and writing of the magical realism of Marques,” Zambello said. “We went to Colombia back then and had an opportunity to meet the man, and, of course, Colombia was very different in those days. He was very courtly, kind and gentle — a fascinating man — a little elfish, almost. He was very excited about the project and offered some of his own ideas. It was an amazing experience. We went to him by helicopter.”

As for this new production, Zambello said, “I think it will be a very different sort of experiences for Washington audiences. We’ve tried to expand the horizons, not just with this, but our new opera initiatives, an expanded focus on young audiences.”

We’ve already seen newer operas—“Moby Dick” is an example—in which the libretto, not usually one of the highlights of classic opera, with the exception of at least three of Mozart’s operas, and some of Wagner, has become if not literary, certainly very readable, because read you must. “Florencia” is sung in Spanish, with English subtitles.

The two-time, Grammy Award-winning American soprano Christine Goerke will star as the famed Florencia. She was last seen at the WNO in the 2008 production of “Elektra.” A rising star, Carolyn Kuan, will make her WNO debut conducting. Norman Garrett is Riolobo, Andrea Carroll is Rosalbo, Patrick O’Halloran is Arcadio, Nancy Fabiola Herrera is Paula, Michael Todd Simpson is Alvaro and David Pittsinger is the Captain. The design team includes Robert Israel, sets; Catherine Zuber, costumes; Mark McCullough, lighting, and Eric Sean Fogel; choreography.

“Florencia in the Amazon” will be performed at 7 p.m., Sept. 20 and Sept. 22; 7:30 p.m., Sept. 24 and Sept. 26; 2 p.m., Sept.28 at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Gary Tischler •

In Washington, a company town of a very special sort, lobbyists and lawyers have a very special place.

In the rest of the great wide country outside Washington, lobbyists and lawyers are the epitome of Washington insiders—the fixers and wheeler dealers who control policy and money.

Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr.—he was called “Tommy” in his youth, and the nickname survived into his adulthood—was the kind of man who carried the aura of an insider, while having an outsider’s outsized personality. He was a warm man who knew politics better than any politician, who came from a time-honored political family, a man of the South (Louisiana) who wore his Washington persona (Georgetown University graduate) like a really good suit that fit him well. He was a big supporter of the Georgetown Senior Center. Unpretentious, friendly, a talker, he headed the firm of Patton-Boggs, a legal firm which took its lobbying duties to high levels.

Boggs, who died unexpectedly at 73 this week, was the kind of man who could probably convince the anti-lobbying and lawyer-joke people in the world that he was an honorable man working in an honorable profession, because that’s exactly what he was and what he believed.

“Tommy was a terrific guy, a very smart guy and a quintessential Washington person in the best sense of the word,” said Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, who has been of counsel with Patton-Boggs for the past 13 years.

“He was always willing to help out.” Evans said. “He had the personal touch and this gift for bringing people who disagreed with each other together. He wasn’t an ideologue. He worked with Republicans and with Democrats, although he was a lifelong Democrat. He was a classy man, who gave lobbyists a good name by example.”

At the Palms, where Boggs frequently squired clients and friends—and those things seemed to follow one another, they set his table in black, out of courtesy and as a way of celebrating the man.

Given his family and background, it’s a wonder Boggs didn’t become an elected official, a senator or governor. His father, Hale Boggs, was the House Majority Leader, his mother Lindy was a nine-term congresswoman, and his sister Cokie Roberts was a national television journalist. The man he worked for on his first sojourn to Washington was none other than Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. Young Boggs worked the Speaker’s elevator.

Hale Boggs was killed in a plane crash in Alaska in 1972. His mother, in addition to winning a special election to succeed her husband in the House of Representatives, was named as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the Vatican. She died last year at the age of 97.

While advancing and looking out for the interests of a varied group of clients, which included all manners of industries from oil, to drug and insurance companies, he managed always to be something more than K Street royalty. He was the kind of man who didn’t let politics per se get in the way of business or friendships maintained and new acquaintenances made and kept.

That kind of approach would be well suited today to the politics of the times, and it’s sadly lacking, a time where impasse and deadlock seem to prevail more often than not. Politicians are called by that name: because with politicians these days, it’s always about politics.

Boggs succeeded precisely because—although his stock and trade was to ease the path to the doorways of influence,which included knowing whom to call, have for lunch, and having his calls answered—he hardly ever let politics be the deciding factor of his life. Lobbyists, it seemed, on K Street were about knowing politicians, without necessarily embracing politics.

Gary Tischler •

The space—a bare room with a table and chairs, no decorations on the wall in the Shakespeare Theatre’s rehearsal studio near Eastern Market—seems the ideal setting for an interview with Nancy Robinette. She is here to rehearse her role as Daisy Werthan in the Ford Theatre’s upcoming production of “Driving Miss Daisy,” which runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 26.

She’s still in the middle of the rehearsal process and there’s a certain clean slate aspect to talking about a play you haven’t seen yet, and which isn’t totally locked in yet for the actress.

“One thing I’ve discovered is that the play really holds up well. I was really pleased to see that,” she said. “I think it has a lot to say about how we deal with race and prejudice, not just in the play’s time setting, but for us and how we live today.”

Playwright Alfred Uhry won a Pulitzer Prize for “Driving Miss Daisy,” which starred Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman, with Freeman eventually reprising his role in the movie version with Jessica Tandy. Julie Harris and Brock Peters were in a touring version and in 2010 the play was revived on Broadway with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave.

The play revolves around widow Daisy Wertham, a retired Jewish school teacher in her seventies living in Atlanta in the 1960s. Her worried nephew has hired Hoke Coleburn to be Daisy’s chauffeur after she’s caused a car wreck. The play becomes a time-spanning saga about the relationship between a prideful, stubborn woman, who has experienced prejudice herself, but is deeply set in her ways, and a recalcitrant, proud black man. Theater-goers watch as they try to overcome their initial feelings about each other and experience the civil rights struggle taking place around them.

Robinette, one of Washington’s theatrical gems and treasures, is working with longtime Washington actor Craig Wallace. Jennifer L. +Nelson is directing the season opener.

“I think while the film was lovely, it was almost too naturalistic in its physical details,” she said. “We’re working with suggestion as far as the noise and reality of history is concerned. I think one of the things that occurs in the play is that both realize that they’ve suffered in the South and been outsiders. But this isn’t just about racial issues, it’s also about class. Daisy, in many ways, will not change because she’s from an upper class family where you didn’t do certain things and say certain things. I want to get into her strengths and her independence, which she’s losing because of age.”

Robinette had only recently finished starring as Winnie in the Scena Theatre’s production of Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days.” “That was my first Beckett,” she said. “You’re immobile through the whole play, buried halfway up to your neck in sand, reminiscing, trying to be alive. You have to figure out a way to connect to the audience.”

“You know, Robert (McNamara, the artistic director and founder of Scena Theatre) is one of the most under-appreciated theater artists in this city.”

We had talked several years ago when she starred with Kimberly Schraf and Holly Twyford in “The Carpetbaggers’ Children,” another Southern-resonant play by Horton Foote.

She remains careful in what she says, and how she says it, an approach you suspect she uses in dealing with her characters to do them justice and get them right. This comes across as caution and reticence at first, but after a while, you discover she has a gift for listening and watching so that at some point in the interview we start swapping theater stories and people stories. She has a knack for encouraging that sort of thing—tales of Beckett, other actors, other plays, her life in the theater, arrived at and built with some caution. “I couldn’t really say I was an actress full-time until I could give up my day job.”

When she came to Washington more than 20 years ago she studied with Studio Theatre founder and artistic director Joy Zinoman, which was a transforming experience. “She was my great teacher and mentor,” Robinette says.

During the course of our conversation, I began to feel as if I knew her.

And in many ways, I do. I’ve seen her on stage many times, have spent two-hour chunks of my life over two decades with her at the Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage and at other venues. I been able to watch her build a life, reputation and career. She has won three Helen Hayes Awards, including one for her role as Florence Foster Jenkins in “Souvenirs” at Studio Theatre.

Actors have a way sometimes of becoming totally immersed in their parts or bringing some unique and special quality to them, to create what the late Tana Hicken said were “transformations.” Robinette brings a voice, a kind of kinetic quality that’s all-at-once trembling and vulnerable backed by a tensile, but warm strength. Put her in tall, restoration wigs, floating-ship dresses for Shakespeare or Wilde, and she can make you laugh until it hurts. In spite of the formidable echoes of other Daisy Werthans that exist—Harris, Tandy and Redgrave—you can be sure that Nancy Robinette will make Miss Daisy her own.

“Driving Miss Daisy” runs at Ford’s Theatre Sept. 26 through Oct. 26

Gary Tischler • September 19, 2014

Finally, there was a debate, and just in the nick of time, what with only a little more than a month left before voters decide who is going to be the next Mayor of the District of Columbia.

You might cherish the memories you have of this debate, held at a Katzen Hall auditorium at American University, given that front-runner in the polls Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser, who won the Democratic  Primary and has a hefty lead in the polls over challengers has said flatly that she will participate in only four debates, including Thursday’s affair at AU.

She is being challenged by Independents David Catania, a prominent at-large District councilmember, and former councilmember and frequent mayoral candidate Carol Schwartz, bidding to be back all the way after a six-year absence from the political and electoral scene.

It’s been months since Bowser won the primary over incumbent Mayor Vincent Gray—still under the shadow of suspicion for his 2010 campaign—and other challengers including Ward 2 councilmember Jack Evans and Ward 6 councilmember Tommy Wells. During that in-between time, there have been no candidate forums, a lot of posturing and position statements, the arrival of Schwartz bidding for a political comeback, Bowser going hither and yon throughout the community—and sometimes the country—and Catania delivering position statements and being a very active councilmember and producing a 126-pages position booklet, detailing his proposals for how he would govern the city.

There’s been a great deal of anticipation about the first debate, and the possibility that it might be a volatile affair. 

Bowser was buoyed by the news of a hefty lead over her rivals in a Washington Post-NBC News-Marist poll which came out the day before and had 43 percent of likely D.C. voters favoring Bowser, with 26 percent for Catania and 16 percent for Schwartz. Catania has questioned the poll, saying an in-house poll of his campaign showed the race to be much closer.

The so-called debate—billed as a conversation with the candidates—was moderated by NBC newsman Tom Sherwood, a veteran of such affairs and included a panel of Washington Post political writer Clinton Yates and WAMU reporters Patrick Madden and Kavitha Cardozo.

Sherwood, at times, took on the aspects of a no-nonsense and sometimes frustrated cowboy, herding and snapping a whip, as he tried to make both the candidates and the audience behave. He had little patience for excessive clapping, candidates interrupting each other or breaking the time limit, although the candidates, as they are wont to do, did just that and often.

It’s fair to say that nobody won this affair, and that nobody was mortally wounded either.  Verbal shots were fired to be sure, and some of them even nicked their targets. Much of what happened was predictable, and the fresher aspects and revelations, while unexpected, were not of the “Stop the presses or put it on Twitter” kind.

Bowser, in basic black and pearls, came on strong and confident, offering to lead securely a changing city that was financially well off, promising that everyone would benefit and that in a boom town, nobody should and would be left behind.  Catania in quite the blue suit, stood up every time he talked, while Schwartz and Bowser sat. He presented himself as the man with the experience, the man who had done more for education and made more education legislation than anyone else, while painting Bowser as a legislative light weight, which she vehemently denied.  Schwartz in her own inimitable style—down to earth, warm, but also tough when need be—recalled that she was an education champion long before anyone else, that she was for the worker and took positions which in the end cost her her job. “I knew it wasn’t politic to do that, but I did it anyway,” Schwartz said.

Yet who knew Catania, for instance, has never gone to a Nationals baseball game, even though he was once a left-handed second baseman?  Catania fought the battle against the baseball team and stadium because “I didn’t think it was a good deal to have the owners pay nothing and the city everything.”  Bowser suggested that the reason Catania did not go to a game was that he was still angry about losing the fight.  “It kind of speaks to his temperament,”  she said.

Bowser complained that Catania was trying to take credit for everything. “Next thing you know he’ll take credit for the blue skies and rolling seas,” she said.

Other odd things came up. Yates asked in the interests of finding out something new: “If you had to give up your car, how would you travel in the city—Metro rail, bus or bicycle?”  Bowser said she loved and preferred to travel by bus, Catania and Schwartz would take the Metro.  “Let me get this straight,” Yates asked. “No bicycles?” 

It was a strange reaction, given that there’s been quite a bit of controversy about a veritable boom in bicycle use and rentals. “I think it’s a great thing, and I believe in a growing transportation system in which everyone obeys all the laws, stops for stop signs and red lights,” Schwartz said.

They were asked—by Yates again—what one book they would have students read.  Bowser suggested Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope.” Catania said, “I wouldn’t want to tell  a student what to read. I’d want them to make their own choice.”   Schwartz chose Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities,” which she felt resonated in this city, which has yet to become one city.  This is the book that begins with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” which in this town is always true.

Round one of four rounds had its entertainment values and its informational rewards, but as a brawl, nobody walked out limping. [gallery ids="101859,138026" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • September 18, 2014

It’s already evident that the recent crop of new cultural and art institution leaders who have taken over the reigns at the region’s biggest and most revered institutions are striking some common themes.

You could hear them from Arvind Manocha, who took over as President and CEO at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, as he spoke at the Georgetown Media Group’s second Cultural Leadership Breakfast at the venerable George Town Club Sept. 11.

Manocha came to Wolf Trap from a long career in California at the Hollywood Bowl, the “Best Major Outdoor Venue in America,” according to the industry. Additionally, he served previously as the CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Asssociation. Over breakfast, Manocha stated his aim and desire to cooperate with other cultural institutions with regard to both the performing arts and museums.

Wolf Trap and its Filene Center—an outdoor and indoor performance center which began operations in 1971– is the brain child and amazing creation of philanthropist Catherine Filene Shouse. As a performing arts center, it has become an institution in the traditional sense of the word, providing a huge array of performing arts events and concerts, ranging from opera to symphony concerts to recitals to jazz, classic rock and pop concerts. The venue has expanded its interests and that of its audience over the years. It now features the Barns, a more intimate venue that allows Wolf Trap to be a year-round performance arts center.

“Let me tell you, living and working in Los Angeles as I did, you can feel like you’re a little spoiled,” said Manocha, who displayed both enthusiasm for the arts and a sense of humor. “Los Angeles is this huge sprawling place, and I worked at very visible institutions. But I have to say, I was amazed at what a great urban arts community this city and this area has, and we’re so glad to be a part of it.”

To Manocha, the summer programming at Wolf Trap is like a summer festival, and a unique one at that. “It functions like a festival, because it’s a festive atmosphere, and it has this ongoing celebratory nature, but no festival – not Tanglewood, Lalapalooza, the opera festival in Santa Fe – offers such a variety and scale of concerts and events. There is literally something for everybody, for every taste, and it changes every day. Nobody does this in this country on this scale, which, of course, is what we all love about Wolf Trap. It’s a challenge to put this together, to do the kind of programming we do. It never ceases to amaze me. I come from the world of music. So, some of my interests and expertise obviously lie there.”

Manocha was proud of Wolf Trap’s long-standing opera company and opera series, and the fact that it is basically comprised of young artists, who vie to perform, learn and master their craft at Wolf Trap. “The thing that we do that nobody else does is that we guarantee that people in our program will be singing lead roles, not just being a part of the chorus or smaller parts. And it has worked. You should have seen ‘Carmen.’ It was astonishing, and we used a lot of new technology there.”

“We’re also proud of our early education program, the Early Childhood Institute for the Arts, which brings children to Wolf Trap, and lets them be exposed to the arts at an early age.”

Manocha noted that the Filene Center and the Barns hold more than 200 events every year, and that each not only bring regulars back time and time again, but events also attract new audiences.

“That’s the challenge for every institution,” he said. “To bring in new audiences, to continue our regular audiences. I’ve seen and talked with a lot of people who tell me they and their friends and families have been coming here for years, and that’s what we want to continue. We’ve changed some things – there have been pop musicians that seem to come every year, they’re traditions, so sometimes we’ve tried to shift the focus just a little to newer kinds of music, more of this, less of that. We have some advantages – while you have to commit to come out there, it’s a beautiful place, there’s no other arts and cultural experience like it. Our prices are lower for one thing, what with lawn seats and all, it’s accessible. We’re proud of our educational components and you can’t find a more family friendly place anywhere.”

“ ‘Carmen’ is an opera for people who might not go to opera,” he said. “I know lots of people who brought their kids to Wolf Trap this summer, and then the kids had their first experiences with classical music or opera.”

“With ‘Carmen,’ we saw a lot of young people on the lawn, lots more than we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “That’s an encouraging sign. They’d never been there before.

“Of course, you can always spot newcomers. They’re the ones that didn’t bring blankets, wine or food. What a concept—you can picnic on the lawn.”

Manocha said that, in the end, professionals in his business, “try to make things better—our own product, but also the experience that people carry with them after a concert or an event. We want to engender love and trust. We want to have the kinds of programs where everybody—myself included—has at least one to five events at Wolf Trap per year that feel like they’ve been planned especially for them.”
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Gary Tischler • September 15, 2014

It’s hard to believe that Joan Rivers will never say another word, funny, obscene, outrageous, funny and funnier or otherwise.

It’s true. Her daughter Melissa, with whom she had a show on television, called “Fashion Police,” made the announcement Sept. 4 that the comedienne had “died peacefully surrounded by family at Mt. Sinai hospital.” Rivers had gone into cardiac arrest during what was described as a routine medical procedure a week ago and had been on life support before being moved to a private room yesterday.

You suspect that, if given the opportunity, she might not have gone so gently or quietly into that good night, given her reputation for irreverence and given the fact that she had always something to say about something and everything, not all of it music to the ear.

There really wasn’t anybody like Joan Rivers, who looked, well, fabulous into 81 years, some of that bouffant blonde glamorous look due to plastic surgery, a fact which gave her plenty of material to make fun of. That was one of the things about Rivers—she wanted to do nothing but make people laugh, an ambition which she succeeded at most of the time, leaving behind the echo of loud laughter, louder outrage and wounded egos. She could laugh at herself. She didn’t care, and she didn’t mind.

At some point in her life and lives, she was a stand-up comedian—one of the first of her sex—an actress, a director (of a very funny movie called “Rabbit Test,” starring Billy Crystal in 1978), a fashion judge, a frequent guest on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show” (until she wasn’t), a television star, a reality show star (with her daughter) with whom she often fought, a tough-love mother and daughter act. She was a writer, repeatedly telling the story of her life and laughs, in periodic between-the-covers-of-a-book updates. The titles tell the story: “Enter Talking,” “Still Talking,” “I Hate Everybody, Especially Me” and “Diary of a Mad Diva” among many. She was just about always unapologetic, if she happened to offend someone, which was fairly often.

She was also very, very funny, one-of-a-kind funny. Way back when she was in a play called “Driftwood,” in which she played a lesbian with a crush on Barbra Streisand—a pre-“Funny Girl” and “People” Streisand. She and her daughter practically invented the red carpet fashion critique act, in which she skewered bad dresses and the people who wore them, as in “I am wearing Ralph Lauren.”

She was once the subject of one of those infamous roasts, conducted by celebrities, other comics, film actors and the like—Dean Martin has a collection of them. The occasion, as was the case with others, was obscene, merciless and funny. When Rivers showed up to roast others, it very likely caused panic attacks in the hearts of the subjects.

Rivers lives on YouTube, of course, as do so many—there is a very funny sequence with a Johnny Carson appearance, a task she had being doing 21 years at the time, and she brought a dress and hair and a necklace which she’s worn on the first such appearance. “What happened to my hair?” Carson asked. The two had a falling out over the fact that Rivers had neglected to warn Carson about the fact that she was going to be doing a late-night talk show opposite Carson.

There is a fairly recent video of Rivers essentially staring and yelling down a heckler at an appearance in Wisconsin in which she used her credo as a kind of bold comedy statement. She’d made an off-color joke about Helen Keller. A guy in the crowd yelled, “That’s not funny.” “Yes, it is,” Rivers shot back. “I had a deaf mother, you stupid ass. … I learned that you have to laugh at everything so you can get over it . You stupid SOB.”

Rivers was inspired by Lenny Bruce. No shrinking violet either, Bruce, too, was like nobody else, and he suffered for it along with his addictions. Rivers got over things and thrived well into an age when you’re not supposed to be thriving, not supposed to be sharp-witted, stomp up and down and just raise hell. What Betty White has done remains a mystery.

You can just imagine what’s happening upstairs, where they have the first gated community. “Maybe we should lock the gate,” someone says. “I’m coming in,” the brash one might say.

“Get over it.” Still, down here, it’s a lot quieter.

Gary Tischler •

That little big show at the National Theatre with the cumbersome title of “Dirty Dancing, the Classic Story on Stage” might just surprise you.

It’s been hanging around a number of years now, touring all over the world, tapping some wellspring of fandom that maybe the world didn’t know existed. That would be the huge following for the original movie in the 1980s, which to date has cleared close to $250 million.

Now, a freshly minted, new-cast version has started its North American tour at the National Theatre, and you know what: it’s a lot of fun.

You remember the old tale. It’s camp time in the summer of 1963—and the irrepressible “Baby,” the youngest of her clan, is at a family camp with her folks and her snooty older sister. Hormones are running wild up here, and the news is very much in the news. Baby is set to join the Peace Corps, and the son of the camp owner is going to Mississippi to join the Freedom Riders.

They’re learning dancing and acting and singing from a crew of pros, chief among them the hot stuff, very buff and cool-named Johnny Castle, a not overly educated working-class guy who’s got the moves of a catnip-for-the-ladies-of-all-ages guy but the wistful heart of dreamer who wants to move up and out. Naturally, Baby is smitten, big time, and a summer romance ensues. Baby’s dad is suspicious of the lower-class Johnny, and then there’s Penny, Johnny’s dance partner and friend, and pregnant by a summer waiter.

This is the stuff of melodrama and soap opera, but just the kind of peppery ingredients, complete with schmaltz, that made a star out of Patrick Swayze as Johnny.

This is a show all about the dancing. The music is provided like a soundtrack with two terrific singers warbling. Jenlee Shallow and Doug Carpenter belt out with big emotion, voice and heart hits, such as “I Had the Time of My Life,” “In The Still of The Night,” “Love Is Strange,” “This Magic Moment” and “Do You Love Me,” backed up by a hard-driving band.

A number of things make this show work: some inventive back projections, an energy and enthusiasm on the part of the whole cast that’s infectious and the three principals.

On that note, let’s hear it for Samuel Pergande, who has the unenviable task of dancing with the ghost of Swayze. He’s no Swayze, but he’s definitely his own Johnny Castle. Ballet-trained (the Joffrey), Pergande can act well enough, but its his own move and stage presence, something on the order of a caged cat, that counts for a lot. The guy has his very own charisma, plus he brings subtle litheness and athleticism to the part, the kind that add grace to grit.

This is a show about dancing, after all, and Jenny Winton, also ballet-trained, in her first road and Broadway-type show, knocks herself and us out with elan, high kicks and struts and blonde elegance.

As “Baby,” Jillian Mueller is by now a natural Broadway baby. She comes from the world of hundreds of auditions, starring in a similar (but not so effective) film-into-show effort, “Flashdance,” of which she was easily the standout. She has a kind of sweaty energy. She’s never going less than all out and full-tilt boogy. Small in build, she’s a giant out there.

You have to remember, too, that Mueller and Pergande—whose Johnny wants to become a legit ballet dancer—have to pretend that they can’t dance certain dances, not an easy thing to bring off.

There’s another factor, and that’s the audience, which seems to be made up of movie fans, the majority of which are women, girls, millennials mixed in with baby boomers and all points in between. Somewhere along the way, they’ve got it all covered with memory, every song, every move, every line, and most of all, they kind of go crazy with the big lift, when Johnny lifts Baby way up high, and the audience erupts. They had the time of their lives, that’s for sure.

“Dirty Dancing” runs through Sept. 14 at the National Theatre.

Gary Tischler • September 10, 2014

These days, if you want to talk about immigration, or naturalization, or American citizenship, people are likely to get angry.

Immigration, long a feverish political issue, discussed in terms of amnesty or no amnesty, has become a flashpoint topic that divides the country politically. Several presidents and legislatures have failed to come together on solutions. Recently, a huge influx of illegal immigrants coming from Central American countries has added fuel to the flames of the debate.

All this bellicosity, anger, and paralysis has obscured something essential about the United States. Everybody still wants to come here, live here, work here, and in astounding numbers, wants to become a citizen. Immigration and naturalization occurs every day and every year, in simple, and quite emotional, occasions all over the country. It’s an ongoing process that appears to be little noticed in all the media and political tumult.

In 2012, by May, some 500,000 people from all parts of the world had become citizens through the process of naturalization. Some 600,000 have done so so far this year. Every year, there are special occasions for large naturalization events, celebrating the long standing virtues of the United States¬—that this is a place where—not always, but most of the time—the door has been open for people from elsewhere in the world.
On Aug. 1, 25 children from countries all over the world received citizenship certificates by dint of the fact that their parents had already become citizens. The event was held in the North Garden at Dumbarton House (its director Karen Daly is shown below at a podium) on Q Street with the help of staff from the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services, and was hosted in conjunction with the D.C. region’s Star-Spangled Summer War of 1812 Commemorative programming.

This was not a political event, but rather a celebration of proud children and proud parents who had become citizens of the U.S. They came from El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Togo and Vietnam.

Naturalization events, in which immigrants pledge allegiance to the United States, after passing tests on American history and government, civics and English, were held in large numbers all over the country on the Fourth of July. On September 17, which is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, similar events will be held at military bases, national parks, presidential libraries and historic sites, including Faneuil Hall in Boston; Glacier Point at Yosemite National Park; National Monument in Grand Junction, Colo.; the Harry Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Mo.; the National Archives in Washington, D.C.; the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas; Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, and others.
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