Performance

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.”

Robert Devaney •

The Library of Congress presented Billy Joel with the 2014 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during a tribute concert at DAR Constitution Hall Nov. 19, after a luncheon on Capitol Hill the day before with the nation’s lawmakers. At the concert, one heard America — and a uniquely Washington crowd — singing his songs, now etched into national memory.

The 65-year-old Joel was seen as a unifying force for Congress with Democrats and Republicans — some of whom were in the audience — singing his praises for a 50-year musical career. Indeed, one observer noted that House minority leader Nancy Pelosi ditched President Barack Obama for the rock-and-roll icon. The White House held a meeting on Obama’s new immigration directive the same night as the Gershwin Prize concert, which Pelosi chose to attend.

After all, it’s not every day that a group of musical talents gathers on stage to sing Billy Joel songs and then have the man himself and his band take control and rock the house with some classics — just three blocks from the White House.

“Billy Joel is a true example of this vision for the library’s Gershwin Prize.” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, who added that Joel is “a storyteller of the highest order.” The award, created by Congress, is named for the songwriting team of George and Ira Gershwin.

At the beginning of the show, Billington sat with Joel and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor — also from New York like the awardee. Later, she presented Joel with the Gershwin Prize and said, “Billy Joel has inspired new generations of performers, musicians and singer-songwriters,” she said. “Tonight we recognize Long Island’s favorite son, even if he is a Mets fan.” Also at the award presentation were Billington, House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Pelosi, Rep. Gregg Harper and Rep. Candice Miller.

“Kind of verklempt,” began Joel as he held the prize in his hand and said that Gershwin was his hero. This year has brought, he said, “a bounty of blessings. I want to ensure everyone I don’t have a terminal illness.”

Performers sang one piece each from the singer-songwriter’s songbook: Boyz II Men, LeAnn Rimes, Gavin DeGraw, Josh Groban, Natalie Maines, John Mellencamp and Tony Bennett, who got the biggest applause of the night before the honoree stepped on stage.

Kevin Spacey offered opening remarks: “I think even a man like Frank Underwood would be pretty excited about a night like tonight.” The actor — who can sing, too — was referring to his character at the Netflix show, “House of Cards.”

Dancers from “Movin’ Out,” choreographed by Twyla Tharp, got the party going with their high energy moves from the Broadway musical that is based on Joel’s music.

It was when Joel and his band owned the stage and the hall with “Movin’ Out,” “Vienna,” “Miami 2017” and “You May Be Right” that it all came together to see who was in charge here and also see Washingtonians singing and bopping to the music.

At the very end, all the performers came on stage as Spacey played the harmonica and sung “Piano Man” with Joel. It was a perfect mix of music and moments for Joel and the kind of evening that only the nation’s capital can give to the American people.

PBS will broadcast the Gershwin Prize Tribute Concert for Billy Joel on Jan. 2.
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Gary Tischler • November 20, 2014

It was an eclectic audience on hand for the official opening night of Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It cuts across tastes, memories and generations.

There were, for instance, several people who had actually seen the one-of-a-kind Zero Mostel in the original, and there were people there who had never seen it, like the young woman sitting next to me. Somehow, this production, this musical, almost effortlessly managed to reach out and touch not only someone but pretty much everyone.

Smith gave us a “Fiddler,” a Tevye, his daughters, and all the residents of this small Jewish village living a precarious and dangerous life in Czarist Russia that clung cleanly to the original. She left no obvious directorial thumbprints on the production, except for one important one: a clear, tangible faith in the power of the material to move us and the talent of the company to do the same.

Nothing had changed in a show that has been done many times in uncounted places with uncounted actors. Here was a fiddler, this time ensconced in wooden trappings above the station. Here was Tevye, the milkman, his absolute faith in tradition being time and time again tested by his daughters and constant impending disasters at the hands of their Russian overlords. Here were the familiar songs that echoed and fine-tuned the rhythms of life in the village and in Tevye’s family—“Sunrise, Sunset,” “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “To Life” and so on.

One thing was very different—the theater-in-the-round setting of the Fichandler space, which gave an added naturalness and intimacy to the proceedings. And the acting and singing as a whole was better than good, headed by Jonathan Hadary as Tevye.

It’s no small task doing Tevye in front of an audience with such a warehouse of memories of other actors assaying the part—or with no memories at all. Hadary was walking in large footsteps that included Harvey Fierstein, the formidable Theodore Bikel, in town for his 90th Birthday, who had done the role more times than other actor, as well as Hershel Bernardi and Topol.

Hadary is not big of voice, body or even gesture. He lets Tevye be himself without trying to bowl you over with heartiness and earthquake-sized pain and feeling. Like many other Tevyes, he’s not a great singer, but he is a terrifically natural actor—this is a Tevye you can feel for and maybe raise a glass with. He’s stronger than he looks—not only does this Tevye pull his milk cart to spell his ailing horse, he pulls our hearts to him and his friends, family, daughters, their beaus and his wife. It’s a little magical—every scene he’s in with someone else makes them shine.

“Fiddler on the Roof” is another foray by Molly Smith into the annals of the great American musicals, begun in spectacular fashion with “South Pacific,” continued with “Camelot” and “Oklahoma” and more recently with “The Music Man” and “My Fair Lady.”

“Fiddler” has a historic place in that genre, for all the right reasons, but it’s also a musical that is based on Yiddish short stories and chronicles the lives of people who have every reason not to rejoice. They are also the source of the lifeblood of American ideals and dreams—the characters—the survivors—would eventually come to America to invest their culture, music, literature and art into that great American stream of immigrant contribution.

Watching Tevye, as each of his daughters falls in love—without the help of a matchmaker—with a tailor, an intellectual rebel exiled to Siberia, and, the last bitter pill he cannot swallow, a Russian, is to watch a man embracing tradition even as he has to let go of many of the strands from which it’s made. That “Fiddler” is bracing and embracive, that it touches old memories and new experiences, is a kind of theater tradition. Or as Motel the tailor sings, it’s a little bit of a “Miracle of Miracles”.
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Gary Tischler •

The pianist Orion Weiss, the 2010 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist of the Year, will have an unusual partner in his Washington Performing Arts concert at the Kennedy Center in the Terrace Theater Nov. 11.

In addition to performing three Schumann pieces—“Papillons,” “Blumenstuck, Op.19” and “Novellette, Op. 21, No. 8”—he also has DeBussy’s “La boite a joujoux (“The Toy Box”) as the centerpiece of his concert.

His creative partner in the concert will be something you might have coming out of a toy box, the renowned Salzburg Marionettes, one of the oldest marionette companies in the world, founded in 1913 in Mozart’s birthplace.

The company—it has its own puppet version of “The Sound of Music,” for one thing—is noted for its performances with live musical accompaniment. Still, a solo artist taking on puppets is rare—Andras Schiff has also done it.

The presence of the famed marionette company is part of a special program by Washington Performing Arts, saluting puppetry called “Welcome to Mars: A Salute to D.C. Puppetry”.

There was a community puppetry building event at the Brookland Farmer’s Market Nov. 8 as well as a D.C. Puppet Slam with Washington and Baltimore area puppeteers at Bus Boys & Poets at 5th and K Streets Nov. 10..

Featured area puppetry artists included puppeteers Schroeder Cherry, DinoRock Productions, Don Becker, Katherine Fahey, the Puppet Company, the Black Cherry Puppet Theater, Blue Sky Puppet Theater and Pointless Theater.

It’s under the umbrella of the Mars Urban Arts Initiative, created by Washington Performing Arts with the support of Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated. The Initiative works to fuel joint planning between WPA and grassroots neighborhood arts makers, local business, local arts institutions and local residents.
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Gary Tischler • November 17, 2014

The director Robert Richmond is not shy about messing with the classics—he’s known for his bold stagings at the Folger Theater, including a ‘Richard III’ which practically disemboweled the stately, familiar Elizabethan theater and saw that grand old villain Richard and other characters mingle with audience members while the many murder victims were unceremoniously dumped in openings on the stage.

Richmond isn’t quite so extravagant with “Julius Caesar”, that most familiar of Shakespeare’s plays, but he does put a recognizable and pointed touch on the tale of the consequences of murdering the overweening, charismatic and ambitious Roman would-be-ruler-of-them-all.

You might not recognize the play or the place when you walk in—no senators in white robes, ceremonial or otherwise, no red-cloth generals, no sunlit forum. The prevailing colors are all dark—shades of gray, black and brown and so are the costumes. Ghosts abound—as soon as a characters die—and many of them do—they become hooded wanderers in the afterlife to haunt the living, looking a lot like the soothsayer.

We are not, by the looks of things, in Republican or ancient Rome, but rather in ancient-ancient Rome in the first act, in what looks like the landscapes of modern warfare in the second act, in the middle of yet another war to end all wars, where the dogs of war have indeed been loosed.

This has the effect of electrifying the play, make it something brand new, but at the same time, there’s a certain amount of confusion in this approach, especially the attempt to put a stamp of “war is hell” on the second act.

But enough: “I’m here to praise this ‘Caesar’”, not to bury it.

What Richmond’s approach does do is make this play fresh and by reputation alone, it needs it. This is the best “Caesar” I’ve seen in a long time, maybe ever, short of the Brando-Mason black and white movie version many, many moons ago.

This is a Shakespeare that practically sounds like a staged version of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, so familiar are so many of the lines and speeches in the play. And yet, perhaps because of the unsettling staging, the lines and speeches seem somehow fresh, accessible, almost contemporary in the speaking and the playing.

Just a stone’s throw from Capitol Hill, where many a scheming senator makes a living, this is also a very political play by its nature. It’s about politics and power, its uses and misuses, about action and inaction, about calculation and mis-calculation. Here we have a man—Julius Caesar who’s all but created the foundation of the expanding Roman empire through his military victories. Here’s a man with populist charisma who’s not very interested in sharing power. He’s a modern man of his times, in a Roman republic built on strands of Greek democracy and an unbending class systems.

In the shadows, Roman senators, seeing themselves as upholders of Republican tradition, plot against Caesar, because he’s ambitious, because he’s taken on aspects of a tyrant. Cassius, with his lean look and jealousies, knows they need Brutus, the Roman with the noblest lineage, to participate in the assassination of Caesar.

In this murky, dark atmosphere, there is a sense of foreboding all around—not just a soothsayer warning again of the Ides of March, but dark omens, and whispers in the dark. Cassius enlists Brutus by appealing to his honor, pride and ego, until, in the end, he delivers the final thrust of a dagger to his mentor and friend, who collapses with his famous last words: “Et Tu, Brutus?”

Yes, him too.

Having slain the head of state, it’s all downhill for the conspirators, if not the play. Brutus, being an honorable man, makes the mistake of letting Anthony speak last in the funeral oration, and the war is pretty much lost by the conspirators right then and there.

I’m bothered by the mix-mash of WW1 (and WWII) helmets worn by the battling forces—it’s a civil war after all, but the second act also moves like a chariot race.

Directorial flourishes aside, it’s always the actors that make a bad, fair, good to better than good “Julius Caesar”. This one’s better than good. Michael Sharon gives Caesar an almost rock-star quality, a man who believes absolutely in his star power, and will eventually veer towards absolutism. And speaking of rock stars—there’s Maurice Jones as Mark Antony, Caesar’s ally and friend, who kills it in the funeral oration, essentially lighting up Rome in a civil war. And Louis Butelli practically channels John Malkovitch as Cassius in a lights out performance that makes the character more than just a jealous conspirator—his wooing of Brutus is based in friendship and love.

Anthony Cochrane, I think, has solved the riddle of Brutus—he’s the pivotal character in the play, yet somehow never takes command of the play. That’s not the actor’s fault—this Brutus is a cerebral man, a careful man who errs always on the side of humility lest he appear arrogant, like Caesar, which of course he is. He holds himself in—even when he gets the news that his wife has killed herself by eating fire, he barely raises an eyebrow until he shudders alone in his tent.

It’s a revealing way to deal with Brutus—“the noblest Roman of them all” has a noble lineage but not enough of a noble bearing to carry the day. He’s been told that he’s an honorable man by too many people, including with sarcastic and deadly effect by Antony.

Gary Tischler •

The thing about the bad Jews in the young playwright Joshua Harmon’s play “Bad Jews” is that they’re really baaad, as in Ming the Merciless bad.

I don’t mean to suggest that they’re evil or villains—it’s that I care not a whit and wit about how deep the wounds or that they open with their verbal assaults on each other, how much damage they do, how much blood is on the floor.

Yes, the play, now being given a blood-sharp, claustrophobic staging at Studio Theatre under the direction of Serge Seiden, and with a brilliant cast of young actors is terrifically engaging. If these guys and gals were riding a bus, they’d be thrown off, but on stage. The verbal combat they engage in is compelling: you can’t shut your eyes, you can’t close your eyes and you can’t escape. So, you might as well stay and go into shock.

Part of the fascination is that the play is very, very smartly, sharply written and is very, very funny, like a late-night set with Lenny Bruce at his most intelligently, incessantly and carelessly cruel.

The characters in the play are all Jewish, but there’s no wise men here, no cliché Jewish mothers. It’s not even “Fiddler on the Roof,” which oddly enough wrestles with some of the same core issues that lie at the heart of the scorched-earth debates in “Bad Jews.” Is being Jewish a religion or a culture? Is secular better than orthodox? Where does self-interest meet or simply bypass strict religious observance? What does it mean to be a Jew in the early part of the 21st century?

The major combatants in this close-quarter (it’s set in a cramped New York City apartment) fight are Daphna, a transformed, fierce champion of being a real Jewish woman in an increasingly secular world, and Liam (ne Schlomo), who is as cooly, briskly, smartly secular young Jewish man as you want to meet. They’re all college age—Liam and Daphna, as well as Liam’s nebbish and soft brother Jonah and Melody, the wispy, waspy, blonde girl and intended future, non-Jewish wife who was once a music major.

The occasion: it’s the day after the death of their grandfather and emotional, heritage lynchpin of the family, a Holocaust survivor who’s always been part metaphor, part beloved patriarch to the young cousins.

Liam, being stuck without a cell phone in Aspen, Colo., didn’t make it to the funeral, and instead has brought Melody along. They’re all stuck in this high-end little place Liam and Jonah’s parents have bought for just such an occasion. Daphna, who’s returned from a life-changing trip to Israel—she wants to join the Israeli army, she’s got a presumed Israeli boyfriend—comes from a less well off part of the family and is full of anger—not just about Jewish traditions or the lack thereof, but economic envy and resentment as well

In comes another complication, the real source of the battle, a fight for a “Poppy” heirloom, a life-symbol pendant or “chai” that he kept under his tongue at the concentration camp. He used it as an engagement gift in his early years, and it’s intended for that use, apparently. Now, who gets the heirloom?

Liam wants it to use to give to Melody. Daphna says she deserves it because she’s the genuine article as an observant, traditional Jew. The fight once it gets going, appears about other things too—it’s entirely likely that Daphna’s resentment of Liam hides a deep-seated crush.

The fighting words are witty, funny, viscous, to the core and heart—Daphna is all passion, but armed with a gift for crushing insults. Liam is all precision and manipulation, the rational man, who whittles away vulnerable hearts until they’re the size of a raisin.

The actors dive into this with relish—especially Irene Sofia Lucio, as Daphna with her wild hair, her breathless, wild and looping thrusts, and Alex Mendell as Liam, the cold, rational, deadly customer. Theirs is a fight that seems close to violence and possible murder. They get so close to each other at full, screaming volume that you almost plug your ears.

Maggy Erwin, who has a sweet heart as the sweetheart of Liam, has her moments. She’s both touching and funny, including in a show-stopping moment, while Joe Paulik makes the most out of his silence and physical moves as the shy pacifier, who wants nothing more than to escape the bloodletting.

It’s terrific theater—and Harmon has the gift of gab. Nevertheless, because the fighting is so horrific, you want a little more consequence, a little more what-happens-next and why. Maybe that’s impossible, given the wounds inflicted.

“Bad Jews” runs through Dec. 21 at Studio Theatre.

Gary Tischler • November 10, 2014

She came, she talked and told stories, she laughed and, of course, she conquered.

In a nutshell, that was the story of the appearance of new Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter at the Georgetown Media Group’s latest and last of this year’s Cultural Leadership Breakfasts at the George Town Club.

Her appearance was a part of an ongoing story—her story, as she navigates her way through the city and the center, telling and listening. In every telling, at every stop, she fills out her story and thinking and philosophy about the art and artists, about the Kennedy Center’s place in the city and the nation, and about her own life in the arts.

We have had occasion to encounter Rutter at least four times—at the public announcement of her being named to what may be the biggest cultural and performance arts job in the country, in a telephone interview on her first official day on the job, when she started the conversation by talking about what was her biggest job that day: “picking out my daughters clothes for her first day in school.”

Several weeks ago, we saw Rutter in her first talk at the National Press Club. Even as she deftly handled being grilled on such matters as the stature of the National Symphony and the Washington National Opera and the state of the Millennium Stage and the contratemps surrounding Kennedy Center Honors selection, she began to formulate certain themes—collaboration with other arts institution, art as life, story telling, bringing the arts to the neighborhoods, the ideas of arts and performance arts especially, as a shared and unique experience.

In the process, certain characteristics emerge—she has what seems a sense of humor based in enthusiasm—at the George Town Club, an intimate setting that speaks to history, she delighted in being introduced as growing up in Encino, Califo., “which makes her a Valley girl.” She laughed and agreed. “I am a Valley girl,” she said. “And I’m proud of it.” Which reminded me of the telephone conversation, we had when she said, “Don’t let anybody kid you. We’re all rock and roll babies.”

Over time, that accessibility leads you to a very democratic notion about the arts — not only that art is for everyone but that all sorts of things can be art. “I believe there is such a thing as art for art’s sake, but it shouldn’t be a limiting idea, the notion that art is only for a certain amount of people. It’s the one thing in life that makes everyone’s life better. To me, it becomes art for life’s sake. There is something there in art that unites us—watching the WNO’s ‘La Boheme’ the other night was a beautiful experience. It’s a beautiful work, and it brought in young people and older people. In this way, it’s all a shared experience.”

“We are all in this business in one way or another,” she said. “It’s about story telling. Some of you I know do that, tell stories, factual stories, about the arts. We’re all story-tellers, all the arts tell stories—film, music can tell a story, paintings tell stories, the opera—love, betrayal, anger, murder, greed—stories, powerful stories.”

Rutter told stories—some short vignettes, about moving here. “I like to settle in to have my neighborhood grocery store, the school, the park, for the length of time that I’m here,” she said. “I was in Chicago a long time, certainly, and it’s hard to say goodbye to friends and places, but it’s also exciting to be in a new place with new challenges.” When she was told there was a Giant in her neighborhood about to open, she was delighted. Art in life, everywhere.

She told the story, and it took a while, it was one she had told before, how when she hired and she was right, I’d heard it before but in the telling—how when she was head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, she had hired famed Italian conductor Riccardo Muti as music director. “We all had thought of ways to reach out to the larger, under-deserved community in Chicago, trying ways to do that.

“Muti suggested we go to prisons,” she recalled. “Our jaws dropped. What in the world kind of moment.”

In the end, she said, “That’s what we did, we went to a juvenile detention center for teenaged girls. One of our chorus people set up a program to teach some of the girls composition, writing melodies or songs, about their own lives, making a kind of art out of their lives, art as life. And Muti came, and they performed their efforts, and he hauled in this Steinway into the prison, and oh, my God, it was a powerful experience, for them, communicating their lives to us because it was not easy for them.”

“This is also what it’s about, art is the way we communicate our lives to others, through stories, through music,” she said.

Rutter is known for collaboration, for promoting the works of living composers and was intrigued by last year’s hip-hop festival. She is interested in the challenge and opportunities presented by the Kennedy Center’s proposed new renovation and expansion.

She was asked about the rise of women leaders in the arts. “Well, I have to tell you, I received a lot from my father, who made me believe I can do anything,” she said. “He was my first feminist. But I think it is a good sign all across the country. This is especially noted in this city, where women are becoming such a presence in government.”

A voice on the phone, a woman behind a lectern being introduced, effortlessly holding the Press Club audience or moving, without lectern, mike or notes, in the small confines of the George Town Club, at home and at ease in her skin in each setting. Rutter — who plays piano and violin — brings her own kind of music to each occasion.

Georgetowner • November 6, 2014

Now Playing
Julius Caesar—Director Robert Richmond fiddles with Shakespeare’s classic play about power and war in ancient Rome. The staging is at once compelling and a little crazy. It’s overcooked, but it sizzles. The play is familiar, but you don’t know just how familiar until you see it like this. The Shakespearean lines and the fast-moving plot comes through with powerful clarity. Plus, it’s a top-notch cast headed by a bristling, cagey Maurice Jones as Mark Antony, the stirring Michael Sharon as Caesar and Louis Butelli, almost channeling John Malkovich as Cassius. At the Folger Theatre through Dec. 7.

Absolutely! {Perhaps}—For all you fans of the 20th-century’s great avant-garde playwright Luigi Pirandello, and we know you’re out there, here’s a production of his comedy about spies, love affairs and paranoia. At Constellation Theatre through Nov. 9.

Elmer Gantry—This musical version of the Sinclair Lewis novel about a huckster preacher in the 1920s has Eric Schaeffer at the helm. Burt Lancaster won an Oscar for playing Elmer. At Signature Theatre through Nov. 9.

Sex with Strangers—A cross-generational love story of sorts in a new play by Laura Eason, in which an older woman becomes involved with a blogger. Starring Holly Twyford, a Washington gift to theatre. At Signature Theatre through Dec. 7.

Our War—A unique and varied take on the Civil War in the Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage. Actors perform monologues by 30 top playwrights, with the participation of local notables, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Georgetown University President Dr. John J. DeGioia, Mark Ein and council members Jack Evans and David Grasso. At Arena Stage through Nov. 9.

The Little Dancer—A ground-up, much-anticipated musical at the Kennedy Center, centered on the relationship between painter Edgar Degas and 24-year-old Paris Opera Ballet budding dancer Marie van Goethem. This production has talent to burn—book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen

Flaherty (“Ragtime”) and direction by Susan Stroman, who gave us the stirring dance piece “Contact,” as well as the recent “Bullets Over Broadway.” With Boyd Gaines as Degas and New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Tiler Peck as the young Marie. At the Eisenhower Theaer through Nov. 30.

How We Got On—An new across-the-generations play by Idris Goodwin set to the lively, edgy music of rap and hip hop. At the Forum Theatre through Nov. 23.

Fiddler on the Roof—Arena Artistic Director Molly Smith continues her exploration of the American musical with this production, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the show, by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harrick with original choreography by Jerome Robbins, the original director. Jonathan Hadary stars as Tevye, the much put-upon shetl milkman who sings “If I Were a Rich Man,” among many classic songs. At Arena Stage through Jan. 4.

Coming Soon
The Gift of Nothing—At the Kennedy Center’s Theater for Young Audiences, a world-premiere production of a play conceived and written by Patrick McDonnell, Aaron Posner and Erin Weaver with music and lyrics by Andy Milton. Directed by Posner, based on the book by Patrick McDonnell. Based also on characters from the comic strip “Mutts” (Mooch, the tuxedo kitty, and his pal Earl, the small mutt with a big heart). At the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater, Nov. 22–Dec. 28.

The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures—When Tony Kushner writes, you always have to pay attention. The author of “Angels in America” always has something to say. In this production of a new play by Kushner, directed by John Vreeke, a longshoreman and lifelong Communist confronts his offspring. At Theater J, Nov. 13–Dec. 21.

Diner—A world premiere of a new musical by Sheryl Crow and Barry Levinson, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall. Based on Levinson’s classic movie about a group of Baltimore friends preparing for a wedding, At Signature Theater beginning Dec. 9.

Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol—A adaptation by prolific playwright Ken Ludwig (with Jack Ludwig) of Dickens’s tale of Scrooge and Tiny Tim, directed by Jerry Whiddon. At Adventure Theater, Nov. 14–Jan. 1.

Five Guys Named Moe—A paean to the music of Louis Jordan, king of the jukebox, with a modern feel—all rolling out at the Funky Butt Club with tunes like “Let the Good Times Roll.” At Arena Stage, Nov. 14–Dec. 28.

Gary Tischler • November 3, 2014

Lynn Ahrens is getting excited.

After literally years of working to bring the story of the girl who posed for Edgar Degas’s classic sculpture “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” to the stage as a major musical, it’s about to happen.

“Little Dancer,” the Kennedy Center musical, will premiere Oct. 25 and run through Nov. 30 at the Eisenhower Theater. But there’s more. The National Gallery of Art will hold a focus exhibition at which the actual sculpture—which is in the NGA collection—will be the star. It will be surrounded by ten additional works, including the gorgeous pastel “Ballet Scene,” several monotypes and smaller original statuettes related to the original work beginning Oct. 5 through Jan.11.

The girl was Marie van Goethem, a 14-year-old member of the Paris Opera Ballet, who posed for Degas and became, after the fact, one of the most famous ballerinas in the world.

A number of years ago, Arhens, who wrote the libretto and book, while her partner Stephen Flaherty composed the music for “The Little Dancer,” saw the sculpture and wondered “who was that girl, what kind of life did she lead, what did Degas see in her. I was struck by the pose, everything about her. It just affected me, and I imagine that’s when I started thinking about a play, a musical, that would be about her, and Degas—I think they were like father and daughter, more than anything—and the whole world of the Paris Opera and Ballet, the painters and artists. The young dancers usually lived in poverty and helped support their families. They were called the little rats.”

“It was kind of a Dickensian world in Paris,” she said. “But it’s obvious that Degas was transported by her, enchanted, he was immersed in that world.”

This is what Ahrens and Flaherty do. They make great musicals and shows out of unlikely materials.
Ahrens and Flaherty are a rarity in Broadway and show business today. They are a composer and song and book writing duo who hugely successful and who’ve been working together for years. They’ve got the Broadway Triple Crown under their belt, winning the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Circle Award for “Ragtime,” their theatrical version of E.L. Doctorow’s towering novel of America’s coming of age, which was also a successful film and play at the Kennedy Center twice in different incarnations.

They also created “Once on This Island,” a show which recently surfaced at Olney Theater and is a staple of regional theaters. There’s also been “Lucky Stiff” and “My Favorite Year” Most recently, they wrote the score for “Rocky” which arrived on Broadway with a big splash but never quite turned into a hit, although a version in Germany is drawing big crowds.
“Stephen and I are the best of friends, the best of partners, we work well together, always have. There’s no formula—sometimes he starts out with some bits of music and I’ll start writing lyrics, sometimes I start with the words, and he follows with the music,” she said.

It took a while to get “Little Dancer” done. “It took six years altogether that we worked on it, workshopped it, had labs and readings. We invited Michael Kaiser to take a look at a portion of what we were doing. He was absolutely taken with it and was behind it from the get go.”

“This is about art and life. We have one song called “In Between” which illustrates this, in between youth and growing up for the” little rat,” where art and life come together and touch.”

“We have a terrific group of people who came together on this, including, of course Susan Stroman” Ahrens said. “Stroman is the director of “The Producers,” and the beautifully original “Contact,” which was essentially a dance piece, as well as most recently “Big Fish” and “Bullets Over Broadway.” “She is perfect for this because she’s worked with ballet companies. She knows dance better than anybody.”

Playing the adult Marie is Rebecca Luker (of “Mary Poppins” fame) while New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck plays the young ballerina, the haunting young girl torn between trying to survive in a harsh world and expressing her gifts as a dancer.

“I think this is a show that everyone—including families—can relate to. It’s about family, survival, fathers, daughters, patrons and art.

“There’s a beautiful little original story ballet—about ten minutes long—which basically shows what the whole thing is about. It’s like recreating that world, that story, those people and what they did and loved.” [gallery ids="101847,138497" nav="thumbs"]