Performance

Gary Tischler • October 28, 2014

For being the work of a contemporary composer, Daniel Catan’s “Florencia of the Amazon”, which opened the 2014-2015 Washington National Opera season under the direction of Francesca Zambello, throbs with the often gorgeous, surging tones of 19th-century romanticism.

For sounding like a traditional opera, “Florencia” nevertheless appears often like a literary work, with a libretto by Marela Fuentes-Berain that tries and often succeeds to embrace and ech the tone and feel of its source material, the works of the famed Columbia master of magical realism Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

For the WNO, it’s also a first production, although not for Zambello, who directed and staged the original production at the Houston Grand Opera in 1996. Given that the source is Marques—principally, it appears, his great novel “Love in the Time Of Cholera”—there’s a stream-of-consciousness about the proceedings, an air of cultural surrealism, as if the characters and the audience are outward bound on more than one kind of trip.

These particular characters are setting out toward the fabled city of Maunus, where the legendary opera diva, Florencia Grimaldi, is supposed to give a transforming performance. On board are a disparate and desperate group of characters: a constantly quarreling married couple forever searching for love; the sturdy captain in love with the sea; his struggling nephew Arcadio; Rosalba, a lovely young journalist hoping to finish her life’s work biography of Florencia; and Riolobo, who is the guide for the audience and the characters on this Amazonian journey as part crew member and part a member of the realm of the river god. Florencia also comes aboard at the last minute, although no one, except perhaps for the captain, recognizes her. Given that this is a journey of experience, bad things happen including death, wind, flood, and a terrible storm. And given that we’re in the realm of magical realism, things unhappen too.

Florencia, sung with powerful virtuosity by rising star and classic soprano Christine Goerke, is on the journey with the hope of finding a long-lost lover, a butterfly hunter named Cristobal who disappeared into the jungle. She does and she doesn’t find him.

Along the way, we’re treated to the appearance of a group of native sprites, led by the terrific dancer Alison Mixon. They act sometimes like river sprites, sometimes as saviors, sometimes as malicious and haunting presences.

The atmosphere, with a backdrop of projections and scrim that evoke a kind of lost world of flying creatures, ravishing sunsets, onrushing mists and sky, moves in somewhat helter-skelter and static fashion as the ship, the “El Dorado,” passes by. The boat is problematic at first—in an atmosphere of magical realism, it seems to be entirely too realistic and unimpressive. The captain may love his ship, but it’s hardly deserving of adoration. But then, this isn’t “Showboat” either. There are rough waters ahead.

Like many of the new devises of story telling in the production, you get used to the boat, because it does serve a purpose; it serves up the characters and set pieces like a wheel of fortune. Here is a card game where the couple squabbles; here is Florencia in a powerful aria about her love and desire to be reunited with her lover; here are Rosalba (beautifully sung by Andrea Carroll) and Arcadio (a dashing Patrick O’Halloran) discovering their mutual attraction in full-voiced duets, at turns suspicious, afraid, spirited and romantic.

The orchestral pace is ably led by young conductor Carolyn Kuan. It’s surprisingly full of urgent, powerful notes of brass. The cast, on the whole, is full of terrific singers – notably Goerke, but also O’Halloran, Carroll, Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Paula and Michael Todd Simpson as Alvaro. Norman Garrett is less effective in his singing but he presents a charismatic force as Riolobo nonetheless.

In the end, in spite of or because of the troubles on the Amazon, love is still the answer, requited and reunited, even for Florencia, who is both renewed and transformed in a spectacular and beautiful image that won’t soon leave your mind.

Goerke will sing the role of Alvaro Sept. 20, 22, 26 and 28 while Melody Moore will take the stage Sept. 24.

Gary Tischler •

“Evita,” the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice mega musical from about the rise of the up-from-nothing wife of Argentine dictator Juan Peron, is back at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House in an electric, energetic, tango-flavored production that feels remarkably fresh.

To paraphrase the seductive song Eva purrs to Peron in suggesting a romantic-physical and political partnership, the show, directed by Michael Grandage from a West End production of several years back, was “surprisingly good for audiences.”

Historically, “Evita” marked the beginnings of the ascendancy of hefty, blockbuster English musicals like “Phantom of the Opera”, “Cats”, “Starlight Express” (“Cats” on roller skates), “Miss Saigon” and the omni-present “Les Miserables”, which dominated Broadway for a couple of decades. They were not really musicals, but pop (and sometimes rock) operas, fueled by high drama, big, splashy staging (the chandelier in “Phantom”, the barricades in “Les Miz”, the helicopter in “Miss Saigon”).

There have been few if any shows to match the success of the Rice, MacIntosh and Webber days. So, it’s probably good to see “Evita” resurrected. If you’ve seen the show back in the day, in various incarnations, or the Madonna film version, you’ll wonder how it holds up. If you haven’t seen it all, or know little about Evita Peron, the show should be an eye-opener.

Does it hold up? Yes, it does, and the reason is a highly effective cast, headed by young star Caroline Bowman in the title role, and the choreography of Rob Ashford, who gives the proceedings on stage a highly stylized energy.
It’s got fizz and buzz, moving to the sharp-and-high stepping rhythms of the tango, the dance and music that has always defined the national personality of Argentina.

Bowman does a transformation here—starting out as an ambitious Eva, eager to get out of her small town, using men dispassionately along the way as she hooks up with a pop singer to make her way to Buenos Aires, where politicians, usually wearing a uniform, abound. She becomes a singer, a radio star and eventually, man by man, a sexpot in the position to say: “Hello, Colonel Peron.”

The partnership is surprisingly successful—at Peron’s side Eva presents herself as a woman of the people. She’s one of them, which works very effectively because its true, all dazzling clothes and blonde hair. Her charm is not fully appreciated by the upper crust—every country has one—as she and her husband rise to the top. Her magnetism—“just a little star quality” – becomes so real that Eva herself starts to believe in the story, that she’s the country’s mother and sex figure all rolled into one. The people start to call her “Santa Evita”.

This remains a dazzling political story about the power and pull of celebrity on a national scale, and the music drives the story home. There’s small songs—“Another Suitcase, In Another Hall” for a dropped mistress, the amusing “Good Night and God Bless,” describing the musical chairs game of who’s in charge, the beautiful “High Flying Adored” and, of course, the overpowering “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”.

This was a song you could hear in any piano bar when “Evita” was in town. It’s so familiar that it starts to get a hold of you once again. But it’s also Eva Peron’s transformative moment, and Bowman brings it off as if she had heard it just yesterday. The woman (Bowman is in her twenties) who moves bathed in a huge light in a dazzling white dress, has become Evita. Her latest and most permanent lover is the people. It’s a seduction, at turns a pleading and loving anthem.

As before, Eva is dogged by a Che Guevera—another Latin American who became a legend in his own time and probably mind, too—figure. Sung with perfect pitch by Max Quinlan, he’s witness, commentator, critic, reflective and charismatic. Sean MacLaughlin cuts a fine, sometimes oily and mostly cynical, figure as Peron.

It seemed to me that this production was on the move constantly — sometimes filling the stage, were people moving to the tango with sharp, edgy moves, that languid sexuality, sometimes high-stepping, sometimes lurching. It gave the production a flavor, a feeling that was intimately epic, along with renewed energy.

It’s remarkable, in the end, how a big musical-opera production about a woman who became a kind of legend and saint in Argentina and died young a long time ago, and was mourned by an entire nation, can still fascinate.

“Evita” runs through Oct. 19 at the Kennedy Center.

Gary Tischler •

Septime Webre, the artistic director of the Washington Ballet, has always had a flair for finding the modern, even when doing traditional works, such as “Swan Lake,” “Giselle” and “The Nutcracker.”

“The thing with any season, with planning, is finding a way to bridge the traditional with the modern, the old with the new, the classic with the innovative,” Webre said in an interview this week.

“Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker” are bread-and-butter and people-in-the-seats aspects of any dance company worth its name. Both are part of the Washington Ballet’s 2014-2015 season.

But the season opening offering is exactly an example of that bridge in the form of “Petit Mort,” a trio of Washington Ballet premieres of works by rising and contemporary choreographers who are in peak form.

“These are works we haven’t done here, and they’re also works that are examples of contemporary choreographers who bridge to what’s gone before, to Balanchine and other geniuses of the 20th century,” Webre said. “I think they’re three of the most innovative choreographers of contemporary times.”

Innovative, yes, but also, from the descriptions, accessible and exciting work, the kind that dancers are keen to work on, because they represent challenges and opportunities.

“Every art form has its innovators, its game-changers—Hemingway changed the way language was constructed and used in literature, for instance,” Webre said. “I think you’ll find that sort of thing in these three pieces.”

“Petit Mort,” the title piece of the trio, is the work of choreographer Jiri Kylian to the music of Mozart. “It’s exciting, daring, witty,” Webre said. “It’s the most innovative pas de deux I’ve ever encountered.”

Incidentally, “Petit Mort” is a French phrase, meaning “little death,” and is used as a euphemism for sexual orgasm. So, there you have it.

“5 Tangos” is by Hans Van Manen, considered to be one of the fathers of the Dutch Movement. “Here’s an example of new dance bridging back to the traditional or to other forms,” Webre said. “It’s fast, it’s sexy, energetic and wrapped in the flavors, music and moves of the tango,” Webre said.

Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon had his break-out moment at the New York City Ballet with “Polyphonia,” a haunting, dense, elegant piece, which echoes back to the collaborations of Balanchine and Stravinsky. “It’s a rich, layered piece, set to the music of Ligeti,” Webre said.

Wheeldon won the Critics Circle Award and the Olivier Award for “Polyphonia”.

“These artists began to work in the 1960s and 1970s, and they dismantled that gap between traditional and contemporary, modern work,” Webre said.

“Polyphonia” premiered in New York in 2001. “5 Tangos” opened at the Het National Ballet in Amsterdam in 1977. “Petite Mort” made its debut at the Netherland Dance Theatre in 1991.

Webre has been no slouch at innovation himself. Consider his literary interpretations: the lush, detailed and spirited productions of “The Great Gatsby” and “The Sun Also Rises”.

“Innovation is always risky, no matter what you’re doing,” Webre said. “Those projects were risky, and this one is , too, in the sense that it’s a little bit of a departure.”

*“Petit Mort” will be performed at Sidney Harman Hall, the Harman Center, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23; 7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 24; 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 25; 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 26.*

Gary Tischler •

Almost 30 esteemed playwrights, commissioned to write monologues and vignettes. An ensemble of six local actors, joined by nearly 30 notable political, community and cultural leaders to present the results.

For director Anita Maynard-Losh, Arena Stage’s Director of Community Engagement, that’s quite a challenge.

It’s all about “Our War”, which is Arena Stage’s part in the multi-year, multi-city National Civil War Project. The show consists of series of brief plays commissioned as part of the 200th anniversary of the Civil War commemoration. “Our War” will be staged Oct. 21 to Nov. 4.

“Our War” is part of the National Civil War Project for Creating Original Theatrical Productions and Innovative Academic Programs. This nationwide cooperative effort among theaters, universities and other organizations was inspired by D.C. choreographer Liz Lerman, whose “Healing Wars” production was staged at Arena Stage this summer.

“There are a lot of moving parts, and it’s a little different every time out,” Maynard-Losh said. “We have an ensemble of actors, we have this small vignettes or monologues on the theme of the Civil War, and in addition, we have guest appearances each night by city and area notables.”

“I have to say, though, that to be able to direct works by twenty six great playwrights, that’s a gift and a treat, as well as a challenge,” she said.

“These are commissioned works on the Civil War,” she said. “They don’t take place during the war, necessarily, and they touch on themes about the civil war, and the effect it continues to have on Americans, on African Americans, on women. It’s about the effect of the war, more than specific figures from the war, or incidents, or battles. Some pieces are set there, to be sure, but mostly it’s how we’ve engaged with the war, it’s history and aftermath, how it’s become a part of how we live today. We have some historic figures—John Wilkes Booth, for instance, or Walt Whitman, who haunts this city.”

“We got very different works, very different responses,” she said. “There are stories about immigration, about the idea of citizenship and its responsibilities. It’s more of a contemporary take on the war, the playwrights give the war context in terms of our daily lives, of contemporary life.”

The playwrights include Maria Agui Carter, Lydia Diamond, Amy Freed, Diane Glancy Joy Harjo, Samuel D. Hunter, Naomi Lizuka, Aditi Kapil, Dan LeFranc, David Lindsay-Abaire, Ken Ludwig, Taylor Mac, Ken Narasaki, Lynn Notage, Robert O’Hara, Heathear Raffo, Charles Randolph-Wright, Tanya Saracho, Betty Shamieh, John Strand, Tazewell Thompson, William S. Yellow Robe Jr., Karen Zacarias, as well as two students.

The play features actors John Lescault, Ricardo Frederick Evans, Tuyet Thi Pham, Lynette Rathnam and Sara Waisanen.

Guest performers for “Our War” include council members Jack Evans, Yvette Alexander, David Grosso; Chris Matthews of “Hardball” fame; NPR correspondents Deborah Amos and Diane Rehm; Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia; Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg; and many more.

Among the monologues are “The Truth”, by John Strand; “Being Wright,” by Charles Randolph Wright; “A Union Soldier Writes a Letter to the Mother of a Boy He Used to Know,” by Naomi Isuka; “A Case for Laughter,” by Ken Ludwig; “La Adelita,” by Karen Zacharias”; “This is How We Do,” by Tazewell Thompson, and “The Grey Rooster” by Lynn Nottage.

According to Arena Stage, due to the wealth of content created by the 25 playwrights, the production has been separated into two selections of 18 monologues under “Stars” and “Stripes.”

For complete schedules for specific productions, go to the Arena Stage website.

Gary Tischler •

The day after I saw the Washington National Opera production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House, I ran into a neighbor of mine who has a daughter in first grade, a precocious and restless youngster. I suggested that he should he take her to the production, all but guaranteeing that she would like it.

This comes by way of noting that there were a lot of children of a similar age in attendance at the opening night performance and more during the “Opera in the Outfield” simulcast at Nationals Stadium.

Mozart’s “Flute” was, to a large degree. sourced from 18th-century fairy tale collections and must have seemed then, as it is today, an almost ideal way of introducing young audiences to the world of opera. Certainly, this production is in line with artistic director Francesca Zambello’s endeavors to stage more works for young audiences—we’ve already seen two Christmas productions in that arena, and now the “The Magic Flute” with “The Little Prince” scheduled for next season.

It’s entirely likely that the presence of young children in the audience—much as they might have same effect in “The Nutcracker”—added a measure of fresh energy to the enjoyment of the production for adults.

Still, given that this is Mozart’s last opera, with the still-young genius operating at full musical variety throttle, the added frisson of a youthful presence is a little like an extra glass of champagne.

In this production, in which the digital designs, projections and sets and costumes of noted ceramic artist Jun Kaneko, provide a kinetic engine for the opera as well as a truly magical background and foreground, there’s a lot of added value for adults to become enthralled by. Not only is Kaneko’s work a kind of visual magic flute in action, there’s the fact that the opera is sung and spoken in English, making it more accessible for all of the audience, with NSO dramaturge Kelly O’Rourke bypassing potentially treacherous pitfalls and temptations in her adaptation.

And, of course, there’s Mozart and the music, with a composition so rich in diverse motifs and moods, genres, moods and mastery. It’s almost a glossary of everything you can experience in opera. Listening to some of the familiar music, the traditional opportunities and challenges provided for singers, the wayward joys and shocks throughout, it makes you almost sick to think that this was Mozart’s last work. He died at 35 with half a lifetime of work still ahead.

This production does the work honor in many ways—the originality of the translation, the hyper never-seen-that-before quality of Kaneko’s work, the singing and the orchestra work all combine to reveal what’s always there, the true collaborative quality of opera, and how designers, singers, performers, and musicians can create what is essentially and literally a spell binder.

You can just imagine this in the hands of Richard Wagner, although it’s probably fair to say he never had much truck for children on stage, or perhaps under foot, either. Still, as a story, this is a quest tale—a young prince named Tamino, eager for life experience, is tasked with the rescue of a princess whom he falls in love with immediately. He’s been asked to sally forth and find the princess by her mother, the Queen of the Night, and brings along a spirited, down-to-earth sidekick named Papageno. The princess Pamino is supposedly in the hands of the evil sorcerer Sarastro. Tamino must find wisdom, truth, courage and strength along the way, passing, as heroes do, several tests. He must learn to see what’s true and ask questions—there’s a reason mom is queen of the night as opposed to queen of the daytime.

There is a dragon, a fool and a secret order. There is danger and spirits who float by in airy balloons. There is danger and romance and comedy tonight, mostly provided by the chatty Papageno.

Mostly, there are some wonderful performances, in particular by Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins as Papageno, whose singing and acting are straightforward. He’s the lovable buffoon with a song in his heart. American soprano Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, gives glamour to being wicked and thrills to her vocalizing, with two of the most difficult and sweep-away, jump-out-of-your-seat arias ever composed, which she nails in bravura style. American bass and local favorite Soloman Howard again displays his lower range in moving fashion, making everything rich with intonation. American soprano Maureen McKay, slight in stature but mighty in a voice full of romantic yearning, makes an appealing heroine, who’s matched by Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser’s steadfast and earnest hero Tamino.

This is a production for which the specific glues are Mozart and Kaneko. During the overture we’re treated to almost an illustration of the music by projections that look and feel like uncharacteristically frisky Mondrian paintings trying to escape their graphs, responding to something celestial and emotional. The projections are seen—and in a way heard—throughout, providing another element.

The words, too, are worthy of listening to. Some of the spoken asides are witty and right now, without debasing the content for its own sake, including a complaint about the constant chattering heard in the world.

This version of “The Magic Flute” in the end is seductive. It invites and encourages being seduced and diving in. When a depressed Pagegano momentarily considers suicide, he was encouraged by an audience member to “do it.”

This may not happen in succeeding performances. But something will—you just watch and listen.

Gary Tischler • October 23, 2014

It’s hard to talk about Washington Concert Opera as “show biz,” but what happened to the critically acclaimed company as it prepared for its season opener over last weekend gives rise to that old expression, “That’s show biz!”

The company, under the direction of artistic director Antony Walker, was in the midst of rehearsing Vincenzo Bellini’s “I Capuleti e I Montecchi,” a lyrical take on “Romeo and Juliet” — scheduled to be performed 6 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 28, at Lisner Stage at 6 p.m. — when the news came.

Soprano Olga Peretyatko, who was starring as Guiletta, had fallen ill and would be unable to continue. But it became a “bad news” event followed by very good news. Luckily for the company, American soprano Nicole Cabell was more or less nearby in Boston.

“I learned about it over the weekend and was offered the role by Mr. Walker, and I said yes,” Cabell, who’s part Caucasian, African and American and a rising star, said. “I was about to go on a trip to London with a friend, but I couldn’t pass this up. It’s a last-minute thing, certainly, and quite a challenge, but I’ve done the role before, and the music is so amazingly beautiful, well, you’ll see.”

“It’s the Juliet role, but the couple at this point is not just in the throes of being in love, it’s much deeper than that, much more about love and the political situation, with the families, the frustration, she’s a much more complicated character.” Cabell said. She did the part in San Francisco, and she had the added advantage of having performed with Walker and the Washington Concert Opera last year, in the role of Medora in Verdi’s “Il corsaro.” “I think it’s just a wonderful opportunity to be here again,” she said.

Cabell, who started out in school wanting to be a writer (science-fiction, fiction things like that, she told us), was persuaded by her mother to pursue the gift that she was given, which was singing and a beautiful voice. “Writing is still a hobby with me and reading,” she said. “I’m a big fan of Stephen King.”

She’s proven her mettle, winning the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2005, and soon after that recording Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” She performed the role of Guiletta in San Francisco in 2012 and in Kansas City in 2013, both times with star performer Joyce Di Donato.

“With concert opera, it’s different,” she said. “It’s totally about the music, of course, but I think if you pay attention to it that way, you can get the emotional force. There’s always this debate in opera, drama, performing, acting and music and singing. Here, it’s totally pure, but I happen to think that you can also achieve emotional purity through the singing and the music.”

Walker will direct again, and the cast also features Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as Romeo and David Portillo as Tebaldo.

Gary Tischler •

People seeing Delaney Williams as Otto, a security guard, in the Arena Stage world premiere production of “The Shoplifters (by Canadian Playwright Morris Panych, who also directs) might be forgiven if they think they’ve seen him somewhere before. 

They would probably be right, but it’s also a little more than that.  Williams has the kind of face, voice and persona that have a familiar feel, look and sound to them. You think Irish, for sure, and big, sure. You think cop, lawyer, law enforcement—all of which he has done.

Hearing him on the phone, you remember that voice almost instantly—not only for his recurring and best known  role of Detective Sergeant Jay Landsman on HBO’s highly praised and still missed by many crime drama “The Wire,” set in Baltimore, but for his sometime role on as John Buchanan, a somewhat oily defense attorney who has represented members of the mob and others on the high-tension franchise “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” sparring with detectives and prosecuting attorneys.

“Yeah, some people remember that guy,” Williams said. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing him again, representing different defendants.”

“Television has an impact, that’s for sure,” said the veteran actor who’s also been on “The West Wing,” “Veep” and films like the recent “Beneath the Harvest Sky” with Carrie Preson and Carla Gallo.

But he works his way back to the stage “because that’s where you’re doing the actor’s craft, because it’s challenging and intense,” he said. “It’s a high wire act.”

Williams has another career right now: helping to raise two sons, Liam, 15, and Chili, 12.  “You have to consider that, being a parent is the most important job you can have,” he said.

He’s obviously up about “The Shoplifters” which brings him back to the familiar atmosphere of Arena Stage, where he was last seen in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” just before the company moved into its dandy new confines.

“It’s great to be back,” he said. “And this project is such a special play.  It’s fast paced. I know it’s two acts, but it’s not going to  seem like that. I play a security guard who has a gung-ho partner, who tries to arrest an older woman for shoplifting. That’s the gist. But it’s a play about real people, not villains, good or bad people. It’s funny. It’s touching, too, and it deals with the kind of people—people who resort to a little shoplifting in stores, and security guards, whom you normally don’t see in the forefront in plays, in shows or movies.

Broadway star Jayne Houdyshell makes her Arena Stage debut as Alma, she of the light fingers and complicated heart and life.  She’s received two Tony Award nominations, including for the Kennedy Center-produced “Follies” in 2012 and for Lisa Kron’s “Well” in 2006, for which she also received a Theater World Award.

The cast also includes Jane Sokolowski as Phyllis and Adi Stein as Dom.

“The Shoplifters” is being performed at the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater through Oct. 19.

Gary Tischler •

Just go to “Marie Antoinette” — yes, the revolutionary play about the famous, infamous, haunting and haunted Queen of France, now at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre — and try not to connect to something in the way we live today.

You can’t. Are you a French Revolution buff, or love old movies and books about the French Revolution? They’re all here folks—Marie, herself, stopping to snap selfies or pose for pictures, the count who loves her, the rag-tag, murderous mob, the baffled, clueless King Louis XVI, except for Madame Defarge, knitting, Danton in his bath, and “Let Them Eat Cake.” The queen apparently did not say that.

Think this stuff is about the curse of celebrity, way back when? You can see it all, echoes and hints and flagrant bows or curses to the likes of Kim and the Kardashians, Lindsay, J-Lo and all the celebrated nonentities on YouTube.

Think we live in turbulent times? Sure we do: Ukraine, ISIS or ISIL, the Arab Spring, the Middle East Winter, the Syrian debacle. We have beheadings, too. We even have beheadings in the news.

If it were just a stylish, hip and cool, a playful tool for connecting the foibles of a young queen to the always now and new, “Marie Antoinette” would be a witty, if not quite as serious as it might be, sendup, zippy 18th-century fashion show, bloody red carpet of a show.

Except that the play—by the now celebrated playwright Dacvid Adjami (his “Elective Affinities” starred no less a Broadway legend than Zoe Caldwell)—is both less than what it appears to be and, in the end, much more.

The play is more than a bit of a mess at times—but, like a messy traffic accident or an accidental viewing of a reality show, you can’t look away—ever. Because it won’t let you, under the immersive and stylish direction of Yury Urnov, because it pulls you in visually, hypnotically and, finally, emotionally.

Looks- and temperament-wise, the show has the feel of “Marat/Sade” or a tour of a madhouse or the old Bastille cells or a mad-hatter party at Versailles, where I was once on a spring day sitting on a bench where the queen went to get away from it, and it snowed. I mention this because it’s a scene that might have gotten into this play—along with the every curious, inventive Sarah Marshall as a sheep—or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The fact that we accept the presence of a talking sheep at the point of entrance says a lot about the plays powerful pull.

We open with a Project Runway shot—the queen and friends, frolicking and striking Madonna-like poses, clicking, gossiping about the city, politics, fashion, the mob, in a way that Snookie and company might, before descending into a hot tub.

At this point, you should not be surprised that this production is trying to pull you in every which way—there’s a mirror on board, which for audiences front and center should make them feel like voyeurs, watching themselves watching the stage.

There’s a lot to like in the acting—James Konicek as a fiercely frustrated and cruel guard, Joe Isenberg as the soft king, Bradley Foster Smith as the cool and true blue Count Axel Fersen.

But what makes the play is the transcendent performance of Kimberly Gilbert as the queen. It’s a somewhat unexpected star turn because Gilbert has built a longish list of credits with a persona that seems modern, no matter what (she had just completed a role in the reprise of “Stupid F—-ng Bird”). It does here too, and yet she’s found a way to be Marie in her own time. She’s a dreamy teen at first, wistfully wishing to be back in the bucolic Austrian countryside, frustrated with the king, clueless about the mob and her situation.

Somewhere along the way, Gilbert’s Marie, with a kind of heart-breaking empathy, grows in stature, adds weight and bravery to her demeanor, and a dignity peculiarly stuck in her time, a quality sadly lacking in contemporary celebrities.

It’s a bravura performance, building, changing as it goes, until the last cliches, like the last expensive piece of clothing, is gone and what’s left is a woman in her thirties, totally aware of her fate.

“Marie Antoinette” runs though Oct. 12 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20004.

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.