Performance

Gary Tischler • January 23, 2014

It used to be that Hollywood trolled Broadway for often terrific movie versions of hit musicals: the whole Rodgers & Hammerstein canon from “Oklahoma” to “The Sound of Music,” Lerner & Lowe’s “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot” or “Anything Goes” and “Kiss Me Kate” from Cole Porter.

These days—with some exceptions—it’s Broadway producers who are culling movies for their musicals, with mixed results. Remember “The Addams Family” (first, a TV series) or “The Producers”? Just recently three such road versions of the Broadway originals have hit the Kennedy Center: “Sister Act” (from the Whoopee Goldberg movie), “Elf” and now “Flashdance,” which runs in the Eisenhower Theater through Jan. 19.

At least “Flashdance” has some musical cache to it. The movie was a surprise hit in the 1980s for Jennifer Beals in a tale about a gorgeous young woman, who is a factory worker by day, a strip club dancer by night, and dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. The movie overrode its improbable Cinderella story with a stripped-down plot, some hot numbers by a body double and a several anthem-like rock numbers. Like “Dirty Dancing” from the same period, it became a hit.

“Flashdance, The Musical” has the same improbable plot, with the heroine, Alex Owens now a true working class gal who falls in love with the company heir to the business, stands up for her fellow workers hard hatters on the steel mill line, still works in an odd strip club where they don’t actually strip and is generally a tough cookie who still wants to be a ballet dancer.

The musical also appears to be about an hour longer than the original film, with songs from the movie like “Gloria” (a hit for the late Laura Brannigan), “What a Feeling,” “Maniac” and the title song as well as “I Love Rock and Roll.” It also has another 16 songs, with music by Robbie Roth and lyrics by Robert Cary and Robbie Roth, which are serviceable if not the kind of songs that make you want to try them at a karaoke bar 20 years from now.

But here’s what’s good about “Flashdance.” It has—like the movie—enormous energy driven by a high-spirited, attractive cast who sing and dance with gusto and deliver lines with the aplomb of stand-up comedians, especially David Gordon as Jimmy, who actually wants to be a standup comedian in New York, but settles for returning to the club and his girlfriend Gloria, the appealing Ginna Claire Mason, the two of them dueting on “Where I Belong”.

But truth to tell, it’s really Jillian Mueller, a fiery, dance-dervish performer with a big voice who carries the show. She sings, hoofs, performs and breathes life into the proceedings whenever she’s on stage, which is pretty much always. Small, high-driving and high-stepping, emotional and passionate, she’s got the makings of a Broadway star, she does everything as if it’s worth giving 110 percent and carries you with her. It’s amazing that her voice has held out for the course of the tour—she has a number of anthem-like songs to sings, the kind where you’re in the spotlight feet firmly planted, head out and up, defiant and moving forward and just sort of belt it out. She also gets splashed with water while dancing emoting on a chair, a signature scene from the movie and poster.

As far as “I Love Rock and Roll” goes, Joan Jett owns that one way long ago, lock, stock and rock and leather jacket.

Gary Tischler • January 17, 2014

From South Africa—“Mies Julie,”
an adaptation by Yael Farber for
the South African State Theatre of
Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” 14 years
after Apartheid makes its Washington
debut at the Shakespeare
Theatre Company’s Lansburgh
Theatre Nov. 9 to 24.

Lynn Redgrave by way of Kathleen
Chalfant—“Shakespeare For My Father,”
a one-woman play written by the
late actress Lynn Redgrave about her
Shakespearean actor father Michael, will
receive a staged reading at the Folger
Theatre Nov. 11, in conjunction with
the Davis Performing Arts Center at
Georgetown University.

A new and restless “Sleeping Beauty”—
Cutting edge and powerhouse British choreographer
Matthew Bourne returns to the
Kennedy Center with his company New
Adventures to the Opera House for his distinctive
and haunting version of “Sleeping
Beauty,” a gothic, supernatural love story
fitting for the times. Nov. 12 to 17.

A True Family Saga at Studio, “The Apple Family Plays”
by Richard Nelson consist of two plays, “That Hopey
Changing Thing” and “Sweet and Sad,” which will play
in repertory at the Studio Theater Nov. 13 to Dec.
29, directed by Serge Seiden and with a cast of stellar
Washington players, including Jeremy Webb, Kimberly
Schraf, Sarah Marshall, Ted van Grithuysen, Elizabeth
Pierotti and Rick Foucheux.

One of Our Favorite Things: Rodgers
and Hammerstein’s classic musical about
Anna and the King of Siam, “The King
and I” gets a staging fit for the holidays
at the Olney Theatre Center Nov. 14
to Dec. 29. Starring Paolo Montalban
as the King and Eileen Ward as Anna,
directed by Mark Waldrop.

Tappin’ Through Life—Legendary Broadway and
stage performer, jazz singer, dancer and actor
Maurice Hines will star in the jazzy, high-stepping
journey of his own life, featuring the Manzari
Brothers, running Nov. 15 to Dec. 29.

Christmas in Twelve Days—“The Twelve Days
of Christmas,” directed by Michael Dove, and
based on the traditional holiday song by Renee
Calarco will be the Christmas production
at Adventure Theatre in Glen Echo Park Nov. 15 to Dec. 30. [gallery ids="101535,150046,150054,150052" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

They’ll be celebrating a 40th anniversary for Magpie—aka Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino—at the Barns at Wolf Trap tomorrow night, October 16, with a release party and concert with some good friends and possible surprises at 7:30 p.m.

They’ll also be celebrating one of the unique, original, compassionate, musically diverse and gifted duos that exists in the country. Magpie embodies the idea of music which is about commitment to the great issues of the day and of history— in the grand tradition of Pete Seeger, who plays harmonica on one of the songs on their new album— along with the ideals of Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan. It’s an eclectic musical record that’s embedded in causes in which they believe, but also in a great talent and collaboration of huge gifts.

Now living in the Catskills, the couple met at Kent State all these years ago and have been making memorable music and merged their music into their roles as story tellers, educators and advocates for peace and change. They’ve worked with Seeger, Phil Ochs, Kim and Reggie Harris and somehow found time to write West Virginia’s state anthem, “Take Me Back to Harper’s Ferry.”

Wolf Trap and the Barns is a fitting setting for this concert and celebration—which will also feature Ralph Gordon on string bass, Rolly Brown on guitar and percussionist Matt Daynard. They’ve played there many times and are also Master Teaching Artists for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts. They won the Wammie Aard for Teraditonal Folk Duo of the Year from the Washington Area Music Association in 1998.

The duo features Leonino’s stirring, searing voice which has been compared to Billie Holiday. Her gift for playing instruments includes the harmonica, mandolin, fretted dulcimer and rhythm guitar. Artzner plays the guitar in the classic, fingerstyle manner of guitar legends like Big Bill Broonzy, Nick Lucas, Rolly Brown and the Reverend Blind Gary Davis. You get the drift—protest, passion, jazz, folk, blues, roots music, rooted in the sufferings of the working poor made visible and aural.

Magpie has a new album out, called “Of Changes and Dreams,” which is billed as a compendium of everything Magpie: you get hard-hitting anti war songs like the one that leads things off, “Follow the Money” as in “Follow the money from the oil can/from Iraq, Nigeria and Kazakhstan…” to the rustic local “Ev’ning in Carolina,” “Sailing Up my Dirty Stream,” written by Pete Seeger. Be sure to listen to Leonino, so clear-voiced, clear-hearted, and very bluesy on “Detour Ahead”—…”Smooth road, clear day/but why am I the only lone travelin’ this way.”

Gary Tischler •

At the D.C. Jazz Festival Annual Trustee Gala Oct. 21 Charles Fishman, founder of the festival, was presented with the 2013 DCJF John Conyers, Jr., Jazz Advocacy Award. The award was presented by and named after Rep. John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich., for advocacy on behalf of jazz. There isn’t a better advocate for jazz in than Fishman, who is also the festival’s executive producer and artistic director.

Gladys Knight made the evening memorable with an emotional concert of her songs [gallery ids="101512,150997" nav="thumbs"]

Rebecca Magnuson McCabe •

I am a singer-songwriter, and I live in Georgetown. I wrote and performed in Nashville, Tenn., for years, and I now spend a few days there each month. I admit that I am spoiled when it comes to live music. You can only imagine my elation when I got the news that a new music venue, Gypsy Sally’s, would be opening down on the Georgetown waterfront. Back in my early twenties, I was a regular groupie at the legendary music club, the Bayou. When it closed in 1998 I feared that, other than Blues Alley, Georgetown had seen the last of its musical glory days.

Just a few blocks from where many Bayou memories reside for me, a new, Americana-themed, 300-seat music and dinner club, Gypsy Sally’s, has recently opened. The party is not only back in town, but it has changed for the better. It’s no longer about enduring a standing-room-only crowd, developing neck cricks from straining to see the band or bringing peanuts to munch on during the show. Gypsy Sally’s features local, regional and national Americana bands and offers a menu consisting of the foodie generation’s F.L.O.S.S. theme: “Fresh, Local, Organic, Seasonal and Sustainable.” My two favorite menu picks are the sunflower hempseed hummus as well as the kale salad.

The few times I have managed to sneak away after putting the kids down, I’ve been blown away…not only by the talent Gypsy Sally’s has booked (Jim Lauderdale graced the stage opening night), but by the comfort, hip factor and tech savvy of the establishment. There is ample tiered, graduated seating so that everyone can see. Booking online can also ensure a specific table or even barstool. Tim Kidwell of the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., consulted on the state of the art, incredibly balanced sound system (no ear plugs ever needed). Yet another surprise is the dance floor situated in front of the stage. Finally, a place to dance in Georgetown.

If you feel like you just want to chill and chat with friends, Gypsy Sally’s also boasts a space called the Vinyl Lounge with an entrance off 34th Street. Once inside, you can play your old records (yes, bring them with you, or choose from their amazing collection). Eat from the eclectic, ethnically diverse menu, and relax.

I sat up at the bar in the Vinyl Lounge the other night, hanging out with my girlfriend, Karen Ensor, co-owner of the place with her husband, David. The room was packed, the vinyl spinning. I asked her what the one message about Gypsy Sally’s would be if she could put it out there. She said: “Trust us.”

Karen and David Ensor really know music. David is a singer-songwriter, and Karen went to college at Vanderbilt University in the midst of Nashville’s music heyday. Whether you come to Gypsy Sally’s to enjoy a concert or to hang out in the Vinyl Lounge, you will be pleasantly reminded that the music is still alive and well in Georgetown, and our good friends, the Ensors, promise that there is something for everyone any night of the week. The glory days are back.

Visit www.GypsySallys.com for the music calendar and other information.

Gary Tischler •

Theater has always been about the stories we tell ourselves and have passed on. Theater is bearing witness to how human beings have lived, live and may live tomorrow. It is history made into characters and stories, poetry and shout-outs and the talk amongst ourselves made into meaning, into thought and emotion, into tragedy and comedy, reality and fiction in front of us.

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, theater gets caught up and changed in the history of the moment, the historic moment.

That was the case with Ford’s Theatre, and its season-opening production of “The Laramie Project,” a play created by playwright-director Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project from the raw material of interviews with people in Laramie, Wyo., in the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man living in Laramie, as well as from comments by the actors who participated in the project themselves.

“The Laramie Project” became a kind of cause célèbre almost as much as the crime itself. The trial—involving a hate crime—and reaction to it spread throughout the nation with vigils, demonstrations and protests. This latest production was scheduled to have its season-opening premiere on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Instead, Ford’s Theatre became entangled with the biggest story in Washington, the impending partial government shutdown which became a reality at midnight.

As a result, Ford’s and its director Paul Tetreault learned that Ford’s, which operates on a public-private partnership with the National Park Service, would not be allowed to have performances—due to the government shutdown. In fact, all performances of the play at Ford’s Theatre have been cancelled through Oct. 6 because of the shutdown.

“This did not happen in the previous shutdown,” Tetreault said. “This whole thing defies logic. We were not sure exactly what was going to happen in terms of our play, but we still didn’t expect this. It was almost at the last minute. I started making phone calls, and luckily, the people at Woolly Mammoth Theatre were kind enough and could offer us the rehearsal space at their theater. And Tuesday was also a dark night there, with their ‘Detroit’ not being performed, which might have caused confusion. So, we scrambled to put on the play, because I think this is very important. It’s an important story that needs to be heard, because it had such a tremendous effect on our society.”

“The actors had not even been on that stage before,” Tetreault continued. “Obviously, there were no lights, no special sound effects, no set, a few props and costumes. We decided to have a VIP and media presentation because we wanted to have people have the opportunity to see it.”

It was learned yesterday that the Ford’s Theatre Society would present free performances of the play at the nearby First Congregational United Church of Christ on Friday, Oct. 4, and Tuesday, Oct. 8.

In terms of the shutdown, which has affected hundreds of thousands of government workers being furloughed and will cost the District of Columbia millions of dollars in terms of tourist revenue, not to mention of the political fallout throughout the country, the cancellation of a theatre production—even one as powerful as this play is—may be a footnote to some. Nevertheless, it remains an event of major import to the Ford’s Theatre Society, which stands to lose the entire run of the play which was scheduled through Oct. 27.

As it is, a curious and genuinely theatrical, human and historic event occurred when a terrific cast walked on stage at the downstairs Woolly Mammoth Theatre and began to tell the story of Matthew Shepard, his family, the residents and officials in the town of Laramie, Wyo. A deep sense of intimacy was created as they worked, walked, talked, introduced the people under the watchful eyes of an audience seated in five rows and totaling perhaps just under 100 persons.

It’s hard to imagine how this might have worked, what visuals and videos might have been used, how the view from afar in Ford’s Theatre might make you feel differently than being so close, but I suspect there is a difference. I kept thinking of last season’s production of “Our Town” at Ford’s for some reason.

As a theater writer or critic, one might hesitate to comment on the production, given that you’re not seeing the full production. But it’s a needless worry—this group of actors was so good, so in the zone, that there was no question of the play having an emotional impact. In fact, the result all but erased whatever distance normally exists between actors and audience. This cast— often-performing Holly Twyford, Craig Wallace, the always surprising Kimberly Gilbert, Kimberly Schraf, Mitchell Hebert, as well as Katherine Renee Turner, Chris Stezin, Paul Scanlan, Amy McWilliams and Eric M. Messner—bring special gifts as shape and speech shifters taking on many parts, providing introductions for the audience.

There’s not much there, physically, some chairs, a table, coats, caps, uniforms, the rest is all imagined resonance, shifts in voices, walks, gestures, and what the audience brings to the event with the requirements being an open heart, an open mind and perhaps open arms, if only.

Some of those qualities were obviously missing from the citizens of Laramie, a western college town in the middle of the big open space and the big lonely of the West, as they took in what had happened, that two locals had kidnapped, robbed, beaten and tortured a young gay man and left him to die, which he eventually did in the hospital. The reactions vary from shock, disbelief, well-hidden bigotry rising to the fore here and there, empathy, out and out hatred, anguish and grief, and growth and change.

“The Laramie Project” is a very theater piece of theater—here, after all, are actors playing other actors, who are also playing themselves and the pivotal members of the population of a medium-sized American town, caught up in a national fire storm about attitudes, biases, and sweeping change.

The production marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, adding poignancy to the event, and whatever else audiences can bring to this play, including the sure knowledge that much has changed in intervening. I thought about the play the day after, sitting at Tryst in Adams Morgan with a friend, watching one of the two male parents of an adopted little boy named Eli sitting on his parents’ lap. They live on the street where I live, seamless as the air we all breathe.

Robert Devaney •

Alexander Graham Bell is back at the National Geographic Society this week, and you have a chance to meet him — as dramatized by Rick Foucheux in “Bell,” presented at National Geographic Live! on 17th Street, NW.

The one-man play, written by Jim Lehrer of the “PBS NewsHour” and directed by Jeremy Skidmore, is the first-ever theater production by the National Geographic and in honor of its 125th anniversary. It begins as Bell awakes from a nap and talks about his beloved wife Mabel Hubbard Bell, daughter of Gardiner Hubbard, who founded the society. Bell (1847-1922) was president of the non-profit exploration and science institution for a few years at the turn of the last century.

The great inventor speaks directly to the audience, moving back and forth between his day and ours. He asks us to hold up our smart phones. Yes, he is responsible for that, known as he is for being “the telephone man,” he tells us. Parts of the device also owe thanks to Thomas Alva Edison with his work on lights bulbs, phonographs and electronics, he adds. Bell mentions his erstwhile colleague Edison quite a few times during the performance.

Two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Foucheux distills the life of the famous Bell with authority and humor for at least 80 minutes through Lehrer’s words to that of a man, just like anyone else, frustrated by events or rivals.

When President James Garfield lay wounded on a white House bed in 1881 after being shot at a downtown Washington, D.C., train station, Bell tried to help find the bullet in the president’s body with a metal detector — to no effect, stymied by metal coils in the mattress, Bell laments.

Even the stage displays Bell’s personality: a desk cluttered devices and designs, a back wall postered with sheets of his drawn-up designs. Indeed, Bell says his definition of genius is the opposite of Edison’s, who said it is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Tellingly, for Bell, it is 99 percent inspiration.

We may have known that Bell’s wife was deaf and that he worked in vocal physiology like his father, who also had a house on 35th Street in Georgetown, across the street from the Volta Bureau, the site of one of Bell’s laboratories in D.C. Bell’s bureau and the street, Volta Place, derive their names from the Volta Prize which France awarded to Bell in 1880.

One prize which Bell never got was to be on the cover of the National Geographic Magazine. During the play, he holds up an open, life-size version of the magazine’s famous yellow frame in front of himself as if to right that wrong.

Who knew about Bell’s airplane, the Silver Dart, flying in New York and then in Nova Scotia? How about that he loved ice cream too much and died from diabetes?

There is, of course, more to know about Bell. So, don’t call, don’t text . . . just go. In fact, you have only six evenings to see “Bell.” Take the kids, too. As with anything created by the Geographic, you will learn something new.

“Bell” runs through Sept. 21 at the National Geographic Society’s Grosvenor Auditorium, 1600 M St., NW. Call 202-857-7700, or visit nglive.org/bell.
[gallery ids="101454,153573,153570" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

Recipients of the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors—given to individuals for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts—were announced today: opera star Martina Arroyo; jazz pianist, keyboarder, bandleader and composer Herbie Hancock; pop and rock singer and songwriter Billy Joel; actress Shirley MacLaine and rock-and-roll icon Carlos Santana.

The list is notable and conspicuous for the inclusion of Santana and Arroyo, doubling the number of Hispanics in the lists of honorees in this the 36th year of the Kennedy Center honors. It’s significant because of a controversy which erupted in the wake of a contentious debate rising from protests by Hispanic advocacy groups that the honors lacked enough Latinos in its lists.

The controversy resulted in the Kennedy Center creating an artist review panel and inviting recommendations from the public. Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein said, “The Kennedy Center has sought to honor individuals whose accomplishments have affected the cultural life of the United States. This wider range of people involved in the process has resulted in the selections of five distinguished, accomplished and deserving honorees.”

Carlos Santana, a Mexican-American guitarist whom Rolling Stone including in the top tiers of guitarists, and his band Santana became almost instant icons when they performed at Woodstock in 1969, a performance that shot them to stardom as one of the most original forces in rock and roll music, infusing rock with African and Latin rhythms, sounds and instruments. Their version of “Black Magic Woman,” and “Evil Ways” where huge hits, and Santana and the sound enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 1990s.

Martina Arroyo was raised in Harlem and was not encouraged to set her sights on an opera career. She was raised by an African-American mother and a Puerto Rican father. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1958 and built a rangy opera and singing career with a superb soprano voice. She “has dazzled the world with her glorious soprano voice and continues to share her artistry with a new generation of opera singers,” the Kennedy Center noted.

Billy Joel became the nation’s piano man, a prolific creator of hits for over 40 years including “Uptown Girl,” “New York State of Mind,” “An Innocent Man,” “Just the Way Your Are” and “Movin’ Out,” which became the basis for a Twyla Tharp-conceived Broadway musical of the same name.

Shirley MacLaine is a Hollywood movie star icon with tremendous personal appeal—she had a gamine, pixie-like quality early on which worked well in romantic comedies and dramas both and after numerous nominations won an Oscar for “Terms of Endearment.” She is also the sister of previous Kennedy Center honoree Warren Beatty.

Herbie Hancock played with Miles Davis early in his career but also was a pioneer of funk, embracing rock-and-roll and soul sounds into jazz.

Gary Tischler •

Even though Aaron Posner has directed
many plays in many American
places, and written some, too. It
must seem now as rehearsals get
underway for his next production,
that the Washington theater community has
come to be a major part of his creative and
professional as well as personal life.

Just now, the Folger Theatre, and its small,
intimate, Bard-echoing Elizabethan theatre will
take up a large space in his imagination and
profession, as he directs “Romeo and Juliet”
and embarks on the journey that will take
Posner and his wife Erin Weaver, starring as
Juliet, toward the Oct. 15 opening.

Posner has expended a good part of his directorial
resume at the Folger, a place drenched
and steeped in Shakespearean history, artifacts,
scholarly work and productions of the Bard
canon over decades. Posner sees all that, but he
sees something else, too. The Folger is a place
for risk taking and risk takers, a quality not usually
associated with an institution so squarely
placed in history.

You wouldn’t think so, if you visit the Folger
Shakespeare Library, by the Supreme Court and
the Library of Congress— the centers of political
power in the United States. These are solid,
Greco-Roman buildings as symbols of power
and culture. The small Elizabethan theatre,
with upstairs and downstairs seating looks
like it was transported from the days when
Shakespeare was writing his plays, complete
with daunting pillars that always challenge
directors, designers and actors.
“I know people don’t often think of the
Folger in terms of risk-taking, of edgy work,
and projects that might be difficult to do, that
are fresh and different,” Posner said. “But
that’s exactly what happens here, there’s a
willingness to say ‘All right, go ahead and do
it that way,’ even if the idea sounds outrageous.
There is a history here of saying yes to artists.”
This was true before Posner began working
his directorial magic here, when Joe Banno was
directing some unusual takes on classic material—
several actors including Holly Twyford
performing the role of Hamlet for instance,
and of course a “Romeo and Juliet” for which
Twyford won a Helen Hayes award.
The result for Posner has been an outstanding
run of project and plays, including “A
Conference of Birds”, based on a 12th-century
Sufi poem about a group of birds searching
for God. Posner was inspired by renowned
director Peter Brook and his book “The Empty
Stage”, in terms of how to do a play that was
basically a series of parables.
Even by Posner’s standards “Birds” was a
different sort of play. It wasn’t that far removed
from “Orestes: A Tragic Romp,” or even his
“The Taming of the Shrew” which had frontier
western setting, and won the Helen Hayes
Award for Outstanding Resident Play.
At the Folger, Posner has also directed a
new version of “Cyrano,” which he co-adapted
and won a best director award, “The Comedy of
Errors,” Tom Stoppard’s intellectual whiz-bang
of a play “Arcadia,” “Macbeth,” which he codirected
and co-conceived, “The Tempest” and
“Measure for Measure” (this season being done
at the Washington Shakespeare Company),
which got Posner an outstanding director award
and an outstanding resident production award
for the Folger Theatre, “The Two Gentlemen
of Verona” (another outstanding director
award), and Craig Wright’s “Melissa Arctic”
(based loosely on “A Winter’s Tale”) as well as
“Twelfth Night,” “Othello”and “As You Like
It,” going back to 2001.

“Romeo and Juliet” is probably
Shakespeare’s most popular play, appealing
to classicists and teenagers all at once, and
Folger appears to be counting on that, scheduling
a run through Dec. 1.

“Everybody knows the play, or thinks they
know the play,” Posner said. “Everyone loves
the romance, the passion, the tragedy of the
lovers, and characters like the Friar and the
nurse and Mercutio, it’s the language and
poetry and all of that. But to me there’s something
else. There’s a mystery in this play, and
you have to solve it: how do these two young
people—they’re teenagers, come to such a stark
conclusion—they think and feel that they have
no other choice except to die. That’s central
to the play, you have to try to understand that
decision.”

Posner’s wife Erin Weaver is taking on the
role of Juliet. Posner finds the experience of
directing his wife as essentially a sharing. “We
don’t have a problem there, it’s a good thing in
terms of our marriage, to be able to collaborate
like this and share at a very basic level our
work.”

Both Posner and Weaver worked together at
Signature Theater earlier this year in “Last Five
Years.” Weaver herself worked in “Company”
at Signature, and earlier in “Xanadu” among
many projects. The two have a young daughter
named Maisie.

Birds seems to have been on Posner’s mind
of late—in addition to “The “Conference of
Birds,” his play “Stupid “F—–g Bird,” based
not all that loosely on Anton Chekov’s “The
Seagull,” received a powerful, funny and
intense production at the Woolly Mammoth
Theatre. “There were similar characters, and
similar interest and the play and Chekhov have
always fascinated me.”

In this bird, as opposed to the other birds,
Posner managed the not inconsiderable achievement
of imaging, or re-imagining Chekov’s
characters in our times, how they might have
lived, sounded, and behaved today.

Posner’s gift is original in the sense that he
has a taste for re-imagining, even re-invention.
It shows up in his penchant for adapting literary
works, without damaging them. He might
shine a different light or lamp on the works, but
they shine, and brightly, nonetheless.

DID YOU KNOW?
Raised in Eugene, Oregon;
born in Madison, Wisconsin
Helen Hayes and Barrymore Award-winning
playwright, director and teacher
Previously accomplished director at
Folger Theatre: One best director and
two outstanding director awards
Founder and former Artistic Director of
Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre
Has directed major regional theatres
from coast to coast
Quoted as saying “I can’t direct
Shakespeare without swearing.”

Gary Tischler •

NOW PLAYING
Miss Saigon—Here’s a way to kick off a 24th-anniversary season: remount and re-imagine a full-blown production of “Miss Saigon,” one of the most iconic big-theme, big-deal Broadway musicals of the “Les Miz,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats” and “Evita” era.

That’s what Signature Theater’s not-shy-of-a-challenge artistic director Eric Schaeffer has done, staging the first production of the Viet War set, but “Madame Butterfly” echo musical in 15 years, running at the MAX Theatre through Sept. 22. Schaeffer, who directs the production, described as “environmental,” says Signature is “pulling out all the stops in this production with a terrific cast, full-size orchestra and a set that engulfs the entire theatre.

It stars Diana Huey as the bar girl Kim, Jason Michael Evans as the American GI Chris and Thom Sesma in the bravura role of The Engineer.

The Beauty Queen of Leelane—Martin McDonagh is back and the Round House Theatre in Bethesda has him, with its production of “The Beauty Queen of Leelane” through Sept. 15, directed by Jerry Skidmore. Irish to the core and contemporary to the core, “Beauty Queen” is about a lonely spinster living with her bigger-than-life, manipulative mother. Featuring Kimberly Gilbert and Sarah Marshall—two of D.C. theater’s finest actresses as daughter and mother.

A Few Good Men—Skidmore also directs the ongoing production of Playwright Aaron Sorkin’s 1989 military courtroom drama “A Few Good Men,” which became the basis for a hit movie, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. It’s now a Keegan Theatre production through Sept. 7.

Brokeology—Theater Alliance begins its 11th season with playwright Nathan Louis Jackson’s “Brokeology,” a powerful drama about a widower battling his own illness and trying to raise two sons. Now through Sept. 8 at the Anacostia Playhouse.
Shakespeare Free For All—The Shakespeare Theatre Company has been doing Shakespeare Free For All’s for 23 years and continues the tradition with a production of the Bard’s fabulous and popular (the director of “The Avengers” recently filmed it in black and white) comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” after the original direction of Ethan McSweeny. Jenny Lord directs this comedy which stars Kathryn Meisle as Beatrice and Derek Smith as Benedick, one of the Bard’s most attractive battling couples, right alongside Petruchio and Kate. Now through Sept. 1 at Sidney Harman Hall. Check the STC website for times and how to get free tickets.

SEPTEMBER BRINGS IN THE SHOWS
Donna McKechnie at Olney—Probably not a coincidence, but Donna McKechnie, the sparkling Broadway star who was the original Cassie in “A Chorus Line” appears at the Historic Stage at the Olney Theatre Center in her cabaret show, “Same Place, Another Time,” Sept. 1 at 7 p.m., even as “A Chorus Line” is being performed here.

Wagner and Tristan and Isolde usher in the new Washington Opera Season—Washington National Opera Artistic Director Francesca Zambello celebrates the new WNO season with big works by both Richard Wagner and Guiseppi Verdi, who are having their bicentenaries.

It’s Wagner, with his epic “Tristan and Isolde,” and we do mean epic that starts the season with music Zambello describes as “romantic and hypnotic.” “I chose it,” she said, “as the gateway for us to experience the breadth of Wagner’s styles as we build towards our ‘Ring’ Cycle in the spring of the 2015-2016 season.” (Verdi’s “The Force of Destiny”, with Zambello directing, will follow, beginning Oct. 12.)

The incomparable Deborah Voigt—who starred in “Salome” here returns in the role of Isolde, with Ian Storey as Tristan (Clifton Forbis will perform Tristan Sept. 27.) WNO Conductor Philippe Auguin conducts, Neil Armfield, directs, with sets by Opera Australia, costumes by Jennie Tate. (Sept. 15, 18, 21, 24, 27)

Page-to-Stage New Play Festival—A sure signal that a new performance arts and theatre season is upon us is the arrival of the 12th Annual Page-to-Stage New Play Festival, with more than 40 theaters from all over the D.C. area. Performances are in venues throughout the center, in a series of free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals developed by local, regional and national playwrights, librettists and composers. It’s happening Aug. 31 through Sept. 2, and it’s a good chance for theater buffs to check the pulse and look into the future of the area theater scene. And to repeat: it’s free. Check the Kennedy Center website for details.

More Kennedy Center Shows
The boys are back. Yes, it’s Elvis, Jerry Lee, Carl and Johnny, Presley, Lewis, Perkins and Cash, aka the “Million Dollar Quartet,” the hugely popular musical in which the four budding stars get together, bicker, play, sing and fight and play a whole lot of shaking rock and roll and country music at Sam Phillips Sun Records Studio in Memphis in 1956. The musical arrives at the Eisenhower Theater Sept. 24 through Oct. 6.

“Four Little Girls”—The Kennedy Center, Project Voice and Howard University, working with Duke Ellington School of the Arts and African Continuum Theater Company, present a free, staged reading of “Four Little Girls, Birmingham, 1963.” Written by Christina Ham, and directed by Tony Award winning actress and television star of “The Cosby Show,” Phylicia Rashad, takes place Sept. 15, 6 p.m., in the Family Theater in the Kennedy Center. The production commemorates the 50th anniversary of the bombing that took the lives of four young girls at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., only weeks after the 1963 March on Washington.

NSO
With National Symphony Orchestra and Kennedy Center music director maestro Christoph Eschenbach conducting, the NSO begins its 83rd season with the annual Opening Ball Concert Sept. 29 at the Concert Hall. The evening will include legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations,” and Carmen Carpenter, the dynamic young organist playing a finale of Saint-Saen’s “Organ Symphony.”

The NSO Pops Orchestra, directed by Steven Reineke, will kick off with “Cirque de la Symphonie”, Sept. 19 to 22, and then feature superstars Wayne Shorter, Vince Mendoza and the remarkable Esperanza Spalding, Sept. 26 in the Concert Hall.
The Kennedy Center’s dance program will kick off with the highly original company KARAS, which, under founder and choreographer Sburo Teshigawara brings the North American Premiere of “Mirror and Music” Sept. 12 and 13 at the Eisenhower Theater.

FOUR RISING PLAYWRIGHTS
At Arena Stage, Eric Coble’s “The Velocity of Autumn” focuses on 79-year-old Alexandra living with memories and explosives in her Brooklyn townhouse, and getting a visit from a long-lost son. Oscar winner Estelle Parsons and Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella make their Arena debuts, Sept. 6 through Oct. 20, with Molly Smith directing.

At Woolly Mammoth Theater, Lisa D’Amour’s Pulitzer Prize finalist “Detroit” about a collision between neighbors in Motor City gets going Sept. 9 and runs through Oct. 6, directed by John Vreeke for the city’s most consistently cutting-edge theater company.

Critically acclaimed playwright Amy Herzog’s play “After the Revolution,” which focuses on one family’s reaction to the blacklist starts at Theater J Sept. 7 and runs through Oct. 6, directed by Eleanor Holdsridge, and starring Nancy Robinette.
“Agnes Under the Big Top” by Aditi Brennan Kapil, and directed by Michael Dove, starts the Forum Theater’s season Sept.5 to 28, a play in which six lives intersect in what’s described as a “comic adventure about immigrant life in America.” At the Round House in Silver Spring.

The Laramie Project at Ford’s Theatre
Ford’s Theatre kicks off its season with something of a departure, the emotionally powerful “The Laramie Project” by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater project. It’s the play about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man and resident of Laramie, Wyo., and the reaction of the community to what was considered a hate crime. Fifteen years later, the murder and Shepard’s story still echoes not only in Wyoming but across the country. The play is the third offering in the multi-year Lincoln Legacy Project, an effort to “generate dialogue around issues of tolerance, equality and acceptance.” Directed by Matthew Gardiner, Sept. 27-Oct.27.

The Embassy Series at 20
It’s hard to believe that the Embassy Series under founder Jerome Barry has been around for 20 years, building cultural bridges, exercising musical diplomacy and giving Washington audiences a chance to hear world class music from around the world in the city’s embassies, ambassador residences and international cultural centers.

The 20th season kicks off at the residence of the Indian Ambassador, with a unique program from international musical star Rudresh Mahanthappa, a composer and alto saxophone player with a sound that hybridizes progressive jazz and South Indian classical music. Mahanthappa is a second generation Indian-American who leads a quartet named Gamak, which features guitarist David “Fuze” Fiuczynski. The concert is set for Sept. 9 at 6:30 p.m.

The In Series’ “Taking Flight” Season Begins
The In Series’ “Taking Flight” begins with a series tradition, a pocket-opera program at the Source Theater, a new and “edgy” adaptation of Mozart’s light and funny “Abduction from the Seraglio”.

Wolf trap
A Dreamgirl and a dream girl of pop, the always original Lyle, doe-a-deer-a-female-deer, and Hobbits and Elves are among the treats awaiting fans of and visitors to the Wolf Trap outdoor summer series as it winds down.

There’s Jennifer Holliday in a four-night stint in “Dreamgirls” Aug. 22 to 25, the pop queen Carly Rae Jepsen with Hot Chelle Rae, Aug. 28, the like-no-other folk-country-beyond-category singer Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, Aug. 29, the Sing-A-Long Sound of Music Aug. 31, STS9 and Umphrey’s McGee Sept. 1, and last, but not least a screening of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Fellowship of the Ring” with the City Choir of Washington and the World Children’s Choir.

Gala Hispanic
“Cabaret Barroco: Interludes of Spain’s Golden Age”, kicks off the Gala Hispanic, Sept. 12 through Oct. 6, bringing to the stage an example of the interlude, a form and genre that combined cabaret, street performance and carnival during the golden age of Spanish theater. By Calderon de la Barca, Francisco de Quevedo and Bernardo de Quiros, directed by Jose Louis Areliano.

The Rat Pack at the Strathmore Music Center
Strathmore starts off its season with an unusual offering. “Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show” recreates some of the golden, flashy moments from the original Rat Pack, Las Vegas-style, that includes Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin and Joey Bishop. The pack also included at various times Peter Lawford and comedian Buddy Hackett, whose son Sandy has brought the pack back, Sept. 27.

Michael Kahn Directs Harvey Fierstein’s ‘Torch Song Trilogy’ at Studio Theatre
That headline almost sums it up—Kahn, the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, lending his directing gifts to a play that has become iconic. Beginning first as a series of one-act plays at La MaMa Etc in New York, it became a full-fledged play, written by and starring Fierstein in 1981. Performances start Sept. 4.

Faction of Fools
Faction of Fools, a newish theater company specializing in old styles, especially Commedia d’ la arte, starts its new season with Moliere’s “Don Juan,” a play which should be right up the company’s stylish alley beginning Sept. 12.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company Measures Up
“Measure for Measure,” a difficult Shakespeare play about love and power, vice and virtue opens the Shakespeare Theatre Company season under the direction of Jonathan Munby, who sets the play in a 1930s fascist state under the evocative hue of a cabaret culture, opens the season, Sept. 12 through Oct. 27. Miriam Silverman stars as Isabella, Scott Parkinson is Angelo and Kurt Rhoads is the powerful Duke. [gallery ids="101432,154573,154579,154556,154561,154565,154568,154577" nav="thumbs"]