Performance

Gary Tischler • July 22, 2013

Have you ever overheard or been part of one of those man-woman, husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend discussions where the situation is rife with potential for hours on end of argument, misunderstanding, verbal missteps and accidental inflictions of mortal wounds by thoughtless inflection, a sigh or a raised eyebrow?

“Rabbit Hole,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Lindsay Abaire, now getting an emotionally gripping performance by the Keegan Theatre, ratchets up the stakes by widening the battlefield to include not only a husband and wife, but a grandmother and sister, the barking of a beloved (by some) dog and a hesitant teenaged boy, all of them are dealing with the blowback of a gigantic grief after the loss of a four-year-old boy in an accident.

Death and loss is a staple of theater drama and tragedy, of course, and the death of a child only ups the ante, even if it is not unfamiliar stage fare. It ought to be cause for automatic tearing up, but Abaire, director Kerri Rambow and an outstanding cast don’t let the audience wallow but make it almost painful, no-exit observers of how people deal or don’t deal with an unfathomable tragedy. Abaire is a lyrical writer but not a sentimental one—he’s after a kind of geography of feeling which is mapped with empathy and love, sans judgement in the writing. The actors treat the material the same way—while the play abounds in opportunity and temptation to overact and pounce on emotions, they resist naturally, without any sweat or effort.

Talk all you want in funeral notice or celebratory tribute language about long illness, old age or how one will always be remembered. If there is great love—or even if not—or simply habit, no death prepares survivors for the absence and loss, the alterations in the lives remaining. There are thousands of things we do with parents, lovers, friends, partners, even pets, that simply disappear and instantly become the past with a last breath. With the death of a child, all these factors exist, with the added pain not only of the daily presence but the imagined future of a child now blasted from the horizon.

Becca and Howie have to navigate what was once the familiar landscape of home, living room, kitchen, bedrooms and the outside world revealed in conversation, like soldiers crawling through a minefield. All the familiar words we use in every day talk have become weighted, full of double and triple meanings, potentially incendiary, their surroundings glowing even in the dark with memories.

We first meet Becca in the kitchen of an expansive home—colorfully filling up the Keegan stage—folding clothes and putting them in a box, with the help of her excitable sister, the aptly named Izzy, who recounts a funny and tortured story about getting into a bar fight with the former girlfriend of her boyfriend. It is a funny story, to which Becca responds in brittle, sarcastic fashion, overly so, until you realize that the clothes she’s folding for charity are the lost boy’s clothing.

The “event” isn’t recent, but months ago. It still overshadows everything for Becca and husband Howie (played by real life husband and wife Susan Marie Rhea and Mark A. Rhea): how they move in the house, how much space is between them sitting and standing. In this context, Izzy is almost a reproachful example of life going on—she’s pregnant, she’s in life, and maybe love, a live wire by nature. Becca often stands like an obstacle, not quite rigid, but strong with unspent emotion and steely pragmatism. Her best friend hasn’t spoken to her since the child’s death, and Howie is trying to navigate the wrenching, roiling process of both keeping the boy alive in his memory while going back to a space before the awful accident. “I want to go back to the way we were,” he says, trying awkwardly, like a teenager on a first date, to get physical with Becca on the couch. In that scene, beautifully played by both Rheas, you can see for a brief moment, how they were at the start. The scene evaporates with Becca’s resistance, and it’s a poignant moment of loss for the audience.

Susan Marie Rhea plays the wife in such understated fashion, a woman barely maintaining control over not just herself but everybody else, that she seems almost chilly. She’s lost among other things the qualities that you see shadow-like, warm intelligence, a coy flintiness, deep passions. Mark’s character, Howie, is exactly the opposite. He’s lost his confidence and assurance of a place in the world he created. He slurs his words, he mumbles, he yells and he stumbles like a shadow-punching fighter. He’s meaty and needy.

The couple has reacted differently to what has happened. She’s trying to erase memory by boxing away photos—but keeping the kid’s room intact—books and anything that might spark a memory as well as putting up a for-sale sign on the house. Howie on the other hand wants a return. Shaking, he watches videos of him playing with the boy. He wants the dog—who helped cause the accident—back in the house, and he’s joined a support group.

Becca’s mom Nat is an irascible, powerhouse presence and present. She is a reminder of another loss, the suicide of Becca’s brother years ago, a memory that’s like a strong irritant on an open wound for both. But she’s also obsessively tart and funny—explaining her own theory of loss by way of the Kennedy family, for instance. Linda High plays her like a forceful mess.

Patrick Joy is almost awkwardly whimsical as the teenage boy, who, without real fault, caused the death of the child. Not so much as to make amends, he tries to provide a kind of cleansing and solace.

Solace, of course, is hard to come by in this play and on this stage. The process of grieving is a kind of grind, full of explosions, a dangerous process. The audience—in a case like this—is stuck in the same place as the character, wishing and hoping for them without knowing the end of the story. Abaire has the good sense to resist a placebo ending. All along, he’s resisted manipulating either the characters or the audience.

Gary Tischler • July 18, 2013

What? The cravin’, crazed Frank N. Furter and the gleeful me-boy Mormon Elder Price in the same sentence?

What again? “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” and “Sweet Transvestite,” being sung in the same city, if not exactly the same time (that would require doing a time warp)?

What again, and then, again? “The Book of Mormon” and “The Rocky Horror Show” have a lot in common? Actually, they do. They’re kind of nice. Seriously?

Yeah, sure. The Broadway and road company juggernaut, “The Book of Mormon,” now for an extended stay at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House and “The Rocky Horror Show, “now in a brassy, up-close and sometimes intimate mounting at the Studio Theatre have a lot in common.

It’s not just that both musicals –“Rocky” with a blasting, almost stadium-rock sound (hard rocker Meatloaf was in the movie) and “Mormon” with its high-energy current Broadway pop score –brazenly try to shock and sock your eyes out with blasphemous, bloody, gory, nightmarish sexual references, language or content. It’s that, at their heart, both shows are all-in-fun fun stuff and engaging in their efforts to please you like a puppy does.

The more “The Book of Mormon” reveals its “South Park” genetic code of near-obscene — okay, obscene — references meant to shock your grandma and yourself, and the more indecent the garter belts, Frederick of Hollywood outfits and pan- and transsexual proceedings become in “The Rocky Horror Show” — “Damn it, Janet!” — the more comfortable the audience gets.

In “The Book of Mormon,” that infectious little ditty the Ugandan villagers sing to show that they’re mad at the deity is like a slap in the face, sort of, like bad aftershave, but wipe that smile off your face once you close your mouth. That heavily made-up sweet guy in the hoops may not be for you in the aisle, but perhaps you’ll smile back at the bouncy girl in the mop wig in “Rocky Horror.”

Underneath and out front in both shows, there’s a quality that forgives everything. There’s a genuine enthusiasm that seems almost innocent. In the case of the “The Book of Mormon,” it just sort of makes you surrender. “The Rocky Horror Show” is not so innocent in its celebration of all things sex and sexy, but it also has an affectionate undertone. “The Book of Mormon,” in no small part because of its cast and various players, celebrates — when all is said and done — Broadway musicals. If Brother Price came out singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” it would be no surprise.

Bad things may be happening to good people, but the plucky spirit of the young elders stranded in Uganda is almost overpowering.

For sure, “The Book of Mormon” is irreverent about the real “Book of Mormon.” You can bet Ann Romney wouldn’t like it. I would not vouch for Mitt Romney, Harry Reid, Bill Marriott or Bryce Harper. The creators — Trey Parker and Matt Stone of “South Park” fame along with Robert Lopez, of “Avenue Q” fame — have toned down their act only a little.

With Elder Price the uber popular and narcissistic guy teamed up with the chubby foul-up Elder Cunningham to convert a group of sick, troubled and poor Uganda villagers, there’s plenty of room for inappropriate satire. But there’s also room for tunes: “You and Me, Mostly Me,” “Turn it Off,” and the heroine Nabalungi, singing about “Sal Tlay Ka Siti,” “I Believe” and the hot, sexy “Babtize Me.”

Chris Evans, as the me-me Elder Price, and Christopher John O’Neill pair up nicely as an odd-couple team, while Samantha Marie Ware is a powerful and attractive presence with a major Broadway voice.

It’s the endearing energy that grabs you. You don’t need to be a fan of “South Park” humor to figure out why this show is as big as it is. It delivers whole-heartedly — and with a whole heart — an evening of great entertainment.

So does director Keith Alan Baker, the star of the Studio’s 2nd Stage series. Although with “Rocky Horror,” you get great entertainment as more of a nearly full contact sport. Here, the sweet stuff underneath is the undying affection displayed for old B-style horror movies, from “Frankenstein,” “Godzilla” and “Them” to “Bride of Frankenstein” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” It’s all done in exuberant style, totally shameless in delivery, but also with full-throat, rock-and-roll voice. That’s the other thing that’s being celebrated here: the blasts of power from the past of rock and roll.

The look is a little different from both the movie and other productions: it’s a little more grungy, a little more filled with running makeup and even a lot of feverish dangerous looks. But hats off — or anything else — to Mitchell Jarvis, a foot-stomping, gleaming-in-the-dark Frank N. Furter, as he seduces the two naifs who visit the castle, Janet and Brad. Kudos to Sarah Marshall as a narrator and a wheelchair-bound secret professor-agent. Matthew G. Myers as the ill-fated Eddie, a rock and roller to the end. And kudos to us and to you, should you venture into the castle.

“The Book of Mormon” is at the Kennedy Center’s Opera House through Aug. 18. “The Rocky Horror Show” is at the Studio Theatre on 14th Street, NW. [gallery ids="101394,154080,154077" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • July 11, 2013

The Capital Fringe Festival—which, by the way, was given the Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theatre Community at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards—presents itself in many guises. It’s a glorious mash of styles and genres. Theatrically speaking, it’s also like one of those frontier scouts—or baseball scouts—discovering new worlds, new paths, new talent across the land.

Running July 11 through July 28, the festival is something of a weather vane for theater and the performing arts. Pull yourself through the more than 100 shows, and you’ll find an expanded definition of just what theater is. These days, you’ll see a resurgence of old forms as well as the continued re-invention of new ones. Popular old—beyond the memory of today’s tweeters and YouTube addicts—forms are making a reappearance. Clowning, standup comics, jugglers and magic and puppets are everywhere—so are variations on vaudeville, English music hall tropes, and what used to pass for the seamy side of the street, burlesque performers and shows which have become increasingly popular over the last couple of years.

More anything, there is variety and the titles of shows and troupes alone smack of a certain high spirited irreverence, as well as bits of serious theater business here and there, along with new found attention to the digital age and the people who live in it.

We’re offering up some of the offerings we found interesting—perhaps because of a concept, a funny name, a harrowing idea, a jolly good attitude. You’ll find Shakespeare here, locals and out of towners, brazen darkness, history, gender bending, the straight (but not narrow) path and world, and the gay world and everything in between. We won’t vouch for what’s good or bad. After all, it is the Fringe Festival, but we can probably vouch—and sing along with Cole Porter—that anything goes. Here’s some samplings.

The bard, bearded or otherwise, gets his due or what’s coming to him in the Fringe. There’s “Violent Delights: A Shakespearean Brawlesque Sideshow,” presented by Off the Quill, blending stage combat, dance, clowning alongside theatrical conventions. Conceived by Patrick Mullen.

There’s also at least not one but two versions of “Romeo and Juliet,” one by the We Happy Few Productions company, with its tradition of stripped-down classics, directed by Hannah Todd and Washington’s own hot theater company, the Helen Hayes Award-winning Factions of Fools Theatre Company diving in with full Italian-style commedia dell’Arte style.

The King’s Players take on the murderous Scot in “Mme. Macbeth,” in which the women are kings, warriors and murderers, and the men are the witches and gentlemen, which is to say that Macbeth is a woman and Lady Macbeth is a man (some critics have always thought so).

It’s a funny title, but perhaps not funny: “In Search of the Perfect G-String,” presented by G String Productions features NSO cellist Yvonne Caruthers who wrote the piece with Theresa Gambacorta, in a “poignant story of a small-town girl who practices her way into the world’s great stages and finds glory.”

Russ Widdall stars as Robert F. Kennedy in the one-man production “RFK” from the New City Stage Company, covering the final four years of RFK’s life, featuring music and footage from the era.

Here’s an intriguing concept: the ideas of young idealistic heroes confronting in both Nazi Germany (Sophie Scholl) and contemporary Germany hard choices in “Fallbeil, from the Field Trip Theatre Company, written by Liz Maestri.

Lee J. Kaplan, writes, presents and stars in “Bully,” inspired by 6th-grade journal entries in which the principal figure takes on bullies from his past in the ring.

In “Four Women,” by Clarissa McKithen, Farah Lawal, Jade Andwele, Jessica Solomon, margaux delotte-bennett, Nia McLean and Shonda Goward create four women exploring black womanhood through movement, dance and storytelling. From the Wild Women Theatre Company. Based on a work by Nina Simone.

In “Dark House,” playwright Tarpley Long re-imagines William Faulkner’s ruthless Colonel Sutpen (From “Absalom, Absalom!)” as a D.C. developer in the 1960s.

In a unique, unusual production, “Arlington National Cemetery: My Forever Home”, Ellouise Schoettler presents a woman’s personal journey woven into the daily life at the nation’s military cemetery.

Emma Crane Jester explores how women disguise, cover and uncover themselves in “To Know a Veil” throughout the world through interviews, dance, installation and party games.

The Pointless Theatre Company explores vaudeville in days of old in “Mark Twain’s Riverboat Extravaganza,” described as a puppet-packed vaudeville spectacular with Twain, sundry characters and the ghost of Lincoln and a whole bunch of tall tales.

Weird and strange is “Kubrilesque” from Cherry Kiss Productions, featuring burlesque and dance with a director working on his last film, as well as send-ups and parodies on director Stanley Kubrick’s films. Most of the work is by Crystal Swarovsky, with music by Mentally Restarted.

Local scenery is at work in “McPherson Madness” from Rabbie Crew Productions with a character named Dreama struggling with her life as a mother and a D.C. Occupier, directed by Lynnie Raybuck, written by Kelly Canavan.

Washington’s Dog & Pony company presented “A Killing Game,” part absurdist play, part party game, in which a deadly plague starts killing people. Not the zombie wars, but something else.

“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs: The Musical” from Junesong, a play-musical already produced in venues all over the world, written by Timothy Guillot.

“Underneath the Lintel” was best solo show at the Minnesota and London (Ontario) Fringe Festivals and features Patrick O’Brien as a librarian who finds a book that is 123 years overdue and sets out to find the perp.

“Urban Legends,” presented by Beyond the Page Theatre Company of West Potomac High School, written and performed by students. It’s about, well, urban legends. You know who you are.

As for the rest, you can find your own points of interest and gems by going to the Capital Fringe Festival’s website — CapitalFringe.org — where you can also find venues, dates and ticket prices and other information.

Eve Barnett •

While most know and love the nation’s capital for its politics and monuments, Washington, D.C., offers both locals and tourists a smorgasbord of festivals throughout the year. This month, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is now celebrating through July 7, and the Capital Fringe Festival runs July 11 through July 28.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2013

Every June, seemingly out-of-place structures emerge on the National Mall. These temporary canvas tents, juxtaposed against the surrounding majestic marble museums, are tempting to disregard. However, these structures, home to the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, deserve attention from Washingtonians and tourists alike.

Started in 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival calls itself “the largest annual cultural event in the U.S. capital,” bringing over the years “more than 23,000 musicians, artists, performers, craftspeople, workers, cooks, storytellers, and others to the National Mall to demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and aesthetics that embody the creative vitality of community-based tradition.” The festival presents authentic performances, interactive booths and ethnic food stands to teach visitors about different cultures from around the world.

This year, the free festival includes three programs: “Hungarian Heritage,” “One World, Many Voices” and “The Will to Adorn.”
About 100 participants from Hungary, Romania and the U.S. are involved in the “Hungarian Heritage: Roots to Revival” section, engaging visitors in dances, games, crafts and styles that hail from Hungary. In its family-friendly booths, young visitors can test their balance walking on wooden stilts and get their hair braided in a traditional style. At the Hungarian Kitchen station, families can watch home-style cooking.

The Danubia Stage showcases Hungary’s vital dance tradition with hour-long performances. Among those excited about the festival, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said, “I think the Hungarian dancers are going to be fabulous. They are a great example of why the festival is so important. A visit to the festival is a way to learn about the rich cultures that exist around the world.”
The “One World, Many Voices: Endangered Languages and Cultural Heritage” section highlights the problem of worldwide language loss, raising awareness to the fact that up to half of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken today may disappear by the end of this century. Born from a long-term research project between the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution and UNESCO, the program offers workshops in Family Activities, teaching everything from Welsh words to Yiddish dancing along with engaging performances in Song and Story Circle by musicians and storytellers.

Perhaps the most prominent feature of this program, the Voices of the World tent showcases ensembles performing in their traditional languages. “The performance was definitely an accurate representation of not how they live today but, instead, their tradition,” said visitor Becky Perkins. Perkins came to the festival from New York specifically to watch a group from the Kalmykia region of Russia because she once studied there and wanted to support the group in the festival.

The festival’s third program is “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style and Identity,” based on research conducted by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. It highlights the many ways by which African American identities are expressed. In the Design Studio tent, visitors can look at distinctive types of African-American artwork, try on apparel and get their hair styled in traditional ways. At the Rock the Runway tent, visitors can watch fashion shows with specific, culturally significant articles of clothing and trends.

“The fashion shows tell how to evolve personal styles and incorporate what you already have into new trends,” said Amy Jalloh, a model from Fairfax, Va. Plus, from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., everyday, visitors can show off their own styles and participate in the fashion show.

At the Collaborative Research station, visitors can also create their own “sartorial autobiographies” and compare their styles to evolving African-American ones.

“Those values…that we select from history and choose to emphasize in the present” are significant in learning about and contrasting divergent heritages, said James Early, director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Early urged visitors to “make sure to see ‘The Will to Adorn’ to learn about the wide, deep, historical influence of imagination and creativity of African Americans … on how America sings, dances, speaks and thinks.”

In addition to enjoying the interactive activities and performances, no trip to the Folklife Festival could be complete without a sampling of the gourmet food stands. With five food stands, serving everything from Hungarian stew to Southern-style fried chicken, visitors should plan their visit around at least one meal and snack their way through all three programs.

“Good, family-friendly and reasonable” was how Kansas City tourist and mother-of-three Rachel Foote reviewed the food choices. “Delicious!” agreed Holly Torsilieri of New Jersey. And what could be a better than cooling off with a sweet, refreshing mango lassi while swaying along to native Hawaiian music in the Voices of the World tent?

Festival visitors should be sure to bring plenty of sunscreen and water because it can get extremely hot on the National Mall this time of year. Bottles can be refilled for free at three water stations. Visitors are also advised to bring some cash because some food stands do not accept credit cards. Credit cards can, however, be used to purchase the crafts displayed in the festival tents in the Marketplace.

Bearing all these tips in mind, visits to the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival are sure to be educational, provocative experiences – and prove these seemingly out-of-place tents to be worth your time.

Capital Fringe Festival 2013

Although many may once have been ostracized to the “fringe,” the performances in the Capital Fringe Festival have recently taken center stage in the Washington theatre scene. This unique festival seems to have a show for everyone, whether a theater aficionado or an aspiring one.

The festival is a “great way to learn about the city and theater scene” and is, primarily, “about going to listen to stories and hanging out … and getting to meet new people,” said Capital Fringe Festival executive director Julianne Brienza.

Because the performances are between 70 and 90 minutes in length and relatively inexpensive, she added, the “fair-esque” atmosphere allows audience members to “go to multiple shows” and hear “a variety of stories.”

This year’s Capital Fringe Festival marks the eighth annual event. Created and organized by the D.C.-based nonprofit Capital Fringe, the idea comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. In the 1940s, Edinburgh locals decided to create the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a way to perform their unofficial shows that were, as one journalist described them, on the “fringe” compared to the approved ones being presented in the Edinburgh International Festival. The phenomenon has since spread, and fringe festivals like the one in D.C. now occur worldwide. For example, London, Singapore, Sydney and Prague also host similar festivals.

While they span the globe, the festivals share a common philosophy and mission. They give groups of different talents, genres, experience, and size opportunities to perform. Unlike most theater events, committees do not select the shows that will be in the festival. Rather, all groups are allowed, on a first-come first-serve basis, to participate. Accordingly, this welcoming environment encourages artists to take risks and experiment. It also serves as a “great gateway for young new artists,” said Ian Leahy, director of “Waiting for Orson.”

This year, 18 different venues across the city will host performances during the festival which describes itself as having “the purpose of infusing energy into performing arts in the Washington, D.C., region.” Capital Fringe considers its festival “the second largest, unjuried Fringe Festival in the United States” and has “premiered over 400 new works of contemporary performance.”

Recognizing that the wide choices of performance may feel overwhelming to potential theater-goers, Brienza recommended people go to Fort Fringe, the festival’s hub on New York Avenue, and choose shows based on “word-of-mouth advice.”

“People are always talking about the shows,” said Brienza, describing that audience members and artists alike congregate in Fort Fringe’s Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar. Take their advice and “be adventurous,” she said. There is also information about the shows online.

This year, the performances divide into four sections: comedy, drama, dance and physical theater and musical theater and opera. Brienza said the 2013 festival includes “a lot of shows dealing with veterans’ PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], classical pieces that have been updated and adapted, burlesque and dance.” With this rich variety of shows, the Capital Fringe Festival seems to have performances for everyone.

In addition, Capital Fringe posts on its Twitter account “CapitalFringe” when certain shows are half-sold and sold out.
Fringe-enthusiast and self-proclaimed “big theatre person,” Glenn Ihrig, agreed with Brienza’s recommendations. He has learned, after coming to all seven previous festivals and seeing around 14 shows each time, “to come and meet people in Baldacchino, learn what’s ‘best,’ and buy tickets on the spot.” To get the most out of the festival, he encouraged others to “go to two shows in the afternoon and two shows in the evening, taking a break for dinner and a beer in Baldacchino.”

Indeed, the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar seems to be the social centerpiece of the festival. Brynn Tucker, the writer and performer of “A Guide to Dancing Naked,” explained that Baldacchino creates “a great community feeling because, after every show, you can have a drink and connect with others in the theater community.” Plus, Baldacchino has free live music every night.

Perhaps we should all follow Irhig’s example and “let Fringe be [our] life for three weeks. It’s a good thing.”

This year’s festival includes the following 18 venues:

Caos on F (923 F St., NW)
Fort Fringe – Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar (607 New York Ave., NW)
Fort Fringe – Bedroom (612 L St., NW)
Fort Fringe – Redrum (612 L St., NW)
Fort Fringe – The Shop (607 New York Ave., NW)
GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square (3333 14th St., NW)
Gearbox (1021 7th St., NW, 3rd Floor)
Goethe Institut – Gallery (812 7th St., NW)
Goethe Institut – Main Stage (812 7th St., NW)
Jin Lounge (2017 14th St., NW)
Mount Vernon United Methodist Church – The Mountain (900 Massachusetts Ave., NW)
Source (1835 14th St., NW)
Studio Theatre – Stage 4 (1501 14th St., NW)
The Emergence Community Arts Collective – Studio 2 (733 Euclid St., NW)
The Gilbert C. Eastman Studio Theatre (800 Florida Ave., NE)
The Streets of Fringe (7th and New York Ave., NW)
Warehouse (645 New York Ave., NW)
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company – Melton Rehearsal Hall (641 D St., NW) [gallery ids="101375,153222,153214,153218" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • July 9, 2013

Back in 2009, when the D.C. Jazz Festival was celebrating its fifth anniversary with a New Orleans-themed festival and the presence of the Marsalis clan, we had occasion to talk with festival director and founder Charlie Fishman for the first time.
Back then, and way before back then, when he first jotted down some notes on a jazz festival with friends, Fishman insisted that D.C. was “a jazz town” and that was why it had to have a jazz festival worthy of the name.

Back in the day, the city and jazz were more a matter of history than what was actually happening—this was the city of Ellington and the Lincoln and Howard theaters of legend. The city had a jazz legacy, but not as much as much jazz being played in an organized, visible way than it might have.

It’s fair to say that the D.C. Jazz Festival, getting ready for its ninth festival—June 5 through June 16—and pretty much a permanent institution in the city’s cultural landscape has changed all that. The festival, growing, changing and spreading out, has become a force with a city-wide, countrywide and worldwide reputation.

“I think we’ve cemented our presence,” Fishman said. “We’ve added things and changed things every year, and I think we’ve had a big impact on the city, and the presence of jazz in the city. A lot of musical programs are adding jazz, the Atlas, the museums. It’s being played all over the city. We haven’t quite gotten to the point where the festival itself has become a year-round thing, but we’re getting there. I think right now we’re an energy bunny, an engine that’s driving things beyond the festival.”

If a jazz festival ever had the perfect guy to run it, it’s Fishman. He lives, breathes and bleeds jazz out of the pores of his being. He is a natural, given that he was the manager and producer for jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, a history which gives him the kind of feel and sense for and of jazz history more than most persons can muster today.

“Jazz is different today,” Fishman said. “It’s actually growing as a musical genre. It’s being played all over the world, with the result that the music is getting enriched, changed and influenced. There are more jazz musicians, really good ones, than ever before. Musically, this is the best educated generation of musicians we’ve ever seen.”

“I’ve tried to add a little something new every year,” Fishman said. “Last year, we had ‘Jazz Meets the Classics.’ This year, it’s ‘Jazz Meets the Latin Classics.’ “ This speaks to the critical presence of Paquito D’Rivera in the festival. He and the Panamerican Ensemble will perform at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater June 14.

“D’Rivera, a legend in the Latin-flavored jazz world, is co-artistic director of the festival and clarinetist, saxophonist, conductor and NEA jazz master,” Fishman said. “Paquito is priceless to us.”

A cornerstone and much buzzed-about event of the festival is the June 15, 3 p.m. concert by the Roots, the hugely popular and enduring group which will be at a new festival venue at the Kastles Stadium at the Wharf.

For the second year, a key venue and program of the festival will be “Jazz at the Hamilton Live.” The big, classy downtown club and restaurant will include performances by the likes of Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band, the Roy Hargrove Quintet, the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, the Brubeck Brothers Quartet in a tribute to the late Dave Brubeck among others.

Other programs continue: the great “Jazz in the Hoods” series, which spreads out the gospel, if you will, of jazz to many of the neighborhoods in Washington, from Georgetown to Adams Morgan, from Petworth to Dupont Circle, from Capitol Hill to Mount Pleasant. Also back are programs like the Student Concerts and Meet the Artists Series, the Jazz ‘N Families Fun Days at the Phillips Collection, Jazz at the Howard Theatre and the Capitol Bop D.C. Jazz Loft Series.
In June, it’s jazz.

For a complete list of venues, events, performers, times, places , programs and locations, visit www.dcjazzfest.org.
[gallery ids="101307,150162,150134,150158,150140,150155,150145,150150" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner • July 3, 2013

               Randy Johnson is often described as a director, but this is something like calling a chef a cook. Creator isn’t too big a word to use for what Johnson does—conceiver, producer,  director, writer, and really big idea guy could go, too, along with artist.

               He’s the guy that’s responsible for bring the legendary blues-rock singer Janis Joplin—and an era—back to us in her most vivid incarnation in “One Night With Janis,” a kind of musical trek and blast of soulful resurrection that was a major highlight for Arena Stage last fall—so much so that it’s coming back June 21 and running through Aug.11 for a good chunk of the summer.

               “I feel like it’s a collaboration with Janis,” said Johnson, who’s worked with, or done productions and shows on the likes of Patsy Cline, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Conway Twitty, and—yes—Mike Tyson—during a phone interview.  “In a way, of course, that’s exactly what it is because I’ve worked closely with her surviving siblings, her sister Laura and her brother Michael.”

               Mary Bridget Davies will be back to perform as Janis in a journey through her life that embraces her high spirits, without concentrating too much on the darker side of her life, especially her death from an accidental heroin overdose in 1970.

               “I think there are a lot of things out there about Janis that are not true,” Johnson said. “She did not commit suicide, for one thing.  I think she had a lot of pain in her life—that’s true enough—but she was also an incredibly talented, gifted young woman.  Who knows what she could have been had she lived? I think about that sometimes. I see her as a kind of inspiration for female singers, a kind of mentor by example in her terms of her music.”

               The show is more than a greatest-hit night, it’s an out-and-out revelry in the Joplin performance persona, backed up in a setting and by a band that resonates Haight Ashbury in the 1960s, the Fillmore and Avalon San Francisco rock palaces.  Joplin’s music is reflected in her roots, particularly African American blues, jazz and soul music, as embodied by singers like Billie Holiday, Big Mama Thornton and Aretha Franklin, all performed by the incomparable Sabrina Elayne Carten.

               It’s a celebration, almost a super-fans’ tribute, and Johnson is an unabashed admirer.  “When I was a kid, I loved to listen to Gershwin’s ‘Summertime,’ ” he said. “The voice I heard was Janis Joplin’s. I wanted to make sure we did justice to Janice by working closely with the family.  Michael and Lorna worked with me every step of the way.  Michael said to me on opening night that he thought he was back at the Monterey Pop concert.”

               Opening night last year at Arena was a spooky, exhilarating experience for this writer—sitting in front of me were the Joplin siblings—the brother clearly into it, the sister thoughtful and quiet, while Johnson sat nearby along with Arena Stage artistic director Molly Smith. The audience seemed transported by Davies and her performance, back to the days and night of “Piece of My Heart,” “Ball and Chain” and “Me and Bobby McGee.”. 

               “She had a natural gift,”  Johnson said of Joplin.  “She reveled in the love she got from audience, but she  was a pure singer—people sometimes forget that until you hear her go through all the highs and lows of “Ball and Chain.”  There’s nobody who can sing like that today.  The whole business has changed, how music is delivered and consumed,  YouTube, marketing, all of it.  I was too young to see her perform, but I think the experience with “One Night” comes pretty close.”

               Johnson, as a producer, creator, director, point of origin, is a one-of-a-kind guy.  “We’re not talking about traditional plays,” he said.  “Over time, I’ve come to see myself as a stage biographer.”

               In addition to “One Night With Janis,” he has staged, organized or imagined on a grand scale.  If there is a common vein that runs through his work, it’s a kind of intense effort to provide emotional punch, spectacle,  a live experience that’s meant to be unforgettable.  What he creates is a total package.

               Johnson was the original producer for “Always Patsy Cline,” a megahit on the life and times of the queen of the broken-heart country ballad who died in a plane crash.  The original show opened a two-year run in Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Old Opry. Johnson’s tastes run to the original as well as the popular: witness “The Wildest—The Music of Louis Prima and Keelly Smith,” which still tours internationally.  Smith to her fans was an underrated singer and song interpreter (“I Wish You Love”).

               Johnson co-conceived and directed the historic “Elvis the Concert,” a production which put Elvis (on video) together with his old band, singers and musical director in a virtual interactive concert at Radio City Music Hall.

               At the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2012, Johnson directed and co-wrote “Mike Tyson—The Undisputed Truth,” starring the man himself.  “I think people misunderstand him,” Johnson said. “He’s charming, funny and a magnetic presence.”

               Molly Smith is a big fan of Johnson. “Randy Johnson is a true theater artist,” she has said, “What sets him apart from others is that he is that rare breed of visionary director writer truly in a league all his own.”

               “I love working with Molly and Arena Stage,” Johnson said. “I’m doing ‘Smokey Joe’s Café” for Arena in the upcoming season.”

               Meanwhile, there will be Mary Bridget Davies and Janis Joplin, wailing “take another little piece of my heart now, baby, if it makes you feel good.”

“One Night With Janis runs” through Aug. 11 at Arena Stage.

Rachel Scola • June 20, 2013

Nothing blows off steam like laughing so hard your stomach hurts and tears stream down your face. This season, the Warner Theatre has a great variety of comedians who are sure to keep you laughing all night long–maybe all summer long.

Seth Meyers: Most widely known for his head writer status at Saturday Night Live, Seth Meyers will take the stage June 21. Last month, it was announced Meyers will be taking over NBCs “Late Night” show next year. So, make sure to see his stand up, while he still has the time to tour. Tickets are $35.

Daniel Tosh: Daniel Tosh, host of Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, will do four shows at Warner — two a night on June 22 and 23. Tosh’s popularity and status has only been growing the past couple of years. While he is most well-known for poking fun of others on his show, his stand-up is definitely worth seeing. Tickets range from $60 to $75.

Tracy Morgan: After gaining popularity from “Saturday Night Live,” Morgan went on to star in Tina Fey’s NBC sitcom “30 Rock,” which just had its series finale. Morgan has often been in the news for political incorrectness but will no doubt put on a hilarious show. Tickets are $35 for the June 29 show.

Crimson Comedy Jam: Joe Torry will host this fun and memorable night full of Delta comics, as seen on BET and HBO. Keep in mind that no minors are allowed at this show. The July 13 performance has tickets ranging from $45 to $50.

Future: Tickets for both Russell Brand and John Oliver went on sale June 12, and be sure to mark your calendars for both of these English gentlemen. Brand is a comedian and actor, known for his role in the film, “Get Him to the Greek,” and his memoir, “My Booky Wook.” Oliver is best known for being a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” Oliver will be taking over as the show’s host for a few months, while Stewart works on another project–and also hosts a satirical podcast of his own.

Gary Tischler • June 17, 2013

When “Approaching Ali,” the one-hour opera having its world premiere at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater Saturday and Sunday, created under the auspices of the Washington National Opera’s new commissioning program for contemporary American opera, there’ll be a little pressure on everybody involved.

That would include WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello, composer D.J. Sparr, and librettist Mark Campbell and Davis Miller, as well as performers bass Soloman Howard, Aundie Marie Moore, baritone, young boy soprano Ethan McKelvain, Tim Augustin and Catherine Martin.

The opera is the story of a young boy in North Carolina in the early 1960s who overcomes the loss of his mother and the trauma of being bullied when he sees champion boxer Muhammad Ali on television. More than 20 years later as a middle-aged writer, he seeks out his boyhood hero in person at the home of Ali’s mother in Louisville.

The work will feature a 10-piece chamber orchestra, conducted by former Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Steven Jarvi.

But the Washington-raised Howard—who doubled as Joe in the critical and popular WNO production of

“Showboat”—has a particular challenge in performing, acting and singing the role of Ali. “As an African American who knows a little about struggling, I’ve always seen Muhammad Ali as a personal inspiration for me,” he said during a telephone interview. “He taught us what it’s like to fight, not just in the ring, but outside it, standing up for your personal beliefs and not backing down, no matter what the cost.

“When I was in high school [in Suitland, Md.], in an atmosphere of peers that couldn’t quite see an African American singer being interested in classical music, let alone opera, it sometimes got difficult,” he said in a deep, very deep bass voice that might give people pause about not showing respect. “People would say, why aren’t you singing gospel or blues or some such, or Barry White. But I was fortunate—I played football, too. So, I didn’t get that much trouble. I was fortunate to have people, teachers, mentors, who helped me fulfill my talent and my gift.”

“I grew up in D.C., and we had difficult times, but my parents kept things together,” Howard said. “I learned about strength from my mother Nellene Dickerson and my father Isaac Howard. You don’t always have the advantages other people did.”

As for the his part in the opera, it “was quite a challenge,” Howard said. “I believe in everything I do in opera that you have to learn to be the character, not just sing it correctly and with Ali, that was a serious responsibility and challenge for me. You have to do the man justice, you have to find him.

The new opera initiative “gives young singers, young artists a chance to do difficult and challenging work,” he said. “And this opera, we can hope, will broaden the audience. It’s a thoroughly American subject that ought to resonate for all Americans. It certainly did for me. The work spoke to me.”

The 32-year-old singer now is a rising part of the WNO, through its important Domingo—Cafritz Young Artist program.

The opera is based on Davis Miller’s book, “The Tao of Muhammad Ali.” His first published story, “My Dinner with Ali,” had the late David Halberstam praising it as one of the 20 best pieces of sports writing of the 20th century.

“Approaching Ali” will be performed at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater Saturday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 9, at 2 p.m.
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Gary Tischler •

I was a very young man when I first heard that immaculately clear, piercing and beautiful voice that belonged to Joan Baez singing folk songs I’d never heard before. It was the year of the folk singer in the music world, the protest singer, the emergence of the coffee house singers and folk festivals. In 1962, she was on the cover of Time Magazine, a thick painting depicting her strumming a guitar, long black hair, blue jeans and barefoot in a wicker chair of some sort.

Her singing, the look, the whole aura and story affected a lot of people deeply, myself included—it got me into Dylan, Sonny and Terry, Pete Seeger, the blues and folk music, the protest songs that we never sang in the Midwest or in the army.

Baez will performing at Wolf Trap, as part of a tour with the Indigo Girls at Wolf Trap Wednesday, June 12, singing some of those songs, and maybe songs from her last album, “The Day After Tomorrow.” If notes on Baez’s website give any hint of what else: songs like “Jerusalem,” “Susanne,” “Diamonds and Rust,” “It’s All Over, Baby Blue,” “God Is God” or, quite possibly, even “We Shall Overcome,” depending on the audience and its mood.

“Hello, it’s Joan,” Baez says when she calls. For a minute,I didn’t know quite what to say except thank you. I hadn’t expected this voice, because all I remembered really was the voice that sang so incredibly, or the stories and the facts and the biography, but this voice was conversational, a phone call from the here and now, not the past.

For the past seven years or so, Baez had been living in Riverside, Calif., with her mother, whom people called “Big Joan,” and who had just passed away April 20 at the age of 100. I offered my condolences. “I have to tell you a funny story,” Baez said. “We had planned a big 100th birthday party for her. At first, she didn’t want to have anything to do with that, she didn’t want a party, but then she relented, We had around 100 people over, and it was fine, and then we asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She stood there, and she said, ‘I want to drop dead.’ And you know, a week later, she passed away. It was the right time. I think is what she meant, and we were all there for her.”

Her mother was Scottish and her father, Albert Baez, a physicist and inventor, was born in Mexico. Her sister Mimi Farina was also a noted folk/protest singer and activist; she died of cancer in 2001.

You think about loss in a conversation like this, but it wasn’t like that. Baez—simply by being who she’s been for more than 50 years of singing and speaking out and being in places and lending her name and time to causes and walking with Martin Luther King, Jr., and that voice and that body of work—can bring an aura to any conversation, it could be a too-serious kind of talk that leaves out the person.

But her conversational voice is warm, and her singing voice, for that matter, has changed. “It’s time, that does that,” she says. “I occupy the middle ground, my voice, it’s an instrument, you have to take care of it, and I’m sure there are people who expect the old voice, and you can’t do that as much any more. “ Listening to some online offerings—“Diamonds and Rust” comes to mind but also the much, much later “The Day After Tomorrow,” a Steve Earl-produced album from 2008—the voice is richer and a little more diverse in its travels. It’s an older voice, but not like the old voice.

Baez finds a lot of comfort and pleasure in touring—her son Gabriel plays with her on the tour, and the rest are friends to some degree or another. “It’s like being with family, a road trip, it’s just warm and good,” she says. They’ve here, they’ve been in Colorado and Kansas and move on to New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York.

She knows her iconic status, but it’s the whole package and persona that’s the icon—the activist, her travels to the Middle East, Africa, singing at the side of Nelson Mandela, going to the suffering places and speaking and singing truth to power.

Her look has changed, the hair is short and grayer, but the image of the new girl on the block in music remains, as does the almost wounding effect of the voice.

“You know, most of the time audiences are good,” she said. “They’re people that know the music, the songs, they’ll get into it or respond, they’ll sing along. And every now and then, you get nothing, and you think, ‘Oh, boy, we’ve got our work cut out for this.’ You get all kinds of people—my generation, sure, and it gets a little nostalgic then, but also young people, and I think people who care.”

Her kind of music—the kind that seem to be about what’s going on in our daily and worldly life, isn’t much in evidence among contemporary singers, although performers today are quick to raise money and sing for causes, but their music lags behind. There are, in short, few if any passionate singer-citizens like Joan Baez around, and there is still only one Bob Dylan.

“Sure, he still does that, but then, he’s always done it,” she said of Dylan, the pied piper of the here and now, the heart within, the cool attitude without.

Baez expressed some disappointment with President Barack Obama, whom she endorsed in his first run. “I think, I don’t know, I thought he had the potential to create a movement, and that hasn’t happened,” she said.

She frets about the times and their dangers. “Maybe these are times when you savor every little thing and make them into the things that matter.”

Her voice over the phone still rings true and clear as spring water. It’s the woman who said in a PBS special about her that “social justice is the core of her true life, looming larger than music.” “It’s Joan”: Joan Baez.

Gary Tischler •

When you see that the Brubeck Brothers Quartet is playing as a big part of the Jazz at the Hamilton Live series as the D.C. Jazz Festival nears its end Friday night, you don’t necessarily think of Dan Brubeck on drums, or Chris Brubeck on bass and trombone, or their compatriots Mike DeMicco on guitar and Chuck Lamb on piano.

You think about what they’re doing which is a concert called “A Tribute to Dave Brubeck,” and you think about that guy who isn’t there but surely is. That would be Chris and Dan’s father and dad, mentor and influence, Dave Brubeck, the jazz composer and player and one of the most original American musicians and jazz players ever in a field stuffed to full glory with originals.

“It’s about my dad, sure. It’s a tribute, sure, but it’s about all of us—our memories, the influence and the love, so yeah, there’s a lot going on,” said Chris Brubeck, something of an iconoclast and multitasker and multi-talented guy who can seamlessly float in and out of rock and roll, pop, jazz, and classical music in his composing and playing, and talking. He is also the man behind and in front of the group, Triple Play, which delves into rock and blues and some straight ahead jazz, as jazz people would have it.

In “Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play Live at Arthur Zankel Music Center with Joel Brown and Peter Madcat Ruth,” a concert album recorded in 2011, you can hear the son’s eclectic tastes and his roaring, soaring trombone on such songs as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” a bluesy ripper by Hambone Willie Newburn or Chris’s “Mighty Mrs. Hippy” and Fat’s Waller’s “Black and Blue.” Wonders of wonders, though, you can hear dad, Dave Brubeck, making a guest appearance on “St. Louis Blues” and his trademark Paul Desmond number “Take Five,” so that you get a sense of father and son merging, not for the first time, but for the last time. It’s the last known recorded performance by Dave Brubeck, coincidentally.

Coincidentally, it’s also Father’s Day two days after the concert at the Hamilton. Brubeck senior was a lifetime achievement honoree at the D.C. Jazz Festival.

“You know almost all of us, all the sons, are or were in the business at one time or another, and we played with him many times over the years,” Chris Brubeck said. “We, and I know I did, learned a lot from him, and one of the things was to respect, enjoy and play all kinds of music.”

That’s very evident if you check out YouTube and find a kind of shared talk between Chris and his father on the occasion of collaborating on writing a symphonic composition on a PBS documentary on the great American photographer Ansel Adams. “Yeah, that’s something, isn’t, it?” Chris said. “I saw a lot of similarities between dad and Adams. They were American types, they grew up in somewhat the same kind of area, big mountains, big stretches of land. Dad was taking classical musical lessons when grandpa decided to be a rancher. So, dad instead was something of a cowboy, but he played on weekends in a band.”

This is not the place to go into a biography of the grand master that Dave Brubeck was. This is about a family, two families, the kind of life lived by Brubeck, which was not a life you could call typically a jazz life. The jazz legends lived large and lived dramatically— Bird, the Duke, Ella, Billie, Miles, Dizzy, Bud Powell and so on, lives lived on the edges of disaster. That wasn’t Brubeck. As much as he traveled and played, he was always a phone call, a thought, a voice or a possible distance away from his source and reason.

“There’s sometimes this idea that dad wasn’t, I don’t know, really jazz enough, that he was too intellectual or something which isn’t true at all,” Brubeck said. “He was a giant, but he lived his own life. He revered all these men and women—witness ‘The Duke,’ which he wrote and he loved playing with people. He was a collaborationist. He felt that classical music and jazz were all part of the same stream, that you could find things in both that led you to the other. I think I got that from him.”

The young Brubeck lived a bit of the rock-and-roll life in California. Chris had his own group(s). That’s still there, but he played and travelled with his father.

“It’s still hard to believe he’s not here,” he said. “I mean, it just happened last December. I was traveling. We didn’t know that he was in trouble. I heard about it, while I was away. Everybody, all of miss him not being here.”

Fathers and sons on a Friday night in Washington, jazz all around. For sure, you can hear it—that familiar lead in to “Take Five,” like musical hipsters sauntering down the streets. That’s when you will expect to see him and know that he’ll be there anyway. Old music legends may die, but their music never fades away—especially, when you have his two boys giving and playing a tribute to the old man.