Hoyas Defeat Rutgers in Final Seconds (photos)
• February 8, 2012

Otto Porter scored the final six points helping the 10th ranked Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team avoid an upset by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a defensive battle at the Verizon Center on Saturday, January 21, 2012. The Hoyas improved their record to 16-3. Porter’s pair of free throws with 8.5 seconds left sealed the victory. The Hoyas made only 12 field goals, which is tied for the fewest in a college basketball victory this season. The Scarlet Knights had one final chance, but freshman guard Eli Carter’s jumper hit the back of the rim and bounced out as a time expired. [gallery ids="100472,115957,115961,115965,115969,115973,115977,115981,115985,115989,115993,115997,116001,116005,116009,116013,115953,115949,115945,116026,115896,116023,116020,115901,115905,115909,115913,115917,115921,115925,115929,115933,115937,115941,116017" nav="thumbs"]

‘La Cage Aux Folles’: Glam, Sentimental Musical That Still Dazzles
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Gay marriage is a hot-button issue among what’s left of the sorry lot of Republicans running for President. Alongside the debates and elections is the touring production of the successful 2010 Broadway revival of “La Cage Aux Folles,” the 1980s mega-hit musical of gay glitter, glam, romance and divas. This musical brings with it an aura that’s part eager-to-please and part pixelated nostalgia that has settled in at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater.

This “La Cage,” maybe any “La Cage,” does not prove the show biz and social buzz of everything old is new again. This “La Cage” is what it is, or as its true star and diva, Zaza, famously sings, “I am What I Am.” The musical is plenty dazzling, even if the production often seems like a visitor from the past.

“La Cage” has had so many incarnations and identities that it’s a wonder Leonardo DiCaprio hasn’t been in one of them. It started out as a French comedy and became very successful in the United States. This show features a pair of gay men, one being Georges, a stylish, elegant owner of “La Cage a Folles,” a popular nightclub where men dress spectacularly as women and put on a nightly vaudeville/musical show. His partner, Albin, is insecure, emotional and often hysterical, who transforms himself nightly into Zaza, the blinding star of “La Cage.” Together, they’ve managed to raise a son whom Georges acquired as a result of a youthful fling with a Parisian showgirl long ago. Now, sunny boy is in love with the daughter of a virulently homophobic politician who’s coming to visit with his wife. Voila-le situation.

Out of this material, the writer-actor-playwright, Harvey Fierstein, and big-time Broadway composer, Jerry Herman, brought forth a hugely successful musical which starred the growly-voiced Fierstein as Albin and, oddly, Gene Barry of television’s “Bat Masterson” as Georges. The show ran as forever as you can on Broadway and then reappeared in a not quite successful revival in the early 2000s. A second revival, which originated in the West End in London, was again a big hit, as was its Broadway version which would feature Kelsey Grammer in his Broadway musical debut as Georges in 2010. The production, now at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater, has George Hamilton starring as Georges and Christopher Sieber as Albin.

“La Cage” was the crowning glory of Herman’s career, which was preceded by “Hello, Dolly!” and “Mame,” both spectacular musicals and vehicles for diva-type actresses and anthem songs. Both seemed to be part of a journey for which “La Cage” and Albin/Zaza seemed to be the final destination.

A few years back, Mike Nichols directed an American non-musical film version called, “The Bird Cage,” which starred Robin Williams (playing Georges) and Nathan Lane as his partner, as well as Gene Hackman in a remarkably funny turn as a blustering right-wing senator.

But now we have “La Cage” right in our own backyard. For mysterious reasons, although it often operates in a kind of vacuum where no time has passed at all, it’s almost irresistible for its sheer entertaining sincerity and pink-and-white-feather, scene-stealing and changing show. In spite of its not-so-middle-of-the-road setting, it has an old-style Broadway razzle-dazzle and — it should be said — sentiment. It’s all about love, romance, enduring affection, great big hearts and, what do you know, family values. In “La Cage”, nobody argues about gay marriage, but the idea of family is sentimentally self-evident, especially in the song, “Look Over There,” which extolls Albin’s constancy and maternal qualities. With great, slapdash humor, the show also manages to get across the point that the home of Albin and Georges — colorful and eccentric though it may be — is 1,000 mega-watts more normal and loving than that of the politician, who treats his wife like a beast of burden not allowed to speak.

It is 2012 after all, and this show still bowls you over as in the past with eye-candy costume, terrific dancing on the part of the gentlemen and lads who perform as “Les Cagelles” (Angelique, Bitelle, Chantal, Hanna of the Whips, Mercedes and Phaedra), and also includes a house warm-up act, a kind of sit-down comedian in drag.

The part of Georges — a stylish, but low-key, pragmatic sort — has often been played in the past by a Hollywood leading-man type, somewhat asexual except for the red smoking jacket. It has included the likes of Barry, Van Johnson and Hollywood Squares host, Peter Marshall. Hamilton, while a little slow afoot at age 72, still had that old Hollywood, wavy hair magnetism, but he had something even better. At first blush, Georges and Albin have always appeared as an odd couple, a relationship that runs like a roller coaster going down most of the time. But Hamilton lets you see by singing “The Best of Times” and looking at Albin with hapless, hopeful, can’t-help-myself love just how deep the feelings run between these two men.

You might cringe a little here and there throughout the production since it remains squarely rooted in the 1980s: the politicians are hurling words like “homosexual,” as if they were saying “serial killer” and the events taking place at “La Cage” are seen as scandalous and shocking. Time has done its work, as it always does, but it’s taken none of the fizz off this enduring and legendary musical.

Just don’t expect to see Rick Santorum sitting next to you.

“La Cage Aux Folles” runs through Feb. 12 at the Eisenhower Theater.
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R&B’s Etta James and Johnny Otis: Singing Life, Living Songs
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Rhythm and blues — the musical category sometimes infused with soul, jazz and rock and roll—seems like an oxymoron, as if saying “I’m so sad and depressed I wanna shake it all around with the whole dang mess of it.”

But then, the genre has always been a crossroads for all sorts of feelings and characters. It’s where the heart multitasks its pain and jubilation. It’s where Elvis Presley soaked up Beale Street. It’s where Billie Holiday brought a smoky blues to jazz. It’s where song-writers from everywhere made people get off their behinds and do everything from the glide to the hand jive to sultry, slow dancing.

It’s where the son of Greek immigrants and a woman whose life and music all but embodied a steady saunter on the dark, sad, wild side, which she turned into the most soulful of troubled blues. And somewhere in there, the two crossed paths, one discovering the other.

These two — Johnny Otis, 90, born Johnny Alexander Aliotes and sometimes called the “Godfather of Rhythm and Blues,” and Etta James, 73, who translated her own trouble life of sad romance and loss into powerful blues-filled music — died within three days of each other.

Otis, a multi-tasker in his own right was a bandleader, club owner, musician and, most influentially and importantly, songwriter and talent scout. He embraced African-American musical forms with gusto. He loved jazz, rhythm and blues, the blues themselves and soul music. And he discovered James, by way of his Barrelhouse Club and Revue in the Watts section of Los Angeles when she was a teenagee, as was Esther Phillips, the dynamo jazz singer also discovered by Otis.

The life of Otis criss-crosses genres and was fueled by a strong melting-pot passion, an avid love of African-American culture as muse and part of the great American mosaic. In his times, everybody crossed his path including the great blues singer Big Mama Thornton, who did the original version of “Hound Dog,” a song which later became a part of Elvis’s early success. Last, but not least, Otis was the author of the hugely popular song “Willie and the Hand Jive.”

Etta James was now and forever known for “At Last,” the stirring, heartbreaking (when sung by James) ballad of utter love, loss and triumph, which Beyonce sang to the Obamas at one of their inaugural balls, stirring up some controversial anger on the part of James.

She needn’t have worried. Although, ironically, Beyonce played James in a dramatized account of Chess Records called “Cadillac Records,” “At Last” was her song, every last emotion-packed line and vowel. She was one of those gifted singers and musicians — Charlie Parker and Billie were others — who struggled throughout her life with various well-documented addictions. The troubles — money, drugs, lovers and husbands — draped all over music, she brought, like Billie, the blues to jazz and added her own voice and style.

Born Jamasetta Hawkins, she met Otis as a teen in the 1960s. He guided her career for a number of years and also dubbed her Etta. Back then she wrote “Roll With Me Henry,” a raccous, sensual song, somewhat later, became “Dance With Me Henry,” a sanitized hit for Georgia Gibbs — because “roll” connoted sexual activity.

By all accounts, James was one-of-a-kind on stage: dynamic, dramatic, raunchy, powerful and moving. It’s the kind of concert stuff from which legends are built.

She told one reporter that when she sang the blues, she sang life. Her life, to be sure, but that’s what all the great blues and jazz singers and musicians do: singing life, living songs.

Celebrate New Year’s Day Again
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This is the Year of the Dragon, which will be quite evident at the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade, taking place on Sunday, January 29, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, on H and I streets, between 6th and 8th streets in Chinatown.

The Chinese community in the Washington metropolitan area will celebrate the New Year with local residents and visitors at the annual Parade and accompanying festivities, featuring traditional Chinese dragon and lion dances, musical bands, including a local high school Marching Tribe, a cultural exhibition, and the giant firecracker—an all-time favorite that explodes at 3:45 pm.

The festivities also will include programs and activities at the Chinatown Community Cultural Center. Revelers can participate in face painting, live music and performances, and raffles from noon to 5:00 pm. The Parade attracts more than 20,000 people annually and is sponsored by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of Washington, DC.

ANC2E Full Report, January 30, 2012February 7, 2012
• February 7, 2012

ANC Report: Full House on DCFEMS, DCRA, Pepco, Food Trucks and Evermay.

Got all that? In an especially full and varied meeting Jan, 30, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E tackled a packed line-up:

**Fire & EMS**

Chief Kenneth Ellerbe, of D.C. Fire & Emergency Medical Services, fresh with his department’s safety and health demonstrations at the Georgetown Safeway Jan. 28, addressed the meeting and stressed the role of firefighters who are also paramedics and emergency responders.?Ellerbe’s insistence on the use of the full name?and not just “DCFD” (the chief ordered uniforms and t-shirts must show the full acronym, DCFEMS)? has some firemen and members of the union bothered. But the chief continues to talk about the department’s “soft presence on the streets” and the 161,000 calls in 2011: 130,000 were medical, and only 500 were real house fires. Ellerbe also said the department had gotten 25 new ambulances and defended the newly proposed firefighters’ working hours of?12 hours on, 12 off.

**Building Collapse Still Unknown**

Nicholas Majett, director of the D.C. Department of Regulatory and Consumer Affairs, talked about how the agency “touches everyone,” and then dealt with the partial collapse of the building at 1424 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., as well as regulations on the newly popular food trucks around the city. The partial collapse happening Thanksgiving Day, and there is a stop-work order on the site. The owner must hire a structural engineer to determine the cause?a possible conflict of interest that commissioners found troubling and said so to DCRA’s Bill Davidson and his boss. Citing a construction collapse of a Wisconsin Avenue building ten years ago, which was owned by the same businessman and about one block to the south, commissioner Bill Starrels recalled, “The owner has a history as a bad actor.” Owner Robert Solomon of the 1422 Wisconsin Ave. building complained about a window being bricked up. The cause of the collapse remains undetermined, and DCRA needs to know if it is to issue a permit for rebuilding at the site, which was slated to became a Z-Burger eatery.

**Where Food Trucks May Park**

As for food trucks, the commissioners voted to ask that they not park on residential streets. Current law allows them to park in any legal spot.?

**Evermay to House S&R Foundation**

Evermay’s zoning variance request was approved in a most collegial manner. Evermay LLC requested that the S&R Foundation, headed by the property’s new owners, biotech business partners and spouses Ryuji Ueno and Sachiko Kuno, be allowed to operate from the estate at R and 28th Streets with strict restrictions on frequency of events and number of employees. The foundation’s mission encourages musical and scientific excellence while it promotes American and Japanese ties and studies responses to disasters, such as tsunamis or earthquakes. S&R Foundation attorney Alice Gregg Haase listed the restrictions, which include parking all cars on Evermay’s land, no outdoor amplified music, no more than 100 persons on regular events and more. The ANC voted to review the approval after five years, not seven as was requested by the foundation. “This is the way it should work,” said ANC chair Ron Lewis. The zoning commission will make its final decision at the end of this month.

**Hey, Be Alert: Lock It**

The monthly police report by Metropolitan Police Department officer Kathryn Fitzgerald stated the obvious: lock your doors and secure your items. One business cash register was robbed when employees left keys in the register; another left its business office doors unlocked and was robbed. (The perps were caught.) As for iPhone thefts, need we say more?

**Better Wiring in the Hood**

Pepco officials were also at the meeting to discuss outages and how the utility is switching neighborhoods to different electrical grids, such as Hillandale, and upgrading lines as well?all to improve service in Burleith.

**Hang On, O and P**

For the O and P Street Project: the 3400 block of P Street should be complete now.? Check [FixingOandPStreets.com](http://www.fixingoandpstreets.com) for updates, such as a utilities turn-off next week.

Quick question: Who said the following? “Rocky’s Report should be taken with a grain of salt.” It was ANC chair Ron Lewis speaking of Georgetown University’s more personable approach to campus crime reporting.? More quotes this and next week on the zoning commission’s decision?expected momentarily?on the university’s 2010-2020 campus plan.

Chinese New Year Parade (photos)
• February 2, 2012

The Chinese-American community celebrated the Year of the Dragon with a parade that attracted thousands to the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington DC. The celebration, which took place on Sunday, January 29, 2012, included a dragon dance, a lion dance, kung fu demonstrations and the lighting of a giant firecracker. View our photos of the event by clicking on one of the icons below.

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A Moving Birthday Celebration for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr at the Strathmore, featuring actor “Gregg Riley” and excellent local talent (photos)
• January 30, 2012

The Music Center at Strathmore was host to a moving celebration in honor of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, January 16, 2012. The highlight of the program was Dr. King himself, in the guise of Mr. Gregg Riley, a talented actor and a dead ringer for the noted civil rights leader. Riley, who began his oration offstage in a familiar baritone, had many in the packed house of nearly 2000 people convinced they were listening to a recording of Dr. King’s voice. When Riley, as King, did walk onstage, the audience at first seemed stunned into silence as if seeing a ghost, only to rise up to the strength of Dr. Kings powerful words, and end with a standing ovation for Riley’s riveting performance.

The event was presented by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Committee.
View our photos of the full event, including an awards ceremony and musical tribute from local talent by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="100465,115842,115844,115626,115846,115848,115874,115871,115852,115656,115856,115860,115864,115686,115868,115716,115746,115776,115840,115838,115836,115877,115808,115810,115812,115814,115816,115818,115820,115822,115824,115566,115826,115828,115830,115832,115834,115596,115806" nav="thumbs"]

Antiabortion protesters march to the Supreme Court Building for the annual March for Life rally (photos)
• January 26, 2012

Thousands of abortion opponents marched to the Supreme Court on January 23, 2012, under rainy conditions to mark the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. View our photo by clicking on the photo icons below.

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Longtime Residents Make Georgetown History Come Alive
• January 25, 2012

The Citizens Association of Georgetown put its Oral History Project on display, Jan. 18, at the City Tavern Club. Part of CAG’s effort to document the “living history” of Georgetown, seven residents with their lively recollections made the town’s past come alive in the listeners’ minds. Introduced by the project’s Annie Lou Berman, speakers took those in the City Tavern’s packed ballroom back to their days of youth and discovery, painting a picture of a town before the big changes of half a century ago with their joyful, humorous stories.

Interior designer Frank Randolph recalled the dogwood festivals at Hardy School and his time at Western (now Duke Ellington) High School and sitting in a soda shop, across the street where he lives today.

Barry Deutschman, owner of Morgan’s Pharmacy, which opened 100 years ago, told of mixing prescriptions by hand and a store which also sold “newspapers, tobacco and magazines — none of that exists now.” Yes, chef Julia Childs did run into Morgan’s one time and ask for a pack of Tums. He has not retired.

Catherine Bowman, leader and historian of the black community, matter-of-factly talked of the days of segregation, when blacks lived at the east side of P Street and Poplar Place and went to Rose Park but were not allowed in Volta Park.

Georges Jacob, co-founder of the French Market, noted that his shop introduced the finer French cuts of meat and other foods to neighbors and embassies, as it strengthened Georgetown’s love of all things French.

Margaret Oppenheimer, who with her husband Franz raised three sons on O Street, remembered leaving New York for the calmer days of D.C.

Don Shannon, 40-year Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent, recalled there were six service stations in Georgetown and gravel works down at the waterfront just after World War II and how President John Kennedy’s father Joe Kennedy described the homes as “dog houses” because of their size.

Kay Evans, widow of columnist Roland Evans, spoke of the Kennedy years and fondly of her arrival in D.C. with a girlfriend to meet cute, young men.

The City Tavern Preservation Foundation, which recently marked its 50th anniversary of the purchase of the historic City Tavern by the City Tavern Association, hosted the CAG meeting and reception.

If you care to continue the conversations, become a CAG Oral History interviewer. A training session is planned for Feb. 15, 6 p.m. in the CAG office at 1365 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. (Enter via the black external staircase on O Street.) The session is for both new interviewers to learn the ropes and for seasoned interviewers to share their experiences. Training will last 90 minutes with the Oral History Project’s coordinator, Annie Lou Berman. Contact the CAG office at 337-7313 or cagmail@cagtown.org.
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Jack Evans ReportJanuary 25, 2012
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Any of you who have heard me speak recently have probably heard me talk about the fact that the District of Columbia is in a better financial position than any other city, county, or state in the country.? Our finances remain strong and the development projects in our city are the envy of our neighbors.

I have the firm belief, however, that we would be doing even better if we had a more straightforward business regulatory structure and took steps to roll back some of the substantial disincentives to those who consider relocating to the District to start a business and raise a family, or who consider moving out of our city when they reach retirement age.? Therefore, in our next budget, I am recommending a number of specific proposals that I hope you will support.

First, our corporate income tax is a tremendous burden at 9.975%, much higher than the 6% Virginia charges and even the 8.25% levied by Maryland.? Particularly when times are tight, how can we expect a business to choose to sacrifice an extra 2-4% of their already slim profit for the privilege of doing business in our city?? ?I propose lowering this tax to 6%. Secondly, on a similar note, the District charges a tax of 9.975% on unincorporated businesses, while our neighbors do not.? We should phase out this tax entirely.

Third, our income tax is too high and is based on bad policy.? As I have said before, a member of the Council cannot claim to be in favor of small business and also of an increase in the income tax, which falls heavily on many small businesses.? I propose to create a more progressive income tax structure by lowering them ? those earning above $350,000 would pay 8.5% rather than 8.95%; those earning between $100,000 and $350,000 would pay 8.0% rather than 8.5%; those earning between $40,000 and $100,000 would be placed in a new bracket and pay 7.5% rather than 8%; and those earning between $10,000 and $40,000 would be taxed at 5.5% rather than 6%.

Fourth, the District made a mistake by decoupling our local estate tax from the federal estate tax.? We should eliminate the District?s estate tax to encourage our retirees to remain residents of the District, investing in our local economy and contributing to our civic and cultural life.

Fifth, we need to repeal the wrongheaded tax on formerly tax-free municipal bonds.? As predicted, the implementation of this tax appears to be resulting in an administrative nightmare.? For example, it is unclear whether taxpayers have enough information to determine whether a share held in an ostensibly grandfathered municipal bond mutual fund nevertheless has become partially taxable as the fund manager executes future trades.? This unfortunately may be just the first onslaught of many where the supposed grandfathering provision could be chipped away.

Sixth, we must sunset the sales tax increase as promised and lower it from 6% back to 5.75%. Part of why I was so skeptical of the deal to grandfather current holdings of municipal bonds while taxing new purchases is that I have been in the government long enough to see promises like this made, and promises broken.? The city promised it would sunset the sales tax increase this year, then broke this promise when the city decided it needed the money in order to pass the largest budget in our history.? We are only a quarter of the way through fiscal year 2012, and the mayor is already projecting $45 million in government overspending despite having raised every tax on the books.? This has to stop.