The Washington National Opera’s Ending for Puccini’s Turandot Shines with a Multinational Cast at The Kennedy Center
Turandot The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Jordan Wright May 15, 2024
Ewa Płonka (Photo/Cory Weaver)
Turandot, the Washington National Opera’s final production for this season, opened on its glittering ‘Gala Night’. For those of you who despair of theatregoers sporting jeans and backpacks, this would have been your night to shine. Elegantly gowned, bejeweled and tuxedoed were the opera aficionados who transported us back to the halcyon days when Jacqueline Kennedy envisioned the nation’s most prestigious cultural center beside the Potomac River and audiences arrived in all their splendor.
This production presented us with an exciting new ending for this iconic Puccini opera, written yet unfinished before his untimely death. It has been 100 years since his demise and a collaboration between WNO General Director, Timothy O’Leary and WNO Artistic Director, Francesca Zambello, selected a lyricist and composer to replace the ending that had been written by Franco Alfano 100 years ago. That premiere was in 1926 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the baton of the great Toscanini.
Yonghoon Lee (Calaf) Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (Liù) (Photo/Cory Weaver)
This new ending was written by playwright/screenwriter Susan Soon He Stanton (HBO’s Succession) along with composer Christopher Tin (two-time Grammy winner of concert and media music) who amplified the score creating the final twenty minutes of new music and employing the “axe motif” – a series of five chords that sound like the executioner’s axe falling on Turandot’s suitor and that reoccurs throughout the opera.
This massive production has been an enormous undertaking with an ensemble consisting of 60 adults, 20 youth, 10 dancers, 10 supernumeraries, 73 musicians, 14 banda, two conductors, 40 stagehands, seven in wig and makeup – 275 plus staff backstage. The cast itself is multinational.
A brief synopsis of the story features Turandot, a bloodthirsty Chinese princess, whose ancestor was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a stranger. This becomes the raison d’être for her murderous campaign to challenge each of her suitors to answer three questions correctly in order to win her hand. (One wonders if she doesn’t change the answers to suit her desires.) In any case, if they do not answer satisfactorily, it’s off with their heads. A three-story guillotine is brought onstage to emphasize her barbaric desires.
Scene from WNO Turandot (Photo/Cory Weaver)
After a number of suitors are summarily dispatched for their inaccurate responses, along comes Prince Calaf, a reckless youth who is determined against all odds and pleadings from his father, the exiled king Timur, Liù the sweet slave girl who secretly loves him, and the three ministers to give up his quest. But, oh no, our man Calaf ignores all warnings as he is guided only by his desire to win the hand of Turandot. As a story aiming to reflect a more modern China, Set Designer Wilson Chin, gives us a look straight out of Germany’s Brutalist architecture with three floors of metal scaffolding where the refugees and abandoned retinues watch the hideous acts unfold.
Polish soprano Ewa Plonka conjures Turandot’s evil intentions belting out her ferocity like a fire-breathing dragon in a multi-layered performance against the softer-voiced tenor Yonghoon Lee as the feckless young Calaf. Yet it’s the passionately ardent Liù performed by soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha’s in her richly transcendent mellifluous voice, that provide the beauty amid the horror. The three ministers, formerly known as Ping, Pang and Pong, have been appropriately renamed as Majordomo (Ethan Vincent), Majordomo (Sahel Salam), and Head Chef Jonathan Pierce Rhodes). Emperor Altoum is Turandot’s father and is played by Neil Shicoff. Peixin Chen plays Timur, Calaf’s father. You will be comforted by the Disneyesque happy ending as Turandot comes to her senses and Calaf wins her heart, although after enduring the horrors of Turandot’s reign, the denouement is a hard pill to swallow.
Neil Shicoff (Emperor Altoum) (Photo/Cory Weaver)
Directed by Francesca Zambello, the evening’s performance, a co-production with the WNO, Opèra de Montrèal and Dallas Opera, was dedicated to Washington’s own visionary philanthropist, David M. Rubenstein, who after a fourteen-year leadership leaves an inspiring legacy on the future of the WNO.
With the WNO’s Opera Chorus, Children’s Chorus and Corps Dancers, it also stars Le Bu as Mandarin and soprano Margorie Owens as an alternate in the role of Turandot and tenor Jonathan Burton as an alternate in the role of Calaf.
Speranza Scappucci and Aaron Breid conduct; Choreographer Kanji Segawa; Costume Designer Linda Cho; Lighting Designer Amith Chandrashaker; Projection Designer S. Katy Tucker; Dramaturg Kelley Rourke, and Associate Director Anna Maria Bruzzese.
A triumph for this marvelous cast and creative team.
Ewa Płonka (Turandot) and Yonghoon Lee (Calaf) (Photo/Cory Weaver)
Through May 25 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20566. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 467-4600 or visit Kennedy-Center.org.
Dixie’s Tupperware Party Brings Wild and Crazy Southern Schtick to the Kennedy Center
Dixie’s Tupperware Party John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Jordan Wright May 15, 2024
Yes, Dixie Longate is a real person who has been selling Tupperware for 22 years. I need to put that out there because initially I was unsure if what I was seeing was a person or a character – definitely a bit of both. Ms. Dixie has won countless sales awards in no small part due to her outrageously hilarious and super salty brand of humor and earnestly flippant pep talks. To join her party be prepared to be charmed, included (parts are interactive) and doubled over with laughter. Dixie is the best friend and soulmate you were not entirely sure you needed, but how on earth did you reach adulthood without her detailed instructions on relationships? Her prescription (maybe I should call it “The Gospel According to Dixie”) for a successful life offers tough love, Tupperware and sex advice – all delivered tongue-in-cheek.
Strutting the stage in ruby red high heels and tossing out advice like tabs from a Pez dispenser, this Mobile, Alabama gal chides the audience while doling out her own life story. In her saucy red gingham dress with candy cane striped skirt festooned with bows and topped ever so sweetly with a retro cherry-print apron, this feisty six-foot plus gal doles out platitudes and life lessons the audience laps up like kittens to a bowl of sweet milk. How can you not love a gal sporting a bouffant hairdo that’s as close to God as a rattail comb can achieve? For some reason I began to desperately crave a cherry Coke, fried green tomatoes and a Moon Pie.
Image via the Kennedy Center
If you don’t get the vapors from her non-stop, double entendre repartee, you’ll learn a lot about how Tupperware relates to Life as she regales you with stories of prison and her trailer park background before she found her muse, Brownie Wise, the housewife founder of Tupperware in-home parties who changed the world of business for women everywhere. That part is true. As Dixie tells it, “I have three kids – Wynona, Dwayne and Absorbine, Jr. and 3 ex-husbands. All of ‘em have somehow died, but I ain’t crying about it. I’m way too busy traveling all over the place bringing creative food storage solutions to your town.”
Dixie loves her gays and they love her back. She calls them her “homosectionals” – the rest of us are lovingly referred to as “hookers” – and likes to challenge the audience to interactive games, bringing a select few onstage while dispensing Southern schtick. There were moments when I was entirely prepared to see Baltimore filmmaker John Waters pop out from behind the curtain with the late actor “Divine”. Ah, well, Miss Dixie is a truly pretty Southern gal – just don’t tell John I said that.
Be sure to see Dixie in her wild and crazy Tupperware World. It’s tons of fun!
Image via the Kennedy Center
By Kris Andersson; Directed by Patrick Richwood; with Lighting Design by Richard Winkler and Sound Design by Christopher K. Bond.
Through June 2nd at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Family Theatre, 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20566. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org.
Company Brings Broadway Alums to the Kennedy Center with Sondheim’s Thrilling Musical
Company The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Jordan Wright March 17, 2024 Special to The Zebra
The North American Tour of COMPANY (Photo/Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
For those familiar with Stephen Sondheim’s original 1970 version of Company, you’ll be mighty surprised to see all the changes in this production. The original won six Tony Awards. This revised version opened on Broadway in 2022, rewritten by Sondheim and Director Marianne Elliott, and won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. So, there’s that. Both versions stand on their own, but I’ll mention some of the changes, so you won’t feel lost at sea. Robert is now Bobbie and is female (the stunning Britney Coleman in full bloom and gorgeous voice). Adding to that switcheroo there’s is a gay male couple, social media is prevalent (everyone texts and checks their Facebook constantly) and pot is legal – well yes, it is – and there’s a very funny scene where Bobbie and friends get high on their front stoop.
It confused the heck out of me, but those I’ve spoken to who hadn’t seen the original and enjoyed the show for what it is now. So, let’s look at it that way, because it certainly stands on its own merits as a story of married couples, couples with children, the gay couple about to wed, and Bobbie turning 35 with an active dating life but no real prospects for marriage. And therein lies the crux of the matter. The pressure is on for her to marry.
David Socolar as Theo and Britney Coleman as Bobbie (Photo/Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
It’s the universal, get-married-before-it’s-too-late clock ticking madly away. Find a guy, have kids and get on with life, say all her friends. What the plot reveals is no matter how urgently friends try to convince Bobbie the years are passing her by, she sees their relationships, flaws and all, and that’s exactly what’s so hilarious about it.
Set in New York City with all its distractions, hookups, and dating apps Bobbie must navigate, it paints a picture of the struggles of a career woman to find love in a fast-paced world. I loved the rewrite – the gender swaps along with the new character development. It’s perfectly relevant. Surely Sondheim realized the old version couldn’t be revived without these changes to attract new audiences.
Matt Rodin as Jamie and Ali Louis Bourzgui as Paul (Photo/Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
It’s witty, quite sophisticated – Joanne (played by the sleekly sexy Judy McLane), as the Lauren Bacall type blonde, hasn’t changed a bit – and uproarious. With a crack cast of Broadway alums who sing their bums off, this is the musical everyone has been raving about.
The songs that never went away like “Someone is Waiting”, “You Could Drive a Person Crazy”, Side by Side by Side”, “The Ladies Who Lunch” (which reminded me of the terrific new mini-series about Truman Capote and his “Swans”) and, of course, the anthem “Being Alive”, are all here in their original glory. You’ll have your favorites, but these are mine and they’re unforgettable.
Highly recommended!
Britney Coleman as Bobbie (center) and the North American Tour of COMPANY (Photo/Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
With Judy McLane as Joanne; Kathryn Allison as Sarah; Jed Resnick as David; Jhardon DiShon Milton as Paul; Derrick Davis as Larry; Javier Ignacio as Peter; James Earl Jones II as Harry; Marina Kondo as Susan/Priest; Matt Rodin as Jamie; Emma Stratton as Jenny; Jacob Dickey as Andy; Tyler Hardwick as PJ; David Socolar as Theo.
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Book by George Furth; Scenic and Costume Design by Bunny Christie; Lighting Design by Neil Austin; Original Sound Design; Ian Dickinson for Autograph; Orchestration by David Cullen; Choreography by Liam Steel; with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and CompanyOrchestra.
Through March 31st at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20566. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org.
Offenbach Operetta Songbird Gets a New and Snappy 1920’s New Orleans Jazz Treatment with Superstar Isabel Leonard
Songbird The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Jordan Wright March 15, 2024 Special to The Zebra
A scene from Songbird (Photo/Scott Suchman)
If you tell me Isabel Leonard is starring in a modern-day rendition of the well-loved, classical Offenbach operetta, “La Périchole” (1868), I would sell my soul to see it – especially since it’s set in the 1920’s Prohibition Era in New Orleans when “Hot Jazz” was king. Think Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and the Dixieland Jazz bands of that force de la nature of American music. NOLA, as we now call it, became a musical polyglot of Afro-Caribbean, Marching Band beats, Spanish Tango influences, Ragtime syncopation, dusky Blues, Vaudevillian razzmatazz, improvisational Scat, and throbbing Latin rhythms bursting forth from a port city credited with the birth of American Jazz.
Conductor, Arranger and Orchestrator, James Lowe, was tasked with melding these divergent yet harmonious rhythms and dovetailing them into Songbird, an opera that uses Franglais in a nod to Offenbach’s French ancestry. Don’t worry there are projected surtitles when the actors switch to French. Instruments of the period, including a vintage drum set from the 1920’s, create the perfect sound Lowe uses to evoke the period when the Stomp, the Charleston and the Black Bottom were just coming of age.
Isabel Leonard (Songbird) and Ramin Karimloo (Piquillo) (Photo/Scott Suchman)
The sassy, spunky, risque comedic action takes place in a speakeasy called Café des Muses and stars a fabulous Vaudeville duo – the starving artists, Songbird (Isabel Leonard) and her amour Piquillo (Ramin Karimloo). The villain is the mayor of the New Orleans, the vainglorious Don Andrès (Edward Nelson) who falls madly in love with Songbird but wants her to be his mistress not his wife. Along with his cohorts, Don Pedro (Jonathan Patton) and Panatellas (tenor and funny as hell natural comedian Sahel Salam), he conspires to marry her off to Piquillo so that he can enjoy her in a carnal way with no strings attached. With “tunes and booze and no taboos” this splashy production has it all including staggering drunk revelers.
One of the opening lines is delivered by Don Andrés who crows, “I could stand in the middle of Bourbon Street and the President would put me in his Cabinet!” And with that, the slapstick, pratfalls, tap dances and upside-downness begins to click. Add a soupçon of Gilbert and Sullivan panto and shades of the artsy bohemian life and we’re in Gay Paree. There is even a high-kicking Can Can at the bar!
Edward Nelson as Don Andrés (Photo/Scott Suchman)
Premiering at New York’s Glimmerglass festival in 2021, shelved during the pandemic and pared down to one act, the adaption is by Eric Sean Fogel, James Lowe and Kelley Rourke who wrote the English lyrics and book.
Believe me when I tell you, the triple Grammy Award-winning mezzo soprano, Isabel Leonard will steal your heart. Her captivating mezzo-soprano range is perfectly suited to this snappy score and her acting chops prove that she can tailor her style to whatever is thrown her way. Furthermore, she plays the gamine as delightfully as Audrey Hepburn. And Karimloo, who is an award-winning Broadway musical star, will wow you with his song styling as well as his acting and comedic chops. Insider scoop: He has never studied voice, can’t read music (He asks for all his scores to be sent via the DAW GarageBand software.), and never in his life saw an opera before he was cast in this one. I love this so much!
Ramin Karimloo (Piquillo), Jonathan Patton (Don Pedro), and Sahel Salam (Panatellas) (Photo/Scott Suchman)
Deliciously naughty and wildly colorful with Mardi Gras costumes, zoot suits and spats, beaded flapper dresses and silky lingerie, this oh-so-clever interpretation will charm and delight. I know because the audience lost their collective minds – cheering at every song and roaring at every bit of farce. They were just as wild as the performers in their enthusiasm.
Highly recommended!!!!!
With Teresa Perrotta as Guadalena, Kresley Figueroa as Berginella, Cecelia McKinley as Mastrilla, Taylor-Alexis DuPont as Celeste, Jonathan Pierce Rhodes as A Priest, Justin Burgess as A Mobster/The Guide and Jo Ann Daugherty as Pianist.
Original Co-Director Francesca Zambello; Original Costume Designer Christelle Matou; Costume Designers Marsha LeBoeuf and Timm Burrow; Lighting Designer Robert Wierzel; Sound Designer Mark Rivet.
Remaining performances on March 17th, 20th and 23rd at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20566. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org.
Ain’t Too Proud debuted on the Kennedy Center stage in 2018 when it opened in DC before heading directly to Broadway. We thrilled to the musical and the extraordinary performances then. But since going to Broadway the show has amped up every single production value from the electrifying choreography by Sergio Trujillo, to the scenic design by Robert Brill and Projection Design by Peter Nigrini. For two and half hours, time stops. If you blink, you’ll miss everything cool you ever knew. Your heart will race, your jaw drop and your feet won’t stop toe-tapping. This is one of the most exciting musicals you will ever see. It is sheer entertainment from curtain up to the final wild applause.
Jam-packed with hits from America’s number one R&B/Soul/Funk/Pop group of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, this bio-musical from the Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a blast-from-the-past, an oldies-but-goodies mega hit. Told through the eyes of Otis Williams (Michael Andreaus), the group’s founding member, the story takes us on a top-of-the-pops journey from the original foursome’s Detroit roots on Euclid Avenue through its heyday under über producer Berry Gordy (Jeremy Kelsey) with songs written by Smokey Robinson (Derek Adams who also plays Damon Harris).
Through the years the group gained and lost members from the originals – David Ruffin (played by the spectacular Elijah Ahman Lewis), Eddie Kendricks (a riveting Jalen Harris), Melvin Franklin (the silken bass of Harrell Holmes, Jr.) and Paul Williams (E. Clayton Cornelious – played without missing a beat by understudy Brian C. Binion on opening night). The group’s veteran agent, Shelly Berger (Ryan M. Hunt), was tasked with guiding their sound and keeping them in line.
Though the story guides us through their triumphs and tragedies and the ebb and flow of group member changes, the show hangs on fiercely to their mega-hits – hits that a generation of us danced to, made out to and even got married as we sang along to their soulful love songs. But don’t think for a minute that the audience was a bunch of aging baby boomers clinging to memories of their teenage years. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I looked around to see who was there – who was tapping their toes, mouthing the lyrics and bobbing their heads, and they were all ages. Because you cannot sit still to this energy-pumping, concert-style musical – certainly not while watching the performers execute the highly-stylized, synchronized dance movements The Temptations made famous or the exquisite harmonies of the group of five performing 30 of their platinum hits. These were the tunes that backgrounded family BBQs, birthday parties, dance parties and discothèques. Melodies that were listened to on car radios and record players and on street corners where quartets would spring up like weeds. There is so much joyfulness in the early music – “My Girl”, “I Can’t Get Next to You”, “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”, “Cloud Nine” and so many more.
When the scene changed with the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, the group’s music – “War”, “I Wish It Would Rain” and “Ball of Confusion” – reflected societal upheavel. Just as “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” reflected the psychedelic era.
The musical is backdropped with period-centric projections by Peter Nigrini of Sponge Bob Square Pantsand Améliefame and choreographed to a gold standard by Sergio Trujillo known for his work on Jersey Boysand On Your Feet. Familiar with Dancing with the Stars? Orchestrations are by the show’s 18-year veteran musical director, Harold Wheelerwith music directed and arranged by the legendary Kenny Seymour. Multi Tony Award-winning Director Des McAnuff puts it all together and it’s as tight as the group’s pegged trousers and trim sharkskin jackets or the sequined gowns worn by Diana Ross and The Supremes who make an appearance along with music icon Tammi Terrell (Shayla Brielle G.), all of whom are costumed by Paul Tazewell veteran designer of Hamilton and a ton of other blockbuster Broadway hits.
Book by Dominique Morisseau. Based on the book “The Temptations” by Otis Williams with Patricia Romanowski. Music and lyrics from The Legendary Motown Catalog.
Highly recommended! If I gave out stars, which I don’t, I would give it five stars!
Through February 18th at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC. For tickets and information call 202 467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org.
Broadway Center Stage at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Jordan Wright February 2, 2023 Special to The Zebra
Brandon Uranowitz and the Cast of tick tick BOOM (Photo by Teresa Castracane)
Tic, tic, boom is the sound Jon (Brandon Uranowitz) hears in his head as he feels himself falling into obscurity as a musical composer. Looming large is his 30th birthday. With nothing to show for decades of laying his soul bare in words and rhymes, he ponders the wisdom, or idiocy, of taking a job in the corporate world like his former roommate and best friend, Michael (Grey Henson). Michael is flying high on success and shows Jon that having a luxury penthouse and flashy BMW can erase the pain of failure and a respite from their 6-floor walk-up.
At the same time Jon’s beloved, Susan (Denée Benton), is bent on leaving the city and getting a home in the country where their lives would be less stressful. This is not an option for Broadway hopeful Jon whose raison d’être is inextricably tied to the stage. His keyboard forms the nucleus of the limited props.
Denée Benton and Brandon Uranowitz (Photo by Teresa Castracane)
Playwright, composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson’s real life was a tragedy in itself. Drawing from his own bohemian life and inspired by Puccini’s La bohème, he wrote the wildly successful rock opera Rent. His own poverty and struggle for recognition were undoubtedly its inspiration. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here since Larson died at 36 years-old on the night before its Broadway opening in 1996.
Fast forward to the 2021 film adaptation of tick, tick…BOOM! which you may have seen on Netflix and is definitely worth your time. It was directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and roundly praised.
Brandon Uranowitz and the tick tick BOOM cast (Photo by Teresa Castracane)
Director Neil Patrick Harris comes to this stage production with some strong connections to its early-stage iterations when in 2005 he was cast as Jon in the London premiere. He’s performed in Rent and feels a personal connection to Larson’s work.
Bringing this semi-autographical musical tick, tick…BOOM! to a new audience has inspired Harris to re-invent its earlier productions. He has added a four-person ensemble to the three-hander. Why? More voices? More harmonies? It inserts a bit of Broadway pizazz (We’re a musical with song and dance!!!), but at what cost? It’s distracting. In this staging, actors are over-choreographed – shuffling chairs and other furnishings around the stage in a kind of chorus line does not sharpen the mood. Background video projections distract without providing connections to the script. The Georges Seurat painting used as the promo poster for Sunday in the Park with George popped up for a nanosecond, but it didn’t dovetail with any of Jon’s lines referencing his relationship with Sondheim.
Grey Henson and Brandon Uranowitz (Photo by Teresa Castracane)
An accurate reflection on Larson’s lean years, it drips with sarcasm and angst and is reminiscent of Sondheim’s “The Ladies Who Lunch”. It is the heartbeat of his life in New York City and reflects the nucleus of his despair. To be sure there are some very funny bits as in the tune “Sunday” which references Larson’s time waiting tables at the Moondance Diner trying to appease difficult diners during brunch service. As to diminishing its focus, you’re left to wonder if the decision to plump it up with extra actors wasn’t made by an ad hoc committee. If you go, love it for the music which is lush, emotional and extraordinary. Thirteen numbers flesh out the story backed by a four-piece band. It really doesn’t need more than that.
Through February 4th at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20566. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org
