A Brilliant Cast Dazzles in Gershwin’s American Classic Porgy and Bess at the Kennedy Center
Porgy and Bess
Washington National Opera
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Jordan Wright
May 24, 2025
Michael Sumuel (Porgy) and Brittany Renee (Bess) in Washington National Opera‘s Porgy and Bess at the Kennedy Center (Photo/Cory Weaver)
As one of the most celebrated American operas, Porgy and Bess maintains its broad appeal. With music by George Gershwin and libretto by his brother Ira Gerswhin, hallowed names in the pantheon of composers, alongside the team of Dubose and Dorothy Heyward, it premiered in Boston in 1935 enduring decades of controversy and change. Countless directors have sought to broaden or temper its appeal depending on the political winds of the day, yet it endures as a powerful love story, that like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, doesn’t rely on a happy ending to emphasize its appeal. It’s a story about people, in this case Southern Blacks, who share the same emotional struggles, fears and human connections that people experience all over the world. The difference is that this is the 1930’s South, and despite the legal gains of racial justice after the Civil War, much of the country remained/remains a society based on race and class. Porgy and Bess is still very much a period piece of a time and place with echoes of bygone days, but so are many of our most enduring stories and greatest operas whose central themes focus on the universality of the human enigma.
In the expert hands of Director Francesca Zambello, who brought it to the Kennedy Center stage twenty years before, this quintessential American opera retains its broad appeal with an extraordinary cast filled with glorious African American voices and led by an amazing new Black conductor, Kwamé Ryan in his WNO debut.
My enduring love affair with the opera began decades ago when it was made into a Broadway show and later a film with Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge in the lead roles. Though neither one of these mega stars could sing and professional singers were dubbed in on the recording, these songs became huge hits, and I can recall countless hours listening to it on a record player. Songs like “Summertime”, “A Woman is a Sometime Thing”, “Nightime, Daytime”, “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’”, “Bess, You is My Woman Now”, “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, “I Loves You, Porgy”, “I’m On My Way” and other iconic Gershwin tunes forever cemented in Broadway musical theater anthology brought a bright fusion of opera, jazz and musicals. But I digress with chatter about memories.
Cast of Washington National Opera‘s Porgy and Bess (Photo/Cory Weaver)
The story is set in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1950’s in Catfish Row, a community of poor Blacks who plied the coastal waters as fisherman as the women toiled in White households. It centers around Porgy, a large, crippled, big-hearted man; Bess, his beloved; Crown, her abusive, sometime boyfriend; Sportin’ Life, a slick and slithery drug pusher; Maria, the matriarch of the town; Clara, a new mother and her husband Jake, a fisherman; Serena, one of the ladies, and a large community of their neighbors who, though these women exist in a restrictive bubble, have both agency and resilience.
It does little good to write up the story of their interactions, when it is far easier to google it up as it’s well known to opera buffs and those who saw the movie, even though every production has its own singular approach to its telling.
I want to point out that Eric Sean Fogel’s choreography is of central importance – both in the gambling scenes, the praising God church scenes and the big dance numbers – of special note is Sportin’ Life’s cool dance moves and the crackling electricity of all the other dancers. Mark McCullough’s lighting design adds to the general ambiance – flooding the stage in honey tones for the daybreak scenes where the hustle and bustle of daily life begins, to the dramatic hurricane scenes, which, if you’re not prepared, will startle you out of your seat from the cacophony of lightning and thunder.
Chauncey Packer (Sportin’ Life) and cast of Washington National Opera‘s Porgy and Bess (Photo/Cory Weaver)
Highly recommended!!! I can still feel it straight down inside my bones! Do yourself a favor and snag tickets to this phenomenal staging and enjoy a superb cast in the Gershwin classic. You will witness opera history at its finest.
With Michael Sumuel or Reginald Smith, Jr. as Porgy; Brittany Renee or Alyson Cambridge as Bess; Viviana Goodwin as Clara; Amber R. Monroe as Serena; Denyce Graves as Maria; Chauncey Packer as Sportin’ Life; Kenneth Kellogg or Norman Garrett as Crown; Benjamin Taylor as Jake; Marquita Raley-Cooper as Strawberry Woman; Alexandria Crichlow as Lily; Brittani McNeill as Annie; Jonathan Pierce Rhodes as Mingo; Daniel Sampson as Robbins; Keith Craig as Peter the Honeyman; Ernest Jackson as Nelson; Anthony P. Ballard as Crabman; Nicolas LaGesse as Jim; Jarrod Lee as Undertaker; Scott Ward Abernathy as Detective; and James Whalen as Coroner. With the Washington National Opera Orchestra, the Washington National Opera Chorus and the Washington National Opera Corps of Dancers.
With Set Design by Peter J. Davison and Costume Design by Paul Tazewell.
Through May 31st 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.
Kimberly Akimbo, A Sweet, Quirky, Edgy Love Story with a Jeanine Tesori Score – Now at The National Theatre
Kimberly Akimbo
Broadway at the National
National Theatre
Jordan Wright
May 21, 2025
Carolee Carmello (Kim) and Miguel Gil (Seth) in the National Tour of Kimberly Akimbo at the National Theatre (Photo/Joan Marcus)
Social life for this close group of teens in suburban New Jersey centers around the school choir and a local ice-skating rink. It’s 1999 and an awkwardly nerdy yet adorable Seth runs Skater Planet’s activities. He likes to solve puzzles, make anagrams out of names (Kimberly Locaro becomes Cleverly Akimbo), play the tuba and speak in Elvish from The Lord of the Rings. He’s had a tough life with the death of his mother, an absent father and a brother in rehab. He’s determined to be the “good son”.
Soon Seth falls for Kimberly who has her own dismal home life. Kim suffers from the rare and debilitating genetic disease that speed-ages her. She’s 15, looks 60, and is already post-menopausal. Her life clock is ticking down. For science class the teens are assigned to write a paper on a disease. Seth partners up with Kim, choosing her disease so he can understand her better. With her life expectancy a mere 16 years, she wants to make the most of the time she has left. Seth fills the bill and becomes her ride-or-die partner in the sweetest, most unusual, and solidly quirky love story.
Laura Woyasz (Pattie), Emily Koch (Debra), Carolee Carmello (Kim), and Jim Hogan (Buddy) (Photo/Patrick Gray)
Kim’s mother Pattie, currently pregnant and a narcissistic hypochondriac, is married to Buddy, a beer-swilling drunk and gas station attendant who’s going nowhere fast. The wear and tear of their issues cripples the family’s interactions. Pattie and Buddy have secrets… deep dark secrets, and family secrets have a way of coming out at the most inopportune time. Amirite? Can you spell highly dysfunctional? But wait! Let’s throw Debra, Kim’s aunt, into this potboiler of a sitcom.
Aunt Debra balances out this unique love story with hellfire crazy. She’s a no-nonsense, trash-talking ex-felon, thief and serial scammer who co-opts the kids into a check washing scheme so Kim can pay for a family trip and the teens can get flashy outfits for their statewide singing competition. What could possibly go wrong?
Cast of the National Touring Company of Kimberly Akimbo (Photo/Joan Marcus)
This national touring company shows it’s up to the challenge in this funny, fast-paced, edgy musical with a terrific score. Did I mention it stars heavy hitter and B’way alum, Carolee Carmello as Kim? In 2023 the musical won five Tony Awards in 2023 for “Best New Musical” plus four other Tonys for “Best Original Score”, “Best Book of a Musical”, “Best Actress in a Leading Role”, and “Best Featured Actress in a Leading Role”. Am I surprised? Not when Jeanine Tesori is the composer known for such Broadway mega-hits as Fun Home, Shrek, Caroline, or Change, plus the new opera Blue (reviewed here) and the new opera Grounded (reviewed here recently) seen at the Kennedy Center before heading off to the Metropolitan Opera.
With Miguel Gil as Seth; Laura Woyasz as Pattie; Jim Hogan as Buddy; Emily Koch as Debra; Grace Capeless as Delia; Darron Hayes as Martin; Skye Alyssa Friedman as Teresa; Pierce Wheeler as Aaron.
Books & Lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire based on his play; Scenic Design by David Zinn; Directed by Jessica Stone; Choreographed by Danny Mefford; Costume Design by Sarah Laux; Lighting Design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew; Video Design by Lucy MacKinnon.
Through June 1st at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202.628.6161 or visit www.TicketMaster.com.
Breathtaking Drama Paradise Blue at Studio Theatre
Paradise Blue
Studio Theatre
Jordan Wright
May 5, 2025
Amari Cheatom (Blue) and Marty Austin Lamar (Corn) in Paradise Blue at Studio Theatre (Photo/DJ Corey Photograhy)
Passion, danger and business clash in 1949 Detroit in this breathtaking drama from Playwright Dominque Morisseau – part of her Detroit trilogy. A drama so explosive and emotionally charged it will have you leaning in hard. Set in the Black Bottom neighborhood in 1949, a man named Blue runs the Paradise Club with an iron hand, a fierce loyalty to his trumpet and his love for a naïve young woman named Pumpkin. The hot-headed Blue is haunted by the demons of his father, who was also a trumpeter and whose murderous sins cast a long shadow of guilt onto Blue.
Blue’s house band, the Blue Black Bottom Band, consists of Blue on horn; Corn, a tender-hearted piano man with a soft spot for Silver; P-Sam, a man frustrated with his life and consumed with secret dreams of acquiring the Paradise and Pumpkin; and a bassist who recently quit the band. It’s a successful joint with no real reason for Blue to sell, except the mayor has plans to buy up the old buildings and gentrify this long-established Black neighborhood. Blue sees it as an opportunity to take the money and run when along comes Silver from New Orleans. Silver is a savvy, sultry, take-no-prisoners beauty who captivates the men. Blue tells her, “We don’t need your backwater hoodoo!”
Ro Boddie (P-Sam) and Anji White (Silver). (Photo/Margot Schulman)
She rents a room above the club and quickly insinuates herself into the dynamics of the club’s business while teaching Pumpkin, a poetry lover, the fine art of being an independent woman. Nicknamed the “Spider Woman” for her way with men, Silver freely admits she shot and killed her husband and she’s still packing a loaded gun. “I prefer the heat in the bedroom, not the kitchen,” she tells Pumpkin.
Brilliantly staged, dynamically directed and exquisitely performed in the new Victor Shargai Theatre, the room is set up cabaret style with a long bar offering an extensive drink and light fare menu by Kbird. Patrons are seated at small round tables with full view of the room and a small stage where some of the action takes place, but it’s mostly immersive as the actors move freely throughout the room.
Kalen Robinson (Pumpkin) and Amari Cheatom (Blue). (Photo/DJ Corey Photography)
Paradise Blue is one of the very best works this reviewer has seen. A powerhouse of a play evoking some of the greatest American playwrights. (I felt Tennessee Williams and August Wilson were in that very room.) Every element from cast to production was impeccably thought out – acting, lighting, staging, set design, sound design, costumes and musical direction.
Highly recommended! An absolute triumph!!!
With Kalen Robinson as Pumpkin; Amari Cheatom as Blue; Ro Boddie as P-Sam; Marty Austin Lamar as Corn; and Anji White as Silver. Musicians – Mark Saltman as Bassist and Michael A. Thomas as Trumpeter.
Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell; Set Design by Lawrence E. Moten III; Costume Design by Cidney Forkpah; Sound Design by Matthew M. Nielson; Fight Coordinator, Robb Hunter; Intimacy Coordinator, Sierra Young; Dramaturg, Adrien-Alice Hansel.
Through June 22nd at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005. For tickets and information call the box office at 202-332-3300 or visit www.StudioTheatre.org.
John Moore (Steve Jobs) in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Washington National Opera at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (Photo/Scott Suchman)
In a unique opening, composer Mason Bates strikes the perfect complement to the characters using saxophone, guitar and the electronika from Apple equipment to represent the major characters – electric guitar for Steve Jobs, saxophone for Steve “Woz” Wozniak, and wind-like instrumentation for Jobs’ spiritual mentor Kōbun Chino Otogawa. Against a backdrop of several dozen video monitors to reflect his life and times the story, set in 17 separate scenes, begins to unfold. It’s Bates’ first opera and it’s a stunner. And so is the cast! I was captivated by baritone John Moore’s portrayal of Jobs, though you may see it during its short run with John Patton in the role.
Presented by the Washington National Opera, Mark Campbell’s libretto takes us through Jobs’ life as a child circa 1965 inspired by his father’s encouragement to build something mechanical; through his collaboration with Woz (Jonathan Burton or Nicholas Huff), the technological genius; his free spirit lover, Chrisann Brennan (Kresley Figeroa or Anneliese Klenetsky); his relationship to a spiritual life with Otogawa (Wei Wu); and his marriage to his beloved Laurene Powell Jobs (Winona Martin).
Chrisann Brennan (Kresley Figueroa), John Moore (Steve Jobs), and Winona Martin (Laurene Powell Jobs). (Photo/Scott Suchman)
Jobs and Woz considered themselves radicals of the period, anti-establishment, anti-capitalist members of the counterculture that had its beginnings in California. Working together in a family garage in Cupertino, Woz creates new technology that allowed for free phone calls, by copying the telephone tones of Ma Bell and ye olde rotary phone. This revolutionary tactic cemented the beginning of their odyssey together and Jobs’ eventual power mad mania to create the ultimate device – the smart phone.
Set in 2007 in a large convention center, Jobs launches his product to a sea of adoring acolytes. “Never trust a computer you can’t fit in your pocket,” he famously told the young techies. “Type, type, type… swipe!” he commands.
The cast of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. (Photo/Scott Suchman)
When Jobs devolves into a self-centered egomaniac, Woz quits, “You’ve become one of the people we hated – a Goliath!” Laurene begs him to slow down, to rest. They know by now of his disease and the cancer that will take his life at 56 years old. Along the way the zigs and zags of his life are reflected by the intensity of the music (Jobs was a huge fan of Bach and saw music in mathematics) and the poetry of Campbell’s libretto that transcends the ordinariness of a life steeped in technology to reflect the drama of a visionary genius who reached supersonic status and changed the entire world as we knew it.
This modern opera has all the dramatic elements of a tragedy plus love story backgrounded by the thrill of a massive revolution in technology through the invention of a product that brings us together as readily as it can tear us apart. As composer and Virginia native, Mason Bates, puts it, “The story of Steve Jobs is the stuff of opera. It’s got obsession, betrayal, passion and ultimate betrayal and death that might have been able to be avoided had Steve Jobs been a little more willing to cede control of his health to others.”
John Moore (Steve Jobs), Jonathan Burton (Steve Wozniak), and Wei Wu (Kōbun). (Photo by Scott Suchman)
With the Washington National Opera Orchestra and Washington National Opera Chorus conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya alternately Micah Gleason; Production and Staging by Tomer Zvulun; Scenery and Costume Designer Jacob Climer; Projection Design by S. Katy Tucker; Lighting Design by Robert Wierzel; Sound Design by Rick Jacobsohn.
Highly recommended!
Through May 10th at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F Street, Washington, DC 20566. For tickets and information call the box office at 202-467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Slays with Sawyer Smith in the Lead Role at Signature Theatre
Hedwig and the Angry Inch Signature Theatre Jordan Wright April 26, 2025
When Hedwig and the Angry Inchfinished its premiere Broadway run, Signature made the decision to mount this niche production. That was 26 years ago. Now in their 35th season, Signature is re-staging this four-time Tony Award-winning rock musical.
Directors of Hedwighave free rein to create adlibs for the script and the actors do too, affording a wide berth to interpret the script with both topical and regional humor. In in our area that means politics. Inside the Beltway mixing politics and theater guarantees a hugely receptive audience, especially given our current political and regional climate. And for a non-federally funded theater with a progressive board and deep-pocket donors, that translates to free license to mount edgy, intriguing and controversial theatre.
Sawyer Smith (Hedwig) in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Signature Theatre. (Photo/Daniel Rader)
With that said creator/writer/original cast performer John Cameron Mitchell (who refers to Hedwig as “genderqueer”) in partnership with composer/writer Stephen Trask, allowed for countless reinterpretations to keep the show both current and relevant. This production ushers in the 50thAnniversary of World Pride celebrations in the nation’s capital.
Born male in East Berlin in 1961 before the wall came down, Hedwig, neé Hansel (note the lederhosen), is the child of an absent Army officer father and a cruel and loveless mother. As a child he referred to himself as a “girly boy” who liked to dress in drag. In his teen years, he meets Luther, a soldier eager to encourage his tendencies and who will become his sugar daddy. One day, Luther tells Henry he will marry him, but he will need to have a sex change operation. When Henry wakes up the botched job leaves him with an inch of his manhood.
Vanessa (V) Sterling (Yitzhak), Sawyer Smith (Hedwig), and Joanna Smith (Bass) (Photo/Daniel Rader)
Hansel, now Hedwig (Sawyer Smith), is abandoned by Luther and soon meets Tony, a rock musician. She writes all of Tony’s material and his star ascends, but he too abandons her. It’s 1989 and she winds up in a mobile home in Kansas divorced, penniless and a woman. But despite all that, Hedwig, no slouch to show biz and the glam world of rock, decides to hit the boards with the help of her new husband Yitzhak (Vanessa (V) Sterling) who is as mercurial as a snapdrake – alternating between servile and surreptitious.
Accompanied by a four-piece band Hedwig, now in eye-popping costumes and towering wigs, performs an androgynously hilarious act filled with trash and flash. Their music is an amalgam of punk rock, glam rock and head-banging heavy metal and reminds me of the Russian feminist anti-Putin rock group “Pussy Riot”.
This immersive production snatches life at every turn with cheesy jokes, sassy quips and audience participation. Sit in the front row if you dare – or if you like. The music veers from mosh pit raucous to beautifully tender ballads with Hedwig revving up the audience with twirls and whirls, high kicks and massive allure as her story unfolds.
Chicago actor Sawyer Smith is riveting and reckless. You can’t look away for a second. She has the charisma and vocal chops to captivate the audience who lap up every minute. Sterling is a perfect vocal match to Smith and their harmonies are most especially lovely in the ballads.
Vanessa (V) Sterling (Yitzhak) and Sawyer Smith (Hedwig) with Marika Countouris (Keyboard), Sam Carolla (Drums), Joanna Smith (Bass), and Alec Green (Guitar) (Photo/Daniel Rader)
With The Angry Inch Band of Sam Carolla on drums; Marika Countouris on keyboard and as Music Director; Alec Green on guitar; and Joanna Smith on bass guitar.
Directed by Ethan Heard, Text by John Cameron Mitchell, Choreography by Ashleigh King, Costumes by Eric Teague, Scenic Design by Richie Ouellette, Lighting Design by K Rudolph, Sound Design by Eric Norris, Wig & Makeup Design by Ali Pohanka.
Recommended for grown-ups of all stripes. Wave your freak flag and join the madly wacky world of Hedwig.
Through June 22nd at Signature Theatre, in the Village of Shirlington, 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA. For tickets and information call the box office at 703.820.9771 or visit www.SigTheatre.org.
