Jordan Wright
October 29, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times 
Warren Ives is a young, handsome, well-educated Wasp on the rise. His budding career as a futures trader at Shearson-Lehman is all but guaranteed in Wall Street’s storied halls. With his editor girlfriend, Lesley Rosen, an erstwhile Jew who works at the esteemed publishing house of Harper and Row, they acquire a converted former temple on the Lower East Side of Manhattan planning to live there in loft-style splendor. They are from all outward appearances, a typical upwardly mobile New York couple.
From the moment they move in they become captive to strange Hebrew chanting coming from an unknown source within the temple. They befriend their local grocer, Morris Lipkind, inviting him into their newly modernized space to witness the eerie sound. The aging Lipkind who worshipped in the shulwhen the neighborhood once had the largest Jewish community in the country, regales them with tales of the former synagogue and its members, eventually identifying the voice as coming from its former cantor. He translates the words of the chant, “Build your house the way it was.” This ominous news becomes the hinge on which the plot turns. News that affects the couple’s relationship as it wrestles with complex and universally familiar issues of faith and spirituality.
 James Myers (Warren Ives), Steve Rosenthal (Morris Lipkind) and Heather Benjamin (Lesley Rosen) – Photo by Shane Canfield You shouldn’t expect author and playwright Ira Levin, who penned such notable suspense and horror stories like Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and Deathtrap, to hand you a pretty package tied up in a Bendel’s bow. Cantorial centers around a young man’s discovery of his spiritual self and his subsequent obsession with its origin. A tender and deeply affecting story – it is perhaps more in the vein of Hesse’s Siddartha – played with moving intensity by James Myers (Warren Ives), Heather Benjamin (Lesley Rosen) and Steve Rosenthal, whose portrayal of Lipkind is riveting, Yiddish-inflected hilarious and linguistically convincing. Of particular note is actor John Shackelford in a small but pivotal role as Warren’s estranged politician father. It’s always a thrill to experience Shackelford’s versatility and nuanced performances. Also memorable are the hauntingly beautiful cantorial vocals by actor/singer Rick Flint.
 James Myers (Warren Ives) and John Shackelford (Williams Ives) – Photo by Shane Canfield The entire production boasts tightly crafted theatrical elements starting with the design team of Ken and Patti Crowley who have transformed not only the stage in their bold lighting plan, but have also included the very theatre walls. Their use of uplights, downlights, lights to highlight props, spots, and stage lights all in rich jewel tones combine with Set Designer, Dan Remmers evocative set to make a spare yet dramatic architectural design in this well-acted ethnic comedy slash drama slash personal journey. See it!
Through November 17th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com.
Jordan Wright
September 24, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times 
Warning: Spoiler Alert. The plot of Medea will be revealed here. For those of you who are without knowledge of Greek mythology, you may want to stop reading now. Others, whose memories of Jason and Medea may be just a tad rusty, might find it handy to bone up with this truncated recap.
For starters Jason dumps Medea, wife and mother of his two boys, to marry a younger hotter babe whose father, Creon, is the filthy rich King of Corinth. Nothing modern-day sociologists would find surprising. But in twenty-four hours his adoring spouse will be banished from the kingdom to live on the mean streets of Greece without so much as a drachma to her name. No social safety net in place then, but heaps of public scorn and the usual pariah status. But Medea will not go gently into that good night. “Oh triple fool,” she cries out, “You have given me time.” And a plot that makes The War of the Roses look like an exercise in marital merriment thickens.
As soul sister to the sorceress Hecate, “Help me to remember the venomous fire!” she implores the Queen of the Night, Medea’s knowledge of potions and the Dark Arts is legendary and spot on deadly. And you know what they say about Hell having no fury like a woman scorned, especially a woman who has already betrayed her father and murdered her brother to promote her husband’s social standing. Jason should have known he’d get his head handed to him.
Ah, “the violence of love,” the Muses wail, trying to dissuade Medea from her retribution. But there’s no stopping the avenging soon-to-be ex-wife from calling on the gods of the underworld to back her up. Woe betide to our hapless Argonaut. That’s some vindictive crew.
 Anissa Parekh Marking the beginning of its 35th anniversary is Port City Playhouse’s presentation of Medea with Anissa Parekh playing the lead. Remember that name. Parekh, who was trained at both the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory as well as the Shakespeare Theatre Company, is a skillful actor, whose knowledge of stagecraft is immediately evident. It is thanks to her that this production has meat on its ancient bones. Her ability to center the other performers by dint of her powerful stage presence saves it from drowning in the Aegean Sea.
Though I am a huge fan of PCP and their bold choices, this drama does not have the usual high caliber of performances, except for the commanding presence of Parekh. Costumes are neither period nor contemporary but a hodgepodge of 30’s, ‘40’s and 50’s retro dresses with aprons and randomly chosen military uniforms for some of the men. The primitive set includes a small refrigerator used as a stool, several chairs and a panel with double doors situated at the edge of the raised stage. A black box theatre style would have been less distracting than watching actors yank at sticky doors while trying to wriggle through the narrow space without toppling off the proscenium. Somewhere Dionysus and The Muses are cringing. But notwithstanding these awkward production values and throwaway supporting roles, see it for Parekh. Her Medea is memorable.
At The Lab at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. Performances continue on these dates – September 25, 28, 29 at 8pm and September 22 and 29 at 2pm. For tickets and information call 703 838-2880 or email PortCityInfo.com for reservations or visit www.portcityplayhouse.org.
Jordan Wright
September 8, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Bobby Smith, Sam Ludwig, Bayla Whitten, Natascia Diaz – Photo credit: Christopher Banks Poets and thinkers do very well during times of political and social upheaval and Jacques Brel was no exception. Born in war-torn Belgium in 1929 he threw off the constraints of the bourgeoisie to become a songwriter whose emotionally charged songs catapulted him to worldwide success. For a European musician to transition to the American market is rare indeed. Very few do. Iconic singers Charles Aznavour, Genevieve and Edith Piaf, and virtuosos like Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt immediately come to mind. But for a composer making records in France it is nearly unheard of. No French record company enjoys US distribution and artists who sell millions of records in Europe, Africa and Asia, are unknown here.
Brel was one of the lucky ones when in 1957 American Nat Shapiro, Director of International A & R for Columbia Records, heard “Quand On a Que L’Amour”. Over the following years his music would be covered by every singer worth his or her pipes – Frank Sinatra, Gilbert Becaud and Ray Charles turned his songs to gold. Brel’s music appealed to singers for its powerful lyrics and unusual constructs, but to an audience hungry for lyrics that transcended time and place and addressed the universal human condition.
 Natascia Diaz – Photo Credit Christopher Banks Carolyn Griffin, Producing Artistic Director of MetroStage, has brought in the big guns for Jacque Brel Is Alive and Living in Paris, not least of all the incomparable Natascia Diaz, who triumphed in the 2006 New York revival and subsequent cast recording.
Twenty-eight of Brel’s songs depicting love, tragedy, anti-war themes, aging, irony, fantasy and hope, are delivered by four singers whose voices capture the fierce emotionality of the lyrics and turn the musical into an electrifying evening of raw passion and soaring vocals. Diaz delivers climactic moments in “Ne Me Quitte Pas”(It’s American version was “If You Go Away”.), the spellbinding “Old Folks”, and “Marieke” in a performance that ranges from spine tingling to meltingly tender. Bobby Smith, whose Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include the Original Cast of Forever Plaid and Crazy for You, and is no stranger to MetroStage, is a heart-winner whose snappy Fosse-like moves create an element of cool retro Rat Pack sophistication in “Jackie”, and the grim portrait of a sailor’s life in “Amsterdam”. Sam Ludwig, a leading local performer and MetroStage veteran, brings youthful snap and sex appeal to “Next” a song about the loss of virginity in a whorehouse. And newcomer, Bayla Whitten, as the ingénue, proves she can croon with the best of them in “Sons Of” and the tragic all-cast number, “Timid Frieda”.
Choreographer, Matt Gardiner, also the Associate Artistic Director at Signature Theatre, shows his versatility in creating multiple vignettes without props on a simple set, while pianist Jenny Cartney’s musical direction of the three-piece band is masterful.
At MetroStage through October 21, 2012-1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, 22314. For tickets and information call 800 494-8497 or visit boxofficetickets.com. www.metrostage.org.
Jordan Wright
September 10, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Erik Harrison (Henry Perkins) and Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins) – Photo by Doug Olmstead What would you do if your briefcase had been switched for one containing 735,000 British pounds? No need to answer right away. At least not until after you’ve seen the rollicking British farce Funny Money now playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria. No time for high-minded morality and other sticky wickets with so much at stake.
Henry Perkins is an ordinary accountant toiling at an ordinary job in middle class London when on his commute he pops open his attaché to discover his cheese and chutney sandwich has been substituted for an identical-looking case chockfull of cold hard cash. He hightails it into the Prince of Wales Pub using the loo to count and recount the money. After a few whiskeys and multiple trips to the bathroom to revel secretly in his good fortune, a local detective, mistaking his joie de vivre for solicitation, follows him home for questioning.
 Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins) and Marisa Johnson (Slater) – Photo by Doug Olmstead Henry’s birthday celebration is put on hold when he concocts a plan to take it on the lam to Barcelona. Jean is not enamored of the sudden change of party plans and even more dismayed by the jolly criminality displayed her husband. “I preferred it better, when you were a bloody wimp,” she confesses.
Everything begins to go topsy-turvy in a most delicious way, when best friends and celebrants Vic and Betty Johnson arrive and add to the mayhem. As Vic attests, “You walk out the door in this place and you come back to Goo-Goo Land.”
 Erik Harrison (Henry Perkins) and John Shackelford (Bill) – Photos by Doug Olmsted Erik Harrison is the man-on-a-mission Henry Perkins while Charlene Sloan who makes an admirable debut at LTA is the whiskey-swilling wife Jean Perkins. John Shackleford plays Bill the Cabbie, a dead ringer for The Gleason Show’s Ed Norton aka Art Carney. Gayle Nichols-Grimes is riotous as Betty Johnson and Ted Culler, whose face can launch a thousand expressions, is her befuddled husband Vic. Larry Grey plays the straight man Inspector Davenport and Marisa Johnson plays Detective Slater. Apart from Bill and Slater, there’s no sense remembering the characters’ names as they take on new identities as readily as a chameleon changes color. It’s a classic Brit comedy on steroids and Harrison is uproarious setting a breakneck pace for the rest of the crack cast.
 Michael Metz (Passer-by), Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins), and >Gayle Nichols-Grimes (Betty Johnson) – Photo by Doug Olmstead Brace yourself for two hours of sidesplitting mishaps, malaprops and misunderstandings. All by a cast whose timing, to coin a phrase, is right on the money.
Through September 29th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com
Jordan Wright
August 27, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Sherri L. Edelen (as Miss Mona, center) leads the cast of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” in the production’s toe-tapping finale. . Photo: Scott Suchman. Miss Mona Stangley is running a respectable house of ill repute in 1972 Gilbert, Texas and the century-old business is doing jes’ fine. Fine is a three-syllable word you understand. She has “A Lil’ Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place” as she describes it. At the Chicken Ranch Miss Mona lays down the law with some “no-no rules” for her girls. “Call ‘em guests”, she drawls, and “no smokin’, drinkin’ or wavin’ to men in town.” Summing it up for new hires, “We go in for mass volume and repeat business. Just like Coca-Cola!”
Miss Mona’s got friends in high places including Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, Mayor Rufus Poindexter, Senator Wingwoah and the Texas Governor himself, but all that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans when Melvin P. Thorpe climbs on his soapbox. Thorpe is the local KTEX-TV’s crusading television reporter whose Watchdog group of bible-thumpin’ do-gooders, known as ‘The Dogettes’, are determined to rid Landville County of Miss Mona’s sinful activities, “Texas Has a Whorehouse In It”, is their rallying cry.
In Signature Theatre’s current production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the popular musical inspired by a real life story with book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson, Director Eric Schaeffer has stuffed so much talent into this show it’s hard to know when to start the music. Highlights are DC favorite, Sherri L. Edelen as the saucy Miss Mona; Sheriff Ed Earl played by Thomas Adrian Simpson who tenderly sings the classic “Good Old Girl” in his gravelly baritone; Matt Conner as both Mayor Poindexter and Senator Wingwoah; Christopher Bloch as Melvin Thorpe who lights up the stage with fire and brimstone; and the riveting scene stealing of Dan Manning as The Governor who tears the house down in Act Two.
 Dan Manning dances “The Sidestep” as the Texan governor in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” Photo: Scott Suchman Costumes by Kathleen Geldard favor the men – and the men favor the costumes. And how! Tight cowboy shirts and sexy jeans on hot ripped bodies had audience members whooping, hollering and drooling to the hard driving, boot-stomping dancing and R-Rated stripping. The female side of the equation seemed to have a distinct disadvantage as to both pulchritude and costumes. The women, on whom you might reasonably expect some spangles, corsets, frilly garters and perhaps diaphanous peignoirs, were dressed in tame black and red lingerie, daisy dukes, prairie dresses and dime store cowboy boots. The dreary clothing and bad wigs made the women pale in comparison. Even Miss Mona’s outfits were more appropriate for a 1970’s office manager. But eight-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Karma Camp has created choreography to outshine any anomalies combining vaudevillian burlesque with high-kicking chorus lines to ratchet up the wow factor.
 The Aggie Boys (from left to right: Davis Hasty, Benjamin Horen, Vincent Kempski, Stephen Gregory Smith) celebrate their football victory before they leave for a night at the Chicken Ranch. Photo: Scott Suchman Collin Ranney has designed a stunning barn red two-tiered set hotter than a Colt 45 after a shootout at the O.K. Corral. Punctuated with mounted steer horns and featuring rows of louvered bedroom doors that fling open to reveal steamy recreation, the stage evokes the Wild West on steroids. Overhead chandelier fans swirl lazy shadows on the stage and a circular red velvet banquette provides a cozy setting for Miss Mona and Jewel in the number “No Lies”.
 Welcome to the Chicken Ranch. Photo: Scott Suchman. All in all the show is a sizzling, knee-slapping, kick ass, belly-laughing breath of fresh Lone Star air. Chockfull of high-steppin’ hoofers, country-spun one-liners, tearjerker ballads, and enough eye candy to raise your blood sugar to precipitous levels.
 The girls of Miss Mona’s whorehouse. From left to right, back row: Amy McWilliams, Nadia Harika, Maria Rizzo, Brianne Camp; from left to right, middle row: Nora Palka, Tamara Young; bottom row: Jamie Eacker. Photo: Scott Suchman. Through October 7th at Signature Theatre (Shirlington Village), 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206. For tickets and information call 703 820-9771 or visit www.signature-theatre.org.
Jordan Wright
July 30, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Photographer Shane Canfield It’s Olympics Week and we’re in London. Well, not really Dearie, not the London of the Tower Bridge and the colored rings, but a smidge more local, at The Little Theatre of Alexandria far closer to the Potomac than the Thames. No, my friends, this is the London of Sweeney Todd, “who would blink and rats would scuttle” as he “served a dark and vengeful god.” Close enough, I’d say. Maybe too close.
From the opening salvos the 20-member cast of Stephen Sondheim’s spine-tingling Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will sweep you off your feet and smack dab into a Dickensian world filled with high dudgeon and deep depravity. The musical is a fierce story of love, loss and revenge merrily served up in all its carnivorous glory with a spot of tea and a stiff upper lip – body parts included. It’s a grisly horror story dripping with blood and British charm and some of Sondheim’s best songs.
 Photographer Shane Canfield We are introduced to Sweeney Todd alias Benjamin Barker upon his return to London to avenge the death of his wife by the evil and perverse Judge Turpin (Chris Gillespie) and his conspiratorial cohort, Beadle Bamford (Christopher David Harris), and to reunite with his daughter, the beautiful Johanna (Roxanne Scher), who is being held captive by the judge as his ward and future bride.
Todd falls in with Mrs. Lovett, an ambitious and wily widow with a failing meat pie shop. They strike up an unlikely and diabolical alliance and, in a stroke of business genius, Mrs. Lovett provides Todd with a tonsorial parlor above her store where they gleefully combine the two disparate businesses. “Think of it as thrift,” she chirps with a dash of gallows humor. “It seems an awful waste with the price of meat what it is.”
The Little Theatre knew Sweeney Todd was going to be a monster of a production and commandeered three producers to keep it on track. That it is one of their finest productions to date is due in no small part to Andrew JM Regiec, who appears to have his hand in most elements of the play. His superb directing, top-notch choreography and staging, including collaborating on set design with Dan Remmers, take this theater and its twelve-piece orchestra to dramatic new heights. Throw into the mix the award-winning team of Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley who have costumed the show in high Victorian poverty splendor all the way down to the beggar women’s bloomers. Another clever touch they employ are the scarlet red silk flourishes worn by the ensemble in the opening number, the “Ballad of Sweeney Todd”, that reveals shades of things to come.
Harv Lester tackles the dark vengeful Todd with masterful aplomb. From his opening number “No Place Like London” Lester puts the entire audience in his thrall with his tremendous baritone and powerful presence. His fresh portrayal made me feel as though I were seeing it for the first time.
As Mrs. Lovett, Jennifer Lyons Pagnard, is on par with original Broadway cast member Angela Lansbury (whom this critic remembers fondly). Pagnard is captivating with gestures so naturally balanced between her left side and right side so as to present a continuous self-portrait. It was a master class in acting effortlessly. In addition her fifteen years as a vocalist with the US Air Force Band’s “Singing Sergeants” has gifted her with a performance ability more often honed on a professional stage. Pagnard knows how to memorialize a character – in spades!
 Photographer Shane Canfield Christopher David Harris is terrific as the smarmy and foppish Beadle whose ghastly encounter with a blind nightingale led my seatmate to let out a shriek heard throughout the theater… and perhaps across the pond. Keep an eye out for Zachary Frank in the role of Pirelli whose portrayal of the Italian barber is a hilarious foil to the murder and mayhem.
Countless elements contribute to the realism of the show. Art Snow adds much in terms of special effects including designing blood-spurting razors synchronized to the slashing of Todd’s victims’ throats, a chair that sends victims sliding into an abyss, and a dungeon-worthy oven billowing smoke and flames. The technical complexities of the show are impressive – as in the two double-decker turntable stages that rotate an astonishing 64 times. Add to that the more than 80 sound cues and dozens of mood-shifting lighting cues designed by the WATCH Award-winning team of Ken and Patti Crowley and you have a tremendously dynamic stage set.
Highly recommended.
Through August 18th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com
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