Jordan Wright
January 17th, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Amy Conley (Rona Lisa Perretti) and Jeff Davis (Vice Principal Douglas Panch) - Photos by Shane Canfield For those of us whose middle school memories harken to a time of anxieties, crushing insecurities and the dread of not fitting in, have I got a musical for you! The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will remind you that you have plenty of avatars in the challenging world of teenage angst. Dorks, dweebs, do-gooders and overachievers will be your new BFFs in this uproarious production featuring the oddball world of spelling bee competitions. (Note to parents of aspiring qualifiers: The annual Scripps National Spelling Bee is held right here in Washington, DC.)
That the characters in this musical are decidedly unique doesn’t get in the way of composer William Finn and conceptualizer Rebecca Feldman tapping into universal neuroses. We really do feel their pain, squirming and agonizing over obscure words like capybara or hasenpfeffer. Can you use that in a sentence?
The twist is that four actual audience members are brought on stage to join the “bee”. Opening night had the beautiful blonde theatre reviewer, Jeanne Theismann, who when introduced by Vice Principal Panch, was skewered with an intro as, “the cheerleader who hopes to marry the quarterback,” a reference to her ex-husband former Washington Redskin, Joe Theismann. She played along good-heartedly till her elimination when Panch declared, “All the 7th Grade boys are in love with this brunette!” Gales of laughter from the in-on-the-joke audience.
 Carl Williams (Mitch Mahoney), Josh Goldman (Leaf Coneybear), Eric Hughes (Chip Tolentino), Matt Williams (William Barfee), Claire O’Brien (Marcy Park), Maureen Rohn (Olive Ostrovsky), Emily “EJ” Jonas (Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere), and Amy Conley (Rona Lisa Perretti) Photos by Shane Canfield Along with the six quirky students and their super-cool, jive-talking professional “Comfort Counselor”, Mitch Mahoney (Carl Williams), they share the stage with Vice Principal Douglas Paunch (Jeff Davis) and Secretary Rona Lisa Peretti (Amy Conley).
You’ll meet Chip (Eric Hughes) whose budding adolescent crush will dredge up all the awkwardness of early testosterone unpredictability and Logianne Schwartzandgrubenniere (Emily “E. J.” Jonas), a goofy pig-tailed Catholic School conformist who boasts a pair of bossy dads. Her fail-safe technique: To pre-spell words on her arm.
And then there’s the pretty and terminally insecure, Olive Ostrovsky (Maureen Rohn), whose abandonment by her ashram-trotting mother and distant father, bonds her with a dictionary. Olive talks into her hand to puzzle out the words, while the user-friendly, Leaf Coneybear (Josh Goldman) has successful eleventh-hour visions for memory aids. Leaf is home-schooled and makes his own capes. Are you reading a Charles Shultzian presence yet?
For the sestalingual Marcy Park (Claire O’Brien), rocking her cheerleader outfit, it’s all tediously beneath her. The hyper-accomplished, classical piano playing, baton-twirler informs us, “I’m sick and tired of being the best!”
And you’ll want to meet the adorably gawky William Barfee (Matt Williams), “It’s pronounced Bar-fey, ”he corrects, employing the Gallic accent aigu. He’s the personification of teenage bluff and bluster and a shoo-in representative for the Lollipop Guild. But his peanut allergies seem to get the best of him until he’s given the word “antihistamine”. “Luck of the draw,” he stammers before acing it.
 Maureen Rohn (Olive Ostrovsky) and Amy Conley (Rona Lisa Perretti) - Photos by Shane Canfield Crack cast members nail their character’s kooky persona to the letter, and the entire hyper-talented bunch sing their faces off through thirteen riotous numbers. Watch for ingénue Maureen Rohn who tears the roof off with the heart-breaking “The I Love You Song”.
Producer Mary Beth Smith-Toomey, Director Frank D. Shutts II, and Music Director Christopher Tomasino can add another notch to Little Theatre’s long-standing mega-repertoire of successes!
At The Little Theatre of Alexandria 600 Wolfe Street through February 4th. For tickets and information call 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com.
Jordan Wright
December 11, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Brandon DeGroat (Ghost of Christmas Present) and Marcus Fisk (Scrooge) The Little Theatre of Alexandria celebrates the holiday season with a return of Charles Dickens’ heartwarming classic A Christmas Carol. An endearing portrait of mid-nineteenth century England, the age-old tale features Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly Victorian humbug, who travels with ghostly guides through Christmas past, present, and future to find the true meaning of the holidays. Replete with special effects, lavish Victorian costumes and the ever-precious Tiny Tim, this family-friendly seasonal reprise is drawn from the original text and perfectly adapted for the stage by Donna Ferragut. Under Robin Parker’s smooth direction this holiday special sparkles like freshly fallen snow.
A Christmas Carol runs through December 18th. For tickets and information call 703 683-0496 or visit www.TheLittleTheatre.com.
 Brandon DeGroat (Ghost of Christmas Present) and Marcus Fisk (Scrooge) |
 Full Cast |
Jordan Wright
November 28, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Dan (Brian Sutherland) and Jenna (Diane Sutherland) both admiring a Rothko painting at the Museum of Modern Art in "A Second Chance". At Virginia’s Signature Theatre through December 11, 2011. www.signature-theatre.org. Photo: Christopher Mueller. Not only is this delicious show a world premiere, but it also marks the auspicious debut of a new talent, Ted Shen, a businessman and arts patron that might better qualify for full retirement. That he is celebrating the opening of his first show as writer, composer and lyricist, is rather astounding, unless you notice that his bio reveals he is a Taiwanese financier educated at the posh
Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University and foundation president and board member for both Yale University and the Art Commission of the City of New York. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Shen’s foundation has also provided funding support for major productions by Stephen Sondheim, who happens to be Mr. Shen’s musical theatre hero. But whatever his curriculum vitae or his tony connections his breakthrough musical, A Second Chance, can more than stand on its own two legs.
Billed as a lyrical duet the musical is a modern love affair as much for its characters as its audience. Two top-drawer Broadway stars, Brian and Diane Sutherland, sing rather than speak their parts. Both have the most exquisitely controlled, pitch perfect voices that gently express the emotional dynamics of a budding relationship. Jenna, coming off a divorce, gives voice to her demons in “Damaged Goods”. She is broken and unsure of their new love, especially since Dan is a recent widower and photos of his late wife fill his apartment. Dan is still communicating telepathically with his dearly departed, seeking approval to pursue his new life and love of Jenna. In an effort to break with the past he sings, “Tell Me When.”
A simple stage set with clear plexiglass chairs and tables allow the audience to mesh with each scene change while following the
progression of the mid-life couple’s personal evolution. Projected black and white photos of New York’s Central Park, his brownstone and her therapist’s office, afford a simple sense of place. And that’s enough because it’s all about the music here – lush atmospheric songs by an astonishing songwriter whose elegant stylings borrow from the Sondheim tradition with shades of Judy
Collins and The Fantasticks. Top notch musicians capture the mood for a New York evening as familiar as a martini served straight up while basking at The Oak Room at The Plaza or listening to Bobby Short at the Café Carlyle.
Enchantingly sophisticated and emotionally aware.
Through December 11th at Signature Theatre – 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA in the Shirlington neighborhood. For tickets and information call 703 820-9771 or visit www.signature-theatre.org.
Jordan Wright
November 28, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Natalie Berk as Juliet and Alex Mills as Romeo - Photo Credit: Graeme B. Shaw Deck the halls with lots of show tunes for MetroStage’s A Broadway Christmas Carol. This delicious dose of Christmas spoof playing through December 18th highlights holiday irreverence with a hilarious and campy send up of Charles Dicken’s classic tale featuring 31 well-known Broadway show tunes, 23 wig changes, 20 separate costume changes and 4 sprightly cast members.
At MetroStage – 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, VA. For tickets and information call 1 800 494-8497 or visit www.metrostage.org.
Jordan Wright
November 28, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Natalie Berk as Juliet and Alex Mills as Romeo - Photo Credit: Graeme B. Shaw When Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili asked in his intro, “How many of you have been to a Synetic production before?” and half the audience’s hands shot up, even he was as surprised as the rest of us converts to this exciting brand of physical theatre. My seat neighbors, a mother and daughter who were Paraguayan, asked me if the play was silent. I could hardly wait to see their reactions after the show. (In a small world moment they were just as amazed to see a fellow countryman in the production.)
A giant swaying pendulum is the symbol Synetic Theater presents to describe the inconvenient passage of time in its recent remount of their celebrated and multiple Helen Hayes-awarded production of Romeo and Juliet. Time, as shown by the inner workings of a clock with its individual gears heaving forth and trapping the players in its relentless grip, becomes a metaphor for life. It is a powerful and intriguing image – a ‘time monster’ that gobbles up both the innocent and the guilty – and it is repeated throughout as the characters spin in and out among the moving parts.
As the last in Synetic’s “Speak No More” trilogy of silent Shakespeare plays, it is a clear departure from the more grisly Othello and Macbeth that preceded it. So it is refreshing when in place of the clash of swords the only sound the audience hears echoing off the back seats are kisses. There are kisses of endearment from the Nanny to Juliet, Juliet’s father Lord Capulet to her, and Friar Laurence who plants a paternal kiss on Romeo’s pate. And yes, you can hear each one. But the kisses and lovemaking between Romeo and Juliet are the most unforgettably electrifying exchanges.
In a radical interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tale, Synetic explores the physicality and raw emotionality of Romeo and Juliet’s love. At their first meeting they mirror each other’s emotions, swaying together as they fluidly synch their movements.
With flashing spotlights alternating from all sides of the stage, we witness the lovers arriving in their bedchamber after their wedding vows. The scene progresses to a single-beamed and scrim-silhouetted vignette of a languorous and erotic danse d’amour. Director Paata Tsikurishvili opts to play up the lovers’ passions, drawing the audience in with the use of sensuality and playfulness. Yet ever present are the insinuating gears, twisting and turning, screeching and clacking, marking time for the fated lovers.
When Ryan Sellers makes his entrance as the villainous Tybalt, using arrogance and swagger, he transforms the masked ball scene in the second act from one of merriment and celebration to one of impending danger and we see the tension between the families arise as Lord Capulet steps in to put an end to his fight with Romeo.
The street scene in which the Nurse (played by the enchantingly feisty Irina Tsikurishvili) goes to deliver a message to Romeo and meets up with Mercutio is also fraught with raw sexuality. Phillip Fletcher (Mercutio) comes off as a delicious scoundrel in a lengthy battle between the sexes. But she gives as good as she gets and his abuse is trumped in a complex fight scene between the two with the Nurse coming out on top with a wink and a nod to women power.
The gorgeous Fredericksburg, VA actor Alex Mills brings a sexy vitality to the role of Romeo in perfect counterbalance to the exquisite Natalie Berk as Juliet, who embodies the quintessence of innocence with her delicate lithesome grace. To support the dancers with powerful background music Sound Designer Irakli Kavsadze interweaves mesmerizing electronica and waltzes along with Gregorian chants to transition scenes from violence to passion.
If you’ve never seen Synetic Theater’s productions, and apparently there are a few who haven’t, don’t miss this one.
Through December 23rd at Synetic Theater, 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA in Crystal City – For tickets and information call 1 800 494-8497 or visit www.synetictheater.org.
Jordan Wright
November 7, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Robin Zerbe (Irma) & Doug Sanford (Mengele) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted “Evil can be most appealing, even when it comes packaged so attractively,” declares the sage defense attorney (David Adler) to the young prosecutor, referring to the captivating Irma Grese, known as the “Blonde Angel of Auschwitz”.
It is important to place a good deal of weight onto this observation as Irma, comrade and lover to the notoriously barbaric Dr. Josef Mengele, is revealed to be a very complex villainess indeed. Drawn from the life and courtroom testimony of the notoriously sadistic Nazi guard, the drama becomes a psychological study on the fallibility of appearances and perceptions.
Using archival footage of Adolf Hitler greeting his fanatical countrymen from inside a convertible Mercedes, German recruitment posters from the 30’s and 40’s, and video of Nazi-saluting Hitler-Jugend, the Aryan youth movement trained in anti-Semitism, Director Bruce Folmer creates a haunting backdrop to open this chilling play. Coupled with visual compiled by Folmer, there is stunning audio. A German folk song plays cheerfully against the screech of a train grinding to a halt, evoking the horror about to befall its innocent Jewish passengers. Ninety-six people in a railroad car meant to hold eight horses, was standard operating procedure in this unthinkable transport.
Standing at attention before a large crimson and black Nazi flag, Irma, a paragon of SS fervor and shining example of The Third Reich, is revealed to the audience. Jack-booted and outfitted with Luger pistol and horsewhip – her beauty lies in stark contrast to the evil she represents. She is twenty years old. She will be assigned to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp before being transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp where she had an affair with Mengele. Later she was sent to Bergen-Belsen where she was ultimately captured by the British Army at twenty-two and sent to prison for her crimes.
 Robin Zerbe (Irma) & Luba Hansen (Olga) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted Barely out of her teens, Irma oversaw 30,000 women. Her duty to The Reich was selecting victims condemned to the gas chambers known euphemistically as “bakeries”. At her trial in Luneberg, Germany in 1945, she is accused of war crimes so brutal and sadistic, as to terrify the Devil himself. Abandoned by her parents, her younger sister Helene, who dutifully visits her in prison, testifies to her cowardliness in the schoolyard and her former innocence.
The script, when it is in the courtroom, adheres faithfully to actual testimony at trial. But it is in the exploration of the complexities of evil and its shifting effect on the characters that this play becomes the gripping drama that it is.
Robin Zerbe reflects the twisted psyche of the amoral Irma convincingly. She chills us to the bone when she declares, “At Ravensbruck they had great teachers! There were two types, those that killed and those that were to be killed!” Zerbe fashions a beguiling Salome, as unapologetic as a kitten and as deadly as an adder, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Juxtaposing Irma is the pure-hearted Helene played by the porcelain-skinned Deanna Gowland who presents us with a delicate dirndl-clad Heidi more acceptable to our Teutonic memory. Gowland shows she is up to the task, with a subtle portrayal that reflects a promising future treading the boards.
The “nightmare” aspect in the titling arrives in the final act when the young prosecutor (Casey Jones) dreams of Irma. Jones does a good job of depicting a man in conflict, alternately displaying disgust and bewilderment. Charmed by her beauty, repelled by her acts, he is tormented by her influence on him. Also notable is Doug Sanford, who gives a performance rich with swagger as the chillingly manipulative monster, Josef Mengele.
 Robin Zerbe (Irma), Casey Jones (Prosecutor) & David Adler (Defense Attorney) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted Additional credit should go to Carol Strachan as British accent coach and Robin Zerbe, whose many years living in Germany allowed her to nail not only the accent, which she taught to her other cast members, but the gesticulations and inflections that were spot on.
With Angel: A Nightmare in Two Acts Port City Playhouse continues its well-earned reputation for successfully tackling serious and difficult topics by delving into highly-charged racial, social and political material. They consistently prove their merit while serving as a beacon to community theatre.
At The Lab Studio Theatre at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. Performances continue on these dates – November 11, 12, 15, 18 and 19 at 8:00 pm and November 12 and 19 at 2 pm. For tickets and information call 703 838-2880 or email PortCityInfo.com for reservations or visit www.portcityplayhouse.com.
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