Jordan Wright
November 7, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Rachael Hubbard as Belinda and Lars Klores as Frederick - Photos by Shane Canfield From the classic genre of dry-as-a-martini British sex farces (think BBC’s To the Manor Born, Benny Hill or Are You Being Served?) British playwright Michael Frayn’s classic Noises Off comes to The Little Theatre of Alexandria. Devised as a play-within-a-play-within-a-play, the audience is in on the joke…and an adorably risqué joke it is…filled with snappy repartee, double entendres and a constant stream of ludicrous misinterpretations.
As the curtain rises we are treated to a seemingly serene drawing room in the English countryside. The manor’s newly wedded couple Phillip and Flavia Brent are honeymooning in Spain. But we are actually viewing the stage at the Grand Theatre in Weston-super-Mare where Lloyd Dallas, the director of a motley troupe of British actors, is staging his final dress rehearsal and it is most assuredly not going according to script with six neurotic actors, one frustrated director and two overworked stagehands threatening to undermine a smooth opening.
 John Crowley as Timothy and Bruce Alan Rauscher as Lloyd - Photos by Shane Canfield Actress-as-housekeeper Dotty Otley aka Mrs. Clackett cannot keep her props in order – ditto for her timing. The proper sequence of picking up a plate of sardines, replacing a phone receiver or a taking a folded newspaper off set are far too vexing for her and the paternalistic director tries to soothe the perpetually flummoxed actress. However being flummoxed is the order of the day for this hapless group of has-beens who are all sweetly sensitive to each other’s foibles. When Belinda Blair, playing newlywed Flavia Brent and thinking the rehearsal is just a technical run through, declares, “I just love ‘technicals’. Everyone’s so nice to everyone!” it’s a swell insider’s joke.
Enter yet more flummoxed actors to this madcap romp in the form of family solicitor Roger Tramplemain aka actor Adam Downs and his frothy little minx Vicki aka actress Brooke Ashton both hell-bent on an illicit out-of-the-office tryst. The duo explain their unannounced arrival by telling Mrs. Clackett, aka the more aptly named Dotty Otley, that the owners are selling the house and Vicki is there to explore the posh digs. But their coitus is ‘interruptus’ when the stage becomes a high-speed wacky whirlwind of slammed doors and miscues as they try to hide from the unexpectedly early return of the home’s honeymooning owners and an opportunistic burglar played by an actor whose booze-fueled missed entrances require a trio of understudies.
 Kat Sanchez as Brooke, Gayle Nichols-Grimes as Dotty, Ron Bianchi as Selsdon, John Crowley as Timothy, and Rachael Hubbard as Belinda - Photos by Shane Canfield There is plenty of opportunity for things to go horribly wrong and they do in spades with sloppy timing, muffed lines and faulty scenery as the order of the day. When Freddie as Actor-in-Perpetual-Crisis-Mode flubs his lines for the umpteenth time, Dallas suggests, “I think this show is beyond the help of the director himself!”
By Act III the play is in its third month and the cast’s backstage romantic high jinks have reached a feverish pitch. In a clever reverse the set becomes the theatre’s backstage and the audience, yes, that’s still us, is treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the complexities of stagecraft and the everything-that-can-be-misconstrued-and-is nature of the cast’s amorous adventures. The beleaguered Dallas tries vainly to keep all his actor-ducks in a row while carrying on simultaneous affairs with both Poppy the Prop Girl (Elizabeth Heir) and Brooke the deliciously corseted and gartered Minx. That the action takes place in stage whispers and arm-flailing pantomime while the show goes on out of view, is screwball comedy at its finest.
 Adam Downs as Garry and Kat Sanchez as Brooke - Photos by Shane Canfield In real life the seasoned cast of this zany production is more than up to the task. In particular, Bruce Alan Rauscher who provides anchor with his superciliously solicitous portrayal of Dallas; Kat Sanchez, a thoroughly engaging morsel of ingénue eye candy; and Adam Downs as Lejeune, her floundering Venus flytrap. Gayle Nichols-Grimes sets the Mrs. Malaprop tone with true aplomb as the put-upon housekeeper, Rachel Hubbard rocks the eternally sympatico Belinda Blair, and Lars Klores does some mighty scene-stealing as husband Freddie.
Thank ‘real life’ director and LTA veteran, C. Evans Kirk, for bringing us this frothy bowl of sexy Brit wit.
At The Little Theatre of Alexandria 600 Wolfe Street through November 26th. For tickets and information call 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com.
Jordan Wright
October 24, 2011
Special to www.MDTheatreGuide.com
 Philip Fletcher, Irina Tsikurishvili, and Alex Mill as lago - photo credit to Graeme B. Shaw  Five Stars
Expect the unexpected when Synetic Theater takes on The Bard. For as many dramatic elements – jealousy, perfidy, lust and murder – as Shakespeare has drawn upon for this play, Synetic proposes a paradigm shift with powerful physicality and radically conceptualized artistry. That it is done without the eloquence of Shakespeare’s words does not for one instant compromise its dramatic appeal. It in fact strips bare the Elizabethan dialogue and British accents to reveal the intensity and intricacy of the human condition as poetically as ever.
In continuing their fall Silent Shakespeare Festival, Synetic Theater Director Paata Tsikurishvili and his wife, Choreographer and actress Irina Tsikurishvili, take on the epic tragedy of Othello in their fierce style of classical Russian ballet comingled with Martha Graham modernism, Olympian athleticism and Marcel Marceau mime to produce an experience worthy of Fellini.
On a Cubist-inspired set tricked out with crimson, white and honeycombed black panels of rotating scalene triangles our Othello is introduced as a slave – shackled and shorn and witness to his lover’s murder. With her dying breath she gifts the grieving lover with a pristine white lace handkerchief that re-emerges throughout the drama as a symbol of pure love against a backdrop of duplicitous double-dealing.
In Synetic’s interpretation we are given a trio of messianic Iagos played quite scathingly delicious by Irina Tsikurishvili, Philip Fletcher and Alex Mills. Representing Othello’s nemesis and savior, these multi-Iagos cajole, encourage and undermine Othello at every turn by invoking the id, the ego and the super-ego, while serving as the perfect vehicle to explore the bitter conflicts within their relationship.
 Salma Shaw as Desdemona and Roger Payano as Othello - Philip Fletcher, Irina Tsikurishvili, and Alex Mill as lago - photo credit to Graeme B. Shaw Roger Payano triumphs as the tragic yet sympathetic Venetian Moor. His sensuous muscular body insinuates fiery passion. His suffering is ours yet otherworldly too. He is burning flame and cool control – dominating the dynamic in depicting mankind’s triumphs and foibles.
Combining the responsibilities of costume and set design allow designer Anastasia L. Simes to emphasize and coordinate dramatic themes with vibrant color, shape and meticulous detail. Simes’ imagination is stylish and specific as she echoes the black, white and crimson in the set, props, clothing and punked-out Iago hairstyles.
In a setting worthy of covert ops, roving Iago paparazzi with video cameras surreptitiously collect images of Desdemona (played by the enchanting Salma Shaw) with Othello and Bianca cavorting with Cassio. They edit the film, splicing the lovers into alternate relationships, inferring a reverse love affair between Cassio and Desdemona, and fueling Othello’s murderous rage. With hand-held video projectors the evil crew splashes the dream-like images across the stage allowing us into the nether reaches of Othello’s tortured mind as he hallucinates the lovers’ illicit tryst.
Lighting by Andrew F. Griffin creates an evocative and eerie dimension while an otherworldly electronica of music and sound effects by composer Konstantine Lortkipanidze blend in a harmonic of fire meets ice with a wicked cool vibe.
Synetic encapsulates all that can be achieved in experimental theatre. The collective force of this Othello is a raw and powerful voyage – a totally original interpretation of the bard’s masterwork.
Run time 90 minutes without intermission.
Othello runs through November 6th at Synetic Theater at 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA 22202. Metro: Crystal City (Blue/Yellow Lines) Parking: Free after 4pm on weekdays. All day on weekends. For tickets and information call 1 800-494-8497 or visit www.synetictheater.org.
Jordan Wright
September 29, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
Signature Theatre kicks off its new seasons series, “Sex, Drama and Rock n’ Roll,” with “Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South.” In this 90-minute non-stop monologue, dramatist, actor, writer and Northwestern University professor E. Patrick Johnson offers a primer on gay black men growing up in the South. It’s a powerful, unadulterated expression of pain, humor and pathos.
Johnson, an archivist, takes us to his hometown of Hickory, N.C., the “furniture capital of the world,” and into the dark past of the Deep South, interviewing more than 70 black gay men, ages 19 to 93, in a quest to explore his roots and challenge the definition of the stereotypical gay black male.
The play has evolved from his book of the same name, penned after a conversation in 1995 at a black HIV / AIDS gathering in Washington, DC, where he heard the voices of older black men.
As a child Johnson suffered his share of bullying, with playmates calling him “a mean little sissy.” Growing up in a small town divided by railroad tracks — blacks on the south side, whites to the north — he became the first African American from his town to earn a Ph.D.
“It just came on,” Johnson says of his homosexuality. One day his mother prompts him to explain it. He asks her, “Was there ever a time when you were attracted to another woman? Well, neither was I.”
Acting out his stories in vignettes, Johnson channels 14 characters with vastly different experiences, from hairdressers and transgenders to drag queens and preachers on the down low. He is a supreme mimic and muscular actor who minces, gavottes and genuflects to tell a story.
In a scene revealing the hypocrisy of the church, he becomes Jerome, a minister with questionable sexuality. Jerome doesn’t have a wife because, as he says, “I believe in the Bible.”
Adding his experiences to the mix, Johnson testifies to the “sway that lulls church babies into a gospel coma.” There were a lot of knowing “A-mens!” from the I’m-hip-to-that audience.
Scenic designer Kylph Sanford evocatively sets the piece on a southern front porch, adding a rocking chair, tree stump, trellises, wispy Spanish moss and an old tire swing that Johnson uses to great effect. It opens with Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” playing gently in the background, and a teacart with a pitcher of iced sweet tea becomes a stunning metaphor for the conflicting social traditions of the genteel South. Old black spirituals, disco music from the “Hotlanta” gay scene of the ’70s, soul music from the ’60s and gospel tunes from the hallelujah chorus tie the fast-paced cameos together.
Johnson is raw, honest and candid about himself and his subject. “Sweet Tea” is a high-voltage, frank sex talk — a fiery social commentary by a skilled mimic and performer who shares the struggles, triumphs and vulnerabilities of a rarely so deeply explored minority.
At Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., in Arlington through October 9. For tickets and information, visit www.signature-theatre.org or call 703 820-9771.
Jordan Wright
September 19, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
Port City Playhouse, a community theatre whose work has continually expressed challenging and innovative productions with a high level of complexity, has chosen two one-acts by American playwright Christopher Durang to open the new fall season. From the company’s former home at Lee Center to a humble theatre at The Lab at Convergence in Alexandria, I have reviewed many of the group’s stellar performances that have often outshone some of the best, most elaborate stagings the area has to offer. But unfortunately, these were not in the same league as their past successes.
In The Actor’s Nightmare, a comedic mash-up, snug in Durang’s absurdist niche, our erstwhile hero George is shuffled willy-nilly by his co-stars into various roles in various plays – from Noel Coward’s Private Lives to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. George, a lowly accountant, shows up at the theatre and is mistaken for the play’s lead actor Edwin Booth, late for his curtain call. The premise calls to mind the classic actor’s nightmare of forgetting what play he’s in, what lines to use, or what role he’s playing and in which production. George who tries his best to wiggle out of the situation has his worst fears realized when numerous attempts to get his lines from the stage manager are ultimately abandoned and he begins to quote from every play he’s ever known, so the show can go on.
To his dismay, his leading lady forces his response. “Extraordinary how potent cheap music is!” she declares repetitively quoting Noel Coward. But poor George’s desperation to find the appropriate line only mounts, and the audience’s hilarity rises in sync, as he recites adages, platitudes, soliloquies, Shakespearean plays, and ultimately the Pledge of Allegiance in an attempt to mollify her.
Ric Andersen (George), an oft-praised local performer, does a bang up job as the hapless Hamlet and erstwhile Elyot and manages to keep the laughs rolling along with Aimee Meher-Homji (Ellen Terry) and Larissa Norris (Meg). Ignore the inferior production values if you can.
The twofer concludes with Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You which premiered off-Broadway in 1979 in fine company with plays by Tennessee Williams, David Mamet and Marsha Norman and later ran for many years in revivals. Ground-breaking for its time, its current relevance seems dubious. An informal poll reveals some Catholics identify with the issues and some don’t. As a non-Catholic I could only speculate as to the validity of the horrors of Catholic school and that of some of the nuns. Though I have certainly not been exempt to tales told out of school.
In any case Sister Mary Ignatius has it all figured out – heaven, hell, purgatory and limbo in living color, and if this strikes a chord with you than sign on for the ride along with The Good Shepherd. The Sister, ably played by Amy Solo returning to the stage after a 29-year absence, punctuates her rigid precepts with her mini-me, little Thomas, who spouts the catechism like a faithful pup begging for treats, that she in fact doles out to him with each rote recitation. Remy Bartell is a third-grader who bloody near steals the whole shebang with his spot on, gap-toothed portrayal of Thomas. (Oh W.C. Fields where are you? Fields knew kids and dogs would steal the spotlight and avoided them like the plague.)
When former students return for a reenactment of a school play, the Sister learns they are not the adoring children she reminisces about. They are embittered, damaged by her Draconian methods, and looking for a face-off as she talks “of the utter randomness of life”. The ending is so stunning I cannot reveal it except to say that it redeems the whole play.
Spirited acting and inferior staging make for an uneven experience. But see it if only for the message that most in the audience clearly related to.
Port City Playhouse at The Lab at Convergence 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. Through October 2nd, 2011. For tickets and information visit www.portcityplayhouse.com.
Jordan Wright
July 23, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 L to R: Jacklyn Young as Penny, Christina Kidd as Amber, Shannon Kingett as Tracy, Christopher Harris as Edna - Photography by Doug Olmsted  The Council Kids: Meg Glassco, Reeny Eul, Jacob Wittenauer, Chris Rios - Photography by Doug Olmsted Could a down-low Baltimore gore-obsessed gay filmmaker, thrown out of film school for smoking dope, carve a campy classic out of a cross-dressing trash-talking 350-pound trailer park transvestite named DIvine? You betcha, Hon! When art house cinematographer John Waters made Hairspray, the 1988 comedy film with Sonny Bono, Ricki Lake, Debbie Harry, and ohmygod little Pia Zadora, he was a far cry from mainstream culture. Fast forward to the Tony Awards in 2003 when Hairspray the musical wins for Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction, Best Original Score and Best Performance for Harvey Fierstein.
The switch from screenplay to stage production was remarkably successful given its unconventional characters. But what’s not to love about a stubborn, star-struck teen who against all odds pursues her dreams, an adoring father who supports his family by selling exploding cigars from his Har-de-Har Hut joke shop, and a steam iron-compulsive mother with a heart of gold, who’s the polar opposite of June Cleaver.
With original music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman the story takes us back to segregated 1950’s Baltimore, where weight-challenged teenybopper Tracy Turnblad, prays for the day she can get on television’s Corny Collins Show, a local American Bandstand-clone Waters based on the original real-life Buddy Deane Show. Together with galpal, Penny Pingleton, they swoon and squeal for the handsome crooner and cool daddy-o, Link Larkin, and dream the impossible dream of the day they can shake and shimmy on the show. But Tracy is no average teen, she’s confident, determined and socially aware, and through her efforts to get black and white kids to dance together on the show, “It’s so Afro-tastic! “she declares, she becomes the accidental integrationist.
In this production, one of the cheeriest, most heartfelt, rip-roaring musical productions ever to hit The Little Theatre of Alexandria, Director Sue Pinkman, has brought her acting knowledge and directing skills together to forge a solid cast of 30 singer/dancer/actors into a tightly-hewn, energetic, leap-out-of-your-seat musical.
 Mark Williams as Harriman F. Spritzer, Gardner Reed as Corny Collins, Janette Moman as Velma Von Tussle - Photography by Doug Olmsted  Shannon Kingett as Tracey; Christopher Harris as Edna - Photography by Doug Olmsted Choreographer Ivan Davila’s makes his own magic on the theatre’s modest stage with the exceptional challenge of smoothly arranging everyone in sync and on target for some terrific dancing – in one number 20 hoofers are on stage groovin’ to “The Madison” in Pinky’s Hefty Hideway, a shop for the weight-challenged and in the case of Mr. Pinky (Scott J. Strasbaugh) vertically-challenged too.
Seventeen musical numbers, a crack off-stage eight-piece band, plus saucy reprises from red hot mama Velma Von Tussle (Janette Moman) vamping her theme song “Miss Baltimore Crabs”, gives ample opportunity to give all the performers a chance to shine. But how to single any one performer out of this stellar group when they all aced the test? Below are a few standouts.
Shannon Kingett is Tracy Turnblad, or is it the other way round? The young actress positively exhales Tracy – adorable, irrepressible and feisty. Watch her turn the beat around from the first note of “Good Morning Baltimore”.
Gardner Reed as Corny Collins masterfully portraying the beloved bebop host-with-a-heart.
Christopher Harris as Edna Turnblad (Divine’s original role) with glorious timing and sly humor. “Pour me a teeny weeny triple.” A perfect coupling with Larry Grey as hubby Wilbur Turnblad, their two-step duet, “You’re Timeless to Me”, proves opposites really do attract.
Adrian Cubbage playing the color-line breaking hipster Seaweed J. Stubbs with a deliciously sweet soulfulness to his voice in “Run and Tell That”, convincing Penny “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.”
 Brenda Parker as Motormouth Maybelle, with Zaria Stott as Shayna - Photography by Doug Olmsted Brenda Parker as the rhyming Maybelle, “We can’t get lazy when things get crazy,” she tells the teens. The savvy owner of Motormouth Records Shop, she will rip your heart out while you hold back the tears, in her powerful rendition of “I Know Where I’ve Been”.
Gina Tomkus ably handling four, yes four! parts as the scene-stealing geeky gym teacher, one of the chorus of Pinkettes, Penny’s dowdy overbearing mother, Prudy Pingleton, and the sexy leather-clad, whip-snapping prison matron. How is this possible?
The whole Motormouth Gang, “If we get anymore white people in here it’s gonna be a suburb!” And little Derrick “Blake” Hopkins Jr. as Stooie, who snags the most timely line of the night with his flip response to Tracy’s “Where do you go after Special Ed?” “Congress!” he wisely quips.
A tremendously talented cast all around in a huge hit for The Little Theatre. Does Tracy get her man? Is her hair high enough? Does she win the title of Miss Teenage Hairspray? What do you think, Hon?
At The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, through August 13th. For tickets and information call 703 683-5778 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com.
Jordan Wright
June 27th, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 The cast and set of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Ethan McSweeny. Photo by Scott Suchman. From the start the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s version of The Merchant of Venice crackles with electricity amid the hustle-bustle of a large commerce-driven metropolis. On a one-size-fits-all set, trisected by levels and diagonalized by a sweeping three-story staircase, booze-fueled revelers burst through a set of wooden doors in a crazed conga line as they whirl past the train station’s café and into the ether of billowing locomotive steam. The set seems lifted from the Main Concourse at Grand Central Station in New York City, and that’s a good thing because this version of Shakespeare’s familiar tragicomedy has been shapeshifted into The Jazz Age of the 1920’s and launched into the era of hot flappers and cool bathtub gin.
 Derek Smith as Antonio and Julia Coffey as Portia in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Ethan McSweeny. Photo by Scott Suchman. In a sweeping reinterpretation of the characters by Director Ethan McSweeney, the beguiling Portia is depicted as a horseback riding, golf-playing heiress and The Prince of Arragon as a mincing, Pekinese-toting yachtsman. In this version of the classic tale, Antonio, the cocksure privateer, becomes a self-absorbed commodities trader and The Prince of Morocco, an aviating daredevil playboy. Try envisioning The Little Prince on Viagra.
On a more serious note, Evans’ Shylock shows a grim yet brilliant accuracy…an accuracy that can get you blackballed in the Jewish community. His portrayal of the vengeful moneylender, written as the quintessentially unflattering stereotype of an Orthodox Jew, one whose sense of justice outweighs his sense of mercy, is unflinching. The outcast, as it was written, is a despicable man worthy of inclusion in a Nazi propaganda film short. It’s no wonder Theodore Bikel turned the role down and Evans is thought to be the first Jew ever to accept it. But stop a moment to recognize its worth in the play, it’s no more and no less than a racist characterization and there are countless plays and ethnically-correct actors cast in these thorny roles daily.
Keeping to the new pattern, regional New York and British accents are cleverly tweaked to fit by dialogue coach Deena Burke, with Gratiano, Salerio and Solanio as Bowery Boys; the Duke of Venice as a dese-dem-and-dose mobster; Shylock as a Yiddish-accented Hassidim straight out of Williamsburg, Brooklyn; and Portia as an upper crust Brit on a charm mission. Reattach the untinkered-with script, et voila! a fresh new dynamic. Shakespeare meets F. Scott Fitzgerald on the Lower East Side of Venice.
 Tim Getman as Solanio and Andy Murray as Solario in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Ethan McSweeny. Photo by Scott Suchman. Composer Stephen Cahill reinforces the aura with music from the 1920’s, using sultry horns, Charlestonian rhythms and golden standards while Lightning Director Marcus Doshi manages to bring an amber-tinted intimacy to the enormous set, while Jennifer Moeller’s does justice with movie star beaded satin dresses and chic riding attire that share the stage with gangster-style zoot suits, Orthodox Jewish robes and elegant white tie cutaways.
And lest you imagine the production to be tarted up by bold primary colors, knowest all who hearest the proclamation, that the set, designed by Andrew Lieberman, in understated shades of grey, beige and blue, doesn’t distract from the bard’s masterpiece of comedy and still-relevant social drama.
I took as my escort my 13-year old grandson whose knowledge of Shakespeare was A Midsummer’s Night Dream read in dreary black and white (dull compared to the Internet and the technicolor graphics of video games). He was not expecting, nor I, the modernist spin given to the play and sat up with eyes wide open enjoying every action-packed minute of it, most especially the dramatic arrivals of Portia’s suitors.
Bravura performances by Julia Coffey (Portia), Mark Nelson (Shylock), Derek Smith (Antonio), Drew Cortese (Bassanio) and Vaneik Echeverria (The Prince of Arragon). Look for Daniel Pierce to astound in the small role of Launcelot Gabbo.
This is a Merchant with packed with panache and sprinkled with roadsters, radios and champagne toasts.
Five stars.
Through July 24th at the Sidney Harmon Hall, 615 F Street, NW, Washington, DC. For tickets and information call 202 547-1122 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org.
|
