Jordan Wright
Special to MD Theatre Guide
May 23, 2011
 Judge Omar Noose (Evan Thompson), Carl Lee Hailey (Dion Graham), center, and Jake Brigance (Sebastian Arcelus) in John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill”. Photo Credit Arena Stage In the dog days of summer in a muggy Mississippi courtroom in rural Ford County, the chilling details of Pete Willard’s confession to the recent rape and torture of Tonya Hailey, a 10-year old black girl, are read by the judge. At the pre-trial hearing the father of the child, Carl Lee, stands stoically in attendance, as the twisted brutality of the heinous crime is revealed. Willard and his drug-dealing redneck crony, Billy Ray Cobb, are the accused. Their yellow Ford pickup with the Confederate flag mounted on the back, was spotted at nearby Lake Tutula. With a signed confession in hand and the victim clinging to life, it’s all but a slam dunk for the prosecutor, until Carl Lee guns down the defendants in cold blood and the air is sucked out of the theatre by the sound of gunshots.
It is the first of Grisham’s crime novels to be brought to the stage and Tony Award-winning scriptwriter Rupert Holmes’ adaptation is certain to be considered a classic along with successful courtroom dramas like 12 Angry Men and Inherit the Wind.
Though the powerful story is set in the post-Civil Rights era of the South, nothing much has changed in rural Mississippi. Director Ethan McSweeney does much to evoke the period with haunting visual and musical references. The sound of Bluegrass, suggestive of the film Deliverance, intertwines with echoes of “We Shall Overcome” heard beneath the courtroom windows. Walls dotted with ‘50’s era television sets showing scenes of fiery Klansmen spewing racist hatred are layered with the chilling sounds of a child screaming “Daddy! Daddy!” Interspersed with flickering static-filled TV images, DC news anchor, J. C. Hayward, plays the role of Felicia Albright trial reporter.
As further mood-enhancement, Set Designer James Noone’s clever layout rotates the stage morphing it from a courtroom into the home-under-Klan-siege of the Brigance family, and back again. Lighting Designer York Kennedy boosts the somber mood with the blades of a ceiling fan casting spinning shadows across the courtroom floor. The only thing missing is the aroma of buttermilk fried chicken and a Mississippi mud cake wafting across the stage.
In one particularly effective staging device, Director McSweeney has Judge Noose (an ironical name not lost on Carl Lee), D.A. Buckley and Defense Attorney Brigance face the audience to make their respective cases, giving the audience the eerie sense that they are involved in the deliberations.
But as with real life there’s also levity amidst the tension, enough to allow the audience, who’ve been gripping their seats, a chance to breathe. Southerners can find humor in a funeral and, true to Grisham’s original novel, it’s reflected here.
There are outstanding performances by Sebastian Arcelus (a Matthew McConaughey look-alike) as ambitious Defense Attorney Jake Brigance and his Junior Leaguer wife, Carla Jane, played by Erin Davie; Brennan Brown as the smarmy District Attorney with political aspirations Rufus Buckley; and Rosie Benton as sharp-witted legal assistant and erstwhile flirt, Ellen Roark (“I make the best damn margarita!”), whose slinky sex appeal charms the judge and seeks to undermine Jake’s marriage.
John C. Vennema crafts the charming Hawaiian-shirted, bourbon-swilling down-and-out attorney, Lucien Wilbanks, whose metaphors, “whiter than an albino mouse in a snowstorm”, are pure down home. But it’s Dion Graham in the role of the 46-year old Vietnam vet, Carl Lee Hailey, who will rip your heart out with his graceful, understated portrayal of the grieving father. “God had a son,” he ironically observes, “He didn’t have a daughter!”
Here’s my verdict. A Time to Kill is a raw and riveting drama that sears with redemptive emotion. It is a mega hit for Arena that should send this production straight to Broadway.
At Arena Stage through June 19th. 1101 Sixth Street, SW, Washington, DC. For tickets call 202 488-3300 or visit www.areanastage.org.
Running time: 2 hours
Jordan Wright
Special to The Alexandria Times
May 10, 2011
 Nancy Anderson, Sherri L. Edelen and Matthew Scott star in Signature Theatre's production of the 1976 musical revue Side by Side by Sondheim. Playing through June 12, 2011. Photo credit Scott Suchman. Where were you when you first heard “Send in the Clowns”? What about “Something’s Coming” or “I Have a Love” from West Side Story? We all have powerful first-time memories of hearing the music of Stephen Sondheim. What are yours?
I was in The National Hotel in Frenchtown, NJ, just across the Delaware from Bucks County, PA, when owner Claiborne Cary, sister of Cloris Leachman and show biz star in her own right, brought her guests to tears with “Send in the Clowns”, one of Sondheim’s classics from A Little Night Music. That was in the early ‘70’s when the show was hot and before every two-bit lounge singer had crucified it.
On Broadway in 1957 I saw Chita Rivera as Anita and Carol Lawrence as Maria tear up the house with “I Have a Love” and “Something’s Coming” in West Side Story. I was sitting with my family on the left side of the house a few rows back. We bought the cast album that night and I remember gazing at its bright red cover with a black and white overlay of Maria leading Tony triumphantly through the streets of New York. I went home with a burning desire to be Puerto Rican as I danced and sang my way around the house to its soaring melodies. Most people attributed the show solely to Leonard Bernstein who wrote the music. But it was Sondheim who penned the lyrics that altered history and brought new awareness to the nation’s Latino immigrants.
On Broadway in 1959 Ethel Merman debuted in Gypsy. I wondered how a singer could get away with singing so brashly. I vowed to project more. In the original production the offer by producer David Merrick to write the lyrics was rejected by Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, when Sondheim got the call. Apparently, as the evening’s narrator tells it, Merman said, “The young man can stick around to write the lyrics.” The rest is history….
Signature Theatre’s current revival of Side by Side by Sondheim, the revue that features the composer/lyricist’s timeless hits in the period between 1957 through 1976 (before Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd) affords the theatre-lover the opportunity to luxuriate in some of the greatest show tunes ever written. It is a time capsule of the period some say was one of the most triumphant eras on Broadway.
Three singers and two piano accompanists, Resident Music Director, Jon Kalbfleisch, and Gabriel Mangiante, relate in words and music the early career of Stephen Sondheim. From his clumsy efforts at age 32 when he submitted his first musical to Bucks County neighbor, Oscar Hammerstein – who told him in no uncertain terms that it stunk, but, oh by the way, he did have talent, and then went on to give him a master class in writing musicals – to his ultimate collaborations with Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Richard and Mary Rodgers and Jule Styne, the British-born composer with whom he co-wrote Gypsy.
Imagine A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum without “A Comedy Tonight” as its opening song. See you can’t! But another tune was written for the show and later tossed out. Who knew? It was called “Love Is In the Air” and here it is woven into the first act.
All in all the brilliantly talented singers, Nancy Anderson, Sherri L. Edelen and Matthew Scott do a bang-up job of hoofing, styling and singing their faces off for a total of 30 Sondheim masterpieces. Look for Edelen’s vampy rendition of “I Never Do Anything Twice”, from The Seven Percent Solution, Anderson’s double-time rendition of “The Boy From…” from The Mad Show, and the trio’s pastiche form of the Andrews Sisters in “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” from Company to fire up the audience.
At Signature Theatre through June 12th. For tickets and information call Ticketmaster at 703 573-SEAT or go to www.signature-theatre.org.
Jordan Wright
Special to The Alexandria Times
May 9, 2011
 Mark Adams (foreground), Matthew Randall, Shannon Benton. Photo Credit Doug Olmsted Always willing to tread the edge and more than capable to do it, Port City Playhouse tackles the complex and grisly tightrope of Mindgame, by acclaimed English novelist and screenwriter, Anthony Horowitz. Featuring some of the most skillful actors in our area with three-time WATCH Award nominee for lead actor, Mark Lee Adams, as Dr. Farquhar; Matthew Randall, playing journalist Mark Styler; and Shannon Benton, adding the sizzle and terror to Nurse Plimpton.
Set in a doctor’s office in 1990’s England at the country’s most notorious insane asylum, Fairfields, this drama provides the backdrop for examining a gruesome murder mystery. In his quest to explore the relationship between good and evil, Styler hopes to secure an interview with noted serial killer and asylum inmate, Easterman, who has murdered, tortured and cannibalized his 19 victims. Hired by BBC for an upcoming feature, Styler travels solo to this remote outpost in Sussex, to meet with the facility’s director, Dr. Farquhar. His mission: to probe the criminal machinations of serial killers.
But Farquhar, with his experimental role-playing theories created to cure psychotics, regards Styler suspiciously and tags him as a populist writer, unable to delve into the mind of the killer. Coincidences and clues abound, such as the gatekeeper having the same name as a known serial killer, background screams, lulling elevator music, and drawn curtains that arouse Styler’s curiosity and the two begin their danse macabre, with journalist Styler substantiating his theories by quoting Socrates, “No one ever does wrong willingly.” and the doctor refuting him by quoting Hitler, “When Hitler started out all he wanted to do was paint.”
Horowitz sets the chilling tone with references to British slasher Jack the Ripper, Andre Chikatilo known as the Butcher of Rostov, a Russian schoolteacher who murdered 52 women and children, and Milwaukee native son and erstwhile cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer. While the dialog is tempered with some humor, you’ll be suppressing the laughter with goose bumps.
By the time the voluptuous Nurse Plimpton enters in a state of near undress and high panic, the plot most assuredly thickens. The terrified nurse tries to surreptitiously hand a note to Styler, but the doctor notices and sets it aflame as our chance to uncover her distress fades with each passing moment.
Dr. Farquhar relishes his role, playing cat and mouse with Styler, with Mark Lee Adams convincingly channeling the ever-evolving madman. While Styler, sympathetically portrayed by Matthew Randall, goes from hunter to hunted. Who is Dr. Jekyll and who is Mr. Hyde?
It is a crafty conundrum for even the most practiced mystery junkies.
The plot itself provides some revelations…but are they real clues or red herrings? Have Styler and Farquhar met before? They both lived on Suntower Court in York during the same period. The audience is left holding a patchwork of clues as the plot streaks on at lightening speed to more frantic and gruesome dimensions. Have the inmates taken over the asylum? Will they stage an uprising? An exit becomes a closet door – a window a brick wall. Is there no way out? Wait and see.
On Fridays and Saturdays through May 22nd at 8:00pm. Sundays May 15th and 22nd at 3:00pm. Port City Playhouse at The Lab Studio Theatre at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. For ticket information call 703 998-6260 or visit www.convergenceccf.net.
Jordan Wright
Special to The Alexandria Times
April 25, 2011
 (L to R) Sharon Grant (Heidi), Josh Goldman (Hunter), Scott Harrison (Jeff), and Anne Marie Pinto (Susan)
The popular device of a play-within-a-play is taken to the third power in this cocky musical now debuting at The Little Theatre of Alexandria. [title of the show], no this is not my editor’s idea of a parenthetical joke, has as its theme two aspiring New York hopefuls, the author and the composer/lyricist who enter a writer’s competition at The New York Musical Theatre Festival. It is a play-within-a-play-within-a-play. Or should I say musical? That our heroes are gay is incidental to their theatrical travails, but it provides some humor and background. That they are young and inexperienced defines the complex, behind-the-scenes efforts of the post-modern playwright to bring a production to the stage. It is the consummate guide to backstage politics and insider showbiz jargon.
Our two hipsters Hunter (Josh Goldman) and Jeff (Scott Harrison) have three weeks to pull off the impossible by writing, composing, casting, scoring and mounting a new musical. They engage their aspiring actress/singer pals Susan (Anne Marie Pinto), gainfully but unhappily employed as a part-time receptionist, and Heidi (Sharon Grant), who has a bit part on Broadway in The Little Mermaid, in a madcap challenge to take their musical from writing to final production in three weeks.
In reality (a tricky concept to toss around in this review since there are surface realities and underlying realities) Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen are really the names of the writers of this show. And Heidi Blickenstaff and Susan Blackwell are really the names of their actress friends. Got it?
The idea was that their four-way conversations were a great deal more inspiring than their attempts at writing. “We could get important points across,” suggests Hunter who literally becomes a costumed blank page. “Writing should be easy, like a monkey driving a speedboat,” he conjures. When he struggles to put words on a page Hunter tells Jeff, “My writing is like a drag queen…fabulous at night…in the daytime…not so much!” In fact Heidi and Hunter play a little game of making up and texting amusing drag queen names to each other…Lady Foot Locker and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion oddly spring to mind.
There are 18 terrific musical numbers in this non-stop one act that the boys hope will “get them on Ellen”, and hosts of celebrity names are bandied about as they imagine Joan Rivers, Bernadette Peters and iconic gay author John Cameron Mitchell will drop backstage to celebrate their triumph. In a local nod they include the WATCH Awards (our local community theatre awards) in “The Tony Award Song”.
While Jeff plays the straight man to Hunter in this comedic one-liner extravaganza, (Henny Youngman where are you?), the girls alternate between insecurities and mutual mistrust in the number “What Kind of Girl is She? ”. Look for Anne Marie Pinto with her powerful voice and wild gesticulations to rip up the stage in the rock number “Die Vampire Die”, Susan’s solution to ridding the show of second-guessing and energy-robbing self-doubt.
While they wait for the financial backing to get their play to Broadway, Hunter considers looking for a day job. “I’m down to tropical plant cleaner or donating eggs,” he mopes. But in a mathematical calculation contrived to insure success, they determine they would rather be “Nine People’s Favorite Thing” than one hundred peoples’ ninth favorite thing.
The winsome cast sings their faces off in a host of great numbers. Sit back and let them charm you. And don’t bother counting the f-bombs, Hunter does it for you, they are integral to the script.
At The Little Theatre of Alexandria 600 Wolfe Street through May 14th. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496.
Jordan Wright
Special to The Alexandria Times
April 25, 2011
 The Real Inspector Hound at MetroStage - photo credit Michael Bailey Each time I attend a new MetroStage production I am in high anticipation for an exciting evening of theatre. In most cases I expect a musical. And whether a frothy delight or a serious biography, it never fails to thrill. “Every so often we throw in a mystery,” explains Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin. And this one’s a doozy. Tom Stoppard’s absurdist play-within-a-play, “The Real Inspector Hound”, is a quirky, kitschy parody of the stereotypical English parlor mystery. If you want it played straight and neat, stick with Agatha Christie.
The plot opens at a theatre where two critics hash out their reviews and boast about their past successes. “Did you see my review in neon?” asks Birdboot, an over-the-hill roué whose predilection for ingénues has him salivating after the play’s leading ladies. His cohort, the pompous Moon, “a fellow toiler in the greasepaint”, is more concerned with the play’s analytics and his fellow competitors. “Elan without éclat” he suggests describing a play he reviewed. Birdboot trumps the prissy Moon by whipping out a viewfinder stocked with transparencies of his marqueed quote.
But, hold on, there is a dead body onstage…its head jutting out from the cherry red Victorian settee. It’s been there all along though only the audience is aware of it. A quick flip through the Playbill reveals that four actors are scheduled to “perform” this role on an alternating basis with only one corpse (perhaps I should say actor) per performance. It must be exhausting to play dead. It’s almost unimaginable to conceive of lying stark still for the length of the play, not to mention without chuckling, throat clearing or reacting to the hilarious exchanges of your fellow cast members as they whirl madly past you. A quick check every now and again confirmed that the “corpse” did not move an inch, even when accidentally run over by Major Magnus making his wheelchair entrance. Touché to stoicism!
The action is centered at Muldoon Manor in the foggy marshes of Essex, England where Lady Cynthia, played magnetically by the voluptuous Emily Townley, is entertaining her eccentric guests. A murder has been committed in the nearby hamlet and the local gendarmes are hard on the heels of the perpetrator. The whodunit involves a dashing cad, Simon Gascoyne; the eccentric, crippled brother-in-law, Major Magnus Muldoon; the adorably clingy ingénue, Felicity Cunningham; the haunted parlor maid, Mrs. Drudge; and of course the natty Inspector Hound.
Could it be Magnus, “I think I’ll go and oil my guns”, or Simon afraid his past loves are catching up with him? Perhaps Felicity has revenge on her pretty little mind? You’ll have mere seconds to deduce the answer when the characters occasionally go into melodramatic freeze-frame mode.
The “tittle tattle” of the critics becomes the backdrop to the unfolding mystery as they try to discern the killer while critiquing the play and musing on their middle aged fantasies…until the otherworldly moment when they are drawn into the plot.
This production is so fast-paced that you should pull your bowler down firmly before entering the theatre lest it blow off in a storm of bon mots. With a crack cast and a dizzying plot, it’s another winner for MetroStage.
At MetroStage 1201 North Royal Street in Alexandria through May 29th. For tickets and information visit www.metrostage.org.
At Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Jordan Wright
Special to DC Theatre Scene dot com
March 9th, 2011
 MIKE DAISEY - the master storyteller - Photo credit to Daisey Web Mike Daisey looks like an everyman, but don’t let appearances fool you. He’s a man with a plan and an agenda to boot with a powerful spotlight on workers’ rights that uses comedy and truth-telling in his latest monologue, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” playing at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre. As both author and actor of his scriptless theatre verité, he has traveled to China and the South Seas and come away with a firsthand knowledge and what he feels is an obligation to share his story with his audiences. His one-man construct rips the veil off the industry as he rails against “the rise and fall and rise of Apple, industrial design and the human price we are willing to pay for our technology.”
Where are you from?
I grew up in Northern Maine and live in New York.
Where does your storytelling tradition come from?
I’ve been a monologist for the past 13 or 14 years and it has evolved in a way that is a living form of traditional theatre and I am actually communicating on stage so that it is unique experience.
Would you say you’re the Michael Moore of contemporary theatre writers?
No, I don’t write the pieces. They are created extemporaneously. In a better world there would be lots of proactive people that display that sort of citizenship.
Who were your influences? Who is looking over your shoulder when you create your plays?
I am strongly influenced by all sorts of extemporaneous performance. I’m really interested in public speakers, black speakers, and standup comedy. The naked singularity of the theatre is the heart of what I’m compelled by. So I learn a lot by listening to other people. I believe that non-fiction is going to assert itself, and I think that is important for American theaters.
Since your monologue speaks to workers’ conditions in China, would you like to comment on the current challenge to workers’ bargaining rights in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio? Do you think it’s any different?
Well it’s quite similar in some ways and widely in different others. What’s similar is of course the people in Michigan are fighting for the rights that people lived and died for 100 years ago. The local government is trying to turn back the clock. Since those battles were fought, we forget what was sacrificed to bring us out of those times. In China the conditions look the same as they always have. It is a place that has never had protections and rights.
Do you see the future of theatre as a socially responsible forum to address current topics?
Certainly the future and present of my theatre! We all have a responsibility to be social citizens. I think it is deeply unnatural to divorce that from our art. It’s bad for art and the theatre to divide those things. There is a drive to believe that the arts should be apolitical and to keep the arts pretty.
Do you consider yourself a radical or a social commentator?
I don’t know the difference.
Would you prefer writer Terry Southern or Tom Wolfe at your dinner table?
I think I would say Tom Wolfe. Ahh, those white suits! I have an affinity for characters.
Where do you eat when you’re in DC?
It’s challenging. I love dim sum in Chinatown and also Teaism and Busboys and Poets. I’m hoping to find a few more restaurants that I feel strongly about this time around.
Do you cook?
Inconsistently and fitfully. My wife [Jean-Michelle Gregory, his longtime director and collaborator] is an excellent cook and I am happy to cede control of it. Recently I cooked a successful dinner and I plan to branch out in the future.
Why is it important to you to perform “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” in DC?
I’m happy that we’re bringing the show to downtown DC. We are trying to get as many politicians from The Hill to attend because we’re trying to bring attention to the workers conditions in Shenzhen. I feel responsible for telling the story well and I hope I am up to the task of serving the people whose voices are not generally heard.
At the Woolly Mammoth from March 21st through April 17th. For tickets and information visit www.woollymammoth.net.
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