Design for Murder is a Crafty, Clever, Comedic Nailbiter
The Little Theatre of Alexandria
Jordan Wright
October 19, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Erin Gallalee (Martha), James Lorenzin (David), Kathy Ohlhaber (Celia) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) If you’re looking for a whodunit – something crafty, clever and comedic – look no further than Design for Murder. It’s got all the elements necessary to curdle your blood and engage your brain. This nifty mystery has more twists and turns and schools of red herrings than you can count. In fact, no matter who you think is doing the killing, you will undoubtedly be mistaken because it takes until the final scene before all is revealed. It’s a nailbiter on steroids.
Mourning her late husband, is Celia Granger (Kathy Ohlhaber), an elegant châtelaine whose drawing room is center stage for all the chaos. The first to be knocked off is Kathy (Elizabeth Loyal), a flirty maid who is having a fling with David Granger (James Lorenzin), Celia’s son and scion to the family fortune, or what’s left of it. We never meet Eunice, David’s fiancé, a Southern belle with buckets of dough and whom he refuses to marry – much to the dismay of his dear, sweet mother who’s counting on all that cash to bail them out. Louisa Cortlandt (Janice Zucker), Celia’s gal pal and astrology dabbler, has her own kooky opinions which are taken quite seriously because she’s married to a judge which gives the doddering old lady credibility plus favored social standing. Martha Brand (Erin Gallalee), Celia’s sister, mocks the septuagenarian, but all defer to her vaunted status in a town where keeping up appearances is de rigeur.
 Elizabeth Loyal (Kathy) and James Lorenzin (David) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) We are soon introduced to Carlin (Brendan Chaney), the chauffeur and terminal Lothario who pitches woo to every woman in the household including the aged housekeeper, Mrs. Hamilton (Patricia Spencer Smith). Maybe he’s just sharpening his chauvinistic skills for the next maid, Nora Taylor (Pete Leggett), a pretty little waif (too pretty according to Celia) who appeals to the Grangers’ sympathy and begs for the job after it’s vacated by Kathy’s untimely demise. For Chrissake! Who would want to work there? Don’t answer that.
Everyone’s a suspect and motives seem to pop out of the woodwork at the old Hudson Valley estate. Enter Detective Carlin (Brendan Chaney), an ersatz Columbo, replete with trench coat and questions for Celia, a woman he knew and secretly loved when she was a girl. Carlin’s on the case like a bloodhound, but will he get to the bottom of it with this hodgepodge of addled suspects? Wait and see. Though it’s a wonder anything gets sorted in a house where brandy is consumed for every shocking revelation.
 Janice Zucker (Louisa), Pete Leggett (Nora), Erin Gallalee (Martha) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) Director Jessie Roberts has assembled a fine cast who mesh beautifully with one another, leading the ever-heightening suspense to its ultimate denouément. Especially outstanding are Kathy Ohlhaber, Patricia Spencer Smith, Pete Leggett and Brendan Chaney.
Additional cast member, Frank Cooper.
Produced by Carol Strachan with Hilary Adams as Assistant Producer; Fight Choreography by Stefan Sittig; Set Design by Julie Fischer; Lighting Design by Cleo Potter and Jay Stein; Costume Design by Judy Whelihan.
 Kathy Ohlhaber (Celia), Patricia Spencer Smith (Mrs Hamilton) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) Through November 5th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For tickets and information visit www.TheLittleTheatre.com or call the box office at 703 683-0496.
Dracula
Synetic Theater
Jordan Wright
October 18, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Pablo Guillen as Dr. Seward, Philip Fletcher as Holmwood, and Renata Loman as Van Helsing, with Rachael Small (floor, center) as Lucy. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) Just in time for us to get our spooky senses aroused for Halloween season, Synetic stages a revival of one of their classics. The opening, wherein Count Dracula vanquishes the Turks to defend his Transylvanian homeland in a sensory-explosive battle, may be one of the company’s most spectacular. Known for their magnificent fight scenes (performers are trained in fight choreography), this one is an explosion of dramatic warfare unleashed from the depths of depravity. Underscored by eerie narration, a terrifying demon spirit and a trio of Dracula’s wives undulating to the strains of Gregorian choirs and electronika, English solicitor, Jonathan Harker travels via coach to the Count’s castle to obtain Dracula’s signature in a land deal. He is led by the Count’s three wives who transmogrify into Harker’s horses spiriting him away to his doom.
 Dan Istrate as Dracula and Jacob Thompson as Jonathan Harker. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) When Harker returns to his lover, Mina, in Edwardian London, we find the female vampires mingling with London society at a grand ball replete with a dance of the coffins and with the prime intention of, oh, well, let’s just say what you were already thinking, biting their necks and turning them into future vampires. In a scene straight from the Theatre of the Absurd, they capture Mina’s friend, the beautiful and feisty Lucy, absconding her body back to the castle and the lustful Count who finds her to his “taste”.
Ghouls and grave hunters pepper the sinister landscape as the blood-thirsty vampires follow their sexual desires in a dizzying whirlwind of fantastic dance and dramatic displays of mortal combat. Lighting too plays a key role. You’ll notice scenes lit as though in an Old Dutch masterpiece with shafts of golden light falling on the victims as though they are bathed in heavenly rapture.
 Dan Istrate as Dracula and Rachael Small as Lucy. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) Who will be Dracula’s next victim and who will be saved from his sanguineous clutches is the burning question for zombie lovers to deduce. Meanwhile, you will most assuredly find a lot to “chew on” in this seductively mordant interpretation of Bram Stoker’s classic tale rendered as erotically salacious as it is bloodthirsty.
Most assuredly NOT for the kiddies, although there is a smattering of oddly out of place tongue-in-cheek humor that tends to disrupt the ghoulish vibe.
 Dan Istrate as Dracula. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili; Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili; Fight Choreography by Vato Tsikurishvili; Assistant Director and Sound Design by Irakli Kavsadze; Adapted by Nathan Weinberger; Resident Composer Koki Lortkipanidze; Costumes Designed by Kendra Rai; Lighting Design by Ian Claar.
Starring Dan Istrate as Dracula; Jacob Thompson as Jonathan Harker; Renata Loman as Van Helsing; Nutsa Tediashvili as Mina; Rachael Small as Lucy; Philip Fletcher as Holmwood; Irakli Kavsadze as Renfield; Pablo Guillen as Dr. Seward; Justin J. Bell as Quincey; Lev Belolipetski as Captain; Rodin Ruiz as Villager; Maryam Najafzada as Dracula’s Wife; Irene Hamilton as Dracula’s Wife; and Anna Tsikurishvili as Dracula’s Wife.
Through November 6th at Synetic Theater at National Landing, 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA 22202. For tickets and information visit www.Synetictheater.org or call the box office at 703 824-8060.
Flashy And Fabulous Guys and Dolls Blows the Roof Off at The Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Jordan Wright
October 18, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Steven Pasquale and Company (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) A short run of this classic has left town already, but there’s a lingering thrill that can still be felt. The buzz had started as soon as the full cast had been announced – Kevin Chamberlain as Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Jessie Mueller as Miss Adelaide, James Monroe Iglehart as Nathan Detroit, Phillipa Soo as Sarah Brown, Steven Pasquale as Sky Masterson, Allison Blackwell as Agatha, and Rachel Dratch of SNL fame as Big Jule. Broadway royalty such as we rarely see in a traveling production would be starring and the tickets were as scarce as hen’s teeth. From the get-go, major out-of-town papers were clamoring for seats and the thought that this would be the caliber of shows presented by Kennedy Center’s “Broadway Center Stage” series sent theatregoers into overdrive.
From racetrack handicappers in zoot suits to gangstas in loud plaids, pinstripes and spats, the colorful characters of Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows 1950 musical Guys and Dolls invite us into the underworld of horse racing, hoochie-coochie joints and floating crap games. And the funny thing is, we want in. Why? Because their bigger-than-life caricatures and pratfall personalities are hilarious. Hanging out with these street corner gamblers and their flashy dolls is flat-out fun.
 Jessie Mueller and Phillipa Soo (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) Back in the day the Salvation Army and its memorable band would march along Times Square seeking converts to attend their religious meetings. The Save-a-Soul Mission, led by the beautiful Sarah Brown and her avuncular grandfather form the spiritual grounding and counterpoint to the fast life of the lowlifes while the romance between Sky and Sarah provides the counterbalance to Adelaide’s show-stopping performances at the racy Hot Box cabaret.
On a stage set backdropped by rotating scenes of a neon-lit Broadway with tracer lights ablaze on both sides of the stage and two large onstage “dice” showcasing the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra on the big stage, this marvelous show captures New York’s underworld in exhilarating style. The Kennedy Center even managed to obtain and use the 1992 orchestrations from the show’s Broadway revival – an extraordinary coup and no mean feat.
 Matthew Saldivar, Kevin Chamberlin, and Akron Watson (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) Loesser wrote lyrics as catchy as “the sheep’s eye and licorice tooth” to paint a vivid picture of gritty writer Damon Runyon’s reflections on the 1950’s. Punctuating the show’s colorful characters are a bevy of male and female dancers who elicited gasps and spontaneous applause from the audience while performing flawless leaps and flips as though attached by wires. They weren’t.
Lady Luck showed up in the Eisenhower Theater that night and we witnessed Washington theatre history.
 Jessie Mueller and the Hot Box Girls (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) With Jacqueline Antaramian as General Cartwright, Fred Applegate as Arvide Abernathy, Eden Marryshow as Lt. Brannigan, Matthew Saldivar as Benny Southstreet, Jimmy Smagula as Harry the Horse, and Akron Watson as Rusty Charlie/Hot Box MC.
Directed by the great Marc Bruni; choreographed spectacularly by Denis Jones; Scenic and Projection Design by Paul Tate Depoo III; Music Director Kevin Stites; Book by Jo Swerling; Costume Design by Mara Blumenfeld; Lighting Design by Cory Pattak; Sound Design by Kai Harad.
Next up on Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage will be Wicked opening December 8th and going through January 22, 2023. I wouldn’t miss it if I were you. For tickets and information visit www.Kennedy-Center.org or call the box office at 202 416-8000.
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical is An All-Out Rock Concert of Electrifying Proportion
Broadway at The National
National Theatre
Jordan Wright
October 9, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Naomi Rodgers as ‘Tina Turner’ (Photo/Matthew Murphy) Anyone who has followed the struggles of Tina Turner’s young career launched by, and with, her abusive husband Ike Turner with The Ike and Tina Turner Revue to the moment she rejects his domination to forge her own path to stardom knows this story. Coming off its successful Broadway run, is the show that brings the story and the music to the stage – live and in vivid color.
Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical follows little Anna Mae Bullock’s early life growing up poor in 1950’s Tennessee to her marriage to Ike Turner to the heights of her stratospheric solo career. The musical follows that tragic arc from the choir-singing daughter of a pastor to her early discovery of Buddhism and longing for recognition. The plot echoes her autobiography, “I, Tina: My Life Story” in that it catalogues the racism and marital strife she suffered before finding true love and becoming the 12-time Grammy Award winner and her comeback title as the “Queen of Rock n’ Roll”.
By the time Tina signs with Phil Spector and is backed by his famed Motown “Wall of Sound”, she is well on her way to leaving Ike after two kids and a 16-year abusive marriage to record the songs that would cement her career with “Proud Mary” and “I Don’t Want to Fight No More”. Twenty-four phenomenal numbers, a fourteen-piece rock band, four Ikettes and I couldn’t count how many dancers turn this rock musical into an all-out rock concert of electrifying proportion. Audience members were literally jumping out of their seats from the energy and power pouring off the stage. If you’ve ever seen Tina perform either in film or live, this is what it feels like – nothing short of a live concert featuring the greatest hits of her career.
 Naomi Rodgers performing ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It as ‘Tina Turner’ (Photo/Matthew Murphy) Songs like “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, “Private Dancer”, “River Deep – Mountain High”, “Disco Inferno”, “I Want to Take You Higher” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero” showcase the talents of the two leads that play Tina – Naomi Rodgers (who played Tina on press night) and Zurin Villanueva. When you see the musical, you will understand why there are two leads. No one actress could fulfill this role night after night. I couldn’t help wondering if the dramatic scenes, the intense vocals and the hard-driving, sweat-inducing dance numbers would last until the finale.
Set and Costume Designer Mark Thompson accurately channels each decade from the 1950’s backup singers’ demure dresses to 60’s sequined bell-bottoms and puffy sleeves, to gold lame and the flash of Tina’s well-known crystal-laden, fringed mini dresses. His sets are an eye-popping extravaganza of mood and moment alongside the rock concert vibe and laser lighting designed by Bruno Poet with noted Choreographer Anthony Van Laast nailing the popular dances of each era.
Standouts are six-time solo Grammy nominee Ann Nesby – as Gran Georgeanna; Ayvah Johnson – a tiny thing with a huge voice who plays Tina as a child; Roz White – well-known local actor as Tina’s mother Zelma Bullock; and Garrett Turner as the brutish, drug-addled Ike Turner.
Original Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Additional Music by Nicholas Skilbeck; Sound Design by Nevin Steinberg; Hair, Wigs & Makeup by Campbell Young Associates.
Highly recommended!
Through October 23rd at The National Theatre 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 628-6161 or visit www.TheNationalDC.com
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci is a Highly Creative, Extraordinarily Elegant and Utterly Enchanting Exploration into the Genius of the Master
Shakespeare Theatre Company
Klein Theatre
Jordan Wright
October 7, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Christopher Donahue and Kasey Foster (Photo/Scott Suchman) In an homage to the genius of da Vinci, Writer/Director Mary Zimmerman brings us into the mind of the master through his observations. Presented in magical realism, she interweaves his observations on the science of the universe in extraordinarily elegant fashion, casting actors accomplished in the art of kinetic motion and physical expression through mime, gesture, and speech. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci is an elegant exploration into da Vinci’s thought-provoking revelations. “Instants are the boundaries of time,” Leonardo explains.
Da Vinci’s musings and experiments were far from pedestrian. He studied and analyzed everything from vanishing perspective to the dynamics of motion in order to achieve mathematical perfection through his painting. With his concept of the “18 positions of man” he devised modes of thinking to explain how the physical body should be portrayed on canvas through the “harmony of proportion”. “The body is a machine,” he concluded.
 Andrea San Miguel and Wai Yim (Photo/Scott Suchman) Acrobatic Consultant Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi along with Movement Consultant Tracy Walsh present these complicated intellectual concepts in lyrically and quite often humorously choreographed vignettes designed to express da Vinci’s logic and conclusions as he strived to explain all earthly life.
As beautifully depicted as these complex ideations are, the spirit of the writer’s musings is the always the focus as expressed by an exceptional cast practiced in balletic movement and speech. It is sensuous, stunning and intellectually stimulating. There is nothing superfluous in its examination of the mind of the artist/inventor as he ponders the flight of a bird. “A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law.” He examined the dynamics of the folds of curtains with his theory on drapery as much as he did that of the complexities of nature.
The cast is credited with being all “Leonardos”. They are Adeoye, Christopher Donahue, Kasey Foster, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons, Louise Lamson, Andrea San Miguel, and Wai Yim. The harmony and grace of their physical interactions are utterly mesmerizing.
 Wai Yim, Adeoye, Louise Lamson, and Andrea San Miguel (Photo/Scott Suchman) Scenic Design by Scott Bradley who imagines Leonardo’s life as walls of wooden file drawers from which are pulled the many props used in the production; Costume Designer Mara Blumenfeld whose clever interpretation gifts us with both athletic wear and Italian Renaissance period apparel; Lighting Designer T. G. Gerckens; Sound Design and Original Music by Michael Bodeen; Original Music by Miriam Sturm.
 Wai Yim, Kasey Foster, and John Gregorio (Photo/Scott Suchman) Highly creative, extraordinarily elegant and utterly enchanting, I would give it five stars (if I gave out stars, which as you know I do not).
Highly recommended.
Through October 29th at the Klein Theatre 450 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 547-1122 or visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org.
Robinette Shines in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful – A Heartwarming Family Drama
Ford’s Theatre
Jordan Wright
October 3, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 (L-R) Nancy Robinette as Mrs. Carrie Watts and Emily Kester as Thelma
(Photo/Scott Suchman) Set in Houston, Texas in 1953, The Trip to Bountiful is a nostalgic family drama that was made into an award-winning film starring Geraldine Page whose performance garnered her an Oscar for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” and then remade with Cicely Tyson who won the Tony for “Best Actress in a Play”. In Ford’s Theatre’s season opener, Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Horton Foote couldn’t ask for a better actor to play the part of Mrs. Carrie Watts than Nancy Robinette. As DC theater royalty Robinette has been seen at Ford’s Theatre in Driving Miss Daisy, Carpetbagger’s Children and State of the Union – three plays that draw on her extraordinary ability to morph into a variety of leading roles. She has appeared at all the major theaters both here and around the country and, proof that she is one of the most beloved actors we have, she has received the Helen Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award and is still a force of nature. Going in I knew I would be in for a treat, and the lady didn’t disappoint. Her portrayal of a determined retiree whose only wish is to revisit her childhood home in Bountiful in her dotage, demonstrates her immense talent for inhabiting a character.
 (L-R) Kimberly Gilbert as Jessie Mae Watts, Joe Mallon as Ludie Watts and Nancy Robinette as Mrs. Carrie Watts
(Photo/Scott Suchman) There is some fine casting in this play most especially in scenes with Carrie and Thelma (Emily Kester), a poised young woman Carrie meets at a bus stop after she’s escaped from the clutches of her son Ludie (Joe Mallon) and his abusive, neurotic shrew of a wife Jessie Mae (Kimberly Gilbert) whose single-mindedness of purpose is getting her hands on Carrie’s pension check. The play’s tension comes in the form of Carrie’s desire to find the right time to run away from her oafish son and daughter-in-law without getting caught and dragged back to a life of sameness and city living in a one-bedroom apartment. Her loss of dignity is the driving force of her need to return to a life of open fields, birds on the wing and the Texas coast where she seeks the solace and sense of self that has been denied her. Gilbert and Robinette are a beautifully balanced pair of opposite ages and their conversations at the bus stop are by far the most heartwarming part of the play as Thelma and Carrie comfort each other by swapping tales and singing hymns.
 Nancy Robinette as Mrs. Carrie Watts (Photo/Scott Suchman) Choosing Michael Wilson to direct the production is quite the coup. Wilson directed the premieres of Foote’s The Carpetbaggers Children, The Death of Papa and The Orphans’ Home Cycle for which he won both the Drama Desk Award as well as the Outer Critics Circle Award and he is currently collaborating with Foote’s daughter, Daisy Foote (who was in the audience on opening night), on a new musical based on Foote’s Oscar-winning film, Tender Mercies.
All this goes to say that the production was at the highest level for fans of Foote’s work, although, if he were still alive, I would urge him to rewrite the ending so that Carrie would find the boyfriend of her youth waiting for her return to Bountiful.
Additional Cast: Marty Lodge as Houston Ticket Agent/Sheriff; Michael Glenn as Second Houston Ticket Agent/Voice; Christopher Bloch as Roy/Voice; with Will Cooke, Nicola Daval, Drake Leach and Mary Myers as Townspeople and Travelers.
Scenic Design by Tim Mackabee; Costume Design by Ivania Stack; Lighting Design by Rui Rita.
Through October 16th at Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 347-4833 or visit www.Fords.org.
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