Jordan Wright
February 10, 2020
An intriguing musical made its world premiere at Signature. In it, twin mulatto sisters use their beauty, wits and a pistol to deceive and rob whites. It promises a happy ending but is that enough to take us along on their criminal enterprise?
 Emmy Raver-Lampman (Martha) and Solea Pfeiffer (Mary) in Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre. Photo by Cameron Whitman In contemporary playwright Angela Chéri’s Gun & Powder with music by Ross Baum, we are taken on a journey through a period of American culture, both racist and lawless. It was originally presented as a reading from Signature Theatre’s SigWorks: Musical Theater Lab program and was based on a somewhat true story of Chéri’s great-great aunts. It’s as much a story of female empowerment as it is of the wild West. In the same vein as Annie Get Your Gun and, say, Paint Your Wagon, it explores themes of racism and female bravery in times of slavery.
 Emmy Raver-Lampman (Martha) and Donald Webber Jr. (Elijah) in Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre. Photo by Cameron Whitman That’s the part we like. However, do we condone their tactics any more than we would condone and encourage those of any other criminal? As a social construct for a musical based on revenge for racism, I fear it is not. Leaving that aside to address its staging, acting, directing and music, we come upon another dilemma – how to make it palatable, or believable. As a musical, it is faultless in its production values as well as its casting. The voices are beautiful, and the acting, as well as dancing, are sans criticism. However, the lyrics are often awkward, and 28 numbers are overkill.
 Dan Tracy (Jesse) and Solea Pfeiffer (Mary) in Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre. Photo by Christopher Mueller The story unfolds with freed slaves, Mary and Martha, beautiful, light-skinned, twin sisters, freed slaves living with their mother, Tallulah, on a plantation in Texas. The owner is a cruel master who threatens to throw them off his land for not picking enough cotton. When their mother gives them a gun, the girls soon devise a plan to rob unsuspecting white passengers on a train to get enough money to pay off the plantation owner. “Ya better come back in the two pieces you left in!” she warns them.
 Awa Sal Secka (Flo) and Yvette Monique Clark (Sissy) in Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre. Photo by Christopher Mueller. After becoming wildly successful robbing brothels, a barbershop, a church, and any whites in their path – they soon meet Jesse, a white saloon owner who believes the sisters are white. They make a plan to hustle him, but soon love follows for Mary, while Martha is smitten with his black butler, Elijah.
 Crystal Mosser (Fannie) in Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre. Photo by Christopher Mueller The real beauty and comic relief of the show are Jesse’s black maids, Sissy and Flo, who have figured out the girls’ scheme. They know the sisters are “high yellow” and are passing undetected by Jesse. Their snarky comments behind her back are hilarious and their wisdom is echoed by a chorus of Kinfolk, who are blacks tied to the sisters by spirit and blood. Whenever the chorus appears, the entire show is elevated by both song and dance, unifying the construct and lending deeper meaning to the women’s original motive to save their mother from despair.
 Emmy Raver-Lampman (Martha) in Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre. Photo by Christopher Mueller Mary’s song, “The Way I Am” is a stunning solo, as is the beautifully sung number, “The Shot That Shook the Soul” performed by the company in the style of the 19th century Fisk Jubilee Choir.
This show has real promise and powerful relevance. I hope it gets the attention and reworking it deserves.
 Emmy Raver-Lampman (Martha), Marva Hicks (Tallulah) and Solea Pfeiffer (Mary) in Gun & Powder at Signature Theatre. Photo by Cameron Whitman With Solea Pfeiffer as Mary Clarke; Emmy Raver-Lampman as Martha Clarke; Dan Tracy as Jesse; Marva Hicks as Tallulah Clarke; Donald Webber, Jr. as Elijah; Yvette Monique Clark as Sissy; Awa Sal Secka as Flo; Crystal Mosser as Fannie Porter. The Kinfolk are played by Yvette Monique Clark, Amber Lenell Jones, Rayshun LaMarr, Da’Von T. Moody, Christopher Michael Richardson, Awa Sal Secka, and Kanysha Williams. Ensemble players are Wyn Delano, Christian Douglas, Crystal Mosser and Eleanor Todd.
Directed by Robert O’Hara; Choreography by Byron Easley; Music Direction by Darryl G. Ivey; Costumes by Dede Ayite; Scenic Design by Jason Sherwood; Lighting Design by Alex Jainchill; Sound Design by Ryan Hickey.
Through at February 23rd 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
February 12, 2020
The unfolding drama in The King’s Speech is young Bertie’s ability to overcome a debilitating stammer. Coupled with the issue of his brother David’s affair with the twice-divorced, utterly unsuitable Wallis Simpson, it forms the basis for this fascinating historical dramedy. When their father George V dies, David becomes next in line to the throne. However, it was no secret to the royal family that David (later known as the Duke of Windsor) and Wallis were Nazi sympathizers when England was fighting Hitler. David’s affair and the couple’s affection for Hitler, made him an impossible candidate to ascend to the throne.
 Tiffany Scott as Wallis Simpson and Jeff Parker as David, Duke of Windsor ~ Photos by Liz Lauren. You may recall the movie of the same name. It won four Academy Awards and starred Colin Firth as King George (Best Actor) and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, the King’s Aussie speech therapist. But what you may not know, is that playwright David Seidler had always intended it to be staged and had gone so far as to obtain permission from the Queen Mother who insisted it not be staged until after her death. Its North American premiere last fall at Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater, finally made Seidler’s dream a reality.
With a constitutional crisis at hand, David ultimately is forced to abdicate, and Bertie must face his fears to speak authoritatively and publicly at a time of war in his role as King George VI. Tapped to be next in line to the throne, he must learn to overcome his speech impediment and speak with authority. In desperation, his wife finds a questionable speech therapist, Lionel Logue, in truth a failed actor with whom he develops an unusual relationship, as King to commoner. Recalling the words of his overbearing father, “Sitting on thrones is our business,” he reluctantly subordinates his royal status to Lionel’s unorthodox methods.
Much of the drama and hilariously snappy repartee are reflected in Bertie and Lionel’s fraught relationship, though some of it centers around, the charismatic Lionel and his wife, Myrtle, whose pressing desire is to return to Australia. Scenes between Churchill and the diabolical Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Lang, give historical weight to the palace intrigue surrounding the kingdom’s sudden shift of power.
 Kevin Gudahl as Winston Churchill and John Judd as King George V ~ Photos by Liz Lauren. Scenes that shift from Lionel’s shabby studio to the palace and ultimately Westminster Abbey are bolstered by Kevin Depinet’s wonderful set design and David Wollard’s period costumes. Nick Westrate as Bertie, Michael Bakkensen as Lionel, and Jeff Parker as Bertie’s brother, David, are electrifying in this tip-top production.
With Kevin Gudahl as Winston Churchill; John Judd as King George V; Elizabeth Ledo as Myrtle Logue; Noble Shropshire as Cosmo Lang; David Lively as Stanley Baldwin; Maggie Lacey as Elizabeth; and Tiffany Scott as Wallis Simpson.
Directed by Michael Wilson; Lighting Design by Howell Binkley; Sound Design and Original Music Composition by John Gromada.
Through February 16th at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC. For tickets and information call 1.800.514.3849 or visit www.TheNationalDC.com
Jordan Wright
February 10, 2020
Special to the Alexandria Times
In an extraordinary adaptation of Phantom of the Opera, Director Paata Tsikurishvili re-envisions the Phantom’s world – not as an opera, but as a ballet. It is a tremendous stroke of genius. The most ballet-centric production Synetic Theater has ever mounted, it stars two of the company’s most brilliant dancers. Irina Tsikurishvili, Synetic founding member and the company’s choreographer, plays the Phantom in a pulse-quickening, gender-reversed, absolutely magnificent tour de force performance. One of the company’s newest members, Maryam Najafzada, a sylph-like ballet dancer from Azerbaijan – all arms, legs, wide eyes and pouty lips – plays Christine. The incandescent Najafzada made her debut in October 2018 as a horse spirit in Synetic’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow and, unsurprisingly, she has since been a featured dancer.
 Maryam Najafzada as Christine and Irina Tsikurishvili as Phantom. Photo by Johnny Shryock. In this fantastic reimagining, we first meet the Phantom’s younger self as the dancer she once was. Disfigured by the fire that destroyed the Opera House, she makes her home in an aqueous grotto far below stage. Characters portrayed in the original story as rival opera singers, here are claws-out ballerinas keen to have the role of prima ballerina given to Christine’s rival, Carlotta.
 Maryam Najafzada as Christine and Irina Tsikurishvili as Phantom. Photo by Johnny Shryock. When the Phantom dashes Carlotta’s future by dropping a chandelier on her mid-performance, the vicious act ensures Christine will become the company’s prima ballerina. Slowly, Christine falls deeper in love with the Phantom. Rejecting her suitor Raoul, she deepens her bond with the Phantom who becomes her dance instructor and their burgeoning infatuation presents us with the most sensually romantic pas de deux in the production.
 Maryam Najafzada as Christine with ensemble. Photo by Johnny Shryock. On a lighter note, interactions among the corps de ballet provide a bird’s-eye view into backstage antics – both the bitter jealousies and the playful camaraderie. In a particular scene, the secondary dancers review their movements backstage in a kind of hand pantomime, coding the steps they will take onstage. It’s an insiders’ glimpse into an off-stage routine dancers do, that I have never before seen revealed. Look for it in Act One.
 Irina Tsikurishvili as Phantom, L to R: Eliza Smith (ensemble) Maryam Najafzada as Christine, Janine Baumgardner (ensemble) Rachael Small as Carlotta. Photo by Johnny Shryock. But lest you think it’s all toe dancing and liquid-limbed dancers in tutus, a fair part of this silent production are the fierce fight scenes between the Phantom, her cave-dwelling creatures of the night, Raoul, a host of devils, and Moncharmin, the temperamental ballet master.
Stunning full-stage video projections deposit you smack dab into the center of Paris’s Opera Garnier and its underworld. A scene in a ballet studio where we watch young students being trained on the barre, grants us a view of Paris from ocular windows high above the city. Another brings us into the grand opera house fire crackling with flames and crumbling Grecian columns. Most visceral of all are Raoul’s descending race into the Phantom’s haunted lair. To save Christine from certain death, he travels through caverns that are a virtual charnel house of the Phantom’s victims. Coupled with the extraordinary classical music, electronica, and eerie sound effects from Composer Konstantine Lortkipanidze and lavish costumes by Erik Teague, this Phantom of the Opera is spellbinding.
 Maryam Najafzada as Christine and Irina Tsikurishvili as Phantom. Photo by Johnny Shryock. Highly recommended. Five stars!
Starring Irina Tsikurishvili as Phantom; Maryam Najafzada as Christine; Jacob Thompson as Raoul; Rachael Small as Carlotta; Lottie Guidi as the Young Phantom; Delbis Cardona as Moncharmin. Ensemble members are Janine Baumgardner, Eliza Smith, Thomas Beheler, Julia Ruth Holland, Joshua Cole Lucas, and Scean Aaron.
Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili with Associate Director Katherine DuBois Maguire; Choreography by Irina Tsikurishvili; Fight Choreographer Vato Tsikurishvili; Costume Design by Erik Teague; Composer, Konstantine Lortkipanidze; Scenic Design by Daniel Pinha; Lighting Design by Brian S. Allard; Projections Designer, Patrick Lord; Adapter, Nate Weinberger.
Through February 29th at Synetic Theater, 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA in Crystal City. For tickets and information call 866.811.4111 or visit www.SyneticTheater.org
Jordan Wright
February 2, 2020
Mention the name Lauren Gunderson, and you’ll probably get an enthusiastic nod of recognition. As the most produced playwright in America, she has been writing plays about real women whose achievements have been subordinated to those of men. Think of the movie Hidden Figures as a recent example of women whose monumental accomplishments were overlooked, and overshadowed, by the men at NASA.
 Laura C. Harris (center) with Emily Kester, Jonathan David Martin, Holly Twyford and Nora Achrati Photo by Scott Suchman. Gunderson’s play Emilie – La Marquise du Chatelet, reviewed here two years ago https://whiskandquill.com/emilie-la-marquise-du-chatelet-defends-her-life-tonight-wsc-avant-bard and a recent world premiere of her play, Peter Pan and Wendy, here in DC https://whiskandquill.com/peter-pan-and-wendy-shakespeare-theatre-company-at-sidney-harmon-hall, have more than endeared her to local audiences.
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In Silent Sky, Gunderson enlightens us with the ground-breaking theories of a young, female astronomer who, against all odds, made radical discoveries that shook every astronomer’s concept of the vastness of space. Henrietta Swan Leavitt had a degree from Harvard in astronomy. Yet when she was hired to work in this renowned observatory in the early 1900’s, she was not permitted to observe the galaxy through the Great Refractor telescope. No woman could. Instead, she, along with two other female computers called “Pickering’s harem” by the male department head, were tasked with looking at photographic plates to ascertain the position and classification of stars. (Until the mid-20th century the word “computer” referred to a person who carried out calculations – long before computing machines were invented.)
 Holly Twyford, Laura C. Harris and Nora Achrati – Photo by Scott Suchman. Squirreled away in a tiny office and separated from the male astronomers, Leavitt alone achieved a system of mapping the Milky Way by relating the blinking of the stars to music and recognizing that pulsing stars have a pattern. This at a time when Einstein’s theory of relativity had just been published.
Gunderson focuses on Henrietta and her feisty co-workers, Annie Cannon and Williamina Fleming, toiling away in obscurity. It was a time when young women rarely pursued a career and still did not yet have the right to vote. Her only sibling, Margaret, chooses marriage, children, and a life in the church, despairing as Henrietta delves deeper into her work far from home and to the exclusion of her family.
 Laura C. Harris – Photo by Scott Suchman. Wonderful nighttime skies filled with starlight and a bespoke period stage set, complete the picture and add to the powerful story of the women’s mutual support and the parallel thread of Henrietta’s burgeoning romance with Peter Shaw, who falls in love with her passion and intellect, and provides a lively background to this brilliant astronomer’s extraordinary life and eventual worldwide recognition.
Starring Laura C. Harris as Henrietta Leavitt; Nora Achrati as Annie Cannon; Holly Twyford as Williamina Fleming; Emily Kester as Margaret Leavitt; and Jonathan David Martin as Peter Shaw.
 Jonathan David Martin and Laura C. Harris – Photo by Scott Suchman. Directed by Seema Sueko with Scenic Design by Milagros Ponce de León; Costume Design by Ivania Stack; Lighting Design by Rui Rita; Sound Design and Original Music by André J. Pluess; Choreographed by Karma Camp; Hair and Makeup by Anne Nesmith.
Wonderful performances by a tight-knit cast. Don’t miss it!
Through February 23rd at Ford’s Theatre, 511 Tenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information visit www.Fords.org or call the box office at 202.347.4833.
Jordan Wright
February 4, 2020
Irish author and playwright C. S. Lewis wrote The Great Divorce in 1945 during World War II. He had already abandoned the Church of Ireland, the religion he was born into, become an atheist for several decades, and by the time he wrote this, he had converted to the Church of England. It was a long journey influenced by his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien. The play is a stark, often humorous, moral wrestling about God, personal responsibility, and who’s going to Heaven and who’s going to Hell. It is said to be Lewis’ idea of the purification of venal sins after death in purgatory.
 Carol Halstead in “The Great Divorce” ~ Photo courtesy of Fellowship for the Performing Arts First, you must accept the premise that God is omnipotent, all-seeing and all-knowing. If you’re already on board with that, you can follow along as 24 different characters, portrayed by four actors, take you on a journey. The characters leave Grey Town by bus to find themselves in a sort of limbo between Heaven and Hell challenged by guides and spirits who debate their stories. The Narrator, described as a poet and a stand in for Lewis, describes their passage. The participants are all on their way to Evil as they pass through a cosmic radiant abyss to arrive at their destination.
Some are angry at the world, while others are self-righteous or self-entitled disbelievers. Some beg to return to Earth, while others see an opportunity for redemption, if they stay. As they stumble around, limping on grass that has become spiked shards, they begin to intuit their fate. As the apostate priest, George Macdonald states, “Good and Evil when they are fully grown, seem the same.” But when he states that, “All who are in Hell, choose it,” the audience responds in audible agreement.
 The Great Divorce – Joel Rainwater ~ Photo courtesy of Fellowship for the Performing Arts The play is known to be a response to the popular view expressed in William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in which the poet imagines a point at which the differences between good and evil will somehow be resolved. This concept is what inspired Lewis to write of their final divorce.
With Jonathan Hadley, Tom Souhrada, Joel Rainwater and Carol Halstead.
Produced by Ken Denison; Directed by Christa Scott-Reed, Adapted by Max McLean; Scenic Design by Kelly James Tighe; Projection Design by Rachael Cady; Costume Design by Nicole Wee; Lighting Design by Geoffrey D. Fishburn; Original Music & Sound Design; John Gromada.
Through February 9th at the Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh Theatre at 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20004. For tickets and information and a list of U. S. tour cities visit www.FPATheatre.com or call the box office at 202.547.1122
Jordan Wright
February 4, 2020
Waitress Sheri doesn’t seem like the perfect match for a Muslim cab driver from Egypt. She’s a free-spirited Caucasian with a potty mouth and a string of lovers who dumped her, and he keeps the Koran beside his bed. And, though he claims to be casual about his faith, they discuss God on their first date. After a bit of whisky, she announces, “In a few minutes I’m gonna be a cinch to bang.” Musa eagerly takes her up on it.
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 Freddie Bennett ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS There is a spirit figure in the story, around which themes of religion, gender roles and the complexities of modern life in America and the Middle East, are hung with reverence. Abdallah is Musa’s friend, a fixer for newly arrived immigrants to the U. S. Through his business he makes enough money to fulfill his dream to travel to Mecca to join other pilgrims to make the Hajj. While there, he takes a boat that capsizes, and he is lost at sea. But Sheri sees his ghost in Musa’s apartment, and he reappears at critical moments as a man whose deep faith guides his journey.
 Sanam L. Hashemi and Rachel Felstein ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS Things go sideways when Musa’s fiancée unexpectedly returns a few days early after meeting with his parents in Egypt to plan their upcoming nuptials. Entering the apartment, Gamila finds Sheri in his bed. Blindsided by the knowledge that he is engaged, Sheri freaks out and all hell breaks loose between the two women. As an educated and devout Muslim American, Gamila, is shocked to find out that Musa is shacking up with a woman and the two have it out.
 Ahmad Kamal and Rachel Felstein ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS The crux of this dilemma is if Musa will choose Sheri or Gamila? And will either woman forgive him? “I can be who I want with her,” he tells Gamila. When she protests that he is denying his faith and her love, he tells her, “I don’t want roots, customs, traditions and family. I don’t want the rest of my life to be what I know.”
 Ahmad Kamal and Rachel Felstein ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS As the Production’s Dramaturg Salma S. Zohdi tells us, “Each character seeks pilgrimage, albeit in different ways. Both Musa and Sheri seek spiritual pilgrimage, yet Gamila seeks a homeward bound pilgrimage. A specific common thread connects all the Muslim characters’ emotional voyage, and that is overcoming the challenges of being a Muslim immigrant.”
 Ahmad Kamal and Sanam L. Hashemi ~ Photography by CHRISTOPHER BANKS A part of Mosaic’s “Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival”, the play is written by Yussef El Guini and directed by Shirley Serotsky. The story is a powerful and passionate glimpse into the perils of the Muslim experience in America. Like the region’s desert sands, that experience is not static, it is always shifting.
Hauntingly beautiful Egyptian music by singer Mohamed Mounir backgrounds the play.
Featuring Ahmad Kamal as Musa; Rachel Felstein as Sheri; Freddie Lee Bennett as Abdallah; Gerrad Alex Taylor as Tayyib; and Sanam Laila Hashemi as Gamila.
Set Design by Nephelie Andyonadis; Lighting Design by Brittany Shemuga; Costumes by Danielle Preston; Sound Design by Roc Lee.
Post-show discussions and talkbacks are free to the public. Visit the website for times and dates.
Through February 16th at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. For tickets and information visit www.MosaicTheatre.org or call the box office at 202.399.7993 extension 2.
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