Jordan Wright
December 22, 2018
Take a deep breath – or two – then prepare to fall down laughing. From start to rollicking finish this steroidally hilarious play-within-a-play never misses a comedic beat as this splendid twelve-member cast proves that anything that can go wrong, will. You know the old chestnut of Murphy’s Law, well, its tidy aphorism is cheekily born out here. Someone must have said the forbidden word, “Macbeth” backstage, because the Cornley University Drama Society proceeds to offer up a shining example of the ineptest group of actors to ever tread the boards. And it’s just delicious!
 Peyton Crim, Yaegel T. Welch and Jamie Ann Romero ~ Photo by Jeremy Daniel In trying to stage “The Murder at Haversham Manor”, this cockeyed amateur troupe shows that the play’s the thing – until it isn’t. Pratfalls, mishaps, blown cues and botched exits abound, dead bodies won’t stay dead and malapropisms are the order of the day, all done with a straight face and a stiff upper lip.
 Angela Grovey, Yaegel T_ Welch and Jamie Ann Romero ~ Photo by Jeremy Danie It is the night of the engagement party of Florence Colleymore to Charles Haversham who has been found murdered. When Inspector Carter shows up to interrogate the estate’s fashionable guests, he doesn’t know whether to point the finger at Florence the sexpot, her supercilious brother Thomas, Charles’ cuckolding brother Cecil, Perkins the bumbling Butler, or Arthur the absent gardener. But it hardly matters in this whodunnit. With all the mayhem and mischief, everyone is under the microscope.
 Ned Noyes and Scott Cote ~ Photo by Jeremy Daniel The only ones who remain relatively unscathed in this twisted mystery are the unnamed Stage Manager and the Duran Duran fanboy whose miscues and mishaps on lights and sound add to the cast’s confusion and the audience’s delight when they too wind up on stage to fill in for cast members who have been knocked unconscious by falling portraits or secret revolving doors. If you’ve ever acted in or staged a production, you’ll commiserate with props that aren’t where they’re supposed to be, actors who are self-absorbed hams, sets that fall apart, and doors that won’t open. Especially funny is a dueling divas’ scene when Florence revives from an accident only to discover her role has been taken over by the lowly Stage Manager. Meow!
 The Play That Goes Wrong Photo by Jeremy Daniel Highly recommended. A clever goofball sendup that’s guaranteed to keep you guffawing long after you’ve left the theatre.
Presented by Mischief Theatre and written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields with Scott Cote, Peyton Crim, Brandon J. Ellis, Angela Grovey, Ned Noyes, Jamie Ann Romero, Evan Alexander Smith, Yaegel T. Welch, Blair Baker, Jacqueline Jarrold, Sid Solomon and Michael Thatcher.
Through January 6th in the Eisenhower Theater at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC. For tickets and information for future shows call 202 467-4600.
Jordan Wright
December 20, 2018
 Kimberly Schraf (left) and Mitchell Hebert (right) – Photo credit Stan Barouh When God arrives to your office dressed as Orson Welles, you had better take him seriously. In Anat Gov’s comedic tale God takes on the persona of a distressed patient seeking advice from Ella, a Jewish psychologist with an autistic son, Lior. Ella has only 60 minutes to set God straight before he destroys the world and she’s already fed up with his overactive ego. As part of the company’s 18th annual Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival, this is the first comedy Artistic Director Ari Roth has produced and it’s sharp, witty and searingly funny.
Ella finds God at his wit’s end with humankind, wishing he’d stopped creating the heaven and earth on the fifth day before Adam and Eve’s apple mishap which started all the earthly miseries. I was grateful that some of my rudimentary religious training stuck since the questions Ella poses to God are plucked straight from the chapters of the bible.
 Mitchell Hebert (left) and Kimberly Schraf (right) – Photo credit Stan Barouh Ella, suspicious that God would come to her with his problems, tries to put him off, “I’m non-secular. I eat shrimp wrapped in bacon.” When he persists in his claim to be the all-powerful, she reminds him, “You didn’t have a mother, so who can we blame for everything you’ve done?”
Their back-and-forth banter is clever and incisive. What would God really say? How would he explain why he did such terrible things? Why did he turn his back on Job? She suggests he has been looking for love even though he gets it more than anyone else. And when she brings up the first commandment. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”, she claims that it came from his fear of abandonment.
 (l to r) Sean McCoy, Kimberly Schraf, and Mitchel Hebert ~ Photo credit Stan Barouh Ella is a tough inquisitor posing questions that have gone unexplained for millennia. We are just as curious as she is to hear his answers, but he bobs and weaves around the truth causing Ella to diagnose him as abusive and infantile. By the time they come to some sort of détente – when God accepts his diagnosis and Ella returns to her faith – we have melted into pools of laughter.
 (l to r) Sean MCoy and Kimberly Schraf – Photo credit Stan Barouh Recommended for those that are searching for God sunny side up. A seasoned cast captures the funny bone from the get-go.
With Kimberly Schraf as Ella, Mitchell Hébert as God and Cameron Sean McCoy as Lior.
Translated from the Hebrew by Anthony Berris and Margalit Rodgers and directed by Michael Bloom with set design by Jonathan Dahm Robertson and lighting design by Brittany Shemuga.
Through January 13th at the Atlas Center for the Performing Arts – 1333 H Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. For tickets info on post show discussions, special rates and discounts visit www.MosaicTheater.org or call the box office at 202.399.7993 ext. 2. Valet parking at 1360 H Street, NE.
Jordan Wright
December 14, 2018
The curiously clever and titillating thread that runs through David Ives’ hilarious trio of comedies is a pair of red silk panties that keeps turning up in the oddest places. If that doesn’t make you sit up and beg to know more, I don’t know what will.
Ives has taken inspiration from Carl Sternheim whose writings were between the repressive era of Wilhelmine Germany and the chaos of the Weimar Republic. These, however, are set it in modern times. As Ives notes, it is very, very loosely based on Sternheim’s satirical work about a socially ambitious, middle class family. The production is directed by the brilliant Michael Kahn.
If you enjoyed Ives’ “translaptations” of French comedies – The Metromaniacs, The Liar and The School for Lies – you will fall hard for this riotous gem. “The Panties” is set in 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts on the July 4th holiday. A young couple goes into town to watch a parade when the wife’s white panties burst their elastic moorings and go southward as witnessed by their neighbors. Oh, the humiliation, as Joseph berates his wife, Louise, whose friend, Trudy, gifts her a pair of red silk panties – all the better to seduce the couples’ newest tenant Jock Revere and cuckold her husband. “A white cloud about her feet,” rhapsodizes Jock, a self-proclaimed poet who swooned over her panties’ descent.
Unfortunately for Jock, Louise falls for another new tenant, this one the hapless, Jewish hairdresser, Benjamin, who’s a bit of a perv. At the same time, Joseph locks eyes with new neighbor, Jones, a lady gym coach, and the game’s afoot.
In “The Profit”, we are fast forwarded to the coke-fueled, mid-80’s where Wall Street go-getter Christian is desperate to make partner in the Wasp-dominated Hamilton, Shaker & Shaw. His sponsor is his paramour, Sybil, a blue-chip heiress whose recommendation demands hot sex, peppered by blackmail. When his blue-collar parents arrive to spoil his scion façade, will he play it her way or not? Let’s just say there’s a body in the closet and much mayhem to consider when the airhead daughter of the firm’s CEO, William Hamilton, arrives.
Lastly, in “The Profit”, we are transported to modern day Malibu and the fabulous seaside home of Louise who is having an emotional breakdown. Her sister, Ursula, clad in sackcloth and rocking a New Age mindset, has dissolved the family fortune and Louise will lose her billionaire LA lifestyle along with her umbilically attached cellphone and in-house robot. A rabbi, a homeless surfer dude and a giant sea snake augur the end of the world in this madcap folly. Did I mention they are related? You will see. And you will love it. The cast is formidable and fierce.
Highly recommended.
With Carson Elrod as Joseph Mask and Joe Jones; Kimberly Gilbert as Louise Mask; Julia Coffey as Trudy Rezner, Sybil Rittenhouse and Omega; Tony Roach as Jock Revere, William Hamilton and Jack Revere; Kevin Isola as Benjamin Mandelshtam, Christian Mask and Rabbi Mandelshtam; and Turna Mete as Young Woman, Milly Hamilton and Ursula Mask.
Costumes by Frank Labovitz, Scenic Design by Alexander Dodge, Lighting Design by Nancy Schertler, and original music and sound design by Elisheba Ittoop.
Through January 6th at the Lansburgh Theatre – 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information contact the box office at 202 547.1122 or visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org.
 The Cast
Jordan Wright
December 11, 2018
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Katherine Riddle & Jimmy Mavrikes ~Photo credit ~ C. Stanley Photography If visions of sugarplums are dancing in your head, then this probably isn’t the show for you. No, Virginia, this is for those that see Christmas as a time to carouse, occasionally reflect, and celebrate camaraderie, but most assuredly it will not be seen as a Victorian postcard with angels in flight wearing halos of mistletoe.
This is how this clever holiday variety show might have been performed at the famed Hampstead, England public house circa 1918 – witty, silly and a lot risqué. Written and directed by well-known DC actor Catherine Flye (Catch her now as Grandma in Billy Elliott at Signature Theatre), this 6-person British variety music hall show is sure to jolly up your holidays with Vaudeville-era tunes, Christmas carols, silly jokes, a sing-along and a moving tribute, Christmas in the Trenches, an homage to this year’s 100th anniversary of Armistice Day.
 Sherri L. Edelen and Albert Coia ~ Photo credit ~ C. Stanley Photography The Chairman, played by Brian O’Connor, is a nattily dressed, elegant gent who is emcee to a small troupe of performers – Miss Florrie Forde (Sherri L. Edelen), an endearing, middle-aged singer and hoofer (Neat fact: Florrie Forde was a famed Australian music hall songstress, who graced British stages with her incomparable voice for half a century.), Miss Daisy May (Katherine Riddle), a pretty ingenue with the voice of a nightingale, Mr. Bertie Ramsbottom (Albert Coia), an endearing, dipsomaniacal comedian, Mr. Percival Pennyfeather (Jimmy Mavrikes), Daisy’s dashing love interest, and Maestro Peabody (Joseph Walsh), the music hall’s pianist.
 Brian O’Connor ~ Photo credit ~ C. Stanley Photography Here are the titles of a smattering of the 34 classic tunes, seven of which are audience participation – lyrics provided, thank you very much. It should give you an idea of what’s in store from this delightful veteran cast – “Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy”, “Spotted Dick” and “The Night She Cried in my Beer”. These are interspersed with traditional English carols like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Good King Wenceslas” and vaudeville-era songs like the tear-jerker “Sonny Boy”, the cockney-inspired “Lambeth Walk”, and more. In the euphemistic tune, “Please Don’t Touch My Plums”, Miss Forde croons, “You can grope me cantaloupes and stroke me artichokes, but please don’t touch my plums.”
Expect more than cheeky humor in this series of vignettes played by these lovable cast members, when the troupe performs a snippet from “The Christmas Carol” and a reading of John McRae’s wartime classic, “In Flanders Field” when Brits lost so many of their sons and fathers. Especially poignant is Katherine Riddle’s exquisite voice and tender rendition of “In the Bleak Midwinter”, once named the best Christmas carol in a poll of the world’s leading choirmasters.
 Front Row: (l-r) Albert Coia and Brian O’Connor – Back Row (l-r) Sherri L. Edelen, Katherine Riddle, Jimmy Mavrikes ~ Photo credit ~ C. Stanley Photography Foot-stomping (ordered by The Chairman) lends a party atmosphere to this lively show chock-a-block with enough wink-wink double entendres to warm the cockles of your irreverent, Christmas-loving heart.
Set Consultant, Carl Gudenius, Costume Design by Michael Sharp and Lighting Design by Alexander Keen.
Christmas crackers, British beers, cider, mince pies and sausage rolls for purchase at the bar, Christmas at the Old Bull & Bush runs through December 30th at MetroStage – 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, 22314. For tickets visit www.metrostage.org.
Jordan Wright
December 1, 2018
Paula Vogel’s Indecent is not your typical holiday entertainment. It’s dark and foreboding. Opening during the season of Hanukkah, it strikes one as an unusual period to put on a tale about the travails of a group of Polish Jewish actors who meet a terrible end in Nazi Poland. Vogel’s play arose out of her interest in the misinterpretation of Sholem Asch’s play God of Vengeance written in 1907. It attempts to revisit that play and its impact and separate the two from Asch’s original intent – what he truly meant to express and how devastated he was when critics and rabbis disapproved of it. As a period, Yiddish play, written during the heyday of Yiddish theater, Asch was devasted when his play augured the demise of that beloved form of entertainment.
 (L-R) Susan Lynskey (The Middle: Halina/Ensemble) and Emily Shackelford (The Ingenue: Chana/Ensemble), with Ben Cherry (Lemml) in background. Photo by C. Stanley Photography. We meet the young Sholem and his wife in their bedroom. She is reading his first play and encourages him to produce it. “It’s wonderful! It’s so sad,” she tells him. He presents it in a private salon for playwrights at the home of a producer who agrees to stage it. Others in attendance see it as degrading to Jews because it has racy scenes. It was later to become a play so reviled by American Jews because it dared to present them as human with all its messy faults and foibles.
Nonetheless, one man, Lemml, a modest tailor, endorses Asch’s craft and becomes the play’s stage manager. Over the years God of Vengeance is performed throughout Europe and Russia to great acclaim, though the unusual story of a Jewish brothel owner, the trashing of the Torah and a romance between two women, portrays Jews as less than holy. When the actors go to America in 1921, the play is censored. The original Asch play opened on Broadway in 1923 and featured the first kiss by two women on the Broadway stage. This innocent and playful scene has the women dancing in the rain as they celebrate their love. The upshot was that the entire troupe was arrested for obscenity, later resulting in an investigation of the playwright by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
 Ben Cherry (Lemml) and the cast of Indecent. Photo by C. Stanley Photography. Violin, clarinet, accordion, and what appeared to be a balalaika, serve as a mournful background to the destruction of the socialists’ high ideals. Well-acted, it reflects a turbulent time during the days of politically-motivated censorship of those in the arts.
With Ben Cherry as The Stage Manager: Lemml; Susan Lynskey as The Middle: Halina/Ensemble; John Milosich as Moriz Godowsky/Musician/Ensemble; Victor Raider-Wexler as The Elder: Otto/Ensemble; Susan Rome as The Elder: Vera/Ensemble; Emily Shackelford as The Ingénue: Chana/Ensemble/Dance Captain; Maryn Shaw as Nelly Friedman/Musician/Ensemble; Alexander Sovronsky as Mayer Balsam/Musician/Ensemble; Ethan Watermaier as The Middle: Mendel/Ensemble; and Max Wolkowitz as The Ingénue: Avram/Ensemble.
 (L-R) Emily Shackelford (The Ingenue: Chana/Ensemble) and Max Wolkowitz (The Ingenue: Avram/Ensemble) in Indecent. Photo by C. Stanley Photography. Diercted by Eric Rosen; Choreography by Erika Chong Shuch; Music Direction and Original Music by Alexander Sovronsky; Set Design by Jack Magaw; Costume Design by Linda Roethke; and Lighting Design by Josh Epstein.
Through December 30th at Arena Stage – 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 488-3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.
Jordan Wright
November 29, 2018
 Carnegie Hall. Sarah Bockel (Carole King) ~ Photo credit: Joan Marcus Where were you when you first heard The Righteous Brothers sing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” or “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles? Maybe you were dancing to “Locomotion” by Little Eva or “Up on the Roof” by The Drifters, all songs written by Brooklyn-born Carole King (Sarah Bockel) and her husband Gerry Goffin (Dylan S. Wallach). Working for music producer Don Kirshner (James Clow), known as “The Man with the Golden Ear”, their partnership produced hit after hit keeping them on the pop charts throughout the 60’s.
 1650 Broadway. (l to r) James Clow (Don Kirshner), Dylan S. Wallach (Gerry Goffin), Sarah Bockel (Carole King), Jacob Heimer (Barry Mann) and Alison Whitehurst (Cynthia Weil). Photo credit: Joan Marcus. During their early career lyricist Gerry and the precociously talented composer Carole churned out hits at Aldon Music, a music publishing house and hit factory in New York’s Brill Building, where they worked side-by-side with fellow hit makers, Cynthia Weil (Alison Whitehurst) and Barry Mann (Jacob Heimer) in friendly competition.
Beautiful tells the story of their romance, marriage and tumultuous breakup. The simple story chronicles their struggles and successes and ultimately King’s solo career, which broke the pop mold with the release of her first album – the four-time Grammy Award-winning, “Tapestry”.
 “The Locomotion.” The Touring Cast of Beautiful – The Carole King Musical. Photo credit: Joan Marcus. The latest national tour has rearranged the order of the music. It now opens with Carole on piano at Carnegie Hall. She is singing “So Far Away”, accompanying herself and showing confidence with her trademark masses of wavy hair gowned in a blue-flowered maxi-dress. It was not always so for the shy, yet ambitious teen who wrote songs for the top African American artists of that era. The plot then takes us back to the beginning of Carole’s career, when as a whip-smart sixteen-year old, Carole bucked her Jewish mother Genie (Suzanne Grodner with plenty of comic relief), to peddle her tunes in the Big Apple where she has an auspicious meeting with Kirshner.
 The Drifters. (l to r) Dimitri Joseph Moïse, Deon Releford-Lee, Nathan Andrew Riley and Michael Stiggers, Jr. Photo credit: Joan Marcus. A medley of hits from the 50’s includes some of the greatest hits from that era – “Poison Ivy”, “Love Potion #9”, “Yakety Yak” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” to name a few. Dressed in flashy sharkskin suits and skinny ties, The Drifters and The Shirelles in their trademark beaded dresses perform the couple’s greatest hits, along with Little Eva (Alexis Tidwell), discovered when she was their babysitter and the entirely fictitious Janelle Woods (McKynleigh Alden Abraham), a glamorous pop singer who becomes Gerry’s extramarital lover.
 Queens College. Sarah Bockel (Carole King) and Dylan S. Wallach (Gerry Goffin) ~ Photo credit: Joan Marcus. The musical is light on script, but heavy on songs, twenty-seven numbers backed by a twelve-piece orchestra. But that’s just fine as you’ll probably be silently singing along, tapping your toes and recalling your first dance, first kiss or first breakup. Goosebumps kick in with “Some Kind of Wonderful”, Gerry and Carole’s first duet, and The Righteous Brothers big number, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”.
Scenic Designer Derek McLane captures the mood by creating a wall of instruments and tricking out the musical performances with hundreds of moving, neon-colored lights. Mid-century modern furnishings reflect Carole’s home and office.
 “Natural Woman.” Sarah Bockel (Carole King) ~ Photo credit: Joan Marcus.
Bockel does a superb job as Carole, especially at the end of Act Two when she lets loose her powerful voice on the biggest hits from the album “Tapestry” – “Natural Woman”, later covered by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, and “Beautiful”. The musical reflects Carole’s coming of age as an independent composer and soloist who has emerged from pain and loss to find joy and recognition as an artist in her own right.
See it if you love the music of this era, or even for the music with its sweet harmonies and catchy lyrics that draws us back to an age of innocence.
Book by Douglas McGrath; Words and Music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; Scenic Design by Derek McLane; Costume Design by Alejo Vietti; Lighting Design by Peter Kaczorowski; Sound Design by Brian Ronan; Wig and Hair Design by Charles G. LaPointe.
Through December 30th at the National Theatre, Washington DC – 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information visit www.TheNationalDC.org or call 202 628-6161.
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