Jordan Wright
April 22, 2015
Special to DC Metro Theater Arts
A fresh breeze blew into town last night and she was wearing rhinestone-encrusted cat eye glasses out to there, and a hot pink fringe gown glittering with Swarovski crystals. Yes, you guessed it – – the internationally infamous, dearly beloved, barb-slinging insultress known familiarly as Dame Edna. Trashing more Washington politicos than the Drudge Report at election time, the saucy senior can take down Jesus and the apostles in one slanderous swoop, “they wore the 50 shades of gray badly,” she sniped to an audience of devotees.
 Dame Edna – Photo credit Craig Schwartz Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye – The Farewell Tour (A meditation on loss, gender, climate change, gay marriage and ethnicity) takes on these weighty issues with showbiz and razzmatazz. Barry Humphries, who first channeled Mrs. Edna Everage in 1955 in Melbourne, Australia, is no stranger to the double-entendre. A veteran of Broadway and London’s West End theatres, the Tony Award-winning performer has been dazzling and dishing with faithful fans for over half a century.
Directed by Simon Phillips, the glitzy two-acter opens with film clip cameos of Hollywood celebs. Stars as disparate as Charlton Heston, Kelly Osbourne and Hugh Jackman describe their run-ins with the naughty grandma as the glam goddess tells tales of her shabby Australian past, her dysfunctional children and her husband’s prostate “murmur”. Hoofing is provided by four leggy dancers who surround the mauve-haired wonder with giant purple ostrich fans. Move over Florence Ziegfeld!
 Dame Edna with giant purple ostrich fans – Photo credit Craig Schwartz Jonathan Tessero is the production’s Musical Director & Onstage Accompanist and Wayne Barker and Andrew Ross provide the tunes for the caterwauling songstress who describes herself as “the quintessence of kindness”. Never have scandal and sarcasm been such great pals.
In the second act choreographer, Eve Prideaux, turns to Bollywood as Dame Edna describes her spiritual adventures in an ashram. “It’s a trailer park for the soul,” she moans as the dancers swirl around her in gold-edged saris.
 Dame Edna and Bollywood Dancers – Photo credit Craig Schwartz But the real howls come when, as in years past, she singles out unsuspecting audience members. Claiming to be clairvoyant she tells one, “I believe in past lives and you look as if you might have been something.” Ouch! It hurts so good. To a group of elderly audience members she calls out, “Oh, the seniors are still here! Someone must have topped off their medication.” The zingers fly fast and furiously. You gotta keep up. She is as outrageous as she is captivating and as endearing as a child with Asberger’s (her diagnosis, not mine).
Highly recommended for death-defying irreverence.
In town for a limited run at The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20004. Performance Schedule is as follows. Tuesday, April 21st – Thursday, April 23rd at 7:30pm, Friday, April 24th at 8pm, Saturday, April 25th at 2pm and 8pm and Sunday, April 26th at 4pm. For tickets and information call 202 628-6161 or visit thenationaldc.com or www.dameednafarewell.com
Jordan Wright
April 13, 2015
Special to DC Metro Theater Arts
 Edward Gero as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in The Originalist. Photo by C. Stanley Photography. The controversial Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, comes to life in the hilariously acerbic The Originalist at Arena Stage. The much-acclaimed world premiere has just been extended for the second time and will continue until May 3rd resuming again on May 19th and running through May 31st. I give you this latest news upfront so that you can grab your tickets now. This is a can’t miss tour de force starring consummate actor Ed Gero as Scalia supported by Kerry Warren as Cat, Scalia’s liberal law clerk, and Harlan Work as Brad, Cat’s opposite, a young member of The Federalist Society and Scalia’s Sycophant-in-Chief.
 (L to R) Edward Gero as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Harlan Work as Brad and Kerry Warren as Cat in The Originalist. Photo by C. Stanley Photograph As the Court’s notably right-wing curmudgeon, Scalia has won friends in many circles with his humor and charm (you can’t be all bad and still have über liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a ‘bestie’), and John Strand (Arena Stage’s Resident Playwright) takes full advantage of that dichotomy, bringing it to life through historical quotes overlaid with the playwright’s imaginings of how Scalia crafts his opinions. It is one of the most thrilling pieces of theatre I have ever seen.
Strand uses the impending and long-awaited Supreme Court’s decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as the centerpiece for the characters’ legal arguments, using the device to pit Scalia’s philosophies against Cat’s vehement opposition. It’s tremendously irresistible to anyone interested in law, the Justices, or the Court’s nation-altering decisions. (I sat next to a female attorney who had taken Scalia’s Contract Law class at the University of Chicago and proclaimed him feisty, yet humorous, even back then.)
 (L to R) Kerry Warren as Cat and Edward Gero as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in The Originalist. Photo by C. Stanley Photography. Accompanied by interstices of grandiose operatic arias (Scalia is a known opera buff), he delivers arguments and pronouncements like bullets on a battlefield, but so does his verbal sparring partner, Cat, an equally combative Harvard Law grad determined to change his mind. “I dissent!” is the most oft repeated line from the man who once had acting aspirations. He later confesses, “The court is my theatre. I am not an ideologue. I am an originalist!” In explaining his reason for hiring her he reveals, “Every now and then I like to have a liberal around. It reminds of how right I am.” Cat, who views the court as a “fantasy palace”, is determined to change his dogmatic ways. She seeks his heart, while he wants her soul. “You’re stuck alone in your bunker. Your constitution is just a shield you hide behind,” she parries, defining his brand of government a “monsterocracy”.
Gero is magnificent. His comedic timing and arrogant swagger are nothing less than breathtaking and perfectly counterbalanced by the supremely talented Kerry Warren. So riveting is their sparring on gun rights, gay marriage and the constitution, that if there was one soul in the audience who didn’t hear the proverbial pin drop, it didn’t. (Speaking of sparring, boxing terms are used so frequently I wondered if it they’re something the Justice is known for.)
 The set of The Originalist designed by Misha Kachman in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The Originalist runs March 6-April 26, 2015. Photo by C. Stanley Photography. Setting the tone and highlighting the majesty and gravity of the Court and its private chambers, Lighting Designer Colin K. Bills gives us two massive crystal chandeliers in order to appropriately frame the pronouncements from Scalia’s Kingly Court of Conservatism. Set Designer Mischa Kachman adds floor-to-ceiling red velvet drapes trimmed with golden tassels: lest you forget the import of where you are.
Highly recommended.
See above for new dates. Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 488-3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.
Jordan Wright
March 30, 2015
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Joshua Morgan (Steven), Natascia Diaz (Adrienne), Alex Brightman (Jonah), and
Jessica Hershberg (Charlie) in Soon at Signature Theatre. Photo by Teresa Wood. The world is ending and Charlie (Jessica Hershberg) is obsessed by the lurid headlines. Listening to broadcasts of the President’s speech declaring the planet’s demise, she becomes consumed by Wolf Blitzer. “His voice reminds me of my father’s,” she admits. Her dwindling stash of peanut butter explains her inability to rise up from the imagined safety of her sofa to venture out into the world to replenish it and she holes up in her tawdry East Village apartment while indulging in the schadenfreude of CNN’s apocalyptic reports of the devastating effects of climate change. Agoraphobic, depressive, defeatist and snide, she’s hardly anyone’s idea of a heroine.
Her sometime boyfriend, Jonah (Alex Brightman) can’t lure her outdoors and neither can her mother, Adrienne (Natascia Diaz), nor her roomie, Steven (Joshua Morgan). “I’m busy acknowledging the inevitable,” she moans, forgoing her dreams of starting a neighborhood bakery. And as she stays put in her apartment with her pet goldfish, Herschel, life goes on around her while the others appear and disappear both in the present and from the beyond.
 Alex Brightman (Jonah) and Jessica Hershberg (Charlie) in Soon at Signature
Theatre. Photo by Teresa Wood. In Soon a compact musical with book, music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire, the four intersecting lives are highlighted through some pretty quirky tunes. “Peanut Butter” and “Bar Mitzvah for the First Jewish Fish” are two of the eleven numbers that express the mood of the characters.
Director Matthew Gardiner, who last year brought us the brilliant Sunday in the Park with George, has assembled a capable cast of top-drawer talent to push this musical to the next level. In particular Natascia Diaz, who we raved about in last year’s The Three Penny Opera, and Joshua Morgan, whose performance as the campy gay roommate electrifies the stage and provides necessary comic relief.
Also of note are the production values enhanced by the work of Projection Designer, Matthew Haber, who splashes across the walls the gloom-and-doom newsreels of the world’s natural disasters; and Dan Conway whose set design, replete with crime prevention bars on the apartment, reflect Charlie’s self-imposed, emotional prison.
 Jessica Hershberg (Charlie) in Soon at Signature Theatre. Photo by Teresa Wood My only complaint is with the story. It is overly challenging to drum up empathy for Charlie, even when we discover that she has contracted a disease through her own mother. She is heartless and dismissive to Jonah, who begs for her affections. “Everything I ever wanted never happened,” she whines. Who puts up with that? Well, the long-suffering Jonah, the man who gives her a goldfish in hopes that it will bond him to her forever, does. Even in a particularly tender moment when he tells her that his parents have offered to pay for her medical care, she blows him off.
By the time we get to the fairytale ending and Charlie has caved to Jonah’s unfathomable love, it is of little satisfaction to watch them picnicking while the world ends to the strains of the number, “Make Love”. Think post-apocalyptic sci-fi romance. Millennials will thrill to the futility and despair.
Through April 26th in the ARK Theatre 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
March 25, 2015
Special to DC Metro Theater Arts
 Ziggy Gruber with Zellagabetsky Paula Murphy Glorious six-inch high pastrami and corned beef sandwiches, matzoh balls floating airily in a rich chicken stock the color of fresh hay, chopped chicken liver blended with onions and hard-cooked egg served in baseball-size orbs, smoked whitefish and Nova sliced so thin you can see right through a single silken slice to see your bubbeleh across the table. Fat red cherry blintzes.
 Erik Greenberg Anjou and Fyvush Finkel In the The Deli Man, the third and last of Director Erik Greenberg Anjou’s trilogy about Jewish culture, we are given a seat at the tables of some of North America’s greatest delicatessens where third and fourth generation deli men, whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers brought their treasured recipes across the Atlantic to Canada and the U. S., still keep the beloved traditions alive. And where men without money, or a country to go back to, came by the droves to the Lower East Side of Manhattan determined to open a restaurant with the food their families held dear.
 Director Erik Greenberg Anjou and crew with Jerry Stiller Many of these delis, Reuben’s, Lindy’s, the Stage Deli, Katz’s, Nate n’ Al’s and Carnegie Deli, served the vaudevillians that worked in the nearby theater district. Comedians like Jack Benny, Henny Youngman, Eddie Cantor, and my late father, Georgie Price, had sandwiches named after them and you could find a deli on every street corner in New York. A few of these iconic delis are still around. Hundreds more around the country closed their doors due to the changing American cultural and culinary landscape.
 Ziggy Gruber at serving counter The Deli Man is a loving documentary portrait of the hardworking men, and women, who have kept their delis alive despite the rising costs of meat and fish, and the never-ending hours. The film is informed by the backstory of David “Ziggy” Gruber, owner of the Houston, Texas-based Kenny & Ziggy’s Delicatessen. Ziggy, an overachiever with a big heart, explains his devotion to his Hungarian roots and the dishes that he loves so well, “When I cook I feel my ancestors around me.”
Appearances by Larry King and Jerry Stiller brighten this Jewish culinary love story. Stiller explains its importance in daily life, “The deli was something you deserved after working your ass off.”
 Larry King The Deli Man opens on Friday, March 27th at AMC Mazza Gallerie and AMC Shirlington. Rated PG-13.
Highly recommended if there is a deli within ten minutes walking or driving distance – – otherwise you will drool like a bulldog and your Yiddishe Mama will kvetsh.
Jordan Wright
March 24, 2015
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Anthony Warlow as Don Quixote in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of
Man of La Mancha, directed by Alan Paul. Photo by Scott Suchman. Set Designer Allen Moyer’s two-story iron grid with drop down catwalk provides the stark background for Director Alan Paul’s revival of Man of La Mancha now playing at the glamorous Sidney Harman Hall. Set in a bleak Spanish prison during the time of the Inquisition, the beloved musical is loosely based on Cervantes 17th century neo-biography, “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha” – – a man known for tilting at windmills and spinning a tale or two which is precisely what he must do to stay alive in this den of iniquity where the prisoners become the masters of the Inquisition.
While awaiting their sentences, Quixote’s fellow prisoners charge him with being an idealist and bad poet in their own mock trial. In order to spare his life and keep his only manuscript of a play he has written, he cuts a deal with them. He will present his defense in the form of a charade using them as the characters in an epic adventure of knights, wizards, warlocks and maidens. And in the way of that great Arabian storyteller, Scheherazade, who saved her own life with 1001 tales, he devises a play in which he is an old man on an indefinable quest and his motley cellmates fulfill the other roles. In doing so he empowers the lowly to dream beyond their dismal lives and achieve a modicum of dignity. Ever the optimist Quixote insists, “Too much sanity may be madness.”
 Amber Iman as Aldonza and Anthony Warlow as Don Quixote
Photo by Scott Suchman. His slightly daft but ever-faithful squire, Sancho Panza (Nehjal Joshi), is a veritable font of proverbs. Quixote (Alan Warlow) soon engages them all in his life-affirming chimera as the hapless sidekick with his charmingly goofy brand of loyalty provides much of the show’s comic relief.
Through his narrative he casts the rough-hewn Aldonza (played by the lovely and dulcet-voiced Amber Iman) as his fair maiden, “A knight without a lady is like a body without a soul”, and he insists on calling her Dulcinea, a name he invents to lend a softer side to her low birth.
Iman, Warlow, Joshi, Martin Sola as The Padre and Robert Mammana as The Duke and Dr. Carrasco are all spectacular with Iman and Warlow bringing down the house with their solos. Add to that a beautiful partnership between Lighting Designer Robert Wierzel who skillfully evokes the paintings of Goya and other Spanish masters of the period; Costume Designer, Ann Hould-Ward, who plays on that dynamic; and Choreographer, Marcos Santana, who amps up the scenes with slapstick, sword fights and bench dancing (yes!) into every scene that has motion.
 Sidney DuPont (Paco), Joey Elrose (Juan), James Hayden Rodriguez (Jose), Ceasar F. Barajas (Pedro), JP Moraga (Tenorio), Nathan Lucrezio (Anselmo), and Robert Mammana (The Duke)
Photo by Scott Suchman. Many will thrill to Composer Mitch Leigh’s and Lyricist Joe Darion’s sweeping orchestration and twenty memorable songs. “To Dream the Impossible Dream”, “Dulcinea”, “I, Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha” and “I’m Only Thinking of Him”, iconic numbers from this classic musical that are brought to life by an 11-member orchestra under the deft direction of George Fulginiti-Shakar.
This is a must-see production of a must-see musical.
Through April 26th at the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Sidney Harman Hall at 610 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information contact the box office at 202 547-1122 or visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org.
By Cary Pollak for Whisk and Quill
March 21, 2015
Special to DC Metro Theater Arts
We can all recite the famous intro from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, “Ladies and gentlemen, and children of all ages.” It’s the opening line from the ringmaster – – the signal you are about to be entertained, something the legendary Ringling Bros. has fine-tuned for over a century. Prior to opening night of a four-day run at DC’s Verizon Center, I joined a group of journalists invited to dine in the fabled “Pie Car”. On Thursday afternoon a small shuttle bus whisked us off to a far-flung corner of the District where we were amazed to arrive at a lengthy one-mile long, 60-car train. The locomotive-driven stream of boxcars houses the circus’s animals, handlers, cast and crew as they travel by rail around the country.
 The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Train. Once on board Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson ushered us into one of the many dining cars. Iverson, a commanding fellow who was dressed in one of his dazzling costumes of sequined tails and top hat, is the first African-American ringmaster and at twenty-two, the youngest ringmaster in Ringling Brothers’ history. At a towering 6’ 5”, he must surely be one of the tallest. An award-winning tenor and student of voice in college, Iverson had hoped to become an opera singer. But when the role was offered, Iverson gladly gave up Pagliacci, to be the singing and speaking voice of ringmaster. In addition, he proved to be a gracious host.
 Ringmaster John flanked by Brazilian circus dancers Deborath Aranjo and Carol Grego Our lunch was billed as a culinary journey with dishes from a few of the more than fifty countries represented by the cast and crew of the troupe’s current show, LEGENDS. The menu featured Japanese spaghetti and meatballs, Brazilian cheesy bread and Chilaquiles con chorizo (a dish of deep fried tortilla wedges, salsa verde, onions and chorizo sausage, topped with a fried egg). While this may not be the Greatest Chow on Earth from a gourmand’s perspective, the food is hearty fare geared to please the carb-craving performers.
 Lunch aboard the Pie Car Chef Matt Loory, who became Pie Car manager two years ago at a mere twenty-two years of age, produces nearly 1,000 meals each week for 48 weeks a year. I asked Loory why it’s called the Pie Car. It seems there are three competing stories about the origin of the name. One is that coffee and pie were all that was served on circus trains in the early days. Another holds that meat pies were commonly served to the roustabouts employed by the circus. But the tale most popular with the diners is that Pie Car is an acronym standing for, “privileged individuals and employees.” Everyone agrees, however, that it is a catchy name no matter how you slice it.
 Elephant on pedestal Attending the show the same night after meeting some of the performers in the Pie Car, was like watching friends step into the limelight from backstage. While we took our seats, skillful clowns (grads from the Ringling Bros. Clown College) did rope jumping tricks and slapstick while families watched from the floor of the arena for a one-on-one experience. Then Ringmaster John appeared, no longer relaxing and chatting with a few journalists, but now the riveting centerpiece of a spectacular display of swirling lights, bright colors and breathtaking acts.
 Elephants walking in line Soon a line of elephants entered the ring lumbering along tail to trunk. These graceful giants have fascinated audiences ever since Ringling introduced Jumbo, “The World’s Largest Elephant,” in the 1880’s. (Recently Ringling Bros. announced plans to phase out their elephant performers and keep them at their 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida.)
 Motorcycles in steel globe One of the first acts of the evening was a troupe of Asian bicyclists performing gymnastics while on top of the bikes – and each other! Next came the amazing Torres siblings who ride motorcycles at speeds of up to 65 miles per hour in a now iconic 16-foot steel globe. If they ever slow down long enough to look like anything but a blur, you can see that there are eight of them racing in circles at once.
 Dogs on hind legs Tumblers who vault through 10-foot high hoops, trapeze artists who defy gravity, and sidesplitting clowns are among the many attractions. Magnificent horses, roaring lions and tigers, and adorable dogs of all sizes round out the evening. We even saw a pair of kangaroos leaping over high jumps.
 Lions and tigers Any one of these acts alone would be worth the ticket. Put together they provide an entertainment experience that truly is “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
 Masters of the horse – Photo credit Jordan Wright The circus will be in the area for five weeks with the following schedule:
Washington, DC, Verizon Center:
March 20, 2015 – March 22, 2015
Baltimore, MD, Royal Farms Arena
March 25, 2015 – April 05, 2015
Fairfax, VA, Patriot Center
April 08, 2015 – April 19, 2015
For further information or to buy tickets, visit www.ringling.com.
Photo credit Cary Pollak (unless noted otherwise)
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