Jordan Wright
September 15, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Camden Michael Gonzalez (Stanley), Jennifer Berry (Blanche) and Anna Fagan (Stella) – Photo credit Matthew Randall Tennessee Williams’ South was a passionate, languorous, hotbed of emotion. His characters were real, too real for some when it premiered on Broadway in 1947, but nonetheless part of the daily fabric of life – in high places and low. In A Streetcar Named Desire Williams cracked open the Pandora’s box of life’s numberless miseries, shining a light on the destructive relationships women accept and the fantasies they concoct to get through the evil that men do.
Considered radical in its day for its themes of homosexuality, immigration, race, class and domestic violence, the subject matter is still searingly relevant today. And though we have had major advances in women’s rights, we are still grappling with these issues. How these overlying themes and intense emotions are explored in the play is riveting in a perverse sort of way. It is poignant and tragic and relevant and grotesquely intimate.
When Southern belle Blanche arrives in New Orleans at her sister’s two-room apartment with a suitcase full of feather boas and heartbreaks, she encounters Stella’s low life of a husband, Stanley Kowalski, a Polish factory worker who is light years removed from the sisters’ highborn upbringing. Blanche is shocked to see her sister married to a man as abusive and uncultivated as Stanley. “He’s a different species,” Stella explains.
Blanche tries to charm Stanley with feminine wiles and upper class charm, but he doesn’t buy it, or her excuses of how she was forced to forfeit her family’s plantation home. He threatens the sisters, demanding his inheritance according to Louisiana’s archaic Napoleonic Code. Both Blanche, who uses fantasy and seduction to cope with life’s disappointments, and Stella, who confuses brutality with love, allow Stanley to dominate them.
 Anna Fagan (Stella) and Jennifer Berry (Blanche) – Photo credit Matthew Randall Anna Fagan plays the submissive Stella, approaching the duality of her character’s Stockholm Syndrome-like condition with a blend of subtle poise and ferocity. Yet it is Jennifer Berry’s Blanche who has the most quotable lines. Berry does a fine job of portraying Blanche as both flighty and vulnerable, giving a creditable portrait of a woman clawing her way out of desperate circumstances. “I haven’t been so good, these last few years,” she admits when accused of debauchery.
 Camden Michael Gonzalez (Stanley) – Photo Credit Matthew Randall Unfortunately this triangle is not equilateral in emotion. Camden Michael Gonzalez seems miscast as Stanley. In a role that demands more complexity than a one-dimensional portrait of a brute, his Stanley lacks pathos and gravitas. Surprisingly, the lesser role of Mitch Mitchell, Blanche’s suitor, as played by Marshall Shirley, shows greater depth.
 Marshall Shirley (Mitch) and Jennifer Berry (Blanche) – Photo credit Matthew Randall Baron Pugh’s clever set design of the apartment’s soulless interior is framed by a two-story muslin scrim that soft-focuses the outside world, yet lets in music and the sights and sounds of the mean streets – often easier to hear than the actors’ lines. Another wrinkle in this production is the hurried pacing, which feels more industrialized North than unhurried South. Yet for those who have never experienced a Tennessee Williams’ play, the searing action, plot twists and memorable lines are eternally delicious.
Limited engagement runs through September 28th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com
Jordan Wright
September 8, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
In Amy Herzog’s Belleville the viewer is afforded a plate glass window onto the seemingly idyllic Parisian life chosen by an attractive young American couple. Eager to absorb the culture, Abby and Zack, bring their hipster lifestyle to the City of Lights, “Or is it City of Life?” Abby posits. In their case it becomes a mirror reflecting back their secrets, lies and insecurities.
 Jacob H Knoll (Zack) and Gillian Williams (Abby) in Belleville. Photo: Igor Dmitry. Zack has taken a job in Paris working on children’s AIDS research – a cause Abby finds “noble”. It appears to be somewhat of a charmed life. But the innocents abroad have brought along more than their dreams and suitcases to the multi-cultural neighborhood of Belleville. They have packed their emotional baggage too. And a horrid Freudian-filled brew it is.
The first two scenes (there’s no intermission) unwind slowly with an overlong set up that lays out the dynamics of the couple. It lingers on their interpersonal issues, and a budding friendship with their landlord, Alioune (Maduka Steady), a successful 25-year old Senegalese who lives in the building with his wife and two children. Abby’s self-effacing responses to the landlord and her forgiving manner towards Zack, lull us into a false sense of ease about the couple’s relationship.
 Gillian Williams (Abby) in Belleville. Photo: Igor Dmitry. Gillian Williams shows us a lithe, vulnerable Abby, caught up in a Parisian fantasy of her own imagining. With pressure to compete with her sister’s successful marriage and win her father’s affection, she alternately needles Zach and coddles him. “I can be emotionally abusive,” she confesses. Williams’ ability to shift gears from kittenish to claws-out tigress to emotional wreck and back again is riveting. To counterbalance her neuroses Jacob H Knoll gives an equally taut performance as Zack, an emotionally stunted husband who seeks her approval.
In an accompanying media kit, reviewers were asked to “not reveal any major plot details” – rightfully calling out a new wave of unprofessional “critics” who feel it’s necessary to tell the entire plot as if it’s CliffsNotes. So don’t expect any further revelations in this review as to where the play is headed. We honor the playwright’s sense of suspense and surprise. But be forewarned, it’s explosive and chilling, and sharp objects are involved.
 Joy Jones (Amina) and Maduka Steady (Alioune) in Belleville. Photo: Igor Dmitry. Both Maduka Steady and Joy Jones, as his wife, Amina, give solid performances as the landlord and his disapproving wife.
Through October 12th at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St., Washington, DC 20005. For tickets and information call 202 332.3300 or visit www.StudioTheatre.org.
Jordan Wright
August 18, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 The cast of Sunday in the Park with George. Photo by Christopher Mueller. It’s been 16 years since Signature Theatre under the direction of Eric Schaeffer, mounted Sunday in the Park with George – Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning musical. Back then it starred my niece Liz Larsen as Dot (Family plug: She is currently on Broadway in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), and her husband Sal Viviano as George. Though they were both nominated for Helen Hayes Awards, it was Liz that came away with the honors for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical” and we all celebrated at a glittering evening at the Kennedy Center.
Fast forward to the latest production under the superb direction of Matthew Gardiner who has cast heavyweight Broadway stars Brynn O’Malley in the role of Dot, and Claybourne Elder as George, to bring to the stage this living, breathing, kaleidoscopic vision of Artist and Pointillist George Seurat’s life.
Based on an imaginative interpretation of the characters in this iconic painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”, the show opens onto the Paris artist’s atelier where a simple chiaroscuro backdrop echoes the 28 sketches Seurat made before completing his enormous masterpiece. Seurat was exploring the new science of color dynamics and attempting to create a new art form, at a time when his peers were deeply immersed in Impressionism. Set in the latter part of the 19th century when women wore corsets and bustles and men never went out without a proper topper, the painting emerges as the vehicle and backdrop for a tableau vivant of fifteen subjects who step out of the painting and come to life, revealing their very human characteristics. Frank Labovitz’s period costumes of soft colors and subdued prints blend seamlessly with the muted colors of the painting.
 Brynn O’Malley (Dot) and Claybourne Elder (George) in Sunday in the Park with George. Photo by Christopher Mueller. As George taps dots onto the canvas, model and paramour, Dot, poses with her parasol held aloft, echoing her prominent role in the painting. She is frustrated by the heat, her constricting attire and his lack of interest. “If I were a Follies girl,” she wistfully sighs. In the song, “Color and Light” we become aware that his obsession, trumps all romance. And in “We Do Not Belong Together” they early on become resigned to abandon their love. “You are complete, I am unfinished,” Dot intuits. He proves she is right in “Finishing the Hat”, in which he sacrifices their time together for his art. Elder must give a tightly wound, highly controlled portrayal of the emotionally disconnected artist, and he does that quite convincingly, while O’Malley counterbalances it with a lithely lyrical Dot.
Daniel Conway’s set design reflects the artist’s struggle to achieve “order, design, composition, tone, form, symmetry and balance”. He enforces that passion by eliminating and adding back silk-screened trees, dogs and a lone monkey according to George’s indecisiveness.
The Boatman, played marvelously by Paul Scanlan, comes to life as a smarmy low life who likes to terrify frolicking children when he is not insulting George. Mitchell Hebert is Jules, a fellow artist and staunch critic of George’s new art. Together with his wife, Yvonne (Valerie Leonard), Mr. (Dan Manning) and Mrs. (Maria Egler) they provide brisk and hilarious diversion.
By Act Two we have left the Victorian era and are transplanted into the present day. George’s great grandson is unveiling a light machine called a “Chromolume”, at a swank Paris gallery, and in “Putting It Together”- “link by link, drink by drink, mink by mink” – he schmoozes well-heeled patrons hoping they’ll underwrite his invention. This is where Lighting Designer Jennifer Schriever really displays her wizardry in a spectacular array of whirling pointillist beams of light and framed pixels of swirling primary colors. Accompanying her grandson is George’s wheelchair-bound mother, also played by O’Malley, who sings the poignant tune, “Children and Art”, a tenderly wrought and exquisitely sung number that will rip your heart out.
A wonderful, wonderful cast.
Highly recommended.
Through September 21st 2014 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
August 5, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
Audience Alert: It became clear to me, when I was the only person howling with laughter, that the musical intro to Spamalot, The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s first show of the 2014-2015 season, that the audience failed to pick up on the musical cues that consist of every cockamamie intro passage in the known world played at the opening of an event. The collection of tally-ho horns, magisterial foofaraws and sweeping orchestrations from famous film scores – had gone entirely unnoticed by the audience. It goes on for a full five minutes. Now that you’re in on it, you too can roar with delight.
Python-heads know this musical backwards and forwards. It features King Arthur, King of the Britons and his Knights of the Round Table, Sir Robin, Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot – all your adorable medieval heroes on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Remember the Lady of the Lake who armed Arthur with the Excalibur sword? She’s there too – in full throttle.
So what’s not to like about Monty Python and his merry band of men?
Filled with quirky dance routines, twenty-five musical numbers, political spoofs, feather-brained high jinks and boundless double entendres, LTA’S production is high-powered hilarity on steroids. 
Part of the quest for Arthur and his men, as ordered by the “Knights Who Say Ni” aka “The Keepers of the Secret Word”, is to require them to put on a Broadway Show. Alas, they are “Jew-less”, as in the number, “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway”, which merrily claims, “If it’s not kosher, there’s no show, sir.” Nonplussed they rally the troops with “Hava Nagila”, and a righteously rendered Cossack dance.
Director Wade Corder has assembled a terrific cast starting with James Hotsko Jr. as Arthur, Patrick McMahon as Sir Lancelot, Dimitri Gann as Sir Robin, Matt Liptak as Arthur’s goofy sidekick Patsy, and Ashlie-Amber Harris as the Lady of the Lake, with cast members handling a number of parts. But it’s Harris I want to scream about. As magical as the dynamics are between the players and as rib-tickling as their antics, it is Harris that is volcanic. Her supernaturally brilliant comic timing, boffo voice and knockout figure are the stuff superstars are made of. 
Scatting and soulful in Cher-like gold Lurex, she is electrifying. “The Diva’s Lament (Whatever Happened to My Part)” in which she bemoans being off-stage for too long while our hapless knights gadabout seeking shrubbery (don’t ask) and bolluxing up the handy ruse of a Trojan rabbit (ask if you like), will have you in tears. Harris actually got a huge ovation for this riotous number. It’s no small wonder that after the run of this show the former American Idol contestant is headed straight to Broadway with agents already lined up. See her now before you read about her in Variety. Don’t make me say, “I told you so!”
So whether you drool over sexy chorus girls in red leotards and sequined shrugs, cheerleaders that bare their navels and French Cancan dancers or dancing knights in white satin, male Conga dancers in neon-colored ruffles or peasants in sackcloth, YOU WILL BE DAZZLED.
Grant Kevin Lane designed the costumes – all 200 of them, Grace Machanic did the amazing choreography, Rebecca Sheehy and Helen Bard-Sobola designed the 400+ props, one of DC’s finest Accent Coaches, Carol Strachan, taught the 20–person cast Scottish, English and French accents and the superb 14-piece orchestra is conducted by Paul Nasto.
Highly recommended.
Through August 23rd at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com
Photos by Keith Waters for Kx Photography
Jordan Wright
July 7, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
In a few weeks National Harbor will host Cirque de Soleil’s Amaluna, a production loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Amaluna is a fusion of the words ama, which refers to “mother” in many languages, and luna, which signifies “moon” – a symbol of femininity evoking both the mother-daughter relationship and the idea of goddess and protector of the planet. Amaluna is also the name of the mysterious island where the story unfolds.
 Water Bowel CWP In this groundbreaking show that celebrates the work and voice of women, the audience is transported to a mysterious island governed by Goddesses, Amazon warriors and Valkyries and guided by the cycles of the moon. Performed by a cast of 70% female artists, the story recreates an exotic female mythology of half-human, half-animal characters expressed through original compositions, dance and extreme acrobatics.
 Goddess Rachel Lancaster, who previously worked on Corteo, brings her savvy to the show as a trained dancer with a theatre background. She is excited that Amaluna is her first show as Artistic Director. “All of our shows are so different. In Amaluna we have used newer technology for the aerial events, something we didn’t have before. The whole big top comes alive. The most exciting aspect of this show is the physical and emotional power of the woman. It’s really unique and features an all-female nine-piece band. It even has the only uneven bar act in the world. It is incredibly beautiful with a different esoteric sense from other Cirque shows.”
 Teeterboard Set in an island forest it tells the story of Miranda’s coming of age, using symbols and themes from Greek mythology. Hera, the Greek Goddess of women, is expressed by a peacock feather decoration that refers to the legend of the bird’s protective eyes in its tail. The eyes are said to watch over women in all stages of their lives.
Tony Award-winning Director, Diane Paulus (Pippin – 2013) directs the amazing cast. Her impressive theatre background reflects her position as Artistic Director at A.R.T. at Harvard University. This year Paulus was recognized on TIME Magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and Variety named her among its “2014 Trailblazing Women in Entertainment”. “I didn’t want to build a ‘women’s agenda’ show,” she has said. “I wanted to create a show with women at the center of it – something that had a hidden story that featured women as the heroines.”
 Ama Prospera Miranda I met with cast member Iuliia Mykhailova, a petite contortionist with muscles of steel, who plays Miranda – a leading role that requires her to be on stage throughout the show. Discovered at a circus college in her hometown of Kiev, the twenty-nine-year old Ukrainian has performed in three other Cirque productions including Ovo, Kooza and Varekai. In a recent interview she talked about her focus in performing her intricate and daring feats. “We do ten shows per week so I really have to concentrate. It’s easy to get distracted and slip…and I have.” Dressed in one of her four costumes, a fitted cropped jacket with miniscule bloomers to match, the pony-tailed brunette described how the garments are constructed to accommodate the artists. “If a sleeve constricts the arm movements, they make openings in the shoulders to allow more freedom of motion.”
 Manipulation I was fascinated to learn that Mykhailova travels with her young daughter, as do many of the artists. While on the road, children are educated in on-site classrooms where programs are multi-level and multi-cultural to accommodate the myriad of nationalities, and languages, represented. “There are around 30 children that travel with us. We have teachers and school programs for them,” she remarked.
Images courtesy of Cirque de Soleil
Amaluna opens under National Harbor’s blue and yellow big top on July 31st. For tickets and information visit www.CirquedeSoleil.com/Amaluna.
Jordan Wright
June 23, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Brown Lindiwe Mkhize as ³Rafiki² in the opening number ³The Circle of Life² from THE LION KING National Tour. Copyright Disney. Photo Credit Joan Marcus Disney’s The Lion King roars onto the stage with a procession of African wildlife in its opening number “Circle of Life”. Director Julie Taymor, who also serves as Costume Designer and Mask & Puppet Co-Designer with Michael Ward, sends her exquisitely conceived creatures – giraffes borne on stilts, a massive elephant and whirling birds held aloft on bamboo poles – streaming down the aisles of the Kennedy Center’s three-tiered Opera House in a fantastical African menagerie. Taymor, who studied Bunraku, the Japanese style of puppetry in which manipulators appear openly, and wayan kulit,the art of shadow puppetry, has magnificently incorporated these concepts into this spectacular production.
It is expected that by now (the animated film version premiered in 1994 and in 1998 the stage version garnered six Tony Awards) that you are familiar with the story of Simba the young lion, King Mufasa his kindly father, Scar the evil uncle, Rafiki the baboon shaman, and Zazu the Red-billed Hornbill. They all inhabit Simba’s life, along with the strong-willed Nala, Simba’s childhood friend, Pumbaa the gassy warthog and Timon the wise-cracking meerkat. These are not the only characters we are treated to. There are hordes of wildebeests that stampede onto the stage, a pride of lions that dance around and lurking laughing hyenas who are lampooned by Pumbaa and Timon in the famous song “Hakuna Matata” meaning “no worries” in Swahili.
Lyricist Tim Rice and Composer Elton John’s score is beyond fabulous. “Can You Seen the Love Tonight” is one of John’s biggest hits. But it was Hans Zimmer who won an Oscar, two Grammys and a Golden Globe for the original film score and Soweto émigré, Lebo M, known as the “voice and spirit of The Lion King”, who contributed the gloriously rich African rhythms and melodies.
 Jordan A. Hall as ³Simba² and the ensemble in ³He Lives in You² from THE LION KING National Tour. Copyright Disney. Photo Credit Joan Marcus Most memorable are Simba, played by the adorable Jordan A. Hall who stalks and pounces his way into your heart. “I hate public pools,” he jokes after a dangerous dunk in the river; L. Steven Taylor as Mufasa, whose superlative voice cradles the emotions in “They Live in You” when he explains to Simba about his ancestors who reside in the stars; and Tshidi Manye as the wise Rafiki, whose evocative South African voice burns brightly in “Circle of Life” and “He Lives in You”.
Taymor’s costumes, using the vivid colors of tribal kente cloth, juxtaposes Set Designer Richard Hudson’s backdrops of grassy savannas and cerulean skies, while in desert scenes she employs the earthy shades of patterned Malian mud cloth to accentuate Hudson’s parched earth colored sets.
The Lion King is a lavish feast for the eyes and a paradise of music for the ears. I’d gladly swing from a baobab tree limb to claim it as one of my favorite musicals of all time.
Through August 17th at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC. For tickets and information call 202 467-4600 or visit www.Kennedy-Center.org.
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