Jordan Wright
June 3, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 The cast of “Company” turns Manhattan into a dance floor as they sing “Side By Side By Side.”
Photo: Scott Suchman. When the cast of Signature Theatre’s Company struts onstage in the musical’s first number, the thing to keep in mind is that three of the four onstage couples, Sherri L. Edelen as Joanne and Thomas Adrian Simpson as Larry; Tracy Lynn Olivera as Sarah and Evan Casey as Harry; Erin Driscoll as Jenny and James Gardiner as David are in fact real-life married couples. Only Erin Weaver as Amy and Paul Scanlan as Paul are not. Got that? Knowing that underlying dynamic makes it all the more compelling to watch their interactions with each other. Set in 1970’s Manhattan to the dawning of the sexual revolution, the reimagining of the meaning of marriage, and the requisite neuroses of the typical New Yorker, the musical is reminiscent of a Woody Allen movie set to music – fabulous, iconic, Stephen Sondheim music.
Perennial bachelor, Bobby, is a cad and a charmer, the type of guy who won’t commit to any girl. But his married friends adore him. He remembers their birthdays and brings them flowers when they are sick. They reveal their innermost selves to him and he stays as neutral as Switzerland. Light and breezy Bobby, the perennial observer, who stands on the sidelines and watches as the couples bicker or praise, need one another, yet feel trapped. Marriage. It’s complicated. And for middle-aged Bobby, bed hopping is far less messy.
 Joanne (Sherri L. Edelen; center) gets fired up to sing “The Ladies Who Lunch” while out on the town with Larry (Thomas Adrian Simpson; left)
and Bobby (Matthew Scott; right). Photo: Scott Suchman. When he queries the husbands about their marital satisfaction they explain the dichotomy of their lives with ” Sorry-Grateful”, a song that attempts to clarify both the loneliness and the comfort of marriage. Given such conflicting advice Bobby hunkers down in his bachelor foxhole examining the paradoxes of modern relationships. The wives sing about Bobby’s loneliness and trash his choice of women in “Poor Baby”, synching up with their husbands in the tune, “Have I Got a Girl For You”.
For more than four decades the music from Company has been sung in every city and cabaret from here to Timbuktu. Memorable showstoppers like “The Ladies Who Lunch”, “Another Hundred People”, “Barcelona”, “Side By Side”, “Marry Me a Little” (a later addition) and “Getting Married Today” have become beloved classics.
 The cast of “Company” serenades Bobby (Matthew Scott; center) as they sing “Side By Side By Side.”
Photo: Scott Suchman. Matthew Scott as Bobby is outstanding throughout, especially if you like Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live whom he could double for in adorableness. Notable too is the effervescent Erin Weaver recently off her starring roles in The Last Five Years and Xanadu, who tears off the roof with her rendition of “Getting Married Today”.
Choreographer Matt Gardiner keeps the cast on their toes with snappy slick dance routines and a karate scene between Sarah and Harry that is outright hilarious. (Oh, yes, there’s plenty of comedy amongst all that angst.) Scenic Designer Daniel Conway employs a sleek three-tier stage bracketed by a grand staircase, sliding doors, a lofty apartment terrace and hydraulically controlled mid-century modern furnishings.
Producer Eric Shaeffer has put together a strong cast of powerful singers to showcase Sondheim’s musical and in turn give us a terrific show.
Through June 30th 2013 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
for the Alexandria Times
April 8, 2013
 Jamie (James Gardiner) and Cathy (Erin Weaver) share a tender moment. Photo: Teresa Wood Being a theater critic is not always the best way to enjoy a show. I’m not a typical audience member out for a spot of entertainment. Scribbling furiously in the dark I analyze each scene, each song, each performer. Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint why I am not moved, not amused, not inspired. In Signature Theatre’s The Last Five Years the acting and singing are exemplary. The set design and lighting inspired – the dialogue lively or suitably dramatic, depending on the scene. There is nothing “wrong” with this show. So why does it feel flat?
Well, it’s complicated, in this case as complicated as the plot which jumps from early courtship to their breakup for our hero Jamie, and takes the opposite route for our heroine Cathy, occasionally meeting in the middle for a duet. Known as a “song cycle”, the music by Jason Robert Brown, tells the story of an aspiring actress and a recently published writer who attempt to keep their love alive while pursuing their individual careers in different cities. That is to say when they aren’t living in the same city where he is enjoying success and temptations of the female variety, while she spends her days going on cattle calls in hopes of landing a part.
It is certainly not because actors Erin Weaver, whom we recently adored in Signature’s production of Xanadu, and James Gardiner, a local favorite we are soon to see in Signature’s upcoming productions of Company and Miss Saigon aren’t right for their roles. They both have wonderful voices and a keen sense of comic timing. Gardiner’s sense of physical comedy is especially noteworthy in the number “The Schmuel Song” about a Jewish tailor who sews 41 dreams into his wife’s velvet dress. And Weaver shines in “A Summer in Ohio” a Cole Porteresque tune that lists all the things that are worse than waiting for his return. “I could get a root canal in hell!” she croons, though she follows that with the line, “The torture is just exquisite while I’m waiting for you.” You see the dichotomy of her emotions.
 Cathy (Erin Weaver) settles into her relationship with Jamie . Photo: Teresa Wood It cannot be that Director Aaron Posner, the recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards and two Barrymore Awards, all of a sudden knows nothing of direction or that playwright Brown who has composed four major musicals and won countless awards doesn’t write his tail off with songs that are complete, emotionally solid and melodic. No, no it’s not the music, that’s the issue here, but a human connection that goes missing. The je ne sais quoi moment that reaches deep into your soul and tears out a piece you’d be glad to offer up, if only it were needed. It’s the part that’s not in the script, not in the songs, not in the staging. Because you really did come for that emotional ride – to believe – to buy into the moment – but sometimes the magic isn’t there.
The story is written to showcase Brown’s songs and the script is the device to string it together rather than the other way round – a construct originating with Beethoven and popular today in the TV shows “Smash” and “Nashville” which center around the music rather than the story. If you are ready to let it come at you as an evening of music, rather than a backwards forwards plot chronicling the perils of young love played out in two cities, you’ll be better prepared to enjoy its pleasures.
Through April 28th 2013 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 11, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 A tight-knit band of boarding school students (from left: Alex Mills, Joel David Santner, Jefferson Farber, and Rex Daugherty) uncover a secret copy of the banned play “Romeo and Juliet” in “Shakespeare’s R&J,” Photo: Teresa Wood. If you had in mind a romantic tale about two star-crossed lovers, the beautiful Juliet and her thwarted Romeo, only part of your fantasy will be realized…that would be the part about the star-crossed lovers. In Adaptor/Director Joe Calarco’s Shakespeare’s R & J, a modernist reinvention of Shakespeare’s classic drama, four young men who live by the strict rules and regulations of a boy’s Catholic boarding school, play all of the characters.
His edgy version of the tale has the rambunctious blue-blazered preppies asJuliet, Nurse, Lady Capulet, Lord Montague, Romeo, Tybalt et alia in an interpretation that will blow your breeches off, if you get my drift. The play begins when the students discover an illicit copy of Romeo and Juliet that they agree to act out amongst themselves. Calarco has woven some contemporary bits of dialogue into the original. But the play’s still the thing, if not the players.
Set designer James Kronzer’s simple coffered ceiling-surround frames the rigorous, near militaristic, life of bells and classes, prayers and confessions against the Ten Commandments and Latin conjugations. In this isolated social laboratory the young men recite cautionary homilies describing the differences between the sexes. It is only after dark, when they extricate the book from its cache beneath the floorboards and take on the character’s roles, that their individual personae emerge, freed from the discipline of the institution. At first they revel in Shakespeare’s double entendres, the sexual references scattered amid the romantic prose, and play those to the hilt – four schoolboys displaying their childish glee is predictable. But then their individual characters come into focus and we begin to see a clearer definition of their hidden frustrations and yearnings.
There is whooping and hollering, nipple tweaks, roughhousing and campy high-voiced interpretations of some female characters – these are boys after all. And then there are the love scenes – most assuredly not for the prudish.
 Two students (Alex Mills, left, and Joel David Santner) get caught up in their reading of “Romeo and Juliet” ,” Photo: Teresa Wood. The production starts out slowly, perhaps too slowly, but becomes rivetingly alluring, though there is a certain constant wide-eyed emotiveness to the delivery of the lines that lacks interstitial relief. It is in-your-face Shakespeare forsooth. But therein lies the rub. It’s actually exciting to see a Juliet that is assertive, aggressive and demanding of her lover; a Romeo that is muscular, passionate and sexual; and a production that is tremendously physical. One wonders how they will keep up such dizzying athleticism throughout the run.
Yet be assured that tempus fugit when you’re condensing an entire play in one fell swoop. There is no nudity, but the imagination does what the imagination does, and a few buff bare-chested men and a silky red 15-foot length of cloth can create a world of gender-bending fantasy encompassing both violence and love.
Presenting Shakespeare is a first for Signature Theatre and this one makes for an explosive debut. Chris Lee has created magnificently atmospheric lighting, once dropping down a framework with hundreds of candles to border the stage, in another scene creating a prison wall of pin lights to pair with sound designer Matt Rowe’s often eerie sometimes thunderous sound concepts.
 One of a tight-knit band of boarding school students (Alex Mills) attempts to express himself through poetry Photo: Teresa Wood. Actor Alex Mills, who performs regularly at Synetic Theater, where their silent Shakespeare series affords him few lines, is outstanding. Along with Joel David Santner, Rex Daugherty and Jefferson Farber they make up the compact but spectacular cast.
Through March 3th 2013 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
December 3, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
Riddle me this. Do goose bumps get goose bumps? And can you hear a pin drop in the theater? Well, yes, to both – especially if Nova Peyton is singing her pipes out!
 A proud moment for Effie White (Nova Y. Payton) in the musical “Dreamgirls” Photo: Christopher Mueller Peyton plays Effie White in Signature Theatre’s current production of Dreamgirls – a career-establishing role made famous by Jennifer Hudson in both the Broadway and film version. So there’s a lot on the line. Peyton not only nails it but carves out her own definition of the role in songs like the poignant “I Am Changing” and the earthshaking “I’m Not Going”. I promise you won’t be disappointed by the powerful vocals, the muscular hep cat and cool kitty dancing, or the lavish costumes. In fact there is so much to like that it’s hard to pinpoint why some moments seem flat. Here’s a show with a theatrical pedigree evidenced by six Tony Awards, a cast brimming with talent and a tear-drenching plot to melt the hardest heart. So what’s wrong with it? Not much but we’ll get to that.
The story centers on an African-American girl group from Chicago and their meteoric rise to fame and fortune. You’ll immediately recognize them as The Supremes and, though the story is legally defined as “loosely based on” them, there are innumerable parallels.
 Deena Jones (Shayla Simmons) leads the new incarnation of The Dreams, with Michelle Morris (Kara-Tameika Watkins, back left) and Lorrell Robinson (Crystal Joy, back right) in the musical “Dreamgirls” Photo credit: Christopher Mueller. The trio known as the ‘Dreamettes’ starts out as runners up in a rigged talent show at the Apollo Theatre, but are soon urged to tour as backup singers for the velvet-voiced, slick dancing, ego-centric singer Jimmy Early, brilliantly played by Cedric Neal. “I don’t do oohs and aahs,” Effie complains, though she’s quickly overruled by partners Deena Jones (Shayla Simmons) and Lorrell Robinson (Crystal Joy), and they hit the road. As the women rocket to superstardom they go through a series of business challenges, jealousies, diva meltdowns and heartbreaks. Costume designer Frank Labovitz chronicles the trio’s ascent with gorgeous electric-hued gowns that increase in fabulousness with miles of chiffon and lurex stitched up with tons of ostrich feathers, spangles and sequins. As for the menswear, shiny sharkskin suits neatly define the times.
 Jimmy “James Thunder” Early (Cedric Neal) makes a grand entrance in “Dreamgirls.” Photo: Christopher Mueller. The show is set in the early ‘60’s when the pop music biz was controlled by big record labels and disc jockeys were known to take payola to play and promote certain records and artists. Soul and black R&B was a hard sell, and radio stations played “white” music, aka black music done by white performers. Has anything changed? It was a hard road for all black musicians until the Motown sound began to dominate the airwaves. Dreamgirls captures the essence of that Berry Gordy/Phil Spector period thanks to Krieger’s music whose twenty-five glorious numbers are dead center of that unforgettable sound.
Set Designer Adam Koch created the painted black set and mechanical stage that is so cavernous that at times it seems to swallow the cast. It is only when the women sashay onto center stage with increasingly spectacular wigs, jewels and gowns that it becomes a frame for their glamour.
Thankfully it’s all about the music and dancing since actor Sydney James Harcourt’s portrayal of the Dreamettes’ impresario,Curtis, is not convincing either as a Svengali or a Lothario. The role calls for Taylor, their agent and Deena’s boyfriend, to be a self-centered, slimy, backroom double-dealing manipulator and Harcourt lacks the smarminess to pull it off.
Matthew Gardiner does double duty as both director and choreographer, and you can’t find fault there. The dancing is stellar particularly for Neal’s character Jimmy who shakes, rattles and rolls till the cows come home in the number “Baby-Baby”.
See it, love it and spend some time backstage with the Dreamettes back when Motown was the pinnacle of the music world.
Through January 13th 2013 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
November 26, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
What merriment is in store for us this holiday season? Well some are naughty (R-Rated) and some are nice (G-Rated) but check my quirky ratings for special notations. Here’s all the holiday drama you’ll need in a host of scintillating Christmas shows nearby.
 Broadway Christmas Carol – Michael Sharp,Tracey Stephens and Jacob Kidder. Photo courtesy of MetroStage. It’s getting to be a habit at MetroStage with the third annual mad hilarious A Broadway Christmas Carol. The tidy three-person cast of Michael Sharp, Jacob Kidder and Tracey Stephens trills harmonious whilst decking the halls with lots of show tunes and dizzying costume changes in this delicious dose of Christmas spoof. Under the musical direction of Howard Breitbart, this screamingly funny pastiche is rated SGIFB for “Sophisticated Grownups with Intact Funny Bone”.
From November 15th through December 23rd; Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 3pm and 8pm; Sundays at 3 and 7pm. For tickets and information call 800 494-8497 or visit www.metrostage.org. 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, VA
 A Christmas Carol – Photo courtesy of LTA The Little Theatre of Alexandria revives their time-tested production of A Christmas Carol. Directed and adapted by Rachael Hubbard, this Charles Dickens’ classic will warm the cockles of everyone’s heart. Replete with elegant Victorian costumes, the accursed curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge, and the adorable Tiny Tim, you can almost smell the chestnuts roasting as ghostly guides transport you through Christmas past, present and future. Settle in beside a crackling fireplace along with wassailing couples to relive this Currier & Ives picture postcard depicting the true meaning of Christmas. Rated RCV for “Required Christmas Viewing”.
From November 30th through December 16th, Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm and 5pm. For tickets and information call 703 683-0496 or visit www.TheLittleTheatre.com. 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
After a day of shopping and dining Signature Theatre, located in the heart of Shirlington Village, will be the perfect spot to jolly up with glass of wine and a Christmas-inspired cabaret.
 “Holiday Guys” – Marc Kudisch (left) and Jeffry Denman. Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre Three-time Tony Award nominee, Mark Kudisch and Astaire Award nominee, Jeffry Denman pair up in Holiday Guys – a limited run holiday show complete with song, dance, and silliness. Special performance schedule: December 11th at 7:30pm; December 12th at 7:30pm; December 13th at 8:00pm; December 14th at 8:00pm; December 15th at 2:00pm and 8:00pm; December 16th at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.
Also at Signature and back again, by popular demand, is the festive series Holiday Follies. Featuring a wonderful wintry line-up of special guest performers, along with a host of Signature’s closest friends and artists, there’s never been a better way to keep company on a cold night. Special performance schedule: December 18th at 7:30pm; December 19th at 7:30pm; December 20th at 8:00pm; December 21st at 8:00pm; December 22nd at 2:00pm and 8:00pm; December 23rd at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.
Both shows are rated HXS for “Hip Xmas Special”. Tickets for Holiday Guys and Holiday Follies are on sale online at www.signature-theatre.orgor through the Signature Box Office at 703 573-SEAT. 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206
 Best Christmas Pageant – Photo from Synetic This holiday season Synetic Theater will present The Best Christmas Pageant Ever starring the Synetic Teen Ensemble. In this irreverent comedy about an annual Christmas pageant the usually festive celebration by the Sunday school children has gone awry. The Herdman family, a bunch of rotten, misbehaving, swearing, bullying kids take part in the Christmas Pageant and all chaos breaks loose. Can the church learn to love even its most wayward children? It could be a total disaster, or it just might be The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
The show is rated GKCI for “Gives Kids Cool Ideas”. Special performance schedule: December 15th at 2pm; December 16th at 11am; December 21st at 10am and December 22nd through the 27th at 11am. Family friendly indeed! For tickets and information call 800 494-8497 or visit www.synetictheater.org. 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA 22202
Jordan Wright
August 27, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Sherri L. Edelen (as Miss Mona, center) leads the cast of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” in the production’s toe-tapping finale. . Photo: Scott Suchman. Miss Mona Stangley is running a respectable house of ill repute in 1972 Gilbert, Texas and the century-old business is doing jes’ fine. Fine is a three-syllable word you understand. She has “A Lil’ Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place” as she describes it. At the Chicken Ranch Miss Mona lays down the law with some “no-no rules” for her girls. “Call ‘em guests”, she drawls, and “no smokin’, drinkin’ or wavin’ to men in town.” Summing it up for new hires, “We go in for mass volume and repeat business. Just like Coca-Cola!”
Miss Mona’s got friends in high places including Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, Mayor Rufus Poindexter, Senator Wingwoah and the Texas Governor himself, but all that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans when Melvin P. Thorpe climbs on his soapbox. Thorpe is the local KTEX-TV’s crusading television reporter whose Watchdog group of bible-thumpin’ do-gooders, known as ‘The Dogettes’, are determined to rid Landville County of Miss Mona’s sinful activities, “Texas Has a Whorehouse In It”, is their rallying cry.
In Signature Theatre’s current production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the popular musical inspired by a real life story with book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson, Director Eric Schaeffer has stuffed so much talent into this show it’s hard to know when to start the music. Highlights are DC favorite, Sherri L. Edelen as the saucy Miss Mona; Sheriff Ed Earl played by Thomas Adrian Simpson who tenderly sings the classic “Good Old Girl” in his gravelly baritone; Matt Conner as both Mayor Poindexter and Senator Wingwoah; Christopher Bloch as Melvin Thorpe who lights up the stage with fire and brimstone; and the riveting scene stealing of Dan Manning as The Governor who tears the house down in Act Two.
 Dan Manning dances “The Sidestep” as the Texan governor in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” Photo: Scott Suchman Costumes by Kathleen Geldard favor the men – and the men favor the costumes. And how! Tight cowboy shirts and sexy jeans on hot ripped bodies had audience members whooping, hollering and drooling to the hard driving, boot-stomping dancing and R-Rated stripping. The female side of the equation seemed to have a distinct disadvantage as to both pulchritude and costumes. The women, on whom you might reasonably expect some spangles, corsets, frilly garters and perhaps diaphanous peignoirs, were dressed in tame black and red lingerie, daisy dukes, prairie dresses and dime store cowboy boots. The dreary clothing and bad wigs made the women pale in comparison. Even Miss Mona’s outfits were more appropriate for a 1970’s office manager. But eight-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Karma Camp has created choreography to outshine any anomalies combining vaudevillian burlesque with high-kicking chorus lines to ratchet up the wow factor.
 The Aggie Boys (from left to right: Davis Hasty, Benjamin Horen, Vincent Kempski, Stephen Gregory Smith) celebrate their football victory before they leave for a night at the Chicken Ranch. Photo: Scott Suchman Collin Ranney has designed a stunning barn red two-tiered set hotter than a Colt 45 after a shootout at the O.K. Corral. Punctuated with mounted steer horns and featuring rows of louvered bedroom doors that fling open to reveal steamy recreation, the stage evokes the Wild West on steroids. Overhead chandelier fans swirl lazy shadows on the stage and a circular red velvet banquette provides a cozy setting for Miss Mona and Jewel in the number “No Lies”.
 Welcome to the Chicken Ranch. Photo: Scott Suchman. All in all the show is a sizzling, knee-slapping, kick ass, belly-laughing breath of fresh Lone Star air. Chockfull of high-steppin’ hoofers, country-spun one-liners, tearjerker ballads, and enough eye candy to raise your blood sugar to precipitous levels.
 The girls of Miss Mona’s whorehouse. From left to right, back row: Amy McWilliams, Nadia Harika, Maria Rizzo, Brianne Camp; from left to right, middle row: Nora Palka, Tamara Young; bottom row: Jamie Eacker. Photo: Scott Suchman. Through October 7th 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.
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