Jordan Wright
April 29, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Elliott Bales (Beethoven) – Photo credit Doug Olmsted In 33 Variations, now playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, we embark on an intellectual exercise into Beethoven’s intent when he composed thirty-three variations on his music publisher’s mediocre waltz. Researcher Dr. Katherine Brandt (Sarah Holt) explores the cerebral territory of Beethoven’s sketches and gives us a window into the soul of the maestro. Playwright Moisés Kaufman’s storyline jumps back and forth from 1819 though 1823 in Vienna as Beethoven descends into deafness and ill health, to present day New York and later Bonn, Germany where Brandt’s research centers around the composer. This early period in Vienna where Beethoven (Elliott Bales) lived with his assistant Anton Schindler (Ken Gaul) is counterbalanced by a story set in the present of Brandt and her relationship with her daughter, Clara (Rebecca Phillips) and Clara’s boyfriend, Mike Clark (Matt Baughman).
Paralleling that Brandt too is dying having been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Against the wishes of her doctor, she departs New York for Bonn to study Beethoven’s musical scripts under the tutelage of Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger (Melanie Bates). “Here be dragons,” she exclaims defining the risky proposition. She is soon joined by Clara and Mike who care for her as she weakens.
 Melanie Bales (Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger) and Sarah Holt (Dr. Katherine Brandt) – Photo credit Doug Olmsted For a man that seeks” freedom and progress” and considers himself “an instrument of God”, it is a tumultuous time in Vienna where the composer resides in a police state. His contemporaries, Mozart, Hayden, Liszt and Schubert, are the reigning classical music luminaries of their time and competition among the musicians is fierce. It is under this shadow and with failing health and little money that Beethoven is pressured to compose the variations for profit. Soon he becomes obsessed with the waltz and its first four notes compel him to write ever more complicated and spectacular versions. Anton Diabelli (David Rampy) is the impatient publisher, urging then threatening Beethoven to complete his opus.
 David Rampy (Anton Diabelli) and Ken Gaul (Anton Schindler) – Photo credit Paul Olmsted As Brandt endeavors to intuit Beethoven’s reason for creating these works, she reveals much about herself, self-important and callously indifferent, and her relationship with her capricious yet devoted daughter, Clara is rocky.
It is an exciting moment in the theatre when the audience exits in a daze from the impact of such an emotionally charged tale and raves are coming from all sides. But that is what I heard on opening night after a standing ovation and thunderous applause for a play that is both moving and breathtakingly performed.
How do you credit everyone in a review? Let’s begin with the actors. Sarah Holt carves a sharp and affecting portrait of the dying woman, a pedant with little care for anyone or anything beyond her work. Her character is sharply contrasted by the charm and adorableness of Rebecca Phillips and Matt Baughman whose affectionate and hilarious interplay as the young lovers is so palpable that the audience roots for their love to succeed. Counter that with the mad genius of Beethoven played by Elliott Bales in a tour de force performance. It is the second time I have been awestruck by Bales in the past few months (most recently in The Drawer Boy at Port City Playhouse this February).
Beautifully directed by Joanna Henry with lighting from the team of Ken and Patti Crowley who have created an atmosphere that is both modern and mood setting. Special credit goes to Matt Jeffrey as the onstage pianist, who gives a stellar rendition of excerpts from all thirty-three of the variations.
Highly recommended.
Through May 18th 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
February 25, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Richard Isaacs (Tony Wendice) and Jerry Hoffman (Captain Lesgate)- Photo credit Heather Norcross Had they updated the title to the more technologically correct “Press “M” For Murder” or perhaps “Text “M” For Murder”, we would have no less a delicious whodunit as the one currently playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria. That we no longer spin a dial to place a call, does not by one scintilla alter the pulse-stopping suspense of Dial “M” For Murder, Frederick Knott’s nifty psychological thriller.
Let’s start with the corpse, or rather not, it won’t factor in for a good bit, and it won’t be the corpse you thought it might be. Perhaps we should name the killer, or maybe not, it won’t be who you’d expected either, even though once the action commences you’ll be in on the plot. But that’s the fun part, knowing who did it when the police captain and the inspector clearly don’t have a clue.
Meet the Wendices. A couple of bourgeois Londoners, he a former tennis pro with failing fortunes, she an unblinkingly beautiful heiress. Tony (Richard Isaacs) has a plan and Margot (Jenni Patton) has a boyfriend, or rather ex, but why split pretty blonde hairs? Isaacs plays Tony with just the right amount of smarmy snap while Patton, as the cool and clueless Margot embodies British reserve.
 Jenni Patton (Margot Wendice) – Photo credit Heather Norcross To delve into the plot in this review would most assuredly give away the clever twists and turns, and edge-of-your-seat sense of bearing witness to a murder when no one on stage, save the murderer, can guess how the bloody hell it was done and if the killer will get his due, and I won’t be the spoiler. Suffice it to say that I heard the proverbial pin drop, so riveted was the audience.
Actor James Meyers, coming off his success in last fall’s Cantorial at LTA, gives a smooth performance as the American crime writer boyfriend, Max Halliday, and John Henderson is as sure-footed as a stalking tiger in the role of the gumshoe Inspector Hubbard. But it is Jerry Hoffman’s stunning entrance and sly manner as the seemingly bumbling Captain Lesgate (Ah, fond memories of Columbo!), that will make you sit up a tad straighter in your chair. A bouquet of kudos are in order for Dialogue Coach, Jane Waldrop, a true Londoner who trained at the British Old Vic Theatre School, for coloring their accents with the staccato patter of the British upper crust.
 John Henderson (Inspector Hubbard) and James Myers (Max Halliday) – Photo Credit Heather Norcross Even if you’ve seen Alfred Hitchcock’s film version starring matinee idols Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, a mere slip of a girl at twenty four when she made this film, and the mild-mannered Robert Cummings, you will be no less impressed with this tidy package of blackmail and red herrings.
Through March 16th 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
January 15, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Marcus Fisk (Reg), Michael Gale (Malcolm), Rene Keith Flores (Marty), Ben Norcross (Ensemble), Dan Deisz (Teddy), Christopher Harris (Dave), and Michael Bagwell (Tony) – Photo credit to Shane Canfield One of the most astonishing things about Alexandria’s Little Theatre is their ability to mount a production as complex and energetic as The Full Monty, a strapping show with book by Terrence McNally and score by David Yazbek. No less than twenty-nine performers backed by a stellar sixteen-piece orchestra are in full throttle to give audiences fourteen great numbers for a terrific evening of theater.
Rachel Alberts and Carolyn Winters are back on board producing this sizzling hot musical comedy, as is Director Frank Shutts, a WATCH Award-winner who has directed 18 productions at The Little Theatre. Pair them with choreographer, Ivan Davila (kudos on his “Michael Jordan’s Ball” number), who won two WATCH awards for his work on Hairspray last year at the Little Theatre;the award-winning team of lighting designers, Ken and Patti Crowley; and costume designers, Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley, and you have a powerhouse pack of theatrical pros.
 James Hotsko (Jerry), Daniel McKay (Buddy) and fans, Christopher Harris (Dave), Michael Gale (Malcolm), and James Hotsko (Jerry) – Photo credit to Shane Canfield For those unfamiliar with this British import, which was also a successful film, the American version is set in Buffalo and is a story of out-of-work, out-of-options mill workers and their wives. The fun-loving wives, who are still employed, spend their girl’s-night-out dollars at a local Chippendales strip club.
One night best friends Jerry and Dave sneak into a bathroom window at the nightclub only to overhear their wives talk about the lack of spark in their marriages and the sexy strippers. “All those men. All those meat!” Dave’s wife Georgie exclaims. Defeated and deflated, the guys decide that they too have the goods as well as any other man and agree to join forces to stage their own show. Fifty thousand dollars is the take for the night, enough to pay off Jerry’s child support and Dave’s bills. They confab with the evening’s talent, a gay man who goes by “Buddy”, to divine some tips. They decide it’s all just bump-and-grind and manly attitude.
The sports-loving, butt-scratching couch potatoes decide to audition a few other guys to fill out their act and hire the ex-plant manager slash dance hall teacher Harold Nichols to teach them some sexy moves. “Do you know what a pelvic thrust is?” Jerry asks the sensitive rail-thin Malcolm. A more motley group of out-of-shape candidates could not be imagined. “First we gave the world Buffalo wings. Now we’re gonna give ‘em Buffalo wieners!” they concur. The plan is for them to take it all off, right down to the “business”.
 Michael Gale (Malcolm) and Mary Lou Bruno (Molly) – Photo credit to Shane Canfield Malcolm Lee plays a memorable Noah “Horse” T. Simmons. In the “Big Black Man” he transforms himself from a cane-carrying geezer who does the Monkey, the Mashed Potatoes and the Moonwalk to garner a part in their revue. “What’s the use of a big bundle,” he crows, “if you need a walker to carry it around!”
First rate performances by this gifted cast – James Hotsko as Jerry Lukowski; Annie Ermlick as the Latin firecracker Vicki Nichols who tears up the stage in “Love That Man”; Christopher Harris as the lovable loser Dave Bukatinsky; Jack Stein as Harold Nichols; Jennifer Strand as Jeanette Burmeister, the street savvy ex-actress; Keith Miller as Ethan Girard; Michael Gale as Malcolm MacGregor; Cara Giambrone as Georgie Bukatinsky; Amy Conley as the sassy Pam Lukowski; and Colin Cech as Jerry’s kid Nathan Lukowski.
The music in this show is fabulous – the ballads and duets, tender tearjerkers – the showstoppers, big and brassy. Leave your delicate sensibilities at home. This “Monty” is a rip-roaring naughty riot.
Highly recommended.
Through February 2nd 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
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
October 29, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times 
Warren Ives is a young, handsome, well-educated Wasp on the rise. His budding career as a futures trader at Shearson-Lehman is all but guaranteed in Wall Street’s storied halls. With his editor girlfriend, Lesley Rosen, an erstwhile Jew who works at the esteemed publishing house of Harper and Row, they acquire a converted former temple on the Lower East Side of Manhattan planning to live there in loft-style splendor. They are from all outward appearances, a typical upwardly mobile New York couple.
From the moment they move in they become captive to strange Hebrew chanting coming from an unknown source within the temple. They befriend their local grocer, Morris Lipkind, inviting him into their newly modernized space to witness the eerie sound. The aging Lipkind who worshipped in the shulwhen the neighborhood once had the largest Jewish community in the country, regales them with tales of the former synagogue and its members, eventually identifying the voice as coming from its former cantor. He translates the words of the chant, “Build your house the way it was.” This ominous news becomes the hinge on which the plot turns. News that affects the couple’s relationship as it wrestles with complex and universally familiar issues of faith and spirituality.
 James Myers (Warren Ives), Steve Rosenthal (Morris Lipkind) and Heather Benjamin (Lesley Rosen) – Photo by Shane Canfield You shouldn’t expect author and playwright Ira Levin, who penned such notable suspense and horror stories like Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and Deathtrap, to hand you a pretty package tied up in a Bendel’s bow. Cantorial centers around a young man’s discovery of his spiritual self and his subsequent obsession with its origin. A tender and deeply affecting story – it is perhaps more in the vein of Hesse’s Siddartha – played with moving intensity by James Myers (Warren Ives), Heather Benjamin (Lesley Rosen) and Steve Rosenthal, whose portrayal of Lipkind is riveting, Yiddish-inflected hilarious and linguistically convincing. Of particular note is actor John Shackelford in a small but pivotal role as Warren’s estranged politician father. It’s always a thrill to experience Shackelford’s versatility and nuanced performances. Also memorable are the hauntingly beautiful cantorial vocals by actor/singer Rick Flint.
 James Myers (Warren Ives) and John Shackelford (Williams Ives) – Photo by Shane Canfield The entire production boasts tightly crafted theatrical elements starting with the design team of Ken and Patti Crowley who have transformed not only the stage in their bold lighting plan, but have also included the very theatre walls. Their use of uplights, downlights, lights to highlight props, spots, and stage lights all in rich jewel tones combine with Set Designer, Dan Remmers evocative set to make a spare yet dramatic architectural design in this well-acted ethnic comedy slash drama slash personal journey. See it!
Through November 17th 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 10, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Erik Harrison (Henry Perkins) and Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins) – Photo by Doug Olmstead What would you do if your briefcase had been switched for one containing 735,000 British pounds? No need to answer right away. At least not until after you’ve seen the rollicking British farce Funny Money now playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria. No time for high-minded morality and other sticky wickets with so much at stake.
Henry Perkins is an ordinary accountant toiling at an ordinary job in middle class London when on his commute he pops open his attaché to discover his cheese and chutney sandwich has been substituted for an identical-looking case chockfull of cold hard cash. He hightails it into the Prince of Wales Pub using the loo to count and recount the money. After a few whiskeys and multiple trips to the bathroom to revel secretly in his good fortune, a local detective, mistaking his joie de vivre for solicitation, follows him home for questioning.
 Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins) and Marisa Johnson (Slater) – Photo by Doug Olmstead Henry’s birthday celebration is put on hold when he concocts a plan to take it on the lam to Barcelona. Jean is not enamored of the sudden change of party plans and even more dismayed by the jolly criminality displayed her husband. “I preferred it better, when you were a bloody wimp,” she confesses.
Everything begins to go topsy-turvy in a most delicious way, when best friends and celebrants Vic and Betty Johnson arrive and add to the mayhem. As Vic attests, “You walk out the door in this place and you come back to Goo-Goo Land.”
 Erik Harrison (Henry Perkins) and John Shackelford (Bill) – Photos by Doug Olmsted Erik Harrison is the man-on-a-mission Henry Perkins while Charlene Sloan who makes an admirable debut at LTA is the whiskey-swilling wife Jean Perkins. John Shackleford plays Bill the Cabbie, a dead ringer for The Gleason Show’s Ed Norton aka Art Carney. Gayle Nichols-Grimes is riotous as Betty Johnson and Ted Culler, whose face can launch a thousand expressions, is her befuddled husband Vic. Larry Grey plays the straight man Inspector Davenport and Marisa Johnson plays Detective Slater. Apart from Bill and Slater, there’s no sense remembering the characters’ names as they take on new identities as readily as a chameleon changes color. It’s a classic Brit comedy on steroids and Harrison is uproarious setting a breakneck pace for the rest of the crack cast.
 Michael Metz (Passer-by), Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins), and >Gayle Nichols-Grimes (Betty Johnson) – Photo by Doug Olmstead Brace yourself for two hours of sidesplitting mishaps, malaprops and misunderstandings. All by a cast whose timing, to coin a phrase, is right on the money.
Through September 29th 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
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