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Jordan Wright
January 27, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 “Crime of the Century” featuring Dana Cass, Sarah Gale, Claire O’Brien, Holly McDade, and Rebecca Phillips – Photos by Keith Waters for Kx Photography Thirty-seven performers make up the tremendous ensemble in this touching story of intersecting lives. Set in the early part of the 20th century author E. L. Doctorow focused his novel on three distinct elements of American society – – Black America, on the rise as a strong middle class in Northern cities, middle and upper class White America, and Jewish immigrants bent on hard work and assimilation to their new found country. The Little Theatre of Alexandria has chosen Director Michael Kharfen to express a story where Terrence McNally’s book blends so beautifully with Lynn Ahrens lyrics and Stephen Flaherty’s music.
The characters here are familiar to us all. There’s capitalist foe and union organizer, Emma Goldman, a reformer from the days when child labor was the norm and harsh working conditions prevailed; Harry Houdini, the Jewish immigrant who became the world’s most famous magician; and Evelyn Nesbitt, the great beauty who carved out her vaudeville career on a velvet swing while paramour to a millionaire. Iconic Americans Booker T. Washington, the great African-American orator and Presidential advisor, the financier J. P. Morgan and even Henry Ford make cameos in this story too. In Doctorow’s sweeping saga of the landscape of America, ordinary people become extraordinary people as their lives intersect and they are tested for their capacity to love.
It harkens back to the turn of the 20th Century, a time when ladies of a certain class carried parasols and wore stiff corsets under voluminous dresses. Ragtime music was sweeping the country and a certain Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (Malcolm Lee) a Scott Joplin avatar, was creating a new sound that crossed over into White high society.
Father is off on a polar expedition with Admiral Peary when Mother discovers a Black newborn abandoned in her garden and goes about finding the boy’s mother. “I never thought they had lives besides our lives,” she confesses while searching for the indigent unwed mother. When at last she and her son Edgar find Sarah (Aerika Saxe), she offers Sarah the comfort of their home – – allowing her humanity to overtake her Victorian rigidity.
 “Harlem Women” featuring Kadira Coley, Tiara Hairston, Corisa Myers, and Jessica Pryde – Photo credit Keith Waters Shaun Moe plays the stiff Victorian era “Father” secure in his position and his marriage. Jennifer Lyons Pagnard is “Mother”, a wife learning to have her own say.
Scenic designer J. Andrew Simmons has created a dramatic Industrial Age backdrop of massive connecting clock gears to express the passage of time, while scene changes are cleverly accomplished by painted panels that unfurl from the rafters to denote a sense of place. The Lighting Design team of Ken and Patti Crowley sets the tone with a wide array of colors and effects to change the mood and heighten the drama.
Known as one of the most important musicals ever to grace Broadway, this production does the author’s material (twenty-eight brilliant tunes!) justice with a strong and interconnected cast who sing their faces off. Jennifer Lyons Pagnard demonstrates that she can infuse a leading role with fresh vigor much as she did as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd for which she won “Best Leading Actress in a Musical” with a WATCH Award last year. The ensemble’s voices reflect the powerful emotions of this poignant story of hope, redemption, human rights and a call for justice. Of particular note is the exquisite voice of “Sarah’s Friend” played by Corisa Myers who does a brief but deeply affecting solo turn in “When We Reach That Day”.
There is a beautiful flow to the dancing choreographed by Ivan Davila. Keep an eye peeled for Sherrod Brown who is a standout.
The Little Theatre has taken on one of its most ambitious productions to date with Ragtime and from the “Sold Out” sign on press night, it’s already proven to be a great success.
Through February 15th 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
 The Ragtime Cast Photos credit Keith Waters
Jordan Wright
January 21, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 The Tallest Tree in the Forest. Illustration by Ricardo Martinez. Paul Robeson is a name that many may not recognize in modern day America. If you’re among those wracking your brain to recall his legacy, you can thank J. Edgar Hoover who did everything in his considerable power to erase the memory of this brilliant performer in the American conscious. In Arena Stage’s latest production, The Tallest Tree in the Forest, the reason becomes very clear as to why one of our once most lauded African-American icons is remembered by so few.
For Actor/Playwright Daniel Beaty, the history and legacy of Robeson has become a mission – – for Director Moises Kaufman, who originally commissioned this one-man show as its Artistic Director, its page-to-stage reality is a dream come true.
As the show opens Beaty enters from the top of what appears to be a backstage fire escape leading down to a simply dressed stage. He is singing “Ol’ Man River”, the great Negro ballad penned by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein for Showboat, the iconic production that was Robeson’s Broadway debut. Beaty’s voice is a rich bass-baritone, deeply etched with emotion and suffering, a true reflection of the artist. There will be twelve more songs, plucked from the pantheon of Negro spirituals and Harlem heyday Jazz tunes, to echo the highlights of Robeson’s life and career.
Robeson was a big man in every way. The famous educator and Civil Rights leader, Mary McLeod Bethune, once referred to him as “the tallest tree in the forest”, and it stuck. Well respected as a stage and screen performer, he was also known as a scholar, an athlete and political activist, and to his enemies, a “firebrand”.
Early New York friends with connections to the theatre led him to a life on the stage. And there he might have stayed, if not for his commitment to use his celebrity to fight for human rights and against racism. His experiences put him in solidarity with the oppressed who found a sympathetic voice in Robeson, who had been Valedictorian of his class at Rutgers University where he was their first African-American graduate – – the outspoken student later receiving his law degree from Columbia University. Later, through his worldwide concert tours, he used his influence to rally for social change wherever he went.
In Lenin’s idyllic Bolshevik Russia of the 1920’s, where he witnessed Blacks, Jews and Chinese working together for under Communism, he claimed to have experienced real freedom. “For the first time in my life I was treated as a man. Not just as a Negro,” he would say, though he found things quite different during Stalin’s reign.
The music in this production played by Pianist/Conductor Kenny J. Seymour and backed by two musicians on multiple instruments is rich with meaning and the history of Black America’s struggle. “Go Down Moses”, “Battle of Jericho” and other powerful spirituals echo the pre-Civil Rights era and serve to highlight Robeson’s life and times.
When he brought his experiences and idealism back to America in the early 1950’s he came up hard against Hoover and McCarthyism and the “Red Scare”, a repressive movement that was just beginning to gain steam in tandem with Robeson’s powerful ascent as an activist and performer. Outspoken and fearless, he was branded a traitor. Ultimately it was his unapologetic stance at the House Un-American Activities Committee’s trials that blacklisted him destroying his reputation and costing him his career. “The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery,” he had declared.
Beaty plays 40 different roles in this riveting production, segueing effortlessly from male to female, black to white, young to old, and American to foreigner, imitating his family, friends and considerable enemies. Told through sketches and vignettes, the course of Robeson’s life and career are highlighted by projections from actual newsreels of the day. You’ll revel in Beaty’s Robeson, as complicated and vibrant and larger-than-life as the man himself.
Highly recommended.
Through February 16th at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 488-3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org
 Daniel Beaty as Paul Robeson in Tectonic Theater Project’s The Tallest Tree in the Forest. Photo by Don Ipock.
Monday January 27, 2014
It’s Restaurant Week!! Learn about Alexandria’s magnet restaurants and what they mean to our city’s regional and national appeal.
In recent years, the reputation of Washington’s restaurant scene has soared nationally. Not coincidentally, more Alexandria restaurants are climbing the list of DC’s top dining venues. Our celebration of Alexandria’s dining scene features Chef Cathal Armstrong – one of the best-known chefs in the culinary industry, exhibiting great culinary command creativitiy, technique, presentation, and even business. He will share his vision – including why he chose Alexandria as the base for his growing gastronomic empire. Alexandria-based food writer Jordan Wright will talk about Alexandria’s rising stature in the DC dining scene and share tips on places you should know about. Claire Mouledoux of the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association (the organization that gives us “Restaurant Week”) will explain how this dining renaissance benefits our city.
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 Star Chef Cathal Armstrong |
Irish chef Cathal Armstrong’s cuisine and philosophy reflect ideas planted in the atypical Dublin household of his childhood, where garlic was used fearlessly and fruits and vegetables were grown in the garden. The family’s travel business launched Armstrong into a myriad of different countries, cultures and cuisines where he began to develop an appreciation for gastronomy in the differing landscapes of Europe. As the family traveled, Armstrong was educated in the languages he now speaks fluently: English, French, Spanish, German and Irish. For those not versed in the Dubliner’s native language, the “t” in Cathal is silent.
At the age of seven, Armstrong began his annual student exchange in France with the Boudain family. His food curriculum involved visiting truffle-farms and vineyards, eating peasant-style food and picking fruits and vegetables on the farm. These early culinary experiences inspired Armstrong’s philosophy. He is committed to sourcing locally, valuing animals and respecting the land, so much so that Armstrong cites innovative farmer David Lankford of Davon Crest Farms in Maryland as one of his biggest inspirations. Armstrong is now an active member of The American Farmland Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the nation’s agricultural resources.
At the age of 20, Armstrong opened a fine dining restaurant in the Dublin suburbs with two partners. After a two-year tenure atThe Baytree, Armstrong decided to move to Washington DC where for the next 11 years he moved his way through various top kitchens learning the fundamentals from mentors including Greg Mitchell of New Heightsand Jeffrey Buben of Bistro Bis. It was during his time spent at Gabriel under Gregory Hill that Armstrong met his future wife and business partner Meshelle Armstrong. Together, they dreamed of a place where they could balance a commitment to farmers with their vision of fine dining.
The Armstrongs found it in Alexandria, where in April 2004, 13 years after first arriving in DC, they opened Restaurant Eve. The modern American restaurant (with French, Spanish and Irish influences) showcased Armstrong’s playful personal style and deep-rooted commitment to purveyors. In the summer of 2006, Armstrong openedEamonn’s A Dublin Chipper and PX, or The PX, a cocktail-driven speakeasy lounge five blocks from Restaurant Eve. Both venues are named for Armstrong’s children, Eve and Eamonn. Armstrong has since been inducted into the Share Our Strength Leadership Council, a group of culinary notables from around the country who advise this non-profit dedicated to eradicating childhood hunger in the U.S. Armstrong’s self-described “pork fetish” and the Irish roots at the base of his culinary experience are showcased in decadent but playful dishes like “Bacon, Egg, and Cheese.” The dish makes full use of the versatility of pork fat with a cured and braised pork belly, seared to order, a tender crepe with ham and leeks, and a rich golden cheddar foam.
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Claire Mouledoux
Alexandria Convention & Visitors Association |
Claire is the Director of Communications for ACVA, Alexandria’s nonprofit tourism marketing organization, which contributes to the economic vitality of the city. Each year $738 million in visitor spending generates $23.7 million in tax revenue, providing needed city services and helping to support the community’s many small businesses. Claire directs the overall message and voice of the Alexandria visitor brand by managing ACVA’s communications strategies and guiding a team of professionals in media relations, social media and digital marketing. An Old Town resident with a passion for the city, she has been promoting the allure of Alexandria’s remarkable dining, shopping, arts and history for nearly four years as part of the ACVA team. Formerly the Director of Communications for the Torpedo Factory Art Center, she currently serves on the advisory board of The Art League and is an active member of the Mid-Atlantic Tourism Public Relations Alliance.VisitAlexandriaVA.com
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 Jordan Wright
Whisk & Quill |
Jordan Wright is an accomplished writer on food, spirits, travel, and theatre. Her clients have included the tony Georgetowner and hip sister publication the Downtowner, the Washington Examiner and San Francisco Examiner, as well as LocalKicks.com, DC Metro Magazine, Washington Life Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine, MDTheatreGuide.com, Indian Country Today On-Line and Print Publications, The Alexandria Times, Hartkeisonline.com, and now DCMetroTheaterArts. Her articles feature restaurant openings, food and wine events, food-oriented film reviews, food trends, restaurant reviews, food memories, new food products, hotels, spas, resorts and interviews with the country’s leading chefs – from Jose Andres and Top Chef’s Carla Hall, to CakeLove’s Warren Brown and Top Chef’s Spike Mendelsohn. She has also interviewed famed chef and TV star, Anthony Bourdain, Eric Ripert, cookbook author Joan Nathan, and director Robert Kenner for an in-depth article about his film Food, Inc. |
Program
Co-Chairs: |
Alan Dubow, Shari Bolouri, Terri Hauser andMichael Hobbs
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All programs are held at:
Holiday Inn Eisenhower Metro Center – 2460 Eisenhower Avenue CLICK HERE for directions
Reception at 6:15 p.m. (Cash Bar) Buffet Dinner at 6:45 p.m.
| MEMBER PRICE |
NON-MEMBER PRICE |
SAVE BY PLANNING |
| $28 |
$33 |
with reservations made by 5:00 pm on the Friday prior to each meeting |
| $35 |
$40 |
for late reservations and walk-ins |
Program only 7:15 p.m. (free to members/$5 non-members) – Presentations are followed by a question and answer session based on written questions from the audience. Programs end promptly at 9 P.M.
Dinner reservations strongly encouraged. Seating is not guaranteed for walk-ins. CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE
Agenda:Alexandria, a non-partisan, non-profit organization which began in 1998, sponsors eight dinner meetings a year with presentations on topics of interest to Alexandrians. Membership is only $35 a year and open to anyone, whether or not you live or work in Alexandria. Topics are wide-ranging and past topics have included such issues as transportation, education, the arts, public safety, history and preservation, public health, the City budget, the waterfront, the environment and aging in Alexandria.
Jordan Wright
January 13, 2014
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Philip Fletcher as Orsino and Kathy Gordon as Olivia. Photo by Koko Lanham. If you’re planning on seeing Twelfth Night, the tenth production in Synetic Theater’s “Silent Shakespeare” series, you’d better dust off your Shakespeare. Because though the plot is predictable, this production will not recall any Shakespeare play in theatre history. In a drop dead fabulous re-interpretation of the 1920’s movie era, Director Paata Tsikurishvili has chosen a cinematic theme as his unconventional backdrop for pantomime, slapstick, killer dance sequences and a highly eclectic music score.
Picture a movie set replete with klieg lights, pulleys, ladders, a giant scrim, a camera dolly, and vintage Moviola editing equipment. On stage left there’s an upright piano concealing a secret bar and Scott Joplin rags play on a Victrola. It’s the Roaring 20’s when the Charleston was king, Chaplin ruled the silver screen, and the Lindy Hop lured partiers high on bathtub gin onto dance floors across America.
 Alex Mills as Sebastian, Kathy Gordon as Olivia and Dallas Tolentino as Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Photo by Koko Lanham Scene One opens with two white-faced clowns in their satins arguing in mime over the Twelfth Night script. The lead clown, a sort of John Huston/Orson Welles mashup, is the director of this film-within-a-play who cuts the action with his clapperboard. Along with his comic cohort they monitor the performers, while seeming to capture the action on film.
And what action it is. Jazz Age flappers cavort with drunken Casanovas in zoot suits and, as per Shakespeare’s best follies, the characters’ intentions get pretty well muddled up. Subtle references translate into major devices as in a complex number in which the dancers become entrapped in an unspooling reel of film. The use of the large scrim to separate the scenes is clever, but when it’s used to show occasional quotes from the play, projected in the style of the silent film era as intertitles, the words often become obstructed by the actors and props and ultimately serves only as a distraction.
 Philip Fletcher as Orsino and Irina Tsikurishvili as Viola. Photo by Koko Lanham. Assistant Director/Music Director Irakli Kavsadze has selected some astonishingly varied pieces to accompany the dancers. I recognized “Santa Lucia”, “Yes, Sir! That’s My Baby!”, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing)” and even the “Mexican Hat Dance” tossed in among jazz era tunes, classical music, opera, and an original score by award-winning Composer Konstantine Lortkipanidze.
Set Designer Phil Charlwood and Lighting Designer Colin K. Bills have meticulously channeled the era placing Viola (Irina Tsikurishvili), Orsino (Phillip Fletcher), Malvolio (Irakli Kavsadze), Olivia (Kathy Gordon), Feste (Ben Cunis), Sebastian (Alex Mills), Sir Toby Belch (Hector Reynoso), Fabian (Vato Tsikurishvili), Maria (Irina Kavsadze), and Sir Andrew Aquecheek (Dallas Tolentino) into this stylishly romantic farce. The cast is beyond marvelous – – utterly in synch and balance. You’ll see no scene-stealers here, though Fletcher’s Orsino is perhaps the most adorably absurd of the Lotharios.
Costume Designer Kendra Rai punctuates the theme using a black, white and silver palette to convey the dazzling period.
Highly recommended.
Through February 16th at Synetic Theater, 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington in Crystal City. For tickets and information call 1-866-811-4111 or visit www.synetictheater.org.
Thank you dear readers for pursuing life’s intriguing and ever-evolving adventures with Whisk and Quill in 2013. This December celebrates my sixth year as a food and travel writer and third year as theatre critic for the Alexandria Times. And though my life has gravitated more to the keyboard than cooktop, to the frequent inquiries about my work as a chef, I say, “Yes! I still enjoy catering private events.”
This year I shared my column, “Nibbles and Sips Around Town”, with the area’s most comprehensive theatre website, www.DCMetroTheaterArts.com. Since they share their content with www.BroadwayStars.com, I now have the only non-theatre column on both sites.
One of the biggest surprises of the year was when Indian Country Today magazine, where I have contributed pieces on American Indian Culture and the Arts for the last three years, chose my feature story on the discovery of the long-lost silent film, The Daughter of Dawn as one of their “Top Ten Best Stories of the Year”. And in keeping with neighborhood participation, in June I was chosen as the sole judge for the “Taste of Del Ray”, one of the most fun events I have ever participated in.
For www.TheCredits.org the website of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) I interviewed leading Hollywood directors Ariel Vromen and James Franco, Academy Award-winning Superman musical composer, Hans Zimmer, and writer-directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash of The Way, Way Back.
I even had the opportunity to interview a Cirque de Soleil artist and the Artistic Director of Cavalia when those shows raised their tents in town. Noted Jazz musicians Ski Johnson (Saxophonist), Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and Marcus Johnson (Keyboardist) were featured on our site this year too, as were interviews with songstresses Iris DeMent and Grace Potter.
There were articles on local, national and internationally renowned chefs, tons of restaurant reviews, food events, farmers, vintners (Barefoot Wine founder Michael Houlihan was featured in February), breweries, new food products (Jose Andres launched a line of Spanish delicacies), and cookbooks with so many local chefs publishing this year (check out December’s column). I even braved a chef-driven “Snakeheads at the Harbor” dinner in Georgetown…all in the name of research, don’t you know.
Travel took us from Oxford, MD along the Chesapeake Bay and Culpeper, Virginia to Airlie House and the Castleton Festival in the Virginia countryside, and later to Tallahassee and Wakulla County, Florida where we ate as many oysters and shrimp as the law would allow. All the while meeting innovative chefs, farmers, musicians and those whose spirits would raise ours to new heights.
Wines were especially high on the “To Do” list with tastings of Greek, Israeli, Brazilian, French, American, New Zealand and Serbian vintages. In celebration of her recently published memoirs, I shared a lovely lunch at Fiola with Margrit Mondavi, the “First Lady of Napa Valley” and “Grande Dame” of the Mondavi Winery. We also visited the Stillhouse Distillery to learn how they make their whiskey and bourbon, an experience I shared with readers in August.
In the “Travel” section posh properties were scrutinized or extolled, while in the “Theatre” section dozens of shows were picked or panned – all without one single advertiser on our Whisk and Quill website.
In July we were thrilled to welcome a very special guest contributor to Whisk and Quill. Cary Pollak is an accomplished chef and well-known DC area food writer. He’s also a successful attorney, but we won’t hold that against him. Pollak has already given us exciting stories on New York’s Fancy Food Show, DC’s Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show, a recipe for his glorious French Fruit Tarte (Pollak also hosts cooking classes on baking and East Indian cooking), a “Celebration of the Grape” at Zaytinya, a November piece on Ridgewell’s turning 85 years-old, and a comprehensive piece on his travels to Central Texas and the food scene there. Look for more terrific stories from Pollak in the upcoming months.
So here’s to 2014 and another year of reporting to inspire, tempt and dazzle you to create your own journeys. Let’s drink a cuppa kindness, or whatever lovely spirits you may have handy, for the auld year and for a scintillating, theatrical and scrumptious New Year!
Cheers!
Jordan
Jordan Wright
December 27, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Louise (Maria Rizzo) becomes Gypsy Rose Lee in the musical “Gypsy.” – Photo by Teresa Wood. When lyricist Stephen Sondheim and composer Jule Styne’s original production of Gypsy hit Broadway in 1959 I witnessed Ethel Merman play Rose, a role that many said was tailor made for her and her alone. But though the show has been through many incarnations and Rose has been performed by some of the finest performers who have ever graced the Great White Way, today is another day, and we are lucky to have Sherri L. Edelen, a local actress who also seems to have been born to play the role of the stage mother.
Wikipedia defines a stage mother as an “individual prone to obnoxiously demanding special treatment for her child, or suggesting that the individual has placed inappropriate pressure on her child to succeed. Some believe that a ‘stage mom’ is vicariously living out her own dreams through her child.” That the tradition lives on (ponder the current TLC’s Toddler’s and Tiaras) is indisputable. That after all these years it is still being played out in families around the world is undeniable. I should know. As a child descended from three generations of show business, we are quite familiar with the role.
In Signature Theatre’s current production of Gypsy Director Joe Calarco has breathed new life into author Arthur Laurent’s classic backstage saga. His interpretation has been infused with so much talent, heart and energy, it’s happily bursting at the seams.
Let’s start with the cast. And what a stupendous cast it is, chock-a-block with powerhouse voices and dazzling dancers. There’s Sherri L. Edelen as Rose, Mitchell Hebert as Herbie, Maria Rizzo as Gypsy, Erin Cearlock as Baby June, Nicole Mangi as grown up June, Sandy Bainum as Tessie Tura the stripper with a heart of gold, Tracy Lynn Olivera as Electra, Carolyn Cole as Renee aka Agnes, Donna Migliaccio as Mazeppa, plus twelve other actor/dancer/singers that make up this delicious cast. If you know musical theatre in our area you probably know most of these performers and their reputations as some of the best in the biz.
 Momma Rose (Sherri L. Edelen, left) places her bets on daughter Louise (Maria Rizzo) – Photo by Teresa Wood. The story of Gypsy is inspired by the famous burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoirs and features some of the most memorable music in Broadway’s history – – songs like “Some People”, “Small World”, “If Momma Was Married”, “Let Me Entertain You”, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” for starters. It’s a tale of two cute little girls and their tenaciously ambitious mother, a woman whose reason for living is to see her children become stars, even if they have to live out of a suitcase. As Rose puts it to her own father before leaving him, “Anyone who stays home is dead!”
 Herbie (Mitchell Hébert, right) makes a point clear to Pastey (Steven Cupo) backstage in the musical “Gypsy,” – Photo by Teresa Wood. It’s the peak of Vaudeville’s heyday when Rose meets Herbie, a onetime talent agent, now traveling salesman. Together they become a formidable duo devising a child act with June, Louise and a couple of stray boys they find along the way. June is the star of the kiddie act, a precocious child with blonde ringlets and a megawatt smile who begins to tire of being forced to play the perpetual child by her desperate mother. “As long as I have this act, no one is over 12!” Rose admonishes.
Lighting designer Chris Lee manages the aging process with the clever use of strobe lighting to “magically” switch out the children to older actors during a frenetic dance routine. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the dozens of set changes in which stage-height fabric panels printed with Vaudeville era advertisements are moved from front to back and side to side throughout the show. It is distracting and awkward even though the quite visible “stagehands” are dressed in period clothing. After awhile you come to expect it, though it doesn’t seem like the smoothest way to transition scenes.
In Act Two the action really heats up when Louise takes a job at Minsky’s, a notable New York burlesque house where she becomes Gypsy Rose Lee, who was in reality the highest paid stripper in history.
 Louise (Maria Rizzo) sings “Let Me Entertain You” in the musical “Gypsy.” – Photo by Teresa Wood. Highly recommended.
Through January 26th 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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