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Jordan Wright
February 20, 2013
Special to DC Metro Theater Arts, Broadway Stars, and localKicks
 The Barefoot Spirit How to Succeed in the Wine Business Without Really Knowing a Damn Thing About It
Last month I spoke with Barefoot Wines founder Michael Houlihan about his upcoming book The Barefoot Spirit (Evolve Publishing – May 2013). Michael, who has been in the wine industry for nearly 30 years along with his life and business partner Bonnie Harvey, created the affordable and ubiquitous wines we know from the cute footprint icon. As soon as I spoke with him, I knew I liked him. He’s engaging, modest, enthusiastic and plain speaking, and considered a wine industry visionary. Though there are better known trailblazers throughout the history of California wines – perhaps none have started out more hapless, or dare I say clueless. He’d be the first to admit it.
When Michael and Bonnie hatched their idea to produce wine out of their farmhouse laundry room in 1985, they were so unaware of the vagaries and complexities of the business that they didn’t even know that wine came in different sized bottles. And though Bonnie had a nose for business and Michael had a knack for sales, they couldn’t possibly foresee what it took to make and sell wine on a grand scale. But both kept an open mind and both were quick studies.
 Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan Co-Founders of Barefoot Spirit As he describes it in his light-hearted and informative book, Michael started his sales adventures by lugging samples of Barefoot wines through a blinding thunder storm to the Piggly Wiggly in South Carolina – hardly an auspicious beginning. Neither one of them was knowledgeable about such crucial details as marketing, distribution and shelf placement, and they were sticker-shocked when they discovered the high cost of glass to bottle their wines. The term ‘spiffs’, which are legal bonuses given to distributor reps to push a wine, was not in their vocabulary yet. They just had a product they believed in and a commitment to see it through. Michael remembered what one wine purveyor told him, “You’ve got to be better and cheaper than Bob.” Mondavi, that is. So they put their heart and soul into the venture and learned along the way. Turns out they learned a lot.
A cornerstone of their success in marketing their brand is something all winemakers use today in one way or another – getting their wines to the public through tasting events in order to establish solid relationships and engender goodwill along the way. To that end Michael and Bonnie created Barefoot’s “Worthy Cause Marketing”, donating their wine to charitable events and following up with their new friends. It proved to be an ideal model, both personally and professionally. Many budding entrepreneurs now turn for advice to the pair who in 2005 sold Barefoot Wines to the family-owned E. J. Gallo, which according to Wine Folly is, “the largest wine brand on the face of the earth.”
“The Barefoot Spirit” is the polar opposite of a dry business-oriented tale of success. It’s about a pair of entrepreneurs who dropped everything, except their commitment to fun, to make and sell an affordable wine. I mean who wouldn’t love a pair of nature-loving, beach-combing winemakers who think there’s nothing better in life than hiking the Sierras with their cats and treating their business like an adventure. Now that’s a tale you wouldn’t want to miss.
 The action at Toki Underground – photo credit Jordan Wright Tales From The Underground – Toki’s Simple Pleasures
“We have to arrive at an unfashionable time,” I insisted. “The minute they open the doors!” Like everyone else I’ve been put off by Toki Underground’s rumored lines-around-the-block and their no-reservations policy but my accomplice and I were determined to check out all the noise. Certainly the restaurant’s 2012 DC “Restaurant of the Year” award has the trendoids beating a path to their door, but we weren’t going to let that stand in our way. So around five on a weeknight, I picked up my epicurean compatriot and we headed off to H Street where we discover to our delight that we are seated right away.
Toki Underground has been on the radar screen of foodies and chefs from Alice Waters to Joan Nathan whose famous Sips & Suppers event featured the noodle shop’s Executive Chef Eric Bruner-Yang in one of their private dinners this year. The tiny noodle house, all 650 square feet of it, has a mere twenty-five stools and most face the wall. Don’t expect a romantic hideaway or group ramen night. This hot spot could be more fondly described as a hole in the wall.
 Counter dining at Toki – photo credit Jordan Wright The tiny outpost sits above The Pug, a small dive bar on the first level. A steep stairway leads to the second level and the unmistakable aroma of miso, soy and freshly made ramen. (Why “Underground” if it’s on the second floor?) A tattooed host leads us past clouds of billowing steam from the open kitchen where we hop onto two empty stools, propping our feet up on the footrests, actually repurposed skateboards, and dive into the menu like starving cheetahs.
The décor is Asian animé hipster – the limited menu Japanese/Taiwanese fusion ramen and dumplings complimented by Asian-themed cocktails, sake and Korean beers. But it’s the ramen, lovely silken noodles made off premises in Springfield, VA to Bruner-Yang’s specifications and floating in a 24-hour simmered pork shoulder bone stock, that steals the show. Though there are a purported twenty-six different styles of ramen, the young chef draws on his life in Taiwan watching his mother and grandmother form the flour and water into pliable strands to interpret his own style.
The proper way to eat ramen is to slurp. (Miss Manners, cover your ears!) The reasoning behind this custom, uncouth to Western proprieties, is to aerate the noodles in order to eat them quickly before they break down in the hot broth. Lots of communal slurping was heard. Dainty diners need not apply.
 Sesame Crusted Salmon with horseradish sauce and eggplant jam – photo credit Jordan Wright Our dumplings come first, steamed instead of pan-fried and the soft pillows, stuffed with ginger, scallions, Napa cabbage and a house-made spice mix, and served alongside tare, a sweet soy dipping sauce. A classic hakata follows – the bowl filled to the brim with ramen, pork loin, pickled ginger and nori seaweed. My partner likes the nitamago with the sous vide cooked egg that when broken spills into the broth turning it into a creamy slurry. If you’re of a mind, Chashu pork cheek or other additions can be added to most dishes with a nominal $4 surcharge. All the ramen bowls are layered with complex seasoning and spice and cradled by the deep undertones of the slow cooked pork bone stock.
Dessert is an afterthought here with house made chocolate chip cookies and a carafe of milk. Take it or leave it. If you want something more substantial you may want to drift over to Dangerously Delicious Pies for a slice of heaven on a plate.
Currently in the works is Bruner-Yang’s experiment to channel the Asian night market experience. Look for Maketto to bring the same energy and intriguing cuisine to his revered H Street neighborhood.
1,001 Serbian Dreams
 Cherry pomace and Honey Drop rakija – photo credit Jordan Wright It was last November and a small group of us were brunching at Masa 14, when I first heard about Ambar. Ivan Iricanin and his partner, chef and restauranteur Richard Sandoval (Masa 14 and El Centro D. F.) had already begun building out the Eighth Street restaurant that would soon transport the soul-satisfying regional dishes of Serbia’s Balkan republic to DC. In particular they were excited to debut dozens of varieties of the country’s national treasure, rakija, which are fruit brandies of a wide-ranging potency. My antennae were vibrating like a summertime cicada.
In January the two-story brownstone opened with three authentic Serbian chefs and bar shelves filled with glistening bottles of rakija sharing space with wines from Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia. It’s a cozy country rustic space yet with a modern polish. Mason jars of pickled eggs and vegetables take up shelf space with books and candles flicker against the pickled wood walls.
 Forest Gnocchi at Ambar – photo credit Jordan Wright The cuisine here is a heavenly mixture of Mediterranean, Balkan, Turkish and hearty Slavic fare – a bit spicy, earthy and deeply flavored, especially the meats. Scanning the menu I saw a multitude of intriguing dishes – Wild Mushroom Salad salata sa pecurkama, White Veal Soup teleca krem corba, Venison Carpaccio karpaco od smetine. But it was the way they were described that made us lean in further. A dish called simply ‘Grilled Asparagus’ is done up in a velouté sauce with crispy prosciutto, pumpkin, purple potato and quail egg. Beet and Goat Cheese Salad, slojevi cvekle arrives garnished with pork cracklings, walnuts and chives. Sesame Crusted Salmon, losos, is flavorfully enhanced by horseradish sauce and spicy eggplant jam. It seemed impossible to decide but after giving our preferences to our capable and quite adorable server, she made a few suggestions and additions to complement our initial choices.
 The Balkan bread basket with three spreads at Ambar – photo credit Jordan Wright The homey Bread Basket ustipci ili proja is a good place to start. Filled with the Balkan version of cornbread, fried sourdough, (be still my heart) and three savory spreads, the one most of us are familiar with is ajvar – a spicy red pepper puree. We also swooned over the Cheese Pie gibanica – a delicately layered phyllo napoleon with spinach and goat cheese, far better than most I’ve tried. Though they have the traditional beef and pork kebabs cevapi, which adds cheese to the skewer and the National Dish pljeskavica, a Balkan hamburger – it was the Stuffed Sour Cabbage known as sarma that transported us on that cold, rainy evening.
Ambar does not treat dessert as an afterthought. They have a pastry chef who trained in kitchens throughout Europe. The most unusual dessert is the Forest Gnocchi. Dazzlingly presented in an earthenware bowl that weighs as much as a bocce ball, its separate components consist of chocolate mousse, bitter orange cake, ground chocolate, orange gelee, tarragon gnocchi and passion fruit espuma. The unusual dessert, pretty as a medieval garden, is then stirred up with black tea sauce.
Be sure to finish with one of the rakijas. We opted for the subtle Honey Drop and the high octane Cherry Pomace. Just the beginning of our love affair with Ambar.
Jordan Wright
February 20, 2012
Special to Indian Country Today Magazine
 Women’s Moccasins – Michael and Pam Knapp from KQ Designs photos – All photo credit to Pam Knapp Originally crafted from the tanned skins of elk, deer, moose or buffalo, stitched with sinew, and in colder climates often lined with rabbit fur or sheepskin, moccasins have evolved into the preferred footwear for pow wows. Since the late 15th Century when Italians arrived on our shores and traded Venetian glass beads with American Indians, the art of beading on moccasins has become a tradition that has evolved into high art. Once simply adorned with shell, quill, wood and bone, the moccasins of today are intricately beaded canvasses that tell the story of the wearer. Fanciful designs with botanical, geometric and animal themes stitch complex motifs to reflect tribal, clan or familial influences. Styles can be short with a tongue and hole-threaded ties, or fashioned more like a ‘desert’ boot with high sides or turndown cuffs. Others might be unadorned mid-calf boots with thong ties or heavily beaded moccasins with add-on leggings, although there are countless variations of these basic shapes.
For Michael Knapp, a bead artisan for the past 40 years, beadwork is like snowflakes, “No two designs are the same,” he explains. Knapp, who comes from a Winnebago background, recalls his first pow wow experience as an impressionable seven year-old who joined a dance circle. “I loved it and wanted to stay, but my father who was ready to leave had to pull me out of the arena kicking and screaming.”
Yet out of adversity can come raw determination, and for Knapp it turned into a passion for the art of Native beadwork. His enthusiasm and knowledge is palpable as he travels to pow wows around the country selling his designs, meeting up with friends and, yes, still dancing. “The pow wow community is like one big family. Everyone is your aunt and uncle and everyone looks out for everyone else,” says Knapp. It’s where he met his wife Pam and taught her the intricate skill. Together they create exquisite custom pieces from their two-person studio, KQ Designs, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Knapp describes moccasin regalia this way, “There are two types of footwear, the Southern Plains boots or high top moccasins. They’re not usually fully beaded though they might have a beaded medallion on the ‘vamp’, the top part of the shoe. Southern tribes like Kiowa, Comanche, and Oklahoma Indians typically wear those. Historically the Seminoles did very little beadwork, mostly patchwork applique with different colored materials and some accent edge beading. In California they rarely used beadwork. But in the Plains area, the Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, they did a lot of beading and the women’s dresses have fully beaded yokes, moccasins and leggings. The Plateau region of Oregon, Montana and Northern Utah use a different style called ‘flat stitch’ to refer to the way beads are tacked down onto deer hide or cloth. And the Central Plains people, like the Southern people or Cheyenne, used lazy stitch, eight to ten beads wide, creating the look of texture.”
Knapp uses only Czechoslovakian glass beads and keeps an extensive collection of antique beads for restoration. “Every dancer wears moccasins. There are several different styles for women depending on what is typical for their tribe or the part of the country they are from and what dance style they dance. For men it’s a basic pair of fully beaded moccasins using the lazy stitch style of beadwork. Men who dance ‘traditional’ or ‘straight dance’ wear men’s leggings, though for traditional dance it’s optional. In the old days all men wore leggings. With women there are more choices.”
The Knapps bead their moccasins on brain tanned deer hide, a method of soaking the skins with emulsified deer brain oils to condition and soften the stretched hide.
 Men Moccasins – Michael and Pam Knapp from KQ Designs photos – All photo credit to Pam Knapp “The amber tone moccasins come from smoking the hides over a fire. If it’s smoked a lot, it turns brownish or a light tan. For pow wows the primary choice is white, the hide’s original color.” As for the thread, Knapp swears by waxed dental floss that he feels is twenty times stronger than nylon thread.
Although much of the regalia today can be very contemporary, many beaders feel that some of the changes are good. “Though rhinestones and mirrors on beadwork are only from the last fifteen years and don’t reflect traditional styles, it comes down to artistry and we are very open to it,” says Knapp. “It has more to do with the dancer as a beautiful piece of art.”
Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (Sioux and Assiniboine) is another bespoke beader whose work has won numerous awards and been featured at the National Museum for the American Indian in Washington, DC and the Denver Art Museum. While living on Montana’s Fort Peck Reservation, she learned the art from her mother, Joyce Growing Thunder, one of the most prominent beaders in North America.
Mother and daughter now reside in California in the same place where Juanita’s father’s people came for the Gold Rush in the 19th Century. They still refer to moccasins by the Sioux word ‘hampas’. Through the year the women prepare their crafts for the annual Indian Market in Santa Fe where Juanita has participated for the past 27 years. Joyce and Juanita incorporate a wealth of stitches in their extraordinary designs. “Some of the stitches we use are applique, lazy stitch, edging, whipstitch, Southern, peyote, brick or loom beadwork. We try to be traditional and stay within our own tribal style but we know how to do others too,” says Fogarty who teaches summer classes in beading and doll making at the Idyllwild Arts center.
Fogarty has a strong sense of responsibility to pass along the craft. “I was raised to appreciate the ability and gift of creating such works of art and to further my knowledge. I carry great respect for my heritage. It is my hope that in being able to hold true to the traditions within my work, I can be reassured these creations carry on the traditions of the people in a good way.”
 James Franco as Oz in ‘Oz the Great and Powerful.’ Courtesy Walt Disney Pictures
James Franco’s appearance at Sundance this year was a stunner. But then again the risk-taking renaissance man is accustomed to surprising his critics. At Sundance’s New Frontiers the actor/director/producer/visiting professor/writer presented his collaborative effort with gay filmmaker Travis Mathews. The graphic sixty-minute documentary Interior. Leather Bar, a hard core riff on the gay leather bar scene, and two other films, Kink and Lovelace, in which he plays Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner in the latter, had audiences and critics alike scratching their heads . Edgy? Sure. Coming from Franco? Hardly shocking. Once named “Sexiest Man Alive” by People Magazine, Franco has enjoyed an unusually prolific and varied career. For a man just reaching the middle of his third decade, his broad interests and accomplishments have made him too elusive to pigeonhole. TV credits include such disparate roles as a recurring role on General Hospital; the cult classic Freaks and Geeks; and occasional appearances on 30 Rock. Film roles range from playing Harry Osborn in the first reboot of the Spider-Man series to his much beloved turn in stoner film Pineapple Express to the sexy love interest in Eat, Pray, Love and the lead in Danny Boyle’s kinetic, jaw-dropping 127 Hours, in which he played real life canyoneer, Aron Ralston, a demanding role for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 2011. Other break out roles have established him as a versatile actor, starring opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant’s Milk, the story of San Francisco’s gay mayor, Dean in James Dean and as the young Beat Generation poet, Alan Ginsburg, in Howl.
His latest star turn is as Oscar Diggs, the cunning charlatan in Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful, which opened on March 8. At the same time he was promoting Oz, he is also directing an indie, Bukowski, referencing poet and writer Heinrich Karl “Charles” Bukowski, Jr., one of LA’s darkest literary luminaries, a man once referred to by Sartre as “America’s greatest poet” and the basis for the 1987 film Barfly.
As a published poet and prolific author himself, he was recently asked by Yahoo! to write a poem to Obama on the occasion of his final inauguration. Franco is the author of the Strongest of the Litter (The Hollyridge Press Chapbook Series) and the short story collection Palo Alto. His poetry collection, Directing Herbert White (Graywolf Press) is scheduled to be published soon along with a memoir entitled A California Childhood (Insight Editions).
Franco also currently teaches at UCLA, CalArts, USC and NYU sharing his considerable knowledge as an actor and filmmaker and tapping his circle of acting pals and personal resources to support student film projects.
We chatted with him, albeit briefly, about Bukowski. Brevity is the soul of wit, after all…
The Credits: Why did you choose Bukowski’s life for your next project?
Franco: I’ve always been a fan.
Does it resonate with you in a personal way?
I think artist coming of age stories always resonate with me.
Will it follow his semi-autographical book “Ham on Rye”?
No, it focuses on his childhood.
How will it differ from earlier films on Bukowski?
It’s about his youth.
Who’s writing the script?
Adam Rager.
Where will it be shot?
In LA.
Who’s in it?
Tim Blake Nelson, Alex Kingston, newcomer Jacob Loeb and kids.
In addition to directing it, will you appear in the film?
Nothing’s been decided yet.
Does it parallel your life in any way?
Just in the sense that I discovered writing and reading in the same way.
What cinematic style will you use to create the film?
Steadicam and old lenses used to make it look old.
Have you begun shooting and if so what challenges have you faced so far?
Yes. It’s been great, but it’s hard getting enough cars from the 1920s.
Featured Image: James Franco as Oz in ‘Oz the Great and Powerful.’ Courtesy Walt Disney Pictures.
Jordan Wright
February 27, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 The cast of Metamorphoses Ashleigh Lathrop, Lisa Tejero, Raymond Fox, Doug Hara, Chris Kipiniak, Tempe Thomas, Lauren Orkus, Geoff Packard and Louise Lamson – Photo by Teresa Wood. At Arena Stage’s Mead Center, Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses is presented on a stage transformed by a giant central pool. Ornamented by a single crystal chandelier, the shallow pool is surrounded by wooden decking, which the actors walk, run, skip, and crawl on when not actually in the water, faux swimming, having sex or merely drowning. By my count there are eleven separate stories from David Slavitt’s translation of Ovid’s masterpiece written in 8 A.D., by the Latin poet describing the history of the world. A weighty proposition with the only constant being change.
Most of the vignettes here are the familiar cautionary tales of greed, lust, incest…oh let’s just say the seven deadly sins and call it a day. The actors play multiple parts in a whirlwind of clever costume changes that serve to clarify segues to the next story. This proves helpful since the program makes no attempt to list the multiple roles each actor portrays, nor the individual vignettes.
There’s a lot to be said for brevity when it comes to complex themes of love and loss and in these stories, the objective is clear. In each piece we meet the hapless cast of characters and learn of the hot mess they’ve gotten themselves into, usually expressed by the muse or the god positioned slightly off stage. The frailties and passions of mere mortals are highlighted, while the gods, busy spewing their edicts and curses, are fodder for ridicule. Drum roll, please. Et voila! The moral of the story is revealed for all time, sometimes after a vision quest.
The play begins with Zeus explaining the creation of the world – birds, fish, game, paradise – brief pause – and man was born. The choice of Midas as the opening myth, is a good one, since pretty much everyone knows the tale of the greedy king who wished everything he touched turn to gold.
 Chris Kipiniak and Ashleigh Lathrop – Photo credit Teresa Wood Ashleigh Lathrop plays his devoted daughter. The sylphlike Lathrop, all angles one moment all undulating curves as Myrrha in another tale, is captivating. When Midas explains his desire for gold, “It’s all for the family,” he insists, Bacchus sends his emissary in a leopard loincloth, a bottle of wine secured in a paper bag. “What is the secret to eternal life?” Midas inquires. When the drunken Selinus, pointing to his head, replies, “It’s here!” – it’s a no brainer.
But Midas, not one for subtleties, demands his wish be granted and Bacchus complies. In a magnificent scene his daughter, clad in a white lace dress runs through the water to her father, wrapping her legs around his waist. As she becomes the solid gold he wished for, she is bathed in a golden beam of light.
Lighting Designer T. J. Gerckens and Set Designer Daniel Ostling have crucial tasks since there are no set changes and no curtains to draw in this theater-in-the-round, or in this case, rectangular. Along with Sound Designer Andre Pluess, there is a great deal of ambiance and suggestion necessary to support the dialogue and it is exquisitely manifested here.
 Doug Hara in Metamorphoses – Photo by Teresa Wood In another of Zimmerman’s interpretations, Phaeton, son of the Sun God Apollo, floats on a raft in bright yellow swim trunks and wraparound Oakleys – a portrait of the ne’er-do-well scion asking for the keys to dad’s car. To which Apollo responds tongue-in-cheek, “Don’t fly too high!”
In this piece an analyst sits off to the side of the pool and opines, “Myths are the earliest form of science and dreams are private myths.” It is the most revealing moment in the play as to the dramaturg’s motivation and unfortunately we don’t hear it until the ninth story. One wonders if the next line is not autobiographical as the analyst declares, “It is impossible to speak of enigmatic things – both privately and publicly.” Metamorphoses shows that it is possible to speak of enigmatic things when they are brilliantly interpreted and directed by Zimmerman, passionately performed by the entire ensemble, and magnificently staged.
At Arena Stage through March 17th. For tickets and information call 202 488-3300 or visit www.arenastage.org.
Jordan Wright
February 22, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Morgan played by Elliott Bales, Angus by Paul Tamney and Miles by Daniel Westbrook – Photo Credit Michael deBlois Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy, performed by Port City Playhouse is by turns a darkly funny and deeply poignant piece of theater that examines the bonds of friendship and the deeds that define altruism. It’s the summer of 1972 in rural Ontario, Canada when Miles (Daniel G. Westbrook), an aspiring young playwright looking for material for his drama class at a nearby college, arrives at the door of a rundown farmhouse offering to lend a hand in exchange for a glimpse of farm life. What follows is a tightly crafted piece of theater that reveals two men bound together by tragedy and loss, and another whose observations and willingness to listen afford a kind of healing. The powerful tragicomedy is reminiscent of the Rain Man and George and Lennie’s relationship in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
Morgan (Elliott Bales) and Angus (P. Spencer Tamney) were boyhood friends who served together in London during World War II. One night in a bombing raid, Angus was hit by an explosive resulting in his inability to remember anything for more than a short time. “All he knows is right now!” Morgan tells Miles, though Angus’s mathematical calculations are as skillful as a savant. Still Morgan strives to keep day-to-day life unchallenging to avoid provoking Angus’s migraine-inducing memories.
With his notebook at the ready, Miles records the pair’s every word searching for insights along with farming wisdom. Angus is eager to recount what little he remembers of his life before the accident, but Morgan, who discusses the price of eggs with the same intensity as he pulls the wool over Mile’s eyes, tries to keep the dramatist at arm’s length, telling him to rise at three a.m. to rotate the crops from one field to another, “You break it up into pieces no bigger than you,” he teases the visiting rube, while instructing him to pick corn kernels out of cow puddles with a serving fork.
 The Drawer Boy – Angus & Morgan – Photo Credit Michael deBlois It is only when Miles looking for a deeper understanding of their lives begins to extract Angus’s long hidden emotions that the men’s painful story is revealed and the tragedy of their lives unfolds.
Michael Healey’s drama comes out of a true story of a group of actors who in the 1970’s visited the heartland of Canadian farms interviewing farmers and their families and learning their stories. Nearly a quarter of a century later, after meeting with the same people whose stories were used in the project, Healey was inspired to write The Drawer Boy as a tribute. [Reviewer’s note: In the interest of clarification, Angus is the “drawer boy”, a reference to his skill at rendering architectural plans. Though until this fact was revealed in the second act, I had been nervously awaiting a small child to emerge from a drawer.]
Jennifer Lyman directs this unforgettable play produced by Carol Strachan and Alan Wray. It’s the perfect cast and the perfect piece for Port City Playhouse’s continuing season of thought-provoking socially relevant theater.
At The Lab at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. Performances are on the following dates – February 22nd, 23rd, and March 1st, 2nd, 5th, 8th and 9th at 8pm and matinees on March 2nd and 9th at 2pm. For tickets and information visit www.portcityplayhouse.org.
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
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