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March 3, 2012
Jordan Wright, Publisher of Whisk and Quill
Very Cherry Celebrations
 National Mall Cherry Blossoms Ahh the cherry…luscious fruit and symbol of spring in our Nation’s Capitol. But why? The cherry trees whose airy pink blossoms grace the Tidal Basin at this time of year will never bear cherries – but no matter – local chefs and mixologists have been falling all over each other to create cherry-inspired concoctions to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Here are some enticing examples of what you can expect around town during the five-week festival. I’ll be posting more in the upcoming weeks.
At Station 4 they’ve added a fixed price cherry-laden three-course meal. Chef Orlando Amaro proffers a seared foie gras with Marcona almond powder, dried cherry jelly and rosemary crusted lamb loin and sous vide cherries, finishing the dinner with cherry essence chocolate lava cake with cherry cabernet sorbet. www.station4dc.com
Hank’s Oyster Bar has a cherry salad is made with bibb lettuce, Gorgonzola cheese, cherries and cherry vinegar. Beverage Director Dana Mosbarger’s dazzles with her festival concoction called Cherry Stone Blossom made with a combination of vodka, sake, lemon juice and a splash of tart cherry juice. www.hanksrestaurants.com.
Top Chef Spike Mendelsohn’s Good Stuff Eatery in Crystal City, Georgetown and Capitol Hill is where the Obamas drop in for burgers and shakes and you should too. During the festival they’ll feature a cherry blossom shake made with the restaurant’s homemade custard and fresh cherry puree topped with a bing cherry. www.goodstuffeatery.com
In Dupont Circle, Agora, the Mediterranean-centric eatery, is pouring a special cocktail, the Kiraz Cicegi, which translates to cherry blossom in Turkish. This delicious elixir is made from a combination of Southern Comfort, Yeni Raki, cherry juice, fresh mint and agave nectar. www.agoradc.net.
Poste Moderne Brasserie takes a more Asian approach with a sake-based cocktail called For Heaven’s Sake made with house-made pomegranate soda, Tozai sake, vodka, Maraschino liqueur and fresh lemon juice. www.postebrasserie.com
 Torsade cerises, twisted artisan Bread studded with cherries - Photo credit Paul Bakery in Penn Quarter Stop by Paul Bakery in the Penn Quarter or the newly opened Georgetown location where they’ll start baking up cherry treats from March 20th – April 29th.
Any of these should satisfy. Torsade cerises, twisted artisan Bread studded with cherries, Croissant aux cerises, a crusty and buttery croissant filled with hand-made pastry cream and cherries; Cramique aux cerises a mouthwatering brioche with sweet pearls of sugar and sour cherries; Flan aux cerises, flan in a sugary shell filled with handmade pastry cream and cherries; Millefeuille aux cerises, a Napoleon of crispy puff pastry encasing a delicious mix of cherries and fresh pastry cream; or the Éclair aux cerises, a crispy choux pastry éclair filled with a delicate balance of cherries and pastry cream.
In Alexandria The Grille at Morrison House look for both sour and smoky cherry cocktails to celebrate the season. The Sour Cherry Fizz is made with sour cherry juice, Tanqueray gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, egg white and a splash of club soda. But try a Smoked Cherry Old Fashioned made with Maker’s Mark, bitters, house-smoked cherry syrup and garnished with a smoked cherry and a slice of orange for a new twist on an old classic. www.thegrillealexandria.com
Also in Alexandria Jackson 20 celebrates with the Cherry Picnic made with ginger liqueur, spiced rum, fresh sour mix and Campari wash. www.jackson20.com
Firefly’s Sakura Sling is cherry and vanilla bean infused Ketel One with Leopold Brothers Michigan tart cherry liqueur, simple syrup and a splash of soda. www.firefly-dc.com or www.facebook.com/FireflyDC
These concoctions should keep you in the pink!
Deals and Steals
Station 4 has a cool option for theatregoers. You gotta love this one with valet parking for $10 per car and only steps from Arena Theater. Enjoy a three-course menu for only $29 per person (excluding tax and gratuity) and walk to the performance leaving your car in the care of the restaurant’s valet. You could also opt for the first two courses of the pre-theatre dinner then return for dessert after the show.
From March 8th – March 25th Synetic Theater is offering the Light in the Darkness Dinner Package that includes tickets to the show and the New Movements-inspired pre-theatre menu at Jaleo in Crystal City. Patrons can save $10 total if they purchase the Dinner and Theater Packages online at synetictheater.org. Visit this website for a deal off the restaurant’s prix fixe menu. www.jaleo.com
A Washington institution 701 Restaurant offers Modern American cuisine by Executive Chef Ed Witt. Enjoy a three-course pre-theatre menu for $30 per person from 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. Monday – Saturday and 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. Valet parking Monday – Saturday for $8. ww.701restaurant.com
The award-winning Rasika restaurant offers Chef Vikram Sunderman’s pre-theatre menu for $35 per person (excluding tax and gratuity). The menu is available Monday – Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Validated valet parking for $8. www.rasikarestaurant.com
Happenings
If you miss this one, you’d better hop a plane to Mexico, because you won’t find this anywhere else! Oyamel Cocina Mexicana hosts their Fifth Annual Tequila & Mezcal Festival from March 5 – 18 the two-week festival will have informational cocktail sessions, open to the public, and intimate dinners complete with tequila and mezcal tastings.
In honor of the festival, Oyamel will offer special bar antojitos. These small plates are served only at the bar and include garbanzos fritos – crispy roasted spiced garbanzo beans and alas de pollo con salsa naranja – chicken wings in a sauce of orange, spices and chile pequin.
Chef Omar Rodriguez is also crafting a special menu highlighting the flavors of Oaxaca and Jalisco in Mexico. Dishes from the Jalisco region include Sopes de ostiones, traditional corn flour cake topped with an oyster, tomato salsa, lettuce and queso fresco; Pozole de camarón, shrimp and hominy soup with Hawaiian blue prawns, guajillo and ancho chilies, served with garnishes of onion cabbage and slice radishes, and Lomo de cerdo relleno con chorizo en mole manchamanteles, chorizo stuffed pork loin with a mole of almonds, chilies, tomatoes, plantains and pineapple. Authentic Oaxaca flavors can be found in Tortitas de patas de puerco, crispy pork trotters served with a salsa of tomatillos, avocado, Serrano peppers, and cilantro, and Chuletas de cordero en chileajo con frijoles borachos, grilled lamb T-bones marinated in Guajillo chiles and garlic with drunken navy beans with pork belly and Negra Modelo.
Drinks are the highlight of every Tequila & Mezcal Festival at Oyamel and the beverage team at Oyamel has created unique cocktails just for the occasion. Libations featuring mescal include the Oaxacan Swizzle, Del Maguey Mezcal “Vida”, ruby port, fresh pressed apples, lime, ginger and house-made orange bitters; El Bahio, Sombra mezcal, roasted pineapple juice, lemon and cardamom; Joven avocado, avocado-infused mezcal, Cocchi Americano, grapefruit syrup, grapefruit juice, Hellfire bitters, and avocado leaf; and the High Tea, Los Nahuales Reposado Mezcal, chamomile tea, honey, and house-made tobacco bitters. Drinks featuring tequila are the Mexican Tailor, house-infused “Gin-quila” fresh pressed apples, lemon and basil; El Pescador, Herradura Tequila three ways, grapefruit juice, Curacao, maraschino liqueur, Honey and Velvet Falernum, and the Champs–Elysees; Don Julio 70th Anniversary Añejo, Remy VSOP, Green Chartreuse, Lemon, and Peychaud’s bitters. A complete calendar is online at www.oyamel.com/index.php/about/press_and_calendar
New and Notable
Cahal Armstrong’s latest Alexandria food adventure, Society Fair, has just opened on Washington Street a few blocks from The Little Theatre of Alexandria. The pretty gourmet shop featuring fresh baked breads, a butchery, upscale food market and wine bar has some smallish eat-in tables for enjoying delicious sandwiches and cheeses with a wide range of wines by the glass offered on tap. As the weather complies there’s an outdoor patio. www.societyfair.net
In Columbia Heights the hot buzz is all about Mintwood Place where Executive Chef Cedric Maupillier, formerly of Puro Café in Georgetown, has at last found his niche serving French food with an American twist. Nibble on escargot hush puppies or maple pork cracklin’ to start. Spring has arrived with the shad. Try the delicate fish served with it’s own roe accompanied by black trumpet mushrooms and lardo. You get the idea. www.mintwoodplace.com
Stay tuned for lots more news and updates from Nibbles And Sips Around Town. To read more go to www.WhiskandQuill.com
Special to Indian Country Today Magazine
Jordan Wright
March 2012
 Mastodon skeleton at the Museum of the Middle Appalachians - photo by Jordan Wright “Saltville can probably claim to be the most fascinating two square miles in Virginia, or possibly the eastern United States, owing to its geology, paleontology, history and past industrial production.” Charles Bartlett, American geologist.
Around Halloween last year when the 2,077 residents of Saltville, VA heard the producers of Animal Planet’s“Finding Bigfoot” were coming to investigate a sasquatch in their midst, phones rang off the hook. The program’s host Matt Moneymaker called for a town hall meeting at the Palmer Grist Mill and anyone who had seen Bigfoot up in the Southern Highlands was asked to bear witness. Moneymaker couldn’t attend in person. He was already up near Gum Hill that night with his infrared cameras in search of the “beast”.
 MOMA - Olin Salt Factory But the small town in a quiet valley has known a great deal more excitement than the random sighting of a mythical creature. In a place where the bizarre presence of mallards and Canada geese paddling lazily in salt ponds in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains is commonplace, the unexpected is, well,ordinary.
Saltville’s inhabitants have always lived at the crossroads of history because of salt. The quest for the coveted mineral lured prehistoric animals and hunters. Tribes from the region used it for trade and later industrialists made fortunes selling it to the nation. Salt’s powerful influence held sway during the Civil War when Union forces fought a 36-hour battle to capture Saltville and destroy its crucial saltworks. It is not a simple story to tell. It’s a story of war and survival, but also of power and prosperity.
 MOMA Indian Artifacts Despite what is found in most American schoolbooks, our early history did not begin with the emergence of the dinosaur and miraculously pop back up with the British landing at Plymouth Rock. Aboriginal people migrated down the continent from Alaska and up from Florida, the Caribbean and Mexico to arrive in this wilderness. In the area of Saltville Paleo-Indians dwelt along the Clinch and Holston rivers in Southwestern Virginia and on across the mountains and valleys into the adjoining territories of what is now known as North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.
In the Pleistocene Age Saltville was a convergent point for prehistoric creatures like the great woolly mammoth, elephant-size ground sloths and hulking mastodons, who came in search of water and salt deposits for their survival. Over millennia these migrating herds carved permanent trails in the earth. Of six major Indian trails in Virginia three are found leading to Saltville, tracing the well-established paths of the animals that came before them.
 MOMA Exhibit Indigenous Indian Author, archaeologist and professor emeritus at UCal Santa Barbara, Brian Fagan, lists the Saltville area as one of the six worldwide sites of earliest human activity and a known concentration of pre-Clovis spear points made by Ice Age hunters. The discovery of a tool-like bone fragment in the area, made by humans and found beside a mastodon, is evidence of its slaughter by prehistoric man.
For today’s visitor to Saltville, eight miles off I-81 in Smyth County Virginia, a compelling resource helps connect the dots. Chronicling the area’s complex history in a comprehensive timeline, The Museum of the Middle Appalachians is a mecca for archaeologists, paleontologists, historians and the curious.
 Paint Lick Mountain pictograph taken in nearby Tazewell County - Photo reproduction by John C. Fisher (Museum of the Middle Appalachians) The museum houses thousands of artifacts and archival photographs from the area dating from 14,500 years ago to the present and visitors are greeted with a breathtaking full-size replica of a mastodon skeleton and the jaw of a woolly mammoth. Mineral displays from geologic formations of the Late Ice Age show the earliest evidence of human activity in Eastern America.
The museum begins its American Indian displays in the Late Woodland Period (900 – 1600 BC) when the Chisca, also known as Yuchi, lived beside the nearby Holston River, which they called ‘Hogoheegee’ and their village ‘Maniatique’ where they established salt-powered chiefdoms and traded the precious commodity with tribes along the eastern US. Museum manager, Harry Haynes, says, “There have been more than 20 native village sites found along the Clinch and Holton Rivers within 20 miles of Saltville.”
 Mask gorget in the Weeping Eye style from the Museum of the Middle Appalachians- photo by Jordan Wright Clay pots, celts, copper and shell beads, including an astonishing 164-inch necklace of marginella beads make up a small part of the extensive Patricia Bass Collection. Mastodon bones, a beautiful quartz crystal grooved axe, and javelin points are other intriguing objects that have been unearthed in the area. Here a giant slothfootprint shares space with rare engraved gorgets, a type of medallion or mask with rattlesnake or turkey designs that were carved from marine shells.
Photographs of cliff walls at nearby Paint Lick Mountain show early pictographs of bird, man and snail. Further testament to Native American skill and craftsmanship, are drawers filled with axes, celtsand arrowheads and a rare platform pipe of steatite, highly characteristic of the region.
 MOMA - Indigenous Indian Bead Craft Since 1782 when Arthur Campbell sent a letter to Thomas Jefferson and enclosed a jaw tooth from a mastodon, referring to “bones of an uncommon size”, researchers have been attracted to the region. In 1917 the Carnegie Institute conducted the first official excavations at Saltville, followed by the Smithsonian Institute whose findings beginning in the 1970’s led to the discovery of well-preserved mastodon skeletons and wooly mammothremains in 2007.
Exhibits reflect its later development as a “company town” under the aegis of the Olin Corporation who purchased the Mathieson Alkali Works that had extracted salt there since 1895.
 MOMA - Civil War Solders Olin, who continued to harvest salt in the well fields later branched out into chemical production and developed the rocket fuel that took man to the moon. Even today over 23 tons of salt per hour is still produced here and former salt caverns serve as one of the nation’s largest storage facilities for natural gas. The town’s slogan “Preserving history for over 30,000 years from the Ice Age to the Space Age” neatly sums up its dramatic history.
In the 16th century Spanish conquistadors came searching for a mythical chimera other than the ‘sasquatch’. Archives reveal that in 1541 two outriders first set foot in Saltville in search of precious metals and a legendary kingdom of great wealth called ‘Chicora’. Diaries detail encounters with friendly Indians, but reports state that no gold or silver was found. This well documented meeting with the Chiscas was long before Captain John Smith set foot in Jamestown in 1607, and decades before Pocahontas was born.
 MOMA - Paleo Casting Chemist and professor emeritus from Virginia Tech, Jim Glanville, explains, “The presence of Native Americans in Saltville is the earliest recorded in Virginia’s history. It is well chronicled in Spain’s archives through letters, testimony and diaries. A 1584 petition to King Carlos V of Spain by a Spanish soldier named Domingo De Leon tells of the bloody incursion and destruction of the village of Maniatique by a Spanish sergeant named Hernando Moyano in April of 1567 under orders from the explorer Juan Pardo and,” he emphasizes, cheerfully upsetting colonial historians’ apple cart, “that was forty years before the British landed at Jamestown.” By the time English-speaking settlers reached Saltville 175 years later all the local tribes were gone.
Glanville’s research, prompted by a Google search, pieces together evidence that, “the first Native American woman to be named in Virginia was not Pocahontas [as is commonly accepted] but Luisa Menendez, a resident of Saltville, who as a teenager married a Spaniard and later testified to the Spanish governor in St. Augustine, Florida her knowledge of the destruction of Maniatique.”
Saltville has many remarkable stories to tell along with mysteries and ancient artifacts yet to be revealed. During my stay I stopped along the town’s salt ponds to get directions from a boy and his friend out for a leisurely day of fishing. We spoke for a while of the many artifacts housed in the museum. He assured me that many more are still found close to town. He knew for a fact, he said, because whenever he needs pocket change he goes out and digs them up. Just remember if you decide to go fossil hunting on Gum Hill, keep your eyes wide open. You may catch a glimpse of the elusive bigfoot staking his claim as Saltville’s next chapter in history.
Where to stay
The historic General Francis Marion Hotel is a beautifully restored 80-year old grand hotel in nearby Marion. Complimentary continental breakfast. Lunch and dinner served in the hotel’s Black Rooster restaurant. www.gfm.com
Where to Eat
The Town House in Chilhowie serves upscale, locally sourced American Modern cuisine just off I-81 on the way to Saltville. Open for dinner only. Reservations highly recommended. www.townhouseva.com
In Marion the charming Handsome Molly’s Bistro and Small Wine Shop across from the hotel serves soups, salads, paninis and pizza.
In the area
The Museum of the Middle Appalachians, Saltville. Noted paleontologist Dr. Blaine Schubert of Eastern Tennessee State University conducts archaeological digs open to the public in summer. Visit www.museum-mid-app.org for dig opportunities and museum hours.
Saltville is on Virginia’s Crooked Road music trail and Friday nights are for old time bluegrass and gospel music. From 7 – 10 pm at the Allison Gap Ruritan & Community Center.
The Lincoln Theatre in Marion is one of only three Art Deco Mayan Revival theatres in the country. The $1.8 million dollar renovation has placed it on The National Register of Historic Places. For a schedule of events visit www.thelincoln.org
ICTMN magazine article – Click Here http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/12/the-most-fascinating-two-square-miles-in-the-eastern-united-states-95733
Jordan Wright
February 25, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Tina Anderson, Kacie Greenwood and Gayle Grimes - photo credit Eddie Page For whatever reason the thought of attending a class reunion can turn even the most sensible woman into a bundle of nerves. Will an old flame turn up? Can I lose 10 pounds in two weeks? What will I wear? And should I book a hair and Botox appointment on the same day? Mercifully none of these options are considered by The Dixie Swim Club, whose reunion is an all-girl affair in this rollicking bit of sitcom froth from Port City Playhouse. Faithfully returning to a modest cottage on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, five former swim team members make an annual pilgrimage to recapture their glory days. And though one of the ladies prefers to vamp for the men at the fruit stand, swapping tattoo views for blueberries, the women are mostly there to rekindle their friendships.
 Anderson, Hayes. Grimes, Mitchell & Greenwood - photo credit Eddie Page Sheree Hollinger (Tina Anderson) is the group’s ex officio life coach, a no-nonsense drill sergeant cum cheerleader with a knack for organizing and a penchant for bizarre health food munchies, much to the horror of Lexie Richards (Barbara Hayes), an endearing mantrap dripping with Southern charm and sass who calls Sheree’s seaweed canapés of mung bean paste, goji berries and heron oil, “regurgitated ferret food.” A self-acknowledged proponent of three-year marriages and facelifts, she cycles through spouses like a washing machine. “The trouble with husbands,” she admonishes, “is they always say they’ll die for you…but they never do!” Her counterpoint, Dinah Grayson (Kacie Greenwood), a spine-straight Atlanta corporate lawyer, prefers the boardroom to the bedroom and martinis to men.
Jeri Neal McFeeley (Laura Champe Mitchell), who “genuflects at the sight of Miracle Whip”, is a nun reaching out for a second chance at life outside the convent. Her polar opposite is the wisecracking Vernadette Simms (Gayle Nichols-Grimes), an accident-prone perpetually unemployed housewife. “Vern” reports on her children’s regular incarcerations and sermonizes on the joys of biscuit baking.
 Greenwood and Hayes - photo credit Eddie Page The humorous yet sweetly sentimental play, by the veteran comedy writing team of Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten (you’ll love the comic slugfest if you’re a fan of Wooten’s long-running series, The Golden Girls), covers three decades of the women’s personal triumphs and failures marking time with cocktail-fueled weekends of swill-and-tell.
The entire cast is up for the snappy repartee with Nichols-Grimes stealing the show with her deadpan delivery . Director Eddie Page, a self-confessed veteran of “guys” weekends at Nags Head, handily taps into the zeitgeist to achieve an evening that goes down like a well chilled martini served straight up.
 Anderson, Grimes, Greenwood and Hayes - photo credit Eddie Page Port City Playhouse through March 10th at The Lab Studio Theatre at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. For tickets and information visit www.portcityplayhouse.com
Jordan Wright
February 28, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 John Shackelford (Max Levene), Brandon DeGroat (Joe Pendleton) and Cal Whitehurst (Mr. Jordan) - photo credit Doug Olmsted The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of Harry Segall’s stageplay, Heaven Can Wait, got off to a rocky start last night when the play’s Co-Producer and Assistant Director, Mary Ayala-Bush, had to jump into the part of Messenger 7013. Unfortunately she had gotten the part at 2 PM that same afternoon and, truth be told, she was reading lines off a clipboard and adlibbing the rest. No matter, she’s a pro, and by the time you read this she’ll have it down pat, but it was touch and go on opening night.
But even a cast glitch could not have gotten in the way of this lively production, enhanced mightily by the superb portrayal of boxer Joe Pendleton, by Brandon DeGroat, who in real life is a pro wrestler, movie actor and professional stuntman. DeGroat proves that he can handle the topsy-turvy role with more than just swarthy matinee idol looks. Throughout his performance he wows the audience with his talent for boxing feints, jumping rope double time, sofa vaults and stage-shaking pratfalls.
Historically the play found film incarnation with Here Comes Mr. Jordan starring Robert Montgomery and Claude Rains. Later it emerged as Oscar-winning film, Heaven Can Wait, starring Warren Beatty as football hero, and more recently as Down to Earth with Chris Rock as a comedian. No stretch there.
 Colin Davies (Doctor), Brandon DeGroat (Joe Pendleton), Geoffrey Baskir (Passenger), Michael Gerwin (Williams), Geoffrey Brand (Lefty), and John Shackelford (Max Levene) - photo credit Doug Olmsted In this version Joe is a boxer and erstwhile fighter pilot taken for dead by an over-zealous angel. When the mix up is discovered at the Pearly Gates, the celestial doorman Mr. Jordan, elegantly played by Cal Whitehurst, promises Joe he has another 60 years to go before his number is up. “I could put you in the body of a gnat”, Jordan asserts, and the two go off in search of an appropriately athletic body for Joe to continue his blossoming career. But before he can locate the perfect athletic specimen Joe must first assume the body of murdered millionaire investor, Leo Farnsworth, and it is as Farnsworth that Joe meets the love of his life, Bette Logan (Melissa Berkowitz).
The play begins to breath fire when Joe, as Farnsworth, reunites with agent Max Levene (John Shackelford) to reschedule the pivotal fight that will place him in the pantheon of the world’s greatest boxers. But first he has to convince Max that he is indeed the same Joe…albeit in a millionaire’s body.
 John Shackelford (Max Levene), Brandon DeGroat (Joe Pendleton) - photo credit Doug Olmsted Shackelford and DeGroat are electrifying when they share the stage – which thankfully is the heart and soul of this production. I can’t say enough about Shackelford’s beguiling brilliance in the role of Max, the agent who has one eye fixed firmly on his client’s newly acquired wealth and the other on his old buddy’s success. He’s got a keen sense of timing coupled with a canny ability to seamlessly morph his character from naive to crafty. His performance is nothing less than riveting.
If you’re up for a comedy rolled into a drama and wrapped in a love story, catch this one soon.
Through March 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
February 14, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
Playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo wants his audiences to know that his play was inspired by three seminal moments in his young life. The first was seeing Doubt, a play by John Patrick Shanley that filled him with both excitement and dread. Excitement that “Theatre could be amazing,” and dread that it, “operates on very few rules and offers no guarantees.”
His second aha moment was, “…the unfolding of an investigation concerning several college students’ involvement in a brutal crime in the months before my graduation from NYU.” – an event that challenged the senior to rethink his own relationships and the questionable character of his peers.
The book by Jean Twenge, Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – And More Miserable Than Ever Before was another influence. “I thought of myself as an obvious exception, when in reality, that mentality alone made me the prototype,” he reveals with a refreshing honesty.
It’s difficult to be patient with the Generation Me college students in Really Really because they are depicted as crass, self-indulgent wannabes, utterly lacking in personal responsibility, while living in a bubble of entitlement and lax morals. Sound familiar? But Colaizzio wants us to take them as they are, “members of what the older generation have created,” as he describes it. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but fodder for reflection.
The world premiere play, an X-rated production oddly reminiscent of the long-running sitcom, Friends, shows Colaizzo’s formidable talent as a comedy writer. Yet aside from the clever comic relief, we are still faced with the dilemma of caring about a self-serving, scurrilous, homophobic, sexist and conniving group of students with paper-thin allegiances – quite a poisonous brew that’s compounded by binge drinking and interminable attempts to hook up and share the deets.
 (from left to right) Danny Gavigan (as Jimmy), Paul James (as Johnson) and Evan Casey (as Cooper) talking about last night’s big party in "Really Really". Photo: Scott Suchman. Grace (Lauren Culpepper) and Leigh (Bethany Anne Lind) are roomies. Their male counterparts Johnson (Paul James), Davis (Jake Odmark), and Cooper (Evan Casey) are on the rugby teammates sharing a frat house-style apartment replete with the requisite beer refrigerator and video games. Jimmy (Danny Gavigan), Leigh’s conflicted boyfriend and son of the college’s dean, comes by regularly for booty calls, much to Grace’s dismay. Smooth scene transitions are accomplished by Misha Kachman’s set design, which places their two apartments side-by-side on the Ark’s long yet narrow stage.
The play opens as Grace and Leigh stagger home laughing hysterically after attending the boys’ annual blowout kegger. The following morning Grace leaves town to deliver a speech to the Future Leaders of America and we begin to sense the morality theme of the play. Hoping to inspire her young attendees to take personal responsibility for their actions, she prophetically warns, “A great part of the formula for success is the ability to say ‘no’,” and notes ironically that all the personal communications devices used by the Me Generation start with the letter “I”.
After an accusation and follow-up investigation of the party’s activities, the friends are forced to face the consequences of their reckless lifestyle and betrayals rise to surface like fresh beer suds, as battle lines are drawn between the sexes and lies of convenience are held out as barter. But memories of the fateful night are clouded. Was there a date rape? Or was it a fantasy? Everyone’s too drunk to remember, or are they?
 Bethany Anne Lind (as Leigh) returning home from an on-campus party in "Really Really". Photo: Scott Suchman. Really Really is a cautionary tale with a familiar ring – that of the headline-grabbing Virginia trial of privileged college scion George Huguely V in the ongoing Yardley Love case, where similar patterns of alcohol, parties, hook ups and violence are a familiar campus way of life.
Fine performances from the ensemble cast, with Lind in the lead crafting a nuanced portrait of the sociopathic coed, Leigh. Wait for the entrance in the second act by Kim Rosen, as Leigh’s feisty sister Haley, who is memorable as the prep outsider conjuring up Snooki from MTV’s Jersey Shore.
Through March 25th at Signature Theatre (at 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 7, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 James Alexander, James T. Lane, Zurin Villanueva, Aisha de Haas, Debra Walton Photo credit: C. Stanley Photography Josephine Tonight hurtles the down the track at lightning speed with a fast-paced, musical bonanza about the legendary Josephine Baker’s early life and meteoric show biz career, beginning with her days as a street performer and on to Harlem’s Cotton Club and the Folies Bergere. Broadway veterans Sherman Yellen, who wrote the book and lyrics; the late Wally Harper, who composed the show; and the megawatt choreographer, Maurice Hines, who took on the additional role of director in this world premiere production. Working with a cast of five seasoned actors, whose bios read like a New York playbill and who play over a dozen roles between them, Hines and co-director Mel Johnson, Jr. bring this dazzling show to Alexandria’s MetroStage.
DC area theatre buffs will remember Hines won a Helen Hayes award in 2009 for his choreography of Cool Papa’s Party at MetroStage and the following year starred in the blockbuster Sophisticated Ladies at the Lincoln Theatre.
 Aisha de Haas as Big Bertha Smith - Photo credit: C. Stanley Photography The story of Josephine Baker’s life is complex and riveting. A bleak childhood on the mean streets of East St. Louis at the turn of the 20th century didn’t provide many avenues to success for a lanky black girl whose mother was a laundress and whose grandmother a slave in South Carolina.
When we meet Josie, “my little blackbird” as her mama calls her, the tough and willful teenager is dancing the chicken strut in front of the local Piggly Wiggly, busking for nickels and dimes and, “Shakin’ her bottom and tossin’ her top,” as the scandalized Reverend Loomis tells Josephine’s mother. Enter The Jolly Jones Family, a minstrel troupe who teach her the ropes and whisk her off with her mama’s approval to play black vaudeville houses on ‘The Sharecropper’s Circuit’.
As Josephine Baker, Zurin Villanueva (who last tread the local boards in Crowns at Arena Stage) has all the right sass as she taps, struts and slinks into your heart with the ferocity of a lioness, capturing Baker’s persona from gangly teen to the toast of Paris. Her sinuous interpretation of Baker’s notorious banana dance in a skirt of the waxy fruit and a top of marshmallow-sized coconuts, is mesmerizing.
Aisha De Haas, another veteran of Ain’t Misbehavin’, (are you feelin’ the Fats Waller vibe yet?) plays two characters that are polar opposites, Baker’s mother, Carrie, and Big Bertha Smith, her confidante and mentor, yet she segues seamlessly between them. Her voice is a rich blend of powerhouse gospel, blues and red-hot sizzle, and when she delivers the number “Pretty Is” in the second act, it’s guaranteed she’ll rip your heart out.
With smooth Astaire-like steps, precise and lightening quick, and a tender soulful voice in his rendering of the song “Never Thought I’d Find You Tonight”, James T. Lane displays elegant restraint playing both Eddie, Baker’s first love, and Paul, her Parisian Pygmalion, who introduces Josephine to a life of luxury and sophistication.
 Zurin Villanueva and James T. Lane as Josephine Baker and husband Eddie Baker - Photo credit: C. Stanley Photography The small adaptive cast is rounded out by the high-energy super-adorable Debra Walton (Broadway veteran of Ain’t Misbehavin’) and the old-school cool James Alexander.
Settle in for more than two dozen terrific toe-tapping numbers backed by arranger, conductor and pianist David Alan Bunn and a five-piece band whose members have played for the greatest names in the music business from Aretha Franklin and Jennifer Holiday to Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie.
Josephine Tonight is sheer entertainment from start to finish with all the delicious ingredients to fast track it to Broadway – joke-cracking, high-stepping, hard times and love songs featuring a strong cast that delivers its emotional heat with heart and soul.
Through March 18th at MetroStage 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, 22314. For tickets and information visit www.metrostage.org.
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