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Fosse Classic “Chicago” Featured at the National Theatre
National Theatre
Jordan Wright
November 19, 2022
 Jeff Brooks and Company (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) First you see the hands – the famous jazz hands. Fingers spread wide and pivoting quickly from left to right. A moonwalk bit (a famous Fosse move before Michael Jackson came along) and the swaying of the arms behind the back with fingers again weaving and outstretched – another of famed choreographer Bob Fosse’s signature moves. Bodies slither snakelike across the floor long before “The Worm” dance brole out across the country. Gangsters, conmen, vengeful babes, and jailbirds rule the roost in Chicago, the show that debuted on Broadway in 1975 and has toured the world ever since.
Then you hear it. The sounds of the Roaring 20’s. Opening with the number “All That Jazz” and a ton of dancers, the razzamatazz never stops – throughout the murder scenes, the Cook County women’s prison and the passionate love songs. In this latest revival of composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb’s smash hit Logan Floyd plays Velma Kelly with Katie Frieden in the role of her nemesis Roxie Hart, the cheating wife and boyfriend slayer, with Ed Gotthelf in the role of her lover, Fred Casely.
 Katie Frieden (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) The plot isn’t much to write about, suffice it to say it serves as the underpinning for the song and dance. It’s all about the revolutionary Fosse dance routines and the sensual choreography by long legged, hard body dancers in sexy, black leather and lingerie. There’s only one set. It features the 10-piece orchestra on stage and serves as the scene of the prison, later doubling as the courtroom, where Velma Kelly and Roxie play out their rivalry as two vaudevillian murderesses. Their slick-as-a-brick lawyer, the movie star handsome, Billy Flynn (Jeff Brooks) is skilled at flimflamming juries with a sob story geared to spare the chorines the death penalty and grant their freedom.
In this den of gangster iniquity prison Matron “Mama” Morton (Christina Wells) takes care of her girls and her girls take care of her, handing over cash for prison favors. Mama gets a solo with “When You’re Good to Mama” and later in the duet “Class” with Velma.
 Logan Floyd and company (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) Roxie’s cuckolded spouse, Amos Hart (Brian Kalinowski), gives his rendition of the iconic tune “Cellophane Man” about a man so ignored he is transparent to everyone. It’s a classic number.
Aside from the exceptional performances from the hoofers, the singing is weak, the acting weaker and the sound quality is off. The performers have little experience on the legit stage and, I’m sorry to say, it shows in the overall production. Not the quality we’ve come to expect from the National Theatre.
 The Cellblock Tango (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) Original Production Directed and Choreographed by Bob Fosse; Scenic Design by John Lee Beatty; Costume Design by William Ivey Long; Lighting Design by Ken Billington; Music Direction by Cameron Blake Kinnear.
Through November 27th at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information visit www.BroadwayattheNational.com.
Area Stage Presents a Timely and Powerful Drama on Immigration
Sanctuary City
Arena Stage
Jordan Wright
October 29, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Hernán Angulo (B) and María Victoria Martínez (G) (Photo/Margot Schulman) Dreamers. Sounds romantic, doesn’t it? Like two lovers planning a life together, like Chagall’s painting “Lovers and Sunflowers” of a couple embracing and swirling among the flowers beneath a full moon. This is not that. It is something entirely different. Sanctuary City tells a story of anguish, hopes dashed, fear of discovery, futures in jeopardy. It is the real real of illegal immigrants who have been subsisting on the fringes in America – many who have been working, raising children, going to school, paying taxes, buying homes – with hopes on hold buffeted about by the ever-changing political winds.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok knows this world. As a Polish immigrant, she became one of America’s leading drama writers and it’s no surprise that she is more than capable of turning her pen to this controversial issue. Here Majok focusses on two teenaged schoolmates who navigate their way through the intricacies of the American judicial system. Through school and menial jobs, through ever-constant fears of deportation, they try to make a life in America, but it’s a day-by-day struggle. Hopes and dreams are on hold. Incarceration and deportation loom large.
 Kim Fischer (Henry) in the West Coast premiere of Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City B (Hernán Angulo) and G (María Victoria Martínez) have been in the country for 10 years. Everything they know is here, including the stress of discovery and living on expired visas. B finds himself in a dizzying dilemma when his mother returns to Mexico leaving him on his own. At the same time G’s mother finally becomes a naturalized citizen, which gives G American citizenship too.
Told in stop-action snapshots of their friendship we learn the toll it takes on their everyday lives. When G offers B a legal way out through marriage she discovers a part of B that she never knew. Before G goes off to college leaving B to his menial dishwasher job, they rehearse the interminable questions ICE will at a home visit ask to determine if theirs is a real marriage and if they are truly a couple. They know that getting caught in a lie or a false step means a quarter of million dollar fine plus five years in prison if they are caught trying to manipulate the system.
 Hernán Angulo (B) and María Victoria Martínez (G) (Photo/Margot Schulman) Will they go through with it? Will they be believed? Will they succeed in becoming citizens? Green cards, and hopefully permanent citizenship for B, are straws in the wind, but only if they play it right. And can they show their fondness for each other when Henry (Kim Fischer) arrives to throw a wrench in their plans?
This timely drama features the two lead actors from the original cast from the Berkeley Repertory Theatre under the original direction by David Mendizábal. It is set in 2001 through 2006 in Newark, New Jersey and its environs where Majok grew up.
A powerful and important perspective on immigration that everyone should see.
Through November 27th at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information visit www.ArenaStage.org or call the box office at 202 554-9066.
Design for Murder is a Crafty, Clever, Comedic Nailbiter
The Little Theatre of Alexandria
Jordan Wright
October 19, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Erin Gallalee (Martha), James Lorenzin (David), Kathy Ohlhaber (Celia) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) If you’re looking for a whodunit – something crafty, clever and comedic – look no further than Design for Murder. It’s got all the elements necessary to curdle your blood and engage your brain. This nifty mystery has more twists and turns and schools of red herrings than you can count. In fact, no matter who you think is doing the killing, you will undoubtedly be mistaken because it takes until the final scene before all is revealed. It’s a nailbiter on steroids.
Mourning her late husband, is Celia Granger (Kathy Ohlhaber), an elegant châtelaine whose drawing room is center stage for all the chaos. The first to be knocked off is Kathy (Elizabeth Loyal), a flirty maid who is having a fling with David Granger (James Lorenzin), Celia’s son and scion to the family fortune, or what’s left of it. We never meet Eunice, David’s fiancé, a Southern belle with buckets of dough and whom he refuses to marry – much to the dismay of his dear, sweet mother who’s counting on all that cash to bail them out. Louisa Cortlandt (Janice Zucker), Celia’s gal pal and astrology dabbler, has her own kooky opinions which are taken quite seriously because she’s married to a judge which gives the doddering old lady credibility plus favored social standing. Martha Brand (Erin Gallalee), Celia’s sister, mocks the septuagenarian, but all defer to her vaunted status in a town where keeping up appearances is de rigeur.
 Elizabeth Loyal (Kathy) and James Lorenzin (David) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) We are soon introduced to Carlin (Brendan Chaney), the chauffeur and terminal Lothario who pitches woo to every woman in the household including the aged housekeeper, Mrs. Hamilton (Patricia Spencer Smith). Maybe he’s just sharpening his chauvinistic skills for the next maid, Nora Taylor (Pete Leggett), a pretty little waif (too pretty according to Celia) who appeals to the Grangers’ sympathy and begs for the job after it’s vacated by Kathy’s untimely demise. For Chrissake! Who would want to work there? Don’t answer that.
Everyone’s a suspect and motives seem to pop out of the woodwork at the old Hudson Valley estate. Enter Detective Carlin (Brendan Chaney), an ersatz Columbo, replete with trench coat and questions for Celia, a woman he knew and secretly loved when she was a girl. Carlin’s on the case like a bloodhound, but will he get to the bottom of it with this hodgepodge of addled suspects? Wait and see. Though it’s a wonder anything gets sorted in a house where brandy is consumed for every shocking revelation.
 Janice Zucker (Louisa), Pete Leggett (Nora), Erin Gallalee (Martha) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) Director Jessie Roberts has assembled a fine cast who mesh beautifully with one another, leading the ever-heightening suspense to its ultimate denouément. Especially outstanding are Kathy Ohlhaber, Patricia Spencer Smith, Pete Leggett and Brendan Chaney.
Additional cast member, Frank Cooper.
Produced by Carol Strachan with Hilary Adams as Assistant Producer; Fight Choreography by Stefan Sittig; Set Design by Julie Fischer; Lighting Design by Cleo Potter and Jay Stein; Costume Design by Judy Whelihan.
 Kathy Ohlhaber (Celia), Patricia Spencer Smith (Mrs Hamilton) (Photo/Brian Knapp Photography) Through November 5th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For tickets and information visit www.TheLittleTheatre.com or call the box office at 703 683-0496.
Dracula
Synetic Theater
Jordan Wright
October 18, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Pablo Guillen as Dr. Seward, Philip Fletcher as Holmwood, and Renata Loman as Van Helsing, with Rachael Small (floor, center) as Lucy. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) Just in time for us to get our spooky senses aroused for Halloween season, Synetic stages a revival of one of their classics. The opening, wherein Count Dracula vanquishes the Turks to defend his Transylvanian homeland in a sensory-explosive battle, may be one of the company’s most spectacular. Known for their magnificent fight scenes (performers are trained in fight choreography), this one is an explosion of dramatic warfare unleashed from the depths of depravity. Underscored by eerie narration, a terrifying demon spirit and a trio of Dracula’s wives undulating to the strains of Gregorian choirs and electronika, English solicitor, Jonathan Harker travels via coach to the Count’s castle to obtain Dracula’s signature in a land deal. He is led by the Count’s three wives who transmogrify into Harker’s horses spiriting him away to his doom.
 Dan Istrate as Dracula and Jacob Thompson as Jonathan Harker. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) When Harker returns to his lover, Mina, in Edwardian London, we find the female vampires mingling with London society at a grand ball replete with a dance of the coffins and with the prime intention of, oh, well, let’s just say what you were already thinking, biting their necks and turning them into future vampires. In a scene straight from the Theatre of the Absurd, they capture Mina’s friend, the beautiful and feisty Lucy, absconding her body back to the castle and the lustful Count who finds her to his “taste”.
Ghouls and grave hunters pepper the sinister landscape as the blood-thirsty vampires follow their sexual desires in a dizzying whirlwind of fantastic dance and dramatic displays of mortal combat. Lighting too plays a key role. You’ll notice scenes lit as though in an Old Dutch masterpiece with shafts of golden light falling on the victims as though they are bathed in heavenly rapture.
 Dan Istrate as Dracula and Rachael Small as Lucy. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) Who will be Dracula’s next victim and who will be saved from his sanguineous clutches is the burning question for zombie lovers to deduce. Meanwhile, you will most assuredly find a lot to “chew on” in this seductively mordant interpretation of Bram Stoker’s classic tale rendered as erotically salacious as it is bloodthirsty.
Most assuredly NOT for the kiddies, although there is a smattering of oddly out of place tongue-in-cheek humor that tends to disrupt the ghoulish vibe.
 Dan Istrate as Dracula. (Photo/Chris Ferenzi) Directed by Paata Tsikurishvili; Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili; Fight Choreography by Vato Tsikurishvili; Assistant Director and Sound Design by Irakli Kavsadze; Adapted by Nathan Weinberger; Resident Composer Koki Lortkipanidze; Costumes Designed by Kendra Rai; Lighting Design by Ian Claar.
Starring Dan Istrate as Dracula; Jacob Thompson as Jonathan Harker; Renata Loman as Van Helsing; Nutsa Tediashvili as Mina; Rachael Small as Lucy; Philip Fletcher as Holmwood; Irakli Kavsadze as Renfield; Pablo Guillen as Dr. Seward; Justin J. Bell as Quincey; Lev Belolipetski as Captain; Rodin Ruiz as Villager; Maryam Najafzada as Dracula’s Wife; Irene Hamilton as Dracula’s Wife; and Anna Tsikurishvili as Dracula’s Wife.
Through November 6th at Synetic Theater at National Landing, 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA 22202. For tickets and information visit www.Synetictheater.org or call the box office at 703 824-8060.
Flashy And Fabulous Guys and Dolls Blows the Roof Off at The Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Jordan Wright
October 18, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Steven Pasquale and Company (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) A short run of this classic has left town already, but there’s a lingering thrill that can still be felt. The buzz had started as soon as the full cast had been announced – Kevin Chamberlain as Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Jessie Mueller as Miss Adelaide, James Monroe Iglehart as Nathan Detroit, Phillipa Soo as Sarah Brown, Steven Pasquale as Sky Masterson, Allison Blackwell as Agatha, and Rachel Dratch of SNL fame as Big Jule. Broadway royalty such as we rarely see in a traveling production would be starring and the tickets were as scarce as hen’s teeth. From the get-go, major out-of-town papers were clamoring for seats and the thought that this would be the caliber of shows presented by Kennedy Center’s “Broadway Center Stage” series sent theatregoers into overdrive.
From racetrack handicappers in zoot suits to gangstas in loud plaids, pinstripes and spats, the colorful characters of Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows 1950 musical Guys and Dolls invite us into the underworld of horse racing, hoochie-coochie joints and floating crap games. And the funny thing is, we want in. Why? Because their bigger-than-life caricatures and pratfall personalities are hilarious. Hanging out with these street corner gamblers and their flashy dolls is flat-out fun.
 Jessie Mueller and Phillipa Soo (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) Back in the day the Salvation Army and its memorable band would march along Times Square seeking converts to attend their religious meetings. The Save-a-Soul Mission, led by the beautiful Sarah Brown and her avuncular grandfather form the spiritual grounding and counterpoint to the fast life of the lowlifes while the romance between Sky and Sarah provides the counterbalance to Adelaide’s show-stopping performances at the racy Hot Box cabaret.
On a stage set backdropped by rotating scenes of a neon-lit Broadway with tracer lights ablaze on both sides of the stage and two large onstage “dice” showcasing the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra on the big stage, this marvelous show captures New York’s underworld in exhilarating style. The Kennedy Center even managed to obtain and use the 1992 orchestrations from the show’s Broadway revival – an extraordinary coup and no mean feat.
 Matthew Saldivar, Kevin Chamberlin, and Akron Watson (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) Loesser wrote lyrics as catchy as “the sheep’s eye and licorice tooth” to paint a vivid picture of gritty writer Damon Runyon’s reflections on the 1950’s. Punctuating the show’s colorful characters are a bevy of male and female dancers who elicited gasps and spontaneous applause from the audience while performing flawless leaps and flips as though attached by wires. They weren’t.
Lady Luck showed up in the Eisenhower Theater that night and we witnessed Washington theatre history.
 Jessie Mueller and the Hot Box Girls (Photo/Jeremy Daniel) With Jacqueline Antaramian as General Cartwright, Fred Applegate as Arvide Abernathy, Eden Marryshow as Lt. Brannigan, Matthew Saldivar as Benny Southstreet, Jimmy Smagula as Harry the Horse, and Akron Watson as Rusty Charlie/Hot Box MC.
Directed by the great Marc Bruni; choreographed spectacularly by Denis Jones; Scenic and Projection Design by Paul Tate Depoo III; Music Director Kevin Stites; Book by Jo Swerling; Costume Design by Mara Blumenfeld; Lighting Design by Cory Pattak; Sound Design by Kai Harad.
Next up on Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage will be Wicked opening December 8th and going through January 22, 2023. I wouldn’t miss it if I were you. For tickets and information visit www.Kennedy-Center.org or call the box office at 202 416-8000.
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical is An All-Out Rock Concert of Electrifying Proportion
Broadway at The National
National Theatre
Jordan Wright
October 9, 2022
Special to The Zebra
 Naomi Rodgers as ‘Tina Turner’ (Photo/Matthew Murphy) Anyone who has followed the struggles of Tina Turner’s young career launched by, and with, her abusive husband Ike Turner with The Ike and Tina Turner Revue to the moment she rejects his domination to forge her own path to stardom knows this story. Coming off its successful Broadway run, is the show that brings the story and the music to the stage – live and in vivid color.
Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Tina – The Tina Turner Musical follows little Anna Mae Bullock’s early life growing up poor in 1950’s Tennessee to her marriage to Ike Turner to the heights of her stratospheric solo career. The musical follows that tragic arc from the choir-singing daughter of a pastor to her early discovery of Buddhism and longing for recognition. The plot echoes her autobiography, “I, Tina: My Life Story” in that it catalogues the racism and marital strife she suffered before finding true love and becoming the 12-time Grammy Award winner and her comeback title as the “Queen of Rock n’ Roll”.
By the time Tina signs with Phil Spector and is backed by his famed Motown “Wall of Sound”, she is well on her way to leaving Ike after two kids and a 16-year abusive marriage to record the songs that would cement her career with “Proud Mary” and “I Don’t Want to Fight No More”. Twenty-four phenomenal numbers, a fourteen-piece rock band, four Ikettes and I couldn’t count how many dancers turn this rock musical into an all-out rock concert of electrifying proportion. Audience members were literally jumping out of their seats from the energy and power pouring off the stage. If you’ve ever seen Tina perform either in film or live, this is what it feels like – nothing short of a live concert featuring the greatest hits of her career.
 Naomi Rodgers performing ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It as ‘Tina Turner’ (Photo/Matthew Murphy) Songs like “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, “Private Dancer”, “River Deep – Mountain High”, “Disco Inferno”, “I Want to Take You Higher” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero” showcase the talents of the two leads that play Tina – Naomi Rodgers (who played Tina on press night) and Zurin Villanueva. When you see the musical, you will understand why there are two leads. No one actress could fulfill this role night after night. I couldn’t help wondering if the dramatic scenes, the intense vocals and the hard-driving, sweat-inducing dance numbers would last until the finale.
Set and Costume Designer Mark Thompson accurately channels each decade from the 1950’s backup singers’ demure dresses to 60’s sequined bell-bottoms and puffy sleeves, to gold lame and the flash of Tina’s well-known crystal-laden, fringed mini dresses. His sets are an eye-popping extravaganza of mood and moment alongside the rock concert vibe and laser lighting designed by Bruno Poet with noted Choreographer Anthony Van Laast nailing the popular dances of each era.
Standouts are six-time solo Grammy nominee Ann Nesby – as Gran Georgeanna; Ayvah Johnson – a tiny thing with a huge voice who plays Tina as a child; Roz White – well-known local actor as Tina’s mother Zelma Bullock; and Garrett Turner as the brutish, drug-addled Ike Turner.
Original Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Additional Music by Nicholas Skilbeck; Sound Design by Nevin Steinberg; Hair, Wigs & Makeup by Campbell Young Associates.
Highly recommended!
Through October 23rd at The National Theatre 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 628-6161 or visit www.TheNationalDC.com
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