It’s a treat to have Bethesda-based Round House Theater present in DC’s Lansburgh Theatre. Ongoing renovations of Round House are scheduled to be completed in mid-September in time to kick off their fall season. An even better treat was the chance to see this exciting production of J. T. Rogers’s electrifying political drama and 2017 Tony Award-winning play, Oslo. This historic set piece focusses on the intense back channel negotiations that culminated in the Oslo Peace Accords signed by Arafat and Peres in 1993 during the Clinton administration. Originally crafted by two somewhat dorky economics professors and fleshed out under cloak and dagger, this sub rosa Declaration of Principles became the road map to the final agreement.
Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (Ahmed Quire) and Ahmad Kamal (Hassan Asfour) Photo by Kaley Etzkorn
Banned from sitting down with the PLO, the Israeli government and the Palestinians needed proxies to begin negotiations. Part truth and part imagined, it follows the twists and turns that prove to be a result of the countless “sticking points’ – the enmity between Muslim and Jew, ingrained paranoia, male egos, and the intricate posturing from such widely diverse, ferociously bargaining, personalities.
Cody Nickell (Terje Rød-Larsen), Erin Weaver (Mona Juul), and Kimberly Gibert (Marianne Heiberg). Photo by Kaley Etzkorn
Norwegian diplomats Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen take the lead on a project that demands behind-the-scenes maneuvering and uncompromised secrecy, especially in regard to the Americans, whom neither side trusted. As a couple working under the guise of Terje’s obscure foundation, they coordinate every meeting, promising to stay neutral. But it’s their quiet diplomacy that pushes the parties forward when they most want to quit.
Todd Scofield (Johan Jorgen Holst) and Kimberly Gilbert (Marianne Heiberg). Photo by Lilly King
Erin Weaver as Mona and Cody Nickell as Terje are superb in their roles as the ambitious married couple who uses every trick in their well-seasoned playbook to keep the men negotiating. Throughout the play, Mona, Terje, Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Egeland, and others speak directly to the audience – mostly to keep us in the loop on their ever-evolving strategies – but also to assess how things are preceding and who is undermining the plan. The dialogue is not all serious. Gallows humor, a shared love for the cook’s Norwegian waffles, and clever asides provide a balance between the gravity of the situation and the hilarious foibles of the human condition.
Cody Nickell (Terje Rød-Larsen), Erin Weaver (Mona Juul), and Gregory Wooddell (Jan Egeland). Photo by Lilly King
Given all the moving parts and number of actors Ryan Rilette’s direction is extraordinary. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t loudly applaud the dramatic lighting by Jesse Belsky, atmospheric projections by Jared Mezzocchi, and the cleverly interlocking set by Misha Kachman that takes us repeatedly from Mona and Torje’s dining room and Ministry offices to the snowy mountain hideaway in Norway that provides cover for a series of clandestine meetings.
Ahmad Kamal (Hassan Asfour), Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (Ahmed Quire), Gregory Wooddell (Ron Pundak), Juri Henley-Cohn (Uri Savir), and Sasha Olinick (Yair Hirschfeld) Juri Henley-Cohn (Uri Savir), John Taylor Phillips (Joel Singer), Sasha Olinick (Yair Hirschfeld), Ahmad Kamal (Hassan Asfour), and Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (Ahmed Quire). Photo by Lilly King
An electrifying and intricate political thriller. Highly recommended.
With Erin Weaver as Mona Juul; Cody Nickell as Terje Rød-Larsen; Todd Scofield as Johan Jorgen Holst and Finn Grandal; Gregory Wooddell as Jan Egeland and Ron Pundak; Maboud Ebrahimzadeh as Ahmed Qurie; Juri Henley-Cohn as Uri Savir; Sasha Olinick as Yair Hirschfeld; Ahmad Kamal as Hassan Asfour; Kimberly Gilbert as Marianne Heiberg and Toril Grandal; Alexander Strain as Yossi Beilin; Michael Sweeney Hammond as American Diplomat and Thor Bjornevog; John Taylor Phillips as Joel Singer; John Austin as Trond and German Husband; Susannah Morgan Eig as German Wife and Swedish Hostess; and Conrad Feininger as Shimon Peres.
Assistant Director Susannah Morgan Eig; Costume Design by Ivania Stack; Sound Design and Composer Matthew M. Nielson.
Through May 19th at the Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th Street, NW Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call 240.644.1100 or visit www.RoundHouseTheatre.org
Jordan Wright April 24, 2019
Photo credit The National Theater DC
STOMP has a long history as a crowd-pleaser with its roots going back over a quarter of a century. Since that time the percussion-heavy, wordless sensation has been performed in over 50 countries and in front of 24 million people. STOMP has won countless theater awards as well as an Academy Award nomination, four Emmy noms and one Emmy Award for the HBO special Stomp Out Loud. Additionally, its talents were featured at the closing ceremonies for the London Olympics as well as The Academy Awards. It’s a show that speaks to everyone’s sense of rhythm, creativity and a sustaining beat. It paralells the rhythm, not always discernible, that weaves in and out of our daily lives – sometimes chaotic, other times in harmony.
Eight performers – four women and four men – produce rhythmic sounds on an extensive variety of everyday items – from metal trash cans, matchboxes and push brooms, to dust pans, newspapers, and more. Ever notice the sound of a straw squeaking in and out of a plastic cup lid? Add that to the bass sound of a blown-up plastic bag when it’s stroked or thumped and a plastic shopping bag when it’s shaken rhythmically.
To accompany these unique sound combinations, performers keep the beat with their feet or hands, slapping thighs or simply clapping, an activity the audience is invited to participate in. One routine, played out with long poles and mallets, takes on the primal appearance of a Maasai jumping dance. Each routine leads to another interaction among the group of performers who provide silent, interactive comic relief.
There are times in this show when it is comparable to the cadence of a military drill, others when it is a coordinated, controlled frenzy and objects go flying across the stage. It takes some serious hand-eye coordination to pull off metal lids or basketballs tossed and caught in ever-evolving circles of activity.
High-octane, toe-tapping, finger-snapping, kinetic energy. Find your rhythm and go. Especially exciting for kids.
Created and directed by Luke Creswell and Steve McNicholas with Lighting by Steve McNicholas. Starring Kayla Cowart, Jonathon Elkins, Alexis Juliano, Cary Lamb, Jr., Guido Mandozzi, Artis Olds, Jeremy Price, Krystal Renée, Ivan Salazar, Cade Slattery, Steve Weiss and Joe White.
Through Sunday, April 28th at The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. For tickets and information web or call 1-800-514-3849 or at the box office weekdays from noon till 6pm.
Sandra L. Holloway’s searing production of Black Pearl Sings opens to the haunting strains of a Negro chain gang singing in cadence as they swing their pickaxes to the dirge-like rhythm. This eerie chant leads us to Alberta ‘Pearl’ Johnson who has spent ten dismal years in a swamp-surrounded prison in southeast Texas for the murder of her abusive husband. The story is inspired by Library of Congress folklorists John and Alan Lomax’s real-life discovery of the legendary folk singer and guitarist, Huddie ‘Lead Belly’ Ledbetter.
Roz White ~ Credit is Thom Goertel.
In this telling, Johnson is discovered by Susannah Mullally, an ambitious, and not incidentally, Irish-American ethnomusicologist employed by the Library of Congress to uncover America’s earliest indigenous music, and, by deduction, its African roots. “You are an authentic doorway to our past,” Susannah pleads. Playwright Frank Higgins, whose previous work has starred such notable actresses as Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow, gives pathos and humor to this sensitive portrait of a woman hardened by a segregationist South and the cruel-hearted men in her life.
Roz White & Susan Galbraith ~ Credit is Thom Goertel.
At first Susannah’s attempts to coax out the early plantation songs Pearl learned from her slave ancestors are met with a steely rebuke. But after a considerable period met with Susannah’s description of her country’s suppressed Gaelic language, the two women form a partnership with Susannah gaining Pearl’s pardon from the governor and eventual management of Pearl’s burgeoning music career. “When do-gooders wanna do you a favor, let ‘em,” Pearl decides.
Roz White ~ Credit is Thom Goertel.
Memorable American folk songs and spirituals weave in and out of this musical, performed entirely in a capella by Roz White’s sinuous contralto and Susan Galbraith’s lilting Irish mezzosoprano, and directed by Thomas W. Jones II. Their shared struggles, Pearl’s to earn money to track down her missing daughter, and Susannah’s to find scholarly recognition as a woman in a man’s world, eventually bring the women together culminating in a heart-wrenching duet with “Six Feet of Earth”. Other familiar numbers include “Down on Me”, later made famous by Janis Joplin (also called “Pearl”), “This Little Light of Mine”, the Gospel favorite “Do Lord, Remember Me”, the sultry “Don’t You Feel My Leg”, and the universal spiritual, “Kumbaya”.
In one particularly humorous scene Pearl makes reference to her birth home on the Gullah island of Hilton Head, which back then was a desolate island off the coast of South Carolina populated by the descendants of African slaves. After hearing a developer recount his vision of a golf course and condos on the tiny island, she decides to use it to motivate her to follow Susannah’s vision for her success.
Roz White & Susan Galbraith ~ Credit is Thom Goertel.
Roz White and Susan Galbraith are a powerful match-up. Galbraith’s lilting Irish soprano on autoharp contrasted with White’s earthy, sultry voice accompanied by Afro-American rhythms are wonderful as is the contrast of their physicality and personalities – fire and ice on steroids.
A searing drama. White and Galbraith are brilliant together.
Music Director/Arranger, S. Renne Clark; Set & Projections Design by Patrick W. Lord; Lighting Design by Hailey LaRoe; and Costumes by Mary Larson and Michael Sharp.
While in the lobby, be sure to check out the photographs and stories of the Gullahs of South Carolina’s Low Country (Pearl’s ancestral home. It includes the early culture of African-American families and is compiled by students from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
Through May 4th at Universalist National Memorial Church in the Spooky Action Theater, 1810 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009. For tickets and information visit www.newmusictheatre.org or call 202 256.7614
When two famous writers – one heterosexual, one homosexual, both controversial – square off in a Paris café there are bound to be fireworks. Set in the intellectual cosmos that was Paris in 1953, Les Deux Noirs is playwright Psalmayene 24’s imagined conversation between notable novelist, Richard Wright of Native Son fame, and writer and activist James Baldwin, known for his semi-autographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (or whatever your favorite one is).
(l-r) Musa Gurnis as (Ludivine) and Jeremy Hunter as (James Baldwin) ~ Photo Stan Barough
It opens with their meeting at Les Deux Magots after provocateur and enfant terrible Baldwin had written a scathing review of Native Son, calling Wright a racist. Wright demands the younger writer recant his critiques in a public forum. “You’ve insulted my legacy,” Wright rages. “Sociology is not literature,” Baldwin counters. It doesn’t go well. They verbally spar. Then it gets physical. Thrust and parry. Rinse and repeat.
(l) James J. Johnson (Richard Wright) (c) RJ Pavel as Jean-Claude (r) Jeremy Hunter (James Baldwin) ~ Photo by Stan Barough
Interwoven with rap and rhyme, Psalmayene 24 gifts us with a spellbinding interpretation of their relationship by creating imagined exchanges laced with political diatribes and withering barbs. But there are plenty of funny bits too, as when Baldwin flirts with Jean-Claude the waiter star struck by the literary luminaries who frequent the legendary café, and Wright who charms Ludivine, a pretty waitress who falls for him. For Baldwin, who is broke, it’s a chance at a free meal, though Wright refuses to pick up the tab. For Wright, it’s a chance to disparage the young upstart and redeem himself.
(l-r) Jeremy Hunter (James Baldwin) and James J. Johnson (Richard Wright) ~ Photo by Stan Barough
Wright had his own problems. He’d come out as a Communist – it was very au courant among intellectuals of the period – and he feared his movements were being monitored. Nonetheless they both felt that by living in Paris they were safe from persecution. “Paris is freedom. America is prison.” They both agreed on that.
(l-r) James J. Johnson (Richard Wright) and Jeremy Hunter (James Baldwin) ~ Photo by Stan Barough
James J. Johnson who plays Wright and Jeremy Hunter who plays Baldwin are well-matched and prove exceptionally appealing in these challenging roles. I am more familiar with Hunter, a chameleon of a performer I recently reviewed in Top Dog/Underdog from Avant Bard, who is superb. It was mind-boggling to see him morph from a tough guy grifter to a sashaying, pinky-out, ascot-sporting intellectual. He is extraordinarily versatile.
(l-r) James J. Johnson (Richard Wright) and Jeremy Hunter (James Baldwin) ~ Photo by Stan Barough
Director Raymond O. Caldwell (Artistic Director of Theatre Alliance) finds the perfect pitch to highlight the men’s differences, ratcheting up their machismo by perching them on chairs and tabletops where they can eloquently rap out their sociological viewpoints while cruising the local talent.
With RJ Pavel as Jean-Claude and Musa Gurnis as Ludivine. Isaiah M. Wooden, Dramaturg; Amy MacDonald, Costume Design; Brandi Martin, Projections; Tiffany Quinn, Choreographer.
Electrifying, imaginative and compelling.
Originally part of Mosaic’s Season Four Workshop Reading Series, Les Deux Noirs has become a fully developed, world premiere production that is currently being performed in repertory with Native Son through April 27th at the Atlas Center for the Performing Arts 1333 H Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. For tickets and info on post show discussions, special rates and discounts visit www.MosaicTheater.org or call the box office at 202.399.7993 ext. 2. (Parking lot at 1360 H Street, NE.)
If you didn’t live through the junk bond scandal of the mid-80’s you may need a primer before seeing Junk. Though much unfolds through the plot, it’s still a bit complex as to how they committed such monumental financial chicanery in plain sight. The drama centers around the period when hostile corporate takeovers by young high-flying Wall Street players gamed the system to turn debt into dollars in order to line their pockets. They made some people money, but ultimately it was a Ponzi scheme that took down our financial system, robbed tens of thousands of workers out of their jobs and retirement benefits, and pretty much destroyed American manufacturing. The story mirrors the rise and fall of Michael Milkin the junk bond king.
(L to R) Edward Gero (Thomas Everson Jr.), Thomas Keegan (Robert Merkin) and Jonathan David Martin (Israel Peterman). Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
A lot of these guys got caught up in insider trading, selling secrets used to manipulate stock prices – raising a stock to make it look appealing to investors, then lowering it and turning it into debt when they wanted to force the owners out. It’s complicated. In fact, so complicated that it was over the heads of most people which is how they got away with it for so long until the Feds and the SEC eventually caught on. As the young reporter, Judy Chen, puts it, “The age of speaking truth to power was coming to an end.”
Nancy Sun (Judy Chen). Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
Pulitzer-winning playwright, Ayad Akhtar(Disgraced) draws us into this sleazy, greedy, nether world of characters with warning lights flashing while investors reaped untold millions through mergers and acquisitions as companies tanked. It’s fascinating and revealing, all at once – a cautionary tale of greed and deception.
(L to R) Edward Gero (Thomas Everson Jr.) and Thomas Keegan (Robert Merkin) in Junk. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
Thomas Keegan plays Robert “Bob” Merkin, a. k. a. “the White Whale”, who Time Magazine named “America’s Alchemist”. Keegan is riveting as the kingpin of the bond market and the titan who everyone fears and obeys. His plan is to take over a three-generation-owned American steel manufacturer run by Tom Everson, Jr. However, there are subplots that lurk beneath the surface. Judy Chen is writing a book on the Merkin phenomenon and switches sides, Murray is an investor whose wife is suspicious of Merkin’s shady deals, Boris Pronsky works behind the scenes as an unscrupulous trader in debt to Bob, and Israel Peterman is Bob’s front man. Oh, and there’s a mole. I won’t say who. That ought to get you started.
(L to R) Michael Glenn (Mark O’Hare), Elan Zafir (Boris Pronsky) and JaBen Early (Kevin Walsh/Curt) in Junk. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
For Bob who thinks “debt signifies new beginnings,” he believes, “the law belongs to those who break the rules.” When he finally gets his comeuppance for a host of felonies laced with triple damages, and everyone starts ratting each other out, we begin to see the inkling of an idea forming in Bob’s mind for his next racket – the mortgage crisis that sent the country into a tailspin. But there are lots more twists and turns to keep you guessing who will come out on top.
(L to R) David Andrew Macdonald (Leo Tresler) and Nicholas Baroudi (Giuseppe Addesso) in Junk. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
Clever, intense and a forewarning. Highly recommended.
Starring Thomas Keegan as Robert Merkin; Nancy Sun as Judy Chen; Edward Gero as Thomas Everson, Jr.; Jonathan David Martin as Israel Peterman; David Andrew Macdonald as Leo Tresler; Shanara Gabrielle as Amy Merkin; Michael Russotto as Murray Lefkowitz/Maître d’/Counsel; Elan Zafir as Boris Pronsky; Amanda Forstrom as Charlene Stewart/Lawyer; Jaben Early as Kevin Walsh; Kashayna Johnson as Jacqueline Blount; Lise Bruneau as Maximilien Cizik; Perry Young as Raúl Rivera; Michael Glenn as Mark O’Hare/Curt; Dylan Jackson as Devon Atkins/Waiter; Nicholas Baroudi as Giuseppe Addesso; and Elliott Bales as Union Rep/Corrigan Wiley/Fight Captain.
Directed by Jackie Maxwell; Set Design by Misha Kachman; Costume Design by Judith Bowden.
Through May 5th at Arena Stage in the Fichandler Theater – 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 488-3300.
The ensemble of Grand Hotelat Signature Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman
Dapper men in dinner jackets and ladies luxuriously swathed in furs and jewels has a certain mysterious fascination for us all. In Playwright Ayad Akhtar’s Grand Hotel, guests of this deluxe Berlin hotel reveal that there is more to glamour than meets the eye. In the hotel’s opulent Art Deco era lobby we meet aging prima ballerina Madame Elizaveta Grushinskaya arriving for her final grand tour with her faithful companion, Raffaela; Flaemmchen, a pretty down-at-the-heels ingénue; Baron Felix von Gaigern, a handsome grifter; Colonel-Doctor Otternschlag, a world-weary doctor; General Director Preysing, a corporate tycoon with an uncertain future; and Otto Kringelein, a big-hearted Jewish accountant with a terminal illness. For these peripatetic travelers, it’s all about money – keeping it or finding it – and enjoying the luxe life. What they all have in common is the need to be loved.
Solomon Parker III (Jimmy 2), NickiElledge (Flaemmchen), Ian Anthony Coleman (Jimmy 1) and the ensemble of Grand Hotelat Signature Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman
Twenty-one musical numbers backdrop both their amours and their tragedies as they find themselves in ever-threatening financial circumstances. Will Otto live to find happiness, will Elizabeta revive her career, will the Baron find deeper meaning, and will Flaemmchen find stardom? How they evolve as people is the real story behind this glamorous idyll.
Natascia Diaz (Elizaveta Grushinskaya) in Grand Hotelat Signature Theatre. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.
Director Eric Schaeffer pulls out all the stops with a fabulous set graced with two winding staircases, top-notch dancers and character actors with Broadway-worthy voices that fulfill his vision of transporting us to the age of the Roaring 20’s in a city well known for sophistication and decadent excess.
Nicki Elledge (Flaemmchen) and Nkrumah Gatling (Baron Felix von Gaigern). Photo by C. Stanley Photography
Some of the most memorable musical scenes come during moments of truthfulness and tenderness as between Elizaveta and the Baron in the number “Love Can’t Happen” and her solo dance in “Bonjour Amour”. And, not to be understated, is the sensational dancing of the two Jimmys in Act One’s “Maybe My Baby Loves Me” with Flaemmchen, and Act Two’s “The Grand Charleston” with the ensemble and “We’ll Take a Glass Together” performed alongside Kringelein, the Baron and the ensemble.
Bobby Smith (Otto Kringelein) and Nicholas McDonough (Erik) in Grand Hotelat Signature Theatre. Photo by C. Stanley Photography
The darker side of working at this posh hotel is not left out but circumscribed by the gritty reality of below stairs workers engulfed in steam heat rising from on-stage grates, and by the precarious job security of Erik, a young concierge forbidden from leaving his post as he awaits the birth of his son.
It’s a big story with multi-dimensional characters who surprise us at every turn. See it for the music, the dancing and the glitz.
Starring Bobby Smith as Otto Kringelein; Natascia Diaz as Elizaveta Grushinskaya; Kevin McAllister as General Director Preysing; Nkrumah Gatling as Baron Felix von Gaigern; Lawrence Redmond as Colonel-Doctor Otternschlag; Crystal Mosser as Raffaela; Nicki Elledge as Flaemmchen; Ian Anthony Coleman as Jimmy 1 and Zinnowitz; Solomon Parker III as Jimmy 2; Ben Gunderson as Erik; Victor Kempski as Rohna and Witt; Marie Rizzo as Trude and Tootsie 1; Gregory Matheu as Sandor; and ensemble.
Book by Luther Davis; Music and Lyrics by Robert Wright & George Forrest; Based on Vicki Baum’s Grand Hotel; Additional Music & Lyrics by Maury Yeston; Scenic Design by Paul Tate DePoo III; Costume Design by Robert Perdziola; Lighting Design by Colin K. Bills; Sound Design by Ryan Hickey; Choreography by Kelly Crandall D’Amboise. Conducted by Evan Rees.
