Opening night for the New York City Ballet offered a delectable selection of music and dance backed by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. It was a thrill for the audience to see the dancers bring to life original choreography from George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Gianna Reisen to the music of Lukas Foss, Paul Hindemuth, Sergei Prokofiev and George Bizet.
New York City Ballet in Gianna Reisen’s Composer’s Holiday. Photo Credit Paul Kolnik
The program, which will be repeated on April 3rd and April 7th, highlights many of the troupes’ most notable dancers – Mary Thomas MacKinnon, Emma Von Enck, Kennard Henson and Roman perform in “Composer’s Holiday”, a Reisen design that heralds modernism. Abi Stafford, Teresa Reichlen, Joseph Gordon and Russell Janzen take the leads in “Kammermusik No. 2”, with Sterling Hyltin and Gonzalo Garcia taking leads in “Opus 19/The Dreamer.
New York City Ballet in George Balanchine’s KammermusikNo. 2. Photo Credit Paul Kolnik
The final piece “Symphony in C” by Bizet is on four movements and showcases the talents of Ashley Boulder, Tyler Angle in the 1st an Allegro Vivo; Sara Mearns and Jared Angle in the 2nd an Adagio; Baily Jones and Anthony Huxley in the 3rd movement an Allegro Vivace; and Erica Pereira and Andrew Scordato in the 4th movement an Allegro Vivace which took us back to classical ballet with original Balanchine choreography performed with over 50 dancers. The costumes for this final piece were a contribution from SWAROVSKI and you could see the twinkling crystals adorning their tutus from the back row.
Sterling Hyltin and Gonzalo Garcia in Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer. Photo Credit Paul Kolnik
Artistic Director of the NYCB, Jonathan Stafford reminded the audience that the NYCB has been performing at the Kennedy Center since 1974 and mentioned that Gianna Reisen wrote her first ballet last year when she was only 18 years old.
Sterling Hyltin and Gonzalo Garcia in Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer. Photo Credit Paul Kolnik.
“Composer’s Holiday” uses precision and smooth movement to get its point across and there are a lot of heel-to-toe steps which seem like a country dance. But it is the elegant fluidity and angularity of the motions that elevate it. In “Kammermusik No. 2” we see many sections performed in delayed mirrored sequence as if the dancers are continuously unfolding.
Sara Mearns in George Balanchine’s Symphony in C. Photo Credit Paul Kolnik.
“Symphony in C” allows Tyler Angle to show off his magnificent form and gravity-defying leaps with Ashley Bouder. His brother, Jared Angle, follows in an equally memorable performance with Sara Mearns, my favorite dancer of the night.
New York City Ballet in George Balanchine’s Symphony in C. Photo Credit Paul Kolnik.
The following, “New Works and New Productions” are scheduled to be performed on the evenings of April 4th, 5th, and 6th with a matinee added on the 6th.
“Easy” (Leonard Bernstein/Justin Peck)
“In the Night” (Frédérik Chopin/Jerome Robbins)
“The Runaway” (Nico Muhly, Kanye West, Jay-Z, James Blake/Kyle Abraham)
“Something to Dance About” Jerome Robbins, Broadway at the Ballet (Bernstein, Bock, Gould, Rodgers, Styne/Robbins, direction and musical staging by Carlyle)
Two Kennedy Center premieres, created for the centennial of Jerome Robbins, include Justin Peck’s “Easy” set to the music of Leonard Bernstein, and Tony Award-winning choreographer/director Warren Carlyle’s “Something to Dance About” featuring notable dance sequences from On the Town, West Side Story, and more. Also by Robbins, “In the Night” features three couples of distinct personality set to four of Chopin’s elegant nocturnes.
Kyle Abraham’s “The Runaway”, another Kennedy Center premiere that fuses modern and classical technique with imaginative costumes by Giles Deacon, is set to an eclectic soundtrack that includes hip-hop giants Jay-Z, Kanye West, and others.
Written in the early 1940’s, Richard Wright’s novel became a play only a year after its literary success. Native Son, is grim reminder of a nation at a crossroads during the time of the House Un-American Activities Committee’s investigations and the communist scare. Its theme of a country in conflict shares equal space with the issues of race in America. It reminds us how generations of poverty and the lack of education and decent employment can lead young men into crime. It introduces us to the central character, Bigger, a young man with a flimsy conscience, who destroy both himself and those around him when both his love life and employment crumble overnight.
Clayton Pelham and Vaughn Ryan Midder ~ PHOTOGRAPHY BY STAN BAROUH
W. E. B. Du Bois defines it as “[A] peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One feels his twoness – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
Fine words, but is Bigger really a good-guy-with-a-soul whose sociological condition takes him on a murderous path? That’s not really the whole of it. Wright would have us accept that anyone with a life fraught with poverty and racism cannot overcome their condition. We know that is not true and yet this play is based on a two-time murderer and man-without-a-soul. It is intriguing to consider how Bigger’s condition could affect his choices, even though it’s not necessarily so that one’s lack of opportunity follows their poor choices. Remember.
Clayton Pelham, Jr. and Madeline Joey Rose ~ PHOTOGRAPHY BY STAN BAROUH
Much has changed since this was penned nearly 80 years ago during the days of Malcolm X’s brand of Black Nationalism. Though we’ve had an African American President, dozens of African Americans in Congress and several in the Senate, a culture of racism exists worldwide. We still jail African Americans in far greater proportion to whites, and underserved neighborhoods still suffer disadvantages both in education and opportunity. So, is this drama still relevant? It certainly is a grim reminder that some things do not change.
Nevertheless, I found it hard to sympathize with a character who, notwithstanding the obstacles in his life, violently murders two people he professes to care about and threatens to kill another, Buddy, who is his closest friend. In any case, it affords us the opportunity to see how situations can overtake one’s judgement and to remind us that the treatment of people of color by prosecutors and police remains an ever-constant fear.
Native Son Cast ~ PHOTOGRAPHY BY STAN BAROUH
Playwright Nambi E. Kelley’s adaption along with Psalmayene 24’s direction plays out in a sort of Greek chorus of characters who remain on stage, sometimes changing roles and swirling around Bigger like limpet mines on a drowning man. Whether young Mary and Mary’s mother, the well-heeled Mrs. Dalton who proudly donates to the NAACP, and Mary’s communist boyfriend, Jan, sympathize with the plight of the Black man, or not, the conflict still exists as to how to prove it without being patronizing. P. S. They appear to try. She hires Bigger as her chauffeur though he has a record as a thief, but the gap is too great to bridge.
Clayton Pelham, Jr., Vaughn Ryan Midder, and Tendo Nsubuguga ~ PHOTOGRAPHY BY STAN BAROUH
Kelley invents The Black Rat – an onstage character who follows Bigger around like a shadow, sometimes whispering better options to counter his violent temper, other times urging him to be more manly. It’s unsettling to witness how easily a man can ignore his better self and choose a more destructive path. As The Rat explains, referring to how blacks can respond differently, “We all got two minds. How we see them seeing us, and how we see ourselves.”
Well-acted all around by Clayton Pelham, Jr. as Bigger; Vaughan Ryan Midder as Black Rat; Madeline Joey Rose as Mary; Melissa Flaim as Mrs. Dalton; Lolita Marie as Bigger’s mother, Hannah; Renee Elizabeth Wilson as Vera and Bessie; Tendo Nsubuga as Bigger’s young friend, Buddy; Drew Kopas as Jan; and Stephen F. Schmidt as Detective Britten.
With violence and adult themes.
Sets by Ethan Sinnott, Lighting by William K. D’Eugenio, Costumes by Katie Touart, and Projections by Dylan Uremovich.
Native Son will run in repertory with Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son starring Jeremy Keith Hunter as James Baldwin and James J. Johnson as Richard Wright. It opens April 7th and runs through April 27th.
Through April 28th at the Atlas Center for the Performing Arts 1333 H Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002. For tickets info on post show discussions, special rates and discounts visit www.MosaicTheater.org or call the box office at 202.399.7993 ext. 2. Valet parking at 1360 H Street, NE.
Jordan Wright March 6, 2019
Photo credit – Jordan Wright
Last October Jonathan Till arrived at Del Ray’s Evening Star to take over as Executive Chef in a restaurant that has been successful serving a mostly local clientele for over two decades and seen its share of chefs. It’s also seen its ups and downs.
Evening Star Executive Chef Jonathan Till
Till brought with him a wealth of experience from his education at the New England Culinary Institute and an internship at L’Espalier in Boston, where he trained under James Beard Award winning chef, Frank McClelland. From there he received an Associates’ Degree in Culinary Arts in 2008 and learned pastry under Certified Master Pastry Chef, Frank Vollkommer, at the Saratoga National Golf Course.
Locally, Till spent two years at William Jeffery’s Tavern, a neighborhood joint featuring pub food, followed by two years as a corporate chef for the Barteca Restaurant Group before they were bought out by Del Frisco’s for a cool $325M.
Before all that, he’d taken a turn or two in fine dining (two months spent picking shells out of crabmeat in a dark room at The Dabney was not to his liking) and farm-to-table. As it turns out, connecting with farmers and growers seemed to suit him far better. At the casual Beekman Street Bistro in Saratoga Springs, New York’s tony arts district he’d enjoyed relationships with local Mennonite farmers, and at the five-star Hermitage Hotel in Nashville he was able to source many of his ingredients from their historic vegetable gardens and private cattle farm.
Till’s curiosity peaked when right out of culinary school he met an old trapper and farmer who taught him how to forage in the wild. He’d come from generations of home canners and wanted to preserve the bounty he culled from the fields and forests. After that auspicious meeting, he began making his own charcuterie and experimenting with wildcrafting and homesteading techniques including learning the pleasures of tapping maple syrup. When I spoke to Till this March, he had just returned from ice fishing in Canada. This week he’ll present Evening Star’s new Spring menu incorporating wild-foraged stinging nettles, garlic mustard greens, and spring garlic. Ramps will appear on the menu in a few weeks. All in due time.
Having seen the Spring menu there are a lot of dishes I’m looking forward to – duck with Virginia buckwheat honey, foraged greens, glazed black soybeans and wild garlic and an inspired dish of American snapper with fava beans, asparagus, morels and uszka dumplings. A planned dessert, Strawberry and Rhubarb Galette with lightly churned cream, sounds positively irresistible.
Who inspired your interest in cooking?
My grandmother was my mentor. She is a third-generation chef in the family who had four or five restaurants. Other family members worked in restaurants too – uncles and aunts – and my mom was a café owner at one time, so my path was pretty much set for me.
Will you be involved in the local farming community?
I’ve been working with Pam Hess the Executive Director at Arcadia [Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture] where I’m learning about what’s grown in Virginia. Next year we will set out a foraging walk to tie into permaculture. I’m very passionate about teaching and educating people and hope to make an impact.
What’s different about the food at Evening Star [ES] since you’ve been there?
Neighborhood Restaurant Group as a whole is going through an overhaul and there are big changes at their other restaurants, like Vermillion and Hazel. The company reviewed their image and went out to pick some of the best chefs they could find.
Describe your style.
How I cook for Evening Star is how I eat home. I want warm, comforting dishes and some lighter things too. When I was approached by ES I was out picking mushrooms. I had just returned from a trip to Europe where I was eating my way around the Continent with my wife and foraging for mushrooms in the Czech Republic.
Till’s favorite hori hori knife for wildcrafting
Foraging is a huge part of what I do. I go into the woods and get it for free. This summer I established relationships with local farmers and developed a good connection with them. Since I am new to the area, I had to find spots to go foraging. ES has a rooftop garden, but it only has six inches of soil. We have to get the soil up there using ropes and a bucket. It’s very intense. This winter I set up some grow lights in the basement and started growing microgreens when a supplier wanted to charge me $100 a flat!
I’m using heirloom seeds from Monticello [Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville is a World Heritage Site] where they have a program called the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants. They will be using 800 acres of their property just for heirloom crops.
What ingredients have you foraged recently?
I found spring garlic while foraging last week and caught lake trout while ice fishing in Canada.
Are you cautious not to overharvest?
I only harvest one third of what I find. I learned my lesson years ago when I picked all the chanterelles from one patch and it took five years for them to come back!
What’s the most popular dish you can’t take off the menu?
Acorn pasta made with flour from acorns I foraged, has been really popular. Unfortunately, I’m out of the acorns for now. Also, guests seem to not get enough of chicory – brined and seared with black pepper and served with a side of kombucha squash and sage. The pork chop schnitzel and gumbo are favorites now too, and the sea bass served with clams and broccolini.
Sea bass with clams and broccolini at Evening Star
I had the sea bass the other night and it was perfectly prepared with a crisped skin and tender flesh.
It’s important to understand what goes into raising or catching food. I have raised animals and farmed before and it bothers me when people don’t respect the protein.
What do you see as the future of Evening Star?
I’m still getting used to the flow. Seeing how the summer is going to be when we open the patio. The balance is going to be interesting. I plan to be at the farm and continue foraging this summer. Next year I’ll know exactly what to expect.
With actor/playwright Chazz Palminteri there to cheer on his cast, A Bronx Tale kicked off its one-week run at The National Theatre. It was a ready audience filled with those who know and love this show and they were ready for the laughs and the tunes.
Richard H. Blake (Lorenzo), Frankie Leoni (Young Calogero) and Michelle Aravena (Rosina) ~ Photo: Joan Marcu
As Palminteri reminded everyone about his autobiographical story, it’s all about not wasting talent, advice his father, a Bronx bus driver, imparted to him from the time he was a nine-year old kid on the mean streets – streets that were divided by the blacks on Webster Avenue who guarded their turf with fists and Molotov cocktails and Italian mobsters who ruled Belmont Avenue with guns and bats – guys like Tony 10 to 12, Frankie Coffeecake, Eddie Mush and Jojo the Whale. Between the gunshots and street fights, bar fights and insults, are the musical numbers.
Jane and Friends (front) Brianna-Marie Bell (Jane) with Brandi Porter and Ashley McManus Photo: Joan Marcus
It’s a set piece from the 60’s filled with the doo-wop croonings from the impromptu jukebox jockeys and the sweet sha-na-nas from the neighborhood black girls singing early Motown. The musical has a primetime pedigree. Directed by two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and four-time Tony Award winner, Jerry Zaks, the snappy tunes are composed by Oscar, Grammy and Tony Award-winning composer Alan Menken.
Webster Avenue (center) Brianna-Marie Bell, with (l to r) Antonio Beverly, Ashley McManus, Brandi Porter and Jason Williams. (rear) Kirk Lydell. // Belmont Avenue – women and men (foreground, l to r) Haley Hannah, Kyli Rae, Joseph Sammour, Giovanni DiGabriele,~ Joshua Michael Burrage and Sean Bell. (background, l to r) Robert Pieranunzi, Michael Barra, Paul Salvatoriello. (on balconies, l to r) Joey Calveri, Mike Backes and John Gardiner. Photo: Joan Marcus
If you like mobsters, hitmen and their nefarious gangs and how they drew a kid into their criminal lair, this one is for you – the fights, the crap games and the fear that Sonny, the crime boss, imparts to his crew of ignorant thugs. A ‘rat’ is the worst kind of enemy when you live under the code of Omerta, and Calogero, the boy, chooses not to rat on Sonny when he sees him shoot a man in cold blood. Sonny is appreciative of the boy’s silence and takes him under his wing. He tells him to choose Love or Fear as a way of life. Calogero’s parents are appalled.
Sonny and Young Calogero Joe Barbara (Sonny) and Frankie Leoni (Young Calogero) Photo: Joan Marcu
The story touches on the racism that existed in the Italian neighborhoods and, warning: crude slang is used to describe African Americans, especially when Calogero grows up and falls for Jane, a lovely black girl who sees a better future for him. After all the deaths and all the murders, Sonny turns into a kindly paternal figure to the teenage Calogero who goes straight.
Sonny and Lorenzo at Chez Bippy Joe Barbara (Sonny) and Richard H. Blake (Lorenzo); (at table) John Gardiner, Robert Pieranunzi and Paul Salvatoriello. Photo: Joan Marcus
With Joey Calveri as Sonny; Shane Pry or Frankie Leoni as Young Calogero; Giovanni DiGabriele as Calogero; Richard H. Blake as Lorenzo; Michelle Aravena as Rosina; Brianna-Marie Bell as Jane; Antonio Beverly as Tyrone; John Gardiner as Rudy the Voice; Mike Bakes as Eddie Mush; Michael Barra as Jojo the Whale; Robert Pieranunzi as Frankie Coffeecake; Paul Salvatoriello as Tony 10 to 12; Sean Bell as Sally Slick; Giovanni DiGabriele as Handsome Nick; Alex Dorf as Crazy Mario; Jason Williams as Jesse; Brandi Porter as Frieda; and Peter Gregus as Carmine/Police Officer/Gang Leader.
Scenic Design by Beowulf Boritt; Costume Design by William Ivey Long; Lighting Design by Howell Binley; Sound Design by Gareth Owen; Choreography by Sergio Trujillo. A ten-piece orchestra is led by Brian P. Kennedy.
Through March 31st at The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information visit www.TheNationalDC.org or call 202 628-6161.
Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ Top Dog/Underdog is a tale as old as Cain and Abel. Two brothers, abandoned as children by their parents, find cold comfort in fraternal discord. The mean streets of New York City provide the setting. Their names provide a clue to the irony that defines their lives. Booth and Lincoln. Lincoln, the elder, works in a rinky-dink arcade where, in top hat and frock coat as the former president, his days are filled with a crush of tourists who fake-assassinate him for a small fee. He is black, so there’s that ironic twist, though he’s grateful for the steady employment after living the fraught life of a hustler grifting tourists with the shady confidence game of Three-card Monte.
Louis E. Davis (Booth) ~ Photo credit DJ Corey Photography
The problem is Lincoln was good at it. Very good. And his dissolute brother wants him as a partner in the easy money game while also teaching him the tricks of the trade. “Schemin’ and dreamin’,” Booth calls it. For a time, they reminisce about the old days when they were flush from hustling or stealing and the streets were filled with “marks” out on the town with a pocketful of cash. But Lincoln’s refusal to return to a life of crime causes constant friction between the two men, and Booth threatens to throw him out if he won’t buddy up. The men are constantly scamming each other like the hustlers, lookouts, shills and ‘sticks’ from Lincoln’s old gang.
Jeremy Keith Hunter (Lincoln) and Louis E. Davis (Booth) ~ Photo credit DJ Corey Photography
Their lives are base, their language baser, yet their bickering and challenging one another make for some of the most viscerally powerful theater. Set Designer Nephelle Andonyadis gives us the perfect witness box to view the intensity. Rows of seats are situated on two sides of a long stage mimicking the railroad flats so popular in early city buildings. Walls are papered with cardboard and egg cartons creating an environment that the audience experiences immediately upon entering.
Jeremy Keith Hunter (Lincoln) and Louis E. Davis (Booth) ~ Photo credit DJ Corey Photography
The acting is astonishing. Both Louis E. Davis (Booth) and Jeremy Keith Hunter (Lincoln), who reminds this reviewer of a young Sidney Poitier, turn out some of the most tremendous performances I have ever seen in a two-hander. As a side note, Hunter got the role one week before opening night, when the cast member dropped out. We just saw him in MetroStage’s The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek.
In the more than capable hands of Director DeMone Seraphin this provocative drama stuns at every turn.
Gripping, exhilarating and brilliantly acted, it will leave you breathless. Highly recommended.
Krysta Hibbard, Associate Director; Costumes by Danielle Harrow; Lighting and Projections by John D. Alexander; Composer and Sound Design by e’Marcus Harper-Short; and Fight Director Casey Kaleba.
Performance schedule – Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2pm matinee – through April 14th at Gunston Arts Center, 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206. For tickets and information visit www.AvantBard.org/tickets or call 703 418.4808.
In the vein of Hamilton along comes JQA.It is not a musical, though there is occasional contemporary music with a back beat that lightens the pace, but it is an historical piece based on the life of John Quincy Adams. Its playwright and director, Aaron Posner, writes that it is “not to be taken as accurate in any way”, though Adam’s achievements and rise to power, as well as his astonishing career in American politics are well known. Think of it as a fictionalized version of the room(s) where it happened.
(l-R) Eric Hissom and Joshua David Robinson ~ Photo credit C. Stanley Photography.
Naturally, we don’t know what was actually said in conversations between Adams and his mother, Abigail, his wife, Louisa, or George Washington, but Posner imagines his verbal fencing with two racist Southerners, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, plus his meeting with Abraham Lincoln and the forthright abolitionist Frederick Douglass – all of whom are characters in this play and with whom we know Adams had interactions. And although we cannot be privy to his thinking on both national and international affairs, we do know his influence on the American political landscape. Posner advises, “This play is not to be trusted as accurate in any way.”
(L-r) Joshua David Robinson, Jacqueline Correa, Phyllis Kay and Eric Hissom ~ Photo credit C. Stanley Photography.
The play opens with a scene between John Adams, his illustrious father and second American President asking the child, “What is government?” When young John cannot answer such a broad question, Adams, Sr. tells him that it’s about self-management. “Individuals require government. Civilizations need laws and codes to keep us safe.” Thus, begins the boy’s political education.
(l-r) Phyllis Kay and Eric Hissom ~ Photo credit C. Stanley Photography.
Through vignettes, we follow Adams’ fraught marriage in 1797 to Louisa, a foreigner, and his early diplomatic career as Minister to the Netherlands and Prussia, followed by his election as Massachusetts State Senator, Minister to Russia and the UK, Secretary of State under Monroe, nine terms as Congressman, up till his single term as the 6th POTUS. Chunks of his life are highlighted in different settings in Massachusetts and Washington, DC, where his philosophies are explored and challenged according to his history in government legislation and his relations with his family and political peers.
The script is written in modern-day vernacular and the parallels to our country’s current polarization are stunning, such as when Clay advises him, “Give the people something to fear. Then you can take away their liberties.” Adams’ answer, “I will provide hope.” We are still fighting this battle of fearmongering as a tactic to control the citizenry as opposed to governing by hope and inspiration. JQA is part of Arena Stage’s “Power Plays” initiative.
(l – R) Joshua David Robinson and Phyllis Kay ~ Photo credit C. Stanley Photography.
The staging is brilliant. Characters weave in and out of Adams’ fascinating life portrayed by two male and two female actors who assume all the roles with each actor taking a turn as JQA. I particularly enjoyed Posner’s clever choice of casting African American actor Joshua David Robinson to portray both Frederick Douglas and Andrew Jackson. Touché!
With Jacqueline Correa as JQA/Louisa Adams/Abraham Lincoln; Eric Hissom as JQA/John Adams/Henry Clay; Phyllis Kay as JQA/George Washington/Abigail Adams/Louisa Adams and Joshua David Robinson as JQA/Andrew Jackson/Frederick Douglass.
Set Design by Meghan Raham; Costume Design by Helen Huang; Lighting Design by Jesse Belsky and Sound Design by Karin Graybash. Jocelyn Clarke, Dramaturg.
Through April 14th at Arena Stage – 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024. For tickets and information call 202 488-3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.
Sonny and Young Calogero Joe Barbara (Sonny) and Frankie Leoni (Young Calogero) Photo: Joan Marcu
