Day 352/365 - A Midsummer Night's Dream

After not having seen any of Synetic Theater's productions in the ten prior years I've been living in the DC area, I seem to be making up for lost time. Tonight I went to see my third production of theirs this year, a silent version of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The story was performed entirely through dance and pantomime with no speaking parts at all.

"Midsummer Night's Dream" has never been one of my favorite of Shakespeares's works and as heretical as this may be to say, I think I like it better without the dialogue. The plot, such as it is, involves a love triangle -- scratch that -- a love hexagon featuring criscrossed paramours, bumbling actors, and warring pixies and sprites.

It's a quick production, running only 90 minutes without an intermission. As is almost always the case with Synetic, the choreography is fantastic. Among the cast the standout performers are the delightfully expressive Helena and the half-Slinky, half-Plastic Man Puck, who moves in ways you wouldn't think a human could absent demonic possession. The play's score is reasonably good and the staging, though minimal, is effective. As is also almost always the case with Synetic, the costuming and make up are sensational.

This one makes up for the lackluster "Lysistrata" they performed earlier this year. Now I'm looking forward to the version of "Dracula" they have coming up next month.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 294/365 - The Color Purple

I never thought I would like this musical. I haven't ever seen the movie (it looked too girly), so when the Kennedy Center announced they were bringing a touring company production of the show to town I was less than impressed. But then earlier this week they sent me an email advertising the fact that tickets to many of remaining performances of "The Color Purple" were being discounted to $49, so I figured 'what the heck, I'll give it a try.' Glad I did.

I went to see it tonight with my friend Pia and her musical-mad niece and we all enjoyed it. It's certainly not the happiest and most lighthearted of musicals. There's a lot of sorrow and suffering, hardship and hate in it, but despite that it manages to be very uplifting with numerous laugh-out-loud moments. The story focuses on the struggles of a woman who loses everyone she loves and is victimized by everyone she doesn't. The play follows her from the age of 14 to her grey-haired old womanhood and recounts the many memorable characters that pass through her life and the trials she endures.

The set design and staging is very stylized and evocative and the music and songs are memorable and rousing. The performances are simply outstanding. American Idol winner Fantasia burns brightly in the lead role of Ceelie. I was surprised at how good an actress she is. She doesn't play the part so much as she inhabits it. And man, can she sing! Her voice is an unstoppable force unto itself. As good as Fantasia's performance is however, the play is absolutely stolen by the actress portraying the feisty and unyielding Sophia. Her "Hell, no" song was the highlight of the evening for me.

Now after enjoying the play I'm going to have to rent the movie and give it a chance. Sometimes being proven wrong can be a good thing.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 279/365 - Spring Awakening

Saw the musical "Spring Awakening" at the Kennedy Center tonight. It was good and well-deserving of its haul of Tony Awards. As have a thousand stories before it, it works the inexhaustible mine of teen angst. Despite the fact that it's among the oldest of story lines (as supported by the fact that the non-musical version of the play was first performed -- and promptly banned -- over 100 years ago), it still manages to seem as fresh, frenetic, raw, and real as youth itself.

This may not be the first choice of play to go and see with your mom or minister given that it deals quite bluntly with sex, sexuality, incest, child abuse, teen pregnancy, masturbation, suicide, and abortion, but it is certainly worth seeing. The set design is excellent, the costuming is quite good, the performances are all solid, and the songs (for the most part) are both good and hummable.

My only quibble really is with the final number, which comes across as a desperate ploy for a "Seasons of Love" type moment. It seems jarring and out of place given the scene that precedes it and the overall tenor of the play to that point. A key character faced with a very trying ordeal decides to resist rather than surrender in a powerful set piece, and then the cast effectively joins hands and sings 'Kumbaya" and chipperly asserts that everything will be alright? WTF? The play should end with a defiant, 'set the world on fire' anthem instead of a limp, treacly, ballad.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 231/365 - Legacy of Light

Tonight I went to see the new play "Legacy of Light" at Arena Stage's substitute venue in Crystal City. This piece was specially commissioned by Arena from local playwright Karen Zacarias and is having its debut a half-block from my apartment. It's always exciting to see a brand new work, although about half the time the play turns out to be disappointing. Most new plays are more along the lines of rough drafts when they premiere and still need a fair amount of shaping and polishing.

That's not the case with "Legacy of Light." It's an absolutely brilliant, fully-realized play. The story takes place between and betwixt two sets of characters in two different centuries, Enlightenment Era France and modern New Jersey. In each setting there are four primary characters, two men and two women. The Enlightenment cast consists of historical figures such as Voltaire and pioneering female physicist Emilie du Chatelet, her daughter, and her young and impetuous lover, while the modern cast is composed of a female astrophysicist, her schoolteacher husband, and a struggling young woman and her brother.

The characters move around each other in various orbits and while initially they are confined to their own eras, as the play progresses the Enlightenment characters also appear in the modern setting. Whether these time travelers are ghosts, hallucinations, or something else is never fully addressed and surprisingly it doesn't really seem to matter. Their simultaneous existence in both the 18th and 21st centuries further reinforces two principles of physics discussed in the play: first, that energy is not destroyed but persists (an idea first put forth by Emilie herself) and second, that time is not constant but varies as energy increases (an idea which Einstein derived from Emilie's work).

The plot of the play focuses chiefly on women scientists who are simultaneously on the verge of important discoveries and the verge of motherhood, but it is not about just that any more than the dictionary is just about words beginning with the letter A. The writing is razor sharp and the play is dazzlingly smart, consciousness expanding, and utterly original. If you have a brain and a heart you'll enjoy it a great deal. If you're deficient on either count you probably won't care for it much, and more's the pity for you.

The set design is facilitative and unobtrusive and the costumes are, in the words of one of the characters, amazingly amazing. Many of the actors play two roles, one in each of the play's eras, and the peformances range from excellent to merely adequate. Interestingly, some of the dual performers are excellent in one part and merely adequate in the other. Standouts among the cast include the actresses playing Emilie and Olivia, the astrophysicist. The performers portraying the modern sister-brother pair are also quite good.

As if you couldn't tell by now, I enjoyed this play immensely and it's something I can't recommend highly enough. Beg, borrow, buy, or steal a ticket but by all means go. GO!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 226/365 - Tartuffe

I hadn't been to see a play in a while, so tonight I decided to catch Journeyman Theater's production of Moliere's "Tartuffe" at the Church Street Theater. I'd never seen or read any of Moliere's work before so I wasn't sure what to expect, although I was aware that "Tartuffe" was generally considered his masterpiece. The play was originally staged in 1664 and caused an almost instant uproar, with the Archbishop of Paris threatening to excommunicate anyone who saw, acted in, or read it. To engender a reaction like that, you know it has to be good.

The titular Tartuffe is a scheming huckster posing as a pious nobleman who claims to have bankrupted himself through acts of charity. He insinuates himself into the good graces and household of Orgon, a wealthy landowner who is awed and obsessed by Tartuffe's apparent righteous fervor and selflessness. When Orgon's family tries to tell him that Tartuffe is a lying hypocrite who censoriously denounces everything enjoyable or pleasant as sinful and wicked while secretly indulging in his own appetites, he rebuffs their criticism as being driven by envy and takes their "persecution" of Tartuffe as further evidence of his righteousness.

In short order, Tartuffe convinces Orgon to disinherit and exile his son, break his daughter's engagement, and provide Tartuffe with the deed to his entire estate, his daughter's hand in marriage, and possession of a box of incriminating letters. It is only when Orgon catches Tartuffe attempting to despoil his wife in Act II that he finally sees the sanctimonious mountebank for what he is. When he throws the rascal out, Tartuffe goes to court to obtain an eviction order against Orgon and turns the box of letters over to the king, who sends an officer to arrest and imprison the duped landowner.

Will wickedness triumph? Will Tartuffe's treachery be rewarded with wife and wealth? I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, in case you want to brave the threat of excommunication and see or read it for yourself. The play is very good, although the fact that it is written entirely in rhyming couplets does take some getting used to. The character of Tartuffe is the theater's most thoroughgoing scoundrel this side of Iago and the play's skewering of self-righteous hypocrites who denounce in public that in which they delight in private remains as timely today as it was 445 years ago.

Journeyman Theater's production does justice to Moliere's writing. The set, although minimal, is effective. The costumes are good and although the actors stumble over some of their lines, the performances are all quite good as well. In particular, the actress portraying the sharp-tongued servant girl Dorine who attempts to bully some sense into a family of senseless fools stands out among the cast.

Really, the only off note associated with this production is the fact that the Church Street Theater lacks air conditioning or other meaningful ventilation and, as such, the atmosphere can be pretty stifling. Apart from that, this production gets solid marks all across its report card.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 206/365 - Double Feature on 14th Street

Caught two musical revue shows by the In Series company at the Source Theatre on 14th Street today, one a matinee and the other an evening show. The first, "From U Street to the Cotton Club," was a Jazz Age revue recounting the life and career of a fictional songstress who started out in the clubs along U Street, the famous Black Broadway of Washington, DC, before moving on to the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom in New York. The revue featured two male and two female singers, a piano man, a drummer, a saxophonist, and an actress/dancer playing the parts of both the songstress, Sassy, and her granddaughter as she recited monologues and reminiscences from her grandmother's journal.

The revue incorporated 20 songs of the period, with DC native and jazz legend Duke Ellington getting the lion's share of the billing, along with a few Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, gospel, and blues tunes thrown in for good measure. The musicians were top notch. One of the female singers was excellent. The remainder were good in some songs, not as good in others. The actress/dancer was very good in both capacities and did an outstanding job in making the fictional Sassy seem a real, flesh and blood woman. The writing of the show was also very good, with some of the reminiscences and observations verging on the poetic. The staging was very minimal, but effective and the costumes were adequate.

The second show, "Berliner Kabarett," recreated the dissolute and jaded cabaret scene of Weimar Republic era Berlin during the period between the two world wars. Set in a seedy, rundown cabaret/bordello in the wee hours of the morning, the revue featured a pair of drunken soldiers, a hostess, and two waitresses/performers/prostitutes, all of whom sang during the show. They were accompanied by a pianist/accordionist as they performed 20 songs by Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht.

Each of the singers was excellent, as was the musical accompanist. The set design and costuming were very good at recreating the "resigned to circumstances," "enjoy yourself now because things will only get worse," feel of that time and place. It was like being inside a Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich movie. While there was not much in the way of dialogue in this revue, there were recitations of bits of poetry and essays from the period that blended well with the music and broadened the sweep and scope of the show.

The In Series company appears to specialize in revues of this sort and given how much I enjoyed these two pieces, I'm now looking forward to catching their next show.

P.S. - the photo is of the sign on the side of the Ellington apartment building on U Street a few blocks from the theater. Given the first revue's emphasis on the Duke's repertoire, it seemed a good choice of subject.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 202/365 - Ragtime

I headed over to the Kennedy Center tonight to see their revival of the musical "Ragtime." It was the first time I'd seen a show in the recently renovated Eisenhower Theater. The Eisenhower is the smallest of the Kennedy Center's three main theaters. It's roughly the size of a small Broadway theater. Before the renovation it was drab, dark, and rundown. The makeover is quite startling. It's now warm and bright and cozy, all gold and blue and blonde wood. Unfortunately the acoustics are still problematic. Before the renovation, it was very difficult to hear the actors lines from the upper balcony. I don't know if that is still the case, but I can report that the prime orchestra seating isn't so prime from a sound standpoint. Many of the song lyrics, especially in the group numbers, were impossible to distinguish. It was largely just a fuzzy, foggy, blur of sound. Hopefully that's something they can tweak going forward.

The play itself, despite the sound issues, is excellent. It's based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow and concerns three strata of American society at the beginning of the 20th century -- the privileged white upper class, the disenfranchised black middle class, and the struggling immigrant lower class. The story mixes fictional characters with an eclectic array of historical figures such as Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, and JP Morgan. With a large cast of characters and a lot of plot points to cover, the play proceeds at breakneck speed but still manages to avoid seeming rushed or hastily sketched. It's a great story and it inspired me to purchase a copy of the book from the Kennedy Center gift shop immediately upon exiting the theater.

The primary theme of the play is the individual search for identity as reflected by one member of each social strata -- the white homemaker, the black musician, and the immigrant artist. The three struggle to define themselves and discover who they will be in this new American age and their journeys toward self discovery are contrasted with the white husband's mania for exploring the world's boundaries while studiously ignoring his own personal frontiers.

The cast is strong and is composed of performers who are both good singers and good actors. In particular, each of the three leads does excellently in his or her part. The staging is stark but effective and the costumes are very good. The music is lively and well done, but the songs tend to sound largely the same. There are a few standout numbers, but for the most part it isn't the sort of score you'll go around humming the next day. The compelling story, rich characters, and skilled performances though are enough in themselves to make the show well worth seeing. But I'm still irked about the acoustics/sound design.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 199/365 - In the Heights

When I decided to make a weekend trip up to New York, I checked to see what shows were playing on Broadway. The pickings were pretty slim. It was mostly just shows I'd already seen and more rehashes of Disney movies. The only show I really wanted to see was the musical "In the Heights." Instead of buying my ticket in advance over the internet, I thought I'd wait and see if I could get a discounted, day of performance ticket from the TKTS booth in Time Square. No such luck, unfortunately. I wound up having to pay full price at the theater box office, but it was money well spent.

"In the Heights" is something pretty rare on Broadway these days -- an original show rather than one based on a movie. The play is set in Washington Heights, a section of upper Manhattan that is home to many Latin immigrants from many lands and islands. The story focuses on a wide cast of characters who are all either trying to follow their dreams or figure out what their dreams actually are. It's a bit of a cross between "La Boheme" and "Romeo and Juliet," with a New York Latin flair. The story is engrossing and keeps you engaged as you wait to see how it all turns out in the end. It's a bit unusual though in that there is no antagonist in the play, apart from the vicissitudes of life and circumstance. The presence of a heavy might have been a good idea and could have tempered or counterbalanced the overall sweetness of the play.

The characters are likeable and well fleshed out for the most part, although some of the minor characters are largely stereotypes. The performers are generally good, especially the male lead Usnavi. The dancers are appropriately energetic and limber and the singers are passable. The set design is good and eschews the trend toward mechanically spectacular staging in favor of a fixed set that conveys the claustrophobic coziness of the neighborhood. The music and songs are good and "In the Heights" is the first musical I've seen that successfully blends singing and rapping without making a mess of either.

It's easy to see why "In the Heights" won the Tony Award for Best Musical. It's just a shame that there aren't more original shows like this being staged on Broadway. It's disappointing that the creeping 'Disneyfication' of Time Square has now extended to the productions in the theaters as well. If this keeps up, Time Square will be little more than a urban strip mall full of chain restaurants and chain plays.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 190/365 - Lysistrata

My first exposure to the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes' play "Lysistrata" came from my World Lit class in undergrad. I remember being surprised by how funny and, um, earthy it was. I guess I thought anything that old and classic had to be dry and sedate. Although I'd read the play many years ago, I'd never seen it performed live until last night when I caught Synetic Theater's production of it. Technically though, I guess I've still never really seen it performed live.

Synetic's version of "Lysistrata" is more a re-interpretation or re-imagining than a straight production. It's a joint production with the Georgetown University drama department and most of the cast is composed of Georgetown students or recent grads. The play concerns a Greek woman who, tiring of the ceaseless war between her city-state and a rival state that drains their treasuries and destroys their men, organizes her fellow women and the women of their rival state to press for peace. The women's tactics include occupying the treasury building and stealing their men's armor and weapons, but their primary strategy involves a sex strike. No peace, no nookie. The immovable object of war thus meets the irresistible force of sex.

Synetic's production of "Lysistrata" is certainly funny, but a bit disappointing. They settle too easily for the broad, cheap laugh and the efforts to modernize the play come off as heavy-handed and a trifle clumsy. While they've largely maintained Aristophanes' original story, they've done more than a bit of violence to his words. Here's a thought -- when a play has survived for over 2000 years and been hailed as a great work all that time, the less you monkey with it the better. Case in point, the godawful rap sequence. Although I will admit that changing the lyrics of the Eagles' "Desperado" to "Lysistrata" in a later serenade scene was pretty damn funny.

"Lysistrata" is really an odd fit for Synetic. They do best when they focus on telling a story through dance, motion, and pantomime. There's not much of that in this production and what is there is a bit too MTV-ish. "Lysistrata" is more dialogue-driven and that is not Synetic's strength. Stretching yourself and trying new things is fine, but hopefully they'll return more to what they do best in future productions.

The costumes, score, and set for this production are all adequate but not particularly noteworthy. Nothing about any of them really stands out. Similarly, the performances are workmanlike, but none of the actors really shine in their parts. Synetic's production of "Lysistrata" is fine if you're just in the market for a few cheap laughs. Otherwise, you're better off reading the original.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 184/365 - The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico, A Comedy

The effects of global commerce and corporate imperialism might seem an odd subject for a comedy, but it makes for a very funny play. Tonight I went to see Gala Hispanic Theatre's production of "The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico." In keeping with the theme of the evening, I decided to have Mexican food for dinner before the show so I wandered a few blocks up from the theater's location in the Columbia Heights section of Washington, DC to Taqueria Distrito Federal.

It's tough to find good Mexican food in DC. While there are many people in the area whose families immigrated here from Central American countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador, not many people have immigrated here from Mexico. As a result, most of the local Mexican restaurants are operated by Central Americans. The food is a bit more authentic than Chi Chi's, but it's still not the same. TDF is the real deal, however.

It's a small place, only a half-dozen or so tables inside and three on the patio out front. It's fast, cheap, good, and authentic. Well, as authentic as Mexican food gets in the U.S. anyhow. I don't know if you can ever exactly duplicate a national or regional cuisine in a restaurant in another location. It never tastes quite the same for some reason. TDF is definitely good, though. I ordered the Combo #3, which is five tacos, the dessert of the day, and a drink for only $13. It was one of the cheapest pre-theater meals I've ever had.

TDF has about a dozen different types of meat fillings for their tacos and you can pick and choose what you want in them. I opted for two pork tacos, one chicken, one bbq goat, and one bbq beef. The chicken one was a little dry, but the others were yum. The dessert was a tasty slice of flan and my drink, given the play I was seeing, had to be a Coke.

As I learned from the play, Mexico's per capita consumption of Coke is second only to that of the U.S. "The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico" is a two-person play about a filmmaker and a performance artist from Seattle who decide to go to Mexico to make a documentary about American cultural and corporate globalization as symbolized by Coke's infiltration into Mexican society. The pair of actors that form the cast play a wide range of parts throughout the course of the play, including: the filmmakers; the tourists, farmers, and resort community workers they interview for the documentary; various figures from Mexican political history; and, in one particularly hilarious scene, the characters on a telenovela.

In their quest to document the extent to which American corporations have exploited and manipulated the Mexican people, the two filmmakers (who despite their loudly professed ideals are just as ignorant, patronizing, and chauvinistic as those they criticize) themselves exploit and manipulate a family of poor farmers in order to jazz up their documentary. While they start out to be liberators, in the end they wind up being just another kind of oppressor (although that's a fact that they themselves never seem to recognize).

The play is quite good and flows well, with the exception of a music video recreation scene at the end of the first act that just doesn't fit and doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose. The two performers are excellent and the set design, though simple, is effective. Gala Theatre itself is housed in an upstairs portion of the old Tivoli Theatre, formerly the most opulent movie palace in DC. Some of that opulence survives in the ornate ceiling of the theater, but it's not much compared to its former glory as revealed in the historical photos that line the walls leading to the theater.

"The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico" is part ironic comedy, part satire, part history lesson, part political argument, and all good. And if you go to Taqueria Distrito Federal for dinner beforehand, it's even better.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 176/365 - Elizabeth Rex

Another evening at the theater for me. This time the theater in question was the Keegan Theatre in the Dupont Circle section of Washington, DC, where they were staging a production of the play "Elizabeth Rex." Before the play, I stopped by Nage, a sexy little bar and restaurant a few blocks away from the theater, for dinner.

Nage is a cozy, red-tinted, snug, sensual little nook of a place that shares space with a Courtyard Marriott hotel. A big chalkboard by the entrance lists the daily specials and the options for the $35 three-course, prix fixe meal. The service and cocktails are excellent and the food was pretty good. I started things off with a cantaloupe martini that was particularly luscious. Instead of the standard bread and butter Nage serves bread and hummus, which was a nice switch. For my three courses, I opted for a wedge salad, pork chops with risotto, and rhubarb upside down cake. The salad was good, although they went a little heavy on the dressing. The pork chop and risotto were well-prepared, but a bit bland. Then again, unless you drench it in jerk seasoning or drown it in mustard sauce, it's hard to get much pizzazz out of a pork chop. The rhubarb cake was quite yummy.

I probably should've have gone with my first inclination and ordered the goat cheese baklava appetizer and grilled scallops entree from the regular menu instead of deciding to be thrifty and take advantage of the prix fixe. I'd likely have enjoyed those dishes more. Still, I'd say Nage is worth taking a flyer on. It's an ideal spot for drinks and a pretty good option for a meal.

After I got my belly stuffed, it was off to the play. This was my first visit to the Keegan Theatre. It's in the middle of a quiet residential street and is housed in a small brick building that was originally the gymnasium of a private school. Although it is purely a work of fiction, "Elizabeth Rex" is based on a historical incident. On the night before the scheduled execution of her lover, the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth I of England engaged William Shakespeare and his band of players to distract her from her grief over having had to sentence the Earl to death for his part in a conspiracy against the crown.

"Elizabeth Rex" takes place in the barn of the Queen's estate just outside London. Due to a curfew imposed until after the execution in order to prevent a civil disturbance, Shakespeare and several members of his company are forced to spend the night after their command performance in the barn. Unable to sleep, the Queen joins the players in the barn and has them keep her company to further distract her from her sorrows. The discourse between the Queen and the actors hits on the play's core themes of love and loss, gender roles, and the dichotomy between the people we are in private and the parts we play in public.

It's a excellent piece, well-written and powerfully performed. The set design and costumes are quite good and the cast is admirable, with the exception of the actors portraying Shakespeare and the Queen's counselor. In the case of the latter, given the minor nature of the role the casting of a weak actor is insignificant. However, placing a poor performer in the part of Shakespeare, one of the central characters, is another matter. The producers did strike gold though with the casting of the actors portraying the Queen and the dying actor Ned, who square off against each other in several scenes. Both performers invest their parts with a great degree of power and pathos without being hammy or overwrought. It's almost enough to make up for the miscast Shakespeare.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 170/365 - Ion

Tonight I went to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Sidney Harmon Hall to attend a performance of the play "Ion" by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, as recently re-translated by David Lan. For a play that's over two thousand years old, it's awfully funny and entertaining. The story arises from, as many Greek tales do, a liaison between a male god and a mortal woman. Their resulting offspring, left abandoned in the wilderness by his mother, grows up to become a temple attendant who knows neither his name nor his origins.

When his mother, now queen of Athens, accompanies her husband on a pilgrimage to consult the oracle of the temple her lost son serves, the action is set in motion and leads to joy, jealousy, confusion, murderous plots, reunions, and divine intervention. Not to mention more than a few laughs. The play is very irreverent for its time, openly criticizing the gods for their hypocrisy in punishing the sins of mankind while they flagrantly sin themselves and reciting the timeless plaint against a heaven that allows the wicked to prosper while the righteous suffer.

The performances in "Ion" are uniformly excellent. There is not a single off note or weak actor amongst the cast. The set design is simple but effective and the descent of divine characters from the rafters of the theater is handled well, as is the use of puppets to relate the prelude to the play. The costumes are done in a way that neatly marks the divide between the spiritual and the mundane, the permanent and the impermanent, with the gods and temple servants arrayed in the traditional dress of ancient Greece and the visitants to the temple attired in modern clothes.

The play is short, clocking in at a well-paced 90 minutes without intermission, and the Harmon Center itself is a very pleasant, convenient, and effective venue. Even though "Ion" concerns a time and a people that have long since passed, it remains relevant today. In fact, given that the play in essence concerns the circumstances and consequences of an unwanted pregnancy, it's hard to see how it could be any more contemporary.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200 and processed using the watercolor effect on an old version of Microsoft's Photo Editor program)

Day 134/365 - The Heavens Are Hung In Black

Tonight my friend Pia and I went to the newly-renovated and spiffed up Ford's Theatre to see "The Heavens Are Hung In Black." It's a new play that was specially commissioned by Ford's Theatre to commemorate its post-renovations reopening. Given the theater's tragic connection with President Lincoln and the fact that this year is the bicentennial of his birth, it was only natural that Ford's would commission a work about Lincoln.

The play is set during some of the darkest days of Lincoln's life and presidential administration: the country is disintegrating due to the Civil War, the Confederate Army is on the attack while the Union Army dithers and delays, critics from all sides are assailing the President and his policies, the Lincolns are mourning the death of their son Willie, and the first lady's reason and sanity have begun to decay. These are heavy burdens to bear and the play gives us an insight into what Lincoln's internal dialogue might have been like during that period.

As Lincoln grapples with the questions of what direction the war should take and whether he should emancipate the slaves, he holds congress with a variety of ghosts, fictional characters, and contemporaries in a style somewhat reminiscent of Ebeneezer Scrooge's visitation by the three Ghosts of Christmas. It's a gimmick that could prove hokey and disastrous if not done well. Fortunately for this production it is carried off well for the most part, although it might be good to cut one or two of these 'asides' in the interest of paring down what is a rather long production.

The play as a whole is both informative and entertaining. The set design is excellent and accomplishes much within the particular limits of the theater, managing to transport us from the Oval Office to settings as varied as a military cemetery and the Mississippi River. The performances are uniformly outstanding and the actor portraying Lincoln does a remarkable job of bringing to life what we think the President might have been like as a man.

Ford's Theatre itself doesn't look much different, apart from the new and more comfortable seating (although the view from many seats is still blocked by various columns). The bulk of the changes involve the shiny new lobby next door with its new bathrooms and elevator. The new lobby is a welcome addition given that the theater's original lobby, a spartan eight-foot wide vestibule, meant that crowds were forced to wait outside in the cold prior to the opening of the seating area. It's always good to come in from the cold.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 128/365 - Dante

I ventured over to the Rosslyn Spectrum tonight to see 'Dante' -- Synetic Theater Company's adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Well, it's billed as an adaptation of the entire Divine Comedy but actually it's the Inferno with about five minutes of Purgatorio and Paradiso at the end. That's fine, though. The Inferno is the most interesting of the three parts anyhow.

It took me a bit of wandering around the byways of Rosslyn to find the Spectrum. It's one of the most unprepossessing performance spaces you're ever likely to encounter. It's a drab, concrete, underground auditorium with even less warmth and life than GW's Lisner Auditorium. Once the peformance begins though, none of that matters.

I've been wanting to catch one of Synetic Theater's productions for some time but I always seem to miss out. I wanted to make sure I saw this one, though. Given the source material, I had a feeling they would be able to do some amazing things with this production. I was right.

Synetic relies primarily on dance and motion and silent film style acting to advance the narrative of the works they perform. A few years back they did an entirely silent version of Hamlet that got rave reviews. 'Dante' features a fair amount of exposition, however. I believe this may be one of their most dialogue-heavy shows. That doesn't detract from it being a phenomenal thing to watch.

The set and costume design for 'Dante' are nothing short of brilliant. In fact, it's nearly worth the price of admission just to see the character and set skectches by production designer Anastasia Ryurikov Simes that hang in the Spectrum lobby as pictured above. It's a very visually arresting production. There are images and scenes that will stay with you long after the performance ends, particularly the sight of damned souls being dragged by demons to their torment in slow motion. Visually, the production holds echoes of the movies 'The Cell,' 'Escape From New York,' and 'The Road Warrior'; German expressionist cinema; and various Marilyn Manson videos. That sounds like an odd mix, but it works and works well.

The performances are outstanding, although I'm not entirely sold on the performer portraying Virgil. The score is adequate. It's difficult though to view the various aspects of the production in isolation. It's really a work that needs to be analyzed as a whole and as a whole it's excellent. It's immediately obvious that a great deal of effort and energy went into the production, all to great effect.

Synetic's 'Dante' is an amazing and memorable work of performance art. It's certainly not the sort of thing you'd expect to encounter in an underground auditorium on a sidestreet in Rosslyn. But no matter where this production was being staged, it would be worth going to see.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 125/365 - The Dog in the Manger

"The Dog in the Manger" is a romantic, comedic play by celebrated Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. An English language version of the play is currently being staged by the Shakespeare Theatre Company at its Lansburgh Theatre and tonight I went to check it out. This is shaping up to be an overstuffed week for me in terms of performing arts outings. Tonight it was 'The Dog in the Manger,' tomorrow it's the Lenka concert at DC9, Thursday it's Source Theatre's 'The Marriage of Figaro,' and Friday it's Synetic Theater's all dance/no dialogue adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Yeesh!

Plus there's still Round House's production of 'Eurydice,' the national touring company of 'Avenue Q' at Warner Theatre, 'The Heavens Hung in Black' at Ford's Theatre, and the upcoming Flamenco Festival. It's a great time to be a performing arts fan in the DC area right now, but a bad time if you have errands to run or sleep to catch up on. And thank goodness for half-price tickets from Ticketplace and Goldstar.

To keep with the Spanish theme, before the play tonight I went to Jaleo and had tapas for dinner. I didn't realize at the time though that the play is actually set in Naples rather than in Spain, so my attempt at synchronicity was a bit off. My favorite thing from Jaleo, the fried shark tapas with aioli, wasn't on the menu tonight unfortunately so I had to make do with the chicken croquettes, a leek, goat cheese, and almond salad, and broiled scallops with ham instead. Oh, and sangria of course. It was all yummy as usual.

I got a half-price ticket to the play from Ticketplace so it was pretty cheap. And it was very funny and entertaining. The title comes from one of Aesop's fables about a dog sitting in a manger of hay who couldn't eat the hay himself but nevertheless steadfastly refused to let any cows eat it. In this instance the 'dog' is Countess Diana, the 'hay' is her secretary Teodoro, and the 'cow' is her lady-in-waiting (and relative) Marcela.

As the play begins, Teodoro loves Marcela, Marcela loves Teodoro, Diana's servant Fabio loves Marcela, Dorotea (another lady-in-waiting) loves Fabio, a pair of buffoonish noble suitors love Diana, and Teodoro's servant Tristan loves money. Once Diana learns of the romance between Teodoro and Marcela she decides that she loves Teodoro and wants him for herself (despite the fact that she has promised him to Marcela in marriage and despite the further fact, because he is a commoner and she a noblewoman, it is impossible for them to ever marry and dangerous for them to even love each other).

Throughout the course of the play's two acts, the various characters thread their way through a host of schemes and plots to attain their desires and thwart their rivals and flit between idolizing and despising their alternating partners as though they were playing a game of romantic musical chairs. This all results in a play that is frequently and uproariously funny with marvelously rich dialogue that rivals that of any of Shakespeare's comedies.

While the performances are uniformly excellent and the costumes are terrific, the set design can be a bit anachronistically hit or miss and there is a strange interpretative dance number at the beginning of the second act that seems odd, unnecessary, and generally ill-advised. Additionally, although the play's ending is a bit too quick and neat, 'The Dog in the Manger' is a pleasant night's entertainment nonetheless.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 119/365 - The Winter's Tale

My friend Pia and I went to dinner at Two Quail and then saw Shakespeare's 'The Winter Play' at the Folger Theatre tonight. Neither of us had been to Two Quail before and Pia had a $25 off coupon, so we decided to check it out. It's a cozy little place that would probably be the perfect setting for an afternoon tea, but as a dinner spot it was 'meh.'

We started with the coconut shrimp appetizer and it was good, but the entree's didn't measure up. I had the spotted trout and Pia had the quail. My fish was overcooked mush and tasted to strongly of lemon and even Pia's quail was on the mushy side. Don't know how they managed that. Both dishes were accompanied by plain white rice and sauteed veggies, which is the sort of thing you'd expect from a cafeteria rather than a serious restaurant.

Now that I've been to Two Quail, I don't see any reason to go back. I can't recommend it as a dinner option unless you like overcooked, oversauced/seasoned, overpriced (even with a $25 off coupon) fare. Thankfully the play was better, although still flawed.

'The Winter's Tale' is one of Shakespeare's later plays. It's a seldom-performed work that's a tale of two halves. The first half is a dark, potent, dramatic tragedy that stands up as well as any of the playwright's earlier works. The play then does a 180 in the second half and turns into a sprightly, romantic, romp of a comedy and then concludes with an ending that is too pat, neat (and quite frankly, ridiculous) to be very satisfying.

You have to give the old boy credit for being ballsy enough to try something as adventurous and experimental as penning a half-tragedy, half-comedy late in his career, but even his skills weren't quite up to the challenge. The dark first half is by far the best part of the play and it alone is worth the price of admission, particularly if you can snag discounted tickets to the show from Ticketplace or Goldstar.

As per the norm with the Folger, the performances are very good. In particular the actors portraying the mad, paranoid, obsessive King of Sicilia and the righteously sharp-tongued firebrand Paulina wring every drop from their roles. The only let-down in terms of the cast comes from the actress portraying the persecuted queen Hermione. She's excellent in the trial scene, but comes across as stiff and stilted in the casual scenes that open the play. She plays much better at being tormented than contented.

'The Winter's Tale' is a flawed work, but even a flawed work from a genius is worth seeing -- especially if you've never been to the Folger's Elizabethan Theatre. It's a hidden gem that recreates a Renaissance theater of the type that would have staged Shakespeare's works during his lifetime, albeit with a concession to modernity in the form of seats on the main floor rather than standing room for the 'groundlings.' Going there always makes me feel like I'm inside the movie 'Shakespeare In Love.'

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 114/365 - The Miserable Ones

Unlike yesterday, today I actually remembered to go on the Ticketplace website and get myself a half-price ($53) ticket to see tonight’s production of ‘Les Miserables’ at Signature Theatre in Shirlington. There’s no Metro station in Shirlington, so since I don’t drive I had to catch a bus at the Pentagon. I hate riding the bus, but it’s a non-stop, ten-minute trip there from the Pentagon so it’s not that bad. Arlington County has talked about building a street car line that would run out to Shirlington, but there are no signs of that actually happening yet.

Before heading over to the theater I stopped in at Aroma, an Indian restaurant, and had dinner. I opted for the vegetable sampler (pakoras, samosa, and aloo tikki) and the Murgh Korma Mugulai (mildly spicy chicken curry with almonds and raisins over rice pilaf) and both were quite good. I timed things perfectly for once and got to the theater just in time to check my coat and get to my seat without either having to rush or being stuck waiting around.

This was not a national touring company production of Les Mis. Recently, the corporation that owns the rights to the play chose to license it to any local theaters who wished to stage their own productions. Signature Theatre took them up on their offer. There is no gimmicky turntable stage in this production. The play is performed in three-quarters ‘theater in the round’ on a low rostrum stage. It’s a good choice and lends the play an intimacy and immediacy that you didn’t get with the touring company staging. The orchestra, set design, and costumes are quite good as well, although there are certainly some bad wig choices (think cheesy, androgynous ‘80s rock rather than dirty, downtrodden 19th century rabble).

The cast, however, is one area where Signature’s production clearly suffers in comparison to the national touring companies. I place the blame squarely on the primary scourge of modern theater – amplified sound systems that lead to the casting of singers with thin, weak voices. Microphones and speakers have no place in musical theater. If you cannot project your voice to the back row of the theater then you need to find a new avocation because you’re not qualified to be on stage. Several of the actors in this production fall into this category: Valjean (acting – adequate; singing – very limited range and struggles with the higher and softer notes), Thenardier (a stand-in for this performance)(acting – poor and caricaturish, evidently the Child Catcher from ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ served as the inspiration for his performance; singing – dreadfully weak, he may as well have whispered his lines and songs), and adult Cosette (acting – unremarkable; singing – shrill and nasally).

The unforgiveable sin of this production is the inadequate casting of Eponine. Although the part is small, I believe Eponine is the heart of Les Mis. She connects the various demi-mondes in the play and links all the characters to one another, plus she sings the two best songs – ‘On My Own’ and ‘A Little Fall of Rain.’ Signature’s Eponine is unfortunately not up to either acting or singing the part. She mugs her way through the role with a permanent, plastic, quasi-maniacal grin on her face that is horribly misplaced. Note: Eponine is tortured and tormented, not giddy and gleeful. And it would be nice if she didn’t frequently sing off-key. Thanks.

It’s not all disappointment with this cast, though. There are some strong performances: Javert (acting – tough to know given that the part is hammish by nature, but he seemed quite good and he made me wonder if the actors playing Valjean and Javert should have swapped parts; singing – good strong voice), Fantine (acting – good, singing – quite good), Enjolras (acting and singing both quite good), and particularly Marius (all-around excellent). In addition the child performers do admirably well with young Cosette and Gavroche. The director’s decision to substantially cut Gavroche’s highly entertaining ‘Little People’ song was a bit puzzling, however. If cuts were needed I’d have recommend targeting Javert’s ‘Stars’ instead, which bears the double burden of being not a particularly good song and adding nothing new or meaningful to our understanding of the character.

Taken as a whole then I believe that Signature’s production of Les Mis is worth seeing, although I’d certainly recommend taking advantage of the availability of half-price tickets rather than paying full fare. It’s a noble experiment and a fresh, imaginative staging of what had become a weary workhorse of the theater. And it still features a great story and great songs. It’s just a shame Signature didn’t do a better job with the casting.

(BTW: the secondary scourge of modern theater is the knee-jerk standing ovation. It’s the dramatic equivalent of grade inflation. Audiences should reserve standing o’s for truly outstanding performances and not hand them out like candy at Halloween to every production that comes along. End of rant.)

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 83/365 - Next to Normal

Next to Normal is a musical with a bit of a convoluted development history. It opened in New York off-Broadway to reviews that were generally positive, albeit with some reservations. It was because of those reservations that the play migrated south for the winter to be retooled and restaged. It's currently being produced by Arena Stage at the Crystal City performance space that was pressed into service to tide them over until renovations are completed on their home theatre on DC's Southwest Waterfront.

I went to see it tonight even though I had misgivings about going. The play is about a dysfunctional family dealing with mental illness, so unlike most fare offered by theatres around the holidays, it's not exactly cheery and uplifting. Generally I'm opposed to paying to be depressed for two hours, but the reviews of the reworked show have been uniformly glowing and Ticketplace had half-price seats available and the theatre is literally a block from my apartment. So, I went.

As far as musicals about mental illness go, I think it's about as good as you're going to get. I don't know whether I could recommend it or not, but it definitely wasn't a waste of time or money. Despite the fact that I was predisposed to not liking it, I found the story very poignant, gripping, and compelling. The songs were serviceable but, with the exception of one that's refrain was 'I Miss the Mountains,' largely unremarkable (judging by the program none of the songs appear to have actual titles, which should be a tip-off as to how memorable they are). The performers were strong actors, but middling singers with thin, easily frayed voices. The orchestra was quite good. Arena's Crystal City performance space isn't terrible, but given that the seating area is pitched at a very shallow angle and the stage is rather low, you spend a good portion of the play watching the back of the person's head in front of you rather than the actors.

So, much like the critics who reviewed the play's first run in New York (who, unlike me, actually know what the hell they're talking about), I'd have to say that Next to Normal is good, with some reservations.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 49/365 - On Broadway

Okay, so the picture is technically from 44th Street and not Broadway, you get the idea.

This afternoon I ditched work early and took the train up to New York. I decided to stay at the Best Western at the South Street Seaport. It's a pretty cool area. I'm going to have to come back another day when I've got more time and shoot loads of pictures. It's old and weathered looking and there are some great views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

I grabbed dinner just around the corner from my hotel, at the Bridge Cafe. It rocked. It's just a small, unpretentious, neighborhood restaurant with excellent food. In that regard, it reminded me a bit of my favorite eating place in the world -- the aptly named Le Restaurant in the Montmartre section of Paris. I started with the mixed green salad with pears, bleu cheese, candied walnuts, and citrus vinaigrette paired with the pumpkin beer they had on tap. Then it was on to the lobster pot pie with a side order of mac and cheese, washed down with another glass of pumpkin beer. I'd missed lunch, but this dinner more than made up for it.

After dinner I headed to the St. James Theatre to see the musical 'Gypsy' featuring Patti LuPone. I had never seen this show, but I knew it was supposed to be a classic with a plum role for a mature, belt-it-out style female singer. I hadn't realized how many great songs it had in it. There were about four songs that were instantly recognizable as well-known standards. Now I need to order the soundtrack off Amazon.

The story chronicles the life of the famous burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee and her loopy, controlling, over-the-top stage mother. As with most family dramas it was a bit dark, but it was also quite funny and moving. I liked this play a lot. In addition to lucking out with my choice of a play to see, I got lucky with my seat as well. Normally I spring for a pricier seat in the orchestra section, but I'd been to the St. James before to see 'The Producers' so I knew there were good views to be had from the balcony. Because the theatre was only about two-thirds full, they closed off the balcony and let us cheapskates sit down on the mezzanine level. Bonus!

I had been planning on grabbing some cheesecake and coffee after the show, but I was still so stuffed from dinner that I just headed back to the hotel to crash. Not exactly de rigeur for the city that never sleeps, but I knew I had to get up early Thursday if I wanted to get a good spot from which to watch the parade.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 31/365 - Boom

Tonight I went to see the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's production of 'Boom', by up-and-coming playwright (and marine biologist) Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. I did my usual trick of getting my ticket through Ticketplace for half-price, which left me more money to splurge on dinner and drinks before the show at Café Atlantico (two passionfruit martinis, scallops and coconut rice appetizer, jerk chicken mofongo entree, cappuccino, and warm chocolate cake with banana dessert -- damn, it was good).

This was my first time going to see a Woolly Mammoth production. They specialize in quirky, funny, more daring, off-Broadway type plays. I think one of the reasons I'd never been to one of their shows before was because of their ridiculous name. Unlike Smuckers, with a name like Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company I thought they had to be bad and that they would put on pretentious, inaccessible, annoyingly experimental, avant garde solely for the sake of being avant garde, too cool for school type productions. Nope. They just do odd, small, funny, smart plays that you'd be hard-pressed to see anywhere else. The name is still stupid, though.

WMTC has a new theatre in the Penn Quarter section of Washington, DC and it's a very well-designed space. The theatre itself is small but doesn't feel cramped. It's a bit like a modern, cinder-blocks and exposed wiring version of an Elizabethan theatre with a U-shaped seating area (both groundlings and balcony) around three sides of the stage. It's a good space with good sightlines, good acoustics, and good seats and it doesn't detract or distract from the productions in any way -- which is really all you need in a theatre.

Now, onto the play itself. Boom was funny and excellent. Excellently funny, funnily excellent. It's a one-act, 90-minute long play with three cast members -- two of whom (Aubrey Deeker and Sarah Marshall) are brilliant in their roles and one of whom (Kimberly Gilbert) starts out a little awkward and stilted but definitely gets better as the play goes along. The plot involves a biologist who becomes convinced the world is about to end in a catastrophic natural disaster and who then places an ad for a sex partner in order to lure a woman to his lab/apartment/fallout shelter.

The summary makes the plot sound a bit creepy, but it's not. The writing is excellent with sharp and clever dialogue and in 90 scant minutes it manages to serve up a primordial soup incorporating adaptation, natural selection, the Garden of Eden, the persistence of life, the survival instinct, intelligent design, evolution, mutation, fate, destiny, free will, determinism, the nature of sexuality, deism, deus ex machina, the Wizard of Oz, chaos, justice, obsession, sex, love, and dating.

Sticking with the soup analogy, it's 'mmm, mmm good', so go and see it. It runs nightly through December 7th and most days Ticketplace has seats available for $25-30.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)