December 28, 2007 - February 24, 2008
Ella
Reviewed by Brad Hathaway

Running time 2:10 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an extraordinary recreation
 of an extraordinary talent

Storyline: In 1966, at the height of her fame as "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald struggles to find the will to go on stage for her sold-out concert in Nice, France, after the death of her sister. Her long-time producer Norman Granz asks her to spend a little less time singing and a little more time talking with the audience, which prompts her own flood of memories of her life and career to date.

Fabrique is not just the key to the success of this production, she has been the key to the success of the show since its inception at TheaterWorks in Connecticut where she created the role under director Rob Ruggiero. She went on to star in the revised version which premiered at Florida Stage and has toured with it when not performing in the production of The Women of Brewster Place which just closed at Arena. The structure of the show as it now exists is an interesting blend of concert and bio-play. The first act is a back-stage stroll down memory lane. Of course, when the life being remembered is one spent in the music business, there's lots of music in the memories - "How High The Moon," "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," "You'll Have To Swing It (Mr. Paganini)," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "Night and Day" and "That Old Black Magic" are but some of the items from Ella's astonishing career that carry the memories of her struggles.

Act Two is more of a recreation of a concert, with such highlights as "Lullaby of Birdland," "'S Wonderful," "The Man I Love," "Cheek to Cheek" and "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" in a recreation of a duet with Louis Armstrong with trumpet player Elmer Brown as Satchmo, and the essential "Oh, Lady Be Good" - not to mention a sterling recreation of Ella's own creation, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket." But the concert segment takes on depth and texture because of what the audience has learned of Ella's life during the first act. Thus, it becomes a concert with a subtext. It doesn't quite add up to great drama, but it puts dramatic interest into what might otherwise have been a mere impersonation. Fabrique, being an actress and not just a singer, uses the subtext to create something more than a concert.

Michael Miceli's sound design takes full advantage of the bright, sharp acoustics of this new venue and also contributes a number of subtle but highly effective settings that reinforce the feeling of the hall in which "Ella" is supposedly singing. The addition of an echoey reverberation for memories of performances at the legendary Apollo Theatre or the Savoy Ballroom which were so important in Ella's early years gives definition to the scenes and the immediacy of the close-miked sound for club date numbers adds excitement to already exciting material. Brown's trumpet poses something of a challenge to Timothy M. Thompson in mixing the show because the hard sound of the room tends to drive up the volume needed to maintain balance, but Thompson does a fine job. Brown's muted Roy-Eldridge riffs come across as cleanly as his Satchmo-inspired blasts or his Dizzy-like ramblings while the vocal remains clearly out front.

Written by Jeffrey Hatcher. Conceived by Rob Ruggiero and Dyke Garrison. Directed by Rob Ruggiero. Musical direction and arrangements by Danny Holgate. Design: Michael Schweikardt (set) Alejo Vietti (costumes) Charles Lapointe (wigs) John Lasiter (lights) Michael Miceli (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Martha Knight (stage manager). Cast: Elmer Brown, George Caldwell, Harold Dixon, Tina Fabrique, Rodney Harper, Clifton Kellem.

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Running time 2:05 - one intermission
A new version of Dickens' classic set in WW II Washington DC

Storyline: The setting is Washington, DC when, on Christmas eve of 1941, mean and miserly Elijah Strube learns the true meaning of Christmas as the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, sends him the Ghost of Christmas Past to show him the error of his ways, the Ghost of Christmas Present to show him the opportunity to change and the Ghost of Christmases Yet to Come to show him the consequences of failing to change.

The adaptation is by James Magruder, whose adaptations of classic works have been great fun. He translated Marivaux's The Triumph of Love and then turned it into the book for a musical which was delightful. His translation of Alain-René Lesage's Turcaret was a bright, high-energy romp when staged at Catalyst on Capitol Hill a few years back. Here he retains the basic structure of Dickens' three-ghost dream story, but converts money lender Scrooge and his "bah humbug" into would-be war profiteer Elijah Strube with his exclamations of "bull crap!" Just what Magruder does with the alphabet agency approach of FDR's administration and the OPA defies explanation. Converting the ghosts to prominent statuary from the city ("Winged Victory" from the 1st Division Memorial, "Freedom" from atop the Capitol Dome, "Grief" from Rock Creek Cemetery) certainly ties nicely to the idea of a dream and gives costume designer Vicki R. Davis an entertaining challenge, but it seems to drag on and on. Davis also gets to deck out Hugh Nees in a bureaucrat's version of chains:  reams and reams of paper.

Nees is but one of the familiar faces that Arena fans will enjoy seeing again. The chief pleasure is watching Larry Redmond make something very human out of the clerk who has labored lo these many years in the service of the miser. Nancy Robinette does what she can with the over-written role of his wife, whose pacifist beliefs are suddenly out of fashion following the attack on Peal Harbor. Molly Clement is a cheerful presence as their daughter. Christopher Block is particularly impressive as a veteran who, as a marcher in the "Bonus Army" which was attacked by US troops when they demonstrated in favor of immediate payment of the bonus they had been promised for their World War One service but never received, was "cheered in '17, jeered in '32." The chief disappointment is the miser at the heart of the story, James Gale, who simply fails to motivate the conversion from grouch to benefactor.

Four songs were written for the production and are grafted onto the story. They are by Henry Krieger, whose music for Side Show was very effective, and Susan Birkenhead, who provided Magruder with lyrics for the musical Triumph of Love.  "Three Wise Kings" seems an effort to connect the three-ghost concept of Dickens with the biblical trio and "Heroes of the Home Front" is a prototypical 1940s number for a big band vocalist that lets the entire cast let loose with a bit of a jitterbug. George Fulginiti-Shakar and Garth Hemphill treat the material with the respect it deserves, developing arrangements and orchestrations for "Heroes of the Home Front" that sound authentic as a USO dance of the day. Similarly, Adam Larsen developed projection designs that enhance the production significantly. Chuck Fox, on the other hand, didn't devote the same level of attention to detail as properties master, providing, among other things, an electric typewriter dating from a decade after the war as a key set piece.

Adapted from Dickens by James Magruder. Directed by Molly Smith. Music by Henry Krieger. Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. Musical direction by George Fulginiti-Shakar. Orchestrations by Garth Hemphill. Arrangements by George Fulginiti-Shakar and Garth Hemphill. Choreography by Parker Esse. Design: William Schmuck (set) Vicki R. Davis (costumes) Christal Schanes (wigs and makeup) Adam Larsen (projections) Chuck Fox (properties)  John (Jock) Munro (lights) Garth Hemphill (sound) Susan R. White (stage manager). Cast: Christopher Bloch, Clinton Brandhagen, Mollie Clement, Daniel Eichner, James Gale, Tim Getman, Tara Giordano, C.J. Harrison-Davies, Gia Mora, Connan Morrissey, Hugh Nees, Lawrence Redmond, Nancy Robinette, Clay Steakley, Bayla Whitten.

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Running time 2:40 - one intermission
A musical version of a popular novel of the struggle of poor African American women in an urban housing project
Click here to buy the novel

Storyline: A crumbling and neglected housing development on a cul-de-sac formed by an unsightly concrete wall is the setting where the neighborhood women learn the power of community action with all its frustrations as well as its rewards. Their natural leader is Mattie who was forced to move into the project when she lost her house which she had posted as bail for her son who then fled. Others with problems of their own to face include Mattie's niece who suffers the loss of her daughter, Mattie's friend of longstanding who stops in the neighborhood in between men in her life, and a lesbian couple who engender the animosity of some of the ladies and the hatred of a street gang.

Tim Acito, a dancer turned playwright, lyricist and composer, handled all three aspects of the crafting of this musical: music, lyrics and book. He did the same for a smaller project called Zanna, Don't!, a musical fantasy of a high school where to be gay is the norm and to be straight is to be discriminated against by the heterophobes among your classmates. That smaller musical played Off-Broadway, garnering nominations for Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical, Best Music, Best Lyrics and Best Book. His new musical is a much more ambitious, larger scale work and he proves again to be up to the task. One choice he made was to limit the characters portrayed on stage to, as the title of both the novel and show has it, The Women of Brewster Place. Gone are the male characters who populated much of the book. The musical is not necessarily the better for the streamlining. However it does provide director Molly Smith and projection designer Adam Larsen an opportunity to create some memorable moments of threatening shadows and silhouettes. Still, there are scenes with directed distractions (such as excessive fussing with a bathtub) and others with hard to understand understatements (such as a brief outburst instead of a heart-stopping, gut-wrenching wail by the otherwise very good Shelley Thomas when she sees her daughter die).

Tina Fabrique holds forth as the star of the night, but with a performance that lacks the kind of star-power that could have lifted this show to the heavens. She's smooth where she should be rough and calm when she should be shaking things up. Her voice is never a fraction off pitch and she never misses a beat, but the polish of her song styling belies the emotion Acito wrote into the songs. She does a good job, however, when sparked by the delightful Marva Hicks in a duet on an homage to Billie Holiday. There are moments for others to shine as well. Monique L. Midgette lights up as a civil rights activist in tie-died tee shirt, especially when sparked by Terry Burrell as her only-slightly-disapproving mother, and Suzanne Douglas and Harriett D. Foy shine individually and collectively as the lesbian couple whose story becomes the dominant element of the second act.

William Foster McDaniel not only conducts, he plays keyboard while leading the six-member pit band hidden below the stage. He collaborated with Acito on the orchestrations which are essentially drab underscores for the vocalists using two keyboards and a rhythm section. The score is varied enough that it calls out for more colorful, more resourceful support. But no violin, viola or cello, let alone any brass or woodwind, enlivens the sound. The choreography by Kenneth L. Roberson seems similarly perfunctory, missing out on a number of opportunities to add to the production's sense of style and storytelling.

Music, lyrics and book by Tim Acito based on the novel by Gloria Naylor. Directed by Molly Smith. Music direction by William Foster McDaniel. Orchestrations by Tim Acito and William Foster McDaniel. Choreographed by Kenneth L. Roberson. Design: Anne Patterson (set) Adam Larsen (projections) Paul Tazewell (costumes) Chuck LaPointe (wigs) Michael Gilliam (lights) Garth Hemphill (sound) Amber Dickerson (stage manager). Cast: Cheryl Alexander, Terry Burrell, Suzzanne Douglas, Tina Fabrique, Harriett D. Foy, Eleasha Gamble, Marva Hicks, Monique L. Midgette, Tijuana T. Ricks, Shelley Thomas.

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September 14 - October 14, 2007
Well
Reviewed by Brad Hathaway

Running time 1:55 - no intermission
A very theatrical riff on health and values
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: An Author/Performer tries with ever decreasing success to control the characters she has created in her "theatrical exploration" of issues of health - personal and societal. The characters, and the actors and actresses playing them, keep taking charge of the scenes, taking them in directions she didn't expect and interacting with her mother whose health is at the core of her story.

Lisa Kron wrote this unconventionally structured one-act play and performed the central role as she nurtured it through a development process that took her and it to CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore, the Sundance Theater Lab in Utah, the La Jolla Playhouse in California and the Public Theatre in New York before eking out a two-month run on Broadway. Short run or not, it earned enough attention to garner Tony Award nominations for her as an actress as well as for her co-star, Jayne Houdyshell who played her mother.

Robinette is a delight all evening long and Ackerman gives a bright, lively and intelligent performance as Kron. The supporting cast gets a collection of great one-liners and some fabulous bits such as Donnetta Lavinia Grays popping up out of the floor at key moments. However, none is given much of a character to develop. Indeed, each plays multiple parts and also plays him or herself in one of Kron's hyper-theatrical touches. Susan Lynskey gets the award for best delivery of a single line for her deadpan pronouncement "I am Joy!" and, later, ingratiates herself with the entire audience when she breaks character to ask Nancy Robinette if they can stay in touch after the run of the show has ended.

Arena's decision to mount this essentially intimate show in the large arena-style Fichandler rather than the smaller proscenium theater, the Kreeger, is questionable at best. The large space of the stage works to swallow the interaction between the performers. The fact that a significant portion of the audience cannot see some of the reactions is a difficulty and Director Kyle Donnelly fails to insist on the level of clarity in the casts' enunciation that might have at least partially alleviated that problem. Set designer Thomas Lynch compounds the problem by leaving so much of the center of the space empty and pushing a lot of the action to the sides. Placing the mother's cozy nook and well-worn lazy boy recliner at the south-eastern corner of the stage deprives many of the audience members on those sides the chance to see a great deal of Robinette's work. Tickets on the west and north side are definitely preferable for this production.

Written by Lisa Kron. Directed by Kyle Donnelly. Design: Thomas Lynch (set) Nan Cibula-Jenkins (costumes) Nancy Schertler (lights) Lindsay Jones (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Lloyd Davis, Jr. (stage manager). Cast: Emily Ackerman, Scott Drummond, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Mark Damon Johnson, Susan Lynskey, Nancy Robinette.

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Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an absorbing examination of the creative impulse
v Brief partial nudity
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Awards for August and September
Winner of the $25,000 prize of the American Theatre Critics Association /  Steinberg Award for Outstanding New Play of 2007

Storyline: As her final project before the ravages of disease cut short her life and career, a musicologist delves into the mysteries behind Ludwig van Beethoven's composition of not one but thirty-three variations of a single waltz. As she struggles to connect with Beethoven, her daughter struggles to connect with her before it is too late.

Moisés Kaufman explored hatred in The Laramie Project and bigotry in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (well, both in both, actually). Now he explores creativity. Laramie was marked by its refusal to accept simple answers to complex issues and Indecency was notable for its examination of historical records in the search for that which can't be written down on dry parchment and paper. This play is also much more than a recreation of an historical event, exploring not just what happened but why and placing it all within a context that makes it breathe. His own program note disclaims historical recreation, terming the product "a series of variations on a moment in a life." No life exists in a vacuum, however, and Kaufman's play becomes something of a fugue intertwining moments in the lives of three interconnected sets of people.

Peil's performance is strong both in the progression of her individual character and in her reactions to her medical deterioration as she battles Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). She is also superb in the way she establishes connections with the rest of the cast. Laura Odeh is nicely chipper at first but drawn into the tragedy of her mother's decline and Greg Keller is properly awkward in a charming way as the nurse who falls for the daughter and supports her through the ordeal. Their own development as a couple is nicely done.  Susan Kellermann progresses from stiff, Teutonic librarian to compassionate friend in measured steps. Peal also interacts with the world of Beethoven where Don Amendolia makes more out of the music publisher than a mere functionary and Erik Steele provides clarity as well as background information as Beethoven's biographer Anton Schindler. Graeme Malcolm is the great composer himself, known as a raging titan of a man, and he handles the range of emotions well.

Derek McLane has contributed a set that flows as elegantly as the script, featuring frames holding individual pages of Beethoven's music framed by shelves of document boxes. The music pages form surfaces on which projections of titles ("Variation #24"), places (a map of Bonn), events (the musicologist undergoing an MRI) and images of the music itself are shown. These projections by Jeff Sugg advance the story, manipulate atmosphere and reinforce themes while giving the entire project a unique feel. And Diane Walsh's piano at stage right wraps it all together as a unified piece through her performance of many of the variations for which the play is named. She has just released a CD of the full set of the variations which is available through the theater or click here to order. 

Written and directed by Moisés Kaufman. Choreography and movement by Peter Anastos. Design: Derek McLane (set) Jeff Sugg (projections) Janice Pytel (costumes) Chuck LaPointe (wigs) David Lander (lights) André Pluess (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Meghan Gauger (stage manager). Cast: Don Amendolia, Greg Keller, Susan Kellermann, Graeme Malcolm, Laura Odeh, Mary Beth Peil, Erik Steele, Diane Walsh.

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July 5 - July 22, 2007
Emergence-SEE!
Reviewed by Brad Hathaway

Running time 1:30 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for emotion-packed poetic imagery

Storyline: When the specter of a slave ship named Remembrance surfaces in front of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, many emotions are released but none quite as strong as those of the two sons of a single thought-provoking man who clambers aboard and holds forth from the upper deck.

Each of the vignettes in this survey of land-based reactions to the metaphysical occurrence in the harbor lasts just about as long as necessary, and then Beaty moves on. Some of the vignettes are stronger than others but none drags on too long. As a performer, Beaty is precise. Since his material is all poetry - and hip hopish poetry at that - the rhythm of his delivery is as important as the inflections and how he says what he says is an important part of the performance. Beaty has an impressive level of breath control. His inhalations are easily as important and carefully choreographed as the enunciation of the text as he exhales. Variety, not normally a feature of the often monotonous Hip Hop, which after all, takes its name from a droning two-beat imitation of marching soldiers, is very much a part of Beaty's delivery and each of the vignettes or poems has its own distinctive meter.

Strangely uncredited is Kenny Leon who directed last year's production of this work at New York's Public Theatre. The contribution of a strong director can make or break a solo show being performed by its author. Someone has to be able to say "enough, already!" to rein in a creative individual working with his own material. Since we didn't happen to see the production when it was directed by Leon, we can't comment on how this current incarnation differs from the work when he was at the helm. We can say, however, that this show does not seem to suffer from some of the self-absorption that solo shows unfettered by a strong director often exhibit. Perhaps this is simply a credit to Beaty himself. Perhaps it is a residual benefit from the work of Leon. Whichever, what is on the stage is tightly controlled and highly satisfying.

While this comes as close as any show to the proverbial "one man show," there are contributions of note from people who don't happen to be Daniel Beaty. Most importantly, Jason Arnold who has designed lighting for many local shows, supports the emotions of the performance with carefully selected color schemes on the plain back drape which backs the stage at Arena's Kreeger Theatre, and alternating tight or wide lighting on Beaty as the material requires.

Written and performed by Daniel Beaty. Design: Jason Arnold (lights) Timothy M. Thompson (sound) Michal Daniel (photography) John Eric Scutchins (stage manager).

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Running time 2:40 - one intermission
A charming and visually magic puppet and live-actor presentation
Tickets $55 - $74

Storyline: Peter Pan is a boy who has escaped the real world where boys have to grow up to be men by joining the other lost boys in Neverland, but he misses the stories his mother used to tell. He visits the Darling household in London to listen to Mrs. Darling read stories to her children. The eldest of the children seems to him to be a perfect candidate to take back to Neverland to tell stories to all the lost boys and to be their mother. They fly to Neverland where they have adventures battling Captain Hook's pirates. The Darling children want to return to their home and the rest of the lost boys want to join them - but Peter continues to refuse to grow up.

Mabou Mines, named for the town in Nova Scotia where they rehearsed their first show in 1970, is a troupe that specializes in having the entire company of creative talents collaborate on all aspects of a production. The team developed Peter and Wendy in 1996 for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. With East-Asian puppetry and a Celtic musical score, this production is based on the novel J.M. Barrie wrote in 1911 following the success of his 1904 play. His novel was viewed as a bit darker than his play, and this version shows the effects of his increased emphasis on the loss of innocence. Most of the more popular adaptations - for film and for theater - concentrate on the joys of childhood and treat the theme of the problems of adulthood as just a dash of spice in the otherwise sweeter concoction. Mabou Mines tries to capture that darker feel while, at the same time, being true to the spirit of Barrie's novel.

Karen Kandel was very much a part of that original troupe that developed the piece ten years ago when she originated the part of the narrator. She's performing it again for the first month of this two month run. (Marsha Stephanie Blake takes over the role on May 29.) Kandel is the only un-masked real person on stage. The rest of the cast are covered in white in a reverse-polarity version of the traditional manipulators in Japanese bunraku puppetry who are dressed in black, and the audience is expected to ignore their presence. Here, in white, their presence is emphasized to delightful effect. The puppets themselves are marvelous. The Peter Pan puppet has about as much stage presence as any live actor we've seen this season, and the creation of the dog Nana out of what seems to be just a pile of old rags is a delight. The narrator creates all the voices (and Nana's bark) as well as narrating the story itself. She voices many of her lines with her head or at least her mouth hidden from view so that the audience concentrates on the puppet and not on her. Still each syllable she utters is clearly heard throughout the hall. Ah, the magic of the wireless microphone!

The show is a play with music, and not just incidental music. There are 8 songs plus two "tunes" in the score. Six musicians sit on one side of the stage while a seventh who handles percussion and live sound effects sits on the other. Among the six musicians is Susan McKeown who stands to sing such Celtic-sounding songs as "Memories to Bed" "Light That Beauteous Flame" and "The Wendy House Song." All the music was composed by Johnny Cunningham and is charming and lilting. The Celtic feeling compliments the accent that Kandel has given to her Peter Pan - a distinctly Scottish Gaelic brogue in honor of J. M. Barrie who was born in Forfarshire, Scotland.

Conceived and created by Mabou Mines from the novel by J. M. Barrie. Adapted by Liza Lorwin. Directed by Lee Breuer. Music composed by Johnny Cunningham. Lyrics by members of the original company. Music direction by Alan Kelly. Fight direction by B. H. Barry. Live sound effects score by Jay Peck. Puppet design and construction by Julie Archer, Stephen Kaplin, Walter Stark, Jane Catherine Shaw and Basil Twist. Design: Julie Archer (set and puppets) Sally Thomas (costumes) Andrew Moore (film) Edward Cosla (sound) Lloyd Davis, Jr. (stage manager). Cast: Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith, Deana Acheson, Matthew Acheson, Lute Breuer, Emily DeCola, Karen Kandel or Marsha Stephanie Blake, Jessica Scott, Jessica Chandlee Smith, Eric Wright. Musicians: Jay Ansill, Aidan Brennan, Jerry Busher, Tola Custy, Stephanie Geremia or Ivan Goff, Alan Kelly, Susan McKeown.

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Running time 1:10 - no intermission
An extended mime-to-soundtrack act featuring
 elaborate paper costumes
Tickets $39

Storyline: Italian clown Ennio Marchetto prances about in paper constructions combining costuming and caricature to the music of well known pop figures from Judy Garland to Liza Minelli, Frank to Nancy Sinatra, C3PO to ET and all Three Tenors to all three Supremes.

Marchetto was born in Venice, very near the home of the eighteenth century playwright Carlo Goldoni, who is credited with modernizing much of the commedia dell'arte format. Taking his cue from both the contributions of Goldoni and the traditions of Venetian masks and costume making for Carnival, along with a dash of Disney, Marchetto expanded his use of paper dolls to entertain his sister into a full-fledged career of creating paper cutout caricatures he could wear. Nearly twenty years ago he turned this into a performance piece which earned him success at the Edinburgh Fringe. Since then he has toured with the act throughout most of Europe and around the United States.

The paper creations are clever and fun. Most have a cut out space for Marchetto's face, and he mugs with abandon as he prances up and down in the rhythm of the recordings of the targets of his barbs. The creations unfold, re-fold, reverse, separate, pop up and tear apart in inventive ways.  For the Three Tenors, for example, a single suit and circle of hair serves as Luciano Pavarotti but soon the suit folds out to reveal Domingo on one side and Carreras on the other. Often, intriguing connections are drawn between icons - Judy Garland's little Dorothy dreaming of going over the rainbow morphs into ET longing to go home.

Paper is, of course, a two dimensional medium and Arena is presenting this act in the four-sided Fischandler Theatre with half of the audience area screened off so that no one in the audience is behind the performer. The west side is now what you would call "the center section" with half of the north and half of the south sides flanking the stage. The view is acceptable from the north or south because Arena is not selling the seats where the sightlines would be too extreme. While, at $39, those seats are expensive for a fringe-type show (tickets to most shows in the Capital Fringe Festival last year were $15) Arena has a number of discounts available running from their traditional "fivetwentyfive tickets" at $10 for patrons between five and twenty-five years old to half-price tickets that go on sale an hour and a half before curtain. 

Concept: Ennio Marchetto. Design and direction: Ennio Marchetto and Sosthen Hennekam. Lighting and sound design by Sosthen Hennekam. Cast: Ennio Marchetto.

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 A superbly entertaining trip through the formative years
 of the modern woman
Tickets $47 - $66
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: Viewed episodically in flashbacks, a young woman's life progresses from a high school sock hop to the time when her biological clock tells her she has to make a final choice between her profession and her maternal instincts. In between come college, forming enduring relationships with men and women, watching friends get married and become parents, achieving professional recognition and even some celebrity. Through it all, the things gained are always accompanied by the sense that there are things lost or at least chances missed.

How many Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, especially those that also won the Tony Award for best play, have been so heavily criticized for supposed weaknesses in the script? People keep picking The Heidi Chronicles apart for failure to consistently defend the feminist position, for simplistic characters, for failing to write a scene for the heroine to stand up to the men in her life, for "sit com" comedy in supposedly tackling serious themes, for a weak ending - for just about everything. Yet the text is so compellingly interesting and the issues it airs are so true to their time, that almost every complaint is not that it's bad but that it isn't as good as it seems to want to be. Well, that's churlish. In fact, the play may well raise hopes or expectations that it can't always meet, but it is constantly striving for something admirable, and perhaps its very imperfections are a realistic representation of the gap that always exists between human aspirations and what humans can actually accomplish.

Karas' Heidi grows from idealistic and hopeful teen to outwardly confident but internally conflicted adult while giving voice to both the serious truths and the humorous observations with which Wasserstein paints her portrait. She benefits from a strong cast in the frequently stereotypical supporting roles including Harmon as the predictably sensitive gay man friend, and the always good - and marvelous here - Marty Lodge, who exudes a confidence and intelligence as the flippant heterosexual who comes to believe he made a mistake settling for a lesser love than Heidi. Watching Lodge and Karas work together is reason enough to see this show.

Tazewell Thompson turns the evening into a parade of time slots - pre-Beatle 60's, protest-torn 68, etc. Time and feel for each vignette is established not only through Merrily Murray-Walsh's evocative costumes but by a series of views of icons of the moment projected on a large cube hanging precariously over Donald Eastman's set of carpeted flooring. The projections were researched and assembled by Kirby Malone and Gail Scott White of George Mason University's Multimedia Performance Studio with an eye toward giving the audience a quick and entertaining way to recognize the shift of time and place. It works nicely and avoids the problem of lengthening the evening which comes close to three hours as it is.

Written by Wendy Wasserstein. Directed by Tazewell Thompson. Design: Donald Eastman (set) Merrily Murray-Walsh (costumes) Jill Kaplan (wigs and makeup) Kirby Malone and Gail Scott White (projections) Rob Hunter (fight director) Robert Wierzel (lights) Fabian Obispo (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Amber Dickerson (stage manager). Cast: Susan Bennett, David Covington, Wynn Harmon, Ellen Karas, Hope Lambert, Marty Lodge, Emerie Snyder, Catherine Weidner.

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February 23 - April 8, 2007
Frankie and Johnny in the
Clair de Lune
Reviewed by Brad Hathaway

Running time 2:20 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for two fine performances in a
superbly written play
v Includes adult sexual material and significant nudity
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: After their first date, a waitress and a short order cook have returned to her apartment and gone to bed together. After making love, she is ready to have him leave so she can have her privacy back. He, on the other hand, thinks he knows a good thing when he sees it, has fallen in love, and has no intention of leaving. 

There seem to be two ways to approach Terrence McNally's 1987 two performer piece. The movie had a much more attractive pair (Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer) than the original Off-Broadway presentation (Kathy Bates and Kenneth Welsh). Two years ago Vincent M. Lancisi directed the play at Everyman with a decidedly romantic approach, while here David Muse directs with a rougher but no less involving style. It isn't that Muse's Buddeke and D'Ambrosio are any less attractive people than Lancisi's Zachary Knower and Deborah Hazlett. It is that Muse digs a bit deeper into the desperation of Johnny's fear that this might be his last opportunity for happiness and lets Frankie's fear of failure simmer just a bit closer to the surface, where Lancisi seemed to highlight Johnny's hopes and Frankie's temptation. Both productions, however, earned designation as a Potomac Stages Pick.

D'Ambrosio's Johnny is a character quick to clutch at any opportunity to break his sad cycle of failure. He's clearly already in love with Frankie as the play begins in the throes of their first sexual climax. Only slowly do you discover the extent of those failures he'd like to put behind him. Buddeke's Frankie  share's the audience's slow discovery of the complexity of what Johnny is offering and it reinforces her reluctance. Still, she captures the internal conflict of this waitress who is just as afraid of missing out on a chance for a future with Johnny as she is of being hurt again. As she says, she wants a life that would keep her birth from being as meaningless as her death.

Neil Patel's set hides the apartment from the audience with the hallway wall rather than a show curtain, revolving to reveal the cramped feeling Manhattan (Clinton, actually, we are informed in the dialogue) one room flat with its pull out sleep sofa/bed and a small cooking island in the kitchen area. A key to the efficiency of this efficiency as a set is Nancy Schertler's lighting, which not only provides the light of the moon from the title, it shifts mood and defines the structural elements of the play, shining light on the character's moments of self revelation and providing pools of light for Frankie and Johnny to share in their more intimate moments.

Written by Terrence McNally. Directed by David Muse. Fight direction by Robb Hunter. Design: Neil Patel (set) T. Tyler Stumpf (costumes) Nancy Schertler (lights) Daniel Baker (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Amy K Bennett (stage manager).  Cast: Kate Buddeke, Vito D'Ambrosio. (With Stephen Schnetzer as the voice of the radio announcer.)

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Running time 2:55 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for bringing history alive
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Storyline: 1839 Wylie Avenue, Aunt Ester's house in the hill district of Pittsburgh, has been a way station on the underground railroad, a house of refuge and Aunt Ester has been a soul cleaner for all of her nearly 300 years. Slavery may well be officially over, but the legacy of slavery and the subjugation of the black population lingers with all its devastating results. In 1904 a young man fleeing the oppression in the deep south arrives at the house seeking Aunt Ester's aid and sparks events that link the history of an enslaved race to the new century.

You don't need to know anything about the other nine plays in the cycle to find this one fascinating, troubling and ennobling. It may well be filled with references to places and people who have relevance to the future that Wilson chronicles in such wonderful works as Pulitzer Prize winners Fences and The Piano Lesson, or the marvelous Ma Rainey's Black Bottom or Joe Turner's Come and Gone, but it is a free standing work. It is filled with vibrantly alive characters ranging from nearly 300 year old Aunt Ester herself to the old man who worked with her helping blacks flee to freedom along the underground railroad and the young girl she hopes will replace her when she dies. A central scene linking all that is to come with what has gone before takes place in the hold of a slave ship named "The Gem of the Ocean" and is staged with chilling effectiveness. It is contrasted nicely by a scene where words do the impressing, not stage craft. It is the kitchen table discussion of slavery and freedom between two old veterans of the fight and a young man just coming to understand the legacy he has inherited. It is the genius of Wilson that the views of multiple generations clash with the values of each given equally revealing, respectful and eloquent voice.

Two actresses shine through the entire production. Pascale Armand catches the essence of the "modern woman" emerging at the start of the century while Lynnie Godfrey brings the ancient matriarch herself, Aunt Ester, to effervescent life with a marvelous melding of honest, decent dignity and affectionate humor. Her use of her hands is fascinating as she gestures, points, sways and sweeps side to side, always alive with motion and focusing her point. Male roles are given their due as well. Joseph Marcell skillfully builds his portrayal of Solly Two Kings (he was named for the biblical kings David and Solomon) from a bright but seemingly peripheral comic character to a central feature of the story, making you like him as a person before you discover his links to the past and his importance for the future. LeLand Gantt gives a vibrant and multi-dimensional portrayal of the family member seduced into serving the power structure of a white-dominated society. Timmy Ray James manages to make the part of the sympathetic white man seem human rather than a simple dramatic device. Of course, he has the nice touches that Wilson wrote for the part, but it still can be a trap in less skilled hands.

This review is based on the matinee performed at noon on a Tuesday rather than the official press performance or other normal evening show and a word is in order about the impact the show had on a mostly teenage and highly diverse audience. The energy level in the lobby both before the show and during the intermission was sky high with a matching volume. However, the audience was as quiet and attentive as any I've been in as these students came under the spell of August Wilson's dramatization of the history of the descendents of the scourge of slavery. They were positively engrossed in the experience and the cast seemed to be sparked by the intensity in the room. The shared experience was memorable. It is to be hoped that many of the students will find a way to catch the Ford's Theatre / African Continuum Theatre Company production of Wilson's 1970s installment, Jitney, which is playing at Ford's through February 25.

Written by August Wilson. Directed by Paulette Randall. Design: Scott Bradley (set) Ilona Somogyi (costumes) Sara Jean Landbeck (makeup) Jon Aitchison (hair and wigs) Cliff Williams III (fight choreography) Allen Lee Hughes (lights) Timothy M. Thompson (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Lloyd Davis, Jr. (stage manager). Cast: Pascale Armand, Jimonn Cole, LeLand Gantt, Lynnie Godfrey, Timmy Ray James, Clayton Lebouef, Joseph Marcell.

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December 15, 2006 - January 28, 2007
Noises Off
Reviewed by William Bryan

Running time 2:30 – one intermission
 t A Potomac Stages Pick for a side splitting
night of humor
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Storyline: Michael Frayn's farce presents both the on-stage and off-stage picture of the night when anything that could go wrong does go wrong for a production of a comical play.

Director Jonathan Munby must be given a large amount of the credit for the successful production. Since the play revolves around the on stage and backstage antics of a sex farce called Nothing On, Mr. Murphy ends up directing two if not three plays. Thinking about the challenges reminds one of the infinite mirrors where an image is reflected repeatedly down through the mirror. He directs the director, played by James Gale, who directs the neurotic cast of Nothing On (the farce). As convoluted as the production sounds, and as much of a nightmare it must be to get the timing right, all that comes across during the production is the humor and laughter of this engaging show.

Cast credit must also be acknowledge for the roles played, though it must appear to many of the cast members that they have seen each of the stereotyped actors presented in Noises Off at some other time during their careers. This is a veteran cast, and it shows. They not only had to overcome the challenges presented by the play itself, but also to avoid reproducing the performances seen in the excellent movie version which featured perfect casting and the luxury of multiple takes if something didn’t go quite right. Helen Carey plays Dottie, an aging stage star who puts her own money into the production, portrayed in the film by Carol Burnett. To her credit, she makes the role her own though you never quite get the feeling of romance between her and Gary, played by Stephen Schnetzer, which only slightly dulls the witticisms their romance should set later in the play. It is a pleasure to see Robert Prosky return to the stage. Known widely for his roles in Mrs. Doubtfire, The Natural, and of course three years on Hill Street Blues, he plays the alcoholic actor who plays the burglar dad, who plays…wait, too many roles, but still, a very enjoyable performance.

Even the playbill was crafted with the theme of the play within the play in mind, being one of those that seems to be for two plays, Noises Off if read one way, and Nothing On if read the other. The creative team continues their excellent work with a classic set from Alexander Dodge that lets us join the cast both on stage and backstage without interrupting the flow of the laughter or killing the show's timing. The spirit of the holidays is finally releasing its hold over the Potomac Region and what better way to start off the new year of theater than with a great night of great laughs. Not a dry eye can be found in the house at the end of the show and tears of laughter have been a rare commodity as of late in our area. Welcome back tears - and well done Arena Stage!

Written by Michael Frayn. Directed by Jonathan Munby. Fight direction by Robb Hunter. Design: Alexander Dodge (set) Linda Cho (costumes) Michael Gilliam (lights) Lindsay Jones (sound) Amber Dickerson (stage manager). Cast: Helen Carey, Lynnda Ferguson, James Gale, Susan Lynskey, Amelia McClain, Robert Prosky, Jay .Russell, Stephen F Schmidt, Stephen Schnetzer.

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November 17 - December 31, 2006
She Loves Me
Reviewed by Brad Hathaway

Running time 2:45 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a charming musical love story
Ushers' Favorite Show Award winner for December, 2006
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Storyline: The stories of six clerks in a European perfume shop intertwine at Christmas time. One is writing to a woman he never met and falling in love with her. Another is writing to a man she never met and falling in love with him. (Guess how that comes out.) A delivery boy wants to advance to sales clerk while another clerk is having an affair with the boss’ wife.

One of the gems of the musical theater from the 1960’s, She Loves Me is a simple love story with a superb score for a relatively small cast. It is a delicate piece that requires huge supplies of charm, style and grace to pull off, and Arena proves it is capable of giving the show its due. The book by Joe Masteroff could be (and is) used as a text book in storytelling balance, building characters who feel real and who interact intelligently. The songs use humor and heart in almost equal portions to create a romantic atmosphere (to quote from the song that Donnelly places at the start of the second act). The big hit from the show was the title song which was recorded by just about every pop singer before the Beatles changed the pop-music business forever.

The cast is almost uniformly marvelous - not a let down in the bunch. Brynn O'Malley makes her Potomac Region debut in the role of the letter writing romantic, and she charms everyone in the house. The part could be too saccharine, but she finds just the right combination of romantic dreaming, dramatic discovery and humor to keep both of the sugar-themed solos, "No More Candy" and "Vanilla Ice Cream," from over dosing on sweetness. Kevin Kraft is a match for her, bringing both a comic flair and a romantic sensibility to the senior clerk with whom she has carried on an epistolary affair. He moves with a natural grace and sings with style. There is a fine chemistry between them from her entrance to the final blackout. Jim Corti is a real kick as the clerk who will do anything to avoid loosing his job, and Clifton Guterman is just as much fun as the delivery boy who dreams of clerkdom. Sebastian La Cause moves like a swinger and croons like a would-be Sinatra (although occasionally going a bit flat) as the clerk who is a cad, and Hal Robinson finds the sentimental core underneath the gruff exterior of the shop owner. Nancy Lemenager picks things up with her "Trip to the Library."

Director Donnelly has J. Fred Schiffman go a bit overboard with shtick and choreographer Kenneth Lee Roberson get a bit too farcical at the start of the second half, but the crowd seems to eat it up and the show soon gets back to the charm with Guterman's big number, "Try Me." Otherwise, Donnelly treats the exquisite material here with the respect it deserves without allowing that respect to turn the production into some sort of museum exhibition. She knows that revival means "bringing back to life" and she does just that, breathing freshness into the piece. Some touches are dictated by the fact that the show is being staged in the round. She's good at spreading the action so no one side of the house feels slighted and the sightlines are excellent no matter where you sit. With the help of an elegant set design and sharp, attractive costumes, the locale is made clear. While the script only says it takes place in "a city in Europe," Bock's music places it clearly in Hungary's capital city, so Donnelly adds an on-stage violinist to give us an additional clue and has the program simply say "Budapest in the 1930s." The fourteen member orchestra hidden below the stage delivers both lushness with five string players and liveliness with great reed and woodwind playing. The  English horn (neither English nor a horn) of Rita Eggert is particularly delightful.

Music by Jerry Bock. Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Book by Joe Masteroff based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. Directed by Kyle Donnelly. Choreographed by Kenneth Lee Roberson. Music Direction by William Foster McDaniel. Orchestrations by Don Walker, adapted by Frank Matosich, Jr. Design: Kate Edmunds (set) Nan Cibula-Jenkins (costumes) Jon Aitchison (wigs) Nancy Schertler (lights) Garth Hemphill (sound) Susan R. White (stage manager). Cast: Kurt Boehm, Jim Corti, Ashlee Fife, Clifton Guterman, Jennifer Irons, Joe Jackson, Kevin Kraft,  Sebastian La Cause, Jeremy Leiner, Nancy Lemenager, Gia Mora, Brynn O'Malley, Hal Robinson, Roger Rosen, Michael Scott, J. Fred Shiffman, Rosalie Tenseth, Jesse Terrill

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t A Potomac Stages Pick for a one woman show that entertains and educates
Running time 1:30 - no intermission
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Storyline: A one woman show wherein nine women present the effects of the Iraq war upon their lives. From the rich artist to the spoiled schoolgirl, from the bereaved mother to the terrified doctor, lives, loves, and losses are explored across a war torn stage, a war torn country, and a war torn world.

The one person show is perhaps the most difficult of stage performances to successfully achieve. There is no one else on stage to rely upon or to build with. Hal Holbrook is often credited with setting the model one man show with his Mark Twain Tonight! performances in the 1960s.  Heather Raffo demonstrates once more the excellence that can be achieved through a one person show with her uncanny ability to rapidly switch among the roles of nine very different women. Using only minor costume changes which occur most often in a quick whirling dervish of light, sound, and movement, she transforms both herself and her stage with each change of character. Over the course of the performance she becomes: a teenage girl infatuated by N-Sync, a doctor terrified by mutations and cancers, a Bedouin after three husbands, a grieving mother who has forsaken her own name, an Iraqi-American watching from afar, a ex-patriot in London, a beggar on the streets, an artist who loves her country, and a woman who teaches us what a shoe can tell of a life.

These remarkable stories, and the skill that Heather Raffo uses to bring them to life, would be much less effective without the set by Antje Ellermann and the lighting of Peter West.  Together the two worked to allow the actress to move from a river stream to a hospital ward, from a London flat to an American apartment, from an artist’s loft, to a war torn street.  The stage never changes, yet our perceptions of it are altered with each change of character on stage due to the way the actress can move through this set and the lighting that establishes the mood.  Sounds provide the final touches to paint the tapestry that are the lives and locations of these remarkable women.

The show is political.  Given its content, it could not be otherwise.  Yet, with minor exceptions, it does not pursue blame or responsibility so much as it illustrates the terror, heartbreak and atrocities of war for those of us who have become detached by only seeing what the media shows in thirty second clips on the evening news.  The lives presented to us are all fictional, a conglomeration of lives that the author discovered while living with many Iraqi women as she worked on her Masters thesis.  A painting, called “Savagery,” which she found in the Saddam Art Center in 1993, makes it's way throughout the play tying together the lives of the women portrayed.  The story of the painting, its creation, and its final resting place, interwoven with the stories of the women around it and that of the war which encompasses them all, lets us see once more the strength of the human spirit, and more so, how the ripples and waves of a conflict of this size can change the world.

Written and performed by Heather Raffo. Directed by Joanna Settle. Design: Antje Ellermann (set) Kasia Walicka Maimone (costumes) David Neumann (choreographer) Peter West (lights) Lynne Soffer (voice and dialect coach) Obadiah Eaves (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Martha Knight (stage manager).

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Running time 2:40 - one intermission
An awkward but highlight-filled production of
Kander and Ebb's troubling musical
The material is appropriate for mature teens but not for younger theatergoers
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Storyline: An American would-be novelist comes to Berlin as the Nazis are taking power. He meets the occupants of a slightly seedy rooming house and a shabby cabaret, "The Kit Kat Klub." His landlady breaks off her engagement to a greengrocer because of threats from the Nazis since he is Jewish and she is not. An English girl who is a singer at the cabaret, who has very little talent but with whom he falls in love, places her career ahead of any effort to avoid the impending conflagration.

Smith has the benefit of some fine performances as she brings the show to life in her unique vision. Brad Oscar is an impressive presence all evening long and his singing of both "I Don't Care Much" and "If You Could See Her" is memorable. Meg Gillentine finds the hard-to-find line between the vocal demands of the songs and the supposedly limited talent of her character. The pair of Dorothy Stanley, as the widow who runs the boarding house, and Walter Charles, as her fruit shop suitor, is superb although Charles' marvelous work is impaired by the demands of Smith's approach which doesn't give him the opportunity to reveal his fears that his Jewishness really will be unacceptable in the Nazi world that is surrounding him. Sherri L. Edelen is marvelous as the prostitute who has a string of "nephews" visiting her room in the boarding house and J. Fred Shiffman gives just about the strongest performance as the Nazi functionary in memory. Glenn Seven Allen, on the other hand, is merely a pleasant presence as the American writer through whose eyes we see the story.

Brad Oscar, in his big Broadway breakthrough as the understudy who became the star of The Producers, had a line in that musical that seems in retrospect to be a comment on the staging here. His character in that earlier show claimed to be the inventor of "theater in the square - nobody had a good seat!" Well, the Arena is a theater in the square and all too often in this production a scene is interrupted by a turn to the side that isn't motivated by what is happening to the characters, it is obviously motivated by the need to show the people on a different side of the house just what is going on. Smith avoided this problem with her marvelously fluid staging of Camelot in this same square with the help of Baayork Lee's elegant choreography (the misconceived joust of that production aside). Lee also helped move the focus in Damn Yankees with aplomb. Here, David Neumann provides what choreography there is, but Smith doesn't have many of the scenes use much dance, with the exception of the song "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes" in the cabaret and the engagement party in the boarding house. Otherwise, this is a fairly static musical and Smith is left spinning her performers left and right at awkward moments to spread the view for the audience that surrounds the stage. Makeup designer Sara Jean Landbeck nicely avoids the excesses of some other productions of the show. Anne Patterson provides a multi-layered setting that supports Smith's effort to blur the distinctions between the cabaret and the outside world. In an effort to set up a visual representation of the show's main theme, Patterson also provides a silly looking model train for the early scene of the American writer's arrival in Germany. But the purpose of the train's appearance becomes clear at the end of the show in an emotionally affecting visual effect.

Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Joe Masteroff. Based on the play by John Van Druten and the stories of Christopher Isherwood. Directed by Molly Smith. Choreographed by David Neumann. Music Direction by George Fulginiti-Shakar. Design: Anne Patterson (set) Austin K. Sanderson (costumes) Bettie O. Rogers (hair and wigs) Sara Jean Landbeck (makeup) Joel Moritz (lights) Phillip Scott Peglow (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Susan R. White (stage manager). Cast: Glenn Seven Allen, Julie Burdick, Billy Bustamante, Walter Charles, Sherri L. Edelen, Jenna Edison, Hillary Heather Elliott, Meg Gillentine, Danna Harris, Lynn McNutt, Monique L. Midgette, Brad Oscar, Kyle Pleasant, Carlos Ponton, Diego Prieto, J. Fred Shiffman, Dorothy Stanley, Jason Strunk, Erica Sweany, Brett Teresa.

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Reviewed May 11
Running time 2:40 - one intermission
A time-travel comedy
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Storyline: Three women in 1888 set out on an exploration into "Terra Incognita" only to find that the unknown territory they visit is the future. They arrive in 1955, where words they thought the knew mean something else, and the landscape is filled with items they don't recognize. Two remain in 1955 while the third continues on into the future's future.

The production began life in Westport Connecticut where Thompson has just become the Artistic Director of the legendary Westport Country Playhouse established as the premiere out of town (that is, out of New York) theater in the 1930's by the Theatre Guild's Lawrence Langner, and rescued from dilapidation by Joanne Woodward at the start of the new century. It ran for most of March on the Playhouse's traditional proscenium style stage. Now he brings the cast and design team from that effort to work in the arena style theater with the audience not just in front but all around the playing space. Thompson knows a thing or two about directing in the round as he demonstrated with M. Butterfly in this space. However, in adjusting an already blocked production from one- to four-sided is a difficult trick which escapes him here. If you have a choice, see the show from the north side. It should be a much better show than the one you would see from the South.

Laiona Michelle returns to Arena where she was so very good in Thompson's Yellowman. Her fellow travelers are Molly Wright Stuart and Susan Bennett, both making their Arena debuts (Bennett was one the Joad kids in Ford's The Grapes of Wrath). Their reactions to the stimuli of discoveries vary nicely and they manage to create unique personas even without much in the way of back-story provided in the script. The major contribution of the Westport Playhouse seems to be Tom Beckett playing the seven people and one Yeti the ladies happen upon. He switches characters as readily has he changes costumes and each entrance seems to give the production a brief shot in the arm.

The three "sister sojourners" are earnest, energetic and all agog as they proceed - well, pace back and forth - across the bridge that Donald Eastman has placed across Arena's yawning black pit. The bridge is bare white with slats allowing light up through the floor. A few set pieces slide in from the sides, most notably a set of three old gas pumps that seem to appear just as the piece is in need of some energy.

Written by Eric Overmyer. Directed by Tazewell Thompson. Design: Donald Eastman (set) Carrie Robbins (costumes) Sara Jean Landbeck (wigs) Robert Wierzel (lights) Fabian Obispo (sound and music) Scott Suchman (photography) Linda Harris (stage manager). Cast: Tom Beckett, Susan Bennett, Laiona Michelle, Molly Wright Stuart.

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Reviewed April 6
Running time 1:35 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages pick for a glimpse of musical history

Storyline: A fictional recreation of one of the last appearances of Billie Holiday in a jazz club in Philadelphia shortly before her death at the age of 44 features over a dozen of her songs as well as a rambling narrative as she shares with the audience her memories of her hard life on the road as a black entertainer in the 1940s and 50s. Songs include "Strange Fruit," "Taint Nobody's Biz-Ness" and "God Bless the Child" (whose got his own).

Billie Holiday's actual last performance was at a benefit concert in New York. She could only do two songs before leaving the stage that night. This fictional version of a very different "nearly final performance" is in a bar in the town of her birth, Philadelphia. She manages fourteen songs and shares memories while becoming progressively inebriated from the on-stage glass of vodka or gin and, one supposes, from the off stage intake of something less legal. As her voice and her energy ebb she finally is reduced to complete silence but not submission.

Lynn Sterling creates a compelling portrait of Billie Holiday. In a lovely white gown that seems just waiting for the chanteuse's signature white gardenia, she withers before your eyes but retains an angry dignity that refuses to accept the limitations of the body or the voice. Sterling's voice is clearer and stronger than Holiday's was in her last days, which may be why she's able to get through all 14 songs. She gives them a delivery reminiscent of Holiday without attempting an impersonation.

William Foster McDaniel leads the onstage trio in a solidly accurate jazz backing for the lady. McDaniel also has a role to play as Holiday's last music director/accompanist. He has a few lines and delivers them without drawing attention to the fact that he is a musician and not an actor.  Danny Holgate's arrangements include a three-song overture that sets just the right tone. The set is an authentic-looking venue with even a few cafe tables at the front where some lucky audience members get to share the evening in the style to which customers would have been accustomed. Just to complete the feel, you are allowed to bring beverages to your seat with you even if you aren't sitting at the cafe tables.

Written by Lanie Robertson. Directed by Kenneth Lee Roberson. Musical direction by William Foster McDaniel. Musical arrangements by Danny Holgate. Design: Shaun L. Motley (set) Austin K. Sanderson (costumes) Jon Aitchison (wig) Michael Gilliam (lights) Timothy M. Thompson (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Amber Dickerson (stage manager.) Cast: Lynn Sterling, William Foster McDaniel with Eric Kennedy (drums) and Thomas E. Short, Jr. (bass).

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Reviewed March 9
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
 A comic fable 
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Storyline: During the drought-ridden depression years, a stranger claiming he can make rain enters the lives of the Curry family: caring but pragmatic father J.C. Curry, skeptical realist elder son Noah, romantic younger brother Jimmy and daughter Lizzie on the verge of spinsterhood. The stranger may offer a miracle more important than rain.

If the storyline above sounds familiar, but you know you never saw The Rainmaker before, it may be because Nash later converted the play to a musical with Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt under the title 110 In the Shade. That musical received a glorious revival three years ago at Signature Theatre. It is fascinating to see the scenes which inspired many of the songs in the musical version, and just how many of Mr. Nash's lines of dialogue contained the elements of abstraction and allusion that made them work well in a musical. Music plays an important part in this production of this non-musical - incidental music, not songs. For instance, the con-man's entrance is underscored by a nearly otherworldly musical theme that is nearly subtle enough to be subliminal but helps cast an immediate spell.

Day creates a Lizzie for whom you can root, which makes her final avoidance of the dreaded future as an old maid a pleasure. Michael Laurence makes the stranger of a con man very strange indeed, emphasizing the fast talking shtick of a traveling salesman rather than smooth charm or romantic magnetism. This makes Day's success at making her sexual awakening in his arms seem a good thing somewhat more difficult, but she pulls it off. The rest of the cast is solid with nicely human portrayal of the deputy sheriff she's really fated for by Frank Wood. Best of all, however, is William Parry in the hardest of the roles to pull off, that of Lizzie's father who has to say some really dumb things and yet deliver a number of of the show's most memorable, cogent lines with conviction and apparent wisdom. There is a standout small part performances by Ben Fox in the early part of the run as Lizzie's younger brother, but he is leaving the cast only three weeks into the run, to be replaced by Jesse Hooker.

The spareness of life in depression-era rural America is nicely represented by Michael Yeargan's set design which consists principally of a simple floor of wooden planking with a simple kitchen table which converts to a desk. Different locales are signaled by lowering lanterns or ceiling fans into place. The tack room where the con-man works his greatest con is nicely created with just a saddle and a rug. The whitewash arrow which is painted on the floor as part of the mumbo-jumbo of the con, however, is an unnecessary comic touch which does some real damage to Parry's still successful effort to make the part of the father work, and then requires cast members to skip over or plod through sections of the stage that seem to cry out for a "wet paint" sign. Other productions wisely place the arrow painting off stage.

Written by N. Richard Nash. Directed by Lisa Peterson. Design: Michael Yeargan (set) Ilona Somogyi (costumes) James F. Ingalls (lights) Mark Bennett (sound and additional music) Brad Waller (fight choreography) Scott Suchman (photography) Susan R. White (stage manager). Cast: Johanna Day, Ben Fox or Jesse Hooker, Michael Laurence, William Parry, Delaney Williams, Graham Winton, Frank Wood.

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Reviewed  January 26
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
Solid production of a neglected major play of the 1930s
Click here to buy the script