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Running time 2:30 - one intermission
t Potomac Stages Pick for a trio of strong performances in a unique musical with a superb score
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Storyline: This musical morality tale is based on the lives of depression-era entertainers Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twins. Discovered working as freaks in a tawdry sideshow, the sisters are groomed for celebrity and success in vaudeville by an agent and coach who are attracted to them romantically as well as professionally. The climb to fame leads to an offer from Hollywood – to appear in a movie titled "Freaks."

Side Show debuted on Broadway ten years ago in a production that drew Tony nominations for best musical, book and score and also for both of its leading ladies. The nearly sung-through structure, which is heavy in recitative, is helped by the fact that the songs themselves - all two dozen of them - feature memorable melodies and insistent rhythms. It was a flop, however, playing just 91 performances. Its original cast recording came to the rescue, spreading the fame of the musical by preserving some of its greatest strengths without suffering from some of its weaknesses. In performance, the subplot of the black man whose love for one of the twins is rejected as being more unacceptable than a marriage between a conjoined twin and a man of her own race, was awkwardly handled. Also, the major moment of recognition that is set in a "tunnel of love" seemed cheaply produced. Neither problem affected the recording, and the show began to earn legions of adherents. Here, the race issue is set up nicely by Bailey by having African American J. Michael d'Haviland glower in the background in a set-up scene so the audience is alerted to the conflict even before it is raised in the text. The tunnel of love sequence is deftly handled and works much better than it did on Broadway.

Lambert and McManus are tremendous as the "Siamese" twins. They sing with clarity and assurance. Each creates a distinct personality and they relate to each other with a chemistry that feels right for a pair who have shared every experience of life since infancy. McManus uses a friendly, youthful innocence while Lambert adds just a touch of bitterness and longing. As good as Lambert is in all the time she's paired with McManus, she's at her best in the one scene where McMahan "invents a separation in the private conversation in (his) mind." This frees her from twindom to tempt or torment him in his recognition of his own weakness: his inability to establish intimacy with a conjoined twin. (Ken and Patty Crowley's lighting for this scene is particularly effective.) Two major characters whose voices can't quite deliver the impact their songs require, but who, nonetheless, make significant contributions are Christopher Smith as McMahan's partner in handling the twins' act and d'Haviland as their long-time friend and protector who is the rejected black man. Joshua Redford also makes an impression in the smaller but still important role of the side show owner.

Bailey stages the piece with a sense of space that makes the playing area of the Industrial Strength Theatre, which the Players have purchased after renting it for the past 18 years, seem bigger and deeper. She concentrates on personal interactions - not just of the principals, but of members of the chorus. She collaborates with choreographer Catherine Oh on some really effective steps for the twins which not only demonstrate their ability to entertain, but which become increasingly effective as their career goes from side show "small time, to medium time, to big time" vaudeville (to borrow a phrase from The Will Rogers Follies which we reviewed last week). Similar attention to detail and to the progression of the story is evident in the costume designs of Kathy and Laura Dunlap. Music director Elisa Rosman gets fine work from the ensemble as well as from her orchestra of nine, especially from the reeds of Mitch Bassman and Jane Hughes.

Music by Henry Krieger. Book and lyrics by Bill Russell. Directed by Lisa Anne Bailey. Musical direction by Elisa Rosman. Choreography by Catherine Oh and Lisa Anne Bailey. Vocal and dance arrangements by David Chase. Orchestrations by Harold Wheeler. Design: Jeff Boatright (set) Kathy and Laura Dunlap (costumes) Sheila Hyman (makeup) Kat Brais (hair) Ken and Patty Crowley (lights) Kevin Harney (sound) Richard Downer (photography) Joan A. S. Lada (stage manager). Cast: Nicholas Romeo Eraña Aquino, Kat Brais, John-Michael d'Haviland, Mark Hidalgo, Hunter Hughes, Jennifer Lambert, Patrick McMahan, Katie McManus, Meghan C. Trahan, Joshua Redford, Dean Reichard, Laura J. Scott, Christopher Smith, Nathan Williams, Alexa Yarboro, Jaclyn Young.

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Running time 1:45 - one intermission
A verbal battle of wits performed with flair
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Storyline: Two women live together in a townhouse at the end of the nineteenth century. Within the privacy of their home they are lovers.  Financial pressures have caused one to take on the role of mistress to a wealthy man who is married - "If he didn't have a wife, why would he need a mistress?" The other has developed a crush on younger woman. Can their "Boston Marriage" survive the pressures of jealousy?

This drawing room comedy, with its literate verbal fireworks, is by David Mamet. Mamet? The same Mamet who carved the acerbic verbal explosions of Glengary Glen Ross? The same Mamet who crafted the underworld jibes of American Buffalo? Yes, but the same Mamet could make the transition to the more refined verbiage of the British boys school students in The Winslow Boy and even the more image-laden vocabulary of the Russians in The Cherry Orchard. Of course, there he was translating and adapting Chekhov. Here he is in full command of sharp-tongued, witty verbal combat between two educated, intelligent women.

Shannon Khatcheressian is nicely commanding as the obviously in-command partner in this relationship, the one who has taken the action she sees as necessary for their economic survival. Her barbs can cut deeply. She's the elder partner as well, to judge from her reaction to the heated accusation that she's "an old bitch." Summoning all the haughty dignity at her command, she declaims "I am not old!"  Pamela Sabella rightly makes the only-slightly-subservient character just a bit winy, blending a touch of pleading into her request for a fling that would be called extramarital if marital this relationship was. Providing an outsider's view is Molly Hicks as an Scottish maid who is less concerned with what her two mistresses do in the privacy of their home than she is over their apparent lack of approval for how she performs her household duties. Hicks blends a bit of Lucille Ball's tears into the mix in a series of very funny scenes.

Marty Sullivan's set transforms the wide playing space at the Industrial Strength Theater into a sumptuous Victorian living room with deep red wall covering decorated with chintz panels, thick area carpets, heavy furniture and knick-knacks galore. Denise Young's costumes are right for the time, the place and the characters. Khatcheressian's green outfit nicely compliments the emerald necklace that figures so prominently in the plot, and Sabella's more prim and proper buttoned-up-to-the-neck blouse under a severe jacket emphasizes her oh-so-straight posture that fairly reeks of Victorian concern for appearances. Hicks' plain maid's costume with its black dress and white apron that is a tad too short for her to dab at her on tears sets up a funny moment without telegraphing it too far ahead.

Written by David Mamet. Directed by Debbie Niezgoda. Design: Marty Sullivan (set) Denise Young (costumes) Michael Smith (properties and set dressing) Keith Ryder (lights)  Stan Harris (sound) Richard Downer (photography) Richard Durkin (stage manager). Cast: Molly Hicks, Shannon Khatcheressian, Pamela Sabella.

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Running time 2:40 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a first class presentation
 of a rarely produced musical
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Storyline: A working class Liverpool woman struggles to support her children after her husband abandons her. She is pregnant again but figures the salary from her job as a housekeeper will stretch just enough. Then she learns she is to have twins. Her childless employer offers to take one of the two children to raise as her own. The two boys grow up on opposite sides of the economic divide but come to know each other. They don’t know of their relationship, however, because their mother believes an old wives tale that twins separated at birth will die on the day they learn of their connection.

Music, lyrics and book by Willy Russell. Directed by Gloria DuGan. Musical direction by David Rhode. Choreography by Jeannie Torres. Design: Frank Pitts (set) Judy Whelihan (costumes) Suzanne Maloney (properties) Kat Brais (make-up and hair) B. Keith Ryder (lights) Stan Harris (sound) Richard Downer (photography) Leslie Peterson (stage manager). Cast: Nicholas Aliff, Christopher Borton, JoEllen Borton, Kat Brais, Josh Doyle, Brian Dunn, Laura Dunlap, Kristen Garaffo, Nano Gowland, Todd C. Huse, Andy Izquierdo, Anita H. Miller, Liz Runnion, David Segal, Michael Sherman, Janet Devine Smith, Lucy Todd, Susanna Todd. Musicians: Mitch Bassman, Matt Hardy, Marcia McIntyre, Rick Peralta, David Rohde.

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Reviewed July 31
Running time 2:50 - one intermission
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Storyline: A "dance hall hostess" with dreams of a better life latches on to every hope that comes along but always looses in the end. Being shoved into a lake by a boyfriend who steals her purse, having to hide in a closet while another date makes love to another woman nor being jilted by a man who really loves her but who can't deal with her profession - none of these things can shake her optimism.

Watson makes the most of the role that was written specifically to showcase Gwen Verdon's inimitable charm, innocent sexuality, comedic delivery and angular dance mannerisms. While those things can't be imitated, they can be approximated, and Watson has just the right combination of skills and personality for the task. She's bright, cheerful, hopeful and funny - all the things needed by the role. She makes you believe it when she sings that finding love makes her feel as great as "a big brass band."

The full voices of two leading men carry some of the stronger ballads. Nathan Drost as a movie star whose path the heroine passes briefly booms "Too Many Tomorrows" in a highlight of the first act. In the second act, Todd Apple, as the  claustrophobic suitor, renders the title song quite nicely. Some of the other solo spots suffer from the transition out of the time of the show - most specifically "The Rhythm of Life" number of a psychedelically inclined new religious movement which neither Terry Spann nor the ensemble can bring to life.

The pit band hidden behind a curtain at the back of the stage plays the challenging jazzy charts with abandon but not necessarily with accuracy as the members aren't quite together on many of the tricky rhythms. This is a problem for a show that relies so heavily on Bob Fosse's particularly angular vision in dances which Elden Street's choreographer Stefan Sittig has translated well for performance by his more limited forces.

Music by Cy Coleman. Lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Book by Neil Simon. Directed by Ellen Dempsey. Musical direction by JoEllen Richardson and Chris Borton. Choreography by Stefan Sittig. Design:   Rich Klare (set) Elessa Ewalt (costumes) Elessa Ewalt and Caroline Kenney (make-up/hair) Laura Baughman (properties) Dan Martin (lights) Kevin Harney (sound) Jeff Boatright (photography) Debby Costa and Amy Headlee (stage managers). Cast: Maggie Allman, Theresa Apple, Todd Apple, Jeffrey Scott Auerbach, Courtney Carter, David J. Clement, Jr., Nathan Drost, Michelle Jones, Katie Mallory, Andrew D. Nguyen, William D. Parker, Aliza Jackie Reed, Margie Remmers, Terry Spann, Elsbeth Strum, Maria Watson, Alexa Yarboro.

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Reviewed March 26
Runing time 2 hours 30 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick for strong performances
 of a fascinating script

Storyline: In 1941, German nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg, who headed the Nazi's effort to develop an atom bomb, travels to Copenhagen to meet with his former colleague Niels Bohr with whom he had, before the war, done groundbreaking work in theoretical physics. The author uses the dramatic equivalents of their scientific concepts - the uncertainty principle, complentarity and the basic concepts of quantum mechanics - in this fictional account of what they may have discussed in their private meeting, exploring multiple possibilities simultaneously. Was Heisenberg trying to send a message to his counterparts in the west? Was he trying to learn what Bohr might know of the Allies' nuclear program? Were there more personal reasons for the meeting?

Director Leslie A. Kobylinski has a track record of selecting strongly intellectual, dialogue intensive plays and then approaching the material with respect and trust. This is what earned her Port City Playhouse production of Pinter's Betrayal the Washington Area Theatre Community Honors awards for best play and best direction last year. It is what made her work on Warren Light's Side Man here at Elden Street take the same pair of awards in 2002. Again this time she leads a superb cast in an exploration of a work that deserves serious attention to each thought being expressed by a small group of intelligent, expressive people. In this case it is a trio of characters - the two scientists and Bohr's wife. Kobylinski moves them about the highly defined circular playing space like particles interacting in a Petri dish, each coming to the outer edge to deliver individual thoughts and reactions and bouncing back into the center to exchange comments and hear the thoughts of the others.

The cast of three is well matched which is important in this play about three very intelligent, very strong individuals in a highly charged atmosphere where each is carefully considering every word being said. Larry Daniele makes the enigmatic Heisenberg seem completely genuine in each of the tactics he pursues in the author's exploration of possible alternative explanations for the clandestine meeting he arranged. What is more, Daniele makes many of the physics-related allusions Frayn puts in Heisenberg's mouth seem the natural slipping of a professional into the jargon of his specialty. His is the crucial role of the three, for his is the energy that sparks the reactions.

Bernie Engel's Niels Bohr is more reserved, more suspicious and more pained, all of which is very appropriate for this victim of the Nazis -- half Jewish during the horror of the holocaust, all Danish during the occupation of that tiny country, cut off from his colleagues and from his work and highly suspicious of the motivation of his former friend and colleague. Sheri S. Herren is cool and collected but lets her strength of head and heart show as Margrethe Bohr, who despite the belittling comments of the men that they have to not only puzzle out the secrets of creation, they have to make them understandable to her -- demonstrates every bit as much intelligence and quite a bit more common sense than the men. (Truth in reviewing announcement: The Sheri Herren who is so good in this role is also the Marketing Director of Potomac Stages.)

Written by Michael Frayn. Directed by Leslie A. Kobylinski. Design: Grant Kevin Lane (set and costumes) Franklin Coleman (lights) Anna Hawkins (sound) Jeff Boatright (photography) Donna Reynolds (stage manager). Cast: Larry Daniele, Bernie Engel, Sheri S. Herren.

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Reviewed March 22
Running time 3 hours 15 minutes

All the elements of an engrossing and touching experience are present in this massive production. They combine to create a sense of gentle affection and warmth that pervades the evening. But they don’t deliver the shocking emotional blows for which the play is known. There are still shocks, but they are secondary. Nonetheless, there are seven fine performances from a cast of seven and you can’t bat higher than that. There is a scenic design that solves all of the problems of placing this sprawling piece in the space available at the Industrial Strength Theater, including a simple double drape for the surface of the lake in which the men go skinny-dipping and a perspective-bending effect for the beds in which they sleep and snuggle. There are very good lighting and costume designs that adds atmosphere. And there is the play itself, an important and impressive piece of work.

Storyline: Over the course of one summer, eight gay men gather for holiday weekends at a lake house in the country outside of New York City. As mature men whose sexuality is the defining characteristic of their personalities, they take the opportunity of being away from the straight world to let their hair down, strut their stuff and strengthen or stress the bonds of their relationships. As the summer progresses, with each act being a different weekend, those relationships begin, bend and build or break. 

This is a play that was profoundly shocking, not just for its open nudity, but for its searing emotionalism when it first opened in 1994. The secret to the difference in its impact then and now may be explained by looking at the death toll of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Then the gay community was reeling from the shock of an apparently unstoppable onslaught. A new disease was taking thousands of lives a month and the rate was seen as increasing. It wasn’t known then that the fatality of the epidemic had peaked in this country. While playwright Terrance McNally was accepting the Tony, it looked as if AIDS would claim between 50,000 and 60,000 American lives in the year. Today, the efforts to reduce the scourge in this country have dropped those figures closer to 10,000 and the trend is down. What is more, the incidence in the gay community is much less a portion of the total than it was then. When McNally wrote this play, he didn’t specify a time. He didn’t have to. But with the gay community’s panic turning more to determination to eradicate the plague, the play is stripped of some of its unspoken urgency amounting to near hysteria. 

There is still the aspect of prolonged and frequent male nudity - - but even that isn’t as shocking today as it was a decade ago. Besides, most of the nudity in this play is of the skinny-dipping, bottomless sun bathing variety and not accompanied by overt sexual activity. Indeed, Director Christopher Dykton, knowing that the unrevealed can be the most effective, stages the plays two overtly sexual acts with his characters partially clothed. 

The cast of seven (Matthew Randall plays both a healthy man and his dying brother) delivers fine ensemble work. The best of the work comes from Tom Flatt whose comfort level on stage seems to pervade the group. This is most appropriate, for his character’s relationship with his partner, played with humor and warmth as well by Jason Greene, has lasted 14 years and has all the trappings of a successful marriage. Michael Canter is good throughout the evening as the blind young man who has been the host’s lover but he tops the entire performance with a heart rending reaction to the news of a death in the family. Ryan Morra is sinuous and sensuous while Tom Witherspoon does a good job of keeping his performance from looking like an impersonation of Nathan Lane who played it on Broadway. Together, the seven create real characters in a society all their own.

Written by Terrence McNally. Directed and choreographed by Christopher Dykton. Design: Dawn Chila (set) B. Keith Ryder (lights) G. Kevin Lane (costumes) Hope Berschler (properties) Judy Whelihan and Lisa Underwood (set dressing) Keith Bell (sound) Joan A.S. Lada (stage manager). Cast: Tom Flatt, Jason Greene, Michael Canter, Ryan Morra, Jack B. Stein, Matthew Randall, Tom Witherspoon.