The songs one woman knows are the link to her people's story
Running time 2:05 - one intermission
Tickets $25 - $55 

Storyline: A researcher seeking folksongs dating back to slavery or even farther to African origins discovers that an inmate in a Texas women's prison seems to have the mother load of songs, but she'll only share them in exchange for some privileges. As the songs get more valuable, so too do the privileges sought until, finally, it is parole that is the price. The researcher succeeds in obtaining release for her songstress inmate and takes her to New York where she can perform her songs on stage.

If that storyline with a striking gender difference sounds familiar, you probably already know the story of researcher John Lomax and his discovery and promotion of the wealth of songs in the head of the man who became known as Lead Belly. That was during the depression as well but the location was Louisiana even though Huddie Ledbetter who became known as Lead Belly actually learned most of his treasury of folk songs and wrote quite a few of his own as a youth in Texas before his time in prison where Lomax discovered him. Higgins switches both characters from male to female to add the topic of gender discrimination to the racial issues in order to enrich the goulash of topics touched upon.

One very positive result of the switch is that Tonya Pinkins can now take on the role of the storehouse of musical history. This three time Tony Award nominee and one time winner (for Jelly's Last Jam) knows just how to hold the stage when singing with no help from either an orchestra or a chorus. She just stands there and produces a soulful sound that captivates. When not singing, her acting is at its best when her character is at its strongest. She really does tough and strong very well. When the character softens just a bit out of either affection for the other lady on stage or out of a touch of trepidation when taken from a Texas prison to a Greenwich Village flat or the stage of a New York concert hall, you just briefly begin to see the actress within the act. Throughout the evening she shares the stage with Erika Rolfsrud as the researcher who sees in these songs not only historical value but the key to her own professional success. Rolfsrud doesn't approach the role as a supporting one - she's the co-star and that is precisely the way to play it.

Tony Cisek provides a set that draws applause at the beginning of the second act even after the first act setting may have been a topic of conversation during intermission. The first act takes place entirely before a rough brick wall of the Texas prison with a single strategically placed window high on the wall drawing contrast between the confines of the interior and the open space beyond. It is when the action switches to New York that things open up with both a wall of doors and a cluttered apartment of a bohemian friend of the researcher. (Rolfsrud responds to Pinkins' query of what exactly is a Bohemian by saying "Someone who wants to be an artist but has no talent.") 

Written by Frank Higgins. Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson. Music direction by William Hubbard. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Toni-Leslie James (costumes) Wendy Parson (wigs and makeup) Dan Covey (lights) Veronika Vorel (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Brandon Prendergast (stage manager). Cast: Tonya Pinkins, Erika Rolfsrud.

A Potomac Stages Pick for walking tours of Civil War Washington performed in character with well researched scripts
Performances start at Ford's Theatre and cover a mile and a half
Price $12

Storyline: Two different walking tours are offered. One conducted by an actress in the character of free black woman Elizabeth Keckly who was a friend, confident and seamstress to first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. She was born into slavery, purchased her freedom and worked her way to success. The other has an actor in the character of police detective James McDevitt who tells the story of the investigation into the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, stopping at many of the places that saw important events on that night of April 14, 1865.

Nelson, well known throughout the Potomac Region not only for her work when she led the African Continuum Theatre Company but for her output as a director and playwright, has taken the memoirs of Elizabeth Keckly as the basis for the tour which shows visitors what Washington was like during the Lincoln years from the perspective of a well-connected free black woman. "Keckly" walks her "guests" past her residence, her church and her shop while creating a portrait of that war-crowded city with its overflow of soldiers both wounded and battle-bound, its influx of escaped or freed former slaves fleeing the Confederacy, and its society of political office-seekers, office-holders and their wives. Nelson taps into the depth of emotion that Keckly felt over her emergence from slavery, the value of her freedom and the wonder at the ability to carve out a life for herself with human dignity. A big part of her success comes from the formality of her language, the precision of the choice of words and the pure poetry and beauty of her phrases.

Hellesen, author of the two character play One Destiny, about what happened to Ford's Theater following the night of the assassination, uses a more flippant, informal tone in his script for the tour led by a police detective. He borrows the slightly caustic, wary and cynical persona we've come to identify with detectives who have a familiarity with the sordid side of life from all those film-noire and "Mike Hammer" movies. His text is filled with details that even the moderately history-intrigued tourist will find interesting. For those deeper into our town's and our country's past, the walk is a chance to stock up on major matters and really intriguing trivia.

The performers reviewed were as different as the two scripts. Danielle Drakes makes a gracious and welcoming woman of Elizabeth Keckly, strutting with pride along the route covering 10th, 13th and J Streets and New York and Pennsylvania Avenues NW. She shows her sense of pride in the world she is sharing and puts a very human heart and face on the nexus of slavery and freedom that makes the period 1861 - 1865 so captivating for modern imaginations. Kip Pierson is more a pied piper leading his charges along F Street to 7th Street then south to Pennsylvania Avenue before heading for Lafayette Park. In between stops, he chats with the adults and kids the kids, always remaining in character but referring to modern matters with a bit of a wink.

A Free Black Woman: Elizabeth Keckly: Written by Jennifer L. Nelson. Directed by Patrick Torres. Cast: Danielle Drakes.
Investigation: Detective McDevitt: Written by Richard Hellesen. Directed by Mark Ramont. Cast: Kip Pierson.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

t A Potomac Stages Pick for a folk/pop song cycle on themes of America's common heritage of "this nation's single most defining experience"
Running time 1:35 - no intermission
Tickets $16 - $52
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: A song cycle on a theme, the show consists of songs touching on the legacy that our national psyche inherits from the events of the 1860s. These include duty, honor, patriotism, love, family, separation, fear, racism, the longing for freedom and the values of equality and democracy. Twenty songs include glimpses of the lives, loves, hopes and fears of soldiers in blue and gray, nurses in Civil War hospitals, white farm families, free and enslaved African-Americans and people and who bought and sold their fellow men.

Wildhorn's music bridges the chasm between the 1860s and the present with a style more country-ish and closer in structure to early American song than much of his other work, but with his trademark accessibility of melody and strong rhythmic patterns. The lyrics were devised and developed out of source material of the time. They are affecting, not so much because of overwhelming intrinsic artistic merit - truth to tell some are predictable - but, because their links to the myths and icons of our common heritage are so strong, they reach the heart. Whether the subject be homesickness, fear of battle, desire for a loved one or yearning for freedom, they push readily accessible buttons in our common consciousness. The observations made on these familiar themes are not necessarily profound, nor are they new. Rather, they are fundamental and they bear revisiting from time to time.

Michael Lanning reprises his performance from Broadway as a war weary wearer of blue. He has made something of a career out of the massive emotion found in the "Northbound Train" sequence and it still is fresh and powerful. Sean Jenness is his grey-clad opposite but it is Michael "Tuba" McKensey who gets to stir up the crowd with the tribute to "This Old Grey Coat." Jenness is at his best recalling the lost beauty of "Virginia." Local favorite Eleasha Gamble soars on the gospel inspired numbers, most notably "Someday," but Sarah Darling wavers a bit in pitch in the tender "I Never Knew His Name."  Darryl Reuben Hall is impressive as Frederick Douglass, the former slave, who, as he tells in the introduction to the inspiring "Freedom's Child," "stole this head, these hands, this body from my master and ran off with them," and Chris Sizemore delivers a touching tribute in "Sarah." Kingsley Leggs' bass booms out "River Jordan." Another veteran of the original Broadway production is Bart Shatto, who was out on press night so we can't report on his work.

Here, instead of a 14 member orchestra, they have a band of 6 to lay down a solid beat and provide strong support, but the absence of a brass section of note is keenly felt. Lanning, as he has throughout the decade he has performed this piece, adds his considerable skill with a guitar and Stephen Gregory Smith, who sings in some of the big company numbers and adds a presence to the scene taken from "a nurses diary," pulls out his trumpet for those moments when Wildhorn's material simply cries out for a horn. Calhoun's vision of contemporary costumes might work a bit better, or at least be a bit less distracting, except that Wade Laboissonniere's costumes are often unsightly, including the exposed bra and gaping blouse for Bligh Voth when she sings of missing her "Bill," or the prominence of wrist watches on men singing their hearts out about their experiences in the 1860s. Tobin Ost's set, consisting of a circular stair structure with the band in its center and a deep space of panels on which Aaron Rhyne's videos are projected, works well except when those projections include the text of Michael Goodwin's pre-recorded rendition of Lincoln's words. Then the words spill over from panel to stair to drop-down flag, distracting from rather than enhancing the impact of those well chosen quotes. But when the projections are of scenes from the battlefields or slave pens, the beauty of the countryside or of a glowing red sunset behind a black-and-white photograph of a cabin, the videos are a significant enhancement to the power of the songs.

Music by Frank Wildhorn. Lyrics and book by Frank Wildhorn, Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy. Directed by Jeff Calhoun. Music direction by Jay Crowder. Design: Tobin Ost (set) Wade Laboissonniere (costumes) Aaron Rhyne (video) Cookie Jordan (wigs and make-up) Michael Gilliam (lights) David Budries (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Craig A. Horness (stage manger). Cast: Sarah Darling, Elliot Dash, Eleasha Gamble, Michael Goodwin, Darryl Reuben Hall, Sean Jenness, Matthew John Kacergis, Kellee Knighten, Michael Lanning, Kingsley Leggs, Michael "Tuba" McKinsey, Aaron Reeder, Bart Shatto, Timothy Shew, Chris Sizemore, Stephen Gregory Smith, Blight Voth.  Musicians: Howard Breitbart, Dave Giegerich, Frank Higgins, Bret Hunter, Phil Mathieu, Robert Spates.

An opportunity to spend some time with Mr. Lincoln
Running time 2:50 - one intermission
Price range $16 - $52

While the time that Still selected for his chronicle was a period of great drama in Lincoln's official and personal life, there's little sense of story in the script and no plot progression to carry the audience through the evening. Still, as a series of vignettes, it does tap into much of the mother load of Lincoln gems to the extent that it threatens to make clichés of them. A strange scene dominates the second act in an unfortunate manner. It is an encounter between Mr. Lincoln and the cast of a Shakespearean company of actors on the stage of - yes - Ford's Theatre. The exchange is so weighted with premonition and feels so artificial that it stands out as an exception to most of the rest of the evening when the audience seems often to be eavesdropping on actual events in the White House. There is also a dream sequence of an encounter between Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, but this is so clearly an hallucination that it does not destabilize the rest of the evening as the on-stage discussion of Shakespeare does.

Selby - tall, lanky and squeaking in a high voice that one would probably term "mid-western" - establishes the persona of Lincoln effectively and lets us feel some of the depth of character of the man. He's surrounded by a large cast portraying an even larger cast of characters who surrounded Lincoln in the White House. Hugh Nees turns in two fine character roles, that of Lincoln's Secretary of War, bewhiskered Edwin Stanton, and Lincoln's diminutive opponent, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas (his wistful comment that he misses their old debates is beautifully delivered). David Emerson Toney likewise has multiple character roles to play, but only one really registers well. He's fascinating as Dred Scott, the slave the Supreme Court ruled could not bring suit because he was property, not a citizen. Michael Goodwin makes an imposing figure as the poet, Walt Whitman, as does Norman Aronovic as abolitionist, John Brown.

Scenic Designer Takeshi Kata recreates the Presidential office of the Lincoln White House (the Oval Office not having been built until more than forty years after Lincoln's assassination), but places outside the large window a blow up of a photograph of the Washington Monument which was half-built at the time. As accurate as this may be, the image looks like a Matthew Brady photograph in black and white. As the evening progresses, it does take on some color for sunset scenes, but never looks natural. Wade Laboissonniere's costumes strike a nature look however, reflecting the well known visages of the characters from all the paintings and photographs we've seen. Ryan Rumery provides some original music that fits the piece quite nicely.

Written by James Still. Directed by Stephen Rayne. Design: Takeshi Kata (set) Clint Allen (video) Wade Laboissonniere (costumes) Cookie Jordan (wigs and make-up)  Pat Collins (lights) Ryan Rumery (sound and original music) Mark Ramont (photography) Brandon Prendergast (stage manager). Cast: Norman Aronovic, Michael Bannigan, Steven Carpenter, James Chatham, Benjamin Cook, James Denvil, Jonathan Fielding, Michael Goodwin, Edward James Hyland, Beth Hylton, Michael Kramer, Robin Moseley, Hugh Nees, Jefferson A. Russell, Benjamin Schiffbauer, Kimberly Schraf, David Selby, David Emerson Toney, Chaney Tullos, Jonathan Watkins, Scott Westerman.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 90 minutes - no intermission
While Ford's Theatre is under renovation this production is offered at the Lansburgh Theatre
Click here to buy the book

Storyline: Charles Dickens presents his story of the Christmas eve when mean and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge 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.

Ford's Artistic Director Paul Tetreault's mounting of Michael Wilson's adaptation of A Christmas Carol was not as easy as it might seem even if this is another year of the same basic production. After all, the Landsburgh is a totally different facility, the stage is a different size and shape in a venue with new sound and lighting. Director Mark Ramont (recreating Matt August's staging) seems to have even freshened up the actors and their deliveries as well. This is not just an old standard brought back once again, where regulars in the cast  “phone it in” or “go through their lines’ in a routine manner. There is much energy and attention to details in this production. There is also pleasant singing of traditional Christmas carols whether in the foreground or as part of a scene setting background. This is, though, a very light and modern production; there are no tears shed and no Currier and Ives types. As for those famous final lines that many may remember from the Dickens’ book or the famous British movie of over 50 years ago, they are not spoken by Tiny Tim but by the assembled cast. The lines seem to lose their push and power when the full cast makes it the final curtain send off … a let down to a purist.

Martin Rayner is a very satisfying Ebenezer Scrooge. His rich voice feels like the winter season; all crackly and with some emotion rather than flat. His voice as the forbidding Scrooge sends little shivers through the audience when he says some of his more pungent dark line early in the production and in some of the dream scenes. But, Rayner’s comedic skills are especially delightful and readily portray his change and redemption as he interacts with those who knew him once as a miserable, old creature with no redeeming virtues. Michael John Casey is an acceptably meek Bob Cratchit, though he does deliver his lines in a bit too docile a manner after a while.  And how this timid man who works for Scrooge without much of a whimper, havs such a large, warm, loving, well-dressed, high energy family to support is always a mystery. Suzanne Richard as the Doll Vendor and the Ghost of Christmas Past and Elliot Dash as the Fruit Vendor and Ghost of Christmas Present both add charm to the production. They come at their roles not just to “say” their lines from behind some heavy costumes but to give resonance to their roles. Tiny Tim, however, has disappeared from real view, it seems. He is carried about, but has few lines and is not a center of attention in this adaptation.

Technically the first thing to say is that yes, the seats at the Landsburgh are much more comfortable than the old Ford’s Theatre seats. All the technical elements are high quality; sound, lighting, scenic design and such. The lighting effects are especially noteworthy. They add to the feel of a cold winter with the pure ice white color projected on the stage floor that is just plain crispy. The deep Landsburgh stage provides room for movement through street scenes. On the night we reviewed the showthere was a fire alarm just as the curtain was to rise. The theater was evacuated quickly, quietly and without panic. The Ford’s staff on duty, including the ushers, were wonderful in getting the nearly full House including a large number of younger children out of the facility in an orderly  manner, the DC fire department showed up quickly and soon we want back into the theater with nary a cry of annoyance. And the kids loved seeing the fire trucks and fire folk do their work. So, a big "well done" to the staff of Ford’s and the Landsburgh and the DC Fire Department!

Written by Michael Wilson based on the story by Charles Dickens. Original direction by Matt August recreated by Mark Ramont. Original music by Mark Bennet. Choral direction by George Fulginiti-Shakar. Choreography by Karma Camp. Design: Court Watson (set) Fabio Toblini (costumes) Cookie Jordan (hair and wigs) Matthew Richards, (lights) Ryan Rumery (sound). Cast: Michael Bunce, Michael John Casey, David Covington, Katie Cullilgan, Elliot Dash, Andy English, Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Goodwin, Jewel Greenberg, Bill Hensel, Claudia Miller, Caitlin O’Grady, Martin Rayner, Suzanne Richard, Kimberly Schraf, Todd Scofield, and Halsey Varady. The young rotating young members of the cast include Noah Foster, Benjamin Cook, Dominique Ross Taylor, Adin Walker, John Anderson, Brittany O’Grady, Nadia Ross, Jamie Boyd, Jace Casey and Xavier Johnson.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:30 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a well constructed, well performed musical drama
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for March
Click here to buy the DVD

Storyline: Trying to avoid a pink slip as the new owner of her newspaper cuts expenses in the depths of the depression, a columnist makes up the strongest story she can think of - a "John Doe" letter from a disgusted citizen who intends to commit suicide at Christmas to protest the failure of the American system to meet the needs of the little guy. The story creates a furor and the paper hires a homeless former minor league pitcher to claim he's "John Doe" and gives the columnist a raise to continue to write his story. He becomes a national celebrity but she falls in love with him and with what he has come to stand for as "John Doe." What will he do when Christmas arrives?

Why hadn't this story made it onto a musical stage before? The most likely stumbling block was the rather lame ending of the original movie. Even Frank Capra is reported to have been dissatisfied with the version that ended up on movie screens. Gerle and Sugarman abandoned that ending and went with ... no - you're not going to learn it here. You'll just have to go see the show to find out how they resolve the story. However, if you remember the movie well, you will recognize practically all the characters and situations. They breathe a bit more of the contemporary air than they did when the film was first made because, after all, that was 1941 and World War was busting out all over. In today's age of more diffuse dangers, some of the simplicity of the good versus evil conflict seems a bit downplayed in favor of more emphasis on the romance. Besides, they needed time for the love songs. The score is varied, with a mixture of contemporary show music styles each with a 1930s touch. Gerle's melodies are clean, clear and effective within a wide range of rhythmic styles and Sugarman's lyrics are often evocative, calling visual imagery to mind and playing skillfully with words. The most effective part of their twenty-song score is an a cappella "Thank You." As book writers, they reach a bit, especially with a New York centered world view. Using the Brooklyn Bridge as a metaphor for spanning world differences might be more effective before an audience on Broadway, where at least many in the audience know it joins Manhattan and Brooklyn over the East River - but even there, the history of unifying Greater New York is not well known. Here it may be just too much of a stretch.

The Barbara Stanwyck role of the hard-boiled columnist who falls for her own creation goes to Heidi Blicknstaff who has trod many a stage in many a national tour. She has learned how to command a stage and keep a story moving, and her big numbers sparkle. She has a number of nice little touches as well, such as typing in rhythm. James Moye, as the "everyman" hired to pretend to be "John Doe" is no Gary Cooper. That's a good thing. He makes the part more of a traditional romantic lead in a musical that calls for just that. There is a hint of the chemistry between the two although it never really sparkles. Patrick Ryan Sullivan is a strong evildoer as the corrupt and corrupting newspaper publisher. Stephen Gregory Smith gets a chance to be bright and youthfully charming in a sort of "Jimmy Olson, copy boy" way. Broadway veteran Joel Blum is the pal of the homeless hero who gives voice to so many of the populist bromides in the script.

Signature Theatre's Eric Schaeffer, who has directed on Broadway, in London's West End and here at Arena and the Kennedy Center, adds Ford's to his resume with a visually varied presentation that tells the story briskly and keeps it from becoming a series of scenes of  the "plant your feet center stage and belt" variety. In this, he's helped a great deal by the movement direction of his long time choreographic colleague, Karma Camp. The impact of the production is surprisingly light given both the dark elements of the story and the dark colors and structures of the set that Derek McLane puts on Ford's rather constricted stage. McLane opens up that space nicely, placing the main structure at the rear of the stage with the orchestra on a bridge over openings from which set pieces slide forward. Rui Rita's innovative lighting design is a factor as well, with moving bars of lighted areas as well as traditional followspot effects and lights recessed into the stage floor. Blacks, whites and grays dominate the costumes of Alejo Vietti but they never seem dark and depressing. Instead, just as the story itself is strangely uplifting (perhaps due to the new ending Gerle and Sugarman adopt) the show feels bright and life affirming in the way only musical theater seems to be these days. Give us more of them!

Music by Andrew Gerle. Lyrics by Eddie Sugarman. Book by Andrew Gerle and Eddie Sugarman. Additional story by Matt August. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical staging by Karma Camp. Fight direction by David Leong. Musical direction by Jamie Schmidt. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Design: Derek McLane (set) Alejo Vietti (costumes) Cookie Jordan (wigs and hair)  Rui Rita (lights) David Budries (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Jess W. Speaker, III (stage manager). Cast: Heidi Blickenstaff, Christopher Bloch, Joel Blum, Suzanne Briar, Michael Bunce, Evan Casey, Daniel Cohen, Danielle Eden, Eleasha Gamble, Kimberly McNeese, Channez McQuay, Amy McWilliams, James Moye, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Guy Paul, Joe Peck, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Stephen Gregory Smith, Patrick Ryan Sullivan.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 45 minutes
A fascinating and unique look into the events surrounding the Assassination of President Lincoln Free admission

Storyline: The actor who was on stage at the moment John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln, Harry Hawk, and one of the co-owners of the theater, Harry Ford, recreate the events of April 14, 1865 in an effort to come to grips with the impact of the tragedy on their careers and fortunes.

Michael Bunce creates an entertaining and interesting portrait of the actor, stressing his love of theater and of performing as he recalls the fateful moment when Booth leapt to the stage on which he stood alone. Stephen Schmidt, as Harry Ford, begins the performance in a high state of anger which only becomes understandable once the audience learns that, as one of the owners of the theater in which the disaster occurred, he was imprisoned and his property confiscated. Schmidt goes on to give a moving explanation of what theater meant to him. His most moving moment comes as he looks out past the audience to the doors at the rear of the hall and talks about the people who came through those doors and the pleasures they found inside.

The show was commissioned by Ford's Theatre and was carefully researched to assure that the events of 1865 are accurately portrayed, including the recreation of the fatal moment. The gunshot was not heard by everyone in the hall that night and many witnesses commented that it did not sound very loud or much like they expected a shot to sound. In the course of the performance, the shot is recreated so that the audience hears the level of the sound involved and also the flash of light that accompanied the type of pistol shot involved.

The performance schedule is designed to accommodate tourists without causing too much difficulty for the company putting on the evening show, currently the musical Meet John Doe. Each weekday except Thursday there are two performances, 11:15 am and 1:15 pm. On Saturday, just one 11:15 am performance is given. Tickets are distributed for free starting fifteen minutes prior to the show but advance tickets can be obtained at a charge through the box office (for single tickets) or at 202-638-2376 for groups. There is a book shop in the basement of the theater well stocked with many books on civil war history, Lincoln and the assassination. Surprisingly, however, they do not stock a book that might well be of great interest to many attending the performance, Thomas A. Bogar's American Presidents Attend the Theatre. Click here to read our review of that volume.

Written by Richard Hellesen. Directed by Mark Ramont. Cast: Michael Bunce, Stephen Schmidt.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 1:30 - no intermission
An extended, on-stage version of the successful lounge act
Price range $41 - $55

Storyline: After decades of unleashing one-liners and singing political parodies at the piano in lounges, on tour, on public television and on stage at Ford's, the popular comedian delivers his critical barbs with a super-positive attitude and a sense of good humor and decency.

Mark Russell, like Will Rogers before him, lampoons everyone in public life with the same spirit - his humor is directed at their foibles and not at the people themselves. He's not mean. He's not demeaning. But he's always right on with a skewering of pretension, deflating pomposity and pointing out the contradictions in policies and postures alike. His barbs are the kind that the targets themselves must find funny rather than infuriating. One can imagine his targets sitting in the front row and genuinely laughing at themselves rather than simply making a game effort to be polite because they are in the public eye.

His barbs aren't directed at any one party or any one position to the exclusion of others. Republicans and Democrats, incumbents and challengers, liberals and conservatives, men and women - they all get their pretensions pricked. All of the targets are in the public eye and all are in the political arena - Russell doesn't bother with show business celebrities.

The show moves at high speed. Russell's patter never pauses. It never seems that the man is at a loss for words or that he's not sure which routine to take up next. Yet he obviously is reading his audience, gauging their reaction as he builds the level of laughter. Perhaps he has been doing it so long that it is second nature. Still, it doesn't seem mechanical or even contrived. The secret seems to be that he genuinely likes his audience and, truth to tell, he genuinely likes the people he jokes about. There may not be a mean bone in his body - but there surely are more funny bones than most humans have.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:10 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for powerful performances of an elegantly engaging drama
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: The operator of a non-regulated taxi service for the black neighborhood of the Hill District in Pittsburgh faces two challenges at the same time. Developers want to demolish his building in an urban renewal plan that may displace both his business and many of his customers, and his son is being released after serving a twenty year prison term.

This is the 1970's installment of August Wilson's ten-play cycle. It is one of the earliest to be written. This and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom were the first two to be produced, both in 1982. It is one of only two not yet seen on Broadway. The other is Radio Golf, being developed posthumously which will probably make a Broadway debut soon. It is set in 1977 when the popularity of New Society policies of cut-and-burn urban renewal had already run its course and the damage it wreaked on central cities had begun to be recognized. Still, while that damage was trickling down to the people who occupied the areas being cleared for renewal, new and grander plans seemed to have a momentum of their own. Wilson never shows us the people responsible for this. They are not the people he's interested in. It is the population of blacks scraping a living and the life they led that motivates all ten of his plays. Here he creates portraits of eight men and one woman that are solid, true and fascinating - there are no throwaway parts in a Wilson play.

Jennifer Nelson, who has announced her departure from the post of Artistic Director of the African Continuum Theatre Company apparently because she is so busy directing and enjoys that activity, directs this joint production of Ford's and her Company. She lets both the humor and the emotion of Wilson's script come through with a fast pace. Strother and Wallace as father and son are marvelous throughout (Strother seems to have a special feel for the works of Wilson, having been outstanding in Joe Turner's Come & Gone  at the African Continuum, Fences at Everyman and both Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson at Arena) while KenYatta Rogers, Doug Brown and David Emerson Toney give vivid performances as well.

Tony Cisek draws a nice distinction between realism and suggestions of memory in his set design with a highly detailed interior of the Jitney car service with its dilapidated couches and chairs, scratched and distressed desk, worn linoleum flooring but with a suggestion of the reality visible outside through the large windows of what may have been a retail store in its distant past. The exterior includes multiple murals showing the same vintage model car with some even more abstract views of concrete and do-not-enter signs. When the cast members enter the interior space they all are dressed in clothing that doesn't look like costumes, it looks like the real-life clothes of people in the late 70s who can't afford the latest styles but whose wardrobes include still-serviceable items in a polyglot of styles popular in the previous decade or so. And Chas Marsh avoids destroying the feeling of reality by making the sound of the pay phone ringing on the wall seem actually to come from the pay phone hanging on the wall.

Written by August Wilson. Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson. Fight direction by David Leong. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Reggie Ray (costumes) Dan Covey (lights) Chas Marsh (sound) T. Charles Erickson (Photography) Jess W. Speaker, III (stage manager). Cast: Doug Brown, Jessica Frances Dukes, Cleo Reginald Pizana, KenYatta Rogers, Frederick Strother, Addison Switzer, David Emerson Toney, Craig Wallace, Michael Anthony Williams.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 1:45 – no intermission
Traditional fare mixed with artistic license
Click here to buy the book

Storyline: Charles Dickens presents his story of the Christmas eve when mean and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge 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.

Richard Poe joins the cast this year as Ebenezer Scrooge and as Charles Dickens in Ford’s trademark introduction to the play which depicts how Mr. Dickens once toured the country reading his stories to make a living. Poe’s rich voice almost makes it a loss when he transforms from Dickens to Scrooge and someday it would be a delight to have him read the entire story as Dickens once did. Trapped within the adaptation by Michael Wilson and direction of Matt August, Poe never seems to be able to really connect with the audience. Rather he fills the role, and does it well, but is subject to the whims of the set and staging that do not quite work out. This is a true loss for Richard Poe because, when well presented, Scrooge is a role that can define an actor for a generation of viewers.

Few members of the design team have changed and many of the roles in the cast are the same as well. The Ghost of Christmas Past’s floating appearance is still reminiscent of a luminescent jellyfish borrowed from the Baltimore Aquarium and the Ghost of Christmas Present, while very entertainingly presented by Elliot Dash, seemed often to be on the verge of a spill from his towering heights, breaking the illusion of his performance. The Ghost of Christmas Future could well not be an actor at all for all of his interactions, being more an elaborate set piece than a silent performance.

Those who saw this production in 2004 or 2005 will note that little has changed. Those who love Ford’s adaptation will continue to do so and those who find it just missing the mark are not likely to alter their opinions. All of the elements are present, from Scrooges love of his sister to the chains that bind Marley, but it all feels like a large jigsaw puzzle where the pieces fit together but leave gaps where the light can shine through, damaging the picture as a whole.

Written by Michael Wilson based on the story by Charles Dickens. Directed by Matt August. Original music by Mark Bennet. Choral direction by George Fulginiti-Shakar. Choreography by Karma Camp. Design: G. W. Mercier (set) Fabio Toblini (costumes) Cookie Jordan (hair and wigs) Pat Collins (lights) Michael Creason (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Craig A. Horness (stage manager). Cast: Michael Bannigan or Noah Foster, Clinton Brandhagen, Michael Bunce, Michael John Casey, Teresa Castracane, Elliot Dash, Jaclyn DiLauro, Michael Fowle or Xavier Johnson, Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Goodwin, Simone Grossman or Rachel Weber, Bill Hensel, Katie Kleiger, Matthew Krug or Zachary Frank, Amy McWilliams, Claudia Miller, Kip Pierson, Richard Poe, Suzanne Richard, Dominique Ross or Alexandra Palting, Todd Scofield, Erin Sloan, Anna Zimmerman or Natalie Perez-Duel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:40 - two intermissions
A vintage (and slightly creaky) political comedy of the 1940s
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: As the Republicans begin to consider who to run for President in 1948 after four straight defeats at the hands of the Roosevelt/Truman Democrats, a king maker turns his attention to a successful businessman who would have no political record his opponents could criticize. Unknown to the king maker, however, the potential candidate is nearly separated from his wife and is having an affair with a prominent newspaper publisher. Can the candidate and his wife reconcile at least enough to survive the scrutiny of a national campaign? 

Lindsay and Crouse seem to feel that they stumbled on the astonishing fact that, in a heterogeneous democracy, candidates for public office must be concerned with the interests of voters - or, as this script frequently puts it, must make compromises "just for the sake of a few votes." Perhaps 1946 was a simpler time, but it is difficult to see how this simplistic view of the state of the body politic could have seemed Pulitzer-worthy at the time. Yes, this was before Robert Penn Warren gave us All The King's Men, Allan Drury made the contest of principles so intelligent in Advice and Consent, Gore Vidal made it so fascinating on stage in The Best Man, or even before Aaron Sorkin made weekly television fare out of the give and take of politics on The West Wing. Still, could audiences in 1946 have been shocked by the revelation that candidates had to accommodate the interests of constituencies? Maybe this would play better outside the beltway. But at Ford's, equidistant between the White House and the Capitol, it seems sophomoric, to say the least.

Instead of riveting political intrigue, State of the Union offers a bright romantic comedy with political overtones. When Frank Capra made a movie out of it, he removed some of the political humor in order to emphasize the relationship between the candidate and his wife. Of course, he had Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn - who wouldn't concentrate on them? Here, instead, Donnelly has cast a thoroughly pleasant but hardly electric Jim Abele and a charming but not captivating Ellen Karas, who, in Wade Laboissonniere's gowns and Cookie Jordan's wigs looks for all the world like Myrna Loy. Key support comes from Sam Tsoutsouvas, a nicely human heavy as the king maker, and Andrew Polk, who scores quickly and consistently as the press agent/manager with a sardonic world view. Martha Hackett, on the other hand, brings all too little heat to the part of the publisher who has been the candidate's lover. There's no chemistry between them and very little between Abele and Karas. At the end, when Abele makes his slap-on-the-derrière gesture of love for his wife, it is so weak it is surprising she even felt it.

When this production was first announced, the cast members first named were Floyd King and Nancy Robinette. It might have been interesting to see how they would handle the roles of the candidate and his wife. Instead, they and the likes of Hugh Nees, Naomi Jacobson, Christopher Bloch and James Konicek are relegated to the party scene in the final act. These fine talents are all but squandered there, although both King and Robinette become almost instantaneous audience favorites with King handling the zingers Lindsay and Crouse wrote for the henpecked husband of the tippling senior southern belle.

Written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Directed by Kyle Donnelly. Design: Kate Edmunds (set) Peter Nigrini (video) Wade Laboissonniere (costumes) Cookie Jordan (wigs and hair) Nancy Schertler (lights) Garth Hemphill (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Craig A. Horness (stage manager). Cast: Jim Abele, Christopher Bloch, Michael Gabel, Martha Hackett, Naomi Jacobson, Ellen Karas, Floyd King, James Konicek, Hugh Nees, Joe Peck, Kip Pierson, Andrew Polk, Nancy Robinette, Sam Tsoutsouvas, Esther Williamson.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed March 25
Running time 2:20 - One Intermission
t A Potomac Stages pick for emotionally involving, thrilling musical theater
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: As the Civil War breaks out all around him, a farmer in the Shenandoah Valley sees no reason to let the battles of others affect the family farm he and his late wife created out of wilderness. He certainly doesn’t see why either side should take his sons to fight or his horses to ride. But, when his youngest son is taken prisoner, he leads the rest of his family in a rescue mission. His refusal to have his family involved turns out to have been principal and not cowardice as he voices his belief that, like all wars, “the undertakers are winning.”

This is the musical version of the 1965 movie that starred Jimmy Stewart. It came to Broadway at the end of the Viet Nam era as a strong anti-war show. It stands for a number of what today might be called "family values" in a political debate. The strains of parental responsibility, sibling loyalty and love are vividly portrayed along with the anti-war message. It also shows a selfish streak in the famous independence of American settlers that is not often praised. This particular farmer recognizes no responsibility to society. His opposition to having any member of his family participate in the war isn't based on opposition to war in general or to the issues underlying this war, although he's clearly anti-slavery. He not only rejects any duty to country, he rejects any duty to God. Yet his stalwart devotion to his family and the memory of his late wife is complete.

The opening number finds soldiers facing stage left all in grey. When they turn to face stage right, they reveal that the other side of their costumes are all blue. This isn't director Jeff Calhoun's trick to make fewer actors seem like larger armies. It is a statement that it isn't what side they are on that is important, it is that they are at war and that war will impact this one family. Calhoun mounts the entire show fluidly with sharp focus on the relationships between the family members. Bakula has great chemistry with the cast members playing his family, especially Megan Lewis who is delightful as daughter Jenny, and Kevin Clay as his youngest son. Had Clay's part included more scenes in the second act, he might have stolen the entire show. His work on the thoughtfully comic duet "Why Am I Me?," his dancing in the first chorus of "Next to Lovin' (I Like Fightin')," his sly humor in lines such as "The pickers are here" and his openness in the scenes establishing the special bond between father and youngest son come close to stealing the first act.

New orchestrations use a pit band of eight with two keyboards. Given the intimacy of Ford's and the quality of the sound design, the result is a distinctly country music feel that seems just right for the venue as well as for the play. This is not musical comedy. It is musical drama, which -- while it has warmly affectionate moments, high comic relief and spirited release in dance -- has its full measure of the pain of loss and tragedy. With three on-stage killings and an implied rape, it is a strong story with strong emotions. The pleasure comes from the fact that it manages to get the audience to share those emotions. Isn't that what theater is for?

Music by Gary Geld. Lyrics by Peter Udell. Book by James Lee Barrett, Peter Udell and Philip Rose. Based on the original screenplay by James Lee Barrett. Directed by Jeff Calhoun. Musical direction, arrangements and orchestrations by Steven Landau. Choreography by Jeff Calhoun and Chase Brock. Fight/Military choreography by David Leong. Design: Tobin Ost (set and costume) Tom Watson (hair and wigs) Michael Gilliam (lights) David Budries (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Craig A. Horness (stage manager). Cast: Scott Bakula, Christopher Block, Peter Boyer, Evan Casey, Kevin Clay, Rick Faugno, Richard Frederick, Ryan Jackson, Megan Lewis, Timothy Dale Lewis, Garrett Long, Mike Mainwaring, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Geoff Packard, Richard Pelzman, Noah Racey, Aaron Ramey, Andrew Samonsky, Stephen F. Schmidt, Bret Shuford, Danny Tippett.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed January 25
Running time 2:40 - one intermission
t A  Potomac Stages Pick for an absolutely charming evening
Click here to buy the script

Storyline:  Judge Francis Biddle is in the final year of his long and productive life. He has been Franklin Roosevelt's Attorney General, a judge at the Nuremberg trials following World War II and chairman of the Americans for Democratic Action. He is trying to complete his memoirs and having difficulty holding on to secretarial help. Into his office above a Georgetown carriage house comes a young woman who straightens out his office affairs and assists in the final project. In the process they come to know and care about each other.

This script is by the real-life secretary portrayed by Greaves. It is a personal memoir of the time she spent helping Biddle with his memoir. (Interestingly, a portion of that memoir must have dealt with Biddle's time as secretary to judge Oliver Wendell Holmes of whom he wrote in later life, and who, even later, was portrayed by Whitmore in The Magnificent Yankee -- small world, isn't it?) She doesn't attempt searing personal revelations about either herself or Biddle. What she does, and she does it well, is create a portrait of the relationship that was important to both of them while it lasted, and clearly has become even more important to her in hindsight.

Whitmore makes the craft of creating a character on stage look so natural and effortless that it is tempting to ascribe his success to innate talent without giving due credit to just how hard he must work to make it work this well. He is the epitome of the rule "never let them see you sweat." What we do see is the effort of his character, in this case Biddle. At the age of 82, Biddle must exert maximum effort to accomplish the simple tasks of life. Just getting from chair to desk requires real sweat. Whitmore lets us see that with touching details. The detail that touches the most, however, is the affectionate relationship of Biddle and the secretary the script names "Sarah," and the warmth of that is the result of the chemistry between Whitmore and Graves. What a team.

Biddle's Georgetown carriage house/office is either replicated with great attention to detail or created as it should have looked in Jeff Bauer's set. However, there is a strange over-arching structure above the office set with two windows and a gaping blue sky opening that is a bit difficult to place. Tony Angelini provides the sounds of off-stage stairs for the approaches of the characters as well as a subtle audio reinforcement system that brings the sound of the dialogue to the seats removed from the stage without making it sound as if you are listening to a recording. 

Written by Joanna McClelland Glass. Directed by Gus Kaikkonen. Design: Jeff Bauer (set) Pamela Scofield (costumes) Rui Rita (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Allison Deutsch (stage manager). Cast: Karron Graves, James Whitmore.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed September 28
Running time 2:10 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for the kind of good time you would expect of a Ken Ludwig comedy

Storyline: Two touring Shakespearean actors discover that a local woman has died and left all her wealth to two missing long lost nieces who can't be contacted. They decide to impersonate the nieces only to discover that the woman hasn't died at all. Being a cross-dressing farce, naturally one actor in drag falls for one woman while the other finds he has attracted the attention of another.

The two performances that will stay in the memory the longest are the two actors who get to don dresses to milk laughs. Each looks so suitably uncomfortable that the utter absurdity of the situation becomes outlandish rather than merely silly. Ian Kahn, the taller of the two with his heavy six o'clock shadow, throws himself into the romp with gusto. West-coast based actor, JD Cullum, adopts the garb with more obvious reluctance, making his contribution all the more entertaining. Each benefits from a long list of slow burns, double takes and sight gags including the inspired running gag of Kahn holding Cullum's hand to his lips to overcome his supposed deafness.

The men in skirts are surrounded by some well known faces who bring their solid stage techniques with them. There's John Astin (best known from television's Addams Family) as a doctor who can't recognize death any better than he can determine gender, and who mugs over a codpiece for just a fraction of a second less than the gag can sustain a laugh. There's Charlotte Rae (best known from TV's The Facts of Life) who can get multiple laughs from multiple deaths while giving a new meaning to the term deadpannning. Add Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba as one love interest and Broadway veteran Lacey Kohl as the other, the blond bombshell. There is also the familiar face of Daniel Frith in a small role (can you do a comedy in this town without him?) and the much less familiar Patrick Kerr who is left at the alter when true love takes hold at the end.

It is not quite clear just why set designer John Coyne (or director Mark Rucker) thought it was a good idea to raise the already rather high stage at Ford's by placing the set on a mechanical turntable, subjecting the front rows to neck-craning sight lines. The set rotation simply reveals the then-stationary one-room set which is admittedly solid, functional and good looking. But the opening scene supposedly on stage in a school multipurpose room could just as well have been played out before a curtain. Design kudos for this production go more to Judith Dolan whose costumes for all, and not just the finery for the cross-dressers, are as brightly drawn and comfortably funny as is the script.

Written by Ken Ludwig. Directed by Mark Rucker. Choreography by Michele Lynch. Fight Choreography by Brad Waller. Design: John Coyne (set) Judith Dolan (costumes) Tom Watson (hair and wigs) John Gromada and Sten Severson (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Craig A. Horness (stage manager). Cast: John Astin, JD Cullum, Daniel Frith, Ian Kahn, Patrick Kerr, Lacey Kohl, Charlotte Rae, Karen Ziemba.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed March 31
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a superb musical experience for hearing and deaf alike
 Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: Mark Twain’s tale of Huckleberry Finn is set along the Mississippi River in the days when it was the key avenue of commerce between the reach of slavery and the free states of the north. Huck embarks on a raft trip down the river with runaway slave Jim and is soon joined by a pair of charlatans who run scams among the river towns. His friendship with Jim sorely tests his acceptance of the concepts of slavery and the inferiority of one race of men as compared to another.

The original musical won the Tony Award for best new musical and for best score when it premiered in 1985. This version uses a cast of a dozen performers who speak and sing their own lines while also signing them, and a dozen who sign theirs while others speak or sing them. To help the process along, it adds the character of Mark Twain as a narrator. Bill O'Brien, Deaf West's Managing Director, who originated the role of Twain in the California production, joins in a partnership with Gallaudet University freshman Christopher B. Corrigan, who plays Huck through sign language while O'Brien delivers the audible portion of the part, often from the lip of the stage or the side of the set. Michael McElroy, who earned a Tony Award nomination as the runaway slave Jim in this show on Broadway, uses his own booming voice while signing each meaning. The duets between him and Corrigan/O'Brien are exceptionally thrilling as the meaning of each moment is captured not only in audible sound but in signs which cannot be mistaken by anyone, even those with no fluency in sign language. The signing of “You see the same stars through brown eyes as I see through blue” is an unmistakable visual testament to newly discovered truth.

The work of many, including the team of American Sign Language masters headed by Linda Bove, can be cited for the special magic of this production. However, it is the work of director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun that must be singled out. Bringing a choreographer’s eye to the director’s chores has been important in many musicals over the years but perhaps never this important. Sign language, after all, is a means of communication very similar to dance, using movement to exchange information. But it is also a language that is directional -- a sign must be viewed from straight on to be fully read. On stage, you can’t have a dialogue where two signers face each other. That would give the audience just a side view of the signs which would be meaningless from that angle. On the other hand, you can’t really get away with two people supposedly signing to each other who aren’t signing in each other’s direction. What to do? Choreograph it like a dance! This is the skill that Calhoun brings to the equation and his work makes the show something special indeed.

The show has always been a crowd pleaser and this production is no exception. A brightly colorful design uses the pages of Twain’s book as set pieces. On Broadway, the costumes were just right for period and character, including a tremendously entertaining pair of duplicate costumes for the two actors playing Huck’s Pap - one signing and one voicing. Here the costume design goes strangely uncredited and the costumes seem somewhat less colorful and impressive. The set, on the other hand, is just as effective, perhaps because the company is actually using the set pieces from the Broadway run on the stage at Fords. Michael Gilliam's warm lighting effects add to the brightness of the entire production. Also impressive is the work of sound designer Peter Fitzgerald who manages to fill the hall with a natural sound to accompany the visual magic taking place on stage.

Written by William Hauptman based on the novel by Mark Twain. Music and lyrics by Roger Miller. Directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun. Musical direction and special musical arrangements by Steven Landau. Design: Ray Klausen (set) Carol F. Doran (hair and wigs) Michael Gilliam (lights) Peter Fitzgerald (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Dana DePaul (stage manager). Cast: Stanley Bahorek, Michelle A. Banks, Jeannette Bayardelle, Christopher Block, Linda Bove, Debra Buonaccorsi, Walter Charles, William Conley, Christopher B. Corrigan, Christopher Michael Desouza, Desiré Dubose, Elizabeth Green, Dan Manning, Michael McElroy, David McLellan, Bill O'Brien, Andres Otalora, David Michael Roth, Ben Thompson, Charles E. Wallace.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed February 9
Running time 1:45 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for warmth and honesty
Click here to buy the novel

Storyline: In a small southern town during World War II, a twelve year old girl struggles with the changes to her family as her older brother marries. She wants to go with the newlyweds rather than stay home with her widowed father and their African American housekeeper. Subplots of the fate of that housekeeper when the white family decides to move and the frustrations of her black friends in a segregated world add to the mix in a portrait of middle-America in the 1940s. 

McCullers adapted her own novel for the stage. It was her second big hit as a book (after The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter) and her first effort as a playwright. She had a very helpful assist in adapting it, however, as none other than Tennessee Williams took an interest in her work and invited her to visit him. It was at his table that she adapted the novella. The original production was a major event on Broadway with then twenty-four year old Julie Harris as the twelve year old girl, Ethel Waters as the housekeeper and seven-year old Brandon de Wilde as the little boy next door. They went on to recreate those roles in the movie version which earned an Oscar nomination for Harris.

This production has balance. There is a similar sense of weight and importance given to each of the main characters and a careful blending of the impact on them of the secondary characters. Those secondary roles are well played but nothing distracts from the beautiful work of Nathalie Nicole Paulding as the twelve year old, even the polish of Lynda Gravátt as the housekeeper. This is the twelve-year-old's story and the focus rightly stays on her. Paulding was a replacement Anne Frank on Broadway and originated the role of Young Alma in the revival of Summer and Smoke. Here she uses her slight build and gangly limbs to create a youth in transition who can't quite seem to grasp the important changes in her world. Gravátt does a fine job keeping her role from descending into an Aunt Jamima/Mammy stereotype and giving the character a natural warmth. The role of the little boy next door is underplayed marvelously by fourth-grader Alexander L. Lange from Annapolis. Expect to see more of him on Potomac Region stages in the future.

Set designer John Lee Beatty produced a mid-century small town house on a turntable at center stage which rotates to allow indoor and outdoor scenes to flow easily into each other. The time and status of the neighborhood is instantly recognizable from Jennifer von Mayrhouser's costumes, beginning with the bride-groom in khaki uniform, and subtly conveying the distinctions of that segregated world between the white and black characters. Peter Kater composed incidental music which works just like the background score of a 1950s movie to capture the feel of the world the characters inhabit.

Written by Carson McCuller. Directed by Marshall W. Mason. Design: John Lee Beatty (set) Jennifer von Mayrhauser (costumes) Tom Watson (wigs and hair) Dennis Parichy (lights) Peter Kater (music) Lindsay Jones (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Craig A. Horness (stage manager). Cast: Doug Brown, Lynda Gravátt, Beth Hylton, James J. Johnson, Nina Kauffman, Alexander L. Lange, John Lepard, Nathalie Nicole Paulding, Jewell Robinson, Lee Aaron Rosen, Kyle Schliefer, Kimberly Schraf, Ellen Warner.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed December 3
Running time 1:40 - no intermission
Click here to buy the book

Storyline: Charles Dickens presents his story of the Christmas eve when mean and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge 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.

Dickens' short story has been in the public domain for many years so there are many different adaptations, each free to use as much or as little of the original as their adaptors see fit. This adaptation originated at Texas' Alley Theatre in 1990 and adds a few key elements. The show begins with the introduction of Mr. Dickens himself who is to read his story just as he really did on his tours of the United States, where, while copyright laws let anyone sell copies of his stories without paying royalties, he could make a good deal of money reading them in person to paying customers. In this production actor Martin Rayner soon transitions from "Dickens" to "Scrooge" and there is no further mention of the author.

The world of Scrooge's London, which used to be re-created on Ford's stage as a sort of living, breathing Currier and Ives print, is now lighter, brighter, more colorful and less realistic. Gone are the rich plaids and earth-toned costumes, replaced by Fabio Toblini's sometimes garish creations which use glowing Kelley greens, hot pinks and bright pastels as well as more traditional tones. The Tudor styled store fronts and houses are no more, replaced by a white brick back wall scribed with outlines out of which rotate equally white carved building shapes with glowing windows that appear a cross between the interior of a Hallmark snow globe and a Lionel train set. Flights of fancy mark the design, including having Scrooge sitting on a pile of safes rather than a chair and having the Ghost of Christmas Present make her entrance floating down in the dark with a glowing gown that looks for all the world like a black-light illuminated jelly fish. There's lots of smoke, dramatic lighting and impressive sound effects ranging from the echoey sound of coins clinking on Scrooge's eight-foot high counting table to the thump of a safe dropping from the sky.

The flights of fancy are in keeping with the text of this adaptation wherein the three Ghosts of Christmases spring from Scrooge's memory of three encounters with street vendors. The Cratchit family is a bit more traditionally represented with Amy McWilliams repeating earlier appearances as Mrs. Cratchit, Michael John Casey being a fine, if slightly sniveling, Bob Cratchit and K.C. Wright being chipper as daughter Martha. Kent Jenkins and Justin Pereira alternate in the role of Tiny Tim which is much less touching in this adaptation than in others. The famous line "God bless us everyone" is still used, but it isn't delivered by Tiny Tim which is a big let down for traditionalists.

Written by Michael Wilson based on the story by Charles Dickens. Directed by Matt August. Original music by Mark Bennet. Choral direction by George Fulginiti-Shakar. Choreography by Karma Camp. Design: G. W. Mercier (set) Fabio Toblini (costumes) Tom Watson (hair and wigs) Pat Collins (lights) Michael Creason (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Roy Meachum (stage manager). Cast: Jackie Baker or Simone Brown, Briana Lynn Banks, Clinton Brandhagen, Kent Burnham, Michael John Casey, Spencer Deese or Marshall Swing, Alix Elias, Carlos Gonzalez, Michael Goodwin, Bill Hensel, Kent Jenkins or Justin Pereira, Amy McWilliams, Claudia Miller, Natalie Perez-Duel or Allison Comotto, Kip Pierson, Angela Polite, Martin Rayner, Frank Robinson, Jr., Gracie Terzian,  Saskia de Vries, Jeorge Watson, Carl Wilson or David Grindrod, K.C. Wright.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed September 29
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for classic farce properly mounted
Click here to buy the Script

Storyline: In the 1880's a widow who arranges everything including marriages is engaged to find a new wife for wealthy shop owning widower from Yonkers who believes that women are much better homemakers when they aren't paid wages ("marriage is a ploy to convince a housekeeper that she's a homeowner"). While she takes her new client to New York to meet a potential wife, his clerks determine to go to the big city as well and have an adventure ("we won't come back until we've kissed a girl!") Also headed for New York is the widower's niece and the young artist she intends to marry against the wishes of her uncle. A farce of mistaken identity, cross dressing disguises and the triumph of true love ensues, with, of course, the matchmaker making a match for herself.

Thornton Wilder's play is a classic farce, beginning at a nearly stentorian pace to start and escalating in measured steps to wild, nearly manic abandon. Lemos is careful to keep the hysteria from settling in too soon and lets the foolishness build. In the leads he has two performers he can trust to carry that sense of pace properly. Jonathan Hadary is at his best in the early going when his imperiousness as the over-controlling merchant who can strut and stride with pompous self-pride. He is the anchor of the first act, but, as Wilder wrote it, he is to be overtaken and overwhelmed by the strongest part in the play, the marvelous construction Mrs. Dolly Levy, the "woman who arranges things." The part is so strong that it can overwhelm the rest of a production, but the delightful Andrea Martin goes just far enough with the unique combination of humor, con artistry, wisdom and control that the part needs to be the centerpiece of an ensemble effort, and yet not cross over to dominate the play in ways that would weaken the whole. She's just marvelous.

A farce of the classic form such as this one requires strengths from the cast below the leads, and this one has a very strong supporting cast. Sarah Zimmerman teams up with Stephanie Burden to create bright and captivating portraits of the shop owner and her clerk who want to be taken out on the town as a way of being liberated, just a little, from the restraints of propriety. They are matched by an equally strong team of David McNamara and Christopher J. Hanke as the store clerks from Yonkers determined to have an adventure. The quality is maintained down to the minor roles with Timmy Ray James doing very nicely on both the barber in the opening scene and the waiter after intermission. One standout is Michael Goodwin as a jack of all trades and pursuer of just one vice at a time. Of course, he benefits from the fact that his part was eliminated from the musical version and, thus, is fresh and new for audiences just discovering the original. Plus, his character is eminently quotable with a pithy line for practically every situation ("There's nothing like eavesdropping to prove that the world outside your head is nothing like the world inside your head.")

Surprisingly, this isn't as handsome a production as Ford's is capable of mounting. The sets are colorful but without depth, flimsy looking and wobbly.  The lighting is fully functional but never seems to make a contribution to the sense of place with awkward dimming of one side of the stage during the action in the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant in Act III and an unconvincing lighting effect for act IV. The costumes seem period appropriate but rather blah when rather sharp is what is called for, and the opportunity for outlandish comic designs for the ladies hats is wasted. None of this detracts very much from the pleasure of the performances, but doesn't add much to the fun either.

Written by Thornton Wilder. Directed by Mark Lamos. Design: Michael Yeargan (set) Wade Laboissonniere (costumes) Tom Watson (wigs and hair) Rui Rita (lights) Brad Waller (fight choreography) Tony Angelini (sound) T. Charles Erickson (photography) Lloyd Davis, Jr. (stage manager). Cast: Ross Bickell, Anne Bowles, Stephanie Burden, Brad Fraizer, Michael Goodwin, Jonathan Hadary, Christopher J. Hanke, Timmy Ray James, Andrea Martin, David McNamara, Matthew Floyd Miller, Lola Pashalinski, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Anne Stone, Sarah Zimmerman.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

March 25 - June 6, 2004
Children of Eden

Reviewed March 30
Running time 2 hours 40 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick for great songs, strong performances and visual splendor
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: Drawn from the opening books of Genesis the show tells the story of the creation of the heavens and the earth through the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, to Noah and the flood. The musical focuses on the character of the Father who, as any parent has to do, must let his children grow, make and learn from their own mistakes and chart their own course.

The show dates from 1991 and is the work of John Caird and Stephen Schwartz. Caird may be best known for his non-musical work, but his book for the musical Jayne Eyre was a fluid piece of story telling that found just the right moments and emotions to leave to the songs. Here he uses the stories of the relationship between the Creator and the created to explore the relationship between parents and children. Yes, it is biblical. But it is based more on the biblical stories that have become the common cultural heritage of our society, well known to Christians, Jews, Moslems and everyone else who has grown up in modern America. The addition of a "daughter of Cain" to the story of Noah makes the crucial decisions of both father figures, God and Noah, more understandable than a literal telling of the version from scriptures would provide.

The score is by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin). These are the most polished lyrics Schwartz has provided, and his music is as inventive and melodic as anything he has written since The Bakers Wife (1976), another musical of his that has never actually made it to Broadway. This score is clearly superior to his current Broadway offering, Wicked, which will probably be in the thick of the Tony race for best score of this season. Perhaps it is time to re-consider taking Children of Eden to Broadway, and this production would not be a bad candidate for a transfer.

Children of Eden continues Ford's tradition of mounting original productions of musicals which gave us last year's 1776 and goes back to 1971 when they produced the world premiere of Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. It isn't the first Stephen Schwartz musical that Ford's has produced. They mounted Godspell in 1972. Much of the credit for Ford's musical traditions belongs to David H. Bell who directed 1776 last year, and was the moving force behind The Hot Mikado. His touch this time out is sure, and he also acts as choreographer. The arrival of the animals at Noah's ark could well have seemed a pale imitation of the opening Julie Taymor devised for The Lion King but Bell adopts a very different approach which works marvelously. But, then, nearly everything in this production works marvelously.

Book by John Caird. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Directed and Choreographed by David H. Bell. Music Direction by Brad Haak. Design: James Leonard Joy (set) Mariann Verheyen (costumes) Diane Ferry Williams (lights) Stan Barouh (photography) Roy Meachum (stage manager). Cast: Becca Ayers, Matt Baker, Nicholas Belton, Joe Cassidy, Tyrone Davis, Bradley Dean, Andre Garner, David W. Gilleo, Ivo Gueorguiev, Clark Johnsen, Telly Leung, Kelly McCormick, Monique L. Midgette, Karen Olivo, Brendt Reil, Christeena M. Riggs, Eduardo Rioseco, Toni Trucks, Kara Tameika Watkins.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed February 3
Running time 2 hours 20 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick for intriguing subject matter smartly presented

Storyline: On the day he retired after twenty-one years as a waiter and ultimately Chief Usher at the White House, Alonzo Fields recalls the highs and lows of life in the private quarters of Presidents Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. (He retired as the Eisenhower’s came into office.) One actor portrays not only Fields but all of the characters in the play from the Presidents and their families to the historic visitors and the staffers with whom he worked.

This is a one-performer but certainly not a one-character show. The performer is Wendell Wright who brings enormous stage presence, personal charm and dignity to the piece. He establishes a rapport with the audience so quickly that it hardly seems that there is a period of transition from the reality of the world outside the theater to the magic on stage when the lights go down. Even before he utters his first line, his body language, attitude and persona establish a character you know you want to know.

As the evening progresses, Wright as Fields switches to Wright as Fields as Truman or Wright as Fields as Winston Churchill or even Wright as Fields as Mrs. Roosevelt. He gives us personal information about himself, what he wanted from life and how he ended up pursuing the career he did, when what he thought he wanted was to be a singer. Mixed into the glimpses of our nation’s story through the transition from isolation to super power is a story of the importance of personal pride. By the end of the evening, this enormously impressive man realizes that service was his art and that he practiced it well.

Wright is assisted in creating his magic by the elegant design of the show. The set designed by Russell Metheny features four pillars which, under Darren McCroom’s active lighting, take on different appearances when the action is in the public rooms of the White House or in the family quarters or in the butler’s pantry or kitchen. The soundscape provided by Michael Keck makes a major contribution to the opening and closing of the show as the street sounds on Pennsylvania Avenue give a feeling of reality to the moment Wright as Fields takes his last bus home from the house he served and loved.

Written and directed by James Still. Design: Russell Metheny (set) Kathleen Egan (costumes) Darren McCroom (lights) Michael Keck (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Michael E. Harrod (stage manager). Cast: Wendell Wright.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed November 23
Running time 2 hours
t A Potomac Stages Pick for
local seasonal tradition

Storyline: A straightforward presentation of the Christmas eve when mean and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge 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.

Steven Crossley returns again to the role of Scrooge. He played the part for three years before becoming unavailable in 1998 because he was busy doing his own one-man-show "Dickens In America" at the Bristol Old Vic in England. He returned two years ago and again is providing a nicely tuned representation of the mean old man who reforms and becomes the personification of the joy of the season. His "mean old man" is full of grumbles and mumbles and is as crotchety as you could wish, while his joyous, reformed persona is bouncy and bright and full of love. The transformation is brought about by fear, of course, and he cowers wonderfully before the specters sent his way in simple but acceptably effective special effects.

David H. Bell wrote this stage adaptation back when he was Ford’s Artistic Director. He also directed it on this stage, but now Timothy Gregory is directing each season’s large cast. Casting is the key task in the annual recreation, and this year they have done a good job with solid performers in all roles. They rely on returning veterans in some of the key roles including Jim Beard who seems even more confident and impressive in the dual role of Mr. Fezziwig and the Ghost of Christmas Present in the new costumes he wears. This year’s Tiny Tim is Brian Jordan Riemer who delivers the final "God bless us every one."

Visually, the show remains a satisfying combination of stage setting, lighting and costuming to create a world somewhere between a pop-up illustrated book and a Currier & Ives illustration. This year they have new sets to replace the slightly threadbare scenery of the past. They aren’t necessarily better than the old ones but they certainly are less banged up. The new costumes, on the other hand, are not only fresh and free of patches, they are more sumptuous, more impressive and more character driven, with glorious fabrics and colors for the wealthier characters and drab rags for some of the poorer ones. Strangely, there is no credit for sound design and yet both amplification and discrete sound effects aid the impact of the show. House sound man Brian Keating deserves credit in the program. Much of the sonic effect, however, comes from the three-person band led by musical director Kevin Wallace at the piano and synthesizer. They support the caroling, provide depth for the special effects and add incidental music to give the entire production a satisfyingly finished feel.

Stage adaptation by David H. Bell. Directed by Timothy Gregory. Music arrangements by Rob Bowman. Design: James Leonard Joy (set) David Kay Mickelsen (costumes) David Kissel (lights) Roy Meachum (stage manager). Musicians: Kevin Wallace (music director) Tom Jones, Caroline Gregg. Cast: Johanna Aldrich, Mark Aldrich, Jim Beard, Nicholas Cable, Cathy Carey, Steven Crossley, Sherri Edelen, Scott Evans, Brian Gill, Simone Grossman, Stephen Patrick Martin, Amy McWilliams, Kathryn Rice, Brian Jordan Riemer, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Howie Smith, Marshall Swing, Meghan Touey, Michael Turner, Stephanie Waters.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed October 7
Running time 2 hours 55 minutes

Storyline: Oklahoma farmers Ma and Pa Joad and their children, along with Grandpa and Grandma, are the terrible victims of the combination of the collapse of the economic system known as the great depression of the 1930s and the effects of prolonged drought on their previously fabulously fertile prairie. Like so many others, they pack what few belongings they have left onto a rickety truck and head west where it is reported there is work to be had in the fertile fields in California. But the economic devastation is too wide spread, too many displaced people share the same dream, and too many barriers of ignorance, bigotry and greed stand in their way.

The first half of the lengthy show is dominated by the image of the truck. It sits on a turntable on stage so that it moves up stage and down, stage right and left, rotates to face sideways as the family fills it with their possessions or forward as it appears to drive toward an unknown future. It is unfortunate that the television situation comedy, “The Beverly Hillbillies,” so thoroughly captured the image of a truckload of earnest prairie types that the image here evokes not a few chuckles from the audience when the impact should be just the opposite. The second act is filled with other, equally impressive -- and not so equally subverted -- images of the depression, especially that of a “Hooverville” camp where everyone clings to their pride while coming face to face with the scope of human disaster affecting the nation.

There are some strong characterizations by this cast of twenty-two, most notably hefty Jim Zidar and weathered Annabel Armour as Ma and Pa Joad and Craig Walker and Susan Bennett as two of their children. Lonnie Burr and Rusty Clauss look just right as Granpa and Granma Joad but it is a bit disturbing that after their characters’ deaths they are used as members of the ensemble since they are so visibly the same actors. Jeffrey Hutchinson does a great job of getting across the depth of despair and the contrast between the life these people expected of the world and the reality staring them in the face as the depression deepens and the pressures get too strong for the social structure they grew up with.

The spare set designed by David Swayze is a marvelous solution to the challenge presented by a story with so many different locations and so much movement. A turntable of a stage with a backdrop framed by weathered wood allows lighting designer Marcus Doshi to change time, location and mood by changing the color of the background, the shadows in the foreground and the overall amount of light. Indeed, Doshi might well be credited with “darkness design” for this show uses shadow, silhouette, murkiness and gloom eloquently and effectively.

Adapted by Frank Galati. Based on the novel by John Steinbeck. Directed by David Cromer. Design: David Swayze (set) Miguel Angel Huidor (costume) Marcus Doshi (lights) Josh Schmidt (sound & music composition) Stan Barouh (photography) Roy Meachum (stage manager). Cast: Johanna Aldrich, Mark Aldrich, Erik Andrews, Annabel Armour, Susan Bennett, Lonnie Burr, Miles Butler, Rusty Clauss, Eve Cox, Aubrey Deeker, Gregory Droggitis, Brian Hamman, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Jack Kyrieleison, Stephen Patrick Martin, Amy McWilliams, Stephen McWilliams, Erin Moon, Jim Ortlieb, Joe Peck, Elizabeth Pierotti, David Sitler, Craig Walker, Jim Zidar 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed March 17
Running time 2 hours 45 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: In a hot and humid hall in "foul, filthy, fuming Philadelphia," the delegates of the 13 colonies debate everything from opening up a window to declaring independence. Central to the cause of separation are John Adams who is "obnoxious and disliked" but devoted to the cause, Benjamin Franklin, "a sage, a bit gouty in the leg" who understands the importance of crafting coalitions and Thomas Jefferson who, at age 33, has "a remarkable felicity of expression." The audience knows what the outcome of the debate will be, but there is tension and drama aplenty along the way to the final vote.

Ford’s has gathered a superb cast headed by an emotionally charged Lewis Cleale as an exasperated John Adams, so passionately devoted to the cause of independence even after years spent away from his beloved wife Abigail. James Ludwig is convincing as Thomas Jefferson who is quiet as still waters till aroused either by the challenge of setting forth “the reasons that compel the separation” in a Declaration of Independence or by the arrival of the wife who fell in love with his talents of expression other than with words. The principal trio of the show is completed by David Huddleston, all grumpy grampa as Ben Franklin. While Cleale and Ludwig bring marvelous singing skills to their parts, Huddleston is primarily a dramatic actor who sing-talks through patter songs but he does so with considerable charm.

The quality of the rest of the cast sets this 1776 above many other productions. Many are local talents we’ve come to rely on for memorable moments. Michael L. Forrest gives as strong a portrayal of John Dickenson as any we’ve seen. Bill Largess is a touching Caesar Rodney, roused from his fatal descent into cancer by his devotion to an intellectual position. Others who may not call our region home but who have graced our stage before add a depth to the cast. Anne Kanengeiser who was so marvelous as Eleanor Roosevelt on this stage and co-starred with Cleale in Signature Theatre’s Passion is a touching Abigail Adams, sharing one of the musical theater’s lovelier moments with Cleale on “Yours, Yours, Yours” while Kate Baldwin, who just completed her run as Nellie Forbush over at Arena, is a captivating Martha Jefferson. New to the region are Trent Blanton whose “Molasses to Rum” rocks the rafters with emotional intensity and Chris Peluso whose reminiscences of the scenes on the battlefields in “Momma Look Sharp” had particular poignancy on the night of the President’s speech.     

Still, the real magic of this piece is the way Stone and Edwards manage to communicate the complexity of the issues and avoid making simplistic cartoons out of the majority of the characters they portray. Richard Henry Lee is treated with less respect than most, being a comic popinjay of an egotist, but the adherents to the heritage of the British nation are shown as earnest, honest men who have an honest difference of opinion. Indeed, Stone writes a marvelously moving moment at the end when the victorious John Adams pays tribute to the defeated John Dickenson who, in Michael L. Forrest’s marvelously heart-felt portrayal has fought with all the energy and passion at his command in a cause he holds dear. Even the question of slavery, which was finally resolved on the side of human dignity only by bloody civil war decades later, is presented with both sides landing telling blows in the argument.

Written by Peter Stone. Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards. Directed by David H. Bell. Musical direction by Michael Rice. Design: James Leonard Joy (set) Mariann Verheyen (costumes) Diane Ferry Williams (lights)  David H. Lawrence (hair) Roy Meachum (stage manager). Cast: Lewis Cleale, James Ludwig, David Huddleston, Michael L. Forrest, Anne Kanengeiser, Kate Baldwin, Trent Blanton, Chris Peluso, Bill Largess, Graham Rowat, Stephen F. Schmidt, Mark Aldrich, Christopher Alessi, Jim Beard, Christopher Block, Steven Crossley, Scott Evans, Daniel Felton, Matthew R. Jones, Buzz Mauro, Frank Robinson, Jr., Jim Scopelitis, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Franklin Trapp, John Leslie Wolfe. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed January 27
Running time 1 hour 50 minutes

Rarely, if ever, has something this good self destructed and degenerated at its own hand so completely. It all begins as a 90 minute, one-act performance in which actor, pianist, singer Hershey Felder becomes George Gershwin. He shares Gershwin's life with the audience right up to the date of his death and even plays Rhapsody in Blue in the persona of the spirit of the great American composer so well, that makes everyone in the hall feel the tragic loss of such a talent in his thirties with so much more music left in him. The audience is moved to tears and then rises to its feet in ovation. Then, unaccountably, the process seems to reverse. George Gershwin, one of the great talents of the age,  becomes Hershey Felder, a mere actor with a saloon act, pulling out a book of Gershwin songs and asking the audience to pick a song, any song – and then leading an embarrassed audience participation sing-along. He even sings a bit of Gershwin drivel about being a poached egg without the toast and says “well, some songs are better unsung.” This is a tribute? This is a fiasco.

Storyline: George Gershwin grew up in New York absorbing the music of the lower east side. He earned a living pitching other people’s songs but soon was writing his own. "Swanee" became a sensation, earning him a great deal of money and entré to the musical publishing outlets of Tin Pan Alley and the stages of Broadway. While churning out hit after hit with his lyricist brother, he crossed over into serious concert hall works such as "Rhapsody in Blue," "An American In Paris," "The Piano Concerto in F" and the "Cuban Rhapsody." He created the great American opera Porgy and Bess and headed west to Hollywood to create songs for musicals with Fred Astaire and others. But once he got there, a brain tumor took his life at age 38.

The first hour and 37 minutes of this hour and 50 minute show is pure magic. Notwithstanding his death 66 years ago, the audience is given the incredible opportunity to meet and spend an evening with George Gershwin. Felder is a fine actor and he creates a character that feels just right as the brash young composer. It is a performance that meshes well with many of the biographies that tell the story of his storied life. Felder is also a good enough musician to both mimic Gershwin’s identifiable piano style and to use the instrument to explain some of the magic of Gershwin’s compositional genius. You don’t need to know what a rising theme in intervals of a third means when you walk in – he will explain it to you. But you don’t even need to understand it or retain it to appreciate his passion for it.

Felder created this show out of his love for Gershwin’s music and for Gershwin’s story and it shows. And he had the good sense to work with a director who could impose the kind of theatrical discipline any playwright performing his own material needs. Joel Zwick directs this performance with a sure hand, giving it pacing and a visual flow to match the storyline. The performance takes place on a slightly impressionistic set of off-kilter walls displaying faded portraits and sheet music covers. In front of the wrap around walls and drapes are a few seating areas and a massive grand piano at which Felder/Gershwin comes most alive. The walls serve as surfaces for a few well chosen projections of photographs.

There are two scenes of intensely personal magic that are unforgettable for anyone reachable by the tug of emotion Felder is fielding. He recreates the night when George first played the second act duet for Porgy and Bess (“I Loves You Porgy” and “Bess You Is My Woman Now”) for his brother Ira, librettist DuBose Heyward and Kay Swift who was as close to him as any woman. Whether or not he actually played and sang it that way in reality, Felder’s creation makes it feel so true that witnessing it is an honor. Then, after relating the fact of George’s unexpected death, Felder moves to the piano, sits and plays the entire Rhapsody in Blue without reestablishing eye contact with the audience. The spell is complete and wonderful – but then comes the inexplicable tawdry shtick of Felder’s post-curtain-call sing-along. George Gershwin has left the building.

Written by Hershey Felder. Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Irving Ceaser and DuBose Heyward. Directed by Joel Zwick.  Design: Yael Pardess (set) J. Kent Inasy (lights) Jon Gottlieb (sound). Cast: Hershey Felder.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed December 4
Running time 1 hour 55 minutes

Stage adaptation by David H. Bell. Directed by Timothy Gregory. Music arrangements by Rob Bowman. Design: Daniel Proett (set) Hillary Paul (costumes) David Kissel (lights.) Musicians: Kevin Wallace (music director) Tom Jones, Caroline Gregg. Cast: Steven Crossley, Jim Beard, David Covington, Carolyn Pasquantonio, Henry Hodges, Johanna Aldrich, Mark Aldrich, Christopher Bloch, Brandy Burre, Nicholas Cable, Mindy Dougherty, Scott Evans, Madi Ferguson, Biran Gill, Tara Hugo, Sue Judin, Kathryn Rice, Howie Smith, Marshall Swing, John Leslie Wolfe.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed March 26
Running time 2 hours 20 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Based on The Mikado by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Book and lyrics adapted by David H. Bell. Music adapted by Rob Bowman. Directed and choreographed by David H. Bell. Music direction by Chris Fenwick. Design: Daniel Proett (set) Diane Ferry Williams (lights) Mariann Verheyen (costumes) George Hummel (orchestrations.) Cast: Ross Lehman, Ted. L. Levy, David Ayers, LaParee Young, Kelli Rabke, Chandra Currelley, Jonathan Sharp, Denise summerford, Ryan Michelle Bathé.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed January 24
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes

Written by Herb Gardner. Directed by Daniel Sullivan. Design: Michel Anania (sets based on Tony Walton’s original design) Pat Collins (lights) Teresa Snider-Stein (costumes) [sound is strangely uncredited.] Cast: Judd Hirsch, Ben Vereen, Mimi Lieber, Anthony Arkin, Steven Boyer, Jeb Brown, Tanya Clarke.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed December 4
Running time 1 hour 50 minutes

Stage adaptation by David H. Bell. Directed by Timothy Gregory. Music arrangements by Rob Bowman. Design: Daniel Proett (set) Hillary Paul (costumes) David Kissel (lights.) Musicians: Kevin Wallace (music director) Tom Jones, Caroline Gregg. Cast: Steven Crossley, Mark Aldrich, Jim Beard, Dwight Tolar, Scott Evans, Johanna Gerry, Monica Lijewski, Tracy McMullan, Julie Price, Rich Sullivan, John Leslie Wolfe, Henry Hodges.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed October 2
Running time one hour 30 minutes