Running Time 2:30 - One Intermission
The bright, colorful and loud stage version of the Disney Channel movie 
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Storyline: The star of the high school boys basketball team and a new girl on campus whose science and math skills might bring success to the school's "scholastic decathlon team" fall for each other and try out for the school musical, an original work titled Juliet and Romeo. The school's perennial star of musicals feels threatened by the prospect of the competition and arranges the call backs for final auditions to be at the same time as the championship basketball game and the scholastic decathlon - but some slick work with a laptop untangles the conflict and allows the couple a triple triumph on the way to true love.

While the original movie concentrated fairly well on establishing the storyline and fleshing out some of the relationships of subsidiary characters, the book for the stage musical seems to take as a given that the audience already knows the story and who these people are. This is probably true for the show's intended audience, and since the story isn't very complex and is quite predictable, it isn't too much of a difficulty for the rest of us. The cast is a hard working bunch with a few standouts. The pair at the center of all this is John Jeffrey Martin and Arielle Jacobs. Like many of the cast playing high school students, Martin looks too old for the role, but Jacobs could actually pass as a high school senior. They make a cute couple, but there seems to be some reticence between them: they hardly make eye contact during the big love duet ironically titled "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You."

As the "star" feeling threatened by the new girl Chandra Lee Schwartz teams at key moments with Bobby List who plays her brother. List is an energetic charge in an already super charged show with both comic and dance skills. There's also the pair of adults of note: the sadly underutilized Ron Bohmer as the basketball coach and the marvelously well used Ellen Harvey who is sharp as the drama teacher. Both Bohmer, who starred in the scaled down The Scarlet Pimpernel (known by many as "Pimp 3,") and Harvey, who made her Broadway debut in The Music Man, know very well how to carry a scene or a bit and Harvey gets plenty of opportunities all night long while Bohmer really doesn't get much of a chance until he lets loose in the final "megamix" that becomes the curtain call. Most of the students who pair up by the end of the show are sharply, if stereotypically, drawn. Two earn a particular (and peculiar) affection from the audience. Michael Mahany sparks scenes as the Gary Owens-style radio-voiced announcer who works the school's public address system and Dante Russo emerges from the anonymity of the chorus, when, as one of the students in detention given assignments of acting exercises, has to scrunch his way across the stage as an earthworm.

The show opens on the front steps of the high school on the first day after winter vacation, a-la Grease. Soon we see a well choreographed basketball practice, à la The Full Monty. We meet the blond who resists competition to her status as a teen star, à la Hairspray. Later, she and her brother emerge from lockers, à la The Producers. These derivative elements continue right through the end when the entire cast sings a "megamix" reprise of the score à la Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat while the computerized vari-lite spots are pivoted into the audience's eyes à la Mamma Mia! and, at the last moment, streamers are shot into the auditorium à la Spamalot. Through it all, the volume level overwhelms some of the melodic and rhythmic qualities of the score. "What I've Been Looking For" is actually a very pretty song and "We're All In This Together" is an effective jump song, but the strengths of each are obscured. Of course, it didn't help that the system overloaded a few times on opening night, creating a bass version of feedback.

Book by David Simpatico based on the screenplay by Peter Barsocchini. Songs by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil; Ray Cham, Greg Cham and Andrew Seeley; Randy Petersen and Kevin Quinn; Andy Dodd and Adam Watts; Bryan Louiselle; David N. Lawrence and Faye Greenberg; and Jamie Houston. Directed by Jeff Calhoun. Choreographed by Lisa Stevens. Music direction by Robert Sprayberry. Conducted by Michael Keller. Musical arrangements and orchestrations by  Bryan Louiselle. Design: Kenneth Foy (set) Wade Laboissonniere (costumes) Cookie Jordan (hair) Ken Billington (lights) Duncan Robert Edwards (sound) Joan Marcus (photography) Paul J. Smith (production stage manager). Principal cast: Ron Bohmer, Shakiem Evans, Ellen Harvey, Arielle Jacobs, Shaullanda Lacombe, Bobby List, Michael Mahany, John Jeffrey Martin, Olivia Oguma, Chandra Lee Schwartz, Ben Thompson, Lizzie Weiss.

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Running time 2:20 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an accurate re-creation
 of Broadway's current hit
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Storyline: A musical comedy loosely "ripped off" from the Monty Python movie adds one more item to the quest that Arthur, King of the Britons, and his hardy band of knights of the round table must tackle at the command of the Knights who say "Ni". (If you understood that, keep reading. If not, just go see the show and enjoy the energy, color and the over-the-top humor.) They must put on a show on Broadway, a street in a country that hasn't even been discovered yet!

The National has brought a Broadway experience to the Potomac Region with the return of this national touring company. As was the case in 2006 when it last played here, the sets are nearly as big as those on Shubert Alley, the cast is just about as good as the original, who, between them, received five Tony nominations, and the show moves along about as smartly as Mike Nichols wanted it to. And, it is being performed in the most Broadway-like theater in town. It also charges Broadway-like prices with a top of $96 - just $15 less than the $111 they are asking in New York. Is it worth it? If you would find it worth $111 at New York's Shubert, you will find it worth $96 here, and you won't come away feeling they scrimped one bit.

Mike Nichols is the real genius behind this concoction. The pace of the piece is superbly moderated between frantic and manic with nary a moment that doesn't contain at least two things to laugh at, one visual and one verbal. Of course, with Monty Python material there are puns aplenty and groaningly obvious, deliriously uninhibited running gags. But they could wear out their welcome even faster in person than on film if the audience turned on the project -- in a movie you don't expect audience feedback to influence the performance. The secret to Nichols' accomplishment is that he opens strong and stays that way, filling in every possible gap, and yet never gets ahead of his audience. Everything makes perfect sense within the illogical logic of the concept. Practically every humorous concept of the film is retained (from a cow "cowtapulted" over a parapet to the killer rabbit's fake attack and the knight loosing limb after limb in a duel he refuses to admit isn't going his way) while new material in the same spirit is heaped on the stage with ever increasing spectacle.

The cast here attacks their separate roles without much deviation from the way those roles were crafted by their originators. It isn't that each is doing an impersonation of the original so much as each has been cast for his or her ability to generate the same persona and make the same material work in the same way. Michael SiIberry's King Author is very much like Tim Curry's, and the new The Lady of the Lake, Esther Stilwell, is reminiscent of Sara Ramirez's Tony Award winning performance. Jeff Dumas is back as Patsy, Arthur's coconut clicking sidekick -- he won the Helen Hayes Award for his work the last time the show played here, and for the first week of the run, Robert Petkoff will be the fabulous Sir Robin. (He'll be replaced December 18 by James Beaman.) No one on stage ever seems to be just recreating someone else's bits, however. Everyone gives a sharp, effective performance and sells his or her gags with alacrity. The costumes are every bit as flashy and the sets, while reduced just a bit for touring (no Lady of the Lake rising up from below through a trap door) retain all the insouciance of Tim Hatley's originals along with all their color, verve, splash and humor.

Music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle. Book and lyrics by Eric Idle. Directed by Mike Nichols. Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw. Music direction by Ben Whiteley. Music arrangements by Glen Kelly. Vocal arrangements by Todd Ellison. Orchestrations by Larry Hochman. Design: Tim Hatley (sets and costumes) David Brian Brown (hair and wigs) Joseph A. Campayno (makeup) Gregory Meeh (special effects)  Hugh Vanstone (lights) Acme Sound Partners (sound) Joan Marcus (photography). Principal cast: James Beaman or Robert Petkoff, Ben Davis, Jeff Dumas, Christopher Gurr, Patrick Heusinger, Michael Siberry, Esther Stilwell, Christopher Sutton, and the voice of John Cleese.

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Running time 2:15 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a not to be missed delight
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for December
2004 Tony Award for Best Musical
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: The residents of Avenue Q, a low rent area in an outer borough of New York, are young adults just out of college trying to find their purpose in life, make it in the world and connect with each other. The show is structured around an only slightly updated version of the traditional “boy meets girl, boy wins girl, boy looses girl, boy and girl get back together” story that has driven hundreds of musicals. It is decked out with a number of subplots involving the friendship between a gay man and his straight roommate, an interracial marriage, a “monster” who stays cooped up in his apartment surfing the net for porn, and the apartment house super, who was a television child star but is now a has-been.

As unique as this show is, and it is truly one of a kind, its roots are in the time-tested traditions of the Broadway musical, and therein lies the key to its success. Not just a string of clever songs and sketches, this plot driven evening has more in common with The Producers than the episodic kid’s show it emulates. It takes an incongruous concept to the extremes of silliness and fills it with a score featuring drop-dead funny lyrics set to music that is catchy and superbly appropriate for each individual moment. Then, just when you think it has reached the limit of absurdity, it introduces elements of schmaltz involving the relationships between characters about whom the audience has come to care. The concept works every time it is used by creators who know their craft, and here it is clear that songwriters Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who came up with the concept while studying this craft at the legendary BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, playwright Jeff Whitty, and director Jason Moore, each know theirs quite well indeed.

Most of the cast in the touring company have been in the Broadway or the Las Vegas companies of the show. Robert McClure is sharp as both the gay man who tries to avoid detection by singing about "My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada" and the newly arrived college grad who wonders "What Do You Do With A BA In English?" Kelli Sawyer brings a chipper persona to the teacher he asks out on a date ("What are you doing tonight?" "Grading term papers. But its kindergarten so they're short.") and a sultry touch to Lucy the Slut who promises to slip him her phone number when his date goes to the bathroom. Both are great at manipulating their puppets as well as selling their songs and scenes. Carla Renata is new at the impersonation of Gary Coleman that is more than a running gag, but she's got it nailed. Angela Ai is the better half of the team of the unemployed comic and his Japanese wife who objects to the term "Oriental" but prefers "Asian-American" in the song "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist." Her partner in that is a player with the notable name Cole Porter who is the one cast member who sometimes seems a bit bored with the proceedings. The cast-wide average for involvement, energy, enjoyment and straight out pizzazz is boosted, however, by the work of David Benoit as the gay Republican stockbroker's roommate, the monster who insists that "The Internet Is For Porn" and one of the bears who are the personification (or is that bearification?) of temptation.

Since all but three of the dozen main characters are puppets, puppet design is critical. These designs are by Rick Lyon, who also appeared in the original cast manipulating a number of his creation. They are cleverly derivative, affectionately mimicking the clean, clear characterization of the best of the late Jim Henson’s work for Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Anna Louizos matches his whimsy in her set design with touches such as a forced perspective view of the top of the Empire State Building complete with wind to blow the hair of one puppet. Touches like this keep the show fresh all evening long.

Concept, music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Book by Jeff Whitty. Directed by Jason Moore. Puppets conceived and designed by Rick Lyon. Choreographed by Ken Roberson. Musical direction by Andrew Graham. Music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Stephen Oremus. Incidental music by Gary Adler. Design: Anna Louizos (set) Mirena Rada (costumes) Howell Binkley (lights) Robert Lopez (animation)  Acme Sound Partners (sound).  Cast: Angela Ai, David Benoit, Minglie Chen, Robert McClure, Cole Porter, Carla Renata, Kelli Sawyer.

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Running time 1:55 - no intermission
v Despite the cute photos in the advertising campaign, the musical contains material inappropriate for children
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Storyline: As six precocious school kids compete in a local high school gymnasium, songs and scenes reveal some of their inner thoughts, hopes and fears.

The story of the evolution of the show is by now a bit of a legend on Broadway. A tiny comedy troupe in Manhattan's lower east side was doing a small improvisational piece. One of the performers happened to be the nanny of playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who came to see the show, liked it, and passed the idea that it might make a good musical to William Finn, composer/lyricist of Falsettos, A New Brain and Elegies: A Song Cycle. He got involved and brought in James Lapine, director of Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Passion with Stephen Sondheim as well as Falsettos and A New Brain with Finn. The resulting show with a cast of nine and a pit band of five opened in a 296-seat Off-Broadway theater and wowed audiences, winning the Lucille Lortel award for outstanding Off-Broadway musical of 2005. It transferred to Broadway's 684-seat, nearly theater-in-the-round, Circle in the Square Theater where it drew a slew of awards, including the Tony Award for Best Book for a Musical, and it is still going. It is a show for adults, not one for kids, despite the cartoonish nature of the show's logo.

The touring version looks very much like the Broadway incarnation - a single set of a high school auditorium stage with a curtain at the back that opens to reveal various additional locations, slightly oversized costumes for the grown actors playing children, all just a bit more colorful than reality under bright lights. Roberta Duchak has taken over the role of the hostess for the bee and she's very good in the role, delivering bons mots with aplomb. Andrew Keenan-Bolger delivers the most energetic performance as the speller who lucked into the bee when the two who beat him out of his slot in the preliminaries are unavailable. Vanessa Ray and Eric Roediger also stand out among the spellers. Justin Keyes delivers his big number, "My Unfortunate Erection," with pizzaz. The title of that song demonstrates the age group this show is intended to reach.

The show uses recruits from the audience to fill out the initial panel of spellers. Unlike some shows that draft unwilling participants during the performance, however, Spelling Bee asks for volunteers some half hour before the show, selects a few and gives them the benefit of some instruction on what they will do on stage. They then serve as additional contestants to make the bee seem more competitive than simply a six person contest. One of the features of the script is the collection of one-line introductions for each contestant each time he or she approaches the microphone to spell a word. These, and the definitions and sentences read by the "pronouncer" (James Kall, as the assistant principal returned after a five year absence, apparently as a result of some unspecified pedophiliac behavior) get most of the laughs of the evening.

Music and lyrics by William Finn. Book by Rachel Sheinkin. Conceived by Rebecca Feldman. Directed by James Lapine. Musical direction by Jodie Moore. Choreographed by Dan Knechtges. Orchestrations by Michael Starobin. Vocal arrangements by Carmel Dean. Design: Beowulf Boritt (set) Jennifer Caprio (costumes) Natasha Katz (lights) Dan Moses Schreier (sound) Joan Marcus (photography) Brian J. L'Ecuyer (stage manager). Cast: Kate Boren, Roberta Duchak,  James Kall, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Justin Keyes, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Vanessa Ray, Eric Roediger, Dana Steingold.

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Running time 1:35 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a superb play with performances to match
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for March
Price range $39 - $79
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Storyline: A Roman Catholic nun who runs a parish school suspects that the young parish priest has established an inappropriate relationship with one of the boys in the school, but she has no proof. How should she deal with the situation?

The storyline above doesn't tell you exactly what the "inappropriate relationship" might be - neither does the author. He's not setting up a concrete "whodunit" or even a "what's-he-done." Instead, to see what Shanley's intent is, look to the the subtitle: "A Parable." The moral dilemma facing Sister Aloysius is that she has doubts, not proof. She has duties and responsibilities too. The time is 1964. Today's revelations of pedophilia among clergy dating to that period make this a highly topical play but its approach to the central question is timeless. No wonder Shanley received both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for best play.

Shanley's script presents just four people as it lays out its conundrum. There's the sister herself. What a role! No simple stereotype of a set-in-her-ways, officious official. This nun is a widowed woman with a strength based on her discovery late in life of the certainty of the church, a certainty tempered by a lifetime of seeing how temporal things work. Cherry Jones' performance is every bit as strong and impressive as its reputation has led Potomac Region theatergoers to expect - she won a Tony in this role and it is a rare thing for a Tony winner to then travel with the play. Chris McGarry is new to the role of the priest, but he plays it with great intensity, charm, humor and dignity. Intensity and dignity are the adjectives to praise the performance of Caroline Stefanie Clay as well. She's simply marvelous in her one scene as the mother of the boy Sister Aloysius suspects is the priest's victim. Lisa Joyce is the young teacher in the school who surfaces the initial suspicions. She was a bit hard to understand at times and she stepped over a few of Jones' lines but her innocent reactions were right on.

John Lee Beatty's sets combine archways and utilitarian file cabinets in a construction that slides on and off smoothly and quickly so the fast paced play is never delayed by so much as a minute. Pat Collins' lighting gives each location and time a different feel. His' leafy, late afternoon shadows in the garden are fabulous. The entire package -- design, direction, acting and that marvelous script -- is first rate.

Written by John Patrick Shanley. Directed by Doug Hughes. Design: John Lee Beatty (set) Catherine Zuber (costumes) Pat Collins (lights) David Van Tieghem (original music and sound) Craig Schwartz (photography). Cast: Caroline Stefanie Clay, Cherry Jones, Lisa Joyce, Chris McGarry.

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Running time 2:00 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for exuberant
dance and concert-quality music
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Storyline: Buddies from Long Island and their girls graduate from high school. The three boys head off to Viet Nam but just two come back to uncertain futures.

The show opens with what Tharp calls an "overture" – Joel’s song "It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me" danced by the cast. Where most overtures introduce the audience to the melodic vocabulary the show will be using to tell its story, here it is the dance vocabulary that is being introduced. Tharp demonstrates her intention to use the moves, the gestures and the forms of more than just the traditional Broadway musical dance routines. She will put some of her women up on pointe, she will use lifts and throws and displays of acrobatic energy and some of the men’s leaps will be positively Barishnikovish. The cast portraying characters are all fabulous dancers. They have no lines of dialogue at all – not one word. Instead, they act their parts in that vocabulary of dance, and all the important plot points are clearly communicated in this way. Well, all but one. That one is a proposal of marriage, which is pantomimed rather than danced, with the would-be-groom on one knee showing a ring to his hoped-for-bride. It is such a strange moment because Tharp has no difficulty finding a way to communicate every other sentiment, sensation and event in motion.

Just like a classical ballet, the "book" for this musical is closer to a scenario than a play. The story is simple, but that doesn’t mean it is simplistic. In fact, Tharp has constructed a story that is rich in symbols and in meaning, but is told in a series of single themed scenes -- each of which is designed to make just one point for the plot and then move on. There are two dozen such scenes and each, like a scene in a ballet, states its point and often repeats it rather than developing it. The song to which each scene is set contributes more to the story through its main theme or just its title than through the details of the lyrics. There is no effort here to adapt Mr. Joel’s lyrics to fit the needs of the story – instead, frequently just the central point of the song is relevant.

The show sounds just like a Billy Joel concert at the old Cap Center. It should, for the sound design here is a collaboration between Broadway veteran Peter J. Fitzgerald and Joel’s long time road sound designer Brian Ruggles. Singing the 26 Billy Joel songs that make up the score (everything from the title song to "Big Shot," "Uptown Girl," "Captain Jack" and "Pressure" with a finale set to "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant") is a young-Billy-Joel sound-alike who is also lead piano man in a ten man band. The band is set on a bridge above the on-stage action in a scenic design that is both simple and effective, leaving open space on stage for the dancing. The activity in the wings is clearly visible which can be a bit distracting. But most of the time, the spectacle center-stage is enough to hold every eye.

Music and lyrics by Billy Joel. Conceived, directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp. Orchestration and additional musical arrangements by Stuart Malina. Design: Santo Loquasto (set) Suzy Benzinger (costumes) Donald Holder (lights) Brian Ruggles and Peter J. Fitzgerald (sound) Joan Marcus (photography) Eric Sprosty (stage manager). Principal cast on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday evenings and Sunday matinee: Joshua Bergasse, Holly Cruikshank, Matthew Dibble, Laura Feig, David Gomez, Darren Holden, Ron Todorowski. Principal cast on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evenings and Saturday matinees: Joshua Bergasse, Dylis Croman, Matthew Dibble, Laura Feig, James Fox, Brendan King, Keith Roberts.

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Running time 2:05 - one intermission
A star vehicles for two well known
 television personalities
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Storyline: A hard-charging would-be producer brings two fading stars who have feuded over the years together under the false promise that they would be co-staring with Paul Newman. What he doesn't know is that each of them need the job perhaps more than he needs them.

To be fair to the cast, it must be admitted that the script gives them less to work with than it should. But fairness is a two ways street, and this pallid performance hardly is fair to the playwright either. The playwright is James Kirkwood, whose only real success as a Broadway playwright was success enough for anyone: he co-wrote the book for A Chorus Line, earning not only a good deal of money but a Tony, a Drama Desk Award and a Pulitzer Prize. A Chorus Line broke or bent every rule of musical theater and established a whole set of new ones. Here, however, all the rules of snappy drawing room comedy are followed with slavish devotion, resulting in predictable dullness.

Each of the two acts opens with a solo scene for the would-be producer, giving Joe Farrell a chance to work some telephone skit style humor. Each of those scenes ends with the set in front of which he has been working flying to reveal the main set. "Flying" may not be the right term since that brings to mind some semblance of speed. The slow ascent of the set is the first of a number of elements that feel very much like it is being taken slowly in order to stretch the show out to a "full" two hours. The impact is simple sluggishness. The brightest supporting performance comes from Will Holman as a Chippendale-style stripper who bursts in to entertain as a result of a slender plot thread (don't ask). Tonye Patano, as the wise mouthed maid, overcomes the early sluggishness that afflicted even her performance and generates a number of hearty laughs later on.

To judge by the advertising for the show, one would expect at least a feast for the eyes as the two stars parade in superb costumes. Here again, it seems that Evans gets the best of the match-up. She spends most of the evening in a stunning pantsuit and then takes her curtain call in the bright red ball gown shown in the ads. Collins enters in a bright pink outfit that shows off her bearing nicely. She would have been well served to stay thus attired. Instead, despite a plot that indicates that she's not in her own home, she manages to change costumes twice, and each is less attractive than the one before. Finally, she too dons a red ball gown to join in the curtain call, looking belatedly splendid.

Written by James Kirkwood. Directed by John Bowab. Design: Jesse Polechuck (set) Nolan Miller (costumes) Phil Monat (lights) Denis Jones (strip choreography) T. Richard Fitzgerald and Carl Casella (sound) Carol Rosegg (photography). Cast: Joan Collins, Linda Evans, Joe Farrell, Will Holman, Ethan Matthews, Tonye Patano.

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Running time 2:20 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an accurate re-creation
 of Broadway's current hit
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: A musical comedy loosely "ripped off" from the Monty Python movie adds one more item to the quest that Arthur, King of the Britons, and his hardy band of knights of the round table must tackle at the command of the Knights who say "Ni". (If you understood that, keep reading. If not, just go see the show and enjoy the energy, color and the over-the-top humor.) They must put on a show on Broadway, a street in a country that hasn't even been discovered yet!

The National has brought the Broadway experience to the Potomac Region with this national touring company's mounting of the musical that continues to be a hot ticket in New York. The set is nearly as big as the one on Shubert Alley. The cast is just about as good as the original, who, between them, received five Tony nominations. The show moves along about as smartly as Mike Nichols wanted it to. And, it is being performed in the most Broadway-like theater in town. It also charges Broadway-like prices with a top of $91 - just $20 less than the $111 they are asking in New York. Is it worth it? If you would find it worth $111 at the Shubert you will find it worth $91 at the National, and you won't come away feeling they scrimped one bit.

Mike Nichols is the real genius behind this concoction. The pace of the piece is superbly moderated between frantic and manic with nary a moment not containing at least two things to laugh at, one visual and one verbal. Of course, with Monty Python material there are puns a plenty and groaningly obvious, deliriously uninhibited running gags. But they could wear out their welcome even faster in person than on film if the audience turned on the project - in a movie you don't expect audience feedback to influence the performance. The secret to Nichols' accomplishment is that he opens strong and stays that way, filling in every possible gap, and yet never gets ahead of his audience. Everything makes perfect sense within the illogical logic of the concept. Practically every humorous concept of the film is retained (from a cow "cowtapulted" over a parapet to the killer rabbit's fake attack and the knight loosing limb after limb in a duel he refuses to admit isn't going his way) while new material in the same spirit is heaped on the stage with ever increasing spectacle.

The cast here attacks their separate roles without much deviation from the way they were crafted by their originators. It isn't that each is doing an impersonation of the original so much as each has been cast for his or her ability to generate the same persona and make the same material work in the same way. Even Michael SiIberry and Pia Glenn who have the two leads (King Author and The Lady of the Lake) perform very much like Tim Curry and Sara Ramirez, which is not a bad thing at all. No one on stage ever seems to be just recreating someone else's bits, however. Everyone gives a sharp, effective performance and sells his or her gags with alacrity. The costumes are every bit as flashy and the sets, while reduced just a bit for touring, retain all the insouciance of Tim Hatley's originals along with all their color, verve, splash and humor.

Music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle. Book and lyrics by Eric Idle. Directed by Mike Nichols. Choreographed by Casey Nicholaw. Music direction by Ben Whiteley. Music arrangements by Glen Kelly. Vocal arrangements by Todd Ellison. Orchestrations by Larry Hochman. Design: Tim Hatley (sets and costumes) David Brian Brown (hair and wigs) Joseph A. Campayno (makeup) Gregory Meeh (special effects)  Hugh Vanstone (lights) Acme Sound Partners (sound) Joan Marcus (photography). Cast: Kevin Crewell, Bradley Dean, Tom Deckman, Jeff Dumas, Pia Glenn, Christopher Gurr, Rick Holmes, Gavin Lodge, Justin Patterson, Mia Price, Darryl Semira, Michael Siberry, Christopher Sutton, David Turner and the voice of John Cleese.

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Reviewed March 28
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A dance musical built around the sound of Earth Wind and Fire
Begins previews on Broadway April 18

Storyline: A thinly disguised devil tells a young girl with dreams of becoming a famous dancer an updated version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes. In this version, another young girl with the same dreams is tempted by the lure of success, fame and fortune offered by a sleazy producer and his devilish manipulator to disregard the authority of her mother and cheat on her love, the choreographer of the producer's show.

If you are familiar with the biggest hits of Earth, Wind and Fire you will find a few familiar numbers here - "Shining Star," their first big hit from 1975 finds its way to the stage in the first few minutes. The first act ends with "Fantasy," which was a hit for the band twice. "Serpentine Fire" plays an important part in the plot as the big dance number that requires new talent.  Also finding their way into the show are "September" which was their UNICEF Concert contribution to the cause of children around the world and "Kalimba's Story," while not performed in the show, provides the name of the dancer tempted by the shoes. Most of the score, however, is new. Maurice White, driving partner and leader of Earth, Wind and Fire has written more songs in the style of the band, and Bill Meyers has created arrangements for the twelve-member off-stage band that merges it all into that single, singular sound. Those who found the band's early work had a sameness about it that was nearly boring will find the same thing throughout the show, but those who were energized by their driving rhythm will experience it again.

Credited with conceiving as well as directing and choreographing the entire package is Maurice Hines. The choreography is suitably inventive if, like the music, highly repetitive. Flashes of athletic prowess are impressive, but the ensemble tends to offer energy rather than precision. As a result, the individual leaps, twists, tumbles and spins which can be thrilling are hindered by the lack of unison in the line work. Every time a soloist makes an impression, it seems that the supporting ensemble's leap, twirl or sway is just ragged enough to distract. (It also hurt the show's chances on opening night that microphones turned on about half a syllable into a speech, cut off half a beat before the end of a solo or malfunctioned entirely for key scenes or duets.)

Vivian Nixon is the young dancer seeking fame and fortune in red shoes. She's got all the skills necessary to pull off the role, but not the star quality to spark an entire show. Michael Balderrama does have that spark and is impressive as the choreographer she loves. Allen Hidalgo is suitably slithery as the devil behind the producer's plotting. The real strength of the cast is in the older roles played with sure authority by the more experienced stars, Ann Duquesnay as Nixon's mother and Keith David as the producer. For opening night, the part of the little girl being told the story - a part that only has about ten or twelve minutes of stage time - was played by understudy Samantha Pollino. During her stage time she was the best thing about the show, with a bright, perky freshness.

Conceived, choreographed and directed by Maurice Hines. Music and lyrics by Maurice White and others. Book and additional lyrics by Heru Ptah. Musical direction by Jeffrey Klitz. Arrangements and orchestrations by Bill Meyers. Design: James Noone (set) Paul Tazewell (costumes) Qodi Armstrong (hair) Clifton Taylor (lights) Acme Sound Partners (sound) Michael E. Harrod (stage manager). Cast: Michael Balderrama, Keith David, Ann Duquesnay, Allen Hidalgo, Vivian Nixon, Samantha Pollino, Wynonna Smith.

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Reviewed December 13
Running time 2:55
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a sprawling story well told through a marvelous score
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Storyline: The central plot of Victor Hugo’s massive novel of France between 1815 and 1832 has been streamlined to cover the story of a prisoner set free after serving time for stealing a loaf of bread. He assumes a new identity, raises to wealth and position and takes on the role of guardian for the young daughter of one of his employees. She grows into a young woman and falls in love with a student involved in the revolution, who, with her guardian’s secret help, survives the slaughter of the revolutionaries on the barricades.

By Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg with Jean-Marc Natel contributing to the original French text and additional material by James Fenton. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Directed and adapted by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. Current music direction by R. Andrew Bryan. Design: John Napier (set) Andreane Neofitou (costumes) David Hersey (lights) Andrew Bruce/Autograph (sound). Cast: Joan Almedilla, Trent Blanton, Sierra Boggess, Pierce Peter Brandt, Don Brewer, Eric Briarley, Jennifer Butt, Matt Clemens, Kip Driver, Karen Elliott, Ali Ewoldt, David Michael Felty, Meg Guzulescu, Charles Hagerty, Leslie Henstock, Robert Hunt, Adam Jacobs, Carrie A. Johnson, Gabriel Kalomas, Randall Keith, Jason Kraack, James Chip Leonard, Melissa Lyons, Michael Mallardi, Marissa McGowan, Lisa Morris, Austyn Myers, Candice Nicole, Marnie Nicolella, Fabio Polanco, Shahara Ray, Rachel Schier, Anthony Skillman, Kevin David Thomas, Victor Wallace, Betsy Werbel, Ryan Williams.

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Reviewed May 17
Running time 2:40 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for pure fun
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: 22 of Abba’s greatest hits are used to tell the story of a young girl on a Greek island who is getting married and wants her dad to give her away. The difficulty is that her single mom never said who her dad might be. From mom’s diary she determines it could have been any one of three of her mom’s former boy friends, none of whom she has ever met. So she invites all three to the wedding and tries to figure out which one should walk her down the aisle.

The cast of this touring version is fully up to the task of giving the audience a great time. What is more, unlike some other national touring companies where highly talented performers are forced to imitate the performances of the stars who originated the roles, these less well known performers have been given the latitude to create their own stage personas that blend the requirements of the roles with their own personalities. Lauren Mufson is her own "Mamma" and that is quite good enough, thank you. Bekah Nutt isn't trapped into an imitation of Tina Maddigan who originated the role of the wedding-bound daughter. That is good because Nutt doesn't have the perkiness of Maddigan but has a thoroughly satisfying presence all her own (although she does tend to sing a bit too softly in her solo in the prologue). None of principals are replications of their Broadway (or West End) predecessors. Tony Clements takes this opportunity to make the part of the one possible father who actually ends up in a wedding ceremony very much his own. The current cast may not provide as polished or smooth a performance as the original, but the energy is as high as it needs to be to make this a fun evening.

It is all colorful, up-tempo and delightful with songs that will be familiar to even those who don’t think they remember who Abba was. (From 1974 to 1984 the Swedish pop group had an amazing string of hits ranging from "Dancing Queen" through "Thank You For The Music," both of which are featured in the show.) Half of the fun is figuring out how book writer Catherine Jones worked each of these well known songs into the story she created. Since the lyrics are instantly familiar to most of the audience, it is amusing to see how they fit the circumstances of the scene. Jones does this cleverly and it is to her credit that she chose to place them in a traditional musical romantic comedy structure rather than go the easy route of staging a loosely connected string of songs in a disguised concert.

Nothing is taken too seriously in this clever and energetic show. The set, the costumes, the lighting and – most of all – the performances are all strong and stylish. The same design team that was responsible for the current hit at the Winter Garden on Broadway repeated their work for the tour. The show here looks and feels very much as it does 237 miles to the north. They may travel with fewer lights (the white Greek taverna seems a bit less sun bleached) but there are still a full 300 light cues and who knows how many sound cues for the tremendous system that delivers a live-performance quality that captures the Abba sound. The band in the pit is the same composition as on Broadway: four (count ‘em, four) keyboards, two guitars, a bass, drums and percussion. They capture the Abba sound and the entire evening ends with the audience on its feet, bouncing to the music. And don’t even think of leaving to beat the traffic when the curtain calls begin. There’s a lot more show yet to come and plenty of good times yet to be enjoyed.

Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (and some songs with Stig Anderson). Book by Catherine Johnson. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Choreography by Anthony Van Laast. Musical supervision, additional material and arrangements by Martin Koch. Design: Mark Thompson (set and costumes) Howard Harrison (lights) Andrew Bruce & Bobby Aitken (sound) Joan Marcus (photography). Cast: Tony Clements, Joelle Graham, Michael Grayman, Robert Adelman Hancock, Lisa Mandel, Betsy Morgan, Lauren Mufson, Bekah Nutt, Robert Pendilla, Milo Shandel, Ian Simpson, Laura Ware, Brad Wills.

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Reviewed March 29
Running time1:50 - one intermission
A memorable solo performance
tickets $36 - $71
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was born male in 1928 in what became East Germany but chose to live life as a woman. Her passion was furniture but her challenge was survival as first the Nazis and then the Communists cracked down on any forms of unorthodoxy. In 1991, after half a century of surviving amidst cruel repressions, she moved to Sweden to live out her final days.

Doug Wright's play won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for best play last year. It is an intriguing construction, told in the first person as description rather than re-enactment, using a single performer to play what turns out to be 35 different roles, some only momentary comments and some more fully developed. The result of using just one performer is that the focus is never off of the central character, even when the voice, posture and mannerisms shift to those of a different person. The production does not rely on tricks of costume changes, scenery or lighting shifts or projections which would distract from the intense attention drawn toward the performer.

Jefferson Mays created this performance at the off-Broadway Playwrights Horizons in 2003 earning both the Drama Desk and the Obie awards for acting. He repeated the role for a year on Broadway, earning the Tony Award for best actor. Now he's traveling the country with a short stop here at the National. The performance shows no signs of boredom or of merely going through the motions. There is a mechanical precision to his movements and line delivery, but that seems very much an intended part of the performance. In fact it is largely why the show works so well, for his transitions from one character to another are so precise and measured that they make the audience understand immediately that another person is speaking. The clarity of the performance matches the clarity of the writing.

What you see at the National is precisely what you would have seen at the Lyceum in New York during the one year run that earned the show the Tony Awards for best play, best direction and best actor. They appear to have picked the production up and taken it on tour, including the very effective setting by Derek McLane which places a detailed but diaphanous room before a shadowy structure revealed over time to be racks and racks of the clocks, phonographs, lamps and furniture amassed by von Mahlsdorf throughout her unique life. David Lander's subtle lighting reveals different things at different times, lighting the phonographs when they are the topic of the performance and the clocks when the topic shifts to them, but his touch never seems to intrude.

Written by Doug Wright. Directed by Moisés Kaufman. Design: Derek McLane (set) Janice Pytel (costumes) David Lander (lights) Andre J. Pluess and Josh Bender Dubiel (sound) Joan Marcus (photography). Cast: Jefferson Mays.

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Reviewed January 18
Running time 2:15 - one intermission

Storyline: There is no story. Instead, there are over 50 songs from Disney movies performed in eighteen medley's by a cast of eight with an on stage orchestra also of eight.

The advertisement says "64 extraordinary hits" while the program lists 59 songs. Whatever! It is one long assemblage of fine songs, each one written to deliver a specific message or tell a specific story in one of 29 of Disney's movies, television series and or Broadway shows. However, in this show, only two seem to be sung with any storyline or purpose in mind - the lovely ballad that Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston wrote for Cinderella,  "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes," and Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's magical "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. The former is given a lovely rendition by Ashley Brown. The later is turned into the wrong kind of joke as the entire cast is asked to sing it in a series of foreign languages. As to the rest, the cast romps through medley after medley with no apparent purpose.

Of the four main "characters," Ashley Brown is the most impressive with a fine voice capable of going from hushed intensity to full rock-the-rafters belt. Kaitlin Hopkins has taken the "role" originally played by Emily Skinner. She's quite nice in a solo on the least familiar song in the bunch - "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again?" - from the recent Disney flop Home on the Range. Brian Sutherland, who was so good in Guys and Dolls in the tour that visited Wolf Trap in 2001, seems a bit embarrassed at times as he goes through the songs assigned to what had been the character "Julian."  Costume designer Gregg Barnes has come up with a white t-shirt,  black leather pants outfit for Andrew Somonsky that shows off his biceps, pecks and flat abs but none of this helps with the songs he sings. A quartet of singers/dancers back up the principals. The most impressive of the bunch is Tyler Maynard who throws all his energy into his smile.

The band sits in the six squares of two towers (think two-thirds of television's "Hollywood Squares") that slide on in front of a wall of sound baffles that represent a "recording studio" and four tripod-mounted hanging microphones are wheeled hither and yon as the evening progresses. Exactly why the microphones light up is never explained. The band seems a bit bored as they progress through the very smooth orchestrations of Danny Troob.

Co-Conceived, directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom. (No other co-conceiver listed.) Scenario by Chad Beguelin. Music direction by Marco Paguia. Music adapted, supervised and arranged by David Chase. Orchestrations by Danny Troob. Design: Robert Brill (set) Gregg Barnes (costumes) David Brian Brown (hair) Natasha Katz (lights) Acme Sound Partners (sound) Joan Marcus (photography) Eric Insko (stage manager). Cast: Ashley Brown, Kaitlin Hopkins, Meredith Inglesby, Andy Karl, Tyler Maynard, Keewa Nurullah, Andrew Samonsky, Brian Sutherland.

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Reviewed November 22
Running time 2:00 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for exuberant
dance and concert-quality music
Click here to buy the CD  

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Reviewed November 21
Running time 2 hours 35 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick
for pure fun

Storyline: 22 of Abba’s greatest hits are used to tell the story of a young girl on a Greek island who is getting married and wants her dad to give her away. The difficulty is that her single mom never said who her dad might be. From mom’s diary she determines it could have been any one of three of her mom’s former boy friends, none of whom she has ever met. So she invites all three to the wedding and tries to figure out which one should walk her down the aisle.

The cast of this touring version is fully up to the task of giving the audience a great time. Jeanine Morick, who played the oft-divorced side kick for the mother on Broadway has switched over to play the free-spirited mom who is dismayed to find the three men from her past show up for the wedding. Cynthia Sophiea and Rosalyn Rahn Kerins are both a kick as her two best buddies from her younger days. The daughter is Chilina Kennedy who appears a bit more mature than some of the others who have played the role before, but she certainly carries both her songs and the story off very well. The gals all have the best numbers but there are fine performances by the three men as well. Gary Lynch and Craig Bennett are the only principals still in the cast from the last time the show played the National. They are two of the three potential dads.

It is all colorful, up-tempo and delightful with songs that will be familiar to even those who don’t think they remember who Abba was. (From 1974 to 1984 the Swedish pop group had an amazing string of hits ranging from "Dancing Queen" through "Thank You For The Music," both of which are featured in the show.) Half of the fun is figuring out how book writer Catherine Jones worked each of these well known songs into the story she created. Since the lyrics are instantly familiar to most of the audience, it is amusing to see how they fit the circumstances of the scene. Jones does this cleverly and it is to her credit that she chose to place them in a traditional musical romantic comedy structure rather than go the easy route of staging a loosely connected string of songs in a disguised concert.

Nothing is taken too seriously in this clever and energetic show. The set, the costumes, the lighting and – most of all – the performances are all strong and stylish. The same design team that was responsible for the current hit at the Winter Garden on Broadway repeated their work for the tour. The show here looks and feels very much as it does 237 miles to the north. They may travel with fewer lights (the white Greek taverna seems less sun bleached) but there are still a full 300 light cues and who knows how many sound cues for the tremendous system that delivers a live-performance quality that captures the Abba sound. The band in the pit is the same composition as on Broadway: four (count ‘em, four) keyboards, two guitars, a bass, drums and percussion. They capture the Abba sound and the entire evening ends with the audience on its feet, bouncing to the music. And don’t even think of leaving to beat the traffic when the curtain calls begin. There’s a lot more show yet to come and plenty of good times yet to be enjoyed.

Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (and some songs with Stig Anderson). Book by Catherine Johnson. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Choreography Anthony Van Laast. Musical supervision, additional material and arrangements by Martin Koch. Design: Mark Thompson (set and costumes) Howard Harrison (lights) Andrew Bruce & Bobby Aitken (sound) Joan Marcus (photography). Cast: Emy Baysic, Craig Bennett, Karen Burthwright, Michael DeVries, P.J. Griffith, Chilina Kennedy, Rosalyn Rahn Kerins, Gary Lynch, Jeanine Morick, Phillip Nero, Joe Paparella, Milo Shandel, Cynthia Sophiea.

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Reviewed October 1
Running time 2 hours 40 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: On a starry night in a junk-filled empty lot, the neighborhood cats gather for their special night, the night of the Jellicle Ball when the most senior among them, Old Deuteronomy, will pick the one cat who will go to “the heavyside layer” to be reborn anew. A series of dances, songs and skits present the personalities of a number of cats including Grizabella the glamour cat, Gus the theater cat and Mr. Mistoffelees the conjuring cat. In a spectacle filled finale, the chosen cat rises heavenward in a cloud of mist.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s first outing without his then-partner, lyricist Tim Rice, is a musical fantasy based on the feline-themed poems that T. S. Eliot wrote for children. With Eliot’s often witty lyrics and Lloyd Webber’s highly melodic music, director Trevor Nunn, Choreographer Gillian Lynne and designer John Napier take the audience on a visit to the world of cats. It became one of the most successful musicals of all time and still holds the record as the longest running musical in Broadway history.

Cats has become an institution. It is no longer really just a show, if it ever was just a show. It began life -- twenty-two years ago, if you can believe it! -- as an attempt to create another world. The world of cats. It wasn’t meant as a musical play. It was meant as a musical experience somewhere between dance extravaganza, grand opera, musical comedy and amusement park exhibit. It didn’t have a “book.” It had the poems of T. S Elliot. It didn’t have a story. Instead, it had a series of loosely related events held together by a theme and a concept. Above all, it had style, energy, inventiveness and audacity. All of those qualities have been retained over the years and this touring version has them in large measure.

This company dances marvelously, sings acceptably and disposes itself in the evocative cat-like movements that make Gillian Lynne’s choreography so much more than mere dances. The costumes and makeup are nearly as effective at creating the image as well. It doesn’t matter much that instead of a set as previous tours had that was so massive it flowed over the lip of the stage and wraped around the balcony, this version is limited to the confines of the National’s wide proscenium arch. It doesn’t matter much that the back drop is less impressive (when the cats cast a shadow over the moon, something is amiss). But it does matter that instead of an orchestra of 23 in the pit, this version has a nine-piece combo using three keyboards. They try to compensate by turning up the volume - who would have thought that Cats would be louder than Mamma Mia!? - but it only serves to accentuate the absence of the lush sound that Lloyd Webber and his co-orchestrator David Cullen achieved in the original.

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on “Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats” by T. S. Eliot.  Original direction by Trevor Nunn. Original Associate Director and Choreographer Gillian Lynne.  Original set and costumes by John Napier. Original lighting design by David Hersey. For the tour: Directed and Choreographed by Richard Stafford. Associate Director/Choreographer Suzanne Viverito. Musical direction by Jonathan W. Gorst. Design: Raymond Huessy (set adaptation)  Rick Belzer (lighting adaptation) Mark Norfolk and Gaston Briski (sound) Joan Marcus (photography). Cast: Kerri Lynn Bernas, Bo Broadwell, Anne Brummel, Katy Burns, Amber Cameron, Kym Chambers, Suzanne Dressler, Jesse Factor, Kyle Fichtman, Jenny Florkowski, Brian Gallagher, James Ginnever, Shane Hall, Jeff Harper, Gregory Haney, Richard Hinds, Martin C. Hurt, Felix V. LaBella III, Craig Lowry, Mario Martinez, Bo Ranney, Samantha Richman, Jacqueline Stedman, Erica Sweany, Mary Elizabeth Sweeney, Katie Ann Wanner, Kevin C. Wanzor, Justin P. Wingenroth.

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Reviewed June 11
Running time 2 hours 25 minutes
Price range $36.25 - $76.25
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: A vaudeville of songs and skits, each of which adds to the narrative of a simple story about two women in prohibition-era Chicago who achieve celebrity from jail as they await trial on their separate murder charges. Their notoriety is ultimately eclipsed by even more spectacular crimes but they manage to break into show business when their sleazy lawyer gets them off by doing a little razzle-dazzle on the juries.

 The score by John Kander and Fred Ebb (who are also represented on Broadway right now with a great revival of Cabaret) is one of the most exciting, varied and jazziest available today. Enough of the style and feel of Bob Fosse’s original choreography was retained to make Chicago uniquely exciting. Walter Bobbie’s direction was and remains sleek and clearly focused, allowing the telling of the story through twenty scenes, each one a song in a specific genre all moving the story along but, at the same time, commenting on the decadent world of underworld Chicago of the 1920’s.

While there have been times as casts change in the years the show has run on Broadway and on tour when the two leading ladies dominated the show, in this version with Bianca Marroquin and Brenda Braxton at the top of the bill, there is more of a balance with the other roles. Braxton and Marroquin have a nice chemistry together for the finale although that chemistry isn’t quite yet developed in the earlier scenes, especially the act one finale “My Own Best Friend” which is written as two inter-twining solos rather than a true duet. The other name above the title is that of Gregory Harrison who is glamorously superficial as the part requires and delivers both an excellent “All I Care About” and “Razzle Dazzle.” A highlight for both with Marroquin and Harrison comes on “We Both Reached for the Gun,” where she sits on his lap as a puppet while he answers the questions at a press conference.

Highlights is what this evening is all about -- and there are a passel of them: R. Bean’s clear coloratura soprano soaring on “A Little Bit of Good (in Everyone),” Ray Bokhour’s plaintive “Mr. Celophane,” Braxton and Roz Ryan’s funny duet “Class” and, most memorable, Ryan’s tear-up-the-house rendition of “When You’re good to Mama.” Even the ensemble is first rate, with each hard-bodied dancer executing the very demanding athletic routines with all the precision they deserve.

Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. Directed by Walter Bobbie. Choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse recreated by Gary Chryst. Supervising musical direction by Rob Fisher. Music direction by Vincent Fanuele. Orchestrations by Ralph Burns. Dance music arrangements by Peter Howard. Design: John Lee Beatty (set) Ken Billington (lights) William Ivey Long (costumes) Scott Lehrer (sound) Stephanie Pfriender Stylander (photography), David John O’Brien (stage manager). Cast: R. Bean, Eddie Bennet, Ray Bokhour, Brenda Braxton, Nicole Bridgewater, Christine Brooks, Catilin Carter, Lloyd Culbreath, Bernard Dotson, Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, Jennifer Mackensie Dunne, Gregory Harrison, David Kent, Bianca Marroquin, Marianne McCord, Kevin Neil McCready, Kathryn Mowat Murphy, Mark C. Reis,  Roz Ryan, Dante A. Sciarra, Randy Slovacek, Steven Sofia.

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Reviewed May 21
Running time 2 hours 45 minutes
Price range $35 - $75
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: Linda Woolverton adapted the script she wrote for the 90 minute animated feature. She added depth and detail to the relationship between the prince, who has been trapped in the body of a beast by an evil spell, and the perky girl who has the temerity to read, think and dream for herself.

Wolverton made the beast a more sympathetic character. In a deft piece of plotting, she added to the movie’s sequence in which the Beast gives his library to the book-loving Belle, the revelation that he never learned to read. Belle reads her favorite book to him. His "I never knew books could . . . let me forget who – what I am" gives a poignancy to his character that is delicious and a depth to their burgeoning romance that is much more understandable. It lets us see just what she might have seen in him.

This Belle is Jennifer Shrader. She gives a very strong performance, capturing a lot of the nuances that her predecessors developed for the role and delivering her songs in a clear, lovely voice. She is at her best as an actress in the library scene and as a singer in the second act when she sings the song that was added during Toni Braxton’s turn in the part, "A Change in Me." Her Beast is Roger Befeler who sings a marvelous “If I Can’t Lover Her” and delivers both the comedy and the romance required of the role.

Gaston is Marc G Dalio who captures the inspired oafishness of his predecessors, still putting over such fabulously mocking lines as "I can see that we share all that love implies – we shall be the perfect pair rather like my thighs." Many of his scenes are played with the toady Lefou played by Aldrein Gonzalez who puts all his energy into his pratfalls. Among the household staff who are becoming household objects under the witch’s evil spell two performances stand out, Rob Lorey as the Lumiere who is becoming a candlestick and Monica M. Wemitt as the Madame de la Grande Bouche, well on her way to becoming an armoire.

Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Book by Linda Woolverton. Directed by Robert Jess Roth. Choreography by Matt West. Music Direction by J. Randall Booth. Orchestrations by Danny Troob. Design: Stanley A. Meyer (set) Ann Hould-Ward (costumes) Natasha Katz (lights) Jonathan Deans (sound) Jim Steinmeyer and John Gaughan (illusions). Cast: Roger Befeler, Andrew Boyer, Marc G. Dalio, Tracy Generalovich, Aldrin Gonzalez, Henry Hodges or Alex Rutherford, Rob Lorey, Mary Jo McConnell, Jamie Ross, Jennifer Shrader, Monica M. Wemitt.

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Reviewed March 26
Running time 2 hours 40 minutes
Price range $35 - $75
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: The depression has hit Broadway hard. A director, writers and an ageing star are putting on one last effort at a big, bold Broadway musical. A girl fresh off the bus from Allentown, Pennsylvania, lands a job in the chorus. When she and the star collide during a rehearsal of the big production number, she is fired. But the star’s an