Home of the FREE weekly email Update

See What I Wanna See
April 7 - May 31, 2009
Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30 pm
Thursday - Saturday at 8 pm
Saturday - Sunday at 2 pm; Sunday at 7 pm
Reviewed April 12 by Brad Hathaway

t A Potomac Stages Pick for an absorbing, challenging and rewarding
 avant-garde musical
Running time 2:00 - one intermission
Tickets $49 - $77
Click here to buy the CD
 

Storyline: Two very separate stories taking place in New York's Central Park are loosely connected by a third, unrelated story split between the two acts of this intense and intimate musical. One tells the story of a murder and rape from three different perspectives, that of the rapist, the raped woman and her husband. The other involves a priest who looses his faith in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and who stages an event he believes will prove that "god is no more."

Gardiner, who solo-directed the fabulous small musical at MetroStage Tick, Tick ... Boom! and who shared the Helen Hayes direction of a musical award last year for Reefer Madness at Studio SecondStage, is a familiar name at Signature where his list of credits as assistant director is long. (He is, after all, the Resident Assistant Director there.) For this project, he's on his own mounting one LaChiusa musical in the smaller, 110 seat theater in Signature's two-theater complex, while the composer's newest, a giant musical based on Giant by Edna Ferber, is prepared for its world premiere next door in the bigger, 280 seat house. Signature produced his First Lady Suite in 1995. It was their fifth musical (the second not by Stephen Sondheim). He returned in 2004 to premiere The Highest Yellow, a bio-musical of Vincent VanGogh which explored the compulsion of an artist to create. Over the course of those years, he took two musicals to Broadway: Marie Christine setting the Medea myth in New Orleans and The Wild Party. Now, we get a LaChiusa Spring at Signature.

This first half of a LaChiusa mini-festival offers those who haven't yet encountered this triple threat creator of intellectually challenging musical works (he crafts the book, writes the lyrics and composes the music) an opportunity to sample his style - and a LaChiusa musical has a definite feeling of style even as it is matched to the needs of the material. He can, and does, craft beautiful melodies, but rarely presents them in a traditionally structured song that sound like a "show tune." Instead, he uses them thematically in support of a plot point, story development or character revelation, rarely lingering on a musical moment longer than the scene requires. It is a style that requires intense attention from an audience - and then rewards that attention with dramatic satisfaction.

Adam Koch, whose set for Kiss of the Spider Woman here at Signature last season was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award and was one of the most impressive large sets in Signature's history, now provides a smaller, more abstract but still impressive playing space in this modern representation of a patch of Central Park. It is a suggestive, semi-abstract space with columns of tree trunks that are shards of mirror lit from below to appear convex, a backdrop with a hint of New York sky scrapers visible through branches, and Central Park's own distinctive street lights mounted in a disorienting way with one top-upright and another upside-down. Mark Lanks' blue-hued lighting creates patterns and pools that complete the abstract feel of the space. The six member orchestra delivers a rich and resonant sound. Especially noteworthy is the teamwork between flute and sax player Ben Bokor whose base flute is marvelously mellifluous, and sax and bassoon player Dan Sullivan.

Music, lyrics and libretto by Michael John LaChiusa. Based on short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa as translated by Takashi Kojima. Directed by Matthew Gardiner. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Conducted by Zak Sandler. Fight choreography by Casey Kaleba. Design: Adam Koch (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Scott Suchman (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Channez McQuay, Matt Pearson, Bobby Smith, Rachel Zampelli, Tom Zemon. Musicians: Ben Bokor, Dan Hall, David Murray, Zak Sandler, Dan Sullivan, Gary Tilman.

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

Giant
April 28 -May 31, 2009
Tues-Sat at 7 pm; Sat & Sun at 1 pm
Reviewed May 10 by David Siegel

A premiere to be seen for its audacity and the work of its creative talents and moxy alone
Running Time: 3:55 minutes - two intermissions
Tickets $49-$77
Click here to buy the novel

Storyline: This musicalization of Edna Ferber's novel chronicles the life and times of cattleman “Bick” Benedict, his naive young Virginia society wife Leslie and their family in the panorama of Texas. It is a story of power, love, and bigotry among the wealthy cattle and oil families and the downtrodden Mexican-Americans who work for them spanning the period 1920’s-1950’s.

The program notes suggest that Michael John LaChiusa “has made a career of defying audience and critical perceptions of what makes a musical…[and]…finds inspiration in the fatal and unforgiving.” What he and Sybille Pearson have accomplished here is to take the sentiments of Edna Ferber's novel and give them a deeply felt meaning, a sense of the outcast Hispanic-Americans and the racism that they endured in an Anglo-led world. They also provide an awareness of how marriages endure over the decades, including the longing that partners can maintain for each other even as their bodies crumple and are not as vibrant as they once were. And, they depict the implications of the politics of a place rather than go for the “big” dramatic moments such as a gushing oil wells or the grandeur of millions of heads of cattle mooing with desert dust covering every surface. The music and lyrics themselves may not be memorable tunes to whistle and remember, but they push the plot forward so very well. This is not hard music of dissonance and difficulty; this is really old-fashioned Broadway show tune word-smithing. There are bits and pieces of swing, jump, country, the lushness of sad ballads and dirges, as well as infectious happy love songs. Director Butterell had his work cut out for him, with traffic control alone. He has taken a very minimalist approach in set design and overall visualization. One can feel this as the emptiness and vastness of West Texas and its grand spaces. (Note: your reviewer did live in West Texas and knows from such things.) Several scenes are lovingly made into solemn ceremonies. Yet key moments central to the changes that oil brought to Texas are glossed over, including the actual discovery of oil that is so central. A gushing well is not necessary, but something bigger than what is here would have been of value to depict this tipping point in Texas history.

With 21 actors in the cast there are many to notice, and certainly the leads Lewis Cleale as Bick, the scion of 2 ½ million acres of cow pasture and desert, and Betsy Morgan as Leslie, the woman he finds and quickly falls for while on a trip to Virginia, deliver the vocal goods. But, lets look beyond to Judy Blazer (Luz, Bick’s older sister). She is all heat, blazing eyes, passion through the three acts even when she is an unlikely presence … she is the one that constantly pulls at her brother’s effort to move forward or at least away from more traditional Texas ways. John Dossett (Uncle Bawley) brings maturity to the proceedings so that decency, and let’s say liberal values, come to fore as he intones “Coyote/Look Back/Look Ahead” and “A Place in the World.” He is the epitome of the lonesome cow poke in his stance, his demeanor and his talk. His voice is the very necessary ragged male with experience to share. Ashley Robinson, as the crude young roustabout Jett, who becomes one of the nouveau riche because of the discovery of oil on his small piece of property, is the most sexualized of the cast in his locked eyes on Morgan singing songs such as “Private Property,” “Elsie Mae” (a car name that sounds like warm dripping honey), “Lady L” and then becomes the most nasty and made for the audience to hate character in his last appearance as Senator Joe McCarthy's admirer singing “This Dog is Gonna Bark.” Katie Thompson as Vashti, Bick’s jilted love and Marisa Echeverria as an Hispanic-American bride to Bick and Leslie’s son in Act III warrant notice for the sensitivity they bring to the roles they inhabit. They are sweet antidotes to the overall antagonisms of the show’s characters.

The Signature Theater has such a huge canvas to paint. The set is two-tiered. There is the stage set for the actors separated by a horizontal light box which emits glowing light and hues from blues to reds to whites to give the essence of what the scene is sending forth. The only permanent object on set is a ladder that goes 20 feet into the air with a platform near the top used for several scenes. And above is the orchestra, which is part of audience attention as well. The immense size and scale are clear with insignificant set space taken up with furniture or objects. Costumes certainly give implications of who a character represents, whether Texan in cotton and chambray, those from back East in tailored finery and richer colors or the Hispanic-Americans in their more traditional apparel. The outfits change with the decades, but the vision of who belongs to what socio-economic class remains.

Music and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusua. Book by Sybille Pearson. Based on the novel by Edna Ferber. Directed by Jonathan Butterell. Choreography by Ernesto Alonso Palma. Music direction by Chris Fenwick. Orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin. Design: Dane Laffrey (set) Susan Hilferty (costumes) Japhy Weideman (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Scott Hammar, Jess W. Speaker, III (stage managers). Cast: Enrique Acevedo, Raul Aranas, Judy Blazer, Lewis Cleale, John Dossett, Marisa Echeverria, Jessica Gove, Michael Thomas Holmes, Betsy Morgan, Jordan Nichols, Andres Quintero, Michelle Rios, Ashley Robinson, Isabel Santiago, Paul A. Schaefer, Martin Sola, Nick Spangler, Katie Thompson, Julie Tolivar, Mariand Torres, Lori Wilner. Orchestra: Cathy Amoury, Chris Blossom, Lee Hinkle, George Hummel, Tyler Kuebler, Tom Lagana, Dan Lindgren, Gabriel Mangiante, Matt Maslanka, Vishal Panchal, Aron Rider,  Jon Steele, Jeff Thurston, Chris Walker.

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

Running time 2:05 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for another of Holly Twyford's
 must-see performances
 v sexual situations and full male nudity
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: A matinee idol-style Hollywood actor who needs just one great part to rise above the competition and become a major star visits New York with his agent/manager in an effort to convince the playwright of a new big hit to let him star in a movie version of his play. The part is of a gay man, and as the agent explains, a heterosexual actor succeeding in a serious role as a gay man is considered great acting, while the same part played by a gay actor would be seen as just being himself. When the actor gets drunk one night and calls a gay escort service and then begins to fall for the young man they send to his hotel room, the agent has to do some quick maneuvering to avoid scandal and seal the deal.

Douglas Carter Beane is the artistic director of New York's Drama Department Theatre Company as well as a playwright and screenwriter. His As Bees In Honey Drown has been produced a number of times in the Potomac Region, and some will remember his film of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. His script for the Broadway musical version of Xanadu was the surprise success of the 2007-08 season, taking a flop of a movie musical and turning into a pure delight, by, among other things, making it partially a parody of its source. That was his second Broadway outing. The first was this comedy which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play even though it had closed after a short run before the Tony nominations were announced.

Director Michael Baron refers to his choice for the part of the lead actor as "hunky Matthew Motelongo." But Motelongo's brand of hunkyness isn't the matinee idol type that would befit this particular role. His performance misses the mixture of surface glitz and underlying angst that Beane's script calls for. Ivan Quintanilla is more successful at showing the charm that the escort exudes which seduces the star, and is also believable in his relationship with his long-time friend of the opposite sex, played by Casie Platt, who lands some of Beane's marvelous lines with a fine sense of comic timing.

Signature's intimate black box, the 110-seat ARK, is arranged as a horseshoe around a thrust stage set by Lee Savage representing the high end New York hotel room where Matalongo and Quintanilla get it on. It is an elegantly mod and chic space with its light wall and i-pod speaker system on the bed stand. Flanking the main set are platforms for the elevator entrance to the hotel room (yes, the room has its own private elevator ... I told you it was high end) and a general purpose playing space that can represent other locales. The costumes of Guy Lee Bailey are part of the fun as well, particularly the pant suits for Twyford which she wears with great flair.

Written by Douglas Carter Beane. Directed by Michael Baron. Design: Lee Savage (set) Guy Lee Bailey (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Jenna Henderson (stage manager). Cast: Matthew Montelongo, Casie Platt, Ivan Quintanilla, Holly Twyford.

Running time 2:55 - one intermission
A massive staging of the mega-musical in an intimate house
Winner, Ushers' Favorite Show Award for December
Click here to buy the CD

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, rises 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 ill-fated revolution of 1832. With her guardian’s secret help, her young man survives the slaughter of the revolutionaries on the barricades.

Schaeffer's visual approach is a bit darker than the legendary original directed by Trevor Nunn, and this version doesn't flow quite as well, stuttering on occasion as the locale has to be re-established -- the design doesn't use the rotating stage that Nunn used so well. This is particularly noticeable in the staging of the effort of young Gravoche to retrieve ammunition from the front of the barricades. Still, this is perhaps the most convoluted plot ever attempted in a three-hour Broadway-style musical and Schaeffer's troupes tell the story clearly. Tracy Lynn Olivera's "I Dreamed A Dream" is the first transporting moment (unless you include the brief but lovely moment for Aaron Reeder as the Bishop of Digne,) Tom Zemon delivers a fine "Stars" in the first act, Chris Sizemore belts well as the revolutionary leader Enjolras and Andrew Call delivers a touching "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables." Both Edelen and Bloch are very good as the Thénardiers.

The sound of Jon Kalbfleisch's fourteen piece orchestra certainly reverberates through the hall and there are a number of nice moments in their accompaniment, including the guitar of Dave Boguslaw that supports Olivera's lovely "I Dreamed a Dream" and Chris Walker and Dan Lindgren's trumpet blast at the barricades. However, the violin/viola/cello richness in John Cameron's original orchestrations which were echoed in Christopher Jahnke's reductions/re-charting for the 14 member orchestra of the Broadway revival have here been replaced by keyboards. It is not a good tradeoff.

Ticket prices at Signature have been inching up for quite a while. Top price for this admittedly very expensive production has hit $87. The price range we list in the information box at the top of the page shows the range for all the productions at a theater, not just for a specific production. The bottom price for this production at Signature is a still hefty $65. It should be pointed out, however, that "Les Mis" has never been a low-priced entertainment. Tickets in London, on Broadway and for touring companies have always been at the top of then current price ranges and even recordings have carried hefty prices - but it has always delivered a large share of bang for the buck. It does so here as well.

A musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. Additional material by James Fenton. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Musical Staging by Karma Camp. Orchestrations by John Cameron. Design: Walt Spangler (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Christopher Bloch, Kurt Boehm, Rachel Boyd or Anna Grace Nowalk, AJ Breivik or Jordi Parry, Andrew Call, Matt Conner, Felicia Curry, Sherri L. Edelen, Eleasha Gamble, James Gardiner, Adam Ethan Grabau, Michael Grew, Thomas Hunter Hedgpeth, Sam Ludwig, Channez McQuay, Amy McWilliams, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Elizabeth Rader or Avery Watkins, Aaron Reeder, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Chris Sizemore, Stephen Gregory Smith, Greg Stone, Russell Sunday, Stephanie Waters, Hannah Willman, Weslie Woodley, Tom Zemon.

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

Running time 1:50 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an unrelenting comedy of blood and gore
Winner, in a tie, of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for 2008
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: On the remote island of Inishmore, just off shore from Ennistimon at Ireland's Galway Bay, two villagers are panicked at the thought that the cat one is keeping may have been killed in a bicycle collision with the other. The reason for the panic? The owner of the cat is an executioner for a splinter group of a splinter group of the IRA, a young man who takes great pleasure in the pain he can impose on his victims before allowing them the release of death. Add a band of terror inflictors from the parent splinter group and an equally adept pain inflictor of a bonnie lass, and you have a recipe for a different kind of blood sport.

McDonagh is probably the most successful Irish playwright on these shores since George Bernard Shaw. At least the beginning of his career has been astonishingly successful on Broadway. His first play to reach Broadway was The Beauty Queen of Leenane. That was only ten years ago. A year later it was The Lonesome West. Three years ago he had The Pillowman on Broadway and then this play arrived two years ago. All four were nominated for the Tony Award for best play. Quite a record for a young man still in his thirties. His combination of audacity, strong theatricality and a unique combination of affection for the character traits of the Irish and the ability to portray their weaknesses and excesses without rancor has made his output fascinating.

Matthew McGloin and John Lescault are the pair of locals who, it turns out, rightly fear the consequences of the cat's demise. McGloin is particularly effective at drawing the audience's mirth without ever breaking the pretense of reality. So too is Karl Miller rock solid in his adherence to apparent reality as the gun and razor toting terrorist who can treasure both the opportunity to inflict pain and the affection of a pet cat. Cassie Platt, Michael Glenn and Tim Getman each contribute additional touches of excessive tomfoolery, but it is Jason Stiles who rises to the challenge of the most demanding of roles in the piece, for he has to play practically his entire scene hanging by his feet while being tortured - I told you, it is a comedy!

Among the creators who take McDonagh's work most seriously is Daniel Conway, who designed a set that creates the world of the play at a level of detail that exceeds reality. The main part of the set is the cottage in which so much of the mayhem is performed. Given the amount of sticky, gooey stage blood that is unleashed each night, it must have been a major chore finding materials that look so natural for floors, walls and fabrics that could be cleaned between shows. After all, the stains from a day's matinees must be gone in time for the evening show. Costume designer Kathleen Geldard may not have had quite the same challenge as the cast can change into new costumes while the others are in the wash, but she certainly came up with outfits that look just as authentic, serious recreations of the world of the play.

Written by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Jeremy Skidmore. Fight choreography by Dale Anthony Girard. Dialect direction by Leigh Wilson Smiley. Design: Daniel Conway (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Dan Covey (lights) Mark Anduss (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Kate Olden (stage manager). Cast: Tim Getman, Michael Glenn, Joe Isenberg, John Lescault, Matthew McGloin, Karl Miller, Casie Platt, Jason Stiles.

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

Running time 2:30 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a flight-based musical that occasionally soars

Storyline: When Danny's widowed mother tries to take her own life he's placed in foster care and denied contact with her. However, she is allowed to write to him so she sends scraps from her collection of letters and memorabilia from her late husband, a pilot who died in World War II. She'd kept his story from her son because she couldn't cope with his death but now Danny begins to form a bond with his father's spirit - and that of his grandfather who also died in aerial combat in the earlier World War. From his newly discovered heritage, Danny learns the importance of following your own dreams and destiny.

When Signature announced its 2008-09 season, it listed this new musical fantasy/adventure as the "Broadway Bound Premiere" by the same Richard Oberacker whose The Gospel According to Fishman was given such a satisfying production by Signature. They no longer mention Broadway as the measure of success or failure for a locally produced musical. After all, the things that make a musical competitive on "The Great White Way" aren't the only virtues a musical can have, and the ability to compete with the mega-priced extravaganzas 250 miles north of Shirlington isn't the only test of an evening of musical theater. This thoroughly enjoyable, often impressive and quite winning show is a prime example. With its uplifting theme, its melodically solid score and a passel of performances of note, there are pleasures enough for any theatergoer and no real fan of musicals would dare miss this.

It is clear that this remains a work in progress. Comparing the show that played on opening night with the song list in the program shows that significant changes were being worked in right up to the last minute. Gone was the prologue. Gone were two reprises of songs. Most notably, gone from all of act one was the character of Danny's father, played so marvelously in the second act by Matthew Scott who gets to team with Jill Paice for one of the two highlights of the act, "I Know It Can Be Done." (The other is "We're The Only Ones" sung with verve by Dvorsky and a trio of pilots prancing up and down an aluminum ladder that drops down from the flies). The father figure of the first act is Jim Stanek, who is not really strong enough a stage presence to carry the role, but he has a few really charming moments. The women of the piece are the real power. In addition to Kelly, there's Paice, who sells both fragility and strength as Danny's mother, Noll as her mother, Lacey as the social worker handling young Danny's case, and Skinner as his foster mother.

As we all have come to expect of Signature in this new, larger space called THE MAX, all the technical elements for this production are impressive. Walt Spangler has designed a brushed aluminum set dominated by a pair of pillars that rotate exposing different aeronautical structural elements. Signature's Artistic Director, Eric Schaeffer, has an obvious predilection for the use of projections to establish location and atmosphere when it suits the needs of a show he's directing. Here he lets frequent projection designer Michael Clark loose with Spangler's aluminum surfaces on which to shine cloud, bomb burst and other effects. Robert Perdziola comes up with two different sets of costumes - those of 1950's realities which are essentially shades of gray and those of the aeronautical history envisioned in Danny's mind which are colorful oranges and yellows. Greg Anthony's orchestrations for the orchestra of twelve, who sit in sight on a platform at the back of the set, seem strangely reed-heavy/string-light in the first act which takes place in the 1950s and 1917, but the reason for that becomes clear in the second act when a solid big-band World War II sound supports numbers like "It's Just a Matter of Time," "I Know It Can Be Done" and "We're the Only Ones," a blast from General Chennault and his Flying Tigers.

Music by Richard Oberacker. Book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Musical Direction by David Kreppel. Orchestrations by Greg Anthony. Design: Walt Spangler (set) Michael Clark (projections) Robert Perdziola (costumes) Ken Billington and Jason Kantrowitz (lights) Simon Matthew (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Richard Barth, Brooke Bloomquist, George Dvorsky, Ari Goldbloom-Helzner, Dalton Harrod, Angelina Kelly, Florence Lacey, Duke Lafoon, Christiane Noll, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Jill Paice, Jason Reiff, Danny Rothman, Matthew Scott, Elizabeth Share, Emily Skinner, Jim Stanek, Gabrielle Stravelli.

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

May 13 - June 22, 2008
The Visit
Reviewed May 28 by Brad Hathaway

Running time 2:40 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for pure star power
Winner, in a tie, of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for 2008

Storyline: The richest woman in the world returns to the town of her youth which has hit on hard times. She isn't there for nostalgia - she's there for revenge for the town's treatment of her when, as a teenager, she had become pregnant by a boy who has gone on to be a shopkeeper in the town. She offers a huge fortune in exchange for her former-lover's execution. The town initially rejects the offer as unthinkable, but then gradually comes around to seeing it not as revenge but as justice.

Kander, Ebb and McNally first collaborated on The Rink, which hit Broadway in 1984, and earned one of its stars her first Tony Award. That star was Chita Rivera. Later, they collaborated again on The Kiss of the Spider Woman, which, in 1993, won Rivera her second Tony. They had begun work on turning The Visit into a vehicle for Angela Lansbury, but she had to withdraw due to the health of her husband, Peter Shaw. They picked it up later for Rivera, and, with Frank Galati (Ragtime, The Grapes of Wrath) directing, premiered the piece at the Goodman in Chicago. Now, taking the lessons learned from that earlier production, they have polished the piece further and given it a solid production. One of Kander and Ebb's loveliest songs, "You, You, You" threads itself through the score as the memory of youthful love while the strains of "I Would Never Leave You" and the energy of "Yellow Shoes" stand out. Rivera leads a fabulously choreographed "One-Legged Tango" and Hearn fills the hall with beauty as he sings "I Must Have Been Something."

Rivera and Hearn are everything expected of the pair whose names go above the title. The chief pleasures in the supporting cast are Mark Jacoby as the town's mayor,  James Harms as Rivera's butler with a past, and Jeremy Webb as the town's schoolmaster, the citizen with the strongest sense of right and wrong, whose conversion to the side of the majority supporting revenge masquerading as justice is the final blow. Each gives what might otherwise have been simplistic characters a good deal of depth and variation, putting the material McNally included in the script to good use.  Surprisingly, most of the other townspeople seem undeveloped. Mathew Deming and Ryan Lowe do create a memorable team as a strange pair of eunuchs.

Hilferty's costumes come in four distinct looks and each is just right for the characters. There's Rivera's sumptuous wardrobe befitting the richest woman in the world, the townspeople's garb which transitions throughout the evening from tattered to new store-bought, the retinue's strange livery, and the look of the memory of youth for D.B. Bonds and Mary Ann Lamb who dance as the memory of the youngsters that Rivera and Hearn once were. McLane has created a set for Signature's MAX theater that gives maximum space for not only Reinking's sharp dances but for Galati's fluid blocking that seems effortless, but effectively moves the story between plot points and character revelations with a sure hand. Especially under the evocative lighting of Howell Binkley, there's rarely a moment when the audience's attention isn't clearly focused on precisely the element of story or personality that serves the comic, dramatic or romantic point called for by McNally's tightly constructed script.

Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Terrence McNally based on the play by Friedrich Durrenmatt as adapted by Maurice Valency. Directed by Frank Galati. Choreographed by Ann Reinking. Orchestrations by Michael Gibson. Additional orchestrations by Larry Hochman. Music supervision, vocal and dance arrangements by David Loud. Conducted by Jon Kalbfleisch. Design: Derek McLane (set) Susan Hilferty (costumes) Howell Binkley (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Bethe B. Austin, Leslie Becker, D.B. Bonds, Mathew Deming, Alan H. Green, James Harms, Michael Hayward-Jones, George Hearn, Mark Jacoby, Howard Kaye, Doug Kreeger, Mary Ann Lamb, Jerry Lanning, Ryan Lowe, Brianne Moore, Christy Morton, Keren Murphy, Brian O'Brian, Cristen Paige, Kevin Reed, Chita Rivera, Hal Robinson, Jeremy Webb.

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

April 1 - June 1, 2008
The Happy Time
Reviewed April 10 by Brad Hathaway

Running time 2:35 - one intermission
A rare delight for fans of musical theater
Performed in The ARK
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: A globe-trotting photographer comes home to the small Canadian town of his youth to visit his family, his godson and his love, a school teacher who was not tempted by his promise of the world outside their hometown.

Some say the Golden Age of the Broadway musical ended with Fiddler on the Roof in 1964. Maybe it ended not when Fiddler opened but when it closed, for, as Michael Rupert's notes in the program for this production indicates, Broadway had a lot of going on when The Happy Time opened on January 18, 1968. While Fiddler was still running, theatergoers also had a choice of I Do, I Do, Mame, George M and Hello, Dolly! (Rupert should know for he was the young boy in the original The Happy Time when he was, himself, just 15). Producer David Merrick and director/choreographer Gower Champion tried to make the show into a big, flashy semi-spectacle in order to compensate for what most said at the time was a flawed book. The script was written by N. Richard Nash whose 110 In The Shade was a hit for Signature Theatre a few years ago. It flows along fairly well but seems to only touch on some characters or incidents that could well have held the audience's interest had they been better developed. With Robert Goulet as the photographer and David Wayne as "Grandpere" the show did run nine months, but when it closed it had lost a million dollars - the first Broadway musical ever to lose that much money.

In the three main roles, Signature has Broadway veteran David Margulies and two local talents of note. Attractive and smooth voiced Michael Minarik, a 1996 graduate of Oakton High in Vienna, Virginia, is the photographer, and Arlingtonian Jace Casey, at age 12, emerges from understudying to take on the starring role Rupert had forty years ago. (Casey was the understudy for "Young Frank" in Merrily We Roll Along and for "Rolf" in Saving Aimee ). They make a fine central trio. As for Minarik, he's no Robert Goulet, but that is just the point. Rather than impersonate that unmistakable personality, he creates a character that is all his own. Carrie A. Johnson is winsome in the "schoolmarm" role and Tracy Lynn Olivera has some warm moments as she teams with another Broadway veteran, George Dvorsky, as the young boy's parents. Amy McWilliams and Rob McQuay make the most of their woefully underwritten roles as another couple in the family.

Director Michael Unger makes his Signature debut with this piece and shows a good touch for the intimacy that has always been a Signature signature. He has also done the fans of musical theater the favor of restoring three songs that Kander and Ebb wrote for the original production but which were cut by its director, Gower Champion, as well as retaining a fourth that was added for a 1980 production at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. The set for this intimate production is an ephemeral thing, just picture frames that are filled by projections to create locations or show the shots the photographer snaps in his search for the perfect picture. Of course, he learns that a perfect picture never exists in the camera - it exists in that happy place which is the memory.

Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by N. Richard Nash based on a play by Samuel Taylor and the book by Robert L. Fontaine. Directed by Michael Unger. Choreography by Karma Camp. Musical direction by David Holcenberg. Conducted by Mary Sugar. Design: Todd Edward Ivins (set and projections) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Katherine C. Mielke (stage manager). Cast: Kate Arnold, William Beech, Jace Casey, George Dvorsky, Rafael Hernandez-Roulet, Carrie A. Johnson, Emily Levey, Daniel Margulies, Rob McQuay, Amy McWilliams, Michael Minarik, Jordan Moral, Matthew Nee, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Jordan Silver, Lauren Williams, Rachel Zampelli.

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

Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for one of Signature Theatre's most impressive productions to date
Winner in a tie for the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for March and April
Performed in The MAX
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: In a dirty, overcrowded prison in a Latin American country, a political prisoner active in "la revolution" is thrown into a cell with a distinctly non-political prisoner, a window dresser who is serving time for corrupting a minor (male) and who survives through escaping into his imagination and visualizing the movies of his favorite star, Aurora. The sadistic warden tempts the window dresser with release if he will learn who the revolutionary's contacts on the outside are and turn the information over to him.

Based on the 1976 novel by Argentina's Manuel Puig, this musical had a fairly unusual path - from Toronto to London to Broadway and now to Arlington. Kander and Ebb, who already had Cabaret, Chicago and half a dozen other Broadway musicals to their credit, teamed with Terrence McNally with whom they wrote The Rink. Garth Drabinsky's Livent Entertainment mounted it in Canada and then took it to London where it was very well received. Then, and only then, did they bring it to New York where it walked away with Tony Awards for best musical, best score, best book, best lead actor, best supporting actor and best actress of 1993! Now Signature mounts one of its most impressive productions to date. Schaeffer uses practically every element you can think of but keeps it all under control, maintaining a balance that serves the drama of the story well. Karma Camp's choreography - as executed with energy and dramatic effect by a chorus of six prisoners - is often remarkable, especially the moves she provides for Matt Connor for a death scene triggered by the Spider Woman's kiss.

Foster, who was the original Bobby Strong in Urinetown on Broadway, and was nominated for a Tony for his Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, gives a very different sort of performance in this very different sort of a show. He mouths the words of the songs of the movie in his head while Diaz sings them, and in his eyes you can see the release from the horror of his imprisonment. He flutters his hands, fiddles with his scarf and touches his lips with mannerisms that belie the strength of character he discovers within himself by the end of the evening, and his transition is subtle but unmistakably natural. Chase, who has had most success on Broadway as a replacement leading man (Miss Saigon, Aida, Rent, The Full Monty) adds a strong masculine persona and a fabulous voice to the mix. Cupo avoids overdoing the evil of the warden, letting his words and actions horrify rather than going for an impersonation of evil. Channez McQuay is similarly effective on the other end of the good/bad spectrum as the window dresser's mother, succeeding by letting the songs she sings create her character without a false touch of overacting in what could be a few mawkish moments. 

The astonishingly effective set is by Adam Koch who is relatively unknown here in the Potomac Region. (He designed the recent Tick, Tick...Boom! at Metrostage.) With prison cells flanking the center platform and a flying bridge at the back, the central cell is defined by floor lights shining up through the mist. The light of a movie projector's beam shines from the back wall as the prisoners retreat into fantasy through their memory of vintage films. The vision of Diaz, surrounded by the prisoners who make up her dancing chorus in the fantasy is striking, thanks in part, to great costumes at both extremes by Anne Kennedy. As usual at Signature, the supporting orchestra is marvelous. In this case, it is a ten-member band with no strings which gives the score a somewhat different sound than it had on Broadway. The absence of stings robs the dream sequences/movie numbers of some of their romantic power but emphasizes the hard realities facing the prisoners.

Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Terrence McNally. Based on the novel by Manuel Puig. Originally directed by Harold Prince. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Conducted by Jenny Cartney. Design: Adam Koch (set) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Chris Lee (lights) Matt Row (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Danny Binstock, Christopher Block, Kurt Boehm, Andy Brownstein, Will Chase, Matt Conner, Steven Cupo, Natascia Diaz, Erin Driscol, Hunter Foster, James Gardiner, LC Harden, Jr. Channez McQuay, Stephen Gregory Smith.

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

Running time 1:25 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an example of the power of an actor's work
Performed in The ARK
Click here to buy the book

Storyline: Martin Moran shares with the audience the true story of his sexual relationship with an older man, a counselor he met at a Catholic boys' camp. He was 12 when the relationship began, 15 when it ended. Now he's 42 and he has recently visited the man in the Veterans Hospital in Los Angeles, seeing him for the first time since childhood.

Moran is an actor, perfectly comfortable on stage. On Broadway, he's cavorted as Sir Robin in Spamalot, sung as the song-writing dentist in Bells are Ringing and gone down with the ship in Titanic. He's toured and worked in regional theaters around the country. Each time he's had a role to play. Playing himself requires just as much definition of his role as a fictional one. Here he's working from a script, but it is one he wrote himself. Whether it is his own charm as a performer, his skill as a writer or the good sense and theatrical taste of his director, Seth Barrish, the result seen on stage in Signature's smaller black box house, The Ark, is a marvel of self control in self revelation.

The "seduction" of the audience is so subtle that at first you might not even notice it has begun. Moran steps onto light on the Turkish carpet, which, along with a stool, a table with a framed photograph and a dog-eared book constitutes the entire set. He begins with what seems a friendly greeting leading up to the "please turn off your cell phone" announcement and it takes a while before you realize he's actually well into his story. The lights haven't gone down yet ... it takes twenty minutes for the ever-so-slow fade to take the house lights down. The reduction in the level of the lighting continues until the final blackout. Indeed, the most illuminating revelation of the evening comes as he reads from his diary description of the first sexual act his abuser commits in the dark of night in a camp sleeping bag.

Moran isn't the only person you come to know during this one-act play. The abuser becomes a real person as well - no event as impactful as this can be completely one sided. Moran shares his conversation with the now-elderly man and his revelations of his own history. That history includes jail time - Moran was not his only victim. Moran makes his abuser's story as human as his own.

Written and performed by Martin Moran. Directed by Seth Barrish. Design: Chris Akins (production designer) Erin Jones (light board operator) Carol Pratt (photographer) Katherine C. Mielke (stage manager).

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

Running time 1:35 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a premiere of a youthful,
 high-energy musical
Performed in The MAX

Storyline: Four friends gather in the bleachers of the high school football field as they approach the first anniversary of their graduation. They used to be fast friends, bound together by the shared experience of having been rejected for the football team that played on this very field. They haven't seen each other in that year and each has grown up a bit, and, as a result, they have grown apart.

The 23 year olds who wrote this musical are Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner. Nick who? James which? You might recognize Gardiner, but as a performer, not a book writer. He appeared here at Signature in, among other musicals, The Witches of Eastwick (he was the young man Mark Kudisch tried to teach how to "Dance With The Devil.") Blaemire also has performing credentials in the Potomac Region such as the Signature Cabaret Singing Shakespeare and the Actors' Theatre of Washington (now Ganymede Arts) version of The Rocky Horror Show. However, the credit that sticks in the mind the most is his wonderfully droll rendition of "Mama Says" in the production of Footloose at Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia. Their book and pop-rock score seems a bit wordy in the early going, but settles into a highly effective pattern by the time the big numbers such as "Things Are Different," "The Good Old Glory Type Days" and especially "Other Human Beings" come along.

Neither Blaemire nor Gardiner perform in this production, however. The four lads at the end of their freshman year of college are played by four fresh faces with strong resumes, just not at Signature. Steven Booth leads the pack as a writer who convened the reunion. Andrew Call is a frat boy whose self assurance is shaken by a developments revealed by Jesse JP Johnson, while Adam Halprin provides a dash of maturity into the mix. Each character is clearly drawn and fully human, with weaknesses as well as strengths you might expect from young men of this age.

Schaeffer keeps everything in balance. The set design is simple but elegant ... a platform painted to simulate turf, eight rows of bleacher seats and a bank of stadium lights as a backdrop that can change color with the mood of the moment and create patterns and movement when that will help get the message across. The costumes clearly match the characteristics of each character and the lighting subtly segues into night as the evening progresses. Most notable, however, is the way the entire production moves. It is notable that James Gardiner's twin brother Matthew is credited with "assistant direction and musical staging." How much of the energetic romping up and down the bleachers and the reclining over and sprawling on the benches is Schaeffer's blocking and how much is Gardiner's contribution isn't clear. But whoever saw to the pent-up energy of the movement and the youthful posturing that marks the entire performance deserves great credit.

Music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire. Book by James Gardiner. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical staging by Matthew Gardner. Musical direction by Derek Bowley. Music arranged and orchestrated by Jesse Vargas. Design: James Kronzer (set) Sasha Ludwig-Siegel (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Jess W. Speaker III (stage manager). Cast: Steven Booth, Andrew C. Call, Adam Halpin, Jesse JP Johnson. Musicians: Derek Bowley, Jean Finstad, Jon Jester, Steven Walker.

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

Running Time 1:40 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a fascinating look at the
creation of a dance piece
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for November
Price range $41 - $63

Storyline: A famous ballet choreographer who has been out of the limelight for a long time hires two dancers to help him develop a new choreography for Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, a famously challenging work to choreograph. As they work through its many concepts and approaches, it becomes clear that he is much more interested in the challenge than in finally bringing the work to performance, leaving at least one dancer feeling that her chance for a big break in the field is slipping away from her.

When d'Amboise includes in the script a statement that George Balanchine said that The Rite of Spring could not be choreographed, he may have known whereof he spoke. After all, d'Amboise was a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet where he danced for both Balanchine and Robbins. He earned his Tony Award nomination on Broadway, however, for dancing to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber in Song and Dance. Thus, he knows the dance worlds of both classical ballet tradition and musical theater. He uses his knowledge of both here as he creates a dance play that works on both levels: as a play it is sufficiently interesting in its story telling and its character creation to be satisfying, while as dance it is sufficiently challenging to the performers to be believable and intriguing when performed with by a cast sufficient skill to be pull it off.

The two cast members playing dancers have that skill and are beautiful to watch. Whitehead is graceful in motion and carries her dialogue scenes well although she is just a bit too soft spoken. The concentrated listening her lack of projection requires occasionally creates a distraction when other elements should be getting your attention. Hanes has the least well resolved character to play and does a fine job with it. A good deal of the "back story" concerning his prior work with the choreographer is hinted at but left dangling. Still, Hanes sinks his teeth into what he is given and both Hanes and Whitehead are superb dancers for musical theater. Whether they would pass muster in a quality ballet corps is better judged by more qualified dance critics. Anderson, who plays the role of the choreographer, is himself a Broadway veteran, having among other things, originated the role of the anti-dancing father in Footloose. His moves are sufficiently athletic and graceful to make it believable that he is a man obsessed with the world of dance.

You may come away thinking that all the music you heard during the show is the product of Igor Stravinsky, whose ballet score for The Rite of Spring caused a scandal when it was premiered by Diaghilev's Ballet Rouse in Paris in 1913 with the choreography of Nijinsky. Actually, the sound and original music credit for this production is given to Jeremy J. Lee who skillfully augments selections of Stravinsky with material of his own which serves the needs of the story quite well. One phrase he uses repeatedly is almost Sondheimesque.

Written, directed and choreographed by Christopher d'Amboise. Design: Chris Barreca (set) Kelly Crandall (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Jeremy Lee (sound and original music) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Stephen Lee Anderson, Tyler Hanes, Chrissie Whitehead.

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

Running time 1:50 - no intermission
An accessible slam poetry program on the power of words
Price range $41 - $63
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for October
v strong language

Storyline: Two spoken word artists work their way through hip-hop-tinged routines in meter and rhyme on topics of race, religion, sexuality, love and the power of communication.

Connell  is a lanky bundle of energy who moves with a certain electrically charged jerk as if reacting to the electrical releases in his nerve endings in time with the meter of the poetry. Sekou (or Mr. misfit?) seems more changeable, reflecting different characteristics in the different roles he adopts within the poetry. At one moment he's a best friend, a buddy, and the next a dreadlocked image of a street thug with a handgun shoved in the face of an audience member in the front row. Their progression through the material is rapid, spinning at a high-energy rate as if they feel they have three hours of material and only two to deliver it.

That material stretches from humorous riffs on the meanings of words to dreamy digressions on the ways to express romantic love. There are explosions about the misogyny of other hip hop material, the dangers of urban street life and the losses society has suffered from hatred ranging from the assassination of leaders to hate crimes based on race, sex or neighborhood. The tone switches abruptly from intensely serious to comic. Through it all, a clever turn of phrase is valued - "I Don't Want to be the fire fighter. Let me be the fire." "This world will never be better than we are." "White has nothing to fear but white itself." It all is wrapped up (if you will pardon the pun) in the theme of "taking back the word" with the claim that "to stay silent is blasphemy."

One name in the credits familiar to Signature regulars is that of Michael Clark. He provided the projections for Saving Aimee, One Red Flower, and Allegro here as well as those for The Persians at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Merrily We Roll Along at the Kennedy Center and The Jersey Boys on Broadway. His work here consists of visuals shown on the nine flat-panel high-definition television screens featured in Myung Hee Cho's scenic design. The projections range from iconic images such as the news photos of people reacting to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King to the youthful face of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard. The images magnify the impact of the words.

Written and performed by Steve Connell and Sekou (tha misfit). Directed by Robert Egan. Design: Myung Hee Cho (set and costumes) Michael Clark (projections) Chris Lee (lights) Adam Phalen (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Taryn J. Colberg (stage manager). Cast: Steve Connell, Sekou (tha misfit).

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

Running time 2:40 - one intermission
Sondheim's sparkling score well performed but hampered by story-telling difficulties
Performed in The MAX
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: The story of the careers and friendships of three artists - a composer, a lyricist and a writer - is told backwards from the perspective of the peak of their careers. The sacrifices, compromises and mistakes they make are peeled away from their strained friendship until the story finally gets to one early morning in 1957 when they stood on the roof of their apartment building in New York City to watch Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, pass overhead. Then all things seemed possible.

Sondheim and his collaborator George Furth, with whom he had created Company ten years earlier, based this musical on a 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart which presented its story in reverse chronological order. The technique requires a good deal of special attention to pure storytelling which this production, like the original, simply fails to provide. A number of the strengths that have kept Sondheim aficionados returning to take another crack at the musical are here as well. There's the oft-times seeming autobiographical nature of the central characters which are so seductive to Sondheim fans. There's the intriguing solutions he devised to the challenges of building a musical score backwards, with what seem to be reprises coming before the initial statement of a tune and echoes of melodic themes not yet heard. There's also the satisfaction of some really fine songs such as "Not A Day Goes By" and "Good Thing Going" which have gone on to have success as popular songs when recorded by the likes of Sinatra, Manilow and Minelli.

As is often the case at Signature, Schaeffer has gathered a very talented cast of young performers for big roles and small ones. Gartshore and Olivera are exceptionally good, Erik Lieberman makes a good Signature debut as does Bayla Whitten as the composer's first wife and Tory Ross as his second. Whitten is particularly strong even though her part is the least well structured in the reverse-in-time format of the musical. The ensemble also features distinctive personalities rather than a composite of nonentities. Matt Conner, Emily Levey, Adam Cooley and James Gardiner stand out.

The visual design for this production is distinctive but misses the opportunity to help tell the story and includes some distractingly unattractive costumes. Even though there are multiple locations in the story, the entire musical is performed on one set. As a result, there are few visual clues to help the audience follow the story back in time and place from Hollywood to New York, from Broadway to a nightclub and from courtroom to the rooftop of an apartment house. The costume designs harm some of the more important performances. Most seriously affected are Gartshore who is given suits of black and white check that might serve as test patterns on an old black and white television, and Erik Liberman as Gartshore's lyric writing partner who is decked out in a sickly green that defeats any effort to create an attractive character.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by George Furth. Based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Musical direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Design: James Kronzer (set) Robert Perdziola (costumes) Chris Lee (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Michael Bannigan, Christopher Bloch, Mark Chandler, Matt Conner, Adam Cooley, Rebecca Cznadel, Jenna Edison, James Gardiner, Will Gartshore, Emily Levey, Erik Liberman, Tacy Lynn Olivera, Tory Ross, Bayla Whitten.

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

Running time 1:00 - no intermission
A three-vocalist cabaret
Table Seating in The ARK - $28

Storyline: As explained in the between-song patter, the songs are either lost songs from hit Broadway shows of the past or they are hit songs from shows that have disappeared from the consciousness of all but the hardiest show music maven.

The line up of some twenty songs include works that will be familiar to many and others that will be obscure to almost all. Who, for instance, is going to remember "Washington Square," a song with lyrics by Cole Porter but music by Melvelle Gideon from a 1920 review titled As You Were? Few will recall "My Love Is A Married Man" from Lerner and Loewe's 1945 The Day Before Spring, but many will hum along (quietly, one hopes) to "Do, Do, Do" or "September Song," "Why Was I Born?" or even Rogers and Hart's "Mountain Greenery."

Williams brings the chipper personality and shimmering smile that made her so memorable as Philia in Signature's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the old "garage" and Little Red in the recent revival of Into the Woods here at Signature's new home. She's the right one to sing the song made famous by Betty Boop, "I Wanna Be Loved By You." Cueller's Signature shows have included Saving Aimee, Into the Woods, My Fair Lady and Assassins. She belts out the likes of George and Ira Gershwin's "Lorelei" and Porter's "Don't Look At Me That Way." Pearson is a new face here at Signature. He's mellow voiced in his lower register and has a wide range that is stretched a bit by some of the material here such as the Gershwins' "Mine" and Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's "September Song" but does a fine job with the Hoagy Carmichael/Standley Adams number "Little Old Lady.

First time out, the trio is ill rehearsed for the patter explaining the numbers and some of that patter includes misinformation. For example, Lerner and Loewe's musicals prior to My Fair Lady included Paint Your Wagon and Brigadoon in addition to What's Up and The Day Before Spring which were mentioned in the patter and Sweet Adeline was definitely not a revue. Still, who can grumble when given the opportunity to discover Porter's comic "Mister and Missus Fitch"?

Conceived and directed by Michael Baron and Matthew Gardiner. Music direction by Gabriel Mangiante. Cast: Priscilla Cuellar, Matt Pearson, Lauren Williams.

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

Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t Potomac Stages Pick for a high-flying high-energy musical
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for June and July
Winner of the 2007 annual Ushers' Favorite Show Award
v Sexual themes
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: The musical based on John Updike's novel set in an up-tight New England town where three less-than-conformist women conjure up a devil who releases them from their inhibitions and unleashes their passions. Things get out of hand when he has them turn their powers against the town's over-controlling biddy, but all ends happily when they take control back from this devil and help a pair of teens find true love.

John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe were last represented at Signature with The Fix, which Schaeffer directed at the request of legendary producer Cameron Mackintosh, who had mounted it in London with less success than he had hoped. It was a big hit here in one of Schaeffer's best works. The four (Dempsey, Rowe, Schaeffer and Macintosh) reunited to make this musical, based on the Updike novel and the 1987 movie (think Jack Nicholson), which opened at London's 2,200 seat Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 2000 and transferred to the 1,100 seat Prince of Wales Theatre in 2001. Now Schaeffer brings it down to the scale at which he made his reputation here for immediacy and intensity. He moves his forces about on a very large playing space and takes advantage of the space above and to the sides of the stage in the new space. Still, the set up for the big act one flying effect drags a bit too much and Schaeffer dips into the collection of crotch and breast visual gags a few times too often. Dempsey and Rowe have written two new songs (replacing "Eye of the Beholder" with a more tightly targeted "Your Wildest Dreams" for Emily Skinner's witch and giving Kudisch an autobiographical introduction to his character of "Darryl Van Horne") and revised some others as well as making additional changes to the book.

The first act is the brighter, funnier and more enjoyable of the two. It is where the trio of duets serve as the center of the entire story as Kudisch's devil brings each witch face-to-face with her principal inhibition, and then guides her past it. Each number is an opportunity for the witch involved, and first Noll and then Donovan and finally Skinner deliver knock-your-socks-off performances supported beautifully by Kudisch. Each of these women soar in their big number with an energetic passion that exceeds even the flying effect at the climax of the act.  Erin Driscoll is at her chippery best creating the the teenaged daughter of the terrible town biddy, played by Karlah Hamilton in a mode that could use a touch more cartoon. Driscoll teams with James Gardner as the teenagers in love in the first act. The second act gets a bit darker than you might expect with an on-stage murder and a dissipated devil.  But there are delights here as well with the three witches joining in on "Another Night at Darryl's."

One group that doesn't need any more time to achieve maximum chemistry playing together is the twelve member orchestra under Jon Kalbfleisch, playing Bruce Coughlin's nicely embroidered orchestrations from the balcony behind the set. Matt Rowe's claps of thunder (accompanying Chris Lee's flashes of lightening) establish the supernatural theme. Choreographer Karma Camp does some of her most impressive work of late both with the big chorus numbers such as "Dirty Laundry," where she has the townspeople slapping and snapping towels in tempo, and in the duets between individual witches and Kudisch's devil. She has obviously worked with each cast member to come up with postures, gestures and little touches that help them form an ensemble of note. For example, off to one side during the “”Dance with the Devil” number is a sight you may have thought you'd never see ... Diego Prieto spanking Ilona Dulaski in her patent leather outfit! (Don't ask ... just go see it.)

Music by Dana P. Rowe. Book and lyrics by John Dempsey. Based on the novel by John Updike and the Warner Brothers motion picture. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin. Design: Walt Spangler (set) Elejo Vietti (costumes) Chris Lee (lights) Matt Rowe (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Jeremy Benton, Brianne Cobuzzi, Matt Conner, David Covington, Jacquelyn Piro Donovan, Erin Driscoll, Ilona Dulaski, Sherri L. Edelen, James Gardiner, Karlah Hamilton, Mark Kudisch, Amy McWilliams, Christiane Noll, Brittany O'Grady, Diego Prieto, Tammy Roberts, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Emily Skinner, Scott J. Strasbaugh, Harry A. Winter.

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

Running time 1:40 - No intermission
A highly theatrical exploration of an interesting historical event
Performed in The ARK
v Sexual acts simulated on stage

Storyline: In 1809, Suzanna Cox, a 24 year old indentured servant in a farmhouse some fifty miles into rural Pennsylvania from then-bustling Philadelphia, was arrested, tried, convicted and hanged for the murder of her newborn child.

Bathsheba Doran, a British born playwright now based in the United States, has immersed herself in the world of rural Pennsylvania at the start of the nineteenth century. Her facts seem solid, although it is hard to imagine the wife of a frustrated farmer who misses cosmopolitan pleasures telling him he should go into Philadelphia more often, saying it is "only fifty miles away." Doran brings a unique eye to the project as one born and raised outside of the US. She pays a great deal of attention to portraying the world that Suzanna Cox would have known: her employers, a would-be writer from Philadelphia and a publisher who wants a ballad of her story for publication in a serial not unlike the cliff-hanging movie serials of another century, and even Daniel Boone. Boone is apparently a fixation of Cox's imagination, for he left Pennsylvania for Kentucky long before Cox began her servitude. One aspect of the story which seems to have fascinated Doran is the level of knowledge a woman like Cox would have had about the functioning of her own body. Apparently Doran came to the conclusion that life on a farm isn't enough to assure an understanding of sexuality. There are a number of explicit scenes of sexual activity on stage which are, for the most part, cloaked in the clothing of the time.

Anne Veal plays Cox with a reserved dignity of one who is resigned to a life beyond her control, and Charlie Matthes avoids making his portrait of the man who takes advantage of her lack of control too one-sidedly venal. No one in this household is really getting much of what they want from life, even the wife played with a strength that seems right in the isolation of a farm by Vanessa Lock. James Slaughter is very believable as well as highly enjoyable as the somewhat self-important publisher who has some of the brightest dialogue in the piece, and Michael Grew matches him line for line when he has a chance. When told he should write about Boone, Grew asks "do I have to go to Kentucky?" with such a feeling of dread for such a journey that the reality of life in the newly formed United States of America comes home. It is the character of Boone, however, that seems to be too much of a stretch for a single act with this much story to tell. Richard Pelzman does about as much as can be done to humanize this icon, but it remains a puzzlement just why Doran wrote him into the play in the first place.

By today's standards, things were primitive in the world of Suzanna Cox, and not only does the simple set reflect this, Kate Turner-Walker's costumes add to the feeling of reality. They look appropriate to time, place and social/economic realities, and they look as if they really are clothing. Much of the play takes place indoors at night and Chris Lee's lighting gives a good feel for the limits of illumination both in the private homes of the time, but also of the public houses and offices in Philadelphia, while Matthew M. Nielson's soundscape draws you into the environment where sounds indicate the world outside what can be seen beyond the small circles of light.

Written by Bathsheba Doran. Directed by Joe Calarco. Design: James Kronzer (set) Kate Turner-Walker (costumes) Chris Lee (lights) Matthew M. Nielson (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Katherine C. Mielke (stage manager). Cast: Michael Grew, Vanessa Lock, Stephen Patrick Martin, Charlie Matthes, Richard Pelzman, James Slaughter, Anne Veal.

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

Running time 2:50 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a rousing gem of a new musical
Performed in The MAX
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for April

Storyline: A bio-musical based on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson, the charismatic evangelist of the 1920s who founded the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, was the first female radio preacher and became controversial for her show business approach to preaching. She became a nationwide phenomenon with a flamboyant public persona. Even her mysterious disappearance, which she claimed was a thirty-two day case of kidnapping but the authorities believed was a publicity stunt to disguise a tryst with a lover, could not harm her claim to the adoration of her followers.

All of the lyrics and the script are by Kathie Lee Gifford. She also composed the music for a spirited Irish jig-style number that manages to encapsulate the first two years of Aimee's first marriage into about six minutes. She chooses to tell the story within the structure of McPherson's trial for "corruption of morals, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to manufacture evidence." The structure works fairly well until late in the show when things seem to come to a halt while the trial itself is completed in a non-musical number. As good as Andrew Long is in the non-singing role of the prosecutor, the show simply doesn't need a non-singing segment. Ah, but but when the show is singing! Gifford has written clear lyrics that tell the story with something of the same plain-speaking, heart-on-the-sleeve openness that was a trademark of Sister Aimee's sermons. She doesn't try to show off with excessive alliteration or complicated rhyme schemes, just as Aimee wouldn't have tried to impress her listeners with her eloquence - get the message delivered clearly and passionately! The first act is very tightly structured and flows nicely. The second, however, starts to stumble a bit over the increased attention to the trial and the strange amateurishness of the show's recreation of the pageants that made the services at her Angelus Temple so popular. Some of Gifford's lyrics are set to music by David Pomeranz and others by David Friedman. Either way, they work wonders.

Carolee Carmello, who makes her Signature debut after such successes on Broadway as Parade and Lestat, both of which earned her Tony Award nominations, is a passionate dramatic actress who can also sing thrillingly. She is at her best when the songs she gets to sing are dramatically rich, as are most of the songs she has here. She creates a character that goes from adolescent to adult, obscurity to fame and health to dependence with real humanity. E. Faye Butler returns to Signature after Gospel According to Fishman, and her gospel and blues moments are among the strongest in the show. As a madam (leading her "girls" through "A Girl's Got To Do What A Girl's Got To Do") she is reformed by Sister Aimee's preaching and picks up the pace with "God Will Provide." She provides some of the warmest and most humorous moments. Florence Lacey adds to her credits here at Signature with a strong performance as Aimee's over bearing mother, and Ed Dixon, who starred with Lacey in the earlier Gifford/Pomeranz musical Under the Bridge, which Schaeffer directed off-Broadway, manages to avoid going too far with either the sweetness of his first act part when he's playing Aimee's father or the hatefulness of the bigotry of Aimee's rival preacher who he plays in the second act. He is touching in "Letter from Home" and then booms out "Demon In A Dress."

Walt Spangler's excellent two-story set spans the long wall of Signature's new large theater, The Max, before a bank of nearly 300 seats. A wide flight of wooden stairs dominates the center until it splits - sliding to the sides, exposing a large playing space. The entire structure is in light pine planking on which Michael Clark's well-selected projections of headlines, photographs and biblical quotations shine. Unfortunately, the somewhat busy surface of the lower half of the set make many of the projections difficult to read. The orchestra occupies one side of the ledge that surrounds the theater. They are playing orchestrations that may not make the most of the thirteen-player compliment all the time, but are often as rousing as the gospel-tinged sound of the big revival meeting numbers or as tender as the more intimate moments written for Aimee and her loves. There is a lovely piano and saxophone break in the touching trio "Paying the Price" that is particularly nice.

Music by David Pomeranz and David Friedman. Book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Choreographed by Christopher d'Amboise. Musical direction by Michael Rice. Orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin. Design: Walt Spangler (set) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Michael Clark (projections) Chris Lee (lights) Robert Kaplowitz (sound) Scott Suchman (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Michael Bannigan, Doug Bowles, E. Faye Butler, Carolee Carmello, Priscilla Cuellar, Ed Dixon, James Gardiner, Evan Hoffman, Jennifer Irons, Carrie A. Johnson, Florence Lacey, Andrew Long, Adam Monley, Diego Prieto, Tammy Roberts, Margo Seibert, Corrieanne Stein, Steve Wilson, Harry A. Winter.

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

Running time 0:50 - no intermission
The first Signature Cabaret in the new space
Performed in The ARK
Price - $27

Storyline: Three young male vocalists take turns delivering solos or combine to create group renditions of songs from Broadway shows based on the plays of William Shakespeare.

The choice of material is rather adventurous given the constraints of sticking with the theme of the Shakespeare in Washington festival. Some of the songs are from shows that would be expected, such as Bernstein and Sondheim's Romeo and Juliet-based West Side Story ("Something's Coming," "Tonight," "One Hand, One Heart," "Maria" and "Somewhere,") Cole Porter's Taming of the Shrew-based Kiss Me, Kate ("So In Love," "Too Darn Hot,") Rogers and Hart's Boys from Syracuse based on Comedy of Errors ("Falling in Love With Love," "This Can't Be Love") and Galt MacDermot and John Guare's musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona ("Love's Revenge," 'Summer, Summer.") Interspersed with those predictable choices, however, are songs from Michael Valenti and Donald Driver's tuneful version of Comedy of Errors, Oh, Brother! ("I To The World," "What Do I Tell People This Time?") as well as "What Do I Know of Love?" from Driver's Off-Broadway Your Own Thing based on Twelfth Night which he wrote with Hal Hester. There are two numbers attributed to a show titled Sighs of Fire (a nifty title lifted from Twelfth Night) which uses words from As You Like It ("Under the Greenwood Tree") and Two Gentlemen of Verona ("Who Is Sylvia?"). Most refreshing, however, is the inclusion of Stephen Sondheim's setting of a passage from Cymbeline, "Fear No More," which came from his musical based on Aristophanes' The Frogs.

The trio of singers comment during their banter that they are grateful that a full house came out to hear them since "You don't know who any of us are." For the record, then, Blaemire is fresh out of the national tour of Altar Boyz and is now preparing for his Signature mainstage debut in The Witches of Eastwick. Keyes has just finished small parts in two of the short plays in  the limited run revival of The Apple Tree on Broadway and the one-weekend concert version of Irving Berlin's Face the Music at Encores in New York. Snow just graduated from the Boston Conservatory and worked at Goodspeed in Connecticut in the revival of Pirates of Penzance. They all offer clear voices, careful enunciation which serves the lyrics well, sharp stage presence, a sense of excitement over their material and a nice feeling of camaraderie. They are at their best when either sitting or standing before their microphones. however, because the three have varying levels of skill with a hand-held microphone. This is, sadly, a skill that seems to be escaping the newer generation of musical theater singers who have worn wireless microphones for much of their early training and experience.

The black box is nicely set up with candle-bedecked cabaret tables. The bar in the lobby is open before the show and you are welcome to bring your drinks into the theater with you. The black box is literally that: black floor, black walls and black ceiling. To top it off, all three vocalists wear black. Chris Akins has lit the stage area with sharp colors, however, providing a dramatic look which is further enhanced with copious amounts of stage mist.

Directed by Matthew Gardiner. Lighting designed by Chris Akins. Stage managed by E. Brooke Marshall. Photography by Rachel Applegate. Musicians: Jay Crowder, Lee Hinkle. Cast: Nick Blaemire, Justin Keyes and Jason Michael Snow.

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

Running time 55 minutes – no intermission
A short show that races at the speed of thought
v Includes some strongly sexual material
Click here to buy the script

Storyline:  Four roles reveal interlocking tales through memories, re-enactments and monologs that speak of the pain and beauty of the human condition.

As written the play is set nowhere, with actors in the script identified as A, B, C, and M. Thus, director Jeremy Skidmore has all the leeway anyone could wish to interpret the production. For a less capable director this freedom, combined with the power of the material, would be overwhelming. Skidmore manages to apply just enough concrete presence to the roles being portrayed that the play congeals into a fascinating stream of consciousness production. It’s one detrimental feature is just how fast it flows, leaving audience members asking at the end of its short 55 minute performance, “Is that it? Or is that intermission?” The play continues to unfold long after it is finished, providing material for conversation both in the lobby, on the way home, and again more into the next day.

The set as presented by Tony Cisek is a simple thing yet also a beautiful work of art. Shimmering grey sand lies in a raised platform with a captivating light design from Dan Covey striking it from above and several smaller spots coming up through the sand during the show. This allows the actors to roam about the black box space in much the same manner as their lines roam about the audience’s minds. This is fully an ensemble piece, and so often it seems that roles have changed or reversed as the stories being woven together lose and regain their identity within the cohesive whole. The actors are all very good, no one standing out more than another, until they truly are just A, B, C, and M.

The speed of the show and the complexity of the language can initially result in almost a dissatisfied feeling when it is complete. Indeed it has been said that of Ms Kane’s plays, the last two reveal much more from a reading than a performance, but that would be diminishing the power of the words when presented by talented actors. This is advanced theater, well beyond the safe comfortable lights of Our Town. There is a place for such old classics, and thankfully Signature has provided a place for newer shows that test the limits of what theater can be. It should be noted that this is a mature show, with descriptions of abuse, molestation, addiction, adultery, and many other vices of mankind. What results when the lights come up and the audience leaves in a sort of daze is a deeply moving experience, with little room for fence sitters to say that it was just ok. This is a show that will bring out a firm response in the viewer, love or hate.

Written by Sarah Kane. Directed by Jeremy Skidmore. Design: Tony Cisek (set), Dan Covey (lights), Mark Anduss (sound) Kate Turner-Walker (costumes), Carol Pratt (photography), Roy A. Gross (stage manager). Cast: Kathleen Koons, Deborah Hazlett, Joe Isenberg, John Lescault.

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

Running time 2:50 - one intermission
A performance in Hebrew with English surtitles
 

Storyline: A Hebrew translation follows Shakespeare's story of the prince of Denmark who discovers that his uncle has murdered his father, the king, and wed his mother, the queen. The quest for vengeance results in the deaths of guilty and innocent alike.

The production, directed by Omri Nitzan, is the biggest success to date for Israel's Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv. It debuted just two years ago and has gone on to tour Europe, play in London and now in the United States. It travels with its own audience seating, for the director's concept here is to place the audience in swivel chairs and mount the play on sidestages and a central corridor, surrounding them with the action. At Signature, these swivel chairs are even mounted in the balcony although none of the action comes up to that level, and the sightlines for balcony sitters reach only three of the four sides of the playing area beneath them. It is a modern dress production with costumes that are principally in black and whites with splashes of color for Queen Gertrude and Ophelia. Black set pieces, black walls and black furniture complete a dark brooding feeling.

The centerpiece of the production is, as it should be, the performance of this Hamlet. Itay Tiran is a young, handsome and virile actor who moves with grace as the teenage prince drawn face to face with the evil of adulthood. Claudius is Gil Frank who is a suave king clearly under the spell of beautiful Sara von Schwartze, as Gertrude. Hamlet's connection with Neta Garti's Ophelia is a bit of a stretch as she is a near "valley girl" bopping to the sounds of music on her mp3 player. (We see Hamlet strutting down the central aisle with his own Ipod as well.) Nitzan has his Hamlet playing piano and Ophelia's mad scene is a song - but these are acceptable conceits within a fairly straightforward telling of Shakespeare's tale.

After an evening-long escalation of passions, the final fight scene is something of a let down, however. While director Nitzan uses the assistance of a "fencing coach" (Ohad Balva), there is no credit for fight choreography and its lack is felt. It isn't that Tiran's Hamlet and Amir Kriaf's Laertes don't go at each other with suitable fencing skill. It is that the emotional intensity of battle seems absent. There is such concentration on technique that the underlying emotions of hatred, jealousy, fear and frustration that fuel the battle aren't on display. What is more, Frank's Claudius is reduced to ridicule with a silly little bit of hiding behind a podium waving a white handkerchief. Such a wan way to end an otherwise captivating performance!

Written by William Shakespeare. Translated by T. Carmi. Directed by Omri Nitzan. Music by Yossi Ben Nun. Design: Ruth Dar (set and costumes) Liora Inbar (properties) Rina Schefler (makeup) Karen Granek (lights) Valery Reizes (sound) Ronen Shalev (stage manager). Cast: Yaniv Biton, Noa Cohen-Shabtai, Ezra Dagan, Alon Dahan, Gil Frank, Neta Garti, Assaf Goldstein, Yitzhak Hezkiya, Amir Kriaf, Yoav Levi, Assaf Pariente, Sara von Schwarze, Nir Shalmon, Itay Tiran, Aviv Zemer.

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

Running time 3:00 - One Intermission
 t A Potomac Stages Pick for an enthralling revival of a captivating musical
Click here to buy the CD 

Storyline: A bright first act blends the stories of Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella with an original fairy tale of The Baker and his Wife into a mélange augmented with the witch who holds Rapunzel in a tower, Little Red Riding Hood and assorted princes - all of which ends with the traditional "happily ever after." The dark and disturbing second act looks at the after which comes after "ever after," as the characters' stories are carried beyond the fairy tales' conclusions.

This is Sondheim's punniest, and with the exception of Merrily We Roll Along, his most openly clever score. His A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum may have been funnier, but none of his scores has been filled with so many genuinely funny puns. After all, Sondheim has to write in the manner of the character who sings the song, and most of Sondheim's musicals are about humanly complex adults. Here many of the characters are really children's book caricatures, which frees Sondheim to indulge his own fascination and facility with word play. His delight at that freedom is palpable. Where else could you find an entire song, humorous and delightful and story-advancing as it is, setting up a single punch line pun "The end justifies the beans?" The score is not all flippantry, however. The witch sings movingly of the pains of parenthood ("Children Will Listen") and there are layers upon layers of meaning to Jack's discovery that there are "Giants in the Sky."

To mark this milestone in Signature's history, the cast of the first show in this new house is composed exclusively of performers who have appeared in musicals at Signature's old converted chrome plating shop on the other side of Four Mile Run. Many have Helen Hayes Awards for work at Signature. There's Donna Migliaccio, who won hers for the same Sweeny Todd that brought the company she co-founded with Schaeffer to prominence. She's playing Jack's Mother with comic zest. Erin Driscoll who walked away with the Helen Hayes Award last year for her work in Signature's Urinetown is the silver throated Rapunzel. Dana Krueger, winner for Wings, is a striking presence as Cinderella's Mother. Stephen Gregory Smith, who earned his Helen Hayes Award in 110 In The Shade, is Jack of Beanstalk fame. Stephen Cupo, Helen Hayes winner for Cabaret, is Cinderella's Father. There's Eleasha Gamble in her tenth Signature show now making a marvelous witch, and the team of James Moye and Sean MacLaughlin as the princes who make "Agony" such a delight. The one voice that hasn't been heard at Signature before is that of the giant woman Jack left widowed at the end of act one. In the recent Broadway revival, this non-singing disembodied voice was a recorded Judi Dench. Signature goes that production one better with the voice of none other than Angela Lansbury, uncredited but unmistakable.

Precision and attention to detail are evident from the first entrance. When Harry A. Winter emerges from a door in the castle tower to announce "Once Upon a Time" he closes the door behind him in time with the down beat of Kalbfleisch's fifteen-piece orchestra's launch into the rhythmic riff underlying the opening song. Everything is working together even at that early moment, with a green back-light emerging from the open door, Winter's smooth sense of timing and the visual impact of Robert Perdziola's costumes placed on parade as Winter introduces one character after another. (Jon Aitcheson's wigs for Cinderella's Step Mother and Step Sisters are simply perfect.) The orchestra sounds gorgeous playing Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations of Sondheim's sometimes mellifluous, sometimes sharp but always intriguing music. The production continues in a firing on all cylinders mode right on through the special effect of the giant's booming footsteps. Through it all, while the hall may be a bit bigger than the old "garage," the essential intimacy and the immediacy of the magic making that has been the hallmark of Signature's best work for fifteen years is still alive and well here in "The Max." The only quibble on opening night was the complaint of difficulty hearing some of the lines from some in the "dress circle" seats that circle the house at what would be balcony level in a regular theater. No doubt this will be rectified as the company learns more about how this new space works.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Lapine. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical Direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Design: Robert Perdziola (set and costumes) Mark Pack (properties) Chris Lee (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Florrie Bagel, April Harr Blandin, Matt Conner, Daniel Cooney, Priscilla Cuellar, Steven Cupo, Erin Driscoll, Eleasha Gamble, Dana Krueger, Sean MacLaughlin, Channez McQuay, Donna Migliaccio, James Moye, Stephen Gregory Smith, Stephanie Waters, Lauren Williams, Harry A. Winter. 

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

Running time 2:50 - one intermission
 t A Potomac Stages Pick for strong performances
 in a great musical
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: The musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion adds personal romance to the original’s love affair with the English Language as a dialectician who believes that the way a person speaks "absolutely classifies him" takes on the challenge of teaching a flower girl from Covent Garden to speak well enough to be accepted as a princess at a court function. He (and she) succeeds. But in the process, he "grows accustomed to her face" and wants her in his world permanently, despite his protestations that he would "never let a woman in my life."

This show is legendary for the success of Lerner and Loewe's adaptation of a play many thought could not be made into a musical. No lesser talents than Rodgers and Hammerstein themselves had tried and abandoned the project. Hammerstein told Lerner "It can't be done." But, to paraphrase the second act opener "They Did It!" With respectful but absolutely necessary changes to the plot of the original, careful alterations of character traits and with the near-perfect placement of some superb songs with wonderfully literate lyrics set to gorgeous and superbly functional music, Shaw's creation became not just a good musical, it became a better play than its estimable source. "Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?" "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On The Street Where You Live" and "I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face" are some of the premiere romance songs to emerge from the golden age of the American musical. The sub-plot involving the flower girl’s father provided the opportunity for such classic music-hall style production numbers as "Get Me to the Church on Time" and "With A Little Bit of Luck" while the concentration on elocution, enunciation, pronunciation and all things linguistic gave them the chance to produce some of the finest patter songs since Gilbert and Sullivan with "Why Can’t the English (teach their children how to speak)?" "I’m An Ordinary Man" and "A Hymn to Him" which poses the time honored question "Why can’t a woman be more like a man?" Add to all this the terrific release of exuberant joy in "The Rain in Spain" and you have a score with more beauty, wit, depth and charm than a dozen more mundane musicals.

Andrew Long is Professor Henry Higgins in a performance that is clean, clear, commanding and so far from an imitation of Rex Harrison, for whom the part was written, that it stands alone. His singing is quite strong and he sings rather than speaks more of the patter material than some others have. His Eliza is Broadway veteran Sally Murphy who likewise avoids imitating earlier performances. Her high energy on the anger songs "Just You Wait," "Show Me" and "Without You" is impressive, and her lyrical delivery of both "I Could Have Dance All Night" and the reprise of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is a treat. Terrance P. Currier is the disappointment of the show as her father. He does a generally good job with the humor of the library scene ("I'm one of the world's undeserving - and I intend to remain undeserving") but he's just not the music-hall song and dance man needed for the big numbers "Get Me to the Church on Time" and "With A Little Bit of Luck." Luckily, Tomas Adrian Simpson and Steven Cupo are available to shore him up on these numbers. Will Gartshore is a delight in one of Broadway's smaller roles with a major hit song. He fills the hall with his tenor on "On The Street Where You Live" and also does a great job establishing himself in the minds of the audience in the preceding scene which is a key to making the song work. Harry A. Winter does some of his best work ever at Signature with the role of fellow linguist Colonel Pickering, and Dana Krueger is a crowd-pleaser in the smaller role of the professor's mother.

The two-piano accompaniment goes strangely un-credited (as opposed to the attention lavished on the work of the original orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett and Phil Lang) and is a weakness in the production. The playing may well be fine, but there is none of the breadth of tone or spaciousness that two-pianos can provide and the balance is such that there are times the accompaniment seems to disappear and others when it seems to overpower the vocalists. Sound designer Tony Angelini provided very effective ambient sounds of passing horse-drawn carriages prior to the show's opening but during the show itself the use of cane tapping to simulate horse hooves in the Ascot races was distractingly artificial. Visually, the overall look of the show is a fine blend of the intimacy of Signature's 136-seat black box theater and Victorian feel with its shiny black thrust stage and pillars that draw on the industrial look of this former chrome plating building. The use of cloth panels as background, which, when lit from behind, reveal chorus members was effective and impressive the first time the effect was used in "The Servants Chorus," but achieved a "ho, hum, been there, done that" feeling later in the show, especially when the figures revealed were wearing those silly sleeveless jackets.

Music by Frederick Loewe. Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Music direction by Jenny Cartney. Design: James Kronzer (set) Jenn Miller (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Matt Conner, Priscilla Cuellar, Steven Cupo, Terrence P. Currier, Kathryn Fuller, Eleasha Gamble, Will Gartshore, LC Harden Jr., Evan Hoffman, Dave Joria, Maureen Kerrigan, Dana Krueger, Andrew Long, Channez McQuay, Sally Murphy, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Stephen Gregory Smith, Lauren Williams, Harry A. Winter.

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

Running time 2:00 - no intermission
 t A Potomac Stages Pick for an intriguing and sometimes humorous portrayal of the misfits who tried to kill Presidents
Winner of the 2006 annual Ushers Favorite Show Award
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: The stories of the people who assassinated or attempted to assassinate Presidents, from Abraham Lincoln through Ronald Reagan, are woven into a one act dark fantasy with the focus on the two most famous -- John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. Much of it is true to the historical record but it culminates in a fascinatingly constructed scene in which Booth leads the spirits of the assassins in an effort to convince Oswald to assassinate Kennedy, bringing new meaning to the term “JFK assassination conspiracy.”

The mature Stephen Sondheim has never been constrained by the boundaries of tradition in his musicals. While others write boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy wins girl love stories, Sondheim writes about revenge driven maniacs and purveyors of human flesh (Sweeney Todd), obsessed artists (Sunday in the Park with George) or the clash of cultures (Pacific Overtures). As usual, not only is his subject unorthodox, his structure is as well. A series of vignettes - some set to song and some simple scenes - tied together by the concept that the acts of Booth and Oswald turn all the other assassination attempts from individual acts of derangement into, in one assassin's words, "a force of history." Kooks aplenty add up to a frightening force indeed. When those kooks are portrayed in song, the discipline of melody, meter, rhyme and structure help create deep character portraits within the limited time available. When non-singing dialogue or monologue scenes are used, however, it takes longer to make the points and things begin to bog down. Comedy alleviates some of this problem - the exchanges between the fabulous Erin Driscoll as "Squeaky" Fromme and the even more fabulous Donna Migliaccio as the ditsy Sara Jane Moore, who both shot at Ford, are highly entertaining. But some are simply overwritten. Strong performances can alleviate some of the wordiness of the book scenes. Kathryn Fuller is marvelous in the non-singing role of Emma Goldman. As good as Andy Brownstein is as Sam Byck, who tried to hijack an airplane to crash into Nixon's White House, and he is very good, he still has to go on and on in the diatribes he dictates to his tape recorder.

Ah, but when they all break into song! Then there is a clarity to the piece. The motivations of success-obsessed Charles Guiteau, who shot Garfield, or of John Hinkley, Jr., who tried to assassinate Reagan in order to impress a movie star, become clear and gripping in just a minute or two. Hinkley's love song "Unworthy of Your Love" sung by Matt Conner as a dweeb of a love-sick pup is a fine duet with Driscoll. The concept is strengthened with chorus numbers that make a character out of the instrument of destruction they all have in common ("The Gun Song") and make the connection to the American dream ("Another National Anthem"). This production uses the song "Something Just Broke" that was written after the original production. The key relationship in this fictional history is between the first assassin, the powerfully effective Will Gartshore as John Wilkes Booth, and the last "successful" one, Stephen Gregory Smith as Lee Harvey Oswald. Smith establishes that relationship with the opening "The Ballad of Booth" when he is the balladeer before becoming Oswald. He sings it well but its success is particularly dependent on the fact that he acts the song so well, delivering the meaning behind the lines with an actors' clarity.

A show with such a fantastical concept calls for a significant flight of fancy in its design and Calarco's team led by set designer James Kronzer provides it in Signature's flexible black-box theater. The 136 seats are arrayed in a traditional arrangement facing an American flag of a curtain in what seems a very normal manner. But when the show begins, that flag falls to reveal . . . a theater! The seats in which the audience is sitting are facing identical seats facing them and the actors are in those seats staring at them (or reading their programs). The action takes place in and around the seats and up and down the aisles. Jon Kalbfleisch's nine piece band is hidden behind the back wall. Then, at the end of the show, the location becomes the Texas Book Depository warehouse space, where all the assassins are pleading with Lee Harvey Oswald. The windows of that building which are so familiar from the photographs from the time, redefine the space.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Directed by Joe Calarco. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Design: James Kronzer (set) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Chris Lee (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Ethan Ableman or Bradley Bowers, Doug Bowles, Andy Brownstein, Matt Conner, Priscilla Cuellar, Erin Driscoll, Mika Duncan, Daniel Felton, Kathryn Fuller, Will Gartshore, Peter Joshua, Donna Migliaccio, Diego Prieto, Tally Sessions, Stephen Gregory Smith, Steve Tipton.

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

Reviewed April 2
Running time 2:05 - one intermission
A comedy of the home life of a sex researcher

Storyline: A live performance portrayal of the 1950 home life of a sex researcher totally oblivious the fact that wife is having an affair with his colleague and his daughter is struggling with both lesbianism and spinsterhood (which do you think her parents would fear the most in 1950?) is contrasted with a videotaped performance of a 2004 documentary in which an oft-married divorcée is interviewed for a study of sexual behavior and attitudes.

There are many new names in the program for this comedy - at least new to Signature Theatre. The playwright is new here but she's had her work produced at the Guthrie in Minneapolis as well as theaters in Atlanta, Louisville, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The director is new. He has a varied resume including directing, writing, teaching and running career development programs for directors. The set designer and the costume designer are new as well. Then, too, the cast of eight includes four who have never played Signature before, but they are all well known in the Potomac Region. Regulars from Will Gartshore to Amy McWilliams do well. McWilliams, however, is only seen in the pre-recorded video and a technological reproduction is no match for the live performances on the stage. This is, after all, live theater.

Two new faces for this space are at the heart of the piece. Ralph Cosham is the autocratic academician working on his final book about sex while being completely oblivious to the sexual side of the two women who share his life, his wife and daughter. Cosham manages to imbue the character with a touch of humanity. This is no mean feat given that it is written as a particularly colorless part. He not only gets the vocal mannerisms of the elderly German autocrat just right, he gets his body language to exhibit the same accent. Helen Hedman is the wife. She's funny, charming, impressive and a delight, but she also seems much too young for the role. The play includes the celebration of her 65th birthday with her daughter expressing surprise that it isn't her 70th, and she has a scene with Gartshore as her lover in which she expresses her fears that he will find her aging body a turn off. Now, you might chalk that up to insecurity, but that would change the point of the scene. Truth to tell, Hedman is just too lovely and sexy in a Donna Reed-ish sort of way for the part.

The set by Signature first timer Michael Carnahan is a thing of beauty, although some of the design decisions work against rather than for the play. The hiding of some 14 small-screen televisions behind see-through scrim to display the black and white tape of the 2004 "documentary" seems just a bit backward - how is it that the 1950s are portrayed in vivid, living color while the scenes in the age of the home theater/high definition TV are black and white? Still, the 1950 set is a gorgeous recreation of what was then seen as modern. So too are Alejo Vietti's costumes, which not only capture the look of the time but look as if they came directly from the Sears or Montgomery Wards down the block. Signature regular, sound designer Tony Angelini, helps set the mood with a selection of pop songs of the day that are well blended into the flow of the show. Indeed, they set the flow from time to time, making transitions smoother and emphasizing, sometimes wittily and sometimes subtly, the point being made in a specific scene. Props master Kimberly Cruce isn't given credit for properties design, but if she is the one who obtained all the period consumer items - especially the superb coffee carafe - she deserves a nod as well.

Written by Julie Marie Myatt. Directed by Michael Baron. Design: Michael Carnahan (set) Alejo Vietti (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Teresa Castracane, Ralph Cosham, Will Gartshore, Helen Hedman, Megan MacPhee, Amy McWilliams, Paul Morella, Casie Platt.

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

Reviewed January 15
Running time: 90 minutes - no intermission
t A  Potomac Stages Pick as a fascinating musical dream sequence
 v Includes some strongly sexual material
Click here to buy the Complete Works of Poe

Storyline: The writings of Edgar Allan Poe form the basis for a biographical sketch of the troubled poet's life as he pursues prostitutes, seduces and marries a thirteen year old and suffers the visions of his and her mothers in an extended dream sequence set to a haunting musical score.

Composer Matt Conner has produced a score of remarkable consistency, which, in the hands of master orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, becomes a constant around which the life story of Poe revolves. The melodies rise and fall with the rhythm of a heartbeat - a heartfelt and at times heartsick beat. The book by Grace Barnes works wonders to keep the ruminations of a deranged mind clear to the audience. There's rarely a point where you don't know just what is going on, even when what is going on isn't particularly sensible. Eric Schaeffer's direction matches the recurring eddies of the score and story with nearly constant movement among his cast of only six, many of whom surround scenes played out by others, observing from the sidelines to emphasize the feeling that this world is a graveyard, the final destination of people whose lives we watch.

Lauren Williams, as Poe's cousin/wife whom he married when she was thirteen, takes the longest dramatic journey of the evening, transitioning from an innocent, infatuated girl to a dying wife. Channez McQuay is haunting as her mother, Poe's aunt, while Florence Lacey is touching as Poe's mother. Jacquelyn Piro, in purple silk gown and stylish hat above striking half-bald scalp, is stately as Poe's first love, and Amy McWilliams is earthy and sultry as the many whores in Poe's life. At heart, however, it is Daniel Cooney's show to make or to break as the constantly-on-stage Edgar, whose presence is the driving force of the evening. He does a good job of it, providing a brooding presence and a magnetic focus. However, the piece leaves the feeling that there is more to made of this part and that it might soar even higher in another's hands. He's hampered just a bit by the one design element no one is credited with in the program: makeup. In a work marked by judicious touches of subtlety, the cartoonish black treatment of his eyes overdo a good idea.

Derek McLane's set creates solid surfaces floating in a mist of the mind which Mark Lanks lights from behind, below, and the sides with dramatic impact. Trees and moon are prominent against the dark blue of the sky but it is the door that works the most magic. It is the opening of a tunnel to eternity -- a different light emerges from its portal and the receding sconces of its wall lamps go back beyond the sky. It is the connection between the ethereal and the earthbound, just as Conner's music is the emotional bridge that transforms Poe's poetry and stories into a musical experience.

Music by Matt Conner. Lyrics adapted from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Book by Grace Barnes. Directed and featuring musical staging by Eric Schaeffer. Musical direction by Jenny Cartney. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Design: Derek McLane (set) Jenn Miller (costumes) Mark Lanks (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Daniel Cooney, Florence Lacey, Channez McQuay, Amy McWilliams, Jacquelyn Piro, Lauren Williams.

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

Reviewed February 13
Running time 1:10 - no intermission
These kids are great!

Storyline: Thomas Jefferson's two daughters contemplate the end of their stay in Paris as their father's service as Ambassador to France is interrupted by the call to be Secretary of State under President Washington. At the same time, their servants Sally and James Hemings contemplate their fates as the family returns to the slave-holding south, for both are slaves owned by Jefferson who has promised to free James but has not indicated what he might do about Sally's status.

Under director Marcia Gardner, all thirteen student cast members disport themselves with assurance and contribute to the solid feel of the production, but a few go beyond the awfully-good-for-a-teenaged-amateur level to impressively satisfying. It is hard to believe that Kristin James, lovely and lively as the Jefferson sisters' companion/servant/slave Sally Hemings, is in her first year participating in the program and is a junior in high school.

In the role of a young French gentleman who is passionately devoted to the cause of the rights of man - but who can't quite see that they might be applicable to women - is another junior, Erik Lendeman, whose stage presence is impressive as well. The two Jefferson sisters are nicely played by Maggie Harrington and Laura Downes, while Maria Wilson gives life to the role of a free black stenographer when her character finally gets to deliver some of her own opinions.

This is the eleventh year that Signature has collaborated with students at Wakefield High in a program that was begun by playwright Norman Allen. The participating students work with a playwright and with Signature's Education Director, Marcia Gardner, to research the subject of the play, develop the themes, learn about the process of creating a theatrical presentation, and then, put on the play, mostly for audiences composed of students bussed in from all around Northern Virginia. This week over 800 students will attend performances during the school day. Gardner is also directing the show and the playwright - not Norman Allen for the first time - is playwright/director Joe Calarco, whose credits as a director at Signature include Nijinsky's Last Dance, Side Show and the recent hit Urinetown. Each year, a professional is included in the cast who provides a role model and a chance for some one-on-one mentoring. For this play, it is Hope Lambert, who starred earlier this year in Signature's production of Fallen from Proust. . 

Written by Joe Calarco. Directed by Marcia Gardner. Design: Rick Weinard (set) Melanie Dale (costumes) Susan Ellis (properties) Ronnie Gunderson (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Maggie Colella (stage manager). Cast: Amanda Donahoo, Laura Downes, Brian Eberly, Maggie Harrington, Jessica Henderson, Kristin James, Hope Lambert, Erik Lenderman, Ione Saunders, Phylicia Scott, Kevin Trudel, Ben Truong, Maria Wilson. 

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

Reviewed November 13
Running time 1:30 - no intermission
A very pleasant coming of age story
 set in the Caribbean

Storyline: A boy from a rural village in the interior of a Caribbean island journeys to the big city and beyond, coming of age as he voyages to the United States.

Quiara Alegría Hudes' Caribbean coming of age story premiered at the Portland Stage Company last March. It tells its simple story in a mixture of natural and supernatural styles. Much of the boy's story is presented in a realistic way as he learns the game of dominos, sees the sights of the big city, discovers the joys of refrigerated Cokes and is instructed on the proper way to open a coconut. At the other extreme are the appearances of the goddess Yemaya, the ruler of the sea in the Santeria faith, introduced to the Caribbean by Yoruba captives transported on the slave ships, and the ghost of the boy's mother who literally walks on water. In between are scenes that seem a mixture of the two, such as the burial of the boy's parents and the storm at sea.

The boy is nicely played with youthful innocence by Jose Aranda. Just how youthful is not always clear, however, as his mannerisms early in the play feel like those of a six year old but later his sexual awakening implies an older boy even though he doesn't act much older and there is little indication of the passage of time. The title character is brought to life by Saskia de Vries who also plays the woman who stimulates that awakening. They work well together and their joint scenes, along with those featuring Clifton Alphonzo Duncan as the boy's uncle, are the finest in the show.

David Maddox has provided a fine incidental score of Caribbean-infused music that gives the piece a good feel, and Stephanie Nelson comes up with an interesting set that converts from the hills of the Caribbean island to the sea in an impressive way. Unfortunately, that conversion takes a bit of time and effort, moving nearly a dozen heavy boards, and is very distracting during a scene played out down front. Jenn Miller's costumes are, as usual, very effective without drawing undue attention, and Maddox also gives the piece help with often subtle sound effects. The end result is a pleasant ninety minute fable. However, Signature regulars have come to expect more than pleasant productions of this often exciting theater.

Written by Quiara Alegría Hudes. Directed by Rick DesRochers. Design: Stephanie Nelson (set) Jenn Miller (costumes) Jason Thompson (lights) David Maddox (original music and sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Kerry Epstein (stage manager). Cast: Jose Aranda, Saskia de Vries, Clifton Alphonzo Duncan, Joseph W. Lane, Tuyet Thi Pham.

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

Reviewed August 21
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
 t A Potomac Stages Pick for enthusiastic, infectious energy
Winner of the 2005 annual Ushers' Favorite Show Award
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: In a time when draught has made private toilets unthinkable and a mega-corporation has a monopoly on pay toilets, a group of underprivileged citizens stage a revolution. They take the evil monopolist's naive daughter hostage, but she ends up as their leader when she recognizes the people's "right to pee."

At heart, Urinetown is a very affectionate tribute to the genre of musical theater which proves once again the old adage that a musical can tell any story if it is done well. It observes all the rules of the form while making affectionate fun of them. What more could you expect of a show that begins with a narrator (Stephen F. Schmidt) setting out the show's "central conceit" in a discussion of how much "exposition" a show's first scene can contain. If that sounds suspiciously like the jargon you might find at a workshop on how to write a musical, it may be because co-lyricist Mark Hollmann attended the legendary BMI - Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop where such things are studied.

Having set up a truly bizarre concept, the very tightly constructed book by Hollmann’s colleague Greg Kotis carries the set-up to its logical conclusion while using the many logically identified song spots for individual parodies of some of the most identifiable moments in the history of Broadway musicals. When the downtrodden rise up in revolution out comes the mop to be waved like the flag in Le Mis. All the second act's opener lacks from Fiddler on the Roof is a bottle dance. Many times the references come in combination as the rumble-ish dance for "Snuff That Girl" seems to put West Side Story’s finger-snapping gang members in Guys and Dolls' sewer.

Will Gartshore does some of his best work at Signature with a pose, a look or a gesture for every moment he's on the stage as the youthful leader of the rebellion. Signature newcomer, Erin Driscoll, a Kristin Chenoweth look-alike with her own impressive talents, is a winning presence as the daughter who comes to doubt her father, the marvelously malicious monopolist Christopher Bloch. Signature regulars contribute great moments including Donna Migliaccio as the belting proprietor of Public Amenity No. 9, Steven Cupo as the old man whose act of defiance has him carted off to "Urinetown,"  Thomas Adrian Simpson as a smarmy Senator and Evan Casey who makes the most of his running gag throughout the evening. The sharpest work of all, however, comes from Jenna Sokolowski whose knowing innocence keeps the focus on the parody at key moments. Music director Jay Crowder gets great vocal work out of the ensemble and a full, bouncy sound from his five piece band (the same size as the Broadway production).

Music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann. Book and lyrics by Greg Kotis. Directed by Joe Calarco. Music direction by Jay Crowder. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Design: James Kronzer (set) Anne Kennedy (Costumes) Cathie Gayer (properties) Chris Lee (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Colleen Martin (stage manager). Cast: Anthony Aloise, Christopher Bloch, Michael Bunce, Evan Casey, Steven Cupo, Erin Driscoll, Sherri L. Edelen, Eleasha Gamble, Will Gartshore, Amy McWilliams, Donna Migliaccio, Phil Olejack, Jeffrey L. Peterson, Stephen F. Schmidt, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Jenna Sokolowski.

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

Reviewed May 22
Running time 2:15 - one intermission
A disappointingly flimsy production but with strong musical direction
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: The story of the opening of Japan to western influences is told through the perspective of the Japanese. In the first act the court of the Shogun reacts to the arrival of the American flotilla under Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853, the first contact with the west after centuries during which it had been forbidden for any foreigners to step foot on the soil of "the floating kingdom." But Perry was not to be denied and contact began. The second act details the rapid influx of western influences as the British, French, Dutch and Russians join the Americans in trade with Japan. It culminates with Japan’s progress as a "western" power in the modern age.

Schaeffer has stated that he and his team took the basic elements of Japanese Kabuki theater and came up with their own "Signature version" of the style. Gone are the grand sets. Gone are the elaborate, padded costumes. Gone are the all (or mostly) male cast in roles of both genders. Gone are the black-clad (and therefore, supposedly invisible) stage hands moving things around in front of the audience. Gone, too, is the large cast, the large orchestra and the casting of Asian performers. Instead, Signature's cast of ten white men and women in white-face makeup with black wigs perform on a simple platform of plywood backed by bamboo-ish poles with men playing some female roles but also some women playing male roles. The makeup is inconsistent and the wigs distractingly artificial and unattractive while the costumes of the Japanese characters are only occasionally impressive. This seems a strange combination of images to represent the Japanese self-image prior to the invasion of western influences.

Donna Migliaccio handles the central role of "Recitor" as well as Shogun and the Emperor Meiji. Her strong stage presence is impressive as usual, but the songs are below her strongest range. What is more, Schaeffer directs many of the scenes with a quick pace at the expense of the thoughtful pauses that seem called for, especially in the asides of the Recitor in the form of cogent haiku ("The bird from the sea / not knowing pine from bamboo / roosts on anything.") Many Signature regulars turn in performances that include fine moments. Daniel Felton and Will Gartshore provide a solid foundation in the twin roles of men thrown great opportunity by great change, Steven Cupo captures the confounded situation of the Lord whose world is suddenly faced with challenges neither he nor any of his predecessors prepared for, and Thomas Adrian Simpson has great fun with his part as the Russian Admiral in "Please, Hello!" ("Don't touch the coat!") New to Signature but very welcome is Michael Bunce whose "Shogun's Mother" is a highlight and a delight.

Kalbfleisch's seven-member ensemble sits behind the platform, playing Jonathan Tunick's new reduced orchestrations. In 1976 Tunick produced the original orchestrations for 22 players and prepared these reduced charts for the 2004 Broadway revival. In New York's 920-seat Studio 54 they sounded quite thin and even tinny. Here they sound much better and quite at home in the small 136 seat space. Particularly pleasant was the discovery of just how effective the timpani could be in establishing a dramatic sense of momentum, and the delicacy of the writing of the support for Felton and Gartshore's "Poems."  Click here to read our review of the recording of the revival with the new orchestrations.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Additional material by Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Choreography by Karma Camp. Design: Eric Schaeffer (set) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Katherine Osborne (properties) Mark Lanks (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Jess W. Speaker III (stage manager). Cast: Michael Bunce, Matt Conner, Steven Cupo, Daniel Felton, Will Gartshore, Channez McQuay, Donna Migliaccio, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Stephen Gregory Smith, Harry A. Winter.

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

Reviewed June 23
Running time 0:55 - no intermission
A free concert in Welburn Square Park

Storyline: None - just sixteen good Broadway show tunes sung by a talented cast of six backed by a three piece band led by Michael Rice.

Associate Artistic Director Rick DesRochers assembled this package of singers and songs with an eye toward crowd pleasing. The numbers are appealing and the singers are bright performers with great voices. He sequences the songs nicely with a rousing opening ("All That Jazz" from Kander and Ebb's Chicago) through Broadway standards ("Some Enchanted Evening" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific sung with full bodied heft by Bob McDonald, "Embraceable You" from the Gerswin's Girl Crazy - credited here to Ken Ludwig's re-write of the show under the title Crazy for You sung with a good feel for the lyric by Florrie Bagel) and some that won't be quite as familiar ("Streets of Dublin" from Flaherty and Ahrens' A Man of No Importance delivered with dramatic intensity by Evan Casey and "Popular" from Stephen Schwartz' Wicked, which, as delivered by Lauren Williams, sounded just like what it is, a song fashioned for the unique skills of Kristen Chenoweth). Williams later put her own mark on Ashman and Menken's "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors in a nice duet with Evan Casey.

Because some of the numbers are less well known than "I Get a Kick Out Of You" or "I Won't Dance," the program could benefit from a bit of narration. Bob McDonald teams up with Lynn Neal to do a marvelously enunciated, well delivered version of Stephen Sondheim's often hilarious "A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd, but the ingenuity and humor of Sondheim's riff on the tastes of different types of victims of cannibalism require a soupcon of explanation before getting to "such a nice plump frame what's his name has ... had" and all the attributes of priests, lawyers and fiddle players. Still, there was no need for explanation for Sondheim's "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" which has become something of a slogan for Signature, especially as they prepare for the opening of their new digs above the new library in Shirlington.

Backing it all is Michael Rice on keyboard with Jeff Cooper (bass) and Stacy Loggins (drums). Rice's work is highly supportive of the performances of the singers with bright filigrees for the up-tempo numbers and counter-melodies for the lusher moments. The use of an electronic keyboard instead of standard concert piano works well in the outside environment, blending nicely with the fully amplified sound of the vocalists.

Directed by Rick DesRochers. Music direction by Michael Rice. Cast: Florrie Bagel, Evan Casey, Clifton Alphonzo Duncan, Bob McDonald, Lynn Audrey Neal, Lauren Williams.

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

Reviewed March 27
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
Mature audiences - full nudity
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for April, 2005
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: Forty years after being a young man on the rise in the art world, an American expatriate painter living out his days swigging copious quantities of booze in a tiny Mexican village suddenly finds his old work has been "discovered" and he is being courted by an agent who wants to mount a retrospective. Compounding his reluctance to re-enter the world of haute culture is his relationship with his assistant, who is on the salary of the agent, and with a young American woman working on an environmental study in the same area of Mexico.

The announcement that DesRochers would direct a fairly new play gave this slot in Signature's last full season in its old space along Four Miler Run a special importance. Here would be the first chance to see what Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Sam Sweet saw that would entice them to bring DesRochers from the post of "literary director" at the Goodman in Chicago and "literary manager" of the Public in New York. Would there be an infusion of new, quality material for the company to tackle? Would there be fresh directorial wonders? Now the production has opened and it raises more questions for Signature's future than it answers. It neither impresses in the selection of material nor in the presentation of that material. Instead, a play that seems simultaneously overwritten and trite is being given not just an earnest effort, but a strenuous rant of a performance that would seem excessive in a much larger space. Here, with the audience at half an arms length in this black box, it seems positively hyperactive -- emphasizing rather than diverting attention from every defect in the material. To make matters worse, the ideas and opinions bouncing around the room range from predictable to politically correct to archly anti-American ("Why would you want to go back to New York? The country you left doesn't care about anything, about itself or even about its children?" passes for a supposedly thoughtful comparison of the artist's old haunt and his current home in a graft-ridden Mexican village.)

All four members of the cast exhibit the same lack of subtlety, which leads to the conclusion that they are being directed that way. Timmy Ray James has the shuffle of his seventy year old character and he has a hundred different ways to emphasize a line, but he uses all of them in the first half hour. He does have one tremendous moment of silence about forty five minutes into the first act, when, as his character waits for a verdict from the agent on a new painting, he folds his hands in tension akin to prayer. The entire production would benefit from more moments like these. Nigel Reed gives the most depth to his underwritten character, the gay South African art dealer with a thing for the artists apprentice/assistant played with feral ferocity by Evan Casey. Sarah Douglas does what she can with the role of the "smart sexy American girl" but it calls for a number of shifts and revelations which should come slowly to the surface, rather than being switched on with each plot change. She also has the difficulty of playing a significant portion of the second act in the nude, even when the focus of the scene isn't supposed to be on her.

DesRochers brings in Stephanie Nelson as set designer. Whether it is her vision or DesRochers', the dingy artist's studio, which falls apart at the same pace as does the artist's world, seems just as predictable and trite as the text. The effort to avoid letting anyone in the audience actually see the pictures being viewed and discussed by the characters results in some very awkward moments, including key speeches and actions taking place behind large picture frames out of sight for significant sections of the audience. Signature staff member Jenn Miller's costumes and the lighting by Jason H. Thompson, a semi-newcomer to Signature, are the most graceful elements of the production. Miller provides just the right up-tight wardrobe for Reed, rambling light tropical clothes for James, the expected jeans and sneaks for Casey. Douglas gets appropriate student garb for those scenes where she wears anything at all. Thompson's colored fill from footlights give the scenes a painted feel at just the right times. Perhaps he learned a great deal about the immediacy and intimacy of a space such as this when he assisted on One Red Flower and Fallen from Proust.

Written by Jon Robin Baitz. Directed by Rick DesRochers. Design: Stephanie Nelson (set) Jenn Miller (costumes) Ashley Semrick (properties) Jason H. Thompson (lights) Matt Nielson (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Colleen Martin (stage manager). Cast: Evan Casey, Sarah Douglas, Timmy Ray James, Nigel Reed.

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

Reviewed January 16
Running time 1:35 - one intermission
Winner (in a tie) of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for January, 2005
  t A Potomac Stages Pick for laughs and lively fun

Storyline: A successful publisher of children's books who has been in a serious relationship with one woman for five years without either proposing marriage or living together gets a new roommate who impresses his girlfriend as being clearly gay. The girlfriend and the new roommate form a strong bond of friendship, share hopes and dreams but start to compare the strength of their friendship to the relationship she has with the publisher. Soon the ties that connect the three are rocked by attractions and the arrival of a rival.

Allen builds his lively romp on the question of whether a friendship between a man and a woman can be closer if sex isn't in the picture than if it might be. Specifically, can a gay have a closer friendship with a person of the opposite sex than a heterosexual can. That, of course, requires a set of characters including at least one homosexual and two heterosexuals. Allen sets up his comedy by introducing characters whose preferences you assume you know but then he throws those assumptions into question. All the while, he mines the potential for humor in the views of his educated, literate and well spoken characters.

The cast of four is superb with Michael Glenn being the best of the bunch. His smooth adoption of the persona of the gay roommate, abetted by a perfect wardrobe for the part provided by costume designer Jenn Miller, is a conglomeration of all the positives in the stereotypes of sensitive, intellectually honest and unconflicted gay men without any of the negative stereotypes sometimes attached to the image of homosexuals. Of course, the fact that Allen sets the story in the greater San Francisco area, one of the more open and accepting communities of what used to be referred to as young, upwardly mobile professionals of all persuasions helps quite a bit. Hope Lambert is a delight as the perky girlfriend of the publisher, played with  just the right hyper-kinetic frenzy by Damon Boggess. In addition, there is the impishly humorous Daniel Frith as a friend from outside the trio whose existence is a revelation to two of the principals and to the audience alike.

Will Pomerantz directs his first production at Signature. He is remembered by Potomac Region theatergoers for his sure hand with Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things two seasons ago at Studio. Just as with that production, here he starts things off a bit hyperactively. In this case it is dialogue delivered a tad too rapidly and body language fairly screaming "this is a comedy" in the first few minutes. But he soon settles his cast into a rhythm of varied paces which works extremely well.  Kudos as well need to go to James Kronzer for a marvelous set of the Sausalito bachelor pad of a yuppie's dream.

Written by Norman Allen. Directed by Will Pomerantz. Design: James Kronzer (set) Jenn Miller (costumes) Ashley Semrick (properties) Jason H. Thompson (lights) Brendon Vierra (sound) Carol Pratt (photography)  Jess W. Speaker III (stage manager). Cast: Damon Boggess, Daniel Frith, Michael Glenn, Hope Lambert.

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

Reviewed November 7
Running time 1:55 - one intermission
Nudity as well as mature themes
Winner of the Ushers' Favorite Show Award for November, 2004

Storyline: After cutting off part of his ear and presenting it to a prostitute in a local brothel, Vincent van Gogh is hospitalized. His young doctor believes he can cure him of the mental condition that caused him to be self destructive, but van Gogh resists, saying "I don't want to be cured, I want to remain what I am."

Michael John LaChiusa works in the oh-so-serious style of "the new musical" which avoids at all cost those moments that seem to thrill so many audiences when a "song" is "sung." Instead, this piece glides from musically underscored dialogue to sung recitations to soaring melodies delivered for only as long as it takes to make the point. There are exceptions to that rule, however. He gives van Gogh a show stopping climax for the title song. He gives the love interest leading lady a melody line so pure it seems right that it's sung without words. He sprinkles the score with emphatic musical moments for van Gogh's doctor whose story this really is. He even provides a traditional Broadway-ish star turn number for a bordello madam whose role isn't really central to the story and whose song, placed at the start of the second act, is credited as an "intermezzo" in recognition of its separation from the rest of the show. That sense of separation continues, however, as Act II gets underway. What had previously been a clear story of the conflict between artistic genius and a concept of sanity grounded in what is "normal" seems to have become a coming of age story of the virginal doctor's sexual awakening. It has been reported that script writer John Strand wrote the first act and then LaChiusa set it to music in a very few weeks but that the second act was years in gestation. That may account for the feeling that the two acts don't really fit together.

Overall, the piece is structured around the role of the doctor and not that of his patient. Jason Danieley is tremendous in the role of the doctor. He has a vocal strength as well as performance heft and substance that is absolutely necessary if the role is to hold up against the fascinatingly written one of van Gogh as performed by Marc Kudisch. Kudisch is a powerful force that compels attention even when his character is only semi-conscious. When fully awake he is completely compelling. Joining these two veteran Broadway actors is veteran Broadway actress Judy Kuhn whose credits go back to the original New York cast of Les Miserables where she sang Cosette. The purity of her voice is well used here. Signature regulars Donna Migliaccio and Harry A. Winter have their moments to shine as well. Migliaccio's "intermezzo" is marvelously delivered with full voice carefully enunciated in spite of the fact that she has to smoke a cigar just before singing. Winter, as the hospital's presiding doctor, delivering the real message of the play, harkens back to van Gough's "I want to remain what I am."

As filled with memorable moments as the short piece is, the show stumbles at key points. Director Eric Schaeffer's choice of staging van Gogh's therapeutic cold water bath with Kudisch in the nude makes an otherwise marvelous scene, with one of the show's strongest musical moments, seem awkward. Only the force of Kudisch's vocal power could compete with the unnecessary distraction of having the audience wondering just how or when he will stand. Schaeffer's very fluid staging is on a set designed by Signature Theatre newcomer Walt Spangler which transitions cleanly from the hospital to van Gogh's apartment, but which is less successful in establishing locale for a train depot, a wheat field and a brothel. There are times when you simply are not sure where the action is taking place. In short, there are elements here that should not be missed by serious fans of serious musical theater, but the package doesn't hold together as well as every one of those fans would hope.

Music and Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa. Book by John Strand. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Design: Walt Spangler (set) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Elsie Jones (properties) Daniel MacLean Wagner (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Ronnie Gunderson (stage manager). Cast: Jason Danieley, Mark Kudisch, Judy Kuhn, Donna Migliaccio, Stephen Gregory Smith, R. Scott Thompson, Harry A. Winter.

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

Reviewed August 22
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages pick for emotional power
Click here to buy the book on which this play is based

Storyline: Drawn from the letters home written by American soldiers in Vietnam, and some addressed to them from the home front, this musical follows the "in-country" experiences of six soldiers over a 365 day tour in 1969-70.  Some lose their lives and other's lives are changed by the experience, but none escape unscathed from the experiences they shared with each other but have never been able to fully share with those who stayed behind or those who have grown up since the end of the war.

The play is the creation of Parris Barclay, an award winning  television director (NYPD Blue, The West Wing) who has been working in musical theater longer than he has in television. While at Harvard he wrote two of the famous Hasty Pudding shows, and later attended the ASCAP's' Musical Theater Workshop. The sound he's working in here has been advertised as "the rock-'n-roll rhythms of the period," but actually has more in common with Jonathan Larson's score for Rent or Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World.  It is a rock-infused show music sound. He has worked on this project since 1986. Indeed, the show has been produced under the title Letters from 'Nam before, but this is the premiere of the current version under the current title - Barclay says it is the premiere of the 23rd draft. It doesn't need a 24th.

If any evidence were needed of the skill of Eric Schaeffer to find the essence of a piece and to stage a musical number so that the visual and dramatic experience matches the musical structure, One Red Flower provides it. He turns "Mud, Blood and Water" into a vivid documentary of the war zone's environment, an energetic exploration of exhaustion. He turns "4:16 AM" (the title is the time of the moon landing that, at least for one moment, unified a divided nation) into a breathtaking moment of hope and pride and "(There Will Still Be) Christmas" into an expression of love, pride and hope that strikes deep in the heart.  He has assembled a tremendous cast. Stephen Gregory Smith delivers a smashing performance in this hall where he was so good as the young brother in 110 in the Shade (for which he won the Helen Hayes Award). His is the central character, explaining the relationships of the rest of the soldiers and creating the connection with the home front through his correspondence with his Mom, an equally smashing performance by Florence Lacey who wraps up the entire package with her heart-touching reprise of "If You Are Able."  All the performances are strong. Indeed, Joshua Davis' swaggering sergeant is almost too strong for the small space. Josh Lefkowitz is superb as the questioning medic.

A trademark of the Signature experience has long been the treatment of the hallway between the lobby and the theater through which audiences pass. For this show, the hall becomes a tunnel progressing from plain black walls festooned with anti-war posters to rusted corrugated metal siding. By the time you are actually in the theater you feel you have already made a transition to the time and place of the show, represented by distressed pillars, more of the corrugated siding and crates marked with bullet holes. The opening effect goes beyond the slightly predictable sound of a helicopter (the iconic sound of that war) or even the additional sound of rain and the sight of mist. Fans actually create a rush of wind from the helicopter that signifies the arrival in country. It is, however, only the first impressive effect. Few will forget the impact of the final one - a projection devised by Michael Clark that turns all that has gone before it into a universal message.

Book, lyric adaptation and music by Paris Barclay from the book "Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam" edited by Bernard Edelman. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Orchestrations by Jo Lynn Burks. Design: Eric Grims (set) Jenn Miller (costumes) Michael Clark (projections) Elsie Jones (properties) Chris Lee (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Jess W. Speaker III (stage manager). Cast: Kurt Boehm, Joshua Davis, Clifton A. Duncan, Florence Lacey, Charles Hagerty, Josh Lefkowitz, Stephen Gregory Smith.

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

Reviewed June 6
Running time 1:35 - No Intermission
Sexual themes and nudity
Click here to buy the Script

Storyline: Five men and five women are seen in ten separate sexual episodes. Each episode involves one of the partners of the preceding episode in a sequential daisy chain that also progresses ever higher in socio-economic status, starting with a prostitute and a cab driver and proceeding through the pairing of an actress with an aristocrat. All five men are played by Rick Holmes and all five women by Deborah Hazlett.

In most plays human characters develop before your eyes. In this one it is human characteristics that develop. Specifically, it is the need for contact, connection and companionship that is explored in David Hare’s adaptation of a legendary 1897 play by Arthur Schnitzler. Hare's version was a big hit in London with Nicole Kidman's nudity accounting for a great deal of attention. But many theatergoers in London and subsequently in New York who purchased their tickets on the basis of such exposure, discovered that there was a good deal of substance and no shortage of humor in Mr. Hare's script.

Hazlett and Holmes make not just one terrific pair but five terrific pairs as they flit from persona to persona as well as from bed to bed. Holmes creates very distinctly different characters as he progresses from cab driver to aristocrat, while Hazlett manages the not inconsiderable feat of progressing socially while switching age brackets with something approaching aplomb.

Michael Brown's scenic design is a memorable addition to Signature long list of highly distinctive designs. He stretches a ribbon of white from the right-hand floor to the left-hand floor after looping it up to the ceiling and back down, creating a tunnel that catches every change in color and lighting intensity from blood red to stark white to candle-lit amber.  It also becomes a visual metaphor for the way the action here circles back on itself. The ambiance of Tim Thompson's sound design matches its changes, while Anne Kennedy's quick-changeable costumes carry the characters from blue-color to white and beyond.

Written by David Hare freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler. Directed by Wendy C. Goldberg. Design: Michael Brown (set and lights) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Elsie Jones (properties) Timothy M. Thompson (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Jess W. Speaker, III (stage manager). Cast: Deborah Hazlett, Rick Holmes.

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

Reviewed March 28
Running time 1 hour 30 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick for startlingly effective portraits of fascinating people

Storyline: William Finn writes about people who have been important to him in life and who have died, but he writes mostly about their lives and not their deaths. In a series of songs/scenes he delves into the things that were special about these people and about the way in which they touched his life. The concentration on their lives as opposed to their deaths makes the piece uplifting, inspiring and profoundly life-affirming. Over two-dozen lives are celebrated in a one-act progression of scenes, many of which are addressed directly to the audience and make connection in a very personal, even intimate way.

Director Joe Calarco's refusal to treat the material as just songs is the key to the success of the evening. He stages each song as a stand-alone scene, almost a one act play, but he ties them all together just as Finn structured the collection as a unified expression of the value of life and the value of these lives. There is as much sadness as there is happiness but the sadness is leavened by a sense of gratitude and wonder for the positives in each scene. The cast of five carry with them photos of the loved ones about whom they sing, showing them to each other and holding them up for the audience to see. The affection with which each of them looks at the pictures is palpable.

This is a strongly designed show, with vivid stage pictures at every turn. James Kronzer has created a set not by constructing a structure in the playing space but by removing all structure (except a single door). Chairs are brought in when needed, lanterns are lowered from the ceiling, mist rolls toward the audience at times and a wind brings in balloons which float about like spirits. Chris Lee's lighting turns that space into a myriad of places and moods as the songs require the widest range of emotions. All the design elements of theater are utilized to make this an evening of emotional experiences.

The cast is as good as Signature regulars would expect of Edelen, Gartshore, Migliaccio, Sharp and relative newcomer Larry D Hylton (he was in The Gospel According to Fishman here). The singing is simply splendid. Everyone has at least two solos that stick in the mind and there are duets, trios and choruses, each of which is delivered with superb grace and beauty. But these are singing actors and it is the acting that turns the evening into something very special. Note the affection between Gartshore and Sharp on a tribute to "three-named composers," the bounce in Hylton's step as he recalls the irrepressible Joe Papp or the ability of Migliaccio to make as much out of silence as she does out of her fabulous ability to belt. Jon Kalbfleisch accompanies the cast on piano with subtlety and finesse. Surprisingly for a show which moves so gracefully and seamlessly, there is no "musical staging by" nor a choreography credit. 

Book, music and lyrics by William Finn. Directed by Joe Calarco. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Design: James Kronzer (set) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Shannon Kennedy (properties) Chris Lee (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Jess W. Speaker, III (stage manager). Cast: Sherri L. Edelen, Will Gartshore, Larry D. Hylton, Donna Migliaccio, Michael Sharp.

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

Reviewed January 11
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a
delectable  and melodic rework of an
 historically important musical
Winner of the Usher's Favorite Show Award for January, 2004

Storyline: The life story of a man from birth in a small Kansas town in 1901 through adult success as a doctor is telescoped into two acts. The first takes him from his first steps to marriage while the second follows his early career as a physician and the collapse of his marriage as he is captured by the whirlwind of success and fame at the expense of his own talents and values. In the end he renews his commitment to live his life the way he always believed he should rather than getting caught up in the allegro paced tempo of the rat race others expect him to run.

Hammerstein, who wrote the books and not just the lyrics of the majority of his musicals, may have been victim of the very thing he tried to expose in this play. His successes in partnership with Richard Rodgers had been overwhelming, actually remaking the face of American musical theater. Together they had begun producing shows as well as writing them. They had produced Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun while trying to write Allegro. In the process, this musical about how a talented man’s success can distract him from realizing his full potential never actually got to its own full potential. Hammerstein was pulled by the demands of his own new status as the reigning lyricist/librettist/producer on Broadway. What he had intended to be a show following a man from birth to death had to stop in the hero’s mid-thirties. Themes were begun but not resolved and storylines failed in that cardinal rule of having a beginning, a middle and an end.  In taking up the book that Hammerstein left behind, DiPietro has skillfully merged some of those storylines and provided workable resolutions. Now, Allegro very satisfyingly brings a well told story to conclusion.

Shaeffer’s team of designers and cast have created a presentation for this new version of the script that is notable for its uniform feel and look. Will Gartshore brings a boyish charm and a natural way with a melodic love song to the central role, an impressive feat given that he has to take the character from callow teenager through to maturity in just about two hours. Harry A. Winter and April Harr Blandin come across as absolutely perfect for their roles as Gartshore’s proud parents embodying the demeanor of small town virtues (think a musical Our Town), while Laurie Saylor also pulls off the not insignificant trick of growing from high school sweetheart to cheating wife in smooth increments. Tracey Lynn Olivera is the beneficiary of DiPietro’s major modification to the original, with the merging of two characters into one, the college fling who goes on to be the doctor’s nurse and second wife. She’s marvelous in her role. So too are Dana Krueger as the proud grandmother and Stephen Gregory Smith as Gartshore’s college roommate and life long friend. Donna Migliaccio and Dan Manning each are impressive in multiple roles.

A key to the success of this telling of a sprawling story covering three and a half decades in many locales is the elegantly simple design. Eric Grims’ set is a pastel furnitureless structure on which are projected photographs of small town, college campus, and big city views. Gregg Barnes’ period costumes are sumptuous when appropriate, folksy when that works and speak volumes about both the time and the characters wearing them, including the black-clad spirits of the characters who have died but whose continuing presence enhances the emotional impact of key moments in the doctor’s life. The view of death as part of the natural rhythm of life is illuminated by Ken Billington’s lighting of the moments of passing, reinforced by Tony Angelini’s subtle sound of the spirit’s release. It is a combined effect that is typical of this new version of a show previously known more for its problems than for its successes. Here it works and works well.

Book by Joe DiPietro based on the original by Oscar Hammerstein II. Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical Direction by John Kalbfleisch. Design: Eric Grims (set) Michael Clark (projections) Gregg Barnes (costumes) Elsie Jones (properties) Ken Billington (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Jonathan Tunick (orchestrations) Carol Pratt (photography) Ronnie Gunderson (stage manager). Cast: April Harr Blandin, Evan Casey, Will Gartshore, Dana Krueger, Dan Manning, Donna Migliaccio, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Carl Randolph, Laurie Saylor, Stephen Gregory Smith, Jenna Sokolowski, Eric Thompson, Lauren Williams, Harry A. Winter.

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

Reviewed January 3
Running time 1 hour 10 minutes

Storyline: In the year between the first call from a casting agent offering an audition for an understudy job in the touring company of Dirty Blond where she would play Mae West, to the end of another tour for the same company doing a small part in Guys and Dolls, Donna Migliaccio says she learned some things about herself and some things about the world. She shares them all, along with some eleven songs, one of which sports a new set of lyrics she penned herself.

It was a year of momentous events not just for Migliaccio and her husband as her career took her away from home for the first time but for the world as well. The opening night of Guys and Dolls in Philadelphia was to be September 11, 2001. Her telling of how she learned of the terrorist attacks, of the cancellation of that evening’s performance and of the contrast between the day’s glorious weather and the tragedy gave new and very affecting meaning to the lyrics of a song from The Fantastics: “Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow. Try to remember the kind of September when grass was green and grain was yellow. Try to remember the kind of September when you were a tender and callow fellow.”

The song selection was often surprising. Yes, she sang “San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gates” when she arrived in California to do Dirty Blond and “So Long Dearie” when she ended the tour of Guys and Dolls. But she gave new meaning to some old standards, including an “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” which captured the loneliness of a holiday on the road and “An Actors Life For Me” for the more mundane experiences of a traveling troupe. She made “Whistle a Happy Tune” into a brief but touching scene of facing new challenges and gave some evidence of just why she was tapped to play Mae West in “Dirty Blond” with the sex-kitten’s “A Guy What Takes His Time.” She toped it off with a heart-felt version of Stephen Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here” with lyrics she specifically tailored to the events of her year on the road.

Having just come off a schedule that included three shows out of Signature’s last four productions (Follies, Twentieth Century and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum) Migliaccio was in exceptionally fine voice and form. Her voice was clean and clear and her on-stage demeanor was informal and welcoming, drawing the audience in as old friends and sharing the good, the bad, the minutia and the memorable moments of a notable year. It all made for a notable show.

Written by Donna Migliaccio. Cast: Donna Migliaccio with Jenny Cartney at the piano.

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

Reveiwed November 6
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: A tuneful farce about a Roman slave who schemes to earn his freedom by arranging for his owner’s adolescent son to win the woman of his dreams, a virgin courtesan in the neighboring house of ill repute who has been purchased by a Roman captain returning from some war.  

Every generation seems to have a perfect comic for the role of Pseudolus, the freedom seeking slave. Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg (yes, Whoopi Goldberg). Add to that list Floyd King, whose inimitable presence has inexplicitly never graced Signature’s boards before. Washingtonians know him from his work at the Shakespeare Theatre, Studio, Folger, Woolly Mammoth and Olney, but haven’t seen him this up close and this personal before. His command of the comedy, driving the piece ever forward but with sly asides and quips, is just what the part demands. He is a joy to watch every moment he’s on the stage, and that is almost the entire evening.

There is a temptation to simply write about King, but he’s not out on that stage alone. The entire cast is marvelous. Harry A. Winter is a superb “second banana” to King while Sean MacLaughlin, who just gets better and better in his romantic youth roles at Signature, delivers a convincing “Love, I Hear” as Hero. Buzz Mauro in drag is a kick as he impersonates a deceased courtesan, and Christopher Flint booms out his “I Am A Parade!” in “”Bring Me My Bride” with panache. Smaller roles are even more fun. There’s Donna Migliaccio lamenting that it is comedy and not tragedy tonight (“she plays Media later this week”), the trio of David Covington, Stephen Gregory Smith and R. Scott Thompson as foot soldiers, each with a foot on his helmet, and Steven Cupo striding across the set at intervals as he circles the seven hills of Rome seven times to break a spell.

It takes a heap of talent to make something this complex and convoluted seem effortlessly simple but Signature has the talent in droves: a cast of eighteen, an orchestra of thirteen, a credited design team of eight and who knows how many back stage and off stage contributors, every one of whom delivers his or her part of the package with apparent ease but at a high energy level. There is Lou Stancari’s set of the three Roman houses all askew, Mike Daniels lights giving a warm glow to the playing space, Timm Burrow’s togas and skimpy courtesan costumes and Christie Kelly’s often hilarious hair styles. There’s the floor filling kick line of Karma Camp’s choreography for both the most famous and also funniest number of the show “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” and for the joyous finale reprising “Comedy Tonight.” Over it all, there is the crisp, clear and rich sound of Jon Kalbfleisch’s orchestra up on a platform behind the set. This show may have originated in the 1,300 seat theater now known as the Neil Simon (after tryouts in New Haven and here in Washington) but this 136 seat theater in Arlington is the perfect place to experience it. It makes the in-your-face comedy an in-your-lap delight.

Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Gary Griffin. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Design: Lou Stancari (se) Timm Burrow (costumes) Christie Kelly (hair) Mike Daniels (lights) Carol Pratt (photography) Shannon Marie Mayonado (stage manager). Cast: Kristi Ambrosetti, Christopher Block, David Covington, Steven Cupo, Christopher Flint, Amanda Johnson, Floyd King, Sean MacLaughlin, Buzz Mauro, Donna Migliaccio, Sandra L. Murphy, Tammy Roberts, Stephen Gregory Smith, R. Scott Thompson, Tryphena Wade, Kara-Tameika Watkins, Lauren Williams, Harry A. Winter.

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

Reviewed August 24
Running time 2 hours 10 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: A Broadway director/producer, whose career is on the decline, books himself onto the Chicago to New York luxury train in the compartment next to his former lover and star, whose career has been on the rise since she left him to seek her fame in movies. He has just the sixteen hours of the train trip to sign her to a new contract or he will arrive in New York unable to fend off the attacks of his creditors.

Ludwig is a Washington resident who has had significant success on Broadway with comedies such as Lend Me A Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo and the book for the musical comedy Crazy for You.  Now he’s having significant success here in his home town with this sure-to-be-a-hit production opening just two weeks before Arena Stage premiere’s his new comedy-from-scratch, Shakespeare in Hollywood. Here he is adapting a 1932 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, authors of such other hits as Front Page. Their Twentieth Century was made into one of the classic screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. Ludwig’s challenge was to streamline the piece from its original 30 character, three act form and update its humor to today’s tastes. Some of the references of seventy years ago are now totally obscure and what passed as ethnic and gender humor at that time is no longer so easy on the ear. Ludwig manages to make the transition without sacrificing the feel of the period, producing a very playable 10 character, two-act, extremely funny romp.

Barbour, who was so overwhelmingly masculine and imperious on Broadway in Jayne Eyre, is here a marvelously larger than life egomaniac who plots and plans with unlimited self-confidence despite all indications of impending doom. He’s matched move for move by Holly Twyford as the star with whom he has a love-hate relationship. Twyford delivers twisted lines with aplomb (it can’t be easy to keep a straight face while delivering lines about an idyllic rural life away from the lights of Broadway such as “we can slap the hogs, scrub the south forty, and milk the steers”) but she gets more laughs out of her silences as she reacts to the lines of others.  Both Barbour and Twyford are helped immensely by the period costumes designed by Anne Kennedy although Twyford is ill-served by a poorly conceived blond wig.

Ludwig keeps things hoping with colorful characters surrounding the leads. There’s a smooth Harry A. Winter and a fine Irish-accented Christopher Block as the director’s chief assistants and Donna Migliaccio running through the spaces in a mad effort to plaster the train with religious stickers. There is a fine pairing of Thomas Adrian Simpson as a stage-struck passenger and Rachel Gardner as his companion, increasingly frustrated by his concentration on things theatrical rather than romantic, and Will Gartshore finds just the right mix of petulance and pride in the role of Twyford’s boy-toy who is traveling as her agent. It is a train full of characters taking the audience on a fun ride.

Written by Ken Ludwig. Based on the play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Design: James Kronzer (set) Ann Kennedy (costumes) Elsie Jones (properties) Christie Kelly (hair)  Jonathan Blandin (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Sandra Barrack (stage manager). Cast: James Barbour, Christopher Block, Rachel Gardner, Will Gartshore, Rick Hammerly, Donna Migliaccio, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Frederick Strother, Holly Twyford, Harry A. Winter. 

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

Reviewed June 23
Running time 90 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: From the moment she is fired from her job of twenty five years to the time set for the annual dip in the frozen waters of Lake Michigan on New Years Day, a woman spreads resolve and support throughout her circle of friends and family while recalling adventures ranging from the little things of life to major events like showing up for a trip to Montreal only to find your ticket is for a flight to Madrid.

Nancy Robinette holds the stage with all the assurance anyone who has ever seen her work would expect. She is a force when performing and that force is evident here just as it was at Studio for The Play About the Baby and at Shakespeare for The Little Foxes, to name just two recent examples. But her “Donna Q” is nothing like “Woman” or “Birdie Hubbard” and therein lays the magic. Many actresses can disappear into a character and others can make an impact imposing their persona on a character. But Robinette manages to merge persona and character, creating a hybrid that is unique and, at the same time, uniquely satisfying.

Robinette isn’t really alone on the stage. She has the words of Paulette Laufer, a playwright who writes stream of consciousness dialogue that gives an actor a great deal to work with but leaves enough unsaid or unspecified to give the actor the leeway to make it his or her own. You can see the collaborative process at work here as Robinette seems to finish with body language what Laufer begins with words. Director Jose Carrasquillo keeps the focus clear and varies the pacing to avoid that dread dramatic disease, boredom.

Solo performance shows require a certain sharpness in the designs for they, like the performer, can’t hide behind massed chorus lines or ensemble exchanges. Tony Cisek has recently had a string of memorable sets (we just reviewed his work on Taley’s Folly at Theatre J yesterday with high praise). Here he creates a platform that flows back and up to eternity as a moon reflects on the ice of a frozen lake that, when lit with different colors from different angles becomes any environment Donna Q’s story requires. Dan Covey’s lights can turn ice into the fire of a Spanish flamenco hall. To complete the effect, Debbie Wicks LaPuma composed both a musical score and a soundscape that goes from circus-ish calliope music to hollow wind sounds to the sound of the rain in Spain. Once again, Signature has brought all the elements together for an engrossing engaging evening.

Written by Paulette Laufer. Directed by Jose Carrasquillo. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Jenn Miller (costumes) Dan Covey (lights) Debbie Wicks LaPuma (music and sound) Carol Pratt (photography) Shannon Marie Mayonado (stage manger). Cast: Nancy Robinette.

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

Reviewed June 6
Running time 1 hour 5 minutes

Storyline: A cabaret program with a theme, Gartshore strings “songs of going and staying” together to tell the audience a bit about where he came from (the rural beauty of Ontario), how he got here (training and performing in New York) and his affection for his “new home” in Washington.

Aided by Jay Crowder on piano and two featured guests, Gartshore displays both his strong tenor - at its best when really punching a sustained strong note - and his way with a tricky rhythm. Anyone who has heard him in a show knows that Gartshore’s voice is distinctive and pleasant. But not all shows give him the chance to show the range of his talents. The revelation of this hour of cabaret work is that he has a splendid ability to take a lyric that sits on a melodic line and deliver both the musical and the lyrical meaning of the phrase.

Tracy Lynn Olivera joins him for a few duets, most notably on a medley of “Sky Above Manhattan” and “People Like Us” and PJ Simmons provided both vocal support and some tasteful muted trumpet backing. Simmons’s lovely final note on the moving “(I’d Rather be) Sailing” was as smooth and elegant as Gartshore’s delivery of the entire song had been both here and at Studio Theatre when he performed it in last year’s production of A New Brain. The three of them teamed up for a fun up-tempo “Two Lost Souls” which, for its last refrain, became a foursome with Jay Crowder joining in.

The set is directed by Steven Cupo. It is always difficult to know the contribution of a director for a program as personal as a cabaret set -- just how much is the performer and how much the director? Whoever gets the credit for the pacing of the show and the selection of the material, it all works well. It is also difficult to know if Gartshore’s precise use of his microphone is in part attributable to the direction. But Gartshore skillfully uses the microphone both to control the sonic effects of the amplification in this small room and as a prop that provides visible exclamation points without overdoing it. One can’t learn that in one show’s preparation. His sigh at the end of “She Cries” was a fine example of using all the tools available to make a point in a unique way.

Directed by Steven Cupo. Musical direction by Jay Crowder. Performers: Will Gartshore, Tracy Lynn Olivera, PJ Simmons. (Photo from Grand Hotel by Carol Pratt.)

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

Reviewed May 13
Running time 2 hours 30 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline: Every year between the wars, from 1919 to 1941, “The Weisman Follies” were bigger than the Ziegfeld Follies – at least they had their own theater. Now, thirty years later, the Weisman Theater is deserted except for the ghosts of the dreams the building housed, and is to be torn down to become a parking lot. Impresario Dimitri Weisman throws one last party, inviting all the former “Weisman Girls” and their partners to gather for “one last time, to glamorize the old days, to stumble through a song or two and to lie about ourselves, a little.” The focus of the evening is on two follies girls who double dated in 1941 and who, as the war began, married their guys. At least one of them thinks she married the wrong one.

Set designer Lou Stancari turns the entire Signature Theatre into the crumbling, decayed Weisman Theatre, using the exposed girders of the room as part of the decor, but adding more girders, decrepit theater seats, distressed fabrics and a host of tiny touches like a pay phone with its handset hanging unused on a side wall. Robert Perdziola’s costumes for the ghosts who wander these halls are haunting, those for the party guests are sparkling and showy as befits former showgirls putting on the Ritz and feature jewelry – especially earrings – that speak volumes about the personality of each of the returning women. Those jewels catch the sharply dramatic lighting that Chris Lee provides to give the eye clues as to just what is in the ghost world, what is in the present and what is in the minds and memories of the principals.

What principals! Florence Lacy puts every bit of memory magic into her portrayal of the showgirl who always thought she’d married the wrong guy. Her big number of the night, “Losing My Mind,” is a smashing solo spotlight torch song. Helen Carey has replaced Judy McLane as her former girlfriend who did marry the guy in question and went on to financial success but never found love. Carey’s previous successes on Broadway and locally have all been in non-musicals but she comports herself well in this acting/singing/dancing part. Playing to her own strengths, she acts her way through her songs, placing more emphasis on meaning than on either melody or rhythm but gives enough of both to more than merely keep the show going. Her “Could I Leave You” is caustic and her work in “The Story of Lucy and Jessie,” while more song than dance, is a crowd pleaser. Harry A. Winter as the guy Lacy did marry puts over three strong songs and creates a complex and thoroughly likeable character.  Joseph Dellger makes his Signature debut as the man Lacy thinks she should have married. He is smooth and debonair right up to the moment memories finally unhinge him in a breakdown right in the middle of his final big number. He makes it a searing experience.  

Follies has a potentially show stopping number for each of the supporting characters and this cast takes full advantage of the opportunities. Judy Simmons is the first to get the crowd truly sparked with her “Broadway Baby,” but the string of marvelous numbers include Elizabeth van den Berg perched on a piano to extol the glories of Paris, Donna Migliaccio tearing up the place with the emphatic “I’m Still Here,” an exquisite duet titled “One More Kiss” in which Dana Krueger is echoed by her younger self sung beautifully by Claire Mailhot, and Suzanne Briar ignites the entire line of Follies Girls and their former selves in a recreation of a big production number from their old days. Through it all, the orchestra under Jon Kalbfleisch makes Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations sound as clear, lush and sharp as ever and his pianist, Alex Tang, provides unique cocktail-party underscoring. With so much on his plate, director Schaeffer manages to keep the narrative of the evening clear, set each of the numbers in the most effective manner and let the impact of each add to the momentum that builds to the second act’s series of numbers, (each labeled a “folly”) that carries the musical drama into the realm of surrealism. 

Written by James Goldman. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Music Direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Design: Lou Stancari (set) Chris Lee (lights) Robert Perdziola (costumes) Kristie Kelly (hair) Tony Angelini (sound) Jonathan Tunick (orchestrations) Elsie Jones (properties) Carol Pratt (photographer) Ronnie Gunderson (stage manager). Cast: Florence Lacey, Helen Carey, Joseph Dellger, Harry A. Winter, Suzanne Briar, A.K. Brink, Steven Cupo, Paul Danaceau, Ilona Dulaski, Will Gartshore, Dana Krueger, Sean MacLaughlin, Donna Migliaccio, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Joe Peck, Judy Simmons, Elizabeth van den Berg, Claire Mailhot, Kristie Ambrosetti, Jennifer Anderson, Bernie Cohen, Gilly Conklin, David Covington, Chrystyna Dail, Eleasha Gamble, Nancy Grosshans, Deanna Harris, Eva Kolig, Elizabeth McNamara, Jessica Thompson, Vanessa Vaughn, David Covington, Brad Nacht, Joseph E.M. Pindelski, Eduardo Placer, Robert W. Tudor.

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

Reviewed March 5
Running time 1 hour 5 minutes

Norman Allen, one of Signature Theatre’s Playwrights-in-Residence, is the adult behind Tobolsk. He wrote the original script with the students of the 1997 Signature in the Schools program, and revisited it with this year’s participants. He also directs the production with its cast of nine students, its four student understudies and its student technical crew. He draws from them all a level of polish that is impressive for a student effort. The polish is evident in every aspect of what is put on stage from the cleanly delivered dialogue to the effective technical elements such as lights and sound. The set of the current show at Signature, 110 In The Shade, is modified for this performance with the addition of a trunk and a window structure and the four beds needed because the action takes place in the bedroom shared by the four daughters of Nicholas II and his Empress, Alexandra.

Two student performers are particularly noteworthy. Nabanjan Maitra, who impressed last year in Signature in the Schools’ Leaving Monticello, is participating in his final Signature in the School program but, on the strength of his performances, it would not be surprising to see him on other local stages in the years ahead. Meaghan Hudson is only a sophomore and is making her first Signature in the Schools appearance as the Tsar’s eldest daughter, the headstrong Olga who so wanted to understand all that was happening around and to her. She has a scene with the only professional performer in the cast, Kerry Waters, as the girls’ mother, the Empress Alexandra, which is a delight to watch. The professional and the amateur match wits with style and grace that is remarkable.

The entire production is satisfying on a number of levels. As a student activity it is great to see high school students set out to accomplish definable goals and achieve them beyond question. As an introduction to theater for those attending as a school-day field trip, it holds out the promise of drawing them into the habit of theatergoing. As a play it is a well crafted treatment of a fascinating subject. The final public performance is Saturday, March 8 at 2 p.m.

Written and directed by Norman Allen. Professionals working on the design: Marcia Gardner (assistant director) Eric Grims (set) Anita Miller (costumes) Elsie Jones (properties) Ronnie Gunderson (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Sara Jaffe (photography). Student crew: Marie Claflin (stage manager) Nahid Koohkanrizi (assistant stage manager) Yosha Lacy (sound board) Matthew Hayes (light board). Cast: Nabanjan Maitra, Meaghan Hudson, Kappy Anklam, Kami Fox, Victoria Smith,  Adam Schiffer, Adam Lester, Tiffany Ratliff, Marion Te, Kerry Waters.

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

Reviewed January 28
Running time 2 hours 40 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Composer Harvey Schmidt and Lyricist Tom Jones recognized the potential in N. Richard Nash’s play The Rainmaker for a truly magical joining of song and story. In 1963 they opened this marvelously mellifluous, heart tugging musical to some success. But it took too large a cast, too large an orchestra and too complex a set to be a financial success in theaters outside of New York. So, it all but disappeared from the repertoire of the great American musicals. Praise be that Eric Schaeffer and his Signature Theatre have given Schmidt and Jones the chance to take up the show again, find ways to tell the story with a cast of 13 instead of 38 and make the music sound as rich and lovely with an orchestra of 10 instead of dozens. They wisely chose not to skimp on the climactic plot event which can be staged elaborately or simply, depending on the resources of the company. Signature goes the elaborate route with special effects that require the collaboration of set designer Eric Grims, lighting designer Jonathan Blandin and sound designer Tony Angelini to literally open up the heavens to create a heavenly moment.

At its heart, this is the story of Lizzie, the plain prairie girl on the road to being an old maid, and her transformation into self confident womanhood. Jacquelyn Piro is marvelous to behold as Lizzie. Her singing is strong and true not only to the melody of the music and the meaning of the lyric but to the emotion that their combining was intended to convey.  The two men whose attentions spark her emergence are Matt Bogart who captures the true con-man’s sensitivity to the needs of others with style and grace and James Moye whose more reserved character emerges more gradually but no less fully. Both sing splendidly and each has exquisite moments in duet with Piro.

There is another trio of men in Lizzie’s life: her father and her two brothers. The casting here is just as good as in the trio of leads. Harry Winter carries off the caring father flawlessly and Thomas Adrian Simpson aptly makes the character of the older brother infuriating. Stephen Gregory Smith is a delight as the younger brother, especially in the movement and mannerisms he brings to moments of joy and exhilaration. But, then, this is an evening filled with moments of joy and exhilaration.

Music by Harvey Schmidt. Lyrics by Tom Jones. Book by N. Richard Nash based on his play The Rainmaker.  Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Choreographed by Karma Camp. Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Musical Direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Design: Eric Grims (set) Jonathan Blandin (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Michele Reisch (costumes) Christie Kelly (hair and wigs) Elsie Jones (properties). Cast: Jacquelyn Piro, Matt Bogart, James Moye, Harry Winter, Thomas Adrian Simpson, Stephen Gregory Smith, A.K. Brink, Chrystyna Dail, Ilona Dulaski, Dan Manning, Mary Payne, Joe Peck, R. Scott Thompson.

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

Reviewed November 18
Running time 1 hour 30 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Written by Norman Allen based on the story by Charles Dickens. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Songs by Victor Herbert, George M. Cohan, Bert Williams, and others of the period. Musical arrangements by Howard Breitbart. Music direction by Jay Crowder. Choreography by Karma Camp. Design: Lou Stancari (set) Reggie Ray (costumes) Christie Kelly (hair and wigs) Avery Burns (properties) Chris Lee (lights) David Maddox (sound). Cast: Donna Migliaccio, Steven Cupo, Dana Krueger, Rachel Gardner, Will Gartshore, Wendell Jordan, Chrystyna Dail, Eleasha Gamble, Alyson Hansell.

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

Reviewed September 17
Running Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Price range $20 - $32
t Potomac Stages Pick

Written by Joe Orton. Directed by Jonathan Bernstein. Fight choreography by Sara Melinda. Design: James Kronzer (set) Adam Magazine and Robert L. Schraff III (lights) David Maddox (sound and music) Amela Baksic (costumes) Lee Wilkinson (properties). Cast: Conrad Feininger, Kevin Reese, Maura McGinn, Daniel Frith, Deanna Harris, Tony Gudell.

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

Reviewed June 10
Running time 2 hours 5 minutes

Written by John Strand. Directed by PJ Paparelli. Design: Ethan Sinnott (set) T. Tyler Stumpf (costumes) Elsie Jones (properties) Jonathan Blandin (lights) Adam Wernick (sound and music). Cast: Edward Gero, Daniel Frith, Julia Coffey, Sybil Lines.

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

Reviewed June 19
Running time 1 hour 15 minutes
Performed at Arlington’s Lubber Run Park

Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Original book by Terrence McNally. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical Direction by Kevin Wallace. Musical Staging by Karma Camp. Orchestrations by Michael Gibson. Design: Eric Grims (set) Lindy Russell-Heymann (costumes) E. G. Veronica (lights) Tony Angelini (sound.) Cast: Lynn Filusch, Eleasha Gamble, Sean MacLaughlin, Buzz Mauro, Michael Sharp, Christyna Dail, Lynn Audrey Neal, Michael Omohundro, Justin Ritchie.

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

Reviewed March 24
Running time 1 hour 30 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Written by John Cameron Mithcell. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Music direction by Jon Kalbfleisch. Design: James Kronzer (set) Chris Lee (lights) Anne Kennedy (costumes) Tony Angelini (sound) Michael Clark (multimedia) Carol Pratt (photo). Cast: Rick Hammerly, Lynn Filusch and the band – Mike Kozemchak, Steve McWilliams, Matthew Midgette, Stephen Gregory Lee Smith, Starz Vander Lockett.

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

Reviewed January 21
Running time 2 hours 30 minutes

Music by Richard Oberacker. Book and Lyrics by Michael Lazar and Richard Oberacker. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Musical staging by Karma Camp. Musical direction by Paul Raiman. Design: James Kronzer (set) Daniel MacLean Wagner (lights) Rhonda Key (costumes) David Kreppel (orchestrations) Keith Thompson (vocal arrangements). Cast: E. Faye Butler, Ta'rea Campbell, Tally Sessions, Florence Lacey, Harry A. Winter, Susan Lynsky, Paul Morella, Wendell Jordan, Almonica Caldwell, Eleasha Gamble, Gabriella Goyette, Rodney D. Hussey, Larry D. Hyldton, Cedrick Sanders, Brian Quenton Thorne, Letitia Williams, Sean MacLaughlin, Christyna Dail, Sean MacLaughlin.

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

Reviewed January 4
Running time 1 hour 20 minutes

Add the very tasteful accompaniment of pianist Christopher Denny and the first show was a seamless delight. I've heard Denny support other cabaret artists and been impressed by his ability to fill in precisely where his principal is weakest. With Brinberg’s lack of weak spots, his playing was almost uniformly in the background but so tastefully done and so musically right that it was a pleasure. It has been reported that he injured himself and that Howard Breitbart, no slouch in the accompaniment business, filled in for half the set. How I wish I’d been at that one too.

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

Reviewed November 5
Running time 1 hour 30 minutes