Theater and Performing Arts
Bus Stop - Half Way House William Inge's Bus Stop, an allegory about a wayward lot of passengers stranded at a diner in a snowstorm,
is playing out at the Olney Theatre Center (to 3/21) and their cumulative foibles make for a most entertaining night of theater...
(more) Monterey Jazz Festival on
Tour - Blowing Out the Candles! It was a
night of festivities and cool jazz as well wishers celebrated Strathmore Music Center's Fifth Anniversary celebrated Friday
night (2/19) with a cake and the scintillating performance of Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) on Tour... (more)Linda Eder's
Judy Garland Songbook with BSO SuperPops - A Movable Feast
It was a night of tribute to fully committed performing artists past and present at Strathmore Music Center (1/28) as Jack
Everly and the BSO connected with star vocalist Linda Eder before a full and enthusiastic house ... (more)Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? - The Ten Percent Solution George Axelrod's Will Success
Spoil Rock Hunter? gets the star treatment at The American Century
Theater in Arlington (2/6). A stage and later film showcase for the talents of Jayne Mansfield, this gentle send-up
of Hollywood and its denizens, hearkens back to a bygone era, by which the shenanigans of today's branded products (i.e.,Madonna,
Lady Gaga) will seem quaint .. (more)
Becky Shaw - The Invisible Hand
The Wilma Theater has brought to life a highly entertaining production of Becky
Shaw (to 2/7), Gina Gionfriddo's dark comedy of social mores
among the little folk (you and me), which attempts to "define deviancy down" ... (more) Stick Fly - Odor of Mendacity
If you remember a trip to the shore as a period of absolute freedom - a time when you cut loose and let it all hang out -
a journey into the land of Stick Fly by Lydia Diamond, where all the social censors are disabled, will be a freeing, though unsettling
experience. Now playing at the Arena Stage (to 2/7), the playwright examines issues and divisions of race as well as
class, gender, and generation in an exclusively elite African-American world of Martha's Vineyard ... (more) The Tale of the Allergist's Wife - Foreign Body Reaction Now playing at The Montgomery Playhouse (to 1/24), Charles Busch's dark comedy The Tale of the Allergist's Wife,
is one that is both cautionary and tall, part "Be careful of what you wish for" and part Forrest Gump... (more) Rent - Outsider Art The Keegan
Theatre is presenting a vibrant and energized production of Jonathan Larson's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning (1996)
musical Rent, designed
to raise the rafters and hopefully our consciousness at its Church Street home (to 1/17) ... (more)The Solid Gold
Cadillac - Proxy Powered What happens when the Boardroom meets the Greenroom? - Corporate
America crosses lanes with Broadway? - this is the conceit that drives The
Solid Gold Cadillac, the 1950s comedy of Howard Teichmann and George
S. Kaufman now playing at the Studio Theatre (to 1/10) ... (more) The Little Foxes- A Bitter Harvest The Pittsburgh Public Theater is offering a new look at an admired classic in its current staging
of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (to 12/13). This exceptionally well-cast production goes after the human in retelling Ms. Hellman's
timeless tale of greed and folly ... (more) August: Osage County - Children Will
Listen Tracy Letts' 2008 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning
play August: Osage County lives up to its hype and accolades in an outstanding touring production
now at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater (to 12/20) ... (more) Camelot - Sunny Side Up In
keeping with the season, a holiday-fare production of Camelot lights up the boards at the Olney Theatre, where winter promises to be on
hold until the stage goes dark on the Lerner and Loewe classic in January (extended to 1/17/10) ... (more) BSO with Marin Alsop
& Jean-Yves Thibaudet - A 3D Performance Three
aspects of musical virtuosity were on display last night (11/19) at Strathmore Music Center - compositional, instrumental,
and orchestral - as Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performed a very lively
program entitled Demons, Drama, & Dance ... (more)
Lulu - Holding the Fun House Mirror Up to Life
Early in the show one of the lovers asks our-anti-heroine "what do you see when you look into my eyes?" She
replies: "I see myself." Therein lies the basic flaw of each of the major narcissistic characters in Frank
Wedekind's Lulu
... Now playing at the Washington Shakespeare Company (to 12/13) ... (more) BSO All-Gershwin - Clap Yo' Hands There are many ingredients to an outstanding musical performance and they were all included
in the All-Gershwin menu that Marin Alsop with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet served up
for a capacity crowd at Strathmore Music Center last night (11/14)...
(more)
12 Cellists - Breaking the Sound Barrier The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic played before a sold-out and enthusiastic crowd at
Strathmore Music Center last night (11/10), commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
... (more) Much Ado About Nothing - No Woman No Cry Director Timothy Douglas and company combine two of the best
of all possible worldviews, Elizabethan and Ethnic American - one old, the other new - in the Folger Theatre's imaginative
restaging of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (to 11/2) ... (more)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat & Every Good Boy Deserves Favour- Identity Crises Two aspects of the loss of sense-of-self were on display at
the Olney Theatre Center last night (10/31): one derived internally from a medical abnormality, the other externally imposed
by the state ... (more)
Dawn Upshaw in Recital
with Gilbert Kalish- Music of the Spheres
Making her Strathmore Music Center debut last night (10/23) with piano accompanist Gilbert Kalish, soprano Dawn Upshaw entertained
a few hundred fans in a mixed program featuring modern and traditional classical music ... (more)
Orquestra de São
Paolo - Three Cornered Hat There was a little
something for every classical taste last night at Strathmore Music Center - modern, folk (as in Brazilian), and romantic -
which the Orquestra de São Paolo with Conductor Kazem Abdullah and percussionist Evelyn Glennie offered up to a small
but enthusiastic audience ... (more)Angel Street - Power Play Ladies
(and some Gentlemen) if there's a crazy-making, control freak of a man in your life - spouse, family member, authority
figure, or boss - you will find much to relate to in Montgomery Playhouse's excellent revival of Angel Street
by Patrick Hamilton (1938) being staged at the Kentlands Arts Barn, in Gaithersburg (10/25) ... (more)
Night Must Fall - Dancing With Death Olney
Theatre is offering the Washington DC area a delectable treat this Halloween season in their first-rate production of Emlyn
Williams 1930s English classic Night Must Fall (to 10/25) ... (more) The Puppetmaster of Lodz - Imaginary Lover The Performance Workshop Theatre is remounting The Puppetmaster of Lodz in a dark, but visually arresting
production directed by Marlyn Robinson at the Theatre Project in Baltimore (to 10/25) ... (more)
BSO SuperPops - Hooray for Hollywood! Jack Everly and the BSO, accompanied by the Baltimore
Choral Arts Society, with Director Tom Hall, paid homage to film composers of past and present last night before an appreciative
audience at Strathmore Music Center (repeated at Meyerhoff 10/9-11) ... (more)
Jersey Boys - Solid Gold
Docking at the National Theatre for the next 2 ½ months is the entertainment event of the fall for the DC area,
the long awaited arrival of the Jersey Boys
(to 12/12) ... (more)
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Movies
Synecdoche, New York - All the World's a Stage
A foreboding sense of
unreality hangs over Synecdoche, New York the latest creation of Charlie Kaufman ...
(more)
Reflections in a Golden Eye - Only the Strong Survive
Hailed
as an underrated classic by many film buffs, the adaptation of Carson McCullers' novella Reflections in a Golden
Eye (Reflections) still draws attention because of its all star cast including Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando,
and Julie Harris ... (more)A Delicate Balance - Man on a Wire
A Delicate Balance,
directed by Tony Richardson, was produced by the American Film Theater, in 1973, in an effort to preserve the great plays
and performances by the top actors of the day ... (more)
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Books and Art Exhibits
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The Meyerhoff Collection - Pictures at an Exhibition The story of post-World War II modern art is on display at the National Gallery of Art (to 5/2), and it is a story
writ large. Covering abstract expression, color field, pop, minimalist, and contemporary art from 1958-2004 - assembled
by Robert Meyerhoff and his late wife Jane - the exhibit of 126 works (paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures) pretty
much says it all about the focus of art in capping the American Century ... (more)
The Timkov Collection
- Grounded in Reality Strathmore Mansion has a fabulous collection of Russian Impression by Nikolai
Timkov (1912-1993) on display until 2/20 ... consisting of about 50 works - mostly oil on panel - covering six decades of
the artist's working life ...The exhibition was assembled by Timothy and Lisa Wyman from their extensive collection of
Timkov's (in the hundreds) works purchased in the 1990s ... (more) Anne Truitt - Sense &
Sensibility The Hirshhorn Museum continues
(to 1/3) with a first-rate retrospective of the late Washingtonian wood sculptor Anne Truitt (1921-2004) entitled Perception & Reflection ... (more)Pops:
A Life of Louis Armstrong - Man and Superman An exuberant, entertaining, and well documented biography of the undisputed
King of Jazz by Terry Teachout has arrived just in time for the holidays... (more)
Potomac Fever - Catch It! The Washington Design Center has conceived its latest show Potomac Fever around the theme of historic DC
neighborhoods (to 12/12). Featuring the work of eight, select interior designers, the Fall 2009 Design House
... (more) Staged Stories - Alternate
Worlds Started in 2000, the Renwick Craft Invitational series continues
this year with their current offering Staged Stories (to 1/3/10). This visually appealing exhibition contains
about 60 works from four artists: Christyl Boger, SunKoo Yuh, Mark Newport, and Mary Van Cline ... (more)
The Practice of Writing - Making Perfect David Lodge first came on my radar in 1984 with the publication of
Small World , a send-up of academia ... The Practice of Writing (1997) consists of a series of essays regarding the practical details
of the craft, witnessed through his own novels and those of his time ... (more) The Richard B Talkin Collection - Buy Local
Howard County's distinguished patron of the arts, Richard B. Talkin, has a portion of his private
collection on exhibit in the Rouse Company Foundation Art Gallery at Howard Community College (to 9/27). Consisting
of over 50 works from area artists ... (more)
Karsh at 100: Portraits of Artists - One
Moment in Time
The
Canadian Embassy together with the National Gallery of Canada pays homage to one of the world's best known photographers,
Karsh of Ottawa, with 28 photographs of fellow artists... (more) The
Tale of Shuten Doji - Monster Mash
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
continues this summer with its exhibition of The Tale of Shuten Dōji (to 9/20)...the small,
but judicious selection of Japanese art is seen for the first time together in
over 20 years ... (more)
Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian - Magician/Trickster
You don't usually
think of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) as a major venue for art exhibits, but they have one in Fritz
Scholder: Indian/Not Indian (to 8/16) ... (more)
Reflections/Refractions & Inventing Marcel Duchamp - Looking Through Me
The National
Portrait Gallery continues with two shows on artistic representation, one featuring a number of artists entitled Reflections/Refractions:
Self-Portraits in the Twentieth Century (to 8/16) and the other an homage
to a single figure, Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture
(to 8/2) ... (more)
77th Annual Cumberland Valley Artists &
Along the Water Exhibitions -
Two for the
Road
DC area residents looking for an entertaining and free
day trip should consider a visit to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
(WCMFA) in Hagerstown, MD ... (more)
Everything That Rises-Déjà vu All Over Again
Subtitled: A
Book of Convergences, Lawrence Wescheler's project is to look at uncanny
resemblances and similarities between images and ideas as they occur at different periods of time, across cultures, disciplines,
and media ... (more)
A Circus Family: Picasso to Léger
The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) continues with their lively and intriguing exhibit "A Circus Family: Picasso
to Léger" (to 5/17) ... (more)
The Actor's Art - Master Class
Jackson Bryer and Richard
Davison have compiled an entertaining and informative collection of interviews which examines the actor's craft ...
(more)
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