Art, Theater, and Marching Bands

One of the best things about living in the Washington, DC area is that there is always something to do, to see, or to experience in downtown DC.

Today was a triple header—we went to see the Lino Tagliapietra exhibit at DC’s Renwick Gallery. The exhibit closes today, so if you didn’t see it, I’m sorry. You really should have. If you are a fan of art glass, you may be familiar with Tagliapietra’s work. He is an Italian artist from Murano, who creates brilliant glass art. His work is absolutely breathtaking, and ordinarily I would encourage you to rush to the Renwick Gallery to see it. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, the exhibit closed today. At the very least, you should check out his work online. It really is stunning.

Getting to the Renwick was a bit more of a challenge than we anticipated. The Renwick is across the street from the White House, and today was a full dress rehearsal for Barack Obama’s Inauguration, including the parade. Streets were closed to traffic. We were able to park the car and wind our way to the Renwick on foot. Just crossing the street proved to be a challenge. There were marching bands, military units, horses and everything you would expect in a parade. The bands played, the soldiers marched, and the horses pranced. Everyone and everything was there, of course except for the new President.

This was as close to the actual Inauguration as I will get. Not because I’m not a Barack Obama fan. Actually, I am a huge fan of our new President. I’m just not a fan of crowds. And even today at the rehearsal of the event, the crowd was enough to make me want to race home. I admit, it was exciting to be part of the activity—even if it was a week or so early. And it was just a rehearsal.
The main event of the day, our primary purpose for venturing downtown, was to see Mike Daisey’s How Theater Failed America currently in performance at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre.

Mike Daisey is a monologist. Last year, he brought his highly successful, If You See Something, Say Something, to the Woolly. The style of his newest monologue is familiar, a single table, a glass of water, and a few pages of notes. And for the two hours that follow his first entrance, Mike Daisey is brilliant.

Much of the advance press signaled that Daisey would skewer the theater as an institution for becoming too commercial and too mainstream, and pointing to the lack of funding as reason for the sad state of American theater. In reality, Daisey offers a glimpse into the world of struggling theaters, and he makes his audience think about their role in it. His commentary is focused more on the flawed process of theater rather than assigning blame. He insightfully explains how theaters, in order to demonstrate value, must also demonstrate growth by increasing audience, producing sure fire hits, and building fantastic new buildings. He explains in detail, that once a new building is erected, the shows become safer in order to maintain the audiences. The only place for the “risky art” is the small black box theater in the basement; not the big, glorious new state of the art theater.

Daisey’s animated style is captivating. The two hours fly by, and he becomes so involved in telling his story, it is nearly impossible to remain a spectator. You feel such a connection to him; it is almost like having a private conversation with him over a few beers after a performance.

The monologue is extremely funny, poignant, evocative, and entertaining. We learn about being a struggling artist, an educator who has too much insight into the unachievable dreams of his student, and we see a moving side of Daisey who shares very personal information about the demons an artist sometimes faces.

Mike Daisey’s How Theater Failed America runs at the Woolly Mammoth until January 18. If you have ever worked in the theater, have had any theater training, support the theater community, or just occasionally go to see a show, you really should see this work. Mike Daisey will help you gain a new perspective of the theater, and you will get to see a master at work.

NCSA Pickles –Sweet and Sour Memories

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic; I hope you’ll forgive this random (non review) posting.

Tonight, I joined a new group on

Facebook. It’s called, NCSA Students for the Reinstatement of the Pickles Homecoming Game (2009). Contrary to its name, the group is open to both current students and alumni. If you are not familiar with the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA), you probably aren’t familiar with the school mascot, the Pickle.

As a proud Pickle, I feel obligated to bring you up to speed. Winston-Salem is known for several things, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Krispy Kreme, Old Salem, and the North Carolina School of the Arts. The North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) is an arts conservatory, in the conservative Winston-Salem, NC. There are six schools within the NCSA family, Drama, Music, Design and Production, Dance, Visual Arts, and Film. Each class is small and the competition is fierce. The competition is fueled by a keen dedication to each student’s chosen arts field. The school has a reputation for turning out fine talent including Mary Louise-Parker (Star of Weeds), Joe Mantello (Director of Wicked and Take Me Out), Peter Hedges (Writer of the film, Pieces of April), Tichina Vaughn (Recording Artist and Opera Star), Paul Tazewell (Tony Nominated Costume Designer, In the Heights), Tom Hulce (Oscar Nominee for Amadeus and Producer of Spring Awakening), and …. yes, you guessed it …. Me.

I graduated in 1987 and I have put many college memories behind me. But with Facebook, my memories are haunting me again, and I find myself glued to the steady stream of updates from “best friends” that I haven’t seen in 20+ years. Seeing the success of my contemporaries makes me proud, and makes me miss the good old days.

Today’s new group membership brought back a flood of memories from one of my favorite times on the college campus—the annual Homecoming game. Even though NCSA is an arts school, we had a football game. The NCSA Pickles were a group of folks who were cobbled together from every arts discipline, and played a fraternity from the neighboring college, Wake Forest University. The joke was always on Wake Forest. They had no idea what mockery was about to ensue.

It must have been about 1985. The Homecoming parade started at one of the student dorms and wound its way down to the field. Our campus was tiny, so the entire parade route took about 5 minutes. There were no floats. The single entry in the parade was the NCSA “marching band" which featured one set of bagpipes, and about 6 or 7 other assorted instruments. There was no fancy formation, just a casual saunter to the field.

Before the game began, the "Blue Angels" did a fly-over to honor NCSA (courtesy of the Design and Production sound designers and special effects artists). The crowd cheered as the NCSA Pickles took the field for warm-ups before the game. You should have seen the look of the Wake Forest jocks as our mismatched players carried portable dance bars onto the field and launched into a full dance warm up class.

The national anthem signaled the start of the game. It was sung in full falsetto by my friend G. Gary Winley. G. was a very large African American man who had the gift of a crystal clear falsetto. And at intermission, (what? at a performing arts school, you’d expect a half-time?) I had the privilege of crowning the Homecoming "queen.” Yes, the Homecoming queen was a proud gay male costume designer named Austin.

It was a beautiful day. And I will forever be a Pickle.

Pickles are not always sour. For me, my Pickle memories are very sweet.

Go Pickles!

And on to 2009 – A Theatrical Preview

There are some exciting shows coming up in the first half of 2009. In January, I’ll be commenting on Mike Daisey’s How Theatre Failed America at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Daisey, a master story teller (who appeared in If You See Something, Say Something at Woolly in 2008) is back with a new monologue. His return is highly anticipated and is likely to be a sold-out run.

The Signature Theatre has three more shows this season, The Little Dog Laughed, See What I Wanna See, and Giant. The Little Dog Laughed, starring the amazing Holly Twyford, is a brand new production following the hit Broadway run. Signature is taking a risk by closing the season with two musicals from the same composer, five time Tony nominee Michael John LaChiusa, best known for The Wild Party, which starred the late Eartha Kitt. Giant is billed as a World Premiere, and See What I Wanna See is listed as a Washington Premiere. Giant is produced with the assistance of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays and is the first of the three original productions resulting from the Shen Family grant to the Signature for the development of new American musicals.

Arena Stage is remounting Crowns, and recently announced an open casting call for the new star of this year’s production. DC audiences love this show, and I’m looking forward to seeing it in the spectacular and historic Lincoln Theatre in DC.

The Kennedy Center has several highly anticipated musicals coming through the Opera House and Eisenhower Theatres. Spring Awakening and The Color Purple will bow in July. Having seen both productions in New York with their original casts, I’m curious to see how these shows travel. However, I’m more curious and eager to see the all new production of Ragtime in May. Ragtime has a captivating story and beautiful score (Journey On and Make Them Hear You are showstoppers). The original production highly acclaimed and celebrated. It will be interesting to see how the show is reinvented (hopefully, it won’t fall victim to the same fate as Signature’s Les Miz).

Other shows on the schedule, to date, include Washington National Opera’s Turnadot and Folger Theater’s Acadia.

Here’s hoping the New Year brings great performances!

2008 - A Theatrical Look Back

Since it is New Year’s Day, it seems appropriate to take a look back at the year in theatre, 2008.

What a mixed year for DC theatre. There were hits, there were misses, and there were shows that premiered here and moved to Broadway way too soon … opening and closing on the same night. Oops. Oh, if only theatre provided a “do over” option.

Let’s start with the hits. One of the best shows of the year was Next to Normal. I saw this show during its premiere at New York's SecondStage Theatre , and was excited to see that Arena Stage would serve as the show’s next venue. Alice Ripley, who starred in both productions, is a gift to theatre audiences everywhere. The show is smart, touching, funny, and extremely well crafted. In my mind, Alice Ripley gets my vote for performer of the year, and Next to Normal gets my vote for best show of the year.



The Signature Theatre had Ace, a funny and poignant show with a great sound, a very catching score, and a breathtaking set. The performances were outstanding, especially the child actors. Signature billed this show as a pre-Broadway production but I have yet to hear of plans for a NY mounting. It’s a great show, and it deserves a successful future.

Signature had another hit with The Visit, starring Chita Rivera and George Hearn. While the show itself was a bit flawed, the incredible performances by this magnificent duo make this production one of the year’s standouts. Chita Rivera looked fabulous, sounded terrific, and was completely captivating. George Hearn was nothing short of breathtaking. When he sings, you are immediately drawn in. Two national treasures sharing a stage, and sharing their gift with their audience.

On the Broadway scene, two shows are worth special mention, Passing Strange and In the Heights. Each was original and offered something never before seen on Broadway. Stew, star and creator of Passing Strange brought a commanding performance from the minute he walked onto the stage to the minute he walked off. This story…so original, so personal, so real, and so moving…caught the eye of Spike Lee who turned it into a feature film (distribution yet to be announced).

In the Heights, featuring its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, offered one of the most unique theatre experiences I’ve ever had. The sound, a combination of Latin rap and hip hop, fuels the show’s explosion onto the stage. The choreography is original, and the cast has so much energy they consume the audience with their joy. In the Heights is a must see experience.

There were a few other noteworthy productions of 2008, including the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Argonautika, Signature Theatre’s The Tricky Part, and the national tour of Legally Blonde (Omigod, you guys! This show really rocks!). And the Signature production of Glory Days (which I didn’t hate), was in no way ready for Broadway where it opened and closed on the same day. The biggest surprise of the year was Studio Theatre’s Jerry Springer, the Opera. And, the best one-person event of the year was Sandra Bernhard’s Without You I’m Nothing at Theatre J. Get that woman going and you’re in for a treat.

Now for the bad news. There were some really, really bad theatrical efforts in 2008. Let’s start the list with the Arena Stage production of The Mystery of Irma Vep. With a headliner cast, I just expected more. What were they thinking?

The Signature Theatre production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore left me asking, why? And their production of Les Miserables (which was celebrated as original and intimate) was such a terrible disappointment. In my opinion, no theatre company should do any show that they cannot produce as written. To change the story because of production logistics is distasteful and should not be tolerated. If you can’t do the show as written, choose another show. In this case, Javert’s suicide was “reinvented” eliminating some of the most beautiful and sweeping sections of the score. Very bad and very disappointing.

On the Broadway stage, Is He Dead was a disaster—offensive, dated, and just plain poorly directed and acted. Norbert Leo Butz should be ashamed, and poor Mark Twain is still spinning.

But, let’s close out 2008 on a high note. I recently saw the pre-Broadway production of West Side Story at the National Theatre in DC. While the show is dated, the production is smart and will be a hit in New York.

Have a favorite 2008 theatre story or show? Share your thoughts.

Welcome to 2009!

Another year has come and gone. It’s hard to believe that it’s 2009 already.

As one of my new year’s resolutions, I’ve committed to creating a blog to share my thoughts on the DC theatre scene. I try to see just about every production that originates in the metro DC area, as well as most shows that travel through. Throughout the year, I will report on shows that I see, in DC, New York (both on and off Broadway), as well as anything I see when I travel. Occasionally, you might also see a review or comment about other cultural happenings—movies or art shows. But mostly this is about theatre.

But don't expect to see a daily entry. I've created this site as a place to share my opinions of the shows I see. If I don't see anything, you probably won't hear from me. But stay tuned and check back or subscribe.

As a former stage manager, I worked in professional theatre for years. I’m no longer in the biz, which means that now I actually get to go to the theatre. Working in the theatre creates a bit of a dilemma. When you are doing a show, you never get to SEE a show. When you are running eight shows a week, you are working when other shows are in performance. As a theatre professional, free nights or weekends are rare. And when you do have one, the last thing you want to do is sit in a dark theatre. While it is a wonderful life, it certainly has its drawbacks. So, after I grew tired of packing for three seasons at a time, I hung up my headset and moved into the corporate world.

That of course, means that I now have the great opportunity to see great performances and shows. And see shows I do!

I hope that you enjoy my rantings, musings, and reviews of what I see.