cover story

2008 Fall Performance Preview

By Gary Tischler

August 20th 2008

Image: Carrie Fisher in her solo show Wishful Drinking at Arena Stage at the Lincoln Theatre Sept 5-28.

If the upcoming new Washington area theater season has  a central theme or highlight, it’s that maybe there are no central themes or singular highlights.

There are no big theaters to add to the landscape, as there was last year with the first season of the Harman Center, although the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater will reopen after a lengthy renovation in October.

Several things are worth paying attention to.  As always there is tremendous variety in the Washington theater scene, which is still growing, and there seems to be more companies trying their hands at originating new musical work.

One thing we can guarantee: expect surprises, expect to be startled, expect to be entertained, maybe even offended here and there. Every time you go to the theater, it’s an adventure.

With that in mind, since the season seems to start a little earlier each year, we’ve picked out a number of productions coming up quickly on the horizon that seem especially provocative, different, or just plain interesting.

TWO REMARKABLE AND UNUSUAL WOMEN COME TO WASHINGTON

That would be Sandra Bernhard and Carrie Fisher, who will be holding forth in one-woman performances and productions at, respectively, Theater J and in an Arena Stage offering at the Lincoln Theater.

Bernhard, by dint of talent expressed in all sorts of ways, by dint of celebrity status achieved through her film, comedy and general public presence in the 1980s, brings  her  iconic personal self on her 20th anniversary tour of “Without You I’m Nothing”,  (September 9-28) to Theater J. The work, written and directed by Bernhard launched her live performance career She’ll be performing with her band The Rebellious Jezebels, bringing on a combination of  satire, rock and roll and cabaret, not to mention Bernard diatribes on the state of modern culture.

“It’s not going to be the exact same show,” Bernhard said in a phone interview. “There’ll be surprises, different takes on what is going on today culturally, and politically.”

In some ways, Bernhard sounds a little more mellow, but that may be because she’s the mother of 11-year-old Cicely, an important undertaking for anyone. Her conversation now is as much about art, peace and passion for her work, as anything. She talked about the need to realize that we live in a celebrity obsessed society, but then she’s been tagged with that description herself. For a time in the 1980s, she was a steady presence in the tabloids, partly because of ability to attract attention, partly because of her friendship with Madonna, no wallflower herself.

“We still talk, keep in touch,” she said.

Bernhard’s “Without You I’m Nothing” also became a controversial film. Her work as a standup comic, however, was good enough over time to have landed her in a list of the top l00 stand up comics. Of all time. She can, and certainly will, sing. Her film career has ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, including a very affecting role in Martin Scorcese’s “King of Comedy” and a villain’s part in the very expensive super-bomb “Hudson Hawke” that starred Bruce Willis. “It was what it was,” she said.

The folks at Theater J are happy to have her, no matter what she might do or say. “We’re all just sort of pinching ourselves that this gig has worked out for us and Washington,” Theater J Artistic Director Ari Roth said. “She’s another strong Jewish woman with a potty mouth and a heart of gold.”  That sounds like a good enough summation about a woman, who, during the course of several appearances on “The View” managed to tick off all spectrums of opinion on that show.

Carrie Fisher has had her share of trash time in the spotlight, being part of Hollywood royalty, (her mom is Debby Reynolds, her dad is Eddie Fisher, who were two parts of a heated and old Hollywood scandal, the other being Liz Taylor). She made a memorable movie debut in “Shampoo,” playing Lee Grant’s daughter, flirting with Warren Beatty. She became, of all things, Princess Leia in the first Star Wars Trilogy, thus automatically becoming a pop culture icon forever, a much more difficult role to play in real life. She became a writer, with the auto-biographical novel “Postcards from the Edge”, which became a movie in which her role was played by Meryl Streep to Shirley MacLaine’s mother.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that her one-woman show, which will be occupying the Lincoln Theater September 5 to September 28 is called “Wishful Drinking.” The show has the honor of kicking off Arena Stage’s two-year festival “Arena Restaged”.

“Wishful Drinking” is about, well, herself and her life in and out of Hollywood. It’s an evening of story telling, or as she says herself, “I was essentially raised in my mother’s nightclub act, so it’s very natural for me to do what most people find unnatural-get on stage and tell stories.” Expect to hear about single motherhood, life with former husband Paul Simon, Liz Taylor as a stepmother, no doubt the sorrows of having to be royalty in a galaxy far far away AND Hollywood. Same thing, really.

~~~ Here’s a look at other openings, other seasons, other places...

RESURRECTION AND ARENA RESTAGED

Along with Carrie Fisher’s one-woman show at the Lincoln Theater, “Resurrection” launches “Arena Restaged”, an ambitious, versatile and original two-year festival and kicks off the season to boot at the Arena Stage theater in Crystal City. Beginning August 29 and running through October 5.

Arena Restaged is basically a festival which takes up the time during which Arena’s new theater The Mead Center is being constructed. It’s scheduled to open in 2010, and it will be a time when Arena will be performing in Crystal City, and at selected times at the Lincoln Theater in the U Street Corridor.

“Resurrection” is a co-production with Connecticut’s Hartford Stage, created and written by Daniel Beaty in a blend of music, poetry and dance, portraying the lives of six African-American men struggling, aspiring and surviving.

Also on tap early in the Arena season and later, are “Next to Normal”, a very, very contemporary musical which was a recent hit in New York, starting in November; and Irving Berlin’s “I Love a Piano”, covering seven decades of American musical music.
Time for Three, part of the Conservatory Project 5th Anniversary Project (Oct. 5)

THE RETURN OF THE  EISENHOWER THEATER

That would be the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater, which had closed for renovations, but now returns in a big way with “Broadway: Three Generations”, which kicks off October 2-5. But the showcase play to look forward to is probably “Frost/Nixon”, the play by Peter Morgan, who wrote “The Queen” and “The Last King of Scotland” which examines events around the historic interview in which David Frost took on a recalcitrant Richard Nixon, post-post Watergate. Three Tony awards have gone to this play, which will feature Stacey Keach as Nixon (November 13). A visit from Druid, the Irish theater company, also looks promising. They’ll be celebrating the works of John Millington Synge (“Playboy of the Western World”)  October 22-25.

ACE KICKS OFF WORLD PREMIERE  SEASON AT SIGNATURE

It’s premiere time at Signature Theater where the brand new musical “Ace”, called a musical adventure, starts the season off August 26. The show, by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, is Broadway-bound, the story of a boy trying to find his future by going to the past. World War II, dogfights and fantasy adventures ensue.

Other Signature Highlights: “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” by the gritty, great Irish playwright Martin McDonough (September 23);   and next year for sure, a musical version of “Giant”.

‘ROMEO AND JULIET,  THE  OLD FASHIONED WAY  AND OTHER BARD MATTERS

James Davis as Juliet in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by David Muse. Photo by Scott Suchman

So “Romeo and Juliet” kicks off the 2008-2009 Shakespeare Theater Company season. Ho hum. Well not quite. Its going to be done the way they did it at the Globe in Shakespeare’s day, with the Harman stages in thrust configuration, and all the parts being played by male actors. Everything old really is new again. This staging is directed by David Muse, Finn Wittorck plays Romeo and James Davis is Juliet. Beginning September 9.

Also on tap: “William Congreve’s “The Way of All Flesh”, directed by Michael Kahn, September 30 at the Lansburgh and for Christmas “Twelfth Night” at Sidney Harman Hall

The Folger Shakespeare Library theater season opens October 8 with “Henry IV” Part One, with Tom Story as the young King Henry,  and also starring Rick Foucheaux and Delaney Williams.

The Washington Shakespeare Company begins its Arlington season with “Peace”, which is not by the Bard but by Callie Kimball. In the play, a Tennessee type rides a hot air balloon to Mt. Olympus to confront the Gods. Begins August 28.

OLNEY MOVES ON UP

With artistic director Jim Petosa firmly in place, the Olney Theater has been doing critically acclaimed work, including the current “Rabbit Hole”, the family tragic-comedy by David Lindsay, who won a Pulitzer Prize for this play. It’s been extended again and is running through September 7. Steve Martin’s very funny “The Underpants” starts September 24.

THE RETURN OF ATHOL FUGARD, HOLLY TWYFORD AND TANA HICKEN STARTS THINGS OFF AT THE STUDIO

The Studio Theater and Artistic Director Joy Zinoman have done well with and by the great South African playwright Athol Fugard, with sterling productions of “Master Harold and the Boys” and last season’s astonishing “My Children! My Africa!”. Fugard is easily the best playwright and writer of literature never to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. “The Road to Mecca” in some ways is his most accessible and popular work, as well as his most personal. With Hicken, as Miss Helen, Holly Twyford as her best and only friend, this defense of brave creativity and originality promises to be a winner. Begins September 3.

Also on tap at the Studio: “Grey Gardens”, the off-beat cult musical about two strange beautiful women living in a rotting mansion was a big hit for cool folks. Serge Seiden directs starting November 21. The rest of the season features Tom Stoppard’s “Rock and Roll”, among many offerings next year, including a play by Suzan Lori-Parks whose title we can’t print in this paper.

SCHILLER AT WOOLLY, WELL SORT OF

It’s actually “Maria/Stuart”, by Pam MacKinnon, Stuart being a comic book artist who appears to have aroused the interest of a German-babbling shape-shifter who causes trouble for him and the fiercely passionate women who surround him. Fun and games and serious matters, Woolly style, starting here and now and running through September 24. Coming up: Peter Sinnn Nachtrieb’s “Boom” which is about how the world might go  BOOM.  November 3.

OTHER OPENINGS

“As American As” by Ken Prestininzi, Journeyman Theater at the Church Street Theater October 22.

“The Aging of the Plum” kicks off the Gala Hispanic season at the Tivoli Theater in Columbia Heights September 18.

Teatro de la Luna presents the 11th Annual Festival of Hispanic Theater at various locations October 7-November 15.

Catalyst Theater, now at the Atlas Performing Arts Center kicks off its season with an adaptation of “1984”, the prophetic futuristic political novel by George Orwell. To many of us, it is, of course, always 1984.

“How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”, a world premiere theatrical adaptation of the book by Julia Alvarez, starts things off at the Round House Theater September  17.

Theater J, in addition to the Sandra Bernhard appearance will have “Honey Brown Eyes”, by Stephanie Zadravec beginning October 22.

What could be more perfect for the Synetic Theater, the much-awarded Russian-led theater than to stage the completely strange and weird “The Cabinet of Caligari”, based on the horrific German silent film. Begins September 26 at Rosslyn Spectrum.

Possibly on the same theme, “The Butcher”, by playwright Gwydion Suilebhan, will be performed in staged reading form to kick off the season at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint.

Performance...

When you’re talking about the performance arts, you’re talking about the world. It’s the presenters and facilitators-like the Washington Performing Arts Society. You’re talking about places and stages. You’re talking about music, all kinds of music. You’re talking about movement, dance and dancers transported from the fertile minds of choreographers to the stage.

In the Washington area you’re talking about places, venues and stages as large as the Kennedy Center and the Music Center at Strathmore, or a museum venue, a church, a university stage, an international embassy. You can get a sound as full-blown as both the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore, or the quieter sounds of the National Philharmonic, also at Strathmore.

Here’s a sampling of musical offerings, big and small and classical, or otherwise. We’ve also included some dance offerings coming your way this fall.

MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

Image: Dumbarton Concert Series Now in its 31st season, the Dumbarton Concert Series, held in Georgetown’s historic Dumbarton Church, kicks off its new season with guitarists Berta Rojas and Carlos Barbosa-Lima performing Latin American music on October 11. The series continues through April and will include the series’ holiday tradition, “A Celtic Christmas.”

The Kennedy Center

The National Symphony Orchestra is on a different path this season with new principal conductor Ivan Fischer, who takes over the baton from Maestro Leonard Slatkin. There’ll be many more guest conductors including the great violinist Itzhak Perlman, who kicks off the season with the NSO Gala September 20.

Maestro Fischer comes with a flair for European music, especially that of Mahler, Wagner, Dvorak and Bartok. He also brings a reputation for making classical music more accessible for children.

The season-opening NSO ball and gala concert on September 20 will feature Perlman conducting the NSO, a concert that includes Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, with Alice Weilerstein as cellist. Perlman and soloist Pinchas Zuckerman will then collaborate on a Mozart piece. The program concludes with Ravel’s “Bolero.”

Guest conductors throughout the season will include Herbert Blomstedt, Charles Dutoit, Mikko Franck, Kurt Masur, Helmuth Rilling and David Zinman.

The Washington Performing Arts Society

The area’s most diverse and largest presenter offers another spectacular series of musical and performing arts packages to audiences.
Some highlights:
- The spectacular (and glamorous) violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with Camerata Salzburg.
- Piano prodigy Anna Vinnitskaya, at the Terrace Theater September 27.
- Jazz Vocalist supreme Nancy Wilson at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall October 7.
- Sweet Honey in the Rock at the Warner Theater October 24, Washington’s premier pop, jazz and gospel group.
- Pianist Andras Schiff at the Music Center at Strathmore October 10.
- The Israel Philharmonic at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall November 18.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
In its second season under the baton of conductor and director Marin Alsop, the BSO, which doubles up at Meyerhoff Concert Hall in Baltimore and at Strathmore, will feature such highlights as the season-opening concert of Holst’s “The Planets” and Michael Daugherty’s “UFO” with percussionist Evelyn Glennie in both venues September 18-21.

Also on tap October 2-5 is a BSO Super Pops event: “The Music of Billy Joel”, with Michael Cavanaugh of Broadway’s “Movin’ Out”. In addition, there’s the celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s career with a performance of his “Mass” which includes 250 performers and will be at the Kennedy Center, the Meyerhoff and Carnegie Hall in October.

The Music Center at Strathmore

The folks at Strathmore kick off their season, in collaboration with the Birchmere, with a concert by one of America’s finest singer-songwriters Randy Newman September 24, in which Newman will feature music from his first new album in a long time, “Harps and Angels”.

The performance will, no doubt, include a rendition of his new hit “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country”, an iTune release that was one of the top songs of 2007, nudging close to Rihanna and Jay-Z no less. Newman, of “Short People” fame has managed the difficult trick of often being accessible and topical. And you can hum his songs too.

The Strathmore production season is diverse as all get out and includes, as part of its Great American Song series, Tommy Tune and the Manhattan Rhythm Kings in January; the Warsaw Philharmonic November 21; pop singer Neil “Calendar Girl” Sedaka; Natalie Cole on October 9 and in December, a Golden Boys event with a concert by (speaking of oldies) Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Bobby Rydell.

On December 19th there’s also an original Strathmore World Premiere, called “Take Joy, Anything but a Silent Night”, a holiday production created by, among others, Strathmore president Eliot Phanstiel and theater directors Nick Olcott and Jerry Whiddon.

The National Philharmonic

Strathmore is also home to the National Philharmonic, under the leadership of director and conductor Piotr Gajewski. The season opener is October 4 with a program of music by Makris (“The Strathmore Overture”); Wienawski (“Violin Concerto N. 2) and Beethoven (“Symphony No. 9”).

The Embassy Series

Series director and noted tenor Jerome Barry is heading into the 15th season with his unique offerings of world-class music and musicians,  in the setting of Washington’s large and unique international community, at embassies and ambassadorial residences.

The 15th season includes a celebration of Beethoven at the German Embassy, jazz at the Turkish residency, musical forays into new and old embassies from Eastern Europe, and an evening of vocal music from operas and operettas.

The Embassy Series kicks off with an evening of music by Soprano Katarina Michaelli, and pianist Monika Mockovcakova and a reception at the Embassy of Slovakia October 31, followed by a reception and buffet.

Also Playing:

The Choral Arts Society under the direction of founder and artistic director Norman Scribner, with a combined chorus of over 250 voices from The Choral Arts Society and The Heritage Signature Chorale will share the stage in the season-opening performance of Verdi’s “Requiem”. The concert will be on November 2, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Washington Concert Opera is expanding to three operas next season. Rising young conductor Antony Walker will conduct Donizetti’s “Maria Padilla” on November 9. Saverio Mercadante’s “Il Giuramento”(The Oath), starring Elizabeth Futral on May 31,2009. Maestro Walker will conduct mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe in concert with soprano Nathalie Paulin and the WCO orchestra on May 3,2009.

DANCE, DANCE DANCE

Photo: Brianne Bland and Jonathan Jordan by Stephen Baranovics

The Washington Ballet

The Washington Ballet opens its 2008-2009 season in spectacular style with “Genius2” (at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater  October 22-26), a full-scale dive into the works of genius level choreographers Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris and wunderkind  Christopher Wheeldon.  Highlights are Tharp’s jazzy “Baker’s Dozen”, Morris’ “Pacific” and Wheeldon’s “Morphoses.”

Also on tap for 2008 is the WB’s traditional performance of “The Nutcracker” at the Warner Theater December 11-18,  presaging another Washington Ballet into family fare in April with its production of “Peter Pan” at the Kennedy Center.

Dance at the Kennedy Center

First up at the Kennedy Center is its very own Suzanne Farrell Ballet October 8-12, which also marks the return of the Eisenhower Theater as a dance venue. Featured is Farrell’s continued exploration of the works of George Balanchine, this time the re-mounting of the pas de deux from “Ragtime.”  Also on the program are “Liebeslieder Walzer” and “Episodes” in collaboration with the Ballet Austin.

In November, the San Francisco Ballet comes for five days at the Opera House, followed by the Joffrey Ballet’s version of “The Nutcracker” in December. Russia’s two premier companies, the Kirov and the Bolshoi are scheduled to arrive the following year.

For its Contemporary Dance Theater, there’s going to be the Martha Graham Dance Company December 9-10; the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, December 12-13, and in 2009, the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Paul Taylor Dance Company, among others.

City Dance Ensemble

Speaking of the Kennedy Center, the City Dance Ensemble, one of Washington’s top cutting edge and contemporary dance companies, will perform at the Kennedy Center with a collection of works by au courant choreographers like Christopher Morgan, Kate Weare, Austin McCormick, Jason Hartley, Sophie Maslow and City Dance director Paul Gordon Emerson. In the Terrace Theater October 18.

OPERA

Image: 2004 production of “La Traviata” starring Hei-Kyung Hong as Violetta and John Matz as Alfredo. Photo By: Karin Cooper.

For both the aficionado of voice and music, and for people who might not quite know the difference between Puccini and Rossini, the 2008-2009 Washington Opera Season promises to be a classic, full of appealing works, both rarely done and adventurous, and familiar classic fare.

The season openers- “La Traviata”, followed closely by “The Pearl Fishers”- are indicative of the kind of flavor that the season has, accompanied by major league star power.

Also on the fall agenda is “Carmen”, and between “La Traviata” and “Carmen”, you have two of the most romantic, almost too familiar operas ever created, backed up by two wonderful performers. “La Traviata”, by Guiseppi Verdi, features one of the greatest soprano roles ever written, the ill-fated courtesan Violetta Valery, sung famously by, among others, Maria Callas. WNO artistic director Placido Domingo himself was Alfredo to Anna Moffo’s Violetta in a noted film version of the opera.

The WNO features Elizabeth Futral as the courtesan, a role which was also assayed by Greta Garbo in a dramatic film version by the name of “Carmen.” Futral sang the role in the 2007-2008 Lyric Opera of Chicago season and last performed here in “L’Elisir d’Amore”. Tenor Arturo Cachon-Cruz, who starred in last season’s “La Boheme”, takes on the role of Alfredo. Marta Domingo directs.

“La Traviata”  opens the season September 13, with additional performances September 18, 21, 24, 27, 30 and October 2. George Bizet’s lesser known “The Pearl Fishers” follows September 20, an early work by the French composer about brotherhood, forbidden love, and self-sacrifice, which sounds so, well, operatic.

If “The Pearl Fishers” is not so well known, there’s no ands, ifs or buts about “Carmen”, Bizet’s best known work and the opera that’s always described as the opera for people who don’t go to the opera. “Carmen” has it all--a beautiful gypsy temptress of the love them and leave them variety, the men who can’t stay away, and, of course, it all ends badly, sadly and madly. And it has DC native Denyce Graves in the title role for which she’s become famous. She shares the role with Lara Briola.  Starts November 8.

Speaking of star power, there’s world-class soprano Renee Fleming making her WSO  debut in Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia”, the infamous Renaissance powerhouse. Not only is Fleming on hand, but Domingo himself is conducting beginning November 1.

Domingo doesn’t believe much in idle time. He’s also conducting the concert work “Petite Messe Solennelle” by Rossini, featuring a quartet of soloists, including world-famous Andrea Boccelli, November 21 and 22.

And that’s just the 2008 offerings. Some other news including the noteworthy announcement that the WNO will be doing Wagner‘s “Der Ring Des Nibelungen”,  in November of 2009.  For Wagner fans who can’t wait, there’ll be a production of “Siegfried” in the spring.