Top Stops

Symphonic Splendor: 'Trumpet of the Swan'

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:00:28 -0500

IF YOU ENJOY musicals — and who among us does not? — you might know of Jason Robert Brown. He's a young composer who has taken the young man angst that made Ben Folds so popular, otherwise known as "I'm a vaguely dissatisfied, self-absorbed young white guy who plays the piano really well," and translated it into musicals. But now he's writing orchestral music for a new adaptation of "Trumpet of the Swan," the beloved children's story.

The script is by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman and Kathy Bates stars, but the real draw should be Brown's music.

» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; Thu.-Sat., Dec. 4-6, 7:30 p.m., $18-$35; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom)

Image courtesy Kennedy Center

Very Spacial People: Jane Franklin Dance

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:00:53 -0500

IT'S SOMETIMES hard to snap out of the daily routine. Too often it's only when something beyond our control intervenes in our lives that we change course.

That's the conundrum explored in "Incidence," the Jane Franklin Dance company's multimedia dance performance at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint through Dec. 14.

The experimental work, a collaboration between the Arlington-based dance troupe and local sculpture and sound artists Howard Connelly and Gina Biver, builds from an evolving script that can never be performed the same way twice.

The performance centers on a life-size, movable art apparatus that serves as the catalyst for the dancers' movements. The sculpture inadvertently directs the dancers depending on how they interact with it and affect its position within the space.

Wait — That Was Funny: Todd Barry

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:00:51 -0500

TODD BARRY'S stand-up is laid back but angry, rooted in everyday life but not observational, and always completely surprising. Barry, best known as the "third Conchord" on HBO's "Flight of the Conchords," performs at the Improv this weekend.

If you can't wait for the funny, toddbarry.com is a worthy collection of randomness, including his "receipt museum" and photos of the comic with and without squirrels.

» EXPRESS: What's it like inside your brain? Is there a hamster on a wheel or melting clocks or what?
» BARRY: There are several hamsters on several wheels looking at several melting clocks.

» EXPRESS: Do you create your material in terms of your delivery, or are you just a laconic guy?
» BARRY: I don't really go, "Oh, this would be funny, especially with my delivery." It's not that calculated.

A Classic Rocks: 'A Christmas Carol'

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:00:18 -0500

IF HE WERE a) not fictional and b) not living in the 19th century, Tiny Tim wouldn't miss Ford's Theatre annual production of Dickens' cautionary "A Christmas Carol."

Yes, you know the story, but no, it won't hurt you to hear it one more time, and even if your heart is two sizes too small — so to speak — you might just feel a twinge of Christmas cheer.

» Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW; through Dec. 28., $33-$65, 202-547-1122. (Gallery Place)

Written by Express' Nathan Martin
Photo courtesy Ford's Theatre

Darkness Descending: 'Grey Gardens'

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:44 -0500

Camelot is in the air lately, as are memories of JFK and his "perfect" family. So it's appropriate to spare a thought for the Hapsburgs of American royalty: Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy's aunt Edith and her daughter Edie, holed up in their Hamptons summer home for 30 years, with only 52 stray cats and "a few rabid raccoons" for company.

"Grey Gardens" became famous as a cult documentary in 1975. In 2006, it was turned into a chamber musical that took home myriad Tony Awards. Studio Theatre hosts the D.C. premiere production, starring Broadway's Barbara Walsh.

Authors Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie have taken what could have been a high-camp gigglefest, filled with drag queen morbidity, and thoughtfully created a musical.

Your Little Dog, Too: Bill Berloni Talks Stage Pups

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:10 -0500

BILL BERLONI'S REMARKABLE CAREER stretches from the first versions of "Annie" in the mid-70s through the current long run of "The Wizard of Oz," hitting the Warner Theater through Dec. 7. The animal trainer and memoirist (the charming "Broadway Tales: Heartfelt Stories of Rescued Dogs Who Became Showbiz Superstars") has rescued scores of strays, trained them to appear onstage and then found them loving homes, eventually bringing many into his own menagerie.

» EXPRESS: Tell me a little about "Oz" and the dogs you've trained for it.
» BERLONI: The tour just began a month ago. It's going to be a three-year tour across the country. "Wizard of Oz" doesn't get revived very often, because it's such a huge technical show: pyrotechnics, flying witches, dogs, fire and scarecrows — you know. … The dog starring is named Princess. She has an understudy named Snickers.

Princess is about 8 years old. She's done productions the last four or five years of her life, so now she's just locked in. She's in this tour for a while.

Shock and Awe: 'Blackbird'

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:00:12 -0500

MOVIES AND PLAYS that promise to cover taboo topics often win audiences purely on shock value. But very few plays are as well-written or well-constructed as David Harrower's "Blackbird," next up at the Studio Theatre.

The play's two characters have a terrible secret, but we won't reveal it here. That would be cheating. Suffice to say that this play takes something that could be merely salacious and makes it wrenching.

» Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW; through Dec. 21, $41-$61; 202-332-3300. (Dupont Circle)

Photo by Megan Lloyd

Away We Gooooo! 'Peter Pan: The Musical'

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:55:08 -0500

J.M. BARRIE'S classic children's book sings in Olney Theatre Center's staging of "Peter Pan: The Musical." Join Wendy and the Darlings as the eternal kid Peter Pan whisks them off on a magical adventure.

» Olney Theatre Center for the Arts, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md.; through Jan. 4, $25-$43; 301-924-3400.

Photo by Stan Barouh

Seen & Heard: Observational Artist Nilay Lawson

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:45 -0500

LOOK BEHIND YOU. Chances are, Nilay Lawson has been watching and listening.

An observational artist, she's employed the tactics of peeping and eavesdropping to fulfill both her inspiration and her medium. She also sets out to prove the Shakespearean theorem that all the world — or in this case, Washington — is a stage.

Lawson various vantage points are on display at Transformer's exhibit titled "If You Didn't Know What This Was, Would You Know What This Is?" The slender space is ideally suited to her premise. It's got only two entirely usable walls that art can adorn, so the narrow panoramas conjured by the artist feel appropriately intimate and intrusive. Part exhibitionist, part diarist, Lawson doesn't depict who and what she sees so much as reduce, reuse and recycle them.

Back to Wonderland: 'Alice'

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:15 -0500

TAKE ANOTHER TRIP down the rabbit hole with Round House Theatre's "Alice," a new adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic tale. Just watch your kids' heads (the show is intended for children 6 and up) — the Queen of Hearts is apparently out for blood.

» Round House Theatre, 4545 East West Highway, Bethesda; through Dec. 28, $20-$60; 240-644-1100. (Bethesda)

Written by Express' Jason Koebler
Photo courtesy Round House Theatre