A Theatre-Goer's Thoughts

  William Connell as Captain Taylor and Norm Lewis as Captain Davenport in A Soldier's Play . Photo credit: Joan Marcus. “Procedural” is a term used to help define a genre of storytelling, like a murder mystery. Law and Order in its various incarnations has used the formula for years; Murder, She Wrote was another. Think back to shows like Dragnet and Perry Mason . These shows last so long because they follow a familiar formula. An inciting incident draws the audience in and keeps them interested until the solution is found after dogged investigation by a persistent character in search of truth. Charles Fuller (who died in October at age 83) won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Award for Best American Play for A Soldier’s Play , not because it is a procedural, but because as a procedural it accomplishes so much more than expected. Its original production was by the Negro Ensemble Company off Broadway, but its 2020 revival on Broadway won the Ton...

    Photo of Michel Urie, Amelia Workman, and Talene Monahon in Jane Anger by DJ Corey Photography. The current Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) production at the Klein Theatre is Jane Anger , an outrageously funny new play by Talene Monahan, continuing through January 8, 2023. Jane Anger has chosen an appropriate name for herself, refusing the one bestowed on her by her parents, the basket-maker and shovel-maker. She refuses to divulge it during the monologue in which she introduces herself to the audience. She is, indeed, filled with anger, and appropriately so: the reasons for her anger are numerous, from her humble origins to her encounter with Queen Elizabeth, who gives her a book to prevent her from becoming a prostitute, though she becomes one anyway. She has, however, educated herself enough to write a pamphlet. Primarily, though, she is angry because she is a woman, and therefore treated as a cipher with no worth, no ideas, and no knowledge. Monahan wrote Jane A...

  Rick Holmes and Kate Jennings Grant as Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing . Photo credit: Shakespeare Theatre Company.  I’ve never been a “Shakespeare purist.” His plays have a timelessness that many seem perfectly made for cross-cultural casting, wherein neither the race nor the gender of the actor need always match. A little editing here and there, dropping or changing aspects of some less important characters, and exploring different locales and periods can reveal the central truths of the plays in unexpected ways. What does not change in these instances (other than some deletions, perhaps) is the playwright’s language. My biggest regret about the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing is that I did not see it in time to shout its virtues to the world sooner. (Its last performance is December 11.) This is one of the most creative stagings of Shakespeare that I’ve ever seen. In one of my earlier entries, I mentioned remembering s...

  The first national tour cast of Tootsie . Photo credit: Evan Zimmerman. “Tootsie” was an award-winning romantic comedy film in 1982 starring Dustin Hoffman as an out-of-work actor who becomes a better man by masquerading as a woman. The same premise serves this show, “the comedy musical” Tootsie , created by Robert Horn (book) and David Yazbeck (music and lyrics). Most of the central characters remain, but many of the attitudes have been updated. After all, much has changed in the past 40 years. Michael Dorsey is an egotistical, narcissistic stage actor so committed to the truth of his art that he is perpetually challenging directors and playwrights. His reputation has spread through the New York theatre community so that he is unable to get a job. When his girlfriend loses out on a role in a musical sequel to Romeo and Juliet , Juliet’s Curse , Michael dons a wig, dress, and heels and auditions as Dorothy Michaels. Dorothy is such a success that the producer changes the show’s...

  Stephen Patrick Martin as Andrew Undershaft and Laura Giannarelli as Lady Britomart. Photo credit: Christopher O. Banks. A program note from Washington Stage Guild’s artistic director, Bill Largess, explains that the founders wanted the company to be “dedicated to the kind of play we liked best – eloquent plays of idea and argument, passion and wit.” George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara certainly embodies all four of those guiding principles. It is given a bold, sure-footed production under the direction of Stephen Carpenter, continuing at the Undercroft Theatre through December 11. Indeed, it is the ideas and arguments in the play that are at the forefront. Plot and character are less important, but there is enough plot in which to hang the ideas and the characters are quirky and interesting enough to enable us to become engaged in the arguments. Lady Britomart convenes her young adult son, two daughters, and the daughters’ current love interests, to announce that their fath...

  The cast of Into the Woods . Photo credit: Daniel Rader. “Once upon a time,” or words to that effect, may be the most commonly used first phrase in the world of storytelling, whether written or oral. We use these shared stories, sometimes called fairytales, to teach, to inspire, and to share cultural values. A fascinating note in the program for Into the Woods notes that there are over 500 versions of the Cinderella story alone, all the way back to 5 th century BCE Greece and 9 th century China. I had no idea. Into the Woods , the current offering (continuing through January 29, 2023) at Arlington’s Signature Theatre, interweaves aspects of four familiar fairy tales (Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel) with a “new” fairytale about a Baker and his Wife, concocted by librettist James Lapine and composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. There are even a couple of passing references to Snow White. But these are definitely not the Disney-fied vers...

  Adeoye as Leonardo in The Noteboo ks of Leonardo Da Vinci . Photo Credit: Liz Larsen. Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company presentation of the Goodman Theatre (of Chicago) production of The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci , written and directed by Mary Zimmerman, is currently playing at the STC’s Klein (formerly Lansburgh) Theatre. Reflecting on this unique theatre experience, I realized this is not a “play.” It may be more accurately portrayed as a theatrical event, an artistic endeavor, or a piece of performance art. One of my reference points took me back to my college studies of oral interpretation. In those days, “oral interpretation” meant that the performers held manuscripts and engaged in limited movement while performing works of literature. Oral interpretation’s definition is no longer that limited, often incorporating movement and dispensing with the manuscripts.  Zimmerman is an artistic associate at the Goodman where she has directed 17 productions in the pas...