Ellen Burns - Page 2

'MM-MMM...and that's spelled M-M-M-M-M' says the quirky and charismatic, renegade radio DJ Huey Calhoun as he struggles with his limited literacy to read a beer advertisement on air. The audience might be echoing that 'delicious' sentiment after seeing this touring production of 2010's Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Memphis, currently at DC's Warner Theatre through tonight, May 2.

It's evident upon meeting Nikiya Mathis and Afi Bijou to talk about their roles in Arena Stage's world premiere production of The Blood Quilt, currently in previews, how much they love what they do.  Some tangible evidence? The women gave up a good part of their dinner break on one of the final days of rehearsals to talk with me.  

There's a full house of sexy talent holding court over at Studio Theatre these days, and it's not limited to the four actors starring in Murder Ballad, an immersive work of theater being given an impressive DC production through June (the show was produced Off Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2012). Credit must first be given to Director David Muse, and the creative team that has transformed Stage 4 at Studio's 14th St. venue into what feels remarkably like a rock music club that's been around for decades, and surrounds you with the music and story.

If you happen to be looking for a role model for making the most of your particular strengths and talents, I'd like to introduce you to actor/composer/writer/musician/director Nick Blaemire. Lucky for us, Nick, whose new musical, Soon, is currently making its world premiere at Arlington's Signature Theatre, was gracious enough to share some of his secrets for a successful creative life with me, even as he works on three of his own shows in three different cities at once.

There's no question that Reno Sweeney, the bad girl with a good heart and a big voice is steering the madcap cruise known as Anything Goes, on the stage of The Warner Theatre for two nights, February 25-26 '15. The ship (show), currently sailing (touring) around the country, is based on the 2011 Broadway revival, directed and choreographed by the venerable Kathleen Marshall, and does a good job of bringing Cole Porter's irresistible songs, a good dose of slapstick comedy and lots of true (or not?) love together into an evening of song and dance fun, led by the charismatic Reno.

Thanks to the team at Signature Theatre, audiences in the DC-area are being given the opportunity to see another world premiere of a new musical, Kid Victory! John Kander, legendary composer, along with his late composing partner, Fred Ebb, of such beloved musicals as Chicago and Cabaret, and of the iconic anthem, New York, New York, is behind this new work, and Kid Victory is Kander's second offering in partnership with playwright Greg Pierce [nephew of actor David Hyde Pierce]. Their previous new musical, The Landing, premiered Off Broadway at NYC's Vineyard Theatre in 2013.

Anything Goes, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival of 2011, is touring the country, and now brings its light-hearted fun, and classic Cole Porter tunes, to audiences in Washington, on February 25 & 26 [7:30pm each evening] at The Warner Theatre. One of the tour's cast members, Richard Lindenfelzer (Lord Evelyn Oakleigh) shared some of his thoughts with me on why it's 'de-lovely' to be part of this tour, and about his journey as an actor. A Massachusetts native, Richard is a 2013 graduate of Ithaca College with a BFA in Musical Theatre, and is an avid Stephen Sondheim fan!

As “Cookie,” the charming, mischievous troublemaker-with-a-heart in the national tour of Broadway's Nice Work If You Can Get It, Reed Campbell has a sweet deal: he gets to do work he loves and travel the country at the same time. Touring, Reed admits, is physically demanding, and taking on the role for which original Broadway cast member, Michael McGrath won a 2012 Tony award, gave him pause, but he loves the Nice Work cast and creative team, that are “so cohesive, kind and energetic,” all important qualities for taking a production of this scale on the road.

Need some laughter in your life during this sometimes hectic season? Love the classic holiday shows, but want something different that will have the entire family grinning together? Or just love a show that embraces its roots but isn't afraid to grow tall and, dare I say, flash a little…color?? Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, running through January 4 at The Kennedy Center's Opera House, might be just the cup of cheer you need.

Combine Broadway melodies with literature's most famous miser, and instead of 'Bah humbug,' you might be saying 'Encore!.' The good folks at Alexandria's MetroStage are in their fifth season of what has become an annual tradition of presenting A Broadway Christmas Carol, the madcap musical version of the classic Dickens tale, which tells the story by way of well-known Broadway tunes with [liberally] altered lyrics. From the opening number, set to 'Comedy Tonight,' from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, to a rousing finale set to the title tune from Oklahoma, there's something for everyone in this 'comedy tonight.'

Friday's NSO Pops Evening with Sutton Foster brought a bounty of talent to the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall stage, and, wisely, paired it with a program that spanned styles, mediums, and musical genres. Some of the most appealing moments were brought to us care of the charming personalities of Sutton Foster, her guest performers Joshua Henry and Megan McGinnis, and the always entertaining NSO Pops conductor, Steven Reineke, who is a master at exuding personality even when facing away from the audience. It can be easy for the large scale of the Concert Hall to swallow up a performer, particularly when they must match the power of a symphony behind them. The truly impressive achievement of Ms. Foster, I think, is her success at making the audience feel as if they had joined her in an intimate cabaret setting for the show, in which she'd managed to fit an entire symphony.

Collaboration is on full view in this production that touches on DC history, the deaf community in particular, and the importance of communication in general. Theater company WSC Avant Bard, has worked with the theater community at DC's vaunted university for the deaf and deaf studies, Gallaudet University, to create a work of musical theater in which deaf and hearing actors and creative artists come together to tell a very personal story. A story, as it turns out, that is both historically true-to-life and theatrically interesting. Alexander Graham Bell, Edward Miner Gallaudet, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, and, most importantly, deaf students of the time, all converge in the Washington of the late 1800s in a personal, professional and political dialogue about communication, assimilation, education and self respect.

As it turns out, two parts family dysfunction (Lewis and Dana), added to one part interesting stranger (Raina), mixed vigorously in the small, brightly stark living room/lobby of an Italian Bed & Breakfast, by a genially detached innkeeper (Alex), will give you a satisfying bite of drama.

One constant in Washington-area theater for which we should all be grateful, is that the wonderful creative minds and souls at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, can be counted on to bring us fresh, innovative and carefully crafted productions of shows that may be new to many of us. This season, Signature is giving us three world premier productions of new musicals (Sheryl Crow's Diner; John Kander's Kid Victory and DC-native Nick Blaemire's Soon), but also a revival of a musical version of the story of Elmer Gantry, a traveling salesman turned preacher, who brings a religious revival a possibly dangerous spark in his pursuit of love. Almost 90 years ago, Sinclair Lewis brought Elmer Gantry to the page and Signature's Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer, is bringing him to the Signature stage for 2014 audiences.

The Isango Ensemble, brought to Washington as part of The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Presentations Series focusing on works from around the world, is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and is made up of performers from the surrounding area, who were sought out and brought together in 2000 by Director and co-founder Mark Dornford-May. Isango looks at Western works through an African lens, and what they bring to this 400 year old classic work is both ancient and contemporary, simple and lush, quiet and thunderous, straightforward and nuanced. Weaving the African rhythms, music, vocalizations and instrumentation with Venus and Adonis, uses a deeply human, very grounded style to tell a vaunted story of the love of a goddess for a mere mortal.

The soul of an artist is on full display in Signature Theatre's 14-15 season-opening production of Sunday in the Park with George, and you'll find the artist's soul behind the scenes in Matthew Gardiner, Associate Artistic Director of Signature Theatre, and the show's director.

'We're opening doors, singing 'Here we are'!' So sing the three fast friends of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, and that was the message of Washington-area (and Sondheim specialist) Signature Theatre to the overflowing crowd of thousands last weekend at their Open House celebrating the 25th Anniversary Season.

Don't let the title fool you. The fact that Elizabeth McCain is a lesbian is a subplot; the main stories here are about being raised in the deep South, the importance of family, fitting in and finding self. As one of her aunts eventually said about McCain's wife, Marie: thank goodness she was southern, and not a “Yankee,” which would have been worse. McCain is a trained, practicing counselor and she brings an innate understanding of others to the personal tales that make up her 90-minute solo show (directed by Tanya Taylor Rubinstein); an understanding that raises the will-the-audience-relate level. In other words, you don't have to be a lesbian to find your own life in her experiences; you need only have had challenging family relationships, experienced loss and death, tried to find someone to date, or just be human.

Robert Epstein, the writer and director of The Big A, based the show on his family's own experiences. As a long-time New York and DC actor, acting teacher and Macomb Theater Company founder, Epstein felt that, instead of lecturing about the experience of Alzheimer's/dementia, he wanted to take the audience inside the reality; showing us the effects of the disease from varying perspectives within a theatrical context. We are invited inside the mind of the aging parent as he/she tries to make sense of the chaos that seems to be everywhere, and the struggle to communicate the terror and loneliness that wells up. And then we are back on the other side of that fear, with the frustrated and hurting son, feeling, I daresay, a gread deal more empathy for both sides.

Pumpernickel Productions offers up a John Patrick Shanley comedy, Four Dogs and a Bone at Capital Fringe, and Anne Vandercook shines.