Elliot Lanes - Page 18

Laundry night in our house doesn't garner much excitement. However, in the world of Dan Zanes, Claudia Eliaza and Yuriana Sobrino, hanging your socks out to dry leads you on a magical, musical, mystical journey up in the heavens, courtesy of a magic train. That is the basic premise of Night Train 57, Kennedy Center's latest co-commission with VSA, and trust me, this is one journey your whole family will want to take together.

Today's subject Baakari Wilder will be living his theatre life this Saturday evening onstage at the Kennedy Center as part of LOTUS, a tribute to the art of tap dancing.

DC's little jewel, known as the Washington Stage Guild (WSG), has always presented pieces that you can't see elsewhere in the area. With its current offering Widowers' Houses, WSG gives area theatregoers a chance to see a lesser known work by esteemed playwright George Bernard Shaw. While this script is not a center piece of Shaw's canon (a la Pygmalion or Heartbreak House) WSG, true to form, delivers a high-end production of it featuring a top-notch group of performers.

One year ago today, I went from writing for a local theatre site to writing for the largest worldwide theatre site. One year ago today, Theatre Life made its debut here on Broadway World's DC page with a profile of scenic designer Paige Hathaway.

Today's subject Kimberly Gilbert is currently living her theatre life onstage at one of her local theatrical homes. She portrays the slightly deranged, tux shirt-wearing arsonist Billie Irons in The Arsonists at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. The production plays through October 14th.

Leonard Bernstein was arguably one of the most versatile musicians the world has ever known. If you are a lover of classical music, you know that his recordings and compositions were the stuff legend is made of; and if you are a musical theatre geek, you know that Bernstein wrote some of the most innovative and genre-merging theatrical scores that still have not been topped to this day.

Today's subject Paige Hernandez is currently living her theatre life in a variety of ways. Her production company B-Fly Entertainment is going strong with several projects. She just wrote an opera that premiered at Glimmerglass Opera Festival and is now preparing to direct Queens Girl in Africa for Mosaic Theater Company. The production will run January 4 to February 4, 2018 at Atlas Performing Arts Center, but this Monday at 1:30 PM you can see a free reading of the play as part of Kennedy Center's annual Page-to-Stage Festival.

Today's subject Tracy Lynn Olivera is currently living her theatre life onstage at Signature Theatre as the stalwart countess Charlotte in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Tony Award-winning musical, A Little Night Music. The production runs through October 8th in Signature's Max Theatre.

Today's subject Erin Weaver is currently living her theatre life onstage at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD playing the title role in Wonderland: Alice's Rock & Roll Adventure. The production continues performances now through August 13th.

Today's subject Florence Lacey is currently living her theatre life at Signature Theatre where she is preparing to start performances of A Little Night Music in the role of Madame Armfeldt. The production runs August 15th through October 8th

Today's subject Thomas W. Jones II is currently living his theater life working on several projects at MetroStage in Alexandria, Virginia. This weekend you can see his directorial work with a three-day return engagement of Anne & Emmett. Performances are this Friday, July 28 (8:00 PM) through Sunday, July 30 (3:00 PM). There are two performances on Saturday, July 29 - one at 3:00 PM and one at 8:00 PM).

There is a rule in the theater about knowing when to get off the stage so as not to give your audience too much of a good thing. The Improvised Shakespeare Company unfortunately did not follow this rule in presenting their totally improvised audience-named epic The Barber's Hat this past weekend at Kennedy Center as part of the DC Comedy Festival. All the greatness of their first hour was diminished by the last twenty plus minutes of their performance.

Today's subject Gerald Steichen is currently living his theater life in the orchestra pit in the Kennedy Center's Opera House as the musical director for the national tour of The King And I. The show is in town through August 20th.

A couple of things intrigued me about HalfMad Theatre's entry into this year's Capital Fringe. First off, the name Trey Parker was attached to it. After all, he created the totally non-politically correct TV show South Park and the mega- hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon so it seemed interesting that a company would present the piece that started Parker on his meteoric rise to fame while in college. Second, the show is primarily performed with puppets with a few human characters. That just seemed like my kind of show. The show is the wonderful and slightly off-color extravaganza, Trey Parker's Cannibal the Musical!

Today's subject Jade Wheeler is currently living her theater life onstage at Arena Stage in the return engagement of The Originalist as Justice Antonin Scalia's clerk Cat. The show has been extended and now runs through August 6th.

Today's subject Mary Gordon Murray is currently living her theatre life onstage at The Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater playing Fräulein Schneider in the national tour of Cabaret. The production plays through August 6th.

Anytime a company presents something I don't expect to see in a festival setting, it generally peaks my interest. The Laramie Project is one of those shows I never thought I would see performed in Capital Fringe. When The Wandering Theatre Company presents the piece and then disrespects the material by doing things to the show that are not needed it results in the following diatribe even if the production features some strong performances.

When arts in education institutions produce musicals, they tend to stick with titles that everyone is likely to recognize. For the past 25 years DC's very own Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts has produced musicals that fall into this category – for example, Pippin and Jesus Christ Superstar with their Musical Theatre Institute for Teens, as well as other lesser known shows like Side Show – but what other teen program has embarked on the journey of premiering a new show? None that I know of, which is why I keep on singing The Theatre Lab's praises.

Today's subject Ryan Asher is currently living her theatre life onstage at Kennedy Center's Theater Lab as one of the company members for The Second City's Almost Accurate Guide to America: Divided We Stand. The production runs through August 13th.

Today's subject, Gregory Linington, is currently living his theatre life onstage at Theater J playing Harry Hyman, the doctor with a big heart and strong attraction to one of his patients, in Arthur Miller's rarely produced Broken Glass. The production has been extended and now runs through July 16th.