Comedy's Lovable Queen of Mean, Lampanelli is just the “special guest” for the New Majority Comedy Tour with Gabriel Iglesias, a Last Comic Standing finalist several years ago and known as the “fluffy” -- not fat -- comic of Latino descent, and Russell Peters, a popular Canadian comic of Indian ancestry who often pokes fun at the subjects of race, ... [more]
May 2011 Archives
It's not exactly magic, but what Constellation Theatre Company is pulling off at 14th Street's Source Theatre right now is pretty extraordinary. The fledgling nonprofit theater company's production of 18th century Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi's The Green Bird, which mixes commedia dell'arte farce, melodrama and visual special effects, soars because of the nimbleness of its surprisingly high-caliber acting ensemble and ... [more]
The first African-American woman to head Talk Soup on E! and a former regular on Friends, CSI and 24, Aisha Tyler is currently the voice of sexy superspy Lana Kane on FX's brilliantly funny animated series Archer. But she's also no stranger to late night television, as a guest comedian on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Jimmy ... [more]
Inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's notorious erotic novel, which first shocked readers in 1870, David Ives's saucy and sensational Venus in Fur is a crackling exploration of desire and control. The play pits actress against playwright in a virtuosic display of seduction, cruelty and gamesmanship. Christian Conn and Erica Sullivan star in Studio Theatre's production, directed by David Muse. Now ... [more]
Less than two years ago, John Oates reunited with Daryl Hall, for an "Up Close and Personal Tour" with the '80s-era rock & soul pioneers. But when he performs without Hall, as he will tonight, he performs mostly his own material, including music from the new Mississippi Mile, an ode to artists and songs that influenced him. He'll also perform ... [more]
Arena Stage presents a pre-Broadway, world premiere adaptation of A Time to Kill, John Grisham's first novel -- and his first to be adapted for the stage -- by Tony Award-winner Rupert Holmes. After an unspeakable crime is committed against his daughter, Carl Lee Hailey takes the law into his own hands. To June 19. Mead Center for American Theater, ... [more]
Public radio star Garrison Keillor comes to Wolf Trap to offer D.C. another live trip to his fictional-but-oh-so-real Lake Wobegon, which will be broadcast over the weekend. This year's Wolf Trap stop of A Prairie Home Companion brings special guests The Wailin' Jennys. Produced in association with Minnesota Public Radio and WAMU. Friday, May 27, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, ... [more]
With her new album The Music of Randy Newman, Roseanna Vitro stakes a claim as the first jazz vocalist to explore the richly melodic, sharply observant songbook from the singer-songwriter best known for his work in creating film scores for Disney-Pixar (Toy Story, A Bug's Life). The focus on Newman follows Vitro's past work covering songbooks from Ray Charles and ... [more]
American Ensemble Theater presents Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them, a new black comedy from Christopher Durang (Beyond Therapy, Laughing Wild), following a young woman in crisis, worried that her husband and her father could be a terrorist and a spy, respectively. Opens tonight, Thursday, May 26, at 7:30 p.m. To June 11. CHAW, 545 7th ... [more]
Peter Shaffer's Tony-winning play (which became an Oscar-winning film) depicts the flamboyant genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as seen through the eyes of his desperately jealous contemporary, composer Antonio Salieri. Edward Gero stars as Salieri and Sasha Olinick as Mozart in a production directed by Ford's Theatre's Mark Ramont. To June 5. Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda. Tickets ... [more]
The American Film Institute's Silver Theatre presents the second in a three-part series this year exploring the works of the great filmmaker. Part II focuses on his early Hollywood pictures, and up this weekend are 1946's Nazi-era espionage caper Notorious, starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains, and 1947's leaden courtroom drama The Paradine Case, starring Gregory Peck. Honestly, ... [more]
Local drag phenom Galactica, a.k.a. the "pink-haired diva," will sing -- not lip-synch -- at her latest cabaret-style show "Rapture!" A live band, the Escape Pods, led by musical director Captain Satellite accompanies Galactica through a hodge-podge of songs by Peggy Lee, the Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, No Doubt, Harold Arlen, even Captain and Tennille, all framed by an interplanetary ... [more]
An early transsexual celebrity, Candy Darling (nee James Slattery) became a downtown New York fixture in the '60s and went on to become part of Andy Warhol's legendary Factory, starring in two of his shocking movies, Flesh and Women In Revolt. Tennessee Williams cast her in his play Small Craft Warnings, and she might have gone on to become a ... [more]
Lil Wayne brings his "I'm Still Music Tour" to Jiffy Lube Live on Saturday, July 16. The artist will be joined by Rick Ross, Keri Hilson, Far East Movement and Lloyd. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 20 at 10 a.m. at LiveNation.com, Ticketmaster outlets, the Jiffy Lube Live Box Office or by phone at 800-745-3000. ... [more]
In Ruined, playwright Lynn Nottage and director Charles Randolph-Wright manage to confront head-on the mass-rape of civilian women by combatants during the Second Congo War with a rare blend of finely controlled realism and priceless restraint. Not only do they quash any notion of sexual violence as entertainment, they also show us that a finely crafted less can be far ... [more]
As part of a month-long retrospective of the work of queer filmmaker Todd Haynes, known for I'm Not There and most recently the HBO miniseries adaptation of Mildred Pierce starring Kate Winslet, the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre presents Haynes's best-known film, Far From Heaven. An homage to Douglas Sirk's style of social critique by way of melodrama, the movie ... [more]
Paul Morella performs a benefit for The American Century Theater, reprising An Encounter with Clarence Darrow: A Passion for Justice, the one-man show created by TACT ten years ago about the American lawyer/social activist Clarence Darrow, who successfully defended over a hundred men facing the death penalty. Monday, May 16, at 8 p.m., preceded at 7 p.m. with a pre-show ... [more]
J. Reilly Lewis conducts the choral group, mezzo-soprano Viktoriya Bright and the National Cathedral School Girls Chorale in the return of the popular Russian Riches program featuring Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Festival Overture, Taneyev's Ioann Damaskin cantata and Gretchaninov's Hvalite, Boga cantata. Sunday, May 15, at 4 p.m. Washington National Cathedral, Massachusetts and Wisconsin Aves NW. Tickets are $25 to $80. ... [more]
The American Film Institute's Silver Theatre continues exploring the works of the great filmmaker. Up this weekend: Spellbound (1945), starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck and featuring an iconic dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali and Miklos Rozsa's Oscar-winning, theremin-intense score. Watch carefully -- if you're lucky, AFI has a version of the black and white film that includes a ... [more]
The Gay Men's Chorus's select ensemble Potomac Fever presents the second of two performances of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a celebration of "what makes our hearts race," from making out to shacking up to tying the knot. The men's chorus NoteWorthy from Greensboro, North Carolina's Triad Pride Men's Chorus joins the Fever in the show Saturday, May 14, at ... [more]
Peter Shaffer's Tony-winning Amadeus (which became an Oscar-winning film) depicts the flamboyant genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as seen through the eyes of his desperately jealous contemporary, composer Antonio Salieri. Edward Gero stars as Salieri and Sasha Olinick as Mozart in a production directed by Mark Ramont. Now to June 5. Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda. Tickets are ... [more]
We're giving away a pair of tickets to the Pat Benatar concert at the 9:30 Club this July. Enter now for a chance to win. Form is below or visit metroweekly.com/win for more contests to choose from. var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://secure." : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "wufoo.com/scripts/embed/form.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var z7q8r3 = new WufooForm(); z7q8r3.initialize({ 'userName':'metroweekly', ... [more]
The gay-led Trey McIntyre Project has become known for its efforts to broaden the appeal of dance, including by setting up its home base in Boise, Idaho. "I think of [the Project] as an all-American dance company," McIntyre tells Metro Weekly. "It made a lot of sense for us to be a pioneer, to move into a community that really ... [more]
Marvin Hamlisch conducts the NSO Pops in a concert paying tribute to Latin rhythms, courtesy of percussionist Tito Puente Jr., son of the legend, and Latin crooning, from feverish Latin pop singer Jon Secada. Thursday, May 12, at 7 p.m. Also Friday, May 13, and Saturday, May 14, at 8 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $20 to $85. ... [more]
It's been four decades since her iconic character first twirled her way across American television sets, and two years since Lynda Carter -- a.k.a. Wonder Woman -- first re-emerged, performing at the Kennedy Center in support of her last album At Last and sitting for a Metro Weekly cover feature. About the popularity among gays of Wonder Woman, she told ... [more]
Once a week through June 24, twenty-seven contestants from a variety of federal agencies, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Army and Marines will compete to earn the distinction of the 2011 Funniest Fed. And can't you just hear the laughs when the winner tells a stranger about the achievement. The Fisher House Foundation, benefiting families of wounded soldiers, will ... [more]
One of the largest and most expensive shows Ford's Theatre has yet mounted, Liberty Smith features 20 glorious singing actors, reenacting and reinterpreting the history of the American Revolution, taking a little liberty with the school-worn tales. If you ultimately leave the theater charmed, it'll be more because of Michael Weiner's irrepressible, catchy music and the superb, Broadway-caliber cast of ... [more]
We're giving away a pair of tickets to Raphael Saadiq at the 9:30 Club! Enter directly at metroweekly.com/win or using the form below. var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://secure." : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "wufoo.com/scripts/embed/form.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var z7q8k1 = new WufooForm(); z7q8k1.initialize({ 'userName':'metroweekly', 'formHash':'z7q8k1', 'autoResize':true, 'height':'656', 'ssl':true}); z7q8k1.display(); ... [more]
Benjamin Bratt plays a traditional Latino father who struggles to come to terms with his teenage son's homosexuality in La Mission, which screens as part of a one-night, film festival throughout the Smithsonian Institution. Also on tap is Winter's Bone, an unflinching look at family and rural American life today and one of this year's Best Picture Oscar nominees. In ... [more]
Britney Spears is coming to the Verizon Center this summer and we have a pair of tickets to give away! Fill out the form below. And visit our win page to see all the other contests currently on offer! var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://secure." : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "wufoo.com/scripts/embed/form.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var z7q8z9 = new WufooForm(); ... [more]
A source at the Helen Hayes Awards sent out this email alert on Friday regarding the district's proposed six percent tax on ticketed art events. Here's his missive in full, along with suggested ways you can respond, as well as help to spread the word. Yep, it's true. The District of Columbia's 2011 budget includes a 6% ticket tax on ... [more]
Without leader Natalie Maines, the Dixie Chicks might sound a lot like Sheryl Crow. At least that's the impression left by the music of the duo Court Yard Hounds, featuring Emily Robison and Martie Maquire, the two sisters of the Chicks trio. Together, these country-rocking siblings create a familiar blend of folk, bluegrass, country and pop/rock. The resulting stew is ... [more]
The inimitable Fran Lebowitz will appear at a special screening of Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese's 2010 documentary about her career. Andy Warhol gave Lebowitz her big break by hiring her to pen a column for Interview magazine, and she has since become a popular author offering insights on timely issues of gender, race and gay rights, not to mention her ... [more]
var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://secure." : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "wufoo.com/scripts/embed/form.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var z7q8w7 = new WufooForm(); z7q8w7.initialize({ 'userName':'metroweekly', 'formHash':'z7q8w7', 'autoResize':true, 'height':'656', 'ssl':true}); z7q8w7.display(); ... [more]
The British post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen toured last year in support of a new album, The Fountain, but this year they're back to play two of their older albums in their entirety: Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here. Wednesday, May 11. Doors at 7 p.m. Nightclub 9:30, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $35. Call 202-265-0930 or visit 930.com. ... [more]
Metro Stage presents The Real Inspector Hound, Tom Stoppard's hilarious send-up of classic Agatha Christie murder mysteries. John Vreeke directs a cast that includes Ralph Cosham, John Dow and Catherine Flye. To May 22. MetroStage, 1201 North Royal St., Alexandria. Tickets are $45 to $50. Call 800-494-8497 or visit metrostage.org. ... [more]
Green: the Color and the Cause is the second exhibit in the museum's year-long exploration of the ties between textiles and environmentalism. The exhibit explores the symbolism behind the color green, showcasing the work of contemporary green artists as well as historical precedents from the museum's collection. The museum will even have a "growing garden sculpture" installed in June. The ... [more]
Master mixologist Dale DeGroff shares anecdotes from historical drinking spots and traces the evolution of the cocktail in his book Life In Saloons, Speaks and the Big City Bar. But at the Warehouse Theater on Monday, May 9, DeGroff won't just read from his book. He'll also offer sample cocktails representative of the various eras -- Gilded Age, Prohibition, Modern ... [more]
Marvin Hamlisch conducts the NSO Pops in a concert paying tribute to Latin rhythms, courtesy of percussionist Tito Puente Jr., son of the legend, and Latin crooning, from feverish Latin pop singer Jon Secada. Thursday, May 12, at 7 p.m. Also Friday, May 13, and Saturday, May 14, at 8 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $20 to $85. ... [more]
var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://secure." : "http://");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "wufoo.com/scripts/embed/form.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var z7q9x7 = new WufooForm(); z7q9x7.initialize({ 'userName':'metroweekly', 'formHash':'z7q9x7', 'autoResize':true, 'height':'706', 'ssl':true}); z7q9x7.display(); From the 9:30 Club website: "Whenever you're here, you're alive" are the first words sung on Dynamite Steps, the fifth album from Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers collective, and the group's first in ... [more]
A Slate film critic said that Werner Herzog's latest film, Cave of Forgotten Dream, a three-dimensional documentary about 30,000-year-old paintings in the Chauvet cave in southern France, "may be the best 3D movie ever made." It's a probing essay on the history of art, and even of humankind. So, a feast for the senses and the smarts. Now playing. Visit ... [more]
Three lesbian authors will entertain as they read from their recent works. D.C.'s Lisa Gitlin reads from her comic memoir I Came Out For This?, Rehoboth Beach's Fay Jacobs reads from her collection of essays For Frying Out Loud -- Rehoboth Beach Diaries and Amy Dawson reads from her latest female-focused action thriller Miles To Go. Sunday, May 8, at ... [more]
The author of the provocative "Gay Science" historical analysis series, Nick Benton will speak on his views about gay identity and purpose at Georgetown's Dumbarton United Methodist Church. Benton, who founded and publishes the Falls Church News-Press, is lauded as a gay pioneer for his early activism, including co-founding the Berkeley Gay Liberation Front in California. He also has theological ... [more]
The Ward 5 artist home and gallery 52 O Street, formerly a People's Drug warehouse and Decca Records office, offers its annual Open Studios event this weekend, presenting a peek into the process and environment of artists engaged in many different disciplines, as well as works for sale by the creators, plus performances, workshops and demonstrations from building residents. Saturday, ... [more]
Local drag phenom Galactica (a.k.a. the "pink-haired diva" a.k.a. Jeffrey Johnson) will preview her upcoming show with her band Capt. Satellite (a.k.a. musical director Christopher Wingert) and the Escape Pods (a.k.a. the Escape Pods). Entitled Rapture! and billed as "the only show of its kind in the Washington, D.C. area," the cabaret includes a hodgepodge of songs by the likes ... [more]
One of Stephen Sondheim's greatest works -- with a book by James Goldman -- the Kennedy Center stages a major revival of the Tony-winning Follies with a few of Broadway's leading ladies: Elaine Paige, Linda Lavin, Jan Maxwell and, last but not least, Bernadette Peters, perhaps the greatest interpreter of Sondheim's work. What more do you need to know? Get ... [more]
The American Film Institute's Silver Theatre presents the second in a three-part series this year exploring the works of the great filmmaker. Part II focuses on his early Hollywood pictures and up next are: 1943's Shadow Of A Doubt, a film noir about a killer (the wonderfully sinister Joseph Cotton) who moves into a small town that Hitchcock had stated ... [more]
The Gay Men's Chorus's select ensemble Potomac Fever teams up with two other ensembles from men's choruses in Virginia and North Carolina to present "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a celebration of "what makes our hearts race," from making out to shacking up to tying the knot. Potomac Fever performs with the MonuMENtals from Virginia's Richmond Men's Chorus on Saturday, ... [more]
Carl Tanner got his start as a singer with a Glee-like moment: The Washington-Lee High School footballer and wrestler joined the school chorus after someone overheard him singing in the locker room shower. Now an international opera star, most recently performing with the Metropolitan Opera, Tanner returns to perform with sopranos Paula Delligatti and Lesley Craigie and baritone Jason Stearns ... [more]
As part of a month-long retrospective of Todd Haynes's work, the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre presents one of the earlier films from the somewhat subversive queer filmmaker. Velvet Goldmine (1998) stars Christian Bale, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan MacGregor as a rock journalist and two wild rock stars, respectively. Set in 1984, the film takes its musical cues from ... [more]
Joan "As Police Woman" Wasser has been a member of Antony and the Johnsons, has a connection with the Scissor Sisters and has been championed by and collaborated with the likes of Lou Reed and Rufus Wainwright. So it's not clear why she's not more popular, especially so given her captivating new album The Deep Field, filled with lively, hopeful, ... [more]
In Edmund Rostand's Cyrano, our hero secretly adores Roxanne but fears she could never share the sentiment because of his extraordinarily huge nose. So he uses his gift for wit and wordplay to help a tongue-tied friend Christian woo her instead. Adapted and directed by Aaron Posner and starring Eric Hissom in the title role. To June 5. Folger Elizabethan ... [more]
The African Continuum Theatre Company presents Blues for an Alabama Sky. Set in the summer of 1930 in Harlem, the creative euphoria of the Harlem Renaissance has given way to the harsher realities of the Great Depression. Directed by Walter Dallas, Blues brings together a rich cast of characters who reflect the conflicting currents of the time through their overlapping ... [more]
The American Film Institute's Silver Theatre presents the second in a three-part series this year exploring the works of the great filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Part II focuses on his early Hollywood pictures. Up next two films from 1941: Suspicion, starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine, who won an Oscar for her role (watch the sinister glass of milk -- they ... [more]
The composer and producer Scott Freiman offers "Looking Through A Glass Onion: Deconstructing The White Album," a sure-to-be fascinating live multimedia lecture exploring all aspects of the Beatles's eclectic seminal 1968 album. Tuesday, May 3, at 8 p.m. Avalon Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-966-6000 or visit theavalon.org. ... [more]
The Washington Bach Consort's season finale celebrates Easter and draws from four distinct areas of Bach's incomparable creative genius, including Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, Motet: Signet dem Herr nein neues Lied and the Easter Oratio. Sunday, May 1, at 3 p.m. National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Ave. NW. Tickets are ... [more]
David Crosby and Graham Nash, two of the anti-Vietnam War era's most prolific singer-songwriters -- and core members of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young -- team up once again to relive the magic, now as a duo. From "Long Time Gone" to "Teach Your Children" to "Our House," the concert is sure to turn into a sing-along. Monday, May 2, ... [more]
The No Rules Theatre Company, just honored with a special Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, presents The Stephen Schwartz Project, a musical revue honoring the Oscar- and Tony-winning creator of hit shows Godspell, Pippin and Wicked. The revue, arranged by John L. Cornelius II and directed by Matt Cowart, was conceived by Adventure Theatre's Michael J. Bobbitt, ... [more]
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