After snagging four Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding Musical, Arena Stage revives the show that christened its new Mead Center complex last fall and now becomes its first summer production, lasting all the way into the start of fall. Oklahoma! became the best-selling show in Arena's 60-year history, serving as a fine launch to what turned out to be a ... [more]
July 2011 Archives
The Red Palace offers the first in a series of cocktail classes with a look at the creation and development of the American martini. But it's not just a dry exercise -- full-size tastings are included. Sunday, July 31, at 8 p.m. Red Palace, 1212 H Street NE. Tickets $25, includes three cocktails. Call 202-399-3201 or visit redpalacedc.com. Follow @metroweekly ... [more]
Some people refer to her as the Queen of Country, and that's all well and good. In fact, Dolly Parton is one of the savviest songwriters working today -- she was country-pop a decade before country-pop was cool, and turned to bluegrass a couple years before T-Bone Burnett helped revive the genre's popularity. Ultimately, however, gays love Dolly Parton because ... [more]
Tickets go on sale Friday, July 29, at 10 a.m. for Mary J. Blige, who will open Silver Spring's newest venue, the Live Nation-owned Fillmore on Sept. 15. The site, at 8656 Colesville Road, once sported a J.C. Penney department store. Now it will be home to a major concert venue. Tickets are $89.50. Visit fillmoresilverspring.com. Metro Weekly ... [more]
Marvin Hamlisch leads Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell and the NSO at Wolf Trap in a performance of classic showtunes, including South Pacific, Carousel and Hamlisch's own A Chorus Line. Friday, July 29, at 8:15 p.m. Wolf Trap, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $20 to $52. Call 703-255-1900 or visit wolftrap.org. ... [more]
Comprised of former members of the mixed-gender, mixed-sexuality band Hercules and Love Affair, Jessica 6 offers a similarly infectious blend of disco, soul and R&B that appeals to a mixed crowd. Fresh from performing at San Francisco Pride, the trio of transgender vocalists Nomi Ruiz, Andrew Raposo and Morgan Wiley tours in support of its new debut album See ... [more]
Bisexual Australian Sia Furler first came to attention in 2005 for her hauntingly beautiful, pleading ballad "Breathe Me," which dramatically closed out HBO's Six Feet Under. The album that followed was a serious, studied affair. But last year's We Are Born, Sia's third, proved that the once downtempo/chill-out artist with the appealingly elastic warble is a master up-tempo pop tunesmith ... [more]
The Hub Theatre presents the world-premiere production of gay humor writer Marc Acito's Birds of a Feather, an inspiring story about families and the bird-brained behaviors of humans -- and penguins. In fact, the play focuses on the gay penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo that were a media sensation last decade, contrasting them with the reaction to red-tailed ... [more]
Director James Marsh and the Oscar-winning team behind the documentary Man on Wire offer Project Nim, the story of a chimpanzee who became the focus of a landmark experiment in the '70s to see if an ape reared and nurtured like a child could learn to communicate with sign language. It didn't work. Landmark's E Street Cinema, 555 11th ... [more]
Somebody ought to bake a giant Armadillo cake and present it to Keegan Theatre for deciding to close its 2011 season with Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias. The play centers on the camaraderie of six Southern women who talk, gossip, needle and harangue each other -- and that's only half its gay, gay, gay appeal. The script's dialogue, famous one-liners and ... [more]
Long View Gallery's Refresh: New Works by Some of Long View's Best offers new works by Mike Weber, Scott Brooks, Tony Savoie, Michelle Peterson-Albandoz, Anne Marchand, Paula Crawford and others. Opening reception is Thursday, July 28, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. On exhibit through Aug. 28. Long View Gallery, 1234 9th St. NW. Call 202-232-4788 or visit longviewgallery.com. Follow @metroweekly ... [more]
Tickets go on sale this Friday, July 22, for Maryland-native Tori Amos's hometown concert at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in December supporting Night of Hunters, a new set due in the fall. Amos describes the album as "a 21st Century song cycle inspired by classic music themes spanning over 400 years." It's all about the hunters and hunted in the game ... [more]
Woolly Mammoth reprises its production of Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park, after having won a couple Helen Hayes Awards and this year's Pulitzer Prize. As Metro Weekly critic Kate Wingfield noted in her four-star review last year, the play is an "exceedingly clever, high-octane piece on neighborhood race relations past and present. Even if we have seen many similar scenarios on ... [more]
Multi-Grammy-winning '80s hitmaker Pat Benatar, a pioneering woman in rock, is about to go into the studio to record her first album in nearly 20 years. In the interim, she's raised a couple of daughters with husband Neil Giraldo, who's also her producer and collaborator. He'll join her for an intimate evening at the 9:30 Club tonight. To paraphrase a ... [more]
In collaboration with the Embassy of Peru, the National Geographic Society presents screenings today of two Peruvian films, each followed by demonstrations of the dances represented. First up is Mitchell Teplitsky's Soy Andina, which tells the story of two women who explore and affirm their Peruvian identity through dance. One of the women, Cynthia Paniagua, will offer a dance demonstration ... [more]
An American rock supergroup formed in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan, A Perfect Circle now includes bassist Matt McJunkins (Ashes Divide), guitarist James Iha (formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins) and session drummer Josh Freese (known for work with Nine Inch Nails and Devo). Tonight, Sunday, July 17, at 8 p.m. D.A.R. Constitution Hall, 1776 ... [more]
Gore Vidal lampoons the Cold War and humanity's self-destructive preoccupation with world domination in Visit to a Small Planet, a 1956 satire originally written for television and a precursor to alien series such as Mork and Mindy and 3rd Rock from the Sun. It's perfectly fitting that Virginia's The American Century Theater now offers a production of the play, since ... [more]
Just a few months after stopping at the Verizon Center, rapper Lil Wayne returns to the region to perform at Jiffy Lube Live. He's still got Rick Ross in tow, plus Keri Hilson, Far East Movement and Lloyd. Oh, and it's still called the "I'm Still Music" tour. But it's sure to be anything but still in the arena. Tonight, ... [more]
R&B singer Angela Winbush started her career as a backup singer for Stevie Wonder and then joined in the duo Rene and Angela. She produces all of her own material as well as for others, including the Isley Brothers, Janet Jackson and Stephanie Mills. Saturday and Sunday, July 16 and 17, at 8 and 10 p.m. Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin ... [more]
A Jewish Sound of Music of sorts and one of Broadway's cash cows, Fiddler on the Roof was first staged in 1964, as directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins. The original choreography, particularly the bar celebration and the raucous wedding scene, inspires awe to this day. John Preece takes over from Harvey Fierstein's untraditional casting as the tradition-bound Tevye last ... [more]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 broke the domestic box office record for a midnight opening. The film took in a whopping $43.5 million, reported Warner Bros., the film's distributor. In addition, the movie "broke the midnight opening record for IMAX theatres, with a $2 million gross on a record number of IMAX screens." Read Metro Weekly's review ... [more]
She may have only come in third during the first season of the USA Network's Nashville Star, in 2003, but Miranda Lambert is arguably the biggest star to emerge from that reality series (certainly bigger than Buddy Jewell or John Arthur Martinez, the two to defeat her). All three of her critically trumpeted albums since have gone platinum, in part ... [more]
Nicolas Roeg's dazzling, visionary sci-fi allegory, The Man Who Fell to Earth stars, David Bowie in his cinematic debut. The pop icon played a space oddity who gets caught up in American decadence. The film is being rereleased into theaters for its 35th anniversary. As a director, Roeg was more interested in atmospherics and visuals (one of his best films, ... [more]
The Second City, Chicago's legendary comedy theater troupe, stops by Virginia's Synetic Theater to regale the audience in some of the best sketches, songs and improvisations from its now impressive 50-year history. Many of the skits were written by Second City alum like Alan Arkin, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey. Friday, July 15, and Saturday, July ... [more]
Mongtomery County's Unexpected Stage Company lives up to its name with the show that kicks off its second season, David Johnston's Candy and Dorothy. When it ran off-off Broadway in 2006, the New York Times called the comic fantasy "an oddball homage to Frank Capra," while GLAAD bestowed it with a Media Award. The play explores an encounter between Candy ... [more]
Chris Colfer, Lea Michele and Cory Monteith will all be graduating Glee next year. We're sorry to see him (them) go. Extra had this interview to share with the openly-gay Colfer. Glee star and newly anointed Emmy nominee Chris Colfer talked with Extra's Jerry Penacoli about his character, the colorful Kurt Hummel, leaving the show after next season, how he’d ... [more]
The Fillmore Silver Spring -- a new venue we're extremely excited about -- is scheduled to open in September. But they just opened an official Preview Center, allowing area visitors to see what all the fuss is (about to be) about. Directly from the release that just landed into our proverbial lap: Local residents eager to check out The Fillmore ... [more]
Keith Alan Baker directs Pop!, a madcap musical murder mystery that peeks into Andy Warhol's infamous Factory, as written by Maggie-Kate Coleman with music composed by Anna K. Jacobs. The musical takes as its jumping-off point the real-life, non-fatal shooting of Warhol in 1968. At that time, his famous Pop Art studio and hangout was at its peak, and competition ... [more]
The drag queens of Freddie's Beach Bar in Arlington present Survivor Freddie's, a fundraiser for the Atlantic States Gay Rodeo Association (ASGRA). The queens raising the least tips after each performance will be considered "voted off" the stage, Survivor-style. How cruel -- and cool. Two Atlantic Stampede belt buckles will also be raffled off, along with a surprise raffle later ... [more]
The Hub Theatre presents the world-premiere production of gay humor writer Marc Acito's Birds of a Feather, an inspiring story about families and the bird-brained behaviors of humans -- and also, penguins. In fact, the play focuses on the gay penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo that were a media sensation last decade. Shirley Serotsky directs a cast including ... [more]
The Virgin Mobile FreeFest Presented by Kyocera was announced today by Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who delivered the message via a video posted on Virgin Mobile Live's Facebook page. The free, Billboard award-winning festival, known for breaking from traditional music events, will feature two Main Stages and a Dance Forest. Scheduled to perform on the Main ... [more]
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the young Aspen Santa Fe Ballet kicks off Wolf Trap's three-part Summer Dance Series with a world premiere Wolf Trap commission from sought-after choreographer Jorma Elo. Tuesday, July 12, at 8:30 p.m. Wolf Trap, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $4 lawn, $40 seated. Call 703-255-1900 or visit wolf-trap.org. Follow @metroweekly ... [more]
"Bayou Soul" is the descriptor for Louisiana singer-songwriter Marc Broussard's music, a gumbo of funk, swampy blues, R&B, even church hymns. If you've ever watched the NBC series Medium, you've at least heard a snippet of his song "Home," used for the show's theme. Broussard, the son of acclaimed Louisiana guitarist Ted, stops at the 9:30 Club in support of ... [more]
Reel Affirmations offers a free screening of My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, based on the memoirs of gay comedian Leslie Jordan, who has haunted Hollywood for decades now. The film is a recreation of Jordan's popular one-man stage show. Tuesday, July 12, at 7 p.m. Renaissance Washington, DC Dupont Circle Hotel, 1143 New Hampshire Ave. NW. Free. Visit reelaffirmations.org. ... [more]
The Washington, D.C./Philadelphia Exchange features two companies and two visions representing two cities. Works in the program were choreographed by the companies' artistic directors: Malcolm Shute of D.C.'s Human Landscape Dance and Anne-Marie Mulgrew of Philadelphia's Mulgrew and Dancers Company. Tonight, Saturday, July 9, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, July 10, at 7 p.m. Dance Place, 3225 8th St. NE. ... [more]
The woman-owned and operated company Run Rabbit Run Theatre presents All for the Union in Confederate Virginia!, a true-to-life play about three young women in Virginia who fought the Confederacy in their own way, writing an underground newspaper for Union soldiers. Playwright and historian Meredith Bean McMath's play was the basis for the film Waterford's War. Opens tonight, Saturday, July ... [more]
Dcypher Dance, Joy of Motion Dance Center's resident adult hip hop company, presents "Ascension: Phase 5," a high-energy concert of new works with choreography by Porche Anthony, Jared Jenkins, Neil Schwartz and more, plus special guest artists. Tonight, Saturday, July 9, at 8 p.m. Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $18 to $25 at the door. ... [more]
A popular and critically lauded female artist in her native Australia, Kasey Chambers performed at the Birchmere a few years back with her husband Shane Nicholson, in support of their joint country album Rattlin' Bones. Now she tours solo in support of last year's country set Little Bird. Saturday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., ... [more]
Here's a look at Beyonce's video, just out: Follow @metroweekly ... [more]
Sadly, Zookeeper is not the screen adaptation of D.C. author Alex MacLennan's book of the same name. Instead it's about talking animals and their zookeeper, played by Kevin James, who's convinced the only way to land a woman is to quit his job. This provokes the zoo animals to converse with James, giving him dating advice so he'll stay at ... [more]
Four best friends from Baltimore County teamed up to make wild, eccentric, challenging rock music -- or as they call it "sonic free form electronic horror gospel hip hop soul pop madness" -- and the surprise of it all is, they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Animal Collective is just about the most popular act going in the indie/hipster music ... [more]
Emil de Cou conducts Debbie Gravitte (Jerome Robbins' Broadway), Christiane Noll (Jekyll & Hyde) and Jan Horvath (Phantom of the Opera) along with the National Symphony Orchestra as part of the pop-focused NSO@Wolf Trap summer series. On the program are selected Broadway showstoppers from Gypsy, The Music Man, A Chorus Line, My Fair Lady, Wicked and more. Saturday, July 9, ... [more]
As part of the Capital Fringe Festival, the Studio Theatre plays host to a live stage version of the classic TV game show Match Game, with contestants selected from the audience to match answers to hilarious questions with a panel of six local celebrities at each game. Among those on tap: Arch Campbell, gay porn stars Spencer Reed and Phillip ... [more]
Not to be confused with the amazing Fox TV show, the Capital Fringe Festival -- an assortment of offbeat theater, music and art -- is bigger than ever, with 140 performing arts groups and 800 individual performances over 18 days. Approximately 70 percent of the revenue from ticket sales goes to performing arts groups in the festival. The festival, now ... [more]
For its monthly film series, Reel Affirmations presents Gun Hill Road, starring Esai Morales (NYPD Blues) and Judy Reyes (Scrubs) as parents whose already troubled relationship is further threatened by their teenage son's budding sexuality. Morales' machismo character, fresh from prison, risks losing his family and freedom if he can't come to terms with reality in this gritty, intricate film, ... [more]
Best known for his work in the sketch comedy group Kids In The Hall and for his turn on the NBC series NewsRadio, the irreverent Canadian comic Dave Foley arrives in Arlington for two nights of standup, Friday, July 15, and Saturday, July 16. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. and 9:55 p.m. each night. Arlington Cinema N' Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia ... [more]
Daniel Patrick Singh's company presents the U.S. premiere of Anna Sokolow's Homenaje a David Alfaro Siquieros, an interdisciplinary piece incorporating slides from Siqueiros' paintings, poems by Pablo Neruda, Rafael Alberti, Paul Eluard and Rodolfo Mier Tonche, and a rich musical score by Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Chavez and Rafael Elizondo. Also on the bill: Sokolow's Frida Mixed repertory and Dakshina's own ... [more]
The Grammy-winning, genre-busting bluegrass/folk ensemble Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is the headline act here, but we're even more excited by one of two opening acts. The Carolina Chocolate Drops is a veritable black bluegrass band, a young North Carolina string trio that aims to carry the torch for a dying musical sub-genre still hampered by minstrel-show connotations. The band's ... [more]
Ethan McSweeney directs The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare's compelling look at human nature and the insidious nature of power, justice and revenge. The Shakespeare Theatre Company stages it for the first time in more than a decade. To July 24. Sidney Harman Hall, Harman Center for the Arts, 610 F St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $98. Call 202-547-1122 or ... [more]
The 2009 Tony-winning musical and winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Next to Normal is a tour de force examination of contemporary life. For its first national tour, the show -- which D.C.'s Arena Stage helped retool before it first went to Broadway -- features a cast that includes Alice Ripley, reprising her Tony-winning role as the original ... [more]
Source Theatre's annual theater festival presents both theater and dance as well as music, visual art, film and spoken word. The 2011 festival includes 18 ten-minute plays, three full-length productions and four "artistic blind dates," in which artists from different creative disciplines paired to create new pieces integrating the best of their talents. There will also be a one-night-only talent ... [more]
Close to Home: Photographers and Their Families presents photographs made during the past three decades by both established and emerging artists turning the lenses on their own families to document personal histories and record intimate moments. Through July 24. Smithsonian American Art Museum's McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level, 8th and F Streets NW. Free. Call 202-633-1000 or visit americanart.si.edu. Photo by ... [more]
In addition to his role in the latest Transformers blockbuster opening this week, actor-director John Turturro offers Passione: A Musical Adventure, a documentary celebrating the passionate music of Naples, Italy. Journalist Federico Vaccalabre, cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo and editor Simona Paggi assisted the Italian-American Turturro in telling the stories of the capricious Italian port city through songs by Neapolitan artists. The ... [more]
Scena Theatre presents the regional premiere of Finnish rising star Sofi Oksanen's latest play, Purge, an emotionally powerful fable of war, passion and a woman's journey to redemption when nearly all hope is gone, set in post-Soviet Estonia. The cast includes Kerry Waters, Eric Lucas, Lee Ordeman and Stas Wronka. Directed by Robert McNamara. Closes this Sunday, July 3. The ... [more]
The popular ABBA jukebox musical Mamma Mia reportedly has more productions playing internationally than any other musical. Catherine Johnson's sunny tale set on a Greek island paradise returns to Wolf Trap after last year's successful run. Through Sunday, July 3. Wolf Trap, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $20 to $80. Call 703-255-1900 or visit wolf-trap.org. ... [more]
The Raspberry Brothers, a trio of Brooklyn comedians, return to the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse to offer commentary, Mystery Science Theater-style, during a screening of the '80s Arnold Schwarzenegger blockbuster The Terminator. Expect lots of jokes at the expense of the adulterous former California governor. Saturday, July 2, at 9:55 p.m. Arlington Cinema N' Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington. Tickets ... [more]
David Cale's one-man show The History of Kisses focuses on seaside shanties, or work songs that sailors sing to help distract them from their arduous and monotonous work. In this world-premiere production, Cale portrays characters who revolve around a writer working to finish a collection of tales of seaside romance while staying at an oceanfront motel. Through Sunday, July 3. ... [more]
D.C.'s most-visible straight-club DJ, Will Eastman, of Bliss and Blisspop dance parties fame, has teamed with Brian Billion for this popular event of "guilty pleasures and underground classics" -- Ace of Base to Happy Mondays, Bell Biv Devoe to Oasis. And, of course, hollering at a certain TLC song. It returns to the 9:30 Club just two months after the ... [more]
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