Randy Shulman: April 2009 Archives

In such demand that the Kennedy Center extended its run by a week well before it had even opened, Ragtime, first staged in 1998 and recipient of four Tony Awards, is part of the venue’s "Broadway: The Third Generation" series. Based on a 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow and set in New York City at the start of the 20th Century, the production features a Tony-winning book by Terrence McNally, Tony-winning music by Stephen Flaherty and Tony-winning lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. Now playing. Through May 17. Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Tickets are $25 to $90. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company hosts its annual spring benefit in a nod to the land of the Taj Mahal. The event will feature a cocktail reception and silent auction, dinner and live auction and entertainment throughout. The dress code is “spicy, glamorous and fabulous.” Saturday, April 18, at 6 p.m. Mandarin Oriental, 1330 Maryland Ave. SW. Individual tickets are $295. Call 202-393-3939 or visit www.woollymammoth.net.

Presenting a new exhibition from local artist Billy Colbert titled “Love Is A Losing Game” and featuring helmets – symbolic artifacts used to protect ourselves from love’s game, or to battle the ones we love? Colbert, who has exhibited at the African American Museum in Dallas and the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art in Wilmington, explores the divide between love and war. On display through April 24. Long View Gallery, 1302 Ninth St. NW. Call 202-232-4788 or visit www.longviewgallery.com.

Almost a decade after its debut single and what’s become its signature, “Shackles (Praise You),” this gospel sister act has another dance hit on its hands: “God In Me” featuring Kierra “Kiki” Sheard and drawn from its fourth album, The Sound, released last year, just topped the Billboard Club Play Chart. They’re touring in support, but don’t expect to hear the dance remixes you know. Monday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $35. Call 703-549-7500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

The Warehouse presents the second annual extravaganza known as Yuri’s Night, which commemorates the first human space flight on April 12, 1961. Since this year April 12 is Easter Sunday, ABJ Productions is throwing the “Out of This World” party, which combines visual art, performance and music, a night earlier. Expect art reflecting hardcore science as well as low-brow culture, and lots of science-fiction imagery. Over 20 visual artists are included in the show’s art exhibition, including Scott Brooks. A “Burlesque Space Show” will occur at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., headlined by the “acrobatic superduo” Trixie Little and The Evil Hate Monkey. Miss Saturn and her hula hoops is another among several set to perform, as are several bands. And there will be a Celestial Costume Contest, so don your best interplanetary chic. Saturday, April 11, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. The Warehouse Arts Complex, 1021 Seventh St. NW. Tickets are $25. Call 202-783-3933 or visit www.outofthisworldparty.com.

This acoustic concert should live up to its billing as “An Intimate Evening with Bob Mould” -- it’s set in a small, lauded venue and for a hometown crowd. Mould will perform from his storied repertoire, but also from his new album, Life & Times, being released today. Tuesday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. The Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $25. Call 703-549-7500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

Almost 50 years after creation this play by Dale Wasserman, based on the novel by Ken Kesey and turned into an Academy Award-winning film, still has resonance today in its examination of a world where sanity means conformity and following the rules is the only way to survive. “Nurse Ratched will see you now” at Round House, in a production directed by Jerry Whiddon and starring Matthew Detmer as McMurphy and Kathryn Kelley. Now through April 26. Round House Theatre Bethesda, 4545 East West Highway, Bethesda. Tickets are $50 to $60. Call 240-644-1100 or visit www.roundhousetheatre.org.

Take one part Poltergeist, one part The Exorcist, one part Amityville Horror and one part Terms of Endearment, mix 'em all together -- real vigorously now -- and you get this blasé horror cocktail that has one or two good scares but mostly is a way to lay waste to time you never really wanted back anyway. A few creepy moments here and there, and a cheap scare or two (what's that at the window?!), and gobs of color-free, gloomy doomy atmosphere fill out this tale of a cancer-stricken boy whose family moves into a former funeral home where bad things once happened. Guess what? The boy starts seeing dead people. And they ain't happy. Rated PG-13. 92 minutes (feels like 9,200). Area theaters. TWO STARS (Randy Shulman)