On Thursday, Aug. 19, the Atlas Gay 101 Film Series presents Cabaret, Bob Fosse’s 1972 film based on Kander and Ebb’s musical and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Gray. Films are screened with food and drinks to add to the festivities. Thursday nights at 8 p.m. through Sept. 2, Atlas Performing Arts Center’s Sprenger Theatre, 1333 H Street NE. Tickets are $6 each. Call 202-399-7993 or visit atlasarts.org for a full schedule.
A mysterious brunette, with a bob hairdo and a snazzy leopard-print outfit, stands at the top of a cliff somewhere in the desert. She approaches the scene of a deadly car crash below. The vehicle is overturned; the driver's body, lifeless and bloodied, upside-down. The woman (Lera Abova) examines the dead body and slides a ring, emblazoned with some bizarre insignia, from its finger, ensuring that first responders don't find it. Mission complete, she hops back on her motorbike and goes skinny-dipping in a nearby lake.
It's a provocative opening sequence, disturbing and sexy and intriguing all at once. It's a shame that the rest of Honey Don't! — the latest movie from the still Joel-less Ethan Coen — never lives up to the promise of its audacious start.
If you need relief from these stressful and angst-ridden times, you're sure to find something to salve your soul in this section. If you crave a good laugh attack, for starters, look to the "Because They're Funny Comedy Festival," or seek out specific comedians and eccentrics known to get the job done, be it John Waters or Paula Poundstone (both coming to the Birchmere), or Jessica Kirson or Margaret Cho (coming to the Warner), or Leslie Jones, who will be at The Clarice later this winter. To name only five.
Of course, if you'd prefer to get serious and really contemplate and converse about our woeful state of affairs, you'll find plenty of ways to do that, as well. Start by consulting the lineup of noted authors coming to local bookstores and even a certain historic synagogue.
The audience at Mosaic Theater's D.C. premiere production of Kareem Fahmy's Dodi & Diana first encounters the play's hotel room set obscured behind a diaphanous cloud of curtain. Then the house lights dim, the drapery is tugged aside, an instrumental cover of "A View to a Kill" swells over the speakers, and the show begins.
It's an unabashedly literal move by director Reginald L. Douglas to open Fahmy's intimate peek behind the curtain of the showbiz marriage between rising Hollywood actress Samira (Dina Soltan) and her investment banker husband Jason (Jake Loewenthal).
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