Puro Tango at GALA Hispanic
By Randy Shulman
on
April 23, 2012
GALA Theatre presents Puro Tango, a celebration of the tango, directed by Hugo Medrano and featuring singer Nelson Pino and other internationally acclaimed musicians, dancers and actors from Argentina and Uruguay. To April 29. GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square, 3333 14th St. NW. Tickets are $20 to $38. Call 202-234-7174 or visit galatheatre.org.
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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.
Reviving a production that proved an international success for the GALA Hispanic Theatre in 1994, the company launches its landmark 50th anniversary season with an incisive, atmospheric El Beso de la Mujer Araña (Kiss of the Spider Woman), directed by José Luis Arellano.
In the 1994 production, the late GALA co-founder Hugo Medrano earned a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor as Molina, the first ever for a Spanish-language performance. The role of the sensitive, conflicted queer prisoner remains in good hands, portrayed here by Martín Ruiz, opposite Rodrigo Pedreira as passionate revolutionary Valentín.
The D.C. theater season doesn't tiptoe in -- it arrives with gale force. The Shakespeare Theatre Company leads the charge with The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Wild Duck, and a freshly mounted Guys and Dolls, a trio that underscores why STC still sets the bar for classical and modern reinvention. Woolly Mammoth continues to push boundaries with time-bending dramas and audience-driven experiments, while Theater J stakes its ground with provocative premieres that blur the line between history, satire, and survival.
If you want spectacle with edge, Broadway at the National delivers high-gloss imports from Stereophonic to Some Like It Hot. Keegan continues its fearless streak with punk-rock carnage in Lizzie the Musical and raw new work like John Doe. GALA Hispanic Theatre reasserts itself as one of D.C.'s most vital cultural players with El Beso de la Mujer Araña and La Casa de Bernarda Alba, reminding us that Spanish-language theater isn't niche, it's essential.
