Revelers at Black Pride. (Blade file photo by Pete Exis)
Both D.C. Black Pride Weekend and Chocolate City Pride 2013 kick off this week with several different events and parties to celebrate.
Chocolate City Pride starts on May 24 with the Genesis Pre 5,000 Men Pride Mega Party Warm-Up at MOVA Lounge (2204 14 St., NW). Anticipated cover is $10. This is followed by the fourth annual 5,000 Men Pride Mega Party at the Majestic Ibiza Nightclub (1222 1s St., NE). Cover is $40. The rest of the weekend involves parties at some of the Washington’s top clubs. Attendees can pay for these events can be paid for separately, or attendees can pay for a pass for $99.For more information, visit omegapartydc.com
D.C. Black Pride also starts May 24 with an opening reception and community awards presentation at the Hyatt Regency Washington (400 New Jersey Ave., NW) at 6 p.m. Award recipients include D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray who is receiving the Eleanor Holmes Norton Award, Dr. Imani Woody and Courtney Williams who are receiving the Welmore Cook Award, Theara Coleman and Christopher Watson, recipients of D.C. Black Pride Leadership Award, and Donald Burch, III, who is receiving the Charlotte Smallwood Volunteer Award. The rest of the weekend includes discussions, workshops, a film festival and different celebrations. For more information about schedules are sponsorship, visit dcblackpride.org.
Comedian Vicki Lawrence comes to Ram’s Head On Stage with her show ‘Vicki Lawrence & Mama’ this weekend. (Photo courtesy the Brokaw Company)
Friday, May 17
Washington Blade hosts its seventh annual Rehoboth Summer Kickoff Party at the Blue Moon (35 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach, Del.) today at 5 p.m. A $5 donation is suggested and will go toward the Washington Blade Foundation. For more information, visit the Facebook event or washingtonblade.com.
Friends of the Library, Montgomery County and the Latino Gay Lesbian and Transgender History Project host inaugural poet Richard Blanco this evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Rockville Memorial Library (21 Maryland Ave.). Blanco is a Cuban-born writer whose family emigrated to Spain, New York and then eventually settled in Florida. He is the author of three books and a bilingual triptych of poems that were submitted for the inauguration. Tickets are $30-$100. Attendees can buy packages that include a signed book. Visit folmc.org for more information.
Whitman-Walker provides free HIV Testing at Town (2009 8th St., NW) starting at 8 p.m. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Saturday, May 18
The Hagerstown Hopes Pride & Diversity Celebration takes place today from noon-4 p.m. at Doubs Woods Park (1307 South Potomac St., Hagerstown, MD). The event’s goal is to educate, enlighten and entertain the LGBT community. For details, visit pflagcentralmd.org.
Emmy-winning comedian Vicki Lawrence comes to Rams Head On Stage (33 West St., Annapolis, Md.) bringing her show “Vicki Lawrence & Mama, A Two Woman Show” tonight at 8 p.m. One of her most endearing and famous characters, Thelma Harper, also known as “Mama,” was created in the seventh season on “The Carol Burnett Show.” Tickets are $75. For more information, visit ramsheadonstage.com.
The fourth Gaithersburg Book Festival takes place from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on the grounds of City Hall in Old Towne (31 S Summit Ave.). This year coordinators are trying a new format to bring more authors and greater diversity. There will be pairings of authors, panel discussions and one-on-one conversations between authors and critics and industry insiders. Food, drink and ice cream is provided. Admission is free. Visit gaithersburgbookfestival.org for more information.
MOVA (2204 14th St., NW) holds its “Blast from the Past ‘80s Night” tonight hosted by Stormy Vain and music by VJ Tre. There will be drink specials for ‘80s themed drinks all night. For details, visit movalounge.com or the Facebook event.
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for the Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation at Falls Church PetSmart (6100 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, Va.) starting at 11:45 a.m. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
Whitman-Walker provides HIV Testing at Capital Trans Pride today from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Circle, NW). The clinic provides testing again at the D.C. Eagle (639 New York Ave., NW). For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
The Green Spring Garden (4603 Green Spring Rd, Alexandria Va.) hosts its Spring Garden Day on today at 9 a.m. The even features 40 vendors of rare and unusual plants. For more information, visit fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/greenspring.
A new New Balance shop opens today in Fairfax’s Mosaic District (2910 District Ave., Fairfax) and will carry the entire collection of athletic shoes, casual shoes and athletic apparel. Several discounts, prizes and raffles will be available today and Sunday. The shop is just steps away from the Dunn Loring/Merrifield Metro stop. Store hours today are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Visit nbretail.com for more information.
Sunday, May 19
The D.C. Center and Professionals in the City host Women’s Speed Dating tonight at 7 p.m. at Finn and Porter in the Embassy Suites Hotel (900 10th St., NW). This event is for bisexual and lesbian women in their 20s and 30s. Admission is $30. For more information, visit thedccenter.com.
Monday, May 20
The Shakespeare Theatre Company hosts an installment of its Classic Conversations with Michael Kahn featuring Audra McDonald and Christopher Plummer tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St., NW). The series of discussions covers the topics of classical theater and the craft of acting. McDonald is both and actor and opera singer, while Plummer is a classical actor who is known for his role in “The Sound of Music.” Tickets are $20-$35. Visit shakespearetheatre.org for more information.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., NW) holds coffee drop-in for the senior LGBT community today at 10 a.m.-noon. The Center will provide complimentary coffee and a community to chat with. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Bears do Yoga takes place this evening 6:30 p.m. as part of a series at the Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, NW). This is part of a basic yoga series that takes place every Monday and is open to people of varying body types and experience. There is no charge. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group tonight at 7. It is a confidential support group for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV and the group welcomes all genders and sexual orientations. Registration is required and attendees must call 202-797-3580 or email peersupport@whitman-walker.org. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Tuesday, May 21
The Stephen Sondheim production “Company” opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Signature Theatre (4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.). The show is about Bobby, a commitment-phobic bachelor, who searches for the answers to love and life in New York City. He observes the joys and pitfalls of marriage from his five couple friends while enjoying the company of the ladies. Sondheim’s award-winning score includes “Being Alive,” “Side By Side,” “Little Things You Do Together,” “Another Hundred People” and “Ladies Who Lunch.” The show runs until June 30. Tickets are $25-$80. For more information, visit signature-theatre.org.
Wednesday, May 22
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group tonight at 7. It is a confidential support group for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV and the group welcomes all genders and sexual orientations. Registration is required and attendees must call 202-797-3580 or email peersupport@whitman-walker.org. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Thursday, May 23
Lambda Sci-fi has its book discussion tonight at 7:30 p.m. at 1425 S St., N. Tonight the group will be discussing the book “Kindred” by Octavia Butler. For more information, visit lambdascifi.org.
Ari Butler, left, and Frank De Julio in ‘The Submission,’ on the boards now at Olney Theatre Center in Maryland. (Photo by Stan Barouh; courtesy Olney)
‘The Submission’
Through June 9
Olney Theatre Center
2001 Olney Sandy Spring Rd.
Olney, MD
$32.50-$65
301-924-3400 olneytheatre.org
It’s as if the play wrote itself. An admittedly cliché thing to say, acknowledges Danny Larson, a young gay playwright and the protagonist of Jeff Talbott’s new comic drama “The Submission” (now at the Olney Theatre Center).
But after a disturbing exchange with some African-American kids on the New York City subway, Danny says he returned to his apartment and the words just seemed to flow. The result was an astonishingly authentic play about an alcoholic black mother and her young card shark son trying to get out of the projects — a story totally opposite from Danny’s own comfortable, white upbringing. But despite the improbability of his ability to inform the work, it’s the best thing he’s ever written. And that’s when things start to get tricky.
Despite sensible protestations from his financial adviser boyfriend Pete (Ari Butler) and best friend Trevor (Craig Dolezel), Danny (Frank DeJulio) sends his new play out under the pen name Shaleeha G’ntamobi. His thought is a play about ghetto life titled “Call A Spade” will do better if its author is perceived to be a black woman. When the play is selected for production by the important Humana Festival in Louisville, Ky., Danny perilously takes his risky stratagem to a higher level. He hires underemployed African-American actress Emilie (Kellee Knighten Hough) to pose as Shaleeha.
Touted as the new Lorraine Hansberry, Shaleeha is a rising star and energetic Emilie loves the attention and heady process of collaborating on the play with a top notch team. She also sincerely loves Danny’s play and is mystified how this guy who describes himself as really white and really gay wrote it. Along the way there are funny moments like when Danny loiters outside the audition room texting opinions on entering and exiting actors to Emilie who’s inside making choices with the director. But mostly Danny’s frustration palpably mounts as he’s kept away from rehearsals.
From the start, the cockamamie plan feels doomed. During Danny and Emilie’s initial meeting, he asserts that they’re both oppressed people. Emilie resents the comparison, insisting that gay white men have no idea what it feels like to be a black woman in America. Issues of use of words and ownership of experience become increasingly discussed. Danny vulgarly describes African-American plays and theatrical performances as substandard — decreeing all black theatrical achievement the result of affirmative action. Danny is not only white and gay, he’s a racist too. And Emilie isn’t super fond of the gays.
Not surprisingly, Danny and Emilie come to verbal blows. It’s a great fight — one of those blindingly angry bouts when each combatant is hell-bent on having the last word no matter how hurtful it might be, and the actors give it all they’ve got.
And while some things about Talbott’s play are likable, there’s too much that isn’t. So much of the race discussion feels like retread. And the idea that a jerk like Danny could have written such an authentic and inspiringly insightful piece is wholly doubtful.
Snappily staged David Elliott and performed by an appealing and committed young cast, Olney’s production is mostly good, however Danny’s relationship with boyfriend Pete comes off way too precious. On the other hand there’s chemistry to spare bubbling between DeJulio’s Danny and Dolezel as his endearingly dopey straight pal Trevor. But alas, that’s for yet another play.
Canadian dancer Joshua Beamish performs at American Dance Institute this weekend. (Photo courtesy Julianna Evans)
American Dance Institute (1570 East Jefferson St., Rockville, Md.) hosts Canadian dancer Joshua Beamish on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Beamish, who’s gay, will perform his contemporary work “Pierced,” which takes audiences on a journey through the dark side of love, from its pain to its fulfilling splendor. He will also perform the world premier of “The Black Vale,” set to various selections by Vivaldi, and perform with two of the company’s male dancers.
Francesca Zambello, Washington National Opera’s new artistic director, is seen here in a photo from 2007 when she directed the company’s Americanized version of Wagner’s ‘Die Walküre. (Photo courtesy Washington National Opera)
Opera in the Outfield
Saturday
Gates open at 5 p.m., opera begins at 7 p.m.
Nationals Park
1500 South Capitol St., SE
Free kennedy-center.org/wno
Washington opera audiences have always known that former artistic director Placido Domingo’s tenure with the company provided an incredible boost to the capital’s cultural scene. The tenor’s long performance career speaks for itself, never mind his respectable dabbling in conducting and even stabs at baritone roles at an advanced age; add to that his steerage of Washington National Opera onto an increasingly international platform and it was easy to wonder who could possibly fill the role after his departure.
Longtime opera and theater director Francesca Zambello, a lesbian, assumed the artistic directorship on the first of this year and she comes with a strong pedigree of her own. From the Metropolitan Opera to Milan’s famed La Scala and Russia’s Bolshoi, Zambello has made a serious stamp in the opera world over decades of work that has garnered her high accolades, including the French government’s Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and the Russian Federation’s medal for service to culture.
Now, traveling back and forth between the New York City home she shares with her wife and their 4-year-old son, and her new residence in Georgetown, she says she’s ready to take Washington National Opera in a direction befitting its name and status in the American cultural landscape.
“We’re taking ‘national’ seriously,” Zambello says. “Focusing more on American artists, more new works and contemporary operas. That’s a big change for the company.”
The past few years have seen simultaneously exciting and predictable seasons at Washington National Opera. Big name artists — Renee Fleming, Patricia Racette, the up-and-coming Vittorio Grigolo — were often saddled with productions that hewed closely to creaky, early 20th-century performance idioms.
“We’re responding to the time and the place,” Zambello says of the company now. “Why shouldn’t we be unique and speak to D.C.? We should relate to who we are and where we are.”
Although Zambello’s directing history with Washington National Opera encompasses repertoire classics like Wagner’s famed Ring operas, her first offering as artistic director is this spring’s “Show Boat,” the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein operatic musical now playing the Kennedy Center and being simulcast live at Nationals stadium Saturday.
“There are a lot of great issues to explore with ‘Show Boat’ — racism, misogyny, civil rights,” she says, explaining that bringing this production to the D.C. audience is a way to honor the locale, something she plans to continue during her first full season, which begins next September with “Tristan und Isolde.”
YET, IT’S THE FOCUS on newer works and the development of an American repertoire that stands out in Zambello’s vision for the company. Old-school audience members can look forward to the season opener as well as Zambello’s own version of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” and a “L’Elisir D’Amore” later in the year. But those curious about opera’s evolution with an American voice will be frothing at the mouth over the Washington-premiere of Jake Heggie’s well-acclaimed “Moby Dick.”
“I’ve decided that every new work that we do must relate to something that is American — story, subject matter, composer, librettist. I think [“Moby Dick”] is a good way to lead us to the more serious issues. In the future, we’re going to see operas that touch on themes like capital punishment, the civil war, terrorism, themes in our lives that we can relate to.”
As part of Washington National Opera’s new direction, next year will also be a sea change for the boys’ club feeling that historically pervades the opera world. While women are objects of adulation when they’re on stage swooning with consumption or jumping to their deaths, it’s rare to see women leading the players and companies. The 2013-14 season in Washington features women conductors, plus the premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s family opera “The Lion, the Unicorn and Me.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Zambello says, adding that she did suffer at the hands of misogynist colleagues. “People don’t want to hire you. They say you’re this or you’re that — if a guy did that, they wouldn’t say that. There’s still not a lot of women running any big company; this would be about the biggest right now.”
“She has a very clear view of what she wants,” says Michael Todd Simpson, who plays the male lead Gaylord Ravenal in “Show Boat.” He first started working with Zambello as a last-minute replacement for the baritone role Escamillo in her production of “Carmen” in Sydney, Australia — a role he played again under her watchful eye three more times from China to upstate New York.
He describes what the initial audition process was like. “Francesca said, ‘Well, the first thing you need to do is lose some weight,’” he says, laughing. “She is bold like that. She has a clear vision for every aspect of the show. She’s one of those directors that knows what works and what doesn’t.”
Simpson says that for “Show Boat” Zambello auditioned everyone, right down to the chorus roles to make sure they had what it takes to bring her vision to life.
“When you have that level of detail across the board, when you walk on stage, you feel like you’re actually in the scene,” he says.
Zambello promises that Washington audiences, both hardcore opera aficionados and newbies to the art, can expect to see a range of offerings, yet all will spotlight a “contemporary approach.” Her “Show Boat,” with a large cast, vivid staging and strong dance numbers, is a primary example of what she means and perhaps envisions for the effect opera can have on audiences.
“[Show Boat] spoke to people about political and social issues,” she says of the work’s groundbreaking history in American theater. “It provided entertainment, it was something for everyone. Being here in Washington gives us a raison d’etre to really respond to the best of America.”
Chris Mann, a finalist on ‘The Voice,’ makes two Washington-area appearances this week (Courtesy of chrismannmusic.com)
Friday, May 10
Black National Pageantry System presents “The Miss Black National Plus Pageant: A Night of Fantasy” honoring Tanisha Cassadine tonight at 9 p.m. at Remingtons (639 Pennsylvania Ave., SE). Tickets are $20. For more information, visit remingtonsdc.com.
The GI Film Festival continues tonight with a screening of the short documentary “Do Tell” at 10 p.m. The film follows gay American military members stationed in an outpost in Japan pre- and post-“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Tickets to this event are $30. Attendees can buy passes for $50-$350. The festival is the only one to celebrate and commemorate the military through the medium of film. Visit gifilmfestival.com.
GI Film Festival:
The Figaro Project presents “Camelot Requiem” tonight and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the First & Franklin Street Presbyterian Church (210 West Madison St., Baltimore). The opera takes place in two hospital waiting rooms by members of John F. Kennedy’s family and staff for 14 hours after his death. Admission is $15. For more information, visit thefigaroproject.com.
Camelot Requiem:
Unity of Fairfax (2854 Hunter Mill Road, Oakton, Va.) holds its fourth annual “Who is My Neighbor” benefit concert called “Breaking the Silence: Finding Your Voice” tonight at 7:30 p.m. The show’s goal is to raise awareness around issues of abuse, bullying and mental illness with music, video, poetry and prose. Proceeds will benefit two non-profit organizations: the Women’s Center’s “Let’s Talk,” which aims to improve the psychological and financial well being of men, women and families in Northern Virginia, and KIVA, which helps alleviate poverty around the world through microfinance lending. Unity of Fairfax is a positive progressive Christian church. Admission is $15. For details, visit unityoffairfax.org.
Special Agent Galactica returns with her happy hour show this evening at 6 p.m. at the Black Fox Lounge (1732 Connecticut Ave., NW). This week she welcomes Shakespearean and classical actor Jefferson Farber. The show includes live jazz, blue cabaret, standards and comedy. There is no cover charge. For more information, visit pinkhairedone.com.
Saturday, May 11
Mayor Vincent Gray hosts his first LGBT Youth Hall Meeting today at noon at the Eastern Market’s North Hall (225 7th St., SE). Visit dc.gov for more information.
The Bethesda Fine Arts Festival returns to downtown Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle along Norfolk, Auburn, Del Ray and Cordell Avenues starting today at 10 a.m. and ends Sunday at 5 p.m. Artists from around the country and Canada will showcase their original works, including painting, drawing, photography, furniture, jewelry, mixed media, wood and ceramics. For more information, visit Bethesda.org.
Freddie’s Beach Bar (555 South 23rd St., Crystal City, Va.) hosts the 2013 Mr. Freddie’s contest tonight at 8 p.m. The night includes over $400 in cash and prizes. Categories in which contestants participate are presentation, Q&A, beach attire and talent. Visit freddiesbeachbar.com for more information.
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for the Casey Trees as part of its Community Tree Planting Program at Oxon Run Park (3787 Wheeler Rd., SE) starting at 9 a.m. Volunteers will be planting 63 shade trees. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
Sunday, May 12
Brian Stokes Mitchell joins the Choral Arts Chorus in the show “Broadway’s Show-Stoppers,” at the Kennedy Center (2700 F Street, NW) today, Mother’s Day, at 5 p.m. Mitchell is an award-winning Broadway, television and film star baritone who is known to “Frasier” fans as the upstairs neighbor Cam Winston and as Rachel Berry’s gay dad on “Glee.” The show will include his signature “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha,” as well as other Gershwin tunes and songs from “South Pacific,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Camelot” and “Porgy and Bess.” Tickets are $29-$85. For more information, visit kennedy-center.org.
Brian Stokes Mitchell:
Lambda Sci-Fi has its monthly LGBT science fiction, fantasy and horror meeting at 1425 S St., NW. Attendees are asked to bring a non-alcoholic drink or snack to share. Visit lambdascifi.org for more information.
Burgundy Crescent volunteers at the D.C. Central Kitchen (425 2nd St., NW) this morning from 9 a.m.-noon. Volunteers will prepare food along the D.C. Central Kitchen checks to help find hunger. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
Monday, May 13
“The Voice” finalist Chris Mann comes to Rams Head On Stage (33 West St., Annapolis) tonight at 8 p.m. and on Tuesday will play the Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria, Va.) at 7:30 p.m. Mann’s music is a blend of classically trained material with contemporary. For more information, visit chrismannmusic.com.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., NW) holds coffee drop-in for the senior LGBT community today from 10 a.m.-noon. The Center will provide complimentary coffee and a community to chat with. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Bears do Yoga takes place this evening 6:30 p.m. as part of a series at the Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, NW). This is part of a basic yoga series that takes place every Monday and is open to people of varying body types and experience. There is no charge. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Tuesday, May 14
The D.C. chapter of the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA) with the National Press Club presents a panel discussion tonight from 6-8 p.m. called “The Endangered Ombudsman” at the Press Club (529 14th Street, NW). It’s billed as a “lively discussion on why the press is changing how they monitor themselves and why the public may no longer have direct access to someone who is able to register complaints and bring up issues without restraint about what and how news is reported.” Several distinguished local journalists will be on the panel including Patrick Pexton, the last Washington Post ombudsman.
Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, N.W.) hosts its Safer Sex Kit-packing program tonight from 7-10:30. The packing program is looking for more volunteers to help produce the kits because they say they are barely keeping up with demand. Admission is free and volunteers can just show up. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Wednesday, May 15
The Tom Davoren Social Bridge Club meets tonight at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., SE) at 7:30 p.m. for social bridge. Newcomers are welcome and no reservations are needed. For more information or if you need a partner, visit lambdabridge.com.
Maryland Corporate Council presents “Keeping the Balance: Methods of Creating Balance at Home and in Business” tonight from 6-8 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Residences (801 Key Highway) at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served as Kimberly Eastburn, creator of the Interior Design Shrink blog, will share tips on transforming your life by recalibrating your home. She advises clients to “awaken” by first clearing out the unnecessary possessions that keep them tied to the past and reduce their energy blocking new opportunities from coming their way.
Thursday, May 16
Team D.C. hosts “Holy Spirits” LGBT Catholic and Christian Happy Hour at Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., NW) tonight at 6 p.m. For more information, visit teamdcsports.com.
‘Other Desert Cities’
Through May 26
Arena Stage
1101 6th Street, SE
$40-$85
202-488-3300 arenastage.org
Scott Drummond as Trip Wyeth in ‘Other Desert Cities’ at Arena Stage. (Photo by Scott Suchman, courtesy Arena)
In her 1991 tell all “The Way I See It,” presidential offspring Patti Davis rather scandalously opened up about her famous family.
Included in a litany of unsavory revelations was how growing up her mother Nancy Reagan frequently struck her. The slightest provocation, Patti wrote, resulted in a slap across the face — almost daily and sometimes with a hairbrush. It was her tightly wound mother’s way of maintaining control. At the time, Reagan reps denied all assertions.
With his latest play, “Other Desert Cities” (now playing at Arena Stage), gay playwright Jon Robin Baitz takes us into that spooky world of California’s Republican elite where appearances and loyalty trump all. Meet his characters Lyman and Polly Wyeth. Part of Ronald Reagan’s inner circle, they gave up show biz (he acted and she wrote screenplays with her sister Silda) for the political arena. Lyman was made an ambassador. Years later, removed from power, they live surrounded by photos from their heady past and pass sunny days playing tennis, sneaking cigarettes, towing the Republican line and polishing the legacy of their friends and mentors, Ron and Nancy.
Baitz’s play takes place at Christmas time in 2004 at the Wyeth’s Palm Springs home. They’re joined by their two surviving children — Trip, a TV producer, and Brook, a blocked novelist living on the East coast who struggles with severe depression. Polly’s alcoholic sister Silda, a little shaky and fresh out of rehab, rounds out the party. What should be a warm reunion devolves into an unhappy holiday when Brooke drops a bombshell — she’s written a new book. It’s a memoir dealing with her older brother Henry’s involvement with a radical anti-Vietnam War group and subsequent suicide. It also explores the idea that her parents abandoned Henry when he needed them most. Whether Brooke is interested in presenting truths or settling scores emerges as the hot yuletide topic.
Not surprisingly, the elderly Republican couple despises unwashed peaceniks, but it’s those smug lefties who really get to Polly. When she learns that prior to its fall release, Brooke’s book will be excerpted in an impending issue of The New Yorker, Polly becomes doubly enraged. Revealing secrets to these readers is too much. Brooke’s transgression is unforgivable; and her parents, Polly promises, will never feel the same toward her again. Lyman simply asks that Brooke wait until he and Polly are dead before she publishes.
Absorbing, witty and zinger-filled (directed at the unfashionably dressed and neocons alike), Baitz’s script is supported by smart staging and good design. Director Kyle Donnelly maintains intimacy in Arena’s big Fichlander theater in-the-round space (but unfortunately some dialogue is garbled when actors inevitably must turn their backs to sections of the audience); and Kate Edmund’s set — the expansive living room of a mid-century, desert showplace complete with faux stone bar and sunken circular fireplace — establishes the older Wyeth’s way of life at a glance.
Baitz’s play is further bolstered by a strong four-person cast, especially Helen Carey as Polly. Last season at Arena, Carey played Mary Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” and now she’s back as another complicated matriarch of yet another dysfunctional family. Her Polly is a scary amalgam — charming, driven, competitive and fiercely loyal. Carey superbly captures the dynamism. As Brooke, Emily Donahoe conveys sensitivity and her own brand of grit. And despite the ramrod posture and sharply delivered wisecracks, Martha Hackett imbues embittered Silda with a lot of vulnerability. She’s no match for her sister and she knows it.
Openly gay New York actor Scott Drummond is excellent as Brooke’s caring younger brother Trip, a likable athletic preppy with a porn addiction. Too young to have known his late brother or remember the drama surrounding his death, Trip is the family’s peacemaker.
Larry Bryggman’s Lyman is all bonhomie and surface affability. A former movie actor best remembered for his death scenes in cowboy and gangster pictures, Lyman doesn’t want drama off-screen. But in the end, it’s Lyman who makes the play’s boldest move.
Eventually, Patti Davis and the former First Lady buried the hatchet despite Davis’ memoir. Hopefully all is truly forgiven, but at least the mother and daughter sensibly agreed that happy family makes a better look than intergenerational feuding. And does art imitate life entirely at Arena? You have through the end of May to find out.
Gay filmmaker John Waters (Photo by Greg Gorman; courtesy of Waters)
Famed Baltimore-based gay director John Waters comes to the Howard Theatre (620 T St., NW) with his show “This Filthy World” on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Waters is known for his trash epics such as “Pink Flamingos,” “Female Trouble,” “Hairspray” and “Cry Baby.” His one-man act will share his early artistic influences, such as exploitation films, fashion lunacy, the extremities of the art world, Catholicism, sexual deviancy and a love of reading.
Amelia White, a lesbian musician based out of Boston, brings her poetic songs to the Birchmere with Asleep at the Wheel. (Photo courtesy Shauna Jamison)
Lesbian musician Amelia White joins nine-time Grammy winning band, Asleep at the Wheel, in a performance at the Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave.) on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.
Born in Virginia but a Boston-based musician, White’s influences are a combination of country and classic rock. Her most recent album “Beautiful and Wild” explores the idea of souls crossing to the next world and connections made with beings beyond the physical. The title track was written about guitarist Duane Jarvis, whom she met in 2001 and who died an untimely death in 2009.
The Peter Fox Project hosts a cabaret in Fox’s honor on Saturday. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Stroga (1808 Adams Mill Rd., NW) hosts “Change the World,” an evening of cabaret honoring the legacy of late D.C. singer Peter Fox, who was gay, on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
The evening will feature performances by Mary Ann Redmond, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s Potomac Fever and others as they introduce the first recipient of the Peter Fox Award. The evening will help the Peter Fox Project in partnership with the Sitar Arts Center as they help underserved artistically gifted youths in the D.C. area.
