A scene from "Uncle Vanya" - Photo by Lisa Tomasetti - courtesy of The Kennedy Center - Click to enlarge
The Kennedy Center is presenting The Sydney Theatre Company production of Chekhov’s tragicomedy Uncle Vanya in the Eisenhower Theater, through August 27. Andrew Upton's new adaptation stars Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh, Jacki Weaver, and Hugo Weaving. The story is set on a dilapidated, remote farm, whose owners are distracted by visitors and the emergence of three love affairs. The esteemed film and stage star Cate Blanchett received the 2009 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her role in A Streetcar Named Desire at The Kennedy Center.
The Kennedy Center is presenting a return engagement of Stephen Schwartz’s musical Wicked, directed by Joe Mantello, in the Opera House, through August 21. The show won 35 major awards, including a Grammy and three Tony Awards and was called by the New York Times “the defining musical of the decade." It’s about two girls who met in the land of Oz, long before Dorothy arrived there from Kansas. One, who had green skin, came to be known as the Wicked Witch of the West, while the other came to be known as Glinda the Good. To read more about Stephen Schwartz, who also wrote Godspell and Pippin, visit www.stephenschwartz.com/
Amanda Jane Cooper as Glinda in "Wicked" - Photo by Joan Marcus - Courtesy of The Kennedy Center - Click to enlarge
The cast of "Grease" at Olney Theatre Center - Photo by Stan Barouh - Click to enlarge
Olney Theatre Center is presenting the hit musical Grease, with music, book and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, on the Mainstage through August 28. The show has been called “the original ‘High School Musical,’” filled with dancing, drive-ins, rock n’ roll and romance.
Olney Theatre Center will present its 22nd annual Summer Shakespeare Festival and begin the National Players’ 63rd Tour with William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, August 26 & 27. The Players have produced annual Summer Shakespeare productions on the Center’s open-air, outdoor stage since 1990. They started operations in 1949 to bring innovative and accessible productions to audiences across the nation.
The Theatre Center’s Associate Artistic Director Clay Hopper has commented that “This production of The Taming of the Shrew is set in the wilds of the frontier west, and is a fast paced, funny and farcical ride with some of the Bard’s most endearing characters. It is a perfect play for the beautiful outdoor environment of the Root Family Stage here at Olney Theatre Center.”
Dan Kremer as Julius Caesar, Kryztov Lindquist as the Soothsayer and the cast of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 2008 production of “Julius Caesar,” directed by David Muse. Photo by Carol Rosegg. Click to enlarge
The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Annual Free for Allwill present William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, directed by David Muse, August 18-September 4 at Sidney Harman Hall. The Free for All is a Washington summer tradition, offering free performances of a Shakespearean classic to the general public. The production of Julius Caesar was originally presented during the 2007-08 inaugural season at Sidney Harman Hall and was hailed as “one of the best productions of this or any season.” Tickets for each performance will be made available to the public on the day of the show by visiting Sidney Harman Hall - as well as through an online lottery system.
Tom Hammond as Brutus with (background L to R) Ethan T. Bowen as Trebonius, Scott Parkinson as Cassius and Craig Wallace as Caius Ligarius in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 2008 production of “Julius Caesar,” directed by David Muse. Photo by Carol Rosegg - Click to enlarge
Signature Theatre will present The Hollow, which is a musical reinterpretation of Washington Irving’s classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, August 23-October 16. Matt Conner, who wrote the music and lyrics, also wrote Nevermore and Partial Eclipse. Hunter Foster wrote the book, which is set in an 18th-century village, where a mysterious stranger is spreading new ideas that challenge the traditional order. The stranger is blamed for a “demonic curse” when rumors spread of a headless horseman who is murdering friends and neighbors.
Signature Theatre will present The Boy Detective Fails, which Joe Meno wrote based on his novel by the same name, with music and lyrics by Adam Gwon, August 25-October 16. Directed by Joe Calarco, it’s the tale of a boy whose young sister and crime-solving partner died in a shocking manner in their home town in New Jersey. After a long stay at a hospital for the mentally ill, the boy returns to the town to try to solve the mystery of his sister’s death and “right old wrongs.”
Poster for "The Hollow" and "The Boy Detective Fails" - Courtesy of Signature Theatre - Click to enlarge
Theater J will present the mainstage premiere of Deb Margolin's Imagining Madoff, directed by Alexandra Aron, August 31–September 25. The play, featuring Rick Foucheux & Mike Nussbaum, is about the notorioius Ponzi-schemer. The play uses testimony from Madoff’s personal secretary before the Securities and Exchange Commission “to delve into the minds of two towering men, as their mutual will to confide and confess accelerates through the night.”
The cast of "Imagining Madoff" from top left Rick Foucheux, Jennifer Mendenhall and Mike Nussbaum; below the show illustration, by David Polansky - Click to enlarge
A scene from The Keegan Theatre production of "Steel Magnolias," with, left to right Sheri S.Herren, Larissa Gallagher, Jane Petkofsky & Brianna Letourneau - Photo by Jim Coates - Click to enlarge
The Keegan Theatre is presenting Robert Harling's comedy-drama Steel Magnolias, directed by Mark A. Rhea, at the Church Street Theater, through August 21. It’s the story of Southern women friends “who talk, gossip, needle and harangue each other through the best of times- and comfort and repair one another through the worst.” The women are said to be “delicate as magnolias yet as strong as steel.” The cast showcases a real-life mother and daughter, Sheri S. Herren and Laura Herren. They are joined by Linda High, Jane Petkofsky, Larissa Gallagher, and Brianna Letourneau. Steel Magnolias premiered off-Broadway in 1987, then moved to the Lucille Lortel Theater, where it ran for three years. The successful movie that followed had an all-star cast.
A scene from The Keegan Theatre production of "Steel Magnolias," with, left to right Linda High and Laura Herren - Photo by Jim Coates - Click to enlarge
Woolly Mammoth is presenting a return engagement of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park, directed by Howard Shalwitz, through August 14. It’s the tale of a white community in 1950’s Chicago as it reacts to the arrival of a black family to the neighborhood. The tale fast-forwards to the present day, and the same house “represents very different demographics as we climb through the looking-glass of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A Raisin in the Sun.” The play “reveals how far our ideas about race and gentrification have evolved—or have they?” The play won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2011 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play and Outstanding Director. The cast features company members Kimberly Gilbert, Mitchell Hébert, Jennifer Mendenhall, and Dawn Ursula with Michael Glenn, Cody Nickell, Jefferson A. Russell, and Chris Dinolfo.
Eleasha Gamble as Laurey and Nicholas Rodriguez as Curly in the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Photo by Carol Rosegg. Click to enlarge
Arena Stage is presenting a return engagement of their highly-successful production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's hit musical Oklahoma! in the Fichandler, through October 2. The production won four Helen Hayes Awards, including Best Musical of 2010.
Stacy Whittle, Brian Hemmingsen and Mary Suib in Scena's production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" - Photo by Ian C. Armstrong - Click to enlarge
Scena Theatre is presenting Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest in the H Street Playhouse in northeast DC, through August 14. The production sold out houses for five weeks last year, and, except for two supporting actor roles, the entire cast and production team are being reunited for this remount. The cast includes DC actors Brian Hemmingsen, Anne Nottage, Sara Barker, Tyler Herman, Sissel Bakken, Stacy Whittle, Mary Suib, and Kim Curtis. Wilde's tale of class and marriage revolves around a character who creates an alter ego to indulge in pleasure outside of society's mores. Like the play, whose many characters possess gender qualities typical of the opposite sex, Scena celebrates these dualities with cross-gender casting. The company re-set the production in the roaring 1920s when many women were free to act like men. Artistic Director Robert McNamara has commented that “Wilde is a master at mimicking the idiosyncrasies of the upper class, and we are simply taking that concept a giant step forward.” Visit www.scenatheater.org
The Little Theatre of Alexandria is presenting Hairspray through August 13. The award-winning Broadway musical comedy is based on John Waters’ film classic of the same name. Set in the 1960s, it’s the tale of a lovable plus-size girl who gets to dance on a local TV dance program, becomes a teen celebrity, and finds romance.
