How many of us have fantasized about the perfect mate, career, sex life, house, and perfect children — in short, everything we could ever want — when we were young? Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Into the Woods delivers this at Bowie Playhouse. The 2nd Star Productions players provide all of this in Act I.

Director Alex Campbell creates a fairy tale starring Little Red Ridinghood, Cinderella, Jack of the beanstalk fame, Rapunzel, and the Witch. Campbell uses a flexible set to transition seamlessly from house sets to woods scenes. All of Felicia Moore’s costumes were wonderful, but the princes’ outfits stood out. Think Michael Jackson at the 1984 Grammy Awards, minus the glove.

Brendan Harper is impressive conducting a 10-member orchestra. It is rare to have live musicians and an ensemble in community theater this large firmly locked into every perfect musical number.

Songs like “Hello Little Girl,” featuring Davis Wootton-Klebanoff as the worldly, wise Wolf who expresses his desire for Imani Corbin’s innocent Little Red Ridinghood, and “The Spell on My House,” with Ryan Power (the Baker) and 2nd Star newcomer Liz Mulligan (the Baker’s Wife) fighting a curse that keeps them childless, are examples of how Sondheim’s music moves the musical through a 19-song first act.

My favorite is “Agony” as Cinderella’s Prince (Wootton-Klebanoff) and Rapunzel’s Prince (Willie Hadnot Jr.) sing, dance, and ham up their roles. The scene is an unexpected pleasure.

The tale of the Baker and his Wife, specifically created for this musical by Lapine, links the other fairy tales in the show. From from the Baker and his Wife to the whimsical and profound portrayal of the Witch, every character contributes to the narrative’s intricate web. This is an example of how well the acting is in this musical, adding depth to a long but never boring story.

As those of us over 30 can attest, those early wishes are fairy tales. The perfect mate realizes you are flawed. Someone else’s job prospects always look better. Sex gets boring. The house always needs repair. The older they get, the more often you wonder if you even brought the right kids home from the hospital, as Bounds sings beautifully in “Witch’s Lament.” Welcome to Act II in life.

Similarly, Act II in the musical twists from the whimsical comedy that opens the show to a much darker place as characters mature. Sondheim provides another “Agony” for the princes. This time, the depressed King’s sons meet in the woods, hiding from their lovers. Wootton-Klebanoff and Hadnot nail this number as well.

Wootton-Klebanoff and Mulligan get down, dirty, and on key in “Any Moment.” A leg lift by Mulligan grabs laughs as the other spouses are acting on another part of the stage. After the Prince kisses her on the cheek and seeks his next conquest, Mulligan attempts to figure out what just happened in “Moments in the Woods.”

Everything comes together in this production. I highly recommend it. Opening night was packed with an appreciative audience looking for the next joke. The acting, music, and singing were each dazzling.

Running Time: Two hours and 45 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.

Into the Woods plays through June 28, 2025 (Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays plus Thursdays June 19 and 25), presented by 2nd Star Productions performing at The Bowie Playhouse – 16500 White Marsh Pk Dr in Bowie, MD. For tickets ($29 general admission; $26 for seniors 60+, active military, and students; $18 for children under 12), buy them at the door or purchase them online, call 410-757-5700, or email info@2ndstarproductions.org.

The digital program is available here.

Into the Woods
Book by James Lapine
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Alex Campbell
Produced by Katie Riegel
Music Directed by Sarah Mitchell
Assistant Directed/Choreographed by Summer Moore
Stage Managed by Laura Fisher

The post A dazzling ‘Into the Woods’ at 2nd Star Productions appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Director Shirley Long takes a big swing in her second attempt at guiding a cast through the Rude Mechanicals version of Much Ado About Nothing, playing at Greenbelt Arts Center through May 17. She keeps Shakespeare’s script but sets and costumes it in the home of a 21st-century judge in the DMV.

Long comes up short in her interpretation. Greenbelt Arts Center’s thrust stage allows ample room for plays within a play, but the sparse setting leaves some of the audience’s views blocked, and the props often left me wondering what century I was in. For example, glass blocks were used as cell phones, and video boards set off center right and left displayed ads for Prince & Prince and Reelect Judge Leonato. The furniture took me back to Stratford-upon-Avon — except for a very cool mechanical unicycle, which left me feeling out of time and place.

The troupe saves the day by performing a great story. A translation into contemporary English may have helped the audience understand the jokes better.

The acting is delightful. Shakespeare is Shakespeare. The director fails to achieve her vision in this production. One reason is outdated sets. Another is the lack of depth given to Claudia.

The Hero and Claudia relationship needs further development; the Claudia character seems unrealistic. Claudia is more naïve than her position at Prince & Prince suggests. She idealizes Hero, putting her on a pedestal and viewing her as the epitome of virtue and perfection. Claudia’s impulsive nature is too easily influenced and manipulated by others. How many top DC lawyers are swayed like this?

In true Shakespeare fashion, love is still a theme, and the close relationships between women and men tend to suffer as the players progress from friends to lovers.

The best example is the relationship between Beatrice (Rebecca Korn) and Benedick (Erin Nealer). The two are constantly ribbing each other with witticisms, before members of the house decide to trick them into falling in love. The block to their love is internal: pride. They are funny as they proceed.

Not to spoil the ending, but when this pair finally marries, they seal it with a kiss. Nealer held an actor’s mask up to hide her laughing at this point.

The primary love story features the host’s daughter, Hero (Marianne Virnelson), and attorney Claudia (Claudia Bach). Claudia is captivated by Hero’s beauty and innocence, and she quickly declares her feelings to Benedick.

However, Virnelson and Bach play their roles as lovers through newness, loss, and redemption well. They need more time to develop this plot.

Scott Farquhar is a fine Leonato, whether he is welcoming friends to his estate, sharing in laughs, defending Hero’s honor, rebuking her, or planning her redemption. He does comedy and drama well. Wes Dennis plays a reserved Pedro Prince, the principal of Prince & Prince, PLC, a DC law firm specializing in law and public relations. Dennis played the dealmaker with a funny touch. He seemed capable of stealing scenes, but he did not. Virnelson is excellent in her death scene.

Alan Duda, Jaki Demarest, Liana Olear, Peter Orvetti, and Daniel Douek create the most peaceful, inept gendarmery to wander the streets of DC. And yet they hilariously uncover the crime of the week, unraveling Joan the Bastard’s (Joann Robertson) block to love.

The performance was elevated by the captivating songs of Danielle Delgado, complemented perfectly by the music of Matt Etner. Their contributions added an exciting new dimension to the experience.

Running Time: Approximately two hours, including one 15-minute intermission.

Much Ado About Nothing plays through May 17, 2025, presented by The Rude Mechanicals performing at Greenbelt Arts Center, 123 Centerway, Greenbelt, MD. To purchase tickets ($24, general admission; $22, senior/military; $12, child/student), call (301) 317-7964 or go online.

COVID Safety: Masks are optional.

Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Shirley Long

CAST
Scott Farquhar: Leonato
Daneille Delgado: Balthasar
Rebecca Korn: Beatrice
Marianne Virnelson: Hero
Wes Dennis: Pedro Prince
Erin Nealer: Benedick
Joann Robertson: Joan the Bastard
Claudia Bach: Claudia
Monica Duckles: Conrade
Steven Wilson: Borachio
Matt Etner: Musician
Stephan Cox: Antonio
Jenn Robinson: Margaret
Joshua Engel: Arturo
Daniel Douek: Dogberry
Peter Orvetti Verges
Samuel Kopel: Seacoal
Liana Olear: Oatcake
Jaki Demarest: 3rd Watch
Alan Duda: 4th Watch
Stuart Fischer: Reverend
Chris Dullnig: Sexton

CREW
Liana Olear: Producer/Stage Manager
Jaki Demarest: Assistant Director
Alan Duda: Assistant Director
Jeff Poretsky: Technical Director
Sam Kopel: Stage Crew

The post The acting is delightful in Rude Mechanicals’ ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

You didn’t vote for Donald Trump. You don’t care who people love, what a person’s race is, or how they worship. You are as open-minded as a person can be. You are a modern-day Matt Drayton, a progressive-thinking character in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner now playing at Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Beltsville, Maryland. Well, maybe you are not a rich newspaper publisher in San Francisco like Drayton, but hopefully, you will find some similarity in political views

Matt, like many progressives, probably favors public transportation until the construction crews rip his familiar routes to shreds for what seems like an eternity to make “improvements.” Never mind pollution from the standing traffic, losses to businesses on the affected roads, or frustration of people living in the way of progress, these not-in-my-backyard conservatives must be ignored for the sake of progress.

In Drayton’s case, the issue is not transportation in the 21st century; it is race in 1967 America.

Drayton (Bill Bodie) is an established rich, white, ’60s liberal; he is pro-New Deal, pro-Civil Rights, anti-Jim Crow, and anti-Vietnam War. As a newspaper publisher Drayton has risen to the top of San Fransico society promoting his views. All of that is challenged when his daughter brings her new love in for a surprise visit.

The man Joanna Drayton (Samara Braverman) has fallen for is perfect on paper: a highly acclaimed, world-renowned research doctor. Dr. John Prentice (Joseph Battley II), however, is Black, surprise. Her parents never saw that coming and neither did the Negro maid.

Todd Kreidler’s 2012 stage adaptation of William Rose‘s screenplay works as a drama with humorous lines tossed in. Director John Cusumano adds entrances as character introductions to scenes to create more cohesion in the play.

Cusumano has filled the set with old furniture, a black rotary phone, three doors providing imagination for a larger home, and an opening for a terrace the troupe paints as a cactus garden for the audience to see. Rick Bergmann’s lighting adds a sense of more room than the set provides for the home.

Dr. Prentice wants Drayton’s approval to marry his lily-white daughter, who has no idea of what she, they, or their future children are getting into. Is the publisher simply a concerned father as he claims, or a first-class bigot and hypocrite as other characters point out?

The drama crashes against Drayton and his thinking. A couple of scenes hold the mirror against double standards. One features Monsignor Mike Ryan (Neil Swanson-Chrisman), who is a good friend of the seemingly irreligious publisher.

“It’s amazing to see a broken-down phony old liberal come face to face with his principles,” Ryan says, as the newspaper man attempts to justify his reaction. “I’ve always known that behind that fighting liberal façade, there must be some sort of reactionary bigot trying to get out.”

That is not what Drayton wants to hear, but it serves as a slow-working salve for the man’s reasoning. Later, the publisher is a sportswriter in his early days ringside at Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1938. He is covering the rematch between German Max Schmeling and Black American Joe Louis.

With World War II quickly approaching, Louis’ manhandling Schmeling in less than one round is a victory for America, one everyone was proud of, Drayton remembers. Or was it? Jim Crow still ruled in the South. Integration continued to separate men in the military. Culture divided America in 1938, 1967, and many say today.

The doctor remembers the Louis knockout a little differently. Extended family members were gathered at his grandmother’s house in Mississippi to listen to the Montgomery Ward’s radio set up in the yard. After the white man was counted out, Prentice’s older male cousins danced around the yard, throwing punches at each other. The doctor, who was probably about five at the time, wandered toward the adults. His father, John Prentice Sr. (Edward V. Crews), put the boy on his shoulder calling him Lil’ Brown. Louis was known as the Brown Bomber.

The acting in UpStage Artists production is a mix of veterans at their best, starting with Bodie. Sometimes rational, often irrational, when Matt Drayton asks his wife Christina, “When you imagined looking through Joey’s [Joanna’s] wedding pictures, did it ever, remotely-ever, occur to you that the man standing beside her would be like him?” Bodie’s delivery gives one the impression he’s questioning the audience.

Bodie keeps that journalist interrogatory that helps Drayton survive this crisis in his life throughout the performance.

Nancy Somers plays the multiple faces of Christina Drayton very well. Introduced as a chic gallery owner, her personal values are attacked by her daughter’s surprise. Somers’ character is more willing to adapt to a mother’s supporting role than what people will think. But Christina works through it on stage.

Battley’s doctor is a character without blemish. Historians argue that it was necessary for the film to fly in 1967, but more modern critics take issue. I sometimes wear a historian’s hat, but when I review, I attempt to call the work as I see it. For the most part, Battley’s Dr. Prentice was cool, calm, and understated. There were times when the good doctor’s emotion was stirred, showing he was a self-made man. One key is a monologue aimed at his father about their generations and differences. You, Dr. Prentice says, “think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.”

Braverman made her UpStage debut in the difficult role of Joanna Drayton. Ms. Drayton, aka Joey, met the doctor while spending 10 days in Hawaii. However, her father was upset about Joey not calling on Sunday “because she always calls on Sunday.” Assuming the recent collage grad was vacationing, and not working on an internship in a hospital or university where the doctor was working, how did they meet? If that is a flaw, it is on the plot, or a dim reviewer, not the players.

Braverman sells her love for Prentice as the real deal, but it has only been 10 days. The character is determined. Is she a liberal fighting the bigotry and racism she sees in her father and future father-in-law, or is it affection? Joanna thinks it is love, and at 23 she can’t see why everyone else doesn’t recognize it.

Crews’ character thinks much like Matt Drayton minus the political haze. Prentice Sr., sees prejudice as real. He wants neither his son nor potential grandchildren to face the dangers interracial marriage will bring them. Mary Prentice (Pat Bullock) wholeheartedly agrees. She explains how heartbroken the doctor was after losing his wife and son in an auto accident years earlier. Mrs. Prentice never wants to see him suffer like that again.

That sense of suffering and humility unites the mothers. The Draytons lost a son. Although they are from different sides of the track, death doesn’t recognize ZIP codes.

Swanson-Chrisman brings his reliable acting to the Ryan role. When not playing devil’s advocate to Matt Drayton’s liberal sensibilities, the monsignor provides a touch of comic relief. Rev. Dr. Elizabeth L.E. Wiggins provides most of the humor as the maid Tillie Banks.

Hailing from Georgia, this Black woman is like a second mother to Joanna and a family protector. She has no problem letting the doctor know she thinks he’s a conman attempting to rob the Draytons and she will not let him do it.

Lisa Troshinsky plays another difficult but important role as Hillary St. George, Christina’s assistant at the gallery. St. George saves the day, cancelling a business lunch with a major client after the daughter’s “surprise” shortly before the luncheon. Mrs. Prentice is shocked and drinking heavily. Besides, what would the client think seeing the doctor in the home?

St. George is sacked after offering some unwarranted bigoted advice, but St. George’s counsel helped open Christina’s eyes.

I liked the play. It’s adapter Todd Kreidler’s big hit. But don’t go expecting to see the movie. Beltsville is not Hollywood. UpStage Artists charge only $10 a ticket because their mission is to make live performances affordable. The audience gets more than it pays for with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Running Time: One hour and 40 minutes, with one ten-minute intermission.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner plays through May 4, 2025 (Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 2 PM), presented by UpStage Artists performing at Emmanuel United Methodist Church, 11416 Cedar Lane, Beltsville, MD. Purchase tickets ($10) online.

COVID Safety: Masks are recommended, not mandatory.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
By Todd Kreidler
Based on the screenplay by William Rose
Directed by John Cusumano

CAST
Bill Bodie as Matt Draydon
Joseph Battley II as Dr. John Prentice
Samara Braverman as Joanna Drayton
Edward V. Crews as John Prentice Sr.
Nancy Somers as Christina Drayton
Neil Swanson-Chrisman as Monsignor Mike Ryan
Elizabeth L.E. Wiggins as Tillie Banks
Lisa Troshinsky as Hillary St. George

The post ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ by UpStage Artists revisits race in 1967 appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Does The Odd Couple work in 2025?

Those who believe opposites attract have never met Oscar Madison (Louis B. Murray) and Felix Ungar (Paul Ballard). Neil Simon created the pair in his 1965 play The Odd Couple now on stage at Bowie Playhouse. Although dated, the play is still filled with laughs, beautiful costumes, and male bonding. Given the period, Oscar also has his mind set on a couple of attractive chicks who live upstairs.

Act I opens with four men at a poker table seated for six. Speed (Michael Carlton Smith), Murray (David Buckingham), Roy (John Cholod), and the colorful Vinnie (Bill Brekke) are waiting for the host Oscar to reappear from the kitchen for a new deal. The apartment’s refrigerator and air conditioner have been out for weeks. Consequently, the host offers brown sandwiches, green sandwiches, stale potato chips, and warm beer and soda for his guests.

Oscar’s apartment is a smoke-filled mess. Clothes rest on the back of the front-stage sofa. Roy comments on recognizing the trash as being a week old as he adds to the pile. Roy says he can’t breathe so he opens a 12th^–floor window on a hot summer night in New York City.

The sixth seat is for Felix, who is usually punctual. Here it is a little after 10 pm, and Vinnie has to leave at midnight, but there is no word from Felix. Finally Oscar calls Felix’s wife to check on his friend and she tells Oscar about their separation. She also says Felix said he was going to kill himself.

Now the poker playing buddies rise to the occasion. One, Murray, is a police officer and has a horrible list of how New Yorkers kill themselves. The men are now wondering how they can help Felix, when a knock at the door startles them. Felix has come home, sort of.

When the depressed, neurotic needs to use the bathroom, the pack tries to prevent him. Bathrooms are dangerous places. They contain pills and razor blades; Felix must be stopped. After a quorum and debate, the pack elects a leader to crash the potty and stop the suicide attempt. Felix opens the door wondering what is going on. Next, Ungar walks toward the open window.

Oscar, a popular sportswriter, is a slob. He rents an eight-bedroom apartment and is behind in his alimony. Felix, a newswriter, is difficult, depressed, and in need of a place to stay. Oscar invites Felix in and the experiment begins. The supporting cast is wonderful.

I notice writing this the next day that this is a funny scene. Perhaps society has changed so much in the past 60 years that opinions on mental health and suicide are no longer laughing matters. I hope not. Simon’s genius is in writing about his times. I call that history. It, too, needs a place at the cultural table. Imagine the arts loss without Barefoot in the Park, The Sunshine Boys, Brighton Beach Memoirs, or the dozens of other comedies, musicals, and dramas written by Simon.

One thing that worried me was the audience’s lack of laughing for Felix’s opening minutes of his stage presence. Several minutes were quiet until Ballard’s character hopped around the apartment on one leg, honking, in response to an allergic reaction. Then the opening night audience realized this actor is funny. That began loud laughter that continued.

Director Randy Barth keeps to the basics, which is all the script needs. Barth’s greatest contribution is in casting. The director selects a multiracial cast reflecting 2025 America rather than 1965 Broadway. The timing, pacing, stage pictures, and delightful physical comedy all lend themselves to laughter from the script. Linda Swann’s costumes and Dan Lavanga’s set, with pictures of framed baseball players as art, conjure up 1969.

The Pigeon sisters Gwendolyn (Ansley Gerhard) and Cecily (Maria Mitiuriev) play beautiful, passionate, giggly, fun, flirtatious neighbors. Swann dresses them in miniskirts and groovy hose from the day when Twiggy was queen.

Murray is strong with the comedy, never missing an opportunity to expand on Simon’s humor, in the role of the carefree Oscar. Bowie Community Theatre vet Ballard is convincing as the uptight Felix. He and the Pigeon sisters share a cry together ruining Oscar’s plan for a double date that had sex written all over it.

Running Time: Two hours and 35 minutes, with two 15-minute intermissions.

The Odd Couple plays through April 13, 2025 (Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm), presented by Bowie Community Theatre, performing at Bowie Playhouse, 16500 White Marsh Park Dr., Bowie, MD. Purchase tickets ($25, general; $20, seniors and students) online, by phone at the BCT Hotline at 301-805-0219, or by email (boxoffice@bctheatre.com) prior to the performance date.

COVID Safety: Masks are optional but encouraged for all guests.

The Odd Couple
By Neil Simon
Directed by Randy Barth

Producers: Alan & Penni Barnett
Stage Manager: Valerie Mikles
Set Designer: Dan Lavanga
Costume Designer: Linda Swann
Set Dresser/Decorator: Penni Barnett
Properties Designer: Alan & Penni Barnett
Sound Designer: Mo Hopper
Lighting Design: Bowie Playhouse Staff
Set Construction: Supervisor Dan Lavanga
Set painting Supervisor: Penni Barnett

The post A well-cast ‘Odd Couple’ with comic timing at Bowie Community Theatre appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

Imagine being born during or just after World War II in occupied Ireland. The future for your children is emigrating to England, where they are low-paid, unskilled labor, often subject to degradation by the self-appointed superior British working class. That is life in County Galway.

County Galway is where Martin McDonagh set what turned out to be his first hit play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane. The Maryland Ensemble Theatre resurrects the work, which debuted in 1996, as a pitch-black comedy. There are a few laughs early in the work as a lonely middle-aged daughter and her manipulative ailing mother trade jabs. Funny lines are soon replaced by gloom, tragedy, and suffering.

McDonagh wrote the play so that Maureen (Gené Fouché), the daughter, and Mag the mother Mag (Julie Herber) are both protagonist and antagonist. They are outstanding actors and play the roles so that the audience can despise the characters at times and sympathize with them at other times.

It’s a dysfunctional relationship that Fouché and Herber draw the audience into with the help of McDonagh’s writing, which covers up as much as it reveals. The plot addresses different types of abuse directly and indirectly. To say more would give away the story. The play includes misdirection, surprises, and a full-circle ending.

Mother and daughter grouse with talk of Complan, a British mix-at-home food supplement, porridge, pouring “u-rine” in the sink, and who is the more troublesome to the other. It’s hard to know who’s the victim and who’s the bully here. They seem to be driving each other crazy.

Maureen had a breakdown 25 years earlier, working in England. Mother brings it up, with documentation, the morning after 40-year-old Mag loses her virginity to Pato Dooley (Bill Dennison). Mum just wants Pato to know what he might be getting into with the doolally-crazy daughter of hers. This happens while Maureen is sitting in a slip and bra on Pato’s lap attempting to get him started for another trip. Mag is sitting in her rocker a few feet away and has had enough. Just your typical dysfunctional family.

Pato is the closest to a decent human being in the script.

Willem Rogers is cast as Ray Dooley, a 15-year-old punk who cannot be trusted for anything. He holds a decade-long grudge against Maureen for seizing a ball of his that wound up among her chickens — killing one. Ray lounges around the house watching Australian soaps when he is not creating mischief. England and labor beckon soon.

Rogers does as well as anyone can with this role, but his talent deserves better. You want to take his Ray outside and kick him in the rear, as an Irishman would if any were available, but Rogers is huge. The innocence with which he plays Ray does not hide the fact. Ray’s disrespect for Mag has him up there with Maureen.

Mag has two other daughters. Apparently, they married to get away from her. Half a day around Christmas is all they can stand with dear old mum.

Director Elizabeth van den Berg is very familiar with McDonagh’s work. Instead of attempting to force laughs, van den Berg’s troupe keeps it real. How funny is telling your mother you wish she were dead and you fantasize about picking up a stranger at her funeral and having sex with him? If you find that funny, you have to see this. If you find it sick, you may want to see The Beauty Queen of Leenane to understand how a daughter could feel this way.

Van den Berg is also the dialect director. Actors’ accents were superb. Intimacy choreographer Megan Behm had Fouché and Dennison control dancing, foreplay, and the morning after dreamily. Casey Kaleba has Herber focus on screaming, a sound effect, and a skin patch while she is tortured. Considering the scene, this was tastefully done.

Eric Bierninghausen’s set places the action in a bare-bones kitchen for both acts. Stage right is a wall with old photos, memories, and fantasies that are important to the work. Upstage right center is the door to the outside, which also features great symbolism. On the left is a wall with old photos. The wall connects to a door. Further upstage center are windows, a refrigerator, a pantry, a stove, and a stinky sink.

Upstage left is a crucifix, and photos of JFK and Bobby Kennedy clue in the audience that the scene is between 1961 and 1963. While Mag generally hates Yanks, she at least has a soft spot for two. A door to the bedrooms is also positioned upstage right.

Stage right features a kitchen table and two chairs where much of the action takes place. Center stage has a peat-burning stove that also finds an occasional letter or message in it. The messages never make it to their intended party.

Running Time: One hour and 45 minutes, with one 15-minute intermission.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane plays through March 2, 2025, presented by Maryland Ensemble Theatre, performing in the group’s downstairs theater at 31 West Patrick Street in downtown Frederick, MD (across the street from the Weinberg Center). Performances are at 8 pm Thursday through Saturday and 3 pm on Sundays. Tickets ($15–$36, with discounts available for students, senior citizens, students, and military) may be purchased by phone at (301) 694-4744, online, or in person at the MET box office open Tuesday to Thursday, 12 – 6 pm, Fridays 12 – 4 pm and one hour before performances. A limited number of Pay What You Will tickets are available for each performance starting at $7 each, while inventory lasts.

ASL interpretation is available on February 14. Audio description services can be arranged through the box office.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane
By Martin McDonagh

CREATIVES
Directed by Elizabeth van den Berg
Stage Management by Shayden Jamison*
Asst. Stage Management by Olivia Pietanza*
Set Design by Eric Berninghausen
Lighting Design by Doug Grove*
Sound Design by Kevin Lloyd
Costume Design by Ronald Breitfeller
Properties Design by Lori Boyd*
Dramaturgy by Zack Callis*
Fight Consulting by Casey Kaleba
Intimacy Consulting by Megan Behm
Production Management by Melynda Burdette Wintrol*
Technical Direction by Cody James*
* Denotes MET Ensemble Member

CAST
Gené Fouché* as Maureen Folan
Julie Herber* as Mag Folan
Bill Dennison* as Pato Dooley
Willem Rogers* as Ray Dooley
Lori Laird as Mauren/Mag understudy
Joseph Waeyaert* as Pato Dooley Understudy
Zack Callis* as Ray Dooley Understudy
*Denotes MET Ensemble Member

The post Dark humor and tragedy meet in ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ at MET appeared first on DC Theater Arts.

There is a brand-new take on A Christmas Carol for theater fans in the DC Metro area. Director Max Pugh focuses on the character Emily Cratchit in A Christmas Carol Reimagined musical at Cornerstone Church. Most of the familiar players fill the stage, but the shift allows tension from a different point of view. It works splendidly. Angela Pugh wrote the music and lyrics that drive the story through five acts.

Charles Dickens’ timeless A Christmas Carol was written in 1843. Instead of centering on the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge, this version of the tale concentrates on Emily Cratchit (Natasha Alston).

Mrs. Cratchit is not only Tim’s mother and Bob’s wife, but she also serves as Ebeneezer Scrooge’s (William Powell) maid. Emily has built much animosity for her boss over her 15-year tenure. The hate poisons Emily. The ghost of Mrs. Harding (Rachel Brown), the abusive matron who made life miserable for children in her orphanage, visits Mrs. Cratchit at midnight on December 25 and tells her to expect three angels. The angels tell Emily what was, is, and may come unless Emily makes some attitude changes to her life.

Brown is fantastic as a heartless witch threatening to starve her wards unless they produce for her in “These Undesirables.” When a young mother appears with another mouth to feed, there is no room in the orphanage until the mother produces a fat fistful of pounds sterling. Now Brown sings a different tune, “So Desirable,” until she can force the mother out and hands the baby, Emily, to an older orphan who knows what to do with it. Somehow, a locket the mother gives the baby stays with her throughout her life.

A nod is given to young love when the poor Bob (Samuel Harrison) and Emily (Jayden Brown) court on a park bench in London with “I Love You More.” By the song’s end, he is carrying her over the threshold.

Tiny Tim (Scott Harrison) is featured in Act III in “Someday.” The crippled boy sits front stage center with his crutch across his lap as he sings. A huge screen backstage shows Tim standing from a log on which he is sitting and running free. This Act is a visit to Christmas Present. It ends with mother Emily Cratchit weeping over the sole prop on stage — Tiny Tim’s gravestone.

Stage Manager Diana Wilson’s rolling props were very effective, but this one prop, aided by the graveyard scene on the screen, stood out visually. Ryan Pratico’s lighting direction throughout the production suggested a taste of professionalism greater than many community theaters in the area.

By the time the Angel of Christmas Future visits, Emily sees how much she has degraded as a person. When Scrooge dies, Emily leads the ensemble in “Thank You Very Much” on a London street. It is also Emily who snatched a silk burying shirt off the corpse, the curtains, and the best linen to sell.

Alston leads Briell Sakyi, Eva Cate Pugh, Hope Nevins, Michelle Barker, and Karl Crank in “Birds of a Feather,” celebrating cashing in on death. Seeing herself as that person, Emily seeks to change in “I Surrender.”

For those who think you know how the story ends or I have given away the plot, this musical is about Emily. The work is new. Surprises remain.

Running Time: One hour and 45 minutes, with a 5-minute Christian invitation.

A Christmas Carol Reimagined plays through Sunday, December 15, 2024, at 7:00 p.m at Cornerstone Church, 16010 Annapolis Rd., Bowie, MD. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but donation of a nonperishable food item is greatly appreciated.

The cast credits are here and behind-the-scene credits are here.

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Everything about the musical Irving Berlin’s White Christmas on stage at Classic Theatre of Maryland is fantastic. Sally Boyett deserves an award for the casting, choreography, costume designs, and direction.

It’s the dancing that makes White Christmas. The troupe of Patrick Byrnes, Ciaran Welch, Joe Love, Mackenzie Koehne, Meghan Keeney, Stephanie Meadowcroft, Madeline Olexy, Sara Evelina Davis, Daniel Bargen, Michael Rick, and Mollie Becker answer the call perfectly on Boyett’s original dance steps. The cast also includes Izzy Miller, playing the General’s granddaughter.

The musical is based on the 1954 film with music by Irving Berlin and a book by David Ives and Paul Blake. Reenie Codelka is the music director.

A funny thing about the production is that it’s not a Christmas story at all. The scenes just happen to take place on December 25, a decade after a captain and private attempted to cheer troops on Christmas Eve 1944 in Germany while WWII was being fought. The troops had seen enough snow to last them for a lifetime.

The theme of the play is old soldiers helping one another. In an early scene, Bob Wallace (Byrnes) and Phil Davis (Welch), top-notch entertainers who served together in the war, visit a club to see a sister act at the behest of an old Army buddy, Dog Face Haynes. From the first note of “Sisters,” the guys look at two different sisters, Stephanie Meadowcroft as Betty and Madeline Olexy as Judy, and are smitten.

The boys will use their entertainment contacts, particularly on The Ed Sullivan Show, to pitch their performance at the General’s inn in Act 2. Dexter Hamlett has several roles in this production, including vet of the 151st Brigade and now producer of Sullivan. He is wonderful.

The stage at Classic Theatre of Maryland is fairly limited, but each inch is maximized. Rolling sets are moved in and out to create space. What results are visual effects to charm the eye. For instance, as Byrnes sings the classic “Blue Skies,” he is surrounded by an ensemble in white suits for the men and hose, white shorts, and white sports coats for the ladies. All wore similar white hats. The big difference was glitter. The men had a few sparkles, but the women had the glitz strategically placed on their hose and sports jackets, 1954-style, to steal attention. The acting, outfits, dancing, and singing blending so well together is just a small example that sums up the show.

The audience has already been entertained by “Let Yourself Dance,” featuring Wallace and Davis and an ensemble, and “The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing,” with Welch and Olexy, featuring a combination of tap and ballroom.

Retired General Waverly (John Pruessner), Wallace and Davis’s commanding officer in the war, signs the Haynes sisters to play his Vermont inn during the holidays. When temperatures are near 80 degrees, snowbirds cancel reservations. The General’s concierge has hidden bills showing his inn is in receivership. Davis follows Judy to Vermont. Wallace follows Davis. The veterans meet. The younger men decide to go behind the General’s back to help him. After all, there is always an angle.

My favorite scene closes Act 1. The General has nearly caught Martha, the concierge (Nancy Krebs). As he is just about to nab her, the ensemble comes out of a side entrance. Dance Captain Koehne, armed with a beautiful smile, sends the General in full retreat. The dress rehearsal goes on, but Waverly finds Martha as the curtain closes for intermission.

Act 2 features another song-and-dance loaded with spectacular tap dancing. Oxley and Welch sing “I Love a Piano” elegantly, and the long dancing number is fabulous. Welch was sweating profusely at the end of the number to show the energy he expended. The costuming had women in black pantsuits sans jackets while the men wore white pants, shirts, and ties, creating a nice contrast.

The finale is superb. It includes a reprise of several numbers, including “White Christmas” at the end. More extraordinary dancing. You must see it to believe it.

Running Time: Two and a half hours, including one 15-minute intermission.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas plays through December 29, 2024, at Classic Theatre of Maryland – 1804 West Street, Suite 200, Annapolis, MD. For tickets ($58–$85), call the box office at 410-415-3513, email BoxOffice@classictheatremaryland.org or purchase online.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by David Ives and Paul Blake

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The acting in Upstage Artists’ Agatha Christie mystery The Mousetrap is on target. Ayika Tshimanga, Sofia Sandoval, Zac Coates, James-Curtis Brown, and DMV acting newcomer KMG Bey Abdelrahimel worked hard on their British accents and maintained them throughout the play. Veteran actor Marc Rehr maintained a fine European accent of unknown origin.

More than accents, the actors demonstrated comic timing, luring drama, and secrecy, while moving the well-known tale from scene to scene and keeping viewers entertained.

The play is your regular “whodunit” mystery. Eight people are snowed in at a guest house: Mollie (Tshimanga) and Giles Ralston (Christopher Ferrar), the owners; four invited guests, each with eccentric characteristics; an unexpected guest, who arrives out of the blue after his car overturns the snowstorm; and finally a skiing detective. Once everyone has arrived, it is not long before a murder happens, and the detective interrogates the guests. Each avoids the truth, some by silence and others by lies.

The characters are, despite their affected behavior, vivid, and they interact with morbid amusement. Four core performances come from Tshimanga, Coates, Bowers, and Abdelrahimel, who anchor the show in actual behavior and insecurity to allow the plot to move forward.

Tshimanga’s Mollie is a soft-hearted touch, a trusting emotional roller-coaster hiding a truth from herself and all around her. Brown renamed himself Christopher Wren in order to stop children from making fun of him. He is quick with a joke but emotionally scared. Wren also thinks everyone is out to get him, and he might be right. Finally, Abdelrahimel steals a few scenes as the critical, curmudgeonly Mrs. Boyle.

Coates is new to the stage, but Director Michael Safko worked with him to bring life to Det. Sgt. Trotter. Trotter adds a thought-provoking “trust no one” psychodrama twist to the plot that brings the audience to a logical finale, assuming Christie ever wrote one. Rehr’s Mr. Paravicini has already hinted about how little Mollie knows about her guests and suggested in the future she do more thorough background checks. “After all, any one of them, or even I, could be a murderer.”

Safko’s tried-and-true direction of The Mousetrap kept its characters as close to their world-famous contemporaries as possible.

The set is a low-budget affair. It features a large room with a fireplace with an all-important radio on the mantle, a chair characters clash over, and a couch with tables at the head and foot. The table center right has a telephone on it. Upstage establishes a curtain with door cutouts on either side of the center, and an exit back left. Stage Manager Rick Bergmann did the best with what he had. However, a black floor-length curtain behind each door would have helped.

The stage, in the basement of a church, is intimate, as the front-row seats are practically on stage.

Running Time: Two hours with a 15-minute intermission.

The Mousetrap plays through November 10, 2024, presented by UpStage Artists performing at Emmanuel United Methodist Church, 11416 Cedar Lane, Beltsville, MD. Purchase tickets ($10) online.

COVID Safety: Masks are recommended, not mandatory.

The Mousetrap
By Agatha Christie
Directed by Michael Safko

CAST
Christopher Farrar as Giles Ralston
Ayika Tshimanga as Mollie Ralston
James-Curtis Bowers as Christopher Wren
KMG Bey Abdelrahimel as Mrs. Boyle
Peter Rouleau as Major Metcalf
Sofia Sandoval as Miss Casewell
Marc Rehr as Mr. Paravicini
Zac Coates as Det. Sgt. Trotter

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The technology involved with Disney’s Frozen now playing on the Roberts Mainstage at Olney Theatre Center threatens to steal the show, but a young, talented cast — many of whom are from the DMV — demands equal billing.

Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez wrote the music and lyrics for the musical, which is based on the book by Jennifer Lee. Director Alan Muraoka said he wanted to balance keeping film moments intact while finding new ideas and making this production authentic. The musical looks excellent.

Screens around the stage allow for various weather effects and mood changes. One of my favorites was the trade store and spa that Anna (Alex De Bard) and Kristoff (Ricky Devon Hall) discover on their way to encounter the ice queen. It was on Snow Mountain near the Ice Palace.

Stage manager Ben Walsh uses counter-spinning disks center stage to create a magical travel effect. Roll-in, roll-off sets, lighting, and sound effects are utilized superbly.

Elsa (Gabriela Hernandez) and De Bard are remarkable in the lead roles. The packed house went wild as Hernandez closed Act I with an emotional “Let It Go.” By this point in the story, Elsa is embracing her evil side so the song is a bad-girl anthem. Another highlight for Hernandez is her rendition of “Dangerous to Dream” in which she is joined by the ensemble.

Hernandez, De Bard, and the ensemble are terrific in “For the First Time in Forever” preparing for Elsa’s coronation. Anna is elated to have the castle opened for the first time in years, while Elsa is afraid her magical powers will be revealed in a negative way.

Anna thinks she is in love with Hans (Noah Israel), who is the first man she has ever fallen fall for, literally, in the ceremony. Their duet “Love Is an Open Door” sets the stage for a prosperous future.

Kristoff has a close relationship with Sven (Alex Mills), his reindeer. Kristoff’s “Reindeer Are Better Than People” adds a new dimension to the musical. Next, Anna and Kristoff square off in “What Do You Know About Love?” This establishes another subplot.

My favorite scene opens Act II when Kristoff, Anna, and Olaf (Kennedy Kanagawa) find Oaken’s (Jamie Smithson) Trading Post near the Ice Castle. Oaken’s family and friends are in and out of the spa singing and dancing to an enthusiastic “Hygge.”

Kendra Rai is the costume designer. Oaken is a tall man dressed in shorts like an Alps volksmarcher. Director Alan Muraoka has Smithson wave to the audience and get different sections to applaud louder than the one before it.

Smithson’s comic appeal is wonderful. De Bard also stands out in this scene as her character, who is searching for her sister, gets sidetracked and wants to party at the spa.

When Anna is once again hurt by Elsa’s magic, Kristoff rushes her off to the only place he thinks she can be healed — his tribe. Kristoff’s parents, Bulda (Crystal Freeman) and Pabbie (Tyler Dobies), recognize young love and try to convince the pair with “Fixer Upper.” De Bard and Hall share a fantastic dance scene that is only a few seconds long before Anna’s ice heart cuts things short. (Christopher Youstra conducts a nine-piece orchestra that performs 25 numbers from a pit beneath the stage. .)

Whether dressing characters for formal balls, a spa, or an isolated tribe or as the 13th son of a small Isle kingdom to the South, Rai’s designs were perfect. Walsh kept the stage changes moving fluidly, keeping the audience invested.

Running time: One hour and 45 minutes with a 25-minute intermission.

Running Time: Approximately two hours and 20 minutes, including an intermission.

Disney’s Frozen plays through January 5, 2025, at Olney Theatre Center, Roberts Mainstage, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD. Tickets ($41–125) are available online or through the box office at 301-924-3400, open from 12 pm – 6 pm Wednesdays through Saturdays. Discounts are available for groups, seniors, military, and students (for details click here).

The cast and creative credits for Disney’s Frozen are available here (scroll down).

This production includes the use of haze, fog, imitation snow, and strobe effects. GalaPro captions are available on one’s personal digital device.

Disney’s Frozen
Music and Lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez
Book by Jennifer Lee
Originally directed on Broadway by Michael Grandage
Based on the Disney film written by Jennifer Lee and directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee
Originally produced on Broadway by Disney Theatrical Productions
Music Directed by Christopher Youstra
Choreography by Kelly Crandall d’Amboise
Directed by Alan Muraoka

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A wonderful surprise awaits music lovers in Alexandria this Halloween season and beyond. The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s presentation of Jekyll & Hyde The Musical is one of the best musicals I have ever seen, or so my wife keeps telling me. She is the singer in the family. She and the rest of the packed opening night audience loved it. The acting, dancing, killing, music, singing, and set design all deserve awards as does director Jennifer Hardin for bringing this all together.

Jekyll & Hyde The Musical is based on the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson. The book is by Leslie Bricusse, who wrote most of the lyrics; the music is by Frank Wildhorn.

From reviews I read beforehand of previous local productions, I brought earplugs in my pocket expecting a loud rock opera such as Jesus Christ Superstar. That would never work in this little theater. Instead, the crew made marvelous use of the space they have.

Michael McGovern plays Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Henry Hyde extraordinarily. The researcher in him wants to save the world. He doesn’t listen when the learned brain trust tells him his plans are dangerous, immoral, and mad. Instead, Jekyll experiments on himself and crosses the line from sanity to madness never to return.

In the opening scene, Jekyll visits his father (Micheal Blinde), sitting in a wheelchair oblivious to his surroundings. The loving son sings “Lost in the Darkness” and promises to find a cure for whatever has happened to Dad’s brain.

Before Jekyll injects himself with his untested potion, the doctor croons “Now There Is No Choice/This Is the Moment.” One lyric says “… now the time has come to prove to them I’ve made it on my own!”

The audience loved a counterpoint featuring Hyde’s fiancée Emma Carew (Shelby Young), her father Sir Danver Carew (Brian Ash), Gabriel John Utterson (Matt Yinger), and Hyde at the conclusion of “Your Work and Nothing More.” The technique brought four voices singing different lines in harmony at the same time. The crowd went crazy.

Lucy Harris’ feelings for Jekyll are exposed toward the end of Act  One as she sings “Someone Like You.” Performed by Lexi Mellott, the song emphasizes the profound impact Jekyll has had on her opening his door and nursing her wounds. Their “love” makes Lucy believe her dreams could come true and bring newfound happiness.

The chorus singing and dancing to “Murder, Murder” as Hyde avenges the hospital board’s rejection of Jekyll’s research is an example of how deep the talent is in this production. Prostitutes, merchants, and high citizens mourn the death of a not-so-saintly Bishop of Basingstoke (Andrew Cosner). The other members of the board are laughing at the bishop being patronized when Hyde finds them.

“You never promised me the journey would be easy or pleasant, only we would take it together,” Emma says after Jekyll finds her in the laboratory reading his journal. The classically trained soprano then wows the audience with “Once Upon a Dream” as she attempts to settle the obviously troubled doctor.

Young as Emma joins Mellott as Lucy seeking Jekyll’s attention in a duet, “In His Eyes,” as they fantasize love, safety, and the future. “Everything worth living for is there within his eyes,” they sing.

Lucy joins Hyde in a tantalizing song and dance with “Dangerous Game.” The way Mellot plays the character I wondered if Lucy played the game out of fear or if at some level she enjoyed the danger. Either way the scene is erotic with class.

Skip Gresko’s set was most pleasing to me. Little Theatre of Alexandria used a traditional upstage, backstage format and added a second floor that housed the orchestra backstage right. Lucy’s bed downstage right was a singing platform. Center stage was a platform for character movement. A series of cabinets rested side by side backstage center on the ground. The cabinets had multiple swirling sides in them so stagehands could easily move them to establish a London street, a drawing room, a laboratory, or roll them out of the way to create more space. I have never seen community theater this creative or innovative.

David Correia’s sound design was good. I don’t know if McGovern shouted playing Hyde as an emotional gimmick or if the sound was turned up, but it was a little much. Some of us in the military were taught to break necks as a silent death technique; Correia’s crackle of the neck snapping could be heard for miles.

Mark Deal’s 14-member orchestra was exceptional. It hit every note perfectly in the 42-piece musical. An imporant army of volunteers brought the show together.

Running Time: Two hours and 20 minutes, with a 20-minute intermission.

Jekyll & Hyde The Musical plays through November 9, 2024 (Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 pm, Sunday matinees at 2 pm), at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA. To purchase tickets ($36 for reserved seating), go online or contact the Box Office via phone (703-683-0496) or email (boxoffice@thelittletheatre.com).

Not recommended for children under 12.

The program for Jekyll & Hyde The Musical is online here.

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Same Time, Next Year by Bernard Slade is supposed to be a romantic comedy. The Compass Rose Theater production that opened on October 18 is more of a melodrama with several funny lines. Though its dialogue and gender roles are now dated, the play was received by critics in 1975 as one of the “funniest shows about love and adultery to ever hit Broadway.”

The plot revolves around a man and woman, George and Doris, who, despite being married to other people, meet once a year for a secret rendezvous over 24 years. Doris tells her spouse she is at a religious retreat with the nuns. George tells his spouse he is on a business trip.

The characters feel trapped in their marriages, especially in the early years, and either character is the hero or the villain at times. In a scene set in 1965, George (Omar A. Said) is Mr. Establishment. Doris (Ann Marie Taglavore), who dropped out of high school after getting pregnant, earned a diploma on bed rest during another pregnancy and is now a 30-ish learner at UC Berkeley. Much of her learning comes at anti-war protests.

Doris, full of liberal righteousness, calls George a fascist because he voted for Goldwater, who said he would drop a nuclear bomb on Vietnam. She doesn’t understand how anyone could do something so inhuman. When George blurts out that his son Michael was shot and killed in Vietnam loading a wounded soldier onto a medical evacuation helicopter, she seems to have a change of heart and is at his side commiserating. They get to know each other’s families through photos and stories during their annual flings. Michael seems to have been George’s favorite son. Over the years these cheating spouses feel like they knew the other’s spouse and their siblings were old friends.

By 1970 the couple’s roles are reversed. Doris is now Ms. Establishment with a successful business and about to give birth to another. It has come at a cost, though. Her husband is absent for four days. Doris has no idea where he is and ponders if she wants him back. George, after much analysis, is now on a truth kick and wants Doris to confront how she feels about her marriage. He will later regret it.

Said changes George from a guilty, unconfident, lacking-self-esteem jerk in 1951 into a self-aware, psych-babbling world fixer who by 1975 has abandoned corporate America. Of course, his career in accounting and money management gave him and his family a soft landing when he decided to play piano in a cocktail lounge. Physically, the actor sports patches of gray in his hair and a mustache as he ages.

Taglavore is a Maryland-bred, NYC-based actor who “loves bringing a character from the script to life as well as collaborating with fellow artists to share stories that move,” according to her bio. She certainly does that from the time George picks Doris up with a steak until she denies him three times.

George and Doris develop a level of comfort with each other that helps each navigate his or her personal journey. The actors develop and maintain the closeness of the relationship, responding to every nuance of changing moods. The darker, largely unexplored side of the story is George’s and Doris’ deceived spouses and children at home.

Costume designer Susan Flynn dressed the actors well. The suits, dresses, and Taglavore’s hippie outfit were all on target. The shoes were not. George had a couple of pairs throughout the play. Doris wore the same pair in the final scene as she wore in the first scene. Shoes do not last 25 years.

Director Gary Goodson did a nice job of keeping a fast pace on his set and merging comedy and drama. One example is an impotent George getting excited rubbing eight-months-pregnant Doris’ feet as she breaks her water. Dialogue is not forced throughout the performance; delivery is as genuine as it comes.

Said and Goodson doubled as set designers. The wicker loveseat and footrest, pictures on the walls, and double bed were fine for 1951, but the set stayed the same for 24 years. I could imagine the motel as a shabby place for a one-night stand in 1951, but why return?

Stage manager Ryan Squires and stagehands Alejandro Ramirez and Logan Herard keep Same Time, Next Year moving at a swift pace during six scenes in two acts, allowing the audience to always remain invested.

Running Time: One hour and 35 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

Same Time, Next Year plays through November 17, 2024 (Friday at 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm), presented by Compass Rose Theater performing at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts (third floor), 801 Chase Street, Annapolis, MD. Tickets ($15–$55 plus fees) can be purchased online or by calling the box office at 410-980-6662.

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The Explorers Club, now playing at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, is a place where men are men and women are not allowed at brandy and cigars. The club is a place where the Marx Brothers meet Benny Hill. It is also a place where five wacky members attempt to keep the British Empire of 1879 London steady.

To this, writer Nell Benjamin draws on now-outdated views of this men-only club. She is an American playwright, the co-composer and lyricist of Legally Blonde, who in this farce traffics in a British brand of humor that skirts the edge of offensive.

Director Adam Konowe builds on a feast of old jokes performed by the cast with faultless timing then adds slapstick including actors diving for drinks, a brilliant effort by Lucius Fretway (Michael Townsend) to dive onto a row of bar stools to catch his beverage. In another scene a “cobra” kills three cast members, which is always fun in a comedy.

Several players require changes of outfits, and costume designer Michelle Harris hit home runs with each challenge. For example, one first appears as a wintered adventurer and ends in admiralty gear. Others don formal wear to visit Queen Victoria. One poor chap moves from an Irish assassin to chief of the Warrior Monks of Jho Dae.

John Henderson is a magnificent Sir Harry Percy, an infamous explorer whom the idiots at National Geographic think is a nitwit. Percy’s latest claim to fame is the discovery of the East Pole. He is also famous for being the sole survivor of most of his expeditions. Henderson’s voice booms and his character lies like a lawyer as it stretches tales into epic proportions. Percy is about as bright as a burned-out light bulb.

One of the men Percy left for dead is club member Beebe (Michael Fisher), who survives months of unspeakable treatment at the hands of Tibetan terrorists. Only thinking about what he will do to Percy motivates Beebe to continue day after day.

Omar Quintero stands out as Luigi, a native specimen Phyllida Spotte-Hume (Rachael Hubbard) brings with her after finding the previously undiscovered city of NaKong. Not speaking English and foreign to civilized London, Luigi wanders the stage where everything is new and mysterious. His pantomime skills are outstanding. Luigi is also a quick learner mastering bartending by the end of Act Two.

Fretway commits an almost unpardonable sin by inviting Spotte-Humme to present at the club. Worse still, he sponsors her as a member. “Your sex is weak with sin and led astray with divers lusts — no offense,” Professor Sloane (Richard Fiske), an “archeo-theologist” played with delicious deadpan, informs Phyllida in a tone of the sex that has no doubts about its God-given superiority.

Fretway is a remarkable botanist whose most recent discovery, Phyllida venusti, has qualities similar to Cannabis sativa in small doses. Phyllida is flattered that Fretway would name a plant after her until he explains too much can cause coma and death. Did I mention he rolls the club’s cigars?

Phyllida is beautiful and light of weight. She is a celebrated anthropologist who for some reason would consider joining The Explorers Club. In addition to studying human cultures, she built a flying machine. She is also the love interest of Percy and Fretway, one of whom will score the honey in this manly game they play.

Sloane’s great contribution to science is the discovery of the lost tribes of Israel. He cannot wait to share his findings with the Irish Council. Of course, the Irish were not thrilled to hear they are Jews and should move back to Palestine.

Professors Cope (Richard Padilla) and Walling (Steve Rosenthal) are best of friends. When they meet the Queen to share their latest discoveries — herpetologist Cope has discovered a most dangerous cobra he wears around his neck, and zoologist Walling has tested the intelligence of guinea pigs by teaching them to unlatch their cage — Walling’s remaining rodent figured out how to unlatch the cage in front of Her Majesty and the snake springs. And there’s more.

Tom O’Reilly’s set includes the leather couch, chairs, and burnished woods that define the stage as a manly room; a stuffed animal, knight’s armor, and heroic paintings fill most of the wall space appearing to be the work of adolescent boys run amok.

Running Time: One hour and 45 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

The Explorers Club plays through September 21, 2024 (Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 pm, Sunday matinees at 2 pmº, at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA. To purchase tickets ($26), go online or contact the Box Office via phone (703-683-0496) or email (boxoffice@thelittletheatre.com).

The Explorers Club
Written by Nell Benjamin
Produced by Carol Strachan & Alan Wray
Directed by Adam Konowe

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