DC Metro Spotlight: May 2006

Two legendary grande dames of the American stage are arriving in the nation’s capital along with fresh spring breezes in May; one is a fictional leading lady and the other is larger than life but nevertheless quite real.

Christine Baranski returns to D.C.’s Kennedy Center to star in a full-scale revival of Jerry Herman’s Mame (May 27-June 2). Baranski will be joined by Broadway stars Harriet Harris, Emily Skinner, Jeff McCarthy, and Max Von Essen in this beloved Jerry Herman musical.

Another great dame, Kitty Carlisle Hart is taking her one-woman show, Here’s to Life, to the Olney Theatre Center in suburban Maryland on May 14. The chanteuse, stage actress, TV personality, and widow of playwright Moss Hart will sing and tell stories of her life in the theater, touching on her work with most of the top Broadway names of the last century, including George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Later in the month, the Olney opens a production of the Tony-winning The Elephant Man (May 24-June 18).

Another very serious drama is Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness’ acclaimed play focusing on three hostages in the Middle East. (Catalyst Theater Company, May 4-June 10). Meanwhile, Arena Stage brings back Eric Overmeyer’s. On the Verge or the Geography of Yearning ( May 5 to June 11). The time-traveling play features three Victorian ladies moving across the earth and through time. (Listen for the recorded voice of Christopher Plummer announcing each scene.)

Just barely making the list of May openings, Signature Theatre has another go at Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins (May 30-July 16), and Round House Theatre has the world premiere of a musical stage version of a newly discovered short story by Mark Twain. A Murder, a Mystery, a Marriage: A Mark Twain Musical Melodrama mixes comedy, romance, and suspense in a small town setting. This new slice of Americana runs to June 25.

There’s plenty of time in mid-month to see a number of promising shows. Lee Blessing’s A Body of Water flows at Round House Theatre’s Silver Spring annex (May 12-June 4). The winner of the Steinberg New Play Award for 2006 by the American Theatre Critics Association, the thought-provoking story reunites local faves Jerry Whiddon and Nancy Robinette as people who awake one morning in an unfamiliar house on a mountain surrounded by water, and don’t know who they are. Powerhouse singing talent Julia Nixon returns to Studio Theatre to star in the award winning musical Caroline, or Change (May 17-June 25). Tony Kushner’s autobiographical tale of an African-American woman in Louisiana who dreams of improving her life, and her relationship with a boy in the household where she works, features a lush score by Jeanine Tesori.

Trumpet Vine Theatre Company opens The David Dance (May 18-June 10), Don Scimé’s drama about a gay talk radio host who supports gay adoption on the air while struggling with the prospect of becoming a father figure off the air. Theater Alliance has the American premiere of Canadian playwright Colleen Wagner’s The Monument (May 19-June 4). In the drama, which won Canada’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, a soldier is about to be executed for war crimes when a mysterious woman offers him freedom if he promises to obey her for the rest of his life.

Elsewhere around town, Charter Theatre presents Barry Wood in the world premiere of a one-man show, Wonders Never Cease (May 13-June 4). Director Keith Bridges promises that this comedy examines “what it’s really like to have x-ray vision, hypnotize total strangers, read minds and rule an undersea kingdom of sea monkeys.” Stanislavsky Theatre Studio promises something quite different, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, (May 10-June 18) at their new home on the campus of Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland. Didactic Theatre Company stages Rebecca Gilman’s drama The Glory of Living (May 25-June 11) at DC’s Warehouse Theatre.

Finally, Bethesda’s Imagination Stage has a world premiere for kids four and older. The Hundred Dresses (May 13 to June 11)
is adapted by local playwright Mary Hall Surface from the Eleanor Estes book set in the Depression. Here, Maddie joins the other kids in teasing Wanda, the only Polish girl in school, for claiming she has 100 dresses. They don’t believe her because she only wears one worn-out dress. But Maddie comes to regret her behavior and the loss of a potential friendship.