Theater News

DC Metro Spotlight: November 2006

Beaux Arts

Veanne Cox and Julia Coffey
in The Beaux' Stratagem
(© Carol Rosegg)
Veanne Cox and Julia Coffey
in The Beaux’ Stratagem
(© Carol Rosegg)

An intriguing mix of the old and the new fill the area’s stages this month, including one play that’s an unusual mix of old and new. The Shakespeare Theatre Company feels it’s Ken Ludwig’s turn to take a crack at The Beaux’ Stratagem (November 17-December 31), the comic tale of two society gentlemen who hide out in the country when their money runs out. English playwright George Farquhar penned the first version in 1707 and Thornton Wilder started but did not finish an adaptation in 1939. Now Ludwig, the indefatigable but controversial DC playwright, finishes up Wilder’s version. New York favorites Christopher Innvar and Veanne Cox head the cast.


Arena Stage presents Kyle Donnelly’s production of the beloved Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick-Joe Masteroff musical She Loves Me (November 17-December 31), which tells the story of Georg and Amalia, a pair of shop clerks in 1930s Budapest who can’t stand each other, but each cherishes an anonymous pen pal. Guess who each of them is writing to?

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company has the American premiere of Martha, Josie, and the Chinese Elvis (November 6-December 10) by Charlotte Jones, author of Humble Boy. It’s an eccentric British comedy in which Josie, a dominatrix, dreads her 40th birthday. A client throws a party with a “special musical guest” and a ghost from her past appears. Meanwhile, Mando Alvarado’s Throat (November 1-18) makes its DC premiere at Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. A Marine returns home from a bloody tour of Iraq only to confront new challenges on the streets of New York.

Studio Theatre takes us on The Long Christmas Ride Home (November 15-December 31), Paula Vogel’s drama about three children and their parents who take an ill-fated ride to grandmother’s house. Bunraku-style puppetry, live samisen music, and visuals drawn from traditional Japanese woodblock art aid the storytelling. Also on the holiday front, Ford’s Theatre may have Scrooge in their annual presentation of A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas (November 15-December 31), but Landless Theatre Company has Ralphie, the eight-year-old who craves a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas in a stage adaptation of Jean Shepherd’s beloved film A Christmas Story (November 24-December 24).

Other notable adaptations onstage this month include Tomorrow (November 10-December 10), Horton Foote’s brand new version of William Faulkner’s short story set in 1905 Mississippi, at Bethesda, Maryland’s Quotidian Theatre, while the Actors’ Theatre of Washington has Fatal Attraction – A Greek Tragedy (Source Theatre, November 3-25), a campy send up of the 1987 bunny-boiler flick that starred Michael Douglas and Glenn Close.

Horizons Theatre has four solo shows running in repertory, under the collective title Still Going Solo (November 3-December 3). Bulletins from Fatland is Shelley Herman Gillon’s play about body image issues, performed by Caren Anton; Communion has Vanessa Thomas dealing with God and sex in a play she wrote with Kumani Gantt; Deep Thoughts and Dark Chocolate features a cabaret with Terri Allen spotlighting love and loss as experienced by a modern woman; and Frida Vice Versa has Marian Licha as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo instructing a master class in painting.

The city’s two big rental houses will be visited by warhorses this month, as Warner Theatre briefly hosts a national touring company of The Producers (November 21-28) and the National Theatre welcomes divas Joan Collins and Linda Evans in Legends! (November 21-December 3), the comedy of battling egos written for Mary Martin and Carol Channing even before there was Botox.

For family audiences, The Kennedy Center has an adaptation of Katie Couric’s children’s book The Brand New Kid (November 17-December 10), a world premiere musical recommended for kids five and up. The musical follows a perky boy as he begins his first day of second grade and is teased because he looks and speaks differently. In addition, the Olney Theatre Center in Maryland has Cinderella (November 15-December 24), the Disney cartoon turned by Rodgers and Hammerstein into a TV special and then a stage musical.