It’s been a year of captivating premieres, revivals, and particularly strong performances for DC theaters. Here are a few things to note.
Round House Theater kicks off 2024 with Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s masterful alt-rock musical Next to Normal. Impressively directed by out director Alan Paul, this production stars the wonderful Tracy Lynn Olivera as Diana Goodman, a housewife suffering from mental illness.
Despite years of horrific manic episodes, medication adjustments, and endlessly flat days filled with robot housework and marriage, she has maintained a wry sense of humor peppered with sarcasm. Masu.
At Spring Studio Theater, non-binary playwright Bryna Turner’s At the Wedding made its regional debut in a production directed by Tom Story. A strange comedy about a woman who doesn’t want to cause a fuss after her ex-lover’s wedding goes awry.
Also in the spring at GALA Hispanic Theater, Gustavo Ott and Mariano Vale’s The Return of Eva Peron: Momia en El Closet, a dark musical comedy full of history and madness, stars the actor as a taxidermied former first lady. Starring Fran Tapia. she was amazing.
Private Jones, a new musical written and directed by Marshall Paillet and set against the harsh backdrop of World War I, premiered at Arlington’s Signature Theater in February.
The production features a cast of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hard-of-hearing actors, including Deaf, who won an Obie Award for his role in the Public Theater production of “Dark Disabled Stories.” It also included Dickie Drew Hurts, an attractive gay actor.
In Signature, Hartz played Henry, a deaf munitions worker. At the time, he told the Blade: I look for moments where it might imply sexuality and ask how it was at the time and if it was safe to be out. ”
Capital Fringe, the cutting-edge performing arts festival held annually in Washington, D.C., offered ample opportunities to see something new and different throughout its summer events.
Offerings included works by the Sharp Dance Company performed at DuPont’s DCJCC. Wren Coleman, a member of Sharp Inc. and a transmasculine dancer and educator based in Philadelphia, said the group is very LGBTQ-friendly and that their summer dances are particularly interesting to gay people. He pointed out that it was a thing.
In July, Stephen Mark Lucas brought his good looks and great talent to the Kennedy Center Opera, playing Nick Arnstein, the lover of Caterina McCrimmon’s Fanny Brice, in the national touring Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.” played.
“These old book musicals are character-driven and have great scores,” he shared. “That’s what makes them relevant today. They may feel old-fashioned on the surface, but they also have modern humor and romance.”
As a leading figure in the musical world, Lucas has played straight lovers many times, but he’s never really worried that his sexuality will get in the way of his work. “Acting takes care of that,” he said.
In North Bethesda, Strathmore dedicated two months to honoring the greatness of James Baldwin. The program included live musical and theatrical events celebrating the late writer’s genius.
In late September, Tony Award-winning actor Gavin Creel, 48, passed away from a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
Just a year and a half ago, he was at the Kennedy Center headlining the national tour of the Broadway hit “Into the Woods.” He played both the lustful wolf and Cinderella’s prince, two great scene-stealing roles that allowed him to showcase his gorgeous voice and comedic magic.
In December, children’s television writer and producer Chris Nee decided to move from television to the Kennedy Center stage and follow in his family’s footsteps by joining the prestigious Shark Guard and Shark Guard. They performed the heartwarming musical “Finn,” about a dreaming young shark. The challenges and moments of self-discovery he faces along the way.
Nee was the director of the popular Disney animated series “Doc McStuffins” (the first Disney show to air an episode featuring an interracial lesbian couple, as well as other children’s shows “Ridley Jones” and “Vampirina”). Best known as the creator of.
And at the Studio Theater, actor and director Holly Twyford is ringing in the new year with a starring role opposite Kate Eastwood Norris in David Auburn’s Summer 1976 (through January 12). The play was an excellent performance of a memoir depicting two completely different women and their long-standing friendship. .
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
