'George Bellows': A knockout at the National Gallery of Art

George Bellows, Madeline Davis, 1914, Lowell and Sandra Mintz

Quick! Think “George Bellows” (1882-1925) and what immediately comes to mind?

Yes, the fighting between the muscled boxers, the shadows, the lighting, the crowds, the smiling, cheering and sinister-looking men who surround the ring, but George Bellows painted much more than just men in competition.   

George Bellows, Club Night, 1907, National Gallery of Art, John Hay Whitney Collection

An exhibition of 130 of his paintings, lithographs, and drawings which span subjects ranging from portraits to fiery preachers to New York tenements opened Sunday at the National Gallery of Art, the first Bellows retrospective in 30 years. 

The large show fills nine rooms, and the works are arranged thematically according to his early works, city and river life, the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, seascapes, work and leisure, and, quite importantly,  portraits of the working poor and their displacement. 

George Bellows, Paddy Flannigan, 1908, Erving and Joyce Wolf

Bellows's wife, Emma, and their daughters figure prominently in a gallery about women, his relationship with his wife, a testament to enduring love. 

George Bellows, Emma in the Purple Dress, 1919, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Raymond J. and Margaret Horowitz

He painted many other women, too, and the horrors of World War I.

In disturbing and graphic scenes, Bellows portrayed the occupation of Belgium by the Germans who slaughtered the people, used them for naked shields, and maimed their children, images which shock and haunt viewers, and stand as reminders of man’s constant inhumanity. 

George Bellows, The Barricade, 1918, Birmingham Museum of Art, with funds provided by the Harold and Regina Simon Fund, the Friends of American Art, Margaret Grisham Livingstone, and Crawford L. Taylor, Jr.

Bellows reluctantly supported the war and his art was used to encourage the American people to buy Liberty bonds. (Contrast his responses to war with those of Joan Miro in the exhibition in the East Building.)

George Bellows, The Germans Arrive, 1918, Ian and Annette Cumming.  This painting, according to Wikipedia, is based on an actual event.  When Bellows was criticized by another artist for painting a scene he did not witness firsthand, Bellows replied he was unaware that Leonardo da Vinci had "had a ticket to paint the Last Supper."

His breakaway style dramatically emphasizes human curves, the lines of landscape, and keen grasp of lighting and its effects. His love of sports shows up in many of his skillful renderings of male athletes.

Standing back and admiring his compositions, one is struck by the symmetry and importance of the designs and lines:  Trees, buildings, bridges, and the ground often direct attention to the main subject: people.

But look in the distance and what do you see?

George Bellows, Blue Morning, 1909, National Gallery of Art, Chester Dale Collection

He was born in Columbus, Ohio where he was bullied as a child in school. Later, at The Ohio State University, Bellows played basketball and baseball, drew illustrations for the yearbook, and rejected an offer to play ball for the Cincinnati Reds so he could take off for New York and pursue an art education.  Not what his father wanted his only child to do, but better your heart than your head.

Bellows died at age 42 from the effects of appendicitis, leaving behind so many strong renderings on so many different subjects, viewers can only guess about his output had he lived as long as his contemporary and friend, Edward Hopper, born the same year as Bellows and living until age 85.

In addition to the 336-page catalogue, the National Gallery's shops have for sale a Bellows mug, calendar, postcards, boxed notes, a film, and books including a new children's book, George Bellows: Painter with a Punch! Also, an audio tape for $5 is available for the tour.

From the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. the show travels to the Metropolitan Museum in New York (November 15) and then, the Royal Academy of Arts in London (March 16, 2013). 

For their sponsorship of this exhibition the people of the United States and guests are grateful to Nippon Television Network Corporation, The Terra Foundation for American Art, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Cordover Family Foundation, and The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts.

Exhibition events

Talks:

Eric Denker

June 20–22, 27, 28, 30, 2 p.m.

Diane Arkin

July 25, 30; August 3, 6, 7, 11 a.m.

West Building Rotunda, Main Floor

50 minutes

Two piano concerts

Both by Leslie Amper

June 24 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

East Building Concourse, Auditorium

1.Ciné-concert: 4 p.m.
Music for the silent film, The New York Hat, and lecture

2. Concert: 6:30 p.m.
Music by Gershwin, MacDowell, and other composers

Film: 

George Bellows

Produced by the Gallery, this film uses original footage shot in Manhattan and Maine. The film will be screened in the West Building Lecture Hall daily beginning at noon, and in the East Building Auditorium Saturdays at 11:30 a.m., with minor exceptions.

Made possible by the HRH Foundation.

Public Symposium

Friday, October 5, 12–5 p.m.
Saturday, October 6, 1–5 p.m.
Illustrated lectures by noted scholars

What: George Bellows

When: Now through October 8, 2012, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where: National Gallery of Art, West Building, Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 9th streets at Constitution Avenue, NW

How much:  No charge

For more information: 202-737-4215  or www.nga.gov.

Metro stations: Judiciary Square, Navy Memorial-Archives, or the Smithsonian

patricialesliexam@gmail.com

 

'George Bellows' tape is a treat at the National Gallery of Art

George Bellows, Beach at Coney Island, 1908, private collection

Only precious few days remain to see the fabulous George Bellows show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington before it departs for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and later, the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

The exhibition ends in Washington October 8.

An audiotape available at the entrance to the exhibition will make your visit more enjoyable and is certainly worth the $5 charge.  (Most art enthusiasts don't mind having to fork over a few bucks to hear professionals discuss great works and provide guidance, especially when institutions charge nothing for admission.)

One of the featured works on the tape is Forty-two Kids (1907) which shows boys having a lark of a time, swimming sans bathing suits, jumping off a broken wooden dock into a dark abyss, their future? 

George Bellows, Forty-two Kids, 1907, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund

Rather than a daytime scene, the light illuminates the naked boys on the dock which is surrounded by the black water and night, which consumes half the painting. Inspection reveals some of the children have already jumped in, and floating in the distance is a solitary boat, perhaps a life boat to rescue the children from their probable trajectory.    

The catalog says this painting came close to winning the annual Lippincott prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1908 but after voting 8-2 in its favor, the jury reversed its decision, probably because of a perception Mr. Lippincott might object to the work's nudity.

Said the artist, it was not the naked children which intimidated the jury, but "the naked painting."

Bellows (1882-1925) was associated with the "ashcan school" which concentrated on social conditions and life of poor people in New York tenements in the early 20th century.  He often portrayed the friction between modernity and the past.  

One example is Men of the Docks (1912) (an "ambitious, very successful picture," according to the curator on the tape). In the center of the work across the river are the city's tall buildings while in the foreground, emotionless longshoremen stand between a huge modern cruise ship in the sunlight and on the left, a small industrial boat in the shadows.  Those who do not have their heads hung low look to the left of the scene as if awaiting notice they have been replaced by modernity.  (Bellows painted Men of the Docks in the same year as the Titanic sinking.)

George Bellows, Men of the Docks, 1912, Randolph College, founded as Randolph-Macon Women's College, 1891, Lynchburg

Both Members of This Club (1909) is one of Bellows's most famous renderings of an illegal sport and all its blood, sweat, and gore. The narrator says the fighters are literally trying to kill each other, and they look it.  Be sure and study the faces of the onlookers surrounding the ring and see if you spot evil. 

George Bellows, Both Members of This Club, 1909, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale Collection

Frankie, the Organ Boy (1907) makes a viewer wonder about his background and what became of him.  He seems bewildered and out of place in his formal suit in the dark as he clasps his hands: "What am I doing here?"

George Bellows, Frankie, The Organ Boy, 1907, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Purchase, acquired through the bequest of Ben and Clara Shlyen

The forlorn expression of the Little Girl in White (Queenie Burnett) (1907), Bellows's laundry girl, offers a glimpse of what her childhood was like.   

The Saw Dust Trail (1916) shows the power of the evangelist Billy Sunday.  The catalog quotes Bellows:  "I paint Billy Sunday... to show the world what I do think of him.  Do you know, I think Billy Sunday is the worst thing that ever happened to America?  He is death to imagination, to spirituality, to art."

George Bellows, The Saw Dust Trail, 1916, Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection

And then there is Bellows's portrayal of horrible scenes, all based on reality.  Who will ever forget the powerful and wrenching The Barricade (1918) which shows Germans in World War I using naked Belgians as human shields, or The Law is Too Slow (1922-1923) based upon a 1903 newspaper story, dateline Wilmington, Delaware, about a black man who burns at the stake while a mob of perpetrators stand and watch. In an ironic twist, the captive seems to ascend in a geyser of flames in Bellows's rendering of crayon on paper which suggests a crucifixion. 

George Bellows, The Law is Too Slow, 1922-1923, Boston Public Library, Print Department, Albert H. Wiggin Collection

Last weekend the National Gallery and Bellows were packed.   I asked myself: What are all these folks doing in here on this gorgeous day? 

Allow about an hour to hear the tape, and more time, to see the entire show. 

What: George Bellows

When: Now through October 8, 2012, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where: National Gallery of Art, West Building, Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 9th streets at Constitution Avenue, NW

How much: No charge

For more information: 202-737-4215 or www.nga.gov.

Metro stations: Judiciary Square, Navy Memorial-Archives, or the Smithsonian

 

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Mellon show ends today at the National Gallery of Art

Paul Klee, Swiss, 1879 – 1940, Dampfer und Segelböte (Steamboat and Sailboats), 1931, watercolor. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983

Only a few hours remain to see the special exhibition devoted to a small portion of the hundreds of works of art formerly owned by Paul Mellon (1907-1999) before he gave them to the National Gallery of Art.

Edouard Manet, French, 1832–1883, The Raven Perched Upon a Bust of Pallas, 1875, gillotage. In Edgar Allan Poe, Le Corbeau, translated by Stephane Mallarme (Paris: Richard Lesclide,1875). National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon,

2014

Paul Mellon was the son of the founder of the National Gallery, Andrew Mellon (1855-1937), so it is fitting that the Gallery recognize the largesse of the family on its 75th birthday with a presentation of Paul and Bunny Mellon's collection found in their home, pieces which Paul Mellon hung himself. 

Jacques Villon, French, 1875–1963, A Woman in Blue at the Beach, 1902/1904, watercolor over graphite. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995 

The National Gallery is filled with the Mellons' gifts, including the 88 pastels, drawings, watercolors, illustrated books, and prints which make up this show and are not displayed often or for long periods of time due to light's damaging effects. 
The donor gave no thought really to the juxtaposition of the pieces in his home, said his friend and curator Andrew Robison when the exhibition opened.  Mellon only bought and hung what he liked, which matches the arrangement here.

Winslow Homer, American, 1836 – 1910, On the Stile, 1878, watercolor and gouache over graphite. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1994
 
Represented artists in the show include Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Édouard Manet, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Edgar Degas, George Bellows, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

Rene Magritte, Belgian, 1898 –1967, The Murderous Sky, 1927, brush and ink with collage of sheet music cutouts, lithograph. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995

Henri Matisse, French, 1869–1954, Self-Portrait, 1937, charcoal. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985

On the walls are Mellon quotes which Robison pulled from books, news articles, and magazines. Robison described Paul Mellon as a man who had a "gentleness [and] shyness" about him, "reserved [with a] mischievous smile."

George Bellows, American, 1882 – 1925, Dempsey and Firpo, 1923/1924, lithograph. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983

"He only bought what he said he wanted to live with," said Robison. Collecting was rather like "occupational therapy" for him.

His favorite artists were "probably" Degas and Homer whose watercolors he liked better than Degas'.

At the Paul Mellon exhibition/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Some of his favorite subjects were boxing, horse racing, the water, New York and Parisian night life, and woman's curves, all depicted in pictures and now on the walls of what used to be called "the Mellon Gallery," said Earl A. Powell, III, the National Gallery's director.
 
At the press preview of the show, Director Powell told a funny story about the time he was invited to the Mellons' shortly after Powell was hired in 1992 as the National Galley director.

At the Mellons' home, "Murray the Butler" greeted Powell. In one hand Murray held a sheet of paper and in the other, a martini, which later came to be known as the "Mellon Martini," created by Mellon himself, a concoction of vodka and gin because Mellon didn't like the smell of vermouth or maybe it was the other way around. 

Whatever, there was some smell he didn't like.

Murray said to Powell: "Sir, Mr. Mellon has made a list of art works on the wall he thought you might like to have, and if you want others, please add them to the list." (!!!!!)

What: In Celebration of Paul Mellon

When: Today is the last day, Sunday, September 18, 2016, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where: West Building, Galleries 72 and 73, the National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.
 
Admission charge: Never on Sunday or any day

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com

Phillips' masterworks all 'Made in the USA'

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Sunday, 1926, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

One of the biggest and best of any show I can recall at the Phillips is on display through August 31 which presents 125 artists, 120 years (1850-1970) and 200+ paintings that have just returned "home" from a four year "world tour" seen by 300,000 people.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Washington Arch, Spring, 1890, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  In 1966 Duncan Phillips donated one of his Childe Hassam's to an auction benefitting the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Duncan Phillips (1886-1966), the founder of the Phillips Collection, personally knew many of the artists whose pieces he selected for inclusion in his museum, many "on the verge" before their creations were recognized as the masterpieces they have become and which now hang on three floors in Made in the U.S.A.

Isabel Bishop (1902-1988), Lunch Counter, 1940, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Phillips insisted that his showcase, "America's first museum of modern art," become "a champion for America's own artists," and from its opening in 1921, its reputation and collection have grown to fulfill his dream, demonstrated by this stunning display. 

Guy Pene de Bois (1884-1958), The Arrivals, 1918 or early 1919, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Mixed in with the names of familiar artists in the array are lesser knowns, too: Doris Lee, Marjorie Acker Phillips, David Hare, and Morris Louis join Rockwell Kent, Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, Georgia O'Keeffe, Max Weber, George Inness, Robert Henri,  Grandma Moses, Anne Goldthwaite, Robert Motherwell, and Sam Gilliam, to name some whose works hang in the show in chronological order according to 12 themes.

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), Miss Amelia Van Buren, c. 1891, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  Because of his insistence on working with nude models, Mr. Eakins was forced to resign from the Pennsylvania Academy.  The Art Institute of Chicago rejected Miss Amelia Van Buren because it was considered "too realistic" for the public.  When hearing this, Duncan Phillips rushed to acquire it from the owner, Amelia Van Buren.

It's the biggest presentation the Phillips has mounted in almost 40 years, well worth a visit(s) long before it closes.  You know how treacherous these big shows can be at the end, with everyone elbowing, pushing and blocking views.  (And please call for rescue should you want to stand back and have a look.)

Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Still Music, 1948, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

You may want to go on a day or evening of a related event.  (Please read below.*)

The exhibition has so much to see and think about, from jazz, to portraits, oblique, abstract, modern, realism, and maybe you are a romantic?

George Bellows (1882-1925), Emma at the Window, 1920, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  Between 1911 and 1924, Mr. Bellows painted 11 portraits of his wife, Emma.

Seeing the art may make you smarter, too. 

An article in last week's Wall Street Journal proves what many of us already know: "Our Brains Are Made for Enjoying Art."  The story describes research conducted by the University of Toronto which documents brain activity and the benefits humans obtain from viewing art.  So, in addition to practical enjoyment from viewing the paintings, you may be able to stave off Alzheimer's disease.  Which might be considered a brain stretch, but, why not?  Just another reason to go and take pleasure.

Seymour Lipton (1903-1986), Ancestor, 1958, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  Mr. Lipton originally trained as a dentist.  On the wall to the left of Ancestor is a portion of The Seer, 1950, by Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974), The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

An interactive program, "uCurate," is included in the show (and can be activated from your home by accessing the Phillips' website) which permits guests to design their own art galleries using three touch screens and pieces from the presentation.

Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981), Abstraction, 1940, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  This and another one by Mr. Bolotowsky, who was a native of St. Petersburg, Russia and a founding member of American Abstract Artists, were the first to enter a museum. 

I can't wait to get back to set my brain aglow all over again.  There, I think I have well said enough.  It is, indeed, difficult to contain my enthusiasm.  

Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Blue Cafe, 1928, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

A catalogue of almost 300 pages is available for purchase in the shop and online. Major sponsors are Altria and the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts.

Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), Plumes, 1931, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.  The first Kuhn solo show in Washington was at the Phillips.  Mr. Kuhn was a co-organizer of the 1913 Armory Show.

 

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), Burial of a Young Man, c. 1908-11, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Duncan Phillips purchased this in 1918 amidst the tragedies of World War I and the death of his brother from influenza in the same year.

John Sloan (1871-1951), Clown Making Up, 1910, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. This is the first Sloan painting to enter a museum.

 

*Related tours, talks, performances, and musical events include: 

Sold out: June 26, 5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. performance of the New York Idea by the Picnic Theatre Company (Fee.  Reservations required.)

June 26, 6 and 7 p.m. "Spotlight Tours" of the exhibition.  Included in exhibition admission price.

June 29, 11 a.m. Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, Wikimedia, D.C. Bring your laptop and become a writer about the show's artists for Wikipedia!  Free but registration is required.

Every Sunday at noon a tour of the exhibition with a docent (Included in the exhibition admission price.)

July 3, 5 - 8:30 p.m. Phillips After 5, "Happy Birthday America" with music by Charlie Sayles, Tony Fazio, and the Blues Disciples, gallery talks and make your own postcard art activities. Reservations highly recommended except for members who are always admitted without charge. (Fee for others.)

July 10, 6:30 p.m. Isadora Duncan Dance by the Word Dance Theatre (Fee. Reservations required.)

July 24, 6:30 p.m. Lecture by Elizabeth Hutton Turner, professor of modern art at the University of Virginia, "Reinventing Space:  Calder, Davis, and Graham." (Included in the exhibition admission price.  Free for members.)

July 31, 6:30 p.m. Vocal Colors:  A Musical Exploration of Visual Art with soprano Melinda Whittington and mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule of the Wolf Trap Opera Company  presented in collaboration with the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts (Fee. Reservations required.)

August 7, 5 - 8:30 p.m. Phillips After 5.  American Bounty.  Gallery talks and sample classic American cuisine "through a moveable feast of food trucks." (?  Call for more information and to make highly recommended reservations, 202-387-2151. Fee except for members, no charge.)

August 14, 6:30 p.m. Lecture by Sally Pemberton about her grandfather, Murdock Pemberton (1888 - 1982), the first art critic for the New Yorker who said Mr. Murdock "may be the most interesting person you've never heard of."  He wrote often about the development of American modernism, and Ms. Pemberton has written a book about him, Portrait of Murdock Pemberton.

August 14, 21, and 28, 6 and 7 p.m. "Spotlight Tours" of the exhibition.  Included in exhibition admission price.

What: Made in the U.S.A.: American Masters from the Phillips Collection, 1850 - 1970

When: Now through August 31, 2014. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. with extended hours on Thursdays until 8:30 p.m., and Sundays, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Closed on July 4.

Where: The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St., N.W. at Q St., Washington, D.C. 20009

Tickets: $12, $10 for students and those over 62, free for members and for children 18 and under.

The Phillips is a Blue Star Museum, offering free admission for all active duty military personnel and their families through Labor Day.

Metro Station: Dupont Circle (Q Street exit. Turn left and walk one block.)

For more information: 202-387-2151

Patricialesli@gmail.com
 

A hot night with 'Carmen' at the Olney

Ensemble member Karla Choko and Camilo (Caesar Samayoa) in Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical directed by Moisés Kaufman. Photo: Stan Barouh

Perfectly timed, exquisite dancing under the direction of Broadway's Sergio Trujillo stars in Olney Theatre Center's newest presentation, Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, another in Olney's big, flashy shows, this one, a world premier co-production with Tectonic Theater Project.

And it's just in time for Black History Month and heating us up on chilly nights (and days). 

The ensemble of Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, directed by Moisés Kaufman, choreography by Sergio Truijillo. Photo: Stan Barouh

Triangular love and sex are the nuclei of the story while, on the periphery, actors become 1958 revolutionaries in Cuba's war between the U.S.-backed Batista government and the upstart Fidel Castro. (And the winner was...)

This Carmen production coincides nicely with the opening of U.S. gates to Cuba (thank you, President Obama) and is only one of many place settings around the globe where the play has been performed over the years, in London, Spain, Chicago, to name a few.  ("All the world's a stage...")


At the Olney the plot takes a backseat to fast action and dancing.

José (Brandon Andrus) and Carmen (Christina Sajous) in Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical directed by Moisés Kaufman. Photo: Stan Barouh

Brandon Andrus is José, an army guy and participant in two simultaneous love affairs, natch, while he works for Batista. His occupation and dueling romances may explain his perfunctory passion after he links up with Carmen. (Houston:  We have a mismatch on the runway.)

At the beginning, José is an urbane, reserved military man who, over the course of the production, shrinks into a blithering mess.  That's what love can do.

Meanwhile, there is Christina Sajous, Carmen, the monopolizing siren who consumes center stage a tad too much. A Whitney Houston look-alike, she dances non-stop while attracting men and more men who are lucky enough to be linked with her in brief romance (under six months) before she moves on to the next big thing.  

She is also the nation, "Cuba," testing her freedom,  strength, confidence, and independence.

Caesar Samayoa is Camilo, a champion boxer, who comes along to woo Carmen just when she's ready to ditch José. So long, José, and welcome, Camilo!  

Next!  (So many men and so little time.)

The best voice of the night belongs to Briana Carlson-Goodman who, as Micaela, José's girlfriend, is left for dust after he is smitten by Carmen. Ms. Carlson-Goodman's small role leaves us longing for more of her distinctive and melodious sounds.

The fight choreography is some of the best I have seen.  Applause to the choreographer, Ben Cunis, and fight captain, Mr. Samayoa.

One especially memorable scene (it's hard to phrase this adequately but, please bear with me or, better, go and see the show yourself and see what I mean) is reversed when two lovers fight under the spotlight (lighting by David Lander) center stage in front of us but behind the audience on stage which becomes the backdrop.  

The stage audience sits stationary in folding chairs and leaning in under dim light with their backs to center stage while they watch a boxing match in shadowy slow motion in front of them. Get it?  (You will when you see the scene. Who could forget the artistry?)

(It reminded me of a scene right out of George Bellows' painting, Club Night (sometimes on the walls at the National Gallery of Art and sometimes not, like now).)

In Carmen, Clint Ramos presents fun and flirty 1950s costuming, when women dressed as women, and men, as men. Hatted male dancers in wife-beater shirts were highly appealing.  

The sets (by Narelle Sissons) are marvelous.  Take one bar with huge columns; make it a hideout, an arena to watch a boxing match, and other places, with clever transitions which occur so naturally they go unnoticed by the audience with its eyes focused on high-powered Olympic dancing. 

I would not think this play would be recommended for children, although there's nothing wrong with the language, but the story...hmmmm. 

On stage before the show began, Jason Loewith, the Olney artistic director, smiled and said: "It may be cold out there, but it's very hot in here." Amen, bro'!  

Directing Carmen is Loewith's buddy, Moisés Kaufman, the founder of the Teutonic Theater Project whose Laramie Project and 33 Variations are two of his best known works. In his Broadway directing debut in 2004, Kaufman received a Tony nomination for I Am My Own Wife.

Kaufman and Eduardo Machado wrote the book for Carmen, and Arturo O’Farrill composed and adapted the music based on the French composer Georges Bizet's 1875 opera, Carmen. Kaufman, Loewith and  Christopher Youstra (who leads the 11-piece brassy orchestra on stage) wrote the lyrics.

  
Carmen in one form or another may be almost 200 years old. The original may stem from an 1824 poem, The Gypsies, by Alexander Pushkin, followed by a novella of 1846 which was used by Bizet to create his opera. (The Olney got a eight-year jump on Carmen's bicentennial celebration.)


Additional Carmen cast members are George Akram, Sumayya Ali, Michelle Alves, Moses Bernal, Nick Duckart, Calvin McCullough, Skizzo Arnedillo, Ronald Bruce, Tiffany Byrd, Karla Choko, Nurney, Alejandra Matos, José Ozuna, and Kara-Tameika Watkins.

Other members of the creative team are Robert Kaplowitz, sound, Marcos Santana, additional choreography, Andrea Grady, Alejandro Aviles, Josiane M. Lemieux, and Dennis A. Blackledge.

Contrary to impressions, it's not a trip to reach the Olney from Northern Virginia. From the Beltway, take 270, exit at Wootton Parkway, drive Norbeck, left on Georgia Avenue, right on Old Baltimore and right on Olney Sandy Spring Road which puts you two lights and about a quarter mile from the Olney, and you've bypassed Maryland's toll fees.  Under 45 minutes.  Take your GPS.

 What: Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical 
 
When: Now through March 6, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., and a Wednesday matinee at 2 p.m. on March 2.
 
Audio described performance for the blind and vision impaired:  Tonight at 8 p.m., provided by the Metropolitan Washington Ear.  Sign interpretation is available upon request.

Post-show discussion: AfterWords, Saturday, March 5 after the 2 p.m. performance


Where: Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD 20832

How much: Tickets start at $38, with discounts for military, groups, seniors, and students.

Duration: About 100 minutes without intermission.

Refreshments: Available for purchase and may be taken to seats.

Parking: Abundant, free, and on-site

For more information: 301-924-3400
 
patricialesli@gmail.com