'Rumors' run wild in Alexandria

Starring in Little Theatre of Alexandria's Rumors are, from bottom left up the stairs: Kirk Lambert as Glenn Cooper, Roxanne Waite as Cassie Cooper, Peter Halverson as Ernie Cusack, Janice Rivera as Cookie Cusack. On the top landing from left: Stephanie Chu Rudden as Chris Gorman, Mike Rudden as Ken Gorman, Jayne L. Victor as Claire Ganz and Mike Donahue as Lenny Ganz/photo by Matthew Randall

With Neil Simon (1927-2018) driving the content and four dressed-up New York couples ready to party-hearty, what do you expect? 

It's an evening of hilarious Shakespearean farce at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, enough to make you forget about the day's troubles for a while and don't we all need that?

The laughs begin almost immediately in Rumors when real-life husband and wife Mike Rudden and Stephanie Chu Rudden as the Gormans start the action. 

Ken Gorman has discovered a problem. 

Help!  There's a crime underway!  

It takes only moments for three more couples to arrive at Charlie and Myra's to celebrate the couple's 10th wedding anniversary, but where are Charlie and Myra? 

And (more importantly), where is the food?  Thank goodness, the liquor is available.

Rumors run rampant. 

It's a laugh, a conflict, and expletive-a-minute.

Almost stealing the show is Mike Donahue as Lenny Ganz who delivers a strong commanding performance, but please, the "adult" words! Skimming the script, I don't find them. Are they supposed to make the production more timely?  Ouch!  My ears are aching.  I cannot imagine any party where this offensive language is heard so often.

But, officer!  My brand-new BMW with only 12 miles has been wrecked!

As supporting spouse, Mr. Donahue's real-life and stage wife, Jayne L. Victor, nicely augments her husband's role. 

Peter Halverson is Ernie Cusack, the realistic and dazed husband of "Cookie" (Janice Rivera), a charming, spacy actor who is laugh-a-minute every time she utters a line, reminiscent of SNL's "girl at a party."   

Hairdresser Rebecca Harris has designed a pyramid wig for the head of "Cassie" (Roxanne Waite) who enters the party performing a balancing act worthy of an Olympic contest. 

A metamorphosis in the bathroom crystalizes her personality as a slithering woman who needs the comfort of anyone but her husband (Kirk Lambert). 

Whatever shall we do?  

No food, no celebrants, but a crime is underway and here come the cops, with Joe Dzikiewics as Officer Welch leading an investigation, usurped by the wild exaggerations and animated gestures of his silent partner, Eileen Copas as Officer Pudney.

Seated are Peter Halverson as Ernie Cusack and Janice Rivera as Cookie Cusack; standing from left are Joe Dzikiewicz as Officer Welch, Mike Rudden as Ken Gorman, and Eileen Copas as Officer Pudney in Little Theatre of Alexandria's Rumors/photo by Matthew Randall

Everyone is formally attired (applause to designer Judy Whelihan), able to overlook red spots on white shirts. (I don't know why I find theater more enjoyable when characters are dressed for the ball, and ball they have in Rumors.)

Sound engineer Alan Wray has his hands full, ringing the too-loud doorbell. And the phone. (That phone conflicts with the timing of the show if expletives were added to make it more "contemporary.")  

Charles Dragonette has created an exquisite set for the prancing and dancing of the couples in this circus. Scene changes, not necessary. 

It's an enjoyable time with these quartets, enough to make you laugh out loud which is not only good for the soul but good for the heart, too.  

Fun at the theatre returns! And to accommodate the new mood, the Little Theatre is selling extra seating. 

Other crew members are Matthew Randall, director; Nick Friedlander and Jennifer Lyman, producers; Sarah Holt, assistant producer; Lauren Markovich and Meggie Webster, stage managers; Julie Fischer and Dan Remmers, set construction; Kirstin Apker, props; Ken and Patti Crowley, lighting; Sam Jensen, master electrician;  Larissa Norris, makeup; Margaret Snow, wardrobes; Mona Wargo, set painting; and Russell M. Wyland, rigging.

What:  Rumors by Neil Simon

When: Now through August 14, 2021, Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m. Some shows, nearing sellouts.

Where: Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Tickets: $21, weekdays; $24, weekends.

Duration: About 2 hours with one intermission. 

Adult language:  Yes and plenty of it. Totally gratuitous.

Masks: Required.  No exceptions.

Public transportation: Check the Metro and Dash bus websites.

Parking: On the streets and in many garages nearby with free parking during performances at Capital One Bank at Wilkes and Washington streets.

For more information: Box Office: 703-683-0496; Business: 703-683-5778.

boxoffice@thelittletheatre.com or Asklta@thelittletheatre.com 

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Bad Girls' in Baltimore, worth a trip

Jan van de Velde II (Dutch, c. 1593-1641), The Sorceress, 1626, engraving, Garrett Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art

Classic treatments of men treating women badly in art and perpetuating stereotypes are presented at the Baltimore Museum of Art in a new exhibition, Women Behaving Badly:  400 Years of Power & Protest.

Witches, and vampires and sorceresses, oh, my!  They are all here: the women who frighten men by their independence and aggressiveness, the art and names which have endured for centuries and have shaped attitudes about women.

Talk about the power of art!

In the engraving above, Golden Age artist Jan van de Velde II depicts a young sorceress brewing her evil, surrounded by a myriad of conniving creatures, certain to help her put an end to all that's good. 

It's one of my favorites in the show which illustrates the extremes that artists will reach to meet popular culture. One website says the Latin inscribed at the base of the work likely alludes to temptation. Van de Velde made this during a dark period in Europe's history, amidst  the Thirty Years' War, the Little Ice Age, and 1,000 witch trials which ended the lives of mostly women by death and torture.

Honoré Daumier (French, 1808-1879), The mother is in the heat of composing, while the baby is in the water of the bathtub! 1844, crayon lithograph, Blanche Adler Memorial Fund, Baltimore Museum of Art

Do you love this as much as I? 

There she is, matey, the mother and wifey, whiling away at her "hobby" while her child drowns in the tub!  Now, what have you?  Send them back to the kitchen where they belong! Whoever heard of a woman writing?  I say, they don't know what a good world they've got. Look it how her house is all disheveled 'cuz she's paying no attention to what she should be doing! Bluestockings will be the last of these, I say they will! I'll see to it!

Thomas Nast (American, 1840-1902), Get Thee Behind Me, (Mrs.) Satan!, ca. 1872, wood engraving, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

I don't know why this saddens me so much, to realize the artist, whom I have admired for many years, falls prey to the anti-feminist movement of the period which, I suppose, was harder to ignore than embrace, as many social movements are. 

While the woman in the center climbs a mountain with a drunk husband and children on her back, she says to Mrs. Satan, "I'd rather travel the hardest path of matrimony than follow your footsteps." 

Mrs. Satan is Victoria Hull, a woman suffragist leader, who carries a sign: "Be saved by free love." 

Ms. Hull's cape has piping of a vulture's talons, no less. She was a woman of many achievements, drawing the scorn of the opposite sex as she introduced American audiences to the works of Karl Marx, was the first woman to operate a Wall Street brokerage firm, and was the first woman to run for president (1872). Read more about her here.

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), Four Naked Women (Four Witches), 1497, engraving, Garrett Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art

You have to attend the exhibition to see the devil lurking behind the doorway on the left as he (he is a "he") colludes with these evil representations of humans whom Durer shows as sinister and tempting to all who glance upon them. In the center is a hanging globe with the year 1497 and the initials O.G.H. meaning "Oh God, save us" (from these monsters)!

Eugène Samuel Grasset (French, 1841-1917), Jeanne d'Arc /Sarah Bernhardt, 1890, color lithograph, gift of Henry E. Treide, Baltimore Museum of Art

According to museum label copy, Ms. Bernhardt, the world-renowned singer/actress, liked to think of herself as more than just a stage performer, and indeed she was! She directed, taught, wrote plays and textbooks, painted landscapes and sculpted. 

Above, she is pictured as none other than a 19th century Joan of Arc.

On Ms. Bernhardt's tour of North and Latin America in 1905, Wikipedia says she attracted controversy (her m.o., some might say) in Montreal where the Roman Catholic bishop encouraged his followers to throw eggs at her because she portrayed prostitutes as sympathetic characters.

Ms. Bernhardt had many lovers, the last of whom, an actor, was 37 years her junior.  Indeed!  The more I read about Ms. Bernhardt, the more I want to read. You see what art can do!  (Good art!)

Sarah Bernhardt (French, 1844 - 1923), Inkwell: Self-portrait as a Sphinx, 1880, bronze, Princeton University Library

Who knew that the divine Ms. B. was also a sculptress? Here she has cast herself in bronze, a  work she sometimes carried to concerts and put on display. While "tragedy" and "comedy" top her shoulders, she portrays herself as part bat, griffon, and fish which demonstrate her many interests.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901), Madame Réjane

1898, printed 1951, crayon lithograph with scraping, gift of M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Baltimore Museum of Art

Gabrielle Réjane was a leading French actress of the early 20th century who also played on Broadway and in silent films. When she died, says Wikipedia, Paris "lost its soul" for she "was widely regarded as the embodiment of the Parisienne." Toulouse-Lautrec captured the liveliness and world of Paris on stage with his many drawings of the stars and dancers of the day.

James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983), Hazel Scott, 1936,

gelatin silver print, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Hazel Scott was a jazz pianist and singer, born in Trinidad who moved with her mother to the U.S. A musical prodigy, she was only eight years old when she was offered scholarships to the Julliard School. She was the first black American to host her own television show, but after she testified before Joseph McCarthy's House on Un-American Activities Committee, her career floundered and she moved to Paris. From 1945 to 1960 she was married to U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, and their son is Adam Clayton Powell III.

Listen to some of her music and see her perform here.

Martin Lewis (American, born Australia, 1881-1962), Shadow Dance

1930, drypoint and sandpaper ground, gift of Blanche Adler, Baltimore Museum of Art

Is this a photograph?  A print? A lithograph? The shadows and shapes captured my attention at the BMA show and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington which has the same work on view in the East Building. It reminds me of the famous photograph of Princess Diana holding two young children before she married Prince Charles.

Carl Van Vechten (American, 1880 - 1964), Bessie Smith, 1936

gelatin silver print, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

The "Empress of the Blues" grew up in Chattanooga where she sang on street corners with her brother playing the guitar, after their parents died and left the siblings in the care of an older sister.  By her early 20s, Bessie's popularity in the South and the East led to a career cumulating in 160 recordings for Columbia Records. The Great Depression almost ruined her career which a deadly car wreck in Mississippi in 1937  did end when Ms. Smith was 43.  Listen to her sing I Ain't Got Nobody on YouTube.

Belva Lockwood, left, with Dr. Mary Walker, c. 1912, photograph, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Ms. Lockwood was one of the first female lawyers in the U.S. and the first to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. She was a presidential candidate in 1882 and 1884 and the first woman whose name appeared on ballots. Sometimes Victoria Woodhull (see above) is listed as the first woman who ran for the presidency, but she was not old enough. (A candidate must be 35.)  

When Ms. Lockwood finished her coursework in Washington, D.C. at the National University School of Law (the predecessor of the George Washington University Law School), the school refused to grant her a diploma because she was a woman, and it was only after her plea to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, who was the ex officio president of the school, that she was awarded a diploma and could finally practice law.

According to Wikipedia, a judge for the Maryland Bar Association lectured Ms. Lockwood "that God Himself had determined that women were not equal to men and never could be. When she tried to respond on her own behalf, he said she had no right to speak and had her removed from the courtroom."

She is buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington.

Dr. Mary Walker is the only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor and one of only eight civilians.  She was a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War and was arrested when she, the first U.S. female surgeon for the U.S. Army, crossed enemy lines to treat soldiers. 

An abolitionist, she was also an ardent suffragette who was frequently arrested for wearing men's clothing. Male attire was more comfortable, safer and more hygienic than long skirts which spread dirt and dust, she claimed. Despite years of criticism for dressing like a man, she stood her ground.

Dr. Walker died a year before the passage in 1919 of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote.

Currier & Ives (New York, 1857-1907), Woman’s Holy War. Grand Charge on the enemy’s works, c. 1874, lithograph, Library of Congress

Here we have a woman joining the 19th century temperance battle against the evils of alcohol.  Back then, maybe "she" wasn't so bad.

Sarah Choate Sears (American, 1858-1935), editor and publisher: Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946), Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, 1907, gift of Cary Ross, Baltimore Museum of Art

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) wasn't such a "bad girl." 

Among many occupations, Ms. Howe was a poet who composed The Battle Hymn of the Republic sung thousands of times ever since it was published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862. She co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association and organized the Association for the Advancement of Women to help women improve their education and successfully enter the working world. 

Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, "Nadar" (French, 1820-1910), George Sand, 1864, woodburytype (after Nadar negative), gift of Leland Rice, Baltimore Museum of Art

George Sand, the pen name of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), was more popular than Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balzac during her heyday of the 1830s and 1840s in France. Some writers influenced by George Sand were Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky,  Marcel Proust, and Virginia Woolf (below). 

Gisèle Freund (French, born Germany, 1908-2000), Virginia Woolf, 1939, color photograph, collection of Penelope S. Cordish

Ms. Woolf was an English writer (1882-1941) whose works "inspiring feminism" have been translated into more than 50 languages. Hear the only surviving recording of Ms. Woolf here.

The Baltimore Museum of Art/photo by Patricia Leslie

The entrance to the Baltimore Museum of Art, reminiscent of the new USPS stamp series featuring works by Cuban and New York artist Emilio Sanchez (1921-1999)/photo by Patricia Leslie

It's not all negative in the three small galleries featuring 75 European and American prints, photographs, books, and sculpture from Renaissance artists to the 20th century which show heroines, witches and femmes fatales, performers, new women, and authors.

Edvard Munch's famous Vampire of the woman with the long hair sucking blood from a man's neck plus all those evil, conniving Biblical women and Greek heroines women you've read about for years:  Eve, Delilah, and Salome, and Greek counterparts whose names have endured for their acts of maliciousness and murder:  Medusa and her snakes, Pandora, Judith, Phyllis are here.

After you've moved  through the first gallery of murder and mayhem, the second gallery brings a breath of airy escape to see the faces and works by independent women admired for the trails they have laid. 

It is likely that younger women may have no experiences with the inferior status older women have endured, or, at least, not in the same amounts. This exhibition is an introduction.

BMA's senior curator of prints, drawings and photographs, Andaleeb Badiee Banta, said she had been considering the idea for the exhibition for several years, beginning when she was at another institution, but it was not until she came to the BMA with its  exquisite collection of prints and drawings that she took the idea to museum management who said "yes" before she could finish her description of her proposal.

The show will be up for the anniversary of Women's Strike for Equality Day, first held on August 26, 1970 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which gave women the right to vote. 

This exhibition is supported by Nancy Hackerman, Clair Zamoiski Segal, Amy and Marc Meadows, Patricia Lasher and Richard Jacobs, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

What: Women Behaving Badly:  400 Years of Power & Protest

When: Wednesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. now through Dec. 19, 2021

Where: Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218

How much:  It's free! Reservations are required.

Getting there: From Washington, D.C. on the train, it's an easy, comfortable, and economical one-hour ride on the MARC train. Plenty of departures. Once at the Baltimore Penn Station, take the free Circulator shuttle north up Charles Street, get off at 31st and walk up the short hill. Directions and parking. 

Required:  Masks and free reservations.

For more information, call: (443) 573-1700
TDD: (410) 396-4930 and/or visit artbma.org.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Rating the Trump books

I haven't read the estimated 4,500 Trump books which is the amount the Guardian estimates has been published since he took office in 2017, but I have read a few which I rank for you below.

My choices are based on new information, style, interest, content, documentation, readability.

If you only have time to read one, the best, most interesting, the one which is most captivating, whose author still commands a daily audience (if you follow him on Twitter) is:

1.  Michael Cohen's Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. It's short and fast. In retrospect (I read it last year), I can't believe it's 432 pages for it seems like half that, which gives you an idea of the speed per page.

2.  John Bolton's The Room Where It Happened:  A White House Memoir, filled with lots of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes glimpses of what went on when Mr. Bolton spent 17 months in the Wild House. Lots of unexpected humor by means of the author's snarky comments. 592 pages.

3.  Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.  She, of course, is his niece and a clinical psychologist.  Very quick. Short and not so sweet. 240 pages.

4.  Bob Woodward's Rage. A little dry in places, but, if you get this far, worth a read. 480 pages.

4.  (A Tie with Woodward's) Peter Strzok's Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump.  I listened to this book by a former FBI assistant director.  Why the author doesn't sue Trump for defamation is beyond me. Perhaps Trump's office at the time protects him who can say whatever he wanted since that's what his content is. 387 pages.

I read about half of Brian Stelter's Hoax:  Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth until I finally realized (dumb me!  Read the sub-title!) it really was about Fox and who cares about Fox? Mr. Stelter is the host of CNN's Reliable Sources which airs every Sunday at 11 a.m. and which I try not to miss. 448 pages.

If you have recommendations and/or comments, please write up!  Thank you.

I be done with Trump and his books (I hope!).

patricialesli@gmail.com

John Bolton's hilarious 'Room' of their own

You just thought Trump's White House was chaotic. Readers, not only was it chaotic, but John Bolton is here to tell you it was lots more than that!

I may not agree with the author's politics, but I can sure laugh at his anecdotes from his short (17 months) tenure in the Wild House. It's nothing short of rockhouse madness.

Bolton must have carried a secret microphone/recorder inside his breast pocket for his recollections of so many fine details of the day-to-day chaos in Trumpland, described in The Room Where It Happened.

I detected no conceit, no self-applause, no boastings in his memoir. When Trump complimented Bolton's "'troika of tyranny'" speech, Bolton reminded him that one of the president's own speechwriters had written it (p. 249). 

Bolton's snide comments ricochet throughout the book; some of the highlights:

He writes more than once:  "You couldn't make this up" referring to the daily frenzy engulfing the administration (258). 

His background on Venezuela and the Middle East makes all those WAPO editorials easier to understand. 

"God only knew who he [Trump] was talking to or whether he had just gotten a case of the vapors* because things were still uncertain." 

After an attack in the Gulf of Oman, Trump believed "that if you pretended bad things hadn't happened, perhaps no one else would notice" (392).

("I found these weekly trade meetings so chaotic I largely left them for {Charles} Kupperman to attend, which punishment he didn't deserve, but life is hard" (460).)  Kupperman was the deputy national security advisor. 

At the G20 trade summit in Buenos Aires, no one knew "from one minute to the next" what Trump would say. He envied Xi Jinping's lifelong term as Chinese ruler and told Xi, "that people" in the U.S. were clamoring for an end to the president's two-term limit. 

Writes Bolton: "I was aware of no such chatter" (297).

Bolton didn't like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin too much. 

At the G20, Bolton writes Mnuchin spent the day "beavering" with China's #3 man, Liu He (296).  After all, Mnuchin was a "panda hugger"(290).

Munchin got all excited at China's agreement to purchase more soybeans "just as if we were a Third World commodity supplier to the Middle Kingdom" (297).

During the Venezuelan revolution, Mnuchin worried about the banking sector and the risk to credit card companies. Bolton reminded him that the thousands protesting in the streets, "the poorest people" did not have, nor were they "thinking about Visa and Mastercard!" (269). 

Bolton was only too happy to announce to principals that he thought "Treasury was not entitled to its own foreign policy" like Mnuchin desired (273). 

Mnuchin spent so much time in the White House, on presidential trips and in California ("who for some reason was in California again" (258)*) that they "'hardly recognize him in his building,' said [John] Kelly disdainfully" (241).

Mnuchnin, was "basically a Democrat" who maintained "his campaign for doing nothing" (252).

Bolton was not a big fan of Defense Secretary James Mattis either whom he continually portrays as a cry baby. 

If "his view didn't prevail, which was standard operating procedure for him: stress that timing was urgent, which is what Mattis said when it suited him, and predict doom and gloom if he didn't get his way" (176).  "Mattis obstructionism at work" (190) ....Trump never liked him either: "a Democrat." 

Preparing for the meeting with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Bolton worried about the "daily explosions everyone became inured to in the Trump White House."

Bolton says another Trump-Kim Jong Um summit looked "depressingly inescapable" for Trump was hot-to-trot and get a deal done with Kim. It was not to be.

With his good buddy, Shinzo Abe of Japan, Trump lamented the fact that Abe's father was unsuccessful as a World War II kamikaze pilot, forgetting that, had his father achieved his goal, there would have been no good buddy Abe, born after the war. "Mere historical details." says Bolton (345).

Remember the columnist, Charles Krauthammer (1950 - 2018)? Not a Trump fan. He told Bolton he'd been wrong to characterize Trump as an 11-year-old: "'I was off by ten years'" (8).

While leaving the White House after his job interview, Bolton writes he felt like he was in a college dorm, with people going in and out doors. Wasn't there a crisis underway to try and repeal Obamacare? Bolton didn't recognize the place (18).

At the Trumps' first state ceremony with French President Emmanuel and Mrs. Macron: "Sadly for the press, nothing went wrong" (68). 

"Later, the black-tie state dinner was very nice, if you like eating until 10:30" p.m. With the John Kellys, the Boltons skipped the after-dinner entertainment and went home (70).

At Trump's Turnberry* Scottish golf resort, Greenpeace* breached security by flying an "ungainly contraption," akin to a "a bicycle with wings" hauling a flowing banner which said Trump was "below par." The Secret Service hustled Trump and later, Bolton and Kelly, inside before anyone could look at it too long, although Bolton wanted to prolong his viewing.

On a visit to London and Scotland, Trump called the US and UK relationship, "'the highest level of special,'" which Bolton called "a new category."

Trump repeatedly instructed his staff to avoid criticizing Russia too much publicly (179).

In a "discussion" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump told the Turkish leader that Christians were "going crazy" about Turkey's incarceration of American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and Erdogan responded that Moslems in Turkey were "going crazy" and Trump interrupted him to say "they were going crazy all over the world."  

Writes Bolton: "If possible, the conversation went downhill thereafter" (184-185).

Don't forget Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN. Not only were the Turks unable to understand what she was trying to negotiate, neither could the Trump team (186).

The "Haley Problem" included her belief that the US ambassador to the UN was the Secretary of State. 

From everything Bolton heard "including directly from Trump, she and Tillerson [Rex Tillerson, secretary of state] cordially detested one another (well, maybe not cordially)." She wanted to visit India and visit the Dalai Lama:  "The purpose of this trip was unclear, other than getting a photo op with the Dalai Lama, always good for an aspiring pol" (238).

When Bolton was at the Justice Department, "we called the Southern District [of New York] the 'Sovereign District of New York' because it so often resisted control by 'Main Justice,' let alone the White House" (185-186).   

Discussion about the Korean War and its aftermath involved a continual re-education of the president as Bolton tried to enlighten him about that history.  

Why "were we still there?" Trump complained. "Every few days, someone would inadvertently press a button somewhere, and Trump would be repeating his lines from the same movie soundtrack" (210).

It's easy to understand why Trump did everything he could to stop, to stall, to change the content of this book (491). Like so many tomes, it reveals him to be the Emperor of No Content. 

* Although there are several references to Mnuchin and his trips to California, California is omitted from the otherwise good index, as are other words (vapors, Greenpeace, etc.). 

Coming up: I rate the Trump books!

patricialesli@gmail.com

Alexandria's wild ride on a 'Ripcord'

 

Janice Zucker, left, is Abby and Marsha Rehns  is Marilyn in Ripcord  now on stage at Little Theatre of Alexandria/Photo by Matthew Randall

I loved this show.  It's solid entertainment: You cry, you laugh, listen and wonder:  Is that me?

It was much more than expected: delightful, charming, funny, and with a message or two.

What's a ripcord for anyway?

Janice Zucker is Abby and Matt Baughman is the "masked man" in Ripcord now on stage at Little Theatre of Alexandria/Photo by Matthew Randall

Before the show started, the Little Theatre of Alexandria treated the audience to "air" music which made me happy, hearing John Denver singing Leaving on a Jet Plane and Frank Sinatra, Come Fly with Me .  

The whimsical music between scenes perfectly fit the content.

It's a production which grows on you, building  while the dialogue develops, rather like a skydiver whose speed and momentum climb while falling.  What appears at the beginning to be a slow, easy-going  play ends up much more than what this  theatergoer expected, and it's unpredictable!  One of the best features.  

Two little old ladies are roommates at a "senior living facility"; one, "Abby" (Janice Zucker), meaner than a rattlesnake you might surprise on the desert, and the other, "Marilyn" (Marsha Rehns), as sweet as strawberry pie which matches the colors she wears.  (Costumers Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley realistically dress the two in colors to match their personalities, with one later experiencing a color  transformation.)

It doesn't take long for this duo of mismatched to engage in banner and wits to see who can win a bet:  To make one roommate angry, and the other, afraid. 

 Shall we say, they go to extremes to win the bet? 

The acting is whiz-bang.  If you think this will be as motionless as life in the slow lane  (like that boring film of old people portrayed in this year's Mole Agent ), you ain't seen nuthin' yet!  

Daughter "Colleen" (Kathy Ohlhaber has dual roles) is shrieking dynamic, accompanied by two  (Adam Ressa and  Matt Baughman, both in multiple roles) who help her with "tricks." Let's fly away and have fun while we're doing it!

Rounding out the cast is "Scotty" (Cameron McBride), the nurse who leads the roommates on life at their "home."

Although the program calls him a "masked man," Mr. Baughman appeared to me to be a man wearing a rabbit's head, and just thinking about this scene, even before a word was spoken from the stage, made me laugh out loud. 

Other scenes are right out funny, too.  A hanging got my goat, but good.  The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire must have had some experience with nursing homes. 

The bedroom's set is realistic (by Jim Hutzler and

Jocelyn Steiner), efficiently covered several times by a dropdown sheet of excellent artistry  to convey a new scene, like a bench at a park, a skyride, or parachuting from an airplane. 

Simple enough, yes?

Abby receives a "ripcord" for life.  While I watched, I thought:  "Oh, please, Lord, don't let it be me! There but for the grace of God go I" for I know two little old ladies who are almost the same and could use a "ripcord" prescription and maybe, more than one.  (They probably think I could stand one, too!) 

Applause to the sound and projection designer (Jon Roberts assisted by Brook Easterly) who handles multiple tasks, adding much enjoyment to the show. 

I must agree with Director Jessie Roberts who writes in program notes that playwright Lindsay-Abaire is underappreciated.  I can't wait to see his Rabbit Hole. 

Fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a wild, hilarious ride in Alexandria.

Family matters.

Other production team members for the show are Lynn O'Connell and Alan Wray, producers; Robert Kraus, assistant producer; Brittany  Huffman and Donna Reynolds, stage managers; Stacey Becker, set painter;Jeff Auerbach and Kimberly Crago, lighting designers; Kadira Coley, hair and makeup; Jamie Blake and Julie Naughton, wardrobe

Thank you, LTA, for the printed program!

What:  Ripcord  by David Lindsay-Abaire

When: Now through June 26, 2021, Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m.


Where: Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.


Tickets: $24 + $$3.09 handling fee.  Wednesday and Thursday performances are discounted $3 with code WEDTHUR.

Duration: About 2 hours with one 10-minute pause stretch.

Adult language:  Yes

Masks: Required.  No exceptions.

Public transportation: Check the Metro and Dash bus websites.

Parking: On the streets and in many garages nearby with free parking during performances at Capital One Bank at Wilkes and Washington streets.

For more information: Box Office: 703-683-0496; Business: 703-683-5778.  Asklta@thelittletheatre.com

patricialesli@gmail.com

GALA's 'Tango' is out-of-this-world

Rosalía Gasso and Alejandro Barrientos/Their photo

There's no need for dance lovers to travel to Tokyo this summer since GALA Hispanic Theatre brings the Olympics of dance to Washington with astonishing  performances by professional tangoists, musicians and the costumer, Jeanette Christensen. 

Who needs a script when music, dazzling dance, and dress carry you to fantasyland? Like the swirling dancers, the music and costumes combine in Ella es tango to present an electrifying tango show.

Marcos Pereira and Florencia Borgnia/ Photo, Daniel Martinez

GALA's founding producing artistic director, Hugo Medrano, has written an original musical revue (that he directs) about some of last century's female composers/vocalists/tangoists who competed in the male-dominated world to make themselves seen and heard so they could advance in their chosen profession, even disguising themselves as men (not the first - nor the last - time this has been attempted).

Mariana Quinteros and Patricia Torres are the duo of  top vocalists in the show whose best melodies are their duets. 

Marcos Pereira and Florencia Borgnia/Photo, Daniel Martinez

The featured ladies are portrayed by GALA company members, Lorena Sabogal as Libertad Lamarque (1908-2000), Krystal Pou as Camila Quiroga (a fictional character); Patricia Suarez is Tita Merello (1904-2002), Cecilia Esquivel is Azucena Maizani (1902-1970), and the brief biography of another tango artist, Mercedes Simon (1904-1990), is included. 

In song and dance they tell us their sad stories to present what we came to see and to hear.

Rosalía Gasso and Alejandro Barrientos/Photo, Daniel Martinez

The dancing is what brought us to the spectacle and it, combined with music by members of the Pan American Symphony Orchestra, perform in tandem with the script to captivate the magic and allure of the night to star. 

World acclaimed choreographers and teachers, Alejandro and Rosalía Barrientos are the dancers accompanied at times by Marcos Pereira and Florencia Borgnia, world tango championship finalists, who have many of their own solos.

Swirling tails, dresses, legs, and arms flash by, leaving astonished theatregoers in their wake, happy to witness magnificence.

The numerous shimmering, glittering costumes alone make the price of admission well worth the cost, and it's not just the females who come dressed to kill: The men's costumes are equally as outstanding in their glimmering jackets and ballroom tuxedo whites.

Musical direction and orchestration are by Sergio Busjle of the PASO; conducting is Argentine composer Ariel Pirotti; choreography is by the Barrientoses; and texts are by Argentine playwright, Patricia Suárez Cohen. 

Claudio Gustavo Aprile, the assistant director, appears in various male roles.

Other creative team members are Clifton Chadick and Exquista Agonía, scenic design;  Christopher Annas-Lee, lighting; Dylan Uremovich, projections; Nicolas Onischuk, additional media; David Crandall, sound; P. Vanessa Losada, stage manager; and Tony Koehler, production manager.

Ella es tango is presented in Spanish with English subtitles. 

What: Ella es tango (She is tango)

Masks:  Required.  Temperatures taken at the entrance.

When: Now through June 20, 2021, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. with open milonga dancing after the show on Wednesday, June 16.

Where: Gala Theatre, 3333 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20010.

Tickets: $45; $30 for seniors (65+), military, and students; $30, group sales (10 or more). To purchase, call (202) 234-7174 or visit www.galatheatre.org. 

Handicapped accessible

Duration: About two hours with one intermission

Metro stations: Columbia Heights or McPherson Square and take a bus or the Circulator from McPherson Square up 14th, or walk two miles and save money and expend calories! Lots of places to eat along the way.

Parking: Discounted at the Giant around the corner and additional parking at Target, both on Park Road, NW.

For more information: Call (202) 234-7174 and/or email info@galatheatre.org

The production was made possible with support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

patricialesli@gmail.com