Concert: Postmodern Jukebox

 

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I learned of Postmodern Jukebox from a guy I used to date in 2017. I didn't really know much about them, other than that they were supposed to be good (I didn't do my own research and just listened to the opinions of others). AND those other people were right! I saw them perform at the Strathmore this past weekend, and they were amazing!

Their whole thing is taking modern pop songs and turning them into jazzy, 1920's-esque songs. I felt like I was at a jazz club during the roaring 20's, like Great Gatsby or something! And they are real entertainers, true performers. They are larger-than-life, with glitzy costumes, loud wigs, and incredible stage presence. They even had a tap dancer on stage along with the singers! I was blown away and had SO much fun. 

Here are some of the songs they performed when I saw them. It seems like throughout the years the singers of the group have changed, and the group may be different depending on what part of the world they are in at the time (unsure about that). So these particular singers are not the ones I saw, but these are the same songs:

Wannabe by the Spice Girls (one of my favorites of the night!)

Thriller by Michael Jackson (especially appropriate since it's almost Halloween)

All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor

Bad Guy by Billie Eilish

Juice by Lizzo (a woman performed it when I saw the show)

Chandelier by Sia

They also did a few funny nods to pop culture:

Friends theme song

Super Mario Bros. medley (with tap dancing!)

I was so impressed and enjoyed myself immensely. I would see them again, 100%!

Getting Cultured: Musicals, concerts, and plays, oh my!

I am thrilled to have entertainment venues reopen after nearly two years of not being able to support the arts in person! I have been buying up any tickets I can get my hands on, and I have been very busy this past week showing my love for the arts and the great venues here in D.C.!

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I hadn't been to the Kennedy Center since the beginning of the pandemic, and I was so excited to go back! It's one of my favorite venues in D.C., and I've been a member for years now.

I'm normally not a musical person (unless it's by Disney), but when I listened to the soundtrack of Hadestown on YouTube, I knew I had to see the show. Blues music? Sign me up!

Nicholas Barasch (Orpheus) did have a baby face, but his voice wasn't the strongest. Image found here

The musical is a show that intertwines the tales of Hades and Persephone and the love story between Euridice and Orpheus. So if you were familiar with ancient myths, it was pretty easy to follow along. But that also meant you knew how it was going to end!

I was especially impressed with some of the performers. I think Levi Kreis, who played Hermes, actually sings better than the voice recorded from the original cast! And Kevyn Morrow was an excellent Hades; he had the best evil laugh!

Morrow is a great Hades! Image found here

I loved the music, and the way the characters moved across the stage really brought the set to life. For example, at one point the chorus was moving around in a circle almost as if they themselves were cogs in a wheel. I really was transformed to a different place! And most of the musicians were on stage the entire time, so it was fun to watch them, too.

Kimberly Marable was so fun as Persephone! Image found here

I really enjoyed experiencing a new Broadway show that I had never heard of before. Highly recommend!

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Then last Friday, I went to the 9:30 Club to see the 90's cover band White Ford Bronco. I had heard of them before, but I hadn't had the chance to see them live. I love the 80's cover band The Legwarmers, so I was hoping to have a similar experience, just with different music. And they did not disappoint! It was so fun hearing the songs I grew up listening to, and it was especially cool to hear them sing songs of bands I have seen in person (like the Backstreet Boys and Alanis Morissette. Read those blog posts here and here). I liked the variety of songs they played, and their energy was great. At the end, they gave the audience the option to either hear one encore song, or hear five additional songs without an encore. Of course we went with the latter! It was such a fun time to be back at the 9:30 Club (I even wore the tank-top I bought over the pandemic to show my support) and hear live music again like in "the before times."

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And then last night I went to Ford's Theatre to see "My Lord, What a Night," a play about the real life friendship between physicist Albert Einstein and the singer Marian Anderson. I had only been to this venue once before in 2018 (read that blog post here), and my boyfriend had never been, so it was fun rediscovering this venue together.

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This was only a four-person show, and I liked all of the characters! Christopher Bloch played Einstein; while his accent probably wasn't as thick as it should have been, I still liked how he played the famous genius. Felicia Curry as Anderson was a little affected in the beginning (maybe trying to sound like Viola Davis?), but she grew on me as the performance went along. Michael Russotto as fellow Princeton scientist Abraham Flexner was quite strong, and Franchelle Stewart Dorn as civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell was powerful. The four actors played well off of each other and nicely expressed their opposing opinions related to standing up for civil rights or simply keeping your head down.

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I appreciated the amount of comic relief in this play! Although the show focuses on issues of racism, discrimination, and prejudice, there were still light parts where you could laugh. The play ended with Curry singing as Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, which really did happen in 1939:

I feel so cultured after this week! I have tickets to a few more shows throughout this fall, and I am very much looking forward to that!

Play Review: Becoming Dr. Ruth [SPOILERS]

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One of the last things I did before everything shut down in March 2020 was see a play at the DC JCC. I am thrilled that they have re-opened and that theater is BACK!

I bought a mini-subscription to Theater J since there were several performances I want to see. The first one was Becoming Dr. Ruth, which was actually going to open in 2020 but was postponed for nearly two years because of COVID-19. I believe I had watched a documentary about Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer previously, because I already knew much about her life. I think it was good that I already had some background on her, because then I could enjoy the play as a work of art, as opposed to focusing on the plot or where the story was going. 

First of all, this is a one-woman show. For 90 minutes, Naomi Jacobson is on stage, all alone, telling the story of Dr. Ruth. And she is fantastic! She truly embodies the energy and the positivity of the famous radio sex therapist, and she nails the one-of-a-kind German-Israeli-French-American accent. She actually played this role before in 2018, and since then has met Dr. Ruth in person; she said meeting the celebrity helped shape the role this time around, especially when it came to making fierce eye contact with the audience and miming the kind of connection Dr. Ruth had with anyone she spoke with. 

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And as usual, Theater J did not disappoint with its set. I love their use of minimal sets that make a big impact. Jacobson was surrounded by white boxes, which represented both moving boxes as Dr. Ruth packed up her apartment, but also contained her memories. Throughout the show, Jacobson would open a box to reveal a tiny doll house or replica of a place where Dr. Ruth had spent her life: the barn where she slept after the Kindertransport took her to Switzerland; the Kibbutz where she worked in Palestine; the apartment she had with her family. The boxes also secretly hid items like copies of her books and her radio switchboard. You never knew what she would unveil next!

The white boxes were also used as the backdrop for projected images. Sometimes they showed photographs of members of her family, but other times they helped set the mood for that moment of the story. When they projected images of swastikas while playing sounds of marching, chills went up my spine; when the backdrop became the Wailing Wall with melancholy singing in the background, my eyes welled up with tears. When the set alone can move someone to feel those things, that's a work of art.

My favorite part of Dr. Ruth's story is her resilience. From losing her family in the Holocaust to gaining an education as a single mother and becoming a one-name superstar: how many people can do that?! She has truly had an amazingly interesting life, and at 93, she's still going strong. You can watch her to this day on YouTube! I greatly admire her optimism and fortitude, and I will support anything related to Dr. Ruth. Movies, shows, books...sign me up!

Tickets are still available! It's not too late to see this great show!