Flying V's Crystal Creek Motel [SPOILERS]

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I had seen a Flying V production years ago when a friend of a friend was performing at the Writer's Center in Bethesda. I remembered that their shows are really creative and original works, so that's pretty cool. When I saw that they had a show at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre, I figured that's close to me, and I've never been to that venue before. I didn't know much about the play, but I thought I'd take a gamble and buy two tickets, without even having a date in mind.

I did end up finding someone to go with, and I'm glad he was up for the random adventure. The main idea behind this play is that you're looking in on a motel room as different guests stay there throughout the year. When we first got to the box office, we were given room keys to the motel (the guy even said, "Have a nice stay"), so that was really cool and interactive. I wish that had continued into the lobby as we were waiting for doors to open. Once we could go into the theater, we handed in our room keys, and we settled in for the show.

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The show was broken up into two acts with six scenes each, representing every month of the year. Through the context of the music played as well as images projected onto the motel room's walls, I figured out that the year is supposed to be 2003. So you see pictures of George Bush and different news headlines, and the songs were reminiscent of my freshman year of high school (think Jewel's Intuition, the Dixie Chicks' Landslide, and Trapt's Headstrong). The technology the characters use is also older, like a Walkman and flip phones. I thought the team did a great job of making the audience feel like we really were back in time.

There were several directors for the scenes, so each director handled a couple of the "months" for the scenes. And in between each scene, a cleaning crew (played by Julieta Gonzalo and Erin Denman) would come into the room and straighten things up. Although they didn't have a lot of time on stage, it was cool to see them transform and change over time throughout the year.

I don't want to give too much away (since you should totally see the show for yourself!), but here are the synopses of each scene:

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January: Natalie Cutcher plays a woman on a business trip who clearly hates her job and her boss. She seems to go into a panic attack, but listening to music and losing herself inside the depressing songs seem to calm her down. There is a lighter part of the scene when she's dancing and someone outside the window sees her, and they both start dancing. I was glad there was a little bit of fun in the heavy scene.

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February: Quincy Vicks' character has paid a man (played by James Finley) to role play with him as WWE wrestlers. They play fight with each other, and at the end hold each other in their arms. Sometimes you just need an outlet, and this was theirs.

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March: This is probably one of the saddest parts of the play. Madeline Key plays an androgynous young woman who is addicted to cocaine. She spends the entire night snorting it, ignoring phone calls from her family members as they leave messages wondering where she is. We never learn what she's trying to escape from or why, but it was hard to watch a junkie going down a path of despair.

April: I really liked this scene! A woman (Momo Nakamura) is meeting a man at the motel for their anniversary. She gets there first, and while she waits, she daydreams about when they were younger. Linda Bard as the woman's younger self and Quincy Vicks as her lover as a young man magically appear from beneath the bed, and they start dancing around the room with each other (very ballet-inspired). The grown woman begins to dance with them as well, remembering the love and romance she shared with the man back then. But the memories upset her, and she calls the man telling him not to come, just as he knocks on the door. Then everything went black. So we didn't get to see how it ended!

May: This part was two scenes in one. Natalie Cutcher as a stewardess only has a short layover to fit in a quicky with James Finley's character. They fool around, he goes down on her, and then she rushes out of the room. Then they break the fourth wall, asking for a re-do on the scene. The second time around, they are more romantic with each other and end up just holding each other in bed before she has to leave; she comes back to give him her phone number so they can meet up another time. I think the characters (and the audience!) were more satisfied with the second go-around.

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June: This scene is almost entirely in Spanish. I was wondering why the program had a random folktale about a coyote printed in it, but that was the translation of the story. Thank goodness I read it ahead of time so I actually knew what was going on! A woman and a young girl have been kidnapped by a man, and the girl is very scared. So the woman starts telling her this story about the coyote running as fast as he can to escape evil. The story is simply a poetic way of telling her: RUN!

July: Quincy Vicks' character wants to draw graffiti on the walls, and then many other people emerge from inside the room (the armoire, the paintings on the wall, behind the curtains) seeming to egg him on. We never know who these people are: are they spirits, or maybe characters he has drawn? In the end he does draw something on the wall...I'm sure you can guess what it is.

August: I've never seen American Psycho before, but my date said he thought this scene was inspired by the movie. Paz Lopez' character Patty is planning to murder her friend at the motel, and she tricks her friend (played by Linda Bard) into coming over for milk shakes and apple pie with french fries. And then she does the deed, leaving the bathroom a bloody mess for the cleaning crew the next day.

September: Four cousins (played by James Finley, Jordan Clark Halsey, Madeline Key, and Momo Nakamura) all come to the motel room after receiving letters from their grandmother saying their inheritance could be found there. At first they fight over the money they might find, but in the end they realize that they're all there to have stronger relationships with each other.

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October: Linda Bard and Madeline Key play a lesbian couple, and one of them just outed the other in front of her family. They have a discussion about where their relationship stands and such, and in the end they romantically decide to run away to Canada to get married. Although random, my favorite part was when Bard started to play the cello. She can act, dance, and play the cello?!

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November: James Finley is mourning the loss of  his brother (I assume that's who it was) after the funeral. His brother's spirit (played by Jordan Clark Halsey) comes into the room and they dance together. It was touching but sad.

December: This is a New Year's Eve celebration including the entire cast. Everyone is having a good time, but one girl had planned to kill herself that night. She left a note for the cleaning crew telling them that they essentially saved her life; she didn't want to leave them with the horrible experience of finding her dead body. So while this is dark, it is a happy ending...?

I REALLY enjoyed this show and I highly recommend it. Very unique, one of a kind for sure! Purchase tickets here.

Here are some other reviews if you're interested:
DC Metro Theater Arts
The Sentinel
Washington City Paper
DC Theatre Scene

Recipe: Apple Peanut Butter Cookies

As white ladies in the fall are wont to do, a friend and I went apple picking at Homestead Farm. Even though I have done this before, every time I seem to forget that I do not need 10+ pounds of apples. But you get into the groove of picking (or simply keeping the unbruised ones from the ground), and you realize you've paid $20 for fruit. We finished off our day with a tour and wine tasting at Rocklands Farm Winery, where we enjoyed vegan dogs and cheese before heading home.

After a much needed nap (picking and carrying apples is hard work), I figured I should bake something with all my apples. Unfortunately, I picked a recipe from Taste of Home that only calls for one apple. So I might need to make these again. Twenty times.

Ingredients

•          1/2 cup shortening
•          1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
•         1/2 cup sugar
•          1/2 cup packed brown sugar
•          1 egg
•          1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•          1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•          1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•          1/2 teaspoon salt
•          1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•          1/2 cup grated peeled apple

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in apple.
• Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks.

And you know me: I couldn't follow the recipe to a T. I've never used shortening in my life, and when I read online that I could replace it with applesauce, I thought that would taste better anyway, especially for this recipe. I also used creamy instead of chunky peanut butter (The recipe specifically warns that using reduced-fat peanut butter won't work. Who eats that anyway?). My cookies don't look quite like the pictures on the website, but they do taste pretty good. Some comments online said that the peanut butter flavor wasn't that strong. I disagree, but I will admit mine have a somewhat rubbery texture. So not the best thing I've ever made, but not the worst. I think I'd be just as happy eating apple slices with peanut butter in their original forms.

Broadway's Footloose

I was able to get my hands on some discounted tickets to see the Broadway show Footloose at the Kennedy Center. Of course I had seen the movie starring Kevin Bacon; it's a classic, which is why I refused to watch the remake. But seeing it live is a whole other story.

While the show was billed as "Broadway Center Stage," it isn't actually a Broadway cast, or at least not the pros. Most of the performers were pretty young, which makes me think this is an amateur or "minor-league" company of sorts. The dancing was better than the singing, but of course the show had its moments.

The orchestra was on stage the whole time on risers, so they were above the actors. The rest of the set was easily transformed by metal benches which could be seats, tables, lockers, pews, etc. as the cast moved them about from scene to scene. The image in the background would change depending on the setting, but because of the metal risers, you could only see the top part of the picture. But I'm a fan of minimalist sets, and this one did the trick.

J. Quinton Johnson was a funnier, less brooding Ren compared to Kevin Bacon's. Image found here.

I was impressed with the main actors. J. Quinton Johnson as Ren had great energy and charisma, and Isabelle McCalla as Ariel was definitely a firecracker. I also thought Nicole Vanessa Ortiz as Rusty was fun, too (I just realized she was an American Idol finalist.).

During the song "Somebody's Eyes," the cast held tiny lights to mimic eyes, which I thought was unique.

I particularly enjoyed the "I Need a Hero" number, although this video doesn't do it justice:

I had forgotten that song was in this show, as well as "Almost Paradise" and "The Girl Gets Around." Such good music! Some songs were added to the show which were sub-par, but the classics made up for it.

The show was well-paced and it held my attention the whole time (which is hard for me at nighttime). I definitely enjoyed it, but I'm glad I could get some discounted tickets, since these performers aren't quite the real deal (yet!).

Here's the review from DC Theatre Scene in case you're interested!

Mariinsky Ballet's "Paquita"

This year I treated myself to a ballet subscription at the Kennedy Center. I feel like such a grown-up lady! My first show for this season was the Mariinsky Ballet* dancing Paquita. I didn't know the story, but the program included a nice summary. Essentially, gypsies steal treasure as well as a baby girl from this high-powered Spanish official, and 16-20 years later, the baby Paquita (performed by Viktoria Tereshkina) has grown up and dances with the gypsies to make money. An officer named Andrés (performed by Timur Askerov) falls in love with her, but she says he has to give up that life and join the gypsies if he wants to be with her; he does so, and they fall for each other. At some point they are accused of stealing, they're arrested, and her true identity is revealed. She is returned to her parents, and her father releases her lover from prison, so everyone is happy in the end.

Before I get into my thoughts, here's the preview video from the Kennedy Center:

Pros

• The dancing: This is a classic ballet. The third act is everything you would want from a ballet, jetés and pirouettes and all. I also enjoyed the scene when the two lovers are in prison, and even though they are separated, they are mirroring each other's movements as they dance. This dance company has so much talent!

• The sets: You can see in the video how beautiful the set is for the final act. The background landscapes are amazing throughout, and for the prison scenes, the 3-D effects of the prison walls really made you feel like you were looking at stone archways.

At the end, sheer curtains with roses came down. It was so pretty! Image found here.

• The music: Most of the music was written for the original production by Édouard Deldevez in 1846. But some things have been added to it or rearranged. Either way, the harp, flute, and of course castanets make a big appearance. The music was happy and fun, and I would listen to the score on its own.
• The costumes: As you can see from the photos, the costumes were gorgeous, especially the sparkly tutus in the final act (the "Grand Pas Variations"). But the outfits throughout the show are very pretty and colorful.

These are the gypsies dancing. You can see that Viktoria Tereshkina, the prima ballerina, is the only one in pointe shoes. Image found here.

These were their fancier performing outfits as gypsies. Image found here.

Cons

• The length: This performance includes three acts, which means there are also two intermissions. I was there for more than THREE hours! I love the ballet, but...enough is enough. There were so many scenes that just went on and on. I was actually falling asleep throughout the production because it was getting so late. Wrap it up! 
• The wigs: I can't be certain that many of the male dancers were wearing wigs, but either way, their hair looked so bad. It was shaggy and scruffy and too long...they looked like ragamuffins.

Do you see that messy flop of hair? Is that for real? Original image found here.

• The miming: In general, I prefer dance that is simply dance. A full-on story like this makes the dancers into actors, and since they cannot speak, they have to mime everything. The vigorous, obvious movements of mime are so clunky, the very opposite of the grace that ballet should be. Miming is the slapstick version of dance. Ew.
• The timing: I've never seen a ballet with so many awkward silences. I am not sure if this was done intentionally or if the orchestra was off-beat of the dancers (or vice versa). When Paquita and Andrés are taken to prison, there was absolutely NO music, so you could hear the talking and movement of the other dancers behind the scenes. There were many silent transitions, waiting for dancers to take the stage for the music to finally begin. It seemed unprofessional, honestly.

I did enjoy the show, but I would have loved it even more if it were half as long. Too much of a good thing!

*I have seen the Mariinsky Ballet perform before, so click here for the blogs posts related to Swan Lake and Le Corsaire.

Cats: the weirdest musical in the world

I had certainly heard of the musical Cats before. But I only knew it by name, and was aware that it's about singing cats. I was expecting to hear the song Stray Cat Strut. I was wrong. I am still wondering if the $35 I spent for a discounted ticket to see the show at the Kennedy Center was worth the experience I had.

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The set of the entire show is essentially a big trash heap, where I figure these cats live. A full moon illuminates the stage, and bistro lights hung over the audience. It wasn't spectacular, like Aladdin was. And later the big tire in the back turns into a UFO. Random.

The show began with little sets of eyes lighting up throughout the set, like how you would see a cat's eyes glow in the dark. Then the actors started coming down the aisles wearing hats with lit up eyes on them. Everything was dark until the cats started coming onto the stage.

The company included more than 20 people. Image found here

Quickly you realize how strange this show is and nothing really makes sense. Jellicle is not a real word, and these cats are named things like Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer. I did a little research, and Cats is based off of the poems/stories that T.S. Eliot wrote for his godchildren (now condensed into a book). It also is important to understand that T.S. Eliot was mostly likely drunk when writing these tales (and I wouldn't be surprised if he were a little high, too). And then Andrew Lloyd Webber turned it into a musical, God knows why.

This show has no story. There is no plot. The closest we get to it is that we know the cats will gather for the Jellicle Ball, and then one cat will be chosen to be reborn (kind of like in Logan's Run). Otherwise, most of the show is spent introducing cats and telling their individual stories of who they are. There's nothing to follow, so you're thinking the whole time, "Where is this going?" The answer is Nowhere.

And I need to address the costumes. These are very sexualized cats, wearing shiny bodysuits that leave little to the imagination. In no way did the actors actually look like cats; barely any fur was actually incorporated in the costumes. Cats do not wear feathery epaulettes and legwarmers. Cats heads and ears aren't that out of proportion to their bodies; headbands with ears would have been more effective than the awful wigs the actors were wearing. And while some of the men did their make-up so their lips mimicked those of cats, the women were wearing red lipstick, making no attempt to look like cats at all. The costumes are almost like drag, except drag is way better.

The leather pants that McGee Maddox wore as Rum Tum Tugger showed quite the bulge. Image found here

Asparagus (played by Timothy Gulan) was wearing a colorful patchwork-quilted coat; that's a human thing, not a cat thing. Image found here.

Mistoffelees (played by PJ DiGaetano) wore rhinestones and a light-up jacket that would change color. NOT cat attire. Image found here

Caitlin Bond's make-up was awful. What white cat has black eyebrows?! Image found here.

Not only did the actors not look like cats, but they didn't move like cats, either. That really surprised me, because cats naturally are quite graceful animals. The way they slink and pounce, they're very nimble creatures. Instead the choreography included yoga moves and things like that. It didn't make much sense. And sometimes they aren't even playing cats: you have cats as tap dancing cockroaches (who looked more like hubcaps), or cats creating a make-shift train. Huh?

And most of the music was like cloying carnival music, or little peek-a-boo music. The show first came out in 1981, so there is definitely an 80's vibe. But it's the worst part of 80's music. The only redeeming quality of this show was Keri René Fuller's performance as Grizabella singing Memory:

If this blog post has not convinced you NOT to see this show, here's the official trailer:

WHY DOES THIS MUSICAL EXIST?!

If you'd like to read another review, check out the one from the DC Theatre Scene. And WTOP has an interview, too. 

B-52's concert at the Anthem

I just saw Elvis Costello and Blondie at the Anthem earlier this summer (read that blog post here), so I continued my 80's new wave concerts earlier this week. Berlin and OMD were both celebrating 40-year anniversaries; they opened for the B-52's. I actually preferred the openers! They had a better stage presence and interacted with the crowd more. Plus, I think I just liked their music better.

I had heard of the band Berlin, but I couldn't have told you what any of their songs were. I think the only song I recognized from their set was "Take My Breath Away," made [even more] famous by the movie Top Gun:

As she was singing this song, she was riding on the shoulders of a big body guard, who walked her around the crowd. She was so close! It was probably my favorite part of the night.

During the show they played some of their old music videos, so that was fun. I have to say, I think Terri Nunn looks a lot better now; she's aged well!

No More Words

Masquerade (Click here for a video of the band performing this song earlier in 2019.)

And these were some other songs they performed:

Sex (I'm a Man)

Transcendance (She wrote this for her mother.)

I Want You (She introduced this song by saying that sex used to have meaning and be special, but now she just wants to get some!)

Then it was on to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). Their frontman, Andy McCluskey, was really engaging and fun to watch. I had never heard of them before, and I also only recognized their song "If You Leave" from the movie Pretty in Pink:

Here are some other songs:

Enola Gay

Electricity

Tesla Girls (This song was in the movie Weird Science.)

By the time the B-52's came on, I was pretty tired. So perhaps that made me a bit more irritable when it came to their voice affects and the loud noises they make. BUT they still have some great songs:

Love Shack

Rock Lobster (This was their second encore song, and someone in a lobster costume came out on stage!)

Private Idaho (I totally forgot this song existed!)

Planet Claire (I had forgotten what a weird song this is.)

Strobe Light (I didn't realize this was their song!)

PS: I met the writer of the Parklife DC blog, where he reviews concerts. It's so much better than my blog! Click here for his interview with Terri Nunn. (I love that she says, "It's always been a male-dominated world, music. And honestly, the reason I think it is only because music is a way for men to get laid." Ha!)

New Musical: Love Sick [SPOILERS]

I am always skeptical of new plays, symphonies, etc. You just don't know what you're going to get. That's why I tend to stick to the classics: Shakespeare, Beethoven, etc. But to support the DC JCC (they recently renovated their theater space), I bought a subscription to see four of their shows for their upcoming season.

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The first one was Love Sick, a new musical written by Ofra Daniel. I don't remember reading much about it beforehand; I think I skimmed the summary on the Theater J website. I just thought, "I've already bought a subscription, so I need to use the tickets. And with "love" in the title, it must be a romance story." Really, I had no expectations going into it.

Maybe it's because I didn't know what to expect, but I was BLOWN AWAY by this performance. It was AMAZING! Here's why:

• The program notes tell us that: "When Ofra Daniel sat down on Yom Kippur in 2015 to write a one-woman show based on the poetry of the Song of Songs, she was just trying to find an inexpensive way to fill a last-minute empty slot in the season of her startup theater company, Jewish Circle Theatre...[She said,] 'I thought if I compose the music from the poetry itself I don't need to pay royalties to anybody.'" I think that is such a good idea, to write music for ancient poems and use that as your inspiration to tell a love story. Brilliant! 
• Ofra Daniel not only wrote the play and composed some of the music, but she also is the main actress! She is incredibly talented. I was astounded by her acting, singing, dancing...When it comes to the arts, she can do it all!
• I always appreciate the minimal sets of Theater J. There's never too much going on, and it's not sparse either: it's just enough. The large tree at the center of the stage is a beautiful focal point, and it allows the Lover character a special spot in the heavens (if you will) as Tirzah (day)dreams about him. Crates are used throughout the set for multiple purposes: they act as chairs, beds, whatever the characters need at the moment. The actors have plenty of room around the stage to move and dance, but they also shape the set from scene to scene.
• The costumes, especially that of Tirzah (Daniel's character), are very effective. She starts off as an old beggar woman in the streets, covered in piles of rags. But as she tells her story, she removes layers of clothing, going back in time as she describes being a single girl to becoming a wife to coming into her own as a sensual, sexual, individual woman. Her hair mimics the change, too; it's covered in the beginning, then is in braids, and finally it falls long and free down her back. You can see the transformation through the photos below:

Images found here and here.

• The music is fantastic throughout the entire show; I wish they were selling CDs! Everyone could sing. My date said he could have seen any of the female cast members (Sarah Corey, Sarah Laughland, Kara-Tameika Watkins, and Kanysha Williams) sing the leading role. The musicians were just as good, and they were on stage throughout the performance, so they were both the set and characters all at once. I especially loved Ali Paris, who played the qanun; the instrument really set the "feel" for the show, and his voice as the Lover character was fitting; musicians can be so romantic. 
• Speaking of romantic, everything about this play is so passionate. Daniel as Tirzah is a young woman who is married to a man twice her age, and she has no children of her own. Her longing for something more is palpable, and that desire is unleashed when she begins to receive love letters from an anonymous stranger. These letters inspire something new inside of her, and she becomes more confident as a woman, displaying that desire out in the open, even inappropriately so. And when we learn that her husband has secretly written the letters, we really feel his love for her, just as equally as we feel her devastation when she learns the truth. So. Many. Feelings!

Here is a video that can give you a taste of what you're in for should you decide to go (keep in mind this video is from a different production, so the other actors/singers are different):

I can't recommend this musical enough. I would go and see it again, and I saw it less than a week ago. Buy your tickets now!!!

Here is DC Theatre Scene's review, which is also mostly positive.