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Isn’t it Romantic?
Written and directed by David Hunter Koch
Music Direction by William Knowles
Produced by MetroStage
Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

No one this side of the Blue Note or the Algonquin Hotel delivers a silver-plated lyric like Jimi Ray Malary.  Just as in prior MetroStage hits, Ellington: The Life and Music of The Duke and Nat King Cole: King of Cool, Malary mixes old school technique with a modern flair for just the right classic touch. (more…)

by Richard Seff

Gerard Alessandrini, creator, writer and director of the Forbidden Broadway series of small revues designed to skewer the Broadway of its current season, has announced that the series will end.  The latest, called Forbidden Broadway Goes to Rehab, will be the last. If this turns out to be true, it’s good to be able to report that Rehab is among the top five of the Forbiden shows which first appeared in l982. (more…)

Pearl Bailey . . . By Request
Story Concept by Roz White
Book by Roz White and Thomas W. Jones II
Directed by Shirley Basfield Dunlap 
Music Direction by Marvin Ford
Presented and Co-Produced by MetroStage
Reviewed by Steven McKnight

If you enjoy live R&B/jazz and are looking for an entertaining musical evening out, the MetroStage world premiere production of Pearl Bailey . . . By Request admirably fills the bill. (more…)

•  A Nite at the Dew Drop Inn
• Conceived and Directed by James Foster Jr.
• Produced by Theater Alliance
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

We may as well face it.  The cabaret musical isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  It’s an entertaining crowd pleaser that fills seats, so if the genre is not for you, that’s fine.  Just fill your dance card with “legitimate” theatre.  For the rest of us who enjoy or at least don’t mind the cabaret theatre combo, catch Ella at Arena or Cookin’ at the Cookery at Metro Stage. (more…)

• Ella
• By Jeffrey Hatcher
• Conceived by Rob Ruggiero and Dyke Garrison
• Presented by Arena Stage
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

A Tisket, a Tasket– only the marvelous vocals of Ella Fitzgerald could turn a children’s play song about losing a yellow basket into a scat-wielding marvel and only the unassumingly delightful Tina Fabrique could make it swing.  In this upbeat, sassy production Ella, at the newly revamped temporary home of Arena Stage, Ms. Fabrique hits her stride channeling the energy and pizzazz of legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald with enough bee-bop to shimmy across the innovatively designed new stage.

(more…)