What to give the theatre lovers in your life this holiday season? We’re here to help with suggestions from the sublime to the silly, and prices as low as $5.
Prices shown are as of Dec 7, 2015.
| Category | Suggested by | Gift | I want it! (click on image to buy) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tickets | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | How romantic! Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs at Strathmore Valentine’s Night! February 14 Alan Cumming's (Cabaret) singing love songs everyone secretly adores. From Annie Lennox to Billy Joel to Rufus Wainwright to Miley Cyrus to Berthold Brecht—with a superb mash-up of Adele-Gaga-Katy Perry. |  |
| Subscriptions | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | Surprise your Fringe lover with passes to the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival. |  |
| DVDs | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | The Wiz Live! NBC’s made-for-TV musical drew more than 11 million viewers, and is considered by far the best NBC Live! musical to date. The recordings become available Dec 22, and, if you pre-order, Amazon promises to get them to your door on Dec. 22. A Tony-winning creative team, headed by Kenny Leon, has brought together the imaginative acrobats of Cirque du Soleil and a cast of extraordinary singers and dancers to create an exciting new version of The Wiz unlike anything seen before. This Wiz Is headed for Broadway, but without most of this star studded cast. DVD includes Making of The Wiz |  |
| DVDs | Jayne Blanchard DCTS Archive | Topsy Turvy Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are not usually my glass of sherry, but this 1999 Mike Leigh movie about the librettist and composer is a tour-de-force treasure for any lover of the theatrical. Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, Allan Corduner and a cast of wonderful character actors and singers tell the tumultuous tale of the making of the opera The Mikado. A funny, eccentric and ultimately loving tribute to backstage drama and footlight mysteries and magic. |  |
| DVDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Peter Pan Most musical theater enthusiasts know that Mary Martin was Peter Pan on Broadway in a production that featured a score by Moose Charlap and Carolyn Leigh with additional material by Jule Styne and Comden and Green. They also know that the entire production was telecast live in the 1950s. What many don’t know is that it was done live twice. The first telecast was March 7, 1955 and was such a hit that a re-run was called for. Being before the age of video tape, the only way to have a repeat was to record it over again which they did January 9, 1956. The color telecasts were captured on black and white film for archival purposes but there isn’t a color record. VAI has released a Blu-Ray Disc containing both the 1955 and the 1956 telecasts in their entirety. Not only are they fascinating historical documents, they are delightful entertainments. |  |
| DVDs | John Stoltenberg DC Metro Theater Arts Archive and Magic Time! Website | Vicious The British comedy series, starring Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, has helped fill the huge humor hole left gaping when Absolutely Fabulous, starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, ceased production. Seasons One (which includes a Christmas special) and Two are now readily available, and they ceaselessly tickle me silly. I know, I know, the two bitter old queens played by Sirs McKellen and Jacobi are kinda retro as gay role models go. But damn, those two legends can act. And the writing absolutely bristles with wit. |   |
| Books | Brad Hathaway Website | The Great Parade: Broadway’s Astonishing Never-to-be-Forgotten 1963-1964 Season Peter Filichia, one of the most entertaining writers about musical theater, has turned out a great book for readers who know not only Streisand (Barbra,) Newman (Paul) and Burnett (Carol) but Martin (Mary) and Lillie (Beatrice) this is a book filled with colorful details that will interest, intrigue or flat out fascinate you. This was the season of musicals West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, 110 In the Shade and High Spirits as well as Sondheim’s first flop, Anyone Can Whistle, comedies Barefoot in the Park and Any Wednesday and dramas The Subject was Roses, and After the Fall as well as revivals of plays like The Seagull, The Crucible, and The Dybbuk. Filichia tells the stories of these and the less well remembered events of the season with his never-faltering eye for a good story, a telling detail and a nifty piece of trivia. (Who but Filichia would tell us that Hume Cronyn’s Tony for playing Polonius in Hamlet “was the first actor to be honored for a Shakespearean role in the thirty-seven revivals of the Bard’s work since the Tonys had begun in 1946-47”?) |  |
| Books | Tom Prewitt Artistic Director of WSC Avant Bard | The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 This book by James Shapiro opened my eyes to new ways of seeing Shakespeare's plays and productions, especially in relationship to the political, artistic and economic realities of his time. Shapiro's dissection of the Gunpowder Plot and its impact on the plays the Bard wrote that year (Lear, the Scottish tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra) continues to haunt me. |  |
| Books | Tom Prewitt Artistic Director of WSC Avant Bard | Entrances: An American Director's Journey I keep coming back to this book by Alan Schneider because it is dishy, informative and fun, and because it sheds light on the history of Washington theatre in the 20th century and how its two most central figures--Father Gilbert Hartke and Zelda Fichandler--continue to influence us with their legacies even today. |  |
| Books | Brad Hathaway Website | On Sondheim: An Opinionated Guide The subtitle of this slender book (198 pages including index) is an honest disclosure that Ethan Mordden, author of literally dozens of books of which a dozen are on musical theater, is unconcerned if other authorities on Sondheim agree with his opinions — he’s sticking with them. Well, that’s fine, since they are well thought through and based on a thorough knowledge of his subject. He covers most of the essential information although he fails to portray Sondheim’s growth as an artist over his very lengthy career. In Mordden’s hands, it is almost as if the musical theater genius Stephen Sondheim sprang full grown at the age of 23 from the mind of Oscar Hammerstein II. If you are the kind of reader who can filter the factual content from the opinions, this is a fine one-volume resource on its topic. It provides a brief biographical sketch, an essay on the impact on Sondheim’s work of mentor Oscar Hammerstein II, producing/directing collaborator Hal Prince and his book-writing partners. Then it has brief writeups of each of Sondheim’s produced musicals. Suggestion: read the first two sections to start and then peruse the chapters on individual shows when you are going to see them. |  |
| Books | Brad Hathaway Website | The Book of Broadway: The 150 Definitive Plays and Musicals Every theater lover with a coffee table needs coffee table books. There are so many out there … Robert Viagas and Louis Botto’s At This Theatre, Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon’s Broadway: The American Musical, Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik’s Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time, Ben Brantley’s simply titled book of New York Times reviews of Broadway Musicals. Now there’s a new one that makes for fine flipping through memories that covers both musicals and plays of note. Eric Grode’s The Book of Broadway features photo spreads on each of his 150 “definitive” shows with his own entertaining comments on what the show was all about and why it was so important. At 350 pages, here’s hoping your theater loving friends have strong coffee tables! |  |
| Books | Brad Hathaway Website | Joy Ride: Show People & Their Shows Forget the title which tells you little about the book, and focus on the subtitle and the name of the author, John Lahr. Those two things tell you all you need to know - a book about theater from someone who knows what he’s talking about from personal experience both from family connections (he’s the son of Bert) and a lifetime of theatergoing including years as the drama critic of The New Yorker. Indeed, it is his profiles of theater greats and his detailed pieces on specific shows for that magazine, so well known for its emphasis on good writing, that make up this volume. Portraits of the likes of directors Mike Nichols and Susan Strohman (what, no Mr. Abbott?) and playwrights such as Arthur Miller, August Wilson and none other than William Shakespeare are a delight to read and are filled with details and observations that are worth savoring. His pieces on individual shows, from Oklahoma! through The Pajama Game to The Light in the Piazza capture some of why theater lovers love theater. (A personal favorite single sentence? Here from his short piece on “Sweeney Todd” - “From the poisoned wells of victorian oppression, Sondheim drew his purest water.”) |  |
| Books | Brad Hathaway Website | The Best Plays of 2014 Those who enjoy reading plays rather than reading about plays were downcast when the Burns Mantle annual series The Best Plays Theater Yearbook began providing essays about the plays instead of the full texts. That series has fallen behind in its issues in recent years. Perhaps in an effort to fill the gap, Applause Theatre & Cinema Books has brought out a volume of “Best Plays” by Lawrence Harbison, who has long edited collections of monologues, scenes, short plays and plays by new playwrights. Indeed, he has just come out with three other volumes: 10-Minute Plays for Kids, 10-Minute Plays for Teens and The Best Scenes for Kids Ages 7-15. For his 2014 Best Plays volume he includes the scripts of six plays including Donald Margulies’ The Country House and Dan Lauria’s Dinner with the Boys. |  |
| Books | John Stoltenberg DC Metro Theater Arts Archive and Magic Time! Website | The Women's Voices Theater Festival—during which I got to thirty performances and two staged readings—ended up whetting my appetite for plays by women who are unabashedly radical. You know, the way male playwrights like Odets, Kramer, Baraka, and Kushner get to be brazenly political. Last year I was fortunate to see two such fierce female voices that have been published, so I get to put their scorching scripts on my list. One is Top Girls by Caryl Churchill, which I reviewed in a terrific student production at GW. The other is The Second Coming of Joan of Arc by Carolyn Gage, which I saw brilliantly performed by Lizzie Parmenter in a Fringe production. |  ---  |
| Books | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | I Can Cook Too! It's like bringing Washington Theatre into your kitchen. Poach an egg like Molly Smith, stir your chili like Robert Aubry Davis, be the big cheese with Tonya Beckman's brie. Plus more from include:: Eric Schaeffer, Sherri Edelen, Kimberly Gilbert, Naomi Jacobson, Tracy Lynn Olivera and Stephen Gregory Smith, among others. Every cookbook purchase benefits Taking Care of Our Own, a program of theatreWashington. |  |
| Books | Brad Hathaway Website | We’ll Have Manhattan: The Early Work of Rodgers & Hart There are more recordings of the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart than of the full scores of their 26 shows but whether your fascination for their work comes from songs or scores, you can’t fully understand the nature of their shows just from the music and lyrics. Dominic Symonds fills that void for the least well known part of their canon - the shows that established their reputation between the Garrick Gaieties of 1925 with which they burst forth with the song “Manhattan” (among others) and America’s Sweetheart in 1931. In between came such gems as Dearest Enemy, One Damn Thing after Another and Spring is Here. Symonds gives both a look at what the shows were like and their impact on the Broadway and London musical theater. This is the first volume of a projected two-volume work. Despite some excessive technical jargon, the text can be a delight on its own and will just whet your appetite for the next installment. |  |
| Books | Brad Hathaway Website | The Collected Plays of Arthur Miller The Library of America has collected all of Miller’s plays - the big, important ones like Death of a Salesman, All My Sons and The Crucible and the smaller teleplays and one-acts. Three volumes cover those from 1944-1961, 1964-1982 and 1987-2004 (one assumes he didn’t publish any in the intervening years). The texts are scrupulously prepared and, as is true of other Library of America volumes, the books even have sewn-in ribbons to act as book marks. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Hamilton The big news on Broadway this year was the arrival of Lin-Manuel Mirada’s hip-hop/multi-ethnic musical Hamilton.Inspired by Ron Chernow’s superb biography of Alexander Hamilton — aide-de-camp to George Washington, author of most of the Federalist Papers and our nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury. The most anticipated new musical in years would have to be great to satisfy the expectations of the Broadway audience. And Ben Brantley, New York Times review, answered “It really is that good.” “Hip-hop?” I hear many wonder. The self-conscious rhyming and patter/meter of hip-hop concentrates the focus on the plot and character content of the lyrics in a way that demands the audience’s heightened attention and enhances their intellectual and emotional responsiveness. It approaches the status of a masterpiece — I’d say it is a masterpiece it if weren’t that too much is crammed into the second act, causing a bit of a let down from the astounding intensity level of Act I. Now we have a two-disc set of the complete score of this sung-through musical. It, too, “really is that good.” Listening intently can approach the seeing the show in person because, even without its visual strengths, it is the score that carries the show. |  |
| CDs | John Stoltenberg DC Metro Theater Arts Archive and Magic Time! Website | Hamilton (a second opinion) The original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton is insanely good. The lyrics alone raise the bar for musical writing somewhere up into the stratosphere. I can't count how many times I've listened to it, and each time I'm in awe—also insanely envious of anyone who's already seen it on stage New York. | |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Something Rotten! How fun! This is the latest in a long and distinguished line of bright, cheerful, funny musical tributes to the very concept of the musical (think The Producers, Spamalot, or The Musical of Musicals: The Musical). This one takes on Shakespeare as it views the oh-so-twentieth-century art form from the perspective of the seventeenth. Bright, witty and clever lyrics with enthusiastic music marvelously arranged and performed by a great cast and full pit orchestra, the recording is a kick and a superb reflection of the experience in the theater.The incredibly fun-packed first act isn’t quite matched by the second as it ends up stuck in a disappointing number. “Make An Omelette” just doesn’t make it either in the theater where the costumes are a let down or on the disc where the song itself also comes up short. (If you give this album as a gift you might want to include a magnifier to read the booklet.) |  |
| CDs | John Glass DramaUrge.com Website | Side Man – Jazz Classics from the Broadway Play If Warren Light’s Tony Award winning play (1999), about a compulsively dedicated trumpeter and his long-suffering wife and son, was a great one, it was in large part due to the mood created by the music of Clifford Brown and assortment of jazz legends (Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis). The late Mr. Brown is featured on 5 of the tracks, plus one tribute recording opener, “I Remember Clifford” – fittingly in a memory play about missed opportunities. And fittingly, there are many great trumpet licks here – his last “A Night in Tunisia” is truly one for the ages – but the other instruments, included as solos or part of the ensemble, are equally remarkable. There’s intimacy and clarity in each of the ten jazz standards, so much so you feel like you’re kicking back in a lounge. I’ve listened to the RCA Victor cast recording countless times since I purchased it in the 2000s and it never fails to delight. You can download an MP3 version from Amazon for about 10 bucks, but I’d look for the original CD with the original artists. This would be a selection on my Desert Island Discs. Hope it makes you and yours. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Allegiance Allegiance has yet to announce a full cast recording, but a pre-Broadway release of a mini album gives you four of its songs plus an instrumental which may well have been intended as an overture before the final form of the show added a prologue. Allegiance, marking the return of Lea Solonga (of Miss Saigon fame), a very strong performance by Telly Leung and the Broadway debut of George Takei (yes, Star Trek’s Sulu.). It is a serious piece of theater with a melodic score featuring mostly pedestrian lyrics which tends to avoid making the love story too lyrical. That story is loosely based on the real life experience of the Takei family, which, shortly after the start of World War II, was interred in prison camps (euphemistically referred to at the time as “internment stations”) because of their Japanese ancestry - never mind that George was a five year old American citizen! It is a piece of history that is as important as it is disturbing to remember, but the dual-romance story gives it a layer of loveliness without turning it into a piece of frippery. We can hope for a full recording of the score, but for now we have to settle for this sampler from the pre-Broadway production at San Diego’s Old Globe. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Fun Home The winner of the 2105 Tony Award for Best Musical (and also best book and best score, not to mention being a finalist for the Pulitzer for Drama) was recorded by PS Classics when it was an off-Broadway show at the Public Theatre. When it transferred to a Broadway house, they went back into the studio to record those portions of the score that had been changed for the transfer. The result is not so much an album of songs from the show as an audio presentation of the storytelling as an integrated whole. This is an album to settle in with – booklet in one hand and perhaps your favorite libation in the other. It takes just over an hour - - it is a wonderful hour. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Spring Awakening I’m afraid you are going to have to reach back to the 2006 release to hear the music of this show which has been given a marvelous limited run revival this season. The new production originated in Los Angeles at the Deaf West Theatre, the same company that gave us the superb revival of Big River that featured a cast of hearing and deaf performers. Here, again, the blend of ASL and vocally spoken/sung performances adds a dimension and richness to an already satisfying piece. Duncan Sheik’s often glorious soft-rock infused music carrying Steven Sater's image-filled lyrics is given the same wonderful (I use that word precisely) treatment. Unfortunately, no revival cast recording has been released. Still, the score is so strong that a recording of it should be considered. Fortunately, the original Broadway cast album from the 2006 production is still available. The revival doesn’t change that score and it sounds in the theater this year very much as it did nine years ago. I’d love to have the new cast’s performance available but if it isn’t to be, call up the original and, to lift a lyric, “know the wonder.” (The recording does carry a “parental advisory” for “explicit lyrics.”) |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | On the 20th Century Back when the term "hyperactive" was just entering popular vocabularies, it was the perfect word to describe this 1979 musical farce with a tremendous score by Cy Coleman and Comden and Green. This year it was revived by the Roundhouse Theatre Company with a superb cast headed by Kristen Chenoweth. Put on this fabulous two disc recording but don't sit back to listen … sit up to enjoy. But before you push the "play" button, take the time to read Patrick Pacheco's notes on the evolution of the project and the full synopsis. It will make the fun even more, well, fun. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Side Show The Broadway revival of Side Show attempted to give a fresh look at the musical that received a thoroughly idiosyncratic production for its premiere in 1997 and give it fresh life with significant changes to the score. After its run at The Kennedy Center, it only managed to hold on to the stage at the St. James Theatre (where Something Rotten! now holds forth) through last year’s holiday season and folded on January 4 with only 56 performances (and 21 previews) under its belt. Comparing the new (and thoroughly well done) recording with the original Broadway cast recording reveals nine titles cut from 2006 and an even dozen new songs. A careful listen will reveal a few of the melodies or lyrics have been reused in slightly different settings but mostly, the new dozen feature entirely new work by composer Henry Krieger and lyricist Bill Russell. [As a bonus the CD includes a song cut from the Broadway production] |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | School of Rock Andrew Lloyd Webber is back in Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre where his Cats played, and played, and played for 18 years. This time out, he’s not composing in the mixture of faux operetta, vaudeville, music hall and show music that marked that score and the one of Phantom of the Opera which is still at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre after more than a quarter century. Instead, with lyricist Glenn Slater (Leap of Faith, Sister Act, Little Mermaid) he’s in a youthful sounding rock mode closer to what he gave us for The Beautiful Game and Whistle Down the Wind, neither of which ever made it to Broadway, but both of which received good cast albums. He does indulge in a little coloratura for Sierra Boggess, and a lengthy a cappella rock rant (which you may want to skip), but mostly the score is guitar and drum dominant rock with the vocalist’s screams in key. School of Rock is a musicalization of the 2003 movie that starred Jack Black as a private elementary school teacher (Alex Brightman) who tries to turn his class into a rock band. In a refreshing development, the original Broadway cast album was released not months after the show opened but before opening night. Perhaps other producers will take the cue that having a cast album when a show opens helps earn fans and even ticket buyers. |  |
| CDs | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | Carols for a Cure The companies from your favorite Broadway and Off-Broadway shows can be heard on this annual holiday treat, now in its 17th year. The 2-CD set exclusively benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and features new and classic holiday songs sung by the companies of Hamilton, Fun Home, Kinky Boots, School of Rock, Something Rotten! among others. |  |
| CDs | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | Holiday: The Divas of DC Felicia Curry, Nova Y. Payton, Tracy Linn Olivera, Sherri L. Edelen, Donna Migliaccio are just a few of the DC Divas celebrating the Holidays on this Diva-licious stocking stuffer. Produced by Eric Schaeffer and Gabe Mangiante, all proceeds will benefit Taking Care of Our Own, a program of theatreWashington. |  Sale price: $10 |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | On The Town Three hundred and sixty eight – That’s how many performances the latest revival of the Leonard Bernstein, Comden & Green World War II musical managed to last, making it the longest running of the season's three revivals to date. Bernstein’s dance music is spectacularly captured here. As is an historical touch of class — during World War II most public musical events began with “The Star Spangled Banner.” True to the period, this recording starts that way as well. However, when the war ended, the show reverted to opening with an overture. For this recording, the overture is played at the beginning of Act II as it was in this Broadway revival. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | It Shoulda Been You Hard as it is to believe, a musical comedy with a highly melodic score and witty lyrics that starred Tyne Daly, Harriet Harris and Sierra Boggess and was directed by David Hyde Pierce closed this season after only four months. Thank goodness Joel Moss and Kurt Deutsch at Ghostlight managed to capture its score in a delightful album that sounds something like musical comedies of yore. What’s more, they filled the booklet with a detailed synopsis, notes from the creative team, the complete lyrics and enough photos to give you a good idea what the physical production must have been like. The entire package is well worth buying two of … one to give and one to own. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | The Bridges of Madison County Jason Robert Brown found himself in the unusual posture of having receiving both the 2014 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and for Best Orchestrations for his surprisingly short lived The Bridges of Madison County. It is rare for a Broadway composer to do the orchestrations for his own score. Many of them are capable of doing it, but simply don’t have the time during the hectic period of rehearsal and tryout. Brown handled both chores and handled them superbly. The supporting orchestrations feel very much like augmented chamber music with the piano dominating at the start but rich strings (four players on violin, viola and cello) providing heft in support of the emotive vocals, especially those of stars Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | John Kander Hidden Treasures, 1950 - 2015 In 2012 I urged my readers to purchase a “Hidden Treasures” set of songs by Hugh Martin. In 2014 it was the “Hidden Treasures” songs by Sheldon Harnick. Now, Harbinger has added a two-disc treasure of songs by John Kander which is a must-have. As with the earlier volumes, this two-disc set is best approached with a pause button. Read the text for a track, listen to the track, pause, think, then move on to the next. There are pleasures here to be, as the title suggests, treasured. Jesse Green’s essay explaining the source of each song constitutes a veritable biography of the man and his career and the two discs offer an overview of the remarkable man and a matchless career. John Kander’s output deserves no less. And the listener deserves the full pleasure of his creations. This is a package that is so filled with wonders that it deserves to be a project. Unlike Something Rotten!, It Shoulda Been You or even Hamilton, which should be experienced, at least for the first time, in a single sitting, this set can be enjoyed in short snatches, listening to, reading the notes by Kander himself and savoring a few songs at a time. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | The Last Ship Sting isn't as famed in musical theater circles as in pop/rock/new-wave worlds, but he turned his talent to creating a full-fledged Broadway musical tied to his personal history growing up in the North of England where the ship building trade was dying. The show finally debuted on Broadway and its cast album displays a satisfying sense of the potential of music in serious story telling. Clearly, Sting had absorbed the ethos of musical theater and he is a talented composer and acceptable lyricist. The score was nominated for the Tony but didn't win. Rob Mathes was also nominated for his orchestrations for a twelve player pit band that sounds quite like a pub group. The recording doesn't give much clue as to how his collaborators John Logan and Brian Yorkey did with the book. Still, there's much to enjoy here, and as a gift it might introduce musical theater to a fan of the music of groups like Sting's The Police. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Doctor Zhivago Broadway Records moved quickly to capture this score. They had to, as the show closed in less than a month. Fans of big, sweeping, serious musicals should be grateful for the release.The material captured on this single disc is refreshingly straight forward, free of unnecessary gimmickry and performed by a cast obviously selected for their talent. The disc is, as we’ve come to expect from the relatively new label Broadway Records, beautifully recorded and accompanied by a hefty booklet featuring full lyrics, synopsis, notes and a collection of production photos. It took guts to include in the show the one tune everyone expected to hear when they bought tickets, Maurice Jarre and Paul Francis Webster’s “Somewhere My Love,” so well known from the movie as “Lara’s Theme.” No matter how good Lucy Simon’s music was, everyone was going to leave the theater humming Jarre, not Simon. It turns out that it fits well with Simon’s work, which, when not imitating a Russian cossack dance, sounds mostly like Hollywood’s idea of a sweeping spectacular. The lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers are of the efficient storytelling type with matching sweeping imagery. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Lady Be Good This is a recording of the 2015 Encores! Concert Series reconstruction of the score for the Gershwins' 1924 hit. Danny Gardner and Patti Murin are in the roles originated by Fred and Adele Astaire. The performance that makes this recording something to add to your collection even if you already own the Roxbury Recording of the Library of Congress’s 1992 restoration of the show is that of Tommy Tune who’s “Fascinating Rythm” is the highlight. The booklet, among other interesting things, provides insight into the orchestrations being used which are primarily Bill Elliot’s. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | The Visit Following Fred Ebb’s death in 2004, John Kander devoted a decade to getting their final three collaborations completed and mounted on Broadway stages and The Visit is the last one.The first two (Curtains, The Scottsboro Boys) had original Broadway cast albums. Now The Visit gets one too. It is a quality recording that captures the magic of Chita Rivera’s magnetic performance as the richest woman in the world who uses the power of her vast fortune to wreak vengeance on an entire town and her former lover for wrongs done to her when she was a young girl. The score includes moments of incandescent beauty in “You, You, You” and “Love and Love Alone” — indeed every track that features Rivera is spellbinding in the literal meaning of that word. Unfortunately, it was a single act version of the show that finally reached Broadway, missing some of the heft and scope of its earlier Chicago and Arlington, Va. incarnations and featuring a male lead in faltering health. The performance of Roger Rees, who died less than a month after the show’s short run ended, is less satisfying. Still, now a gap in the Kander and Ebb section of every theater lover’s CD shelf can be filled — and filled with Chita’s magic. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Irving Berlin “This Is the Life!” The Breakthrough Years: 1909–1921 Rick Benjamin, director of this orchestra and musical researcher extraordinaire, says in his fascinatingly comprehensive notes for this superb release that “one of the reasons for this album (is) to try to learn more about why Berlin’s music was — and is — so compelling.” That, in a nutshell, is the story of all of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra releases of the music of the early 20th century — Joplin, Hirsch, Cohan and now Berlin. They are all learning experiences. Oh, they are also delightful listening experiences. This one has 21 of Irving Berlin’s early works in original orchestrations (including “That Mesmerizing Mendelssohn Tune,” “Everybody’s Doin’ It,” “When I Lost You,” “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up In The Morning!” and, of course, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”). Few compilations of historically important music do such a good job of providing all the information you need to fully appreciate what you are hearing. In this case, what you are hearing is an accurate re-creation of the birth of what became the great American song form. No one did more to establish the concept of a popular song with its 8, 16 or 32 bar AABA structure than did Irving Berlin. These early pieces lay the foundation for what came later from Berlin and his successors - Gershwin, Kern, Porter, Rodgers right on through Loesser, Mercer and even up to Simon, Joel, and the Brits Lennon and McCartney. Benjamin’s essay, which runs over 10,000 words, is as rewarding as the disc is enjoyable. You may find you return to both frequently. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | The Golden Apple This first-ever full-length recording of an overlooked gem of a sung-through score from the 1950s belongs on the theater shelf of any serious aficionado of the genre. The updating of Homer's epic poems, The Odyssey and The Iliad finds Ulysses, Penelope, Paris and Helen (of Troy) inhabiting the then-contemporary world of post-World War II Washington state. An earnest, witty, clever and poetic book by John Latouche is well served by the full-sounding orchestral music by Jerome Moross (who did his own orchestrations, teaming with Hershy Kay.) The original Broadway cast recording was severely truncated with less than 50 of the 130 minutes of the score connected by rhyming narration that rankled and wasn't from the show. Still, its riches were such that it was hard to listen to it without lamenting its brevity and wondering just what the missing nearly an hour and a half must have been like. Now, record producer Tommy Krasker has provided the answer on this two-disc set with full libretto recorded live during the Lyric Stage production in Irving, Texas. The previously unrecorded material is as rich and satisfying as the abbreviated version that served as a sampler. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Tamar of the River Marisa Michelson's sonically impressive music and Joshua H. Cohen's streamlined lyrics for this unorthodox off-Broadway musical is probably the least "theater music" sounding score of the year. It is built on the biblical story of Tamar, the daughter of Judah, wed to Er and Onan. It is an allegory of a world of two nations at war for generations and the efforts of Tamar to bring peace. If a big, bold, Broadway sound is your thing, look elsewhere. But if you can immerse yourself in a complex blend of chant, near-eastern percussion, a cappella humming and folk song with a touch of pop, explore this new release on Yellow Sound, a label that takes chances with show scores that break new ground. Margo Seibert, who began her career in Washington, DC, leads the cast of the Prospect Theatre Company's premiere staging of this musical that got its start in the Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) Next Generation program. |  |
| CDs | Brad Hathaway Website | Misia A new musical by Vernon Duke, compatriot of George Gershwin's? Well, yes and no. This world premiere recording based on the life of a Parisian champion of the arts of the early 20th Century, Misia Sert, features Duke's music composed for a French-language musical published in 1952 but never produced. With the encouragement of Duke's widow, Barry Singer devised a new book on a new topic using Duke's music which has been given a sparkling recording by PS Classics (do they do any other kind?) with the likes of Marin Mazzie, Bobby Steggert, Marc Kudisch, Jason Danieley, Jonathan Freeman and Philip Chaffin with full orchestra. It may not become a favorite, but it is well worth multiple plays as the listener delves deeper and deeper into its musical riches. The structure Singer came up with and the story the show tells is interesting but his lyrics often feature too obvious rhyme schemes to match Duke's often subtle melodies. The orchestral work is superb using orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick whose magical touch with atmospheric scores is legendary. |  |
| Just for Fun | Jayne Blanchard DCTS Archive | If you prick us, do we not bleed? Give your scrapes and ouchies an Elizabethan touch with Shakespeare Insult Bandages, which bindeth your wounds with some of Shakespeare's snarkiest quotes. |  |
| Just for Fun | Jayne Blanchard DCTS Archive | Smells like Oscar Wilde Nothing succeeds like excess, as Wilde himself said. You may not possess his flawless wit, but you can evoke the scent of the Irish playwright and author in this decadent candle redolent of cedarwood, thyme and basil. Perfect mood lighting for the slim gilt soul in your life. |  |
| Just for Fun | Jayne Blanchard DCTS Archive | Put on your own version of "Pride and Prejudice" postprandial with these Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennett salt and pepper shakers. They will shake up your dinner table décor and add a dash of class consciousness and cleverness. |  |
| Just for Fun | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | For unique DC theatre gifts stop by the gift shops at Signature, The Kennedy Center and Shakespeare Theatre. (shown) This year's 4" Snow Globe from STC shows the Bard standing midst swirling snow. |  |
| Tickets | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | Perfect for planning ahead tixCertificates Gift the gift of live theatre. Your recipient can choose from hundreds of shows across the DC area—from musicals to children’s theatre to adult dramas and comedies. |  Order online or call 202.337.5472 |
| Tickets | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | Perfect for the spontaneous Today Tix The popular Broadway mobile app has come to Washington, DC. Order same day or same week discounted tickets direct from your phone. Gift cards in any amount are available. |  |
| Tickets | Jill Kyle-Keith DCTS Archive | Theatre for kids Perfect for parents with young children. Our area has outstanding theatre for children so gift cards to any of them will be a gift for the entire family to enjoy. Here are links to two gift centers: Imagination Stage and Adventure Theatre MTC |  |
| Classes | Lorraine Treanor DCTS Archive | Bodies by Synetic Performers love these classes and private training. Synetic also has classes for kids and we regular folks in their new Crystal City studio. Simply find the classes, and add your recipient's name. |  more |
More suggestions:
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To thank all theatermakers, send a contribution to these caring funds: theatreWashington’s Taking Care of Our Own, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and The Actors Fund.
Pay it forward with a gift to DC Theatre Scene to help us keep bringing their work to you.
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