With the help of a law school professor, a beauty parlor confident and interactions with classmates, makes her realize that her idea of the perfect husband, is not what she wants.

The Broadway production of Legally Blonde grossed over $1 million and was nominated seven Tony Awards.

Legally Blonde the Musical
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 
Opera House 
2700 F Street, NW
Washington, DC  20566 (map it)
202-467-4600

Date and Time – Tuesday, December 16 through Sunday, January 11, 2008.

Tickets – $25.00 – $95.00 and are available online.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Foggy Bottom/George Washington University station (23rd and I St.) – Blue and Orange lines, then a 3-block walk.  Take Metro and use the free Kennedy Center shuttle on Saturday. It runs 10:00 a.m. – Midnight.

Parking - limited parking is available at the Kennedy Center for $17.00.

Image – Flickr – poster, ________________________________________________

Post from: The DC Traveler

They may be a bit dangerous and tied into the world of crime, but they both desire to keep their promises to their families and loved ones, to walk the straight and narrow. 

But one of the men desperately needs cash to send his child on  school soccer trip, so there’s a decision, should we risk it all again for one last heist….

This, at times, comic drama is based on interviews with real Irish men who were fighting to break out of lives of crime and their resulting incarnation. 

The story can be a bit disjointed at times, especially with one performer playing 5 different roles, out of the 7 characters in total.  While adding props and some scenery would add much to the show, strong and emotional performances, especially by Eric Lucas (Gary), make this an interesting, one act, 85-minute performance.

Love, Peace and Robbery
Theatre on the Run, presented by the Keegan Theatre
3700 S. Four Mile Run
Arlington, Virginia
703-892-0202 (map it)

Dates and Times – November 28 – December 21, 2008. Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sunday matinees at 3:00 p.m.

Tickets – $30.00, students with ID and Seniors – $25.00 and are available by e-mail at boxoffice@keegantheatre.com or by calling 703-892-0202, Ext. 2.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Pentagon City – Blue and Yellow lines, then a 3-mile taxi ride.

Parking – Free lot and some on street parking is available.

Image – Flickr – View from a prison in Cork
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Post from: The DC Traveler

These lengthy and historical interviews, the first since Nixon’s resignation in 1974, aired on television and showed Nixon, speaking at length about his presidency and literally taking over the interview, often not allowing Frost to effectively ask questions.

During the interviews, he did admit for the first time, an apology, stating he had “let the American people down” through his part in the Watergate burglary and cover-up.

The Tony Award nominated play, Frost/Nixon, staring Stacy Keech as Nixon, will come alive, 30 years after the actual interviews, on the stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. 

Written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote the films The Last King of Scotland and The Queen, the play traces the story of how Frost was able to arrange, self-finance and sell the interviews, and get the first public apology from the fallen former President.

While the play does not use the word-for-word transcripts of the interviews and edits much of them, the play received phrase in showing how Nixon viewed his own failure and his presidential legacy.

The Ron Howard film version of Frost/Nixon opens in theaters on December 5th.

Frost/Nixon
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Eisenhower Theater
2700 F Street, NW
Washington DC. 20566 (map it)

Date and Time – Tuesday, November 11 through Saturday, November 30, 2008.

Tickets – $25.00 – $80.00 and are available online.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Foggy Bottom/George Washington University station (23rd and I St.) – Blue and Orange lines, then a 3-block walk.  Take Metro and use the free Kennedy Center shuttle on Saturday. It runs 10:00 a.m. – Midnight.

Parking - limited parking is available at the Kennedy Center for $17.00.

Images – Richard and Pat Nixon – public domain 

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Fisher’s one-woman play, Wishful Drinking,  just opened at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC (as part of Arena’s Stage “re-staged”  seasons as their complex is being remodeled).  In it, she tells her personal story and all of it — the good, the bad, and the parts the Hollywood tabloids loved.

"I’m Carrie Fisher and I’m an alcoholic — and this is a true story," she begins. She then glibly tells her life story from her Beverly Hills living room set – as candidly, irreverently, and comically,

The self-deprecating, sole baring and caustically told story of her life is definitely a combination of dark and light humor. She spins a good web of stories, from her celebrity parents during her childhood, where she fought for attention starting in the hospital when she was born, to her two marriages, one to Paul Simon, the other, to a man who left her… for a man (She claims she turns men gay).

Her ad libbed interaction with the audience is hysterical, as she tells tales, and effectively uses one-liners about Hollywood inbreeding, her romances, her heavy drug use, and bipolar disorder, her resulting depression and a subsequent breakdown (why do so many Hollywood people have “breakdowns”?). She tells anecdotes about a friend dying in her bed while she slept, her role in Star Wars, rehab, the fans, the tabloids, as well as her mental illness she claims she caught from Amy Winehouse’s toilet seat.

While the script could use a bit of tightening to tie some of the stories together, she is very funny. At some points, it seems a bit too ironic or  manufactured, sounding like another celebrity talking about unrelated incidents during her after-the-fact humorous but “troubled” life.

Wishful Drinking is an entertaining insider’s view to another celebrity train wreck, perhaps before the mega-wrecks of Ana Nicole and Britney showed the world how to do it with world-class, nightly news headline notoriety, it is still very funny.

And with lines like…."Resentment – It’s like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die", how can it not be???

Wishful Drinking
Lincoln Theatre
1215 U Street, NW
Washington, DC   (map it)

Dates and Times – Nightly except Mondays, through September 28, 2008. Matinees on some Saturdays and Sundays.

Tickets – $55.00 – $74.00 and are available online.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo, Green and Yellow line, then a 1-block walk.

Parking – Metered street and garage parking is available within a short walking distance.

Images – photo by Kevin Berne at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Illustration by Roberto Parada

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Post from: The DC Traveler

The Musical of Musicals, (The Musical) uses a simple story about an ingénue who is unable to pay her rent. Other characters includes an evil landlord who’s trying to take advantage of her, the female mentor and the young man to the rescue. Take that basic premise and create five mini-musicals, each in the style of legendary theatrical creators.

If you enjoy an occasional trip to New York’s Broadway for a play or love musicals, this should be for you. Don’t expect new words to classic Broadway tunes as this play uses original music and lyrics, but in the style of each composer.

As you can see below, the plays created by the different theatrical geniuses are varied and allow for some great parody.

• Rodgers & Hammerstein – Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music
• Stephen Sondheim – West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd
• Jerry Herman- Hello, Dolly!, Mame, La Cage aux Folles
• Andrew Lloyd Webber – Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar
• John Kander & Fred Ebb- Cabaret, Chicago, Fosse, Kiss of the Spider Woman

The Musical of Musicals, (The Musical)
MetroStage
1201 North Royal Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Dates and Times – Through June 3rd – Thursdays and Fridays – 8:00 p.m., Saturdays – 5:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Tickets – $35.00 – $40.00 (depending on performance) and are available online.

Nearest Metro subway station – Braddock Road – Yellow and Blue lines, then a 1 mile walk or take the DASH #2 or 4 bus.

Parking- Free parking is available in the Third Street lot in the MetroStage complex along with free street parking.

Photo credits – photo 1 courtesy of MetroStage 

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Post from: The DC Traveler