Jeffrey Walker - Page 2

Emma Stone's star is on the rise. The 27-year old actress has been a sought after leading lady for several years. Her Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for the film BIRDMAN is only solidifying her reputation as one of Hollywood's most exciting young actresses of today. She recently ended her run on Broadway as the iconic Sally Bowles in the revival of CABARET, fulfilling a childhood dream.

Four towering music legends live on in a rousing, tune-filled walk down memory lane at Fredericksburg's Riverside Center for the Performing Arts. Fans of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins need look no further than the retrospective musical MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, now bringing audiences to their feet through March 5.

Making its regional premiere at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE MUSICAL is now ready to aim an Official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot Range Model air rifle at audiences through New Year's Eve.

Written and first presented two decades ago, FULLY COMMITTED was revised and revived in New York recently with Broadway veteran and one of the costars of TV comedy hit 'Modern Family,' Jesse Tyler Ferguson. This brought enough interest in the show to warrant additional productions and Carolyn Griffin, artistic leader of MetroStage thought it was the perfect vehicle for two of the DC areas hardest working artists: Tom Story and Alan Paul.

Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the quartet of seasonal spectres - if these characters are back in action, it must mean A CHRISTMAS CAROL has returned to spread humbug and cheer in the Kellar Family Theatre in Manassas. The resident community theatre at the Center for the Arts, Rooftop Productions, is offering their annual revival of the Dickens classic to delight audiences young and old. As a matter of fact, at the Sunday matinee I attended, there were nearly as many youngsters as grown-ups, which is a wonderful thing to see at a live theatre event.

Director Gaye Taylor Upchurch makes her Arena Stage debut working with Kathleen Turner (MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, MOLLY IVINS) in the play adaptation of Joan Didion's memoir THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING. Upchurch talked with Broadway World's Jeffrey Walker about directing the play, working with Turner, and the power of the witty and honest look at grief.

Riverside Center for the Performing Arts presents a first class production of Alfred Uhry's prize-winning drama DRIVING MISS DAISY. Expertly directed by renowned Washingon, DC-based actor/director Rick Hammerly and starring Karen Grassle from LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE in the title role, Riverside's DRIVING MISS DAISY charms and warms the heart.

Audrey Cefaly's new play THE GULF is an exciting premiere to say the least. As funny as it is powerful, as tender as it is passionate, THE GULF reveals a pair of volatile lovers whose relationship is as sharp as a fishing knife - pointed and dangerous. As directed by Joe Calarco, the play is also a duo-de-force for the actresses who bring the love, sex and honky tonk to a small fishing boat floating aimlessly in the Gulf of Mexico. IT is also a tour de force for two actresses: Rachel Zampelli and Maria Rizzo light up the stage with fire and gritty realism.

Legend has it there were five encores at the triumphant Viennese premiere of Mozart and da Ponte's Le Nozze di Figaro on May 1, 1786. By the same token, Washington National Opera's new production of the effervescent comic opera deserved just as many ovations. Now playing through Sunday, October 2 in the Kennedy Center Opera House, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO with Mozart's bubbly score and de Ponte's delicious libretto sparkles as bright as ever. The cast of first class singing-actors and the prime conducting skills of James Gaffigan are reason enough to take a seat for this masterpiece.

The vibe of the swinging sixties, the cat and mouse intrigue, the jazzy score, the witty lyrics - this is the winning combination NextStop Theatre Company has captured for their new and lively production of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - The Musical. Take the red-eye flight to get your tickets for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. Between the bountiful cheesecake, strong performers, and memorable tunes, this is a ring-a-ding-ding musical that deserves to sell out.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's first landmark collaboration is in great hands at Riverside Center in Fredericksburg. The production allows the power of the original musical to come to life with a talented cast, expert direction, and fleet-footed choreography.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA I just experienced at the Kennedy Center renewed my faith in the show: it is a delight for all the senses, possesses dazzling stagecraft, and is performed by a cast that mines the romance, danger, and intrigue from the story and score. I declare this production a dream come true. Chris Mann, formerly a contestant on THE VOICE headlines the show in the title role, performing with mystery and power. His Christine on the night I attended, Kaitlyn Davis, was stunning, as well.

Warmer temperatures, longer days, vacations and stay-cations - it must be summer time. The summer months offer many options for live theatre and entertainment for the entire family. Here are our top picks for the hottest performances in the DMV. Musicals, literary classics, family fare and Fringe are all lighting up the stages in the DC-Metro area.

Taking a trip to the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street will also transport you to a time when radio was king and one of the princes of the medium was the maverick actor-director Orson Welles. Welles and his Mercury Theatre Company on the Air produced a series of classic dramas on CBS Radio in the 1930s. Their most infamous broadcast was their adaptation of the H.G. Wells scifi classic "The War of the Worlds, sent over the airwaves on October 30, 1938 from New York City. That historic and iconic radio play has been translated to a new medium - the stage - by Scena Theatre in a riveting adaptation by Robert McNamara who also directed the production. Crackling with the excitement of live radio, Scena captures the ingenuity, talent and drama of that night.

LOOKING FOR ROBERTO CLEMENTE is back again for a second production at Bethesda's Imagination Stage, one of premiere locations for theatre for young audiences in the DMV. From wee ones in booster seats to parents and grandparents, this musical play hits a huge home-run. Writer Karen Zacarias and composer Deborah Wicks La Puma have fashioned a rock-infused musical that entertains while sliding home a message of friendship and loyalty and the deeper lessons a hero can teach us.

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's near masterpiece of a musical MY FAIR LADY took Broadway by storm 60 years ago this year and has become a 20th century classic. I am happy to report the plucky flower girl from the mean streets of London who gets molded into a proper lady is as lovely as ever as presented by Riverside Performing Arts Center. The sparkling wit, unrequited romance, musical hall turns and lush music are all performed with love and panache in director Patrick A'Hearn's production, featuring well-known DC actor Thomas Adrian Simpson as Henry Higgins and Riverside veteran Quinn Vogt-Welch in the title role.

Shakespeare Theatre Company proves once again their place as one of the nation's finest classical theatre companies with a new production of OTHELLO. A careful blend of grand spectacle and intimate relationships, William Shakespeare's mature tragedy leaps off of the stage with passion, wit, and pathos. Starring Pakistani-American Faran Tahir in the title role, this OTHELLO is filtered through the lens of Othello as a Muslim who has adopted Western dress and religion. The concept works and the tragedy still works as one of Shakespeare's best.

If the term “up-and-coming actor” needed a poster child, last year I would have said Eddie Redmayne would be a perfect match, owing to his Oscar win as Stephen Hawking in the acclaimed film THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. Now, I would say the 34-year old British actor has moved from the up-and-coming category into the column of established film actors. This Oscar season, Redmayne will once again face the red carpet and the possibility of leading actor Academy Award for his role in THE DANISH GIRL as the artist Einar who faces a personal conflict and the expectations of society when he transitions to Lily in the early 20th century.

The profile of Mark Rylance, veteran star of stage and screen, has risen this year due to a number of high profile projects. He is nominated for actor in a supporting role for his turn as Rudolf Abel, an undercover KGB agent who is tried for espionage in BRIDGE OF SPIES. This may be his first Oscar nomination, but Rylance is no stranger to accolades for his acting.

Memories painful and poignant intermingle through a smoky haze in the sharp and vivid production of Tennessee Williams THE GLASS MENAGERIE now onstage at Ford's Theatre. Painstakingly directed by Mark Ramont, the production boasts a superb cast of actors whose nuanced and detailed performances mine the emotional depths of Williams' early and personal play.