I did other things this past weekend, but first let me write about the final two fringe shows I saw (both on Friday night), with a quick dinner (veggie bun from Jenny's Asian and gelato from Dolcezza) at the Wharf in between.

An Unhealthy Man Lectures You on Medical Issues: This was Vincent Clark’s one-man show (with some assistance from a silent ( Read more... )

Celebrity Death Watch: Christian Menn designed the Zakim Bridge in Boston. Elbert Howard co-founded the Black Panther Party. Sergio Marchionne oversaw the merger between Chrysler and Fiat. Donald Kaul co-founded RAGBRAI, a famous bicycling event across Iowa. Warren Brown wrote about cars for the Washington Post. Mel Rosen was a crossword ( Read more... )

The Capital Fringe is going on and I bought a 6 show pass. Here are my comments on the first two shows I saw:

America’s Wives: This play is sort of based on a Yoruba folktale. I think I actually know the folktale in question. I definitely know related ones from a number of cultures in which one family member is rewarded with gifts and another ( Read more... )

I went to three Capital Fringe Festival shows over the weekend. (I had previously seen Mr. Taken.) Here’s the run-down, plus a note about the neighborhood.

NoMa: All three shows I saw this weekend were at Gallaudet University, which is at the edge of the NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) area. Since I hadn’t been over that way before and had ( Read more... )

First, a couple of quick celebrity deaths. Bel Kaufman wrote Up the Down Staircase, an amusing novel of public school life. She was also, of course, Sholem Aleichem’s granddaughter. Margot Adler was an NPR reporter and wrote Drawing Down the Moon, a work which documented and may have popularized modern paganism ( Read more... )

I realize it is too late for other folks to see the rest of the Capital Fringe shows I saw, but the timing of everything else I was doing meant that most of what I saw was the final weekend of the festival.

In Search of the Perfect G-String: Oh, to stroke that elegant neck, to trace the curves of that body . How can anybody doubt the sensuality of ( Read more... )

Much of what has kept me occupied the past couple of weeks has been the Capital Fringe Festival. It makes sense to actually write about Fringe shows while they are still going on, so people can follow my recommendations (or not - there are critics I read specifically so I can do the opposite). In the interests of that, here are write-ups of a few ( Read more... )

I haven't really been anywhere - just been too busy to write. And, then, the other day I intended to write and couldn't get in. Presumably there is another DDoS attack on LJ, sigh ( Read more... )

The final show I saw at the fringe festival was the Victorian Light Opera Company's production of W. S. Gilbert's Engaged. This was the most successful of Gilbert's non-musical plays in its time, but it's not very well known these days. Which is a pity as the show was really quite engaging ( Read more... )

The first of two fringe shows I saw on Friday night was Love Noir: The Music of Lenny, Kurt & Harold. That would be Lenny Bernstein, Kurt Weill and Harold Arlen, of course, and very much my sort of music. The show was a straight cabaret performance by Lonny Smith and Maris Wicker, accompanied by Barbara Schelstrate on piano. Most of the songs ( Read more... )