Poe & All That Jazz
Harman Center – The Forum

Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ Noon; Sunday, July 20 @ 8 PM

They say: “Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Peter Coy explores undercurrents of abandonment in Poe’s tragic personal life, thinly veiled in art. Horrifying and humorous, ‘a delicious, confusing, delicate, sensual delight’; jazz, ghosts, poetry and song. A phantasmagoric ‘dream within a dream – none of this is real’ but it’s all true.”

Tabitha’s take: I don’t know if I should write a review or a term paper, but I was an English major, so it’s a happy conundrum. This is a little gem of a show. The concept of pairing standards with classics isn’t new, but Porter and Poe? Really? Well, yes. The songs are like punctuation marks, resulting from and driving the action while offering sly commentary.

What’s more, Poe is funny. Not all the time. If you want creepy Poe, you’ll get him, but the power of this piece is its emotional exploration. Here Poe is more than than a hollow-eyed tortured soul. He’s pitiful, pained, ebullient, cocky, angry, thoughtful – pretty human, actually. As Poe, Jon Cobb is riveting as he takes the audience through stories, poems, letters, and dreams. Equally mesmerizing is Patti Finn, who is the vocal part of all the jazz and plays the women in Poe’s life and work. They are aided flawlessly by Bob Bennetta on piano and Jim Ryan on bass. Together, the ensemble is thoroughly entertaining.

The play deliberately blurs the lines between dream and reality by transitioning invisibly from Poe’s life to his stories, so there may be a few confusing moments until you remember that no, Poe did not bury an ax in his wife’s head and build a brick wall around her, but that’s part of the fun.

I want to own, read, and mull this play. Oh, the discussions we could have about genius and madness, the school of psychological criticism, the layers of meanings behind the doll used in the production, and yes, there’s more, but I guess I’ll save it for the term paper.

See it if: You know a lot about Poe, or want to know more about Poe; heck, see it if you can spell Poe.

Skip it if: Thinking gives your brain an ouchie.

The Fiddler Ghost
Harman Center – The Forum

Remaining performances:
Friday, July 18 @ 6:00pm; Saturday, July 19 @ 2:00 PM; Sunday, July 27 @ 7:00 PM

They say: “A visual presentation of an ancient folktale. The evolution of a people long forgotten. The birth and death of magic from the world in our eyes. Movement, dance, art, music, everything in between and unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The Fiddler Ghost lives on. Movement. Art. Dance. Music. Fate. Myth. And a live Fiddler.”

Tabitha’s take: There are some things to like. The live fiddler is good. The performers are well-rehearsed and committed. The show has rustic charm, as if it’s taking place in an open-minded pub, and a draught of Guinness is only a wink away.

However, when you find yourself thinking, “Gee, they could’ve used help from Michael Flatley,” you know something’s not right. Putting hands behind the back and hopping does not an Irish jig make. The choreography veers wildly, from an entertaining puppet sequence in which a man is controlled by fairies, to a dance stolen from the Lost Boys in Disney’s Peter Pan.

Even with the plot described in the program, it can be hard to follow. The myth is unfamiliar, and although the cast can dance, their lack of mime expertise renders some of the action unintelligible. They seem to always know what they’re doing, but often, I didn’t. The most glaring deficiency: with the live fiddler providing the music, an actor pretends to play, glancing around in a way that would’ve sent the instrument tucked under his chin crashing. It could have been a lovely moment – this ghost fiddler playing an invisible fiddle – but instead it was almost silly.

Still, the production isn’t a lost cause. The cast has talent, and in this, their first production as Old Lore Theater, they demonstrate that they may not be quite out of the fairy’s woods yet, but there’s hope.

See it if: You want to support a fledgling company with unique ideas, and you always suspected that fairies sounded like gremlins.

Skip it if: You revere Jacques Lecoq (or Michael Flatley).

Mothers of Invention
Goethe Institut Mainstage

Remaining performance:

Saturday, July 12, 9:00pm; Friday, July 18, 8:00pm; Sunday, July 20, 8:00pm; Friday, July 25, 6:30pm; Sunday, July 27, 5:00pm

They say: “A one-person, multi-media comedy set in a world of genetically modified junk-food. The story follows 3 women onstage (and 3 on TV) as they become entangled over a recall of KaChing potato chips. ‘Fun, funny, intelligent and well worth its weight in GM potato chips’ (Victoria Times).”

Tabitha’s take: The characters in this show may seem familiar: the bewildered and exploited ordinary folks, the slick CEO who’s half cheerleader and half demon, the silicone-filled talk show host, the late-night monarch Mary Queen (suspenders and all), and the space-age Martha Stewart showing off her portable greenhouse.

But writer and performer Laura Poe needs only simple costumes and a few words to establish each character as someone unique and interesting. The story moves smoothly from live action to pre-recorded television spots, in which Poe really shines. In a particularly layered scene, one character interviews another character while that character watches the broadcast – a sight rarely seen in one-person shows. Purists might protest that it’s cheating to have recorded half the cast ahead of time, but the television device does more than just work in the context; it’s a crucial component of the media-crazed world the show depicts.

Poe wants to make you think, but she never moralizes. There’s a squiggly line between “it’s funny because it’s true” and “it’s not funny because it could be true.” Although this show is populated by women who will risk their health to be beautiful and by advertisers who believe they can make the public buy anything, we’re far enough away from all that to be able to laugh, right?

See it if: You still have nightmares about Olestra.

Skip it if: The stuff George Jetson ate always looked good to you.

Psycho Cabaret
Chief Ike’s Mambo Room/Chaos Theater

Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 12 @ 7:30 PM; Thursday, July 17 @ 6:00 PM;
Wednesday, July 23 @ 7:45 PM; Thursday, July 24 @ 6:00 PM; Friday, July 25 @ 5:30 PM

They say: “It’s a crazy world. And we’re all part of it. Join the insanity as DC Cabaret Network singers explore the lunacy of our fastpaced modern world – and find out who’s really psycho! Songs by contemporary cabaret songwriters. Strong and committed performances. Humorous, poignant, bold, brutal and wacky.”

Tabitha’s take: Don’t be scared. No shower, no knives. Just eight people singing about things that make everyone crazy, like drinking too much coffee, never meeting the right guy, the art of stalking (whether you’re dead or alive), cutting your heart out with a grapefruit spoon – the usual. Almost all of the eighteen songs are about the psycho influences of love. It’s hard to resist a Mel Brooks tune that calls for the singer to belt out the word “tits” at least a dozen times. Follow that with a number about “let’s be friends,” and let the love-bashing begin.

The pace is varied, with some surprisingly poignant moments, but when they’re funny, they are indeed funny. After the women undress the dream guy, you may never trust men with green eyes and perfect hair again. True, there are a couple “is it rude to look at my watch?” moments, but the show is often witty and it manages to say some interesting things about a familiar topic. Plus, it ends with downright giddy performers and seven words that rhyme with “stumble.”

See it if: You sometimes root for the shark when watching Jaws, and/or you like songs that reference Proust.

Skip it if: You’re still waiting breathlessly for Prince Charming and firmly believe that you’ll never turn into your mother.