Flying High: Director Alan Paul - Metro Weekly - Dec. 19 & 26, 2019

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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December 19/26, 2019

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CONTENTS

HOMOEROTIC NIGHTMARE

Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen’s horror doc Scream, Queen! helps a cult classic come out of the closet.

By André Hereford

FLYING HIGH

With Peter Pan and Wendy, director Alan Paul helps to reshape a treasured classic, reimagining it for a new generation.

Interview by Doug Rule Photography Todd Franson

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Volume 26 Issue 32

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PURE CATNIP

Cats is a fancy feast of eye-popping visuals, gracefully choreographed dance numbers, and unforgettable melodies.

By Randy Shulman

SPOTLIGHT: ZOOLIGHTS p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 THE FEED: NETWORK ERROR p.23 THE FEED: TEXAS TROUBLE p.24 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p.25 FILM: STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER p.39 FILM: LITTLE WOMEN p.42 STAGE: EUREKA DAY p.43 NIGHTLIFE: DUPLEX DINER’S JANKY SWEATER PARTY p.45 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.46 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.47 SCENE: TRADE p.52 LAST WORD p.54 Washington, D.C.’s Best LGBTQ Magazine for 25 Years Editorial Editor-in-Chief Randy Shulman Art Director Todd Franson Online Editor at metroweekly.com Rhuaridh Marr Senior Editor John Riley Contributing Editors André Hereford, Doug Rule Senior Photographers Ward Morrison, Julian Vankim Contributing Illustrators David Amoroso, Scott G. Brooks Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint J.M. Barrie Cover Photography Todd G. Franson Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2019 Jansi LLC.

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

HANART CULTURE, LLC

Spotlight

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Zoolights

ORE THAN 500,000 COLORFUL Christmas lights illuminate life-sized animal silhouettes, trees, buildings, and walkways, plus a light show set to music, during this annual holiday event at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. The dazzling display is made even more impressive by the addition this year of “Entre Les Rangs,” which transforms the hill adjacent to the Zoo’s lion and tiger exhibit into a walkable “wheatfield of light.” Stroll through hundreds of crystalline reflectors as they sway and respond to wind, movement, and light.

Also new this year, an art installation featuring 25 large, luminous animal lanterns, several of which have moving parts, stationed throughout the park. Everything from lions and tigers to elephants and iguanas to some rather flamboyant pink flamingos are on display. Even if you’ve been to Zoolights in the past, both of the new additions bring a whole new sense of awe and wonder to the dazzling annual event. Still, we can’t get over the light-bound trees, featuring thousands of multicolored, twinkling holiday bulbs.

— Randy Shulman

ZooLights, powered by Pepco, runs every night (except Dec. 24, Dec. 25, and Dec. 31) through Jan. 1, 2020, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the National Zoo, 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. Call 202-633-4800 or visit www.nationalzoo.si.edu.

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Spotlight 1917

Sam Mendes (Skyfall, American Beauty) wrote and directed this film, set during the Great War and based on a story told by his grandfather. Two young soldiers, Schofield (Pride’s George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), are given a near-impossible task — save a battalion of 1,600 men from marching into a trap by delivering a message through the battlefields of the war. The cruel twist? One of those 1,600 men is Blake’s brother. Mendes’ film, which is filmed as though it’s one single, continuous take, doesn’t shy from showing the horror and brutality of trench warfare — and the toll it took on the men who bravely fought, and died, for their countries. Opens Wednesday, Dec. 25. Area theaters. Visit www.fandango.com. (Rhuaridh Marr)

GOGOL BORDELLO

Two years ago, the New York-based international gypsy/punk group helped ring in the new year at the just-opened Anthem along with local stars Thievery Corporation and Trouble Funk. Now, the boisterous and large live act, led by flamboyant singer Eugene Hütz and featuring members from at least six different countries, from Ukraine to Ethiopia to Ecuador, headlines the 9:30 Club for a two-night run to usher in the new decade. Dub Trio opens. Monday, Dec. 30, and Tuesday, Dec. 31. Doors at 7 p.m.

9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $35 and include a complimentary midnight champagne toast on New Year’s Eve. Call 202-265-0930 or visit www.930.com.

ONE-MAN STRANGER THINGS: A PARODY

DIANE SMITHERS

Over the years this nerdy comedian Charles Ross has patented a brand of irreverent, succinct parodies of popular science fiction/fantasy franchises, everything from One-Man Star Wars Trilogy to One-Man Lord of the Rings to One-Man Dark Knight. These CliffsNotes-esque theatrical shows include plenty of pop culture references and sidejokes to broaden the appeal beyond their core fan bases. Ross returns to the Birchmere with his newest enterprise, a parody of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. Sunday, Jan. 5, at 7:30 p.m. 3701 Mount Vernon Ave. Tickets are $35. Call 703-5497500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Spotlight

START MAKING SENSE

STEPHCRAIGPHOTO

Jon Braun leads this New Yorkbased seven-piece band that pays tribute to David Byrne by faithfully recreating the music of Talking Heads including the hits “Once In A Lifetime,” “Burning Down the House,” and “Psycho Killer,” as well as other songs the band never performed live. Opening the show is singer/multi-instrumentalist Ruby Dear, also a member of Start Making Sense. Sunday, Dec. 29, at 7:30 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $18 to $25.

Call 202-787-1000 or visit www. thehamiltondc.com.

MY FAIR LADY

JOAN MARCUS

The classic musical about a young Cockney lass who becomes a “proper lady” for an older, wellto-do man comes to new life in a Lincoln Center Theater production helmed by Bartlett Sher.

Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady features several gems that have become American Songbook standards, including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” and “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.”

Now to Jan. 19. Kennedy Center Opera House.

Tickets are $39 to $159.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

EDWARD C. JONES

STEP AFRIKA!: MAGICAL MUSICAL HOLIDAY STEP SHOW

The local percussive dance company dedicated to the tradition of stepping presents its annual holiday step show intended for audiences aged four years and up. The focus is on getting North Pole animals — polar bears, penguins — to step. And all to music by “Frosty the Snowman,” putting the needle on the record as special guest DJ. In addition to the show featuring friendly, furry characters, the holiday tradition at the Atlas Performing Arts Center includes pre-show instrument-making workshops, photo ops, and a dance party. Closes Sunday, Dec. 22. The Sprenger Theatre, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $25 to $45. Call 202-399-7993 or visit www.atlasarts.org.

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IAN IBBETSON

Out On The Town

CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE

A decade ago Neil Goldberg, creator of Broadway’s Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy, launched this holiday extravaganza with over 30 artists pulling stunts, from gingerbread men flipping in mid-air to toy soldiers marching on thin wires to puppets caroling. It’s all performed to an original score plus some holiday favorites, and on a set that includes colossal candy canes and 30-foot towering toy soldiers. Friday, Dec. 20, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 21, at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 22, at 2 and 7:30 p.m., and Monday, Dec. 23, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Theater at MGM National Harbor, 7100 Harborview Ave., Oxon Hill, Md. Call 844-346-4664 or visit www.mgmnationalharbor.com.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM A HIDDEN LIFE

Franz Jägerstätter was a farmer and devout Catholic who refused to take the Hitler oath to fight for the Nazis during World War II — an act of rebellion in a regime that brutally punished any form of dissent. Terrence Malick brings Jägerstätter’s story to the screen, and in its review Variety noted that his tale of “demagogues, and the way certain evangelicals have once again sold out their core values for political advantage, feels stunningly relevant.” Opens Friday, Dec. 20.

Area theaters. Visit www.fandango. com. (RM)

AFI HOLIDAY CLASSICS

Between now and Christmas Eve, the American Film Institute screens 14 seasonal films, ranging from classics to curiosities. The remaining films in the series are: It’s A Wonderful Life, screening on Friday, Dec. 20, at 10:45 a.m. and 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 21, at 1:15 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 22, at 1:45 p.m.,

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and Monday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Dec. 24, at 10:45 a.m., 1:50, and 6:45 p.m.; The Muppet Christmas Carol on Friday, Dec. 20, and Saturday, Dec. 21, at 11 a.m., Sunday, Dec. 22, at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and Monday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Dec. 24, at noon; A Christmas Story, Friday, Dec. 20, at 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 21, at 11:15 a.m.; Die Hard on Friday, Dec. 20, at 9:45 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 21, at 9:15 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 22, at 9:30 p.m., and Monday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Dec. 24, at 9:20 p.m.; National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 4:30 p.m.; and The Holly and the Ivy on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m., and Monday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Dec. 24, at 4:30 p.m.

AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Ticket prices vary. Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/Silver.

MIRACLE ON 8TH STREET: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS

From now until the last Sunday before Christmas, the Miracle Theatre in the Barracks Row section of Capitol Hill concludes its run of holiday-themed movies this week-

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end with screenings on Friday, Dec. 20, including: The Polar Express at 4 p.m., It’s a Wonderful Life at 6:30 p.m., and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation at 9:20 p.m. On Saturday, Dec. 21, at 8 p.m., comes the early classic White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney. And the series wraps up Sunday, Dec. 22, with Elf at 2 p.m., A Christmas Story at 4:15 p.m., and It’s a Wonderful Life at 6:35 p.m. Tickets are $6 to $8. 535 8th St. SE. Call 202-400-3210 or visit www.themiracletheatre.com.

SMITHSONIAN’S FA-LA-LA-LA-FILMS

The Warner Bros. Theater in the National Museum of American History screens holiday-themed films, mostly classics but a few oddities, such as the two comedies that close out the series: 2013’s The Best Man Holiday starring Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, and Terrence Howard, which screens Saturday, Dec. 28, at 3:20 p.m.; and 1983’s Trading Places featuring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy, screening Sunday, Dec. 29, at 3:30 p.m. Before those, however,

come several omnipresent seasonal titles, from Elf on Saturday, Dec. 21, at 3:50 p.m., to A Christmas Story on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 3:50 p.m., to White Christmas on Monday, Dec. 23, at 3:30 p.m., to It’s a Wonderful Life on Tuesday, Dec. 24, at 3:15 p.m. 1300 Constitution Ave. NW. Tickets are $10 plus $3.50 in fees.

Call 202-633-1000 or visit www. si.edu/theaters.

STAGE A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS

Olney presents the 10th anniversary run of the one-man portrayal of the Dickens classic by Paul Morella, who bases his adaptation on Dickens’ original novella and reading tour. To Dec. 29. The Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org.

AIRNESS

Billie Krishawn stars as Nina, who discovers there’s more to air guitar than playing pretend when

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she enters an air guitar competition. Christina A. Coakley directs the D.C. premiere of Chelsea Marcantel’s comedy also featuring Dani Stoller, Drew Kopas, Harrison Smith, Chris Stezin, Gary L. Perkins III, and Forrest A. Hainline IV. The show is a co-production between Keegan Theatre and Virginia’s 1st Stage, where it runs through Dec. 29. 1524 Spring Hill Rd., Tysons.

Tickets are $42. Call 703-854-1856 or visit www.1ststagetysons.org.

AMADEUS

Genius and jealousy collide in 18th-century Vienna as the mediocre Antonio Salieri does everything in his power to destroy his musical rival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Folger Theatre offers a production of Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play directed by Richard Clifford and featuring a 13-person cast led by Ian Merrill Peakes as Salieri and Samuel Adams as Mozart. To Dec. 22. 201 East Capitol St. SE. Tickets are $27 to $85. Call 202-544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu.

HOMOEROTIC NIGHTMARE

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Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen’s horror doc Scream, Queen! helps a cult classic come out of the closet.

OR EVERY FILM FAN WHO MIGHT NOT HAVE SEEN A NIGHTMARE ON ELM Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge or realized just how queer the 1985 horror hit is, there are true believers like Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen to bring them up to speed. “Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was what made me fall in love with horror movies as a kid in the eighties,” says Chimienti, co-director of new documentary Scream, Queen!: My Nightmare on Elm Street, an enthusiastic exploration of the gay subtext (and blatant homoeroticism) threaded through the slasher sequel. “It was the movie that made me go, ‘Oh my God, I love this, I'm infatuated with all of this.’”

Upon its release, Nightmare 2 met with its share of homophobic backlash, specifically due to all the male nudity, sexual panic, and suggestive lines like, “Something’s trying to get inside my body!” But neither director Jack Sholder nor screenwriter David Chaskin took responsibility for crypto-queer content like a scene in which belligerent Coach Schneider (Marshall Bell) is strung up and stripped down in a locker room shower before being towel-whipped by an unseen Freddy Krueger.

Instead, Chaskin notoriously cited the performance of star Mark Patton for any negative reactions to one of the genre’s rare depictions of a male scream queen. And director Sholder has claimed for years that it never occurred to him even after the film was out that anyone might read it as homophobic or homoerotic, or homo-anything. Scream, Queen! brilliantly addresses their years of denial, as well as Patton’s poignant journey following the film, from promising, though closeted, young Hollywood star, to mysterious recluse, referred to by some as “the Greta Garbo of Horror.”

The documentary travels with Patton, now a proud queer and HIV/AIDS activist, to several fan and film conventions, where he reunites with costars (including Freddy himself, Robert Englund), and finally has a chance to hash out some version of the truth with the movie’s writer and director.

“The task at hand was this incredible balancing act because we had this unique perspective,” says Scream, Queen co-director Jensen. “We had this opportunity to tell queer history to a predominantly straight audience. People, the fans, are coming for Freddy Krueger, and what they don't understand is that they're going to get this gay history with it.” —André Hereford Scream, Queen! is not rated, and screens on Monday, December 30 at Suns Cinema, 3107 Mt. Pleasant St. NW. Tickets are $10. Visit www.sunscinema.com.

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

AN IRISH CAROL

For the ninth year in a row, Keegan Theatre offers company member Matthew Keenan’s homage to Dickens, albeit with biting Irish humor and incisive candor. Mark A. Rhea directs a cast featuring Kevin Adams, Josh Adams, Dave Jourdan, Timothy Hayes Lynch, Mike Kozemchak, Jon Townson, Josh Sticklin, Jessie Power, and Mick Tinder. To Dec. 31. 1742 Church St. NW. Tickets are $41 to $65. Call 202-265-3767 or visit www.keegantheatre.com.

JAMES JOYCE’S THE DEAD

SCENA Theatre presents Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey’s Tonywinning musical adaptation of the classic short story by James Joyce that wrestles with themes of lost love and the search for meaning in life. Robert McNamara directs a production full of “drama, dance, and song,” and featuring a 13-member cast including Danielle Davy, Andrea Hatfield, Buck O’Leary, and Rosemary Reagan. To Jan. 12. Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $15 to $50. Call 202399-7993 or visit www.atlasarts.org.

JERSEY BOYS

One of the most successful jukebox musicals in history won four Tonys in 2006, including Best Musical, and is a perennial favorite on tour, particularly over the holidays. And D.C.’s National Theatre once again overs a holiday run of a show that is as crowd-pleasing as they come.

Although far more style than substance, and stronger in song than in story, Jersey Boys offers a parade of ’60s-era hits popularized by Franki Valli and the Four Seasons — including “Sherry,” “Walk Like

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11 a.m., comes A Family Christmas, a one-hour concert intended for youth and featuring songs of classic Christmas characters, from Santa to Frosty to Rudolph. That’s followed at 2 p.m. with the 90-minute program Songs of the Season: Christmas with Choral Arts, featuring the Choral Arts Chorus and Youth Choir, conducted by Tucker and Brandon Straub, with soloist Kristina Lewis, mezzo-soprano, joining to perform holiday carols and seasonal classics. Concert Hall. Tickets are $20 to $72. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO

UNCUT GEMS

Filmmaking brothers Josh and Benny Safdie have managed something so incredible, so unbelievable, that it may tear apart the very fabric of our reality: they have crafted a film that could put Adam Sandler in the running for an Oscar. Sandler stars as a charismatic New York City jeweler who makes a series of high-stakes bets in pursuit of the windfall of a lifetime, all while balancing his business, family, and encroaching adversaries. Critics are raving about Sandler, with the Guardian calling it a “towering performance from the often tiresome actor.” If that’s not a backhanded compliment, we don’t know what is. Opens Wednesday, Dec. 25. Area theaters. Visit www.fandango.com. (Rhuaridh Marr) A Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” and “December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night).” To Jan. 5. 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets are $54 to $114, plus fees. Call 202628-6161 or visit www.thenationaldc.org.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

What begins as an investigation into the grisly death of a neighbor’s dog results in a remarkable coming-ofage journey for a 15-year-old. Ryan Rilette and Jared Mezzochi direct a Round House Theatre production of this recent Broadway hit. Closes Sunday, Dec. 22. 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda. Tickets are $50 to $60. Call 240-644-1100 or visit www.roundhousetheatre.org.

THE INFINITE TALES

The ambitious, adventurous Maryland-based 4615 Theatre Company continues its third season with a world-premiere production weaving together tales of Irish mythology as adapted by Gregory Keng Strasser, a local gay theater artist as well as the company’s new producing director. The Infinite Tales is a thrilling fantasy about four children struggling through a curse that has removed them from their homeland and transformed them into swans. Also an explora-

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tion of national identity, this adaptation, which features live music, shadow puppetry, and ensemble movement work, was inspired by Strasser’s upbringing as a Chinese/ Irish-American who has lived on both sides of the world. Company members Melissa Carter and Seth Rosenke are featured in a nine-person cast, while the company’s founding artistic director Jordan Friend serves as sound designer and composer. Closes Sunday, Dec. 29.

The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh St. in Bethesda. Tickets are $16.50 to $20. Call 301-928-2738 or visit www.4615theatre.com.

THE SNOW QUEEN

Virginia’s Synetic Theater offers a whimsical, movement-driven adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s beloved fairy tale, directed by Ryan Sellers and adapted by Emily Whitworth. Extended to Jan. 5.

1800 South Bell St., Arlington. Call 800-494-8497 or visit www.synetictheater.org.

TIMES SQUARE ANGEL

Billed as a “hard-boiled Christmas fantasy,” the LGBTQ-focused Richmond Triangle Players offers a parody of Frank Capra Christmas classics — everything from A Christmas Carol to It’s A Wonderful Life — by the drag parodist play-

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wright extraordinaire, Charles Busch (Die Mommie Die, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife). Closes Saturday, Dec. 21. The Robert B. Moss Theatre, 1300 Altamont Ave. Richmond. Call 804-346-8113 or visit www.rtriangle.org.

MUSIC ALL-STAR CHRISTMAS DAY JAZZ JAM

Among the many jazzy jingle balls on offer this season, it’d be hard to beat this free Christmas Day treat at the Kennedy Center. The 21st annual event features host/vibraphonist Chuck Redd, drummer Lenny Robinson, trumpeters Robert Redd and Tom Williams, bassist James King, and vocalist Delores King Williams. Wednesday, Dec. 25, at 6 p.m. Millennium Stage. Free tickets, two per person, distributed in the Hall of Nations starting at 4:30 p.m.

Call 202-467-4600 or visit www. kennedy-center.org.

CHORAL ARTS SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON: A FAMILY CHRISTMAS, SONGS OF THE SEASON

Scott Tucker leads the local vocal ensemble in two Kennedy Center shows taking place on Christmas Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 24. First up, at

“The best jazz pianist of his generation,” Time music critic Josh Tyrangiel proclaimed in 2017 about Baltimore’s versatile virtuoso Cyrus Chestnut, who two decades ago portrayed a Count Basie-inspired pianist in Robert Altman’s film Kansas City. He returns to D.C.’s leading jazz venue for another week-long run of shows, culminating in New Year’s Eve performances, both offering a three-course meal — with a midnight glass of champagne at second seating — and featuring the Cyrus Chestnut Trio along with the vocalist-led Integriti Reeves Band.

Performances are Thursday, Dec. 26, through Monday, Dec. 30, at 8 and 10 p.m., and Tuesday, Dec. 31, at 6:30 and 10 p.m. Blues Alley, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Tickets are $36 to $41 with fee, or $116 to $166 for NYE dinner/show packages, plus $12 minimum purchase per person. Call 202-337-4141 or visit www.bluesalley.com.

HANK WILLIAMS ANNUAL TRIBUTE

The Birchmere offers a tribute to one of the most heralded and influential country singers of all time. This year’s 23rd annual show includes performances by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Pete and Maura Kennedy, the Bumper Jacksons Duo, Patrick McAvinue, and Mark Schatz. Sunday, Dec. 29, at 7:30 p.m. 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Tickets are $29.50. Call 703-549-7500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

MIN~

Flutist Saïs Kamalidiin and guitarist Rick Peralta comprise one of the few regularly performing fluteand-guitar chamber duos around.

MIN~ returns to Alexandria’s historic Greek Revival temple, the Athenaeum, for a varied program of music, from the Baroque era to modern-day Broadway, the blues to bossa nova. In addition, this special holiday performance will also feature mezzo-soprano Ekep Nkwelle joining to perform several holiday classics. Sunday, Dec. 22, at 2 p.m. The Athenaeum, 201 Prince St., Alexandria. Free. Call 703-5480035 or visit www.nvfaa.org.

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Sunday, Dec. 22, at 4 p.m. GMU Center for the Arts, 4373 Mason Pond Drive, Fairfax. Tickets are $54 to $94. Call 888-945-2468 or visit www.cfa.gmu.edu.

THE WASHINGTON BALLET: THE NUTCRACKER

The Washington Ballet’s former artistic director Septime Webre first staged his twist on the family favorite 14 years ago, setting it in D.C.’s historic Georgetown neighborhood with George Washington as the titular figure and King George III as the Rat King. To Dec. 29.

Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW. Call 202-889-5901 or visit www. thewashingtonballet.org.

COMEDY THE SECOND CITY: LOVE, FACTUALLY

A TRIBUTE TO ARETHA FRANKLIN

Luke Frazier will lead the American Pops Orchestra in a tribute show in honor of the late Queen of Soul and as a signature New Year’s Eve event at the Kennedy Center. The illustrious lineup of artists includes the incomparable Dionne Warwick, Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child, Broadway’s Morgan James, local sensation Nova Payton, Rayshun LaMarr, a recent semi-finalist on The Voice, and jazz trumpeter and singer Bria Skonberg.

Tuesday Dec. 31, at 8:30 p.m. at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $59 to $139, which includes entrance to the Grand Foyer Party after the concert. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

OH HE DEAD

The amusing name — which also has a cool origin story — captures the playfully wry and passionate sensibility of this band on the rise, self-billed as a “D.C.-based indie soul band with haunting harmonies and a penchant for MURDER.” Distinguished by the vocal harmonies of founding members Cynthia “C.J.” Johnson and guitarist Andrew Valenti, Oh He Dead started out a few years ago as a country/folk act on the bluegrass and folk festival circuit, but their sound has expanded as they became a five-piece “rock ‘n’ soul band.” Also featuring lead guitarist Alex Salser, bassist John Daise, and drummer Adam Ashforth, Oh He Dead will help ring in 2020 at Pearl Street Warehouse with a show also featuring the D.C. synth-rock band Color Palette. Tuesday, Dec. 31. Doors at 8 p.m. 33 Pearl St. SW. Tickets are $30 to $35 Call 202-3809620 or visit www.pearlstreetwarehouse.com.

THE ROOTS

What the Philadelphia hip-hop ensemble The Roots lacks in mainstream popular recognition they more than make up for in influence.

Combining jazz and soul elements, their live shows are frequently touted as among the best in the business — and they're also the house band for The Tonight Show Starring

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Jimmy Fallon. They return to D.C. the week after Christmas, this year with a concert at the most august venue in town. Sunday, Dec. 29, at 8 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $49 to $149. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

THE SELDOM SCENE

Formed 50 years ago in Bethesda, the progressive bluegrass band remains especially popular in its hometown region. The group returns to Alexandria’s seated show palace for the last in a string of shows this year and to ring in 2020 with a bang. For this New Year’s Eve show, the Seldom Scene will be joined by Old Town Flood and Circa Blue. Tuesday, Dec. 31, at 8 p.m.

The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave. Tickets are $45. Call 703-5497500 or visit www.birchmere.com.

THE STRAUSS SYMPHONY OF AMERICA'S NEW YEAR'S CONCERT

Alastair Willis conducts the Strauss orchestra with soloists soprano Peggy Steiner and tenor Michael Heim, plus dancers from Kiev Aniko Ballet of Ukraine and the International Champion Ballroom Dancers in the annual "Salute to Vienna," inspired by the Austrian capital's famed Neujahrskonzert and offering Strauss waltzes, polkas,

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The seasonal satire from the cleverly twisted minds of the legendary improv/comedy company returns to the Kennedy Center for another holiday run. The show, as you might surmise from the production’s title, is a parody of a certain nauseating yet popular movie. Expect original comedy, music, improv, and audience participation. To Dec. 29. Kennedy Center Theater Lab. Tickets are $49 to $79. Call 202-4674600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

WASHINGTON IMPROV THEATER: SEASONAL DISORDER

Artistic Director Christopher Bell directs the annual “A Candlelight Christmas,” featuring the 130-voice chorus singing familiar carols and holiday songs accompanied by the National Capital Brass ensemble plus organ, plus audience singalongs, and a candlelight processional. Sunday, Dec. 22, at 8 p.m.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Tickets are $19 to $82. Call 202342-6221 or visit www.thewashingtonchorus.org.

Washington Improv Theater's annual holiday extravaganza features shows based on audience suggestions, showing you the good, the bad and the ugly of the season — all laughs to get you through. Each show is different, but all offer a grab bag of spontaneous comedy and long-form improv, including The Heist, “an improvised bank robbery gone wrong” ensemble, the all-womxn Hellcat, the improvising playwrights of iMusical, and holiday horrorists from Die! Die! Die! This year’s run also features a special The Interview session with Gina Schaefer, co-founder and CEO of 11 area Ace Hardware stores, on Saturday, Dec. 21, followed the next day by a grouping of “Hanukkah Shows” with “acts to be announced.” To Dec. 29. Source Theater, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $15 to $18. Call 202-204-7770 or visit www.witdc.org.

DANCE

ART & EXHIBITS

FAIRFAX BALLET WITH THE FAIRFAX SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

6 @ 35: CELEBRATING WASHINGTON SCULPTORS GROUP’S 35TH ANNIVERSARY

and operetta excerpts. Attila Glatz Concerts presents the 19th annual concert. Sunday, Dec. 29, at 3 p.m.

Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda.

Tickets are $49 to $130. Call 301-5815100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

THE WASHINGTON CHORUS: A CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS

Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic is performed by the Fairfax Symphony under Christopher Zimmerman and the Fairfax Ballet, led by Andrea Cook, and featuring Elina Miettinen and Sean Stewart, alumni of New York’s prestigious American Ballet Theatre. Saturday, Dec. 21, and

The Zenith Gallery toasts the 35th anniversary of an organization that supports area sculptors by collaborating with other arts organizations, helping develop careers and exhibiting artwork. The latest exhibition in Zenith’s downtown Sculpture Space highlights six member art-

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ists of the Washington Sculptors Group, selected by a jury comprised of Sandy Bellamy, the official art curator for D.C.’s public buildings, art critic and curator Nancy Nesvet, and Zenith’s Margery Goldberg.

The six artists with works on display are Luc Fiedler, Allen Linder, Mitra Lore, Vienne Rea, Gil Ugiansky, and Wilfredo Valladares.

To Jan. 4. 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Call 202-783-2963 or visit www.zenithgallery.com.

10X10 INVITATIONAL

A hand-picked group of roughly 100 regional and national artists have donated nearly 200 works for the fifth annual exhibition at Maryland’s Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. Every artwork is different, ranging in styles from prints to paintings to mixed-media, but all are the same size — 10 x 10 inches — and all are available at the same price: $50. The invitational is billed as a great opportunity for collectors of all levels to get interesting pieces by talented artists at a remarkable price, or at least serve as original holiday gifts. It’s also a constantly rotating stock, with new pieces put on display as works sell from the second floor gallery in Pyramid, the nonprofit contemporary art center located in the historic Arcade building in Hyattsville’s Gateway Arts District. Through Jan. 5. 4318 Gallatin Street. Call 301-608-9101 or visit www.pryamidatlanticartcenter.org.

A MONUMENT TO SHAKESPEARE

HANDEL’S MESSIAH

Two of the area’s great orchestras take on George Frideric Handel’s monumental Messiah a few days before Christmas. Sir Andre Davis (pictured) leads the National Symphony Orchestra in his arrangement of the masterpiece along with the Washington Chorus and soloists Andriana Chuchman, soprano, Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano, Alek Shrader, tenor, and Sidney Outlaw, bass. Thursday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 20, and Saturday, Dec. 21, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 22, at 1 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $15 to $119. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org. Meanwhile, Stan Engebretson conducts the National Philharmonic and its Chorale in what is being billed as the area’s “largest presentation” of the work.

Soloists Esther Heideman, soprano, Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano, Matthew Smith, tenor, and Hunter Enoch, baritone, will join the orchestra’s principal trumpeter Chris Gekker, plus several high school choral scholars from across Montgomery County. Saturday, Dec. 21, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 22, at 3 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets are $29 to $69. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

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A temporary exhibition highlighting how Henry Clay Folger and his wife Emily Folger set out to create their shrine to the Bard as a gift, in 1932, to the American people — examining the Folger Shakespeare Library’s architecture and looking to its future. To Jan. 5. 201 East Capitol St. SE. Call 202-544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu.

BOBBI PRATTE: RESCUE ME

Run by the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association, the Athenaeum in Old Town presents an exhibition of works by a local painter reflecting on her personal sense of feeling a need to be rescued from our challenging times. Many of Pratte’s oil paintings capture daily scenes near her home in the Lake Barcroft area of Fairfax County. To Dec. 29. 201 Prince St., Alexandria. Call 703548-0035 or visit www.nvfaa.org.

EXHIBITION OF FINE ARTS IN MINIATURE

Strathmore hosts the 86th annual show featuring more than 700 intricately detailed works of art, painstakingly produced in miniature. The exhibition, presented by the Miniature Painters, Sculptors, and Gravers Society of Washington, D.C., draws viewers into a concentrated universe that traces it roots

to the 7th century. To Jan. 5. The Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda.

Call 301-581-5100 or visit www. strathmore.org.

MANIFESTO: ART X AGENCY

More than 100 works of art and ephemera created over the past century are currently on display in this group exhibition at the Hirshhorn. The specific focus is on artist manifestos and their impact, exploring how artists have used these statements of principles or theories to engage with the political and social issues of their time, including the present day. Manifesto: Art X Agency is named after a multichannel film by German artist Julian Rosefeldt that features actress Cate Blanchett performing excerpts from some of the great manifestos of the past century. Dating to 2015, Rosefeldt’s film makes its Hirshhorn debut as part of the exhibition, which is mostly comprised of seminal works from the museum’s permanent collection made by Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Jackson Pollock, Guerrilla Girls, Adrian Piper, Nam June Paik, and Glenn Ligon. To Jan. 5. Independence Avenue and Seventh Street SW. Call 202-6331000 or visit www.hirshhorn.si.edu.

RIGHTFULLY HERS: AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE VOTE

The National Archives Museum highlights the hard-won victories that stemmed from the Women’s Suffrage movement, chief among these the passage 100 years ago of the 19th Amendment. The temporary exhibition also explores the story of the diversity of American women’s experiences and their impact on history. To Jan. 3. The Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery, Constitution Avenue and 9th Streets NW. Call 202-357-5000 or visit www.archivesfoundation.org.

SEASON’S GREENINGS: AMERICA’S GARDENS

This year’s annual holiday show at the U.S. Botanic Garden showcases iconic scenes from 24 of the nation’s botanic gardens, from Hawaii to Maine. Plant-based recreations bring to life everything from Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s vibrant red Japanese torii gate, to the flamingo topiaries of Franklin Park Conservatory in Ohio, to the NASA space nodes and rockets of the Rocket Garden in Alabama’s Huntsville Botanical Garden. In addition, the Garden Court features the traditional collection of plant-based D.C. landmarks, including a botanical replica of Washington’s Union Station, while the West Gallery features a decorated tree with its own model train. Also on view throughout the conservatory are thousands of blooms, including a showcase

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of heirloom and newly developed poinsettia varieties. All that, plus live holiday music on Tuesdays and Thursdays in December, when the conservatory, which normally closes at 5 p.m., will stay open until 8 p.m., with showtime at 6 p.m. The lineup includes rousing klezmer and Jewish folk ensemble Lox and Vodka on Thursday, Dec. 19, D.C.’s classic-style jazz vocalist Changemire on Tuesday, Dec. 24, local contemporary jazz sextet Dial 251 for Jazz on Thursday, Dec. 26, and local Russian folk act Samovar on Tuesday, Dec. 31. On display to Jan. 5. 100 Maryland Ave. SW. Call 202-225-8333 or visit www. usbg.gov.

SECTION 14: THE OTHER PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

Before it became a gay desert mecca and a resort for the rich and famous, Palm Springs was a desert outpost — as well as home to the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. The National Museum of the American Indian shines a light on a land battle in Palm Springs, yet another in a long string of conflicts between western expansion and Indigenous peoples’ rights. The focus is on Section 14, a one-square-mile tract in downtown Palm Springs that forms the heart of the reservation. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians created the exhibition, which was organized by the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum. On display through Jan. 2020. National Museum of the American Indian, Independence Avenue at 4th Street SW. Call 202633-1000 or visit www.nmai.si.edu.

THE NEWSEUM

When the ball drops on 2019, it will also bring about the end of this permanent museum dedicated to the free press and the First Amendment. Although select exhibitions will be taken on the road for individual popup shows, the full Newseum collection of the Freedom Forum will be archived and moved as Johns Hopkins University takes over the property. So consider the next week your last chance to see, all in one place, standout exhibits including Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement, which spotlights, through artifacts, images, and historic print publications, the rise of the modern LGBTQ movement; Seriously Fun: From the Desk of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which explores the impact of the satirical news program on American politics and the press through four presidential campaigns, two wars, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks; the Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery, the most comprehensive collection of award-winning photographs ever assembled; Journalists Memorial, which honors reporters who have been threatened or died in the line of duty; and the Berlin Wall Gallery. The Newseum offers a daily, 60-minute guided First Amendment Highlights Tour. To Dec. 31. 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Tickets are $24.95 for general admission, plus $10 for the guided tour. Call 292-6100 or visit www.newseum.org.

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SHADES OF PASTEL

Artists from around the nation who work in pastels are represented in this biennial juried exhibition from the Maryland Pastel Society. Soft pastels have a high concentration of pigment, resulting in intense hues in an extensive range of colors, from earth tones to vibrant shades. To Jan. 5. The Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

STEPHEN BENEDICTO

Works by the D.C.-based abstract fine artist are next up to be featured at Art14, the seasonal art series at the Coldwell Banker Dupont/Logan office on 14th Street NW. Benedicto creates works that are unique, dynamic, multidisciplinary, and polymathic, combining traditional hand-made practices with automated systems and machine-rendered designs, all intended “to express the complex ideas of fetishism, transhumanism, and the design of self.” On display all season. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 1617 14th St. NW. Call 202-387-6180 or visit www.facebook.com/CBRBDupont.

VOTES FOR WOMEN: A PORTRAIT OF PERSISTENCE

The American suffragist movement’s most influential leaders — Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton among them — are, of course, prominently featured in this special exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Yet Votes for Women takes pains to shine a spotlight on the many lesser-known, or at least less-heralded, women and organizations — many of them African-American — who helped advance the voting cause in tandem with efforts to abolish slavery, fight racism, or promote civil rights. Such a list includes Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, Lucy Stone of the American Woman Suffrage Association, and Mary Church Terrell, founder of the National Association of Colored Women. To Jan. 5. 8th and F Streets. NW. Call 202-633-8300 or visit www.npg.si.edu.

ABOVE & BEYOND DOWNTOWN HOLIDAY MARKET

Over 150 artisans rotate among sixty tents set up on two blocks in the heart of downtown. Now in its 15th year, the holiday market offers a vast, eclectic, and international assortment of gifts and souvenirs, collectibles and wearables — from prints and photographs, to pottery and glassware, to custom jewelry and accessories. Each day also brings free staged concerts by local musicians, and options for food and non-alcoholic drink. Daily from noon to 8 p.m. to Dec. 23. Located on F Street between 7th and 9th Streets NW. Visit www.downtownholidaymarket.com.

ENCHANT CHRISTMAS WASHINGTON, DC

The outfield of Nationals Park will be transformed into a twinkling maze of light displays, the infield will house an ice-skating trail adorned with lit archways, and all around on the concourse will be a Christmas Market stocked with more than 60 local food and artisan vendors. This season sees the D.C. debut of a multi-city offering touted as “the biggest and fastest-growing holiday event in North America,” further advertised as “the World’s Largest Christmas Light Maze and Market.” Runs from 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. daily to Dec. 29.

1500 South Capitol St. NE. Tickets, not including fees, are $19.99 to $33.99 for general admission, $78.99 for a multi-day Season Pass, or $89.99 for VIP entrance with free ice skate rentals and access to the PNC Diamond Club box with festive buffet. Visit www.enchantchristmas.com. l

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theFeed

NETWORK ERROR Hallmark Channel yanks LGBTQ ads, reverses course after outcry. By John Riley

T

HE HALLMARK CHANNEL HAS SPARKED OUTrage among both LGBTQ and conservative groups after pulling — and then reinstating — a series of LGBTQ-themed commercials. Four LGBTQ-themed ads from the online wedding registry Zola had had been slated to air during Hallmark’s Christmas-themed programming, but were pulled over concerns that airing ads showing samesex weddings would hurt the channel’s “family-friendly” reputation.

The decision came after conservatives and anti-gay organizations began circulating two petitions demanding that the channel stop airing ads showing same-sex marriages.

The petitions were circulated by One Million Moms and Lifesite, a rightwing Catholic website, following comments by Bill Abbott, the CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, Hallmark Channel’s parent company. Abbott had expressed an openness to accepting scripts for new shows dealing with different types of relationships — including, ostensibly, same-sex couples.

In its petition, One Million Moms pointed to a Zola ad showing a lesbian couple briefly kissing as evidence that the channel was already moving in a more pro-LGBTQ direction, and warned that, by allowing such content to be aired, Hallmark Channel risked losing Christian viewers who would be offended by the ad’s content.

In response, Hallmark Channel pulled the ads containing same-sex content, but allowed two others featuring opposite-sex couples to remain, with a spokeswoman classifying the same-sex ads as “controversial” and the debate over them a “distraction” from the channel’s purpose of entertaining.

“The Hallmark brand is never going to be divisive. We don’t want to generate controversy, we’ve tried very hard to stay out of it...we just felt it was in the best interest of the brand to pull them and not continue to generate controversy,” Molly Biwer, Hallmark’s senior vice president for public affairs and communications, told the Associated Press in a statement on Saturday.

The decision led Zola to pull all of its advertising from the

channel. “The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing,” said Mike Chi, Zola’s chief marketing officer, in a statement sent to the AP. “All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.”

LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD created its own petition urging Hallmark Channel to reinstate the ads and spoke out about the controversy on major news outlets, while also holding behind-the-scenes conversations with the Hallmark Channel. GLAAD also attempted to highlight One Million Moms’ previous actions, which involve calling for boycotts of businesses with LGBTQ-friendly policies, decrying representation or depictions of the LGBTQ community, and spreading misinformation about the LGBTQ community by claiming they are trying to carry out a covert agenda of normalizing homosexuality.

The decision to pull the ads also attracted significant criticism from talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and comedian Sandra Bernhard, as well as other members of the LGBTQ community.

On Sunday, in response to the pro-LGBTQ outcry, the Hallmark Channel reversed course, with CEO Mike Perry issuing a statement calling it the “wrong decision.”

“Our mission is rooted in helping all people connect, celebrate traditions, and be inspired to capture meaningful moments in their lives. Anything that detracts for this purpose is not who we are,” Perry said in the statement. “As the CEO of Hallmark, I am sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused.

“Hallmark is, and always has been, committed to diversity and inclusion — both in our workplace as well as the products and experiences we create,” Perry added. “It is never Hallmark’s intention to be divisive or generate controversy. We are an inclusive company and have a track record to prove it. We have LGBTQ greeting cards and feature LGBTQ couples in commercials. We have been recognized DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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theFeed as one of the Human Rights Campaigns Best Places to Work, and as one of Forbes America’s Best Employers for Diversity.

We have been a progressive pioneer on television for decades — telling wide-ranging stories that elevate the human spirit such as August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and Colm Tóibín’s The Blackwater Lightship, both of which highlight the importance of tolerance and understanding.

“Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands.

The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials,” Perry concluded.

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis praised the company’s reversal, saying it “sends and important message” to LGBTQ people and organizations that would seek to attack them.

“LGBTQ people are, and will continue to be, a part of

advertisements and family programming, and that will never change,” Ellis said in a statement. “GLAAD exists to hold brands like The Hallmark Channel accountable when they make discriminatory decisions and to proactively ensure families of all kinds are represented in fair and accurate ways.”

Alphonso David, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, also praised the decision as the “right thing” to do.

“In conversations with the company on Saturday — and by mobilizing our grassroots army — the Human Rights Campaign was able to voice our community’s outrage and garner nearly 70,000 signatures to let Hallmark know that LGBTQ people won’t be erased,” David said. “Now, the Human Rights Campaign looks forward to working with Hallmark to ensure that the company is one that lives into its values and pursues meaningful LGBTQ representation, both inside the workplace and in the content it creates.” l

TEXAS TROUBLE

Two Texas men plead guilty to hate crime for using Grindr to assault gay men. By John Riley

T

WO TEXAS MEN HAVE PLEADED GUILTY TO hate crime charges after using Grindr to entrap gay men and commit violent crimes against them. Daryl Henry, 24, and Pablo Cineceros-Deleon, 19, allegedly used the dating app to target users with the intent of committing various assaults, kidnappings, carjackings, assaults, and thefts against their victims because of their sexual orientation.

According to court documents, the men confessed to luring gay men to a vacant apartment and other areas in and around Dallas where their victims would be vulnerable.

Henry admitted that he and others had held the victims against their will in the apartment. Ceniceros-Deleon admitted that he and others then traveled to local ATMs to withdraw cash from the victims’ bank accounts. While the men were held captive, they were subjected to taunts based on their sexual orientation.

Henry pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge and conspiracy to commit hate crimes, kidnapping and carjacking, while Cineceros-Deleon pleaded guilty to one charge of violating the federal hate crimes act, one charge of carjacking, and a charge of using a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.

Ceniceros-Deleon also admitted to being the gunman in a Dec. 7, 2017, carjacking where he and others used Grindr to lure a man to a location and then forced him, at gunpoint, to drive them to local ATMs where they could withdraw cash from the man’s account.

A third man, Michael Atkinson, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping charges in connection with the case. Ceniceros-Deleon faces up to 30 years in prison, while Henry faces up to 15 years.

“Kidnappings, carjackings, thefts, sexual assaults, and

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armed, violent attacks against innocent people are heinous crimes, and when perpetrators commit those crimes against victims because of their sexual orientation, the U.S. Department of Justice will continue zealously to seek justice for the victims and to punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law,” Eric Dreiband, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “Prosecuting those who commit such monstrous acts because of victims’ sexual orientation is a priority of the Department of Justice, and we will continue to bring to justice anyone who commits such hateful, violent crimes.”

“These defendants used Grindr to single out their victim based on sexual orientation — something the Northern District of Texas simply will not tolerate,” Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, added.

“Unfortunately, this is not the first time a dating app user has fallen victim to a violent crime. I’m urging the public to be vigilant about the dangers lurking online.”

Grindr has been increasingly utilized to commit crimes in recent years. In North Texas in 2018, four men either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of using Grindr to arrange meetings with men at their houses in order to rob them.

A similar case in Baltimore saw three suspects use the app to trick at least four unsuspecting victims into meeting with them with the intent of robbing them.

In Oklahoma, police arrested a man — thought to have worked with at least two other men and a woman — who was accused of using Grindr to arrange meetings with gay men at a “house of horrors,” where multiple men were forced to lie on the dirty floor of a garage strewn with trash and old mattresses while their attackers stole their personal belongings and attempted to withdraw money from their bank accounts. l

Community FRIDAY, DEC. 20 The DC Center hosts a

HOLIDAY LGBTQ GAME NIGHT where participants can

play board and card games and socialize with other people from across the LGBTQ spectrum. All welcome. 7-9 p.m.

2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

Visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit www.andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

BET MISHPACHAH, founded

by members of the LGBT community, holds Friday evening Shabbat services in the DC Jewish Community Center’s Community Room. 8 p.m. 1529 16th St. NW. For more information, visit www.betmish.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds

a practice session at Howard University. 6:30-8 p.m. Burr Gymnasium, 2400 6th St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

HIV TESTING at Whitman-

Walker Health. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at 1525 14th St. NW. For an appointment, call 202-7457000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY (K.I.) SERVICES, 20 S. Quaker Lane, Suite 210, Alexandria, Va., offers $30 “rapid” HIV testing and counseling by appointment only. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Must schedule special appointment if seeking testing after 2 p.m. Call 703823-4401. www.kiservices.org.

METROHEALTH CENTER

offers free, rapid HIV testing.

Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-8498029. www.metrohealthdc.org.

PROJECT STRIPES hosts LGBT-

on Sugarloaf Mountain, near Frederick, Md. Moderate circuit hike is 6 miles long with 1400 feet of elevation gain.

Bring sturdy boots, lunch, beverages, layers of clothing, a poem to read during lunch, and a few dollars for fees. Carpool at 10 a.m. from the GrosvenorStrathmore Metro Station.

For more information, contact David, 240-938-0375, or visit www.adventuring.org.

Join local women who love women and their allies for a LESBIAN HAPPY HOUR at the Embassy Row Hotel in Dupont Circle. Please RSVP in advance via GoGayDC.com. No cover.

7-10 p.m. 2015 Massachusetts Ave. NW. For more information, visit www.meetup.com/ GoGayDC/events/zbftlpyzqbbc.

KHUSH DC, a support group

for LGBTQ South Asians, holds its annual community forum to recap the progress made during the past year and plan for next year’s events. 1:30-3 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www. facebook.com/khushdc.

The DC Center hosts a meeting of its LGBTQ PEOPLE OF COLOR SUPPORT GROUP, facilitated by Dakia Davis. 1-3 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

practice session at Montgomery College Aquatics Club. 8:3010 a.m. 7600 Takoma Ave., Takoma, Md. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/ walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distance will be 3-6 miles. Walkers meet at 9:30 a.m. and runners at 10 a.m. at 23rd & P Streets NW. For more information, visit www. dcfrontrunners.org.

affirming social group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road NW. Contact Tamara, 202319-0422, www.layc-dc.org.

SUNDAY, DEC. 22

SATURDAY, DEC. 21

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds

ADVENTURING outdoors

group celebrates the changing of the seasons with its annual Winter Solstice Poetry Hike

Weekly Events a practice session at Wilson Aquatic Center. 9:30-11 a.m. 4551 Fort Dr. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

MONDAY, DEC. 23 AGLA hosts a monthly board

meeting open to the larger community. Come and meet the board as it discusses upcoming events and plans. 7-8:30 p.m.

Federico’s Ristorante Italiano, 519 23rd St. S., Arlington, Va. For more information, visit www.agla.org.

Join LGBTQ people from around the D.C. area for a biweekly BOARD GAME NIGHT, hosted by a local Board Gamers Meetup group. 6-9 p.m.

Panera Bread, 1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, basement level. For more information, visit www. meetup.com/DC-LGBT-BoardGamers.

St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit www.wetskins.org.

TUESDAY, DEC. 24 Christmas Eve Weekly Events DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

ning/walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 25 Merry Christmas!

The DC Center will be closed for the holidays and will reopen on Thursday, Dec. 26.

Weekly Events HISTORIC CHRIST CHURCH

Weekly Events

offers Wednesday worship 7:15 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. All welcome. 118 N. Washington St., Alexandria. 703-549-1450, www.historicchristchurch.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds

THURSDAY, DEC. 26

a practice session at Dunbar Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 101 N St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC’S DIFFERENT DRUMMERS welcomes musicians of all abilities to join its Monday night rehearsals. The group hosts marching/color guard, concert, and jazz ensembles, with performances year round. Please contact Membership@DCDD. org to inquire about joining one of the ensembles or visit www.

DCDD.org.

The DC Center hosts COFFEE

DROP-IN FOR THE SENIOR LGBT COMMUNITY. 10 a.m.-

noon. 2000 14th St. NW. For more information, call 202682-2245 or visit www.thedccenter.org.

US HELPING US hosts a black

gay men’s evening affinity group for GBT black men. Light refreshments provided. 7-9 p.m. 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. 202-446-1100. Visit www.ushelpingus.org.

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices

7-9 p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome. Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

offers free HIV testing and HIV services (by appointment). 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Decatur Center, 1400 Decatur St. NW. To arrange an appointment, call 202-291-4707, or visit www.andromedatransculturalhealth.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

session at Takoma Aquatic Center. 7:30-9 p.m. 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/ walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards. Route distances vary. 7 p.m. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

LGBTQ square-dancing group, features an opportunity to learn about and practice various forms of modern square dancing. No partner required. Please dress casually. 7:30-9:30 p.m.

National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more

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info, call 202-930-1058 or visit www.dclambdasquares.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds practice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome.

7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www.scandalsrfc.org.

THE DULLES TRIANGLES

Northern Virginia social group meets for happy hour at the Cosmopolitan Lounge inside the Sheraton Hotel in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, Second Floor. For more info, visit www.dullestriangles.com.

HIV TESTING at Whitman-Walker

Health. 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2:305 p.m. at 1525 14th St. NW, and 9 a.m-12 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. at the Max Robinson Center, 2301 MLK Jr. Ave. SE. For an appointment, call 202-745-7000 or visit www.whitman-walker.org.

KARING WITH INDIVIDUALITY (K.I.) SERVICES, 20 S. Quaker

Lane, Suite 210, Alexandria, Va., offers $30 “rapid” HIV testing and counseling by appointment only. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Must schedule special appointment if seeking testing after 2 p.m. Call 703-823-4401. www. kiservices.org

METROHEALTH CENTER

offers free, rapid HIV testing.

Appointment needed. 1012 14th St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange an appointment, call 202-849-8029. www.metrohealthdc.org

STI TESTING at Whitman-Walker

Health. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2-3 p.m. at both 1525 14th St. NW and the Max Robinson Center, 2301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE. Testing is intended for those without symptoms. For an appointment call 202-745-7000 or visit www. whitman-walker.org.

US HELPING US hosts a Narcotics

AFTERNOON COFFEE JOLT, a

time for members of the LGBTQ community in Northern Virginia to socialize and make connections over a cup of coffee. Organizer Eric will be wearing gold and purple Mardi Gras beads for easy identification. 2:30-3:30 p.m. Detour, 946 N. Jackson St. (next to the Jiffy Lube), Arlington, Va. For more info, visit www.agla.org.

Join The DC Center as it volunteers for FOOD & FRIENDS, packing meals and groceries for people living with serious ailments.

10 a.m.-noon. 219 Riggs Rd. NE. Near the Fort Totten Metro. For a ride from the Metro, call the Food & Friends shuttle at 202-6696437. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org or www. foodandfriends.org.

SUNDAY, DEC. 29 ADVENTURING outdoors group

hikes 8 moderate miles with 840 feet of elevation gain along the Appalachian Trail near Hagerstown, Md. Bring sturdy boots, lunch, beverages, and about $10 for fees. Carpool at 9:15 a.m. from the Rockville Metro Station.

For more information, contact David, 240-938-0375 or craighowell1@verizon.net.

Weekly Events LGBT-inclusive ALL SOULS

MEMORIAL EPISCOPAL CHURCH

celebrates Low Mass at 8:30 a.m., High Mass at 11 a.m. 2300 Cathedral Ave. NW. 202-232-4244, www.allsoulsdc.org.

BETHEL CHURCH-DC progressive and radically inclusive church holds services at 11:30 a.m. 2217 Minnesota Ave. SE. 202-248-1895, www.betheldc.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

FRIDAY, DEC. 27

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

tary, peer-support group for men who are gay, bisexual, questioning and who are now or who have been in a relationship with a woman.

7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are also held in Vienna, Va., and in Frederick, Md. For more information, visit www.gammaindc.org.

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

AGLA hosts its monthly

Anonymous Meeting. The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-4461100. www.ushelpingus.com.

GAMMA is a confidential, volun-

26

SATURDAY, DEC. 28

practice session at Wilson Aquatic Center. 9:30-11 a.m. 4551 Fort Dr. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org. walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards.

Route distances vary. For meeting places and more information, visit www.dcfrontrunners.org.

DIGNITYUSA offers Roman

Catholic Mass for the LGBT community. All welcome. Sign interpreted. 6 p.m. St. Margaret’s Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave. NW. For more information, visit www.dignitywashington.org.

FAIRLINGTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH is an open, inclusive church. All welcome, including the LGBTQ community. Member of the Reconciling Ministries Network. Services at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. 3900 King Street, Alexandria, Va. 703-6718557. For more info, visit www. fairlingtonumc.org.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

welcomes all to 10:30 a.m. service, 945 G St. NW. For more info, visit www.firstuccdc.org or call 202628-4317.

FRIENDS MEETING OF WASHINGTON meets for worship, 10:30 a.m., 2111 Florida Ave. NW, Quaker House Living Room (next to Meeting House on Decatur Place), 2nd floor. Special welcome to lesbians and gays. Handicapped accessible from Phelps Place gate.

Hearing assistance. Visit www. quakersdc.org.

HOPE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST welcomes GLBT community for worship. 10:30 a.m., 6130 Old Telegraph Road, Alexandria.

Visit www.hopeucc.org.

INSTITUTE FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, God-centered

new age church & learning center.

Sunday Services and Workshops event. 5419 Sherier Place NW. Visit www.isd-dc.org.

Join LINCOLN

CONGREGATIONAL TEMPLE – UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST for

an inclusive, loving and progressive faith community every Sunday. 11 a.m. 1701 11th Street NW, near R in Shaw/Logan neighborhood. Visit www.lincolntemple.org.

LUTHERAN CHURCH OF REFORMATION invites all to

Sunday worship at 8:30 or 11 a.m.

Childcare is available at both services. Welcoming LGBT people for 25 years. 212 East Capitol St. NE. Visit www.reformationdc.org.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA services at 11 a.m., led

by Rev. Emma Chattin. Children’s Sunday School, 11 a.m. 10383 Democracy Lane, Fairfax. For more info, call 703-691-0930 or visit www.mccnova.com.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF WASHINGTON, D.C.

services at 9 a.m. (ASL interpreted) and 11 a.m. Children's Sunday School at 11 a.m. 474 Ridge St. NW. For more info, call 202-638-7373 or visit www.mccdc.com.

ship, 8:30 a.m., and traditional worship, 11 a.m. 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-232-0323 or visit www.nationalcitycc.org.

RIVERSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH,

a Christ-centered, interracial, welcoming-and-affirming church, offers service at 10 a.m. 680 I St. SW. For more info, call 202-5544330 or visit www.riversidedc.org.

ST. STEPHEN AND THE INCARNATION, an “interracial,

multi-ethnic Christian Community” offers services in English, 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and in Spanish at 5:15 p.m. 1525 Newton St. NW. For more info, call 202-232-0900 or visit www.saintstephensdc.org.

UNITARIAN CHURCH OF ARLINGTON, an LGBTQ welcom-

ing-and-affirming congregation, offers services at 10 a.m. Virginia Rainbow UU Ministry. 4444 Arlington Blvd. For more info, visit www.uucava.org.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF SILVER SPRING

invites LGBTQ families and individuals of all creeds and cultures to join the church. Services 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. 10309 New Hampshire Ave. For more info, visit www. uucss.org.

UNIVERSALIST NATIONAL MEMORIAL CHURCH, a welcom-

ing and inclusive church. GLBT Interweave social/service group meets monthly. Services at 11 a.m., Romanesque sanctuary. 1810 16th St. NW. For more info, call 202387-3411 or visit www.universalist. org.

MONDAY, DEC. 30 Monday Night Skating hosts an LGBTQA+ HOLIDAY SKATE. Free to attend. 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Laurel Roller Skating Center, 9890 Brewers Ct., Laurel, Md. For more information, visit www.meetup. com/MondayNightSkating.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 1 Happy New Year’s Day! ADVENTURING outdoors group

rings in the New Year with its traditional easy-to-moderate 5-mile hike at Great Falls, Md. Bring winter-worthy boots, lunch, beverages, and a few dollars for fees. Carpool at 11 a.m. from the Tenleytown Metro Station. For more information, contact Jeff, 301-775-9660, or visit www.adventuring.org. l For more events, visit metroweekly. com/community/calendar.

NATIONAL CITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, inclusive church with

GLBT fellowship, offers gospel wor-

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

27

g n i y Fl h g i H

With Peter Pan and Wendy, director Alan Paul helps to reshape a treasured classic, reimagining it for a new generation.

Interview by Doug Rule Photography Todd Franson

Alan Paul and the cast of Peter Pan photographed at Harman Hall on Sunday, December 8, 2019.

Set by Jason Sherwood - Costumes by Loren Shaw Alan Paul’s makeup by Joy Johnson

R

ECENTLY ALAN PAUL PUT IN A CALL to Molly Smith, the artistic director of Arena Stage. “Molly, this is a big new work,” he said. “Come to a preview and give me all your notes."

The big new work in question was a fresh adaptation of Peter Pan. Paul worked with in-demand playwright Lauren Gunderson to adapt the classic for today’s modern sensibilities and cultural sensitivities, and the play, now running at The Shakespeare Theatre’s Harman Hall, even goes by a modified title that speaks volumes about how the tale has been altered.

Peter Pan and Wendy is about gender roles, stereotypes, and dynamics, with the character of Wendy Darling given equal billing with the boy from Neverland who famously never wants to grow up. Wendy is portrayed as sweet and smart, a precocious young girl well ahead of her time at the turn of the 20th century. “Wendy can't understand in this version why there is a limit on her,” Paul says. “She begins the play not ever wanting to grow up, and then she learns when she gets to 28

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Neverland that she should.”

Even Peter becomes a more compassionate and thoughtful character — one who even shows signs of growing up — in this version of the story. Here, Neverland is a fantasyland that the Lost Boys stole and colonized from the indigneous population, represented by Tiger Lily, who becomes a charismatic champion of her people that no previous version of the tale so much as hinted at.

Paul, the longtime associate director at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, has become a regular presence as a director for hire at theaters around town — and, increasingly, the country. As it happens, Arena Stage’s Smith gave Paul, a 35-year-old native of Potomac, Maryland, his first professional job after graduating with a theater degree from Northwestern University.

That was back in 2006, when she hired him to assist in a production of Cabaret. “Molly's been a mentor to me,” he says. “I trust Molly more than anyone. We're very close in that way, where it's like, I want the truth from her. And she gave me a fucking great set of notes [for Peter Pan and Wendy].”

So many things about Peter Pan and Wendy are different than what you expect, including its placement at The Shakespeare.

Paul has helmed many of the big classic musical productions that have become a Shakespeare Theatre staple over the past decade, yet as universally appealing as those works may have been — including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Kiss Me, Kate — none could attract the hordes of children and families that Peter Pan and Wendy has managed. It’s a shift that is part of a new, still-gestating “family-friendly initiative” from the company and its recently appointed artistic director Simon Godwin, who previously led London’s prestigious Royal National Theatre. Godwin succeeded Michael Kahn, the towering American theater giant who founded the D.C. company and originally hired Paul more than a decade ago.

Paul has been inspired thus far by the energy and “big ideas” generated by Godwin, and is also encouraged by their work dynamic. “I believe in what he's doing,” he says. “He and I have a great working relationship. He has been really supportive of me, and also just treats me with a lot of respect.”

h

METRO WEEKLY: Let’s start with what inspired the choice of Peter

I thought a lot about what it meant to do it in 2019, and the world we're living in. My favorite line from the show that Lauren has written is, "When the hero changes, the story changes. And when the story changes, so does the future." I thought, “This has to be a story from a female perspective,” so I only interviewed female playwrights. I had heard of Lauren, and I had seen The Book of Will, which she wrote. She has two young boys that are three and five and I felt she would have a really interesting perspective on both the adult part of the play and also on growing up. That was a year ago in November.

We did this very quickly.

MW: That’s a really quick turnaround by theater standards.

PAUL: Oh my God, it was so fast. Simon and I had the conversation a year ago in October about doing the play.

I read every single version that exists out there, from the musical to the original J.M. Barrie that began in 1904 as a play. Then, of course, it's been adapted every which way. There was an adaptation a friend of mine, Jonathan Munby, did for the Royal Shakespeare Company called Wendy and Peter. There was a production by David Greig at the National Theatre of Scotland. I liked a lot of them, but I eventually came back to the idea that, “We're the Shakespeare Theatre Company. We're a leader in the field.

If we want to do a big new Peter Pan, we should do it.”

Lauren and I began thinking that we would use some of the original J.M. Barrie play. When we really began to work in February, she was just like, "Let's go all in." And we did.

MW: Did you get permission to do that, or is the work in the public domain?

PAUL: The novel is from 1911 and is in the public domain in America. But the play is from 1904 and it is under a special copyright, one of the only things from that time that is still under copyright. The proceeds of the play go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is a children's hospital in London. So we have an agreement with them, and royalties go to the hospital. They have been a part of the process of developing and approving this. We worked closely with them, and then we had freedom to do our own thing. The stipulations from the hospital were that it had to be true to the spirit of J.M. Barrie. We couldn't do a Peter Pan that made Peter the villain. And we had to set it in Edwardian England. They didn't want to redo it in technoland, which was a thought at one point. Lauren and I thought we would do an all-electronic Neverland.

MW: That would be fun.

PAUL: It would be fun, but it wasn't the mandate. You want to do right by them, because it's a children's hospital. That was stipulated by J.M. Barrie. He believed in the hospital, and so that was his wish. He had such a connection to young people.

MW: This new adaptation differs from the original tale most significantly in its approach to gender, by elevating the female characters and making gender dynamics a key theme throughout. And then there’s your choice of a boy to play Peter Pan. PAUL: Yeah, even in the original J.M. Barrie, a woman Justin Mark as Peter Pan plays Peter. All these great actresses played it. That was the tradition. I think they were trying to capture something er was raised on the Mary Martin musical so she showed it to youthful [with] an adult who could not appear as a man. It also me. I knew all the songs when I was twelve. At summer camp reminds me of opera and operetta of the period, where there I played Captain Hook, and forgot all my lines onstage at the were women in pants roles. dress rehearsal — which I think is probably why I'm a director As we worked on this, though, it became clear to Lauren and and not an actor.

I that it was a story about gender. It was a story partly about Pan and this new spin on the classic?

ALAN PAUL: Our artistic director Simon Godwin and I talked about a few titles, and Peter Pan had the most appeal to me because I grew up as a young boy loving Peter Pan — my moth-

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Jenni Barber as Tinkerbell

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31

how we assign gender roles and expectations to young people, and then it became a love story between Peter and Wendy, so I thought it had to be a man playing Peter.

MW: Did you think a same-sex twist would not have worked?

PAUL: It certainly could. And maybe someone in the future will do it, or do a trans Peter. That's the beauty of the story, it could be anything.

MW: Right from the start we’re introduced to Wendy the scientist, whose role model is Marie Curie.

PAUL: Since it was written [and remains set] in 1904, I said to Lauren, "I want the first scene to be robust, and I want the conversations going on in the Darling household to be connected to stuff happening in 1904." At first I thought maybe they'd be talking about colonialism, because that was the big age of Britain and discovery. I thought a lot about the suffragette movement — it was right around that time in England. Lauren was already busy writing her Off Broadway play, The Half-Life of Marie Curie, so we started thinking about Wendy as a young scientist, and the conflict of the first scene being that Wendy is a scientist, and believes in empirical truths and everything that is tangible and real. She has to make sense of Tinkerbell and then this guy who walks in and believes in magic, and she has to take a leap of faith. It was about the confluence and the tension between science and imagination, belief, all those things, and their two points of view and how they combust. How they're excited by the other thing, because they don't know the other thing.

Tinkerbell in the original is only a ball of light. I thought, "Well, wouldn't it be incredible if we made her a woman, or a girl?" Then we felt we had such an opportunity for Tiger Lily to reclaim a story that, unfortunately and unconsciously, was a huge propagator of racism against indigenous and native people. I don't think that was J. M. Barrie's intent — he was living not in America, but in England. I always think it's sort of like Shakespeare writing The Merchant of Venice — he didn't know anyone Jewish. But I think we had an opportunity to flip the script on that, and to use it as a way to empower that character.

Some adaptations have not put her in it — a lot of people silence it by taking it out, because the original is so problematic. I just think when you have something problematic in a revival, you have to address it. You've got to deal with it consciously.

And we spoke to so many indigenous people that said it's so important to have that voice in the story, and it's so important that it's a voice that has humor in it. So that's what we tried to do.

Then it sort of became a story of what people think about young men and young women, and how to change the perception.

Because Wendy comes up against a lot of what people thought a young woman was supposed to be in 1904 — and we're still living in that world. We're still living in a world where we assign what a boy should be, too.

I wanted three very different women in the play. In Neverland, I wanted Wendy, the scientist who's earnest. I wanted Tiger Lily, who is funny and wry and an activist. Then I

thought Tinkerbell had to be the other one, and she has to be the character who learns how to get along with other girls. A total Mean Girls experience.

MW: In many ways, Tinkerbell comes across as a familiar gay stereotype — that of, for lack of a better term, a “fag hag.”

PAUL: You said it, you said it. But, yeah. I wanted this to be splashy and a bit gay. That was my dream for it. It wasn't something I started off thinking would be important to me, but I have these two great actors, Derek Smith and Tom Story, playing Hook and Smee. I said at the beginning, I feel like this should be a little bit of a gay love story. Unrequited. And then of course Tom Story being Tom Story, he just made it really fun, that subplot, and [seeing] how much we could suffuse it with Smee's just total blind love and adoration for Hook. What kind of a sensual experience could we make of Smee putting on Captain Hook's hook and screwing it on? At the beginning, we were just doing it in rehearsal, the three of us. That ended up being a hit in the rehearsal room and we were like, "I think we have to do that in the show."

And it just kept building and building and building and building and building, until all these unrequited things happen on the pirate ship at the end.

Another thing that appealed to me so much with the play: it is a big metaphysical exploration of the nature of time.

You've got Peter Pan, who never wants to grow up and wants to stop time and just be a boy forever. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Captain Hook, who is getting older, and the crocodile has swallowed not only his hand but a clock.

And he's afraid of the crocodile, but he's really afraid that the clock is going to wind down, and then that croc is going to eat him in silence, when he can't expect it. So for Captain Hook, there's mortality around every corner — age and also the crocodile. I thought, how interesting. At either extreme, when you try to mess with time, you really mess up your life.

The play for me, on a more poetic level, is [conveying that] the only way to live is to be in the moment. If you try to be ahead of it or if you get stuck — if you're not in the moment, you're not living your life. I think that's one of the lessons Peter Pan learns. Of course the other big lesson he learns is that you have to learn to care about other people, and that's what growing up means. And to not be selfish. I think the big revelation of our production is that that character who had for a long time never admitted that he could or would change is the character in the play that has the biggest change.

MW: This is certainly not traditional Shakespeare Theatre fare.

And yet, as the first in a new family-friendly initiative, it seems to be a harbinger of what’s to come. Can you give us some insight into the initiative and future plans?

PAUL: Simon is committed to doing a few years of programming that can be family-related. We haven't decided yet what the next pieces are. It’s been interesting to see excitement from people who might not normally come to our theater. There’s a ton of new faces, and I think we have such a responsibility to get the next generation in here. It's not that the 10-year-old coming to

“I wanted three very different women in the play.

I wanted Wendy, the scientist who's earnest.

I wanted Tiger Lily, who is an activist. Tinkerbell had to be the character who learns how to get along with other girls. A TOTAL MEAN GIRLS EXPERIENCE.”

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Derek Smith as Captain Hook

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this is going to buy a ticket next year, but we have to make theatergoers for the future. I was hooked at an early age, and we've got to do our part. I think he feels that, and that's been one of the things for this one I was most excited about being a part of.

MW: Isn’t the annual Shakespeare Free For All technically in the same audience-building category?

PAUL: Yes, but that has tended to be something that a family audience might not show up to. Also, if you're a family and you come to this with your kids and you have an amazing experience, and you see whatever we're going to do for the free Shakespeare in the summer, you're even more likely to come and show up for that.

MW: You got hooked on theater at an early age. Was that because of your parents?

PAUL: I was 100-percent encouraged. My mother, when she was younger, wanted to be a dancer and a performer. We would go on trips, she and I, when I was 10, 11, 12, all the way until adulthood.

We'd go see three or four Broadway shows. She took me to the Kennedy Center. There was once talk of maybe I should have a law degree as a backup, and then that never happened. I think they're very proud of the fact that I'm in the theater, and they love going to shows.

They see everything. My parents saw The Pajama Game seven or eight times when I did it at Arena. They saw Cabaret six or seven times just now at the Olney Theatre Center. They're coming back to Peter Pan and Wendy. They're your proud Jewish parents who want to be there, they want all their friends to see it. My mother practically had a vendetta out for any friend that didn't see Cabaret earlier in the year. Everyone showed up, so there were no problems, there was no unfriending of people. But you know, that was important.

MW: Do your parents still live in Potomac?

PAUL: Yes, they still live there. Two of my three siblings are in the area. I have two older siblings and a twin sister. She is technically one minute younger than me. We're fraternal.

MW: When did you come out?

PAUL: Oh, I was very young. I was 14 or 15.

MW: How did your family respond?

PAUL: They were great about it. I don't think it was a big surprise.

And it was never a problem. I was very open for most of high school. Had it been a few years earlier it probably would have been [a problem]. But at my high school, Churchill High School, I was very popular. I was even in the prom court.

MW: Did you take a guy to prom?

PAUL: No, no I didn't — not because I couldn't.

MW: Did you take a girl?

PAUL: Yeah. But it wasn't a thing in high school. There was no problem with it. I wasn't really teased. And I was the star of the musicals. Everyone wanted to be in this thing called “Blast from the Past,” which is the big rock revue that is done every year at Churchill High School. They put so much money into it that it made you popular in school. So I glided by. My senior

year, because I play piano, I sang Billy Joel's “New York State of Mind.” I graduated in the spring of 2002, so as seniors we went through September 11th. You asked me earlier if I’m ever recognized when out on the street. I’m not, but I am recognized by parents of Churchill peers of mine. Even now, people come up to me and they remember me singing “New York State of Mind,” because it was so emotional that year.

MW: Has being a twin impacted your life or career?

PAUL: My sister and I, we're still very close. We had our own language growing up, which my father claims to understand, but he doesn't.

And we still think the same things are funny that no one else thinks are funny.

It gave me insight — a lot of Shakespeare's comedies involve twins.

A lot of people don't know how to direct those, because they don't have any experience of being a twin or being around twins and what that is. Directing The Comedy of Errors is different if you are a twin, because you understand what that is, and you understand the ending when the twins come together and what that means. Same thing is true for Twelfth Night. Shakespeare had twin children, one of them died. I think that’s why there's so much about twins and family in Shakespeare.

MW: How are things in your personal life? Will you be getting married anytime soon?

PAUL: I'm not getting married, no. But I am in a long-term relationship with an architect, Christian Zapatka.

MW: Do you live together?

PAUL: We don't live together. I lead the artist's life, which is, I need to be solitary sometimes. I have learned — this is so basic, and I probably will get it wrong — but the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an extrovert is charged [by social interaction]. I have to be alone for a lot of time or else I am so cranky. I spend my days being a fake extrovert, because I've got to be in charge. In Peter Pan, there are 66 people on the crew — actors and everything. You've got to be in charge, and the truth is I would rather be silent. I'm not uncomfortable being in charge, I'm not uncomfortable being a trained monkey and performing and making people laugh and doing all that. But my natural state is not that. And I get really tired if I have to do a lot of fundraising and directing. I just want to go home and be quiet.

MW: Do you still practice Judaism?

PAUL: No. I would say I'm culturally Jewish. I don't believe in anything. And I enjoy eating [non-Kosher food]. And I love shellfish. You'll find me often at the bar at the Prime Rib because they have the best oysters in town. You wouldn't think it. I love red meat, but I have to limit my red meat intake.

MW: Because of cholesterol?

PAUL: Yeah. But anything that qualifies as a steakhouse is where I will spend my money. From the CUT, which I can't wait until it reopens in Georgetown, to Bourbon Steak, to the Prime Rib, to the Palm. I'm like a 90-year-old man. I'm oddly meat-and pota-

“A lot of adaptations silence Tiger Lily by taking her out, because the original is so problematic. I just think when you have something problematic in a revival, you have to address it.

YOU'VE GOT TO DEAL WITH IT CONSCIOUSLY.”

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Isabella Star LaBlanc as Tiger Lily

Sinclair Daniel as Wendy Darling

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toes-oriented. Just no potatoes, because I'm on a low-carb diet.

MW: And also because you're gay.

PAUL: Exactly, exactly. No carbs here. Only on special occasions, and only a dry martini. Not going to waste my sugar on a glass of red wine.

MW: A dry martini is your go-to drink?

PAUL: Ketel One martini, up with a twist, very dry. And a rare steak. That's what I want.

MW: Would you like to have children in the future?

PAUL: Maybe. Maybe. I mean, the great benefit of being a gay man is that however I choose to have children, 35 doesn't mean — there's less of a time limit on it. And everyone's having kids later these days, too, and so I wouldn't be surprised.

MW: Especially in the arts, you sometimes hear people who are childless refer to work projects or productions as their babies, to varying degrees.

PAUL: I think you get in danger if you make this work try to replace a personal life. Because then you're dependent on this being everything, and it isn't. You can't sit at home and be fueled by your reviews, good or bad. They've got to just be part of your life, I think.

MW: Looking over the list of your announced projects next year, two stand out: Spring Awakening, opening in January at Round 36

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

House Theatre in Bethesda, and On the Town with the National Symphony this summer.

PAUL: I’m excited to do Spring Awakening for a couple of reasons. I've always wanted to work at Round House, having grown up in Potomac. And I love Ryan Rilette, the artistic director. He's made an amazing shift in that theater. I'm not often asked to do contemporary and rock pieces, and it's sort of the total opposite of what I've just embarked on. I love the musical, and it's intimate and emotional. And my real favorite restaurant is around the corner from where Round House is, Woodmont Grill. If you go to see the show, go to Woodmont Grill first. If you go to the opening, I'll probably be there before it. Any Sunday night, I'm probably there with my entire family. It used to be Houston's, and my friends and I still refer to it as Houston's.

In the early summer, I'm doing my fourth collaboration with the National Symphony Orchestra, with On the Town. We’re doing a version they did in London that has been kind of redone for symphony.

I can't reveal the cast “I'm like a yet, but we've got some incredible people who 90-year-old man, have already agreed to be oddly meat-and in it. I've loved the conpotatoes-oriented. ductor Steven Reineke, the director of the Pops.

Just no potatoes, He’s incredible. But I've also had the opportunity because I'm on to work there with a lot of a low-carb diet. great conductors on more classical stuff, including Only on special Gianandrea Noseda, who occasions, and is their current music only a dry martini. director. For me, this connection to classical stuff is NOT GOING very important. I feel very at home at the symphony.

TO WASTE MY MW: What do you like to SUGAR ON A do in your rare moments of downtime?

GLASS OF RED PAUL: I don't know what WINE.” to do [in those times]. It takes me a while to come off the edge. I love running and I love TV. I just binged season three of both The Crown and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I love Netflix shows, I love food-related shows. I think the greatest sadness of the last two years was when Anthony Bourdain killed himself. I love this series called Chef's Table on Netflix. It's addictive. And I love real-life crime drama stuff — documentaries [about] war criminals on the run, sent to justice 70 years later. You know, nonfiction-y stuff.

MW: Does it help you with your work, or inspire ideas? Or do you try to keep it separate and disassociate?

PAUL: Mostly disassociate. Mostly just turn this thing off [taps his head] with a martini. l Peter Pan and Wendy runs through Jan. 12 at The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW. Call 202-5471122 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org.

Holiday Gift Guide

To Advertise in December's Holiday Gift Guide, visit www.metroweekly.com/giftguide2019 or call 202-527-9624.

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Movies

Forceful Finale

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brings the mythic cinematic saga to a rousing conclusion. By André Hereford

A

DAM DRIVER’S TORTURED VILLAIN KYLO REN CONTINUES TO BE THE most compelling figure floating through a galaxy long ago and far away.

Brooding Ren, a.k.a. Ben Solo, isn’t the only source of exhilaration or intrigue in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (HHHHH), though he does provide an enthralling piece in the puzzling web of relationships traced throughout this final trilogy of films in the long-running Skywalker saga.

Having murdered his father Han in The Force Awakens, then finding himself unable to pull the trigger on mother Leia in The Last Jedi, Ren now pursues scavenger-turned-Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley) through the galaxy with murderous vigor. Yet, he seems to have the hots for her, and the feeling might be mutual. Connected through the Force, Ren and Rey tease and seduce one another as much as they cross lightsabers in battle, both face-to-face and in the shared psychic space where their separate environments converge. The effect of these meetings is always potent, as the sound drops, the two contrasting locations intersect via sharp editing and CGI, and the friction between the Rebels’ great hope Rey and evil First Order commander Ren sells whatever beat of exposition is currently on tap.

Ridley and Driver play this tension with riveting ambiguity. Do Rey and Ren want to kill each other, kiss each other, turn each other? Also, given the series’ complicated romantic and familial history, might they be related? Rey notoriously knows next to nothing about her parents, except that they abandoned her on a desolate planet. Her brave and impetuous comrades in the Resistance — fighter commander Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), reformed Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega), Rebel pilot Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) — don’t know. Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) doesn’t know. But somebody might know.

Enter Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid, perfectly repugnant in the role, as usual), the Sith lord last seen falling to his death in Return of the Jedi. “I have died before,” he croaks from some bleak, hidden planet, as the prima space gangsta apparently has just been biding his time, building what he calls the Final Order.

The Rise of Skywalker, though more effectively streamlined than either of the two previous entries in the franchise, spends too much of its running time on the Rebels’ search for a device that can lead them to wherever Palpatine is hiding. Then, whether or not they find the MacGuffin, they must reach Palpatine and rise up against his Final Order — all while outrunning the First Order, now under the command of Allegiant General Pryde (Richard E. Grant), and skirmishing every ten minutes with Ren and his black-caped Knights of Ren.

J.J. Abrams, back at the helm after reinvigorating the franchise with The Force Awakens, then serving as executive producer on Rian Johnson’s busy followup The Last Jedi, juggles multiple plots and subplots adroitly, noticeably leaving a few out of rotation. Rose, who fought nobly beside her crush Finn in the previous installment, is mostly sidelined here.

Finn might pick up another potential love interest in newly introduced resistance fighter Jannah (Naomi Ackie), or he might finally embrace his good bro Poe, whose leather bomber Finn still sports through hell or high water. The ambiguity act doesn’t work as well for Boyega and Isaac, but The Rise of Skywalker appears to offer Stormpilot shippers (and you know who you are) no definitive reason to jump ship.

However, truth be told, when he’s not in the midst of a spectacular dogfight, Poe’s eyes most often are trained fondly on leader and mentor General Leia Organa, portrayed one last time by the late Carrie Fisher. The Princess plays a prominent role, with the clear assistance of visual effects, stand-ins, and digitally altered previously-shot footage. Still, a real performance emerges through the technical fog, and Leia’s meaning to the story and the series is not lost. She is a beacon of hope that there are more courageous souls out in the farflung, flyover regions of the galaxy willing to rise up against oppressors.

The earned sense of nostalgia is strong with this one, and Abrams serves it well alongside lively action and dazzling scenery. The Rise of Skywalker captures the joy of Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) copiloting the Millennium Falcon, the hard-won wisdom of Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the surprisingly

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moving depth of a Wookiee’s grief. And every thread, old and new, is joined in the central mystery of Rey and Ren, which drags

on a little, but keeps the fire lit for future generations of high-flying, seafaring, nerf-herding, adventurers. l

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is rated PG-13, and opens in theaters everywhere on Friday, December 20.

Visit www.fandango.com.

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Movies

Pure Catnip

Cats is a fancy feast of eye-popping visuals, gracefully choreographed dance numbers, and unforgettable melodies. By Randy Shulman

M

Y PERSONAL HISTORY WITH CATS STARTED BACK IN 1984, DURING the Broadway hit’s first national tour, which settled into Washington’s National Theatre for a months-long run. As a fledgling critic, I was captivated by the sheer, unabashed theatricality of the experience, the creativity and playful invention of the design and costumes, and, most of all, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s delightfully catchy melodies, set to the whimsical poetry of T.S. Eliot.

The common criticism the show encounters is that there’s no plot — but it doesn’t need one. It’s never needed one. It’s experiential, experimental theater, a fully immersive song and dance show, doling out character vignettes like treats in a giddy celebration of — and homage to — all things feline. It doesn’t impart deep lessons, it doesn’t really make sense, but to this day it remains a delight to behold, filling every one of your senses to the brim with awe, wonder, and magic. Those who gripe about Cats might do better at a musical entitled Pups.

The most recent version of the show that hit the Kennedy Center last fall was strongly performed, retaining much of the original’s magic. It excised some of the more problematic elements of the musical, namely the mock-opera “Growltiger’s Last Stand,” which portrayed Siamese cats in the most stereotypically offensive way imaginable. The recent tour also drew light to how dated Cats feels these days, given how far musical theater has come in the nearly 40 years since the U.K.-fostered show pounced “now and forever” on American shores.

Filmmakers have been attempting to wrangle Cats onto the big screen for decades.

At one point, Steven Spielberg was attached to it, and rumor swirled of an animated version, which would have been disastrous, destroying the whole notion of the show’s “live” fantastical elements. But Cats has finally found its way to the big screen and, if it’s not 100% purrfect, then it’s at least a noteworthy cinematic adaptation of a show that single-handedly altered the Broadway musical landscape.

Early trailers of the film were met with a chorus of scornful derision and high-panicked alarm. “Cats with the faces, fingers and toes of people? OMG! OMG! OMG!” screamed the internet. But, in fact, Cats (HHHHH) the movie does tremendous justice to the fantastical theatricality of the musical; it pays respect to the origins while paving its own path. It doesn’t reinvent Webber’s musical as much as it restructures and refines it for the cinematic medium. The movie, vibrant and appealing, feels familiar as it morphs into something far more intimate, tender, and emotionally charged, which, no matter how hard it tries, the stage version cannot achieve.

The movie even does the stage version one better by adding a few more threads to

an already threadbare plot. True, there’s not much to the storyline: One cat will be chosen by Old Deuteronomy (Dame Judi Dench) to go up, up, up to the Heavyside Layer and to a new and, presumably, better life. In his early days, Webber loved imposing religious motifs on his musicals (see: Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors), and Cats carries the metaphor of divinity and reincarnation to a ridiculous extreme. That said, it could all just be a case of cats famously having nine lives.

Tom Hooper, the director who brought Les Miserables, that other ’80s warhorse musical, to the screen, delivers a Cats that is unique as it is familiar. The movie is hardly groundbreaking in the way that the stage show was in 1984 — we’re far too used to CGI as a means to an end these days — but by keeping the actor’s faces fully visible within their furry feline trappings, Hooper achieves something remarkable: Performances shine through with incredible strength and familiar characters burst to life in new and surprising ways.

This is especially true of watching Sir Ian McKellen perform “Gus the Theater Cat,” bringing a wistful, considered melancholy to the role. McKellen’s conviction is extraordinary, and his delivery is befitting a Shakespearean master. Dench, similarly, imparts a warm, kind, wise gravity to Old Deuteronomy. Her performance is illustrious.

The movie includes tons of unfamiliar faces, including newcomer Robbie Fairchild as a gorgeously voiced Munkustrap and Laurie Davidson as the magical Mr. Mistoffeles, whose big, joyful number — one of the stage show’s biggest and best showstoppers — is impeded on film by too much

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activity and interruption. (Just let the damn cat dance!) Several songs remain true to their source, and people will have their favorites. One of my least favorites on the stage, “Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat,” becomes a jaw-dropping tap-dance number on film, immaculately performed by Stephen McRae. One of the least engaging is Macavity, sung by Taylor Swift in a kind of a vixenish daze. It’s as though she woke from a catnap, did her hours on the set, and sauntered off to find a litter box. It’s a useless performance.

Idris Elba also adds little as the mysterious McCavity, whose villainy is meant to enhance the story.

James Corden is a scene-stealer as the rotund trash-pail gourmand Bustofer Jones, but Jason Derulo’s charisma-free Rum Tum Tugger and Rebel Wilson’s buffoonish Jennyanydots, the Gumbie Cat, are disasters. Both of their big numbers are forgettable and textbook examples of how not to edit a musical number on film.

The narrative is viewed through the innocent eyes of Victoria, an abandoned cat played by luminous newcomer Francesca Hayward, a member of the Royal Ballet. Hayward

brings extraordinary grace to every tiny movement, and her dancing is such that it elevates everything and everyone around her. With a gaze of wonderment and a smile as bright as a burst of sunlight, Hayward nearly steals the film.

Nearly. Because it’s Jennifer Hudson, in the plum role of Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, performing the show’s most recognizable (and best) number, “Memory,” who fully walks away with the movie, her bushy CGI tail held high. Hudson’s rendition of the show’s iconic ballad leaves you an emotional wreck, and the actor, streaming a geyser of tears, nails it. As ever.

It takes about ten minutes or so to buy into the illusion and become comfortable with the actors as felines — or an approximation thereof — but once you’re there, Cats lets itself out of the bag and does not disappoint. It’s a fancy feast of eye-popping visuals, gracefully choreographed dance numbers, and unforgettable melodies. The film version is a unique spectacle that manages to grab at your heart in tender, surprising, insightful ways, becoming a full-on celebration of the felines, domestic and feral, that populate and, indeed, rule our human world. l

Cats is rated PG and opens Wednesday, Dec. 25, at theaters nationwide. Visit www.fandango.com.

Women’s March Filmmaker Greta Gerwig deftly matches the collective voices of Little Women to the current moment. By André Hereford

T

IMOTHÉE CHALAMET STRIDES IN SLOW MOTION INTO THE 1860S milieu of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (HHHHH), a vision of youth and promise as the good-natured yet rascally heir Theodore Laurence. Reunited for this moving adaptation with Oscar-nominated Lady Bird writer-director Greta Gerwig, Chalamet fuses sensitivity and star-power, conveying ardor and heartbreak, and further solidifying the Call Me By Your Name actor’s fruitful path playing romance.

Yet for all his scene-stealing wiles, Laurie, as heir Laurence is known, is merely one potential beau among many, along with Fred Vaughn (Dash Barber), Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrel), and “penniless tutor” John Brooke (John Norton), all flocking like birds around the March sisters, seeking purchase in the sturdy tree of their love. The Marches — Meg (Emma Watson), Beth (Eliza Scanlen), Amy (Florence Pugh), and Jo

(Saoirse Ronan) — are the forces of nature who dazzle the men who adore them, and who pulse with vitality, intelligence, wit, and the generosity instilled in them by their dear father Robert (Bob Odenkirk) and mother Marmee (Laura Dern).

The entire family, including old crabapple Aunt March (portrayed with charming rancor by Meryl Streep), live through joys and sorrows enough to have filled a trilogy of books by Alcott, and numerous stage, TV, and film adaptations over the past several decades. Speaking to our supposedly more enlightened age, Gerwig locates a modern voice to express the March sisters’ dreams and ambitions as signs of progress for all women. In Ronan’s galvanizing turn, the brash and bookish Jo embodies a passion for her work and art, and her independence, that could have driven a talented author to success in the 1860s, the 1960s, or right now. Pugh is a splendid Amy, tracing a bright but self-centered girl’s growth into womanly wisdom. And, as the root of so much of the sisters’ kindness and determination, Dern’s Marmee stands as a timeless example of excellent parenting.

Of course, while Marmee’s maternal understanding might be timeless, the film’s 19th-century period is quite specific, and artfully presented here. Shot in the sun-dappled and candlelit tones of a world yet to fully embrace the incandescent light bulb, Little Women illuminates the hope that, to paraphrase, the arc of the universe might continue to bend towards progress. l

Little Women is rated PG, and opens everywhere on Wednesday, December 25. Visit www.fandango.com.

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DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

CHRISTOPHER BANKS

Stage

Fair Fight

Mosaic’s season of “progressives behaving badly” takes a sharp left turn with the P.C.-puncturing satire Eureka Day. By André Hereford

J

ONATHAN SPECTOR’S EUREKA DAY ( ) STIRS UP DELICIOUS comedy by diving into what must be one of the craggiest pitfalls of modern parenting: having to deal with other parents. The moms and dads at the play’s progressive Eureka Day School in Berkeley might make every attempt to be absolutely fair, inclusive, and sensitive to any and all firmly-held beliefs, but judging by the parents on the school’s contentious executive committee, personalities, and ingrained politics will always get in the way.

The executive committee, presided over by Birks-wearing boho Don (Sam Lunday) and pleasantly officious Suzanne (Lise Bruneau), has added a level of difficulty to their negotiations, choosing to rule on decisions not by a vote, but by consensus. No matter how much Suzanne or single mom Meiko (Regina Aquino) or wealthy tech-bro Eli (Elan Zafir) might disagree on some finer point about, say, creating a more “comprehensive” list of racial and ethnic options for the school application drop-down menu, they’re compelled to hear each other out and at least consider opposing viewpoints. At least, that’s the idea.

The joke of the first act is that, though compelled to listen with open minds, these parents usually lead with open mouths. Especially as observed by relatively quiet lesbian mom Carina (Erica Chamblee), the members of the committee routinely interrupt and talk over each other, often dismissing or disputing opposing arguments with scarce attention paid to fairness. Ever mindful not to offend, they’re all still capable of steamrolling over anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

Director Serge Seiden stages the committee’s bristling powwows with a briskly paced comic élan carried off collectively by a solid cast. Mosaic Theater’s five-piece

ensemble captures the script’s rhythms of real conversation and studied civility, within the heightened context of big personalities and hot-button issues. The chief issue drawing the committee’s rhetorical fire for the bulk of the play is the debate over whether students at Eureka Day should be required to be vaccinated in order to attend. And even before an outbreak of mumps among the student body transforms the issue from rhetorical to a practical matter of life, death, or injury, the debate explodes throughout the school’s community of politically correct parents.

At progressive Eureka Day, that explosion manifests online as a virtual community meeting that’s livestreamed on Facebook by the executive committee. The so-called “community-activated conversation” is hilariously staged with a screen overhead displaying every pithy or bitchy comment from those parents gathered round the web to hear the executive committee explain that mumps is running rampant at Eureka Day, and that nearly half the kids haven’t been vaccinated. Despite the risks, the board’s righteous leader Suzanne crusades against any requirement to vaccinate, while newcomer Carina asserts her voice on the committee to advocate for ensuring that all

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CHRISTOPHER BANKS

students are vaccinated.

Thanks to subtle direction and well-calibrated performances, the conversation stays grounded, rarely lifting off into the realm of blustery preaching. The characters careen off each other around scenic designer Andrew Cohen’s convincing classroom, like any group of posturing private school policy-makers. As the moms who are most in conflict, Bruneau and Chamblee face off wonderfully as comic foils Suzanne and Carina, bringing acute individuality to roles written mostly to type. On the other hand, high-strung mom Meiko walks a fine line between comedy and caricature. Aquino, portraying Meiko’s emotionally loaded role in the debate — and the outbreak — might miss the subtle mark, overplaying the character’s second-act struggle to avoid melting down. But for the most part, the performances create an exciting space for appreciating everyone’s concerns.

Additionally, circumstances in the second act encourage the characters to better practice actively listening, and that encouragement is transmitted to the audience.

Remarkably, Eureka Day both lampoons the progressive fervor for diversity and fairness, and thoughtfully puts fair play into practice by presenting strong cases on either side of the vaccination debate. It becomes possible to hear divergent arguments for and against the science of vaccinating children, without immediately jumping to conclusions. Eureka Day cleverly probes our culture’s self-satisfied tendency towards certainty, in a world where we can’t even be certain to agree on which facts are facts. l Eureka Day runs through January 5 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $35 to $65.

Call 202-399-7993, ext. 2 or visit www.mosaictheater.org.

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NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

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Scene

Duplex Diner’s Janky Sweater Party - Friday, Dec. 13 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Friday, December 20 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports DC EAGLE Meaty Fridays Happy Hour 5-9pm • Free Hot Dogs all night and Pizza at 7:30pm • $2 off all drinks until 9pm • $5 Cover starts at 7pm, $10 after 9pm • DJ Popperz in the Main Bar • Birds of Prey Drag Show at 10:30pm • STRUT Dance Party with DJ Tezrah • Open until 3am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Rough House: Hands On, Lights Off, 10pm-close • All Body Types Welcome • Underwear attire encouraged but not required • Music by DJ Lemz • $5 Cover (includes clothes check) NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm

Destinations A LEAGUE OF HER OWN 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.facebook.com/alohodc AVALON SATURDAYS Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW 202-789-5429 www.facebook.com/ AvalonSaturdaysDC 46

• No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Friday Night Videos, 9:30pm • Rotating DJs PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Live Music by Milly and Luke Shaffer, 9pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine

only $5 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

Saturday, December 21 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW Avalon Saturdays and Chorus DC present The Annual Sugarplum Ball,

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR 555 23rd St. S. Arlington, Va. 703-685-0555 www.freddiesbeachbar.com GREEN LANTERN 1335 Green Ct. NW 202-347-4533 www.greenlanterndc.com

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

10pm-close • Opening set

by DJ TWiN • $15 Cover before midnight, $20 after midnight, $25 VIP • Drag Show, 10:30-11:30pm, hosted by Ba’Naka and a rotating cast of drag queens • $4 Absolut Drinks, 10pm-midnight • 21+ DC EAGLE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour until 9pm • $5 Cover for Saturday Kink in the Bar • Hummer Dance Party in the Eagle’s Nest, 10pm-4am • Music by DJs Chaim, Ultrapup, and Pup Phoenix • $25 cover • Coat/clothes check open • Serving until 3am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour,

4-8pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Karaoke, 10pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • The Bear Cave: Retro to Electro, 9pm-close • Music by DJ Popperz • No Cover NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs playing pop music all night NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR 900 U St. NW 202-332-6355 www.nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE 1435 P St. NW 202-986-0999 www.numberninedc.com PITCHERS 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.pitchersbardc.com

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Doug Rule

PEACH PIT & SHADY PINES AT DC9 Named after the popular hangout spot on Beverly Hills 90210, Peach Pit exclusively celebrates the pop music of the 1990s, and the party has been a monthly entity for a full decade of its own. Patrons are encouraged to arrive as close as possible to the 10:30 p.m. start time this Saturday, Dec. 21, if they don’t want to wait in a long line once the intimate DC9 is filled to capacity — thereby risking the chance they’ll miss their favorite jock jam. Admission is $5 before midnight, $8 after. 21 and above. The next day, Sunday, Dec. 22, at the same venue comes the newest decade-spanning monthly venture from Peach Pit’s promoter, DJ Matt Bailer, this one geared to those who wanna dance with somebody who loves them while reminiscing about a time when doves cried and people were hungry like the wolf. Named after the retirement village where the gay-popular TV series The Golden Girls took place, Shady Pines focuses on the ’80s, when pop music was wild and formulaic, eclectic and overproduced. The party is from 3 to 7 p.m and takes place on DC9’s enclosed, heated rooftop. Admission is free. DC9 is at 1940 9th St. NW. Call 202-483-5000 or visit www.dcnine.com.

Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • THIRSTY for Xmas, featuring VJ Chord Bezerra, 9:30pm PEACH PIT @DC9 1940 9th St. NW 1990s Dance Party, 10:30pm-3am • DJ Matt Bailer • $5 before midnight, $8 after midnight • 21+ PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $16 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and

Select Appetizers • Noche Latina, 11pm-2am • Food and Drink specials TRADE Doors open 2pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • Gay Bash: The Alt Dance Party and Home for Unconventional Drag in the Nation’s Capital, 10pm • Hosted by Donna Slash • Performances

by Jane Saw and Ana Latour • Special guests Dax ExclamationPoint and Summer Camp • Music by The Barber Streisand ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Fully nude male dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s • Doors open

SHAW’S TAVERN 520 Florida Ave. NW 202-518-4092 www.shawstavern.com TRADE 1410 14th St. NW 202-986-1094 www.tradebardc.com ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS 1824 Half St. SW 202-863-0670 www.ziegfelds.com

GAYBORHOOD NIGHT PIANO BAR WITH JOHN FLYNN John Flynn is a regular presence in Rehoboth Beach, where most nights, you’ll find him tickling the ivories at establishments throughout the beach town. But on the last Sunday of most months, the gay pianist ventures inland to incite to chorus the colorful patrons at a venue that outbeaches ’em all.

This “Gayborhood” event at the “straight-friendly” Freddie’s is meant to foster greater community among LGBTQ patrons and allies: “Enjoy happy hour specials and meet your neighbors.” Sunday, Dec. 29, starting at 5 p.m.

Freddie’s Beach Bar is at 555 South 23rd St., Arlington. Call 703-685-0555 or visit www.freddiesbeachbar.com.

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2019: HIGHLIGHTS New Year’s Eve comes on a Tuesday this year, so get ready for some midweek revelry! Ziegfeld’s/Secrets (202-863-0607, www.ziegfelds.com) features dancing to the music of DJ Steve Henderson, along with a special show, party favors, champagne countdown and a balloon drop with prizes. Shaw’s Tavern (202-518-4092, www.shawstavern.com) starts early, at 11 a.m. on New Year’s Eve with a Bottomless Mimosas Brunch until 3 p.m. The venue kicks things into high gear at 9 p.m. with a party that includes open bar on select alcohol, an hors d’ouevres buffet, champagne at midnight, a breakfast buffet at 12:30 a.m., plus music by a DJ and party favors ($75 per person).

You could start your New Year’s Eve at Nellie’s (202-332-6355, www.nelliessportsbar.com) with a round of Drag Bingo at 7 p.m., followed at 9 p.m. by karaoke until close. In Adams Morgan, both Pitcher’s and A League Of Her Own (202-733-2568, www.pitchersdc.com.) will ring in the new starting at 9 p.m., with a massive party on all floors and no cover. The evening’s fun at Green Lantern (202-347-4533, www.greenlanterndc.com) features music

by DJ Darryl Strickland, party favors, a midnight champagne toast, and drink specials. The venue also opens at 4 p.m. with a five-hour-long Happy Hour special. Tthe DC Eagle (202-347-6025, www.dceagle.com) hosts the second annual Leather & Lace New Year’s Eve Ball complete with dinner at 9 p.m., music from DJs Ultra and Popperz, and a full performance lineup of drag queens, porn stars, and go-go boys at $10 per person. Finally, across the river, Freddie’s Beach Bar (703-685-0555, www.freddiesbeachbar.com) presents a New Year’s Eve Party with a drag show at 10 p.m. followed by karaoke, plus a champagne toast and party favors ($25 cover). Freddie’s re-opens the next day for a rare Wednesday champagne brunch, starting at 10 a.m. and costing $24.99 per person, inclusive of a few rounds of mimosas. For more New Year’s offerings and details, see our Dec. 31 listings on page 50. l DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

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at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm • Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs

Sunday, December 22

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports DC EAGLE Open at Noon • Happy Hour until 9pm • Food served 5-8pm, $10 a plate • Cigar Sundays and Cruisy Sundays • $3 off all Whiskeys & Bourbons, $5 Chivas Regal, $15 Bottomless Bud/Bud Light, $20 Bottomless Premium Drafts • Open until 2am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Fabulous Sunday Champagne Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale

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PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm SHADY PINES @DC9 1940 9th St. NW 1980s Tea Dance, 3-7pm • DJ Matt Bailer • 21+ • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $16 Bottomless Mimosas, 10am-3pm • Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner and Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • No Cover • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@gmail.com

TRADE Doors open 2pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • Happy Birthday Greggory Marcus: A Princess Tea Party, 4-8pm • Featuring Iyana Deschanel, Brooklyn Heights, and Sasha Adams Sanchez • Music by Wess the DJ and Keenan Orr • CHURCH presents Christmas Eve Eve Eve • Music by Wess the DJ and StrikeStone! • Hosted by Summer Camp • Shows by Pussy Noir and Domingo

Monday, December 23 DC EAGLE Manic Mondays • Happy Hour until 9pm, $2 off all drinks • Free Pool play • $2 Bud & Bud Lights, $15 bottomless premium drafts FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close

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NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm • PokerFace Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables

Tuesday, December 24 Christmas Eve

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Closed for Christmas DC EAGLE 2-4-1 Tuesdays • All Drinks, Buy one, Get one free • First Drink Free for Guys in Jockstraps • Open until 4am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Tito’s Tuesday: $5 Tito’s Vodka all night NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close

NUMBER NINE Closed for Christmas PITCHERS Closed for Christmas SHAW’S TAVERN Open for Lunch until 3pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5

Wednesday, December 25 Christmas Day

DC EAGLE Happy Hour until 9pm • Karaoke by D&K Sounds from 9pm-1am • $4 Rails, Wines & Domestic Drafts • Community Holiday Dinner served at 6pm • Open until 2am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Plated Christmas Dinner • Beach Blanket Drag Bingo Night, hosted by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am GREEN LANTERN Open 9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8-10pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • Absolutely Snatched Drag Show, hosted by Brooklyn Heights, 9pm • $3 Bud Light, $5 Absolut, $15 Buckets of Beer TRADE Doors open 7pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 7-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • Music by Dean Sullivan at 9pm

Thursday, December 26 DC EAGLE $4 Rail and Domestics for guys in L.U.R.E. (Leather, Uniform, Rubber, Etc.) • Lights Dimmed at 8pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm •

Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla, 11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Dancing until 1:30am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close • Paint Nite, Second Floor, 7pm ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers, 9pm-close • “New Meat” Open Dancers Audition • Music by DJ Don T. • Cover 21+

Friday, December 27 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Pamela Stanley performs live, 8-11pm • $15 standing room only, $20 for reserved bar seat, $100 for reserved table of 4 • Karaoke until close after the show GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Kicks and Giggles present GO HARD!: A Queer Underwear Dance Party, 10pm-close • Featuring DJs DJs Ben

Norman and Phil Reese • Kicks Contest — Best kicks win a free bar tab • $5 Cover • Includes one free drink before 11:30pm • Clothes check available • $5 Fireball, $5 Margaritas, $8 Long Islands NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

Saturday, December 28 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports DC EAGLE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour until 9pm • Big D Productions presents Fornication Party in Annex, 8pm-midnight • Coat/ clothes check open • $10 Cover for Lights Out, Barks Out (LOBO) upstairs in the Exile • DJ Ultra spinning • Serving until 3am GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • JOX: The GL Underwear Party, 9pm-close • Music by DJs Chaim, UltraPup, and Pup Phoenix • $ Cover (includes clothes check)

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs playing pop music all night PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Fully nude male dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s • Doors open at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm

• Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

Sunday, December 29 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Fabulous Sunday Champagne Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Gayborhood Piano Bar Night, hosted by John Flynn, 5-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com

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• House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm

Monday, December 30 DC EAGLE Manic Mondays • Happy Hour until 9pm, $2 off all drinks • Free Pool play • $2 Bud & Bud Lights, $15 bottomless premium drafts GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke

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Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ‘Nuff Trivia, 7:30pm

Tuesday, December 31 New Years Eve

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports • New Year’s Eve Party • No Cover DC EAGLE Leather & Lace New Year’s Eve Ball with DJs Ultra and Popperz • Featuring Dirk Caber, Jose Dones, Corbin Colby, Crystal Edge, Katrina Colby, Druex

Sidora, Shirley Natch, and more special guests • Dinner served at 9pm • Tickets available via Eventbrite.com • Open until 4am FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • New Year’s Eve Party • $25 Cover • Champagne Toast and Party Favors • Drag Show starts at 10pm • For table reservations, visit bit.ly/2kzlvuW • Karaoke after the show • 21+ GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • DJ Darryl Strickland, 9pm-2am • Party Favors • Champagne Toast at midnight • $5 Cover starting at 9pm NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • New Year’s Eve Party, featuring VJ Chord, 10pm • Video Countdown and Champagne Toast • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • New Year’s Eve Party — No Cover • Party favors available SHAW’S TAVERN Bottomless Mimosas Brunch, 11am-3pm • Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 Rail Drinks • Shaw’s Tavern New Year’s Eve Party, 9pm-2am • Tickets available via Eventbrite.com

TRADE Doors open 5pm • XL Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass is served in an XL glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $5 • New Queers’ Eve, 10pm • Music by Wess the DJ and StrikeStone! • Hosted by Vagenesis • Shows by Rosé Evergreen, Khaiya Darnell, Sirius Prism • Countdown and Champagne Toast • No Cover, 21+

Wednesday, January 1 New Years Day

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR New Year’s Day Champagne Brunch, 10 am-2pm • $24.99 Brunch comes with up to 4 champagne mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or

juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6 Burgers • Beach Blanket Drag Bingo Night, hosted by Ms. Regina Jozet Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes • Karaoke, 10pm-1am SHAW’S TAVERN New Year’s Day Drag Brunch with Kristina Kelly • 2 Seatings: 11am and 2pm • Reservations required — please email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com • Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers l For more specials not featured in print, visit www.metroweekly.com/ nightlife/drink_specials.

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Scene

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Trade - Friday, Dec. 13 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DECEMBER 19/26, 2019 • METROWEEKLY.COM

LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“I don’t want to shove my sexuality in people’s faces, but I also don’t want to hide who I am.”

— U.S. figure skating champion AMBER GLENN, in an interview with the Dallas Voice coming out publicly as bisexual/pansexual.

“The fear of not being accepted is a huge struggle for me,” she said. “Being perceived as [going through] ‘just a phase’ or [being] ‘indecisive’ is a common thing for bisexual/pansexual women.”

“I don’t know what goes on in this president’s dreams, but I’m sure I want absolutely nothing to do with them.”

— Former Mayor PETE BUTTIGIEG, in an interview with the Washington Post responding to Donald Trump’s recent comments that he dreams about the Democratic presidential candidate. “This guy Buttigieg, Boot-edge-edge. Can you believe he’s doing well?

He’s like the leading fundraiser,” Trump said. “I dream about him! It’s true.”

“There is a life-threatening amount of transphobia and homophobia in our community. ” — CAMERON WHITTEN, executive director for Portland’s Q Center, speaking to KATU in Portland. Whitten was commenting after police arrested 25-year-old David Bogdanov, accusing him of murdering transgender teenager Nikki Kunhausen after finding out that she was transgender. Kuhnhausen’s body was discovered earlier this month, after going missing in June.

“There is a fat, gray-haired, masculine woman who is the lead of a show.

That is bonkers.”

— ABBY MCENANY, speaking to The Advocate about her lead role in Showtime series Work in Progress. McEnany called it “revolutionary,” noting that her love interest is also a transgender person. “That’s the first time I’ve said it.

Other people have said it, but that’s revolutionary.”

“The police did not do anything even though they saw me with blood. ” — RONALD ALBARRACIN, to Gay City News, alleging that New York City police didn’t take him seriously when he told them he had been a victim of an anti-gay attack in Queens. Albarricin claims that he was attacked on Dec. 8, with his assailants punching and kicking him and using anti-gay slurs. Albarracin, who is from Ecuador, claims that police failed to get a translator and “did not try at all to understand what was going on.”

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