CONTENTS

MAY 17, 2018 Volume 25 Issue 1

16 KING COLE
Anything goes at the American Pops tribute to Cole
Porter, featuring Liz Callaway and Betty Who.

By Doug Rule

SWEET ROMANCE
With Girlfriend, Todd Almond has taken an album
from his youth and turned it into a magnificent
show about young gay love.

Interview by André Hereford

Photography by Todd Franson
26
33 SURREAL WORLDS
Beach House takes us further into their hazy
dreamscapes, while Arctic Monkeys
show us a hotel on the moon.

By Sean Maunier

SPOTLIGHT: SEAN DORSEY p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.11

UNREQUITED RUSSIANS: MICHAEL MAYER p.12 A JOURNEY HOME: DENYCE GRAVES p.14
KING COLE: AMERICAN POPS p.16 COMMUNITY: TRANS PRIDE p.19
SCENE: ATHLETE ALLY p.21 THE FEED p.23 COVER STORY: SWEET ROMANCE p.26
MUSIC: BEACH HOUSE, ARCTIC MONKEYS p.33 STAGE: BURST, THE INVISIBLE HAND p.35
NIGHTLIFE p.37 SCENE: HELEN HAYES AWARDS p.37 LISTINGS p.38
SCENE: WTF AT TOWN p.45 LAST WORD p.46

Real LGBTQ News and Entertainment since 1994

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 Illustrator Scott G. Brooks
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4 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight
LYDIA DANILLER
Sean Dorsey Dance
A
NYONE WRESTLING WITH THE CONCEPT OF
“toxic masculinity” need look no further than the
White House for an ongoing object lesson in male
privilege. Or, for a more refreshing exploration, they might
check out Boys in Trouble, performed by San Francisco-based
company Sean Dorsey Dance.
Boys in Trouble brings the dance company, led by Dorsey,
who is transgender, back to D.C.’s Dance Place for a show the
artist describes as “a really beautiful mix of the heartrending
and the hilarious.”
“We are unpacking and talking about everything,” he says,
“from toxic masculinity to trans peer pressure, to real talk
about whiteness, to an unabashed love letter between queer
black men, and a send up of all things macho.”
For Dorsey, the current climate of tension between activist
social movements, and a locker room culture led by our pussy-
grabber-in-chief, adds a sense of urgency to a program that
he’s been developing for over three years.
Sean Dorsey Dance’s Boys in Trouble is Friday, May 19 and Saturday, May 20, at Dance Place, 3225 8th St. NE.
Tickets are $15 to $30. Call 202-269-1600, or visit danceplace.org.
“It’s such an emotional and intense time for many people
in this country, given the violent racism and transphobia and
homophobia and anti-immigrant, anti-people with disabilities
agenda of the current administration. I couldn’t have known
[when] I started researching and writing this project how pro-
foundly timely it would become.”
The choreographer put his own experience being trans into
the center of the work, which is also informed by the lives of
his all-male troupe of dancers and the experiences of com-
munity members he has encountered through teaching and
workshops.
“That could be trans-guys, cisgender, gay or queer, or
bi-men, butch, queer women, anybody who lives or identifies
on that spectrum,” he says. “And then we brought a lot of those
themes into the studio. It’s not a modern dance show where
we all have vacant, glassy stares, skim across the stage in front
of the audience. We are onstage as full, complex humans.
Ultimately, we dance our butts off.” – André Hereford
MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 7
 Spotlight
WAITRESS
Based on the 2007 movie, Waitress focuses
on Jenna, a diner employee with a pas-
sion for baking pies that helps her cope
with a loveless marriage and the malaise
of her small town. Diane Paulus (Pippin)
directs a show with music and lyrics by
Sara Bareilles, book by Jessie Nelson, and
choreography by Lorin Latarro. To June 3.
National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW. Tickets are $48 to $108. Call 202-
JOAN MARCUS

628-6161 or visit thenationaldc.org.

NAKED EYES
The latest immersive show at ArTecHouse,
D.C.’s innovative science-meets-art gallery, is
billed as a “celebration of light.” Developed
by illustrator Noemi Schipfer and musician
Takami Nakamoto, the Paris-based duo’s first
solo exhibition in the U.S. transports viewers
into a dreamlike environment where they’re
encouraged to follow the lights as they see
them, exploring the medium in three-dimen-
sional fashion across four sculptural light and
sound installations. At night, the gallery offers
specially made, technology-enhanced cocktails
from what is touted as “the first Augmented
Reality Cocktail Bar in the United States.” To
June 30. ArTecHouse, 1238 Maryland Ave. SW.
Tickets for 60-minute, timed-entry sessions are
$12 for daytime or $15 for evening admission,
not including drinks. Visit artechouse.com.

JAZZ IN THE GARDEN

A summertime staple, the National Gallery of Art
offers free outdoor concerts immediately after
work every Friday through late August. Bands
offering a range of jazz styles, from swing to Latin
to ska, perform amidst the museum’s collection of
large-scale sculptural works while patrons enjoy
food and drink, including beer, wine, and sangria,
as sold by the Pavilion Cafe and outdoor grill.
The 2018 series launches with the JoGo Project,
a thoroughly D.C.-based go-go/jazz fusion band
formed by former Chuck Brown Band saxophon-
ist Elijah Jamal Balbed, on Friday, May 18, and
continues with Tony Craddock Jr. & Cold Front
THE BEAT & PATH.

on Friday, May 25. Evenings from 5 to 8:30 p.m.

Sculpture Garden, between 7th and 9th Streets
NW. Call 202-289-3360 or visit nga.gov.

8 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 Spotlight
PRISCILLA,
QUEEN OF THE DESERT
It’s not the Outback, but Kensington, the leafy
Maryland suburb, is a pretty unexpected place to
find drag queens all the same. Yet that’s exactly what
you’ll find on stage at the Kensington Arts Theatre
this month, starring Larry Munsey as Bernadette,
Gregory Wilczynski as Tick, and Jon Simmons as
MCLAUGHLIN PHOTOGRAPHY

Adam in the community-based company’s pro-

duction, directed by John Nunemaker, of the hit
Broadway musical — based of course on the hilarious
cult Australian film from 1994. Weekends to May 26.
3710 Mitchell St., Kensington, Md. Tickets are $19 to
$27. Call 206-888-6642 or visit katonline.org.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

A brilliant meditation on man and the
mysterious universe, Stanley Kubrick’s
1968 visionary saga features a thought-
ful, spare script by Kubrick and Arthur
C. Clarke and Oscar-winning spe-
cial effects by visual effects pioneer
Douglas Trumbull, also known for his
work on sci-fi classics Close Encounters
of the Third Kind and Blade Runner.
Trumbull will introduce and take part
in a post-screening Q&A in a “Sci-Fi
Sundays Special Event” at the National
Air & Space Museum’s Lockheed
Imax Theater. Sunday, May 20, at 1:45
p.m. Independence Ave at 6th St. SW.
Tickets are $20.01. Call 202-633-2214
or visit airandspace.si.edu.

SAINT JOAN
New York’s brilliant theater compa-
ny Bedlam, responsible for last year’s
Sense & Sensibility, returns for another
stripped-down production, this time
of George Bernard Shaw’s Joan of Arc
tale. Four actors perform over 25 roles
in the special engagement. Now in pre-
views. To June 3. Folger Theatre, 201
East Capitol St. SE. Call 202-544-7077
or visit folger.edu.
TERESA WOOD

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 9

ANGIE CHAMBERLAND
Out On The Town

U SLEAZE
A little over a year ago, Steve “Lemz” Lemmerman launched what has become a popular first-Thursday party on the cozy
dance floor at Wonderland Ballroom in Columbia Heights. “The second you hear the name,” Lemz says of Sleaze, “you just
kind of know you’re going to be getting into something different.” For the month of May, Lemz is offering a second — and
bigger — Sleaze, this time at U Street Music Hall. There is every reason to think U Sleaze will retain the original’s sleazy
sensibility, per a dimly lit and foggy intimate dance floor and an eclectic musical mix focused on dark disco throwbacks
and disco-inspired dance tracks — “bathhouse music...and future techno.” Lemz and Keenan Orr will DJ along with D.C.-
based artist Bernard Farley, aka Outputmessage. Friday, May 25, starting at 10:30 p.m. U Street Music Hall, 1115A U St. NW.
Tickets are $5 before midnight, $10 after. Call 202-588-1880 or visit ustreetmusichall.com.

Compiled by Doug Rule returns by bringing their kids along

FILM
BOOK CLUB
If Deadpool 2’s R-rated superhero
antics aren’t your thing this week-
end, what about watching Jane
Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice
Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen
read 50 Shades of Grey and reignite
their sexuality? That’s literally the
plot of first-time feature director
Bill Holderman’s film, which sees
the four friends try dating, explore
new passions, and generally enjoy
life more. And all because of badly
written erotica. Who knew? Opens
Friday, May 18. Area theaters. Visit
fandango.com. (Rhuaridh Marr)
DEADPOOL 2
Few could have predicted that
Deadpool would become one of
2016’s best films — a relatively small
budget for a superhero flick, a char-
acter not well known among main-
stream audiences, and the dread-
ed R-rating that ensured parents
wouldn’t be increasing box office
for the ride. And yet, it went on
to become a global smash, break-
ing records, earning critical praise,
and giving Ryan Reynolds a role
he seemed perfectly crafted for.
The sequel sees Deadpool facing
off against Josh Brolin’s cybernetic
soldier Cable. Opens Friday, May
18. Area theaters. Visit fandango.
com. (RM)
ON THE TOWN
Next up in the weekly Capital
Classics series at Landmark’s West
End Cinema is screenings of this
1949 musical film starring Frank
Sinatra, Betty Garrett, and Ann
Miller. Based on the Broadway
musical but largely stripped of
Leonard Bernstein’s original musi-
cal score — Bernstein famously
boycotted the film — On The Town
was co-directed by Stanley Donen
and Gene Kelly, who also choreo-
graphed the tale about sailors on
shore leave. Wednesday, May 23,
at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m., 2301 M
St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30
p.m. Tickets are $10 to $12.50. Call
202-534-1907 or visit landmarkthe-
atres.com.
STAGE
FLOOD CITY
POPE FRANCIS – A MAN
Set amid the Great Flood of
OF HIS WORD
Pennsylvania in 1889 as well as
The latest documentary from
the drying up of the state’s steel
venerated German director Wim
industry a century later, Gabrielle
Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club)
Reisman’s hopeful dark comedy
strays from traditional biographical
traverses time and space to look at
territory to be more of a “personal
the impacts disasters and corporate
journey” with the Pope — and a rare
irresponsibility have on a commu-
co-production with the Vatican, at
nity. Flood City shines a light on the
that. Wenders shines a spotlight
community’s resilience in the wake
on the message and the work of a
of the unimaginable. Jenna Duncan
man who has earned the trust and
directs the Theater Alliance pro-
respect of many around the world
duction. To June 17. Anacostia
in a time and era otherwise charac-
Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE.
terized by deep distrust and down-
Call 202-241-2539 or visit theater-
right contempt for people in power.
alliance.com.
Opens Friday, May 18. Landmark’s
E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW.,
HOODED, OR BEING BLACK FOR
and Landmark’s Bethesda Row
Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave. Call
DUMMIES
A nominee for the Charles
202-452-7672 or visit landmarkthe-
MacArthur Award for Outstanding
atres.com.
Original New Play at the upcoming
Helen Hayes Awards, this irrev-
erent comedy is being remounted
by Mosaic Theater Company after
its original sold-out run last year.

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 11

 All but one of the cast members as
well as all of the designers return
to the show, a deft examination of
two young black teens from vast-
ly different circumstances. Metro
Weekly’s André Hereford praised
the voice of playwright Tearrance
Arvelle Chisholm as “authentic and
original,” further noting the “smart,
funny staging” of director Serge
Seiden. But he heaped the most
praise on lead actor Jeremy Keith
Hunter as “the engine that keeps
the show humming along.” To June
3. The Sprenger Theatre in the Atlas
Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St.
NE. Tickets are $20 to $65. Call
202-399-7993 or visit mosaicthe-
ater.org.

PETER PAN
Not just the standard fantasy foray
to Neverland, Baltimore’s adventur-
ous, innovative professional com-
pany Single Carrot Theatre has put
an up-to-date, localized queer spin
on the classic tale. Los Angeles-
based writer Joshua Conkel (Off

UNREQUITED RUSSIANS
Broadway’s MilkMilkLemonade,
Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate
Events) has drawn inspiration
and source material from stories
shared by local LGBTQ residents
Noted Broadway director — and one-time Bethesda native — Michael for a world-premiere adaptation
Mayer brings a Chekhov classic to the screen. with contemporary conversations

A
about gender, sexuality, and identi-
ty, and in which Neverland becomes
CCORDING TO MICHAEL MAYER, IT WAS TOM HULCE’S IDEA TO TURN THE a modern-day safe-haven — a place
Seagull into a movie. Hulce, well-known for his breathtaking portrayal of Mozart in where Peter and the Lost Boys can
1984’s Amadeus, had given up acting years ago in favor of producing, and was mulling finally be themselves. To May 20.
2600 N Howard St., Baltimore.
over bringing Anton Chekhov’s classic to the screen.
Tickets are $25 to $29. Call 443-
“He mentioned that he’d been holding onto this idea for a while,” recalls Mayer, a friend 844-9253 or visit singlecarrot.com.
and collaborator of Hulce’s for many years. “We started brainstorming in a kind of dream
scenario way, as one does. And I said, ‘Wouldn’t Annette Bening be just terrific?’” RITE OF SPRING
The puppetry-enhanced Pointless
To their surprise, Bening agreed to take on the central role of Irina Arkadina, an aging, Theatre assembles an all-female
intensely self-absorbed Russian actress, and the project fell into place. Playwright Stephen cast for a new adaptation of Igor
Karam (The Humans) meticulously adapted the work for the screen, and Saoirse Ronan, Stravinsky’s ballet, one that imag-
ines a future wrought by ecological
Elisabeth Moss, Corey Stoll, Mare Winningham, Brian Dennehy, and newcomer Billy Howle
collapse and human desperation.
filled out the cast. Theater legend Ann Roth designed the understated yet elegant costumes Rite of Spring is told through dance,
and Matthew Lloyd, slated to shoot the Spider-Man sequel, provided the film’s sumptuous, puppetry, mask, Stravinsky’s icon-
burnished look. The result is a movie that feels like a throwback to the days when cine- ic score, and no words. Developed
by the company’s co-founders Patti
ma allowed a story to simmer, punctuated by great performances and instances of deep, Kalil and Matt Reckeweg, who
thought-provoking wisdom. also directs an 11-member cast.
Mayer has been in the film director’s chair before, with 2004’s A Home at the End of the Weekends to May 27. Dance Loft
on 14 Theater, 4618 14th St. NW
World and 2006’s Flicka, but is better known as one of Broadway’s top directors, having
2nd Floor. Tickets are $18 to $30.
helmed Spring Awakening, American Idiot, and the 2014 Tony-winning revival of Hedwig and Call 202-621-3670 or visit pointless-
the Angry Inch. The openly gay Bethesda native was drawn to The Seagull’s universal takes theatre.com.
on the hazards of love.
THE CHERRY ORCHARD
“The Seagull is all about love,” he says. “Chasing after love and it finding you — or not find- Celebrated local commedia dell’ar-
ing you — and being in love with the wrong person. It’s about all of love’s permutations — the te troupe Faction of Fools puts its
beauty of it and the heartbreak, and the comedy and tragedy of it, all mixed together.” physical comedy stamp on this clas-
sic, their first adaptation of Anton
While Chekhov has never felt antiquated, Mayer’s film somehow makes the work feel even
Chekhov. Paul Reisman directs
more modern. The director notes the Russian playwright broke with the accepted playwriting a cast led by Sara Barker, Julia
traditions of his time and “wrote fully rounded characters that are human and humanistic. Klavans, Amber James, and Jesse
He’s got a very inclusive view of the world and a very generous view of people. He’s not Terrill (pulling double-duty as the
show’s composer) in this mix of
judgmental. That’s very resonant right now. It’s something that we need, to be much more high art and low comedy, complete
generous in the way that he is towards people, and to see what we have in common rather with secret plots, wily servants, tor-
than the things that separate us and divide us.” —Randy Shulman tured lovers, and a sprawling family
estate on the chopping block. Opens
Friday, May 18. To June 10. Eastman
The Seagull opens Friday, May 18, at the Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema Studio Theater in the Elstad Annex
and the Angelika Film Center Mosaic.

12 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 at Gallaudet University, 800 Florida
Ave. NE. Tickets are $18 to $22.
Call 800-838-3006 or visit faction-
offools.org.

THE CRUCIBLE
Arthur Miller’s opus on the Salem
witch trials remains as timely and
cautionary as ever: a reminder of
what can happen when fear runs
amok and truth is bent to political
convenience. Eleanor Holdridge
directs a 19-member cast led by
Chris Genebach as John Proctor
and also including Rachel Zampelli
as Elizabeth Proctor, Michael
Russotto as Reverend Parris, Dani
Stoller as Abigail Williams, and
Lilian Oben as Tituba. To May
20. Mainstage, 2001 Olney-Sandy
Spring Road, Olney, Md. Call 301-
924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org.

THE UNDENIABLE SOUND

OF RIGHT NOW
A hilarious and heartbreaking
work by Laura Eason, the focus is
SCOTT SUCHMAN

on a Chicago man trying to keep

his legendary rock club afloat. Set
during the early 1990s, when grun-
ge was popular but DJs and elec-
tronic/dance music were ascend-
ing, Keegan’s production stars Chris

A JOURNEY HOME
Stezin, Susan Marie Rhea, Josh
Sticklin, and Ryan Sellers. To May
27. 1742 Church St. NW. Tickets are
$35 to $45. Call 202-265-3768 or
visit keegantheatre.com.
Denyce Graves returns to the Kennedy Center in an opulent
production of Candide. TITUS ANDRONICUS
Synetic founder Paata Tsikurishvili

A
tackles the revenge-driven tragedy
MONG THE MANY DEVOTEES OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN’S CANDIDE, THE as the 13th entry in the company’s
exuberantly operatic adaptation of Voltaire’s epic novel, we can count world-re- celebrated “Silent Shakespeare”
nowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Currently appearing at the Kennedy series — meaning no words, all
fiery action, energy, and violence,
Center in the WNO’s revival of director Francesca Zembello’s 2015 Glimmerglass Festival with choreography led by Irina
production, Graves doesn’t hesitate when asked which element of Bernstein’s operetta Tsikurishvili, who also portrays
most moves her. Tamora. Philip Fletcher is Titus in
the large ensemble show including
“The message. Without a doubt,” the D.C. native says. “The message that what’s
Irina Kavsadze, Audrey Tchoukoua,
important is for us to build and create something in this life, and that we’re not good or Dallas Tolentino, and Alex Mills.
bad or pure…. We’re just [doing] the best that we know how to do.” To May 27. 1800 South Bell St.,
Candide occasionally has divided audiences during its decades-long odyssey towards Arlington. Tickets are $15 to $55.
Call 800-494-8497 or visit synet-
being considered a classic, though there appears to have been no disagreement that an ictheater.org.
undeniable delight of the often tragic tale is the vivacious and cunning Old Lady, a char-
acter brought to life in this lavishly costumed production by Graves.
“She’s a woman who’s had to do whatever it takes to survive,” says Graves. “She’s been COMMUNITY
through a lot of ups and downs, and through all those great fluctuations, she’s survived.”
In Graves’ own career odyssey, the role marks a welcome return to the Opera House, STAGE
where she co-starred last spring in Champion. Reviving a part that she had originated in the HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE
Terence Blanchard opera, she essayed a very different sort of survivor as the mother of boxer The metaphor of driving is used
Emile Griffith. Yet, both roles embody, in Graves’ words, a woman “who’s loved living.” by noted playwright Paula Vogel
in her Pulitzer Prize-winning
The singer adds of Candide’s semi-comical Old Lady, “She’s a good time, she has a good drama focused on an adolescent
sense of humor and she’s a very melodramatic person. She’s a real hoot.” The character, girl and her struggles to get past a
who joins lovers Candide (Alek Shrader) and Cunegonde (Emily Pogorelc) on a transat- strained, sexual relationship with
her step-uncle. The play has lighter
lantic journey, also offers the eminently amusing tango “I’m Easily Assimilated.” moments, but due to its tackling of
Graves acknowledges that in her own journey, “being able to assimilate in all sorts of serious issues — from pedophilia
different cultures and languages with all different kinds of people,” has been a key ele- and incest to manipulation and con-
ment of her success. “Being an opera singer means that you have to be a malleable human trol — it’s ultimately best for only
those aged 17 and up, and hardly
being.” —André Hereford typical fare for a community the-
ater company, even one with the
Candide runs until Saturday, May 26, at the Kennedy Center Opera House. tagline “Anything But Predictable.”
To May 19. Theatre Two in Gunston
Tickets are $45 to $275. Call 202-467-4600, or visit Kennedy-Center.org.

14 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

Arts Center, 2700 South Lang St.
Arlington. Tickets are $25. Call
571-DS-SHOWS or visit dominion-
stage.org.

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING

TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical
reimagining of the Biblical tale of
Joseph and his kin written with
lyricist Tim Rice was a Broadway
hit exactly 50 years ago. Michael
Hartsfield leads a community pro-
duction with musical direction by
Mimi McGinniss and choreogra-
phy by Kristin Rigsby. To May 20.
Laurel Mill Playhouse, 508 Main
St., Laurel, Md. Tickets are $17 to
$22. Call 301-617-9906 or visit lau-
relmillplayhouse.org.
RICHARD A BLOOM

MUSIC
JUSSIE SMOLLETT
Before Smollett, primetime televi-
sion hadn’t quite seen a gay black
man like the heartthrob Jamal
Lyon, the middle child in the dynas-
tic musical family led by Terrence
Howard and Taraji P. Henson on
Fox’s Empire. Also an attractive and
out entertainer in real life, Smollett
comes to town for a concert that
happens to take place over Black
Pride Weekend. With his Usher-
esque smooth tenor, the 35-year-old
is finally getting some attention out-
side of the show, touring in support
of his new solo album Sum of My
Music. The independently released
set is full of catchy, contemporary
R&B tunes with gay-affirming,
socially conscious lyrics. Victory
Boyd opens for a show co-present-
ed by the 9:30 Club and Trillectro.
Saturday, May 26. Doors at 7 p.m.
1115A U St. NW. Tickets are $20.
Call 202-588-1880 or visit ustreet-
musichall.com.
NATIONAL
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Music Director Gianandrea Noseda
takes to the NSO podium for his
final appearances this season,
leading three concerts featuring
music composed or influenced
by J. S. Bach — including Berio’s
completion of Bach’s unfinished
Contrapunctus XIX, Berg’s Violin
Concerto featuring violinist James
Ehnes, and Brahms’s Symphony
No. 4. Thursday, May 17, at 7 p.m.,
Friday, May 18, at 9 p.m., and
Saturday, May 19, at 8 p.m. Kennedy
Center Concert Hall. Tickets are
$15 to $89. Call 202-467-4600 or
visit kennedy-center.org.
PATTI LUPONE, TITUSS
BURGESS: WNO OPERA GALA
CONCERT
Naturally, the 2018 Washington
National Opera Gala, like so many
others, is a celebration of Leonard
Bernstein in his centennial year.
It certainly doesn’t get much star-
rier than this one-night-only fete
with the incomparable Broadway
JONATHAN RAUCH:
THE HAPPINESS CURVE
A senior fellow at Brookings and contributing
editor of The Atlantic offers his insights as a gay man of a certain
age in a new book subtitled Why Life Gets Better After 50. Rauch details the concept
of an aging “happiness curve” in which the bottom of the curve represents that period in
one’s life commonly known as the midlife crisis. Rauch argues that the emotional slump
one goes through in their forties can be more constructively viewed as a time in which
the focus shifts from competition to compassion, and when skills including wisdom, grat-
itude, and supportiveness are primed for the third and final stage of life. Rauch will be in
conversation with his fellow Atlantic editor Scott Stossel, author of My Age of Anxiety.
Sunday, May 20, at 5 p.m. Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Call 202-364-
1919 or visit politics-prose.com.
sensation LuPone, plus Burgess Steadwell, touring in support of her WICKED JEZABEL
(Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), strong, full-fledged studio debut Pauline Anson-Dross’ popular les-
baritone Nathan Gunn, pianist Julie Queer Love Songs. Also on the bill bian all-covers party-rock band
Gunn, Isabel Leonard, Kathryn is Arouna, a singing griot from West Wicked Jezabel has been rocking —
Lewek, members of WNO’s Africa and masterful string and key- as well as raising money for various
Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists board instrumentalist. Friday, May good causes — all over the region for
Program, the WNO Orchestra 27. Doors at 7 p.m. 9:30 Club, 815 V a decade now, originally under the
conducted by John DeMain, and St. NW. Tickets are $20. Call 202- name The Outskirts of Town. The
Bernstein’s eldest daughter, Jamie. 265-0930 or visit 930.com. ladies return to their main stomping
Sunday, May 20, at 6 p.m. Kennedy grounds in Virginia on Friday, May
Center Opera House. Tickets are WASHINGTON NATIONAL 18, at 9 p.m., performing a con-
$49 to $250. Call 202-467-4600 or OPERA: THE BARBER OF cert that also doubles as a birthday
visit kennedy-center.org. SEVILLE celebration for Pauline. Before the
Boasting sparkling melodies, show, starting at 6 p.m., the band’s
RISING APPALACHIA, high-flying vocal fireworks, and bassist Martha Capone will offer
BE STEADWELL tour-de-force showstoppers, a supper-serenading solo acoustic
Led by harmonizing sisters Leah Rossini’s comedy is one of the set. JV’s Restaurant, 6666 Arlington
and Chloe Smith accompanied most beloved operas of all time. Blvd., Falls Church. Call 703-241-
by percussionist Biko Casini and Peter Kazaras directs Andrey 9504 or visit jvsrestaurant.com.
bassist/guitarist David Brown, Zhilikhovsky as Figaro, Isabel
Rising Appalachia is a global- Leonard as Rosina, and Taylor
ly inspired American roots/folk Stayton as Count Almaviva, per- DANCE
act with a social justice mission forming Cesare Sterbini’s Italian
DANCETHOS WITH WEST SHORE
— founders of what they call a libretto with projected English
PIANO TRIO, MOVEIUS
DIY-driven, independent-based titles. Emily Senturia leads the
The D.C.-based contemporary
“Slow Music Movement.” A sen- WNO orchestra while Rosa
dance company presents another
sitive, world-weary, thinking per- Mercedes oversees the choreogra-
collaborative concert, this time with
son’s variation on Americana, the phy. To May 19. Kennedy Center
a piano trio and a contemporary bal-
New Orleans-based band is joined Opera House. Tickets are $45 to
let company. The program features
by D.C.’s original folk- and hip- $150. Call 202-467-4600 or visit
choreography by Tiffany Haughn,
hop-flavored “queer pop” artist kennedy-center.org.
the artistic director of DancEthos,

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 15

 as well as by Diana Movius, the
director of Moveius and found-
er of Dance Loft on 14, Sylvana
Christopher of Joy of Motion Dance
Center, and Emmanuel Williams.
Saturday, May 19, at 3 p.m. Lang
Theatre at the Atlas Performing
Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets
are $15 to $25. Call 202-399-7993 or
visit dancethos.org.

GALLERIES
BLACK OUT:
SILHOUETTES THEN AND NOW
The National Portrait Gallery
presents the first major museum
exhibition to explore silhouettes.
Curated by Asma Naeem, Black
Out reveals the complexities of this
relatively unstudied artform’s rich
historical roots and the contempo-
rary relevance of silhouettes today.
Ranging in scale from three inches
to nearly 40 feet, the exhibit fea-
tures mixed-media installations in
a presentation of approximately 50
Callaway

KING COLE
unique objects, dating from 1796
to the present, in particular with
the inclusion of large works by four
contemporary women artists: Kara
Walker, with her panoramic wall
Anything goes at the American Pops tribute to Cole Porter, murals, Camille Utterback via an
featuring Liz Callaway and Betty Who. interactive digital installation that
reacts to visitors’ movements and

A
shadows, Kristi Malakoff’s life-size
T THE AMERICAN POPS ORCHESTRA SHOW THIS SATURDAY, MAY 19, LIZ cutouts of children dancing around
Callaway might conjure up a whole host of animated screen characters — perhaps a Maypole, and Kumi Yamashita’s
intricate, shadowy installations.
Odette from The Swan Princess, Jasmine from the sequels to Aladdin, or Kiara from Also notable is a section illuminat-
The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride. Callaway was the singing voice for all of them. ing silhouettes previously “blacked
“I think many people my age might not recognize her face or her name right away,” says out” in historical narratives — those
Luke Frazier, the 32-year-old virtuoso behind American Pops. “But then when you start featuring same-sex couples, cooks,
activist women, enslaved individu-
playing the Disney albums she recorded, [you realize] this is a woman who recorded music als, and the disabled. On display to
that we all grew up with.” March 24, 2019. National Portrait
Frazier tapped Callaway as one of several vocalists to perform in APO’s new Cole Porter- Gallery, 8th and F Streets. NW. Call
202-633-8300 or visit npg.si.edu.
themed show. “It’s not your typical Cole Porter concert,” says the conductor, who is aiming
for “a much sexier, younger vibe” than a typical “old-fashioned...throwback to the ’30s.” In CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS OF
addition to new arrangements of the gay composer’s clever and catchy American Songbook THE BLACK EXPERIENCE
standards, including “Anything Goes,” “You’re The Top,” and “My Funny Valentine,” the Elements That Define Us is a new
exhibition showcasing 21 art-
show will dole out ribald language from the world of online dating. Lifted directly from a ists working in various medi-
variety of profiles — gay, straight, older, younger — “really funny” text will be read aloud by ums and styles on display at the
voiceover artists and projected onto large screens above Arena’s in-the-round Fichandler Prince George’s African American
Museum and Cultural Center.
Stage. Kelly Crandall D’Amboise will direct “the almost theatrical” production, which fea- Tomora Wright curated this exhibi-
tures stars from Broadway and D.C., including Ali Ewoldt, Bobby Smith, and Vishal Vaidya. tion with works by regional artists,
And then there’s recording artist Betty Who, who will sing a mix of her hits rearranged among them Alonzo Davis, Gina
for orchestra, as well as several Porter classics. “I think the audience is going to be pleasantly Marie Lewis, Taryn Harris, Ylysses
Marshall, James Terrell, Toni
surprised,” Frazier says. Lane, Ronald Jackson, Elana Casey,
Callaway, a Tony-nominated Broadway veteran (Miss Saigon) and one of the nation’s Shawn Lindsay, and Zsudayka
leading cabaret artists, is performing with the Pops orchestra just days before she debuts Nzinga Terrell. Through May 26.
4519 Rhode Island Ave. North
A Hymn to Her, a new cabaret at New York’s Feinstein’s/54 Below, a “tribute to women Brentwood, Md. Call 301-809-0440
songwriters [and] women I’ve really admired over the years who’ve helped make me who or visit pgaamcc.org.
I am today.”
Despite the pressure, Callaway has relished the opportunity to visit Cole Porter’s music MARK BRADFORD:
PICKETT’S CHARGE
properly for the first time in her career. “It’s always a treat to get to sing with an orchestra, Referred to as the most signif-
and so to sing these songs with an orchestra should be pretty exciting,” she says. “Cole icant living American painter by
Porter was a brilliant lyricist, there’s a lot of double entendres, and [it’s] just very smart, very the Hirshhorn, this gay African-
American artist certainly works on a
witty, and yes, I’d say, adult.... It should be a wonderful concert.” —Doug Rule scale commensurate with that kind
of stature. Take, for example, his
Let’s Misbehave: Cole Porter After Dark is Saturday, May 19, at 8 p.m. at Arena Stage, 1101 huge, 400-foot installation created
6th St. SW. Tickets are $20 to $110. Call 202-488-3300 or visit theamericanpops.org. for his debut at the Smithsonian’s

16 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

modern art museum as well as in
D.C. A timely, commissioned “cyclo-
rama” of eight large, site-specific
collages, Bradford was inspired by
Paul Philippoteaux’s same-named
masterpiece depicting the loss of
the Confederate Army at the Battle
of Gettysburg. Covering the curved
walls of the Hirshhorn’s third level
inner circle, the work presents
360-degrees of abstracted historical
narrative using Bradford’s signature
practice of collage, juxtaposed with
reproductions of the 19th-century
original in a way that intentionally
disrupts, messes up, and confuses.
The end result is a work that invites
reconsideration of how narratives
about American history have been
shaped and contested. To Nov. 12.
Independence Avenue and Seventh
Street SW. Call 202-633-1000 or
visit hirshhorn.si.edu.
​
PHILIP LIVINGSTON: A NATURAL
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON DC
Described as “a visual poem using
images found near, or inspired by,
the Hill Center,” the parts of this
special installation vary in scale and
representation. A recent transplant
to D.C., Livingston took the large
Ash on the property as his start-
ing point, building out from there
in terms of time and space. Now
to June 23. Hill Center at the Old
Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania
Ave. SE. Call 202-549-4172 or visit
HillCenterDC.org.
TARGET GALLERY’S
2018 EMERGING ARTISTS
The contemporary exhibition
space in Alexandria’s Torpedo
Factory Art Center is championing
up-and-coming regional artists in
this new annual exhibition series.
Four stylistically diverse artists
were selected by a jury panel to be
featured in the first year: abstract
painter Katie Barrie of Richmond,
figurative artist Ronald Jackson of
Spotsylvania, Va., reclaimed-mate-
rial sculptor Hollis McCracken of
Richmond, and D.C.’s HOlly Trout,
another artist using repurposed
cast-off materials. Through May 20.
Target Gallery, 105 North Union St.
Alexandria. Free. Call 703-838-4565
or visit torpedofactory.org.
FOOD AND DRINK
BAR ROUBAIX:
SASSY DRAG BRUNCH
Over the past year, the local Hilton
brothers have expanded well
beyond Marvin and The Brixton
and their original U Street base.
None of the additions, however,
stand out as much as Bar Roubaix
in Columbia Heights with its racing
bike theme, complete with chains
dangling behind the bar and wheels
serving as light fixtures. Named
after the French city sponsor-
ing one of the world’s oldest and
most iconic professional bike races
and housed in the former Acre 121
ROAD SHOW: INTERPLAY
The Washington Improv Theater presents a mix of vignettes featuring different ensem-
bles, with each plot developed on-the-fly, spurred by a single audience suggestion. With
Interplay, WIT’s own improvisers create mash-up performances with special guests from
the worlds of music, puppetry, poetry, dance, and more — a new artistic collaboration
creating interdisciplinary hybrids every week. Each night offers a different mix of WIT
ensembles, including Hellcat, Martinez, Nox!, and Bear Trap. Performances this weekend
include collaborations with additional improvisers from the live art competition known
as Super Art Fight. Artists with the kids-oriented PuppetCo. are featured in shows over
Memorial Day. Weekends to June 17. District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC), 2438 18th
St. NW. Tickets are $15 in advance, or $20 at the door. Call 202-462-7833 or visit witdc.org.
space, Roubaix features a menu of
European-inspired bites from Chef
over supper with half-priced bot-
tles of wine and different dinner
NIGHTLIFE
Rafael Nunez. And now, Roubaix specials each week. Seating at 7
SISSY THAT TUESDAY:
stands out even more thanks to a p.m., show at 8 p.m. 520 Florida
RIRI V BEY
drag brunch the third Sunday of Ave. NW. Reservations required via
Rihanna and Beyonce will be chan-
each month, organized by Josael shawsdinnerdragshow@gmail.com.
neled (and dragged) at the next edi-
Abraham Gutierrez. Sassy Drag Call 202-518-4092 or visit shaw-
tion of this monthly show organized
Brunch features host Latina diva stavern.com.
and hosted by Jason Barnes. His
Sylvanna Douvel, Desiree Dik,
drag alter ego Pussy Noir is less
Laronica Vegas, and other spe- TAQUERIA DEL BARRIO:
glam and far more punk rock than
cial guests. Drink specials include DRAG BRUNCH
Rihanna, but his guest for the eve-
unlimited mimosas for $18. Sunday, The Petworth Mexican eatery from
ning, KC Cambrel, has got Bey cov-
May 20, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. 1400 the DC Empanadas crew now offers
ered right down to his drag name:
Irving St. NW. Ste. 109. Tickets are its popular Saturday drag brunch
KC B. Yoncé. Together, the two
$21 including show plus one entree twice monthly, hosted by Kristina
will duel as “music’s most powerful
and 18-percent gratuity, or $10 for
show with no food. Call 202-560-
Kelly and featuring a cast of local
performers all while guests enjoy
divas,” aided and abetted by Wes
the DJ. Tuesday, May 22. Doors at
5721 or search “Sassy Drag Brunch” French toast, chilaquiles, and
8 p.m. Trade, 1410 14th St. NW. Call
on eventbrite.com. Taqueria’s signature tacos, among
202-986-1094 or visit tradebardc.
other dishes, all washed down
com. l
SHAW’S TAVERN: with mimosas, Bloody Marys, and
DINNER-N-DRAG, SERVED! Absolut vodka cocktails — one
Sometimes you’re dragging and entree and one cocktail costs $25
you just can’t make it to brunch. per person. But any day of the week
And sometimes you want a regular, is a treat at Chef/Owner Anna Bran-
more traditional kind of meal — you Leis Mexican retreat, whether eat-
know, at night, over wine. Well, ing in a colorful dining room, at
these days, you can have just that the horseshoe bar, or on one of the
with one of D.C.’s leading ladies of sunny sidewalk tables. Drag brunch
drag. Every Sunday night at Shaw’s is served next on May 26 at 10
Tavern, Kristina Kelly hosts a show a.m. and 1 p.m. 821 Upshur St. NW.
Reservations required for brunch.
Call 202-723-0200 or visit taqueri-
adelbarrio.com.
MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 17
 Community
FRIDAY, May 18
GAY DISTRICT, a group for
GBTQQI men between the ages
of 18-35, meets on the first and
third Fridays of each month.
8:30-9:30 p.m. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more infor-
mation, visit gaydistrict.org.

Join The DC Center for its

TRANS AND GENDERQUEER
GAME NIGHT, featuring board
and card games and a chance
to socialize with other people
from the LGBTQ community.
7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW,
Suite 105. Visit thedccenter.org.
WARD MORRISON / FILE PHOTO

Weekly Events

Participants at TransPride 2017
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 androm-

TRANSCENDENT DAYS
edatransculturalhealth.org.

BET MISHPACHAH, founded

by members of the LGBT com-
munity, holds Friday evening
Capital Trans Pride brings the transgender community together Shabbat services in the DC
for a celebration of fellowship and camaraderie. Jewish Community Center’s
Community Room. 8 p.m. 1529

A
16th St. NW. For more informa-
S WE CONTINUE TO EXPAND TRANS RIGHTS AND STRUGGLE WITH tion, visit betmish.org.
opposition, Capital Trans Pride becomes more important each year,” says
Bianca Rey. “It’s important to show visibility for the transgender community DC AQUATICS CLUB holds
a practice session at Howard
as we work towards equality, and to have a safe space for individuals who have felt University. 6:30-8 p.m. Burr
marginalized for a long time.” Gymnasium, 2400 6th St. NW.
Now in its 11th year, Capital Trans Pride brings together D.C.’s transgender and For more information, visit
swimdcac.org.
non-binary communities for a weekend of celebration, education, and fellowship. The
event kicks off with a festival and resource fair featuring more than 25 corporate part- HIV TESTING at Whitman-
ners and community organizations, at Foundry United Methodist Church on Saturday, Walker Health. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
May 19. Food, coffee, and live entertainment will be offered throughout the day at at 1525 14th St. NW. For an
appointment call 202-745-7000
Stead Park, adjacent to the church. A networking happy hour celebration — featuring or visit whitman-walker.org.
more live performances — occurs from 5 to 8 p.m. at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW.
A communal worship service, Transgender Worship, Engaged, Empowered METROHEALTH CENTER
offers free, rapid HIV testing.
Together, will be held on Sunday, May 20, from 2 to 4 p.m. at New Hope Baptist Appointment needed. 1012 14th
United Church of Christ. Later that night, at 8 p.m., A Fantastic Woman, the Oscar- St. NW, Suite 700. To arrange
winning Chilean drama about a transgender waitress and nightclub singer, will screen an appointment, call 202-638-
at Stead Park. 0750.

This year’s keynote speaker is Tiq Milan, an activist, journalist, and national PROJECT STRIPES hosts
spokesperson for GLAAD. “I think one of the things that’s special about him is he’s a LGBT-affirming social group
well-known advocate that strives to make sure our community is visible in any space,” for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419
Columbia Road NW. Contact
says Rey, who serves as the event’s chair. Tamara, 202-319-0422, layc-
Rey hopes Milan’s presence will encourage members of the trans-masculine to dc.org.
participate in the weekend’s activities. Says Rey, “Capital Trans Pride has historically
been attended primarily by trans women, and we wanted to make sure we were very SMYAL’S REC NIGHT provides
a social atmosphere for LGBT
intentional in promoting inclusion, because the trans community is very diverse.” and questioning youth, featur-
—John Riley ing dance parties, vogue nights,
movies and games. For more
info, email catherine.chu@
Capital Trans Pride runs Saturday, May 19 to Sunday, May 20, with the main event on smyal.org.
Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Foundry United Methodist Church, 1500 16th St. NW.
SMYAL offers free HIV Testing,
For a full schedule of events, visit capitalpride.org/events/capital-trans-pride. 3-6 p.m., by appointment and

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 19

 walk-in, for youth 21 and younger.
Youth Center, 410 7th St. SE. 202-
567-3155 or testing@smyal.org.
SATURDAY, May 19
ADVENTURING outdoors group
hikes several easy miles on the
C&O Canal and other level trails
in the Glen Echo-Seven Locks area
of suburban Maryland. Lunch in
Irish Inn follows. Bring beverages,
snacks, bug spray, sunscreen, lunch
money, and few bucks for transpor-
tation and trip fees. Meet at 9:30
a.m. at the top of Western Avenue
escalator of the Friendship Heights
Metro Station. Return by 3 p.m. For
more info, contact Elaine, 215-510-
1621 or visit adventuring.org.
CAPITAL TRANS PRIDE holds
its main event, featuring various
workshops, a resource fair, and a
keynote address by Tiq Milan, at
Foundry United Methodist Church.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. 1500 16th St. NW.
Lunch and live entertainment will
be offered at nearby Stead Park,
just behind the church, at 1625
P St. NW. For more information,
visit capitalpride.org/events/capi-
tal-trans-pride.
Capital Trans Pride holds a
NETWORKING HAPPY HOUR at
Studio Theatre to close out the
day’s Pride festivities. 5-8 p.m. 1501
14th St. NW. For more information,
visit capitalpride.org.
CHRYSALIS arts & culture group
holds potluck social on roofdeck of
Kalorama co-op building overlook-
ing downtown D.C. All welcome.
Bring an appetizer, salad, entree,
vegetable dish, or dessert. Chrysalis
will supply beverages, ice, and
paper goods. RSVP by Friday, May
18 for location. 7 p.m. For more
info, contact Kevin, 571-338-1433 or
kgiles27@gmail.com.
KHUSH DC, a support group
for LGBTQ South Asians, hosts
a monthly meeting at The DC
Center. 1:30-3 p.m. 2000 14th St.
NW, Suite 105. For more informa-
tion, visit facebook.com/khushdc.
The DC Center hosts a month-
ly LGBT ASYLEES SUPPORT
MEETING AND DINNER for LGBT
refugees and asylum seekers. 5-7
p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.
For more information, visit thedc-
center.org.
The DC Center hosts a new LGBTQ
PEOPLE OF COLOR SUPPORT
GROUP, facilitated by Dakia Davis.
1-3 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite
105. For more information, visit
thedccenter.org.
20 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
SUNDAY, May 20
Capital Trans Pride holds
its annual worship service,
TRANSGENDER WORSHIP,
ENGAGED, EMPOWERED
TOGETHER (DC TWEET).
Featuring food, inspirational music,
stories of strength, and fellowship
with other members of the trans
community. 2-4 p.m. New Hope
Baptist United Church of Christ,
309 E St. NW. For more informa-
tion, visit capitalpride.org/events/
capital-trans-pride.
CAPITAL TRANS PRIDE holds a
screening of A Fantastic Woman,
a Chilean film about the story of a
transgender woman and the 2018
Oscar winner for Best Foreign
Language Film, at Stead Park.
8-11 p.m. 1625 P St. NW. For more
information, visit capitalpride.org.
Volunteers are needed to help
with CASA RUBY’S MONTHLY
DINNER. Held on the third Sunday
of each month, in conjunction with
The DC Center, the event provides
a hot meal to those housed at Casa
Ruby. Homemade or store bought
meals welcome. 7-8 p.m. Casa
Ruby, 3530 Georgia Ave. NW. For
more information, contact lamar@
thedccenter.org, jon@thedccenter.
org, or visit casaruby.org.
MONDAY, May 21
The Metro D.C. chapter of PFLAG,
a support group for parents, family
members and allies of the LGBTQ
community, holds its monthly
meeting at The DC Center. 7-9 p.m.
2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For
more information, visit thedccen-
ter.org.
TUESDAY, May 22
GENDERQUEER DC, a support and
discussion group for people who
identify outside the gender binary,
meets at The DC Center on the
fourth Tuesday of every month.
7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite
105. For more information, visit
thedccenter.org.
WEDNESDAY, May 23
The DC Center hosts a monthly
meeting of its HIV PREVENTION
WORKING GROUP. 6-8 p.m. 2000
14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more
information, visit thedccenter.org.
The LAMBDA BRIDGE CLUB meets
at the Dignity Center, across from
the Marine Barracks, for Duplicate
Bridge. No reservations needed.
Newcomers welcome. 7:30 p.m. 721
8th St. SE. Call 202-841-0279 if you
need a partner. l
Scene
VIDA Fitness’ 4th Annual Fundraiser for Athlete Ally
Friday, May 11 • Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 21

22 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
JOHN RILEY
theFeed
BIG PITCHER
David Perruzza to open Pitchers, a new LGBTQ sports bar
in Adams Morgan By John Riley
P
ITCHERS, A NEW LGBTQ SPORTS BAR, WILL
open in Adams Morgan in June. David Perruzza,
the longtime manager of JR.’s Bar, has signed a
10-year lease for a building that for years housed Adams
Morgan mainstays Spaghetti Garden, Roxanne Restaurant,
and Peyote Karaoke Cafe.
“I feel like I’ve done all I can by running [a bar] but not
being an owner,” Perruzza told Metro Weekly. “So I said, ‘It’s
time to move on. It’s time to start my life fresh and do some-
thing new. I’m not going to lie. [Leaving JR.’s is] a little heart-
breaking for me, but…I’m happy I’m starting something new.”
Encompassing 10,000 square feet, Pitchers will have five
different individual bars and will include a sit-down restau-
rant on the first floor that will serve tavern-style food, such
as burgers and chicken sandwiches, until closing. One of the
bars will double as a meeting area where local charities and
community groups can hold events and fundraisers.
A separate English basement-style entrance will lead to a
bar catering to the lesbian community, while the remaining
two bars — each boasting its own rooftop patio — will cater
to sports lovers, with TVs broadcasting the latest games.
“The reason I wanted to open a sports bar is because we
know sports teams come as they are,” he says. “When you
come to D.C. and you don’t know anybody, you join a sports
team, they become your family. Then you have a whole new
outlet of friends, and then when they all go out [together]…
you see how great they are. They can wear their jerseys in
here. I’m like, ‘Oh, my god — I love when you wear your
jerseys in here. You have pride in what your sports league is.’
“I think those sports leagues are what makes the city
amazing,” he adds. “If they want to come to me to raise
The site of Perruzza’s Pitchers
money or sell things, they can come in. You want to sell
Jell-O shots? Perfect. Come in. I’m more than willing to help
out.”
Perruzza is donating the furniture from the bar’s past
iteration to Casa Ruby’s new house on Georgia Avenue NW.
Anything that the organization does not need or take will be
donated to other local LGBTQ organizations.
Reflecting on the past two decades, Perruzza says he
never expected to work full-time in the service industry.
“When I moved to D.C. twenty years ago, I thought I was
going to get a job at the Pentagon,” he says. “I had a top-se-
cret clearance. They said, ‘You’re golden. They’ll teach you
what to do.’ I started working at JR.’s at coat check, and I
worked my way up, but it was the people that kept me there.
We have some of the best customers in the world at JR.’s.
“I think what I’m going to be most sad about is the cus-
tomers,” he adds. “Our customers are just very generous,
good people, and that is what I’ll miss the most. I know they
all live locally, so I’m hoping that some of them will go to
both places.”
Perruzza emphasizes that Pitchers will be a place for the
LGBTQ community to relax in a positive, safe space.
“I don’t want any negativity,” he says. “I don’t want hate
in here. I don’t want drama. I want a friendly staff, so that
anytime somebody walks through that front door, they’re
gonna feel welcome. That’s my goal. That’s how I want to
run this place, and that’s how it’s gonna be.”
Pitchers, located at 2317 18th Street NW, is currently aiming
for a soft launch on June 5 to 7, with a public opening planned
for Friday, June 8.
MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 23
 theFeed
GIDDY HEIGHTS
GALA’s In the Heights dominates at the 2018 Helen Hayes Awards. By André Hereford
A
S A TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR BATTERED THE
District on Monday, the region’s theater elite gath-
ered inside The Anthem to toast another winning
season at the 34th annual Helen Hayes Awards.
Co-hosts Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan and Michael J. Bobbitt
welcomed the rain-soaked attendees to the ceremony with
— what else? — “Willkommen” from Cabaret. But bienvenue
quickly became bienvenidos, as it was the cast and crew
of GALA Hispanic Theatre’s production of Lin-Manuel
Miranda’s In the Heights who were welcomed to the stage
again and again as the night’s big winners.
The Spanish-language production, nominated for 18
awards, took home nine, including Outstanding Production
in a Musical, Outstanding Direction and Outstanding
Choreography for Luis Salgado, Outstanding Ensemble in
a Musical, as well as awards for Outstanding Lead Actress
Laura Lebrón and Outstanding Supporting Actor Félix
Marchany.
And, as if one production of In the Heights wasn’t enough
to garner all the musical prizes, there was a second in
contention, as the Helen Hayes Awards divide all the nom-
inated shows into two separate fields — Helen and Hayes —
depending on the size of the respective productions.
While GALA hoarded most of the musical wins in the
Helen field, it was the Olney and Roundhouse Theatres’
co-production of In the Heights that contended in many of the
Hayes categories. However, that show was mostly shut out of
the winner’s circle, save for an award for Outstanding Lead
HORRENDOUS TREATMENT
Oregon school district forced LGBTQ student to read Bible as punishment. By Bailey Vogt
A
N OREGON SCHOOL DISTRICT IS FACING
allegations of LGBTQ discrimination, including
punishing an LGBTQ student by forcing them to
read Bible passages.
An investigation of the North Bend School District was
conducted by the Oregon Department of Education after
reports of harassment from students. The ODE subse-
quently found that an administrator had forced an LGBTQ
student to read Christian scripture, an extreme form of pun-
ishment, and one abnormal to those given to other students.
The district originally denied the claim, but the school’s
administrator and his supervisor confirmed the punishment
during the investigation. Mark Mayer, the Complaint and
Appeals Coordinator for ODE, said in a March 6th letter
that the investigation found that “discrimination on the
basis of sex and sexual orientation may have occurred.”
“[The student] had little choice but to comply with the
building administrator’s established form of punishment,”
Mayer said, adding that there was “substantial evidence to
support the allegation that the district subjected LGBTQ
24 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Actress Rayanne Gonzales, and a surprise win over Ford’s
Theatre’s Ragtime for Outstanding Production in a Musical.
Of course, all the awards drama wasn’t reserved just
for the musicals. The Shakespeare Theatre Company was
well-rewarded for its Twelfth Night. The production won
four awards, as director Ethan McSweeney was recognized
for Outstanding Direction in a Play, with the play receiving
Outstanding Production in the Hayes field.
There were no In the Heights-style sweeps for the
straight plays as the awards judges spread the wealth
among several worthy contenders. Outstanding Production
in a Play in the Helen field went to Theater Alliance’s Still
Life with Rocket, while the Charles MacArthur Award for
Outstanding Original New Play or Musical went to Mosaic
Theater Company’s fantastic Hooded, Or Being Black for
Dummies.
As host Bobbitt declared, it was a wonderful night for
theatre professionals of color. The presenters and winners
represented the remarkable diversity of the D.C. theatre
scene. Notably, however, there were few direct mentions at
the podium of the many, many LGBTQ artists and profes-
sionals in attendance.
One winner, Abby Corrigan, who shared the award for
Outstanding Performer in a Visiting Production with her
Fun Home co-star Alessandra Baldacchino, did explicitly
reference queer artists. Corrigan dedicated her award to
“anyone LGBT” creating and producing the stories everyone
was there to celebrate. l
students to separate or different rules of behavior, sanc-
tions, or other treatment.”
The school district said in a statement to Newsweek that
despite there being two complaints of LGBTQ discrimina-
tion, the Bible reading was a single occurrence. They also
said the district “works hard every day to make sure all
students feel respected and safe at school and will continue
these efforts regardless of the outcome of this hearing.”
Mayer’s letter required the student and district to work
out a settlement within 30 days, but, even after an extension
was granted, the settlement didn’t take place, according to
The Oregonian. Now the case will go to court, where inves-
tigators will have to decide whether or not the forced Bible
readings violated the students’ First Amendment rights, as
well as the establishment clause of the Constitution.
ACLU said in a tweet that they are a part of the student’s
case, calling their treatment “blatantly unconstitutional.” If
the discrimination lawsuit is ruled in favor of the student,
the district may have to pay fines, be banned from inter-
school activities, and even lose funding. l
MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 25
 Sweet
Romance
With Girlfriend, Todd Almond has taken an album from his youth and turned
it into a magnificent show about young gay love.
Interview by André Hereford
Photography by Todd Franson
W
HEN TODD ALMOND FIRST BEGAN WRITING
a play about two teenage boys in Nebraska who fall
in love to the tunes of Matthew Sweet, he had no
idea how he would obtain permission to use the artist’s songs
for the show. It was over a decade ago, and he had never met
the rocker.
But Almond was certain he wanted Sweet’s album Girlfriend,
released in 1991, to serve as the soundtrack for the blossoming
friendship between the play’s two lead characters, high school
seniors Will and Mike. Almond also intimately knew the feelings
of alienation and confusion that engulf the pair as they strug-
gle in the play, also titled Girlfriend, with their sexuality and
impending gay adulthood.
“Sometimes you can feel alone in the world and I definitely
felt alone in the world in Nebraska,” says Almond, who grew up
gay among the farms and ranches of the state’s western plains.
“I had a wonderful friend and a wonderful family, but [like] all
teenagers, you feel very alone. Often times, I felt like that was
a burden for myself to carry, and sometimes I felt like it was a
special gift.”
Almond channeled his gifts into a passion for the performing
arts, which led him to the esteemed Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music to study classical music. Still, he wasn’t sure if he’d cho-
sen the right path. “I’m always in that struggle,” he says. “Am I
more interested in theater or am I more interested in music?”
Eventually, his love for the theater won out, and he turned to
acting, performing, and writing for the stage.
He’s since embarked on a prolific creative career, adapting
Homer’s The Odyssey for New York’s Public Theater, composing
a score for Shakespeare at San Diego’s Old Globe, and premier-
ing several of his own original works, including Girlfriend, now
running at Signature Theatre.
In addition to writing and composing, Almond also continues
to act, as well as perform in concert with artists from Broadway
faves Andrew Rannells and Linda Benanti, to Courtney Love.
Yet, as his life and career brought him to his current home in
New York, he never forgot Girlfriend, and what Sweet’s break-
through record meant to him as a gay teen out on those wide
open plains.
“In 1991 or ’92, in Alliance, Nebraska, it was so not cool to be
gay,” Almond says. “You feel different and outside, which feels
26 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
bad, but it also feels great, because you have your own thing. I
felt that way with Girlfriend, the album. I thought I found this
thing that is so cool and nobody else knows about it. I felt like
the cool kids in other places knew about this album, but the kids
where I was from didn’t. So, not only did I love it, but it felt like
it was mine.”
Matthew Sweet himself recognizes that those songs have
found a deep, emotional home in the hearts of some of his fans.
“I always was really thankful that it had that personal thing
that people kind of attached to it,” he says. Although Sweet has
created volumes of eclectic pop-rock in the ensuing years, and
released several other albums, including his latest, Tomorrow’s
Daughter, the artist has seen firsthand how Girlfriend has
endured in its own special way.
“When we were touring the 20th anniversary a few years ago,
we would play the whole album, and it was amazing how much
reverence people had for it, and how much they cared, and how
happy they were,” he says. “The people that were fans of it were
young, and at a time in their lives where they used it to represent
their own relationships that were starting, or ending.”
Almond makes poignant use of Girlfriend’s tracks — sung in
the show by Will and Mike, backed by an all-female rock band —
to voice the teens’ desire to be seen, heard, and loved. Sweet, for
his part, wholeheartedly approves.
“I think of my songs, and especially on that record, of being so
personal, me and you kind of songs, that it makes me pleased that
people have taken it that way,” Sweet says. “And it’s the same
way it makes me feel about the musical, which is that I’m so glad
the songs can be used to express some feelings, you know?”
And just as Sweet ultimately would entrust his songs to
Almond to create his version of Girlfriend, the playwright placed
his faith in Signature Theater and director Matt Gardiner to
mount their production without his input.
As it turns out, the pair of actors that Gardiner cast as Will
and Mike — Jimmy Mavrikes and Lukas James Miller — brought
their own unique tastes and experiences to reimagining Sweet’s
love songs. “Definitely music was always there and a common
bond between myself and friends that helped me through tough
times, though never a specific album,” says Miller, who plays
Mike.
But Miller and his character share other similarities. “I grew
Jimmy Mavrikes and Lukas James Miller
up in Nelson County, Virginia, which is a really small town, and METRO WEEKLY: You maintain a really busy schedule as a per-
I grew up in the middle of the woods, very secluded from popu- former. When do you write?
lation of any kind,” he says. “I grew up without internet and stuff TODD ALMOND: Kind of all the time. Sometimes I’ll just schedule
like that.... I remember my first CD player, and that was the most it. I’ll look at my calendar and say, okay, next Tuesday through
exciting thing — getting on the bus in the morning and knowing Thursday I’m free, so I’m going to write and work on this project.
that I had 40 minutes to listen to a CD.” I mean, you can’t account for inspiration, but I think I can kind
Mavrikes, a 2018 Helen Hayes Award nominee for his lead of wrestle it down sometimes and be like, you’re gonna work on
turn in Constellation’s this and you’re gonna
production of The be inspired Tuesday
Wild Party, acknowl- at 4 o’clock. And it’s
edges that music has going to work. And
helped him through sometimes it does.
some difficult times. MW: Do you have a
“I was doing Pirates triggering mechanism?
of Penzance during a ALMOND: Fear of dis-
really bad breakup, appointing people.
and the cast, and just MW: That’s a good one.
being able to sing and ALMOND: Yeah. But
do what I love, was also, one forgets that
really helpful.” things take such a
However, it’s long time to write
his friends whom and get on their feet. I
Mavrikes credits with have a piece that, if it
helping him overcome happens, will happen
a particularly difficult in the next year and
coming out process. In a half, and it’s gonna
much the same way, seem like, wow, when
the boys’ friendship did Todd wrote this
in the play helps Mike new piece? But I’ve
overcome his coming been working on it
out conflict with his with my friend for like
unaccepting dad. four years. You work
For Mike, things do very slowly, at least I
get better. But com- do, on many things.
ing out still isn’t easy It’s birthed suddenly
much of the time, and and it’s like, how did
anti-LGBTQ senti- you get all this writing
ment and policies con- done, but, it’s actual-
stantly threaten safety ly been very slow and
and opportunities for taken many, many
too many queer peo- years.
ple. An outspoken ally, MW: There are a lot of
Sweet has a thoughtful people who are like,
reminder for any fans “Oh, I wrote this in
of the album Girlfriend two weeks.”
who might not appre- ALMOND: Yeah. I hate
ciate, or understand, those people.
the singer’s decision MW: You’re about to
ATISHA PAULSON

to lend his songs to a play again in Hedwig

gay love story.
“Love is love,” he
says. “I would hope no
fan of mine would be
that way about it. But, of course, if they were, I would encourage
them to be open-minded and to understand that love is love,
whoever it is, whatever sex it is. The songs celebrate that.”
Almond concurs, admitting that he’s still learning from Will
and Mike. “Every love story is unique, yet every love story is uni-
versal,” he says. “We all can see ourselves in those boys, even if
we’re not from that part of the world, even if we’re not that age,
even if we’re not gay. I feel like there’s something in the story of
those two boys, and just watching their emotional response to
each other that we all relate to.”
and the Angry Inch.
ALMOND: The third
time for the same
Todd Almond
theater company
[Cincinnati’s Ensemble Theatre]. We did it in 2001, 2003, and
now, we’re doing it again, fifteen years later.
MW: How do you rediscover Hedwig?
ALMOND: I have emotions slowly descending on me over the
last couple of months. One thing I have done to rediscover
Hedwig is get to the gym and try to get my butt back into shape,
which has been really rewarding. I had a trainer helping me out.
Muscle memory is such an amazing thing. I picked up the script
a couple months ago and just started reading it and saying it out
loud. I think 15 years of life and 15 years of just history we’ve all

28 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

Nicole Saphos Britt Bonney

Beth Cannon Erika Johnson

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 29

30 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
experienced has been a remarkable tool. I’m reading the play
differently now. It’s resonating in a different way.
MW: You’ve been performing in concert with Andrew Rannells and
Laura Benanti. Does Benanti’s amazing impression of Melania
Trump appear onstage?
ALMOND: We make a couple of references to it and audiences
always go crazy. They really love that. She doesn’t do the impres-
sion in our show, but we changed the lyrics to a Kander and Ebb
song and put a Melania reference in. People don’t see it coming
and they really go crazy. Laura is the funniest person I’ve ever
known.
MW: How did the collaboration with Courtney Love come about for
your 2015 show Kansas City Choir Boy?
ALMOND: The Prototype Opera festival had scheduled Kansas
City Choir Boy. My friend, Kevin Newberry, the director, and I
had been working on it for a while, and
it’s a love story, right? So I played the
husband and we needed whoever was “She was like,
playing the wife to be this kind of person
that you look at and you say, you are des- ‘I’ll do it if I can
tined for something so much greater than
most of the rest of us. You need to look at
smoke in your
this person and just feel she’s a goddess, apartment while
and she’s famous. Even though this story
takes place in a small town in Kansas we rehearse.’
City. We were really trying to figure out
who that could be, and I had, about a year
I didn’t care.
leading up to that, become friends with YOU’RE
Courtney through my husband, who’s an
agent and is representing Courtney on COURTNEY LOVE,
some projects, and Courtney and I just
got to know each other socially and just OF COURSE YOU
really hit it off. I’ve been such a fan since
I was a teenager and so I said to Kevin one
CAN SMOKE IN
day, what if Courtney played the part? MY APARTMENT.”
We laughed for a second, thinking, oh,
how impossible that would be. But then
we were like wait, what if she did? And then the whole piece
just snapped into place in our brains and we were like right,
Courtney Love is the exact right person.
I sheepishly asked her and sent her some of the music. She
really responded to it. She’s curious about theater. It was the
right stakes, because it was a short run in New York and a small
theater, an Opera Festival. It was such a brief run. It wasn’t like
a three-year commitment to a Broadway production. It just fit
all of the things that she was interested in. She was like, “I’ll do
it if I can smoke in your apartment while we rehearse.” I didn’t
care. You’re Courtney Love, of course you can smoke in my
apartment!
We would be up all night. She came and stayed with us for
this long stretch and we would just hang out in my apartment
until three in the morning, singing these songs and reworking
them or rethinking them and she’s like, “Let’s go from the top
again,” and we’d sing the whole show. She’s smoking cigarettes
and we’re ordering in food. It was really great. We did New York,
LA, Boston and Miami. We would do it again, it just has to be the
right circumstances.
MW: Your work seems to live at the crossroads of musical theater
and rock and roll. Which love comes first?
ALMOND: I’ve always been in that internal struggle. Even when
I went to college in Cincinnati, I applied to the musical theater
department and the classical music department. I got accepted
into both, which was a huge shock to me, and I wrestled what
what do I want to do? I chose classical music. Music is just a
thing that gets me going. There’s a line in Girlfriend where I feel
like it’s just me talking for a second, when Mike says, ”Music is
the only thing that keeps me...it keeps me.” I see it like that. Even
then, when I was in college, I’m studying classical music but I
wasn’t totally satisfied, so I would go to the theater department
and say, “Can I be involved in your plays, and I want to write a
play for your actors, but I also want to act in your plays.” I’m not
ever gonna be a touring musician and I’m not ever gonna write
a classic musical theater piece, because I just live in that world
in between. I like it. I feel like I’ve staked out my little territory
on the border.
MW: The script for Girlfriend captures that age when summer
stretches out and an album can be played on repeat day after day.
Was Girlfriend such an album for you?
ALMOND: I had many, but Girlfriend abso-
lutely was on repeat at that time in my
life. Now I listen to that album and peo-
ple will say, “Oh I’m seeing your show
Girlfriend, I didn’t know that album,” or,
“I haven’t heard that album.” I’m like,
“Because you weren’t cool.” [Laughs.] I
don’t know, it was so special. There’s a
secret club of people who love and know
that album and I feel like I’m a member
of that club.
MW: In the world of the show, Mike and
Will are the only two characters we meet.
Did you always conceive of it being just the
two of them?
ALMOND: I did. I tend to write scenes with
two people. Generally, I’m interested in
relationships between two people. I’m
never gonna write a great, big war epic,
where there are dozens of characters — I
don’t know how to do that. I also liked
that when you’re in love, the whole world
just goes away and the only other person is that person.
It also helped me get rid of the guys [in the story] who are not
nice to Will. I thought, I don’t want to see them onstage. I don’t
care about those guys any more. Fuck them. I don’t want to give
them any time onstage. Just having the two of them solved all of
those problems.
MW: It’s an innocent romance — one might even say chaste. How
did you measure the pacing of their courtship?
ALMOND: I wanted the entire plot to be them inching together.
A scene has to have a shape and an arrival and something has to
happen, but I thought, if this is truly the event of the entire play
— these two boys fall in love over the course of a summer — if
that’s the whole plot, then I have to break it down into tiny little
steps. When I look at the play, I think this scene, we take this
step forward. This tiny step forward, which might just be that we
learn he has a girlfriend. Okay. That’s all we know. Then the next
scene, we take a little tiny step back. The next scene, the tiny step
forward we take is he has a girlfriend, but he’s not sure it’s gonna
work out. Okay, that’s information that is useful and moving in
a positive direction. I just tried to calculate, every scene has to
achieve something, but we’re working on such a microcosmic
level of emotional progress, that I have to think small.
MW: Would you say that Mike is the seducer? Or the seduced?
ALMOND: The seducer and the seduced. I mean, the answer that
popped into my head was, well, Mike calls him, right? But in a
way, Mike was maybe just sending up a flare signal to Will: “I
MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 31
need help.” Mike doesn’t admit it to himself, but Will is some-
body further down the road than in terms of accepting who he is.
What I love about Mike’s journey in the play is his life gets
better and better and better. He’s sort of unlocking doors and
cages the entire time that he feels like he’s on this journey of
accepting who he is, and just keeps progressing positively, and
Will kind of does the opposite. He locks himself in because he’s
so lovesick and forgets that he’s an autonomous person and
needs to become a fully realized adult.
I think that after that initial flare signal that Mike sends up,
which I guess you could say is seduction, they go on two inverse-
ly related journeys. Mike opens up, and Will kind of shuts down.
But they fall in love.
MW: With Girlfriend on stage, Love, Simon on screen, and the
movie Alex Strangelove coming to Netflix, there seems to be a
robust presence of gay teen romance. Do you feel that this is a
movement or just a moment? Is something happening?
ALMOND: I think something’s happening. I think love stories
are love stories. Look, how many movies and books and plays
have you experienced that didn’t have anything to do with your
specific sexual identity or gender that you were moved by? And
that you loved? I just feel like it’s a valid form of love story and
people are realizing that. I don’t have to be a gay teenage boy to
be moved by the story because I see myself in it. I don’t have to
be a World War II soldier in love with a nurse to be moved by the
story of a World War II soldier in love with a nurse. It’s a human
story. The movement that seems to be happening now is just the
realization that right, this is not scary or threatening or political.
It’s a love story.
MW: What were some of the seminal queer works that influenced
you?
ALMOND: I’m 41. I was in high school just before the internet
became a thing. So I used to rent movies. I’ll give you two exam-
ples. I used to watch on repeat, with my best friend Shannon,
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which still is my favorite movie
musical of all time. That felt sexy and scary and dangerous and
we would watch it in the basement and hope that our parents
weren’t hearing it. We didn’t know what they’d think. But then
I would watch, and that felt fun and campy and silly, and vital
to me.
And then I used to rent over and over and over Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof, because I didn’t know the play. I didn’t know that
they had cut, for the film, a lot of the homoerotic references,
but you can’t remove them all from that script. So, I didn’t know
that there was more that I was missing, but the breadcrumbs
that were still there fascinated me. I would watch that movie
over and over and I was like, “I think maybe he’s....” It was just
stirring all these questions in me and I remember being really
drawn to that.
MW: What would it have meant to you to see a play like Girlfriend
when you were in high school?
ALMOND: I think my mind would have exploded. I don’t know
what I would have done. I can’t even imagine seeing it. I remem-
ber seeing The Real World on MTV. Pedro [Zamora] was the
gay representation. And Pedro died of AIDS. That was what it
felt like to be gay in 1991 in Nebraska. If you were gay, you were
going to die of AIDS. That’s what we had just come out the other
side of, so, God, that’s a whole other subject. I was terrified of
being gay, and terrified of sex. I don’t know how I would have
responded to Girlfriend. I think it probably would have scared
me.
MW: What’s it like to return there now?
ALMOND: To Nebraska? I don’t, at this point anymore. I had a
32 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
kind of farewell moment there maybe five years ago. I went back
and did a little concert at my mother’s request, which was nice.
I don’t miss Nebraska. I don’t long for that part of the world.
They’re very nice, but it’s not my place.
MW: As an artist who lives in New York, the conversation now is
that supposedly you’re the one in the bubble and you have to make
the effort to understand that part of the world. Is there truth to
that?
ALMOND: I don’t like that bubble thing. I guess I live in a bubble
of art and theater and we all can kind of get tunnel vision. I don’t
know. They seem more in a bubble than we do. I think I’m a city
boy. I’ll say that.
MW: The all-girl band being stationed onstage, is that in the script?
ALMOND: In the script. I had an author’s note at the beginning
and I say this is the way we did the original production, we put
an all-girl band onstage behind the boys. You don’t have to do
that, but it works so well that I really encourage you to do that.
I might change it and [make it] a requirement. It has to be an
all-girl band. I just love it so much. Actually, when we did the
original production it was a super queer female band. We just
love these strong, confident, gay women backing these guys up.
I can’t even explain the emotional response. It was, “Yes. That is
right. That is correct. I’m glad they did that.” I think it adds such
depth to the piece.
MW: How would you like the audience to view the band’s purpose
in the show?
ALMOND: The band sort of functions like a Greek chorus, or like
angels. They’re support. I feel like they’re this positive wind in
their sails, like it’s okay, we’ve got you. Life is gonna be great.
I think in a way they’re the characters that aren’t in the play. I
don’t know what it is, it just feels so right to me.
MW: How did you reach out to Matthew Sweet and say that you
wanted to base this whole thing around his album?
ALMOND: A long time ago when I got the idea — this is like 15, 20
years ago — I flipped over my Girlfriend CD and saw Matthew
Sweet was managed by Russell Carter in Decatur, Georgia. I
got a phone number and called. I was like, “Hi, I’m this young
nobody playwright in New York and I had this idea and I wanted
to start working on it.” We talked about it for a minute. He said,
I think it’s cool, let me talk to Matthew, but you should just go
[with it], and when you get to a place where it’s more official,
come back to us and we can talk about it some more. From that
moment on, they’ve just been completely supportive and it’s
amazing. They have said yes the entire time.
Matthew is so nice and so supportive — I just can’t believe
it. They say don’t meet your heroes, or your idols, but in this
case, he has been so important to me my whole life, and for him
to take a chance and to continue to support the thing that is my
version — I don’t think of the play Girlfriend as the official autho-
rized interpretation of that album. It’s just my personal interac-
tion with it. I feel like somebody else could make a musical of
Girlfriend, also. This doesn’t feel like the official version, it’s just
mine. It’s just how I respond to that album. For him to sign off on
that, the beauty of it is not lost on me and I’m grateful. l
Girlfriend runs to Sunday, June 10 at Signature Theatre, 4200
Campbell Avenue, Arlington. Tickets are $40 to $103. Call (703)
820-9771, or visit sigtheatre.org.
Matthew Sweet, with guest Justin Trawick, appears on
Wednesday, June 30 at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Avenue
in Alexandria. Tickets are $35. Call (703) 549-7500, or visit birch-
mere.com.
SHAWN BRACKBILL
Music

Beach House

rial world than much of what we have

Surreal Worlds
come to expect from Beach House. While
it is an intelligent and purposeful medita-
tion on the present state of the world, the
album strikes a hopeful note, asking and
Beach House takes us further into their hazy dreamscapes, while then answering the questions, where are
Arctic Monkeys show us a hotel on the moon. By Sean Maunier we, and where do we go from here? Beach
House’s soundscapes have always been

L
dreamy, escapist fantasies, but with this
IKE MUCH OF THEIR WORK, BEACH HOUSE’S SUCCESS HAS BEEN A album they have put forth a hopeful mes-
slow build. The Baltimore duo’s aptly titled seventh album 7 (HHHHH) is the sage of rebirth, a simple perfection rising
culmination of years of precisely refining their technique, doubling down again out of darkness and chaos.
and again on a now unmistakable sound and aesthetic and striving to perfect it.
Perfection, or at least the pursuit of it, with the knowledge that it is unattainable “I JUST WANTED TO BE one of The
in practical terms. Scally pointed out in an interview with Pitchfork that, for example, Strokes/Now look at the mess you made
the album’s 11 tracks bring their catalogue up to 77 songs. There is apparently more me make.” Aside from being some of the
numerology at play for the observant or truly obsessive to discover, but suffice to say, 7 best opening lines of any album in recent
is an important number. Considered alongside Beach House’s mystic leanings and the memory, the first lyrics we hear on Arctic
album’s themes of regeneration, rebirth, perfection in simplicity, all this pre-release Monkeys’ latest album nicely sum up
referencing of the divine numeral in the western tradition begins to make a sort of the band’s predicament. One of the most
sense, acting as a way-point from which the album can be understood. iconic garage-rock bands that proliferat-
There is some noticeable difference in Beach House’s sound on 7, likely owing in ed in the mid-2000s seemed to have hit
part to the duo’s split from long-time producer Chris Coady. All the elements that a plateau by 2012’s Suck it and See, with
define them are still present. The synths, soft guitars, and Victoria Legrand’s haunting nowhere to go but towards experimen-
voice make it impossible to mistake this for anything other than Beach House. As 7 tation and reinvention. Five years later,
unfolds in its characteristically easy yet deliberate way, it becomes clear that it is more they have returned with an record that is
dynamic, taking us through more emotions than past albums. The album begins on a farther removed from the scrappy, sincere
light, unimposing note, anchored by the lead single “Lemon Glow.” It gradually deep- garage-rock of their early years than most
ens into more morose and cerebral territory with “Drunk in LA,” then finally rising up people could have predicted.
again into something more hopeful by “Girl of the Year.” Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
A response to anxieties and fears of the modern age, 7 is more grounded in the mate- (HHHHH) takes place in a vaguely

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 33

 mid-century modern retro sci-fi setting, in a not-too-distant
post-apocalyptic future. The moonbase hotel that Alex Turner
dreams up is by turns psychedelic, sinister and colourful, evoc-
ative of The Shining. The narrator who acts as our guide to the
hotel hints at a rich and active inner world boxed up inside
a restrictive, even oppressive setting. This is an interesting
dynamic, but they might have leaned too hard into the claustro-
phobic atmosphere and ended up with a work that feels overly
restricted without doing enough to fully realize the kaleidoscop-
ic inner world they apparently intended as a counterweight.
Like so much sci-fi, Tranquility Base is as much a commen-
tary on the present as it is a speculative fantasy. Certain lyrics
explicitly reference pop culture and make nods towards cultural
criticism and contemporary politics. On the surface, many of the
lyrics are simply absurd, possibly nodding towards something,
although it is difficult to tell. Songwriting that is cryptic as an
end unto itself is fun up to a point, but unless there is something
to pin it to, it becomes tedious. The often heavy writing does
have playful flashes, but this time their characteristic cleverness
is blunted by a more sober take on the world.
For better or worse, the reinvented Arctic Monkeys we hear
on Tranquility Base sound like a different band altogether. Their
turn towards surrealistic jazz-inflected sci-fi concept album
bears mixed results, but is at its best when played up for its
inherent campy qualities. Although the album’s sound becomes
ZACKERY MICHAEL

a repetitive slog towards the end, it is if nothing else a fun new

direction. Sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, Tranquility
Base Hotel & Casino is an enjoyable, bewildering and decidedly
Arctic Monkeys
un-Strokes-like mess. l
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino and 7 are available to buy now from Amazon.com and on iTunes,
and are available on streaming services.

34 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

AMY HORAN
Stage

ably holding the center as a youngster

Emotional
who seems resilient and vulnerable in
equal measure. DiSalvo’s Steve also feels
well-defined as a newcomer to this emo-
tional minefield, keeping the peace with-

Hostages
out making a big show of it. The actor
makes a simple bedside speech into some-
thing beautifully expressive.
An interstitial indie movie-style score
Siblings squabble in touching drama Burst, while The Invisible Hand attempts a similar low-key tenderness,
hangs an overwrought narrative on a solid hook. By André Hereford but just sounds a bit generic. Far more
affecting are those family moments built

A
around specific and personal references,
MY LEIGH HORAN’S BURST (HHHHH) INTRODUCES A RECOGNIZABLE like the ailing mom’s down-low affinity
family of siblings who need to squash their differences or all go down fight- for the oeuvre of Eminem. It’s revelations
ing. There’s a delicate but powerful punch packed in the semi-autobiograph- like that, and an impromptu video dance-
ical drama, produced by Parlor Room Theatre, in which adult sisters Erin (Alison along, that contribute to the heartening
Talvacchio) and Ally (Mo O’Rourke), and their high school age brother Stephen impression that any number of other,
(Robert Pike), are yanked from their disparate orbits to the hospital bed of their equally recognizable families might be
comatose mother. reflected in future productions of Burst.
While their matriarch struggles to survive a burst brain aneurysm, Erin, Ally and
Stephen stew in the waiting room. They’re joined by relative interlopers Kira (Tori SOMEWHERE IN PAKISTAN, a cell of
Boutin), their teenage cousin with her own issues, and Steve (Thomas DiSalvo), Ally’s self-described freedom fighters hold an
supportive new-ish boyfriend. Predictably, everyone present needs to set aside resent- American Citibank executive hostage,
ments, and strengthen their support of each other through this real Hail Mary moment. determined to exact a hefty ransom for
The strength of the story, and its clear-eyed view of each family member’s flaws and his release. The anxious and at times ter-
grit, are most consistently conveyed in Horan’s writing. Director Bridget Grace Sheaff’s rified exec, Nick Bright (Thomas Keegan),
staging keeps a careful hand on the constantly shifting dynamics, as each character hatches a brilliant scheme to help his cap-
works out for her or himself which version of truth to cling to during this crisis. tors raise the proceeds to pay his ransom
There’s less consistency in the delivery from the cast. Talvacchio and O’Rourke find by playing the financial markets. He’ll just
moments to probe beyond the friction between Erin and Ally, but the characterizations teach them how.
don’t feel fully formed. Pike’s Stephen, on the other hand, hits the ground running, Ayad Akhtar’s intense The Invisible

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 35

STAN BAROUH

Hand ( ), now at Olney, proceeds from a suspenseful generally feel overstated.

premise, driven by a built-in countdown and the fairly universal
high of gambling big with imaginary money. But the play’s deep
dive past finance wizardry into the insidious intersection of
global economies, manipulated markets, and U.S. foreign policy
seems to overwhelm the writer’s intent to play out the rich dra-
matic setup.
Rather, Nick and his kidnappers — the cell’s leader Imam
Saleem (Mueen Jahan), quick-tempered Bashir (Maboud
Ebrahimzadeh), and their conflicted flunky Dar (Ahmad Kamal)
— are used more to dissect the weighty subject matter than to
dramatize it. One side-story of betrayal seems to skip ahead to
only half a conclusion.
Director Michael Bloom overcompensates for the play’s gaps,
if not in logic, then in plotting. Keegan and Ebrahimzadeh hash
out compelling arguments, as Nick’s desperation mounts and
Bashir’s dawning understanding of markets and trading leads
him down a dangerous path. But the peaks of anger and distress
Ahmad Kamal registers an overstated turn in the opposite
direction. The performer, who recently essayed such a nuanced
performance as a Muslim prisoner at Guantanamo in Signature’s
4,380 Nights, doesn’t manage that subtlety with Dar. His manner
as the cell’s dim but dutiful muscle lands close to a caricature.
Playing for laughs at the expense of Dar’s broken English doesn’t
do the production any favors.
The Invisible Hand benefits from excellent lighting design by
Jesse Belsky and sound design by Roc Lee, both elements which
sharply define the space inside Nick’s cell, and far outside the
prison walls.
Bloom’s direction often fills the space with shouting, and
emphasizes the play’s episodic structure. That steady beat keeps
things moving, but robs the drama somewhat of a sense of spon-
taneity. And the beats keep ticking as the play winds down to a
wan conclusion, an episode or two after the climactic events of
the story have come and gone. l

The Invisible Hand runs through June 10 at the Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Maryland.
Tickets are $54 to $64. Call 301-924-3400 or visit olneytheatre.org.

Burst runs through May 27, at the Callan Theater, 3801 Harewood Rd., NE. Tickets are $20. Call 202-340-8623,
or visit parlorroomtheater.com.

36 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

NightLife Photography by
Ward Morrison

MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 37


DrinksDragDJsEtc...
Thursday,
May 17
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
Music videos featuring
DJ Wess
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines up
to 50% off • $5 Pitchers
of Miller Lite all night long
• $3 Well Drinks in Nest
until 11pm, $3 in Tavern all
day • RuPaul’s Drag Race
Season 10 Viewing, hosted
by Washington Heights
and featuring Whimsy
Thrift and Anita Minute,
8-10pm in the Nest • $5
Cover for ages 18-20, Free
38 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
Scene
Helen Hayes Awards at The Anthem - Monday, May 14
Photography by Ward Morrison
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene
12-12:30am • DJs 5-10pm • Beer and wine Cover • Elyx Vodka and SHAW’S TAVERN
BacK2bACk only $4 • RuPaul’s Drag Any Red Bull Flavor for $7 Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3
Race Season 10 viewing all day long • thebalti- Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR party moreeagle.com $5 House Wines, $5 Rail
for 21 and up • Underwear
Night, 9pm-2am • For
Beat the Clock Happy Hour Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas
men in underwear, all well
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
All male, nude dancers •
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
and Select Appetizers
drinks $2, 9pm-12am •
Beer $15 • All Leagues DJ • 9pm • Cover 21+ Karaoke, 9pm TOWN
Best Underwear Contest at
Night Patio open 6pm • DC Bear
Midnight • Code enforced
GREEN LANTERN Crue Happy Hour, 6-11pm
in Code Bar after 9pm •
NUMBER NINE Happy Hour, 4-9pm • • $3 Rail, $3 Draft, $3 Bud
College Night Thursdays,
9pm-2am • EDM Dance
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
Friday, $5 Svedka, all flavors all
night long • Rough House:
Bottles • Free Pizza, 7pm
• No cover before 9:30pm
Party, 10pm-2am • Free
admission to the Tavern •
May 18 Lights Off Party, 9pm-close • 21+ • Drag Show starts
SHAW’S TAVERN • Music by DJ Lemz • $5 at 10:30pm • Hosted by
Admission to the Nest is
Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 9 1/2 Cover (includes clothes Lena Lett and featuring
free until 10:30pm • After
Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, Open at 5pm • Happy check) Miss Tatianna, Shi-
10:30pm, $5 Cover for
$5 House Wines, $5 Rail Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, Queeta-Lee, Riley Knoxx
21 and up, $10 Cover for
Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas 5-9pm • Friday Night NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR and Ba’Naka • DJ Wess
18-20 • thebaltimoreea-
and Select Appetizers • All Videos, 9:30pm • Rotating Open 3pm • Guest DJs • upstairs, DJs BacK2bACk
gle.com
You Can Eat Ribs, 5-10pm, DJs • Expanded craft beer Beat the Clock Happy Hour downstairs following the
$24.95 • $4 Corona and selection • No Cover — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), show • GoGo Boys after
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Heineken all night $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of 11pm • Doors open at
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
BALTIMORE EAGLE Beer $15 10pm • For those 21 and
Karaoke, 9pm
TRADE Doors open at noon • over, $12 • For those
Doors open 5pm • Huge Baltimore Bear Happy NUMBER NINE 18-20, $15 • Club: 18+ •
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour: Any drink Hour, 3-9pm, all liquors, Open 5pm • Happy Hour: Patio: 21+
Happy Hour, 4-9pm
normally served in a cock- beers and wines up to 50% 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm
• Shirtless Thursday,
tail glass served in a huge off • Bad Bears After Dark • No Cover • Friday Night
10-11pm • Men in
glass for the same price, in the Code Bar, 9pm • $5 Piano with Chris, 7:30pm
Underwear Drink Free,
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
Men of Secrets, 9pm •
Guest dancers • Rotating
DJs • Ladies of Illusion
Drag Show • Doors at
9pm, Shows at 11:30pm
and 1:30am • DJ Don T. in
Ziegfeld’s • Cover 21+
Saturday,
May 19
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut
and $5 Bulleit Bourbon,
9pm-close • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Doors open at noon
• Happy Hour, 3-9pm
• Leather and Fetish
Saturdays, Code Bar,
8pm-2am • Code enforced
after 9pm in the Code
Bar • Retro Saturdays
Dance Party in the Nest,
9:30pm-2am • $5 Cover
• Drink Specials in the
Nest • Long Island Leather
Saturdays — $5 Long
Islands all day • thebalti-
moreeagle.com
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 • World Tavern
Poker Tournament, 1-3pm
• Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
Freddie’s Follies Drag
Show, hosted by Miss
Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm
• Karaoke, 10pm-close
MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 39
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4-9pm •
$5 Bacardi, all flavors,
all night long • THe
Bear Cave, 9pm-close •
Featuring Retro to Electro
Music by DJ Popperz •
No Cover
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Drag Brunch, hosted
by Chanel Devereaux,
10:30am-12:30pm and
1-3pm • House Rail Drinks,
Zing Zang Bloody Marys,
Nellie Beer and Mimosas,
$4, 11am-close • Buckets
of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs
NUMBER NINE
Doors open 2pm • Happy
Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink,
2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5
Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close
• THIRSTY, featuring DJ
Chord Bezerra, 9:30pm
40 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
SHAW’S TAVERN
$15 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
TOWN
DC Rawhides host Town
& Country: Two-Step, Line
Dancing, Waltz and West
Coast Swing, $5 Cover to
stay all night • Doors open
6:30pm, Lessons 7-8pm,
Open dance 8-10:30pm
• Doors open to public
at 10pm • DJ Chris Cox
upstairs, 10pm-close •
Music and video by DJ
Wess downstairs • Blair
St. Clair performs in the
Drag Show • Meet-and-
Greet with Blair before
the show, 9pm-10pm •
Tickets $25 via Flavorus.
com • Drag Show starts
at 10:30pm • Hosted by
Lena Lett and featuring
Tatianna, Shi-Queeta-Lee,
Riley Knoxx and Ba’Naka •
$15 Cover from 10pm-mid-
night, $12 after midnight
• 21+
TRADE
Doors open 2pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
2-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS
Men of Secrets, 9pm-4am
• Guest dancers • Ladies
of Illusion Drag Show
with host Ella Fitzgerald
• Doors at 9pm, Shows
at 11:30pm and 1:30am
• DJ Don T. in Ziegfeld’s
• DJ Steve Henderson in
Secrets • Cover 21+
Sunday,
May 20
9 1/2
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 • No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Doors open at noon •
Lizzie Beaumont and
Betty Whitecastle present
Queens Who Brunch,
12-2pm • $34 per person
includes All You Can
Eat • Free pitcher of
Mimosas per 4 admissions
• Reservations highly
suggested and can be
made online beforehand
• Sunday Fun-Day, 4-9pm
• From 2-8pm, buy a cup
for $5 and fill it with any
Absolut Flavor and Mixer
for $3 each time(excluding
energy drink mixers) •
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on
thebaltimoreeagle.com any drink, 2-9pm • $5
Absolut and $5 Bulleit
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Bourbon, 9pm-close • Pop
Champagne Brunch Buffet, Goes the World with Wes
10am-3pm • $24.99 with Della Volla at 9:30pm •
four glasses of champagne No Cover
or mimosas, 1 Bloody
Mary, or coffee, soda or SHAW’S TAVERN
juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm Bottomless Mimosa
• Karaoke, 8pm-close Brunch, 10am-3pm •
Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3
GREEN LANTERN Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon,
Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 House Wines, $5 Rail
Karaoke with Kevin down- Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas
stairs, 9:30pm-close and Select Appetizers
• Dinner-n-Drag, with
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Miss Kristina Kelly, 7pm
Drag Brunch, hosted • For reservations, email
by Chanel Devereaux, shawsdinnerdragshow@
10:30am-12:30pm and gmail.com
1-3pm • House Rail Drinks,
Zing Zang Bloody Marys, TRADE
Nellie Beer and Mimosas, Doors open 2pm • Huge
$4, 11am-close • Buckets Happy Hour: Any drink
of Beer, $15 normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
 2-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
Monday,
May 21
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines up
to 50% off • Micro Brew
Draft/Bottle Mondays —
$4 all day • SIN: Service
Industry Night, 11pm-2am
• First Well Drink or
Domestic Beer Free • 10%
off your Food Order all day
• thebaltimoreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm •
Singles Night • Half-Priced
Pasta Dishes • Poker Night
— 7pm and 9pm games •
Karaoke, 9pm
42 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY
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
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
Beer $15 • Texas Hold’em
Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards
• Paint Nite, 7pm • Two
Ping-Pong Tables
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
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 •
Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with
Jeremy, 7:30pm
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
Tuesday,
May 22
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines
up to 50% off • Fibbage
Tuesdays, 8pm — How
good are you at fibbing?
• Free to play with your
smartphone • $6 Any
Flavor Martinis and $7
Manhattans (call liquors) •
thebaltimoreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco
Tuesday • Poker Night —
7pm and 9pm games •
Karaoke, 9pm
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm
• $3 rail cocktails and
domestic beers all night
long
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
Beat the Clock Happy Hour
— $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),
$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of
Beer $15 • Karaoke and
Drag Bingo
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
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 Burgers and
Pizzas all night with $5
House Wines and $5 Sam
Adams • Drag Bingo,
hosted by Kristina Kelly,
8:30pm
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4
Wednesday,
May 23
9 1/2
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • Multiple
TVs showing movies,
shows, sports • Expanded
craft beer selection •
No Cover
BALTIMORE EAGLE
Happy Hour, 3-9pm, all
liquors, beers and wines
up to 50% off • Domestic
Bottles are $3 all day •
Team Trivia, 8-10pm •
thebaltimoreeagle.com
FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR
Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $6
Burgers • Beach Blanket
Drag Bingo Night, hosted
by Ms. Regina Jozet
Adams, 8pm • Bingo prizes
• Karaoke, 10pm-1am
GREEN LANTERN
Happy Hour, 4pm-9pm •
Bear Yoga with Greg Leo,
6:30-7:30pm • $10 per
class • Upstairs opens
9pm • Lantern GoGo
Dancers, 10pm-2am • $3
rail cocktails and domestic
beers all night long
NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR
SmartAss Trivia Night,
8pm and 9pm • Prizes
include bar tabs and
tickets to shows at the
9:30 Club • $15 Buckets of
Beer for SmartAss Teams
only • Snatched Drag
Show, hosted by Brooklyn
Heights, 9pm
NUMBER NINE
Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any
drink, 5-9pm • No Cover
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 •
Paint Nite, Second Floor,
7pm • Piano Bar with
Jill, 8pm
TRADE
Doors open 5pm • Huge
Happy Hour: Any drink
normally served in a cock-
tail glass served in a huge
glass for the same price,
5-10pm • Beer and wine
only $4 l
MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY 43
 Scene
WTF at Town - Saturday, May 12
Photography by Randy Shulman
See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

44 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY

 LastWord.
People say the queerest things

“ We thought we came a long way, but yet

we still have to fight for little things.”
— BOBBY RODRIGUEZ, a 21-year-old gay man from Corpus Christi, Texas, speaking to KRISTV after he was allegedly told he could
not enter popular nightclub Whiskey River unless he removed the makeup he was wearing. The doorman apparently said:
“We have a rule, a dress code that states, men need to dress like men.” Members of the local
LGBTQ community are now boycotting the club.

“I think it’s fantastic, because

it will save the lives of young people in our state.”
— Maryland State Sen. RICH MADALENO (D), who is openly gay, speaking to USA Today after Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed a bill
banning conversion therapy on minors into law this week. The bill prohibits licensed mental health or child care practitioners
from engaging in the practice, which has been denounced by LGBTQ groups and major health organizations.

“This is a disgusting lie

”
being pushed by a paid liberal political hack.

— Alabama Gov. KAY IVEY (R), responding through her spokeswoman to claims from Democratic lawmaker Patricia Todd that she
is a closeted lesbian who “moved her girlfriend out of her house when she became [Governor].” Ivey’s office said the accusation
had “absolutely no truth to it.” Ivey recently signed a law that allows adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

“I call on the national authorities of all Council of Europe member states

to send an unequivocal message that

they will not tolerate attacks against

LGBTI people.”
— DUNJA MIJATOVIĆ, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, urging the 47 members of the Council of Europe to
do more to protect and support LGBTQ people. In a statement marking International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and
Transphobia, Mijatović added, “State authorities have the duty to ensure that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex
(LGBTI) people are treated on an equal footing with all other people. None of us can live and enjoy our rights and freedom if this
right is not given to all of us.”

“There was
no substantial conversation
about the LGBTQ community.”
— SARAH JESSICA PARKER, speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival, admitting that if Sex and the City
was made today, it would be a “different show,” particularly with regards showcasing
women of color and the LGBTQ community.

46 MAY 17, 2018 • METROWEEKLY