E8 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MARCH 6 , 2022
spring arts preview | Theater
BY PETER MARKSAs the Kander and Ebb song goes: “Maybe
this time ... ” Perhaps spring 2022 is when the
theater industry finally approximates normal-
cy again, with productions all happening on
schedule and anxieties about being in rooms
with large numbers of people being replaced
by the pleasures of watching plays and musi-
cals in rooms with large numbers of people.
With fingers crossed and a Panglossian
belief that this can be the best of all possible
theater worlds, here is my cautious curation of
what will be worthwhile in a maybe-this-time
season.‘The Merchant of Venice’
Staging this Shakespearean problem play is
tantamount to a provocation these days.
Which is why I am deeply curious to see what
Shakespeare Theatre Company and director
Arin Arbus have in mind, in bringing it to us in
such troubled times. It has the additional,
considerable look-in value of the always-tren-
chant John Douglas Thompson as Shylock, a
Black actor and casting choice that introduces
not only irresistible theatrical heft, but also
the intersectional issue of race. It is a co-pro-
duction with Brooklyn-based Theatre for a
New Audience.The Merchant of Venice March 22-April 17 at the
Michael R. Klein Theatre, 450 Seventh St. NW.
shakespearetheatre.org.‘A Strange Loop’
Broadway’s most intriguing new musical
this season is both an enticement and an
experiment: How deep is the appetite in Times
Square for musical theater that breaks ground
and challenges audiences to investigate novel
modes of storytelling? Fresh from a smashing
tryout at D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre,
Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning
show is a psychological funhouse mirror, ex-
ploring the wit, anguish and sexual yearnings
of a queer Black theater usher named ... Usher.
Jaquel Spivey is making an exciting Broadway
debut as Usher, and director Stephen Brackett
— who also staged the adorable “A.D. 16” at
Olney Theatre Center — ushers the whole
enterprise into vibrant three dimensions.A Strange Loop s tarts performances April 6 at the
Lyceum Theatre, 149 W. 45th St., New York.
telecharge.com.National Capital New Play Festival
This inaugural festival of original work in
repertory propels Round House Theatre into
the admirable ranks of companies pumping
extra resources into new drama. The festival
includes full productions of Charly Evon
Simpson’s “It’s Not a Trip It’s a Journey,”
directed by Nicole A. Watson, and Tim J. Lord’s
“We Declare You a Terrorist ... ,” with co-direc-
tion by Jared Mezzocchi and Round House
Artistic Director Ryan Rilette. The offerings
will also feature readings of new works by
playwrights Marvin González de León, Mor-
gan Gould, Mary Kathryn Nagle and Mfoniso
Udofia, working with composer Nehemiah
Luckett.National Capital New Play Festival A pril 5-May 8
at Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Hwy.,
Bethesda. roundhousetheatre.org.‘How I Learned to Drive’
The season’s most interesting actor-pairing
is a reunion: David Morse and Mary-Louise
Parker, together again in this searing, Pulitzer-
winning play they performed off-Broadway in- The Paula Vogel work is a delicate
treatment of an explosive topic that has grown
only more incendiary: the relationship be-
tween a teenager and her abusive uncle. Twen-
ty-five years on, Morse and Parker rejoin
director Mark Brokaw for an overdue Broad-
way debut of this powerful memory play,
produced by Manhattan Theatre Club.
How I Learned to Drive starts performances
March 29 at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W.
47th St., New York. telecharge.com.‘Rhinoceros’
Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 comedy, a corner-
stone of the absurdist theater movement and a
denunciation of conformity in all its politicaland social manifestations, isn’t revived often
nowadays. That state of affairs never seems to
bother Pointless Theatre Co., a band of dra-
matic stylists who love to stage the modernist
classics they studied in college. The previous
inspirations for their visually stimulating aes-
thetic have been as diverse as Peter Tchaikov-
sky, Dadaism and Italian futurist Fortunato
Depero. What they do with a satire translated
and directed by Frank Labovitz that requires
actors to turn into horned behemoths will
doubtless be something to experience.Rhinoceros March 26-April 24 at Spooky Action
Theater, 1810 16th St. NW. pointlesstheatre.com.‘John Proctor Is the Villain’
Kimberly Belflower’s world premiere play
at Studio Theatre explores the tempests un-
leashed after a high school English class in
Georgia encounters Arthur Miller’s seminal
drama “The Crucible” and the students be-come enveloped in scandals in their own time.
Marti Lyons directs the work by Belflower,
who herself hails from rural Georgia and
received a playwriting award in 2018 from the
Kennedy Center for her drama “Lost Girl.”John Proctor Is the Villain April 27-June 5 at
Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. studiotheatre.org.‘Grace’
Food is the music of love in this debut
musical at Ford’s Theatre with a score by
Nolan Williams Jr., and book by Williams and
Nikkole Salter. It focuses on a Black family in
Philadelphia, mourning the death of their
matriarch and struggling with the future of
their restaurant in a gentrifying neighbor-
hood. It’s directed and choreographed by Rob-
ert Barry Fleming.Grace March 19-May 14 at Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th
St. NW. fords.org.‘Macbeth’
For those who (like me) were not wild about
director Joel Coen’s emotionally static “The
Tragedy of Macbeth” with Denzel Washington
and Francis McDormand, Broadway is offer-
ing an alternative that just may outdo it for
Shakespearean muscularity: a “Macbeth” with
Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga as the overreach-
ing thane and his Lady M. Craig is back under
the guidance of director Sam Gold, who staged
a riveting “Othello” in 2016 with Craig and
David Oyelowo, and followed a year later with
a fourth-wall-shattering “Hamlet” starring Os-
car Isaac.Macbeth starts performances March 29 at
Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St., New York.
telecharge.com.‘Our Town’
The Gibbs and Webb families, Thornton
Wilder’s eternal conveyors of the circle of life
in small-town New England, arrive on the
Washington stage as Shakespeare Theatre
Company widens its quest for a definition of
an American classical canon. Alan Paul directs
an “Our Town” cast whose announced players
represent the richness of D.C.'s acting commu-
nity: among them, Holly Twyford, Craig Wal-
lace, Natascia Diaz, Felicia Curry, Tom Story,
Sarah Marshall, Kimberly Schraf, Suzanne
Richard, Christopher Michael Richardson and
Eric Hissom. Originally scheduled for Febru-
ary, the revival is now set for mid-spring.Our Town May 12-June 11 at Sidney Harman Hall,
610 F St. NW. shakespearetheatre.org.‘Drumfolk’
Step Afrika!, the 28-year-old D.C. dance
company, has toured to more than 60 coun-
tries. Now it brings its ecstatic steps to Arena
Stage for the first of three productions, a
collaboration that underlines Arena’s com-
mendable engagement with the art makers of
the capital city. “Drumfolk” takes its inspira-
tion both from the 1739 Stono Rebellion, a
South Carolina uprising of enslaved people,
and from the law enacted there a year later
that prohibited enslaved Black people from
assembling in public.Drumfolk May 31-June 26 at Arena Stage, 1101
Sixth St. SW. arenastage.org.Industry is more than
ready for a r eseeding
SONNY ROSS /ILLUSTRATION FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTHENRY GROSSMAN/SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY
P erformers in “The Merchant of Venice,” from left: Nate Miller, Alfredo Narciso and
Varín Ayala at Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C.MARC J. FRANKLIN
“ A Strange Loop” cast, from left: James Jackson Jr., Jason Veasey, John-Michael
Lyles, Jaquel Spivey, L Morgan Lee, John-Andrew Morrison and Antwayn Hopper.