Second Act

Performances of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" -- a great and profound work that changed the course of art, literature and philosophy, as well as music in the 19th century -- are rare.One is, therefore, grateful for a production as intelligent and beautifully mounted as the Washington Opera's which opened Saturday at the Kennedy Center. The last production I can remember at the Metropolitan Opera was almost 10 years ago. So infrequent are "Tristans" appearances, that a production in Seattle last summer, with Ben Heppner and Jane Eaglen in the title roles, drew an audience from all over the world.

There's a scene in the second act of "The Lisbon Traviata" when an opera aficionado tries to explain the appeal of the genre to a skeptic. "Opera is about us, our life-and-death passions -- we all love, we're all going to die," he says.That, in a nutshell, is what this Terrence McNally play -- receiving its Baltimore premiere at Everyman Theatre -- is all about.Actually the play is more like two operas. Act One is comic opera; Act Two, tragic. But both are savage, and although the humorous first act is the one for which the play is better known, at Everyman it is the serious second act that succeeds best.

The Annapolis Opera Company presented a sorrowful version of Franz Lehar's "The Merry Widow" last weekend at Maryland Hall.The sets were spare, some of the costumes ridiculous, and the singing and acting uneven.Two sopranos alternated in the title role of Hanna Glawari, the Eastern European widow whose $20 million fortune is coveted by the tiny, mythical, impoverished country of Pontevedria.Phyllis Burg, who sang Friday, was slow to warm, with her top notes a bit strident through part of the first act. In the second act, however, she delivered a hauntingly lovely ballad, "Vilya."

The expression "singing to wake the dead" applies almost literally to the production of "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God" at the Lyric Opera House.That's because 1) this gospel revue depicts the resurrection, as related in the Gospel of Matthew, and, 2) the show is amplified so loudly, it could raise the dead at area cemeteries as well.But singing is only part of this still-rousing 20-year-old show, conceived and directed by Vinnette Carroll. Dance plays an equally important role and, as choreographed by the late Talley Beatty and re-created and augmented by Phaze Farrington, the dancing provides some of the most stirring moments.

The Moscow Ballet opened its six-day run of "The Nutcracker" Tuesday evening at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre to an audience primed to see a truly Russian performance. While the audience was not disappointed with the flourish of talent (both Russian and local), the production values were less than glorious and at several points were almost ludicrous.Although newly choreographed by one-time Bolshoi star Stanislav Vlasov, this production felt well-worn. Mr. Vlasov's inspiration was the 1934 Kirov's "Nutcracker," and the costumes and wigs looked as if they had been left in a closet since that production.

One of the bad things about Henry Mollicone's new opera "Hotel Eden" is that most of it is bad. The worst thing about it, however, is that the good parts come last. This violates one of the most important rules of writing, musical or otherwise: You put your best stuff (or at least some of it) first."Hotel Eden," which received its East Coast premiere Thursday night in Friedberg Hall in a Peabody Opera Theatre production directed by Roger Brunyate, updates three biblical stories: Adam and Eve; Noah and Mrs. Noah; and Abraham and Sarah.

The trials and tribulations of petty thieves are the basis of David Mamet's black comedy-drama, "American Buffalo," currently playing at the Towsontowne Arena Theatre through May 27.Strong language and violence characterize Mamet's piece. The play won the 1977 New York Drama Critics Best Play award and earned the author a prestigious place on the list of contemporary American playwrights.Performed on the stage of the Towsontowne Dinner Theater Mondays through Wednesdays ("Can Can" is playing Thursdays through Sundays)

The colorful life and times of French novelist and playwright George Sand (1804-1876) are recounted in a new one-woman play, "The Lioness of Berry," in the Studio Theatre at Towson State University through Sunday.Part of the college's Maryland Arts Festival series, this engrossing work was written by Patricia R. Plante, former provost of Towson State University. Maravene Loeschke, who chairs the theater arts department at Towson State, is featured in the title role.The show, well staged by C. Richard Gillespie, runs one hour and 45 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

The nostalgic days of radio's golden era are amusingly depicted in Walton Jones' swinging musical, "The 1940's Radio Hour," currently being staged in Cockpit in Court's Upstairs Cabaret through Sunday.The show, full of golden oldies -- "Ain't She Sweet," "Blues in the Night," "I'll Never Smile Again," "Five O'Clock Whistle" -- features a lively full orchestra under the direction of Doug Bull.As directed by Joseph A. Senatore II, the production is pleasantly entertaining. But Senatore's present interpretation does not live up to his smash hit version which he first staged at Cockpit in 1984.

ONE OF THE most interesting things about the Center Stage production of Ugo Betti's ''The Queen and the Rebels'' is the set.Staged in the Head Theater of the Center Stage complex, the production makes use of the entire east end of the room, the players walking or running to get to their assigned locations and deliver their lines.To the rear, sandbags line the wall below boarded windows.One person, who attended the last preview performance, said it was disconcerting, that watching the play in this much playing area was a little like watching a tennis match, but that is about all the excitement this production has.It is very well acted.

As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, issues that had long been unspoken, long kept under wraps, began to surface. One, in particular, jumped out to startle people right out of their puritanical/Victorian comfort zones - sex. The eagerness to talk openly about sex seems to have been particularly pronounced in Germany, where the 1890s saw one of the world's first gay-rights organizations and where a play by Frank Wedekind called Spring Awakening explicitly...

BOSTON -- Until now, I believed that the smallest unit of time was between the moment the traffic light turned green and the car behind you honked. I was wrong. The shortest unit is actually between the moment you win the Nobel Peace Prize and someone asks if you're running for president. This is the story of Al Gore. It's wrapped succinctly in the Time magazine headline: "Gore Wins the Nobel. But Will He Run?" The best answer came from Rep. Rahm Emanuel: "Why would he run for president when he can be a demigod?"

"Art isn't easy," states a lyric in Sunday in the Park with George. That statement goes double - at least - for this Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical about 19th-century French pointillist painter Georges Seurat. In his impressive production at Fell's Point Corner Theatre, director Bill Kamberger doesn't make easy work of this challenging musical; that would violate the spirit of the material. But he has assembled an admirable cast, and, in the relatively tight quarters at Fell's Point Corner, he has found inventive ways to stage this complex look at creativity.

Early in the second act of Little Women, the heroine gets bad news. The audience begins to weep helplessly and doesn't stop for a solid half-hour. The Hippodrome Theatre begins to fill with sea-water. After 10 minutes, you could pilot a small boat down the aisles. After 20, you could drop a fishing line into the waves and catch a late dinner. Heck, even the fish are crying. Little Women 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays; 1 p.m., 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Through April 23. Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St. $26-$71.

WASHINGTON - If politics were show business, you could say that President Bush's planned 60-day road tour to sell the diverting of Social Security taxes into the stock market is now into its second act. Mr. Bush resumed the second half of his Social Security traveling show in West Virginia yesterday before taking an intermission to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome. He did so with still another of his repetitively boring pitches before another meticulously crafted "town meeting" of pre-selected guests who offer no dissent from his scheme.

NEW YORK - At this time of year, the name George Frideric Handel crops up an awful lot, but usually just for one reason - his oratorio Messiah, as closely associated with the holiday season as "Silent Night." The Metropolitan Opera is currently drawing attention to another part of Handel's legacy with a production of Rodelinda that puts composer and company in a very favorable light. Handel's many works for the stage used to be considered too dusty, too formulaic, just too dull for post-Puccini tastes.

It might have been a sign that something was right - or maybe it was just the power of suggestion - but near the end of the second act of Mamaleh! I could swear I smelled chicken soup. The reason this was a positive omen is that Mamaleh! is a celebration of Jewish motherhood (the title is Yiddish for "little mother") and friendship. But chicken soup aside, this chamber musical by Mitchell Uscher and Roy Singer is largely formulaic. It's the kind of show in which characters tend to say such things as "do you remember ... " as lead-ins to songs.

BOSTON -- Did you notice an echo in the admiration? How many people described the 2002 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize as a better ex-president than president? How many praised Jimmy Carter as a man who grew not in office, but out of it? One commentator noted wryly that the White House was just his launching pad to greatness. A historian said that Jimmy Carter had finally lost the tag of presidential "loser" by becoming a Nobel "winner." It was as if succeeding in peace was only a consolation for failing at politics.

For most of the first act of Center Stage's largely exquisite production of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, actress Scotty Bloch sits in an armchair and talks. Sometimes she laughs. More often she cries. But she always commands the stage. Bloch is playing a 92-year-old dowager identified merely as "A." She is attended by a middle-aged caretaker ("B") and a young lawyer ("C"). But though she requires the services of both women, A clearly is in charge. Her trappings and appearance couldn't be more elegant - from set designer John Coyne's powder blue boudoir (and with delicate French furniture and damask bedclothes, this definitely is a boudoir, as opposed to a bedroom)

Despite the tragic events earlier in the week, Pasadena Theatre Company opened its production of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite at the Studio Theater of Chesapeake Center for the Creative Arts on Friday evening as originally scheduled. Although PTC's decision to open had been difficult, it seemed an appropriate way to honor the people of New York. The play is set in Manhattan's most elegant hotel and written by our nation's most prolific playwright, the quintessential New Yorker. Before the performance, a memorial Yarzheit candle was lighted and silently passed among members of the cast and production staff in memory of the World Trade Center and Pentagon victims.