Michael Urie - July 11, 2019

CONTENTS

July 11, 2019

12

Volume 26 Issue 10

GOOD GOLLY, MISS ODDLY! Yvie Oddly reps for the weirdos and raps for her life leading the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 11 Tour.

By André Hereford

ACTING OUT

For Michael Urie, all the world’s a stage. Literally.

Interview by Randy Shulman Photography by Todd Franson

35

24

CAPITAL FRINGE 2019: A COMPLETE GUIDE The popular festival returns with nearly 90 shows, from the thought-provoking to the absurd.

By Doug Rule

SPOTLIGHT: DDM p.7 OUT ON THE TOWN p.10 GOOD GOLLY, MISS ODDLY: YVIE ODDLY p.12 CHILL PILL: MONUMENTAL’S BE MORE CHILL p.14 FORUM: WORLD OF PRIDE p.17 COMMUNITY: GAY FOR GOOD p.19 SCENE: ANNAPOLIS PRIDE p.22 COVER STORY: MICHAEL URIE p.24 BRIGHT & GAY: JEFF HILLER p.31 CAPITAL FRINGE 2019: A COMPLETE GUIDE p.32 FILM: SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME p.35 NIGHTLIFE: GREEN LANTERN p.37 NIGHTLIFE LISTINGS p.38 NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS p.39 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 Contributing Writers Sean Maunier, Troy Petenbrink, Bailey Vogt, Kate Wingfield Webmaster David Uy Production Assistant Julian Vankim Sales & Marketing Publisher Randy Shulman National Advertising Representative Rivendell Media Co. 212-242-6863 Distribution Manager Dennis Havrilla Patron Saint William M. Hoffman Cover Photography Todd G. Franson Metro Weekly 1775 I St. NW, Suite 1150 Washington, DC 20006 202-638-6830 All material appearing in Metro Weekly is protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publishers. Metro Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials submitted for publication. All such submissions are subject to editing and will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Metro Weekly is supported by many fine advertisers, but we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers, nor can we accept responsibility for materials provided by advertisers or their agents. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles or advertising in Metro Weekly is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.

© 2019 Jansi LLC.

4

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight

W

DDm at Bent

E'RE A CERTAIN KIND OF PEOPLE HERE,” SAYS Baltimore-based rapper DDm, who will perform as a special guest at this Saturday night’s LGBTQ mega-party Bent. “Very blue collar, very straight up. You know where you stand with us. You don't have to figure it out. And we were deliberately campy before camp was a thing. Baltimore by nature is just an innately campy place.”

DDm, which stands for Dapper Dan Midas, got his start in Baltimore’s competitive rap battle scene. “I won a lot,” he says.

“It got boring after a while artistically, because there's only so much you can do with that.” So he attempted to build a fuller musical career, but a promised 2018 album, Soundtrack to a Shopping Mall, didn’t go as planned.

“If you don't own what you're making, if everything isn't signed, the contracts and all of that, you can find yourself being very disappointed,” he says. “Especially when you think something's about to happen for you and it doesn't. That was a huge lesson I learned. I had spent a lot of money on a project...and then we had a situation arise, and I had to kind of just call it a day.”

DDm didn’t waste time, however, and bounced back quickly.

His recently released album, Beautiful Gowns, marks the joyful,

surprising, striking debut of an artist destined to take the world by storm. It’s even spawned a music video, the playful “He Say, She Say,” which deploys objects that these days could be considered antiques: corded telephones. “The director, Nick Gorey, had that idea.... He went and found all those old phones and had the extras use them in the video.” (Watch it on YouTube at DDm’s channel, Secretary of Shade.)

If you didn’t know DDm was a proud member of the LGBTQ community, the video — and his aggressively camp delivery — makes it abundantly clear.

“My personality,” says the 33-year-old West Baltimore native, “reads a certain way. I can't fake it like a lot of [other rappers] can. My energy is a certain type of energy. It's not something that I can mask. I've tried to do that, and it weaves very awkwardly for me. The reason why I think my career is starting to work now for me is because I really, really, really am comfortable with the person that I am — in all places. And that's so key. It's one thing to be yourself amongst your friends. It's another thing to be yourself amongst society.”

He laughs. “I tell people all the time, I'm very much an openly gay person. But I didn't come to be gay famous. I came to be famous!” —Randy Shulman

DDm performs at Bent: Back with a Bang, also featuring DJ Lemz, WESSTHEDJ, DJ Rosie, Dvonne, DDM, Zam Quartz, Ricky Rosé, Strap Haus, Pussy Noir, and Keenan Orr. Saturday, July 13, at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Doors at 10 p.m. Tickets are $20.

Visit www.930.com.

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

7

Spotlight BREW AT THE ZOO

Nearly 70 craft breweries, all in support of wildlife conservation, will be on tap for the Zoo’s 14th annual beer tasting extravaganza next week, hosted as a benefit for the Friends of the National Zoo. Port City Brewing Company, Right Proper, Denizens, and Hellbender will be represented at the event, which will also feature popular food trucks. The Shrapnels and Bobby McKey’s dueling pianists will provide live music to accompany the mingling and lawn games. Thursday, July 18, from 6 to 9 p.m. 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets, including a commemorative mug, are $50 for FONZ members or $65 for non-members, or $110 and $125 for VIP tickets allowing early access to the event, a private VIP area with complimentary food tastings, and special animal demonstrations. Sober driver tickets are $30 or $90 for VIP. Metro Weekly readers can use code METROD19 for a $5 discount on brew tickets (with a four-ticket maximum). Call 202-633-4800 or visit www.fonz.org/brew.

KEANU REEVES’ EXCELLENT FILM SERIES

“We couldn’t help ourselves, Keanu Reeves is everywhere this summer and we wanted more: Meathead, heartthrob, action star, defender of puppies.” Thus sayeth the Smithsonian Theaters. So this weekend, the National Museum of American History’s Warner Bros. Theater serves up a marathon of Keanu, which fans can take in while enjoying their favorite brews from D.C.’s 3 Stars, Bluejack, Old Ox, Red Bear, and Right Proper. The lineup kicks off Friday, July 12, at 7 p.m., with the cult classic Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and continues Saturday, July 13 with Speed at 2:45 p.m.

A Scanner Darkly, in which Reeves plays a narcotics cop in the near future who becomes an addict when he goes undercover, follows at 5 p.m., and the (abysmal) Point Break screens at 6:45 p.m. The best is saved for Sunday, July 14: John Wick at 4:30 p.m. and John Wick: Chapter 2 at 6:50 p.m. The museum is at 1300 Constitution Ave. NW. Tickets, which include beer tasting tickets, are $10 per film plus $3.50 in fees. Call 202633-1000 or visit www.si.edu/imax.

MAX WEINBERG’S JUKEBOX

The longtime drummer of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer presents a concert with his four-piece band where the audience gets to choose what songs they’ll perform. Selections are made via a jukebox-like video menu with over 300 possible songs including hits by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and of course the Boss. Weinberg is also known from his 17-year stint as Conan O’Brien’s bandleader and comedic foil. Saturday, July 13. Doors at 6:30 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $34.75 to $54.75. Call 202787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

8

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Spotlight BLACKBEARD

A high seas musical adventure full of pirates, Blackbeard is a world-premiere commissioned

by Signature from book writer and lyricist John Dempsey and composer Dana P. Rowe, the same team behind previous Signature standouts The Witches of Eastwick and The Fix. Broadway veteran Chris Hoch makes his Signature debut in the title role, accompanied by a crew of nine actors playing over 60 roles including Signature favorites Nova Y. Payton, Kevin McAllister, and Bobby Smith. Closes Sunday, July 14. MAX Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Call 703-820-9771 or visit www.sigtheatre.org.

MELISSA VILLASEŇOR

A current Saturday Night Live star, who became the show’s first-ever Latina cast member, got her start as a semifinalist on America’s Got Talent and is also an in-demand voiceover artist for television cartoons, including everything from Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time to Fox’s Family Guy. She appears this weekend at The DC Improv, with opening sets by comic Brittany Carney.

Thursday, July 18, with doors at 6:30 p.m., Friday, July 19, with doors at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m., and Saturday, July 20, with doors at 6 and 9 p.m.

1140 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $22 to $25, plus a two-item minimum. Call 202-296-7008 or visit www.dcimprov.com.

LIONEL RICHIE

Five years after a joint concert with Bruno Mars, the ’80s hitmaker and current American Idol judge returns to Wolf Trap with the retrospective concert “All The Hits” that includes everything from “Endless Love” to “All Night Long,” “Hello” to “Dancing on the Ceiling.” Monday, July 15. Gates at 6:30 p.m. Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $127 to $167, and include one copy of Richie’s new album, Hello From Las Vegas; or $45 for lawn and no CD. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www.wolftrap.org.

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

9

DJ COREY

Out On The Town

THE LOGAN FESTIVAL OF SOLO PERFORMANCE

Virginia’s 1st Stage presents its third annual festival featuring celebrated solo performers from across the country. This year’s two-week festival, which offers what the Washington Post acclaims as “three plays [that] prove the power of one,” staged in repertory on alternate evenings, includes: The Things They Carried, Jim Stowell’s dramatization of a famous collection of short stories by Tim O’Brien charting the unforgettable journey of a soldier in the Vietnam War, performed

by David Sitler; The Happiest Place on Earth featuring Tia Shearer (pictured) bringing to life the women in playwright Philip Dawkins’ family, exploring their tragic history while humorously pondering the concept of Disneyland and a place where dreams come true; and Joy Rebel, Khanisha Foster’s candid, personal exploration about coming to terms with life as the product of an interracial relationship that her own “cherished grandmother” condemned. The festival opens with The Things They Carried on July 11. All three roughly 90-minute, intermission-less plays are performed on Sunday, July 14, Saturday, July 20, and Sunday, July 21. 1524 Spring Hill Rd. Tysons, Va. Tickets are $20 per show, or $50 for a Festival Pass. Call 703-854-1856 or visit www.1ststage.org.

Compiled by Doug Rule

FILM COOL HAND LUKE

Paul Newman plays a prisoner whose rebellious spirit makes him a hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers in this 1967 classic directed

by Stuart Rosenberg and returning to big screen for one day only at Landmark’s Capital Classics series.

Wednesday, July 17, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. Landmark West End Cinema, 2301 M St. NW. Happy hour from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

GLORY

Called “one of the finest historical dramas ever made” by film critic Leonard Malton, Edward Zwick’s sweeping Civil War epic

10

returns to movie theaters for the first time since its initial release in 1989. The special 30th anniversary screening of the underrated epic, courtesy Fathom Events and TCM’s Big Screen Classics series, earned Denzel Washington his first Oscar and also starred Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher. It includes pre- and post-screening recorded commentary from TCM Primetime host Ben Mankiewicz.

Sunday, July 21, at various Regal venues, including Gallery Place (701 7th St. NW), Potomac Yards Stadium (3575 Jefferson Davis Highway), and Majestic Stadium (900 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring).

Visit www.fathomevents.com.

MARIANNE & LEONARD: WORDS OF LOVE

Filmmaker Nick Broomfield chronicles the relationship between the

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

late Canadian legend Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen, from their early days in the 1960s counterculture in Greece to how their love evolved after Cohen became a successful musician. Opens Friday, July 12.

Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672.

Also Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave. Call 301-652-7273 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

Landmark's E Street Cinema presents its monthly run of Richard O’Brien’s camp classic, billed as the longest-running midnight movie in history. Landmark's showings come with a live shadow cast from the Sonic Transducers, meaning it's even more interactive than usual.

Friday, July 12, and Saturday, July

13, at midnight. 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672 or visit www. landmarktheatres.com.

STAGE A PEOPLE’S HISTORY

Rather than perform just one show as part of a new partnership with Capital Fringe, the provocative stage monologist Mike Daisey, known to Woolly Mammoth audiences for 2016’s The Trump Card and 2011’s The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, is currently performing 18 full-length monologues — nearly one per show during the 21-date run of this production from Capital Fringe (see page 32). Daisey confronts “the legacy of our nation, our complicity, our responsibility, and the future.” To July 28. The Cradle in Arena Stage’s Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 6th St. SW.

Capital Fringe Festival - www.capitalfringe.org

Tickets are $35 for each theatergoer’s first performance, $20 for any subsequent performance. Fringe Festival passes not applicable to this production. Call 202-488-3300 or visit www.arenastage.org.

VOSS EVENTS

CAPITAL FRINGE FESTIVAL

GOOD GOLLY, MISS ODDLY! A

Yvie Oddly reps for the weirdos and raps for her life leading the RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 11 Tour.

T LEAST ONE RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE WINNER SEEMINGLY HAD THE RACE SEWN up from the moment the queens entered the workroom. Throughout her march to victory, season six champ Bianco Del Rio looked like the crown was hers for some other queen to try to knock off her bouffant.

Then, there are Drag Race winners like Season 11’s Yvie Oddly, who have risen to the occasion right before the eyes of the audience, the judges, and her competition. The self-proclaimed “feisty bitch” literally bent over backwards to show her charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. And despite her sincere, understanding demeanor on the show, she also clearly had come to slay.

“I've just always been really hyper-competitive,” says Yvie. “Ever since I found out about Darwinism, I was like, ‘Oh shit, I'm gonna have to compete to survive.’ But also, it’s just something that I really enjoy because I feel like the best chances you get to learn who you are and how to grow are when you're competing.”

The performer, now touring the U.S. and Canada alongside her season 11 sisters, points to the lack of competition as the key difference between performing on the hit reality show and taking their acts on the road. “When you're working together on the show, you're directly competing,” Oddly says. “So while it is possible to form friendships and really bond with the girls, when you're all out on the road and your goal together is to just put on a good show, you really get to learn and enjoy these girls a whole lot more.”

Fans who check out the Season 11 Tour live — with a line-up that includes Nina West, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, Brooke Lynn Hytes, A'keria C. Davenport, Plastique Tiara, Kahanna Montrese, and Ariel Versace — might learn a whole lot more about their girl Yvie Oddly. Following up her Drag Race victory by releasing the gritty-goofy trap track “Dolla Store” and her hip-hop team-up with Cazwell and Craig C. on “Weirdo,” it turns out that rapper Yvie Oddly spits rhymes like a boss.

“I always joke-rapped with my friends, or I'd make these angry raps whenever I was being grounded by my parents,” Yvie recalls with a laugh. “But I never thought of myself as a rapper because it felt like a different skin that I had to wear and one that wasn't necessarily mine. But jumping into it from just this perspective of, ‘I want to have fun and I want to see what it's like to make music,’ I really enjoyed tapping into this side of myself that I didn't even know I had.”

—André Hereford Voss Events presents RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 11 Tour performs Thursday, July 18, at the Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Tickets are $37 to $120.

Call 877-435-9849 or visit www.thelincolndc.com.

12

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Southwest D.C. once again serves as the hub for this year’s Capital Fringe, with seven stages set up at venues throughout the neighborhood, including Arena Stage and several area churches — all within easy walking distance of one another. Although festival organizers have curated a few professional shows it will officially present, most Fringe shows are selected through an unjuried, open-invitation process — first-come, first-staged — with works largely created and produced by new or relatively inexperienced theatermakers. Shows run in staggered repertory through July 28. Tickets are $20 per show, and multi-show passes range from $72 to $500. Call 866-811-4111 or visit www.capitalfringe.org. Read more about the festival and a list of every production on page 32.

FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME

“See it before the show goes to Broadway,” the Kennedy Center says about this new, completely improvised musical ride, all based off audience suggestions, and featuring MCs, musicians, and beatboxers. The only guarantee is that Freestyle Love Supreme should be a quality stage show, considering it was developed by Hamilton creator Lin-Manual Miranda along with Anthony Veneziale and Thomas Kail. Miranda and Veneziale are also members of the stage improv crew along with Utkarsh Ambudkar, Andrew Bancroft, Daveed Diggs, James Monroe Iglehart, Chris Jackson, Arthur Lewis, Bill Sherman, and Chris Sullivan. The show also marks another event at the Kennedy Center designated as a completely “phone-free experience,” in which all smartphones and smartwatches will be locked in special pouches as patrons enter the theater, and no other cameras or recording devices permitted. Opens Tuesday, July 16. Runs to July 21.

Family Theater. Tickets are $55 to $99. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

LADYM

Winner of the 2016 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, the Welders Playwrights’ Collective features a team of emerging local playwrights who collaborate to produce one original show from each member over the course of three years. Now in its final year, the second generation of the collective offers a devised work created by Rachel Hynes and Francesca Chilcote, described as part incantation, part

Capital Fringe Festival - www.capitalfringe.org

mystery, and part interactive comedy show. Based on interviews with women in D.C. sharing their attitudes toward menstruation, LadyM features three witches making a potion, casting a spell, and sending audiences down a rabbit hole of poetry, horror, ambition, and blood. Drawing on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the result is billed as a “grotesque comedy [and] highly stylized, absurdist, and radical feminist bloodbath.” Hynes and Chilcote star along with Deidre Staples, Anastasia Wilson, and Vanita Kalra.

Now to July 27. Joe’s Movement Emporium, 3309 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Md. Tickets are $18 to $30. Call 301-699-1819 or visit www.joesmovement.org.

RJ PAVEL

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI

CHILL PILL

T

Monumental Theatre Company adds women — and drinking games — to its new take on the musical Be More Chill.

HE MUSIC IS GREAT, THE STORY IS LOVELY, BUT THE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION of Be More Chill, and just the play itself, is very male-heavy," says Izzy Smelkinson. That’s less the case in a new version of Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz’s Broadway musical, which Smelkinson is directing for Monumental Theatre Company.

“The entire production team is female-identifying,” she says. “And we've also gender-swapped one of the male roles — the robot — because [it] doesn't necessarily need to be male. And at this time in our cultural climate, doing a show that didn't have as many female-identifying humans as possible just seemed wrong.”

Having “female eyes on everything” has also helped boost the show in other subtle ways. “The show was written in 2012...and there is a scene that could possibly be triggering and offensive now, in 2019,” says Smelkinson. So Monumental figured out a way to get around that without altering a word of dialogue.

“We've sort of completely ignored some of the stage direction in the script and created our own thing, to make sure that nothing is offensive, or upsetting to anybody,” says Jimmy Mavrikes, Monumental’s co-producing artistic director.

Be More Chill is the story of a socially awkward teenage boy who lands on a pill that makes him cool, or chill. “It’s an ‘at what cost’ situation,” Smelkinson says. “It's about the trials and tribulations of being in high school, and...what happens to friendships and things as you grow and evolve.”

The show generated a lot of buzz after an Off Broadway production last year led to both a move to Broadway and a major film deal in Hollywood. But Monumental was able to secure the rights to stage the show using the script from its 2015 debut in New Jersey. “When it got to Broadway, it got to feel all the Broadway feelings, and became bright and huge and big,” Smelkinson says. “We're bringing it back down, almost to where it started in New Jersey, in a black box, with everyone around you, and really following the heart and story of who we are as people.”

Despite its high school setting, the show’s appeal — and Monumental’s production — extends to adults. There’s even a drinking game in the works for the late-night performance on Friday, July 19, at 10 p.m.

“It’s completely Monumental — something we do for almost every show,” Mavrikes says. “We add a drinking game and there are hoots, hollers, screams, what-have-you, all throughout the show.

The actors are prepared that it's not a typical show. It brings a whole new experience.” —Doug Rule Be More Chill runs to July 29 at the Ainslie Arts Center in Episcopal High School, 3900 W. Braddock Rd., Alexandria. Tickets are $25 to $40.

Call 703-933-3000 or visit www.monumentaltheatre.org.

14

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Both entertaining and provocative, Bertolt Brecht’s play is a powerful parable to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, while also eliciting comparisons to those today seizing more power and control over us. Presented by Scena Theatre, the tale focuses on the meteoric rise of a small-time gangster in 1930s Chicago who ruthlessly disposes of his competitors to enrich himself and gain power. To July 14. Lab Theatre II in the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Tickets are $25 to $45. Call 202-399-7993 or visit www.atlasarts.org.

TREASURE ISLAND

Virginia’s Synetic closes out its season with a high seas adventure full of pirates. The original adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel of the same name is the latest caper from a physical theater-focused company that’s made its name producing wordless variations on classics, particularly those by Shakespeare. Synetic’s impressive crew of athletic actors will bring to life the coming-of-age tale focused on the orphan Jane Hawkins and a ruthless band of buccaneers on a wild hunt for buried treasure. Previews begin July 17. Runs to Aug. 18. 1800 South Bell St., Arlington. Tickets are $35 to $60. Call 800-811-4111 or visit www. synetictheater.org.

MUSIC JAZZ IN THE GARDEN: ELIKEH, MILES STIEBEL

A summertime staple for 19 seasons, 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 drinks, including beer, wine, and sangria, as sold by the Pavilion Café. New menu items for 2019 include the popular vegetar-

ian Teriyaki Impossible Burger, a Bahn Mi Turkey Burger with ginger soy aioli, and more traditional sandwiches of pulled pork and beef brisket, all available at grill stations throughout the Sculpture Garden.

The series continues with African fusion jazz band Elikeh on July 12 and jazz violinist Miles Stiebel on July 19. Evenings from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Sculpture Garden, between 7th and 9th Streets NW. Call 202-2893360 or visit www.nga.gov.

JODY WATLEY

Responsible for the ’80s-minted spunky dance-soul hits “Looking for a New Love,” “Don’t You Want Me,” “Still A Thrill,” and “Friends,” the Grammy-winning Watley got her start as a lead dancer on Soul Train and as a member of the R&B group Shalamar. Over the past couple of decades, the artist has shown herself to be an outspoken gay rights and marriage equality activist. One of Billboard‘s best-charting dance artists returns for another performance with support from members of her original group, Shalamar Reloaded. Watley returns with SRL, or Shalamar Reloaded Live, to celebrate 30 years of her best-selling song in the U.S., “Real Love.” Saturday, July 20, at 8 p.m.

Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are $59.50 to $79.50, plus $20 minimum purchase per person. Call 240-330-4500 or visit www.bethesdabluesjazz.com.

NEWMYER FLYER’S A SOUTHERN SOUL TRIBUTE

“A Southern Soul Tribute: The Music of Muscle Shoals & Stax/ Volt” features a wide array of soulful vocalists from the area, including some of D.C.’s R&B legends still in their prime, all paying tribute to artists who recorded 50 and 60 years ago at the two Southern soul labels.

Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, and The Staples Singers are among those whose songs will be performed by the Hardway Connection, Billy Price, Eddie & Earl Jones, Patty Reese, Patti Hatchett, Bill Starks, Pete Ragusa, Steve Wolf, Keith Grimes, Bruce Swaim, and Vince McCool, all with support from a seven-piece backing band. Friday, July 12. Doors at 6 p.m. City Winery DC, 1350 Okie St. NE. Tickets are $20 to $30. Call 202-250-2531 or visit www. citywinery.com.

BAND OF US

The Silver Spring sextet Band of Us offers a soulful take on alternative rock, with eclectic instrumentation including violin, trumpet, sax, and keys, not too dissimilar from the sound of NEEDTOBREATHE, Kings of Leon, or the Dave Matthews Band. Next week, you can check out the young band, a tight-knit group of friends, for

free as part of Strathmore’s special free weekly summer outdoor concert series, “Live from the Lawn.”

Wednesday, July 17, at 7 p.m.

Gudelsky Gazebo, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. Tickets are free. Call 301-581-5100 or visit strathmore.org.

THOMAS RHETT

Named iHeartRadio’s Country Artist of the Year for the second year in a row, the 29-year-old has been on a country chart-topping tear the past couple of years. The fact that he’s also a passionate, energetic, and magnetic performer makes this easy-on-the-eyes artist downright irresistible. Opening for Rhett is another young country heartthrob, Dustin Lynch, plus emerging country artist Russell Dickerson, and Rhett Akins, a 25-year industry veteran best known these days for writing chart-topping hits recorded by others — including multiple No. 1s for his hunky tourmates Rhett (“Life Changes,” “Get Me Some Of That”) and Lynch (“Mindreader,” “Small Town Boy”). Thursday, July 18. Gates at 5:30 p.m. Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md. Tickets are $55 to $125. Call 800-551-SEAT or visit www.merriweathermusic.com.

VIVIAN GREEN

Hard to believe, but it’s been 17 years since Green broke out with her debut album Love Story and especially the hit R&B and dance single “Emotional Rollercoaster.”

The song still speaks to so many people. Green returns to the area for two shows. Saturday, July 13, at 7 and 10:15 p.m. City Winery DC, 1350 Okie St. NE. Tickets are $40 to $52. Call 202-250-2531 or visit www.citywinery.com.

“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC WITH THE NSO: A ROCK AND COMEDY EXPERIENCE

Three years after closing the Filene Center season with a bang, the pop parodist par excellence returns to Wolf Trap with even more of a bang — not to mention strings — for what is billed as “his biggest show ever.”

A stop on The Strings Attached Tour, the four-time Grammy winner — and biggest-selling comedy recording artist in history — will perform the hits from his 30-year repertoire joined by his original band and his usual costumes and props, plus the accompaniment of background singers and the musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arnold Roth. Tuesday, July 16. Gates at 6:30 p.m. 1551 Trap Road, Vienna.

Tickets are $70 to $85, or $40 on the lawn. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit wolftrap.org.

DANCE AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE: SWAN LAKE

New York’s ABT returns to Wolf Trap with the quintessential classic ballet, a romantic fable of ill-fated passion, dreamlike transformation, and ultimate forgiveness, set to Tchaikovsky. In addition to the awe-inspiring sight of seeing the corps de ballet moving in magical unison as swans — per artistic director Kevin McKenzie’s take on the classic choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov — each performance in the Filene Center features a different duo of principal dancers as the lovers Princess Odette and Prince Siegried: Hee Seo and Cory Stearns on Thursday, July 11, Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo on Friday, July 12, and Devon Teuscher and Aran Bell on Saturday, July 13. All performances at 8:30 p.m. 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. Tickets are $25 to $80. Call 877-WOLFTRAP or visit www. wolftrap.org.

ated by D.C.-based comedian and writer Benjy Himmelfarb with the late Dylan Meyer. Similar to Jeff Ross’ L.A.-derived Historical Roasts on Netflix, as well as a kind of sober, live version of Comedy Central’s Drunk History, fellow nationally touring comedians join Himmelfarb for the roasting pursuit, getting into character and costume for “the meanest, funniest, most historically accurate jokes you’ve ever heard.”

The lineup next week in a return to the DC Improv includes Himmelfarb portraying Mark Twain, Bridget Geiran as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dominic Rivera as Genghis Khan, Rahmein Mostafavi as William Shakespeare, Umar Khan as Ronald Reagan, Denise Taylor as Mata Hari, and Eddie Morrison as Pablo Escobar. Wednesday, July 17.

Doors at 6:30 p.m. 1140 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $15, plus a two-item minimum. Call 202-2967008 or visit www.dcimprov.com.

READINGS & DISCUSSIONS

COMEDY THE SECOND CITY: AMERICA; IT’S COMPLICATED

The legendary comedic troupe from Chicago returns to the Kennedy Center for another allnew, made-for-Washington politically minded show mixing sketch comedy, improv, satire, and original music. Mary Catherine Curran, Cody Dove, Jillian Ebanks, Jordan Savusa, Adam Schreck, and Holly Walker are the featured players for America; It’s Complicated. To Aug. 11. Theater Lab. Tickets are $49 to $59. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

THE TIME MACHINE ROAST

A comedy roast of nerdy, historic proportions, with a focus on dead celebrities — particularly heretofore hallowed, Hall of Famertypes, from emperors to inventors to entrepreneurs, more often than not straight, white men. That’s the name of the game at this show cre-

NAKED GIRLS READING: COMEDY UNDRESSED

A troupe of ladies read their favorite memoirs, stories, and funny tales by the world’s most memorable jokesters while also revealing their funny bones — and a whole lot more besides — at the July edition. Lead Naked Girl Cherokee Rose aka “The Bewitching Beauty” will be joined by Alice Darling, Cherie Sweetbottom, and Callie Pigeon for this side-splitting spectacle. Saturday, July 13, at 10 p.m.

District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC), 2438 18th St. NW. Tickets are $17.60 to $22 plus about $2 in fees. Call 202-462-7833 or visit www.nakedgirlsreading.com.

ART & EXHIBITS BLACK AND WHITE AT GALLERY CLARENDON

The latest group show from members of Clarendon’s Overlook

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

15

photography, are on display in the main gallery of Gallery Clarendon, a pop-up art space where professional artists work, exhibit, and teach classes open to the public. Now to Aug. 4, with Opening Reception and Meet The Artists on Friday, July 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. An Arlington Artists Alliance Gallery, 2800 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington. Call 571-312-7813 or visit www.galleryclarendon.org.

SARAH GEE MILLER: UNIVERSAL REMOTE

A Vancouver-based Canadian artist who makes her solo debut in D.C. with an exhibition at the Long View Gallery that features what Miller has referred to as “new work, new ideas, new colors to flood your brain with endorphins.” The artist’s specialty is in vibrantly colored hardedge abstract collage and geometric ink drawings, sometimes both in one — a combination of painting with collage that can start to look like sculpture. Through July 14.

1234 9th St. NW. Call 202-232-4788 or visit www.longviewgallery.com.

SUPERHEROES

LEDISI

A New Orleans native, Ledisi portrayed fellow New Orleanian, “The Queen of Gospel” Mahalia Jackson, in 2014’s Selma. But these days, she’s more focused on celebrating a different legendary African-American diva. At Strathmore’s Music Center presented by the Birchmere, Ledisi performs her show “Nina and Me,” offering an orchestrated mixture of classical, jazz, and R&B interspersed with dialogue about the musical bond Ledisi feels toward Simone, whom she cites as one of her greatest inspirations. A decade ago, Ledisi recorded a cover of “Four Women” and also performed the Simone staple as part of a powerhouse quartet with Kelly Price, Marsha Ambrosius, and Jill Scott at BET’s 2010 special Black Girls Rock. In addition to offering her takes on Simone standards, the concert will also feature versions of Ledisi’s R&B hits reimagined with strings and big band horns via a return to her jazz roots. Friday, July 12, at 8 p.m. 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets are $92.50 to $102.50. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

Gallery offers a twist on the traditional “colorless” approach to art.

While no color is apparent in the works in Black and White, no black paint was used, either. Instead, a mixture of other colors was created as a replacement. “This dynam-

16

ic expression made us examine everyday scenes in a unique way,” according to painter and teacher Jane Coonce, who conceived of the exhibit. Other new member artworks, in a range of media including sculpture, metalwork, ceramics, and

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

The National Museum of American History presents a nearly yearlong exhibition showcasing artifacts from its collections relating to animated protagonists, including comic books, movie and TV costumes and props and assorted memorabilia — from George Reeves’ Superman costume circa 1951 to Halle Berry’s Storm costume from 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.

On display through Sept. 2. 14th St. and Constitution Ave. NW. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.americanhistory.si.edu.

FOOD & DRINK DENIZENS BREWING CO: 5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY

With the New Orleans-oriented theme “Let The Good Times Roll,” the lesbian-owned brewery celebrates its fifth year in business at its original location, which they’re now referring to as the Silver Spring Barrel House & Beer Garden — to distinguish it from their new second location, the Production House, Taproom and Restaurant in Riverdale near College Park. On Saturday, July 13, patrons are encouraged to dress in their best Mardi Gras outfit for a chance to win free beer and to take part in a bead contest, and can also expect to drink Blue Hurricanes and to eat Po’Boys. Entertainment will come from the Naptown Brass Band starting at 5 p.m., the local drag queen collective Haus of Stone at 7 p.m., and music spun by DJ Kenny plus special performances from 9 to 11 p.m. 1115 East-West Highway, Silver Spring. Call 301557-9818 or visit wwww.denizensbrewingco.com.

HANK’S PASTA BAR: METRO RUSH HOUR DISCOUNTS

Throughout July, Hank’s Pasta Bar in Alexandria is offering two specials “to help ease the rush hour commute,” or at least to help mitigate frustration over delays caused

by Metro’s closure of the Blue and Yellow lines in Northern Virginia.

The first “Beat Your Summer Commute” special grants 10-percent off the entire check per a request for the Blue Line, while a request for the Yellow Line grants a free meal for kids (provided the purchase of an adult meal). Only available weeknights from 5 to 6:30 p.m. for patrons in the dining room or on the patio. To July 31. 600 Montgomery St., Alexandria. Call 571-312-4117 or visit www.hankspastabar.com.

ABOVE & BEYOND LA TI DO: SPOOF-TACULAR

Regie Cabico and Don Mike Mendoza’s La Ti Do variety show features higher-quality singing than most karaoke, often from local musical theater actors performing on their night off, and also includes spoken-word poetry and comedy. Next up, Mendoza and Anya Randall Nebel host the annual Spoof-Tacular, an evening of funny interpretations of musical theater created by LTD Alumnus Christopher David Harris, plus a music feature on Michael Santos Sandoval.

Guest performers include Paige Johnson, LaurenNicole Gabriel, Mel Gumina, Cathy McCoskey, and Matthew Ratz.

There will also be five-minute previews of Capital Fringe shows involving LTD members and alumni. Paige Rammelkamp is music director. Monday, July 15, at 8 p.m.

Arqa (formerly Bistro Bistro), 1727 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $15 to $20. Call 202-328-1640 or visit www.latidoproductions.com.

FORD'S THEATRE'S HISTORY ON FOOT

A local actor offers the guided tour Investigation: Detective McDevitt, portraying Detective James McDevitt, a D.C. police officer patrolling a half-block from Ford’s Theatre the night President Lincoln was shot. Written by Richard Hellesen and directed by Mark Ramont, the 1.6-mile walking tour revisits and reexamines the sites and clues from the investigation into the assassination. Tours are offered approximately three evenings a week at 6:45 p.m. Ford's Theatre, 511 10th St. NW. Tickets are $17. Call 202-397-7328 or visit www.fords.org. l

Forum

WORLD OF PRIDE

Four million people danced, celebrated, and remembered the past during WorldPride and Stonewall 50.

By Dana Beyer

T

HE STREETS OF NEW YORK WERE ABLAZE with color two weekends ago. Millions of revelers and demonstrators ensured visibility, fifty years after the black-and-white fog of a shift in consciousness of a subterranean community ready to burst forth.

Subterranean no more, it’s hard to imagine the color ever fading again.

Yes, those of us present at that catalytic moment can imagine, because of our memories of pain and fear, but this celebration was not for us.

It was for them, the subsequent generations, for whom we swore we would create a world in which they would not have to live in shame as we had. To a large degree, we have succeeded.

Life is not unicorns and rainbows for all members of our community, but one thing is true: in this era of hyperconnectivity no one need long believe that they are alone, and, therefore, no longer need to live in solitary shame.

That, after all, is the purpose of Pride. Fifty years ago the shouts were for no more shame, and a year later the first parade made that point emphatically. The more people who came out, the less the need for those left behind to remain mired in shame. That trend has continued, to the point that across the globe, and particularly in New York at World Pride, where it seemed everybody was out. The Uprising was the seed of the formation of a community. That community showed up then, and its descendants showed up now.

No subway car was without its Pride. No building failed to project or reflect the Pride of others. It was visible in SoHo and Jackson Heights, Fifth Avenue and the ballpark.

It was unavoidable. And while not everyone in the city was there to celebrate, they were swept up anyway.

For the most part, there were no visible divisions. Yes,

there were competing parades on Sunday, but they didn’t cross paths to conflict. Ironically, the Queer Liberation parade Sunday morning went off without a hitch, while the WorldPride afternoon parade was delayed for many hours. That division, with the Queers vs. the Corporates, the revolutionaries vs. the assimilationists, is 50 years old, as old as the movement. The first parade was replete with radical gestures among the exuberance of the freedom of being out, and those two strains flowed in parallel for the next half-century, jostling for position, competing but always pointing towards the same goal. Politics is an inside/outside game, and the gay rights movement, writ large, is part of those American politics. Both are absolutely necessary, and the obnoxiousness each side occasionally feels about the other is the price of admission.

It’s hard for me personally to accept that fifty years have passed. I know everyone feels this way at some point, with time passing more quickly as we age, but I was repeatedly overwhelmed by that fact, and by the contrast with that night in 1969. I’m lucky to be alive — I suffered a cardiac arrest as a teen due to my intersex condition, and had my share of PTSD and closeted despair as an adult when I considered ending it all. Just to be alive is thrilling and shocking at the same time.

I know I’m not alone. I sought out other veterans at the Friday night rally at the Stonewall Inn, in synagogue that night with an LGBTQ congregation, in subway cars all weekend, and along both parade routes on Sunday. I even wondered what the ’69 World Champion Mets, honored at the new Shea Stadium (no, I won’t use the corporate name), thought about their celebration occurring on the

“Life is not unicorns and rainbows for all members of our community, but one thing is true: no one need live in solitary shame.”

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

17

Forum weekend of the 50th anniversary of the Uprising. They lived through it all, too. Did any of them want to come out? Ron Swoboda gay? Probably not. But that was the summer of miracles, of moon landings and massive rock festivals and world championships, and an American awakening.

I remember the chaos of those years, and looking back people remark just how tumultuous it all was. For those living through it, however, it had taken on a feeling of normality. Those were our lives then — we could no more transport out of them to a different reality than we can pretend all is well with the world today.

But shame is crippling, and those first moments allowed some of us to feel the stirrings of self-awareness, while others burst forth. I was one of the cowards that night, torn between my inner self and my determination to build a career and family. I look back at my pusillanimous behavior and cringe at times — then a school friend reminds me that I could easily have been kicked to the street or killed. I look at the Milks and Johnsons and Fouratts and Kamenys of that era and admire their courage; some of them look at my cohort and admire ours for creating lives of value that were then instrumental in making progress. Revolutionaries vs.

Integrationists, yin vs. yang, Mets vs. Yankees (it is New York, after all). It takes everyone.

I find it worthy of note that July 2 was the tenth anniversary of the publication in this magazine of the cover story on “The Dallas Principles,” which set forth the LGBTQ agenda for the Obama administration. We haven’t accomplished all the goals set forth, particularly with respect to racial inequi-

18

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

ties, but we’ve made great progress since. This celebration is a recognition of much of that success.

There were, for an event of an estimated four million people, few confrontations and conflicts. I didn’t witness any acts of anti-Semitism. There were some unfortunate signs of trans homophobia and an episode of minor racial conflict at the Stonewall Inn itself between a black trans woman and a predominantly white gay crowd, which passed when cooler heads prevailed.

To paraphrase Max Yasgur, of Bethel, New York, the important thing that you’ve proven to the world is that four million kids — and I call you kids because I have children who are older than you — four million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music while taking time to recognize the progress made, the challenges ahead, and those who’ve passed along the way towards making this country, and our world, a better place. And bless you for it! l Dana Beyer is the recently retired executive director of Gender Rights Maryland. She has served on numerous regional and national LGBTQ boards, led the campaigns to pass the Maryland gender identity bills, and was instrumental in having Gender Identity Disorder removed from the DSM in 2011.

She can be reached at danamd@danabeyer.com.

The opinions expressed in Forum do not necessarily reflect those of Metro Weekly or its employees. Add your voice to Forum. Learn how at www.metroweekly.com/forum.

Community THURSDAY, July 11

group meets for happy hour at Sheraton in Reston. All welcome. 7-9 p.m. 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, second-floor bar.

For more information, visit www.dullestriangles.com.

The DC Center is starting an

LGBTQ FIRST RESPONDERS AND MILITARY SERVICE MEMBERS SUPPORT GROUP.

Weekly Events ANDROMEDA TRANSCULTURAL HEALTH

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

DC AQUATICS CLUB practice

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

DC FRONT RUNNERS run-

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

DC LAMBDA SQUARES, D.C.’s

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

National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW. For more info, call 202-930-1058 or visit www.dclambdasquares.org.

DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds

practice. The team is always looking for new members.

All welcome. 7-9 p.m. Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www. scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@ gmail.com.

THE DULLES TRIANGLES Northern Virginia social

HIV TESTING at Whitman-

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

G4G

Anyone who has served or is on active duty in the Guard or Reserves, as well as their partners, is welcome. The group also welcomes present or former firefighters, EMTs, and law enforcement officers. This is a peer-led group that gives first responders, service members, and veterans the chance to share stories, experiences, and draw strength from each other.

Due to the sensitive nature of this group, discussions, names, and attendance will be kept confidential. 7-8:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www. thedccenter.org.

COMMUNITY SERVICE The volunteer-based Gay For Good offers opportunities to socialize, network, and give back to the community.

G

AY FOR GOOD WAS FOUNDED IN CALIFORNIA around 2008 when Proposition 8 was happening, and everyone was shocked that their neighbors, who they thought they knew so well, had voted in favor of Prop 8,” says Peter Morgan, head of the D.C. chapter. “One of our members suggested having LGBTQ people volunteer at non-LGBTQ organizations, and bridge the gap. It would give our members a chance to do good work at local organizations, but would also give people who might not be familiar with the community a chance to meet us.”

A former member of the L.A. chapter, Morgan contacted organizers in California about starting a D.C. chapter after he moved here in 2015. Officially launched in September 2018, its members have set about organizing monthly service projects. On July 27, Gay For Good will work at Food & Friends. And in late August, the group has plans for gardening work and trash pickup on the grounds of the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown.

Some of the D.C. chapter’s members realized that there was little opportunity for the volunteers to get to know one another in a relaxed, social setting, so they began planning a “Sunday Funday Mix and Mingle” for their fellow group members.

“When it comes to a lot of individuals getting together, I know there are a lot of people who aren’t into the gay bar scene,” says David Clark, co-organizer with Cornelius Joy, of the “Sunday Funday” event. “However, because we are a fairly new chapter, a lot of our time has been spent organizing service projects and not necessarily mixers or opportunities to network.”

Clark and Joy were able to use the latter’s connections in the hotel industry to reserve the rooftop of the Embassy Row Hotel for an event on Sunday, July 14 to raise awareness about Gay For Good’s existence.

“We wanted to give existing Gay For Good members a chance to socialize,” says Clark. “On top of that, we’re looking to draw in newer members. We hope that by giving individuals a chance to meet each other, make new friends, and add themselves to our distribution list, our membership will skyrocket.” —John Riley Gay For Good DC’s “Sunday Funday Mix & Mingle” is Sunday, July 14, from 3 to 6 p.m. on the rooftop of the Embassy Row Hotel, 2015 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Admission is free, but pre-registration is recommended. To register, or for more information, visit www.gayforgood.org/events and click on the Washington, D.C. chapter.

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

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

METROHEALTH CENTER

offers free, rapid HIV testing.

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

STI TESTING at Whitman-

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

US HELPING US hosts a

Narcotics Anonymous Meeting.

The group is independent of UHU. 6:30-7:30 p.m., 3636 Georgia Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-446-1100.

FRIDAY, July 12 GAMMA is a confidential, vol-

untary, peer-support group for men who are gay, bisexual, questioning and who are now or who have been in a relationship with a woman. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Luther Place Memorial Church, 1226 Vermont Ave NW. GAMMA meetings are also held in Vienna, Va., and in Frederick, Md. For more information, visit www.gammaindc.org.

WOMEN IN THEIR TWENTIES (AND THIRTIES), a social

discussion and activity group for queer women, meets at The DC Center on the second and fourth Friday of each month.

Group social activity to follow the meeting. 8-9:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

19

more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events BET MISHPACHAH, founded by

members of the LGBT community, holds Friday evening Shabbat services in the DC Jewish Community Center’s Community Room. 8 p.m.

1529 16th St. NW. For more information, visit www.betmish.org.

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a prac-

tice session at Howard University.

6:30-8 p.m. Burr Gymnasium, 2400 6th St. NW. For more information, visit www.swimdcac.org.

PROJECT STRIPES hosts LGBT-

affirming social group for ages 11-24. 4-6 p.m. 1419 Columbia Road NW. Contact Tamara, 202-3190422, www.layc-dc.org.

SMYAL’S REC NIGHT provides a

social atmosphere for LGBT and questioning youth, featuring dance parties, vogue nights, movies and games. 4-7 p.m. For more info, email rebecca.york@smyal.org.

SATURDAY, July 13 CHRYSALIS arts & culture group

holds bimonthly potluck social at a member’s home in Leisure World in suburban Maryland.

Nonmembers welcome to attend.

Plans for late summer museum visits and out-of-town excursions will be reviewed. Please bring an appetizer, salad, entree, vegetable dish, or dessert. Chrysalis supplies beverages, ice, and paper goods.

Carpool at 6:45 p.m. from the Kiss & Ride lot at the Glenmont Metro Station at the end of the Red Line.

To RSVP, contact Mike, mikelapoint@hotmail.com.

CENTER GLOBAL, a group that

advocates for LGBTIQ rights and fights against anti-LGBTIQ laws in more than 80 countries, holds its monthly meeting at The DC Center. 12-1:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

The DC Center hosts ARTY QUEERS, a new monthly indoor LGBTQ+ art market featuring original artwork, textiles, pottery, photography, jewelry, glasswork, textiles, and clothing created by queer artists. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, email Kimberley@ thedccenter.org.

The DC Center hosts a monthly meeting of UNIVERSAL PRIDE, a group to support and empower LGBTQIA people with disabilities, offer perspectives on dating and relationships, and create greater access in public spaces for LGBTQIA PWDs. 1-2:30 p.m. 2000

20

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, contact Andy Arias, andyarias09@gmail.com.

SUNDAY, July 14 Weekly Events LGBT-inclusive ALL SOULS

MEMORIAL EPISCOPAL CHURCH

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

DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

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

DC FRONT RUNNERS running/

walking/social club welcomes runners of all ability levels for exercise in a fun and supportive environment, with socializing afterwards.

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

DIGNITYUSA offers Roman

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

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

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

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

Visit www.hopeucc.org.

HSV-2 SOCIAL AND SUPPORT GROUP for gay men living in the

DC metro area. This group will be meeting once a month. For information on location and time, visit www.H2gether.com.

Join LINCOLN

CONGREGATIONAL TEMPLE – UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST for

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

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF WASHINGTON, D.C.

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

NATIONAL CITY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, inclusive church with

GLBT fellowship, offers gospel wor-

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

ST. STEPHEN AND THE INCARNATION, an “interracial,

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

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF SILVER SPRING

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

MONDAY, July 15 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 www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC AQUATICS CLUB holds a

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

DC’S DIFFERENT DRUMMERS

welcomes musicians of all abilities to join its Monday night rehearsals.

The group hosts marching/color guard, concert, and jazz ensembles, with performances year round.

Please contact Membership@ DCDD.org to inquire about joining one of the ensembles or visit www.

DCDD.org.

The DC Center hosts COFFEE

DROP-IN FOR THE SENIOR LGBT COMMUNITY. 10 a.m.-noon. 2000

14th St. NW. For more information, call 202-682-2245 or visit www. thedccenter.org.

US HELPING US hosts a black gay

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

WASHINGTON WETSKINS WATER POLO TEAM practices 7-9

p.m. Newcomers with at least basic swimming ability always welcome.

Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. For more information, contact Tom, 703-299-0504 or secretary@wetskins.org, or visit www.wetskins.org.

TUESDAY, July 16 CENTER BI, a group of The DC

Center, hosts a monthly roundtable discussion around issues of bisexuality. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. Visit www.thedccenter.org.

THE HEALTH WORKING GROUP

of The DC Center hosts a “Packing Party,” where volunteers assemble safe-sex kits of condoms and lube.

7-9 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org.

Weekly Events DC SCANDALS RUGBY holds prac-

tice. The team is always looking for new members. All welcome. 7-9 p.m.

Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Rd. NE. For more information, visit www.scandalsrfc.org or dcscandals@gmail.com.

THE GAY MEN'S HEALTH COLLABORATIVE offers free

HIV testing and STI screening and treatment every Tuesday.

5-6:30 p.m. Rainbow Tuesday LGBT Clinic, Alexandria Health Department, 4480 King St. 703746-4986 or text 571-214-9617.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS

holds an LGBT-focused meeting every Tuesday, 7 p.m. at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 915 Oakland Ave., Arlington, just steps from Virginia Square Metro. Handicapped accessible.

Newcomers welcome. For more info, call Dick, 703-521-1999 or email liveandletliveoa@gmail.com.

Support group for LGBTQ youth ages 13-21 meets at SMYAL. 5-6:30 p.m.

410 7th St. SE. For more information, contact Rebecca York, 202-567-3165, or rebecca.york@smyal.org.

WEDNESDAY, July 17 BOOKMEN DC, an informal

men’s gay-literature group, discusses Lillian Faderman’s The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle at The DC Center. 7:30 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105.

For more information, visit www. bookmendc.blogspot.com.

Weekly Events AD LIB, a group for freestyle con-

versation, meets about 6-6:30 p.m., Steam, 17th and R NW. All welcome. For more information, call Fausto Fernandez, 703-732-5174.

FREEDOM FROM SMOKING, a

group for LGBT people looking to quit cigarettes and tobacco use, holds a weekly support meeting at The DC Center. 7-8 p.m. 2000 14th St. NW, Suite 105. For more information, visit www.thedccenter.org. l

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

21

Scene

22

Annapolis Pride - Saturday, June 29 - Photography by Randy Shulman See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

23

Acting Out For Michael Urie, all the world’s a stage. Literally.

Interview by Randy Shulman Photography by Todd Franson

M

ICHAEL URIE IS A BALL OF ENERGY,” says Drew Droege. “He is pure love and joy.

He is so positive, and he loves what he's doing.

He's somebody who's just so in his element when he's working.” Droege is a close friend of both Urie and his partner, Ryan Spahn. And it is through that friendship that Urie convinced Droege to fully stage his oneman show, Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, which is following a successful Off Broadway run with a summer stint at the Studio Theater, starring the magnificent Jeff Hiller (see page 31). Urie is the show’s director, even though he concedes “I don't do much directing, I don't really think that way.”

At the same time, Urie is back at The Shakespeare Theater for its annual Free For All, starring in the company’s landmark production of Hamlet. When the show first played the Harman in early 2018, Metro Weekly theater critic Kate Wingfield praised Urie’s take on the iconic Shakespearean role: “Urie doesn’t just bring the angst, he brings sheer likability. He may be tortured, but he is also funny, adorably flappable, entertainingly clever and ever vulnerable, even as he rails. He is an awkward young man full of charm, life, and ridiculous opinions, and you want him around. It’s original, it’s wonderful, and Urie, like much of the cast, is superb in his delivery of Shakespeare’s language. Precise, whip-fast and fully cognizant, it is music to the ears and soul.”

For his part, Urie is thrilled to be revisiting the role, noting that he’s delving even deeper into the troubled Danish prince’s psyche. He’s even more thrilled that the production is free, opening it up to a citywide audience who will no doubt be mesmerized by director Michael Kahn’s original, bracing concept (restaged here by Craig Baldwin).

“There’s something great about playing to an audience that has chosen to come, who is just there to enjoy themselves,” says the tall, strikingly handsome 38-year-old. “There's something so much more relaxing, I think, for an audience, to watch a show that they haven't spent money on. And let's be real — there are so many people who can't afford the tickets. Tickets are expensive.

And to have a big, expensive production be free is thrilling, and to be able to do this play for the masses, as it were, is very exciting, and it's something I've always wanted to do.”

Urie was born and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, and felt a draw to the arts at an early age. After studying at Julliard, 24

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

and a run of several small Off Off Broadway plays, he was cast in the ABC hit series Ugly Betty, as flamboyant, bitchy personal assistant Marc St. James. Urie ran with the part and made it indelible and unforgettable.

He’s had subsequent stints in TV — including a memorably offbeat NSA operative on both The Good Wife and its spin-off, The Good Fight — but it’s live theater that holds his heart. Last September, he starred in a critically-hailed revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy — truncated to Torch Song — an essential piece of LGBTQ theater. The show closed in January, and hopes of a national tour were scuttled, but Urie remained unphased. Just bringing Arnold Beckoff to life for a new generation meant the world to him.

Urie has been taking New York by storm as of late, producing “Pride Plays,” a series of LGBTQ plays during June that delved into both the history of Queer theater (As Is, The Baltimore Waltz, and looked ahead at new offings to come). “What's wonderful about being in the theater as a queer artist is there is no lack of representation in queer theater,” Urie says. “The problem is there's too much queer theater and not enough slots. We did 19 programs over five days in Pride Plays, and no two programs were the same at all. It was so diverse.”

Recently, he made a sensation at The Met Gala, walking the red carpet in gender-split couture by Christian Siriano.

“Christian said, ‘I think you should be half man, half woman,’” recalls Urie. “And I was like, ‘Whatever you say, sir.’ And then we started to figure out what that meant. I knew that I didn't want it to be drag or a comment on being trans. I wanted it to be two sides of me. The gown side was sort of the masculine side and the tux side was the more feminine side. And that was the sweet spot of the two sides of me.” Urie still gets giddy recalling the glitzy New York affair. “Cher performed! And it was amazing. And I sat next to Awkwafina at dinner!”

In person, Urie, whom Droege calls “our generation’s Kevin Kline,” is one of the least prepossessing celebrities you’re likely to encounter. His personality — bright, upbeat, and appealing — literally sparkles, and his warmth feels genuine and unhesitating. He speaks on a variety of topics with poise and alacrity, including politics and the state of the world. But his love, his life, his passion is acting. So that’s where the focus of our conversation on this go-around — Urie’s third cover interview for Metro

Weekly — is moored.

“He plays a lot of bitchy people,” says Droege. “He plays a lot of foolish, grand characters, a lot of arrogant characters. And he's nothing like that in life. He's actually really kind, and really a lot more introspective and insightful than a lot of the characters he plays. He's very easy to talk to. He's very kind. He's very fair. And he's very smart. And very human. I mean, he's one of the most human people I know. I love being around him because I always know I'm going to get a real person.”

METRO WEEKLY: Since we last saw you here, starring in Hamlet,

you went on to play Arnold in Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song. Talk about the experience of doing that particular, iconic gay play.

MICHAEL URIE: When we did Hamlet last time, I had just finished Torch Song Off Broadway, and I went into Hamlet knowing I was going to be able to do Torch Song again, but on Broadway. Also, while we were doing Hamlet, I knew that I was going to get to do Hamlet again here [for the Shakespeare Theatre’s Free For All]. There is something interesting about doing a play when you know you're going to have another opportunity, knowing you’re not done yet.

So there was this wonderful informing that happened from Torch Song to Hamlet, back to Torch Song, back to Hamlet. The roles are obviously so different, the plays so different stylistically in tone. But they're both guys with mother troubles.

They're both guys with love troubles. They're both guys who are at odds with the world. Hamlet's obviously very confused by how the world has changed and how he fits in the world, whereas Arnold is sort of a groundbreaking visionary in the way that he fits into the world — he wedges himself in in a way that no one has, so he's a kind of pioneer.

Doing Torch Song in New York at the Helen Hayes Theatre, where it originally played on Broadway, was extremely special. The stakes were really high. It’s such a huge role, a huge play, that meant so much to people. That play changed so many people’s lives and continues to. Nearly every night at the stage door I was told by young and middle-aged people that they were still going through these issues with their family, that they still had to fight their family to be accepted. And this is in New York in late 2018, early 2019. So I felt a great responsibility in doing Torch Song. There are so few roles that are that all-encompassing, that really demand every bit of you, like Arnold and Hamlet. They're very taxing. They're very full. So it was a lot. It was a lot of feelings.

MW: I view Torch Song as the pinnacle of preAIDS gay plays. What Harvey Fierstein created was remarkable. It dealt with issues way ahead of their time. It dealt with hate crimes, it dealt with marriage, it dealt with...

URIE: Adoption.

MW: Adoption. It dealt with topics that we weren't really addressing fully at the time.

URIE: It was very interesting to talk with Harvey about his experience with the play now versus his experience with it in 1982.

Because the third act of the play, which is when the mother and 26

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

the son come in — Arnold has a son, David, and his mother shows up — that act was, and has always been, the real shining moment of Torch Song, where everything comes together. It's so funny and so moving and so upsetting and, ultimately, so beautiful.

When it was done originally, the idea that a gay man would have a son and play house with another man was science fiction.

It was absurd. It was ludicrous. That wasn't really happening.

Maybe occasionally here and there a gay man would end up with a gay teenage son in a foster situation, but that wasn't really a thing like it is now, and so it was looked at as outrageous. And then, when the mother would come in and say things like, "What you are, this is a sickness. How could you expose a child to this?"

And, "If I'd known you were going to be this way, I wouldn't have bothered." She says these horrible things that our audience gasped at every night. Because she comes in, you fall in love with her immediately — the repartee between Ma and Arnold is so wonderful and sizzly, and the audience goes nuts for it. And then she turns and starts saying these horrible things about who he is and his lifestyle and his true self. She starts to attack and discount and degrade, and the audience was devastated by it.

When it was done in 1982, the things she was saying were so normal, so commonplace. It was how people thought, how people felt. That’s what people would say to their children back then. So in 1982, the son and the adoption and the family was crazy and outrageous and shocking, but the mother was normal and commonplace. In 2019, watching a gay man parent a teenage son was normal and didn't turn any heads, but hearing the mother say all those things was shocking. For Harvey, I think, that was the biggest realization — that the play rang true in a totally new way. It was exciting and thrilling and shocking in a totally different way. Same words. Same play. Same characters. But new world, new audience, new generation.

MW: What was it like seeing yourself fully in drag the first time?

URIE: In my mind, I looked like Bernadette Peters, but in the photographs, I do not. [Laughs.] But I felt great. I felt like Bernadette. That was my image.

MW: Do you think the role of Arnold is best fully realized by an out gay actor?

URIE: It's a slippery slope when you start talking about who can play what. I don't know that you really know what it's like to be that guy if you’re straight. But there are lots of things about that guy that I'm not, so the answer is yeah, I'm sure that a straight actor could play the role and could easily convey all the things necessary to convey, even if they don't really know what it's like, in the same way that I think that I can convey the things that Hamlet, who is straight, goes through.

On the one hand, it is called acting. On the other hand, there are deep truths that need to be explored. When I was in Angels In America, I was Prior and Adam Driver played opposite me as Louis. And he's not remotely gay — he's painfully straight. But he's such a good actor, and approached the role from within himself. I think when you're doing true naturalism roles like Louis or Prior or Arnold, that are so human and demand so much of yourself, you start with yourself, and as opposed to putting on the character, you find what is the same about the two of you and go from there.

What Adam did, I think so beautifully, is that he didn't say to himself, "Okay, I'm not gay. What do I need to put on in order to seem gay?" He just accepted that the way he seems could be gay.

He didn’t need to add a limp wrist or a “sibilant s” or a swish in the walk or anything like that in order to be gay, because gay people come in all shapes and sizes, and even Adam Driver — hulking, giant, massive man that he is — could be a gay person, and could be called "sniveling little" like he is in the play, and we would just buy it. We would just go with it, as long as he tells the truth.

So I think it's a very complicated subject when it comes to gay people playing gay, and straight people playing straight and all that stuff. One thing I do believe is that we are capable of putting ourselves in other people's situations and still using what's true about us to convey what's true about them.

MW: Do you feel that we need to open the casting doors wider to more LGBTQ actors for all types of roles?

URIE: Yes. I think that it is not an issue of gay people need to play the gay characters and straight people need to play the straight characters. The issue is that the casting pool needs to be wid-

ened, deepened. It is about getting more people in the room. I understand that an actor has to have a certain amount of credits, visibility, experience, note, to be in major films, and that a studio can't sign off on an actor unless they have a certain pedigree. But it seems to me there's a casting pool problem, because it can't possibly be that the best actor to play an LGBTQ role is always a straight cis person. It just seems impossible that that's the case.

MW: That's not taking into account who may be closeted in Hollywood. There are very few who are fully out.

URIE: Charlton Heston.

MW: What?

URIE: Gay as a goose.

MW: What? Really? No. URIE: [Laughs.] No, no. I'm kidding! I just came up with the straightest name I could.

Look, in the theater, it's not such an issue. Queer people play queer people all the time in the theater. In television, it's not such an issue — we have a lot of representation. In movies, it still seems like it's something we're still working on, moving

“We did a dozen student matinees [of Hamlet] and people would say, ‘I heard things I never heard.’ THERE'S NOTHING MORE GRATIFYING TO AN ACTOR WHO DOES SHAKESPEARE THAN TO HAVE SOMEONE SAY, ‘I UNDERSTOOD IT.’” towards that, and little by little, I think we're chipping away at it, but there still seems to be a casting pool issue when it comes to choosing the best person for the role. That’s not to say that I'm advocating for a world in which only gay people play gay people.

It's really just about leveling the playing field a little bit and hoping that we really are choosing the best people for the jobs and that more people are up for the jobs.

MW: Let’s move to Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, the show you’re directing at Studio.

URIE: So Bright Colors and Bold Patterns is a solo comedy by Drew Droege. Ryan and Drew are old friends, from when they both first moved to Los Angeles. For years, Drew would visit us and stay in our guest room. He became one of our closest friends. And one time he came to New York, and was saying, "Oh, I have a show at Ars Nova, you guys should come see it." And I assumed, because Drew does so much improv, it was going to be some kind of wonderful, funny sketch. What I didn't know was that he had written a play — like a real play — and he was doing it with a couple of chairs and a couple of beach towels and a margarita. But it was a full blown play, with a beginning, middle, and end. And it was brilliant.

Here was one guy doing a play with two chairs and a margarita, but creating an entire world of a Palm Springs deck with four people. He plays one character, but there are four characters in the play, and you glean what the others say based on him. There are other people around, but you don't see or hear them, you just get what they're doing and saying based on what he says to them.

And I said, "This is so good and so tight and so solid, I think there's a production here. You need to fill this world out and you need to create scenes out of this and turn it into an evening and JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

27

not just an entertainment, because it's really about something.

It's really a thoughtful narrative, not just a comic monologue.

And I know from one-man shows [having done Buyer & Cellar], and I can help you maintain this and I can help you keep this going. I know the tricks to make it sustainable and not just something you do every few weeks, one performance, two performances here and there. You can run this thing."

Luckily, Zach Laks also saw this performance at Ars Nova and thought the same thing from a producer standpoint. And so the three of us — Drew, Zach, and I — got together and figured out how to make it a production. We presented it at Barrow Street Theater, where we did Buyer & Cellar, and it was very well received, sold out. Then we set up a proper run at SoHo Playhouse, and it ran for like five months, and even had a replacement. Drew had to go and do other things, but the ticket sales were good, so we brought in Jeff Hiller, who was brilliant. So it started with Drew's fabulous idea and his philosophy and became this show, and now our production's here at the Studio Theater with Jeff.

It's a very exciting play, and it really represents, I think, the point of view of a lot of people of this generation who figured out who they were pre-marriage-equality and then figured out how to adjust to post-marriage-equality without having grown up with the dreams of being a husband or a wife. There are so many ideas and philosophies within the play. It's a character that's very funny, very outrageous, very wise, and very thoughtful, and I think people come and laugh a lot, but they also leave a little bit smarter. It's one of the funniest things you'll ever see — it feels like you're having a drunken night with a friend in Palm Springs when you go. It turns dark and it gets serious, but it really feels like you're at a party.

MW: At the same time you’re directing this, you’re back at the Harman in Hamlet. What’s it like to revisit this dense and psychologically demanding role.

URIE: It's such a marathon to do and then to maintain. There's so much there. There are so many giant questions that you have to either answer for yourself or embrace the ambiguity of what Hamlet is going through. He doesn't know what to do.

28

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

He doesn't know what to think. He's got a ghost telling him that his father's been murdered by his uncle, and he doesn't know if that ghost is real, and he has to figure out if that ghost is real. I mean, they're really big problems that this guy is going through, but they're also completely universal problems. To live or to die? To act or to not?

We got to run it for quite a while last time, and I learned so much, but I was also so overwhelmed and so exhausted and so full.

But I felt really good about what we'd done. We did a dozen student matinees and I could tell that they loved it and they learned something. People who would say, "I heard things I never heard." I mean, there's nothing more gratifying to an actor who does Shakespeare than to have someone say, "I understood it."

MW: That's the barrier.

URIE: That's the big barrier: making sure they understand it.

And giant, giant props to Michael Kahn, who created a version of Hamlet that's extremely accessible and real and natural, because I think that helps so much.

Audiences see a human being instead of a poetry machine.

MW: Are you playing it any differently this time?

URIE: Yeah. I think it's deeper, darker. I think I've invested more in the mourning of his father. In the same way that I can look back on what we did last time and improve upon it or deepen it or tighten it. Craig Baldwin, who is remounting it — he was with us the entire time, he was Michael's assistant — he is able to look back on it. He watched it basically every night, he was there every day in rehearsal, and he's able to say, "These are the things that Michael created that set us up, that we can trust." Because that's the thing about a big conceit or about learning the lines or about knowing what happens, is that you do all that work so that you can then let it go. You do all the work, the physical and the vocal and the textual work so that you can let it go and let it be real and let it sing out. And the same is true for the conceit of this version of Hamlet.

MW: You have some film credits, but you're more known for your television work in Ugly Betty, and beyond that, really, as a New York stage actor. Is there a reason that you've chosen the career path that you have?

URIE: When people ask what kind of actor I am, I usually say

theater and TV. And that is in part because I love the theater so much. I also love television, but I love the theater, it's sort of a drug for me. I get antsy if I don't know the next time I'm going to be on stage. And I guess to an extent that's true with television.

Television's exciting because it's so wide in scope, and exposure.

If you're on a TV show, especially a network show that has fast turnaround, you can really tap into something special, I think.

On TV, if you're shooting something that's going to be on TV within a few weeks, you can talk about what's happening in the world, and that can be real exciting.

Doing theater is a longer commitment, and a longer lead time.

When you commit to doing a play, when you commit to doing something like Hamlet, that's many, many months in advance.

Sometimes a year in advance. I think when we scheduled Hamlet, it was maybe a year or more in advance of the first day of rehearsal. And that's kind of the nature of the beast when it

Moscow Moscow. But our life is good. We've both done a lot since we saw you last. We've had ups and downs in our careers, but we're both working.

MW: You're incredibly supportive of one another. It's amazing to watch the two of you on Instagram, because there's this incredible synergy of supporting each other's work. It’s very powerful and loving. Are there marriage plans? As a journalist, I am required by law to ask about that possibility.

URIE: [Laughs.] No, there are not. There are not marriage plans.

There is the occasional marriage conversation.

MW: Could you ever see yourselves raising a kid together?

URIE: Yes. We have more conversations like that than marriage conversations, I would say.

MW: Why not marriage?

URIE: Like the character in Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, it was never something we wanted, because it was never something we were allowed, until we were. And so we just didn't have those kinds of hopes and dreams, because they were not for us. And so I think that is why it hasn't happened yet. I think also we're so busy. That's not to say that we work all the time, although we do have a lot of work, but when you're an actor, and when you're two actors, if you're not in the middle of working — and I mean literally working, learning lines, or in rehearsal, or performing — you're looking for a job. That's just the way it is. And so there's very little downtime. And I think planning a wedding is like producing a festival or a movie. And so, while I do think that we probably [will] at some point get married, for neither of us is a wedding that important.

MW: The relationship's the thing.

URIE: Yeah. I mean we've been together 10 and a half, almost 11 years. We’re family.

MW: Final question: We just concluded the biggest Pride month in the history of this country. Are you proud to be an out gay actor?

That may sound like a silly question, but there are so many actors who, for fear of their careers, remain in the closet. You are one of the brave ones, in my mind.

URIE: Well, if I wasn't an out gay actor, then I wouldn't have a career. The truth is, you can't be an actor, you can't rise to the level that really any actor probably wants to rise in terms of visibility, without eventually talking about your personal life. So if there are closeted movie stars, they're doing an incredible job of staying in the closet. They're incredible actors for being able to do all that. So yeah, I'm definitely proud. But I guess I'm more proud of the work than the fact that I'm able to be out in my work. So, the answer's yes. l

“[Bright Colors and Bold Patterns] is one of the funniest things you'll ever see — it feels like you're having a drunken night with a friend in Palm Springs. IT REALLY FEELS LIKE YOU'RE AT A PARTY.” comes to doing theater. So you have to make more of a commitment, and more of a choice to do theater.

In terms of television, it's sort of always happening. It's just this machine, it's always there, and when you get established, as I've been lucky to be, if something's right for you, they'll find you, or they'll reach out. It's not worth it for me to be in L.A., pounding the pavement, because I've done enough and know enough people that if I'm right for something, I'll get in the mix, you know what I mean? I'll be considered.

MW: Did Ugly Betty change things for you as an actor?

URIE: It changed everything. When I got Ugly Betty, I was very much a gigging, living paycheck-to-paycheck, New York, Off Off Broadway actor, who would do commercials and temp to make money. I was doing plays, making $300 a week when I got the pilot of Ugly Betty, and then within nine months or less I was on the cover of magazines in grocery stores [and] on newsstands.

Then, when I came back to New York to do theater, I was in a different bracket of actor. I was being considered for different kinds of roles, and at different kinds of theaters.

MW: The last time you were on the cover, I spoke with both you and your partner, Ryan Spahn. You were both so generous about opening up about your life together. It's been a year and a half since we spoke. So, I have to ask: How is life with Ryan?

URIE: It's good! We did a play that he wrote at Pride Plays. He wrote this very exciting play about the nature of being a gay actor when it comes to casting, sort of what we were talking about before — it tackles all those issues. It's dynamic and funny and very exciting. I'm sad he's not here playing Rosencrantz again, although we have a wonderful new actor, Tim Nicolai, playing Rosencrantz. Ryan’s doing a very funny version of Three Sisters Off Broadway called Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow

Michael Urie stars in Hamlet through July 21 at the Harman Center for the Arts, 610 F St. NW. Tickets are free and distributed daily through a lottery. Call 202-547-1122 for more details or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org/freeforall.

Bright Colors and Bold Patterns runs to July 28 at the Studio Theatre, 14th & P Streets NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit www.studiotheatre.org.

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

29

Bright & Gay

M

OST OF MY CAREER HAS BEEN AS A GUEST STAR, on television shows you've heard of and some you haven't,” says Jeff Hiller. “I play a lot of gay ‘insert profession’ roles. A lot of gay customer service representatives that the main character meets and is bothered by.” Take, for example, NBC’s 30 Rock, when Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon went to her high school reunion. “I played the hotel concierge who was not good at his job,” says Hiller.

Among Hiller’s credits are The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, MTV’s Boiling Points, and NBC’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent, as well as Netflix’s The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. “One of the mole women, played by Sol Miranda, becomes a famous businesswoman, and I played her bitchy gay assistant Tomothy,” he says. “And then there was the ‘Sliding Van Doors’ episode later, where my character came back and it turned out I was a flight attendant with Jane Krakowski's character.”

That wasn’t his first time portraying a flight attendant. “On 30 Rock, there was an episode where Tina Fey was dating Matt Damon and they break up on a plane that is stuck on the runway.

I played the flight attendant.... I’ve played a flight attendant, I think, four times. I'm sure Channing Tatum has too, right?”

A native of Texas, Hiller moved to New York nearly two decades ago to pursue a career in performance. “I cut my teeth as an improviser, and then moved into stage work and film and TV,” he says. He’s a longtime member of acclaimed improv group Upright Citizens Brigade, co-founded by Amy Poehler, and is part of the company’s LGBTQ ensemble We Will Turn You Gay and also its signature stage show ASSSSCAT. Anticipating the

RUSS ROWLAND

Out actor Jeff Hiller takes center stage in Studio Theatre’s funny and insightful Bright Colors and Bold Patterns.

By Doug Rule next question, Hiller says, “I don’t know, it’s just a funny name.”

The 42-year-old has also appeared in a number of Broadway and Off Broadway musical comedies, including Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Silence: The Musical, a spoof of Silence of the Lambs. “Not to brag, but I’m on four cast albums,” he says, with his other credits being a musical version of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost and an Encores revival of Lady Be Good.

At the moment, his focus is on performing Drew Droege’s one-man show Bright Colors and Bold Patterns at Studio Theater.

Hiller succeeded Droege during the show’s hit Off Broadway run, directed by Michael Urie, and credits his comedy background with landing the role. “Because this is a show that really needs a comedian, but also a show that runs like a theater show, they wanted a comedian who had done theater,” says Hiller, who had previously worked with Urie on Ugly Betty and the shortlived, gay-themed sitcom Partners. “I am one of the very few who is both a gay comedian who also does theater.”

Hiller describes his character Gerry as someone “who has some really good points that he makes and then...some really awful points too [when] talking about modern gay life.” The show casts a critical eye on the heteronormative aspects of marriage equality and whether the result is a diminishing of our differences as LGBTQ people. As someone who married his partner in 2013, Hiller appreciates both sides of the debate.

“We as queer people are [not] boring, we're not normal, we're not plain, and we want to celebrate that difference, and I get that,” he says. “But also, if my husband died, I want the apartment, so I'm going to take it.” l

Bright Colors and Bold Patterns runs to July 28 at Studio Theatre, 14th & P Streets NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit www.studiotheatre.org.

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

31

CAPITAL FRINGE 2019: A COMPLETE GUIDE The popular festival returns with nearly 90 shows, from the thought-provoking to the absurd.

By Doug Rule

T

HERE’S A LOT OF POLITICAL STUFF THIS YEAR,” says Julianne Brienza, the founding director of Capital Fringe. “Not super heavy-handed, but more than I've seen in the past.” The uptick in politically themed shows at the festival, which is principally programmed through an open-invitation, first-come, first-staged basis, hardly came as a surprise to Brienza. “Do you live in the United States of America? What do you think we're all doing right now? And that is what the festival is for. It's for the telling of stories in a raw, fast-paced manner [that helps] people work out ideas.”

The political offerings at this year’s 14th annual festival includes Kirsten Grady’s timely comedy The Little Senator That Could, about a Republican senator increasingly demoralized by presidential actions and controversies, and CRAPSHOOT!, Todd Blakesley’s satire about a political naïf who struggles mightily to justify his decision to vote for Trump.

Another popular theme in the lineup of nearly 90 shows this year are those offering riffs on the works of William Shakespeare. The roster includes the Fringe Curated production written by Mike Reiss, a veteran writer for TV’s The Simpsons, and local actor and educator Nick Newlin, a college friend of Reiss’s. The play, Shakespeare’s Worst, explores, as Brienza puts it, “what is horrible about Shakespeare, kind of poking fun at it.”

Meanwhile, playwright Rachel Garnet offers a same-sex spin on Romeo & Juliet further twisted with a new romantic tryst between two different classic characters. The play, Starcrossed

Lovers: The Tragedy of Mercutio and Tybalt, is also one of several shows with an LGBTQ theme.

After last year’s successful debut of shows concentrated in Southwest’s Waterfront — and while Capital Fringe’s own complex in Northeast D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood remains closed for renovations — the festival returns to area venues including Arena Stage and several nearby churches. New for 2019 is a non-theatrical production from visual artist and projectionist Robin Bell, best known for politically barbed projections on the Trump International Hotel. Called the Arcade, the installation offers roughly 20 video and interactive games that patrons play in teams to win ticket giveaways and other prizes.

It’s the homegrown nature of Capital Fringe that most pleases Brienza. “At this year’s festival, 70 percent of the [production] participants live in the D.C. area,” she says. “When I think about all the entertainment stuff that goes on in D.C., to have that many local folks creating theater pieces is phenomenal.

33 1/3 CHORUS GIRLS Sketch comedy about show business. Arena Stage.

7/14, 7/18, 7/23, 7/27

together historical details and discrepancies about U.S. history.

Arena Stage.

Now-7/21

52 PICKUP Original music and choreography as well as text for a funny, hopeful, and emotional look at coping with trauma. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/13, 7/20, 7/24, 7/27

A SHORT HISTORY OF UNFORTUNATE ANIMALS A world-premiere solo dance piece from Lorien House. Arena Stage.

7/13, 7/16, 7/19, 7/26

AMELIA Explores the life and disappearance of the famed female aviator.

St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/13, 7/14, 7/20, 7/21, 7/26, 7/27

A GENTLEMAN & A LIAR A comedy devised by and featuring The Magic Duel’s Brian Curry and Mark Phillips. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church 7/12, 7/14, 7/26, 7/27 A HISTORY OF LAUGHTER Tour guide and comedian Matt Dundas leads a stroll up Pennsylvania Avenue complete with alternative facts about history, politics, and himself.

Winfield Scott Hancock Statue, 701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW 7/11, 7/12, 7/13, 7/14, 7/16, 7/17 A PEOPLE'S HISTORY Mike Daisey performs 18 different full-length monologues weaving

32

ACUÑA ACUNA Erick Acuña reveals the best and worst aspects of life as a Peruvian man living in the U.S. Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/13, 7/16, 7/20, 7/27, 7/28 AIR MAIL/PAR AVION A devised musical about a summer fling between two musicians during a jazz festival in Belgium.

Riverside Baptist Church.

7/12, 7/13, 7/20, 7/21, 7/23, 7/27, 7/28 ALL FOR THE UNION A drama based on the true story of the Civil War-era Steer sisters, Virginia’s first female journalists.

Christ United Methodist Church.

7/14, 7/16, 7/20, 7/25, 7/26

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

Capital Fringe runs through July 28 at various venues in the Waterfront.

Tickets are $20 per show, with multi-show passes ranging from $72 to $500. Call 866-811-4111 or visit www.capitalfringe.org.

A full list of productions follows. Show descriptions adapted from those submitted by productions. Fuller descriptions, along with showtimes, can be found at www.capitalfringe.org. Productions containing LGBTQ content are denoted by a rainbow flag.

AMERICAN DIET Maria completes her health project with help from her chronically dieting mother, gym friends, and a human liver’s rhythmic visit.

Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/11, 7/14, 7/18, 7/21, 7/27, 7/28 AMERICAN TRANQUILITY Daniel Damiano portrays a Southern retiree, a Middle Eastern poet/percussionist, a talk radio host, and a Brooklyn existentialist in a solo comedy. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/13, 7/14, 7/19, 7/21 AN EVENING WITH LOLA MONTEZ A 19th-century Irish woman reinvents herself as an international celebrity. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/13, 7/17, 7/21, 7/26, 7/27 AN EYE FOR AN EYE The Bacchae, Euripedes’s ancient Greek tragedy about family honor,

religion, and revenge, gets a classical adaptation. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/13, 7/18, 7/21, 7/27 ARCADE Robin Bell’s interactive projection and video installation allows patrons to play games as a team-building exercise and to win a Southwest D.C. entertainment and dining package. The Wharf.

7/13-7/21 BEFORE THE FALL Three characters are each plunged into an existential crisis as their world explodes in chaos.

Riverside Baptist Church.

7/13, 7/17, 7/20, 7/26, 7/27 BEYOND THESE WALLS Nine strangers are forced to confront their biggest fears in order to survive. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/12, 7/19, 7/21, 7/23, 7/27 BODY. True, personal stories about the relationships we have to the narratives of our bodies through mono-

logues, poetry, and movement.

Riverside Baptist Church.

7/13, 7/19, 7/21, 7/27 CARIBBEAN COMMAND A drama about the United States Caribbean Command, as the military officers assigned there learn their country is going to war. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/14, 7/21, 7/24, 7/27 CODEPENDENT A world-premiere dramedy about 20-something besties struggling to figure out who they are. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/11, 7/16, 7/21, 7/25, 7/27 CONVERSATIONS A personal story about grief after a father’s death. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/11, 7/13, 7/18, 7/21, 7/26 CRAPSHOOT! A character abstains from voting — until his Trump-supporting coworkers cajole him to follow suit. Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/13, 7/18, 7/20, 7/21, 7/23 DANCETHOS The unexpected and unconventional language of movement is explored in modern dance works.

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/16, 7/19, 7/26, 7/27 DREAMER/SEEKER A drama about an actor whose return after an accident to the stage is complicated by memories of his past. Riverside Baptist Church.

7/12, 7/14, 7/17, 7/21, 7/23, 7/27 DUST Lesbian astronauts Anne and Cass have to decide whether to tell everyone about their impending death as a result of a solar flare headed toward earth. Riverside Baptist Church 7/14, 7/19, 7/26, 7/27 EMIL AMOK! ALL PUCKED UP: HARVARD, NPR AND MORE Emil Amok Guillermo channels his father, a colonized Filipino from nearly a century ago, to show how history repeats itself. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/20, 7/23, 7/26, 7/27, 7/28 ENERGIE: A ROCK MUSICAL Music inspires a theoretical physicist to discover a new form of energy that is safe and free. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/11, 7/14, 7/17, 7/24, 7/27

EYESOAR Wrestling with change in a multimedia work featuring audio, video, and movement. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/13, 7/18, 7/21, 7/28 THE FACE ZONE Original spoken-word vignettes in a whimsical, humorous, piano-accompanied exploration of everything from scrapple to the meaning of life. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/13, 7/17, 7/26, 7/27 FLIRTING LIKE AN AMERICAN First-generation immigrant Sufian Zhemukhov explores the American style of flirting, writing, and eating in humorous stories that won the Moth Story Slam.

Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/11, 7/14, 7/20, 7/25, 7/27 FROM DIVORCE TO RESTORATION An innovative tale about divorce and healing, told through poetry, hip-hop, and drama, intended to “represent the voice of every woman.” Christ United Methodist Church.

7/23, 7/26, 7/27, 7/28 GOOD & KISSED A liberal New Yorker rediscovers herself while on a “summer of yes” trip to a Southern island, prompted by learning about the shockingly secret life of her longtime boyfriend. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/12, 7/13, 7/18, 7/20 H.P. LOVECRAFT'S: THE CALL OF CTHULHU An immersive production of Robert Cousins’s dramatic adaptation of Lovecraft’s horrific tale about a priest on a remote island in the Pacific. Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/11, 7/14, 7/20, 7/25, 7/28 HATPIN PANIC How much better do women have it today than the five Chicago women who defended themselves a century ago using their hat pins?

Arena Stage.

7/12, 7/13, 7/14, 7/18, 7/20 HEARTBEATS & ALGORITHMS A heartachingly funny look at the seductive, inescapable world of information use and abuse that was a sold-out sensation in a run on London’s West End. Riverside Baptist Church.

7/14, 7/18, 7/20, 7/21, 7/27

THE HEIST Joe Randazzo’s dramatic improvised show focuses on a bank robbery gone wrong with hostages in peril and the outcome shaped by audiences, making every show different. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/13, 7/19, 7/23, 7/27 HEXAGON 2019: E PLURIBUS SCREW 'EM A fresh take on politics and culture. Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/13, 7/14, 7/20, 7/21, 7/27 HOLD THE TOMATO A comedy variety show with the aim of “proving that there's a home for bad jokes and weird, low-budget art.” Arena Stage.

7/11, 7/14, 7/20, 7/24, 7/27 HOME, SWEET, _____ A heartfelt comedy exploring feelings of homesickness and nostalgia and a yearning to go back to one’s roots. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/16, 7/20, 7/21, 7/25, 7/27 THE HOUND A solo, one-act play adapted from the classic, short horror story by H.P. Lovecraft. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/12, 7/14, 7/16, 7/17, 7/21, 7/25 HOW’S THAT WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? 2.0 A deliciously funny buffet of comedy: a cheeky look at women, power, and justice in the age of #metoo. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/11, 7/13, 7/16, 7/20,7/26, 7/27, 7/28 I FAVOR MY DADDY Moth champion Jamie Brickhouse explores concepts of inherited traits and individual identity through a look at a man who “adored bikinis and martinis as much as his homosexual alcoholic son.” Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/13, 7/14, 7/18, 7/21 I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD: THE TOTALLY TRUE ADVENTURES OF A NEWFANGLED BLACK WOMAN A sojourn embracing Southern roots, gospel rhythms, and queer identity, where one family’s love conquers all. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/11, 7/12, 7/13, 7/17, 7/23

IF THESE BALLS COULD TALK Carolann Valentino’s solo musical relates her experience managing an infamous, male-dominanted New York City steakhouse.

Arena Stage.

7/16, 7/19, 7/20, 7/21, 7/24 INFERNO THE MUSICAL A dark, comedic spectacle about the bored Guardians of Hell’s Gates that explores love and destiny through brothels, sex, and gunplay.

Westminster Presbyterian Church 7/18, 7/20, 7/23, 7/25, 7/27, 7/28 INTIMATE DINNER As a server at an exclusive pop-up dinner in D.C., Lauren French will guide theatergoers through a difficult working shift that erupts into chaos. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/13, 7/18, 7/24, 7/26 IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT A one-woman epic that reimagines the mythic figure of Iphigenia and challenges audiences to consider who bears the true cost of austerity. Arena Stage.

7/12, 7/13, 7/20, 7/21 JOURNEY TO LONG NOSE Rachel Pollock shares quirky, original, and humorous stories. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/13, 7/17, 7/19, 7/21 JUDGE ME NOT An assemblage of monologues around a common theme about passing judgement. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/14, 7/17, 7/21, 7/25 KAFKA'S METAMORPHOSIS: THE MUSICAL! Kafka's mesmerizing novella comes to hilarious and haunting life. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/11, 7/13,7/14 THE KNIGHTS OF SALISBURY An original musical about a teenage rock band in 1960s Massachusetts. Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/13, 7/14, 7/16, 7/20, 7/21 LET'S FIGHT AND SAY WE DIDN'T Constant quarreling leads one family to a breaking point.

Riverside Baptist Church.

7/12, 7/14, 7/19, 7/24, 7/28 LITTLE WHITE LIES A choreographed work exploring truth and lies as manifested in the “self.” St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/11, 7/14, 7/20, 7/23, 7/27

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

33

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CLIMATE CHANGE One young woman’s struggle to find community and develop relationships with everyone from a climate refugee to a climate denier.

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/14, 7/19, 7/25, 7/27 MAMITA: EULOGIES TO THE LIVING A love letter to a mother, drawing on multiple voices.

Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/13, 7/14, 7/20, 7/21, 7/27 MAYHEM AND OTHER DELIGHTS Self-driving cars, natural disasters, opiate addiction, IVF and sexuality, and meditation are examined in a raucous variety show. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/18, 7/20, 7/21, 7/26, 7/28 MEG JO BETH AMY & LOUISA Things get weird when Louisa May Alcott writes a little girl’s book using figures and stories from her own life. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/16, 7/19, 7/20, 7/21, 7/24 NEVERLANDING Involuntarily institutionalized 30 years after his return from Neverland, a man is forced to confront the truth about his past.

Christ United Methodist Church.

7/14, 7/20, 7/23, 7/27 NOTHING BROKEN An intimate, raw comedy about divorce complete with audience interaction. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/12, 7/16, 7/20, 7/25, 7/27 OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER A young teacher’s progressive values are threatened through her secret side gig working for a conservative Speaker of the House. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/11, 7/14, 7/18, 7/21, 7/25 OIZYS IN THE WAITING ROOM A world premiere dance piece that confronts modern anxiety, as well as “asking what it takes to redirect its power and invoke change.” St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/16, 7/20, 7/25, 7/27 OUR TOWN PLUS ZOMBIES Thornton Wilder’s classic play is paid homage in a comedy where industrial waste awakens the dead.

Riverside Baptist Church.

7/13, 7/18, 7/20, 7/25

34

PASSING A play about three generations of women affected by the Holocaust.

Riverside Baptist Church.

7/11, 7/13, 7/16, 7/20, 7/24 PRIDE OF DOVES Nightmarish hijinks ensue after an apocalyptic trio tries to find meaning in a dead, mangled bird. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/12, 7/17, 7/20, 7/23, 7/27 REWIRING EDEN A drama that works to re-open the biblical garden to women from myth, verse, and legend with their own stories to tell. Riverside Baptist Church.

7/11, 7/13, 7/16, 7/20, 7/25 SAUCY JACK AND THE SPACE VIXENS A new musical set at a bar where cabaret acts are being killed off one by one. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/12, 7/18, 7/20, 7/28 SHAKESPEARE’S WORST Everything that could go wrong does when a community theater troupe attempts to stage Two Gentlemen of Verona. Arena Stage.

7/11, 7/13, 7/18, 7/19, 7/21 SHE SINGS LIGHT Through poetry, sound, movement, and light, a solo gatherer in a post-apocalyptic world is shown leading efforts to rebuild the forgotten planet. Arena Stage.

7/11, 7/13, 7/14, 7/19, 7/20 SIX MONTHS OF WINTER Day and Night struggle to cohabit together for six months.

Arena Stage.

7/12, 7/14, 7/21, 7/25, 7/28 SOUL REDEEMER A musical about aging soul superstar Buddy King’s improbable attempt at a comeback as a disco artist. Westminster Presbyterian Church.

7/14, 7/20, 7/21, 7/25, 7/27 SPEAK *GIRLS PRESENTS A new devised piece featuring movement, writing, and music by and about the teenagers in the Speak*Girls Ensemble. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/18, 7/20, 7/21 STARCROSSED: THE TRAGEDY OF MERCUTIO AND TYBALT A re-imagining of Romeo & Juliet with a same-sex spin.

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church 7/20, 7/23, 7/25, 7/27, 7/28 STUCK A crafty teenage girl invites her bad boy crush over while mom is away. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church 7/11, 7/13, 7/21, 7/24, 7/27 SURFACING A refugee hiding underground, a kidnapped girl, and a son facing a blood revenge [and their] struggle for sanity. How do their minds deal with the mental toll? St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/13, 7/16, 7/18, 7/23, 7/28 THANKSGIVING AT MACBETH’S A dark family comic-tragedy revealing what happens when people stop being polite and start getting unreal. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/12, 7/13, 7/20, 7/21, 7/24, 7/27 THAT'S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED A show featuring unsupervised toddlers, creepy clowns, showtunes, unreliable narrators, questionable boyfriends, and just maybe a bit of truth. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/13, 7/16, 7/20, 7/21 THE BREAKUP A despondent man is so heartbroken about the end of a relationship, he can't sleep, he can't eat, he can't clip his toenails. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/14, 7/17, 7/20, 7/26, 7/27 THE LITTLE SENATOR THAT COULD One of the last sane Republican senators can’t stop obsessing over his Reagan-era glory days. Christ United Methodist Church.

7/12, 7/13, 7/21, 7/26, 7/27 THIS PLACE OF OURS An evocatively gritty dance piece showcasing how perceived differences can be used to bring people closer together. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/11, 7/13, 7/14, 7/17 VELVET DETERMINATION A one-woman musical comedy about wrong notes, hard knocks and the keys to success for a classical pianist.

Christ United Methodist Church 7/11, 7/13, 7/14, 7/16 VENEER OF BEAUTY A young gay man struggles to overcome a troubled childhood

and adapt to adult life in the 1990s.

Arena Stage.

7/12, 7/14, 7/16, 7/20 WE’RE ALL GOING TO FUCKING DIE! Sex educator Twanna A. Hines shares stories about overcoming anxiety, taking back joy, and having the best sex ever. Arena Stage.

7/14, 7/18, 7/25, 7/28 WHAT I'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR An unexpected diagnosis compels a thoroughly confused man to action. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/12, 7/16, 7/20, 7/26, 7/27 WHAT WASN'T A story of trauma inflicted on a family of four. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.

7/12, 7/14, 7/20, 7/23 WOULD YOU RATHER… Speed dating meets choose-yourown-adventure tale. Arena Stage.

7/13, 7/20, 7/23, 7/27 YOU DON'T HAVE A COPYRIGHT ON YOUR MOM'S LEGACY (AND OTHER DUMB THINGS PEOPLE SAY WHEN YOU'RE MOURNING) A solo show that highlights the grieving process. St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

7/12, 7/13, 7/14, 7/20, 7/24

VENUES

All venues in the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood of Washington, D.C, within walking distance of the Waterfront Station on Metro’s Green Line.

ARCADE 997 Maine Ave. SW ARENA STAGE 1101 6th St. SW CHRIST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 900 4th St. SW RIVERSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH 699 Maine Ave. SW ST. AUGUSTINE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 555 Water St. SW ST. MATTHEW’S LUTHERAN CHURCH 222 M St. SW WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 400 I St. SW l

Movies

Tangled Web

Spider-Man: Far From Home sets up Marvel’s next cinematic cycle, and delivers the MCU’s first real romantic comedy. By André Hereford

L

OVE IS IN THE AIR IN SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, THE SECOND full-fledged Spidey feature to star Tom Holland as Queens teen Peter Parker and his web-slinging superhero alter ego. The film — directed by Jon Watts, who also helmed Holland’s first solo superhero outing Spider-Man: Homecoming — actually marks the actor’s fifth onscreen swing in a role that, from the beginning, seemed to fit him like a tailor-made suit.

In these movies, Spidey’s super-suit was tailor-made by billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, the hero who sacrificed himself for the sake of the universe in this summer’s Avengers: Endgame. Peter’s still bereft over the death of Stark, his superhero mentor and champion, and Holland wears that grief with the wide-eyed confusion of a boy who’s lost his guiding father figure. Still only 16, Peter already has seen war and devastation, and unspeakable loss of life, he died himself, came back, helped Stark save the world, then lost his friend all over again.

And yet, Far From Home (HHH and a half), as lighthearted and funny as any MCU adventure that’s preceded it, doesn’t get too mired in missing ol’ Tony Stark. If anyone, the film misses Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who, though undoubtedly well-compensated, don’t get enough credit for their films’ lucidly staged and shot, fast-moving action sequences. The Russos introduced Holland’s cinematic iteration of Spider-Man in the 2016 blockbuster Captain America: Civil War, and they’ve done an excellent job shepherding Marvel’s signature character across a few films that weren’t released by Sony, the studio that still controls the rights to standalone Spider-Man films.

Far from Home director Watts, working with cinematographer Matthew J. Lloyd (who also shot Thor: Ragnarok and Captain Marvel), forgoes finesse for a more erratic rhythm. The choppy style is especially glaring in the movie’s first large-scale action set-piece, a wet and wild battle in Venice, Italy, between a water giant and a new caped crusader on the scene, Mysterio. Beneath his glowing-orb headpiece, Mysterio is a man

not of this earth named Quentin Beck and played by Jake Gyllenhaal as the inspiring new mentor of Peter Parker’s dreams.

Peter, on a science tour of Europe with his classmates — including crush MJ (Zendaya) and best bud Ned (Jacob Batalon) — almost instantly sees in Beck the hero he lost in Stark. The film derives much of its driving emotion from Peter’s innocent quest to understand how to use the lessons and legacy he was left by Tony Stark.

The film’s plot, consequently, hinges on what Peter will do with the tech Stark left him. Packing for Europe, Pete can’t decide if he wants to take his tech-enhanced Spider-suit, or leave his superhero identity at home. Does he always have to step up to save the world, or can’t this kid from Queens just be? Someone asks Peter if he’s the new head of the Avengers, but could he possibly fill the role of team leader? Peter questioning himself about whether he’s ready to wield inherited power represents a surprisingly deep and worthwhile journey for the youngest Avenger.

Peter is also asked whether he’s going to ghost Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson’s all-seeing, all-knowing spy chief, who is desperately trying to reach Mr. Parker.

Fury, and his stalwart right-hand Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), do catch up with Peter, and this new team-up, and the post-Thanos circumstances, give Jackson and Smulders new notes to play in their umpteenth appearances in these movies.

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

35

Having been snapped out of existence five years prior, and only recently restored to life, Fury’s been humbled, and he can admit it. Cool but off-kilter is a refreshing look on the godfather of the MCU, and Jackson carries it off well, even if Fury’s storyline gets

chopped into a bit of a jumble by the end.

Alas, Watts and returning Homecoming screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers pile on twists that both add to, and subtract from, the ongoing, increasingly serpentine mythology of the Marvel movies.

The film attempts perhaps one or two too many plot twists, and it keeps twisting away until its last post-credit scene. But where Far from Home flows smoothly, with ease and winking humor, is in its sweetly giddy take on young romance, charmingly conveyed

by Holland and Zendaya. Peter doesn’t necessarily get to take a day off from saving the world, but he at least learns what it’s like to kiss the girl. Tony Stark probably could have taught him a lesson about that too. l

Spider-Man: Far From Home is rated PG-13, and is now playing everywhere. Visit www.fandango.com.

36

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

NightLife Photography by Ward Morrison

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

37

Scene

Green Lantern - Saturday, July 6 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

DrinksDragDJsEtc...

Thursday, July 11

of Bud Products all night • Sports Leagues Night

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Shirtless Thursday, 10-11pm • Men in Underwear Drink Free, 12-12:30am • DJs BacK2bACk NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • $15 Buckets

NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-2am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm • Thirst Trap Thursdays, hosted by Venus Valhalla, 11pm-12:30am • Featuring a Rotating Cast of Drag Performers • Dancing until 1:30am SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas

and Select Appetizers • Half-Priced Bottles of Wine, 5pm-close • Paint Nite, Second Floor, 7pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS All male, nude dancers, 9pm-close • “New Meat” Open Dancers Audition • Music by DJ Don T. • Cover 21+

Friday, July 12 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything

Destinations A LEAGUE OF HER OWN 2317 18th St. NW 202-733-2568 www.facebook.com/alohodc AVALON SATURDAYS Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW 202-789-5429 www.facebook.com/ AvalonSaturdaysDC 38

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR LGBT HQ and Freddie’s team up for BlerDCon 2019: Buy a bracelet for 1 Day ($10), 2 Days ($15) or 3 Days ($20) for 15% off on Food and Drinks all day long at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Federico Ristorante Italiano • Doors open 4pm • No Cover • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • DC Royal Drag Pageant, 8-10pm • Cosplay Karaoke, 10pm-close • Multiple Raffle Prizes during Karaoke GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 Rail and Domestic • $5 Svedka, all flavors all night long • Ottermatic: OtterPop! with Jeff Prior, 10pm-close • Special guest DJ DVONNE with The Barber Streisand •

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

Hosted by Grant Collins • $5 Cover (includes clothes check) NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Open 3pm • Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Weekend Kickoff Dance Party, with Nellie’s DJs spinning bubbly pop music all night NUMBER NINE Open 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover • Friday Night Piano with Chris, 7:30pm • Rotating DJs, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open 5pm-3am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 4-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • Otter Happy Hour with guest DJs, 5-11pm ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets, 9pm • Guest dancers • Rotating DJs • Kristina Kelly’s Diva Fev-ah Drag Show • Doors at 9pm, Shows at 11:45pm • Music by DJ Jeff Eletto • Cover 21+

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

NIGHTLIFE HIGHLIGHTS Compiled by Doug Rule

OTTERMATIC // OTTERPOP This Friday, July 12, ushers in another edition of the latest monthly party at the Green Lantern named for a particular type of hirsute gay man. Conceived by Bryan Smith and Matt Strother, Ottermatic is “open to all people and self-identified animals,” so all you non-otter wolves, weasels, and ferrets should feel more than welcome. The theme for the July iteration will be brought to life via DJ Jeff Prior, spinning “the best of indie PoP and hard pOp” to get the furry fellas and their frisky fans in the mood to move and groove in friendly fashion — governed by “the concept of consent and inclusion.” Smith will serve as host via his alter-ego The Barber Streisand. Starting at 10 p.m. The Green Lantern is at 1335 Green Ct. NW. Cover is $5 for entry upstairs. Call 202-347-4533 or visit www.greenlanterndc.com.

Saturday, July 13 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-3am • Video Games • Live televised sports AVALON SATURDAYS @Soundcheck 1420 K St. NW LGBTQ Dance Party, featuring DJ Steve Sidewalk, 10pm-4am • $15 Cover, $20 Cover for VIP • Drink specials • Drag Show, 10:30-11:30pm, hosted by Ba’Naka and a rotating cast of drag queens • Open Bar on Tito’s and Jameson, 11pm-midnight • Visit www.dougiemeyerpresents.com FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR LGBT HQ and Freddie’s team up for BlerDCon 2019: Buy a bracelet for 1 Day ($10), 2 Days ($15) or

3 Days ($20) for 15% off on Food and Drinks all day long at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Federico Ristorante Italiano • Doors open 10am • Saturday Breakfast Buffet, 10am-3pm • $14.99 with one glass of champagne or coffee, soda or juice • Additional champagne $2 per glass • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • $5 Cover starting at 7pm • Freddie’s Follies Drag Show, hosted by Miss Destiny B. Childs, 8-10pm • Cosplay Karaoke, 10pm-close • Multiple Raffle Prizes during Karaoke GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $5 Bacardi, all flavors, all night long • Freeballers Party, 10pm-close • No Cover • Music by DJs BacK2bACk • $5 Fireball, $5 Margaritas, $8 Long Islands

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

THE COVEN: ’90S EDITION This Saturday, July 13, the Clinton decade will be alive and playing at Petworth’s Ten Tigers Parlour during the latest installment of Kate Ross’s popular “witchy dance party.” While queer women-centered, the Coven is touted as “open to all genders, orientations, ideologies, and badasses,” and an event where — no surprise given the name — “dark couture is encouraged.” DJ Honey will spin through the pop, dance, and hip-hop hits from the last decade of the 20th century. A portion of proceeds from the party will be donated to Argot Magazine, a local queer nonprofit literary arts magazine. Meanwhile, co-sponsor This Free Life will grant half-price entry to the first 200 patrons who also enter the organization’s raffle for “a record player that is also a chalkboard so you can draw on it.” How very retro-hip. Ten Tigers Parlour is at 3813 Georgia Ave. NW. Tickets are $10. Call 202-506-2080 or visit www. tentigersdc.com.

BASTILLE SLAY MY NAME Bastille Day is this Sunday, July 14, and France’s national holiday will certainly be feted by French spots and Francophiles all over town.

Yet certainly no one else will offer a toast quite like the one from KC Cambrel, better known as KC B. Yoncé. The Queen B subject’s monthly ball at Trade starts at 8 p.m. The category is “Bastille Slay” and patrons are encouraged to “Dress á la Francais” as well as be prepared to “strut your stuff and snatch the crown” in a Slay Off Contest. Expect a performance from special guest host, “the magnifique Rigatoni,” with dancing to the la la la beats from DJ Chord. Trade is at 1410 14th St. NW. Call 202-986-1094 or visit www.tradebardc.com.

BEYONCÉ VS. RIHANNA SUMMER DANCE PARTY Speaking of Bey, this import from Baltimore styles itself as “an epic artist-for-artist, track-for-track dance party battle.” It says something that organizers had to stretch to come up with enough nicknames for RiRi to match the many established ones for Bey. So it’s Sasha Fierce vs. the Barbados Babe. Queen B vs. the Caribbean Queen. On one side is the “Drunk In Love” Bey Hive, with music spun by DJ Mills to get the bois bodied and the ladies in formation. On the other side is the “Drunk On Love” Rihanna Navy, imploring Craig Boarman, owner of Baltimore’s Ottobar, please don’t stop the music pon de replay. If it ultimately doesn’t sound like much of a contest, at least it’s a fun night out for contemporary pop diva lovers — whether they’re single ladies or those who found love (however hopeless). Friday, July 19, starting at 9 p.m. at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $15. Call 202-265-0930 or visit www.930.com. l JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

39

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-3am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs playing pop music all night NUMBER NINE Doors open 2pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Pop Tarts, featuring DJs BacK2bACk, 9:30pm PITCHERS Open Noon-3am • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 2am

40

SHAW’S TAVERN Brunch with $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

Sunday, July 14

TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR LGBT HQ and Freddie’s team up for BlerDCon 2019: Buy a bracelet for 1 Day ($10), 2 Days ($15) or 3 Days ($20) for 15% off on Food and Drinks all day long at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Federico Ristorante Italiano • Doors open 10am • Ella’s Sunday Drag Brunch, 10am-3pm • $24.99 with four glasses of champagne or mimosas, 1 Bloody Mary, or coffee, soda or juice • Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Piano Bar with John Flynn, 5-8pm

ZIEGFELD’S/SECRETS Men of Secrets upstairs, 9pm-close • Guest dancers • Ladies of Illusion Drag Show with host Ella Fitzgerald in Ziegfeld’s • Doors open at 9pm, Show at 11:45pm • Music by DJs Keith Hoffman and Don T. • Cover 21+

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 2pm-12am • $4 Smirnoff and Domestic Cans • Video Games • Live televised sports

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

• Karaoke, 9pm-close • No Cover

Della Volla at 9:30pm • No Cover

GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • Karaoke with Kevin downstairs, 9:30pm-close

PITCHERS Open Noon-2am • $4 Smirnoff, includes flavored, $4 Coors Light or $4 Miller Lites, 2-9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm

NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Drag Brunch, hosted

by Chanel Devereaux, 10:30am-12:30pm and 1-3pm • Tickets on sale at nelliessportsbar.com • House Rail Drinks, Zing Zang Bloody Marys, Nellie Beer and Mimosas, $4, 11am-1am • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Guest DJs NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 2-9pm • $5 Absolut and $5 Bulleit Bourbon, 9pm-close • Multiple TVs showing movies, shows, sports • Expanded craft beer selection • Pop Goes the World with Wes

SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Dinner and Drag with Miss Kristina Kelly, 8pm • For reservations, email shawsdinnerdragshow@ gmail.com TRADE Doors open 2pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge

glass for the same price, 2-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

Monday, July 15 FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Singles Night • Half-Priced Pasta Dishes • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long • Singing with the Sisters: Open Mic Karaoke Night with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, 9:30pm-close NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm),

$4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer, $15 • Half-Priced Burgers • Paint Nite, 7pm • PokerFace Poker, 8pm • Dart Boards • Ping Pong Madness, featuring 2 PingPong Tables NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover SHAW’S TAVERN Happy Hour, 5-7pm • $3 Miller Lite, $4 Blue Moon, $5 House Wines, $5 Rail Drinks • Half-Priced Pizzas and Select Appetizers • Shaw ’Nuff Trivia, with Jeremy, 7:30pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4

42

Tuesday, July 16 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports FREDDIE’S BEACH BAR Crazy Hour, 4-8pm • Taco Tuesday • Karaoke, 9pm GREEN LANTERN Happy Hour, 4-9pm • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR Beat the Clock Happy Hour — $2 (5-6pm), $3 (6-7pm), $4 (7-8pm) • Buckets of Beer $15 • Drag Bingo with Sasha Adams and Brooklyn Heights, 7-9pm • Karaoke, 9pm-close

NUMBER NINE Open at 5pm • Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm 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, 5-10pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 • Sissy That Tuesday: A Monthly Cabaret hosted

by Pussy Noir with special guests, 8pm • Music by WesstheDJ

Wednesday, July 17 A LEAGUE OF HER OWN Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games • Live televised sports 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 • $3 rail cocktails and domestic beers all night long NELLIE’S SPORTS BAR SmartAss Trivia Night, 8-10pm • Prizes include bar tabs and tickets to shows at the 9:30 Club • $15 Buckets of Beer for SmartAss Teams only • Absolutely Snatched Drag Show, hosted by Brooklyn Heights, 9pm • Tickets available at www.nelliessportsbar.com NUMBER NINE Happy Hour: 2 for 1 on any drink, 5-9pm • No Cover PITCHERS Open 5pm-12am • Happy Hour: $2 off everything until 9pm • Video Games

• Foosball • Live televised sports • Full dining menu till 9pm • Special Late Night menu till 11pm 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 • Piano Bar with Jill, 8pm TRADE Doors open 5pm • Huge Happy Hour: Any drink normally served in a cocktail glass served in a huge glass for the same price, 5-10pm • Beer and wine only $4 l

Scene

44

Green Lantern - Saturday, July 6 - Photography by Ward Morrison See and purchase more photos from this event at www.metroweekly.com/scene

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY

LastWord.

People say the queerest things

“I would not go,

and every teammate I’ve talked to about it would not go.

”

— MEGAN RAPINOE, lesbian U.S. Women’s Soccer Team player, speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper about refusing to visit the White House following the team’s Women’s World Cup victory. “I don’t think anyone on the team has any interest in lending the platform we’ve worked so hard to build...to be co-opted by this administration,” she said.

“Words like ‘rights’ can be used for good or evil.”

— U.S. Secretary of State MIKE POMPEO, announcing a new Commission on Unalienable Rights, which will examine the role of human rights in America’s foreign policy. Critics have branded the commission — headed by an anti-LGBTQ law professor — “absurd,” and fear it will be used to “sledgehammer” LGBTQ rights.

“The scene is subtle in order to desensitize children.”

— MONICA COLE, spokeswoman for anti-LGBTQ activist organization One Million Moms, criticizing Disney for including short scenes in Toy Story 4 showing two mothers dropping off/picking up their child from school, and hugging the child.

Cole complained that Disney should “stick to entertaining instead of pushing an agenda and exposing children to controversial topics.”

“It was really, really horrible for me.”

— LUZ, a transgender asylum seeker from Honduras, describing her time in ICE’s “transgender pod,” a detention facility for trans-identifying women. Speaking in documentary short Luz’s Story, she said her three months in New Mexico’s Cibola County Correctional Center, two of which were in solitary confinement, led to “a depression that made me want to hurt myself.”

“I figured if I changed my fucking self, I could be in.”

— Actor JUAN PABLO DI PACE, who plays Fernando in Netflix sitcom Fuller House, in a TedX talk coming out and discussing hiding being gay in order to feel accepted. “Acceptance was my fuel, and when that is the case, like an addict, you do whatever it takes to get a fix,” he said.

46

JULY 11, 2019 • METROWEEKLY