A last minute trip to see kindred spirits Stefanie and Kendra in DC turned out to an unplanned trip to see the Newseum and an updated version of the 1997 musical Side Show, playing at the Kennedy Center before it potentially makes its way to Broadway. I will start with my review of the Newseum and then go into Side Show.
Stefanie was in DC for three weeks for the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Who knew there was a library dedicated in DC in 1932 dedicated to Shakespeare and his works? After meeting Stefanie outside the library, I had a lovely lunch with other TSI folks and got a book recommendation Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger by Stephen H. Grant, from the director. I had a lovely pear dessert from Whole Foods which inspired me to make my own Pear Crisp with Oat Streussel Topping, cut out from Cooking Light when I was living in Denver and got a free subscription.
After lunch, we took the subway to the best-named subway stop ever, Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro Station (well, the Foggy Bottom part is cool) and then took the waiting free shuttle bus to the Kennedy Center to ensure we could get tickets for that night's show. There was, and Stefanie, fellow TSI-er Liz and I selected seats in the middle balcony, Row D. (We had thought we had lucked out with the waiting free shuttle bus, but it then became clear that only when a new bus arrives do they leave. (Now THAT's a way to make sure you have a parking spot!)
We then took the subway to the Newseum. Since it was after 2 when we arrived and the ticket gives you admission for two days, I figured we wouldn't get through everything, so we started by first looking to see what sounded interesting and going from there, knowing that the Anchorman exhibit advertised outside was a must. I wish that we had started with the BACK of the brochure, which gave you what to do if you only had a two-hour tour, although that didn't include the Anchorman exhibit. I would have then skipped the HP New Media Gallery (the "Dunk the Anchor" game was really hard) and seen the Berlin Wall Gallery. Other than the Anchorman exhibit, my favorite exhibits were the Anchorman one ("Anchorman: The Exhibit), one on Freedom Summer (also not part of the two-hour tour), "First Dogs: American Presidents and their Pets," and the "FBI Exhibit," which had the Unabomber's cabin and John Dillinger's death mask. (I think those things are really creepy.)
It was also at the end of the tour that we discovered rather than going up, that you were supposed to start at the level below the ground floor, do that floor, then take the elevator up to the 6th floor and head down from there. We did floor 2, 4, 6 (the rooftop view was amazing, although I wish there was a legend for what all the buildings you were looking at were), and then the ground level.
We closed down the museum and then headed back to the Kennedy Center for dinner at their cafeteria-style cafe (KC Café, which at first I thought was named after someone named KC, until I thought about it, and the show.)
I got a meal deal (which included salad to go with my gnocci and a can of Diet Coke) and then I added on a roll and a peach crisp? The whole thing cost more than $20 but it was good. A solid A-. We then walked around the terrace outside (not as good of a view as the Newseum, but still nice) and caught the last few minutes of the free show they put on downstairs at 6 p.m. daily.
As for the show itself, I had heard of the title but didn't know anything about it, other than what Stefanie had told me she had read - that it was about conjoined twins who were in the Side Show, and that this version had updated songs, lyrics, and showed you what made the "freaks" as opposed to having you just imagine it. (I still have a hard time seeing how you could have something like a Bearded Lady without seeing that, but one article I've read since says the conjoined twins just stood near each other - there was no attempt to make them, or make them look, connected, which makes even less sense.)
How the twins looked conjoined was incredible to us watching, made less so once the lady ahead of us heard us commenting on this at intermission and told us how it was done, having read an article about it in the Washington Post.
My mark of a good show is if I'm leaving the theatre humming the tunes (and wake up singing them.) For this one, I could sing the title phrase from three of the songs, but that was it. Two ballads by two of the guys in the sister's lives in the second act had emotional impact, but I couldn't sing you the tune right now or recall even a lyric.
I am, however, very interested to learn about the former production and the real Daisy and Violet Hilton.
Intrigue alone, I'll give this a
B.
POSTED BY COLLEEN
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