Arts & Entertainment

Calendar: April 13

Concerts, exhibits, parties and more through April 19

Published

13 years ago

April 12, 2012

In ‘The Adventures of White-Man’ part of ‘White Like Me: A Honky Dory Puppet Show,’ openly gay puppeteer Paul Zaloom operates diminutive characters and sets in a toy theater history. The action is live hi-def video-fed onto a large screen behind Zaloom so the audience can see what is going on. (Photo by Leigh Ann Hahn)

TODAY (Friday)

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine plays Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Rd., Vienna) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 and available online at wolftrap.org.

Women in Their Twenties, a social discussion and dinner group, meets tonight from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.).

Town’s (2009 8th St., N.W.) Bear Happy Hour presents “Bearaoke” tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. on the first floor, with mistress of ceremonies Tre. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Special Agent Galactica’s Happy Hour Cabaret Show is tonight at the Black Fox Lounge (1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) from 6 to 9 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit pinkhairedone.com.

Strathmore’s Friday Night Eclectic continues tonight with Chelsey Green and the Green Project with Synchronicxity at the Mansion (10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda) at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Doors open at 8 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit strathmore.org.

Saturday, April 14

Mixtape D.C. is tonight at the Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.), a dance party for queer music lovers and their pals that features DJs Shea Van Horn and Matt Bailer playing an eclectic mix of electro, alt-pop, indie rock, house, disco, new wave and anything else danceable. There is a $10 cover for this event. Doors open at 9:30 p.m.

Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, N.W.) and 495 Bears presents “Bears Can Dance” tonight at 9 p.m. with DJ Bobby T. There is no cover for this event.

Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) has a couple things going on tonight. Raja, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” will appear, Kristine W. (see interview on page 51), an international dance music icon, will perform and DJ Jerome Farley will be spinning. Doors open at 10 p.m. Cover is $8 before 11 p.m. and $12 afterward.

Australian quartet the Jezabels play Red Palace (1212 H St., N.E.) tonight at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 day of the show and available online at redpalacedc.com. Doors open at 8 p.m.

DJ vANNIEty Kills presents “Anniething Goes” tonight at Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club (1103 Bladensburg Rd., N.E.) at 10 p.m. with back-to-back sets featuring guest DJs Juan and Hugo Zapata, Slant, Charles Martin and Prab K.

Openly gay puppeteer Paul Zaloom brings his latest solo comic puppet show “White Like Me: A Honky Dory Puppet Show” to Dance Place (3225 8th St., N.E.) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $22 for general admisison, $17 for DP Members, seniors and teachers, $10 for college students and $8 for children 17 and younger. Zaloom will also perform on Sunday at 7 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit danceplace.org.

Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church (6601 Bradley Blvd., Bethesda), Bethesda Jewish Congregation and the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation are co-sponsoring the“Community Of Caring AIDS Benefit Concert” tonight featuring jazz pianist, Fred Hersch at 7:30 p.m. There is a suggested donation of $35, $25 for seniors and students. The proceeds will be divided equally among Dennis Avenue Health Center HIV/AIDS Program, La Clinica del Pueblo of D.C. and the Association of Francois-Xavier Bagnoud South Africa Program. For more information, visit bradleyhillschurch.com.

Sunday, April 15

The All-American Rejects play 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) tonight. Tickets are $30 and available online at 930.com. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Busboys & Poets presents “Borderlines: A Bilingual Spanish-English Open Mic” tonight at 5 p.m. in the Zinn room of its Hyattsville location (5331 Baltimore Ave., Suite 104) hosted by Henry Mills. The sign-up sheet opens at 4 p.m.

Rams Head OnStage (33 West St., Annapolis) is having a salute to Elton John with tribute artist Almost Elton John and the Rocket Band tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $45 and available online at tickets.ramsheadonstage.com.

Monday, April 16

Regie Cabico and DonMike Mendoza host “La-Ti-Do D.C.” tonight at Black Fox Lounge (1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Cover is $10 and includes a rail cocktail or house wine.

Busboys & Poets presents an author event featuring Michael G. Long tonight in the Langston Room of its 14th and V streets location (2021 14th St., N.W.) at 6:30 p.m. Long will be discussing and signing his new book, “I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters.”

Tuesday, April 17

Say Anything performs at Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) tonight. Tickets are $18 in advance, $12 day of show and available online at blackcatdc.com. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Javier Colon, winner of NBC’s “The Voice,” plays Rams Head OnStage (33 West St., Annapolis) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $28.50 and available online attickets.ramsheadonstage.com.

Wednesday, April 18

D.C. Ice Breakers hosts its monthly open skate tonight from 8 to 9 p.m. at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, on top of the Ballston Common Mall parking garage (627 N Glebe Rd.) in Arlington. After skating the group will hit a local bar for a social hour. Skating is $8 plus $3 for skate rental. For more information, visit dcicebreakers.com.

The Tom Davoren Social Bridge Club for gay bridge players meets tonight for social bridge at the Dignity Center (721 8th Street, S.E.). No partner is needed. Visit lambdabridge.com for details and click on “social bridge in Washington.”

Thursday, April 19

Fountains of Wayne plays 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) tonight. Tickets are $25 and available online at 930.com. Doors open at 7 p.m.

There is a University of Maryland graduate and professional student happy hour tonight at Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) from 6 to 8 p.m.

Openly gay comedian Erin Foley plays Riot Act Comedy Theater (801 E St., N.W.) starting tonight at 8 p.m. with John Betz Jr., and Will Hessler opening. Tickets are $20 and available online at riotactcomedy.com. She will also perform Friday and Saturday.

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Theater

‘Hunter S. Thompson’ an unlikely but rewarding choice for musical theater

‘Speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country’

Published

20 hours ago

June 22, 2025

Patrick Folliard

George Salazar in ‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical.’

‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical’
Through July 13
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.
$47 to $98
Sigtheatre.org

The raucous world of the counterculture journalist may not seem the obvious choice for musical theater, but the positive buzz surrounding Signature Theatre’s production of Joe Iconis’s “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” suggests otherwise.

As the titular, drug addled and gun-toting writer, Eric William Morris memorably moves toward his character’s suicide in 2005 at 67. He’s accompanied by an ensemble cast playing multiple roles including out actor George Salazar as Thompson’s sidekick Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, a bigger than life Mexican American attorney, author, and activist in the Chicano Movement who follows closely behind.

Salazar performs a show-stopping number — “The Song of the Brown Buffalo,” a rowdy and unforgettable musical dive into a man’s psyche.

“Playing the part of Oscar, I’m living my Dom daddy activist dreams. For years, I was cast as the best friend with a heart of gold. Quite differently, here, I’m tasked with embodying all the toxic masculinity of the late ‘60s, and a rampant homophobia, almost folded into the culture.”

He continues, “My sexuality aside, I like to think that Oscar would be thrilled by my interpretation of him in that song.

“Our upbringings are similar. I’m mixed race – Filipino and Ecuadorian and we grew up similarly,” says Salazar, 39. “He didn’t fit in as white or Mexican American, and fell somewhere in the middle. Playing Oscar [who also at 39 in 1974 forever disappeared in Mexico], I pulled out a lot of experience about having to code switch before finally finding myself and being confident just doing my own thing.

“As we meet Oscar in the show we find exactly where’s he’s at. Take me or leave me, I couldn’t care less.”

In 2011, just three years after earning his BFA in musical theater from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Salazar fortuitously met Iconis at a bar in New York. The pair became fast friends and collaborators: “This is our third production,” says George. “So, when Joe comes to me with an idea, there hasn’t been a moment that I don’t trust him.”

In “Be More Chill,” one of Iconis’s earlier works, Salazar originated the role of Michael Mell, a part that he counts as one of the greatest joys of artistic life.

With the character, a loyal and caring friend who isn’t explicitly queer but appeals to queer audiences, Salazar developed a fervent following. And for an actor who didn’t come out to his father until he was 30, being in a place to support the community, especially younger queer people, has proved incredibly special.

“When you hear Hunter and Oscar, you might think ‘dude musical,’ but I encourage all people to come see it.” Salazar continues, “Queer audiences should give the show a shot. As a musical, it’s entertaining, funny, serious, affecting, and beautiful. As a gay man stepping into this show, it’s so hetero and I wasn’t sure what to do. So, I took it upon myself that any of the multiple characters I play outside of Oscar, were going to be queer.

Queer friends have seen it and love it, says Salazar. His friend, Tony Award-winning director Sam Pinkleton (“Oh, Mary!”) saw Hunter S. Thompson at the La Jolla Playhouse during its run in California, and said it was the best musical he’d seen in a very long time.

“Since the work’s inception almost 10 years ago, I was the first Oscar to read the script. In the interim, the characters’ relationships have grown but otherwise there have been no major changes. Still, it feels more impactful in different ways: It’s exciting to come here to do the show especially since Hunter S. Thompson was very political.”

Salazar, who lives in Los Angeles with his partner, a criminal justice reporter for The Guardian, is enjoying his time here in D.C. “In a time when there are so many bans – books, drag queens, and travel — all I see is division. This is an escape from that.”

He describes the Hunter Thompson musical as Iconis’s masterpiece, adding that it’s the performance that he’s most proud of to date and that feels there a lot of maturity in the work.

“In the play, Thompson talks to Nixon about being a crook and a liar,” says Salazar. “The work speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country: We seem to take them one step forward and two steps back; the performance is almost art as protest.”

Photos

PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride Parade

Senior living and healthcare organization holds fifth annual march at Falls Church campus

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Guest photographer

Goodwin Living Pride March 2025. (Photo courtesy of Goodwin Living)

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(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)