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T U E S DAY, AU G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 1 1

NIGHT OUT
OPENING NIGHT COMEDY

Broadway vet pens a musical High wattage: Reggie Watts for Signature Theatre stage heads to Woolly Mammoth
By Robert Fulton

Foster adapts Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Special to The Washington Examiner

ONSTAGE

By Emily Cary

Special to The Washington Examiner

Hunter Foster knew by third grade that he wanted to be a playwright. Intrigued by Dracula, he wrote a four-page script, conducted rehearsals and starred in the title role. It was a classroom success, but the playwright within him would be placed on hold. Armed with a ne arts degree from the University of Michigan, he headed for New York and began earning accolades for Broadway roles. While he was performing to great acclaim, the playwright reemerged, rst with the libretto for Summer of 42, an off-Broadway musical based on the lm. The 2002 production received an Outer Critic Nomination for Best Off-Broadway Musical. Next came Bonnie and Clyde: A Folktale, chosen as New York Musical Theatre Festivals Most Promising New Musical in 2008. Now he and Spider Woman co-star Matt Conner are the proud creators of The Hollow, based on Washington Irvings The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The project came to life during a Signature Theatre workshop two years ago. I had heard some of the music Matt composed and liked it, so when Eric Schaeffer suggested we work together on a musical based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, one of my childhood favorites, I was eager to get started, Foster said. At rst we sat down and tackled the idea of legends and how they come about. We wanted to tell the story by weaving the plot around the songs Matt wrote based on the characters. Musicals are all about storytelling. Every element must move the story forward. Legends grow from in-depth psychological events that play upon fear. Theyve always been part of our society and cause people to fear many things, including political parties and religions. The story of Ichabod is a wonderful way to show how fear can act as a catalyst in a town. When fear gets into a society or a group of people, it causes them to do illogical things. An example of that is 9/11 and how the fear that grew out of it changed our society. After that, the rules of government changed and people became fearful of ethnic groups. Among the plays on Fosters drawing board include a musical utilizing the score from a pop duos

A Reggie Watts performance is a difcult-to-categorize audio and visual experience. An 80-minute set combines understated storytelling with inspired song craft by a bearded, mega-afro sporting dude from Montana. For example, at a performance at the Largo at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles last week, Watts relayed a tale of a recent shing trip, describing in detail the coolers used on the excursion. That was later followed by an original song covering popular music genres dating back to the early 90s, accentuated with beat boxing and voice loops. I like absurd, kind of abstract things, said Watts during a recent phone interview. I like looking at the world in a slightly different way if possible. I just see the world as a silly place. I just try to nd the maximum amount of silliness in the most mundane subjects. I just say that Im an interdimensional jokester, he added. Watts performs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Tuesday through Friday. Watts received mainstream attention as the opening act on Conan OBriens The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour last year. It was a pretty major impact, said Watts of the exposure opening for OBrien. I went into it casually. I didnt think too much about the impact. I denitely saw the evidence of it from that since then. Theres been a lot more press and more opportunities. I think thats really the impact. At the age of 39, Watts is not

Reggie Watts
Where: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St. NW When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, with an additional performance 10 p.m. Friday Info: $35 to $45; woollymammoth.net new to the entertainment world. Raised in Montana, he moved to Seattle as an adult and performed in bands before transitioning to comedy. He continued to develop his comedic style after a move to New York. Last year he released an album with a title not suitable for publication in a family newspaper. Watts said he improvises much of his show. I try to get a read from the audience as much as possible, he said. Some of it is just the experience of bits and mechanisms that Ive used before that might work. Im not a big political guy, Watts said when asked if hed touch upon D.C.s main export. Im more of a humanist than anything. I usually like to poke fun sometimes at the idea of what politics are. Watts cites a number of inuences including Monty Python, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby and Weird Al Yankovic. With Woolly Mammoth as the venue, Watts said his upcoming set of shows will be more abstract than what he might do at a comedy club. Thats going to be fun for me, because I wont have as many limitations, not that I do have limitations, Watts said.

T H E WA S H I N G T O N E X A M I N E R

COURTESY PHOTO

Hunter Foster has co-written The Hollow, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

catalog. In it, as in his comedic version of Bonnie and Clyde, his goal is to turn what people expect on its head. The Hollow runs in repertory with The Boy Detective Fails, based on the book by Joe Meno with music by Adam Gwon. They are part of Signature Theatres American Musical Voices Project, a commitment to commission and produce full productions of world premiere musical theater works, the largest such initiative in the country. The Hollow with its darker themes and The Boy Detective Fails are similar in many ways,

ONSTAGE

The Hollow
Where: The MAX, Signature Theatre When: Tuesday through Oct. 16 Info: $81 to $96.20; 703-573SEAT; signature-theatre.org Foster said. Except for the major F t id E t f th j characters, we utilize the same cast, do a lot of listening and play off each other. Our show is a ghost story. It will be fun scaring the audience.

COURTESY PHOTO

Reggie Watts combines music, storytelling and comedy in his shows.