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wednesday, december 8, 2010 BACKSTAGE


Mending fences After a disagreement with Theater J over her Bernie Madoff play, playwright Deb Margolin and the theater are joining in a new production. C10


THEATER


Leaping into the musical Acclaimed playwright Mary Zimmerman is staging a musical for the first time: “Candide” at the Shakespeare Theatre. C2


BOOKWORLD


Depressed guys, yet again Damon Galgut’s three tales are back to the same old genre. C4


Style ABCDE C EZ SU


’Tis the season


for political infighting and holiday parties, both on the same day.” The Reliable Source, C2


LIVETODAY@washingtonpost.com/discussions The Post’s columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts discuss your favorite gossip and their recent columns. Noon THEATERREVIEW


Making magic out of a menacing realm


Studio 2ndStage turns the underworld of ‘Mojo’ into a bright spot of theatricality


BY PETERMARKS Among Washington’s first-rank the-


aters, the one that has proven the most dependable in providing boosts to emerging actors is Studio Theatre and, more to the point, its 2ndStage program. This distinction continues with its latest offering, Jez Butterworth’s “Mojo,” a fun- ny, tightly wound thriller of English thuggery that makes for another excel- lent Studio showcase for fresh talent. “Mojo” has taken the slow route get-


ting to an important theater here — it was first staged in London 15 years ago— but with director Christopher Gallu’s secure handling, the wait can be forgiv- en. With nods to the blistering language and dirty dealings of the comedies of David Mamet, Butterworth mines the perverse humor that can be found along the dark caverns of tragedy. In this instance, the milieu is a shady


sewer of show business populated by parasitic hucksters and short-tempered ne’er-do-wells. We’re in a seedy London club in 1958, when some coarse, would- be promoters are wrestling over control of the career of a fourth-rate singer by the name of Silver Johnny (Logan DalBello), whose marginal claim to fame seems to be a silver suitandan ability tomimicthe rubber legs of Elvis Presley. The twisted joke is that to the back-


stage losers of “Mojo” — pill-popping gofers and trigger-happy nut jobs — Silver Johnny is akin to prize livestock,an assetworth protectingatalmostany cost. Other underworld types apparently have their eye on Johnny as well. Up to now, the motley crew run by the poker-faced Mickey (ScotMcKenzie) had been in the dead-end business of wiring jukeboxes. Soafter Silver Johnny turnsupmissing— and Mickey’s boss turns up in a pair of trash receptacles—Mickey and his man- ic underlings barricade themselves in the club, terrified and uncertain of their next move. Butterworth’s insult-driven, off-color


barbs are sharp grist for sketching out the corrosive relationships among men on the make. “Mojo,” as a result, provides a delectably scabrous view from the


theater review continued on C3


If you haven’t paid a visit to ‘Cougar Town’ lately, its comedic landscape is lusher than ever


BY HANK STUEVER I SCOTT SUCHMAN


HE’SNOELVIS: Logan DalBello as Silver Johnny, the modestly talented singer coveted by hooligans in the 1950s London of“Mojo.”


ILLUSTRATION BY SUSANA SANCHEZ- YOUNG/THE WASHINGTON POST


“COUGAR TOWN” PHOTOS BY BOB D’AMICO/ABC; WINE GLASS BY BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM; PHOTO


t’s impossible to start a conversation about “Cougar Town,” ABC’s smart and undervalued Wednesday night sitcom,without anod to “Big Joe,” the 44-ounce crystal wine glass that had a recurring yet crucial bit part in the show—until the gargantuan piece of


stemware’s untimely demise a few weeks ago. The lead character (Courteney Cox as


Jules Cobb, a divorced and lovably egoma- niacal real-estate agent who sells McMan- sions in a central Florida beach burb)would routinely fill Big Joe up with a nice, mid- range pinot noir. The whole bottle. Some- times at what appears to bemid-morning. Then tragedy struck. Big Joe tipped over


and rolled off Jules’s granite-top kitchen island, shattering into a zillion pieces when it hit the floor. Much comedic drama was


made of this, including the cliche, lurching, slow-motionNooooooo! as Big Joe plummet- ed to its (his?) doom. Now slurpingmerrily away fromBig Carl


(Joe’s immediate replacement), Jules contin- ues trading gibes and holding forth with an array of surreal social observations. Without that constant lubrication, “Cou-


gar Town” would never have become a show that is altogether different than the show it started out as in September 2009. Instead of one long joke about a sex-starved divorcee, it became nuanced parlor comedy about the family-like bondswe sometimes create from spare parts — misfits, exes, neighbors, co- workers and newmates. Beneath its thick layers of snark, “Cougar


Town” might be depicting a family arrange- ment even more modern than the one seen in “Modern Family,” the hit comedy that airs immediately before it. Like “Modern Family,” “Cougar Town” has


one of the best ensemble casts currently on TV. There’s Ellie, Jules’s neighbor (played by Christa Miller; or mostly played by Christa Miller’s bizarre-looking cheekbones); Ellie’s goofball husband,Andy (“Once you goAndy, you can never go blandy,” Ellie observes); Jules’s adorably rednecky ex-husband, Bob-


tv review continued on C6 TVREVIEW


The pour relation


THE LENNON ARCHIVE


BEATLEMEMORY: On Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment inNewYork.


Beatles fans remember that grim, sad night Dec. 8 marks


the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death


BY MATTHURWITZ Special to TheWashington Post Dec. 8, 1980.That’s a date everyBeatles


fan over 40 remembers: the day John Lennon was shot and killed.We all know where we were and what we were doing whenwe foundout. It’shardto believe it’s been 30 years — harder still to believe it happenedat all. I grew up in Potomac and became a


Beatles fan in 1974, when my brother, Mark, gave me my first Beatles album — “Something New” from 1964. I immedi- ately ran out toWaxieMaxie’s inCongres- sional Plaza and bought all four of the Beatles’ then-current solo singles. I was hooked. I bought every album and single I


could,buildingaprettysubstantial collec- tion (which I still have). On the night of Dec. 8, 1980, I was in the architecture school studio at the University of Mary- landworking late.The radiowas tuned to DC101.Alittle after 11 p.m., I heard theDJ — who apparently read the copy cold — say, “This just in: Former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed in New York City.OhmyGod!” I couldn’t believe it. Was this really


happening? Somebody would shoot a Beatle?Why John?Whatwas all this? Stunned, I just sat there listening tothe


report, until someone told me I had a phone call.My roommate, Jeff, had been watching “Monday Night Football,” on which, like many Americans, he heard ABC’s Howard Cosell break the news about John. Jeff immediately called me, wanting to know how I was doing. It was thenthat I cried. JohnLennonwasdead. I graduated from Maryland and even-


tuallymoved to Los Angeles,where I still live. Having rekindled my interest in the Beatles, I took over a Beatles fanzine, GoodDaySunshine, in1995, andranit for about five years. The guywho soldme themagazinewas


Charles F.Rosenay!!! (yes, those exclama- tion points are legally part of his name). He began organizing Beatles fan conven- tions in 1978 and was planning one for BostoninDecember 1980. Likeme, a little after 11 p.m. on Dec. 8,


he received a call froma friend who gave himthe news. “I thought hewas kidding,


lennon continued on C3


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