7 Great Shows at the GMU Center for the Arts
From Doug Varone and Dancers to a Lucy and Desi "radio play," GMU/Hylton has a ton of great shows on tap.
Between now and early March, there are a number of high-quality performances worth venturing into Northern Virginia for, all courtesy of George Mason University. We’ve rounded up a solid seven of them below that are either coming to the GMU Center for the Arts in Fairfax or the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas.
In 2009, renovators of a house once owned by composer Florence Price as her summer home outside of Chicago discovered by accident the manuscript of her Violin Concerto No. 2, which up until then had never been published and was considered lost forever.
Rachel Barton Pine, who has dedicated her career to highlighting the work of Black composers, joins as featured soloist with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Christopher Zimmerman, to perform the work as the Black History Month centerpiece of a program also featuring Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7. (2/11, CFA’s Concert Hall)
Maybe you missed the Mark Morris Dance Group and Music Ensemble‘s performance of Pepperland at the Kennedy Center in the fall of 2019. Or maybe you saw the witty and enchanting show inspired by The Beatles yet would love to see it again.
Either way, you’re in luck, as this magical mystery tour, filled with inventive, exuberant choreography and brightly hued Mod-inspired costumes, is hoping to take you away — to Manassas the second Saturday in February.
That’s when the celebrated modern dance troupe, directed by its legendary gay choreographer and namesake, will make its debut at the Hylton Center with live accompaniment from its in-house band, playing new arrangements of songs from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as well as original compositions by Ethan Iverson. Roll up, as the Fab Four would say. (2/11, Hylton Center’s Merchant Hall)
Grammy-nominated violinist Robert McDuffie joins the Czech National Symphony Orchestra to perform Brahms’s electrifying Violin Concerto in D major, part of an uplifting “good-for-your-spirit concert” also embracing the sheer joy and optimism of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
Scheduled as an early Valentine’s Day gift to lovers of Romantic music and masterworks, the concert, led by Music Director Steven Mercurio, also serves as an early toast to the 30th anniversary of this acclaimed orchestra, which formed shortly after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the Czech Republic as an independent country. (2/12, CFA’s Concert Hall)
Set to the famous music from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, the choreographed piece Somewhere strips away the musical’s well-known story, leaving only “pure choreographic vibrancy with emotional heft generated by the musical structure.” Devoted to the humanity and virtuosity of dance for more than 30 years now, the New York-based Doug Varone and Dancers will perform the piece, which dates to 2019, along with others recently created by the company’s gay namesake choreographer. (2/18, CFA’s Concert Hall)
Recently seen tap-dancing alongside Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell in the 2022 Apple TV+ movie Spirited, Chloé Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies is a high-spirited, all-female troupe of hoofers that has become a viral sensation with more than 100 million online views. Led by its namesake, a D.C.-native and protégé of Debbie Allen, the Syncopated Ladies drop by to perform an electrifying, action-filled show featuring a live onstage vocalist. (2/25, CFA’s Concert Hall)
February draws to a close with L.A. Theatre Works’s Lucy Loves Desi, a radio-style live show, subtitled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom, that tells “the hilarious true story behind America’s beloved comedy,” written by Gregg Oppenheimer and inspired by the work and memoirs of his late father, the creator of I Love Lucy.
The show highlights things not depicted on camera, with a key focus on Lucille Ball’s tenacity and willingness to fight executives to ensure the 1950s sitcom reflected her ahead-of-its-time real-life multiethnic marriage and family. (2/26, Hylton Center’s Merchant Hall)
After performances the first weekend in February of the gay-themed contemporary opera Fellow Travelers, the Virginia Opera concludes its season in early March by returning to a classic, one of the most demanding, sumptuous, and recognizable scores of all time, Verdi’s La Traviata.
Adam Turner, the organization’s gay artistic director, oversees a production featuring two rising opera stars in their mainstage debuts with the company, soprano Brandie Sutton as the heroine Violetta, and tenor Won Whi Choi as Alfredo, reprising the role he performed in his Metropolitan Opera debut. (3/11-12, CFA’s Concert Hall)
GMU Center for the Arts is located at 4373 Mason Pond Dr. in Fairfax. Visit www.cfa.gmu.edu or call 703-993-2787.
Hylton Center is located at 10960 George Mason Circle in Manassas. Visit www.HyltonCenter.org or call 703-993-7759.
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