Barber's Best Bets

Clubs/concerts

Things get busier as we head into the traditional kickoff of the summer season, Memorial Day.

n Coldplay is the featured act at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., on Thursday. The same evening, Toad, the Wet Sprocket and eddie from ohio share the Sunset Concerts series stage at National Harbor. The Moscow String Quartet performs at the Freer Gallery in the District on Thursday as well.

Former Allman Brother Dickey Betts and his new band Great Southern are at the Birchmere on Friday. Country star Kenny Chesney brings his latest tour to Merriweather Post Pavilion the same evening, while the Capitol Steps take their political satire to the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis on Friday evening, too.

» Wolf Trap opens its outdoor season in the Filene Center and on the lawn with author and public radio icon Garrison Keillor and his Prairie Home Companion troupe performing Friday. Only lawn seats are available for this performance.

The Saturday show, which will air live as PHC's Memorial Day weekend broadcast, is sold out.

» Fans of '80s rock can head to the State Theatre in Falls Church to see the Bangles on Saturday.

» Bass guitarist Tommy Cecil does a one night stand at Georgetown's Blues Alley the same night.

» American Idol contestant Elliot Yamin is featured at the Birchmere on Sunday.

» Pianist John Eaton is at Blues Alley the same evening.

» The rock/blues sound of Little Feat fills the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis on Sunday night, too.

» Comedian Jeff Caldwell is in the spotlight at the DC Improv from Thursday through Sunday night.

» Alice Smith sings at the Birchmere on May 27, while smooth jazz sax player Sharon Thomas and her Experience group are on stage at Blues Alley that night as well.

» Ralph Harris brings the laughs to the DC Improv, starting May 26. Enjoy!

On the stage

» The creators of the new musical adaptation of Edna Ferber's sprawling novel "Giant" want you to forget the iconic 1956 film version when watching and considering their production. Though the temptation is powerful, there are enough pluses and minuses here to give them, however reluctantly, their due.

Now receiving its world premiere production at Signature Theatre, one problem is clear from the start: running time. At four hours, with two intermissions, "Giant" is simply too long.

No major musical of recent vintage, not even Les Miserables, tests an audience's patience -- and bottoms -- with a running time that long.

Detailing a quarter century in the life of the state of Texas and one of its most powerful and promi-nent families, the Benedicts, "Giant's" next major flaw lies in its casting.

Lewis Clarke and Ashley Robinson serve Bick and Jett well when it comes to singing, but both men's acting leaves much to be desired. Betsy Morgan's Leslie is too frail a flower, vocally and acting wise, to be the kind of passionate, prideful Southern flower who wins Bick's heart. Worse, there isn't a credible Texas or Virginia accent among the three of them.

The first act does a solid job of establishing the characters and most of the conflicts, though Bick's hatred of Jett is never examined and Bick's relationship with older sister Luz (Judy Blazer) has an incestuous undertone to it. Things go off the rails in a second act that could easily be cut by half, if not more.

Act Three loses focus totally, straying into commentary on anti-immigrant/Mexican attitudes and attacks on McCarthyism that feel forced and out of place. They might have seemed to be relevant while the show was being written during the lead-up to the last election cycle, but their presence now "ages" the story.

Despite theses flaws, "Giant" does have elements that are worth celebrating. John Dossett is simply superb as Bick's uncle, Bawley. He sings and acts with a depth and grand style that matches the size of Texas. Katie Thompson is so vibrant and lively as Vashti you have to wonder just how crazy Bick is when he spurns her for Leslie.

Michael John La Chiusa's score has a number of high points. But he seems to have fallen in love with every song he wrote and is unwilling to sacrifice a single one, which is one reason why the show runs four hours.

Sybille Pearson's book, while trying to avoid comparisons to George Stevens' movie, wastes time and becomes repetitive in the final act, while leaving too many loose story threads earlier on. LaChiusa was much better served by his collaborators (and by himself) in his earlier "See What I Wanna See" (now receiving a four-star quality revival on Signa-ture's other stage.)

Ruthless editing, sharper casting and stronger staging with visuals and lighting that would better emphasize the look and feel of Texas are absolutely necessary if the truly great musical hiding under the hull of this version is to live out its Broadway destiny. Otherwise, its obituary is likely to read "it wasn't too big to fail."

"Giant" continues at Signature through May 31 and gets two and a half stars from me.

» Also, Metro Stage in Alexandria has extended Tom Stoppard's translation of the French play, Heroes. It now runs through May 31.

» The Warner Theatre in Washington welcomes a limited run of "Rent," with original leads Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal. The show opens May 26 and runs through May 31.

» "A Sleeping Country," opening May 27 at Round House Theatre's Bethesda stage, tells the story of a New York insomniac who travels to Venice in search of a cure. Country runs through June 21.

» Olney Theatre Center in Maryland opens "The Glass Menagerie" on May 27. Ten-nessee Williams' semi-autobiographical drama runs at Olney through July 5.

» Closing on May 24 are "A Swedish Tiger," presented by Synetic Theatre at Classika Theatre in Shirlington Village, Ford's Theatre's "The Civil War" and "The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall," presented by Theater J at the DC Jewish Commu-nity Center in the District.

Joe Barber's entertainment reviews and reports can be heard Fridays through Sundays on the WTOP Radio Network (103.5, 103.9, 107.7 & wtop.com.) He can be seen regularly on WETA-TV's Around Town.