Adapted for Signature Theater's intimate performing space by artistic director Eric D. Schaefer, this elegant, mostly well-cast production of Grand Hotel emphasizes relationships of the "ship of fools" docking at the darkly luxurious hotel in 1928 Berlin. Minus the exuberant dancing enlivening the 1989 Broadway adaptation, which under Tommy Tune's direction, garnered five Tony Awards, including Best Choreography, this Grand Hotel compensates with fine singing, ably accompanied by musical director Jon Kalbfleisch and his orchestra.
Red uniformed, white gloved bellboys welcome the audience to the Washington premiere, and the guests can easily imagine themselves into the 1932 Academy Award winning movie adaptation of the play, featuring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John and Lionel Barrymore. Or, as my cab driver said, as we approached the deceptively unpretentious building embannered with the show's title, "Oh, my, once that building was an auto repair shop, then it was a theater, and now it is a `Grand Hotel.'"
