Sharpenicity

BANDSTAND The story behind Bandstand has both the nostalgic and the heartbreak of the years when soldiers, marines and sailers returned from the battlefields of World War II in the 1940s to rebuild their lives to “Just Like It Was Before”.   Everyone in this is a star, starting with the couple.   Zack Zaromatidis plays Donny Novitski   and Jennifer Elizabeth Smith as Julia Trojan who share a tragedy that  will bring them together through music.   Roxy York as her mother and the guys  in the band keep cracking one liners as well as share their own wisdom and heartbreaks.   If the audience at the National Theatre had been the ones that were in the 1945 audience to vote for The Donny Nova Band to be winners of a national competition,   their applause alone would have put them over the top immediately.   For from being just another nostalgic piece,   the music and the dancing in Bandstand are first class winners. At National Theatre, Washington DC, March 5 to 12, 2020