Best Bets for Summer

Theater & Arts

Check Mate

The ’80s cult rock musical Chess opens Signature Theatre’s 2010–11 season Aug. 10 (4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.; 703/820-9771). The story, set in the shadow of the Cold War, follows two chess masters (one American, one Russian) competing for a world title, as well as the heart of the same woman. Love, political intrigue, international conspiracies and the ’80s hit “One Night in Bangkok”—you can’t ask for more.

Spoonful of Summer

Everyone’s favorite nanny descends with her umbrella on the Kennedy Center’s Opera House stage (2700 F St., NW; 800/444-1324) July 1 to Aug. 22. The new stage production of Mary Poppins, directed by Richard Eyre, combines the best of the original stories by P. L. Travers and the Walt Disney film, and stays true to old favorites “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”

Museums & Galleries

Identity Crisis

Submit a likeness of someone close to you. That was the assignment for entries in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. More than 3,000 artists submitted works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, video and new media, and photography, and the work of the 49 winners and finalists is on display at the National Portrait Gallery (8th and F streets, NW; 202/633-8300; portraitcompetition.si.edu) through Sept. 6. While the criterion was simple, the work was anything but. The artists’ use of portraiture or self-portraiture explores complex issues of identity while testing the boundaries of figurative art and documenting the relationship between artist and subject—creating a picture worth a thousand words.

Up Close & Personal

Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration opens July 3 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (500 17th St., NW; 202/639-1700; corcoran.org). The exhibit is a 30-year retrospective of the American portraitist and printmaker best known for his photorealist and massive-scale portraits. Close also is one of the most influential printmakers, and his fascination with the techniques and materials of the printing process is seen in more than 100 finished works, proofs and objects, including his first print, Keith/Mezzotint, 1972, and the 113-color Japanese-style ukiyo-e woodcut Emma, produced 30 years later.

From Necessity: Invention

Paintings without paint? That’s exactly the kind of art Richard Pousette-Dart embarked on during 1949 and 1954, when funds for materials were low or nonexistent. He improvised with graphite and oil on canvas using symbolic imagery and natural forms. The results were both spare and complex—a complete departure from his usual technique of encrusting surfaces with color and texture—and this body of work is celebrated in the exhibit Pousette-Dart: Predominantly White Paintings at the Phillips Collection (1600 21st St., NW; 202/387-2151) through Sept. 12.

Festivals & Special Events

Hit Me With a Hot Note

It’s hot. It’s August. And we can’t think of a better time to listen to the blues, especially when Lyle Lovett is on the docket. Grab your lawn chair, blanket and dancing shoes, and head to Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville, Md., for the Hot August Blues & Roots Music Festival Aug. 21. (Lovett also plays Wolf Trap on Aug. 17.) In addition to Lyle and his Large Band, you’ll hear Keb’ Mo’ and his Delta blues. Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and Jackie Scott & the Housewreckers complete the lineup.