The blog is going away but the reviews are not. You can find them here in the online print edition.
Home > ATLarts > Archives > 2008 > June
June 2008
‘High School Musical’ won’t play Fox this summer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s Theater of the Stars is about to have some disappointed tweens on its hands.
The local Broadway producer has pulled the plug on the August engagement of the wildy popular stage version of “High School Musical.” However, the theater says it will stage a new production of the hit at the Fox Theatre next summer, then send it out on tour.
Disney Theatrical Productions’ first national tour of “High School Musical” was supposed to conclude Aug. 15-24 at the Fox, where Theater of the Stars premiered the show in January 2007. On Monday, Theater of the Stars and Disney said the engagement was being scrubbed “due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts.” The tour will now close in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Aug. 3.
Theater of the Stars President Nick Manos said he recently pitched the idea of producing a second national tour to Disney Theatricals, and once that plan was approved, “it made more sense for us to do it next summer than be the final stop of the tour.”
Details and dates of the second tour are still in the works. “It will probably be a largely new cast,” Manos said.
Meanwhile, patrons with “High School Musical” tickets have three options. Exchange them for seats to Theater of the Stars’ world premiere of “High School Musical 2” (Nov. 7-16 at the Fox); exchange them for seats to next summer’s engagement of “High School Musical,” or get a full refund at the point of purchase.
Exchanges can be made beginning July 8.
For more information: www.theaterofthestars.com.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Beethoven, the ASO and Drought at Encore Park
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Saturday at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park. www.atlantasymphony.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The water drought, terrible for Georgia, might be a business asset for Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, the new summertime home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, facing its own sort of classical-music drought in recent years.
The ASO built and operates the venue and played Encore Park’s over-the-top inaugural gala (marching bands, fireworks) in May.
Since then, the 12,000-seat Alpharetta pavilion has hosted mega-rock shows and received heaps of audience praise (a nice vibe; convenient for folks in the northern suburbs) and scorn (frequent ticket snafus; no public transportation; distant parking lots for sold-out events and long waits for the shuttle buses; mixed quality of food and beverage services).
Saturday, for the ASO’s first “normal” show — a stock program of muscular Beethoven — I had bought the cheapest ticket off the ASO’s Web site, $30.50, and found a nice spot on the general admission lawn.
It’s my new seat of preference. Hot, rainless summers, with a light breeze, will play nicely out here.
Though the boomy amplification is designed more for the black-and-whiteness of the rock ’n’ roll sound than for classical’s sonic palette of color, at least you can hear equally well everywhere. Paradoxically, the musicians always appear distant, even from near the stage.
Jumbo video screens telescope that gap. The ASO has taken lessons from the Metropolitan Opera’s hugely popular movie theater broadcasts. Here the pre-show and intermission diversions include backstage interviews and audience-participation activities, like texting questions for conductor Robert Spano to answer.
And Encore Park might come to the rescue for the ASO’s attendance drought for ticket sales in Midtown’s Symphony Hall.
It used to be tough to lure 1,000 folks to Symphony Hall summer classics, according to ASO marketing chief Charlie Wade. Saturday’s Encore Park concert, without much effort, drew 3,100.
And the ASO is attracting new fans at its new space. The proof? After each movement of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto (with pianist Dejan Lazic) and Fifth Symphony, the audience applauded with vigor — a sincere appreciation for the focused and virtuosic performance, and an unmistakable indicator of newness to etiquette-choked classical culture. You could almost smell the rain a-comin’. Will it be enough to end the drought?
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Classical Music
Exquisite ‘Merchant’ @ Georgia Shakes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The collateral that Shylock demands from the Merchant of Venice is enough to make you squirm.
If the merchant Antonio can’t repay his loan in time, Shylock reserves the right to cut a pound of flesh from the debtor’s body. And in the suspenseful courtroom scene of the problematic play, the Jewish money-lender comes within a hair’s breadth of carving a chunk out of his enemy’s bosom.
“The Merchant of Venice” — which traffics in brutal anti-Semitic language, Jewish stereotypes and what modern audiences would label as hate crimes— can make for uneasy and troubling theater-going. Fortunately, director Sabin Epstein’s new Georgia Shakespeare production chooses to emphasize the frothy romantic comedy swirling around the nasty business.
This “Merchant of Venice” is a ravishingly appointed, cleverly conceived affair that strikes just the right tone — luxuriating in the Bard’s sparkling wit and evincing superb performances from the ensemble.
Epstein’s top-notch design team puts all the action of Venice and Belmont in a marvelously scaled 19th-century drawing room, where the ladies flutter about in drop-dead gorgeous gowns and elegantly suited men sip brandy and espresso from delicate porcelain cups.
Leslie Taylor envisions an opulent, black-walled interior stencilled all over with an essential bit of text. Mike Post lights the stage with a painterly eye. And Christine Turbitt outfits the company in truly breath-taking costumes.
Portia, a wealthy heiress with a steady procession of suitors, makes quite an entrance, hurling a bouquet of long-stemmed roses to the floor. Portia is one of Shakespeare’s smartest female characters, and Park Krausen imbues her with whip-smart authority and delicious comedic flair. (Notice the way Portia glibly mocks the accents of her German and English callers.)
In the much smaller part of Portia’s “waiting gentlewoman,” Tess Malis Kincaid also cuts an elegant figure — and she even gets to sing.
Allen O’Reilly’s Antonio (the merchant) is by turns monstrous and sympathetic. Antonio’s friends — Daniel Thomas May as Solanio, Brad Sherrill as Salerio and Chris Ensweiler as the foolish Gratiano — are spot-on in their characterizations, and a seriously handsome bunch to boot. Enoch King, as Shylock’s clown Launcelot, is delightful, and Hudson Adams is rich and ribald in a variety of roles. (Adams’ decrepit, asthmatic-sounding Prince of Aragon is particularly funny.) As Bassanio, the man who finally conquers Portia, Joe Knezevich gives a delicately nuanced and highly sensitive reading of a man in love. Perfect.
Finally, Chris Kayser, one of the busiest actors in town, wholly reinvents himself as Shylock. With his ethnic accent and swarthy countenance, his Shylock is the ultimate outsider but never a caricature.
By decree of her father’s will, Portia’s suitors determine their fate by choosing blindly from a trio of boxes: one gold, one silver and one lead. As the tale attests, everything that glitters is not gold. But in the world of this complicated and controversial story of money and love, it doesn’t hurt that the material trappings are so nice to look at.
THE 411: Through Aug. 2. In rotating repertory with “As You Like It” and “All’s Well That Ends Well,” opening July 11. $15-$40. Georgia Shakespeare, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-264-0020, gashakespeare.org.
BOTTOM LINE: Exquisite in every detail.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Ooh, another list! EW’s Top 100 books of the last 25 years
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Everyone loves lists prepared by magazine editors or bloggers or the like. Not the actual lists, but the act of reading them and reacting to them.
Are you kiddin’ me? They ranked THAT over THAT? You get a little surge of adrenaline and sometimes of superiority, and then move on. Lists don’t require a lot of commitment.
Which brings us to the latest book list, Entertainment Weekly’s Top 100 books of the past 25 years, part of an issue that did the same thing to movies, TV, music, etc.
Of course the result is preposterous. A Harry Potter novel at No. 2, ahead of all the literature written in the last 25 years, will start that little vein throbbing in your temple. Then you work your way down the the bottom, and see “The Da Vinci Code” ranked, without even a mention of “In the Beauty of the Lilies” by John Updike or ‘Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin, to name but a couple of works of art that come to mind that are not on the list at all. It’s anuerysm time, baby!
On the positive side, I was delighted to see such “The Things They Carried” (31), “Parting the Waters” (32) and “Praying for Sheetrock (44), outstanding books but not the ones you expect to see on lists like this.
So here is the whole list, below, presented like a pinata. Reader, here are your sticks. Start bashing away!
The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr (1995)
American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990)
Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
World’s Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
Money, Martin Amis (1985)
Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
The Predators’ Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)
Permalink | Comments (41) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Center Theatre’s ‘Jewtopia’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: D+
In the long-running spoof of Atlanta culture, “Peachtree Battle,” a Buckhead matron has a hissy when her son wants to marry a Hooter’s waitress.
In Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson’s “Jewtopia,” the inaugural production of Center Theatre of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, a Jewish mother becomes apoplectic when her son brings home a woman of Mongolian descent; that is, until she realizes her potential daughter-in-law is a doctor.
In the spirit of satirizing a particular milieu, both comedies spew crude, mean-spirited, often derogatory humor —- and unleash offensive social stereotypes with happy abandon.
The African-American community has Tyler Perry and his so-called “chitlin-circuit” plays. The Jewish community has “Jewtopia,” about a 30-year-old Irish Catholic man’s pursuit of a Jewish wife.
“You stick to Jewish girls, and you’ll never have to make a decision as long as you live,” Chris (Eric Mendenhall) tells his buddy Adam, a Jewish guy who’s had bad luck hooking up.
Chris’ dating technique is so fool-proof that Adam (Tony Larkin) enlists his help. As it turns out, Chris’ secret weapon is the Jewish singles network known as Jdate.com. Adam’s digital dating game is reminiscent of the material in Bobby Goldman’s “Curvy Widow,” the ill-fated one-woman show with Cybill Shepherd that played the Alliance Theatre last year.
But while Goldman’s play relied on a single character to tell the tale, here we get to see Adam embark on a series of bad encounters with an assortment of wacky women (all played by Megan Hayes).
After veering into a campy, out-of-control, “Saturday Night Live”-meets-“Peachtree Battle” dimension of extreme farce, the play ends with a sentimental message. Adam and Chris eventually find love —- but with a twist. By tying everything up like a fairy tale, the writers seem to think their frat-house Yiddish humor serves a nobler cause.
Having said all that, Blake Hall, Center Theatre’s new producing artistic director, makes the most of the sub-par script —- delivering a technically impressive production, while Mendenhall and Hayes relish the opportunity for unbridled silliness. Thanks to the performances, the play does have some genuinely funny moments.
For better or worse, the Marcus Jewish Community Center has a new professional theater. “Jewtopia” is a real lulu.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursdays. 6 and 9 p.m. Saturdays. 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Aug. 10. $25-$35. Center Theatre of the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 14th Street Playhouse, 173 14th St. N.E., Midtown. 404-733-5000, woodruffcentertickets.org
Bottom line: Good performances and direction can’t redeem low comedy.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Georgia Book Bash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With so many authors, how are they going to fit in some fans? That’s the scene at the Georgia Author Book Bash (GABB), set for 4-7 p.m. Sunday (June 29) at the Margaret Mitchell House, 990 Peachtree St.
Live jazz, cash bar, and the opportunity to mix and mingle as well as get books signed, so you can tell David Fulmer to his face that his late hard-boiled novel rocked.
It’s $10 for members, $15 for everyone else, and pre-payment is required. Called 770 578 3502 for info.
There’s too many authors to list here, but you can see a list and a signing schedule at the Mitchell House website.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
See and Do this Weekend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re starting a new feature here at ATLarts. Every Thursday, I’ll offer a suggestion about a fun, artful event to see or do. And considering that we’re all watching our pennies these days, I’m going to keep an eye out for free events, deals and special offers.
This week: If you’ve never done it before, check out the scene at the Castleberry Hill Art Stroll Friday evening. Every fourth Friday of the month, the galleries and artist spaces in this popular art district open their doors from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. It’s a great opportunity to see new art in a party atmosphere. And there are always a few pleasant surprises outside of the galleries, as well. I don’t know if artist Jon Ciliberto is still operating his free “art taxi,” but last time I talked to him, riders were treated to impromptu drawings and live music.
For more information and to download a map for this free event, check out the website
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Visual arts
Jackie Collins: The List
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Three high-powered Hollywood couples, two hot affairs, one underage Russian ex-hooker, a passionate murder and the players whose lives are changed forever.”
When I first read that, I thought it was a synopsis of a new sitcom on Fox. But it turned out to be a publicist boiling down “Married Lovers,” the new novel by Jackie Collins, to its salient talking points.
Ms. Collins will be at Outwrite Books in Midtown at 8 tonight (June 26) to talk about “Married Lovers” and sign copies. Till she gets here, I’d like to know if anyone else can take that opening sentence and come up with something else being described.
Have fun.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
‘Oklahoma!’ rolls into Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B
Oh, what a beautiful mornin’ — bzzzz, bzzzz. Oh, what a beautiful day. Bzzzz, bzzzz, pop!
I’ve got a beautiful feeling everything’s going Theater of the Stars’ way, if it can just fix the sound-system glitches that jarred an otherwise glorious opening of “Oklahoma!” at the Fox Theatre.
Beautifully performed, sumptuously designed and showcasing new adaptations of Agnes de Mille’s original ballets, this handsome new production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic coincides with the rapturously received first Broadway revival of the famous duo’s “South Pacific.” If either of these celebrations of American wholesomeness ever did fade from fashion, they have returned now with the self-assured clippety-clop of a “Surrey with The Fringe on Top.”
Tuesday night at the Fox felt like 1943 again, thanks to director Norb Joerder, choreographer Gemze de Lappe (a de Mille protege) and their cast of 45.
As Laurey, Jennifer Evans sure sings purdy. (And she proved herself quite the trouper when her microphone went out for most of “Many a New Day.”) Nicholas Rodriquez’s Curly is in terrific form as the sexy cowpoke who mesmerizes the ladies and frustrates Jud Fry’s angry attempt to win the hand of Laurey.
De Mille’s ballets may not be as lurid as the dances Susan Stroman created for Trevor Nunn’s 2002 Broadway revival, but the psychosexual tension of the menage a trois is magnified by Ben Crawford’s seething, Mephistopholean approach to Jud. Crawford’s exquisite baritone and pent-up approach owes a debt to Atlanta native Shuler Hensley’s Tony Award-winnning Jud, but Crawford’s “Lonely Room” is no less electric.
As Aunt Eller, Ruth Williamson is pure, corn-pone charm. Sean Montgomery’s Will Parker has the physique of a string bean and the comedic spark of a bag of firecrackers. Betsy Dilellio makes for a cute-as-a-June-bug Ado Annie, even if her singing doesn’t quite hold up. And for all his comic flair, Gary Littman can’t transcend the predictably outsize posturing of peddlar Ali Hakim.
The homage to de Mille comes with built-in blind spots, too, as the dances felt under-rehearsed and antiquated at times. After Stoman’s more integrated approach, the use of doubles in the famous dream sequence seemed a little schizo, and the sheer size of the ensemble meant that not everyone was always in sync.
But these are minor quibbles.
Scenic designer Michael Schweikardt’s prairie homes, smokehouses and windmills are pure and authentic. Jeffrey Meeks’ costumes are paragons of feminine ruffles and masculine bulk. And Kirk Bookman’s splendid lighting makes the endless Oklahoma sky glow with pinks and purples.
There’s nothing like a little Rodgers and Hammerstein to remind us that the land we belong to is grand. And as evidenced here, so is its musical theater tradition.
THE 411: 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday. 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. $25-$68. Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com
Bottom line: As much fun as a box social.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
This is your Brain. This is Your Brain on Drudge
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s an interesting article in the current Atlantic magazine titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” by Nicholas Carr.
It’s long, at times meandering, and far from conclusive. But if you don’t want to click and read the whole article, here is the nutshell I found most provocvative.
The Internet (for which Google’s logo just makes a clever magazine cover) is a medium that requires us to use our brains differently than books do. Wide, rather than deep, and skipping from thing to thing rather than pausing and reflecting. As we do this more and more, Carr argues, we lose a little of our former capacity to immerse ourselves completely in a complex book.
He cites himself and I have to admit, I feel some of the same thing. I’ve been having more trouble lately reading books all the way through unless it’s for work. I get halfway and get a bad case of “What else do I have to read?” I’ve always been a little bit this way, but I think it’s getting more pronounced.
Carr isn’t attacking the Web, nor am I. It’s a great medium. But its changes are profound, and just starting to be understood, and I wonder if this isn’t one of them.
Does this ring a bell with anyone? Are you tackling fewer tough books, or having more trouble? Do you think it’s because you’re rewiring your brain?
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
First look at Decatur Book Fest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I just got back from the press conference announcing the lineup of the third annual Decatur Book Festival, and it sounds pretty neat.
The fest runs Aug. 29-31, Labor Day weekend. As always, most events are free, but get their early cause the popular ones get packed quickly. Here is a sampling of what I thought sounded cool.
“How Well Do You Know Harry?,” a competitive quiz for children hosted by Cheryl Klein, the continuity editor for the last four Potter books.
A keynote address by Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate.
The world premiere of the first “Madeline” children’s book in 50 years, read by author John Bemelmans Marciano, grandson of original author Ludwig Bemelmans.
Author appearances include: best-seller Eric Jerome Dickey, football coach Bill Curry, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, homegrown humorist Roy Blount Jr., novelists Clyde Edgerton, Jill McCorkle and Lee Smith, pop-up book king Robert Sabuda, and underground comix legend Skip Williamson.
Local? They got local. Karen Abbott, Mary Kay Andrews, Mark Bauerlein, Pearl Cleage, Evelyn Coleman, Hollis Gillespie, Emily Griffin, Patti Callahan Henry, Joshilyn Jackson, Kay Powell, Ferrol Sams, Karin Slaughter, Natasha Trethewey and a lot more.
You can check out the lineup here. The actual schedule should go up in mid-July.
See you there.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
What’s in a name?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Apparently some people were jolted when the name Daniel Thomas May turned up in my review of “As You Like It” at Georgia Shakespeare.
For the record, Daniel Thomas May is the same guy who’s been performing around town for years as Daniel May.
Reached by phone to clarify, the popular Atlanta actor said: “I was tossing and turning last night trying to think up a good story to try to make it more exciting than it actually is.”
May has simply decided to start using his official Actor’s Equity name in all public references — including the new program for Georgia Shakespeare’s summer rep, in which he plays Orlando.
After joining Equity in 2003, May says the union sent him a letter informing him that there was another Daniel May on its roster and suggesting he alter his name to avoid a mix-up. Since then, May has used his full name on all contracts, whether working in San Francisco, Chicago or Atlanta.
“I figured I’d just go ahead and bite the bullet and put it out there,” says the buffed, 33-year-old, who has appeared in “The Pillowman” at Actor’s Express, “In the Red and Brown Water” at the Alliance and numerous other productions.
“I hadn’t expected it to be so controversial,” he joked in an email.
The other Daniel May was in the national touring company of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
On the Internet Movie Database, Atlanta’s Daniel Thomas May is known as Daniel May (II). There are three other Daniel Mays on the movie database. If he joins the Screen Actors Guild, May says he’ll use his middle name to avoid any more confusion.
Whew. Glad we cleared that up.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
‘Redneck Boy in the Promised Land’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The first clue that you’re in for fun with Ben Jones’s memoir is the chapter titles. “That Was Not a Chip on My Shoulder, That was a Crosstie.” “An Old Alky Versus Ken and Barbie.” “Cooter Tries to Neuter the Newtster.”
A guy who can come up with chapter headers like that ought to be able to write a fine memoir indeed. “Redneck Boy in the Promised Land” isn’t much on the actual writing. It’s grammatical. And spell-checked. But then it’s unlikely that Jones’s fans are going to be plunking down $24 for his way with a metaphor.
OK, there is one moment when he shows some chops. That’s when he describes actress Catherine Bach: “She had the best legs in the history of legs.” Now that’s writing.
For those who are too young or too Northern to know, Jones has two major claims to fame. He played Cooter on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a TV show in the early ‘80s about Catherine Bach’s legs and good ol’boys driving fast through the woods. And he served two terms as a Congressman from Georgia’s Fourth District, running in memorably miasmic contests against Newt Gingrich and Pat Swindall. “Redneck Boy” fills in all the other stuff, and there’s a lot of it.
Jones will read from and sign “Redneck Boy in the Promised Land” at 7 p.m. on June 26 at Manuel’s Tavern, 602 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta. A Cappella Books is the bookseller for the event. It should be a hoot.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Atlanta Ballet’s Season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Ballet has announced the lineup for its first season at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
The 2008-2009 season will start with a classical favorite, “Swan Lake,” in October, followed by the perennial “Nutcracker,” (which is still under contract at the ballet’s old home, the Fox Theatre.)
Then comes a reprise of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” a signature work for the Atlanta Ballet, which it last performed in 2004.
In March, the ballet will present “The Firebird” in addition to a world premiere from award-winning choreorgrapher Darrell Grand Moultrie.
The season closes in May with “Don Quixote,” based on Cervantes’ classic novel, and a shorter ballet for kids — a one-hour version of “Snow White.”
After years of performing at the Fox, the Atlanta Ballet announced its move to Cobb earlier this year, citing the larger stage — and smaller house — at the new performing arts center.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: dance
Broadway coming to Cobb
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Broadway is coming to Cobb.
In a turning point for Atlanta theater, the historic Fox Theatre will no longer dominate the city’s Broadway market. Starting this fall, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre will inaugurate a four-show Broadway series that will include the Tony Award-winning blockbusters “Hairspray” and “Spamalot.”
At a Wednesday morning press conference, the Atlanta Broadway Series officially became the third resident organization of the $145 million Cobb venue, which opened last fall and is the home of the Atlanta Ballet and the Atlanta Opera.
Atlanta Broadway Series will be helmed by Stephanie Parker, who also runs the Broadway Across America-Atlanta season at the Fox. Both Broadway Across America-Atlanta and Atlanta Broadway are backed by New York-based entertainment giant Key Brand Theatrical Group.
Parker say it’s a “natural progression” for Broadway tours to have a second Atlanta home. “It gives people farther out the opportunity to experience more Broadway.”
“It was always our mission that Broadway would be performing in this house,” Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens said Wednesday.
Also on the Atlanta Broadway Series are “Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy” and “Wicked.” However, “Wicked” is part of Broadway Across America-Atlanta’s previously announced 2008-2009 season at the Fox. Cobb subscribers will be able to include “Wicked” as part of their season package. A concert by pop singer Natalie Cole is being offered as a series extra.
“Booking a Broadway series has always been a priority,” said Michael Taormina, managing director of the Cobb venue. “Being able to announce it in the first year is truly gratifying.”
The complete Cobb season:
Natalie Cole. The pop singer will be promoting her fall release, “Still Unforgettable.” Oct. 19.
“Wicked.” The “Wizard of Oz” backstory is one of Broadway’s most popular musicals. Fox Theatre. Oct. 28-Nov 2.
“Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy.” The New Age circus, which is not affiliated with Cirque du Soleil, opens on Broadway next week. Dec. 30-Jan. 4.
“Hairspray.” Based on the John Waters film, the show won eight Tony Awards, including the prize for best new musical, in 2003. Jan. 13-18.
“Spamalot.” The Monty Python howler won the best musical Tony of 2005. March 17-22.
Tickets: 1-877-451-7469, cobbenergycentre.com. Single tickets are not yet available but generally go on sale six to eight weeks before the show.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Makes me wonder how I keep from going under
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No single person invented hip hop, but if anyone were egotistical enough to make that claim, he would have to get in line behind Grandmaster Flash. As Jermaine Dupri says, “Hip hop wouldn’t be hip hop without the great Grandmaster Flash.”
In the ’70s, Flash (aka Joseph Saddler from Barbados) was one of a small handful of New York DJs who started cutting and mixing songs using turntables, and creating new beats. With his group the Furious Five, he had the first big breakthough hip hop hit with a political message, titled, of course, “The Message.” In 2007, Flash and the Five were the first hip hop musicians to be inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.
His new memoir is The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats.” He’ll be signing it at 7:30 tonight at the Buckhead Borders, 3637 Peachtree Rd., Atlanta.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Performing arts program for Cobb Energy Centre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre is poised to announce a performing arts series in partnership with the folks behind Broadway Across America-Atlanta, which presents mostly musicals at the Fox Theatre.
Details will be announced Wednesday at a 10 a.m. news conference. Stephanie Parker, who runs Broadway Across America-Atlanta, will bring the series to the Cobb venue. But the Cobb endeavor won’t operate under the name Broadway Across America-Atlanta. A new moniker will be announced Wednesday.
Publicists for both partners are being tight-lipped about the “brand new performing arts venture” — saying they won’t release programming information until Wednesday morning. The 2,750-seat Cobb venue, which opened last fall at a cost of $145 million, is clearly seizing the moment to promote its new endeavor.
It will be interesting to see what’s in store for Cobb — and how it compliments the overall picture for performing arts in Atlanta. Whereas Broadway Across America-Atlanta mostly sticks to musical theater at the 4,518-seat Fox, there’s a good chance the new partnership will present plays or other material suited to the intimately proportioned Cobb theater.
Stay tuned for updates on Wednesday morning.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
‘As You Like It’ @ Georgia Shakes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C
In its previous 22 seasons, Georgia Shakespeare has hatched a Civil War-era “Troilus and Cressida,” a Fellini-esque “Taming of the Shrew” and a radically condensed version of “Othello” with a streamlined ensemble of six.
Tweaking the Bard is a smart way to relieve contemporary audiences from the doldrums of Elizabethan England, and it affords savvy directors and designers a chance to reference 400 years’ worth of fabulousness in art, fashion and technology. At the end of the day, Georgia Shakespeare’s productions usually make compelling cases for such fanciful modern treatments.
Not so with director Karen Robinson’s “Summer of Love”-style makeover of “As You Like It,” Shakespeare’s well-nigh perfect comedy of mistaken identities and misplaced affections.
With two recent Joe Orton comedies playing off the same themes, the ’60s gimmicks — Mondrian dresses, hippies in bell-bottoms and a daisy-strewn Forest of Arden — are beginning to feel a little like recycled party favors.
And while most of the performances are perfectly fine and occasionally quite good, you get the impression that more time went into the playing up the hippy shtick than shading in the emotional rainbow. (Kat Conley’s vision of Arden as curlicue cutouts of trees and the Duke’s court as a series of almost Asian-inspired shades only serves to mix the visual metaphors.)
Rosalind — who disguises herself as the young boy Ganymede, much to the confusion of her lovestruck suitor, Orlando — is the most dazzling female character in Shakespeare. But in Park Krausen’s tepid treatment, we see only glimmers of the trousered heroine’s genius.
It doesn’t help that the fetching actress is burdened with a coarse-looking bobbed wig throughout and, in the opening scenes, the strangest costume in Sydney Roberts’ otherwise nice-looking fashion grab bag: a zigzaggy gray jacket that has all the seductiveness of reptilian armor. Krausen’s performance kind of makes you wonder if newcomer Susannah Millonzi (Celia) would not have made for a more inspired and inventive Rosalind.
Fortunately, Daniel Thomas May is up to the task as the perennially perplexed Orlando. Rendered speechless by the sight of Rosalind, the hero’s demeanor becomes that of a goo-gooing 17-month-old: clueless, adorable and wholly in love with the object of his affection.
Alas, Joe Knezevich’s world-weary parsing of melancholy Jaques’ “All the World’s a Stage” speech doesn’t quite hit it, although Chris Kayser’s account of Touchstone is as big and broad as the court jester’s enormous velvet bow-tie. The trio of wandering musicians (JC Long, Sam Bardwell and David Quay) is one ’60s-inspired touch that works.
As the show drags on, the arrival of Brynn Tucker’s Phebe is a delightful and welcome diversion. If Rosalind doesn’t seem to be having much fun, it’s a marvel to see this hapless shepherdess make a complete fool of herself.
At the end of the labored opening night, actor Brad Sherrill (who played Orlando in 2001 and here makes for an eloquently irritated Duke Frederick) was given a special citation for his 20 years with the company. In that brief, unscripted tribute, there was more joy and spontaneity than in the nearly three-hour production that preceded it.
For all the “Summer of Love” hoopla, this show can’t figure out how to let the sun shine in.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
“Breaking Dawn” at midnight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stephenie Meyers’ “Twilight Saga” has not yet reached Harry Potter popularity levels, but it’s getting closer. The fourth book, “Breaking Dawn,” is due out Aug. 2, and has been banging around Amazon’s Top 10 as a pre-order for a long time.
Now I’ve gotten word of the first Potter-style release party scheduled in metro Atlanta. But it probably won’t be the only one by the time we get there. The Barnes & Noble at the Mall of Georgia, 3333 Buford Dr., Buford, is going to have a big “Twilight” theme party the night of Friday, Aug. 1, from 10 p.m. to midnight, when they will start selling the books, just like bookstores did for the last four Potter titles.
In case you haven’t heard, “Twilight” is the story of a regular high school girl and her romance with an immortal vampire. The books are very romantic, but not overtly sexual; aimed at a teen audience, but devoured by women of all ages. The first movie is coming in December, and fans are a bit beside themselves.
A note on the cover: There appears to be more than one cover illustration floating around the Net. This cover above is from Meyer’s own site.
And an important P.S.: A press release from Barnes & Noble says this is the “final book” in the saga. Meyer told me in an interview last year that there would be a fifth book.
Permalink | Comments (37) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Coming up Rosie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rosie O’Donnell has been a little quiet lately, and now we know why. She was working on yet another unlikely project, a booked called “Crafty U,” which is full of fun things for parents and kids to make together, from tie-dye shirts to jewelry.
She’s touring to support the book, and comes to the Michael’s in Alpharetta today from 12 noon-1 p.m. to sign the book and chat with fans. 7491 Northpoint Parkway is the address, 678-722-0036 if you have questions.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Atlanta’s Tony challenge
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The astonishing trajectory of Tracy Lett’s “August: Osage County” — which won five Tony Awards — leaves you wondering when an Atlanta show will take Broadway like this.
“None of us dreamed we’d be here,” said best actress winner Deanna Dunagan, speaking for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. “I certainly didn’t, after 34 years in regional theater. I watched it on TV like everybody else.”
As a major regional theater, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre should move a show to Broadway, and put an Atlanta ensemble in the same company as Chicago’s Dunagan and Rondi Reed (who won for featured actress in a play for “August”).
It would be swell to see Susan V. Booth and Kent Gash direct on Broadway, joining the likes of regional stars Anna D. Shapiro and Bartlett Sher, who won Sunday night’s directing Tonys for “August” and “South Pacific.”
“South Pacific” won seven Tony awards, leading all musicals. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Latin-flavored “In the Heights” was front-runner among new musicals, with four awards, including best new musical.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Atlanta boys on Tony Awards show
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boyd Gaines — who just picked up a Tony for his portrayal of Mama Rose’s love interest, Herbie, in “Gypsy” — is an Atlanta native. This is his fourth Tony Award. He was nominated for his performance in last year’s play revival winner, “Journey’s End,” and won for “Contact” (2000), “She Loves Me” (1994) and “The Heidi Chronicles” (1989).
Gaines, 55, moved to California with his parents the summer before his senior year in high school, meaning he’s been away from Georgia for almost 40 years. He attended Juilliard and later gained fame as Valerie Bertinelli’s dentist-husband on “One Day at a Time.”
Meanwhile, Westminster Schools grad Shuler Hensley — who won a Tony and an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Jud Fry in Trevor Nunn’s “Oklahoma!” — was featured in the performance from Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein.” True to character, Hensley uttered not a word, while “Will and Grace” star Megan Mullally dug into “Deep Love” with comic brio.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Tony time warp
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What year is this? Must be 1998, since the opening of the Tony Awards is beginning with a tribute to “The Lion King.” Say WHAT? I don’t care if it is the 10th anniversary of “The Lion King.”
Could this be a laurel branch for Disney, which was largely overlooked for “The Little Mermaid” this year, and roundly dissed for “Tarzan” a couple of years ago?
Wait, there’s Whoopi Goldberg in the costume of Sebastian, the bossy crab character played by Georgia’s Tituss Burgess in “Little Mermaid.” What next? (Would you believe Whoopi as Mary Poppins? Whoopi in the “Phantom of the Opera” gondola?)
OK. Now here’s a touch of class. Accepting her Tony for featured actress/play, Rondi Reed pays tribute to the late Dennis Letts, father of playwright Tracy Letts. The elder Letts was in the original Broadway cast of his son’s Pulitzer Prize winner, “August: Osage County” but passed away after the show opened.
“Happy Father’s Day,” Reed said, lifting her medallion up toward the heavens at the top of the show.
I hope that was a joke about Whoopi needing to go to the ladies room, and leaving Counting Crows band member Adam Duritz to introduce his roommate, Stew. The performance from Stew’s “Passing Strange” kicked butt. If Whoopi is hosting, why isn’t she in front of the camera more?
Three times, as they say, is the charm. Director Bartlett Sher, who runs Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, finally got his Tony, for his revival of “South Pacific.” His productions of “The Light in the Piazza” and Clifford Odets’ “Awake and Sing” were superb.
Patti LuPone is positively fab as Mama Rose, isn’t she? Oh. My. God. Will she win another Tony? (Laura Benanti, accepting for best featured actress/musical for her portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee, was the real deal: sweet, sincere, effusive, just short of tears.)
Accepting his Tony for the score of “In the Heights,” Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped his speech. “Mr. Sondheim, look I made a hat… A Latin hat at that.” What a beautiful and moving moment. Miranda came prepared.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Popping M&Ms during the early Tonys
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“In the Heights” — the new musical about Latino life in the barrio — picked up two early awards, for choreography and orchestrations. This could be an important indicator of things to come. “In the Heights” and “Passing Strange” are expected to win big tonight.
Stew (the alt-rock star with no last name) won for book of “Passing Strange.” “I thought this was going to happen like an hour from now,” Stew said of early segment of the Tonys. “I was looking for some M&Ms in my pocket or something.”
This year’s Regional Tony for sustained excellence went to the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. (Last, year, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre won the coveted regional kudos.) Chicago Shakes artistic director Barbara Gaines accepted the award with a generous nod to her colleagues at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater, many of whom are nominated for Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County.”
Then she told the New York crowd how to find her in Chicago. “Take the New Jersey turnpike to I-80 and turn left.”
Two designers who have worked a good bit at the Alliance just won design awards — Catherine Zuber for “South Pacific” costumes and Todd Rosenthal for the set design of “August.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
It’s Tony night!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m online, watching the Red Carpet arrivals of the Tony Awards. Diehard Broadway fans can tune in at tonyawards.com. Stew (author of “Passing Strange”) just arrived and now Raul Esparza (nominated for “The Homecoming) is being interviewed. And, hey there’s Laura Linney!
At 7 p.m., the first awards will be handed out in a ceremony hosted by Michael Cerveris (“Sweeney Todd,” “LoveMusik”). You can catch that on tonyawards.com, too. At 8 p.m., the show begins on CBS, with Whoopi Goldberg hosting. I’ll be watching and blogging live.
Turn on the TV, put your laptop on the coffee table, and watch with me. Let me know what you think about tonight’s show and winners. … Wendell
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Who’s your daddy?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday is Father’s Day, which seems like a good time to ruminate on fathers in literature.
As a rule, dads in novels are usually not going to be real sweethearts. It’s the nature of narrative— you need conflict to get it going, and if you’re writing about a father-child relationship, it’s easy to make the dad a tyrant who must somehow be overcome.
But when I started thinking about the most memorable fathers in fiction, I was surprised at how many of the great ones were actually pretty great.
At the top of everyone’s list, of course, is Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” He’s perfect in the book, then Gregory Peck came along in the movie and made him perfect-er. I was fortunate enough to hit the Dad Lottery when I was born and I have a really awesome dad, but almost everyone I’ve ever talked to, whether they were raised by a wise, kind father or the other kind, felt some sort of longing for Atticus Finch.
How about Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables?” He rescues Colette, adopts her, protects her, and even sacrifices himself to spare her finding out he has been a criminal. That’s the sort of character who’s usually a mom.
The character of Papa in Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” appealed to my own sense of being a father, the fierce need to shelter your child from as much of the cruel world as possible. He never gets a name, but this father is so strong and resolute, against such odds, that I get choked up thinking about him.
A little less noble than those three is Shakespeare’s King Lear. A flawed father. But aren’t we all?
Finally, there’s Bull Meecham, the brutal bully of Pat Conroy’s “The Great Santini.” Actually, Conroy’s real father appears in various guises throughout many of his novels; “Santini” was just the purest distillation of this character. I know, he has his strengths. But the cruelty is just too pervasive.
Those are five of the most interesting fathers I came up with. Who am I missing? What literary dad has stuck with you?
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
ASO Ends Season With Golijov and Stravinsky
CONCERT REVIEW Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Thursday in symphony Hall. Program repeats Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., 404-733-5000, atlantasymphony.org.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Symphony has become a more musical and much more famous orchestra off the music of Osvaldo Golijov, a 47-year-old Argentine composer who’s almost unique on today’s classical music scene.
Atlanta knows and loves Golijov — pronounced GO-lee-hoff — in no small part thanks to conductor Robert Spano, who’s led the ASO in all his major scores — topped by “La Pasion Segun San Marcos,” a crucifixion tale set to Latin American dances, and the opera “Ainadamar,” on the murder of poet Federico Garcia Lorca. The ASO took these shows on tour; its recording of the opera, a highlight of the orchestra’s history, won countless new fans (for the composer, the ASO and contemporary music in general) and a Grammy for Best Opera.
Trouble is, Golijov doesn’t write much. There’s not enough of his music to keep an eager city satisfied. On stage Thursday in Symphony Hall— the final weekend of concerts in its main 2007-08 season — came Golijov’s “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind,” a meditation on the Kabbalistic teachings of the medieval Provençal rabbi who’s approaching pop icon status. (Madonna apparently studies the Kabbalah and wrote her own tribute song, “Isaac.”)
“Dreams and Prayers,” from 1994, was originally for string quartet and a solo clarinetist, playing five instruments and covering the world of klezmer emotions in sinuous melodies, from harrowing to brash to joyous and sorrowful and back.
Clarinetist Todd Palmer, another serious Golijov devotee, recently had the score thickened up for string orchestra and took the solo part with the ASO. A soulful musician, Palmer’s tone is at once liquid and velvety. In brief duets with concertmaster Cecylia Arzewski — who’s departing the orchestra after this weekend — the clarinetist and violinist captured some ghost of a Jewish life that’s forever lost. The music and the performance won’t soon be forgotten.
The Golijov was paired with Stravinsky’s 1910 ballet “The Firebird,” as nifty a survey of either end of the 20th century as you could find with just two works. Both are early scores that made their composer’s name but preceded by a few years their epoch-smashing, paradigm-shifting triumphs — the former’s “La Pasion” and the latter’s “The Rite of Spring.”
The silken, incandescent, virtuosic “Firebird” plays to the ASO’s fabulous strengths under Spano — its lucid rhythmic fluidity, where the sense of beats and time is so taut that, paradoxically, it can seem supple. It also pointed up some recurring deficiencies, including weak solo viola playing by principal Reid Harris and flubbed trombone lines.
And Stravinsky plays to Spano’s interpretive ideals, too: muscular, a little hedonistic but never sentimental, emotionally reticent. Smart programmer, Spano tied up the evening neatly by lifting to prominence the bits of klezmer buried in “The Firebird,” finding the universal in old Yiddish culture.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Classical Music
‘Song of the Living Dead’ @ Dad’s Garage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B+
George wears a fanny-pack and oversize glasses, works at a novelty store called Party City and dreams of living happily ever after with his girlfriend, Judith. As a dancer, he Barney-hops with blissful innocence.
What could possibly stop George’s pursuit of love and kindness?
Zombies, that’s what. That and a hard-core vigilante named Harry, who bullies George as he competes with him for his old flame, Judith, and tries to defeat the invading army of brain-eating cadavers.
Welcome to “Song of the Living Dead,” Dad’s Garage’s perversely inspired musical send- up of the horror/doomsday/pulp film genre. With book and lyrics by Matt Horgan and Travis Sharp (“Lawrenceburg”), music by Atlanta composer Eric Frampton and special effects by “master of gore” Chris Brown, this world premiere is a sick, scabrous, sacrilegious orgy of raunchiness and poor taste that derives naughty comedic pleasure by gleefully and willfully offending the conservative milieu.
Directed by Kate Warner, “Song of the Living Dead” proves that Dad’s remains the city’s most vital incubator of frighteningly good nonsense. Most of the material is not appropriate for discussion in a family newspaper.
Just let it be said that Harry (Z Gillispie) and Reverend Seabrook (George Faughnan) are filthy specimens of humanity. Faughnan is a one-of-a-kind actor, physically unique and scary; his fire-and-brimstone-wielding preacher is especially funny when hiding from the zombies in trash cans, but exactly what does this homophobe have to hide? You’ll see.
Gillispie is also quite good as the overcompensating, sexually voracious (yeah, right) enforcer, hot on the trail of Judith (Erin Lorette). Gillispie can’t sing, but that’s not the point. (Harry will show you the point, baby.)
And Gabriel Dean, bless his pea-picking little heart, gives his best performance ever, as George. Watching his goofus character battle with his light and d-d-d-dark sides is pure comedic gold. Poor George — what a pathetic loser. Gillispie and Dean also get to engage in a funny subplot involving nerdy crime-fighters — gay lovers who sneak long wet kisses between martial-arts moves — and both reinvent themselves fully.
Are you starting to get the idea of how totally gonzo this all is?
Set designer Jamie Bullins’ sinister and efficient set is accentuated by Karen Parsons’ luxuriously murky lighting. Costumer Liz Faughnan puts the zombies in mountains of ripped up rags, then works in nifty surprises with leather and fishnet. Chris Bartelski’s sound design alternates between power-surge static and Bride of Frankenstein-style wooze.
Not for the screamish and absolutely forbidden for sissies, grandmas and Bible study groups, the show harks back to the days of “Carrie: The Musical” and “Bat Boy.” Memo to the New York International Fringe Festival: Sign ’em up now.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 8 p.m. Monday. Through July 5. $10-$25. Dad’s Garage, 280 Elizabeth St., Inman Park. 404-523-3141, dadsgarage.com.
Bottom: Super sick. Funny, too.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Wynton Marsalis Postpones New ASO Symphony
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Polymath jazz musician Wynton Marsalis has postponed the world premiere of his “American Symphony,” his first all-orchestral work. It was originally scheduled to be performed July 19 by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and conductor Robert Spano at the National Black Arts Festival, with repeat performances Nov. 6 and 7 during the ASO’s 2008-09 main season.
Now the premiere is scheduled for the Nov. 6 concert. As planned, the new work will be recorded by Telarc. It’s a co-commission by the ASO and Boston Symphony, with additional funding from the NBAF.
Marsalis was given a July 1 deadline, but the composer had been curiously silent about progress on what’s been billed as a 40-minute, six-movement symphony, where each movement evokes an indigenous American style of music, from ragtime to the blues to 4/4 swing. This will be his first score for purely orchestral forces, without Marsalis’ on-stage participation and with no jazz combo in the mix.
The postponement leaves a 40-minute hole in the NBAF calendar, which will now be filled by the world’s most famous trumpeter and his trio (Dan Nimmer on piano, Carlos Henriquez on bass and Ali Jackson on drums) joining the ASO for orchestral arrangements of jazz standards.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Classical Music
Wordsmiths Books’ One-Year Blowout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 15 is the one-year anniversary for Wordsmiths Books, the Decatur store that has re-defined aggressive scheduling of author appearances and funky ways of courting the reading public. Never ones to hide their booklight under a bushel, they’re celebrating for three days, Friday through Sunday. Some highlights:
Friday night is for local music, starting at 7 p.m., with The Lady Vanishes, Eryn McHugh, Lou Martyr and Random Rabbitt.
Saturday at 2 p.m. is a Poetry Atlanta event with several local poets.
Saturday at 7 p.m. is a crawfish boil to celebrate Toni McGee Causey’s Lousiana-based novel “Bobby Faye’s (Kinda Sorta Not Exactly) Family Jewels” Also showing up: the folks from BabyGotBooks blog and local authors Derek Nikitas, J.L. Miles and CJ Lyons.
Atlanta’s hottest chef, Richard Blais of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” will sign his new cookbook and talk kitchen secrets at 2 p.m. Sunday. That’s followed at 4 by a talk and tasting that includes the folks from “Atlanta Cooks at Home.”
What? Is that all?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
‘Mamma Mia!’ at the Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C- In every wedding — including the one that ends the Abba musical “Mamma Mia!” — there comes the “I do” moment. The Swedish pop group, whose music is strung together in the inexplicably popular karaoke pastiche playing at the Fox Theatre, wrote a song about it: “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do.”
At Tuesday night’s opening, an audience member was so moved (or perhaps just ready to go home) that she beat the actress to the punch and screamed “I do” at the moment of truth.
Well, OK, then. If you are so inclined, don’t change your mind. But take a tip from me. It won’t set you free. Seven years after arriving on Broadway and with a summer move scheduled to open July 18, this dizzy, dancing, DayGlo-colored spectacle about a young woman’s quest for her father feels weaker than ever.
As a child of the ’70s, I’m a fan of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus’ shimmering Nordic electronica, which I like to describe as “disco music for elves.” But it will take a lot of fairy dust to persuade me that book writer Catherine Johnson’s ludicrously plotted tale of bride-to-be Sophie, her trio of potential dads and her mama’s former girl band is anything less than a hack job. Likeable enough when executed well, insufferable when it’s not.
Sure, this tour boasts some sexy dancers and impressive performers (Susie McMonagle as Donna, Michael Aaron Lindner as Harry, Rose Sezniak as Sophie and Kittra Wynn Coomer as Rosie). Coomer, in particular, is a brassy, full-figured delight as the perpetual bridesmaid who offers to be the first in line if Aussie bloke Bill (Martin Kildare) changes his mind.
But the orchestral overture was torturously overamplified, and the paean to unrequited love and untied knots rarely felt anything less than sentimental and predictable. You can feel the piece mechanically ticking off Abba tunes so that every principal gets a song.
“I Do, I Do, I Do…”? Well, I don’t.
THE 411: 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday. 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. $25-$64. Broadway Across America-Atlanta, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com
Bottom line: “S.O.S.”
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Do we care if David Sedaris makes stuff up?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
David Sedaris has a new book out, “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” which just jumped to No. 1 on Amazon’s best-seller list. It’s another collection of his hilarious essays, which combine autobiography, musings, and, apparently, some stretching of the truth.
The question before us: Does it matter?
Apparently it mattered to The New Republic, which ran a long article recently titled “This American Lie” (Sedaris sometimes reads his essays on an NPR show called “This American Life”). Writer Alex Heard listed numerous cases where Sedaris wrote stuff that turned out not to be true, and concluded, “I do think Sedaris exaggerates too much for a writer using a nonfiction label.”
Sedaris readily admits that he exaggerates for effect. In his new book, an author’s note calls the essays “realish.” He maintains he averages about 97 percent true and 3 percent exaggeration. Which I have to admit is better than my batting average talking to bosses, co-workers and friends on any given day.
I was a big Sedaris fan before he was a No. 1 guy, and I’ve always figured that some of what he wrote had to be exaggerated, and didn’t much care. But we are certainly in an era when memoirists are fair game for not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Anyone care to weigh in on David Sedaris and his truthiness, or lack thereof?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Size Matters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s summer beach book season, and I’m guessing that some of you out there have big plans. There’s a certain species of reader who loves to think about tackling a really long and/or really difficult book over the summer.
Maybe it’s at the beach. Maybe a house in the mountains. Maybe it’s while staying in a penthouse suite in Vegas. OK, not so likely on that one.
But I’m guessing that for many of us, the plan and the execution don’t always match up. We say we’re going to finally read “Madame Bovary” during that two weeks in the mountains, but when we come back, the only thing we’ve knocked off was a Ken Follett paperback and a couple of Land’s End catalogs.
But there’s something about the pull of the really big book. Joe Queenan wrote a column last weekend in the New York Times titled “Jumbo Lit” that took a slightly different tack, getting engrossed in a really long book as a way of avoiding other responsibilities. That struck me as more Queenan’s own peccadillo rather than a universal one, but who knows?
So with the beach beckoning, let’s talk big books. Do you have plans for some big reading project this summer? Or is there a book you’ve been telling yourself for years you are going to read, but it’s just too darn big? Your own personal Moby-Dick of literature, as it were?
Let us know.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
ASO Premieres Ranjbaran Piano Concerto
CONCERT REVIEW Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Thursday in Symphony Hall. Program repeats Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Symphony is more convincing than most major U.S. orchestras when it comes to contemporary music. They’ve made a big deal of new works by Osvaldo Golijov and John Adams and Jennifer Higdon — a spectrum of styles and influences — and the payoff has been huge, boosting its national reputation and creating local enthusiasm for its experiments.
Some have got to be more successful than others.
Behzad Ranjbaran’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was commissioned by the ASO for pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and given its world premiere Thursday in Symphony Hall. By design, it’s a concerto in the grand model, where a loud and resplendent orchestra sometimes supports, sometimes clashes with a heroic soloist. What actually came across was a 32-minute piece of music plump with intriguing details but that had trouble expressing itself beyond the stock gestures of late 19th century Romanticism.
Born in Iran in 1955 and now living in New York, Ranjbaran includes Persian imagery in the concerto, albeit filtered through a standard orchestral vocabulary. He uses his musical heritage not so much as spices in a meal as for the colorful serving dish that holds boiled meat and mashed potatoes.
It opens with a muscular horn call and thwacks on the drum before the piano roars in, commanding the full keyboard yet, curiously, not making much of a statement. The orchestral textures are generally clear, where instrumental sections don’t blot each other out. Occasionally, a perfumed, modal and ear-catching sound rises from the ensemble, and it’s a pity these never develop into meaningful expression.
The composer tailored the solo part to Thibaudet’s athletic and crystalline playing, yet the solo part comes off mostly as filigree. Lots of notes, all 10 fingers cascading down the keys at top speed, expressing no emotion. It’s a hollow part.
The nocturnal second movement, subtitled “Distant Dreams,” held more appeal and the promise of intimacy, with delicate, lovely dialogue between Thibaudet and harpist Elisabeth Remy Johnson. The third movement skips along, reprising bits heard earlier, revving up for a showy, explosive finale.
Still, these might be minority opinions: the audience gave the concerto a sustained standing O, and brought Thibaudet, conductor Robert Spano and the composer back to center stage at least three times.
The concerto, to my ears, evoked the romantic bombast of reheated Rachmaninoff. So it was a delight to hear the source in a major work of quirky imagination.
You’ve got to admire Spano’s conviction that all three of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies, which might best be described as “inspired but uneven,” are worth the effort and expense of playing and hearing. The first two were offered earlier this season. The Third, from 1936, closed the evening Thursday.
Spano has described himself with some enthusiasm as a “Rachmaninoff freak,” so we can believe that his evangelicalism for the cause is genuine. And at the start of this season, in an interview with me, Spano said of the symphony: “There’s a grit and acidity and classicism and cleanliness in the third. By the end, it’s Apollonian and lean.”
Spano is good on his word. Thursday he drained what little fat and voluptuousness thicken the score, especially in the long-limbed second movement. He didn’t conduct the Third as modernized Hollywood, as many interpreters do, but as a kin to Sibelius, brooding and organic and on the threshold of deep self-discovery. The ASO responded magnificently.
Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 2 — it was an ill-fitted program — opened the evening. It didn’t sound well rehearsed, although the quiet middle movement settled into pure serenity, with violinist Cecylia Arzewski, flutist Christina Smith and oboist Elizabeth Koch trading phrases of imperishable beauty.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Classical Music
THEATER REVIEW: ‘Clean House’ can be a tad cluttered
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B
Two sisters and a maid. A woman who laughs herself to death. And a doctor who storms Alaska in pursuit of a cancer-curing tree.
Like hybrid creations from the case studies of Oliver Sacks and the fictions of Jorge Luis Borges, such characters dance through the magical world of Sarah Ruhl’s “The Clean House” — a sweet, lovely surprise of a play at Horizon Theatre that meditates on the fickle chemistry of happiness and housekeeping, dust and desire, laughter and forgiveness.
Ruhl, lest you haven’t heard, is a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant winner, Pulitzer Prize finalist and all-around golden girl of contemporary drama. Starting out as a poet, she was coaxed from the garret by Brown University professor/playwright Paul Vogel, who insisted that the prodigious writer try her hand at drama. Vogel (“How I Learned to Drive”) claims the results— including the brand-new “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” and “Eurydice,” recently seen in an elegant Alliance Theatre production — are her greatest contribution to American theater.
When overworked medical doctor Lane (Carolyn Cook) hires the dreamy Brazilian joke writer Matilde (Suehyla El-Attar) to keep her house, she discovers that her tolerance for dust is about as short as her capacity for forgiveness.
Fortunately for Matilde, Lane’s sister Virginia (Jill Jane Clements) likes to clean, an obsession that seems to be a device for sublimating her desires and disappointments. Unfortunately for Lane, her surgeon-husband Charles (James Donadio) falls under the spell of one of his mastectomy patients, a free-spirited Argentinian woman named Ana (Mary Lynn Owen). (The scene involving their operatic, operating-table love-making is a stitch.)
As it turns out, Ana reminds Matilde of her mother, whose death by laughter was a giddy tribute to the joke-telling skills of Ana’s father. When we first spy Matilde, she is telling us a joke — in Portuguese.
Ruhl’s intricately laced ironies and touches of magic realism call for a delicate, almost languid approach. Though director Lisa Adler and company deliver a production that’s handsomely designed and performed, some subtleties of Ruhl’s dreamy, absurdist philosophy get lost in the broadly comic, overly choreographed staging.
As polar opposites on the behavioral spectrum, Cook’s uptight Lane and Owen’s delightfully quirky Ana are the heart and soul of this rich stew. Stuck in an atrocious long gray wig, Owen nonetheless manages to convey how Ana’s beauty comes from within. (Notice how this woman relishes a good apple, and a good joke.)
Donadio’s understated style is a nice foil to the gayety, but it would be interesting to see how another actor might exploit his character’s inventive nature. Clements manages to add yet more wrinkles to her endless supply of facial tics. But you wish that dialect coach Cynthia Barrett could evince a more authentic sounding accent from El-Attar, who has become a favorite go-to actress for playing big-hearted ethnic types.
Sound designer Chris Bartelski’s choice of Brazilian singers Joao Gilberto and Virginia Rodriques enhance the play’s notes of saudade, and Tamara McElhannon’s all-white interior is smartly realized and visually handsome.
This production may be a tad disappointing at times — the tone sometimes uses vacuum-cleaner aggressiveness where feather-duster gentleness might have sufficed — but it’s certainly not a mess. Let love and laughter into your soul, the playwright seems to be saying, and don’t worry so much about the dust and drek of outward appearances. Probably no one cares what’s under your rug — but you.
The 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays. 8:30 p.m. Saturdays. 5 p.m. Wednesdays. Through June 29. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave., Little Five Points. 404-584-7450, horizontheatre.com
Bottom line: A nice glimpse into the mind of a celebrated young playwright.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Richard Engel’s Five Years in Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Richard Engel has covered the war in Iraq since its beginning, for NBC and MSNBC.
His new book, “War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq” was praised by Publisher’s Weekly: “Engel’s fine, heartfelt but disabused account of this bewildering conflict renders the suffering in Iraq with understanding and compassion.”
Engel will discuss and sign “War Journal” at 7 tonight at the Jimmy Carter Center. You must buy the book from sponsor A Cappella Books at the event to have Engel sign it.
MSNBC published an excerpt on its website. Here’s an excerpt of that excerpt.
Ad-Dur, Iraq
December 15, 2003
No one was to come in or out.
Dozens of American soldiers formed a defensive circle around the palm grove, silently keeping watch. Gunners in the turrets of Humvees parked next to the troops turned hand cranks at their waists to pan .50 caliber machine guns left and right, training the long gun barrels on the dense trees around the edges of the grove.
“Got to keep your eyes moving.
“Got to look out for snipers.
“Got to protect the circle.
“Nothing can go wrong today,
“Not in front of all these reporters.”
It was a big day, and we all knew it. I was at the center of this defensive ring of American muscle and machines along with about a dozen other journalists. We probably looked ridiculous to the troops. They had their uniforms: khaki combat boots, M4 rifles, Kevlar helmets, and Wiley X ballistic sunglasses. We had our uniforms: brightly colored flak jackets (mine was sky blue), cameras, tripods, notebooks, khakis, and quick-dry synthetic shirts.
The army had choppered us into this clearing on two Black Hawks to see what didn’t look like much from the outside: a tiny cinder block farmhouse with a garden filled with sunflowers, oranges, and pomegranate trees. The fruit looked almost ripe on the cool bright December morning. But no one would be picking it. Not from this house. Not anymore.
“We have a cordon around the area, but it is still dangerous. Don’t wander off,” an army officer warned. My canvas hiking boots stuck in the soft black soil as I walked to the farmhouse and through its thatch gate.
But what I saw inside didn’t make any sense to me. Military officials said Saddam Hussein was captured hiding in a hole. I didn’t see any hole, but only a typical one-room Iraqi farmhouse with a cement patio in front where laundry and basterma (Arab pastrami) were drying on a line.
One of the biggest manhunts in history had led the U.S. military here: Saddam’s safe house where he slept and apparently cooked for himself. It seemed that he lived badly as a fugitive. My mother would have called the place, like my room growing up, “a pigsty.” There were broken eggs on the floor, a dirty frying pan atop a gas burner, and a half-eaten Mars bar and an open bottle of moisturizer on a wooden stand next to a single, unmade twin bed.
I imagined the dictator, who had lived in palaces with hundreds of servants, suddenly forced to fend for himself like a freshman in college who, no longer having his mother to pick up after him, eats junk food and doesn’t clean up. It must have been a tough adjustment for Saddam. One of his private chefs told me the Iraqi leader was a finicky eater, often struggling with his weight; he always made himself a bit thinner in his statues. He liked vegetables and mutton stews, and would fine the chef if he used too much oil. Saddam would tip him if meals were particularly tasty and light. He liked things just so.
One of Saddam’s palace maids — like many, a Christian woman (Saddam thought Iraqi Christians to be especially honest and clean) — told me Saddam was also so fastidious about hygiene that she was required to take off her shoes and walk barefoot across a mat soaked in disinfectant before entering his bedroom. Saddam couldn’t have liked living in this farmhouse, just three miles from his dusty home village, al-Ouja, which he hated for its poverty.
The poor street thug who intimidated and killed his rivals until he became “al-Rais,” Arabic for both head and president, had come full circle.
“But where’s the hole?” I asked the officer. “Didn’t you find Saddam in a hole?”
He led me back outside to the cement patio with the laundry line.
“At first we didn’t see it either. A soldier was standing right here and didn’t notice the hole until he kicked aside this mat,” the officer said, pulling back a plastic tarp on the ground. Underneath was a Styrofoam cork in the cement about the size of a big fishing tackle box.
“When the soldier removed this Styrofoam cover,” he said, “Saddam was inside. Saddam put his hands up and said, ‘I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, and I am ready to negotiate.’ “
Saddam apparently lived in the farmhouse most of the time, and took refuge in the hole only when danger was close. Saddam also had a pistol, but didn’t use it, and traveled in a beat-up white and orange taxi discovered nearby.
The soldiers were relaxed and joking with journalists. It was a “good news” day and this was the military’s chance to play show-and-tell.
“And what did the soldiers say to Saddam?” one of us asked.
“President Bush sends his regards,” an officer said.
We all laughed.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
New Rules for Development Around Margaret Mitchell House
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Margaret Mitchell House & Museum in Midtown was designated a landmark in 1989 by the City of Atlanta. This week, the Atlanta City Council expanded that to include the entire city block around the house, where Margaret Mitchell penned “Gone With the Wind.”
That means the green space surrounding house also is preserved as a “Landmark Building Site.” In addition, the 1925 brick storefront building at the corner of Peachtree Street and Peachtree Place is now designated as a “Historic Building Site.” It previously has no historic designation.
This comes at a time when the Atlanta Historical Society — the operating body for the Margaret Mitchell House — is moving forward with selling land behind the house to Jamestown Properties. The sale means the surface parking lot and a former bank building will be redeveloped, and possibly 650 parking spaces will be built underground.
Critics of the transaction say that selling the property will hinder growth of the Midtown attraction. But those in favor of the sale said the deal will enliven the area and provide money for an endowment and a capital campaign to build a new visitors center.
Jamestown, which owns the 999 Peachtree office building across the street from the Margaret Mitchell House, will pay at least $7 million for the 0.82 acre of land. Jamestown also says any new construction will look appropriate.
“Anything that would be done over there should be architecturally consistent and fit into the fabric of the neighborhood, ” Matt Bronfman, Jamestown’s chief operations officer, told the AJC’s Kevin Duffy, who writes about development. “You want to do something that really activates the Margaret Mitchell House and embellishes it.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Arts venues
Push it, Chuck. Push it real good.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The envelope that is. It takes a lot to scare me off a novel just because of its subject matter, but I have to admit some squeamishness about Chuck Palahniuk’s latest, “Snuff.” According to the Los Angeles Times story we ran in Sunday’s Arts & Books section, “Snuff” is about “over-the-hill porn star heroine who plans to copulate literally to death by taking on 600 men in quick succession.”
That’s not to say I’m down on Palahniuk. He just happens to be a taste I have yet to acquire, but plenty of discerning readers have. The cult of Chuck started of course with his novel “Fight Club,” and has continued through “Choke,” “Invisible Monsters,” “Lullaby” and more. His work is sometimes referred to as “transgressional fiction.”
So even though I can’t rave along with his fans, I thought I should point out that he will be here tonight, discussing his work. The Georgia Center for the Book presents Palahniuk at 7:15 p.m. at Cole Auditorium, Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston. See www.chuckpalahniuk.net for signing details.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
New ASO Chairman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More changes over at the Woodruff Arts Center. First, the WAC got a new board chair in Phil Kent, CEO of Turner Broadcasting. (Check out this Sunday’s Arts & Books section for my Q & A with Kent.)
Now the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has a new leader of its board. On Monday, the board elected Ben Johnson, retired partner at the law firm Alston & Bird, as chairman. Johnson is a longtime supporter of the orchestra. Among his other positions: a trustee at the Carter Center, past chair of the Midtown Alliance, and chairman of the board of trustees at Emory University.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Arts venues
Old Age is Not for Sissies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
That was the motto of my Well-Read Wife’s grandmother, Dorothy Windsor, years ago, before it became a common piece of wisdom. I was reminded of it when I heard about Dudley Clendinen’s new book, “A Place Called Canterbury: Tales of the New Old Age in America.”
Clendinen, a former New York Times reporter and editor at this newspaper, spent more than 400 days over a span of a few years at Canterbury Tower, a geriatric apartment facility in Tampa, where his elderly mother lived. He made friends with many of the residents, listened to their stories, and has written this book, trying to capture what it means to be old in today’s culture.
Full disclosure: I knew Clendinen years ago when he worked here, and I thought the world of him as a journalist and a person.
Here’s what our reviewer Don O’Briant wrote Sunday: “A Place Called Canterbury” is “a graceful and insightful account of life at Canterbury by a writer who is as much a participant as an observer.”
Clendinen will be at Outwrite Bookstore, 991 Piedmont Ave., at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 4, to discuss and sign his new book.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Let’s all hang out in an adult bookstore
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And we thought the folks in the Georgia Legislature were taking the lead on interesting approaches to legislation.
They have some serious competition from Indiana, which recently passed a law that any store that sells even a single “sexually explicit item” must pay the state a $250 fee and register as an “adult” retail business.
And what is “sexually explicit?” The law doesn’t say. It could be a paperback copy of Nabokov’s “Lolita.” Certainly Salman Rushdie’s new novel, “The Enchantress of Florence,” would qualify. It might be an art book with pictures of Michaelangelo’s “David” and other nudes in the museum gift shop. It might be that DVD set of HBO’s “Sex in the City.”
In other words, pretty much every bookstore would be an adult bookstore in Indiana.
The law is scheduled to take effect July 1. But first there is a lawsuit, with a whole slew of plaintiffs, from various indpendent bookstores to the Indiana Museum of Art to the Association of American Publishers.
Since we are so experienced here with a creative legislature, we’re qualified to give advice to the poor Hoosiers who will soon have to furtively sneak into Barnes & Noble, which presumably will have a huge flashing XXX sign outside. What would you like to say to the readers in Indiana?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
