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July 2008
Save the Date: Hanif Kureishi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hanif Kureishi, who wrote the Oscar-nominated movie “My Beautiful Laundrette” and the novel “The Buddha of Suburbia,” will be speaking at Emory University the evening of Monday, September 8.
Kureishi, who was born in London to a Pakistani father and English mother, explores issues of race, immigration, nationality and sexuality in his work, which includes short stories and essays as well as novels and films. His latest novel, “Something to Tell You,” is being published by Scribner this month.
Why Emory? Well, one reason is that the university’s writer-in-residence Salman Rushdie is a friend of Kureishi, according to the provost’s office at Emory.
Kureishi’s public appearance will be 7 p.m. at the Michael C. Carlos Museum. The details aren’t posted on the museum’s website yet, but this site mentions Kureishi’s visit to Emory and gives a phone number to call for more information.
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Improve your mind! Smash a car!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How often have you been tempted to go to a library or bookstore for a public reading of some author’s work, but secretly wished they could combine it with vast quantities of cathartic destruction?
Hey, me too! Fortunately there’s Duck & Herring, a very offbeat Atlanta literary magazine that is combining a literary reading and a car smashing at 7 p.m. Friday night in the parking lot of the art gallery Eyedrum at 290 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive S., Atlanta. They will provide a junk car and a sledgehammer, although it’s BYOB (Bring Your Own Bat) if you want. You get 5 swings for $1, or two minutes of tension release for $5.
I’m out of town or I would be there!
There will also be some reading from Duck & Herring’s lit mag “Pocket Field Guide for Warm Weather 2008.” Here’s what’s in the latest “Pocket Field Guide,” according to the Duck & Herring website:
“Readers will experience killer, sexy, and funny pieces from fiction talents John Brandon, Aaron Gilbreath, Graham Hillard, Johnny Pence, Mike Sacks, and Michael Stutz; warm-weather recipes from foodie writer Vene Franco and best-seller Emily Giffin; plus, beach bag advice from Catherine Lee, outdoor tips from the entertaining D&H editors, highlights in the night sky, and the best list of seasonal to-dos ever. And it’s all packaged in a newly redesigned super-blue cover, with a nail hole in the upper left-hand corner.”
They will probably sell you a copy if you ask nice and give them $9.
If anybody goes to this and wants to post a report, or even better email me photos, I promise to post them on this blog!
Happy smashing/reading!
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‘Wicked’ tickets in Atlanta on sale Saturday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Are you feeling “Wicked”?
Well, surrender, Dorothy. Get on a broom and zip over to the Fox Theatre this weekend.
On Saturday morning, “Wicked” fans will have an exclusive two-hour window to buy seats for the popular Broadway musical “Wicked” before they go on sale via Ticketmaster.
From 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., tickets will be available at the Fox Theatre box office at 660 Peachtree Street in Midtown. At 10 a.m., when the clock goes ding-dong, the masses can begin calling and clicking. (404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com).
Prices range from $31-$127.
Last time “Wicked” was in town, single tickets sold out in about two weeks. (Just to be clear: subscribers to the Broadway Across America-Atlanta and the new Atlanta Broadway Series at Cobb Energy Centre had first dibs on tickets for the upcoming show.)
The 3 ½-week run of the popular “Wizard of Oz” back story starts Oct. 8 and runs through Nov. 2. The local Broadway presenters planning Saturday’s special event promise prizes, raffles, food and a guess appearance by B98.5 FM’s Will Gara.
Don’t you know your friends will be emerald-green with envy.
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Best Year Yet for Atlanta Theater?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You would think that in an economic downturn, arts & culture would be hurting. Not necessarily.
The fiscal year has ended for many nonprofit arts & culture organizations in metro Atlanta and here are some of the things I’m hearing, especially from theater groups: “This was our best year ever.” “Record ticket revenue.” “Fundraising way up.”
“It’s bizarre,” said Jeff Watkins, artistic director of The Atlanta Shakespeare Company at the New American Shakespeare Tavern, who was bracing himself for a less spectacular result. The theater just wrapped up the most successful season in its 24-year history. In terms of earned income, the Shakespeare Tavern topped $1 million for the first time, up 6.25 percent from the 2007 season.
And the Shakespeare Tavern isn’t the only one: the Fox Theatre, Dad’s Garage, the Atlanta Opera and the Alliance Theatre all had fantastic years in terms of revenue, ticket sales and fundraising.
Ken Bernhardt, marketing professor at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State, sees a few possible reasons for this. “One is that in depressing times, people do seek an opportunity to escape,” said Bernhardt, an arts fan who serves on many nonprofit boards, including the Alliance Theatre and the Metro Atlanta Arts & Culture Coalition.
“Also, I think the arts as a whole in this town have gotten much better at marketing and communications,” he added. “Finally, the quality of the artistic work in Atlanta has improved over the past several years. They’re making the product better and reducing some of the inconsistencies that existed.”
What do you think? Why has this been such a good year for the arts, even as people are cutting back on their discretionary spending? Are the arts, especially theater, getting better?
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Murder in Ansley Park
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yes, I stole that headline from Sunday’s Book Page review of Karin Slaughter’s new novel “Fractured.” But hey, that’s what the book is about.
Our reviewer Don O’Briant gave “Fractured” a good review, but I have a feeling the Atlanta-based Slaughter is getting to the point where here fan base is so strong that she’s review-proof. Her thrillers, which sometimes contain some pretty graphic violence, all top the previous one on the best-seller lists.
You can be a part of that fan base at 7 tonight (July 29) at the Barnes & Noble in the Forum at Norcoss, 5141 Peachtree Parkway. She’ll discuss and sign “Fractured.”
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Who should star in ‘Color Purple’ film?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mamma mia! Is America ready for a movie of “The Color Purple” musical?
Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia in the Steven Spielberg film two decades before the musical appeared on Broadway, has said she plans to produce a film. American Idol Fantasia, who portrayed lead character Celie on Broadway, has rushed in to say she’ll reprise the role for the big screen.
What do you think? Who should play the main characters of Celie, Sofia, Shug, Harpo and Mister?
If you have seen the musical at the Fox, what do you think about Sofia P. Fields’ Sofia? Should she get a chance at playing the role that Oprah did for Steven Spielberg?
What about Atlanta-born Stu James, who plays Harpo in the musical? Both actors have fledgling film careers but are relatively unknown quantities in Hollywood.
But as James said in an interview, “Maybe our names will be big enough at that time. You never know.”
Check out today’s profile of James and Fields here.
Perhaps you think a film would be overkill? Are you maxed out on “The Color Purple”?
We’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to comment on the Fox musical, do so here.
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NBAF Review: ASO Electrifies at Ebenezer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the past eight years, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has ventured from its Symphony Hall home to perform a free show in Ebenezer Baptist Church as part of the National Black Arts Festival.
The distance between Midtown and downtown’s Sweet Auburn district is just a few miles, but in mood and expectation — and, strikingly, engagement with the audience — these concerts often seem like a world away.
Sunday evening, in the church’s Horizon Sanctuary, the ASO and conductor Robert Spano played to a full house and revisited its Ebenezer formula: young minority musicians take the solo spot in a short work or a movement from a concerto, followed by a complete reading of a popular, barnstorming symphony.
If this sounds like a strategy to conserve musicians’ energy and minimize rehearsal time — after all, the ASO played “La Bohème” the night before at Encore Park — the results came off just the opposite.
Context matters. As an Ebenezer pastor made clear in remarks before the music started, Martin Luther King Jr.’s church is “a spiritual and political institution.” When the ASO plays standard repertoire in Symphony Hall all the political struggles feel settled; its audience reacts to virtuosity and beauty and other pleasures of art for art’s sake.
At Ebenezer, many in the audience had likely never heard the city’s major concert orchestra. Here the musicians had to make a new case for the old classics and for themselves, moment by moment. You got the sense the musicians had to earn the attention of the listeners; the challenge pushed them not to technical perfection but to emotional involvement.
First up was cellist Khari Joyner, an incoming senior at Lakeside High School, playing the opening movement of Haydn’s C Major Cello Concerto, premiered in the 1760s. Joyner already boasts an impressive local resume, as a student in the ASO’s minority-center Talent Development Program and as principal cellist in the disciplined Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.
He’s a charismatic soloist, too, finding the essence of the concerto’s elegant passions — rewarded with a grateful standing ovation.
Violinist Danielle Belen Nesmith is a graduate of the University of Southern California and winner of the 2008 Sphinx Competition, a Detroit program that fosters the talents of budding Hispanic and black classical musicians. With a lush, honeyed tone, she offered two gems, William Grant Still’s “Mother and Child,” a lovely little song for violin and orchestra from 1943, and Wieniawski’s 1853 daredevil “Polonaise Brillante,” exactingly played.
Without a break, the ASO leapt into Tchaikovsky’s majestic, sentimental and fierce Fifth Symphony. The playing wasn’t perfect but was never bland.
There were many highlights. Here one that will stick with me longest: As the finale rolls unstoppably toward its fate, the composer sets up a giant B major chord as a sort of triumphant arch. In the pause that follows, a few in the audience started to applaud — only to have Spano and orchestra restart the music with an electrified jolt, like a orator who insists on delivering a bold political message, and will rise, thrillingly, above the din of the enthused masses. This winds up the crowd even more. It was a palpable shock of intensity, the sort of moment that made it one of the ASO’s best of the year.
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Cobb Centre naming high school musical awards for Broadway star Shuler Hensley
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark B. Kent recently discovered that “schuler” is a German word for student.
In a happy coincidence, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Foundation, where Kent is education director, announced today that it is creating the Shuler Hensley Awards for excellence in high school musical theater. The student honors, which Kent refers to as the “Shulers,” are named after the Atlanta-born star of Broadway’s “Young Frankenstein,” “Oklahoma!” and “Tarzan.”
The student competition — inspired by Houston’s Tommy Tune Awards and Pittsburgh’s Gene Kelly Awards — is open to all public and private high schools in the metro area. The first round of honors — in 13 categories ranging from performance and direction to choreography and design — will be presented at a glizty ceremony at the Cobb venue next April 14.
Hensley, who plans to attend, lauded the new program and said he is humbled to have it named for him.
“I think high school is pretty much the most important experience in terms of theater that people have,” the Marietta native said by phone from his home in Montclair, N.J. “It’s sort of like people get the taste for theater, and then they decide, ‘This is something I really want to do.’ ”
Hensley remembers performing in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” while a student at The Westminster Schools in the ’80s. He later attended the University of Georgia on a baseball scholarship but decided to leave Athens to study music formally. He won his Tony in 2002, for his portrayal of Jud Fry in Trevor Nunn’s revival of “Oklahoma!” Before that, he received an Olivier Award for the London production of the classic.
“He’s sort of like our local kid made good in the Broadway world right now,” says Kent, who runs the foundation’s ArtsBridge education program. “I think it’s kind of exciting for kids to be connected with someone who is on the move and enjoy that process with him.” Hensley is 41.
The Broadway star, currently playing the Monster in “Young Frankenstein,” participated in the center’s grand opening events last year. Kent says the actor’s approachability was “absolutely inspiring.”
Hensley says he’d like to attend the awards every year. The actor, who has never performed professionally in his home town, also said he’d love to try out “Bad Boys of Broadway,” a new solo show he’s developing, at the center and would be thrilled to offer master classes to students.
“Anytime I can lend my name to this time in kids’ lives and offer encouragement, that’s what I want to do.”
For more information about the awards: 770-916-2808; cobbenergycentre.com.
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Calling All Sand Gnats Fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s tough to get the word out about your book when you’re a first-time novelist, as Atlanta author Richard Doster well knows.
His first novel, “Safe at Home,” examines the early years of the civil rights movement through integration of minor league baseball in the South in the 1950s. Doster is doing the usual author signings at bookstores, but he’s also going directly to the folks who are most likely to be interested in his subject matter — fans at minor league ballparks throughout the South.
His wife, Sally, has been writing, phoning, and emailing the play-by-play broadcasters for just about every minor league team within driving distance. To date, as a result of her efforts, he has been on the pre-game show of the Louisville Bats, and is scheduled to be on with the Tulsa Drillers. He has been in the broadcast booths with the play-by-play broadcasters for the Mobile BayBears, the Birmingham Barons, Frisco RoughRiders, Asheville Tourists, Hickory Crawdads, Delmarva Shorebirds, Chattanooga Lookouts, and West Tenn Jaxx. Later, he plans to be on with the Durham Bulls, the Savannah Sand Gnats and Augusta GreenJackets. (Don’t you just love those names?)
But you don’t have to go to a ballpark to hear Doster speak about his novel. He’ll be at the Decatur public library tonight at 7:15. More information at the Georgia Center for the Book’s website
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Anybody going to a “Breaking Dawn” party?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are something like eight to 10 parties scheduled for Aug. 1 at metro Atlanta bookstores for the midnight release of “Breaking Dawn,” the fourth installment in Stephenie Meyer’s mega-selling “Twilight” series.
It’s Harry Potter all over again, with costume contests, trivia contests, adults behaving like kids, and gleeful anticipation. All for a series of books about the love affair between a high school girl and a vampire.
I’m doing a story about “Twilight” and the parties and would love to talk to any “Twilight” fans out there. You can email me at pkloer@ajc.com or call 404 526 5448. Thanks!
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‘Tom Thumb’ at Georgia Shakes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B-
Tall is not all, and might doesn’t always make right.
Such is the premise of Atlanta playwright Margaret Baldwin’s “Tom Thumb the Great,” the new Georgia Shakespeare family production that borrows from an 18th century political satire by Henry Fielding.
Replete with both actors and puppets large and small, an upside-down mop bucket, a golden cashew and an evil queen in a pompadour wig, this world premiere is a playful summer diversion in which technical invention triumphs over storytelling and the richest humor is derived from a series of jokes about scale and physicality.
Tom Thumb (Derrick Ledbetter) rides in on a chipmunk chariot, scoots around on top of an inverted pail and, during the banquet scene, shrinks into a tiny doll that vexes the wits of his foes. (Ledbetter manipulates the Barbie-sized puppet while hiding underneath the table).
In some of the the funniest bits, the plucky and irreverent Tom proves to be the proverbial bee in the bonnet of bovine-size Queen Dollalolla (Spencer G. Stephens). Far from a thumbsucker, Tom helps King Archibald the Eleventh (Bryan Mercer) battle the giants (who appear both as large-scale shadow puppets and human actors in gigantic full-body costume). He also falls in love with the beautiful Princess Huncamunca (Ally Carey), jostles with her nefarious suitor Lord Grizzle (David Quay) and deals with the inconvenient amorous advances of Gumdalca, the Queen of the Giants. Also played by Stephens, Gumdalca is a humongous puppet creation with a ditzy attitude and a Deep South drawl.
Director Clint Thornton devises some dandy technical tricks and coaxes terrific performances from most of the cast members. Stephens, in particular, is a hoot, and Sam Bardwell’s long-faced, nasal-toned Foodle scores laughs with every line.
On opening night, it was interesting to hear the comments of some young audience members. One gasped to discover that Queen Lolladolla was played by a man; another wondered why the king wore high heels. (Katherine Aurora Callahan’s costumes are of the wig-and-powder variety that ruled the 1700s). But the corny one-liners about alt-rock groups and design principles will probably be lost on this crowd. “Form follows function.” Come on.
Still, it probably won’t matter to most kids that the story feels a little cluttered and wobbly and the humor a little strained. Even if the tomfoolery never builds into a fully cohesive endeavor, “Tom Thumb the Great” sparkles with magical hijinx and no small amount of silly fun.
THE 411: 10 a.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 7 p.m. Tuesday. Through Aug. 2. $10-$12. Georgia Shakespeare, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-264-0020, gashakespeare.org.
Bottom line: Thumbs half-way up.
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See and Do - Before It Vanishes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alpharetta native Holt Webb quit his job at a camera store to take on a project that has special resonance for those of us who live in this constantly changing metropolis. He is traveling across America, photographing vanishing places. And there are plenty: from fields of retired airplanes to entire small towns that have been abandoned.
Webb told the AJC that the project has its roots in his childhood experience of seeing natural places paved over and turned into shopping centers or housing.
“Growing up, I saw many of the places where I used to play succumb to development. I saw the same thing when I lived in San Diego, where there were always new strip malls or condos being built, and it broke me up. True, some changes are for the better, but how many kids do you think will ever see a black bear or a ponderosa pine? Seeing these places change so quickly made me think I should go out and see what America has before it’s all different.”
His journey — in a vegetable oil and solar-powered Winnebago — isn’t over. But you can see his photos so far at Ann Jackson Gallery, 932 Canton St. in Roswell. The gallery’s regular hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. More info. at the gallery’s website and at Webb’s site or by calling 770-993-4783.
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E. Lynn Harris: Too Good to be True?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s E. Lynn Harris has always been an overachiever. When he attended the University of Arkansas, he was the school’s first black yearbook editor and the first black male Razorbacks cheerleader.
He sold computers for a while, but soon found his calling: popular fiction. Starting with “Invisible Life,” he has rattled off a string of novels, which increasingly have placed higher and higher on best-seller lists.
His latest is “Just Too Good to be True, but it’s not his autobiography. He’ll be at the Stonecrest Mall Borders in Lithonia at 7 p.n. tonight (July 24) singing and melting the ladies’ hearts. Come on, you know who you are! Expect lines, so come early.
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Salman Rushdie defends his record
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Salman Rushdie: Part-time Atlantan (when he’s at Emory), prize-winning novelist, fatwa survivor, well-known ladies’ man, and now, the world’s fastest book-signer. Is there nothing this man cannot do?
The British newspaper The Guardian has been keeping track of Rushdie’s recent claim to have set the record for most books signed in one hour. He says he knocked off 1,000 autographed copies of his new novel “The Enchantress of Florence” in Nashville in 57 minutes on his recent book tour, which included Atlanta earlier this month. Apparently there is a spat between Rushdie and author Malcolm Gluck, who accomplished something roughly similar, the details of which are in this letter from Rushdie in the Guardian.
Who knew there was this sort of macho competition among book signers? You just know it would be two men jousting for whose signing prowess was greater. Can you imagine Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood having a fight about this? Next thing you know, they’ll be arguing over whose Sharpie is longer.
As always, only the greatest of literary issues for this blog. Anyone have any author signing stories to contribute, even if they don’t involve speed-signing?
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Stephen L. Carter’s “Palace Council”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stephen L. Carter continues to get raves for his intelligent, literary thrillers. That record continues with “Palace Council,” a novel that includes appearances by historical figures Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, Joe and John Kennedy, Adam Clayton Powell and Langston Hughes. Whoa.
Here’s some of what Library Journal had to say: “In his previous novels, Yale Law professor Carter has delighted in bending genres. His latest is no exception, at once a hyperbolic thriller and a subtle and convincing comedy of manners. … Few authors are better than Carter at capturing the nuances of humab behavior on both sides of the color line.”
Carter is in Atlanta tonight (July 21), appearing at the Carter Center Library at 7 p.m. to read, speak, sign books, and maybe heal the blind for all I know.
Oh, and one more thing, as Columbo used to say. We’re giving away prizes over on the Best of the Big A blog for people who post, and I’m going to throw a new copy of “Palace Council” into the prize list. Keep a watch for it if you’re a fan.
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NBAF Review: Wynton Marsalis Soars with Jazz Classics
National Black Arts Festival REVIEW. Wynton Marsalis and his Quartet with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Saturday in Symphony Hall. www.nbaf.org.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Day Two of the National Black Arts Festival wasn’t the wished-for epic premiere but, as a more modest event, it came off to sweet perfection.
Saturday in Symphony Hall, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and NBAF had planned to offer the world premiere of a symphony by Wynton Marsalis, a work that was ballyhooed as the jazz master’s first strictly orchestral score.
But Wynton is as famous for missing new-music deadlines as for blowing his trumpet. A few weeks ago, it was announced that he hadn’t finished; the premiere is now scheduled for November.
So with a giant hole in the NBAF program and few options, Saturday’s show took the easy train: an hour-long set of jazz classics, with Marsalis and his quartet center stage, backed on some numbers by the ASO.
Marsalis’ many fans packed the hall to capacity, and they knew what to expect.
“Cherokee” and “Django” — one a thrill-seeker’s dream of fast runs and sweet longings, the other an intense ballad about the swinging Gypsy guitarist — opened the evening. These were displays of the band’s extreme virtuosity, in all its paradoxes: hyper-disciplined and ultra-sophisticated, flamboyant and “hot” yet somehow cool in temperature. Everything was improvised off the charts yet everything spoke of complete control.
For Marsalis, “classics” means music from before the era of modern jazz. J. Fred Coots’ “For All We Know” (1934) came with a halo of swooning violins and sounded like a nocturne, a lovely still night with a light breeze, a few starlight twinkles from Dan Nimmer at the piano, some at-ease heartbeats plunked from bassist Carlos Henriquez, a bit of billowing flute wafting into the night.
“Classic” also connotes a sense of place, a feeling of home: New Orleans, in spirit, hovers around Marsalis’ music, and they gave the famous old “Second Line” march an airing, with Walter Blanding’s soprano sax singing the most joyously mournful lines and drummer Ali Jackson pounding out enough volume to fill several city blocks.
Part of what makes the NBAF special is the critical mass of talent that gathers each summer. Marsalis pointed to some of his celebrated friends in the hall, including choreographer Judith Jameson and actor Samuel L. Jackson.
When Marsalis acknowledged Ivy League intellectual Cornel West, who is not shy in crowds, and poked a little fun at his oversized ’70s hair style, the Princeton professor stood brandishing a giant metal afro pick, to the audience’s roaring delight.
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NBAF THEATER: ‘The Amen Corner’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C+
It must have seemed pretty radical for the ’50s. A Pentecostalist black man — struggling with issues of faith, identity and family — pens a play that questions the wisdom of investing too much in faith, and too little in love and personal growth.
“No one yet knows how high a bill we will have to pay for what we have done to Negro men and women,” the playwright James Baldwin once said about “The Amen Corner,” written in 1954 and produced on Broadway in 1965. And of his main character, Sister Margaret, a pious evangelical minister who has shunted away her sexuality in service to a higher power, he said: “She is in the church because her society has left her no other place to go.”
“The Amen Corner” — produced by True Colors Theatre as part of the National Black Arts Festival — can be raucously funny, haunting in its gospel music and devastating in its account of the trials and tribulations of Sister Margaret, who in the course of an evening appears to lose everything that mattters to her.
Though the play meditates on the blindsightedness of overinvesting in one relationship at the expense of another — a concern that is nothing if not universal — it comes across as dated, antiquated, too long for its own good and simplistic in its observations of human nature. It also makes you wonder why True Colors artistic director Kenny Leon even bothered. (He produced it on the same stage with many of the same actors back in 1996 when he was running the Alliance Theatre.)
But Leon seems to love any excuse for a gospel church play. (See 2004’s “Tambourines to Glory” and 2006’s “Rejoice!”) And you’d have to be a heartless so-and-so not to enjoy a show that includes the towering comedic ego of Margo Moorer (Sister Moore); the divine sounds of Bernardine Mitchell (Sister Douglass) and Chandra Currelley (Sister Boxer); and the high-caliber talent of Denise Burse, who gives a heartbreaking turn as Sister Margaret.
In a dauntingly complex and physically draining role, Burse (a regular on Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne”) is revelatory in a show that requires her to carry the weight of the whole affair on her petite shoulders. Nevaina Rhodes is also seriously good as grieving young mother Ida Jackson. Newcomer Ronve O’Daniel gives a slightly inconsistent but highly promising performance as Margaret’s Tom Wingfield-like son, David. Alas, Thomas Byrd (as Sister Margaret’s dying husband, Luke) exhibits smart comedic timing but draws out his deathbed monologues to the point of tedium. One minute, the actor seems right on target, the next minute a little tentative.
The musical direction of Jmichael — featuring a full-out community choir — is the real deal. But after all the live music, some of the recorded material can be incongruous and confusing at times. Shilla Benning’s costumes are spot-on to the era, but Vince Mountain’s set — the church is positioned over Sister Margaret’s apartment — seems to be a trap for actors trying to make their entrances and exits.
As directed by Andrea Frye, this effort has instances of lovely acting, exquisite singing and knee-slapping foolishness. (When it comes to pettiness, grandstanding, confrontation and hypocrisy, everyone knows that churchfolk can be the worst.) But African-American classic though it may be, it just doesn’t feel like the right story for the moment. And it sure doesn’t make you want to say “Amen.”
THE 411: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. No performance July 22. 2:30 p.m. matinee July 23. Through Aug. 3. $15-$25. True Colors Theatre, Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-733-5000, truecolorstheatrecompany.com
Bottom line: Good performances don’t redeem dated material.
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NBAF theater: ‘Hallelujah Street Blues’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B
Who wouldn’t want Josephine for a neighbor? She’ll make you a sandwich, offer you iced tea and listen to your fears about the steady creep of gentrification — you know, moving the old folks out so younger folks, who’ll pay more, can move in.
As drawn by Atlanta playwright Valetta Anderson and embodied by the ideal Veronica Redd in the world premiere of “Hallelujah Street Blues” at Horizon Theatre, Josephine, aka Josie, is a touchstone.
She’s a family matriarch trying to live on her own terms despite the loving interference of family. She’s a cagey old soul, an insulin-dependent diabetic who sneaks Pop-Tarts, who talks to her late husband amid the trees he planted decades ago, who uses her cane only to ward off unwanted assistance, and who sees almost everything going on around her — that the marriage of her know-it-all daughter is in trouble, that world-weary son Nathan has her best interests in mind, that her slick lawyer son-in-law does indeed have a heart, and that everyone has an agenda.
Redd gives Josie a gimpy walk and perfect timing, whether she’s punctuating a punch line with the flip of a hip or raising an eyebrow to comment on the craziness around her.
Horizon describes this comic drama, developed over two years in its New South Play Festival and directed by Thomas W. Jones II, as “‘Soul Food’ meets ‘The Waltons’,” but it’s more than that. It’s saucier than “The Waltons” and more genuine than “Soul Food.”
Anderson draws real people — flawed, funny, wily and lovable in all their imperfect ways — and gives them real conversations to dig into. “You help me with my home problem,” Nathan says to brother-in-law Carter, referring to a dispute over property lines, “and I’ll help you take your problem home.” Carter’s problem is wife Clarice (Keena Redding Hunt, a bit too one-note as a pouty woman-child).
Neighbor lady Dottie, aka Dorothy (the tiny yet mighty Deborah Callaway Duke), may not be as crazy as she seems. Although we never actually see Shadow, her ever-errant dog, you just never know. Is she senile or playing a calculated game? If you know any of August Wilson’s offbeat creations (Stool Pigeon in “King Hedley II” comes to mind), you’ll know the line she walks so delicately and well.
The family house (inventively designed by Jeffrey Weber) would fit nicely in any older Atlanta neighborhood. Its brick facade is tidy, its back porch clean and comfy, its pathways clear, its shrubbery trimmed. It even has a screen door that slaps closed like an open hand on a pesky mosquito. Only when lights come up behind the brick do we realize it’s a scrim, letting us see action both inside and out. The shrubbery and paths, suggested by paint on the floor, lead into the audience and to projections of Granddad’s crabapple trees, (lights by Andrew D. Smith).
Unfortunately, the men, especially Taurean Blacque as Nathan, stumble on too many lines. And the storytelling loses its crispness in the final half-hour, despite a nice touch of mysticism. “Hallelujah” does not solve its gentrification problem, happily, although every character is able to redefine “home.” What lives past the curtain call is the feeling of family and one clear-eyed woman’s eternal wisdom.
“Women in this family marry their daddies,” Josie tells Clarice, “and live happily ever after with broken hearts.”
That simple but profound observation says everything about Anderson’s story, and the people who deliver it.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 8:30 p.m. Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday; and 3 p.m. July 19 and 26, Aug. 9 and 16. $20, $22 and $25. Horizon Theatre, in partnership with the National Black Arts Festival. 1083 Austin Ave. N.E. at Euclid Avenue, Little Five Points. 404-584-7450, www.horizon theatre.com
Bottom line: Neighborhood beauty.
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‘After Ashley’ @ Essential Theatre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: A
Ashley is no Mother of the Year.
The bored, unhappily married housewife (Dina Shadwell) smokes weed daily, uses foul language around her teenage son, Justin, and confides in him things no son should ever know about his mother. But that doesn’t soften his grief when she’s raped and murdered in the family’s basement 15 minutes into Gina Gionfriddo’s “After Ashley,” a provocative, tautly staged drama in Essential Theatre’s Power Play Festival.
Ashley’s fascination with the parade of sad sacks who populate advice shows on daytime TV (think “Dr. Phil”) foreshadows the way her own demise becomes a cause célèbre among “death-porn” shows that turn one person’s tragedy into another’s entertainment (think “America’s Most Wanted”).
It’s not coincidental that family patriarch Alden (Allen Hagler) resembles John Walsh, host of “America’s Most Wanted,” who parlayed grief over his son’s murder into a career in television. Alden, who writes a book about his wife’s murder, comports himself so well on a talk show promoting his whitewashed story that he’s offered a gig as host of a new sex crimes show that features “tasteful” re-enactments of attacks.
Lost in the fray is Justin (Brent Nicholas Rose), who is reeling from the loss of his mother and repulsed by his father’s revision of their family history and the success it brings him.
Enter charming Julie (Dowd Keith). The pseudo goth girl first seduces Justin because of his notoriety as “The 911 Kid.” (The recording of his frantic call to the police is sampled in a popular hip-hop song.) But she eventually sympathizes with Justin and helps him in some very surprising ways to blow the lid off the media frenzy that surrounds his mother’s death.
Produced in the tiny Back Stage Theatre at 7 Stages, the show has an intimacy that serves the drama’s tension well. Under Ellen McQueen’s direction, the performances are well-tempered, especially considering the highly charged emotions that run throughout, and the production is swiftly paced, despite a running time of two-plus hours.
Sonny Knox’s simple set is clever at first read: A lattice frame backdrop is hung with interchangeable paintings of images that represent the locale of each scene, but changing out the images ultimately proves noisy and distracting.
The emotional weight of the play lays primarily on Rose’s shoulders, and he does an admirable job portraying a confused, angry child who’s thrust too soon into an adult world. He bears the physicality of a thin, gangly teenager, but he convincingly conveys with equal parts rage and black humor a scathing indictment of the public’s prurient blood lust and the media’s eagerness to fulfill it.
THE 411: 8 p.m. July 16, 18, 21 and 26; $18-$22. Presented by Essential Theatre at 7 Stages Back Stage Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave. N.E., Little Five Points. 1-877-840-0457, www.essentialtheatre.com.
BOTTOM LINE: A taut, timely drama about the public’s lust for reality TV tragedy and the media’s eagerness to supply it.
ALSO AT THE FEST: Paul Rudnick’s “Valhalla,” a comedy-fantasy about the king of Bavaria who goes mad trying to create beautiful fairy tale castles, and “West of Eden,” Letitia Sweitzer’s comedy about Adam and Eve in middle age.
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‘Purple’ majesty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B+
After four years of searching, “The Color Purple” has finally found its emotional home.
It took a 2004 Alliance Theatre world premiere and a choppy Broadway production that felt designed by a corporate committee headed by Oprah Winfrey. It took mixed reviews and a disappointing Tony Awards showing (11 nominations but just one win).
But somewhere along the way, Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray’s pop musical has worked out the kinks, found its groove and settled comfortably into itself.
You can pick Alice Walker’s popular Georgia-born tale to pieces if you want to — and believe me, I have — but the show that opened last night at the Fox Theatre feels like the musical it was meant to be.
For the next 2 1/2 weeks, the story of Celie and her sprawling circle of intimates will be as rapturously clucked about as the arrival of Shug Avery at Harpo’s juke-joint.
A good deal of the hooting and hollering will be a tribute to the knockout cast, featuring Jeannette Bayardelle as the shy and retiring Celie; original cast member Felicia P. Fields as the indomitable Sofia; and Atlanta native Stu James as Sofia’s husband, Harpo. (Angela Robinson plays sultry Shug, Rufus Bonds Jr. is the mean and abusive Mister, and former American Idol contestant LaToya London is Celie’s sister, Nettie.)
The backbone of the story is Celie’s awakening — from a so-called ugly young girl into a confident and self-accepting town matriarch. It is remarkable to see the eyes of this tired, awkward and socially uncomfortable woman slowly open to the possibilities of love. Bayardelle calibrates this transformation by flashing glimpses of Celie’s adorable comic underside, her latent sexual hunger and, since this is a musical, her vocal charisma, which can turn sweet lullabies and scorching belts into sublime theatrical moments.
In a nicely detailed performance, Bonds creates a hard-nosed, whip-cracking and abusive Mister, who wrestles with Celie’s curse in a thunderous, Mephistopholean scene. Robinson’s Shug is funny, glamorous, entertaining and wisely low-key, so as not to steal the thunder of the other strong women characters. But her take is not particularly fresh or original. Kinda just the same old Shug.
Though Celie’s relationships with Shug and Mister splinter off into solitude, the fire and spark of Harpo and Sofia never go out. Fields, who has been involved with this project from the get-go, delivers a Sofia that is as salty and irrascible as ever. Recalling the legendary Ethel Waters in her prime, Fields cracks up the audience, reduces it to tears, then washes away the pain with laughter. Celie’s the lead, but Sofia is the soul of “The Color Purple.”
James steps into Harpo’s britches with a sweet, tender masculinity. When Sofia rails at his father, you can see Harpo’s impulse to protect her, and the couple’s sexual chemistry just gets better over time. James’ Harpo sings wonderfully, gyrates his hips like he means it and even takes a little spanking from Sofia.
At the end of the day, does this pop-music pastiche still sound saccharine and the lyrics cliched? Is Walker’s wildy convoluted plot still resolved with a few phone calls and flashbacks whipped together by librettist Marsha Norman? Does the Africa scene still feel like it belongs in “The Lion King”?
Yes, yes and yes.
But this ensemble is so good, Donald Byrd’s choreography is so energetic and joyous, the emotional high notes so real that you forgive the flaws.
Life, as Celie discovers, isn’t perfect. Neither is musical theater. Maturity takes time, and requires a capacity for love and forgiveness. I’m happy to report that “The Color Purple” has flowered into a thing of beauty. It feels organic, moves fluidly and plays like clockwork.
The 411: Through Aug 3. Presented by Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E, Midtown. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com
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The [Insert Word Here] That Changed the World
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I love grandiose subtitles. In recent years, non-fiction books, particularly popular history, have gone a little nuts with subtitles that make extravagant claims.
“Cicada!: The Startling Untold Story of the Amazing Insect That Made Us Who We Are Today”
“Stooges: The Comedy Trio That Forever Changed What It Means to Laugh and Be Human.”
I made those up, but you know what I mean.
So I laughed the other day when I read Jim Auchmutey’s interview in the AJC with David Maraniss. Maraniss is touring in support of his book “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World.” There have been several reviews that have said this is a well-researched and well-written book, highly recommended, but that the 1960 Olympics did not really change the world.
Which led to this exchange.
Q: That subtitle —- “The Olympics That Changed the World” —- sounds rather grandiose. Is it justified?
A: That really wasn’t my title, but you can make the argument. I was trying to write about a moment when you could see the modern world coming into focus.
I admire Maraniss’ honesty. It wasn’t his title. Reading between the lines, I would guess an agent, editor or publisher thought the title needed some extra oomph, hence “Changed the World.” Anyway, an author who can be honest like that in an interview is one who can be trusted in his writing, so I’m adding “Rome 1960” to my list of books I need to read this summer.
In the meantime, Maraniss is in town today, July 16. He’s speaking and signing at 8 tonight at the Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry. $10, reservation required, so don’t show up like some schlub, OK? 404 814 4000 for more information.
Maybe it will change your world.
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‘You sure is ugly’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, a colleague brought me a picture of her in her red Shug Avery dress. In another lifetime, she says she was probably singing jazz at a backwoods juke joint, and chasing men. Just like Alice Walker’s sexually adventurous character in “The Color Purple.’’ Read our review
Seems like a lot of “Color Purple” fans have strong connections with Walker’s people. With the musical opening tonight at the Fox Theatre, we’d like to hear about your favorite characters.
Do you relate to poor, downtrodden Celie; feisty Sofia; or Sofia’s on-again, off-again husband, Harpo? Or is it Shug Avery that pushes your button?
Also, which treatment of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel do you like better — the Steven Spielberg film or the Broadway musical? Does the musical do the book justice? What’s your favorite line?
We’d love to hear from you.
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‘All’s Well’ @ Georgia Shakes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B-
Love, as they say, is blind. And as evidenced by Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well,” it is also unpredictable, duplicitous, troubling, all-consuming and ultimately triumphant.
In this problematic puzzlement of the heart, the orphaned Helena is willed to marry her playmate Bertram. Yet he’s so caddish audiences may have difficulty understanding her singleness of purpose.
In Georgia Shakespeare’s new production of this rarely produced comedy, director Dan McCleary attempts to clarify matters by having the actors introduce themselves at the top of show and give a pithy word or two about their character arcs. He also intersperses the material with some lovely, psychologically sophisticated dance sequences that showcase the movement skills of the youthful Susanah Millonzi (Helena) and Derrick Ledbetter (Bertram). When the actors aren’t performing, they sit on the sidelines and watch the story.
It’s a noble, playful, if somewhat overdecorated approach to the Bard’s conundrum, which seems to lack much conflict in the first act and is overdolloped with machinations in the second.
While this ensemble has smartly pushed its young company to the front of the line in recent years, newcomers Millonzi and Ledbetter can’t always hold their own here with such choice veteran wits as Brad Sherrill (Parolles), Chris Ensweiler (Lavatch), Joe Knezevich (the King of France), Chris Kayser (Lord Lafew) and Tess Malis Kincaid (as Bertram’s mother, the Countess).
To give you a quick summary of the action: Helena bargains with the mortally ill King to snare Bertram, who promptly abandons her for the war in Italy and other diversions. Helena prevails, but only after engineering a couple of tricks involving Diana (Ally Carey) and Diana’s widowed mother (Pat Bell). We’ll leave it at that.
Sherrill is terrific as the rascal Parolles, who is a much more interesting character than Bertram. Ensweiler is in superb form as the ridiculous court fool and proves, once again, why he’s one of the town’s top clowns. The handsome Knezevich reinvents himself fully as an old, jaundiced-looking king. As always, Kincaid and Kayser are solid, assured and a pleasure watch.
Though Ledbetter seems a little too green to give a fully nuanced performance as Bertram, Millzoni, who doubles as choreographer, scores points for her fluid and romantic “Ode on a Grecian Urn”-style dances.
Riffing on the story’s feminine mystique and magical contours, set designer Kat Conley nods to Salvador Dali and Georgia O’Keeffe; yet in adding references to the baroque styles of France and Italy, she ultimately delivers something of a clunky mishmash of art history references. Even less successful, Douglas J. Koertge’s Tudor costumes seem out of sync with the director’s modern treatment.
Will it end well?
That depends on how you read this strangely concocted trifle of a play, in which a scheming heroine prevails against all reason to win a less than admirable man. With the beautiful “Merchant of Venice” and the bell-bottomed misstep “As You Like It,” Georgia Shakespeare’s so-called “Summer of Love” has been a mixed bag. “All’s Well” straddles a middleground — not exactly satisfying but definitely worth a look.
THE 411; Through Aug. 3. In rotating repertory with “As You Like It” and “The Merchant of Venice.” $15-$40. Georgia Shakespeare, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-264-0020, gashakespeare.org.
Bottom line: Flawed play gets frolicsome treatment.
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To who it may concern: Grammar Girl coming
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m amazed sometimes at what makes noise in pop culture. Angelina Jolie having twins, yeah, I get it. But an author building a whole cult following on grammar? Presented in a hip way? Or as hip as grammar can be presented?
Meet Mignon Fogarty, self-proclaimed Grammar Girl. Literally, you can meet her at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday July 16 at the Decatur Library, sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book. She’s kicking off a national tour for her first book, “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.”
Hmm. She uses the word “dirty” in her title, and she’s pretty cute. Maybe I’m starting to understand how this grammar-into-gold thing works.
The AJC’s Rosalind Bentley did an interview with Fogarty that ran Monday. Here’s an excerpt.
Q: What are the most common errors we make?
A: The two biggest myths are that you shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition and that you shouldn’t split infinitives. Nearly all modern grammarians don’t hold people to those rules. … You shouldn’t contort your sentence just so you won’t end it with a preposition. But I would tell people never split an infinitive in a cover letter because you never know who’s reading it.
Question: What’s your biggest grammar bugaboo? I still have trouble with lay and lie. Thank God for copy editors!
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Art Garfunkel’s reading list: You’ll be amazed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I would assume most people who come here know who Art Garfunkel is — Paul Simon’s former partner, a wonderful singer and not a bad actor.
But who knew he may be the best-read man in show business?
On his website, Garfunkel has kept track of every book he has read for the last 40 years. It’s more than 1,000 books, which really works out to just two a month, roughly. But by show biz standards, not to mention anally compuslive record-keeping standards, the guy deserves some props.
The full list is here.. It only runs through the end of 2007, and I couldn’t find any info on why it hasn’t been updated in six months.
So what does Art Garfunkel like to read? We finally have an answer to this eternal question. Pretty much everything. The early entries look like someone trying to improve himself: “Huckleberry Finn,” “The Brothers Karamazov,” “War and Peace.” In 1990 he read Balzac, Hemingway and Thomas Mann, but also Carrie Fisher’s “Surrender the Pink.” One of the last entries is “The DaVinci Code,” and I wondered if maybe he gave up reading after that one. Lord knows I was ready to give up after the first 100 pages.
I’m curious what the reaction is to Garfunkel’s list, both what’s on it and the listing process itself. Is there something about being an omnivorous reader that makes one want to keep a record?
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Zombies, robots invade Bremen Museum. A little.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“If you buy only one book to accompany you through horrific worldwide catastrophe, make it this one.”
That’s the blurb Stephen Colbert wrote for “Apocalypse How,” a new humor book by Atlanta native and “Daily Show” writer Rob Kutner. It’s a tongue-in-cheek survival guide, “turning the end of times into the best of times,” as Kutner’s website says.
The site includes his challenges to both presidential candidates, that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has given sufficient thought to the many possible perils we face.
“It’s like they haven’t even considered the economic, logistical, and security challenges of a robot takeover,” he writes. “We need a president who’s equally comfortable negotiating trade treaties and bartering for petrol with leather biker punks.”
“Obama claims his healthcare plan covers everyone,” Kutner says, “but what about radiation-spawned mutants? Nor does McCain get off easy: “Can we afford to maintain a presence in Iraq and stop a mad genius from aiming his giant freeze ray at the Eastern Seaboard?”
Kutner is hosting an “Apocalyptic Happy Hour” from 5-7 p.m. July 13 at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Atlanta, part of the Lewis Winter People of the Book Series. He plans to talk about the possibility of a robot takeover and what it’s really like to have Jon Stewart as a boss. Admission is $18; $10 for Bremen members. I’d call before you go to make sure it’s not sold out. 404 870 7694
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Direct line for ‘High School Musical’ refunds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, we reported that Theater of the Stars won’t be bringing “High School Musical” to the Fox in August. Instead, the local producer will stage a new version next summer.
For folks trying to get refunds or exchange tickets, Theater of the Stars has added a direct phone line and email address. Ticket holders can opt for November’s world premiere of “High School Musical 2” or next summer’s “High School Musical” — or get a full refund.
The phone number: 678-539-8625.
The e-mail address: HSMexchange@TheateroftheStars.com
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See and Do This Weekend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s all about promoting yourself these days. How you sell “You, the Brand.”
Fahamu Pecou is an Atlanta artist who understands that as well as anyone. Soft-spoken, polite and likeable in person, he has a knack for self-promotion that is so clever and outrageous, it makes you laugh out loud. He is gaining a following among collectors, both here and around the country. (He was at Art Basel Miami in December.)
You can see his work in a current show of mock ads and articles at Atlanta’s Vaknin Gallery, “Something Like a Fahamenon.”. Like his work featuring himself on magazine covers, the show addresses our culture’s obsession with celebrity and consumerism. The gallery calls “Fahamenon” an “examination of society, pop culture, issues of the black male body in media, hip hop culture, and fine art insider politics.”
Vaknin is open Friday and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 905 Juniper Street NE Space 109, Atlanta, GA 30309
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Decatur Fest adds Ty Pennington, Kathy Reichs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Decatur Book Festival just announced they’re adding a couple of big names: Ty Pennington and Kathy Reichs.
Pennington is the very popular host of “Extreme Home Makeover. Although probably not best known as an author, his latest book “Good Design Can Change Your Life: Beautiful Rooms, Inspiring Stories,” is due in September.
Reichs is a former forensic anthropologist who is the inspiration for the Fox series “Bones.” Her latest novel is “Devil Bones.”
They join the previously announced lineup which includes Billy Collins, Eric Jerome Dickey, John Dean, Pearl Cleage and many more.
The Decatur Book Festival takes place Aug. 29-13 all around the square in Decatur.
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Gwinnett Reads: Charles Frazier
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This summer’s “Gwinnett Reads” program is set to culminate on Saturday, July 12, with a reading and Q&A with Charles Frazier, author of “Thirteen Moons.” It’ll go down at 6:30 p.m. at the Gwinnett Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. Here’s the website.
Frazier’s second novel never got the critical or popular traction of his first novel, “Cold Mountain,” which won the National Book Award, but it’s dreadfully unfair to compare everything he writes to such a near-perfect book.
“Moons” is the story of Will Cooper. An excerpt from Publisher’s Weekly review: “The good news is that Frazier’s storytelling prowess doesn’t falter in this sophomore effort, a bountiful literary panorama again set primarily in North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains. The story takes place mostly before the Civil War this time, and it is epic in scope. With pristine prose that’s often wry, Frazier brings a rough-and-tumble pioneer past magnificently to life, indicts America with painful bluntness for the betrayal of its native people and recounts a romance rife with sadness.”
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‘Hedwig’ @ Actor’s Express
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C
Poor Hedwig, sad Hedwig. Daddy’s long gone and mommy’s cold as ice. The American GI who loved her insisted on gender-reassignment surgery as her ticket to the States. The surgery, uh, missed, and she’s left with an angry inch in an unfortunate locale. What’s a girl to do? Take the show on the road? Turn it into a cultish rock musical? But of course.
Hedwig is the transsexual alter ego of a German-born girly-boy named Hansel. As she follows another former love (rock star Tommy Gnosis) from town to town, playing dive bars while he sells out arenas, she tells her story mostly in concert and monologue.
To those in the know, this is likely a delicious reunion.
To those of us meeting Hedwig for the first time, it’s a love-hate kind of thing. “Hedwig” was born in 2000 on the off-Broadway stage. In 2001, her movie entertained multitudes. Actor’s Express, which staged the show in 2003, envisions this reprise — with a new set, star and director — as a slam-bang finish to its 20th anniversary season.
Artistic Director Freddie Ashley’s reimagining has plenty of slam-bang, particularly with its rocking band the Angry Inch, again led by Angela Motter, who returns as the devoted and angel-voiced Yitzhak. What it lacks is enough heart and soul to sell its themes — that we all want to find love, that we all want to know ourselves as completely as possible and that we want to like the people we become.
This is, supposedly, Hedwig’s universal journey, but Craig Waldrip’s ride is all attitude and poses. He clearly works hard, in spiky 6-inch heels no less, but never reveals the Hedwig beneath the heavy blond wig or beyond the glam-skank hot pants. He rarely transits past her pout or her pelvis.
The text (by the original Hedwig, John Cameron Mitchell), brims with wit, sass and wry observations. It talks about “the geography of human contact” and how Hedwig is torn in two, like the city of Berlin was by its Wall. Too many of composer Stephen Trask’s song lyrics are muddled, however, either by a lack of balance between band and singer or by Waldrip’s habit of grazing the microphone with his lips. It’s too bad because he has a wonderfully emotive voice when it comes through as it does on the ballads.
“Hedwig” won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, or even pint of ale. The double-entendre-laced text is definitely for an adult crowd. What it comes down to is relationships: How intimately you know Hedwig before the show will determine how much you enjoy her in it.
The 411: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday. Through July 19 (no show July 6). $22 and $25; VIP seats $35. Actor’s Express, 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-607-7469, www.actors-express.com.
Bottom line: Potential unrealized.
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See and Do this Weekend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Palmetto, Ga., is a lovely spot. It feels like you’re way out in the country, even though it’s only a half-hour drive from downtown Atlanta.
Add a free outdoor concert by a world-class orchestra, and you’ve got a great reason for a short road trip. On Saturday, July 5, at 8 p.m. the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform beloved classics such as Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” as well as pops standards such as Gershwin’s “Girl Crazy Overture” at Hutcheson Ferry Park in Palmetto. ASO assistant conductor Mei-Ann Chen will lead the ASO musicians in the concert.
For more information and link to driving directions, see the ASO’s website.
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Take a “Monster” to the beach
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Usually, “beach books” are paperback novels. Chick lit, thrillers, mysteries, romances, that sort of thing. But the idea is something fun and compelling that isn’t too taxing.
But one of this summer’s hot beach books is non-fiction. “The Monster of Florence” by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi is No.3 on this Sunday’s New York Times non-fiction bestseller list, and it’s just the kind of book you want to take to the beach, provided you’re not too squeamish.
Preston is an American thriller writer who moved to Italy and met Spezi, a journalist. Spezi was obsessed with a serial killer who was dubbed the Monster of Florence, a man who killed couples who were out parking in the countryside and did some grotesque things to the women’s corpses with a knife. He operated in the 1980s and was never caught; when Thomas Harris was hanging out in Italy researching his novel “Hannibal,” he sniffed around the Monster’s case.
Preston and Spezi tell a story that starts out like your basic true crime non-fiction book. But along the way, as the Monster eludes the police and everyone gets more and more frustrated, the whole narrative switches to political and judicial bungling. Suspects are arrested, even tried and convicted, only to be set free when they are clearly innocent. Increasingly frustrated, some prosecutors actually target the authors, who are showing them up in public, arresting Spezi and trying him in a sequence that would do Kafka proud.
In the end, the Monster is never caught. The authors have theories, but not particularly iron-clad one. Preston acknowledges that the elements don’t really come together to make “Monster” as satisfying as a good novel. “These were murders without motive, theories without evidence, and a story with no end,” he writes. Actually, “The Monster of Florence” works despite those problems. I recommend it.
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How are you saving money on the arts?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The AJC is running a series this month called “31 Ways to Save,” about how people are saving money in a lot of different ways.
The arts need to be part of this discussion. So how are you saving money this summer on arts-related activities, and/or books? Are you getting half-price tickets? Finding hidden discounts? Going to the library more and Borders less?
We’re looking for clever ideas and approaches that you share and that others can take advantage of. If you’re just cutting back, and want to post that, fine, but we’re more interested in strategies over cut-backs.
So please post your money saving ideas here. And if you would use a real email address, I’d like to get in touch with 1 or 2 of the best ones and interview you for a small print feature to run later this month.
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