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September 2008
Presidential Politics and ‘Les Miz’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Les Miserables” just finished a run at the Fox Theatre — we wrote about it here and here.
With the election just weeks away, here’s an amusing YouTube clip of Obama staffers re-imagining “One More Day,” the big number that closes act one. Some folks, it seems, will go to any lengths to refract their own lives through revolutionary 19th century French politics.
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Atlanta Baroque Looks for New Leader, Gives Concert
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was a coup when they got him; now, for health reasons, he’s leaving. Is it not a moment too soon?
Two years ago, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra signed John Hsu as its artistic director, a nationally-respected musician who was equal parts electrified conductor, heavy-weight scholar and elegant perfectionist.
Hsu (pronounced “shew”) tightened the ensemble’s playing and boosted their morale — yet attendance gradually dropped under Hsu’s brief tenure, says ABO development director Janie Hicks, “perhaps the result of the esoteric repertoire that John favored. He usually resisted doing vocal music and the popular pieces that people recognize,” she says.
Now 77, Hsu has suffered breathing troubles and told the board that the 2008-09 season would be his last — and he might sever the relationship on a moment’s notice if his health demands it.
Thus the new season, which opened Sunday afternoon at Buckhead’s Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, is Hsu’s farewell (just two concerts, Nov. 9 and Feb. 22) and also a public audition for a new leader — with violinists Julie Andrijeski (March 22) and Elizabeth Wallfisch (May 17) as the current finalists.
Hsu wasn’t involved for Sunday’s concert, which had the unsexy title “Tantalizing Thuringia: Wellspring of the German Baroque” — a collection of four composers associated with the musically-fertile and cosmopolitan state in central Germany. Most of the works on the program had associations with death, although that wasn’t always evident from the sound of it.
Nevertheless, the performance reflected Hsu’s tenure, where the ensemble of 10 instrumentalists and four singers gave Hsu-style readings with high spirits and (mostly) discipline, led from the violin by concertmaster Gesa Kordes or from the harpsichord by Daniel Pyle.
Telemann’s “Ouverture a 5,” a suite of high-flying dances for five parts, soared with Boston-based recorder virtuoso Aldo Abreu as soloist. He’s a charmer, all smiles and long shaggy hair. His recorder sounded bright and cheery in fast run for the “Les Plaisirs” movement, like popping champagne corks. And he spun soulful long lines for the “Air a l’Italien.” A thorough delight.
Matthias Weckmann’s 1660s cantata “Wie liegt die Stadt so wuste” (“How Barren Lies the City”) featured bass Brent Davis and pure-voiced soprano Wanda Yang Temko, an announcer on WABE-FM. It was the juiciest music of the afternoon, gorgeously performed.
Laments by Johann Christoph Bach, the uncle, and Johann Sebastian Bach, the nephew, didn’t fare as well. Contralto Holly McCarren’s voice came in several shades of gray in the J.C. Bach, while J.S. Bach’s Cantata 106 was marred when tenor Bruce Seller’s voice went completely hoarse. Still, the audience appreciated the value of Atlanta Baroque, and voted for its future with a standing ovation.
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Banned books and penguins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This week is Banned Books Week, an annual public awareness campaign sponsored by the American Library Association and other groups. Every year they publish a list of the most challenges from the previous year, the vast majority of which happen in school settings.
I was very surprised to see this year’s winner was a book I’d never heard of: a children’s book called “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell.
It beat out perennial whipping posts like “Huck Finn” by Mark Twain and “His Dark Materials” by Phillip Putnam. Heck, “Catcher in the Rye” didn’t even make the Top 10!
So what’s wrong with “And Tango Makes Three?” The ALA lists the reasons that were given for attempts to yank it off library shelves, and they include “Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group.”
Wow. That must be one pretty offensive book. So what is it about, anyway?
Here’s a summary of “Tango,” courtesy of Wikipedia:
“The book is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, two male Chinstrap Penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo who for six years formed a couple. The book follows part of this time in the penguins’ lives. This book aims to send the reader the message that it is okay to be in, or know someone who has, a “non-traditional” family.”
So basically, the culture wars now include penguins.
I’d ask for opinions on this topic, but I have a feeling you’ll give them whether I ask or not.
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Ho Hum, ASO Opens Season With Three Bs
CONCERT REVIEW Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Thursday in Symphony Hall. Program repeats Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm. www.atlantasymphony.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As season-opening concerts go, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s program Thursday was a mild affair, announcing to a full house prepped for celebration that not much was at stake.
Like most opening nights, a gala followed the performance, and this year I had the impression there were more deluxe gowns and tuxedo’d men in the audience than ever before. With Wall Street imploding, no easy solutions in sight and the economy hanging in the balance, perhaps Atlanta’s black-tie set saw the evening as one last hurrah.
Unlike past ASO openers, however, there seemed to be no policy statements made on stage by the choice of music programmed, no broadening of what should be called “classical” music and not even a nod to the ASO’s unique strengths.
Instead, Robert Spano, who’s beginning his eighth season as music director — the orchestra’s 64th year — conducted straight down the midline of could-be-anywhere tradition.
Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.
It was expert, often impassioned, playing — although curious for an orchestra that’s rapidly building a reputation, at home and nationally, for savvy, outside-the-moldering-old-box thinking. I’ve even heard ASO officials describe its mission as “reinventing the orchestra for the 21st century.”
Thursday, it was a leap back to the 19th.
For starters, you can tell Atlanta is a major choral town by the quality of the singing from the audience. Our voices raised on high for the “Star-Spangled Banner,” accompanied by Walter Damrosch’s Germanic oom-pah-pah orchestration, and I bet there are few orchestras around the country that can field a more in-tune and robust national anthem sing-along than the ASO.
Spano and company then eased gently into the mists of J.S. Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue, a mighty organ work orchestrated to the point of bursting ripeness by Leopold Stokowski.
Spano dried it out a bit, made Bach less Hollywood and more classical in spirit and thus a neat segue into Beethoven’s wondrous Piano Concerto No. 3, with Emanuel Ax as soloist.
Ax is a regular in Symphony Hall, and his rapport with the orchestra and Spano makes even the most heroic moments of a concerto seem like intimate chamber music. A few rough spots aside, they together forged an unusually powerful narrative, notably in the first movement.
In Brahms’ First Symphony, Spano displayed his many strengths, from a bedrock-solid foundation across four movements — despite some abrupt tempo shifts — to the kinetic excitement he draws from the players.
Yet between these extremes — the structure and the surface sheen — Spano sometimes left what might be called a communication gap. The music was well assembled, the players hummed along with nervous energy, yet the deepening, enriching, high-personality elements of the symphony were sometimes left unsaid, unexplored.
It’s likely these will come together for the remaining performances, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. After that, the ASO has the rest of the season to continue on its merry path to the top tier of American orchestras.
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‘Cannibal!’ musical at Dad’s Garage
THEATER REVIEW. “Cannibal! The Musical.” Grade: C+ 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 8 p.m. Monday. Through Oct. 18. $15-$25. Dad’s Garage, 280 Elizabeth St., Inman Park. 404-523-3141, dadsgarage.com. Bottom line: Bloody well bad — in a good way. But where’s the beef?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To say that “Cannibal! The Musical” is an eye-popping, leather-chewing, blood-curdling exercise in tastelessness would not be exaggeration. It would be a fact.
Based on a low-budget 1996 film by “South Park” creator Trey Parker, and first produced for the stage by Dad’s Garage in 1998, the blood-splattered spectacle about real-life convicted cannibal Alfred “Alferd” Packer (1842-1907) has reared its ridiculous head again at the home of the city’s most raucous schlockmeisters.
Fair warning to the lily-livered: “Cannibal!” is rude and crude, intentionally disgusting, unevenly performed and —to this gore lover’s eyes — not nearly as funny or successful as last season’s ensemble-generated “Song of the Living Dead.”
A spoof of musical-theater and courtroom dramas, the show imagines Packer (Doug Graham) as he sits in the stockades awaiting execution. It’s 1883, and he’s been charged with devouring his five posse members as they trekked across the Colorado wilderness in search of gold. Their gruesome journey — replete with silly songs, fantastic fight scenes, horrific sight gags and dubious sexual adventures — is recounted in flashback form while Packer spills his guts to Polly Pry (Jessie Dougherty-Dean), a reporter who eventually falls for the seemingly sweet and sympathetic flesh-chomper.
But the love of Packer’s life is his horse, Liane. A bicycle mounted with a fake equine head, Liane eventually disappears and is later remembered in the song “When I Was on Top of You.”
As Packer and his mining buddies venture westward, they clash with a group of trappers. (Steven Westdahl plays the poachers’ furry, pot-bellied leader.) And Packer’s “diggers” endure cold rivers, snowy mountains and long shiver-y nights under shared blankets — situations which lead to gratuitous racist jokes, homosexual innuendo and extreme hunger.
But the real clincher is the ancient Civil War Cyclops (Kevin Huey) and his gaggle of sheep. Truly one of the most revolting figures I’ve ever seen onstage, the war-ravaged man spews pus from his one eye while his naughty sheep (Dougherty-Dean and Jon Carr) try to seduce Packer with their soft-shorn porn. They’re baa-aaa-baad. Director George Faughnan and “master of gore” Chris Brown never squander a chance to pump up the gross factor with puddles of blood and other bodily fluids. If only the quality of singing was in the same vein.
As funny as it may have been in its time, this “Oklahoma!” riff — a paean to the beauty of blue skies, the warmth of baked potatoes, the cheer of snowmen — has since been usurped by such subversive anti-musicals as “Urinetown,” “Avenue Q,” and “[title of show].” You can understand how Dad’s would want to honor its past with some “Shpadoinkle” fun. But after all the cannibal nonsense, there’s really not much to chew on.
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Second City’s ‘Too Busy to Hate…’ is non-stop laughs
THEATER REVIEW. "The Second City: Too Busy to Hate...Too Hard to Commute." Grade: B+ Through Oct. 26. Alliance Theatre's Hertz Stage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-733-5000, alliance.org. Bottom Line: A laugh-out-loud tour of the town.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A couple of tourists from Chicago are gliding into Atlanta on the freeway. The skyline beckons. It will be an adventure. “Man, even driving in Atlanta is a breeze,” says the husband to the wife.
Boy are they in for a surprise.
Thus begins “The Second City: Too Busy to Hate… Too Hard to Commute.” Created by Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe at the invitation of the Alliance Theatre, the show arrived Wednesday night like some zany spaghetti junction revue of song, dance, sketch comedy and improv. Designed and performed with loopy abandon, purposefully engineered to mock the city’s politics, prejudices, flaws, foibles, icons and institutions, the show leaves skidmarks on everything from our hoopskirt past to our hip-hop present.
Atlanta may be forever stuck in traffic and running on empty, but director Matt Hovde has assembled a cast of nimble, free-form driver-performers who are game to burn a high-octane blend of social satire and piston-popping physical comedy.
No one is safe in this second torching of Atlanta.
Mayor Shirley Franklin gets serenaded by a suave R&B crooner (Ric Walker), who is smitten with her “platinum blonde” hairdo and her signature “big-ass flower.” Southern belle Charlotte (Robyn Norris) pens letters to her soldier-beau Jonathan (Tim Stoltenberg) during a skit in which the audience supplies lines — and the quick-witted improv artists throw them back with dazzling speed. A Waffle House owner (Michael Lehrer) seeking the U.S. presidency says that “running out of country ham after a Ludacris” concert qualifies him to deal with any natural disaster that might come his way. And in one of the funniest segments, a jive-talking brother (Anthony Irons) tries to hawk an energy drink that’s administered through the eyes. Ouch.
This being a product of Chicago, you can only imagine Barack Obama comes up quite a bit. (The Obama joke is like the time Toni Morrison said Bill Clinton was the first African-American president — only it’s magnified to the nth power.) So if you are expecting John McCain to get equal time, you may be disappointed.
While a good measure of the schtick is new, some of it is based on classics of The Second City repertoire. (The writing is credited to the cast of The Second City, with additional material by Ed Furman and TJ Shanoff.) Given the improvisational nature of the game, the show will look a little different each night, like a comic chameleon, and new lines are introduced to play off the news of the day. (On Wednesday night, for example, the opening sequence made reference to the city’s gas shortage.)
Naturally, some of the gimmicks fall flat — such as the riff on the “Piedmont Private Club,” the polar bear business and some rambling reference to Georgia Bulldogs (I think). Sometimes, the performers are at the mercy of the crowd, so don’t sit down front if you are brain-dead or dumb-stuck. (Kudos by the way to Amy Roeder for not letting her turn as the twangy waitress from Carl, Ga., go completely off course due to the lethargy of audience members.)
Part of the thrill of the ride is the totally random nature of its twist and turns. Anything can happen at a Second City show, and usually does. This company of actors is particularly strong at split-second invention and minor miracles of timing. Though the piece hasn’t quite figured out how it should end, you’ll be so busy laughing that it will be too hard to care.
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Alan Alda seems like a mensch
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alan Alda’s second memoir, “Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself,” is out in paperback, and full of what my colleague Rodney Ho describes as “ruminations on the meaning of life, with excerpts of speeches he’s made.”
He talked to Rodney recently about those speeches.
Q: You’ve done hundreds of speeches. I’m sure you put your best in the book. Have you ever bombed?
A: Yes! If I’ve ever gotten up without really wanting to say what I had to say, those times, I have bombed. But usually, that happens when I stand up to say a few words at a dinner. I have to really want to do it.
Q: What’s your favorite speech?
A: I loved the one I gave my daughter Eve at her college graduation. It makes me happy when people tell me they were moved by that. It really cheers me up. I worked very hard on all these talks. I worked even harder writing this book. I didn’t want it to be just a collection of speeches. Although for all I know, it might look that way to some people.
Q: Did Eve like the fact you were addressing her directly?
A: She loved it when I gave it. Before that, she scared me by saying, ‘Don’t embarrass me!’ Most of the people got what I was trying to do. I was really talking to all of them. But through her, it felt personal. This is a turning point in their lives. It was really hard not to say all the cliches.
Q: Which speech affected you the most personally?
A: It was the one I gave to the doctors. I have no real knowledge of medicine. But I was an expert at being a patient so I spoke from that point of view. Years later, a couple of doctors said they had kept that talk with them for a couple of years. It encouraged them to be the kind of doctor they already wanted to be. I voiced something that was felt by them.
Alda will be reading and signing at 7:30 tonight (Sept. 25) at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlantam 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $35. He’ll also be signing at a meeting of the Atlanta Press Club Friday, which is sold out.
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And now a word from our ‘Les Miz’ geek: 18 times and counting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve seen “Les Miserables” about 18 times since the late 1980s. I’m not saying that makes me an expert; just a fanatic.
For years, while I was living in New York, I always seemed to have “Les Miserables” tickets in my pocket. I exercised to the music, I vacuumed the house to it, and I took lessons to sing the songs, a debacle that created a misery all its own for my girlfriend.
There was a time I envisioned a “Les Miserables” cable channel, playing day and night. The channel would air the musical often, as well as live feeds from productions around the world. Hosts would talk to the stars and experts about that period in French history, the religious overtones of the characters, and so on.
That’s why seeing the latest production running at the Fox Theatre was so gratifying. You see, I had stopped seeing the show in recent years. The production, I felt, had gone stale. Performers were no longer delivering the level of commitment and quality that this kind of epic requires.
But the thrill is back. This production is a shaken up, stripped down and revitalized “Les Miz.”
The Atlanta production has taken away much of the huge stage trappings - the entire stage that revolves on a turntable, the barricade that shape-shifts into place. Some critics had blasted “Les Miz” as among the stage behemoths of the 1980s - along with “Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats” - that depended more on stagecraft than quality.
With the gadgets removed, the songs of the show truly shine, as well as the performances. Rob Evan brings just the right emotional brawn to the lead role of Jean Valjean, the convict who breaks parole and turns his life around. Robert Hunt as Javert - the grim, unforgiving policeman who chases Valjean through the years - is just right: obsessed but never evil.
After almost 20 years of seeing this musical, I have the sense that it is being passed to a new generation. Some of these actors were only kids when “Les Miz” started, and this is the kind of a show that, once experienced, can drive a young person into musical theater.
From the staging on down, I had the feeling that this is a “Les Miz” that invited taking chances. The character of Fantine, the tragic single mother traditionally played by a blonde, was played by an African-American woman, Nikki Renee Daniels. The young woman playing the street waif Eponine, Jenny Fellner, made the character a bit edgier and little more punk than in the past.
All that said, this isn’t the greatest “Les Miz” I’ve ever seen, such as the first one, which sent me into the street spellbound and transported, filled with a sense of promise and mystery.
I didn’t really care for the illustrations projected on the back of the stage, which I felt closed in the production. And I missed the turntable and moving barricade, which added wonderful cinematic effects.
Most importantly, when “Les Miz” is done just right, ending with the entire cast singing of hope for future generations, the show stirs the great possibilities of the human spirit.
This show reached many levels of magic, but it did not hit me on that level as strong as some other performances.
Still, I may see it again this week.
Craig Schneider is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Happy Birthday, Waldo
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Where’s Waldo?
Perhaps he’s at a bar, hoping to get carded. Waldo, of “Where’s Waldo?” fame, is 21 this week.
Created by Martin Handford, the first “Where’s Waldo?” book was published Sept. 21, 1987. The series has sold more than 46 million books worldwide, and has been translated into more than 25 languages, according to a press release.
Which makes me wonder: How do you translate a “Where’s Waldo?” book?
He’s a very Gen Y guy, Waldo, along with other ’80s pop culture icons like the Cabbage Patch Kids, the Care Bears, My Little Pony, and so on. Now, in keeping up with Gen Y’s latest fads, Waldo is on Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, etc.
Do you love Waldo enough to make him your friend on Facebook? Or is Waldo one of those things you thought had died out a long time ago?
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Atlanta Ballet Re-Hires its Orchestra
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They’ll dance to live music again.
The Atlanta Ballet, which sparked a firestorm of controversy in 2006 when it scrapped its orchestra to cut costs, will return musicians to the pit for much of the 2008-2009 season, beginning Oct. 23 with “Swan Lake.”
Executive director Barry Hughson reached a deal last week with the Atlanta Federation of Musicians union to contract the orchestra for select performances.
The deal is for the current season only, made possible by a one-year, $200,000 gift from Patti Wallace, a trustee of the ballet who keeps a condo at Midtown’s Four Seasons hotel and lives in Montgomery, Ala., where she runs a nursing and rehabilitation management company.
“I fell in love with the Atlanta Ballet many years ago,” Wallace said, “and I’ve always believed in the special importance of an orchestra with the ballet.”
In terms of philanthropy, she said the gift was also meant “to raise the bar for the trustees. I wanted to set an example for the others.”
Another Atlanta Ballet trustee, Kristine Robison, pledged $50,000 to fund a conductor for the season.
The professional, unionized orchestra — up to 48 musicians, same size as before they switched to recorded music — will accompany “Swan Lake” in October, “Dracula” in February and the world premiere of artistic director John McFall’s “Don Quixote” in May. For these three shows, the ballet will perform at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
The ballet’s “The Nutcracker” — a hugely popular cash-cow that remains at the Fox Theatre in Midtown — will be danced to live music only for its opening weekend, Dec. 5-7. Recorded music will be heard at the remaining performances.
With an annual budget of almost $8 million, the Atlanta Ballet is Georgia’s only fully professional dance company and, at 79, the nation’s oldest in continuous existence.
In addition to scrapping the orchestra in 2006 in an attempt to right its financial tilt, the ballet also sold its Midtown headquarters last year to retire a $2.75 million debt. The company is preparing to move into cheaper digs in a renovated warehouse in Northwest Atlanta.
Earlier this year, the ballet signed a five-year contract to perform at the Cobb Energy center, joining Atlanta Opera and Atlanta Broadway Series as the venue’s resident companies.
Soon after Hughson was hired last year, he crafted a five-year business plan that included restoring the orchestra in the 2009-10 season.
“With the success of the move to Cobb,” said Hughson, “I felt there was momentum to accelerate the return to live music. We felt a single donor could show that we’re getting out of crisis management.”
After the ballet did not renew its orchestral contract in 2006, protesters greeted audiences outside the theater with picket signs (“Live Ballet Needs Live Music!”). Under the old contract, each rank-and-file musician earned about $110 per rehearsal and performance, totalling less than $6,000 a year. The new contract starts at $118 per session.
McFall, who led the company as both artistic director and CEO when the decision was made to use recorded music, said he’s relieved the orchestra will return.
“Speaking for artists,” McFall said, “when you use audio tape it’s a little predictable, needless to say. Performing to live music, there’s a richness and it’s a more complete experience. For the patrons, too.”
Freelance musician Charae Krueger, who was principal cellist in the old ballet orchestra and sits in the same seat for the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, expects the ballet to rehire the same people.
“In our [union] meetings we were just really happy that there’s money again to pay us,” she said.
Wallace has been a regular major donor, especially to the company’s annual fund, which helps cover payroll costs. Her $200,000 gift for the orchestra is her largest to the company, although not the largest in its history, said Hughson.
He said the plan is to continue with live music past the current season, although the ballet still needs to find orchestra funds for the future.
“We intend to keep them playing,” Hughson said, “but we’re not out of the woods; we have a long way to go to meet our financial responsibilities.”
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Public Art Victory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Four Walls” by Stephen Antonakos, the threatened neon sculpture at the airport will not be removed!
Kudos to airport exec Ben de Costa and to all the people who contacted him to campaign for its preservation.
Atlanta has a history of disregarding and disrespecting its public art. Remember the brouhaha over the fountain in Walton Spring Park that was removed to make way for the statue of Andrew Young?
This is a rare victory.
There are many thank-yous to go around. De Costa, for trusting his advisory committee. David Vogt, for long years of building and shepherding the airport collection. And the many advocates who wrote letters—who chose a positive path. The confrontational strategies some have used in dealing with city’s public art program have backfired.
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“The Day of Battle”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rick Atkinson won the Pulitzer Prize for his book “An Army at Dawn,” about the Allied victory in North Africa in World War II. His new book on WW2 is “The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944,” and that title seems complete enough that no explication is needed.
Atkinson will be discussing and signing “The Day of Battle” at 7:15 tonight (Sept. 22) at the Decatur Library.
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Review: ‘Les Miserables’ @ the Fox Theatre
THEATER REVIEW "Les Miserables." Theater of the Stars, Fox Theatre. Through Sept. 28. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com. Grade: B+
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Les Miserables,” the hit 1980s pop-rock opera — that glorious, melodious, moralizing behemoth — is back at the Fox Theatre, this time in a new production created by Atlanta’s Theater of the Stars.
And this time former UGA thespian-athlete, Rob Evan, has the lead role. Coach Vince Dooley, who was planning to attend Sunday, and University of Georgia football fans everywhere must be overjoyed.
Gone are the original production’s big (and big budget) barricades and revolving stage machinery that whirled us through the flee-and-chase saga of sinner-turned-saint Jean Valjean and his fanatical pursuer, Inspector Javert.
The new incarnation is less visually awe-inducing while remaining much the same for the huge cast, with the innovations up on screen: projections of prison and shabby old streets and sewers heave us back to the decrepit poverty of Victor Hugo’s France in the early 1800s, a society of filthy injustice, a cesspool for insurrection. The show’s producers clearly have an eye on economy and ease of touring — it premiered in August in West Point, N.Y. and has already been to Wolf Trap in Virginia and Kansas City.
If it does brisk box office, expect it to become the regional-theater standard — since the evergreen vitality of Claude-Michel Schonberg’s music suggests the show’s appeal goes much deeper than that old whiz-bang stage architecture, or even Alain Boubil’s sentimental and plot-thin lyrics.
It’s Schonberg’s songs, sketched within Hugo’s sturdy frame, that gives “Les Miz” its power. Like opera, everything is sung throughout. The tunes are sticky on the ear, made potent by clever harmonies and drawing a visceral charge from brawny ’70s classic rock and drawing depth from that other “classic” art form, including Renaissance madrigals and Bizet and Puccini opera and — a clear forerunner — Kurt Weill’s 1930s pop cabaret “Threepenny Opera.”
Like Weill’s output, the “Les Miz” songs are best served by idiosyncratic singing. Actors who look the part, sing in key and ooze personality can make it work handsomely. That’s mostly the case in the Fox’s current run, stylishly directed by Fred Hanson.
As Valjean, Rob Evan has the required strongman’s physique plus a confident, anodyne tenor voice. You wish his pleasing singing for “Who Am I?” wasn’t larded by “American Idol” mannerisms, such as pumping up the last note of a phrase. (You won’t hear that sort of schmaltz on the 1980s London original cast album; recent commercial culture seems to be steering pop vocals steadily down-market.)
His partner in life, if not romance, is Javert, a sadistic policeman who illogically chases the hero through time and space. Rob Hunt delivers his act one soliloquy, “Stars,” effectively, although it’s one of the few glaring inconsistencies in the score. Here’s the self-righteous, self-denying fascist whose song is accompanied by synthesizer twinkles and a melody so weirdly child-like that, almost camp, it evokes Tinker Bell more than shimmering lights in the night sky.
What to make of it? One wonders how a “Les Miserables” would play where Javert chases Valjean (both unattached single men) for overtly homoerotic reasons, just as some Shakespeare productions find Iago’s illogical vengeance against Othello explicable only if it’s fueled by unrequited love. It’s an angle that, once explored, is difficult to later reject.
But I digress. Others in this “Miz” cast were just as fine. With energy to spare and a pure, light voice, Nikki Renee Daniels (a former Atlantan) sings Fantine’s “I Dreamed a Dream” — the simple girl reduced to prostitution — yet wasn’t quite a singer of hair-raising star potential.
Two songs linger in the memory longer than the others. “Castle on a Cloud” conveys the bittersweet torment of a child (Carly Rosse Sonenclar, angelic as Young Cosette).
The very next number is a raunchy innkeeper’s song, “Master of the House.” Laurent Giroux and Cindy Benson, as the annoying but compelling M. and Mme. Thenardier, know they’ve got the show’s best material. Like “Les Miserables” as a whole, they play it to the edge of, and maybe a little beyond, all it’s worth — and it’s that songful exuberance that makes the show a reliable wonderful evening.
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Daedalus Quartet Opens Spivey Season
CONCERT REVIEW Daedalus Quartet. Saturday at Spivey Hall. www.spiveyhall.org.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The affair was never consummated, but for 11 sweet and agonizing years, she fired his creativity and his libido. Obsessed, he plunged instead into writing one masterpiece after another.
The true story of Czech composer Leos Janacek, who was 62 when he first spied the pudgy, cute, rather frumpy Kamila Stosslova, 25, is one of the great illicit tales in music history.
The affair was mostly one-sided — he wrote her hundreds of love letters — and inspired almost the whole of Janacek’s brilliant, emotion-scorched late period.
Raman Ramakrishnan, cellist of the Daedalus Quartet, retold this story before the group threw itself into Janacek’s “Intimate Letters” Quartet, written less than a year before the composer died in 1928.
It was the season-opening concert at Spivey Hall, the region’s most rewarding music venue. (As Ramakrishnan enthused, “This may be the most amazing hall we’ve ever played in — that includes [Amsterdam’s] Concertgebouw and [Vienna’s] Musikverein.”)
The Daedalus’ playing was thoroughly polished, with never a blemish of tone, never a rough edge — even in music, like the Janacek, that speaks most persuasively with a raspy whisper here or an irrational reply there. Real emotions are never so well coiffed.
They opened with a buoyant reading of Haydn’s G minor Quartet, Op. 20 No. 3, heavily understated and light on personality. I could have used more wit and shapeliness in the playing.
It might be because the four Daedalus members — with violinists Min-Young Kim and Kyu-Young Kim and violist Jessica Thompson — all trained at New York’s Juilliard School, where the string program is famous for a smoothness-trumps-interpretation aesthetic. That’s about what we heard Saturday. And with some full-body swaying and bows held overhead at the end of each movement, they looked more zesty and theatrical than they sounded.
To close, pianist Benjamin Hochman and double bassist Kurt Muroki joined the trio (Min-Young Kim sat out) for Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet — warm, lovely playing.
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Does This Dude Scare You?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
That’s Geoff “Googie” Uterhardt in MEDS, running Sept. 25-28 at Onstage Atlanta in Decatur. He’s the big daddy of Pharmaland, a Technicolor dreamworld where there’s a pill for everything that ails you, from depression to something called “restless syndrome.” (Not AIDS, though. Sorry.)
The play is a remount of Out of Hand Theater’s inventive satire of the pharmaceutical industry that debuted last year. The Atlanta troupe also is remounting HELP!, sending up the self-help industry, this weekend.
More information here
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Review: ‘Altar Boyz’ @ Horizon
THEATER REVIEW. “Altar Boyz." Grade: C+ 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays. 8:30 p.m. Saturdays. 5 p.m. Sundays. Through Nov. 16. $20-$30. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave., Little Five Points. 404-584-7450. Bottom line: It won’t be a sin to miss this Christian-rock riff.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And the Good Lord said: It’s time to anoint thy hair with product, gird thy loins with pleather, wear bling for the King and dance to the glory of sweet pop music.
Such are the commandments of “Altar Boyz,” a candy-coated pop music pastiche that preaches the power of love and diversity while gently poking fun at Christian rock, sexual abstinence and the irreconcilable nature of young lust and Catholic theology. Newly installed at Horizon Theatre, the long-running off-Broadway hit promises, and often delivers, a baptism of laughter and pure silliness, thanks to the ridiculous swagger of one Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham.
They are the members of the fictional rock sensation the Altar Boyz, which is closing its “national tour” with a sweaty Atlanta gig.
As directed by Horizon’s Jeff Adler, “Altar Boyz” (book by Kevin Del Aguila, music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker) is a guilty pleasure for the kind of theatergoers who can never really tell the difference between grape juice and the Eucharist.
OK. Not to be all holier than thou, but those who worship at the (pagan!) altar of Thespis will probably find this show a mixed blessing. Though this chorus of five is spirited and likeable, not every one of the heart throbs can sing and act at the same level, or find the appropriate satirical layers for the cheesy caricatures and broad stereotypes.
Is the music good? Of course not. But it does serve to tell the stories of token hottie Matthew (Josh Rhett Noble), token twink Mark (Kyle K. Haak), token Jewish boy Abraham (Andy Meeks), token Latin lothario Juan (Ricardo Aponte) and token brother-from-the-hood Luke (Ronvé O’Daniel).
Mark’s got a not-so-secret crush on group leader Matthew (wonderfully played by Noble), whose job it is to gloss over the various foibles of his Boyz. Even if Mark can’t come out of the closet for his big “Epiphany” number, Haak never misses a chance to play up the sexual innuendo (“Rhythm in Me”) and fey mannerisms.
As the Sony “Soul Sensor” mysteriously counts the numbers of audience members who are not saved, a task that keeps the nimble Boyz on their toes, we learn about Luke’s rehab experience and hear Juan’s “La Vida Eternal.”
Noble and Haak are the best singers and actors in the bunch. O’Daniel makes up for his vocal deficiencies with his delicious comedic instincts. Meeks’ character barely registers (although to be fair, Abraham is the least developed role in the lot). But the diminutive Aponte tries a bit too hard to deliver credible sexual fireworks, and his intentionally fake Spanish accent never rings true.
Apparently, there wasn’t enough change in Horizon’s collection plate to hire a live band (recorded music is directed by Bryan Mercer). Happily, choreographer Charles Bullock offers up a perfect platter of funk, disco and cheerleader cheese.
Even if “Altar Boyz” doesn’t set your soul on fire, it may make your burden lighter. And tell me candidly, when’s the last time you saw a Christian band make a stop in Little Five Points?
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Review: Synchronicity’s ‘Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter’
THEATER REVIEW: “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter." Grade: C+ 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Oct. 12. $15-$23. Synchronicity Performance Group, 7 Stages Back Stage Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave., Little Five Points. 404-484-8636.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In Julie Marie Myatt’s “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter,” the title character never does make it home.
Instead, the willful, determined but hopelessly lost Iraqi war soldier takes a purgatorial side trip to Slab City. It’s not a cemetery, but a real-life abandoned military base in Southern California where campers and squatters have lived precarious, poverty-stricken lives since the ’80s.
Jenny’s elliptical journey to reconnect with her mother and children is sabotaged by the wounds she’s sustained on the battlefield.
Though we can plainly see the withering results of war on Jenny’s body, her interior struggle remains buried in this enigmatic and meandering Synchronicity Performance Group production.
At the end of the day, “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter” almost succeeds better as a study of the strange denizens of Slab City than a sympathetic account of an emotionally shuttered war hero.
Myatt clearly has two different plays in her head, and in this scattershot exploration of the personal and political, she fails to resolve that central dichotomy.
Forget Jenny. She’s too bottled up to be a main character. As portrayed by Andrea Washington, she’s a slender, grimacing almost-skeleton — so shell-shocked that she takes off for Slab City with the talky, addicted-to-everything Lou (Dori Garziano) rather than confront her own demons.
Jessica Coale’s design begins as a long billowing blueish-green curtain, which is eventually drawn back to reveal the funky wasteland that’s “The Slabs.” As it turns out, the Slab dwellers would be right at home in a story by Flannery O’Connor or Carson McCullers.
Buddy (nicely played by Allen Hagler) is the community’s spiritual leader, and he holds forth from a gnarly makeshift pulpit . There’s also a shrink with dubious credentials (Lynne Ashe) and a cagey guy named Donald (David Howard) who calls everybody out.
Myatt stretches the story’s credibility — and freak factor — by investing nearly every one of Jenny’s fellow travelers with his own set of troubles. Buddy’s digressive sermons are whimsical and funny.
But Lou’s endless chatter distracts from Jenny’s journey and upsets the balance of the drama. As the cockroach-busting bus station attendant Hugo, Joe Sykes takes a minor part and turns it into some of the best theater in the 110-minute-long one-act.
Director Rachel May’s pacing seems to slow down time to a meditative state, so that some of the dark comedy’s loveliest moments are quiet and reflective. “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter” is a story of gaining an education, of looking for love, courage and salvation in the most unlikely circumstances. Alas, Myatt’s play is so curiously sketched, and the performances so lackluster, that we rarely care about Jenny Sutter’s backward spin of a homecoming.
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“The Book of Lies” comes to Decatur
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Brad Meltzer, author of the new best-selling thriller “The Book of Lies,” stops by Decatur Library at 7:15 tonight (Sept. 29) to promote his novel. This is the one I blogged about a while ago for having a really cool promotional video with folks like Joss Whedon plugging it with great enthusiasm.
So I got “The Book of Lies” and rushed home to read it. Wow. Bad. I managed 50 pages, which is my new unofficial “Life is too short” cut-off point. Like the folks who proclaim “life is too short to drink bad wine,” my motto is “life is too short to read bad books.”
“The Book of Lies” is supposed to be about the murder of the father of Superman’s creator, Jerry Siegel, and how it links to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, and some present-day conspiract. There may be a murder weapon in common, or some sort of book that is very very important. The first 50 pages, however, had a lot of very mysterious characters chasing each other around and being very mysterious, in prose worse than Dan Brown.
On the other hand, my Well-Read Wife read the book, said it got much better after a slow start, and gave it a recommendation. She may be more in tune with what makes a best-seller than I am.
Yet another schism in our household!
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Thomas Franks wrecks “The Wrecking Crew”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Author Thomas Frank will be at the Decatur Library at 7:15 p.m. tonight (Sept. 18) to talk about and sign his new book “The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule.”
What is “The Wrecking Crew?” So glad you asked. It’s the new best-seller by the author of “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” that explains how, in the words of Time magazine, “cynical conservatives have wrested control of the government by railing against its very existence, all while using federal perches to funnel billions into the pockets of lobbyists and the corporations they represent.”
Clearly, this is a book that peope will have very different opinions of, just as they do about the two anti-Barack Obama books that are also on the best-seller list right now.
Here are a few quotes about the book.
“His analysis of why there are so many libertarian think tanks in a country with so few libertarians is dead on. In Thomas Frank, the American left has found its own Juvenal.” — The New York Times Book Review
“Tom Frank has hold of something real. Frank captures a quality of exuberant bullying in those of his conservative subjects he knows well enough to identify individually, rather than categorically.”—The New Yorker
And another take, from an Amazon.com reviewer: “Problem with Frank is that he’s too blinded by love of his own side and blinded by hate for the other. So this book becomes one where everything that goes wrong is the problem of conservatives, while liberals are as pure as the driven snow. Any thinking person rejects this type of black and white approach. … Frank understands that righteous indignation sells. Being a good capitalist, Frank tarts this book up with all sorts of vitriol to get a rise out of the faithful and ensure brisk sales.”
Should be a spirited discussion this evening, to say the least.
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Homecoming at Chastain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Chastain Art Center celebrates its 40th Anniversary with an exhibit of woven forms construction incorporating found and recycled materials by Polly Harrison, through Nov. 8. She was one of the first staff members.
Newbies and old-timers are invited to Chastain’s Homecoming reception on Sept. 27, 1-5: p.m.
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Review: Huck Finn’s ‘Big River’ @ Theatrical Outfit
THEATER REVIEW "Big River: the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. 2:30 p.m. Sept. 20 and Oct. 4. Through Oct. 5. $10 - $30. Theatrical Outfit, The Balzer Theater at Herren's. 84 Luckie St., Atlanta. 678-528-1500, www.theatricaloutfit.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s a great story: an archetypal American tale of buddies bonding, of leaving home to find yourself, of finding a moral compass not from society’s status quo or religious hypocrisy but from sympathizing with your fellow man.
And it’s an exciting show: two dozen actors and musicians in a well-crafted song-and-dance extravaganza that rarely stops rolling.
But “Big River: the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” — a big opening for Theatrical Outfit’s 32nd season — is a shallow musical that cheerfully creates a dichotomy where a show is either “fun” or “challenging” but can’t be both.
With a book by William Hauptman, “Big River” had its Broadway premiere in 1985 and won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
As its story flows down the muddy Mississippi in the 1840s, picking up scenes from Mark Twain’s vast novel, the emphasis shifts as a free-spirited boy’s giddy adventure (read: America’s adolescence) crashes against the brutality and inhumanity of the antebellum South.
Yet for a musical that reaches down to the darkest pathology of American history, Hauptman is careful never to make us feel uncomfortable. Even the period language, including whites using the “N” word, feels sanitized for polite consumption. The comic and clever bits hit their mark; the horrors, given inadequate weight, never supply a counterbalance.
Roger Miller, a country-music songsmith known for the hit ballad “King of the Road,” wrote both music and lyrics for his all-Americana “Big River” score, dipping into a range of styles, with bluegrass, ragtime and a half dozen others in the mix, all anchoring and amplifying Twain’s world. The songs are not hard to sing, although like much of contemporary Broadway, they are dull and drum-beat heavy and take no chances. The big numbers especially don’t feel handmade. Whether by lack of musical inspiration or by some 1980s Zeitgeist, they sound as if they’d been focus-grouped into blandness.
Elsewhere, Miller’s country-western folk idiom is more honest and thus works wonderfully in the subtle music that accompanies some of the narration, inspired by the unadorned sturdiness of white folk tunes and the pathos of black spirituals.
So “Big River” is another case of a good, well-meaning, problematic play that shines by a superior production. Heidi Cline directs at Theatrical Outfit, thoroughly energized, never a blurry moment. Jeff McKerley’s old-timey Vaudeville choreography is a hammy delight. The sets, designed by Michael Halad, are mostly hammered-together wooden planks on several levels. They evoke docks and old frame houses. The gap in the middle is the wide Mississippi. Ken Yunker’s lighting is especially poetic across the spectrum of night scenes.
And the cast is strong. Eric Moore is magnificent as Jim — burly, raw and tender — the runaway slave who is escaping to a free state and earnestly expects to find a job and save enough money to buy back his wife and two children, who’d been sold separately.
As narrator, Huck (Brandon O’Dell) is a callow lad, not quite a compelling companion, eager to find a place in the world, reckless but smart. He’s not like the other boys — he’s going somewhere.
As Huck’s father, Tom Key (Theatrical Outfit’s executive artistic director) first rages then implodes in a moonshine stupor against the “Guv’ment.” More sharply than the others, it’s a song that defines a character, a small masterpiece of musical portraiture.
Hauptman’s tip-toeing around that bummer slavery discussion helps explains why the King (Tom Key again) and the Duke (McKerley), con-men fleeing their victims, get to hijack the musical.
Huck slips into the background as he finds this rapscallion duo a lot of fun — as do we, for a while. Fake Shakespeare to entertain Arkansas hicks, and the lengths they’ll go to swindle a family of their fortune make for fine entertainment. Wild-eyed and charismatic, Key and McKerley eat up the roles. For better and worse, it’s as much, or more, their story as Huck and Jim’s.
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Capitol City Opera’s Hilarious Double Bill
OPERA REVIEW Mozart's "The Impresario" and Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi." Capitol City Opera at Oglethorpe University's Conant Performing Arts Center. www.ccityopera.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They’ve got a nothing budget and use mostly amateur talent and students. Yet Atlanta’s Capitol City Opera Company typically delivers a really enjoyable show. Imagine it — community opera. One production after another, it comes as a slight shock how smartly they deploy their resources, how convincingly they reveal the emotional (or comic, or tragic) core of a story, how well they sing.
But there’s a paradox: simple, straight-ahead productions sometimes feel muddled while complex and plot-rich stories often ring clear and true.
So it was over the weekend for a double bill of one-act comedies. Mozart’s “The Impresario” — with three characters and almost no plot — rarely took off, while Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” — a character-heavy and densely scored opera — amused the audience to no end. Aside from the orchestra, which had its scrappy moments conducted by Robert Trocina, it’s like the Cap City players feed off the challenge of the impossible.
In recent years, Michael Nutter has been the company’s regular stage director. With the retirement last season of company founder Donna Angel, for its 25th anniversary, Nutter is now artistic director. More than ever, his style — underplaying the obvious while searching for deeper truths, all with a light, unaffected touch — has become the house style.
“The Impresario” is mostly spoken dialogue with a few arias, duets and trios — called a “singspiel” — and is fueled by one gag: an impresario attempts to hire rival sopranos to sing together in an opera.
But which donna is prima?
From our seats, it was the Senorita Warblewell of Katherine Uhle, raised in Texas and a recent Kennesaw State University grad. Nutter made Uhle’s Paris Hilton looks (long skinny legs, platinum hair, pink sunglasses) central to updating the comedy. And she can sing: a bright, focused soprano with her breathing under control and good diction and a pleasing “bite” in her tone.
Alicia Grugett, as the veteran Madame Heartmelt, displayed her own virtues, comically switching from a daffy Brooklyn speaking accent to robust Italianate singing — a charmer.
The boyish impresario, tenor Wesley B. Morgan, cut an uncertain figure in Mozart, though he fit in nicely after intermission as the romantic hero for Puccini.
Actually, the boy-loves-girl part of “Gianni Schicchi” is only subplot that serves as motivation for the opera’s epic shenanigans. Their love also leads to the opera’s most famous aria — a staple of romantic movies and TV commercials — “O mio babbino caro.” (The evening’s few sour notes came from Emily Parrott as Loretta, who pleads with her “dear daddy” the title character, yet couldn’t settle into a key that agreed with her.)
Big bass-baritone John LaForge, with a glint in his eye and warmth in his voice, commanded the stage as Schicchi. It’s a great role, drawn from a few lines of Dante’s “Inferno.” When a rich old man dies, leaving his fortune to the Church, his greedy relatives hire the crafty Schicchi to re-write the will. It backfires on them, of course, with Schicci leaving the riches to himself.
The nine or so relatives were well cast, too, each creating an almost-rounded persona. (The medieval-style costumes helped.) Standouts among them included bass Joseph Lowery, contralto Elizabeth Cooper Pettitt and tenor Phong Nguyen. Nick Etherington, a theater major at Oglethorpe, played the corpse hilariously — the sort of small detail with a big payoff that’s a Capitol City hallmark.
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Alliance to produce new “iSondheim” revue in 2009
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Alliance Theatre will end its 40th anniversary season next spring with a celebration of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim.
“iSondheim: aMusical Revue,” a world premiere to be written and directed by long-time Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, will open in April in the slot originally dedicated to a new musical by mystery writer Stephen King and rock star John Mellencamp.
The Sondheim project will mark the Alliance’s second partnership with Lapine in recent years. In 2006, the Alliance launched the national tour of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” which Lapine directed.
Alliance artistic director Susan V. Booth says the title’s iPod reference is intentional. “It’s radical multimedia,” Booth said, explaining that the piece will combine film, video and other media in ways that should appeal to younger audiences.
After launching the 2008-2009 programming Sept. 6 with August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” and “Radio Golf,” Booth says she is jazzed about ending the year with a Sondheim tribute.
“I am thinking about the bookending of opening the season with a really deep, deep exploration of one of the greatest American playwrights and closing the season with a really joyful look at a living master of the American musical form,” Booth said. “And that’s just really satisfying.”
Sondheim, who will turn 79 next March, is the eminence grise of American musical theater and the author of “Sweeney Todd,” “Pacific Overtures” and “Assassins,” among numerous other Broadway offerings.
Booth said that the “iSondheim” has the composer’s blessing and that Lapine has been interviewing the composer about his creative process. “These are two old friends and frequent collaborators.”
“I truly look forward to returning to the Alliance Theatre where I had a great experience directing ‘Spelling Bee,’ ” Lapine said in a statement. “I enjoyed the Atlanta audiences and am thrilled that they will be the first to see this new production.”
The most famous of the Sondheim-Lapine co-creations is “Sunday in the Park with George,” which won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. After that, the duo authored the cerebral fairy-tale collection “Into the Woods” (1987) and the operatic love story “Passion” (1994), both of which picked up Tony Awards for Sondheim’s music and lyrics and Lapine’s librettos.
“iSondheim” begins previews April 15 and runs through May 10. The revue is likely to have a future beyond Atlanta, and there’s talk that the show could eventually find a home on Broadway.
The project by King and Mellencamp, titled “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” has been postponed to allow time for more development.
For more information about the Alliance season, alliancetheatre.org
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Save the Dates: Umberto Eco
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Renowned Italian author Umberto Eco will give three free lectures at Emory University next month. Eco is the author of the best-selling novel “The Name of the Rose” and many other novels, childrens books and scholarly works.
His first lecture, “How I Write,” will be held 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts on Emory’s campus. A reception will follow on Patterson Green, adjacent to the Goizueta Business School.
A second lecture, “Author, Text and Interpreters,” is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 6, at 8:15 p.m. in the Glenn Memorial Auditorium.
Finally, on Tuesday, Oct. 7, Eco will speak on “The Advantages of Fiction for Life and Death,” at 4 p.m., followed by a reading and book signing, all at the Schwartz Center.
No tickets are required for these events. For more information, click here
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Theater review: ‘Finn in the Underworld’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C-
In Katherine Anne Porter’s beautifully hallucinogenic story “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” a young woman in a near-death state perceives that the world around her is changing: The room is different, the bed is different, it’s as if the “whole house was snoring in its sleep.”
In playwright Jordan Harrison’s erotically charged ghost story “Finn in the Underworld,” it’s as if the house itself is having a bad dream. Opening Actor’s Express’ 21st season, “Finn” is a tingly thriller about a pair of sisters gone home to pack up their parents belongings — and sort through the damage done by a horrific incident that occurred long ago in their family’s subterranean nuclear-bomb shelter.
Like a distant cousin of Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones” and Donna Tartt’s “The Little Friend,” both about the mysterious deaths of young children, “Finn” meditates on time, memory, death and desire. Here, director Freddie Ashley offers up an elegantly designed production of ticking clocks and suspenseful, cinematic touches.
While Gwen (Mira Hirsch) and Rhoda (Marianne Fraulo) argue over Ansel Adams photographs and Eames lamps that their parents left behind, Gwen’s sexually adventurous 20-year-old son Finn (Louis Gregory) becomes involved in a dangerous erotic assignation with neighborhood perv Carver (Doyle Reynolds).
As a projector gives us minute-by-minute updates on the time, Harrison’s realism dissolves into a claustrophobic, don’t-open-that-door thriller of lurid sex, surprise twists and a strangely fascinating interlude that plays like a cross between “Alice in Wonderland” and “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”
Never mind poor pill-popping Gwen, her old-maid sister, snarky son and the freaky guy who lives in the red house down the street. It’s as if the play itself is having a nervous breakdown — or being slowly choked to death.
Though Harrison’s experimental structure is an intriguing investigation of the far reaches of dreams and the subconscious, the creepy tale amounts to little more than an archetypal Big Bad Wolf story with some kinky diversions thrown in. Ultimately, watching the 85-minute one act fall apart is more frustrating than tantalizing.
Fraulo and Hirsch give top-drawer performances. Designers Kat Conley (sets) and Joseph P. Monaghan III (sound and lighting) create clean crisp conceits that play up the clockwork motifs and jitters.
But “Finn” promises more than it delivers and comes off as more pretentious and pointless than genuinely affecting. Nothing wrong with making audiences leave the theater scratching their heads and wondering, “What the heck was that?” But aside from its naughty shock factor and poetic style, it’s pretty thin in the underworld.
The 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 5 p.m Sunday and Sept. 28. 2 p.m. Sept. 21. Through Oct. 4. $23-$27. Actor’s Express, 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Suite J-107, Atlanta. 404-607-7469, actorsexpress.com
Bottom line: A boring sex thriller, oddly enough.
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How Will ATL’s French Play Play with the French?
THEATER PREVIEW "Voir un Ami Pleurer" by Olivier Coyette. Theatre du Reve at the 14th Street Playhouse at the corner of Juniper and 14th St. in Midtown. 404-733-5000, www.theatredureve.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Before the flames from the 9/11 attacks had been doused, a leading Paris newspaper published an iconic editorial: “Today we are all Americans.” Among Europeans, the era of fashionable anti-Americanism collapsed one dreadful morning against a blue September sky.
That emotional alliance — accompanied by hazy questions of what it means to be an American or a European — sparked a play by a Belgian playwright, commissioned by a French-language theater in Atlanta and given its world premiere in January, in Atlanta.
Now our Theatre du Reve is reviving Olivier Coyette’s “Voir un Ami Pleurer” — “To See a Friend Cry” — this weekend at the 14th St. Playhouse in Midtown.
It’s a preview for November, when they’ll take the whole productions to Paris. “I thought it would be a lot more political,” says Park Krausen, du Reve’s artistic director, recalling the project’s genesis with Coyette and Paris-based director Valery Warnotte. “It’s a very funny comedy with edge to it, about America’s suffering and how the rest of the world deals with that.
“What have we done that we can be easily empathized with, or not empathized with,” Krausen summarizes.
In the play, language — sometimes French, sometimes English (with supertitle translations) — is used theatrically, and the satire is broad-brushed, with a dose of absurdity. 9/11 is never actually mentioned in the script.
The du Reve actors are all Francophone Americans. For them, taking the play to Paris for four performances is the dream made real. Thanks to director Warnotte’s connections, they’ve secured a playhouse in the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, near the modern-art space Centre Pompidou.
The biggest difference between performing “Voir un Ami Pleurer” in Atlanta and in Paris? Krausen doesn’t hesitate: “We feel the [cross-cultural] dialogue that won’t be complete till we go to France, get a reaction from the Parisians, and talk to the public afterwards in the cafe that’s connected to the theater. The French love to talk over a play with the actors. We can hardly wait.”
Gala Re-opening and Tribute to Dick Munroe at TROIS following the show: Thursday, September 11 - 7:30 Showtime, Gala to follow Tickets $45
Friday, September 12 - 8pm showtime Tickets $15-$25
Saturday, September 13 - 8pm showtime Tickets $15-$25
Sunday, September 14 - 3pm showtime Tickets $15-$25
14th Street Playhouse Box Office Number: 404-733-5000
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The eternal coolness of Roald Dahl
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sept. 13 is Roald Dahl’s birthday, and among his British fans it’s sometimes called Roald Dahl Day, so it is with exquisite timing that author Jennet Conant shows up at 8 tonight (Sept. 11) at the Atlanta History Center to read and sign her new book “The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington.”
To most, Dahl is the author of children’s books “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “James and the ˝Giant Peach,” two classics that alone cement his reputation for all time. But Dahl fans know that he also wrote wicked, dangerous, and sometimes even sexually kinky short stories. His novel “My Uncle Oswald” is delightfully strange and dirty.
But Conant focuses on the young Dahl, before he became a writer. Winston Churchill sends Dahl, a dashing young RAF flier, to Washington, D.C. in 1942 to essentially spy on the Americans. He joins Ian Fleming and Noel Coward as Brits who were serving as back channels and Churchill’s eyes and ears, sometimes trying to counter the isolationist sentiment that was strong here before Pearl Harbor.
Dahl, who had quite a reputation as a ladies’ man, became a good (and platonic) friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, and through her gained the trust of her husband Franklin (who also realized Dahl’s purpose).
Also showing up in “The Irregulars:” Harry Truman, Walt Disney, J. Edgar Hoover, and plenty more colorful characters.
Whether you read “The Irregulars” or not, go find a paperback copy of Dahl’s short story collections “Tales of the Unexpected” or “Switch Bitch” and read a couple. You’ll never look at Willie Wonka the same again.
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Jackie Chan, Performance Artist?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SCAD, which is looking to expand Far Eastward, recently gave comic- martial-arts movie star Jackie Chan an honorary degree.
A bit of theater in itself, the award exemplifies the school’s marketing savvy. SCAD is smart to strengthen ties to China, a connection that can serve Atlanta, too.
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R.A. Salvatore and Drizzt Do’Urden
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
R.A. Salvatore is one of those authors you’re either totally geeked out about or just not aware of. He works in fantasy, spinning long, complex sagas inspired by “Lord of the Rings” and aimed rather loosely at younger readers. Many of them involve a dark elf named Drizzt Do’Urden, which I am not going to try to pronounce.
Well, Mr. Drizzt is back in “The Stowaway,” the first novel in a new series, “Stone of Tymora,” that Salvatore is writing with his son Geno. “Barely a teen and already guarding a secret that could jeopardize his young life, Maimun is marked for death. With the help of a mysterious stranger, the boy escapes his village and flees out to sea, stowing away on the pirate hunting ship, Sea Sprite, where he comes across a most unlikely ally.” So says Wordsmiths Books’ website, and I have no reason to contradict them.
Both Salvatore’s, father and son, will be at Wordsmiths Books on Decatur Square at 7:30 tonight (Sept. 10). It’s like fantasty becoming reality.
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Atlanta architects, Merrill Elam and Mack Scogin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Visiting the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, pictured above , reminded me why Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam are the most decorated of Atlanta architects — 15-plus national awards in 20 years for buildings all over America.
Its exuberance shapes, sensuous materials and spatial surprises belie the thoughtful investigation of what a contemporary communal center should be-on this pastoral campus.
As joyful as the building is, it made me sad — that they are so rarely tapped to work in their home town — and disgusted/embarrassed by the boorish and philistine judgments of public officials and developers in the still ongoing saga of the Buckhead Library.
At least their alma mater recognizes them. They will speak Weds. night at 6 p.m. in the Architecture auditorium at Georgia Tech. Here’s a bit of background from Tuesday’s story.
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Banned billboard
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Soldier,” a billboard like the one banned in St. Paul during the Republican Convention, is up in Atlanta —installed on Marietta Boulevard between Bankhead Highway and Boss Street through Nov. 3.
New York artist Suzanne Opton made a series of photographic portraits of soldiers who had just returned from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shot on military bases, they feature a supine soldier with his or her face staring toward the viewer.
Opton’s goal was to humanize the military. CBS Outdoor, which owns the St. Paul location, said it was concerned that the soldier looked as if he were dead, and that the piece would be construed as disrespectful.
Sponsored by The Contemporary, the showing is a cross-country installation appearing simultaneously in Denver, Houston, Louisville, and, finally, St. Paul.
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Lyric’s ‘Little Shop,’ Georgia Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ lead Suzi nominations
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Lyric Theatre’s “The Little Shop of Horrors” and Georgia Shakespeare’s “Richard III” lead the nominations for the 2007-2008 Suzi Bass Awards — with nine nods each.
The Suzis — named for a beloved Atlanta actress who died of melanoma in 2002 — are Atlanta’s answer to Broadway’s Tony Awards. The 20 awards for excellence in professional theater will be awarded Nov. 10 in the Fox Theatre’s Egyptian.
After “Little Shop,” Alliance Theatre artistic director Susan Booth’s production of “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” scored the most nominations for a musical — with eight. Among plays, Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice,” staged at the Alliance Theatre in a co-production with Georgia Shakespeare, earned eight nominations. Georgia Shakespeare producing artist director Richard Garner directed both “Eurydice” and “Richard III.”
Among theaters overall, the Alliance received the most citations (35), followed by Georgia Shakespeare (20) and Atlanta Lyric (12). (Both the Alliance and Georgia Shakespeare were nominated for “Eurydice.”)
Though it may come as no big surprise that the Alliance, the city’s largest playhouse, and Georgia Shakespeare, Atlanta’s leading repertory company, lead the pack, the Lyric’s performance is particularly impressive.
The musical-theater producer, formerly known as the Savoyards, has flown largely under the radar screen in recent years. But under artistic director Brandt Blocker, who arrived last year and directed “Little Shop,” it seems to be on the move. Recently, the Lyric announced plans to be the resident musical theater company of the Strand, an old art deco movie theater on the Marietta town square that’s currently under renovation.
“It of course makes you incredibly pleased and proud that you come in and your work is being well-received,” Blocker said Tuesday. “But what it also tells me is that Atlanta does treasure its musicals and treasures them when they are done well. So it gives me great hope for re-energizing the musical theater audience here in Atlanta.”
The Suzi nominations were announced Monday night at Stone Mountain’s Art Station theater. For tickets to the November event: suziawards.org.
Here’s the complete list of nominees:
Production - Play
“A Song for Coretta” 7 Stages
“Eurydice” Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
“In Darfur Horizon Theatre
In the Red and Brown Water Alliance Theatre
Richard III GA Shakespeare
Director - Play
Freddie Ashley dark play or stories for boys Actor’s Express
Lisa Adler In Darfur Horizon Theatre
Rachel May Expecting Isabel Synchronicity Performance Group
Richard Garner Eurydice Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
Richard Garner Richard III GA Shakespeare
Tina Landau In the Red and Brown Water Alliance Theatre
Lead Actress - Play
Ayesha Ngaujah Angela’s Mixtape Synchronicity Performance Group
Courtney Patterson My Name is Rachel Corrie Synchronicity Performance Group
Jackie Prucha Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Georgia Ensemble
Jill Jane Clements Southern Comforts Theatrical Outfit
Joanna Daniel Lettice & Lovage Shakespeare Tavern
LaLa Cochran The Little Dog Laughed Theatre in the Square
Suehyla El-Attar The Clean House Horizon Theatre
Lead Actor - Play
David De Vries Sleuth Alliance Theatre
Eric Little Blue Door Theatre in the Square
Joe Knezevich Richard III GA Shakespeare
Jon Hayden Diary of a Madman Metropolis Port Theater
Travis Smith Of Mice and Men Shakespeare Tavern
Featured Actress - Play
Bethany Anne Lind The Last Schwartz Jewish Theatre of the South
Donna Biscoe Doubt Alliance Theatre
Donna Biscoe Gee’s Bend Theatrical Outfit
Kate Donadio Rabbit Hole Theatre in the Square
Maria Sager Expecting Isabel Synchronicity Performance Group
Tess Malis Kincaid Richard III GA Shakespeare
Tess Malis Kincaid The Missionary Position Horizon Theatre
Featured Actor - Play
Andrew Benator Eurydice Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
Chris Kayser Eurydice Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
Daniel Thomas May In the Red and Brown Water Alliance Theatre
Don Finney Some Men Actor’s Express
Doug Kaye Of Mice and Men Shakespeare Tavern
James Donadio Richard III GA Shakespeare
Tom Thon Some Men Actor’s Express
Ensemble - Play
Angela’s Mixtape Synchronicity Performance Group
A Song for Coretta 7 Stages
In the Red and Brown Water Alliance Theatre
It’s a Wonderful Life Theatrical Outfit
Some Men Actor’s Express
Production - Musical
Annie Get Your Gun Aurora Theatre
Godspell Theatrical Outfit
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
The Women of Brewster Place Alliance Theatre
Director - Musical
Brandt Blocker Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Kate Warner The Last Five Years Actor’s Express
Molly Smith The Women of Brewster Place Alliance Theatre
Susan V. Booth Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
Tom Key Godspell Theatrical Outfit
Lead Actress - Musical
Courtenay Collins Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
Claci Miller Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Natasha Drena Annie Get Your Gun Aurora Theatre
Natasha Drena The Last Five Years Actor’s Express
Tina Fabrique The Women of Brewster Place Alliance Theatre
Lead Actor - Musical
Craig A. Meyer Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
Craig Waldrip Hedwig and the Angry Inch Actor’s Express
Googie Uterhardt Five Course Love ART Station
Jahi Kearse Godspell Theatrical Outfit
Jeff Juday Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Featured Actress - Musical
Angela Motter Hedwig and the Angry Inch Actor’s Express
Barbara Cole Uterhardt Annie Get Your Gun Aurora Theatre
Felicia Boswell Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Harriet D. Foy The Women of Brewster Place Alliance Theatre
Marva Hicks The Women of Brewster Place Alliance Theatre
Featured Actor - Musical
Bryan Terrell Clark Sophisticated Ladies Alliance Theatre
Craig A. Meyer Forever Plaid Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Geoff Uterhardt Annie Get Your Gun Aurora Theatre
Geoff Uterhardt Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Eric Moore Godspell Theatrical Outfit
Ensemble - Musical
Forever Plaid Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Godspell Theatrical Outfit
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
The Women of Brewster Place Alliance Theatre
Music Direction
Ann-Carol Pence Annie Get Your Gun Aurora Theatre
Ann-Carol Pence Godspell Theatrical Outfit
B.J. Brown Forever Plaid Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Brandt Blocker Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Michael Fauss Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
William Foster McDaniel The Women of Brewster Place Alliance Theatre
Choreography
Byron Easley/Kent Gash Sophisticated Ladies Alliance Theatre
Craig A. Meyer Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
Dawn Axam Godspell Theatrical Outfit
Heidi Cline/Jeff McKerley The Water Coolers: An Office Musical Horizon Theatre
Jen MacQueen/Ricardo Aponte Annie Get Your Gun Aurora Theatre
Ricardo Aponte Little Shop of Horrors Atlanta Lyric Theatre
Costume Design
Christine Turbitt The Merchant of Venice GA Shakespeare
Douglas J Koertge All’s Well That Ends Well GA Shakespeare
Joanna Schmink The Persians Theatre in the Square
Miranda Hoffman Eurydice Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
Sydney Roberts Richard III GA Shakespeare
Lighting Design
Jessica Coale In Darfur Horizon Theatre
Justin Townsend Eurydice Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
Ken Yunker The Persians Theatre in the Square
Mike Post Richard III GA Shakespeare
Scott Zielinski In the Red and Brown Water Alliance Theatre
Scenic Design
Dex Edwards The Persians Theatre in the Square
Edward E. Haynes, Jr. Sleuth Alliance Theatre
Kat Conley Eurydice Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
Kat Conley Richard III GA Shakespeare
Leslie Taylor Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Alliance Theatre
Leslie Taylor The Merchant of Venice GA Shakespeare
Todd Rosenthal Doubt Alliance Theatre
Sound Design
Chris Bartelski In Darfur Horizon Theatre
Chris Bartelski It’s a Wonderful Life Theatrical Outfit
Clay Benning & Kendall Simpson Eurydice Alliance Theatre & GA Shakespeare
Haddon Givens Kime Richard III GA Shakespeare
Joseph P. Monaghan III Octopus Actor’s Express
Mimi Epstein In the Red and Brown Water Alliance Theatre
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Siddons cancels Margaret Mitchell House
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anne Rivers Siddons has cancelled her Wednesday night appearance at the Margaret Mitchell House due to a family emergency. The former Atlanta author, who was interviewed in Sunday’s Arts & Books section, was going to promote her new novel “Off Season.”
Her publicist sent the Margaret Mitchell House the following email today:
“Anne Rivers Siddons deeply regrets having to cancel her appearance at the Margaret Mitchell House due to a family emergency. She will reschedule as soon as possible and thanks all her readers for their continued support and understanding.”
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August Wilson double header at Alliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “Gem of the Ocean,” Grade: A- / “Radio Golf,” Grade: B-
It is a sprawling red-brick mansion with a magnificent mahogany staircase and a stained-glass transom window that heralds its Pittsburgh address: 1839 Wylie Avenue.
To followers of August Wilson’s monumental 10-play “Century Cycle,” it’s a familiar landmark — home of the ancient and magisterial Aunt Ester and the spiritual epicenter of the playwright’s time-swept mythology.
In “Gem of the Ocean,” set in 1904, a wayward citizen journeys to Aunt Ester’s house, believing he has killed a man and seeking redemption. By 1997, we are in Wilson’s “Radio Golf,” and a pair of affluent, politically ambitious real-estate developers are poised to replace 1839 Wylie with a flashy new building that will include a Starbucks and a Barnes & Noble. There goes the neighborhood — and the messy remains of a 100-year history of pain and struggle, hope and salvation.
The Alliance Theatre, in partnership with True Colors Theatre, has chosen to open its 40th season by staging bookend productions of these first and final chapters of the Wilson opus. Performed in repertory by a single cast, “Gem” is directed by True Colors’ Kenny Leon, “Golf” is staged by the Alliance’s Kent Gash, and the whole business is scented with the heady perfume of historical importance. Three years after Wilson’s death, the cycle comes full circle for Atlanta audiences.
All in all, it’s a noble achievement — a beautifully acted, nearly six-hour marathon of theater-going (if you see both shows) that allows viewers to connect the dots of Wilson’s staggering design. Led by the mesmerizing Michele Shay as Aunt Ester, “Gem” is a fully realized, nearly perfect testament to the genius of Wilson, a riveting philosophical debate on the meaning of freedom and the mixed blessing of Emancipation. “Radio Golf,” on the other hand, is a problematic and somewhat thuddingly plotted attempt by a dying playwright to sew up the threads of “Gem.”
“Gem” is time-traveling adventure story, edged with erotic assignations and the dangerous polarization of the poor underclass and the emerging middle class — all witnessed from Aunt Ester’s armchair.
While Citizen Barlow (the stellar E. Roger Mitchell) journeys to the City of Bones to try to save his soul, the roosterish vigilante Caesar Wilks (Chad L. Coleman) terrorizes the town — including former Underground Railroad conductor Solly Two Kings (Afemo Omilami) and even Wilks’ own sister, Black Mary (Tonia M. Jackson). It’s a simmering caldron that will end in tragedy.
Fast forward to “Radio Golf,” and Caesar Wilks’ grandson, Harmond (Coleman), is campaigning to be the first black mayor of Pittsburgh, even as he and his colleague Roosevelt Hicks (Mitchell) plan the development that will wipe out 1839 Wylie. But their scheme is upset, and a family secret revealed, when Elder Joseph Barlow (Omilami) and a rough-edged blue-collar type named Sterling Johnson (Donald Griffin) stage an insurrection.
“Radio Golf” has at least one too many characters and agendas. Wilks’ wife, Mame (Jackson), is on a career path of her own, but her journey barely registers as her husband tries to work his way out of a legal morass. Amidst the slamming doors and ringing telephones, Wilson’s ever-impeccable structure falters.
And yet the high caliber of the performances makes up for the shortcomings.
Omilami, who plays the archetypal wise fool in both shows, is superb. In “Gem,” Mitchell’s Citizen Barlow is a moving combination of emotional vulnerability and comic befuddlement; in “Radio Golf,” his Hicks is appropriately arrogant without being a caricature. Coleman delivers a tour-de-force tirade as Caesar Wilks, then calibrates the passion to portray Harmon as a genuinely likeable man struggling with his conscience. Jackson’s account of Black Mary — who gets to multitask as Aunt Ester’s dogsbody, Citizen’s love interest and Caesar’s sister — is by turns steady and graceful, and deliciously piqued.
And what is it like to play the veritable soul- mother of the entire Wilson opus? In a first-rate performance, Shay’s Aunt Ester is a font of maternal love, steely resolve and overweening bossiness.
On the design side, Edward E. Haynes Jr. creates handsome sets. Mariann Verheyen’s costumes are authentic and nicely taylored. But the sound and lighting teams miss a chance to turn the City of Bones sequence into the kind of storm-tossed, primal-scream of a nightmare that it should be.
In the final analyis, this so-called August Wilson “Full Circle” is a better idea on paper than in actuality. While Leon’s “Gem” soars, Gash has the unenviable task of trying to tune out the static of “Radio Golf.” Even if Wilson’s final play doesn’t quite sing, it remains a fascinating challenge.
The 411: In rotating repertory. Through Sept. 28. $15-$45. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-733-5000, alliancetheatre.org
Bottom line: “Radio Golf” remains a problem. But “Gem” is about as good as it gets.
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Chinese artist
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We saw one face of China during the Olympics. Chinese artist Zhang Dali shows us another in his exhibit at Kiang Gallery opening Friday night. And he doesn’t turn the other cheek.
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‘Lying in State’ at Georgia Ensemble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C-
When Dorothy Parker was told that President Calvin Coolidge had ascended to that big Oval Office in the sky, the legendary wit responded with her usual flair: “How can they tell?”
The idea that many a public servant has an indiscernible pulse beat is the premise of David C. Hyer’s “Lying in State,” the relentlessly vapid political satire that opens the 16th season of Georgia Ensemble Theatre in Roswell.
Election-weary Americans may be in the mood for a zany send-up of the lies and cover-ups that mask the hypocrisy of the political system. But “Lying in State” — which describes a bungled attempt to bury the truth about a state senator’s not-so-heroic death — may not be what they had in mind.
Blame it on the “purple squirrel,” the potent cocktail that causes so much of the mayhem and madness behind this funeral-parlor romp. But don’t blame it on the actors, who work hard to overcome the shortcomings of the dreadful writing. With dead politico Ed safely tucked away in his coffin — or is he? —the looming question is who will fill the Senate vacancy.
Campaign manager Herb (William S. Murphey) wants Ed’s ex-wife Edna (Tess Malis Kincaid) to step up to the plate. The governor (James Baskin) wants his own nerdy son Wally (Edwin Link) to take over. But as it turns out, Ed seems to have willed his legacy to his exotic-dancer girlfriend, Buttons (Cara Mantella), who thinks the “Senate seat” is a piece of furniture. Things get even more scrambled with the arrival of a pill-popping widow from an adjacent viewing room (Kathleen Wattis) and Ed’s staggeringly drunk brother (Michael Strauss).
As directed by Peter Hardy, the ensemble plays the nonsense to the hilt. Looking like a cross between Gypsy Rose Lee and Audrey Hepburn, Mantella’s Buttons is an irresistibly comic bombshell. She virtually walks away with the show.
Wattis — making one of her signature turns as a heavily sedated, acid-tongued harbinger of truth — is spot on. And Kincaid’s Edna — who has remade herself from an overweight stutterer into a figure of elegance — is refreshingly underplayed.
Too bad that “Lying in State” runs so wretchedly out of control. As Hyer attempts to dress up his wafer-thin political observations with increasing layers of silliness, the play becomes absurdly convoluted and pointless. Like a crowded ballot, the Atlanta theater season has plenty of choices. “Lying in State” looks like its first big loser.
The 411: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Also, 4 p.m. Sept. 13. Through Sept. 21. $23-$33. Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. 770-641-1260, get.org.
Bottom line: This lame-o political farce won’t get our vote.
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Decatur Book Fest: Moppin’ it all up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The third annual Decatur Book Festival has come and gone, and it was pretty darn swell. The organizers say they got 70,000 people over the three days, up from 60,000 last year, and that estimate is based in part on the Decatur police.
Several people I talked to thought that the crowds were down a bit this year from last. So did more people or fewer attend? I don’t know, and really, what matters is if the festival can keep going and keep bringing authors both great and fun to Decatur in September.
Meanwhile, at the AJC tent on Ponce de Leon, we had laptops set up for people to stop by and blog about their top 5 favorite novels of all time. I hung out and schmoozed on Saturday afternoon and had a blast meeting a broad range of people. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.
We got a final count from the more than 400 people who listed their Top 5 novels. Here is the Top 10 in total votes.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
“Gone With the Wind,” Margaret Mitchell
“The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
“Pride and Prejudice,” Jane Austen
The Bible
“The Lord of the Rings,” J.R.R. Tolkein
“The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Bronte
“The Catcher in the Rye,” J.D. Salinger
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What if you made love to your spouse every night for a year?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Charla Muller and her husband Brad had what she describes as a solid marriage with two kids. But they felt that having sex had fallen further and further down the to-do list.
So they did two rather crazy things. First, they vowed to have sex once every single day for the next year. Second, she wrote a book about it: “365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy.” On her website she describes the book as “G-rated” and “very modest.”
Wow. I’m giving them huge props for the sheer audacity of both projects.
A.J. Jacobs, who wrote “The Year of Living Biblically,” doffed his hat in respect, calling her “the Lou Gehrig of postmarital sex. Or maybe the Louise Gehrig.”
Muller will be at Wordsmiths Books at 7:30 tonight to talk about “365 Nights.” But right here right now, I’m interested in your thoughts on the idea.
Do you think this could work in your relationship? What do you think would happen if you tried it? Extra points for humorous or heartfelt responses. but please try to keep it G-rated, like Muller’s book.
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