Forget Santa Claus. “Billy Elliot” is coming to town!
Tickets go on sale Sunday for the Tony Award-winning musical that knocked me to my feet and toes dancing when the cast performed at The Tony Awards.
The show won not two, not three, no not even six Tony Awards. It took home ten Tony Awards!
Billy Elliot the Musical is the celebration of one boy’s journey to make his dreams come true. Set in a small town, the story follows Billy as he stumbles out of the boxing ring and into ballet class, discovering a surprising talent that inspires his family and his whole community, and changes his life forever.
The music is by Sir Elton John and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall. The production features original direction by Stephen Daldry, choreography by Peter Darling, scenic design by Ian MacNeil, associate direction by Julian Webber, costume design by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting design by Rick Fisher and sound design by Paul Arditti. Musical supervision and orchestrations are by Martin Koch. Touring production direction by Justin Martin and choreography Kathryn Dunn. The show was originally produced by Universal Pictures Stage Productions, Working Title Films and Old Vic Productions.
The production has been awarded 81 national and international awards including ten Tony Awards, Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle.
The performance schedule for Billy Elliot the Musical at The Fox Theatre is:
Tuesday, March 13 8 p.m.
Wednesday, March 14 8 p.m.
Thursday, March 15 8 p.m.
Friday, March 16 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 17 2 p.m., 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 18 1 pm., 6:30 p.m.
The production has been awarded 81 national and international awards including ten Tony Awards, Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle.
Prices start at $28. Tickets can be purchased through authorized ticket sellers at the Fox Theatre Box Office, Ticketmaster outlets, online atwww.broadwayinatlanta.com or by phone at 1-800-982-2787. Orders for groups of 15 or more may be placed by calling 404-881-2000.
Additional information about Billy Elliot the Musical is available at www.BillyElliotTour.com.
Tiffany Morgan and Kate Donadio; Photo: Synchronicity Theatre
Prudes and prigs beware. “In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)” may make you blush.
In this production, Synchronicity Theatre certainly lives up to its moniker “smart, gutsy, bold, theatre.”
To all those people who think theater is boring or for stuffed shirts, watch this.
The time is the Victorian era and the location is upstate New York. Electricity is rare in any home, and the Givings are thrilled they have a new electric lamp. But there is one more electrical device, stolen away in the doctor’s office where he sees patients, which is giving quite a few thrills: an electric vibrator.
Inside the home of Dr. and Mrs. Givings, just off the living room in the next room, patients diagnosed with “hysteria” are treated with the newest medical device, the electric vibrator. Long before Stepford wives, married women in the Victorian age were brought to see a doctor by their husbands for displaying either too little or too much emotion for being hysterical. Forbidden to walk outside alone without a man, married women were to stay home all day while their husbands worked or socialized at a private club.
Mrs. Givings (Kate Donadio), who has no idea what is going on in the next room, is subject to overhearing the shrieks, sighs and moans through the living room door. She sneaks in one day while her husband is out and examines the vibrator, which looks similar to a small blow drier with a tip that whirls around, kind of like the nose of a small plane missing its propeller. When patient Mrs. Sabrina Daldry (Tiffany Morgan) arrives while the doctor is away, Mrs. Givings beseeches her to show her how the vibrator is used. The vibrator experience marks the first time either women have felt such sensations.
The doctor’s first male patient to be treated with the vibrator, Leo Irving (Tony Larkin), a romantic artist arrives to seek treatment for depression to overcome heartache. He becomes enamored with the Givings’s black nursemaid, Elizabeth (Xiomara Yanique), who is the only one of the ladies to understand what all the moaning and sighing could mean. In high society, women were constantly under social constrains, even during sex between a married couple.
This is a well-acted show and features a standout performance by Kate Donadio, who channels Katherine Hepburn’s flirtatious ways in a cheeky scene with Mr. Daldry (Doyle Reynolds).
“In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play” by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Rachel May, produced by Synchronicity Theatre, runs through Nov. 19 at Horizon Theatre. Tickets are available at Synchronicity Theatre.
Cast:
Dr. Givings-Brian Kurlander
Annie-Daryl Lisa Fazio
Travis Smith and Bethany Anne Lind; Photo: Bill DeLoach
Georgia Shakespeare keeps getting better and better. Not that it wasn’t good, but the past two shows I’ve seen there have been outstanding, and “The Glass Menagerie “ is no exception. Thanks, greatly, to two outstanding actors Mary Lynn Ownen, who plays Amanda Wingfield, and Joe Knezevich, who plays her son, Tom.
Knezevich, is fast becoming my factor actor in this town. I’ve seen him in a number of shows in the past couple of years, and he is always a standout. He’s different from one show to the next. He steps out of his own shoes and becomes someone totally different. And while you might think that’s what acting is—you’d be totally right—far too many actors in this town don’t do it. Not only does he change from role to role, he changes within the role he’s playing. One moment he’s a lout, the next moment he’s charming, the next, a raving maniac. Not at all unlike Owen. While I don’t remember seeing her in other shows, she is a consummate actress. She does the unexpected—charming her son one moment and raging at him the next. In one standout screaming match between the two of them, it was so real I wanted to stop it.
Now I’m going to be picky here and tell you about a few of the flaws.
Laura Wingfiled (Bethany Anne Lind), Tom’s “crippled” sister, holds the story together as the poor, lost, sweet soul who can’t do anything all day but play the gramophone and play with her miniature glass animals. Lind’s acting is believable as Laura but predictable and one dimensional. Laura has worn a leg brace since she was a child. Although Laura is more crippled in mind than body, Lind forgets that she is supposed to have some difficulty walking. Lind misses the mark sometimes. For example, when her “gentleman caller” Jim O’Connor (Travis Smith), accidentally breaks the unicorn she adores most in her collection of horses, she is barely saddened.
There is one flaw that I hope Georgia Shakespeare fixes: On opening night when Jim picked up a newspaper, there were only large sheets of flimsy paper with no print on it. The rest of the scene was so real that the surprise of seeing no print took me and my companion right out of the scene and put us inside a theater wondering why there was no print on the newspaper.
Here is why you have to see this show: Mary Lynn Owen and Joe Knezevich. Every time I see Knezevich in anything he is outstanding. I’ve seen Jessica Tandy play Amanda on Broadway. Ms. Owen, your performance was no less than hers.
Kat Conley has created a simple set that reeks of shattered dreams against a backdrop of shattered shards of glass.
“The Glass Menagerie” runs through Oct. 30 at Georgia Shakespeare.
Sunday Brunch at the Ritz in Buckhead
From the moment you drive up to The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, on a Sunday morning you’re treated like royalty, even if you’re driving a six-year old Scion among the Mercedes Benzes and Audis. The valets open the car door, the hotel doors, and everyone smiles making me forget the troubled car I came in and feel like I’m Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” In the lobby lounge outside the dining room, people sit in oversized chairs drinking juices and nibbling on snacks while a piano player plays standards and sweet melodies.
The Ritz-Carlton Sunday Brunch includes 50 items, including crab claws, crab cakes, grilled vegetables, salads, fresh fruits, pastries, sushi, smoked fish, a meat carving station, and the traditional Eggs Benedict, Belgian Waffles, salads, an assortment of cheese and bread, and desserts. Oh, yes, and sparkling white wine.
Executive Chef Peter “Peter Z” Zampaglione oversees Sunday Brunch, while Chef Todd Richards, chef of The Café, supplies one or two of his dinner menu items. Sommelier Linda Torres organizes the sparkling wines.
Before joining The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, Peter Z led culinary teams at luxury hotels and resorts in Spain and Ireland and served on The Ritz-Carlton Culinary Advisory Board with responsibilities for the company’s hotels in Santiago, Moscow, Berlin, Wolfsburg and Powerscourt.
Brunch is available from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on Sundays and cost $59 per person.
One Ring Zero releases “The Recipe Project,” featuring essays, interviews, and recipes from David Chang, Chris Cosentino, Mario Batali, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Michael Symon, Mark Kurlansky, and many more. The recipes have been set to music and sung WORD FOR WORD in the musical style suggested by the chef!
Tickets for the party are $35, and includes mint juleps (made by master mixologist and cocktail historian Dave Wondrich), beer (good beer, that is, from the Brooklyn Brewery), and samplings of many of the dishes in the book (including Mario Batali’s Spaghetti with Sweet 100 tomatoes, Tom Colicchio’s Creamless Creamed Corn, Colson Patiserrie’s Speculoos and Financiers, Andrea Reusing’s Pickled Pumpkin, and even some delicious sausages and charcuterie, courtesy of The Meat Hook. Oh yeah, there will also be a performance by One Ring Zero, with guests including Claudia Gonson (of The Magnetic Fields), Allyssa Lamb (of Las Rubias Del Norte), Mark Kurlasnky (an awesome writer of such books as Cod and Salt), Kara Zuaro (another awesome writer of such books as I Like Food, Food Taste Good), Michael Harlan Turkell (an amazing food photographer and writer and radio host), and more.
The party will be held Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. at The Brooklyn Kitchen, 100 Frost Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Get your tickets here.
If fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong, then nearly 55 million views on YouTube must make Project Trio all right.
Actually, far more than all right.
The most innovative band I have heard in the past 20 years, Project Trio will be playing at the Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech this Friday.
Classically trained composers-performers Greg Pattillo (flute), Eric Stephenson (cello), and Peter Seymour (bass) combine jazz, classical, hip-hop, rock, folk and bluegrass to create original songs and arrange pieces by Mingus, Monk, Duke, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Jethro Tull and Guns n’Roses.
In 2007, Patillo put on YouTube a video of him playing flute mixing jazz and beatbox that instantly went viral.
There are plenty of YouTube videos of the band, but the video above is my favorite, even though Seymour is not in it. I love the sounds of the subway and the tile wall behind them, which has such a Keith Haring flavor to it. (I find that ironic since Haring used to get busted for drawing on subway ad spaces where there were no ads.)
Seymour, however, no less of a musician, has performed alongside Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove and Bobby McFerrin and serves as a regular sub with the Cleveland Orchestra and the New World Symphony.
Pattillo has been lauded by The New York Times as “the best person in the world at what he does.”
Seymour was once named Downbeat Magazine’s “Best jazz Soloist.”
Project Trio will play two free concerts Friday at noon and 5 p.m. in the amphitheater to the right of the Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech, weather permitting.
Local Architect Peter Polites Exhibits Nature Paintings in Midtown
Breaking in the Light by Peter Polites, oil on panel, 30 x 18 inches
In a solo exhibition titled “Waves: New Paintings by Peter Polites,” 20 ocean and marsh landscapes will be presented by the architect who apprenticed with John Portman & Associates and later worked with Cooper Carry before starting his own company, Polites & Associates. He has designed hundreds of homes, office buildings and interiors of luxury condos.
The exhibition opens Oct. 4 and remains on view through Nov. 5 at the Millennium Gate Museum in Midtown Atlanta, 395 17th Street in Atlantic Station.
Inspired by his Savannah roots, Polites captures fleeting moments in nature using classical painting techniques while infusing each scene with his own interpretations and emotion. His subjects include stormy dark skies, bright golden sunrises, mornings in the marshes and the beaches of Tybee Island, Ga.
Extended hours for WAVES at the Millennium Gate are Tuesday–Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Polites is offering free admission to the museum and a tour of the exhibition with him Saturday, Oct. 22 at 2 p.m.
Admission other days is $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens 65 and older and for children ages 6-17, and free for children under 6.
After selling out in record time in 2006 and 2008, triple Tony Award-winner “Wicked” is back at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. If you’ve never seen the show – it’s in its eighth year on Broadway – now’s the time to get bargain prices as orchestra seats can be had for $25 in a Fox lottery.
In this North American tour company, staged like the Broadway version, we get to see two dynamite performances by Amanda Jane Cooper (who plays the role of Glinda) and Dee Roscioli (who plays the role of Elphaba). Glinda is a spoiled, rich girl who dresses fashionably, smiles just right and flips her blonde curls to get attention. Elphaba is concerned with treating people and animals fairly, and fumes at injustice. When she juts her arms straight out in front of her, claws her hands, and cackles, she reincarnates Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West. There’s not a superstar that I can think of that could have done better than these two, including the incomparable Kristien Chenowith, who originated the role of Glinda on Broadway.
Roscioli, who reprises her Broadway role as Elphaba, radiates passion in her acting and singing. She commands explosions of applause wrapped in woo-hoos and hollers from the audience when she sings “Defying Gravity,” “As Long As You’re Mine” and the hilarious “What is this Feeling (Loathing)?,” a song about two totally opposite roommates (she and Glinda) who hate each other. Her performance made me weep.
“Wicked” takes you to Oz before Dorothy enters the picture. Glinda, a popular, perky blond school girl, attends boarding school with Elphaba, a determined, green-skinned girl who is ostracized by her family and peers. The two hate each other when they meet but a close friendship forms. They travel to Emerald City to apprentice with the Wizard to learn to cast spells.
The show is spellbinding. Even my sister – who hates theater, especially musicals – loved this show. The music, set, costumes and acting bring fantasy to life. Monkeys sprout huge wings and fly, Glinda floats above Oz inside a bubble, Elphaba blasts off into space with her broom.
Wicked was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and took home three of them. The original Wicked Broadway cast recording ranked among iTunes’ Top 10 Soundtrack Albums. Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. “Entertainment Weekly” called “Wicked” the “Best Musical of the Decade,” and the character of Elphaba ranked on the magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Past 20 Years.
Dee Roscioli ranks on my list of the 100 Greatest Musical Performers in the past 50 years.
Come to the Fox two hours in advance of any performance to enter the Fox lottery drawing for the chance to win orchestra seats for $25 for that day’s show. “Wicked” is based on the book “Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West” (1995) by Gregory Maguire.
“Wicked” runs through October 9 at the Fox Theatre.
Music and Lyrics, Stephen Schwartz (“Godspell,” “Pippin”). Book, Winnie Holzman. Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello.
Cast: Justin Brill, Stefanie Brown, Collin Hanlon, Paul Slade Smith, Todd Anderson, Lauren Boyd, Megan Campanille, Catherine Charlebols, Antonette Cohen, Rick Desloge, Melanie Field, Luis Augusto Figueroa, Timothy A. Fitz-Gerald, Dominic Giudici, Napoleon W. Gladney, Brenda Hamilton, Kevin Jordan, Kelly Lafarga, Renée Lawless-Orsini, Philip Dean Lightstone, Marissa Lupp, Michael Mahany, Sterling Masters, Alli McGinnis, Kevin McMahon, Mark Myars, Christopher Russo, Adéa Michelle Sessoms, Carla Stickler, Brandon Tyler, Shanna VanDerwerker, Nicky Venditti, Mikey Winslow, Alma Cuervo, Mark Jacoby.
- The Baker (Mark Price) and his wife (Courtney Balan) Photo: Greg Mooney
You won’t miss Broadway with the Alliance Theatre’s production of “Into the Woods.” It doesn’t get much better than this.
This production is a rare gem: a great story filled with wonderful music, an outstanding cast, and terrific scenery that brings the audience inside a fairy tale world with leaves raining down upon them and actors performing in the aisles.
“Into the Woods” is a mix of bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales and life after “and they lived happily ever after.” But it’s not child’s play. It’s a look at life, greed and those who never get enough to be satisfied. A prince who finds his perfect princess has an affair with a married woman; chubby Little Red Riding Hood (Diany Rodriguez) gorges on so many sweet breads she makes herself sick; and Beanstalk Jack steals so much gold that his greed brings down the entire village. No one is exempt from the troubles this causes them all, including the Narrator (Walter Hudson ) a droll character reminiscent of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”
Don’t think this is a silly takeoff on a fairy tale. It’s a lively story with fun characters who try to solve problems in amusing ways–a mother hoping to win her daughters a prince saws off part of their feet.
The 1987 original Broadway Production of “Into the Woods” won three Tony Awards: Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, and was nominated for seven others including Best Musical. In the Alliance’s production, both Courtney Balan (who plays the Baker’s Wife and created the role of Hatchet Face in “Cry Baby” on Broadway) and Diany Rodriguez ( who plays Little Red Riding Hood) are standout performers. A magnetic Balan brings a dozen different sides to her one character.
A fantastic orchestra is composed entirely of students.
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Scenic Design by
Todd Rosenthal
Courtney Balan…………………………………………………………………………….Baker’s Wife
Courtenay Collins……………………………………………………………………….Jack’s Mother
Chandra Currelley………………………………………………………….Cinderella’s Stepmother
Jill Ginsberg…………………………………………………………….. Cinderella
Walter Hudson…………………………………………………………….Narrator/Mysterious Man
Jeanette Illidge………………………………………………………………… Florinda/Snow White
Amber Iman……………………………………………………………….. Lucinda/Sleeping Beauty
Jamie Wood Katz………………………………………………………… Rapunzel/Dance Captain
Barbara Marineau……………………………………………. Cinderella’s Mother/Granny/Giant
Jeff McKerley……………………………………………………………………… Steward
Brandon O’Dell…………………………………………………………………….Cinderella’s Father
Mark Price…………………………………………………………………………. Baker
Angela Robinson…………………………………………………………………………………..Witch
Diany Rodriguez………………………………………………………………..Little Red Ridinghood
Hayden Tee………………………………………………………………….Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince
Jeremy Wood………………………………………………………………. Jack
Corey James Wright………………………………………………………………. Rapunzel’s Prince
The Into the Woods Orchestra
Conducted by Helen Gregory
Violin
Kelly Compton
Woodward Academy
Dumarkus Davis
Homeschooled by Bridgette Davis
Viola
William Anderson
New Creation
Christian Academy
Moira Church
Kennesaw Mountain High
Richard Lee
Peachtree Ridge High
Darius Green
Lovejoy High
Cello
James Dickey
North Gwinnett High
John Tang
Johns Creek High
Bass
Kristoffer Caine
Fine Arts Magnet Program
at Mount Zion High
Geoffrey Solomon
Druid Hills High
Flute
Emily Mikan
Lakeside High
Aidan Rogers
Chamblee High
Lauren Rosenblatt
Parkview High
Emma D’Agostino
Norcross High
Clarinet
Morgan Klein
Sequoyah High
Carly Weikle
Northgate High
Keyboard
Dawn Andrews
Norcross High
Alex Claussen
Norcross High
Stephanie Tan
Starr’s Mill High
“Into the Woods” runs through Oct. 2 at the Alliance Theatre.
Ann Marie Gideon, Sarah Blackman and Elizabeth Lanier. Photo by Drake Simons.
Having witnessed three women in their twenties buying marijuana from unknown sources at a New York City park and drink liquor from their diaphragms, it is easy to believe that women that age would get plastered on booze and drugs, have sex with strangers and ruin the wedding dress of a bride the night before her wedding.
Lesley Headland’s play “Bachelorette” shows what mean, “cool” girls from high school are like 10 years after graduating.
Regan (Sarah Blackman), a bridesmaid for her high school friend Becky who is getting married tomorrow, has invited two friends from their high school days to stay with her in a posh hotel suite, since Becky probably won’t be in until the morning.
After a night of partying on the town, Gena (Ann Marie Gideon) and Katie (Elizabeth Lanier), both attractive and dressed in short, revealing outfits, stumble into the suite already wasted. After Katie kicks off her red do-me, high-heeled, peep-toe pumps and the two down bottles of Becky’s champagne and snort lines of cocaine, the women talk about the dos and don’ts of giving a blow job. A stylish, stunning beauty dressed like Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Regan enters. None of them can believe that Becky is marrying a wealthy hedge fund manager! And Becky is a “fatty!”
Two other guests of Regan’s enter, men she has just met that night. Jeff (Bryan Brendle) and Joe (Barrett Doyle) have brought marijuana, and Jeff is determined to get Regan into bed.
The story may sound Jerry Springer like, but it is believable and captivating. Unfortunately, the acting is not.
Pinch ‘N’ Ouch Theatre, just in its second year, is producing edgy works that could attract young, hip crowds to the theater. Pinch ‘N’ Ouch aspires to follow the teachings of Sanford “Sandy” Meisner, one of the most widely respected acting teachers of all time. Meisner used to say an actor doesn’t say “ouch” until he feels the pinch. He meant an actor doesn’t say a line until he feels the impetus to do so, and he must give himself a strong internal reason to do so. But on the third night of production, the actors’ responses seemed canned rather than internal.
However, there were moments when truth was present, and the tension between the performers was palpable. When Jeff lays Regan on the couch on her back, straddles her, looks her in the eyes, slips his hand under her dress, he taunts her.
“Want to feel that. . . That. . . Right. . .There.”
Regan finally TRUTHFULLY reacts. And so do I—get me a washcloth, quick!
“Bachelotte” by Leslye Headland, directed by Grant McGowen and featuring Jessica De Maria, runs through Sept. 18 at 7 Stages Backstage.
