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.
The national touring company of the Tony Award-winner for best musical, “Guys and Dolls,” will hit the Fabulous Fox Theater this Tuesday for one week.
Based on the short stories of journalist Damon Runyon, the story takes place in New York City and revolves around gamblers, drinkers and the women who try to reform them.
Selected as a winner for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play later was made into a film starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine. Many of the shows songs became standards, including “Luck Be a Lady,” “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” and “I’ve Never Been in Love Before.”
This touring company comes from Dallas Summer Musicals and is produced by Big League Productions Inc. from New York City.
“Guys and Dolls” will play the Fox through Aug. 21.
Directed by Gordon Greenberg and choreogrpahed by Patti Colombo. Cast: Ben Crawford, Steve Rosen, Erin Davie, Megan Sikora, Garth Kravitz, Jan Neuberger, Michael Scott, Jamie Ross, Brendan Averett and Glenn Rainey.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park this Saturday, Aug. 18.
Sounding like a mix between the 70s band Stray Cats and music from the swing era and Broadway, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will perform songs from its newest album “How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway,” along with BBVD classics, including “Go Daddy-O,” “You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby),” and “Mr. Pinstripe Suit.”
Playing together for 16 years, the band was featured in the indie film “Swingers” and has appeared numerous times on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brian” and “Live with Regis & Kelly.” BBVD appeared multiple times as the Carson Daly show’s house band, and wrote, performed and recorded the show’s theme song.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy with the ASO, Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 to $35 and are available online at atlantasymphony.org, or by calling (404) 733-5000.
Photo: Jen Hofstetter: Pictured: Carolyn Cook, Mark Cabus, Tess Malis Kincaid, Ann Marie Gideon and Joe Knezevich
Just after reassuring a friend from New York that you really can find the caliber of theater you see on Broadway right here in Atlanta comes a show that proves it.
It would be hard to find anywhere a production of “Noises Off” anywhere that tops the production now playing at Georgia Shakespeare. The cast and the set are utterly spectacular.
While this is not one of my favorite plays, probably because I am not a fan of farcical comedy, the actors playing these outlandish characters play them so truthfully, they are a pleasure to watch.
Like so many Shakespeare productions, “Noises Off” features a play within a play. The plot revolves around a theater company that is putting on a play called “Nothing On” and features the mishaps, two-timing and sordid affairs that go on behind the scenes.
The acting is so fantastic in this show that even the most over-the-top character, Brooke (Ann Marie Gideon), a bimbo who forgets her lines, wears risqué costumes and can’t even do yogic breathing correctly, is performed so truthfully and in-the-moment that she is actually believable. In one scene in which the cast is in rehearsal, the director (Chris Kayser) lambastes her for forgetting her lines repeatedly. Later, during a performance when so many mishaps occur on stage that the entire cast improvises, except for Brooke, who sticks to the script no matter that her lines make no sense considering the circumstances.
Scenic designer Kat Conley has created a true-to-life front- and back-of the-house set that moves effortlessly from act to act. While “Noises Off” will not make my list of favorite plays, this production stands at the top of the list on greatest productions in Atlanta. It is a must see.
If you want to see what great Broadway shows are like, you need to go no further than Georgia Shakespeare.
“Noises Off” by Michael Frayne runs through Aug. 14. The cast includes some of the finest actors in Atlanta: Mark Cabus, Carolyn Cook, Joe Knezevich, Tess Malis Kincaid, Allan Edwards, Scott Warren, and Caitlin McWethy.
Eleven-year-old singing sensation Jackie Evancho will be performing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra this Friday at 8 p.m.
If you have not yet seen her on “America’s Got Talent,” “Oprah,” “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” her solo concert debut on the recent PBS special “Dream With Me In Concert,” you have probably seen, read or heard about her somewhere. And with good reason. She is outstanding!
A prodigy who sounds more like a grown woman than a child, Evancho began singing at age 7 when she watched “Phantom of the Opera” starring Sarah Brightman. Evancho competed in a talent competition at 8 and came in second to a 20-year-old opera singer. Although at age 10 she came in second on “America’s Got Talent,” she got to sing a duet with her inspiration, Sarah Bightman.
This Friday, Evancho will perform selections from her new album, “Dream With Me,” which includes classical arias, pop classics and show tunes. The album has already gone gold.
Although I’m not an opera fan, her operatic performance in the video above is riveting.
Jackie Evancho and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra perform Friday, Aug. 5 at 8 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
I don’t know who I’m more excited to see, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks or the Dirty Dozen Brass Band!
When my radio alarm woke me up Tuesday morning, although I had never before heard that song, I knew who was singing. That bluesy, melodious, mellow sound reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt and angels had to be none other than Susan Tedeschi.
Turns out the Grammy nominated singer and master guitarist will be performing with her husband, Grammy Award-winner Derek Trucks, tomorrow at Chastain Park Amphitheater. The couple will be playing with their 11-piece ensemble the Tedeschi Trucks Band, which includes two fellow Allman Brothers members: guitarist Trucks and bassist Oteil Burbridge.
If that alone won’t make you stand up and applaud the folks at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, who is bringing the concert to Atlanta, this icing on the cake should. One of the most popular jazz bands in the country, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which has been featured on albums by David Bowie, Elvis Costello and the Black Crowes, will open the show!
To see these two superstar headline acts on one stage—the best of New Orleans jazz with the best in blues-rock—would be like seeing Louis Armstrong open for Janis Joplin. An incredible combination!
Saturday, July 30 at 8 p.m. at Chastain Park Amphitheater. Tickets available at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and at ClassicChastain.
Freddie Ashley and Clifton Guterman
If you think “coming out” is tough now, one can only imagine how difficult it must have been back in Victorian England, when homosexuality was against the law.
“The Judas Kiss,” by multi-award-winning playwright playwright David Hare, peeks at the later life of Oscar Wilde, who was prosecuted and imprisoned for his homosexual relationships.
Actor’s Express Artistic Director Freddie Ashley is marvelous as Wilde, who must decide whether to flee England or face a jury and prison time. Taken from the history of Wilde’s secret life, David Hare brings life and drama to the stage in a glorious play about pride and betrayal.
This is a show well worth seeing, as is anything by Hare, who was twice nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplays “The Hours” and “The Reader.” His play “Plenty” was nominated for a Tony in 1983.
“The Judas Kiss” runs at Actor’s Express through June 11.
Cast: Christopher Corporandy, Jillian Fratkin, John Stephens, Clifton Guterman, Antonio Pareja, and Brody Wellmaker.
Nick Arapoglou as Princeton and Mary Nye Bennett as Kate Monster; Photo: Horizon Theatre
It’s not like I loved three-time Tony Award-winner “Avenue Q” the first time I saw it less than a year ago when the national touring company came to town. But I wanted to see what Horizon Theatre would do with it and how it would differ.
Everyone in this show is stupendous, and Horizon’s production is outstanding. It was so great I want to shout to everyone, “Go see this play!” If you don’t like plays, you’ll love this one. If you don’t like musicals, you’ll love this one. If you don’t like comedy, you’ll laugh your ass off. If you don’t like four-letter words, you’ll get over it fast. And if you like plays, musicals and comedy, what the hell are you waiting for?
Next to “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” it is probably my favorite show I’ve seen at Horizon, and I have liked a lot of its shows.
“Avenue Q” is about life, my life and your life. Face it, at times it sucks. And situations are funny. People are funny. But really, it sucks being you, and it sucks being me.
“Avenue Q” opens on Manhattan’s lower east side on Avenue Q. Princeton (Nick Arapoglou), who has just arrived in New York to begin his first job after obtaining his bachelor’s degree in English, spots a for rent sign on Avenue Q. He meets the superintendent, Gary Coleman (Spencer G. Stephens), the has-been “whatyoutalkinabout” child actor who reports he has been broke ever since his parents stole all his money when he was 15.
Princeton has moved to Manhattan to start work immediately. However, just after getting his new apartment, he gets a phone call from someone at the company where he is to begin work and is informed that the company was acquired and his new position has been eliminated. He starts to sing, “It sucks to me.” Pretty soon, nearly everyone on Avenue Q comes forward, divulges his or her problems, and sings why it sucks to be them.
OK, Princeton is a puppet. Most of the his new friends on Avenue Q are puppets. His new girlfriend, Kate Monster (Mary Nye Bennett) is a blue monster puppet. (Their differences spawn the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist.) The puppets are controlled by people whose faces and bodies are shown center-stage moving, acting and singing along in full view. The puppets are all charming and the cast members are so truthful in their acting that no matter how outrageous their characters become they are believable.
There are so many cute scenes and funny scenes with hilarious characters: There’s the lascivious, bluesy singer Lucy (Jill Hames) who seduces Princeton; there’s the Bad Idea Bears (Jeff McKerley and Hames),who plead to Princeton and Kate Monster to get drunk and have sex; and there’s Trekkie monster, the male monster puppet who explains to teacher Kate Monster that the “Internet is for Porn.”
I wrote a review of the performance by the national touring company for “Avenue Q” about a year ago, and you can see that here. You’ll hear more of the story line, but all you really need to know is that Horizon’s production is hilarious.
Directed by Heidi Cline McKerley, “Avenue Q” runs at Horizon Theatre through July 3.
The cast includes Leslie W. Bellair, J.C. Long and Matt Nitchie.
