Hear one of the most swinging hep cats around this Friday as Joe Lovano takes the stage with the Georgia State University Jazz Band at the Rialto Center for the Arts.
Lovano has been playing professionally since the ’70s when he toured with Tom Jones, recorded with Lonnie Smith and George Benson on “Afrodesia,” played with Chet Baker, and toured for three years with Woody Herman and his band.
In the 1980s he joined the Mel Lewis Orchestra when Bob Brookmeyer and also played in other large ensembles with Carla Bley, Bob Brookmeyer, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and Gunther Schuller. A year later he played in a trio with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell.
He has also played with Michael Brecker, Abbey Lincoln, Esperanza Spalding, Hank Jones, McCoy Tyner, Ornette Coleman and so many other all-time greats
Lovano will be joined by the GSU Jazz Band, and if it is as good as it was a couple of years ago when I last heard it, it will astound you!
Joe Lovano and the Georgia State University Jazz Band play Friday, April 22 at 8 p.m. at the Rialto.
Leigh Campbell-Taylor and Allan Edwards
Horizon Theatre’s “Legacy of Light” is a one of the best period piece I’ve seen in Atlanta in years.
Too bad it has a modern side to it.
Leigh Campbell-Taylor and Allan Edwards are stupendous as the French lovers mathematician Émilie du Châtelet and philosopher Voltaire, who actually had an affair in the 1700s, while du Châtelet was married. Watching these two perform whisks you into the 18th century allowing you sneak peeks at their clandestine rendezvous.
But alas, before you know it you’re thrown right back into the 21st century and have to listen to a mundane modern couple talk about their jobs and their desire to have a baby.
There’s a Shakespeare-like “Twelfth Night” mirror image of the French lovers and the modern married couple, scientist Millie (Kate Donadio) and her school teacher husband, Peter (Robin Bloodworth). But, for me, it’s formulaic and the modern scenes fall flat and interrupt a great story.
My companion, however, a playwright who agreed with my thoughts after the first half of the show, was in tears by the end of the play. She said that playwright Karen Zacarias, an Atlanta native, did a wonderful job bringing the past together with the future and that the story of the modern-day couple was just as real for her as the story of the that of French lovers Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet.
Not my thoughts, but they are the thoughts of Letitia Sweitzer, who is an award-winning playwright. Here is what she wrote to me in an email:
“I think the combination of the two stories, while seeming redundant at first, was brilliant as it really came together comfortably and meaningfully in the second act. I also thought that it was surprising, and fitting, and therefore deft of the playwright that the surrogate mother character ended up in the spotlight in the final scenes.”
Directed by Susan Reid, the cast includes Corey Bradberry and Lane Carlock.
“Legacy of Light” runs through May 8 at Horizon Theatre.
Photo: Greg Mooney. Pictured: Jimi Kocina and Luke Robertson
And now for something completely different and wonderful, “Spoon Lake Blues,” in its world premiere at the Hertz Theatre.
Brothers Brady and Denis are about to lose their house, the one their grandfather built to start his family. The home is littered with beer cans, boxes and food wrappings and swarming with ants. The toilet doesn’t work and the front door is busted. To stop the bill collectors from seizing their home, the brothers burglarize the new homes that have turned this once dead-beat town by a lake into a summer vacation spot for the wealthy.
A mix of romance, comedy, hardship, and sex, the play is filled with twists, turns and laughs. Not since Sam Shepard’s “True West” do I remember such a good story with two brothers who act so dumb and dumber.
A good cast of actors turn this show into a one hour and forty minute wild ride of lunacy and laughs where the unexpected never ceases. A female police officer demands sex from big brother Denis; Caitlin, a black college coed, steals her father’s prized albums to help these “white-trash” brothers who earlier robbed her parents’ home, and college-dropout Brady exhumes his grandmother’s grave in hopes of finding out that he and Caitlin might be related.
Playwright Josh Tobiessen was a finalist for the Alliance Theatre’s Kendeda Award for best new playwright five years ago. Artistic Director Susan Booth told him then to continue to send her copies of future plays. Luckily for us, he did. It’s a must see.
”Spoon Lake Blues” runs through April 24 at the Hertz Theatre.
Cast: Veronika Duerr, Jimi Kocina, Lakisha Michelle May, Luke Robertson
Maverick Joan Rivers changes careers as often as she changes her face (She’s looking more and more like Lisa Rinna). But there’s one thing that doesn’t change, Rivers’ ability to keep on working.
More than fifty years after she began her comedy career, she is finally coming to Atlanta for a one-woman show Friday, March 25, 2011, at Atlanta Symphony hall.
While some things get old — her line “Can we talk?” and her red-carpet commentary with daughter Melissa — her comedy is as fresh as her new face. Her material is as original as she was more than four decades ago when she wrote sketches for the Italian mouse puppet Topo Gigio on The Ed Sullivan Show and when she first appeared on “The Tonight Show.” Carson then told her, “You’re going to be a big star one day.”
Carson was right. Rivers would go on to win an Emmy for her daytime TV talk show and a Tony nomination in 1994 for her starring role in “Sally Marr and Her Escort,” which she wrote. She would also become the winner of the second season of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” She is a best-selling author, playwright, screenwriter, motion picture director, columnist, lecturer, syndicated radio host, jewelry designer and a cosmetic company entrepreneur.
Like a Jack-in-the-Box, nothing seems to keep her down.
The question is this: After all these years, can Rivers pull off a one-woman show? If you watch the video above, I think you’ll have your answer.
Joan Rivers will be performing her one-woman show Friday, March 25, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
Eric J. Little and Chris Kayser
If there’s anything superior about Horizon Theatre’s newest production “Superior Donuts,” it is Eric J. Little who steals the show as the educated, jive-talking Franco Wicks.
It’s Arthur’s donut shop, Franco’s neighborhood and they’re both in trouble.
Arthur’s donut shop has been in a low-income neighborhood in Boston since his father opened it nearly five decades ago. Superior Donuts has just been burglarized when Russian immigrant Max Tarasov (Bart Hansard) rushes in telling the two officers investigating the crime that he’s sure the culprits are those young black children who were running by. When the laid-back Arthur (Chris Kayser) arrives at the shop and everyone leaves, he locks the doors, shutters the windows and smokes a joint.
Franco is a young black man who’s looking for work so he can go back to college. Although Arthur is in no mood to hire anyone, the winsome student has laid out a stellar marketing plan for the shop to explode with customers. Within three minutes he’s hired.
“Superior Donuts” mixes drama with comedy and kept my attention nearly the entire time. It is smartly written, but there are a couple of rocky spots. I didn’t grasp the significance all of Arthur’s monologues, especially the information about his daughter, and I thought the ending was weak. If Arthur were serious about writing a book, it seems like he’d have learned his lesson and written it on a computer.
With all that said, the playwright, Tracy Letts is more than a mediocre playwright. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play in 2008 for “August: Osage County.” His earlier play “Man from Nebraska” also was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
What really made this show for me was the acting by Eric J. Little, who performs with such zeal and true-to-life (not forced) animation, he kept me captivated.
No less outstanding in their performances were Bart Hansard and Nita Hardy as the homeless Lady Boyle. If anyone could make you believe it is freezing cold outside and that it takes someone a while to warm up when the temperature is below freezing, it is Hardy.
I couldn’t care less about scenery, but for being one of the smallest theaters around town, Horizon does an excellent job of creating a life-like set. Yep, that’s a tiny donut shop that has been there for years and hasn’t grown with the times. I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone to have done better than sister scenic designers Moriah Curley-Clay and Isabel Curley-Clay.
Directed by Jeff Adler, the cast includes Bryan Brendle, Lala Cochran, Neal Hazard, Alan Heckner, and Sean Michael Moreno.
“Superior Donuts” runs through March 27 at Horizon Theatre.
David de Vries and Bethany Anne Lind; Photo: Greg Mooney
When Susan Booth calling “Carapace” “earth shattering” during the announcements on opening night at the Hertz Theatre, I leaned forward and applauded with anticipation.
“Carapace” was making its world premiere after winning the Kendeda Award for finest new play from a graduating college playwright. And, since two-time Tony Award-winner Judith Ivey had directed it, I figured it had to be good.
The stage was beautifully set with a prop that resembled an actual car and reminded me of the best show I have ever seen at the Hertz Theatre, “How I Learned to Drive,” which really was “earth shattering.” (It won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama.)
So my engine is revved, and I’m ready for this show to take me on a great ride.
But “Carapace” didn’t shatter me at all. Strange, because just hearing about a young girl who stutters and gets teased at school would bother me. And a story about a man who drinks and can’t maintain a relationship with his daughter or ex-wife could be shattering. But watching Margo as a child, a teenager and a young adult talk and stutter around Jeff (David de Vries), her father who becomes estranged from her, I felt almost emotionless.
When I saw “The King’s Speech,” I felt pain and joy for King George. Colin Firth made me believe he was King George and that he really could not get his words out of his mouth. His stutter seemed to emanate from something within him. When I saw Margo (Bethany Anne Lind) stutter, I thought it was the actress who was attempting to stutter rather than Margo trying not to stutter.
In a scene in which Margo is a young adult and comes home to her boyfriend who tries to comfort her as she sees her father there, I didn’t believe they were two people who were really in love. Nor did I believe that she was really scared of her father.
While the scenes that should have been touching left me cold, there were a couple of scenes in the play that were humorous. Ted (Mark Kincaid), who has been in rehab for substance abuse, doles out advice on how Jeff, his former brother-in-law, can “fix” his relationship with Margo. The play’s funniest scene is when Jeff goes to a pet store to buy a tortoise for Margo, who always wanted one when she was a young girl. Kyle (Paul Hester), who recognizes Jeff from drug and alcohol rehab, loves the animals so much he refuses to let Jeff buy them.
“Carapace” is not bad and doesn’t crash, but it isn’t earth shattering.
Written by David Mitchell Robinson and directed by Judith Ivey. Cast includes Mark Kincaid, Joe Knezevich, Tony Larkin, Bethany Anne Lind, David de Vries, and Paul Hester. “Carapace” runs through March 6 at the Hertz Theatre.
Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra big band will perform at Atlanta Symphony Hall Tuesday.
Man, this music sounds fun! Just click above to play the video.
Tuesday’s performance will feature original compositions, newly arranged music of Chick Corea and selections from the JLCO’s most recent CD release, “Vitoria Suite.”
The repertoire will also include “Swing Symphony,” a new symphonic composition by Marsalis, which will be performed by the JLCO with the Los Angeles Philharmonic featuring conductor Leonard Slatkin. The large scale work, Marsalis’ third symphony, was written for full symphony orchestra and jazz orchestra.
Before beginning the JLCO, Marsalis performed with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. He has also performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry and Sonny Rollins. Additionally, he has created compositions for Peter Martins at the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp for the American Ballet Theatre, and for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
For his jazz and classical recordings, Marsalis has won 9 Grammy Awards. And for his album “Blood on the Fields,” he won a Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra big band will perform Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
Tom Key and Marianne Hammock
Finally, Atlanta debut’s the dramatic play “The Young Man From Atlanta,” for which Horton Foote won a Pulitzer in 1995.
Reminiscent of Willy Loughman, salesman Will Kidder and his family have a bundle of troubles. He says he is “the best,” but trouble is brewing for this has-been salesman. It’s the 1950s and at age 64, Will is having a house built for him and his wife, Lily Dale, that is way to big for just the two of them. He has put a down payment on a new car for his wife, and he’s just about to loose his job to the man he hired nearly 20 years his junior.
Will can only fool himself so much. He may surmise why his 37-year-old son who drowned would have kept walking far into the ocean when he didn’t know how to swim, but Lily Dale won’t even consider why or who her son really was.
Reminiscent of “Death of a Salesman,” “All My Sons,” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “The Young Man From Atlanta” is just as dramatic and haunting. Like O’Neill’s Mary Tyrone, Lily Dale is lost in life without her husband and lives a life of dreams rather than looking at the truth.
While the similarities between the aforementioned works are clear, the script holds its own and is one of the best dramas I’ve seen in Atlanta.
Theatrical Outfit puts on a good production of a great play that is worth seeing. Tom Key and Marianne Hammock are notable and believable as Will and Lily Dale.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of downers. Tim Batten, who plays Carson, tends to overact and indicate. For example, when he enters after just having breakfast, he picks at his teeth as if pulling out a stuck piece of meat. Frank Roberts, who plays Lily Dale’s step-father, seems miscast. He looks to be the same age as Lily and Will, and he does nothing to make us believe he is any older. Whereas Donna Biscoe, who plays Etta, an elderly former maid of the Kidder’s, looks to be no more than 40. Yet, she hunches over, shakes when she walks and quivers her voice to make her seem as if she is nearing 90.
“The Young Man From Atlanta”at Theatrical Outfit runs through Feb. 20.
Jessica Phelps West directs a cast that includes Andrew Benator (Tom), Robin Bloodworth (Ted), and Tonia Jackson (Clara).
This is a World -1 from gloATL on Vimeo.
Lauri Stallings’ dance company gloATL premieres its newest creation “This is a World” for two nights this weekend.
After dancing with the Cleveland San Jose Ballet and Canada’s Ballet British Columbia, she danced for five years with the famed Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
Stallings later held a three-year residency as a choreographer at the Atlanta Ballet where she received accolades for her mashup featuring the Atlanta Ballet with Grammy Award winner Big Boi and Grammy nominee Janelle Monáe.
Her company gloATL is a collaborative platform of part choreography and part interactive art installation, bridging the gap between performers and audiences.
The performance location, Goodson Yard, is a vast enclosed structure found on the Goat Farm, a 100-year-old cotton mill recently designated for artists’ live and work space. Located just off of Howell Mill Road, between 14th and 17th Street, the Goat Farm symbolizes the efforts of Atlanta’s Real estate development community to support not-for-profit artists with space.
The formal world premiere of this new creation will take place May 2011 at the Duo Theatre in New York.
“This is a World” runs in Atlanta this weekend only, Feb. 4-5. For ticket information, visit gloATL.
Threesixty’s version of “Peter Pan” is nothing like the version that has hit Broadway five times.
This production is more true to the book, and that’s not always such a good thing. In this case, it doesn’t work as a play. It’s more a showpiece of marvelous puppets and lifelike scenery than a coherent story.
The script is disjointed. Characters, like the ostrich, seem to come and go for no reason without moving the play forward. Many of the actors act as if they are performing for six year olds, but the story, originally written for adults, is difficult to follow in this version.
This production is more likely to thrill for its special effects than for its storyline or acting.
Held in a circus-style round tent, a 360-degree aerial footage of London is shown on its dome making it appear as if Peter, the three Darling children and the audience are flying over the city. Via 360-degree aerial views, we see the children fly over the Thames River, through tunnels, and soar into the clouds.
When they land in Neverland, they meet up with the Lost Boys and go undersea, where they and the audience will be enveloped among reefs, seamounts and fish. Aerialists, as Mermaids, twirl and climb through reefs up silk ropes performing acrobatic feats.
Later, the Lost Boys and Peter will fight Captain Hook and his pirates.
That, sadly, is as interesting as the show gets. No interesting acting, but a lot of over-acting.
It’s a spectacle that may work for children who are eight or older, but it was too scary for a six year old who attended a matinee and cried when the crocodile appeared.
The script is disjointed and hard to follow as an adult, especially when actors can sometimes barely be heard.
Christopher Keller, lead puppeteer created a life-size big shaggy dog that acted as lifelike as any dog. Andrew Gruen, as Mr. Darling, gave a notable and believable performance as a frustrated, hard-working father.
“Peter Pan,” directed by Ben Harrison and designed by William Dudley, is adapted by Tanya Ronder from the J.M. Barrie story, with music composed by Benjamin Wallfisch.
Cast:
Christopher Keller, Andrew Gruen, Elijah Trichon, Samantha Hopkins, Shannon Warrick, Darrell Brockis, Emily Yetter, Ciaran Joyce, Lee Turnbull, Joshua Kuehl, Ben Adams, Ian Street, Jef Canter, Josh Swales, James Nieb, Justin Torres, Mauricio Villalobos, Chuck Bradley, Heidi Buehler, Rain Anya, Sarah Bebe Holmes, Beth Triffon.
“Peter Pan” runs through March 20 in Atlanta at Pemberton Place. Tickets are available at peterpantheshow.com.
