Essential Theatre presented the world premiere of The 2015 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award Wiiner, Joshu Mikel’s “Lillian Likes It.”
The play, which ran from July 31 and closed this past Sunday, holds a compact mirror up to mid-millennials living in a virtual world. Perhaps more attractive to a college-age or young adult audience, “Lillian Likes It” features five young actors connecting with others via electronic devices.
In sum, Lillian, engaged to Ernie, learns that co-worker Larry Pickler, who has just died, loved her. So enamored with the virtual world, Lillian conducts an online love affair with him via the virtual Larry she creates.
Reality eventually wins the day as one hopes it does with everyone who lives through the myriad of devices that connect them to the virtual world.
Cast: Alyssa Caputo – Lillian
Tyler Hayes – Ernie
Antonia LaChé – Babs/Gatekeeper/EE
Ben Silver – Larry and Ed Pickler
Christine Vozniak – Lynne
Pat Young – Knife
Director: Shannon Eubanks
Move it on over this week for New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Weiner who will talk about her new novel, “Who Do You Love,” a story about what happens when the one you love is the one who got away.
Weiner’s books have spent over five years on the New York Times bestseller list with over 11 million copies in print in 36 countries. She is the author of the novels Good in Bed (2001); In Her Shoes (2002), which was turned into a major motion picture starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine; Little Earthquakes (2004); Goodnight Nobody (2005); the short story collection The Guy Not Taken (2006); Certain Girls (2008); Best Friends Forever (2009); Fly Away Home (2010); Then Came You (2011); The Next Best Thing (2012); All Fall Down (2014) and Who Do You Love (August 2015).
A graduate of Princeton University and a former newspaper reporter, Weiner is a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times Op-Ed and Sunday Review. Her recent contributions – “Mean Girls in the Retirement Home” and “Another Thing to Hate About Ourselves” – rose to the top of the “most emailed” lists and have been picked up by newspapers and media outlets across the world.
Weiner speaks this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center Atlanta.
Cast of Memphis
Whether or not you’ve seen the Tony Award-winning show “Memphis” on Broadway or the national touring company, it’s worth seeing it at Aurora Theatre.
It stars two stellar performers: Travis Smith and Naima Carter Russell. Smith plays Huey Calhoun, a white male who popularizes black music throughout Memphis in the late 1950s and falls in love with Felicia Farrell (Russell), an outstanding black singer.
Smith and Russell, are reason alone to see the show, which I liked more than the national touring company. Other notable performers include Kathleen O’Hara, an ensemble member; Megan McFarland, who plays Henry Calhoun’s mother; and the band.
Directed by Tom Key, Musical Direction by Ann-Carol Pence, choreography by Waverly Lucas, “Memphis” runs at Aurora Theatre through Aug. 30 at Aurora Theatre.
Cast:
Delray Jones . . . . . . Cecil Washington Jr.
Bobby . . . . . . Eric Moore
Gator . . . . . . Eugene H. Russell IV
Ensemble . . . . . . William S. Mrphey
Mr. Simmons/Flight Captain . . . . . . Matt Lewis
Clara/Teenager/Ensemble . . . . . . Rose Alexander
White Mother/Ensemble/Mama/Dance Captain . . . . . . Caroline Arapoglou
Perry Como/Ensemble . . . . . . Greg Bosworth
Black DJ/Ensemble/Bobby . . . . . . Skyler Brown
Someday Backup Singer/Ensemble . . . . . . Tina Fears
Ethel/Beale Street Singer/Ensemble/Felicia . . . . . . Judith Franklin
Be Black Trio/Ensemble . . . . . . Edward McCreary
Buck Wiley/Marin Holton/Ensemble/Huey . . . . . . Robby Owenby
Be Black Trio/Ensemble/Delray . . . . . . . Brian Walker
Ashley Anderson and Chaz Duffy
I don’t know which to praise more, the play, the acting, or the theater, but all I can say is I am looking forward to whatever is playing next at Out of Box Theatre in Marietta.
My friends and I caught the last performance of “Sally and Glen at the Palace” by Atlanta actor and writer, Peter Hardy, and all three of us were impressed. Peter Hardy has managed to give us characters we like and care about, and a unique story that interweaves movie mementos with a middle-aged woman’s memories of her young adulthood.
Sally (Ashley Anderson) takes us back to the early 1970s when she didn’t quite realize all that she really wanted was staring right at her. A 21-year-old college student from a small town in Alabama, Sally gets a job selling tickets at the local art house theater where she works with ticket-taker Glen (Chaz Duffy), an aspiring director. Duffy entertains Sally — and the audience — acting out scenes from horror movies and impersonating his future self accepting an Oscar for directing his first feature film. Duffy played the part well, but neither my friends nor I believed he was believable as a man who would be attracted to women. He went through the motions to portray his interest in Sally, but the emotion and sexual energy was not there.
Prim, proper and shy, Sally abhors the X-rated films the theater sometimes shows, and cringes when callers ask about them. At once, she seems as frail as a bird but turns cold and tough to get what she wants. Just when you think you know these characters, Hardy deftly switches their direction. Anderson was outstanding and believable each step of the way as her moods and personality changed from a grown woman, to a shy young coed, to a heartbroken woman. If this caliber of acting is indicative of future actors who perform Out of Box Theatre, hallelujah!
The set was rudimentary but was all that was needed to portray an old movie theater that looked like it could have been created 40 years ago or more. For a small fledgling theater, that simple set featuring a candy counter, ticket booth, and red movie curtain was all that was needed.
Out of Box Theatre also has comics (although I don’t see them listed on the website), but that’s what the announcer said at the show, and a slew of upcoming new plays. Tucked behind hidden center on Highway 41 in Marietta, Out of Box Theatre is worth the trip.
Grammy Award-winning saxophonist, composer, and educator Mace Hibbard will perform at the MJCCA Sunday, continuing its Jazz at the JCC series.
In 2005, Hibbard began playing with The Derek Trucks Band, and with Soul Stew Revival with Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. On select tours for the next five years, he was a featured soloist and horn arranger for the two bands. This union culminated in Hibbard winning a 2010 Grammy Award for his playing and horn arrangements on The Derek Trucks Band’s album “Already Free.”
Hibbard’s compositions and playing can be heard on recordings by Melvin Jones, Yonrico Scott, Ben Tucker, The Joe Gransden Big Band, Jennifer Holliday, Trey Wright, Bryant Thompson, and Marlon Patton. He has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and has shared the stage with The Four Tops, Kenny Rogers, and The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He is a featured saxophonist/composer on Atlanta Sax Allstars, which will be released by Hotshoe Records and will feature four of Atlanta’s finest saxophonists.
As well as playing sax, Hibbard plays flute and clarinet. He played throughout his teen years with his father – trumpet player Dave Hibbard, who was a staple in the Texas jazz scene. Hibbard has played with The Austin Symphony, singer-songwriter Drew Smith, The Creative Opportunity Orchestra, and The Stingers. In 2008, the Mace Hibbard Quintet was selected to play at the Atlanta Jazz Festival as the winner of the Future of Jazz Competition.
Hibbard has served on the faculty of Georgia State University since 2005 where he’s an instructor of jazz saxophone and improvisation. He was a professor of saxophone and jazz studies at Jacksonville State University from 2003-2010, ande has served as a clinician and soloist at many Universities in the U.S. and Canada.
Hibbard plays Sunday, June 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the MJCCA in the Morris & Rae Frank Theatre, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Ticket Prices: $10 – $15. For information, visit www.atlantajcc.org/boxoffice, or call 678.812.4002.
Ticket Prices
Member Adult: $10.00
Community Adult: $15.00
Discounts available to students, seniors, and groups.
You don’t have to love country music to love Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell. The duo, who will perform at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens new Ivester Amphitheater in Gainesville this Saturday, has hit the Billboard charts in and out of the country music genre.
Both Grammy Award winners–he’s won two and she’s won more than a dozen — the duo first joined forces 40 years ago. Their 2013 album “Old Yellow Moon” garnered the Best Americana Album Grammy, won the Americana Music Awards’ Album of the Year, and reached No. 4 on Billboard ’s Country albums chart and No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 200 charts.
Crowell may not be as well known as Harris, but he has been playing in bands since he was 11. He is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the recipient of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting from the Americana Music Association.His songs have been performed by an eminent group of musicians, including Van Morrison, Johnny and Roseanne Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Etta James.
Although I have been unsuccessful at conducting a quick Q&A with Crowell, you can hear a wonderful NPR interview with him and memoirist Mary Karr, who collaborated together and released the 2012 album, “Kin.” Crowell has also written a memoir, “Chinaberry Sidewalks.”
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell play Saturday, June 13 at 8 p.m. at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens new Ivester Amphitheater in Gainesville. To purchase tickets and see more Atlanta Botanical Gardens upcoming concerts, click here.
Edward McCreary and Tess Malis Kincaid
Christopher Durang’s 2013 Tony Award-winning comedy “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” a play about three dysfunctional middle-aged siblings is not to be missed at Horizon Theatre.
A co-production between Horizon Theatre and Gwinnett county’s Aurora Theatre, this terrific cast pulls off a winner with another play by Durang, one of my all-time favorite playwrights. No playwright brings as much comedy to sad depressed families as Durang. In a tribute to Chekhov, there are tongue-in-cheek references to the Russian playwright, but you don’t have to understand Chekov or the references to laugh at this show.
Three siblings reunite when their movie-and-TV-star sister Masha (Tess Malis Kincaid) returns to their childhood home where her other two siblings still live rent free in a house she pays for. The depressed but loving bi-polar adopted sister, Sonia (Lala Cochran) and their staid gay brother Vanya (Bill Murphy) have not worked in many years.
Masha’s love interest who has accompanied her back home, a young boy toy named Spike (Edward McCreary), paws and toys with Vanya and a young neighbor, Nina (Danielle Deadwyler). He is deliciously disgusting, and it’s a wonder Masha would keep the inappropriate touchy creepy Spike around. But once he performs a strip tease that will leave you panting from the heat and laughing from embarrassment, you get it.
Durang mixes typical Chekhov moodiness with a touch of a Disney fairy tales: “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” and “The Princess and the Frog” with a voodoo-practicing cleaning woman, Cassandra (Denise Arribas). Sounds weird and unbelievable, but it works just fine.
Directed by Aurora Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director Justin Anderson in his Horizon Theatre debut, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” runs through June 28 at Horizon Theatre. The same production with the same cast is scheduled to run at Aurora Theatre Oct. 1-25.
You may not recognize her when you see her, but after losing 100 pounds, and “The Apprentice,” Lisa Lampanelli is coming to Atlanta this Saturday at the Cobb Energy Centre. Sometimes mean with lots of racial and ethnic insults and harangues at the audience, and sometimes disgustingly dirty, this “Queen of Mean” can also be hilarious. I look forward to seeing her this Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Cobb Energy Centre in her show “The Leaner Meaner Tour.”
The national tour of the Tony Award-winning revival of “Pippin” plays at The Fox this coming week, just months after the show closed a two-year run on Broadway. Directed by Diane Paulus, who also directed the Broadway revival, won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Director. Music and lyrics are by Stephen Schwartz, who conceived the idea for the musical, and also wrote the music and lyrics for “Godspell,” “Wicked” and numerous other Broadway musicals and films.
The original production hit Broadway in 1973 and won numerous Tony Awards. I saw it in 1974, but there’s a lot of acrobatics in this version not seen originally. The revival won four 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Revival.
The show features choreography in the style of Bob Fosse and acrobatics by Les 7 Doigts de la Main, the creative force behind the international tour of “Traces.”
“Pippin” is noted for many Broadway standards including “Corner of the Sky,” “Magic To Do,” “Glory,” “No Time at All,” “Morning Glow,” and “Love Song.”
If you’ve never seen Schwartz’s work live, perhaps you’ve seen that of his son, Scott Schwartz (the director, not the California actor), who directed a fantastic production of “Next to Normal” at the Alliance Theatre a couple of years ago. I would go see anything by either one of these creators.
Book by Roger O. Hirson, “Pippin” runs May 5 – May 10 at The Fox.
Angele Masters and Kevin Stillwell
At ‘The Breakers,” presented by 7 Stages, you’ll join the party inside the home of Elliot (Kevin Stillwell) and Alice (Angele Masters) and watch from the outside windows as trouble brews and bubbles. You literally walk around the house and peer into the rooms–or even go directly inside them as part of the cast–in this audience participatory drama filled with dancing, bondage and sadomasochism. Elliot rubs some sort of cream on his face that sends him into an acid-like trip of the imagination, and delights in the shoving and slapping he and Alice indulge in.
The audience follows the characters, which include a hot, sexy, tall leggy blond interloper, Gold Woman (Emma Yarbrough), and the couple’s personal assistants (Mick Surbey, Markell Williams, and Michael Morgan), as the couple tries to get their finances and life in order as their business and marriage fall apart.
While I never thought being a peeping Tom was my cup of tea, being a voyeur into this mad world makes for a must-see show.
“The Breakers,” written and directed by Michael Haverty, runs through May 10. Tickets are available at 7 Stages.
