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Laughter is the best medicine, as our cast will prove to you in “Play
It Again, Sam!” (By the way, did you know that the title line is not
really uttered in the movie “Casablanca”?) Of course, after you have
seen it again and again and played it again and again in your mind,
you might think you have heard that line in the movie, and better
still, you can continue to laugh as you remember all of the wonderful
scenes in RLT’s recent production. So how to get that out of your
head? Attend some of the myriad of productions happening in the
coming months “Beyond the RLT”! And don’t forget to cheer on the cast
of “thousands” in “Broadway Spectacular III” the last weekend in June
and the first weekend in July!
The Fox is really buzzing with events in the coming months with the
return of Theatre Of the Stars. First up is the first national tour
of the huge still-on-Broadway musical “Mary Poppins,” which will run
April 29th -May 16th. Of course this is the musical based on the
movie with many of the same songs and lots more added, so you don’t
want to miss this. It is sure to sell out so if you haven’t gotten
your tickets yet, do so immediately! June 15th – 20th will see the
pre-Broadway tour of the musical version of “Little House on the
Prairie” starring Melissa Gilbert, this time playing the mother of the
family in which she played the daughter on television. This is a much
anticipated show as well. And settling in for a long run June
30th-July 18th is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s greatest hit, “The Phantom of
the Opera,” still the longest running show on Broadway after 22
years. You may know that Sir Andrew recently opened the sequel to
…Phantom…” in London, called “Love Never Dies,” to great acclaim, and
it is headed for Broadway too. I’ve heard the music and it is
glorious as well. So don’t put it off any longer—get to “…Phantom…”
so you’ll be ready to see the sequel! The place to get more
information and to connect to tickets is
www.foxtheatre.org.
The Alliance Theatre is traditionally dark during the summer as they
prepare for their new season, although some other theatre companies
may rent their spaces. Get geared up for their gala opening show, a
new version of the “Oliver Twist” story called “Twist” set in New
Orleans in the 1920’s and directed by award-winning
director/choreographer Debbie Allen. More information will follow in
future newsletters. And if you get this newsletter in time, it might
not be too late to catch the last two performances of the spectacular
“Lookingglass Alice” on the Alliance Stage on May 2nd. This show is
an amazing re-telling of the “Alice in Wonderland” story by a cast of
5 acrobatic actors which I was privileged to see twice!
At
one of our favorite venues downtown, the Theatrical Outfit at the
Balzer Theatre on Luckie Street (on the site of the historic Herren’s
Restaurant,) will be presenting their last show of the season, a
tuneful musical called “Blues in the Night” April 28th-May 23rd
including the music of Bessie Smith, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington,
Harold Arlen and others, and will be a not-to-be-missed event.
Further information is available at
www.theatricaloutfit.org.
Premieres are the word at the Horizon Theatre in Little Five Points
this summer. First up is the regional premiere of a new comedy, “True
Love Lies,” running from May 21st-June 20th. This new show is wild,
wisecracking and sometimes shocking, and will keep you entertained
from beginning to end. Next up at the Horizon is “Shakin’ the Mess
Out of Misery,” July 2nd-August 22nd. This is actually the revival of
Horizon’s first ever world premiere in 1988, and is the story of a
young girl and her coming of age with the assistance of her eight
loving “Big Mamas.” If you missed it in 1988, now’s your chance to
see it! Go to
www.horizontheatre.com to find more information and to get
tickets.
You will have two months worth of performances to see the production
of August Wilson’s “Jitney” this time around. Kenny Leon’s True
Colors Theatre Company will be reviving this play from Wilson’s
Century Cycle (you may know Wilson wrote a play to reflect each decade
of the African-American experience in America from 1900-2000, and this
is the one that represents the 1970’s) about a cab station in
Pittsburgh and the lives of those involved there. The play will run
May 5th-30th at the beautiful new Southwest Arts Center in southwest
Atlanta, and then will move to the Alliance Stage June 5th-27th, so
you have plenty of opportunities to see it. I have looked at the cast
list and you will be overwhelmed with the performances of many of
Atlanta’s finest African American actors. I missed this production
the first time around, but I won’t miss it this time!
www.truecolorstheatre.org
The Aurora Theatre in their beautiful new theatre downtown
Lawrenceville is closing out their season with the delightful comedy,
“Boeing, Boeing,” which was nominated and won all sorts of Tony
Awards, including Best Revival, two years ago. This hilarious comedy
is about an architect living in Paris who tries to juggle three
different fiancées who are all flight attendants. This French farce
is hilariously translated and will be a laugh a minute! Don’t miss
this hysterical riot running May 6th-30th, and go see the beautiful
new theatre too! More information is available at
www.auroratheatre.com.
Back a little closer to home, theatre is popping out all over Marietta
this spring! The gorgeous new Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center just
off I-75 at Cumberland Boulevard will be hosting the Atlanta Opera for
Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” April 24th-May 2nd, so hope you get this in
time to get in to see one of those always magnificent performances.
The Atlanta Ballet will take over CEPAC in their spring concert,
“Sheer Exhilaration” May 6th-9th, and I am looking forward to seeing
the Broadway tour of “Avenue Q” May 18th-23rd. You may or may not
know that when “Avenue Q” closed on Broadway last year after winning a
“ Best Musical” Tony Award, it moved into an off-Broadway house and
now is still running in New York. I strongly urge you not to miss
this delightful but sometimes shocking show. The language is harsh,
but the story is about young people and puppets living together and
finding their way in modern New York, and by the end of the show you
are charmed. But as the posters advertise, you are forewarned that
there is “full puppet nudity.” Don’t let the puppets fool you—it’s
not really a show for children because of language and adult
situations. But I can’t wait to see it again and be totally
transported all over again. Information about all of these
productions is available at
www.cobbenergycentre.com.
Also in Marietta, you might still have time to see a production at one
of our favorites, the Atlanta Lyric Theatre, performing at the Strand
Theatre on the square in downtown Marietta. Their current show is the
hilarious and quirkly musical comedy (the Lyric only does musicals!)
“Little Shop of Horrors.” Hurry, though, because this show will run
only through May 2nd. May 7th will be a very special event at the
Lyric: “Chita Rivera: My Broadway,” live and in person! Ms. Rivera
is coming to Marietta for one night only to perform many of her
Broadway hits as a benefit for the Lyric. I will be there one way or
another! Then running June 11th-27th is Stephen Sondheim’s raucous
musical comedy, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” to
be followed by the Lyric’s production of the favorite Broadway “Best
Musical” Tony-winner, “Hairspray” July 23rd-August 8th. Generally the
musicals at the Lyric run for three weekends and then they are over,
so you don’t want to miss a one of these. Across the square in
Marietta, the always dependable Theatre In the Square will be running
their final show of the season, “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” which
chronicles the life of actress/singer Ethel Waters, starring one of
Atlanta’s own stars, Bernadine Mitchell. This show will run April
28th-May 30th, and you don’t want to miss this one either! Details
for this production are at
www.theatreinthesquare.com.
On
the local scene, the college theatre companies are dark this summer,
but I am looking forward to the announcements of their new seasons at
Berry and Shorter. In nearby Cartersville, the Pumphouse Players at
the Legion Theatre downtown is winding down their production of David
Ives’ adaptation of Mark Twain’s “Is He Dead?” which recently played
for the first time to great acclaim in New York. This show ends on
May 1st so hurry. Next up is “The Dixie Swim Club,” a hilarious and
touching Southern comedy similar to “Steel Magnolias”by Jones, Hope
and Wooten. The story is about five women who met in college on a
swim team and it recounts their annual reunions for many years
afterwards. The authors wrote the hysterical comedy “Dearly
Departed,” so this is sure to be a treat. (See another reference to
them later in the next paragraph.) This show will run at the Legion
Theatre in downtown Cartersville from June 11th-26th. This will be
their last show of this season and we will be looking forward to the
announcement of their 2010-2011 season soon.
I
am very proud to announce that I have been helping get the Calhoun
Little Theatre back on track, and have volunteered to direct their
next production, “Dearly Beloved,” by the same authors mentioned
above, Jones, Hope and Wooten. This beyond-hysterical comedy has
recently been cast and includes two RLT veterans in the cast, Mary
Ortwein and Daniel Murchland. The story is about the three Futrelle
sisters of Fayro, Texas who gained local fame as a gospel group, “The
Sermonettes,” but who are currently at odds with each other due to
their differing personalities. But they have come together for a
daughter’s wedding, and the laughter won’t stop from the first time
the lights come up as just about everything that can go wrong at this
redneck wedding does. Please come join us for the fun at the Ratner
Theatre in the Harris Arts Center in downtown Calhoun on US Highway 41
(Wall Street) Fridays and Saturdays, 7:00 p.m. June 4th, 5th, 11th,
and 12th or at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 6th. Call the HAC at
706-629-2599 or visit the web site at
www.harrisartscenter.com, and click on “Events” and then “Little
Theatre.” Warning: the CLT shows usually sell out so plan ahead, and
y’all come!
Over in northeast Georgia, the Gainesville Theatre Alliance has
finished their season, but the Holly Theater in downtown Dahlonega
will be doing a summer production of “Hello, Dolly!” If you missed
the outstanding recent production by the Darlington Players, now’s
your chance to get to see it this summer. Dolly will be at the Holly
(I made a poem!) July 8th-25th. Visit
www.hollytheater.com (not espelling of “theater”) for additional
information.
And now a report from our two favorite out of state
venues. First, at the Greenville Little Theatre in Greenville, South
Carolina, their summer musical will be Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s
classic collaboration, “Oklahoma!” running June 4th-26th. They will
be announcing next year’s season soon. And our always busy Cumberland
County Playhouse in Crossville, Tennessee is hopping as usual with
multiple award-winning shows that make a great weekend getaway this
summer. Playing now through June 6th is “Duck Hunter Shoots Angel!,”
a brand new comedy by “Tuesdays with Morrie” author Mitch Albom, about
a tabloid journalist who is trying to track down two duck hunters who
think that they might have bagged a celestial being. Just opening
last weekend, “Tinyard Hill” is a new musical about love, pride and
patriotism, set in Georgia in 1964 with a country music score. This
show will run through July 11th. The weekend of April 29th-May 2nd
will see the drama/dance concert, “The Sun & the Four Winds,” and this
summer CCP will also be producing the Tony-winning “Hello, Dolly!”
from May 13th-August 22nd in case you don’t get to see it in
Dahlonega. Opening July 22nd and running through Nov. 6th will be
Stephen Sondheim’s sumptuous masterpiece, “A Little Night Music,”
currently in revival on Broadway starring Angela Lansbury and
Catherine Zeta-Jones. Also at CCP this summer, you can have a chance
to see CCP founder “Paul Crabtree’s Tennessee, USA!” revived again
June 17th-August 28th, which in song and dance traces the history of
that great state. Before the summer is officially over, you can also
have a chance to see “Southern Comforts” at CCP, a delightful play
about two folks over the age of retirement who are from different
backgrounds, but who find love “the second time around.” Reba and I
saw this delightful comedy at Theatrical Outfit two years ago and were
charmed by it, and you can see it at CCP from August 19th-November
11th.
So as you can see, there is a lot to explore
“Beyond the RLT!” See you at “Play it Again Sam” and “Broadway
Spectacular III,” and as always, check the websites if you need any
other information about the above productions! Or feel free to
contact me via e-mail at
wbarnes@darlingtonschool.org or on my cell phone, 706-346-5621.
See you at the theatres! |
