The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Alliance Theatre
through March 20, 2016

Rosemary Newcott has brought together a terrific cast for this play, derived from C. S. Lewis’ 1950 book of the same name. It is a show about delving into the world of Narnia by going through the wardrobe holding a lot of fur coats, which turn out to be creatures of that other world.

Kat Conley created an impressive set for this one. The show has an early curtain time, and a short running time of about an hour. Why? Because it is one for the youngsters and that is what is so wonderful about this. Wonderful because while it is a kid’s show, it is performed by highly professional adult actors, with first class sets, props and costumes; ergo it is a help to get children started into enjoying real theatre. It brought me back to the days of my youth when I had to wear a suit and tie to go with my parents to a show. I was hooked then, and not by somebody named Smee.

Tess Malis Kincaid is the White Witch, and she rules the turf. You do it her way, or hit the highway. Alexandra Ficken sneaks through the Wardrobe into Narnia as Lucy. She’s quite impressed and becomes the inspiration for her brothers and sister to sneak in behind her on a visit.

They all meet up with the huge Lion (Enoch King) who turns out to be a nice feline, as he doesn’t seek to see those humans decimated. Although one does meet his fate, the show is just fine for the kiddies, and the older folks in the house actually enjoy the show because of the way in which it is staged and brought to life, including some neat moves and choreography by Jen MacQueen.

The show runs Saturdays and Sundays, so nobody needs to stay up late on a school night, and you can get times and tickets easily at AllianceTheatre.org

Johnny Mercer Celebration
Rialto Center for the Arts

Once again GSU’s Rialto Center has staged a glowing tribute to the work and memory of Savannah native, Johnny Mercer. He may be best known for works such as Moon River, but he’s was a workaholic who composed more than 1,000 songs.

This concert, which took place on February 26th featured the GSU Jazz Band of more than 20 players under the direction of Dr. Gordon Vernick and with special guest stars including GSU alumnus Joe Gransden who is famous for his work with A-list bands, as well as his gigs here in town and around the country.

Joe plays the trumpet but also croons so well, and unlike me, he can remember all the lyrics without an iPad in front of him. He was so happy to bring on Kathleen Bertrand, another Atlantan; and one who has sung at the White House, for the Olympics and in 2015 was named as Jazz Vocalist of the Year by the Black Women in Jazz Organization. She’s played around the world and isn’t quitting. She’s currently working on an upcoming new CD.

And were this not enough, Joe also called on ton the stage Marilyn Maye. This is the young 88 year old who still plays to SRO houses when she takes down the walls in NYC. This is the lady who was on the Tonight Show more than 70 times, and Ella dubbed her as “the greatest white female singer in the world.”

This is the kind of show that if you see it coming around again in a year or two, try not to miss it. Easy to get to (if you can survive the traffic downtown) and even offers free garage parking. Next up at the Rialto will be the biennial Contemporary Dance Festival, which will hit the stage March 3rd and 4th. For more info and tickets visit Rialto.gsu.edu

And if you like big band jazz, don’t miss Joe Gransden and his big band who will be performing Monday, February 29th at Geogia Ensemble Theatre in Roswell. They’ll be doing a collection of the best of Benny Goodman. So you may be able to Sing, Sing, Sing!

Peter and the Starcatcher
Georgia Ensemble Theatre
through March 13, 2016

A play by Rick Elice derived from a kid’s book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, is sort of a grown-ups bedtime story. Knowing it is not real, yet trying to figure out where it is going. Complete with goodies and bad guys. It is said to be a prequel to Peter and Wendy. In this case, it is Peter who flies off with Molly.

The play had a decent run in NYC to varied reviews. It isn’t the usual musical, nor is it a drama. But it is quite an experience. Heidi Cline McKerley has brought together a superb cast of 14 players, well known in the theatre community. Each of them just “had to” play the role. Bryan Brendle is the British Lord Aster who has to get a trunk of treasure onboard a ship for the Queen. Things go wrong, since there is also a pirate ship in port and these sneaky guys manage to swap the trunk of treasure for one which looks the same but is filled with nothing but sand. And therein lies the fuel for the story.

Lord Aster’s daughter, Molly (played by the real Molly Coyne) has to go onboard a ship apart from the father. And she becomes quite a motivator, dealing with some orphan boys; a nameless one of whom becomes Peter (Jeremiah Parker Hobbs). The evil pirate Black Stache, is played by Jeff McKerley. He’d like to be scary, but it doesn’t always work. Especially when he suffers some problems trying to steal the treasure. His right hand guy is Al Stilo as Smee. The cast also includes Josh Brook, Nicholas Faircloth, Ptah Garvin, Jonathon Horne, Steve Hudson, Vinnie Mascola, Brandon Patrick, Spencer Stephans and Jeffrey Watkins. And if you’ve been to a few shows around town you have seen most of these gents before.

Where else but in a fairy tale would you find a royal frigate and a dumpy pirate ship duking it out on the briny sea, as they set out to Rundoon? Along the way the fights cause Peter and Wendy and others to wind up on an island run by the Mollusks, who do not like any of them. The fight scenes are funny as they get into it. The story line takes you to the mountain top lookout, through a jungle, a jail cage, a deep grotto and more.

The Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay set has all the fixings to help this story. Albeit the few musical numbers, sung in chorus aren’t what you run out to buy on a CD, they do a good job. The script has loads of word play, such as the names of people, places and even the Norse code used by Lord Aster to signal Molly. This one won several Tony’s when it ran in NYC a few years ago. It isn’t Cats or Les Miz, but the players and the audience enjoyed their evening. For more info and tickets visit GET.org

Two Rooms
Out of Box Theatre
through February 27, 2016

This little black box theatre in Marietta works their buns off staging more than a dozen shows a year. This month they present Lee Blessing’s work about a American taken hostage by Islamic terrorists in Lebanon, in the 1980’s.

It is set at the home of Michael and Lainie Wells. Michael was working as a teacher in Beirut around the time of the bombing of the American Embassy in 1984. He was taken captive by insurgents and held as a hostage. We meet Michael (Olubaja Sonubi) in his detention area. He’s blindfolded, in ragged attire, his wrists bound, and in a living hell. He thinks about Lainie all the time and what she must be going through.

Candace Mabry is Lainie, and she’s taken his room in their home and turned it into the sort of dung heap that she imagines Michael to be housed in. There is nothing in the room other than a thin pad on the floor. She’s heartbroken, sad, withdrawn and mad. Mad both with the rebels who stole her Michael and also with the government which seems to have done nothing to get him back. The government’s m.o. with terrorists was never to pay ransoms. In fact it is against the law for a citizen to even offer to pay.

She gets visited by a handler from the State Department, Ellen VanOss (Aretta Baumgartner), who is very business-like, and is just visiting to give out as little info as possible, while protecting all intel sources. One might think she is telling lies, but she is just doing her job. She is really upset that an investigative reporter, Walker Harris (Aaron Goodson), is becoming as nosey parker. He wants to get some info from Lainie, but Lainie is disinclined, and Ellen is trying to shut him down.

The stage is stark, except for the floor pad, but there are some projected images that introduce the show with flowers such as Georgia O’Keefe might have done, and then transferring to the war zone in Lebanon, to atrocities being committed and to news reporting. Joel Coady directed these four fine actors in this VERY stressful opus. It is a real sturm und drang production with plenty of screams.

If you, or anyone you know, has endured anything remotely akin to this story, you will find it difficult to take. But, it does deal with what governments do, and what human nature is all about. If you think that our government is always open and plays by the rules; think about McCarthy in the older days, and Gitmo in these days. For my political science prof taught us years ago that all governments lie, including our own, and that what is “right” for any government is what it deems to be in it’s best interests.

And the treatment that you hear of and see being delivered by insurgents does make one recall The Rage and The Pride by Oriana Fallaci, and her beliefs that the Crusaders screwed up by not eradicating Islam. While she was a brilliant journalist, the truth is that Muslims are people, just as you we are. It is the nut cases who run some of the countries and terrorist groups which generates a general distrust of those we do not know. Will it change in our lifetimes? Same chance as we may have of winning a lottery. . . .

Out of Box is located on Cobb Parkway a little south of the Big Chicken. Easy to get to, free parking and good coffee. For more info visit them at OutOfBoxTheatre.com

Deuces Wild
Georgia Symphony Orchestra

The Georgia Symphony Orchestra brought down the house Saturday night at the Marietta Performing Arts Center. The concert was named Deuces Wild because each piece was a No. 2 by the composer, and it also happened to be the introduction of the second of three candidates for the position of new Conductor for the GSO.

Timothy Verville came to town from Arizona to conduct the concert. He’s a Boston Conservatory alumnus with very extensive work around the world. He’s one of those folks with a baton who also knows how to work the house, and is very engaging.

The first of three deuces was Danzón No. 2 by Mexican composer, Arturo Márquez. This work of his, created in 1994 is a great delight. It’s a mix of Mexican and Cuban melodies and really gets your blood flowing. The second of the three deuces was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Alexander Schimpf at the keyboard. Mr. Schimpf is a German pianist who has won many awards, albeit he may not be that well known to most of us. But that will change. He’s one of those who attacks the keys in the manner that Artur Rubenstein would have been proud of. He’s even coifed in a similar fashion. The audience truly enjoyed this piece.

The third of the deuces was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2. This is one of his typical works and the fourth movement, which is very lively and bombastic in part was a really Grand Finale.

Let’s hope we get to see both Maestro Verville and Alexander Schimpf again. Or, check out their websites and see their videos in Utube. You can always find full into for the GSO at GeorgiaSymphony.org. And . . . if you dig classic jazz, then mark your calendar for Sam Skelton and the GSO Jazz group at the Strand Theatre on the Square. They play the music of Billy Strayhorn in concert there on March 2d. Another deuce ???

Start Down
Alliance Theatre
through March 6, 2016

Eleanor Burgess’ prize winning work, is a REAL winner, in many ways. The play is on the Hertz Stage, and when you first grab your seat (it is open seating) you look at this very bare stage and think they must have saved a bundle by having nothing there.

WRONG. Caite Hevner Kemp has designed quite a set, which glides easily through quite a number of different scenes with backgrounds and props that work just great. She also designed some really cool projected images relating to the work that these nerds were doing.

You know the term Start-up. Somebody gets an idea, sketches out a plan, finds some seed money, gets it going, gets more money, gets it really going and winds up selling out for an amount that looks like a lottery winning. One problem. They don’t all work that well, hence more of them wind up as Start-downs and poop out. I know that one. Done that. Been there.

Jeremy Cohen came in from Minneapolis for some nicer weather and to draw this one together to his high standards. Will (Eric Sharp) is a programmer and his fiancé, Sandy (Annie Purcell) is a teacher. She has a job, while Will has only hopes. Sandy works at the same school as Karen (Tracey Bonner) who also lives with a s.o. named Adam (Josh Tobin) who is in the investment industry.

One thing leads to another, and a light bulb goes on over Will’s head. He’s going to develop a program that will enable students, of varying abilities, to take their quizzes and tests online; and the program will even assign grades to those who do so. It isn’t a big hit at the start-off with the teachers, albeit they have their own complaints about jerky bosses and annoying students as well as ever-growing work loads.

The cast is rounded out with Anthony Campbell as a disaffected student and Andrew Puckett as a business associate. It is set in the Bay Area, so we know what happens in Silicone Valley. After all, when all is said and done, what is our economy all about? MONEY. And, just because you are young, brilliant, and somewhat difficult at times doesn’t mean you can’t be a success. But, then nothing is ever guaranteed. Except that I can guarantee that you will thoroughly enjoy this one.

For more info visit AllianceTheatre.org

Disgraced
Alliance Theatre

The show, Disgraced, may have closed but it shall not be forgotten. The artwork for the show does seem to suggest it may be about anti-Semitism due to the Stars of David in the images. But one needs to understand that Semites were several peoples from the middle east, including many non-Jews and Muslims.

The play, by Pulitzer winner Ayad Akhtar was directed by Susan Booth on a set that was so great that I could have moved into it, were it for rent. This work premiered at the Lincoln Center Theatre in 2012, and deserves to play to audiences who have the ability to think, regardless of their cultural backgrounds.

Amir Kapoor (Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte) is a VERY successful lawyer in a firm where most of the general partners are Jewish. He was born in this country to Muslim parents, but is lapsed, and has changed his surname to avoid being thought of as a Pakistani.

His wife, Emily (Courtney Patterson) is an artist with a deep appreciation of Islamic art. She urges Amir to stand up for an Imam believed to be innocent but facing some terrorist charges. He doesn’t want to get into it; but he does so to placate her. He simply stands and speaks for fairness in the courtroom. We never meet the defendant. But, the effect on Amir’s acceptance is very damaging.

The scene is set a dinner with a Jewish art dealer, Isaac (Andrew Benator) and his Afro-American wife Jory (Tinashe Kajese-Bolden) who is also in Amir’s law firm and also being considered for a partnership. So we have a Muslim, a Jew, a Black lady and a WASP getting submerged into the morass of faith, heredity, discrimination and morality.

Ali Sohaili also appears as Abe, the son of Amir and Emily, who had fully assimilated and changed his name from Hussein, only to wind up now wanting to stand up for what is right, as opposed to what may look correct. It is a one act production that you will want to experience when it comes around again. For you will certainly be one to understand the complexity of living in our time and in our place.

The Full Monty
Lyric Theatre
through February 28, 2016

The Full Monty is one of those shows which plays on some sexuality being used to promote something really good. While the term “full Monty” comes from some UK slang for the whole lot; it may not be as titillating in some ways as Calendar Girls, albeit they both grab one’s attention big time.

Alan Kilpatrick directs a cast of more than two dozen players, while Brandt Blocker conducts a full orchestra in the pit. The play is derived from a film of the same name released in 1997 and the play hit the boards 16 years ago and is still playing somewhere any day.

We meet up with six guys in some steel mill town who are jobless. One of them was the boss of some of the others, but that doesn’t make much difference. They are each having problems. One of them is divorced and facing inability to see his son. Another has a wife who doesn’t even know he is not working when he leaves home each day. They are each looking for some way to make a few bucks.

Then they come across a strip club where a group like The Chippendales are performing to a sold out crowd of gals. Why can’t they do something like that? Well, there may be some problems. One of the guys is pretty chubby, another may be a poster boy for Afro-American manhood, and a couple of them may have landed lousy jobs at a mall or elsewhere, and they aren’t exactly Gene Kellys.

Well they do manage to get it together and book a one-night gig at the strip club. Then things start to go awry and it seems one of them has walked off the set. So what are they to do when the house is sold out, and if they cancel they are in big trouble with Tony, the boss of the joint.

So the show must go on, and it does, and in the final act they go for the Full Monty as they strip out of their police costumes except for their hats, which seem to cover some tracks. There aren’t any really memorable numbers in the score, as this is one of those where the stage action is the play and the play’s the thingie.

It isn’t really for the kiddies, but the adults and the AARP crowd truly enjoy this opus. Just promise that if you attend you shall not try to run up on stage and join the fun. Just sit there and applaud. More info and times at AtlantaLyric.com

I and YOU
Aurora Theatre
through February 21, 2016

Lauren Gunderson’s play has received many kudos for dealing with the mind-set of a teenage girl with a serious kidney problem, who has retreated to her girl-cave where she can try to deal with both her current status as well as what she perceives to be the inevitable outcome.

The girl, Caroline, is played to the hilt by Devon Hales. She’s bitter and cares not what others may think of her. She is visited by Anthony, a black fellow student who comes to ask her to work on a class project with him. Anthony (J. L. Reed) seems to be everything that she is not. And, as the play develops, he becomes her donor-angel.

The play involves a lot of reference to Walt Whitman’s works, especially his Leaves of Grass. While the poem has generated many reactions to some sexuality as well as political commentary; it is one of those that many of us gladly avoided when in school. Whitman was a brilliant chap, but a bit on the weird side.

In the play Caroline seems to be the role model for Whitman’s quote “Resist much, obey little.” And she has decided, as he penned, “I exist as I am, that is enough . . .” Is Anthony real, or has be come to her like the ghost of John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet? You tell me.

The show is staged on a static set designed by Lee Maples and is directed by Jaclyn Hofmann. It is in the black box stage with seating in the round; albeit you may lose a few lines here and there; but you’ll get the message. It may be that it was chosen after Wit because there are messages herein to promote the young female’s persona, help for patients, cooperation with those who may seem different, and dealing with adversity.

For more info and tickets visit them at AuroraTheatre.com

I Hate Hamlet
Stage Door Players
through February 21, 2016

OK, . . So maybe you didn’t enjoy having to read through some of The Bard’s works when you were in high school. And, maybe you thought his stuff was only for the upper crust. Well, whether you are a fan or not, this is one you will enjoy and Old Bill didn’t have nothin’ to do with it.

It’s about a TV actor who is signed to play Hamlet at the Joseph Papp’s Shakespeare in the Park in Manhattan. He’s brought to an apartment to rent by a realtor who knew John Barrymore when he lived there. The actor, Andrew (Dan Ford) isn’t that smitten with the place, but the realtor, Felicia (Gina Rickicki) sells him on the deal.

Andrew’s TV show has been canceled and he also has some frustration in that his girlfriend, Deirdre (Kathryn David), isn’t that anxious to jump in the sack with him to ease his feelings. There’s also a riotous and very pushy producer, Gary (Jonathan David Williams) and Andrew’s agent, Lillian (Holly Stevenson) to deal with. But, the real action catalyst is the ghost of John Barrymore (Robin Bloodworth) who enjoys moving the action along and playing the roles he loved to play when he was still in real time.

For the play’s the thing, and perhaps all’s well that ends well. But, there are many laughs along the way. I could not help but think to myself that this was a far far better thing than I had done before.

Directed by Robert Egizio, with a neat set by Chuck Welcome and some silly fencing action, this is more fun than Shakespeare 101. Actually, it ain’t about him, or Poor Yorick, but who cares? Stage Door Players is in Dunwoody at the North Dekalb Cultural Center, 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd. Comfortable, free parking and easy to get to. For more info visit them at StageDoorPlayers.net