Childhood memories can whirl just as dancers do, undulating or striking like ocean waves we miss but long to be part of again. Dancers make indelible impressions on children, even if the child never wants to be a dancer. Young fans can recall every detail of their first exposure: the house lights dimming, their favorite piece, how old they were, what they wore. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has had that affect on people ever since its namesake and a few friends opened eyes at New York’s 92nd Street Y in 1958.
In any Broadway-style production, the leading actors usually get more than their fair share of the limelight. But quite often it’s the lesser-known supporting players who help the headliners shine brightest. The national tour of Memphis features two ensemble members with deep Georgia roots – Christopher Gurr of Americus and Jody Reynard of Austell.
Sally Struthers, as she says, grew up as a strictly West Coast girl. As such, she didn’t see her first Broadway show until she was in her 20s. That show, somewhat ironically, was Annie, and it was love at first sight.
“Dorothy Loudon [as Miss Hannigan] made me laugh so hard I wet myself,” Struthers recalls. [...]
What would the holiday season be without the Atlanta Ballet’s annual staging of the yuletide classic The Nutcracker?
In 1959, long before any of this year’s dancers were born – and probably many of their parents – Atlantans were introduced to choreographer George Balanchine’s signature version. Robert Barnett, then Atlanta Ballet’s artistic director, did the introduction. [...]
Don’t look now, but there’s a classically trained actor inside that Grinch suit.
Stefan Karl graduated from the Icelandic Academy of Arts in Reykjavík and is a National Theatre of Iceland alumni. He’s played Cyrano and Puck, the demented dentist in Little Shop of Horrors and dancing man Cosmo Brown in Singin’ in the Rain. This [...]
You’ll never see their names above the title, or in lights on the marquee. But without performers like Kyli Rae and Christopher Hudson Myers, Mamma Mia! wouldn’t go on.
Rae and Myers are two of the touring show’s four swings. They go on when an ensemble member is sick, injured, on vacation or taking a personal [...]
Ten years ago, Gregory Maguire published Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a novel that reconfigured pop culture’s perception of one of the most widely despised characters of American literature and cinema. By retelling The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of Elphaba — a smart, passionate [...]
Ding! Dong! The Witch is dead … or is she?
That’s one of the many circuitous mysteries that Wicked, the musical, attempts to solve as it guides us along a yellow brick road of good and evil, mayhem and magic, and ever-shifting allegiances.
Like its musical forebears The Wiz and The Wizard of Oz, Wicked is [...]
When Glenn Rainey walks onstage as Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls, chances are he’ll have at least a few friends in the audience cheering him on. Rainey grew up in Newnan and lives in Atlanta, where he’s built up an impressive resume that includes work with the Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Alliance Theatre and Theater [...]
They say you never forget your first love, and that appears to be true for Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away and the city of Atlanta. The Frank Sinatra-themed musical, which premiered at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in September 2009, returns this summer to the Fabulous Fox Theatre, presented by Theater of the Stars.
In keeping with its [...]
