Aurora Theatre’s “Wit” and the opening of “Sweeney Todd” at Actor’s Express top our list, while “Charley’s Aunt” ends its run at Georgia Ensemble Theatre.
Recommended
The Book of Mormon. CLOSES SUNDAY. Those shiny-faced Mormons are back in Atlanta (and Uganda) for more equal-opportunity offensiveness and a surprising amount of heart. The Broadway company is in its fifth year; Atlanta sees one of two national touring companies. The show won nine Tony awards, including best musical. $35-$150. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE, in person at the Fox ticket office or at 855.285.8499.
[FEATURE: MORMON ACTOR AND ATLANTA NATIVE JEVARES MYRICK]
Wit. THROUGH FEB. 7. Atlanta educator Margaret Edson’s only play won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In this Aurora Theatre iteration, Mary Lynn Owen plays Dr. Vivian Bearing, an exacting university English professor who’s dying of ovarian cancer and learning life lessons along the way. Chris Kayser doubles as Vivian’s chief oncologist and her father. $30-$50. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Also at 10 a.m. Feb. 3. 128 East Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered, attached parking in city deck at 153 East Crogan St. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222.
[VIDEO: WIT INSIGHTS FROM PLAYWRIGHT MARGARET EDSON]
Last chance
Charley’s Aunt. CLOSES SUNDAY. Director David Crowe (Romeo and Juliet) trains his eye on this cross-dressing farce, a chestnut from 1892. The Georgia Ensemble Theatre cast promises good things, with Hugh Adams, Joanna Daniel, Scott DePoy, Stephanie Friedman, Rachel Garner, Charles Green, Steve Hudson and Joe Sykes. The story: Jack loves Kitty, and Charley loves Amy. But things are about to get complicated, and it requires a young man donning bloomers and a corset to set it all straight. $26-$35. 8 tonight-Friday; 4 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. Details, tickets HERE or at 770.641.1260. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Opening this weekend
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. IN PREVIEWS | OPENS SATURDAY. The musical often considered Stephen Sondheim’s masterwork comes to Actor’s Express with Kevin Harry (Murder Ballad, Aurora’s Les Miserables) as Todd and Deborah Bowman (Serenbe’s A Streetcar Named Desire) as the scheming Mrs. Lovett. Revenge, murder, meat pies and macabre fun are all on the menu. This 1980 musical thriller won eight Tony awards, including best musical, best score, best actor (Len Cariou) and best actress (Angela Lansbury). Through Feb. 22. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Also at 8 p.m. this Sunday only. Several performances are already sold out. $21-$40. At the King Plow Arts Center, 887 West Marietta St. N.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
This weekend only
ASO: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. TONIGHT + SATURDAY. Missa solemnis has been a staple of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus’ repertoire since the days of maestro Robert Shaw (1916-1999). This performance, in part, celebrates Shaw’s legacy. Principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles is on the podium, joined by soloists Kim-Lillian Strebel (soprano), Stephanie Lauricella (mezzo-soprano), Shawn Mathey (tenor) and Brian Mulligan (baritone). $25-$94. 8 nightly. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
[AUDIO: SHAW AND THE ASO PERFORM MISSA SOLEMNIS]
Still playing
As You Like It. THROUGH JAN 31. Take a trip into Shakespeare’s enchanted woods, where Rosalind and Orlando pursue love in the most circuitous way. Pub menu and libations available. $15-$36. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 6:30 p.m. Sunday. New American Shakespeare Tavern, 499 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.874.5299, Ext. 0. Discount gift certificates at PoshDealz.com.
Next week
Disgraced. PREVIEWS JAN. 27 | OPENS FEB. 3. Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama, a Tony Award nominee for best play, the most-produced play in America this season and soon to be an HBO movie. American playwright Ayad Akhtar tells the story of a lawyer who’s rapidly moving up the corporate ladder while distancing himself from his Muslim roots. When he and his wife host a dinner party, friendly conversation turns deeper and more dangerous. Post-show conversations follow most performances. Note: Contains profanity, extreme violence and adult themes. Recommended for ages 17 and up. $20-$95. Through Feb. 14. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 + 7:30 p.m. (no show at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 30). Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. Discount tickets for preview performances at PoshDealz.com. For more, see this ENCORE FEATURE.
[VIDEO: PLAYWRIGHT AYAD AKHTAR DISCUSSES HIS WORK]
I and You. OPENS JAN. 29 | THROUGH FEB. 21. None of Decatur-bred, San Francisco-based playwright Lauren Gunderson’s work has achieved the acclaim of this two-character drama about teenage classmates and the strange and transcendent connections between them. Winner of the 2014 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association new play award. Gunderson recently earned a Dramatists Guild honor, as well. $20. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Harvel Lab, Aurora Theatre, 128 East Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered, attached parking in city deck at 153 East Crogan St. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222.
I Hate Hamlet. OPENS JAN. 29 | THROUGH FEB. 21. Stage Door Players presents the Paul Rudnick comedy about a successful TV actor who relocates to New York only to see his career bottom out. An offer to play Hamlet onstage is problematical: He hates Hamlet. $15-$30. Performance times: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody. Details HERE, tickets HERE or at 770.396.1726.
Moxie. PREVIEWS JAN. 28-29 | OPENS JAN. 30. World premiere. A Marine in Afghanistan connects with his son by crafting a handmade book. As the unfinished book journeys around the world, all who touch it are sparked to add their personal stories, contributing to its mystical force. The script by Atlanta playwrights Brian Kurlander and Lane Carlock was launched in the inaugural year of the Alliance Theatre’s Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab. The 11-member cast is led by Carolyn Cook and Bobby Labartino. At Theatrical Outfit. $20-$55. Through Feb. 21. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2:30 + 7:30 p.m. Saturday (7:30 p.m. show only on opening night); and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St. N.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.528.1500.
The Toxic Avenger. OPENS JAN. 29 | THROUGH MARCH 13. Horizon Theatre presents the 2008-09 Outer Critics Circle Award winner for best off-Broadway musical. The show has a rock score and is based on the 1984 superhero horror comedy movie. It features Nick Arapoglou, who’s been away from the stage too long, as the hero, and the supremely talented Michael Stiggers and Leslie Bellair, among others. $25 and up. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 3 + 8:30 p.m. Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. At the corner of Austin and Euclid avenues in Little Five Points/Inman Park. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.584.7450.
Coming up
ASO: Dvořák and Kholodenko’s debut. Peruvian maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya returns to Atlanta to conduct a program featuring composer Jimmy López’s Perú Negro, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, perhaps his finest. The Prokofiev features the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra debut of Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko. López’s Perú Negro is described as a “thrilling fusion of folk and classical elements.” $20-$79. 8 nightly. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. FEB. 2-7. Broadway in Atlanta presents the musical fairy tale about a girl who likes to read and monstrous creature trapped by a spell. The Alan Menke-Howard Ashman-Tim Rice score, augmented a bit from the 1991 feature film, features “Be Our Guest,” “Something There,” “Human Again” and the title song. $30-$125. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 + 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E. Details HERE. Tickets HERE or at 855.285.8499. For more, see this ENCORE FEATURE on the actor who plays Cogsworth, the grandfather clock.
The Missing Generation. FEB. 4-7. 7 Stages brings San Francisco’s Sean Dorsey Dance to town with this new dance-theater work that explores the contemporary impact of the loss of part of an entire generation of gay and transgender people to AIDS in the 1980s and 90s. The piece was created over two years through oral history interviews with survivors in six U.S. cities, including Atlanta. $22.50.8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. 1105 Euclid Ave. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.523.7647.
Moulin Rouge: The Ballet. FEB. 5-13. Atlanta Ballet invites you into the bohemian world of Paris in its heyday, the spiritual birthplace of the squealing, skirt-flipping cancan, and the Moulin Rouge, the most famous cabaret in history. Experience a story of young love and rising stardom in this story ballet choreographed by Jorden Morris. $20-$127. 8 p.m. Feb. 5 and 11-13; 2 p.m. Feb. 6-7. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.892.3303.
