Want to get your culture on? Our recommendations include Mark Kendall’s daring and raucous one-man “Morgan Freeman Presents the Magic Negro and Other Blackness” at Dad’s Garage.
RECOMMENDED
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. TONIGHT | SATURDAY-SUNDAY. The symphony continues a mini-Beethoven festival with the composer’s Fifth Symphony. Also planned: Symphony No. 3 by Emory professor Richard Prior and Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie, featuring ASO principal clarinetist Laura Ardan. 8 tonight; 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. $24-$99. Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Murder Ballad. THROUGH DEC. 7. You have three more weeks to catch this must-see rock musical about a love triangle gone bad, getting a taut and twisty telling at Actor’s Express. The New York Times called this 2013 off-Broadway hit a “savvy guilty pleasure.” Freddie Ashley directs. His cast: Kristen Browne, Jessica De Maria, Jeremy Harrison and Kevin Harry. The reviews: “An exuberant, intoxicating piece of theater” (Jim Farmer, ArtsATL.com); “Winningly straddles the line between musical theater and gritty little club gig” (Wendell Brock, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution). 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. $26-$45 plus fees (buy online and save $2). $41-$60 VIP tickets include bistro table seating and a drink voucher. King Plow Arts Center, 887 W. Marietta St. Tickets, details HERE or at 404.607.7469. Ticket discounts at PoshDealz.com. (Pictured: De Maria as the Narrator. Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus)
White Rabbit Red Rabbit. CLOSES SATURDAY. Out of Hand Theater concludes its months-long run of this theater event, a one-person piece done without rehearsal, director or set and by a different actor doing a cold reading each time. 8 tonight at Kennesaw State University (actor Harrison Long); 8 p.m. Friday in Candler Park (actor Stacy Melich); 8 p.m. Saturday in Lenox Park (actor Tara Ochs); also at 8 p.m. Saturday with Saiah International at the Goat Farm Arts Center (actor Marium Khalid). $20-$25 plus fees. Details, tickets and the rest of the schedule HERE. For more, see this ENCORE FEATURE.
OPENING THIS WEEKEND
Christmas Canteen. OPENS TONIGHT | THROUGH DEC. 21. This nostalgic revue is Gwinnett’s longest-running theatrical holiday tradition. Its singing, dancing cast includes Randi Garza, Brandon O’Dell and Bryant Smith. Runs in conjunction with Aurora Theatre‘s Festival of Trees. You can’t get much merrier than that. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2:30 & 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. No shows Nov. 26-27. Sold out: Dec. 3 & 11; both shows Dec. 10; and Dec. 13 matinee. Check before you go! $20 and up. 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered, attached parking in city of Lawrenceville deck at 153 E. Crogan St., Lawrenceville. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222. Ticket discounts at PoshDealz.com.
A Christmas Carol. BEGINS FRIDAY | THROUGH DEC. 24. David de Vries takes over the “bah, humbugs” this season — the 25th for this staging — succeeding longtime Ebenezer Scrooge Chris Kayser. You know the story: miserly Scrooge, the ghosts, the Cratchit family and a spiritual reawakening. What sets the Alliance Theatre staging apart is its multicultural casting, its sumptuous sets and costumes, and its cast of finely tuned choristers. Show times vary. Schedule HERE. $17.50-$72. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. For more on de Vries, see this ENCORE FEATURE. (Pictured: de Vries in the 1996-97 Alliance staging of Sleuth)
THIS WEEKEND ONLY
Urban Nutcracker. THROUGH SUNDAY. Ballethnic Dance Company reprises its annual show, which takes place on Sweet Auburn Avenue in 1940s Atlanta, a street populated by the Reggae Ragdolls, the Black Russian, Mother Spice and her tumbling Spice Drops, the bubbly Coca Cola Pas de Six, and the elegant Brown Sugar with her Chocolatier. 7:30 tonight; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday. $39-$52. Ferst Center for the Arts on the Georgia Tech campus, 349 Ferst Drive N.W. Details HERE. Tickets HERE. Questions at 404.894.9600.
LAST CHANCE
Trust Byron. CLOSES SUNDAY. A one-man show about one of the most notorious characters of the 19th century, described as a “provocative and intelligent look at the present, and perhaps the future, through the eyes of a savage mind from the past.” Arís Theatre promises a piece that’s funny, edgy, sexy and downright challenging, at times. Winslow Thomas is Byron. Not suitable for children. 8 tonight-Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. $15-$25. Arís Theatre at Georgia Public Broadcasting, Studio B, 260 14th St. N.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.692.0053. Ticket discounts at PoshDealz.com.
NOW PLAYING
Morgan Freeman Presents the Magic Negro and Other Blackness. THROUGH DEC. 6. Ever wonder whether Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham is racially charged or just whose uncle Uncle Ben is? Using comedic sketches, improv and character pieces, this one-man show from the mind of Dad’s Garage’s Mark Kendall examines how black men are represented in the media, as told by the character of Morgan Freeman. From prison to white flight, Aunt Jemima and even Black Jesus, he explores how these images influence views on race in everyday life. 8 tonight & Sunday; 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Pay-what-you-can show at 8 p.m. Monday. $10.50-$27.50. Dad’s Garage Theatre at 7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Ave. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.523.3141.
Rabbit Hole. THROUGH DEC. 7. A couple tries to piece their life together after a tragedy in David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. The cast: Chase Alford, Patricia French, Cara Mantella, Matthew Myers and Mary Saville. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. $30. Stage Door Players, 5339 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody. Directions HERE. Tickets at 770.396.1726.
LOOKING AHEAD
It’s a Wonderful Laugh. OPENS NOV. 28 | THROUGH DEC. 20. Dad’s Garage Theatre Company parodies the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life as only it can, with this scripted work by artistic director Kevin Gillese and his team of impish improvisers. Bedford Falls never saw it coming. Ages 18 and older only. May contain cursing, sexual innuendo, violence and/or nudity. Dad’s Garage at the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. For more on Kevin Gillese and It’s a Wonderful Laugh, see this ENCORE FEATURE.
Lyle the Crocodile. OPENS NOV. 28 | THROUGH DEC. 28. Synchronicity Theatre greets the holidays with this family musical about a crocodile who turns up in a New York family’s bathtub. He tap dances, too. Based on the books Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber. 7:30 p.m. Friday; 1 & 4 p.m. Saturday; and 2 & 5 p.m. Sunday. Also at 2 p.m. Dec. 22-23; 11 a.m. Dec. 24; and 2 p.m. Dec. 26. $10-$40. Synchronicity Theatre at Peachtree Point, 1545 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.484.8636.
The 12 Dates of Christmas. OPENS NOV. 28 | THROUGH DEC. 20. Actor-director Jaclyn Hofmann laces up her funny shoes once again. She’s Mary, who, while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, sees her scalawag of a fiancé kiss another woman. Over the next year, she’s set up, hooked up, strung up and fed up as she navigates the dating world. Times vary (running in repertory with Anthony P. Rodriguez’s one-man A Christmas Carol). Schedule HERE. $20. 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered, attached parking in city of Lawrenceville deck at 153 E. Crogan St., Lawrenceville. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222. Ticket discounts at PoshDealz.com.
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Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, working in or covering the performing arts for most of her life. Full disclosure: She’s affiliated with Synchronicity Theatre listed above. Please email: kathy@encoreatlanta.com.
