Want to get your culture on this weekend? Here are our recommendations. Also, check our “Looking Ahead” section below for some of the biggest happenings in the month. Pictured, above: “One Slight Hitch” at Georgia Ensemble Theatre with (from left) Bekah Medford, Jennifer Alice Acker, Karen Howell, Mark Cabus and Kelly Criss. (Photo by Dan Carmody/Studio 7)
THIS WEEK ONLY
A Night at the Beam. SATURDAY ONLY. This dance performance features Moving in the Spirit alumni and professional artists including Alexia Jones, Camille Jackson, Amazing Grace and Crossover Movement Arts. Join them as they celebrate the nonprofit company’s 28-year history of uplifting and inspiring audiences and the lives of its young members. $12; $10 age 13 and under. 3 & 6 p.m. The Beam, 750 Glenwood Ave. S.E. Details HERE or at 404.624.5295.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. TONIGHT & SATURDAY. Did you know Franz Liszt was considered the Springsteen of the mid-19th century? Yup! This program features Liszt’s Les preludes, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and Ein Heldenleben by R. Strauss. Israeli conductor Asher Fisch is on the podium; Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov makes his ASO debut with the Rachmaninov. 8 tonight; 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
OPENING THIS WEEKEND
One Slight Hitch. THROUGH JAN. 25. Georgia Ensemble Theatre stages Lewis Black’s romantic farce about a lavish wedding that’s perfect … until it’s not. Cast: Mark Cabus, Karen Howell and real-life husband-and-wife Matt Felton and Kelly Criss, among others. Contains adult language. $10-$35. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Additional shows at 4 p.m. Jan. 17 & 24. GET performs at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. Details, tickets HERE or at 770.641.1260.
LAST CHANCE
The Stinky Cheese Man. THROUGH SUNDAY. Jack (of Beanstalk fame) guides the audience through a collection of fairy-tale parodies, including a duckling who really is just ugly and a man made of stinky cheese, not gingerbread. Based on the Jon Scieszka book. Told with hand and rod puppets by Paul Mesner Puppets of Kansas City, Mo. Good for ages 4 and up. Show times: 10 & 11:30 a.m. Thursday-Friday; 11 a.m., 1 p.m. & 3 p.m. Saturday; and 1 & 3 p.m. Sunday. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. N.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.873.3391.
LOOKING AHEAD
Bad Jews. JAN. 21-FEB. 22. A comedy written and developed by Joshua Harmon during a playwriting residency at Actor’s Express. The plot: Daphna Feygenbaum is a “real Jew.” Her cousin Liam is a self-described “bad Jew,” complete with a shiksa girlfriend. When they hit New York for a relative’s funeral, they engage in a bitingly funny battle over a cherished family artifact. New York Times critics named it the best comedy of the 2012-13 season. Cast: Suzi Bass Award winner Galen Crawley (Mary Poppins), Rachel DeJulio, Wyatt Fenner (Pluto) and Louis Gregory. $20-$32 (parking $5). 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. King Plow Arts Center, 887 W. Marietta St. Tickets, details HERE or at 404.875.1606.
Fried Chicken & Latkes. JAN. 15-17. Rain Pryor shares her experiences growing up as the daughter of famed comic Richard Pryor and a Jewish go-go dancer named Shelley R. Bonis. She discusses racial tensions in Beverly Hills and explains how she learned to embrace her African-American roots, her Jewish ancestry and her father’s unique style of parenting. Expect impressions, songs, monologues and a three-piece jazz band. $25-$100 in advance. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 6 & 8 p.m. Saturday. Presented by True Colors Theatre Company and the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta at the Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road S.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.613.3220.
The Lizard & El Sol. JAN. 12-31. The latest show in the Alliance Theatre’s innovative Theatre for the Very Young program (for ages 18 months to 5 years). This interactive adventure is based on a famous Mexican folktale about a time when El Sol (the Sun), disappeared from the sky. Young ones will help the tenacious Lizard coax the sleepy Sol out of his hiding place. With puppets and Mexican-inspired music and dance. $10. Tickets remain for these performances: 9:30 a.m. Jan. 12; 9:30 & 11 a.m. Jan. 13 & 15; 11 a.m. Jan 16; 11 a.m. Jan 24 (single seats only); and 9:30 a.m. Jan. 31. Please check before you go. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Marin Alsop and the ASO. JAN. 15 & 17. The first female conductor of a major U.S. orchestra (and one of the best, says the ASO) returns to lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra in Brazil, leads a program that includes Barber’s Essay No. 2, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s final symphony, Pathétique. Lithuanian-born violinist and violist Julian Rachlin plays the Prokofiev. 8 p.m. Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. (Photo by Greg Leighton)
Tuck Everlasting. JAN. 21-FEB. 21. A young girl dreaming of adventure meets a family with a fascinating secret. Their chance encounter will change them all forever. A world premiere musical at the Alliance Theatre. Based on Natalie Babbitt’s 1975 novel. The script is by Tony Award nominee Claudia Shear; the score by the young, award-winning team of Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen; and the direction and choreography by Tony winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, The Drowsy Chaperone, Spamalot). For ages 10 and up. $21-$60. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 & 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 & 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Alliance Theatre mainstage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. Ticket discounts at PoshDealz.com. For more on Nicholaw, see this ENCORE FEATURE.
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Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, working in or writing about the performing arts for most of her life. Please email: kathy@encoreatlanta.com.
