Want to get your culture on this weekend? Maybe our recommendations can help. Please read on.
THIS WEEKEND ONLY
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. TONIGHT + SATURDAY. Finnish conductor John Storgards makes his ASO debut on a program that features Argentina’s Ingrid Fliter playing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Also planned: Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 and An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands by Nielsen. $20-$99. Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
OPENING THIS WEEKEND
James and the Giant Peach. OPENS SATURDAY | THROUGH MARCH 29. Enter a young boy’s wild and surreal world of magic and adventure in this jazzy Broadway-style musical by Tony Award-nominated composer-lyricists Pasek and Paul (A Christmas Story). James, an English orphan, begins to imagine a bright future as he embarks on a journey in a larger-than-life enchanted peach. Rosemary Newcott directs. $20-$35. 1 + 3:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Alliance Theatre mainstage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
NOW PLAYING
Roob and Noob. THROUGH APRIL 4. Meet Roob and Noob, two overly curious scientists who love nothing more than discovering something new. Join their interactive adventure combining science and the arts as part of the Alliance’s Theatre for the Very Young, for ages 18 months to 5 years. Note: No shows March 16-20. $10; under age 1 free. 9:30 + 11 a.m. Monday-Saturday. Alliance Theatre’s Black Box Theatre (third floor), Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details HERE or at 404.733.5000.
NEXT WEEK
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. MARCH 20-29. Laugh and commiserate with Alexander in this musical about his ongoing misadventures. Author Judith Viorst, who began it all with the 1972 picture book, provides the book and lyrics. Recommended for ages 4-10, and anyone who’s ever had one of those days. $20 advance; $15 students, in advance. Atlanta Lyric Theatre at the Lyric Studio Theatre in the Square, 12 Powder Springs St. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.377.9948. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Troy Davis Project. MARCH 21 ONLY. Reading. Synchronicity Theatre invites you to take part in developing this new play by Atlanta playwright Lee Nowell. She digs into the case of Davis, who was convicted of the August 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail and executed by lethal injection in September 2011. Davis maintained his innocence until his death and his case became a cause celebre among death penalty opponents. Talkback follows. Partners include Emory’s Ethics & Arts Program, the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Ben Marion Institute for Social Justice, Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College. $10. 7:30 p.m. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.484.8636.
Camino Real. MARCH 20-22 ONLY. World premiere. Atlanta Ballet dances a full-evening piece inspired by the 1953 Tennessee Williams play and told from the perspective of Kilroy, a character based on patriotic iconography from World War II. The ballet, choreographed by Helen Pickett, deals with mortality, the desire to connect and the will to live. $23-$124. 8 p.m. Friday; 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. Details, tickets HERE or 404.892.3303. Venue info at 770.916.2852. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com. (Pictured: Tara Lee and Heath Gill. Photo by Charlie McCullers)
Classical Guitar With Milos Karadaglic. MARCH 19 + 21. Montenegro guitarist Milos Karadaglic returns to Atlanta Symphony Hall for Rodrigo’s second concerto for guitar and orchestra — Fantasia para un gentilhombre — originally written for Andres Segovia. Guest conductor Jacomo Rafael Bairos, music director of the Amarillo Symphony in Texas, leads the ASO in Three-Cornered Hat Suite No. 2 by Falla and Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky and Ravel. $20-$99. 8 p.m. Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Tickets, details HERE or at 404.733.5000.
The Leopard Tale. MARCH 19-22 ONLY. This piece, one of Ballethnic Dance Company‘s signature ballets, revisits the jungle in dramatic, imaginative and athletic ways. $42. Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. N.W. Details HERE, tickets HERE or at 404.413.9849.
LOOKING AHEAD
Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. BEGINS MARCH 25 | THROUGH APRIL 26. Tarell Alvin McCraney (Choir Boy, In the Red and Brown Water) is one of the best playwrights working in America today. In Marcus, part of his Brothers/Sisters Plays trilogy, a young African-American man discovers his sexual identity in the Louisiana bayou. Terry Guest plays Marcus. Kennesaw State’s Karen Robinson directs. 8 p.m. March 25 (Director’s Rough Cut, pay what you can at the door). Previews at 8 p.m. March 26-27 ($20). Opens at 8 p.m. March 28 ($40, includes post-show reception with the director and cast). Regularly $26-$45. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com. (Pictured: Guest as Marcus. Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus)
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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. Full disclosure: She is affiliated with Synchronicity Theatre listed above. Please email: kathy@encoreatlanta.com.
