“When Things Are Lost” opens at the 2016 Essential Theatre Fest, “Smart People” closes at True Colors plus “Company” (AE), “In the Heights” (Aurora) and “Miss Saigon” sing on. Note: “Kiss Me, Kate” at Stage Door is sold out. Pictured: The “Company” company, with Lowery Brown as Bobby (foreground). Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus.
Openings
When Things Are Lost. OPENS FRIDAY | THROUGH AUG. 27. Derek Dixon’s brand-new comic drama about friendship, loss, understanding and forgiveness joins the 2016 Essential Theatre Festival. In it, a man goes on a dream quest to figure out what happened to his best friend, who seems to have disappeared. Contains adult themes and situations. Amber Bradshaw directs. The cast: Barrett Doyle, Anthony Goolsby, Jill Perry, Gina Rickicki, Chelsea Steverson, Kerwin Thompson, Alex Towers and Alex Van. (The other play in this annual summertime repertory is Karen Wurl’s Dispossessed.) $20 + $25; fest passes available. Performances: 8 tonight (preview), Friday (opening) and Aug. 9, 13, 18-19, 22, 25 + 27; 7 p.m. Sunday + Aug. 21; and 2 p.m. Aug. 14. West End Performing Arts Center, 945 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. S.W. Details, tickets HERE.
[READ: MORE ON PLAYWRIGHT DEREK DIXON HERE]
This weekend only
OneAnother. TONIGHT-SUNDAY. The Lucky Penny presents the premiere of choreographer Blake Beckham’s new contemporary dance piece, described as a work for five dancers that considers twos: pairs, dualities, the intimate gestures that bind us and the deeply felt urge to seek out match, mate and mirror. $10-$20. 8 tonight-Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. Mary Gray Munroe Theater at Emory University, 605 Asbury Circle NE, Dobbs University Center (free parking in Fishburne and Peavine decks). Ushers will direct you from parking to the theater). Details HERE. Tickets HERE.
Last chance
Smart People. CLOSES SUNDAY. If the quest for love, achievement and identity is universal, what role does racial identity play in our lives? That’s what playwright Lydia Diamond (Stick Fly) asks through four Harvard intellectuals on the eve of Obama’s first election. The smart cast at True Colors Theatre Company consists of Julee Cerda, Danielle Deadwyler, Neal A. Ghant and Joe Knezevich. Adult language, content. $10-$50. 8 tonight-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road SW. Details, tickets HERE or at 877.725.8849.
Still playing
Company. THROUGH SEPT. 11. Actor’s Express begins its 29th season promising a “modern makeover” of this 1971 Tony Award-winning Stephen Sondheim hit. Robert (Lowrey Brown) is a single New Yorker about to turn 35. He confronts his bachelorhood in a series of funny-sad-awkward vignettes with his married, meddling friends. The cast (Libby Whittemore, Jill Hames, Jessica Miesel, Daniel Burns, Craig Waldrip, among others) and the score (“The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Another Hundred People” and “Being Alive,” among others) easily make this a best bet. $28 + up. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday. 887 W. Marietta St. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
‘da Kink in My Hair. THROUGH AUG. 28. “If you want to know a black woman, you touch her hair,” says Novelette (Terry Burrell), as she digs into the tresses and stresses of her clients. On this day, her customers converge to prep for dates, jobs and upkeep but leave with lightened hearts and souls. Thomas W. Jones II directs a cast that includes Minka Wiltz, Jeanette Illidge and Maiesha McQueen. $25 + up. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 3 + 8:30 p.m. Saturday; and 5 p.m. Sunday. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave. NE at Euclid Avenue. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.584.7450.
[WATCH: A SNEAK PEEK OF HORIZON’S ‘DA KINK’]
Dispossessed. THROUGH AUG. 28. World premiere. Atlanta playwright Karen Wurl’s romantic comic-fantasy is one of two plays in the 2016 Essential Theatre Festival (running in repertory with Derek Dixon’s When Things Are Lost). Dispossessed visits a Yiddish theater company in 1920s New York, where a young actress trying to decide between two suitors and a career is confronted with the living embodiment of the character she’s playing — a bride possessed by the spirit of a dead lover. $20 + $25; fest passes available. Performances: 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11-12, 16, 20, 23 + 26; 2 p.m. Sunday and Aug. 21 + 28; and 7 p.m. Aug. 14. West End Performing Arts Center, 945 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. S.W. Details, tickets HERE.
[READ: A CHAT WITH PLAYWRIGHT KAREN WURL]
In the Heights. THROUGH AUG. 28. Aurora Theatre and Theatrical Outfit team to stage this 2007 Tony Award-winning best musical, the first Broadway show written by Hamilton auteur Lin-Manuel Miranda. We’re in NYC’s Washington Heights, where the corner bodega serves coffee light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries a current of change. $30-$65. 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Also at 10 a.m. ($20 + up) Aug. 10 + 17. 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered, attached parking in city of Lawrenceville deck at 153 E. Crogan St. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222. (The Outfit leg of the run is Sept. 8-18 at the Rialto Center for the Arts in downtown Atlanta). Discount tickets for both runs at PoshDealz.com.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. THROUGH AUG. 7. Shakespeare’s fairy-filled romp through the woods is, perhaps, his most popular comedy. This Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse staging, it says, features some of the company’s better clowning actors. For all ages. Playhouse regular Matt Felton directs. Pub menu and tasty adult beverages available. $15-$40. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Parking ($5) recommended in Emory University Hospital Midtown deck on Peachtree Street. The playhouse is across the street at 499 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.874.5299, Ext. 0.
Miss Saigon. THROUGH AUG. 14. Serenbe Playhouse puts its imprint on the 1991 musical drama from the Les Miserables team. Think Puccini’s Madama Butterfly reset during the Vietnam War, where a GI named Chris falls in love with a Vietnamese barmaid named Kim. Serenbe’s outdoor staging includes a genuine Huey helicopter during the climactic fall of Saigon scene. Performed rain or shine in Serenbe’s Wild Flower Meadow. Best for age 15+. $35. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. 10950 Hutchesons Ferry Road, Chattahoochee Hills. Details, tickets HERE or at 770.463.1110. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Next week
If/Then. AUG. 9-14. A contemporary Broadway musical about living in New York today — and the possibilities of tomorrow. This original American musical simultaneously follows one woman’s two possible life paths — wife or career woman — asking us to consider the lives we lead and the lives we might have led. By Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning creators of Next to Normal. Contains strong language, mature themes. $30-$75. Presented by Broadway in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 855.285.8499. Meet lyricist Brian Yorkey in this ENCORE FEATURE.
