The best of the best: “Appropriate” (Actor’s Express), “Proof” (True Colors), ASO’s journeys to the sea, Atlanta Opera’s “Silent Night.” Plus. Much. More. Pictured, from left: Michelle Pokopac, Park Krausen and Keena Redding Hunt in “On the Verge” at Georgia Ensemble Theatre. Photo by Dan Carmody / Studio7.
** Indicates an Encore Atlanta fall season best bet
Recommended
** Appropriate. THROUGH NOV. 20. Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins gives us a darkly comic domestic drama about the adult children of a deceased Southern patriarch who just might have been a high-ranking muckety-muck in the KKK. Artistic director Freddie Ashley’s directs an Actor’s Express cast that includes Cynthia Barrett, Bryan Brendle, Alexandra Ficken, Devon Hales and Kevin Stillwell. $22-$44. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. 887 W. Marietta St. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
[VIDEO: PEEK IN ON “APPROPRIATE’S” DYSFUNCTIONAL LAFAYETTE FAMILY]
** Proof. THROUGH NOV. 26. David Auburn’s 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama earned an acting Tony Award for Mary-Louise Parker and became a middling 2005 feature film with Gwyneth Paltrow. The plot revolves around Catherine (New York’s Fedna Jacquet), the troubled younger daughter of a recently deceased master mathematician. She might have inherited his genius, or his madness. Tess Malis Kincaid directs. Also in the cast: Gerard Catus, Tinashe Kajese and Eric Mendenhall. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. True Colors Theatre Company at the Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road. Details HERE. Tickets HERE or at 877.725.8849.
This weekend only
ASO | A Sea Symphony. 8 TONIGHT + SATURDAY. Music director Robert Spano leads the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a program comprising Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Vaughn Williams’ A Sea Symphony with guests Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano), Brian Mulligan (baritone) and Tamara Wilson (soprano). A Sea Symphony is one of the ASO’s signature pieces. The orchestra’s 2003 recording won three Grammy awards. $20-$79. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Cowboy. OPENS TONIGHT | THROUGH SUNDAY. Israeli stage artists Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor combine contemporary dance with performance art and physical theater. Clown plays with the notion of failure, clichés and queer identity. In a carnival of play on stage, four men generate a space where a light country line-dance evolves into something dark, erotic and immersive. Note: Contains nudity. $20.50 and up. 8 tonight-Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. At 7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Ave. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.523.7647.
Overture Concert. 3 P.M. SUNDAY. In the first of three concerts this year, the 120 artists of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra (ASYO) perform Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Assistant conductor Joseph Young is on the podium. $10 all seats. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Slur. SATURDAY ONLY. World premiere. Daisy is a typical middle-schooler, or so she thinks until someone scrawls a religious slur on her locker. She and her middle-school classmates wonder: Are we what society says we are? Or can we be whoever we want to be? An original age-specific play about identity, race and religion by Greg Changnon in collaboration with his Paideia School students and the young actors in the Alliance Theatre summer drama camps. $18-$32. 1 + 3:30 p.m. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
[FOLLOW ‘SLUR’S JOURNEY FROM PAIDEIA TO THE ALLIANCE STAGE]
Opening this week
** On the Verge. THROUGH NOV. 20. Subtitled Or the Geography of Learning. The year is 1888, and three female explorers begin a witty and whimsical safari through space and time to a place called Terra Incognita. Think part “Twilight Zone” and part Back to the Future. The New York Times described Eric Overmyer’s 1985 comedy as “blending Tom Stoppard’s limber linguistics with the historic overview of a Thornton Wilder.” Atlanta actor Carolyn Cook directs a Georgia Ensemble Theatre cast featuring Keena Redding Hunt, Park Krausen, Michelle Maria Pokopac and Topher Payne. $26-$35. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Also at 4 p.m. Nov. 12 + 19. Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. Details, tickets HERE or at 770.641.1260.
Silent Night. OPENS SATURDAY | ALSO NOV. 8, 11 + 13. Atlanta Opera presents the U.S. premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning piece about one WWI Christmas, when French, British and German soldiers put down their weapons to share cigarettes and brandy, exchange gifts and play soccer. Based on the Oscar-nominated 2005 film Joyeux Noël. Sung in English, German, French, Italian and Latin with English supertitles. $35 and up. 8 p.m. Saturday + Nov. 11; 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8; 3 p.m. Nov. 13. Opening night includes a pre-performance talk with Kevin Puts, the Pulitzer-winning composer, and librettist Mark Campbell. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.881.8885.
Last chance
Cabaret. THROUGH SUNDAY. Broadway in Atlanta presents the latest national tour of Kander and Ebb’s award-winning Nazi-era musical. This version features Pace Academy grad Randy Harrison (“Queer As Folk”), who grew up in Alpharetta, as the Emcee. Atlanta audiences are seeing the 1998 Broadway revival version, which scored a Tony Award for Alan Cumming, not the 1966 Joel Grey original. Although set in Weimar Germany, it’s a true American classic. The bawdy score includes “Willkommen,” “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Maybe This Time,” “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” and more. Note: Contains mature content. $30-$105. 7:30 tonight; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 + 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 855.285.8499.
[CATCH UP WITH EMCEE RANDY HARRISON IN THIS ENCORE FEATURE]
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. CLOSES SUNDAY. The inaugural production of Out Front Theatre Company is the Broadway musical based on the 1994 feature film about two drag queens and a transsexual who take a road trip across the Australian Outback. “Priscilla” is the broken-down bus they use. You might want to give it a look. Out Front tells stories of the LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intergender, Allied) experience. $25. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Out Front at 999 Brady Ave., West Midtown (the former Fabrefaction Theatre space). Details, tickets HERE. Discount season tickets at PoshDealz.com.
[SEE WHAT ELSE OUT FRONT HAS PLANNED]
Next week
ASO | Flourish With Fireworks. NOV. 10 + 12. Music director Robert Spano leads the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a program that features Knussen’s Flourish With Fireworks; Scriabin’s Symphony No. 5, Prometheus, Poem of Fire; Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1; and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. ASO concertmaster David Coucheron solos on the Prokofiev. $25-$94. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
No(se)onenowhere. NOV. 9-10, 12-13. Physical performance master Ofir Nahari of Israel brings this popular piece back to 7 Stages for an encore run. It follows the story of Amassan, a white clown trapped in the loneliness of reality. In a fit of imagination he creates a fantastic, poetic universe. Sometimes the only way to escape is to create a new world within yourself. $20.50 and up. 8 p.m. Nov. 9-10 + 12; 5 p.m. Nov. 13. 1105 Euclid Ave. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.523.7647.
