This week see then — The Temple Bombing, a world premiere at the Alliance Theatre — and now — Exit Strategy at True Colors Theatre Company. Plus Broadway’s Alan Cumming and jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves are in concert. Picture: A scene from The Temple Bombing. Photo by Greg Mooney.
** Indicates an Encore Atlanta winter season recommendation.
Recommended
Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs. FRIDAY ONLY. The Tony Award-winning stage (Cabaret) and film actor performs the acclaimed cabaret show he premiered in 2015 at New York’s Cafe Carlyle and then toured with worldwide. Expect songs made famous by Adele, Noel Coward, Lady Gaga, Annie Lennox, Katy Perry, Stephen Sondheim, Elaine Stritch and Rufus Wainwright. The Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald called the show “so hilarious, flirty and gorgeously filthy that it’s hard to decide if you want him as a new best friend or a lover.” $39.50-$125.50 plus fees. 8 p.m. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details HERE, tickets HERE or at 800.745.3000 (human being) and 866.448.7849 (automated 24-hour line).
** Exit Strategy. THROUGH MARCH 19. At True Colors Theatre Company. The Chicago Tribune called playwright Ike Holter, the man behind this script, one of the “most exciting young writers in the city” and named him 2014’s Chicagoan of the Year in Theater. His drama, about a public school facing closure, seems simple but is not. “A lot of people expect things from me when it comes to race, but I don’t just write black characters,” says Holter, who’s in his early 30s. The cast includes Matthew Busch, Tess Malis Kincaid, William S. Murphey and Diany Rodriguez. $20-$50. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. True Colors performs at the Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road, Atlanta. Details, tickets HERE or at 877.725.8849.
Dianne Reeves. SATURDAY ONLY. The Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist returns to the Rialto Center for the Arts for an evening of song that pulls from African-inspired folk music, world music, pop, original tunes and, of course, jazz standards. Reeves is backed by Peter Martin on piano, Romero Lubambo on guitar, Reginald Veal on bass and Terreon Gully on drums. $39-$74. 8 p.m. The Rialto at Georgia State University, 80 Forsyth St. NW. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.413.9849.
** The Temple Bombing. THROUGH MARCH 12. World premiere. The story is set firmly in Atlanta — it deals with the October 1958 explosion at The Temple, the city’s oldest synagogue — but the piece originated at New York’s Tectonic Theater Project and is inspired by Melissa Fay Greene’s award-winning book. Tectonic’s Jimmy Maize, who wrote the script, also directs. His cast includes Danielle Deadwyler, Ann Marie Gideon, Eric Mendenhall, Lee Osorio, Ric Reitz and Minka Wiltz. Contains adult situations. Suggested for ages 13 and up. $20-$72. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Alliance mainstage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
This weekend only
The 24-Hour Opera Project. SATURDAY ONLY. See the finale of this exercise in anxiety, one that asks teams of composers, librettists, stage directors, singers and accompanists to write, stage, rehearse and perform original mini-operas within 24 hours. This Atlanta Opera event, in its seventh year, adds Dad’s Garage Theatre Company’s improvisers as partners this year, just to ratchet up the mayhem. $12 in advance; $15 at door. 8 p.m. Dad’s Garage, 569 Ezzard St. SE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.881.8885.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. TONIGHT + SATURDAY. Music director Robert Spano conducts a program that spans the 20th century. Scheduled: the ASO premiere of Christopher Theofanidis‘ Dreamtime Ancestors; Sibelius’ violin concerto, featuring American violinist Benjamin Beilman; and John Adams’ Harmonielehre (Book of Harmony). $20-$49. 8 nightly. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Last chance
** Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. CLOSES SUNDAY. At Georgia Ensemble Theatre. This oral history by Sadie and Bessie Delany began as a 1993 book, became a New York Times best-seller, was adapted for the stage and eventually became an award-winning TV movie. The sisters, the daughters of a former slave who became the first African-American bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church, were civil rights pioneers. Andrea Frye directs. Donna Briscoe and Brenda Porter play the sisters. $26 and up. 8 tonight-Friday; 4 + 8 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. GET performs at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. Details, tickets HERE or at 770.641.1260.
** Sweep. CLOSES SUNDAY. This femme-fantasy story by up-and-coming Latina playwright Georgina H. Escobar sounds like a kick. Her adventure — receiving its world premiere at Aurora Theatre — follows two sisters trying to reset history’s imperfections by hunting biblical and modern-day targets through alternate realities. Runs 90 minutes with no intermission. $20-$30. 8 tonight-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. In Aurora’s Harvel Lab, 28 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered and attached parking in city deck at 153 E. Crogan St. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Next week
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. MARCH 9-11. American conductor Michael Stern, music director of the Kansas City [Mo.] Symphony, leads a program of works by Russian masters: Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Canadian Marc-André Hamelin) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. $20-$84. 8 nightly (a 6:30 p.m. Casual Fridays concert features just the Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky; all tickets $25). Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
The Bridges of Madison County. OPENS MARCH 9. Southeastern premiere. Aurora Theatre stages the Jason Robert Brown (Parade, The Last Five Years) musical based on Robert Waller’s 1992 best-selling novel and the 1995 film with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. Onstage, the story opens up to include more characters and more scenes but, at its heart, it’s still about a lonely Iowa farm wife (Kristin Markiton) and her unexpected love affair with a traveling photographer (Travis Smith). Justin Anderson directs. It had a three-month run on Broadway in 2014. $30-$65. 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Also at 10 a.m. March 29 (tickets start at $20). 28 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered and attached parking in city deck at 153 E. Crogan St. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222.
