Last call for”Bridges of Madison County” (Aurora); “Georgia McBride” (Actor’s Express), “Grease” (Serenbe) & “The Magic Negro” (Alliance). Pictured, from left: Nick Arapoglou and Jeff McKerley in “The Legend of Georgia McBride.” Photo by Chris Bartelski.
** Indicates an Encore Atlanta winter season recommendation.
Recommended
Grease. CLOSES SUNDAY. Will it rain on prom night? Will Danny and Sandy ever find true love? Will Frenchy flunk out of beauty school? Find out in this outdoor staging by the almost always inventive Serenbe Playhouse. Join the hot-rod-loving boys in leather jackets and their wisecracking girls in poodle skirts in a setting that evokes a drive-in movie. VIP vintage car seating (seating for four, special drink menu, dedicated wait staff, car-side bottle service, and unlimited food and drink) available. Randi Garza (Evita) plays Sandy; Michael Stiggers is Danny. $30-$35; VIP seats $500 per foursome. The Wildflower Meadow at Serenbe. 10950 Hutchesons Ferry Road, Chattahoochee Hills. Details, tickets HERE or at 770.463.1110. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
The Legend of Georgia McBride. CLOSES SUNDAY. At Actor’s Express. What do you do when your Elvis act gets the ax? With a pregnant wife, no money and eviction looming, Casey (the terrific Nick Arapoglou) swaps his jumpsuit for sequins and becomes the Florida Panhandle’s newest drag queen. Also in the cast: Thandiwe Deshazor, Jeff McKerley, Falashay Pearson and Al Stilo. $21-$45. 8 tonight-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. King Plow Arts Center, 887 West Marietta St. NW. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469.
** The Magic Negro. CLOSES SATURDAY. The full title of this one-man show by Atlanta improv artist Mark Kendall is The Magic Negro and other Blackity Blackness, as told by an African-American Man who also happens to be Black (his capitalization). The title and the fact that Kendall does improv should be clues. He shines a light on the “Magic Negro” stereotype and covers everything from the race card and white flight to Aunt Jemima and Black Jesus. He’s going for laughs, of course, and something more. $15-$25. 7:30 tonight. 8 + 10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
[MORE: MEET THE POINTEDLY FUNNY MARK KENDALL]
** Strait of Gibraltar. THROUGH APRIL 23. World premiere. At Synchronicity Theatre. In this sexy romantic thriller, a Jewish New Yorker (Maggie Birgel) and a Moroccan man (Benjamin DeWitt Sims) meet at a party and fall in love, hard and fast. When she learns he’s undocumented, she offers her help. What they encounter is anything but happily-ever-after. This smart drama by Andrea Lepcio (Synchro’s Looking for the Pony, 2009) looks at love, truth, prejudice and civil rights in the age of the Patriot Act. Also in the cast: Suehyla El-Attar, Brian Ashton Smith and Kathleen Wattis. Rachel May directs. $15-$50. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. Synchronicity Theatre at One Peachtree Pointe, 1545 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.484.8636.
This weekend only
Firebird. FRIDAY-SUNDAY. Atlanta Ballet pays homage to three of the more inventive choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The bill features Firebird, with music by Stravinsky and choreography by Yuri Possokhov; Allegro Brillante by choreography George Balanchine; and Petite Mort by choreographer Jiří Kylián. $20-$128. 8 p.m. Friday; 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, in northwest Atlanta at Cobb Galleria Parkway and Akers Mill Road, inside I-75/I-285. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.892.3303. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Last chance
** The Bridges of Madison County. CLOSES SUNDAY. Southeastern premiere. Aurora Theatre stages the Jason Robert Brown musical (Parade, The Last Five Years) based on the 1992 best-seller and subsequent feature film. Onstage, the story opens up to include more characters and more scenes but, at its heart, is still about a lonely Iowa farm wife named Francesca (Kristin Markiton) and her unexpected love affair with a traveling photographer (Travis Smith). The show had a three-month Broadway run in 2014. $30-$65. 8 tonight-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered, attached parking in city deck at 153 E. Crogan St. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Simply Simone: The Music of Nina Simone. CLOSES SATURDAY. Prodigy. Superstar. Activist. Exile. Vocal powerhouse. Nina Simone, one of the true divas of the 20th century, defied classification and defined a generation. This musical revue at Theatrical Outfit shares the rich legacy of a performer whose work encompassed jazz, gospel, blues, Broadway and rock ‘n’ roll. Four performers play Simone in a show that includes “I Loves You, Porgy,” “The Look of Love,” “My Baby Just Cares for Me” and “Here Comes the Sun.” Patdro Harris directs. $20-$48. The Balzer Theater at Herren’s. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.528.1500.
Opening Tuesday
Matilda the Musical. OPENS TUESDAY | THROUGH APRIL 23. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel about an extraordinary girl — armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind — who dares to take a stand and change her own destiny. The setting: a small English village in which sits the Crunchem Hall Primary School. The enemy: Miss Agatha Trunchbull, the headmistress. The Broadway version ran almost four years and won four Tony awards. This national tour has been on the road since May 2015. New York Times drama critic Ben Brantley called the show “the most satisfying and subversive musical ever to come out of Britain.” $33.50- $128.50 plus fees. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. April 21; 2 + 8 p.m. April 22; and 1 + 6:30 p.m. April 23. Presented by Broadway in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 855.285.8499.
[MORE: MEET DAN CHAMEROY, THE ACTOR INSIDE MISS TRUNCHBULL]
Still running
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. THROUGH APRIL 23. The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse promises a medieval romp through boisterous and bawdy olde England. This comic adaptation reintroduces six tales in forms ranging from classical to spaghetti western. The cast: Kirstin Calvert, Laura Cole, Nicholas Faircloth, Adam King, Enoch King, Rivka Levin, Amanda Lindsey and Drew Reeves. Pub menu and festive spirits available. $15-$36. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 6:30 p.m. Sunday. No show April 16 (Easter). 499 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.874.5299.
Nobody Loves You. THROUGH APRIL 30. At Horizon Theatre. The game of love is on in this musical about modern relationships and cluelessly self-obsessed contestants who compete for romance and adoring fans on a reality-TV show. Heidi Cline McKerley directs a cast that includes Leslie Bellair, Jeanette Illidge, Wendy Melkonian and Brad Raymond, among others. With music direction by Alli Lingenfelter. The pop-flavored score comes from Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter. The musical had its world premiere at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in May 2012. $25-$40. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 3 + 8:30 p.m. Saturday; and 5 p.m. Sunday. 1083 Euclid Ave. NE (at Austin Avenue). Details, tickets HERE or at 404.584.7450.
** Pais de Bicicleta (Bicycle Country). THROUGH APRIL 30. At Aurora Theatre (Harvel Lab). The Lawrenceville’s company’s Teatro Aurora program continues with this Spanish-language production for all audiences. Pais de Bicicleta comes from playwright Nilo Cruz (last season’s Sotto Voce and a Pulitzer Prize winner for Anna in the Tropics). Three refugees with a lust for freedom try to make it across the sea from Havana to Miami. The play mixes magical realism, whip-fast dialogue and the Latin love of music and dance. With English supertitles. $20-$30. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Free, covered, attached parking in city deck at 153 E. Crogan St. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222.
Pete the Cat. THROUGH MAY 21. Premiere. The Center for Puppetry Arts stages an all-new production based on the book series by Georgia artist James Dean. Welcome to the imagined adventures of the scrawny black kitten that Dean adopted in 1999 and named Pete. With marionette, rod and shadow puppets. Artistic director Jon Ludwig wrote the adaptation and directs. The cast: Luis Hernandez, Amy Sweeney, Tim Sweeney, Anna Claire Walker and puppeteer/composer Dolph Amick, who wrote the original music. $20.50 nonmembers; $10.25 members. 10 + 11:30 a.m. Tuesday-Friday; noon + 2 p.m. Saturday; and 1 + 3 p.m. Sunday. 1404 Spring St. NW. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.873.3391.
Next week
Sutton Foster. APRIL 21-22. The two-time Tony Award winner (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes) joins the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with songs from her 11 Broadway shows, two albums (Wish and An Evening With Sutton Foster: Live at the Cafe Carlyle) and her collection of personal favorites. The award-winning actor-singer-dancer was born in Georgia and spent part of her growing-up years here. Simply put, she’s one of the finest performers on Broadway today. $21-$109. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 800.840.9227 (Ticketmaster). Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
The Temple 150th Anniversary Concert. WEDNESDAY ONLY. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performs Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes; Bloch’s Schelomo; and Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story Symphonic Dances and Candide Overture to mark this milestone for The Temple, one of the most historic religious institutions in America. Selling well; only $25 tickets remain. 6:30 p.m. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
