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The Rolling Stones are going on a new tour sponsored by AARP. They have released a new album called "Hack Me Diamonds" with guest features from Elton John, Lady Gaga, and Stevie Wonder. The Beatles have also released a new single called "Now and Then" featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The Jimi Hendrix Experience has a new album capturing their live performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1967. The Alliance Theater has perfected their production of "A Christmas Carol" with a new script, set design, and costumes, including a specially crafted Tiny Tim costume. This program is intended for a print-impaired audience and is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service, GARS. Welcome to Metro Arts for Friday, December 15th. I am Kristen Moody for the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Metro Arts is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. For our first article, we go to the Creative Loafing publication online for high frequencies, what's old is still old, but somewhat new again. The Stones, the Beatles, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. What year is this anyway? By Tony Paris, Wednesday, November 29th, 2023. Yes, the great rock and roll joke has finally come to pass. In recent years, as the Rolling Stones continued to gather, No Moss touring and touring and touring through six decades now, detractors have joked that the aging musicians tours should be sponsored by AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons. With the release of their latest album, Hack Me Diamonds, a powerhouse effort and return to form after no new material from Jagger and company in 18 years, the Rolling Stones have announced a new 16-city tour in 2024. And yes, it is being sponsored by AARP. The Atlanta date promoted by AEG Presents Concert West of Stones Tour 24 Hack Me Diamonds is scheduled for Friday, June 7th, 2024, again at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 1st, 2023, at 10 a.m. local time. Of course, AARP members get early access to tickets with a pre-sale that started at 10 a.m. November 29th through 10 p.m. local time November 30th. Stones Tour 24 Hack Me Diamonds will feature an all-new stage show and comes after much speculation that 2021's No Filter Tour would be their last. The new album is loud, brash, and almost irritating in its aggressive attack. It would have fit in nicely between 1978's Some Girls and 1980's Emotional Rescue. The 12 songs range from rockers to ballads, featuring an array of guests, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder. The most surprising cut is Bite My Head Off, featuring Paul McCartney on bass. Much angrier than Angry, the first single from the album, Bite My Head Off is a direct rip-off from the Sex Pistols' Nevermind the Bullocks. Liar, anyone? Or is it some sort of homage to the Pistols? After all, bassist Glenn Matlock was supposedly kicked out of the Sex Pistols for liking the Beatles. The Beatles, Now and Then Speaking of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones aren't the only band from the original British Invasion to be back on the charts. The Beatles have continued their string of hits, scoring their 35th top ten hit over 50 years after they last formally recorded together in August of 69, with the release of Now and Then, a new single featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, adding instrumentation to an original demo track by John Lennon, one that George Harrison had added guitar to in the 90s when it was being considered for release, along with Free as a Bird and Real Love. If nothing else, perhaps a generation or two will learn from this song and its accompanying video that John Lennon was also in the Beatles, and not just a sideman of no consequence. That Now and Then is being sold as the final Beatles song not only finally puts an end to the Fab Four's recorded legacy, but does so, ending their storied career with John rightfully in the forefront of the band he founded with Paul McCartney. There were four Beatles, not three, not two, certainly not one. As for John's original demo, it's beautiful on its own. Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hollywood Bowl, August 18, 1967 Released out in November during the month that would have marked Jimi Hendrix's 81st birthday if he hadn't died in 1970 at the age of 27, is a new album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, capturing the band live at the Hollywood Bowl, August 18, 1967, a moment in time that would not last for long. Recorded only eight weeks after his American debut at the Monterey Pop Festival, the album is an anomaly in the Hendrix canon. Booked as an opening act for the Mamas and the Papas, the Experience finds themselves playing in front of an audience that, for the most part, has no idea who they are. And the band, despite having played incendiary shows in the UK and enjoyed the adulation of rock's elite, finds itself somewhat out of sorts when there is little to no response between songs. Indeed, the Experience may have set the night on fire during their Monterey set, but here, the audience still isn't aware of the band, definitely not ready for it, and certainly slow to pick up on what the Jimi Hendrix Experience was about. Nonetheless, it's an extremely rare and revealing performance, one that captures the young band at an early stage in their meteoric career. And it's important to note that band is the operative word here. The man with the guitar was not yet the focal point of the trio, with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell sharing equal presence on stage, which at this point was nothing more than anonymity. Hendrix, with his unusual self-deprecating humor, is keenly aware of this. After a radio DJ announces the Jimi Hendrix Experience to the unsuspecting audience, Hendrix quips, we don't mind if you laugh, as long as you laugh in tune. Brilliant. The band launches into Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the lead track off the Beatles album of the same name, released less than three months earlier. There's little or no reaction from the audience at the song's end, at least nothing audible on this release. The Experience follows it with Howling Wolf's Killing Floor, and kills it. Again, no audience reaction. The Experience follows the two opening covers with The Wind Cries Mary from Are You Experienced, their debut album. Although released in the UK in May, it wouldn't be released in the US for two months. Hendrix flubs the lyrics. When they finish the song, one or two people clap. Noel acknowledges them with a thank you very much. Yet Noel speaks to the audience after the song and throughout the performance confirms that in the early stages, the Experience was indeed a band, not just a guitar superhero with two backup musicians, as the Experience would be perceived as Hendrix's popularity sword. The Hollywood Bowl set only lasts for 43 minutes. The Experience plays what would become their hits, Foxy Lady, Fire, and Purple Haze, along with three other covers, Catfish Blues and Reprising 2, like Rolling Stone and Wild Thing from Monterey. And then it's over. Those in attendance had their minds blown and most probably didn't even know it. The performance is much like those who knew Hendrix, who really knew Jimi Hendrix as a person, claimed to have been warm, gentle, somewhat shy, unassuming, yet focused. Panhandle Slim pop-up art show sale. Savannah's Panhandle Slim returns to the ATL on Saturday, December 2nd, for a pop-up show that starts at 11 a.m. You'll be where he's been found the last few shows, on the Beltline at 912 Wiley Street, much to the chagrin of the less cultured and civic-minded who are walking their dogs, or running as if their lives depended on it. Get there early, as the self-styled painter known for his poignant and uplifting artwork on plywood usually sells out quickly, meaning he's packed up and gone within a couple of hours. That was High Frequencies, What Old Is Still Old, But Somewhat New Again, by Tony Parris. Next, we move to the Atlanta Magazine Online for How Alliance Theater Costumers Dress Tiny Tim. The outfit, designed by Mary Ann Baraheen, was built by scratch by a talented team of stitchers, craftspeople, and prop artisans, by Rachel Garbus. After 34 years of staging A Christmas Carol, Alliance Theater's production department has the show down to a science. It's like the train, that we always know where it's going, says Laurie Conley, director of costumes and wardrobe. If it ever goes off the track, we know how to get it right back. This Tiny Tim costume was crafted for eight-year-old Emberlyn Wood, reprising the iconic role for the second year. Designed by Mary Ann Baraheen and built by scratch from a talented team of stitchers, craftspeople, and prop artisans, it's one of dozens of costumes perfected throughout the year to bring Charles Dickens' timeless classic to life on stage. Three years ago, the Alliance completely reimagined the production with a new script, set design, and costumes. Tiny Tim's costume reflects the softer sensibility of Baraheen's new designs, explains Conley. It's a little closer to the common man, she says, less heavy velvets and brocades, more cottons and simple palettes. To execute Baraheen's vision, Conley and her team visited countless fabric shops in New York and Atlanta, poring over swatches to find the perfect ensemble. Costume fittings begin once casting is complete, generally in August. Most of the cast returns year after year, but new actors join from time to time. Children, there are four in this production, have an insistent habit of growing. Conley's team will often leave extra hem that can be taken out as young actors mature. Actors sew the costume to the actor's measurements, while the crafts master, Diana Thomas, carefully distresses the shoes so they look old but hold up for weeks of shows. One of Tiny Tim's boots gets a hole drilled through the heel to secure the tiny brace. Meanwhile, the props department fashions a crutch that's just the right size. We have about six in stock, says Kimberly Townsend, prop artisan and buyer. Depending on their height, either we'll chop one down or we'll make a new one. A second version of the costume is built for Tiny Tim's understudy. Conley's team makes up to three versions of each costume in the show. With A Christmas Carol, we have to think about longevity, she says. We buy massive amounts of buttons for this show because we know we'll have to replace them and because Scrooge pops his off all the time. Shows begin in October, with sets, props, and costumes introduced in early November. A Christmas Carol opened this year on November 11th, launching actors into an intense six-week run with up to eight performances a week. Separate crews manage the show's many elements throughout, from laundering costumes and washing wigs to replacing busted light bulbs and replenishing stacks of meticulously aged paper. After the show closes, costumes are laundered, repaired, and organized by actor. Props are assembled in the large road boxes, separated by stage right or stage left to simplify next year's load-in. A Christmas Carol is such a well-run machine that backstage departments are already working on next season by the time this year's production opens. Conley and her crew keep an eye out throughout the year for good fabrics or costume accessories She says, in my position, I don't ever really stop working on a Christmas Carol. That was How Alliance Theater Costumers Dress Tiny Tim by Rachel Garbus. Next up, Atlanta author and journalist Josh Green discusses his new novel, Secrets of Ash. Set in Atlanta and North Georgia, the suspenseful novel follows two brothers struggling with their own demons by Rachel Garbus. Many Atlantans are familiar with Josh Green, the journalist. The former editor of Curbed Atlanta and a reporter at newspapers both here in metro Atlanta and in his native Indiana, Green now edits the popular development news website Urbanize Atlanta and writes for outlets around Atlanta, including Atlanta Magazine. But there's also Josh Green, the author, whose 2013 book of short stories, Dirtyville Rhapsodies, landed on Atlanta's top 10 books of 2013 list. Now Green has a new book, Secret of Ash, his first novel. The thriller, published by the Sager Group, centers two brothers, traumatized Iraq war veteran Chase Lumpkin, who's haunted by the violence he endured and his own sinister misdeeds, and his older brother, Jack, a celebrity sports radio personality gone slightly to seed. When Chase disappears into the North Georgia mountains to wrestle his demons, Jack becomes determined to find him and bring him home. It's a propulsive suspense novel with enough twists and turns to keep you reading until dawn. We caught up with Green recently to discuss Secrets of Ash and how he approaches fiction writing versus journalism. You're a journalist and the editor of an urban development outlet. What inspired you to write a novel? I've actually been trying to be an author longer than I've been writing journalism. Since I was a little kid, I've been making stuff up in the form of fiction. I majored in journalism and minored in creative writing in college, and I've always had a passion for both. Being able to go to experience the world through journalism and, you know, paint your own picture for people, it's a huge honor and a challenge. But I always had this itch to use things that I would come across in the real world, whether in my journalism or just in everyday life, and use that as an artistic putty of sorts to say something about this particular era, this world that we've inherited right now. While I was working at Daily Newspapers, I was always writing short fiction stories at night. Of course, I got piles of rejections at first, but I finally started to get some stories published in literary journals, and eventually I realized I had enough short stories for a book. I found an indie publisher who really believed in me, and we put out Dirtyville Rhapsodies in 2013. It got good reactions, but everybody said, these stories all end too soon. You need a full-length novel, which was a terrifying proposition, but ten years later, here we are. Secrets of Ash dives into the heavy world of post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans and the trauma of war. Why did you decide to focus on those stories? Some of my first serious journalism stories back in Indiana were on veterans that had started coming home from the War on Terror. They were traumatized, but PTSD wasn't really a household world at the time. People then just called it shell-shocked. I remember some of those guys telling me that they felt different. They felt like they couldn't weave themselves back into society. And not just younger veterans, but World War II veterans. I always found myself drawn to their stories, understanding that sacrifice that I couldn't even comprehend in my cushy life here. So for the novel, I wanted to really pay homage to all those stories that I've heard, all these men and women I've met throughout the years. You published Secrets of Ash with the Sager Group, the imprint created by legendary journalist Mike Sager. How'd that happen? This story is kind of crazy. Back in 2012, when the book was still just an idea, I was reading Esquire magazine at my condo complex pool, and I came across this article called Vetville. It was about these wounded veterans who had taken it upon themselves to kind of heal each other in this little cabin they set up in the Tennessee mountains. Just a noble enterprise among veterans. But one of them was talking about the lowest point that he ever had, when he decided he was just going to ride off into the mountains as far as he could and end his own life. And it was so tragic, because he thought it was a noble act, that he would alleviate the burden of himself to his family and just disappear. And it was like a lightning bolt hit me in the pool right there. Like, that's the story. The younger brother goes off to disappear, and the older brother, who's grappling with his own life issues, sets out to save him at all costs. So fast forward to 2023, I've had 10 years of frustration trying to get this book published, two literary agents who left the business, lots of low points. And then my old writer friend, Charles McNair, who used to live in Atlanta, he said, Look, I've got an old friend, Mike Sager, he runs this press. And I was like, Oh, my God, that's my old hero. And I looked up some of his old writing. And I realized Mike Sager wrote Vetville and Esquire magazine. So when I reached out to him, I told him, you wrote the story that set this whole plot in motion. And he said, That's unbelievable, man, send it over. So 10 years later, it's this full circle kismet. Ashe County is a fictionalized place. But the real North Georgia mountains loom large in your book. That drew you to that region as a site of storytelling. I fell in love with those mountains immediately. I come from the flatland Midwest. And after moving to Atlanta, I just started taking drives up the mountains and hiking as often as I could. From midtown to Blue Ridge without traffic takes 90 minutes, and you're in a totally different world. I found it really magical. I did a lot of research to get those details right, taking notes on family trips here and there. But I felt like I needed to know what it felt like to be on the verge of being lost out there. And that happened accidentally in 2014. With my three year old daughter, I took her up there for a daddy daughter weekend during peak foliage. And we're trying to get to the top of Raven Bald Mountain. I'm carrying her the whole way. She's having the time of her life. And I look over and realize the sun is starting to go down and the fall leaves are obscuring the paths. So I'm not sure where I'm going. In my haste to get to the top of the mountain, I almost lost the path with my three year old and no food. But that was really valuable. How do you approach novel writing differently than reporting or other long form writing? Is it different for you? Oh, different hats for sure. They really feel like two completely different enterprises, two completely different exercises of the mind. I mean, when it comes to the fact check, that feels similar. They fact check the whole book right before it comes out. So that felt like the end of a long magazine story or something like that. But I've always liked falling back on the fiction stuff at night because it just feels like more of a wide open kind of canvas. There are no restrictions. You're not bound by fact, obviously. There are just no borders to where this damn thing could go. That's always felt liberating to me. Is Atlanta a supportive place to be a writer and a creative? I mean, Exhibit A was Manuel's Tavern on the Friday night when I had my book launched. People were coming out of the woodwork who had heard through other people that the real estate writer guy can actually write fiction. And several people were there because they were ambassadors among strangers in Manuel's Tavern, getting them to come back and grab a copy of the book. That felt awesome. I'm just getting back into the whole world of promotion again for this one. But with my last book, the city really supported me. I got a full page review in the AJC and then Atlanta Magazine naming it a top book of the year and then other doors opened because of all of that. So yeah, I absolutely feel like Atlanta is a supportive place for creative. There's just a creative vibe here, you know. You see it just the way that people act. You see it on the beltline, people expressing themselves in really cool ways. And I think as a writer, it can be a challenge to cut through the immensity of how much is out there. But I'm hopeful that this book can break through and just connect with people as a genuine Atlanta story from someone who's living here and clearly loves it and wants to shine a unique light on the city and the state. Finally and most importantly, which Atlanta coffee shop most got you through writing this book? Oof, all of them? If I have to pick one, let's go with Kavarna in Oakhurst. They were great. They actually hosted a few readings for my first book and after one of those readings, someone grabbed me and said, now you've got to start writing a novel. And that was a really important nudge toward getting this book started. So thank you, Kavarna. That was Atlanta author and journalist Josh Green discusses his new novel, Secrets of Ash by Rachel Garbus. Next we move to the Burnaway publication online for An Account, An Encounter by Courtney McClellan. Few texts, are you up for a walk today? Driving 45 minutes from my parents' house to Danbury, North Carolina, I turned down a dirt road marked only with a mailbox. My car climbs up the gravel path and I parked next to a house with blue siding. I grabbed my small backpack filled with sunscreen, bug spray and water. It is July and I don't know how long I will be gone. Few greets me by my car, hands me a walking stick and before ducking back inside, tells me to meet him at the edge of the grass behind the house. In the record-breaking heat, I'm wearing heady boots and jeans. My head and shoulders are covered, my top shirt button buttoned. The air is breezeless and thick. Few emerges from the house and I hear him before I see him. He is wearing boots, khaki pants and a tweed wool blazer with elbow patches. Attached to his coat are large dangling mirrored discs that bang into one another as he moves. He sweats, I sweat. We will be quiet now, says Few and begins to walk into the woods. I follow. The incline is steep and the path disorderly. I trip over twisted roots and mid-sized rocks, realizing the utility of the walking stick. The trail curves a few minutes in and the house is no longer visible. We are under a canopy that opens occasionally to white clouds, but no midday sun. I push dry leaves around with my feet, leaves that will never be bagged up and placed on the front lawn for trash day. The mosquitoes buzzing in my ears are outdone by the swarming gnats that are driving for the wet of my eyes. They are so vigilant I have to scoop the dead victors out of my lower eyelids. Few is several steps ahead of me. The giant palette mirrors clang and jangle like unruly bells. Refracted light encircles him, trembling. The reflectors consume the leafy surroundings and hold on to bits of sky. Light flashes on the ground. Few is open, porous, camouflaged, and patterned in sharp green. He glitters. I glitter by association. The path loses itself, but we keep climbing. My breath is syncopated with my stumbling feet and the knocking mirrors. Yards in front of me, few stops and wipes his brow. He looks back. There is no sound and the dancing light pauses in the encounter. I think he is waiting for me, but as I approach, he moves again. I pursue. The ground trades brown leaves for pine leavels, which are softer, quieter. Familiar with the nearby woods, I expect to see deer, but there are none. We step over stacks of thin tree limbs. My guide stops, looks, and smiles. This time he waits as I approach a log so big that I would certainly struggle to get over it by myself. Few holds out his hand to assist me. In proximity, the dazzling reflections fade and become just mirrors again. When I am upright, he moves ahead of me. The glowing light returns and we continue. The ground levels a bit. I can see a ledge, a lookout. Framed, few is the silhouetted figure in Casper David Frederick's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, 1818. I stop. He doesn't look back. I wonder if this is our destination, if this vista is why we've come here. After a few beats, he turns left and forges further. Now our steps extend outward, straighten, and ease. I think of Richard Long's A Line Made by Walking, 1967, in which the artist altered the landscape by pacing in tall grass. I wonder if I am Sophia Cayet in Suite Vétilienne, 1983, chasing a stranger in the streets of Venice. I imagine Francis Alice pushing a block of ice through Mexico City and sometimes making something lead to nothing, 1997. But there is no tall grass, no winding streets. I wish that block of ice was here now. Without a horizon to calibrate to and no phone to check, I am unaware of distance and time. His refracting figure remains diligently ahead. My assumption that we are walking to somewhere is called into question. Is there a route, a destination, a map, or instruction we must adhere to? Maybe we aren't going anywhere in particular. Instead, he is a glimmering wanderer, a rural flaneur, but I am here too. Watching someone so intent upon getting lost seems ill-advised. Even in this performance meant for me, I am extraneous, an interloper. I watch someone stray, a few glances back. We descend quickly, pulling aside thin branches. No longer intent upon every step, I notice oddities, a small burn that has created black dust and charred sticks on the forest floor, a single red leaf, the hoot of an owl. How strange at this time of day. In the distance, I see blue siding and I gain ground, close, few looks back once more as his pace quickens. His refractors lighten, taking in more sky. I hear a final clang of mirrors as he turns the corner at the edge of the grass out of sight. Our procession ends. Back at the house, we sit on the porch, open containers from the fridge, and eat with our hands. Hugh Smoke is an artist working between painting, performance, and political theory. He is the recipient of research fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and the Binneck Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University's Center for Collaborative Art and Media, and Yale Norfolk School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut. He has had solo and two-person exhibitions in Madrid, London, Milan, Berlin, Knoxville, Atlanta, New York City, and St. Moritz, Switzerland. He was a resident of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, studied quilting in Gee's Bend, Alabama, and received his MFA in painting and printmaking from the Yale School of Art in 2022. That was An Account, An Encounter by Courtney McClellan. Next, we move to the Arts ATL Publication for Cullum's Notebook, Dynamic Year-End Shows Bird Photography at New Gallery by Jerry Cullum. The survey exhibitions at galleries staged at year's end, which usually consist of small works by all of the artists they represent, are frequently confused with the art-themed holiday markets aimed primarily at gift-giving. At their best, the gallery shows are much more than that. They reflect not only what the gallery has to offer, but the gallery's larger vision of what art is and what art should do. I want to focus briefly on two examples, because the shows are so illustrative of this and so outstanding. White Space does have an outright, no-holds-barred holiday sale with first-class works of art in its smaller, white-spec project space, but the main gallery's The December Show through December 30th is very different from that. The Invitational Show goes beyond artists represented by the gallery to include artists exhibited in any of the White Space's three exhibition spaces in the past year, and gallery owner Susan Bridges has curated a coherent exhibition out of the eye-dropping diversity of styles and concerns that characterize the gallery's artist roster. The show's dynamic installation both reflects and reveals the gallery's distinctive angle of vision. To take only one set of examples, two walls of this show contain work by artists from a range of ages, genders, ethnicities, project space, and chosen artistic media. A first glance reveals that each wall is unified by a visual rhythm of irregularly shaped and rectangular artworks arranged with repetitions and contrasts of palette, texture, and other formal elements. This is an admirably complicated achievement in itself. But that isn't all that's going on. Bridges stated that the groupings on one wall was inspired by nature, magic, environmental, and spiritual darkness, while the other's inspiration comes from architecture, glitches, systems, and weavings. The other walls are sometimes united only by color and pattern, but more often encode similar rhythms of related thematic concerns. Spaulding Nick's fine art is another example of galleries in which owners have expanded their gallery's field of vision beyond its original focus. Although the 60 Artists Ensemble through January 12th deserves extended analysis, all I can offer in this column are two astounding examples. The first is Ensemble's accompanying solo show. Blair Hobbs' Radiant Matter is a suite of memorably archetypal mixed media artworks that arise from her thoughts while undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer and transmute them into transcendent loveliness. Ensemble offers a visually dramatic wall spanning presentation of a body of work I have long hoped would be exhibited on this scale, a 48-piece grid of Tim Hunter's Birds of America in Decline, small asphalt-on-cement silhouettes based on John James Audubon's paintings and Birds of America. Unlike the works in the December show, which remain on display until the show's end, this grid is itself something of an endangered species. Part or all of it may be sold off the wall before Christmas. This in itself illustrates the dilemmas of gallery owners, regardless of their idealistic range of vision. The legendary gallery owner Faye Gold once said, albeit with a twinge of regret, that her cutting-edge shows were not the Faye Gold Museum. She had to take into account the fact that the works were there to be sold. The same goes for even the most visionary of commercial spaces. Nonprofit spaces have a different focus, even though they also usually offer work for sale. At Center, through January 6th, contemporary portraits, David Clifton Strawn and Modern Master, Pinky Bass, illustrate how a gallery can be reimagined to give birth to a new nonprofit space. Housed in a multi-purpose building co-owned by Thomas Swanston and Gail Foster, but an independently conceived entity, Center is described as an inspiring hub designed for communal exploration of arts and culture, championing living artists, and creating a space where visionary artworks come to life. These two shows by established boundary-pushing photographers with ties to the metro Atlanta art community are meant to stretch horizons, challenge expectations, and encourage imaginative exploration within surrounding communities. Bass's photographs, placing elements of her own body in elemental settings, raise personal and conceptual issues in visually lyrical ways. In Clifton Strawn's equally lyrical photographs present male figures of various ethnicities and states of dress, or undress, in ways that range from emotionally powerful to gently comic. Both shows are worth seeking out in their Chattahoochee Hills location, close to the better-known community of Serenbe. That was Cullum's Notebook, Dynamic Year-End Shows, Birds, Photography at New Gallery, by Jerry Cullum. Next, Review. Little Prince Depicts Book's Quiet Yearning, Brings Young Viewers Joy, by Rachel Garbus. The funny thing about the beloved children's book, The Little Prince, is that it's not really a children's book. It's a book for grown-ups about childhood. Nevertheless, something about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's charming 1943 story of a pilot who crash-lands in the Sahara Desert and meets a curious boy visiting Earth from a far-off asteroid, has captured imaginations young and old for generations. Synchronicity Theatre's staged version of The Little Prince, a musical adaptation written in 1998 by Rick Cummins and John Skular, brings the nostalgia of the original tale to life with the magic of the stage through December 30th. As a children's musical, The Little Prince stays surprisingly loyal to the original plot, retaining most of the characters the small hero meets on his travels through the galaxy. With a keen eye toward children's tastes, Skular removes some of the more cumbersome adults, like the drunken tipler and the merchant, while making more out of the encounters with the fox and the rose. Meanwhile, the musical numbers add back in some of the emotional gravitas lost without Saint-Exupéry's charming illustrations, though there are about five more songs than necessary, and they're almost all too long. Lively performances from director Lauren Morris's talented cast help to move things along. Matt Baum is ideal as the aviator, equal parts taciturn and jubilant, as he slowly allows The Little Prince to awaken his sense of wonder in the world. Ash Anderson, say them, shines as The Little Prince with a frantic soulfulness that captures the spirit of this mystical little man. Holding it all together is a solid ensemble, Tyshawn Gooden, Alejandra Ruiz, and Bridget McCarthy, with lightning-fast character changes adding a great deal of zest and whimsy. McCarthy's turn as the king and Gooden's as the snake are both standout moments. One scene but no less vital is the voice of Anna Snyder, whose lovely pre-recorded vocals keep a few songs from going off the rails. Everyone is beautifully costumed by Savannah Cobb, especially The Little Prince. His smart blue overcoat and modest scarf are instantly recognizable. Ryan Bradburn's set leaves plenty of room for play, foregrounded by a rotating model of The Little Prince's asteroid with seemingly endless useless. The spare skate park light set leaves room for its star element, a gorgeous museum-worthy contraption that evokes a celestial compass but doubles as the aviator's plane engine. It's a beautiful visual element that does justice to the starry-eyed story. One challenge in reconciling the simplicity of the original illustrations with the dazzle demanded by children's theater's pint-sized audiences, Synchronicity's production strikes a satisfying balance. The cast pulls out plenty of maximalist magic to keep kids engaged, from glowing bouncy balls and hula hoops to slapstick wrestling, while the aviator's drawings evoke the visual elements of the book. He mostly scribbles in a sketchbook, but a whimsical addition to the set enables him to draw on the wall, allowing the audience to see his creations. It's a smart element that helps tie this stage adaptation back to its illustrated original. More than the story itself, it's Saint-Exupéry's illustrations that convey with heartbreaking simplicity the loss of childhood wonder. Here, the aviator's on-stage drawings communicate a similar sense of quiet yearning. Synchronicity's production translates complex emotion while fulfilling its obligation to joy for young audiences. Credit here is due most of all to Anderson, whose buoyant performance is grounded by a profound sense of grief. Marching around the stage with manic purpose, it's clear the character is searching for something that may be forever lost, and the sorrow of that loss transforms the performance into something more solid than the comical hijinks that first glance might suggest. It's a challenging ask, answered well by Anderson, and the warmth between Anderson and Baum feels genuine and earned, allowing for a convincing synergy. Audience members of all ages will find something to love in this whimsical production. Saint-Exupéry's story is a resonant meditation on the loss of innocence and the way adults forget the beauty and wonder of the universe. Synchronicity's The Little Prince invites us, with the help of children, to remember. That was Review. Little Prince depicts book's quiet yearning, brings young viewers joy, by Rachel Garbus. Next up, What to See, Do, and Hear, Handel's Messiah, Archer finale, year-end art, by the Arts ATL staff. Theater. Snow Girls, the musical, concludes at Outfront Theater this Sunday. Based on the 1995 cult film, Showgirls, this North Pole adaptation stars Anna Holland as a reindeer and features costumes by Eric Griffiths and music by David Cerda. Arts ATL writer Benjamin Carr interviewed director Paul Conroy and discovered how much research the cast and crew did to bring this show to the stage. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $30. Jenny T. Anderson Theater's Overture series closes this weekend with The Light in the Piazza, co-produced with Georgia Ensemble Theater. The Tony award-winning production features music and lyrics by Adam Goodall and is based on the 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer. Director Amanda Wanson-Morgan and cast member Candace Arrington explained to Arts ATL writer Jim Farmer how this staging is a modern take on the classic musical. Tickets start at $33. This weekend at Seven Stages Theater, the Little Five Points Rock Star Orchestra presents Black Metal Burlesque. Billed as the perfect antidote to the traditional holiday show, the production features burlesque as well as aerial acts and rock music. This is on a scale unlike any we have attempted before, and it's been an honor to gather and create with such an extraordinary level of local talent, said show producer and director Justin Wellborn. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday, 7 p.m., ages 18 plus suggested. Tickets start at $25. Two tickets remain for The Black Nativity, a gospel Christmas musical experience, which closes this weekend at the First Center of the Arts at Georgia Tech. Presented by Dominion Entertainment, the musical is an adaptation of the nativity story by poet and playwright Langston Hughes. Cast members returning this year include Latrice Pace, Dathan Thigpen, Joseph Jojo Clark, and Laurence Flowers. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $43. Music. The Trey Clegg Singers present their annual Christmas concert, Festival Sounds of the Season, Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Church at Waiuku in Buckhead. In addition to the Clegg Singers, a 50-member semi-professional chorus. The concert will feature an ensemble from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The acclaimed chorus was formed in 2016 to focus on music within the African American tradition. The concert will present new works by Native American composer Andrew Balfour and by Douglas Hooker, one of its own members. Tickets start at $35. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus returns December 14th and 15th with its annual tradition of Handel's Messiah at Symphony Hall at 8 p.m. The ASO will also perform the first part of Bach's Christmas Oratoria. The orchestra will be led by Norman McKenzie, the director of choruses, and feature soloist Adelaide Bodecker, Callie O'Corner, Miles Nickener, and Lawson Anderson. Tickets start at $30. Cabaret vocalist and comedian Nancy Gatti joins the Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra and Johns Creek Chorale Saturday at 7.30 p.m. for its annual Christmas Pops concert. Gatti and the orchestra will perform seasonal favorites in what Gatti promises will be a concert of humor and harmony. The performance will be held at the Johns Creek United Methodist Church. Tickets start at $25. Dance Dancer-choreographer Sam Nias began his dance training in Atlanta but has gone on to teach and choreograph in Los Angeles and New York. His new ensemble, Articulate Dance Company, combines contemporary theatrical dance with evocative storytelling and will perform next Tuesday at Buckhead Art & Company. The concert comprises On the Surface, which explores relationships that delve into the depths of human experience and emotion. Several Atlanta-based dance artists will share the bill, including Somos Dance Company. At 7.30 p.m., tickets start at $30. This weekend, Gwinnett Ballet Theatre will present its 41st annual production of The Nutcracker, which the company claims is the largest and longest-running holiday ballet in Gwinnett County. Featuring more than 90 dancers and performed with a live orchestra, the production has two casts, with professionals from Gwinnett Ballet Theatre and students from Sugar Loaf Youth Ballet. Gas South Theatre Duluth, Thursday at 7.30 p.m., Friday at 7.30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7.30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $55. Atlanta Ballet's The Nutcracker continues at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center this weekend. Arts ATL senior editor Jillian Ann Renaud reviewed last Saturday's performance, which featured the ballet's first cast. There are four casts altogether throughout the run. Renaud writes that the production is a brilliant marriage of dance and state-of-the-art scenic design. Plenty of humor, too. That's Friday at 7.30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7.30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. Tickets start at $53. Film and TV Dad's Garage is hosting a watch party for the finale of the TV series Anchor in honor of its Atlanta-based cast and crew, according to Dad's Garage executive producer John Carr. Free, but registration is required. That's Sunday at 9 p.m. Art and Design. White Space Gallery's The December Show through December 30th is an invitational show that includes artists exhibited in any of White Space's three exhibition spaces in the past year. That's ATL's art critic Jerry Cullum says gallery owner Susan Bridges has curated a coherent exhibition out of the eye-popping diversity of styles and concerns that characterize the gallery's artistic roster. The show's dynamic installation both reflects and reveals the gallery's distinctive angle of vision. Buckhead Art and Design Company is hosting an opening reception for Shades of Purple, Saturday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. The gallery describes the group exhibit as showcasing visuals of royalty, the vibrancy of the color itself, as well as featured images of the Color Purple's story adaptations. That's free. VIP admission is $15 and includes a complimentary wine bar. That was What to See, Do, and Hear, Handel's Messiah Archer Finale Year-End Art by the Arts ATL staff. Next, director cast anticipate illuminating new themes in Overture series Piazza by Jim Farmer. When Jonah Davis, artistic director of the Jenny T. Anderson Overture series, was scouting for a production to close the calendar year, he and his team came up with an unorthodox offering. Running December 15th through December 17th at the Cobb County venue will be the Tony Award winning musical The Light in the Piazza. It is by no means a holiday show, but after a season Davis describes as dark, moody, and stirring, he and his team felt that a musical about love and family nicely fit the December bill. Co-sponsored with Georgia Ensemble Theater and with music and lyrics by Adam Guttel and a book by Craig Lucas, The Light in the Piazza is based on a 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer. In the 50s, Margaret Johnson, who is from the South and very wealthy, takes her daughter Clara to Florence for the summer. Because of a childhood accident, Clara is developmentally disabled, and when the young woman falls for Italian Fabrizio Naccarelli, Margaret is concerned for her future. Debuting on Broadway in 2005, the musical won six Tony Awards, including one for lead actress Victoria Clark as Margaret. Instead of planning a season by himself, Davis prefers to confer with his colleagues and find out what they're passionate about. Knowing he wanted to work with his next to normal team from 2022 and the 2023 remount, he asked that show's director, Amanda Wansa Morgan, and music director, Holt McCarley, for suggestions. When both lobbied for The Light in the Piazza, Davis knew it was meant to be. Morgan, a professor of musical theater at Kennesaw State University, is a huge fan of the play and has seen several productions, including the original Broadway version. It's a tough show for many companies to stage, she said, mostly because of the vocal demands, but a concert version with a shorter run can be easier. Although she adores the music, Morgan thinks the book is slightly flawed and wanted to give the production her own spin. The theme of the Overture series is to mount pieces that either we don't often see or we see done in a traditional way and we want to do it in a different way, she said. For me, personally, I wanted to explore the book in a different way that felt contemporary. In the versions Morgan has seen, productions have been cast with the same bodies and staged traditionally. Here she has made some tweaks. We're exclusively focusing more on the love story between Margaret and Clara and less on Fabrizio. While it's important, the core and the bone marrow of this story is Margaret and Clara and how they navigate their relationship. In this staging, Margaret and Clara both are played by people of color, as is Roy, Margaret's husband. They are a family of black entrepreneurs who are living in North Carolina and have money, said Morgan. They live at a really unique intersection of wealth and color that's really interesting to explore. I was interested in seeing how the story played out with human beings who understand what it feels like to be marginalized and want to literally escape to another continent. This version also addresses the fact that the action in the musical takes place seven years after the end of World War II in an access country. I feel that has not been addressed a lot in the productions I have seen, said Morgan. It's focused on the love story and the music that's beautiful. The ensemble includes a dozen Kennesaw State students. In all, the musical consists of 20 actors and 14 musicians. Candace Arrington plays Margaret, the socialite, mother and wife, trying to navigate her way through her own future. She is trying to figure out what she wants from her own life as well as her daughter's, said Arrington. She gets to know her daughter on this journey, which she didn't think she would. And she gets to know herself. It's a beautiful journey for the two of them. That's all the time we have for this article, which is entitled, Director, Cast, Anticipate Illuminating New Themes in Overture Series, Piazza, by Jim Farmer. That concludes today's MetroArts program, which is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. This has been Kristen Moody for GARS, the Georgia Radio Reading Service. Thank you for listening to GARS.
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