November 3 Metro Arts

The program is brought to you by the Georgia Radio Reading Service and features various arts events in and around Atlanta. Highlights include the Alliance Theater's production of "Water for Elephants" heading to Broadway, an exhibition of photographs from the Sex Pistols' Atlanta concert in 1978, an exhibition on Beatrix Potter at the High Museum of Art, a ballet set to the music of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen, the Red Bull Culture Clash event, the Atlanta Opera's production of "Rigoletto," a concert by violinist Kevin Zhu, and the Wildwoods Aglow show at the Fernbank Museum. This program is intended for a print-impaired audience and is brought to you by the Georgia Rating Radio Service, GARS. Welcome to Metro Arts for Friday, November 3rd. I'm 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 on line 4, About Town, What Goes On, Separating the Wheat from the Chaff, by Kevin C. Madigan. Yet another play that emanated from Atlanta's Alliance Theater is headed to Broadway. Water for Elephants, which had its world premiere on the Coca-Cola stage this summer, will be the 10th Alliance-developed show to hit a Broadway stage, Encore Atlanta reports. Previews will begin on February 24th, 2024, with opening night set for March 21st at the Imperial Theater. Jessica Stone will again direct the musical. From Broadway veterans to puppeteers to circus artists, we have an eclectic collection of internationally acclaimed and innovative creators, Stone says. Among the Alliance-originated productions that wound up on Broadway were The Prom, Bring It On, Tuck Everlasting, Sister Act, Come Fly Away, The Color Purple, and Disney's Aida. This month's roundup of recommended events in and around Atlanta includes an exhibition of photographs from the Sex Pistols' sole appearance in Atlanta years ago, a ballet set to the music of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen, a recital of Sergei Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto No. 2 by Michel Kahn and the ASO, Rank On Tours from The Moth, Doing Their Thing, comedian and podcaster Theo Vaughn at The Fox, violin prodigy Kevin Zhu showing off his Stradivarius, an ode to Beatrix Potter at the Pie, and nighttime frolics outside the Fernbank Museum. See for yourselves. Through Saturday, November 11th, Sex Pistols, Atlanta 1978, photographs by Ron Sherman, Different Trains Gallery. Ron Sherman has been taking photographs of Atlanta and its people for more than 50 years. Jimmy Carter, Hank Aaron, and Coretta Scott King are just three of the local notables in his extensive archive. One night in 1978, on assignment from Newsweek, Sherman attended a show at the Great Southern Music Hall, headlined by the Sex Pistols. It was the beginning of the notorious punk band's one and only U.S. tour. Bill King, a writer for what was then known as the Atlanta Constitution, described the occasion as a full-blown international media event, with at least 40 television and print reporters from England and the United States in attendance. Sherman shot multiple roles that night. This exhibit highlights some of the best of them. Ron's photographs document a seminal band at the key moment, the arrival of punk in Atlanta and the South, says Randy Gu, assistant director of Emory University's Rose Library and curator of the exhibition. Free entry, Different Trains Gallery is at 432 East Howard Avenue, No. 24, Decatur, 30030. Visit vinsonart.com for more information. Through Sunday, January 7th, Beatrix Potter, Drawn to Nature, High Museum of Art. Hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, this engaging exhibition is part of the High's continuing series celebrating the art and authors of children's books. On display are dozens of personal objects, sketches, watercolors, letters, diaries, merchandise, paintings, and publications. Potter's life and legacy as an entrepreneur, natural scientist, farmer, and preservationist is examined in great detail. According to the museum's press release, Potter's interest in nature influenced all other aspects of her life, leading to significant achievements in both art and science. The exhibition connects key elements of her creative practice, from building characters and observing nature, to telling stories and conserving the environment. The nearby Alliance Theater is concurrently presenting Into the Burrow, a Peter Rabbit tale, a charming musical adventure written by Mark Valdez and inspired by Potter's characters. Tickets are $18.50 plus, free for members. High Museum of Art is at 1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, 30309. Call 404-733-4400 or visit high.org for more information. Friday, November 3rd through Sunday, November 19th, Cash Cohen, Terminus Modern Ballet Theater. The music of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen gets the expressive dance treatment in two pieces presented by Terminus. The Man in Black is described as a cowboy boot ballet by choreographer James Koldeca that celebrates American working class resilience. Treaty, the Cohen tribute, was created by Terminus dancers and choreographers Rachel Van Buskirk and Christian Clark, and offers an intimate glimpse into a romantic journey, capturing the intricate nuances of the human heart. Tickets are $45.00. The show is at 7.30 p.m. at the Pavilion at Serenbe Inn, 10950 Hutchinson Ferry Road, Chattahoochee Hills, 30268. Visit showclix.com, that's S-H-O-W-C-L-I-X.com, for more information. Saturday, November 4th, Red Bull Culture Clash, Gateway Center Arena. Four opposing crews across as many stages compete to deliver the meanest sounds in dance hall, reggaeton, a mappiano, and hip-hop under one roof. Rum Punch Brunch, Perrero 404, Bomba Tuesdays, and Mashup Sessions will bring booming soundscapes, unreleased tracks, intense rivalry, and a thrilling lineup of special guests and surprises, all aimed at winning the crowd's hearts and outshining their opponents, the hype says. This sound system-inspired battle celebrates Atlanta's rich tapestry of culture, vibrancy, and music. The two prior culture clashes in Atlanta had guest spots from Ludacris, Movado, Ray Sremmurd, Rico Nasty, and Waka Flocka Flame, among others. DJ Cash of Bomba Tuesday adds, Red Bull Culture Clash is like a legit gladiator battle for DJs, producers, and whatever you do creatively in the music. For me, this is super important because it lets you know where you stand as far as how to rock a crowd. Tickets are $40. That's 7 p.m. at the Gateway Center Arena, 2330 Convention Center Concourse, College Park, 30337. Visit redbull.com forward slash culture class, or go to Instagram and look at atredbullmusic. Saturday, November 4th through Tuesday, November 7th, Rigoletto, the Atlanta Opera. Giuseppe Verdi's celebrated tale of love, betrayal, and revenge, which first saw the light of day in 1851, gets a sparkling new staging from the Atlanta Opera and Tomer Zivulin, its artistic director. Tbilisi-born baritone George Gagnadane plays the woeful title role making his Atlanta debut. He possesses a beautiful capacity for timbral differentiation, is an excellent actor, and his Italian pronunciation is perfect, says Giorgio Cocco of Irrelevant. Mr. Gagnadane is a dream singer for any opera house. Gilda, Rigoletto's daughter, will be portrayed by rising soprano and Macon native Jasmine Habersham, and bass Patrick Giotti takes on the role of the assassin Sparsfasul. Tenor Juan Huichol is the lascivious duke of Matinu. He sings the famous aria La Donna Immobile, Women Are Fickle, in Act 3. Verdi's iconic clown character, Rigoletto, is doomed from the very first scene to a cursed fate, says Zivulin. Our production highlights his decline, particularly the psychological one. We leaned into the aesthetic of German painters Otto Dix and George Grosz, and their cinematic successors Fellini and Boniel, to protect the abstraction, grittiness, and surrealism that are essential to this story. Tickets are $45 plus at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta, 30339. Call 404-881-8885 for more information. There will be a free live stream on Friday, November 10th at 7 p.m. Visit AtlantaOpera.org for more information. Saturday, November 18th, Kevin Zhu, American Soundscape's Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra. Just days before his 23rd birthday, violin virtuoso Kevin Zhu will join the Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra to perform an American-themed concert that honors the pioneers of our nation's beginnings, a press release announced. Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring will be among the works presented. Publicist Lauren Nye says that having the Gen Z soloist as a guest performer reflects this new trend that we're seeing of classical music resonating with younger generations. Zhu was the first prize winner at the 55th edition of the International Paganini Exhibition in Genoa, aged just 17, and also won the junior division of the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Beijing. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019. In Johns Creek, Zhu is likely to be accompanied by his 1722 Stradivarius. Tickets are $15 to $45. That's 7.30 p.m. at the Johns Creek United Methodist Church, 11180 Medlock Bridge Road, Johns Creek, 30097. Visit JohnsCreekSymphony.org for more information. Friday, November 10th through Sunday, February 25th, Wildwoods Aglow, Fernbank Museum. The nighttime show outdoors returns to the Fernbank grounds and helps reveal the beautiful and unexpected intricacies in nature, things we often cannot see happening with our own eyes, says the museum's CEO, Jennifer Grant Warner. This year, additional programming is being added, including libations in the Aglow Lounge after hours access for the special exhibits, Vikings, Warriors of the Sea through January 1st, Winter Wonderland from November 19th through January 7th, Spiders from Fear to Fascination starting February 10th, Fungi, access to the popular film in the giant screen theater, and more. Warner adds, by immersing guests in the wonder of the natural world, we hope to spark their curiosity and inspire them to learn more about the world around us and our role in stewarding it for the future. It's geared for all ages except for special adult-only evenings when the show coincides with Fernbank After Dark. Tickets are $23.95 to $25.95. That's 767 Clifton Road, Atlanta, 30307. Call 404-929-6300 or visit fernbankmuseum.org forward slash aglow. Thursday, November 16th through Saturday, November 19th, Michelle Kahn, Atlanta Symphony Hall. The wonderfully expressive virtuoso Michelle Kahn will play Sergei Rachmaninoff's popular Piano Concerto No. 2 with guest conductor David Dansmeier leading the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Even its most reserved moments will have you cradling your head in your hands, begging for mercy, a classic FM writer warned. The epic piece reportedly dedicated to Rachmaninoff's shrink will be followed by Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 7. The concert opens with a short piece for orchestra described as a lively and somewhat raucous piece written by composer Julia Perry. Tickets are $25 to $140. That's at Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, 30309. Call 404-733-4800 or visit aso.org. Wednesday, November 29th through Thursday, November 30th, Theo Vaughn, Return of the Rat, Fox Theater. Theodore Capitani Vaughn-Kurtoski, better known as Theo Vaughn, is host of the podcast this past weekend. And his guests range from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the guy who caught an 800-pound alligator in Mississippi. The show attracts 5 million listeners a month. Vaughn's new comedy special, Regular People, was filmed at the Ryman Auditorium and is streaming on Netflix. The Louisiana native's career began in 2000 with appearances in reality television shows like Road Rules and Real World. He won a segment of Last Comic Standing in 2006. Tickets are $45 and that's at 7.30 p.m. at the Fox Theater, 660 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, 30308. Call 855-285-8499 or visit foxtheater.org. Thursday, November 30th, The Moth, Center Stage. The subtle art of storytelling has been celebrated by The Moth since its humble inception on a back porch in Georgia in 1997. The group now runs 600 different events a year in 30 cities in the U.S. and abroad. And its national public radio show, winner of a Peabody Award, is heard by more than a million listeners each week. Its weekly podcast is equally successful. Participants must follow the rules closely. No rants or lectures, no stand-up routines, no stereotypes, and nothing gratuitous. Each story must be memorized and last no more than five minutes. The Guardian called the whole premise quietly addictive. Tickets are $51 to $132. That's 7.30 p.m. at Center Stage, 1374 West Peachtree Street, Atlanta, 30309. Visit themoth.org for more information. That was About Town, What Goes On? by Kevin C. Madigan from the Creative Loafing publication. Next, we move to Atlanta Magazine online for Welcome to Plaza Drome. Videodrome and Plaza Theater's partnership is building a new community of film lovers. Since the partnership launched in 2018, the film Synergy has been off the charts by Felicia Feaster. One of the pandemic's many casualties was moviegoing, and with it, the pleasure of laughing and screaming alongside total strangers. Post-pandemic, movie theaters have famously struggled to get a streaming-obsessed audience out of their cloud sofas and back into the multiplex. With the exception of Atlanta's historic Plaza Theater. Working alongside another bastion of Atlanta film culture, Videodrome, the plaza has become a buzzing nexus of cinema since owner Chris Escobar took over in 2017. With the launch of Plaza Drome collaborations in 2018, the film Synergy has been off the charts. These screenings are certified phenomena, packed with multi-generational crowds of synesthese, chortling over ridiculous B-movie sci-fi fare, like Tammy and the T-Rex, or the 1995 Parker Posey downtown comedy, Party Girl. The audience is often primed for fun with costume contests, appearances by beloved Videodrome staff, or an animated short featuring Slotty, the cartoon version of Videodrome's front-door return slot from Adult Swim vets Zach White and Matt Hutchinson. We're doing something bigger and better together than we would separately, says Escobar of the fortuitous partnership, which has now extended to Tara Drome events, since he revived the Tara Theater on Cheshire Bridge Road. For longtime cinema nuts who have lamented the lack of a vibrant film culture in Atlanta, the Plaza Videodrome-Venn diagram overlap has offered something utterly unique, the kind of communal revival house destination that makes you relish seeing a screening with other people, instead of dreading the chatterboxes and cell phone flares that have made the contemporary movie going a royal drag. Videodrome owner Matt Booth says that the video rental business is also booming post-pandemic, as a new generation of younger film lovers are coming into the store for the kind of curation and movie tips they can't get with a Netflix algorithm. Booth's store is so beloved that a portion of its staff actually volunteers just for the chance to hang out with fellow film obsessives. Many Videodrome alones have continued their film educations and careers at places like the University of Southern California, the University of Chicago, or Turnick Classic Movies. Leaning heavily on event-based film going, the Plaza Drome series has built up a loyal following. When you go to the Plaza, it really is an experience, says Jordan Cady. It's like a club. You don't get that with regular theater going. As an employee of both Videodrome and the Plaza, Cady is at the epicenter of this filmapalooza. Hailing from the cinema desert of Panama City, Florida, she was thrilled to discover Videodrome when she moved here in 2019. I think we were still sleeping on an air mattress in our apartment. We had no furniture, but we went to Videodrome. It was like Mecca. Videodrome regulars, says Cady, treat the store like a community center slash public library, charging their phones there or leaving items behind the counter for friends. We always have people that just want to come hang out there, agrees Booth, who often shoots the breeze with customers like Peter Fonda and Woody Harrelson when they're in town. And at the Plaza, you may run into Francis Ford Coppola or several generations of Turner Classic Movies staff. Both the Plaza and Videodrome are ushing in 2024 with more collabs and community events, including a joint celebration of Videodrome's 25th anniversary. Escobar is adding a rooftop bar to the Plaza and partnering with the Atlanta Opera, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and horror film magazine Fangoria. That was Welcome to Plaza Drome. Videodrome and Plaza Theater's partnership is building a new community of film lovers by Felicia Feaster. Next, we go to the Burnaway publication for In Miami, Oranges Grow on Prime Real Estate by Frances Archer Dunbar. Miami used to write its name in orange ink. Now, our basketball and soccer teams wear pink and blue, and the Florida government owes local homeowners thousands of dollars for chopping down their citrus trees in the early 2000s. The Works Progress Administration-era Miami Orange Bowl Stadium, which looked from above like a halved clementine, was neglected for decades before being consumed in the city's hunger for redevelopment during the 2008 financial crisis. In its place, the dome of Lone Depot Park was laid like an unhatched egg on the horizon of Little Havana, its simple whitewashed walls initiating a new architectural era for a city with a distinct built environment and an economy facilitated by its willingness to demolish and transform itself at a moment's notice. And yet, the citrus fruit persists, springing up at almost the same speed as new apartment buildings. It ripens for locals under freeways and on dumpsters in gigantic, unmissable, vibrant orange on almost every forgotten wall in town. Atomic, Adam Vargas, is one of many taggers in Miami who compulsively mark the urban landscape. Like a chaotic gallery wall, his work mingles with other writers on abandoned buildings known as pennants. Though the term originated in the 1990s from a building on Fountain Blue Park in Doral that was rumored to have been constructed as a penitentiary, it has since been used to describe dozens of sites that function as temporary canvases for communal works of hyperlocal art. These contributions are now so successfully camouflaged in the landscape of the city that they have become essential to its character. Because historic buildings are often neglected in Miami, Atomic has painted on many raised structures iconic to the city. In 2014, his work could be seen on the walls of the Miami Herald Building, specifically fortified to protect the presses against hurricanes in 1963. They were no match for the casino company that bought and destroyed the structure ten years ago, leaving a parking lot in downtown that is currently for sale for more than a billion dollars. Other buildings are left to rot to avoid preservation costs, and the lack of memory or care for their history allows them to be transformed, however momentarily, into something new and beautiful by artists like Atomic. There is no grant money funding these projects, but there is community dedication. One of the largest and most used pennants in Hialeah had several inches of layered paint on its walls at the time of demolition. The building had begun as a contaminated Superfund site due to chemicals from the printing of Hustler Magazine there in the 1980s. Wynwood Arts District aestheticized the graffiti scene in Miami, inviting international artists and developers to play with the style of DIY graffiti culture that local writers, the community term for street artists, had originated. These artificial installations, like Wynwood Walls, directly evoked the space of the pennant for touristic consumption. Atomic himself admits that his work benefited from the gentrification of Wynwood. His rapidly multiplying oranges have become a symbol of the city and an accepted part of everyday life as well as a reference point for visitors. But even in Miami, which has built an international reputation for street art, Atomic is regularly arrested when painting, particularly because his work adorns occupied as well as abandoned buildings. As a tribute to the demolished Orange Bowl Stadium, Vargas painted his first version of the orange character, originally based off Obi, the mascot of the Orange Bowl, on the side of the derelict Miami Modern Furniture Store and North Miami Beach, the artist said in an interview. Now all that remains of the building and the mural are two so-called MIMO arches visible from the Golden Glades interchange. With his old crown replaced by a teardrop and a stylized grin, Atomic's character can now be found hiding in businesses even when you're off the streets. So as a graffiti writer, you're kind of trained to just bomb and copy and paste and put your name everywhere, said the artist. So I took my graffiti habits and my graffiti approach and applied it to this character. And it's kind of a relentless campaign that just never stops. Atomic's bombing recalls the public branding campaigns of companies like Coca-Cola. But money can't buy this kind of advertising or the position that the character can hold in the psyche when seen day after day after day. By camouflaging his work within the urban environment, Atomic has created a character that is arguably more iconic than any singular building in Miami's rapidly evolving skyline. Downtown Miami and Brickell may be a rare trip for many people who live in the area, but locals from Homestead to Hollywood Beach know Atomic's work on site, at least until it disappears. A lot of my work gets painted over, knocked down, demolished, he has said. I've been doing them since 2008, 2009, 2010, and I don't have any from that initial run that are still up. Canvases, that's a different thing. People have them in their collection, but work on the street doesn't last long here in Miami. Atomic himself often paints over other artists' work, especially if it is damaged, though he tries to completely cover it when he does. Many of his still extant pieces linger above the freeway and metro rail tracks and billboard bombing locations, becoming new landmarks in and of themselves. Over the intersection of Biscayne Boulevard and the 79th Street Causeway, his moniker and signature orange are visible for miles in three directions. The history of the structure bearing his work feels comically representative of the city. The building began as an office of the Gulf American Land Corporation, which sold Swampland to gullible Northerners, then became the local headquarters of Immigration and Naturalization Services. For decades, it was a site of pain and historic protest for many in the Miami community. Lines often stretched around the block. In 2000, during the nationally controversial Eliant Gonzalez adjudication, a plane was chartered to fly around the building to advocate for the boy to remain with his relatives in the United States. Eight years later, during the same financial crisis that took the Orange Bowl, the government left, taking with them the iconic gold MIMO aluminum siding that distinguished the building from the newer towers up the boulevard. A few years after that, Atomic was able to access the roof with another artist. On the west side, they painted on a small ledge against a 100-foot drop. It was crazy, and I never thought it would last this long, Atomic reflected. Painted on three sides of the roof, the unmissable mural is now one of his oldest pieces that still exists. After 15 years of vacancy, the building is as likely to be called the Atomic Building as it is the INS Building by the thousands of commuters who pass by the work daily. Once you start to recognize Atomic's signature figure, it's difficult to go anywhere in Dade County without encountering it. He also paints on canvas as well as forged street signs and other Miami rubbish, and his work can be found on keychains in tourist shops and hung on gallery walls. Each Friday night, he drops a free piece of art in a different neighborhood for fans or passersby to pick up. Because of the approachable price point of much of his work and the sheer volume of oranges that Vargas has painted in the last 15 years, it's not unusual to find yourself confronted with a smiling Atomic figure within private residences. The color orange has been used in construction for decades because it demands attention, and passersby wearing Atomic's bright shirts or spray-painted shoes instantly stick out, even in the colorful world of Miami. The ubiquity of his character can feel unsettling. In some neighborhoods, it's difficult to escape its orange gaze. This time of year, even the jack-o'-lanterns on neighborhood stoops recall the ghoulish grins. But Atomic's character has also grown beyond the city. Vargas has painted his orange in countries across the world, and his style of bombing was influenced by other artists in the international and local street art communities. When I lived in Chicago, I would visit his mural because the orange itself was so deeply associated with the character of my hometown. More than a thousand miles away from the neighborhoods where I first encountered his symbol, I felt I was still in on a private Miami joke. That was In Miami, Oranges Grow on Prime Real Estate by Frances Archer Dunbar. Next, we move to the Arts ATL publication for review. Comet Presents Sexy Parts of Tolstoy in Constellation of Musical Talent by Alexis Haack. Leo Tolstoy, he's a fizzy-dizzy good time. That's what one imagines a review of the verbose Russian author's War and Peace might have read if critics of the late 19th century had only had Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, the electropop musical adaptation of just 70 pages of Tolstoy's sweeping tone to go from. The effervescent, absorbing, and musically versatile delight playing at Horizon Theater through November 26 cleverly gives us the sexier, more scandalous portion of Tolstoy's 1867 epic quilt of narratives and philosophical music set during the Napoleonic Wars. Under the dexterous direction of Heidi McCurley and in the hands of a go-for-broke cast, it's a production that, simply put, demonstrates what live theater at its best can do. With a two-and-a-half-hour run time that somehow flies by faster than a comet's tail, the storyline follows a sweet but naive young woman named Natasha, Alexandria Joy, who's engaged to Andry, Hayden Rowe, who also plays violin, the son of a prince who's serving as a soldier in the far-off war. Things soon go awry for Natasha and the soap opera-like soup of supporting characters swirling around their Moscow social scene. And why else? In the parlance of our times, a bad boy, Natasha meets and instantly falls for the magnetic charlatan, Anatole, Jordan Patrick, setting off a Rube Goldberg of bad choices that ends in true Russian fashion and ruins in exile. Finally, just to round out the rest of the titular characters, there's also wealthy, unhappily married Pierre, Daniel Burns, the shy and frequently melancholy friend of Andry's, who was played by Josh Groban in the play's Tony-winning Broadway iteration that ran in 2016 and 17. That's a pared-down, very Wikipedia-entry-level description of what transpires, which leads me to one of the magic tricks of the show, which is how the excessive intricacies of the plot are acknowledged outright in the lyrics of the song. It's more like an opera that is virtually every line is sung. The very first number, appropriately titled Prologue, sets the tongue-in-cheek tone that pervades the evening, beginning somberly and slowly. There's a war going on, out there somewhere, and Andry isn't here. And then the ensemble pauses a beat, and the whole score shifts as they launch into a jaunty, vaudeville-like tune that directly addresses the audience and makes a meta-meal out of our plight. And this is all in your program. You are at the opera. Going to have to study up a little bit if you want to keep up with the plot. The entire cast sings, smiles on their faces, swaying back and forth. Because it's a complicated Russian novel. Everyone's got nine different names. So look it up in your program. We'd appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Da-da-da, da-da-da. The musical was first produced in 2012, then spent four years or so making the rounds at different theaters, including stations in Quito, Ecuador, and in Massachusetts. After its celebrated run on Broadway, it was sadly beaten out for the Tony for Best Musical by dear Evan Hansen. But hey, time will tell which one holds up better. Spoiler, it's this one. Creator Dave Malloy, who crafted the book, music, and lyrics of the show, is no stranger to adapting literary giants. In 2019, he crafted a musical from Herman Melville's Moby Dick. And he also wrote the music and lyrics for a new musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches, which opens in London this month. Keep an eye on this kid. He's going places. While Malloy's writing is strong, this show is a heavy lift. Its success relies on a strong cast and musical team. Thankfully, at Horizon, the stage is a crowded constellation of Atlanta musical theater talent who invite you in to bask in the glow of their artistry all the way through their final bow. This is particularly true of Joy, a fresh but already familiar face who has appeared on stages across Metro Atlanta. Natasha finally grants Joy a role worthy of her gifts as a performer and especially as a vocalist. In the solo No One Else, for instance, she's tasked with climbing around the entire set as she delivers a soaring piece on longing, envisioning what life might be like with Andri, the uncertain promise of love and security. In a feat, Joy manages to almost make you forget that she's moving at all as her voice carries us with her. In a smart casting choice, Joy has been matched up again here with Patrick, her same toxic love co-star from last year's production of Heathers at Actors Express. Nothing more toxic than literal prisoners Veronica and JD. These two actors have a credible and crackling chemistry that makes their initial meet-and-flirt duet, Natasha and Anatole, captivating to watch. As does the lighting design by Mary Parker, which transforms the pivotal sequence visually into the tangled hormonal spiderweb in which these characters are now caught. In the part of Anatole, Patrick gives one of the best physical comedy performances of the evening, skillfully playing up the irrepressible scumminess of the seducer while also winking at, obscuring the trope of the irresistible bad boy. There's not a comic facial expression that he hasn't mastered, and this allows for a characterization that is simultaneously rooted in the play itself, which also very much in cahoots with the audience about the artifacts of the shtick. As Anatole's scheming sister Helene, Janine Ayn serves up real housewives of Moscow energy and slams down some scorching vocals. As Natasha's caring but confounded cousin, Anna Dvorak also delivers fine, sensitive work. Then, of course, there's Daniel Burns as Pierre, the melancholy half-namesake of the show who anchors the entire piece with his soul. Ultimately, the self-aware beats speckled throughout the show, and the diverting performances especially, remind us that even though this is big, serious literature we're witnessing, everyone's here to entertain. And the spectacular entertainment does not stop. At one point in the show, the entire theater was shaking. Is there a term for when a theater-going experience feels like riding a party bus? If so, insert that here. People were stomping in their seats, clapping and laughing, and even singing along. It's a rare thrill to feel breathless when you've been hardly moving at all, but that's thankfully the very experience that an audience is in for when they go to see this strange and stunning show. That was Review. Comet presents sexy parts of Tolstoy in a constellation of musical talent by Alexis Haack. Next set. What's a C do in here? ATL Jam, Cash Cohen, Rigoletto, and much more by the ATL staff. Art and Design. On the outsized chance you haven't heard, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. The Atlanta Beltline will celebrate the milestone this weekend with ATL Jam, an exhibition of style, writing, culture. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday through Sunday. More than 25 style writers and artists will be writing and enjoying the moment. Painting will take place at various spots on the West Side and South Side trails. The So So Deaf Walls event on Sunday will include guided walking tours with Ann Tarr-Cole Fierce, a retired graffiti writer and historian. Live music, too. Visit the website for details. It's free. Signature Contemporary Crafts Biennial Exhibition of Work by the iconic Atlanta-based wood artist Philip and Matt Mothrup answers on Saturday. The Mothrups are a multigenerational family of woodturners known for their craftsmanship of finely turned wood bowls. Some of their creations are in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. There's an opening reception Saturday, 5 to 8 p.m. Both artists will attend. A solo show by Nicole Kang Ahn will open at Mint Gallery on Saturday. Ahn is a painter, illustrator, and muralist dedicated to changing Asian Americans' identity after generations of racial and social conditioning. Her paintings explore themes of motherhood, love, and loss. Reception is 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Dance. One of the ways the High Museum of Art is reaching out to the community is by inviting Atlanta-based dance companies to rehearse free of charge in the lobby of the Ann Cox Chambers Wing. The Dance Lab initiative allows ensembles to create an experiment and for museum-goers to see works in progress. Full Radius Dance, known for its inclusion of both disabled and able-bodied dancers, will be there Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. They'll be back one Friday a month, February through May, so stay tuned. Included with museum admission, $18.50 for non-members, free for members. Terminus Modern Ballet Theater presents an evening of contemporary dance set to the music of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen in a program titled, no surprise, Cash-Cohen. They'll perform the Man in Black, a cowboy boot ballet by choreographer James Koudelka that the company debuted in March at Atlanta Botanical Gardens. This time, new company dancer Elizabeth Leberwitz and guest artist Brandon Nguyen-Hilton will join the cast. Also on the program is Treaty, a romantic duet set to Cohen's poetry and music. Friday through Sunday and through November 19th at 7.30 p.m., at the Inn at Serenbe. Tickets are $45. CoreDance's 1830 EST event this month features company director Sue Schroeder interviewing Kevin O'Connor, a multidisciplinary artist. A choreographer, dancer, film producer, circus artist, and community activist, O'Connor is also engaged in ecology and queer activism. Streams on Wednesday, November 8th at 6.30 p.m. Music. The Atlanta opera takes on Giuseppe Verdi's classic, Rigoletto, the story of a hunchbacked clown whose daughter is abducted by a lecherous duke. Tomer Zivulin, the opera's general manager and artistic director, tells Arts ATL writer Jordan Owen that the pain and anguish of the titular character serves as a quiet allegory for his own distress at the unfolding events in his home country of Israel. The opera, sung in Italian with English subtitles, opens Saturday and runs through November 12th at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. Tickets start at $48. The Atlanta Youth Orchestra performs its first concert of the season Sunday at 2 p.m. at Symphony Hall. William R. Langley will conduct a program that includes pieces by Brian Nabors, Piston, Rossini, and Liszt. Nabors, a contemporary composer from Birmingham, is a past winner of the Rapido National Composition Contest. He describes his piece as a long contemplation of day life as we know it, combined with the thoughts of life in nature. The concert is free, but registration is required. R&B crooner Kajan burst on the scene in 2009 with a number one album on the Billboard Hip-Hop R&B chart, I Get Around, that was propelled by the hit single, On the Ocean. The Detroit native's most recent hit was Come Get to This, and he is on tour to promote his latest single, Can't Live. Kajan performs Friday at 8 p.m. at City Winery. Tickets start at $40. Theatre. Sunday is the final performance of Georgia Ensemble Theatre's Wait Until Dark at Jenny T. Anderson Theatre. Written by Frendrick Knott, the play is about a blind woman terrorized in her basement apartment by home invaders and how she perseveres. Arts ATL writer Benjamin Carr's preview delves into how co-directors Candy McLellan and Jeremiah Davison created an intense, unsettling mood for stage. Tickets start at $25. Synchronicity Theatre will host Jenny Levison, owner of Super Jenny, Thursday through Saturday evening for Say Yes, an evening of soup, song, and savory stories. Proceeds from the one-woman cabaret benefit The Zadie Project, an Atlanta nonprofit focused on food insecurity. Each evening includes dinner and a cash bar at 7 and the performance at 8. Tickets are $100. Film and TV. The Terra Theatre will screen Soy Cuba, 1964, Tuesday at 7.30 p.m., four vignettes about the lives of the Cuban people set during the pre-revolutionary era and directed by Mikhail Kolasikov. The cast includes Sergio Correri, Salvador Wood, and José Gallardo. Tickets are $15. That was What to See, Do, and Hear, ATL Jam, Cash Cohen, Rigoletto, and much more by Arts ATL staff. Next up, Seven Stages Alliance Stage plays on gun violence written by young playwrights by Luke Evans. As of the end of October 2023, the United States has experienced at least 565 mass shootings this year, nearly twice the number of days. But that's probably something you already knew. Anybody who has watched the news or scrolled through social media has probably come across a similar statistic on gun violence. It is the role of theater to take cultural topics like this and put them into our body, impressing them upon us in a more visceral way. That is the goal of Enough, plays to end gun violence. The touring collection of short plays will be performed at Seven Stages on November 4th and at the Alliance on November 6th. Launched in 2019, shortly after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the project seeks to give young people who are most heavily affected by gun violence a platform to voice their experiences. By then, I had already witnessed a powerful youth movement emerge shortly after the senseless shooting in Parkland, Florida, the year prior, says company founder Michael Cote. Young people took to the streets and continued to do so to manifest the change they wanted to see in the world, while policymakers continuously failed to rise to the challenge. In the spring of 2023, a nationwide call was put out for playwrights between the ages of 13 and 19. They were encouraged to submit works that gave voice to their experiences with gun violence, works showing that the culture of gun violence we have created is not normal. These plays come at the issue from a variety of angles. One follows three 911 operators trying to guide someone to safety during a shooting. One features two parents packing up their child's things in the aftermath. One depicts a teen's desperate attempts to keep her brother from being shot by the police. One satirizes the inane policy decisions made by the school administration and their Sisyphean efforts to prevent school shootings. All highlight the crystalline truth that lies at the center of this project. It is long past time for something to be done. Of course, activist theater is of no use if it does not spark conversation. Following the reading, each location will hold a discussion regarding the topics addressed in the play, creating a forum for audience members to process and reflect. Informational materials will also be provided by community partners fighting for gun control in Georgia. The two readings, one at seven stages and one at the Alliance, are produced and cast separately, but both are produced by artists passionate about the subject matter. Charmaine Brown, founder and CEO of Jared's Heart of Success, will produce the reading at seven stages. Brown sat on the panel for one of the play's previous readings and this year sought to involve her organization. Brown, who lost her son Jared to gun violence in 2015, will be joined by several others who have lost family members under similar circumstances. While this is the first year the show will be staged at seven stages, it's the third year at the Alliance where it will be directed by Maya Lawrence, a resident artist and allyship program director at the Alliance. Lawrence was previously one of the Alliance's Spelman Leadership Fellows and works closely with the teen ensemble that will be performing the show. She will also be working with the current roster of Spelman Fellows who will produce the show. Like seven stages, the Alliance will be holding a talkback following the reading. Samantha Provenzano, another resident artist and teen programs manager at the Alliance, highlights the importance of the fact that the show centers young voices. Provenzano directed the Alliance's first production of Enough and is helping produce this year's reading. She points to the discussions that arise when directing young actors in the play as the world they are growing up in differs so much from the one in which she grew up. This will mark the third year that Enough has been produced, each time commissioning new play lineups by different playwrights. Some deal with the traumatic aftermath of gun violence, while others explore what it is like to live in a community that is constantly under threat of being victimized. The past scripts are available for purchase or licensing through play scripts. Over the years, the selection panel for Enough has consisted of such well-known playwrights as David Henry Huang, Lauren Gunderson, and Naomi Iizuka. By allowing young artists the space to tell these stories based on their real experiences, Enough puts the lived realities of gun violence front and center in a way that no statistic can. Gunderson says it is in the best of the preface in the 2020 published version of the play. America's flood of gun violence isn't about statistics, but about people. Lives, families, dreams, and hopes cut short brutally, unnecessarily, preventably. Gun violence is about voices silenced, which makes the young voices in this collection all the more potent. They are speaking, dreaming, creating for so many who can't. That was Seven Stages Alliance Stage Plays on Gun Violence written by young playwrights by Luke Evans. Next up, Review. Outfronts the prom, transcends high school with ageless themes, humor by Benjamin Carr. Returning to an Atlanta stage for the first time since its stellar 2016 debut at the Alliance, Outfront Theatre's production of The Prom generates big time joy with its zany comedy and great music. The cast of the show, running through November 11th at Outfront, is its greatest asset. Though the material by Chad Beguelin, Bob Martin, and Matthew Sklar remains crisp and hilarious. And the show's message of positivity and inclusion is evergreen. Its story transcends a mere high school musical, resonating with larger themes and bigger laughs as characters, no matter their age, learn and grow. The premise of The Prom, which traveled from Atlanta to Broadway before being adapted into a Meryl Streep film, is intentionally nutty. An Indiana girl named Emma finds herself at the center of a political firestorm after she says she wants to bring her girlfriend to her high school prom. The PTA retaliates by canceling the event. Meanwhile, a gaggle of fading, egomaniacal, liberal Broadway actors desperate to seem altruistic after years of bad press decide to invade Indiana and take up Emma's fight, if it gets them publicity. Soon, they're singing hippie songs about gay rights during the halftime show at a tractor pool, while also being genuinely moved by Emma's play. One of the most charming strengths of this script is that, though it places the colorful Broadway characters as the apparent protagonists, it makes Emma the secret lead and the emotional heart. Though you can cast a powerhouse actress like the great Wendy Melconian to play two-time Emmy Award-winning diva Dee Dee Allen, the whole show rests on the shoulders of Wyn Kelly as Emma. And Kelly nails it. She's heartbreaking and funny, and her voice is clear and beautiful. Playing the secret romance alongside Tatiana Mack as Alyssa, Kelly generates real sparks when the two sneak a glance or harmonize in a duet. The whole cast is terrific. Melconian, a warm and lovely person offstage, is having a blast as the absurdly self-involved, high-heeled, and hilarious Dee Dee. And Melconian's performance of It's Not About Me and The Lady's Improving are worth it the price of admission alone. Robert Hinsman's Barry Glickman is a scene-stealer. Barry, coping with insecurities through flashy, fussy quips, is such a sweet character. And Hinsman is lovely in the role. Thank goodness Chris McKnight and Precious West shine in their roles as Juilliard grad-turned-whiter Trent and chorus girl Angie. The show graciously gives each main character at least one solo and moment in the spotlight. Alan Phelps does solid work as the comparatively sedate, reasonable school principal. And Valia E. Woodbury gives her PTA villainess such harsh edges and layers. Really, it is such a fun show. Director Katie Bergmark coordinated all the elements of the show well. It's sharp and rousing. The choreography from Atarius Armstrong is strong. The scenic design by Paul Conroy and Sydney Lee and the lighting by David Rheingold are particularly notable during the musical's multiple party scenes. During the opening night performance, there were some issues regarding backing track volumes for the earlier songs. It made some lyrics and thus some jokes hard to understand. But Outfront's mission as a theater is to highlight LGBTQ plus stories and its strongest work comes from these uplifting, funny musicals which don't dwell for long in darker moments. The Prom is one of its best. That was Review. Outfront's The Prom transcends high school with ageless themes. Humor by Benjamin Carr. That concludes today's Metro Arts program which is brought to you by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. This has been Kristen Moody for GARS, the Georgia Rating Service. Thank you for listening to GARS.