The blog is going away but the reviews are not. You can find them here in the online print edition.
Home > ATLarts > Archives > 2008 > July > 28
Monday, July 28, 2008
Who should star in ‘Color Purple’ film?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mamma mia! Is America ready for a movie of “The Color Purple” musical?
Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia in the Steven Spielberg film two decades before the musical appeared on Broadway, has said she plans to produce a film. American Idol Fantasia, who portrayed lead character Celie on Broadway, has rushed in to say she’ll reprise the role for the big screen.
What do you think? Who should play the main characters of Celie, Sofia, Shug, Harpo and Mister?
If you have seen the musical at the Fox, what do you think about Sofia P. Fields’ Sofia? Should she get a chance at playing the role that Oprah did for Steven Spielberg?
What about Atlanta-born Stu James, who plays Harpo in the musical? Both actors have fledgling film careers but are relatively unknown quantities in Hollywood.
But as James said in an interview, “Maybe our names will be big enough at that time. You never know.”
Check out today’s profile of James and Fields here.
Perhaps you think a film would be overkill? Are you maxed out on “The Color Purple”?
We’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to comment on the Fox musical, do so here.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
NBAF Review: ASO Electrifies at Ebenezer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the past eight years, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has ventured from its Symphony Hall home to perform a free show in Ebenezer Baptist Church as part of the National Black Arts Festival.
The distance between Midtown and downtown’s Sweet Auburn district is just a few miles, but in mood and expectation — and, strikingly, engagement with the audience — these concerts often seem like a world away.
Sunday evening, in the church’s Horizon Sanctuary, the ASO and conductor Robert Spano played to a full house and revisited its Ebenezer formula: young minority musicians take the solo spot in a short work or a movement from a concerto, followed by a complete reading of a popular, barnstorming symphony.
If this sounds like a strategy to conserve musicians’ energy and minimize rehearsal time — after all, the ASO played “La Bohème” the night before at Encore Park — the results came off just the opposite.
Context matters. As an Ebenezer pastor made clear in remarks before the music started, Martin Luther King Jr.’s church is “a spiritual and political institution.” When the ASO plays standard repertoire in Symphony Hall all the political struggles feel settled; its audience reacts to virtuosity and beauty and other pleasures of art for art’s sake.
At Ebenezer, many in the audience had likely never heard the city’s major concert orchestra. Here the musicians had to make a new case for the old classics and for themselves, moment by moment. You got the sense the musicians had to earn the attention of the listeners; the challenge pushed them not to technical perfection but to emotional involvement.
First up was cellist Khari Joyner, an incoming senior at Lakeside High School, playing the opening movement of Haydn’s C Major Cello Concerto, premiered in the 1760s. Joyner already boasts an impressive local resume, as a student in the ASO’s minority-center Talent Development Program and as principal cellist in the disciplined Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.
He’s a charismatic soloist, too, finding the essence of the concerto’s elegant passions — rewarded with a grateful standing ovation.
Violinist Danielle Belen Nesmith is a graduate of the University of Southern California and winner of the 2008 Sphinx Competition, a Detroit program that fosters the talents of budding Hispanic and black classical musicians. With a lush, honeyed tone, she offered two gems, William Grant Still’s “Mother and Child,” a lovely little song for violin and orchestra from 1943, and Wieniawski’s 1853 daredevil “Polonaise Brillante,” exactingly played.
Without a break, the ASO leapt into Tchaikovsky’s majestic, sentimental and fierce Fifth Symphony. The playing wasn’t perfect but was never bland.
There were many highlights. Here one that will stick with me longest: As the finale rolls unstoppably toward its fate, the composer sets up a giant B major chord as a sort of triumphant arch. In the pause that follows, a few in the audience started to applaud — only to have Spano and orchestra restart the music with an electrified jolt, like a orator who insists on delivering a bold political message, and will rise, thrillingly, above the din of the enthused masses. This winds up the crowd even more. It was a palpable shock of intensity, the sort of moment that made it one of the ASO’s best of the year.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Classical Music
Cobb Centre naming high school musical awards for Broadway star Shuler Hensley
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark B. Kent recently discovered that “schuler” is a German word for student.
In a happy coincidence, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Foundation, where Kent is education director, announced today that it is creating the Shuler Hensley Awards for excellence in high school musical theater. The student honors, which Kent refers to as the “Shulers,” are named after the Atlanta-born star of Broadway’s “Young Frankenstein,” “Oklahoma!” and “Tarzan.”
The student competition — inspired by Houston’s Tommy Tune Awards and Pittsburgh’s Gene Kelly Awards — is open to all public and private high schools in the metro area. The first round of honors — in 13 categories ranging from performance and direction to choreography and design — will be presented at a glizty ceremony at the Cobb venue next April 14.
Hensley, who plans to attend, lauded the new program and said he is humbled to have it named for him.
“I think high school is pretty much the most important experience in terms of theater that people have,” the Marietta native said by phone from his home in Montclair, N.J. “It’s sort of like people get the taste for theater, and then they decide, ‘This is something I really want to do.’ ”
Hensley remembers performing in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” while a student at The Westminster Schools in the ’80s. He later attended the University of Georgia on a baseball scholarship but decided to leave Athens to study music formally. He won his Tony in 2002, for his portrayal of Jud Fry in Trevor Nunn’s revival of “Oklahoma!” Before that, he received an Olivier Award for the London production of the classic.
“He’s sort of like our local kid made good in the Broadway world right now,” says Kent, who runs the foundation’s ArtsBridge education program. “I think it’s kind of exciting for kids to be connected with someone who is on the move and enjoy that process with him.” Hensley is 41.
The Broadway star, currently playing the Monster in “Young Frankenstein,” participated in the center’s grand opening events last year. Kent says the actor’s approachability was “absolutely inspiring.”
Hensley says he’d like to attend the awards every year. The actor, who has never performed professionally in his home town, also said he’d love to try out “Bad Boys of Broadway,” a new solo show he’s developing, at the center and would be thrilled to offer master classes to students.
“Anytime I can lend my name to this time in kids’ lives and offer encouragement, that’s what I want to do.”
For more information about the awards: 770-916-2808; cobbenergycentre.com.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Calling All Sand Gnats Fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s tough to get the word out about your book when you’re a first-time novelist, as Atlanta author Richard Doster well knows.
His first novel, “Safe at Home,” examines the early years of the civil rights movement through integration of minor league baseball in the South in the 1950s. Doster is doing the usual author signings at bookstores, but he’s also going directly to the folks who are most likely to be interested in his subject matter — fans at minor league ballparks throughout the South.
His wife, Sally, has been writing, phoning, and emailing the play-by-play broadcasters for just about every minor league team within driving distance. To date, as a result of her efforts, he has been on the pre-game show of the Louisville Bats, and is scheduled to be on with the Tulsa Drillers. He has been in the broadcast booths with the play-by-play broadcasters for the Mobile BayBears, the Birmingham Barons, Frisco RoughRiders, Asheville Tourists, Hickory Crawdads, Delmarva Shorebirds, Chattanooga Lookouts, and West Tenn Jaxx. Later, he plans to be on with the Durham Bulls, the Savannah Sand Gnats and Augusta GreenJackets. (Don’t you just love those names?)
But you don’t have to go to a ballpark to hear Doster speak about his novel. He’ll be at the Decatur public library tonight at 7:15. More information at the Georgia Center for the Book’s website
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
