02/15/12

For Charlton Alicea, Life Is A Cabaret

Charlton Alicea is a busy man. He dances professionally and teaches ballroom dancing. He's a hairstylist. He works part-time at Jeffre Scott Apothecary. And last year, he added "actor" to his resume when he starred in Theatre Charlotte's production of RENT. He's now taken on another role that involves acting, singing, and dancing. Some people have all the talent.

You can catch him next in CPCC's Cabaret. Feb 17-26. Details here.

Revue: Although you're a... Read more »

01/27/12

Say, Have You Heard About "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told"?

01/27/12

All That Jazz at The Bechtler

Before I went to my first "Jazz at The Bechtler" event, I sort of assumed that jazz was the background music for what was really a cocktail party for art aficionados. 

Well, shut my mouth. Literally.

People don't come to make small talk. They come for the music.

People come not so much to see and be seen (although there is always an interesting, eclectic crowd), but to hear. The crowd is hushed and respectful. Jazz isn't in the background here; it's front and center.

Concerts are performed by the Ziad Jazz Quartet on the first Friday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. in the museum lobby. Concerts are free with museum admission, and there's a cash bar.

"Jazz for... Read more »

01/24/12

Weekend Top Picks for Jan 27-29: Love, Loss & More

The good stuff just keeps coming at us. I can't recall a January that was this full of shows I wanted to see.

There's Love, Loss and What I Wore, which is more cultural phenomenon than play. It's not about high fashion. It's about women's clothes and what they tell the world about us. If you recall what you were wearing the night you met the man of your dreams or what spiffy "interview suit" you put together to try to land the job you'd always wanted, do not miss the remembrances about women's lives, as told through our outfits. Read more »

Posted at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/22/12

QCTC Responds to the Doubters

Yesterday's blog post (Note to boss: I am working Saturdays AND Sundays!) drew more comment than anything else I've written for Charlotte magazine. Which is to say two people commented on it. Thanks, guys!

So excited was I to have written anything that sparked a comment, I became hungry for more. So, I asked Queen City Theatre Company's Glenn T. Griffin to comment on the comments. His response is below.

"On Thursday, the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, renter of the venue, called QCTC to inform [us] there was an obvious organized protest going on regarding The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told.  I was getting ready for rehearsal and was... Read more »

Posted at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments: 2

01/21/12

"Let the Haters Be Your Advertisers"

I haven't heard hatred and fear, tinged with homophobia, like this since Rev. Joe Chambers went off about the Charlotte production of the Pulitzer-winning "Angels in America" in 1996. (AIDS was among the themes of that play, and there were a couple of seconds of full frontal nudity. Male nudity -- the scary kind.)

Queen City Theatre Company (QCTC) is preparing for the Feb 2 opening of Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, a retelling of the Book of Genesis with gay characters. Some religious conservatives have gotten wind of it and are trying to have the production shut down. QCTC has gotten more than 20,000 emails in just two days from fundamentalists that contain, according to... Read more »

Posted at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments: 7

01/17/12

Weekend Top Picks for Jan 20-22: Travis Tritt, Madama Butterfly, Doubt, and More

Stand-up comedians Colin Quinn and Paula Poundstone are sure to kill it. Madama Butterfly will kill herself. Get out there and have a killer weekend, Charlotte. There's so much to do ...

Travis Tritt. He was country when country wasn't cool. The real deal plays the Knight Theater on Friday. Tickets, details

Thursday doesn't officially count as the weekend, but why not start early? Colin Quinn brings his... Read more »

Posted at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/16/12

On The Verge

In Eric Overmyer's time-traveling comedy, On The Verge; Or, The Geography of Desire, three Victorian women explorers set out on an adventure that takes them to Africa, the Himalayas and into an unknown place and time in their future, but our recent past. The three heroines encounter Cool Whip, Essos, Egg Beaters and other mysteries. Jim Gloster, a local guy with Hollywood cred, directs. Gloster gave us the lowdown on the play, which will be at the Warehouse Performing Arts Center in Davidson. Details, tickets

Revue: What attracted you to this play... Read more »

01/14/12

Smoke and Mirrors

UNCC's College of Arts + Architecture is setting uptown on fire.

Not really. But, they did commission Anna von Gwinner, a Berlin-based artist and architect,  to create an explosive new installation in their  center city building.  This site-specific video installation, “Betwixt and Between,” will command attention from passersby as it projects from the gallery in two directions: out into 9th street and into the building lobby.

Von Gwinner's moving image presents two visions: an explosive series of pyrotechnics on the interior and, on outside, a billowing cloud of smoke.  Between these two screens lies the empty length of the 54-foot gallery.

The artist said,... Read more »

Posted at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/13/12

Yunah Lee Has Died A Hundred Deaths

Yunah Lee has made Madama Butterfly her signature role. Which means she has to kill herself on stage every single night and then do it all again the next day.

The Korean-born lyric soprano has played the title character in Puccini's opera more than one hundred times. She'll perform it next for Charlotte audiences when Opera Carolina brings one of the most beloved of all operas to the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center from Jan 21-29. Details here

Not familiar with the opera that's performed more today in the U.S. than any other? Maybe you're more familiar with... Read more »

Posted at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/13/12

High Aspirations

The Design Center of the Carolinas (DCC) and Ram Realty Services are sponsoring their third annual art contest for Charlotte’s design and arts community. The winning artist will have his or her work displayed on the highest canvas in town, the iconic South End water tower and win  $1,000 in this year’s Highest Design Contest.

This year's theme is “What inspires your creativity?” The contest begins Jan 17 and closes March 16. Online voting will run from March 19 – April 30. Entries must be emailed by March 16 to Read more »

Posted at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/13/12

Charlotte Jewish Film Festival Returns

The 8th Annual Charlotte Jewish Film Festival will be back Feb 25-March 11, and tickets are on sale now through the festival's website. This film series is consistently one of my favorite events all year.

Diverse offerings include La Rafle (The Roundup), a recreation of the 1942 roundup of 13,000 Parisian Jews as seen through the eyes of a child starring Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) and Jean Reno (The Professional) and a movie about a human resources manager called The Human Resources Manager. Really.

The closing night event (March 11) is "Jews in Toons." Special guest Mike Reiss, longtime writer/producer of Read more »

Posted at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/10/12

Weekend Top Picks for Jan 13-15: "Cash Crop" at The Gantt Center

Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the Harvey B. Gantt Center has a weekend's worth of activities that look back at the centuries-old oppression Dr. King fought.

Cash Crop is one of the most exciting shows to open anywhere in Charlotte this season. Young, SCAD-trained Stephen Hayes encountered an image of a slave ship diagram in a printmaking class and began a process that would eventually lead to this powerful installation which opens Friday, Jan 13 at 6 p.m.  The installation invites viewers to walk into an emotional and psychic space to confront the past and -- yes, the present -- of slavery. Life-size sculptures of Hayes's friends and family members... Read more »

Posted at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/09/12

Colin Quinn Announces For President

Empires fall. And there are those who've been worried for some time that America may be the next to topple. Could comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member (1995-2000) Colin Quinn be the man to turn us around? We could do worse, America.

You can hear what Quinn has to say about the decline of empires (rest assured, he'll put a comic spin on the topic) when he brings Colin Quinn: Long Story Short to the Knight Theater on Jan 19. In the meantime, here's his take on the Kardashians, North Carolina basketball, and his own modest political... Read more »

Posted at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/08/12

Front Page News

Where have you gone, Woodward and Bernstein?

You have to wonder if movies about reporters for daily newspapers will be around much longer. Although I am partial to the old-timey newspaper -- the kind that arrives rolled up in a rubber band at the end of your driveway each morning -- there are those who say it may soon be a relic. (A moment of silence, please.) So, the library's nine-part film series showcasing the "newspaper picture" -- from screwball comedies to hard-hitting dramas to investigative crime reporting -- is a bittersweet homage.

... Read more »

Posted at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/08/12

Fresh Ink: A Fresh Approach to Alt-Classical Music

Can classical music also be alternative?

UNCC's College of Arts + Architecture sets out to prove it can happen when they launch a new initiative, Fresh Ink, later this month. Fresh Ink will help "hip Charlotte up" a bit, as it's part of the alt-classical movement that is taking off in capitals of cool like New York and Portland. It aims to present music by young composers that crosses over traditional musical boundaries.

The first concert, in the atrium of UNCC's new uptown building, will be performed by four local musicians (two from UNCC) and will coincide with the opening of a digital installation in the new gallery. The group will... Read more »

Posted at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/06/12

From Salzburg with Love

Charlotte Concerts is gearing up to welcome The Salzburg Chamber Soloists for its opening concert of the new year. The performance, also a Charlotte premiere, will be at CPCC's Halton Theater on Friday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. Learn more.

Formed in 1991, the 16-piece Salzburg Chamber Soloists are, according to the press release, “led by the chair” and have no official conductor. Artistic director and founder Lavard Skou-Larsen took time out from his touring schedule to talk to us about his group's upcoming performance.

Revue: Your group is called The Salzburg Chamber... Read more »

01/05/12

The Emperor Has No Clothes

We have only to look at the state of our economy to see how difficult it is to speak truth to power.

No one wants to upset the emperor (or a proud CEO) by telling him the spiffy new suit he's wearing isn't really there. Or that the crappy mortgages that have been bundled together and resold to some unsuspecting investor are worthless. Remember Enron's Sherron Watkins? Telling the truth to your boss or boss's boss isn't easy. It can get you laughed at. Or fired. How about Harry Markopolos, who tried to tell the SEC repeatedly that Bernie Madoff's returns couldn't be real? The emperor, in whatever form he may take, rarely wants bad news.

It's a bitter lesson. And one that apparently needs to be retaught.

The... Read more »

Posted at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/04/12

Weekend Top Picks for Jan 6-8: Memphis and More

The holiday season can take a lot out of a person. By the time January gets here, many of us are ready to be homebound for a spell. We're tired of the mock cheer the holidays often require. Or, maybe that's just me.

But, don't hibernate just yet, people. Not this weekend. There are some must-see shows worth leaving the house for.

Memphis. The Tony-winning musical celebrates the music of 1950s Memphis and the (relative) racial harmony it helped create. When a white deejay starts playing music by black singers, the white teenagers like what they hear. And they want more of it. Their parents want none of it. So, parents are forced to confront some hateful old stereotypes. And in this show, there's a... Read more »

Posted at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

01/01/12

Farewell, Romare

He came in with a bang in 2011, and he’s leaving with just as much fanfare.

The city’s been on one big Romare Bearden bender for the past few months. If you somehow missed one of the shows (The Mint Uptown, the Gantt Center, Melberg Gallery) or one of the concerts (at Knight Theater or UNCC) in his honor, you might consider getting out more.

This weekend is your last chance to see the Mint’s Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections, and you can see if for FREE on January 7-8 during a weekend of celebration, music, food, special programs, and more.

The public is also invited to contribute to Memory Train: Celebrating Community through the Power of Remembrance, a video collage of residents’... Read more »

Posted at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

12/26/11

BFD of the Month: Love, Loss, and What I Wore

Everyone's short on cash and time these days. If you have just one cultural outing this month, let it be our BFD.

Choosing this month's BFD wasn't all that easy. There is a boat load of good stuff going on this month. January may be the month when big film studios unload their worst flicks, but Charlotte has hit the mother lode, culturally speaking. Comedians Colin Quinn and Paula Poundstone will be here. B.B. King plays two nights at the Knight Theater, and Opera Carolina stages Madama Butterfly.

All reasons to be rejoice -- and to head to the theater. But, the show I'm positively giddy about is Read more »

Posted at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0