AIN’T MISBEHAVIN FRIDAY, MARCH 9–SUNDAY, MARCH 25 NORTH RALEIGH ARTS & CREATIVE THEATRE, RALEIGH $12-$20; CHECK WEBSITE FOR TIMES nract.org The Harlem Renaissance jazz pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller was larger than life: “Mama Waller’s 285 pounds of jam, jive, and everything,” he called himself on an early phonograph recording of the song that gives this […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inCulture
Sonorous Road’s Production of Framing the Shot Flips the Characters’ Genders and Makes Them Play Against Type
Framing the Shot Friday, March 26-Sunday, March 25 SONOROUS ROAD THEATRE, RALEIGH Check website for times, $20-$25 www.sonorousroad.com Did you catch the recent Facebook video in which a cat was carefully petting a bird? Framing the Shot is a little like that: a comedy about characters playing against their perceived type. In its original version, […]
Posted inArt
The Latest Revival of Sondheim’s Assassins Arrives at a Charged Moment in the American Shooting Gallery
Assassins Through Sunday, March 11 Theatre in the Park, Raleigh www.theatreinthepark.com We’d say the midway’s open once again for this latest revival of Assassins, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s sardonic, carnival-tinged musical tribute to the ultimate Second Amendment solution. But its opening during the week of the Parkland school massacre underlined the fact that, when […]
Posted inTheater
The Moors Trains the Devices of the Brontë Sisters’ Novels on a Toothsome Critique of Gothic Romance
THE MOORS Through Saturday, March 10 Manbites Dog Theater, Durham www.manbitesdogtheater.org The words of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes still resonate half a century later: “Hold fast to dreams/For if dreams die/Life is a broken-winged bird/That cannot fly.” But don’t tell playwright Jen Silverman that. The Moors, her often funny, abruptly plaintive drama, now running […]
Posted inArt
Two Veteran Actors Punch and Counterpunch in the Tense Classroom Drama Gidion’s Knot
Gidion’s Knot Through Sunday, March 4 PSI Theatre, Durham www.bartlettteater.org As in The Moors, an overactive imagination bears upon the tragedy at the center of Gidion’s Knot, a psychological drama that opens Bartlett Theater’s new season at PSI Theatre. In Johnna Adams’s two-woman war of nerves, Corryn (Lakeisha Coffey) is a mother still reeling from […]
Posted inArt
If Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, and Howard Zinn Took Over a Public-Access Channel, It Might Look Like Gob Squad’s Revolution Now!
GOB SQUAD: REVOLUTION NOW! Friday, Feb. 23 & Saturday, Feb. 24, 8 p.m., $20 Current ArtSpace & Studio, Chapel Hill www.carolinaperformingarts.org The revolution will not be televised, as Gil-Scott Heron said. Revolution Now!, however, will. But don’t check your cable listings. This Friday and Saturday, sometime after 8 p.m., the happening will be broadcastthough perhaps […]
Posted inArt
A Weighty Main Course and a Fluffy Dessert Compose a Two-Pronged Treatise on Christianity, The Christians and Tartuffe
THE CHRISTIANS MOLIÈRE’STARTUFFE Through Sunday, March 11 PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill www.playmakersrep.org Is Christianity a religion predicated on coercion, punishment, and fear? If you remove those elements, is anything left? Those are the pointed central questions playwright Lucas Hnath probes in his controversial one-act drama, The Christians, part of a two-play symposium on religion […]
Posted inTheater
UNC and Duke Answer Demands for Intimate, Adaptable Venues with Current and Von Der Heyden Studio Theater, Both Opening This Week
CURRENT OPEN HOUSES Friday, Feb. 2,11–1:30 p.m. & 5–7 p.m. PAUL DRESHER ENSEMBLE: SOUND MAZE Friday, Feb. 2–Tuesday, Feb. 5 Current ArtSpace & Studio, Chapel Hill www.currentunc.org RUBENSTEIN GRAND OPENING Saturday, Feb. 3, 1–4 p.m.ANTONY HAMILTON & ALISDAIR MACINDOE:MEETING Thursday, Feb. 1–Saturday, Feb. 3 Rubenstein Arts Center’s von der Heyden Studio Theater, Durhamwww.dukeperformances.com The wall […]
Posted inTheater
Domestic Drama The Miraculous and the Mundane Features Some of Howard L. Craft’s Most Vivid Writing Yet
THE MIRACULOUS AND THE MUNDANE Through Saturday, Feb. 3 Manbites Dog Theater, Durham www.manbitesdogtheater.org Howard L. Craft’s domestic drama features some of the local playwright’s most vivid writing yet. In Trevor Johnson’s rock-ribbed performance, Percy Nelson’s contrary repartee with fellow ‘Nam veteran Uncle Bone (Gil Faison) and Percy’s adult daughter and son, Chloe and Junior […]
Posted inArt
Burning Coal’s Superlative The Normal Heart Reminds Us That What We Forget Makes Us Most Vulnerable
THE NORMAL HEART Through Sunday, Feb.4 Murphey School Auditorium, Raleigh www.burningcoal.org Larry Kramer’s searing 1985 drama, The Normal Heartcurrently in a compelling revival from Burning Coal Theatre Companyis an autobiographical look back in anger at the dawn of the AIDS crisis from one of its epicenters: the thriving gay culture in New York City. Historians […]