Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Broadway Series South Raleigh Memorial Auditiorium Through April 5 The City of Raleigh’s Broadway Series South opened Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Tuesday night in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium for a six-day run. The script for this touring version was adapted by Ray Roderick (who also directs) from the stage adaptation by Jeremy […]
Kate Dobbs Ariail
Bio: Kate Dobbs Ariail writes about the arts.
Posted inArt
Deep Dish’s Uncle Vanya is plausible but buttoned-down
Uncle Vanya Deep Dish Theater Through March 14 It takes a lot of nerve to stage or act in one of the theater’s best-known plays, like Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Everybody’s already going to have an opinion about it, even before the first act opens. They’ll be ready to quibble about the translation, the casting, […]
Posted inArt
Mythic lovers flee the underworld in A Dog from Hell
A Dog from Hell Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern at Duke Coffeehouse and The Pinhook Through Feb. 15 As they have for millennia, the rich myths of ancient Greek civilization continue to fertilize contemporary art making. In Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern’s latest production, A Dog from Hell, we encounter several well-known characters. There’s Hades, […]
Posted inArt
Durham’s The Book Exchange closes its doors
It was like a wake, only not as loud, or maybe more accurately, it was like visiting a dying friend, knowing there would not be a next time. When the News & Observer published a report numbering The Book Exchange’s few remaining days as “the South’s greatest bookstore,” both those who had loved it long […]
Posted inArt
Musical Alice needs more work
Alice in Wonderland, A Musical Zero stars Company Carolina at The ArtsCenter Through Feb. 7 Alice in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll, rank as some of the most charming and quotable pieces of 19th-century English literature, and it is easy to see why one might feel compelled to abridge […]
Posted inArt
Beijing Olympics choreographer Shen Wei returns to Durham
In Durham, especially among American Dance Festival regulars, it was no surprise that Zhang Yimou, the great Chinese filmmaker who would be directing them, chose 40-year-old dancer Shen Wei to choreograph sections of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies last year. We knew he was Olympic quality. Zhang must have recognized a kindred spirit: Both artists […]
Posted inArt
The Year in Arts: Dance & Theater
2008 was definitely one for the history books. Even while we were beavering away to become the changeand make the changewe want to see in the world, we had an extraordinary chance to look back at some of the history that brought us to this strange first decade of the 21st century. The tide of […]
Posted inArt
Twelfth Night at Burning Coal
Twelfth Night Burning Coal Theatre Meymandi Theatre at the Murphey School Through Dec. 21 William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night famously opens with the glorious line, “If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it.” Burning Coal Theatre’s new production of this boisterous love comedy is well-filled with music, but not to […]
Posted inArt
Deep Dish tackles the final play of the late Wendy Wasserstein
Third Deep Dish Theater Through Nov. 15 Wendy Wasserstein’s last play, Third, now running at Chapel Hill’s Deep Dish Theater, will not go down in history as one of the early 21st century’s greatest. It is too much like a TV sitcom: a little heavy-handed, a little sentimental. Its topicality is not going to wear […]
Posted inArt
The Carolina Ballet’s interpretation of Don Quixote
Don Quixote Carolina Ballet Memorial Auditorium Closed Sunday, Oct. 12 With its Don Quixote, the Carolina Ballet premiered another ambitious work in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium on Oct. 9. Company artistic director Robert Weiss has choreographed his own version of one of ballet’s most famous productions, setting it to a selection of Spanish and Spanish-themed music. […]