| Disney favorite stops at Kelsey
"Disney's Beauty and the Beast," yet another stage musical based on an already popular movie, garnered several Tony Award nominations in 1994, but lost out across the board to the more sophisticated Stephen Sondheim drama "Passion." Yet all across America, tours of the Broadway production were eagerly attended, and community theaters hankered for the day when they could stage the extravagant fairy tale. Now, Playful Theatre Productions brings the fractured fairy tale to the Kelsey Theater stage with a vibrant cast that keeps the nearly three-hour show consistently exciting. With a book by Linda Woolverton, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman ("The Little Mermaid" and "Little Shop of Horrors" team) plus Andrew Lloyd Webber's former partner, Tim Rice, "Beauty and the Beast" offers something for everyone.
TOTALLY STAGED: THEATER EVERYWHERE IN CHARLOTTESVILLE BY MARY ESSELMAN PERFORMANCE@READTHEHOOK.COM
If I were a snooty and ill-informed big-city transplant, what might I expect from Charlottesville's theater scene? A touring production of Love Letters, perhaps, starring Jill St. John and Robert Wagner; some earnest Chekhov productions from the University's Department of Drama; and the occasional community theater event, featuring a cast straight out of Christopher Guest's mockumentary Waiting for Guffman. But on closer inspection, one finds the Guffman comparison is a lot of guff! The local scene is enlivened in summer by operas at Ash Lawn-Highland, productions at UVA's Helms and Culbreth theatres, and the second cycle of the yearly offerings at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton. Four County Players in Barboursville can be counted on for a wonderful summer experience under the stars in the Ruins, and then for fun productions in their playhouse during the year. Live Arts never fails to amaze with the variety and quality of their productions on two stages, just as Offstage presents eclectic shows in bars all over town in the annual "Barhoppers" series.
Free Times - Ohio's Premier News, Arts, & Entertainment Weekly
Several recent developments have rippled ominously through local theatrical waters like those menacing chords from Jaws promising imminent carnage. Though portending nothing like the feeding frenzy that consumed massive chunks of government, corporate and private donations to arts organizations following 9/11, simultaneous acknowledgments of financial stringencies at Beck Center, Kalliope Stage and Opera Cleveland are sufficiently unnerving to induce administrative lifeguards to start scanning for circling fins. Of that trio's fiscally motivated measures, Beck's abrupt cancellation of All the Great Books (Abridged), a scheduled November booking, is seemingly the least far-reaching. The move, however, is puzzling, and not really explained by the official excuse that more resources were needed to promote the holiday Beauty and the Beast.
The world's star bars
Of all the gin joints in all the world, picking the very best is fraught with danger. You can recommend a bar where you had a whale of a night and send along friends who will report back that they didn’t know what all the fuss was about, or that it was full of poseurs, or the drinks were watered or the bellinis premixed. However, some bars are so rich in history, so iconic, it is almost impossible to have a bad time, because you are making a pilgrimage of sorts, albeit one where you can order a fine drink at the end (not always a feature of the original pilgrimages). Here are a dozen of our favourites, not the latest flash-in-the-pan watering holes, but ones that will still be here when your grandchildren are asking: "Grandpa, what was a Boujis?" HOTEL NACIONAL, Havana You get serious cocktail action in Havana, and it is de rigueur to follow the Hemingway mantra: "My mojito in the Bodeguita del Medio and my daiquiri in the Floridita." But where do you take your cuba libre? At the Vista al Golfo bar (gulf view bar) of the vast (and vastly improved) Hotel Nacional de Cuba, where you are likely to see the likes of Naomi or Kate and Ralph Fiennes or Robert Redford (Fidel actually came to visit him at the Nacional).
S.C., Georgia to share in Jasper port
Governors Mark Sanford and Sonny Perdue met recently on a waterfront patio across the Savannah River from the historic district of its namesake city to make a little history themselves: the formal announcement of a rare, bi-state partnership to jointly build and operate a massive cargo container terminal on land Georgia owns in South Carolina. A little more than six months ago, the South Carolina and Georgia governors said they wanted to set aside years of legal acrimony attached to the Jasper County land. On Nov. 9, the governors announced they now had a deal in hand—pending approval by their respective Legislatures—to create a port on 1,400 acres of undeveloped land that now serves as a dump site for dredged spoil material. The announcement, made outside the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center, sets in motion a series of events in which construction could begin within five years on property known as the Jasper Ocean Terminal, with actual cargo passing through it in 10 years.
Zimbabwe: Miss Rural Pageant Gives Country a Bad Name
FORMER Miss Rural Zimbabwe patron Susan Jason believes that the controversy-ridden pageant is tarnishing the country's image while some people are taking advantage of gullible rural girls to enrich themselves.. Jason, who quit her post this week, alleged that the innocent young rural girls were being pushed into the city to raise money on behalf of the organisers. .
Liberia: Montserrado County Wins Miss Liberia 2007/2008
Ms. Bendu Tita Parker of Montserrado County has emerged as winner of the Miss Liberia Beauty Pageant 2007/2008. The pageant under the theme "Beauty with a Purpose", was organized by Miss Boss Lady Entertainment International in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism. .
REFILE-'Enchanted' pays homage to other Disney films
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Enchanted" is a loving homage to many classic Disney princess movies of yore. The movie, which opened Wednesday, starts out in a traditional 2-D animated world, where a fairy-tale princess (voiced by Amy Adams) about to marry her prince is thrust into the real world by an evil queen. The real world is represented by New York, and once there, the princess (now a flesh-and-blood Adams) begins to change her views on life and love when she meets a cynical divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey). The movie references many Disney movies in obvious and subtle ways, but many of the references weren't in the initial script. "That was all (director) Kevin Lima's doing," producer Barry Josephson said. .
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