Posts by Wendell Brock:


    Theater & Film

    Theater review: Beauty queens and tomfoolery in “Pageant,” at 14th Street Playhouse

    by Wendell Brock | Aug 30, 2010
    Theater review: Beauty queens and tomfoolery in “Pageant,” at 14th Street Playhouse
    Miss Great Plains is a shy, corn-fed gal with tentative manners and a sweet disposition. Miss Industrial Northeast is a buxom Latina with Carmen Miranda fashion flair, a heart of gold and all the nimbleness of Lady Liberty. Miss Texas is a towering redhead with a hysterical hoofing and baton-twirling routine and a sultry twang that can barely disguise her killer competitive instinct. Welcome to “Pageant: The Musical Comedy Beauty Contest!,” a giddy, pastel-colored send-up of pageant culture, the cosmetics industry and regional stereotypes. Parading its coiffed and manicured self around the 14th Street Playhouse through October 24, this throwaway bit ...

    Theater & Film

    Theater review: “John & Jen,” an al fresco delight for Serenbe Playhouse’s inaugural season

    by Wendell Brock | Jun 29, 2010
    Theater review: “John & Jen,” an al fresco delight for Serenbe Playhouse’s inaugural season
    Grief is a shaky foundation for a relationship. And yet the impulse is wholly natural. We lose a child or sibling prematurely, and our lack of clarity is such that we can't help but transfer those messy emotions onto the next available newborn. This is the human heart trying to repair itself, tie a new knot, heal the wound. “John & Jen” -- the Andrew Lippa-Tom Greenwald musical and second production of Serenbe Playhouse’s inaugural season -- is the story of a woman who loses her brother in Vietnam, then tries to re-create him in the likeness of her son. In ...

    Theater & Film

    Goodbye puppet sex, hello mainstream fare at Cobb Energy center

    by Wendell Brock | May 21, 2010
    Goodbye puppet sex, hello mainstream fare at Cobb Energy center
    The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre’s Broadway presenters say they listened to patrons of the first full season, which wraps up this weekend with the zany puppet musical “Avenue Q,” and will take a more conservative, family-friendly approach with the 2010-11 lineup. The series also has a new corporate sponsor and is changing its name to reflect that relationship: the Atlanta Broadway Series becomes the Gas South Broadway Series. The four-show program will open this fall with “Cirque Dreams Holidaze” (Nov. 30-Dec. 5, photo below), followed by “Oklahoma!” (Jan. 6-9), “The Wizard of Oz” (Feb. 3-6) and “A Chorus Line” (March ...

    Theater & Film

    World premiere for Georgia Shakespeare: Brad Sherrill’s “Prophets”

    by Wendell Brock | Mar 4, 2010
    World premiere for Georgia Shakespeare: Brad Sherrill’s “Prophets”
    Georgia Shakespeare's 25th season will begin with a world premiere: "Prophets," a multimedia work by longtime company member Brad Sherrill, which delves into the Old Testament texts of Isaiah and Jeremiah. From March 24 through 28, Sherrill will perform "Prophets" in repertory with his first one-man Bible-based show, "The Gospel of John,"  which he has performed more than 500 times since 2001 at churches and theaters, from off-Broadway's Lamb's Theatre to Westminster Cathedral.  I am sorry to say that I have never seen "Gospel," but the YouTube clips (and this) are pretty wonderful. You can see how Sherrill's grasp of Shakespearean rhythm transforms the words into ...

    Theater & Film

    Breaking news: Shake at the Lake to bring free theater back to Piedmont Park

    by Wendell Brock | Mar 3, 2010
    Breaking news: Shake at the Lake to bring free theater back to Piedmont Park
    After a bit of a financial dry spell, Georgia Shakespeare's Shake at the Lake is coming back to Atlanta's Piedmont Park in May. On the verge of opening its 25th season, the theater announced Wednesday that Bank of America has come through as sponsor of the evocative, al fresco happening. (After running for four years, the 2009 event was canceled because the theater couldn't afford it.) Happily, John Dillon's free-form "A Midsummer Night's Dream" — first seen last summer at the Oglethorpe University theater — will run May 5-9 on the pier at Lake Clara Meer. In Dillon's inventive staging of "Midsummer," the ...

    Theater & Film

    Alliance Theatre announces 2010-11 season, an impressive lineup with a mystery play in the mix

    by Wendell Brock | Feb 26, 2010
    Alliance Theatre announces 2010-11 season, an impressive lineup with a mystery play in the mix
    The Alliance Theatre has announced its 2010-11 season, and it’s a pretty spectacular lineup. Beginning with the world premiere of “Bring It On: The Musical,” based on the film about extreme cheerleader competitions, the list includes five premieres (including a new play by Atlanta’s Pearl Cleage, top photo) and Tracy Letts’ big, juicy, Pulitzer Prize-winning family potboiler, “August: Osage County.” Though it had been rumored that the Stephen King-John Mellencamp musical “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” announced for the 2008-09 season but later scratched, was back in the mix, it apparently didn’t make the list. The mystery surrounding that title is becoming as ...