You’ve likely seen the classic Disney cartoon—and maybe even the Magic Kingdom’s live action $270 million stinker from earlier this year. Now you can witness the beauty of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in ballet form when this family-friendly version arrives in town for a Sunday afternoon show. The Grand Kyiv Ballet, which features […]
An Austin, Texas, musician and actor with a history that runs through Los Angeles, Shakey Graves (Alejandro Rose-Garcia) does an admirable job writing dynamic Americana that avoids cliché. He’s amassed a discography of four full-lengths, a fistful of EPs, and a pair of compilations since gaining attention that netted him the unusual position of official […]
When I asked my special lady if she wanted to go see the Vienna Boys Choir (actual name: Wiener Sängerknaben), she didn’t hesitate to tell me it couldn’t be lower on the list of things she’d like to do. I wanted to be sure, since we could catch them here in Charlottesville and in the […]
The Heavy Heavy isn’t the first outfit from the U.K. to present as American. In fact, 61 years since the British Invasion, it’s not shocking to hear lead singers who sound like they’re straight out of Nashville or the Hollywood Hills introduce their next song with a Cockney accent, mirroring a character from your favo(u)rite […]
In our technology-driven time when we can fabricate A.I. videos of the most fantastic, improbable scenarios on demand, and when news sources are challenged for their veracity, I feel compelled to ask: Do we still have the capacity for the age-old excitement generated by magic? Illusionist Vitaly [Beckman] hails from Belarus in the former Soviet […]
Accessibility in music is relative. A production choice to drop strident elements can open doors—or close them. A songwriting decision to blow up the arrangement with an unexpected halt, or inject a plodding track with a catchy chorus, can make a huge difference to audience reception. If Rick James were still alive, you could ask […]
The decision to use untrained actors can yield uncertain results. One possible outcome is the kind of ham-fisted, melodramatic overacting that renders a movie unwatchable. Another is cinematic gold. Such is the case with The President’s Cake. The sometimes humorous drama is a moving story set and shot in Iraq, during the 1990s under the […]
As a Halloween warm-up, the Virginia Film Festival’s After Hours collection offers four monster movies, even though none are being screened particularly late at night. Curated by Igor Shteyrenberg of the Miami Jewish Film Festival and horror fest Popcorn Frights, this thematic group of what the VFF calls “films that walk on the wild side” […]
Madi Diaz is overcome with emotion. And she certainly lets her heart rule her hands and her voice. Diaz’s kind of heartfelt music either works for you or it doesn’t; that is to say that someone baring her soul with soft determination either resonates with you and your own life experiences, or you shudder at […]
Three blonde sisters from Nashville by way of small-town Georgia perform neotraditional country music as The Castellows. Though they’re related, Castellows isn’t their last name; it’s Balkcom. The Instagrammable young ladies carry three-part harmonies through the voices of two of three triplets Eleanor (guitars) and Powell (banjo), while their younger sister—not one of the triplets—Lily […]