ARTS Pick: The Glass Menagerie

Stark vision: Tennessee Williams arrived as a playwright when The Glass Menagerie premiered in Chicago in 1944, and then quickly moved to Broadway where it won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1945. Williams’ semi-autobiographical story of a struggling family, set in a St. Louis apartment, gets a stripped-down black box treatment by […]

ARTS Pick: Todd Snider

Speaks volumes: Todd Snider has an impressive history with legendary musicians­­—his discovery by a member of Jimmy Buffett’s band led to a long kinship with John Prine (and helped shape Snider’s smart, witty folk tunes). So it’s perfectly natural that he would dream about Johnny Cash after a co-writing session with Loretta Lynn at Cash […]

Finishing touch: Avengers: Endgame opens up a future of possibilities

The release of Avengers:Infinity War last year felt like the grand payoff of our decade-long investment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Twenty years ago, most of the public hadn’t even heard of many of these heroes, but their erasure from existence by the snap of Thanos’ finger and our resulting shock showed how entrenched they’d […]

ARTS Pick: Parachute

It’s been over 10 years since pop group Parachute (formed at Charlottesville High School) found itself sharing a stage with the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. The appearance was a promo for the band’s locally produced debut album, Losing Sleep, which climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard […]

ARTS Pick: Che Apalache

When North Carolina native Joe Troop moved to Argentina in 2010, the multi-talented musician carved out a niche in the local scene by teaching bluegrass and old-time music. Eventually Troop, along with a few of his quick-picking students, formed Che Apalache, and drawing on various musical styles from Argentina, Mexico, and the United States, recorded […]

ARTS Pick: A Night With Nina

When Nina Simone died in 2003, Elton John sent flowers with the message, “You were the greatest and I love you.” That sentiment has been echoed by countless others, and tributes to Simone aim to capture her seductive, hypnotic genius. Richelle Claiborne and Leslie-Scott Jones rekindle the vocal magic during A Night With Nina, with […]