ARTS Picks: August: Osage County

Live Arts takes an ambitious foray into the comically dysfunctional dark side of a pill-popping, secret-keeping Midwestern family in its spring production of August: Osage County, under the direction of Fran Smith. This Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Tracy Letts gives an all-access peek (the set is a literal cross section of a three-story Oklahoma homestead) into the lives of the estranged Weston clan as they are forced to reunite after their father goes missing.

ARTS Picks: The Taming of the Shrew at Four County Players

Enjoy the verbal sparring and spirited courtship of Katharina and Petruchio as Four County Players closes its 40th anniversary season with Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Comedy ensues when a determined suitor (Martyn Kyle) pursues a strong-willed and resistant maiden (a fiery Mendy St. Ours) and the couple engages in a battle of wills, […]

Theater for the people: The Black Box Players presents Annie

“‘Leapin’ lizards!’ You do not want to miss this show,” said MaryAnne Thorton, the director of The Black Box Players’ production of Annie, which will open tomorrow evening. Thorton has directed all of The Black Box Players’ shows since she founded the theater in 1986, and has also written scripts for several of its recent […]

ARTS Picks: West Side Story

Never was there a tale of more woe than that of Maria and her Tony. Broadway’s West Side Story travels south to the John Paul Jones Arena for one night only. Revel in the Bernstein and Sondheim score, the knife fights, and the love story as the Jets and the Sharks spar on the streets […]

ARTS Picks: Hello, Dolly! at Albemarle High School

The Albemarle Players, C-VILLE’s Best Musical winners for two years running, are going for a trifecta this weekend when Hello, Dolly!, the Tony Award-winning musical based on Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, hits the stage. Originally called Dolly, A Damned Exasperating Woman, the show’s title was shortened when Broadway producer David Merrick heard Louis Armstrong’s version […]

ARTS Picks: Simplicity

In addition to flowering trees and early morning bird songs, spring is the time for a bounty of annual student concerts, exhibitions, and performances for the lucky public. PVCC’s spring dance concert, “Simplicity,” features original jazz, salsa, contemporary, and hip-hop choreography by students and faculty. It may be your only chance to catch a performance […]

Spy games: Live Arts’ Or, explores the life and loves of Aphra Behn

Liz Duffy Adams’ Or, is Live Arts’ latest offering, a deftly minced hodge-podge of a play, primarily consisting of what may be incompletely described as a retroactively considered Restoration comedy. Now, when was the last time you had a serious hankering for a Restoration comedy? Some ambivalent theater-goers find Shakespeare intimidating and obscure (they shouldn’t, […]