PAGE 14 T Q-Notes T September 20, 1997
Theatre
Music
Dance
Film
The buzz on
Broadway
by Brian D. Holcomb
Q-Notes Staff
This season has potential to be one of the
largest and most varied in recent Broadway his
tory. If, that is, all of the shows reported in the
last issue of Q-Notes actually open. We’ll see.
In addition to the musicals mentioned in that
issue, there is a long list of plays which are sched
uled for the season. The complete list will be
run in a future issue, but attention should be
called to one in particular this week.
Any play about Jackie Kennedy Onassis
would be of interest to the gay/lesbian com
munity. Talk about your icons. However, with
the recent tragic death of Princess Diana, it
seemed appropriate to mention this play, about
America’s own royal princess.
Jackie: An American Life is readying for an
opening at the Belasco Theatre in New York.
Previews begin October 10 and opening is set
for November 10. The tide role is to be played
by Margaret Colin, an acclaimed actress more
familiar to Off-Broadway audiences. In addi
tion, there is a seven-member ensemble, who
play a total of 100 roles, aided by 180 cos
tumes and 86 wigs. There are also some pup
pets... 12 feet tall.
OK, this sounds a little wierd, don’t you
think? Well, it is supposed to. Gip Hoppe has
constructed the show as a zany farce, feeling
that the style lends itself to her life and the world
during it.
“Jackie is treated very pristinely,” says pro
ducer Mark Schwartz, “and very straight. It’s
the people around her who are all zany. All I
can say is that anyone who’s anybody in her
life, from her father to Jack Kennedy to JFK
Jr., is in it. there’s even a Nixon-Kennedy de
bate scene.”
Jackie has played, in some fashion at the
aters around America since 1992. Most recendy,
it had a four-month run at Boston’s Wilbur
Theatre. We’ll see if New York audiences, who
lived with Jackie as a neighbor for many years,
are as appreciative.
Diva Gossip
Betty Buckley, now fully recovered from her
Sunset Boulevard stint (isn’t it odd how people
are saying lAitii...recovering from Sunset Boule-
vardi), will be opening, as reported earlier, in
Triumph of Love this autumn. She will be tak
ing a short break from preview performances
on October 3 to be the featured performer for
the grand reopening of the Cincinnati Play
house in the Park. Tickets for the evening range
from $150-300. Not bad, Betty.
Bernadette Peters may be back on Broad
way soon, if only for a day. A ten-year reunion
concert of the original cast of Stephen
Sondheim’s musical Into The Woods is sched
uled for November 9 at the Broadway Theatre
(currendy the home of Miss Saigori). Apparendy,
the entire original cast is to reprise their roles,
with one rumored exception; narrator Tom
Aldredge will perform the evening show, but
Rosie O’Donnell may fill in for him at the
matinee. Proceeds will benefit Friends in Deed,
an AIDS-related organization that was also in
volved in the tenth-anniversary concert of an
other Sondheim classic, Sunday in the Park with
George, in 1994.
Patti LuPone has been very visible on PBS
stations around the country (but not in
Charlotte...maybe, hopefully, during the pledge
drive) with her one-woman show. An Evening
with Patti LuPone. but even if you can’t see her
from the comfort of your home, you can see
her in person in North Carolina. She will per
form November 8 at Aycock Hall on the cam
pus of UNC-Greensboro as part of the
university’s concert series. Tickets are not on
sale yet, but should be in early October. See
you there! ▼
Charlotte’s Bohemian district?
by Brian D. Holcomb
Q-Notes Staff
Theoretically, every great city has a Bohe
mian district. A place where artists and
wannabes can meet and mingle, exchange ideas
and create art. And, perhaps more important,
can afford to live. Although there has been
much said about Lloyd Scher’s “bohemian dis
trict” at the County Commission meetings, the
Dilworth and Elizabeth neighborhoods don’t
quite count. They are too expensive. Charlotte
needs a place that has been overlooked, that
has retained its character while prices have
dropped. The arts need a home.
That home may have been discovered in
recent years. The North Davidson Street area,
recendy dubbed NoDa by somebody, has all of
the necessary qualities. Solid homes left un
tended for decades, just waiting to be lived in.
Old factories and storefronts for gallery and
performance spaces. A dedicated stable of stores,
restaurants and galleries. Now we just need to
keep Hugh McColl from discovering it. He
would champion it, pump millions of dollars
into it, and destroy it on the way to turning it
into a showplace.
Theatre in Bohemia
There is an exciting new presence in NoDa.
The Neighborhood Theatre is a new entity that
exists in a familiar space. The old Astor The
ater on 36th Street, which after its heyday in
the mid part of the century became an adult
movie theater and then later a church (some
history, huh?), is under renovation to become
a prime theatre space. A thrust stage dominates
the space, bringing the action on stage out into
the audience. There are some refinements still
needed, but the building is fully functional as a
theater and has already seen its first fully-staged
production.
George Gray, one of the masterminds of the
Neighborhood Theatre project, has staged lo
cal playwright Laddy Sartin’s play Blessed As
surance. The premiere coincided with Race Day,
where Charlotteans were encouraged to spend
the day with members of other races. The play
concerns racial issues as well, in a story that is
not unfamiliar to audiences, but has been
treated in a new and exciting way.
Blessed Assurance concerns a county in Mis
sissippi in the 1960s that is denying its black
citizens the right to vote. Rather than a young
male firebrand, which is the more conventional
treatment of such a topic, Sartin has written
the story around Olivia, an aging black woman
who resolutely marches to the courthouse day
after day to be registered, only to be denied,
beaten, harassed and insulted. And then she
goes back again.
Her quiet determination is a marvel and is
played eloquendy by Margaret Freeman. Along
her journey, she converts an aging black man
(Wayne Dehart), with whom she shares a touch
ing love story, and her employer, a white res
taurateur played by Dennis Delamar.
Changing the minds of those close to her is
not too difficult, but Olivia is also up against a
figure of white domination and stupidity,
played explosively by Mark Sutton. All of the
action takes place within the White House Cafe,
Delamar’s establishment that hires blacks, but
will not serve them.
Sartin has crafted an original tale out of what
has become a standard setup of late. This play
does not take place the day that Martin Luther
King was killed, nor in conjunction with other
milestone political events that usually provide
a catalyst for stories of racial tension. Instead,
this play takes place on the day when one
woman simply grew too tired of her station to
keep quiet. No particular day. Just Olivia’s day.
It is well worth following her along, just to see
where she goes.
Blessed Assurance plays through September
21, so you’d best be quick if you want to get
tickets. Information is available by calling (704)
335-1119. T
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Health Forum
Join us as we present a health forum
featuring speakers from our own
community of health care providers.
We plan to include professionals from a
broad range of health disciplines.
Any volunteers or suggestions for
topics/speakers are welcome.
Monday, October 20
Call today for reservations
(704) 565-5075
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