Popular play based on David Sedaris' ‘Holidays on Ice’ leads a strong upcoming holiday theater schedule
Each year, the holiday season in Atlanta seems to grow longer and longer. The first week of November, for instance, saw the debut of “White Christmas,” the kind of production normally reserved for December. The long season, however, means there’s no shortage of holiday fare in local theaters, from the familiar to the edgy.
Of course, no holiday season would be complete without Horizon’s annual “The Santaland Diaries,” based on gay writer David Sedaris’ “Holidays on Ice.” This is the 12th year for the show, which stars Harold Leaver as the often grumpy, openly gay Crumpet, forced to serve as a department store elf one holiday season. Back is sidekick Enoch King, the usual doses of snideness and “plenty of fresh jokes and references,” promises Leaver.
“The Holiday Ice Spectacular” will feature laughs as well as skating. It stars a cast of 16, including some recognizable skating names. Among the cast is openly gay skater Michael Stack, who promises fun for all kinds of audiences, gay and straight.
Atlanta native Pearl Cleage’s work has always been embraced and supported by the LGBT community. Now she hopes her new production — “The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years,” bowing next week at the Alliance — is met with the same level of enthusiasm.
Described by Cleage as a romantic comedy, “Nacirema” deals with the beloved tradition known as the cotillion, especially popular in the South. As a new group of African-American debutantes gets ready to meet society circa 1964 in Alabama, their strong-willed grandmothers try to take care of their romantic lives. Trouble comes, however, when one debutante decides she wants to forego the life and move to New York to be a writer, and the racial issues of the day stir up.
From marquee-level touring shows to Atlanta premieres, the fall promises to be a busy time in local theaters for gay and lesbian patrons.
Currently running is the musical comedy “Pageant: The Musical,” which opened in August and runs until October. The show, a satire of beauty pageants, stars openly gay Brian Clowdus as Miss Texas, one of a half dozen contestants trying to be named Miss Glamouresse. The actor envisions the crowd-pleasing Miss Texas as a pageant regular, one who does not take kindly to losing.
“Shopping and F***ing,” first produced in 1996, is gay English playwright Mark Ravenhill’s first full length play, one that is considered by many to be among the most controversial of the ‘90s. It’s set in the underbelly of London — a world sprinkled with rent boys and drug lords, shoplifting and desperate attempts to get money, as well as lots of the titular f***ing.
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Although no longer an Atlantan, lesbian playwright and author Shay Youngblood considers the city her second home and is excited to return here for Horizon Theatre’s remount of her signature play “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery.”
Youngblood was born in Columbus, Ga., and graduated from Clark-Atlanta University. She held various jobs around town, but Charis Books & More proved to be a stepping stone.
Youngblood worked at the now 35-year-old feminist bookstore for a year, beginning when she was only 19, and was persuaded to hold her first public reading there. That event gave her confidence and the drive to move on.
Shay Youngblood brings “Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery” to Horizon Theatre
Topher Payne was looking forward to taking a vacation after his recent play “Christina Darling,” but when he learned that auditions for “Loot” were coming up, he knew a vacation could wait. “Loot” opens June 4 at Onstage Atlanta.
Written by gay playwright Joe Orton, “Loot” debuted back in 1965, where it was met with some hostility from those not expecting its satirical tone. The play is a farce about two young men, Hal and Dennis, who are thieves. After robbing a bank next to a funeral parlor, they have to hide the money — and wind up stashing it in the coffin of Hal’s recently deceased mother.
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