Sing along as 40-plus Charlottesville kids perform with theater pros in Broadway at The Paramount. Guest actors include Jennifer DiNoia (currently Elphaba in Broadway’s Wicked), Tony Gonzalez (former dance captain for Mamma Mia!) and Matthew Steffens, a UVA graduate who has performed in everything from Broadway musicals to film and television (including an appearance on ABC’s “Black Box”).
Album reviews: Leonard Cohen, Prince, Ghostigital, and Los Lobos
Leonard Cohen Thanks for the Dance (Sony) Recorded during the same sessions as You Want It Darker, which was released three weeks before Cohen’s death in 2016, Thanks For the Dance continues Cohen’s meditations on decay and mortality, though the first half is also deliciously carnal—the Lorca
ARTS Pick: Let There Be Light
Glow up: The longest night of the year is celebrated with beauty and promise at the annual Let There Be Light festival. To honor the approaching solstice, curator and artist James Yates features illuminated outdoor works by Circe Strauss, Patty Swygert, Chris Haske, Andrew Sherogan, Dom Morse,
ARTS Pick: Lindsey Stirling
Well played: Growing up, Lindsey Stirling could not decide between dancing and playing the violin, so she chose both and developed a unique act mixing hip-hop, pop, and classical music. At 23, she landed a slot on the fifth season of “America’s Got Talent,” competing as a hip-hop violinist. The
ARTS Pick: Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker
Colorful spins: Nut cho ordinary take on the classical holiday tradition, Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker is a fantastic visual extravaganza that uses puppetry from around the globe, including Russia, the Czech Republic, and South America. Dubbed the Gift of Christmas tour, the show
ARTS Pick: A Very Von Trapp Christmas
Favorite things: In September, Brian Clowdus, known for producing outdoor, site-specific theatrical feats, had his most successful musical event to date with a staging of The Sound of Music on the slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains that drew almost 10,000 attendees. Julie Trammel Key (Maria),
Riding it out: Familial clashes move Waves through a complex narrative
Trey Edward Shults’ Waves is an ambitious next step for the writer-director of Krisha and It Comes at Night, balancing his atmospheric skills against a complex narrative of parental pressure, trauma, transgression, and redemption with overtones of race and class. It is very nearly a runaway
ARTS Pick: The Piano Lesson
Key players: When relaunching the Charlottesville Players Guild at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Executive Director Andrea Douglas told C-VILLE: “If you’re going to announce yourself as an institution that addresses the 20th-century African American experience in the
ARTS Pick: Little White Party
Feeling good: The annual Little White Party, held in honor of World AIDS Day, can trace its origins to the 1980s when an East Village disco launched the New York City White Party with a requirement that partygoers dress in all white to support the idea that having HIV does not make a person
Literary guidance: Musician Chris Campanelli communes with poetic greats in new song cycle
While rehearsing songs for this Saturday’s show at New Dominion Bookshop, Chris Campanelli’s been thinking about his audience. But he says he hasn’t envisioned playing for the people who might fill the seats, or the passersby who may wander in from the December evening chill. He’s been thinking
Sharp and intriguing: Knives Out is an Agatha Christie-style thrill ride
In the grand tradition of Agatha Christie comes Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, an ingenious, exciting, rollicking good time. It’s best experienced with no knowledge of the plot, so if that’s enough to convince you to see it, our job here is done. If you need a little more, read on, where we will
December galleries guide
Creature conflicts People often describe Aggie Zed’s sculptures as “whimsical,” or “cute.” “I can see whimsical, but I don’t ever see cute,” says the artist, who uses handmade ceramic and mechanical bits in combination with found materials such as scrap metal, wire, and plastic milk jugs to
Training ground: Maria Varela captures a life of activism in ‘Time to Get Ready: fotografía social’ at The Fralin
By Ramona Martinez In “Time to Get Ready: fotografía social,” a National Museum of Mexican Art exhibit on view at The Fralin Museum of Art, you will find all the classic elements one expects in a “good” photography show. Maria Varela’s photographs are compositionally sophisticated and
Together apart: Marriage Story works through tears and humor
Though Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story openly invites comments on the irony of the title—this is, after all, a movie about divorce—it’s in their separation that Nicole and Charlie Barber (Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver) see one another for who they are, as opposed to who they’d become while
Change agents: Beatrix Ost retrospective warns of a dystopian future
Walking into Beatrix Ost’s “Illuminations & Illustrations,” now on view at Second Street Gallery, I was immediately reminded of Hieronymus Bosch’s famous triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” It wasn’t one particular painting that suggested this, but rather the cumulative effect of all
Making spaces: “Black Enough” web series explores the details of authenticity
Micah Ariel Watson wanted to take a break from writing. It was summer 2018, and the filmmaker and playwright was back home in Wichita, Kansas. She’d just graduated from UVA with degrees in drama and African American studies, and she’d been busy. Her films Edges (2016) and Educated Feet (2017)
ARTS Pick: The Flying Karamazov Brothers
Let it fly. Performing as clever pranksters since 1973, The Flying Karamazov Brothers have happily basked in the career-long praise from audiences and critics who call them zany, goofy, and creative. The Brothers mix juggling, theatrics, and comedy into their precisely calibrated act in which
Siding with vinyl: The pros and cons of Record Store Day
Perhaps you’ve seen them, the vinyl devotees. They live among us, frequently darting in and out of record stores and flea markets, some more conspicuous (and vocal) than others. But twice a year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving and a Saturday in April, many wake early and convene outside
ARTS Pick: Hangover Ball
Thanks, I’m out. Powder-dry turkey leftovers, crusty chunks of stuffing, gelatinous gravy, and pie that’s been hacked at all angles by a variety of utensils and fingers. This is the reality of the day after Thanksgiving. Get outta there before there’s another load of dishes to dry, and shake
ARTS Pick: Dry Branch Fire Squad
Burnin’ bluegrass: Dry Branch Fire Squad has played at every single Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, a bi-annual gathering that will celebrate its 80th concert in 2020. That’s 40 years of performances, and it speaks to why DBFS describes itself as “aggressively traditional.” Frontman Ron Thomason
ARTS Pick: A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville
Truth focused: In promoting the premiere of her documentary A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville, filmmaker Tanesha Hudson includes a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “I’m gonna tell the truth,” before she makes her own statement: “Hard work pays off eventually, even if