The Can't Miss List

by Michael McLeod
photographs by Greg Johnston

FALL

AVENUE Q
Theatre Downtown
Sept. 9-Oct. 9
theatredowntown.net
Something tells me we’re not on Sesame Street any more, Elmo. We’re on Avenue Q, a tenement-lined New York City thoroughfare populated by puppets – and not the happy-go-lucky, tickle-me type. These world-weary, low-rent ragamuffins look like they’ve been through one too many spin cycles.

Theatre Downtown is the first Central Florida company to tackle this ingeniously staged, Tony Award-winning musical about a naïve college graduate and his threadbare neighbors. Clearly visible actor/puppeteers carry around the cast of dour muppet look-alikes while singing perversely peppy tunes such as “It Sucks To Be Me” and “Everybody’s a Little Bit Racist.”

It’s a sprightly, savvy show, but needless to say, inappropriate for the Chuck E. Cheese crowd. For more details, see Jay Boyar’s Agenda column in this issue.

GLOBAL PEACE FILM FESTIVAL
Various Locations
Sept. 20-25
peacefilmfest.org
Turns out the Mayans are pretty hacked off about this end-of-the-world thing. That’s the gist of 2012: The True Mayan Prophecy, a documentary featuring interviews with Mayan elders who insist that their much-discussed calendar presages the beginning of a new era, not the alleged apocalypse that everybody has been sniggering about.

The film will be screened as part of the Global Peace Film Festival, which, like the Mayans, is often misunderstood.

“People think the movies are all preachy and boring,” says Nina Streich, who shuttles between Orlando and her apartment on the Upper West Side in New York City to orchestrate the festival. “But our definition of ‘peace’ is very broad.”

Broad enough in previous years to include films about hospice volunteers, stand-up comedians and street musicians; broad enough this year to include films about Zen golfing and the Miss Wheelchair America pageant. The festival, which has been held in Orlando since 2003, also includes monthly screenings throughout the year at Urban ReThink in Thornton Park.

GOD OF CARNAGE
Lowndes Shakespeare Center
Oct. 12-Nov. 13
orlandoshakes.org
When a child in an upscale Brooklyn neighborhood nearly knocks another’s teeth out, one set of parents invites the other to their well-appointed home in hopes of dealing peacefully with the situation. But the thin veneer of upscale gentility is soon stripped away as the parental summit becomes a dysfunctional free-for-all, pitting couple against couple and spouse against spouse.

These are the kind of gut-wrenching scenes that actors and theater lovers cherish. “Never underestimate the pleasure of watching really good actors behaving terribly” was the first sentence in The New York Times review of God of Carnage when it opened on Broadway two years ago.

The play, originally produced in France as Le Dieu du Carnage, has also spawned a soon-to-be-released movie version, adapted for the screen and directed by Roman Polanski. (It had to be filmed in France because of Polanski’s legal problems in the U.S.)

The film version stars Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz. The Shakespeare Theatre’s production will feature local stars Suzanne O’Donnell, Anne Hering and Rus Blackwell, with one part yet to be cast.

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
Valencia College East
Oct. 21-30
valenciacollege.edu/arts
Valencia College’s musicals deserve more attention than they get. The casts are drawn not just from the student population but from the community – and there’s a lot more hidden talent banging around in this town than you might think.

The college has more than done justice to ambitious productions of A Chorus Line, Anything Goes, Little Shop of Horrors and Carousel.  Expect The Drowsy Chaperone to follow suit.

The musical is one part send-up, one part tribute to all those Jazz Age musicals filled with goofy gangsters, glittery showgirls, cigar-smoking big shots and stage-door Johnnies. It’s cleverly scripted as a play-within-a-play: The musical itself has been imagined by the narrator, a lonely, nostalgic man who sits in his darkened living room listening to his collection of dusty old phonograph records. He longs for the days when Cole Porter and George Gershwin ruled old Broadway.

Apparently, he’s not the only one. The original Drowsy Chaperone struck a chord, enjoying a year-and-a-half run on Broadway after opening at the Marquis Theatre in May of 2006.

PHANTASMAGORIA II
Lowndes Shakespeare Center
Oct. 14-30
redchairproject.com
The characters in this edgy tribute to classic horror stories are vampires, yes, but artsy, well-spoken vampires. They live off words rather than hemoglobin. To survive, they tell stories. And the tales they tell are so frightening that even the vampires themselves get spooked.

That’s the delightfully ghoulish premise Empty Space Theatre impresario John DiDonna and company have conjured up for their second annual staging of vintage horror tales, replete with a supporting cast of macabre puppets and steam-trunk dancers.

Last year there were banshees, Vlad the Impaler and Frankenstein’s monster. This time around, DiDonna’s telltale vampires have Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll on tap.

VAMPIRE’S BALL
Bob Carr Performing Arts Center
Oct. 21-23
orlandoballet.org
Again with the vampires. They’re so versatile. Some are teen heartthrobs, some tell scary bedtime stories and some dance – or at least they do for Orlando Ballet director Robert Hill.
In a newly choreographed work-in-progress that will reflect his trademark fusion of pop culture and the classics, Hill says he’s hoping to combine modern vampire allusions with elements of La Bayèdere, the haunting Marius Petipa ballet about a murdered East Indian temple dancer whose vengeful ghost returns to earth to wreak destruction.  

It’s the same strategy Hill used in the catchy music and canny choreography of his “Battle of the Sexes” series, the third of which will be staged later in the season. But first come the vampires, along with their familiars: Be on the lookout for whatever suitably spooky and impeccably fashionable ensemble veteran ballet patron Harriet Lake will wear to the performance.

VERDI’S REQUIEM
Rollins College
Oct. 22, 23
bachfestivalflorida.org
The Bach Festival Society performs at the venerable Knowles Memorial Chapel on the Rollins College campus. It’s the perfect setting for Requiem, Verdi’s devout, passionate masterwork. This thunderous evocation of the Roman Catholic funeral mass was composed in 1873 as a tribute to the Italian humanist Alessandro Manzoni.

GHOSTS IN THE GARDEN
Harry P. Leu Gardens
Oct. 28
leugardens.org
“Something Wicked This Way Comes” is the theme for “Ghosts in the Garden,” an annual storytelling event that raises the hair of listeners and brings out the best in the area’s yarn-spinners.

Orlando has a host of veteran storytellers, many of whom will gather in the moonlight on the long lawn in front of the old Leu homestead to engage in one of the oldest art forms of all.

Mitchell O’Rear and others will paint word pictures to relate traditional tales such as “Wiley the Hairy Man” and “The Monkey’s Paw.”

GLORIA STEINEM
Rollins College
Oct. 28
rollins.edu
Steinem’s emergence as a leader of the American feminist movement of the 1960s and ’70s began with a nervy expose: She took a job as a skimpily clad “bunny” at the Playboy Club in New York City and wrote a story about it.  

Soon she was speaking out against political, economic and social discrimination, not only toward women but African-Americans, Hispanics and gays. She also advocated for animal rights, spoke out against the Vietnam War, co-founded Ms. magazine and founded or helped found several feminist organizations, including the Women’s Action Alliance, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and the National Women’s Political Caucus.  

During the 1980s and ’90s, Steinem struggled with health issues and retreated, for a time, from her activism. She returned to the public arena in 2008, when she supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. She’ll be discussing “what the women’s movement should prioritize today to effectively transform tomorrow” in her Rollins appearance.

DAVID McCULLOUGH
Rollins College
Nov. 4
rollins.edu
For a writer, winning the National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize is about as good as it gets. David McCullough has won both. Twice.

Perhaps even more impressive for a serious historian, McCullough is the author of such bestsellers as John Adams, Truman and 1776, with sales of more than 9 million books. Even if you’ve never read a word he’s written, chances are you’ve heard his soothing, authoritative voice as narrator of the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War, the hit movie Seabiscuit or the long-running PBS series The American Experience.

In a lecture sponsored by the Winter Park Institute, McCullough discusses history in general and his most recent book in particular: The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris.

A NUTTY NUTCRACKER
CHRISTMAS
Orlando Repertory Theatre
Nov. 10-Dec. 18
orlandorep.com
A musical that gives a holiday standard a rock n’ roll twist, bypassing the imaginings of Clara and her enchanted nutcracker in favor of the adventures of her little brother, Fritz.

WINTER

LES MISÉRABLES
Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre
Jan.17-22
orlandobroadway.com
This year marks the 25th anniversary of an epic work with a two-syllable nickname. Les Mis, as it has come to be known, was a giant at a time of Broadway giants, towering even over Cats and Phantom of the Opera.

It’s arguably the most successful musical in history – and that’s in the history of the world, by the way: Les Mis is still enjoying a historic run in London’s West End.

Based on Victor Hugo’s epic novel about an 18th-century student uprising that foreshadowed the French Revolution, the musical follows the fortunes, over time, of Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread who must flee a police officer named Javert.

BEYOND BASEBALL:
THE LIFE OF ROBERTO CLEMENTE
Orange County Regional
History Center
Jan. 21-March 18
thehistorycenter.org
The Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition is well named: For all his astounding skill as a baseball player – the four batting crowns, the 3,000 hits, the astounding 12 consecutive Gold Glove Awards – the most inspiring facet of Roberto Clemente’s life was his humanitarianism.

He personally delivered food and baseball equipment to impoverished communities in his native Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, and died in a plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake survivors in Nicaragua in 1972.

The exhibit is a bilingual tribute developed by the Smithsonian Latino Center, the Clemente family and the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. Robert Blass, a former teammate of Clemente’s with the Pittsburgh Pirates, will be on hand for the opening of the exhibit.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
Mad Cow Theatre
Jan. 27-Feb.19
madcowtheatre.com
There are two reasons for Sunday in the Park With George making our Top 20 list. This will be the first fully staged Central Florida production of the lyrical Stephen Sondheim musical, inspired by the obsessive artistry of pointillist painter Georges Seurat.

It will also be the first production in Mad Cow’s new, expanded theater at 54 West Church Street, where the company will be moving from its current facility on Magnolia Avenue.

ARTSFEST
Various locations
Feb. 1-29
artsfestfl.com
This annual event showcases local arts and culture and kicks off the United Arts annual fundraising campaign with hundreds of free performances in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties. Ordinarily a weeklong cultural cornucopia, it will continue throughout the month this year to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the event.

CAROUSEL
Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre
April 7 (two shows)
orlandophil.org
Yes, there are several more demanding and certainly more classical works on the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s schedule this season. But Carousel, which the Phil performs with singers and actors as a fully staged production, is considered by many to be Rodgers and Hammerstein’s finest musical.

Conjure up Julie Jordan singing the words “If I Loved You” in her duet with Billy Bigelow, the melody rising expectantly on the last two notes, the four single-syllable words carried aloft with their burden of shyness, doubt, passion and suspense. We’re going with the sentimental favorite here. Now you know why.

FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL
Enzian Theater, various locations
April 13-22
enzian.org
This isn’t just a film festival. It’s one of those events that reminds you of what a great place to live Orlando can be, as long as you’re not stuck in traffic on I-4. Yes, the Florida Film Festival is one of the most respected events of its kind in the country as a member of what’s called the “Big 15.” That means a film that wins an award here automatically qualifies for Oscar consideration.

But what makes the festival worth looking forward to, year after year, is the chance to see dozens of ambitious, independently produced and frequently brilliant movies and documentaries – and then discuss them with friends both old and newly found.
 

It’s a laid-back social setting that brings out quite a few colorful characters of our own.

FLYING HORSE PRESS EDITIONS
Mennello Museum of American Art
April 13-Sept. 7
mennellomuseum.com
In a little-known studio in downtown Orlando, vintage, hand-operated printmaking machines share space with sophisticated digital technology. This is the home of the Flying Horse Press, a non-profit enterprise that creates limited-edition prints and handmade books, duplicating – as accurately as possible – the printmaking artistry of the past.

A recent project: recreating the ethereal relief etchings of the mystical 18th century poet, philosopher and illustrator William Blake. It’s painstaking artistry. The Mennello exhibit will showcase a variety of examples from the Flying Horse archives.

REFLECTIONS: PAINTINGS
OF FLORIDA 1865-1965
Orlando Museum of Art
April 21-July 15
omart.org
Drawn from the largest private collection of Florida-based art, owned by aficianados Cici and Hyatt Brown, these paintings are influenced by the romanticism that epitomized the Hudson River School. They feature lush green hammocks, swamps and pristine, deserted beaches.

The exhibit includes works by Thomas Hart Benton, Frederick Remington, Herman Herzog and William Aiken Walker. The museum plans a concurrent, online exhibition, open to public participation, featuring photographs of the state today.
 
FRINGE FESTIVAL
Loch Haven Park
May 16-28
orlandofringe.org
How apt for the Fringe Festival to occupy this position, on the chronological outskirts of the season. But last isn’t least, not for an enterprise that includes such marvelously imagined spectacles as Dog-Powered Robot.

The annual, creative free-for-all offers an array of edgy one-act plays, some from local companies, some from far afield. Actually, by definition, they’re all from far afield.