The Sun Will Come out at the Embassy With
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October 29-November 4, 2020 THINGS TO DO IN FORT WAYNE AND BEYOND FREE IMMERSE YOURSELF IN VIRTUAL REALITY LOCAL ARCADES LET YOU EXPLORE UNKNOWN WORLDS / PAGE 4 THE SUN WILL COME OUT FESTIVAL OF TREES AT THE EMBASSY WITH EMBASSY THEATRE ANNOUNCES THE CIVIC THEATRE 2020 SCHEDULE / PAGE 6 STORY AND INTERVIEWS, PAGE 3 ANNIE Your source for local music and entertainment BAD HAIR DIRECTOR BOBS AND WEAVES A NEW CULT CLASSIC HORROR FILM ALSO INSIDE: NEW VENUE ON NORTH COLISEUM · OUR CALENDARS FROM ART TO STAGE TO MUSIC AND COMEDY starstarstarstarstar / REVIEW, PAGE 13 Inside This Week Volume 25, Number 13 Christmas on Fort3 Wayne Civic Theatre’s Broadway Annie 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20 Come line up on both sides of Broadway from Creighton to Park Avenue to greet Mr. and Mrs. Claus as they travel parade- style south in a 1976 Pierce Fire Truck, distributing Santa hats along the way. Celebrate the lighting of the Christmas on Broadway tree and enjoy the holiday fireworks display! 4 For health reasons, we kindly request that Spectrum Virtual social distancing be adhered to along the parade route and that no one gather at Reality Arcade Broadway Plaza. Sponsored by The Fort Wayne Komets, Sweetwater, Lake City Bank, ABC 21 WPTA, Prairie Farms, Mudrack Tree Service, Umi, Associated Builders and Contractors-Indiana/Kentucky Chapter, Trinity English Lutheran Church, 103.9 Wayne FM, and Shine & Hardin, LLP. Columns & Reviews Calendars Out and About ⁄ 5 Road Notes ⁄ 9-10 Live Music & Comedy ⁄ 5-7 Filled with honest Rockstar Lounge promises local, Trans-Siberian Orchestra gets in On the Road ⁄ 9-11 emotion, sweet national acts streaming spirit in 2020 humor, and music News and Venues ⁄ 6 Screen Time ⁄ 12 Road Trips ⁄ 10 of the time period, Pining for the Festival of Trees? Cohen features in two very different Art & Exhibits ⁄ 14 this piece is the Embassy announces 2020 schedule movies Stage & Dance ⁄ 14 most popular in Spins ⁄ 8 Reel Views ⁄ 13 afO’s history. Autovator, Keith Urban, Dee Snider Bad Hair: Simien bobs and weaves a Things To Do ⁄ 15 cult classic This Christmas, Backtracks ⁄ 8 Pulp, Different Class (1995) treat your whole family to an evening with Laura and her sisters. Book by Thomas Meehan Music by Charles Strouse at the Lyrics by Martin Charnin RATED G Historic Embassy Theatre TICKETS AT Embassy Nov. 13-15 Box Office 125 W Jefferson Blvd all peformances at Season SponsorsDowntown Fort Wayne Nov. 20-22 The Historic CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR DETAILS allforOnefw.org Embassy Theatre or fwcivic.org & An Anonymous Donor November 4-8, 2020 Funded fwcivic.org in part by Season Sponsors Presented through special arrangement with & An Anonymous Donor making the arts happen Music Theatre International (MTI) Funded in part by 2 WHATZUP OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 4, 2020 a really tough situation and in a tough world. And that’s very relatable in these times.” Civic, Embassy work Warbucks is constantly adjusting to new information, Mann said. “He seems very complicated to me,” he said. “He comes out with a no-nonsense attitude. His relationship with Annie together for musical changes him. She turns his world upside down. He gets softer. He realizes what he was missing all along: companionship and Production gets a twist worthy mentorship of someone who needs a helping hand.” of a pandemic performance IMPRESSIVE YOUNG ACTRESS Annie is played in this production by Woodside Middle BY MICHELE DEVINNEY School’s Avery Garrett, who was so impressive a year ago as WHATZUP FEATURES WRITER Susan Walker in the Civic’s production of Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical. Fort Wayne Civic Theatre’s production of Annie needed a sec- Avery’s mother, Shannon, said Annie and her daughter have ond chance when COVID-19 drove the musical out of its estab- a lot in common. lished home at the Arts United Center. “I think so,” she said. “I think she’s very outgoing and is a The show could not be performed safely and profitably witty and spitfire kind of character like Annie.” there. Like Mann, Annie’s homelessness didn’t last long. The Embassy Theatre, ANNIE Avery, 11, is left dark by national touring acts, has taken in a lot of orphaned FORT WAYNE CIVIC THEATRE thrilled to be tak- local shows and events this fall. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4 ing the Embassy The familiar plot of the show — impossibly optimistic 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6 stage. orphan finds love and security in the home of a formerly 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 “It makes me grouchy mogul — has been subjected to minimal tinkering feel like a Broad- 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m Sunday, Nov. 8 since its Broadway debut in 1977. Courtesy photo way actor because Embassy Theatre But when the Civic Theatre’s production opens in early RARE COLLABORATION it’s so big and so 125 W. Jefferson Blvd., Fort Wayne November, the characters will contend with something they Collaborations between the Embassy and the Civic Theatre fancy,” she said. never before faced: a flu epidemic. have been few and far between over the years. $33-$45 · (260) 424-5665 A requirement Since the cast and crew are required to mask up for COVID, Designated Civic actors have appeared on the Embassy stage of playing Annie the story of the show was altered slightly to explain the only a couple of times in the last three decades, according to that patrons probably don’t give much thought to has to do masking. the Civic’s executive and artistic director Phillip Colglazier. with dog wrangling. Annie’s dog, Sandy, is often played by an Arts United Center is a nice space, but the Embassy’s histori- undisciplined but charismatic canine actor that flagrantly CLINGING TO HOPE cal prestige and opulence grant Annie’s cast and crew license to ignores cues and blocking. The show’s director, Doug King, said the masks aren’t the treat this shift as a major upgrade. The actor who plays Annie is usually charged with the task only thing that makes the show timely. One actor who seems particularly excited about the move is of controlling the dog while pretending she is unqualifiedly In a phone interview, King said people looked to the Little Aaron Mann, who plays Daddy Warbucks. delighted with the dog. Orphan Annie comic strip, and the radio adaptation of it, for “Oh, man,” he effused. “I have never appeared on the Embassy “He’s a very slobbery dog,” she said. “Super excited. It’s been hope during the Great Depression. stage. I have attended so many things there. It’s so exciting to be taking him a while to get used to me. The orphans and I are “With COVID-19 going on,” he said, “the interesting parallel in that venue and to be doing something we love to do.” overwhelmed by all we have to focus on in a scene, and I am is that people were clinging to the message of hope and adven- Mann had a national theater career before returning to trying to walk Sandy across the stage. And he’s running all over ture and living through a crisis and that’s the position we find northeast Indiana to teach and coach. the place.” ourselves in 90 years later. For the COVID generation, we hope Warbucks isn’t usually cited as a “bucket list” role, but Mann Luckily, Avery said she is “100 percent a dog person.” Also, Annie brings the same message of hope and restoration and said he has always wanted to play him. she has a secret supply of peanut butter and cheese snacks. adventure.” He said that he shaved his head as soon as he heard he’d An atypical aspect of this production of Annie is doubled Annie herself is a metaphor for something many of us are earned the part, a step in the process of playing Daddy War- choreography or something very much like it. The 2,471-seat yearning for right now, King said. bucks that other actors might be more reluctant to take. Embassy Theatre is limited to seating roughly 530 patrons “Annie is this small package, a rather insignificant orphan, “I see so much under the surface,” Mann said of Warbucks. for each performance of the Civic’s Annie, according to Elise who can walk in and change the lives of someone so greatly,” he “They mention his backstory briefly in the play. But if you Ramel, marketing director for the Civic. Masks are required said. “None of us know what that tiny package could be. It could really apply that throughout, he is a man who is self-made. He everywhere but the seats. be someone smiling at you or donating something or giving you had nothing. He came from nothing. That’s why he identifies It may be a hard knock life these days, but the Civic’s Annie a second chance.” with Annie. He sees someone who is trying to make it through is making sure the sun’ll come out tomorrow for theater fans. A fantastic COMING TO THE EMBASSY THEATRE celebration Civic Theatre: Annie . Nov. 4-8 Theresa Caputo ................... of Broadway, .................. March 4, 2021 On Broadway ...........Nov. 15 sung by TobyMac .......... May 3, 2021 the stars Festival of Trees .................. themselves! .................. Nov. 25-Dec. 2 Bill O’Reilly ....... May 8, 2021 Waitress ....Jan. 11-12, 2021 Three Rivers Music Theatre: True Colors: A Celebration Three Rivers Music Theatre: of Pride ........June 18, 2021 Embassy Theatre NOV.