Eric E. Harrison
Stories by Eric E.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 05/21/2013 3:04 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: Ham, jam, Spamalot The Weekend Theater, West Seventh and Chester streets, Little Rock, is seeking knights, peasants, dancing girls, demigoddesses, vorpal bunnies, black knights, enchanters and, of course, a grail as director John Haman holds auditions for Monty Python’s Spamalot (music and lyrics by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, book by Idle, “lovingly ripped off” from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail), 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday and 6-9 p.m. Sunday.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Steel Magnolias is returning to Murry’s Playhouse stage
posted: 05/19/2013 3:31 a.m. Discuss
Six Southern women dress hair and discuss men in Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias, opening Tuesday and running through June 15 at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock.
MUSIC REVIEW: Mozart’s Requiem full of passion
posted: 05/17/2013 4:48 a.m. Discuss
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never got to hear his Requiem. He left it unfinished at his untimely death, and one or more of his students finished it under the supervision of his widow.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 05/16/2013 3:10 a.m. Discuss
Grampa’s Catfish has again broken the surface of the waters. The restaurant has reopened at 9219 Stagecoach Road, Little Rock, after being closed at that location for a little over a year.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 05/14/2013 2:28 a.m. Discuss
In entertainment and the arts this week: Cosby kick-off An evening with comedian Bill Cosby, “50 Years of Making You Laugh, Smile and Feel Good” will inaugurate the University of Central Arkansas’ “Night Out” series, part of its 2013-14 Public Appearances season, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall at the university, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.
MUSIC REVIEW: Cirque sextet earns oohs, ahs, applause
posted: 05/12/2013 4:02 a.m. Discuss
On the one hand, congratulations are due the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra for providing astonishing, scintillating and jaw-dropping entertainment in Saturday night’s “Cirque de la Symphonie” at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall.
Chef’s meal wows flurry of his peers
posted: 05/12/2013 3:49 a.m. Discuss
Executive Chef Dan Capello served an awe-inspiring dinner to 108 chefs (active and retired), food-service moguls and foodies of various descriptions (plus one newspaper reviewer) April 30 at west Little Rock’s Chenal Country Club.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Lecture series will feature children’s library architect
posted: 05/12/2013 2:55 a.m. Discuss
Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, and Reese Rowland of Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, who designed the new CALS Children’s Library and Learning Center, will take part in a discussion titled “CALS Children’s Library and Learning Center: A New Paradigm” at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the library, 4800 W. 10th St., Little Rock. A reception will precede the talk at 5:30.
Chow still excellent at Ciao
posted: 05/09/2013 3:28 a.m. Discuss
“Ciao” is informal Italian shorthand for “hello” and “goodbye,” and Italians use it offhandedly to say “hi” and “see ya later.”
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 05/09/2013 3:05 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: ‘Stormy’ choreography New Creation Dance Company, a central Arkansas-based professional dance ministry, will offer two performances this weekend of its new production, Stronger … Persevering Through Life’s Storms, 7 p.m. Friday at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship, 7351 Warden Road, Sherwood, and 7 p.m. Saturday in the Ida Waldran Auditorium, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 05/09/2013 2:48 a.m. Discuss
The first Arkansas outlet of the Louisville, Ky.-based J. Gumbo’s franchise opens today in the Centre at Ten shopping center, 12911 Cantrell Road, Little Rock.
MUSIC REVIEW: Composer’s work celebrated
posted: 05/06/2013 3:45 a.m. Discuss
An all-Mozart concert, an all-Beethoven concert, these are common.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: ‘Outlaw’ comic at UARK; Orpheum Theatre to Rock
posted: 05/05/2013 3:06 a.m. Discuss
Comedian Carl LaBove, one of the original “Outlaws of Comedy” who emerged from the Houston comedy scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s and longtime touring partner with the late Sam Kinison, will put on his one man show, Outlaw Tales, at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday at the UARK Bowl, 644 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.
MUSIC REVIEW: Baritone Lowe stars in Menotti double bill
posted: 05/04/2013 4:32 a.m. Discuss
Baritone Micheal Lowe is the big star of the Gian Carlo Menotti double bill that the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Opera Theater staged Friday night at UALR’s Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 05/02/2013 3:09 a.m. Discuss
Also going on this weekend: Quiz show cinecast The Peabody Award-winning National Public Radio quiz show Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! — Live comes to movie screens — the Breckenridge Village 12 in Little Rock, the Tinseltown in Benton and the Towne Center in Conway — at 7 p.m. today.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 05/02/2013 2:57 a.m. Discuss
Wendy McCrory, owner of the Little Rock location of Memphis-based Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken (she also owns the one on Front Street in Memphis and the one in Collierville, Tenn.), says she’s hoping to at least have a soft opening by or during Riverfest — that’s Memorial Day weekend, May 24-26 — in the thick of Riverfest-ivities, in the used-to-be Redbone’s Downtown (and before that the Flying Burrito Co.), 300 President Clinton Ave., in the River Market District.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/30/2013 1:55 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: Sales pitch The cast and crew of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (onstage through May 12 at the Rep, 601 Main St., Little Rock) will take part in a “Lunch & Lecture” session, noon-1 p.m. Wednesday in Sturgis Hall, Clinton School of Public Service, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. Take your own lunch; the school will provide drinks. Admission is free; to reserve seats, call (501) 683-5239 or e-mail publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu. Pal Joey auditions The Rep will also hold auditions for several roles in its world-premiere production of the “reconceived” musical Pal Joey on Saturday at the theater, 601 Main St., Little Rock.
Daniel Cory Capello
posted: 04/28/2013 4:22 a.m. Discuss
Being a chef was not Dan Capello’s lifelong ambition. Growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, in the ’60s and ’70s, he had about a dozen jobs before fixing on this one.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Old Crow Medicine Show to perform at Fayetteville
posted: 04/28/2013 3:24 a.m. Discuss
Americana string band The Old Crow Medicine Show will be onstage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Arkansas Music Pavilion, Washington County Fairgrounds, 2536 N. McConnell Ave., Fayetteville.
Pizza Cafe goes west, well
posted: 04/25/2013 3:19 a.m. Discuss
Let us mince no toppings: Though we have not eaten of its products so much over the past few years, we are nonetheless fans of Pizza Cafe, the small, quirky but homey pizza-salad-sandwich emporium on Rebsamen Park Road in Little Rock’s Riverdale area.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/25/2013 3:05 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: Rocking Forrest City Herman’s Hermits and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium, East Arkansas Community College, 1700 Newcastle Road, Forrest City.
THEATER: Bugs are heroes in James and the Giant Peach
posted: 04/25/2013 3:03 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre’s new production involves a battle between aunts and bugs. And audiences will likely be rooting for the bugs.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/25/2013 2:52 a.m. Discuss
Vesuvio Bistro, inside the Best Western Premier Governors Suites, 1501 Merrill Drive, Little Rock, is moving to 1315 Breckenridge Drive, the former west Little Rock El Chico location.
Disney princesses don skates
posted: 04/23/2013 2:42 a.m. Discuss
Disney princesses Rapunzel, Tiana and Cinderella and their respective princes will feel a slight chill as scenes from their animated films (Tangled, The Princess and the Frog and Cinderella) take to the ice in Disney on Ice Presents Dare to Dream, Wednesday-Sunday at North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: UCA’s musicians, vocalists have very busy week ahead
posted: 04/21/2013 2:31 a.m. Discuss
The University of Central Arkansas Wind Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.
Enhanced Prego still delights
posted: 04/18/2013 3:37 a.m. Discuss
Cafe Prego has been a safe, dependable place to dine out Italian for almost exactly two decades, starting out at Grant and R streets in the Heights (now the location of Fantastic China) and two years later moving to the old house a few blocks away on Kavanaugh Boulevard that had previously housed a little French place called Chattie’s.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/18/2013 3:21 a.m. Discuss
Orlando, Fla.-based a cappella quintet Voice Play (Earl Elkins Jr. Geoff Castellucci, Layne Stein, Eli Jacobson and Tony Wakim) will perform at 2 p.m. Sunday in Riceland Hall of Arkansas State University’s Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/18/2013 3 a.m. Comment 1
The downtown Little Rock U.S. Pizza outlet at 402 Louisiana St. has closed and the telephone number, (501) 374-5561, has been disconnected. “That location was [operated by] a licensee and she decided to close,” explains Drew Weber, U.S. Pizza’s chief operating officer.
MUSIC REVIEW: Whale wail assails; Copland charming
posted: 04/17/2013 3:45 a.m. Discuss
A sellout crowd showed up Tuesday night at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock to see and hear a baker’s dozen of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra players put on their “spring” concert.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/16/2013 1:50 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: Ab-Normal musical Fayetteville regional theater TheatreSquared will open its first Broadway-scale musical, the Pulitzer Prizeand Tony Award-winning Next to Normal (music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey) with a preview performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, 505 Spring St., Fayetteville.
MUSIC REVIEW: Midori zips and zaps audience in concerto
posted: 04/14/2013 4:01 a.m. Discuss
I’ve heard lots of performances of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, live and recorded, and I don’t think I’ve heard it played faster, or better, than it was by one-name violin superstar Midori on Saturday night with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: UCA gig next stop on tour for 5 piano-playing siblings
posted: 04/14/2013 2:58 a.m. Discuss
The 5 Browns — Juilliard School of Music-trained siblings Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae Brown — will perform on five Steinway pianos at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/11/2013 2:49 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: Jazzman joins bands Jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Victor Goines will join Arkansas State University students in two big bands and two jazz combos at 7:30 p.m. today in ASU’s Fowler Center, Riceland Hall, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/11/2013 2:33 a.m. Discuss
The Fold (or Folde) Taqueria & Bar — “Fold” is the name on the Facebook page (facebook. com/381185925263810), and it may or may not originally have been called B&B Taco Garage — in an old Alltel fleet service station at 3501 Old Cantrell Road at Mart Road, Little Rock, appears to be nearing completion.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/09/2013 3:12 a.m. Discuss
Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter Garrett Lebeau will perform at 9 p.m.
Midori finally back to play, teach kids
posted: 04/07/2013 2:54 a.m. Discuss
Violin superstar Midori played a benefit gala recital for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall in March 1999, performing with pianist Robert McDonald sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Corigliano and Johannes Brahms and a showpiece by Maurice Ravel.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/07/2013 2:44 a.m. Discuss
Anything Goes Roundabout Theatre Company’s touring production of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes will be onstage 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. April 14 at Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.
MUSIC REVIEW: Cellist serves musical feast, all of it tasty
posted: 04/05/2013 4:20 a.m. Discuss
Young Swedish-American cellist Sebastian Baverstam served up a four-course musical banquet Thursday night in the Parish Hall of Little Rock’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on behalf of the the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock.
Thai Taste a spicy, savory trip
posted: 04/04/2013 3:12 a.m. Comment 1
Once upon a time, there were three Thai restaurants in Jacksonville. And because there were no Thai restaurants elsewhere in the metropolitan area, if you wanted Thai food, you drove to Jacksonville.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/04/2013 2:52 a.m. Discuss
Student showcase Five finalists, representing colleges and universities across Arkansas, compete for cash prizes and a career boost in the sixth annual “Trinity Presents … Collegiate Performance Showcase,” 6 p.m. Sunday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1101 Mississippi St., Little Rock.
DANCE: Program mixes ballet classics, new choreography
posted: 04/04/2013 2:51 a.m. Discuss
Artistic adviser Michael Bearden isn’t dancing in Ballet Arkansas’ Spring Into Motion concerts this weekend at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, but as the show’s director he takes enormous pride in its content.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/04/2013 2:36 a.m. Discuss
Frank Holmes Cox III and Thomas Dale Alford III took over Leo’s Greek Castle, 2925 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, on Monday. “My partner and I are in it 50-50,” Cox says. “We bought it from Hector Parodi, who had been the owner for 20 years.”
THEATER REVIEW: Spamalot still silly but also hilarious
posted: 04/02/2013 4:49 a.m. Discuss
Camelot is just as silly a place in the stage show Monty Python’s Spamalot as it is in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail from which Monty Python member Eric Idle lovingly ripped it off.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/02/2013 2:51 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: Runner’s tales Distance runner Leah Thorvilson will be the featured storyteller for the taping of a Tales From the South Tin Roof Project today at Starving Artist Cafe, 411 Main St., North Little Rock.
THEATER: Spamalot quest continues
posted: 03/31/2013 3:09 a.m. Discuss
It’s probably a complete coincidence, but Monty Python’s Spamalot makes its first appearance on a Little Rock stage on April Fools’ Day.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 03/31/2013 2:52 a.m. Discuss
Contemporary Christian singer Amy Grant will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.
RESTAURANT: Home Fresh’s burger devotion has tasty payoff
posted: 03/28/2013 2:10 a.m. Discuss
It would be hard to have a simpler menu than the one at Home Fresh Burgers, in the one-two-three-time The Hop location on Cantrell Road in Little Rock.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 03/28/2013 2:09 a.m. Discuss
The Bennett family confirms they’ve sold their restaurant, Vieux Carre, and the next-door club, The Afterthought, 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, to Joe Gillespie, who owns a couple of businesses — Revolution fitness center in the Heights and a tech consulting company called Client Q Solutions — who takes over on Monday.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 03/26/2013 2:55 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: Acoustic rehearsal The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, testing alternate venues for the more than two years Robinson Center Music Hall will be undergoing renovations, will hold a special open rehearsal at 7:15 p.m. Friday in the Wally Allen Ballroom, Statehouse Convention Center, Markham and Main streets, Little Rock.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Keillor at Walton Center; 17 acts for Magic summer
posted: 03/24/2013 2:28 a.m. Discuss
Humorist, author and radio host Garrison Keillor will offer A Brand-New Retrospective at 7 p.m. Thursday at Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.
