A Broadway Christmas Carol

“A little song,

  a little dance,

  a little eggnog down your pants.”

~Doc Lawrence

The holiday season traditionally juxtaposes sacred ritual with the celebratory glory of gatherings, particularly the joys from the live stage. Art Station Theatre’s production of Kathy Feininger’s A Broadway Christmas Carol opened to a sellout audience and earned a standing ovation from a well-entertained audience. Combining the Dickens classic with more than 30 Broadway standards and a full warehouse of comedy, brilliant sets and parody can only work with a talented cast, flawless singing, precision dancing and tight directing. 

Once more, Art Station succeeds.

Jeff LeCraw delivers a cranky Ebenezer Scrooge, counting the loot from his shameless stinginess to the song “We’re in the Money,” followed by Joy Walters’ sultry delivery of “Big Spender.”

Ben Thorpe becomes all the other males in the story from Bob Cratchit to Tiny Tim, entertaining with “Tomorrow” from Annie, to “Put on a Happy Face” from Bye Bye Birdie and “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast. 

Music director and accompanist Patrick Hutchinson is the show’s backbone. Nothing short of perfection is required to make this two-hour production work. A high bar of excellence skillfully met. 

A Christmas Carol as we know it is the story, but the added comedy and Karen Beyer’s precision choreography transforms it into a very modern crowd pleaser. 

Just glow we need during the cold days of the holiday season.

Through December 21.

Tickets and information: (770) 469.1105; www.artstation.org 

Southern Baked by Amanda Wilbanks

Celebrating Good Food

~Doc Lawrence

Just in time for holiday giving. That’s the thought that danced in my mind as I turned the pages of the new and exciting cookbook by Amanda Dalton Wilbanks. The gloriously photographed images of pies, cakes, appetizers, entrees, luxurious table settings in Southern Baked: Celebrating Life With Pie (Gibbs Smith, 2018), is nothing short of a masterpiece, a true work of art with meaningful content that will excite the palate of those who want to learn more about the unique food traditions of the Deep South interpreted and advanced by a genuine Georgia girl.

Flavor of Georgia Winner

Ms. Wilbanks, a skilled and original kitchen master, not only graduated from the University of Georgia but came back to enter and win top prize in its prestigious Flavor of Georgia competition. A seasoned entrepreneur with the success of her Southern Baked Pie Company and with her pies on the menus of top Atlanta gourmet restaurants, she seemed destined to create this useful and elegant book. 

Prior to the publication of Southern Baked, I included Ms. Wilbanks pie enterprises in two stories I wrote for magazines. The more I learned about her, the hungrier I became. Bowing to temptation, I ordered an apple pie that arrived still warm. I had one slice and her all-butter pie dough triggered the endorphins. My son ate the rest. I gleefully remain under her spell.

Don’t be fooled by the word pie in the title. Ms. Wilbanks masterful assemblage of recipes covers the spectrum of the Southern kitchen. The seasons, special occasions, holidays and more are celebrated with a full range of staples like cole slaw, blackberry hand pies, roasted potato salad, Bourbon marinated flank steak, Tabasco fried chicken plus an exciting six recipe Tailgating section. And a few dozen more.

This is not your ordinary cookbook. It’s an aesthetic wonder, a well-designed hardcover production featuring the highest quality enameled paper with brilliant studio photography.  The almost 3-D images of entrees and desserts look good enough to eat.

Cookbooks abound. I’ve reviewed dozens this year alone and a few standout. Southern Baked is alone at the top. For anyone who loves to cook and entertain, especially those who are searching for the soul of the real South, here’s the perfect gift. 

Available at Amazon and bookstores everywhere.

Reflections & Recipes of Chef Judi-A Stocking Stuffer for Gourmets

~Doc Lawrence

Judi Gallagher will always be Chef Judi to me and those countless admirers who continue to enjoy her miraculous food and experience her contagious smiles. For those who live in the Sarasota area of Florida, you already know her as a regular star on ABC7 TV and publications that regularly feature her recipes and cooking insights. 

Blessed with an inscribed copy of Chef Judi’s new cookbook, Reflections & Recipes of Chef Judi, I plunged into a vicarious journey that began with her reminisces of early days in New England and her travels that led to the Sunshine State. If there is one overriding part of Chef Judi’s fascinating life, it is joie de vivre, that intangible attitude to make the best of each precious moment of life no matter the location or circumstance. 

The pages of Chef Judi’s book alternate between nostalgia, love of family, the benefits of cooking with fresh ingredients and an impressive display of originality.  Chef Judi reminds me of Julia Child: Equal measures of charm, talent, love of worthy things and height. Standing tall and lovely at six-foot-two,  as you watch Chef Judi cook and offer anecdotes on her live TV show, the only person who comes to mind is you-know-who.

Chef Judi says that her soul was healed with a love of food. Many, I suspect, might say the same thing. I found her poignant stories and delightful recipes reassuring: Good food, prepared with care and served with an abundance of love proves there is a higher life.

By the way, her recipes for Hummingbird Cake and Strawberries Romanoff are culinary treasures. 

Reflections & Recipes of Chef Judi is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You’ll want a copy for your kitchen library and some extra copies as gifts for friends who excel in home entertaining. 

Thanksgiving Wines-A Southern Tradition

~Doc Lawrence

Everything is planned and ready to cook. The table is set and the room is elegant. Family and friends will gather for this genuinely All-American feast and one item is nagging at you.

Wines.

The newspaper and magazine columns are overwhelming, recommending so many that you don’t know where to begin. A well-meaning friend advises you to pick up a few large jugs from the supermarket bottom shelf, a white, red and pink, but you aren’t interested in cheap anything on this special day.

There are strategies that work well. One is remembering that cheap isn’t a synonym for bargain. A cheap wine (and your guests will know it when they see or smell it) diminishes the ritual and hints bad things about your judgment. To be fair, some high profile wines fit into the unacceptable category, particularly that overpriced Beaujolais Nouveau. The late wine educator/importer Jim Sanders said that if you paid $10 dollars of a bottle of Nouveau, it was overpriced by nine.

The Beginning

Nothing says welcome like Champagne. There are real bargains but some substitutes are worthy. Ask your wine merchant about Cremant. Domestic sparkling wines like Gruet from New Mexico, Asheville’s Biltmore Estate and Georgia’s Wolf Mountain won’t break the bank and are delicious. Serve your bubbly in lovely crystal flutes. No plastic, ever! 

Amuse Bouche, fancy laugange for finger food, will be even more delicious as flutes are refilled, and the laughter and good cheer will increase, setting the stage for the big feast.

Dinner Wines

The multiplicity of dishes from salads, to soups, assorted vegetables, casseroles, and the obligatory turkey, dressing, giblet gravy shouldn’t be challenging regarding appropriate wines. Wise authorities emphasize variety: have different wines-whites and reds available, encourage guest to try different ones and gently assist them with suggestions.

A chilled dry Riesling is so compatible with almost everything. Choices are myriad: Napa, Washington State, Finger Lakes, Texas, Australia and Germany. 

Pinot Gris, a luxurious white wine and a top choice would be from Oregon-based King Estate. Be forewarned: this might steal the show so have several bottles handy.

Red wines are so delicious and the Thanksgiving table would be a little empty without them. Cru Beaujolais, a delicious group of wines from France are fail-safe candidates. Not to be confused with Nouveau, these are dry, brightly colored, totally food friendly with 10 different ones to choose from. Look for Morgon, Fleurie, or Saint-Amour. Good wine stores carry them. Serve slightly chilled. 

For our friends in the Deep South, a red wine staple Syrah from North Carolina’s RagApple Lassie will earn applause. Very drinkable, there’s a little bit of James Taylor’s “Carolina in My Mind” in each sip. North Georgia’s Tiger Mountain Vineyards produces an incomporable Cynthiana, a fabulous dry red wine from the grape of the Cherokee. Most will never suspect that it is a local product.

Pinot Noir, perhaps more popular than ever, deserves inclusion and you can bet that many expect it. Aim a little high and find a bottle or two of J.Christopher 2015 Basalte from Oregon’s Chehalem Mountains.

Desserts

After dinner wines include standby’s like Port, but should chocolate find its way into the menu, offer guests a glass of Madeira, one of Thomas Jefferson’s favorites. Magic will happen.

These are mere suggestions. With wines, flexibility is the key. No rules I’m aware of as long as everything is served with joy, good cheer and boundless love.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

SAM BUSH'S REVIVAL-A Bluegrass Movie

~Doc Lawrence

NASHVILLE-There is only one Sam Bush, a son of Kentucky who found a light of inspiration from Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys and caught  fire from Bob Marley and The Wailers.  A self-described progressive hippie, Bush’s full story, Revival: The Sam Bush Story, just released digitally via Amazon, chronicles the life and career of the newgrass-creator, a musical iconoclast. Since its debut at the Nashville Film Festival in 2015, where it won the award for Best Music Documentary, the production continues to earn more awards.

The film opens with a poignant interview with Chris Thile commenting on the early pressure by bluegrass traditionalists who looked at him as the next Bill Monroe which Bush had the courage to say “No, I’m going to be the first Sam Bush.” In the film, noted musicians – from Alison Krauss to John Oates, from the Avett Brothers to Thile – say many of today’s biggest acts in bluegrass, newgrass, Americana and the jam-band scene owe huge a debt of gratitude to Bush.

A Bowling Green, Kentucky native, Bush began as a teen fiddler, a three-time national champion in the junior division of the National Oldtime Fiddler's Contest.  In the spring of 1970 Bush attended the Fiddlers Convention and was introduced to rock-inspired progressive bluegrass, a game changer for him.

Bush recalls when Roy Acuff offered him a spot in his band, he politely turned it down. He had discovered electrified alternatives to tradition in the Osborne Brothers and manifest destiny in The Dillards. 

Bush became well-known as a member of New Grass Revival playing bluegrass fests slotted in late-night sets for the “long-hairs and hippies.”  The group garnered the attention of Leon Russell who hired New Grass as his supporting act on a massive tour that put the band in front of tens of thousands.  The group issued five albums in their first seven years, and in 1979 became Russell’s backing band. 

A three-record contract with Capitol Records and a conscious turn to the country market took the Revival to new commercial heights.  Bush survived a life-threatening bout with cancer, while their celebrated chart-climbing singles earned Grammy nominations. At their zenith, the group called it quits.

Bush worked with Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers followed by a stint with Lyle Lovett earning multiple awards. In 1995 he united with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, reigniting his penchant for improvisation. After a quarter-century of making music with New Grass Revival and collaborating with other bands, Sam Bush went solo. 

“I am free to try anything,” says Bush. “Looking back at the last 50 years of playing newgrass, with the elements of jazz improvisation and rock-&-roll, jamming, playing with New Grass Revival, Leon, and Emmylou; it’s a culmination of all of that.” 

The film is indeed a culmination of “all of that.”

Revival: The Sam Bush Story can be rented or purchased digitally via Amazon, with more networks to add the film in the coming year.

HOLIDAY ENTERTAINING-THE SEARCH

Fancy Appetizers, Canapés, Petit Fours, Egg Nog and More

~Doc Lawrence

The holidays are much closer and now is the time to give serious thought to all those warm and wonderful gatherings. Decorations, dates and times, invitations and what to eat and drink.

You can almost feel the joy of anticipation right now.

Over the past 20 years, I've been honored to share original recipes with a wonderful audience. This year, it should be extra special. So-called finger food defines the theme of the gathering, whether before the Thanksgiving feast, Christmas gathering of New Year's celebrations which often combine football watching.

And no right minded host would ever neglect this delightful sweets morsels with coffee or after-dinner drinks. Celebrating all we love is no time for restraint. That's for the dreary days of January and February.

Send your favorite recipes either to my email: doclawrence@mindspring.com or on Facebook as a message (Doc Lawrence will get you there). If you have an image, all the better. We'll publish the best based on originality and these will appear in magazines, newspapers, online and on the air.

110 in the Shade-Theatrical Outfit's Springtime Musical

~Reviewed by Doc Lawrence

Sizzling under a Texas Sky

ATLANTA-Theatrical Outfit concludes its Season of Character with a highly entertaining  musical, 110 in the Shade, a mighty effort with a  spellbinding story and powerful songs, successfully resurrected by director Tom Key from 1963 stage gem. 

Based on the play and later film The Rainmaker, Lizzie a young farm girl, believes she is consigned to spinsterhood, forever stuck on her family’s Texas cattle ranch near a small town parched by unbearable heat and unyielding drought. Never mind that she is attractive. She’s heard a lifetime of cruel remarks about her being ordinary and has lost all self-esteem.

For the romantic imagination, however lack of rain compares to lack of love. Both deficiencies are addressed when Starbuck,  a charming conman, comes to town. For a paltry $100 dollars he promises rain and on a quiet Lone Star night, he changes Lizzie’s opinion of herself and introduces her to the miracle of love. Innocence lost opens the beauty of a Texas flower.

Starbuck uncovers Lizzie's Beauty

Starbuck is destined to be exposed, but the metamorphosis of Lizzie is permanent who suddenly she tells everyone she is beautiful. 

Starbuck, ready to skedaddle to another locale and launch another scheme, isn’t the only man attracted to Lizzie. The local sheriff, File, has long hidden his shine to Lizzie and he isn’t about to let her leave his bailiwick.

Sunken spirits and parched hearts are metaphors of the dry land and insufferable heat. Maybe Starbuck delivers on love and rain. You’ll know at the end of Act II. 

110 is a story about hope, overcoming the pain of loneliness, family bonds, our biological need for dreams realized and the universal forces of joy we experience when love suddenly appears.

A Charming Conman

For two hours, the cast honors the promise of true love with voices in harmony with the universe. The sounds proclaim something everlasting, assuring us that in the depths of despair and self-doubt, there is beauty. Never give up: love is just around the corner. How many of us need a Starbuck in our lives?

S. Renee Clark’s musical direction is flawless. The voices are clear and strong, the musical accompaniment seamless. Under Tom Key’s direction, Ayana Reed as Lizzie and Jeremy Wood as Starbuck join a superlative cast in a meaningful and beautifully told story.

Like blossoming flowers in late spring, 110 in the Shade  is a musical that glows brightly on Theatrical Outfit’s stage, rain or shine.

Tickets: www.theatricaloutfit.org

Photo credits: Christopher Bartleski