Weekend events: Piedmont Park Arts Festival, dancing with drones
🎤 The Concert: A Tribute To ABBA pays tribute to the iconic Swedish pop group at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. (Fri.)
🍖 Kennesaw's 2025 Pigs & Peaches BBQ Festival blends yummy food with craft beer and music. (Fri.)
🎵 The Southern Soul Rising Stars Festival featuring Marcellus TheSinger, FPJ and others takes the stage in Mableton. (Fri.)
🎨 The Piedmont Park Arts Festival is back, bringing two days of artwork such as photography, jewelry and crafts, glass blowers and metal works. You can also enjoy food, a children's area and live music. (Sat.-Sun.)
🪩 Step back in time and fill your wardrobe with clothing and accessories from the 80s, 90s and the 2000s at the Totally Rad Vintage Fest. (Sat.)
🩰 What happens when you combine drones and dancers? The Drone Saga: An Immersive Indoor Drone & Dance Show that uses lights and dance moves to convey a myriad of emotions. (Sat.)
💃🏽 Come together with your neighbors and celebrate culture, music, food and art at the 5th annual Pan African Festival. (Sat.)
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Los Angeles Times
7 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Britney to Backstreet Boys: How Max Martin's biggest hits became the soundtrack for the musical ‘& Juliet'
He's one of the biggest name in show business — and it's possible you've never heard of him. At 54, Swedish songwriter and record producer Max Martin has written more No. 1 singles than any artist, aside from Paul McCartney. He counts Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and the Weeknd among his collaborators, but he's so low-key and humble that he refers to his music career as his 'day job.' That would make musical theater Martin's passion project. Specifically the creation of a jukebox musical called '& Juliet,' which strings together some of his biggest hits in service of an uproarious, feel-good plot that reimagines the heroine of Shakespeare's famous teenage tragedy as her own woman — one who doesn't decide to stab herself in the heart when her main squeeze drinks poison. Success was important to the show, mainly because Martin wanted to do right by his A-list collaborators, all of whom gladly agreed to allow their songs to be included in the score. Featuring a libretto by playwright and TV writer David West Read, choreography by Jennifer Weber and nearly 30 hits by Martin, the stakes felt very high going in. 'I have written a lot of these songs with other people, so I felt a huge responsibility towards the artists and the co-writers, that this needed to be something really extraordinary,' Martin said. Martin had recently flown in from Japan, just in time to catch '& Juliet's' L.A. premiere on Friday at the Ahmanson Theatre. It felt like a homecoming for the show because many of its most memorable songs were recorded in L.A. Thanks to earworms including Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl,' Backstreet Boys' 'I Want It That Way' and Justin Timberlake's 'Can't Stop the Feeling!,' '& Juliet' has a proven track record. It has survived and thrived for almost seven years, scoring nine Olivier nominations — and three wins — during its initial run on London's West End; and earning nine Tony Award nominations during its 2022 Broadway debut. It recouped its cost last year and is the only show from the 2022-23 Broadway season that is still playing. In the risky world of musical development, where nearly 80% of Broadway producers fail to get back their investments, this is considered a major win. Martin was unassuming as he and Read broke down how the project came to life in a conversation that highlighted Martin's deep commitment to the musical and his desire to share the limelight with every single actor, producer, creator and crew member who helped bring it to life along the way. Martin's wife, Jenny, came up with the concept of a musical featuring Martin's catalog. 'And I was like, 'Sure, how hard can it be?'' he said with a wry smile. 'We were very naive going in.' A few years passed during which time they took some meetings and spitballed ideas. Nothing stuck until 2013 when they had a four-hour dinner with producers Theresa Steele Page and Tim Headington. Page was an executive at a music management company and Headington had produced films that included 'Argo' and 'World War Z.' The pair had decided to try their hand at a jukebox musical, Headington explained in an interview, and when they put together a list of songs they wanted to include, they realized almost the entire list had been written or co-written by Martin. Page set up a meeting with Martin's manager, Martin Dodd, who initially told them there was no way Martin's music could be licensed for a musical — that changed after their dinner at the Peninsula hotel in Hollywood. 'Max was so generous. He said, 'Hey, you can have my catalog. You can change words if you want. You can change context, but let's make this great,' said Headington. 'So now we have the best pop musical catalog in the world and we've got no story.' Page got to work looking for a writer, a process that involved many dead-ends and far too many pitches about, 'a local coming out of Louisiana and now she's a star,' Page said. 'Or it was a complete retelling of 'NSync or Backstreet Boys, and we said we do not want anything that's close to what we worked on, because we're still friends with all those guys and we want to have that separation.' Enter Read. The young writer was about to get a gig on the hit comedy 'Schitt's Creek,' for which he went on to win an Emmy. He was recovering from a concussion and had been advised by doctors to stay in a dark room so he could heal, Page recalled. During that time he listened to Martin's catalog on repeat and ultimately presented the completely left-field concept for '& Juliet.' Page called Headington immediately and said, 'We found it.' Then they flew Read to L.A. to pitch Martin in his studio, and Martin agreed. From the beginning it was crucial to Martin that the story stood on its own — without the music. 'We didn't want to shoehorn the songs into the story,' he said, nodding in appreciation at Read. 'I don't understand how you did it, David. How you made it feel as if these songs originated from the story.' Read said the best part for him was being given free reign to use whatever music he saw fit from Martin's catalog without any demands about how he did it. 'There are some of Max's most famous songs,' he said, noting that there was no way he wasn't going to use Spears' chart-topper '... Baby One More Time.' 'But then there are also these lesser-known, but still incredible songs, and part of what works is that balance.' Martin invested himself and his time wholly in the endeavor from the jump, including collaborating on the orchestrations. 'This busy man spent hours of his time hanging out with us in the rehearsal room, giving us his original ideas for some of these songs and telling us some of the meanings behind them,' said Rachel Simone Webb, who plays Juliet in the North American tour and served as an understudy for the same role in the 2022 Toronto production. 'And every time he started speaking, it was dead silent in the room, so that we could listen and just understand his mind and glean ideas from this icon in the rehearsal room.' Webb said she has heard people call Martin the 'Shakespeare' of pop music. Webb also sang the part of one of Romeo's exes for the official cast recording and recalled that Martin was there giving notes and collaborating with the cast. Martin even recorded one album with the British cast and another with the American cast, Read said. 'Max treated this like his new album,' he said. 'And for the cast to be in the studio with him and have the experience that so many of these world-famous artists have had, that was incredible and that was a surprise to all of us.' Will Martin write another musical from scratch now that he's established himself in the theater world? He smiles demurely. Not just yet. He's still got his day job.
Chicago Tribune
16 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Review: 'Mamma Mia!' on Broadway reminds us that this was the original jukebox musical
NEW YORK — ABBA sold hundreds of millions of records but they would have been even bigger if they'd paid more attention to the United States. Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid at some point decided they were happy with being the rich dancing queens of Europe and that the tough Stateside nut was just not worth the work to crack. So in the U.S., they were widely seen as a Swedish novelty act, a fad band. Even the arrival on Broadway of 'Mamma Mia!' in 2001 didn't immediately change that. The show went cautiously to Toronto (ABBA was bigger in Canada) after London for its North American premiere. New York still worried everybody. No reason. It ran on Broadway for 14 years. Almost a quarter century later, anyone sitting in the Winter Gardens Theatre, or merely reading the boffo grosses of the musical during the preview performances these last few weeks, can see that U.S. audiences are as hungry as ever for 'Mamma Mia!,' thanks in part to the movies and maybe the uptick in vinyl and disco nostalgia. All that the producers did this summer was stick the touring production on Broadway to fill an empty theater. It's the same diminutive set I saw in Chicago, the cool jetty that arrived at the show's climax got cut years ago and has not returned. Why waste the money? For those of us who've seen that tour half a dozen times, the only surprise is the addition of more live musicians for Broadway, union minimums being a helpful thing in this case. Actual acoustic sounds have replaced some pre-programmed tracks. Awesome! Benny Andersson's synth work on the Yamaha GX1 and the Moog Polymoog is legendary but 'Mamma Mia' combined the original sound with Martin Koch's clever theatrical arrangements, and it needs lots of humans in the pit. Happily, that touring cast starred Christine Sherrill as Donna, a star who lacks only name recognition. Sherrill's massive but vulnerable belt is ideally matched for this material. She's the best Donna of all time, in my book. Never has a Donna better nailed 'The Winner Takes It All,' the show's brilliant idea for its 11 o'clock number, rehabbing a tragic break-up song that had been rendered weirdly up-tempo in ABBA's original recording. The rest of the cast is just fine; the oldsters give the material respect while having fun and the kids all seem delighted just to be there. Doing this. I remember vividly seeing 'Mamma Mia!' at London's Prince Edward Theatre just prior to its opening. People went berserk with delight. The whole concept of a jukebox musical — with an original story that included songs people already knew backwards, used in a fresh storytelling context — was unknown back then and people giggled with excitement as they wondered how, say, 'Does Your Mother Know' would be used since the order of the songs was hidden in the program. (With a clever gender switch to avoid any creepiness.) Back in 1999, the all-female team of writer Catherine Johnson, producer Judy Craymer and director Phyllida Lloyd crafted a brilliant ABBA delivery mechanism, nothing more, nothing less — a simple story about a single hippy mom (British in the U.K., Irish-American in the U.S.) who had slept with at least three guys on the beach in Greece and later had a daughter, Sophie (Amy Weaver), who was getting married at her mum's taverna and invited all three of her potential dad candidates to the nuptials. Add in two sidekicks for Donna (Jalynn Steele and Carly Sakolove) and two for Sophie (Haley Wright and Lena Owens) and you had a story that understood sooner than anyone else that emotional mother-and-daughter stories are a goldmine in musical theater, because that is who likes to go. 'Mamma Mia!' has the youth POV (well, it did) and also lots of songs of parental regret ('Slipping Through My Fingers' and so on). I can't overstate my respect for the show; it's a masterpiece of its populist kind, much imitated but never equalled. Sure, the chronology doesn't make sense any more. If the 'dot dot dot' shenanigans were happening in 1979, as they say, Donna would be 70 now, which she's clearly not. But then maybe 'Mamma Mia!' is still happening in 1999, given that no one has phones or taverna websites or knows much about DNA tests. But no book refresh was forthcoming; 'Mamma Mia!' remains timeless, stuck in the eternal ABBA timewarp, much like the group's A.I. avatars who entertain in London, cheating aging and mortality. The big takeaway for me is that even as the U.S. underestimated this band, so Broadway underestimated this brand. It's a one of a kind. Just watch how many people will come and have fun. Limited run? We'll see.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Would you sell your kidney to see a concert? This fest gives you the option.
How badly do you want to go to a music festival? Would you give up an organ to get a ticket? Sweden's Way Out West festival might have an option for you. The music festival is set to take place Thursday to Satursday in Gothenburg, Sweden, with acts such as Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, Iggy Pop, Kneecap, and more. Tickets are already sold out, but if you're willing to donate a kidney, you can snag one. 'This year, tickets to Way Out West sold out earlier than ever,' the festival's website explains. 'With no tickets left, the FOMO kicks in hard. People start saying they'd give up just about anything to get one. One phrase you often hear when tickets are gone? 'I'd give a kidney for a ticket.'' The Kidney Pass allows people over the age of 18 who have a Swedish social security number to sign up for the donation registry. You could then give your consent to allow your organs to be donated upon your death. 'By joining it, you're not just saying you'd give a kidney for a ticket, you're showing you truly support organ donation – by being willing to donate your organs after your death,' the festival states. Signing up for the donation registry doesn't mean you're committed to staying in. The ability exists to change preferences or remove your registration altogether. As a disclaimer, Way Out West notes, 'registration does not guarantee a ticket' because only a limited amount are available. However, if you do, you get to say you literally gave your kidney for a ticket. Related coverage: Legendary classic rock singer reveals what really led to drummer's confusing firing '90s rock star was 'surrounded by yes men' before his death, ex-bandmate says Iconic metal band drummer jokes about replacement, declares 'no one can replace me' Two-time Grammy winner with huge '70s hit dead at 84 Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@ Solve the daily Crossword
