Carolina Theatre of Durham: Artery, Indy Week

Come back to the 1980s at the Escapism Film Festival, which begins Friday

Zack Smith — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:40:00 -0400

In today’s world, if you loved something growing up, DVD and YouTube have meant you’ve never had to let it go.

For those born to a post-Star Wars world, the Escapism Film Festival’s transformation into a revival house for SF/fantasy films has been a stroll down memory lane, with the likes of Flash Gordon, Enemy Mine and The Last Unicorn available on the big screen at past shows.…

TERMINUS impresses most when its rhymes impress us least

Byron Woods — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:03:34 -0500

TERMINUS
3.5 stars (out of 5)
Abbey Theater of Dublin
Duke Performances
Carolina Theatre

If you want to explore some of the outer limits of theatrical discourse this evening, you now have two choices, not one.

For as chance—and producers’ schedules—would have it, less than half a mile away from IN THE HEIGHTS’ amazing musical fusion of slam poetry, rap and meringue-edged songs at DPAC (which earned our latest 5-star review earlier this week), Dublin's Abbey Theatre pursues a different form of verbal gymnastics in a production of Irish dramatist Mark O’Rowe’s latest work, TERMINUS, at the Carolina Theatre.…

Nevermore Film Festival celebrates 12th year with Hannibal Lecter and killer tires

Zack Smith — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:20:46 -0500

In its 12th year, the Nevermore Film Festival—which starts today and runs through Sunday—shows that the line between low-budget horror and “mainstream” cinema has all but vanished. There’s a number of recognizable actors in the lead of the newer films, and many of the international efforts included have already earned considerable cult buzz.…

A weekend of escape: Reviewing the Escapism Film Festival

Zack Smith — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:37:00 -0400

“We really shook the pillars of Heaven, didn’t we?”
—Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) in Big Trouble in Little China

I’m sitting next to another journalist in the Carolina Theatre’s Cinema One on a Friday night, watching 1987’s Robocop on the big screen. “Best line coming up,” he whispers to me, moments before Kurtwood Smith’s character bursts through the door and deadpans, “Bitches leave.”

A little later, I’m elbowing him.…

Notes from the NCGLFF filmmakers' party

Zack Smith — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:35:00 -0400

DURHAM—The license plate on the car parked near mine across the street from the Carolina Theatre read, “ASK TELL.” Though North Carolina was long burdened with the anti-gay views of the late Sen. Jesse Helms, the attitude in downtown Durham was out and proud as the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival celebrated its 15th year—and a new attitude for festivals in the area.

Approximately 500 filmmakers and festival-goers were present for the event, a simple tent with music, chairs and hors d’oeuvres with a bar (and, there was also free ice cream, the truest sign of a good party) in the plaza outside the Carolina Theatre.…

Do it Again, Again: The full text of the Indy interview with Geoff Edgers

David Fellerath — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 12:55:15 -0400

Friday night at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Robert Patton-Spruill's Do It Again: One Man's Quest to Reunite the Kinks played to a packed Fletcher Hall. Patton-Spruill and his film's titular character, longtime music reporter Geoff Edgers, took the stage afterward for questions.…

Strong musicianship lifts Savoyards' Mikado

Byron Woods — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:23:16 -0400

The Mikado

3 1/2 stars

Durham Savoyards

Carolina Theatre

(closed March 21)

Call the Durham Savoyards a theatrical anachronism—if you dare. For the truth is this: At this writing, over 50 such companies in the United States (and another 100 or so, back in Britain) exist to do one thing only—cart the lot of us back to the last two decades of the 1800s, and plant us in the boxes of the Savoy Theater of London, as William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan employ classically-trained musicians and singers to ever-so-gently ridicule the absurdities of Victorian culture.…

The Mikado cast prepares for opening night

Sarah Ewald — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:25:03 -0400

CAROLINA THEATRE/ DURHAM—Ask any high-school theater geek, and they'll have heard of Gilbert and Sullivan. Ask me, I was one.…

Jennifer Coolidge: More than just a MILF

Zack Smith — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:42:11 -0500

[caption id="attachment_1674" align="alignleft" width="204" caption="Jennifer Coolidge in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call—New Orleans, which plays its final Triangle engagement Thursday, Jan. 14, at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. (Photo courtesy of First Look Pictures)"]

It took one simple acronym to put Jennifer Coolidge in the public eye: "MILF."…

“Larry the Cable Guy” to David Cross: Get ’er done

Danny Hooley — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:00:25 -0400

Indy contributor Danny Hooley wrote this preview of David Cross' performance in Durham Wednesday night. He then went to the show and found that the show started before the patrons even entered Fletcher Hall.…

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