Arts & Entertainment
Fall means Artscape, John Waters, The Wiz, and more in Baltimore
Major concerts, opening of M&T Bank Exchange among highlights
Can Baltimore walk and chew gum at the same time?
The question came up this summer when leaders of several local arts organizations voiced concerns that the fall arts calendar is so full of events that they feared the city wouldn’t be able to handle them all.
The biggest change is that Baltimore’s popular three-day Artscape festival, one of the largest free arts gatherings in the country, is shifting from its usual mid-July date to mid-September for the first time. In the past, it has drawn upwards of 350,000 people over three days.
The dates selected for Artscape this year, Sept. 22-24, coincide with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Sept. 23 fall gala at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where new music director Jonathon Heyward will begin his tenure, and four comedy shows by Nate Bargatze at Lyric Baltimore – all within the relatively compact Mount Royal Cultural District.
How will the city control all the traffic, the doubters asked. Where will everyone park? And what about the Ravens-Colts football game at Camden Yards the same weekend?
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott promised that the city can put on more than one big event at a time.
“We are a major city,” he said last month. “Major cities are going to have multiple events at the same time…Walk and chew gum, as my grandmother would say.”
The concerns about Artscape weekend are a sign of how much Baltimore has rebounded from the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused festivals and other public gatherings to be cancelled for public health reasons. This month’s event will be the first time Artscape has been held since 2019.
But it’s not just one weekend that has so much going on. Artscape is one of many big festivals, shows, and exhibits that are coming to Baltimore this fall, including the launch of a new national touring production of “The Wiz,” Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks appearing at the M&T Bank Stadium; and another packed lineup at the recently refurbished CFG Bank Arena, including Queen + Adam Lambert; the Jonas Brothers; Kiss and Pentatonix. Just about every weekend this fall has multiple big events scheduled, even without factoring in how the Orioles do in the playoffs.
Here are some of the highlights:
Artscape 2023: Artscape celebrates the visual arts, dance, fashion, music, the culinary arts and other creative endeavors. This year’s musical headliners will be: DJ Pee.Wee (the persona of Anderson .Paak) on Friday night; composer, producer, arranger and guitarist Nile Rodgers & Chic on Saturday afternoon; Angelo Moore of Fishbone performing with his band Dr. Madd Vibe on Saturday night; and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on Sunday afternoon.
The festival’s footprint has expanded from the Mount Royal cultural district to include part of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District farther north. A complete list of events is available at Artscape.org.
Fell’s Point Fun Festival: Two weeks after Artscape, from Oct. 6-8, the Fell’s Point Fun Festival will draw crowds to Baltimore’s waterfront (fellspointfest.com) This annual showcase for Baltimore’s art, crafts, food and music typically draws 50,000 visitors, while helping raise funds to support the programs and activities of the Preservation Society of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point, a non-profit that works to protect two of the city’s most historic neighborhoods.
Baltimore native and country music star Brittney Spencer will be the headliner Friday night. The eclectic lineup for the three-day event includes: Better Off Dead, a band that celebrates The Grateful Dead; ilyAIMY (i love you And I Miss You); Shelby Blondell; the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids; Orquestra Nfuzion from Washington, D. C.; The Cover Up; Old Eastern; DJ Allure; Annapolis’s 8 Ohms Band, Rufus Roundtree & Da B’more Brass Factory; The Trinidad & Tobago Steel Drum Band; Baltimore All-Stars; DJ G-Money, and, in honor of Indigenous People’s Day on October 9, Mark Tayac and the Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers, a group that educates audiences about Native American history and culture as part of their performances.
Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks concert: On Saturday, Oct. 7, Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks will perform at M&T Bank Stadium, 1101 Russell St., starting at 7 p.m. It will be one of the only times that the Camden Yards sport complex is used for a major concert this year, after Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band cancelled a Sept. 9 performance at Oriole Park.
More performing arts events:
CFG Bank Arena, 201 West Baltimore St. (cfgbankarena.com): Concerts include: 50 Cent: The Final Lap Tour, September 19; Jonas Brothers: Five Albums. One Night. September 22; SZA – SOS Tour with special guest D4VD, September 28; Queen + Adam Lambert – The Rhapsody Tour, October 4 and 5; Carin Leon – Colmillo De Leche Tour, October 7; Disney on Ice presents Magic in the Stars, October 12-15; John Mayer – Solo, October 20; Lauren Daigle – The Kaleidoscope Tour, Oct 21; Katt Williams, October 27; Baltimore R&B Music Experience: Xscape, Bell Biv DeVoe, 112, October London, Silk, Next, October 28, and Romeo Santos – Formula Vol. 3 Tour, November 2.
Also, The 1975 Still…at their very best, November 8; Bronco – En Vivo y A Todo Color!, November 17; Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey presents The Greatest Show On Earth, November 24 to 26; Kiss – The End of the Road Tour, November 29; Old Dominion – No Bad Vibes Tour, December 2; Pentatonix The Most Wonderful Tour of the Year, December 3; Travis Scott Utopia Tour Presents Circus Maximus, December 6; Billy Strings, December 8 and 9, and Andrea Bocelli, December 10.
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: The Baltimore Symphony marks the arrival of Jonathon Heyward as its new music director with a gala celebration at Strathmore in North Bethesda on September 22; a gala celebration at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore on September 23 and a free public concert at the Meyerhoff during Artscape on September 24. More information about the symphony’s fall schedule at the Meyerhoff, including speakers such as Sonia Sotomayor (September 27); David Sedaris (October 5); Fran Lebowitz (October 6) and Jane Fonda (October 12) is on its website at bsomusic.org.
Hippodrome Theatre, 12 S. Eutaw St., Baltimore.Broadway.com: The fall season starts with an all-new revival of The Wiz, a musical that debuted in Baltimore in 1974, with shows from September 23 to 30. Other shows include: Heilung, October 19; The Rocky Horror Picture Show 48th Anniversary Spectacular Tour with Patricia Quinn, the original Magenta, on October 21; Chris Tucker: The Legend Tour 2023, October 22; Funny Girl, October 24 to 29; the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine Presents Snow White, November 4; ‘Twas the night before…by Cirque du Soleil, November 24 to December 3; Moulin Rouge! The Musical, December 5 to 17, and Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet, December 18 and 19. A new performing and events venue next to the Hippodrome, called the M&T Bank Exchange, will have its grand opening on October 11.
Lyric Baltimore, 140 West Mount Royal Avenue, lyricbaltimore.com: Justin Willman: Magic for Humans in Person Tour, September 16; Wild Kratt Live 2.0 Activate Creature Power! Starring the Kratt Brothers, September 22; Nate Bargatze — The Be Funny Tour, September 23 and 24; Raphael Saadiq Revisits Tony! Toni! Tone! Just Me and You Tour, September 26; Trey Kennedy Grow Up Comedy Tour, September 28; Buddy Guy — Damn Right Farewell, September 29; Ms. Pat: Ya Girl Done Made It Tour, September 30; Casting Crowns: 20th Anniversary Tour, October 1; Anthony Jeselnik: Bones and All, October 5; Charm City Blues Festival, October 6; Blippi: The Wonderful World tour, Oct 7, and Stavros Halkias: The Fat Rascal Tour, October 12-14;
Also, Nick Offerman: Live! October 26; Steve Martin & Martin Short, October 28; Encanto: the Sing-Along Film Concert, October 29; Maverick City Music, November 2; The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute, November 3; Nikki Glaser: The Good Girl Tour, November 4; One Night of Queen, November 9; Shane Gillis Live, November 10; The Princess Bride, November 17; Chris D’Elia: Don’t Push Me, November 18; Brian Culbertson: The Trilogy Tour: November 19; Joe Bonamassa, November 25; A Drag Queen Christmas, November 26; Peppa Pig’s Sing-Along Party1, November 30; David Spade: Catch Me Inside, December 1; The Nutcracker, December 14; A Charlie Brown Christmas: Live On Stage, December 15, and Mark Normand: Ya Don’t Say Tour!, December 16.
Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave., (creativealliance.org): In the main gallery through September 30 is “God Couldn’t be Everywhere…That’s Why He Made Momma,” an exhibit by Salome Sykes and Lendl Tellington. In the Amalie Rothschild Gallery through October 21 “Taking Space,” an exhibit featuring work by Baltimore based Latino artists, including Tito Rosa; Christina Delgado; Jessy DeSantis; Jaz Erenberg and Edgar Reyes. Other events: Tianquiztli, a Latin American Artisan Market and Festival on September 16; the Alejandro Brittes Quartet, September 23; Walters Art Museum he Charm City Burlesque & Variety Festival September 29 to October 1; and Kavita Shah & The Cape Verdean Blues Project, October 4.
Baltimore Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St. (centerstage.org): In partnership with the Baltimore American Indian Center, the theater recently opened an Indigenous Art Gallery that is free and open during box office hours. Shows include: Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, September 14 to October 8; Imprint: Jazz’s Timeless Legacy, September 30; Locally Grown Festival, October 21 to 22; The Rocky Horror Picture Show Interactive Movie Night, featuring Chocolate-Covered Rocky Horror in Partnership with Creative Alliance; October 27-28; Baltimore Butterfly Sessions, part of a civic dialogue series, November 10, and Cinderella (Enchanted Edition, co-produced with Artscentric), November 25 to December 23.
Robert C. Marshall Recreation Center, 1201 Pennsylvania Ave.: Amal Walks Across America, September 16, 4:30 p.m. Little Amal, an internationally celebrated 12-foot-tall puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, will arrive in Baltimore as part of a 6,000-mile journey across the United States.
Everyman Theatre, 315 West Fayette Street (everymantheatre.org): The current production, running through September 29, is A Doll’s House. It will be followed by The Chinese Lady, a Baltimore premiere, October 22 to November 19; and Dial M for Murder, December 3 to 31.
Arena Players, 801 McCulloh Street (arenaplayersinc.com): Celebration A Musical Revue, with shows September 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 and 29 and October 1.
Baltimore Soundstage, 124 Market Place: Writer and filmmaker John Waters returns with: “A John Waters Christmas: Let’s Blow It Up,” on December 21. The complete fall lineup is at Baltimoresoundstage.com.
Visual arts events:
Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, (artbma.org): “Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800,” opens October 1 and runs through January 7, 2024. This blockbuster exhibit will feature more than 200 paintings, sculptures, textiles, works on paper, pieces of furniture and decorative arts that show how women contributed to the visual arts of Europe from the 15th to 18th centuries. Other exhibits opening this fall include: “Tiona Nekkia McClodden: Play Me Home,” September 13, 2023, to May 12, 2024; “Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA,” November 5, 2023, to June 30, 2024; “Eyewinkers, Tumbleturds and Candlebugs: The Art of Elizabeth Talford Scott,” November 12, 2023, to April 28, 2024, and “Raul Nieves: And imagine you are here,” November 19, 2023, to May 1, 2025. Current exhibits closing this fall include: “Recasting Colonialism: Michelle Erickson Ceramics,” and “The Matter of Bark Cloth,” which will end October 1, “Matsumi Kanemitsu: Figure and Fantasy,” which ends October 8, and “Wild Forms: Fauve Woodcuts,” which ends October 15.
American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway, (avam.org): The next “mega exhibit” at the American Visionary Art Museum is “If You Build It, They Will Come,” a look at visionary artists and their handcrafted environments, from October 7, 2023, to September 1, 2024. Featured artists include: Zebedee Armstrong; Gayleen Aiken; Ruby C. Williams; Leslie Payne; DeVon Smnitha nd Loring Cornish.
Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, (thewaltersorg.) Opening on December 3 and continuing until March 3, 2024, is “Ethiopia at the Crossroads,” celebrating the artistic traditions of Ethiopia from their origins to the present day. “New on the Bookshelf: Expanded Narratives,” a look at recent additions to the museum’s Rare Books and Manuscripts collection, runs through December 7, 2023.
The Peale, 225 Holliday Street, (thepealeorg.) Exhibits include “The Guardians of Baltimore,” a documentary and storytelling project that celebrates the unrecognized community work of Black female leaders from city neighborhoods, through October 1; “Dark Beauty,” featuring artist Daisy Brown’s portraits, stills and filmed interviews of Baltimore women with dark skin completions, through October 1, and “Soul of a Butterfly,” a look at Chicory, a poetry magazine published by the Enoch Pratt Free Library from 1966 to 1983, through October 8.
Maryland Center for History and Culture: 610 Park Avenue, (mdhistory.org.): “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited,” a multi-media tribute to the creator of the Muppets, continues through December 30.
Doors Open Baltimore, citywide, (doorsopenbaltimore.org): A popular annual program that allows participants to tour places that aren’t usually open to the public returns on October 7 and 8, with approximately 50 sites open this year.
Photos
PHOTOS: Black Pride Pageant and Unity Ball
Back-to-back events held on first night of D.C. Black Pride
The Mr. and Miss DC Black Pride Pageant was held at the Westin DC Downtown on Thursday, May 21. Following the pageant, Black Pride events continued with the 10th annual DC Black Pride Unity Ball.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Photos
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
D.C.-area productions honored at Theatre Washington’s annual ceremony
Theatre Washington’s 42nd Helen Hayes Awards were held at The Anthem on Monday, May 18.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Movies
Quest for fame becomes an obsession in entertaining ‘Lurker’
Psychological thriller explores the dynamics of power and control
It was nearly 60 years ago when über-queer icon Andy Warhol pronounced to the world his prediction that “in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” While it may have been an overstatement, we’re now experiencing the future he was talking about; and though it remains statistically impossible for “everybody” to achieve fame, that doesn’t mean that we can’t all “feel” like we’re famous. If social media has delivered any gift to the human race, that might just be it.
In the real-life dystopia that is 2026, Warhol’s 1967 quip has become a kind of cultural mantra: influencers are more famous than movie stars, podcasters can shape political policy, and anybody with a “hot take” can change the way we perceive even the most fundamentally held opinions. Whether or not this is progress is probably a moot point; it’s the reality we live in, and we have a government full of “cosplaying” charlatans to prove it.
That’s why Alex Russell’s “Lurker” – a 2025 Sundance favorite that’s now streaming on HBO Max after a limited theatrical run last summer – cuts so close to the quick. A psychological thriller exploring the dynamics of power and control within the entourage of a rock star, it strikes some uncomfortably familiar chords for an era when “bootlicking” seems to have become a national pastime.
It centers on Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), a young Angeleno who lives in his grandmother’s apartment and works in a trendy designer boutique on Melrose Avenue. When rising pop musician Oliver (Archie Madekwe) brings his entourage to the store one afternoon, Matthew sees a chance to make an impression; plugging his phone into the shop’s sound system, he plays a song that he knows the pop star admires – and minutes later, he’s been given a backstage pass to Oliver’s next concert and invited to hang out with the star himself.
Their relationship continues to develop quickly at the show. Though he’s met at first with some discomfortable hazing from members of the entourage, by the end of the evening he’s on his way to becoming part of the inner circle. Chosen by Oliver to become his “official documentarian,” he’s soon a fixture in the entourage himself, sparking jealousy from members higher in the “pecking order” than he is; but Matthew is better at the game than they suspect, and despite their attempts to keep him in his place, he uses his proximity to Oliver – and a few surgically precise acts of sabotage – to rise quickly to the top.
Staying there, however, is not so easy. Within the volatile social politics of the entourage, he must always be on guard, and his efforts to thwart others from displacing him become increasingly ruthless. Eventually, he crosses a line, resulting in a fall from Oliver’s grace and his ejection from the group; but being close to fame leads to its own kind of fame, and Matthew has worked too hard to give it up so easily – even if it means using his Machiavellian powers to go after Oliver himself.
Slick, stylish, and as hypervisual as any viral pop music video you can imagine, Russell’s sardonically amoral exploration of fame – or rather, the desire for it – is as much a satire as it is a psychological drama, but it plays like a horror movie. Matthew is a protagonist cut from the same cloth as the title character of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” a schemer whose endearingly awkward appearance masks a devious purpose and a diabolical mind. Oliver, whose creativity seems more about his “vibe” than his actual music, is charismatic but aloof, beneficent but mercurial, and seemingly blind to the massive ego that hides beneath his “chill” persona. There’s a kind of tension between these two characters that feels distinctly romantic, even homoerotic, and though it’s expressed only through subtext, it provides a palpable edge that makes their relationship feel dangerous – as if this were a love story in which anyone who tries to come between them is likely to get hurt.
As to what they actually feel about each other, “Lurker” keeps quiet about it. Matthew “reads” like a queer character, but his inner life is never revealed to us save through the conclusions we can draw from his behavior, and Oliver seems so much in love with himself that nobody else can compare; even so, there’s something between them that plays as much more intimate than the enthusiastic “bro”-ish affection that they exhibit together.
In the end, however, the “love story” here is not about romance, nor even sex; it’s about fame. Matthew, even if his own creative talents may be more solid than Oliver’s, is enamored primarily with fame; perhaps he longs for importance, for a life of more excitement and opportunity than his thankless existence as a low-level retail employee, and as the movie proceeds it becomes clear that he is willing to go as far as he has to go in order to achieve it. For Oliver, maybe it’s about the longing of the famous for something more than sycophantic lip-service, for finding the adulation of his fans personified in an authentic, tangible, and individual form. Whatever it is, there’s very little love involved.
Of course, there’s an unavoidable comparison to be made between the mentality on display in “Lurker” with the prevailing trend in our American consciousness, in which performative loyalty and opportunistic friendship feel like the order of the day; from the fickleness of “fan culture” to the escalation of outrage-baiting on social media to the barely-concealed cutthroat narcissism on daily display in our very government, the message that comes through loud and clear is a chilling throwback to the Reagan-era “greed is good” philosophy: loyalty, feelings, and friendship are for suckers, and the most vicious player is the winner who takes it all.
As usual in a character-driven piece like this one, it’s ultimately the actors who make it work; Pellerin (a Canadian actor who won his country’s equivalent of an Oscar for “Family First” in 2018) is the lynch pin, and he delivers such an endlessly fascinating portrait of obsessively determined duplicity that we find ourselves rooting for him even as we recoil from the coldness of his tactics; Madekwe (“Saltburn”) captures the vapid pretension of a pop artist who has faked his way to success, but infuses Oliver with enough well-meaning sincerity that we can still feel a little bit sorry for him. In a smaller role, Hannah Rose Liu (“Bottoms”) makes an impression as the manager who keeps Oliver’s life running, offering an anchor of relative sanity in a sea of madness.
Russell’s taut and tantalizingly opaque screenplay manages to capture all these things and more into a compact narrative that keeps us engaged while weaving its observations seamlessly into the plot, and his direction – which somehow yields an expansive scope through an intimate and sometimes frenetic focus – reinforces the unpredictable instability of fame, status, power, and the social hierarchy that governs them all. There are occasionally twists that feel a bit too convenient to be believable, but all in all, it’s a solid piece of cinematic workmanship.
PHOTOS: Black Pride Pageant and Unity Ball
PHOTOS: Helen Hayes Awards
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Vt. lawmaker equates transgender identity with bestiality
PHOTOS: Equality Prince William Pride
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