Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/10149
BY DARL ENE C . DONLOE – ART S & ENT ERTAINMENT EDI TOR Happy beginning of Spring! Happy Palm Sunday and Passover! Happy Daylight Savings Time. If you think you’re happy now, check out one or more of the following. If you do, you’ll be simply giddy! MO’NIQUE’S LOVE Oscar® and Golden Globe winner Mo’Nique will kick off her nationwide Spread The Love Tour 2010 in New Orleans March 19 and will conclude in Connecticut in May. The tour, which will hit 20 cities, will also include her BET late night talk show counterpart comedian and actor Rodney Perry, Tone-X, who will serve as the resident Man on the Street for the tour, and DJ Ant. The show is presented by AEG Live. For ticket information: aeglive.comor ticketmaster.comfor ticket and tour information. A GIRL CAN DREAM The highly successful musical, Dreamgirls, is set to arrive at the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre In Los Angeles, March 2. It will play through April 4. The show, directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom, stars Adrienne Warren (Lorrell), Syesha Mercado (Deena) and Moya Angela (Effie). The play follows the lives of the three girls after they form an R&B singing group called the Dreamettes and eventu- ally the “Dreams.” It’s a rags- to-riches story about the Chicago group and the tri- umphs and tribulations that come with fame and fortune. ESSENCE AND BLIGE R&B singer Mary J. Blige will be the official spokesperson for the Essence Music Festival July 2-4, in New Orleans. Blige has performed eight times at ESSENCE (last in 2008), where she’ll be part of a line-up featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment and the nation’s most influential speakers, artists, authors and leaders. This year, the Essence Music Festival will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Essence Magazine. For information: www.essence.com. ON THE FENCE Two-time Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington will perform in a revival of August Wilson’s drama Fences, which is scheduled to open April 26, for a 13-week limited engagement. Washington will play the role of Troy Maxson that was orig- inated by James Earl Jones on Broadway in 1987. Tony Award® winner Viola Davis, will play his wife, Rose. Fences went on to win the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The play is part of Wilson’s epic cycle focusing on African-American life in the 20th century. Fences is set for a limited run through July. Washington, who has won two Oscars, was last seen on Broadway in 2005 in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. 8 Black Meetings & Tourism March/April 2010: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com