photograph by JOAN MARCUS
My Fair Lady
Orpheum Theatre, 203 S. Main
Performances through July 31
Why don’t people say “By George” anymore? Maybe they do and I’m just not hanging out in the right circles, although I don’t know if I want to hang out with someone who says “By George.” I mean, who’s George? Why are we invoking his name? Why doesn’t the internet have a satisfactory answer? The World Wide Web will tell you that it’s a substitute for God, along the lines of golly or gosh, a loophole in the Second Commandment if you will. But can we really put gosh and George on the same level? Gosh isn’t anyone. Never met a Gosh, have you? George is someone, and he deserves to have his 15 minutes of fame.
I can tell you our guy is not the playwright George Bernard Shaw. He preferred Bernard over George, so we’d probably be saying “By Bernard.” But the man uses “By George” all over his dialogue, especially in his play Pygmalion, the only play of his I’ve ever read. (I don’t have the time to dedicate to his other works, seeing that I’m too busy looking for George.) I mean for goodness sake, or George’s sake, take a look at My Fair Lady, the musical based on the play. “By George, she’s got it,” Professor Higgins sings. I don’t think Mr. Bernard was breaking the fourth wall with this one; otherwise, as I’ve already said, he’d have gone with “By Bernard.”
But, by George, My Fair Lady is a wonderful musical, telling the tale of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower-seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” Who is really being transformed? Well, who can say? 😉 With such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” and “On the Street Where You Live,” you won’t want to miss the musical’s performances at the Orpheum this weekend. For a full schedule of performances and to purchase tickets ($29-$125), click here.
photograph courtesy friends of george's
The Dragnificent Variety Show: The Gay Ole Opry
The Evergreen Theatre, 1705 Poplar
Friday-Sunday, July 29-31
Finding the George of “By George” fame can’t be too hard, right? There can only be so many Georges in this world, and no, I’m not talking about George’s Disco, in Memphis. There’s only one George’s Disco, and it closed in 1990. ’Tis a shame, but, unlike George of “By George” fame, George’s legacy carries on with the theater group Friends of George’s.
In fact, this weekend the group is putting on its annual Dragnificent Variety Show, this time with a twang and a country Gay Ole Opry theme. The evening will feature original skits, production numbers, cocktails, friends, and more. Proceeds from the show will benefit Choices - Memphis Center for Reproductive Health. Purchase ($27) tickets here.
Shows will run Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with a cocktail reception taking place an hour prior to curtain. You can also catch The Gay Ole Opry next weekend, August 4-6 at 8 p.m.
photograph courtesy crown me royal labs
Crown Me Royal Film Fest
Various locations
Friday-Sunday, July 29-31
I have a feeling our George isn’t gonna be famous, definitely not George-Clooney-famous. Everybody knows that George. With all the people working behind him, how could they not? It’s a shame they couldn’t make our George famous, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn. Heck, we could make a movie all about him and it can star George Clooney.
And where, oh where, to learn more about the film industry? By George, I've got it! The Crown Me Royal Film Fest. This film fest, centering BIPOC voices in the industry, showcases panels and workshops, with representatives from Netflix, Shondaland, BET, NBA, and many more. You can also enjoy vendors, art installations, and free activities like yoga and pottery making. Of course, seeing that no film fest is complete without some movies, the festival will screen a couple of independent films with a local flair. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the film fest’s website here.
Photograph courtesy Willmott Events
Memphis Summer Cocktail Festival
FedEx Center at Shelby Farms, 415 Great View Dr.
Friday, July 29, 6-9 p.m.
According to the sentence I am writing based on no actual research, the George of “By George” is the same George of the old adage “We’ll let George fly for a while.” You know, George, what pilots call their autopilot system. Why George? According to Wikipedia, it seems no one knows, though there are some theories, one of which I’ve made up just now and have a small inclination to add it to the Wikipedia page where I’ll undoubtedly have to add a tiny [citation needed]. But that wouldn’t be the first time a theory about a saying’s origins had a [citation needed]. Go ahead and check out the Bloody Mary Wiki-page. Could the cocktail be named after Queen Mary I of England? The Bloody Mary that appears in your mirror? A Hollywood star? Vladimir Smirnov? Well, there’s a [citation needed] for at least one of those theories.
But there’s no [citation needed] to say that a Bloody Mary is just one of many mysteriously named cocktails. For proof of this, look no further than the Memphis Summer Cocktail Festival, where a lineup of cocktails galore awaits, along with tasty treats from food trucks and a dance floor complete with a DJ. Tickets ($44) include 12 cocktail samples and can be purchased here. Proceeds benefit Volunteer Memphis.
The Righteous Brothers
Graceland Soundstage, 3717 Elvis Presley Blvd.
Saturday, July 30, 8 p.m.
I’m not sure if we’ll ever truly know the George of “By George,” but I hope that our George lived a happy life with lots of love. At the very least, we know our George was not the last person named George to exist on this Earth, but not all Georges can say the same. So this one goes out to Lonesome George, the Pinta Island tortoise, an endling, or the last known individual of his subspecies of tortoise. And we can’t forget George the Snail, named after Lonesome George for being the endling of the snail species Achatinella apexfulva. Did I tear up when reading these endlings’ Wikipedia pages? Yes. Was that sadness also compounded by “Unchained Melody” playing in the background? Yes. Because George and George didn’t even have a mate to come back to after death and make pottery with as a ghost.
photograph courtesy graceland live
So this weekend, I urge you to see The Righteous Brothers play at the Graceland Soundstage, and remember George and George as you sing along to one of their biggest numbers. You won’t want to miss this musical duo, now consisting of Bill Medley and Bucky Heard, as they play their #1 classics, including the most played song in radio history, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” as well as “Rock and Roll Heaven,” “Soul & Inspiration,” and Medley’s Grammy-winning “The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing. Tickets ($35-$99.50) can be purchased here. As a bonus, every Graceland Live concert ticket comes with free access to Elvis Presley’s Memphis anytime after 3 p.m. on the day of the show.
