Southside

According to a list published today on USA Today’s website, the nation’s longest running professional dinner theater was listed as one of the most romantic things to do in Jacksonville.  Reporter , a Jacksonville resident, listed the Alhambra at number five, and first among the entertainment and cultural venues.  Commented West, “When you are ready for some entertainment, visit historic venues like the and who continue to reinvent themselves as go-to destinations in the modern world.” “I can tell you from personal experience that the Alhambra is a romantic place,” stated Managing Partner . “We’ve had first dates, 50th anniversaries, …

THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY ALHAMBRA THEATRE & DINING REVIEW by DICK KEREKES & LEISLA SANSOM [email protected] The 2012 musical hit is back at Jacksonville’s Alhambra Theatre for a limited run through February 8, 2015. Alhambra patrons have responded with sellout houses to this season’s holiday offerings, which included both Buddy’s Rock and Roll epic, and the colorful “.” This is the story of how the young  from Lubbock, Texas turned the musical world on its ears during the course of three years in the 1950s, with his own special styling of Rock and Roll, a new genre. He was a …

Acceptance. It’s something we’ve all longed for since our days as little kids dancing in front of the TV sets that our parents were attempting to watch. As an extension of that, stand-up comedy is really just another of the many forms of external validation used to attain acceptance. But is it healthy, and should we be encouraging this behavior? Enter comedian , who played the foil to ’s successful comedian in the documentary Comedian. In the film, Adams openly and unashamedly clamors for the sort of attention that would make him a household name. Though Adams may have changed …

Jacksonville’s Bolles School presented a three-performance run of the 1947 comedy “George Washington Slept Here,” on November 20, 21, 22, 2014 at the McGhee Auditorium on its Southside campus. This was our third trip to to review a play. We first discovered the directing talents of , Theatre Director at Bolles, in 2012, when she spent her summer vacation making her debut at , where she directed a modern adaptation of the comedy/farce “Is He Dead” by . One of Ripple’s favorite playwright teams is that of  and , who penned “” in 1940. We had previously seen “The Man …

DramaWorks at Florida State College Jacksonville, South Campus, presented a four-day run during November 13 -16, 2014 of “Jacques Brel is Alive and Living in Paris,” a musical featuring the work of the Belgian songwriter and singer. Over the years, we have seen a number of unique plays and musicals staged by , which has brought our community many exciting selections. The Brel musical, “,” debuted off-Broadway in 1968 and ran for over 1,800 performances. Brel wrote and sang in French, but the musical was almost all in English thanks to the translation and production concept of  and . Brel, who was …

A personal beer mug that displays, in holographic form, the temperature of the beer within its confines, the beer’s alcohol content by volume (ABV), its International Bitterness Units (IBUs), your heart rate, blood pressure, family birthdays and bank account balance–along with the price you are paying for your selected brew. Sounds like Google Glass, huh? Where can you purchase such a beer mug? Wrong question. You should be asking when you will be able to purchase it. It doesn’t exist–at least not at the time this article is published. But I am sure somewhere, somebody is working on developing such …

Through Oct HAUNTED TRAILS Take a half-mile walking adventure through Apocalypse Alley, the Voodoo Gardens and the Old Spanish Trails Cemetery. Pass by the haunted house if you dare! Tours are held from 8-11pm every Thursday through Saturday during the month of October. Old Spanish Trail, 13535 W. Beaver Street, 257-9078, thehauntedtrails.net Thru Oct ZOMBIEFEST is a three-attraction event combining a haunted house with laser tag against live zombies, and a live zombie archery shoot out. Children must be 8 or older to play laser tag. The Haunted Laser Tag is rated PG, and Zombiefest is rated PG-13. Children ages …

The Tony Award Winning Musical “” has opened at the , 12000 Beach Boulevard, in Jacksonville, Florida, and will be on stage through October 12, 2014. The quest of the  is to inspire you to experience ‘s classic musical, which debuted in 1965 and received five Tonys, including “Best Musical” and “Best Original Score.” The musical remained on Broadway for a run of 2,328 productions, and was followed by several successful revivals. Visit alhambrajax.com or call (904) 641-1212 for reservations. For those who have never seen the musical, you need to know a bit of the plot. The work is …

Those that live on the Westside know the soul food goodness of The , but those that don’t might not know they have a location on the outer edge of Jacksonville (Greater Arlington) toward the Beaches. Potter’s has been so popular on the Westside that they had to adopt a cafeteria-style way of running things. Soul Food Bistro on Atlantic still has the trays and the counter ordering, but they also have a hostess station, a modern layout, with great signage and design details. They’ve been in this spot since 2013, and they have both the Lenox location on the …

In the last year or two, we’ve had a wave of truly fantastic places opening in Jacksonville. It’s worth celebrating, so we’ve gathered together a list of places you should try, or revisit, if you haven’t already. has hit its stride and quickly become one of  hippest eateries. The cocktails were always outstanding while the service and the food (pretty stellar to begin with) have now reached optimum levels. , one of our food truck success stories, opened a brick and mortar earlier this year on Post Street. It’s just off the main drag in , tucked off to the …