Concert News

100-city tour brings Avatar: The Last Airbender concert to Austin

Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert will hit 100 cities including Austin.

Photo courtesy of GEA Live Marketing (Quatro Entertainment)

Fans will get to experience the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbenderin a whole new way when the tour Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert comes to Bass Concert Hall on Friday, September 20.

This will be the first opportunity for fans to experience the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender in a live format.

The Fort Worth concert is part of a massive 100-city worldwide tour set to begin in Düsseldorf, Germany, on April 27 and lasting through May 2025.

The tour will spread its love around Texas, with the following stops:

Dallas on September 15
Sugar Land on September 18
San Antonio on September 19
Austin on September 20
Fort Worth on September 21

In other words, all the five cities where CultureMap has news bureaus. Smart thinking, Avatar.

Presented by Nickelodeon, GEA Live, and Senbla, Avatar: The Last Airbender In Concert will be an over two-hour show featuring a live orchestra playing the show’s iconic musical score alongside highlights and favorite moments from all three seasons of the series.

Emmy Award-winning composer and musician Jeremy Zuckerman has teamed up with show co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and editor Jeff Adams to expand the series original compositions for the concert series.

Tickets for the tour will go on sale on Friday, April 19,at 10 am at Avatarinconcert.com.

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES

SEP 7: Gammage Auditorium | Tempe, AZ
SEP 10: Buell Theatre | Denver, CO
SEP 11: Orpheum Theatre | Omaha, NE
SEP 12: The Fabulous Fox | St. Louis, MO
SEP 13: Des Moines Civic Center | Des Moines, IA
SEP 15: Majestic Theatre | Dallas, TX
SEP 17: Walton Arts Center | Fayetteville, AR
SEP 18: Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land | Sugar Land, TX
SEP 19: Majestic Theatre | San Antonio, TX
SEP 20: Bass Concert Hall | Austin, TX
SEP 21: Will Rogers Auditorium | Fort Worth, TX
SEP 27 & 28: National Theatre | Washington, D.C.
SEP 29: Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts | Greensboro, NC
OCT 1: Mahalia Jackson Theatre | New Orleans, LA
OCT 3: Straz Center | Tampa Bay, FL
OCT 4: West Palm Beach, FL
OCT 5: Walt Disney Theatre | Orlando, FL
OCT 6: Moran Theater | Jacksonville, FL
OCT 8: Kings Theatre | Brooklyn, NY
OCT 9: Met Opera House | Philadelphia, PA
OCT 10: Count Basie Theatre | Red Bank, NJ
OCT 11: Oakdale Theatre | Wallingford, CT
OCT 12: Emerson Colonial Theater | Boston, MA
OCT 13: New Jersey Performing Arts Center | Newark, NJ
OCT 15: Belk Theatre | Charlotte, NC
OCT 16: The Hippodome Theatre | Baltimore, MD
OCT 17: KeyBank State Theatre | Cleveland, OH
OCT 18: Miller High Life Theatre | Milwaukee, WI
OCT 19: Cadillac Palace Theatre | Chicago, IL
OCT 20: Fisher Theatre | Detroit, MI
OCT 24: Palace Theatre | Columbus, OH
OCT 25: Overture Center For The Arts | Madison, WI
OCT 26: Murat Theatre | Indianapolis, IN
OCT 27: Andrew Jackson Hall | Nashville, TN
OCT 29: The Kentucky Center | Louisville, KY
OCT 30: Procter and Gamble Hall | Cincinnati, OH
NOV 2: Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts | Kansas CIty, MO
NOV 3: Orpheum Theatre | Minneapolis, MN
NOV 6: First Interstate Center for the Arts | Spokane, WA
NOV 7: Hult Center | Eugene, OR
NOV 8: Keller Auditorium Hall | Portland, OR
NOV 9: Moore Theatre | Seattle, WA
NOV 11: Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts | Boise, ID
NOV 12: Eccles Theatre | Salt Lake City, UT
NOV 14: SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center | Sacramento, CA
NOV 15: Fox Theatre | Riverside, CA
NOV 16: Reynolds Hall | Las Vegas, NV
NOV 17: Segerstrom Center for the Arts | Costa Mesa, CA
NOV 19 & 20: San Jose Center for the Performing Arts | San Jose, CA
NOV 21: San Diego Civic Center | San Diego, CA
NOV 22 & 23: Los Angeles, CA
NOV 24: Centennial Hall | Tucson, AZ

Holidays Are Here

Ben Stiller-led holiday film Nutcrackers is more sweet than magical

Photo courtesy of Nutcracker Productions LLC/Hulu

Ben Stiller, Atlas Janson, Homer Janson, and Ulysses Janson in Nutcrackers.

A holiday-themed comedy seems like just what the doctor ordered right now, and the new Hulu film Nutcrackers steps up with a little mayhem, heartfelt sentiment, and a nod to traditions. But it doesn't add up to a memorable experience.

The film stars Ben Stiller as Mike, a high-powered Chicago architect with little time for anybody but himself whose sister and brother-in-law are recently deceased. He is supposedly there to place his four nephews - Justice (Homer Janson), Simon (Arlo Janson), Steve (Ulysses Janson), and Samuel (Atlas Janson) - into foster care. But social worker Gretchen (Linda Cardellini) informs Mike that the foster family has fallen through, and he needs to act as guardian until she can find someone else.

Whether they’re still reeling from their parents’ deaths or are just wild in general, the kids prove to be more than a handful for Mike, who always has one eye on the door, hoping to get back to his own life as soon as possible. But the longer he’s forced to stay, the more the kids grow on him, especially when he learns that at least two of them were students at their mom’s dance studio, giving him an idea to stage a version of a certain holiday classic.

Directed by David Gordon Green and written by Leland Douglas, the film would seem to have all the elements that make a holiday film memorable, but the vibe is off right from the start. First of all, the audience is thrown right into the mix along with Mike, with barely any introduction to the main characters. As their backstories are mostly missing, it’s difficult to feel anything - good or bad - about Mike or the kids, and so they just kind of co-exist for the first act of the film.

Green and Douglas can also never decide what kind of people they want the kids to be. The film starts with a scene of them sneaking into an amusement park and causing havoc, and subsequent scenes make it seem like they’re supposed to be hellions. But when the filmmakers start going back-and-forth between them wrecking things and being responsible, down-to-earth kids, the plot thread gets confusing and less interesting.

It’s also perplexing why they would cast Stiller, who’s been known to play straight-laced characters who go off the rails on many occasions, and then not let him do what he does best. Even when confronted with some of the kids’ worst behavior, Mike keeps his reactions in check, which may be good for a real-life uncle, but makes for a less-than-entertaining holiday family film.

Stiller still lives up to his star-billing at times, but the arc of his character is not that inspiring, even when a slight romance starts to bloom between Mike and Gretchen. The Janson brothers, who are making their collective film debut, are fun at times, but their lack of experience shows in their unpolished performances. Cardellini is a nice presence, but she’s not given enough to do to make a big impact.

Nutcrackers is an inoffensive movie in that it’s not so terrible that there’s no way to actually finish it. But there’s little in its story, characters, or attempt to be a holiday movie that can be recommended as a fun family watch, so it’s likely to fade away into streamer oblivion.

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Nutcrackers is now streaming on Hulu.

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