ALABAMA ENTERTAINMENT

Latest news and reviews of movies, music, dining, arts and other events in Alabama

Murry Hammond and Rhett Miller

Old 97s with the Spring Standards and Sleepercar, WorkPlay Theatre, Monday
Five of five stars

Despite two opening acts and a late start for a show on a school night, Old 97's showed why they were the headliners Monday.

The Texas twang-pop-rock quartet ripped through old fan favorites of their 15-year catalog while relying heavily on new songs from their latest album, "Blame It On Gravity," many of which are sure to become mainstays at future Old 97's shows.

Chief among them is "Early Morning," a pounding standout on the album was turned into a highlight on stage, with normally mild-mannered drummer Philip Peeples unleashing on his kit like a mad man and lead guitarist Ken Bethea squeezing out a hurricane of sound from his electric guitar.

Alabama Shakespeare Festival

The opening song of "West Side Story" features Riff and his friends singing the "Jet Song"

That's what Geoffrey Sherman, producing artistic director at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, said when he first called Karen Azenberg about directing the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents classic in Montgomery.

And Sherman was right. The Montgomery show, which opens tonight (Sunday, July 20, 2008), marks Azenberg's 12th production in nine states, a theater trek that started 20 years ago.

Mafia-themed eatery is for the whole 'family' -- but some unattended tykes take to mob rule

Click here to see Second Helpings: A Quick Look Back at Past Dining Reviews

[MAFIAOZA'S PIZZERIA & NEIGHBORHOOD PUB, 2 Dexter Ave., Crestline Village, 414-7878.]

Mark Almond/Birmingham News

Kitchen Manager Justin Wardlaw displays a freshly-baked pizza at MAFIAoZA's in Mountain Brook.

MAFIAoZA's Pizzeria & Neighborhood Pub, "The Family" embraces the family. Any family. All families. All of them at once.

This weekend's wizard wrock concert at the North Shelby Library drew in nearly 100 enthusiastic Harry Potter fans. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was certainly an entertaining experience.

I talked to a couple of the bands who were performing and found them to be much more down to earth than you'd assume of a group that travels around singing about Harry Potter. There were a few fans who might have been a little over-obsessed, but mostly everyone there was just having fun.

There are no easy answers for City Stages.

Its money problems continue, as they have for the past eight years, and Birmingham's largest music festival is likely to enter 2009 with a debt of $250,000 or more.

That's disheartening news, although organizers say they can handle another shortfall and have posted the dates for the next fest, June 19-21, on the City Stages Web site.

Naysayers have called for the festival's demise, saying enough is enough. Other critics have suggested that it's time for a new group of leaders to take over the fest and reinvent it.

Simplistic solutions -- "get bands people WANT to see" -- have been offered in blunt Internet postings, by folks who are dissatisfied, antagonistic or simply exercising their First Amendment right to vent.

Some of the Web comments have taken what I call the Ross Perot approach: Get a smart business person in there, someone who really knows what he or she is doing, and just fix it.