5 Things

Here we go again! Your favorite recurring events return from their trip around the sun for another round, and together, we’ll see what else 2015 has cooked up for us. Thus far, it’s looking pretty exciting.

January 1, 2015; 6:00 AM • by Susan Howson

1. Downton Abbey Season Five Preview Celebration and Screening

PBS’s most smashing success since Sesame Street_¹, _Downton Abbey is a force to be reckoned with. A prim, beautiful, and often infuriating force. If you’re into that (I am) and you’re also into being mercilessly betrayed as every good character dies (I’m not), join other hopeful Downton nerds at Altria Theater for WCVE’s preview celebration and screening. You don’t HAVE to dress up, but Maggie Smith may publicly shame you with a cutting remark if you don’t.

• Friday, January 2nd • 7:30 PM
• Altria Theater, 6 N. Laurel Street
• Free to attend, you don’t even need a ticket! Just show up and say I sent you, then scoff haughtily when they go, “Who?”

2. Mame

Think Annie mixed with Jeeves & Wooster and you’ve maybe got Mame! Mame Dennis, a wealthy socialite with a lotta personality, inherits guardianship of her nephew. The rest is riotous. Prep yourself with Lucille Ball’s 1974 performance or Rosalind Russell’s classic 1958 version, and you’re in for a really fun several hours of your life.

• Through Sunday, January 11th • see site for times
• November Theatre, 114 W. Broad Street
• $48 with discounts available

3. Forbidden City at the VMFA

I don’t presume to know anything about your personal traditions, but the days off around the holidays are when I do my VMFA-ing. That way, I hear everyone’s oohs and aahs for a couple of months, build it all up for myself, and dare the museum to disappoint me. It rarely does, people. It rarely does. JK, I don’t remember when it ever has. Anyway, I’ve put in my months of observational research, and I hear the Forbidden City is awe-inspiring. I forbid you to miss it!

• Through Sunday, January 11th • see site for times
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 200 N. Boulevard
• $20 with discounts

4. Harlem Globetrotters

Sometimes I forget that the Harlem Globetrotters are a real thing and not just something I made up in a dream. I often dream about fun and ridiculous groups of people performing a sport-related thing, so it stands to reason. But they are not! Part of my dream, that is. They are a living, breathing basketball team that lives to entertain, and also I bet you’re whistling their theme song in your head right now.

• Sunday, January 4th • 3:00 PM
• Richmond Coliseum, 601 E. Leigh Street
• $25 – $320

5. First Fridays

This month is a special one in little RVA: we will have TWO FIRST FRIDAYS. This Friday, January 2nd is a first, and next Friday, January 9th is also a first! Don’t think about it too hard! Just get yourself to Broad Street and get your gallery on!

• Friday, January 2nd • 5:00 PM
• Broad Street and surrounding environs, beginning around Monroe Street and ending several blocks east of that (the boundaries have become pretty vague)
• Free to attend!

Photo by: svenwerk

January 1, 2015 6:00 AM 0