This Sunday, November 21, is your last chance to catch Joel P.E. King's hip-hop/pop/gospel musical Real Life at the Grandel Theatre. There will be two performances, one at 2 p.m. and one at 6 p.m., and Project Ark will be there to collect toys for kids who have been affected by HIV.
Real Life ran at the Grandel back in August, and King and his company JPEK Creative Works are bringing it back for a one-day revival, in part to show the production off to potential investors who might be interested in taking the show on the road.
The play, which was written and directed by King, takes place on St. Louis Avenue in North City, a space inhabited by junkies, hoods, church ladies, single mothers, a pair of sassy queens and, most of all, a young man named Ray whose life went into a steady downward spiral the day he choked in the last six seconds of an important high-school basketball game.
Earlier today, at the Board of Aldermen meeting, Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. (whose ward encompasses part of St. Louis Avenue) presented King with an official city proclamation commending him for the work he's done in St. Louis arts and theater. King and three members of the Real Life cast also performed a couple of numbers from the show.
