Thursday, March 05, 2009, 3:27 PM
Celebrities, Atlanta, Recent Events
By SP Webmaster

BLACK-TIE GALA OF THE WEEK

Photos/Spark St. Jude

Watching Atlanta native and “The Office” star Ed Helms (pictured) serenade an audience of well-dressed movers and shakers on the banjo was only one of the slightly surreal elements of ATLexis 2009, the second annual fundraising bash for Theatrical Outfit at the Balzer Theater at Herren’s on Feb. 28. The evening of readings and musical performances featured the once-in-a-lifetime sight of WABE host Valerie Jackson, widow of former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson, dressing down for a reading of Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” Among the other luminaries: Theatrical Outfit’s Tom Key, WABE’s Lois Reitzes, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, local actress Susie Grimley and GSU football coach Bill Curry, who turned in a hilarious rendition of Andy Griffith’s “What It Was, Was Football.” Who knew formal affairs could be so much fun?