thursday september 25 Dave Brubeck: Best known as the progenitor of cool jazz in the ’50s (and for “Take Five,” one of the all-time standard-bearers of cool), the West Coast pianist/bandleader is a giant of jazz–period, and no modifier required. Granted, the Brubeck sound cracked open the door, far off…
thursday september 18 Ballet Arizona’s “Black & White Gala”: The troupe’s formal, season-opening bash features world-class hoofers and a wide-ranging repertoire. The highlights: the premiere of “Solo for a Gala” by BA artistic director Michael Uthoff, danced by Jeremy Raia; Kevin O’Day (Twyla Tharp’s company, Baryshnikov’s White Oak Project) performing…
thursday september 11 Proposals: The world-premiere tour of Neil Simon’s latest work for the stage–his 30th–plays the Orpheum Theatre following an L.A. run and in advance of productions in New Haven, Connecticut; Washington, D.C.; and, this November, on Broadway. Terrific actor Ron Rifkin (the recent movie The Substance of Fire)…
thursday september 4 Proposals: The world-premiere tour of Neil Simon’s latest work for the stage plays the Orpheum Theatre following an L.A. run and in advance of productions in New Haven, Connecticut; Washington, D.C.; and, this November, on Broadway. Terrific actor Ron Rifkin tops a cast that also includes Suzanne…
thursday august 28 “Art of the Matter: Seven Collaborations in Paper Art”: Organized by the Dieu Donne Papermill of New York City’s Soho district, this installation makes a case that the meticulous, hands-on pursuit of papermaking remains relevant in the Cyberspace Age. Including pieces by artists working in pairs (some…
thursday august 21 “Token City”: The virtual subway station Big Apple-born digital artist Muriel Magenta assembled out of whole cybercloth for this installation is likely the closest the Valley will come to mass transit for a significant span of years. Curated by John Spiak and developed at Arizona State University’s…
thursday august 14 Fine ‘tooning: Todd McFarlane; Our Lady Peace: Ahwatukee-based comic-book impresario McFarlane, whom New Times profiled in the July 31 piece “The Devil and Todd McFarlane,” plugs multimedia spin-offs from his bleak but best-selling mag, Spawn, from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, August 14, at the Tower Records…
thursday august 7 “Crossing the Frontier” and “Canyonland Visions”: The former exhibit, sponsored by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is subtitled “Photographs of the Developing West, 1849 to the Present,” though “Photographs of the Despoiling West” might be more accurate. The show comprises more than 200 shots, vintage…
thursday july 31 “The Great Dinosaur Extinction”: The installation focuses on various theories about why the great beasts perished, and features the remains of a number of rare ones–including the large predator Acrocanthosaurus; the only complete skeleton of a Pachycephalosaurus ever found; and, naturally, a T. rex or two. The…
thursday july 24 “Canyonland Visions” and “Crossing the Frontier”: The former installation, organized by Fort Worth, Texas’ Amon Carter Museum, features 117 paintings and photos of the Colorado Plateau region dating from the mid-19th century to the late 20th, including 46 recently rediscovered and never-before-displayed watercolors by Prussia-born adventurer/naturalist Heinrich…
thursday july 17 “Canyonland Visions” and “Crossing the Frontier”: The former exhibit, organized by Fort Worth, Texas’ Amon Carter Museum, features 117 paintings and photos of the Colorado Plateau region dating from the mid-19th century to the late 20th, including 46 recently rediscovered and never-before-displayed watercolors by Prussia-born adventurer/naturalist Heinrich…
thursday july 10 “Lilith Fair” featuring Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Paula Cole, and Suzanne Vega: Among the stampede of summer package tours is this caravan of topflight female singers/songwriters, ranging widely in style from the ethereal angst of Canada’s McLachlan to the East Coast country of Carpenter to…
thursday july 3 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus: The 127th-anniversary edition of the Greatest Show on Earth features ringmaster Eric Michael; Zusha, Queen of the Nile, billed as the world’s only performing hippopotamus; master clown David Larible; second-generation animal trainer Mark Oliver Gebel; the debut of the Golden…
thursday june 19 subUrbia: Tucson’s upstart Upstairs Theatre Company, which features several Valley expatriates, travels north for this revival of a January ’96 production of the Eric Bogosian play in the Old Pueblo. The work revolves around three guys in their early 20s who replay a communal past while bumming…
thursday june 12 Love! Valour! Compassion! Benefit Screening: The recently released film version of playwright Terrence McNally’s dish-heavy dramedy about a summer of love and affection among a group of gay friends was directed by Joe Mantello, who helmed the original, Tony-winning off-Broadway production (and who, incidentally, received his own…
thursday june 5 Royal Palms Grand Reopening: The Camelback Corridor resort, a formerly funky if somewhat faded dowager that’s had a Phoenix-style face-lift, gets back in circulation with a fund-raising bash featuring grounds tours, entertainment, a “culinary show house” and more. The party’s scheduled for 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday,…
thursday may 29 Stomp: The wildly popular, London-born, New York-based percussive/movement troupe gives new meaning to the term “found art.” The Doc Martens-wearing crew brings the metaphorical kitchen sink and literally boots it around the stage at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 West Adams, along with a bunch of other unlikely…
thursday may 22 “Our Future in the Desert: Architectural Explorations”: The Arizona VisionWeavers organization, which seeks to “harmonize commercial and private development with the Sonoran Desert environment by encouraging innovative architectural visions,” sponsors this exhibition of conceptual works about desert habitation and conservation by architects from around the state, including…
thursday may 15 Seven Guitars: Arizona Theatre Company concludes its 30th-anniversary season with the state premiere of August Wilson’s literary memorial to a fictional, star-crossed bluesman named Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton; San Francisco’s Benny Sato Ambush directed. This week’s performances are at 2 and 8 p.m. Thursday, May 15; 8 p.m…
thursday may 8 Spearhead: The militant hip-hop/funk group, led by vocalist and former b-ball player Michael Franti (a real tower of baritone power at six-foot-six), offered up a near-great album in 1994 with its debut, Home. The band’s latest, Chocolate Supa Highway, is a tribute, of sorts, to Bob Marley,…
thursday april 17 Arizona Science Center: Check out the grand new facility at 600 East Washington–a construction that soars on wings of concrete–in its first full week of business. The programs “Arizona Skies,” “PlanetQuest” and “Sun, Earth, Stars” are featured in the center’s planetarium through Friday, May 30. The Oscar-nominated…
thursday april 10 The Descendents: This relic of punk’s original wave had an inordinate impact on today’s punk-pop scene. Basically the band All (the Descendents’ descendant) augmented by original vocalist Milo Aukerman, the revivified act returned to doing what it does best–and did first–on its latest release, Everything Sucks: speed-saw…
