Live Performance entertainment in North America
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A
Zumanity
Billed as ‘another side of Cirque du Soleil, ’ this human zoo amps up the energy, contorted acrobatics and flirtatious eroticism of the troupe’s other risk-taking Strip shows. It won’t take your breath away, though. So what’s the hook? Maybe it’s the curvilinear thrust stage, uninhibited costumes or the aphrodisiacal cocktail menu.
reviewed
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B
Magicopolis
Not only aspiring Harry Potters will enjoy the comedy-laced sleight-of-hand, levitation and other illusions performed by Steve Spills and cohorts in this intimate space. Escapes from reality last about 90 minutes, and there's even a small shop for all your wizard supplies.
reviewed
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C
Green Mill
You can sit in Al Capone’s favorite spot at the timeless Green Mill, a true cocktail lounge that comes complete with curved leather booths and colorful tales about mob henchmen who owned shares in the place (a trap door behind the bar leads to tunnels where they hid their bootlegged booze). Little has changed in over 70 years – the club still books top local and national jazz acts. On Sunday night it hosts a nationally known poetry slam, where would-be poets try out their best work on the openly skeptical crowd.
reviewed
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D
Neo-Futurists
The theater is best known for its long-running Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, in which the hyper troupe makes a manic attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. It runs Friday and Saturday at 11:30pm and Sunday at 7pm. Admission cost is based on a dice roll. The group puts on plenty of other original works that’ll make you ponder and laugh simultaneously. Well worth the northward trek.
reviewed
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E
Days of '98 Show with Soapy Smith
Skagway has Southeast Alaska's best and longest-running melodrama. The entertaining and lively Days of '98 Show with Soapy Smith covers the town's gold-rush days and the full story of Soapy and his gang. Four shows are offered daily in summer; the evening show is preceded by an hour of 'mock gambling.'
reviewed
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F
Arlington Center for the Performing Arts
Aside from being home to the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Arlington Center for the Performing Arts is a drop-dead-gorgeous, old-fashioned movie palace when the orchestra isn't playing. Great place to catch a flick.
reviewed
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G
Kennedy Center
Washington’s main cultural jewel is given credit for transforming DC from a cultural backwater to an artistic contender in the late 20th century. The stately white-marble building overlooking the Potomac River opened to the public in 1971. It holds two big theaters, a theater lab (where new or experimental theater is staged), cinema, opera house and concert hall (and the fine Roof Terrace Restaurant to boot). It is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Chamber Symphony, both directed by Leonard Slatkin, the Washington Opera (www.dc-opera.org), directed by Placido Domingo, and the Washington Ballet. Film festivals and cultural events are frequent hig…
reviewed
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H
San Francisco Opera
SF has been obsessed with opera since the Gold Rush, and it remains a staple on the social calendar. Bluebloods like Ann Getty always book the Tuesday A-series – the best nights to spot fabulous drag. The gorgeous 1932 hall is cavernous and echoey, but there’s no more glamorous seat in SF than the velvet-curtained boxes, complete with champagne service. The best midrange seats for sightlines and sound are in the front section of the dress circle. The balcony has the best sound but you’ll need binoculars to see the stage, unless you come on ‘Opera Vision’ nights, when a huge screen shows the action on stage (don’t sit directly beneath the flickering high-def monitors; if y…
reviewed
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I
John & Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center
The John & Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center is a sprawling combination of buildings dedicated to preserving and performing the works of the old bard. Appropriately, the center is home to the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival (Sep-May), which is actually a performing group rather than an annual event, and has performances here and at the Lake Eola amphitheater.
Among the center's more notable features, the Darden Courtyard is a leafy yet minimalist spot in which to wander before heading inside for a show. But you'll have to pass through the lobby and the frighteningly large, life-size portrait of Queen Elizabeth - we swear her eyes followed us. There are two theaters: the 1…
reviewed
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J
Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show
Who knew that chopping wood could be so entertaining? When the lumberjacks are at the peak of their axe-and-saw battles you can hear the crowd cheering all the way to the cruise-ship docks. One of the premier cruise ship-oriented attractions, the hourlong show features 'rugged woodsmen' using handsaws and axes, climbing poles, log rolling and engaging in other activities that real loggers haven't engaged in since the invention of the chainsaw.
Naturally there's also a gift shop where you can buy wide suspenders, red plaid woolies, frilly underwear and other lumberjack-themed necessities. There are three to four shows daily from May to September at the outdoor grandstand j…
reviewed
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K
Boomtown Theatre & Coffee Salon
About a mile north of downtown, Jacksonville's historic district of Springfield is budding as a hip center for the arts.
Check out the Boomtown Theatre & Coffee Salon , a very experimental dinner theater, whose lineup runs from gospel-style sing-alongs to contemporary(ish) tunes (Tainted Love tears the roof off), spoken-word open-mic nights, an ongoing Vampire improv serial every Thursday, swing dancing (including free lessons), and 'Soul Release', a spoken-word jazz hip-hop jam. All this is accompanied by an equally eclectic - and excellent - menu that includes a 4000-year-old recipe Egyptian honey cinnamon chicken.
reviewed
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L
Palace of Wonders
The Palace was one of the leaders of the charge that turned H St NE into one of the coolest parts of the capital. It is, frankly, what DC has always needed: a semipermanent freak show. Upstairs is a circus of oddities, local genius James Taylor’s museum of the odd, twisted and awesome. Downstairs is a kickin’ bar that attracts a pretty punk-ish crowd; on weekends, a cover charge (usually around $20) gets you in for all-night performances of sword-swallowing, flea circuses, fire eating and magic tricks. It’s extremely fun, and what DC needed to offset its admittedly large preppie population.
reviewed
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M
Citi Performing Arts Center
Boston’s biggest music and dance venue, the Citi Performing Arts Center is comprised of two theaters which face off across Tremont St. The opulent and enormous Wang Theatre, built in 1925, has one of the largest stages in the country. The Boston Ballet performs here, but the Wang also hosts extravagant music and modern dance productions, as well as occasional giant-screen movies (the center was originally built as a movie palace). It also houses the more intimate Shubert Theatre across the street, known as the ‘Little Princess’ of the Theater District.
reviewed
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N
Gusman Center for the Performing Arts
The Olympia Theater at Gusman Center for the Performing Arts is a one-of-a-kind classic. You know how the kids in Hogwarts can see the sky through their dining hall roof? Well the Olympia recreates the whole effect sans Dumbledore, using 246 twinkling stars and clouds cast over an indigo-deep, sensual shade of a ceiling. The theater first opened in 1925; today the lobby serves as the Downtown Miami Welcome Center, doling out helpful visitor information and organizing tours of the historic district; at night you can still catch theater and music performances.
reviewed
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O
Mo Pitkins
Words really can't do justice to the whacked out, high energy shows that appear at Mo Pitkins, a 'Judeo-Latin' restaurant/cabaret/literary salon. Mo Knows Songwriters is a popular weekly crooner event, but you'll also see acoustic sets and all-out big band swing on other nights. Either way, it's innovative entertainment with some kicking kosher Latin food. Monday night is literary night; expect live readings.
Dishes include mac-n-cheese, garlic fries with manchego, fried artichokes, rotisserie kosher chicken and other delights, like flourless chocolate cake.
reviewed
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P
Brick Theater
Formerly an auto-body shop, a yoga studio and various storage spaces, this brick-walled garage has been completely refurbished into a state-of-the-art dance and theater complex, with a large sprung floor, professional lighting and sound package. Now it does critically acclaimed productions like Jenna is Nuts, Habitat, In a Strange Room (based on Faulkner's As I Lay Dying), stagings of Chekhov's Three Sisters and O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon.
reviewed
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Q
Tribute to Frank, Sammy, Joey & Dean
Capitalising on Rat Pack nostalgia, the Greek Isles tries to return the old Sands hotel's Copa Room to what it was in the 60s. The show faithfully replicates the gang's routines, with the same songs, politically incorrect jokes and some embarrassing behaviour by Marilyn Monroe.
Ol' Blue Eyes may not be convincing, but you'll fall in love with Dino and the fantastic live big band. If only the crowd had more young hipsters and fewer cranky senior citizens, it'd be aces.
reviewed
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Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
This is another big cultural event, known for filling elegant venues like the Lensic and the stunning St Francis Auditorium with Brahms, Mozart and other classic masters. It's not just world-class acts like violinist Pinchas Zukerman and pianist Yuja Wang defining the season; top-notch jazz, world music and New Music virtuosos round out the menu, also available for lunch during popular weekly noon performances and at weekly youth concerts aimed at five- to 12-year-olds.
reviewed
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R
Commonwealth Club
You know you’ve arrived when the Commonwealth Club asks you to speak. Every US president since Teddy Roosevelt has spoken at the club, the longest-running, most-influential public-affairs forum in the US. Intellectual luminaries and other important figures speak at over 400 annual events. Topics range from politics and economics to culture and society. Many programs are broadcast on public-radio stations nationwide, including local affiliate KQED-FM (88.5).
reviewed
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S
Wheeler Opera House
Built in 1887, one of Aspen's oldest and finest examples of Victorian architecture has been a working theater since it first opened – with the exception of the 30 or so years things were interrupted by fire, depression and reconstruction. The point is, this place is historic and was definitely part of Aspen's postwar revival. It still presents opera, films, concerts and musicals.
During summer the Aspen Music Festival holds concerts here.
reviewed
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T
Porchlight
This monthly event is no ordinary reading series. Each month six interesting people are invited to recount a 10-minute story, without notes or memorization. The lineup is downright wacky, with people from all walks of life – from school-bus drivers to sex-workers. At this writing, Porchlight had moved to a new venue that serves alcohol, making it inappropriate for anyone under 21; verify current location and ticket information online.
reviewed
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U
TI (Treasure Island)
Yo, ho, whoa: the shift at TI from family-friendly to bawdy and oh-so-naughty epitomized Vegas’ racy efforts to put ‘sin’ back in ‘casino’ starting in the late ’90s. Though traces of Treasure Island’s original swashbuckling skull-and-crossbones theme linger (if you look hard), the reimagined TI, a terracotta-toned resort that aims to re-create an elegant Caribbean hideaway, practically screams ‘leave the kids at home.’
reviewed
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V
La Rêve
Aquatic acrobatic feats by scuba-certified performers are the centerpiece of this theater, which holds a one-million-gallon swimming pool; critics call it a less-inspiring version of Cirque’s O. Beware: the cheap seats are in the ‘splash zone.’ The VIP ‘Indulgence’ package offers champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries, as well as personal video monitors for close-ups of the performance and behind-the-scenes glimpses.
reviewed
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Ravinia
In the summer the Chicago Symphony Orchestra heads to Ravinia, a vast open-air summer series in Highland Park on the North Shore. It’s certainly a hike from downtown, but if you go, avoid the traffic and take the 45-minute Metra/Union Pacific North Line train from the Ogilvie Transportation Center to Ravinia Station ($9 round-trip). Trains stop both before and after the concerts right in front of the park gates.
reviewed
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W
Ice: Direct From Russia
It’s a classed-up variety show of wildly unrelated production numbers – some better than others, but all expertly executed by Russian athletes. A constantly changing line-up of risky acts are thrown together on a frozen stage, where ice skaters twirl hoops, juggle balls, ride unicycles and seem to float through the air. If only the performers weren’t so serious, and the tickets so provocatively overpriced.
reviewed
