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The Gay Agenda28THURSDAY
A couple years ago, several Salt Lake theatre types got together to form Utah Contemporary Theatre, a new company devoted to—you guessed it—contemporary plays. You can’t get more contemporary than brand-spanking-new, and that’s just what the troupe’s current show is. Talking Wales, by Utah playwright and Welsh native Mike Dorrell, is comprised of four different monologues sketching life in modern-day Wales. There’s a Jonah joke there somewhere, but I ain’t bitin.’
■ Park City is well-known as the epicenter of independent filmmaking in these United States. Now our state’s own directors are getting in on the act as the Park City Film Series presents the first Local Filmmaker’s Showcase. Come tonight for a screening of Park City filmmaker Eric Ristau’s documentary The Majority Report. 29FRIDAY
If you know and love someone who thinks opera is all about fat women in strange hats singing on mountaintops, here’s your opportunity to set them right. Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, presented tonight by the University Lyric Opera Ensemble, features a libretto by no less than Langston Hughes, probably the coolest guy who ever lived, and integrates blues, jazz, spirituals and musical theatre. And there are no horned helmets.
■ If you’re like me, Fashion Week is simply too hectic to be bothered with. I can’t stand all the Cristal and Lear jets and bony people reeking of vomit. To get my fashion fix, I’d rather attend Raw, Salt Lake Community College Fashion Institute’s student fashion-design show, which will feature professional models. Presumably, some of them will be male. Need I say more? 30SATURDAY
Considering that Russia rivals only Neptune for inhospitable climates, it’s no wonder that the Ruskis prefer to stay indoors and excel in pretty much all art forms—they’ve cornered the market on novel writing, theatre, ballet and music, of course. Up-and-coming violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will join the Utah Symphony tonight in a Russian program including Shostakovich’s violin concerto and Rimsky Korsakov’s beloved Scheherazade.
■ When I was 16, I took my good friend Leah to prom, where we danced awkwardly, flirted even more awkwardly, and shared a good-night peck that was most awkward of all, because we both knew I’d rather have been there with a boy (Oh, Justin, where are you now?). If I had only turned sixteen ten years later, I could have danced the night away with my fellows at the Queer Prom. Gay youth and their straight friends aged 13-20 are welcome to the smoke-free event, where they can have the night they deserve in safety and support. 1SUNDAY
The word “prolific” was invented to describe acts like Sweet Honey in the Rock, an all-female, African American a cappella singing group who for over 30 years have been bringing to audiences their mix of everything from jazz to spirituals to hip-hop to chant to reggae to lullabies. Use caution, though—this is the kind of show so inspirational that it makes people run out and join the Peace Corps. Just so you know. 2MONDAY
You know that song that goes “somebody told me/you had a boyfriend/that looked like a girlfriend/that I had in February of last year?” It’s pretty killer, right? Hey, don’t roll your eyes at me! The Killers are in Salt Lake tonight. They’ll probably sing that song. Excuse me for trying to be witty.
■ Clay and Nadia move aside as Utah’s gay and lesbian community competes in Utah Karaoke Star Quest Contest. Tonight is the men’s qualifying competition. The final Star Quest winner, to be chosen at the finals on May 18, will sing onstage at Utah Pride and half of all proceeds will go to their chosen charity—the other half goes to the Salt Lake Men’s Choir. Come vote for your favorite star. 4WEDNESDAY
If our story on Amy Ray doesn’t convince you to come to her show tonight, then I’m hard pressed to come up with something here that will. Of course, if you require convincing to go and see one of the best songwriters of the last twenty years, who also happens to be a bitchin’ singer and activist lesbian, then the problem, friend, is really yours.
■ Now here’s a segue: Amy Ray’s from Georgia. You know who else is Southern? Hal Holbrook! He’s been doing his one-man show about Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain Tonight, for so long that Twain himself is said to have consulted on the script. Maybe Holbrook could use some new material, but his wife, Dixie Carter, is quite a firecracker, always speechifyin’ and yellin’ at Delta Burke. He’s got his hands full.
■ The women take the stage for the Utah Karaoke Star Quest Contest in the final qualifying competition. See Monday the 2nd for the full run-down. 5THURSDAY
While perhaps not an auspicious name for a group looking to have a successful career in music, The Funeral is an awesome band. Think The Cure meets Oingo Boingo meets ... I don’t know, someone more contemporary. No doubt they’ll be all over the damn radio soon, so here’s your chance to say you saw them first. 6FRIDAY
I think this is the third Kathryn Warner show I’ve mentioned in as many months, which should be an indication to you that she’s really, really good and if you haven’t seen her yet, you ought to. Imagine, if you will, the love child of Michelle Malone and Ani DiFranco. See what I mean?
■ The Slick Rock Gypsies say it themselves better than I ever could: their music is “a jazzy pop-rocking prescription to heal your aching planet.” That’s a prescription I think we could all agree needs some filling. Like I said, they say it better than I can. 7SATURDAY
Boy, do I love Nicky Silver. If you saw Pygmalion Productions’ 2002 staging of The Food Chain, you know what I mean. His plays are, as a lesser writer such as myself might put it, “hilarious and heartfelt.” Pygmalion brings another Silver-scribed script to Salt Lake this week with The Maiden’s Prayer, the story of a bride, her groom, and the various wedding guests, male and female, who are in love with him. Definitely more fun than a big, fat Utah anything.
■ The Salt Lake Children’s Choir has reached a major milestone: they’ve been bringing great music to children’s lives and audience’s ears for twenty-five years. Join them tonight at their 25th Anniversary Concert, which will also feature some of the Choir’s incredibly talented soloists. Not really fair that they have the birthday and we get the gift.
■ Mahler is to music what Speilberg is to film—an excellent craftsman who combined epic scale with intimate emotion. His mammoth Second Symphony is a perfect example of this technique, and tonight the Utah Symphony will perform it in concert with the Utah Symphony Chorus as well as the fabulous soprano Sally Dibblee. 8SUNDAY
While this one will technically be taking place three days late, a Cinco de Mayo party is always fun. What better way to spend a Sunday than at the 8th Annual Cinco de Mayo Super Show? This year the show features music from Baby Bash, Frankie J, Natalie, and Trillville. 10TUESDAY
Every summer, my most musical friends travel to places like Durango, Jackson Hole and Indo for music festivals. But I’m thinking this year they won’t want to go anywhere, since Mountain Town Stages is presenting Alone on Stage in Park City, a six-night festival of solo acoustic performers that begins tonight. A celebration of singer/songwriters from across the musical spectrum, the shows will take place in intimate settings all over the PC. 11WEDNESDAY
There’s a moment in Garden State when Natalie Portman invites Zach Braff to don her headphones and listen to a song she says will change his life. The song is called “New Slang” and the band who sings it is The Shins. Natalie’s right, it’s an awesome song, and even if they don’t change your life, the band is sure to put on a great show tonight.
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