Arts Briefs: First Friday even celebrates ‘The fool’
First Friday
NO FOOLING: EVENT
CELEBRATES ‘THE FOOL’
April Fools’ Day has come and gone, but the celebration lingers on, as First Friday dubs April’s celebration “The Fool,” fittingly scheduling pop-up performances from clowns, jugglers, comedians and puppeteers as part of this month’s downtown Arts District celebration.
More than 30 street performers from various Las Vegas Strip productions will entertain First Friday attendees, while Green Street becomes a puppet theater.
April’s First Friday coincides with a concert featuring Grammy-winner Sheryl Crow at Container Park, 707 Fremont St., presented by the First Friday Foundation, in partnership with Feed the Children and Opportunity Village. Tickets for the concert, which also features Charlie Worsham and Sabriel, are $39-$79. (There’s also a $250 pre-concert “Eat and Greet” with Crow.) For tickets and information, click on www.eventbrite.com.
Elsewhere at First Friday, Discovery Children’s Museum makes its KidZone debut, offering arts and crafts projects, while the Huntridge Foundation will celebrate its move to Downtown Spaces, 1800 Industrial Road, with a free public mixer from 5 to 10 p.m. to kick off its Huntridge Theatre Memory Project. (More information about the Huntridge Foundation is available at thehuntridgefoundation.org.)
First Friday takes place in the downtown Arts District from 5 to 11 p.m.; for more information, visit www.firstfridaylasvegas.com.
Theater
‘WILLY WONKA’
HITS HENDERSON
You won’t need a golden ticket to check out the scrumdidilyumptious fun as Willy Wonka and friends settle into the Henderson Pavilion for a two-weekend run.
Presented by the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company, “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka” is inspired by the 1971 movie and features such beloved tunes as “Candy Man” and “Pure Imagination,” along with new songs created specifically for the musical.
“Willy Wonka” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at the Henderson Pavilion, 200 S. Green Valley Parkway, with additional shows at 7:30 p.m. April 11-12 and 4 p.m. April 13. For tickets ($10), call 702-267-4849 or visit www.HendersonLive.com.
Music
CONCERT TOASTS
VINTAGE VEGAS
It’s time for “That Old Black Magic,” “That’s Amore” — and more — as the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s latest pops concert revisits “Love Vintage Vegas Style” Saturday.
Las Vegas-based Matt Catingub will conduct, sing and play piano and saxophone in a salute to music made famous by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., along with lounge legends Louis Prima &Keely Smith. Also joining the musical party: singer Anita Hall and drummer Steven Moretti.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. For tickets ($25-$94), call 702-749-2000 or visit www.lvphil.org.
Theater
UNLV HOSTS
‘FIVE WOMEN’
An ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tenn., estate inspires a quintet of reluctant, identically clad bridesmaids to seek refuge in an upstairs bedroom, setting the stage for a wickedly irreverent comedy — and unexpected bonding — in the aptly titled “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.”
The Nevada Conservatory Theatre production will be presented at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Black Box Theatre at UNLV, 4515 S. Maryland Parkway; additional performances are at 8 p.m. April 10-11 and 2 p.m. April 13. For tickets ($13.50-$15), call 702-895-2787 or visit pac.unlv.edu.
Music
HOLMES REVISITS
OLD PAL NEW YORK
Cabaret Jazz headliner Clint Holmes may call Las Vegas home, but this weekend’s gig has him in a New York state of mind.
“New York Old Friend” features Holmes and guests Kristen Hertzenberg and Fifth Avenue exploring the special relationship people have with the Big Apple through works by such Broadway legends as Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim, plus new songs by New York composer-lyricist Ken Laub.
The show goes on at 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Ave. For tickets ($35-$45), call 702-749-2000 or visit www.thesmithcenter.com.
Music
UNLV OPERA
SALUTES STRAUSS
UNLV Opera Theatre celebrates the 150th birthday of composer Richard Strauss this weekend with a production of Strauss’ opera-within-an-opera “Ariadne Auf Naxos.”
The opera enables audiences to go behind the scenes as “singers in a mythological opera seria are forced to perform simultaneously with a commedia dell’arte troupe,” explains director Linda Lister, who heads UNLV Opera Theatre. “It’s ‘high art’ vs. ‘low art’ as diva and clown must collaborate” — all to “the sublime music of Strauss.”
Strauss’ “Ariadne Auf Naxos” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the Judy Bayley Theatre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway. For tickets ($5-$25), call 702-895-2787.
Music
KRALL SPOTLIGHTS
‘GLAD RAG DOLL’
Old songs, new style. That’s the formula for Diana Krall, who brings her “Glad Rag Doll” tour to The Smith Center Wednesday.
Adding a solo guitar and drums, the singer-pianist explores the musical styles of the 1920s and ’30s,
Krall will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. For tickets ($39-$149), call 702-749-2000 or visit www.thesmithcenter.com.
— By CAROL CLING
