Art events around town bring theater, music, Halloween to Vegas
Theater
‘JONESTOWN’ SERVES
IMMERSIVE KOOL-AID
You are there. But you won’t know exactly where “there” is — unless and until you buy a ticket.
That’s the immersive approach “Jonestown” takes as it recalls, and recounts, the rise and fall of the Rev. Jim Jones — and almost 1,000 ill-fated followers — in Table 8 Productions’ new theatrical experience, continuing through Nov. 8.
“We’ve been doing deep research into the Peoples Temple archive and have curated a collage that takes our congregants a step beyond the Kool-Aid,” says Troy Heard, Table 8’s creative director. “Although the presentation is structured in two halves — the first a sermon at the San Francisco Peoples Temple and the second their final day in Guyana — we show both outside and inside perspectives of the Rev. Jim Jones, his followers and the dark path they took to their ends.”
Jones, the charismatic leader of the Peoples Temple, led his cult congregation to a neoutopian commune in Guyana in 1978, where he encouraged his flock to participate in “revolutionary suicide” by ingesting a cyanide-laced drink.
“Jonestown” plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; additional performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through Nov. 8; the production’s location will be revealed to advance ticket buyers via email on performance days. For tickets ($20), visit www.table8lv.com.
Music
PIANIST PING JOINS
YOUTH ORCHESTRA
More than a hundred Las Vegas Youth Orchestras members join classical pianist and composer Alpin Hong Saturday for “Music, Mussorgsky &the Machine.”
Besides performing some of Hong’s original compositions — which have been dubbed “Classical Music for the iGeneration” — the ensemble also will play Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Four separate age-based ensembles (featuring more than 385 young musicians from 8 to 18) make up the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras; they’ll perform with Ping at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Henderson Pavilion, 200 S. Green Valley Parkway. For tickets ($15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors), call 702-267-4849 or visit www.hendersonlive.com.
Theater
‘WICKED’ CAST STAGES
‘ROCKY HORROR SHOW’
“Wicked” cast members — who are performing at The Smith Center through Nov. 9 — try on some new costumes (and personas) Monday for “The Wicked Rocky Horror Show.”
The staged concert performance finds members of national touring company of “Wicked” trading Stephen Schwartz’s score for Richard O’Brien’s rockin’ “Rocky Horror Show,” in which stranded, strait-laced innocents Brad and Janet encounter, among others, Dr. Frank-N-Furter (a self-described “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania”) and the title creature.
Besides the show, the evening will include live and silent auctions featuring a chance to bid on a “Wicked” walk-on and opportunities to join cast members backstage at The Smith Center.
Net proceeds will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Las Vegas’ Golden Rainbow; in 2012, during “Wicked’s” first Las Vegas tour visit, “The Wicked Rocky Horror Show” played to a sold-out crowd and raised almost $81,000 for the two groups.
This year’s “Wicked Rocky Horror Show” begins at 8 p.m. Monday at the Tommy Wind Theatre (formerly the Boulevard Theatre), 3765 Las Vegas Blvd. South. General admission tickets (for those 16 and older) are $75; VIP tickets ($100-$200) include guaranteed priority seating and a 6:30 p.m. preshow reception with “Wicked” company members. (Admission donations are tax deductible.) Tickets are available online at www.tommywindtheater.com, or by calling 702-776-8888.
Music
WINCHESTER HOSTS
ANNUAL JAZZ PICNIC
Not many remnants of 1962 Las Vegas are still around to enjoy. But the annual Jazz Picnic, hosted by the Las Vegas Jazz Society, is one tradition still going strong after more than half a century.
The 52nd annual Jazz Picnic, scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Winchester Park, showcases good tunes and good vibrations, as four bands — and special surprise guests — perform. Leading the musical lineup: the Boneheads, along with Gary Anderson’s Bari-Bari-Bari Good group, the Groove Brothers and Tom Hall and the Boss Bebop Septet.
Free performances continue from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Winchester Park, 3130 S. McLeod Drive; food and beverages will be available for purchase. For more information, call the Winchester Cultural Center at 702-455-7340 or visit the website at www.clarkcountynv.gov/parks.
Theater
SOLOMON REPRISES
‘MY MOTHER’S ITALIAN’
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll kvetch. It’s all in a day’s work — and all in one guy’s life — as Steve Solomon returns to The Smith Center with his one-man, multicharacter show “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m In Therapy.”
Solomon conjures more than 20 characters, from his Italian-Jewish family to his ex-wife, therapists and kids.
It’s “one part lasagna, one part kreplach — and two parts Prozac,” according to the former school administrator turned stand-up comedian, who performed the show at the Suncoast and the Las Vegas Hilton (known these days as the Westgate) before making his Smith Center debut in 2012.
“My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m in Therapy” returns to the Troesh Studio Theater at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave., at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; performances continue at 7 p.m. Oct. 31, 3 and 7 p.m. Nov. 1 and 3 p.m. Nov. 2. For tickets ($35-$40), call 702-749-2000 or visit www.thesmithcenter.com.
— By CAROL CLING
