Freebie of the week: Free First Thursday at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is always a good deal, but this week it’s also a great reminder that there’s not much more time to catch the fun, family-friendly exhibit “Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture.”
Billed as a “collection of stories that show how sports impacts our culture and our psyches,” it features some 150 works and attractions touching on everything from distance swimmer Diana Nyad, the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a protective shark cage; to Billie Jean King’s triumphant “Battles of the Sexes” tennis match against Bobby Riggs; to the career and pop-culture legacy of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant.
There also are interactive treats: Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s foosball table for 22 players and Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco’s ping-pong table with a fishpond. Also on view are an original pair of Air Jordan sneakers and works by Ernie Barnes, the pro football player who became an acclaimed painter known for his unique style depicting elongated figures and movement. Also included is Hank Willis Thomas’ “Guernica,” a re-creation of Picasso’s famed painting of the same name, created from recycled sports jerseys.
Catch these fun and compelling attractions for free from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday. Otherwise, the exhibit, on the museum’s seventh floor, runs through Feb. 18. SFMOMA is on Third Street, between Mission and Howard streets. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and noon-8 p.m. Thursday, and closed Wednesday. Admission is $23-$30. Go to sfmoma.org.
Gatsby en pointe: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby,” with its tragic tale of doomed love set among the flamboyance of the Jazz Age, is the basis of “The Great Gatsby Ballet” onstage in the Bay Area this weekend.
On a world-premiere tour of the U.S., the piece is choreographed by acclaimed Russian dancemaker Ilya Jivoy, who has been based in Los Angeles since he and his Ukrainian wife fled Russia at the start of the Ukrainian war. The score is by Anna Drubich, who’s primarily a film and TV composer, making her ballet debut. “Gatsby” is being performed by the World Ballet Company, which is based in Los Angeles, but is living up to its name with a relentless touring schedule that has brought it to some 300 cities, including places where ballet performances are few and far between. Expect an emotion-packed production (as is reportedly Jivoy’s calling card) with lavish scenery from the two-hour production.
It’s onstage at the Heritage Theater in Campbell at 7 p.m. Saturday and San Francisco’s Curran theater at 6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets, from $51 to $106, and more information are at worldballetcompany.com.
‘Food’ for thought: The last time Geoff Sobelle brought a show to the Bay Area, audiences literally watched a house get constructed onstage. That was in “Home” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, a production exploring the concept of what a home is while weaving in larger themes such as migration, gentrification and homelessness. That’s Sobelle’s strength and calling card: bringing people together for a meaty and meaningful look at issues that affect us all.
Now he is back with a new work with a similarly big reach, titled “Food.” Reportedly presented to an audience that joins Sobelle at a large banquet table, “Food” explores what we eat, how we consume it and who really pays for it all. Organizers describe it as absurdist and immersive theater that is “at once common and strange, human and surreal, universal and personal.”
“Food” plays at Stanford University’s Memorial Auditorium this week, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Friday and 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $38-$75; go to live.stanford.edu/.
Slithering into 2025: The San Francisco Symphony celebrates the Lunar New Year, as it has every year since 2001, with a preconcert party in Davies Hall at 4 p.m. Saturday with all manner of treats and festivities honoring the Year of the Snake. Then at 5 p.m., conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong picks up the baton to lead the orchestra through An-Lun Huang’s “Saibei Dance” from the “Saibei” Suite No. 2, Tian Zhou’s “Indigo” from the Grammy-nominated Concerto for Orchestra and the world premiere of a San Francisco Symphony-commissioned piece from composer Shuying Li. Also on the program is assistant principal cellist Amos Yang serving as soloist for selections from Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s “The Butterfly Lovers,” inspired by an ancient tale about two lovers who had to transform into the winged creatures to stay together. Renowned pipa player Wu Man brings her plucked instrument to the stage to perform Zhao Jiping’s Pipa Concerto No. 2, and the concert concludes with Huan-Zhi Li’s “Spring Festival” Overture.
Find tickets, $99-$199, at sfsymphony.org.
A string quartet swan song: Ending a happy collaboration that has endured for the last 36 years, the celebrated Alexander String Quartet will give its last recital as the quartet in residence for San Francisco Performances’ Saturday Morning Series at 10 a.m. Saturday in San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. Violinists Zakarias Grafilo and Yuna Lee, violist David Samuel and cellist Sandy Wilson have just a few other performances in the current season before they retire.
On their program at the Herbst, which will be introduced by lecturer and musicologist Robert Greenberg, are two Haydn quartets, the C Major Op. 76, No. 3, known as the “Emperor,” and the G Major, Op. 77, No. 1.
Tickets, $60-$80, are available at sfperformances.org or by calling (415) 392-2545. San Francisco Performances and Greenberg will continue the Saturday Morning Series, with details about a new ensemble coming soon.
The post Best Bets: Sports at SFMOMA, ‘Great Gatsby Ballet,’ Geoff Sobelle’s ‘Food,’ Lunar New Year at SF Symphony, Alexander String Quartet farewell appeared first on Local News Matters.