Freebie of the week: The Bay Area has long been home to a wide variety of circus acts, going back to the days of the Pickle Family Circus in the 1970s. It’s in full bloom today, too, with The 7 Fingers collective in “Dear San Francisco” at Club Fugazi as well as the Zoppe Family Circus, Circus Vargas and others. Also, there’s the popular Circus Bella, the San Francisco company known for high-flying family-friendly one-ring shows (generally an hourlong), full of eye-popping acrobatics, juggling, clowning and more. The troupe is generous, too, offering free summer performances in parks and other spots around the Bay Area. Three are this weekend, at noon Friday and at noon and 2:15 p.m. on Saturday, part of the wonderful Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which annually presents a wide range of entertainers in summer and fall, through October. The free shows are on the Yerba Buena Gardens lawn on Mission Street between Third and Fourth streets in San Francisco. Find the schedule and more information at https://ybgfestival.org. For more information on Circus Bella, which has more shows across the region through July 26, go to circusbella.org.
That dreamy Dean: After not quite half a century, the gang of James Dean worshippers hanging out at the Five & Dime have come full circle. We’re talking about characters populating “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean: A New Musical,” getting its world premiere via TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. This show stems from the poignant stage play by Ed Graczyk in 1976, which he described as a nod to small-town life and “my own observations and frustrations with progress that ignores a past.” That show, about members of James Dean fan club who gather for a reunion, eventually made it to Broadway with a cast that included Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black and others, some of whom also starred in the 1985 film adaptation. Now TheatreWorks, which has demonstrated a yen for world premieres over the years, offers the debut of a musical version, with a score by Dan Gillespie Sells and lyrics by Shakina, who also stars in the show. Performances run through July 13 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $34-$115; go to theatreworks.org.
Ringing the Bell: Catching a show by the Bay Area comedic treasure W. Kamau Bell—known for the award-winning series “United Shades of America” on CNN and “We Need to Talk About Cosby” on Showtime—is never a bad idea. This week, the author of the best-selling “Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book” and the memoir “The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian” is performing his standup show “Who’s With Me?” in the East Bay before taking it on a national tour in a benefit for local theater companies hit by the loss of National Endowment of the Arts grants. Bell, who tackles hot-button issues with intelligence, savvy and humor, appears today through Sunday at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre. Tickets are $35-$99, and proceeds benefit NEA-stung Bay Area companies including American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Rep, Crowded Fire Theater, Magic Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company and New Conservatory Theatre Center. Tickets and more information are at www.berkeleyrep.org.
A choral last stand: The award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus, which blew a capacity audience away in Davies Hall Saturday night in the final movement of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony (music director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s swan song at the podium), returns to the venue this weekend for its final appearances of the season to perform Giuseppe Verdi’s glorious Requiem with the orchestra. Conducted by James Gaffigan, former associate conductor of SF Symphony (and reportedly among those on the inside track to replace Salonen), this Requiem is an unusually nonreligious composition completed in 1874 in honor of the late Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni. It features a quartet of vocal soloists: soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, bass Morris Robinson and tenor Mario Chang, whose duties for the gig include the beautiful aria “Ingemisco,” which tenors worldwide aspire to master. The program opens with Mozart’s ethereal “Ave verum corpus,” performed by the Chorus, and includes three pieces by San Francisco composer and philanthropist Gordon Getty: the Intermezzo from “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” in its concert premiere, the world premiere of “St. Christopher” and “The Old Man in the Snow,” in its first SF Symphony rendition. Concerts are 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday; tickets, $39-$89, are available at sfsymhony.org.
Making music out of Moliere: “Tartuffe” a 17th-century farce by the comedic genius playwright Moliere, was turned into an opera buffa by American composer Kirke Mechem in 1980 and has been widely performed to acclaim ever since. San Francisco’s feisty little company Pocket Opera, which specializes in English-language renditions, has a performance scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday in the Gunn Theater at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and 2:30 p.m. June 29 at the Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View. It revolves around Tartuffe (the Imposter), a wily charlatan who schemes to take everything he owns and holds dear from the ultra-gullible Orgon, a wealthy homeowner whose overweening sense of piety is leading him astray. Well-known Bay Area baritone Eugene Brancoveanu makes his Pocket Opera debut in the title role, with another Bay Area stalwart, soprano Shawnette Sulker, starring as Dorine. Bass-baritone Isaiah Musik-Ayala debuts as the unfortunate Orgon, and the other roles are filled by Courtney Miller as Elmire, Melissa Sondhi as Marianne, Max Ary as Valere and Alix Jerinic as Madame Pernelle. Conductor Kyle Naig makes his Pocket Opera debut leading a 15-piece orchestra. Find tickets, $35-$89, a pocketopera.org.
The post Best Bets: Free Circus Bella shows, ‘Come Back to the 5 & Dime,’ W. Kamau Bell, SF Symphony Chorus sings Verdi’s Requiem, Pocket Opera’s ‘Tartuffe’ appeared first on Local News Matters.