HAPPENINGS

IMAGINE

SING

DANCE

EntertainmentBlackstone Valley D

Thursday, May 5, 2011

ENCORE REPERTORYCOMPANY presents thePulitzer Prize-winningmusical “Rent” on Fridayat 8 p.m., Saturday at 2and 8 p.m., at theStadium TheatrePerforming Arts Centre,28 Monument Square,Woonsocket. The playfollows a year in the livesof seven friends living adisappearing Bohemianlifestyle in New York’sEast Village, threatenedby economic issues andAIDS. Tickets are $19 atthe box office, by calling(401) 762-4545 orlogging on towww.stadiumtheatre.com.

DISNEY’S IMAGINATIONMOVERS bring their “In aBig Warehouse” concerttour to the ProvidencePerforming Arts Center,220 Weybosset St.,Providence, today at 4and 7 p.m. The NewOrleans-based rock bandfor kids of all ages istouring coast to coast,bringing the TV series“Idea Warehouse” to life.Tickets are $45 to $23 atthe box office, by calling(401) 421-ARTS, oronline at ppacri.org.

Andrew Eccles Photo

ALVIN AILEY AmericanDance Theater makes itsfirst Rhode Islandappearance on Tuesdayat 7:30 p.m. at theProvidence PerformingArts Center, 220Weybosset St.,Providence, presented byFirstWorks and PPAC.Tickets are $30 to $68 atthe PPAC box office, bycalling (401) 421-ARTS oronline at ppacri.org.

THE CALL

GREATER MILFORDCOMMUNITY CHORUSpresents “Weather or Not”on Friday and Saturday at8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.,in the Memorial HallCultural Center, 30 SchoolSt., Milford. The concertfeatures songs thatcelebrate nature, fromrivers to rainbows. Ticketsare $5 in general, free forchildren 12 and younger,at the door.

Ray Larson PhotoThe Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra gathers in full force on stage at the Vets. The orchestra’s season closes with an open rehearsal on Friday and theformal Classical Concert on Saturday.

Philharmonic closes with ‘Mahler 3’PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra

and Music Director Larry Rachleff will be joined by a mezzosoloist and two choruses for its season-concluding concert,“Mahler 3,” on Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Vets, 1 Avenue of theArts.

The program is Gustav Mahler’s colossal Symphony No. 3 inD major. The Philharmonic is joined by mezzo-soprano SusanPlatts, the women of the Providence Singers, and the RhodeIsland Children’s Chorus, which was founded by Christine Noelof Woonsocket.

The Philharmonic’s Resident Conductor Francisco Noya willintroduce the program with an informal talk before the concert,starting at 7 p.m.

Platts, a Canadian, brings a rich and wide-ranging voice toconcert and recital repertoire for alto and mezzo-soprano. Shehas appeared with the major orchestras in North Americaincluding Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Houston, Toronto,

PROVIDENCE — With ren-ovations in the works at theVeterans MemorialAuditorium, now officiallycalled the Vets, plans alreadyhave been made for a re-dedi-cation in January that will fea-ture world-renowned sopranoRenée Fleming.

Fleming will perform withthe Rhode IslandPhilharmonic Orchestra,under the baton of LarryRachleff, music director andconductor. This Vets GalaConcert will take place Jan. 21

at 7:30 p.m., and tickets will goon sale this Saturday.

“I’m thrilled to be makingmy first appearance with theRhode Island PhilharmonicOrchestra in Providence andmeeting a new audience there,”Fleming said. “It will be myfirst-ever performance inRhode Island. I had the pleas-ure of working with LarryRachleff a few years ago inHouston, and I’m looking for-ward to sharing the stage with

Fleming to sing with RIPO at the Vets

CUMBERLAND — The weekendat the Blackstone River Theatre willstart with a fundraiser for a group ofyoung actors and will end with anappearance by some old favorites.

Students from Cumberland HighSchool will present “Tonight WeBegin Again,” their prizewinningentry in the Rhode Island StateDrama Festival, on Friday at 8 p.m.

The production was selected torepresent the state at theInternational Thespian Festival to beheld in June in Lincoln, Neb., andhonor that comes with a price tag.Students and directors are scramblingto raise money in order to lower eachperson’s cost to make the trip.

Described as a comedic drama, theplay deals with a group of new gradu-ates still at the Williamson HighSchool campus where they are record-ing testimonials for a student’s tardysenior project.

They use the time between thefilmed testimonials to reflect on theirrelationships, ponder their future andbanter with their friends. Each has avision of how the world should be, butit doesn’t always mesh with the ideaheld by their closest friends.

It becomes a story of discovery,transition and of what happens whentwo immature young men won’t stoptackling each other for no good rea-son.

Suggested donation is $10 adults,$8 students and seniors.n Music returns on Saturday at 8

p.m. when Sunny and Her Joy Boysfeaturing Duke Robillard perform.

Robillard, an award-winning gui-

A benefit show, then the Joy Boys

PAWTUCKET — “I have a funny feelingabout him,” Felicity admits in ChristopherDurang’s “Why Torture is Wrong, and thePeople Who Love Them.”

“I’m afraid he might be a terrorist,” she con-tinues. “Or maybe he’s in the Mafia. Or maybehe’s bipolar. Or maybe he’s a serial killer. Ormaybe he’s just a drug addict and alcoholic andout of prison on parole.”

“Who are you talking about, dear?” hermother asks.

“My husband, my husband, my husband!” isFelicity’s reply.

The Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre pres-ents the Rhode Island premiere of Durang’sabsurdist farce starting tonight and continuingthrough June 5.

From the screwball imagination of theAmerican playwright who also wrote “TheMarriage of Bette and Boo,” comes this comedyabout America’s ongoing “war on terror.”

Felicity wakes up to a strange man, a hang-over, and a whole lot of questions: Is her newhusband, Zamir, who claims to be Irish, a ter-rorist, a crazed alcoholic, or both?

But those aren’t her only questions.

Is her father’s hobby of butterfly collectingfor real, or is it a cover for his involvement in aright-wing shadow government?

Is her mother a theater-loving eccentric, or isshe actually insane?

Durang’s 2009 off-Broadway hit answers allthese questions and more with the author’strademark outrageous wit, diving headfirst intoa world of ill-fated marriage, politics and porn,with a plot that provocatively and hilariouslyexposes hypocrisies at the core of contemporaryAmerican culture.

Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrelladirects a cast of seasoned actors playing increas-ingly paranoid and anxious characters includingGamm resident actor Casey Seymour Kim asFelicity, a nice girl from a conventional family;Alexander Platt, who played Paul in the recent-ly completed production of “Paul,” as her hus-band, Zamir; and Gamm resident actors WendyOverly as her ditzy mom and Sam Babbitt as hertrigger-happy father.

With equal parts humor and menace, “thehilarious, oddball title is apt,” Estrella says ofDurang’s 2009 script. “Torture, to state the obvi-ous, is serious business; but Durang’s genius liesin subverting the crusading ideals and knee-jerk‘patriotism’ of both the torturers and their ene-mies.

“It’s satire, it’s parody, but it’s also an ironi-cally sober look at empathy and compassion asthe only hurdle to society’s headlong racetoward barbarism.”

PAWTUCKET — It is always a specialevening at Stone Soup when foundingmember, Joyce Katzberg, takes the stage,according to the regulars, but her per-formance this Saturday at 8 p.m. has anextra edge.

Katzberg has announced that this con-cert, a retrospective look at the songs shehas been singing at this coffeehouse andthroughout the region, will be recorded bySteven Friedman of Melrose Studios.

Katzberg’s songs are a blend of topicaland traditional, historic and hysterical.Her shows combine her original composi-tions and material gathered during 40years on stage. Whether she is singing asong she wrote, like “If I Were God” or “ALullaby in War Time,” or one by writerssuch as Malvina Reynolds, author of“World in Their Pockets” and “Little

Katzberg to recordSaturday concert

at Stone Soup

Angel Tucker PhotoJoyce Katzberg

Durang’s new farce

Renée Fleming

Gamm Photo/Peter GoldbergSam Babbitt plays Leonard and Alexander Platt, seated, isthe mysterious Zamir in the Gamm’s Rhode Island premiereof ‘Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.’

n The Gamm presents R.I. premiere of ‘Why TortureIs Wrong, and the PeopleWho Love Them.’

See THE GAMM, Page D-2

See PHILHARMONIC, Page D-2 See FLEMING, Page D-2

See STONE SOUP, Page D-2

Photos courtesy of BRT

Sunny and her Joy Boys withDuke Robillard, above, willperform on Saturday at 8p.m. at the Blackstone RiverTheatre. But first, the theaterhosts a fundraiser to helppay expenses to sendCumberland High School’sproduction of ‘Tonight WeBegin Again’ to theInternational ThespianFestival in Lincoln, Neb., inJune. A scene from the playis pictured at left.

See BRT, Page D-2