From a star-studded gospel tour to a scrap-art exhibit and plays about board games and dragon ladies, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond.
Here is a partial roundup.
Gospel music greats unite
The gospel music Reunion Tour that’s headed to Oakland Arena this weekend features a musical A-list of talent, including Yolanda Adams, who has one of the finest voices in all of gospel music.
She’s put it to great use during her career, fashioning a body of work that has thrilled listeners and sold more than 10 million albums across the globe. Adams also won the first-ever Grammy award for best gospel song in 2006 for “Be Blessed” and hit platinum-plus status with 1999’s “Mountain High… Valley Low.”
Adams is just one of many reasons why gospel fans will want to turn out for Friday’s Reunion Tour. Others include Fred Hammond, the Clark Sisters, Marvin Sapp and Kirk Franklin, who is once again leading this tour. The latter is a gospel music icon with a staggering 19 Grammys to his credit. Sapp has released a string of No. 1 gospel albums, including 2007’s “Thirsty” and 2012’s “I Win.” Hammond is known for his 2009 chart-topper, “Love Unstoppable.” And then there are the Clark Sisters, the legendary vocal group with hits such as “I Can Do All Things Through Christ That Strengthens Me” and “Jesus Is a Love Song.”
Details: Showtime is 7 p.m. and tickets start at $53, theoaklandarena.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
From scrap to art
Plastic bags, perfume-bottle straws and shoelaces – these are not things you’d commonly associate with high art. But why not? Many hallowed artists in the modern canon use lowbrow materials for their inspiration, from Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s sculptures of household rubbish and taxidermied animals to Charles Long’s cigarette butts and bird poop salvaged from the L.A. River.
“The Poetics of Dimensions,” a new group exhibition in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, celebrates the clever reuse of such ordinary objects. Put on by Ghanaian-American curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, the show gathers nearly a dozen artists working with materials like scrap leather, cosmetics containers and single-use plastic. Anthony Akinbola, a Brooklyn artist who’s exhibited at the Guggenheim, weaves colorfully abstract tapestries out of durags, the inexpensive hair covering. Moffat Takadiwa, who lives in Zimbabwe, sources the post-consumer waste that Western countries dump in his country’s junkyards to make intricate sculptures out of toothpaste tubes, computer keyboards and spray cans. You might just walk away from this one with a new hesitation about hucking things in the trash.
Details: The show runs Wednesday-Sunday through Feb. 23, at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, 345 Montgomery St., San Francisco. Free admission; icasf.org.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Return of the Dragon Lady
After a successful and well-received run at Marin Theatre last year, the Dragon Lady is poised to entertain Bay Area audiences anew with her colorful, humorous and sometimes poignant solo theater/cabaret show. The Dragon Lady is Sara Porkalob, a Seattle-based singer, actor, storyteller and keeper of a rich Filipino American family history. Her “Dragon Lady” solo show – now playing at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, presented by Center Repertory Company – blends music, laughs and colorful tales as Porkalob recounts the vibrant story of her gangster family’s journey from a Manila nightclub to a Washington state trailer park.
Written and performed by Porkalob (who’s backed by a live band) and directed by Andrew Rusell, “Dragon Lady” is a family memoir that unspools like a high-energy stage musical. As Center Rep artistic director Matt M. Morrow put it, the show is fueled by “Porkalob’s fearless storytelling, her vibrant portrayal of complex family dynamics, and her ability to weave humor, heart, and history into a compelling narrative.” “Dragon Lady” is actually the first in a three-part series of solo shows dedicated to three different matriarchal figures in Porkalob’s family. It centers 60-year-old Maria Porkalob relaying her origin story to granddaughter Sara. Besides singing and storytelling, Sara Porkalob portrays several different characters in her show, which runs at the Lesher Center through Nov. 24.
Details: Tickets are $66-$85; www.centerrep.org
— Bay City News Foundation
Classical picks: Score one for the Bates Motel
So far, the fall classical music season has offered an exceptional range of new and seldom-performed works. This week brings an iconic film with score by composer Bernard Herrmann, along with events featuring Bates, Brahms, and Schoenberg.
Hitchcock times 2: The latest installment in the San Francisco Symphony’s Film with Live Orchestra series brings a Halloween-perfect pairing — “Psycho” plus score. Watch Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful 1960 classic, starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins, on the big screen at Davies Symphony Hall, as conductor Scott Terrell leads the orchestra in a live performance of Bernard Herrmann’s creepily idiosyncratic score. R rated. 7:30 p.m. tonight, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco.
Details: Tickets are $69-$199; sfsymphony.org.
Meanwhile, Hitchcock’s 1927 silent thriller “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog,” starring Marie Ault, Ivor Novello and June Tripp and based on the novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, comes to Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Considered by many Hitchcock’s breakthrough film, “The Lodger” centers on a strange man at a London boarding house and is loosely based on Jack the Ripper. As if that weren’t cool enough, musical accompaniment will be supplied by revered organist Dorothy Papadakos, performing on the church’s 7,500 pipe Aeolian-Skinner organ, which was installed in 1934.
Details: Presented by SFJAZZ; 8 p.m.; $25-$35; www.sfjazz.org.
Three Bs: The music of award-winning composer Mason Bates — perhaps best known for his 2017 “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” a hit at San Francisco Opera a few seasons back — is just one of the Bs on the California Symphony program this week. Music director Donato Cabrera leads Bates’ “Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra,” as well as Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday at the Lesher Center, Walnut Creek. Tickets are $25-$50; californiasymphony.org.
Fall Cabaret: The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble returns this weekend with an intimate chamber music setting of 20th and 21st century works — with an emphasis on drama and poetry. Hear Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunairé” and music by Tomàs Peire-Serrate and Maria Schneider. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco; also 4 p.m. Sunday, Hillside Club, Berkeley. Tickets are $5-$35; leftcoastensemble.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent, with Bay Area News Foundation
Dramatic hijinks
What happens when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor? If you’re talking about the Broadway production of “Clue,” what ensues is a hilarious — and very dramatic, of course — night of murder. Expect knife work in the study, a wrench in the works and plenty of Colonel Mustard and Mrs. Peacock sightings.
The show, presented by Broadway San Jose this weekend, is based on the 1985 Paramount Pictures movie. That flick, in turn, was inspired by the classic midcentury board game that introduced American children to billiard rooms and conservatories and taught us that candlesticks can be fatal. Fun!
Catch “Clue” on stage at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts for evening and matinee performances through Sunday. Tickets start at $68.50; https://broadwaysanjose.com/.
— Jackie Burrell, Staff
Free post-Halloween fun
Halloween is Oct. 31, of course, But if you’re still feeling a little Halloweenish on Nov. 2, you’ll find a free event in San Francisco that features some of the best parts of Halloween: family fun, entertainment and costumes galore. And perhaps the best part of Saturday’s Halloween Hoopla event is that it stars the fabulously talented folks from Circus Bella. Members of the troupe will be performing feats of juggling and foot-juggling, rola bola stunts, clowning and more. There will be live music from the Circus Bella All-Star Trio, crafts and other artsy activities organized by Children’s Creativity Museum, Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy and the Mexican Museum, and palm reading from Madam Z (adults: please don’t ask her about the election). Costumes are heartily encouraged because the fun concludes with a costume parade.
Details: Noon to 3 p.m.; Children’s Garden area at Yerba Buena Gardens, 799 Howard St.; ybgfestival.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Return of the Dragon Lady: After a successful and well-received run at Marin Theatre last year, the Dragon Lady is poised to entertain Bay Area audiences anew with her colorful, humorous and sometimes poignant solo theater/cabaret show. The Dragon Lady is Sara Porkalob, a Seattle-based singer, actor, storyteller and keeper of a rich Filipino American family history. Her “Dragon Lady” solo show – now playing at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, presented by Center Repertory Company – blends music, laughs and colorful tales as Porkalob recounts the vibrant story of her gangster family’s journey from a Manila nightclub to a Washington state trailer park. Written and performed by Porkalob (who’s backed by a live band) and directed by Andrew Rusell, “Dragon Lady” is a family memoir that unspools like a high-energy stage musical. As Center Rep artistic director Matt M. Morrow put it, the show is fueled by “Porkalob’s fearless storytelling, her vibrant portrayal of complex family dynamics, and her ability to weave humor, heart, and history into a compelling narrative.” “Dragon Lady” is actually the first in a three-part series of solo shows dedicated to three different matriarchal figures in Porkalob’s family. It centers 60-year-old Maria Porkalob relaying her origin story to granddaughter Sara. Besides singing and storytelling, Sara Porkalob portrays several different characters in her show, which runs at the Lesher Center through Nov. 24. Tickets are $66-$85; go to www.centerrep.org
— Bay City News Foundation