City Week: Weekly Picks

Tucson Roadrunners

The Roadrunners are at home this week hosting the Calgary Wranglers on Friday and Saturday, the Ontario Reign on Tuesday and Wednesday. Pregame fun March 17 includes a St. Patrick’s Day party, with a festival including live music on Tucson Arena Plaza. March 18 is a First Responder’s Day double header. The Tucson Police and Fire Departments compete in the second First Responder’s Game at 4:30 p.m. ahead of the Ohio Reign, the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames.
7 p.m., Friday, March 17; Saturday, March 18; Tuesday, March 21 and Wednesday, March 22, Tucson Arena, 260 S. Church Avenue, tucsonroadrunners.com, tickets start at $19.

“TV West Fest”

This event has it all for folks whose imaginations were shaped by TV Westerns. Each day has a full schedule of interviews, panels, trivia games, square dancing, folklorico, Q&As, movie screenings, photos with celebrities and a mescal tour. For fun there is a costume contest, a Don Collier sound-alike contest and a cowboy jargon game show. There will also be tours of Old Tucson, the High Chaparral Ranch and Mescal Movie Studio for a gunfight stagecoach ride. Special guests include actors from “Custer,” “Wagon Train,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “The Big Valley” and a couple of Audie Murphy movies. At least four guests played on “Bonanza.”
Thursday, March 16 through Sunday, March 19, Casino Del Sol Resort, Spa and Conference Center, 5655 W. Valencia Road, Tucson, tvwestfest.regfox.com, tickets start at $65 per day, lunch with hit series actors, $125 each; Sunday tours and photo ops, extra

Tucson Libertine League: “Have It Your Way”

A night of classic burlesque reminds us jaded inhabitants of the over-sexualized 21st century that before porn-on-demand, AI and an Amazon catalogue full of sex toys, seduction could be a lovely, even lingering matter, and a dozen layers of clothing designed for the purpose could be fun to watch in motion on their way to the floor, even if it’s just a tease.
8 p.m. Friday, March 17, 191 Toole, 191 N. Toole Avenue, Tucson, rialtotheatre.com, $12

2023 Silver Spike Railroad Jubilee

A re-enactment of the celebration that marked the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in Tucson includes the actual silver spike that was driven into the rail that connected Tucson to California on March 20, 1880. Descendants of the original railroad men will join the celebration and the 4th U.S. Cavalry Band will play. There will also be a proclamation from Mayor Regina Romero, a craft fair and someone’s surprise induction into the Silver Spike Hall of Fame.
9:30 a.m. Saturday, March 18, Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, 414 N. Toole Avenue, Tucson, tucsonhistoricdepot.org, free

Oro Valley Spring Festival of the Arts

More than 120 artisans, musical performances, food trucks, art activities and vendors have been curated for this always much-anticipated event. The artisans’ market is always the centerpiece, showcasing a curated selection of independent creators of unique, hand-crafted fashion, food, home goods, painting and visual arts. Irish music and dancing will be featured on the festival stages all weekend.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 18, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 19, Oro Valley Marketplace, 12155 N. Oracle Road, Oro Valley, saaca.org, free

UH2BT KPop Night

This K-Pop-themed, pop-up dance party features music by girlie group BLACKPINK, chartbusters BTS, troubled BIGBANG, the multiple iterations of EXO and others. It’s billed as an all-ages show, and luckily the Rialto has withstood every other generation’s energy for more than 100 years. But can it tolerate this much happiness? The kids can lend their grownups some BTS UNO decks to play with while they wait.
8 p.m. Saturday, March 18, Rialto Theatre, 191 N. Toole Avenue, rialtotheatre.com, $18, all ages

“Billie! Backstage with Lady Day”

We eavesdrop as Billie Holiday, legendary songwriter and unparalleled music stylist, reveals the people and events that shaped her life and music. The play’s author and star, Synthia L. Hardy, has toured this NAACP award winning show widely. She sustains her character on a tightrope between glamour and pathos, allowing Holiday’s indelible songs, “Good Morning Heartache,” “God Bless the Child,” “Lover Man,” “Strange Fruit,” and more, to underscore the racism, heartbreak, love and joy behind them.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 18, The Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Avenue, invisibletheatre.com, $47 includes fees.

38th Annual Wa:k Pow Wow

Team dancing, hoop dance, a drum contest, owl dance, chicken dance, inter-tribal dances — all that and fry bread make this one of the reasons we feel lucky to live here. Tucson’s favorite classical guitarist Gabriel Ayala is the event’s arena director, Nathan Largo and Jacinta Tsosie are Head Man and Head Woman, respectively. The head judge is Colby Afraid of his Tracks. Wa:k also includes an extensive market of native American arts and food.
10 a.m. Saturday, March 18, and Sunday, March 19, behind The Mission San Xavier del Bac, 1950 W. San Xavier Road, $10 adults, $5 kids over 6, parking $5 cash only

“La Usurpadora: The Musical”

Tucsonans get a sneak peek ahead of the international release of this feature film based on the popular telenovela, “La Usurpadora.” A Q&A follows with the film’s executive producer, Aaron Rivera-Ashford, a Nogales native who went to high school and college in Tucson. He’s now director of content, TelevisaUnivision. The film’s story line is of twins living with opposite personalities on opposite sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s underscored by hit Latin music of the nineties.
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress Street, foxtucson.com, $6

Mr. Ho’s “Orchestrotical:” Global Jazz & Exotic Chamber Music

Percussionist, composer and arranger Brian “Mr. Ho” O’Neill brings a quintet of like-minded musical mischief makers to hijack the sound of rare instruments to the purpose of making jazz. It’s all jazz — the oud, bass and contrabass flutes, cümbüş, and the lately otherwise relegated to bromidic vibraphone. O’Neill’s created a global jazz repertoire for this ensemble to intersperse among Gershwin piano preludes and Bach-inspired, bongo-spiked fugues. His aesthetic has been likened to that of John Zorn, but we think O’Neill’s sounds more like humanity.
7 p.m. Thursday. March 23, The Century Room, Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street, hotelcongress.com/family/century-room, tickets start at $25.

This article appears in Mar 16-22, 2023.