Tucson Folk Festival
If you love music, especially unplugged, you can’t go wrong just wandering among the folk festival’s six stages and 125 acts, stopping for a couple of songs when someone catches your ear. If you know who you want to see, invest some time on the website’s lists, maps and diagrams to map your schedule. Here are the bands we’re building our schedule around: Dry River Band, Gabrielle Pietrangelo, Greg Morton and Jim Stanley, the John Coinman Band, Mark Insley and the Broken Angels, The Determined Luddites and, especially, Ryanhood.
Various times and stages from Friday, March 31, to Sunday, April 2, tucsonfolkfest.org, free
Broadway in Tucson: “Mean Girls”
Mean girls have always been with us, and “Mean Girls” has become so much a part of popular culture that we may have forgotten its source. Tina Fey wrote the original hit movie in 2004, then collaborated with Jeff Richmond and Neil Benjamin to make it a musical comedy for the stage. It garnered ten nominations for the 2018 Tony Awards, then COVID-19 cut short its run in March 2020. Plucky Cady Heron is back to finish what she started in this production straight from Broadway.
Various dates and times, through Sunday, April 2, Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Boulevard, broadwayintucson.com, tickets start at $40
Live Theatre Workshop: “The Other Place”
A successful scientist, Juliana grapples with messy and unpredictable reality when the drama of her divorce is compounded by her daughter’s eloping with an older man. Then her whole context seems to begin morphing into a reality that hadn’t occurred to her. She becomes obsessed with escaping to a cottage on Cape Cod where she only finds more twists and turns to the evolving mysteries converging around her. It’s a slow burn of a cliffhanger, with explicit language.
Various dates and times from Thursday, March 30, to Saturday, May 6, Live Theatre Workshop, 3322 E. Fort Lowell Road, livetheatreworkshop.org, tickets start at $23
“Rhythm and Roots” Presents Chris Pierce
Chris Pierce hit No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Chart with a song first heard on the top NBC prime time series, “This is Up.” His career trajectory has been nothing but up since. A frequent member of the Black Opry Revue, Pierce grew up singing in church but first earned national recognition touring with Seal. He’s since logged 10 albums, of which the latest, 2021’s “American Silence,” has won critical acclaim for its racial justice themes. NPR, Rolling Stone and No Depression all have noted the lifetime of emotion portrayed in its music. A hearing disability has compounded his struggle to be heard and understood, but he’s not afraid to make some listeners feel uncomfortable. His credits include a Super Bowl commercial with Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton and performances at Americana Fest and the Newport Folk Festival among others.
7 p.m. Friday, March 31, Plaza Stage, Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street, rhythmandroots.org, $12 advance, $16 door
Monster Jam
Brace yourself for a hyperbole fest! The Monster Jam is the automotive equivalent of lucha libre wrestling. Krysten Anderson drives the legendary wrecking machine, “Grave Digger!” Elvis Lainex drives the famous “El Toro Loco!” Other star vehicles include “Monster Mutt Dalmatian,” “Jurassic Attack” and “Raminator!” We are promised heated rivalries among 12,000-pound machines doing back flips and more high-flying stunts. It sounds like Tucson Arena will be brimming with all the aggression it can hold. At least the afternoon shows will end early enough for the kids to calm down by bedtime.
Various times Friday, March 31, to Sunday, April 2, Tucson Arena, 260 S. Church Street, tucsonarena.com, tickets start at $22
Dia de las Luchas with Shrimp Chaperone
For those unfamiliar, lucha libre is wrestling as a circus act. It’s just too big, spectacular and popular to be bogged down by the rest of a circus. A loud rock band is all that’s required to complement the soaring acrobatics, operatic howling and grunting and the almost hideously gorgeous costumes, glittering like the sweat of the featured wrestling artists. They’re all stars. If lucha were an Olympic event, no one would be watching the ordinary acrobats let alone the imagination-constrained wrestlers.
7 p.m. Saturday, April 1, Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, rialtotheatre.com, $15
“Afro Heat”
D’Lux lounge promises an international experience of AfroBeats, kompa, Amapiano, reggae, soca, Kizomba, Dancehall, hip hop, R&B and more. DJ Freshwaves and DJ Ambassador provide the tunes. D’Lux is also a full-service restaurant, bar and hookah lounge. Guests can reserve booths and bottle service.
9 p.m. every Saturday, D’Lux Lounge, 1901 S. Fourth Avenue, eventbrite.com, tickets start at $10
Reid Park Zoo “Big, Big Bugs”
Visiting the fabulous and exotic real-life creatures at the Reid Park Zoo can stir our imaginations in an up close and personal way. But what of the tiny everyday creatures that skitter away before we can get a closer look? The zoo’s “Big, Big Bugs” exhibit lets us get up close and personal with common insects. Anatomically correct, animatronic bugs reveal the marvels of balance, mobility and food consumption methods that sustain our tiny, everyday monsters. They also inspire us to wrap our imaginations around a world in which we might be less than half the size of a butterfly or a praying mantis, or several times the size of a giraffe.
9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through Sunday, April 30, Reid Park Zoo, 3400 Zoo Court, reidparkzoo.org, $10.50, $6.50 kids 2 to 14
Fran Lebowitz
Peevish, particular and insightful to a fault, Fran Lebowitz slings piercingly articulate satire at the pretentious and the powerful. Her humor is as irresistible as it is acid. With equal disdain, she witheringly drags hypocrisy, injustice and trivial annoyances like roller skating adults. She has said of herself, “Success didn’t spoil me. I’ve always been insufferable.” We owe it to Andy Warhol that her inauspicious start, driving taxis and cleaning Venetian blinds, led to a literary life so exalted that her anthology has been published in nine languages.
8 p.m. Thursday, April 6, Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, rialtotheatre.com, tickets start at $42
First-Aid/CPR Training and Certification
It’s within almost anyone’s power to make a difference when someone isn’t able to breathe on their own. This training teaches the basics, beginning with the importance of first calling for help. Several related techniques are covered, and participants have a chance to get in the essential practice. Those who complete the course get a certificate for their efforts, as well as the confidence that they won’t ever need to be a bystander again.
10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday, April 7, Pima Council on Aging, 8467 E. Broadway Boulevard, eventbrite.com, $75 reservations required
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 5, 2023.