City Week

Thursday 14

Hummable? You want hummable? Jerry's Girls is a musical Valentine that proves there's no tune like a show tune.

This play's chock-full of hummable Broadway classics that are guaranteed to lift you right out of your seat. The cast almost guarantees it.

Jerry's Girls, presented by Musical Theatre Arizona stars Marsha Bagwell and Jack Neubeck. Bagwell appeared on Broadway as the matron in Chicago, as Ruth in the Tony Award-winning Pirates of Penzance and as Edith in the revival of the Desert Song.

Neubeck appeared in the original productions of Evita and La Cage Aux Follies on Broadway and most recently in Side by Side by Sondheim for MTAZ.

The show opens tonight and runs through Feb. 24 at Leo Rich Theatre at the Tucson Convention Center. Tickets are $30 and are available by calling the TCC Box Office at 791-4266 or Ticketmaster at 321-1000. For more information, call Music Theatre Arizona at 293-7880.


Friday 15

Blasphemous rumor. Perhaps it's not surprising that a group that calls itself The Oddvarks Comedy Improv Troupe would hold a tribute and benefit called W.W.K.D.?

Just replace the Son of God in the popular "What Would Jesus Do?" ditty with a guy named Kevin and you've got the Oddvarks' event to mark the unexpected passing of screenwriter-director-actor Kevin Teed.

Kevin Teed was a founding member of both the Oddvarks Comedy Improv Troupe and the recently formed Sparrow and Cicada Theater Works, whose premier production was Middle-Aged White Guys.

As a tribute to Teed, the Oddvarks have regrouped with members old and new to perform two evenings of sketches written by Teed expressly for the group. Also included will be improv games that fans of the Oddvarks have come to know and laugh themselves silly over.

Current Oddvarks members include many of Tucson's favorite actors and comedians: Suzi List, Hilary Pursehouse, David M. Felix, Lissa Diaz, Delani D. Cody, Mark Brugler and others.

All proceeds from the shows will be given to Wright Elementary School and Sparrow and Cicada Theater Works.

At Wright, Teed derived great joy and gave of his talents reading to the kids in 11 classrooms. Teed's latest project, Sparrow and Cicada is devoted to introducing young adults to all aspects of live professional theater.

The fund-raisers are at 7 p.m. tonight and Feb. 22 at O'Malleys On Fourth, 247 N. 4th Ave. A donation of $10 is suggested so don't be a cheapskate. For more information, call 325-3678.

V-Day, plus 1. Blow it last night?

Mend fences or burn a bridge tonight at ZUZI! Move It Dance Company's no frills, cheap thrills, come as you are dance happenin'.

If you're still in the mood, treat your sweetie to a special night with a flourish of creativity, lovely to behold, as some of Tucson's finest independent choreographers and performance artists indulge and refresh your perspective on art and entertainment.

From hip-hop to edgy improvisation, this show promises to create "an atmosphere of vibrancy and openness arising from the great diversity of age and experience, style and aesthetic of its participants."

This unusual performance begins at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday at ZUZI'S Little Theater, 738 N. 5th Ave at University Boulevard. Tickets are available at the door for $5. For more information, call 629-0237.


Saturday 16

It's a group thing. See the work of more than a few well-known artists this weekend.

Winter in Tucson, Annual Group Show really is a group thing, featuring the creations of a long list of painters and sculptors, including Jeff Aeling, Bill Gallen, Veryl Goodnight, Gregory Hull and Peggi Kroll-Roberts (and that really is just the start.)

Most of the artists will be on hand to discuss their work during an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. today. The show runs through March 15 at Medicine Man Gallery, 7000 E. Tanque Verde, at the southeast corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon in Santa Fe Square. For more information, call 722-7798 or visit www.medicinemangallery.com.

Go slumming. If you want a taste of London's lusty low-life, check out a satire from one of the best in the biz.

Mack the Knife is back in town in Bertolt Brecht's classical musical, The Threepenny Opera. This 20th- century masterpiece, with music by composer Kurt Weill, is based on John Gay's The Beggar's Opera.

It tells the story of a larcenous hero, MacHeath, and his misadventures in romance and crime. In the course of this story, he marries one woman, the sweet Polly Peachum, but manages to jilt both her and the ill-reputed Jenny Brown before the curtain falls.

Brecht was a German Marxist playwright who spent time in America as a refugee from the Nazis. Due to his plays' leftist messages, he was asked to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947.

Weill was raised in a religious Jewish family in Dessau, Germany. He also fled to America as a refugee from Nazism.

Arizona Repertory Theatre welcomes West End director Robert Walker, who recently directed the musicals Pal Joey and Yakety Yak! in London.

The opera plays at 7:30 tonight and Feb. 19 through Feb. 23. Matinees are at 1:30 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 23 and 24. All performances are at Marroney Theatre, UA campus, at the south end of the pedestrian underpass on Speedway Boulevard east of Park Avenue. Tickets are $22 general admission; $20 seniors and UA employees; and $15 students. Tickets are available through the UA Fine Arts Box Office, 621-1162. For more information, visit www.arts.arizona.edu/theatre.


Sunday 17

Puppet from the past. Esteban and the Seven Cities of Cibola is the story of a black man who was the first non-Indian to enter what is now Arizona.

Oh, and he's a puppet. New Kiva Motions Puppet Theatre presents Esteban in honor of Black History Month. After the show, kids get some up-close and personal action with the puppets and then the audience gets a chance to make a simple puppet to take home with them.

Esteban starts at 1:30 p.m. today and every Sunday through March at the Red Barn, 948 N. Main. Tickets are $3 per person; $5 for two children; and $2 for those with AHCCCS card or low-income bus pass. For more information, call 887-5144.

Finger-licking good. Hear some of the best guitarists around as Schaeffer Guitar Competition finalists perform in a free concert.

These guys are good; past winners of the 14th annual competition, which is open to all guitar performance majors at the UA, have gone on to win top prizes in international guitar competitions.

Albert M. Schaeffer practiced law in Chicago and Tucson and was a Chicago jazz pianist, a World War II vet and a military judge in Germany following the war. His support and guidance helped to establish the UA guitar studies program as one of this country's finest.

The free show begins at 2:30 p.m. today at Holsclaw Recital Hall, Music Building, UA campus, at the south end of the pedestrian underpass on Speedway Boulevard east of Park Avenue. For more information, call 621-2998 or visit www.arts.arizona.edu/music.


Monday 18

Blowing into town. He's hired, now he just has to audition.

The UA School of Music and Dance introduces its new professor of tuba and euphonium, Kelly Thomas, who will perform new works and old standards on these amazingly versatile instruments.

Thomas, a native of Flagstaff, was appointed tuba/euphonium instructor and director of pep bands at the University of Arizona in 2001.

He has a bachelor's of music in music education from Tennessee Technological University and a master's degree in music education from Arizona State University.

In the summer of 2000, Thomas performed at the International Tuba Euphonium Conference in Regina, Canada. He also has been invited several times as a finalist for Washington, D.C., service bands. While studying at Tennessee Technical University, Thomas participated in the famed Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble, which performed at Carnegie Hall and released several CD recordings.

Check out the new guy on campus at 7:30 tonight at Crowder Hall, Music Building, at the south end of the pedestrian underpass on Speedway Boulevard east of Park Avenue. Tickets are $10 general; $8 UA employee and seniors; and $4 students. Tickets are available through the UA Fine Arts Box Office, 621-1162. For information, please call 621-2998.


Tuesday 19

Knockout punch. Sugar Ray's spiked its punch.

Following up on such Top 40 hits as "Fly," "Every Morning" and "Someday," Sugar Ray's new, self-titled album shows off the group's more electric side and reminds its fans that it is fully capable of displaying classic Sugar Ray "sonic sunshine" while splicing in a spikier vibe.

This show promises to be a diverse mixture of Sugar Ray's classic hits and an introduction to its latest tunes.

Sugar Ray performs at 7:30 tonight at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. Tickets are $17 to $27 and are available through the box office at 621-3341.


Wednesday 20

Psycho thrillers? Not exactly the work of a nutty professor, but close.

Lee Beach returned to painting in 1993 after 40 years in academia and is now a full-time artist. His work reflects his training as a psychologist, with an emphasis on mood and structure that engages the viewer's esthetic intellect in "completing" each painting.

An exhibition of his work called Lee Beach: Black Box is open to the public from 5 to 7 p.m. every Wednesday through May 1 in the UA Eller College of Business and Public Administration ArtSpace at 1130 E. Helen St., McClelland Hall, Room 208. For more information, call 621-4958 or email dhunter@eller.arizona.edu.

Toxic work. Award-winning Chicago Tribune reporter Sam Roe will speak about the dangers of beryllium exposure for workers and neighbors of Brush Wellman Corp. south of town.

Roe earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his investigative series, "Deadly Alliance," published in Ohio's Toledo Blade when he worked there. He spent 22 months probing Brush Wellman and the federal Department of Energy and concluded the company and regulating agency had ignored the dangers of exposure of workers to beryllium, a toxic metal.

More than 1,200 U.S. workers, including 30 in Tucson, have contracted chronic beryllium disease, which can be fatal. Neighbors of Brush Wellman plants--half a dozen schools are near the Tucson plant--are concerned about contamination of their communities.

Hear about Roe's latest research at 7 p.m. at Sunnyside High School Auditorium, 1725 E. Bilby Rd. For information, call 908-9269. To learn more about beryllium, go online to www.beryllium.org.