Arts & Events

If your spirits need a lift, I recommend CCMT’s HAIRSPRAY at Lesher Center in Walnut Creek. -more-

“Worst in Show” opens at Berkeley’s Elmwood Theater at 7PM on March 24 with a benefit screening for the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society. Tickets (which include a chance to win a raffle) are $20 and can be ordered in advance online at www.worstinshowmovie.com. -more-

Going to our seats in the Berkeley City Club, amid the pre-acting: the players making music on accordion, guitar, while someone's bathing in a metal washtub, while soldiers in camouflage trousers and camp followers sprawl out, lounging in the lull between battles ... Then power chords on the guitar. A soldier brings in the weapons and gear: bamboo poles, parasols ... another paws a woman ... Drums, war cries, attitudinizing ... Ululation of the women; the soldiers shimmy and gyrate in a provocative Oriental dance ... Boots and cowboy hat in the hands of another, who puts them on, then dons shades, and rouges lips ... -more-

Near the beginning of the musical, “Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”, a cranky housekeeper at a historic English country estate warns four newly arrived children, “I see you all have that ‘I’m going to explore Marbleton Manor’ look. Forget it. The Age of Exploration is OVER. Understood?” -more-