Even if it’s just for sisters and giggles, fans of Alan Menken’s music will enjoy “Sister Act,” in its last weekend at Riverside Theatre. Menken is known for writing the music to many Disney productions as well as for “Newsies,” “Little Shop of Horrors” and “A Christmas Carol.” He’s got a local fan base of Riverside Children’s Theatre students who got to see him at the Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta a few years back.
Based on the movie starring Whoopi Goldberg and subsequent Broadway show, the musical tells the story of a singer placed in the witness protection program after seeing her boyfriend murder someone.
There, she takes over the choir and suffuses it with soul. Riverside’s high-wattage production climaxes on a set of strobing stained-glass windows. Directed by Richard Stafford, the sets and cast head up to Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre, the co-producers of the season closer. There are evening performances through Saturday night, and matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
Heads up for fans of comedian and political commentator Bill Maher: There were still some tickets available at press time in the grand tier of the King Center where Maher will appear Sunday, May 15, at 8 p.m.
And if you missed 1980s rock sensation Pat Benatar in February when she played the King Center, she’s coming back to our area and it’s even closer this time. Fort Pierce’s Sunrise Theatre is hosting an acoustic concert with Benatar and her husband Neil Giraldo Wednesday May 4 at 7 p.m.
While in my book there’s no topping the southern indie rockers Alabama Shakes’ appearance at SunFest Sunday night, for more conventional tastes, there’s a Saturday concert at Melbourne’s King Center that’s bound to have broad appeal for many in Vero. Broadway’s Hugh Panaro, who played both the good guy and the bad guy in “Phantom of the Opera” and Marius in “Les Misérables,” is giving a concert of Broadway hits with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra.
And if your ears aren’t still ringing by next Friday, Delbert McClinton is performing May 6 at King Center. Hard to believe McClinton’s success dates back to Emmy Lou Harris making a country-chart topping single out of McClinton’s “Two More Bottles of Wine.” His “Givin’ It Up for Your Love” reached the Top Ten, and his “Live from Austin” album got him his first Grammy nomination in 1989. A year later, he was working with Melissa Etheridge, Tom Petty and Tanya Tucker, with whom he recorded the hit “Tell Me About It.” And in 1991 he won the first of three Grammys for his duet with Bonnie Raitt, “Good Man, Good Woman.” His last album was with Glen Clark and he’s got a new one in the pipeline.
Also next Friday, at West Palm’s Kravis Center, soul great Mavis Staples performs with the Blind Boys of Alabama. She just wowed the young crowd at Coachella last month, setting up the song “I’ll Take You There” by randomly pointing to people in the audience: “She wasn’t born. He wasn’t born. She wasn’t born.” And she got a roar of approval when she gave special emphasis to the line “Put away that gun” from the Talking Heads’ “Slippery People.”
Born in Chicago in 1939, Staples sang gospel with her family as the Staple Singers before going solo. With the family patriarch Pops Staples a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Mavis Staples has long been a civil rights activist (Mahalia Jackson was another close friend of the family and a powerful influence on Mavis). She also appeared on the very first episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
The Majestic 11 Theatre’s Live in HD broadcast this weekend features a winner you won’t want to miss: a minimalist production of the Strauss opera “Elektra,” conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and starring soprano Nina Stemme in the title role.
Based on Sophocles’ tale of the house of Agamemnon, with the action starting after he is murdered by his wife and her lover, the one-act opera lasts only an hour and a half, certainly worth the sacrifice of the start of a Saturday afternoon.
“Elektra” is repeated on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m.
