FRIDAY NOV. 29
Odyssey Dance and Crescent Super Band: Cool Yule
The holiday season is a time for togetherness, joy and celebrating tradition. So, instead of turning your Black Friday into a shopping trip, why not turn it into a chance to see two remarkable arts groups working together to bring joy, in part by evoking the pleasures of a bygone era? Organized by Caleb Chapman in 2001, the Crescent Super Band has delighted audiences by showcasing standards from the American songbook. But what’s most impressive is that the group is composed entirely of teen musicians, whose talents have impressed listeners around the world, including with a performance at Carnegie Hall in May. Selections from the group’s new Christmas album (“Sleigh Ride,” “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus”) will be complemented by performances from Odyssey Dance, featuring holiday-themed numbers including “Breath of Heaven” and “Breaktime at Macy’s.” (Scott Renshaw)
Odyssey Dance and Crescent Super Band: Cool Yule @ Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle, University of Utah, 801- 581-7100, Nov. 29, 7:30 p.m. & Nov. 30, 2 & 7:30 p.m., $20-$40. KingsburyHall.org
SATURDAY NOV. 30 Â
Tyler Suppha-Atthasitt: Contemporary Daguerreotype Portraits
Utah has a long-established tradition of the fine art of printmaking. Tyler Suppha-Atthasitt is a masterfully talented printmaker who uses the 19th-century daguerreotype process for its unique tonalities. Suppha-Atthasitt uses this technique for portraiture, and his works convey an honest beauty and sublime deapth. In his statement, he describes “unique, non-replicable images resulting from the in-camera plate directly receiving the light reflected from the subject.” This amounts to portraits that are utterly unique. There is a particularly reverential quality to these black & white daguerrotypes that works particularly well with some of his female subjects. The gaze of one young woman with bangs and freckles captures a youthful innocence of sincerity. Another woman, her chest covered with tattoos, looks into our eyes with a warmth and sensitivity that belies her possibly harsher life. A figure with cascading locks of thick, dark, wavy hair, her eyes solemnly closed, evokes an image of Mary Magdalene. There is one male, ostensibly a Rastafarian, with dreadlocks and a breezy, unbuttoned white shirt, his smooth skin revealed; his eyes are closed in deepest meditation. A Middle Eastern woman (pictured), is shrouded in darkness and wearing a white headscarf. Her round face cannot hide the afflictions she has seen; her eyes are heavy with pain. She gazes into the viewer’s eyes, a license Western women might take for granted. (Ehren Clark)
Tyler Suppha-Atthasitt: Contemporary Daguerrotype Portraits @ Salt Lake City Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, 801-524- 8200, through Jan. 3, free. SLCPL.org
Sacred Gifts:Â The Religious Art of Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann & Frans Schwartz
What museum, over the past few years, has become known as the space to see some of the most challenging and provocative art in the Intermountain region? The Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. But while this has been a welcome development, it might have overshadowed the institution’s devotion to exhibiting a wonderful and surprisingly diverse collection of religious art. The museum’s newest exhibit, Sacred Gifts, focuses on the work of three late-19th-century painters of religious subjects: Danish artists Carl Bloch and Frans Schwartz, and German artist Heinrich Hofmann. All three are known for their depictions of Jesus, and the works in the exhibit are on loan from churches and museums in Denmark, Germany, Sweden and New York City. Works from Bloch’s Life of Christ series are on loan from the Frederiksborg Castle museum in Denmark; they’ve never before been out of that oratory. The exhibit Carl Bloch: The Master’s Hand—on display at BYU in 2010-2011—was the museum’s most recent ticketed show, and one of the most well-attended exhibitions in the country. The Bloch paintings in this show (his “Jesus Casting out the Money Changers at the Temple” is pictured), however, are different from those that were exhibited in the previous show. Tickets for “Sacred Gifts” must be reserved online in advance, and some times are already full. (Brian Staker)
Sacred Gifts:Â The Religious Art of Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann & Frans Schwartz @ Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 500 Campus Drive, Provo, 801-422- 8258, through May 10, free. SacredGifts. BYU.edu
Skate With the Grizzlies
Thanksgiving weekend is a time for participatory sports. On Thursday, you try to re-live your glory days in a Turkey Bowl with family and friends. It starts as friendly game of touch football and ends with tackling, swearing and pulled hammies. On Black Friday, you can practice boxing out for rebounds or blocking on a sweep play when you try to crowd into store doors as they open. The safest activity for the holiday weekend comes on Saturday night, when you can skate on the rink at the Maverik Center with the Utah Grizzlies after watching them play the San Francisco Bulls. The Grizzlies will drop the gloves—not to fight, but to sign autographs. There’ll be no checking allowed by either players or fans, just socializing with family and friends as you skate around the rink. There’s also no need to bring your skates; they have plenty on hand to rent for $2. (Geoff Griffin)
San Francisco Bulls vs. Utah Grizzlies & Skate With the Grizzlies @ Maverik Center, 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, 801- 988-8000, Nov. 30, 7:05 p.m., $12-$35. MaverikCenter.com
SUNDAY DEC. 1
Utah Symphony & Chorus: Messiah Sing-In
One way to think of the annual Messiah Sing- In at Abravanel Hall is that it’s a huge karaoke party. After all, at any given time, well over 1,000 people are belting out a chorus together. And it’s better than regular karaoke because you don’t have to listen to a lone drunk, wobbly-voiced baritone try to hit the high notes on Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” With the Messiah Sing-In, it’s like Journey lead singer Steve Perry showed up to sing the verses, since pros from the Utah Opera will do the heavy lifting on the solos. You just have to chime in on the chorus, when the sheer volume and emotion of the crowd makes it sound great. If you’ve ever been too chicken to do a karaoke solo, this is your chance to sing in public. Utah Symphony conductor Thierry Fischer will direct the orchestra, accompanied by the Utah Symphony Chorus, four soloists and, of course, a legion of amateur chorus members. This year, the singers in the audience will also get a boost from some volunteer “ringers.” On Saturday night, members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be seated in the audience to lend their support to the chorus. Sunday night will feature 75 singers from the University of Utah seated around the hall, making their voices heard. The chance for the community to come together to perform Handel’s master work has long been one of the traditions of ushering in the Christmas season in Salt Lake City. (Geoff Griffin)
Utah Symphony & Chorus: Messiah Sing- In @ Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, 801-355-2787, Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 7 p.m., $10-$32. UtahSymphony.org
MONDAY DEC. 2
Wendy Perron: Through the Eyes of a Dancer
It’s rare to find art critics who are schooled, talented and actively creating in the field about which they write. Dance critic and editor Wendy Perron is one such gifted critic. In her new collection of dance writings, Through the Eyes of a Dancer, Perron has compiled pieces she penned for Village Voice, The New York Times, Dance Magazine and more. She uses the work as a sort of survey of the dance landscape from the 1960s to present, from the experimental to the mainstream. But the keen lens of her critical eye is most influenced by her years dancing with the likes of Twyla Tharp and Trisha Brown, serving as associate director of the lauded Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and even choreographing and directing her own company for more than a decade. Perron shows that there may be no better way to understand an art form than to ply its medium for oneself. (Jacob Stringer)
Wendy Perron: Through the Eyes of a Dancer @ The King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, 801-484-9100, Dec. 2, 7 p.m., free. KingsEnglish.com
TUESDAY DEC. 3
Green Day’s American Idiot
The original punk culture of the 1970s rebelled against corrupt political regimes and staid cultural values, and raged on the streets of cities such as New York and London. “Mall punk,” on the other hand—coming of age in the 1990s—centered its revolution against the everyday mundane and the general dissatisfaction of contemporary suburban sprawl. For their part, Green Day has been the poster band for mall punk—a more melodic variation on forebears like the Ramones and Sex Pistols—since they hit the big time with their album Dookie in 1994. Although such successful mainstreaming of punk may be viewed as a bad thing for the underlying revolutionary ethos, it apparently does make great fodder for Broadway theater. Based largely on the rock opera that was Green Day’s 2004 album American Idiot, the award-winning Broadway production of the same name follows three disenchanted young men from Jingletown, U.S.A. As one is ensnared at home by a pregnant girlfriend, the other two head out to make good in the big city. Within a year, the three friends end up back in Jingletown, sitting on the curb of the corner convenience store sipping suds, having all personally grown from lost love, drug addiction and a war-related amputation. As a finale, each production culminates with the entire cast onstage singing one of Green Day’s biggest chart toppers, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), summing up the disenchanted and disaffected soul-crushing malaise that was middle-America in the early 2000s. (Jacob Stringer)
Green Day’s American Idiot @ Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle, University of Utah, 801-581-7100, Dec. 3-5, 7:30 p.m., $35-$57.50. CWTix
Plan-B Theatre Company:Â Radio Hour: Fairyana
Over the course of the seven years in which Plan-B Theatre Company has produced its special Radio Hour performances, it has mixed new versions of classic stories like Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes with completely original works. For the 2013 installment of Radio Hour, the season featuring the work of Eric Samuelsen continues with something particularly funky for the holidays. The meta-concept is that it’s a holiday production about a holiday production— specifically, a children’s television show. But sometimes creative people can get a little too caught up in their work, as these writers discover when their characters take on a life of their own. Join the audience for the live performance of this one-night-only special event, featuring cast members Jay Perry, Teresa Sanderson and Jason Tatom, to see how all those nifty special sound effects are created. Or listen in to the simulcast on KUER’s Radio West. (Scott Renshaw)
Plan-B Theatre Company:Radio Hour: Fairyana @ Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, 801-355-2787, Dec. 3, 7 p.m., $20. Simulcast on KUER 90.1 FM. PlanBTheatre.org
Salt Lake Acting Company:Â Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
Winter on the Wasatch Front: We all know what it can feel like to have the weather trap us inside, feeling like you’ve got nowhere to go and nothing to do. For its now-traditional family-friendly holiday production, Salt Lake Acting Company presents a stage version of the definitive tale of thinking creatively to turn a dreary day into a magical—and perhaps slightly messy—experience. Originally staged in 2009 for England’s National Theatre, Katie Mitchell’s adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat presents the familiar story of the fanciful feline with the jaunty-striped chapeau and his day spent entertaining a brother and sister with wild games, assisted by Thing 1 and Thing 2. The lively, colorful, musical production once again allows SLAC to provide holiday-season support for community organizations. Free matinee performances will welcome students from Title 1 elementary schools, and the company is partnering with Reach Out & Read Utah to support childhood literacy. (Scott Renshaw)
Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat @ Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W. 500 North, 801- 363-7522 (SLAC), Dec. 3-28, $15 - $38. SaltLakeActingCompany.org
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