Entertainment For Cold-Weather Blues
By NANCY HERMANN
Winter is wearing thin, and I couldn’t be happier. This is the time of year when we dream of spring, and when indoor entertainment is a great diversion. Here are some suggestions for those cold-weather blues.
The River Spirit Casino Resort hasn’t opened its Margaritaville pool yet, but there is a selection of hot entertainment in the casino’s Paradise Cove. Comic Wayne Brady appears, Mar. 23. Maybe you know Brady from his guest TV appearances on several shows, including “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Bold and the Beautiful” and improv comedy’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Possibly you will recognize him from TV’s “Let’s Make a Deal,” for which he just won a Daytime Emmy Award as the show’s host.
Also coming to Paradise Cove are Paquita la del Barrio and Angela Aguilar. Barrio is a campy Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and actress whose onstage persona has made her a favorite of women. She is prone to joke about what she finds to be sexist behavior, and she incorporates teasing male audience members into her act. Appearing with her is 16-year-old vocalist Angela Aguilar. Raised in a family of singers, Aguilar has been around showbiz for most of her life. She was nominated for an American Grammy and two Latin Grammys, including ‘Best New Artist.” Aguilar and Barrio perform at the River Spirit on March 29.
The Brady Theatre hosts The John Mellencamp Show, Mar. 16 and the BOK Center welcomes Travis Scott, Mar. 26. Scott had to cancel an earlier gig at the BOK because of technical difficulties. At the BOK Center the following night, Mar. 27, Weezer and The Pixies team up for an evening of music.
At Hard Rock’s The Joint, catch the American rock band 3 Doors Down, Mar. 28; The Beach Boys – Now and Then, Apr. 5; Gladys Knight, Apr. 11; and Diana Ross on Apr. 13.
The two remaining original Beach Boys are Mike Love and Brian Wilson. They tour separately and sometimes together. This appearance of The Beach Boys will feature Love and a solid group of musicians performing Beach Boys hits.
Gladys Knight, “The Empress of Soul,” is known for her “Midnight Train to Georgia” and “That’s What Friends Are For.” If you have been watching TV’s “The Masked Singer,” you will know that recently she was unmasked as the show’s bee.
The supremely elegant Diana Ross was honored at this year’s Grammys for an outstanding career that includes 14 Top Ten albums and 18 No. 1 singles. She was nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe award for her turn as Billie Holliday in “Lady Sings the Blues.”
Coming up at the Tulsa PAC is C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters,” Mar. 18-31, staged by Fellowship for Performing Arts. FPA is a New York City-based theatre company that produces work from a Christian world view. In this play, Screwtape shares his schemes for delivering the soul of an unsuspecting human to his master, Satan.
Tulsa Ballet stages a new work, “Tchaikovsky: The Man Behind the Music,” Mar. 29-31, choreographed by Tulsa Ballet resident choreographer Ma Cong. People know Tchaikovsky from his large body of work, especially his ballets, “Romeo and Juliet,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Nutcracker.” What people don’t know is the anguish he suffered from trying to surmount a secret life that could result in imprisonment and an end to his career. This piece includes music from Tchaikovsky and other composers, including Oliver Peter Graber.
Theatre Tulsa, which has a musical theatre Midas touch, returns to the PAC stage with “The Wedding Singer,” April 5-14. Based on the 1998 film of the same name, the story follows a wannabe star who is not quite ready for the bigtime. He gets jilted at the altar but finds love elsewhere in this comedy, with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin and book by Tim Herlihy and Beguelin.
Two fascinating speakers come to Tulsa in early April. Former Tulsan Frank Abagnale became known through the “Catch Me If You Can” movie (starring Leo DiCaprio as Frank) and musical, based on the book Abagnale co-wrote that details Abagnale’s life as a con artist, impersonator and forger. After doing time for his misdeeds as a young man, Abagnale became a renowned cybersecurity and fraud prevention expert. The OSU-Tulsa Business Forums hosts him on Apr. 10. Welcome home, Frank!
Tulsa Town Hall closes its season, Apr. 12, with a modern-day Indiana Jones, space archaeologist Sarah Parcak. Winner of the $1 million TED prize, Parcak proposed in her talk a plan for citizen-scientists to identify potential archaeological sites from space using infrared satellite imagery. She’s done work in Egypt, Rome, Peru and elsewhere. The title of her lecture is “Indiana Jones in Space.”
Let the sunshine in and enjoy funny, inspirational and heartwarming entertainment in the weeks ahead.
