Brothel musical opens in San Francisco
When San Francisco’s 42nd Street Moon chose “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” to open its new season, the musical theater company couldn’t have known that its opening would follow so closely in the wake of the death of Burt Reynolds, who co-starred with Dolly Parton in the iconic 1982 movie version of the 1978 Broadway musical. A cheeky countrified musical about a long-standing Texas brothel dragged into the spotlight by a crusading TV personality, the musical’s book by journalist turned playwright Larry L. King and film actordirector Peter Masterson is loosely based on King’s 1974 article in Playboy magazine about an actual Texas brothel, with peppy songs by Carol Hall. Details: Through Oct. 21; Gateway Theatre, San Francisco; $30-$75; 415-2558207, 42ndstmoon.org.
Cowboys and Frenchmen ride into Bay Area
With a name lifted from a 1988 short film by David Lynch made for French television, the jazz quintet Cowboys and Frenchmen clearly isn’t trying to hide its experimental proclivities. Co-led by alto and soprano saxophonist Ethan Helm and alto and baritone saxophonist Owen Broder, the New York combo has honed a wily and often elliptically lyrical sound that makes it almost impossible to tell where a written passage stops and improvisation starts.
Following 2015’s critically hailed debut album “Rodeo,” Cowboys and Frenchmen released an inordinately engaging sophomore project last October, “Bluer Than You Think” (both on Outside in Music) that expands on the band’s woozy mélange of folk, pop, rock and chamber jazz.
The band makes its Bay Area debut with a series of performances around the region, including Wednesday at San Francisco’s swanky Black Cat, Oct. 12 at
at Oakland’s intimate Sound Room and Oct. 13 at San Jose’s bohemian Art Boutiki (on a double bill with Never Weather, a Bay Area quintet led by drummer Dillon Vado).
Details: 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Black Cat, San Francisco; $15; 415-358-1999, blackcatsf.com; 8 p.m. Oct. 12 at The Sound Room, Oakland; $20; 510-4964180 soundroom.org; 8 p.m. Oct. 13 at Art Boutiki, San Jose; $15-$20; 408-971-8929, artboutiki.com. — Andrew Gilbert, Correspondent
Opera Parallèle gets Kafka-esque
Based on a 1919 story by Franz Kafka, Philip Glass’ “In the Penal Colony” is set on a remote island where a high-ranking visitor arrives to witness the execution of a prisoner.
Glass and librettist Rudolph Wurlitzer lend the opera a chilling atmosphere, one with particular resonance in view of our current debate about apprehension and detention, torture and punishment.
Opera Parallèle, in collaboration with this year’s Days and Nights Festival, is mounting a new production of Glass’ opera this weekend in Carmel. Directed by Brian Staufenbiel and conducted by Nicole Paiement, the cast
features baritone Robert Orth as the officer, tenor Javier Abreu as the Visitor and actor Michael Mohammed as the Prisoner.
Details: 7 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; Golden Bough Theatre, Carmel; $45-$85; 415-626-6279, operaparallele.org, philipglasscenter.org — Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Rupa reunites with the Fishes
You could say that Rupa Marya lives a double life, spending her days as a doctor on faculty at UC San Francisco and her nights writing songs and playing music with her stylistically unbound band Rupa and the April Fishes.
After taking several months off from performing to have her second child, Marya returns to the stage to celebrate the impending release of a new April Fishes album at Yoshi’s, “Growing Upwards.”
The show will focus on songs written over the past four years “reflecting the frontline places I’ve been,” Marya says.
Details: 8 p.m. Wednesday; Yoshi’s, Oakland; $25; 510-238-9200, www.yoshis.com.