Still plenty of good entertainment left in region
As we approach Labor Day, the abundance of entertainment choices has dwindled. But what is left is still really good.
For instance, there is only one Live Nation concert left to be performed at SPAC. The good news is that concert is the great Zac Brown Band at 7 p.m. Saturday night. What a way to go.
A short drive to Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. gives you another opportunity to experience the Avett Brothers Thursday. One Friday, Tanglewood hosts Pete Townshend’s Classic Quadrophonia and Melissa Etheridge closes their pop season on Sunday.
Music festivals are still here as well. On Saturday night downtown Saratoga Springs hosts the Final Stretch Music Festival. It will feature four bands in four separate locations throughout downtown between 7 and 11 p.m.
If you prefer your music festivals bigger and less sedate, the Adirondack Independence Music Festival might be for you. It’s at the Charles R. Woods Commons in Lake George on Friday and Saturday. It features 16 bands playing on two stages over two days.
The music at the festival is tough to categorize. The headliner for the third annual festival is Twiddle, a popular jam band, but other groups who have been touring all summer represent rock, blues, Americana and funk. It’s big, it’s bold and it should be fun.
Music isn’t the only form of entertainment available. There is a lot of theater continuing through the holiday weekend.
If you are at Lake George and the music festival doesn’t appeal to you, but a dinner and a show sounds attractive, Lake Theatre in the Holiday Inn concludes its summer-long run of Neil Simon’s “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers” this weekend.
If you enjoy classic musicals, Theater Barn in New Lebanon concludes the summer portion of its season with “Guys and Dolls,” and Mac-Hayden Theatre in Chatham presents “Hello Dolly.” Both run through Sunday.
In the Berkshires, the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company” has been such a hit at Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, Mass., it’s been extended through September 10 on the main stage. On the second stage the one man show “Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose” finishes a limited run on Saturday. The one-man show featuring Ed Dixon is a backstage biography of the character actor George Rose as told by a long-time close friend.
What would a theater weekend be without a play by William Shakespeare? And who better to offer it but Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass.? The company is completing its run of “The Tempest” at its new outdoor space now through Saturday, with performances at 5 p.m.
However, they still offer an indoor experience. Shakespeare & Company returns to its roots at the Edith Wharton Estate to offer a theatrical adaptation of two of Wharton’s short stories presented in the drawing room of her personal estate. “Roman Fever” and “The Fullness of Life” continue through September 10.
Finally, for something totally out-of-the-box, Club Helsinki in Hudson presents Charles Busch performing his cabaret act “My Kinda 60s” on Saturday night. If you are not familiar with the star of such campy films as “Die Mommy Die,” to learn about him you need to do is look no further than his website on which he describes himself an ”actor, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director and drag legend.” They all show up in his act.
For a time of year when not much is going on – it seems there is a lot going on.