Stanford hosts a bash honoring 4 jazz titans
Keyboardist Danilo Perez, who has performed with some of jazz’s top names, is a featured performer tonight at a Jazz 100 concert at Stanford University’s Bing Concert Hall.
1 Jazz 100 — The Music of Dizzy, Ella, Mongo
& Monk: This concert production is built on the fact that four monumental names in jazz — Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Mongo Santamaria — all would have turned 100 in 2017. Paying tribute to these iconic performers/composers is an all-star ensemble including keyboardist Danilo Perez, saxophonist Chris Potter, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and singer Lizz Wright, among others.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Thursday 6; Bing Concert Hall, Stanford; $30-$65; 650-724-2464, https://live. stanford.edu 2
“1776”: While Berkeley Rep’s season opener “It Can’t Happen Here” examines the potential dark side of American politics, this musical by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone is an unabashedly patriotic recounting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It’s also a vastly entertaining and, yes, moving play, that is getting a production at Contra Costa Musical Theatre. Details: Friday through Nov. 5; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $51-$60; 925-943-7469, www.ccmt.org. 3 “Outside Mullingar”: Playwright John Patrick Shanley might be best known for the gripping Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Doubt: A Parable.” But he also wrote the quirky and heartwarming New York romantic comedy
“Moonstruck,” and it’s that side of Shanley’s considerable writing talents at play in “Outside Mullingar,” a stage romance set in Ireland between two farmers. It’s getting its regional premiere at TheatreWorks.
Details: Through Oct. 30; Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; $19-$80; 650-463-1960,www. theatreworks.org. 4 “St. Matthew Passion”: Bach’s oratorio set for choir, orchestra and solo vocalists is considered a classic in sacred choral music. California Bach Society, a 40member choir, is slated to present the work in three Bay Area venues this weekend, featuring the Kairos Youth Choir, tenor Brian Thorsett, baritone Sepp Hammer, soprano Jennifer Paulino and mezzo-soprano Danielle Sampson,
among other artists. Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday at First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at First Methodist Church, Palo Alto; 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley (rescheduled from First Congregational Church in Berkeley); $40; www.calbach.org. 5 3 Blonde Moms: This trio of comedians — Joanie Fagan, Donna Cherry and Beaumont Bacon — has become a hit national touring act with its fast-paced brand of PG-13 maternal humor. The Moms will return to the Bay Area on Saturday for a show at Pleasanton’s Firehouse Arts Center.
Details: 8 p.m.; $15$25; 925-931-4848, www. firehousearts.org.
6 “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”: It’s hard to believe it took 60 years for the Dorothy M. Johnson short story about good vs. evil in the wild West — which was adapted into a 1962 film by John Ford starring John Wayne and James Stewart — to make it to the stage. It debuted in London in 2014, and now Town Hall Theatre Company in Lafayette is taking a crack at it.
Details: Through Oct. 22; $25-$32; 925-283-1557; http://townhalltheatre. com.
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“Mortified”: The nationwide phenomenon returns to the Bay Area. For the uninitiated, “Mortified” is a touring show in which brave souls read/perform accounts of a momentous incident in their life — first kiss, prom, driver’s test, you get the idea — to the heartilyvoiced approval or disapproval of the (possibly inebriated) audience. The event makes two Bay Area stops this week.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday at DNA Lounge, San Francisco; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at New Parish, Oakland; $14-$20; http:// getmortified.com. 8 Parsons Dance: Choreographer and dance/theater creator David Parsons, who has worked with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Ballet and many others, formed this company in 1985 with an idea toward blending elements of traditional ballet, contemporary dance, theater and multimedia art. He brings the company to Livermore’s Bankhead Theater Friday for a single performance.
Details: 8 p.m.; $16-$80; 925-373-6800, http://lvpac.org. 9 Western Ballet: The Mountain View company is holding a fundraiser featuring performances by company dancers paying tribute to the late Venezuelan choreographer Vicente Nebrada as well as an appearance by ballerina and teacher Nina Novak, who came to fame as a member of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo.
Details: 4 p.m. Saturday; Western Ballet studio, Mountain View; $40-$80; www.westernballet.org. 10 “Unspoken”: This new dance film features the frenetic choreography of Dexandro “D” Montalvo, the trippy editing of filmmaker RJ Muna and electronic music by composer Daniel Berkman. The dancing was performed by the nine company members of Dance Theatre of San Francisco. It gets its world premiere beginning this week at San Francisco’s Vogue Theater.
Details: Oct. 7-13; $15$20; http://www.dancetheatersf.org