Goodtimes Your guide to what’s hot
Blues and beignets?
San Jose bluesman Chris Cain can play with the best in the business. Just ask another blues guitar hero, Joe Bonamassa.
“Hands down (Cain is) my favorite blues player on the scene today,” Bonamassa is quoted as saying. “He’s an absolute blinder of a guitarist, with the voice of B.B. King and the chops of Albert King.”
You can see and hear for yourself Saturday when Cain performs two shows at the blues and Cajun food joint Poor House Bistro in San Jose. The 6 p.m. show is listed as sold out but, at last check, ducats still remained for the matinee show that starts at noon.
Poor House Bistro has reopened with limited inside dining as well as patio dining, with COVID-19 precautions in effect. The venue is offering live blues shows several nights a week that, unlike Cain’s shows, do not require reservations.
The vocalist-guitarist is celebrating the release of his Alligator Records debut CD, “Raisin’ Cain,” featuring 12 originals that showcase both his musical and songwriting skills.
Details: $40-$120; email manager@poorhousebistro.com for reservations; poorhousebistro.com.
The plays are the thing
Here are two shows and a festival theater fans should know about. “The Escape of Frederick Douglass”: The Marsh performance venue streams this solo show by Bay Area writer, performer and educator Darryl Van Leer, based on the memoir “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” The show depicts, as publicity materials explain, “some of the most gut-wrenching moments of the activist’s life, from leaving his nurturing mother and grandmother, to brutal encounters with the notorious slave owner Edward Covey, and his thrilling and suspenseful train ride to freedom.” The show will be followed by a Q&A with Van Leer and Marsh founder and artistic director Stephanie Weisman. Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday; free but donations encouraged; themarsh.org.
TheatreWorks New Works Festival Online: TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is presenting its popular festival as a virtual event, livestreaming sneak peeks of a wide variety of emerging works. Two shows deal with President Donald Trump’s 2017 Muslim travel ban: Arab American playwright Betty Shamieh’s comedy “As Soon as Impossible,” and Kareem Fahmy’s family drama “A Distinct Society.” Also included are an early look at the musical “Lizard Boy,” which will open TheatreWorks’ 51st season in the fall, and Dan Wolf’s digital theatre/hip-hop take on “The Merchant of Venice,” titled “Currency.” Details: Friday through May 15; passes are pay what you can (minimum is $10); www.theatreworks.org.
“More Than Grapes”: Carlos Aguirre, Jeffrey Lo and Lisa Ramirez wrote and star in this new play, directed by Sean San José, about the lead-up to the game-changing Delano Grape Strike of 1965-70 and the legacies of such labor activists as Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong. Details: Presented by TheatreFirst; tickets ($15) on sale through May 8; play will stream through August; theatrefirst.com.