Weekend Hotlist
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Emilie Autumn brings a glam-rock touch to Mr. Small's tonight. -
The TypewriterGirls == Crystal Hoffman, left, and Margaret Bashaar == put their minds to helping Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
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Emilie's Asylum
The name Emilie Autumn sounds harmless enough, and certainly doesn't prepare anyone for the gothic onslaught unleashed by this classically trained violinist who came to fame in Courtney Love's band.
The Los Angeles-born Autumn combines classical, cabaret, electronica and glam-rock, and dresses it up with flamboyant costumes, pink hair and stage theatrics from her band, The Bloody Crumpets. The songs deal with such subjects as suicide and her stay in a psych ward ("Thank God I'm Pretty"), so the goth appeal is high.
"The Asylum show is a glam-rock circus where 'tea' is never really just tea, and madness reigns," she has said. "This is no rock show; I have no interest in rock shows. This is vaudeville. This is a [expletive] Broadway musical."
The show is at 8 p.m. at Mr. Small's Theatre in Millvale. Tickets are $15. Call 1-866-468-3401.
Young 'Nutcracker'
Sugar Plum Fairy season officially arrives this weekend with the Pittsburgh Youth Ballet Company and the Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh both presenting their productions of "The Nutcracker," one week before the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's.
• Ballet Classique, comprising students from the Ballet Academy of Pittsburgh, will perform "The Nutcracker" Friday and Saturday at Independence Middle School Theater, 2807 Bethel Church Road, Bethel Park.
In the role of the Cavalier will be Stephen Hanna, a Castle Shannon native and New York City Ballet principal dancer currently playing the role of the adult Billy Elliot in the Broadway production. Hanna received his early training with Roberto Munoz at the Point Park Conservatory and went on to study and graduate from the prestigious School of American Ballet.
Performing the role of the Sugarplum Fairy will be Maura Bell, 16, of Mt. Lebanon, and Jillian Schepis, 16, of Upper St. Clair.
Performances are at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 adults; $15 for seniors and children 12 and under. Call 412-343-9333.
• The Pittsburgh Youth Ballet Company's "Nutcracker," under longtime artistic director Jean Gedeon, will be performed at the Upper St. Clair Theater Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Also, the CAPA Symphony Orchestra will accompany PYBC on Dec. 18 and 19 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $10 to $25. For more information, call 724-969-6000 or go to www.pybco.com.
Pop culture heaven
First came the invasion of the zombies, and now it's the geeks converging on Monroeville for the latest Steel City Con.
The toy, comic and pop culture convention touches down at the Monroeville Convention Center Friday through Sunday, with guests including Ernie Hudson of "Ghostbusters" fame, Robb Demarest from Syfy Network's "Ghost Hunters International" and Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca in the "Star Wars" films. Post-Gazette editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers and Emmy-winning puppeteer Jim Martin will be on hand at the Toonseum booth.
Hours are 2-7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 a day or $20 for a three-day pass. Steel City gives away up to 1,000 toy-and-comics goodie bags to attendees who purchase a three-day pass.
Alloy unlocks
Dance Alloy will leave "The Nutcracker' to others and instead culminate its fall season with "Alloy Unlocked ... Part I," a program Friday through Sunday at the New Hazlett Theater that will feature two world premieres and two repertory pieces.
Pearlann Porter, artistic director of The Pillow Project, will premiere "Itch of the Key," a neoclassical thriller inspired by a score from an old Dracula movie by Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet. The dancers will be framed entirely by the light of a projector. "I wanted to tap into the lost romance of voyeurism," Porter notes.
Former company member Gwen Hunter Ritchie will premiere "Look Me in the Eyes," which "tackles the five senses at their most extreme" set to an original score made by Andy Hasenpflug.
"Alloy Unlocked ... Part I" will also feature two pieces from DAT's repertory: "Arms" by Susan Marshall and "White Man Sleep" by Donald Byrd.
Performances are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; and 7 p.m. Monday at the Hazlett, 6 Allegheny Square, North Side. Tickets are $25; $20 students. Call 412-363-4321 or visit www.dancealloy.org.
Satin doo-wop
The State Theatre in Uniontown will be doo-wop central Friday for a Rockin' Holiday Doo Wop Celebration with local and national acts.
The headliners are Fred Parris and The Satins, best known for the song "In the Still of the Night," and Pittsburgh's own Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners ("Since I Don't Have You," "This I Swear").
Also on the bill are Barbara Harris & The Toys, who soared up the charts in the early '60s with "A Lover's Concerto" and "Attack," plus Johnny Farina (of Santo & Johnny) and Shades of Blue ("Oh How Happy").
Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets start at $35. The Fayette County Community Action Agency Food Bank will be collecting nonperishable food items in the theater lobby. Call 724-439-1360.
Marianne!
Mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti returns to her roots when she performs with the Butler County Symphony Orchestra in its holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. at Butler Intermediate High School.
Cornetti is a native of Cabot, Butler County, and attended Knoch High School and Duquesne University before joining the Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist program (she recently received the Pittsburgh Opera's Renaissance Award). She is renowned as a Verdi mezzo-soprano, meaning she has a potent and energetic voice and dramatic delivery, but she has a personality perfect for sweet and nostalgic holiday music, too. Elisabeth Heath Charles conducts. Tickets are $5-$22. Call 724-283-1402 or visit www.butlersymphony.org.
Hot frost
Flutist Chris Norman brings a program to the Renaissance & Baroque Society that he first introduced with his band, the Chris Norman Ensemble, in 2004. But this program of music from his CD "In the Fields in Frost and Snow" will be much more intimate, because only Norman, who also sings, and violinist David Greenberg will be on stage.
Greenberg will make up for the fewer folks -- he doubles as a baroque violinist and a fiddler steeped in the traditional maritime Canadian music that Norman investigates in this program. Because this sometimes melancholy but often sizzling repertoire stems from 18th-century Scotland and Ireland, both sides of Greenberg and Norman's talents come into play (the duo also will weave in works by baroque masters C.P.E. Bach, Telemann, and Tartini). It's a rare chance to hear "winter" music that isn't cliched or overdone.
The performance is 8 p.m. Saturday at Synod Hall, Oakland. Pre-concert talk is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10-$35; call 412-361-2048 or visit www.rbsp.org.
Village Christmas
Old Economy Village is struggling this holiday season, due to state budget cuts, and hoping that funds raised from Christmas at the Village will help keep the historic landmark afloat.
The annual holiday event at the Harmonist village on Saturday will feature a Christmas Marketplace with tree ornaments, candles, home decoratives, wood furnishings and carvings, European blown glass, tin lanterns, wooden toys and more.
Adding festive entertainment will be handbell ringers, the Old Economy Village 1830 Orchestra and other musical groups, the children's puppet theater, and Belsnickel, St. Nick's grouchy helper.
Traditional festive German dishes will be available 2-7:30 p.m. at St. John's Lutheran Church.
It runs 2-8:30 p.m. Tickets -- $10 per adult, $5 per child (ages 3-17) -- will be sold at the Visitor Center, 270 Sixteenth St., Ambridge. Go to www.oldeconomyvillage.org.
Authors away
More than 50 regional authors will mingle with visitors and sign books Saturday at the Senator John Heinz History Center for the seventh annual Holiday Book Fair.
Among those on hand will be Art Rooney Jr. and Roy McHugh ("Ruanaidh: The Story of Art Rooney and His Clan"), KDKA-TV's Jennifer Antkowiak ("Caring Questions") and Dave Crawley ("Cat Poems" and "Dog Poems"), Jim O'Brien ("Pittsburgh Proud") and Eleanor Schano ("Riding the Airwaves").
The Book Fair runs 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and is free.
Regular admission prices apply for History Center exhibits, which include "Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation," celebrating the city's impact on the world over the past 250 years, and the traveling "Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War and Lincoln Slept Here."
For details, go to www.heinzhistorycenter.org.
Hillbilly jam
Bands like The Ebony Hillbillies don't come around every day.
Here's an African-American string band that plays rootsy Americana in both Carnegie Hall and on the subway platform at Grand Central Station.
The Hillbillies, playing Carnegie Lecture Hall on Saturday, are led by Henrique Prince on fiddle and vocals and Norris Bennett on banjo, dulcimer and vocals, with William "Salty Bill" Salter on acoustic bass and A.R. on washboard and percussion. Their CD, "I Thought You Knew," features raw, unhinged versions of classic folk and bluegrass tunes such as "Jericho" and "Liza Jane."
Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society presents the show, with opening act The Lackawanna Longnecks, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 (advance), $40 (door), $20 (student rush). Call 412-394-3353 or go to www. proartstickets.org.
Poetry party
Avant-garde cabaret troupe The TypewriterGirls will raise awareness and funds for Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh with a poetry reading and performance Sunday at Carnegie Library Lecture Hall.
This show also will feature poets Nancy Krygowski and Sandra Beasley, performance artist Christiane D., song stylist Phat Man Dee, hip-hop dance group Naka Entertainment and stuntman Dave Doyle.
There will also be a silent auction filled with goods from local artists, musicians, poets, restaurants and shops, with all the proceeds going to the library's operating fund.
It begins at 6 p.m. Minimum donation is $7. For details, go to www.typewritergirls.net.
• There's acoustic guitar and then there's classical guitar, and no group has the pedigree of the Romeros for the latter. Saturday, "The Royal Family of the Guitar" plays a concert at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild sponsored by the Guitar Society of Fine Art. Concert is at 8 p.m. Tickets are $40; visit www.gsfapittsburgh.org.
• Singer-songwriter Jason Kendall goes the instrumental route on his sophomore effort, "Traditions," a "saxophone-starring" collection of holiday favorites. The release show tonight at 8 at Club Cafe will feature songs of the season and jazz standards with guest vocalists Maddie Georgi, Peace Ike, Joel Lindsey and Brad Yoder. A portion of the proceeds from CD sales will benefit Project Bundle Up. Admission is $8. Call 1-866-468-3401 or visit www.ticketweb.com.
• The I Made It! Market sets up at the Union Project in East Liberty Saturday with 60 local artists and crafters offering naturally made body products, T-shirts, jewelry, hand-knitted accessories, housewares, plush, handbags, environmentally friendly hand-bound books, hand-pressed greeting cards, photography, baby items, ceramics, dollhouse miniatures, felted animals and more. It runs from noon to 5 p.m. Go to www.imadeitmarketblog.com.
• Collectors can buy, sell or trade their vinyl at the Pittsburgh Record Fest Friday at 8 pm. at Belvedere's in Lawrenceville. Adding a soundtrack will be DJ June Bug from Memphis, Dan Allen, DJ Ms. Cadaver Jones and live rock from TheMount Mckinleys. Admission is $3. Go to www.myspace.com/pittsburghrecordfest.
First Published December 3, 2009 12:00 am
