Paintings and Poetry for “Painted Poetry”
We love the art of Mary Page Evans, and we love the show of her work, “Painted Poetry,” currently at the Delaware Art Museum. Go there May 9 to hear some of the poetry that inspires the painter. Barbara Crooker and Elizabeth Seydel Morgan will read their original works. Evans—one of our most beloved local painters and a great aficionado of art, music, dance and poetry—will introduce the show, which includes more than 40 years of paintings and mixed-media representations of her favorite gardens, landscapes and seascapes. The exhibition is a fascinating window into the artist’s evolution. 571-9590, delart.org
School of Rock and Cool Concertos
Rock around the clock—or at least through the evening—when The Music School of Delaware presents “Rock My World,” a tour of rock ’n’ roll from the 1950s through the 1990s. Bobby sox, long hair, big hair—anything goes. It’s a departure for the school’s faculty and students, whose regular study tends toward the traditional, but it promises to be a rollick just the same. Guest vocalists Faye and Noelle Picara will rock it. It all happens at The Grand Opera House on May 12. 762-1132, musicschoolofdelaware.org
Also brought to you by The Music School of Delaware: a concert featuring the winners of the Delaware Concerto Competition for Young Musicians and the Wilmington Community Orchestra. The evening begins with the concerto winners, then continues with student and adult chamber ensembles, the Delaware Women’s Chorus, the Delaware Children’s Chorus and a dynamic performance by the WCO. See it May 14 at The Grand Opera House. 652-5577, musicschoolofdelaware.org
A Friendly Affair
Concert III in the Brahms and Friends trio series is May 8. It features members of Serafin String Quartet with pianist friends in a program of music for piano, cello and violin. The program for the final concert includes Johannes Brahms’ Sonatensatz for Violin and Piano, Schumann’s Sonata in a minor violin sonata, Schumann’s Phantasiestücke for Cello and Piano, and Brahms’ Violin Sonata in d minor. Be transported. Go to First & Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. Thank Market Street Music. 654-537, marketstreetmusicde.org
Feed Me, Seymour
Who can forget man-eating Audrey II, the man-eating plant hell-bent on world domination? See her, uh, him, uh, it in “Little Shop of Horrors” by Clear Space Theatre Company starting May 11. David Button plays hapless floral assistant Seymour Krelborn, who has to deal with the giant singing Venus flytrap while trying to thwart disaster. “The show has a different mood and feel, more contemporary music, and a fantastical story,” says Button. “But all of this combines to make the audience connect emotionally to characters that, out of context, would seem utterly ridiculous.” In context, they’re utterly hilarious. See it through May 27 at the Clear Space Theatre in Rehoboth Beach. 227-2270, clearspacetheatre.org
The Shows Go On
It’s almost summertime, and the livin’ is easy. You know the tune—one of the most memorable from Broadway. Hear it when OperaDelaware presents “Porgy and Bess” May 11-12 at The Grand Opera House. Be transported to Catfish Row for a real lesson in the love of life—and hear classics such as “A Woman is A Sometime Thing” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” 800-374-7263, operade.org
See what happens live when America’s seventh president is re-imagined as a rock ’n’ roll god hell-bent on creating a real government for the people, by the people—and how it works out—when City Theatre Company stages the rock musical “Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson” through May 12. See it at the OperaDelaware Black Box. 220-8285, city-theater.org
Come on down to Miss Mona’s Chicken Ranch—“The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”—for a good time, as provided by the Wilmington Drama League. Follow reporter Melvin P. Thorpe as he tries to shut down Miss Mona. Is anything dirty really happening here? Inspired by a true story, “Whorehouse” delighted audiences for four years on Broadway. 764-3396, wilmingtondramaleague.org
Who can resist this? In “The Skin of Our Teeth,” the inventor of the wheel, his family and his saucy maid face calamity after calamity—war, flood, famine, climate change and economic collapse—yet somehow manage to pull through. Yes, there is hope. This uproarious Pulitzer winner even offers wooly mammoth. Need we say more? Catch the UD’s Resident Ensemble Players production at Roselle Center for the Arts in Newark through July 5. 831-2204, rep.udel.edu
You roared at the movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Now you can see “The Wedding Singer” on stage in a musical at The New Candlelight Theatre. As the good people there say, party like it’s 1985. We promise lots of laughs. See it through May 20. 475-2313, nctstage.org
Most Artful
In “Picturing WWI: The American Illustration Collection of the Delaware National Guard,” the Biggs Museum of American Art shows works by local illustrators such as Frank E. Schoonover (1877-1972) and Gayle Porter Hoskins (1887-1962) as created for magazines such as Ladies Home Journal to depict key events of the war. It’s a rare opportunity to view the collection of the Delaware National Guard. Visit through June 24. 674-2111, biggsmuseum.org
Cheers to Winterthur for “Uncorked! Wine, Objects & Tradition,” a celebration of 300 objects and imagery created in response to our love of wine. “Uncorked!” shows how wine was marketed and consumed in America and Britain from the 1600s through the 1800s. See unique wine bottles, decanters and cellarettes, lead figures of Bacchus, “Champagne Charlie” song sheets, advertisements and more. The exhibition will be on view through Jan. 6. winterthur.org/uncorked
“American Masters Art of the 19th and 20th centuries” at Somerville Manning Gallery in Greenville shows works by contemporaries of the Wyeth family. You’ll see works by N.C., American Impressionists Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twatchtman, Ashcan School artists Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn and William Glackens, and masters John Singer Sargent and Thomas Anschutz. There’s more. See it through June 2. 652-0271, somervillemanning.com
On the Way to Cape May…
This is just too cool—cruise on the MV Twin Capes while enjoying live music by the Dover Symphony Orchestra. Symphony at Sea “Spirit of America” on May 12 is the second annual fundrasing gala for the orchestra, and a truly unique opportunity. There is a wine tasting and silent auction in addition to the concert, not to mention delicious hors d’oeuvres. Reservations are required, so act now. For info, call 492-0353, or 270-1903. For tickets, call the Cape May-Lewes Ferry at 1-800- 64FERRY or click cmlf.com.
