FUN
Wildwood Park for the Arts, 20919 Denny Road, Little Rock, once again offers park-wide illumination via its Lanterns festival, 6-10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2-10 p.m. Saturday. The festival features a modest "trip around the world" in which visitors can sample food, attend performances (including a Grand Ole Opry-style stage show) and view crafts from four cultures (China, Argentina, England and Nashville, Tenn.) and, for children, two fantasy lands (Fairytale Forest and Pirate Land).
Hundreds of luminarias line woodland paths between each venue. A free stage show featuring country singers and dancers will take place at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. each night indoors in the Cabe Festival Theatre. As in past years, visitors can purchase a floating lantern and set it adrift on the park's central Swan Lake.
Gates open at 5:30 p.m. today and Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday will be the rain date; in case of rainouts, tickets for whatever that day is will be honored on any other day. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the gate, free for children 12 and younger. Guests will need to purchase WildBucks scrip at stations throughout the park to exchange for food and beverages or floating lanterns. Proceeds support the park's nature trails, gardens, concerts, stage shows and arts education programs. Free parking is available, with free shuttles to the park every 20 minutes, at the Promenade at Chenal, 17000 block of Chenal Parkway.
Call (501) 821-7275 or visit wildwoodlanterns.org.
THEATER
'American Beauty'
The Weekend Theater, 1001 W. Seventh St. at Chester Street, Little Rock, stages "American Beauty" (music and lyrics by Michael Rice, book by Jack Heifner, Romulus Linney, Kent R. Brown, Hank Bates, Mary Rohde Scudded and Cliff Fanin Baker), 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 26-27 and May 3-4, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 28 and May 5. The pastiche on beauty pageants focuses on seven young women (Sascha Bass, Berkeley Courtney-Moore, Maya Johnson, Bella Insalaco, Lauren Lasseigne, Anabelle Owen and LeAnne Roberson) vying for the title of Miss Delta Queen; in includes a talent competition that is a montage of country, pop and operatic singers; a marimba player; a tap dancer; a twirler; and an ill-performed dramatic monologue. The cast also includes Jamie Boshears, Kelley Ponder and Drew Jansen; Bob Bidewell directs with musical direction by Jeannie Cross. The show, originally titled "Pageant," premiered in January 1988 at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Tickets are $25, $23 for students, senior citizens and military. Visit centralarkansastickets.com.
Theater on the lam?
The Royal Players stage "Bonnie & Clyde" (music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, book by Ivan Menchell), 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through April 28 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. Tickets are $18, $15 for those 60-plus, members of the military and college students with valid ID; $8 for K-12 students. Visit TheRoyalPlayers.TicketLeap.com. For more information, call (501) 315-5483.
ASU-Beebe 'Wonderland'
Arkansas State University-Beebe's theater department stages a student-written adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," 7 p.m. today, Friday and Sunday and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday in the Owen Center theater, 1102 W. College St., Beebe. Tickets are $5. Call (501) 882-8855 or visit asub.Ticketleap.com.
MUSIC
On screen, in concert
Hear and see "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in Concert, a screening of the film with a live orchestra (the Arkansas Symphony) performing the John Williams score, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway, Little Rock. Tickets are $56-$126. Call (501) 244-8800 or visit Ticketmaster.com.
Organist Beau Baldwin offers a "Festival of the Senses" recital Sunday at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in North Little Rock. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Organ-ized recital
Beau Baldwin, organist and director of music at Little Rock's Cathedral of Saint Andrew, gives a recital at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 4106 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, part of the church's Festival of the Senses performing arts series.
Baldwin's program includes Dieterich Buxtehude's Praeludium in g minor; Johann Pachelbel's Fantasia in d minor; Felix Mendelssohn's Sonata No. 2 in c minor; an improvisation on the hymn "What Wondrous Love Is This?"; "Rhosymedre," one of the Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes by Ralph Vaughan Williams; "Master Tallis' Testament" by Herbert Howells; and "Suite Médiévale" by Jean Langlais.
Admission is free. The concert will also be livestreamed on Facebook (facebook.com/frcarey) and will be available later on the church website, stlukeepiscopal.org. Call (501) 753-3578 or email baxternan@aol.com.
Angel Blue sings the role of Magda with Jonathan Tetelman as Ruggero in Puccini's "La Rondine" at the Metropolitan Opera. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Karen Almond, Metropolitan Opera)
Opera in HD
The Metropolitan Opera "cinecasts" its production of Giacomo Puccini's "La Rondine" for its "Live in HD" series, 11:55 a.m. Saturday to movie theaters across the country, including the Movie Tavern, 11300 Bass Pro Parkway, Little Rock, and the Central City 10, 909 Higdon Ferry Road, Hot Springs.
American soprano Angel Blue sings the role of the French courtesan Magda, opposite Chilean-born tenor Jonathan Tetelman in his Met debut as Ruggero. Speranza Scappucci conducts. Visit metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/2023-24-season/la-rondine/.
Sylamore Special performs Saturday during the Next Generation Concert at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Generational bluegrass
Youth bluegrass and old-time music groups perform for the Next Generation Concert, 7 p.m. Saturday at the Ozark Folk Center, 1032 Park Ave., Mountain View, part of the Arkansas Folk Festival. The concert is a fundraiser, sponsored by the Committee of One Hundred, for the Music Roots Program, which provides free music lessons and loaned instruments for home-school and public-school students in the Mountain View area.
The lineup includes Sylamore Special; Taller Than You, featuring Ben Haguewood on hammered dulcimer; Ozark Strangers, featuring state fiddle champion Truett Brannon; 5 South, featuring state fiddle champion Kailee Spickes; the Parker Unit, featuring Mary Parker on fiddle and Gordan Parker on mandolin; a special performance by the Music Roots Ensemble, square dancers from the Ozark Folk Center; and guest appearances by the Ozark Granny Chicks featuring Pam Setser. Tickets are $15, $8 for children, $35 for a Family Pass (which admits two adults and children under 18); $2 more day of show. Visit OzarkFolkCenter.Ticketleap.com.
ART
Argenta 'Motherload'
"Motherload," works by The Mothers, a Central Arkansas artist collective, goes on display with a 5-8 p.m. Third Friday Art Walk reception Friday at the Argenta Library, 420 Main St., North Little Rock. The exhibition will be up through May 10. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission is free. Call (501) 687-1061 or visit NLRlibrary.org.
"The Mothers" includes artists Katie Adkins, Melissa Bacon, Catherine Burton, Margo Duvall, Nancy Dunaway, Amanda Heinbockel Naus, Tammy Harrington, Lana Johnson, Dolores Justus, Lisa Krannichfeld, Deborah Kuster, Hannah May, Jessica Mongeon, Marriane Nolley, Laura Raborn, Cary Smith, Dominique Simmons, Lisa Thorpe, Miranda Young and Emily Moll Wood.
ETC.
Conway wedding show
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette holds its 13th Conway Wedding Show, 1-4 p.m. Sunday at The Stables at Cherokee Creek, 84 Cherokee Creek Lane, Conway. More than 40 vendors are expected to be on hand to help engaged couples plan weddings. There will be prize giveaways throughout the afternoon; at 4 p.m., one couple, through a random drawing, will receive the Ultimate Wedding Package, valued at more than $5,000, including photography, wedding jewelry, a wedding cake and DJ packages. Engaged couples will receive a free 2024 Democrat-Gazette Wedding Planner. Tickets are $10. Call (501) 378-3807 or visit arkansasbridalcommunity.com.