MUSIC
A tribute band, anchored by brothers Billy, Matthew and Ryan McGuigan, performs Beatles songs by audience request in "Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience," 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Reynolds Performance Hall at the University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Audience members will fill out request cards before the show with their name, their favorite Beatles song and the reason why they chose it. The band creates a set list two minutes before the show begins. Tickets are $34.50-$57.50, $10 for children/students. Proceeds benefit UCA's Main Stage Education Program, which takes children to the theater to experience live performing arts. Call (501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012 or visit uca.edu/reynolds.
"Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience" is onstage Saturday at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Bluegrass Festival
The 1,000-seat indoor Ozark Highlands Theater at Ozark Folk Center State Park, 1032 Park Ave., Mountain View, is the venue Thursday-Saturday for the 22nd Mountain View Spring Bluegrass Festival.
An All-Gospel Music Show 6-10 p.m. today features multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and International Bluegrass Music Awards winner Becky Buller, plus performances by the Dave Adkins Band and Catahoula Drive. Friday and Saturday matinee and evening shows (5:45 p.m.) feature The Seldom Scene, the Gibson Brothers, SpringStreet, Edgar Loudermilk, the Baker Family and Big Mill.
Tickets are $20, $25 for premium seating (first five rows) today, $25 and $35 Friday and Saturday (good for all shows that day). A full schedule, more information and tickets are available at MountainView-Bluegrass.com. Call (870) 269-3851. The event is produced by Mountain View Bluegrass Association, a nonprofit that benefits the Music Roots Program for youths in Mountain View Public Schools.
Becky Buller headlines an All-Gospel Music Show Thursday and The Seldom Scene performs for shows Friday and Saturday for the 22nd Mountain View Spring Bluegrass Festival at Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Band opens season
The North Little Rock Community Concert Band opens its 2024 concert season, at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Patrick Henry Hays Center, 401 W. Pershing Blvd., North Little Rock. Admission is free. Call (501) 920-2539 or visit nlrcommunityband.com.
The program, which Music Director Rico Belotti titles "Connections," features music composed or arranged by musicians from Arkansas or with Arkansas ties, including "Accolade" by Little Rock native and McClellan High School alumnus Brady Massey; "Brasses to the Fore," by Littler Rock High School alumnus Harold L. Walters; an arrangement by Dana Paul Perna of Little Rock native Florence Price's "The Old Boatman"; "At a Dixieland Jazz Funeral" by Arkansas State University professor emeritus Jared Spears; the regimental march "Brighton Camp" by Little Rock native Randall Standridge; and "The Strategic Air Command" by Traskwood native and Little Rock High alumnus J. Clifton Williams. The ensemble's new associate director, retired North Little Rock High School director Bill Spainhour, will conduct W. Francis McBeth's "Grace Praeludium," commissioned in 1982 by the Arkansas Bandmasters Association in honor of Director Emeritus J. Raymond Brandon and his wife, Ruth.
Two-piano program
Pianists Jaeyeon Park and Naoki Hakutani perform for the Little Rock Musical Coterie's monthly meeting, 2 p.m. Sunday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1101 N. Mississippi St., Little Rock. Park will play two of the three Klavierstücke, D.946, by Franz Schubert and Schubert's "Meerestille" (arranged by Franz Liszt for solo piano). She and Hakutani will play Schubert's "March Militaire" in D major, op.51 No. 1, for piano four-hands and, in a piano-four-hands arrangement, five of Johannes Brahms' "Liebeslieder Waltzes," op.52a. Admission is free. Call (501) 940-1562.
'Forceful' Verdi
The Met: Live in HD will "cinecast" the Metropolitan Opera's performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" to theaters across the country at 11 a.m. Saturday, including the Movie Tavern Little Rock, 11300 Bass Pro Parkway, Little Rock, and the Central City 10, 909 Higdon Ferry Road, Hot Springs. Soprano Lise Davidsen sings the role of Leonora; Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts. Ticket information is available at tinyurl.com/36e5uu3t.
Lise Davidsen sings the lead role of Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" at the Metropolitan Opera. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Paola Kudacki/Met Opera)
THEATER
Shakespeare at Hendrix
The Hendrix Players continue their run of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday in Cabe Theatre at Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave., Conway.
Viola (Lovey Krone), shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria on the Adriatic coast, and mourning the supposed death of her twin brother in the wreck, disguises herself as a young man, renames herself Cesario and goes to work for Duke Orsino (Seth Fortune). He sends her to woo a noblewoman, Olivia (Lilly Wells), who has been refusing all suitors -- until she falls in love with "Cesario." Co-sponsor is the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language; the director, Daryl W. Phillipy, is this year's Murphy Visiting Theatre Director.
The production includes flashing lights and loud noises. Admission is free. To reserve tickets, visit bit.ly/TWELFTHNIGHTTIX. For more information, call (501) 450-1343.
Seth Fortune (from left) plays Orsino, with Lovey Krone as Viola (disguised as Cesario) and Lilly Wells as Olivia in "Twelfth Night" at Hendrix College in Conway. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Upending the status quo
A work-from-home mom and her live-at-home transgender son upend the status quo of the nuclear family in "HIR" by Taylor Mac. The University of Arkansas Little Rock continues its run, 7:30 p.m. today-Friday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Haislip Theatre, Center for Performing Arts, UALR, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. Post-show conversations will discuss the issues the show highlights. Admission is by free ticket -- seating is limited, so reserve one at bit.ly/hir-seats. For more information, email slpa@ualr.edu.
'Mary Poppins Jr.'
Benton's Young Players stage "Mary Poppins Jr." (original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman; new songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles & Anthony Drewe; book by Julian Fellows, based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film), 7 p.m. today-Saturday and March 14-15 and 2 p.m. Sunday and March 16 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market Str., Benton. (A 2 p.m. matinee this Saturday is sold out.)
The Umbrella Cast -- including Maggie Kennedy as Mary Poppins, Dawson Claire Jones as Jane, Gus Howell as Michael, Jax Judd as Bert and Sarah Nuss as Winifred -- performs for evening shows Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 16. The Kite Cast -- with Abby Grace Neufer as Mary Poppins, Macy McGinty as Jane, Jonah Wayne as Michael, Haddie Hinson as Bert and Skylar Fairley as Winifred -- is onstage tonight, Saturday and Sunday matinees and March 15.
Sponsor is Everett Chevrolet. Tickets are $18, $15 for senior citizens 60-plus, members of the military and college students with valid ID; $8 for K-12 students. Visit TheRoyalPlayers.TicketLeap.com.
'Cabaret Event'
Area performers 16 and older can show off vocal and instrumental talents and win prizes at "ART WORKS Presents: A Cabaret Event," 6-8 p.m. Friday at the Adam B. Robinson Jr. Black Box Theater at ART WORKS on Main, 627 S. Main St., Pine Bluff. Bethany Gere hosts. Entry fee is $10, $5 for students and members of the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas. Drinks (including beer and wine for patrons 21 and older) and snacks will be sold. Call (870) 536-3375 or email bgere@artx3.org.
ART
Watercolor exhibition
The 54th annual Juried Exhibition of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists opens with a 6-8 pm. reception (including a 5:30 presentation of awards determined by juror Alicia Farris) Friday at Laman Library Gallery, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. The exhibit remains up through April 26. Library hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Admission is free. Call (501) 758-1720 or visit NLRlibrary.org.
"Afternoon Bales" by Gary Simmons,"Riding Champs" by Tim Hacker and "Pondering" by Laura Remmel are part of the 54th annual Juried Exhibition of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists, opening Friday at the Laman Library Gallery in North Little Rock. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
ETC.
Book sale shifts venue
The Central Arkansas Library System holds its spring Used Book Sale, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday-Saturday at the Port Industrial Hub, 7773 Sloane Drive, Little Rock, the temporary location of CALS administration offices. Prices for used books will be $1 for paperbacks, $2 for hardbacks. A preview, 3-5 p.m. today, is open to 2023 and lifetime members of Friends of CALS and those who have donated $25 or more to the CALS Foundation or Friends of CALS in the last year. Book sale proceeds support library programs. Call (501) 918-3000 or visit cals.org.
Garden Fest
Flora; workshops covering hydroponics, hummingbirds, beekeeping and urban gardening; food trucks; and family-friendly activities are all part of the North Little Rock Public Library System's Garden Fest, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday at the William F. Laman Public Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. The event also features local artists, garden vendors, plant-and-seed swaps and craft workshops. Admission is free. A full schedule of events is available at NLRlibrary.org/gardenfest. Call (501) 758-1720.