7+1

Top Pick

Words as Weapons. Sometimes uncomfortable dinner conversations make for great art. Case in point: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Playwright Edward Albee's lauded masterpiece eavesdrops a professor and his wife as they socialize with a younger couple over drinks and a meal. The foursome's conversation quickly devolves, however, into intellectual sparring, psychological maneuvering and verbal one-upmanship...leading to shattering emotional consequences. Get an earful at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, 2nd & Cincinnati, July 5-7 at 8pm. For mature audiences only.

Thursday, July 5

Want an eye-opening experience today? Head over to Living Arts Gallery, 308 S. Kenosha, and experience "Sites Unseen," an exhibit featuring the oil paintings of Tulsa artist Alan Frakes and the photography of architecture professor Wes Janz of Indiana. Their art takes a hard look at the enormous quantities of stuff we Americans throw away everyday... and how it's affecting our urban areas. Gallery hours are 5-8pm Thursdays and 1-4pm Saturdays.

Friday, July 6

For an inspired night of dance and music from Europe and Asia don't miss a performance of Café Aman, brought to you by Tulsa Folkloric Dance Theater at the Tulsa PAC, 2nd & Cincinnati, as part of the PAC's SummerStage 2007 series. Set in a Greek taverna, this lighthearted revue features traditional dance from the Middle East, North Africa, China, Ireland, Morocco and Greece. Curtain rises at 7:30pm.

Saturday, July 7

Über-popular American Idol veteran Clay Aiken--perhaps the most famous runner-up in the history of talent competitions--hits the stage at the Brady Theater tonight for a concert with the Brady Symphony Orchestra. Fanatical "Claymates" from all over town will, no doubt, be in attendance. And probably crying. Hysterically. You've been warned. Doors open at 7pm, show kicks off at 8pm. Brady Theater is located at 105 W. Brady.

Sunday, July 8

Are you ready for a night of jazz, country, pop, blues and swing--and two inimitable voices--all in one remarkable concert? We're talking, of course, about the music of k.d. lang and Lyle Lovett, both of whom will grace the stage of the Brady Theater, 105 W. Brady, this evening. Lovett will even have his big band in tow. Should be pretty amazing. Doors open at 6:30pm.

Monday, July 9

Go west young man (and woman). Head out to Gilcrease Museum, 1400 Gilcrease Museum Rd., and take in their current exhibit, "Space Silent Spirit: Maynard Dixon's West." Dixon utilized styles ranging from realism to modernism to abstraction and cubism in his efforts to interpret his love for the rugged beauty of the American West. His well-known works are some of the most iconic images of the early 20th century. For more info, call 596-2700.

Tuesday, July 10

If you have an eye for local art, don't miss Anthology 2007, the Tulsa Artists' Coalition's Annual Juried Members Show. Vote on your favorite piece and help select the People's Choice Award. Official jurors will award the "Best in Show" prize. Gallery hours are 11am-2pm. Admission is free! Visit tacgallery.org for more details.

Wednesday, July 11

Hank Williams III may resemble his legendary dad and granddad physically, but make no mistake this particular Hank (along with his band Assjack) create music that is definitely not old school country. Think loud...and fast...and really angry. Seriously. Hank and his buddies will hit the stage tonight at Cain's Ballroom, 423 N. Main, along with Big Red Goad with Power of Country. Doors open at 7pm.

Thursday, July 12

Woody Guthrie is an American icon...perhaps the biggest folk music legend of all time. And he's an Okie by birth. That's why the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival draws scores of entertainers and folk music enthusiasts from around the world to Okemah each year. It's five days of music, songwriting competition, art and open mic folk-jam sessions set right smack dab in the middle of the town where Woody was created. Visit woodyguthrie.com for a schedule of today's events.

Best In Show. July 6 to 28 will be "Anthology 2007," Tulsa Artists' Coalition's Annual Juried Members Show, in their gallery at 9 E. Brady. Each juror will choose a work to receive a Juror's Choice Award and all three jurors will decide upon "Best of Show." There will also be a People's Choice Award where the public can vote on the artwork they appreciate. The opening reception is July 6, from 6pm to 9pm and is free and open to the public. Gallery Hours during exhibit will be 11am-2pm Tues.-Fri. and 6-9pm Thurs.-Sat. For more info, call 592-0041 or visit tacgallery.org.

Dumpster Diving. On Thurs., July 5, "Sites Unseen" will open at Living Arts Gallery, 308 S. Kenosha. The reception will be from 5-8pm, with an artists' talk at 6:30pm. This is an exhibition combining the oil paintings of artist Alan Frakes from Tulsa and the photography of architecture professor Wes Janz of Indiana. It addresses the impression the common everyday dumpster has made on our urban landscape and the overwhelming amount of materials that are discarded everyday in the U.S. and around the world. There will also be some work by Janz's students who explore leftover materials...and people. It closes July 26th, and you can view it from 5-8pm on Thursdays and 1-4pm on Saturdays. For more info, call 585-1234 or visit livingarts.org.

Celebrating a Decade of Folk Music. As Oklahoma celebrates a century of statehood, the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival will honor the birthday of Oklahoma's native son. This year, the festivities commence for five days, July 11-15, in its usual location: Woody Guthrie's birthplace in Okemah. The festival not only offers some of the finest folk entertainment around but also a plethora of kids' activities, a songwriting competition, art and merchandise booths, an open mic stage and loads of opportunities to jam with other music enthusiasts. Plus, Grape Ranch would like you to stay the whole time and camp onsite. For the complete schedule and list of details, visit woodyguthrie.com.

What Better Place Than Tulsa? T-Town will host the National Native American Boxing Championships, July 5-7. You can catch all the action for free at the Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino, 36th St. N. & Tisdale Pkwy. These competitions promote Olympic-style boxing (this is, in fact, a qualifier) and foster the spirit of a "Sports Warrior": respect for self and others, dignity, courage, discipline, confidence and to make new friendships. For more details, call 691-5432 or visit nascsports.org.

For a Smashing Good Time. Check out KHITS summer concert, also known as the Summer Smash, Sat., July 7. The evening's show will be hosted by former N*Sync-er, JC Chasez and will feature the talents of such acts as Chris Brown, Bone Thugs n-Harmony, Paula Deanda, the Audio Club and MC Magic. The fun times will go down in the Tulsa Convention Center, 7th & Houston. Tix range from $30-55 and are available at 584-2000, Drug Mart locations or khits.com.

No "Gayken" Jokes, Please. We've heard them all. Clay Aiken may not have won American Idol, but he hasn't let that stop him so far. Now he's touring like mad and wants to make you get out of your seat and dance, Tulsa. He'll be stopping by the Brady Theater, 105 W. Brady on Sat., July 7. He'll be playing with the Brady Symphony Orchestra for a nice little added touch, too. Doors will swing wide at 7pm, and the show starts at 8pm. Tickets run from $42-62 and may be picked up at the Box Office, 58-BRADY or bradytheater.com.

Step Inside and Smile. It'll be a night to enjoy on Sunday, July 8, with Mz. k.d. Lang, Canadian songbird, taking the stage at 7:30pm, followed by that maestro of Texas Swing, Lyle Lovett (accompanied by that awesome Big Band of his). Who knows? Perhaps they'll even join in some duets. Not making any promises--it's just a fun thought. The show will be at the Brady Theater, and doors will open at 6:30pm. Tickets are $71 & $81 in the usual Brady outlets.

Straight Outta Lubbock. It's Delbert McClinton time again...and aren't you glad? It's been a while since the Cain's Ballroom, 423 N. Main, has gotten properly blues-rocked. On Thurs., July 5, you can catch McClinton in concert, along with Tulsa blues legend Steve Pryor. So, save some of your holiday beer drinking for Thursday. It's probably better if you spread it out over two days anyhow. Doors will open at 7pm for the show, and tickets will run you $28 in advance. Get 'em at the Box Office, Starship Records, Reasor's or gettix.net.

Getting Away With Murder. At least, that's what rockers Papa Roach claimed back in '04. Now it's a whole new game, and they're touring to show you what's new. They'll rock your sox off at the Cain's Ballroom on Tues., July 10. Joining them will be Chicago's relatively-newbie quartet, Madina Lake, as well as diverse UK dudes, Failsafe. The doors will blast open at 7pm, and advance tickets will cost ya $25 at the usual spots.

This Ain't County... Not the kind his pappy played anyway. Hank III has a sound all his own, and it borders more on metal than country, though that's not an appropriate label either. Maybe "cow-punk" is more suitable. In any case, he and his band, the hilariously named Assjack, will scoot into the Cain's Ballroom on Wed., July 11. Also gracing the stage that night will be Big Red Goad with Power of Country. The name speaks for itself. Doors are at 7pm, and tickets in advance are $19.25. You know where.

A Rock Odyssey, Of Sorts. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber brought the world Jesus Christ Superstar in 1970, and it's still dazzling stages all over. The rock opera highlights the political and interpersonal struggles of Jesus and Judas during the last week of their lives, brought up to modern speed. If you've never seen it, it's quite a lot to behold and take in, but well worth it. You can see JCS at TCC Southeast's PAC, 81st & Highway 169, July 6-8 and 13-15. Showtime is 8pm, except for 2pm matinees on Sundays. Tickets are $25-50 and may be bought at the Box Office, myticketoffice.com or 595-7777.

Around the Globe In Under Two Hours. July 5-7, you can catch Café Aman, a dance show that brings the excitement, color, drama, music and dance of a Greek cabaret to the stage. The show features music and dance from around the world, including but not limited to the Middle East, North Africa, China, Ireland, Morocco and Greece. It is set in a timeless Greek taverna with a cast of characters and performers who set the mood for an exciting evening of music, dance and passion for life. Café Aman will run at 7:30pm in the Norman Theatre of the Tulsa PAC, 2nd & Cincinnati. Tickets are $12-15 and may be purchased at the Box Office, myticketoffice.com or 596-7111.

King Arthur, Like Never Before. Okay, exactly like the film, but never before that. It's Monthy Python's Spamalot!, lovingly ripped off Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical, Spamalot is the outrageous musical comedy, complete with flying cows, killer rabbits, taunting Frenchmen and show-stopping musical numbers. You can see in July 10-15 at the Tulsa PAC. The show is recommended for mature audiences only. Tickets will run you $37-63 for the evening of hilarity, in all the usual places.

Ah, the Smell of Grass! Freshly mowed, at that. The Tulsa Drillers will play (and DEFEAT!) the Arkansas Travelers this week. On Wed., the 11th, it's Wayback Wednesday, meaning that the Drillers will be clad in the styles of yore. Thursday's game is not only a Thirsty one, it's also Maragritaville Night, meaning that everyone will get lei'd, 2-1 cheeseburgers & margarita wine coolers will be available, and fans will enjoy the music of Something Steele. As if that isn't enough, the first 1,000 peeps to enter the park will get Hawaiian baseballs. On the 13th, the first 1,000 kids in the park will get a free replica Drillers' jersey. Finally, on the Sat., July 15, stay after the game for another Fireworks Extravaganza! All games start at 7:05pm and are played in Drillers' Stadium, 15th & Yale. For tickets, visit the Box Office, tulsadrillers.com or call 744-5901.

Views Of an Ancient Land. Through Aug. 19, you can view "Celestial Nights" at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, 2021 E. 71st. The exhibit will feature black and white photography by Neil Folberg of the night skies over Israel. Folberg's photographs describe places where the spiritual is at once near, imprinted in the forms of the arid landscapes, and far away in the dark, starlit recesses of space. The museum is open Mon.-Fri., 10am-5pm, and on Sundays from 1-5pm. For details, call 492-1818.

Does Someone Need a Spanking? Composed by Victor Herbert, Naughty Marietta, the latest production from Light Opera Oklahoma, details the plight of a young Italian princess, Marietta, who escapes an arranged marriage and flees to America as a casket girl. She happens upon Captain Dick Warrington who "rescues" her and helps her become a free woman. The cartoonish villain Bras Picque, who is under a false cover as Governor LeGrange of New Orleans, unravels Marietta's secret but gets caught in his own lie. Enjoy the layers of deception and fun on Sat., July 7 in the Williams Theatre of the Tulsa PAC, 2nd & Cincinnati. Tickets are $15, or $20 for cabaret seating. Get yours at the Box Office, myticketoffice.com or 596-7111.

Professors and Booze. Combine the two, and you've got a dizzying combination and an evening of entertainment. In Edward Albee's masterpiece, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a professor and his wife invite another younger professor and his wife over for some late night drinking and socializing after a dull faculty party that degenerates into verbal and psychological gamesmanship. You can see the show on July 5-7 in the Doenges Theatre of the Tulsa PAC. Tickets are $12 and are available at the normal outlets.

The Essence of Woman. In her collection of paintings, titled "The Feminine Aura," Jeannie Graham explores the beauty, tensions and fragility of young women's efforts to define themselves as individuals in a complex society. The paintings reflect a personal expression of concern and delight as these young people accomplish the transition from girlhood to womanhood. The paintings are built around a collection of photographs taken by the artist or painted from life in her studio. The images are not meant to reflect the exact likeness of the subject, but to be a reflection of her attitude and her aura. You can view them through July 26 in the Tulsa PAC Gallery.

What Do You Like in Your Meatpie? Light Opera Oklahoma continues its season theme of "Men Behaving Badly" with the worst-behaved of all: Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. In this Stephen Sondheim musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1979, Todd returns to Victorian-era London after being wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years in Australia. He and Mrs. Lovett, a baker of meat pies, cook up a tasty revenge on the judge who sent him "down under." This will run July 7, 10 and 13 in the Williams Theater of the Tulsa PAC, 2nd & Cincinnati. Tickets are $15 for GA or $20 for table cabaret seating. Get yours at the Box Office, myticketoffice.com or 596-71411.

Icon of the Great American West. Through Sept. 30, you can witness Space Silent Spirit: Maynard Dixon's West. Dixon's style moved from defined realism toward modernism, abstraction, and cubism--though he spurned such titles. He simply sought the poetic beauty of the West and in the process created some of the most iconic images of the American West of the early 20th century. See them for yourself at Gilcrease Museum, 1400 Gilcrease Museum Rd. For more information, call 596-2700.

For Your Viewing Pleasure. Thru Aug. 26, you can take another peek at the personal collection of the late Hungarian-born Jewish artist, Theodore Fried, a selection of paintings of animals and still lifes. Fried was a rising star in post-WWI Paris, exhibiting alongside Picasso, Kandinsky, Munch, and Nolde in a circle of young expatriate painters before fleeing the German occupation of Paris in 1940. This unique and thankfully recovered collection will show at The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, 2021 E. 71st. For details, call 492-1818 or visit jewishmuseum.net.

Trouble A'Comin. The Music Man, beloved musical, tells the story of "Professor" Harold Hill, who travels from town to town promising all the wonderful things that can come from starting an all-boys town band. Of course, good things can only come after Hill collects money for musical instruments and uniforms. Although he usually skips town with the cash, when Hill visits River City, IA, he falls in love with Marian, the local librarian, which complicates matters. See this delightful production of Light Opera Oklahoma in the Williams Theatre of the Tulsa PAC, 2nd & Cincinnati, July 5-6 and 8. Tickets are $15-20 and may be bought at the Box Office, myticketoffice.com or 596-7111.

Art, Unleashed. Acclaimed by the critic Théophil Gautier as the "Michelangelo of the Menagerie," Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875) was called one of the greatest French sculptors of the nineteenth century. Rodin acknowledged him as his teacher and his work was an important inspiration to Henri Matisse. This exhibition, "Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Bayre," features more than 130 highlights from the Walters Art Museum's renowned collection of his sculptures. It runs through September 2 at the Philbrook Museum, 2727 S. Rockford Rd., 749-7941.

Search For Our Okie Identity. Through Sept. 16, the Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, 510 Dewey Ave., will be exhibiting "Out of Oklahoma: Contemporary Artists from Ruscha to Andoe." Starting with the Pop Art movement of the '60s and traveling through abstraction, minimalism, photorealism and even the new figurative painting. The work of 20 artists, including Larry Clark, John Fincher, and Daniel Lang, encompasses works in paint, watercolor, photography, glass, bronze and more to represent the diversity of Oklahoma and its people. For more info, visit pricetower.org.

The Joys of the Simple Life. Through Aug. 26, you can glimpse the beauty, elegance and simplicity of rural American life through the art of Andrew Wyeth. The rarely-seen works in "Andrew Wyeth Drawings and Watercolors: Selections from the Marunuma Art Park Collection, Japan," may allow you to see more clearly into the rural existence of the Christina and Alvaro Olson family of Cushing, Maine, which Wyeth so loved painting. The exhibition is at Gilcrease Museum, 1400 Gilcrease Museum Rd. For more information, call 596-2700.

Your Dream Job... was to be an astronaut when you were a kid, right? Well, now you can glimpse the magnificence of floating in space with Astronaut, the most recent film to show at Tulsa Air and Space Museum's Bertlesmeyer Planetarium. It argues that the exploration of space is the greatest endeavor humankind has ever undertaken. You will explore the amazing worlds of inner and outer space, and encounter the perils that await space travelers, as they subject a test astronaut, Chad, to everything space has to throw at him. Discover if you have what it takes to become an astronaut! The planetarium is located at 3624 N. 74th E. Ave. For showtimes, call 834-9900.

He is Manuel. He dressed Johnny Cash in black. He created jumpsuits for Elvis. The bands Aerosmith, Lynard Skynard, ZZ Top and the Beatles have all worn his artistry. Presidents and movie stars have proudly donned his couture. He is a designer and an artist. He is Manuel. His current exhibit, "Star Spangled Thank You Tour" is a celebration of his career as a performance costume designer and will also showcase 50 one-of-a-kind jackets that pay tribute to the uniqueness of each of the 50 states. The show will run through July 29 at Gilcrease Museum, 1400 Gilcrease Museum Rd. For more information, call 596-2700 or visit gilcrease.org.

Boomers and Sooners. During the first few years of the twentieth century, a series of events took place that lead Congress to grant single statehood for the Oklahoma and Indian Territories together. The exhibit, "Divided Territory, the Quest for Sequoyah," details the process that led two territories, each desiring to be admitted to the Union as their own separate state, to join together to form the State of Oklahoma. Come see this and other exhibits at the Tulsa Historical Society through July 28.

Celebrate Oklahoma's Rich History! In 1945, Thomas Gilcrease commissioned Vinson Lackey to research, record, and then create works of art representing the early institutions of Indian Territory.

This historic group of Oklahoma's pre-statehood buildings included forts, old Indian capitols, agencies, schools, churches, homes, and industrial structures. Each painting was to be a faithful reproduction of the original structure. The project took Lackey four years to complete.

He traveled to the sites and made sketches of the terrain, took copious notes, and tracked down any available information that might be useful to the project.

Do your civic duty and help the mayor and her cohorts find direction for the museum by letting 'em know you heard about the show in your ever-lovin' UTW. Gilcrease Museum through Sept. 30.

America 24/7. In the 1930s & '40s, Oklahoma artists were part of the "American Scene" movement, a reaction in part to abstraction and other modernist movements. These artists documented the America they knew best, whether it was the hills of Oklahoma, the ranch land of West Texas or the shores of New England.

They worked with a single purpose: to capture the myths and truths of an America that was rapidly changing. An exhibit of these works, "The Oklahoma Scene," at Philbrook Museum, runs through Aug. 5. For more information, call 749-7941.