Tea Leaf Green
Rock Island Brewing Company
Tuesday, July 18, 9 p.m.
Tea Leaf Green. Indeed. And bread-stick beige, but what's that got to do with anything? All kidding aside, San Francisco rockers Tea Leaf Green will play the Rock Island Brewing Company on Tuesday, July 18, giving the band a momentary reprieve from the summer-festival circuit. The group's relentless schedule has included recent appearances at the Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, and High Sierra music festivals, where their classic sound - conjuring the spirits of Bob Dylan, The Faces, and early Elton John - has wowed sold-out crowds nationwide; reviewing the band at last month's Kansas-based Wakarusa festival, State of Mind Music Magazine's Michael Davoli and John Flanigan called their sets "spectacular," and wrote, "Tea Leaf Green spent the last year building up expectations wherever they went ... then far exceeded them every step of the way." Described on their Web site as "a band of youthful gypsies with an abundance of both rock and soul," the group also received enthusiastic notices for their 2005 CD Taught to be Proud. Sounds like you'll love Tea Leaf Green. And when at RIBCO, make sure to catch their opening act: Bath Mat Pink. (Sorry. It's just so much fun.) For further information, visit (http://www.ribco.com).
A half-hour before Friday's performance of On Golden Pond at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, the theatre's producer (and Pond director) Dennis Hitchcock took the stage, and after making the traditional opening-night welcomes, warned that the show's first act alone ran nearly 80 minutes - a long haul, he explained, for elder audiences. Yet I'm thinking that Hitchcock's announcement was made less out of concern for the crowd's bladders than out of justifiable pride - a trek to the restroom would force people to miss parts of the show, and with the stunningly fine performance Michael Kennedy is giving here, who would want to miss even one?
In the second act of the magnificent musical parody Urinetown, the character of Bobby Strong - a novice revolutionary, and the show's ostensible leading man - sings "Run, Freedom, Run," a rousing call-to-arms to his fellow oppressed. The number, a sort of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from Guys & Dolls as seen through a Les Miserables filter, is one of those guaranteed show-stoppers designed to leave audiences cheering. At the Timber Lake Playhouse's Saturday-night performance of the show, however, this production number led to something even more thrilling.
SUPERMAN RETURNS
CLICK
As the lights dimmed for the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's production of The Mousetrap - based on Agatha Christie's mystery novel - I already knew whodunnit. But don't be fooled into thinking that I possess superhuman powers of deduction or anything. I was in a high-school production of the play some 20 years ago. (Fine. Twenty-three years ago. Happy, Mom?)
As a fledgling musician growing up in Detroit, Rich DelGrosso admits to being heavily influenced by such artists as Jimi Hendrix and Cream. So, of all possible instruments, what led the young, rock-oriented DelGrosso to embrace the mandolin?
THE LAKE HOUSE
The morning after attending the Timber Lake Playhouse's production of the romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story, I drove to my local video store and rented the DVD of the beloved 1940 film, which I had never seen. I would love to report that Timber Lake's production put me in such a happy state that I was simply eager to re-live the stage experience. But unfortunately, the rental was more of a necessity than an indulgence; I had to see what about Philip Barry's play made the movie such a treasure, because its reputed charms, sadly, weren't at all apparent on the Mt. Carroll stage.
