Staff Picks

CLASSICAL MUSIC
May 10-11
Louisville Orchestra’s season finale
    Get ready to hear an original array of music at The Louisville Orchestra’s final concert of the season. It will be conducted by Edwin Outwater, who begins his tenure as music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Canada this September and is known for choosing inventive music for concerts. His program for this week’s performance sustains his reputation by featuring three stirring works: the 47-year-old Argentinean Osvlado Golijov’s “Last Round” (1996), inspired by the work of tango composer Astor Piazzolla; Symphony No. 5 in D Major by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose themes here correspond to some from his opera “The Pilgrim’s Progress”; and Norwegian Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, which highlights the composer’s native folk music and is one of the most popular piano concertos. Pianist William Wolfram will perform the latter. Wolfram’s style has been praised by author Joseph Horowitz, who compares it to that of the young Van Cliburn and Vladimir Horowitz. —Elizabeth Kramer
Whitney Hall, Kentucky Center
584-7777
www.louisvilleorchestra.org
$14-$45; 10:30 a.m. (Thu.), 8 p.m. (Fri.)

THEATER
May 10-12
‘By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea’
    Ready for vacation? I sure am! How about a sizzling day at the beach? The Necessary Theatre’s latest production is a series of three short plays by different authors, all set at the shore. In Joe Pintauro’s “Dawn,” marital wounds and sibling rivalries rage as Quentin and his sister Veronica, together with his wife Pat, gather at the beach to scatter their mother’s ashes. In Lanford Wilson’s “Day,” a sexpot yuppie seduces a dude into applying her tanning lotion. All goes swimmingly, until his nutty girlfriend arrives. Terrence McNally’s “Dusk” focuses on a beach hunk and two women who would do anything to have him. The performance is directed by Laurene Scalf. Necessary Theatre regulars Amy Attaway, Tad Chitwood, Amy Fisher, Susan Linville, Robert McFarland, Kara Reeder and Delilah Smyth will perform with newcomers Kate Moody and Jeremy Sapp. Who knows what the “night” will bring!? —Sherry Deatrick
MeX Theater, Kentucky Center
584-7777
www.tntky.org
Times and prices vary

MUSIC
May 10-20
‘Patsy Cline: Her Music, Her Influence, Her Legacy’
    Patsy Cline’s voice wasn’t the typical country singer’s voice — it was soulful and urgent, a voice that would excel in any number of styles, and her delivery was perhaps the most heartfelt of any singer during her era. Legend has it that when Cline would perform her heartbreaking songs in the studio, tears would stream down her face as she felt every word she sang. Singer Melissa Kenney Shepherd, a native of Louisville, will bring Cline’s memorable voice and music back to life in “Patsy Cline: Her Music, Her Influence, Her Legacy” at the Jewish Community Center this month. Shepherd stars as Cline in this blend of theater and live concert, dramatizing Cline’s tragically short life and career while performing a number of her memorable songs, such as “I Fall to Pieces,” “Crazy” and “Walking After Midnight.” A total of eight performances are scheduled for May 10, 12-14, 17 and 19-20. —Kevin Gibson
Jewish Community Center
3600 Dutchmans Lane
459-0660
www.jccoflouisville.org
Times and prices vary

THEATER
May 11-13
‘The Full Monty’
    Who says Louisville has the hunk market cornered? Check out the sexy dudes in Clarksville Little Theatre’s production of the hit Broadway musical “The Full Monty” (with book by Terrence McNally and score by David Yazbek). In this Americanized version of the British film, six laid-off steel workers look for an easy way of supplementing their union dole. They get the bright idea that “real men” turn women on more than those phony Chippendales at strip clubs. If the mere thought of male nudity repulses you, just remember, this is a heartwarming story of perseverance, family values, teamwork and belief in one’s self. You’ll root for the guys as they follow their path to self-discovery while shedding their clothing — and their inhibitions! Ladies, bring a fistful of dollars. Oo-ooh! Oo-ooh! (Where’s my old disco whistle when I need it?) Continues May 18-19. —Sherry Deatrick
Clarksville Little Theatre
301 E. Montgomery Ave.
283-6522
Times and prices vary

BOOK
Saturday, May 12
Author Michael L. Jones
    Twice this Saturday, former LEO scribe Michael L. Jones will read from his well-crafted collection of essays “Secondhand Stories: 15 Portraits of Louisville.” Divided neatly into three parts (roughly corresponding to music, art and politics), the self-published volume is a true local treasure. Ricocheting through the 1980s and ’90s, Jones presents a quirky, a la carte history of recent Louisville (a piece about the Fairness Ordinance here, an interview with Anne Braden there) with no quarter given and no punches pulled. “These are mostly stories from LEO and The Courier,” he says, “stories that people keep asking me to reprint for them even years after they’ve been published.”
    Jones’ prose is vivid and insightful, and he concentrates on real people and real events, all within memory. A dozen hidebound volumes filled with fancy photographs of downtown architecture are not worth one paragraph of Jones’ fine writing.
    He will also read at the Public Library’s Highlands location on June 13. —Paul Kopasz
Louisville Free Public Library (Shawnee Branch)
3912 W. Broadway
574-1722
Free; noon
*
Waldenbooks (Jefferson Mall)
966-5783
Free; 3-5 p.m.

MUSIC
Saturday, May 12
Lloyd
New Orleans native Lloyd Polite is on this year’s Price of Fame Tour, but the R&B singer already knows what rewards fame can bring, and what fame can take away.
    By the time he was 14, Lloyd — whose mom knows voodoo, and says “The Shadow” is one of his favorite movies — had already played to thousands as a member of the R&B trio Ntoon. The group was signed to Dreamworks Records but later dropped because the label, according to Lloyd’s bio, wasn’t ready to work with an R&B act. Bow Wow headlines the concert, along with Mims and Crime Mob.
    “I create my own lane by bridging the gap between hip hop and R&B to create a popular sound called street love,” Lloyd said in an e-mail interview. “I’m excited by the idea of creating something from nothing, watching your ideas come to life before your own eyes. To take your thoughts, feelings and emotions and transform them into words is a gift.”
    Lloyd says his favorite sport is boxing, and boxer Floyd Mayweather trains to his music. “Pretty cool, huh? Too bad I’m a lover and not a fighter (laughs).” —Mat Herron
Louisville Gardens
525 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.
574-0086
$35.50-$39.50; 7:30 p.m.

FUNDRAISER
May 12-20
Tour de Kentucky
    My idea of vacation is moving as little as possible — say, napping in a hammock on the beach. Louisvillian Dean Brooks’ idea of vacation is traveling more than 712 miles … on his bicycle. On Saturday, Brooks will be joined by 16 other dedicated cyclists from the area to literally ride around the border of Kentucky, passing by eight states in eight days. This “Tour de Kentucky” is a fundraiser for the Kentucky-Southeast Indiana Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the group’s goal is to raise $100,000.
    Brooks says he’s most looking forward to May 13, the toughest day of the trip that just so happens to be his 50th birthday. “We travel 98 miles with 14,000 feet of climbing on my birthday in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky,” he says. “What a way to start the second half of my life.”
    The riders will blog every day about their adventure on their Web site, www.whyiride.com. Check it for more info and make a pledge or donation. —Sara Havens

ART
Through May 18  
‘A Celebration of Birth & Creation’
UzoMa, Nigerian for “born during a journey,” is the name of a new art gallery in the Clifton area. Mixed media artist/art therapist Angela Ramsey Robinson founded the space as an important avenue to explore feminine creativity. “Both women and men undervalue the feminine,” she says. “I’ll revisit this topic in different ways, since from my professional experience as a therapist, I feel it’s so important.”
This opening exhibit features work by 12 artists, including Gloria Kemper O’Neill and Joan Zehnder, that focuses on a woman’s ability to bear and raise children. The show includes paintings, fiber art and sculpture, as well as emu and ostrich egg art by Carla Ute Kelly of Colorado and Andre Van Wynsberghe of Gent, Belgium.
There will be a Women’s/Mother’s Day open house on Friday, May 11, from 6-8 p.m. Robinson and participating fiber artist Penny Sisto will speak at 7 p.m. during the closing artists’ reception on Friday, May 18, from 6-8 p.m. —Jo Anne Triplett
uzoMa
1813 Frankfort Ave.
895-9805
www.uzoma.org

ART
Through May 27
‘Tributes for Kings’ by Kevin Rolly
    Painting on photographs is not new. Photographers used to stain black-and-white portraits with transparent watercolor paint to give the sitter a livelier look. What is new is applying oil paint to photographs, a process California artist Kevin Rolly invented in 1994 that he calls “oilgraphing” (this guy is very creative; he was awarded a student Emmy for his film “An Early October” a few years earlier). His subject matter is not new, either — the Catholic Stations of the Cross — but he has altered this as well. Traditionally, Jesus is shown in his final hours, from his trial to his burial. Rolly has added the resurrection scene “Triumph” as another station.
Couple this inventive exhibition with its location, a complex in the old Isaac Shelby Elementary School in Germantown. The 930 community center houses Sojourn Community Church, a music venue and art gallery. We should expect the unusual from The 930 and the Sojourn Community Church; after all, they have a Pastor of Worship and the Arts. —Jo Anne Triplett
The 930
930 Mary St.
494-7042
www.the930.org