Bay Area arts: 5 great shows to see this weekend and beyond

Some intriguing shows await music and dance fans in the Bay Area this week. Here’s a partial look.

ODC brings back Summer Sampler

Maybe because they stage it in the company’s intimate, historic theater. Maybe it’s because the event makes a nice warmup for the approaching fall dance/arts season. Maybe it’s because the company serves up a wide-ranging program that’s bound to include a surprise or two.

In any event, it’s OSC Dance’s annual Summer Sampler is always a welcome event. And it’s returning this week.

The four works on Summer Sampler’s 2023 program include: “C’est frette!,” a world premiere by Sonya Delwaide set to Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 and inspired by San Francisco’s chilly summers; “Interconnected,” a relationships-exploring world premiere by Dexandro Montalvo paired with works by ambient composer Cliff Martinez; a revival of company founder and artistic director Brenda Way’s “Collision, Collapse and a Code,” described a spirited and high-energy response/rebuttal to today’s drumbeat of downer headliners; and a reprisal/adaptation of Kimi Okada and Brenda Way’s “May’s Letters,” which premiered last year as a site-specific work on the Island of Alameda and is inspired by letters her mother wrote while imprisoned in a Japanese American World War II internment camp.

Details: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday; ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., San Francisco; $25-$100; 415-863-9834, odc.dance.

— Randy McMullen, Staff

Mistaken identities redux

Fred Pitts has opened a lot of eyes and draw some serious guffaws with his “case of mistaken identities” solo work “Aren’t You …?,” which has had hit runs in Berkeley, Palo Alto and elsewhere.

Now you have another chance to see it the show, which opens Friday at The Marsh in San Francisco.

In the comedic show with an edge, which premiered at the 2019 PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, Pitts recounts the summer he set out to visit all 21 of California’s Mission churches, where, as organizers describe it, “he discovers that being Black makes him an instant celebrity — the question is which one?” As Pitts tells it, fellow Mission church visitors he meets are too happy to present to him their musings on history, religion and which famous person they assume he is (or at least looks like).

The show, which is also fueled by Pitts’ terrific storytelling skills and love of history, plays through Aug. 18.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Fridays; 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco; $25-$100; themarsh.org.

— Randy McMullen, Staff

It’s a Mads world

If you’ve never seen the talented Denmark-born, Bay Area-based violinist and composer Mads Tolling at work, this week offers a chance that won’t cost you a dime. Tolling, a two-time Grammy Award-winner, gained fame as part of jazz great Stanley Clarke’s band and as a member of the acclaimed Turtle Island String Quartet. He’s at home playing jazz, classical, Americana and pop music, or any mixture thereof, and has collaborated with artists ranging from Chick Corea to Leo Kotke to Bob Weir, among many others.

On July 20, he brings his band Mads Tolling and the Mads Men to the Rudney Plaza at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek as part of the venue’s Summer Sounds free outdoor concert series. Expect a lively and sharply delivered string of 1960s hits and theme songs, from “A Taste of Honey” to “Good Vibrations,” as the band showcases its latest release, “Playing the 60s.”

Details: 5:30-7 p.m.; Civic Drive at Locust, Walnut Creek; free, no tickets required; www.lesherartscenter.org.

Kinky and charismatic

 As if the world needed another reason to love Cyndi Lauper. The singer/songwriter who makes a point of embracing all types of people and the quirkiest ruffles of society, and has a million-dollar voice to boot, also has a knack for writing fun musicals. We’re referring to “Kinky Boots,” the 2012 Broadway hit that features music and lyrics by Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein (another noted worshiper of all things quirky) and celebrates the notion that profoundly different people – in this case, a factory owner and a drag queen – can work together when the cause is important enough. “Kinky Books” was adapted from the 2005 film of the same name, which itself was inspired by the true story of a shoe factory that was headed for closure until the owner saved the business by creating a line of fetish footwear for men. Rest assured, in the hardscrabble world of Britain’s blue collar factory workers, the phrase “fetish footwear for men” is rarely uttered. Despite some lackluster initial reviews, the musical struck box office gold and out-performed the favored “Matilda the Musical” at the 2013 Tony Awards. Now the popular musical is getting a production by City Lights Theater Company in San Jose, directed by Lisa Mallette and Mark Anderson Phillips. “Kinky Boots” is not a show meant to blow you away with brilliant plot twists or perfectly engineered precision. This is a musical intended to prompt smiles and toe-tapping with its high-energy song-and-dance numbers and relentless good spirit. If you’re in the market for a good mood, “Kinky Boots” is a good fit.

Details: Through Aug. 20; 529 S. Second St., San Jose; $24-$58; cltc.org.

Epic flamenco tale comes to S.F.

Fans of flamenco and theater will likely find much to like in the world premiere production of “Solaz,” opening this weekend at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco.

The show is a multimedia work built on flamenco dance and music and led by La Tania, whose dance company has been performing flamenco in the Bay Area for some four decades.

“Solaz” is based on the story of the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian monument that was literally cut into pieces and hauled to Spain when it and other cherished monuments in the Nubia region along the Nile River were threatened by flooding.

The story of hope, renewal and ingenuity will be told with live flamenco music and dance and video imagery, and features a cast of four dancers, along with composer and guitarist José Luis de la Paz, singer José Cortés, oud player Gary Haggerty, and derbakki player Faisal Zedan.

Details: 7 p.m. July 21-22, 4 p.m. July 23; Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco; $15-$45; www.presidiotheatre.org.

— Randy McMullen, Staff