Bay Area arts: 6 cool shows, festivals to catch this weekend and beyond

There’s a lot to seen and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond. Here’s a partial look.

Concert picks: Herb Alpert, Aaron Lington

Here are two concerts Bay Area music fans should know about.

Herb Alpert and Lani Hall: Simply put, Alpert is one of the more important figures in American music over the past century or so. Beginning with his ’60s hits with the Tijuana Brass band, Alpert has sold more than 72 million records around the world and written and performed scores of smash-hot singles ranging from R&B to pop to Latin. And in 1972, he founded A&M records with Jerry Moss. Since 2007, Alpert has been recording and touring with his wife, Lani Hall, a longtime vocalist who came to fame as the lead singer for Sergio Mendez’ crossover Brazilian pop act Brasil ’66. Alpert and Hall’s most recent recording is 2021’s “Catch the Wind.” The pair are coming to SFJAZZ Center for a weekend set.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 11-13; SFJAZZ’s Miner Auditorium, San Francisco; $30-$90; www.sfjazz.org.

Lington plays Blake: Aaron Lington is a big deal in his own right, a Grammy-winning saxophonist who has collaborated with artists ranging from Maynard Ferguson to Bo Diddley to the San Francisco Orchestra. And tonight, he brings an all-star band to San Jose’s Hammer Theatre Center to perform a tribute to legendary jazz drummer Art Blakey. It’s part of the venue’s Sunset Summer series of rooftop concerts.

Details: 8 p.m. Aug. 11; $25-$35; hammertheatre.com.

Hawaii comes to the Bay

After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the Pacific Islanders’ Cultural Association returns with an all day Bay Area Aloha Concert in San Mateo on Sunday featuring a full lineup of entertainment.

Guests can enjoy live music from artists including two winners of the Nā Hōkū Hanohano, Hawaii’s prestigious music award — the Bay Area’s slack-key guitarist Patrick Landeza, and singer/musician Josh Tatofi — as well as Pomaika’i, Ho’omana, and other acts.

There will also be Hula performances, as well as community booths, arts and crafts, vendors, food, lei making, raffle drawings, and an Ohana Korner with activities for children.

Who needs expensive plane tickets and security lines when you can enjoy all things Hawaii from the comfort of the Bay? Bust out your best Hawaiian shirt, kick back in your beach chairs, and enjoy the show.

Details: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 14; San Mateo County Event Center; $25  admission; www.pica-org.org.

— Brittany Delay, Staff

Take in a feminist farce

Where else but the Bay Area could you find a theatrical adaptation of a rom-com by a famed 17th-century Mexican feminist writer performed on a stage tucked below a pizza joint? That’s what you have with Those Women Productions’ “House of Desires,” playing through this weekend in Berkeley.

“Desires” was written in 1683 by famed Mexican poet, playwright, feminist, philosopher and nun, Juana Ines de la Cruz, whose humor and writing often took issue with what she saw as the unequal roles religion and society imposed on men and women. The play focuses on a couple who are in love but kept apart by a parade of forces beyond their control. There is romance and silliness to spare, as well as a variety of pointed observations about the social norms of the day.

“Suppose the Three Stooges were feminists,” says company artistic director Libby Vega, “and they got together with William Shakespeare to write a version of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ and youll have the right idea.” Although the work is considered a landmark in Spanish-American literature it is rarely staged these days. This production is a 2004 adaptation of the work by Catherine Boyle.

Details: Through Aug. 14; La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley; pay-what-you-can ticket policy, with a suggested admission of $35; thosewomenproductions.com.

— Bay Area News Foundation

Celebrating Sondheim

The passing of Stephen Sondheim last year robbed the Broadway world of one of its most talented and beloved composers, so it is always worth noting when one of his shows is on stage somewhere. In San Francisco, that somewhere is SF Playhouse, which is hosting a full-scale production of his bittersweet 1971 hit “Follies.” We say “full-scale” because the musical, with a large cast and challenging staging aspects, often is presented in a stripped down or concert version. But SF Playhouse is an ambitious company and is offering a look at the show as Sondheim (who wrote the music and lyrics) and James Goldman (book) envisioned it.

The show focuses on a group of former musical revue dancers reuniting to bid farewell to a crumbling Broadway theater that is destined for the wrecking ball. At the center of it all are two of the dancers, both suffering through troubled marriages and looking back at how things might have been different. “Follies” is a nostalgic look at a bygone Broadway area that is itself a remnant of a bygone style of musical. It also offers a classic score, with such Broadway standards as “Broadway Baby,” “I’m Still Here” and “Losing My Mind,” among others.

Details: Presented by SF Playhouse, directed by Bill English; Through Sept. 10, SF Playhouse, 450 Post St., San Francisco; $30-$100; www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph.

New-look ‘Oklahoma’ heads to SF

When Rodger and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma” debuted in 1943, it helped introduce a revolution in the American stage musical. Now comes a new version of “Oklahoma!” that revolutionizes the show itself.

Revised and directed by Daniel Fish, this “Oklahoma!” is a sexier, darker, stripped-down production that dispenses with some of the choreography and cuts the sizable original cast down to a dozen or so actors. And the pit orchestra is now a seven-piece band that plays on stage.

And while the essential story is the same — a farm girl is wooed by a dashing cowboy as well as a brooding farmhand — differences in the rivalry between the two male leads paints a more realistic look at the forces shaping life and society in America’s heartland. As New York Magazine wrote of the revival, which premiered on Broadway in 2019, “Without sacrificing the show’s humor or the beauty of its music, Fish and his company have created a charged production about the ambiguities entwined deep in the root system of America.”

The new version, which won a Tony Award for best revival of a musical, has embarked on a tour that lands in San Francisco next week, presented by BroadwaySF.

Details: Aug. 16-Sept. 11; Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., San Francisco; $56-$256 (subject to change); www.broadwaysf.com.