The holiday weekend is not when most people think about theater-going, but I can recommend a good choice or two if you prefer being indoors to celebrating the kick-off of summer: The Cincinnati Playhouse's production of Marry Me a Little is a quick entertainment (only a bit more than an hour long), a good choice if you're busy with other things like Taste of Cincinnati. —- It's a collection of Stephen Sondheim songs that were written for other shows but not used. An actor and a director put them together in 1980 for a show about two people, a man and a woman, leading parallel lives, alone on a Saturday night. Good music, simply performed.
If you want something bigger with a Broadway star, Friday evening's opening concert of the Cincinnati May Festival features Patty LuPone, winner of the 2008 Tony for best performance by an actress in a musical (she performed it a year ago in the award-winning revival of the classic musical Gypsy). She's in Cincinnati to sing the leading vocal part in Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins, with James Conlon conducting his 30th season at Music Hall. (The program also includes Mozart's stirring "Requiem.") Not exactly theater, but an evening worth attending.
Finally, if you don't attend any theater this weekend, I'd suggest you spend a bit of time at www.cincyfringe.com to plan the shows you'll be seeing at the sixth annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, which kicks off with performances next Wednesday. There will be lots to see, and mapping out how you'll catch as many as possible can be a challenge. Look for a rundown of every show in next week's Hot Issue, and don't forget to look for CityBeat's Fringe blog, back for another year of up-to-the-minute coverage.
