FRIDAY EVENT/ARTS/CATS!: LIL’ BUB’S BIG ART SHOW “Perma-kitten” Lil Bub — the Internet, TV, movie and book sensation — uses her looks to help others. The Bloomington, Ind., feline with the perpetually visible tongue and bulging eyes has raised more than $300,000 for animals in need. Now she’s headed to Leapin’ Lizard Gallery in Covington for an art show to benefit Ohio Alleycat Resource. The Madisonville spay/neuter clinic and no-kill shelter has an especially soft spot for cats like Bub, a former feral with dwarfism and other physical oddities. Help support homeless kitties not as lucky to have their own “dude” and 2 million Facebook likes. The 7-9 p.m. meet-and-greet with Bub is sold-out with a wait list, but you can still attend the silent auction, shop for works by local artists and soak up the bubbly Bub spirit. Music by Dublin Defense, hors d’oeuvres, cash bar. 7 p.m.-midnight Friday. $20. Leapin’ Lizard, 726 Main St., Covington, Ky., ohioalleycat.org.
COMEDY: AN EVENING WITH JEN KIRKMAN Comedian, best-selling author, screenwriter and actress Jen Kirkman is the voice for what the world is actually thinking, and her stand-up act is an honest and humorous way of saying exactly what’s on her own mind. Not only is Kirkman well-known for her frequent appearances on Comedy Central’s Drunk History and @midnight, her Netflix Original debut I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine) began streaming this summer. Join Kirkman alongside comic, actress, writer and television host Brooke Van Poppelen as they take over the stage at the Taft Theatre. 8:30 p.m. Friday. $15. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, tafttheatre.org.
ONSTAGE: THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNUM COUNTY SPELLING BEE Back in February 2005 I was in New York City to see some shows, and at the last moment (on a Saturday afternoon) I was offered the chance to see a new off-Broadway show I hadn’t heard of, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I was totally charmed by the tale of adolescents (played by young adult actors) competing in a spelling contest, and I told acquaintances afterwards that it would surely become a staple of universities and community theaters. The production currently offered by the Commonwealth Theatre Company at Northern Kentucky University’s Stauss Theatre, where Spelling Bee is being presented as the second of two summer dinner theater shows. Directed by Roderick Justice, Spelling Bee works because Rachel Sheinkin’s script has created a half-dozen youngsters who are quirky and intense, some nervous and others cocky. Presented by Commonwealth Theatre Company at Northern Kentucky University. Continues through July 26. artscience.nku.edu.
ONSTAGE: 1776 The musical 1776 requires a cast of about two dozen strong male singers and actors to portray our founding fathers. They were a querulous bunch with opinions from all points on the political spectrum, not too different from today’s politicians, in fact. This production at the new Incline Theater has rounded up fine cast of performers, led by Rodger Pille as feisty Boston attorney John Adams, the flash point in the back-and-forth argument about whether the colonies should declare their independence from England. The show’s opening number, “Sit Down, John” announces immediately that we will meet a crowd of very human characters. Through July 26. $26 adults; $23 students. Warsaw Federal Incline Public Theater, 801 Matson Place, Price Hill, cincinnatilandmarkproductions.com.
FILM: ANT-MAN Writer-director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and his creative partner Joe Cornish (director of Attack the Block) had a dream — long before such things were practical — to bring one of their favorite comic book superheroes to life. They wanted to bring Ant-Man to the big screen, so they set about the task of penning a screenplay for Wright to helm. The pair imagined Paul Rudd as their heroic little Ant-Man, a burglar named Scott Lang seeking a shot at redemption and to provide for his young daughter. What Ant-Man proves to be is a capable independent heist movie — think Mission: Impossible meets Fast Five with weird and wacky dollops of The Usual Suspects and To Catch a Thief thrown in for good measure — that also happens to be a wonderful Scott Pilgrim twist on what a Marvel superhero should look like. Every detail, both big (Michael Douglas) and small (Peña), works to alter our perceptions of we mean when we talk about this genre and those crazy expectations.
SATURDAY
EVENT: DANGER WHEEL
Pendleton transforms into a sort of Fast & Furious franchise with the inaugural Danger Wheel, a downhill big-wheel race fundraiser where adults get to climb onto over-sized big-wheels and race down 12th Street to win the title of Danger Champion. This outdoor event features not only an epic crash-course, but also booths by local breweries including Madtree, Rhinegeist, Christian Moerlein and more, as well as food from food trucks, streetpops and Nation Kitchen+Bar. Guest and fans, BYOS (bring your own seat) and get a great view. Big-wheels will be provided for racers. 4-11 p.m. Saturday. Free. 378 E. 12th St., Pendleton, dangerwheel.com.
FILM: STAR TREK LIVE IN CONCERT
Live long and prosper with an in-sync live performance of the score to the 2009 blockbuster Star Trek (PG-13). Held at the Taft Theatre, the Hollywood extravaganza will be thrillingly soundtracked by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra with Constantine Kitsopoulos as conductor. Watch the film, the first in the latest Star Trek franchise reboot, and listen to Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino’s score whether you’re reuniting with Captain Kirk and Spock or a newbie aboard the starship Enterprise. You should probably wear a costume to this galactic journey through time, space and music. “Beam me up, Scotty.” 7:30 p.m., Saturday. $10-$60. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, tafttheatre.org.
EVENT: CINCY SUMMER STREETS
Cincy Summer Streets — a program that converts streets from dangerously busy thoroughfares for motorized traffic to idyllic urban playgrounds for pedestrians and cyclists, at least for a few hours — kicks off its 2015 season on Saturday in Walnut Hills. East McMillan Street will be reserved for such activities as cycling (rental bikes are available), jump-roping, lawn bowling, mini-golf, hula-hooping, yoga, crosswalk-painting and more. Two more Summer Streets events, sponsored by Interact for Health and the Haile Foundation, are planned in Northside on Aug. 23 and Over-the-Rhine on Sept. 26. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. East McMillan Street, between Victory Parkway and Chatham Street, Walnut Hills, cincysummerstreets.org.
EVENT: BASTILLE DAY CELEBRATION IN MONTGOMERY
Bastille Day is fun because it’s a holiday based entirely on the fact that a bunch of French peasants went and guillotined a bunch of French aristocrats — a bit like our Fourth of July Independence Day celebration, but bloodier. To fête the beginning of the French Revolution, the city of Montgomery will be holding a Bastille Day celebration, with Cincinnati favorite Blessid Union of Souls (they of “Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me)” fame) headlining an evening of entertainment. There will also be street café vendors, a kids’ area, an animal show and 60-minute historic walking tours of old Montgomery. Noon-11 p.m. Saturday. Free. Downtown Montgomery, between Cooper and Remington roads, montgomeryohio.com.
ART: THING-STEAD ARTIST BOOKS Two veterans of Cincinnati’s co-op gallery scene, now students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will present their strange and fascinating new project, Thing-stead artist-books, Saturday night at Camp Washington’s Wave Pool gallery. And given that Chris Reeves’ and Aaron Walker’s work is deeply inspired by Fluxus, the mixed-media (or “intermedia”) movement of the 1950s and 1960s in which avant-garde art was made with a spirit of fun, the 7-10 p.m. Wave Pool event will be a happening. It will include readings and performances. Read the full story here. 7-10 p.m. Saturday. Wave Pool, 2940 Colerain Ave., wavepoolgallery.org.
SUNDAY
COMEDY: THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BONING
“It’s just taking a loving and humorous look at how terribly we tackle such an important topic,” says sex educator and comedian Lux Alptraum of her show The Wonderful World of Boning: Sex Ed with a Sense of Humor, a new outcropping of the popular Found Footage Festival series. “I had these movies in my house and I thought I should really show them to the world,” she says. “I decided to do a sort of Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.” So she enlisted some comedian friends to say funny things about the vintage sex-ed films. Joining Alptraum to poke fun at the films, as it were, will be Joe Gordon, a former writer for The Onion. 8 p.m. Sunday. $10. Thompson House, 24 E. Third St., Newport, Ky., thompsonhousenewport.com.
ONSTAGE: CLYBOURNE PARKCommunity theaters often produce tried-and-true shows that keep people laughing and happy. But Sunset Players isn’t afraid to make its audiences think, and that’s what will be happening over the next two weeks with a production of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning script, set in a Chicago neighborhood in 1959 and 2009. In the first act, white community leaders try to prevent the sale of a home to a black family. In Act II, the same house is the focus as the African-American neighborhood struggles to hold its own against redevelopment. It’s an ambitious show that’s important in today’s world. Through July 25. $12-$14. The Arts at Dunham Center, 1945 Dunham Way, Western Hills, 513-588-4988, sunsetplayers.org.
EVENT: DOUBLE TALKLittle-known fact: Northern Kentucky is home to the Vent Haven Museum, the world’s only museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism. And Sunday marks their annual fundraiser show, Double Talk, a fun and raucous afternoon of comedy, audience participation and ventriloquist dolls (don’t call them puppets). Featuring performances from around the country, including the No. 1 female ventriloquist in the U.S., Lynn Trefzger; young up-and-comer Peter Dzubay from Connecticut; and Tristate favorite Denny Baker. 3 p.m. Sunday. $20 advance; $25 door. Notre Dame Academy Performing Arts Center, 1699 Hilton Drive, Park Hills, Ky. ventshow.com.
ART: ENDURING SPIRIT: EDWARD CURTIS & THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS
Edward Curtis was an early 20th-century American ethnologist and photographer who captured the disappearing world of the American Indian. In the Taft Museum’s Enduring Spirit exhibit, Curtis chronicles the living culture of Native Americans from 1900-1930 through gelatin silver photographs, cyanotypes and platinum prints, among others. Profoundly moving, the images depict everything from powerful portraits of men, women and children to Navajo riders, painted lodges and teepees, and a famous and striking image of the Nez Perce’s Chief Joseph, a crusader who led his people against the U.S. government when they were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the exhibit, check out Saturday Sounds (noon-2 p.m.) on the terrace, with live music from Full Moon Ranch. Through Sept. 20. $10 adults; $8 seniors/students; $4 youth. Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Downtown, taftmuseum.org.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2015.
