FEBRUARY
Joan Marcus
Becky Gulsvig is the ditz-out-of-water at Harvard in Legally Blonde at the 5th.
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18 Yoram Bauman The UW economist and stand-up comic explains what the hell wentwrong with our financial system in The Cartoon Introduction to Economics. University Book Store, bookstore.washington.edu.
18–27 Roger Shimomura The 70-year-old, Seattle-raised painter continues to work with racist caricatures and themes from his own World War II internment. (His "Yellow Terror" show at Wing Luke continues through April 18.) Greg Kucera Gallery, gregkucera.com.
18–June 6 Beth Levine: First Lady of Shoes It's the Super Bowl of high heels! The late designer (1914–2006) is honored with a display of 100-plus pairs of fashion footwear. Bellevue Arts Museum, bellevuearts.org.
19 Gods and Monsters That's the subject addressed by local writers Linda Bierds and Garth Stein (The Art of Racing in the Rain), plus visiting poet Terrance Hayes. Richard Hugo House, hugohouse.org.
19–27 The Soft Rock Kid See feature.
19–21 La Perichole The Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society stages this operetta set in colonial Peru, which was actually written by Jacques Offenbach, not Gilbert & Sullivan. Go figure. Town Hall, townhallseattle.org.
20–March 27 Jason Hirata New work fromthe local artist is based in part on calisthenics and other routines performed in a storage locker. James Harris Gallery, jamesharrisgallery.com.
23–March 14 Legally Blonde The touring version of this bubblegum musical makes for an irresistible mom-daughter matinee outing. 5th Avenue Theatre, 5thavenue.org.
24 David Shields The brainiac Seattle author pens a "manifesto" for a new kind of literature in his pastiche book Reality Hunger. University Book Store.
25–March 6 Salt Horse Corrie Befort and Beth Graczyk have extended a piece they made for Northwest New Works last year into a full-length program. Buzz is good on this one. Erickson Theater, salthorseperformance.com.
26 Joseph Stiglitz In Freefall, the Nobel Prize–winning economist divides blame for our nation's bubble-and-collapse between the current and previous administrations. Both, he argues, have failed in their responsibility to regulate risky markets, preferring to collect the taxes on derivative financial instruments that no one properly understood. Town Hall.
26–27 Fisher Ensemble The latest opera from Garrett Fisher and his performance troupe is At the Hawk's Well, based on Yeats' Noh-inspired play. Chapel Performance Space, fisherensemble.org.
26–27 Troublemaker's Mother A new musical by Nick DiMartino and composer Kim Douglass, based on the legend of Lemminkäinen from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. Nordic Heritage Museum, nordicmuseum.org.
26–March 6 Seattle Chamber Players Contemporary works from all over Europe in thir "Icebreaker" festival, including György Kurtág's gripping mini-opera for soprano and violin, Kafka Fragments. On the Boards, ontheboards.org.
27 Seattle Baroque Keyboardist and SB co-founder Byron Schenkman plays Bach and more with violinist Ingrid Matthews. Town Hall, seattlebaroque.org.
27 Tiny Tots Concert The Seattle Symphony travels to the Eastside to help inspire future lovers of Beethoven and Brahms. Meydenbauer Center, meydenbauer.com.
27–28 ACT New Play Award 2010 A staged reading of Extraordinary Chambers by David Wiener. Free. ACT Theatre, acttheatre.org.
27–March 13 Seattle Opera Only Verdi's first and last operas were comedies, with a 54-year gap between. To end his career, he reached back to Shakespeare; and despite all those tragedies, he never wrote anything more humanely, deeply moving than the final fugue in Falstaff. Stephanie Blythe, SO's blazing Amneris and Fricka, here sings the scheming Dame Quickly. McCaw Hall, seattleopera.org.
MARCH
1–2 Jared Diamond He loves disasters and grand historical narratives, and so do you. The author of Guns, Germs, and Steel talks about the forthcoming TV documentary based on his 2004 book, Collapse. He'll update his observations, with particular reference to Haiti—which, even before the earthquake, was a case study in depleted soil, deforestation, and population growth that outstripped the meager natural resources available on its half of the unhappy Caribbean island. Benaroya Hall, benaroyahall.org.
2 Lubomyr Melnik This Ukrainian-Canadian composer/pianist performs his own sound-saturated "Continuous Music," which requires a special playing technique. Chapel Performance Space, waywardmusic.blogspot.com.
3–11 ByDesign 10 Films by Charles and Ray Eames will be among this annual celebration of graphic design and its practitioners. Northwest Film Forum, nwfilmforum.org.
4 Uptight Seattleite Aided by his bitter, hardworking assistant David Stoesz, the SW columnist collects his censorious chiding in A Sensitive Liberal's Guide to Life. The Uptight insists there's fresh material that you haven't read in the paper before. University Book Store.
4–6 Songs of War I Have Seen Avant-garde German composer Heiner Goebbels has his song cycle (on a Gertrude Stein text) performed alongside madrigals by Monteverdi in a collaboration between Seattle Chamber Players and Pacific Musicworks. On the Boards.
5–6 Seattle Pro Musica French choral works, including Martin's lavish Mass for Double Choir. St. James Cathedral, seattlepromusica.org.
6 Butch Morris It could be amazing, or it could be a mess, as the volatile avant-jazz leader brings his "conduction" method of creative composing to an ensemble of Seattle players. It'll be worth hearing either way. PONCHO Concert Hall at Cornish College, cornish.edu.
6 Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra For their second concert, this new group worth watching plays Bach, Copland, and Handel. St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, seattlemetchamberorchestra.blogspot.com.
6–14 The Esoterics Patrician craftsman Samuel Barber (1910–81) never asked to be the figurehead of conservative 20th-century American composers, but the avant-garde just couldn't forgive the popularity of his Adagio for Strings. This a cappella choir (which celebrates someone's 100th birthday every year) sings his complete choral works, including his choral arrangement of the Adagio, retitled Agnus Dei. Various venues, theesoterics.org.
