Opening Night for ‘The Sound of Music’; Jevon Rushton Performing at Backstage Bar (Tues., 3/22/16)

1) When The Sound of Music, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, with Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, opened on Broadway in 1959, reviews were not all thumbs-up. Some major critics found the story to be trite and the songs too sappy. The famously acerbic Walter Kerr fired off a string of zingers—writing, for instance, that the Trapp family’s kiddie corps made the musical “suffer from little children.” But history has judged otherwise. The Broadway show won multiple Tony Awards and ran for nearly four years; the soundtrack album wore out phonograph needles in homes across the land; the 1965 movie broke box office records … and here we are now, in the once unfathomably futuristic year 2016, with yet another touring production of The Sound of Music coming to town. Benedum Center is sure to be packed with fans of all ages. They’ll surely be enchanted by Rodgers and Hammerstein songs like “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” and “Edelweiss.” And maybe these tunes are a wee bit syrupy, but it’s a brand of syrup that millions enjoy. 7:30 p.m. Performances through Sunday. 237 7th Ave., Cultural District. (MV)

2) Pittsburgh native Jevon Rushton headlines today’s installment of the weekly jazz series at the Backstage Bar. Rushton has been playing drums since he could hold a stick, reportedly blowing away audiences since he was six. He attended the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, where he studied under Roger Humphries, another Pittsburgh native and jazz-drumming luminary. In his brief career Rushton has received multiple awards and performed with the likes of Kirk Franklin, Sean Jones, and Dwayne Dolphin. He will be performing at 5 p.m. at the Backstage Bar in Theater Square. No Cover. 655 Penn Ave., Cultural District.

3) Knight of Cups – There was once a writer/director named Terrence Malik who, for a time, seemed to walk on water. In 1973 he made a movie called Badlands and the critics nearly wet themselves. In 1978 he followed that up with Days of Heaven, again with insane critical praise. He didn’t make another film until 1998, The Thin Red Line which, once again, was greeted with hosannas from the cinema cognoscenti. But then something happened to Malik. In 2005 he wrote and directed A New World about the Jamestown, Virginia settlement (you know, Captain Smith and Pocahontas) and, well, while everyone agreed it was a beautiful movie to look it, people complained it was too long and very slow and terribly confusing since much of the time the cast spoke in an extinct Powhatan language. He followed that up with The Tree of Life, about a boy growing up in the 1950’s, intercut with scenes of the Big Bang and dinosaurs roaming the earth. Then came To the Wonder which closed almost immediately after it opened.

So now there’s Knight of Cups which is described thus: “A screenwriter living in Los Angeles feels empty. Women provide a distraction to the daily pain he must endure, and every encounter that comes his way brings him closer to finding his place in the world.” What that means in that Christian Bale spends the movie hooking up with six different women, including Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, and Imogen Poots. Brian Dennehy, Wes Bentley, and Antonio Banderas are also along for what is sure to be a most singular ride. Check Fandango for screens and times (TH)

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