“Singin’ in the Rain” with Pittsburgh CLO; Sunken Treasure at Heinz History Center (CPs Tues., 6/3/14)

1) Pittsburgh CLO will “Make ‘Em Laugh” tonight with a performance of Singin’ in the Rain, a stage adaptation of the 1952 movie musical that still reigns as one of the top films of all time. The comedy classic, set in the 1920s, tells of the trials and tribulations faced by Hollywood movie makers during the transition from silent films to talkies—with hilarious and heartwarming results. Don Lockwood swinging around a light pole (as played in the film by Gene Kelly); Cosmo Brown performing pratfall after pratfall; Kathy Selden finally finding her way to the spotlight—these iconic movie moments will come to life on the stage to delight young and old. Singin’ in the Rain plays all week at the Benedum Center, starting tonight and going through Sunday with two shows on Saturday. 8 p.m. 803 Liberty Ave., Cultural District.

2) Artists have been making prints for centuries, although the practice of creating reusable stamps and screens from wood blocks, metal plates, and other materials was long used more for decorative and “production” purposes than as a true medium for artistic expression. But from the 15th century onward, European masters including Dürer, Rembrandt, Canaletto, and Piranesi adopted and perfected the methods, revolutionizing the world and the spread of art in a manner that has been likened to the rise of the Internet in modern times. The exhibit  Small Prints, Big Artists: Masterpieces from the Renaissance to the Baroque at the Carnegie Museum of Art brings over 200 of the museum’s more than 8,000 such prints to light, some for the first time ever. The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays). 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

3) In 1853, the steamboat Arabia was built and launched in Pittsburgh. Three years later, in 1856, it struck a tree and sank beneath the murky waters of the Missouri River, filled with hundreds of thousands of items destined for the frontier. In 1987, an enterprising family in the region unearthed the remains of the Arabia—which by then were buried beneath a cornfield, since the river’s course had shifted. They found thousands of pieces of inventory perfectly preserved in the mud. Pittsburgh’s Lost Steamboat: Treasures of the Arabia at the Senator John Heinz History Center features nearly 2,000 of these objects, plus eyewitness accounts from passengers aboard the doomed vessel, and even a memorial to the lone casualty of the disaster: a mule that was left tied to sawmill equipment on a lower deck. The exhibit runs through January 4, 2015 and is open along with the rest of the Heinz History Center seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1212 Smallman St., Strip District.

4) If you’ve heard Horace Silver’s immortal bossa nova standard “Song For My Father,” then you’ve heard Roger Humphries. The brilliant percussionist has played virtually every major venue in the United States with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Charles to Pittsburgh natives Nathan Davis and Pete Henderson. An accomplished solo artist in his own right and the leader of RH Factor and Roger Humphries’ Big Band, Humphries has also left a lasting legacy in Pittsburgh as an educator, having taught at the University of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and elsewhere. Catch the legendary drummer during a free public performance in the Agnes Katz Plaza. 5 p.m. Corner of Penn Ave. and 7th St., Downtown.

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