Sister Act Haim in Concert at Stage AE; Front Porch Fires Up ‘The Spitfire Grill’ (Sat., 5/28/16)

1) Best New Artist nominees at the Grammys. SNL musical guests. Haim—your new favorite female rock group? If you watch the music video above, in which the Haim sisters turn breaking hearts into a singalong, then the answer is probably “yes.” Este plays bass; Alana, guitar; Danielle, guitar and drums, at least on the studio recordings. Live, the drummer is Dash Hutton. All sisters sing, often harmonizing. Danielle has  toured with Jenny Lewis and the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, playing guitar in both artists’ bands. The sisters learned music early on, playing with Mom and Dad in cover bands. They have one album, 2013’s Days Are Gone, which garnered dozens of accolades from music publications around the globe. They also opened for Taylor Swift on some of the dates of her 1989 World Tour, though not in Pittsburgh. But Haim will headline Stage AE this month, so fans can appreciate a longer setlist than the band would have had as stadium openers. Doors open 7 p.m. 400 North Shore Dr., North Shore. (CM)

2) The Front Porch Theatricals company does two musicals per year and they’re always interesting choices. Past shows have included Next to Normal, the Pulitzer-winning rock musical about mental illness, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. Front Porch starts this year with The Spitfire Grill, wherein the heroine is a woman paroled from prison after serving a sentence for manslaughter. Seeking a new start, she lands a job at a small-town restaurant where strange adventures await. The Spitfire Grill was adapted by off-Broadway theater artists James Valcq and Fred Alley from a 1996 movie of the same title and has been a cult favorite among regional theater companies. Front Porch is staging it at the New Hazlett Theater. 8 p.m. Through June 5. 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. (MV)

3) Love & Friendship – What’s that? You adore Jane Austen but if you see one more protracted courtship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy you’re going to scream? You refuse to be held accountable for your actions if you’ve got to witness John Dashwood cheat his mother and half sisters out of their inheritance? Can’t stand the thought of Emma messing up the lives of everyone around her one more time? Yes, Austen was an astonishingly brilliant writer, but only six of her novels were published in her lifetime … and all of them have been filmed and filmed again. What’s a dedicated Janeite to do? (As her more rabid fans style themselves.) There’s hope on the horizon with this film written and directed by Whit Stillman. It’s a comedy based on one of Austen’s earliest works, a short epistolary novel called Lady Susan, and it’s about a woman of society with the morals of a snake. The film reunites Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny who last appeared together in Stillman’s 1998 drama The Last Days of Disco. Stephen Fry, Jemma Redgrave, James Fleet, and Tom Bennett also star. Janeites rejoice! Check Fandango for screens and times. (TH)

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