Double shot of Hitchcock: It’s Halloween, clearly a time for works by the master of suspense (and jump scares), director Alfred Hitchcock. On Thursday, Hitchcock films come to the big screen in San Francisco, accompanied by live music, in two varied presentations. Grace Cathedral is the location for Hitchcock’s 1927 silent thriller “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog,” considered by many his breakthrough film. Starring Marie Ault, Ivor Novello and June Tripp and based on a novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, the film centers on a strange lodger at a London boarding house who’s reminiscent of Jack the Ripper. Revered organist Dorothy Papadakos plays the church’s 7,500-pipe Aeolian-Skinner organ, which was installed in 1934. Presented by SFJAZZ, the screening-performance begins at 8 p.m. at the church. Tickets are $25-$35 at sfjazz.org. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Symphony serves up a better-known Hitchcock work, 1960’s “Psycho,” starring Janet Leigh as scream queen Marion Crane and Anthony Perkins as mild-mannered murderer Norman Bates. The orchestra, led by conductor Scott Terrell, performs the soundtrack live. The screening begins at 7:30 p.m. at Davies Symphony Hall; tickets are $69-$199 at sfsymphony.org.
Freebie of the week: Halloween used to be simpler. Kids (and some parents) would don costumes, go door-to-door for treats, ingest an obscene amount of candy and pretend not to notice when their blood-sugar levels spiked to dangerous heights. Now people are concerned about responsible candy intake and insensitive-vs-appropriate costumes, and trick-or-treating has been replaced in neighborhoods with costume-optional gatherings. That’s fine and good. But on Saturday, for those feeling a little Halloweenish, there’s a free event in San Francisco offering some of the best parts of Halloween: family fun, entertainment and costumes galore. Halloween Hoopla stars the fabulously talented folks from Circus Bella, who will be performing feats of juggling and foot-juggling, rola bola stunts, clowning and more. There will be live music from the Circus Bella All-Star Trio, crafts and artsy activities organized by Children’s Creativity Museum, Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy and the Mexican Museum, and palm reading from Madam Z (adults: please don’t ask about the election). Costumes are heartily encouraged because the fun concludes with a costume parade. The event runs from noon to 3 p.m. at the Children’s Garden area at Yerba Buena Gardens, 799 Howard St. More information is at ybgfestival.org.
Return of the Dragon Lady: After a successful and well-received run at Marin Theatre last year, the Dragon Lady is entertaining Bay Area audiences anew with her colorful, humorous and sometimes poignant solo theater-cabaret show. The Dragon Lady is Sara Porkalob, a Seattle-based singer, actor, storyteller and keeper of a rich Filipino American family history. “Dragon Lady,” a solo show now in Walnut Creek presented by Center Repertory Company, blends music, laughs and colorful tales; Porkalob recounts the vibrant story of her gangster family’s journey from a Manila nightclub to a Washington state trailer park. Written and performed by Porkalob (who’s backed by a live band) and directed by Andrew Rusell, “Dragon Lady” unspools like a high-energy stage musical. As Center Rep artistic director Matt M. Morrow put it, the show is fueled by “Porkalob’s fearless storytelling, her vibrant portrayal of complex family dynamics, and her ability to weave humor, heart and history into a compelling narrative.” Interestingly, “Dragon Lady” is the first in a three-part series of solo shows dedicated to different matriarchal figures in Porkalob’s family in which 60-year-old Maria Porkalob relays her origin story to granddaughter Sara. The singing and storytelling Sara Porkalob portrays several different characters in “Dragon Lady,” which runs at the Lesher Center for the Arts through Nov. 24. Tickets are $66-$85; go to centerrep.org.
Under examination–the orchestra: Maestro Donato Cabrera and the California Symphony are taking off on what they are calling a “Brahms Odyssey” this weekend in their hometown venue, the Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Their two concerts will culminate in performances of Johannes Brahms’ magnificent Symphony No. 4, his last and greatest. Both pieces preceding it cast illumination on how the masterpiece was created, exploring the contributions of each of the four sections of the orchestra—strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion —and indeed, the individual instruments in the sections. The program opens with Benjamin Britten’s famed “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Originally composed in 1945 for an educational documentary but assertively ascending to its rightful place in the symphonic repertoire, it turns a tuneful theme from 17th-century composer Henry Purcell into a masterful set of variations that highlights the specific instruments. The second piece is Bay Area composer Mason Bates’ Grammy-winning “Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra,” which accomplishes much the same thing and is accompanied by an animated film in which a lively Sprite character swoops inside some of the instruments. Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Find tickets, $25-$95, through californiasymphony.org or (925) 943-7469. Find a preview of the Bates piece here.
American sounds explored: The West Coast premiere of “Abokkoli’ Taloowa’,” which translates from the Chickasaw to “Woodland Songs,” by noted Native American composer Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha’ Tate, takes place at 3 p.m. Sunday in Hertz Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, hosted by Cal Performances, which co-commissioned the work. The Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet performs the work, connecting it thematically to Dvorak’s Quartet in F Major, the “American,” written while the composer was living in Iowa. Tate’s work celebrates the animals of his people’s Southeastern homelands, with movements named for the squirrel, the bird, the fish, the deer and the raccoon. The program will also include Tate’s orchestration of “Rattle Songs,” a suite composed by the Tuscarora vocalist Pura Fé for her Native American a cappella trio Ulali, and Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum,” infused with the influences of American folk music and dance. Find tickets, $74, at calperformances.org or by calling (510) 642-9988.
The post Best Bets: Big-screen Hitchcock, ‘Halloween Hoopla,’ ‘Dragon Lady,” ‘Brahms Odyssey,’ Dover Quartet appeared first on Local News Matters.