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Loesser will be more in 42nd Street Moon concert

Emily Skinner
As if Jason Graae isn’t busy enough in “Little Me,” he’s taking two of his nights off to perform in a concert of Frank Loesser tunes with 42nd Street Moon company members and Tony nominee Emily Skinner (“Side Show”), who is making her San Francisco debut. Read More

Quantity counts for Jason Graae, man of many characters

Jason Graae
Those not familiar with “Little Me,” the final show in 42nd Street Moon’s current season, could be surprised to discover that the title character is a lady named Belle Poitrine who, much like Lorelei Lee, comes from “the other side of the tracks” in search of a little fame, a lotta fortune and, of course, true love. It’s an irony not lost on Los Angeles-based actor Jason Graae, who headlines the revival of the Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh musical opening Saturday; it originally starred Sid Caesar in 1962 and was revived in 1999 with Martin Short. Read More

Paramore rocks on at the Warfield

Paramore
Hayley Williams — the next twang-friendly Taylor Swift? It could have happened, says the frontvixen for pop-punkers Paramore, whose self-titled fourth album just debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Read More

Little Boots finds relief, renewal in DJ booth

Little Boots
British synth-pop perfectionist Little Boots had a specific mood in mind for her new sophomore effort, “Nocturnes,” and its New Order-ish percolators such as “Motorway,” “Broken Record” and “Beat Beat” with its telltale line “Every night that you’re sleeping/I stay awake until dawn.” “It’s got a real nocturnal feel,” says the keyboardist, born Victoria Hesketh. “But even though it’s dark, there are still fun songs like ‘Beat Beat,’ where you’re getting ready to go out. So it’s really more of a full-spectrum experience of the night.” Read More

‘Killer’ snazzy but uneven

A Killer Story
Local writer Dan Harder’s modern noir mystery, “A Killer Story,” onstage at the Marsh in Berkeley, starts at the end. All three characters — hard-boiled gumshoe Rick (Ryan O’Donnell), sexy blonde Laura (Madeline H.D. Brown) and obsessive scientist Jerry (Robert Parsons) — are behind bars. Reverting to the beginning, Rick tells us how they got here. His only mistake, he claims, was in his timing. At play’s end, awaiting trial, he says he told “too good a story.” It’s a clever conceit. Read More

Mariah Carey shuts down Disneyland to renew her vows

Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon
Mariah Carey shut down the entire Disneyland park so she could renew her wedding vows with Nick Cannon in the low-key, understated style she is known for. “Entertainment Tonight” reports that 250 guests watched the Cinderella-themed couple clop up in a carriage to Main Street where they then headed over to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle for the ceremony. Read More

Brad Pitt’s zombie flick “World War Z” was a nightmare to make

Brad Pitt
Vanity Fair magazine is running a June cover story on Brad Pitt and his disastrous moviemaking experience creating “World War Z.” The zombie apocalypse film was “plagued with on-set drama, budget issues, and a weak ending that had to be entirely reshot,” says the New York Post. At one point, the story alleges, Pitt stopped speaking to the film’s director, Marc Forster, over issues like more violence (Pitt wanted it, Forster did not). Read More

Why isn’t Amanda Bynes conserved?

Amanda Bynes
Fox.com’s Pop Tarts column asks a great question: How can Britney Spears be placed under a conservatorship but not Amanda Bynes? Read More

San Francisco Symphony showing why Beethoven is always in style

John Mangum
Program 3 features Beethoven’s late masterpiece "Missa Solemnis" — with Fabiano, soprano Laura Claycomb, mezzo Sasha Cooke and bass Shenyang — and excerpts from Palestrina’s 1562 "Mass for Pope Marcellus II." Why Beethoven? Why are two dozen of his works in the current San Francisco Symphony schedule? Read More

Robyn Hitchcock feels jolly good

Robyn Hitchcock
Lovable English eccentric Robyn Hitchcock often finds himself in remarkable situations, from 2008’s expedition to Greenland to study climate change to co-starring in Jonathan Demme films "The Manchurian Candidate," "Rachel Getting Married" and the concert documentary "Storefront Hitchcock." A few months ago, while visiting his daughter Maisie in Berlin, he unexpectedly went with her and Michael Stipe to Yoko Ono’s birthday party, where he and Stipe ended up singing "Give Peace a Chance" onstage. Read More
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