'you can't take it with you'
Opening: Is it really possible that director Gary Gisselman is making his Jungle Theater debut? Honestly, this is a company with which he has had so many connections for such a long time. Quit scratching your head and sit back for this grand old Kaufman and Hart comedy. Raye Birk stars as Grandpa Vanderhof — the iconoclastic family patriarch — with Hugh Kennedy and Anna Sundberg as the star-crossed young lovers. Angela Timberman, Jay Albright, Nathaniel and Cathy Fuller, Allen Hamilton and Wendy Lehr are also in a cast that on paper can't miss. The play won a Pulitzer and was adapted into a film with Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart and Jean Arthur. It is great fun. (8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Thu. Ends Aug. 9; Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Av. S. Mpls.; $28-$48, 612-822-7063, www.jungle theater.com)
Graydon Royce
'Drop the Mic: Co-Operation!'
Friday-Sunday: Curio Dance co-founders Dario and Giselle Mejia, the brother and sister team who have recently returned to the Twin Cities from a series of international tours and an off-Broadway production in New York City with iLuminate, are taking over Cowles Center. They're collaborating with several local companies and individual artists working in classical, Latin and hip-hop-infused dances, including mashups of capoeira and break-dancing and American Indian and hip-hop dancing, plus Afro-Caribbean ballet and the use of an acrobatic cyr wheel. Along with MC Marcus Smith, "Drop the Mic: Co-Operation!" weaves together an environmentalist message as the dances are accompanied by live jazz trumpet, Latin congas, upright bass and piano. (7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., Cowles Center, 528 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls. $25. 612-206-3600, www.thecowlescenter.org.)
SHEILA REGAN
Solstice River XIX
Saturday: For its 19th and final year, this outdoor dance performance will take place on rooftops, riverbanks, kayaks and the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock as the audience looks on from the Stone Arch Bridge. Although the lock closed last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has allowed one last performance. The dancers, suited up with portable radios that will broadcast the event via KBEM (88.5 FM), perform choreography by founder Marylee Hardenbergh and others, bringing awareness to water issues through dance. KBEM's broadcast, hosted by station manager Michele Jansen, includes the music that David Moore composed for "Solstice River" two decades ago, with piano by Severin Behnen and jazz singer Lucia Newell reading "Letter From the River." The event is a part of a daylong "Global Water Dances" taking place in more than 60 cities around the world. (5 p.m. Sat., Stone Arch Bridge, 1758 West River Rd., Mpls. Free. global siteperformance.org.)S.R.
