CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

If you’re a podcast person, you probably don’t get out that much. Normal life is just slipping on a pair of headphones and doing the dishes, or maybe going for a walk and listening to a group of comedians talk about fast food or music. But some things are worth leaving the house and multitasking behind for, and one of those things is when one of your favorite podcasts comes to town. So put on some real pants and get ready for Welcome to Night Vale: The Haunting of Night Vale, coming to the Lou this Thursday, February 23. You need no intro, obviously, but for everyone else, Welcome to Night Vale is a quirky, bi-monthly fiction podcast in the form of a community news radio station that reports on the happenings of the not-real town of Night Vale. There are segments about banal topics — weather or local news — but things often veer into the strange, whether that’s the town’s secret police or dark figures in the night sky. Experience it live for yourself at 8 p.m. at the Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard, 314-7266161). Tickets start at $30 and are available at thepageant.com.

If you’re a deeply irritating person who is unfit for most social events, we’ve got the perfect event for you to let it all out without judgment. On Thursday, February 23, Das Bevo (4749 Gravois Avenue, 314-832-2251) is hosting a Grease Sing-a-Long. Here’s how it works: You go and eat some food and drink some drinks. Then Das Bevo plays Grease, during which you sing aloud without shame while others around you do the same. If this sounds like hell to you, you are most people. But if it sounds like heaven, you just may have finally found your people. Dress up like your favorite Grease character for bonus points with the crowd, and in any case, make sure you’re looking your best. After all, if you’re going to find a partner just as an- noying as you are, it’s definitely going to be at an event like this. The kitchen, which will be serving classic diner fare to pair with the film, opens at 6 p.m., and the movie starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $5, and tickets can be purchased at square.link/u/fwdZx52P.

Herschell Gordon Lewis is known as the “godfather of gore” for good reason. The celebrated film director pioneered the “splatter” genre in the 1960s with bodily-fluiddrenched films including Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red If you love a good scare or are a film history buff, you’ll definitely want to check out Two Thousand Maniacs! at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Avenue, 314-9687485) this Thursday, February 23. The 1964 film, starring 1963 Playboy Playmate Connie Mason, follows two Yankee travelers who make their way down south and end up at a Civil War centenial celebration that turns all too real. Tickets are $8 for the general public, and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit events.webster.edu/event/twothousand-maniacs.

This week, food fans would do well to head to Tempus (4370 Manchester Ave, 314-349-2878) for its new and monthly throwback to a vintage twist on dining out. Starting Friday, February 24, the restaurant turned pop-up destination and event space will start hosting monthly supper clubs. A once-popular tradition in the 1930s and 40s, supper clubs were destinations for patrons, offering a place to socialize, listen to music and enjoy some fine dining.

For the February Supper Club, Tempus promises to deliver on everything that made these vintage arrangements great — but with a modern twist. This ticket-only event includes cocktails, a “meticulously planned menu” and live music from local jazz act Jon Thomas and Friends. Doors open at 5 p.m., with music and food beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $20 per person and are available on OpenTable. More info at tempusstl.com.

Granted, the Rolling Stones’ songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are pretty good — they’ve written a few decent songs, sold a handful of records and made a little bit of money for themselves over the years, to be sure. But there is one thing they are not: an entire symphony orchestra. Lucky for us, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is stepping in this week to fill in that glaring gap with a performance of The Music of the Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards 1969 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the classic Stones albums Beggar’s Banquet and Let it Bleed Joining the SLSO will be a full rock band fronted by vocalist Mick Adams, whose website notes he’s “the ONLY Mick Jagger impersonator to be endorsed by Mark Cuban [and]

Ryan Seacrest” (the matching first name assuredly helps). Expect a full night of classic tracks and deep cuts in tribute to one of the best rock bands the world has ever known. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. this Saturday, February 25, at Powell Hall (718 North Grand Boulevard, 314-534-1700). Tickets range from $45 to $70 and are available at shop.slso.org/7663.

As the 2022-23 basketball season comes to a close, the Billikins will host Loyola Chicago in the team’s second-to-last home game this Saturday, February 25. Loyola Chica- go isn’t the same Cinderella team from 2018 that reached the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, but they might still have some of that magic with Sister Jean still attending games. Chances are running out to see the Billikens play at Chaifetz Arena (1 South Compton Avenue, 314-977-5000) before the Atlantic 10 tournament begins March 8 in Brooklyn. After an up-and-down season, SLU will need to pick up some steam and roll through its conference tournament to reach the big dance. Game starts at 5 p.m., and tickets range from $20 to $200 through Ticketmaster. For more information, visit chaifetzarena.com.

The original New Jack City, directed by Mario Van Peebles and starring such icons as Wesley Snipes, Chris Rock and Ice-T, came out in 1991 and was an instant classic. It follows the rise of megalomaniac crime lord Nino Brown and the cops who are trying to stop him.

Je’Caryous Johnson’s New Jack City: Live on Stage carefully captures the feeling of the original, bringing back Allen Payne — who played Gee Money in the original film — and adding rapper Big Daddy Kane and Naughty by Nature crew leader Treach to the cast. The show even incorporates snippets of the original film, projected on a huge backdrop behind the Carter, a public-housing building turned crack house where most of the drama unfolds. Catch the live version of the classic film at Stifel Theatre (1400 Market Street, 314-499-7600) on Sunday, February 26, at 3 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $52 to $122. For more information, visit stifeltheatre.com.

WEEK OF

Aaron Sorkin knew when he took on the task of adapting Harper Lee’s famous, required-ninth-grade-reading novel To Kill a Mockingbird that he was “going to ruin everyone’s childhood,” he told Datebook when the play was touring San Francisco. The writer of The West Wing and A Few Good Men made so many changes to the original story — expanding the role of Calpurnia the housekeeper, changing Atticus Finch from saintly lawyer into more human man, etc. — that Lee’s estate sued him. With that settled, though, Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird hit the ground running and was an instant sensation. The story is updated for the stage and our modern times, but the central crux of a white lawyer, Atticus Finch, defending a Black man accused of rape in the American South in the 1950s stays the same. Catch the reimagining of a classic at the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard, 314-534-1111) from February 28 to March 12. Show times vary. Tickets are $29 to $110 and can be purchased at fabulousfox.com. n