Nathan Weinbender

It’s one thing for a community theater to tackle the work of William Shakespeare; it’s another thing entirely for one to tackle his epic magical comedy “The Tempest.” There are a number of reasons this particular play is a tricky proposition: It isn’t really one of Shakespeare’s more famous works, and it requires a mastery of music, broad comedy and special effects on top of its complicated language. But the Civic Theatre, whose interpretation of “The Tempest” opened this weekend, does justice to the Bard’s words. It works best, I think, in its lengthy comic passages and as a physical production of sound and fury. Director David Baker, who’s also the Civic’s technical director, has wisely staged his version as theater-in-the-round so that the audience is as much consumed by the magic as some of the characters.

When the musical “Hello, Dolly!” premiered in 1964, it became a classic right out of the gate. Written by Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart, the original production won 10 Tony Awards and made a star out of Carol Channing, who played busybody matchmaker Dolly Levi. Its popularity even extended to Hollywood and mainstream radio: It was adapted into a successful, Oscar-winning film starring Barbra Streisand in 1969, and a version of its title song performed by Louis Armstrong overtook the Fab Four on the Billboard charts at the height of Beatlemania. It’s a Broadway institution, and dozens of legendary actresses have taken a crack at Dolly in various revivals: Ginger Rogers, Mary Martin, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, Eve Arden, Betty Grable. And now Sally Struthers, the Emmy Award-winning actress of “All in the Family” fame, has taken on the role, starring in a touring production of “Hello, Dolly!” that is making a stop in Spokane as part of INB’s Best of Broadway series.

A lot of ink has already been spilled over the Spokane-shot horror comedy “Knights of Badassdom,” most of it before anybody had seen a single frame of the finished film. Its trailer premiered to much fanfare at 2011’s San Diego Comic-Con, it developed a fervent online following sight unseen, and it became embroiled in behind-the-scenes drama when director Joe Lynch made cryptic comments suggesting that the final cut had been wrested from his control by producers. But despite all the attention it’s stirred up, the version of “Knights of Badassdom” being released in theaters this week is mostly disposable, a movie driven by a promising concept that’s never fully realized. In order for movies like this to really be memorable, their premises need to be pushed to (or maybe even beyond) the point of over-the-top inspiration, and this one plays it pretty safe. There are moments when we can sense a weirder, wilder comedy just beneath the surface, but it never breaks through.

If there’s a blind spot in the general American’s knowledge of classical music, Spokane Symphony conductor Eckart Preu believes it’s most likely the work of composers who hail from south of our border. “We don’t really know much about (Latin) American classical music,” Preu said, “and we don’t really see it as a haven for that kind of music.” The symphony continues its Classics series this weekend with a program designed to fill those musical gaps. Titled “Music of the Americas,” it showcases classic and modern pieces from both sides of the U.S. border, and Preu hopes it illustrates to listeners how the cultures have influenced one another throughout the years.

When it comes to screwball farce, a little exuberance can go a long way. And when it comes to “Crazy for You,” Ken Ludwig’s Tony Award-winning musical that opened at Spokane’s Civic Theatre on Friday, the energy of the performers can work wonders. In the wrong hands, the plot could easily be a creaky and tired affair, but in the able hands of director Kathie Doyle-Lipe and her talented cast and crew, “Crazy for You” is a lot of bubbly, old-fashioned fun. The show is a throwback in more ways than one. Not only is its story as old as the hills, but so is the score, a collection of songs by George and Ira Gershwin that date as far back as the 1920s. The showbiz comedy follows Bobby Child (Mark Pleasant), the son of a wealthy New York City banker, who has stars in his eyes and dreams of a career on the stage. The problem is, he can’t get his foot in the door: The flamboyant Bulgarian theater owner Bela Zangler (Kelly Hauenstein) refuses to let Bobby audition.

At 24, Noah Gundersen is already an old soul. The Seattle singer-songwriter has crafted a rustic, picturesque sound that would be right at home on an old, dusty 78 rpm, and a lot of his original songs have the feel of a folk standard from a bygone era. Gundersen will release a new album and embark on a headlining North American tour next month, but he stops in Spokane at the Bartlett tonight.

It seems to be a consensus among critics and moviegoers that 2013 had an embarrassment of cinematic riches, and with Oscar nominations set to be announced this coming Thursday, the field is already overloaded. The acting races are particularly competitive this year – I can think of nine performances that all have a good shot at being nominated for Best Actor.

In one of the many famous scenes in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film “Goodfellas,” Tommy DeVito, a mobster played by Joe Pesci, gets prickly when he’s told he’s a funny guy. “What do you mean, I’m funny?” he asks, fury building in his voice. “Funny like a clown? I amuse you?” Comedian, writer and actor Grigorios Kritikos has been told he was funny since he was a kid, and he references that scene when he describes how much that bothered him. “I was always the center of attention,” Kritikos said. “People always told me, ‘Greg, you’re really funny.’ And I used to hate that. I couldn’t stand it.”