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Fans of the Great American Songbook shouldn't miss the annual "Night of 1000 Stars Variety Show" on Sunday at the Las Vegas Hilton. The concert, titled "Somewhere Over the Neon," will pay tribute to composer Harold Arlen. Arlen is best known for "Over the Rainbow" and the other music for "The Wizard of Oz." But he also composed such memorable songs as "It's Only a Paper Moon," "I've Got the World on a String," "Stormy Weather," "Get Happy," "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Old Black Magic." The concert benefits F.A.C.T., the Family and Children Treatment Center of Southern Nevada. The composer's son, Sam Arlen, and George Bugatti created the show. "Sam and George have been working for over two years on their stage show 'Wizard' with George Bugatti's Three Crooners singing all of these great songs," said the concert's executive producer, Jonathan Scott.
THEATERSHOWS
THE ALABAMA THEATRE, Barefoot Landing, U.S. 17, North Myrtle Beach, will present its Christmas show, at 7:30 p.m. today, Saturday and Monday through Thursday, and 2 p.m. Saturday. Tickets range from $34.65-$40.99 for adults and $18.20 for children; New Year's show seats range from $36.45-$41.95, and children are $18.20. 272-1111, 800-342-2262 or www.alabama-theatre.com. THE CAROLINA OPRY, northern intersection of Kings Highway and U.S. 17 Bypass, Myrtle Beach, will present The Carolina Opry Christmas Special at 1 and 7 p.m. today and Saturday, and 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; preshow begins at 15 minutes before the start time. Tickets range from $38-$43 for adults and $25 for students and children. Platinum seats are $53. 913-4000, 800-843-6779 or www.thecarolina opry.com.
Stories to tell
There's a novelesque quality to the life of Ed McClanahan. And while you might think that applies to all lives to some extent or another, you'd be off the mark with McClanahan. His is better than that. His is an improbable journey that started exactly where he needed it to, had him meeting exactly whom he needed to meet at exactly the right time in history to have his life become a kind of emblematic shorthand for an era, and had him return home before it all got too weird. The era in question was the 1960s. But before that, McClanahan was a Brooksville, Ky., boy fond of writing who'd been a soda jerk in Maysville and a friend of Nick Clooney's when they were in high school. He made lifelong friends with Wendell Berry before Berry got to be so beatified. He met Jerry Garcia before Garcia's band changed its name to The Grateful Dead.
Harriet Howard Heithaus: Performances override silly story
Coconut cream pie is a wonderful confection, a dessert that can lure you into making a thick slice of it a guilty dinner. You're in for digestive troubles, however, if that pie that you've substituted for meat and vegetables turns out to be not the authentic marriage of milk, sugar, eggs and fruit your mother made, but a supermarket mound of whipped soy laced with chemical flavor. Franz Lehar's “The Merry Widow" carries similar caveats in its confection of of happy music, incredible characters and inane premise. If it's not produced faithfully and presented boldly, an evening that should be frothy fun ends up sitting heavily in the stomach. Czech Opera Prague, which presented the piece at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts Thursday, occasionally tests the cream-pie theory, playing contemporary with the supertitle dialogue (“He's taking the Starbucks cure — a triple espresso!"), while big chunks are left untranslated for the clueless audience.
Critics choice
"Fred Claus" is the gift you didn't see coming. Vince Vaughn uses his fast-talking powers for good in this PG-rated fable that transforms sibling tensions into holiday tinsel. Vaughn plays Fred, Nicholas Claus' older brother. Long ago, he vowed to be the best big brother ever. But Christmas after Christmas - and sainthood - made the promise harder. This delight finds Fred traveling from Chi-town to the North Pole just as an efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) shows up to Scrooge Santa (Paul Giamatti). The wrapping is goofy, the treat inside just right. Kathy Bates, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz and John Michael Higgins sparkle. Lisa Kennedy Television We've seen this coming for weeks, but the downward spiral is breathtaking to watch: ABC's "Brothers & Sisters," at 9 tonight on KMGH-Channel 7, puts the spotlight on Dave Annable as Justin, the Walker son who is recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq and now, after abusing pain pills, back to being an addict.
Army Desertion Rates Up
The Army's desertion rate has risen 80 percent since the invasion of Iraq four years ago. Desertion is at its highest rate since 1980, though still far lower than when the draft was in effect during the Vietnam war. Army statistics show about nine out of every 1,000 soldiers deserted during the past fiscal year. That's a 42 percent increase over 2006. Despite the steady increase in desertions, an Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year shows that the military does little to find those who leave their posts and rarely prosecutes the ones they get. Some are allowed to return to their units, while most are given less-than-honorable discharges. Military leaders have acknowledged that the Army has been stretched nearly to the breaking point by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with many soldiers serving repeated and lengthy tours jme Pentagon
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