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By Diana Nollen One star reached out and another one was born. A fortuitous phone call nearly 30 years ago helped point Richard Marx down his golden career path. It wasn’t just any caller on the line. It was Lionel Richie in Los Angeles, offering the 17-year-old songwriter some advice. “I remember how kind he was to me and how encouraging he was,” Marx, now 46, says by phone from a recent concert stop in Nashville. “He heard the first four or five songs ...

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By Diana Nollen RIVERSIDE — Herb Alpert and Lani Hall make beautiful music together. The legendary trumpeter and his lovely wife of nearly 36 years, the one-time voice of Brasil 66, were perfectly in sync Friday night in a Hancher concert presented at the Riverside Casino Event Center. An estimated audience of 700 to 750 people were treated to a casual chic evening of Great American Songbook standards wrapped around Latin beats from a top-notch trio of piano, bass and percussion. The amalgam ...

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There’s nothing wrong with mixing a little education with entertainment. The audience at Thursday night’s Orchestra Iowa Masterworks concert at Coe College’s Sinclair Auditorium was entertained by the music of Respighi, Stravinsky and Beethoven. Maestro Timothy Hankewich provided the evening’s educational component. The concert opened with Respighi’s “Gli Uccelli (The Birds),” a sparkling five-movement piece where the composer uses musical instruments to imitate birdsong. Hankewich noted that the third movement, “The Hen,” was the favorite of “4,000 school children” who heard Orchestra Iowa ...

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 By Diana Nollen Broken Lizard just keeps regenerating. The brains and brawns behind the movies “Super Troopers,” “Beerfest” and “The Dukes of Hazzard” remake are digging back to their standup comedy roots. They’ll plant their feet on the Englert Theatre stage in downtown Iowa City on Saturday night, for a mix of group sketches, individual shtick, songs, storytelling and film clips. “It’s like a good, old-fashioned cavalcade of humor show, with audience participation and characters from our previous movies doing bits with the ...

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So you think you can dance? You may think again after seeing the ballroom pros in action. Champions of the Dance will be spinning onto the Englert Theatre stage in downtown Iowa City at 8 p.m. Friday. You’ll see the fancy footwork of dancers featured in ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” the BBC’s “Strictly Come Dancing” and “The American Ballroom Challenge.” Among those luminaries are Andrey Motyl and Inna Brayer from “Dancing with the Stars”; national champions Hugo Villanueva and Jessica McMorrow; German ...

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By Diana Nollen Nora James hooked me up with “A Good Man,” for which I’m ever so grateful. She is the first character who intrigued me in Larry Baker’s third novel, released Sept. 17 through Ice Cube Press in North Liberty. James is that mysterious woman everybody knows, nobody sees and anybody can hear by tuning into her cooking show on the little radio station in St. Augustine, Fla. She’s a complete mystery you want to solve right away, but Baker wisely ...

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By Diana Nollen “Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece — all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up.” — “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” CEDAR RAPIDS — The Friends of the Cedar Rapids Public Library are hoping to see at least that much money pile up from the sale of a rare, limited centennial edition of “The Adventures ...

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Tickets go on sale at noon Friday, Nov. 6, for Papa Roach, Shinedown and Halestorm in concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, at the U.S. Cellular Center, 370 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids. The show is open to all ages and seating is general admission. Tickets are $29.50 in advance and $32 day of show, through the U.S. Cellular Center Box Office, 1-(800) 745-3000,  www.ticketmaster.com or  www.jadepresents.com

Semi-charmed life The stars are still rising for alt-rockers Third Eye Blind, with the August release of their latest CD, “Ursa Major.” Stephan Jenkins, Brad Hargreaves and Tony Fredanelli emerged from the San Francisco scene with their self-titled debut album in 1997 and quickly shot to the top with the self-fulfilling prophesy, “Semi-Charmed Life.” After getting the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids jumping in 2000, they’re back to light a bonfire Monday in the Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City. The concert, ...

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CONCERT REVIEW Maria Muldaur and her Garden of Joy jug band played two hours of music from the 1920s and ’30s on Wednesday night with lyrics that resonate today. The CSPS stage that also hearkens back to an earlier age was the perfect venue to showcase the talents of Muldaur and her band, four young men accomplished on everything from banjo, mandolin, guitar and bass to kazoos, tomato cans, silverware, a suitcase, washboard and moonshine jug. At first glance, you know nothing conventional ...

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Grab your boas and stilettos. Put your hands on your hips and get ready to do the “Time Warp” again. “The Rocky Horror Show,” the R-rated play that spawned a cult classic film and penchant for tall men in torn fishnets, has been produced by Theatre Cedar Rapids three times in recent years. This time, the show is taking a jump to the left to step right onstage at CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE. Lots of faces familiar to TCR audiences will be ...

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By Diana Nollen Embodying the spirit of Anne Frank has been an emotional journey for student actress Natalie Kropf. "Both of my grandparents were in the Holocaust,” says Kropf, 21, a junior majoring in theater at Cornell College in Mount Vernon. “My grandmother lived in Holland — in The Hague — and was about the same age as Anne. “It’s really brought me closer to my own personal history and made me curious to learn more about it,” Kropf says. “It’s such an important ...

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By Rob Cline Freelance writer CEDAR RAPIDS — Tom Stoppard is a playwright well known for the complexities of both his language and his ideas. Nevertheless, the Theatre Cedar Rapids production of Stoppard’s 2006 drama "Rock ‘N’ Roll," performed at TCR Lindale for a moderately sized but appreciative crowd on Saturday night, can be summed up simply: This is strong work. Under the direction of Leslie Charipar, the committed cast conquers an intricate script in which Stoppard explores the interior spaces where political, ...

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By Diana Nollen AMANA — There’s this play, see, and it’s got all dese shady peoples in it, see. But I didn’t see nothin’ or hear nothin’ Friday night except for a whole lotta laughin’. Other than that, my lips are sealed, I promise Big Mack. Cross my heart and hope to, um, well, NOT to die. See, to say too much about “Shady Business” at the Old Creamery Theatre would be bad, very bad for me and my digits, which I would ...

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Catherine Blades doesn’t really know what it’s like to live in New York City. “I know the theater,” she says. “I get on the train and go to the theater, then come home. I don’t really have much time at all, but I don’t mind. Once the show starts running, I’ll have time in the day. It’ll be nice.” That day has come. It’s a day she’s been dreaming of through all the shows she’s seen in New York, all the roles she’s ...

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My nearly-6-year-old daughter was contemplative at intermission of the world premiere performance of “Curious of George Live!” On our way to the water fountain at the U.S. Cellular Center, she looked up at me and said, “I wonder if they’re lip-syncing.” My first thought was that it’s a sad state of affairs when a nearly-6-year-old is quick to consider the possibility that the performers she is watching aren’t actually performing. My second thought was that she’d just identified, albeit in a ...

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Besides having a name that’s fun to say, Grammy-winner Boz Scaggs has a string of hits that are fun to hear again. “Lido Shuffle,” “It’s Over,” “Miss Sun,” “Look What You’ve Done To Me,” “You Make It So Hard (To Say No),” “We’re All Alone,” “Heart of Mine” and “Lowdown.” All are part of his musical legacy stretching back to the ’60s. It’s a pretty sure bet he’ll play at least some of those hits at the Riverside Casino Events Center on Friday. ...

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Dontcha be minding the title. It’s a shurbetcha audiences will quickly embrace the quirky characters in “Don’t Hug Me,” playing through Oct. 11 at the Old Creamery Theatre, 39 38th Ave. REVIEW Billed on its Web site as “a love story with singin’ and stuff,” this comedy set in the dead of winter in the northwoods of Ely, Minn., had Thursday’s opening crowd howling with laughter. All five cast members speak with a Norwegian singsong accent that adds to the merriment during a ...

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Now that we have your attention, indie recording artist Michelle Shocked will bring her Texas roots and Americana folk ways to the Iowa Women’s Music Festival this weekend. The Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter will hit the outdoor stage in Upper City Park at 4:15 p.m. Saturday. But music trembles all around, before and after Shocked. Jazz, folk, pop, rock, country, Americana, roots, comedy, hip-hop, blues, honky-tonk, soul and gospel will all find a spotlight, as well as comedy and performance art. Festivities get under ...

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Pat Benatar has been kicking her way through the rock ’n’ roll battlefield since the ’70s, and we’re betting she could still plant her flag at the top of the heap. We’ll find out when Benatar and her husband/collaborator Neil Giraldo celebrate 30 years of hard-rockin’ bliss Saturday night at the Veterans Convention Center inside the Meskwaki Casino, just off Highway 30 west of Tama. This tour promises “All the Hits ... All the Memories.” Hmmm, let’s see. Maybe she’ll hit us with ...

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What better way to celebrate everything Hawkeye than hosting a festival honoring one of Iowa’s most beloved coaches? FRY Fest, named after legendary Hawkeye football coach Hayden Fry, will be held Friday in Coralville. “It’s to celebrate Hawkeye spirit,” says Alyssa Dahmer, communications intern for the Iowa City-Coralville Convention and Visitors Bureau. The festival also will celebrate Fry’s 20-year coaching career at Iowa and his humanitarian effort supporting local farmers, Dahmer says. RELATED: Jake Owen brings his rising star to FRY Fest This year marks ...

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While other bands riding the ’80s new wave scene have come and gone, Cracker is still flowing toward its land of milk and honey. “It makes us happy that 19 years into our career, we’re seeing young faces at our shows,” says co-founder and lead guitarist Johnny Hickman, 52, who lives in the Fort Collins area of northern Colorado. He credits Facebook and YouTube with bringing new fans into the realm, as well as old fans bringing their kids to shows. “It makes ...

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The Landlocked Film Festival offers many pieces in many places, but the centerpiece of the four-day event is the Iowa premiere of “16 to Life” at the Englert Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29. Known as “Duck Farm No. 13” to the folks around McGregor, where most of the footage was shot in October 2007, it’s flying under a new name and generating industry buzz, winning awards at Method Fest in California last spring. But during the final phases of the nearly ...

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Jazz guitarist Fred Woodard uses one urban garden to nurture his soul and another to grow his music. The Iowa City native, 48, lives with his wife and three children in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, where he says he has just enough space to plant some vegetables. While he says he doesn’t have many interests outside of family, teaching and music, in gardening he found “an escape from everything. It gave me a chance to relax and think about other things,” he says. ...

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Fresh pineapples will be in Iowa for the 32nd Annual Pineapple Sale for Camp Courageous this weekend. The pineapples will be on sale at nearly 30 Hy-Vee stores in Bettendorf, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, Clinton, Coralville, Davenport, Dubuque, Iowa City, Marion and Waterloo. Sales are Friday and Saturday. Some locations will have the ability to core and place the pineapple in a container for the customer. The 31st Annual Pineapple Gala will be August 15 at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel, 350 ...

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