music When Dwight Yoakam swaggered into town last August, his mug graced C-VILLE’s cover. Our music critic Spencer Lathrop called him a risk-taking country superstar with genuine traditional roots who’s known as “The Mailman, because he always delivers.” And this country boy’s got the look to match the sound: “long and lean, with the big cowboy hat and the facial demeanor that suggest[s] lonely and liking it.” Saturday, August 5. $31.50-41.50, 6pm. Charlottesville Pavilion. East end of the Downtown Mall. 877-CPAV-TIX. www.charlottesvillepavilion.com.
stage Cirque du Soleil is known worldwide for pushing the limits of large-scale performance art. So it’s fitting that the Quebec-based mega-circus is presenting its unique blend of live music, incredible acrobatics, dance, colossal props and scenery as the inaugural event of the super-sized John Paul Jones Arena. Cirque’s mystical Delerium is a live urban-tribal music extravaganza that features 540 square feet of projections, rocking bridges and trapezes (not to mention a woman in an 80′ volcanic dress). Tuesday, August 1. $71.50-101.50, 8pm. John Paul Jones Arena. 1-888-JPJ-TIXS. www.johnpauljonesarena.com.
stage Whatever you do, don’t piss off Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan. He’ll conjure tempests on land and sea, sink your ship, throw you into a coma and torture you with his magical minions. But can you blame him? After all, he’s been stuck on this island for 12 years. Think of The Tempest as a lush, Elizabethan version of “Lost,” where noblemen and women fight and fall in love under the influence of a pesky wizard’s spells. August 2, $14-34, 7:30pm. August 5, 2pm. Blackfriars Playhouse, 13 W. Beverley St., Staunton. (540) 851-1733. 877-MUCH-ADO. www.americanshakespearecenter.com.
kids Believe it or not, there is something to enjoy about the last days of summer, even for kids. Come to the grand finale of the Summer Reading Program to celebrate all of the books industrious Crozet children have finished since they’ve finished school.
Enjoy a tasty ice cream social and, best of all, meet everyone’s favorite monkey, the always endearing Curious George. All ages are welcome. Tuesday, August 1. Crozet Library. The Depot. 5791 Three Notch’d Rd. Free, 7pm. 823-4050.
music Guster have come a long way since their humble start at Tufts University. Now these shaggy-haired purveyors of pop can sell out Radio City Music Hall without breaking a sweat. Fresh off their Campus Consciousness Tour (biodiesel buses and wind-powered performances), the quartet rolls in to the Charlottesville Pavilion, with co-headliner Ray LaMontagne, on Wednesday, August 2. $29.50, 7pm. Charlottesville Pavilion. East end of the Downtown Mall. 877-CPAV-TIX. www.charlottesvillepavilion.com.
