Bay Area arts: 6 great live shows to see this weekend

From Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre to Noel Coward's classic 'Blithe Spirit,' some great shows are headed our way.

There are a lot of great shows to see in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond. Here’s a partial rundown.

Dance picks: Alvin Ailey, Dancing Moons

Here are two programs Bay Area dance fans should know about.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Some traditions are just worth keeping. That’s certainly the case with this revered New York dance troupe that has been staging residencies in Berkeley since the 1960s. The company, led by Robert Battle, returns to Cal Performances for its latest run Tuesday through April 16 bearing two West Coast premieres: “Are You in Your Feelings?,” a work by Kyle Abraham set to a soul/hip-hop/R&B “mixtape”-style score; and “In a Sentimental Mood,” by Jamar Roberts, an exploration of one couple’s love and desire set to Duke Ellington’s gorgeous composition. The run also includes performances of Twyla Tharp’s “Roy’s Joys,” Paul Taylor’s “DUET,” the Bay Area premiere of “Survivors,” Ailey’s dance devoted to Nelson Mandela, and — per tradition — the company’s beloved masterwork, “Revelations.”

Details: Seven performances Tuesday though April 16; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $42-$150; subject to change; calperformances.org.

Oakland Ballet: The company is continuing its ambitious Dancing Moons Festival this weekend on the other side of the Bay. The festival features the world premiere of the new nine-part work, “Exquisite Corpse,” created by a trio of Asian choreographers — Phil Chan, Seyong Kim and Elaine Kudo — inspired by a early  20th-century parlor game.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco; $15-$55; oaklandballet.org, www.presidiotheatre.org.

— Randy McMullen, Staff

One man, six strings

Following a successful March engagement at the SFJAZZ Center with an all-star South Bay quartet, San Jose guitarist Mason Razavi takes a solo turn in the spotlight Friday at the intimate San Jose Jazz Break Room.

He’s celebrating the release of his fourth album, “Six-String Standards”(OA2 Records), an unaccompanied project recorded in Santa Clara and Mountain View with Razavi alternating between archtop, nylon and steel string acoustic guitars. On his first outing in this most exposed and demanding setting, Razavi sounds confident and cogent, delivering concise, gracefully rendered versions of classics like “But Beautiful,” “Darn That Dream,” and “Like Someone In Love” (composer Jimmy Van Heusen, who wrote all three songs, is well represented).

Razavi won’t be lonely all night, however, as he’s joined on the second set by a multi-generational six-string triumvirate featuring Rick Vandivier, Hristo Vitchev, and 17-year old Ryota Sato, a member of the San Jose Jazz High School All Stars, who’s been studying with Razavi.

Details: 8 p.m. Friday; San Jose Jazz Break Room, 310 S 1st St., San Jose; $25; sanjosejazz.org.

— Andrew Gilbert, Correspondent

Theater picks: ‘Sweat,’ ‘Blythe Spirit’

Here are two mid-production stage shows Bay Area theater fans should know about.

Center Repertory Company: After a short delay due to a cast-member’s ailment, Walnut Creek’s Center Rep is presenting Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning workplace drama “Sweat.” The searing 2015 play follows several longtime friends who are employees or former employees at the troubled local steel mill. As the company gets hit by layoffs and union issues, lives and relationships are disrupted in Nottage’s gritty work, which touches on themes of loyalty, racial inequality and hostility and economic/social change.

Details: Through April 16; Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek; $45-$70; www.lesherartscenter.org.

City Lights Theater Company: Noel Coward’s ghostly 1941 comedy “Blithe Spirit” might be inching towards its centennial, but it never seems to go out of style with theater fans. The farce, now being presented by San Jose’s City Lights Theater Company, revolves around a struggling writer who hires an eccentric medium to conduct a séance, with the hope the event will spark some novel ideas. The move, of course, backfires spectacularly when the séance produces the spirit of the writer’s restless, and mischievous, first wife.

Details: Through April 23; City Lights Theater, 529 S. Second St., San Jose; $26-$54; cltc.org.

— Randy McMullen, Staff

Joan Baez, the artist: Who the heck knew? Iconic folk singer Joan Baez, just as famous for her anti-war activism as for her incredible, three-octave-range voice, has harbored a secret side of herself since the age of 5. “Am I Pretty When I Fly Upside Down?” (Godine Press, $45, 120 pages), just published this week, is a slim volume packed with hand-drawn images she has been creating as a form of self therapy throughout her life and career. Her whimsical drawings, done upside down and sometimes with her nondominant hand, became a way of quelling anxiety and sparking creativity. The collection has been labeled “a book exploding with spontaneity and humor” by no less an artist than Steve Martin, who possesses those qualities himself in abundance. The now 82-year-old Baez, a resident of Woodside in the Bay Area, will make a free appearance at City Light Books in San Francisco at 6 p.m. Thursday, and we advise you to line up early, as seating is first come, first served.  If you miss her there, catch Baez at another appearance at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley at 7:30 p.m. May 6 as part of the Bay Area Book Festival. Find tickets, $15, at baybookfest.org.

— Bay Area News Foundation

‘Spanglish Dances’ premieres 

— Bay Area News Foundation