Copious Notes

Manny Wright as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a rehearsal for Bluegrass Community and Technical College's production of "The Rocky Horror Show." The show will conflict with Saturday night's Final Four game pitting the University of Kentucky against the University of Connecticut. © LexGo photo by Rich Copley.

It used to be that area performing arts groups would go to great lengths to avoid presenting shows that would conflict with a University of Kentucky men’s basketball game.

But Saturday night, despite the fact that they will overlap with a portion of the Wildcats’ first Final Four appearance in 13 years, area theaters say they will go on with their shows as planned. The game against the University of Connecticut Huskies is scheduled to tip off at 8:49 p.m. (8:47 was too early?)

One exception is Comedy Off Broadway, which moved Vic Henley’s 7:15 Saturday performance to 7 p.m. and cancelled the 9:45 performance.

Among the shows that will be going on are:

~ The School for Creative and Performing Arts’ production of the musical Hairspray at the Lexington Opera House, curtain time is 8 p.m.

~ Actors Guild of Lexington’s production of Walter May’s Broken, 8 p.m..

~ Tennessee Williams’ Garden District presented by Studio Players, 8 p.m.

~ Actors Guild of Lexington and Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s production of The Rocky Horror Show, 7:30 p.m.

~ Exile’s concert to benefit the National Drug Endangered Children Training and Advocacy Center at the Singletary Center for the Arts, 7:30 p.m.

While it might seem to make sense to move out of the way of a major event for the community, Actors Guild Artistic director Eric Seale says moving a performance can often create as many problems as it solves.

“The real problem isn’t people who already have tickets, because you can call them up and tell them you’re making a change,” says Seale, who is overseeing two shows that conflict with the Cats – Broken and Rocky Horror. “But the people who are just planning to walk up and buy tickets, you have no way of contacting them.”

He recalled a production when Actors Guild was at the Downtown Arts Center that had to be cancelled due to a problem in the building. He said all patrons were called and understanding, but one couple that walked up planning to buy tickets at the door was really upset about the change.

He also notes that while some people may welcome a change that lets them see the show and the game, others who aren’t as fixated on basketball may not like it.

Last weekend, of course, there were also shows that went up against the Cats games Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Seale says the Friday night performance of Broken did have a light turnout, but the second nights of shows often do, and most area residents could have seen both the play and the Ohio State-UK game in their entireties.

The Lexington Philharmonic also reportedly had most of its audience in their seats for its entire performance last Friday night, which overlapped with the first half of that game.

Third Day’s Mac Powell walked into enemy territory Saturday night.

Stepping up to the microphone in the home of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, he admitted, “I’m a big Alabama Crimson Tide fan,” to a hearty round of boos.

“How can you boo me when you destroyed my team?” he asked, referring to Friday’s 73-67 UK victory over ‘Bama in the SEC Tournament. “You gotta admit we drained y’all. You barely beat Tennessee,” he added, to laughs from a crowd well aware the Cats pasted the Vols by 29 points Saturday afternoon.

Powell moved toward common ground saying, “Can we all agree that Tennessee orange is just nasty? Well tonight, everybody’s on the same team. We all love Jesus, right?”

With that, the Christian Southern rockers launched into Born Again from Revelation, the Georgia band’s latest chart topper. And Third Day topped the bill at Winter Jam 2010 which rolled into Rupp Arena Saturday night for the third straight year.

This year’s edition attracted 14,756 fans to Rupp for a show that featured Central Kentucky’s first chance to see Newsboys with Michael Tait as the lead singer. The band’s set featured Tait working all sides of the stage and a catwalk that took him to the center of the arena, where he briefly took flight on Jesus Freak, a monster hit for his old band, dc talk. The new Newsboys’ set included the hit Something Beautiful, new material from the band’s forthcoming album Born Again and classics like Shine.

Both Tait and Newsboys, now nearly a year into their partnership, seemed to be invigorated by the new act. At the end of their set, Tait introduced his bandmates ending by saying somewhat emphatically, “My name is Michael, and we are the Newsboys.”

Rounding out the lineup were Fireflight, delivering their smash, Unbreakable, and stuff from their new album, For Those Who Wait; Tenth Avenue North setting the stage for Third Day with a set from their debut album Over and Underneath, and Newsong once again playing host to the event.

Winter Jam has one more Kentucky stop in Louisville March 28, which will close the tour.

Big Cuz and Coach Cal: who should play them in a movie. Photo by Ron Garrison | Herald-Leader staff.

The University of Kentucky men’s basketball team has had a great season, dare we say cinematic?

Seriously, think of the storylines that could play out on the big screen:

• John Calipari in Memphis, deciding whether to take the job.
• The comeback story of the Cats, after having to settle for an NIT bid in 2009-2010.
• Recruiting John Wall and Demarcus Cousins to join the team.
• Wall’s meteoric rise to superstar.
• Calipari struggling to tame Cousins’ temper, and combating the refs who’ve made up their minds about him.
• All the high points: The visits by LeBron, Magic and, of course, Ashley. ESPN Gameday and a march to the … the … Well, we don’t know where the story ends yet. But, at Weekender Central, we’ve been kicking around some ideas of how to cast a movie about UK’s magnificent season.

Alec Baldwin as Calipari? We’re kind of liking it, but there have to be other ideas. How about Wall and Cousins – who could step into their Nikes? And Ms. Judd – does she play herself? We’re thinking maybe newly ordained best actress Sandra Bullock. After all, sports movies have been very, very good to her, lately.

Well we want your ideas for the UK movie cast. Here are the roles we want to fill:

John Calipari

Ellen Calipari

Mitch Barnhart

John Wall

DeMarcus Cousins

Ashley Judd

Dick Vitale

Lee Todd

Tom Leach

A scalper

Mascot

Rick Pitino

Billy Gillispie

Are there other characters we should include? Either comment here or send me an e-mail at rcopley@herald-leader.com, and have fun with it.