Photography by Joan Marcus
Mamma Mia!
Orpheum Theatre
Through Sunday, July 28
You can dance; you can jive; you’ll have the time of your life at Mamma Mia!, the ultimate feel-good show told through the timeless hits of ABBA. Performances are Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tickets ($34-$125) can be purchased here.
Photography by Ilse Orsel on Unsplash
Trolley Night
South Main
Friday, July 26, 6 p.m.
I’ve been brokenhearted, blue even. It’s been a month since the last Trolley Night. Mamma mia! How can I resist (adding it to this week’s “Five Things”?) Mamma mia, does it show again, my, my, just how much I’ve missed Trolley Night?
For Trolley Night, South Main’s shops and galleries will stay open late, and restaurants and bars will have deals galore (check them out here). There’ll be free bachata lessons at 9:30 p.m. at the Rumba Room, an exhibition opening at Stock&Belle live music, performances, and more.
Photography by Robert Dye Sr. / CourtesyOverton Park Shell Archives
Elvis backstage at the Shell in 1955
Elvis backstage at the Shell in 1955
70th Anniversary of Live Rock ’n’ Roll
Memphis Rock ’n’ Soul Museum
Saturday, July 27, 2 p.m. & 3 p.m.
Looking out for a place to go? Where they play the right music? Getting in the swing, you come to look for a king. Oh, you mean, the king. Well, I have the place for you to go where they play the right music in an afternoon all about the king.
This Saturday marks the 70th anniversary of when Elvis Presley played the Overton Park Shell in 1954, kicking off his career and making the gals go wild. To celebrate, Backbeat Tours is hosting a special 70th Anniversary of Live Rock ’n’ Roll tour.
Tours will meet at the Memphis Rock ’n’ Soul Museum Downtown and embark on a brief Elvis-centric tour through the streets of 1950s Memphis and then enjoy backstage access and a special tour of the historic Green Room at the Overton Park Shell. Afterward, young Elvis tribute artist Finley Watkins will recreate that legendary night with a high-energy concert. (Read more about the historic night and the tour in this piece by Alex Greene.)
Tickets are $60 and can be purchased here.
Stephanie Howard, The World is Always Ending, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Sheet Cake Gallery.
“It’s a Fine Line”
Sheet Cake Gallery
Through August 9
Slipping through my fingers all the time, I try to capture every minute, the feeling in it. Slipping through my fingers all the time … I’m not crying as I sing along to this song. I promise. The concept of time passing doesn’t sadden me or stress me out at all. No no no no no no no no no. You can’t get to me ABBA. But ABBA or something else, probably time itself, has gotten to the artists in Sheet Cake’s latest show as Stephanie Howard and Khara Woods reflect on the passage of time, “where repetition and meticulous linework become meditations on their anxieties about mortality and personal experiences.”
Sheet Cake Gallery is open Thursday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Photography by Joe Perry
Christin Webb as Gloria Carmichael
Christin Webb as Gloria Carmichael
Coco Queens
TheatreWorks@TheSquare
Through Sunday, July 28
If you’re not done being a dancing queen, check out Playhouse on the Square’s Coco Queens, a brand-new play about Black womanhood in the 1970s — the struggle, the heartbreaks, and the joy, as told through the lives of four women. Coco June wrote a great review for our sister publication the Memphis Flyer; read that here.
Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.
