May Highlights

May highlights

1 Time is running out to get a glimpse of the Southwest Florida Museum of History’s wildly popular Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit (so popular, in fact, that it’s already been extended once). See it before it, too, is extinct, through May 9. Call 321-7430 for details.

1 Get a taste of French photography’s golden age during French Twist: Masterworks of Photography from Atget to Man Ray. Beginning May 1, see 90 rare, vintage prints on display at the Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art. For more information, call 597-1900.

2 Come hungry to the 27th annual Taste of Collier, where you’ll find entertainment, contests and lots and lots of food from 30 local restaurants, May 2 at Bayfront. Call 272-1907 for more information, or visit www.tasteofcollier.org.

4 How does one fund the most expensive musical ever made? Such is the dilemma of two wannabe producers who find themselves requiring a whopping $83 million to do so. Their antics are onstage at the Florida Repertory Theatre during The Big Bang, opening May 4. Call the box office at 332-4488 for tickets.

6 On may 6, elvis will be in the building as two renowned impressionists portray both young and old versions of “The King” in what CNN calls “the closest [you] can get to Elvis in the flesh.”  Get your tickets to Blue Suede Shoes: The Ultimate Elvis Bash through the box office at 597-1900 or www.thephil.org.

Try It!

Home Thai’s boneless half duck with basil sauce ($21), with sautéed green and red bell peppers, onion and scallions, is one of Southwest Florida’s top dishes. Home-grown Thai basil leaves are flash-fried till translucent and blended with savory oyster sauce, Thai soy sauce and a
touch of freshly ground chili.

Rich and boldly exotic, it’s a must try. 3300 Bonita Beach Road, Suite 101, Bonita Springs. 948-4663, www.homethaisushibar.com.
                    —Ivan Seligman

Don't Miss It!

The cream of the daytime television crop descends on Marco Island on May 15–16 for the 12th annual SoapFest. It benefits several local charities, including Eden Florida’s Eimerman Center, which provides educational and outreach programs for children with autism. That particular cause holds a special place in the heart of All My Children veteran Walt Willey, who chatted with Gulfshore Life about his upcoming visit.

How long have you been a part of Soap Fest?
This will be our sixth year. This was originally a CBS event, and as it evolved, they got some of the ABC soaps involved. Once you get me involved, that’s it—you can’t get rid of me. My daughter on the show has autism, and my son in real life has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, so I’ll do anything I can do to support this cause.

What portion of your time is spent on All My Children as opposed to your standup act?
I’ve been doing a lot of standup and a lot of theater in the last year. I got to play both Felix and Oscar in separate productions of The Odd Couple, and nowadays I have a lot of time on All My Children because I’m living out West. So I’ve been breaking into some new clubs out there.

How did it feel having Saturday Night Live parody
your show?
I was watching an episode [Susan] Lucci was hosting, and all of a sudden, they did a thing called All My Luggage. And there’s Phil Hartman wearing the suit with the big “Wham!” hair I had in the ’80s. I thought he was doing an amalgam of all soap opera actors, but then he did a couple of gestures that were clearly mine. It was great; I like that kind of pop-culture reference. For a lower-level celebrity like me, very few can say Phil Hartman did them on Saturday Night Live.

How many appearances will you be making during
Soap Fest?
As long as my schedule holds up, I’ll be at every one. I’ll be painting with the kids on Saturday and doing both events on Sunday. Like I said, you can’t get rid of me.
                                                                    —Rob Stevens

See It!

American artist Thomas Hart Benton focused on the hard-working individual. One of his students, Jackson Pollock, is probably better known today than Benton; however, in his day, Benton was in great demand for the highly visible murals he painted in public buildings. As Italian Renaissance, baroque and mannerist painters had done, he constructed three-dimensional figures from clay and set them up on inclines to study the oblique angles and prepare to paint them realistically in vaults and apses. His curving lines animate his figures with a great energy and vitality.

In I Got a Gal on Sourwood Mountain, 1938, on view at the Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art through June 30, Benton packs an abundance of information in a 12-1/2-by-9-1/2-inch window. We see five figures dancing and a toe-tapping musician playing a fiddle. Benton endows the ceiling light fixture with the same swaying motion as the couple tripping across the wooden floor. Benton understood the printing process and took advantage of the possibilities the lithographic stone allowed with the judicious use of the printer’s ink in creating soft lines and textures as well as stark contrasts of light and dark. Benton invites us in to revel in the good times being had by all.
                  —Mark Ormond