The past isn’t dead; it’s reanimated on stage or swinging at a dance hall or gracing a gallery of time-drenched artifacts for your chronosynclastic entertainment. Shift the years easier than Gallifrey’s finest with any of these five recos – the last of which transports you to a Simpsons-inspired, postapocalyptic future like a Broadway show staged by Mad Max’s crew.
Zilker Summer Musical: Disney’s Newsies
Inspired by the real-life newsboys’ strike of 1899 – when Kid Blink led a band of orphan and runaway “newsies” on a two-week action against Pulitzer, Hearst, and other powerful newspaper publishers – this adaptation (score by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman, book by Harvey Fierstein) is high-energy and replete with eight new songs in addition to many of the beloved songs from the film version. Read our review here.Through Aug. 13. Thu.-Sun., 8:15pm. Zilker Hillside Theatre, 2206 William Barton Dr., 512/397-1463. Donations accepted. zilker.org/summer-2022
Austin Swing Syndicate: 23rd Anniversary Dance
You! Yes, you, you happy-footed citizen! Put your glad rags on and join the Austin Swing Syndicate for their silver plate anniversary, why don’tcha? Get a delighted eyeful of the tops in Lindy Hops and strut your own stuff as those Waller Creek Vipers bring the old-school swing to every little hoofin’ thing.
Thu., July 28, 8pm. 2312 San Gabriel. $20. austinswingsyndicate.org
Carver Museum: “Peace to the Queen”
The photographer, humanitarian, and educator Jamel Shabazz presents a career retrospective spanning four decades of work, featuring candid portraits of women of color – as curated by Ja’nell Ajani.
Through Aug. 15. 1165 Angelina, 512/974-4926. Free. carver-museum.orgMichelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition
“This special collection of the artist’s renowned ceiling frescoes from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel is reproduced in a format that allows viewers to get face-to-face with the [copies of the] masterpieces.” What, we’re compelled to wonder, would Jean Baudrillard say?
Through Aug. 28. Thu.-Sun., 10am-6pm. Circuit of the Americas, 9201 Circuit of the Americas Blvd., 512/301-6600. $22.20 ($15.90 for kids). chapelsistineaustin.comVortex Summer Youth Theatre: Mr. Burns, a post-electric play
Anne Washburn’s phantasmagorical story first reveals the survivors of a global catastrophe recalling and retelling the “Cape Feare” episode of The Simpsons around a fire, then moves seven years into the future, and then 70 years further – where cultural mythology has evolved into cultlike engagement and the performance of a grand, tribal musical, like a Broadway show staged by Mad Max’s crew.
July 29-Aug. 6. Fri.-Sat., 8pm; Sun., 6pm. 2307 Manor Rd., 512/478-5282. $15-37. vortexrep.orgThis article appears in July 29 • 2022.