Buzz Bin

by Inlander Staff


You Moscow to This Theater - The Idaho Rep ended its 49th season this weekend, but not before denizens of the Bin were able to catch two of the four shows. The Marvelous Wonderettes -- four women singing oldies tunes strung together by the skinniest of plots -- was a crowd-pleaser, but the real revelation was new artistic director Robert Caisley's production of Wild Oats, a two-centuries-old Irish comedy transported to the American Wild West. Caisley's student actors consistently found inventive ways to yuck it up without doing a Jerry Lewis. They wore their floppy sombreros, executed their slo-mo gunfights and strained their puns with panache in one of the best shows we've seen locally in months.





Elvis Sightings - It's a coffee shop, it's a live music venue, it's a recording studio... it's an outdoor cinema? Yes, that's correct, the young entrepreneurs at the Shop on South Perry are boldly going where no baristas have gone before: they are launching a series of outdoor movies, to be shown every Saturday in August, on a very large screen they've painted on the wall of the Altamont Pharmacy.


The first to show is the 1964 Elvis Presley classic, Viva Las Vegas, featuring the King himself as the handsome sports car driver Lucky, and Ann-Margret as Rusty, the beauty who disappears under mysterious circumstances before the big race.


The movie starts at 9:30 pm on Saturday, Aug. 3. Bring your own chair and sing along to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and, of course, "Viva Las Vegas." The Shop is asking for donations at the show, to establish a community movie fund and keep the outdoor screenings going. Call: 534-1647.





Hi-Jinks in Hillyard - Hey, you! Yeah, you, standing there against the wall, sulking that you don't have anything to do this weekend. You don't even have to leave town in order to partake of the Hillyard Hi-Jinks Parade and Festival. This August tradition gives you bingo, a Ferris wheel, sidewalk art, a huckleberry pancake breakfast and food booths. (You know you like food booths.) It's also a great time to take in Hillyard's atmosphere of trains, antiques, quaint old houses and community spirit. Check it out!





Circus Circus - It has been called a "creation of the imagination," and "the circus of the future" but instead of having elephant poo or activist protestors outside, Circus Chimera is the kind of circus with acrobats rather than animals and a little tent rather than a big top. Think of it as a mini Cirque du Soleil coming our way. The circus runs at the Cheney Rodeo Grounds Aug. 6-7; it moves to the Spokane Valley Mall Aug. 8-11; and it winds up at the Silver Lake Mall in CdA on Aug. 12-13. Tickets are $6-$16. Call: 888-ONE-RING.