Cuba Gooding kicks off Summer Arts Fest
Singer Cuba Gooding Sr. attends the "Chocolat au Vin" benefit for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital at Capitale in New York City. (May 28, 2009) Credit: Getty Images
WHAT Cuba Gooding & the Main Ingredient headline the official opening of Huntington's free Summer Arts Festival, serving up an Afro-Caribbean mix among the international sounds on this first weekend of outdoor concerts. Gooding, lead vocalist of the soulful Main Ingredient, is the father of Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. ("Jerry Maguire"), who comes from a musical family. Jr.'s mom, Shirley Temple Sullivan, sang with the '60s girl group The Sweethearts. Gooding Sr.'s career was influenced by his dad, a native of Barbados who moved to the Bronx, where the next two generations of Goodings were born. "Mr. Main Ingredient's" greatest hit was the Grammy-nominated "Everybody Plays the Fool" (1972), followed by "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely." He made a solo splash in the '80s, covering Brian Auger's "Happiness Is Just Around the Bend." Although Saturday's concert is billed as opening night, the festival previews Friday night with noori, a Pakistani pop-rock band on its first U.S. tour. Sunday brings Howard Fishman & the Biting Fish Brass Band to Heckscher Park for an evening of New Orleans jazz-funk improvisation. The festival runs nightly except Mondays through Aug. 11. Bring lawn chairs or blankets.
WHEN | WHERE Friday night, noori; Saturday, Cuba Gooding; Sunday, Howard Fishman; all at 8:30 p.m., Heckscher Park, Huntington
ADMISSION Free; huntingtonarts.org, 631-271-8423
THEATER 'The Mikado'
WHAT In the world of dime-novel opera, no one surpasses, even approaches, the 19th century success of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. "The Mikado" represents their pinnacle. The Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island is devoting its summer to this romance classic, a tale of the son of Japan's wandering minstrel -- the Mikado -- who falls for a girl who's engaged to her powerful guardian. Sentimental? Maybe. But check out this lyric:
Here's a how-de-do! If I marry you
When your time has come to perish,
Then the maiden whom you cherish
Must be slaughtered, too!
WHEN | WHERE Saturday night at 8, Landmark on Main Street's Jeanne Rimsky Theatre, Port Washington, also July 9, Guild Hall's John Drew Theater, East Hampton
TICKETS $20-$25, gilbertandsullivanli.com, 516-229-1427
WHAT Hofstra Entertainment premieres a revue of classic Hollywood songs featuring Broadway performers Rachel Bay Jones, Christina Bianco and Gary Mauer, along with Hofstra's Bob Spiotto and pianist Barry Levitt.
WHEN | WHERE 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Helene Fortunoff Theatre, Monroe Lecture Center, Hofstra University, Hempstead
TICKETS $15-$35; 516-463-6644, hofstra.edu/hofstraentertainment
ART: 'Max Weber on Long Island'
WHAT Max Weber was a rock star -- the first artist of note to bring cubism to American art. In his heyday, as the fledgling Museum of Modern Art granted him its first solo show by an American artist, he moved from Manhattan to Long Island -- New Hyde Park, later Great Neck. Influenced by his hero, Cezanne, he became more representational. Landscapes from his last 40 years compose the Heckscher Museum of Art's "Max Weber on Long Island."
WHEN | WHERE 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays (until 8:30 p.m. first Friday of the month), 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends, through Aug. 5, Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Ave., Huntington
ADMISSION $5-$8, children free (discounts for Huntington residents); heckscher.org, 631-351-3250
