MOVIES
It’ll be hard to escape the meltdown this weekend. Just in time for the spring thaw, the “Ice Age” sequel is showing in a near-record number of movie theaters. There’s enough to like to take anybody under age 12, and even the teenagers will laugh at the hapless acorn-hound named Scrat. Ray Romano and John Leguizamo reprise their roles as voices of Manny the endangered mammoth and Sid the chatty sloth – though there’s a bit too much of Jay Leno as a hucksterish prehistoric turtle.
– Michael Booth
VISUAL ARTS
Original prints by two giants of post- World War II American art – Robert Motherwell and Jasper Johns – have been brought together through July 9 in a nationally touring exhibition at the University of Wyoming Art Museum in Laramie. Subtitled “Poetic Works as Metaphor,” it focuses on their collaborative undertakings with two poets. Motherwell’s lithographs relate to Rafael Alberti’s “El Negro Motherwell,” and Johns’ etchings and aquatints were produced in 1976 to accompany five essays by Samuel Beckett. Admission is free. 307-766-6622 or uwyo.edu/artmuseum.
– Kyle MacMillan
TELEVISION
It’s finally Election Day (7 tonight, KUSA-Channel 9) on “The West Wing” – that means Alan Alda vs. Jimmy Smits – and Josh (Bradley Whitford) is stressing over the returns while C.J. (Allison Janney) weighs future job offers and Annabeth (Kristin Chenoweth) makes a tragic discovery.
– Joanne Ostrow
POPULAR MUSIC
Caribbean music is alive and well in the scheme of worldwide popular music, and at the forefront of the push is Jamaican dancehall star Sean Paul, who is riding the wave of his second hit record, last year’s “The Trinity.” Like “Dutty Rock” before it, “The Trinity” isn’t short of hits. Between tracks such as “We Be Burnin”‘ and “Temperature,” Paul has proved that he (and his stable of unknown Jamaican producers) have what it takes to keep the fire alive. And Sean Paul, who plays the Fillmore Auditorium on Wednesday night, isn’t showing any signs of stopping. Information: Ticketmaster.com.
– Ricardo Baca
STAGE
“The Ladies of the Camellias,” by Lillian Groag, is a fun confection at the Denver Center Theatre Company’s Space Theatre through April 22. Set in 1897 Paris, it imagines a meeting between the divas of the age, Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse. Mostly, it’s about the love of the theater and eccentricities of theater people.
– Joanne Ostrow
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Marin Alsop, conductor laureate of the Colorado Symphony, returns this week to lead the orchestra in an all-Russian program featuring works by Alexander Borodin, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. April 9 in Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Tickets are $15-$65. Call 303-623-7876 or coloradosymphony.org.
– Kyle MacMillan
RADIO
Plenty of specialty radio shows focus on a genre or performer, but few survey an entire culture. Linard “Scotty” Scott’s Origins/Orgy in Rhythm, which he dubs “the black experience translated into music,” looks at ragtime, Motown, hip-hop and all points in between. Scott, an active lecturer on black music, has collected more than 25,000 albums and bits of memorabilia over the years. This week’s show, which runs 2-4 p.m. today on KUVO/89.3 FM, will focus on Marvin Gaye, who would have turned 67 today.
– John Wenzel
