News Briefs

ALLEY CATS

On August 24, the local Human Rights Campaign chapter will host Equality Disco Bowl 2003 at the Palace Lanes. Besides strikes and gutter balls, the 2–5 p.m. event will feature music by DJ Mark Goebel. For the $35 admission, guests will also join HRC, the national political organization, which in July at last joined forces with transgender leaders in supporting a federal bill to abolish workplace discrimination that recognizes gender identity and expression. As they prepared for the fundraiser, HRC board members Tim Kollatschny (left) and Alton LaDay recently posed at Palace Lanes (photo by David Lewis). Details: www.hrchouston.org.

LOVE IS ALL AROUND

When we despair that the oppressive heat will never end, along comes the most cooling musical breeze to refresh our spirits. September marks the eagerly awaited annual return of Bayou City Concert Musicals, the performing arts fundraising program for the Center for AIDS created by Alley company member Paul Hope. These staged concert productions of neglected Broadway classics—immaculately staged by Hope and David Thome, cast to perfection from Houston’s best musical talent, and with 100 percent of ticket sales benefiting the center—are among the highlights of the theater season.

BCCM has already graced us with an incandescent Follies, a witty and tear-filled Falsettos, and a glamorously bitchy Little Night Music. The fourth installment brings Harnick and Bock’s She Loves Me, the 1963 musical from the creators of Fiorello! and Fiddler on the Roof. Based on a Miklos Laszlo play, this delectable European soufflé brims with whipped cream and romance as two co-workers bristle during store hours but are secret admirers in anonymous correspondence. Buoyant, witty, and thoroughly entertaining, the production stars Kevin Cooney, returning to the Houston stage after years in California, and the sparkling Chesley Santoro as the battling leads.

Tickets for the September 10–13 run at Ovations go on sale early (call 713/527-8219) and will sell out quickly, so heads up! —D.L. Groover

BISEXUALS GO WEST

Local activist Gigi Raven Wilbur will travel to San Diego later this month for the North American Conference on Bisexuality. Sponsored by the Bisexual Foundation, the August 21–24 event will include the BiHealth Summit and other workshops. Details: www.bisexual.org/nacb.

Wilbur can be heard the first Sunday of every month from 1–4 a.m. on the “After Hours” program on KPFT-FM.

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