Arts briefs: Circus, theater, music

Circus

'PSY' COMBINES CIRCUS,

PSYCHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS

It features circus performers from Montreal. But don't confuse "PSY" by 7 Fingers - which plays The Smith Center's Reynolds Hall on Tuesday - with that other Montreal-based, circus-themed entertainment company, Cirque du Soleil.

The seven founders of 7 Fingers - or, as it's known in French-speaking Montreal, Les 7 Doigts de la Main ("The Seven Fingers of the Hand") - may be former Cirque performers, but Cirque du Soleil "is much more based in fantasy," says Shana Carroll , "PSY's" writer, director and choreographer - and one of 7 Fingers' original "digits." And, in her view, Cirque's performers "do seem huge and untouchable."

By contrast, "PSY" presents its 11 cast members as "real people," exploring the surreal landscape of the human psyche through such time-honored circus arts as acrobatics and juggling.

Billed as a "mad circus" - at least on the poster - "PSY" unfolds in a serious of tableaus set everywhere from a psychiatrist's office to a child's birthday party, where an innocent game of pin the tail on the donkey provides the stage for a knife-juggling act, Carroll explains. To confront his fears, an agoraphobic flies on a trapeze. Anger management issues pop up during a rope act, while group therapy turns into group juggling.

Now in its second year, "PSY" addresses the long-established connection between the circus and the mind's surreal dreamscapes, she notes.

But despite its surreal elements, however, "it's also humorous," Carroll says of the show. "It doesn't take itself too seriously. There's a grain of something very identifiable and real."

The combination, which uses "circus as an expressive form," she adds, results in a circus that combines dance, dialogue - and double twists.

"PSY" will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. Tickets are $27 to $75 and are available by phone at 749-2000 or online at www.TheSmithCenter.com.

Theater

BURNS RETURNS TO VEGAS IN 'GRACIE'

After more than 90 years in showbiz - including many as a Strip headliner - George Burns died in 1996. (At 100.)

But Burns lives on in the person of Alan Safier , who plays the comedian in "Say Goodnight Gracie," which checks into The Smith Center's Troesh Studio Theater this weekend.

The Tony-nominated play - scripted by Rupert Holmes, whose credits range from "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" to the award-winning musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and the AMC series "Remember WENN" - combines vintage photos and video clips to recall Burns' on- and offstage partnership with wife Gracie Allen.

Together, Burns and Allen conquered vaudeville, movies, radio and TV; her 1964 death forced Burns to launch a new solo career that eventually led to an Oscar-winning role in "The Sunshine Boys" and even bigger movie stardom in "Oh, God." (To say nothing of the made-in-Vegas sequel, "Oh God! You Devil.")

"Say Goodnight Gracie" will be presented at 7 tonight and 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday in the Troesh Studio Theater at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave. Tickets are $32-$55 and are available by phone at 749-2000 or online at www.TheSmithCenter.com.

Music

SOCIETY PERFORMS

'MASS OF THE CHILDREN'

The Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society closes its 49th season Sunday afternoon with a Mother's Day concert featuring John Rutter's "Mass of the Children," which the English composer wrote following the 2001 death of his young son.

Joining the 60-voice Musical Arts Chorus for the performance: the 30-member Musical Arts Orchestra and the 60-member Greenspun Junior High Chorus.

The young singers are integral to the nonliturgical work, which interweaves English texts with the traditional mass.

Soprano Cecilia Violetta Lopez and baritone Brian Meyer are featured soloists; Douglas Peterson directs the concert, which also features Rutter's "Suite for Strings."

The concert begins at 3 p.m. Sunday in Artemus Ham Hall on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway. Tickets ($18 for adults, $12 for seniors, military and disabled and $7 for students with ID) are available by telephone at 895-2787 or online at pac.unlv.edu.

- By CAROL CLING