Despite having raised just a little more than half his $5.2 million goal, Mayeri says he’ll start renovations this summer and open in 2015. “We’re confident that we’ll get the support,” he said. “We have some backup plans … and there’s a great positive response from the community.”. The city has stepped up to help, deferring payment for building permits. Mayeri said he’s “in conversation” with the city for additional support, but is not ready to reveal details.

— Jim Harrington, Nixon goes to China, Premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 1987, John Adams’ “Nixon in China” was a mold-breaker, Inspired by President Richard M, Nixon’s trip to China in 1972, it mixed pulsing minimalism with unexpected strains of Wagner and Johann Strauss — by way of Stravinsky and big band jazz, With a libretto by poet Alice Goodman, the opera initially played to mixed reviews, but moved on to international acclaim, and just last year made its way to the Metropolitan Opera, So, what’s next? Well, nearly a quarter century after its debut, “Nixon” is coming to the Bay Area — Adams’ home — for the first time, From June 8-July 3 at War Memorial Opera House, Adams’ concoction will have its San Francisco Opera debut with a new-generation cast featuring baritone Brian Mulligan in the title role, soprano Maria Kanyova as Pat Nixon and tenor Simon ballet pump ,satin slipper O’Neill as Mao Zedong, Michael Cavanagh directs, Lawrence Renes (acclaimed for his conducting of Adams’ “Doctor Atomic”) will be in the pit, Tickets: $21-$389; 415-864-3330 or www.sfopera.com..

Monkey Tango. Orangutang-o. You rang? Oh tango. King-King Kong-o. Mighty Joe Young-o. You hardly need opposable thumbs to grasp that children’s musical theater is bananas. For every charming “Peter Pan,” there’s a “Seussical” that deserves all the poo that monkeys can fling at it. And Prose has plenty of fun mocking her invented disaster, but her real interest is the web of people connected by “Mister Monkey.”. Each chapter focuses on a different character, starting with Margo, a Yale-trained actress who still dreams of playing Sonya in “Uncle Vanya.” Now, though, she’s a sweating clown pretending to be a monkey’s defense attorney. Already 44, Margo knows the skids are greased with despair in the theater, and she pours all her private desperation into this wretched play. “We are alive for such a short time,” Margo thinks, “and we spend it so unsatisfied, longing for what we can never have.”.

See one thing we have in common is that we were both unable to get up in the morning, I am no stranger to suffering, You made me a victim, In newspapers my name was “unconscious intoxicated woman”, ten syllables, and nothing more than that, For a while, I believed that that was all I was, I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity, To relearn that this is not all that I am, That I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party found behind a dumpster, while you are the All-American swimmer at a top university, innocent until proven guilty, with so much at stake, I am ballet pump ,satin slipper a human being who has been irreversibly hurt, who waited a year to figure out if I was worth something..

An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. 8 p.m. April 26. Show tunes by Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber and more. Bing Concert Hall, 327 Lasuen St., Stanford University. $100- $250. $35 for current Stanford students. live.stanford.edu or 650-724-2464. Petty Theft: tribute to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. 9 p.m. April 26, Club Fox, 2209 Broadway, Redwood City. $15. 877-435-9849 or www.clubfoxrwc.com. Featprints – A Tribute to Little Feat (Club Fox Blues Jam). 7 p.m. April 30, Club Fox, 2209 Broadway, Redwood City. $5. 877-435-9849 or www.clubfoxrwc.com.