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Rumors, Bon Jovi Tix, Maple Sugaring Days Galore and More

Neil Simon's "Rumors" in Manchester, Bon Jovi Does Greatest Hits at Mohegan, an early St. Paddy's Day party and much more.

Heard About ‘Rumors’ in Manchester?

Have you ever been invited to an anniversary dinner only to find the hostess missing and the host shot in the head? It’s a comedy, honest, and one of the Neil Simon variety. You can see “Rumors” now through March 13 at .

Set in a posh suburban residence, the farce serves up hilarity as the dinner guests piece together what has happened and who knew what when. Always a conundrum.

Show tickets range from $24 to $17 and can be purchased online at www.cheneyhall.org or through the theater box office at 860-647-9824.  Cheney Hall, the state’s oldest operating theater, is located at 177 Hartford Road, Manchester, in the Cheney Historic District.

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Bon Jovi at Mohegan Sun Arena

At the steep $135-210 price for the cheap seats, all but the worst procrastinators will have their tickets to see Grammy-lauded Bon Jovi Friday night, March 4, at Mohegan Sun Arena. There are only single seats left, and those are at the $210 level.

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The release of the band’s Greatest Hits collections in November is feeding the tour, which takes fans through past monster hits – “Livin’ On A Prayer,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” etc. – and into the four new tracks – “What Do You Got?” “The More Things Change,” “No Apologies” and “This Is Love, This Is Life.” You can decide which end of the continuum puts the most joy in Jovi.

The group is credited with selling more than 120 million albums, and performing more than 2,600 concerts before 34 million fans in 50 countries. So, maybe you can’t be No. 34 million and one, but take heart. Bon Jovi will be back. Tickets for a May 7 appearance at Mohegan Sun are on sale in all ranges: $500, $350, $210 and $135 (plus the inevitable handling and facility fees of $21). You’ve got two months to save up, starting…now!

The show starts at 8 p.m. Friday, March 4. For information, call 888-777-7922 or visit the Mohegan Sun web site.

Vernon Seniors to Beat the Rush of St. Pat’s Parties

Revelers of a certain age can sign up for a St. Patrick’s Day Celebration on Tuesday, March 8, at the Aqua Turf in Plantsville with the . A $68 fee covers transportation via motor coach, family-style lunch at the restaurant, lively Irish musical entertainment, complimentary glass of wine or beer, dancing, a raffle for door prizes and even a jig or two.

“They get tons of food,” Ellen Ballos, assistant director at the senior center, says. The day will be simple with limited walking and plenty of good cheer, she says. Register by 1 p.m. on Friday, March 4, by calling the senior center at 860-870-3680 or email pclaydon@vernon-ct.gov or eballos@vernon-ct.gov.

Next month, the center is planning an April 20 trip to Goodspeed Opera House to see “My One and Only” at a 2 p.m. matinee after lunch at The Ivory Restaurant & Pub in Deep River. Cost for transportation, lunch and orchestra section seating is $106 per person. Contact the senior center by April 8 to register.

Art in the Spring Cures What Ails You

More than 60 works of art by 25 area artists are part of the Spring Art Gallery Show at , now through May. The show, which opened this week, will offer commission-free, direct sales through the artists. This venture was organized by the Rockville Downtown Association, ECHN, the Rockville General Hospital Auxiliary, Vernon Arts Commission and the Vernon Community Arts Center. For information, call 860-875-7439 or visit here.

Calling All Amateur A Cappella Groups

Also from the Rockville Downtown Association, non-professional a cappella groups can apply now to compete in the 7th Annual “A Cappella Slam” to be held in the Vernon Senior Center Performance Hall on April 16. For entry form and information, visit http://www.rdact.com/.

Maple Weekends at Old Sturbridge Village

How do you know it's almost spring? The taps are on the maple trees. Maple mania has taken hold at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Mass. On each weekend in March, visitors are greeted by the sweet smell of wood smoke mixed with maple syrup as historians demonstrate maple-sugar making at the village's "Sugar Camp." Visitors can watch the sugar-making process – from tapping trees to "sugaring off" – and learn why maple sugar was more commonly used than maple syrup in early New England. Interpreters cook period foods made with maple sugar at the Village's Freeman Farm, and historians discuss how maple sugar became a part of the Abolitionist movement. The importance of maple in Native American culture is demonstrated with the help of Indian "Doctress" Molly Geet, who presents Sogalikiosos: Maple Sugar Moon Stories and Fur Mittens and Wooden Snowshoes: Algonkian Winter Fashions.

Demonstrations run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March weekends. Admission is $20 adults; $18 seniors, $7 children ages 3 to 17; and free to children under 3. Old Sturbridge Village is at 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road, Sturbridge, Mass. For more information, visit www.osv.org or call 800-SEE-1830.

Maple Day at Stanley-Whitman

Farmington's Stanley-Whitman House celebrates Maple Day on March 6. Bret Hodorski demonstrates how to make maple candies and "sugar on snow," and talks about how to make maple butter and maple jelly. Maple-themed crafts and games are available for children and families, and the staff at the 1720 historic house shows what Colonial folk did during the blustery days of March.

Maple Day runs from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Drop-ins are welcome. Admission is $5; $4 museum members. The Stanley-Whitman House is at 37 High St., Farmington. For more information, visit www. stanleywhitman.org or call 860-677-9222.

Maple Sugaring at Roaring Brook

Canton's Roaring Brook Nature Center hosts Maple Sugaring in Your Own Back Yard, an annual demonstration of the how-to's of making maple syrup. The one-hour event teaches participants the entire process – from identifying the tree to tasting the final product.

The event is March 6 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $6, adults; $4 adult members; and $3, children; $2 young members. No registration required. Roaring Brook Nature Center is at 70 Gracey Road, Canton. Visitwww.roaringbrookconcerts.org.

Hartt School Oklahoma 

Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains . . . You can probably sing the tune yourself, but it might be better to hear it done by students of West Hartford's Hartt School who perform the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical classic from March 3 through 6 at the University of Hartford's Millard Auditorium. Music theater majors Andrew McMath of Simsbury and Danielle Westhead of Mt. Laurel, N.J., star as romantic leads Curley and Laurey. McMath, who recently had an emergency appendectomy, has recovered just in time for the show to go on. 

Oklahoma runs from March 3 through 6 at the Millard Auditorium in the Fuller Music Building on the campus of the University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Tickets cost $20 ($2 discounts are available for seniors, students, University of Hartford alumni, and educators). For tickets and more information, contact the University of Hartford box office at 860-768-4228 or follow the link online at www.harttweb.hartford.edu/events/details.

The Game That Stands the Test of Time

It’s hard to say what is the most halcyon period of UConn women’s basketball. We’d have to go to a bar and argue long into the night. But sportswriter Jeff Goldberg, formerly of The Hartford Courant, covered the team during its sharpest ascendancy and has captured a unique game in his new book, Bird at the Buzzer. The game was the March 2001 Big East tournament championship contest between UConn and Notre Dame, and the book includes interviews with players Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi and coaches Geno Auriemma and the Irish’s Muffet McGraw. Goldberg will read from the book, speak about his inspiration, take questions and sign copies at Tolland Public Library on Wednesday, March 9, at 7:30 p.m.

“I knew from the moment I walked out of Gampel that night that we had just witnessed the greatest women's game ever played,” Goldberg says of the title game starring UConn goddess and point guard Sue Bird. “There's never been a game with that much talent, that much back story, that much drama and that kind of ending, all wrapped into one night. Ten years later, it still retains that distinction.” Given UConn’s ability to lay up drama season after season, that’s saying something.

Yes, this is the book you have been hearing about on CPTV pledge breaks during the UConn women’s games. They used it as a draw for donors, but it was officially released March 1. Bring $29.95 to the library if you want to purchase a copy and get Goldberg’s signature. Registration is required. You cand do that by calling the library at 860-871-3620 or via email at bbutler@tolland.org

 He Makes 'Em Laugh

Award-winning comedy writer, author and playwright Alan Zweibel visits West Hartford's Mandell Jewish Community Center on March 12 as part of the center's 2010-2011 Jewish Book Festival. Zwiebel, who has written for TV's Saturday Night Live, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Monk, and other shows, shares video career highlights and behind-the-scenes TV moments, and he speaks about his new book,Clothing Optional. Preceding Zweibel's appearance is Jazz & Java in the Living Room with musician Josh Hatcher and Friends.

Jazz & Java begins at 7 p.m. with Zweibel going on at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $30 per person. Visit www.mandelljcc.org or call 860-231-6316. The Mandell Jewish Community Center is at 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. 

Blue Valentine at Cinestudio

Two of the most interesting young actors working today – Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams – square off in the somber romance-gone-wrong duet Blue Valentine. Derek Cianfrance co-wrote and directed this Sundance Film Festival feature, which shifts back and forth in time between a couple's charming courtship and the dissolution of their marriage. The headline on David Edelstein's review of the film in New York magazine read: "It's the dense, high-wire performances of Williams and Gosling that power Blue Valentine."

The film plays March 9 throgh 12 at Cinestudio in Hartford. Cinestudio is on the campus of Trinity College, 300 Summit St., Hartford. For more information, visit www.cinestudio.org or call 860-297-2463.

Films of Max Ophuls at Wadsworth Atheneum

Cineastes, here is a rare opportunity: Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, in celebration of its current exhibition Monet's Water Lilies: An Artist's Obsession, screens three films by the great melancholic German-born director Max Ophuls. In a rapturous 2002 piece  in the New Yorker, critic Anthony Lane wrote, "If you love movies, then Ophuls is an undisputed heavyweight." On screen in the Atheneum's theater on March 5 and 6, at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. respectively, are: 1955's Lola Montes, Ophuls' final film, which tells the tragic story of a courtesan and showgirl (Martine Carol) who was once the lover of great men and is now the star attraction in a circus whose ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) recounts her scandalous adventures; 1953's The Earrings of Madame De . . . about the wife of a wealthy general who pays off debts by selling a pair of earrings given to her by her husband; and 1952's Le Plaisir, three stories of pleasure told from three different perspectives.

The screenings are in the theater at the Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main St., Hartford. For more information, visit www.wadsworthatheneum.org or call 860-278-2670.

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