Get Out: Jay Leno at MGM, the Brooklyn Fair, and the Crucible at Hartford Stage

You gotta love a guy who dominates late night television and stays current on the stand-up touring circuit. Jay Leno will bring his one-size-fits-all brand of comedy and news satire to the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Saturday, Aug. 27, at 8 p.m.

The popular host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno learned at the knee of television kingpin Johnny Carson, whose show he first appeared on in 1987 and took over permanently in 1992. Now at the Tonight Show helm, he shirks no opportunity to respond to the daily news. His show's most popular features are “Jaywalking,” finding humor in everyday, on-the-street doofusness, and “Headlines,” a celebration of the unintentional, thanks to the nation's daily newspapers. And, meanwhile, he racks up about 150 dates a year on the comedy circuit.

Leno has been the center of controversy and criticism after stepping over both David Letterman and Conan O'Brien for the top late-night spot at different points in his career.

Leno and his wife, Mavis Leno, have been married for three decades with no children. The couple works aggressively to combat gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

Leno owns about 100 cars and 90 motorcycles and writes for his Web site, Jay Leno's Garage, as a columnist for Popular Mechanics and occasionally for The New York Times.

Tickets to his show Aug. 27 are $55-75. For information call 800-200-2882 or visit the Foxwoods entertainment Web site.

The Appeal of Peals

Nothing calls a community together quite like the bells of a carillon. On Sunday, Aug. 28, the University of Connecticut carillon, housed at Storrs Congregational Church, will welcome students, faculty and community residents back to campus in a 4 p.m. concert. The fall semester at UConn starts the next day.

David Maker, carillonneur-in-residence at the church and former university carillonneur, will play music of multiple periods and styles on the UConn Dunham Memorial Carillon. Participants can enjoy ice cream sundaes on the lawn after the concert and tours of the bell tower featuring the refurbished Austin Cornelius carillon.

Admission is free, but donations are welcome. For more information, call the church at 860-429-9382, e-mail sccoffice@storrscongchurch.org or visit the Storrs Congregational Web site.

SummerWind Presents Hornsby and Bela Fleck, and A Night on Broadway 

These guys need no introduction: Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones perform Aug. 26 when Windsor's SummerWind Performing Arts Center presents Blues Night, and what a night it promises to be. Opening the show is the Allman Brothers' Jaimoe and his Jasssz Band.

Concert time is 6 p.m. Tickets range from $77.80 to $99.55. 

On Aug. 27, SummerWind presents A Night on Broadway with the Hartford Pops. Vocalists Steven Mitchell and Kathryn Guthrie Demos are featured, performing timeless tunes with the Pops players under the direction of conductor Gary Partridge.

Concert time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $17 to $35.

 SummerWind is at 40 Griffin Road North, Windsor. For more information, visit www.sscsummerwind.org or call 800-317-7140.

Classical Guitarist Opens New Season at Windsor Art Center

New York-based classical guitarist Bret Williams opens the 2011-2012 music season at the Windsor Art Center in Windsor with a Sept. 1 concert. Williams has been hailed as a guitarist of “spectacular energy and technical resource” (Nylon Review) and billed as a “rising star in the New York classical guitar scene” (New York Classical Guitar Society). Williams has performed alongside Metropolitan Opera tenor Ronald Naldi. Other notable concerts include Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn. N.Y., and the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

Concert time is 7:30 p.m. Suggested donation is $10 at the door. The Windsor Art Center is at the corner of Central and Mechanic streets in Windsor. For more information, visit www.windsorartcenter.org or call 860-688-2528.

Brooklyn Fair This Weekend

Feel like an agility dog exhibition or women's skillet toss this weekend, but you'd like to get out of the house? Go on over to the Brooklyn Fair on the town fairgrounds, Aug. 25-28.

Also on tap are competitions in everything from lawn mower racing to arm wrestling, corn husking and a power puff ox pull. Musical groups are peppered throughout the four-day schedule. Headliner acts at 8 p.m. are Craig Campbell, Thursday, Aug. 25; the Jane Dear Girls, Friday, Aug. 26; and Steve Holy, Saturday, Aug. 27.

Admission is $10, free for children 12 and under, and $6 for the Senior Citizen Special on Friday, Aug. 26. Unlimited carnival ride bracelets are $22 for Thursday, Aug. 25, 4 p.m. to close, Friday, Aug. 26, noon to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 28, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parking is $5 a car. For more information call 860-779-0012 or visit the fair Web site.

It Happens Tuesday Night

The classic movie of the week in Rockville Public Library's free summer series is Frank Capra's “It Happened One Night.”

A runaway spoiled heiress played by Claudette Colbert bumps into out-of-work reporter Clark Gable looking for a big story. They become strange bedfellows, so to speak, as he helps her get back to her fortune-hunting husband and avoid her angry, rich dad in exchange for exclusive rights to her story. Meanwhile, dot, dot, dot.

Showtime is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, in the Peck Room on the lower level of the library. Free popcorn will be served.

For information, visit the library Web site or call 860-875-5892.

Soap Stars Make Music

With reality shows and crisscrossing genres, the lines in the entertainment world have become fuzzy, at best. And so, is it any wonder that male stars of ABC's long-running top soap “General Hospital” have become a rock music attraction as the band Port Chuck? They will be performing at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, in the Mohegan Sun Cabaret Theatre.

Brandon Barash, who stars as GH's Johnny Zacchara, Bradford Anderson, who plays Spinelli, Scott Reeves, who acts as Steve Lars Webber, and Steve Burton, as Jason Morgan, make up Port Chuck. In their 2011 album Port Chuck Volume 1, they cover favorites such as “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” “Feel Like Makin' Love,” “Knockin' on Heaven's Door,” and “Hallelujah.”

Super VIP Platinum tickets go for $250 and include perks such as swag, a meet-and-greet with the stars and photo op. Premium VIP tickets are $165 and general seating is $75. For information and tickets, call 203-268-5857 or visit the Mohegan entertainment site.

Day of Play at the Jewish Community Center

Thinking of signing up for a class this fall at the Mandell Jewish Community Center? To help you decide, why not start with a free sample of what's on offer? On August 28, you can do just that when the JCC hosts its Day of Play. Karate, arts and crafts, dance, sports and more are previewed for children and adults. Pre-school programs run from 10 a.m. to noon. Youth and adult programs are 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The event is open to all. Admission is free. The Mandell Jewish Community Center is at 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. For reservations and more information, visit www.mandelljcc.org or call 860-236-4571.

Hartford Stage Presents Miller's Crucible

Arthur Miller's powerful 1953 drama about the dangers of unfounded superstitions, fear, and false accusations opens the new season at Hartford Stage. Miller based his play on the Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693, but it is widely understood to be his response to McCarthyism, a period during which the U.S. government blacklisted accused communists. Gordon Edelstein, artistic director of New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre, stages the production for Hartford Stage.

The Crucible runs Sept. 1st through the 25th. For ticket prices and more information, visit www.hartfordstage.org or call 860-527-5151.Hartford Stage is at 50 Church St., Hartford.