Arts Alerts: February kicks off with Laugh for a Cause at Mission BBQ, Heartland Festival Orchestra playing West Side "Stories"

David C. Driskell’s “Ghetto Wall #2,” oil, acrylic collage on linen, 1970, D.C. Moore Gallery.

ART

• On Feb. 9 the Fine Arts Society of Peoria will present Chicago artist Juarez Hawkins at the Peoria Riverfront Museum to lecture on David C. Driskell, who’s credited with using his work, writing and teaching to promote the inclusion of African Americans in art and in the story of the country.

CINEMA

• If you like Nature-gone-wild horror/comedies like “Snakes on a Plane,” “Arachnophobia,” etc., you might enjoy “Cocaine Bear,” which is scheduled to open in moviehouses Feb. 24. Keri Russell and the late, great Ray Liotta star in a story about a black bear unleashed after consuming a duffel bag of cocaine. The almost unbelievable tale of unintended consequences is based on a true story.

COMEDY

• “The First Annual Peoria Pink Heals” Laugh for A Cause comedy show and dinner is set for Feb. 2 at Mission BBQ, featuring Mike “The Cop” Armstrong, Chris Hightower, Blind Stein and Yort the Magical Comic, with host Eddy P the “Kungfool.”

MUSIC

• The Heartland Festival Orchestra is presenting West Side “Stories” on Feb. 4 at Five Points Washington, where they’ll be joined by the Harlem String Quartet in a program featuring music by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and others.

• The Central Illinois Jazz Society has scheduled the Nikki Malley Quintet on Feb. 19 at the Trailside Event Center.

• Joe Bonamassa is described by Guitar World Magazine as “the world’s biggest blues guitarist,” and the 45-year-old native New Yorker is set to perform live at the Peoria Civic Center Theater on Feb. 22

STREAMING

• “Hello Tomorrow!” stars Billy Crudup as a traveling salesman in a retro future — selling timeshares on the Moon. Apple TV+ launches it on Feb. 17.

• The terrific Eugene Levy, remembered for the award-winning “Schitt’s Creek,” hosts the offbeat “Reluctant Traveler” series going to locations including Costa Rica, Finland and South Africa starting Feb. 24 on Apple TV+.

THEATER

• “Gypsy,” directed by Chip Joyce, is the classic American musical with unforgettable numbers such as “Let Me Entertain You” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” Staged at Peoria Players Theatre on Feb. 3-5 and Feb. 9-12, its cast includes Rachel Feather and Alison Meuth.

• Corn Stock Theater’s winter playhouse will present “First Date” on Feb. 10-12 and Feb. 17-19. The fun musical comedy is directed by Ericka Johnston-Poch.

• Created by Casey Johnson and David Windsor (“This Is Us”), the comedy series “Not Dead Yet” follows Nell Serrano (Gina Rodriguez) — a single, broke and self-described disaster — trying to reboot the life and career she gave up a decade earlier. She gets a job writing obituaries and gains an unusual “mentor.” It starts Feb. 8 on ABC-TV.

— compiled by Bill Knight