Arts Alerts: Lots to do to begin New Year this month

January can be a slow month, as people recovering from the holidays cope with the cold. But this year, this month promises
to be fun and fascinating, with noteworthy comedy and a couple of exceptional streamers ahead.

ART

Ana V. Fleming’s “Until the Darkness” exhibit will be on display Jan. 5-27 at the Peoria Art Guild, where her work will help visitors “contemplate and confront the possibility of a world without us,” she commented.

CINEMA

Opening Jan. 12, “The Book of Clarence” stars Lakeith Stanfield as a poverty-striken Jerusalem resident in biblical times, trying to selfishly mimick Jesus and making some key personal discoveries. Featured are Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy and Alfre Woodard.
Promoted as “not your mother’s ‘Mean Girls’,” this contemporary look also opens Jan. 12, a new version of Tina Fey’s Broadway adaptation of the 2004 Lindsay Lohan / Rachel McAdams comedy. Twenty years later, this one stars Angourie Rice as a newcomer to Illinois, and co-stars Fey, Jon Hamm and Tim Meadows.
A “Barbenheimer” event Jan. 20 at the Peoria Public Library’s McClure Branch will show 2023’s hit films “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” back-to-back starting at noon.

COMEDY

The Jukebox Comedy Club welcomes comic April Macie Jan. 5-6; stand-up comedian Shane Gillis (Gilly on “Bupkis”) is scheduled to be at the Peoria Civic Center Theater Jan. 12; the Caliente Comedy series at Peoria Heights’ Café Santa Rosa features Quad Cities comic James Draper, below, Jan. 19; and Chicago comic Vik Pandya, left, headlines Jukebox Comedy Club Jan. 19-20.

DANCE

The Peoria Civic Center Theater on Jan. 30 will feature “Complexions: Contemporary Ballet,” led by Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, who seek to reinvent ballet with a modern edge. The program includes the pieces “Woke” and “Love Rocks.”

STREAMING

National Geographic’s six-episode documentary of nine insects’ “mini-worlds” has dramatic footage, narrated by Awkwafina (“The Little Mermaid”) on Disney+ starting Jan. 24.
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks follow up their impressive World War II drama series “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific” with “Masters of the Air,” premiering Jan. 26 on Apple TV+.

THEATER

Corn Stock’s winter season continues with
The Nikbeats are scheduled to perform on Jan. 12 at ‘Live at the Five Spot’ at the Contemporary Art Center.

Directed by Chris Peterlin, it stars Lee Lard as Wayne Hopkins, “a nerdy wizard boy from New Mexico” at a school where better-known students help save the world. It runs at the winter playhouse Jan. 19-21 and 26-28.

Two network awards shows are set for January. CBS will telecast the 81st Golden Globes on Jan. 7; Fox has scheduled the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Jan. 15 (postponed from September due to the strike by actors and writers).
HBO is debuting the fourth season of “True Detective” Jan. 14, with Jodi Foster starring in a six-
episode murder mystery about unexplained disappearances at an Alaskan research facility.

MUSIC

The Nikbeats, recently featured during the Dec. 8 John Lennon memorial extravaganza at 3300 Event Center, will entertain at the Contemporary Art Center’s “Live at the Five Spot” Jan. 12.
Illinois Central College is presenting a Martin Luther King Jr. Choral Celebrtion at its Performing Arts Center on Jan. 13
The Peoria Public Library’s “Music at the McKenzie” series at the North Library Branch features the Nathan Taylor Band Jan. 14.
The Central Illinois Jazz Society features Kevin Hart and the Vibe Tribe at Trailside Center Jan. 21.
The Peoria Symphony Orchestra’s “Hollywood Old & New” Jan. 28 features memorable music from Rodgers & Hammerstein, Max Steiner and John Williams, selections from films including “The Ten Commandments,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and “Thor,” and will be narrated by WMBD-AM 1470 morning hosts Greg Batton and Dan Diorio.
— compiled by Bill Knight