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Author: Bonny

  • BHCT’s City of Angels Plays Out in Two Worlds on One Stage

    BHCT’s City of Angels Plays Out in Two Worlds on One Stage

    The noir musical moves between a screenwriter’s Hollywood reality and the black-and-white world of the detective he created.

    When: March 13, 14, 20, 21 at 7:00pm; March 15, 22 at 2:00pm
    Where: Historic Theater; The Performing Arts Center of Rapid City
    Tickets: From $25-$34; Available at the Performing Arts Center Box Office,
    by phone at 605-394-1786 or online at www.bhct.org

    Some shows live in a single world. City of Angels lives in two.

    When Black Hills Community Theatre opens its production this weekend, audiences will step into a musical that constantly shifts between realities. One side of the stage lives in the polished color of 1940s Hollywood. The other exists in stark black-and-white, the hard-boiled world of a detective novel unfolding in real time.

    The split between color and black-and-white isn’t just visual, it’s how the story itself is told.

    The show follows Stine, a crime novelist trying to adapt his book for the Hollywood studio system. As he negotiates rewrites, egos, and creative compromise, his fictional private investigator, Stone, begins moving through his own shadowy story onstage. The two narratives weave together, blurring the lines between the writer’s life and the pulp detective world he created.

    Black Hills Community Theatre continues its 58th season with the jazz-infused musical, with performances March 13, 14, 20, and 21 at 7:00pm and matinees March 15 and 22 at 2:00pm at the Historic Theater inside the Performing Arts Center of Rapid City.

    The show’s unusual structure gives the production team plenty to play with visually. Scenes set in Hollywood appear in full color, while Stone’s detective universe unfolds in black and white. The contrast highlights the difference between Hollywood ambition and the morally gray world of noir storytelling.

    Dakota Morgan appears as Stine, the writer caught between artistic vision and studio demands, while Tom Powers takes on the role of Stone, the hard-edged detective navigating the darker side of the story. The dual casting continues throughout the show as performers move between both worlds.

    Leslie Hopton plays Gabby and Bobbi, Rose Lamoureaux appears as Donna and Oolie, and Dave DeChristopher takes on the roles of Buddy and Irwin. Kaitlin Petrushev plays Carla and Alaura, with Teagan Rosendahl as Avril and Mallory. Jonah Vasquez appears as Pancho and Munoz, while Michael Lytle and Jonathan Bader round out a cast that shifts between characters as the two storylines collide.

    The Angel City Four quartet, featuring Garrett Amirehteshami, Tammie McCraw, Lorien Petersen, and Brady Riker, adds a layer of vintage musical flair, supported by a full ensemble drawn from the local theatre community.

    Director Kristol McKie leads the production, continuing her work with BHCT following recent productions of Sister Act and Fiddler on the Roof. The show’s jazz-driven score is performed live by a 14-piece orchestra under the direction of Music Director Vonnie Houchin, with Assistant Director Andrea Surovek and Choreographer Katelyn Amirehteshami helping shape the production.

    Like the story itself, the production walks the line between two worlds: Hollywood glamour and smoky detective fiction, musical theatre and noir storytelling.

    For audiences, it means stepping into a stage where the color can change in an instant, and the line between author and character is never quite stable.

    City of Angels runs March 13, 14, 20, and 21 at 7:00pm, with matinee performances March 15 and 22 at 2:00pm at the Historic Theater inside the Performing Arts Center of Rapid City.

    Tickets range from $25 to $34 and are available through the Performing Arts Center box office, by phone at 605-394-1786, or online at bhct.org.

  • Feb 20–22: from Blue to Brass

    Feb 20–22: from Blue to Brass

    Friday Night:
    The Alchemist: Lumi at the Dahl Arts Center

    We arrived around 5:30 thinking we would make a quick pass through the gallery, but the room was full and engaged, younger than I’m used to seeing at art openings, and it slowed us down almost immediately. The exhibition is physically divided, with one half displaying La Période Bleue and the other La Période Lumière, and you feel that division as you move through the space.

    On the blue side, the symbolism begins to reveal itself the longer you stand there; A skeleton, the moon, a chair tipped over mid-scene. Someone asked about the overturned chair during the talk, and Lumi explained it as the moment to get up and get going. The skeleton, which most of us are conditioned to read as death, she sees as her higher self moving through the challenges she presents in the work. The paintings feel narrative and dreamlike, as if time and memory are folding in on themselves, and she is inviting you to follow the thread she has been tracing.

    When you cross into the light series, the literal symbols fall away and the work becomes more structural. Geometry and color take over. Circles expand into layered sacred forms, and pigments blend into new variations that shift depending on what surrounds them. She spoke about how color carries different meanings across cultures and how those meanings change depending on proximity, and I began noticing hints of those references in the compositions. Subtle nods to identity. Small cultural echoes embedded in the palette rather than spelled out in imagery.

    Saturday Night:
    Float Like a Buffalo: Murphy’s Pub & Grill

    We popped down to Murphy’s to catch Float Like a Buffalo out of Denver, a six-piece band built around high-energy rock layered with funk, jam grooves, and a bold brass section.

    The place was full, and more importantly, it was paying attention. That alone felt good. Too often you see a band working hard in a corner while conversation hums louder than the music, or worse, playing to empty space. This wasn’t that. People were dancing near the front, others stayed at their tables tapping their toes, and when songs ended the applause came quick and loud. The band had the room, and the room gave it right back.

    We stayed for a set and a half. They started at 9:00, which is late for my mid-forties bones to begin a night, but some shows earn that extra hour. I was home by 10:30 and still glad I went.

    The horns were the heartbeat of the whole thing. They stepped off the stage more than once, weaving between tables and closing the distance between band and crowd. During “Proud Mary,” they stretched out the slow opening and let it wander through the bar, almost convincing us that was all we were getting. They wrapped it up just before the loud, raucous second half, and we looked at each other like, that’s it?

    Then the horns climbed back onto the stage.

    “Are you ready?”

    They took a breath and slammed into the second half of the song and the place erupted. It was the kind of playful misdirection that only works when a band understands timing and trust. They knew exactly what they were doing

  • Two Events, Two Energies, One Big Party: February 28 at Aby’s is gonna be one for the books

    Two Events, Two Energies, One Big Party: February 28 at Aby’s is gonna be one for the books

    Under one roof, two wildly different creative worlds will unfold at the same time. In the Pub space (up front), Tangled Sheets returns for its second year, pairing a curated erotic art exhibition with a burlesque showcase designed to explore sensuality as intentional artistic expression. In the Event Hall, (back bar) Outside Kids headline a stacked alternative lineup alongside Easy Light, Howling Embers, and Gold Metal, bringing sweat, distortion, and a little catharsis to the other side of the building.

    It also happens to fall on a birthday weekend for at least one of us, which feels like the universe quietly endorsing a night built around bein out on the town and scroungin up trouble!

    Tangled Sheets: Intention Over Shock

    Tangled Sheets begins at 5pm with an 18+ erotic art exhibition featuring work from Sabrina LaCroix, Elizabeth Taylor of LaCroix Artistry, and Wade Codling of Codling Creations. At 8pm, the room transitions into a 21+ burlesque exhibition hosted by internationally recognized pinup model and performer Bernie Dexter, with fetish-themed performances curated to reflect depth over costume spectacle.

    Sabrina describes the event simply: “Tangled Sheets is a two-part erotic art event featuring an erotic art show followed by a burlesque exhibition with provocatively themed performances.” But the intention behind it runs deeper.

    “I wanted a space where sensuality could be explored thoughtfully, not as shock value, not as parody, but as real artistic expression,” she explains. “Through an artistic lens, people can explore sexuality with curiosity.”

    That word, curiosity, carries through the entire evening. The visual exhibition sets the emotional tone, inviting guests to linger, interpret, and absorb. “You’re able to linger, interpret, and absorb,” Sabrina says. “Burlesque then brings that exploration into motion. Where the artwork captures a moment suspended in time, the performers embody those same themes live, in real time.”

    The artwork itself spans a wide range of themes: power, consent, identity, fantasy, body autonomy, the tension between softness and strength, and the complexity of desire. Some pieces are playful. Some are raw. Some will challenge viewers. All are presented with nuance and respect.

    South Dakota does not often see erotic art handled in a curated, intentional way. Sabrina felt called to build something that treated it with depth rather than novelty. “My primary goal is representation,” she says. “I want people to be able to find themselves in the artwork and feel comforted or even challenged by what they find.”

    This is an adult event, and it is designed that way. The space welcomes adults who understand consent, respect performers, and are open to seeing the human body and human desire as art. It is intimate by intention, and ticketing at the door reflects that focus on experience rather than volume.

    Outside Kids and Friends: Volume, Catharsis, and Cardio

    Meanwhile, in the Event Hall, the mood shifts from reflective to kinetic.

    Outside Kids headline a lineup Matt Buehner calls “a celebration of the diversity of alternative/pop-punk/rock music in the Black Hills,” promising emotive lyrics, feel-good anthems, headbanging energy, and what he describes as a “screw it/come what may” attitude.

    For first-timers, he says their live show lands “somewhere between an intimate conversation with a friend you haven’t seen in awhile, a scathing critique of what is wrong with American culture at large, and a cathartic scream into the void.” It is a description that feels accurate to anyone who has spent time in a packed alternative room where the lyrics are shouted back at the stage.

    The lineup works, Matt says, because of friendship first. “We all like each other,” he notes. Sonically, the genres may differ on paper, but each band leans heavily into songcraft and tone. The bill builds energy as the night progresses, moving from connection to release.

    Aby’s Event Hall has become one of the more consistent homes for alternative music in Rapid City, and Matt is quick to point out what makes it different. The venue is built for shows, supported by a new sound system and an ongoing commitment to improving the experience for both artists and audience.

    “If you are standing in the room that night,” he says, “you can expect to get a little sweaty, to make a new friend, and to have really sore leg and neck muscles the next day.” Headbanging, apparently, counts as cardio.

    Outside Kids will also be debuting new, unreleased material, the result of a winter spent writing and tightening their live set. For longtime fans, that alone makes the $15 cover worth it.

    What makes February 28 compelling is not just either event on its own. It is the fact that both are happening simultaneously in different rooms of the same downtown building.

    On one side, a carefully curated exploration of intimacy, identity, and artistic expression.
    On the other, loud guitars and cathartic release. Both built by creative people who are serious about what they are doing.

    It is the kind of night that reminds you that Rapid City’s cultural scene is more layered than it sometimes appears. You just have to show up and step inside.

    And if you happen to be celebrating a birthday that technically only exists every four years,
    there may not be a better way to spend it.

  • The Love Shack Brings Comedy, Glamour, and Heart to Aby’s

    The Love Shack Brings Comedy, Glamour, and Heart to Aby’s

    February in Rapid City tends to run cold, but this weekend Aby’s will be leaning into something warmer.

    On February 21, The Love Shack takes over 406 5th Street for a drag show that blends comedy, glamour, and emotional honesty, with a portion of the $20 cover benefiting the American Heart Association. The theme may shift from show to show, but the intention stays consistent: meet the moment.

    “We usually theme to what’s going on around us,” says Miss Dixy Divine. “Current times, holidays, pop culture events. In March we’re doing an ode to Catherine O’Hara.” The Love Shack’s theme this month came from Miss Cherry, but that responsiveness to culture is part of what keeps these shows feeling current rather than routine.

    When curating a lineup, Dixy looks for range. “We may be drag queens, kings, and burlesque performers, but we all bring something different. From comedy, to glamour, to sex appeal.” That variety is intentional. Drag, at its best, holds multiple tones at once.

    Comedy is central to Dixy’s own performance style. “I try — and I emphasize try — to be funny,” she says, though glamour has its place as well. “Who doesn’t want those moments?” Beneath the humor and polish is something more personal. “Intimacy is part of a lot of drag. Not in a sexual way. We are allowing people to view into our lives through what we are doing. We lay a lot out there when we perform. Sometimes we are putting our full emotions out there.”

    It is easy to see a drag show as spectacle, but there is infrastructure behind it that audiences rarely notice. Booking performers. Coordinating music. Compiling shared drives. Rhinestoning outfits. Decorating the venue when the theme calls for it. The shimmer on stage is built on hours of careful work.

    Rapid City’s drag scene continues to grow, though Dixy sees the most meaningful change within the performers themselves. “We strive to push each other to be better at our craft.” What remains essential is protecting safe space. “I want to make sure everyone there feels safe to not only come, but to be themselves. It may only be for a night, but that matters.”

    By the end of the evening, the hope is simple: “Love. Pure love.”

    For anyone who has never attended a local drag show, her advice is direct. “Just come let loose and have some fun. Don’t take us so serious, because we don’t. If you let your guard down, you may just find yourself having a great time.”

    Bring friends. Make friends. Leave with an open mind and a full heart.

    The Love Shack begins February 21 at Aby’s. Tickets are available at the door, and a portion of proceeds supports the American Heart Association.

  • A Valentine’s Night in the Hills: Witchy Ballads & Greazy Blues Rock

    Valentine’s Day is usually packaged and predictable.

    Saturday wasn’t.

    It was a night of finding things. Of slipping into rooms that feel like secrets and realizing Rapid City is more interesting than it gets credit for.

    Elaine Romero-Douglas: A little mystical. A little mischievous

    o get to The Blind Lion Cocktail Lounge, you have to intend to go there. The entrance is discreet, the room is tucked beneath Murphy’s, and once you are inside it feels removed from the rest of downtown. The setting lends itself to careful listening.

    Elaine Romero-Douglas’ performance met that space perfectly. Her voice is powerful and carries real weight, yet she manages to sound beautiful, strong, and vulnerable at the same time. There is no sense of overreaching or theatrics. When she leans into a lyric, the room responds.

    Her original songs move between reflective and mystical, often with a thread of humor that keeps them from drifting too far into self-seriousness. On Valentine’s Day, that range felt appropriate. Love songs do not all sound the same, and she does not treat them that way. Some pieces ache quietly, others shimmer, and a few catch the audience off guard with sharp wit.

    Her choice of covers was equally thoughtful. Rather than reinventing familiar songs for the sake of novelty, she honored what made them resonate in the first place while still bringing her own tone and restraint to the performance.

    The result was an evening that felt intimate in a way that was earned rather than manufactured, like you had stumbled into something you were not quite supposed to know about.

    Speed City Demons at Aby’s

    ater in the evening, the scene shifted to Aby’s, where Speed City Demons brought a very different kind of energy. They describe themselves as Greazy Original Blues Rock, and the label fits. The guitar work is thick and textured, the rhythm section is steady without being rigid, and the band gives its songs enough room to stretch without losing structure.

    What stood out most was their chemistry. They are clearly comfortable with one another, which allows the music to breathe. Solos expand and then resolve naturally, and the transitions feel lived in rather than rehearsed to exhaustion.

    The crowd was lighter than the quality of the band might suggest, but that is part of what made the night feel rewarding. Aby’s is not hidden, but it often feels that way to people who do not cross that invisible Fifth Street boundary. Those who do are usually rewarded with consistent programming and a stage that supports serious musicianship.

    The band leaned into the Valentine’s theme with humor, tying their songs back to love and heartbreak without taking themselves too seriously. It was playful without being gimmicky, and it gave the night a sense of cohesion rather than novelty.

    If Elaine’s set felt inward and deliberate, Speed City Demons felt expansive and kinetic. Both were strong in their own way, and both are reminders that Rapid City’s music scene rewards attention.

    You just have to be willing to look for it.