Weekend entertainment options range from Jane Austen to Dan Savage. Here’s how to go
Celebrity concerts
Among the entertainment highlights of the next few days are a pair of concerts by platinum-selling musicians. The Steve Miller Band, celebrating the 50th anniversary of “The Joker,” is closing out the Washington State Fair with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, at the fairgrounds grandstand, 110 Ninth Ave. SW, Puyallup. Tickets are $65-$85. Closer to home, singer-songwriter Ben Folds, who once told The Olympian that writing songs is a bit like turning on the faucet and seeing what comes out, will be taking fan requests for songs he’ll perform in a solo show at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia. Tickets are $54-$109.
Updated Austen about to wrap
Kate Hamill’s dizzy 2018 take on “Pride and Prejudice,” on stage through Sunday, Sept. 22, at Harlequin Productions’ State Theater, pretty much turns Jane Austen upside down. The screwball comedy, with Kate Anders as Lizzy and Xander Layden as Mr. Darcy, features anachronisms aplenty and wild ensemble casting that has men playing women and vice versa for comic effect. It also features eye-catching costumes by Melanie Ransom, who dressed the scheming Mrs. Bennet (Marianna de Fazio) in a Monopoly-inspired print dress that replicates a painting by Olympia’s Lynette Charters. Remaining performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 19-21, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, at the State Theater, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. Tickets are $28-$43.
Hattie Hotpants hosts Hump Fest
The Hump Film Festival is a opportunity for a salacious headline — and, in fact, it’s hard to avoid since the festival is a sex-focused event. Burlesque performer and busy emcee Hattie Hotpants is hosting the Olympia screening of Dan Savage’s amateur porn festival’s second 2024 outing. The evening of smut — which boasts paranormal encounters and a space carnival, among other things — is hitting the town on Saturday, Sept. 21. The screening (open to ages 21 and up only, natch) begins at 8 p.m. at the Capitol Theater, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia, with doors opening at 7. Tickets are $20.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore confesses to some disappointment that Journey, which has been touring with Steve Miller, will not be doing the Puyallup. She talks with DJ Kevin the Brit about what’s happening around town on KGY-FM’s “Oly in a Can,” airing at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Fridays.