Culture worthy of your calendar

The historical similarities between the 1960s and today are too chilling to contemplate, so it may be more than a coincidence that the “dawning of the Age of Aquarius” is coming to visit us here in Orlando. The 2009 Tony Award Winning musical revival ”Hair” will play the Bob Carr for a one-week engagement June 21-26.

With a score that includes “Let the Sun Shine In,” “Aquarius,” “Hair,” and “Good Morning Starshine,” “Hair” depicts the cultural unrest of the ’60s that changed America forever. The story follows a group of free-spirited young people who “believe in” pacifism and free love, sing about sexual identity and racism, experiment with drugs, and burn draft cards. The show still sends an irresistible message of hope more than 40 years after it first opened. Purchase tickets at OrlandoBroadway.com or call 800-982-2787.

‘Media’, a new musical

The Empty Spaces Theatre Company and Tod Kimbro are known for the brilliant theatricality they bring to everything they “create.” Now these two theatrical forces are joining together — for two weeks only — to present the premiere of a new musical called “Media”. With book and lyrics by Tod Kimbro and music by Tod Kimbro and Jeff Forte, the musical takes place in three different towns with three different storylines, all intertwined to come together in an unforgettable conclusion.

Tod Kimbro’s “Media” will perform from Thursday, June 16, to Monday, June 27, at the Shakespeare Center in Loch Haven Park (across from the Museum of Art). For reservations, call 407-328-9005. For credit card pre-orders, visit redchairproject.com

Acoustic Alchemy at the Plaza Theatre

To be definitively “contemporary” after two decades of performing together is still the rule for the smooth jazz sound of Acoustic Alchemy and guitarists Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale, who have been playing together since 1987. The pair literally played their way to America as an “in-flight band” on Virgin Atlantic flights to the U.S. With musical influences as disparate as China to Dave Brubeck to reggae, Acoustic Alchemy will perform on Friday, June 17, at the Plaza Theatre on Bumby Street. Call 407-228-1220 or visit plazaliveorlando.com

‘Rashomon’ (the play)

Based on stories by Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “Rashomon” first became known in the U.S. in 1950 in the Academy Award-winning film by director Akira Kurosawa. Reinterpreted by Fay and Michael Kanin as a stage drama, “Rashomon” premiered on Broadway in 1959. The Mad Cow Theatre, in downtown Orlando, will present the drama from Friday, June 17 to July 10.

Sixty decades after the premiere of the movie, this story, told from varying perspectives, remains as fresh and intriguing as ever. The story brings together a samurai, a bandit and a woman who lived 1000 years ago outside Kyoto. An outlaw kills a samurai and ravishes his wife — or did he? Four different witnesses offer differing testimonies of the crime, so how can we — as an audience — know right from wrong? The story continues as a powerful illustration of the changing ideas of perception. The Mad Cow Theatre is at 105 S. Magnolia Ave. Call 407-297-8788 or visit madcowtheatre.com