By Artie Capshaw

Harry joins the circus: Theater on the Air, the student-run “experimental” summer theater which takes over the campus’ Campbell Playhouse (not to ever be mistaken for Joe Campbell’s rock club) and adjacent Koch dormitory every summer, has decided to do The Third Woman as its season-opener, for the first two weeks of June…

This isn’t mere rock opera or pop-conscious theater. When the show—about a “Bohemian Star” with a “Hand of Glory” who’s having an onstage breakdown “In Search of a Ghost”—is done right, it’s indistinguishable from a show you might see at the Finch, only written down and memorized. The only bit of disbelief you might feel is that any band with songs as good as “Dead Candidate,” “It’s a Knockout” and “It’s in the Bag” in its set, not to mention “5000 Pengoes and a Kiss,” would never be as down and out as this play suggests. Even with that horse habit and the whole sex-change thing. There’s that musical-theater optimist in us coming out—we do so love a high-kick happy-ending number!

The director/star of this exciting enterprise, who’s insisting on calling himself Elusive Vermeer for the occasion but whom you’ve unelusively seen front and center at many an Orsons gig, says he’s going for rock purity, not theater trickery. So far, E.V says he’s got Harry from the Orsons to put the backing band together. Patience now, and exult that there’s something with a hard beat to do in town while the college is on break, the bigger venues wallow in summer nostalgia acts and the local bands swelter.

The Bullfinch asked No More Precious to play tomorrow, and the band arranged a whole night of “N” acts, with None Shall Escape, Night and the City and the NMP side project No Minor Vices. The nnnnnight’s billed as “Noble Noir Nite”… Back Pay, The Bang Bang Kids and Avenging Rider assault the collegiate senses (those not already dulled by cheap booze) at Hamilton’s… Luxury Girls and Lucky Boys, guilty pleasure pop, at D’ollaire’s. Pretend you’re bringing your niece, and just enjoy yourself…