FUN
Area pups will strut their stuff on the Downtown Little Rock Creative Corridor (300-600 blocks of Main Street) for the Downtown Little Rock Partnership’s Barkus on Main Mardi Gras Dog Parade & Block Party, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. The parade starts at 2:30 at the intersection of Sixth and Main and travels north to Fourth and Main. There will be prizes for best dressed, owner/pet lookalikes, and more. Before (beginning at noon) and after the parade, Main Street between Third Street and Capitol Avenue will feature a family-friendly block party with live music, gumbo, a crawfish boil, beads, food trucks, a kids zone, a beer garden, a hurricane station and local vendors. barkusonmain.com.
MUSIC
The Arkansas Symphony and conductor Geoffrey Robson musically depict “Fairies & Flowers” in Masterworks concert, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall. For the “flowers” part, principal oboe Leanna Renfro solos with her colleagues in “L’Horloge de Flore” (“The Flower Clock”) by Jean Françaix. Vis a vis “fairies,” Kara Claybrook, soprano; Nisheedah Golden, mezzo-soprano; Scarlet Voices, the Arkansas State University Women’s Choir; and Ballet Arkansas dancers Meredith Loy and Aldrin Vendt bring us the incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn. (501) 666-1761; ArkansasSymphony.org
THEATER
Argenta Contemporary Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock, opens its production this week of “Gypsy: A Musical Fable” (music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents), with a preview performance at 7 p.m. today Thursday and “official” shows at 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday and April 15-April 19; and 2 p.m. April 13. argentacontemporarytheatre.org.
Four couples experience a severe attack of farce after a New York deputy mayor shoots himself at his 10th wedding anniversary party in Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” which the Royal Players stage at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and April 10-12 and 2 p.m. Sunday and April 13 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. onthestage.tickets/the-royal-theatre.
“Church Basement Ladies” continues onstage through April 19 at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 12:45 and 6:45 p.m. Sunday. Buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain. (501) 562-3131; murrysdp.com.
ART AND EXHIBITS
“Beverly Buys: Gone But Not,” 11 cyanotypes by Hot Springs photographer Beverly Buys, opens Friday and remains on display through May 30 in the Focus Gallery of the Windgate Center of Art + Design at the UA Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., with a reception at 5 p.m. April 17. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Email byoung2@ualr.edu.
“William Beckman: On the Horizon,” oil paintings by Beckman, whose work is on display at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts here in Little Rock, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., is up through June 30 in Gallery One in the UA Little Rock Fine Arts Building. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.
“Spring: Exploring the blooming landscape of Clarence Cash,” oil and pastel paintings by Cash, a past president of the Arkansas League of Artists, is on display through April 13 at Art Group Gallery, in the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. (501) 690-2193; artgrouparkansas.com.
“Specimens,” intricate watercolor paintings on used tea bags by Marcus Vasquez, is on display through April 11 at the Argenta Library Gallery, 420 Main St., North Little Rock, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday. (501) 687-1061.
The 55th Juried Exhibition by the Mid-Southern Watercolorists remains on display, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday-Saturday through May 2 at the William F. Laman Public Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. (501) 758-1720; NLRlibrary.org.
And “Crimson Moon,” pieces from the jewelry collection of Leesa Renshaw, remains on display, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through June 1 at ESSE Museum and Store, 1510 Main St., Little Rock, (501) 916-9022; essepursemuseum.com.