Opening Night

'Lulu' opens Tuesday at The Victory Theatre BURBANK -- Vox Humana Productions begins previews Friday of "Lulu" at The Little Victory Theatre. It is directed by Jerry Kernion. Veering crazily between sex farce and bleak tragedy, "Lulu" is Peter Barnes' carnival-tinged adaptation of Frank Wedekind's proto-modern classic of sex, obsession, deception and death. Inhabiting the shadowy world of tents and trailers in a circus carnival-on-the-edge, Lulu is a woman blessed and cursed with the instinctive ability to appear the object of fantasy.

Jackson Bell An estimated 2,500 people helped kick off the Outdoor Picture Show's second season Wednesday night, filling the IKEA Courtyard to capacity for a sneak preview of DreamWorks' soon-to-be-released animated movie, "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas." Media City Center, IKEA and the city sponsored the festivities, which included free food, face painting and performances from a magician. Brian Gartland, senior marketing director for Media City Center, said the opening-night attendance was more than twice of the average attendance last year.

Sidney Soffer idney Soffer scanned the crowd that had gathered Friday at the Burbank Creative Arts Center Gallery. “This is a great turnout, especially for people in L.A., who usually don’t leave their homes when it rains,” he said. But leave their homes and brave the rain they did to attend the opening-night reception of the gallery’s new exhibit “Seven by 7.” The exhibition presents works in a wide range of media that explore the personal viewpoint and response to the natural environment by artists Abira Breskal, Selina Cheng, Joy Merzer Freedman, Mary Guzman, Eileen Hecht, Rachelle Mar k and Barbara Schick of Artist Co-op 7. A diverse group of working and exhibiting artists who encourage individual creative growth through exploration and experimentation, Artist Co-op 7 comprises about 50 artists.

MEDIA DISTRICT — A Parent Center has opened at Burbank High School, creating what staff and PTSA members hope will be a conduit for information between parents and the school. "Hopefully, this is a place where [parents] can sit down and breathe easy and be with other parents like themselves," PTSA President Lauren Wygle said. The center, which opened in March, is open to all parents in the district, but aimed specifically toward parents for whom English is a second language, or who don't speak English.

Send DATEBOOK items to Burbank Leader, 221 N. Brand Blvd., 2nd Floor, Glendale, CA 91203 or fax to (818) 241-1975. Submissions must be received two weeks before publication. ? THURSDAY Theatre Banshee presents William Shakespeare?s ?Macbeth? in preview performances at 8 p.m. today and Friday at The Banshee, 3435 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. The show opens at 8 p.m. March 7 and runs through April 26. Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.

TODAY The Thrift Shop operated by La Providencia Guild of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles offers a special shopping day for seniors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Wednesday at the Childrens Hospital Thrift Shop, 3301 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank. All merchandise, including gently worn clothing, collectibles, household items and books, will be discounted 10% for seniors. The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. All items have been donated and sales benefit the hospital.

Joyce Rudolph, Enjoy! BURBANK -- In the theater business, success is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time. This was definitely the case for The Colony Theatre Company, which, by a turn of events, was granted the rights to produce the Southern California premiere of the Broadway musical "Side Show," opening Feb. 2. The production relates the true story of conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet...

Jose Ruiz, Enjoy! BURBANK -- Having completed a seven-month national tour, "The Sunshine Boys" are back in sunny California and they've settled at The Falcon Theatre near beautiful downtown Burbank. Neil Simon's classic comedy tells about Lewis and Clark, a vaudevillian comedy team that broke up after 43 years of wowing them, and is being asked to reunite for one more show. The comeback road takes a whole new route in the veteran hands of Frank Gorshin and Dick Van Patten.

Maestro Steven Kerstein thought about geography when choosing the program for tonight’s Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra concert. The two pieces that will be featured are Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 and Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major Op. 88. It’s a good pairing, Kerstein said, because Brahms is a German composer and Dvorak is Czech. “Many of the composers who lived close to each other, their style of music was similar also,” he said.