May arrives with time-traveling music, multiple-choice wrestling and a galaxy far, far away.
Tuesday, April 29
“The Case of the Quiz Night Killer,” a “pub trivia murder mystery challenge,” aims to kill at East Rock Brewing from 6 to 9 p.m. “Each round, your group will answer trivia questions, which will, in turn, unlock details of the murder, uncover backstories and ultimately answer the greatest question of them all: Whodunnit?”
Thursday, May 1
From 5 to 7 p.m., a Jazz Night at BLDG, the bar/restaurant/lounge in the lobby of the Hotel Marcel, adds another dimension to the hotel’s midcentury style.
At 7, a local Battle of the Bands at Toad’s Place culminates in a fifth and final round of performances and, presumably, the crowning of a winner. The finalists include Cadmium, The Flatts, Remy Adair, The Sparkle & Fade, Teddy Rosé and Wurley.
Also at 7 and just a few doors up (and a couple of floors down), the Yale Film Archive presents a screening of Martin Scorcese’s After Hours (1985), a black comedy in which “an uptown office drone (Griffin Dunne) tries to make it home from SoHo after a bad date but hits a raft of mishaps along the way.”
At 8, Cafe Nine hosts “a house band of Connecticut’s top musicians” performing tunes by mid-1960s band The Skatalites, “a supremely talented group of Jamaican musicians” credited here with the invention of ska music.
Friday, May 2
At 7:30 tonight and tomorrow night, Yale Opera performs “a fully staged double-bill production” of Rossini’s one-act farse La Cambiale di Matrimonio and Massenet’s two-act tragedy La Navarraise in Morse Recital Hall.
From 6 to 8 p.m., Behind the Sound: Jazz, Theater, and Rock in New Haven, a popup exhibit, pops up at the New Haven Museum along with live jazz and light refreshments.
Saturday, May 3
A packed itinerary in Milford features an “old-fashioned spring fair” with “a big plant sale, [a] book sale, vendors [and] kid activities” starting at 10 a.m. on the Milford Green; a belated Earth Day festival, also at 10 and also on the Green; a neighborhood arts and crafts fair with 30 vendors at 11 in Borough Hall Park; and a “spring fling” convening bands and food trucks at 1 at Tribus Beer Co.
The next New England Taco Festival takes over the Guilford Fairgrounds from 11 to 8 today and 11 to 7 tomorrow. Tickets include access to tacos from 20 vendors and “tons” of themed adult beverages, plus free lucha libre wrestling, mechanical bull rides, mariachi bands and taco-eating contests. And, assuming it’s still live by the time you read this, you can use the promo code “SAVE50” at checkout to save 50% on tickets.
Fair Haven Day, the first of several Arts & Ideas-sponsored neighborhood festivals this month (including a Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills fest tomorrow), offers a parade at noon, a celebration with “food, entertainment, and activities for all ages” from 1 to 5 and a wrestling event at 6.
From 4 to 9 out back and 5 to 2 inside, Stella Blues hosts Disco Lemonade, a dance party featuring 10 DJs.
Back at East Rock Brewing, a “May-Hem Market” put on by New England Obscura promises “an evening of alternative culture, live tattooing, sideshow magic, face-painting, popup galleries, local creators, and vendors showcasing odd and unusual goods.”
Performances of Heisenberg, the New Haven Theater Company’s final production of the 2024-25 season, began Thursday night, but tonight’s, at 8, is the soonest, as of this writing, that you can still get a ticket. “Amidst the bustle of a crowded London train station, Georgie spots Alex, a much older man, and plants a kiss on his neck. This electric encounter thrusts these two strangers into a fascinating and life changing game. Simon Stephens’s play brings to life the uncertain and often comical sparring match that is human connection.”
Sunday, May 4
From noon to 7, Armada Brewing’s celebration of May the Fourth, a Star Wars fan holiday, intones, “May the pours be with you,” across activities including themed bingo, trivia and costume competitions plus a “lightsaber showdown.”
Also starting at noon, just over the Woodbridge line, New England Brewing Company hosts a “Stout Trooper Takeover” starring one-day-only variants of its year-round Star Wars-themed Imperial Stout.
At 3 p.m. in Woolsey Hall, Grammy-nominated trumpeter Pacho Flores joins the New Haven Symphony Orchestra for a concert “celebrating Latin America’s rich musical and dance traditions.” The program’s styles span an “elegant Cuban danzón,” “energetic tango,” “Andean folk influences,” “Afro-Caribbean rhythms” and “the powerful malambo dance of Argentina’s pampas.”
Written by Dan Mims. Image features a glimpse of the lobby bar at the Hotel Marcel. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
