CRITIC'S PICK: MUSIC: SHEER FUN

A year ago, Santa Cruz composer Joel Ford premiered "The Cannabis
Cantata" at the University of California-Santa Cruz. The
jazz/rock/reggae opera was a blast: charming, funny and original. Now
here comes a reprise performance Sunday at the Rio Theatre. Ford
takes his inspiration from J.S. Bach's "Coffee Cantata," a brief
comic opera about the tribulations of coffee addicts in 18th-century
Leipzig, with lines like this one: "If I can't drink my bowl of
coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like
a piece of roast goat." Ford's libretto holds a skewed mirror up to
the plot, while comically examining some of the behaviors of today's
marijuana users, as well as social attitudes surrounding them. It's
neither preachy nor P.C.; it's just plain fun, and you'll enjoy the
music, which draws on everything from Zappa to Mingus to the Beatles
and Phish. Ford directs a spirited young cast, and the nine-piece
band features the terrific saxophonist Paul Contos.

7:30 p.m. Sunday, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz; $16, $13
advance; www.riotheatre.com; information (831) 234-3718, (831) 227-4980.