Best Bets: 'Hairspray'

“Hairspray,” Broadway’s Tony Award-winning musical that began its run in June 2002 at The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, returns on a national tour to the stage of Mount Baker Theatre, at 8 p.m. Friday, May 25. Return to 1962 Baltimore, as 16-year-old Tracy Turnblad sets out to dance her way onto television’s most popular teen dance show and still has time to try to win the heart of the boy she loves. Tickets are $20, $51 and $60 at the theater ticket office, 734-6080, and online at www.mountbakertheatre .com.

Balkan Cabaret is one of more than 6,000 musicians, dancers, storytellers and visual artists at the 36th annual Northwest Folklife Festival, Friday through Memorial Day, May 25-28, at Seattle Center. One of the largest folk, ethnic and traditional arts festivals in North America, this year’s theme is “Borderlands,” and emphasizes the cultural traditions on both sides of the 49th parallel, as well as those from cross-border communities from the Ukraine, Canada and other locales around the world. The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Suggested donation is $10 per person, $20 per family. For a full schedule, call (206) 684-7300, www.nwfolklife.org.

Painter and sculptor Ria Harboe will be opening her studio to the public during the Memorial Day weekend Lummi Island Artists’ Studio Tour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 26-27. Visitors can take a self-guided tour of the studios and galleries of dozens of painters, jewelers, potters and other artisans and crafters. A bicycle-friendly island, visitors are encouraged to leave their cars on the mainland. The 20-car ferry leaves the mainland 10 minutes past the hour. To reach the ferry dock at Gooseberry Point, take exit 260 off Interstate 5, follow Slater Road west, then turn left onto Haxton Way and follow it to the dock. Pick up a map at The Islander store, to your left as you disembark the ferry. The map is also available online at www.Lummi-island.com. Call 758-7121 or 758-7499 for more information.

Valzyhna Mort, a 25-year-old poet from Belarus, reads selections of her award-winning poetry at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 25, at Lucia Douglas Gallery, 1415 13th St. “Factory of Tears,” her first book to be published in the United States, is forthcoming from Port Townsend’s Copper Canyon Press. The event is sponsored by Whatcom Poetry Series, and is free. Call 398-7870 for more information.

Brooklyn-based Citizen Cope performs his eclectic, emotionally and politically charged music in Western Washington University’s Viking Union Multipurpose Room at 7 tonight, May 24. Tickets are $23 general, $16 WWU students at WWU’s box office, 650-6146, and online at www.tickets.wwu.edu.

The Atlantics rock the Wild Buffalo, 208 W. Holly St., at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 26, to wrap up a weekend of Ski to Sea fun. Cover is $9; get tickets online at www.wild buffalo.net or call 752-0848 for more information on the holiday music lineup.