Can't Miss It: Monday

GOOD MUSICALS, FINALLY: Contemporary Classics presents its fifth annual "New Voices" festival tonight at Seattle Rep's PONCHO Forum. Bringing together songs from leading musical theatre composers and Seattle's top performers, local musical guru Brandon Ivie seeks to dispel the notion that musical theatre is dead, whatever the mediocre fare on Broadway. As composers incorporate modern forms like rock and hiphop into the repertoire, and writers see the campy theatricality of musical as a means to discuss our every faker culture of "reality" shows and infotainment, the American musical theatre is as exciting as ever, and this one night only revue is Seattle's best chance to catch something better than yet another lame musical adaptation of a movie.

8 p.m. // Seattle Rep, 155 Mercer St. // ~$20 advance; cash or check ONLY for purchases at the door

MENTAL ILLNESS: In her new book, Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative, Priscilla Ward argues that how we think about disease has social impacts nearly as big as disease epidemics themselves. The story of how a pandemic spreads, refining and reinforced in novels, movies, and the news over nearly a century, has huge impacts on our political systems, foreign policy, trade, economy, and, ultimately, our human and civil rights. She reads tonight at the UW bookstore.

7 p.m. // 4326 University Way NE // free

GLOBALISM: The Secret Chiefs 3, led by former-Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance, is part of the thriving subculture of metal bands adopting global influences. SC3's music veers wildly from you standard hard rock trappings, to Middle Eastern influences and even the odd genre, like Bollywood. While an acquired taste and less successful at musical collage that the likes of Gogol Bordello, System of a Down, or local faves Kultur Shock, SC3 nevertheless represents an avant-garde that hopes to break rock music out of its narrow set of cultural influences and open it up to the world. They play Neumo's tonight, with local outfit Master Musicians of Bukkake.

8 p.m. doors // 925 E. Pike St. // $15 adv, 21+