Front Page

The Munich Opera celebrates summer with an annual festival. This year, the prelude to the Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner, Das Rheingold, provided novel and thrilling music and drama.

Annie has a strong connection to Connecticut. It started life at Goodspeed in 1976, before heading to Broadway, where it not only won multiple Tony Awards but played until 1983. While the inspiration was the comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, the musical’s plot by Thomas Meehan, is completely original. Charles Strouse wrote the music with lyrics by Martin Charnin.

When Stephen Petronio announced that he was disbanding his company of 40 years Pamela Tatge of Jacob's Pillow jumped in. Together they planned a program that best represented his work. He spoke directly and candidly to the audience which responded with love and support.

Brünhilde's empathy for illicit lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde induces her to betray the orders of her father Wotan, the king of gods. His punishment is to reduce her to becoming a mortal. Santa Fe Opera's production excels.

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap opened to mixed reviews in 1952, and other than a hiatus for Covid, is still running. It’s a London tourist trap and as much a site to see as Big Ben and the museums. Berkshire Theatre Group's sizzling production at the Colonial Theatre is a home run. This show is the most fun of the Berkshire season.

Touch of RED by Shamel Pitts | TRIBE will get a Jacob’s Pillow premiere that has been five years in the making. This performance will be a homecoming. In the Ted Shawn Theatre, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company will make their first appearance at the Pillow since 2012, running August 6 through 10. Now in their 43rd year, the company is performing two seminal works from their historic repertoire: D-Man in the Waters set to Felix Mendelssohn’s soaring Octet for Strings  (1989) and Story/ (2013) performed to Death and the Maiden by Franz Schubert played live.

The jester Rigoletto vows to protect his daughter from lascivious men. Not only does he fail, but he suffers tragic consequences as a result of his attempted revenge after her abduction and abuse.

This feast of celebrating the dead––and death, of course too––was a good jab into my coddled heart, and a solid fuck-you-and-the-nag-you’re-riding aimed at the grim reaper. After the clients finally left way past closing time, the entire staff, all rather worse for fatigue and drink, sat down for our own special Halloween dinner.

The Playhouse on Park version has a new premise. We don’t just dive into the plot. The production begins with an audience assembling for a screening of the classic movie. However, just moments in, a malfunction stops the screening.

In this Gothic ghost tale, a young governess is charged with caring for two orphans under the guardianship of an absentee uncle. Two employees on the estate whom the governess encounters are deceased. Is she dreaming, or is their presence real? And are the children innocents, or are they possessed by the ghosts? Benjamin Britten's eerie music fits the ghost story.

Laozi reminds us in the Tao Te Ching of the utility of emptiness: “We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” A life cluttered with noise and perpetual engagement leaves no room for the spirit to reside

The list of things All Shook Up does well is long, from the show itself to the outstanding Goodspeed production and the talented cast.

Jacob’s Pillow will welcome the Afro Latin dance company Sekou McMiller & Friends, who brought audiences to their feet last year on the outdoor stage, for their Ted Shawn Theatre debut from July 30 through August 3.

Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist explores the pioneering artist’s lifelong pursuit of translating Modernism into an American art form and celebrates her largely unsung achievements in championing abstraction in the United States through painting and printmaking.explores the pioneering artist’s lifelong pursuit of translating Modernism into an American art form and celebrates her largely unsung achievements in championing abstraction in the United States through painting and printmaking.

For its first appearance at Jacob's Pillow in a decade the Sarasota Ballet Company presented two works by Sir Frederick Ashton and a world premiere by Jessica Lang, Sir Frederick Ashton (born 1904, Guayaquil, Ecuador—died 1988, Sussex, England) was the principal choreographer and director of England’s Royal Ballet, the repertoire of which includes about 30 of his ballets.

For an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of a play by Greg the set of painted rags was conceived by Rafael. It was cheap and easy to transport. Looking out over a mountain of rags, however, the audience consisted of a single individual. They attributed lack of success to their unflinching artistic integrity.

Tom Rakewell shuns regular work. His desire to make it on his wits alone plays into the hands of Nick Shadow, alias, The Devil. Willing to leave his betrothed, Anne Trulove, behind, and seduced by the attractions of London, Tom falls deeper and deeper into despair.

Forty years ago, Sandra Cisneros authored one of the world's best-selling and most influential young adult novels. Together with composer Derek Bermel, they have created an opera based on that work, telling about coming of age in a Mexican-American community in Chicago.

Having settled in London, Tshembe visits his African homeland at a time of unrest. Playwright Lorraine Hansberry plumbs conflicts among natives and colonialists with various philosophies. OTP's production casts a wholly black female ensemble to portray men and women, black and white.

At its core, push hands is a two-person training drill designed to develop sensitivity, balance, and the ability to neutralize and issue force. Partners maintain continuous contact, typically at the wrists or forearms, and engage in a gentle yet focused exchange.

Although American based, the world touring company Trinity Irish Dance Company is rooted in traditions of step dancing and music. The unique vision has been to expand the program from folk forms to creating works with progressive vision that puts it on level ground with leading contemporary companies. The dances are exquisite, unique, intricate, and challenging.

As a highlight of the 93rd Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the world-renowned Stephen Petronio Company—one of the biggest names in the postmodern dance scene—will conclude their 40-year run with a highly anticipated program in the Ted Shawn Theatre, July 23-27. These capstone performances will feature a collection of Petronio’s favorite works, including MiddleSexGorge (1990) and American Landscapes (2019).

The musical fuzzy is a puppet show for adults. This inventive production breaks all the rules. The one act play has been written, it seems, by the main character. The charm of this production is that the audience comes to believe that.

I always felt the simple visitor’s stamp on my passport gave me just enough right to live in Paris until the next visitor’s stamp. I never contemplated the idea of citizenship or even having a carte de travail.

A spoof of the popular movie, this jukebox-musical-plus offers a great catalog of singalong pop and rock hits from the '80s and '90s along with broad and racy humor. The production values are impressive as Dr. Laura Dern and Dr. Jeff Goldblum try to save the world from the re-birth of dinosaurs.