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Opera Philadelphia presents Denis and Katya, the world premiere of a new opera by Philip Venables and Ted Huffman. Keenia Ravvinia is credited both with creative contributions and translation of the events surrounding the dual death of two fifteen year old Russians. The teens had holed up in a cabin where weapons were stored and used them to attack the police. No one really knows what happened, but it was an event that was covered by the young couple in smart phone videos and periscope posts and widely picked up by the media.

The promise of high energy singer/actor Idina Menzel’s debut on the Geffen’s stage is sure to lure her fans. Playwright Joshua Harmon’s newest and talky comedy play “Skintight” is directed by Daniel Aukin. Geffen’s artistic director, Matt Shakman, may have missed the mark by selecting “Skintight” for the Geffen’s 2019/2020 season opener.

Joshua Roman on cello and Conor Hanick at the piano performed a wild, raucous Alfred Schnittke Sonata bracketed by two transcendental works by Arvo Pärt. Andrew Ousley speaking at the outset as we waited for the artists to descend into the arched naves, suggested that we refrain from applauding at the end of each work. Instead we might absorb the afterglow of the music and let it seep further in. No one was tempted to break the silence with an inadvertent clap.

Sea Wall/A Life, two extraordinarily powerful one act plays, presented in monologue form, are holding court at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Fueled by strong reviews, and the star power of film and stage actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Strurridge, it is one of the most deeply moving productions currently gracing the stage here in New York City.

Martin Moran performs his one-man show, All The Rage, at the Barrow Group through October 5. Thoroughly entertaining, it tackles one of the deepest of subjects: forgiveness for unforgivable offenses. Seth Barrish directed this award-winning show.

The intersection of the world of grand opera and musical confection rarely occurs. An exception to that rule would be Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus. Maestro Michael Morgan maintains brisk pace throughout the musical sections, resulting in a spirited rendering of the score.

The counterculture in Boston geared up in the summer of 1968. The music scene, WBCN, and alternative media were well established when The Cars emerged with a self titled album in 1978. They went on to record a string of hits breaking up a decade later. After kicking around with a variety of folk/ rock configurations Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr established a mega group that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. Orr died in 2000 and Ocasek died yesterday at 75. They were an integral part of a golden age of Boston rock.

Instead of a brief essay from the director the Shakespeare & Company playbill uses that space to list journalists killed "on assignment in 2019." Ten years ago Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies earned two Tony nominations. Four fine performances, and superb direction, were squandered on a play that is not aging well. Taking on an important subject, the bravery and sacrifice of journalists covering war zones, the play is contrived and reaches for cheap tricks entailing reversal and deception.

Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet faithfully follows Shakespeare’s dramatic narrative and adds a score of great beauty that has graced the repertory since its spectacular debut in 1867. San Francisco Opera’s faithful production possesses sterling artistry and striking staging that honor this compelling opera.

The New York Philharmonic performed the New York premiere of Bernard Hermann’s Psycho score, accompanying a huge projection of the film. Richard Kaufman, a veteran conductor of film and television productions, conducted. David Geffen Hall was filled with a hip audience of film buffs, who cheered when the classic image of the Bates Motel first appeared on the screen.

Hairspray is receiving an exuberant production by Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre in Indianapolis.The musical, based on John Waters' film, reminds us that we can each do our part to right wrongs. This production runs through Oct. 6.

Director Baird’s bold vision required him to strip-down the script to 10 performing characters without sacrificing any of the drama and/or light comedy moments that run throughout Shaffer’s illuminating, potent, tragic story concerning the early death, at 35 years of age, of musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (an astonishing Rafael Goldstein).

The rich are different from us. As a symbol of ultimate decadence Maurizio Cattelan created "America" a sold gold toilet. I lined up to take a pee in it at the Guggenheim Museum. Now it has gone missing.

Performing at the Cabot Theater in Beverly, to a packed and “on your feet” audience, David Hinds (vocals, guitarist) and longtime bandmate Selwyn Brown (keyboardist) kept an edge to their message of social and political outrage. The evening featured the first release by Steel Pulse in over a decade "Mass Manipulation" (2019, Rootfire Cooperative / Wiseman Doctrine).

Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater is a book you can enjoy in two ways. You can read it from beginning to end, as you would any narrative of fiction or nonfiction. Or you can dip in and out and read Mark Larson’s marvelous interviews with Chicago theater people in any order—and to any stage of completion—that you like.

When She Had Wings brings history to life in a fun way. This play about a young girl who wishes to regain her ability to fly should appeal to all ages. Boca Raton-based Theatre Lab is mounting a charming, magical production.

The first of a series of monthly pop up concerts at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University presented the world premiere of John Zorn’s 18 Studies from the Later Sketchbooks of JMW Turner. This expansive work embraces a variety of styles and forms, all inspired by the watercolors of 19th-century English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. Pianist Stephen Gosling, a masterful interpreter of contemporary music and particularly Zorn's, performed.

I have been working on sculptural surfaces for my paintings for 6 months. In addition to the resulting surface tension, the work has become more lyrical, sprinkled with recognizable imagery. Vines, galaxies, probes, suns, microbial animals and plants divide the surface and define the space.

Howards End, the stunning new production by Remy Bumppo Theatre, weaves together strands of three families. The wealthy and elite Wilcoxes—father, sons and daughter—the Schlegel sisters, who belong to the intellectual gentry, and poverty-stricken Leonard Bast and his wife. The script by Douglas Post, adapted from E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel, is directed by Nick Sandys.

Michael Grandage’s production has been revived several times since its inauguration almost a decade ago, and it’s easy to see why. The staging is sensational, dominated by the depiction of the innards of the man o’ war. Although Billy Budd underwent revisions after its debut in 1951, it is surprising that the American premiere didn’t occur until 1970.

Karen Isaacs previews what's on tap for fall theater in Connecticut.

HERE and Opera on Tap are presenting Kamala Sankaram's Looking at You, an opera which takes a provocative approach to the end of privacy. We wittingly and unwittingly allow cyber companies to strip us. Rob Handel's brilliant libretto is in the tradition of Experiments in Opera productions. Its narrative arc and apt language combine with thick orchestration using whatever style brings us face to face with issues in a story.

The Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition will be held September 6 to September 29 at 243 Union Street in North Adams, Mass. 01247. This serves as a preview for Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20. The complex, which houses forty live/ work lofts, is the epicenter of an ever growing community of artists in Northern Berkshire County.

While this is a well-crafted production of a well-designed and recognized work, it is not for everyone. For theater goers seeking fast-paced, forget-your-troubles entertainment, it will probably fill the bill. For those looking for meaning, social commentary, complexity of character, and the like, it may not fill much of anything.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is upward bound, on an odyssey filmed by Live From Lincoln Center as they journeyed through Greece. We visit the remote hills of Pelion and churches in Volos and Milies. Unusual and exotic locations are the setting of performances: from a Bach violin solo performed movingly by Aaron Boyd in a magnificent amphitheater to the wonderful Octet for strings that Mendelssohn composed at 16 years of age as he embarked on his classical career.