Front Page

“The Pajama Game” opened last weekend in Palm Springs. The musical debuted in 1954 on Broadway, as the Korean War was declared over, and pajamas back then was still considered the choice of men’s sleep-ware. Enduring standards of the vintage musical include “Hey There,” “Steam Heat,” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”

Between the news and my daily contact with friends in China, the coronavirus is a daily presence in my awareness. I returned from China just shortly before the first cases in Wuhan. My temple is in Hubei Province, and Wuhan is the province's capital city, only about 500 km from the temple. CDC officials tell us it is not a question of if, it is a question of when the virus will spread across the country, notwithstanding the President's assurances last night. My friends all over China have been inside their homes since the first of the month, and will remain there for several weeks to come, it would seem. That may be us someday, too.

Palm Beach Dramaworks' production of David Hare's Skylight features terrific performances. Tension emanates from the stage as the character spar on stage. The production continues through March 1.

Lincoln Center's Great Performers surrounded us with Gustav Mahler for five days. In addition to a concert by Ivan Fischer conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra, three films were offered.

Real Eyes Gallery in Adams, Mass resumes its monthly exhibitions. One of two repeaters Henry Klein returns with Uber Waves: Other Location on March 7. Gallerist Bill Riley, the other prior exhibitor, is slotted for August. On March 14 at 5pm, Kathline Carr and Patricia Sheppard will read their poetry. Ricky Darell Barton shows in April followed by Gil Riley (June), Lauren Olitski (July), William Riley (August), Pennie Brantley and Bob Morgan (September), Diane Reed Sawyer (October), Cotter Luppi (November), and To Be Announced (December).

What sets this apart are the fine performances. Any chance you get to see Jane Alexander on stage is one to take advantage of and treasure. Her Nancy exudes both steeliness and calmness.

Lucas Hnath has a gift for making the past present on stage. In a marvel of edited tape, brilliant acting and staging, the Vineyard Theatre is hosting his play, Dana H. We don't see Edgar Bergen manipulating Charlie. Yet we hear the tape voice of the real Dana as it is mouthed by Deidre O'Connell. Taking on the voice, O'Connell inhabits the character, soundless, but with more subtle and apt gestures than you can imagine. It is a stunning evening of theater.

Introductory visual and audio moments originated in climate data released as sound in a work by Kyle Barnes. This prelude was “a sonificaton of data for voice, electronics and video.” Images played on the huge back wall, which often serves as a screen in this special venue. Gentle scales crested and fell, warming us up for an introduction by Elena Park, a curator of National Sawdust +.

There is no doubt that Gustav Mahler paired the Kindertotenlieder, symphonic poems of Friedrich Rückert and his Symphony No. 5. Seldom are they programmed together. We were given an extraordinary performance of both works in David Geffen Hall. Iván Fischer conducted the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Building Five of MASS MoCA is one of the largest spaces for contemporary art in North America. Since the museum opened in 1999 there has been an annual rotation. The results have been mixed with hits and misses. Curated by Susan Cross, the current installation When by the South African artist Ledelle Moe is on the short list of most astonishing projects. It remains on view in North Adams through September 5.

When we spoke in 2000 the arts leader Ted Landsmark was director of the Boston Architectural College. He was on leave as chair of the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art but still serving on the board of the MFA. It was a time of transition and change. The ICA was constructing a new building on the waterfront. Its director, Jill Medvedow, was competing for funding with MFA director, Malcolm Rogers. Landsmark argued that they should be working together

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a jewel created by the architect Moshe Safdie near a natural spring called Crystal and a bridge construction which is built into the museum. It was conceived and financed by Alice Walton whose family created Walmart, a company headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Now other members of the family have joined her in creating an exciting performance space in an old Kraft cheese factory in town.

A vibrant equity production of Hamilton invades Miami The show isn't available for school licensing just yet, but it should give student thespians something to look forward to. This production, running through March 15, was sold out on opening night.

After performing around the world Bonobo, the internationally acclaimed Chilean experimental theater company finally made its way to New York City’s Baryshnikov Arts Center, with Tú Amarás (You Shall Love), a socio-political offering with a surreal touch that examines what is an enemy, how do we create one, and how do we connect to others.

Throughout the play, the patients engage in therapy scenes, identified by actors two-stepping in with signs announcing Opera Therapy, Steam Therapy, Abdominal Therapy, Dancing Therapy or Makeup Therapy (patients apply cosmetics to each other). The worst is the ghastly Smile Therapy, in which patients parade around wearing strap masks with garish painted-on smiles.

BAM is mounting an elegant, moving, hip update of the Medea story, written after Euripides by Simon Stone. Starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale, the set is a made up of a rectangular screen onto which video images are projected. Often we see the actors in extreme close up. Their miced voices bring them even closer. The backdrop of the stage and two wings which bend in at about 40 degree angles are white. So too the stage floor. It calls attention to the stage action and to the emotional temper of Anna and Lucas, Claire, the new girlfriend, Elspeth the therapist, and Anna's and Lucas’ two children, Edgar, and Gus.

This is one short play (85 minutes) that kept me so interested, that I never checked my watch. Overall this production is just as good as the one I saw on Broadway a year ago.

It is always a time for heightened expectations when one goes to any performance at the Komische Oper, Berlin. It will not necessarily be enjoyable for everybody but it will definitely always be provocative. The Komische Oper presents as one performance: Fruehlingsstuerme and La Traviata.

Superb acting, technical work combine to create a compelling production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days at Thinking Cap Theatre. Veteran south Florida performer Karen Stephens shines in the role of Winnie.

National Sawdust, an artist led Brooklyn group, is a leading incubator of new music. One aspect of their work is an artists-in-residence program. Committed to assisting the creation of music that has impact, artists are encouraged to draw from personal experience and their interpretation of the world. Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup explores the opioid crisis.

The 2020 season of Shakespere and Company starts on May 21 with Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell. The small stage production features Annette Miller. King Lear opens at the Tina Packer Playhouse on June 28. Berkies Award winner, director Regge Life returns to anchor the season with Harold Pinter's Betrayal on September 18.

New York critic Edward Rubin remembers Lynn Cohen an actress fondly remembered as the Ukranian maid Magda in the TV series Sex in the City. Ed has often been close with the performers he writes about.

John Powell finished but did not see his final exhibition. He died at 73 just days before the opening of Neon Shadows at Howard Yezerski. Artists and former fellows of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT will gather to pay their respects. He will be celebrated for a career in art, science and technology. That was manifested in large public art projects. Using dramatic lighting he transformed quotidian into sublime. A bridge we traverse every day and hardly notice was transformed into an enormous sculpture with light shaping its form.

“Adoption Roulette” is an Actors play. The action takes place on a bare-bones stage with no props or set furniture. The physical movements in the play are mimed, and the actors play multiple roles.

Ballroom features the music of Billy Goldenberg, with a libretto by Jerome Kass, and the lyrics by multiple Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy award-winning songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman, under the direction of Ron Celona. It’s the boldest and most audacious production in CVREP history.