For all of human history and eons before, Mount Everest has stood as steady as a rock – literally. In its eight years, the opera “Everest: An Immersive Experience” has had three very different realizations, even though under the baton of Nicole Paiement for each version. The genesis of the opera’s narrative is a real-life tragedy about three members on an Everest expedition in 1996, two of whom never came back.

The new Broadway musical – already seen in London and Toronto — & Juliet (and Juliet) has a clever concept, that grows on you. I like the play now more than I did while I was in the theater. The clever idea behind  & Juliet is what saves it from being preachy and predictable.

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame is enjoying a must-see run at the Irish Repertory Theatre.  Starring Bill Irwin, the clown and Beckett aficionado, as Clov and John Douglas Thompson as Hamm, here uncharacteristically for Thompson, the “insider.” He is bound to a wheelchair, blind and dependent on painkillers, yet the clear force of the moment. Clov lurches around him. 

Frothy delights like “Falstaff” present particular challenges. Comic timing, enthusiastic affect, and vocal versatility must be heightened. Opera San Jose’s production excels in every dimension. Performers sing with joy and act with charm. All of the artistic elements strike the right note, resulting in a production that glitters.

For Rockport psychologist and playwright, Lawrence Hennessy, art imitates life in his new play Annisquam. Is the playwright moonlighting as a shrink or the other way around? Tickets for the three performances are available at Gloucester Stage.

New York Festival of Song Presents  Amor: A 50th Anniversary Celebration of Steven Blier's Professional Debut at Kaufman Music Center on February 15, 2023

Vaclav Havel’s Audience circulated widely in a sanitized form during the Soviet occupation of his country after the Second World War. During the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August, 1968, Havel provided a narrative of the invasion on Radio Free Czechoslovakia and was banned from his work in the theater. To survive, he took a job in the Kraknos brewery in Trufnov. This is the setting of Audience.

A brand-new production that blends Bela Bartók’s 1918 one-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle with 1915’s Four Songs (Vier Lieder) by his contemporary Alma Maria Schindler-Mahler – and immerses audiences in a multi-room installation including a pre-show musical salon – arrives at the Flynn Cruiseport Boston for four performances. The legendary Ann Bogart directs for Boston Lyric Opera.

Stephen R. Lawson, 73, a longtime resident of Williamstown died on February 7, 2023, of natural causes. In varying capacities he was an associate of the Williamstown Theatre Festival for some five decades. For 13 years he curated the Williamstown Film Festival which was produced at Images Cinema and MASS MoCA.

A non-equity touring production of "Chiacgo" is playing in Ft. Lauderdale through Sunday. The venue is the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Chicago is particularly timely today.

Leo Reich has arrived at the Greenwich House Theater in New York fresh from triumphs on the London stage and Edinburgh Fringe.  Literally Who Cares? is a show about Reich. He is a Gen Zer, a graduate of Footlights at Cambridge where everyone who’s anyone begins their career. 

Wicked is playing at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami through March 5. The same production will play at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach from March 29 through April 9. Wicked offers theatergoers a breathtaking visual feast, a mental workout, and an emotionally fulfilling theatrical experience.

Die Fledermaus, by Johann Strauss, from 1874, is one of the most well known light operas the world over.  Known for its indulgence into song and dance, the audience is at first surprised to find an almost empty stage with a five member musical ensemble to play all the tunes....

Spanning Bowie's career, the archive features handwritten lyrics, letters, sheet music, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs, Bowie's own instruments, album artwork, and awards. It also includes more intimate writings, thought processes, and unrealised projects, the majority of which have never been seen in public before.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music is mounting Lorraine Hansberry’s second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s window at the Harvey Theater.  Anne Kauffman, who directed the work at the Goodman Theater in Chicago in 2016, directs Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan.

A five-part Visionary Architecture on Film series debuts at the Clark Art Institute on select Thursdays this spring. Presented in connection with the Clark’s exhibition Portals: The Visionary Architecture of Paul Goesch, this film series explores themes related to Goesch’s life and work in early twentieth-century Germany.

The hit Broadway jukebox musical “Million Dollar Quartet” Book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux. Original concept and direction by Floyd Mutrux; inspired by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins launches the official Berkshire Theatre Group season on June 29. It's the main event of the season at the Colonial Theatre. While the Main Stage continues renovation the rest of the season is programmed for the Unicorn in Stockbridge.

British media star Jeremy Carson is best known for hit shows like Top Gear and Grand Tour. He is also a best selling author. He has sunk a ton of loot and life savings into a thousand acre Diddly Squat Farm in Britain's bucolic Cotswold. His pratfalls, bone headed decisions, and mishegoss are the plot line for the hit series Carson's Farm now in its second season on Amazon Prime.

In 2022 the Guggenheim acquired over 60 works by more than 40 artists, of whom 75% are new to its collection. The works span from the 1960s to the present day and augment the museum’s holdings of some of the world’s most influential artists.

Broadway Licensing is pleased to announce its acquisition of the highly-anticipated play, “John Proctor Is the Villain” by playwright Kimberly Belflower for live stage performance rights. In conjunction, The Huntington, Boston’s leading professional theatre, is thrilled to publicize that it will include the thought-provoking, funny new play in its 23/24 season.  

Let’s admit that the play has some resemblances to Death of a Salesman. Irving is a traveling salesman gone weeks at time, just as Willie Loman was.  He is also a flawed man. His relationship with his son is contentious.  Like Linda in the Miller play, his wife is loyal to him but aware of the realities he can’t quite admit and tries to keep the peace between him and Larry.

Welcome spring with a double header exhibition by Stephanie Boyd and Jane Hudson at Spring Street Market and Cafe in Williamstown. It will be on view from April 1 through June 17.

Greta Oglesby gloriously reprises the role of Fannie Lou Hamer that she performed at Oregon Shakes’ vast outdoor Elizabethan Theatre.  She brings a speaking voice brimming with passion and conviction, as well as a strong and melodious singing voice.  She stalks the stage with a slight hobble as a wounded warrior who is too busy planning the next demonstration to let her nagging injuries slow her down.

Friends have asked for reports about our Antarctic cruise. I have broken it into categories for picking and choosing. It was a 9-day journey on Atlas Ocean Voyages, a new luxury brand, on the World Navigator. We had previously decided to give the Antarctic a miss because of the potential misery of four days on the Drake Passage. Then we learned of "Fly the Drake" (i.e., launching the cruise from South Georgia Island rather than Argentina or Chile) and became interested.

Larence Brownlee tours with Rising, a program of songs based on poems of the Harlem Renaissance and music by composers of color. He is at Carnegie Hall on March 23rd.