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The narrative is historical only in the broadest sense.  While the plot points actually occurred from AD 58 to AD 65, not only are they condensed into one day, but their order is shifted!  Further, the librettist fancifully changes the character of characters, making some good who were actually bad and vice versa.  Who would have thought of the barbaric and narcissistic Nero as also having room for love and magnanimity?  So, for those who lambaste Hollywood for being fast and loose with the facts, let it be known that it had models to draw on

"Is it Thursday Yet", playing at the La Jolla Playhouse, tells the story of dancer Jenn Freeman, who was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) when she was 33 years old.  Using actual recordings of her therapy sessions and home videos Jenn’s father recorded as she grew up, the play is essentially a documentary of Jenn Freeman’s life from infancy to young adulthood. Neither Jenn nor her family knew she had ASD.  

Each of us, each of us all, have lost someone or something.  Each of us has faced fear – fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of death.  In the moments of experiencing those fears,  and of the sorrow that can accompany them, they were real.  In some instances, they were debilitating.

In his first season as artistic director Alan Paul has selected the 1995 play by Pearl Cleage. Set during the Harlem Renaissance its a good but not great play given a flawed production directed by Candis C. Jones for Barrington Stage Company.

The Law Of The Heart, an ancient scroll, speaks of the Three Treasures:  The Way, The Teacher, and The Scripture. Each plays an important role along the spiritual path we walk.

Julianne Boyd, the founding artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, retired last year. Unburdened by administrative responsibilities, she has been lured back to direct a dark, moody masterpiece, Faith Healer by Brian Friel (1929-2015) the greatest Irish playwright of his Generation. For this triumphant return she cherry picked a dream team trio of Christopher Innvar (Frank), the faith healer, Gretchen Eglof his long abused wife Grace, and Mark Dold as the whimsical roadie Teddy.

Tippet Rise Art Center welcomes musicians and concertgoers for its eighth concert season, beginning August 18 and running through September 17. With more than 15 indoor and outdoor performances planned over five weekends, the season features a wide range of repertoire performed by artists who can be young trailblazers or legendary musicians. A highlight of this summer’s season is the debut of the new Wander series, which moves musicians and audiences between different works of art installed at the art center

This fall, beginning after Labor Day, I will be offering a new course entitled "Living a Daoist Life In Today's World."  The course will be 20 classes long and will include study of the Dao de Ching, The Law Of The Heart, and The 49 Barriers To Spiritual Growth.

Perhaps, it’s not accidental that 'Complexions' followed the 'Hip Hop Festival.'The performance started with an excerpt of 'Hissy Fits, 2006,' to ongoing very loud percussion, sounding like drum beats to, as per program, J.S. Bach music. And the music mostly continued at a high decimal, just like hip hop.

Entering Goodspeed’s Terris Theater in Chester to see Here You Come Again, you view a cluttered living space with decorations for multiple holidays, a disco ball, things hanging from the ceiling, etc. Is this a hoarding situation?

Once the show actually began, I was engaged.  While it is just making its Broadway debut, Here Lies Love, with concept, music, and lyrics by David Byrne, music by Fatboy Slim, and additional music by Tom Gandey and Jose Luis Pardo, began as a concept album in 2010. From there, it ran at off-Broadway’s Public Theater (2013, 2014-15) and London (2014-15), both times garnering multiple awards.

For PIXEL, by Compagnie Käfig, today based near Lyon, France, ten male Hip Hop dancers, French style, a woman contortionist, a roller-skater, small robots carrying tiny lights, and a huge metal hoop shared and interacted on stage with highly sophisticated projections, music, and sounds.

Leave it to the brilliant impresario Andrew Ousley and his music series, Death of Classical,  to bring us an incredible and surprising evening of John Cage music. Before Cage moved on to the concepts of indeterminacy and chance, he composed more conventionally arced works for the prepared piano, in which screws were systematically and specifically applied to some strings in a grand piano, Cage clearly began in one place and ended up in another.  Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano is a deliberate whole. 

Hats are an integral part of the African-American woman's church attendance. Playwright Regina Taylor celebrates not only hats but the women that wear them - their fortitude, their triumphs, and their tragedies. Animated vignettes and a gospel dominated song book provide for a rousing entertainment.

Hall Space presents Ellen Shattuck PIerce "Taking Place." It's a lively exhibition of relief and hand colored laser prints.

Horrors! Guess who's coming to dinner. Gomez and Morticia's daughter Wednesday has fallen in love and wants to marry a "normal" young man. She has even invited him and his family over for a meal. What can be done to stop such a fearsome turn of events?

One Cambodian-American sister has married a Christian pastor and has remained in Dallas, where the mother had resettled the family. The younger sister had moved to New York City, rejecting some of the family's values, but reconnecting with Buddhism. When their mother dies, the sisters face conflicts that extend well beyond dealing with death rites.

Palm Beach Dramaworks delivers an award-worthy production of "Death of a Salesman." The company's mounting of Arthur Miller's masterpiece runs through April 20.

Julia Bullock has made a big opera career outside conventional wisdom. At the Aix Festival in Provence this year she sang Olivier Messiaen's Harawi, a challenging work to which she brings unusual insights.

Kirill Serebrennikov, the brilliant Russian director, brought The Nose to Munich via Zoom. He is detained by the Russian government in Moscow. The production is superb.

The play opens with Dr. Pap addressing a classroom – the audience.  The content of the lecture is unimportant, yet those brief moments absolutely hook the viewer.  There is no waiting to get involved with the story line. 

n Philip Glass’s adaptation of a trilogy of Cocteau films to opera (the others being “Orphée” and “Les Enfants Terribles,” both previously produced by Opera Parallèle), the composer saved his most imaginative treatment for this most uncommon love story. 

Jeremy Denk is a world class pianist and writer. Recently he performed Bach violin sonatas with a magnificent young violinist, Maria Wloszczowska at the 92nd Street YMCA in New York. 

Covid delayed the opening of Artists of the Thursday Chinese Dinner Group by two years. It was worth the wait with a tasty buffet dinner on opening night at Berkshire Art Museum in downtown North Adams. The former church houses the Barbara and Eric Rudd Art Foundation, Most of the church displays a permanent installation of his work. The three levels of the tower galleries has a lively display of works by diners and artists.

Repertorio Espanol presents big theater in a compact space. Productions are often not only intense but sprawling in their content. The trick of compacting large stories in a small space is one of the company’s specialties. Eva Luna, Caridad Svich’s apt dramatization of Isabel Allende's big third novel, gives ample opportunity to display these skills.