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Under the aegis of new artistic director Matt Shakman, The Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, premieres playwright Jose Rivera’s mystical new work “The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona,” directed by acclaimed, award-winning director Jo Bonney,

Opening night at the New York Philharmonic is a yearly tradition an occasion for fat cat donors to dine on the Promenade of Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, and for ordinary critics (like your humble scribe) to put on suits and hobnob with each other before the performance. This year's ceremonies, held Thursday night, were also notable as it marked the long-awaited official debut of Jaap van Zweden, the orchestra's new music director.

Sky on Swings is a collaborative opera. The three principal artists, Lembit Beecher, Hannah Moscovitch and Joanna Settle have worked together for more than a year to bring a musical portrait of death-by-Alzheimer’s to the stage.

Berlin's Komische Oper (Comic Opera) opened its 2018/19 season with some of the most successful productions of the previous season. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 'Zauberflöte' (Magic Flute) and Jerry Bock's 'Anatevka' which is better known as Fiddler On The Roof.

The Barrington Stage Company production of The Cake has gone West young man to LA's Geffen Playhouse. Now another coast shares the delicious comedy of Debra Jo Rupp. This is a run don't walk production.

Make Believe has potential but it isn’t ready for prime time. When people start taking peeks at their watches during a 90 minute play, it’s a clear sign that something isn’t working.

City Lit Theater’s new production of George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 play, Arms and the Man, takes full advantage of its broad humor. Perhaps Shaw’s most frothy script, director Brian Pastor directs it with panache, although he sometimes lets his cast drift into silliness.

Beyond their names most folks don't know much about abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, and women's suffrage leader, Susan B. Anthony. The remarkable play, The Agitators, by Mat Smart, offers more than a history lesson at Gloucester Stage. It has been given a compact and powerful production sharply directed by Jacqui Parker.

Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf is a work of great moment that gave black women a platform, in some ways a pedestal, from which to denounce their double indignity of racial and gender discrimination and announce their worth and beauty.

Aware that all art forms now compete with Netflix, composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek seek out stories for their musical theater that will attract audiences. Mazzoli, a masterful young composer, can go very dark in tales because her music, in its blocks of beauty no matter what the subject, is compelling and evocative.

Indecent blends time-jumping scenes with an occasional dance routine and klezmer-flavored music. It’s a fine example of a dramatic play with music. The story and its characters are paramount and the music provides a lyrical underpinning. It’s an epic story told on a very personal level.

Conrad Tao’s world premier composition Everything Must Go was performed by the New York Philharmonic and followed without a breath by Anton Bruckner’s powerful Eighth Symphony.

For the greater part, history has been made by and written by men. Like Olympe, Lauren Gunderson hopes to rectify gender imbalances in some small measure by sharing the stories of four women who impacted and were victims of the French Revolution

Just when you think you have a handle on the work of Linda Leslie Brown she does something different. As always there is a fresh sense of adventure to Plastiglomorate an exhibition of sculpture at Boston's Kingston Gallery.

Mendoza, a thrillingly raw and earthy adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is being presented this week at Goodman Theatre in collaboration with the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance.

This is a group of detestable, rotten apples, but each of these men is also, in his own way, disarming and hilarious, with quirks and charms that make us forget why they are in this make-shift homestead wearing ankle bracelets; until we’re reminded, and once again infuriated by the hypocrisy. This is a world premiere by Bruce Norris.

Now at mid career, with 20 Grammy Awards, Pat Metheny launched a tour at the Cabot Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts. While performing material from those now classic albums he did so with emerging musicians. He derived fresh energy and inspiration from Gwilym Simcock on piano/keyboards, Linda Oh on bass, and Antonio Sanchez on drums. Yet again his guitar virtuosity sparked a phenomenal performance.

One complaint about Oslo that may be heard is that we already know its outcome. Twenty-five years beyond, notable progress has been made, but the condition between Israelis and Palestinians remains sad and unresolved.

Zürich is played by 10 actors—two each in five scenes—set in a luxury hotel room or rooms in that Swiss banking city. The play begins in a seemingly lighthearted way, with a man and a woman who have spent the night together in a room on the 40th floor of a Zürich hotel.

The final fall production of Barrington Stage Company for a number of years had been coordinated with the reginal school curriculum. It has been the norm to explore an agenda with social justice theatre. This time, however, Barrington has opted to focus on ars gratia artis. Teachers as their lesson plan will discuss a harrowing masterpiece of American theatre, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Paul Muldoon, a 67 year old New Yorker, originally from Northern Ireland, recited his poetry while the band, Rogue Olifant, played accompanying music. The evening at Hancock Shaker Village emulated a 1960s scene from my past.

One would argue that in opera singers of a vanished age, it was the voice and only the voice that mattered. These words would be fitting as a eulogy for Montserrat Caballé. The soprano, who passed away at the age of 85, possessed one of the largest and most flexible instruments of her age, succeeding in everything from Rossini to dramatic operas by Puccini and Strauss.

A successful production requires an excellent Cervantes/Don Quixote and Phillip Hernandez meets the challenge. His voice is expressive and powerful, he bring a sense of age to the part, and his acting totally encompasses the character.

One month after the close of its 86th season, Jacob’s Pillow announces record-breaking ticket sales for its acclaimed summer dance festival. The organization reports over $2.5 million in ticket sales, an increase of 13% when compared with 2017; over 40,000 tickets were sold, an increase of 5%, when compared with last year. The season boasts 10,000 unique ticket buyers, an increase of 8% and the largest number since the organization began tracking this particular indicator in 2005.

The Eclipse Annual Exhibition features work by residents of the North Adams, studio/loft residence complex. The reception from 6 to 8 PM, Friday, October 12 launches the annual Open Studios that weekend. The popular event provides the opportunity to interact with artists in the setting where their work is created. In addition to studios work by resident artists is displayed in corridors of the four floor complex that houses 40 units.