I like to attend an event without reading the build-up. This gives me a chance to respond viscerally. Every event at the Park Avenue Armory is tasteful. Pierre Audi, the artistic director, provides this. He is unique in New York.

Set in Lagos in the ‘90s, the story centers on a young woman who hopes to break into show business by responding to an open audition for the lead in a movie. Many universal issues arise, but with the addition of West African context and characters.

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra is returning to Bellows Falls on Sunday, November 5, with a special matinee at the Bellows Falls Opera House. The performance is part of the VSO’s 2023 “Made in Vermont Series;” shows highlighting guest artists from the Green Mountain State’s vibrant indie, folk, and rock scene. 

In a new, non-equity national tour of Annie, the titular character shines bright. Cast is comprised of performers at the top of their game. The Ft. Lauderdale run continues through Oct. 22, before the show heads to Orlando.

Wim Wenders new film, "The Tokyo Toilet," had its New York premiere at the New York Film Festival in Lincoln Center in New York. A Tokyo toilet cleaner, Hirayama, is played brilliantly and subtly by Yakusho Koji. Hirayama steps out of his small Tokyo home and looks up at the sky.  Another perfect day begins. Now. Not Next. These phrases pepper the film often. 

The Defiant Requiem Foundation, has a signature concert performance of the Verdi Requiem, as it was performed in the Terezin concentration camp over and over again. The original chorus changed constantly as members were transferred to Auschwitz.

On its third release, I Palchi 2021 follows the path of research created by the Inama family: constantly improving in order to pursue ever more ambitious goals, in search of the highest purity of fruit.

Historians and biographers do not agree that Lizzie, in fact, did commit the murders. They point to her uncle as having motive and opportunity, plus the fact that her father was not well-loved in the town.

Joyce Di Donato offered three master classes at Carnegie Hall. Di Donato discussed something she learned during that long-ago City Opera performance of "Dead Man Walking." You have to leave space for the listeners to enter the music. This space is created by not answering all the questions the listening ear may have. That is something for all of us to think about – particularly people committed to the long-range success of classical music.

In Connecticut, we have seen Long Wharf Theatre vacate its longtime home in New Haven; with no home, it is presenting what shows it does in a variety of mostly smaller venues.

If Jane Austen is a favorite author and you have watched and enjoyed every film and TV production of Pride and Prejudice, you might think the current production at Hartford Stage would be a delight. BUT for many of you, me included, it isn’t.

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) announces Selva Aparicio as the winner of the 2023 Burke Prize. Established in 2018, the Museum’s biennial prize honoring excellence in contemporary craft is named for craft collectors Marian and Russell Burke. It awards an unrestricted $50,000 to an artist aged 45 or under working in the United States.

Carol K. Brown’s latest work "Someplace Else" consists of watercolor paintings and a series of drawings titled "Modified Husband." This exhibition is a culmination of Brown’s desire for detail, layered with humorous subject matter.

Poor Nemorino is in love with his employer, Adina, but she has other things in mind. Along comes Dr. Dulcamara, an itinerant snake oil salesman, who has just the love potion that will make Nemorino irresistible to Adina. Of course, it's really red wine. Frivolity ensues and all live happily ever after.

You can see why this show had a respectable run on Broadway in 1962; you can also understand why it didn’t run longer.

As part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, The Berlin Diaries is experiencing its stage debut as an impressive fully-staged production at Theatre Lab, the professional resident company of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton. "The Berlin Diaries," by Andrea Stolowitz, is not just another Holocaust play. Instead, it has an unorthodox structure and seems almost like a detective story.

Americans are fascinated by the filthy rich. Audiences lapped up five seasons of Downton Abbey. Now Julian Fellowes has moved the franchise from PBS to HBO. We follow the robber barons and their social climbing wives on the sumptuous but smarmy Gilded Age. This grand but shallow soap opera is lavish and entertaining. It is worth watching for costumes and spectacle. We are enthralled by a sit down dinner for 60 set in a Newport Cottage. We recommend Becky Libourel Diamond's cook book with recipes to emulate the fine dining seen in the series.

Presenting over 150 photographs of, by, and for Indigenous people, “In Our Hands” welcomes all to see through the lens held by Native photographers.

This landmark donation of over 300 exemplary pieces of American art brings new genres and masterworks to the Museum’s holdings, including pivotal pieces by Winslow Homer, George Aarons, Cecilia Beaux, Stuart Davis, Adolph Gottlieb, Marsden Hartley, Eric Hudson, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Paul Manship and Jane Peterson amongst numerous others. 

We meet a diverse group of young teens bound by a common skill – spelling - and a common goal – winning.  Spelling excellence is a grinding and lonely pursuit.  All who compete in this Bee are nerds, but each in their own way, and each is motivated by a different set of circumstances.  The audience will recall kids they’ve known and enjoy a light-hearted and entertaining look at growing up.

The Clark Art Institute will offer free admission for all visitors from January through March 2024. In its second year, the “Free for Three” program is part of the Institute’s ongoing effort to expand awareness of its programming and to welcome new visitors.  

In the lobby of the Lyric Opera House in Chicago, you hear griping about management. Yet it is hard to imagine what people are talking about when you watch and hear the fall production of Gaetano Donizetti’s "Daughter of the Regiment. " A perfect production. 

HallSpace presents Cross-Pollination, a collection of new work by Deborah Kamy Hull. Many of the cut, sewn, and painted textile works completed from 2020 to 2023 are constructed from old, used drop cloths and other repurposed materials. Deborah Kamy Hull has developed a vocabulary of graphic symbols using botanical and geometric forms. The garden as metaphor is a theme that flows through the work. Like memories, coded histories and other stories lie below the surface.

In a compact manner, the libretto demonstrates the idealism of Einstein contrasted with the pragmatism of the women around him, while the story line covers political and social commentary; God and existence; the enormity of the creation of the atomic bomb; and more. Light touches and excerpts from other composers brighten the proceedings.

Victoria Bond is a composer who has experimented with many styles.  Over the years she has worked with Dr. Paul Barnes, a pianist and Greek Orthodox chanter, developing Illuminations on Byzantine Chant. Barnes had hoped to capture the wide emotional range and spiritual message of Orthodox Christianity,  Bond is captivated by this mystical world.