Satie is the Paul Klee of composers. The lines may be thin, but they pack weight and feeling. They seem to dance. Louis Durey of Les Six would write that Satie's unique clarity, his horror of hackneyed ways , his love of discovery and risk led to his gleaming contributions to music. According to John Cage, Satie helped break down the barrier between art and life.

Following the critical acclaim and record-breaking attendance of Festival 2016, Jacob’s Pillow Dance announces its 85th Anniversary Season of exciting programming featuring world premieres, commissions, site-specific work, international artists, live music, and Pillow-exclusive engagements. Running June 21-August 27, Festival 2017 marks a notable moment in the history of the organization, with the first season programmed by Jacob’s Pillow Director Pamela Tatge who joined the organization in April of 2016.

Brad and Jennifer Moranz want y'all to have a Holly Jolly Christmas and a Happy New Year. For the past 21 years their Charleston Christmas Special has provided Broadway-quality entertainment with the gusto of holiday happiness.

In three concurrent New York gallery exhibitions- Lisson, Mary Boone and Jeffrey Deitch- the dissident Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, has created poignant and roiling new works. This is a massive project by arguably our greatest living artist.

Three New York galleries- Jeffrey Deitch, Mary Boone and Lisson Gallery- have collaborated to create a massive, museum-level overview of work by the dissident Chinese artist, Ai Weiewi. This is an interview with the artist in a release from Deitch gallery.

Jay Presson Allen’s historical one-man play, “Tru,” which is on stage through Jan. 1 at Palm Beach Dramaworks in a first-rate production, deftly depicts the humanity and resiliency of late celebrity author Truman Capote.

“Beware the Jabberwocky” is on stage at North Miami’s Storycrafter Studio, an intimate nonprofit theater company and arts institution, through Dec. 18.

“Icebergs” is a light, nice, TV sitcom-like play with plenty of laughs. The actors are solid, in their verisimilitude performances, but it’s not like they’re splitting the atom or solving world hunger during this weekend in LA’ Silver Lake District setting

Railroad Street Youth Projects annual culinary arts celebration dinner highlights youth with a work based apprenticeship program in Berkshire county.

“The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” a black comedy written by Martin McDoagh in 1996, and staged on Broadway in 1998, returns in a riveting revival production at the Mark Taper Forum, solidly directed by longtime McDonagh associate Garry Hynes; both veterans of the Druid Theatre in Galway, Ireland, as is the entire cast.

The refreshing new a capella musical, In Transit, evokes commuters not only on the move but in transition. There are poingant thumbnails of eager millenials reaching for the brass ring underground in the naked city.

Mark Morris' The Hard Nut is a Christmas tradition at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It is easy to see why. Morris is true to E.T. A. Hofman's story and also the Tchaikovsky score. Bringing smiles to the audience, punctuated by fear, delight and humor Morris's Nut is terrific.

American Gothic, arguably the best known and most iconic painting by an American artist, was created by Grant Wood when he was on the dole from the WPA. Artists had to pass in work to get their monthly checks. This painting was part of the inventiry when the relief program was shut down. It was given to the Art Institute of Chicage where it has deliughted viewers ever since.

Here is a cheat sheet of ranked museum exhibitions if you plan to be in NY for the holidays

Mozart's final opera was written in 18 days to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. While it is often said that the opera is political, the hearts and minds of top political figures are central. It is hard to be evil. It is easier to be good if you have honest people around you. Simple, deep words are embedded in some of the most gorgeous music ever written. The Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater gives Mozart his full due.

A national equity tour of an acclaimed production of Sondheim's Into the Woods recently kicked off at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa and is on its way up north -- possibly to your city.

Sliding into the Holiday season followed by the dead of wintwr Mass MoCA is looking on the bright side. The North Adams based mega museum has posted a full schedule of enticing upcoming events. It's time to mark the calendar.

What started Off Broadway at Ars Nova, with three steps in between, has transferred to Broadway. Based on a 70 page slice of Tolstoy's War and Peace the explosively inovative Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is the one to beat as best musical come awards season.

In the early days of television in the 1950s stations provided low budget filler by showing second rate B movies. The usual formula was to have a host, in this case a couple, who introduced the films and pitched products during breaks. This is the theme of Todd Michael's new play The Big Uncut Flick which is having an Off Broadway run.

Of course the costumes are terrific. Isaac Mizrahi, narrator and imaginer of this production, is a top flight designer. Each animal and human has a few eyecatching details. Prokofiev is always fabulous. All the elements come together in the Guggenheim's Works and Process Christmas celebration.

Nelson Algren was a star in Chicago’s bright literary firmament, but his light dimmed in the years after he won the 1950 National Book Award for The Man With the Golden Arm and acclaim for a few other works. A new biography by Mary Wisniewski explores Algren the man and Algren the writer and how one influenced the other.

Remy Bumppo uses Shaw’s original script but adds some mid-century touches and a new character—an older version of Eliza, named Elizabeth, personified by Jane deLaubenfels. Elizabeth appears at beginning, middle and end of the play to honor the memory of what took place in the boxed-up rooms that used to be Higgins’ “laboratory” on Wimpole Street.

During the Fall meeting of American Theatre Critics Association there was the traditional lunch wih the stars at Sardi's. Our correspoindent Sandy Katz was on hand to soak up the fun and files this spirited report.

Carbonell Award-winning actor Tom Wahl portrays the Lord in GableStage’s funny, engaging production of “An Act of God,” which is on-stage through Dec. 18 as the company’s first 2016-17 production.

If there is an argument for YouTube and the ever-expanding internet, it is made by this group of superb young musicians, classically-trained, impeccable artists who are open to anything.