In or out of drag, whether on stage or page, the 65-year-old actor playwright Charles Busch, with some forty years of show business under his belt, is a force to be reckoned with.

Jane Eyre, just like Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austin’s Pride & Prejudice, understands society’s preconceived notions about a woman’s role and a woman’s manner, and rejects them wholeheartedly.

In Don’t Eat the Mangos, by Ricardo Pérez González, three adult Puerto Rican sisters remain close despite fractious relationships and the different directions their lives have taken. The action centers on clashes that siblings commonly confront in dealing with dying parents and their property. So it is that the sisters argue about how the dirty work of responsibilities are shared.

Dai Fujikura lives in the quotidian and draws from it for the music he creates. We hear a portrait of his daughter in the first month of her life, a secret forest where all the sounds are beautiful, and memories of high school friends who were all wannabe guitarists.

This evening, part of the Rise Up Year devoted to music that inspires and uplifts, two gentleman, a bass player and a violist, composed pieces celebrating women. Women composers, Missy Mazzoli, Gabriela Lena Frank and Joan Tower were performed with gusto.

An energetic national equity touring production of Mean Girls is playing in Ft. Lauderdale through March 15. Fires rage across the stage as Regina George bulldozes over the meek. The production features strong work from the cast to the technical folks. Mean Girls the Musical is based on the 2004 film of the same name, both written by Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Network for New Music (NNM), an adventuresome Philadelphia group, gathered at The Discovery Center at the Hidden Reservoir in Fairmont Park.. The long pathway to the building’s main entrance leads visitors to a striking view of the center’s reservoir, a pristine, 37-acre body of water that was closed to the public for nearly 50 years. The Center provided a concert hall for music related to ecology.

Against a backdrop of black and white, perpetrator and victim, playwright Kate Cortesi offers a provocative and stimulating world premiere play, Love, which humanizes the parties involved and explores the complexities of relationships that many depictions often simplify to the point of distortion.

Recently, on Turner Classic Movies, I saw Ingmar Bergman’s iconic 1957 film Seventh Seal. That was before the death of the actor Max Von Sydow or the widening global pandemic. Yet again there is the contrast of art and artifice. Art is a means of navigating the collape of the American Empire in real time and vivid color. When this passes what will be left of our arts, culture and way of life? How will we pick up the pieces of a new order? Will the elections of 2020 be yet another cancellation? Is this Apocalypse Now?

A Chorus Line's focus on the unheralded is particularly timely when many must make sacrifices. The Wick Theatre's wonderful production is postponed but hopes company officials hope to resume the production soon. Triple threat performers shine in this production.

The Gambler, country music star Kenny Rogers, has passed at 81. In September, 2012 he made a rare Berkshire appearance at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. This is how we covered him at the time.

Artists without faces. Or what do you hang your hat on? Jean Gabin, Cecily Brown, Dana Schutz and John Currin.

The theater is pitch black. A mysterious figure wrapped in a robe writes on a screen in black ink which drips on the illuminated board. “I which have bled for so long are beginning to heal. Black tears no longer course down his cheeks, inspiring the horrific feeling in others that these are their own bloodied tears." These are Oedipus' words as interpreted by Henry Bauchau, author of "Oedipus on the Road," which inspired "Anywhere." This is an unusual portrait of Oedipus' harrowing final journey.

Many organizations are offering wonderful streaming. Reports suggest that music with videos is doing better than sound only. Atlanta Opera, led by Tomer Zvulun, may be providing the most useful help.

In a time of pandemic the early bird scores the toilet paper. When the quality of life is measured in sheets.

The Tony Awards show will go on, albeit at a later date, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The CBS broadcast was slated for June 7 this year. Officials have not announced a replacement date.

Stravinsky composed La History del Soldado, a multi media piece, in 1914. Using speech, mime and dance accompanied by a seven piece band, we hear ragtime, tango, and other modern musical idioms combined in a series of highly infectious instrumental movements. Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra performed the piece, with an updated libretto they commissioned. It is delightful to hear, even long distance.

This week Jacob's Pillow cancelled its coming season. Can Tanglewood be far behind? Today Williamstown Theatre Festival pulled back from selling tickets with a note for further review of seasonal plans. Berkshire Theatre Group announces the launch of its season on August 1. We have yet to hear updates from Shakespeare & Company, Barrngton Stage Company or other regional theatres. As non essential business Berkshire museums are closed with no time line for resumed programming.

The richness of music programming at the Mannes School, now a division of The New School for Social Research, is clear day to day. Women Between Arts (WBA) is New York’s leading interdisciplinary women and non-binary artists series, created and curated by multi- and interdisciplinary artist Luisa Muhr. Programming revolves around the question: "How do we make new art?"

The latest La Jolla Playhouse production “Fly” is a new, visually stunning musical reimagining of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter and Wendy”, the popular and enduring children’s fantasy story about adventures in a dream filled place called ‘Neverland’ where children never grow up into adulthood where each has the ability to fly (with caveats, however, that must be observed).

Responding to the pandemic the MFA has issued this letter to its patrons.

The 35th annual issue of Provincetown Arts Magazine is ready to go to press. The pandemic, however, has created uncertainty about the coming season. There may not be enough crucial advertising revenue to publish the issue. This is an appeal for support.

“This virus might get to tell us what we cannot do but it does not get to dictate what we can do,” Mandy Greenfield said. “The voices of these artists will be heard. Through this alliance with Audible, we keep artists and the generative artistic process centered and steady through this unspeakably difficult moment when public gathering simply isn’t possible"

The pleasures of streaming music are revealed in this delightful meeting with Jeremy Denk in his country home. He focuses on the C sharp Prelude and Fugue and dips into two others. What a joy!

Shortly after the exhibition Words & Images Allan Rohan Crite 1910 – 2007 opened the private St. Botolph Club was closed because of the pandemic. There is however a link to a video that provides a virtual tour of the exhibition. Crite is regarded as a leading Boston artist of his generation. He was a graduate of the Museum School. The Museum of Fine Arts is remiss in not planning a major exhibition of this remarkable and widely influential artist.