A compromise is a deal that neither side is happy with. Other than a few hard fought concessions the Berkshire Museum will now gut the museum and its collection in pursuit of its vulgarian, populist New Vision. It's tarnished leadership, including director, Van Shields and board president, Elizabeth McGraw, will have a tough job earning back the trust and support of a community which they so adroitly alienated.

Playwright John Kolvenbach is a New Yorker with a strong spiritual link to Magic Theatre as a major interpreter of his plays. “Reel to Reel,” directed by Kolvenbach, is their fourth production of his work and the second world premiere. Its novel structure and content reveal a compact, intimate conversation piece of sharp ripostes that excites and provokes. The acting and creative designs of this production are stellar.

The Bohemian National Hall was the setting for a glorious chamber music program which gathered together six superb artists to play, what first violin Philippe Quint declared might be the future of 21st century performance programs. We would do well to look and listen carefully to the under-exposed Russian composers Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev.

This brief but problematic play by Nick Payne has overly ambitious content. It has top heavy themes from the time/space continuum, to the infinite possibilities of human interactions and quantum physics. There are mixed results supported by an excellent production at TheatreWorks. While frustrating to sit through its ambitious themes linger in aftershocks long after leaving the theatre.

Several years ago Nice Girl by Melissa Ross was a finalist for the Primus Prize for oustanding new plays awarded by the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA). It is being given a heartfelt and down-to-earth production at Chicago's Raven Theatre. The four actors carry off the middle class Boston accents almost perfectly, thanks to the work of dialect coach Jason K. Martin.

The Metropolitan Opera opened its lone Wagner offering of the 2017-18 season on Monday night: a revival of the extraordinary 2013 François Girard staging of Wagner's Parsifal. This production was acclaimed when it opened, for its stunning visuals (including a lake of stage blood in Act II) and its potent, spare message. It was also the second opportunity for the Met's new maestro-designate, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, to prove his mettle with Wagner's music, this time conducting the composer's final opera.

Audiences will possibly find many behaviors in Born Yesterday less acceptable and more abhorrent than in earlier times. But along the way, they will be mightily entertained by a powerful production. And for those of us with a lot of miles on our shoes who wonder how a stage show can compete with the great 1950 movie cast of Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, and William Holden, just sit back and enjoy the performances.

In a star studded program yet again Williamstown Theatre Festival brings Broadway to the berkshires. The season starts on June 26 and runs through August 19. There are three Main Stage productions and four on Nikos Stage. There will be a Main Stage world premiere musical;, Lempicka, as well as a new play , Seared, by Therese Rebeck on the Nikos Stage. Casting includes Mary-Louise Parker, Steven Pasquale, Jessica Hecht, Brooks Ashmanskas and Matthew Broderick.

The appearance of famed British actor and multiple Tony winner, Mark Rylance, is always a much anticipated event. Accordingly, the run of Farinelli and the King is mostly sold out though a run that ends on March 25. The script by his wife, Claire van Kampen, entails a bonkers king, and his queen allegedly having an improbable affair with the castrato, Farinelli, who has abandoned his career to perform nightly for the king. Our critic was not amused.

Clark Gable Slept Here is an unabashedly penetrating satire about the cutthroat world of Hollywood. A talented cast shines in a production of the play at Main Street Players in Miami Lakes. The company, which turned professional last year, delivers a fast-paced, furiously funny mounting of Michael McKeever's play.

The blind date actually took place on November 19, 1985, in Geneva. Goodman Theatre’s world premiere of Blind Date by Rogelio Martinez, directed by Robert Falls, takes us through the tense period and the negotiations leading up to that summit—and finally, briefly, the summit itself.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra invited Tine Thing Helseth, a star trumpeter, to join them at Carnegie Hall. Clarion tones rang out at Helseth displayed her consistently singing instrument with a special touch.

Julia Cho’s play is often successful, yet the fantasies become less effective as the play goes on even though they are ratcheted up. Despite reservations about the play, the production is excellent.

Center Rep has produced a sharply drawn realization of Lucas Hnath’s Obie winning play. The story line is riveting, and director Markus Potter’s pace is brisk and assured.

The classic comic-drama On Golden Pond is enjoying a funny, touching production at Palm Beach Dramaworks. Cast members and director create complex characterizations. This production set in 1988 looks homey and rustic

Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau is set in an automobile stamping plant in Detroit in 2008. Its window to the greater world is the shabby break room of the laborers on one of the assembly lines, where the abiding concern is the rumor that the plant will shut down. And if so, when and how?

In the spring of 1825 Ludwig von Beethoven was very sick with liver disease and stomach inflammation. He wrote to his doctor asking for help. The doctor wrote back: "No wine, no coffee, no spices. And I wager if you drink any spirits you will be on your back in pain." He recommended recuperating in the country for fresh air and natural milk. Beethoven went to the country and cured himself with musical notes. These notes are the music of Opus 132.

North Coast Repertory Theatre (NCRT) of Solana Beach, CA is gifting its audiences with a ‘master class’ in farce/comedy ensemble acting with its delightful, whimsical, tongue-in-cheek, production of the Jules Verne classic tale “Around the World in 80 Days”.

Without the benefit of a narrative arc, A. R. Gurney has written a cohesive and compelling comedy/drama with a structure that moves successfully from one climax to another. Director Joey Hoeber has molded this small but significant play into a very convincing theater piece.

“Romance/Romance,” by Barry Harman and Keith Herrmann, is another stellar production that performs at CV REP Theatre in Rancho Mirage, through February 11, 2018. Emmy winning set designer Jimmy Cuomo doesn’t disappoint with another outstanding design

Brett Neveu has taken Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play, An Enemy of the People, and transmogrified it into a contemporary setting. Neveu transplants a scandal surrounding the water flowing through the Municipal Baths in a Norwegian town to the soil underlying a charter school in an Illinois town. Traitor in a slashing world premiere at Chicago's A Red Orchid Theatre, is directed by the company's most famous alum, Michael Shannon.

Over the years, we have come to count on Theatre for a New Audience for superb productions of interesting work. They do not disappoint in their mounting of Adrienne's Kennedy's first play in a decade. At the Polonsky Center, the stage is configured with the audience on three sides. A very tall staircase looms in the center, bridging time and place.

While described as a retrospective in eight galleries with just 60 paintings, 21 portrait drawings and five of his ground-breaking “Joiner” photo collages the David Hockney exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a bit of a tease. Now 80 when Hockney depicted homosexuality during the 1960s it was still illegal in Great Britain. He left for the laid back lifesyle of LA in 1964 and now commutes between continents. The exhibition is on view through February 25.

Stories by Heart is really Lithgow presenting two short stories to us. The first is by Ring Lardner, “Haircut.” It is essential the thoughts and words of a small town barber, circa 1925 talking to his customer who sits silently in the chair. With no props, Lithgow recreates the old-time barbershop experience from the hot towels, to the stropping of the blade, the lather and more.

Sharon Washington is a fine actress, but as she plays the multiple people in her story, including her mother, aunts, grandmother and others, her portrayals are good, but not great. This 90 minute play is heading to Off-Broadway’s Primary Stages