Front Page
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Josh Groban Delights at Tanglewood
Songs and Patter
By: - Jul 03rd, 2019Starting late last night at Tanglwood the quirky man/ child, Josh Groban, delivered a chatty 90 minute set with ten minutes of encores. In tribute to James Taylor, who performs tonight, in a total gonzo move, Groban fell to his knees and "kissed the hallowed ground" of Tanglewood. All kidding aside he has truly awesome pipes.
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Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Broadway Revival of Terrence McNally Play
By: - Jul 04th, 2019Johnny is sure that he and Frankie should be a couple – after all their names reflect the hold song. So he is going to convince Frankie of that fact, no matter how she tries to resist.
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The Good Person of Szechwan
Brecht at California Shakespeare Theater
By: - Jul 09th, 2019So, a Bertolt Brecht play can actually be fun! The play’s central theme is about goodness, something that would seem intuitively straight forward, but the playwright examines the concept from many sides, resulting in more questions than answers.
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Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story
Pittsfield's Colonial Theatre Shakes, Rattles and Rolls
By: - Jul 10th, 2019Berkshire Theatre Group and its Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield is producing the world premiere of Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story. The jukebox musical, rumored to be headed to Broadway, has a book by Gary Kupper, Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola with original music and lyrics by Gary Kupper. A cast of nineteen performs some 47 musical interludes. The music was fun but the long and often slow production needs a lot of work.
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Time Flies and Other Comedies by David Ives
Great Escape at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jul 11th, 2019For a change of pace Barrington Stage Company has opted not to give us yet another social justice scolding. Summer escapism with a belly full of laughs is provided by David Ives's Time Flies and Other Comedies. An all star cast of Barington actors are off the leash with total gonzo performances. They are anchored by the comedic genius of Debra Jo Rupp. Just wait till you see her paired with Cary Donaldson. With wings and buggy butts as Mayflys they wll be born, meet, mate, hatch and die all on one hilarious day. And that's just the first of six outrageous skits.
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Dance Theatre of Harlem
50th Anniversary Performance at Jacob's Pillow
By: - Jul 12th, 2019From the High School of Music and Art the young Arthur MItchell rose to become a principal dancer in George Balanchine's New York City Ballet. Responding to the death of Dr. Martin Luther KIng, Jr., fifty years ago with Karel Shook they founded Dance Theatre of Harlem. The company first appeared at Jacob's Pillow in 1970. This week they returned with a diverse program in tribute to Mitchell who passed away last September.
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A Mark Morris Concert at Mostly Mozart
Satie, Ives and Schumann at the Rose Theater
By: - Jul 13th, 2019Mark Morris is as serious about music as anyone. A questioner dared to state that of course music performed for dance was not up to concert expectations. Morris quickly took exception. His standards are the highest. He expects the music to be performed as written by the composer. He decried excessive rubatos. Yet Morris is as impish as Eric Satie. Satie's Sports and divertissements inspired a world premiere commissioned by Mostly Mozart.
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Selling Kabul By Sylvia Khoury
Co production of Williamstown Theatre Festival and Playwrights Horizon
By: - Jul 14th, 2019With promises of visas and relocation to the United States the mlitary recruited interpreters in Afghanistan. That promise was reneged on when America started to withdraw and wind down in 2011. The world premiere play Selling Jabul by Sylvia Khoury focuses on the fate of one individual and his family who was left high and dry.
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Michael Gordon's Acquanetta at Bard
Texture and Noir Images Engross in Video Opera
By: - Jul 14th, 2019Acquanetta, the video opera by Michael Gordon, a multi-dimensional composer on the contemporary scene, was premiered as grand opera in Aachen, Germany in 2006. Commissioned in chamber form by Beth Morrison Productions, it now is mounted at Bard SummerScape. Grand or not grand, the sound in this version, with members of the Bang on the Can Ensemble, is big. Loud was the word used in warning. The nature of the production, details of which remain closely held, enables the electronic bass and also the string instruments to resound throughout the hall. The music makes the show, as it should in opera.
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Verdi’s Requiem Mass at Tanglewood
Andris Nelsons Conducts Massive Work
By: - Jul 15th, 2019On the specal occasion of its annual Gala there was a special treat for partrons and the general audience. The long awaited and much anticipated Verdi’s Requiem Mass was conducted by Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood.
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She Shorts
Inaugural Series of Short Plays in South Florida
By: - Jul 15th, 2019She Shorts is a series of short plays about women, by women.The series was borne out of a collaboration between Miami's City Theatre and Ft. Lauderdale's Thinking Cap Theatre. She Shorts is empowering, funny and thought-provoking. The inaugural series runs through Aug. 4.
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Raphael and the Pope’s Librarian
Up Close and Personal at the Gardner Museum
By: - Jul 16th, 2019To mark the 500th anniversary of the legendary painter Raphael’s death, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will bring together - for the first time – Raphael’s portrait of papal librarian, Tommaso Inghirami, from its collection and a painting depicting an episode in his life from the Musei Vaticani in Vatican City.
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The Skin of Our Teeth
Last Call for Humanity at Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Jul 18th, 2019Clocking in at three acts and three hours it's a long, tough slog through Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth at Berkshire Theatre Group. Having endured an epic assault on the senses we much appreciated the experience. There is far too much relevance to this grim, Pulitizer Prize winning 1942 play. Then America was facing fascism abroad and now we are confronted by racism and fascism within.
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Mark Morris 20 Plus Years at Jacob's Pillow
A Program of Old and New Work
By: - Jul 19th, 2019With more that 20 bookings no company has logged more appearances at Jacob's Pillow. For the first time in five years Mark Morris Dance Group & Music Ensemble is back this week. In recent years it has been the only dance company to be featured a number of times at Tanglewood. Now sliding past middle age, however, the choreographer is challenged to maintain pole position on the cutting edge. It was heartening to see a new piece in a program of vintage works.
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The Great Buster at Mostly Mozart
What Buster Keaton and Mozart Have in Common
By: - Jul 17th, 2019Mostly Mozart programmers ask the most obvious question at the start. Why a film about Buster Keaton in this festival related to Mozart? Seeing the film, an easy comparison can be made with Papagano, the physical actor/singer in The Magic Flute, which will play in a charming version at Lincoln Center. Yet it is the quality of the work that is truly similar.
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Gertrude and Claudius by Mark St. Germain
New Play at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jul 22nd, 2019Hamlet is tormented to avenge the murder of his father by Gertrude, his mother and her lover Claudius, his uncle. First performed in 1609 they have been scorned by audiences ever since. John Updike's novel Gertrude and Claudius presented their sordid collaboration as a love story. That has been tranformed into a drama directed by Julianne Boyd for Barrington Stage Company. While the production is problematic it is among the best and most intriguing of the many plays of a prolific playwright.
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Renoir: the Body, the Senses
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
By: - Jul 23rd, 2019On the occasion of the 100th anniversary since his death the Clark Art Institute has organized a scholarly exhibition Renoir: the Body, the Senses. At his best few 19th century masters can match his charm and popular appeal. His greatest works were included in the 1985-1986 blockbuster exhibition Renoir, which was shown in London and Paris before it came to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It broke MFA records with 500,000 plus visitors. The Clark show by comparison is small and uneven.
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Kian Soltani and Julio Elizalde at Mostly Mozart
A Little Night Music at the Kaplan Penthouse
By: - Jul 24th, 2019Cellist Kian Soltani partnered with pianist Julio Elizalde in a late evening concert in Lincoln Center's nightclub in the sky, the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse. Mostly Mozart presented Soltani, who like Mozart, was born in Austria.
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International Contemporary Ensemble
12th Annual Appearance at Mostly Mozart
By: - Jul 27th, 2019The International Contemporary Ensemble started off its 12th annual Mostly Mozart season at the David Rubenstein Atrium in Lincoln Center. The first concert was free and attracted an overflow crowd. Bringing the audience up to date and beyond, Mostly Mozart has offered free concerts of contemporary music in an act of generosity. People appreciate the chance to listen to a new landscape of composers.
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Murder For Two
Popular Comic Murder Mystery
By: - Jul 27th, 2019Murder for Two is a zany treat at Suburban Miami's Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre. Martin Landry gives a tour-de-force performance, playing more than a dozen murder suspects in hit musical comedy mystery. The two cast members prove multi-threats, as they not only act but play the piano like pros.
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Escaped Alone and Here We Go by Caryl Churchill
Anton’s Well Theater Company
By: - Jul 28th, 2019Anton’s Well’s Artistic Director Robert Estes scored a coup by securing the Bay Area premieres of two one-act plays – Escaped Alone and Here We Go – by Caryl Churchill, who some consider Britain’s finest living playwright.
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Orfeo & Euridice
At The Bridge Yard
By: - Aug 07th, 2019The spare nature of Orfeo & Euridice is well suited to a smaller opera company. Requiring only three principals, casting is simplified. This small entourage and extensive use of dance by nymphs also make it conducive to the barest of staging. Mikiko Uesugi’s set design of gauzy hanging sheets certainly qualifies.
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Carl Chiarenza on Boston Photography
Harvard Dissertation on Aaron Siskind First on Photography in US
By: - Aug 07th, 2019During graduate study at Boston University photographer Carl Chiarenza was a professor, mentor and friend. We spoke at length about how JFK and the Vietnam War nudged him into studying art history. At Harvard he was the first American to write a dissertation on photography. It was a biography and critical study of then living American icon Aaron Siskind. Now retired from the University of Rochester he continues to create new work.
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The Rolling Stone at Lincoln Center
Deadly Plight of Gays in Uganda
By: - Aug 08th, 2019New York’s Lincoln Center Theater is presenting the American premiere of playwright Chris Urch’s The Rolling Stone. Sensitively directed by Saheem Ali – the play an import from London – is scheduled to run through Sunday, August 25th.
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Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma and Leonidas Kavados
Perform at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall
By: - Aug 08th, 2019Three great musicians, one small music hall and an overflow lawn crowd made this special concert, a night to remember. Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavados and Yo-Yo Ma turned this marvelous summer night into magical music. It was an all Beethoven programp of three Piano trios.
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