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Boston Globe
14-05-2025
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82 fun things to do in and around Boston this summer
Christiani Pitts (Robin) and Sam Tutty (Dougal) in rehearsal for "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)." Nile Scott Studios TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK CITY) The two strangers in question in this musical two-hander are Dougal, a cheery Britisher in his mid-20s traveling to attend the wedding of his father — whom he has never met — and Robin, also in her 20s, a hard-bitten native New Yorker who is the sister of the young woman Dougal's father is about to marry. Robin has been tasked with picking up Dougal at the airport. He wants to see the sights; she is already late for work. Written by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan. Directed and choreographed by Tim Jackson. May 20-June 29. Produced by American Repertory Theater at Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. 617-547-8300, – Don Aucoin BOSTON BALLET SCHOOL: 'NEXT GENERATION' 2025 This year's edition will include the world premieres of Jorma Elo's 'Five Etudes' and Adrienne Canterna's 'Hold Me Tight,' Helen Pickett's 'Tsukiyo' performed by Boston Ballet principals Paul Craig and Lia Cirio, Craig's 'The Fourth Way,' the pas de dix from 'Giselle,' the pas de six from Vakhtang Chabukiani's 'Laurencia,' the pas de trois from 'Paquita,' and an excerpt from the prologue of 'The Sleeping Beauty.' May 21, 7 p.m. $25-$130. Citizens Bank Opera House, Boston. – Jeffrey Gantz Advertisement IMPOSTER SYNDROME BY ALEXA ALBANESE It's tough to pin this show down in advance, since it's a mix of character, stand-up, and desk pieces with some audience suggestion, mixed together by Albanese, who's studying journalism at the Harvard Extension, with an eye toward current events and daily news. May 22, 7 p.m. $25. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston. 617-725-2844, – Nick A. Zaino III Advertisement WARD HAYDEN AND THE OUTLIERS Local alt-country vet Hayden and his band of Outliers have moved from Hank to the Boss. With a couple of albums devoted to the music of Hank Williams under their belt, they've turned their interpretive talents to a set of Springsteen songs with 'Little By Little.' They'll celebrate the release over two nights. May 22, 23, 8 p.m. $25. Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 617-547-0759. – Stuart Munro "Accumulation-Searching for the Destination" by Chiharu Shiota. Photograph by Sunhi Mang. CHIHARU SHIOTA: HOME LESS HOME A project for the Institute of Contemporary Art's summertime Watershed in East Boston, Shiota's mass-scale installation explores migration and the delicate nature of home — both making and losing one. At the Watershed, a vast grid of red and black ropes will suspend such objects as suitcases, passports, and even furniture, underscoring the precariousness of uprooting, and the challenge of finding new ground. May 22 – September 1. ICA Watershed , 256 Marginal Street, East Boston . 617-478-3100, – Murray Whyte MELISSA CARPER If you want a quick gloss on what Melissa Carper is about, her producer, multi-instrumentalist Chris Scruggs, put his finger on it when he nicknamed her 'Hillbillie Holiday' for how adroitly she incorporates both country and jazz into the music she makes. She's touring in support of new record 'Borned In Ya.' May 27, 8 p.m. $25. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679. – SM Advertisement SCOTT THOMPSON IS BUDDY COLE Thompson's Buddy Cole monologues were groundbreaking, presenting an out and downright scandalous gay character, when he debuted the character on 'Kids In the Hall' in the late '80s. The version of this show he did last year at City Winery proved Thompson, and Cole, have not lost their punch. May 28, 7:30 p.m. $35-$45. City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston. 617-933-8047, – NZ ALLUMÉ Have you ever heard of 'Cajun-country-cozy?' Neither have I, but that's apparently what we should look forward to hearing from Allumé, a brand-new collaboration featuring Miss Tess, KC Jones, Thomas Bryan Eaton, and Trey Boudreaux that focuses on the musical culture of Louisiana's Acadiana region. May 29, 7 p.m. $25 The Burren, 247 Elm St, Somerville. 617-776-6896. – SM JARED SIMS QUARTET The composer and multi-reed and flute man Jared Sims likes to keep various projects cooking — jazz-rock fusion with his band Hellbender, organ jazz-funk with Firecracker, a fetching 2024 album of jazz standards played on baritone sax, exploratory improvisations with his former mentor Ran Blake, or this Latin-inclined band that he's been working on for a while, with a superb rhythm section: pianist Rebecca Cline, bassist Fernando Huergo, and drummer Gen Yoshimura. May 29, 7:30 p.m. Peabody Hall, Parish of All Saints, Dorchester. 617-877-0428, – Jon Garelick Advertisement Colombian singer Shakira performs during her 'Las Mujeres ya no Lloran' tour at the GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City on March 30. ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images SHAKIRA The Colombian pop explorer celebrates her three-plus-decade career—and her latest album, the sonically adventurous post-breakup chronicle 'Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran'—with a super-sized setlist of kinetic, globally minded jams. May 29, 7:30 p.m. Fenway Park. 877-733-7699, – Maura Johnston BOSTON BALLET: 'ROMÉO ET JULIETTE' The company's previous three productions of the Prokofiev ballet have given us John Cranko's choreography, but this time out, artistic director Mikko Nissinen has chosen the 1996 version by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo director Jean-Christophe Maillot. The sets and costumes are minimalist; the tragic love story is told through flashbacks experienced by Friar Laurence. May 29–June 8. $25-$225. Citizens Bank Opera House, Boston. – JGantz MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION British actress Imelda Stanton has said of this George Bernard Shaw play that it 'asks ever-pertinent questions about the role of women in society, and the choices they make for survival.' Melinda Lopez plays the title character, a former prostitute who is now the madam of a brothel, and Luz Lopez plays Vivie, her daughter, newly graduated from college and really not a fan of how mom makes a living. Also featuring Nael Nacer, Barlow Adamson, Wesley Savick, and Evan Taylor. Directed by Eric Tucker. May 29-June 22. Central Square Theater, Cambridge. 617-576-9278 x1, – DA HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY + CHAMBERQUEER Get an early start on your Pride celebration with 'BaroQUEER: Historically Informed', a pay-what-you-wish collaboration between H+H and New York collective ChamberQUEER. Curated by H+H programming consultant and frequent performer Reginald Mobley and ChamberQUEER founders Brian Mummert and Jules Biber. The program includes selections from the Baroque era as well as music by modern LGBTQ+ composers who were markedly influenced by the Baroque, such as Julius Eastman and Caroline Shaw. May 30, 7:30 p.m. Hibernian Hall, Roxbury. – A.Z. Madonna Advertisement LUAR LA L The Puerto Rican MC has a rugged rasp that matches his world-conquering swagger, qualities that add unexpected sweetness to more romance-minded cuts like his loping, heartbroken 2024 single 'Perdida.' May 31, 7 p.m. House of Blues Boston. 888-693-2583, – MJ June Dorrance Dance at Jacob's Pillow Olivia Maggi EISENHOWER: THIS PIECE OF GROUND Richard Hellesen's solo play stars John Rubinstein as Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. Rubinstein originated the title role in 'Pippin' and won a Tony Award for his portrayal of a teacher at a New England school for the deaf in Mark Medoff's 'Children of a Lesser God.' Directed by Peter Ellenstein. June 3-8. Presented by Barrington Stage Company. At Boyd-Quinson Stage, Pittsfield. 413-236-8888, – DA TINDER LIVE! WITH LANE MOORE Comedian, author, and musician Moore leads the audience through her dating app choices and allows them to help pick potential matches in this show, which is celebrating 10 years of 'live-swiping.' June 5, 7 p.m. $30. Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville. – NZ SAME PLACE, SAME TIME Four headliners — Corey Manning, Corey Rodrigues, Chris Tabb, and Orlando Baxter — with four different styles and four different perspective, perform together under one roof at the Studio. June 6, 9:30 p.m. $20-$25. The Comedy Studio, 5 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge. – NZ Advertisement DANCE FOR WORLD COMMUNITY FESTIVAL José Mateo Ballet Theatre's 15th annual free, public, all-day festival will offer dance classes and performances in the JMBT studios and on four outdoor stages between Bow Street and Putnam Avenue, with more than 60 participating companies including Asian American Ballet Project, Benkadi Drum and Dance, City Ballet of Boston, Commonwealth Ballet Company, Margot Parsons Dance Company, Rozann Kraus, SambaViva, Sinha Capoeira, and Triveni Dancers. The day will end with a dance party from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Old Baptist Church parking lot. June 7. Free. Harvard Square, Cambridge. – JGantz Dave Stryker Courtesy DAVE STRYKER QUARTET Guitarist Dave Stryker learned the ins and outs of the jazz-organ combo in an early stint with one of the Hammond B-3 masters, Jack McDuff. He's since expanded on the 'soul jazz' format to take on all manner of post-bop adventures, with collaborators like Bob Mintzer, Steve Slagle, Walter Smith III, and Stefon Harris, plus countless sideman gigs. For this show, he brings in his longtime bandmates Jared Gold on the B-3 and drummer McClenty Hunter, plus saxophonist Troy Roberts. June 7, 7 p.m. Scullers Jazz Club, DoubleTree Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston. 617-562-4111. – JGarelick ELIANE ELIAS The kinetic pianist, singer, and composer Eliane Elias long ago unlocked the doors between the samba-driven sounds of her native São Paulo and New York hard bop, between lilting bossa nova and Bill Evans impressionism. A special treat of her shows is a segment of old-school samba and bossa with a stripped-down instrumentation of a single drum alongside soft-spoken bass and guitar. For this show, she's joined by her longtime associate, guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, drummer Mauricio Zottarelli, and her husband and musical partner, the great bassist Marc Johnson. June 7, 8 p.m. Groton Hill Music Center, 122 Old Ayer Road, Groton. 978-486-9524, – JGarelick SAM TALLENT The Colorado native poured his experiences in the rough-and-tumble world of stand-up into a novel called 'Running the Light,' and got comics like Doug Stanhope, Marc Maron, Bert Kreischer, and Jackie Kashian to narrate different sections. He is wonderfully odd, which is why pairing him with Studio regulars Brieana Woodward and Al Christakis is inspired booking. June 8, 7 p.m. $25-$30. The Comedy Studio. – NZ BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL ' Love and Power' is the theme of the upcoming iteration of Boston's biennial bonanza of early music. During the week, the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre hosts four performances of the festival's mainstage opera, Reinhard Keiser's 1705 'Octavia,' a tale of political maneuvering and betrayal from ancient Rome; while world-class performers of early music present several themed concerts each day at venues including Jordan Hall and Emmanuel Church. Try to get to one of the 10:30 PM concerts, which often offer unorthodox programs and empty seats. June 8-15, various venues. – AZM GEOFFREY ASMUS The comic notes that some places have gender neutral bathrooms, but he once encountered what he calls the opposite of that — a place that had photos of a blonde woman in a sundress and a steelworking man on the doors. 'I was just like, I don't identify with either of these,' he says. 'Is there a bathroom for boys who cry when it rains?' June 11 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and June 12 at 7:30 p.m. $30. Goofs Comedy Club, 432 McGrath Highway, Somerville. 617-718-7200, – NZ (UN)SETTLED: THE LANDSCAPE IN AMERICAN ART Across its entire history, American art is inseparable from the American landscape, from the beatific Romanticism of the Hudson River School to the coolly Modern views of Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove to the post-industrial visions of Stephen Shore and Ed Ruscha. Frequently left out across the arc of American art history are the people who were here first, Indigenous Americans, who haunt the American canon with absence; the unease of that omission is at the heart of the exhibition. June 12 - September 14 . Wadsworth Atheneum , 600 Main Street, Hartford, CT . 860-278-2670, – MW DIERKS BENTLEY One of modern country's most durable troubadours will arrive in Mansfield on the eve of his 11th album 'Broken Branches' coming out; similar to his biggest hits, like the brave-faced yet heartbroken 'Drunk On a Plane' and the affably rueful 'What Was I Thinkin',' the Arizona-born crooner's latest release will dig into life's chaotic yet beautiful moments. June 12, 7 p.m. Xfinity Center, Mansfield. 800-745-3000, – MJ OUR CLASS This play by Tadeusz Slobodzianek, adapted by Norman Allen, was inspired by a horrific massacre in 1941 of hundreds of Jews — many of them burned alive — in the small town of Jedwabne, Poland. 'Our Class' chronicles the relationships of 10 Polish classmates and friends— half of them Jewish, half of them Catholic. Many villagers subsequently claimed the massacres were carried out by Nazis, but researchers found they were organized and led by Polish Catholics. Directed by Igor Golyak. June 13-22. At Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-933-8600, – DA ROCKPORT CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL Under the artistic direction of Barry Shiffman, Cape Ann continues to be an early-summer magnet for intriguing and compelling performances. Highlights of this year's festival include Vienna's genre-irreverent Janoska Ensemble, Bach's Goldberg Variations from pianist Angela Hewitt, the Galvin Cello Quartet, and Grammy-winning soprano Karen Slack's 'African Queens' touring recital program. I'd also be remiss not to shout out my former colleague Jeremy Eichler, who joins forces with Boston-based conductorless string orchestra A Far Cry for a program inspired by his (deservedly, but I'm biased) award-winning book 'Time's Echo.' June 13-July 13, July 25, Aug. 3. 978-546-7391, – AZM MAKING HISTORY: 200 YEARS OF AMERICAN ART With nearly 100 works from the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, this exhibition offers a retrofit of the standard American art-historical tale with a broader, more inclusive story of the country's diverse cohort of creative giants who shaped – and continue to shape, and expand – the very notion of American creativity. Featuring such artists as Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Gilbert Stuart, Barkley Hendricks, Georgia O'Keeffe, Horace Pippin, Thomas Hart Benton, Mary Cassatt, and Stuart Davis, among many others. June 14 to September 21 . Peabody Essex Museum , 161 Essex Street, Salem, MA . 978-745-9500, – MW FINDING MAINE: THE WYETH FAMILY OF ARTISTS It would hardly be summer in Maine without an exhibition of some Wyeth, somewhere. This year, the Farnsworth checks the box with this exhibition, with three generations of Wyeths at once: N.C.; his son, Andrew; and his son, Jamie. The Wyeths' longstanding presence in and around Port Clyde is the stuff of local legend and considerable pride, but this is also an extended family affair, with works by Henriette Wyeth Hurd, John McCoy, Merle James, and others. J une 14 - December 31 . Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum Street, Rockland, ME . 207-596-6457, – MW PETER ROWAN The list of bands and collaborations in which this giant of progressive bluegrass and roots music has participated is simply exhausting. For this date, he's playing with Sam Grisman and his group to revisit the music of one of those bands, the short-lived project that brought together Jerry Garcia, Rowan, and Grisman's father, David, as Old & In the Way. June 14, 8 p.m. $29.50 and up. The Cabot, 286 Cabot St., Beverly. 978-927-3100. – SM From left: Tony Scherr, Kenny Wollesen, Doug Wieselman, Steven Bernstein and Briggan Krauss of Sexmob performed at Carnegie Hall in House US STEVEN BERNSTEIN AND SEXMOB Cheeky humor meets high musicianship in Steven Bernstein's long-running downtown-New York-born ensemble. Bernstein's writing credits range hither and yon in the worlds of pop and jazz, but Sexmob is still his signature outfit, drawing influences from all over the map — Prince, the Dead, the Stones, Nino Rota, an album of James Bond themes, plus any number of magnetic groove-centric originals — all taken to giddy extremes and played for keeps. Bernstein and his slide trumpet still front the Mob's original lineup: saxophonist Briggan Krauss, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny Wollesen. June 19, 7:30 p.m. Regattabar, Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-661-5099, – JGarelick THE VICTIM Annette Miller stars in the premiere of a play by Lawrence Goodman built on three interconnected monologues. One is by a Holocaust survivor (Miller) looking for ways to heal as she is flooded with horrific memories; one is by a top New York physician (Stephanie Clayman) whose racial diversity training has taken a dreadfully wrong turn; and one is by a home health aide (Yvette King) forced to deal with racism in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. June 19-July 20. Shakespeare & Company, Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Lenox. 413-637-3353, – DA LEYLA MCCALLA Multi-lingual multi-instrumentalist McCalla has carved out a distinctive career in the decade since leaving the Carolina Chocolate Drops, both with her own music, which ranges across folk, Tropicalismo, blues, Afrobeat, Haitian roots, and other genres to marvelous effect, and in ensembles such as Our Native Daughters. June 20, 7 p.m. $40. Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. 617-718-2191. – SM FREDERICK DOUGLASS Black American composer Ulysses Kay considered his opera 'Frederick Douglass' his greatest work; however, it has not been performed in full since its 1991 premiere. This changes this summer, as local powerhouse conductor and impresario Gil Rose unites his two projects (Odyssey Opera and Boston Modern Orchestra Project) to bring the piece to the stage. A commercial recording will also be forthcoming with the same cast, with bass Kenneth Kellogg slated in the title role. June 20, 7:30 p.m. NEC's Jordan Hall. – AZM Azamat Asangul of Asian American Ballet Project Olivia Moon Photography, courtesy of Asian American Ballet Project. ASIAN AMERICAN BALLET PROJECT: 'RECEDING AND REEMERGING' This program will include AABP company dancer Azamat Asangul's 'Aigul,' about the origin story of the Kyrgyz moonflower; Zhanat Baidaralin's 'The Legend,' about the son of Genghis Khan and his fatal encounter with a herd of deer; Alexa Capareda's 'Gabi sa Gubat/Night Jungle,' which is set in a Philippine forest; Destiny Kluck's 'Entwined Destinies,' about the Chinese myth of the Red Thread of Fate; and AABP artistic director Beth Mochizuki's restaging of Michel Fokine's 1911 'Le spectre de la rose' inside a WW2 Japanese American 'assembly center.' June 21, 7 p.m.; June 22, 3 p.m. $25-$35. Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge. – JGantz MAKING A NOISE: INDIGENOUS SOUND ART A slate of interactive works using ceramics and textiles is brought to sonorous life in this exhibition of contemporary art that echoes, if you'll pardon the pun, across ancient Indigenous traditions, as artists such as Kite, who is Oglála Lakhóta, evoke connections across millennia. June 21 - October 26 . Shelburne Museum , 6000 Shelburne Road, Shelburne, VT . 802- 985-3346, – MW OUTLOUD MUSIC FESTIVAL BOSTON The West Hollywood-based LGBTQ+ festival debuts on the East Coast with a lineup headlined by the bawdy pop enigma Kim Petras and including performances by the gleefully reinvented Rebecca Black, the Australian multi-instrumentalist G Flip, and the stage-scorching local MC Oompa, as well as a DJ set from 'RuPaul's Drag Race' mainstay Trixie Mattel. June 21, 2 p.m. The Stage at Suffolk Downs. – MJ GEORGE STRAIT/CHRIS STAPLETON King George retired from touring more than 10 years ago, but promised he would bring his vast repertoire of traditional country and western swing back around occasionally. This is one of those occasions. Only with the stature of someone like Strait would Chris Stapleton be a support act. June 21, 5:45 p.m. $116 and up. Gillette Stadium, 1 Patriot Place, Foxborough. 800-653-8000. – SM SARAH MILLICAN: LATE BLOOMER The UK comic is new to cooking, and recently forgot a word trying to describe a recipe to a friend. 'Get the chicken, you put some olive oil on it,' she says, 'then you get some lemon thyme, you put that in with it, and you cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight to fester.' The word was 'marinate.' June 22 at 7:30 p.m. and June 27 at 8 p.m. Sold out. Boch Center Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., Boston. – NZ Hozier performs at Boston Calling on May 26, 2024. Ben Stas for The Boston Globe/The Boston Globe HOZIER 'Unreal Unearth,' the 'Inferno'-inspired 2024 album from this Irish singer-songwriter, showcases his majestic vocal range, musical curiosity and willingness to peer intently at the modern world's messiness, even if he's not sure what he might find. June 23 and 24, 6:30 p.m. Fenway Park. 877-733-7699, – MJ JACOB'S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL The 2025 season of America's premier summer dance festival will include 'The Center Will Not Hold: A Dorrance Dance Production' (June 25-29), Bodytraffic (July 2-6), Trinity Irish Dance Company (July 10-13), the Sarasota Ballet (July 16-20), Stephen Petronio Company (July 23-27), Sekou McMiller & Friends (July 30–August 3), Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company (August 6-10), Ballet BC (August 13-17), Faye Driscoll in 'Weathering' (August 13-17), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (August 20-24), and Matthew Rushing and Ailey Extension dancers in 'Sacred Songs,' which revisits omitted music from Ailey's 'Revelations' (August 21-22). Through August 24. Tickets free and up. Becket. – JGantz MING FAY: EDGE OF THE GARDEN Fay, who died earlier this year, was best known for his fanciful, outsize papier-mâché sculptures of botanical forms – a lichee, a walnut, a pear, a maple twirler – that he gathered together into fantastical hothouses conjured by his vivid imagination. An associated exhibition at the Pao Art Center in Chinatown will put Fay's work in league with the photographer Mel Taing and artist Yu-Wen Wu in an exploration of Boston's Chinatown gardens. June 26 - September 21 . Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way . 617-566-1401, – MW JOSHUA REDMAN QUARTET Following his 2023 masterpiece, 'where are we,' featuring the remarkable singer Gabrielle Cavassa, saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman returns with a new album, 'Words Fall Short' (due June 20), written for a new band. Two of those players, pianist Paul Cornish and drummer Nazir Ebo, join him for this show, along with the great bassist Larry Grenadier (in for Philip Norris). Based on a listen to the first single, 'A Message to Unsend,' this disc from the 56-year-old master promises to be no less exciting than the last, and this band one of his best. June 27, 8 p.m. Groton Hill Music Center, 122 Old Ayer Road, Groton. 978-486-9524, – JGarelick PAM TANOWITZ DANCE: 'PASTORAL' Tanowitz has already choreographed Bach's 'Goldberg Variations,' T. S. Eliot's 'Four Quartets,' and the Biblical 'Song of Songs.' For this world premiere at Bard University's SummerScape, she created movement to Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony No. 6 and then removed the music, replacing it with silence and with a commissioned score by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winner Caroline Shaw. June 27–28, 7 p.m.; June 29, 3 p.m. $31.50-$101.50. Fisher Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. – JGantz Boston Dance Theater will perform in Kittery, Maine. Melissa Blackal BOSTON DANCE THEATER Jessie Jeanne Stinnett's Boston-based company takes its 'Pinnacle Works' program to Maine. The line-up will include Itzik Galili's 'Man of the Hour,' 'Memories,' and 'Chameleon,' Alessandro Sousa Pereira's 'Delicate Blue' and 'Awa,' and Marco Goecke's 'Peekaboo.' June 28, 7 p.m. $20-$25. The Dance Hall, Kittery, Maine. – JGantz DAILEY & VINCENT Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent's bread-and-butter is bluegrass and gospel, but lately they've delved into country music, as their recent record, 'Let's Play Some Country!,' attests. Whatever the style, instrumental virtuosity and the group's spine-tingling vocal harmonizing are ever-present. June 29, 7:30 p.m. $50. Bull Run Restaurant, 215 Great Rd., Shirley . 978-425-4311. – SM FLORRY This Philadelphia band has named their upcoming sophomore release 'Sounds Like….' What they sound like: countrified rock-and-roll or, if you prefer, rocking country, equal parts the Band and the Stones, crunchy guitar riffs meeting soaring pedal steel whine. June 29, 8 p.m. $17. Deep Cuts, 21 Main St., Medford. 781-219-3815. - SM TANGLEWOOD The Boston Symphony Orchestra has a predictably busy season in the works at its summer home in the Berkshires. Concertos, symphonies, and opera from the BSO; a quartet concert with Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Antoine Tamestit and Leonidas Kavakos; the Festival of Contemporary Music helmed by Grammy-winning composer Gabriela Ortiz; film screenings with live orchestra from the Pops; photography classes and experimental theater at the Tanglewood Learning Institute; popular artists including James Taylor and John Legend; and a chance to catch the next generation of performers at the Tanglewood Music Center. Pick your pleasure and pack an umbrella, because those summer storms will catch you when you least expect it. Late June through early September. Lenox. 888-266-1200, – AZM July Kasey Chambers performed in January at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in Australia. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty KASEY CHAMBERS The veteran country singer/songwriter from Down Under returns to America after a long absence, and she arrives having just issued a book that serves as a memoir of sorts (with a title that would require a few asterisks were it to be included here, so you'll have to look it up for yourself). An accompanying album, 'Backbone,' draws vignettes from that memoir for its songs. July 3, 7:30 p.m. $40-$65. City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston. 617-933-8047. – SM TYLER, THE CREATOR In the 15 years since this Los Angeles multi-hyphenate crash-landed into hip-hop, he's become one of its most restless innovators; his latest album 'Chromakopia,' which came out last year, is a high-concept confessional featuring standouts like the plush yet regret-tinged 'Darling, I' and the proudly brassy 'Sticky.' July 8 and 9, 7:30 p.m. TD Garden. 617-624-1000, – MJ DEATH OF A SALESMAN There's a reason this Arthur Miller masterpiece is considered one of the greatest American plays, with its devastating portrait of Willy Loman crushed beneath the weight of misguided dreams and the culture that fed him those dreams. Featuring William Zielinski as Willy; Stacy Fischer as Linda, his wife; and Alex Pollock and Jack Aschenbach as their sons, Biff and Happy. Directed by Robert Kropf. July 10-August 2. Harbor Stage Company, at Harbor Stage, Wellfleet. 508-514-1763, – DA ASTON MAGNA Now in its 52nd season, this summer early music series under the artistic direction of Daniel Stepner offers four weeks of mid-summer concerts on Thursdays in Newton and Saturdays in Great Barrington. Programs include 'Music from Thomas Jefferson's Library', and an intriguing slate of pieces directed by harpsichordist Peter Sykes encompassing Baroque chamber music from the actual period and from the modern day. July 10-Aug. 3. 413-528-3595, – AZM Ashwini Ramaswamy of Ragamala Dance Company, which will perform at Bates Dance Festival in July. Brian Rusch BATES DANCE FESTIVAL Bates College's summer performance series will feature Ragamala Dance Company in 'Invisible Cities,' a reimagination of the Italo Calvino novel (July 11 and 13, 7:30 p.m.); OzuzuDances in 'Space Carcasses' (July 18-19, 7:30 p.m.); and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in two seminal works, 'Continuous Replay' and 'D-Man in the Waters' (July 31–August 1, 7:30 p.m.). $5-$35. Schaeffer Theatre, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine. – JGantz GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE: THE WHOLE WORLD IS A MYSTERY A more apt title might never be imagined than for this artist, whose enigmatic canvases evoke parallel realities that give up their secrets uneasily, if at all. Defying categorization, she flirted with Surrealism and Symbolism while remaining utterly unique. A doyenne of the art and jazz scenes in 1920s Chicago, Abercrombie all but faded from view as the established narrative of American Modernism grew ever more narrow in the decades that followed; this show, the first-ever touring survey of her work, looks to establish her in a canon that left her aside long ago. July 12-January 11 . Colby College Museum of Art , 5600 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, ME . 207-859-5600, – MW BOSTON FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA In its fifth summer season, Boston Festival Orchestra pairs evergreen orchestral repertoire (Symphonies No. 5 by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky) with contemporary pieces that took inspiration from the symphonies; BFO concertmaster Jae Cosmos Lee will also take center stage in 'Swept Away,' a 2023 violin concerto composed by founding conductor Alyssa Wang reflecting on her late father's battle with cancer. In addition to the staged concerts, the orchestra is planning a handful of events for underserved children, teens and families; dates and locations to be announced. July 13 & Aug. 3, 3 p.m. NEC's Jordan Hall. – AZM Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic in Hollywood in 2024. ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images 'WEIRD AL' YANKOVIC: BIGGER & WEIRDER TOUR It's hard to imaging how much weirder he could get, but this might be the largest production Weird Al fans have seen in quite some time, featuring an eight-piece band that includes his original players, a giant video screen, and a mix of the bigger hits and some rare material. July 15, 8 p.m. $414-$1,230. Boch Center Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., Boston. – NZ NEWPORT DANCE FESTIVAL Presented by Newport Contemporary Ballet, the festival will feature visiting dance companies to include the New English Ballet (UK), Tom Gold Performance Society (New York), and NSquared Dance (Manchester, New Hampshire), as well as Newport Contemporary Ballet. July 16-20. $40-$50, available soon. Great Friends Meeting House, Newport, R.I., – JGantz BOSTON LANDMARKS ORCHESTRA Want to picnic during a concert but can't make it out to Tanglewood? This longrunning local summer orchestra has not yet announced details of its season, but if past years are any indication, expect a handful of Wednesday nights at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade, collaborations with dance companies and local community organizations, and a family-friendly atmosphere that makes for a perfect introduction to live classical music for listeners of all ages. July 16-Aug. 27. – AZM TOM COTTER AND LENNY CLARKE 'Every time I go to Las Vegas, I always give money to the homeless,' says Cotter, who is paired with Boston legend Clarke for three shows. 'Topless! Sorry. The topless. I always give money to the topless because I support the arts.' July 18 at 8:30 p.m. and July 19 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. $39.19. Giggles Comedy Club, 517 Broadway (Route 1), Saugus. – NZ MARLBORO MUSIC FESTIVAL This bucolic hilltop music festival in southern Vermont famously does not announce its programs more than eight days in advance of each performance, and by that time they're often sold out, so pick a date and prepare to be surprised. With a 2025 lineup of resident artists including clarinetist Anthony McGill, violist Kim Kashkashian, and composer in residence Reena Esmail not to mention all the up and coming performers, all under the artistic direction of pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss – it's hard to go wrong. Marlboro, Vt. July 19-Aug. 17. 215-569-4690, – AZM OLIVIA DEAN This next-generation neo-soul singer-songwriter's 2023 album 'Messy' showcases her strong, acrobatic voice on songs that channel old-school R&B ideals while sounding decidedly 21st-century; her latest single, 'It Isn't Perfect But It Might Be,' boosts its post-heartbreak rebound with sweeping strings and twinkling piano. July 19, 7:30 p.m. Royale. 617-338-7699, – MJ AS YOU LIKE IT Nora Eschenheimer, who shone as Miranda in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's 2021 production of July 23-Aug. 10. On Boston Common, Parkman Bandstand. g – DA Kesha performs during iHeartRadio KISS108's Jingle Ball 2024 Presented By Capital One at TD Garden on Dec. 15, 2024 in Boston. Scott Eisen/Getty KESHA AND SCISSOR SISTERS The emancipated pop party girl and the fabulous downtown act bring their kiki on the road for shows featuring dancefloor-ready, high-energy tracks like Kesha's spaced-out 2024 single 'Joyride' and Scissor Sisters' hip-shaking celebration of familial bonds, 'Take Your Mama.' July 24, 7 p.m. Xfinity Center, Mansfield. 800-745-3000, – MJ THE YARD Martha's Vineyard's annual summer dance festival will open with 's Nupumukômun/We Still Dance' (June 28, 7 p.m.), a multimedia theatrical composition created by members of Danza Orgánica and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal members. Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance follows with a program of 'Arbor,' 'Wind Rose,' and 'Freedive' (July 18-19, 7 p.m.). Red Clay Dance closes out the season with ' a 'journey toward collective healing and reclamation of our spiritual and ancestral relationship to the land' (July 24-25, 7 p.m.). $15-$55. Martha's Vineyard Performing Arts Center/Patricia Nanon Theater. –JGantz CAMBRIDGE JAZZ FESTIVAL The Cambridge Jazz Foundation presents the 10th edition of this annual free event. The Saturday lineup includes the Zahili Zamora Quartet; Ron Reid's Precious Metals Project; singer Spha Mdlalose with drummer Lumanyano Bizana; Eguie Castrillo y Su Orchestra's 'Salsa Dance Party.' On Sunday, it's 'Sound of Soul,' with Ron Savage, Bill Pierce, Bobby Broom, Consuelo Candelaria-Barry, and Ron Mahdi; the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice ensemble; a sixtieth birthday retrospective from Grammy-winning drummer, composer, producer and Berklee professor Terri Lyne Carrington; and Elan Trotman and friends, featuring Aric B., for a 'Motown Dance Party. July 26-27, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Free. Danehy Park, 99 Sherman St., Cambridge. – JGarelick KEN CARSON 'More Chaos,' the chart-topping latest album from this Atlanta MC, lives up to its name, with heavy, pummeling beats underpinning melting-down electronics and Carson's stream-of-consciousness raps. July 29, 8 p.m. MGM Music Hall at Fenway. – MJ CAPE COD CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL This festival kicks off with a free community concert in Hyannis by New York-based horn quartet Genghis Barbie, and continues through the dog days of summer with performances around Cape Cod by artists including the Catalyst Quartet, the Claremont Trio, and several chamber ensembles coordinated by artistic directors Jon Manasse and Jon Nakamatsu. July 29-Aug. 22. 508-247-9400, – AZM TV ON THE RADIO After a decade-plus hiatus, these art-rockers have reunited to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their 2004 debut 'Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes'—still a standout document of New York's crowded early-'00s rock scene because of how it made sonic nerviness and lyrical unease feed off one another. July 30, 8 p.m. Roadrunner Boston. – MJ August Janelle Monae attended the Human Rights Campaign's dinner in March in Los Human Rights Campaign NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL The granddaddy of all festivals (b.1954) covers the usual broad spectrum in its annual three-day extravaganza: John Scofield & Marcus Miller, Lakecia Benjamin, Ron Carter, Christian McBride, Darius Jones, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Marcus Gilmore, Aaron Parks' Little Big, the Roots, De La Soul, Janelle Monáe, a 'Centennial Tribute to Roy Haynes,' and a whole lot more. Aug. 1-3. Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R.I. – JGarelick YORON ISRAEL AND HIGH STANDARDS The busy Boston drummer (and chair of Berklee's percussion department) Yoron Israel is getting ready to release a new album with his band High Standards. In the meantime, the band is playing this free Aug. 4, 5 p.m. Free. Highland Park, 20 Fort Ave., Roxbury. – JGarelick SOUTHERN HARMONY: A MURDER BALLAD The premiere of a musical about the murder of a monied widow by a mortician, inspired by a real-life case in Carthage, Texas. Book, music, and lyrics by Kevin Fogarty. Directed and choreographed by Sam Scalamoni, with musical direction by Nevada Lozano. Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Wellfleet. Aug. 6-Sept. 6. 508-349-9428, – DA NO CHILD... In a district where the iron grip of poverty is hard to escape, a teaching artist (Valyn Lyric Turner) uses theater to help her high school students understand both the power of the individual and the importance of making connections with others. To write 'No Child…,' a solo play, Nilaja Sun drew on her own near-decade of experience as a teaching artist in New York City. Directed by Pascale Florestal. Aug. 7-23. Gloucester Stage Company, Gloucester. 978-281-4433, – DA esperanza spalding The virtuoso bassist, singer, songwriter, and conceptualist — whose work has included collaborations with Wayne Shorter and Milton Nascimento, among numerous genre-spanning works of her own — plays this intimate show with her longtime collaborator, the phenomenal pianist Leo Genovese. Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main St., Rockport. 978.546.7391, – JGarelick THE WIZ Nearly three decades before Aug. 12 – 24. Presented by Broadway In Boston. At Citizens Opera House, Boston. Tickets at – DA CLIPPING Blending Daveed Diggs' knotty verses with the explosive beats of producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, this Los Angeles trio issues urgent, noisy dispatches from a bleak future. Aug. 13, 8:30 p.m. The Sinclair, Cambridge. 617-547-5200, – MJ CODY JINKS 'We're hippies, we're cowboys—and we're everything in between,' says Cody Jinks in elaborating on the name of his current 'Hippies and Cowboys Tour.' And in the midst of a divided time in America, the outlaw country purveyor says he wants hippies, cowboys, and everything in between to come and listen to listen to his music together. Aug. 16, 7 p.m. $54.50 and up. Leader Bank Pavilion, 290 Northern Ave., Boston. – SM Comedian Pete Holmes in Los Angeles in Homeboy Industries PETE HOLMES: PETE HERE NOW Fans might have noticed this tour used to be called 'Pete Holmes PG-13,' but after a show in Austin, the Lexington native realized he is not really a PG comic, and changed it. Aug. 23, 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $35-$55. The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston. – NZ BAY STATE HOT JAZZ FESTIVAL This free two-day festival (formerly known as the Medford Trad Jazz Festival) plays its third year with seminal folk revivalist Jim Kweskin headlining. Kweskin's new album, 'Doing Things Right,' harks back to '20s swing, folk, blues, and other hot forms, with occasional forays to later decades. Kweskin and his Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue play Sunday, along with the SheBop Swing Orchestra, the Orleans Kids, and Annie and the Fur Trappers. Saturday, it's the 'Gypsy jazz'-inclined 440, the Busted Jug Band, the impressive standards-loving singer Rahsaan Cruse Jr., and others TBA. August 23-24, 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Free. Condon Band Shell, 2501 Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford. – JGarelick RACHEL RUYSCH: ARTIST, NATURALIST, PIONEER The first-ever comprehensive survey of Ruysch's vibrant, nature-driven paintings, this exhibition highlights the rare bird that she was: A successful – even renowned – female artist of the Northern Renaissance, in a time where significant commissions and exhibitions went almost exclusively to men. The exhibition will span the late 17th and early 18th centuries and include 35 of her paintings, each of them mysterious paeans to various flora and fauna, heavy with the secrets they held for her. August 23 - December 7 . Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Ave, 617-267-9300, – MW TATE MCRAE 'So Close To What,' the third album by this Calgary-born pop upstart, takes the moodiness of her earlier releases and channels it through jagged synths and stomping grooves, then adds just enough romantic contentment to bring a curious tension to the fore. August 26 and 27, 7:30 p.m. TD Garden. 617-624-1000, (Also October 17.) – MJ DAVID C. DRISKELL: COLLECTOR Driskell, known more as an educator and advocate for centuries – yes, centuries – of lineage of Black art in America than for his own paintings, died in 2020 with an art collection that reflected his deeply held priorities. This exhibition, drawn from those personal holdings, puts on view for the first time since his death works that served as touchstones over a lifetime of advocacy and artistic production. Paintings from the 19th century onward by Black artists like Edward Mitchell Bannister, Loïs Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, and Elizabeth Catlett hang with Driskell's own, and help frame a legacy as much rooted in those he held up as his work itself. August 29 - March 1 . Portland Museum of Art , 7 Congress Square, Portland, ME. 207-775-6148, – MW Don Aucoin can be reached at
Boston Globe
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
This weekend, ‘Noah's Flood' rises on a massive tide of youth performers
Organ, another said, and Hodgdon lit up. 'Has anyone heard the organ in Symphony Hall?' he asked the kids. A smattering of hands rose into the air. 'It's incredible,' Hodgdon promised. And at the end of 'Noah's Flood,' he later told them, 'it goes crazy.' A few young faces broke into grins of anticipation. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up These singers represented only a small contingent of the mass of musicians — most of them under 18 — that will converge on Symphony Hall on Saturday to give one free performance of 'Noah's Flood,' conducted by BLO music director David Angus and stage directed by American Repertory Theater's Dayron J. Miles. Advertisement The total count of personnel approaches 400, including musicians from Boston Children's Chorus, Boston String Academy, Boston Recorder Orchestra, New England Conservatory Prep, and Back Bay Ringers, among others. An additional handful of young visual artists from Artists for Humanity are making animal masks for the ensemble members. 'Noah's Flood' — sometimes spelled 'Noye's Fludde,' in keeping with its origin in the medieval Chester Mystery Plays — is being presented by BLO, and a handful of BLO professionals are playing crucial roles both on and offstage, including Hodgdon and Angus as well as baritone David McFerrin and mezzo-soprano Alexis Peart, the two professional singers playing Noah and Mrs. Noah. However, this isn't a 'BLO performance,' said Angus. 'It's a kids and community thing.' Advertisement Angus's personal connection to Britten's music goes back to his own childhood as a schoolboy chorister in the choir of King's College Cambridge, in which he sang in a handful of concerts with Britten conducting and the composer's longtime partner, Peter Pears, performing. 'I got to know him and his music, and the excitement of being part of a big thing,' Angus said. That kind of experience is what Angus and Miles want to create for the performers and the sold-out Symphony Hall audience on Saturday. 'I wanted 'Noah's Flood' to feel like a community came together and sort of crafted a story,' said Miles, the associate artistic director at ART, who previously directed a public theater program at the Dallas Theater Center. 'No pun intended, but when we're able to underscore the sort of human need to create and to be artists together, it just cements the spark of imagination and creativity in our young people in a way that is powerful, full, and permanent.' Vikram Banerjee, center, rehearses for "Noah's Flood" with VOICES Boston. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE 'Noah's Flood' was written specifically so that children of varying musical abilities and levels of onstage confidence could participate, Hodgdon said. There are some named solo roles, such as Noah's children and Mrs. Noah's 'gossips' — an antiquated word for female friends, and Saturday's performance has those handled by high school-aged singers from Boston Children's Chorus. Advertisement Similarly, a core group of professional players and advanced students handle the most difficult music, but some of the violin parts only require that a child be able to play on open strings. The entire audience is also invited to join the cast in singing hymn tunes at certain points; these would have been familiar for the original 1950s British audience, but they're not as common for modern Americans, so Angus will teach the audience on Saturday before the show begins in hopes everyone will join the chorus. 'By the end, when they're all playing and singing, and the entire audience is joining in the hymns, you'll have two-and-a-half thousand people all performing together,' Angus said. 'It's a pretty mind-blowing experience.' Because the cast and crew is so massive, the entirety of the ensemble will only get one full dry run on Saturday morning at Symphony Hall a few hours before showtime, after practicing in their own groups. Hodgdon and Angus have been visiting each participating ensemble at their own rehearsals with the goal that everyone will be ready to play their part without much adjustment, but that doesn't mean there aren't last-minute additions and changes. While the children took a break at VOICES Boston rehearsal on Monday, Hodgdon and VOICES music director Dan Ryan conferred off to the side about how to best ensure the animals process smoothly through the aisles of Symphony Hall. Might VOICES be able to spare a few adults to guide them?, Hodgdon asked. No problem, Ryan said. They had some conservatory-trained staff who would be 'just thrilled to wear an animal mask and release their inner child.' Advertisement Because the VOICES singers have been mostly focused on their upcoming production of Dean Burry's 'The Hobbit,' Monday marked the first time they touched the hymns and alleluias of 'Noah's Flood,' and 12-year-old Julieta Ortiz said she was surprised to learn how many other kids would be participating. 'I wasn't expecting such a big orchestra to be playing with us, and so many different ensembles. I thought there were going to be one or two,' she said. Naila Delgado-Matin, 14, was unfazed. 'The music is catchy in your mind, and easy to remember,' she said. 'So as long as we practice more on Wednesday and at home, I think we should be pretty set.' NOAH'S FLOOD May 3, 2 p.m. Symphony Hall. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
Washington Post
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
A musical comedy about immigrants when we need one most
NEW YORK — Theater usually lags behind the headlines because it takes time to develop something new. But 'Real Women Have Curves' arrives on Broadway at a moment when seeing the humanity of immigrants — however they're seen by the law — has assumed head-spinning relevance. Don't expect a taste of medicine beneath the heaping spoonfuls of sugar: It's a laugh-out-loud musical comedy with a massive dose of heart. If that combination sounds unlikely, the creators pull off an impressive balancing act in relishing joy and humor amid striving and strife. The new musical is based in part on the 1990 play by Josefina López and set three years before, when immigration reform signed by President Ronald Reagan extended amnesty to undocumented immigrants. Hesitant to trust U.S. authorities and apply for permanent residence, the characters in 'Real Women Have Curves' live under the threat of raids and deportation. Would that the consequences today weren't any worse. The musical's coming-of-age story has a brighter outlook and richer detail than the 2002 HBO film (on which it is also based), in which America Ferrera sports the withering pout of a promising teenager trapped by circumstance. Sympathies in this production, which premiered at the American Repertory Theater in 2023, are more evenly spread, painting a fuller picture of the generational dynamics in immigrant families. One hand is enough to count the number of times I've seen some version of the conversation I had with my parents when I was 18 — that going away to college to start a new life wasn't altogether different from their journey to the United States. That's the argument that Ana (played by fabulous newcomer Tatianna Córdoba) gears up to make when she earns a full ride to Columbia University just when she's most needed by the family business. The setup may be too tidy, but at least the stakes are clear: Ana's sister Estela (Florencia Cuenca) runs an L.A. dress factory opened with their parents' life savings. A big order on a tight deadline calls for all hands on deck just as Ana is set to start an internship at a local paper. 'Que internship?' their mother asks with her typical bilingual sass. 'Instead of getting paid nothing by strangers, you can get paid nothing by your family. You're welcome.' As the strict and devoted matriarch, Justina Machado is indispensable to the sly humor laced throughout the book by Nell Benjamin (who also worked on the musical adaptations of 'Legally Blonde' and 'Mean Girls') and playwright Lisa Loomer. Some of the laughs are silly and straightforward while others, rooted in truths about working hard and getting by, spring up by surprise. (When Ana, the only citizen in the room, finally finishes a dress, a fast-sewing seamstress quips, 'Damn, they're takin' our jobs.') Sentiment is more often expressed in the score, by Benjamin Velez and singer-songwriter Joy Huerta, which layers Latin sounds over an otherwise indistinctive baseline of Broadway pop. The writing is cringey when at its least original: The opening refrain cribs Tim Gunn's sew-or-go catchphrase 'make it work,' and rap breaks in the title song strain too hard to mimic the musical's clearest predecessor, 'In the Heights.' (The eponymous focus on body image is toned down here, so the rousing anthem also seems to come out of left field.) But there are a few standout numbers, which riff on the central theme of dreams that defy the constraints of reality — no wonder they all involve flying. Córdoba nabs affection early on, with Ana's soaring ballad about heading east and making good on her parents' sacrifice. Later, she duets with a newcomer from Guatemala, played by Aline Mayagoitia, imagining the freedom birds have to roam (and to take a 'chit') wherever they want. Estela's daydream — of breaking through as a designer, jetting off to Paris Fashion Week and chasing untold possibilities — points to the maddening roadblocks that many people take for mundane: All of that would require the ability to show ID, get on plane and use a credit card. The sequence is a high point in the production from Sergio Trujillo, a Tony-winning choreographer ('Ain't Too Proud') who brings a keen eye for movement and fluidity to his direction. The factory (which, in the film, Ana sneeringly calls a sweatshop) is less claustrophobic here, but still a site of confinement. When Estela imagines success, dress forms descend, gowns billowing. (The uncommonly subtle '80s costumes are by Wilberth Gonzalez and Paloma Young.) When Ana ventures off to a reporting job or on a date with her fellow intern (a sweetly bumbling Mason Reeves), the walls lift away and reveal an outside world sketched and embroidered in saturated color. (The set is by Arnulfo Maldonado, lighting by Natasha Katz and video design by Hana S. Kim.) In rendering a close-knit community, with characters who each have personal histories and hopes for the future, 'Real Women Have Curves' is an extraordinary accomplishment. (In that, it shares some DNA with Jocelyn Bioh's 'Jaja's African Hair Braiding,' which played Broadway in 2023 and Arena Stage last fall.) If its message feels heavy-handed, that's because stories like it have rarely reached Broadway and have so much to say. Whether here or in future productions around the country, there's pleasure to take in listening. Real Women Have Curves, ongoing at the James Earl Jones Theatre in New York. Around 2 hours and 15 minutes with an intermission.
New York Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Real Women Have Curves' Is Now a Broadway Show. Here Are 5 Things to Know.
Joy Huerta wasn't so sure about musical theater. When the director and choreographer Sergio Trujillo approached Huerta in 2019 about adapting Josefina López's play 'Real Women Have Curves' into a musical, she had her doubts. Huerta, best known as half of the brother-and-sister pop duo Jesse & Joy, was unfamiliar with the 1990 play, and she had never seen the popular 2002 film adaptation starring America Ferrera. But then she began reading the script. And it was then, she said, that she understood why the story could be so compelling set to song. 'I remember being so excited about it, because I was like, 'Anyone can relate to this,'' said Huerta, 38, who composed the music and wrote the lyrics with Benjamin Velez, 37, for the show, which is now a Broadway musical scheduled to open on Sunday. Set in 1987 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, 'Real Women Have Curves' explores immigrant experiences through the story of a group of Latina women working at a garment factory. The focus is on an 18-year-old who is torn between staying home to help her undocumented family members and relocating to New York to attend Columbia University on a scholarship. The production had an earlier run in 2023 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass. Shortly after performances began on Broadway this month, Huerta, Velez and Lisa Loomer, who wrote the book with Nell Benjamin, discussed their inspirations and approach to adapting the story for the stage. In a separate conversation, Tatianna Córdoba, 25, who stars as the musical's young heroine, Ana García, spoke about making her Broadway debut in a role she identifies with so closely. Here are five things to know about the production. It all started with a diary. More than a decade before 'Real Women Have Curves' made waves in 2002 as a film, it began life as the diary entries of López, an undocumented Chicana teenager who recorded her experiences working in a sewing factory in Los Angeles's Boyle Heights neighborhood. When she was just 18, she expanded on those entries and turned them into a play. 'Real Women Have Curves' had an initial production in San Francisco in 1990, and has been staged many times since. López (and George LaVoo) wrote the screenplay for the movie, which starred a young America Ferrera in her feature film debut. Loomer, who also lived near Boyle Heights in the 1980s, pulled from the original works and added some new characters. 'The movie is quite different from the play, and the musical is quite different from both of them,' she said. 'But they have the same DNA.' The show celebrates body positivity. Since body positivity is a relatively new concept, Loomer had to find a way to write about the story's celebrated appreciation of full-figured bodies for a contemporary audience. One of the musical's characters, Ana's blunt, family-first mother, Carmen, is constantly criticizing her daughter for her weight in the film. 'In terms of Carmen, I felt she would be better understood if we left it in 1987,' Loomer said. For the musical, she softened the edges of the character, who is played by Justina Machado on Broadway. (Lupe Ontiveros played her in the film.) In short: Less fat-shaming, more back story to help the audience understand the generational and cultural roots of Carmen's harsh approach. (Though some jabs remain, such as telling Ana she could stand to skip a meal.) 'You want to hate her for what she just said, but at the same time, she's not saying it in a way that she's meaning to put Ana down,' Huerta said. 'She's thinking as she speaks, because that's where she comes from.' Spanish is sprinkled throughout. It was a delicate balancing act, Loomer said: They wanted audience members who do not speak Spanish to be able to follow the story, but they also wanted to add as much authenticity as possible. 'They wouldn't speak in English to each other at home, and certainly not in the factory,' she said. 'So you have to give the feel of Spanish — the rhythms — and yet the Anglo audience has to understand it.' Sixteen of the show's 19 cast members are of Latino or Hispanic descent. Most are making their Broadway debuts. 'I just love to see how, when that curtain comes up every night, we see people that we feel like, 'Oh my God. That could be me onstage.' And ultimately, that could be my aunt, or my cousin, or my tía,' Huerta said of the cast. During the show's Cambridge run, they tested how much Spanish to include in the songs. 'We never wanted the amount of Spanish to take people out of the story,' Velez said. 'So it's been a kind of a dance as we figure out the right balance.' Illegal immigration is a theme. The musical is set in the summer of 1987, when a Reagan-era amnesty program was in place for longtime undocumented immigrants. (The playwright became a legal citizen through this program.) In a change from the film and the play, Ana is the only U.S. citizen among her family and co-workers. The other employees at the factory are undocumented as are her older sister, Estela (Florencia Cuenca), who owns the factory, and their mother, Carmen, who also works there. 'I made this change because it increases her family's need for Ana to stay,' Loomer said. 'It also increases the responsibility and guilt Ana feels when she wants to leave and pursue her own dreams.' Loomer also expanded the cast of undocumented characters, adding Guatemalan and Salvadoran women, including the sweet and vulnerable 17-year-old Indigenous Guatemalan refugee Itzel (Aline Mayagoitia), who sings about rising above life's challenges in the song 'If I Were a Bird.' 'The beauty sometimes about doing a play that's set in the past, it shows you what hasn't changed,' said Loomer, who has spent a majority of her four-decade career writing plays that deal with the experiences of Latinas and immigrant characters. 'At times, it allows you to see the present even more painfully.' The show is personal for the lead actress. When Tatianna Córdoba, who is making her Broadway debut as Ana, read the script for the musical, the family dynamics resonated with her. 'A lot of the mother-daughter exchanges that Justina and I have in the show remind me of my abuelita so much,' said Córdoba, who grew up in Los Angeles and whose parents are of Costa Rican and Filipino descent. 'There's that motherly judgment, but also love.' The discussions around body image also felt true to life, said Córdoba, who studied ballet when she was younger before feeling pressure to quit. 'I realized very quickly, when puberty hit, that my body was changing in ways that a lot of my ballet friends' bodies were not,' she said. One thing she wishes she'd had as a teenager: Her character's self-assurance. 'Ana is who I wish was at 18,' she said. 'She just has this belief in herself, this confidence in her body that I really wish I had at that age. She's far more concerned about everything else going on with her — her brain, her hopes and her desires.' She loves being part of a scene in Act II when the fuller-figured women in the boiling-hot factory strip down to their undergarments, reveling in their bodies. It's been receiving mid-show standing ovations. 'There's something infectious about just watching other people be joyful, about watching people being brave,' she said. 'I think that's what makes people stand up and clap — they feel really empowered, and they feel loved in that moment.'
Boston Globe
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Merry mayhem in Actors' Shakespeare Project's ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream'
A gifted actor himself, Parent gives his cast a lot of running room — literally. He amps up the physicality in a no-holds-barred, propulsively on-the-move production that's rife with visual, verbal, or musical allusions to pop culture. Blue Man Group. 'The Lion King.' Marvin Gaye. 'RuPaul's Drag Race.' NSYNC. Brando howling 'Stella!!!' in 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' Interpretive dance and its pretensions. 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' And, in one of the production's high points, some truly sensational break dancing by Alan Kuang as Puck, the mischief-sowing sprite. Advertisement Perhaps inevitably, perhaps not, the verse takes a backseat to the knockabout antics in Parent's modern-dress production, which unfolds in a stark, industrial milieu (scenic design is by Ben Lieberson) that is dominated by large metal scaffolding upstage and on both sides of the stage. A mirrored ball gleams high above, and performers are adorned with feathers and glitter and leather and masks (costumes are by Seth Bodie). The overall vibe Parent seeks to evoke is that of the New York club scene of the 1990s. (Somewhat similar thematic territory was memorably staked out by the American Repertory Theater's long-running 'The Donkey Show,' a mostly wordless, disco-driven riff on 'Dream' that was set in a 1970s club and directed by husband-and-wife collaborators Randy Weiner and Diane Paulus.) Advertisement 'Dream' revolves around a quintessentially Shakespearean series of romantic muddles. There are erotic overtones, but on balance this is a PG-13 'Dream' that could serve as an introduction to Shakespeare for your young offspring. Demetrius (De'Lon Grant) and Lysander (Michael Broadhurst) are both in love with Hermia (Thomika Marie Bridwell). But Hermia loves only Lysander. Her friend Helena (Deb Martin, a comic force) loves Demetrius — a passion that is most definitely not reciprocated. Hermia's autocratic father, Egeus (the always welcome Bobbie Steinbach) orders Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she is prepared to defy him. When the four young Athenians end up in the woods, natural begins to yield to supernatural. Puck puts flower juice on the eyes of both Lysander and Demetrius, causing both men to fall head over heels in love with Helena, confusing and infuriating her. Meanwhile, the fairy king, Oberon (Dan Garcia), is locked in a running battle with his wife and queen, Titania (Eliza Fichter). Aiming to get the upper hand by humiliating her, he puts magical flower juice on her eyes as she sleeps, designed to make her fall madly in love with the first person — or creature — she sees. That turns out to be Nick Bottom, a weaver whose head has been transformed by Puck into that of a donkey. The role of Bottom is a juicy one, not just accommodating hammy excess but demanding it. Doug Lockwood doesn't miss his chance; he takes a big swing, and his Bottom is every bit as funny as he needs to be for 'Dream' to fully work. Bottom and his friends, a group of manual laborers whom Puck calls 'the rude mechanicals,' are preparing to stage the love story and tragedy 'Pyramus and Thisbe,' at the wedding of the duke of Athens, Theseus (Kody Grassett) to Hippolyta (Fichter again). Advertisement At that performance of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' by Bottom and his friends for the assembled aristocrats, Lockwood captures the vanity of an egotistical, scene-stealing theater hog. He is abetted in grand style by his colleagues: Rémani Lizana as Snug, the joiner; Evan Taylor as Flute, the bellows-mender; Grassett as Starveling, the tailor (Grassett also plays the wall); and Steinbach as Quince, the carpenter. In the past couple of years. Actors' Shakespeare Project has enjoyed success with first-rate productions of plays by authors other than its namesake, including All well and (very) good. But 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' reminds us that the company is still pretty good at the work of that Shakespeare fellow. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Play by William Shakespeare Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent Presented by Actors' Shakespeare Project. At Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown. Through May 4. Tickets $20-74. At 617-241-2200 or Don Aucoin can be reached at
