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Boston Globe
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Five things to do around Boston, April 28-May 4
Tuesday Roaring '20s Celebrate Milo Todd's debut novel, 'The Lilac People,' with a trip back in time at A Night at the Eldorado at the Somerville Theatre. 'The Lilac People' follows a trans man in prewar Berlin who finds community at the Eldorado Club — the epicenter of Berlin's queer community — but is forced into hiding as the Nazis rise to power. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., spend a night at the El Dorado yourself for an evening of Roaring '20s-era music, dance, and queer joy. Afterward, the author will sign copies of his novel. $35 (event only). Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Friday-Sunday Advertisement Blooming Brushstrokes Spring has sprung at the annual Art in Bloom at the Museum of Fine Arts. Talented florists and designers from across New England will create interpretive flower arrangements based on MFA artworks. See these pieces showcased next to the art that inspired them, and enjoy special events, tours, and dining. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Included with general admission: $27; free for MFA members. Friday-Sunday Panda-Monium Savor food from all over Asia at Boston Panda Fest, one of the largest outdoor Asian food festivals in the United States. Take your pick of more than 200 traditional foods from stalls and food trucks; see live performances of modern and traditional Asian music, dance, and theater; watch a lion dance parade; and shop for unique Asian-inspired clothes, jewelry, specialty ingredients, and more. Starting at 4 p.m. each day, at City Hall Plaza. Tickets start at $13, with food available for purchase. Advertisement Saturday Alpaca Palooza Visit adorable alpacas and shop for a variety of wool products at Harvard Alpaca Ranch's Meet the Alpacas. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Amesbury's Cider Hill Farm, enjoy a meet-and-greet with two of the ranch's alpacas, and explore a mobile pop-up selling sweaters, socks, and other items made from natural wool. Free, but registration is encouraged. Share your event news. Send information on Boston-area happenings at least three weeks in advance to week@ Adelaide Parker can be reached at
Boston Globe
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
A ‘wonderful and strange' tribute to David Lynch
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Drag performer Celia Smokinbutts as "Twin Peaks" villain Killer Bob. Sasha Pedro Advertisement Meanwhile, beginning on the 16th, the Somerville Theatre will host special screenings of several Lynch films, including 'Mulholland Drive' (2001), a double feature of 'Blue Velvet' (1986) and 'Wild at Heart' (1990), a newly rediscovered 70mm print of 'Dune' (1984), and a new documentary about one of the most beloved 'Twin Peaks' characters, the Log Lady. The co-producers of the Lynch tribute, Arkin and Bridget Duggan, who craft events under the name the Identical Cousins, created their first Lynch event several years ago at the former ONCE Ballroom in Somerville. Duggan, who worked at the nightclub, always thought its kitschy second-floor lounge had ''Twin Peaks' vibes,' she explained. Advertisement A mutual friend introduced her to Arkin, who was a big fan of the series. They have since co-produced more than a dozen events, including a tribute honoring the late Pee Wee Herman in 2023. After several Lynch-themed happenings, the collaborators have perfected the art of delving into the curious mind of the director. It helps, they say, that the hardcore fans who typically attend their events are already well-versed in Lynchiana. 'He was particularly open-ended in his imagery,' said Arkin on a group video call. 'Everything has such dream logic. People understand the vibe — what feels 'Lynchian.' 'It's such a good time for fan culture in general, but Lynch is so reinterpretable in particular.' On the 19th, fans will be invited to enjoy a slice of damn fine pie — Agent Cooper's favorite — courtesy of Feast and the Fable catering. Another installation will feature a montage of Lynch's iconic night driving scenes, as seen in the rear-view mirror of a prop car. Proceeds from the sales of signature cocktails will be sent to a mutual aid fund for victims of the recent LA fires. (Lynch was forced to evacuate his home in the Hollywood Hills, a little over a week before his death.) In addition to Julee Cruise Director, the live music portion of the evening will include Annie Hart of Au Revoir Simone, an all-female synth-pop trio that was featured in two episodes of 'Twin Peaks: The Return,' the 2017 sequel to the original series. The band members first met Lynch almost 20 years ago at a bookstore event in New York City, and they remained collaborators until his death. Advertisement 'He kept inviting us all over the world to do events with him,' said Hart, on the phone from Brooklyn. 'We went over to his house a lot. He was constantly encouraging us. Something about the connection between the three of us, he could tell we were on the same wavelength.' Even before they met Lynch, Hart said, her band was often told they sounded 'cinematic.' 'We would get into this trance, this meditative state, when we were creating music,' she said. 'It was our most favorite feeling in the world — that psychic energy between us, when we were clicking. He definitely lived on that wavelength, too.' Hart learned about Lynch's death while she was out on a date with her husband. Her bandmate Heather D'Angelo called, 'crying and crying,' she said. 'He was a really beautiful mentor to us.' To put together their most ambitious Lynch tribute to date, Duggan and Arkin have enlisted the help of at least 30 'of our closest friends.' 'We're maximalist,' Duggan said. 'We like to go big.' Lynch's infatuation with the collective subconscious makes his work ripe for the crazy quilt of the Identical Cousins' events, Duggan said. 'There's something about the way he's not telling you how to feel,' she said. 'He's not hammering you over the head with what you're supposed to get out of the experience. 'There's a mystery to it. And it's open to interpretation.' WONDERFUL & STRANGE: A TRIBUTE TO DAVID LYNCH Presented by Identical Cousins. $33.65. 7:30 p.m. (doors 6:30), Saturday, April 19, at Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square.
Boston Globe
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Five things to do around Boston, March 31-April 13
April 4-13 Pride on Screen See the very best of this year's LGBTQ film at the Wicked Queer film festival. One of the world's longest-running events of its kind, Wicked Queer is back for its 41st year. See feature-length movies, documentaries, and short films that celebrate queer storytelling and filmmaking, at venues throughout Greater Boston. Prices vary. April 5 The Last Laugh Watch Boston's best up-and-coming comedians face off for a $7,000 prize at the Boston Comedy Festival Contest Finals. These eight competitors have been winnowed down from a field of 72 comics. In this final round, at 8 p.m. at Somerville Theatre, watch them perform their funniest routines for a chance to win over the crowd. $36.95. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up April 5 Advertisement Hard-Core Parkour With the Boston Women's Parkour Workshop, the Dojo at Somernova invites anyone who is female-identifying or nonbinary and at least 14 years old to sample the sport at 10 a.m. on its Somerville course. Staff will be there to teach newcomers the basics, while more seasoned athletes can jump right in. Half-day session starts at $40, free for Cambridge and Somerville high schoolers. April 11 Strung Along Listen to one of the world's most unique ensembles at this performance from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Making its first visit to Boston since 2018, the orchestra will perform an evening of innovative, genre-defying music starting at 8 p.m. at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. $62. Editor's note: This edition of Your Week Ahead covers two weeks. Look for the next Globe Magazine on April 13. Share your event news. Send information on Boston-area happenings at least three weeks in advance to week@ Adelaide Parker can be reached at
Boston Globe
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Party like it's 1975 and pick up some Costa Rican dance moves
Lúnasa stops at the Somerville Theatre March 8 during its 27-city US tour. Pictured (from left) are band members Kevin Crawford, Cillian Vallely, Ed Boyd, Sean Smyth, Trevor Hutchinson, and guest artist Daoiri Farrell, who will also perform. anthony mulcahy Somerville hosts iconic Irish band Enjoy traditional Irish music and original works by the band Lúnasa when it stops at the Somerville Theatre March 8 during its 27-city US tour. The tour follows the release of the band's 10th album, 'Live in Kyoto,' which was recorded in Japan's Taku Taku club. Lúnasa, named after an ancient Celtic harvest festival honoring the Irish god Lugh, formed in 1997 and has since performed in 36 countries and collaborated with artists from Natalie Merchant and Mary-Chapin Carpenter to Tim O'Brien. The band's current lineup includes a former member of Riverdance (a production featuring traditional Irish music and step-dancing) who also recorded with Bruce Springsteen and one of Ireland's top flute players. The concert, organized by Club Passim, also welcomes guest artists Daoirí Farrell, a Dublin folk singer and bouzouki player, and Cathal Hayden, a banjo and fiddler player from County Tyrone. Tickets are $40-$50 per person. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up THERE Advertisement New coastal flights to Costa Rica Delta Airlines has launched new seasonal flights between Boston and Costa Rica, running on Saturdays through May 31. The flight departs Boston at 7:28 a.m. and arrives at Guanacaste Airport in Advertisement The Gilded Iguana Surf Hotel in Nosara, Costa Rica, has launched a new Dance Academy program, offering guests and locals classes led by dance experts that teach people about Costa Rica's rich dance heritage and some local moves. Nosara Dance Lab Pick up some Costa Rican dance moves Learn about Costa Rica's rich dance heritage at the Gilded Iguana Surf Hotel in Nosara, a three-hour road trip from LIR airport, where guests and locals can take classes led by dance experts. The hotel's new Dance Academy teaches more than just cool moves — it invites people to embrace the cultural traditions and vibe of Costa Rica. Classes run every week from Monday through Wednesday and on Fridays (6-7:30 p.m.), and each month, the hotel hosts a series of dancehall and Afro dance lessons. Darryl Cayasso Dixon, a Limón-based dance expert and choreographer, runs daily classes March 24-28, when participants can explore the Afro-Costa Rican style of movement, expression, and tradition. You don't have to be a dancing superstar: Classes welcome adult dancers of all levels. Cost: $100 for a weeklong pass; $30 per individual class. Room rates start at $385, single or double occupancy, including breakfast. KARI BODNARCHUK
Boston Globe
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Housewife of the Year' revisits Ireland's obsession with long-running reality show about women performing domestic duties
'It was absolutely huge,' recalls one former contestant in Advertisement The film — which gets a showcase screening Friday at the Somerville Theatre, presented by the Irish Film Festival, Boston — introduces us to dozens of women who gamely took part in the competition. Still in their childbearing years (one contender had 13 children by age 31, including four sets of twins), they welcomed cameras into their kitchens and donned their best dresses to banter with Gay Byrne, Ireland's most famous media personality, onstage in some of the country's poshest theaters. Ellen Gowan in her home standing on a box with her sash. Juno Films Years later, the women have changed. They've become feminists, or they're returned to the work force, or they've learned to live independently of the former man of the house. Some of them supported the 1995 referendum that approved the constitutional amendment to lift the country's ban on divorce. Some have taken issue with the Irish Constitution, which to this day strongly encourages Irish women not to neglect 'their duties in the home.' 'I think people don't realize how religious Ireland was in the '60s, '70s, and '80s,' says Ciaran Cassidy, who directed the film. 'Anybody who grew up here would realize how total the control of the church was. 'It was a kind of fundamentalism about keeping up with appearances,' he says. 'I think these themes are universal, but it's very difficult when people are living through it to have that kind of perspective at the time.' Advertisement As a boy growing up in County Cavan, Cassidy (who is 45) had a neighbor who had been on the show. 'It was a town of 12 or 15,000, and everyone knew this woman was appearing on the show,' he says. After years as a live event, in 1982 the program became a Saturday night television staple. By 1988, at the height of 'Housewife''s popularity, 5000 women competed. At the time, the host, Byrne, was the biggest star in the country, Cassidy explains. 'It was kind of weird — he almost represented the whole patriarchy. All the different female characters, and just this one man.' Ellen Gowan on stage in the Everyman Theatre, Cork, holding a photo of herself as a girl. Juno Films Byrne, Cassidy says, was like the Johnny Carson of Ireland — if Carson had hosted multiple shows on TV and radio, in an era with no alternative to the one national network. Looking back, the show brims with outdated coiffures and cringeworthy innuendo. When one contestant tells Byrne (who died in 2019) that she has six kids — ages 14, 13, 12, eight, six, and a newborn — he does the math and asks 'What happened to 11, 10, and nine?' 'I couldn't keep going,' she replies. To which Byrne responds with an impish grin, 'Why not?' The film features ample footage from the program, flickering on the screens of vintage vacuum-tube TV sets, staged in the sepia-toned sitting rooms of old homes. "Housewife of the Year" winner Ann McStay posing with her family and husband in 1969. Juno Films 'There was no color back then,' says Dawn Morrissey, the festival's director. 'Women were almost in the background, like curtains.' She grew up in the town of Kildare, where she often watched the show with her mother. 'She had a very different experience,' Morrissey says. 'She only had two kids, by choice. She had lived in London, and she had a career. But the majority of women just didn't get that opportunity.' Advertisement Ireland's massive shift on cultural issues has been well documented in recent years. The country's economic boom, the so-called 'Celtic Tiger' of the late 1990s and early 2000s, has slowed, while the cost of living has risen drastically. Still, Irish creativity 'There's kind of a lot of confidence in the generation,' Cassidy says. 'These are singular stories, but they actually translate internationally if they're executed well. 'There's a lot of skilled people here, a lot of talent. It does feel like an exciting time. Irish people do love stories.' And for the women who once vied to be 'Housewife of the Year,' they're getting another moment in the sun. In the film, they take turns walking out onto a bare stage, beaming for Cassidy's cameras, wearing the sashes they earned long ago. "Housewife of the Year" winner Philomena Delaney onstage at the Everyman Theatre, Cork. Juno Films HOUSEWIFE OF THE YEAR Presented by Irish Film Festival, Boston. Friday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m. Sold out. Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, 617-625-5700 or James Sullivan can be reached at .
