Brilliant Arts and Entertainment
October 2010
By: Barbara Brilliant - Sep 26, 2010
This past September 1st marked Seiji Ozawa’s 75th birthday. If you forgot to send him greetings you can still do so on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bostonsymphony. We wish the maestro birthday wishes for health and happiness.
Now on to some theatrical events happening in October.
WHAT: FREE CLASSICAL CELLO CONCERT
WHERE: BRIMMER & MAY SCHOOL CHESTNUT HILL
WHEN: OCTOBER 10 3 PM
TICKETS: (617)587-4622
Four Boston Symphony Orchestra cellists join together as The Boston Cello Quartet to perform the works of Mozart, Schubert and Albinoni.
Call for reservations. There are another 3 FREE concerts in this series that is sponsored by Saul B. Cohen of Hammond Residential Real Estate. The concerts are always excellent. What a nice way to give back to the community. Get on their mailing list.
WHAT: CABARET
WHERE: ART
WHEN: Now through OCT. 29
With a book by Joe Masteroff, Cabaret is based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood; music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb; directed by Steven Bogart; movement by Steven Mitchell Wright; set and costume design by David Israel Reynoso; lighting design by Nicolas Vargelis; sound design by Clive Goodwin; music direction by Debra Barsha and Lance Horne; Kit Kat Klub paintings by Rick Berry.
Take your seat at the Kit Kat Klub, the perfectly marvelous cabaret where singer Sally Bowles meets writer Cliff Bradshaw. As the two pursue a life of pleasure in Weimar Berlin, the world outside the Klub begins to splinter. Presiding over it all is singer, songwriter, and former Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer as the Kit Kat Klub's magnetic Emcee.
WHAT: SCASSI AMERICAN COUTURIER
WHERE: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
WHEN: NOW THROUGH JUNE 19, 2011
TICKETS: (617) 267-9300
If you saw “ON A CLEAR DAY” with Barbra Streisand or if you saw the diva pick up her Academy Award in 1969, then you saw the artistry of couturier Arnold Scassi. The fashion legend who also dressed Barbara Bush and Arlene Francis among others told me that he is a Taurus like Streisand and that they had no problem getting along. IN the Loring Gallery 28 of his stunning creations are displayed. We can understand why Jackie Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush chose the spicy Arnold Scassi to custom design fashions for them. And what fashion advice does he have? Any woman can wear any color “just change the lipstick.” And for me, he was emphatic that I would look better if I wore color not my usual black. When in the museum you might want to check of the Richard Avedon photograph exhibit round off your fashion as art experience.
WHAT: ROCK OF AGES
WHERE COLONIAL THEATRE
WHEN:
TICKETS: 1-800-982-2787 or by visiting www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com/Boston.
The five-time Tony Award®-nominated smash-hit musical ROCK OF AGES will be rocking Boston’s Colonial Theatre for a limited two-week engagement October 6 – 17, 2010. Coming to you direct from Broadway is previously announced Tony Award® Nominee and “American Idol” finalist, Constantine Maroulis, who will reprise his acclaimed performance as Drew. Maroulis made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award®-nominated 2007 production of Wedding Singer and co-starred in Off Broadway's critically acclaimed production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Maroulis is no stranger to Boston having graduated from the Boston Conservatory.
In 1987 on the Sunset Strip, a small-town girl met a big-city dreamer – and in L.A.’s most legendary rock club, they fell in love to the greatest songs of the ‘80’s. It’s ROCK OF AGES, a hilarious, feel-good love story told through the hit songs of iconic rockers Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Whitesnake, Boston favorite Extreme and many more. Don’t miss this awesomely good time where big hair meets big dreams and the result totally wails.
WHAT: THE METHOD GUN (Boston Premiere)
WHERE: Black Box at Paramount Center.
WHEN: October 13—17, 2010
TICKETS:
INFO: Written by Kirk Lynn and directed by Shawn Sides, The Method Gun is created and performed by Rude Mechs
The Method Gun hilariously explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, an apocryphal actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s, whose sudden emigration to South America still haunts her most fervent followers. Burden’s training technique, “The Approach” (often referred to as "the most dangerous acting technique in the world"), fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals in order to give even the smallest role a touch of sex, death and violence. Amid swinging pendulums and talking tigers, The Method Gun uses found text from “actual” journals and performance reports from the final months of rehearsals for Burden’s nine-years-in-the-making production of A Streetcar Named Desire using only the minor characters. It’s about the ecstasy and excesses of performing, the dangers of public intimacy and the incompatibility of truth on stage and sanity in real life. Recommended for age 17 and up. (Contains nudity.)
WHAT: BUS STOP
WHERE: BU THEATRE MAINSTAGE
WHEN: THROUGH OCTOBER 17
TICKETS: 617 266-0800 tickets@huntingtontheatre.org.
INFO: A snowstorm strands a bus outside of Kansas City, and its passengers — including a stubborn, love struck cowboy and the nightclub singer he hopes to marry – seek shelter and warmth at a roadside diner. The motley crew spends one night together, filled with bluster, heartache, and laughter, searching for love in this classic American comedy. Former Artistic Director Nicholas Martin returns to direct.
“William Inge was an indisputably major artist, one of this country's half-dozen greatest playwrights.” — Wall Street Journal
“William Inge had a timeless sense of humor, and this play, perhaps his greatest, has a very modern feeling of openness and honesty. He was celebrated in his time, but I believe his plays are just hitting their finest moment. I know that Nicholas Martin will bring his terrific sense of comedy and warmth — so appreciated by Boston audiences — to bear in our production.” — Peter DuBois
WHAT: DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
WHERE: NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE
62 Dunham Rd. Beverly
WHEN: Now through OCTOBER 10, 2010
INFO: This musical stars Brent Barrett. Seeing Barrett is reason enough to see the play. Bill Hanney’s all new North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) continues its 2010 season with the scamming, scheming, double-crossing hit Broadway musical, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS through October 10
“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is one of the smartest and funniest shows that has been on Broadway in the past few years. NSMT’s audiences are going to be transported to the French Riviera for a night of music, dancing, and high society high jinks that will leave them roaring with laughter,” says NSMT’s owner and producer, Bill Hanney. “I am also very proud that Evans Haile and I have assembled a top notch cast featuring some of the best performers working on Broadway. Missing this show would be a crime!”
Based on the popular 1988 MGM film starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS centers on two con men living on the French Riviera – the suave and sophisticated Lawrence Jameson, who makes his lavish living by talking rich ladies out of their money; and a small-time crook named Freddy Benson, who, more humbly, swindles women by waking their compassion with fabricated stories about his grandmother’s failing health. After meeting on a train, they unsuccessfully attempt to work together only to find that this small French town isn’t big enough for the two of them. So they make a bet: the first one to swindle $50,000 from a young heiress, triumphs and the other must leave town. What follows are a series of schemes, masquerades and double-crosses in which nothing may ever be exactly what it seems.
The remainder of the 2010 season includes “A Chorus Line,” November 2 - 21; and “A Christmas Carol,” December 3 –23.
WHAT: THE BOSTON PHILHARMONIC WITH BENJAMIN ZANDER
WHERE: Various venues
INFO: (617) 236-0999
The Boston Philharmonic launches its 2010–2011 season with the crisp, bracing harmonies of a program that is all-French, either by birth or by implication. In a lighter tone than is usual with the BPO, the concert opens with Gershwin’s An American in Paris, that remarkable evocation of Parisian sights and sounds seen through the prism of a very American sensibility.??Ravel’s ravishing and virtuosic Piano Concerto in G Major follows. Pianist Stephen Drury has an uncanny affinity for this music, Ravel’s amazing balancing act between subtlety and outrageousness. His performance of this concerto with the orchestra back in 1995 astounded the audience and received rave reviews. The orchestra is thrilled that Mr. Drury is returning in this signature work.??Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, one of the composer’s seminal masterpieces, is scored entirely for solo wind and brass instruments. It was written in memory of Debussy, but the dedication only highlights the differences between the older composer’s evanescent fluidity and the young Russian’s tensile strength and sharp edges.??And to close this concert is Debussy’s beloved La Mer, which, surprisingly, the orchestra has never before played in its 32 year history. Debussy’s score is the iconic French orchestral masterpiece of the twentieth century, ever-fresh, beloved, endlessly imitated by other composers. It is the ultimate orchestra seascape — quintessentially French and as salty as they come.
WHAT: CABARET
WHERE: LOEB THEATRE/CAMBRIDGE
WHEN: OCTOBER (many performances sold out so check)
TICKETS: (617) 547-8300
With book by Joe Masteroff, based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood; music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb; directed by Steven Bogart; movement by Steven Mitchell Wright; set and costume design by David Israel Reynoso; lighting design by Nicolas Vargelis; sound design by Clive Goodwin; music direction by Debra Barsha and Lance Horne; Kit Kat Klub paintings by Rick Berry.
Take your seat at the Kit Kat Klub, the perfectly marvelous cabaret where singer Sally Bowles meets writer Cliff Bradshaw. As the two pursue a life of pleasure in Weimar Berlin, the world outside the Klub begins to splinter.
WHAT: LONGWOOD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
WHERE: JORDAN HALL
WHEN: OCTOBER 2
TICKETS: 617.667.1527
Longwood Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director and Conductor Jonathan McPhee, announce the first concert of their 2010-2011 season Healing our Community through Music. Remember that the Newton Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Orent did a healing program last year. It is good to see that others are acknowledging the positive power of music.
Under the baton of Maestro Jonathan McPhee, Longwood Symphony Orchestra will perform an evening of symphonic poetry featuring the works of Jean Sibelius and Frederick Delius. Violinist Zina Schiff brings to life the uninhibited romanticism of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, a work made popular by her former teacher, Jascha Heifetz. The expression of complex emotions through rhapsodic tone poetry continues with Sibelius’ Karelia Suite and Delius’ Walk to the Paradise Garden from his opera A Village Romeo and Juliet.
Recognized in 2007 by the League of American Orchestras as a model of community engagement for orchestras nationwide, Longwood Symphony Orchestra has partnered with 37 local medical organizations since 1991 through its Healing Art of Music™ program. Through music, LSO has helped these organizations raise funds, improve care for the medically underserved, and increase community awareness for public health issues including homelessness, HIV/AIDS, nutrition and diseases including diabetes, Lou Gehrig’s Disease and Alzheimer’ZINA SCHIFF, violin
Violinist Zina Schiff’s playing has been described by the New York Times as "Luscious high voltage…vintage Heifetz." A protégée of the legendary Jascha Heifetz, Zina has captivated audiences and critics with her passion and communicative power, soloing with major orchestras and in recital on four continents. This concert is just what the doctor ordered.
WHAT: NEWTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
WHERE: RASHI SCHOOL 15 Walnut Park Newton Corner
WHEN: OCTOBER 3 6:30 FREE LECTURE 7:30 PM CONCERT
TICKETS: (617) 965-2555
Maestro James Orent conducts a concert of mostly Liszt called Heroic Liszt. Joining him and the orchestra is celebrated 22 year old pianist Aleksandra Poliykov. Pollykow started playing piano at 3 years old and at 8 was soloing with a symphony orchestra. He came to the US to study with Michael Lewin. This concert should be one to remember.
WHAT: BSO OPENING NIGHT CONCERT
WHERE: SYMPHONY HALL
WHEN: OCTOBER 2 at 6 PM SATURDAY
TICKETS: 617-266-1200
The opening concert is an ALL–WAGNER PROGRAM
Prelude to Act I and "Was duftet doch der Flieder" (Hans Sachs's Act II Monologue) from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
“Ride of the Valkyries,” “Wotan's Farewell,” and “Magic Fire Music” from Die Walküre
Overture and “Die Frist ist um” (The Dutchman's Monologue) from The Flying Dutchman
One of my very favorite singers, along with the young Placido Domingo, is welsh born bass-baritone BRYN TERFEL. (Try to say that 10 times quickly.) He joins maestro JAMES LEVINE to open the 2010-2011 season of the BSO. The Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel rose to prominence when he won the Lieder Prize in the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. In 2003, Mr. Terfel was awarded a CBE for services to Opera in the Queen’s New Year Honours. Bryn Terfel has performed in all the great opera houses of the world, being recognized especially for his portrayals of Figaro and Falstaff. He is also a wonderful raconteur and speaker. James Levine made his BSO debut in April 1972 and became music director in the fall of 2004.
As part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s ongoing initiative to bring classical music to a wider audience, the orchestra has announced three new educational initiatives for the 2010-11 BSO season. A new subscription series, UnderScore Fridays, will feature pre-concert talks by conductors and an earlier concert start time, allowing opportunity for post-concert meet-and-greet sessions with artists. “BSO 101: ARE YOU LISTINGING?” is a complimentary Wednesday-evening lecture series that is open to the general public and designed to give patrons insights on how to get the most out of their concert experience. The BSO will also offer seven free pre-concert Digital Music Seminars, to guide users of all skill levels through the process of downloading digital music.
WHAT: NEW REP CHERRY DOCS
WHERE: CHARLES MOSESIAN THEATRE, WATERTOWN
WHEN: OCTOBER 17-NOV7
TICKETS (617) 923-8487
This New England play is the story of a Jewish lawyer who is assigned to defend a young skinhead accused of brutally killing an immigrant man. Playwright David Cow dare the audience to examine their capacity for compassion and askes, is there atonement for all crimes?
WHAT: IN THE NEXT ROOM (or THE VIBRATOR PLAY)
WHERE: SPEAKEASY STAGE
WHEN: THROUGH OCTOBER 16
TICKETS: (617) 933-8600
A 2010 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, this laugh-out-loud, provocative and touching play is a comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity. Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat ‘hysterical’ women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife and how his new therapy affects their entire household.
WHAT: GIRLS NIGHT OUT
WHERE: WILBUR THEATRE
WHEN:OCTOBER 7,8,9
TICKETS:800-745-3000
This off-Broadway hit show is here for a limited time. Grab the girls and enjoy hits like “It’s Raining Men” and “I Will Survive.” Don’t you just love those songs? It’s like eating a Twinkie but fun.
Well, I could go on and on, but this is a great start . You might also want to check out our many colleges that have concerts and plays such as The Boston Conservatory, NE Conservatory, Emerson and others.
Happy Halloween!!!