December Arts Picks

A Brilliant Overview

By: Barbara Brilliant - Nov 28, 2010

Stop the world I want to get off. Can you believe that it is almost 2011? Wasn’t it the turn of the century a minute ago? I have to keep my sneakers on as everything is going so quickly. To those celebrating holidays this month I wish you the best. To those who are celebrating the New Year, may your resolutions come to pass.

Back to the business at hand and I am constantly reminded that there is no business like show business.

WHAT: A CHRISTMAS CAROL
WHERE: North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly MA
WHEN: December 3-23
TICKETS: (978) 232-7200,

"It is my pleasure to bring this holiday tradition back to North Shore Music Theatre,” said NSMT’s owner and Producer Bill Hanney.

“A Christmas Carol is a timeless story that resonates with people of all ages and carries a message that is just as genuine and poignant now as it was when it first premiered,” said director and writer Jon Kimbell. “This musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol captures the true spirit and meaning of the holiday season. It will be wonderful to see generations of families coming together once again to experience such a heart warming holiday tradition.”

A CHRISTMAS CAROL tells the tale of curmudgeonly miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Future hoping to change his destiny and save his soul. Audiences will travel with Scrooge as he sets off on a strange and magical journey, where he ultimately discovers the true spirit of the holiday season.

WHAT: BOSTON POPS
WHERE: Symphony Hall, Boston
WHEN: Various times, call for a complete schedule
TICKETS:617-266-1492 or online at www.bostonpops.org.

One of Boston’s greatest holiday traditions, the Holiday Pops season, under the direction of Keith Lockhart, opens on Wednesday, December 8, with a program that combines favorites of the holiday season with exciting new arrangements of some much loved Christmastime classics. The program ranges from seasonal music such as the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah,” “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing,” and the Gospel favorite, “My Lord What a Morning,” featuring singer Renese King, to a Christmas Is For Children Sing-Along featuring “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and beloved Holiday Pops arrangements including “Frosty All the Way” and “The Christmas Song.” Always a highlight of the Holiday Pops programs, the critically-acclaimed Tanglewood Festival Chorus will join the orchestra for the entire season of 37 performances, December 8-26. In addition, Santa Claus will make a special guest appearance at each of the Holiday concerts, which take place at Symphony Hall, festively decorated to evoke the unique magic of the holiday season

WHAT: PILOBOLUS (Celebrity Series)
WHERE: Cutler Magestic Theatre
WHEN: December 3-5
TICKETS: CelebrityCharge: (617) 482-6661

An absolute one-of-a-kind company, Pilobolus straddles the confluence of dance and human sculpture. The company has created a breathtaking body of over 100 utterly individual choreographic works, each occupying a niche all its own. Now entering its 40th year of existence, this remarkable company has come to embody a tradition of innovation. Grace, physical agility, and pure invention are the rule with Pilobolus; one of the dance world’s truly unique endeavors.Ã¢Â€Â¨Ã¢Â€Â¨Program will include Boston premieres of Rushes, the result of Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s collaboration with Pilobolus’ artististic team; The Transformation, the dance troupe’s latest shadow work in a collaboration with Steve Banks, the head writer of SpongeBob SquarePants, plus other Pilobolus classics.

“The best Pilobolus works, with no loss of wonder or pleasure as popular entertainment, are sustained flights of poetry and drama.” —The New York Times

WHAT: VENGEANCE IS THE LORD’S
WHERE: Boston University Theatre – 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
WHEN: Through December 12
TICKETS: 617 266-0800, or in person at the B.U. Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Avenue or the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Box Office, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.

$5 senior and military discounts.

The Huntington Theatre Company continues its 29th season with the world premiere of Vengeance is the Lord’s, a mother's call for mercy clashes with a father's need for retribution when their daughter's murderer comes up for parole. Sharp jokes, tough love, and foul-mouthed conversations drive this searing and darkly funny new drama, which unfolds at holiday dinners from Thanksgiving to Easter. As elements of the Horvath’s criminal enterprises spill into their home, they are confronted with a classic moral question: what to do when "justice" is not enough?

WHAT: MAX LEVINSON, RENOWNED PIANO MASTER
WHERE: The Boston Conservatory’s Seully Hall, 8 The Fenway
WHEN: TUESDAY DECEMBER 7 at 8 PM
TICKETS: $15, $10 for seniors, and free for all students with valid ID

http://bostonconservatory.ticketforce.com/, or 617-912-9222.

This is a must see! Max Levinson is amazing. Max will be performing the works of Chopin,and Liszt. Levinson will offer a master class with Boston Conservatory students on Wednesday, December 8, from 4–6 p.m. in Seully Hall. The master class is free and open to the public.

Check this out. Boston Conservatory faculty member Max Levinson earned a B.A. from Harvard and an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory. He received the Andrew Wolf Award (2005) as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant (1999) and won first prize in the Dublin International Piano Competition (1997).

Levinson appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber and Boston Pops orchestras as well as the St. Louis, Detroit, San Francisco, Baltimore, Oregon, Indianapolis, Colorado and Utah symphony orchestras. He has performed in chamber music concerts with Pinchas Zukerman, Richard Stoltzman, Tokyo, Vermeer, Mendelssohn and Borromeo Quartets and has appeared at major music festivals, including the Santa Fe, Marlboro, Tanglewood and Mostly Mozart. Levinson has given recitals throughout the US and Europe in such venues as New York's Alice Tully Hall, Washington DC's Kennedy Center, London's Wigmore Hall, Zürich's Tonhalle, Musee d'Orsay (Paris) and Boston's Jordan Hall. Levinson is artistic director for the San Juan Festival (CO) and has given master classes at Harvard, the Royal Irish Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Washington, Rutgers and Brigham Young University (BYU). Recordings of his work can be found on N2K Encoded Music, Warner Classics and Stereophile record labels. For more information, visit his website at www.maxlevinson.com.

If you are a senior, how lucky can you get? Seeing this caliber artist for $10 could be your holiday gift to yourself.

WHAT: JERSEY BOYS
WHERE: Colonial Theatre
WHEN: December 16-January 30
TICKETS: 1 (800) 982-2787

Broadway Across America does it again. They constantly bring us great road shows and The Jersey Boys is no exception. Find out how 4 blue collar kids came to become huge stars. Their music holds up today. You won’t be able to stay in your seat. This is a play that can be seen innumerable times.

I thought that we would end this column withone of the great songs from the play.

Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You “Jersey Boys”

You're just too good to be true.

Can't take my eyes off you.

You'd be like heaven to touch.

I wanna hold you so much.

At long last love has arrived

And I thank God I'm alive.

You're just too good to be true, can't take my eyes off you.

Pardon the way that I stare.

There's nothing else to compare.

The sight of you leaves me weak.

There are no words left to speak,

But if you feel like I feel,

Please let me know that it's real.

You're just too good to be true can't take my eyes off you.

I love you, baby,

And if it's quite alright,

I need you, baby,

To warm a lonely night.

I love you, baby.

Trust in me when I say:

Oh, pretty baby,

Don't bring me down, I pray.

Oh, pretty baby, now that I found you, stay

And let me love you, baby. Let me love you.