Dining with my Sicilian Dad, at home or out and about, was always a culinary adventure. From him I learned to eat anything that didn't eat me first.

Recipe for a delightful evening: Take one part A Christmas Carol and one part Sherlock Holmes. Blend well, then let a talented team of actors serve to it you. A Sherlock Carol by Mark Shanahan does just that and it is a delight. It’s getting a brief run at Westport Country Playhouse through Saturday, Dec. 23. I wish it were longer.

As the New York Times reported on December 17, “When (Romy) Golan arrived at Koons’s 10th Avenue studio in New York last winter for her interview, she said she was asked to sign a filming release giving the artist the right to “view and approve any footage, still images and/or promotional material that are proposed for use.” Golan had no plans to film her interview or take photographs but signed the release." Koons effectively killed the story in Brooklyn Rail.

The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival is a winter arts festival located in Pittsfield’s Upstreet Cultural District in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, organized by the City of Pittsfield and Barrington Stage Company. Presenting short new plays during the dead of winter.  

Directed by Wallace Worsley, Universal’s largest-scale silent film played a large part in making Lon Chaney a legend. It paved the way for the rest of their enduring legacy of gothic horror from the golden age of film. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923; 2 hours, 13 minutes), Quasimodo (an inarticulate, deformed human being, who is the bellringer of the Cathedral of Notre Dame) sacrifices his life to save Esmeralda (a Gypsy girl who once befriended him) from Jehan, the hunchback's evil master and brother to Dom Claude, chief priest of the cathedral.

Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) in South Florida is the first stop for "The Messenger" in the National New Play Netwwork Rolling World Premiere Program. A cast of four excels in PBD's production, which runs through Dec. 24. Ultimately, "The Messenger" is about the need to speak out or take action in the face of hatred and violence.

The English Concert led by Harry Bickett performs an annual Baroque opera, semi-staged at Carnegie Hall.  These performances are highly anticipated, for good reason.  This year's was no exception.

Dreamgirls features a predictable show biz story about the career of a successful entertainer, in this case, a girl singing group, first called the Dreamettes.  It is also the story of a ruthless young man (Curtis) who will control, lie, manipulate, and cheat to achieve his aims. When he hurts or destroys someone, his response “It’s business.”

Shakespeare & Company announces the first four titles of the 2024 season, including a World Premiere and a musical exploration of Shakespeare’s language and music.  In addition to titles yet to be announced, Shakespeare & Company's 47th Season includes: 

Not only is A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas back at Hartford Stage, but it is better than ever. It’s been missing due to the pandemic and its aftermath.

From May 17 to September 29, 2024, the Guggenheim Museum will present the solo exhibition Jenny Holzer: Light Line, a reimagining of Holzer’s 1989 landmark installation.

In a compact manner, the libretto demonstrates the idealism of Einstein contrasted with the pragmatism of the women around him, while the story line covers political and social commentary; God and existence; the enormity of the creation of the atomic bomb; and more. Light touches and excerpts from other composers brighten the proceedings.

Victoria Bond is a composer who has experimented with many styles.  Over the years she has worked with Dr. Paul Barnes, a pianist and Greek Orthodox chanter, developing Illuminations on Byzantine Chant. Barnes had hoped to capture the wide emotional range and spiritual message of Orthodox Christianity,  Bond is captivated by this mystical world.

Now a Berkshire resident Steve Nelson and his wife Jan resided high above D.C. when Jimmy Carter became president. This piece was inspired by looking at vintage snapshots.

HallSpace presents Cross-Pollination, a collection of new work by Deborah Kamy Hull. Many of the cut, sewn, and painted textile works completed from 2020 to 2023 are constructed from old, used drop cloths and other repurposed materials. Deborah Kamy Hull has developed a vocabulary of graphic symbols using botanical and geometric forms. The garden as metaphor is a theme that flows through the work. Like memories, coded histories and other stories lie below the surface.

In the lobby of the Lyric Opera House in Chicago, you hear griping about management. Yet it is hard to imagine what people are talking about when you watch and hear the fall production of Gaetano Donizetti’s "Daughter of the Regiment. " A perfect production. 

The Salvagers takes place in a Chicago winter, as a father and son (Boseman Salvage Senior and Junior) must break down the barriers between them, explore the secrets that have created these, and start to find peace with each other and romance in their lives.

The Clark Art Institute will offer free admission for all visitors from January through March 2024. In its second year, the “Free for Three” program is part of the Institute’s ongoing effort to expand awareness of its programming and to welcome new visitors.  

This landmark donation of over 300 exemplary pieces of American art brings new genres and masterworks to the Museum’s holdings, including pivotal pieces by Winslow Homer, George Aarons, Cecilia Beaux, Stuart Davis, Adolph Gottlieb, Marsden Hartley, Eric Hudson, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Paul Manship and Jane Peterson amongst numerous others. 

Phil Kline created a magical holiday event thirty years ago. This year, Unsilent Night in North Adams, MA was presented by MCLA Gallery 51/MOSAIC, nbCC, North Adams Chamber, Anna Farrington, Andrew Fitch, Isabelle Holmes & Todd Reynolds In collaboration with LumiNAMA Holiday Lights Walk.

We meet a diverse group of young teens bound by a common skill – spelling - and a common goal – winning.  Spelling excellence is a grinding and lonely pursuit.  All who compete in this Bee are nerds, but each in their own way, and each is motivated by a different set of circumstances.  The audience will recall kids they’ve known and enjoy a light-hearted and entertaining look at growing up.

Presenting over 150 photographs of, by, and for Indigenous people, “In Our Hands” welcomes all to see through the lens held by Native photographers.

Americans are fascinated by the filthy rich. Audiences lapped up five seasons of Downton Abbey. Now Julian Fellowes has moved the franchise from PBS to HBO. We follow the robber barons and their social climbing wives on the sumptuous but smarmy Gilded Age. This grand but shallow soap opera is lavish and entertaining. It is worth watching for costumes and spectacle. We are enthralled by a sit down dinner for 60 set in a Newport Cottage. We recommend Becky Libourel Diamond's cook book with recipes to emulate the fine dining seen in the series.

Who would have thought that a solo performance about a family on the seedy edge of society as told by one of its descendants would captivate a theater audience? Sara Porkalob writes, tells, and sings stories of surviving entertainingly and with consummate magnetism and conviction.

BSC will produce the Tony Award-winning musical La Cage aux Folles, and the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Next to Normal, which will be directed by Alan Paul, in a co-production with Round House Theatre, Bethesda, MD.