As ever in our prayers a universal wish.

The magic of this play lies in the everyday ordinariness of each character’s lives which frequently tend to echo our own. I might add, when the lights went down there was not a dry eye in the house. Nor was there a heart left untouched.

 Lynn Nottage, the first female American playwright to win two Pulitzers, has created the story for MJ, the musical celebrating Michael Jackson.  It has been due on Broadway for a while.  The opening date is now postponed until February.  Previews opened this week. If it stays in previews until the line of tickets dwindles, it will be a financial success.  If it formally opens to reviews, it will succeed despite pederasty accusations.

Shakespeare & Company announces  the first three titles slated for production during its 45th Season, beginning in June 2022. Two works by Shakespeare and a modern production will open the season, which also marks the one-year anniversary of The New Spruce Theatre – Shakespeare & Company’s 500-seat amphitheater, constructed in the summer of 2021.

Donald Shambroom’s art embraces a hybrid notion of the societal whole and the individual as its own kind of whole. He leans on the structure of a visual language derived from Rauschenberg to insert images of faces known from mass media side by side with those of people in his immediate family. Sometimes there is text given the same weight as the faces and bodies.

Roundabout Theater is mounting Alice Childress’ play, Trouble in Mind. It premiered off Broadway in 1957 to excellent reviews. Transfer to Broadway failed when the producers demanded changes the playwright refused to make. Now we get a look.

Flying Over Sunset, a new musical with book by James Lapine and music by Tom Kitt premieres at the Lincoln Center Theater. It features Aldous Huxley ( Harry Hadden-Paton), Cary Grant (Tony Yazbeck)and Claire Boothe Luce (Carmen Cusack), who all experimented with LSD in the 1950s. Both Huxley and Luce wanted to expand their horizons. Grant went to a psychiatrist for a supervised dose of the drug at the recommendation of his then wife, Betsy Drake.

The Woman in Black has drawn sufficient audience to run on London’s West End for over 30 years – second in longevity only to Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.”  It’s had productions around the world and has been translated into 14 languages.  Not bad bona fides. Produced by American Conservatory Theater it plays at ACT’s Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., San Francisco.

In the dead of winter baby it's cold outside. It's time to curl up on the couch and hunker down with Netflix and Amazon. Here is a cheat sheet of what we've been watching.

This very special concert features the amazing flutist Andrea Brachfeld with Insight: Bill O’Connell, piano; Harvie S, bass; and Jason Tiemann, drums

The Streets of New York laugh and cry as they burst into song in Charlotte Moore’s production. Everyone you've ever met is on stage. Celebrate the holidays at the Irish Repertory Theatre

In an uncanny masterpiece musician Sal Baglio, in Music for Abandoned Amusement Parks, captures the ambiance of colorful East Boston. Journalist Frank Conte is the venerable chronicler of the hood.

You are invited to attend the 39th Re-Rooters Day Ceremony, Friday, January 7, 2022, 4:00 pm, Harbor Hotel beach, Provincetown Harbor (snow, storm or shine); bring something non-toxic to burn on a tree boat. Sponsored by the IRS, International Re-Rooters Society, Jay Critchley, President

Palm Beach Dramaworks will perform Almost, Maine from Jan. 12-30. In this play about love and romance, magic is literally in the air. Almost, Maine is an example of Magical Realism.

During three years in New York in the 1960s I (Charles Giuliano) was assistant director of East Hampton Gallery. Raeford Liles was one of the artists we represented. A native of Birmingham, Alabama he came from a military family. During WW11 he was a fighter pilot in the South Pacific and later served with SAC based in Paris where he studied art and cooking. There PTSD caused a breakdown leading to a lifetime of treatment and medication. He often spoke of his daughters with whom he had a complex relationship. This is explored in a remarkable essay by Barbara Liles. A chapter of a larger work in progress it was published by Southern Humanities Review.

Gail Samuel, Eunice and Julian Cohen President and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, today announced the appointment of two new executive leaders Maureen Flores, as Chief Development Officer, and Asadour Santourian, as Vice President, Tanglewood Music Center & Learning. Both appointments are effective January 2022.

Kimberly Akimbo the newly penned musical with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole, Shrek the Musical) and music by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Caroline, or Change) is the most loving, loveliest, and poignant theatrical experience of the year.

Barrington Stage Company announces the 10-minute plays and casting for the 11th Annual 10X10 New Play Festival, part of the 2022 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival.   

Krzysztof Wodiczko lives and works in New York City and is currently professor in residence at the Art, Design, and the Public Domain Masters of Design program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Previously, he served as the director of the Interrogative Design Group at MIT and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS). He has been a professor in the Visual Arts Program since 1991.

The biggest star of The Band's Visit is the music.  Lyrics in the sung songs are witty and divulging, and the accompanying music is pleasant throughout, with eclectic influences from American pop to klezmer to bossanova.  Some of the stylings are a little rough, which at first may suggest poor casting, but on further consideration, less than perfect renditions work well.  After all, the characters represented are not singers, they are working class.

A non-equity national touring production of the stage musical adaptation of Tootsie is playing the Broward Center for Performing Arts in Ft. Lauderdale. The uneven production will remain in Ft. Lauderdale through Jan. 23. For showtimes and ticket information, go to https://fortlauderdale.broadway.com/shows/tootsie.

Written by Shirley Edgerton and Felicia Robertson and directed by Shirley Edgerton and Ted Thomas, Ain’t I A Woman tells the stories of unsung African American heroines. Members of the Women of Color Giving Circle, Rites of Passage and Empowerment program, Youth Alive and other community members perform. Wanda Houston is the guest artist, telling the story and singing the songs of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.  

In a landmark collaboration between two leading U.S. modern and contemporary art museums, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced today the joint acquisition of an important immersive artwork by Yayoi Kusama. Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart Is Dancing into the Universe (2018) will receive its East Coast debut when One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection opens at the Hirshhorn this spring; dates to be announced.

"Aft­er a series of sunny vintages starting in 2018, the 2021 vintage at Domaine des Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges has seen a return to pure Burgundy tradition: perfect balance, clear typicity, small yield wines, and incredible balance," says Jean Marc Moron, Technical Manager of this estate, with its 13 hectares of vineyards.

Almost, Maine is a romantic comedy with magical realism. In magical realism, fantastical things happen within a realistic setting. However, the characters accept the otherworldly occurrences as normal. Almost, Maine runs through Jan. 30 at Palm Beach Dramaworks in South Florida.