Germany has become a perennial contender for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Once again, its industry is competing for another win with the emotion-packed thriller “In the Fade”, starring Diane Kruger. She won as Best Actress at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

The inimitable Hershey Felder has carved a special niche in theater as a portrayer of great music composers. In his solo performances, he adeptly characterizes a composer and deftly performs his compositions on a grand piano.

In Five Mile Lake, playwright Rachel Bonds tells the story of five young people and the small Pennsylvania town where they have connections. They portras their dreams and despair sympathetically, in amusing, sometimes eloquent conversations.

The Parisian Woman is not a great play and Thurman’s performance is lacking, BUT (and this is a big but), I had a thoroughly enjoyable time seeing it.

Linda Reiter creates a vivid replica of Mrs. Kennedy’s appearance and manner in Rose, the one-woman show written by Laurence Leamer and directed by Steve Scott.

Jonas Kaufman cancelled his appearance as Cavaradossi in the new Metropolitan Opera production of Tosca. He is scheduled for La Fanciulla del West next season. We shall see. He kept his appointment at Carnegie Hall and has an active opera schedule in Europe, including Parsifal an Andre Chenier.

Zanna, Don't! is a charming musical that's escapist but makes you think a bit. A vibrant cast performs role-reversal musical with zest at Wilton Manor's Island City Stage. This bold musical never fails to engage

The American Lyric Theater has an annual concert in which the work of their alumni is featured. This year's program included an opera by Patrick Soluri with libretto by Deborah Brevoort; a Christmas opera by Ricky Ian Gordon, libretto by Royce Vavrek; and a one act children's opera.

The extraordinary French conductor, now principal guest conduct at the London Symphony Orchestra and founder of his own orchestra, Les Siecles, which performs works from all ages on the instruments of the period, was in Boston this week for a program of music, each work composed within three years of the other.

When an opportunity to celebrate USCO’s pioneering work came along, I just had to curate it. This acknowledgement of our cultural past, still clearly resonates in our 21st Century present.

Former Peter Pan Sandy Duncan fondly recalls her past during interview at South Florida theater. Beloved star remains vibrant at age 71. Duncan to appear in Love Letters in Raleigh, N.C.

The pressures of being of left political persuasion compounded by an illegal sexual preference were magnified in the Red Scare following the Second World War in the United States. Television brought McCarthy hearings into American homes. Terror was struck in the hearts of citizens. The story of two men who got snared by the scare tactics is touchingly told in Fellow Travelers, an opera which had its New York premier at the Prototype Festival.

Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960) founded the Shelburne Museum which has 150,000 objects and 39 buildings on 45 acres. Her father Henry Osborne Havemeyer was known as The Sugar King. With his wife Louisne they created a vast collection donating 2,000 objects, including French Impressionist masterpieces, to the Met. Electra married polo champion James Watson Webb II of the Vanderbilt family. Well before the controversies of the Berkshire Museum, in 1996, the Shelburne Museum sold $30 million of its art to pay expenses. During the winter just five buildings are open. We viewed two special exhibitions in the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education which opened in 2013. It was a lively and intriguing experience.

Woody Sez- the life & music of Woody Guthrie — now at Westport Country Playhouse intersperses his life story, mostly told by David M. Lutkin as Woody, with renditions of the music he made so famous.

Murder has never been so much fun than in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. An engaging non-equity touring production is playing Ft. Lauderdale's Broward Center for the Performing Arts. One actor plays almost 10 diverse characters in a tour-de-force performance/

The Echo Drift is the second opera staged by the Prototype Festival, a group of creative producers who are working to develop new opera using all the media available, as opera has done from its earliest beginnings.

The 2018 season of Barrington Stage Company which will feature three world premieres, including a major new musical from Tony Awards winners William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin, a new play from Off Broadway Alliance Award winner Lloyd Suh, and the first major production from playwright, Rachel Lynett. The season starts with Typhpid Mary by Mark St. Germain in the theatre named for him.

If there were one word to characterize this year’s selection of possible documentary Oscar nominees, it would have to be nihilism. In its preliminary round of voting, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected 15 films of the 170 submissions for Best Documentary Academy Award, many produced by Amazon Studios, Netflix, HBO, et al.

On January 2nd, Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) officially launched its 29th Annual Film Festival and Gala. More than 2400 guests, attended, along with stars, celebrities, industry professionals, screenwriters, producers, directors, and actors to rub elbows at the Palm Springs Convention Center, as they accepted their Awards for their artistic accomplishments during 2017.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” an Amazon Studios series, won two Golden Globes Sunday night—one for best TV comedy series and one for best actress in a comedy series for Brosnahan, who grew up in Highland Park. It’s a hilarious look at a life among the wealthy and the lovably wacky flavor of Greenwich Village before Bob Dylan arrived.

Black Button Eyes’ darkly gothic production of Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe makes good use of the Edge Theatre’s spacious proscenium stage. The world premiere musical with book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Christenson is directed by Ed Rutherford.

Our correspondent, Karen Isaacs, shares the best of what she reviewed on Broadway in 2017.

Finding Neverland is charming to a point, but lacks depth. An equity national touring production of the musical features acting that's too over-the-top. A musical about the birth of Peter Pan may delight young children despite its shortcomings.

2017 offered superb theatre for Connecticut audiences. Our correspondent, Karen Isaacs, has a list of the Top Ten shows. In addition she lists twelve more productions worthy of critical recognition.

The Ramos Pinto brothers founded Ramos Pinto in 1880 and marketed the port wine producing company to Brazilians. They commissioned remarkable artworks illustrating their products and guerilla marketing practices. Today, the posters are iconic and the new owners, Champagne Roederer, have been following in the footsteps of Antonio and Adriano Ramos Pinto.