In 2015 Pete Townsend’s long time musical collaborator Rachel Fuller scored the rock opera for orchestra. They were married in February. It was performed to mostly favorable but mixed reviews with the 90-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the 80 members of the London Oriana Choir. This version was performed last night at Tanglewood with Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops. Opera tenor Alfie Boe, Townsend, and British rocker Billy Idol performed the vocals.

In May the world's foremost architect, Frank Gehry, signed on to design The Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum in North Adams. It is one of 11 projects being developed by visionary museum director Thomas Krens. There is a daunting sticker price of some $300 miliion for construction anticipated to start as early as June, 2018.

Noni Stapleton is a mesmerizing artist. Her writing gifts launch the characterization of a quartet of characters at 59E59 Theaters. Stapleton plays three humans and a charming, and then not so charming cow. You can't take your eyes off her.

Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue is not a treatise on meat-grilling. It’s a satire that roasts our attitudes about race, class and money. It’s a funny, biting family story with a twisty, turny plot that never stops surprising you.

Making her first Tanglewood appearance in decades the 73-year-old diva, Miss Diana Ross (as she insists on being addressed), had them dancing in the aisles. It was an evening of greatest hits her own as well as covers. With no opening act it proved to be an early evening in Lenox ending before 9 PM.

The play is set in 1941 and to an extent is time-bound. Older patrons and history buffs might better understand some references to Judith Anderson, 'Hellzapoppin', and Teddy Roosevelt's life. More so, a running gag in the script suggests that the menacing Jonathan looks a lot like Boris Karloff. The original Broadway production had a distinct advantage on this point as Karloff was cast as Jonathan.

In every sense it was a cool evening in the Shed as British rock star, Sting, brought his tour in support of the album 57th and 9th to Tanglewood. They have been on the road since last February.

Last summer Astrid and I were residents at the Gloucester Writers Center. Introduced by musician, filmmaker, hipster, Henry Ferrini, we returned for a reading and launch of Gloucester Poems: Nugents of Rockport at Gloucester Writers Center. The poet and boyhood friend, Geoffrey Movius, shared the program.

To launch Sareah Slifer Swft's Movement Art Gloucester MA (MAGMA) there were popup performances as well as card triks by her adolescent son Seamus. It was a fun way to christen a great space for dance and the performing arts.

If you missed the movingly sweet indie film “Brigsby Bear,” you are not alone. My theater cancelled their scheduled weekend showings after a negligible audience for its opening Friday, though they did allow it a 4:00 p.m. showing the following Monday and Wednesday afternoons before sending it on its way.

If there are antidotes to Charlottesville, one may be “Step,” the new documentary from Amanda Lipitz that won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2017 AFI Docs festival. The film tells the remarkable story of the step team at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW). The school opened its doors to sixth graders in 2009. In the spring of 2016, its inaugural class was preparing to graduate.

Neil Simon's one-liners are a refreshing change-of-pace to unsettling plays in the era of Trump. Actors nail comic timing in Broward Stage Door Theater's production of The Sunshine Boys. Director and cast don't forget the pathos in the Neil Simon's play

Forty years ago playwright Israel Horovitz was a founder of Gloucester stage which has produced many of his 70 plus plays. Many have Gloucester settings but the latest Out of the Mouths of Babes is a part of a Parisian trilogy with one more to go. It was produced last summer at Cherry Lane in Manhattan. It is having its New England premiere in Gloucester and debuts in London this fall.

It's one of the greatest love stories of the operatic canon. It's a sharp commentary on American imperialism and the uncaring treatment of "natives" by white people. It's both. It's brilliant. It's Butterfly.

I’ll let you in on my recipe for the best pasta sauce ever. Roasting the tomatoes adds a certain nutty, burnt richness to the sauce.

Iceland is a destination for both the culture and nature enthusiast. Although Reykjavik is a small capital city, its cultural offerings are as varied as those of any major European capital. Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland is dotted with charming coastal villages and a feast of natural wonders. Snaefelsjokull, a glacier capped 700,000-year-old volcano, looms large over the western end of the peninsula.

Separated by almost three hundred the years, the full productions of Dell’Arte’s annual festival both looked at how two worlds mix and match in Calisto and The Cunning Vixen. Both productions were at once delightful and moving.

Opera is a form comprised of many elements. Seldom are all of them addressed successfully. Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble succeeds in producing intriguing and complex theater with attention to every detail. How do they do it, opera after opera, concert after concert?

On a recent trip to Languedoc, the wines from the first evenings samplings of AOC Pezenas stood out as quality driven wines. In fact, one out of every ten wines sold worldwide is from Languedoc.

Audiences choose the order of the plays in annual "Shorts" festival. Actors bring comic energy to roles in production of popular theatrical event. Relevance not hard to spot in largely-escapist shows

San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre has the honor of mounting the World Premiere of Ken Ludwig’s newest comedy/farce “Robin Hood”, deftly directed by longtime stage and TV veteran Jessica Stone.

Ivan Fischer, the great Hungarian conductor, returns to Mozart's original version of Don Giovanni. Putting on a production from the Don's point of view, everything is a body. Furniture, peasants, chorus all are wearing white body suits and often strike arresting poses. This concept invites us to listen more closely to the terrific Budapest Festival Orchestra and the singers.

Opening the first half of the annual Film Night at Tanglewood Andris Nelsons shared conducting duties with 85-year-old John Williams. Nelson's was a surprise guest trumpet soloist in the score of Lincoln by Williams. It was a sold out evening on a perfect summer night in Lenox. It is always a thrill to hear him conduct the iconic scores that have earned him a record 50 Academy Awards nominctions.

Machinal, a new production of a neglected 1928 play by Sophie Treadwell at the Greenhouse Theater Center, is stunning in its balletic staging and the nuanced performance of Heather Crisler, playing the Young Woman.

Mostly Mozart programs with intent. While the most obvious connections between a program including Prokovief's 1st Symphony, Mozart's 25th and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto may be their bridge positions between musical periods, the Classical, Romantic and Neoclassical, more than a ladder rung binds these pieces. Exuberant turns of phrase, often taken at a tear, provide their texture. Violinist Gil Shaham uses his consummate pyrotechnics on behalf of the music.