Slow Burn Theatre Company's production of "Kinky Boots" raises us up. The Ft. Lauderdale company's production runs through Jan. 2. Kinky Boots is based on a film of the same name, which, in turn, is based on a true story.

Joe Papp at the Ballroom attempts to recreate the theater legend's public concert in 1978. GableStage, together with Yiddishkayt Initiative (https://yilovejewish.org). The production runs through Dec. 31 at the award-winning Coral Gables professional, nonprofit theater company.

Mark St. Germain has crafted a moving and funny portrait of the great radio and television sex-pert, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. It plays at the Safra Hall in the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Scott Schwartz directs. Dr. Ruth triumphs over Hitler.

A new non-equity touring production of the musical-comedy hit, Hairspray, is touring the country. The production, which achieves mixed results, recently played Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center, but some performances were cancelled due to positive COVID tests within the company. The next tour stop is Cincinnati's Aronoff Center from Jan. 4-9.

The original film of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story was released in 1957. Why mess with a masterpiece? Now we have a remake collaboration by living legends screenwriter Tony Kushner and director Stephen Spielberg. While arguably not better it certainly is different and relevant for a new generation of viewers. Look for the fabulous 89-year-old Rita Moreno (Academy Award winner for her 1961 portrayal of Anita) as Valentina, the widow of the store owner ‘Doc.”

When the movie “Casablanca” merged the powerful elements of love, war, and destiny in 1942, the film and its producers never saw the phenomenal appeal or its success coming until it won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1943.  Eighty years later it still deserves a shout-out for American filmmaking exceptionalism.  

In the late ‘50s-early ‘60s, LSD (before Dr. Timothy Leary) was a trendy drug used by both psychiatrists and other to help individuals explore their past and their subconscious. Among the well-known people who experimented with the drug was actor Cary Grant, novelist Aldous Huxley and playwright/journalist/diplomat Clare Boothe Luce.

Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris, directed by Robert O'Hara, brings us abruptly into sexual fantasies played out by three interracial couples in the ante-bellum South. This is not what might have happened in the South before or during Jim Crow.  No, it is the processing of feelings which will re-invigorate the Black partner’s sexual desire.  In the second Act, Processing, we get into the nitty grity of race feelings, which range wider and tougher than the first act’s insight that cantaloupe has white skin and no taste

El-Saieh (b. 1984, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; lives and works in Miami) creates paintings that dazzle with dense, all-over compositions of compact marks—achieved through painting, erasing, and abrading—often accompanied by atmospheric washes of bold color. His pictures test the limits of abstraction and perception with parts that resemble patterns, symbols, or even language, and a whole in which larger figures appear to coalesce, advance, or recede. Haitian vodou traditions inform his distinctive visual style, which also reflects influences from Abstract Expressionism and Surrealist automatism. 

Mass MoCa has a busy schedule of exhibitions and special events through April. Check this out and bookmark.

Igor Levit performed Beethoven, Fred Hersch, Wagner and Liszt in a compelling musical evening at Carnegie Hall in New York. The Hall, vaccinated and boosted, was packed for the occasion.

The work of Debra Weisberg will be featured in a new exhibit, Holding the Center Still, at the Piano Craft Gallery in Boston from March 4 – March 27, 2022. The exhibit comprises collaged paper works and a large scale floor installation. In the opening and closing receptions Vermont choreographer, Paula Higa, will premier a short piece created in response to Weisberg’s work.

The author of several biographies, plays and opera librettos, Terry Teachout had an expansive interest in the arts. Few of his generation were more prolific. In an age of decline in arts journalism he was the only major critic who regularly covered regional theatre. We saw him several times each season in the Berkshires.

The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton has mounted an impressive production of the classic musical, Gypsy. The production runs through Feb. 13. Laura Hodos as Mama Rose and the rest of the cast shine.

Colm Toibin's The Magician, his story aboutf Thomas Mann, portrays a man constantly glancing at other men. Does the embrace of celebrated artists as gay add anything to our understanding of great men?

This touring musical brings all of the glitzy production values of Broadway.  Staging, which combines extensive back-lit projection along with movable scenery, is bright, colorful and appealing, especially the brilliant landscape diorama made entirely from candy.  The play is highly episodic with different musical twists in the introductions of each winner of the free tour. 

It’s known from coast to coast that Wellfleet Oysters are one of the best! When we saw the sign for Wellfleet Oysters for $ 0.99/each at our nearest grocery store, Big Y, in North Adams – we had to buy a dozen.

MCLA Gallery 51 is pleased to announce its next exhibition, come inside. Opening reception on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022 from 5-7PM. The exhibition will run from February 4 - May 20, 2022.

Boca Stage, a professional South Florida company formerly known as Primal Forces, has mounted a funny and touching production of the satiric Rx. The play lightly satirizes the pharmaceutical industry. The production runs through Feb. 6.

Terrific performances, wonderful choreography and close harmonies make it almost certain that you’ll thoroughly enjoy Five Guys Named Moe now at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford through Sunday, Feb. 27.

Festival 2022, which will feature 10 weeks of on-site programming, opens June 22, and runs through August 28, attracting dance audiences from across the globe to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. The season-opening Gala will be held on June 18. The recipient of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and the gala program will be announced on March 15.

Opening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), this spring, Turner’s Modern World brings together more than 100 works by one of Britain’s greatest artists—including paintings, watercolors, drawings and sketchbooks—drawn from museums across the U.S. and Great Britain.

Drawing inspiration from the significance of the great kilns of Stoke-on-Trent, Theaster Gates’s Pavilion will pay homage to British craft and manufacturing traditions. While the structure of the Pavilion will predominantly be made of wood, the Pavilion’s design alludes to the performative and meditative qualities of a small chapel

The Boston art community is saddened to learn of the passing of Todd McKee. He was an artist known for wit and whimsy in his work, primarily watercolor on paper.  

Folk and Baroque—Performed Live at Historic Saint James Place in Downtown Great Barrington, MA, February 26, 2021 at 6 PM