Rightlynd by Ike Holter begins with Nina’s awakening as a neighborhood activist and concludes two years later, as she learns what it takes to succeed in Chicago. The story line is blended with musical set pieces, dance numbers, Nina and Pac’s first date and its romantic consequences.

For her CD release party at the Regatta Bar in Cambridge, Judith Lorick shared her soul, thoughts and beautiful voice, as she chose top-drawer selections from her 2018 release, The Second Time Around (JLJ, 2018).

Mother of the Maid by Jane Anderson had its world premiere at Shakespeare & Company in 2015. Since then there have been revisions . Tina Packer as Mother was recast with the star power of Glenn Close. This transfer of a burn baby burn slice of medieval barbarity continues to be an incongruous tear jerker.

Despite some critical pans, Frozen has a strong enough pre-sale to guarantee many weeks on Broadway’s turf. Thanks are due to all the little girls who can’t get enough of the tale of Elsa and Anna, two Scandinavian sisters who yearn to be close despite mysterious magic separating them.

Chelsea Opera is a vibrant company committed to presenting new opera as well as the classics. On 1 December they will mount two one act New York premiers by the gifted composer, Tom Cipullo. Cipullo is rightly known as a composer for the voice, as well as a dramatist who creates a sound world of apt harmonies and melodies which reveal deep character and emotion. Opportunities to hear his work in New York are eagerly anticipated.

The invulnerability of middle-class achievement is haunted. Spooked by the present staccato-like news flashes from the television tell of black men shot, killed, dead . “We” don't discuss that sort of thing at dinner. Dark phantoms, shadows of women slide along the corridor where fear is a weakness which is not part of who 'we' are.

Dennis Krausnick was a leader of Shakespeare & Compan, in Lenox, since its inception. In 1976 he was awarded an M.F.A. in Acting from New York University. It was at N.Y.U. where he met Tina Packer. They married in 1998. In 1978 Dennis helped found Shakespeare & Company with Tina and Kristin Linklater.

Hello Girls takes a most serious context, the fate of the troops in the trenches of WWI, and tackles the still relevant issue of women's rights and equality. The play harvests an engaging, upbeat and energized performance. Interesting and visually meaningful use of overhead projections (Lacey Ebb) provides both context and mood. The set plays with use of wire and lines, telephone lines, stringed instruments, rail lines battle-lines, and lines of march, which work together remarkably well.

Chelsea Opera is an enterprising company, now over fifteen years old. They presented two one-act operas by composer Tom Cipullo, a master of drama and the placement of notes in the voice. The setting in Christ and St. Stephen’s Church worked perfectly as staged by Dean Anthony, a singer who has spent the last decade successfully directing. A golden glow surrounds the now 68-year-old Josephine Baker who is being interviewed in her dressing room.

Sideshow Theatre accomplishes a lot on a small stage in its world premiere production of HeLa by J. Nicole Brooks at the Greenhouse Theater Center. The scenes in HeLa go back and forth in time from 1951 to 1981-84 and finally 2001 when Suhaila, now an aerospace engineer, visits her Aunt Bird, who is suffering from cancer.

The Head and The Load by William Kentridge was prepared at Mass MOCA and arrives full-blown at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. We come, if not to know, to appreciate the contributions of hundreds of thousands of Africans to the Western effort in World War I. Who knew that African men were forced into service?

Renowned performer Sally Struthers stars and shines as Miss Hannigan in regional production of Annie. The cast excels in a touching, but not overly cute mounting. Annie plays Boca Raton's The Wick Theatre through Dec. 23.

Apple Boys bring the Barbershop Quartet into the 21st century. This musical form my have started as early as Beaumarchais in Barber of Seville in the 18th century. Both black and white musicians claim ownership. Every culture which discovered “harmony” in combined voices has used the four singer form.

Recent IRS filing reveals that when former Berkshire Museum director, Van Shields, abruptly departed he was given $92,000 in two payments. The second is due in January. There are also figures for the costly legal battles that resulted in selling 22 works of art to raise $53.25 million. From July 1 to Dec. 31, 2017, the museum incurred $1.6 million in legal costs. In April it paid off the full $1,852,426 outstanding balance on a $2 million line of credit.

Now 90, in 2012 Sheila Jordan was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. With fellow singer and educator, Jay Clayton, they conducted a workshop. Last night they, and nine singers, performed during a pot luck gig at The Firehouse in swinging downtown Adams, Mass.

Amahl and the Night Visitors was commissioned as a Christmas television special a half century ago. The composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, would appear often at its live presentations. He often pointed out that this is a story of a boy who has problems with his mother. He would ask members of the audience to raise their hands if they did. Most of the audience held their hands up high. That is not the only reason to enjoy this Christmas classic to which OnSite Opera has brought a new vision for today.

As expected from any Stoppard work, Arcadia is highly literate and entertaining. It is also full of passionate characters, crammed with information, and plays like a grand detective story as the moderns unravel the mysteries of the past while entwining themselves in amusing interactions

Although it is the first full biography of Bauhaus master, Josef Albers, it has been worth the wait. Charles Darwent has writen a meticulous, insightful, absorbing and masterful book. Best know for the 2,300 surving works from "Homage to the Square" he is regarded as among the foremost abstract artists and teachers of the 20th century.

J’nai Bridges told us stories at her concert in the Weill Hall of Carnegie. The program began with a spiritual arranged by Bridges and her stunning partner on piano, Mark Markham. Spirituals and lullabies bracketed the program.

Organized with the Louvre Museum in Paris, where it appeared with more works, the Met show presents some 150 paintings, prints and drawings in a dozen large galleries. Major works did not travel to New York resulting in an inadequate view of a major 19th century artist. It remains on view through January 6.

The Builder’s Association re-invented Henry James’ Turn of the Screw for today. Strange Window takes its title from a story James heard from the Archbishop of Canterbury. A woman was so fearful of strange figures who appeared in the windows of her home that she moved to protect her children.

During the recent NY conference of American Theatre Critics Association Charles Weldon was a lively participant on a panel focused on diversity. He was Artistic Director of The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) since 2005. He joined the Negro Ensemble Company in 1970 and acted in many of its classic plays including "A Soldier's Play," "The Great McDaddy," "The Offering," "The Brownsville Raid" and the Company's Broadway production of "The River Niger."

The French born Jérôme Brunet started shooting concerts in 1994. This book of just under 200 images in black and white resulted in part from a kickstarer campaign that raised $30,000. There is a mix of celebrity rockers and less well known blues artists. Images include U2, The Who, Cream, Stones, Pink Floyd, Yes, Slash, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, Van Morrison, Steve Miller, and Bruce Springsteen. Some of the killer shots were of B.B. King one of which is on the cover of a compelling book.

“A Doll’s House, Part 2”, premiered in 2017- garnering 8 Tony Nominations – is a perfect example of how an iconic classic play coupled with talent, and a sense of curiosity from an original thinking playwright can become a fresh, smart, new work, that’s been dazzling audiences wherever it performs. (Lucas Hnath’s 2016 play “The Christians”, received a Tony nomination for his insightful story of a Pastor who questions his belief in God and The Bible).

Playwright Lindsey Ferrentino apparently felt the urge to inform audiences just how disparate are families and their need to share their ubiquitous stories with the world at large. Television has been the delivery system that best gets the comedy job done. Sitcoms have mastered the medium for more than 70 years. . But I’m not quite sure that Ferrentino’s comedy play “The Year to Come” is the vehicle to bridge so many gaps facing our ever changing society.