Known as the nation’s foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music, Grammy Award-winning BMOP/sound announced the world premiere recording of the revised version of Anthony Davis’s seminal opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.

We can often overlook any deeper meaning when seeing a comedic play, but this one actually has a lot to say.  It honors selfless mothers; urges the courage to say and do the right things before it is too late; advocates following our dreams; pillories slavish devotion to status symbols; and asks us to better understand those who are near to us.

We The Innumerable is an opera created by the Iranian/American composer Niloufar Nourbakash with libretto by Australian aborigine Lisa Flanigan. Sara Jobin, who is committed to works which bring about peace and global understanding, conducted. National Sawdust staged. The opera tells the story of a woman who protects the truth at all costs  It is set during protests in Iran after a contested election in 2009. It echoes in today’s protests.

4000 Miles is a comedy-drama that nourishes the soul and makes you think. Palm Beach Dramaworks in Southeast Florida is presenting Amy Herzog's dramedy through Oct. 30.

The projections and the equipment used – which I’m told were very expensive – by Shawn Duan really helped to create the setting and the locations without taking up room on the stage. I wanted to “ooh” and “aah” at them

“Dialogues” is based on the true story of 16 Carmelite nuns of Compiègne who were guillotined in 1794 during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror because of their unwillingness to compromise their faith. Historically, the nuns’ singing as they ascended the gallows quieted the bloodthirsty crowd that gathered at these beheadings.  In less than two weeks, Robespierre’s degenerate reign ended with his execution at the guillotine.

Joshua Bell and his wife, the soprano Larisa Martinez, performed together at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Paul Dugan accompanied on the piano with his own special touch

We met in Chicago in 2012 as new members of American Theatre Critics Association. Since then critic Jack Lyons and I have shared a decade of theatre. He generously reposted to this site reviews first appearing in Desert Weekly News in Palm Springs, California. At the ripe age of 91 he passed recently. With credits in writing, producing and directing, he was a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild.

In 1936 Henry Luce bought Life Magazine and transformed it into a publication where pictures told the story. At his command to convey a narrow white supremacist fantasy of America's global dominance he employed the legendary photo journalists of his generation. Luce also published Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine and later Sports Illustrated. With a weekly circulation in the millions Life initially had a cover price of ten cents which at that time got you a cup of coffee. LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts captures its essence with an engaging but ultimately disappointing exhibition.

Laura Eason’s “Sex With Strangers” explores the concept of public versus private behavior and much more.  At first, it seems that this may simply be an amusing story, but the longer it plays, the deeper it gets, exposing many provocative layers, peppered with humor and conflict.  San Jose Stage presents a sensationally acted and directed production of this powerhouse two hander.  

TON orchestra arrived at the Rose Theater under the baton of JoAnn Falleta. She is a conductor one wishes would spend more time in New York.  Music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, she conducted  at Tanglewood  last summer.  She brings thrilling musicality to her program choices.

Earle Montrose Pilgrim (1923-1976) was an American artist whose work is within the stylistic milieu of Abstract Expressionism and Figurative Expressionism.Working in the early 1950s until the mid 1970s, Pilgrim's style is characterized by figuration informed by abstraction.The artist fluctuated between epic, large-scale compositions and intimate canvases and worked with a variety of media.

The purpose of the BTCA and the Berkshire Theatre Awards is to promote and celebrate the quality and diversity of theatre in the region. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on the evening of November 14 at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield.

The Street is  a triptych of tones and textures created by composer Nico Muhly and writer Alice Goodman.  Goodman points out that this is not a libretto. It is a meditation on Christ’s walk up the stations of the cross in Jerusalem on the day he would be crucified by his fellow Jews. Its take is a street scene, and on the streets where we live.

What an opera experience at the Komische Oper! Luigi Nono's "Intolleranza 1960" as the first opening of the 2022/23 season.

For the first time presidential paintings are by and of people of color. Kehinde Wiley’s depicted President Barack Obama and Amy Sherald painted Michelle. In the last of five stops the tour of portraits ends at the Museum of Fine Arts on October 30.

The playwright, Victoria Evans Erville, who also directs, dispatches a dizzying number of important social messages and does so in an entertaining and involving manner.  The central theme considers the effects of politics Victoria Evans Erville on the two lifelong friends, and while May remains consistent throughout, Ethyl offers more interest as a character because she evolves, and not always in one direction or with consistency, which makes for a more intriguing person and reflects realism.

Across a crowded room at the Paris Opera, Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines looked at each other and realized they had something in common, something that was different from everyone else in the room: their color. They have joined forces to bring ther unique stories to a culture they find alien. Everything Rises is presented as part of the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The play by Simon Levy (who has also adapted two other Fitzgerald novels to play form) follows the book. While there have been other stage versions, this one, written in 2006 seems now to be the standard.

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) has announced the promotion of Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan, a specialist in modern and contemporary art and one of the world’s leading experts on art and technology, to the position of Curator.

To find the best, fresh seafood you have to get off the honky-tonk beach and head inland to where the locals dine.

The stage adaptation of "Misery" is running through Oct. 30 in a mesmerizing production through Oct. 30. The play is faithful to the source material, Stephen King's 1987 novel about a romance novelist held captive by an obsessive fan. "Misery" takes place in the late 1980's in a small Colorado town.

The playwright Tom Stoppdard’s mother, his only connection to his earliest life, born in Czechoslovakia and traveled to Singapore and then to England. She did not discuss her Jewish origins. Growing up in Britain, Stoppard asked her to write the family story. He gave her a beautiful notebook, which she returned. She would scribble the bare outlines  in a small cheap exercise book.  Now he fleshes the story out on stage in New York.

Leapin Lizards! Berkshire Theatre Group has mounted Seascape Edward Albee's absurdist answer to Beckett's masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. Albee, one of America's leading playwrights won a Pulitizer for it (one of three) but it was a flop with critics and audiences. The Broadway run ended after just 65 performances. Hit or miss you can draw your own conclusions based on the production directed by Eric Hill.

Although Donizetti concocted this superficially light-hearted confection, “Elixir” is a serious delight from curtain to curtain, both as an entertainment and as a great work of composition.  As we have come to expect, Livermore Valley Opera once again punches above its weight with a totally appealing production that hits all the right notes, literally and figuratively.