Cabaret is one of the great musicals of the 1960s. Kander and Ebb (and book writer Joe Masterhoff) created a show that used a seedy, third-class nightclub as a metaphor for Germany slipping into the Nazi era.

The dark comedy “Don Giovanni” holds a place as one of the greatest operas ever composed.  In the hands of a world class company like San Francisco Opera with a great orchestra and the ability to attract some of the best artists to grace the stage, the production is as musically rich as it is professionally performed.

Awakenings is a new opera by the very American opera composer Tobias PIcker. In the past, he has musicalized the stories of Judith Rossner, Theodore Dreiser, and Stephen King. His new opera premieres at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

The spirited and ambitious Berkshire Opera Festival opens its 2022 summer season with a compelling new production of Jake Heggie's intimate THREE DECEMBERS on July 21 and 23 at PS21 in Chatham, NY, conducted by Christopher James Ray and directed by Beth Greenberg. This contemporary American opera is based on Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally's original script for Some Christmas Letters. It marks BOF's 2nd Second Stage event, following Tom Cipullo's highly praised Glory Denied last summer.

Today, decades after it was written and first premiered at New York City Opera, X, the Life and Times of Malcolm X, feels both deeply rooted in classic opera traditions of Wagner, Strauss and Berg and deeply connected to our jazz heritage. The work is as much Charlie Mingus as it is say Parsifal, which composer Anthony Davis often references. A semi-staged concert version was performed at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester, Massachusetts, near Malcom's childhood home.

Last Saturday marked the return of the Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival after three years, the fifth celebration since 2016. Cold weather and stormy winds could not keep away faeries and fair minded goblins from near and far.

The playwright, Tara L. Wilson Noth, has taken on a lot as the program notes state: Racism, incarceration, justice, and relationships. There can be turmoil trying to follow and resolve this mélange of subplots.

The Mystery of Irma Vep by Charles Ludlam is a spoof of genres such as Gothic melodrama and horror. Island City Stage in Wilton Manors, near Ft. Lauderdale, has mounted a consistently entertaining production. The play is purely escapist entertainment.

A free, public opera adaptation of Romeo & Juliet on the historic Boston Common opens Boston Lyric Opera’s 2022/23 Season with two performances August 11 and 13 at 8PM. Based on Charles Gounod’s 1867 musical setting of the classic drama with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, and an English translation by Edmund Tracey, the production is co-presented in partnership with (CSC) and the City of Boston.

Directed by Gregg Edelman, Berkshire Theatre Group has created a stunning production of Once the multiple award winning musical. The twelve actors in this work are also the musicians and singers. Set in a Dublin pub it tells the tale of unrequited love between a Guy and Girl. For this critic it proved to be an emotionally shattering theatrical experience.

Exhibition reconsiders the multidisciplinary practice of one of the twentieth century’s great artists,

Dionysus/Diane has messages for us. The messages we continue to ignore about the serious dangers that climate change portends for our future—and more importantly, for the futures of our children and grandchildren. Yes, while we seethe with anger about SCOTUS decisions and the January 6 insurrection, playwright Madeline George wants us to get mad about climate change too. She’s right, of course.

In the late 1960s, Eva Hesse sought to make objects that were neither painting nor sculpture, but a hybrid that was all her own. Simultaneously adopting and pushing against the prevailing Minimalist language of repetitive forms and hard edges, her work is imbued with a haptic experience that reflects her keen interest in materiality and incongruity.

During a stint at Sing Sing Tony Sirico was inspired by a visiting troupe of actors. What followed was years of bit parts and supporting roles. There were lots of opportunities given the public's unquenchable thirst for mobbed up entertainment. He hit the jackpot as Paulie Walnuts in the 1999-2007 run of HBO's Sopranos. He died this week at 79.

Three Phil Kline concerts at Bang on a Can's LOUD Weekend, from a duo with Jim Jarmusch to anti-war classic Zippo Songs (7/28-30, MASS MoCA)

Kim’s Convenience now at Westport Country Playhouse is adapted from the long running hit Canadian sitcom. It was aired on Netflix. It centers on the patriarch of a Korean family that loves over the shop. His broken English and inventive syntax are part of the humor if you can understand it.

Barrington Stage Company in its tradition of encouraging new voices is providing playwright May Treuhaft-Ali with her first professional production. She has created a topical work based on ripped from the headlines reporting on the crisis in American public education.

"What Loy and his co-founder Brian Garman have pulled off in the Berkshires is some true wizardry." — Parterre Box

Most Happy in Concert, now at Williamstown Theatre Festival is not a revival of the 1956 musical Most Happy Fella with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. It's a tear down and deconstruction by director Daniel Fish. He similarly ripped apart Oklahoma which won a Tony award. Let's see if he again cruises Broadway with an even more radical production of a vintage musical.

Teenage angst is not necessarily the material for meaningful drama. Athena by Gracie Gardner one of two plays at Thrown Stone Theater in Ridgefield reveals the hazards. It, and the other play Hysterical! run in repertory through Sunday, Aug. 6.

In August, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is unveiling two newly renovated galleries for Italian Renaissance art as well as a newly renovated French Salon, an opulent setting for nearly 100 highlights from the MFA's Elizabeth Parke Firestone and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. Collection of French silver.

Other than an explosive ending the Pulitzer Prize winning Anna In the Tropics proves to be quite tepid as produced by Barrington Stage Company. Set in a Prohibition era cigar factory the lictor is reading Tolstoy to the workers. Themes of infidelity, jealousy and revenge in Anna Karenina weave their way into the plot by playwright Nilo Cruz.

Out of the blue I got a call from Ira Kaufman in Israel. The name was vaguely familiar but didn’t click until he said “It’s me from The Brata Gallery.” Then it all locked in. By phone and e mail we recalled the Downtown scene in New York in the 1960s as well as the Figurative Expressionist and Rhino Horn movements.

Wudang is the center of Daoism in the world, where the early monks went to hide from the Emperor’s soldiers.  The Chinese emperors were fearful that the people would follow the Daoist priests and monks instead of them, and they killed many of them, destroying thousands of temples over the centuries.  

Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch have long been partners in song.  Kaufman recently withdrew from performances at the Royal Covent Garden opera house due to the impact of Covid 19 on his voice.  His return was welcomed at the National Theater in Munich.