Charles Dickens would roll over in his grave. The master of the hard, the twisted, the bleak expectations, who chronicled grime, abuse, and despair. How could his material be used as the basis for a mash up between a raucous “who dunnit?” and a Gay ’90s vaudevillian music hall entertainment? The Mystery of Edwin Drood does just that, earning its spurs on Broadway in 1985 with a long run and a handful of Tonys.

Chicago critic, Nancy Bishop, a die hard rock fan dug deep for Bruce. Paying through the nose she scored a ticket for his sold out Broadway show. Springing for a Springsteen binge she added a couple of other compelling plays. She will be back in Manhattan later this month for the annual American Theatre Critics Association conference So this is a teaser with more golden apples to follow.

Fun Home looks at coming-of-age and coming-out through the eyes of Alison Bechdel, whose graphic novel memoir is the source material. TheatreWorks offers a delightful production of the Tony Award winning musical.

The playwright, Ashlin Halfnight, touches a tender nerve with his exposé. So many bad actions by people in our real world have been telegraphed to others before they occurred. Antisocial attitudes. Deviant behavior. Threats. Fascination with the perverse. Collections of weapons. Memorabilia of cruelty. But how can one know at what point to interfere?

This is the second Letter from Gloucester by correspondent Pippy Giuliano. She evokes the memory of epic Gloucester poet Charles Olson. He was indeed the bard by the sea who created layers of Cape Ann history from colonial times to his era in the poetic tome Maximus. It is in this daunting tradition that she contributes with humility her "lettters."

St. Thomas Church in New York is introducing its magnificent new organ with a series of concerts. A recent program of ferociously reverent music displayed the grand instrument in all its glory. The Choir of Men and Boys was joined by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Sara Cutler was featured on the harp, soprano soloist Hyesang Park, and Benjamin Sheen on the brand new organ.

North Coast Rep artistic director David Ellenstein has a penchant for selecting interesting plays for his theatre audiences. With his selection of playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s new drama/mystery “Holmes & Watson”, and as the director of this clever play, Ellenstein subliminally tosses out a gentle unstated challenge to his patrons.

Arabella does not artistically match the model it targeted, Der Rosenkavalier, nor does it replicate the earlier work’s market success. Despite some issues with this opera, it certainly deserves its place in the repertoire.

Nico Muhly’s third opera, his second for the Metropolitan Opera, has its North American premiere this month and next. Muhly states clearly that when he was approached by director Michael Mayer about making the book Marnie into an opera, he was intrigued. At the end of opera, one wonders what happened to the screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock’s film based on the book.

The Biltmore Estate, near Asheville, North Carolina, is a 250 room mansion that opened on Christmas Eve, 1895. The Vanderbilts lived there until 1930, when the property was opened to the public. Presently, it is the state's top tourist attraction and home to a vineyard and winery that produces close to a million bottles a year.

Downtown Detroit has been the business heart of the city since the 1850s, expressing prosperity in structures like the 40-story Guardian Building, a 1929 Art Deco skyscraper. The soaring structure with its 632-foot high spire earned the nickname Cathedral of Finance, but its purpose was all business, and during World War II it even served as the U.S. Army Command Center for war time production.

Historic Night in Segregated Miami is depicted in One Night in Miami. Miami New Drama opens its season with Kemp Powers poet play featuring familiar real life, historical characters. In Powers' play, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Jim Brown spend a night at a Miami hotel when the city was segregated.

Our correspondent, Piippy Giuliano, has more arts related news and commentary in another lively Letter from Gloucester. She reports that "Ed Sanders delivered the ninth annual Charles Olson Lecture at the Cape Ann Museum this weekend to a packed crowd." She also atteneded the vernissage of Lost in America featuring work by Susan Erony at Trident Gallery. She marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of Virginia Lee Burton’s classic children’s book, The Little House.

Brian Katz' adaptation and direction of Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night puts the infernal specters of WWII on the stage at 59E59 Theaters. It is produced by The Custom Made Theatre Company with Executive Producers William & Ruth Isenberg and Leah Abrams, and Producer Jay Yamada. We find ourselves witnesses to the conscience of an American born-German playwright Howard W. Campbell, (Gabriel Grilli), who has spent his youth in Germany writing propaganda for the the Third Reich.

Playwright Robert Schenkkan explores the year from LBJ’s tragic ascension to the presidency through his election in the powerful and fast-paced, Tony Award winning All the Way. Michael Monagle tackles the many facets of President Lyndon Johnson with gusto.

St. Thomas Church in New York is introducing its magnificent new organ with a series of concerts. A recent program of ferociously reverent music displayed the grand instrument in all its glory. The Choir of Men and Boys was joined by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Sara Cutler was featured on the harp, soprano soloist Hyesang Park, and Benjamin Sheen on the brand new organ.

The Hungarian State Opera is a company full of talented artists whose work has not been presented to American audiences, unless they are fortunate enough to have visited Buda and Pest, and cities throughout the country that presents opera all the time, everywhere. The troop is in New York for two weeks, presenting opera, their orchestra and also dance, for which the Hungarians are famous.

The stars came out in droves for the annual luncheon with critics at Sardi's the show bis watering hole. Sixteen individuals representing thirteen current plays broke bread with the scribes.

Waiting for Godot with the Druid Theater Company graces the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center. It is an evening full of laughs in a bunker. Beckett as a member of the French Resistance had escaped Paris when the Gestapo targeted him. This experience led him to create a new theatrical form after the War.

I found this moving and fascinating. As the playwright said, “to be honest, I’d love for this play to stop being ‘relevant.’” Yes, it is a difficult subject but it is handled with such care by all involved that it is well worth seeing.

In town for the ATCA NY Theatre Conference our Chicago correspondent covered two compelling dramas. Both plays are in long runs. The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth continues through February 17 and Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery runs until January 27

Love, Linda is a lavish show illustrating the love Linda Porter had for her husband, the late, great composer lyricist, Cole Porter. A stylish production Off-Broadway recently ended its run. Stevie Holland, a widely-acclaimed performer, shined in the role of Mrs. Porter in the one-woman show.

The Devil always gets a bad rap. That's the premise behind Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito's lone completed opera. An ambitious setting of Goethe's Faust that retells the story from the Devil's point of view, Mefistofele used to prance its sulfur strut across the world's opera stages. But Thursday night's revival at the Metropolitan Opera was the first time that the opera had been seen, fully staged, in New York in eighteen years.

The Book of Merman is an engaging musical playing at the St. Luke's Theatre in New York. A parody of a parody, it is fresh from the first moment the two Mormon Elders, who are very young indeed, start knocking on doors in the theater district.

Before he took the job as the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin became leader of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Happily for both ensembles he appears willing and able to balance duties in both cities. On Tuesday night, the maestro and his band came to Carnegie Hall for the first of their scheduled subscription appearances this season. They brought with them an impressive centuries-spanning program that played to the many strengths of this remarkable ensemble.