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The world premiere of M. Butterfly, the opera, will take place on July 30,2021 at the Santa Fe Opera. We got a taste of its music, its story and the sound of the delicious man/girl Song. Kangmin Justin Kim is a countertenor with special tremulos and vibratos which suggest the feminine voice.  Many layers weave through the new telling to the tale made famous in its first iteration as a Tony and Pulitzer-finalist play by David Henry  Hwang. He is the librettist for the new work by composer, Huang Ruo.  

Kingdom is an entirely LGBTQ African American story, sensitively told, and illustrates through the characters’ varied life experiences how Black gay culture is different from White gay culture. The lyrical script keeps the symbolism of the Magic Kingdom as a meaningful background theme, until the very end.

You might consider a review of the songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein to be “old hat;” why bother seeing a show with songs that are so familiar to all of us. See it because Ruggiero and the cast take these songs and bring a newness to them with sometimes subtle twists that carry them in the 21st century.

Playwright Michael Gene Sullivan fills the house with laughter in addition to thoughtfulness and social reflection.  In his affecting premiere “The Great Khan,” an otherwise unassuming, middle-class, black teenage boy, Jayden, has saved a black teenage girl, Ant (full name - Antoinette), from a gang of boys. 

During the era of KIng Cotton North Adams thrived by processing bales shipped north from plantations. The Eclipse Mill produced thread which was woven across the street in the Delftree Mill. Until 1938 the mills employed child labor. During a single visit Lewis Hine created nine photographs outside the mill. These images as well as vintage views of the Eclipse Mill comprise a special exhibition. They flank the entrance ramp to the vast artist/ loft complex. The community based project is an aesthetic, historic and humanistic accomplishment.

Andrew Ousley has just the right touch as he presens music from all time and places in surprising venues across the city of New York.  Earlier concerts at the Greenwood cemetery in Brooklyn took place in catacombs. For the performance of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem by Cantori, Ousley moved outside. The audience sits among the dead, consoled by a requiem at peace.

Steve Nelson was the foremost producer/promoter of concerts by The Velvet Underground in the period 1967-1970. He managed the legendary rock club The Boston Tea Party and produced shows in western Mass. at his club The Woodrose Ballroom and at the Paramount Theater in Springfield. He also designed several of the posters promoting those shows. He was an Archival Consultant to the Haynes film and provided visual materials for it.

A special concert will cap this weekend on Sunday, Oct. 24, when pianist Ted Rosenthal performs his unique interpretations of George Gershwin compositions. Highlighted by his innovative treatment of the legendary Rhapsody in Blue, Ted’s repertoire for this first “tea time jazz special,” is collectively known as Rhapsody in Gershwin.

A vibrant Mamma Mia! is running at The wick Theatre in Boca Raton through Nov. 14. The production features triple threat performers who are convincing in their roles. Mamma Mia is the first production the Wick Theatre has mounted since the company closed its doors due to the pandemic.

It turned into a shocking success, the opening of the Dreigroschenoper (Three Penny Opera) in November 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. Now, almost 100 years later, Bertolt Brecht's work with the music by Kurt Weill, is back at its original showing, now called the Berliner Ensemble at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin.

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2021 Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) and the first feature-length film project in the Company’s 44-year history, Speak What We Feel follows hundreds of students from 10 high schools across Berkshire, Hampden, and Columbia counties as they prepare to stage a full production of a Shakespeare play under the guidance of Shakespeare & Company education artists.

San Francisco Opera’s current production maximizes the values of the piece through excellent casting, fine musical direction by Eun Sun Kim, and the addition of what amounts to another character, the stunning scenic design by Alexander V. Nichols, under the purview of Director Matthew Ozawa.

In “The Claim,” Serge hails from Congo.  Now in the U.K., he seeks asylum.  In this farcical three-hander, the immigrant is interrogated by two British bureaucrats – a male who we’ll call A, and a female, who we’ll call B.

Smokey Joe’s is a pure jukebox musical; there is no plot and no dialogue, just the songs from this team – Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller whose fame was mainly in the 1950s and ‘60s. Their music connected to both rock ‘n roll and rhythm and blues genres and was made popular by Elvis Presley among others

Alternate versions of an opera arouse controversy.The multiple versions of Verdi’s grand opera Don Carlos (Don Carlo) were a response to different productions. Terrence Blanchard adapted his opera Fire Shut up in My Bones for the Metropolitan Opera’s stage. Now we have the magnificent, original Boris Godunov.

The Metropolitan Opera got a public relations boost when they mounted Terrence Blanchard’s ""Fire Shut up in My Bones" as their season opener. An unusually packed theater sweetened the Met's premiere. No question "Fire" is a wonderful piece of orchestral work. Elements of black folk music like gospel, jazz, and stepping, fit seamlessly into the overall scheme.

The Rose Art Museum named Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (b. 1954, Cheyenne/Arapaho) its 2021-2022 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence. Since 2002, the Perlmutter Residency has been part of the Rose Art Museum’s longstanding tradition of promoting artists of extraordinary talent whose works address contemporary issues of vital urgency.

Slow Burn Theatre Company in Ft. Lauderdale has mounted a sizzling production of the musical theater show, "Songs for a New World." The production runs through Oct. 24 in the intimate Amaturo Theater within the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. This plotless hybrid of musical and song cycle features musical numbers connected by a theme. The composer and lyricist is Jason Robert Brown, of "Parade," and "The Bridges of Madison County" fame.

Italian American Artists Grapple with Christopher Columbus's Legacy at MAD Museum. The Museum of Arts and Design will host 4 NYC artists of Italian heritage for a discussion about the colonial legacy of Christopher Columbus and his importance to the Italian American community. 

This is Wataru Iwata emailing from Japan. I’ve been working as a pianist, music composer, visual artist and recently putting more time into digital art.  

With “Lizard Boy,” youth is served and age is respected.  This is a big tent musical that will please anyone with an open mind and a caring heart.  The auteur, Justin Huertas who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, and who plays the lead role, has fashioned an absolutely riveting theater piece that pulsates with emotion and extracts enormous empathy.

Duncan MacMillan’s award-winning, 60-minute, one-person play, “Every Brilliant Thing,” centers on a list reflective of obsessive compulsion.  The narrator/protagonist itemizes everything worth living for.  Remarkably, he starts the list at age seven. 

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) announces The Helbing Mentorship Program. Under the program, LGBTQIA+ arts writers will work with leading theater critics to imrpove their craft and publish their work. The year-long program, which will begin in September 2022, includes a $5,000 grant.

What startet 1930 as the first opera cooperation between the playwright Bertolt Brecht and the composer Kurt Weill may well turn out to be the last big opera in the 2021/22 season. Mahagonny is being presented at the Komische Oper Berlin with Barrie Kosky as director. 

Blue grass and Appalachian music usually isn’t my thing, but my toes were tapping while enjoying the play-with- music, The Porch at Windy Hill now at Ivoryton Playhouse through Sunday, Oct. 17.