New York Times

The 37th annual Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival, one of the most celebrated and longest running jazz events in the world, will be held on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. This year's festival headliners include Earth, Wind & Fire, Trombone Shorty, Terence Blanchard, Dave Holland Prism, Patti Austin, Jon Batiste & Stay Human, Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra, Quinn Sullivan, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Newport Jazz Festival®: Now 60, among others.

Beautiful—The Carole King Musical, currently at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Broadway, is another prime example where song and dance, beautifully delivered by a talented cast and crew, trumps the storyline. Carole King attended James Madison High School in Brooklyn, the same one that I attended. Carole Klein as she was known in those years belonged to Gamma Phi the same sorority as my sister Annette.

This evening introduced spaghetti-Western composer Ennio Morricone. Often nominated for an Academy Award, he finally won one for lifetime achievement. Clint Eastwood translated his acceptance speech live. Before Muti began to conduct Morricone’s tribute to 9/11, Maestro Muti pointed out that this music has a message. The piece begins with a poem by the South African Richard Moore Rive. Ora Jones beautifully articulated the rainbow of our world, where words are neither white nor black. “Where the rainbow ends, there’s going to be a place…where we can sing together, a sad song. “

During a recent press conference artistic director Julianne Boyd announced the 20th season for Pittsfield's Barrington Stage. She confirmed that last summer's hit musical On the Town is transferring to Broadway. This is a part of a trend for regional theaters to develop shows for New York. We asked Boyd about the impact and implications for the Berkshires and her company.

MASS MoCA's 2012 exhibition of Oh Canada "Art from North North America," is hitting the road. The expansive exhibition, which includes more than 100 works by over 60 artists, will travel to multiple venues across Canada. The exhibition will show in a multi-venue format, on view in The Maritimes from June 27, 2014, through September 21, 2014, and in Calgary from January 31, 2015 through April 26, 2015.

A masterpiece of American Theatre, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman will be performed by Boston's The Lyric Stage from February 14 through March 15. The production with be directed by company founder Spiro Veloudos. Ken Baltin with appear in the lead role as Willy Loman accompanied by Paula Plum as his wife Linda.

The front runners with most nominations this year are for American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street and Twelve Years a Slave. With a divided pack there is bound to be diversity when the awards are handed out on Oscar night. We have an overview of what proved to a year of numerous fine films and performances.

The 82nd Festival season will feature more than 52 companies performing on three stages: the historic Ted Shawn Theatre; the intimate Doris Duke Theatre; and the open-air Henry J. Leir Stage, home to the Pillow’s free Inside/Out Performance Series, which served more than 21,000 community members last season. More than 350 free and ticketed dance performances, talks, tours, exhibits, films, classes, and community events will be offered June 14-August 24, 2014.

Inside Llewyn Davis is a dark, moody, misanthropic take on a failed folkie bumming around Greenwich Village in 1961. It is being hailed as another work of genius, arguably the best film, by the Academy Award winning Coen Brothers. It's a nice little film that has some charming moments but let's leave it at that.

In early February the Hubbard Hall Opera Theater will take another of their succinct piano reductions of a classic opera on tour to the Dorset Playhouse and the University of Albany. What better way to spend a cold winter night or a cozy afternoon before the Superbowl?

Wall Street Journal theatre critic, Terry Teachout, wrote a superb jazz biography "Pops: A Life of Duke Ellington." That became the one man play with John Douglas Thompson "Satchmo at the Waldorf" which opens soon Off Broadway. Now Teachout has written an even better biography "Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington." He is in the process of transforming that material into a play.

Robert Indiana created the "Love" logo that became an icon of American design. But its commerical success made him a pariah in the New York art world. After several years of being snubbed he fled to Vinalhaven, Maine in 1978 where he continues to live. The current Whitney Museum retrospective, his first in New York, is a critical success for the one trick pony of Pop art.

William Electric Black has won seven Enmmys writing for family and kids TV shows. With Welcome Home Sonny T he shows considerable chops taking on adult themes. This is the first of five intended plays focused on inner city violence. It is a high voltage theatrical experience.

Building Five of Mass MoCA is one of the largest and most magnificent spaces for contemporary art in North America. It is always fascinating to see how artists respond to the daunting challenge. Izhar Patkin: The Wandering Veil is now on view for the coming year.

Following its annual tradition, Boston Baroque will once again "pop the cork" in grand style on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! This year's celebratory concerts feature a rousing all-Bach program with Brandenburg Concertos No. 3 & No. 4 and Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Coffee Cantata) BWV 211 along with champagne and chocolates at intermission.

Willful blindness is part of the human condition. We refuse to see what we see perfectly clearly. In the early phases of the AIDs epidemic, a few strident voices insisted on being heard. Lives were saved, but more would have been if eyes had not been wide shut.

Having won a remarkable seven Olivier Awards the musical Matilda was restaged in New York. There it won a modest four Tonys. It is the current toast of Broadway. Surrounded by kids of all ages we caught a Saturday matinee in London's West End. Rarely have we been more delighted.

With rave reviews and multiple awards, including seven Oliviers (the British equivalenbt of Tonys), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime may be the most original, galvanic and influential play of this century on either side of the pond. The only real question is when this magnificent production, the hottest ticket in London, will make its way to Broadway. Until then hop a plane.

Page 73 Productions, now in its 16th year premiering the next generation of American playwrights – who have included Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes, Drama Desk Award winner Sam Hunter, New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award recipient Dan LeFranc, and more – will present the New York premiere of George Brant’s gripping new play GROUNDED, directed by two-time Obie Award-winning director Ken Rus Schmoll (TELEPHONE, A MAP OF VIRTUE) and starring Hannah Cabell (3C, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS opposite Frank Langella). Previews begin on January 8 at Walkerspace (46 Walker Street) in Manhattan.

The Humana Festival of New American Plays is now in its 38th year. The American Theatre Critics Association will meet and participate in the Lousiville, Kentucky event.

On the upside: The acting is splendid. The performances are first rate, with a possible Oscar nomination in 2014 for Benedict Cumberbatch for his eerily accurate portrayal of mysterious, conflicted, and idiosyncratic computer genius-with-an-obsession, Julian Assange.

As research for the exhibition Native New Yorkers we interviewed artists, a curator and collector. We found that questions led every deeper into a richly diverse and little understood field of contemporary art. The article is reposted from Maverick Arts Magazine.

Thaddeus "Thad" Beal is included in the Chawky Frenn book 100 Boston Artists. Actually I have long regarded him as one of the top ten Boston painters. It was a privilege to curate an exhibition of his work at the Gallery of the New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University. In 2006 we met for a Beer and Burger as reported in Maverick Arts Magazine.

The illustrative realist painter has explored the old master techniques of Caravaggio as well as smarmy soft and hard core porn. At the eyebrow raising age of 41 he was given a retrospective by the Whitney Museum of American Art. This review is resposted from a 2003 article in Maverick Arts Magazie.

During a studio visit in New Mexico Jaune Quick To See Smith agreed to create new works for a special exhibition at the Gallery of New England School of Arts and Design. She presented a lecture to a large audience of students and faculty and also spoke intimately in the gallery. The artist Ric Haynes, who works extensively with the Crow Nation participated in the informal discussion. This is reposted from a 2006 article in Maverick Arts Magazine.