Arts Fuse critics select the best in music, film, theater, visual arts, author readings, and dance that’s coming up in the next week.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Film

Boston Area Film Schedules – What is playing today, Where and When

Closed Curtain
August 14-24
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

The latest in submerged and subversive cinema by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (This is Not a Film), who was jailed for six years as well as forbidden to direct films for 20 years by his government. He continues to make movies that test the limits of reality and the conventions of fiction. This film is “the tale of a man who lives so completely with his muses and characters that he slips between reality and fantasy without an anchor to hold him. (He’s not even necessarily played by the same person from scene to scene — identity is one of this bracing movie’s most malleable facets.) The journey is often challenging, but the rewards—heady, emotional, provocative and invigorating—are endless.” (Time Out New York)

Locke & The Double
August 14
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA

This excellent double feature is part of the Brattle ‘Recent Rave’ Thursday series. Both films were well received critically but played for only a week in Boston. The Double is a “darkly comic adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novella, featuring a tour de force dual performance from Jesse Eisenberg.” Arts Fuse Review Locke takes place almost entirely on a single car ride where, on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul. Arts Fuse Review

Family Friendly Outdoor Movies
Various Locations in the Boston area

If you haven’t taken in some of the opportunities for free outdoor summer screenings, here is a listing of several coming up in the week ahead.

Star Wars
August 10
Location: Christopher Columbus Park, North End

The Lego Movie
August 12
Martini Shell, Hyde Park

Julie & Julia
August 14
Conway Park, Union Square

The Lego Movie
August 14
Pope John Paul II Park, Dorchester

Beetlejuice
August 15
Hatch Shell on the Esplanade Boston
Part of Free Friday Flicks

Raiders of the Lost Ark
August 14
East Cambridge Savings Bank Parking Lot, 292 Cambridge Street

— Tim Jackson

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Jazz

Litchfield Jazz Festival
August 8-10
Goshen Fairgrounds, Goshen, CT.

For some, the intimate, tented Litchfield Jazz Festival is a sweet alternative to big daddy Newport. This year’s performers include Cyrus Chestnut, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jimmy Greene, Mike Stern, Jane Bunnett, Curtis Fuller, Mario Pavone, Claudio Roditi, and more.

Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival
August 9, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Court Square, Springfield, MA.

Springfield hosts a free festival with a line-up that includes Phil Woods, Charles and Charmaine Neville, Grace Kelly, the Chuchito Valdes Quartet, Jessica Freeman, and more.

Rockport Jazz Festival
August 13-17
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA.

Rockport Music devotes a long weekend to jazz: drummer Ali Jackson (of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis’s bands), singer Cyrille Aimée, bassist Christian McBride, and pianist Donal Fox are among the performers.

Rebirth Brass Band
August 14, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA.

This New Orleans crew has deep roots in the city’s funk, jazz, and hip-hop, always delivered with a wallop.

Will Calhoun Trio
August 14, 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

The former drummer for rock band Living Colour anchors a thunderous piano trio in vintage McCoy Tyner mode with pianist Marc Cary and bassist Marc Cary.

Delfeayo Marsalis Quartet with Ellis Marsalis
August 14, 15, and 17
Payomet Performing Arts Center, Truro, MA.; Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.; Tanglewood, Lenox, MA.

Trombonist and record producer Delfeayo Marsalis barnstorms Massachusetts with a quartet that includes the patriarch of the clan, pianist Ellis.

— Jon Garelick

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Dance

Boston Contemporary Dance Festival
Aug 16
Paramount Theater
Boston, MA

This homegrown series of day and evening showcases feature little-seen dance troupes from throughout Massachusetts and guests from out of state dancing across a range of genres. Here’s your chance to make some pleasant dance discoveries.

Companhia Urbana de Dança

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doug elkins choreography, inc.
August 13- 17
Jacob’s Pillow
Lee, MA

Sonia Destri Lie’s hot Brazilian blend of global hip hop and social dance from the clubs and streets of Rio offers a mixed repertory program, including the world premiere of I. You. We… All black!, which explores the stories of the company’s members parsing their racial identities. Doug Elkins, beloved for his Fraulein Maria, mashes up Shakespeare and Motown in Hapless Bizarre with a cast that includes the divine dance comedienne Deborah Lohse.

— Debra Cash

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Classical Music

Quartets by Chadwick and Bartók
Presented by Monadnock Music
August 10, 3 p.m.
Wilton Center Unitarian Church, Wilton Center (NH)

The final Sunday afternoon concert of Monadnock Music’s season brings a wonderfully diverse program of string quartets written just over one hundred years apart. George Whitefield Chadwick’s String Quartet no. 3 and Charles Ives’s rarely heard String Quartet no. 2 are perhaps the highlights, though Schubert’s brief Quartettsatz and Belá Bartók’s String Quartet no. 6 are also often-neglected gems. How happy to have them all together here.

From the New World: the Legacy of Spirituals
Presented by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra
August 13, 7 p.m.
Hatch Band Shell, Boston

The BLO’s enticing summer season continues with a program that focuses on the influence of African-American spirituals on 19th- and 20th-century concert music. Dvorak’s From the New World Symphony is paired with R. Nathaniel Dett’s The Chariot Jubilee and a premiere from Trevor Weston, Griot Legacies. The New England Spiritual Ensemble and One City Youth Choir join the BLO and conductor Christopher Wilkins.

Chamber Symphonies
Presented by Monadnock Music
August 16, 7:30 p.m.
Peterborough Town House, Peterborough (NH)

Music by John Adams, a former New Hampshire resident (and Massachusetts native), bookends Monadnock Music’s 49th season finale: the witty 2007 Son of Chamber Symphony is paired with its musical father, 1992’s Chamber Symphony. It’s rare to hear either of these pieces in these woods (as best I can tell, this is the New Hampshire premiere of Son), so this is a can’t-miss concert on at least those merits. In between the Adams scores come Walter Piston’s Divertimento and Gail Kubik’s offbeat Gerald McBoing Boing.

Leonard Bernstein’s Candide
Presented by the Tanglewood Music Festival
August 16, 8:30 p.m.
Tanglewood Music Shed, Lenox, MA.

Candide was the most troubled of Bernstein’s three 1950s musicals, but you’d never know that to judge by the frequency with which it’s appeared on Broadway, in opera houses, and in concert since his death in 1990. Bramwell Tovey, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus bring the piece to Tanglewood for a one-night-only event: perhaps, if all goes well, it can come to Symphony Hall for an extended visit during a future season. Tenor Nicholas Phan headlines an excellent cast that includes Frederica von Stade (as the Old Lady) and Richard Suart (who sang on Bernstein’s acclaimed 1989 recording of the piece).

Dutoit conducts Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff
Presented by the Tanglewood Music Festival
August 17, 2:30 p.m.
Tanglewood Music Shed, Lenox, MA.

The Sunday afternoon concert after Candide is, appropriately, the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert. Charles Dutoit conducts the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in some of his specialty repertoire: Stravinsky’s Fireworks and a complete performance of The Firebird. In between, pianist Nikolai Luganski plays Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 3.

Rhapsody in Green
Presented by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra
August 20, 7 p.m.
Hatch Band Shell, Boston, MA

The BLO’s annual “green” concert begins with Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz and closes with Jean Sibelius’s epic Symphony no. 2. In between come a pair of nature-inspired scores: one, Jean Françaix’s The Flower Clock, and the other, Edward MacDowell’s orchestral Suite no. 1.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Jeremy Denk
August 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Rockport Music, Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street, Rockport MA.
(He will repeat this program at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Lenox, MA, on Wednesday, August 13 at 8 p.m.)

The acclaimed pianist plays Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass., 1840-60” and Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988.

Pi-Hsien Chen
August 12 at 7:30 p.m.
At Walnut Hill School, 12 Highland Street, Natick, MA.

The Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts presents the talented pianist in a program that includes Alban Berg’s Sonata op. 1,; Scarlatti’s Four Sonatas; Beethoven’s Six Bagatellen, op. 126, and Schubert’s Sonata in D major, D. 850.

Portland Chamber Music Festival
August 16 at 8 p.m.
Abromson Center, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME.

Harpist Bridget Kibbey and “Friends” will perform works of Saint Saëns, Nathan Shields, Debussy, Carlos Salzedo, Sabastian Currier, and André Caplet. This concert will be worth the trip to Maine.

— Susan Miron

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Theater

Alterna-TEASE: The New England Neo-Burlesque Festival
August 14 and 15 at 8 p.m.
Oberon, Cambridge, MA.

Could be invigorating: “Alterna-TEASE is a festival focusing on having fun, building community, and showcasing the best and most interesting neo-burlesque. Alterna-TEASE finds beauty in the bizarre, the wonderful in the weird, and the sexy in the strange. We aim to feature acts that push the boundaries of traditional burlesque, whether it be conceptually, politically, or artistically.”

The Annotated History of the American Muskrat, by John Kuntz. Directed by Skylar Fox.
Through August 16
Staged by the Circuit Theatre Company at the South End/Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston MA.

Dramatist/actor John Kuntz pens quirky dark comedies. This project, commissioned by Circuit Theatre Company, is described as a “wild, epic play” that “explores American history and identity like a Wikepedic collage infused with dance and Little Debbie Snacks. Step into the exhibit. Look, but don’t touch. Or touch. If you dare.” I say definitely worth a look.

Dancing Lessons by Mark St. Germain. Directed by Julianne Boyd.
Through August 24
Staged by Barrington Stage Company at the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage, Pittsfield, MA.

The world premiere of a romantic comedy in which “a young man with Asperger’s seeks the instruction of a Broadway dancer, now sidelined with injuries. As their relationship unfolds, they’re caught off-guard by the surprising discoveries – both hilarious and heartwarming – that they make about each other.” John Cariani and Paige Davis star.

The Amish Project, by Jessica Dickey. Directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer
Through August 24.
Staged by the Chester Theatre Company, Chester, MA.

The company ends its 25th season with a one-woman show starring one of the stage’s favorite performers, Allison McLemore. She “plays a host of characters in an Amish community devastated by a terrible tragedy.” Associate Artistic Director Daniel Elihu Kramer believes that “this is a beautiful play about our capacity for love, and our ability to surprise ourselves.”

Sister Play, written and directed by John Kolvenbach.
Through September 6.
Staged by the Harbor Stage Company, 5 Kendrick Avenue on Wellfleet Harbor, Wellfleet, MA.

A world premiere of a play “written expressly for the Harbor Stage Company.” The setting is “in a dilapidated Cape Cod cabin, where two sisters, haunted by the memory of their departed father, encounter hope and heartache in the visage of a mysterious stranger.” Sounds as if D.H. Lawrence’s novella “The Fox” might be an influence, but who knows? The cast includes Stacy Fischer, Jonathan Fielding, Robert Kropf, and Brenda Withers.

— Bill Marx

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Rock

Echo & the Bunnymen
August 14
Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA

Merseyside post-punks Echo & the Bunnymen never reached the same level of U.S. mainstream success as that other band from Liverpool (Of course, I mean Frankie Goes to Hollywood…who did you think I was talking about?), but their influence is immense. Currently, they’re touring behind their 12th album, Meteorites, which was released in June.

Arcade Fire
August 19
Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA

Arcade Fire’s fourth album, Reflektor, was one of the best releases of 2013. The tour behind it has generated some controversy because the band has requested that audience members wear formal attire or a costume when they attend the show. If your tux is still at the clearers though, don’t worry. The group insists that the dress code is optional and just in good fun.

Upcoming and On Sale…

The Strypes (8/22/2014, The Sinclair); Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (8/30/2014, Fenway Park); Boston Calling Music Festival featuring The National, Lorde, The Replacements (9/5-7/2014, City Hall Plaza) Bombino (9/5/2014, The Sinclair); Justin Townes Earle (9/10/2014, Royale); Bob Mould (9/12/2014, Paradise Rock Club); Jack White (9/17/2014, Fenway Park); Willie Nelson (9/20/2014, Indian Ranch); The Black Keys (9/21/2014, TD Garden); Kasabian (9/26/2014, Paradise Rock Club); Jeff Tweedy (9/26/2014, Berklee Performance Center); Neil Young (10/5-6/2014, Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theater); The Orwells (10/9/2014, Brighton Music Hall); Foxygen (10/11/2014, Paradise Rock Club); J Mascis (10/18/2014, The Sinclair); Temples (10/24/2014, Paradise Rock Club); Peter Hook & the Light (11/8/2014, Royale); Randy Newman (11/19/2014, Wilbur Theatre); Julian Casablancas + The Voidz (11/26/2014, House of Blues).

— Adam Ellsworth

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Author Events

Prajwal Parajuly
The Gurkha’s Daughter
August 11 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Somerville, MA
Free

A number-one bestseller in India and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, this collection of stories is an acclaimed literary debut by a “new star of South Asian Literature.” Parajuly makes the political personal as he explores social and religious tensions: in one story, a cruel aside from a wealthy doctor to her tenant shop keeper suggests echoes of the caste system. Parajuly will read and then take questions about his promising debut.

Kate Manning
My Notorious Life
August 13 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Somerville, MA
Free

Manning’s novel revolves around the trials and tribulations of Axie Muldoon, the precocious child of impoverished Irish immigrants who is growing up on the mean streets of 1860’s New York. According to Publishers Weekly, “Manning paints a vivid portrait of this daring yet deeply compassionate woman, who is willing to flout convention and defy the law in the name of women’s reproductive rights…”

Ellen Cooney
The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances
August 14 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Somerville, MA
Free

Cooney’s novel centers on an unusual training school for dogs (“The Inn”). Turns out that one of the workers “doesn’t know the first thing about animals except what she’s learned from a breed guide, from the notes someone keeps leaving, and from videos online, like one that asks: Please can more people be nicer to dogs?”

Fiction Fridays
August 15
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA

All summer long, the Harvard Book Store is offering 15% off fiction purchases in the store. The promotion isn’t limited to just fiction, however – book lovers can get the discount on poetry, graphic novels, audiobooks and YA fiction as well.

— Matt Hanson