Arts Fuse critics select the best in music, film, theater, 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

Open Screen
September 9 at 7:00 pm
Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline, MA

An open night for screening short movies! If your movie is under 10 minutes it will be shown. Of course, you have to sign up (starting at 7 p.m.). The show begins at 7:30 p.m. DVD/Bluray will be accepted, as well as digital files via high speed USB thumb drives (encoded in H.264). The evening generally presents varied, interesting, and often very good work. See what your fellow filmmakers are up to!

Spike and Mike’s Animation Festival
September 12 & 13
Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA

The long Boston tradition of The Sick and Twisted Festival began in 1990 as a home for animated pieces which are simply too revolting or adult in nature for the prestigious and tasteful “Classics” show. For two nights the Somerville Theatre presents the “Classics” show at 8 p.m. and the special “Sick and Twisted” show at 10 p.m.

Age Of Cannibals
Sunday Sept 14 at 11:00 am
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

Öllers and Niederländer have everything under control. For the past six years, the two successful business consultants have been traveling through some of the seediest countries around the world in order to satisfy their clients’ greed. They have achieved almost everything, but there is one career move left: to finally become partners in the company. This dark comedy sounds like a German version of Wolf of Wall Street.

Slap the Monster on Page One
September 13 at 9:30 pm
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA

Political Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio’s 1972 movie remains strikingly relevant. “Blending footage of real demonstrations with newly shot sequences, the film opens with a bang as a right-wing newspaper’s headquarters are attacked by anarchists. Presaging today’s international newspaper scandals, this scathing satire of the power alliances and manipulations of the news-gathering ilk is fast-paced and often funny. The film’s narrative demonstrates how political strategy determines every inch of coverage—and once again that sex sells news.” (Museum of Modern Art). Playing with the director’s 1980 Leap Into the Void at 7 p.m. That film won Best Actor and Best Actress prizes at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

Jealousy
September 17 – 27
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Philippe Garrel’s new film, Jealousy, stars the director’s son, Louis Garrel, his muse since the 2005 movie Regular Lovers. It is shot – in the hallowed tradition of French art films – in beautiful black and white. The New Yorker noted that “Jealousy is a work of rueful, retrospective wisdom, but its rough-edged beauty is very much of the moment.” See for MFA schedule for screening times.

— Tim Jackson

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Jazz

Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
September 11, 8:00 pm
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA

The Canadian soprano saxophonist, flutist, and composer Jane Bunnett continues her exploration of the Afro-Cuban tradition with this all-female sextet of young Cuban musicians, including singer Daymé Arocena, tres player Yusa, and pianist Danae Olano.

John Pizzareli
September 12, 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA

The guitarist/vocalist and former casino pitchman works the sweet spot that mixes a bit of the Nat King Cole Trio with some Sinatra and his own engaging stage presence.

Mark Turner Quartet
September 16, 7:30 pm
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA

The phenomenal, vastly influential 48-year-old tenor saxophonist Mark Turner comes to the Regattabar with trumpeter Avishai Cohen, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Justin Brown in the wake of the Turner quartet’s new ECM release, Lathe of Heaven.

Youn Sun Nah & Ulf Wakenius
September 17, 7:30 pm
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA

On her most recent CD, Lento (Act), the Korean-born singer Youn Sun Nah mixes originals with unusual covers like Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” and, in the title track, her own setting of Scriaban. On Lento, slow tempos and high drama are the order of the day. She’s joined by the album’s guitarist, Ulf Wakenius, for this duo show.

— Jon Garelick

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Dance

Artist Talk: Faye Driscoll
September 11
Cross Street Dance Studio Middletown, CT

Conceptual artist/choreographer Faye Driscoll was seen here in a memorable ICA engagement in 2012. She’s currently a Creative Campus Fellow at Wesleyan and is giving a free talk describing the development of her upcoming work Thank You For Coming: Play.

“No Hero” — Excerpts from the Video Projection from Alex Ketley on Vimeo.

No Hero Vermont
Sept 11
Bellows Fall Opera House
Bellows Falls, Vermont

San Francisco-based choreographer Alex Ketley and dancer Sarah Woods, in residence at the Vermont Performance Lab, share live performance and an informal screening of their film No Hero Vermont in which the dancers invited Vermonters to describe the role of dance in their lives, and responded with impromptu dance performances in living rooms, social halls, and outdoors.

The Opposites Game: Sneak Peek
Sept 11-13
Boston Center for the Arts, Rehearsal Hall A
Boston, MA
Hot vs. cold, agitated vs. tranquil, tense vs. slack and together vs. alone. Ego Art presents five sections of director Nicole Pierce’s upcoming evening-long dance, video, and musical investigation into a range of contrasts and their juxtapositions. Thursday’s performance, where creative dress is encouraged, includes refreshments and a special performance by Pierce.

Ana Isabel Keilson + Company
September 12 -13
Dance Complex
Cambridge, MA

Spreading out in different spaces of the Dance Complex building, dance maker Ana Isabel Keilson and her New York-based company present a repertory show that includes a quartet inspired by Keilson’s childhood growing up on the New England coast, and a four channel dance-film on a continuous loop made with Providence filmmaker Julia C. Liu.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Sept 12-13 and 19-20
Green Street Studios
Cambridge, MA

Just in time for autumn, the newly revived North Atlantic Ballet under the direction of Lucy Warren-Whitman, daughter of company founders Skip Warren and Rachel Whitman, explores Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in a new neoclassical ballet production featuring video projection by young director Eli Powers, whose LinkedIn account identifies him as “Personal Assistant to Amanda Seyfried.” Don’t tell the paparazzi.

— Debra Cash

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Classical Music

Stir Series
September 11, 7:00 pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA

Callithumpian Consort kicks off Stir, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s contemporary music series. Their program includes John Zorn’s Angelus Novus, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Adieu, and Franco Donatoni’s Hot, plus a new piece by Davide Ianni.

Die tote Stadt
Presented by Odyssey Opera
September 13, 7:30 pm
Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

Odyssey Opera follows up its triumphant summer stagings of operas by Verdi, Wolf-Ferrari, and Mascagni with a concert performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s extraordinary Die tote Stadt. Gil Rose conducts. The cast features Jay Hunter Morris as the psychologically-scarred Paul and Meagan Miller as the mysterious Marietta/Marie.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

A Far Cry
September 12 at 8:00 pm
At New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

The brilliant conductorless chamber orchestra A Far Cry presents “Return to the Idyll,” featuring violinist Augustin Hadelich. On the program: works of Thomas Adés, Dimitri Shostakovich, and Leos Janácek.

Young Artist Program
September 14 at 7:00 pm
St. Paul’s Church, 15 St. Paul St, Brookline, MA

Winsor Music presents an all-star ensemble: pianist extraordinaire George Li, oboist (and director of Winsor Music) Peggy Pearson, violist Gabriela Diaz, violist Noriko Herndon, and cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer. On the program: Haydn’s Trio in F Major, the Boston premiere of Meltzer’s Air and Angels, and Mendelssohn’s Trio in D minor.

The Boston Conservatory String Masters Series
September 14 at 8:00 pm
At Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, Boston, MA

Cellist Colin Carr performs Bach Suites Nos. 2, 4, and 6.

— Susan Miron

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Roots and World Music

Inspired by Muddy and Monroe
Sept. 12
Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA

In his new book Bossman: Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters, veteran producer and performer Jim Rooney compares and contrasts the stubborn-but-inventive fathers of bluegrass and electric blues. Now his book has inspired a concert that features bluegrass icon and former Bluegrass Boy Del McCoury, jazz/blues diva Catherine Russell, and the Berklee American Roots Music Program family led by Matt Glaser.

Chicago Afrobeat Project featuring Tony Allen
Sept. 12
Johnny D’s, Somerville, MA

It’s been a great month for Afrobeat fans. First there was the Finding Fela documentary at the Kendall Square Cinema, and then Seun Kuti’s explosive (albeit poorly attended) show in Brighton last Sunday. Now comes Fela’s legendary drummer, Tony Allen, whose polyrhythmic approach played a crucial role in defining the Afrobeat sound. The 74-year old had a middling band when he played at The Middle East 4 years ago, but tonight he’ll have the highly-qualified 9-piece Chicago Afrobeat Project backing him up.

Aniceto Molina
Sept. 13
Wonderland Ballroom, Revere, MA

Colombian-born accordionist Molina is a former Mexico City resident with a huge Salvadoran fan base, so it’s no surprise that his cumbias are a big draw for dancers in Boston, which hosts a large Central American population.

Edo.G
Sept. 13
Church, Boston, MA

How deep is the well of respect in the hip-hop community for Boston veteran Edo.G ? Just take a look at some of the guests on his new LP, the aptly named After All These Years. Pete Rock and Chuck D. both lent a hand – as did the MC’s fanbase via the Kickstarter campaign which funded the album.

— Noah Schaffer

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Rock

Bob Mould
September 12
Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA

Last week’s Boston Calling Music Festival brought the Hub a performance from the reunited Replacements. This week another indie rock deity from Minnesota, former Hüsker Dü guitarist/vocalist and longtime solo artist Bob Mould, visits our city. He’s touring behind a new album, Beauty & Ruin, and while he plays a good number of Hüsker Dü songs during his set (not to mention a few tunes by Sugar, his ’90s band), don’t count on that seminal trio ever getting back together. We’ll be lucky if they can make their reissues happen.

Jack White
September 17
Fenway Park, Boston, MA

The always busy Jack White will be performing at Fenway Park this month, and seeing him should be a hell of a lot more entertaining than watching the 2014 Red Sox play there. In addition to renditions of tunes from his latest solo release, Lazaretto, expect White Stripes, Raconteurs, and Dead Weather songs in the setlist.

Upcoming and On Sale…

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); The Thurston Moore Band (10/22/2014, The Sinclair); Temples (10/24/2014, Paradise Rock Club); Peter Hook & the Light (11/8/2014, Royale); Bob Dylan (11/14/2014, Orpheum Theatre); Bob Dylan (11/15/2014, Providence Performing Arts Center); Randy Newman (11/19/2014, Wilbur Theatre); Film Screening: “Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets” (11/19/2014, Brattle Theatre); Greg Trooper (11/23/2014, Atwood’s Tavern); Julian Casablancas + The Voidz (11/26/2014, House of Blues)

— Adam Ellsworth

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Theater

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Spiro Veloudos.

Through October 11
Staged by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Boston, MA

I don’t remember ever seeing a production of this show that didn’t provide plenty of blood-curdling fun: “Stephen Sondheim’s Tony-Award winning Sweeney Todd, a macabre musical thriller, blends Sondheim’s characteristic wit with a sweeping and hauntingly beautiful score, grisly humor, and chilling drama.”

Ivanov by Anton Chekhov. Translated from the Russian by Curt Columbus. Directed by Brian McEleney.
Through October 5.
Presented by Trinity Repertory Company in the Dowling Theater, Providence, Rhode Island.

The world premiere translation of one of Chekhov’s earliest seriocomic works — it is a tricky script to pull off, but if well staged this can be a powerful study of managing the fallout of failure. The script focuses on the lethargy that afflicts an idealistic man after his life goes sour.

Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson. Directed by Judy Braha.
Through October 5.
Staged by the Nora Theater Company at the Central Square Theater, Cambridge, MA.

A wild and wooly script that promises to give us the French Enlightenment from the point of view of a feisty female: “Emilie du Châtelet, leading physicist (before there was such a word), card shark, and all-around bad ass during the Age of Enlightenment returns searching for answers: Love or Philosophy? Head or Heart?” The production marks the Boston acting debut of Lee Mikeska Gardner in the title role. She was recently appointed Artistic Director of The Nora Theatre Company.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner by Todd Kreidler. Directed by David Esbjornson.
Through October 5
Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Boston University Theatre, Boston, MA.

Malcolm-Jamal (The Cosby Show) Warner makes his Huntington Theatre Company debut with this stage version of the 1967 Hollywood movie about race relations and the superannuated that starred Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. “Joanna surprises her liberal, white parents when she brings home John, her African-American fiancé, to meet them. Both sets of parents must confront their own unexpected reactions and concerns for their children as their beliefs are put to the test.” Do we need a theatrical version of his old cinematic warhorse? Let’s see if this antique can be air-brushed into relevance.

Closer Than Ever — Music by David Shire, Lyrics by Richard Maltby. Directed by Leigh Barrett
Through September 28
Staged by the New Repertory Theatre in the Charles Mosesian Theater the Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA

A strong cast, featuring Leigh Barrett (who is also at the helm), David Foley, Brian Richard Robinson, and Kathy St. George, tackles Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire’s acclaimed musical about middle-aged people with the blues. Winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical, the show serves up “twenty-four wise and witty ‘songs of experience'” that are based “largely on true stories” and “intertwine insightful tales about love, security, happiness, and self-definition in an ever-changing world.”

The Forgetting Curve by Vanda. Directed by Kimberly Loren Eaton
September 11 through 27
Staged by the Bridge Repertory Theatre of Boston (n partnership with Theatrum Mundi Productions and Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company, NYC) at the Wimberly Theatre, Boston Center for The Arts, Boston, MA

A world premiere production: “Desperate to cure his epilepsy, a young man underwent an experimental neurosurgery in 1953 — shockingly, the procedure destroyed his brain’s ability to form new memories. Now known as Patient HM, he became widely studied, and his fascinating case serves as the inspiration for this play.”

Year Zero by Michael Golamco
September 11 through October 5
At the Merrimack Repertory Theater, Lowell, MA

Well, not your typical youths-bonding-with-youths story: “All teenagers need someone to talk to. Vuthy has chosen a skull. He is a young Cambodian-American struggling to find his place – in a community that doesn’t truly accept him and in a family that seems to be disappearing.” MRT Artistic Director Charles Towers writes that “the specific ethnicity of this particular story makes it especially important to be produced in the city that has the second largest Cambodian-American population in the country.”

Far From Heaven: A New Musical — Book by Richard Greenburg, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie. Based on the Focus Features/Vulcan Production Motion Picture written & directed by Todd Haynes. Directed by Scott Edmiston.
September 12 through October 11.
Staged by SpeakEasy Stage Company, at the Roberts Studio Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA.

The out-of-control fad of adapting films into musicals continues with “a lush musical adaptation of Todd Haynes’ acclaimed romantic melodrama of private longings and social taboos. A 1950s Connecticut housewife’s perfect life is shattered when she discovers her husband’s shocking secret and then seeks comfort in a forbidden relationship that dramatically alters her view of herself and the world.”

Never Ever Ever by Sivan Ben Yishai. Directed by Guy Ben-Aharon
September 14 at 7 p.m.
Staged by Israeli Stage at the Goethe Institut, Boston, MA

The English language premiere of an award-winning monodrama that “provides the audience an experience of what it’s like to feel like an outsider, feeling different, being differently-abled, yet, at the same time whole.”

Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Directed by Robert Scanlan
September 14
Staged by The Poets’ Theatre at Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, MA

The Poets’ Theatre is back! This staged reading of Thomas’s lyrical memory play features a powerhouse cast: Cherry Jones, Thomas Derrah, Alvin Epstein, Benjamin Evett, Erica Funkhouser, David Gullette, Karen MacDonald, Aidan Parkinson, Lloyd Schwartz, and Lawrence Senelick. An Arts Fuse interview with Robert Scanlan, The Poets’ Theatre’s Artistic Director.

The Literary Roast: Back to School Edition!
September 15
Staged by Weird Love Productions at Oberon, Cambridge, MA

“Did school assignments about Edgar Allan Poe make your midnights dreary? Do you wish you could em-dash Emily Dickinson? Have you always wanted to pop Ernest Hemingway in the jaw? Do you objectively despise Ayn Rand?” “Sexy School Master” Jade Sylvan hosts an evening dedicated to kicking big name writers around. I have no problem at all with roughing up Ayn Rand — but didn’t E.A. Poe suffer enough?

— Bill Marx

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Author Events

Joyce Carol Oates
Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories
September 11 at 7:00 pm
At the Coolidge Corner Theater, Coolidge Corner, Brookline MA
Tickets are $5 or free with purchase of book at Brookline Booksmith

Joyce Carol Oates has had an incredibly long and amazingly prolific career as a novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. She will be reading from her latest collection of yarns, whose title story, which puts poet Robert Frost in a very unappealing light, has kicked up some literary dust.

Jason Segel
Nightmares!
September 12 at 7:00 pm, doors open at 6:30
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
$20 tickets with book included, $5 kids tickets (ages 16 and under, book not included)

Jason Segel is a multitalented actor/writer/musician who will be reading and signing copies of his YA thriller. In the first book of a trilogy, Segel and co-writer Kirsten Miller focus on a boy named Charlie who has nightmares that his father is married to a witch. Tickets are on sale online only.

Chris Guillebeau
The Happiness of Pursuit
September 13 at 5:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner, Brookline MA
Free

Setting himself the goal of visiting every country around the globe by the age of 35, author Chris Guillebeau decided to write down his experiences and epiphanies once he got 139 countries under his belt. He will be reading from his book and from the testimonies of other travelers who have examined the urge to pack up and go.

Ed Piskor
Hip Hop Family Tree Book 1: 1970s – 1981 and Book 2: 1981 – 1983
Co-sponsored by the Hip-Hop Archive & Research Institute at Harvard University
September 15 at 7:00 pm
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Free

Acclaimed graphic novelist Ed Piskor traces the roots of hip hop from its inception to the present day. He uses the medium of Marvel-style comic book illustrations to visually and verbally illustrate the growth of an art form that has been an essential influence on contemporary pop music. He tells the stories of the people who made hip-hop possible.

Robert Pinsky
Singing School — Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry with the Masters
September 16 at 7:00 pm
Harvard Coop, Cambridge MA
Free

The Harvard Coop hosts Boston University professor and former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, who will be reading from and signing copies from the paperback edition of his latest book, which is filled with the lessons he has learned from years of teaching and writing poetry.

Graywolf Poetry Night
Featuring Matthea Harvey, Fanny Howe, and Katie Ford
September 17 at 7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner, Brookline MA

The eminent poetry press brings a stellar lineup to Boston. Poets Harvey (If The Tabloids Are True What Are You?), Howe (Second Childhood) and Ford (Blood Lyrics) will read from their books of verse.

— Matt Hanson