Arts Fuse critics select the best in film, dance, visual arts, theater, music, and author events for the coming weeks.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Author Events

Claire Messud
The Burning Girl
June 18 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

“Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the quiet town of Royston, Massachusetts. But as the two girls enter adolescence, their paths diverge and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship. The Burning Girl is a complex examination of the stories we tell ourselves about youth and friendship, and straddles, expertly, childhood’s imaginary worlds and painful adult reality — crafting a true, immediate portrait of female adolescence.”

Jim Dooley in conversation with Hugo Burnham
Red Set: A History of Gang of Four
June 19 at 7 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner MA
Free

Gang of Four was one of the most unique and influential post-punk English bands of the seventies. Mixing radical critiques of post-capitalist life with gritty punk guitars and aggressive funk rhythms, Gang of Four inspired a slew of bands; their record Entertainment! remains a coruscating classic. Dooley is the author of a book about the band and will discuss the group with its original drummer.

Leni Zumas
Red Clocks: A Novel
June 20 at 7 p.m.
Newtonville Books, West Newton MA
Free

“In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom.”

Paula Poundstone
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness
June 23 at 8 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner MA
Tickets are $35

“This ticketed event with comedian Paula Poundstone will take place at the Chevalier in Medford Square, and attendees can buy the performer’s book (now in paperback, featuring an added chapter) in a signing session with the author  after the show. Offering herself up as a human guinea pig in a series of thoroughly unscientific experiments, Poundstone tries out a different get-happy hypothesis in each chapter of her data-driven search. She gets in shape with taekwondo. She drives fast behind the wheel of a Lamborghini. She communes with nature while camping with her daughter, and commits to getting her house organized (twice ). Swing dancing? Meditation? Volunteering? Does any of it bring her happiness? You may be laughing too hard to care.”

Bookstore Summer Warehouse Sale
Four weekends this summer
June 23-24, June 30-July 1
10 a.m.- 8 p.m.
Harvard Book Store Warehouse, 14 Park St, Somerville MA

It’s summertime, and you know what that means — Harvard Book Store is opening up its warehouse. Thousands of titles of all kinds — fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, children’s books, comics, art, you name it — are available at a steep discount. Tweet or Instagram your favorite finds each day and be entered into a contest to win a $25 gift certificate to Harvard Book Store. Spend $50 in a day and earn a coupon for 20% off your purchase at the book store.

Thomas Frank
Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society
June 25 at 6 p.m. (Doors open at 5:30)
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge MA
Tickets are $26.25 with book, $5 without

Everybody knows that journalism is the first draft of history. But in some cases, it’s more like prophecy. Thomas Frank, founding editor of The Baffler, has been ahead of the curve with each of his major books — The Conquest of Cool poked fun at the over-the-counter-culture, What’s the Mattter with Kansas made a still-timely observation about how the ruling class has figured out how (via the culture wars) to get poor and working people to vote for them. His recent jeremiad Listen, Liberal puts the centrist Democrats and neoliberal fat cats to task (Arts Fuse review/interview). He will be reading and discussing his latest collection of cutting-edge journalism about all corners of American culture.

Alissa Quart
Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America
June 27 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Free

“Families today are squeezed on every side—from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible.”

“Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects — from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses — have been wrung out by a system that doesn’t support them, and enriches only a tiny elite.”

— Matt Hanson

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Jazz

Teresa Inês & Band
June 20 at 8:30 pm
Ryles Jazz Club, Cambridge, MA

One of the saddest aspects of the imminent closing of Ryles is the loss of a venue that has long been a home to the cream of Boston’s Brazilian and Latin musicians. For over twenty years, Rio native Teresa Inês has been at the forefront of the city’s Brazilian music scene. Now Inês is bringing her warm vocals, wide-ranging Brazilian repertoire, and gorgeous original compositions to Ryles in a show bidding farewell to a club she has played regularly since her days as a Berklee student in the early 1990s. Her band of stellar musicians will include fellow South Americans Fernando Brandão on flutes and Nando Michelin on piano. The show will feature Inês’s originals and some of the band’s favorite arrangements of tunes by Brazilian greats like Edu Lobo, Gilberto Gil, and Djavan. It promises to be a memorable evening of song and saudade.

— Evelyn Rosenthal

Nellie McKay 
June 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Aw, heck, her publicity spiel says it all: “Nellie McKay has released six relatively accomplished albums, won a Theatre World Award for her Broadway portrayal of Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, co-created and starred in the award winning off-Broadway hit Old Hats, and has written musical biographies around a compelling gallery of ladies — from environmental pioneer Rachel Carson to the life, conviction, and execution at San Quentin of the underdog Barbara Graham, and most recently The Big Molinsky: Considering Joan Rivers, as well as A Girl Named Bill: The Life and Times of Billy Tipton, named one of the Best Concerts of the Year by The New York Times.” I can vouch for “Billy Tipton,” which was funny, moving, revelatory, and informed by McKay’s vocal prowess, theatrical flair, and songwriting skills when she performed it at the Regattabar last year. McKay was a sui generis wonder when she started showing up a little over a decade ago, and she still is. Oh, and she is the winner of a PETA humanitarian award. But nobody’s perfect.

Bob Gullotti Trio
June 22 at 8 p.m.
Third Life Studio, Somerville, MA.

Drummer Bob Gullotti, perhaps best known as the rhythmic engine of the Fringe, is joined by one of his partners in that band, bassist John Lockwood, and the versatile and imaginative pianist and composer Tim Ray.

Yosvany Terry & Baptiste Trotignon
June 22 at 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Cuban saxophonist and percussionist Yosvany Terry has joined forces with French pianist Baptiste Trotignon for a program (and CD) called “Ancestral Memories,” exploring a common Francophone heritage: Terry’s Haitian roots (through his grandmother) as well as a broader Caribbean, New Orleans, and French Louisiana strain, “re-imagined through 21^st century aesthetics and a jazz sensibility.”

Soweto Kinch
June 23 at 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

The 40-year-old British alto saxophonist is as deft at spitting literate, politically informed rhymes as at unleashing smart, blistering post-bop. His touring trio these days has generally included bassist Nick Jurd and the distinguished American drummer Gregory Hutchinson.

Ras Moshe Burnett
June 24 at 8 p.m.
Outpost 186, Cambridge, MA.

The New York avant-garde tenor saxophonist and flutist Ras Moshe Burnett describes himself as paying  “homage to Coltrane, Albert Ayler, John Gilmore and his other favorites on a permanent basis.” Works for me. He’s joined by bassist Damon Smith, drummer Luther Grey, and cellist Glynis Lomon.

Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Club
June 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, MA.

Arts Fuse “Fusical” award-winner Charlie Kohlhase breaks out another edition of his Explorers Club, with longtime collaborator Matt Langley on tenor sax, trumpeter Daniel Rosenthal, tubist Josiah Reibstein, guitarist Eric Hofbauer, bassist Aaron Darrell, drummer Joe Musacchia, and the man himself on alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones.

Anita Coelho and Friends
June 27 at 9 p.m.
Ryles, Cambridge, MA.

Singer Anita Coelho bids farewell to Ryles, which closes this week (see June 20, above), gathering some of the musicians who have been helping her bring Brazilian and world music to the club every Wednesday since September 2004. Coelho is a fine singer who knows her stuff, and she has a talented pool of friends to draw on. The core band will be pianist Nando Michelin, bassist Ebinho Cardoso, and drummer Felipe Aranha. Special guests include singer Ian de Musis Cardoso, pianist Alexei Tsiganov, “and more.” Everyone will present their own compositions in addition to backing Coelho on classic bossa nova and samba. And, in case you’re wondering, “hors d’oeuvres will be served.”

Ladies of Blues and Soul
June 28 at 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

This solid sextet has broad experience in blues, soul, pop, and jazz: singers Diane Blue and Lisa Mann, singer-keyboardist Alizon Lissance, singer-songwriter Wendy Sobel, saxophonist Myanna, and drummer Diane Gately.

Cocek Brass Band/Jason Anick Gypsy-Jazz Project
June 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

This is an intriguing “world music” double bill with some wonderful players. Cocek Brass Band runs from Eastern Europe to New Orleans, Africa, and more. The players are trumpeter/vocalist Sam Dechenne (who also writes the music), rotary-valved fugelhornist Ezra Weller, trombonist Clayton DeWalt, tubist Jim Gray, and tapan drummer Grant Smith. Violin wizard Jason Anick continues his pursuit of a modern take on the “gypsy jazz” tradition of Django Reinhardt with the help of guitarists Max O’Rourke and Henry Acker, and bassist Greg Loughman.

High Wire Trio feat. Christian Sands
June 29 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Pianist Sands has been a mainstay in Christian McBride’s bands, along with the drummer in the group, Ulysses Owens Jr., and bassist Luques Curtis. The project anticipates the July release of an Errol Garner tribute album, inspired by Garner’s live recording of his November 1964 midnight concert at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

TEN
June 30 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

The name is an acronym for drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, bassist Esperanza Spalding, and trumpeter/keyboardist Nicholas Payton. The trio seems to be picking up from where it left off following the death of original member Geri Allen, in June of last year. Payton these days is playing as much keyboard as the trumpet with which he made his name — sometimes both together.

— Jon Garelick

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Dance

OnStage Dance Company’s Season 15 Performance
June 17 at 2 p.m. & 7 p.m.
Boston University Dance Theater
Boston, MA

OnStage Dance Company’s 15th season culminates with a lively performance featuring the full company. The performance proffers an eclectic array of works encompassing the genres of Hip Hop, Contemporary, Tap, Jazz, and Modern.

Pepperland
June 21 and 22 at 8 p.m.
Shubert Theater
New Haven, CT

The 2018 International Festival of Arts & Ideas welcomes back the Mark Morris Dance Group for the New England premiere of Pepperland — a salute to the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ groundbreaking album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The new work debuted in Liverpool; it includes fresh arrangements of Beatles songs and new Pepper-inspired pieces composed by Ethan Iverson as well as Morris’s humorous and colorful choreography. The evening-length work was co-commissioned by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and marks the third time the Festival has presented the company’s work.

Festival of Us, You, We & Them
June 22-24
The Dance Complex
Cambridge, MA

The Dance Complex celebrates diversity in the arts and community with its fifth annual ​Festival of Us, You, We & Them​ The event invites the public to learn new movement styles, engage in conversation, and witness and interact with performers. Local artists kick off the festival on Friday afternoon with demonstrations and pop-up performances that take place both indoors and outside, on the sidewalk. The festival continues through Saturday and Sunday; there will be brief samples of the Dance Complex’s weekly classes, workshops, discussions, and performances.

Dances of the Spirit
June 23 at 2 p.m.
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Cambridge, MA

Isadora Duncan is known around the world as the “mother of modern dance.” This week the group Dances by Isadora performs Duncan’s series of “mourning dances,” created in reaction to the accidental deaths of her two children in 1913. Dances by Isadora will perform these evocative dances of wind, sea, darkness, and light in Hazel Dell. Funding for this program has been provided in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

And further afield…

Ephrat Asherie Dance
June 27-July 1
Jacob’s Pillow
Becket, MA

Ephrat Asherie Dance performs the world premiere of Odeon, a high-energy, hybrid hip-hop work set to and inspired by the music of early 20th-century Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, which will be performed live. A 2016 New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie”) Award recipient, Asherie incorporates breaking, hip-hop, house, and vogue into this new work, set to music that melds classical influences with Afro-Brazilian rhythms.

— Merli V. Guerra

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Visual Arts

History of the Future: A Group Exhibition of Art and Technology
through July 1
Boston Cyberarts, 9 Myrtle Street, Jamaica Plain, MA

This forward-thinking gallery sent out a call for provocative, visually engaging work that pairs art and technology. Strong submissions flooded in from an internationally diverse range of artists from Singapore to Switzerland, as well as some from local Bostonians. In fact, there were so many compelling submissions that a sequel to this show is planned for the Fall. The complex and playful works on display include video art, book art, immersive 360° virtual reality experiences, mechanized sound sculptures, digital holograms, iOS apps, and more. A personal favorite — Hye Yeon Nam’s “Invisible” — takes the form of a mechanized sculpture that prints out derogatory racial slurs and then uses its robotic hand to cut and discard them into a pile of offensive phrases for viewers to sift through on the ground.

Her Story Is: performances and presentations, co-presented by Fort Point Theatre Channel (FPTC), The Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences (UMass Boston), the Odysseus Project, the Center for Arabic Culture, and partners in Iraq. June 24 at the Arts at the Armory, Somerville, MA

This project is the result of a yearlong collaboration between four Iraqis and four local Bostonian female artists. They are women whose lives have been somehow affected by the calamities of war. Most of the time the artists worked together through the use of Skype, e-mails, and their blogs, except for one meeting, last December in Dubai, where they taught each other their different crafts and shared their stories among tears and laughter. The result: there will be two evenings filled with theater, poetry, and visual arts, as well as an exhibition at the Wharf from June 7 to June 22.

Allison Katz: Diary w/o Dates
through July 29
MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA

A fascinating investigation into the relationship of painting and time. The show explores self-portraiture, warping the clock, and playing with ideas of memory and projection. This is the first solo exhibition in the US for Canadian-born, London-based contemporary artist Allison Katz. In her work “Katz sees a resemblance between the structured intervals of time and the physical constraints of a painting. She plays within the borders of each — the cells of the day, week, and months in a year and the four stretcher-bars that determine the limits of a painting — letting that which is beyond the grid encroach.”

#UNLOAD: Guns in the Hands of Artists
Walsh Gallery, Fairfield University Art Museum, 200 Barlow Road, Fairfield, CT
Through October 13

Presented in partnership with #UNLOAD and Guns in the Hands of Artists Foundation, this timely exhibition is a powerful example of artistic creation as a means to evoke meaningful dialogue and, in doing so, encouraging the potential for social change. Touring across North America, from Colorado and Miami’s Art Basel to Washington DC, the show originated in the mid-’90s in response to a spiking murder rate in New Orleans. The gut wrenching and memorable work in this exhibition was created by a group of internationally renowned poets, painters, glass artists, sculptors, photographers, and video artists. They made use of decommissioned guns taken off the city’s streets through a buyback program.

Gunnar Schonbeck: No Experience Required
Mass MoCA, 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA
Through at least 2019

Unearthed from an attic space at Bennington College and restored by the school’s interns, this exhibition is made up of a passionate and eccentric teacher’s larger than life musical instruments. The pieces are available, on occasion, for the public to play. This hands-on-approach was very much part of Schonbeck’s philosophy – anyone can make music, and from the most ordinary of objects. The handmade ensemble includes a 9-ft banjo, 8-ft-tall marimba, drums made from aircraft fuselages, welded steel harps, and countless steel drums, zithers, pan pipes, tubular chimes, and triangular cellos.

Carissa Rodriguez: The Maid
Through July 29
MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Building E15, Cambridge, MA

The Maid, a newly commissioned video work from New York based artist Carissa Rodrigues, is a provocative layering of appropriation that welcomes serious contemplation. The visuals follow a selection of American artist Sherrie Levine’s Newborn sculptures throughout the course of a day in various residences, private and institutional, from New York to Los Angeles. Levine made the curious orbs out of crystal and black cast glass in the early 1990s, molding them after Constantin Brancusi’s marble and bronze sculptures of the same name from 1915 and 1920. Featuring Levine’s sculptures, appropriations of another artist’s work, and capturing them in their contemporary environments, Rodriguez engages the conditions and settings in which art circulates, proposing that the futures of artworks are inherently speculative. The topics raised include time, subjecthood, the conditions of making work, and the canonical identity of the artist.

Kollabs: Wildwoods
through July 1
Lanoue Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue, #31, Boston, MA

Intoxicating — this playful and curious exhibit presents odd pairings of woodland creatures amid backgrounds of culture and domesticity. The issues explored include examining the crucial yet perilous relationship between human constructs and fragile natural forest environments. These skillfully rendered collaborative paintings and installations from Kollab artists Luis Garcia-Nerey and Anke Scholfield feature heavy- handed, patterned interiors collaged with realistic images of nature’s wonders. Within the work, unfinished narratives provoke the imagination.

French Pastels: Treasures from the Vault
June 30 through January 6
Charlotte F. and Irving W. Rabb Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

This “not to be missed” exhibition brings together 40 rarely shown French masterworks. They have been pulled from their safe keeping in storage to make a brief but no doubt memorable appearance. The art is particularly fragile because of its easily mussed powdery pigments and light sensitive paper. The warm, pink, and hazy surfaces of Edgar Degas’s Landscape (1892) capture fleeting changes in the weather, while Camille Pissarro’s Poultry Market at Gisors (1885) bustles with teeming excitement, suggesting the chatter of commerce among townsfolk. These presumably boisterous conversations and facial expression are softened by the light, quick renderings of the artist’s pastels.

Sculpting with Air: Ian McMahon and Jong Oh
Through September 30
deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA

With air as their medium, two emerging contemporary artists present two very different site-specific installations in the sculpture park’s indoor gallery spaces. Intent on making the intangible tangible, both challenge the imagination as well as push at preconceived limitations of what art can do and be. McMahon’s massive installation of voluminous pillows of air, spanning 65 feet long and 25 feet wide, was made via a new and innovative technique that makes spectacular use of sprayed gypsom plaster. The result appears to be a collection of soft and fluffy clouds, imprisoned. The work’s title, Tether, refers not only to the piece’s metal constraints, but also its physical ties to the space where it was created and will eventually be destroyed.

James Weingrod: For the Trees Contained the Entire Universe They Inhabited
through August 4
YELLOW PERIL. 60 Valley Street #5, Providence, RI

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.”
-William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Inspired by the sentiments of William Blake’s classic celebration of Romantic prophecy and revolutionary fervor, James Weingrod began this evolving new series of paintings, sculptures, and installations over two years ago, when he was participating at the Robert Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island, Florida. He was intoxicated by the grain patterns and burrows left behind by insects who had feasted on the insides of a tree near its trunk. He became fascinated by these “over looked creatures” and the tantalizing designs they left behind, considering the latter to be “both singularly and collectively containing the entire universe within their walls, such that they can constitute a structural and visual model of a universe rich with mystery, beauty, and interconnectivity.”

– Aimee Cotnoir

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Theater

Jagged Little Pill Music by Alanis Morissette & Glen Ballard. Lyrics by Alanis Morissette. Book by Diablo Cody. Music Supervision, Orchestrations, and Arrangements by Tom Kitt. Choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Directed by Diane Paulus. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA, through July 15.

This world premiere musical features “an original story inspired by the themes and emotions laid bare in Alanis Morissette’s Grammy Award-winning album that introduced beloved anthems, including “Ironic,” “You Oughta Know,” and “Hand In My Pocket.” The narrative follows a family grappling with uncomfortable truths about many of the urgent issues deeply affecting our communities and our world today.” Book by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno). Arts Fuse review

The Chronic Single’s Handbook, written and performed by Randy Ross. In a Somerville, MA location (check the website) through September 22.

Novelist and fringe festival veteran Randy Ross was among the Bostonians selected by Airbnb to offer “high quality experiences” to visitors and residents of the Boston area. He is performing this piece in his living room — which gives a whole new meaning to ‘intimate’ theater. “The show: A chronically-single guy takes a trip around the world hoping to change his luck with love. An unflinching look at how men feel about sex, love, marriage, and massage parlors. Adult situations, adult language, and more adult situations including a visit to a body spa named ‘The Curious Finger.'”

Fall by Bernard Weintraub. Directed by Peter DuBois. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Huntington’s Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA, through June 26.

World Premiere production of a script “that tells the true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller’s secret son Daniel, his child with third wife, Inge Morath. Born with Down syndrome, Daniel was institutionalized, and his existence was never acknowledged by his parents.” The play “explores the fascinating dichotomy of Miller’s life with Morath (the couple also had a daughter, Rebecca) and the divide between their public personae and their private lives.” Arts Fuse preview and review.

Calendar Girls, based on the Miramax Motion Picture by Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth. Directed by Nancy E. Carroll.  Staged by the Greater Boston Stage Company at 395 Main Street, Stoneham, MA, through June 17.

Billed as ” a delightful, heartfelt comedy based on the true story of eleven English Ladies Club members who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukemia Research Fund.” The cast features Boston luminaries Maureen Brennan, Sarah deLima, Mary Potts Dennis, Kerry A. Dowling, Jade Guerra, Michael Kaye, Karen MacDonald, Sean McGuirk, Cheryl McMahon, Nael Nacer, Kathy St. George, and Bobbie Steinbach. Arts Fuse review

The Weir by Conor McPherson. Directed by Bob Knopf. Staged by Harbor Stage at 15 Kendrick Avenue, Wellfleet Harbor, Wellfleet, MA, through July 7.

“When a newcomer happens into a sleepy Irish pub, she and a band of local bachelors embark on an unexpectedly eerie evening.”

The Nether by Jennifer Haley. Directed by Sarah Gazdowicz. Staged by Flat Earth Theatre in the Black Box Theatre at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA, through 23.

“An immersive online wonderland where anything is possible. The mysterious “Papa” holds court in his virtual garden, a sensory utopia where patrons may indulge their darkest fantasies under digital anonymity and without real-world consequences. But when Detective Morris investigates Papa’s dealings, she uncovers a series of darkly unsettling acts which throw morality, the law, and human nature itself into question.” The production contains adult themes, language, and imagery. Parental discretion advised. Arts Fuse review of Mad Horse Theatre’s 2017 production of the script. Arts Fuse review

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton, adapted from the 1782 novel of the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Presented by the Nora Theatre at the Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, through July 1.

Gardner helmed a production of the play in Washington DC with an all-male cast. She brings that concept to this revival: notions of gender politics are skewed when the sexual, amoral, manipulative games in this script are envisioned through new eyes. Content Warning: Full nudity. Sexual content. Suggested age: 18 and over. Arts Fuse review

Bar Mitzvah Boy by Mark Leiren-Young. Directed by Guy Ben-Aharon. Staged by the Chester Theatre Company at the Town Hall Theatre, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, MA, June 21 through July 1.

The American premiere of a spiritual comedy: “Joey is in a hurry to ‘become a man,’ but he’d prefer not to skip his weekly poker game for Friday night services to do it. While this late-in-life Bar Mitzvah boy (and successful divorce attorney) is finding his spiritual way, the rabbi who is guiding him is losing hers.”

Salt, written and performed by Ruby Rose Fox. At OBERON, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA, on June 22. At the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA on June 28 and July 13. At Wellfleet Preservation Hall, Wellfleet, MA, on July 14.

Fox describes her upcoming performance as “a femme, Trump-era, alter-ego, one-woman pop opera spectacle.”

The Royal Family of Broadway, Based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Edna Ferber and an original adaptation by Richard Greenberg. Book by Rachel Sheinkin. Music & Lyrics by William Finn. Choreographed by Joshua Bergasse. Directed by John Rando. Staged by Barrington Stage at the Boyd-Quinson MainStage, Pittsfield, MA, through July 13.

The world premiere of a musical comedy that “is a masterful love letter to the Great White Way. Set in the 1920s and loosely based on the legendary Barrymores, it centers around the Cavendish family of actors: an aging imperious grande dame, a Broadway star looking for love, a self-centered boozy leading man who has fled Hollywood, and a promising ingénue – each having to make pivotal choices in their lives.”

Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Directed by Melia Bensussen. Staged by Shakespeare and Company in the Tina Packer Playhouse, Lenox, MA, July 3 through August 5.

Shakes & Co veterans Jonathan Croy and Tod Randolph take the helm as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, “two of Shakespeare’s most notorious anti-heroes.” Interesting: Mary McCarthy saw them as the Bard’s most perfect depiction of a middle class couple

Noir Hamlet by John Minigan. Directed by Joe Antoun. Staged by Centastage at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA, through June 30

A version of Shakespeare in the mold of the Paul Douglas film vehicle Joe Macbeth. “There’s nothing wrong with Hamlet that a drink and a gun won’t fix!” The script is a wild re-imagining of the Shakespeare classic. The action takes place at various locations in and around Los Angeles. The year is 1949. There’s never a good time to find yourself on the roof, twelve flights above the sidewalk, not sure if you’re alone.” The cast for this hard-boiled tragedy includes Robert D. Murphy, Liz Adams, Paul Melendy, and Cristhian Mancinas-García.

The Closet by Douglas Carter Beane, inspired by Francis Veber’s play Le Placard. Directed by Mark Brokaw. Staged by the Williamstown Theatre Festival on its MainStage, Williamstown, MA, June 26 through July 14.

World premiere comedy: “Martin O’Reilly (Matthew Broderick) is stuck in Scranton in a dead-end job, his marriage is over, and his son won’t return his calls. His only friend is his eternally optimistic co-worker (Tony nominee Jessica Hecht), who can’t bake enough muffins to stave off her romantic longings. When a stranger (Tony nominee Brooks Ashmanskas) sashays into their world, he drags Martin—and everyone around him—out of their respective closets.”

The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp. Directed by David Cromer. Staged by the Williamstown Theatre Festival on its Nikos Stage, Williamstown, MA, June 27 through July 8.

“Emmy, Golden Globe, and Tony Award winner Mary-Louise Parker stars in this world premiere play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp. Bella Baird (Parker) is an accomplished professor at an Ivy League university who prizes her solitude. But when she faces a challenge she cannot tackle alone, she allies herself with a brilliant and mysterious student, Christopher (Will Hochman).

Church & State by Jason Odell Williams. Directed by Charlotte Cohn. Staged by the Berkshire Theatre Group at the Unicorn Theatre, The Larry Vaber Stage, BTG’s Stockbridge Campus, 6 East Street, Stockbridge, MA, through June 30.

This is billed as “a provocative, fast-paced and witty look at the life of a politician, whose belief system gets shaken to the core…three days before his bid for re-election.”

The Wiz, Book by William F. Brown. Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls. From the story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Music Director, Allyssa Jones. Choreography by Jean Appolon. Staged by Lyric Stage Company of Boston at 40 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA, through July 1.

“A soulful retelling of L. Frank Baum’s beloved The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” this musical (Winner of 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical & Best Score) “combines fairy-tale glamour with street smarts to make a classic fantasy sparkle for today.” Arts Fuse review

— Bill Marx

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Roots and World Music

Make Music Boston
June 21

This year the summer solstice is marked by an expansive celebration of community music making. Dozens of local artists will perform everything from Afrobeat to classical Ottoman pieces at traditional and nontraditional venues in and around the Boston area. Check the website for performance locations and times.

Small World – Big Ears: Voci Angelica Trio and Esthema
June 25
Club Passim, Cambridge, MA

This monthly series of globally inspired bands continues with two hard-to-classify outfits: the world/classical percussion, cello, and vocal trio Voci Angelica and the Balkan-leaning fusion outfit Esthema.

David Mallett
June 29
Club Passim, Cambridge, MA

The Maine folk icon known for his “Garden Song” has just re-recorded some of his classics in an album called Greenin’ Up. Appropriately enough, it’s been released in conjunction with the Maine Farmland Trust. Mallett remains a first-tier chronicler of the hard but beautiful ways of rural New England life.

 

Larry Hanks & Deborah Robins
June 29
Folk Song Society of Greater Boston House Concerts, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

A real-deal old-school folk music couple on their “Road to Obscurity” tour; the performance mixes guitars, Jew’s harps, cowboy songs, and traditional ballads.

John Anderson
July 1
City Winery, Boston, MA

Some think mainstream country music began its sharp decline in the early ’80s. If so, it sure wasn’t John Anderson’s fault. With his warm voice and real-life lyrics, Anderson has been one of Nashville’s most distinctive and soulful voices since he burst onto the scene. The title track of his 1992 classic Seminole Wind is probably the most gripping tale of environmental destruction to come out of Nashville. These days, mainstream country radio isn’t too kind to vets like Anderson, so there was a nine-year hiatus before he returned with 2015’s self-released Goldmine. The set saw him cowriting original material with Josh Turner, the kind of traditional-minded country star who was clearly influenced by Anderson, who makes his first Boston appearance in decades with an acoustic set.

— Noah Schaffer

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Classical Music

Rockport Music Chamber Music Festival’s Snow in June
June 17 at 5 p.m.
At the Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street, Rockport, MA

Pianist Frederic Chiu makes his Rockport debut with the powerful “war” sonata No. 7 of Prokofiev. The program continues with cellist Andres Diaz in Tan Dun’s Elegy: Snow in June, based on a 13th-century Chinese drama, about a woman executed for crimes, despite her innocence. Even nature cried out for her innocence with a heavy snowfall in June. The concert concludes with selected movements from Messiaen’s Quartet from the End of Time, written while the composer was a prisoner in a World War II camp.

An Evening of Brahms
June 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Presented by the Rockport Chamber Music Festival at the Shalin Liu Performance Center
37 Main Street, Rockport, MA.

“An all-star ensemble led by pianist Anton Nel and Artistic Director Barry Shiffman will feature Brahms’ chamber music masterpieces. The program highlights the vocal splendor of American mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey, who was the Grand Finals winner of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; the incomparable violinist Chee-Yun, winner of the 1989 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 1990 Avery Fisher Career Grant; and culminate with horn virtuoso William Vermeulen.”

Brentano String Quartet
June 30 at 8 p.m.
Presented by the Rockport Chamber Music Festival at the Shalin Liu Performance Center
37 Main Street, Rockport, MA.

The Quartet is joined by soprano Dawn Upshaw for a program that include: Mozart’s String Quartet No. 16 in E-flat major, K. 428; Webern’s 6 Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9; Schubert’s Minuets (alternating with Webern Bagatelles), Respighi’s Il Tramonto, and Schoenberg’s String Quartet, No. 2.

Composer Summit – Tribute Concert to Leo Brouwer
June 30 at 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA

The Boston Guitar Festival presents legendary conductor, composer, and guitarist Brouwer, who will conduct the GuitarFest orchestra in a free performance of his Elegiacio Concerto that will feature soloist Zaira Meneses.

— Susan Miron

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Film

Arab Film Weekend 2018
June 17
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

For the third consecutive year, a roundup of films from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, and Palestine. This year’s lineup highlights female directors and protagonists.

17 (Jordan) Documentary, Sunday, June 17 at 11 a.m.
The Jordanian under-17 women’s soccer team prepares for the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Jordan 2016. Coming from different backgrounds, each of the girls has faced a different set of challenges as a national team player. The film is a social exploration of the lives of young women who are passionate about playing a sport they have been told was only for men.

Until the Birds Return (Algeria), Sunday, June 17 at 3 p.m.
Writer-director Karim Moussaoui first feature explores the damaged emotional landscape of his homeland, Algeria.

Provincetown International Film Festival
June 17
Provincetown, MA

PIFF is one of New England’s friendliest and most scenic film festivals. Regarding this year’s gathering, artistic director Lisa Viola says, “For our 20th anniversary festival, we are absolutely thrilled to present a lineup featuring new work and are especially proud that all five of our Spotlight Films are directed by women.”

They include: Mapplethorpe, starring Matt Smith, will be the closing night film.

This year Sean Baker (The Florida Project) will receive the festival’s Filmmaker on the Edge Award and Chloë Grace Moretz will receive the Next Wave Award.
Complete Schedule Link

Searching
June 18 at 7 p.m.
Brattle Theater, Cambridge, MA

David Kim (John Cho)’s 16-year-old daughter goes missing. 37 hours later and there isn’t a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever. Free Screening courtesy of the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Passes are required. Download and print your pass.

Once Upon a Time in the West
June 18 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theater. Brookline, MA

Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, and Claudia Cardinale star in Sergio Leone’s monumental masterpiece, which ranks among his most admired achievements and the greatest Westerns ever made. Check out one of cinema’s great opening scenes.

The Roxbury International Film Festival
June 20 through 30
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

The 20th Annual Roxbury International Film Festival provides an outlet for diverse cinematic voices, both local and worldwide. Awards certificates are presented for Audience Favorite, Narrative and Documentary Features, Shorts, and Emerging Filmmaker. There’s a special Henry Hampton documentary award. Please check the website for times and locations of films. Complete Schedule

A sampling of the films include:

Liyana – June 21 at 7 p.m. The producer will be present. Live performances precede the screening. A Swazi girl embarks on a dangerous mission to save her twin brothers.

100 Years, 100 Voices Of Faith – June 22 at 3 p.m. The film chronicles the history, people, and future of the Abundant Life Church in Cambridge on its 100th anniversary.

Love Jacked – June 22 at 8 p.m. – Director and cast member will be present. Maya, a headstrong artist, travels to Africa for inspiration and returns with a fiancé.

Black Memorabilia – June 23 at 6:30 p.m. An intimate and poetic portrait of the people who consume and manufacture black collectibles and antiques.

The Lucky Specials June 24 at 12:30 p.m. The Lucky Specials are a small-time cover band in southern Africa. When tragedy strikes, the band must find the strength to make their dreams reality.

Ali’s Comeback – June 24 at 3 p.m.
A documentary about Muhammad Ali’s return to the boxing ring following a three and a half year hiatus.

Jinn – June 29 at 8:30 p.m. Director will be present. Summer is a carefree teenage girl whose world is turned upside down when her mother abruptly converts to Islam and becomes a different person.

A Boy. A Girl. A Dream: Love On Election Night – June 30 at 6:30 p.m. Director will be present. Cass is a Los Angeles club promoter who meets a Midwestern woman named Frida on the night of the 2016 presidential election. She challenges Cass to revisit his broken dreams, while he pushes Frida to discover her own.

— Tim Jackson

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Rock, Pop, and Folk

Tracyanne & Danny with Lomelda
June 21 (doors at 8, show at 9)
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

Tracyanne Campbell of Scotland’s Camera Obscura and Danny Coughlan of England’s Crybaby met in the early 2010s. Shortly thereafter, the latter band opened for the former on tour. With Camera Obscura on hold following the Octobert 2015 death of longtime keyboardist Carey Lander, the two old friends teamed up to record under their first names. They will showcase their critically acclaimed Merge Records debut album–which includes “Alabama” and “It Can’t Be Love Unless it Hurts”–at The Sinclair this Thursday.

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo
June 21 (doors at 7, show at 8)
The Cabot, Beverly, MA

Pat Benatar, born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski, has used the last name of her first husband since the release of her debut in 1979. Interestingly, that was the year that she and Mr. Benatar got divorced. Since 1982, Benatar has been married to Neil Giraldo, who has played guitar on all of her albums. Although the days of smash hits like “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Promises in the Dark,” “Shadows of the Night,” and “We Belong” are behind them, the duo remains a popular concert attraction. They will play a uniquely intimate date at The Cabot on Thursday.

Southern Culture on the Skids with Muck and the Mires
June 26 (doors at 8, show at 9)
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

The fact that Southern Culture on the Skids’s most recent album came out in two years ago will probably not keep away many of the fans that the Chapel Hill, NC trio has collected since 1991’s Too Much Pork for Just One Fork. That local favorites Muck and the Mires are opening SCOTS’ June 26 Sinclair show should help get anyone off the fence who might have been on it.

Iceage with Mary Lattimore
June 27 (doors at 8, show at 9)
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

Danish quartet Iceage’s sound has been described as post-punk, hardcore punk, and post-hardcore. The band released four singles–including “Catch It“–from their new album, Beyondless, before it became available for purchase on May 4. While they may not seem like the kind of group that garners mainstream American media attention, Iceage was featured in Newsweek three weeks before Beyondless came out. Harpist Mary Lattimore opens the band’s show at (you guessed it) The Sinclair on June 27.

–Blake Maddux