Our expert critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.

Film

Lili Taylor in a scene from Household Saints.

Household Saints
January 5 – 7
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

Based on a book by Francine Prose and listed in the NY Times one of the Best Films of 1993, Household Saints is the offbeat story of a spirited Italian-American New York family. The plot: Joseph Santangelo, a butcher with a wicked sense of humor, “wins” his wife Catherine in a pinochle game. The stellar cast includes Vincent D’Onofrio, Tracey Ullman, Judith Malina, Lili Taylor, and Michael Imperioli. Of the film, director Nancy Savoca says: “The way women run a household seems trivial and boring to most people in our society, mostly because we don’t value what women do, but this book took that and made it magical and wonderful, akin to my experience growing up.” Savoca will appear in person at the 6:15 p.m. show on Friday. On Saturday, January 6 at 2:45 p.m. Martina Savoca-Guay, with whom the director was pregnant during the film’s shooting, presents her documentary, The Many Miracles Of Household Saints, about the making of the film. Chris Cooper and Marianne Leone will also be in attendance.  The documentary will screen with Savoca’s early shorts Renata (1982) and Bad Timing (1982).

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
January 8 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre

Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece stars Peter Sellers in three iconic roles. One of the greatest American film comedies began with an intent to be a serious drama, but the nature of nuclear war was too bizarre for Kubrick. The result is that the movie turned in a hilarious if alarming farce with a script by Kubrick, Terry Southern, and Peter George, whose book Red Alert was the original source. It features unmatchable performances by George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden. At 6:15 p.m. there will be a Seminar: Dr. Strangelove led by BU PhD candidate Jason Henson, who will discuss the historical context of Kubrick’s film.

Belmont World Film’s 21st Family Festival
January 13: Apple Cinemas, Cambridge
January 14: West Newton Cinema
January 15: Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
January 21: Regent Theatre, Arlington

This is a four-day celebration of international culture for children age 3 though 12 and their families. The festival includes films from around the world — many making their US or New England premieres. Films are in English and multiple languages. This year one will will be in sign language. Subtitles for films in languages other than English will be read aloud through headphones for children who have difficulty reading. Many of the selections are based on classic and contemporary children’s books to help reinforce an interest in reading and literature. Film and Workshop Schedule

Pick of the Week

Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone in The Curse. Photo: Richard Foreman Jr. / A24 / Paramount+ with Showtime

The Curse
Paramount+/Showtime

Here is a cable alternative to the many end-of-the-year films. This brilliant series was produced by group of actors who also star: Emma Stone, who was so manic in this year’s Poor Things; Nathan Fielder, the instigator of the indescribable series The Rehearsal; Benny Safdie, who along with his brother, Josh, directed last year’s Uncut Gems and several film hybrids of fiction and reality.

Fielder and Stone play a couple promoting and selling eco-conscious houses in a New Mexico community. The venture is being shot for a reality TV show by a pompous producer, Dougie, played by Safdie. This dark satire takes on political correctness, reality shows, white privilege, and psychological fragility. It’s a combination of real and the staged action; Fielder’s exasperating persona may well leave you squirming. Arts Fuse review

— Tim Jackson

Roots and World Music

Fandango
January 3, 17 and 31
Sally O’Brien’s, Somerville

One of Boston’s most reliable music haunts, Toad in Porter Square, was sold a few months ago, and has yet to reopen. In the meantime, Toad regulars Fandango are moving their country-soul sound to Sally O’Brien’s in Somerville for an every-other-Wednesday residency. Lead man supreme Fred Griffeth is joined by the fine cast of Andy Santaspago, Ryan Claunch, Steve Monahan, and Chris Anzalone.

Michelle Wilson
January 5
Chan’s, Woonsocket, RI

Back when Rounder Records was a vibrant, Boston-owned label, it gave many of our top local talents an international spotlight. One example is Michelle Wilson, whose rich, earthy vocals have long made her a worthy heir to the blues singing tradition. In 2001 Wilson released Wake Up Call on Rounder/Bullseye, and the WICN morning host will be revisiting that eclectic disc with the same band she recorded it with: Zac Casher on drums, Ken Clark on organ, Mike Mele on guitar and Scott Shetler on sax/clarinet.

Bim Skala Bim — keeping the skank beat going after 40 years. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Bim Skala Bim 40th Anniversary Reunion with NB Rude Boys and Riki Rocksteady
January 6
Crystal Ballroom

Over the last 40 years US ska has had its ups and downs, but Boston legends Bim Skala Bim have always kept the skank beat going. And this reunion has something in common with many of Bim’s earliest shows: it’s an all-ages matinee.

BMCFest
January 11-14

Over the last two decades this winter festival has celebrated Celtic music culture in Boston. These days it’s expanded well beyond its home at Club Passim to also include shows at the Crystal Ballroom, The Burren, and The Rockwell. While the focus remains on concerts, dances, and workshops by well over two dozen homegrown talents, Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord will also make an appearance.

Captivating multimedia artist Lonnie Holley and Mourning [A] BLKstar will be making a rare trek New England.

Willie “Boom Boom” Alexander 80th Birthday Show
January 13
The Cut, Gloucester

Gloucester has a highly anticipated new venue, and it’s opening tonight with a boom: Iconic Boston art rocker Willie Alexander is celebrating a milestone birthday with a cast of dozens of friends, including Barrence Whitfield, John Felice of the Real Kids, Cars drummer David Robinson, and a special edition of Mission of Burma with Hugo Burham of Gang of Four.

— Noah Schaffer

Theater

COVID PROTOCOLS: Check with specific theaters.

Installation view of the exhibition Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme: May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth. Digital photograph courtesy of MIT

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Only sounds that tremble through us  in the Hayden Gallery at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, through March 3, 2024.

Given how grievously Boston’s theaters are overlooking events in the contemporary world, particularly in the Middle East, this multi-channel sound and video installation suggests possibilities, for stage artists, of how the ongoing turmoil might be dramatized. This is a new site-specific iteration of Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahm’s May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth (2020–ongoing), a multipart project that brings together “fragments of communal song and dance in Iraq, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen, which the artists collected from videos posted on social media over the past decade, with new filmic performances created by the artists with dancers and musicians who responded to specific gestures, music, or texts from the archive. In looking at ephemeral performances in politically marginalized parts of the world and asking what it means to archive sound and gesture through embodiment, the artists reveal performance to be both a critical space of resilience and an ever-evolving repository of memory.”

Lucy Godínez (Ana) in the A.R.T. world premiere of Real Women Have Curves: The Musical. Photo: Nile Hawver/Maggie Hall

Real Women Have Curves: The Musical Music & lyrics by Joy Huerta & Benjamin Velez. Book by Lisa Loomer. Additional Material by Nell Benjamin. Based on the Play by Josefina López. And HBO’s Real Women Have Curves, Screenplay by Josefina López & George LaVoo. Music supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo. Directed & choreographed by Sergio Trujillo. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, through January 21, 2024.

“Summer 1987, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. After eighteen years under the roof of her immigrant parents, Ana is ready to spread her wings. Her dreams of college and a career in New York City are bursting at the seams, but her family’s expectations would keep her home, working at their garment factory. Is it worth sacrificing the dreams of her family, who have sacrificed everything for her?” Based on the play by Josefina López that inspired the iconic hit film, this empowering world premiere “explores life’s unexpected curves.” Arts Fuse review

Midwinter Revels: The Feast of Fools – A Medieval Celebration of the Solstice. Written and directed by Patrick Swanson and co-directed by Debra Wise, with music direction by Elijah Botkin. Virtual Encore Streaming Window — through January 7.

“This year’s musical extravaganza takes audiences on a colorful journey to Medieval Europe. At the Feast of Fools, everything is topsy-turvy by design; rulers are temporarily deposed by servants, wit triumphs over power, and a Lord of Misrule finds himself steering the ship of state. This musical adventure features vibrant processionals, lively carols, delicate harmonies, vigorous dances, and a generous ritual serving of the wild and the holy. On the shortest day of the year, anything is possible!” The cast will feature David Coffin, René Collins, Susan Dibble, Eliza Fichter, Roger Reed, Vincent Siders, and Laurel Swift, as well as musicians Karen Burciaga, Barbara Allen Hill, Ben Matus, and Hideki Yamaya.

Cast members in the Apollinaire Theatre Company production of the Lunch Bunch: (l to r) Laura Hubbard, Alex Leondedis, Parker Jennings, Cristhian Mancinas-García, Michael (Shifty) Celestin, Paola Ferrer, and Julia Hertzberg. Photo: Danielle Fauteux Jacques

Lunch Bunch by Sarah Einspanier. Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Staged by Apollinaire Theatre Company at the Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, through January 21.

“A tart, heartsick comedy,” according to The New Yorker. “In a city not unlike New York, in a public defenders office not unlike The Bronx Defenders’ Family Defense Practice, amidst the distinct fear/feeling that things are falling apart/going to shit more than usual, 7 public defenders seek meaning, belonging, and some semblance of order via their frenzied quest for the perfect Lunch (Bunch).”

Actress, novelist, and dramatist Alice Childress. Photo: Wiki Common

Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Staged by the Lyric Stage at 140 Clarendon Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, January 17 through February 4.

This is a neglected (but critically admired) script by a Black playwright that has become popular on mainstream stages over the past decade or so. Actress Alice Childress wrote the drama in 1955 — it was her first. The play, which satirizes racism and sexism on Broadway, was produced Off-Broadway. It won an Obie Award for Best Original Play, making Childress the first Black woman to be awarded the honor. I am glad to see the Lyric Stage mount a production — though note that it took a well-received Broadway production to make it happen.

“It’s 1955, and after enduring indignities and lost opportunities, Wiletta Mayer, a seasoned Black actress, is finally making her Broadway debut. Written by a white playwright, her star vehicle is the allegedly progressive “Chaos in Belleville,” which turns out to be anything but. Leading a cast of both younger and experienced actors, Wiletta challenges not only the soft racism of her white director but also the veiled prejudice that limits her aspirations and success.”

Northside Hollow, written and directed by Jonathan Fielding and Brenda Withers. Staged by Harbor Theatre Company at the BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre, 539 Tremont Street, January 11 through 20.

“Trapped underground after a deadly collapse, a miner finds his salvation in the arrival of a scrappy first responder. Cape Cod’s Harbor Stage Company remounts their critically-acclaimed world premiere.”

— Bill Marx

Classical Music

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho will be performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on January 11. Photo: Harald Hoffmann

Seong-Jin Cho plays Ravel
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
January 11 at 7:30 p.m., 12 at 1:30 p.m., and 13 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

The BSO opens the new year with pianist Seong-Jin Cho taking a solo turn in Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the left hand. Andris Nelsons also conducts Tania Léon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Stride and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Visual Arts

President Lyndon Johnson surrounded by power brokers in the Oval Office. Photo: Yoichi Okamoto

The year 2024 is an election year, not only in the United States but around the world, with more voters than ever in history— about 49% of the world’s population— scheduled to vote in national elections. The Griffin Museum of Photography kicks off the ultimate election year with two exhibitions about photography, photographers, and the American President.  In the Room Where it Happened: A Survey of Presidential Photographers, opening January 12, looks at six decades of work by official White House photographers as they recorded, in real time, everything from intimate family moments to international presidential travel to national tragedies and more. The Griffin will hold a panel discussion with the photographers on January 20 at 2 p.m. followed by a reception at 4 p.m.

In 1998, as President Bill Clinton was embroiled is scandal and the White House looked to change the narrative with a trip to China, photographer Jeffrey Aaronson was given the assignment to photograph, not the trip itself, but the press as they covered the staged presidential events. The results— described as “a tale of how to build a story within a story, working to contain the vision and perception of the strength and power of the presidency”— are displayed in the exhibition, The President and the Press, opening on January 11.

Led by New Haven photographer Kim Weston, the Amistead Center for Art & Culture’s SNAP program in photography for teens teaches photography basics and history along with tips on developing a professional career. There Is Always Something Left to Love, opening on January 12 in the Center’s galleries in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art features work created through the SNAP program. The themes of the show are domestic: home, family ties, and the social dynamics they encompass.

Jardins de Palais Royal, a sample of the historic wallpaper in The Life of Wallpapers at RISD.

Approaching domesticity from another angle is The Life of Wallpapers: The Huard Collection at the RISD Museum, opening on January 11. The French artist Charles Huard (1874-1965) and his wife, American writer Francis Wilson Huard (1885-1969) assembled a remarkable collection of 18th- and 19th-century French wallpapers which is now in RISD’s collection and is regarded as an important source of inspiration for contemporary artists and art students. This exhibition of more than 100 examples reveals the rich imagery and creativity of French wallpapers from the Golden Ages of French interior design and surveys the complex processes used to create them.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, will present New Mexico native Amanda Martinez’s first solo museum exhibition, Amanda Martinez: Canta y no Ilores, opening on January 10. Martinez, who learned adobe construction methods in New Mexico and so reconnected to her family’s adoberos history, exhibits wall reliefs and sculptures that are based on mud and straw building techniques native to New Mexico, adopted into her own studio practice. In a separate studio environment, visitors will be able to explore, hands on, her unique art medium.

On January 11, starting at 4:00 pm, the Bates College Museum of Art will hold a reception for two exhibitions exploring the work of contemporary indigenous artists. Exploding Native Inevitable includes work by a dozen Native American artists and two collaboratives “from a land we now call America.” Its run at Bates has been accompanied by a series of events, including dance, story-telling, music, and film. Brad Kahlhamer: Nomadic Studio Maine Camp is an exhibition of sketchbooks, prints, and works on paper by a Native born artist who was adopted by German-American parents. As a young adult he lived on the road as a musician. As a mature artist, he still travels extensively, always working on the sketchbooks he calls his Nomadic Studio.

— Peter Walsh

Jazz

Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing quartet: L-R: Dor Herskovits, Bert Seager, Rick DiMuzio, Andrew Schiller. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing
January 3 at 7 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.

Pianist and composer Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing quartet plays its first Lilypad residency gig of the New Year — expect free explorations of standards and originals, a bit a poetry, and some Monk. Joining Seager are saxophonist Rick DiMuzio, bassist Andrew Schiller, and drummer Dor Herskovits.

Pianist, composer, and producer Robert Glasper will perform at Boston’s City Winery this week. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Robert Glasper
January 8-10
City Winery, Boston

Given that pianist-composer-producer Robert Glasper is playing six shows over three-nights, and this is described as his “full band,” we’ll assume that this is the Robert Glasper Experiment rather than his acoustic jazz trio. If so, here’s hoping that he’s playing with some version of the great core band he broke through with on 2012’s Black Radio (and has been playing with on the project’s two subsequent releases): the amazing saxophonist and vocoder player Casey Benjamin and the J Dilla-infected rhythm team of drummer Mark Colenburg (or Chris Dave) and bassist Derrick Hodge. (This just in: Since I posted this item, a Boston Globe interview feature with Glasper reported that his rhythm section at City Winery will include bassist Burniss Travis, drummer Justin Tyson, and turntablist DJ Jahi Sundance.)

Point01 Percent
January 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.

The Eric Rosenthal-Pandelis Karayorgis collaborative residency at the Lilypad known as Point01 Percent presents a typically provocative and promising program tonight. First up are pianist John McDonald and Carlos Maura Gálvez, on quena and guitar, playing pieces by McDonald, David Claman, and Julia Werntz. The show will explore the shared aesthetic between composers of new music and improvisers, with a special emphasis on microtonal music. Following the performance by McDonald and Gálvez of the written works, they’ll be joined by Rosenthal (percussion) and Karayorgis (microtonally tuned keyboard) for some improvisation. The second, improvised, set will feature a quartet with Karayorgis, Rosenthal, saxophonist Eric Barber, and bassist Brittany Karlson.

Gengis Don comes to Scullers Jazz Club with his Empire.

Gengis Don and the Empire
January 12 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The young New York drummer/singer/producer Gengis Don and his Empire (sax, guitar, bass, drums, vocals) come to Scullers with their crafty jazz-neo-soul blend. (Their book includes modern standards like Joe Henderson’s “Black Narcissus” among the originals.)

— Jon Garelick

Author Events

Benjamin Taylor — Zoom Webinar
Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather
Presented by the Boston Public Library on January 9 at 6 to 7 p.m.

“Chasing Bright Medusas celebrates one of America’s greatest female novelists. This tender biography brings to life Willa Cather—her artistry and endurance, her immigrant family and the prairies on they lived, and her trailblazing success as a journalist and writer.

In this Zoom webinar author talk, Benjamin Taylor, winner of the 2021 Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, will speak with moderator Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History Emerita at Cornell University. Following the conversation, there will be time for an audience Q&A.”

— Bill Marx

Laura Zigman in conversation with Joanna Rakoff – Porter Square Books
Small World
January 4 at 7 p.m.
Free

“A year after her divorce, Joyce is settling into being single again. She likes her job archiving family photos and videos, and she’s developed a secret comforting hobby: trolling the neighborhood social networking site, Small World, for posts that help solve life’s easiest problems. When her older sister, Lydia, also divorced, calls to tell her she’s moving back east from Los Angeles after almost thirty years away, Joyce invites Lydia to move into her Cambridge apartment. Temporarily. Just until she finds a place of her own. Written with wry humor and keen sensitivity, Small World is a powerful novel of sisterhood and hope — a reminder that sometimes you have to look back in order to move ahead.”

A Reading for the Edward Said Libraries with Mosab Abu Toha & Friends – brookline booksmith
January 6 at noon
Free

“Brookline Booksmith invites you, with writer and library founder Mosab Abu Toha (Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear), to a virtual reading in support of the Edward Said Libraries in Gaza. Readers are planned to include Mosab Abu Toha with Kaveh Akbar, Rabih Alameddine, Ammiel Alcalay, Hala Alyan, Peter Balakian, Fatima Bhutto, Leila Farsakh, Nick Flynn, Ru Freeman, Carolyn Forché, Damian Gorman, Fanny Howe, Ha Jin, Ilya Kaminsky, Askold Melnyczuk, Eileen Myles, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Shuchi Saraswat, and Lloyd Schwartz.

Gaza’s libraries have been destroyed over the course of the last several months of bombing. The Edward Said Public Libraries, the first English-language libraries in the region, have been at risk for months and require support for their continued existence. Libraries, as Mosab indicates, are critical places of learning, solace, and cultural preservation. To destroy libraries is to steal these things from a people.

In an effort to alleviate the losses caused by this destruction, the Middle East Children’s Alliance is raising funds for the rebuilding of the Edward Said Libraries. Although this rebuilding cannot take place while bombings continue, the funds raised will be safeguarded for the ultimate restoration of these necessary institutions. During this virtual event, free to attend and streaming on YouTube, preeminent writers will offer short readings in a show of solidarity with the literary and reading communities of Palestine, and a confirmation of the vital nature of literature and access to written culture.”

Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy – brookline booksmith
What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate
January 9 at 7 p.m.
Free to attend or $40 with in store pickup of book

“Local news is essential to democracy. Meaningful participation in civic life is impossible without it. However, local news is in crisis. According to one widely cited study, some 2,500 newspapers have closed over the last generation. And it is often marginalized communities of color who have been left without the day-to-day journalism they need to govern themselves in a democracy.

Veteran journalists Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy cut through the pessimism surrounding this issue, showing readers that new, innovative journalism models are popping up across the country to fill news deserts and empower communities. What Works in Community News examines more than a dozen of these projects.”

Ben Mezrich – brookline booksmith
Breaking Twitter
January 10 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are free, or $40 delivery of book

“Breaking Twitter takes readers inside the darkly comic battle between one of the most intriguing, polarizing, influential men of our time — Elon Musk — and the company that represents our culture’s dearest hope for a shared global conversation. From employee accounts within Twitter headquarters to the mission-driven team Musk surrounded himself with, this is the full story from all sides.

Can Musk miraculously succeed or will he spectacularly fail? What will that mean to the global town hall that is Twitter? What, really, is Elon’s end goal? The whole world is watching. Breaking Twitter provides ringside seats into one of the most dramatic business stories of our time. Elon Musk didn’t break Twitter. Twitter broke Elon Musk.”

Your Own Private Bookstore: 01_12_24 – Porter Square Books
January 12 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
$50 registration

“Take a friend on a book buying binge. Have a party. Enjoy the quiet of a bookstore all to yourself. (Well, all to yourself plus a few great booksellers.) Reserve Porter Square Books after it closes to the general public from 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. on January 14 for a group of 5-10 people. The $50 reservation fee can be applied to a purchase that night. After purchasing your reservation a bookseller will be in touch to confirm.”

Ashley Dawson at Harvard Book Store
Environmentalism from Below: How Global People’s Movements Are Leading the Fight for Our Planet
January 16 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Environmentalism from Below takes readers inside the popular struggles for environmental liberation in the Global South. These communities—among the most vulnerable to but also least responsible for the climate crisis—have long been at the forefront of the fight to protect imperiled worlds. Today, as the world’s forests burn and our oceans acidify, grassroots movements are tenaciously defending the environmental commons and forging just and sustainable ways of living on Earth.

Scholar and activist Ashley Dawson constructs a gripping narrative of these movements of climate insurgents, from international solidarity organizations like La Via Campesina and Shack Dwellers International to local struggles in South Africa, Colombia, India, Nigeria, and beyond. Taking up the four critical challenges we face in a warming world — food, urban sustainability, energy transition, and conservation — Dawson shows how the unruly power of environmentalism from below is charting an alternative path forward, from challenging industrial agriculture through fights for food sovereignty and agroecology to resisting extractivism using mass nonviolent protest and sabotage.”

— Matt Hanson