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

Film

Melville et Cie.
Harvard Film Archives
through October 27

The screenings of the films of Jean-Pierre Melville continue: “a self-professed film noir enthusiast who once claimed to have been ‘formed and deformed to a great extent by the first American gangster novels … like a generation of résistants after the war,’ his people are characters with unresolved inner turmoil.”

Le Cercle Rouge – September 15 at 7 p.m.

Léon Morin, Priest– September 22 at 3 p.m.

The Silence of the Sea – September 22 at 7 p.m.

Le Samouraï – September 27 at 7 p.m. (10/11 at 9 p.m.)

Two Men in Manhattan – September 28 at 9 p.m.

A Faith Hubley Centennial
September 18 & 19 at 7 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

The Brattle welcomes Emily Hubley, who will be celebrating the 100th birthday of her mother, the esteemed animator Faith Hubley, with two separate programs. Of her work with her husband John, MoMA’s Charles Silver says: “They really broke away from the tradition of cartoons as Saturday afternoon entertainment for children and turned animation into a much more mature medium, opening all kinds of possibilities for other filmmakers to make personal films.” Their films employed a free-ranging visual style and distinctive soundtracks that featured improvised dialogue by their children, as well as jazz scores by Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, and Quincy Jones. After the death of her husband in 1977, Faith Hubley directed and produced 25 independent animated films.

The Lady Vanishes
September 17 at 8:40 p.m.
Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, Somerville

Classic Hitchcock from 1938. On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel in a fictional European country, young Iris (Margaret Lockwood) befriends elderly Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty). When the train resumes, Iris suffers a bout of unconsciousness and wakes to find that the old woman has disappeared. The other passengers ominously deny Miss Froy ever existed, so Iris begins to investigate with another traveler (Michael Redgrave) and, as the pair sleuth, romantic sparks fly.

The Searchers
September 19 at 7:30 p.m.
September 20 at 4 & 7:30 p.m.
Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, Somerville

John Ford’s romantic retelling of the capture and rescue of Cynthia Ann Parker in 1839 by the Comanche Indians is based on the book by Alan LeMay. In fact, Parker was assimilated into the tribe and she resented being returned to white civilization. Often considered the first revisionist Western, the film features John Wayne as Ethan Edwards, the racist and vindictive anti-hero, determined to rescue his niece, Debbie (Lana Wood/Natalie Wood) from captivity after her family is slaughtered. He faces off against his doppelganger, the blue-eyed chief named Scar (Henry Brandon). Wayne considered it one of his best performances. Filled with ambiguities about race, gender, violence, and heroism, the film sports an excellent cast of Ford archetypes played by Jeffrey Hunter, Ward Bond, Vera Miles, a brilliant turn by Hank Warden as Mose, the ‘holy fool’. With the heartbreaking line, “Let’s go home, Debbie”, Wayne sweeps Debbie into his arms. This is an American Masterpiece.

40th Boston Film Festival
September 19-23
Various Boston Venues and Virtual Screenings
In-Person Schedule & Virtual Screening Schedule

The live program includes the world premieres of three feature films and three documentaries. The features include the Opening Night debut of SHEEPDOG as well as the Centerpiece Spotlight, Any Day Now. Both films were shot locally throughout Boston and Massachusetts. Also featured is Sweetwater, Cannes Film Festival Award winner and Image Award (NAACP) nominee for best Indie Feature. The Closing Night feature, Max Dagan, is making its East Coast premiere.

Jimmy Tingle: The Radical Middle: Why Would A Comedian Run For Office?
September 22 at 6 p.m.
Regent theater in Arlington

Jimmy Tingle is one of Boston legendary comics with a flair for political commentary, In addition to stand-up, he has been American correspondent for David Frost’s The Strategic Humor Initiative, spent two seasons with 60 Minutes II on CBS, and appeared on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, and The Tonight Show, Larry King’s Weekend. He’s spoken to Conan O’Brien, Tom Snyder, appeared on The American Comedy Awards, and had his own HBO comedy special. He has also appeared in numerous films, documentary shows, and series. He received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his efforts to support peace and social change. Recently, the comedian was struck by a desire to enter politics. Join Tingle for a 50-minute compilation of stand-up performance, historic footage, and at-home interviews. The screening will be followed by Q & A.

The Sound of Music
September 22 at 2 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline

Director Robert Wise’s classic version of the hit Broadway musical, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, screened in 70mm. If, like me, you are one of the few who have never seen the film, or have not seen it on a big screen, here is your chance. Fun fact: both Pauline Kael (in McCall’s) and Joan Didion (in Vogue) trashed The Sound of Music when it was released in 1965.

Manhattan Short Film Festival
September 26 & 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre 7 Medford Street, Arlington
September 27 – October 3 at 7 p.m. at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA
October 6th at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. at the Spire Center for Performing Arts in Plymouth

MSFF is the only film festival on the planet to unfold simultaneously, in more than 500 cinemas on six continents, bringing over 100,000 film-lovers in all corners of the globe together for one week, via the next generation of filmmakers. Discover your inner film critic by casting your vote for Best Film and Best Actor.

CineFest Latino Boston
September 27–29
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Three weekend films include (links):

Igualada (September 27 at 7 p.m.)

Shorts: El Sueño Americano (September 28 at 12 p.m.) with various directors.

Itu Ninu (September 29 at 2:30 p.m.)

La Roue
Sep 28 at 12 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

Abel Gance was the real deal, a true cinematic pioneer. His deployment of complex camera movements and rapid-fire editing belie the lazy assertion that silent films lack movement and energy. This melodrama reaches for the heights of Greek tragedy: a railwayman and his son both fall in love with the same woman — who happens to be their adopted daughter/sister. The intrepid silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis (who is currently in training) will play throughout this nearly seven-hour-long picture. There will intermissions. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience this film as it was meant to be seen!

Ruins and Resilience
September 29 at 1 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

Karel Doing is an independent artist, filmmaker, and researcher whose practice investigates the relationship between culture and nature by means of analogue and organic process, experiment and co-creation.

He studied Fine Arts at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, in Arnhem, the Netherlands, graduating in 1990. He was a founding member of Studio één (a DiY film laboratory) and Filmbank (a foundation dedicated to the promotion and distribution of experimental film and video in the Netherlands).

He finished his PhD at the University of the Arts London in 2017. During his research he developed “phytography” a technique that combines plants and photochemical emulsion. He has employed this technique to investigate how culture and meaning can be shared between the human and the vegetal realms. His writing about eco-literacy and cinema has been published internationally.

His work has been shown worldwide at festivals and in cinemas, clubs, galleries, and museums. He regularly gives workshops in experimental film and photography practice and is currently lecturer in contextual studies at Ravensbourne University, London. He is based in Oxford. (Brattle Theatre)

Pick of the Week

Cha Cha Real Smooth
Apple TV

Writer, director, producer Cooper Raiff was set to be the Next Big Thing when this film sold for around $15 million at Sundance in 2022. The film, produced by and co-starring Dakota Johnson, is about a recent college graduate working as a party motivator, mostly for bar and bat mitzvahs, who befriends a young mother (Johnson) and her autistic daughter. They help to change each other’s lives. Johnson explains: “In the “Cha Cha Slide,” there’s one part where you cha-cha real smooth and that’s the part of the song where you get to do your own little boogie and that’s what this movie is about. It’s the part of your life where you figure out who you are and you do your own thing.” The reviews for the film when it was released were mixed, ranging from “canned and solipsistic” (Manohla Dargis) to its “disarming candor [in] extremes of earnestness inseparable from extremes of cynicism” (Richard Brody). Raiff’s coming-of-age story resonates with similar efforts by Richard Linklater, Greta Gerwig, and Lena Dunham: it is a lovely film for the back-to-college season.

— Tim Jackson

Boom: A Film About The Sonics
September 18
Regent Theater, Arlington

Any list of the most important proto-punk bands is likely to start with The Sonics, the Tacoma mid-’60s outfit who delivered intense, supercharged R&B, driven by the screaming vocals of Gerry Roslie and the blazing sax of Rob Lind. The teenage band quickly dissolved, and most of the members stopped making music, but a cult followed. The Sonics reunited n the 21st century for a new record and a series of memorable live appearances.

It’s the kind of yarn that makes for an irresistible documentary, and it’s told with sincerity – not to mention the active participation of the entire band and the impresario who recorded them. There are some drawbacks (particularly irritating for garage-diehard fans who love the Sonics): an assumption that the viewer isn’t yet familiar with the group, talking head commentaries from members of more mainstream acts like Heart and the Presidents of the United States of America, the first-person narrative of the filmmaker, and the oddly ambient and decidedly unrockin’ original score. But such flaws are worth enduring to hear the members of one of rock’s greatest outfits tell their own story.

— Noah Schaffer

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World Music and Roots

Sidy Samb & Afroflamenco 
September 24
Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre

The genesis of Afroflamenco came when Senegalese musician Sidy Samb settled in Seville. After two decades of bridging West African, and Spanish musical traditions — and garnering acclaim at world music festivals abroad — his ensemble is now touring the US for the first time.

Clarence Thompson Sr. and the New Spirits 47th Anniversary Buffet and Concert
September 22
Boston Teachers Union, 180 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston

This is Boston gospel legend Clarence Thompson Sr.’s first time hosting a program since he became a nonagenarian. To celebrate, there will be not only music from his group New Spirits, but also contributions from the New Haven group Blessings and Rev. Harold Branch. There will be a buffet meal as well. Because of the food prep, the ticket deadline is coming right up. They’re available at 617-298-1906.

Itay Dayan Klezmer Quintet
September 26
Congregation Kehillath Israel, 384 Harvard St., Brookline

The marvelous clarinetist and composer Itay Dayan has been on a deep dive into American klezmer history since he’s helped shine a spotlight on Philadelphia Jewish music pioneer Joseph Hoffman. Hoffman’s family (including another great bandleader, his great-granddaughter trumpeter Susan Hoffman Watts) recently published a book of Hoffman’s compositions. Now Dayan has a recording, Hoffman’s Farewell, which takes a fresh look at these old but still moving melodies.

Ray Wylie Hubbard
September 29
Boston City Winery

The grizzled Texas songwriter may have given the world “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother,” but it’s a safe bet that most of his fans are more excited at the prospect of hearing Hubbard rock out on the tale told by his tune “Snake Farm” during this outlaw icon’s first Boston visit in eons.

Jenna Moynihan “And Friends” Variety Hour 
September 29
Club Passim, Cambridge

Jenna Moynihan isn’t just a master fiddler who can play across the many Celtic traditions. She’s also the host of this occasional variety show, which promises a mix of music, comedy, and more — as well as an evening that will last longer than an hour.

Skye Consort & Emma Björlin
September 30
Club Passim, Cambridge

One of the few times a flight delay was welcome was when Swedish folk singer Emma Björlin got stranded in Montreal. She spent the time jamming with Quebec’s Skye Consort for a collaboration that has now become a touring unit, combining Celtic, Quebecois, and Scandinavian sounds.

— Noah Schaffer

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Visual Arts

It may not solve the housing crisis, but miniature, handmade dwellings seem to turn up in parks and woodlands in increasing numbers these days. Often built by children out of sticks, leaves, mosses, pebbles, and other natural materials, these “fairy houses” are, I understand, designed to attract the tiny creatures (you can also buy ready-made house miniatures online).

Following up on the tiny trend, photographer, set designer, and filmmaker Adrien Bloom has created a “magical installation” inside a gallery of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT. The setting mixes modern and medieval folklore, legends, superstitions, the natural environment, and a giant “faerie ring” of mushrooms that “triggers entrancing songs that infiltrate the circle and seduce guests to dance beyond time.” Opening September 28, Bloom’s exhibition, Mystical Murmurs: An Enchanted Environment, is planned to complement the museum’s annual (since 2009) Wee Faerie Village, which will include a couple dozen specially created fairy habitats scattered around the Griswold’s extensive (and beautiful) outdoor campus. While this all may seem to flirt a bit more with the twee than the topical, the fairy bonanza will undoubtedly delight thousands of Griswold visitors this fall.

Frustrated by the dominance of Abstract Expressionism in early ’60s San Francisco, where he was part of the experimental art scene, Philadelphia native Dan Dailey turned to glass, eventually studying at RISD under the now prominent glass artist Dale Chihuly and becoming part of the burgeoning Studio Glass Movement. Dailey founded the glass department at Boston’s Massachusetts College of Art and Design and, besides teaching, has worked as an artist and designer for several art glass companies, including Cristallerie Daum in France, Steuben, and the Fenton Art Glass Company.

Dan Dailey: Impressions of the Human Spirit opens at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH, on September 26. The retrospective show of a sculptor in glass “whose creative ideas and inventiveness expanded the vocabulary of art” focus on his mostly figural pieces intended “to tell stories and explore the human condition.” The colorful, arrestingly virtuosic pieces, drawing on sources as varied as folk art and Art Deco lamps, are deliberately hard to place in traditional art categories.

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham ends its summer intermission with three shows all opening on September 18. Lichtenstein100, organized in honor of the centennial of the leading Pop Art painter and print maker Roy Lichtenstein (who was actually born in October 1923), the exhibition features works from the Rose collection, including a major painting in the artist’s signature “comic book” style, photographs, and archival material. Face to Face: Portraits of Self and Other, another Rose permanent collection show, focuses on “the versatility of portraiture, the photographic image, and its evolution since the turn of the 19th century.” The range of artists included is quite extraordinary, from Weegee and Lewis Hine to Allen Ginsberg, Gilbert & George, and Lorraine O’Grady.

Finally, sculptor Hugh Hayden has his first solo exhibition in New England with Hugh Hayden: Home Work. Hayden’s work, inspired by “regional craft-based furniture and objects,” is, he says, “all … about the American Dream.” The show includes a new installation designed for the Rose, divided into five sections with slightly unsettling titles, and “evokes aspects of African-American identity and ways in which identity and stereotypes pervade American culture today.”

An international artist typical of contemporary art, Pallavi Sen was born in New Delhi, educated in Bombay, Richmond, VA, and Columbus, OH, and currently lives in Brooklyn and Williamstown, where she is assistant professor of multiples + distributed art at Williams College. The Williams College Museum of Art opens her exhibition Pallavi Sen: Colour Theory on September 20. The show focuses on three corners of Sen’s artistic practice: teaching, collaborative making, and the nurturing of life. A classroom-like gallery is decked out in bold colors with furniture, paintings, decorated papers, and Sen’s intricate watercolors, and also serves as a performance space. An adjacent gallery shows her video work, often featuring her own body.

— Peter Walsh

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Popular Music

Boston Immersive Music Festival and OVC (Outerspace Visual Communicator), Boston Cyberarts, 141 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, through October 26.

“Greater Boston has no shortage of live-music events that seek to combine different musical eras, genres, live and recorded performance. But this series of live-music events, on weekends though the end of October raises the bar dramatically.

“The Boston Immersive Music Festival brings together, in real time, five elements of a multimedia, multisensory experience (for audiences and performers alike). Each concert will draw from these components: a live performance by some of the Boston area’s most acclaimed artists in the jazz, classical, experimental, and folk traditions; the Outerspace Visual Communicator, a keyboard-triggered instrument that harnesses the power of light to interpret sound; Bill Sebastian, inventor of the OVC, “painting in real time” in response to live or recorded music; the musical legacy of Sun Ra, the late, great avant-garde composer who worked with Bill and inspired the OVC, as reimagined by today’s musicians; and audience reaction (through virtual-reality goggles and high-resolution projections) to music and light.”

Revels Riversing — Two Dragons Dancing, written and performed by Revels at  the Winthrop Park (83 Winthrop St) & Weeks Footbridge, Harvard Square, Cambridge on September 28 (September 29, rain date).

At sunset of the autumnal equinox, when daytime and nighttime are equal, Revels will go down to banks of the Charles River to celebrate. NIGEL the NIGHT DRAGON and DESMOND the DAY DRAGON will meet on the footbridge over the river to lead everybody over the bridge in the Equinox Waltz. David Coffin will lead the singing in this family-friendly event, alongside performances by  musicians, Morris dance teams, activist street bands, and choirs. The Puppet Processional begins at 4:45 p.m. in Winthrop Park and the parade will travel to the John W. Weeks Footbridge in Harvard Square, where the rest of the festivities will take place.

Rally & Dance For The Planet! presented by Extinction Rebellion at the NE corner of the Boston Common – across from the State House at the corner of Beacon St and Park Street, on September 26 at 5:30 through 8 p.m. Rain date is September 27. Register to help with planning and to be informed of of any schedule changes.

“For over a year, XR Boston has held a Stand-Out in front of the State House, urging our government to make the right move for our future, and commit to No New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure in Massachusetts. Despite this, our leaders have failed to listen to us”.

Time for a rally! And it will be a full evening, including free pizza and yoga! The proceedings will begin with short speeches from XR and coalition partners. It will continue with a die-in, “lying on the ground to die symbolically, representing the people and animals who will (and are) dying from avoidable ecological emergencies. If you’ve never participated in civil disobedience, this is an easy, accessible way to try it out! Remember to wear clothes suitable for lying on the ground.”

The event will end with pizza and a dance party in front of the State House, “making resistance fun again”.

— Bill Marx

New England Metal and Hardcore Festival
At the Palladium, Worcester, September 20 through 22
(Info on tickets and lineups is available at the Metalfest web site)

Last year’s return of the fabled heavy-music blowout was no fluke. Impresario Scott Lee shepherded Metalfest into existence in 1999, quickly establishing it as an annual premier event for fans of every variety of heavy metal as well as the various bruising permutations of hardcore. In homage to the fest’s roots, a Friday night party headlined by God Forbid will take place in the Palladium’s smaller club-sized room. Metalfest 2024’s main lineup kicks off at noon: it is filled with bands that reflect current trends (Better Lovers, Nails) and remain veterans of the scene (Overkill, Machine Head, Suicidal Tendencies). There are also groups that underline how Massachusetts bands have impacted the metal and hardcore  scene (Bane, Converge, the Red Chord, Overcast). Killswitch Engage, which checks all of those boxes, headlines on Sept. 21 — it is a shout-out to the Westfield-bred metalcore band’s 25th anniversary — while Slaughter to Prevail, led by Russia’s other strongman, Alex Terrible, tops the bill on Sept. 22.

–Scott MacLennan

Angel Olsen with Kyle Ray
September 23 (doors at 7/show at 8)
The Cabot, Beverly

Over the course of the past 12 years, Angel Olsen has built a reputation among fans and critics that would rightfully be the envy of any aspiring singer-songwriter. Her six albums have invariably been among the most stellarly reviewed of their respective years and are included without fail on year-end best-of lists by independent and mainstream publications. Plying her trade in the indie rock/indie folk genres, Olsen has won and been nominated for numerous Libera Awards, which are produced by the American Association of Independent Music and “exist to recognize the powerful voice of the independent sector.” She is currently on a solo acoustic tour which includes deep cuts among her more frequently performed songs.

Royel Otis with Friko
September 28 (doors at 7/show at 8)
House of Blues, Boston

Australian duo Royel Otis’s first voyage to the United States since forming in 2019 included a set at Boston Calling in May. Now they are back in North America, and their upcoming stop at the House of Blues will be one of a dozen sold-out shows in a stretch of 16. All of this despite the fact they just scored their first US Billboard chart earlier this year with a cover of The Cranberries’ “Linger.”

So while the headliners clearly don’t need any help selling tickets, I am including this preview to draw attention to the openers. Friko is a Chicago-based duo who released its debut LP, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here in February. The album has gotten rave reviews from all the important tastemakers, including Allmusic, Pitchfork, NPR, and Consequence. And rightfully so. Beginning with the relatively gentle and acoustic “Where We’ve Been,” the record shifts gears among the pulverizing (“Crashing Through,” “Chemical”), pensive (“For Ella,” “Until I’m with You Again,” “Cardinal”), poppy (“Statues,” “Get Numb to It!”), and hard-rocking (“Crimson to Chrome”). In short, it is sure to be recognized as one of the more significant releases of 2024, and is all the reason one needs to be punctual on Lansdowne Street this Saturday.

Hotline TNT with Disq
September 29 (doors at 7/show at 8)
Crystal Ballroom, Somerville
Given his ardent utilization of layered guitars and low-in-the-mix vocals, shoegaze serves as the trunk of Hotline TNT’s auteur Will Anderson’s musical tree, the branches of which include sweet power pop, bouncy jangle pop, and spirited indie rock.

Despite having unveiled their first of their three LPs (and one EP) in 2019, I was introduced to them via last year’s Cartwheel. Had I made a list of my 10 favorite albums of 2023, I am certain enough that it would be among them.

Hotline TNT — the meaning of whose name is to never escape the mouths of its members — will perform in Davis Square on September 29.

The Softies with Jeanines and zowy
September 30 (doors at 7:30/show at 8:30)
Crystal Ballroom, Somerville
Nearly a quarter of a century after their last release, 2000’s Holiday in Rhode Island, K Records favorites The Softies made a surprise return this year with the 14-track The Bed I Made. Now signed to Father/Daughter Records, the Portland, OR duo of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia have maintained their inspiration and chemistry beautifully despite such a long period of recording inactivity. Their show at Crystal Ballroom on September 30 will begin with Rhode Island’s zowy and continue with Jeanines, the same pair of that acts opened for twee pop supergroup Swansea Sound earlier this year.

— Blake Maddux

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Classical Music

Opening Night
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
September 19, 6 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Music director Andris Nelsons leads the BSO’s opening night festivities which, this year, feature pianists Lang Lang and Gina Alice Redlinger, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and violinist Keila Wakao. The orchestra’s new composer chair, Carlos Simon, gets in on the action, too, with his Fanfare and Festive Overture.

Is This America?
Presented by White Snake Projects
September 20 at 8 p.m., 21 at 7:30 p.m., and 22 at 2 p.m.
Strand Theatre, Dorchester

The city’s scrappy opera company presents Mary D. Watkins’s and Cerise Lim Jacobs’s new theater piece on the life and work of Civil Rights activist Fanny Lou Hamer. Deborah Nansteel sings the title role while Tianhui Ng conducts.

Hudgins plays Copland
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
September 26 at 7:30 p.m., 27 at 1:30 p.m., and 28 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Aaron Copland isn’t the presence on BSO programs he once was: you’ve got to go back to 1997 to find the last time the group assayed his Concert for Clarinet. The soloist that time? William Hudgins. Nearly 30 years later, the orchestra’s principal clarinetist is back to play the piece. Andris Nelsons is on hand to lead further works by Sarah Kirkland Snider, Samuel Barber, and Carlos Simon.

Emerge
Presented by Radius Ensemble
September 26, 8 p.m.
Pickman Hall, Cambridge

Radius begins its 26th season with a refreshing lineup of works by Debussy, Milhaud, Miguel del Aguila, and Valerie Coleman.

Mozart & Haydn Requiems
Presented by Handel & Haydn Society
September 27 at 7:30 p.m. and 29 at 3 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

H&H opens its season with a pair of 18th-century requiems. The familiar one is by Mozart, the lesser-known effort is by his friend, Michael Haydn. Jonathan Cohen conducts.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

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Theater

COVID PROTOCOLS: Check with specific theaters.

Conscience by Joe DiPetro. Directed by Lisa DiFranza. Staged by Portland Stage at 25A Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, through October 13.

A historical drama that has some direct links with what is happening today. The script takes us back, according to the Portland Stage, “to a time when Maine senators were the heart of the United States Senate. This is the story of Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a trailblazer of Maine and national politics…. the play is a deep look into her gripping political rivalry with Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy. As the two begin to form a tense friendship that becomes an unlikely alliance, Senator Smith must choose between her political success, (including a potential Vice Presidential nomination), and her own conscience, culminating in the delivery of a potentially disastrous speech on the Senate floor, her Declaration of Conscience.”

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Directed by Diane Paulus. Choreography and movement direction by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square, Cambridge, through October 6.

Rudy Pankow and Emilia Suárez lead the cast in A.R.T.’s “heart-pounding” (their words) new production of the Bard’s oft-oft-oft-oft produced romance. W.H. Auden on the tragedy’s view of love in his Lectures on Shakespeare: “Romeo and Juliet don’t know each other, but when one dies, the other can’t go on living. Behind their passionate suicides, as well as their reactions to Romeo’s banishment, is finally a lack of feeling, a fear that the relationship cannot be sustained and that, out of pride, it should be stopped now, in death. If they became a married couple, there will be no more wonderful speeches — and a good thing, too. Then the real tasks of life will begin, with which art has surprisingly little to do. Romeo and Juliet are just idolaters of each other, which is what leads to their suicides.” Arts Fuse review

Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer. Directed by Mariela López-Ponce. Staged by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, through October 12.

SpeakEasy Stage Company bills this script by a local playwright as “part telenovela, part whodunit.” It is “a cafecito-infused comedy about mothers, daughters, art, and success. On the eve of Art Basel, Mariana is about to open a career-defining show in her Miami gallery when suddenly all the paintings from her star artist go missing. To make matters worse, her once-famous, mostly-absent mother Estella hits town with a mysterious agenda.” The cast features Paola Ferrer, Luz Lopez, Brogan Nelson, Daniel Rios Jr., and Rebekah Rae Robles. The performance will be performed in English with brief portions in Spanish. Arts Fuse review

Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Carey Perloff. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company in association with DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through October 13.

Stoppard’s historical play is billed, by the HTC, as “a stirring and epic story of love, family, and enduring bravery. In Vienna, the heart of European culture at the rise of the 20th century, where deep-seated anti-Semitism coexists with a thriving intellectual scene, two brothers have conflicting visions of the future — both for their family and the Jewish people — a tension that will echo through the generations that follow.” Fuse critic Christopher Caggiano on the script’s New York production: “Leopoldstadt is a late career triumph for Stoppard, devoid of the schoolboy trickery and wordplay or his earlier works. The script tells a straightforward and heartbreaking story of the Merz and Jakobovicz families, both Jewish, comfortably upper middle class, and firmly ensconced in the worlds of commerce and academia.” Also, Roberta Silman had this to say about the historical drama: “Finally, after all those remarkable, sometimes zany plays, we have Stoppard bearing witness to the seminal events of the 20th century that intersected with events in his own life. He is telling us in his unique way that we are all accidents of history, that geography is destiny, and that we all throw shadows behind us.” Arts Fuse review

Fight Night, written and performed by Ontroerend Goed. Presented by Arts Emerson at the Emerson Paramount Center, Robert J. Orchard Stage, 559 Washington Street, Boston, on September 20 and 21.

After the Trump/Harris debate, this tussle (via a Belgian theater performance troupe) is bound to be somewhat … tame. Unless fists really fly. “An interactive theatrical experience like no other where YOUR vote decides the outcome. The show begins with five candidates on stage. At the end of the show, only one will be victorious.”

“Through a series of guided prompts and questions,” the show takes you — the audience –on a journey to choose the best candidate. As each round progresses, the audience learns more information about each candidate that will inform their vote. Coalitions, debates, consultants, exit polls, and spin doctors will inform your vote. The host will seemingly do anything to derail the candidates’ best intentions. Will the audience choose someone who represents their views? Or will they side with the opposite?”

The Hombres by Tony Menses. Directed by Armando Rivera. Produced by Gloucester Stage Company and Teatro Chelsea at Gloucester Stage, 267 E. Main St., Gloucester, through September 22, and then at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St, Chelsea, September 27 through 29.

The regional premiere of Menses’s comedy, which according to GSC, “offers a fresh perspective on male friendships and machismo culture.” The script is “set against the backdrop of a bustling construction site, and it follows three Latino construction workers who unexpectedly find themselves entangled in the world of yoga next door.” The production will feature “community engagement programming in English and Spanish, inviting audiences of all backgrounds to participate in the conversation surrounding masculinity and identity. Additionally, the production will foster collaboration and cultural exchange by holding the first three weeks of rehearsals and the final week of performances at Chelsea Theatre Works.” Arts Fuse review

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Steven Canny & John Nicholson. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. At Central Square Theatre, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, through October 6.

An audience favorite, a knockabout satire of Sherlock Holmes, returns. “Enter the world of deductive reasoning and elementary logic, absurd accents and ridiculous puns as the inclusive, gender bending cast of three actors inhabit more than a dozen roles.” The cast taking the game afoot includes Aimee Doherty, Jenny S. Lee, and Sarah Morin. Arts Fuse review

Urinetown: The Musical, music and lyrics by Greg Hollmann and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis. Directed by Courtney O’Connor. Music direction from Dan Rodriguez and choreography by Christopher Shin. Presented by the Lyric Stage of Boston at 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, September 20 through October 20.

A revival of the Broadway hit musical that satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics. The show also parodies musicals such as The Threepenny Opera, The Cradle Will Rock, and Les Misérables, and the Broadway musical itself as a form. The Lyric Stage publicity sums the show up: “A greedy and unethical corporation profits from the citizens of a city in the middle of a water shortage by banning public toilets forcing the people to pinch their pennies for the ‘privilege to pee.’ But revolution is in the air. Led by Bobby Strong, a hopeful hero who rallies a cornucopia of colorful and quirky characters to take on the oily tycoon Caldwell B. Cladwell, the road to freedom is paved with straight-faced silliness, cheeky musical parodies, and boisterous comedy. With heart and hope, this modern classic reminds us just how great and revelatory the American musical can be.”

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Jeffrey Lane. Directed by Allison Olivia Choat. Choreography by Brad Reinking. Music Direction by Catherine Stornetta. Staged by Moonbox Productions at Arrow Street Arts, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, September 27 through October 20.

Based on the 1988 hit film comedy of the same name, this 2004 musical, enthuses Moonbox Productions, “follows the misadventures of two con-artists: Freddy Benson and Lawrence Jameson. Freddy is just one more hardscrabble huckster trying to make a (dis)honest living — that is, until he meets Lawrence, a high-society swindler whose polish and connections have landed him a glamorous gig on the French Riviera. When Lawrence invites Freddy to team up, it seems like the two have finally found the perfect con — until they realize that their egos are the only thing more massive than their earnings. Friction turns to an outright feud when the perfect target arrives in town — Christine, an heiress who is just as beautiful as she is gullible. Who will be the first to steal Christine’s heart and, more importantly, her wallet?”

— Bill Marx

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Jazz

Jared Sims Quartet
September 19 at 7 p.m.
The Mad Monkfish, Cambridge

The very fine multi-reed and flute player, bandleader, composer, and educator Jared Sims has been cooking up an exciting new band with pianist Rebecca Cline, bassist Fernando Huergo (see September 26), and drummer Gen Yoshimura. The band will feature “Latin-themed” pieces by Sims, as well as “deconstructions and reimaginations of compositions by Wayne Shorter, Coltrane, Benny Golson, etc.” Sims will play baritone and alto saxes as well as flute.

Laszlo Gardony w/Don Braden
Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Friend Recital Hall, Berklee College of Music, Boston
FREE

Boston audiences most often hear the wonderful pianist and composer Laszlo Gardony with his longtime trio mates, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel. Another frequent colleague who appears less often with Gardony is the terrific saxophonist Don Braden. He’s always a welcome addition to the band. Berklee is presenting this show free of charge, but you have to register at the above link.

Meshell Ndegeocello
September 20 at 7 p.m.
Arts at the Armory, Somerville

The bassist, singer, and composer Meshell Ndegeocello performs her powerful new album No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin (originally presented as a theater piece) with some of the players from that disc: guitarist Chris Bruce, keyboardists Jebin Bruni and Jake Sherman, drummer Abe Rounds, singer Justin Hicks, and the poet Staceyann Chin (her scalding spoken-word passages are essential to the piece).

Ran Blake: Ghosts
September 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

The ever-singular pianist, composer, and jazz sage Ran Blake, now 89, plays this solo-piano program, which will offer a typically Blakean mix of sociopolitical meditations, “story-boarded” musical trips through the worlds of film noir, and memories of people and places he’s known in his many years, in sections titled “Gaza,” “Film Noir,” and “Ghosts.”

James Carter Organ Trio
September 21 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Saxophone titan (and master of countless reed instruments) James Carter makes his first Boston appearance in recent memory fronting one of his most appealing formats, the organ trio, with his usual partners, organist Gerard Gibbs, and drummer Alex White.

Joyce Moreno
September 21 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

The distinguished Brazilian singer and songwriter Joyce Moreno (formerly known simply as Joyce) long ago worked with the composer and arranger Claus Ogerman on an album called Natureza, which featured saxophonist Michael Brecker. The album was out of print for years until a 2022 reissue. Now Moreno is revisiting it in a series of shows, including these two at the Regattabar. (You can read a profile of Moreno by the Fuse’s Evelyn Rosenthal here.)

Fernando Huergo
September 26 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

If you go to many shows of progressive big band jazz in the Boston area, chances are you’ve seen Fernando Huergo playing bass. In fact, the Argentine-born Huergo, who moved to Boston decades ago to study at Berklee and is now a professor at the school, has been a go-to guy for years in all manner of jazz and Latin jazz bands. Here’s a chance to hear Huergo leading a big band in his own music, celebrating the latest release in his formidable discography, Relentless. The new album deploys some of the best players in the Boston area and displays Huergo’s typically multi-hued skills as writer and player. This CD-release show will include the entire stellar cast from the album, with the exception of one sub (trombonist Angel Subero in for Andy Garcia): trumpets Jeff Classeen, Billy Buss, Dan Rosenthal, and Gerg Hopkins; trombones Randy Pingrey, Chris Gagne, Jason Camelio, and Angel Subero; woodwinds and flutes Yulia Musayelyan, Rick Stone, Allan Chase, Rick DiMuzio, and Daniel Ian Smith; pianist Santiago Bosch; drummer Gen Yoshimura; and conguero Ernesto Díaz. Huergo will, of course, play bass.

Jason Anick & Jason Yeager
September 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

Violinist/mandolinist Jason Anick and pianist Jason Yeager, who have been distinctive player/composer/bandleaders each in his own right, have joined forces for their second collaborative album, Sanctuary. They’ll be celebrating the new disc at the Regattabar with Billy Buss on trumpet and flugelhorn, Greg Loughman on bass, and Mike Connors on drums. “Special guests” are also promised. (Guests on the album include trumpeter Jason Palmer, tenor saxophonist Edmar Colón, and cellist Naseem Alatrash.)

Cécile McLorin Salvant
September 28 at 8 p.m.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA

The peerless singer and songwriter Cecile McLorin Salvant last played the Greater Boston area with a band. Here she is in a duo configuration we haven’t seen before, with the superb Boston (Boylston, MA–born) pianist Glenn Zaleski.

Josh Sinton & Jeb Bishop
October 1 at 8 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge

Baritone saxophonist (and clarinet player) Josh Sinton and trombonist Jeb Bishop have diverse resumes in new music that have overlapped for years, including about a decade or so working from time to time as a duo. Sinton’s recent releases have included solo-baritone etudes, including, as one subject, Steve Lacy (an abiding interest in Sinton’s quartet Ideal Bread). Aside from his work as a leader, Bishop has been a regular in the Ken Vandermark Five (Chicago) and in Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Club and the collaborative band Cutout (both Boston).

— Jon Garelick

Marvin E. Gilmore, Jr. – A “Turning 100”  Centenarian Birthday Celebration
September 21, 7 p.m
Jordan Hall

Over his 100 years Boston’s Marvin Gilmore has been a World War II hero, a civil rights advocate, the owner of the Western Front reggae club, and the current owner of the Western Front cannabis dispensary — to name just a few of his accomplishments. Marvin’s family is celebrating his centennial via an event presented by New England Conservatory, which Gilmore graduated from. Two of his sons are noted musicians: guitarist John and drummer/electronic producer Marque. They’ll be part of the festivities along with pianist Frank Wilkins, saxophonist Stan Strickland, bassist Wesley Wirth, and special guests. And if you happen to know Marvin please don’t tell him you’ll be there – the event is a surprise party. Donations will be accepted for a charity of Marvin’s choice.

— Noah Schaffer

Third Thursdays with host Dave Bryant
September 19 at 8 p.m.
Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, 1555 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge

Monthly jazz series host Dave Bryant (keyboardist) welcomes saxophonist Neil Leonard, recently back in town from a residency in Tanzania, slide guitar innovator David Tronzo, bassist Max Ridley, and drummer James Kamal Jones, to join him “for what promises to be an exciting blend of percussive textures, electronic sonorities, and melodic invention.”

— Bill Marx

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Author Events

Amanda Becker at Harvard Book Store
You Must Stand Up: The Fight for Abortion Rights in Post-Dobbs America
September 16 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In You Must Stand Up, Nieman Fellow Amanda Becker provides a real-time portrait of the creative resistance that unfolded in America’s first year without the protections of Roe v. Wade. Amidst daily shifts in health care access, new legal battles coming before partisan courts, and up-for-grabs state constitutions, Becker follows the leaders rising to meet these challenges—doctors and staffers turning to new financial and medical models to remain open and provide abortions, volunteers campaigning against anti-abortion ballot initiatives, and medical students fighting to learn to provide what can be lifesaving care.

“By depicting the splintered reality of post-Dobbs America, and by capturing how Americans have developed new ways to best protect their constitutional rights, Becker ultimately shows how outrage can beget hope, and give rise to a new movement.”

Cara Giaimo and Joshua Foer at The Brattle Theatre
Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders
September 17 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $45 with book, $10 without

“Featuring over 500 extraordinary plants, animals, and natural phenomena, with illustrations and photos on every page, the book takes readers around the globe — from Antarctic deserts to lush jungles, and into the deepest fathoms of the ocean and the hearts of our densest cities. Teeming with detail and wildly entertaining, Wild Life reinvigorates our sense of wonder, awe and amazement about the incredible creatures we share our planet with.”

Zadie Smith with Emiko Tamagawa – Brookline Booksmith
The Fraud
September 17 from 6-7 p.m.
Tickets are $19 with book, $5 without

“In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith transports the reader to a Victorian England transfixed by the real-life trial of the Tichborne Claimant, in which a cockney butcher, recently returned from Australia, lays claim to the Tichborne baronetcy, with his former slave Andrew Bogle as the star witness. Watching the proceedings, and with her own story to tell, is Eliza Touchet — cousin, housekeeper, and perhaps more to failing novelist William Harrison Ainsworth. From literary London to Jamaica’s sugarcane plantations, Zadie Smith weaves an enthralling story linking the rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved, and the comic and the tragic.””

Alice Hoffman at Harvard Book Store
When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary 
September 18 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Critically acclaimed author Alice Hoffman weaves a lyrical and heart-wrenching story of the way the world closes in on the Frank family from the moment the Nazis invade the Netherlands until they are forced into hiding, bringing Anne to bold, vivid life.

“Based on extensive research and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, When We Flew Away is an extraordinary and moving tour de force.”

Drag Story Hour: Miss. Patty reads The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe – Brookline Booksmith
September 22 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Free

“Duchess Wigtower had heard that pets are fun, but all her kitten has gotten her is nine lives’ worth of problems. Eeeeek! It’s time for someone else to deal with this catastrophe. Princess Magnolia is thrilled when a kitten lands on her doorstep, but just as she’s about to play with Plumpkins (or should it be Hugmaster Floof?) the monster alarm goes off. When Princess Magnolia returns to her castle, her furry companion has carved up the wallpaper! In fact, each time Princess Magnolia leaves to help the Goat Avenger fight a very grouchy monster, her feline friend wreaks havoc. Has the Princess in Black finally met her match? Ten years after she first donned her cape, the Princess in Black returns for a purrfectly hilarious entry (The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe) to the New York Times best-selling series.”

Jami Attenberg at Harvard Book Store
A Reason to See You Again: A Novel
September 23 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Beginning in the ’70s and spanning 40 years, A Reason to See You Again takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through motherhood, the American workforce, the tech industry, the self-help movement, inherited trauma, the ever-evolving ways we communicate with one another, and the many unexpected forms that love can take.”

Joan Wickersham in conversation with Laura Zigman – Porter Square Books
No Ship Sets Out to Be a Shipwreck
September 24 at 7 p.m.
Free

“No Ship Sets Out to Be a Shipwreck is a poetic and philosophical meditation ignited by a beautiful, frightening, and mysterious object: the 17th-century Swedish warship Vasa, which sank only minutes into its maiden voyage, lay forgotten underwater for more than 300 years, and then was rediscovered by an independent researcher who conceived the improbable idea of raising the ship and building a museum around it.”

Porter Square Books 20th Anniversary Celebration – Porter Square Books
September 28 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Free

“Join Porter Square Books from 6 to 9 p.m. on September 28 to celebrate the store’s 20th anniversary.” Inventory will be 20% off during the party. There will be a toast at 7:30 p.m. followed by a cutting of the cake. The festivities also include a tour of the new space PSB is moving to this October, located down the street at 1815 Mass. Ave. Additional tours will be offered on September 17 at 7 p.m. and September 24 at noon.”

— Matt Hanson

Stephen Greenblatt, Ramie Targoff, and Diane Paulus
An in-person chat about Romeo and Juliet
September 16 at the Loeb Drama Center, Harvard Square, Cambridge

This free public conversation, featuring renowned professors Stephen Greenblatt and Ramie Targoff with American Repertory Theater artistic director Diane Paulus, will explore Shakespeare, his iconic love story, and the A.R.T. production of the play, which is running through October 6 at the Loeb Drama Center.

— Bill Marx