Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor

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

Frederick Wiseman: A Retrospective
Through March 31
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

Local filmmaker Frederick Wiseman is American cinema’s foremost sociological auteur of documentary. Thirty-three of his features, from his debut Titicut Follies (1967) to State Legislature (2006), have received 4K restorations. The Brattle dedicates the month to a retrospective of eight of Wiseman’s features. All are linked to descriptions:

Juvenile Court (March 17 at 6 p.m.)

Welfare (March 24 at 7 p.m.)

Model (March 31 at 6 p.m.)

Forest of Changing Shapes Film Series
Rose Art Museum Wasserman Cinematheque, Brandeis University, 415 South Street Waltham, through March 23

Inspired by Hugh Hayden’s evocative exhibition, the series unmasks nature’s relentless, ever-shifting resistance, and the uneasy bond between humanity and the untamed world.

Frogs
March 23 at 3 p.m.

This 1972 horror-comedy serves up a campy, cautionary message: a ruthless millionaire’s war on nature backfires, unleashing a vengeful swarm of frogs and other creatures upon his isolated island estate.

The National Center for Jewish Film’s Annual Film Festival
March 16 through 31, 2025 | jewishfilm.org

Since 1976, The National Center for Jewish Film (NCJF) has presented a vibrant program of new independent films and rare archive treasures from around the world, with visiting filmmakers and scholars.

Descriptions are linked. Check for times.

COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire (3/20) Post-film Q&A with Director Oren Rudavsky. Arts Fuse review

Soda (3/24) New England premiere!

The Blond Boy from the Casbah (3/26) preceded by No Harm Done (18 minutes)

Pink Lady (3/27) New England premiere

Address Unknown (3/30) Post-film Q&A with Thomas Doherty, author of Hollywood & Hitler, preceded by You Nazty Spy! a dadaist antifascist Three Stooges short.

THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON

Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (March 23)

The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka and the Art of Survival (March 23)

SHOWCASE SUPERLUX CHESTNUT HILL

Breaking Home Ties (March 31) Closing Night Event: rare 1922 silent with a soundtrack supplied by Grammy winning musician Steve Berlin (Los Lobos)

Any Day Now 
March 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Somerville Theatre

Boston premiere screening of a film shot entirely in the city: the story was inspired by Boston’s infamous 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery — the largest art theft in history. There will be a Q&A after the screening with lead actors Paul Guilfoyle and Taylor Gray, as well as Cambridge-based director Eric Aronson.

The Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF)
At the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, March 19 through 23

This 25th annual festival brings a stellar lineup of strange current releases, including a 4K revival of Stuart Gordon’s over-the-top, gory, and puerile Re-Animator from 1985. Actress Barbara Crampton will be attendance. The Complete Schedule here.

Albert Serra, or Cinematic Time Regained
March 7 – April 12
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge

A series featuring one of the world’s great filmmakers: “Serra’s filmmaking embraces cinema’s quintessence as a photographic and documentary medium able to capture the subtlest of performances — gestures, phrases, emotions — far better than the ever-distracted human eye.“ (Harvard Film Archive)

Film Descriptions

The Death of Louis XIV at 3 p.m. with Birdsong at 7 p.m. on March 23

Honor of the Knights — March 24 at 7 p.m.

Pacifiction — March 28 at 7 p.m.

Story of My Death — March 29 at 7 p.m.

Afternoons of Solitude — March 31 at 7 p.m. & April 12 at 9 p.m. (Director Serra will appear in person for the March 31 screening)

Salem Film Festival
March 27 -30
Various Venues

Salem Film Fest (SFF) is the largest international documentary film festival in Massachusetts, with features, shorts, and special events. Complete schedule of films

Belmont World Film International Film Series
March 31 through April 14 on Mondays at 7:30 p.m.
Apple Cinemas Fresh Pond Cambridge

Opening night at Apple Cinemas – March 31: DJ Ahmet, winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award and the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s a sweet coming-of-age drama about 15-year-old Ahmet, who finds solace in music while navigating tradition, family expectations, and first love in a remote Macedonian village. The screening will be preceded by a dinner reception at the theater, featuring North Macedonian cuisine from 6 to 7 p.m.

At Apple Cinemas on April 7 – The Good Teacher (France, North American premiere). Life unravels for a dedicated young literature teacher in a Parisian suburb when he’s wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct by his student. The story was inspired by true events. The film offers a nuanced exploration of rumor, reputation, and resilience within the educational system.

Pick of the Week

Bang You’re Dead

OK.RU Video and Amazon Prime

A different kind of recommendation: Alfred Hitchcock directed this episode of his own series (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and it contained an unusually serious final monologue from the director — a plea for gun safety. Episode One, Season Seven is called “Bang! You’re Dead,” and was originally broadcast on October 7, 1961. It carries a timely message and the narrative is beautifully directed with Hitchcock’s signature combination of tension and humor at the service of a critique of middle class morality. In the story, six-year old Jackie Chester is delighted when his Uncle Rick arrives from Africa with a surprise gift. Unable to wait until Rick unpacks, Jackie goes through his Uncle’s bags and finds a loaded gun. Jackie thinks it is a toy, a promised gift. He goes outside to play with the weapon. Jackie’s parents and Uncle Rick discover that Jackie is on the loose with a loaded gun and frantically set out to find him. Jackie is played by Bill Mumy, who is also at the center of the Trump-prophetic episode of Twilight Zone — “It’s A Good Life — A Very Bad Man.”

— Tim Jackson

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Theater

COVID PROTOCOLS: Check with specific theaters.

A Man of No Importance Book by Terrence McNally. Music by Stephen Flaherty. Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Directed by Paul Daigneault. Music direction by Paul S. Katz. Choreography by Ilyse Robbins. Staged by SpeakEasy Stage Company in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, in Boston’s South End, through March 22.

In his 2020 remembrance of dramatist Terrence McNally, Christopher Caggiano called this musical “an urgent but quiet tale of a closeted gay bus conductor who seeks escape through theater and poetry in a small Dublin parish.” He went on to write that “McNally completed 10 musical works, and there is not a single conventional effort among them. Each show had a distinctive edge, a tragicomic bite, a vibrant sense of the theatrical. The American stage has lost not only a singular playwright, but also a committed, serious innovator of the musical theater canon.”

“This production,” SpeakEasy Stage informs us, “marks the New England premiere of the recently reimagined version of this beloved show staged by Classic Stage Company in New York, and includes the use of onstage musicians. Elliot Norton Award-winners Eddie Shields and Aimee Doherty lead an all-star Boston cast that includes Kerry A. Dowling, Jennifer Ellis, Meagan Lewis-Michelson, Will McGarrahan, Billy Meleady, Keith Richardson, Rebecca Rae Robles, Sam Simahk, and Kathy St. George.” Arts Fuse review

La Tempestad — The Tempest by William Shakespeare Adapted and translated by Orlando Hernández, Tatyana-Marie Carlo, and Leandro “Kufa” Castro. Directed by Christie Vela. Staged by Trinity Rep at the Dowling Theater, 201 Washington St., Providence, March 27 through April 27.

According to Trinity Rep: “Shakespeare’s familiar story of magic, betrayal, comedy, and love is told through a compelling mix of The Bard’s classic English, translated Spanish dialogue, and projected subtitles so you can understand it all. La Tempestad — The Tempest purposefully weaves two languages to deconstruct colonialist narratives, all while retaining the shipwreck, romance, magic, and fantasy that make Shakespeare’s final play so beloved. Originally presented in 2018 as a touring Teatro en El Verano production, La Tempestad is the first to transfer to Trinity Rep’s main stage.”

Leonora, la maga y la maestra, conceived and directed by Stacy Klein, Staged by Double Edge Theater at 948 Conway Road Ashfield, MA, March 27 through 30.

Leonora, la maga y la maestra is inspired by the visual art, writings, and life of British-born Mexican artist Leonora Carrington and her mentorship of a long line of male artists. This dream-like performance piece unfolds as an encounter between Leonora and Adán (everyman); at its best, it evokes the magic, mystery, and humanity found in Carrington’s eccentric but spellbinding work. I saw an earlier version of this show, and it was a dazzlingly surreal eyeful.

Before seeing Leonora, la maga y la maestra, the company invites you to immerse yourself in Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. This exhibition, the first of its kind in New England, showcases over 30 of Carrington’s works spanning six decades — offering a glimpse into the visionary world of the artist who inspired this theater piece.

Queer Voices Festival presented by the Boston Theater Company at the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts is 539 Tremont St., Boston, March 21 through 23.

This “submission-based showcase of vibrant and diverse ten-minute plays written by LGBTQ+ playwrights also includes a matinee staged reading in collaboration with CHUANG Stage and a matinee of a family-friendly devised piece inspired by Shakespeare.” On March 23 at 1 p.m. there is a Queer Shakespeare performance and Drag Story hour for families, including BTC’s 2025 Education Tour performance: Lisa Rafferty “Beyond Boundaries: Gender Expression in Shakespeare.” Note: Boston Theater Company’s Road of Rainbows Pride 5K – BTC’s annual pride event, is providing the funds for Queer Voices. Road of Rainbows Pride 5K takes place on June 14 in the Boston Common.

The Inspector by Nikolai Gogol. Newly adapted and directed by Yura Kordonsky. Staged by Yale Repertory Theatre at 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven, through March 29.

A new version of Gogol’s masterpiece about cowardice and bureaucracy: “An entire town is plunged into chaos as it frantically hides its grift and incompetence from the prying eyes of an undercover inspector. But the cons are about to get conned: the mysterious stranger accepting every bauble, coin, and advance thrown his way is not who he seems to be. Everyone is on the take — or the make — in this outrageously anarchic comedy of errors.”

Night Side Songs Words and Music by the Lazours. Directed by Taibi Magar. Produced by the American Repertory Theater in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Cambridge Masonic Temple, 1950 Mass. Ave, Cambridge, from March 27 to April 6 and at the Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street, Roxbury, April 8 through 20.

According to the A.R.T., this “communal music-theater experience performed for — and with — an intimate audience celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. Inspired by American writer, philosopher, and cultural critic Susan Sontag’s observation that ‘illness is the night side of life,’ this genre-breaking theatrical kaleidoscope with music by Richard Rodgers Award recipients Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour (We Live in Cairo, Flap My Wings) and directed by Taibi Magar (We Live in Cairo, Macbeth in Stride) gives voices to doctors, patients, researchers, and caregivers. A folk-inspired score and interconnected stories spanning time and perspective take us on a journey through illness that brings us closer to life.”

Her Portmanteau by Mfoniso Udofia. Directed by Tasia A. Jones. A co-production of Central Square Theater and Front Porch Arts Collective at Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave, Cambridge, March 27 to April 20. 

According to the Central Square Theater and Front Porch Arts Collective, this script, which is part of the dramatist’s nine-play Ufot Family Cycle,“delves into a story of betrayal and forgiveness, centering on a Nigerian mother in the US and her two daughters who have lived vastly different lives. Iniabasi, given up at birth by her mother, Abasiama, returns from Nigeria embittered, in search of answers and a better life for her own child. Adiaha, the American-raised child of Abasiama’s second marriage, has had a starkly different upbringing. The reunion forces them to confront their past, navigating clashing traditions and a family legacy that spans time, culture, and generations.” Note: “Each play in the Cycle stands alone, but together, they weave a rich tapestry of interconnected narratives”.

Madeleines by Bess Welden. Directed by Annette Jolles. Staged by Portland Stage at 25A Forest Ave, Portland, ME, through March 23.

Welden is a Maine playwright. She served as the 2024 Playwright-in-Residence for the Maine Playwrights Festival and recently created a commission for the Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated project, an interdisciplinary visual art, music, and theater exhibition honoring girls and young women who died in the Holocaust. She is the Founder/Core Artist of Death Wings Project. The plot, according to the Portland Stage, “tells the story of Debra and Jennifer, two sisters processing the death of their mother, a professional baker. When a secret hidden among their mother’s recipes is discovered, the siblings fracture, and their understanding of family is put to the test. A play about sweets, familial rivalry, and learning to let go, Welden’s work asks us to examine how, and what, we forgive.”

My Dinner with André based on the film by Wallace Shawn and André Gregory. Staged by Harbor Stage Company at the BCA Plaza Black Box, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, through March 30.

“Forty years ago, two intrepid artists sat down for a five course meal, a glass of amaretto, and a simmering dialectic on the nature of theater. Two more adventurers bring this iconic conversation to the American stage for the first time. Harbor co-founders Jonathan Fielding and Robert Kropf (with Robin Bloodworth) will reprise their performances in the roles made famous by the movie’s creators, Wallace Shawn and André Gregory.”

The Triumph of Love by Marivaux. Translated by Stephen Wadsworth. Directed by Loretta Greco. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave. Boston, through April 6.

Another revival of Marivaux’s delightful farce. The HTC sums the evening up this way: “Love takes center stage in this classic French comedy by 18th-century playwright Pierre Carlet de Marivaux. A clever princess is smitten at first sight — but to win her prince, she must woo him in disguise. Mistaken identities, hilarious complications, and deeply felt desire collide head on with Rationalist Philosophy — and surprising romantic entanglements ensue!”

Bread & Puppet Spring Tour: The Obligation to Live, written and performed by Bread & Puppet Theater. On March 27 at Greensboro, VT, March 28 at Barre, VT, March 29 at Burlington, VT, and March 30 at Cambridge, NY.

Bread & Puppet Theater is out on spring tour, traveling from Vermont down the Eastern Seaboard. About this show, the troupe’s venerable artistic director Peter Schumann comments that “the obligation to be alive and act against the actors of death is just one of humanity’s many obligations. We also have the obligation to courage and the obligation to plant garlic in the rubble of the empire. Possibilitarians know this and bring giants, dragons, horses, sheep, butterflies, and the exact dance of death required for this exact moment.”

The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe. Directed by Jesse Berger. Staged reading by Red Bull Theater. This event will premiere live in-person from NYC’s Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Peter Norton Symphony Space on March 24 at 7:30 p.m. The recording will be available at 7:30 p.m. on March 25 until 11:59 p.m. on March 30. Open captions will be available at 7:30 p.m. on March 26 until 11:59 p.m. on March 30.

A rare opportunity to take in Christopher Marlowe’s rarely produced comic-strip of a play, long condemned as antisemitic, though the villainy is so evenly spread (and so extreme) that the proceedings come off as a cheeky parody of Machiavellian mayhem. The script was a big hit when it premiered in 1592. Christian Malta is under siege from the Ottoman Turks, and the Christians are forced to twist the arms of Jewish merchants for financial help to keep the war going. Enter the super-conniving, ultra-greedy Jew Barabas, who enjoys, with exultant sadistic relish, playing all sides against the other. The script contains the famous lines “Thou hast committed—/ Fornication: but that was in another country,/ And besides, the wench is dead.”

Don’t Eat the Mangos by Ricardo Pérez González. Directed by David Mendizábal. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont Street, Boston), March 26 through April 27.

According to the HTC, the script “portrays life on the playwright’s home island of Puerto Rico with compassion and humor through the saga of three sisters living just outside San Juan. As a hurricane approaches the beautiful island, secrets and ugly truths are revealed that cause the sisters to wrestle with how to stay true to their familia and homeland — and seek a satisfying revenge.”

Little Big Eye written and performed by Works with Water. Presented by Puppet Showplace Theater at 32 Station Street, Brookline, March 29 through April 6.

This puppet extravaganza promises plenty of underwater wonder. “Puppet Showplace Theater’s Incubator Program for new works development is proud to present the world premiere of this new, underwater version of Little Big Eye by Works with Water. An earlier version of this show premiered in Hawai’i at Honolulu Theatre for Youth, and was performed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York — Hawai’i and New York couldn’t support underwater puppets, but Brookline can!

The show features actual underwater puppets in a 60-gallon tank. Little Big Eye combines real ocean life facts, underwater puppetry inspired by traditional Vietnamese techniques, and lush, multiscale puppets into a heartwarming tale that will be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.”

— Bill Marx

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Popular Music

Chuck Ragan with Cory Branan
March 20 (doors at 6/show at 8)
City Winery, Boston

Last year was a productive one for co-bandleader and solo artist Chuck Ragan. In the former capacity, his punk group Hot Water Music released its 10th studio album, VOWS. As the latter, he added Love and Lore — his fifth LP and first since 2014 — to his discography. Love and Lore finds Ragan employing a savory blend of Hot Water Music’s punk rock and his own taste for folky Americana. The result is a highly nourishing plateful that is sure to hold the listener over until Ragan’s next solo offering (whenever that might be).

Ida with Tsunami
March 23 (doors at 6/show at 7)
Crystal Ballroom, Somerville

Brooklyn indie quartet Ida isn’t on the road in support of new material this spring. However, April 25 will witness the issuance of Will You Find Me in 25th-anniversary deluxe fashion. The original release’s 14 songs made it one of the band’s most highly lauded recordings, with co-founder Daniel Littleton asserting that it emerged during “a time where we grew creatively and maybe made some of our strongest work, but without a doubt, we never did anything like this again.” This edition more than triples the track list, adding 34 demos, alternate versions, remixes, covers, etc.

Like Ida, Tsunami — who made quite a splash in the 1990s — is also not hawking any fresh wares. However (again), the band currently has a major product on the market in the form of the box set Loud As Is. This five-disc collection comprises their three ’90s studio albums, their b-sides/singles /rarities compilation World Tour & Other Destinations, and the previously cassette-only Car Arcade.

Ida and Tsunami’s March and April Coin Toss tour dates will be a reunion of sorts for these bands who toured, recorded, and otherwise collaborated during the Clinton era.

Horsegirl with Free Range
March 27 (doors at 7/doors at 8)
Arts at The Armory, Somer​ville

Chicago’s Horsegirl busted right out of the gate with the 2019 single “Forecast” and the following year’s three-track “best of” EP Ballroom Dance Scene et cetera. Powered by the highlights “Anti-Glory,” “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty),” “Option 8,” and “Homage to Birdnoculars [sic],” the trio’s debut full-length, Versions of Modern Dance, demonstrated that Horsegirl could operate on a larger canvas without missing a beat. Two years later, they are back with Phonetics On and On. This collection’s “Where’d You Go?”, “2468,” “Well I Know You’re Shy,” and “I Can’t Stand to See You” indicate that the band is sure to gallop forward for the foreseeable future. Fellow Windy City denizen Free Range — the stage name of Sofia Jensen — will open Horsegirl’s upcoming Arts at the Armory show.

The Weather Station with Hannah Frances
March 28 (doors at 7/doors at 8)
The Sinclair, Cambridge
March 30 (doors at 6/show at 7)
Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton​

“I write songs about things that exist,” Toronto-based musician Tamara Lindeman declares in her bandcamp bio. A quick scan of the titles on her January effort Humanhood confirms this. Occasionally these “things” are seemingly quotidian (“Window,” “Ribbon,” “Sewing”) while others are somewhat abstract (“Descent,” “Fleuve,” “Aurora”). Whichever the case, Lindeman — who has been recording as The Weather Station since 2008 — successfully captivates throughout via her master songcraft. Fellow acclaimed singer-songwriter and Vermont resident Hannah Francis will warm up Lindeman’s Sinclair audience on March 28 and her Iron Horse one two nights later.

​Archer Oh
March 30 (doors at 7/show at 8)
The Rockwell, Somerville

Archer Oh’s self-description of “surfy indie rock” is certainly not incorrect. However, it is also not complete. Yes, their brand new album The Internal Theater includes elements of surf rock on tracks such as “This Isn’t You.” Still, there is more to this Moreno Valley, CA, quartet’s sound. The Internal Theater‘s 10 tracks employ elements of shoegazey haze, Pixies-esque loud-quite-loud dynamics, and propulsive garage rock. The record is the latest entry in a decade-long career that includes three LPs, three EPs, and a couple of singles, and is as good an introduction — as it was for me — as any of their preceding work.

— Blake Maddux

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Visual Art

Although there’s little sign of it at street level, the Yale Center for British Art is about to reopen after being closed for just over two years. The hiatus is described as part of a “conservation” project of the Center’s late modernist building, the last masterpiece of the great American architect Louis Kahn, which opened in 1977. The recent renewal work concentrated on the roof level and involved replacing more than 200 original domed Plexiglas skylights, as well as updates to the gallery lighting systems.

The Center’s collection, much of it donated by the museum’s founding patron, Paul Mellon — art collector, thoroughbred horse breeder, and heir to the Mellon banking fortune — has returned from temporary digs at the Yale Art Gallery across Chapel Street, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Historic Royal Palaces, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other institutions, in time for the March 29 opening of In a New Light: Five Centuries of British Art. This reinstallation of the permanent collections, among other things, confronts highlights from the Mellon Collection with works recently added to the museum’s British holdings.

Also opening at the Center on March 29 is the exhibition J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality, which marks the 250th anniversary of the beloved artist’s birth. Much of the show is drawn from the Center’s own Turner collections, the finest in North America, and features important paintings, watercolors, prints, and the artist’s only complete sketchbook outside the British Isles. Still considered the most radical and innovative painter in British art, Turner, the museum says, “paved the way for a new form of landscape art, one that combined virtuoso brushwork with brilliant color, dazzling light effects, and an almost abstract sensibility.”

Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until the Morning, the first major presentation of the work of this contemporary artist in a North American Museum, is the third Center show to open on the 29th. Emin is, the museum says, “known for her dynamic and autobiographical works that express themes of love, loss, hope, and grief.” The show features paintings from 2007 to the present.

In February 1888, at the age of 34, Vincent van Gogh moved from the exhausting metropolis of Paris to the small Provençal city of Arles, in the south of France. Arles, an ancient and culturally distinct city, set in a wild and light-drenched landscape, was filled with prominent Roman ruins, including an amphitheater, theater, baths, a triumphal arch, aqueducts, and walls; it had a rich history as a major port and as a prominent cultural and religious center, all of which enchanted and inspired the artist. In the little over a year he lived in Arles, van Gogh created more than 300 paintings and drawings in a new, brighter style, including many of his most famous works: The Night Cafe, L’Arlesienne, the Yellow House, Bedroom at Arles, Cafe Terrace at Night, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, and Starry Night Over the Rhône.

The MFA’s The Roulin Family Portraits, which opens March 30, looks at another inspiration van Gogh found in Arles: his deep and tender friendship with the postman Joseph Roulin, his wife Augustine, and their children Armand, Camille, and Marcelle. Van Gogh’s portraits of the family, which include the MFA’s famous Postman Joseph Roulin of 1888 and Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle of 1889, are among the most important and innovative of his career.

This exhibition, the first ever to focus on the Roulin portraits, includes some 20 works by van Gogh, including the MFA portraits and important loans from the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. Examples of earlier Dutch art and of Japanese woodblock prints represent other major influences on van Gogh’s art. Finally the show includes work by van Gogh’s friend, Paul Gauguin, whom van Gogh invited to Arles in hopes of establishing an artists’ community there. Things unfortunately did not go as well as van Gogh hoped; Vincent finally left Arles in 1889. He died in July 1890.

After centuries of isolation, Japan rejoined the world in the late 19th century and began a phase of rapid economic and cultural change. As it ramped up industrialization, Japan also began to Westernize, rebuilding cities in European styles, decorating homes in Western taste, and rejecting many Japanese traditions and traditional art forms. One casualty was the traditional Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print. Once a thriving popular industry, ukiyo-e prints went into decline with the introduction of modern printing methods and changes in Japanese taste.

Reflections of a Changing Japan: The Evolution of Shin Hanga, opening at the Worcester Art Museum on March 29, explores an early 20th-century coda to the transitional print in the Shin Hanga or “new print.” Shin Hanga artists revived the ukiyo-e techniques while radically changing the imagery: using Western one-point perspective, adding techniques based on Western painting and photographs, and shifting subject matter from long-revered scenery to modern cities and foreign views as well as new approaches to traditional subjects. The 40 works on view, many not exhibited before, chart the movement from the early 1900s to its decline after World War II, ending in 1959.

Opening on March 30 at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Martin Beck: …for hours, days, or weeks at a time explores the artist’s research into environments, a series of 11 records produced in the 1970s by Syntonic Research Inc. The exhibition includes sculptural installations, large-scale pencil drawings, a suite of images of sunsets and thunderstorms from the albums’ cover art, and a video, all exploring “the methods and means through which environments are captured, compressed, and represented.”

— Peter Walsh

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Jazz

Brandee Younger Trio
March 16 at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge, Mass.

The star harpist and composer Brandee Younger plays this Celebrity Series show at Arrow Street Arts with bassist Rashaan Carter and drummer Allan Mednard.

Pandelis Karayorgis Trio
March 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.

The Pandelis Karayorgis Trio — with Karayorgis on piano and keyboards, bassist Nate McBride, and drummer Randy Peterson — will feature the work of microtonal composer Julie Werntz. Werntz’s music proved a beguiling, worthy subject the last time Karayorgis tackled it at the Lily. For this show, the trio will play excerpts from Wertz’s new Capricious Nocturnal Variations (premiered on February 23). In this performance, “the unique microtonal tuning used in the piece will be used alongside a regular piano.”

Dave Bryant “Third Thursday”
March 20 at 8 p.m.
Harvard-Epworth Church, Cambridge, Mass.

This month, keyboardist and compose Bryant hosts Matt Lavelle on flugelhorn and clarinets, Fred Williams on bass, and James Kamal Jones on drums. The program will feature compositions by Ornette Coleman (with whom Williams, Jones, and Bryant all played) and Bern Nix (in whose quartet Lavelle was a longtime member).

Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra
March 21 and 22 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

The Boston Symphony Orchestra continues its exploration of the worlds of jazz with this concert, “arranged and curated” by Carlos Simon, the BSO’s first-ever Composer Chair, and conducted by Edwin Outwater. The trumpet soloist is Terence Blanchard. The program will include Coltrane compositions “Blue Train,” “Naima,” and “Giant Steps,” along with pieces associated with Coltrane: Thelonious Monk’s “Crepuscule with Nellie” (recorded with Monk), Guy Wood’s “My One and Only Love” (recorded with Johnny Hartman), and Miles Davis’s “So What” and “Blue in Green” (both recorded with Miles).

Yoron Israel
March 21 at 8 p.m
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The esteemed Boston drummer Yoron Israel is featuring Dee Alexander in a program called “Chicago Songs,” for the city where Alexander — a charismatic singer — is a member of the venerable Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). They’ll be joined by pianist Zahili Gonzalez Zamora and bassist John Lockwood.

Javon Jackson
March 22 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The saxophonist and composer Javon Jackson followed up 2022’s The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni with Javon & Nikki Goes to the Movies, in 2024. Giovanni died that December, but Jackson is continuing to tour this delightful material in her memory, which includes a lot of movie-associated standards.

Meshell Ndegeocello
March 22 at 8 p.m.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, Mass.

The singular singer, bassist, and composer Meshell Ndegeocello is, luckily, still touring behind last years’s extraordinary No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note), with some of the players from that album, including guitarist Chris Bruce, organist Jake Sherman, and drummer Abe Rounds.

Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner
March 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Surely one of the most exciting releases of this still new year is The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi) by the Steve Lehman Trio joined by Mark Turner. Lehman and his trio mates — bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid — have been together for a while, and they tear up these knotty Braxton compositions like dripping-fresh high-velocity bebop. The pairing of Lehman’s alto with Turner’s tenor on the front line makes this outing all the more toothsome. (You can read Steve Feeney’s review of The Music of Anthony Braxton here.)

Eguie Castrillo: Mambo Mania
March 27 at 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center, Boston

Conguero/percussionist extraordinaire (and Berklee prof) Eguie Castrillo takes a nostalgic listen to the era of New York City’s “mambo kings” with this “Mambo Mania” show by his Big Band All Stars, featuring the exciting young saxophonist Edmar Colón. Aside from some classics, Castrillo will also be premiering an original piece “dedicated to Puerto Rico” featuring “rhythms and drums native to Puerto Rico as well as a very demanding arrangement for the musicians.”

Benito Gonzalez, Buster Williams, Lenny White Trio
March 28 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The dynamic Maracaibo, Venezuela-born pianist and composer Benito Gonzalez joins elder statesmen Buster Williams (bass) and Lenny White (drums) in a project they’re calling “Masters of Motion.”

Avishai Cohen
March 28 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

The talented Israeli composer and trumpeter Avishai Cohen combines hard-edged technique with introspective lyricism. On his latest, Ashes to Gold (ECM), he’s also added flute to the mix, to good effect. To give you an idea of Cohen’s conceptual breadth, the album includes a quartet arrangement of the adagio movement from Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major. Cohen is scheduled to bring the band from the album: pianist Yonathan Avishai, bassist Barak Mori and drummer Ziv Ravitz. (You can read Michael Ullman’s review of Ashes to Gold here.)

Orchestra Mini
March 30 at 3 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.

The venerable Jazz Composers Alliance have put together a smaller, more portable aggregation than its usual large-scale orchestra. The same excellent composers are contributing pieces: David Harris, Darrell Katz, Bob Pilkington, and Mimi Rabson. And many of the same players are involved: strings Rabson and Alef Ben, saxes Melanie Howell-Brooks Gill Jones, and Sam Spear; trumpeter Jerry Sabatini; trombonists Harris and Pilkington; bassist Sam Lee; and pianist Witness Matlou.

Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio
March 30 – April 1
Various Locations

The remarkable pianist and composer Satoko Fujii barnstorms Massachusetts with her longstanding Tokyo Trio. They’ll be at the Lilypad in Cambridge on March 30 on a double bill with Spatial Decay; the Institute for Musical Arts, Goshen, on March 31; and in a free open master class at New England Conservatory in Boston on April 1. (You can read my review of Fujii’s Altitude 1100 Meters here.)

Arlington Jazz Festival
Various Locations, March 30-April 6
Arlington, Mass.

The grand finale of the 14^th annual Arlington Jazz Festival is a concert by guitar hero Mike Stern, with drummer Dennis Chambers, whose credits include the Sugar Hill house band, P-Funk, John Scofield, Steely Dan, and a gazillion others (April 6, Regent Theatre). That caps off a week that will include shows at a variety of locations, with bands including the K&R Quartet, Subject2Change, That Trio, the Caleb Texier Group, The Morningside Minutemen, Bill Ward & Ian Coury, and players Phil Sargent, Mark Zelesky, Maxim Lubarsky, John Lockwood, Dor Herskovits, and festival founder and organizer Dan Fox.

— Jon Garelick

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Roots and World Music

Logan Ledger
March 19
Club Passim, Cambridge

It was almost exactly five years ago that Logan Ledger released one of the best Gothic Americana records in recent memory. That self-titled effort showed the Californian to be an artistically mature song crafter as well as a singer whose baritone recalls country’s glory days. If you recall that something else that happened five years ago, you’ll understand why Ledger is finally making his Boston debut on the heels of his even better 2023 sophomore release Golden State. This solo show will be opened by another strong young roots voice, former Old Crow Medicine Show member Mason Via.

DELA and Steady Rock Easy 
March 19
Lizard Lounge, Cambridge

New England saxophonist Danie “DELA” Delacruz stays quite busy as a member of the hard-touring Slightly Stoopid, and his résumé also boasts stints with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, John Brown’s Body, and Cypress Hill. But every once in a while he gets to feature his own stellar, dub-fueled reggae-jazz sound for a night. Here he’ll be in the particularly strong company of keyboardist Cameron Greenlee, bassist Nate Edgar, guitarist Steve Fell, trombonist Brian Thomas, and the great foundation drummer Jesse Hayes as he wraps up a brief Lizard Lounge residency.

Derv Gordon (The Equals) / So What / Children of the Flaming Wheel
March 20
Deep Cuts, Medford

It’s impossible to overstate how profoundly unique and important The Equals were. One of the very few multiracial British bands of the mid and late ’60s, the Caribbean-tinged soul rock combo predated the attitude of punk and the message of two-tone ska by a good decade, and their politically charged songs like “Police on My Back” and “Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys” are still relevant today. While guitarist/songwriter Eddy Grant went on to fame as a solo act, it was actually Derv Gordon who sang lead on those fiery Equals classics. A few years ago he left the version of the Equals that still works the European oldies circuit and teamed up with So What, an Oakland outfit that is one of the countless garage/punk bands inspired by the Equals. They’ll play their own set before backing Gordon as he delivers Equals hits and rarities during his long-overdue Boston debut.

The Altons and Thee Sinseers
March 21
The Sinclair, Cambridge

Forget the funk: The sweet soul sound of California continues to rocket around the world, and two of its best young purveyors are teaming up for this package show. The Altons have an extra special ingredient thanks to the heavenly harmonies of lead singers Adriana Flores and Brian Ponce. On their new LP “Heartache in Room 14” they work their mellow magic with both English-language ballads and a pair of especially heart-piercing Spanish songs. Tour mates Thee Sinseers, which feature front man Joey Quiñones, are likewise adept at bridging the classic SoCal souldies sound with psychedelic touches. Opening the night is Parlor Greens, a soul-jazz organ trio that records for the influential Coalmine label and includes keyboardist Adam Scone, who helped set the stage for the soul revival via his key role in The Sugarman 3.

Mike Rivard & Fabio Pirozzolo
March 23
Eustis Estate, Milton, MA

Two of the region’s busiest and best musicians are coming together for a special duo show. Mike Rivard is the leader and bassist/sintir player of the mighty Club d’Elf, while Fabio Pirozzolo contributes his mastery of rhythms from around the world to d’Elf when he’s not playing Greek dances, children’s music, or jazz clubs, to name just a few of his recent projects. Together the two are likely to delve deep into Moroccan sounds given that Rivard will be playing the sintir at this dusk Wintersounds series concert produced by the Eustis and Mandorla Music.

— Noah Schaffer

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Classical

Jeremy Denk plays Bach
Presented by Music Worcester
March 21, 7 p.m.
Mechanics Hall, Worcester

Music Worcester’s Complete Bach 2025 Birthday Bash features various performances but begins with Denk, one of the day’s most thoughtful artists, traversing the complete keyboard Partitas.

Erin Morley Sings Mozart
Presented by Boston Baroque
March 21 & 22, 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall (Friday) and GBH Calderwood Studio (Saturday), Boston

Soprano Morley joins Martin Pearlman and BB for a pair of Mozart concert arias. These, in turn are framed by that composer’s Haffner Symphony and Beethoven’s exuberant Symphony No. 2.

Pärt and Mozart
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
March 27 at 7:30 p.m., 28 at 1:30 p.m., and 29 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall

Dima Slobodeniouk kicks off his two-week stand with the pairing of Arvo Pärt’s introspective Tabula Rasa and Mozart’s unfinished Requiem.

Julia Fischer & Jan Lisiecki in recital
Presented by Celebrity Series
March 28, 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall

A month of high-profile Celebrity Series violin-piano recitals comes to a close with the German fiddler and Canadian pianist teaming up to assay sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann.

Beethoven’s Mass in C
Presented by Handel & Haydn Society
March 28 at 7:30 p.m. and 30 at 3 p.m.
Symphony Hall

Jonathan Cohen leads H&H in a program that culminates in Beethoven’s “other” Mass. Before that comes the “Spring” section from Haydn’s wonderful (and unduly neglected) oratorio, The Seasons.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Kinan Azmeh & Claremont Trio
March 30, 4 p.m.
Presented by Ashmont Hill Chamber Music at All Saints Church, Dorchester

Ashmont Hill Chamber Music is continuing its impressive season with a pairing of the brilliant Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh with the New York-based Claremont Trio. Local audiences might know Azmeh from his work with Silkroad, but here he’ll get to show his classical and compositional chops. Two of his own pieces are on the program, along with works by Khatchaturian and Brahms.

— Noah Schaffer

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Author Events

Kate Fussner in conversation with Sara Farizan – Porter Square Books
13 Ways to Say Goodbye
March 18 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Tenderhearted and hopeful, 13 Ways to Say Goodbye was the book I didn’t know I needed. The one for all of us who have ever had to tiptoe around a ghost we love. Fussner deserves a spot in every single middle school classroom.” — Andrea Beatriz Arango, author of Newbery-Honor winning Iveliz Explains It All

Yoni Appelbaum in conversation with David Luberoff at Porter Square Books
Stuck
March 19 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In this illuminating debut, Yoni Appelbaum, historian and journalist for The Atlantic, shows us that this idea has been under attack since reformers first developed zoning laws to ghettoize Chinese Americans in nineteenth-century Modesto, California.

“The century of legal segregation that ensued — from the zoning laws enacted to force Jewish workers back into New York’s Lower East Side to the private-sector discrimination and racist public policy that trapped Black families in Flint, Michigan, to Jane Jacobs’s efforts to protect her vision of the West Village — has raised housing prices, deepened political divides, emboldened bigots, and trapped generations of people in poverty. Appelbaum shows us that these problems have a common explanation: people can’t move as readily as they used to. They are, in a word, stuck.

“Cutting through more than a century of mythmaking, Stuck tells a vivid, surprising story of the people and ideas that caused our economic and social sclerosis and lays out common-sense ways to get Americans moving again.”

PSB Boston Edition Comedy Night: Laughing Through the Pain! – Porter Square Books
At PSB: Boston Edition, 50 Liberty Drive, Boston, on March 21 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $10 advance or $15 day of

“Welcome to Laughing Through the Pain (Standup Comedy @ PSB: Boston Edition)! Join us for a night of hilarious standup comedy. Get ready to chuckle, giggle, and maybe even snort as comedians take the stage to help you forget your troubles. It’s time to unwind, relax, and enjoy some good old-fashioned comedy. Books and other items will be available for purchase. This month’s theme is ENDINGS. Breakups? Death? Dropping your favorite mug on the floor?”

Karen Russell at the Cambridge Public Library – Harvard Book Store
The Antidote
March 24 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $31 with book or free without

“The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing — not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a “Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.

“Russell’s novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting — enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been — and what still could be.”

Roxane Gay at the First Parish Church – Harvard Book Store
The Portable Feminist Reader
At the First Parish Church, Cambridge, March 25 at 7 p.m
Tickets are $33 with book

“Harvard Book Store welcomes Roxane Gay — culture critic, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and author of the the New York Times bestsellers Bad Feminist and Hunger, as well as the national bestseller Difficult Women — for a discussion of her new, exciting feminist canon The Portable Feminist Reader, which reflects on inclusive historic and modern works and multicultural perspectives. She will be joined in conversation by Cristela Guerra — a senior arts and culture reporter for WBUR and 2024 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.”

Robert Cvornyek, Doug Stark & Joseph N. Cooper at Brookline Booksmith
Race & Resistance in Boston
March 26 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $47.30 with book, free without and RSVP required

“Boston is a city known for its sports as well as its troubled racial conflict. But generations of Black athletes, teams, sportswriters, and front-office executives have exercised historic influence in Boston over the years as they advocated for racial integration and transformed their sports into modes of racial pride, resistance, and cultural expression. Race and Resistance in Boston goes beyond the familiar topics associated with the city’s premiere professional teams, the Red Sox and the Celtics, to recount the long history of Black sporting culture in the city.

“This collection takes a close look at Black Bostonians’ involvement in sports as varied as soccer, cricket, boxing, baseball, golf, tennis, basketball, and hockey — and illuminates the effect of Boston’s desegregation and busing crisis on scholastic athletics in the 1970s and 1980s. With personal reminiscences from former New England Patriot Devin McCourty and journalist Bijan Bayne, as well as research from scholars of sport, Race and Resistance in Boston captures the intersection of Black history and sporting culture in America’s City on a Hill.”

Colum McCann in conversation with Terry Tempest Williams at the Brattle Theatre — Porter Square Books
Twist
At the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, on March 27 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $37.50 with book, free without

“The spirit of Joseph Conrad hovers over the text, but here the heart of darkness lies at the bottom of the ocean.”—Salman Rushdie

“Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence — words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses — travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfathomable depth.

“Fennell’s journey brings him to the west coast of Africa, where he uncovers a story about the raw human labor behind the dazzling veneer of the technological world. He meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, the chief of mission on a cable repair ship. The mysterious Conway is a skilled engineer and a freediver capable of reaching extraordinary depths. He is also in love with a South African actress, Zanele, who must leave to go on her own literary adventure to London.

“When the ship is sent up the coast to repair a series of major underwater breaks, both men learn that the very cables they seek to fix carry the news that may cause their lives to unravel. At sea, they are forced to confront the most elemental questions of life, love, absence, belonging, and the perils of our severed connections. Can we, in our fractured world, reweave ourselves out of the thin, broken threads of our pasts? Can the ruptured things awaken us from our despair?”

Athena Aktipis at the Harvard Science Center – Harvard Book Store
A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times
In the Harvard Science Center Hall A, 1 Oxford St, Cambridge, on March 27 at 6 p.m.
Free
Tickets are $19 with book, free without

“Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, the Harvard Library, and the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology welcome Athena Aktipis — cooperation theorist, evolutionary biologist, cancer biologist, author of The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University — for a discussion of her new book A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times. This event will take place at the Harvard Science Center Hall A, located at 1 Oxford St, Cambridge.”

Gregory Maguire at the First Parish Church – Porter Square Books
Elphie: A Wicked Childhood
March 29 at 6 p.m. at the First Parish Church, Cambridge
Tickets are $39.50 with book, free with RSVP without

“What happened to young Elphaba before her witchy powers took hold in Wicked? Almost 30 years after the publication of the original novel, Gregory Maguire reveals the story of prickly young Elphie, the future Wicked Witch of the West — setting the stage for the blockbuster international phenomenon that is Wicked: The Musical.

Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, will grow to have a feisty and somewhat uncompromising character in adult life. But she is always a one-off, from her infancy; Elphie is the riveting coming-of-age story of a very peculiar and relatable young girl.”

Charles Farrell and Mitch “Blood” Green with James Parker at Brookline Booksmith
The Legend of Mitch “Blood” Green and Other Boxing Essays
March 30 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $41.64 for hardcover pickup, $25.31 paperback, free with RSVP without

“Mitch ‘Blood’ Green had more things going for him to make big money in boxing than nearly any fighter in history. A six-foot-six, 225-pound heavyweight with a chiseled physique and a traffic-stopping look, Green had street credibility for days — he was the gang leader of the Black Spades — and four New York Golden Gloves heavyweight titles.

“But his penchant for mayhem, drugs, and chaos, while keeping him in the news, torpedoed his pro boxing career. He lost a high-profile decision to Mike Tyson at Madison Square Garden, got into a tabloid-grabbing late-night street fight with Tyson at an after-hours boutique in Harlem, and then disappeared. Until Charles Farrell found him.

“In The Legend of Mitch “Blood” Green and Other Boxing Essays, Farrell captures life in the boxing business from its deepest interior, and offers additional portraits of characters as wide-ranging as Donald Trump, Floyd Patterson, Bert Cooper, Charley Burley, Peter McNeeley, and Muhammad Ali. Trenchant, fearless, and often flat-out funny, there has never been a boxing book like this, and there will never be another.”

Elie Mystal in conversation with Kimberly Atkins Stohr at the Harvard Book Store
Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America
March 31 at 7 p.m.

“If it were up to me, I’d treat every law passed before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as presumptively unconstitutional. The government of this country was illegitimate when it ruled over people who had no ability to choose the rules.” —from the introduction to Bad Law

“In Bad Law, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to a brilliant takedown of 10 of what he considers the most egregiously awful laws on the books today. These are pieces of legislation that are making life worse rather than better for Americans, and that, he argues with trenchant wit and biting humor, should be repealed completely.

“On topics ranging from abortion and immigration to voting rights and religious freedom, we have chosen rules to live by that do not reflect the will of most of the people. With respect to our decision to make a law that effectively grants immunity to gun manufacturers, for example, Mystal writes, “We live in the most violent, wealthy country on earth not in spite of the law; we live in a first-person-shooter video game because of the law.”

— Matt Hanson