Coming Attractions: May 24 Through June 8 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Boston area theaters have decided to pretty much ignore what is happening in America and beyond — mounting threats to democracy, the country’s slide toward authoritarianism, the climate crisis, growing economic inequality, ICE’s violent roundup of immigrants, the expansion of internment camps, ongoing genocide in Gaza, transphobia, the grueling war in Ukraine, etc. I have decided to point out a production in Coming Attractions — staged in America or elsewhere — that grapples with today’s alarming realities. Sometimes the stagings will be available via Zoom, sometimes not. It is important to present evidence that theater artists — maybe not here, but elsewhere — are reflecting, and reflecting on, the world around us
Eric Bentley, a self-described democratic socialist, remains one of the theater critics I most admire. He was also a gifted playwright, and his most popular drama, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (1972), draws on his 1971 book Thirty Years of Treason, which compiles the actual testimony of Hollywood figures before the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of McCarthy-era paranoia. As the country drifts, slowly but perceptibly, toward authoritarianism, the play’s examination of personal and political integrity under intense pressure feels newly urgent.
Among those compelled to answer the era’s infamous question—“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”—were Arthur Miller, Jerome Robbins, Paul Robeson, Elia Kazan, Lillian Hellman, Abe Burrows, and Lionel Stander. A revival of the script will run at New York City Center Stage from June 2 through September 11. Anna D. Shapiro directs and the cast will feature, among others, Molly Ringwald, Bob Odenkirk, and Michael McKean.
The play has a notable performance history: a Los Angeles production in 1974–75, beginning at the Cast Theatre before transferring to the Hollywood Center Theatre and later The Ford, became the longest-running dramatic play in the city’s history.
— Bill Marx
Film
A scene from Fiume O Morte! Photo: courtesy of International Film Festival Rotterdam
Fiume O Morte!
through May 26
West Newton Cinema
This multiple award-winning film is an inventive hybrid—a defiantly punk, direct-action history lesson that is both deadly serious and hilariously surreal. In 1919, the Italian poet, dandy, and glorifier of war Gabriele D’Annunzio occupied the city of Fiume. The citizens of Fiume retell and reinterpret the 16-month occupation of their city, widely regarded as one of the most bizarre military sieges of all time. A century later, Bezinović recruits hundreds of Rijeka locals to recreate scenes from the siege on the very streets and in the buildings where the events took place. Says director Igor Bezinović: “In high school, I didn’t like history much because I didn’t have a good storyteller, and history is essentially the art of telling a story. You can combine storytelling with facts, and it doesn’t have to be terribly boring. It can be fun.” Arts Fuse review
It Needs Eyes
May 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Somerville Theatre
Suffering from a traumatic event, teenager Rowan is whisked away from home to her estranged aunt’s oceanside house for an indefinite stay. Racked with guilt and unable to enjoy a normal summer, she drowns out the noise with increasingly bizarre, violent internet content. Soon, Rowan comes across videos of a missing woman known only as Fish Tooth, whom she believes is calling out to her through the screen for help. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Zack Ogle and Aaron Pagniano.
UNIQLO Festival of Films from Japan
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, through May 28
A scene from ChaO. Photo: MFABoston
ChaO on May 28 at 7 p.m.
Crafted over seven years from more than 100,000 drawings, ChaO is an inventive and genre-defying delight bursting with color and character. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this singular narrative is an ode to boundless love.
Princess Mononoke on May 29 at 7 p.m.
From Studio Ghibli and director Hayao Miyazaki comes a sweeping epic that pairs breathtaking imagination with profound emotional and ecological insight
The Gardener
May 28 at 7 p.m.
Regent Theatre in Arlington
After the loss of her husband and father, Sabena Weathers fights to preserve her family’s cosmetics empire while fending off a hostile takeover. Seeking refuge, she retreats to a remote mountaintop garden cottage, where a chance encounter with a simple gardener sparks a powerful journey of love, self-discovery, and transformation. Rooted in quiet mystery and emotional truth, the story explores loss, healing, and the courage to realize one’s true self.
A scene from Kontinental ’25. Photo: Berlin Film Festival
Kontinental ’25
May 29 – 31
Brattle Theatre
The premiere of Radu Jude’s latest film (Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World). Orsolya is a bailiff in Cluj, Romania, where greed and corruption have accelerated the pace of development. She tries to do her job with care and compassion, but her duties involve evicting tenants and squatters from properties slated for demolition. One day, she must evict a homeless man from a cellar—an action with tragic consequences that sets her on an increasingly desperate search for solace. It is a journey of soul-searching, one that Jude packs with grim humor. (Arts Fuse review)
Stolen Kingdom
May 31 at 6 p.m.
Somerville Theare in Davis Square
This documentary delves into the history of mischief, scandal, and theft at Walt Disney World, culminating in the theft of an animatronic valued at nearly half a million dollars. The film features key figures from the park’s underground exploration community, each sharing their own stories. As the narrative unfolds, early pranks and antics are shown to have inspired more recent crimes, building toward a true-crime mystery “Outrageous, fascinating, and brilliantly well told! See it before it’s illegal!” – Bobcat Goldthwait
A scene from Ingmar Bergman’s Persona.
Bleak Week
June 1 – 7
Coolidge Corner Theatre
Each year, the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles presents a week-long program showcasing some of the greatest films from around the world that explore the darkest sides of humanity. This harrowing yet powerful lineup features leading filmmakers who fully embrace a cinema of despair in pursuit of uncomfortable truths and raw empathy. Separate admission to each film.
Persona June 1 (Ingmar Bergman) and Morvern Callar June 1 (Lynne Ramsay)
Full Metal Jacket June 2 (Stanley Kubrick) and Deliverance June 2 (John Boorman)
Epidemic (1987) June 3 (Lars von Trier) and Antichrist June 3 (Lars von Trier)
River’s Edge June 4 (Tim Hunter) and Time of the Wolf June 5 (Michael Haneke)
Elephant June 5 (Gus Van Sant) and It’s Such a Beautiful Day, Paper Trail, and World of Tomorrow! June 6 (Don Hertzfeldt)
Grave of the Fireflies June 6 (Isao Takahata) and A History of Violence June 6 (David Cronenberg)
Sátántangó June 7 (Béla Tarr)
The Last One for the Road
June 5 – 8
Brattle Theatre
Director Francesco Sossai’s dazzling sophomore feature is many things at once: a road movie, a casual caper, a tribute to a vanishing industrial Italy, and a scruffy, intergenerational odyssey. The story follows two charming, washed-up, small-time Italian crooks on what feels like a never-ending, free-flowing bender through time and space. A rambling, shaggy-dog road movie that boasts a soundtrack of Italian indie rock and clear echoes of efforts from Wenders, Jarmusch, and Kaurismäki. — adapted from notes by Music Box
Pick of the Week
Devo, streaming on Netflix
A scene from the documentary, Devo. Photo: Janet Macoska
When I first saw Devo play “Satisfaction” on Saturday Night Live in 1978, I think my brain altered a little. They had retooled the Rolling Stones classic into a machine-punk, performance-art hybrid unlike anything else on television. Chris Smith’s documentary traces how group members Mark Mothersbaugh, Gerald Casale, and Bob Lewis, shaped by the Kent State killings of 1970, turned Devo into a brilliantly uncompromising art project that somehow became a pop phenomenon. Long before MTV, they were making music videos that doubled as strange little manifestos. “Whip It,” their big hit, even registers as a subversive parody of commercial entertainment. Smith fills the film with surreal animation, terrific performance clips, and the band’s own jagged wit. Mothersbaugh went on to become a celebrated composer (including Pee Wee’s Playhouse). Casale became a producer and director of television commercials. It is as delightful as it is illuminating. Arts Fuse review of a 2025 Devo performance at MGM Fenway.
— Tim Jackson
Anita Björk in a scene from Miss Julie. Photo: The Criterion Collection
Miss Julie, directed by Alf Sjöberg.
May 24 at the Brattle Theatre, 6 p.m.
A rarely screened, Cannes Grand Prix-winning, critically admired adaptation of August Strindberg’s 1888 drama (which is still revived today). The film was censored when released in America in 1951—a fate fitting for a daring script so frequently pilloried throughout its production history. The play remains a still-penetrating examination of the bedevilments of sex and class, with dollops of sadomasochism.
— Bill Marx
Theater
John & Jen by Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald. Directed by Gregg Edelman, with music direction by Nicolas Perez. Staged by the Berkshire Theatre Festival on the Larry Vaber Stage at The Unicorn Theatre, through June 7.
This musical, according to the BTF website, “traces the evolving bond between siblings — and later between mother and son — across three decades. Told through a soaring contemporary score that blends pop, folk and musical theater influences, the story follows Jen as she reflects on her childhood with her younger brother John. Their connection, shaped by youthful rebellion, family expectations and unspoken love, is marked by small but powerful touchstones — including a well-worn baseball glove that becomes a quiet symbol of memory, loss, and enduring devotion. As Jen grows into adulthood and raises her own son, the echoes of her past shape her hopes, fears, and fierce love as a parent.”
Juan Arturo and Melisa Pereyra in HTC’s Oedipus El Rey. Photo by Marc J. Franklin
Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro. Directed by Loretta Greco. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company in The Roberts Theatre in The Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St. Boston, through June 14.
Luis Alfaro reimagines the Sophocles classic in Oedipus El Rey, which is set in the heart of Los Angeles. Oedipus dreams of rewriting his own story — but liberation comes at a price: can he truly escape the destiny laid out before him? What’s fate, and what’s just the system? A searing tale of love, family, and prophecy, Oedipus El Rey, the HTC website tells us, “blends ancient myth with modern urgency and Chicano swagger with swaths of sly humor.” Arts Fuse review
Something Rotten by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell. Music by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick. Directed by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz. Staged by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston at 140 Clarendon St, 2nd floor, Boston, through June 7.
According to the Lyric Stage website: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and then there’s Nick and Nigel Bottom. Two brothers stuck in the shadow of a certain Renaissance rock star — yes, the William Shakespeare — set forth to knock him off his perch by writing the world’s very first musical. A misinformed soothsayer plants the seeds for this brilliant idea as the task of how to upstage a literary genius without really trying hilariously unfolds. This is a history-twisting mash-up set in the 16th century with 21st-century Broadway dazzle.”
A scene from Dream Tale Puppet’s Jack and the Beanstalk. Photo: courtesy of Puppet Showplace Theater
Jack and the Beanstalk, staged by Dream Tale Puppets. At Puppet Showplace Theater, 32 Station Street, Brookline, June 6 and 7.
“When Jack sells the family cow for some magic beans, he launches his family on a GIANT adventure … this production transports the audience up the beanstalk with Jack using multiple styles of puppetry — from hand puppets to masks to marionettes. A dependable audience favorite at the Puppet Showplace Theater for years.
Now Is Still Here: Climate Change Theatre Action 2026, staged by Artists’ Theatre of Boston at the Somerville Community Growing Center, 22 Vinal Ave, Somerville, on May 29, 30 and 31. Rain dates: June 5 and 6
A festival of short plays commissioned from playwrights around the world that invite audience members to take action. The presentation asks: “What future relations to our built and natural environments can we imagine and then begin building together? How can practices of care for all living beings help us imagine and build justice, inclusion, and belonging in our communities? Imagining together a just future is the first step to building it together.
Please bring a blanket or folding chair and enjoy sitting on our lawn. Jackets/layers recommended. Limited seating will be available for persons unable to sit on the ground or who use scooters and wheelchairs.”
Next to Normal Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey. Music by Tom Kitt. Directed by Amanda Dehnert. Staged by Trinity Repertory Company at the Dowling Theatre, 201 Washington Street, Providence, Rhode Island, May 28 through June 28.
The plot of this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical: “Diana is a suburban mom struggling with bipolar disorder. Her daughter, Natalie, is a stressed-out overachiever about to snap and her exhausted architect husband, Dan, is determined to keep everything ‘normal.’ As Diana’s symptoms worsen, the Goodmans must learn to see each other for who they truly are and discover what it means to be family.” Named one of the 50 Most Influential Plays of the 21st Century by American Theatre.
Bad Books by Sharyn Rothstein. Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara. Staged by the Gloucester Stage Company at the Natti-Willsky Performance Center, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, June 4 through 27.
The plot of this no doubt sympathetic look at the issue of American libraries under attack: “When a concerned mother finds her son with an ‘inappropriate’ book, an attempt to reason with the local librarian erupts into an explosive, town-wide confrontation. As tensions rise and consequences escalate, we learn that these women have more that connects them than what meets the eye.” The script, according to GSC, “explores the first impressions and raucous debates that divide us while forcing audiences to consider what it really means to care for our children.”
A scene from Happy Theatre’s To The Clouds. Photo: courtesy of Puppet Showplace Theater
To The Clouds, staged by Happy Theater. At Puppet Showplace Theater, 32 Station Street, Brookline, May 30 and 31.
According to the Puppet Showcase Theater’s website, this story draws on few words as it relates the story “a single, endearing water droplet and its journey through the water cycle. With the guidance of a compassionate rainmaker, this tiny droplet embarks on an adventure, beginning high up among the clouds, before gracefully descending down to the earth. This immersive sensory production is brought to life with live baroque guitar music!”
The Mystery of Irma Vep — A Penny Dreadful by Charles Ludlam. Directed by David R. Gammons. Staged by Central Square Theater May 28 through June 21.
Some thoughts on The Mystery of Irma Vep by the late Arts Fuse critic Caldwell Titcomb, who saw a production of this “silly but sublime farce” in Washington D.C. in 2008:
Charles Ludlam (1943-87), founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in 1967, author of 29 plays, flamboyant actor of both male and female roles, and an early victim of AIDS. In Irma Vep Ludlam combined the tradition of the nineteenth-century penny-dreadful with a desire to exploit the actors’ ability to change costumes and characters within seconds. Although the play employs only two actors, they have to portray seven people of both genders. There is above the mantel a portrait of the deceased Irma Vep with eyes that mysteriously move, and in Act II even an Egyptian mummy. In the original mounting, Ludlam and his longtime partner Everett Quinton played all the roles.
In the CST production, Paul Melendy and Gabriel Graetz tackle the multiple roles.
The Abolitionist’s Refrain by Noah Greenstein. Staged by Punctuate4 Productions at the Calderwood at the BCA, Nicolas Martin Room, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, on May 30.
A one-act play that spotlights the political contortions of the career of American poet John Greenleaf Whittier? Not your usual historical fare. The script “explores the moral conflicts of Whittier as he transitions from an activist fighting to end slavery into a celebrated ‘fireside poet’ navigating a deeply divided America at the end of the Civil War.” Malcolm Ingram stars as Whittier. One of the poet’s most memorable lines: “For all the sad words of tongue or pen, / The saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’”
Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector. Directed by Margot Bordelon. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company, The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, May 28 through June 28.
A Tony-winning satire which asks if parents at a progressive, welcoming private school can uphold their harmonious shared values when Eureka Day faces an outbreak of the mumps. The cast includes Ken Cheeseman and Nancy Lemenager.
Eve Dillingham, Jenna Krasowski, and Josh Odsess-Rubin in the Portland Stage production of The Laugh Track. Photo: Noli French – French’s Fotos Photography
The Laugh Track by Wendy MacLeod. Directed by Christopher Grabowski. Staged by Portland Stage, 25A Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, through May 31.
The world premiere of a comedy about the writers of I Love Lucy. The script focuses on the real-life struggles of co-writer Madelyn Pugh, who “fiercely and hilariously navigates the male-dominated entertainment industry and her feisty relationship with writing partner Bob Carroll Jr.”
The Screwtape Letters, an adaptation for the stage of C.S. Lewis’ book of the same name. Directed by Max McLean. Presented at Arts Emerson at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont Street, Boston, June 6 at 4 p.m.
Brent Harris stars as Screwtape. According to the show’s publicity, the story “creates a topsy-turvy, morally inverted
“The idea for Screwtape came to Lewis after listening to Hitler’s Reichstag speech on July 19, 1940, while it was simultaneously translated on BBC Radio. Lewis wrote, ‘I don’t know if I’m weaker than other people, but it is a positive revelation to me how, while the speech lasts, it is impossible not to waver just a little. Statements which I know to be untrue all but convince me, if only the man says them unflinchingly.’”
“Lewis dedicated the book to his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien, who had expressed to Lewis that delving too deeply into the craft of evil would have consequences. Lewis admitted as much when he wrote, ‘Though I had never written anything more easily, I never wrote with less enjoyment . . . though it was easy to twist one’s mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long. The work into which I had to project myself while I spoke through Screwtape was all dust, grit, thirst and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness and geniality had to be excluded.'”
Black Swan. Book by Jen Silverman. Music, lyrics, and orchestrations by Dave Malloy. Music supervision and direction by Or Matias, with additional arrangements by Matias. Directed and choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. Based on the Searchlight Pictures film Black Swan, story by Andrés Heinz. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, May 26 through July 5.
A world premiere of a Broadway-bound musical that brings the cinematic psychological thriller Black Swan to the stage. “Pressure builds, boundaries blur, and reality begins to slip as Nina strives to rise from the ballet corps to the lead role in Swan Lake.” This adaptation is billed as “a haunting exploration of ambition, power, and the cost of perfection.”
Actor/playwright John Kuntz hanging out, in 2011, at The Hotel Nepenthe.
The Hotel Nepenthe by John Kuntz. Presented at the Central Square Theatre, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge on June 7 at 7 p.m.
Free
The original cast returns, for one evening, to recreate the 2011 production of John Kuntz’s indelibly absurdist romp.”Hard luck stories and ghostly characters flit in and out of the creepy yet elegant Hotel Nepenthe, an antique nest where guests are given leopard skin coats while they await their existential fates, sometimes lying in the bathtub”– from my review of the production in The Arts Fuse
— Bill Marx
Visual Art
Maurice Freedman, Road to Stockton, 1952. Oil on canvas. Photo: Tim Barrett.
For better or worse, the introduction of the automobile more than a century ago transformed the United States, reshaping cities, towns, suburbs, landscapes, culture, ideas of adulthood and freedom, and the national self-image. Opening this month at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Driving Forces: American Art and the Automobile, inspired by the gift of more than 40 works from the collection of Terry and Eva Herndon, includes some 80 examples of car-focused art in a variety of media from the PEM collections, including sculpture, photographs, decorative arts, fashion, and multimedia. Automobile-inspired artists from the early 20th century to the present include Thomas Hart Benton, Stuart Davis, Richard Estes, Jacob Lawrence, Doris Lee, and Wayne Thiebaud.
Bootmaker in Residence begins June 5 at PEM’s Lye-Tapley Shoe Shop (1830), part of the museum’s collection of historic houses and buildings. The ten-by-ten-foot shop, known in the 19th century as a “ten-footer,” is a rare survivor of a once common type on Boston’s north shore. Typically sited in a back yard, the ten-footers housed the shops of shoemakers and provided walking shoes and other specialized leather goods for the marine and agricultural trades. Open to passing pedestrians who could watch the process of shoe making and repair, the shops were small havens for local news and gossip until they were displaced by large shoe factories throughout New England. The Lye-Tapley Shop was once located in nearby Lynn and, after being bequeathed to the Essex Institute in 1911, was moved to its present site at 9 Brown Street, Salem. Recent research confirms that it is “the original shoe shop listed in historical records from 1783.”
Sarah Madeline T. Guerin, also known as “Saboteuse,” a footwear artist and bootmaker. Photo: PEM
The bootmaker in question, Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin, also known as Saboteuse, will be in residence at the shop from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from June 5 through August 29, when visitors can watch her at work. Guerin is an artist who makes Western-style boots using traditional tools and skills. She focuses on the architecture of the ten-footer and the history of craft and gender roles that would once have excluded her from the shoemaker’s trade. She “builds Western boots and crafts fine art objects that utilize bootmaking skills to manipulate the cowboy boot’s strong cultural iconography, shifting the canon of this traditional form.” The exhibition will be closed on Saturday, June 6, but will be open in compensation on Sunday, June 14.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, the only museum dedicated to contemporary art in the state, opens The Aldrich Decennial: I am what is around me on June 7. The show is the latest iteration of a series of Aldrich surveys, presented every ten years, of contemporary art in Connecticut, a state that has been a distinct home to generations of important American artists, from Frederic Church and Milton Avery to Josef and Anni Albers, Alexander Calder, Sol LeWitt, Louise Bourgeois, and Jasper Johns. The show’s curators made more than 100 studio visits across the state to understand the current generation of Connecticut-based artists. The display will encompass the Aldrich’s 8,000 square feet of gallery space as well as its recently renovated three-acre campus and sculpture garden. The exhibition’s subtitle is drawn from a poem by Hartford-based poet Wallace Stevens, who often wrote about modern art in his poetry.
Georgia McGuire, Wright-Locke Farm Barn. Photo Georgia McGuire
The Griffin Museum of Photography opens Our Town 2026 on June 5. Billed as a celebration of the beauty of New England in the summer of 2026, the large group show focuses on the museum’s own neighborhood of Winchester and surrounding towns, “from the local businesses and street corners, along every walking trail and bike pathway, through candid portraits, scenic landscapes, and snapshots of everyday life.” The images will be exhibited outdoors on the museum grounds in Winchester as well as at a satellite gallery at Jenks Center.
The Griffin opens three additional exhibitions the preceding week, on May 30. The student exhibition Photosynthesis XXI features work from Winchester and Burlington high school students. Two solo exhibitions include I Want the Sun to Shine Down on You: Photographs by Cassidy Thurber, winner of the 2025 Carolyn Harder Scholarship, and Caleb Cain Marcus’s A Thousand Rectangles: On Design and the Expression of Art, which investigates “designing books as art” with books designed by his award-winning design studio, Luminosity Lab.
As the New England spring proceeds at a typically slow pace, many art museums become hotbeds of a kind, featuring flower art in their galleries or actual flower arrangements inspired by works in the collection. A bit late to the party this year, In Full Bloom: Still Lifes and Florals from the Collection opens at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis on May 28. The opening reception, from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm, features a flower-arranging demonstration and talk by Tara Capello, lead designer and owner of Blossoms of Cape Cod.
— Peter Walsh
Jazz
Post-bop bass master and composer Bruce Gertz and a nifty band will play Lilypad this week. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Bruce Gertz Quintet
May 26 at 8 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.
Post-bop bass master and composer Bruce Gertz leads a dandy band: tenor sax Rick DiMuzio, guitarist Sheryl Bailey, pianist Gilson Schachnik, and drummer Gary Fieldman.
New Masada Quartet
May 28 at 7 p.m.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Downtown New York rabble rouser John Zorn leads the latest edition of his long-running ensemble playing “Ornette Coleman with Jewish scales.” The band includes guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Jorge Roeder, and drummer Kenny Wolleson — a trio worth hearing in any context. The show is officially sold out, but maybe stand outside and hold up a finger or hope for some no-shows.
Klezmatics
May 28 at 7:30 p.m.
City Winery, Boston
In what is evidently klezmer week (see Roots and World Music), it’s worth mentioning that the very NYC downtown jazz-centric Klezmatics (b. 1986) come to town on this 40th anniversary tour in support of the new We Were Made for These Times. The band — fronted by cofounders Frank London (trumpet) and Lorin Sklamberg (guitar, accordion, vocal) with longtime cohort Matt Darrriau (reeds), Lisa Gutkin (violin, vocals), Paul Morrissette (bass), and Richie Barshay (drums) — encompass “Yiddish song with Black gospel, Latin rhythms, and avant-jazz.” If you check out the clips of the new album, you’ll see that they somehow manage to combine all this is in a mélange that’s both politically charged and musically cooking. (James Brandon Lewis and William Parker guest.)
Pianist and composer Zaccai Curtis. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Zaccai Curtis
May 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Shalin Liu Music Center, Rockport, Mass.
The Grammy-winning pianist and composer (2025 Best Latin Jazz Album, Cubop Lives!) comes to Rockport Music with a quartet TBA.
Kurt Rosenwinkel
May 29 at 9 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.
In his last trip to town, guitar master Kurt Rozenwinkel leaned standards-wise with a trio. He returns with a quartet, which would seem to promise new original music. The band includes tenor saxophonist Aidan McKeon, pianist Joe Block, bassist Alex Claffy (acoustic and electric), and drummer Jimmy Macbride. The 7 p.m. show is sold out, but as of this writing there were seats left for the late show.
The Levin Brothers feat. Pat LaBarbera
May 30 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston
Bass wizard Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and a million varied sessions) joins forces with his keyboardist brother Pete in this jazz-centric quartet with saxophonist Pat LaBarbera (who served hefty stints with Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones), and drummer Jeff “Seige” Siegel.
Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing will be performing in Cambridge. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing
June 3 at 6:30 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.
The veteran Boston pianist and composer Bert Seager fronts his monthly residency with a mix of alluring global grooves, jazz standards, some Monk, and, typically, a well-chosen poem. His longtime compatriots include tenor saxophonist Rick DiMuzio, bassist Andrew Schiller, and drummer Dor Herskovits.
Either/Orchestra in action. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Either/Orchestra
June 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.
The venerable little big band Either/Orchestra (b. 1985) continues its post-COVID resurgence following their acclaimed debut at Big Ears, where one of their two shows included singer Munit Mesfin, performing their extraordinary book of Ethiopian jazz (from their own discs and Buda Musique’s Éthiopiques series). Mesfin joins them again tonight at the R-bar.
— Jon Garelick
Rock, Indie, and Alternative
— Blake Maddux
Little Feat will bow out with a proper flair. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Little Feat
June 2 Treehouse Brewing Summer Stage, Deerfield; June 3 State Theater, Portland, ME; June 5 South Shore Music Circus, Cohasset; June 6 Cape Cod Melody Tent, Hyannis; June 7 Indian Ranch, Webster
The venerable Little Feat is making the most of its “Last Farewell Tour,” blanketing the region with concerts in early June. Feat, which started out in 1969, came back strong last year with the release of Strike Up the Band (Arts Fuse review), an album of original material full of the group’s trademark genre-blending, laidback brilliance coupled with passionate energy of newer recruits Scott Sharrard and Tony Leone. Guitarist and singer Sharrard and drummer Leone brought a spark back to the Feat veterans – piano player Billy Payne, bass player Kenny Gradney, percussion player Sam Clayton, and guitarist Fred Tackett- who had seemed adrift following the 2019 death of longtime guitarist Paul Barrere. Little Feat is resilient, having survived previous losses of founder Lowell George in 1979 and original drummer Richie Hayward in 2010, so it is both welcome and fitting that that this all-time great rock band go out with a grand finale and not simply fade away.
Northlands Music and Arts Festival
June 19-21, Swanzey, N.H.
Northlands Music and Arts Festival has become a preeminent destination for seekers of the jam as it attracts top-tier bands to a right-sized, camping-friendly event set up at the Cheshire Fairgrounds in New Hampshire’s bucolic Monadnock region. The headliners this year are The Dirty Heads on June 19, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead on June 20, and The Disco Biscuits on June 21.
— Scott McLennan
Classical Music
Voices Carry
Presented by Handel & Haydn Society
May 29 at 7:30 p.m. and 31 at 3 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston
H&H closes its season with a set of hope-themed choral works by Schütz, Kuhnau, Bach, Brahms, Gesualdo, and Scarlatti. James Burton conducts.
— Jonathan Blumhofer
Roots and World Music
Country troubadour songwriter Joshua Ray Walker. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Joshua Ray Walker
Middle East Upstairs
June 5
A lot of great country troubadour songwriters have come out of Texas, but at least in recent years few have been as consistently good as Joshua Ray Walker. He’s back on the road after being sidelined with some serious health issues, which is why this is billed as the “Ain’t Dead Yet Tour.”
Gigantic Gospel Explosion
June 7, 4 p.m.
Global Ministries Christian Church, 670 Washington Street, Dorchester
Tireless gospel promoter Jeannette Farrell’s annual celebration is always a highlight of the year for fans of traditional quartet-style gospel. This year her program takes place at Global Ministries Christian Church where Rev. Bruce Wall is the pastor. Among the groups who will be singing at Lil’ David and the Bells of Joy, Lil’ Sammy and the New Flying Clouds, Tyrese Hall and the Golden Stars, and the New C Lord Cs, plus Boston’s own Spiritual Encouragers, Test-a-Mony, the Lord’s Messengers, and an excellent new group called Blessed by God which features several of Boston’s finest singers. For information or tickets contact 617-298-1906.
Klezmer Conservatory Band. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Klezmer Conservatory Band
June 7, 7 p.m.
Groton Hill Music Center
The Klezmatics (see jazz listings) aren’t the only klezmer pioneers coming to town. Fresh off their appearance at Symphony Hall with Itzhak Perlman, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, the Boston group that originated the US klezmer revival, are back with their mix of traditional and groundbreaking Yiddish song.
— Noah Schaffer
Author Events
Codie Crowley with Alyssa Alessi at Brookline Booksmith
Body Count
May 26 at 7 p.m.
Free
“Three wishes. One prom queen celebrating at the Jersey Shore. And one monster who will keep killing until her wishes are paid for.
From the virally popular author of Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch, a queer feminist YA horror/slasher novel perfect for fans of You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight.
“A terrifying twist on prom.” —People “Thank you for the nightmares!”—Veronica Bane, USA Today, bestselling author of Difficult Girls
Barry Walters with Stephan Pennington at Brookline Booksmith
Mighty Real
May 27 at 7 p.m.
Free
“Drawing on his decades as a New York- and San Francisco-based music critic, Barry Walters examines how LGBTQ musicians, music industry executives, and fans reshaped the mainstream. He connects the dots between David Bowie’s dazzling reinventions, Grace Jones’s androgynous glamor, Prince’s boundary-shattering sexuality, and the radical candor of the Indigo Girls to prove they’re all doing the same thing: fighting oppression.
With exuberance, insight, and encyclopedic knowledge, Walters brings to life the songs and society that filled dancefloors, bedrooms, and streets as he uncovers yesteryear’s coded LGBTQ messages that paved the way for today’s unabashedly queer hits. Mighty Real is a masterful love letter to the music that liberated generations, and it’s written in a page-turning, personal way that blurs distinctions between chronicle and memoir. This is the rare and revolutionary music history told to help you laugh, cry, and then rally against lingering inequality.”
Senator Chris Murphy at First Parish Church – Harvard Book Store
Crisis of the Common Good
March 30 from 7- 8 p.m.
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138
Tickets are $21.99 or $48.24 with book
“In recent years, Senator Chris Murphy has stepped forward to challenge the Trump administration’s assaults on our democracy. He sees that these assaults are a symptom of a deeper crisis: the abandonment of the common good as our country’s organizing principle. In his unflinching new book, he draws on history and political philosophy to expose how six different cults have seized hold of American life and paved the way to our current troubles: cults of profit, globalism, technology, consumption, credentialism, and corruption.
Refusing despair, Murphy offers a new politics of the common good that is both deeply rooted in our past and a challenge to the status quo. A majority of Americans favor policies that confront these destructive cults by curbing corporate power, controlling predatory technology, enhancing face-to-face connection, granting workers greater control of their lives, and removing big money from our politics. The common good, Murphy shows, is a vital principle ready to be claimed today.”
Author Matt Haig. Photo: Kan Lailey
TICKETED: Matt Haig in conversation with Alice Hoffman – presented by Porter Square Books
The Midnight Train
May 31 at 4 p.m.
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
Free
“When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop? No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to relive the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were.
For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice. Before he gave it all away. He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . .A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library.”
Robert Pinsky at Harvard Book Store
The First Two Books of Poems and On Poetry, Culture, and Democracy
June 2 from 7-8 p.m.
Free
“Award-winning poet Robert Pinsky’s first two collections—Sadness And Happiness and An Explanation of America—announced the arrival of a major new voice in American poetry. Now, these acclaimed books are presented together in a single volume featuring a new preface by the author, introducing a new generation of readers to the groundbreaking early work of a beloved poet. Sadness And Happiness explores everyday subjects such as the streets and oceanfront of Pinsky’s hometown of Long Branch, New Jersey, while the long title poem of “An Explanation of America” examines personal and national myths as it transports readers across the country.
Poetry’s individual, human scale as a fundamentally vocal medium—with poems brought to life by one person at a time—gives poetry a unique importance in American and democratic culture and society. This book brings together two compelling works of criticism by the former poet laureate—The Situation of Poetry and Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry, in which he makes a passionate and eloquent case for the vital role of poetry in a democracy.”
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé in conversation with Louangie Bou-Montes, presented by Porter Square Books
The Heirs
June 5 at 7 p.m.
Boston Edition, GrubStreet Center for Creative Writing, 50 Liberty Drive, Suite 500, Boston
Free
“From the award-winning New York Times and Indie bestselling author of Ace of Spades comes a mystery about five teen geniuses, their billionaire father, and the aftermath of his murder—perfect for fans of The Inheritance Games, Umbrella Academy, and Knives Out!
Five prodigies, one dead father, a mansion full of suspects…Octavius the Maestro. Fola the Brain. Bilal the Olympian. Perdita the Artist. Romeo the Failure. These are the five heirs of the illustrious billionaire Leontes Button. Adopted and viciously trained with their father’s infamous “Button Method” to prove his hypothesis for creating prodigies—child geniuses—the Button siblings have had no choice but to be brilliant according to their father’s impossibly high standards.
Until he is murdered at his annual Prodigy Ball.”
Cara Benson at Harvard Book Store
An Armsfull of Birds
June 5 from 7-8 p.m.
Free
“In the wake of her partner’s suicide, Cara Benson performs a compelling close examination of their relationship, their individual and joined dynamics, and the nature of love and loss. In gorgeous, arresting prose, she seamlessly weaves in elements of their passions and commitments—birds, hiking, animal love, environmental stewardship, and sobriety. “
“An Armsfull of Birds: A Personal Field Guide to Love, Loss, and Commitment is required reading for anyone who has ever been confronted by the gaping questions surrounding a loved one’s passing, or really anyone who has loved and lost.”—Sari Botton, author of And You May Find Yourself…Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo, and the editor-in-chief of Oldster Magazine.
“Pencils Up!” Porter Square Books Writer’s Hour at Porter Square Books
June 7 at 5 p.m.
“Hello Writing Enthusiasts! Pencils Up! is an informal monthly gathering for anyone interested in writing. Whether you’re a casual journaler or a poet laureate, join us for an hour of silent writing (and a few minutes of optional sharing at the end). Bring something you’re already working on or start something new (informal prompts will be provided). Pencils, pens, and actual paper are encouraged.”
— Matt Hanson
Tagged: Bill-Marx, Jon Garelick, Jonathan Blumhofer, Matt Hanson, Scott McLennan, peter-Walsh
