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

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Film

Boston Area Film Schedules — What is playing today, Where and When

The 2015 Online New England Film Festival
On-Line through October 15

These exclusive screenings are drawn from the entries placed in every festival across the New England region. 36 local short films are available to view (for free) on NewEnglandFilm.com and ITVFest.

7 Chinese Brothers
Sep 11 – 17
Brattle Theater, Cambridge, MA

Jason Schwartzman (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom) plays Larry, an inebriated slacker/sad sack who is surfing to oblivion on a wave of booze. The only bright spot in his life is probably his boss, Lupe (Eleanore Pienta). “Will Larry keep it together long enough to win the girl, provide for his French bulldog, laze about with his nurse and friend Major (Tunde Adebimpe), and do his cantankerous grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) proud?” (Sundance)

A Small Good Thing
September 11 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Nextdoor Theater, Winchester, MA

Winchester-native, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll presents her film, which follows six people in the Berkshires community who have changed their lives in order to live with a reborn sense of meaning. “The values of a small community provide insight on how a balance between individualism and a sense of ‘common cause and humanity’ can contribute to a more satisfying life.” (Arts Fuse) On September 12 at 2 p.m. there will also be a screening of Boll’s wonderful 2008 directorial debut about life choices made by women artists, Who Does She Think She Is?. Admission is free to both films. The director will be present.

The Matrimaniac (1916)
September 13 at 2 p.m
Somerville Theater in Davis Square, Somerville, MA

Somerville’s “Silents, Please” series with Jeff Rapsis on the organ presents a rarely screened film starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. It is a marital farce that draws on footage from another picture Fairbanks made for the same studio. The old material is used to support an entirely different story. In Matrimaniac “his goal is elopement, which he pursues obsessively. He evades a rival suitor, his girlfriend’s father, a sheriff, and a posse of city officials in order to tie the knot in a gag that must have looked radically up-to-date.” (David Bordwell)

Digas a Nadie (Don’t Tell Anyone)
September 15 at 7 p.m.
Bright Family Screening Room, 559 Washington Street, Boston, MA

Part of a community where silence is seen as necessary for survival, immigrant activist Angy Rivera represents a generation of DREAMers ready to push for change in the only home it has ever known — the United States. She is the author of the country’s first and only advice column for undocumented youth. She has come out of the shadows to inspire her peers: her YouTube channel boasts over 27,000 views. A discussion with Ms Rivera follows the screening. Co-sponsored by the Arlington Int’l Film Festival.

— Tim Jackson

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Dance

Bread and Roses Parade
September 7, from noon to 5 p.m.
Downtown Lawrence
Lawrence, MA

The Angkor Dance Troupe performs in Lawrence this Labor Day as part of the Bread and Roses Parade. The company presents traditional Cambodian dance alongside a myriad of music, theatre, food, and festivities.

Only When I Dance
September 10, 6-8 p.m.
19 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA

Join Boston Ballet for a special film screening of Only When I Dance, featuring newly promoted Second Soloist Irlan Silva. A Q&A session with Silva follows the screening.

JEANNE, the story of a woman
September 11 & 12 at 8 p.m.
Boston University Dance Theatre
Boston, MA

Those curious about a mixture of theatre, music, and dance, head to JEANNE, the story of a woman. This operatic episode was derived from the full-length work by James Swindle and Mark Warhol, and is presented by Fort Point Theatre Channel, Contrapose Dance, and Ensemble Warhol.

— Merli V. Guerra

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Visual Arts

Witness to History: James Nachtway’s 9/11 Photographs
September 11 – January 3, 2016
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH

Like most of us on that brilliant September day fourteen years ago, award-winning photojournalist James Nachtway found himself transfixed, in the midst of everyday life, by the events unfolding at New York’s World Trade Center. Unlike everyone else, though, Nachtway was only a short distance away with his professional equipment to hand. Thus he captured some of the most recognizable images of that day, a visual record that will probably always be at the heart of history. This exhibition at the Currier includes some of Nachtway’s work from the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, events that grew directly out of 9/11 that left behind iconic photographs that are no less tragic.

Converging Lines: Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt
September 12 – January 10, 2016
Works in Air: Jennifer Craine and Rachel Hellman in Collaboration
September 12 – January 17, 2016
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA

Two shows opening at the Addison Gallery this week are focused on friendships, influences, and collaborations between two sets of artists. Converging Lines is a geometric play on the work of Sol Lewitt, a classic minimalist artist, whose work often featured emotionless, detached, almost Cartesian lines inscribed on walls or on paper, and Eve Hesse, a Jewish German-American almost a decade younger, whose messily hand-made, deliberately awkward sculptures made unorthodox use of industrial materials like latex, fiberglass, and polyester resin. Their relationship lasted just the decade of the sixties before Hesse died, of a brain tumor, at the age of 34. Midway through, in 1965, LeWitt famously told his younger protege: “Stop thinking and just DO,” advice any hesitant artist should take to heart.

In Works in Air, Artists-in-Residence Jennifer Craine and Rachel Hellmann have concocted, from the work of 20th-century American female poets and floor-to-ceiling cut, sewn, and painted paper, a series of “pages” that hang in mid-air, as if floating borrowed words into human-scaled spaces. The piece, which obviously crosses the boundaries between the verbal and the visual, is also a testament of the artists’ friendship and creative exchange.

Six Exhibitions
September 12 – December 13
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

The Rose Art Museum opens a whopping six exhibitions this week — too many even to list them all here. Among the highlights will be LA/MA ‘90s Pop from Both Coasts, a look at the first bicoastal art movement with Pop Art examples from the East and West Coasts placed side by side. The works on view are all drawn from the Rose’s own estimable collection

Lisa Yuskavage: The Brook surveys twenty-five years of the work of this provocative painter. The Rose show is a major solo exhibition of her work. Yuskavage’s voluptuous, highly erotic, yet innocently angelic female nudes inhabit vividly depicted, extraordinarily colored landscapes that seem to belong to a distant planet. Critics have found these paintings especially hard to interpret, becoming bogged down in Zen-like dichotomies like “alienation and affection” or “vulgarity or earnestness.” Yuskavage’s work has also been described as intensely art historical, drawing on ideas from the Renaissance and evoking other sensuous, superrealist image makers like Johannes Vermeer and Edgar Degas.

— Peter Walsh

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Roots and World Music

Spider John Koerner
Sept. 7
Sally O’Brien’s, Somerville, MA

One of the last of the true troubadours, Koerner is well into his sixth decade as a first-rate preserver and celebrator of old-time folk and acoustic blues. Sadly, this show will likely also serve as a tribute to his longtime Boston agent and advocate, the beloved Jan Cornish, who passed away earlier this year.

David Greely
Sept 9
Gregorian Rugs, Newton Lower Falls, MA

Hearing woes may have forced Cajun fiddle master David Greely to depart from his longtime spot in Steve Riley and the Mamaou Playboys, but he’s since embarked on a daring solo career. He both pays homage to old French-Louisiana melodies and creates new ones.

Dengue Fever
Sept. 9
Brighton Music Hall, Brighton, MA

By far the best music documentary of the year, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten tells the story of the Cambodian pop stars whose music and, in many cases, lives were lost at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. One of the highlights of the film’s release party in Lowell was getting to hear Dengue Fever lead singer Chhom Nimol collaborate with some veteran Cambodian rockers. Now Nimol is back on tour with her always-creative Los Angeles peers as they get the word out about their fifth album, The Deepest Lake. Their surfy South Asian grooves are complimented by strong songwriting and touches of electro and African sounds. The Spotify version of the album also includes interesting band commentaries on how each song came about. It’s a nice touch for those of us who have abandoned physical media but have begun to miss liner notes.

Barrence Whitfield and the Savages with Mr. Airplane Man
Sept. 12
Brighton Music Hall, Brighton, MA

Boston’s soul shouter supreme Whitfield just turned 60, and judging by his recent shows with the Sonics he and the reunited Savages are at the absolute top of their game. Another reunited beloved Boston garage outfit opens — guitar/drums duo Mr. Airplane Man. It’s a night of tough calls for garage fans: the Lyres are at the Middle East Upstairs and the Real Kids are at the Midway.

— Noah Schaffer

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Jazz

Glenn Zaleski
September 8, 7:30 p.m
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Pianist Glenn Zaleski put out a little gem of a trio album last spring, My Ideal. Zaleski (whose brother is saxophonist Mark) is openly indebted to Bill Evans, but the stories he tells in his mix of originals and standards are his own – and they really are stories, group-improvised narratives. He brings the trio from the album to the Regattabar —rounded out by bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Craig Weinrib.

Justin Kauflin
September 9, 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Pianist Justin Kauflin was introduced to the larger jazz audience (and beyond) through the documentary “Keep on Keepin’ On,” a look at his relationship with his mentor, the late trumpet great Clark Terry. Since then, he’s gone on to make a CD with Quincy Jones. His other teachers have included Harold Mabern, James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller.

Mary Halvorson/Ches Smith
September 10, 7:30 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

Mary Halvorson, who as composer and player is extending the vocabulary of jazz guitar – and of jazz – offers up a solo set based on her new Meltframe (Firehouse 12), her first solo guitar collection, in which she covers a variety of composers and tunes, both familiar and less-so, from Duke Ellington, Oliver Nelson, and Ornette Coleman, to Roscoe Mitchell, Carla Bley, and one of her regular collaborators, the drummer and composer Thomas Fujiwara. The inventive drummer and percussionist Ches Smith opens the evening with his own “Congs for Brums” solo set.

Jane Bunnett and Maqueque
September 10, 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

The longtime Canadian saxophonist, flutist, composer, and Cuban-music specialist Jane Bunnett a few years ago put together a sextet of young Cuban women, and the results the last time they played Scullers were explosive. This is probably the last tour for this project for a while, so don’t miss them.

Anita Coelho Brazilian Ensemble
September 11, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

We’re lucky in Boston to have singers and players with deep, deep knowledge of Brazilian music. One of the best, Anita Coelho, makes one of her regular stops at the Regattabar, this time with pianist Fernando Michelin, bassist Ebinho Cardoso, and drummer Bertram Lehmann, plus special guest guitarist Leandro Pellegrino.

Cosmic Gothic
September 12, 8 p.m.
Third Life Studio, Somerville, MA.

In Cosmic Gothic, the classically trained pianist and harpsichordist Katherine Shao says she’s mixing “jazz, early music, and electronic soundscapes” (she’s written a one-act radio drama, “The Death of Anton Webern”). I haven’t heard Cosmic Gothic yet, but I like the company she keeps: trombonist Dan Fox, bassist Peter Tillotson, drummer Steve Langone, and Todd Brunel on bass clarinet.

Lizz Wright
September 12, 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA.

The charismatic singer-songwriter Lizz Wright made waves immediately on September 4 with the release of her fifth album, Freedom & Surrender (Concord), a mix of love-struck originals and provocative covers (Nick Drake, the Bee Gees) that takes a decidedly more pop turn than previous discs (Larry Klein is the producer). But that isn’t a bad thing. Wright is artistically focused as ever, and in typically magnificent voice.

Mili Bermejo/Dan Greenspan
September 15, 7 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

The Mexican-born singer and songwriter Mili Bermejo has startling range, covering a broad range of pan-American composers with authority and soul. She’s joined by her husband and musical partner, bassist Dan Greenspan.

Laszlo Gardony Sextet
September 15, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

The Hungarian-born Boston pianist Laszlo Gardony is best known for a string of impressive trio recordings. His new Life in Real Time is a standout collection of covers and originals for that trio (bassist John Lockwood, drummer Yoron Israel) plus three formidable reedmen: Don Braden, Bill Pierce, and Stan Strickland. They’re all joining Gardony at the Regattabar. The album ranges from a spunky original New Orleans second-line to unique takes on “Motherless Child” and George Shearing’s “Lullabye of Birdland” and all manner of exhilarating post-bop.

Kenny Werner Trio
September 16, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Kenner Werner is warmhearted and wide-ranging as pianist and composer — his chops run from boogie-woogie to bop and beyond, and he’s written for all manner and sizes of ensemble. (When he’s making one of his regular teaching stops at Berklee, he likes to join his friends in the Fringe at the Lily Pad on Monday night.) He’s joined by bassist Johannes Weidenmuller and drummer Ari Hoenig.

Kris Adams
September 17, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Working with the trumpeter and arranger Greg Hopkins, singer Kris Adams produced Longing, one of the best albums of 2014, now getting a belated CD-release show at the Regattabar. The material ranges from Joni Mitchell and Michel Legrand to Norma Winstone’s title track and Adams’s own setting of Steve Swallow’s “Wrong Together.” The crystalline glow of Adams’s voice is abetted by emotional commitment and technical assurance. And Hopkins’s backing crew was made-to-order: reed players Rick DiMuzio, Shannon LeClaire, and Ben Whiting, flutists Bob Patton and Fernando Brandão, pianist Tim Ray, bassist Paul Del Nero, and drummer Mark Walker.

Jamie Baum
September 17, 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Jamie Baum has been a commanding flute virtuoso from the beginning, but just as provocative over the long haul of her career has been her writing. She brings a version of her septet (Septet+) that recorded In This Life — a best-of-2013 for many music writers, including this one. The band is trumpeter Jason Palmer, alto sax and bass clarinet player Sam Sadigursky, French horn player Chris Komer, guitarist Brad Shepik, pianist John Escreet, bassist Matt Clohesy, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield.

— Jon Garelick

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Classical Music

Ludovico Ensemble
Presented by Equilibrium Concert Series
September 8, 8 p.m.
Davis Square Theater, Cambridge

EQ’s fifth season begins with a performance by Ludovico Ensemble of music by Mischa Salkind-Pearl, Vinko Globokar, and Fritz Hauser.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Historical Piano Concerts: Chamber Music Festival
September 6 at 4 p.m.
at the Ashburnham Community Church, 84 Main Street, Ashburnham, MA

Clarinetists Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima Neidich, accompanied by pianist Yi-heng Yang, will present “Rare & Beautiful Music for the Historical Clarinet,” a program played on a variety of historical clarinets from the Neidich Collection and the ca. 1830 Tröndlin and the 1877 Blüthner pianos from the Frederick Collection.

Incendium Novum
September 11 at 7:30 p.m.
At St. Peter’s Church, 838 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA

A varied program of the German Baroque featuring works by Buxtehude, Telemann, and JS Bach.

Faculty Recital: Kerry Deal, Kevin Wilson and Michael Strauss
September 12 at 2 p.m.
In Seully Hall at Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway, Boston, MA

Boston Conservatory faculty members present works by Debussy, Rorem, Poulenc and Granados. Featuring guest artist Mindy Cimini (piano).

Faculty Recital: Pamela Dellal (mezzo-soprano)
September 12 at 8 p.m.
In Seully Hall at Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway, Boston, MA

Dellal and the Endicott Players present Songs of Summer, an evening of French music celebrating nature, life and the summer season. Featuring guest artists Michael Manning (piano) and Roy Sansom (recorder).

Freisinger Chamber Orchestra
September 13 at 2:30 p.m.
At the Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

The group’s Fall Concert features the performance of works by Mozart (Piano Concerto No. 18 in Bb, K. 456), Goleminov (Five Sketches for String Orchestra), Benjamin Park (It Only Goes Forward), and operatic arias by Bizet, Mozart, and Puccini.

— Susan Miron

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Theater

Waitress, Book by Jessie Nelson, Music and Lyrics by Sara Bareilles. Directed by Diane Paulus. Choreography by Chase Brock. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, MA, through September 20.

The world premiere of a musical based on the motion picture written by Adrienne Shelly. “Jenna, a waitress and expert pie maker, is stuck in a small town and a loveless marriage. When a baking contest in a nearby county offers her a chance at escape, Jenna must weigh her commitments against a rare shot at freedom and recognition.” Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller (Beautiful) stars as the food server at the center of it all. Arts Fuse review.

The Lion, Written and performed by Benjamin Scheuer. Directed by Sean Daniels. In the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA, through September 20.

“After highly-praised runs in Edinburgh and London, two Off-Broadway productions, and several awards, The Lion is beginning a two-year national tour at the MRT. The gripping musical takes the audience on one man’s musical journey from boyhood to manhood, through pain and healing, to discover the redemptive power of music.”

The Flick by Annie Baker. Directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. Staged by the Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA, through September 12.

The Pulitzer prize-winning script is “a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world.” Cast members Nael Nacer, Melissa Jesser, Marc Pierre, and James Wechsler are all making their Gloucester Stage debut in this production. Arts Fuse review Fuse interview with director Bridget Kathleen O’Leary.

Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti. Directed by Daniela Varon. Staged by Shakespeare and Company at the Tina Packer Playhouse, Lenox, MA, through September 13.

A powerhouse line-up, featuring OBIE Award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson, presents the American premiere production of a play about the legendary Ira Aldridge, the first African-American actor to play Othello on the English stage in 1833. Aldridge played a number of roles in Shakespeare’s plays (including King Lear, Macbeth, Shylock, and Richard III), but Othello was his signature part. In his fine new book Great Shakespeare Actors, Stanley Wells writes that “he continued to develop [the role] over the course of his career. Aided (like Paul Robeson after him) by a powerful physique and noble voice, he played Othello with deep self-identification and at times terrifying passion.” Arts Fuse preview Arts Fuse review.

My Fair Lady Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Music by Frederick Loewe Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture Pygmalion. Directed by Scott Edmiston. Musical Director, Catherine Stornetta. Choreographer, David Connolly, Presented by the Lyric Stage at 140 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA, through October 11.

What looks to be a powerhouse production of the classic musical adaptation of GBS’s tragicomedy, featuring Jennifer Ellis as Eliza Doolittle and Christopher Chew as Henry Higgins. Arts Fuse review.

Broken Glass by Arthur Miller. Directed by Jim Petosa. Staged by New Repertory Theatre in the Charles Mosesian Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA, through September 27.

The Boston area premiere of Miller’s 1994 script about Jewish assimilation, self-hatred, and the rise of Nazism features an impressive cast that includes Benjamin Evett, Anne Gottlieb, Christine Hamel, Michael Kaye, and Jeremiah Kissel. The staging is part of a national celebration of the centennial of the birth of the playwright.

Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory. Directed by Lindsay Eagle. Staged by Flat Earth Theater at the he Charlestown Working Theatre, Charlestown, MA, through September 19.

The first all-female professional production of “a moving play” inspired by the true story of the factory workers at U.S. Radium. “Once considered a miracle cure and scientific marvel, by the 1920s the radium used to paint luminous watches has triggered fatal health problems for Grace Fryer and other dial painters. As their health deteriorates, Grace must fight the ruthless U.S. Radium Corporation for rightful compensation even while radiation poisoning destroys her body and life.”

appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Directed by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Staged by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts, September 12 through October 10.

The Obie Award-winning play “offers his own subversive take on a classic American genre for a bold new look at race and identity.”

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Directed Tyler Dobrowsky. Staged by Trinity Repertory Company at the Dowling Theater, Providence, Rhode Island, September 10 through October 11.

“Driven and confident, Caesar (played in this production by resident company member Anne Scurria) has just returned from war a hero, only to find a group of close advisors want her dead. In a prescient exploration of the underbelly of political maneuvering, Julius Caesar is an explosion of jealousy, retribution, power and control.” Looks like an updated version that swaps togas for business suits.

Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent. Written and performed by Anthony Rapp. Directed by Steven Maler. (Featuring songs from Rent, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Additional songs by Anthony Rapp, John Keaney, David Matos, and Joe Pisapia.) Presented by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company at the Carling-Sorenson Theater at Babson College, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley, MA, September 9 through 13.

“Broadway and film actor Anthony Rapp stars in this one-man musical theater ‘event,’ based on his 2006 book Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent.”

Ghost Quartet. Music, Lyrics, & Text by Dave Malloy. Developed & Arranged by Ghost Quartet. Directed by Annie Tippe. Presented by the American Repertory Theater at Oberon, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA, September 10 through 12.

The surrealist (?) evening is a “song cycle about love, death, and whiskey. A camera breaks and four friends drink in an interwoven tale spanning seven centuries, with a murderous sister, a treehouse astronomer, a bear, a subway, and the ghost of Thelonious Monk.” Malloy is the creator of the Obie Award-winning Three Pianos and Beowulf — A Thousand Years of Baggage, which have been produced at the A.R.T.

The Draft by Peter Snoad. Directed by Diego Arciniegas. At Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street Roxbury, MA, September 10 through 20.

(After its Hibernian Hall run, The Draft will go on tour for three performances at Westfield State University in Westfield, MA (September 24); Trinity College in Hartford, CT (September 25); and The Academy of Music in Northampton, MA (September 27).

The premiere of a timely play that “gives voice to the compelling real-life stories of 10 young people (eight of them current residents of the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts) who made starkly different choices in response to the military draft at that time.” Much of the source material for The Draft is drawn from the book Called to Serve: Stories of Men and Women Confronting the Vietnam War Draft by Tom Weiner, a long-time resident of Northampton, MA. 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the U.S. ground war in Vietnam, and the 40th anniversary of the end of the war.

Body & Sold by Deborah Lake Fortson. Directed by Naomi Ibasitas. Staged by Tempest Productions and the Nora Theatre Company at the Central Square Theatre, Cambridge, MA, September 14 at 7:30 p.m.

“Every girl and boy dreams sometimes of running away from home. But stalking these runaways are pimps looking for young bodies to sell.” In this staged reading of Deborah Fortson’s documentary play, winner of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Award, “we hear the stories of eight teen survivors and the stark realities in five US cities.” The reading will be followed by a discussion “moderated by Audrey Morrissey, Associate Director of My Life My Choice, a nationally recognized survivor-led organization working to stem the tide of commercial sexual exploitation of children.”

A Little Night Music. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Peter DuBois. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Boston University Theater, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, September 11 through October 11.

“Lovers reunite, passions reignite, and new romances blossom around famous actress Desiree Armfeldt and an unforgettable cast of characters during an eventful weekend in the country. Stephen Sondheim’s most romantic and popular work features a gorgeous, sweeping score infused with humor, warmth, and the flavor of a waltz, including Sondheim’s best known song, “Send in the Clowns.”

The Boys in the Band by Matt Crowley. Directed by David Miller. Staged by Zeitgeist Stage Company at the Plaza Black Box Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St in Boston’s South End, September 11 through October 3.

A revival of a once daring script that over the decades was seen by many critics as a theatrical dinosaur because of its gay stereotyping: now it is being rediscovered. David Mamet thinks it is a great American play! This production features Victor Shopov (Norton Award Winner for ZSC’s Bent) and Ryan Landry (Multiple Norton Award Winner for his work with the Gold Dust Orphans). This seminal work of the Off-Broadway movement premiered in 1968 and was a long-running hit onstage.

The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare. Adapted and performed by Dan Hodge. Presented by Peterborough Players, 55 Hadley Road, Peterborough, NH, September 9 through 13.

The New England premiere of a one-man show that puts one of the Bard’s narrative poems on stage: “written originally in 1594, it recounts the legendary tale of the beautiful Lucretia and her brutal demise at the hands of Tarquin.” Hodge has “won multiple Barrymore Awards and he won the James Whitmore Award while he was an intern at the Peterborough Players in 2002.”

— Bill Marx

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Rock

Death Cab for Cutie
September 11
Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, Boston, MA

This March saw the release of alt all-stars Death Cab for Cutie’s eighth album, the well-received Kintsugi. Guitarist Chris Walla announced during the recording of the record that he was leaving the group, and this will be the band’s first full tour without him.

Rancid
September 15,
House of Blues, Boston, MA

Green Day and the Offspring had more success, but Rancid were equal members of the ’90s American punk rock trinity. More than 20 years after their debut, they released their eight album, …Honor Is All We Know, in 2014.

Upcoming and On Sale…

A$AP Rocky & Tyler, The Creator (9/19/2015, Tsongas Center at Umass Lowell); Terry Kitchen (9/19/2015, Paradise Café); Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters (9/20/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Albert Hammond Jr. (9/20/2015, The Sinclair); Bob Mould (9/23/2015, The Sinclair); Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls (9/25/2015, House of Blues); Boston Calling (featuring Avett Brothers, Alt-J, and Alabama Shakes) (9/25-27/2015, City Hall Plaza); Ghost (9/28/2015, House of Blues); The Jesus and Mary Chain (9/29/2015, House of Blues); Kurt Vile and the Violators (10/2/2015, Paradise Rock Club); FFS (Franz Ferdinand and Sparks) (10/2/2015, Orpheum Theatre); Kraftwerk (10/3/2015, Wang Theatre); Ride (10/3/2015, Paradise Rock Club); Terry Kitchen (10/3/2015, Somerville Armory Café); Mark Knopfler (10/9/2015, Orpheum Theatre); Catfish and the Bottlemen (10/16/2015, Royale); Garbage (10/21/2015, Orpheum Theatre); Ringo Starr and His All Star Band (10/23/2015, Citi Performing Arts Center); The Who (10/29/2015, TD Garden); My Morning Jacket (11/20-21/2015, Orpheum Theatre); The Flamin’ Groovies (11/25/2015, Brighton Music Hall); Parquet Courts (12/5/2015, Middle East-Downstairs); Deerhunter (12/10/2015, Royale)

— Adam Ellsworth

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Author Events

Ilan Stavans
Quixote: The Novel and the World
September 8 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

Co-sponsored by Mass Humanities, the general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature comes to Harvard Square to discuss Don Quixote, one of the most groundbreaking, influential, and widely admired novels in all world literature. The list of its high-caliber admirers is impressive: Kafka and Nabokov loved it, Flaubert and Orson Welles were inspired by it.

Lee Child
In Conversation with Stephen King
Make Me: A Jack Reacher Novel
September 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Sanders Theatre, Cambridge MA
Tickets are $32, including a copy of the book

Two internationally bestselling authors come to Cambridge to discuss the new Jack Reacher novel. Child will read from his latest entry in the long-running series and then talk with Stephen King. This time around Child’s titular hero is called upon to find a missing person in a ghost town ominously named Mother’s Rest. Child will be signing copies of his books. King, alas, will not.

Three Cheers for George Scialabba
September 10 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge MA
$5 General Admission, $35 Admission with Pre- Event Reception and One year subscription to The Baffler

September 10 has been designated George Scialabba day by the Cambridge City Council. The renowned culture critic and essayist will celebrate his retirement from his 9,135 days of clerical work at Harvard. The Baffler, the wittily contrarian magazine of which he is a contributing editor, is going to throw quite a party for him including visits from the likes of Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, Thomas Frank, and Rick Perelstein, video tributes from across the country, and even a brass band. When was the last time a legendary public intellectual got this kind of a send-off?

Bill Clegg
Did You Ever Have A Family
September 10 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

Clegg is a literary agent and bestselling memoirist whose latest book is a novel about family, specifically how to survive the trauma of losing it. On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is turned upside down when half of her family are killed in a car accident. June finds a community of grieving as she roams the country looking for solace.

Amy Stewart
Girl Waits with Gun
September 11 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Free

The publishing world is abuzz over Amy Stewart’s new novel, which features an early 20th-century heroine. After a run-in with a belligerent millionaire, Constance Kopp decides to defend her family by any means necessary, particularly in ways that would be viewed as highly unladylike for a woman of that era. Stewart will also be serving a specially-designed cocktail inspired by her intoxicatingly impetuous heroine.

Cara Nicoletti
Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books
September 11 at 7 p.m.
Wellesley Books, Wellesley MA
Free

Nicoletti is a butcher, cook, and writer who comes to Wellesley to serve up literary recipes taken from the pages of classic fiction. Nicoletti will demonstrate how to make the perfect soft-boiled egg from Emma and how to whip up a fava bean and chicken liver mousse (accompanied by a nice Chianti, of course) from The Silence of the Lambs.

— Matt Hanson

Plume Anthology Reading
September 9 at 6:30 p.m.
At the Cambridge Public Library at 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA

A poetry reading featuring some local heavyweights: Martha Collins, Gail Mazur, David Rivard, Lloyd Schwartz, Daniel Tobin, and Marc Vincenz.

— Bill Marx