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.

A terrific idea for a summer program from the New York’s Public Theater that an enterprising company in the Boston area should consider embracing. Theater is part of the community and should spotlight its concerns: holding “a mirror up to nature” means reflecting what bedevils a country in crisis: the fate of democracy, war and peace, and the climate catastrophe.

The Public Theater is producing Public Stories: Government Voices, directed and conceived by Julian Goldhagen, in partnership with District Council 37 (DC 37), New York’s largest union and the country’s largest municipal employee union. Any current or former municipal, state, or federal employees can access a series of free storytelling workshops and, then this summer, have the chance to share their work before select performances of Free Shakespeare in the Park and Mobile Unit.”

This is an addition to the revival of the Public Forum series presented on Monday evenings, typically the night off from The Public’s Free Shakespeare in the Park performances. This series will feature a distinctive mix of performance and conversation and a focus on American voices on this year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Below is a YouTube recording of a recent presentation of Theater of War’s The Oedipus Project, which presents actors, public servants, and community members reading scenes from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King.

The gathering serves as “a catalyst for powerful, constructive, global discussions about climate change, ecological disaster, ethical leadership, and environmental justice.”

“Sophocles’ ancient play is a timeless story of arrogant leadership, ignored prophecy, intergenerational curses, and a pestilence and ecological collapse that ravages the city of Thebes. Seen through this lens, the play has served a powerful catalyst for engaging diverse communities in dynamic discussions about the climate crisis.”

Featuring performances by Jesse Eisenberg, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Jumaane Williams, Chuck Schumer, Mare Winningham, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Bill Irwin, Erika Rose, and Craig Wallace. The Oedipus Project at Georgetown University was presented as part of DC Climate Week on April 21. It was made possible by Theater of War Productions, The Earth Commons, and the Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics. The staged reading was directed and facilitated by Bryan Doerries, who also translated the text.

A Boston Climate Week? Our artistic organizations unite to present performances/concerts on that crucial issue? Well, we can dream ….

— Bill Marx

Film

Independent Film Festival of Boston
Through April 29
Somerville Theatre & The Brattle Theatre

Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall in a scene from director Daniel Roher’s feature Tuner.

Boston’s premier independent festival includes 15 features, 22 documentaries, 16 programs of over 60 short films including Paper Trail, the latest animation from Don Hertzfeldt.

Closing night feature: The Invite (April 29, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with director Olivia Wilde in attendance).

New documentaries by New England filmmakers: Bestor Cram (Tiananmen Tonight 4/27 at 7:45 p.m.), Tim O’Donnell (The Last Yztari 4/23 at 8:30 p.m.), and Amy Jenkins (Adam’s Apple 4/27 at 5 p.m.).

Arts Fuse preview of the IFFB, a review of selected documentaries, and looks at the live action narrative shorts programs, here and here.

The Incredible Snow Woman
April 27 7 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

In this impassioned comedy-drama, 46-year-old Arctic explorer known as “The Incredible Snow Woman,” unexpectedly returns to her childhood home in the Jura mountains to reunite with her brothers. Having been recently diagnosed as “bi-polar” and with a terminal disease, she wreaks havoc on the townspeople and her family. Unable to face her own mortality, she returns to Greenland one last time. Speaker: WBUR film critic Erin Trahan

A scene from Buster Keaton’s The General.

The General
April 29 at 7:30
Regent Theater in Arlington

The General is one of the greatest achievements of silent cinema, featuring Buster Keaton at the height of his creative and physical mastery. Set during the American Civil War, the comedy follows a determined railroad engineer whose loyalty, courage, and ingenuity are tested in a relentless pursuit involving his beloved locomotive. Blending comedy with action on an unprecedented scale, the 1926 film transforms a simple narrative into a spectacular journey of motion, precision, and daring stunts. Jeff Rapsis will provide live accompaniment

Tedeshi Trucks Garden Party
May 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Regent Theater in Arlington

The Garden Party features footage from the Madison Square Garden concert interspersed with commentary from Trucks and Tedeschi. The performance included appearances from special guests Trey Anastasio, Norah Jones, and Lukas Nelson. The show was praised as a “two-and-a-half-hour musical journey,” highlighting what many consider one of the most memorable performances in the band’s career. Director John McDermott will be on hand for a Q&A.

A scene featuring Amy Goodman in Steal This Story, Please! Photo: Coolidge Corner Theatre

Steal This Story, Please!
Opens May 1
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, is a trailblazing journalist whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. The film goes behind the scenes, offering a look at the warm, wisecracking granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi—raised in a tradition of asking hard questions—as she navigates a news landscape reshaped by technology, corporate consolidation, and political assaults on truth itself. Urgent, provocative, and unexpectedly funny, the documentary is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: what happens to democracy when the press surrenders to power?

The Power of Belonging: Join or Die
May 2 at 3 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

The West Newton together with The Boston Club present this film about why you should join a club and why the fate of America may depend on it. After the screening, join 15 area clubs for a Club Fair in the lobby from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.: Green Newton, Newton Free Library, The Boston Club, Ty Burr’s Movie Club, The Highland Glee Club, Newton Camera Club, LGBTQ Newton, Newton Rotary, Newton Lions Club, Newton Women’s Forum, Rock Voices, and more…

A scene from The Red Balloon.

The Red Balloon / Little Fugitive
May 4 at 7 p.m.
May 10 at 3 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge

The Harvard Film Archive celebrates its acquisition of two new 35mm prints of pioneering American neo-realism. The Red Balloon is among the most celebrated short films of all time, an enduring tale of a boy and his faithful balloon friend that gently extends the playfully anti-establishment surrealism of early René Clair and the social satire of Jacques Tati, while similarly channeling the poetry of the silent cinema that shaped all three directors’ singular approaches to filmmaking.

Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin’s Little Fugitive follows seven-year-old Joey, who runs away to Coney Island after being tricked into thinking he has killed his older brother, Lennie. While Joey has his own adventures on the beach, the very alive Lennie searches everywhere for his lost brother—a beautifully affirming portrait of boyhood that deserves to be better known.

UNIQLO Festival of Films from Japan
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
May 8 – 29

A scene from She Taught Me Serendipity. Photo: MFA Boston

She Taught Me Serendipity
May 8 at 7 p.m.

After a string of chance encounters, Konishi, a solitary young man who carries an umbrella even on sunny days, forms an unlikely bond with the equally sensitive Hana. As Konishi becomes increasingly consumed by the thrill of new love, his narrow focus on what he has found begins to strain the relationships he has with others.

Kokuho
May 9 at 1:30 p.m.

Set in the rarefied world of traditional Japanese kabuki theater, Kokuho follows the decades-long artistic journey of a gifted young performer who is determined to master one of the country’s most exacting stage traditions. Tracing rivalries, mentorships, and the intense discipline required to embody kabuki’s stylized forms, the film offers a sweeping portrait of irrational devotion to craft.

Pick of the Week

Griffin in Summer, streaming on Hulu and elsewhere

Everett Blunck in a scene from Griffin in Summer. Photo: Hulu

Young Everett Blunck (The Plague) is terrific in this overlooked sleeper from 2024. The story follows a 14-year-old boy who writes his own plays for his friends. His mother, whom he refers to as Helen (Melanie Lynskey), and his father (Michael Esper) have a strained, distant relationship. As a result, Griffin’s play, “Regrets of Autumn,” centers on affairs and divorce. He describes it as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? meets American Beauty. “You scheduled 60 hours of rehearsal a week,” complains his friend and director, Kara (Abby Ryder Fortson). “It’s the Equity standard,” Griffin indignantly replies.

But then Griffin meets handyman Brad (Owen Teague), who comes to work at his home. Brad is a struggling Brooklyn actor. The adolescent becomes smitten with the older man and grows jealous of Brad’s girlfriend, Chloe (Kathryn Newton). The film’s warm humor treats Griffin’s obsessions with both charm and seriousness. It is written and directed by first-timer Nicholas Colia.

— Tim Jackson

Television

Well, you have exactly three days left to catch these films on the Criterion Channel before they go away. It’s actually a rather heartbreakingly excellent list this month, including many of Werner Herzog’s films, including Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo, My Best Fiend, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and at least a dozen others (WTF?). So many greats: The Dead (Huston, 1987), All That Heaven Allows (Sirk, 1955), To Live and Die in L.A. (Friedkin, 1985), The Age of Innocence (Scorsese, 1993—filmed in my neighborhood!), Drugstore Cowboy (Van Sant, 1989), Phantom Thread (Anderson, 2017), God’s Own Country (Lee, 2017), and Young Soul Rebels (Julien, 1991), among others.

Matthew Rhys in Widow’s Bay. Photo: Apple TV

Widow’s Bay (April 29, Apple TV+): This new horror-comedy series stars Matthew Rhys (The Americans, Perry Mason) as Tom Loftis, the unhappy mayor of a small island community off the coast of Massachusetts. He wants to help promote tourism, but when a New York Times travel writer arrives to do a profile, some locals stir up old stories of the island’s haunted past. They challenge doubting Tom to stay in the haunted inn, which sets off a series of truly terrifying incidents, affecting not only Tom but his socially awkward assistant Patricia (great British actress Kate O’Flynn), the local irreverent reverend (the inimitable Toby Huss), and local expert on the island’s ghosts, Wick (the always-excellent Stephen Root). Created by Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold, the great cast (including Bloodline’s Kevin Carroll as the long-suffering sheriff) and good writing keep this show’s odd genre-hybrid energy crackling. It’s up there with Shining Vale, Santa Clarita Diet, and the more effective moments of American Horror Story.

Some other noteworthy premieres: The House of the Spirits (April 29, Prime), an eight-part Spanish miniseries based on Isabel Allende’s bestselling novel. This family saga spans a generation of social upheaval in Spain, focusing on the women who try to overturn patriarchal tradition in the midst of a national revolution. Can we get some of that here, please? Also, a new miniseries adaptation of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (May 4, Netflix), written by Jack Thorne (of the red-hot 2025 series Adolescence) and directed by Marc Munden (The Sympathizer).

— Peg Aloi

Theater

A scene from DNAWORKS’ The Secret Sharer. Photo: Diego Alejandro Gonzalez

The Secret Sharer, written and performed by DNAWORKS. Directed by Daniel Banks, co-creator, and central adapter. Presented by Arts Emerson at the Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre, Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington St, Boston, through May 3.

The world premiere adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s 1909 novella The Secret Sharer — the show “transforms the text into a powerful multimedia performance blending dance, music, sound, text, and art installation. Often considered an early Queer text, The Secret Sharer tells the story of two men — a ship’s Captain and a stowaway accused of murder — and the bond the two develop as the stowaway is secretly sheltered in the Captain’s quarters.

An admired passage from Conrad’s story: “Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the very edge of a darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the very gateway of Erebus — yes, I was in time to catch an evanescent glimpse of my white hat left behind to mark the spot where the secret sharer of my cabin and of my thoughts, as though he were my second self, had lowered himself into the water to take his punishment: a free man, a proud swimmer striking out for a new destiny.”

The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Donnla Hughes. Staged by Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI, through May 3.

The plot of this dark comedy, set in 1934 on the remote Aran island of Inishmaan, off the west coast of Ireland: “Billy Claven, a disabled orphan nicknamed ‘Cripple Billy,’ longs to escape his stifling, gossip‑ridden, isolated community. He dreams of escaping his bleak life and earning a role in a Hollywood film. When a movie crew arrives on a neighboring island, Billy sees his chance — but at what cost?”

Primary Trust by Eboni Booth. Directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo. Staged by Trinity Rep at the Lederer Theater Center’s Dowling Theater, 201 Washington Street in Providence, through May 10.

The plot of this 2024 Pulitzer Prize–winning comedy: “Kenneth has lived his entire life in the same sleepy town. Every day he works at the bookstore, then shares a happy‑hour Mai Tai with his best friend. When a sudden layoff rockets Kenneth out of his comfort zone, he is forced to confront his biggest fear: change.”

Dido of Idaho by Abby Rosebrock. Directed by Brooks Reeves & Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Staged by Apollinaire Theatre Company at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet Street, Chelsea, through May 10.

Described by ATC as “a modern, dark comedy that loosely re-imagines the ancient myth of Dido and Aeneas.” The plot: “When a love affair goes brutally awry, a hard-drinking musicologist seeks asylum with her estranged evangelical mother.” Winner of the 2025 L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Original Writing, Best Direction, and Best Featured Performance.

A scene featuring Gene Ravvin in Beethoven. Photo: Irina Danilova

Beethoven by Valeriy Pecheykin. Directed by Yana Gladkikh. Staged by ARLEKIN at the ARLEKIN Studio, 368 Hillside Avenue, Needham, May 1 through 10.

The play “brings to life 17 pivotal scenes from the legendary composer’s journey, blending archival material with theatrical invention to create a vivid portrait — and an “ode to silence.”

“Performed in Russian by Arlekin’s resident company, this run will feature English subtitles projected on screens, marking the first time the play will be accessible to English-speaking audiences. Its initial run last fall marked the play’s international premiere and its first staging outside of Moscow, Russia.”

Boston Theater Marathon XXVIII, presented by Boston Playwright’s Theatre at the Kate Snodgrass Stage, 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, on May 3.

The venerable event features “50 ten-minute plays written by 50 New England playwrights and presented by 50 New England theatre companies. Inspired by the iconic Boston Marathon, the Boston Theater Marathon (BTM) is a ‘theatre endurance event’ that provides a unique showcase and connecting point for New England artists and audiences, and is an impressive demonstration of the depth and breadth of what is possible in a ten-minute script.” Net proceeds from the Boston Theater Marathon benefit the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund (TCBF), which provides financial relief in a confidential, respectful manner to individual theatre practitioners of Greater Boston and the surrounding areas. The organization makes it possible for theatre artists to offer support to one another and deepen the sense of community in Boston.

Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne. Directed by abigail jean-baptiste. Staged at Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, through May 16.

According to the Yale Rep site, here’s the set-up for this new play: “There’s been a drought on their childhood’s road and two cousins come home dry-eyed and grieving. Sade, on a three-day furlough from prison. Mina, departing a strangely idyllic west coast. As all time ticks towards the correctional officer’s arrival, these two wrestle with all they have never said, with the fallibility of memory itself, and with visions of a future they are bound to create. Winner of the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.”

Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore. Directed by Scott Edmiston. Based on the book Alan Turing, The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. With a new epilogue by Neil Bartlett. A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production staged at Central Square Theatre, Cambridge, through May 3.

A revival of the 1986 drama about Alan Turing, who “was hailed by Winston Churchill as having made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany for breaking the Enigma code. By 1952 the eccentric British mathematician’s security clearance was revoked and he was barred from British intelligence work after being convicted for ‘gross indecency’ – ‘homosexual acts’. The cast includes Eddie Shields and Paula Plum.”

L to R: Melisa Pereyra, with Gabe Martínez in the Huntington Theater Company production of Oedipus el Rey. Photo: Nile Hawver

Oedipus el Ray 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, May 7 through June 7.

Luis Alfaro reimagines 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, we are told by the HTC website, “blends ancient myth with modern urgency and Chicano swagger with swaths of sly humor.”

Moonbox Productions’ Boston New Works Festival, at Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge, May 7 through 10

The fifth incarnation of an event designed to bring in-development plays and musicals to the attention of theater enthusiasts and regional theater producers. Moonbox Artistic Producer and Director of New Play Development Bridget O’Leary says “the Festival is the only regional event of its size focused exclusively on developing and presenting new theatrical work created by Boston-area artists. “

Swept Away, book by John Logan. Music & Lyrics by the Avett Brothers. Directed by Jeremy Johnson. With assistance from music director Paul S. Katz and choreographer Ilyse Robbins. Staged by Speakeasy Stage at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through May 23.

The New England premiere of this Broadway musical. The plot: “A storm. A shipwreck. Four survivors. As they fight to stay alive, these New Bedford whalers must confront who they are, what they’ve done, and whether forgiveness is possible.” The cast of 11 features Christopher Chew, Max Connor, Peter DiMaggio, Bishop Levesque, and Anthony Pires Jr.

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, May 1 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.”

Joshua Lee Robinson and Regine Vital with Dereks Thomas and MarHadoo Effeh in Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. Photo: Benjamin Rose Photography

Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson. Directed by Monica White Ndounou. Staged by Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Hibernian Hall, Roxbury, through May 17.

The first chronological play in his acclaimed Pittsburgh Cycle (also known as the Century Cycle), a series of 10 works chronicling the African American experience across each decade of the 20th century. The setup for this play, which is set in 1904: “Citizen Barlow thinks his journey is at an end when he arrives in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, but it has only just begun. Having fled from Alabama and desperate for redemption, he finds himself on the doorstep of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old ‘soul cleanser’ whose parlor is filled with history, music, and a lively cast of characters with plenty of stories to tell. As tensions flare between Pittsburgh’s Black community and the local steel mill, Ester sends Citizen on a fantastical journey to the City of Bones — where he must seek spiritual truth, and the key to liberation that his new city so urgently seeks.”

— Bill Marx

Visual Art

Ezekiel Russell was a Salem printer and the publisher of the Salem Gazette; or, Newbury and Marblehead Advertiser, an 18th-century newspaper that presented detailed accounts of “A Bloody Butchery, by the British Troops; or the Runaway Fight of the Regulars” on April 19, 1775. The paper’s broadside featured descriptions of the Battles of Lexington and Concord that inaugurated the American Revolution.

This spring, Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum presents Pressing Importance: Salem and the Declaration of Independence, an exhibition that looks at another of Russell’s projects from the Revolutionary era: the publishing and dissemination of the Declaration of Independence a year later.

Part of PEM’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and the 400th anniversary of the European settlement in Salem, the show opens May 2 and includes “two of the earliest broadside editions of the Declaration of Independence alongside Revolutionary-era manuscripts, newspapers, pamphlets, and broadsides that showcase the nation’s founding values—freedom, liberty, and equality.”

On May 7, the Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum holds a public opening reception for Rebel, Revolt, Resist, another America 250 project. “The historical record affirms,” the Center notes, “that rebellion, resistance, and revolution are not disruptions of the human story but essential forces within it—expressions of a universal impulse toward freedom and self-determination…”

Weaver Nan Ross founded Spindleworks in 1976 to share “the skills she knew best: spinning, dyeing, punch hooking, and weaving fiber on a loom” with six participants. Many who later became part of Spindleworks were residents of the Pineland Center, opened in 1908 as the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded. In 1978, Spindleworks—now housed in a historic 1840s Greek Revival house in downtown Brunswick, Maine, and with a second location in downtown Gardiner—became a program of the Independence Association, with the shared purpose “to assist individuals with disabilities in obtaining full and inclusive lives in their chosen communities.”

Celebrating Independence! Fifty Years of Spindleworks, 1976–2026 opens at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on May 20. The exhibition celebrates “a nationally recognized progressive art studio that has become a vibrant part of the local community” and “the vision of the artists whose work in a broad range of creative practices—from painting and sculpture to poetry, dance, weaving, and new media—provides a source of enduring inspiration and revelation.” Additional events will take place throughout the summer at Spindleworks Brunswick and Spindleworks Gardiner, Bowdoin College, and the Independence Association.

Danny Lyon, “Route 12, Wisconsin” from The Bikeriders Portfolio, 1963. Photo: Currier Museum

American photographer Danny Lyon joined the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club while an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. It was, he said, an “attempt to record and glorify the life of the American bike rider.” The result was Lyon’s celebrated Bikeriders series, hailed as “a new form of documentary photography that brought viewers into the worlds of its subjects” and “a time capsule of 1960s Americana.” More than a dozen examples from the series go on view at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, starting May 7 in the exhibition Danny Lyon: The Bikeriders.

Michael E. Smith goes on view in Building 4.1 at MASS MoCA in North Adams on May 2. Like many installation artists, Smith builds environments from ordinary objects—empty fish tanks, basketballs, unplugged scanners, clothing, and old furniture—but works “like an editor, honing a narrative or a feeling by taking away as much as he adds.” Splitting, trimming, and adapting his objects (or perhaps his subjects), he alters and combines them into strange, soulful articulations, retooling materials that remain, as he has said, “stubbornly themselves.”

Andrew Wyeth, Her Room, 1963. Photo: Farnsworth Art Museum

Betsy James Wyeth’s family, which includes some of the most famous American artists of the 20th century, has been associated with the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, for decades. After years of featuring other family members in exhibitions and programs, the Farnsworth turns to Betsy herself with By Design: The Worlds of Betsy James Wyeth, opening May 2. The exhibition examines her extensive and highly original work in architecture, interior design, and architectural restoration across multiple sites in Maine and Pennsylvania. It focuses on three locations near Rockland: Broad Cove Farm and the Olson House in Cushing, and Southern Island off Tenants Harbor. Paintings by Andrew Wyeth, archival materials, and objects from Betsy’s own collections illuminate the overlapping worlds of these key centers of her work.

Being in prison alters one’s artistic resources but, apparently, not the reach of one’s vision. Incarcerated artist James D. E. Scott creates exuberantly baroque, vividly colored sculptures from materials he can readily find at hand: floor wax, soap, paper, cardstock, toilet paper, abrasive cleaning pads, deodorant roller balls, sticks, and grass, among other scavenged items. In collaboration with the Community Partners in Action Prison Arts Program, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art presents Creative Connecticut: James D. E. Scott, opening May 7. The exhibition features Scott’s elaborate works as they “explore fantasy, architecture, and religious themes.”

Christiana Pell, Round and Round. Photo: Newport Art Museum

Does childhood play ever end? “From building blanket forts to inventing elaborate storylines for dolls and action figures, childhood play allows us to test roles and imagine new possibilities,” the Newport Art Museum observes. “As adults, that instinct evolves. We continue to construct narratives about who we are and how we are perceived.” Perhaps the toys of childhood are eventually replaced with triumphal arches, grand ballrooms, and the like.

In Play / Pretend, opening May 7, the Newport museum places historic dolls and automata, 19th- and 20th-century toys, and objects from the nearby Redwood Library & Atheneum in dialogue with contemporary artists Tom Deininger, Gerry Perrino, Entang Wiharso, Christina Pell, Saberah Malik, and Rick Lazes. Newport-based artist Sam Heydt extends the exhibition beyond the galleries with a pop-up environment that “dissolves the boundary between observer and participant—inviting visitors to reconsider play not as something we outgrow, but as an enduring act of discovery.”

— Peter Walsh

Jazz

Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra
April 26 at 3 p.m.
Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, Mass.

The venerable and invaluable Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra does one of their programs of new music by their resident composers, including “Mimi Rabson’s ode to the sounds of the MBTA (particularly the screeching of the Green Line) and a setting by Darrell Katz of a poem by the late Boston poet Charles Coe about wanting to invite Duke Ellington to dinner.” The 21-piece orchestra includes stellar soloists like saxophonist Phil Scarff, trumpeters Mike Peipman and Dan Rosenthal, flutist Hiro Honshuku, trombonist David Harris, and singer Rebecca Shrimpton.

Jacob William’s Trio Spanning
April 26 at 5 p.m.
QArts Gallery, Quincy, Mass.

The fine, broadly traveled bassist Jacob William has performed separately with alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs and drummer Francisco Mela. This will be there first time as a trio. The group comes together for this show “with no compositions, no arrangements, and no map but with a shared commitment to deep listening, spontaneous creation, and newfound understanding.”

Pianist Nina Ott. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Nina Ott & HUM
April 30 at 6 p.m.
Long Live Roxbury Brewery & Taproom
Roxbury, Mass.
FREE

The learned, well-travelled keyboardist and composer Nina Ott (Detroit born, she had a longtime gig in Chicago’s Green Mill house band) has a knack for bringing subtle Afro-Cuban rhythmic detail and sophisticated harmonies to her groove-oriented jazz. She plays this International Jazz Day show at Long Live Roxbury with her band HUM, including drummer Chris Lopes, guitarist Steve Fell, and John McKenna on sax, modular synths and “resonant structures” (beautiful sculptural aluminum pieces that offer apt percussive flavors). This is part of the free Thursday night jazz series at Long Live Roxbury.

West Coast-based vocalist Judy Wexler will be performing at Scullers. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Judy Wexler
May 1 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

West Coast-based singer Judy Wexler has plied her rhythmically agile vocals and keen sense of lyric interpretation (you hear every word) over more than half a dozen albums, spanning all manner of American Songbook and newer classics. Last year’s No Wonder included the title song by Luciana Souza, Michel Legrand’s “The Summer Knows,” a song with original lyrics based on Cedar Walton’s hard-bop instrumental “Firm Roots,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love.” AND “You Stepped Out of a Dream.” So there. Her backing trio will be pianist Jim Ridl, bassist Bill Moring, and drummer Tim Horner.

Hellbender
May 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

The accomplished Boston-area composer and reed player Jared Sims has a few projects going — a Latin jazz band, his duo work with his former teacher Ran Blake, and this intriguing outfit. “Built on the raw electricity of classic fusion records like Bitches Brew, the band channels that brand of chaos through a sharper, more intentional compositional lens. Ambient sounds are juxtaposed with tough drum beats and a ton of mixed meters. There isn’t endless soloing for its own sake—the band has a collective sound that resonates.” The conservatory-trained bandmembers comprises a lineup each of whom would be worth seeing on their own: Sims on sax, electronics, and pedals; guitarists Andrew Stern and Jeffrey Lockhart; keyboardist James Rohr; bassist Jesse Williams; and drummer Randy Wooten.

The BT ALC Big Band will be performing in Cambridge. Photo: courtesy of the artist

BT ALC Band
May 2 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

A Lyft driver a few years ago introduced me to the BT ALC Big Band, which immediately impressed me their melding of funk grooves with a standard big band instrumentation. No less an eminence than James Brown trombonist Fred Wesley has recorded with them. The band is led by trombonist Brian Thomas and trumpeter Alex Lee-Clark. They cook.

Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdés. Photo: Martin Espinosa Garcia

Chucho Valdés and His Royal Quartet
May 2 at 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center, Boston

The legendary Cuban pianist and composer Chucho Valdés, now 84, returns to Berklee with his next-generation Royal Quartet: bassist José Armando Gola, drummer Horacio Hernandez, and percussionist Roberto Jr. Vizcaino. The program will “pay homage to Chick Corea and Mozart, play American blues and Cuban folksongs with an Afro-Latin twist, and apply a playful, creative, and surprising approach to every selection.”

Rhythm Future Quartet
May 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Old South Church, Boston

The Rhythm Future Quartet do their compelling contemporary take on Django Reinhardt’s Hot Club of France bands with this Concerts in America event. Rhythm Future founder Jason Anick is joined by guitarists Henry Acker and Bruno Peterson and bassist Greg Loughman. (A note at the Concerts in America link says that tickets are available only online in advance; “No door sales.”)

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis performing at Newport Jazz Festival in 2024. Photo: Wikimedia

Messthetics + James Brandon Lewis
May 5 at 7:30 p.m.
City Winery, Boston

Jazz tenorman James Brandon Lewis jams with guitar monster Anthony Pirog and the Fugazi rhythm section of bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty of Fugazi, in this band founded by Lally circa 2016. The collaboration between the band and Lewis as gone on for a couple of albums now, so definitely a thing. Trinary System are the openers.

Mike Stern
May 7 and 8 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Fusion-jazz-guitar hero Mike Stern hits the R-bar for four shows, with a band that includes drummer Dennis Chambers, bassist Gary Grainger, saxophonist Bob Franceschini, and the equally formidable guitarist Leni Stern (Mike’s wife) on second guitar.

Gabrielle Cavassa
May 9 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

A big part of the artistic success of Joshua Redman’s 2023 album where are we was the singing of Gabrielle Cavassa. The winner of the 2021 International Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal Competition, Cavassa comes to town behind her debut Blue Note release, Diavola (co-produced by Redman and Don Was). Her band at the Regattabar will be bassist Lex Warshawsky, guitarist Gabe Schnider, and drummer Kyle Poole.

Bassit Dave Zinno and his band Z3 will perform in Dorchester. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Z3
May 9 at 8 p.m.
Peabody Hall, Parish of All Saints, Dorchester, Mass.

The esteemed Boston-area bassist Dave Zinno plays this Mandorla Music/Dot Jazz show with his band Z3, featuring drummer Rafael Barata and Dino Govoni on tenor saxophone.

— Jon Garelick

Rock, Indie, and Alternative

Fishbone with Dub Apocalypse
April 27 (doors at 6/ show at 7)
The Sinclair, Cambridge

The 1985 release of the six-track Fishbone marked the beginning of a 40-year (so far) recording career, the most recent entry in which is last summer’s Stockholm Syndrome, which (to the surprise of no one) smokes. The first full-length of this stretch was 1986’s In Your Face, which served up a hearty platter of mixed-genre (e.g., funk, punk, and ska) stew. Angelo Moore and company are marking the four decades of their debut’s existence with the “In Your Face 40th Anniversary Tour,” which stops in Harvard Square in April. The combination of their oldest and newest material — which includes “Racist Piece of Shit” (about you-know-who), “All About Us,” and “Last Call in America” (also about you-know-you) — will be a full-on celebration of a unique band and its unmistakable sound.

— Blake Maddux

Classical Music

In 2025, Dima Slobodeniouk conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra with violinists Alexander Velinzon and Lucia Lin in Arvo Pärt’s Tabula rasa. Photo: Hilary Scott

John Adams’ Harmonium
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
April 30 at 7:30 p.m., May 1 at 1:30 p.m., 2 at 8 p.m., and 3 at 2 p.m.
Symphony Hall

The BSO closes its season with the ensemble’s second-ever performances of John Adams’ choral masterpiece, Harmonium. It shares the bill with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Dima Slobodeniouk conducts.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Roots and World Music

Old Weird America – Diving into the Harry Smith Archives
April 28, 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory

Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music remains the touchstone of what is now considered American roots music. But, when he wasn’t collecting and preserving old-time country, blues, and ballads, Smith was also an experimental filmmaker as well as a visual artist. Given that kind of all-around eclectic artistry, it’s no wonder that NEC’s Contemporary Musical Arts is saluting him with this evening, which includes Klezmatics trumpeter Frank London, the great old-time and Cajun fiddler Suzy Thompson, and the department’s Indie/Punk/Art Rock/Jewish Music, and “Nothing” ensembles.

Indie pop icon Syd Straw will perform at Sally O’Brien’s on May 1. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Syd Straw and Kimon Kirk
May 1
Sally O’Brien’s, Somerville

One of the great cult darlings of indie pop, Syd Straw has long been a favorite not just of critics but also of her collaborators like R.E.M., Wilco, They Might Be Giants, and Rickie Lee Jones. For a number of years the one-time Golden Palomino has a lived a relatively quiet life in Vermont, which allows her to pop in for such unexpected appearances as this one at tiny Sally O’s, where she’ll split the bill with another great power pop singer/songwriter, Kimon Kirk and his band The Meds.

Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore
May 6
Bull Run, Shirley

Any show by the gritty Americana king and ex-Blasters guitarist Dave Alvin is special, but in recent years he’s been sweetening the pot by bringing along the quintessential Texas philosopher/songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore. There has been a number of appearances around these parts with Alvin’s band, so this show is being billed as an “Almost Acoustic Duo.”

Gary Louris, American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer best known as a founding member and longtime leader of the Minneapolis‑based band the Jayhawks. Photo: Steve Cohen

Gary Louris
May 8
Club Passim

Here’s another pioneering Americana act, the early alt-country band The Jaybirds. They’re still around, but frontman Gary Louris also has a long-running solo career which he’ll be highlighting in the folk-friendly environs of Club Passim.

30th Anniversary Celebration of Matt Smith
May 12, 7 p.m.
Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge

If you’ve ever been to a Club Passim concert you’ve likely heard Matt Smith introduce the artist from the sound board while offering a friendly reminder of all of the things the member-supported non-profit venue does for the local music community. And even if Matt isn’t hosting the night, the club’s managing director most likely booked it. Since starting as a volunteer three decades ago, Smith has given thousands of artists the chance to grace the legendary folk club’s stage. His tenure is now gone on longer than that of the venue’s its prior owners, Bob and Rae Ann Donlin. Smith will be feted by an number of Passim favorites at this well-deserved celebration, including Ellis Paul, Richard Shindell, host Rose Cousins, and two of the exciting nationally emerging groups that include Passim staffers: Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light and Sweet Petunia. Bassist Zachariah Hickman will lead the house band.

— Noah Schaffer

Tanya Donelly & Chris Brokaw
May 1 at 7:30  p.m.
First Congregational Church, Cambridge, Mass.

Singer and songwriter Tanya Donelly (Belly, the Breeders, Throwing Muses) and guitarist and songwriter Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come) have embarked on an unlikely project: religious songs of the Renaissance and Middle Ages for voice and electric guitar. They’re celebrating the release of the luminous new The Undone Is Done Again (Fire Records), with songs from that EP as well as some new songs they’ve written together and older songs from their individual catalogues. They play again tomorrow in Lowell as part of The Town and The City Festival.

— Jon Garelick

Author Events

Caroline Bicks with Elizabeth Graver at Brookline Booksmith
Monsters in the Archives
April 30 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Bicks focuses on five of Stephen King’s most iconic early works — The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, ʼSalemʼs Lot, and Night Shift — to reveal how he crafted his language, story lines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells. While tracking King’s margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered scenes and alternative endings that never made it to print but that King is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history.

“Part literary master class, part biography, part memoir and investigation into our deepest anxieties, Monsters in the Archives — authorized by King himself — is unlike anything ever published about the master of horror. It chronicles what Bicks found when she set out to unearth how the author crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it’s also a story about a grown-up English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleash them.”

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein at the Harvard Science Center – Harvard Book Store
The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie
April 27 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are free or $34 with book

“Guided by her conviction that for humanity to go forward we must know our cosmic past and drawing on poetry and popular culture—from Langston Hughes, Queen Latifah, and Lewis Carroll, to Big K.R.I.T., Sun Ra, and Star Trek—Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics to tell fascinating stories about the history and fundamental nature of our universe.

Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes, and investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity, following our guide out to the far reaches of the cosmic event horizon and down to the tiniest (and queerest) neutrino. Along the way, she calls on us to resist colonial approaches to space exploration and instead imagine a better path forward in our pursuit of humanity’s undeniable connection with the stars.”

Emma Straub at Harvard Book Store
American Fantasy: A Novel 
April 27 at 7 p.m.
Free

“I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy. I was up too late reading, then got up too early to go back to reading. All I wanted was American Fantasy. It brims with truth and humanity and insight, and it made me snort like a pig. I loved it. I think the entire country will love it.” —Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Omer Aziz at Harvard Book Store
Shadows of the Republic: The Rebirth of Fascism in America and How to Defeat It for Good
April 28 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In this singular investigation into the sinister realms of fascism and its many guises, Omer Aziz, author of the acclaimed Brown Boy and contributing writer for The Boston Globe, sets out to answer the question: Why are so many young people like him drifting to the ultranationalist right? Shadows of the Republic offers a haunting portrait of American fascism, how it began, and why it is now focused on immigration, technology, and the purification of society.

Fascism is not coming to America; it has been here for a long time. With astringent clarity, Aziz traces the flaring up of fascist ideas in both American history and our current moment. From the dominance of the KKK, to the Nazi rally in New York in 1939, to the alliances between U.S. elites and European fascists, Aziz examines the long shadows of fascism. Traveling across the United States and Europe, he illuminates connections between street fascists and the ones in suits, between Hitler and the country across the ocean he so admired.”

Tom Perrotta at The Brattle Theatre – Harvard Book Store
Ghost Town: A Novel 
April 29 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $12 or $35 with book

“Tom Perrotta rouses the sleeping dogs of 1970s suburbia with tender complexity. Ghost Town is a time capsule dug up behind the old high school—an artifact of a family navigating loss in a nation at the crossroads.” — Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

Daniel Hahn in conversation with R.F. Kuang at Porter Square Books
If This Be Magic
May 1 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Shakespeare may have breathed the air of sixteenth-century England, but today, all the world is his stage. Every year, millions of people, from Bogotá to Borneo, read Hamlet for the first time, thanks to the tireless work of translators. Drawing on the work of the very best of them, Hahn dives into the infinitesimally complicated ways the great playwright is reinvented and yet sounds, somehow, like himself—in Chinese, Dutch, Turkish, and more than a hundred other languages.

Traveling the world, Hahn speaks to writers and actors engaging with Shake­speare’s work, sharing stories of his own. Hahn, whose great-grandfather produced one of Brazil’s earliest Shakespeare translations, emerges as a wise and enthusiastic guide, teacher, and sleuth. If This Be Magic does not require knowledge of any other language or more than a passing acquaintance with the Bard’s canon, but it draws out fascinating insights on both. As nerdy as they come (there is a chapter on commas), supremely readable, and funny throughout, this is a book for everyone and a fitting tribute to the Globe’s Bard.”

Gaelynn Lea at the Cambridge Public Library – Harvard Book Store
It Wasn’t Meant to Be Perfect: A Memoir
May 4 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are free or $31.88 with book

“Gaelynn Lea was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Her parents were loving, cash-strapped theater kids, and she grew up racing about in her first electric wheelchair, having adventures with her siblings, and handing out playbills at her parents’ dinner theater shows. Transfixed by an orchestra performance in 5th grade, Gaelynn was determined to play the cello. When her shortened limbs made playing the instrument challenging, she employed a familiar tactic: adapting. What if she held a violin upright in her wheelchair, like the world’s tiniest cello? That what if was the key that unlocked her lifelong music career.

After winning NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert in 2016, Lea became a full-time touring musician—and that’s when she began to truly struggle with the inaccessibility of the music world. Out of necessity, she became a dedicated advocate and activist, pushing back against the prevailing stereotypes, assumptions, and barriers with her own gently defiant style. Lea’s warm, funny, deeply-felt memoir addresses love and faith, sexuality and mortality, the frustration and the joy of difference. She shows how disability inspires and enables unique and indispensable contributions to the world, and reminds readers to think creatively, fight for what they love, and savor the journey.”

M Lin with Gish Jen at Brookline Booksmith
The Memory Museum 
May 5 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Stretching from the present to the future, from China to America and beyond, M Lin’s piercing debut story collection depicts characters finding beauty amidst the disorientation of migration, the contradictions of living between cultures, the perverse realities of race and class, and the delicate dance between survival and resistance.”

Linford D. Fisher at Brookline Booksmith
Stealing America
May 6 at 7 p.m.
Free

“From Virginia to California, from New England to Barbados, Stealing America traces the history of Indigenous enslavement and land dispossession, detailing how colonizers captured Natives and often deliberately mislabeled them as Black slaves to avoid detection. While the American Revolution pealed the bells of freedom for colonists, it paved a larcenous trail of westward expansion that subsequently plundered Indigenous land and stole the labor of Natives from nations like the Cherokee, Navajo, Nisean, and many others.”

“This double theft,’ Fisher writes, “was central to the origins, growth, and eventual success of the English colonies and the United States—not just initially but throughout all of American history.”

Hafeez Lakhani in conversation with Julia Glass at Porter Square Books
Abundance
May 7 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Two generations of a Muslim Indian family grapple with what parts of life we control and what we must humbly accept in pursuit of the American dream—for readers of Min Jin Lee, Mohsin Hamid, and Ayad Akhtar

In suburban Miami, sixty-year-old Sakeena—co-owner of a Dunkin’ franchise along with her husband, Ramzan—has nine months to live unless she consents to an organ transplant. Thirty years ago, at Ramzan’s behest, she left her beloved Rawalpindi, India, for the United States. In the years that followed, she compromised her belief in naseeb, the Muslim notion of destiny, and acquiesced to fertility treatments. This time, she is adamant that she should live as intended—without medical intervention. As her health deteriorates, Ramzan desperately seeks to reunite their grown children with the hope of convincing Sakeena to extend her life.”

— Matt Hanson