Category Archives: Concert

Jan 11

We Love to Hear It: “the motown project”

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Alicia Hall Moran

Via the Under the Radar Festival 2021
Conceived, arranged, and performed by Alicia Hall Moran
Presented by Joe’s Pub
Part of Joe’s Pub New York Voices Commission
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype
Featuring:  Thomas Flippin (guitar), Steven Herring (vocals), Barrington Lee (vocals), Jason Moran (piano), and Reggie Washington (bass) in collaboration with choreographer Amy Hall Garner

Production Program 
January 8 – 17, 2021
The Public Theater YouTube Channel
Public Theater on Facebook

Critique by Kitty Drexel

YouTube — Opera singers can sing anything.

Twelve years ago I took an audition course at London’s ArtsEd summer school as part of my then year-long transition from singing opera to musical theatre. On the first day, like with so any courses of its ilk, the instructors had the students sing for each other. I sang a Kurt Weill piece to show off my legit voice with the intention of following up with a mixed belt/character piece should the instructors request it.  Continue reading →

Nov 05

Marching with my anger and my grief: “Notes on Me & You”

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​

Produced as part of the Hartford Theatre Festival 
Created by Dawson Atkin and N.J. Collay
Performed by Sam Vana

October 9 – November 9, 2020
Hartford Fringe Festival 
https://www.hartfordfringefestival.org/
Hartford Fringe on Vimeo

Review by Kitty Drexel 

Vimeo/Hartford, CT — I write this review from the floor of the 4 bedroom apartment that I share with my brilliant, non-binary wife and our two housemates in Somerville, MA. I’m at my wife’s feet and as they work on COVID-19 science for a Cambridge lab. We’re both attacking work job projects with an unnecessary focus because we’d otherwise be rage scrolling Twitter for 2020 election news updates. Biden is in the lead while the Narcissist in Chief refuses to accept his electoral losses. 

Trump hates the LGBTQ+ community. His administration’s repeated attacks on us prove it. His vice president supports conversion therapy. 

Trump hates Black, Brown, and Asian people.

He hates immigrants. 

He hates disabled people. 

He hates everyone who isn’t him. He hates everyone who doesn’t worship in the cult of his narcissism. He’s allowing them to die from a highly contagious virus that there is no cure for. History is repeating itself. 

Why does he hate us so much? We just want to live.

Fifty percent of the US is voting for this hateful man. Even when Biden wins and finally takes the White House with Harris, it will be impossible to know who to trust just like it was in 2016. 

Reagan hated the LGBTQ+ community with such a passion that he let us die by the tens of thousands from the “gay plague” in the 1980s. His administration was indifferent to our deaths during the AIDS crisis. Reagan’s inaction was historically captured for posterity and was made into art: The Normal Heart, Angels in America, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and now Atkin and Collay’s Notes on Me & You currently at the Hartford Fringe Festival.   Continue reading →

Jul 13

“Pride Marches On” is a Digital Showcase

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Presented by Company One Theatre
Hosted by (and Featuring a Performance By) Neon Calypso
Poetry by Nico Pang
“Permission” Written by Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Josh Glenn-Kayden
Performed by Tatiana Isabel Gil & Hayley Spivey
Technical Production by Mads Massey

Performance on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOyjh79VsEo
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/companyone/

Review by Chloé Cunha

YOUTUBE — Pride – and just about everything else – may have been canceled this year, but leave it to the queer community to rally anyway and keep the show going. “Pride Marches On” is a digital showcase of a few different art forms, featuring poetry from Nico Pang, a play by Kirsten Greenidge, and a drag performance from Neon Calypso, who doubles as host for the show. It’s a short, fun and politically engaging piece of media for anyone who needs a break from their Netflix binge (be honest, you’re probably getting into some obscure territory by now anyway). Continue reading →

Jun 28

Tranquility isn’t Bliss: “Reagan Esther Myer”

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Photo taken by the Queen Geek; oh look, a room full of nightmares.

Presented by Rebecca Kopycinski
Mixing and video art by Michael Dewberry

June 27 – 30, 2019
Center for the Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave
Somerville, MA
Instagram It

Critique by Kitty Drexel

 “WARNING! You exhibit symptoms of a glitched ThotBot. An ULTRA Operative has been deployed to reboot your operating system. Avoid contact with other Bots until you have been successfully rebooted.”  – ThotBot.me, http://thotbot.me/glitch.html on 6/28/2019.

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — The ThotBot Implantation Center fliers are all over Camberville. An acquaintance assumed they were for a cult. No, they are for Reagan Esther Myer, a one-woman, multimedia, performance art concert about a dystopian future in which The Ultra leads through thought-control and nearly all human brains rely on tech to retain peace of mind. In these days of Texas concentration camps and selling your gold for cash, this science fiction drama isn’t at all far fetched.    Continue reading →

Dec 10

Ethos of Old World fables: “A Story Beyond”

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Presented by Liars & Believers
Written by Jason Slavick and Rachel Wiese
Music and Lyrics by Nathan Leigh
Directed by Jason Slavick and Faye Dupras

Dec 6 – Dec 22, 2018
Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116
Liars & Believers on Facebook

Review by Diana Lu 

(Boston, MA) A Story Beyond is a reimagined fable inspired by various European folklores. This new musical tells the story of a young girl, Maya, who makes a dangerous and fantastical journey to figure out how to save her village from a dark cloud that threatens to turn everyone she loves into lead. Maya’s story is told through puppets, shadow puppets, mask theatre, and a two-person band. Other folk tales are interwoven with the main plot like a Spokane. Continue reading →

Feb 20

World Music Concert: Presenting Carla Bruni

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Presented by the World Music/CrashArts

Thursday, 15 February 2018 ONLY
Berklee Performance Center
136 Massachusetts Avenue
Carla Bruni on Facebook

Reviewed by Bishop C. Knight

(Boston, MA) As a vocalist Carla Bruni had an effortless delivery, and she was best crooning at a mellow level, which any close listener of Bruni’s albums would already know.  Her voice was much fuller and sultrier at a slow pace, which conveyed more genuine feelings that the audience sensed and responded to with thundery clapping.  Program notes provided by World Music/CrashARTS prepared the audience for a coup de foudre, the French term for falling in love at first sight, trying to ready everyone for a moody and emotional evening of intimate ballads.  Ultimately, as anticipated, this was a performance for romantics to attend the week of Valentine’s Day; a concert presenting new songs from Carla Bruni’s latest album called “French Touch.” Continue reading →

Feb 18

The Benefits of Inflection: “A Winter Gathering of New Music & Multimedia Performance”

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From “Picture This.” Veronica Anastasio Wiseman, Adara Meyers, and Blair Nodelman with baggage.

Presented by Sleeping Weazel
Co-produced by Charlotte Meehan and Adara Meyers

Feb. 15 – 26, 2018
Plaza Black Box Theatre
Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont St
Boston, MA
Sleeping Weazel on Facebook

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Boston, MA) A Winter Gathering of New Music & Multimedia Performance is an intimate multimedia salon theatre experience. It’s a concert with dramatic sketches. It’s a lot of things including unusual, fun and experimental. Continue reading →

Feb 09

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO: Sunday, February 11, 3pm

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Boston, MA — World Music/CRASHarts presents Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Sunday, February 11, 3pm at Sanders Theater, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge. Tickets are $48, $37, $32, and $28, reserved seating. For tickets and information call World Music/CRASHarts at (617) 876-4275 or buy online at www.WorldMusic.org.
(Cambridge, MA) With the power of gospel and the precision of Broadway, Ladysmith Black Mambazo is the undisputed king of mbube, South African a cappella singing. The group came together in the early 1960s and continues to thrill audiences around the world with its strong, proud melodies harmonized in layers of call and response.

Continue reading →

Jan 23

Carla Bruni in Concert on Thursday, February 15, 7:30pm

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(c) Mathieu Zazzo

WORLD MUSIC/CRASHarts presents

the Boston debut of
CARLA BRUNI

Thursday, February 15, 7:30pm
Berklee Performance Center, Boston
(Boston, MA) World Music/CRASHarts presents the Boston debut of Carla Bruni on Thursday, February 15, 7:30pm at Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. Tickets are $79, $58, $48, and $37, reserved seating. For tickets and information call World Music/CRASHarts at (617) 876-4275 or buy online at www.WorldMusic.org.
With a beautiful and alluring voice, Italian-born French supermodel Carla Bruni has seduced the world with her intimate love songs. She is touring in support of her new album, French Touch, a collection of adaptations of well-known songs by Depeche Mode, AC/DC, Willie Nelson, The Clash, and more.

Continue reading →

Nov 01

Magic in the Making: Alice Ripley in concert, “Live from 16 Gramercy Park”

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© 2016 The Players

© 2016 The Players; poster for the concert on Oct. 28, 2016

Presented by The Players
Concert featuring Alice Ripley and music director/accompanist John Fischer

Oct. 28, 2016 at 9PM and 10:30PM
16 Gramercy Park South
New York, NY 10003
The Players on Facebook
“Live From 16 Gramercy Park” concert series on Playbill

Review by Kitty Drexel

A special thank you to Joe Gehring for securing tickets to the event and a private tour of The Players (which was super cool).

(New York, NY) Over the weekend, I had the privilege of catching one of two intimate concerts performed by Alice Ripley at The Players social club in NYC. They are the first in a new series called “Live From 16 Gramercy Park.” Ms. Ripley sang a fine set of her own songs and performed, to great applause, a set of musical theatre repertoire. With a 10:30PM start time, It was a glorious (and late) night. Continue reading →