Jan 31

The US premiere of “Metáfora”: Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía

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WORLD MUSIC/CRASHarts presents Flamenco Festival 2013 featuring

the Boston debut of

Photo credit: Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia

Photo credit: Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia

Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía
performing the US premiere of Metáfora

 BOSTON, MA — World Music/CRASHarts presents the Boston debut of Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía on Friday, March 1, 7:30pm, Saturday, March 2, 8pm and Sunday, March 3, 3pm at the Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, 219 Tremont St., Boston.

Flamenco Festival 2013 returns for a 12th glorious season of world-class flamenco dance and music with the massively popular Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, coming to Boston for the first time, direct from Spain. This renowned company of 17 dancers, singers and musicians, directed by award-wining flamenco star Rubén Olmo, presents the US premiere of Metáfora, a dazzling kaleidoscope of castanets, fans, traditional flamenco bata de cola dresses, powerful footwork, demanding technique and jaw-dropping athleticism. It is a program that will inspire the audience with the emotion, drama and passion of Andalucía, the cradle of flamenco. Continue reading →

Jan 30

“Everything Can Happen; Everything is Possible and Likely”

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Heart & Dagger Productions

presents

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Heart & Dagger Productions plunge into their 3rd Season with A DREAM PLAY by August Strindberg.  The production opens February 22, 2013 at The Factory Theatre, Boston, MA.

Agnes, a daughter of the Vedic god Indra, descends to Earth to bear witness to problems of human beings. Following the logic of a dream in which characters merge, locations change in an instant and a locked door recurs obsessively-A DREAM PLAY is a potent mix of Freud plus Alice in Wonderland. “The characters split, double, multiply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and merge.”

Featuring:
Elizabeth Battey, Quentin James, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, Lauren Foster, Eric McGowan, Drew Linehan, Angel Veza, Michael Dix Thomas, Nicole Howard, Katie Drexel, Tony Dangerfield, Jenny Reagan, Erin Brehm, and Ryan Edlinger. Continue reading →

Jan 29

An Epic Act of Foley: “Lo-Fi Lowdown”

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Pictured: Tanya O’Debra Photo credit: Molly Peck

Pictured: Tanya O’Debra Photo credit: Molly Peck

Act One: Jazz Noir, by Bremner Duthie
Act Two: RADIO STAR, by Tanya O’Debra
Directed by Peter James Cook
Original Music by Andrew Mauriello

January 27th @ 7pm
Club Oberon
Cambridge, MA
Lo-Fi Lowdown Facebook Page

Review by Kitty Drexel

(Cambridge) Lo-Fi Lowdown was an homage to the Noir style and the art that it inspires. The first half of the performance was a jumping jazz concert lead by Bremner Duthie and his combo. The second half belonged to Tanya O’Debra and her one-woman radio play Radio Star. Together these two halves complied a fresh evening of cabaret and Foley fun. Continue reading →

Jan 27

Contemplative Sadness in “Family Happiness”

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Photo credit THEATRE-ATELIER PIOTR FOMENKO

Photo credit THEATRE-ATELIER PIOTR FOMENKO

Based on  the novel by Leo Tolstoy
Directed by Piotr Fomenko
Performances are in Russian with English subtitles

presented by Maestro Artist Management, in association with ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage

Cutler Majestic Theatre
Boston, MA
January 26-27, 2013

Maestro Artist Management Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Boston) Premiering at the Theater-Atelier Piotr Fomenko in 2000 in Moscow, and only in Boston for the weekend, Family Happiness tells the story of the ill matched marriage between Masha (Ksenia Kutepova) and Sergey Mihailovich (Alexey Kolubkov). The plot is a simple one and the pace is quiet, thoughtful, and slow for audiences with short attention spans. For everyone else, Leo Tolstoy’s Family Happiness is a somber prize. Continue reading →

Jan 26

An Aborted Liftoff: AS BEES IN HONEY DROWN

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Photo by Ross Brown.

Photo by Ross Brown.

presented by The F.U.D.G.E. Theatre Company

by Douglas Carter Beane
directed by Joe DeMita

January 24th – 27th, 2013
The Factory Theatre
Boston, MA
F.U.D.G.E Theatre Co Facebook Page

Review by Craig Idlebrook

(Boston) Sometimes, the most frustrating performance to watch is one where you can see the potential. F.U.D.G.E Theatre Company’s production of As Bees in Honey Drown has all the ingredients for a devastating critique on our fame-hungry society, but the individual parts of the show do not add up to a good production, and the audience is left to ponder what could have been. Continue reading →

Jan 26

No More Love on the Run*: Purcell’s THE INDIAN QUEEN

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Purcell Queen

presented by the Handel and Haydn Society
Harry Christophers, Artist Director
Aisslinn Nosky, Concert Master
John Finney, Chorusmaster

January 25 & 27, 2013
Jordan Hall & Sanders Theatre
Boston, MA
Handel and Haydn Facebook Page

There are some culture-lovers reluctant to attend an evening of opera. Some fear pomp and stuffiness; others fear boredom. These fears encumber the uninitiated with false bias against the excellence that only classical music can convey. H&H’s performance of The Indian Queen was entirely lacking in snobbery and the program notes were jam packed with enough historical trivia to entertain a fidgety toddler. The music of Purcell was warm and gentle. It wrapped around the audience like an electric Snuggie; a balm for the bitter winter chill.   Continue reading →

Jan 25

Concert/World Premiere: “The Cat and the Moon”

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Photo credit: Ellen Mandel; Kitty companions should be left at home.

Photo credit: Ellen Mandel; Kitty companions should be left at home.

Daniel Neer sings music by Ellen Mandel at the ”Pianos Plus Concert”

New songs to poems by Thomas Hardy, Seamus Heaney, WB Yeats, e.e. cummings, and others, including a World Premiere of Yeats’ sweet  “The Cat and the Moon.”

New Gallery Concerts
Thurs January 31 at 7 PM
The Community Music Center of Boston
34 Warren Avenue, Boston, MA 02116

Ellen Mandel Facebook Page
more information:  (617) 254-4133
http://www.newgalleryconcertseries.org/
Available on Amazon.com

Also on the program: Pianists, Sarah Bob, Marti Epstein, and John McDonald, performing music by Barish, Epstein, McDonald, and Woolf, and an exhibit of works by multi-media artist Chelsea Revelle. REVIEWS: Continue reading →

Jan 24

The Bad Plus premiere of “On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring”

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Photo: Cameron Wittig; not just handsome faces.

Photo: Cameron Wittig; The Bad Plus, not just handsome faces.

presented by World Music/CRASHarts

The Bad Plus
Performing the Boston premiere of On Sacred Ground: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Friday, February 15, 7:00 PM and at 9:30 PM

Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Ave
Boston, 02210
General admission $35.00
World Music/CRASHarts Facebook Page
The Bad Plus Facebook Page

Rule-breaking, genre-bending and thoroughly entertaining, the charismatic jazz trio returns with its daring take on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, accompanied by a mind-blowing video mix by lighting designer Cristina Guadalupe and film director Noah Hutton.

Jan 24

“At the Mountaintop” Delivers Unexpected, Unwelcome Twist

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Presented by Underground Railway Theater

Presented by Underground Railway Theater

Produced by Underground Railway Theater

By Katori Hall
directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian

January 10 – February 3, 2013
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Central Square Theater Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge) Sometimes, there’s a moment in a show that can make or break it. When that moment comes, the audience will divide accordingly. Maybe this turn is cheesy, too scary, or just a little off-kilter with the rest of the story. When it happens in At the Mountaintop, and the audience will know when it does, it redefines the sort of narrative being watched. The show starts out smart but softens into a peculiar if interesting mess.

Katori Hall’s two-man play concerns the late and well-loved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Maurice Emmanuel Parent) and his conversations with a hotel maid, Camae (Kami Rushell Smith). Like A Picasso by Jeffrey Hatcher, performed by The Salem Theatre Company last year, Central Square Theater’s At the Mountaintop concerns two personalities bouncing off each other in a contained space. Also like A Picasso, one happens to be famous and respected while the other, an intrigued woman, has slipped
through the cracks of history. Continue reading →

Jan 22

LO-FI LOWDOWN: A Double Bill of Epic Old-timey Proportions

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LO-FI LOWDOWN
COMES TO OBERON FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY

Pictured: Tanya O’Debra Photo credit: Molly Peck

Pictured: Tanya O’Debra, her make-up is flawless. Photo credit: Molly Peck.

ACT ONE: JAZZ NOIR, BY BREMNER DUTHIE
ACT TWO: RADIO STAR, BY TANYA O’DEBRA
JANUARY 27TH @ 7PM
Lo-Fi Lowdown Facebook Page

 Cambridge, MA: The Boston premiere of Lo-Fi Lowdown, a double bill of epic old-timey proportions, comes to Oberon (2 Arrow Street Cambridge, MA) for one night only. This 1940’s themed cabaret/radio show plays on Sunday, January 27th at 7pm. Tickets ($18) are available at the door and online.

Act One: Jazz Noir, by Bremner Duthie
Bremner sings songs from the era of Film Noir. Songs from the dangerous night on the dark side of the street, like a burst of passion on a lazy afternoon, leaving violence in their wake.

Act Two: RADIO STAR, by Tanya O’Debra
Directed by Peter James Cook
Original Music by Andrew Mauriello
Boston native cum NYC comedienne Tanya O’Debra brings her award winning play, Radio Star, to Oberon for her first hometown show.