Arts Events for a New Year
January's Boston Highlights
By: Barbara Brilliant - Dec 26, 2010
What? 2011! Wasn’t it just yesterday that we celebrated the Millennium? It makes me realize that time, in fact, is finite. This never crossed my mind when I was young. So I am dancing as fast as I can and that includes inhaling the arts in big gulps. After all, life without the arts makes me nothing more that human robot. Here are some January ideas for like-minded culture vultures.
WHAT: LIZ AND ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY “BOOM!”
WHERE: SANDERS THEATRE
WHEN: Friday, January 21 at 8pm
TICKETS: 617-482-6661
How would you like to listen to he do the songs of Joni Mitchell, Carole King?
The Beatles, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and Carly Simon? Well you can and by some fabulous singers.
Celebrity Series of Boston will present sister singers LIZ AND ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY IN “BOOM!,” a celebration of the music of the 1960s and 1970s on Friday, January 21 at 8pm at Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge LIZ AND ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY celebrate the music of the 1960s and 1970s
Tony nominee and Emmy Award winner LIZ CALLAWAY has starred in numerous Broadway productions, including Merrily We Roll Along, Baby, Miss Saigon, The Three Musketeers, The Look of Love, and Cats, where she played the role of Grizabella for five years. She has also starred in numerous off-Broadway shows, as well as the internationally acclaimed Sibling Revelry with her sister, Ann Hampton Callaway.
Her numerous film and television credits include the singing voices of Anastasia in the award-winning animated film, Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and the King of Thieves, and Nala in The Lion King II. Liz is also an accomplished studio singer, and can be heard on more than 35 recordings. Her most recent solo album is 2009’s Passage of Time, a collection of classic pop and show tunes. Her extensive concert career includes appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and in London, China, France, Iceland, Estonia and nearly every major city in the United States.
As a champion of the great American Songbook, ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY has made her mark as a singer, pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, actress, educator, TV host and producer. She is best known for starring in the hit Broadway musical Swing! and for writing and singing the theme to the popular TV series, “The Nanny.”
She has sung with more than 25 of the world's top orchestras and big bands, and has performed for President Clinton in Washington, D.C. and at President Gorbachev's Youth Peace Summit in Moscow. Ann has been a special guest performer with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, and is featured at many of the Carnegie Hall tributes.
Ann made her feature film debut in the Robert De Niro film The Good Shepherd, performing the standard "Come Rain or Come Shine." She also recorded "Isn't It Romantic?" and "The Nearness of You" for Wayne Wong's Last Holiday, starring Queen Latifah.
Her most recent album At Last, a collection of love songs, was released in 2009, joining her previous albums Signature, the award-winning live recording Sibling Revelry, and Slow and Blues in the Night. She has recorded two popular holiday CDs- Holiday Pops! with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, and her solo CD This Christmas. Ann has also been a guest performer on more than 40 CDs including Kenny Barron's latest CD The Traveler.
WHAT: Ruined
WHEN: January 7 – February 6, 2011
WHERE: Boston University Theatre – 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
TICKETS: huntingtontheatre.org; 617 266-0800, or in person at the B.U. Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Avenue or the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Box Office, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.
The Huntington Theatre Company continues its 29th season with Ruined by Lynn Nottage (Intimate Apparel, Crumbs from the Table of Joy), directed by South Africa native Liesl Tommy. The ensemble cast features Tonye Patano (Showtime’s “Weeds”) as Mama Nadi. Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Ruined was extended multiple times Off Broadway and earned an Obie Award and the Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Play (Manhattan Theatre Club, Goodman Theatre). Ruined is a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
In 2004, Nottage traveled to East Africa to interview Congolese women fleeing the armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “I was fueled by my desire to tell the story of war, but through the eyes of women, who as we know rarely start conflicts but inevitably find themselves right smack in the middle of them,” explains Nottage. “I was interested in giving voice and audience to African women living in the shadows of war. I knew their stories weren’t being heard. I wanted to understand who they were beyond their status as victims. I was surprised by the number of women who readily wanted to share their stories, and by the end of the interviews; I realized that a war was being fought over the bodies of women. Rape was being used as a weapon to punish and destroy communities.”
WHAT: R.BUCKMINISTER FULLER
WHERE: AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE
WHEN: JAN 14 for 3 weeks
TICKETS: American Repertory Theater | 64 Brattle Street | Cambridge | MA | 02138
Who was R. Buckminster Fuller? Futurist, environmentalist, poet, inventor, humanist...a man ahead of his time. Fuller's plans and ideas have shaped our world, provided a road map for a sustainable future, and inspired countless others to follow in his footsteps. In an inspired one-man show, A.R.T. favorite Thomas Derrah gives a tour de force performance and embodies the giant behind the vision. Don't miss this limited engagement.
"Caution, this play...contains IDEAS."
- San Diego Reader\
WHAT: JERSEY BOYS
WHERE: COLONIAL THEATRE
WHEN: THROUGH JANUARY 20
TICKETS:
Jersey Boys is one of those new compilation shows where they take a group of relevant song and write a play around it. Mama Mia did it with ABBA songs and Jersey Boys tells the tale of the Frankie Avalon and the Four Seasons. It is hard not to like this musical.
WHAT: Hysteria, or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis
WHERE: Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
WHEN: January 6- 30, 2011
TICKETS: (866) 811-4111, CentralSquareTheater.org
Two of the world’s greatest and most eccentric minds, Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali, collide in Terry Johnson’s Olivier award-winning comedy, HYSTERIA, OR FRAGMENTS OF AN ANALYSIS OF AN OBSESSIONAL NEUROSIS produced by The Nora Theatre Company and directed by Associate Director Daniel Gidron.
Inspired by an actual meeting between Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali, HYSTERIA is a demonic, farcical romp of hilarious misunderstandings about passions and self-control. Dali arrives at Freud's house for tea, his ulterior motive of painting the patron saint of Surrealism. If Freud, whose artistic preferences are more classical, were convinced all Surrealists are fools, why would he agree to meet with a lunatic? Meanwhile, a young, attractive student has also arrived, seeking the doctor’s professional opinion, and she won't take no for an answer. Whether you have obessional neurosis or not you will be hysterical.
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO DO ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON? CHECK OUT THE BOSTON LYRIC OPERA’S MINI COURSE.
WHAT: In preparation for its new Opera Annex production of Viktor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death
deuits (opening Feb. 1), BLO’s creative team will explore the tragic history of the work, its moving legacy, and BLO’s new production in a one-hour round table discussion at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Participants will include conductor Steven Lipsitt, stage director David Schweizer, and Richard Beaudoin, composer of the world premier prologue, The After-Image, which BLO commissioned for this production. Cast members will perform excerpts from The Emperor of Atlantis and provide the first public preview of The After-Image, along with other musical selections from Theresienstadt. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University.
WHEN: SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 2011, 2 to 3 p.m.
WHERE: Remis Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston
TICKETS: On sale through the MFA Box Office; $18 for BLO subscribers, MFA members, students and seniors. $22 for non-members, general admission. A Signature Reception will be held following the discussion, during which guests can mingle with performers and BLO’s creative team. Reception tickets are $50 and can be purchased by calling 617.542.4912 x229 or emailing Events@blo.org.
ABOUT THE SIGNATURE SERIES: This presentation is part of BLO’s ongoing collaboration with the MFA to employ different art forms, including film, visual arts, theater and music, to highlight a theme in each of BLO’s 2010-2011 Season operas. The partnership began last season, and attendance has increased steadily. The presentation is paired with a casual reception for guests and artists.
ABOUT THE OPERA: Ullmann composed The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Quits with the libretto by the young Czech poet Petr Kien in 1943 while imprisoned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, also known as Terezin. Their work explores despotism, ethics and power through the wry tale of an emperor who sentences everyone in the world to die but is thwarted when an offended Death refuses to cooperate. The opera reached the rehearsal stage in Theresienstadt, but was never performed; Ullmann and Kien were transported to Auschwitz and killed in 1944 before the work could be presented. The score was preserved through survivors and reconstructed decades later.
Today, The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Quits is rarely performed in this country as a fully staged opera. Part of the Recovered Voices Project, it has only been seen in New England in concert form. BLO’s production will be the first of its kind in the region; it will be presented as the Company’s 2011 Opera Annex, a production staged outside the traditional theatre space with lower ticket prices. Performances are February 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6m, 2011 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in Boston.
Here’s this years schedule heads-up for ArtsEmerson. This is a new venture of edgy creative theatre. Check it out.
Jan. 19—23, In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards, Paramount Black Box
Jan. 25—30, PSY, Cutler Majestic Theatre
Jan. 27—Feb. 6, The Color of Rose (world premiere), Paramount Black Box
Feb. 2—6, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Paramount Mainstage
Feb. 8—13, Terminus, Paramount Mainstage
March 15—20, The Select (The Sun Also Rises), Paramount Mainstage
March 23—27, Fragments, Paramount Mainstage
March 23—April 3, The Grand Inquisitor, Paramount Black Box
March 29—April 10, The Merchant of Venice starring F. Murray Abraham, Cutler Majestic Theatre
April 15—23, The Andersen Project, Cutler Majestic Theatre
May 10—15, Farfalle, Paramount Black Box (co-presented with Celebrity Series of Boston)