I was seduced into binge watching Sanctuary, an eight episode Japanese series on Netflix. It focuses on sumo wrestling, the national sport that is unique to Japan. Obesity is essential to success in the sport resulting in disease and premature death. While I had no prior knowledge of the sport I am now a fan.

The Cape Ann Museum presents its next special exhibition, Above the Fold: The Photographers of the “Gloucester Daily Times,” 1973-2005, featuring a selection of works by photographers shooting for the Times for over three decades. The captivating photographs in this exhibition draw on an important archive of an estimated one million photographs which is a recent acquisition donated to CAM by the North of Boston Media Group. 

The Clark Art Institute announces its summer 2024 schedule, featuring a robust program of exhibitions, events, and activities. Leading its summer program is a major new exhibition of works by French artist Guillaume Lethière featuring some eighty paintings, prints, and drawings. Organized in partnership with the Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum), the exhibition premieres at the Clark and then travels to Paris for an autumn 2024 exhibition at the Louvre.

Poor Nemorino is in love with his employer, Adina, but she has other things in mind. Along comes Dr. Dulcamara, an itinerant snake oil salesman, who has just the love potion that will make Nemorino irresistible to Adina. Of course, it's really red wine. Frivolity ensues and all live happily ever after.

The Women in Classical Music Symposium in Dallas was not acrimonious. No one whined. Instead, the spirit was exploratory. There was some feeling that 'what you heard here should stay here' in Dallas. This was odd because many of the problems that were raised and then discussed were common to men and women across the color and gender spectrum.

The Royal Ballet of the United Kingdom, will appear at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival for the first time, as the company’s sole stop in the United States in 2024. To celebrate this milestone, Jacob’s Pillow will for the first time feature daily back-to-back performances from one company in multiple venues, with one program on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, and another distinct program in the historic indoor Ted Shawn Theatre.

In this fact-based story, a Muslim scholar is captured and enslaved in South Carolina. After various travails, he is purchased by a relatively humane master who encourages his writing and religious thinking, even while arguing that he prays to a false God, believing the Muslim Allah to be different from the Christian God.

The La Jolla Playhouse adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's classic novel Babbitt tells the story of George F. Babbitt, played by Matthew Broderick.  Set in a sleek modern library, the ensemble cast, scattered around the library reading the novel, tells Babbitt’s story. It is. a smash hit.

One of America's foremost realist painters, Jeff Weaver, lives and works in Gloucester. His exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum preceded the blockbuster show of Edward and Josephine Hopper. Weaver drew little media and critical attention while the Hoppers put Gloucester on the map. There are apt comparisons. Hopper was more famous and a better artist while Weaver, hands down, is the more skillful painter.

These were seen by the reviewer on a trip to NYC for the American Theatre Critics Association conference. Each of the four is worth seeing with history and music being common threads. Supported by excerpts of period music, "Spies" tells the true story of a 17th century friar who was charged with preventing what would become the 30 Years War. The dark "Watch" uses operatic form and modern dance to tell a story related to the real-life mass murders in a Charleston church with a black congregation and a Pittsburgh synagogue. "Wholesale" is a heavily adapted revival of the 1962 musical that launched Barbra Streisand's career. "Love" tells the story of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos in sung-through immersive disco fashion!

Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) and Park Avenue Armory are the two New York venues you can count on to deliver. Arin Arbus’ new take on Waiting for Godot is no exception.

Several categories saw ties this year, including the top honors for Outstanding Musical Production and . Barrington Stage Company’s production of Cabaret and the Sharon Playhouse production of Something Rotten shared the musical award. Shakespeare & Company’s production of August Wilson’s Fences shared the top play production honors with Bridge Street Theatre’s East of Berlin.

Private Jones is based on the true story of a young man from a small Welsh town who manages to enlist in the British army during WWI despite a hearing loss.  He may not be able to hear, but he can shoot, becoming a sniper taking out German soldiers from across the trenches.

In 1993, Bradley Pennington, already an accomplished musician and teacher, formed the Boston Bel Canto Opera making it a much-welcomed addition to Greater Boston’s cultural arts community. Its aim — then and now -- is to bring the absolute finest in operatic performances to its audiences.

Kim Noltemy, the Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, joined the Dallas Symphony Association (DSA) in January 2018. (She had worked for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 21 years). One of her first initiatives was a symposium for Women in Classical Music. Noltemy moved fast and the first conference was held in 2019

Marking the fiftieth anniversary of its Manton Research Center, the Clark Art Institute presents the opportunity to see a selection of prints, drawings, and photographs acquired between 1973 and 2023. 50 Years and Forward: Works on Paper Acquisitions opens on December 16, 2023 and is on view through March 10, 2024 in the Clark Center. The exhibition features several recent acquisitions as well as other works never previously shown at the Clark.

The Kronos String Quartet and their collaborators, among them Carnegie Hall which presented this evening, celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of this radical and exciting group.  

A black foundling with a gift for reading the future is raised in a seemingly color-blind community. The people relationships that surround her are sometimes complicated and opaque. And when the niece of the only black man in town arrives, the horizons of the now 18-year old, Bulrusher, expand.

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) announces Selva Aparicio as the winner of the 2023 Burke Prize. Established in 2018, the Museum’s biennial prize honoring excellence in contemporary craft is named for craft collectors Marian and Russell Burke. It awards an unrestricted $50,000 to an artist aged 45 or under working in the United States.

The New Federal Theater is producing a brilliant production of Wesley Brown’s play, Telling Tales Out of School.  A quartet of famous and not-so-famous writers from the Harlem Renaissance, all women, three Black and one white, attend the funeral of Alain Locke. 

Carol K. Brown’s latest work "Someplace Else" consists of watercolor paintings and a series of drawings titled "Modified Husband." This exhibition is a culmination of Brown’s desire for detail, layered with humorous subject matter.

If Jane Austen is a favorite author and you have watched and enjoyed every film and TV production of Pride and Prejudice, you might think the current production at Hartford Stage would be a delight. BUT for many of you, me included, it isn’t.

A stirring production of "I Love a Piano" is playing at Boca Raton's Wick Theatre in South Florida. The production runs through Nov. 12. Triple threat performers and backstage artists shine.

It is disappointing to find the current production of Sunset Boulevard not living up to that standard.

As co-founder (with Ralph Gleason) of the most influential rock and popular culture magazine of its era, Jann S. Wenner is anointed and had the platform to make Zeus-like Olympian statements. But pure ego consumes his assumption that his short list of “friends” represents “the greatest rock stars and cultural icons of our time.” The seven that he crowned in his book The Masters are all white, straight and male.