Bronco Bullfrog, a 1969 British film depicting youths in East London searching for
identity in the post-war industrial wasteland of the British working class of the 1960s, will be screened at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, Mass., on Saturday at 8 p.m. The film is a classic of British social realism that was shot in a run-and-gun style, with non-actors improvising their dialogue. Immediately following the screening there will be a dance party featuring live music including songs by groups like the Small Faces, the Knickerbockers, the Kinks, and the Who, whose recordings provided the live soundtrack of the Mod subculture. (Sat, Feb 10)
Renée Anne Louprette performs works by J.S. Bach, César Franck, and Felix Mendelssohn on the 1893 Johnson Organ at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in Housatonic, Mass., on Saturday at 2 p.m., in a concert presented by Berkshire Bach. The Johnson organ has been called a hidden gem of the Berkshires for its sweet voice and musicality. Louprette has performed on many of the world’s greatest organs, including the one at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris before its destruction in the great fire. (Sat, Feb 10)
The Orchestra Now will perform ‘The Sound of Spring: A Chinese New Year Concert,’ featuring contemporary symphonic music from China, will take place at the Bard Fisher Center in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Saturday at 3 p.m. This year’s program presents festive Chinese music specially selected to welcome the lunar new year. (Sat, Feb 10)
Singer-songwriter and pianist A.J. Croce will pay tribute to the memory of his late, legendary father -- hitmaker singer-songwriter Jim Croce -- whose hits included “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” “Time In A Bottle,” “Operator,” and “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” -- in concert with his band at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, N.Y., on Saturday at 8 p.m. The show will include a moving, multimedia experience in which A.J. will perform his own songs in addition to tracks from his father’s mega-successful albums. (Sat, Feb 10)
The Avalon String Quartet will perform the Berkshire premiere of Stacy Garrop’s For Such a Time as This, a retelling of the biblical Book of Esther for string quartet and vocalist from a feminist perspective, at St. James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., on Sunday at 4 p.m., as part of the Close Encounters With Music concert series. Mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley takes on the role of narrator, alternatively playing Queen Vashti, King Ahasuerus, Queen Esther and her guardian Mordecai, as well as the villain Haman, who seeks to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Persia. The program also includes works by Mendelssohn and Puccini. (Sun, Feb 11)
Also of note:
Rock singer-songwriter Willie Nile, often compared to Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan with a bit of Lou Reed thrown in for good measure, brings his unique brand of folk-rock to the Towne Crier Cafe in Beacon, N.Y., on Saturday at 8 p.m. (Sat, Feb 10)
The 2024 Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare will stage The Course of True Love: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., on Saturday at 3 p.m. (Sat, Feb 10)
The Ghent Playhouse in Ghent, N.Y., opens its 2024 season with All My Sons, the Tony Award-winning drama by iconic American playwright Arthur Miller. This tense family drama was Miller’s second and established him as a leading voice in American theater. All My Sons runs tonight through Sunday, February 18. (Feb 9-18)
Violinist Jamecyn Morey and pianist Noah Palmer perform mid-20th century Romantic Modernism, perfected by composers like Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland, with splashes of Gershwin and early-20th century female composers, at Trinity Lenox in Lenox, Mass., on Sunday, February 18, at 3 p.m. The program concludes with Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy dances from West Side Story. (Sun, Feb 18)
Seth Rogovoy is editor of the Rogovoy Report, available at rogovoyreport.substack.com.
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