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Courtesy of Audrey KupferbergThe Friend, which features potent performances by Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, hit theater screens this spring and now can be streamed. The plot focuses on Murray’s character, Walter, a successful New York City-based writer, who left his beloved great dane behind when he chose to commit suicide. -
WAMCShake It Up: A Shakespeare Cabaret, a mash-up of modern music and Shakespearean verse, is presented by Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., today through Sunday. Allyn Burrows, director and co-creator of Shake It Up, says “Shakespeare and rock ‘n’ roll have been part of the fabric and lifeblood of popular culture for a long time. Mashing them together yielded fun and fascinating results.”
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So many writers are putting the emphasis on action or circumstances. What they fail to provide audiences with are proper introductions to their characters. The most successful shows-- whether on stage, films, TV shows, take the time to create interesting, riveting personalities. -
This is officially the first weekend of summer and the summer theater companies are flourishing. -
Years ago, the late renowned film archivist David Shepard put together a restored version of Merry-Go-Round (1923) from two16mm reduction prints. Film historians and silent film enthusiasts applauded the opportunity to see this notorious film.
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Martha Redbone brings her blend of soul, funk, pop, and Native American sounds to the Hunter Center at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., on Saturday at 8pm.
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Local talent, writer/filmmaker John McCarty, has published many film books and a few mystery novels over the years. He also has made competent, exciting films, many through his studio Leering Buzzard Pictures. Several are available online on Amazon’s Prime Video and YouTube.
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Though far from a perfect play, “N/A” is an intriguing look at backroom politics. The work offered at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA, pits reason versus passion in politics. If you are more WOKE rather than MAGA you should enjoy this production. -
Bluegrass legends Tony Trischka, Bruce Molsky, and Michael Daves headline this year’s Down County Jump festival at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, Mass., today and Saturday.
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If durability defines the worth of a play, “The Elephant Man” by Bernard Pomerance is, at the very least, a good play, and possibly a great one. -
Celebrated clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson returns to the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, N.Y., tonight at 7pm, with his program Fleeting Inventions. With music written for Benny Goodman, a new work by American composer Marc Mellits, and the seldom-heard original version of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, the program traces fortuitous relationships between composers and clarinetists throughout history.
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For me, today is the start of summer. Forget the calendar. Last weekend we celebrated Memorial Day, usually considered the opening day of summer. But for those of us of a certain age, Memorial Day is still May 30.
