Results tagged “theater”

Discretion is the dumber part of valor.

Opera Bedřich Smetana's The Bartered Bride calls for a dude in a bear costume, the most tuneful stuttering you'll ever hear, and the consumption of gallons of imaginary beer. Opera Boston places the 19th-century Czech comic opera in the Depression (the previous one), back when selling women was still hilarious. Pretty singing, with baseball. Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St, 7:30 pm. $29-$114.

Why might you be interested in seeing Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale performed by a Somerville community theater? Let's start with the play itself: it is completely and utterly ridiculous, as though Shakespeare was smoking some kind of Elizabethan crack when he decided to adapt a story that involved a seaside bear attack, a dead kid, a courtroom drama with the Oracle of Delphi as an expert witness, a sheep-sheering festival, a 16-year gap between two acts, (SPOILER!) a statue that comes to life, and (SPOILER!) a happy ending that exonerates a psychotic king who caused the deaths of his family. Also, winter doesn't really have anything to do with the story.

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Spanish Sirens: Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole & Excerpts from Carmen

A couple of weekends ago, this Bostonist's mom dropped off a children's book, withdrawn from the New Britain Public Library, titled Adventures of Richard Wagner. The mischievous protagonist, "little Dicker," slides down banisters, carries wet puppies in his woolen cap, and hand-copies the score of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz. The last few pages had been pulled out, so who knows how this ends?

              

Starting Wednesday night, the Boston Conservatory brings us the year's second helping of Follies (the first dollop just closed at the Lyric Stage). Stephen Sondheim's musical of marriages haunted by flashbacks and vaudeville nightmares has been the recipient of Tony awards and an object of cult affection. The Conservatory will present it with an unusually large, duly sequined cast, and the troupe kindly let Bostonist take a few photographs during last night's dress rehearsal.

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In Mozart's delightfully farcical opera Così fan tutte, everyone is culpable. The title—roughly, "They're all like that"—refers to the fickleness of Woman, the hypothetical Fiordiligi and Dorabella in particular (sung by Leah Sapko and Kristina Reagle in Thursday's performance) but their fiancés Ferrando and Guglielmo (David Vogel and Jonathan Nussman) likewise prove themselves to be utter cads in the course of their very complicated attempt to prove the sisters' fidelity.

March 18, 19, and 22 at 8 p.m., $6-$24 (20% discount if purchased through the Juventas web site)

The days are getting longer. The nights are getting shorter. Layers of clothing are slowly coming off and you're getting thirsty.

--Hendry Street isn't the only place suffering from the home-foreclosure crisis. In fact, so many areas are suffering that real estate agents are taking possible buyers on bus tours of other people's property. As if someone losing a home doesn't have enough misery, now they have to have complete strangers tramping about on the front yard. [Boston Globe]

Harvard Square is celebrating the Year of the Rat with a Lion Dance Parade. Perhaps even more meaningful for some Cambridge residents, the Hong Kong (yay scorpion bowl!) is holding an open house in honor of its 54th anniversary. But be aware that they are having a craft party, not a scorpion bowl party. 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, free.

With over 20 million accounts, Second Life has become a pop culture phenomenon. An Internet-based virtual world, the metaverse in which we can be the person we've always wanted to be (without putting in the hard-work of exercise or educational training) have very few competitors. Currently, there is an exhibition going on in Boston called Mixed Realities - an exploration of real and synthetic places made possible by computers and networks.

The cold weather is no excuse for you not to get out!

Cat Power will be at the Orpheum. Last time Bostonist saw her, she seemed a little plowed and, with her dark glasses, she resembled country singer Ronnie Milsap. Since then, she's been hanging out with Karl Lagerfeld. She's different every time, but the music is always memorable. 7:30 pm.

Console yourselves, people. Go out tonight.

Women ended up on tables, a lot: in rapture, in protest, in flagrante delicto, and asleep. As the Cutler Majestic's red velvet curtain rose last night, we saw the heroine in a heap of wedding dress on a dining table, an image that echoed throughout the opera. Semele, the reluctant bride, is the best-developed character in the work, foolish, but sympathetic, but so petulant, even before she leaves the groom at the altar and runs off with a married deity—even before she opens her mouth.

Theater lovers! A rare treat - Part I *and* Part II of Tony Kushner's seminal modern epic "Angels in America" is in town and it runs until Feb. 10. It's about the painful disintegration of two relationships against a backdrop of greed, conservatism, and the discovery of AIDS. Presented by Boston Theatre Works.

Johnny Pesky will be at the Barnes & Noble in Peabody tonight from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm signing books.

Mayor Thomas Menino will deliver his State of the City address tonight at the Strand Theater in Dorchester. However, the spotlight won't be solely on him--the Firefighters' Union has declared they will protest the event.

Strap yourselves in for the Brattle Theatre's very first Python-a-Thon. In honor of the arrival of Spamalot, they'll show And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (duh), and Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. Showtimes from the Brattle Theatre.

Already feeling the pressure of holiday family time? Leave the house. Run away. Tonight's events will help add some spice to your Santa.

I Am Legend raked in the money, as expected. The public loves Will Smith, they love special effects, they love cute dogs, and I Am Legend gave audiences what they wanted. Peter Keough at the Phoenix went so far as to say that the dog in I Am Legend was his "favorite animal character of the year." As a result, the movie made an obscene $76.5 million on its opening weekend. Believe it or not, the kids and the stoners wanted to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, which made $45 million.

Jim McCue Book Launch Party Comedy Connection Faneuil Hall (T: Government Center) Sunday, December 16, 8:00 pm, $15 Free for veterans and military personnel Official Jim McCue Site AnySoldier.com The troops could use a lot from us right now, whether it be body armor or sunblock. But one local performer is using his specific talents to make the lives of the troops a little bit better. Comedian Jim McCue, who is also co-founder of the...

Brrrrlesque Saturday, December 15, midnight Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline (T: Coolidge Corner) $12.50 in advance, $20 at the door Official Boston Babydolls site In the press release we got, Boston Babydolls impresario Scratch declares, "People hate the cold, the rising gas prices, and - of course - the snow. But there's a lot that's beautiful about new England in the winter, and we wanted to remind people of some of those things."...