Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, ‘Gnawa,’ (photo Todd Rosenberg)
HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO OFFERS GLOBAL PROGRAM at JACOB’S PILLOW
(BECKET, Mass) – Popular contemporary company Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will present a program featuring global influences at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Ted Shawn Theatre in an extended seven-show engagement from Wednesday, July 2, through Sunday, July 6. Dances include the dramatic Mediterranean-inspired Gnawa, by Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato and featuring North African music; Falling Angels, a stark all-female work danced to “Drumming” by contemporary composer Steve Reich by Czech choreographer Ji?í Kylián; and two works by Madrid-born Alejandro Cerrudo, Hubbard Street’s resident choreographer.
RING LARDNER/GEORGE S. KAUFMAN CLASSIC OPENS WTF SEASON
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) kicks off its summer season with a production of the Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman 1929 classic comic romance “June Moon,” running through Sunday, July 13, on the Mainstage. Based on the Lardner short story “Some Like Them Cold,” about a love affair that loses steam before it ever gets started, it includes songs with words and music by Lardner but is not considered a musical per se.
Renée Fleming (photo Andrew Eccles)
RENEE FLEMING to JOIN BSO at TANGLEWOOD to SING MODERN WORKS and SHOW TUNES
(LENOX, Mass.) – The Boston Symphony Orchestra opens its 2014 Tanglewood season on Saturday, July 5, at 8:30pm in the Shed with an all-American program at Tanglewood featuring superstar soprano Renée Fleming in an adventurous concert of modern works by Copland, Barber, and John Adams, as well as a selection of Broadway show tunes by the Gershwins and Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Clark Campus from Stone Hill
CLARK ART INSTITUTE MARKS NEW ERA on FOURTH OF JULY
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – In a declaration of independence from its past, the Clark Art Institute opens its newly renovated and expanded campus to the public on Friday, July 4, immediately following the town’s Fourth of July parade. The doors to the Clark will open at 1pm to all; admission is free, the galleries will be open until 9pm; there will be a live performance by the Eagles Band at 7pm followed by fireworks exploding over Stone Hill at 9 pm.
Dweezil Zappa
FRANK ZAPPA’S SON CARRIES ON FATHER’S MUSICAL LEGACY at MAHAIWE
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Guitarist Dweezil Zappa, son of the late musical visionary Frank Zappa, brings his group Zappa Plays Zappa to the Mahaiwe on Sunday, July 6, at 7 pm. Zappa will also teach a guitar master class on Sunday at 3pm. Dweezil Zappa began the Zappa Plays Zappa project in 2006 to keep his father’s music alive and introduce it to new audiences.
TRUTH VS. FICTION PARLOR GAME at MASS MoCA
(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – A time-tested parlor game becomes a performance when a hilarious troupe of Brooklyn storytellers play “Two Truths and a Lie” at Club B-10 (in its alternative home at the Dré Wapenaar Pavilion) at MASS MoCA on Saturday, July 5, at 8pm. Blending fiction with memoir around an American history theme, Mitra Bonshahi and Sylvie Lubow set up two treacherous narrators among four matter-of-fact raconteurs to trick trusting listeners into believing something that’s simply not true. At the night’s conclusion, the frauds are revealed, and the most duplicitous tall tale-teller is rewarded.
Molly Ringwald (photo Collette Lash)
MOLLY RINGWALD HEADLINES OPENING WEEKEND of BARD SPIEGELTENT
(ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.) — Justin Vivian Bond kicks off the 2014 Bard SummerScape festival’s Spiegeltent program on Thursday, July 3, in a season that features such internationally acclaimed cabaret artists as Amanda Palmer, Meow Meow, and Joey Arias. The 1980’s teen queen Molly Ringwaldperforms songs from her debut album of jazz standards, “Except Sometimes,” on Saturday, July 5, at 8:30pm. Other acts performing later this summer include Weimar New York, the ever-popular Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, and folksinger Martha Wainwright.
Working on a Special Day
DRAMA AMID RISE of ITALIAN FASCISM at BARRINGTON STAGE
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – “Working on A Special Day,” a production of The Play Company and Mexico City-based Por Piedad Teatro, runs on the St. Germain Stage at Barrington Stage Company (BSC) through Sunday, July 6. Directed by and featuring Ana Graham and Antonio Vega, “Working on A Special Day” is a new play about a life-changing encounter between an overworked housewife and a mysterious bachelor on May 8, 1938 – the day Rome celebrates Hitler’s visit to Mussolini’s Italy. A bittersweet drama unfolds within the charged political landscape of rising fascism in Rome.
Debra Jo Rupp (Lilian), Paul O’Brien (Nathan) and Kim Stauffer (June) in ‘Madagascar’ (photo Rick Teller)
CHESTER THEATRE COMPANY OPENS 25TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON with HAUNTING MYSTERY ‘MADAGASCAR’
(CHESTER, Mass.) – J.T. Rogers’ haunting mystery “Madagascar” opens the 25th anniversary season at Chester Theatre Company, running through Sunday, July 6, at the Chester Town Hall. The production stars Debra Jo Rupp and Kim Stauffer.
Kate Baldwin
SONDHEIM’S ‘LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC’ OPENS BTG SEASON at COLONIAL
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning 1973 musical, “A Little Night Music” – inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film “Smiles of a Summer Night” and taking its name from Mozart’s Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” – opens the Berkshire Theatre Group season at the Colonial Theatre, running through Saturday, July 19. The musical, whose best-known song is “Send in the Clowns,” stars four-time Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Gregg Edelman, Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award nominee Penny Fuller, Tony Award and Drama Desk nominee Kate Baldwin, internationally-acclaimed vocalist and actress Maureen O’Flynn, and Broadway and television actor Graham Rowat.
COMING SOON…
The Klezmatics
(AMHERST, Mass.) – The Klezmatics and the Klezmer Conservatory Band – widely considered to be the two greatest modern klezmer groups – headline Yidstock 2014: the Festival of New Yiddish Music at the Yiddish Book Center from Thursday, July 17, through Sunday, July 20, 2014. The third annual Yidstock Festival features an international cast of musicians, an expanded lineup of workshops, and a pre-Shabbat concert on Friday afternoon by the Nigunim Trio, featuring Lorin Sklamberg and Frank London of the Klezmatics.