Updates added following performances! (keep checking back)
Fall is a great time to reconnect with your favorite arts venues- and check out some new ones.
Here is my Short List for Fall 2024 Arts in and around Boston (click the event links below for all ticket and other info):
The weekend of September 26-29th I (finally) took my husband on a date to (annual) Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in Provincetown on Cape Cod. The 4-day event is celebrating one of America’s greatest playwrights- with live plays, music, readings and educational programming. I expected good theater combined with some Provincetown quirkiness and summer vibes and I was not dissapointed!
We saw a solo play Tennessee Rising created and performed by immensely talented Jacob Storms who took us by a storm- into the world of many tribulations and inspirations of Tennessee’s early years.
The weekend after we planned out a family outing to an “edgy” modern version of Romeo and Juliet at A.R.T in Cambridge. The show was running August 31- October 6 and we enjoyed being transported back to our family visit to Verona just a few (seemingly very long!) weeks ago (the show is 13+). The staging collaboration between Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus and two-time Olivier Award winner Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui received some mixed reviews but our group was raving about it. This take on the classic seemed modern and utterly timeless at the same time! My husband and my daughter were excited to see Rudy Pankow (“Outer Banks”) on stage (we saw him real close from our seats) but it was Emilia Suarez‘s Juliette who stole the show for my husband.
Budgeting Tip: When booking theater tickets for plays- be sure to actually call the box office (vs buying online) and ask for special discounts. Many theaters offer student and/or youth discounts (some work for patrons under 40).
Our October Boston theater experience continued at Huntington Theater’s Leopoldstadt (play by Tom Stoppard) (September 12 – October 13). This was a three-generation theater outing for our family; attending the final weekend of the production. The critically acclaimed latest and most personal play from Tom Stoppard, Leopoldstadt (according to theater’s website) is a “stirring and epic story of love, family, and enduring bravery. In Vienna, the heart of European culture at the rise of the 20th century, two brothers have conflicting visions of prosperity – both for their family and the Jewish people – a tension that will echo through the generations that follow.” (You can also read Tom Stoppard’s own musing on inspirations behind the play in his essay On Turning out to be Jewish.) Although it took me good 30 minutes to get a grip on the family connection between the many characters on stage (they give you only a “link” instead of a paper to help navigate the proceeding)- once I was in, I was IN. It was powerful and revelational in its approach to the familiar story through the many experiences of the members of the large family. So different…and so…uniformly and utterly tragic. We all sobbed at the end.
Boston Ballet’s Fall Experience (October 24 – November 3, at the Boston Opera House) opened the Company’s 61st season. This is a program featuring four innovative and diverse works: Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon, a world premiere by Principal Dancer Lia Cirio (After), Sabrina Matthews’ Ein von Viel, and Resident Choreographer Jorma Elo’s Plan to B.
My readers could use code “FALLPR50” for $50 tickets to all dates of the program (or “Victoria45” for $45 tickets in select sections).
“There is no better way to welcome our audiences to Boston Ballet’s 61st season than this program that showcases a diverse selection of works that are relevant to today and to the art form,” said Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen. Three of the four ballets are choreographed by women, including by Boston Ballet’s own Lia Cirio (in her 20th season as a Company dancer).
Post show update: the program was incredibly diverse- inspirational neo-classic After, intimate Ein von Viel, energetic Plan B, and a culmination of it ALL- the Season’s Canon– unlike anything I have seen on stage! In choreographer’s own words: “crafting, colliding, collaging, framing, layering and excavating”- to create this unique experience reflecting on both complexity and appreciation of the world. Do not miss it!
Boston Symphony’s season is already well under way (check out all diverse fall programs here.) I look forward to The piano evening with conductor Sir Antonio Pappano and (French) pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2). Also in the program is Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra. This program is performed on October 24, 25 and 26th.
I plan to be back at the Symphony Hall for A Tribute to Duke Ellington with Thomas Wilkins and Renese King on November 7-9. We were lucky to attend a community program in Tanglewood last summer presented by Thomas Wilkins (he is BSO’s partner for education and community engagement) and can’t wait for this evening celebrating Duke Ellington’s music (and marking the 50th anniversary of his death). The evening will be focused on three of Ellington’s “Tone Parallels” — his personal take on the tone poem; (Pianist-Composer) Gerald Clayton is soloist in the optimistic New World A-Coming. This multidimensional event will feature Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts of 1965, 1968, and 1973 – created as a parallel to traditional European church music and mixing jazz, including gospel, the blues, and spirituals.
Boston’s Fine Arts Museum is currently exhibiting the Dali: Disruption and Devotion Exhibit which I saw earlier in September (on display through December 1, 2024). While I cannot call myself a true lover of Dali’s art, I loved this unique learning and art appreciation experience! Despite the famously bizarre Surrealist imagery, the artist was deeply rooted in past European traditions which is what this exhibit focuses on.
Another MFA’s extraordinary current Exhibit (displayed through January 20) is devoted to Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore. I saw it with a guide and would have been otherwise overwhelmed by the sheer exhibit’s size and variety of the presented art forms from these two very different artists united in their inspiration from nature (both artists’ studios are also featured).
Later in the fall we have plans to see (at least one) of the 15 new plays and shows opening on Broadway in NYC this season. Check out this article to see if there is a show for you in there.
What is on your Fall Arts List?
Thank you, Victoria