by | Dec 13, 2024 11:42 am | Comments (2)
Paul Bass photos
DETROIT — A crowd in suits and gowns (pictured above) mingled below arched windows, 27,000-pound cast-iron chandeliers, and a 54-foot-high Guastavino tile-vaulted ceiling, atop “original Tennessee rose-colored marble” floors, to celebrate the rescue of an architectural marvel — and a new day for their city.
by | Dec 13, 2024 9:21 am | Comments (0)
Altered Futures.
This month there’s a small stretch of forest in City Gallery on Upper State Street — evergreens, ferns, moss — surrounded by a patch of dirt. It might take a moment to see that the plants aren’t rooted in the dirt, however. Rather, they’re planted in a woven aluminum boat, redolent of an ark. It will allow them to leave the gallery alive; maybe it will protect them from what’s coming.
Continue reading ‘Artists Widen The Frame On Climate Change’
by | Dec 12, 2024 9:47 am | Comments (0)
Merik Goma
As I Wait, Untitled 6.
A man stands in front of the bathroom mirror in a towel. He’s just getting in the shower, or just getting out. At first glance it might appear he’s shaving, or putting on cologne. But the object in his hand isn’t a razor or a bottle. It’s something else. And maybe that’s when you also notice the sink is overflowing with fruit. “Some people may not recognize it as an old fire extinguisher,” artist Merik Goma said of the object the man is holding, or “they may be drawn to the fruit.”
“Where is he going? What is that thing supposed to be? Is it a symbol? Is it literal?” Goma said. “It can mean a lot of things.” And that’s part of the point. Goma starts the story. It’s up to us to finish it.
by | Dec 12, 2024 8:00 am | Comments (0)
Matthew Murphy Photo
Jamaal Fields-Green as the King of Pop in MJ.
MJ
Bushnell Center for Performing Arts
Hartford
Dec. 11, 2024
If you ever want to judge the quality of a live performance, listen to the way the audience raves about it afterwards.
by | Dec 11, 2024 9:40 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Baub Bidon: "We didn't sue another rapper, we just battled."
On Friday, Free 2 Spit celebrated the completion of its 20th year holding down an open mic for New Haven’s spoken-word scene at the New Haven Peoples Center on Howe Street, with a night that drew newcomers, seasoned New Haven-based poets, and voices from one state over alike to share the mic and their words, heating up a wintery night.
by | Dec 11, 2024 8:14 am | Comments (0)
by | Dec 11, 2024 7:59 am | Comments (2)
Matthew McConaughey as Cooper in Interstellar.
Interstellar
AMC Plainville 20
Plainville
Dec. 9, 2024
Interstellar is a movie of layers. It tells the story of the end of the world, the main character’s redemption and the relationship between a father and daughter all simultaneously. The main gist is that Earth is becoming uninhabitable, and Cooper (Matthew McConaughey, showing exactly why he’s a leading man) must undertake an impossible mission to find a new home for humanity. Meanwhile, his daughter Murph (played by several incredibly talented actresses-young Murph is Mackenzie Foy; middle Murph is Jessica Chastain; old Murph is Ellen Burstyn) is attempting to save the world in her own way.
Continue reading ‘Romanticized Space Travel Notions Shattered’
by | Dec 10, 2024 8:47 am | Comments (0)
Joan Marcus Photo
Whitney White in Macbeth in Stride.
When we first meet Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s best-known and often-staged tragedies, she seems designed to steal the show. Her speeches are riveting, her emotions keyed up and powerful. When her husband Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis promoted to Thane of Cawdor, arrives home, she delivers more drama, prodding his dithering into regicide, and even shows him how it should be done when it comes to implicating the two guards that Macbeth and his Lady have drugged.
All this Whitney White — in her show Macbeth in Stride, now playing for one week only at Yale Repertory Theatre through Dec. 14 — delivers with musing commentary. Then comes a coronation that looks like it could be featured on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Murderous.” After that triumph, what next for our ambitious queen? As White, who wrote the show and performs the lead (called “Woman”) in the piece, flatly states: “She gets to host a dinner party.”
by | Dec 9, 2024 9:37 am | Comments (0)
Julius Thomas III and Alicia Kaori in She Loves Me.
Two people who have fallen in love through anonymous letters are dealing with one another in person much more than they know — and at first, care to know. Someone else is two-timing it between a co-worker and the boss’s wife. Another man is figuring out just how much he wants, or does not want, to meddle in all this, and another ambitious young man is just trying to get ahead. It’s all happening in the confines of a perfume shop in 1930s Budapest — and in Long Wharf’s production of She Loves Me, which had its Broadway premiere in 1963, that perfume shop is current located, quite impressively, in the transformed gym of a former middle school.
Continue reading ‘Long Wharf Brings Love Home For The Holiday’
by | Dec 9, 2024 9:27 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos.
The Mercy Velvet Project taps it out at Katalina's.
Going to a bakery for a few cupcakes seems like an obvious choice, but going to a bakery to preview a tap dance-based rock opera seems less obvious. Fortunately, the New Haven arts community has become more and more creative at working together to allow new projects to seed, germinate, and grow.
On Saturday night, Katalina’s Bakery was the latest alternative space used, this time to host a fundraiser for The Mercy Velvet Project, a re-creation of the 1999 album Live in Vain by the band Mercy Velvet in rock opera form.
Continue reading ‘Dancers Tap Into Sweetness For "Mercy Velvet Project"’
by | Dec 9, 2024 7:48 am | Comments (0)
A Century of Songs: Travelers Chorale 100th Anniversary Concert
Bushnell Center for Performing Arts
Hartford
Dec. 5, 2024
The last time I went to a performance of the Travelers Chorale during their spring concert earlier this year, I was blown away by the musical talent on display from a group of people who worked in insurance by day. I promised that I would be there for their next concert, so I was in my seat at 7:30 sharp for their winter 100th anniversary concert.
Continue reading ‘It’s Beginning to Sound A Lot Like Christmas’
by | Dec 6, 2024 12:15 pm | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Tommy V and David Ramos.
There are people who talk about helping and change and making the world a better place one day, and then there’s Joey Batts and the CT hip hop community, who for the past 11 years have gathered for a series of shows at multiple venues throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts to actually do it. Hip Hop for the Homeless began its annual December run raising funds and collecting donations for local groups on Thursday night.
First stop: New Haven’s Cafe Nine, where host for the evening Sketch tha Cataclysm brought forth a healthy and harmonious collection of CT-based hip hop artists to entertain for a worthy cause: Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen.
Continue reading ‘Hip Hop For The Homeless Launches Year 11’
by | Dec 6, 2024 11:24 am | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Diane X Brown and Chris "Big Dog" Davis.
Chris “Big Dog” Davis is returning to Dixwell’s Stetson Branch Library to bring a rainbow of holiday-season hope — with the help of a Hollywood Walk of Fame singer and actress.
Continue reading ‘Melba Moore Joins "Big Dog" Xmas At Stetson’
by | Dec 6, 2024 7:35 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
A cold December temperature didn’t keep crowds away as New Haven celebrated its 111th tree lighting on the New Haven Green Thursday night, with an evening of festivities that included food and craft vendors, live music from bands and choirs, amusement park rides and activities for kids, and a visit from Santa Claus.
by | Dec 5, 2024 11:28 am | Comments (0)
Cardinals Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) and Bellini (Stanley Tucci) talk before the conclave begins.
Conclave
Real Art Ways
Hartford
Dec. 4, 2024
I was excited to see that Conclave had returned to Real Art Ways for a second run in their theater. I missed it the first time it was available, and was determined to see favorite actors like John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci on the big screen.
Continue reading ‘Church Expose Flattens Character To Stand On The Right Side Of History’
by | Dec 5, 2024 9:26 am | Comments (4)
Maya McFadden File Photo
At Betsy Ross's Winter Fest: High school performers, coming soon.
Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School (BRAMS) will have an inaugural ninth grade class next year — as the district works to transition the 5 – 8th grade middle school to a 7 – 12th grade high school in order to better accommodate students’ high demand for arts instruction.
by | Dec 4, 2024 9:23 am | Comments (0)
Craig Frederick
Breath.
Craig Frederick’s Breath looks lighter than its materials. If it were a sea creature, it appears like it could be spiraling through the water. If it were in flight, it could seem like it was made of paper, corkscrewing through the air. It makes space for itself in the gallery, as if it’s just passing through, and we happen to be there when it stops for a minute.
by | Dec 3, 2024 8:58 am | Comments (1)
"Mind/Matter" show panel: Something's not quite right here ...
Look once, and it’s just an upside-down face of a woman smiling. But look again, perhaps a third time, and a few details seem off. Something’s wrong, definitely wrong, even if you can’t quite figure out what it is.
by | Dec 2, 2024 10:30 am | Comments (0)
Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) looks out towards her destiny
Moana 2
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 XD and IMAX
Manchester
December 1, 2024
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Moana 2 picks up three years after the events of the first movie. The titular hero (Auli’i Cravalho returns, just as good as the first time) is now a Wayfinder for her people, and must team up with her demigod friend Maui (Dwyane Johnson, always a pleasure) and crew of misfits to find a lost island hidden by the vengeful god Nalo.
by | Dec 2, 2024 8:20 am | Comments (34)
Yale's proposed dramatic arts building, circa 2029 ...
... to be located at York and Crown.
All the world’s a stage — for Yale, which plans to construct a new seven-story, 188,000 square-foot building for its drama school and the Yale Repertory Theater, to be located at the northwest corner of Crown and York streets.
by | Dec 2, 2024 8:12 am | Comments (0)
After 16 years of albums, tours, collaborations and compilations, Ceschi, a.k.a. Julio Ramos — the New Haven-based musician who cut a burning swath though indie hip hop and folk and started a record label in the process — is done. This spring saw a final East Coast tour, and November featured a final swing through the West Coast, culminating in a return home for a sold-out show at Space Ballroom.
His newest album, released in November — Bring Us the Head of Francisco False, Part 2, which completes Part 1, released in April, and finishes a cycle of albums that started with Sad, Fat Luck in 2019 — explains why. And doesn’t. And doesn’t have to. It’s a wrenching goodbye and a wistful farewell, a reintroduction and moment of liberation, all at once. As a final gesture on a long arc of artistic work, it’s a firework thrown into the sun, and it leaves us bathing in the glow of a thousand colors.
by | Nov 27, 2024 12:06 pm | Comments (2)
Jim Lenn holding an Ovation Guitar
Ovation Guitars
Manchester Public Library
Manchester
Nov. 25, 2024
I went to the Manchester Public Library on a chilly Monday evening to hear a lecture about the Connecticut-made guitar that saved the music industry. Little did I know that I was also in for a delightful concert too.
by | Nov 27, 2024 9:32 am | Comments (15)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Best Video's Rai Bruton, with Lyric Hall's John Cavaliere: “Places like this and Best Video will only last if we work together.”
Lyric Hall Theater came full circle on Tuesday night as the beloved Westville venue partnered with Best Video for the first night of its new monthly film series for New Haven movie fans.
Continue reading ‘Best Video, Lyric Hall Pair Up For Film Series’
by | Nov 26, 2024 8:27 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Parlay Droner, with his "toys."
Music on stage. Art on the walls. Pizza and drinks on the table. Pickles in the corner. The latest installment of Mood Maker Mondays at The Cellar on Treadwell in Hamden featured all of the above, mixed together for a healthy-sized Monday night crowd who came out to hear experimental musician Parlay Droner and veteran surf rockers the Vulture, partake of Jam City Pizza’s Detroit-style pizza, check out the fantastical art of Thomas Drew, and sample the vinegar delights of Mo Piklz.
Continue reading ‘Cellar On Treadwell Mixes It Up On Monday’
by | Nov 25, 2024 9:50 am | Comments (0)
