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PATRIOT LEDGER.com – There’s no reason to stay hunkered down at home this winter waiting for the first signs of spring to blossom, especially when Boston and the South Shore offer such a robust arts scene. Get out there to see a show or to take in a concert or to visit a museum. Here are just a few of the many choices this season:
ART EXHIBITS
Photographer Laura J. Cardello’s exhibition, “Immersed: A Photographic Exploration of Water,” is built around images of water. It is on display through February 15 at The James Library & Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.jameslibrary.org.
In “Ansel Adams in Our Time,” at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston through Feb. 24, the iconic photographer’s legacy is examined using 200 images by Adams, his precursors in government survey and expedition photography, and more than 20 contemporary artists; mfa.org
Brockton’s Fuller Craft Museum presents “Zodiac,” a sculptural series by internationally known Donna Dodson referencing lions, rams, bulls, penguins, and other animals found in the Chinese and Western zodiacs, Feb. 2-May 18. fullercraft.org
On view Feb. 2-May 5 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, “Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment” will feature works by leading American artists and reveals how human impact on the planet over the past three centuries compels us to reconsider the relationships between art, the environment and ourselves. pem.org
Harvard Art Museums opens on Feb. 8 “The Bauhaus and Harvard,” running through July 28, in its Special Exhibitions Gallery in Cambridge. Despite only operating from 1919 to 1933, in Germany, Bauhaus is considered to be the 20th century’s most influential school of art, architecture, and design. harvardartmuseums.org
“Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on view April 7-Aug. 4, explores the celebrity culture of Lautrec’s time and the artist’s fascination with the personal lives of les stars as well as the roles that they played. mfa.org
DANCE
In “Pepperland,” at Boston’s Boch Center Shubert Theatre Feb. 8–10, choreographer Mark Morris pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” with inventive choreography and a live chamber-music ensemble. celebrityseries.org
In “Full on Forsythe” the Boston Ballet will debut legendary choreographer William Forsythe’s first world premiere for an American company in more than 20 years. March 7-17 at the Boston Opera House. Bostonballet.org
The China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater makes its Boston debut with “Princess Zhaojun: The True Story of How One Woman Brought Together a Nation,” March 16-17 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre. bochcenter.org
Ballet’s favorite heroine will be back when the Boston Ballet presents what has been called the happiest ballet in existence, George Balanchine’s “Coppélia” – complete with its amusing story of mistaken identity – at the Boston Opera House, March 21–31. bostonballet.org
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The Tel Aviv-based Batsheva Dance Company will perform contemporary choreographer Ohad Naharin’s “Venezuela,” set to a Gregorian chant, tango and hip-hop score, April 5–6 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre. celebrityseries.org
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater marks its 60th anniversary with a tour that brings the company back to Boston’s Boch Center Wang Theatre, May 2–5, to celebrate the legacy and continued impact of its late founder and namesake. celebrityseries.org
MUSIC
The 34th Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, Feb. 15-17 returns to the Sheraton Framingham Hotel, and features groups like the Gibson Brothers, Seldom Scene and Sister Sadie, as well as regional bands, along with classes, lessons and the Kids Academy where youngsters can learn about creating their own music. The festival’s namesake, the late Joe Val, was recently inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame. www.bbu.org
Folk rocker and Lexington native Matt Nathanson – best-known for pop hits like his Billboard Top 10 platinum-selling single “Come On Get Higher” – brings his smooth vocals and always engaging personality to Boston’s Paradise Rock Club on Feb. 18 and 23. paradiserock.club
Singer-songwriter Dietrich Strause will blend mid-century pop and atomic-age folk, with help from an all-star band, when he plays Live@Oberon in Cambridge, March 1. americanrepertorytheater.org
Love Songs from the Ages: Love songs from all around the world, with the Bengisu Acoustic Trio, an ensemble comprised of Berklee College of Music graduate musicians from Turkey and Japan. Feb. 26 at South Shore Conservatory, 64 St. George St, Duxbury; www.sscmusic.org
Just in time for St. Patrick’s day, Winifred Horan, Colleen Raney and Hanz Araki-Campbell perform Celtic music on March 9 at the James Library & Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.jameslibrary.org.
In “Favorites from the Great American Songbook,” Jack Craig presents a range of classics from Roaring 20′s hits to classic Broadway and movie musical tunes. March 11 at the James Library & Center for the Arts; www.jameslibrary.org
It’ll be a blarney blowout when the Dropkick Murphys drop anchor for a three-night stint – March 14, 15, and 17 – at Boston’s House of Blues. houseofblues.com
Spotlight on Percussion: A performance featuring Marimba solos, ensemble pieces, solos, and a wide variety of percussion ranging from very rhythmic to more atmospheric/ethereal sounding. March 26 at the South Shore Conservatory, 64 St. George St, Duxbury; www.sscmusic.org
Mariah Carey could fill a show with just her hits, but expect Mimi to do music from her latest album, too, when her “Caution World Tour” plays the Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston on March 28. bochcenter.org
Prepare to be dazzled when the legendary Bernadette Peters, a three-time Tony Award recipient, brings her set-list of show tunes to the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center in New Bedford on March 30. zeiterion.org
Patty Griffin has had her music covered by everyone from Emmylou Harris and Joan Baez to Bette Midler. If you want to hear Griffin’s songs done by the singer-songwriter herself, however, head to Sanders Theatre in Cambridge April 9. boxofficeharvard.edu
The rock band Queen is reigning strong again thanks to the Oscar-nominated film “Bohemian Rhapsody.” If you loved the movie, you might want to grab tickets for “One Night of Queen,” a tribute concert performed by Gary Mullen and The Works. Paying homage to the Freddie Mercury-led band, the concert is dedicated to recreating the essence of Queen’s blend of theatrics and stadium anthems such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Under Pressure,” “We Are the Champions,” “Flash,” “Somebody to Love,” “We Will Rock You,” and many more. The concert is at 8 p.m. April 11 at Plymouth Memorial Hall, memorialhall.com
You can put any memory you may have of her multiple famous farewell tours aside and “Turn Back Time” for the still-going-strong Cher, whose “Here We Go Again” tour pulls into Boston’s TD Garden April 28. tdgarden.com
CLASSICAL & CHORAL
The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Players perform selections from Piazolla, Dvorak and Brahms in an intimate setting on Feb. 10 at the House of Prayer, Hingham. Jin Kim conducts the orchestra, featuring Luosha Fang on viola, in its Masterworks Classical program featuring selections from Britten, Bartok and Beethoven. March 9 at Thayer Academy Center for the Arts, Braintree. The ASO is bringing back world-renowned violinist Xiang Angelo Yu for a special command performance April 7 at Old Ship Church, Hingham. A performance of popular favorites from Gershwin’s “Catfish Row” to John Williams’ score from “E.T.” in “Pops!” caps the season April 27 at Thayer Academy Center for the Arts, Braintree; atlanticsymphony.org.
Long renowned for his groundbreaking interpretations of Beethoven, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra founder and conductor Benjamin Zander burnishes that legend with three all-Beethoven programs, Feb. 14 and 17 at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, and Feb. 16 at Jordan Hall in Boston. bostonphil.org
The South Shore Conservatory presents Early American Music, a concert of American colonial music in dialog with John Cage’s “44 Harmonies.” The concert features a faculty string quartet performing on a combination of period and modern instruments. Feb. 24 at South Shore Conservatory, 64 St. George St, Duxbury; www.sscmusic.org.
Yoichi Udagawa conducts the Quincy Symphony Orchestra in its “Classical Concert II,” featuring works by Vignieri, Mozart and Dvorak on Feb. 24 at the Lloyd Hill Center for the Performing Arts, Quincy High School; www.quincysymphonyorchestra.org.
Superstar soprano Renée Fleming returns to Boston’s Symphony Hall March 14-16 in an all-Strauss program, conducted by Andris Nelsons and featuring the Final Scene from the composer’s last opera, Capriccio. bso.org
The BSO celebrates the music of African-American composers including Duke Ellington, Adolphus Hailstork and Florence Price, as well as Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra, on March 23 at Symphony Hall. The program will be conducted by Thomas Wilkins, the BSO’s Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor, in his subscription series debut. bso.org.
The Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra performs “Magnificence in Spring,” featuring selections from Lili Boulanger, Bizet and Mahler. Steven Karidoyanes conducts. March 30 at at Memorial Hall, Plymouth; www.plymouthphil.org.
Pianist Eleanor Perrone has performed in grand concert halls. Catch her locally April 7 at the James Library & Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.jameslibrary.org
Pilgrim Festival Chorus marks its 20th season with two concerts scheduled, one on April 27 in Plymouth and a second performance on April 28 at the new Scituate Center for Performing Arts. The repertoire includes Mozart’s masterwork “Requiem,” one of the best-known choral pieces ever composed, and a setting of John Dryden’s poem, “Ode to Saint Cecilia,” by Massachusetts composer Clifton J. Noble. The Scituate performance also features a collaboration with Scituate High School’s Select Choir, an auditioned ensemble of nearly 60 high school singers. www.pilgrimfestivalchorus.org
OPERA
Director Sarna Lapine has made a name for herself in both theater and opera. Local audiences will get a chance to see why when Lapine directs the Boston Lyric Opera production of Benjamin Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia,” March 11–17, at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in Boston. blo.org
Based on the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood and set in Boston and Cambridge, Boston Lyric Opera performs “The Handmaid’s Tale” May 5-12. With music by Poul Ruders and libretto by Paul Bentley, it will be one of BLO’s largest productions and sure to be as wildly popular as the novel and web TV series.
THEATER
The rock opera based on Green Day’s multi-platinum album “American Idiot” runs Feb. 8-17 at the Company Theater, Accord Park Drive, Norwell. companytheatre.com.
Disability advocate Anita Hollander will perform her one-woman show “Still Standing,” the story of her struggles with cancer, chemotherapy, and what she calls “life’s other catastrophes,” Feb. 9 through March 3 at the New Rep’s BlackBox Theater at Watertown’s Mosesian Center for the Arts. newrep.org
The Tony Award-winning drama “Dancing at Lughnasa” is the winter offering for Curtain Call Theater, Feb. 22-March 3 at 182 Commercial St, Braintree, curtaincallbraintree.org
Bedlam is back in Cambridge, thanks to Underground Railway Theater’s presentation of “Bedlam’s Pygmalion” – a gritty retelling of the George Bernard Shaw classic – now at Central Square Theatre, through March 3. centralsquaretheater.org
SpeakEasy Stage Company of Boston brings “Once” to the Boston Center for the Arts March 1-30. Adapted from the hit 2007 film starring Glen Hansard of the Irish group the Frames and Markéta Irglová, it’s about the unlikely romance and struggles of a down-on-his luck Dublin busker and a determined Czech immigrant with undiscovered talents. speakeasystage.com
Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1970 musical “Company” is in good hands with the Cohasset Dramatic Club, March 8-17 at Cohasset Town Hall Auditorium Theater, 41 Highland Ave., Cohassetdramaticclub.org.
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s production of “Birdy,” adapted by Naomi Wallace from the novel by William Wharton, lands at the Carling-Sorenson Theater at Babson College in Wellesley, February 27–March 10. commshakes.org
Played by everyone from Tallulah Bankhead and Bette Davis to Anne Bancroft and Elizabeth Taylor, the role of Regina in Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” is a choice one. So, for its Feb. 15-March 17 production, the Lyric Stage Company of Boston has chosen well, with in-demand actress Anne Gottlieb set to play the conniving Southerner. lyricstage.com
In Celine Song’s “Endlings,” being given its world premiere production Feb. 26-March 17 by the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, three elderly sea women spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood, while in Manhattan, a Korean-Canadian playwright, a two-time immigrant, grapples with how to write honest and real stories about her identity. americanrepertorytheater.org
Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company gives Shakespeare’s classic romantic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” a “pop-centric” update March 1–31 at the Huntington Avenue Theatre. huntingtontheatre.org
Director Stephen Daldry brings his memorable National Theatre mounting of J.B. Priestley’s thriller, “An Inspector Calls” – complete with its signature grand-scale set – to Boston’s Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, March 14–29. artsemerson.org
With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, “Evita” is the story of Eva Peron, who rose from poverty to become first a radio personality and finally the powerful wife of Argentinean dictator Juan Peron. March 15-31 at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com
Based on the one-man show that inspired the classic film, the new musical “A Bronx Tale” transports audiences to the stoops of the Bronx in the 1960s. With book by Chazz Palmintieri, original doo-wop score by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, and direction by Robert DeNiro and Jerry Zaks, the tale will be told at the Boston Opera House, April 2-14. broadwayinboston.com
Zeitgeist Stage Company continues to push the envelope with Jacques Lamarre’s “Trigger Warning.” The drama zeroes in on the gun debate by looking at how mass shootings impact one family – the shooter’s. April 12-May 4 at the Plaza Black Box Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts. www.zeitgeiststage.com
With new staging and reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” is back on the road after its recent hit Broadway revival and headed to the Boston Opera House, April 16-28. broadwayinboston.com
SPECIAL EVENTS
In “Late Night Catechism 2: Sister Strikes Back,” the titular nun is charged with saving the souls of those assembled (the audience.) You’ll laugh so much, it’s sinful. Feb. 23-24 at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com
HAPPY HOUR: Monica Bill Barnes & Company return to Boston with an immersive show that blends cringe-worthy humor with socially awkward empathy in an after-work get-together.
Presented by the Celebrity Series, March 12-16 at District Hall in Boston’s Seaport District, www.celebrityseries.org.
“Lost Boston” is an illustrated lecture and book signing by author and historian Anthony M. Sammarco, March 14 at the James Library & Center for the Arts, Norwell. www.jameslibrary.org
For World Dance Party Benefit Night the Afro-Pop stars Kalifa & Koliba will get the dance floor packed at this party, a benefit for The Kerry Jon Walker Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping humanity and supporting those affected by poverty. March 23 at the Players Sports Bar & Grille, 86 VFW Drive, Rockland. www.thekerryfund.org
South Shore Conservatory Performathon 2019: Students and faculty present four days of performances to raise money for the conservatory’s tuition assistance program. April 4-7 at Barnes & Noble, Derby Street Shoppes, 96 Derby Street, Hingham; www.sscmusic.org
The popular storytelling event “I Can’t Believe I…” with Host Andrea Lovett is April 12 at the James Library & Center for the Arts, Norwell. www.jameslibrary.org
This is one of our “favorite things” – Singalong The Sound of Music. The screening of the classic Academy Award-winning 1965 musical film features subtitles of the lyrics so the audience can sing along. Audience members are encouraged to come costumed. The hills come alive April 6 at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com.
Dig out those platform boots and bell bottoms to wear to ABBAMania! Expect all your Abba favorites including: “Mamma Mia”, “Dancing Queen”, “Super Trouper,” May 4 at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com.
“Memories of the Rat Pack” celebrates the lives of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., with a performance that recreates the famous nightclub at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. Two performances on May 11 at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com
If you aren’t getting your fill of politics from cable news, then “An Evening with the Clintons” may be just your ticket. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton share their Beltway views and more at the Boston Opera House, April 30. www.livenation.com/artists/306075/the-clintons
FAMILY
South Shore Conservatory Youth Orchestra Concert: The annual winter concert features a collaborative piece Cecile Chaminade’s Scherzo Colombine with the conservatory’s dance department. Other works include: Mendelssohn’s War of the Priests, and Tchaikovsky’s Cossack Dance. Feb. 10 at Scituate High School, 606 Chief Justice Highway, Scituate; www.sscmusic.org
The Dinosaur Quest of Dr. T-Rex!: Paleontologist Dr. T-Rex incorporates life-like dinosaur puppets into a delightfully funny and educational show. Expect prehistoric mischief and mayhem. Feb. 20 at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com
Mutts Gone Nuts: Scott and Joan Houghton lead a “Canine Cabaret” of talented rescue dogs who perform tricks and treats. Feb. 21-22 at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com
The Disney a cappella group DCappella stops at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre on Feb. 24 with a concert featuring new arrangements of classic and contemporary Disney music from “Aladdin,” “The Jungle Book,” “Frozen,” “Mary Poppins” and more. emersoncolonialtheatre.com
The Reluctant Dragon: Widget and his pal Hairytoes discover a dragon lurking a cave. Their secret is exposed by neighborhood bullies, the Grody Gobsters. Suddenly the entire town is whipped into a fury and the cry goes up: “The Dragon Must be Slayed!” Presented by the Americana Theatre Company’s Studio Americana youth troupe March 3 at the Spire Center for Performing Arts, Plymouth; www.americanatheatre.org
Steven Karidoyanes leads the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra in an hourlong family concert titled “Music For All Ages” that includes performances by The Plymouth Middle Schools Honors Chorus, an award-winning emerging artist from South Shore Conservatory, and the world concert premiere of Antoine Vachon’s Mages of Mystralia, music composed for the high-fantasy video game of the same name. March 10 at Memorial Hall, Plymouth; www.plymouthphil.org.
Yoichi Udagawa conducts the Quincy Symphony Orchestra in a A “Family Concert” of popular favorites on March 31 at the Lloyd Hill Center for the Performing Arts, Quincy High School; www.quincysymphonyorchestra.org.
Wheelock Family Theatre at Boston University’s Fenway campus stages “Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach” April 12-May 12. This new musical adaptation of Dahl’s classic story has the delicious rhymes of the book and whimsical in the telling of James’ thrilling quest across the pond that leads him to discover family and home in the most unlikely of places. Recommended for ages 6-plus. wheelockfamilytheatre.org
Disney’s Newsies: The Academy of the Company Theatre presents the popular musical about the 199 Newsboy Strike April 18-28, at the Company Theatre Center for the Arts, Norwell; www.companytheatre.com
By R. Scott Reedy
Nancy Olesin and Dana Barbuto contributed to this report.
