My Best Bets: December 9th – December 15th might first appear to be very New York-centric this week. However, two of the events taking place in New York are available for streaming. Both deserve your attention.
So here are Best Bets: December 9th – December 15th:
WIT & WISDOM – The Tent Theater at The Peter Jay Sharp Theater – New York City – December 9th
It is said with age comes wisdom. While there are plenty of examples where that isn’t true (and you know who they are), this one-night only reading will offer exactly what the title says: Wit & Wisdom.
Doing readings from various texts that explore what it means to grow older are Quincy Tyler Bernstein, David Cale, Kathleen Chalfant, John Ellison Conlee, Mia Katigbak, Taylor Mac, Alfred Narciso and Mary Testa. Previously announced Estelle Parsons is no longer listed on the event’s website.
I would attend just to see and hear Chalfant, Testa and Taylor Mac. The event includes a reception immediately following the performance.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
MEOW MEOW FELINE FESTIVE HOLIDAY – Multiple Venues – December 10th – December 14th
If you’ve never seen Meow Meow, you owe it to yourself to do so. She’s a one-of-a-kind performer who brilliantly blends new and old material to create something wholly unique.
So imagine what she can do with the holidays! Audiences in Denver, Stanford, CA and Beverly Hills can find out this week. Meow Meow appears at Denver’s Newman Center on Tuesday, December 10th; at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford on Friday, December 13th and at The Wallis in Beverly Hills on Saturday, December 14th.
Having seen Meow Meow before, I can assure you this Feline Festive will have you feeling festive.
For tickets and more information, click on the name of the venues above.
JEREMY DENK – 92nd Street Y – New York, NY – December 12th (also available to livestream)
One of the best classical music albums to be released this year is Ives Denk which finds pianist Denk performing Charles Ives’ violin sonatas with Stefan Jackiw and the composer’s piano sonatas.
Ives is scheduled to conclude his concert with Ives’s Sonata No. 2 “Concord, Mass., 1840-60.” Before he gets there audiences will hear Beethoven’s Sonata No. 27 in E Minor; Scott Joplin’s Bethena, Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s The Banjo, Jule Styne’s Just in Time in an arrangement by Ethan Iverson (after Nina Simone), William Bolcom’s The Poltergeist Rag and Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major.
It’s an impressive program and one Denk will make seem completely effortless and well worth your time. You can attend in person or livestream the event (which will remain available for 72 hours after the performance).
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
CULT OF LOVE – Helen Hayes Theater – New York, NY – Opening Night December 12th – February 2nd
How does any family make it through the holidays? In Lesley Headland’s play, The Dahl family, not unlike any other family, has moments of complete harmony and an equal amount of discordance. Can they navigate the latter to end up with more of the former?
Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Barbie Ferreira, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell, Zachary Quinto, David Rasche, Christopher Sears, Mare Winningham and Shailene Woodley star in the play.
Trip Cullman directs.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET – Music Before 1800 – NY Society for Ethical Culture – New York, NY – December 15th (also available to stream online December 30th – January 13th)
I believe that Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet is essential reading. It’s a series of letters between Rilke and Franz Kappus. This show pairs their correspondence with the string quartets of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major was composed at the same time Rilke was inspiring Kappus. Ravel had been inspired by Debussy’s only string quartet which was completed ten years earlier.
Diderot String Quartet will perform the music and Bill Barclay and David Joseph will play Rilke and Kappus.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
Those are my Best Bets: December 9th – December 12th. Have a great week and see a show!
Main Photo: Letters to a Young Poet (Photo by Patrick Young/©Britten Pears Arts)