BEST BETS: MARCH 10th – MARCH 16th

I realize no one can get to every show I recommend. But this week there are two streaming opportunities in Best Bets: March 10th – March 16th. They are the first and last listing.

KAREN SLACK: AFRICAN QUEENS – 92^nd Street Y – New York, NY – March 11^th (Streaming Option)

Recent Grammy Award winner soprano Karen Slack presents her African Queens concert. She is joined by pianist Kevin Miller.

She won the Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Beyond the Year.

Slack’s concert uses music by such composers as Will Liverman, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Carlos Simon and more to presents musical portraits of African queens through history.

In addition to this performance (which you can stream live or watch for 72 hours after its conclusion), Slack will be appearing with the Nashville Symphony on March 16^th and in recital at the University of Toronto on March 20^th.

For in-person and streaming tickets at the 92^nd Street Y  and more information, please go HERE.

LILLIAS WHITE – Multiple Venues – March 11^th – March 21^st

Human hurricane of a performer Lillias White is hitting the West Coast. This powerful Tony Award winner (The Life) is a force of nature on stage and there’s no better way to experience her than when she’s doing her own thing.

White recently appeared in the musical Hadestown taking over the role of Hermes. She is the first woman to have played the part. No doubt her Broadway career will be front and center in these shows. Her other credits include Once on This Island, Dreamgirls, Chicago and Fela!

She’ll be at Catalina Jazz Club in Los Angeles March 11^th and 12^th. The Purple Room in Palm Springs on March 14^th and 15^th. She will close out her West Coast tour with a performance at The Smith Center in Las Vegas on March 21^st.

For tickets and more information, click on the name of each venue above.the

THE SEASONS – Boston Lyric Opera – Boston, MA – March 12^th – March 16^th

It almost doesn’t matter what this program is when you have as its creators playwright Sarah Ruhl, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, choreographer Pam Tanowitz and director Zack Winokur.

The Seasons tells the story of five artists who get together to commune with nature outside of the city and work on their various disciplines. The weather, however, doesn’t cooperate and what started out to be idyllic proves to be far more complicated.

Costanzo and Ruhl co-conceived the work which is based on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and also uses other compositions by the composer.

Joining Costanzo in the cast are Ashley Emerson, Kangmin Justin Kim, Whitney Morrison, Alexis Peart and Brandon Cedel. There is also a company of six dancers.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES – The Wallis – Beverly Hills, CA – March 13^th – March 30^thand Berkeley Rep – Berkeley, CA – April 5^th – May 11^th

Archivist Rebecca Erbelding received an album of photographs. In the album were photographs of Nazi guards and personnel living what appear to be carefree lives. No sign of the atrocities was shown in the images that reveal people living their lives outside of their jobs with no apparent concern for the work they were doing. 

Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich have turned this story into a play that examines the images and what they say, but also what our reactions to them are. The lens is on both modern society and the people depicted in the photographs.

Kaufman is best known as a playwright for The Laramie Project and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wild. As a director his work includes I Am My Own Wife, 33 Variations and the musical Paradise Square.

Here There Are Blueberries was a Pulitzer Prize nominee.

There are five talkbacks scheduled at The Wallis include three with the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics. Berkeley Rep also has post-show discussions with FASPE and other talkbacks scheduled.

For tickets and more information at The Wallis, please go HERE. For tickets and more information at Berkeley Rep, please go HERE.

FELIX HAGAN – 54 Below – New York, NY – March 14^th (Streaming Option)

It would be enough for any musical to merely win the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. But on top of that, Operation Mincemeat is the best reviewed musical to ever appear on the West End in London.

One of the four creators of the musical is Felix Hagan. He, along with his SplitLip comedy troupe colleagues (David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts), are bringing their hit show to New York later this month.

You have a chance to get a preview of the musical in this concert by Hagan which promises to not only preview Operation Mincemeat, but also allow Hagan to offer up songs from his upcoming album, Happy Songs, along with previous recordings like This Is Hagan Music and Dawn Breaks, The Monster Wakes.

The concert takes place on his birthday.

The show will be livestreamed, but only available at the time of performance. 

For in-person tickets, please go HERE. For streaming tickets, please go HERE.

Main Photo: Here There Are Blueberries (Courtesy The Wallis)