What I’d See: Best Bets: November 2nd – November 8th

Let’s begin with admitting a big oops that I need to correct in Best Bets: November 2^nd – November 8^th.

One of my favorite actors who is also one of the best clowns in the world and the only actor to win a Tony Award for Best Actor in a revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has adapted and stars in a play that is getting rave reviews on Broadway. Bill Irwin, let’s go right to your show that should have been on Best Bets two weeks ago:

THE IMAGINARY INVALID – Todd Haimes Theatre – New York, NY – Now – November 22^nd

Molière’s comedy from 1673 is considered one of the best farces ever. It was first performed on Broadway in 1917 with a revival in 1967. Here we are in 2026.

What prompts this farce to show up regularly? Could it be that Molière was brutally skewering doctors who make money their priority over the lives of their patients?

It’s a play about a raging hypochondriac who wants his daughter to marry a medical student so medical care will be free.

Irwin’s adaptation is a single act, 90-minute critic’s darling, but it isn’t without something to say about our world today.

Joining Irwin in the show are Brooks Ashmanskas, Dylan Baker, Rachel Bloom, Hiram Delgado, Crystal A. Dickinson, Daniel Croix Henderson and Ava Lalaezarzadeh.

Brandon J. Dirden directs.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

WAITING FOR LEFTY – Classic Stage Company – Now – November 29^th

OPENING NIGHT:  November 2^nd

New York cab drivers are on the verge of going on strike. While they await their chosen leader, Lefty, to arrive, playwright Clifford Odets structured the play with flashbacks that fill the audience in on the lives of the drivers and workers.

That audience, as traditionally staged, acts as union members creating the atmosphere that we are all part of a larger community.

I can’t help but believe that Odets’ play is being performed at this time because it deals with society’s growing frustration that the rich and powerful are calling all the shots. Perhaps always have been; regretfully always will be. Unless we speak up.

This production stars Tala Ashem, Raffi Barsoumian, Austin Durant, Greg Hildreth, Adam Kantor, Doireann Mac Mahon, Zach McNally, Sahar Milani, Cameron Scoggins and Henry Stram.

Steven Pasquale (The Bridges of Madison County) makes his directorial debut with this production.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.  

NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TOUR – Multiple Venues – November 5^th – November 8^th

Daniel Hope leads the chamber orchestra in performances of works by Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Rhiannon Giddens and Caroline Shaw.

The Marcus Roberts Trio joins to perform a Song Suite by Ellington and concludes the concert with a similar suite by George Gershwin.

Opening the concert is Shaw’s Entr’Acte for Strings. Prior to the Gershwin song suite, they will perform At the Purchaser’s Option by Giddens.

On a personal note, the concert will also feature a performance of Gershwin’s Lullaby. It’s one of my favorite somewhat obscure compositions by Gershwin and one I’ve loved since hearing the Juilliard String Quartet recording of it in 1974.

The four concerts are at UC Berkeley on November 5^th; Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on November 6^th; Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on November 7^th and the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael on November 8^th.

For all shows except Mountain View, please go HERE for tickets and more information. For tickets to the show in Mountain View, please go HERE.

JAMES MOODY JAZZ FESTIVAL – Multiple Venues – Newark, NJ – November 6^th – November 22^nd

A reason to go to Newark without having to take a flight out of EWR!

This year’s festival has quite the lineup. It includes Jon Faddis & Friends celebrating Birth of the Cool and Kind of Blue; Gregory Porter with special guest Madeleine Peyroux; Bruce Hornsby with Christian McBride; Ben Vereen’s 80^th Birthday Concert (with Shoshana Bean, Melba Moore, Lillias White and more); Charles Lloyd Quartet and the 15^th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.

To see Ben Vereen feted, a man who made such an impression on me in Pippin and the tv miniseries Roots would be great. So would seeing the finalists in the Sarah Vaughan Competition.

Truth be told, I’d be at several of those concerts. But I’d have to fly into you know what airport!

For the full schedule and tickets, please go HERE.

THIS IS THE BEGINNING, THIS IS THE END – New York Live Arts – New York, NY – November 6^th – November 14^th

This marks the world premiere of Joanna Kotze’s new work, This is the Beginning, This is the End. She specifically wanted this new dance to have its world premiere just after the mid-term election because its themes include history repeating itself and the accountability of leadership.

I’m intrigued by the political component of Kotze’s work. Her desire to have it premiere this week made me sit up and take notice.

The dancers are Lena Engelstein, Wendell Gray II, Molly Heller, Symara Sarai and Hsiao-Jou Tang.  All of whom are acknowledged as instrumental in the creation of this work. The music was written and will be performed by Ryan Seaton.

There are performances November 6^th and 7^th and November 11^th– 14^th.

I’m optimistic that the title isn’t This is the Beginning of the End!

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

SUOR ANGELICA/JEFFERSON LIVES! – The Sam at the Flea Theater – New York, NY – November 7^th – November 8^th

This is another program likely timed around the elections. Teatro Grattacielo calls this double bill, America 250.

Puccini’s Suor Angelica is paired with the world premiere of Jefferson Lives! The latter is the first work commissioned by Teatro Grattacielo and it takes its name from a man who lived at Monticello.

The website says, in part, of Jefferson Lives!, “Through the ghostly presence of John Adams and a modern narrator drawn unwillingly into the past, the opera traces how political ideas move from thought into action…”

I’m beginning to sense there is a theme to a lot of the work this week. Is it me or is it them?

Joshua Daniel Nichols wrote the music and Stefanos Koroneos wrote the libretto.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

QUIET HOURS – Death of Classical at Christ Chapel at Riverside Church – New York, NY – November 7^th

Composer/pianist Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s series of solo piano nocturnes entitled Quiet Hours was released as an album on August 14^th. It’s a truly beautiful record.

The album featured pianists Timo Andres, Han Chen, Aaron Diehl, Simone Dinnerstein, David Kaplan, Lisa Kaplan, Dan Schlosberg, Adam Tendler, and Ellis Ludwig-Leone performing those nocturnes.

Nocturnes can often be contemplative and meditative. Knowing that Death of Classical creates unique venues in which to present music (I’ve attended an event or two) and offers some wine and nosh, this has the potential to be a perfect evening.

In these two concerts (an early set and a later set), all nine of them will perform this music. In this setting the concert should be quite memorable.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

CAMERATA PACIFICA NOVEMBER CONCERT – Multiple Southern California Venues – November 8^th – November 13^th

How’s this for an intriguing program? Michael Daugherty’s Firecracker; Sarah Gibson’s I prefer living in color; Missy Mazzoli’s Vespers for Violin, the world premiere of The Innocence of Life by Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, K. 452?

I sorely miss having new music by Gibson. I think Daugherty is wonderfully creative. Missy Mazzoli is a genius. And you know I’m a sucker for a world premiere. After all, the art form has to continue to evolve.

The concerts will take place November 8^th at the Janet and Ray Scherr Forum in Thousand Oaks. The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall in San Marino on November 10^th. Zipper Hall at the Colburn School on November 12^th. The last concert is at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara on November 13^th.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

What would I see first? Oh hell, who wants to be forced to choose?

Enjoy your week and go see a show!

All artist names that appear in gold have hyperlinks that will take you to Cultural Attaché interviews with that artist.

Main Photo: The company of Waiting for Lefty (Photo by Marc J. Franklin/Courtesy Classic Stage Company)