BEST BETS: January 12th – January 18th

There’s a little bit for everyone here with modern dance, Shakespeare’s villains, Duke Ellington and more. All making up Best Bets: January 12th – January 18th.

SONS OF ECHO – Joyce Theater – New York, NY – January 14^th – January 25^th

Ballet’s Daniil Simkin explores the role of male dancers in ballet and what is expected of them in this new program. Simkin employs new and existing works by Lucinda Childs, Drew Jacoby, Tiler Peck and Anne Plamondon in this 100-minute show.

Peck’s Real Truth (featuring music by Gregory Porter) and Plamondon’s Will You Catch My Fall (featuring original music by Ouri) are world premieres.

Joining Simkin are Jeffrey Cirio from the Boston Ballet; Osiel Gouneo from Bayerisches Staatsballett; Alban Lendorf from the Royal Danish Ballet and Siphesihle November from the National Ballet of Canada.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

FROM ORDINARY THINGS TOUR  – Seth Parker Woods/Julia Bullock/Conor Hanick – Multiple Venues – January 15^th – January 28^th

Cellist Woods, soprano Bullock and pianist Hanick unite for these concerts that showcase music  by Tania Leon (a newly commissioned work), Andre Previn, Maurice Ravel, Nina Simone, John Tavener and George Walker.

They will perform at CAP UCLA’s The Nimoy in Los Angeles on January 15^th; the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago on January 18^th; the 92nd Street Y in New York on January 23rd; the Eastman Theater’s Kilbourn Hall at the University of Rochester on January 25^th and the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech on January 28^th.

As individual artists, each warrants attending a concert. Together they should be quite the dynamic trio.

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

ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE: HOW SHAKESPEARE INVENTED THE VILLAIN – BroadStage – Santa Monica, CA – January 15^th – January 25^th

A one-man show starring Patrick Page is intriguing enough. To have the emphasis to be on Shakespeare’s classic villains performed by a man most known for playing villainous characters is impossible to resist.

Page gives life to Shylock (The Merchant of Venice), Iago (Othello), Claudius (Hamlet), Malvolio (Twelfth Night) and more to explore not just Shakespeare’s ability to create fully human villains, but also how these characters might mirror what’s going on in our lives today.

With a voice as resonate as that of Orson Welles, Page can make anything interesting and dramatic as this video proves:

After each performance, Page will hold a talkback for 20 minutes.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

ISABEL LEONARD AND FRIENDS – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY – January 15^th

Mezzo-soprano Leonard is joined by Broadway star Jordan Donica and opera star Ryan Speedo Green for an evening of music from the 1930s and 1940s. Amongst the composers whose songs they will perform are Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Florence Price, Kurt Weill and more.

Pianist Jon Arida accompanies them.

This is the first of Leonard’s four Perspective series concerts at Carnegie Hall. The remaining shows are on February 4^th (she appears with The Met Orchestra to perform Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915); May 5^th (she appears as part of the 50^th Anniversary of the Concert of the Century) and the final show is on June 9^th (An Evening with Isabel Leonard and Friends – which has a completely different line-up than the first concert.)

For tickets and more information for all four concerts, please go HERE.

DUKE IN AFRICA – Rose Theater at Lincoln Center – New York, NY – January 15^th – January 17^th

Some of the lesser-performed works of Duke Ellington are on the program for this concert by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. They include 1963’s Afro-Bossa, 1947’s Liberian Suite and the Togo Brava Suite from 1971.

For those unfamiliar with these works, Ellington recorded Afro-Bossa for a 1963 album. There’s a 1947 Carnegie Hall concert released in 1977 that features the Liberian Suite. There was a recording of Togo Brava Suite released in 1971 that won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band. I haven’t found it yet, but some of the songs in that suite have been performed by others.

Fans of Ellington’s music will want to consider going to this concert.

Chris Lewis and Alexa Tarantino lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in these concerts.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

That’s all for Best Bets: January 12th – January 18th.

Enjoy your week and go see a show!

Main Photo: Isabel Leonard (Photo by Michael Thomas/Courtesy Promethean Artists)