I’d love to see everything on Best Bets: October 12th – October 18th. I make it clear one of them. Can you figure out the second?
PAQUITO D’RIVERA: FROM CARNE Y FRIJOL TO CARNEGIE HALL – PBS – October 12th (Check Local Listings)
I saw clarinetist/composer D’Rivera at the Chicago Jazz Festival not too long ago. It was, I’m sad to admit, the first time I’d ever seen him. Boy have I been missing a lot!
You can see what I responded to when you watch From Carne y Frijol to Carnegie Hall.
His journey took him from Cuba to founding Cuban Modern Music Orchestra to concert halls around the world and collaborations with people like Chucho Valdés, Yo-Yo Ma, Dizzy Gillespie and more.
Juan Mandelbaum directed the film.
As with most PBS shows you can watch it on your local station (for those in the US) and on the PBS app and PBS.org.
BOBBY ROBOTOWITZ – Multiple Venues – Los Angeles, CA – October 15th – November 23rd
Do you talk to your AI as if it is a person? Do you know someone who does? Perhaps you’ll be interested in this new play that juxtaposes reliance on technology with intimate performances in private homes.
This is the world premiere of Matt Schatz’s play about AI.
At the center of it is novelist Dina Katzman. She’s juggling her writing with her responsibilities as a mother and as a wife. She starts communicating with an AI entity named Bobby.
Apparently, she uses Bobby as her pseudo-therapist. He listens and offers perspectives. But can this possibly be good for her?
The production, from IAMA Theatre Company, will be performed in private homes. From October 15th – November 2nd, the show will be performed on the Westside. Amy Rosoff plays Dina and James Luster plays Bobby.
From November 5th – November 23rd, the show moves to a home in Silverlake with Christine Woods and Drew Rausch sharing the roles.
Casey Stangl directs.
Next year the show will be performed (as part of a rolling premiere) at City Theatre in Miami; Woolly Mammoth in Washington, D.C and Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ.
For tickets and more information for the world premiere in Los Angeles, please go HERE.
DEATH BECOMES HER NORTH AMERICAN TOUR – October 13th – September 5, 2027
Everyone I know who saw Death Becomes Her on Broadway loved this show. I still haven’t seen it…yet.
Based on the 1992 film, this musical played 666 regular performances. A coincidence for such a macabre black comedy? Or was it by design?
Two women have been frenemies for quite some time.
One is a once glamorous actress (Madeline Ashton) and the other is an author (Helen Sharp)
When Madeline takes Helen’s fiancé, Ernest Menville, the two go at it like there’s no tomorrow.
Both Madeline and Helen take a potion that gives them eternal youth and the ability to never die. Let the mayhem begin!
Jackie Burns and Kristen Beth Williams play the dueling women with Ken Marino as Menville.
The book was written by Marco Pennette and the music and lyrics are by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey. Christopher Gattelli directed and choreographed the show.
The tour begins this week at The Fabulous Fox in St. Louis, MO. The next stops are the Orpheum Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska; Andrew Jackson Hall in Nashville, TN and DPAC in Durham, North Carolina.
For the full schedule and to get tickets, please go HERE.
JENNIFER KOH AND VIJAY IYER – Perelman Theatre, Kimmel Center – Philadelphia, PA – October 16th
If I could go to just one of the performances in Best Bets: October 12th – October 18th, it would be this Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Concert.
The concert opens with violinist Koh performing Bach’s Partita in D Minor for Solo Violin.
Then composer and pianist Vijay Iyer joins her to perform his 2024 composition, Scenes of Living and Dying: Part I. This marks the Philadelphia premiere of the work which was introduced to the world by Koh and Iyer at the Kennedy Center.
Iyer then performs several of his solo piano compositions.
The evening concludes with the world premiere of Scenes of Living and Dying: Part II.
Grief is such a powerful inspiration for many of the world’s greatest compositions. I’d love to be in this room when these two works by a truly original composer get performed.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
A DEER WALKS INTO A DANCE – The Nimoy – Los Angeles, CA – October 16th – October 17th
This world premiere was, if I’m to believe a press release, inspired by the incredibly old joke, “A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says, ‘Hey, why the long face?’”
Choreographer and Guggenheim, Rauschenberg and Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Victoria Marks explores the impact of the words we use to describe ourselves and those others use to describe us. Do they become assets or weapons? Can we find a way beyond those limitations?
A Deer Walks Into a Dance runs 55 minutes and features Rian Alcid, Maya Billig, Karen Chuang and Aaron Mason. The music was composed by Simon Chernow.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
FALSETTOS 10th ANNIVERSARY REUNION CONCERTS – Carnegie Hall – New York, NY – October 18th, November 2nd and February 8, 2027
I will never forget the evening of October 8, 2016. I was settled into my seat at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York to watch the Broadway revival of this staggeringly moving musical by William Finn and James Lapine. It was still in previews.
By the end of the performance, I was so emotionally done in that I couldn’t leap to my feet to give the more-than-worthy cast a standing ovation. I needed a few minutes.
That cast is reuniting for a series of 10th anniversary reunion concerts at Carnegie Hall. They are Stephanie J. Block, Christian Borle, Andrew Rannells, Anthony Rosenthal, Tracie Thoms, Brandon Uranowitz and Betsy Wolfe.
Next year they will also perform three shows at The London Palladium on February 23rd and 24th.
For tickets (which are already hard to get) and more information for any of these performances, please go HERE.
That’s all for Best Bets: October 12th – October 18th.
What shows or performances have stayed with you for 10 years or more? Leave a comment. Let’s talk!
Main Photo: Violinist Jennifer Koh (Photo by Juergen Frank/Courtesy Opus 3 Artists)