COMEDY
BuffyProv! Boston Comedy Chicks ART
AD 20/21 and Boston Print Fair In the Eye of the Beholder THEATER
Mr. Burns: a Post-electric Play Bat Boy: The Musical MOVIES
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution The Invitation MUSIC
Quiles and Cloud/the By and By Humans Plant Parenthood Hookup Culture THEATER
Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda DANCE
Dancing the Distance BOOKS
Allyson Hobbs
Saturdays through April 30
Riot Theater
146A South St., Jamaica Plain
$10, 617-942-0294
www.theriottheater.com
This double feature of improv comedy riffs on two classic 90’s cult TV hits, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Twin Peaks”. It’s quite the challenge, because both series had an eccentric sense of irony and self-awareness—to some extent, they already parodied themselves, which makes us curious as to how the Riot’s crew will one-up them. All we know is it’ll be funny.
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Doyle’s Café
3484 Washington St., Jamaica Plain
$10, info@bostoncomedychicks.com
www.bostoncomedychicks.com
April’s installment of this monthly all-woman comedy showcase includes performances from Ellen Sugarman, Tracy Dolan, Tooky Kavanagh, Kylie Alexander, Gloria Rose, Erika Welch, Carolyn Paine, Lady Vain, Molly Dugan, Srilatha Rajamani, Kristin Seltman and Phoebe Angle. Your host is Pamela Ross. All should provide ample evidence against the late Christopher Hitchens’ famously silly assertion that “women aren’t funny.”
Friday through Sunday
Cyclorama
539 Tremont St., Boston
$15, 617-363-0405
ad2021weekend.eventbrite.com
This annual pair of showcases, organized by Fusco and Four, is chock full of eye-popping design and print work from several New England galleries and a few from farther afield. The full list of categories is as follows: “modern to contemporary fine art, furnishings, photography, jewelry, Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern, decorative arts, sculpture, fine prints, drawings and more.”
Thursday through May 6
Midway Gallery
15 Channel Center St., Boston
Free, 617-946-4630
Gallery.midwayartiststudios.com
With contributions from 20 artists, this exhibition explores the idea of self-adornment, and the gap between what we try to project and what people receive, with objects made from materials ranging from high class to recycled junk. Given that so much of the work is wearable, there will be a runway show to close out the exhibition in May.
Friday through May 7
Lyric Stage
140 Clarendon St., Boston
$24-$58, 617-585-5678
www.lyricstage.com
Civilization is over, due to an undisclosed natural disaster. A bunch of survivors sit around a campfire telling a classic folktale: the “Cape Feare” episode of “The Simpsons.” Lyric Stage Company has transformed their whole theater for this production, creative an immersive audience experience from the moment you walk in. For this reason, no one will be admitted late — get there on time ya mooks!
Friday through April 23
Footlight Club
7A Eliot St., Jamaica Plain
$22-$25, 617-524-3200
www.footlight.org
Based on the infamous character from the wacky “Weekly World News,” a now-defunct supermarket tabloid, this off-Broadway musical, which tells the surprisingly compelling tale of a half-man, half-bat who emerges from his cave and attempts to adjust to society, has become a cult hit. It authors milk the situation for all it’s worth, mixing sincerity and silliness in equal measure.
Thursday, 7 p.m.
Paramount Center
559 Washington St., Boston
Free, 617-824-8400
www.artsemerson.org
Among civil rights organizations in the late 60’s and 70’s, the Black Panthers weren’t just militant but military, openly carrying guns, dressing in intimidating black leather and berets and espousing revolution. Their immediate goal, however, was simply to protect black neighborhoods from hostile police. Director Stanley Nelson will appear in person after this screening of his documentary about the legendary organization.
Friday through April 14
Brattle Theater
40 Brattle St., Cambridge
$9-$11, 617-876-6837
www.brattlefilm.org
The Brattle Theater presents the area premiere of this thriller by Kayrn Kusama, about a man who accepts an invitation to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife and her new husband. Considering their dark past, it’s already strange that he’s even here, but the strangeness is about to go much deeper. This is the Hollywood Hills — anything’s possible.
Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Gallery 263
263 Pearl St., Cambridge
$10, contact@gallery263.com
www.gallery263.com
Folk duo Quiles and Cloud hail from San Francisco and play a time-honored brand of Americana music, with a beautiful, meditative simplicity. Their new album, “Beyond the Rain,” dropped in January. They’re joined by Boston trio the By and By. The mandolin-bass-vocals trio, who met at the New England Conservatory, infuse a jazzy/improvisational element into their brand of Americana.
Saturday, 7 p.m.
Middle East Upstairs
472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$10-$12, 18+, 866-777-8932
www.ticketweb.com
If you’re going to release just an EP with just two songs and not call it a single, there’d better be some epic stuff on there, but the title track of Canadian electronic act Humans’ “Water Water” EP delivers. It’s a 9-minute slow-burner, driven by a quick beat, and taut, vaguely threateningsynths—a masterpiece of modern urban anxiety.
Saturday, 8 p.m.
The Record Company
960 Mass. Ave., Boston
$5-$10, all ages
www.bostonhassle.com
It’s hard to know what to make this Nashville band’s name—is it a marijuana reference? Just a stupid pun? It’s even harder to know what to make of their music. Their noisy, dirge-like EP “Feeling Good” is closer to sonic art than pop, but they’ve also made compelling basement pop — regardless, we’re enjoying the confusion, and it seems like they are too.
Sunday, 9 p.m.
Great Scott
1222Comm. Ave.,Allston
$8, 18+, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
This local band’s online bio keeps it short and sweet: “We write sad songs about girls and staying up too late.” A quick listen to their emo-tinged power pop confirms this, as well as the irony of their name—these dudes are hopeless romantics. At this show they’ll release their new EP, supported by the bands Little Library and Bay Faction.
Thursday and Friday
First Church in Cambridge
11 Garden St., Cambridge
$14, 617-319-3594
www.teddycrecelius.com/cottageindustry
The first production from Cottage Industry Theater is this chamber opera by Monteverdi, with music provided by the Commonwealth Consort. Set during the First Crusade and based on the Renaissance epic poem “Jerusalem Delivered,” the romance focuses on a tragic confusion of love and war in the Holy Land, when the Christian knight Tancredi falls in love with Muslim woman warrior Clorinda.
Friday and Saturday
Green Street Studios
185 Green St., Cambridge
$20, laceysasso@yahoo.com
www.facebook.com/sassoandcompany/
Sasso and Company presents this pair of concerts showcasing local dance companies, to promote greater solidarity in the Boston dance community. Friday night features DSundanceX, Kelley Donovan & Dancers, Nozama Dance Collective, Paul and Lynn Dance and Raquelle’s Dance Company; Saturday’s lineup includes Alive Dance Collective, Boston Community Dance Project, Company Four and KAIROS Dance Theater.
Monday, 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store
1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
Free, 617-661-1515
www.harvard.com
Stanford history professor Allyson Hobbs will discuss her new book “A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life,” which tells the often forgotten story of mixed-race Americans whose light skin allowed them to “pass” as white. In abandoning their black ancestry and the black community, however, many found that what they lost outweighed what they gained.
Because ‘Buffy’-inspired improv is exactly how we want to spend the weekend
Fotos International/Courtesy of Getty Images
