Wish. Upon A Star

Continuing the 28th Season theme of Sun, Moon, and Stars, American Classics presents a live concert, “Wish Upon a Star," on April 11 (Cambridge) and 13 (Bedford). Known for their entertaining and educational performances, American Classics' founders and producers Bradford Conner and Benjamin Sears blend familiar favorites with rarely heard selections performed by Greater Boston’s top singers and musicians.&nbsp; The “stars” for these performances feature <a href="http://www.valerieandtim.com/">Valerie Anastasio</a>, <a href="https://www.jeandanton.com/">Jean Danton</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-deluise-99672031">Michelle Deluise</a>, <a href="https://joannmdickinsonauthor.com/about/">JoAnne Dickinson</a>, reader, <a href="https://www.christinaenglish.com/">Christina English</a>, <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/bio.html">Bradford Conner</a>, <a href="https://theweshunter.com/about">Wes Hunter</a>, John Manning, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-milardo-19444549">Brandon Milardo</a>, <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/bio.html">Benjamin Sears</a>, and <a href="https://riversschoolconservatory.org/faculty/steve-sussman/">Steve Sussman</a>, piano. &nbsp; Songs to be performed include&nbsp; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_on_a_Star">Swinging On a Star</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Van_Heusen">Jimmy Van Heusen</a> and lyrics by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Burke_(lyricist)">Johnny Burke</a>;&nbsp; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_Fell_on_Alabama">Stars Fell on Alabama</a> is a 1934 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_standard">jazz standard</a> composed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Perkins_(composer)">Frank Perkins</a> with lyrics by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Parish">Mitchell Parish</a>; You Are My Lucky Star was written for the film <a href="https://secondhandsongs.com/broadcast/463">Broadway Melody of 1936</a>. It was used again in the 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain," which mainly featured works written by Nacio Herb Brown and <a href="https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/13115">Arthur Freed</a>, How Deep is the Ocean, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice_Work_If_You_Can_Get_It_(song)">Nice Work if You Can Get It</a> composed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gershwin">George Gershwin</a> with lyrics by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Gershwin">Ira Gershwin</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_Just_in_Love">You’re Just in Love</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin">Irving Berlin</a>, and more celestial delights. Special guest JoAnne Dickinson will read poems at various points throughout the program. The performances are on Friday, April. 11, 2025, 7:30 pm at First Church Congregational 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA., and Sunday, April 13, 2025, at 3:00 pm at First Parish Church, 75 Great Road, Bedford, MA. Both concert halls are wheelchair accessible. Tickets $30 and $25. For more information and tickets, visit <a href="https://bit.ly/AmericanClassicsWishUponaStar">https://bit.ly/AmericanClassicsWishUponaStar</a> or call 617-254-1125.

First Church Congrational

American Classics presents "Moonlight, Music, and Romance: Musical Lunar Delights" 

New England’s Award-Winning American Classics presents "Moonlight, Music, and Romance: Musical Lunar Delights"  Two Performances February 14 in Cambridge and 16 in Bedford Continuing the 28th Season theme of Sun, Moon, and Stars, American Classics presents “Moonlight, Music, and Romance: Musical Lunar Delights" on February 14 and 16. Known for their entertaining and educational performances, American Classics' founders and producers Bradford Conner and Benjamin Sears blend familiar favorites with rarely performed selections performed by Greater Boston’s  top singers and musicians. The nine-member cast features  <a href="http://www.graceallendorf.com/">Grace Allendorf</a>, <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/bio.html">Bradford Conner</a>, <a href="https://www.singwithsarah.com/">Sarah Kornfeld</a>, <a href="https://www.briandelorenzo.com/">Brian De Lorenzo</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-sagin-438590193">Ethan Sagin</a>, <a href="https://www.bso.org/profiles/carolyn-saxon">Carolyn Saxon</a>, <a href="https://www.lazard.com/our-people/marcus-schenck/">Marcus Schenck</a>, and <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/bio.html">Benjamin Sear</a>s, along with <a href="https://maestramusic.org/profile/bethany-aiken/">Bethany Aiken</a>, making her American Classics debut on piano.  In an early review by the late Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer he writes, “The secret of light entertainment is that the standards of execution are no less demandingly exact than in the other musical arts. The best work by the American Classics performers demonstrated that they know this.” To round out the accolades, Theater Mirror’s Beverly Creasey noted, “The music is glorious. The performances are riotously screwball and you will leave humming the tunes. What's not to love?” According to Conner, "We usually start with about fifty songs from our musical library that relate to the theme in some way. Then we narrow it down to songs that work well together, showcase the voices, and excite the cast. It sounds simple but once we hit rehearsals, creating the program is a collaborative musical puzzle."  Sears adds, “By performance time it is so much fun to witness performers and audience discover the music together.”  Some of the slated lunar delights include "Blue Moon" by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (1934), "Moon River" by Johnny Mercer (1960), “How High the Moon" by Nancy Hamilton (1940), "In the Still of the Night" by Cole Porter (1937), and "Shine On, Harvest Moon" by Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth (1908), along with works by Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and others.  "Moonlight, Music, and Romance: Musical Lunar Delights" performances will take place on Friday, February 14, 2025, at 7:30 PM at First Church Congregational, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, and on Sunday, February 16, 2025, at 3:00 PM at First Parish Church, 5 Great Road, Bedford, MA. Both venues are wheelchair accessible. Tickets are $30, with a discounted rate of $25 for students and seniors. For tickets and more information, please visit<a href="http://amclass.org/"> amclass.org</a> or call 617-254-1125.

Emmy winner Gordon Clapp in. Robert Frost: This Verse Business

Emmy-winning actor Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue) will bring his acclaimed portrayal of poet Robert Frost to Boston this Spring in the one-man show "Robert Frost: This Verse Business" by local playwright A.M. Dolan.&nbsp; It’s an entertaining portrait of the great poet and platform legend whose public “talks” were hot tickets for nearly half a century and an illuminating glimpse of the old bard at home, aware of his fame and failures, with poems still to write and “promises to keep.”&nbsp; Directed by Gus Kaikkonen, performances will run from April 23-28, 2024 (<a href="mailto:jbpr@comcast.net" target="_blank">Press Performance April 23 or 24</a>) in the Roberts Studio Theatre at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Tuesday - Friday, 7:30 PM; Saturday and Sunday, 2:00 PM. Tickets are $75 - $25. For more information, visit <a href="http://bostontheatrescene.com/" target="_blank">bostontheatrescene.com</a> or call&nbsp;617 933 8600.&nbsp; “The Boston performances reflect a homecoming of sorts for the poet, who had a home on Beacon Hill and then, for the last two decades, in Cambridge on Brewster St.,” said Dolan.&nbsp; “He died in Boston, just weeks after giving his final ‘talk’ at the Ford Hall Forum.&nbsp; 2024 is the 150th anniversary of his birth, and April is ‘Poetry Month.’&nbsp; The time felt right for the Boston premiere.” "Frost is a voice that we need in this century," Clapp said. "I feel like I'm bringing him into this time again."&nbsp; In Clapp’s acclaimed portrait, the flinty old poet shares his verse from memory, along with witty “wild surmises” on art, religion, science, “radicals,” and “conservatives.” Culled from actual recordings and Frost’s writings, the production reveals in measured glances both the public and private faces of an American icon, whose poems about rural New England became a canvas for exploring deeper philosophical and social ideas.&nbsp; Included in the play are best-known poems such as “Birches,” “Mending Wall,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and ‘The Road Not Taken.” Clapp said that when he performs, he can feel an aura of expectation from certain audience members, such as hard-core Frost fans, whom he calls "Frost-aceans" (like crustaceans). But he doesn't attribute this energy to his acting.&nbsp; "They're addicted to the poetry, and they're so moved by it," Clapp said. "I don't give myself a lot of credit for that. It's Frost himself right there."

Roberts Studio Theatre at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts

American Classics presents Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

The SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES cast features <a href="http://www.graceallendorf.com/" target="_blank">Grace Allendorf</a>, <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/bio.html" target="_blank">Bradford Conner</a>, <a href="https://weshunter.net/home" target="_blank">Wes Hunter</a>, <a href="https://cleverhandgallery.com/childrens-items-online/p/sock-puppy-critters-by-cynthia-mork" target="_blank">Cynthia Mork</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheOneAndOnlyJulia" target="_blank">Julia Zerbinetta Nelson</a>, <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/bio.html" target="_blank">Benjamin Sears</a>, <a href="https://www.abouttheartists.com/artists/329448-robert-saoud" target="_blank">Robert Saoud</a> and <a href="https://tdm.fas.harvard.edu/people/catherine-stornetta" target="_blank">Catherine Stornetta</a> on piano. The concert will include songs such as Two Cigarettes in the Dark, Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, Hernando's Hideaway, Please Don't Smoke, Sweet Marijuana, Two Sleepy People, and A Good Cigar is a Smoke. The performances for SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES will take place on Friday, April 19, 2023, at 7:30 pm at Jewett Hall, First Church Congregational, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, and on Sunday, April 21, 2023, at 3:00 pm at First Parish Church, 75 Great Road, Bedford, MA. Both concert halls are wheelchair accessible. The tickets for all performances are priced at $25, with a discounted price of $20 for students and seniors.&nbsp; For more information, visit <a href="http://www.amclass.org/" target="_blank">www.amclass.org</a> or call American Classics at 617-254-1125.

S-E-X Marches On by American Classics

S-E-X MARCHES ON&nbsp; will be performed by <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/bio.html" target="_blank">Bradford Conner</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-deluise-99672031" target="_blank">Michelle DeLuise</a>, <a href="https://www.christinaenglish.com/" target="_blank">Christina English</a>, <a href="https://sarahkornfeld.org/" target="_blank">Sarah Kornfeld</a>, <a href="https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Sagin-Ethan.htm" target="_blank">Ethan Sagin</a>, and <a href="https://www.benandbrad.com/" target="_blank">Benjamin Sears</a>, with <a href="https://riversschoolconservatory.org/faculty/steve-sussman/" target="_blank">Steve Sussman on piano</a>.&nbsp; Conner shares, “Last night was the first rehearsal for American Classics’ ‘S-E-X Marches On’ show, and WOW, what a fun rehearsal.” He adds, “ I hope the audience is ready for all the double entendres and the blatant references to what is arguably humankind’s favorite pastime. The cast is terrific with more experience and talent than should be allowed in one room.”&nbsp; Performances are on Friday, February 16, 2023, at 7:30 pm at <a href="https://www.firstchurchcambridge.org/venue/margaret-jewett-hall/" target="_blank">Jewett Hall</a>,&nbsp; <a href="https://www.firstchurchcambridge.org/" target="_blank">First Church Congregational</a>, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, and on Sunday, February 18, 2023, at 3:00 pm at <a href="https://www.uubedford.org/" target="_blank">First Parish Church</a>, 75 Great Road, Bedford, MA.

UPLIFT! Concert Series with Yewande Odetoyinbo and Lillian Salazar!

<a href="https://www.reaglemusictheatre.org/uplift">Reagle Music Theatre</a> is excited to launch its new concert series called UPLIFT!  Join us for an evening filled with vibrant music, powerful stories, and Boston favorites! The concert will star award-winning actress Yewande Odetoyinbo and feature up-and-coming artist Lillian Salazar! The UPLIFT concert series will spotlight various underrepresented artists in the community, giving them a dedicated space to learn from and collaborate with more established artists, develop and hone performance skills, and share their diverse talents and personal experiences with a wide audience. Everyone deserves the chance to shine. RMT’s UPLIFT concert series will support and represent as many artists of various backgrounds and identities as possible as they bring their stories front and center stage. Each concert will feature and celebrate two artists: One will be a more established and experienced community member. The other will be an up-and-coming artist who is about to take the theater scene by storm! Together, and in collaboration with Artistic Director Rachel Bertone, these artists will create an entertaining and thought-provoking event.   She can currently be seen playing Deloris Van Cartier in Sister Act at Lyric Stage Company. Yewande Odetoyinbo is a performer/choreographer/director originally from Detroit, MI. She is a proud graduate of Howard University, where she earned a BFA in Musical Theatre and became a member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. She also has an MFA in Musical Theatre Performance from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she now teaches senior musical theater. She has worked with many theaters throughout the New England area and the country, including Reagle Music Theatre, Speakeasy Stage, Lyric Stage, Front Porch Arts Collective, American Repertory Theatre, Moonbox Productions, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Theatre Company, Goodspeed Opera House, New Repertory Theatre, The Barnstormers Theatre, Fiddlehead Theatre, Bridge Repertory Theatre, Signature Theatre, and American Stage Company. She is an IRNE Award winner and a two-time Elliott Norton Award nominee. It is her lifelong dream not only to perform and teach theater to inner-city youth but also to open up a performing arts school in Nigeria. Lillian Salazar is thrilled to be a part of the Uplift concert! They are currently a Junior Musical Theatre major at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Some past credits include Lyric Stage Company: Sister Act (u/s Michelle, Tina, Nun), Umbrella Stage Company: Head Over Heels (Mopsa), University of the Arts: Ride The Cyclone (Constance), In The Heights (Vanessa), Beacon Performance Arts Center: Heathers (Heather Chandler). They are extremely grateful for this opportunity and to be working alongside Yewande Odetoyinbo and Rachel Bertone. Special thanks to their family and friends who have continuously supported them throughout the years!

Club Cafe

Boston Tap Party Faculty Showcase

This summer <a href="https://www.deborahmasonperformingartscenter.com/">Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center (DMPAC)</a> proudly debuts the first annual BOSTON TAP PARTY (BTP) in Greater Boston! The inaugural tap festival (August 4-7 2022) features residencies (audition only) open classes and the Boston Tap Party faculty/student showcase (Saturday, August 6 at 7:00 pm with a live band led by Jazz Pianist Paul Arslanian at Regent Theatre in Arington MA. )  The 2022 BTP faculty features Ian Berg, Ryan P. Casey, Sam Emmond, Thelma Goldberg, Khalid Hill, Kelly Kaleta, Demi Remick, Tony Scott,  Aaron Tolson, and Dianne Walker. BTP Producer/Director Deborah Mason Dudley says “We are so excited to finally launch the Boston Tap Party. We cannot thank Dianne Walker Jai Underhill and all of the truly awe-inspiring teaching artists involved for participating this summer to make this new festival and showcase what we hope becomes an ongoing and vibrant annual celebration of tap performance in Greater Boston.”   The inaugural event draws on the spirit of the annual Beantown TapFest (2007-2019) created by Founder and Director Julia Boynton and described by The Boston Globe in 2019 as a “...multi-day intensive [that] brings together tap enthusiasts of all ages and abilities… for celebration study and discovery…”. The TapFest concluded in 2019 with hopes for a successor festival to continue its work. Conceived in this spirit but delayed by the pandemic and other challenges for two years BTP, at last, brings a collaborative summer celebration of tap performance and education back to Greater Boston.

Regent Theatre

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

Community recs 💬

S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S17: interest based

Your guide to everything free in and around Boston. From events, to fairs, to festivals, to outdoors. Joyraft has all the free events happening near you.

100+ free things to do in Boston and beyond

Free things to do in Boston

Free things to do

S19: interest based

Kid-friendly events in Boston

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.

Where

jbpr120

Experiences