Jazz on hold
The bad but not surprising news is that the Boston Public Library’s planned exhibit of archival material from Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop — two of Boston’s leading music clubs between 1963 and 1978 — has been postponed from April 2003 to April 2004. Not surprising because it’s a massive collection that’s being donated by former club owner Fred Taylor, and it’s taking longer than expected to archive and catalogue. The good news is that Scullers, which is the project’s corporate sponsor, will open a mini-exhibit of memorabilia from the two clubs on April 1, by way of kicking off the project and eliciting feedback from the clubs’ many patrons. Details of the BPL’s show and accompanying concert will be announced this summer. And local producer Karl Nurse is filming a video documentary for the project; it will include interviews with Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Werner, Mose Allison, Earl Klugh, Hugh Masekela, and DeeDee Bridgewater, all of whom performed at Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop in the early days of their careers.
March is a cabaret
At least, that’s what the mayors of New York and San Francisco believe: they’ve designated March as Cabaret Month. Should Boston follow slavishly where NY and SF have tread? Well, perhaps not slavishly, but it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. The Boston Association of Cabaret Artists (BACA) is one of six cabaret associations in the US (the others are Manhattan, Chicago, LA, Washington, and San Francisco), and it claims to have "150-plus members made up of performers, industry professionals and aficionados." Business appears to be booming: the Centastage Performance Group and SpeakEasy Stage Company sponsor frequent events, and shows are turning up everywhere from Scullers and the Regattabar to the Boston Center for the Arts, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and Stoneham Theatre.
March highlights in Boston include Boston Sings Boston Redux, which Centastage will present at Club Café March 9 through 25 (see "Play by Play," in the Arts section, for details); and the second annual "Boston Cabaret Festival," whose three nights will serve up "Boston Traditions" (March 28 at the CCAE), "Gala Concert: The Master Lyricists" (March 29 at the National Heritage Museum in Lincoln), and "Guest Artist: Amanda McBroom" (March 30 at the NHM). For a complete calendar of BACA events, go to www.bostoncabaret.org. And don’t forget that on April 26 one of the world’s most famous cabaret artists, Ute Lemper, will be appearing at Berklee Performance Center in a World Music show. Tickets are $25 to $37; call (617) 876-4275.
March is not Bolcom & Morris month, however
One event that won’t be part of Cabaret Month is the FleetBoston Celebrity Series–sponsored appearance of composer/pianist William Bolcom and mezzo-soprano Joan Morris. They were set to perform at Jordan Hall on March 22, but Bolcom is having surgery on his right hand, so the concert has been postponed to June 6, still at Jordan Hall. If you have tickets, hold onto them, since they’ll be honored in June; if you want to buy tickets, at $40 to $50, call CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 or go on-line at www.celebrityseries.org.
The form of the Rose
April always seems like Shakespeare Month, since that’s when his birthday falls (exact date uncertain but celebrated for convenience’ sake on the 23rd, which is the day he died). And Shakespeare & Company has joined up with the Boston Architectural Center to observe his 439th birthday with the exhibit "Designing the Rose," which will showcase the company’s designs for its reconstruction of the Rose Theatre out in Lenox. The original Rose was in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames; Philip Henslowe built it in 1587, and it housed many of Shakespeare’s plays (it’s the theater you see in Shakespeare in Love) before his company built the Globe nearby a dozen years later. S&C is hoping to build a replica of the original and surround it with a Rose Village that would provide a glimpse into Elizabethan England. The company has created a Rose "footprint," on which it staged an abridged version of the Henry VI plays last summer; if you can’t get out to Lenox, however, this show at the BAC will give you an idea of what’s going on. The opening-night celebration April 23 is restricted to BAC guests and friends of S&C, but there’ll be a public opening the following day.
Then at 7:30 on April 25, international theater designer and historian Iain Mackintosh will present the 11th Annual Cascieri Lectureship in the Humanities; his topic will be "Standing Room Only: An Exploration of the Audience’s Place, Position, and Posture, from the Rose of Marlowe and Shakespeare to Fenway Park." Followed by a reception, this lecture is free and open to the public, but reservations are encouraged (call 617-585-0180). And on April 26, S&C and the BAC will host "a free day of public educational programming featuring the disciplines of Elizabethan theater literature, Shakespearean scholarship and performance, theater architecture and construction, and interior and scenic design. The morning session (10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) will include a panel discussion with members of the Rose Team on the re-creation of the Rose Playhouse USA and its Rose Village. The afternoon session (2 to 3:30 p.m.) includes performances by Boston Arts Academy students directed by Shakespeare & Company faculty, and displays of theater designs from students of the BAC." Reservations for these panels are also encouraged.
April 26 is, unfortunately, also the date of the Isabella Stewart Gardner’s all-day "Dante Fest," the concluding event of the museum’s current "Dante and the Gardner" series. Still, it’s a just a bracing walk from 2 Palace Road in the Fenway to the BAC’s digs at 320 Newbury Street, so you can catch at least part of both events.
One text, one world?
It started with Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl’s " one book " program in Seattle in 1998, where the whole town read Russell Banks’s The Sweet Hereafter, and the practice — with different books — soon spread to cities and states across the country (Profiles in Courage in St. Paul, Sophie’s Choice in Virginia, Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker in New York City). This Tuesday, March 4, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, the Friends of the Library, and the Harvard Book Store are joining forces to promote " Cambridge Reads: Cover-to-Cover, " " where the entire community is invited to read the same book. " The chosen text is The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, by James McBride. For the past four years, McBride’s memoir has been assigned to Cambridge eighth-grade graduates; they then discuss it in their first fall semester at Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School. This coming fall, McBride himself will address Rindge & Latin students. In the meantime, between March and September, " Cambridge Reads " organizers will lead book discussions throughout the city. The Color of Water, says CCAE Development Director Ellen Kelley, shows how in " the face of great adversity, education remained a top priority for McBride and his family. " Adds CPL program coordinator Gail Willett, " It’s vital for children to see that all kinds of adults read, and to see that reading is not just an educational tool but something you can keep for the rest of your life. " The kickoff reception for the program takes place on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Cambridge Public Library, 499 Broadway, at 7 p.m. Call (617) 349-4020 .
Meanwhile, in what you could call a nascent " one play " movement, the " Lysistrata Project " kicks off this Monday, March 3, with Boston joining 36 other countries as well as the 49 other US states to " condemn pre-emptive war on Iraq. " According to a press release from the Lysistrata Project, 538 readings of Aristophanes’s anti-war satire are scheduled, including one at Mass College of Art’s Tower Auditorium, 621 Huntington Avenue, at 8 p.m. Donations will benefit United for Justice with Peace for humanitarian aid to the Middle East. Call (617) 2882 extension 1.
Toi et moi ("You and Me")
No, it’s not the new Audrey Tautou film but a special deal for students courtesy of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Boston: during the entire month of March, if you buy a ticket to a French film at a participating theater and present your student ID, you’ll receive a complimentary ticket to that same film for your guest. The participating theaters are the Brattle, the Coolidge Corner, the Harvard Film Archive, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the West Newton — in our book a pretty fair line-up. And the films aren’t bad either: 8 femmes, Sur mes lèvres, Claude Miller’s new Alias Betty, and Bertrand Tavernier’s new Laissez-passer at the Brattle, Frederick Wiseman’s La dernière lettre at the MFA, and the HFA’s "Les Années Noires: French Films During the Occupation, Part 2" series. Pick up schedules from the theaters and be sure to check "Film Listings" and "Film Strips" every week to see what’s au courant.
