Every Thursday, WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen sums up the exhibitions, theater, movies and music you should check out in and around Boston and delivers news from the city's arts scene.
MILK LIKE SUGAR, playing at the Huntington Theatre Company’s Calderwood Pavilion through Feb. 27
Synopsis: Playwright Kirsten Greenidge imagined what might motivate three at-risk teenage girls to enter a pregnancy pact: a Coach diaper bag, Beyonce’s baby stroller, Burberry baby shoes – and validation.
Jared says: “This is a great, great play. This is a must-see.”
AN OCTOROON, presented by Company One Theatre and ArtsEmerson, at the Paramount Center through Feb. 27
Synopsis: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins updated “The Octoroon,” the popular 1859 melodrama about slavery and interracial romance set on a Southern plantation, to bring a decidedly 21st-century take on race. In the original, white actors appeared in blackface to portray African-Americans. In the revival, actors of different races paint themselves black, white or red, directly in front of the audience.
Jared says: “This is a very incendiary play…You’re asked to confront many, many things here.”
1984, playing at the American Repertory Theater through March 6
Synopsis: The theatrical adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian novel that was a hit in London has come to Cambridge, with the rebellious Winston Smith rising up against Big Brother.
Jared says: “In very, very genius directing, the audience becomes complicit… It’s a very, very surreal piece.”
PAIRING PICASSO, on view at the MFA through June 26
Synopsis: Eleven of Pablo Picasso’s paintings, charcoal drawings and sculptures – some of which had never been exhibited in the United States—are juxtaposed for the rare opportunity to study his masterpieces side by side.
Jared says: “What I love about this is that it’s so small that you can spend a lot of time in this gallery and just digest.”
Looking for more arts coverage? This weekend on Open Studio, learn the history of high heels from the Currier Museum, and meet singer-songwriter Will Dailey, who's performing at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Feb. 25.
