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.
I MUST FIRST APOLOGIZE…, on view at the MIT List Visual Arts Center through April 17
Synopsis: The spam we receive from strangers in another land pleading for money is nothing new. In fact, messages like that date back to the 18th century. They’ve caught the attention of two Lebanese artists, who’ve just opened an unconventional exhibition about how these email schemes are perpetrated.
Jared says: “They’ve put together what’s really a cinematic look at these scams... just taking one very simple concept and have it completely extrapolated.”
ONEGIN, presented by Boston Ballet at The Boston Opera House through March 6
Synopsis: Boston Ballet dances a classic the company hasn’t performed since 2002: choreographer John Cranko’s adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s poem about young love spurned, set in 1820s Imperial Russia.
Jared says: “This is beautifully danced…The Boston Ballet has become so proficient in modern dance – we’re so interested now to see how they can technically adapt to some of these newer works – that really, when they go back to these story ballets, they must be exceptional, and this one is.
RICHARD II, presented by the Actors’ Shakespeare Project at the Cambridge YMCA through March 13
Synopsis: In Shakespeare’s first play about the House of Lancaster, King Richard exiles two combative cousins, then goes on to lose power by mismanaging his money and underestimating his enemies.
Jared says: “I really enjoyed this production…This is really unfolding around you, and in some ways, you feel like you’re part of the king’s court.”
CAKEWALK, presented by Zeitgeist Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts through March 19
Synopsis: Five wildly different Vermonters, including a nun to a hippie, enter a Fourth of July cake-baking competition and see red while waiting for the festivities to begin.
Jared says: “Zaniness and madness ensue when you put all of these characters together.”
Looking for more arts coverage? This week on Open Studio, go deeper into the world of spam on view at the MIT List Visual Art Center, and meet Lawrence native and Alvin Ailey dancer Belen Pereyra, who is back in town to perform at the Wang Theatre.
