MUSIC
Pop & Rock
LIV GREENE This local singer-songwriter released her debut album, “Every Bright Penny,” in lockdown, and one year later she celebrates its anniversary with a virtual show from Passim. Catch her before she moves to Nashville. May 15, 8 pm. www.passim.org
RODRIGO Y GABRIELA The hard-hitting Mexican guitar duo celebrate the release of their new “JAZZ” EP with a livestream from their studio in Ixtapa. May 14, 9 p.m. Stream at dreamstage.live
A.Z. MADONNA
Classical
LA RESURREZIONE In Emmanuel Music’s most extravagant virtual project to date, stage director Nathan Troup sends a formidable cast of local singers (including soprano Kristen Watson, tenor Omar Najmi, and baritone David McFerrin) to every nook and cranny of the historic building for an immersive production of Handel’s oratorio. May 15, 8 p.m. Watch on YouTube.
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MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA Music director Osmo Vänskä conducts “Disarmed and Unfinished,” a powerful program memorializing victims of gun violence. The lineup includes Schubert’s unfinished Symphony in B Minor, Penderecki’s “Chaconne in Memory of John Paul II,” and composer Yaz Lancaster’s response to mass shootings and police killings of unarmed Black Americans, “[dis]armed.” May 14, 9 p.m. Stream at minnesotaorchestra.org
A.Z. MADONNA
ARTS
Theater
CHEKHOVOS /AN EXPERIMENTAL GAME/ Developed by Arlekin Players Theatre founder Igor Golyak, inspired by Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” and hosted on the new domain platform .ART, “chekhovOS /an experimental game/” features a cast that includes Jessica Hecht and Anna Baryshnikov, with Mikhail Baryshnikov as Anton Chekhov. It’s described as a fusion of film, theater, and video game technology that “accesses the operating system behind both Chekhov’s computer and the world in which his characters live, searching for happiness,” with interactive elements that “create a new medium where viewers are able to interact with the performers.” May 16-June 24, with ArtsEmerson showing it on June 6. Tickets free at zerogravity.art or artsemerson.org
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DON AUCOIN
Dance
PROCESS & PROGRESS The final program of Boston Ballet’s first ever all-virtual season features film premieres created on the company by principal dancer John Lam, dancer/choreographer and BBII alum Lex Ishimoto (“So You Think You Can Dance”), plus European luminaries Nanine Linning and Ken Ossola, both creating their first works for a North American company. The show also includes mini-documentaries that offer insight into the process of making each piece. May 13-23, $30. www.bostonballet.org
IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME David Adrian Freeland Jr., a member of the LA Dance Project, performs this provocative new solo in and around Hauser & Wirth’s Los Angeles gallery amid paintings by Amy Sherald. Accompanied by Joel Thompson’s powerful choral work “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed,” the dance evokes the final moments of Kenneth Chamberlain, Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, Michael Brown, Oscar Grant III, John Crawford, and Eric Garner. https://now.ladanceproject.org/videos/it-could-ve-been-me-it-could-be-me
KAREN CAMPBELL
Visual Arts
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE: KABOOM! For years, the South African polymath has been staging complex set pieces that integrate live performance, snippets of film, shadow projection, and his distinctive gestural charcoal drawings. “KABOOM!,” recently acquired by the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, is a tabletop version of Kentridge’s “The Head and the Load,” a vast, complex stage production made for Tate Modern’s turbine hall in 2018. The piece tells of the largely ignored role played by African porters and carriers in the Allied victory in World War I. Through May 23. 25 Harbor Shore Drive. 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org
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MURRAY WHYTE
FRED WILSON: UNTITLED (FLAGS) Wilson puts a magnifying glass on how we construct history and culture, bringing to the fore implicit beliefs about race and power. These paintings re-create flags of Africa and the African diaspora in black on unpainted cotton canvas. The lack of color suggests nations drained of their life’s blood by centuries of the slave trade; it also hints at work yet to be done. Through June 3. Krakow Witkin Gallery, 10 Newbury St. 617-262-4490, www.krakowwitkingallery.com
CATE McQUAID
EVENTS
Comedy
ALEX EDELMAN Brookline native Edelman is a millennial, as he explains on “Until Now,” the debut album he released last summer, and thus has an innate envy of previous generations bragging about owning their homes. “Every old person’s like, ‘My house is worth a million dollars, but when I bought it in 1968 I paid 11 raspberries for it,’ ” he says. “And every young person’s like, ‘I have nine roommates!’” May 14-15, 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $25-$29. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston. 617-725-2844, www.laughboston.com
BOSTON STAND-UP COMEDY: LIVE AND UNMUTED The House of Blues is hosting two stand-up shows, socially distanced in the main hall, featuring veterans of the local scene. The early show has Tony V, Will Noonan, Laura Severse, and Chris Pennie. The late show features Christine Hurley, Corey Rodrigues, Dan Boulger, and Robbie Printz. May 15, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $20-$39.50. The House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston. 617-960-8315. www.houseofblues.com/boston
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DR. KATZ LIVE Jonathan Katz returns with the virtual version of his sessions with “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist.” This edition has some familiar Boston faces on the couch in Bill Burr and Wendy Liebman, plus JB Smoove, Kate Micucci, and Kevin Nealon, with Laura Silverman playing Laura the receptionist. May 16, 8 p.m. $20. www.rushtix.com
NICK A. ZAINO III
Family
HABITREK Kids will practice collecting data and observing nature at this Tower Hill Botanic Garden event. An instructor will guide participants through an investigation of ecosystems and all the living and non-living things in them. May 14, 10:30 a.m. $6-$18. Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston. www.towerhillbg.org
SNOW WHITE AND OTHER TALES Your favorite fairy tales are making their way to the stage — this time, in puppet form (and over Zoom). The historic Puppet Showplace Theater is combining “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Snow White,” and “The Princess and the Pea” in a humorous musical retelling. May 16, 3 p.m. Free. www.puppetshowplace.org
LILACS IN THE ARBORETUM Through late May, visitors can enjoy the flowering lilacs at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. Keep your distance, respect the plants, and be sure to stop and smell the flowers. Through May 23. Free. Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 125 Arborway, Boston. arboretum.harvard.edu
NATACHI ONWUAMAEGBU