MUSIC
Pop & Rock
FIRST ANNUAL CRAFT FOOD HALLS MUSIC FESTIVAL The local label Red on Red records gets the spotlight at the recently opened food court Revolution Hall’s first music festival. The bill includes local outfits like the jittery Cold Expectations and the glammed-out Linnea’s Garden. June 26, noon-8 p.m. Revolution Hall, 3 Maguire Road, Lexington. Tickets available at eventbrite.com
TIFFANY The ’80s mall-pop staple previews her forthcoming album “Shadows,” on which she embraces guitar-edged sounds with the help of hard rock kings L.A. Guns. June 29, 8 p.m. City Winery, 80 Beverly St. 617-933-8047, citywinery.com/boston
SUMMERLAND TOUR 2021 The return of live shows means the comeback of this annual rock nostalgia fest, which continues its blurring of the line between ’90s and ’00s retro by featuring bummed-out beach dwellers Everclear, virtuosic prog-metallers Living Colour, post-post-grungers Hoobastank, and pop-rock ironists Wheatus. July 1, 6:30 p.m. doors. House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St. 888-693-2583, houseofblues.com/boston
MAURA JOHNSTON
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Folk & World
CORMAC McCARTHY Over the course of a career that began in the 1980s, this quintessential New England folk singer has been writing songs that beautifully distill, with wryness and humor, the bleakness of life, working-class life in particular. June 25, 8 p.m. (outdoor show). $50-$125/table of four. 3S Artspace, 319 Vaughan St., Portsmouth, N.H. 603-766-3330, www.3sarts.org
SAY DARLING Now that they can play live again, Say Darling can finally celebrate their latest record, “Before & After,” about half of which they made when they couldn’t play live or together in the studio. The album reflects on that, as well as the wider effects of the Great Disruption. June 25, 10 p.m. $18. The Porch Southern, 175 Rivers Edge Drive, Medford. 781-874-9357, www.theporchsouthern.com
MARTIN SEXTON The veteran soulful troubadour has a new release coming out in September (his first in six years) with the title “2020 Vision.” Hmmm, wonder what that one’s going to be about? June 26, 3 p.m. (outdoor show). $59.50, $69.50. Hale Farm, 39 Hale St., Beverly. 978-927-3100, thecabot.org
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STUART MUNRO
Jazz & Blues
ANDY LANTZ & FRANKIE CAMPOFELICE Pianist Lantz resumes his monthly residency at Club Café, exploring the rich terrain of standard songs from the 1920s to the 1960s. His special guest will be classically trained singer Campofelice, who has performed in everything from “La Bohème” to “West Side Story.” June 24, 7:30 p.m. Reservations required. Napoleon Room at Club Café, 209 Columbus Ave. 617-536-0966, www.clubcafe.com
LOS ZORROS “Zorro” is Spanish for fox, so this Afro-Cuban jazz band, led by local trombone eminence and Arlington jazz impresario Dan Fox, is aptly named. It features a roster of local heavy hitters: pianist Alexei Tsiganov, bassist Gregory Ryan, drummer Bertram Lehmann, and Hilary Noble on saxophone and congas. June 26, 9 p.m. No cover. Town Tavern, 201 Mass. Ave., Arlington. 617-909-7776, Arlington Jazz on Facebook
THE HARVEY DIAMOND QUARTET The simultaneously cerebral and soulful pianist extends the legacy of his legendary mentor Lennie Tristano. His band includes top-flight trumpeter Phil Grenadier and the top-notch rhythm section of bassist Jon Dreyer and drummer Austin McMahon. June 27, 7 p.m. $10-$15. Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. www.lilypadinman.com
KEVIN LOWENTHAL
ARTS
Theater
THE BOSTON PROJECT: PROJECT RESILIENCE Bostonians wrestle with the complicated idea of home — stay or go? — and with the mixed blessings of memory while battling grief, fear, uncertainty, or isolation in these six new short plays. All were written by local dramatists, and most, but not all, invoke the pandemic. A standout is Adriana RoCale’s “East Boston, Nos Vemos,” starring the luminous Graciela Femenia as Nindiría, a Nicaraguan immigrant who refuses to accept defeat. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. Streaming through June 30. Tickets $30. www.speakeasystage.com
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TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS Celeste Oliva delivers an outstanding performance as the author of “Dear Sugar,” an advice column, in this stage adaptation by Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) of Cheryl Strayed’s book. As the columnist goes to a few places, subject-matter-wise, that Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren would never have dreamed of going, Oliva invests her with a combination of empathy, self-doubt, and just-say-it directness. The letter writers are played by Kelly Chick, Adrian Peguero, and the indispensable Nael Nacer. Directed with verve by Lyndsay Allyn Cox. Gloucester Stage Company. Through June 27. Performances outdoors at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, Rockport. 978-281-4433, www.gloucesterstage.com
SHIPWRECKED! AN ENTERTAINMENT: THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF LOUIS DE ROUGEMONT (AS TOLD BY HIMSELF) In this play by Donald Margulies (“Dinner with Friends,” “Time Stands Still” ), a Victorian adventurer recounts entertaining tales of surviving a shipwreck and washing up on a deserted island and riding giant sea turtles and much else. Is de Rougemont telling the truth, or is he just a fabulist? When it comes to the power of his story and his hold on the audience’s imagination, does it matter? Directed by Daisy Walker. Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Wellfleet. June 30-July 25. To be performed outside on WHAT’s new Garden Stage. 508-349-9428, www.what.org
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DON AUCOIN
Dance
DORRANCE DANCE Tap phenom Michelle Dorrance and her uber-talented, ever-popular company take over Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival for five days. An outdoor Leir Stage program features the world premiere of a full-ensemble work by Nicholas Van Young with original live music. The work takes inspiration from the idea of creating order out of chaos, reflecting the past year’s pandemic confusion and isolation. Daytime site-specific works will explore different facets of the Pillow campus. June 30-Aug. 29. Becket. 413-243-9919, jacobspillow.org
ALICE IN RAINBOWLAND Ana Masacote directs this debut artistic endeavor by Queer Bodies in Motion. It’s an eye-popping collaborative show reimagining Alice’s journey down the rabbit hole, with dance, music and LBGTQ pride mingling to highlight the creativity of queer and allied artists. This is not your Grannie’s Wonderland. On demand through June 30, $15 (or pay what you can option). americanrepertorytheater.org/shows-events/alice-in-rainbowland
KAREN CAMPBELL
Visual Arts
ROSE ART MUSEUM Finally. More than 15 months after shutting down, the Rose is among the first of its university-gallery peers to reopen to the public. The Brandeis venue jumps back to life on Friday with a pair of new exhibitions: The self-explanatory “re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum” and “Frida Kahlo: POSE,” a show of the artist’s paintings, drawings, and photographs through a lens of her gender-fluid self-imaginings. 415 South St., Waltham, through Dec. 19. 781-736-3434, www.brandeis.edu/rose
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IN AMERICAN WATERS In American art, few motifs transcend the boundaries of era, practice, culture, and history like the perpetual indifference of the sea. A byway of global commerce and colonialism, a dividing line between old and new world, and a well of dark mystery, the inscrutability of oceans continues to generate powerful work by a gamut of artists. A brief roll call for this exhibition bears that out: Georgia O’Keeffe, Amy Sherald, Hale Woodruff, Paul Cadmus, Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, Valerie Hegarty, and Stuart Davis. Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem, through Oct. 3. 978-745-9500, www.pem.org
IN AND OUT OF LOVE (BUTTERFLY PAINTINGS AND ASHTRAYS) The Yale Center for British Art reopened last fall in the midst of a deadly pandemic in unsettling fashion: With a re-creation of Damien Hirst’s first solo exhibition, “In and Out of Love,” originally shown in London in 1991, where live butterflies flitted about the gallery while patrons perused Hirst’s monochrome canvases. On the lower level, dead butterflies were pressed into similar canvases, making the fragile beauty of life upstairs instead a spectacle of the inevitability of death. After a lengthy closure, the Center has finally started welcoming back the public, extending the exhibition through year’s end. 1080 Chapel St., New Haven, through Dec. 31. 203-432-2858, britishart.yale.edu
MURRAY WHYTE
THREADS OF ASSUMPTION: THE BIASES YOU WEAVE How does artificial intelligence characterize oppression? The four artists in this installation and interactive performance respond to data gathered on anonymous conversation platforms about experiences of gender bias. Maria Finkelmeier, Sofie Hodara, U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo, and Martha Rettig express the data in music, poetry, projections, and weavings, and viewers may add their own stories. Live performances are scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. June 24-June 27. Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon St. www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/sta/bos/ver/stu/2021air/fin.html
CATE McQUAID
EVENTS
Comedy
ALI SIDDIQ The Houston native says it’s a relationship red flag if someone tells you they can’t live without you. He suggests breaking that off before you wind up on the news. “That sounds like I can’t leave you,” he says. “You can’t live without me so I can’t go? That sounds like ‘Forensic Files.’” June 25-26, 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $25-$29. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St. 617-725-2844, www.laughboston.com
MIA JACKSON This week’s Hideout Comedy headliner related on Comedy Central how she almost electrocuted herself trying to get hot dogs from a faulty George Foreman Grill. “Why would someone fight through electricity to get to processed meat?” she said. “I’m going to tell you right now, my hot dogs were all beef, OK? They had cheese inside, all right? I have a refined palate.” June 25-26, 7:30 p.m. $20. The White Bull Tavern, 1 Union St. 617-681-4600, www.thewhitebulltavern.com
THE DING HO COMEDY CLUB REUNION In 2020, a group of comedians came together on Zoom to pay tribute to the legendary Ding Ho club and the late Barry Crimmins. Host Jimmy Tingle has condensed the evening into two blocks of two hours, and will broadcast the final product again on Zoom with Lenny Clarke, Bobcat Goldthwait, Denis Leary, Paula Poundstone, Steven Wright, and more. Proceeds to benefit Crimmins’s widow, Helen. July 1-3, 7 p.m. $30 or pay what you can. www.jimmytingle.com
NICK A. ZAINO III
Family
“RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON” DRIVE-IN Adventure with warrior Raya as she attempts to find the last dragon so she can stop evil from prevailing in her world. Registration is required for this screening of Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon,” which will begin at sunset. June 25, 8 p.m.-10 p.m. Free. Cousens Parking Lot, Tufts University, 161 College Ave., Medford. eventbrite.com
HELLO HARBOR SUMMER KICK-OFF Summer has officially arrived, and Boston Harbor Now is ringing in the season with a day that will include a mariachi concert, a performance by the Sista Dee Steelband, and classes in acrylic painting taught by ZNT Arts, origami taught by ESpressions Design, and Latin dance taught by Veronica Robles of East Boston’s Veronica Robles Cultural Center. Certain events have limited space, so be sure to register online for the activities that catch your eye. June 26, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Long Wharf. 617-223-8666, bostonharborislands.org
SELF-CARE PAINTING Take time to unwind surrounded by nature while creating an artistic masterpiece. A ticket for this mindfulness “paint your truth” workshop led by Vie Ciné at the lush Rose Kennedy Greenway will include supplies — paints, brushes, and canvasses. The first three people to sign up can bring along a plus one for free. June 30, noon-2 p.m. $45. Rose Kennedy Greenway (near Pollinator Ribbon Garden), Atlantic Avenue. eventbrite.com
FAMILY FIREFLY WALK It’s lightning bug season. Search for the glowing critters by moonlight at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden and learn about the nocturnal insects from the garden’s manager of youth education, Marissa Gallant. Thursdays through July 15, 8 p.m.-9 p.m. $15 for non-member youth and $18 for non-member adults. Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston. 508-869-6111, towerhillbg.org
DANA GERBER