Read more stories from the Globe’s Summer Arts Guide.
As the temperatures rise, get ready for another sizzling summer of fun events in and around Boston. Globe critics and contributors have put together a comprehensive list, featuring dozens of things to do in Boston and beyond this season. From big Fenway Park concerts to intimate dance shows and everything in between, here’s your guide for all the top events to add to your calendar this summer.
July
KASEY CHAMBERS The veteran country singer/songwriter from Down Under returns to America after a long absence, and she arrives having just issued a book that serves as a memoir of sorts (with a title that would require a few asterisks were it to be included here, so you’ll have to look it up for yourself). An accompanying album, “Backbone,” draws vignettes from that memoir for its songs. July 3, 7:30 p.m. $40-$65. City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston. 617-933-8047.www.citywinery.com/boston – Stuart Munro
TYLER, THE CREATOR In the 15 years since this Los Angeles multi-hyphenate crash-landed into hip-hop, he’s become one of its most restless innovators; his latest album “Chromakopia,” which came out last year, is a high-concept confessional featuring standouts like the plush yet regret-tinged “Darling, I” and the proudly brassy “Sticky.” July 8 and 9, 7:30 p.m. TD Garden. 617-624-1000,tdgarden.com – Maura Johnston
DEATH OF A SALESMAN There’s a reason this Arthur Miller masterpiece is considered one of the greatest American plays, with its devastating portrait of Willy Loman crushed beneath the weight of misguided dreams and the culture that fed him those dreams. Featuring William Zielinski as Willy; Stacy Fischer as Linda, his wife; and Alex Pollock and Jack Aschenbach as their sons, Biff and Happy. Directed by Robert Kropf. July 10-August 2. Harbor Stage Company, at Harbor Stage, Wellfleet. 508-514-1763,www.harborstage.org – Don Aucoin
ASTON MAGNA Now in its 52nd season, this summer early music series under the artistic direction of Daniel Stepner offers four weeks of mid-summer concerts on Thursdays in Newton and Saturdays in Great Barrington. Programs include “Music from Thomas Jefferson‘s Library”, and an intriguing slate of pieces directed by harpsichordist Peter Sykes encompassing Baroque chamber music from the actual period and from the modern day. July 10-Aug. 3. 413-528-3595, www.astonmagna.org – A.Z. Madonna
BATES DANCE FESTIVAL Bates College’s summer performance series will feature Ragamala Dance Company in “Invisible Cities,” a reimagination of the Italo Calvino novel (July 11 and 13, 7:30 p.m.); OzuzuDances in “Space Carcasses” (July 18-19, 7:30 p.m.); and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in two seminal works, “Continuous Replay” and “D-Man in the Waters” (July 31–August 1, 7:30 p.m.). $5-$35. Schaeffer Theatre, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine. www.batesdancefestival.org/performances – Jeffrey Gantz
GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE: THE WHOLE WORLD IS A MYSTERY A more apt title might never be imagined than for this artist, whose enigmatic canvases evoke parallel realities that give up their secrets uneasily, if at all. Defying categorization, she flirted with Surrealism and Symbolism while remaining utterly unique. A doyenne of the art and jazz scenes in 1920s Chicago, Abercrombie all but faded from view as the established narrative of American Modernism grew ever more narrow in the decades that followed; this show, the first-ever touring survey of her work, looks to establish her in a canon that left her aside long ago. July 12-January 11. Colby College Museum of Art, 5600 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, ME. 207-859-5600, – Murray Whyte
BOSTON FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA In its fifth summer season, Boston Festival Orchestra pairs evergreen orchestral repertoire (Symphonies No. 5 by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky) with contemporary pieces that took inspiration from the symphonies; BFO concertmaster Jae Cosmos Lee will also take center stage in “Swept Away,” a 2023 violin concerto composed by founding conductor Alyssa Wang reflecting on her late father’s battle with cancer. In addition to the staged concerts, the orchestra is planning a handful of events for underserved children, teens and families; dates and locations to be announced. July 13 & Aug. 3, 3 p.m. NEC’s Jordan Hall. www.bforchestra.org – AZM
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC: BIGGER & WEIRDER TOUR It’s hard to imaging how much weirder he could get, but this might be the largest production Weird Al fans have seen in quite some time, featuring an eight-piece band that includes his original players, a giant video screen, and a mix of the bigger hits and some rare material. July 15, 8 p.m. $414-$1,230. Boch Center Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., Boston. www.bochcenter.com – Nick A. Zaino III
NEWPORT DANCE FESTIVAL Presented by Newport Contemporary Ballet, the festival will feature visiting dance companies to include the New English Ballet (UK), Tom Gold Performance Society (New York), and NSquared Dance (Manchester, New Hampshire), as well as Newport Contemporary Ballet. July 16-20. $40-$50, available soon. Great Friends Meeting House, Newport, R.I., newportcontemporaryballet.org – JGantz
BOSTON LANDMARKS ORCHESTRA Want to picnic during a concert but can‘t make it out to Tanglewood? This longrunning local summer orchestra has not yet announced details of its season, but if past years are any indication, expect a handful of Wednesday nights at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade, collaborations with dance companies and local community organizations, and a family-friendly atmosphere that makes for a perfect introduction to live classical music for listeners of all ages. July 16-Aug. 27. www.landmarksorchestra.org – AZM
TOM COTTER AND LENNY CLARKE “Every time I go to Las Vegas, I always give money to the homeless,” says Cotter, who is paired with Boston legend Clarke for three shows. “Topless! Sorry. The topless. I always give money to the topless because I support the arts.” July 18 at 8:30 p.m. and July 19 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. $39.19. Giggles Comedy Club, 517 Broadway (Route 1), Saugus. – NZ
MARLBORO MUSIC FESTIVAL This bucolic hilltop music festival in southern Vermont famously does not announce its programs more than eight days in advance of each performance, and by that time they’re often sold out, so pick a date and prepare to be surprised. With a 2025 lineup of resident artists including clarinetist Anthony McGill, violist Kim Kashkashian, and composer in residence Reena Esmail not to mention all the up and coming performers, all under the artistic direction of pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss – it’s hard to go wrong. Marlboro, Vt. July 19-Aug. 17. 215-569-4690,www.marlboromusic.org – AZM
OLIVIA DEAN This next-generation neo-soul singer-songwriter’s 2023 album “Messy” showcases her strong, acrobatic voice on songs that channel old-school R&B ideals while sounding decidedly 21st-century; her latest single, “It Isn‘t Perfect But It Might Be,” boosts its post-heartbreak rebound with sweeping strings and twinkling piano. July 19, 7:30 p.m. Royale. 617-338-7699,royaleboston.com – MJ
AS YOU LIKE IT Nora Eschenheimer, who shone as Miranda in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s 2021 production of “The Tempest” and as Imogen in 2019’s “Cymbeline,” now has a chance to put her stamp on Rosalind, one of Shakespeare’s most interesting female characters. Banished by her nobleman uncle, who has usurped and exiled her father, Rosalind assumes the guise of a man and heads into the Forest at Arden. Eschenheimer will be teaming up with Michael Underhill, her “Tempest” costar (he played Ferdinand). The cast also includes Maurice Emmanuel Parent, John Kuntz, Joshua Olumide, Remo Airaldi, Jared Troilo, and Brooks Reeves. Free Shakespeare on the Common production directed by Steven Maler. July 23-Aug. 10. On Boston Common, Parkman Bandstand. www.commshakes.org – DA
KESHA AND SCISSOR SISTERS The emancipated pop party girl and the fabulous downtown act bring their kiki on the road for shows featuring dancefloor-ready, high-energy tracks like Kesha’s spaced-out 2024 single “Joyride” and Scissor Sisters’ hip-shaking celebration of familial bonds, “Take Your Mama.” July 24, 7 p.m. Xfinity Center, Mansfield. 800-745-3000,livenation.com – MJ
THE YARD Martha’s Vineyard’s annual summer dance festival will open with “Âs Nupumukômun/We Still Dance” (June 28, 7 p.m.), a multimedia theatrical composition created by members of Danza Orgánica and Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal members. Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance follows with a program of “Arbor,” “Wind Rose,” and “Freedive” (July 18-19, 7 p.m.). Red Clay Dance closes out the season with “REST.RISE.MOVE.NOURISH.HEAL,” a “journey toward collective healing and reclamation of our spiritual and ancestral relationship to the land” (July 24-25, 7 p.m.). $15-$55. Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center/Patricia Nanon Theater. www.dancetheyard.org –JGantz
CAMBRIDGE JAZZ FESTIVAL The Cambridge Jazz Foundation presents the 10th edition of this annual free event. The Saturday lineup includes the Zahili Zamora Quartet; Ron Reid’s Precious Metals Project; singer Spha Mdlalose with drummer Lumanyano Bizana; Eguie Castrillo y Su Orchestra’s “Salsa Dance Party.” On Sunday, it’s “Sound of Soul,” with Ron Savage, Bill Pierce, Bobby Broom, Consuelo Candelaria-Barry, and Ron Mahdi; the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice ensemble; a sixtieth birthday retrospective from Grammy-winning drummer, composer, producer and Berklee professor Terri Lyne Carrington; and Elan Trotman and friends, featuring Aric B., for a “Motown Dance Party. July 26-27, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Free. Danehy Park, 99 Sherman St., Cambridge. cambridgejazzfoundation.org – Jon Garelick
KEN CARSON “More Chaos,” the chart-topping latest album from this Atlanta MC, lives up to its name, with heavy, pummeling beats underpinning melting-down electronics and Carson‘s stream-of-consciousness raps. July 29, 8 p.m. MGM Music Hall at Fenway. crossroadspresents.com – MJ
CAPE COD CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL This festival kicks off with a free community concert in Hyannis by New York-based horn quartet Genghis Barbie, and continues through the dog days of summer with performances around Cape Cod by artists including the Catalyst Quartet, the Claremont Trio, and several chamber ensembles coordinated by artistic directors Jon Manasse and Jon Nakamatsu. July 29-Aug. 22. 508-247-9400,www.capecodchambermusic.org – AZM
TV ON THE RADIO After a decade-plus hiatus, these art-rockers have reunited to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their 2004 debut “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes”—still a standout document of New York’s crowded early-‘00s rock scene because of how it made sonic nerviness and lyrical unease feed off one another. July 30, 8 p.m. Roadrunner Boston. roadrunnerboston.com – MJ
August
NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL The granddaddy of all festivals (b.1954) covers the usual broad spectrum in its annual three-day extravaganza: John Scofield & Marcus Miller, Lakecia Benjamin, Ron Carter, Christian McBride, Darius Jones, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Marcus Gilmore, Aaron Parks’ Little Big, the Roots, De La Soul, Janelle Monáe, a “Centennial Tribute to Roy Haynes,” and a whole lot more. Aug. 1-3. Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R.I. newportjazz.org – JGarelick
YORON ISRAEL AND HIGH STANDARDS The busy Boston drummer (and chair of Berklee’s percussion department) Yoron Israel is getting ready to release a new album with his band High Standards. In the meantime, the band is playing this free Jazz at the Fort show, part of Berklee’s Summer in the City series in conjunction with the City of Boston. And the band is stellar: pianist Laszlo Gardony (in whose trio Israel has played for decades), singer Leah Hinton, saxophonist Ian Buss, and bassist Avery Sharpe, long of McCoy Tyner’s bands. Aug. 3, 5 p.m. Free. Highland Park, 20 Fort Ave., Roxbury. college.berklee.edu/events – JGarelick
SOUTHERN HARMONY: A MURDER BALLAD The premiere of a musical about the murder of a monied widow by a mortician, inspired by a real-life case in Carthage, Texas. Book, music, and lyrics by Kevin Fogarty. Directed and choreographed by Sam Scalamoni, with musical direction by Nevada Lozano. Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Wellfleet. Aug. 6-Sept. 6. 508-349-9428,www.what.org – DA
NO CHILD... In a district where the iron grip of poverty is hard to escape, a teaching artist (Valyn Lyric Turner) uses theater to help her high school students understand both the power of the individual and the importance of making connections with others. To write “No Child…,” a solo play, Nilaja Sun drew on her own near-decade of experience as a teaching artist in New York City. Directed by Pascale Florestal. Aug. 7-23. Gloucester Stage Company, Gloucester. 978-281-4433,https://gloucesterstage.com/nochild/ – DA
esperanza spalding The virtuoso bassist, singer, songwriter, and conceptualist — whose work has included collaborations with Wayne Shorter and Milton Nascimento, among numerous genre-spanning works of her own — plays this intimate show with her longtime collaborator, the phenomenal pianist Leo Genovese. Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main St., Rockport. 978.546.7391, rockportmusic.org – JGarelick
THE WIZ Nearly three decades before “Wicked,” another musical offered its own take — with a Black cast — on L. Frank Baum’s story (and the cherished movie that story gave rise to) about Dorothy’s eventful journey from Kansas to the Land of Oz. The 1975 Broadway production of “The Wiz” won seven Tony Awards, including for best musical. The current national tour features Dana Cimone as Dorothy and Alan Mingo Jr. as the Wizard. Directed by Schele Williams, with choreography by JaQuel Knight, a score (by Charlie Smalls) that blends soul, pop, funk, and gospel, and additional material by Amber Ruffin. Aug. 12 – 24. Presented by Broadway In Boston. At Citizens Opera House, Boston. Tickets at BroadwayInBoston.com – DA
CLIPPING Blending Daveed Diggs’ knotty verses with the explosive beats of producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, this Los Angeles trio issues urgent, noisy dispatches from a bleak future. Aug. 13, 8:30 p.m. The Sinclair, Cambridge. 617-547-5200,sinclaircambridge.com – MJ
CODY JINKS “We’re hippies, we’re cowboys—and we’re everything in between,” says Cody Jinks in elaborating on the name of his current “Hippies and Cowboys Tour.” And in the midst of a divided time in America, the outlaw country purveyor says he wants hippies, cowboys, and everything in between to come and listen to listen to his music together. Aug. 16, 7 p.m. $54.50 and up. Leader Bank Pavilion, 290 Northern Ave., Boston. www.livenation.com – SM
PETE HOLMES: PETE HERE NOW Fans might have noticed this tour used to be called “Pete Holmes PG-13,” but after a show in Austin, the Lexington native realized he is not really a PG comic, and changed it. Aug. 23, 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $35-$55. The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston. www.thewilbur.com – NZ
BAY STATE HOT JAZZ FESTIVAL This free two-day festival (formerly known as the Medford Trad Jazz Festival) plays its third year with seminal folk revivalist Jim Kweskin headlining. Kweskin‘s new album, “Doing Things Right,” harks back to ’20s swing, folk, blues, and other hot forms, with occasional forays to later decades. Kweskin and his Berlin Hall Saturday Night Revue play Sunday, along with the SheBop Swing Orchestra, the Orleans Kids, and Annie and the Fur Trappers. Saturday, it’s the “Gypsy jazz”-inclined 440, the Busted Jug Band, the impressive standards-loving singer Rahsaan Cruse Jr., and others TBA. August 23-24, 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Free. Condon Band Shell, 2501 Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford. baystatehotjazzfestival.com – JGarelick
RACHEL RUYSCH: ARTIST, NATURALIST, PIONEER The first-ever comprehensive survey of Ruysch’s vibrant, nature-driven paintings, this exhibition highlights the rare bird that she was: A successful – even renowned – female artist of the Northern Renaissance, in a time where significant commissions and exhibitions went almost exclusively to men. The exhibition will span the late 17th and early 18th centuries and include 35 of her paintings, each of them mysterious paeans to various flora and fauna, heavy with the secrets they held for her. August 23 - December 7. Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Ave, 617-267-9300,www.mfa.org – MW
TATE MCRAE “So Close To What,” the third album by this Calgary-born pop upstart, takes the moodiness of her earlier releases and channels it through jagged synths and stomping grooves, then adds just enough romantic contentment to bring a curious tension to the fore. August 26 and 27, 7:30 p.m. TD Garden. 617-624-1000,tdgarden.com (Also October 17.) – MJ
DAVID C. DRISKELL: COLLECTOR Driskell, known more as an educator and advocate for centuries – yes, centuries – of lineage of Black art in America than for his own paintings, died in 2020 with an art collection that reflected his deeply held priorities. This exhibition, drawn from those personal holdings, puts on view for the first time since his death works that served as touchstones over a lifetime of advocacy and artistic production. Paintings from the 19th century onward by Black artists like Edward Mitchell Bannister, Loïs Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, and Elizabeth Catlett hang with Driskell‘s own, and help frame a legacy as much rooted in those he held up as his work itself. August 29 - March 1. Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland, ME. 207-775-6148,www.portlandmuseum.org – MW
September
THE HIGHWAYMEN 1980s, a loosely-affiliated group of 26 Black landscape painters traveled the coastal byways of Eastern Florida, selling paintings out of the trunks of their cars at rest stops and gas stations. They called themselves the Florida Highwaymen, and their vibrant tropical scenes – of beaches and palm trees, pounding surf and turgid swamp – were both a way to make a living, and, for a group long marginalized in the American art world, a way to be seen in the most literal sense. September 9 - Jan. 4. Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, 3 Chapel Avenue, Andover. 978-749-4015 – MW
Correction: This post has been updated to correct the date for the Yoron Israel and High Standards show.
Don Aucoin can be reached at donald.aucoin@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeAucoin. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her @knitandlisten. Murray Whyte can be reached at murray.whyte@globe.com.