MUSIC
Pop & Rock
DROPKICK MURPHYS Boston’s reigning Irish punks bring their string of hometown St. Patrick’s Day shows back; expect tracks from their new album, “11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory,” which takes on the opioid epidemic with stirring story songs, teasing rebukes like “First Class Loser,” and a rousing cover of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” March 15-17, House of Blues; March 18, Agganis Arena; March 19, venue TBD. Ticket prices and start times vary. www.dropkickmurphys.com
SUNN O))) The feedback-heavy, low-pitched drone practiced by this long-running Seattle outfit is both pointed and all-encompassing. The frequencies they play are designed to reverberate in not just whatever space they’re playing, but in each individual audience member. March 16, 10 p.m. $35, $30-$33 advance. Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline. 617–734–2501, www.coolidge.org
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BOSTON STANDS: NADA SURF, JULIANA HATFIELD, BELLY, AND MORE Part of the “Boston Stands” benefits for the American Civil Liberties Union, this show’s lineup showcases artists whose music survived the ’90s alternative gold rush because of taut craftsmanship and top-notch playing. March 18, 6:30 p.m. $30, $25 advance. Paradise Rock Club. 617-562-8800, www.crossroadspresents.com
Folk & World
A ST. PATRICK’S DAY CELTIC SOJOURN This most natural of holidays for “Celtic Sojourn” has now seen over a decade’s worth of installments. For this year’s version, producer Brian O’Donovan has rounded up singer Karan Casey, fiddler Liz Carroll, and harp and fiddle duo Jenna Moynihan and Mairi Chaimbeul. March 15, Hanover Theatre, Worcester; March 16, Cabot Theatre, Beverly; March 17, Zeiterion Performing Arts Center, New Bedford; March 18, Sanders Theatre, Cambridge. For details and ticket links, go to www.wgbh.org/celtic.
RED BARAAT These Brooklyn-based purveyors of a ferocious dance-party stew of Indian Bhangra, funk and go-go, and rock and jazz return for their annual “Festival of Colors,” a celebration of the Hindu spring holiday festival Holi. A couple of special guests, Ganavya Doraiswamy and Shilpa Ray, will help them celebrate. March 17, 8 p.m. Tickets: $25. The Sinclair, Cambridge. 617-876-4275. www.worldmusic.org
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SALLY AND GEORGE No one in this duo is named Sally, or George; the names are those of ex-Della Mae upright bass player Shelby Means’s grandparents. She and her partner, Sol Driven Train’s Joel Timmons, play a rootsy style of sometimes electric, mostly acoustic music that they’ve captured on their first record, “Tip My Heart.” March 18, 7:30 p.m. No cover charge. Toad, Cambridge. 617-497-4950. www.toadcambridge.com
Jazz & Blues
ANICK & YEAGER Violin and mandolin wizard Jason Anick and accomplished pianist Jason Yeager present a concert of music from their new album, “United,” incorporating post-bop, Latin American folk, gypsy jazz, classical, blues, bluegrass, funk, and pop influences. With special guests from the Berklee faculty. March 13, 8 p.m. Tickets: $8-$12. Berklee Performance Center. 617-747-2261, www.berklee.edu/BPC
BRIAN CALHOON’S MARIMBA CABARET The classically trained percussionist, joined on this occasion by arranger and fellow marimbist Sharon Chen, presents an eclectic evening of show tunes, art songs, and pop numbers — directed and accompanied by percussionist Greg Jukes — focusing on the theme of “love and relationships.” March 16, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $15-$20. Club Café, 209 Columbus Ave, Boston. www.clubcafe.com
RACKY THOMAS When you hear him sing and play harmonica, you’d never guess he majored in guitar at Berklee. Whether alone or with his band, his blend of Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues, with hints of gospel and roots music, has made him an area mainstay for over two decades. March 18, 9 p.m. No cover. Chianti Restaurant, 285 Cabot St., Beverly. 978-921-2233, www.chiantibeverly.com
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Classical
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Bernard Haitink, the BSO’s venerated conductor emeritus, returns for his only Symphony Hall engagement this season, leading Haydn’s Symphony No. 60 (“Il distratto”), Debussy’s “Nocturnes,” and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. March 16-21, Symphony Hall. 888-266-1200, www.bso.org
ODYSSEY OPERA Gil Rose’s company has unearthed another rarity: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s final opera, a setting of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” for eight singers, two pianos, and percussion. March 17-18, 7:30 p.m., Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-826-1626, www.odysseyopera.org
RHONDA RIDER The intrepid cellist offers a solo recital of works written for her 2015 residency at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, playing music by Eric Moe, Richard Cornell, Elena Ruehr, and Mischa Salkind-Pearl, among others. March 17, 8 p.m., Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory at Berklee. www.bostonconservatory.edu
ARTS
Theater
EDWARD II Sexuality collides with power politics in this brooding, sensual, and suspenseful production of Christopher Marlowe’s 16th-century drama, streamlined and contemporized by the ever-artful director David R. Gammons. Maurice Emmanuel Parent delivers a powerhouse performance as the monarch whose passion for his male lover sets in motion deadly machinations by a pair of noblemen. Through March 19. Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Charlestown Working Theater, Charlestown. 866-811-4111, www.actorsshakespeareproject.org
TOPDOG/UNDERDOG With this comic drama about the shifting balance of power between two rivalrous brothers, Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The brothers are provocatively named Lincoln and Booth. Lincoln, formerly a specialist in three-card monte, is now working as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator in an arcade shooting gallery. Booth aspires to be the card shark his brother was, but his true knack is for shoplifting. Directed by Billy Porter, who won a Tony Award for his performance as Lola in “Kinky Boots’’ and directed “The Colored Museum’’ at the Huntington two years ago. Through April 9. Huntington Theatre Company. At BU Theatre, Boston. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org
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THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA Tennessee Williams’s last critical success takes us to the Pacific coast of Mexico, where a former Episcopal minister, a newly widowed hotel owner, a 40ish Nantucket spinster, and her 97-year-old poet grandfather endure a dark night of the soul and try to escape their demons, even as the title lizard tries to escape the roasting pan. With a high-powered cast including Bill Heck as the minister, Dana Delany as the widow, Amanda Plummer as the spinster, and James Earl Jones as the poet, this Michael Wilson-directed production is well acted and easy to watch, though those who like their Tennessee Williams desperate and harrowing may find it a little too easy. Through March 18. American Repertory Theater at Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. 617-547-8300, www.americanrepertorytheater.org
Dance
AXIS DANCE COMPANY For nearly three decades, this dynamic company has been committed to changing the way we perceive physical limitations by creating dance integrating performers with and without disabilities. The capper of the troupe’s weeklong residency, presented by the Boston University Arts Initiative, is this free public performance. March 18. Free with registration. Boston University Dance Theater. 617-358-0489, www.bu.edu/arts
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MARIA HASSABI In this intriguing artist’s new work, “STAGED,” four dancers create a kind of living sculpture. As it shifts shape, creating and dissolving intricate configurations, it effectively abstracts the human form, asking viewers to explore the relationship between the body and the sculptural object. March 17-18. $15-$25. Institute of Contemporary Art. 617-478-3103, www.icaboston.org
THE NIGHT LIFE Unyted Stylz Productions presents this all-ages interactive show set in the 1920s. It uses comedic improv and dance styles ranging from hip-hop to salsa to tell the story of a young man overcoming fear and adversity to learn about respect and acceptance. March 17-18. $15-$20. Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington. 781-648-6220, www.unytedstylzproductions.com
Galleries
LAST FRONTIER/ULTIMA FRONTERA: LA SUBJETIVIDAD DEL TERRITORIO Borders seem straightforward, but are they? The 10 Latin American artists in this show explore the objectivity and subjectivity of dividing lines. Through April 13. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College St., Worcester. 508-793-3356, www.holycross.edu/iris-and-b-gerald-cantor-art-gallery
DANA CLANCY: SIGHTLINES Clancy’s lush paintings of scenes inside modernist architect Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye in France and inside Boston-area museums frame art institutions as prisms, refracting and reflecting, opening new and multiple perspectives to experience the art, and oneself. Through April 5. Alpha Gallery, 460 Harrison Ave. 617-536-4465, www.alphagallery.com
CHRIS JORDAN: MESSAGE FROM THE GYRE Tragic photographs by an artist focused on the consequences of consumerism depict what happens when albatrosses on Midway Atoll ingest plastic debris in the ocean. Through March 24. Cohen Gallery, Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Brown University, 154 Angell St., Providence. 401-863-2932, www.brown.edu/campus-life/arts/bell-gallery/
Museums
THE MISTRESS AND THE MUSE: SELECTIONS FROM THE ISABELLE AND SCOTT BLACK COLLECTION Modernism radically changed notions of the figure, including distinctions between figuration and portraiture. This show spotlights how successive movements, from Impressionism through Surrealism, reinvented portrayals of people. Through June 4. Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland. 207-775-6148, www.portlandmuseum.org
SMALL-GREAT OBJECTS: ANNI AND JOSEF ALBERS IN THE AMERICAS These influential modernists collected art from Mexico and Peru that influenced their art and their teaching. On view: objects from their collection, their own work, and Josef’s photographs of the collection. Through June 18. Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu
DAPHNE WRIGHT: PRAYER PROJECT Wright’s video installation features intimate portraits of contemporary religious figures in prayer and meditation, filmed in real time. The installation opens a window on the personal acts of contemplation and engaging with the transcendent. Through July 9. Davis Museum, Wellesley College, 106 Central St., Wellesley. 781-283-2051, www.thedavis.org
EVENTS
Comedy
PAUL D’ANGELO The standup and memoirist is headlining Giggles with a solid group of comics: Robbie Printz, Christine Hurley, and Dan Crohn for one show Friday, and Crohn and Frank Santorelli for two shows Saturday. March 17 at 8:30 p.m. and March 18 at 7:15 p.m and 9:30 p.m. $20. Giggles Comedy Club, 517 Broadway (Route 1), Saugus. 781-233-9950, www.gigglescomedy.com
HEATHER MCDONALD The former “Chelsea Lately” writer and panelist is currently spending her time concentrating on her sassy standup and her celebrity and television-obsessed podcast “Juicy Scoop.” March 17-18 at 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. $29-$39. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston. 617-725-2844, www.laughboston.com
THE BEST OF IMPROV ASYLUM The mainstage show at Improv Asylum will have been cranking out fantastic sketch comedy along with improv performances for 20 years come May. Every Saturday, alumni and current cast members give audiences a taste of their sketch history. March 18, 3 p.m. $20. Improv Asylum, 216 Hanover St., Boston. 617-263-6887, www.improvasylum.com
Family
MAPLE EXPRESS Forget Aunt Jemima, Charmingfare Farm will show you firsthand what real maple syrup looks and tastes like. After a short horse-drawn ride, the whole family will get a chance to tap their own sap and then try it out on silver dollar pancakes. It’s also Maple Month, so consider this fulfilling your New England civic duty. March 12, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. $19. Charmingfare Farm, 774 High St., Candia, N.H. 603-483-5623. www.visitthefarm.com/maple-express/
BACKYARD AND BEYOND: BUTTERFLY SEED BOMBS The perennial herb milkweed is running low in Massachusetts, which is bad news because monarch butterflies need it to survive. If you’ve ever admired one of these beautiful bugs, then pay it back by building your own seed bomb, chock-full of milkweed. Bring it home and let the kids throw it in the backyard somewhere sunny. Make a bomb, save a (butterfly) life. March 15, 10:30 a.m.-noon. $12.50. The Discovery Museums, 177 Main St., Acton. 978-264-4200. www.discoverymuseums.org/event/backyard-and-beyond-butterfly-seed-bombs
PAW PATROL LIVE!
Can’t peel your kids away from the television? Bring them to the Wang Theatre and let them watch their favorite TV show live instead. “PAW Patrol” might not be Shakespeare, but this play will entertain all ages. And it might just be the perfect introduction to the theater world. March 18, first show at 10:30 a.m. $25. Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St. 617-532-1116. www.bochcenter.org/buy/show-listing/paw-patrol
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
March 31-May 7 The Who & The What at Huntington Theatre Company huntingtontheatre.org
April 4-9 The Illusionists at Boston Opera House ticketmaster.com
April 8 Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness at House of Blues concerts1.livenation.com
April 8 Grace Kelly at Scullers Jazz Club ticketweb.com
April 9 John Mayer and The Record Company at TD Garden ticketmaster.com
April 10 Steel Panther at House of Blues concerts.livenation.com
April 11-23 The King and I at Boston Opera House ticketmaster.com
April 14 Kranium at Brighton Music Hall ticketmaster.com