MUSIC
Pop & Rock
THE CADILLAC THREE This Nashville trio definitely falls on the more rockin’ end of the honky-tonk spectrum — but as their latest album, 2017’s “Legacy,” shows, they’re not afraid to throw curveballs like the bluesy ballad “Take Me to the Bottom” and the sweetly inebriated Lori McKenna collaboration “Love Me Like Liquor” into their twangy mix. Feb. 21, 7 p.m. $20 and up. Paradise Rock Club. 617-562-8800, www.crossroadspresents.com
ANDERSON .PAAK Fresh off winning Grammy gold — his “Serpico”-score-sampling wild ride “Bubblin’” tied for best rap performance honors — the California-born MC-producer comes to town with his crack backing band the Free Nationals. Feb. 23, 8 p.m. $33.50 and up. Orpheum Theatre. 617-482-0106, www.crossroadspresents.com
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JULIA HOLTER “Aviary,” the latest album from this Los Angeles-based composer and producer, is clamorous and inviting, its elliptical songs bursting with sonic detail and gorgeously wrought twists. Feb. 23, 8 p.m. $17. Brighton Music Hall. 617-779-0140, www.crossroadspresents.com
MAURA JOHNSTON
Folk & World
WILLIAM TYLER Tyler is touring in support of new album “Goes West.” It’s the first he’s made since relocating from Nashville to Los Angeles and the latest installment in his continuing exploration of what he recently characterized in the audio journal “Aquarium Drunkard” as “a zone where abstraction and melody can live without ever becoming ‘pop’ music.” Feb. 21, 8 p.m. $18. 3S Artspace, Portsmouth, N.H. 603-766-3330, www.3sarts.org
BEAUSOLEIL One of the world’s premiere Cajun bands, Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil have been getting folks out of their seats and onto the dance floor for over 30 years now by playing a mix they call “Louisiana French Music From Traditional to Modern.” Feb. 22, 8 p.m. $35. The Center for Arts, Natick. 508-647-0097, www.natickarts.org
LOVE LOVE Love Love principals Chris Toppin and Jefferson Riordan say they love to sing about love (including a love letter to Rhode Island on their latest, “Picture”), and about murder. So they write songs that give them the opportunity to do exactly that, and then deliver them with marvelous, intertwining vocals and with various permutations of hooky roots ’n’ soul music. Feb. 23, 10 p.m. No cover. Toad, Cambridge. 617-497-4950, www.toadcambridge.com
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STUART MUNRO
Jazz & Blues
DIVA: NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY’S 14th ANNUAL FILM NOIR CONCERT NEC eminence Ran Blake and trombonist/educator Aaron Hartley co-produce this concert inspired by French director Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1981 thriller “Diva,” featuring NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, with performers including the CI Chamber Ensemble, directed by Eden MacAdam-Somer; Storyboard Noir Ensemble, directed by Hartley; and the NEC Jazz Orchestra, directed Ken Schaphorst. Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m. Free (tickets required). NEC’s Jordan Hall. 617-585-1122, www.necmusic.edu/concerts
WARREN WOLF: HISTORY OF THE VIBES Among today’s key vibraphone players, Wolf pays tribute to his instrumental forebears, saluting Lionel Hampton’s swing, Milt Jackson’s bop, Bobby Hutcherson’s freedom, Gary Burton’s virtuosity, and Roy Ayers’s soul. With pianist Alex Brown, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Rodney Green.
Feb. 21, 8 p.m. $30. Scullers, Allston. 866-777-8932, www.scullersjazz.com
KEVIN LOWENTHAL
Classical
THE CITY OF WOMEN This week’s Sunday concert at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is inspired by women whose stories have sparked action against injustice, from Lucretia to Malala Yousafzai and Sandra Bland. Visiting curator for performing arts Helga Davis and curator of music George Steel have assembled a matchless team of women, including singer-songwriter and filmmaker Be Steadwell, local rapper and poet Oompa, and the Handel and Haydn Society Young Women’s Chamber Choir. Feb. 17, 1:30 p.m. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 617-566-1401, www.gardnermuseum.org
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ASHMONT HILL CHAMBER MUSIC Silkroad Ensemble tabla master Sandeep Das joins oud player Issam Rafea (Syria), sitarist Rajib Karmakar (India), and sarangi player-singer Suhail Yusuf Khan (India) for a concert celebrating centuries of musical meetings along the trade road between Syria and India. Feb. 17, 4 p.m. Peabody Hall, All Saints Church, Dorchester. 617-827-7857, www.ahchambermusic.org
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA It’s opera time at Symphony Hall! Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais stars in Puccini’s one-act tragedy “Suor Angelica” in concert, alongside a supporting cast including Violeta Urmana, Fatma Said, and Boston’s own Lorelei Ensemble. Debussy’s “Nocturnes” and Lili Boulanger’s “D’un soir triste” complete the program. A Casual Fridays series concert on Friday evening swaps out the opera for Britten’s “Friday Afternoons,” featuring the recently formed Boston Symphony Children’s Choir. Feb. 21 and 23, 8 p.m. Casual Fridays Feb. 22, 8 p.m. Symphony Hall. 888-266-1200, www.bso.org
BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT A John Corigliano portrait concert features the composer’s “Troubadours” and Symphony No. 2, as well as the world premiere of the orchestra and New England Conservatory’s composer competition winner, Diana Voyer’s “Infinite Forest.” Feb. 23, 8 p.m. Jordan Hall. 781-324-0396, www.bmop.org
ARTS
Theater
WHO IS EARTHA MAE? It’s nearly impossible not to be impressed by Jade Wheeler’s magnetic and self-assured performance as the glamorous singer and actress Eartha Kitt. A cabaret-style solo show written by Wheeler, “Who Is Eartha Mae?’’ suggests that Kitt was one of those enigmatic, larger-than-life figures who will always shimmer just beyond the reach of our comprehension. Directed by Cailin Doran, with dynamic choreography by Jenna Pollack. Through Feb. 23. Bridge Repertory Theater. At Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge. www.bridgerep.org
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BEDLAM’S PYGMALION By changing Eliza Doolittle’s origins from England to India, the inventively freewheeling New York theater company known as Bedlam has yanked George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 comedy into the multicultural present. A play that has always been about the striations and boundaries of class now becomes a trenchantly of-our-moment work about race, immigration, and assimilation as well. Featuring a wonderful Vaishnavi Sharma as Eliza and Eric Tucker, who also directs, as Henry Higgins. Through March 3. Production by Bedlam. Presented by Underground Railway Theater. At Central Square Theater, Cambridge. 617-576-9278 ext. 1, www.centralsquaretheater.org
RAGTIME While watching this stirring production — directed by Nick Vargas and highlighted by Anthony Pires Jr.’s gripping portrayal of the grievously wronged and vengeful Coalhouse Walker Jr. — you are struck by how directly and acutely “Ragtime’’ speaks to our time. Even as a purely theatrical matter, “Ragtime’’ builds from strength (the career-peak score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens) to strength (a book by Terrence McNally that deftly distills the essence of E.L. Doctorow’s novel). Through Feb. 17. Wheelock Family Theatre at Boston University. 617-353-3001, www.wheelockfamilytheatre.org
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DON AUCOIN
Dance
DANCE IN THE GALLERIES This three-part series presented by the Museum of Fine Arts highlights three dance companies and choreographers-in-residence in performances of pieces inspired by special exhibitions and danced in the designated galleries. Jenny Oliver and Connections Dance Theater are first up, responding choreographically to the environmental themes in “Ansel Adams in Our Time.” Feb. 20, 6 p.m. Free with museum admission. Museum of Fine Arts. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org
WINTERWORKS Few student presentations in Boston are as consistently impressive as those by the Boston Conservatory. This annual event showcases original student choreography plus premiere works created especially for the freshman class by alumni Key’Aira Lockett and Maleek Washington. Feb. 21-24. $25-$30. Boston Conservatory Theater. 617-912-9222, www.bostonconservatory.berklee.edu
SOUTH ASIAN SHOWDOWN 2019 Billed as the biggest Bollywood/fusion competition in the Northeast, this all-ages show is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The popular showdown features competitive teams from across North America in both Bollywood (inspired by Hindi films) and fusion (a melding of different dance styles set primarily to Indian music). Expect wild enthusiasm, brilliant colors, and lively terpsichorean displays. Oh yeah, and food! Feb. 23, 6 p.m. $25-$100. 617-687-9181, www.southasianshowdown.com/2019/
KAREN CAMPBELL
Galleries
SAGE SOHIER: IMMERSED & SUBMERGED Sohier is best known for photographing people in their environments, but for this new work, she took her camera in a canoe around a New Hampshire pond, shooting what plays on the surface of the water and what’s visible below — flora and fauna and the changing seasons. Through March 13. Robert Klein Gallery, 38 Newbury St. 617-267-7997, www.robertkleingallery.com
COLD SEASON Winter presents us with the magic and challenges of cold, ice, snow, and darkness. This exhibition of winter photographs curated by Joseph Ritchie approaches the season as a state of mind: uncanny, brilliant, inviting, or forbidding. Artists include Dan Boardman, Laura McPhee, and Abelardo Morell. Through March 1. Aviary Gallery, 48 South St., Jamaica Plain. aviarygallery@gmail.com, www.aviarygallery.com
FUTURE FOSSIL Artist Clarissa Tossin speculates about what a core sample of the earth’s crust will contain in a thousand years (hint: there’s plastic). Her work, inspired by Octavia Butler’s science fiction and indigenous crafts, imagines a post-apocalyptic future in which waste is woven into baskets. Through March 16. Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, 8 Garden St., Cambridge. 617-496-1153, www.onviewatradcliffe.org/on-view
CATE McQUAID
Museums
KAPWANI KIWANGA : SAFE PASSAGE For her new show at the List Center, Paris-based Kiwanga researched Boston’s “lantern laws,” an 18th-century regulation that required slaves to carry lit candles if they were to be outdoors after dark. Kiwanga’s show considers the difference between being visible and being watched — a distinction of which African-Americans have been painfully aware for centuries. Through April 21. MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Cambridge. 617-253-4380. listart.mit.edu
HOWARDENA PINDELL : WHAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN: Over a 50-year career, Pindell’s work touched on nearly every major movement of the late 20th century, from abstraction to conceptualism and beyond, though a mid-career turn toward political activism infuses her work with a powerful urgency. Through May 19. Rose Art Museum, 415 South St., Waltham. 781-736-3434. www.brandeis.edu/rose
BOTTICELLI: HEROINES AND HEROES This show at the Gardner Museum travels intimately familiar turf — Isabella Stewart Gardner, the museum’s founder, acquired the first Botticelli to come to America — using strikingly unfamiliar means: Graphic novelist Karl Stevens has created a response to Botticelli more suited to this #MeToo moment. Through May 19. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. 617-566-1401, www.gardnermuseum.org
EVENTS
Comedy
DESIREE BURCH A comedian, storyteller, and actor (that’s her as Pamela Winchell on the “Welcome to Night Vale” podcast), Burch moved from her native New York City to London for a relationship with an English man. “He’s all the things, too,” she jokes. “He’s all pasty and judgmental and disappointed.” Feb. 21, 8 p.m. $25. Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge. 617-547-8300, www.americanrepertorytheater.org/venue/oberon
ERIK GRIFFIN The “Workaholics” costar riffed on the inconveniences of protest marching in last year’s Showtime special “AmERIKan Warrior.” “You’ve got to go back to your car,” he says. “You gotta march twice — once for them, once for you!” Feb. 21 at 8 p.m., Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. $25. Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston. 617-725-2844, www.laughboston.com
NATE BARGATZE The winner of the Boston Comedy Festival contest in 2013, Bargatze racks up the laughs with a stone-faced delivery. He returns to town with a half-hour comedy special available on Netflix and an hour special on the way later this year. Dan Crohn opens. Early show is sold out. Feb. 22, 10 p.m. $29. Wilbur Theatre. 866-448-7849, www.thewilbur.com
NICK A. ZAINO III
Family
BOSTON CHILDREN’S WINTER FESTIVAL If you’re looking to get out of the house and beat the winter blues, the Boston Parks & Recreation Department has the event for you. Bring the whole family for arts and crafts, games, and photos with which to remember the day. Feb. 20, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Boston Common Frog Pond, 139 Tremont St., facebook.com
KIDS JAM Local musician Sarah Gardner is offering two interactive shows on the second floor of the BPL. Kids are encouraged to sing and dance along with Gardner, and there will even be instruments for children to try out. Feb. 22, 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St., musicwithsarah.com
FAMILY FUN NIGHT! There’s something for everyone at this event. Both adults and kids can enjoy the raffles, games, cotton candy, and snow cones. There will also be bouncy houses and face painting. Feb. 23, 5-7 p.m. Free. Discovery Church, 170 Weymouth St., Rockland, go.evvnt.com
LILLIAN BROWN
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Feb. 24 Switchfoot at House of Blues livenation.com
Feb. 26 The Kooks at Orpheum Theatre ticketmaster.com
Feb. 26 Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y at Royale Boston axs.com
March 1 The Monkees at Chevalier Theater ticketmaster.com
March 8 Kelly Clarkson at TD Garden ticketmaster.com
March 11 Robyn at House of Blues livenation.com
March 14-17 Dropkick Murphys at House of Blues ticketmaster.com
LILLIAN BROWN