Copyright The Boston Globe
JONATHAN RICHMAN FEATURING TOMMY LARKINS ON THE DRUMS The Boston proto-punk returns for three shows putting the spotlight on his lighter, more tender releases from recent years, including this year’s strummy “Only Frozen Sky Anyway.” Oct. 24, 25, and 26, 8 p.m. Somerville Theatre, Somerville. 617-625-5700, somervilletheatre.com RAT CITY GOES TO THE MOVIES Halloween comes early to Allston with this cover-band extravaganza featuring music from three fictional artists: Dewey Cox, the subject of the 2007 mockumentary “Walk Hard” (performed by indie-folkie Doss); Sex Bob-Omb, the blog-rockers from “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” (played by power-poppers Crushdepth); and Boys Who Cry, the sweater-sporting boy band from “SpongeBob SquarePants” (honored by producer and reverb architect Cade Earick). Oct. 28, 7 p.m. O’Brien’s Pub. 617-782-6245, obrienspubboston.com JENEVIEVE The Los Angeles-based R&B singer’s second album, “Crysalis,” features luxe grooves sprinkled with glittery synths. Oct. 29, 8 p.m. The Sinclair, Cambridge. 617-547-5200, sinclaircambridge.com MAURA K. JOHNSTON TOMMY STINSON’S COWBOYS IN THE CAMPFIRE Along with his longtime collaborator Chip Roberts, rock multi-tasker (Replacements, Guns N’ Roses, Soul Asylum) Stinson gets his country on with this project, but does it in his own inimitable, ramshackle fashion. And don’t call it Americana; “I hate the term,” says he. Oct. 25, 7 p.m. $25. Faces Brewing Company, 50 Pleasant St., Malden. 781-851-4672. www.facesbrewing.com ESTHER ROSE Rose is touring behind her latest, “Want,” on which she continues to trade in the classic country sounds she formerly plied for a noisier country-rock iteration. She has a worthy opener Sunday evening in Berklee grad Jobi Riccio, who precedes Rose with a set of the country-folk she captured on her 2023 debut, “Whiplash.” Oct. 26, 8 p.m. $18. Deep Cuts, 21 Main St., Medford. 781-219-3815. www.deepcuts.rocks LOUISE BICHAN Scottish fiddler Louise Bichan says she’s often been asked whether she’d put on a Celtic holiday show. Those asking probably had a different holiday in mind than the one she’s going to celebrate with a show she’s labeled “All Hallows’ Eve: Spooky tunes, songs and tales from Scotland.” Oct. 29, 8 p.m. $35. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679. www.passim.org STUART MUNRO JORRIT DIJKSTRA’S BLINK The adventurous saxophonist augments his Porch Trio — featuring Nate McBride on electric bass and drummer Eric Rosenthal — with two guitarists, veteran Eric Hofbauer and up-and-comer Gabe Boyarin, for a group of microtonal compositions from their recent self-titled record. Oct. 26, 5 p.m. $10-$15. QArts Gallery, 1253 Hancock St., Quincy. events.humanitix.com/jorrit-dijkstra-s-blink/tickets BRUCE GERTZ QUINTET The accomplished bassist, prolific composer, and premier area pedagogue, who’s played with everyone from Dave Brubeck to Bill Frisell, celebrates the release of his new album, “Octopus Dreams.” Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m. $10-$15. The Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. www.lilypadinman.com RONNIE BAKER BROOKS The savvy singer and gutsy guitarist’s dad was noted Chicago bluesman Lonnie Brooks. His latest album, “Blues in My DNA,” garnered three 2025 Blues Music Awards, including best male artist, best album, and song of the year for the title tune. Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m. $20-$47. Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club, 135 Congress St. Portsmouth, N.H. jimmysoncongress.com; Oct. 31, 8 p.m. $35.50-$39. Spire Center, 25½ Court St., Plymouth. spirecenter.org KEVIN LOWENTHAL BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA This week, the BSO welcomes firebrand pianist Yuja Wang for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, conducted by returning guest Domingo Hindoyan on a program that also includes mid-20th century American repertoire by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. Oct. 24 & 25. Symphony Hall. 617-266-1200, www.bso.org CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON It’s a busy weekend at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall for this presenting organization; Friday evening, pianist Daniil Trifonov and baritone Matthias Goerne team up for a program of late Schubert including the Piano Sonata in G Major and the song cycle “Schwanengesang” (Oct. 24), and Sunday afternoon brings in the adventurous and delightful Nordic progressive folk trio Dreamers’ Circus, which counts Japanese animation visionary Hayao Miyazaki among its biggest fans. (Oct. 26) New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. www.celebrityseries.org A FAR CRY “Coming to Boston,” a chamber program curated by longtime Criers Jae Cosmos Lee and Megumi Stohs Lewis, weaves string quartets by Haydn with Jorg Widmann’s “Four Verses of Homesickness” and several pieces by Boston-based, Korean-born composers Eun Young Lee and Binna Kim. Performer gamin, a specialist in Korean wind instruments, joins the Criers for a handful of pieces. Oct. 25, 3 p.m. St. John’s Church, Jamaica Plain; Oct. 26, First Church Cambridge. A.Z. MADONNA MISERY Karen MacDonald delivers one of the best performances of her illustrious career as Annie Wilkes, a deranged ex-nurse who is obsessed with the fictional Misery Chastain, a doughty damsel of the Victorian era. Misery is the heroine of a series of romance novels by Paul Sheldon (Tom Coiner), and Annie is none too pleased to learn that Paul is killing off Misery. So she holds him captive and forces him to write another book about Misery, this time with a happy ending. William Goldman’s stage adaptation of Stephen King’s novel is directed by Courtney Sale. Through Nov. 2. Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell. 978-654-4678,mrt.org TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL Darilyn Burtley steps into the very large shoes of the legendary Tina Turner for this bio-musical, which tells the story of Turner’s life — including her remarkable comeback — to the accompaniment of her hits. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd (“Mamma Mia!”), with Monty Kane as Ike Turner and a book by Pulitzer winner Katori Hall (“The Hot Wing King,” “The Mountaintop.”) Oct. 24-26. Emerson Colonial Theatre. 888-616-0272,www.EmersonColonialTheatre.com 300 PAINTINGS Australian performer Sam Kissajukian revisits his wild, six-month roller coaster ride in the grip of a creative fever, during which he created 300 large-scale paintings despite having no artistic training. Kissajukian, who is bipolar, channels his emotional state from that period so completely and viscerally that he seems to have passed beyond memory into actuality, as if he is reinhabiting his own skin in front of our eyes. Through Oct. 25. American Repertory Theater. At Farkas Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge. 617-547-8300, AmericanRepertoryTheater.org THE DYBBUK An expressionistic 1920 drama by Russian playwright S. Ansky, adapted by Rachel Merrill Moss, written by Roy Chen, and directed by Igor Golyak. On her wedding day, a young woman named Leah (Yana Gladkihk) is possessed by a wandering spirit — known in Jewish folklore as a dybbuk and played by Andrey Burkovskiy — that turns out to be the soul of Khonen, an impoverished young student who was in love with Leah and died after learning she was engaged to another man. When the Golyak-led Arlekin Players Theatre presented “The Dybbuk” last year, Globe correspondent James Sullivan described the production as “a real corker.” Oct. 30-Nov. 16. ARLEKIN! At the Vilna Shul, Boston. arlekinplayers.com DON AUCOIN ROOTS & ROUTES Cambridge’s venerable Dance Complex celebrates its three decades as a regional hub for choreography, performance, and education with showcases that highlight the range and richness of activity unfolding there over the years. The two-day event features a who’s who of performers with ties to what has become New England’s largest center for dance, including The Bang Group, Sean Bjerke, Lorraine Chapman, Kelli Edwards, The Floorlords, Jean Appolon, and others. Oct. 25-26. $15-$50. Dance Complex, Cambridge. www.dancecomplex.org CIRQUE OF THE DEAD The Boston Circus Guild calls this annual event a haunted Halloween circus spectacular, promising an array of original acts that blend the humorously creepy with mad physical skills. This year’s show is a classic horror anthology of twisted tales enlivened by aerials, acrobatics, contortion, and other feats of daring. This one is 18+ and happily welcomes patrons wearing their Halloween finest. Oct. 23-31. $39.76-$67.30. Arts at the Armory, Somerville. www.bostoncircusguild.com/cotd.html INSTRUMENTS FOR COMPASSION Infinity Dance Collective offers an evening of dance, music, and poetry with the ambitious aim of tapping our interconnected conscious energy. In addition to four members of the collective, the program features contributions by Andy Beetham, Emily Jones, John Korbas, Leticia Prieto Álvarez, Nadia Mounsif, and Sebastian Rizzon. Oct. 24. $18-$20. Cambridge Community Center for the Arts, Cambridge. https://ccca.worldeducationweb.org/offerings/1028 KAREN CAMPBELL ALLAN ROHAN CRITE Just opened: Two exhibitions celebrate Crite this fall, “Urban Glory” at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and “Griot of Boston” at the Boston Athenaeum. For Crite, who painted Roxbury and the city’s Black community with verve and affection for more than 70 years — he died in 2007, just a few years short of his 100th birthday — it’s about time. Along with it comes the first-ever scholarly text on his work, “Allan Rohan Crite: Neighborhood Liturgy,” from Princeton University Press. Crite was a passionate chronicler of both the trials and triumphs of urban Boston’s diverse and dynamic quarters for much of his life, and his official arrival in the canon is more than due. Through Jan. 19 (Gardner) and Jan. 24 (Athenaeum). Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way. 617-566-1401, www.isgm.org; Boston Athenaeum, 10½ Beacon St. 617-227-0270, bostonathenaeum.org 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 a mysterious paean to various flora and fauna, heavy with the secrets they held for her. Through Dec. 7. Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org THE HIGHWAYMEN Through the 1950s to the 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. Through Jan. 4. Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, 3 Chapel Ave., Andover. 978-749-4015, addison.andover.edu MURRAY WHYTE AFFORDABLE ART FAIR Have a hankering to start an art collection? This showcase for contemporary art galleries, founded in London in 1999 and now staged around the world, comes to Boston for the first time. The fair aims to make art accessible to everyone, so all work is priced between $100 and $10,000. Boston participants include Alpha, Blue Triangle, and Chase Young galleries, but exhibitors come from all over. For artists, there will be a panel discussion on building a practice at 3 p.m. Saturday. Through Oct. 26. Opens with a reception the evening of Oct. 23. SoWa Power Station, 550 Harrison Ave. $18 general admission. www.affordableartfair.com/fairs/boston CATE McQUAID BETH STELLING The Ohio-born comedian is bemused by friends who named their kid “Harbor” because she was conceived in a hotel near a harbor. “If my family did that, we would have so many Alleys and Sofas,” she says. “Maybe like one ‘The Woods.’” Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m. $36. The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St.www.thewilbur.com PAT BURTSCHER “We think we’re the smartest animals ’cuz we can talk,” says Burtscher. “But newsflash, I think other animals can talk, too. They just choose not to ’cuz they know as soon as they do we’ll be like, ‘Put some pants on and get to work!’” Oct. 24-25, 7 p.m., 9 p.m., and 11 p.m. $25. Goofs Comedy Club, 432 McGrath Highway, Somerville. 617-718-7200, www.goofscomedy.com THE COMEDY STUDIO 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY The Studio’s current location actually started shows more than one year ago, but with a lineup of Eugene Mirman, Alex Giampapa, Bethany Van Delft, Jack Hall, Logan O’Brien, Dan Hall, Monica Carroll, Brieana Woodward, and Al Christakis, plus live-band karaoke to celebrate, let’s not quibble. Oct. 25, 9:30 p.m. $20-$26. The Comedy Studio, 5 John F Kennedy St., Cambridge. www.thecomedystudio.com NICK A. ZAINO III
