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Winter Arts Guide

The drama ‘Bel Air’ offers a fresh take on the Fresh Prince

The reboot maintains the fish-out-of-water premise of the '90s sitcom, but it places Will at the center of a drama that considers questions concerning race, class, and privilege.

10 TV shows to watch while we’re waiting out winter

Uma Thurman, Tiffany Haddish, Samuel L. Jackson, and Julia Garner are among the stars of new series and miniseries premiering in the weeks ahead.

In ‘The Bluest Eye’ at the Huntington, the challenge of capturing Toni Morrison’s unerring vision
Playwright Lydia R. Diamond's adaptation of Morrison's powerful debut novel comes to the stage under the direction of Awoye Timpo for six weeks of performances.

Peabody Essex Museum breaks down silos between Native American and American art in new galleries

"There are difficult histories. We were intentional with the pairings," says curator Karen Kramer.

See dancers from all over New England during a weekend of Boston performances

The New England Now Dance Platform packs a lot into three programs over one March weekend.

For the War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, a return to a place he once called home

The Massachusetts native brings his band to the House of Blues for two shows.

Guerilla Opera goes ‘Underground’ with intimate performance series online

In its 15th season, the group is creating new connections with opera composers, performers, and fans with expanded virtual programming.

Explore all our holiday arts critics' picks

10 museum must-sees that will banish the winter blahs

10 concerts sure to crank up the heat this winter

10 classical events to catch live this season

Five dance performances to carry you through the snowy season

Dramas, musicals, and a trio of blue men: 10 shows for theatergoers this winter

MUSIC

Conductor Elim Chan, pianist Igor Levit offer familiar comforts and new delights at the BSO

Comfort was the order of the day in Thursday evening’s performance of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 as Levit made his Symphony Hall debut alongside Chan, who was leading the orchestra for the first time.

TELEVISION
Louie Anderson brought poignancy, and memories of his mother, to ‘Baskets’
The comic and actor, who died on Friday, delivered one of the best TV performances of the past 20 years on the oddly sweet FX series.

First look at Elle Fanning as Michelle Carter in Hulu’s ‘The Girl from Plainville’
Fanning will play Carter in the upcoming eight-episode series, which explores Carter’s relationship with her then-boyfriend, 18-year-old Conrad Roy III, and the events leading up to his July 2014 suicide.

Boston Calling announces 2022 lineup with headliners Foo Fighters, the Strokes, Metallica
Boston Calling released the full lineup of performers for its three-day festival set to take place Memorial Day weekend, May 27-29, at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE

For the War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, a return to a place he once called home

The Massachusetts native brings his band to the House of Blues for two shows.
WINTER ARTS GUIDE

10 concerts sure to crank up the heat this winter

Shows by Dua Lipa, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Jazmine Sullivan, and a Beatles tribute led by Todd Rundgren are among the highlights of the months ahead.
WINTER ARTS GUIDE

10 TV shows to watch while we’re waiting out winter

Uma Thurman, Tiffany Haddish, Samuel L. Jackson, and Julia Garner are among the stars of new series and miniseries premiering in the weeks ahead.

MORE RECENT ARTS HEADLINES

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Deniz Khateri in "The Cellos' Dialogue."

Guerilla Opera goes ‘Underground’ with intimate performance series online

In its 15th season, the group is creating new connections with opera composers, performers, and fans with expanded virtual programming.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Jabari Banks as Will in "Bel Air."

The drama ‘Bel Air’ offers a fresh take on the Fresh Prince

The reboot maintains the fish-out-of-water premise of the '90s sitcom, but it places Will at the center of a drama that considers questions concerning race, class, and privilege.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Director Awoye Timpo (left) leads a rehearsal of the Huntington Theatre Company's "The Bluest Eye" at the Calderwood Pavilion, with actors Hadar Busia-Singleton (center) and Alexandria King.

In ‘The Bluest Eye’ at the Huntington, the challenge of capturing Toni Morrison’s unerring vision

Playwright Lydia R. Diamond's adaptation of Morrison's powerful debut novel comes to the stage under the direction of Awoye Timpo for six weeks of performances.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Joseph Mallord William Turner, "Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On)," 1840, oil on canvas. (Henry Lillie Pierce Fund/Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The painting will feature in the March exhibition "Turner's Modern World) at the MFA.

10 museum must-sees that will banish the winter blahs

From Maya Lin’s ‘Mappings’ to ‘Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance,’ our most-anticipated shows.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Charis Gullage (center) as Disco Donna in "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical," which comes to the Emerson Colonial Theatre Feb. 22-March 6.

Dramas, musicals, and a trio of blue men: 10 shows for theatergoers this winter

The season will feature "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical," ART's "Ocean Filibuster," and SpeakEasy's "People, Places & Things," as well as the return of Blue Man Group after a two-year pause.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Left: Tompkins Harrison Matteson's “Trial of George Jacobs, Sr. for Witchcraft,” 1855. Right: Jason Garcia's "#7 Victory, 1680–1692," from the “Tewa Tales of Suspense!” series, 2019-20.

Peabody Essex Museum breaks down silos between Native American and American art in new galleries

"There are difficult histories. We were intentional with the pairings," says curator Karen Kramer.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Soprano Christine Goerke will sing the role of Marie in the BSO’s concert performance of Berg’s expressionist opera “Wozzeck.”

10 classical events to catch live this season

Conductor Andris Nelsons takes on Berg’s epochal "Wozzeck" at the BSO, pianist Christopher Taylor launches a complete cycle of Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven Symphonies at the Gardner, and much more.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Deborah Goffe is among the performers at the New England Now Dance Platform in March.

See dancers from all over New England during a weekend of Boston performances

The New England Now Dance Platform packs a lot into three programs over one March weekend.

WINTER ARTS GUIDE
Sankofa Danzafro will perform Rafael Palacios’s "Accommodating Lie"

Five dance performances to carry you through the snowy season

Check out these dance picks from around Boston.

DOC TALK
Health care activist Ady Barkan, shown during his arrest at a Capitol Hill protest in 2017.

Doc Talk: An incurable optimist, a fleeing fugitive, and an undaunted soul

A roundup of documentaries screening or streaming in Greater Boston.

STAGE REVIEW
Adam Pascal and Olivia Valli in "Pretty Woman: The Musical."

‘Pretty Woman: The Musical’ is pretty ordinary

The show at the Citizens Bank Opera House is a by-the-numbers knockoff that largely contents itself with simply puttin’ on the glitz, its makers apparently confident that will be enough for fans of the movie.

THE TICKET
Kacey Musgraves performs Jan. 27 at TD Garden.

Things to do around Boston this weekend and beyond

Music, theater, comedy, museum, and family events, and more, selected by Globe critics and writers.

TELEVISION
Jason Bateman and Laura Linney in "Ozark."

Final season of ‘Ozark’ gets underway Friday

The first seven episodes arrive on Jan. 21 (the second seven will be available later in the year), and they are easy to breeze through.

BOOK REVIEW

New novel ‘Devil House’ looks at our true crime obsessions

If true crime is an addiction, “Devil House” is a writer’s cure. It’s a multilayered, fictional story of some horrific murders, their victims and perpetrators, and the man who sets out to tell their tales. Author John Darnielle (of the band the Mountain Goats) has hit bestseller lists with his two previous novels; all three are haunted by darkness.

BIBLIOPHILES
Jabari Asim's new novel is “Yonder.”

Jabari Asim: an ‘eclectic, voracious’ reader

Jabari Asim sets his new novel, “Yonder,” on a 19th-century plantation where the people he calls the Stolen manage to find joy, friendship, and love, which they will risk for freedom. This is his third work of fiction for adults. Asim, who directs the creative writing program at Emerson College, talked with us about his own reading list.

Tanglewood plans to offer a full-length, full-scale season of programming for the first time since before the pandemic.

Sound the cannons, light up the fireworks: Tanglewood is back!

This season features plenty of familiar faces — James Taylor and Yo-Yo Ma among them — as well as works by new composers. It also marks the first summer that BSO president and chief executive Gail Samuel has had a hand in the programming, a packed and promising eight-week lineup.