MUSIC
CEDRIC GERVAIS The French DJ brings his arsenal of remixes (including his beat-heavy switch-up of sadcore doyenne Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness”) and club-shaking originals to Mémoire’s decks. Sept. 1, 10 p.m. $20 and up. Mémoire at Encore Boston Harbor, Everett. 857-770-3490, www.memoireboston.com
HATCHIE This Australian gauze-popper’s first full-length, “Keepsake,” is full of fuzzed-out guitars and sighing lyrics, with the mood kept afloat by sticky hooks and sonic detailing. Sept. 5, 8:30 p.m. $14, $12 advance. Great Scott, Allston 617-566-0914, www.greatscottboston.com
MEYHEM LAUREN The guttural Queens MC channels the gritty spirit and hard-edged storytelling of ’90s New York hip-hop; a frequent guest on Viceland’s gourmandizing “That’s Delicious,” he’ll preside over a cookout — read: free veggie burgers and dogs for the first 200 attendees — before the music starts. Sept. 7, 7 p.m. doors $15. ONCE Somerville. 617-285-0167, www.oncesomerville.com
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MAURA JOHNSTON
Folk & World
SHREYA GHOSHAL Bollywood comes to Lowell: Shreya Ghoshal, one of the leading playback singers of Indian cinema and a multilingual recording artist, will perform current and classic Indian songs with a 30-piece orchestra. Sept. 1, 7 p.m. $64-$262. Memorial Auditorium, Lowell. 800-657-8774, www.lowellauditorium.com
THE MAES Aussie sisters Maggie and Elsie Rigby, who perform as the Maes, have just released a self-titled album they say “they never intended to make,” recorded as they toured in a series of sessions in Canada, Scotland, Ireland, and their homeland. The result — gorgeous, delicate folk music — sounds anything but slapdash. Sept. 2, 8 p.m. $15. Firehouse Center for the Arts, Newburyport. 978-462-7336, www.firehouse.org; Sept. 4, 8 p.m. $18. Club Passim, Cambridge. 617-492-7679, www.passim.org
ME & THEE ALL-STARS The Me & Thee Coffeehouse is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and marking that milestone all season long. It kicks things off with an all-star concert that brings together a group of folkies who have taken the coffeehouse’s stage many times: Mason Daring and Jeanie Stahl, Guy Van Duser and Billy Novick, and Bill Staines. Sept. 6, 8 p.m. $25. Me and Thee Coffeehouse, Marblehead. 781-631-8987, www.meandthee.org
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STUART MUNRO
Jazz & Blues
JAZZMEIA HORN The Dallas-born singer, who won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2013 and the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition in 2015, is the most acclaimed female jazz vocalist to emerge since Cécile McLorin Salvant. Sept. 6, 8 p.m. $30-$45. Scullers. 866-777-8932, www.scullersjazz.com
TRIO PLEX The Creative Music Series presents three adventurous New York-based musicians, teaming up for the first time: veteran drummer/composer Michael T.A. Thompson, who’s played with the likes of Oliver Lake, Matthew Shipp, and Nels Cline; pianist/composer Cooper-Moore, a longtime collaborator with David S. Ware; and bassist Ken Filiano, who’s played and recorded with such innovators as Anthony Braxton and Bill Dixon. Sept. 6, 8 p.m. $15-$18. Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge. www.lilypadinman.com
MARCIA BALL The rambunctious and soulful pianist/singer is a master of her native Lone Star State’s Gulf Coast blues as well as the New Orleans R&B, a la Professor Longhair, of her Louisiana youth. Sept. 7, 8 p.m. $35. Bull Run Restaurant, 215 Great Road, Shirley. 978-425-4311, www.bullrunrestaurant.com
KEVIN LOWENTHAL
Classical
OPERA THEATRE OF CAPE COD Puccini’s enduringly popular “La Bohème” is set in the present day and performed in an English translation to be more accessible to newer opera listeners. Sept. 6 & 7. Tilden Arts Center, Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable. www.operatheaterofcapecod.com
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PHOENIX ORCHESTRA The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum begins its concert season with the Boston-based orchestra performing an enticing program of image-inspired music, ranging from Richard Wagner to Julia Wolfe. The concert closes with the world premiere of a Gardner Museum-commissioned piece by Jonathan Bailey Holland. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Sept. 8, 1:30 p.m. 617-278-5156, www.gardnermuseum.org
Zoë Madonna
ARTS
Theater
THE PURISTS The multitalented Billy Porter — who won a Tony Award for his performance in “Kinky Boots,’’ stars in FX’s “Pose,’’ and has helmed Huntington Theatre Company productions of “Topdog/Underdog’’ and “The Colored Museum’’ — returns to the Huntington to direct the world premiere of Dan McCabe’s play about the complications that arise in the friendship among an ex-rapper, a DJ, and a musical-theater purist after a rap battle suddenly erupts between a pair of young female emcees. Through Oct. 6. Huntington Theatre Company. At Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS The musical adaptation of the Roger Corman film about the fateful, Faustian bargain struck by nebbishy flower-shop employee Seymour (Dan Prior) with a very hungry plant named Audrey II (voiced by Yewande Odetoyinbo, with puppetry by Tim Hoover). Seymour’s goal is to win the girl of his dreams, co-worker Audrey (Katrina Z Pavao), but . . . Well, you’ve heard of the law of unintended consequences? Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken. Directed and choreographed by Rachel Bertone. Through Oct. 6. Lyric Stage Company of Boston. 617-585-5678, www.lyricstage.com
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THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT Lindsay Crouse and Mickey Solis star in this comic drama about a doggedly determined fact-checker (portrayed by Derek Speedy, in the role originally played by Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway) who is given his first big assignment by a magazine editor: to see if there are any inaccuracies in an essay by an egotistical writer who is prone to taking liberties with the truth. There turn out to be quite a few. Conflict ensues. The play by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell is helmed by Sam Weisman, who directed Crouse and Solis in Gloucester Stage’s fine 2017 production of Lucy Prebble’s “The Effect.’’ Through Sept. 22. Gloucester Stage Company, Gloucester. 978-281-4433, www.gloucesterstage.com
DON AUCOIN
Dance
TAYLOR 2 DANCE COMPANY Just over a year since the legendary Paul Taylor’s death, the small secondary company that bears his name is still in its “Celebration Tour” to honor the choreographer’s life and work. This engagement, closing Windhover’s summer season, includes master classes, two open rehearsals, and two performances. Concert repertory features “Airs,” “Funny Papers,” and “Images.” Sept. 4-7, Free, but donations appreciated. Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, Rockport. 978-546-3611, www.windhover.org
WHEN BODY BECOMES VOICE This mixed evening of dance by Chinatown Presents brings together classical and contemporary artists and companies from multiple cultural traditions to explore how identity is embodied through dance. Performers include Chhandika, Prakriti Dance, Jennifer Lin, and Yosi Karahashi. Sept. 6, $10 suggested donation. Pao Arts Center. 617-863-9080, www.bcnc.net
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THE DONKEY SHOW Last chance to catch this high-spirited, disco-driven entertainment, concluding its 10-year American Repertory Theater run at Oberon. The immersive Diane Paulus/Randy Weiner extravaganza puts disco moves and roller skates to the service of a wild and wacky story line loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s magical “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” This one unleashes a whole different brand of magic! Sept 7, $55-65. Oberon, Cambridge. 617-547-8300, www.americanrepertorytheater.org
KAREN CAMPBELL
Galleries
FUTURITY ISLAND This installation, conceived by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, is a musical instrument built from water and sewer pipes — tools originally used to shape nature to humanity’s purposes. Presented by MIT’s Program in Art, Culture and Technology, it proposes a less anthropocentric approach to the environment. The opening, from 7-8 p.m. on Sept. 6, features performances by Nicole L’Hullier and Erin Genia. Panel discussions follow on Saturday afternoon. Sept. 6-26. Walker Memorial — West Lawn (MIT Building 50), 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge. 617-253-5229, act.mit.edu
COLLEEN KIELY: WOMEN ON THE VERGE This pop-up exhibition curated by Robert Moeller nods to Pedro Almodovar’s 1988 film, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” Kiely, a painter, conjures women from art historical sources, studying sketches of artists’ models and self-portraits by women. She takes off from there to meditate on female identity, inventing portraits that are sometimes direct and sometimes elusive. Sept. 6, 6-9 p.m. Cost Annex, 59 Wareham St. thecostannex@gmail.com
FERTILE GROUND Artists María Berrío, Zoë Charlton, and Joiri Minaya entangle female bodies in landscapes. They use layering and collage to raise questions about cultivation versus wilderness, examine power, ownership, and freedom, and wrestle with romantic conceptions of the natural world as feminine. Through Nov. 3. David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, 64 College St., Providence. 401-863-2932, www.brown.edu CATE McQUAID
Museums
MURAL: JACKSON POLLOCK | KATHARINA GROSSE “Mural” (1943) is Jackson Pollock’s largest work, at 8 feet by 20 feet, and a departure point for an artist emerging from Surrealist representation and into pure abstraction. Alongside him, contemporary German artist Grosse boldly matches his scale in a piece commissioned for just this moment, challenging hierarchy, hegemony, and what we think we know about the canon of abstraction all at once. Through Feb. 23. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org
WILLIAM WEGMAN: OUTSIDE IN Faced with the inescapable images of his beloved Weimaraners — embedded in landscape paintings, dressed in haute couture, draped in a flowing blond wig — it’s easy to forget that Wegman had a career before the canines that made him famous. This show is hardly dog-free, never fear. But it offers a broader view of a beloved artist’s long and fruitful career. Through Oct. 20. At the Shelburne Museum, 6000 Shelburne Road, Shelburne, Vt. 802-985-3346, shelburnemuseum.org
THE FORTY PART MOTET An exploration of our experience of the sublime in a technologically driven, highly mediated world, this chilly-looking installation bursts with disarming intimacy and warmth. To make it in 2001, Janet Cardiff individually recorded the 40 vocalists needed for a live performance of Thomas Tallis’s 1575 choral composition “Spem In Alium.” Then she reunited them in the gallery as an array of 40 individual speakers, one per vocalist. The inherent tension engulfs: between a ring of stolid black boxes on stands and the deeply humane and emotional voices streaming from them. You’ll spend hours moving speaker to speaker in one-to-one communion amid the wash of gloriously haunting harmony. Through Sept. 15. Clark Art Institute, 225 South St., Williamstown. 413-458 2303, www.clarkart.edu
Murray Whyte
EVENTS
Comedy
ANTHONY DEVITO In his spot on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the New York comic wondered what the romantic future might hold for a guy who is increasingly hirsute. “I just keep getting hairier,” he said. “I don’t know at what point you’re legally a cat.” Sept. 2, 8:30 p.m. Free. CitySide, 1960 Beacon St., Brighton. 617-566-1002, www.citysidebar.com
JIMMY TINGLE: 20/20 VISION The Cambridge comic usually performs this one-man show about his faith in politics and his run for lieutenant governor in theaters, but here he brings it to a more intimate venue for one night only. Sept. 5, 8 p.m. $20. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 617-492-7679, www.passim.org
CHRISTINA P.: THE RIDE OR DIE TOUR Also known as Christina Pazsitzky, she is the more scatologically inclined half of the husband-and-wife team behind the popular podcast “Your Mom’s House” with fellow comedian Tom Segura. She also hosts the “Where My Mom’s At?” podcast and has a one-hour Netflix special called “Mother Inferior.” Sept. 7, 7 p.m. $20-$40. Wilbur Theatre. 866-448-7849, www.thewilbur.com
NICK A. ZAINO III
Family
BOSTON ARTS FESTIVAL Back for another year, the Boston Arts Festival marks the launch of Arts Open Studios season, featuring over 70 juried local visual artists, craftspeople, and local musicians performing on the Waterfront Stage throughout the day. The event brings more than 50,000 visitors to Boston Harbor. Sept. 7-8, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Free. Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, 105 Atlantic Ave. thebostonartsfestival.com
THE EVOLUTION OF HIP-HOP Celebrating its fifth year, this family-friendly event features rappers, singers, spoken-word poets, dancers, beatboxers, and visual artists from the Somerville community and surrounding cities. Live art, interactive activities, and local community groups will also attend. Sept. 7, 3-7 p.m., Free. Union Square Plaza, 70 Union Square, Somerville. somervillema.gov
CHINATOWN LANTERNS Head downtown for Chinatown’s annual celebration, featuring martial arts performances, cultural dances, traditional moon cake tastings, and more. Sept. 7, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Free. 2 Boylston St. facebook.com CHRIS TRIUNFO
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Sept. 22 Mac DeMarco at Orpheum Theatre, ticketmaster.com
Sept. 23 Daniel Caesar at House of Blues, livenation.com
Sept. 24 Cat Power at Royale, royaleboston.com
Oct. 2 Whitney at Royale, royaleboston.com
Oct. 8 Incubus at Boch Center Wang Theatre, bochcenter.org
Oct. 11 The Black Keys at TD Garden, tdgarden.com
Oct. 15 Bon Iver at TD Garden, tdgarden.com