This week, WGBH News’ Arts Editor Jared Bowen takes us to Broadway for his review of “The Prom” and reveals what’s new at MASS MoCA.
“The Prom,” presented on Broadway at The Longacre Theatre through August 11
This weekend is your last chance to catch the Tony-nominated musical comedy “The Prom” on Broadway! Directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw, “The Prom” tells the story of four underemployed Broadway actors who make a self-serving trip to Indiana to advocate for a high school lesbian who isn’t allowed to take her date to the prom. Broadway clichés and small-town prejudices are gleefully ripped to shreds in this rousing musical about love, acceptance and showmanship.
Jared describes the production as “good old-fashioned fun which also happens to be fashioned with a glimmering edge.” A Netflix adaptation of the show by Ryan Murphy is expected to drop next year, and a touring Broadway production of the musical will kick off at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) in February 2021.
“Annie Lennox: ‘Now I Let You Go…’” on view at MASS MoCA through January 2020
Inspired by her Scottish Heritage, artist and activist Annie Lennox has created a massive burial mound of personal effects at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Titled “Annie Lennox: ‘Now I Let You Go…’” the installation features hundreds of objects and artifacts from Lennox’s life. From career accolades to deeply personal family heirlooms like her children’s shoes, the mound is a material diary for this renowned performer and social activist.
“One of the things that Annie said as we were installing is that she wishes that everyone could have a mound,” said curator Alexandra Foradas. “We don't have a way of metabolizing memory, of working through the objects that are left behind, of thinking about what our material legacy is, rather than just our written legacy and the stories that people tell us.”
“Trenton Doyle Hancock Mind of the Mound: Critical Mass,” on view at MASS MoCA through October 2019
Also on view at MASS MoCA is the largest exhibition to date of the work of Trenton Doyle Hancock. Titled “Mind of the Mound: Critical Mass,” Hancock’s exhibition is the culmination of decades of work building the rich and detailed narrative of what he calls the “Moundverse.”
“The Moundverse is a space that he created beginning with Torpedo Boy when he was 10,” said curator Alexandra Foradas. “The mounds are these plant-animal hybrids which metabolize the emotions of the world. They are storage places for memory, for the things discarded by humanity.”
Laid out like a board game or theme park, Hancock’s exhibition weaves his nostalgia for things like comic books, Garbage Pail Kids and old toys into a complex and unique mythology of his own making.
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