‘As You Like It’/ Shakespeare & Co/ Lenox, MA

TO THE SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY PRODUCTION of “As You Like It” director Tony Simotes adds his own ornaments: a mixture of brilliantly staged bits and over-the-top bits. Over-the-top suggests a lack of trust in Will’s wit, wisdom, etc. To Shakespeare’s ornaments, he also adds an actors-on-uppers physicality and “a concept.”

In the beginning, from Sandra Goldmark’s beautiful blue-gray stage with mottled blue-gray curtain, blue-gray miniature Eiffel Tower and miniature Paris buildings, one gathers (and Tony tells us in the program) that the play will be set in Paris just after the First World War. Read more…

HUDSON – Saturday, June 11, the Hudson Opera House opened its doors to “Warren Street,” an exhibition in which some 33 artists, many with local connections, take as their inspiration Hudson’s main shopping and dining street.

Richard Roth, the exhibition’s curator, said he was inspired by a body of work created by photographer Lynn Davis, who photographed every building on Warren Street in 1994 to document the city’s eclectic mix of architectural styles. From pyramids and other forms of architecture, to icebergs, Ms. Davis, a contemporary and friend of the late Robert Mapplethorpe, tackles large scale subjects with vigor and iconic style. Visitors to “Warren Street,” will get to see her 314-foot-long work in its entirety. Read more…

The Fantasticks/Ghent Playhouse

IT IS INDEED AN ODD production of “The Fantasticks” in which the actor playing the Mute delivers the most consistently able and interesting performance. In this case it is Lindsey Sikora who, throughout the evening, simply does and is — her lovely, serene face registering fantastical worlds without the person within having any need to judge or shine.

Yes, the show has some other compelling moments and attributes, including pianist Paul Leyden’s knowing theater-energy in the overture; the beauty of Michael Meier’s voice and person as Matt (The Boy); the way the young couple never acknowledges the irony embedded in the playwright’s flowery language; the excruciatingly effective scenes of the boy’s torture; and the hilarious dying and delightful goofiness of Paul Murphy, as Mortimer, the Man Who Dies. Read more…