Apologies to T. S. Eliot but April is not the cruelest month. Eliot lived in Cambridge for plenty of Januarys. He should know better.
April is actually pretty nice. Or it can be if you ignore the 50 degree days with rain and focus on the arts calendar. With an eye to spring-has-sprung type stuff, here’s your monthly guide to bright and blooming arts offerings.
The Boston Ballet continues to inject new art and energy into the form. This program features two new (or new-ish) works. “La Mer” is a huge piece – 33 dancers, eight singers, and 45 musicians combine for a 45-minute exploration of our romantic feelings toward the oceans. Choreographed by Nanine Linning using two compositions by Claude Debussy, this world premiere was created with help from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. “Everywhere We Go” should generate just as much excitement. It is the brainchild of Justin Peck, choreographer for Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and indie rock hero Sufjan Stevens.
Is Babe the pig a muppet? Before you get stuck on that, is David Bowie a muppet? Before that breaks your brain, save all “is this or that a muppet” conversations for Muppet Madness at the Brattle. Taking an expansive view of muppets, the theater puts classic Kermit films beside stranger stuff – “Babe,” “Labyrinth,” “The Dark Crystal” and “Where the Wild Things Are.” Nothing says spring like a “Rainbow Connection” singalong. brattlefilm.org
The Celebrity Series brings these modern dance champions back to Boston for a program honoring founder Paul Taylor and nodding to the future. This time around audiences will get two Taylor classics and a newly commissioned work. Taylor’s baroque-inspired “Brandenburgs” and “Company B” sit beside the Boston premiere of Amy Hall Garner’s “Somewhere in the Middle.” Set to the music of jazz icons (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Wynton Marsalis, and more) this fresh piece should exude the essence of spring: a storm of colors, passions and energy. celebrityseries.org
Bass-baritone Davóne Tines is one of the world’s great singers. But locals know this already – you may recall Tines for his towering 2018 staging of Langston Hughes’ “The Black Clown” at the American Repertory Theater. This program features Tines with piano player John Bitoy framing – or reframing – Bach arias beside works by young opera legends and underperformed geniuses including Pultilzer-prize winning Carlione Shaw’s “Mass” and Julius Eastman’s “Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d ’Arc.” celebrityseries.org
Jack Kerouac’s hometown has built this music and arts festival into an underground gem. Time to help it go above ground (so long as it never loses its intimate feel). Spread out across a dozen art spaces, bars, cafes, and galleries across downtown Lowell, the fourth edition of the festival hosts stars and soon-to-be stars including Alisa Amador, Buffalo Tom, Ali McGuirk, Savoir Faire, Senseless Optimism, D-Tension, Ted Leo, and Vapors of Morphine. Thetownandthecityfestival.com