MUSIC
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Wynton Marsalis leads his acclaimed ensemble in a tribute to Miles Davis in honor of the legendary trumpet master’s 90th birthday year.
Hiromi The stunning and virtuosic Japanese jazz pianist returns with her long-running trio.
Pennsylvania Ballet The company presents “A Program of Firsts” featuring George Balanchine’s landmark “Serenade” alongside a world premiere by composer-in-residence and BalletX co-founder Matthew Neenan and a North American premiere by Liam Scarlett set to Poulenc’s two-piano pieces. “The Secret Garden” Philly stagecraft wizard Jorge Cousineau and Arden artistic director Terrence J. Nolen collaborate on the Tony-winning musical adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved children’s novel.
Imani Winds The Grammy-winning African-American wind quintet present a diverse program, including pieces by Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov, tango pioneer Astor Piazzolla and Latin jazz clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera. ART PAFA presents an exhibition of Shotz’s abstract sculptures, which use concepts from science and math to craft immense structures from non-traditional materials.
Creative Africa The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents five exhibitions offering a wide-ranging survey of contemporary art and design from the African continent.
The Poetry of Nature American landscape painting is the focus of this stunning exhibition featuring more than 40 paintings by Hudson River School artists, including Thomas Cole, Asher Durand and Albert Bierstadt.
Action Is Primary For the past six months, choreographer Meg Foley and three collaborators have been improvising a dance every day at 3:15 in a variety of settings and circumstances. The results will be presented as a gallery installation and live performance series. THEATER Proof that Broadway is quickly running out of movies to adapt, this Broadway hit based on the Whoopi Goldberg comedy about a murder witness masquerading as a nun, features songs penned by Disney vet Alan Menken. The Nether InterAct Theatre Company puts on Jennifer Haley’s provocative sci-fi thriller about a detective investigating crimes in a virtual universe, in its new home at The Drake.
An Octoroon The Wilma tackles the subject of race in typically inventive and audacious fashion with Branden-Jacobs Jenkins adaptation of Dion Boucicault’s 1859 melodrama about a slave owner’s love for a woman whose blood is one-eighth black. Macbeth/Twelfth Night Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre celebrates its 20th anniversary — and the 400th of William Shakespeare’s death — with a repertory-style production of two of the Bard’s masterworks, directed by artistic and executive director Carmen Khan. FILM
Directors in Focus: Seijun Suzuki I-House presents a career-spanning retrospective of the ground-breaking Japanese director, who began making stylish noir and thriller films, then exploded the genres completely in his masterpieces, “Branded To Kill” and “Tokyo Drifter.” Cinedelphia Film Festival The festival’s fourth incarnation features the usual array of local discoveries and all-around oddities, including an evening with TV host and critic Joe Bob Briggs, a documentary on cult classic “The Room,” a Nigerian remake of “Purple Rain” and “Basket Case” director Frank Henenlotter’s new doc about a group of artists attempting to steal a Banksy work. eX-Fest Exhumed Films’ other annual festival is its less endurance-testing alternative to the 24-hour Horrorthon, offering twelve hours of films from non-horror cult genres: obscure action, martial arts, sci-fi and exploitation flicks.
May 15
Kimmel Center,
Broad & Spruce Sts.
215-893-1999, Kimmelcenter.org.
April 1
Annenberg Center,
3680 Walnut St.,
215-898-3900,
Annenbergcenter.org.
May 12-15
Academy of Music
240 S. Broad St.
215-893-1999, Paballet.org.
May 12-June 19
Arden Theatre Co.
40 N. 2nd St.
215-922-1122
Ardentheatre.org
April 24
Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street & Ben Franklin Pkwy.
215-569-8080, Pcmsconcerts.org
Alyson Shotz
April 21-Aug. 7
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
118-128 N. Broad St.
215-972-7600, pafa.org.
May 14-Sept. 25
Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street & Ben Franklin Pkwy.
215-763-8100
Philamuseum.org.
March 19-June 12
Brandywine River Museum of Art
Route 1 in Chadd’s Ford
610-388-2700
Brandywinemuseum.org
April 6-23
Icebox Project Space
1400 N. American St.
Actionisprimary.com
“Sister Act”
May 17-July 17
Walnut Street Theatre
825 Walnut St.
215-574-3550
Walnutstreettheatre.org
March 25-April 17, InterAct Theatre Company
1512 Spruce St., 215-568-8079,
Interacttheatre.org.
March 16-April 10
Wilma Theater
265 S. Broad St.
215-546-7824
Wilmatheater.org.
April 1-May 22
Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre
2111 Sansom St.
215-496-8001
Phillyshakespeare.org
April 1-16,
International House
3701 Chestnut St.
215-387-5125, Ihousephilly.org.
April 7-23,
PhilaMOCA,
531 N. 12th St.,
Cinedelphiafilmfestival.com
April 30
International House
3701 Chestnut St.
Exhumedfilms.com
‘Vlisco: African Fashion on a Global Stage’ and other cool shows this Spring
Photograph courtesy of Vlisco.
