“A Christmas Memory”
December 1-18 at Park Theater
The Whale Theater, in association with Tectonic Theater (Moisés Kaufman, artistic director); will present Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” as a live radio play at the intimate Park Theater in Hudson featuring Broadway veterans Marceline Hugot and Jeffrey Binder. Joining the actors will be a cellist performing original underscoring and a Foley artist helping to bring the story to life with sound effects. The performance will be followed by a second act featuring a cabaret of beloved holiday classics. Get your tickets.“Miracle on South Division Street”
December 2-18 at Shadowland Stages
Meet the Nowaks, a Polish-American and very Catholic clan living amidst the urban rubble of Buffalo’s East Side in the 1960s. The neighborhood is depressed, but Clara, the family matriarch, happily runs her soup kitchen and tends to the family heirloom—a shrine to the Blessed Mother, which adjoins the house. This neighborhood beacon of faith commemorates the day when the Blessed Virgin Mary materialized in Clara’s father’s barber-shop. As the play opens, a family meeting—run by daughter Ruth—has been called to divulge her plans to go public with the family miracle by creating a one-woman play about the sacred event. During the course of the meeting, the family’s faith is shaken to the very core when a deathbed confession causes the family legend to unravel.
Rubblebucket
December 3 at Bearsville Theater
Brooklyn art/dance pop band Rubblebucket will hold much appeal for fans of similar indie units like Vampire Weekend, the Dirty Projectors, Brazilian Girls, Gang Gang Dance, tUneE-YarDs, and Passion Pit. Anchored around the founding core of Alex Toth (trumpet, band leader) and Kalmia Traver (vocals, saxophone), the group has long been popular on the festival circuit thanks to their upbeat, foot-moving, ska/reggae-inspired rhythms. On the high-jumping heels of their 2021 album Earth Worship, they’ll shake up the Bearsville Theater in early December. (Zero zips through November 2; Lissie lands November 5.) 8pm. $25. Bearsville.
Winter Walk
December 3 in Hudson
Hudson’s favorite street festival Winter Walk turns 26 this year and it’s bigger than ever. Take a stroll down Warren Street and experience performances, art installations, family-friendly attractions, local food and drinks, holiday shopping, fireworks and festive cheer. Plus: Twinkling lights, decorated shops, horse-drawn wagons, carolers, and fireworks.
Sinterklaas
December 3 in Rhinebeck
It’s an old Dutch tradition that’s become a beloved tradition in Rhinebeck as well: the annual Sinterklaas Festival, produced by celebration artist Jeanne Fleming. In honor of its rich Dutch heritage on the first Saturday of each December the town hosts this magical holiday event, which recreates many of the customs brought to the area by settlers from the Netherlands more than 300 years ago. Every year Rhinebeck residents (and thousands of others!) come together for this day-long family celebration, which finds the town center festively decorated with paintings made by local school children and includes live music and street performers, storytelling, animals, craft fairs, magic shows, ornament making, traditional Dutch food and pastries, and a parade.
Meshell Ndegeocello
December 4 at Levon Helm Studios
“I’ve always trusted that [music] is my path,” said Meshell Ndegeocello when she was profiled in the June 2014 issue of Chronogram. Here, that musical path will lead the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and erstwhile Hudson Valley resident to Levon Helm Studios for a rare and overdue regional performance. Ndegeocello debuted with 1993’s profound Plantation Lullabies and hit number three on the Billboard charts the following year via her duet with John Mellencamp on a version of Van Morrison’s “Wild Night.” Her 12th and most recent album is 2018’s Ventriloquism. (Charlie Parr pops by December 2; the Hot Sardines swing December 18.) 7:30pm. $45, $65. Woodstock.
Delicate Steve
December 4 at No Fun
In addition to creating waves with his own music, quirky indie-pop guitarist Delicate Steve has collaborated with the likes of Paul Simon, the Black Keys, Tame Impala, Amen Dunes, Built to Spill, Lee Ranaldo, the Dirty Projectors, Nicole Atkins, Tune-Yards, Dr. Dog, and others. His 2011 debut album, Wondervisions, was released to instant acclaim on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label and even inspired author Chuck Klosterman to pen a fictional biography of the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He brings it to No Fun for this upstate hit. (Rump State and Decimus get noisy December 2; Pony in the Pancake plays December 17.) 7pm. $10, $14. Troy.
Pierre Kwenders
December 9 at Tubby’s
Congolese-Canadian musician and DJ Pierre Kwenders got his musical start as a member of a Catholic choir in his adopted hometown of Montreal. With two EPs and as many albums (Jose Louis and the Paradox of Love appeared earlier this year) under his belt, Kwenders, who plays at Tubby’s this month, is well known for his work with the Moonshine collective, which produces popular parties all over the globe. Dancers and diggers of hip-hop, electronica, Afropop, and world music, mark your calendars accordingly. With Booker Stardrum and Nkodia. (Bitchin Bajas and Clarice Jensen visit December 3; Che Chen of 75 Dollar Bill and others jam December 7.) 7pm. $18. Kingston.
Pokey LaFarge
December 9 at the Egg
It would be entirely believable to learn that Pokey LaFarge literally stepped out from the yellowed pages and sepia-toned artist photos of a 1930s or ’40s record catalog. The 39-year-old roots singer-songwriter puts a now-time spin on old-time country, blues, Western swing, folk, rockabilly, and early jazz and looks hella stylish doing it—like if Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, Rudy Vallee, and Eddie Cochran hung out or something. He had to postpone his much-awaited return to the Egg’s American Roots and Branches Series due to the you-know-what. But back he is here. (Jorma Kaukonen revisits December 13; the McKrells celebrate Christmas December 17.) 8pm. $29.50, $34.50. Albany.
Paige Turner: Drag Me to Christmas
December 9 at Revel 32 in Poughkeepsie;
December 10 at Rosendale Theater
New York City’s drag Showbiz Spitfire is back to make your holiday season merry and bright with an evening full of jokes, songs, and yuletide cheer produced by Big Gay Hudson Valley. The New York Times writes: “Paige Turner is the ultimate theater queen and always gets everyone to sing along.” The show features over-the-top song parodies and holiday classics from Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, and Paige Turner’s own Christmas album.
Into the Light
December 10 at Rosendale Theater
Into the Light, is a magical, multicultural pageant that has thrilled audiences of all ages, that tells the story of a young girl named Lucia who journeys around the world to find light in the darkest time of the year. Featuring Arm-of-the-Sea Theatre’s giant puppets with The Vanaver Caravan’s holiday songs, dances, and music traditions the performance celebrates many of the world’s traditions for bringing light, joy and beauty into the darkest part of the year. Through dance and music Into the Light honors such holidays as Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Winter Solstice, Sankta Lucia (Sweden), and Diwali (India).
Darlene Love
December 11 at Bethel Woods
It’s the holiday season for real when 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Darlene Love is making the rounds. Love first hit the pop world as the lead singer of the Phil Spector-produced trio the Blossoms, who were credited as the Crystals on 1962’s history-making hit “He’s a Rebel”; her solo recording of the same year’s “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” also credited to the Crystals, was another smash. She found a whole new generation of fans in the 1990s via her annual Christmas appearances on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” Love brings the yuletide cheer to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel on December 11 at 7pm. $74-$144. Bethelwoodscenter.org
Marshall Crenshaw
December 14 at Daryl’s House
After playing John Lennon in the original cast of “Beatlemania,” Marshall Crenshaw cemented his own legendary rock singer-songwriter status with his 1982 self-titled debut album, home to such power pop classics as “Someday, Someway” (also a hit for Robert Gordon), “There She Goes Again,” and “Cynical Girl.” Also the writer of hits for others (the Gin Blossoms’ “Til I Hear It from You”), Crenshaw has fronted the Smithereens since the 2017 passing of lead singer Pat DiNizio. He brings his Acoustic Duo Jam Band to Daryl’s House for this intimate show. (Johnny A. pays a Beatles tribute December 8; Willie Nile flows December 16.) 7pm. $39.02, $54.47. Pawling.
Unsilent Night
December 16, location TBD in Kingston
Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night returns for its 30th anniversary, hosted by Kevin Muth and Jeff Stark. The event is a moving boombox parade where multiple speakers make one shimmering, seasonal composition. Each participant downloads a track from a website or loads an app onto their phone. Participants will meet up, press play at the same time, then head out and walk a carefully chosen 45-minute route through the streets of Kingston, creating a distinctive mobile sound sculpture that’s different from every listener’s perspective.
“A Christmas Carol”
December 16-18 at the Fisher Center at Bard College
Charles Dickens’s tale of the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge has been around the holiday block a few times, so it’s refreshing to see it getting a reimagining by way of SITI Company at Bard’s Fisher Center this month. The play, which was workshopped here last year, returns for its world premiere in a production co-directed by Anne Bogart and Darron L. West. The ghosts of the past, present, and future will be conjured to speak to society’s immediate need for gratitude, charity, fairness, justice, and equity in this timely production.
DJ Logic
December 18 at the Falcon
DJ Logic is widely credited for bringing jazz into hip-hop. The virtuoso Bronx turntablist, who on this night lands at the Falcon, has been highly influential on the use of “the decks” as an instrument. Revered for his remixes of Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, Logic lists as his collaborators Bob Weir, John Mayer, Medeski Martin and Wood, Bernie Worrell, Christian McBride, Carly Simon, Jack Johnson, the Roots, Jack DeJohnette, Warren Haynes, Vernon Reid, and many more. (Fay Victor vocalizes December 11; Jeremy Baum celebrates “A Charlie Brown Christmas” December 23.) 7pm. Donation. Marlboro.
Liveatthefalcon.com
“An Act of God” | Through December 23 at Denizen Theater
This play is adapted from David Javerbaum’s The Last Testament: A Memoir by God. If Javerbaum is familiar to you, let’s leave it at this: He’s won 13 Emmy Award, mostly as a writer on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” “An Act of God,” is a 90-minute comedy where God and his angels reveal the mysteries of the Bible and answer some of the deepest questions that have plagued mankind since Creation. Scott Alan Evans directs this production with Karl Kenzler, David Keohane, and Christa Rapaglia at Denizen’s black box theater in New Paltz.
