“The Prom”
July 7-23 at Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck
When lesbian high school student Emma’s senior prom is canceled in an attempt to prevent her from bringing her date, four out-of-work actors looking for some good publicity arrive on the scene. Rooted in true events, the 2018 Broadway hit musical “The Prom” will be performed by the Rhinebeck Theater Society in a partnership with Dutchess Pride Center and River Haven.
Art Gray Noizz Quintet/Skull Practitioners
July 8 at Tubby’s
There’s no Art Gray in the Art Gray Noizz Quintet. But don’t let that distract you from making your way to Tubby’s when the scum-rock-cum-laude outfit hits town for this coheadliner with their noisy New York neighbors Skull Practitioners. The all-star AGNQ includes Stu Spasm (Lubricated Goat, Beasts of Bourbon), Skeleton Boy (Woman), Bloody Rich Hutchins (Live Skull, Of Cabbages and Kings), Andrea Sicco (Twin Guns), and others. Skull Practitioners sport current Dream Syndicate lead guitarist Jason Victor and rock a heavy psych/dark postpunk attack. Love Letter opens. (R.L. Boyce brings raw blues July 11; Pyrex, Rider/Horse, and Beech Creeps smash July 13.) 7pm. $12.
Near Life Experiences
July 8 at the Rosendale Theater
For as long as we have existed, humans have reveled in the arts of drama, comedy, truth, and fiction. Audiences can immerse in an evening of diverse stories at the Near Life Experiences Variety Show inside the walls of the iconic Rosendale Theater. The program will feature five different stories shared by award-winning storytellers Chris Wells, Nicole Quinn, David Gonzalez, Verna Gillis, and Beverly Donofrio alongside musicians Marianne Osiel and Joey Eppard.
Chatham Summerfest
July 8 on Main Street in Chatham
With live music, magicians, mini-horses, and so much more, the annual Chatham Summerfest will return to celebrate in the midsummer warmth of July. Main Street will be closed to make way for a family-friendly day filled with delicious food from local restaurants and food trucks, tons of activities including tie-dying and a scavenger hunt, a diverse array of vendors, and the annual pie-eating contest sponsored by Chatham’s own Pieconic. Live music from Rich Hallenbeck and the Landing Party and Joe Adee and the Lugnuts.
The Bunker Hudson Valley
July 8 at Basilica Hudson
With music by AceMo and DJ Swisha, Analog Soul, and the Hudson Valley’s own Sister Zo and Scotia, The Bunker New York will be hosting a dance party at the Basilica Hudson, complete with full production custom sound and light systems, food from Local 111, and a fully stocked bar. The Going Room, a sub label of The Bunker, will offer a quieter space as a retreat from the dancefloor. There will also be a “safer spaces” team to reinforce an atmosphere of respect and to ensure the physical and mental safety of all guests.
Sharkey and His Pals: When Sea Lions were Stars of Show Business
July 9 at the Hudson River Maritime Museum
When a sea lion took to a Broadway stage in 1938, Americans could not look away, and the gifted animal swiftly became a multi-media star. Sharkey the sea lion’s illustrious career, which began in Kingston at the famous Seal College, was spent working alongside stars like Milton Berle, Bob Hope, the Three Stooges, and Ella Fitzgerald. As a part of their Follow the River lecture series, the Maritime Museum will be hosting a lecture on Sharkey’s story with Gary Bohan Jr., author of Sharkey: When Sea Lions Were Stars of Show Business, and others.
Boudoir Blues Burlesque
July 13 at Colony
Fashion, music, humor, and athleticism collide for an exciting evening at Colony in Woodstock. Performers Tryst La Noir, Ashley Rose, Purple, Nastya Nice, and Ginger Snack Pack will gather to celebrate the classic art of burlesque and cabaret with pole aerial, hoop aerial, singing, and more.
“We Start in Manhattan: A New Queer Journey”
July 14-15 at Powerhouse Theater
Fresh off the stage of the 2023 Broadway revival of “1776,” the real-life couple Ariella Serur and Sav Souz and accompanying cast members from “1776” will perform “We Start in Manhattan: A New Queer Musical” at Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College. Brimming with life and humor, the show follows the story of a one-night stand turned one-month-long road trip, and explores the influence that short-lived intimacy can have on our lives.
Underground Before Earthworks: Robert Smithson’s Paintings
July 16 at Starr Library
“Crucified Christs, buried angels, erupting penises” are all descriptions given by writer and art historian Suzaan Boettger on the imagery featured in American artist Robert Smithson’s artwork. In her recent biography, Inside the Spiral: The Passions of Robert Smithson, Boettger goes beyond the shore of the Great Salt Lake where the artist famously sculpted the Spiral Jetty, into the complexity of his sexual fluidity, relationship with religion, troubled family history, and much more. Boettger will be giving a lecture at Starr Library in Rhinebeck.
Hudson Valley Intertribal Noise Symposium and Book Release
July 21 at Art Omi
Native American noise is the focus of this program at sculpture park and contemporary arts center Art Omi. Cosponsored by Tulsa Artist Fellowship, the event, billed as “an evening of performances by experimental sound artists who create and destroy sound worlds and embody Indigenous sonic agency,” features Pulitzer Prize winner Raven Chacon, Kite, Laura Ortman, Warren Realrider, Robbie Wing, and Nathan Young. The Oklahoma-based Young is also the organizer of the gathering; it will double as a celebration of his new publication about Hudson Valley Indigenous territories, which is being hand-printed by Lanesville Press. (A “Dance Showing” features collaborative pieces August 5.) 5:30pm. Free.
Kingston Photo Festival
July 22-23 at 474 Broadway & 25 Dederick Street
It will be hard to look away from the photos and films appearing at the first ever annual Kingston Photo Festival, hosted by the Center for Photography at Woodstock at its new permanent home on Dederick Street. The festival will feature two photo exhibitions, including “Upstate Girls” by artist-activist Brenda Kenneally; a photobook fair; workshops for making tintypes, cyanotypes, zines, and portraits; film screenings; and food/food trucks from local vendors.
Aimee Mann
July 24 at the Egg
The songs on Queens of the Summer Hotel, the 10th studio album by Aimee Mann, came about when the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter was commissioned to compose music for a stage adaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir about undergoing psychiatric treatment as a teenager, Girl, Interrupted. Perhaps the album’s dark songs that deal with difficult subject matter feel like they ring true because the pairing is perfect; Mann herself has been open about once being treated for anxiety and depression and, in a stroke of black humor, even titled one of her albums Mental Illness. The former ’Til Tuesday vocalist appears at the Egg as part of its American Roots and Branches series. Jonathan Coulton opens. (Judy Collins returns July 15; Melissa Etheridge emotes August 8.) 7:30pm. $34.50-$59.50.
Bang on a Can: LOUD Weekend 2023
July 27-29 at Mass MoCA
The culmination of groundbreaking contemporary music organization Bang on a Can’s yearly Summer Music Festival at Mass MoCA, the three-day LOUD Weekend is packed with mesmerizing experimental music. The celebration promises two 50-year anniversary concerts by the Kronos Quartet; the new trio of Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily; composer David Lang with vocalist Theo Bleckmann; the Bang on a Can All Stars and Ensemble Klang in the US premiere of Petra Haden’s “Forgiveness and Forgetting”; composer Joan Tower with her new work “Into the Night”; Catalan folk duo Tarta Relena; composer Paola Prestini and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler; and much more. (Oscar Jerome gets soulful July 1; pianist BLKBOK plays July 15.) See website for schedule. $129-$225. North Adams, Massachusetts.
Iron & Wine
July 28 at UPAC
Better known by his musical-project moniker, Iron & Wine, four-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Sam Beam saw his profile dramatically jump from indie to household status when his songs appeared in the films Garden State and Twilight and began to be featured on TV in various series and commercials. The Southern-born-and-based folk rock giant, who has released seven studio albums to date and collaborated with Calexico, Jesca Hoop, Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell, Wilco’s Glenn Kotche, and others, pays his first visit to UPAC with this hotly anticipated evening during his “Back to Basics” tour. Half Gringa opens. (Big Thief steals in July 19; Jack DeJohnette drums August 9.) 8pm. $35 and up.
Bartees Strange
July 28 at Colony Woodstock
Mixing indie, electronica, hip-hop, folk, and pop, the eclectic style of Bartees Strange reflects his nomadic upbringing: Born in England to an opera-singer mother and a serviceman father, he grew up in Oklahoma before moving to Brooklyn and, finally, Washington, DC. After playing in post-hardcore band Stay Inside, he cut a pair of self-released EPs before officially debuting with 2020’s locally recorded Live Forever. In 2022 Strange signed with the influential 4AD label for the acclaimed Farm to Table, which has been singled out for its diverse sound and lyrical depth. He visits Colony for this summer show. Dominic Angelella opens. (Nanna nips by July 28; Indigo De Souza simmers August 1.) 8pm. $23.27.
This article appears in July 2023.
