ARTS

Kaleidoscope

A few of our favorite things


	print	email	reply

Published: Nov 10, 2010

Shopping/Opening

We've all strolled through IKEA's pristine floor models, only to leave with a box full of fiberboard planks. No longer an issue. Friday (Nov. 12, busybeephilly.com), Busy Bee Homestore & Design Center celebrates the grand opening of its retail location, featuring its own 4,000-square-foot, fully staged showroom. Customers can buy their modernly styled products right off the floor — from new, used and vintage furniture to artwork and books — and won't have to construct the damn things when they get home.

—Sean Kearney

Classical

Brahms lovers, get ready for a big day. This Saturday's Brahms Festival at Church of the Holy Trinity (Nov. 13, astralartists.org) is a triple-header, filled with beloved chamber-music masterpieces from the pied piper of Hamburg and featuring superb young musicians from the current Astral roster — abetted by a number of special ringers, including pianists Natalie Zhu and Cynthia Raim, baritone Randall Scarlata, mezzo Suzanne DuPlantis, and former Philly Orchestra violist/current Curtis boss Roberto Diaz.

—Peter Burwasser

Rock/pop

Picking up where they left off seven years ago, Azure Ray sound like they haven't missed a beat. Even though Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink's respective solo ventures led them down divergent paths — Taylor towards cloying pop, Fink toward brittle rock — when they work together, the result is spellbinding. In its haunting sorrow and delicate warmth, the new Drawing Down the Moon is the natural successor to their 2003 masterstroke Hold on Love ; welcome them back Tuesday at Johnny Brenda's (Nov. 16, johnnybrendas.com).

—John Vettese

Theater

A new play from either Thornton Wilder or Ken Ludwig would be a major event. The Beaux' Stratagem, premièring locally at Villanova University Theatre (through Nov. 21, villanova.edu), is sort of both. In 1939, Wilder began a commissioned reworking of George Farquhar's 1707 comedy on timeless themes of love and relationships, but, distracted by WWII, never finished it. In 2004, his estate contacted prolific farceur Ludwig about completing Wilder's adaptation. Director Shawn Kairschner says the script synthesizes Wilder and Ludwig's particular talents, making the seldom-seen Restoration-era comedy sharper and more relatable for modern audiences.

—Mark Cofta