Music, drama and pre-St. Patrick’s Day parties span the (probably) familiar and the (probably) new.
Monday, March 2
With Center Church as host, five neighboring congregations hold a Service of Prayer and Witness for the New Haven Green at 6 p.m.—a “time of prayer, witness, and community-building,” with “socializing and refreshments [to] follow the service.”
Tuesday, March 3
At 7:30 p.m., Mnozil Brass comes to Morse Recital Hall. “Seamlessly blending comedic genius and technical mastery, the Austrian septet—known as the Monty Python of the music world—presents Strau$$, a fresh take on Johann Strauss’s waltzes to mark the composer’s bicentennial.”
Wednesday, March 4
At 6:30 p.m. at East Haven’s Hagaman Library, “filmmakers and Beatles scholars Cevin Soling and Charles F. Rosenay reveal a bold new way of understanding the band’s legacy” with The Life, The Death, and The Rebirth of The Beatles, an RSVP-requested “world debut multimedia experience.”
Thursday, March 5
At 4 p.m., Yale School of Music guitar professor João Luiz Rezende and his students fill Beinecke Library’s airy climes with the music of Andrés Segovia, “the foremost guitarist of his time,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica, who “was the most important force in reestablishing the guitar as a concert instrument in the 20th century.”
At 7 at the Shubert, a stage adaptation of the instant-classic film Mrs. Doubtfire, itself adapted from a children’s novel, begins a four-day, five-show stand.
At 7:30, the New Haven Theater Company opens a three-weekend, nine-show run of Little Wars. “The setting is the French countryside, June 1940. War is at the door. Tensions are high. And the coolest women on earth”—Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Agatha Christie and a “mysterious guest”—“are having the fantasy dinner party of the century.”
Friday, March 6
At 7 p.m., East Haven’s Cabaret on Main opens a three-weekend presentation of a play that was adapted into an instant-classic film of its own: Steel Magnolias. “Step inside a small-town Louisiana beauty salon where big hair, bigger hearts, and unbreakable friendships take center stage.”
At 7:30, Yale Repertory Theatre begins previews of Rhinoceros. “An ordinary Sunday in a small French town. Berenger and his friend enjoy a drink on a café terrace. Suddenly a rhinoceros charges across the square, crushing everything in its path. A drunken dream… or…? As neighbors and friends begin sprouting hides and horns, the shy, shambolic Berenger must make a choice: take a stand against—or join—the rampaging herd.”
Saturday, March 7
From 10:30 to 4:30, the Yale Center for British Art holds a family-oriented Community Day—a celebration of color featuring story times, craft activities, a specially curated display and a 3:30 performance of Indian classical music.
From 11 a.m. on, New England Brewing Company presses its own luck by holding two simultaneous Luck of the Duck Fests, one in Woodbridge and one in Branford. Overlapping and differing attractions include Irish live music, Irish step dancers, leprechaun costume contests, Irish toast competitions and more.
The 2026 Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade is next Sunday. The parade ball is tonight, from 6 to 11 at Anthony’s Ocean View, “an elegant evening filled with ceremony and celebration” including “great food, [an] open bar, and dancing to [the] McLean Avenue Band.”
Sunday, March 8
Featuring rotating Broadway stars under the music direction of Grammy and Emmy winner John McDaniel, the 2026 Sunday Broadway Concert Series at Branford’s Legacy Theatre kicks off with an intimate vocal performance by Patti Murin, whose credits include originating the role of Princess Anna in the Broadway adaptation of Frozen.
Written by Dan Mims. Image (source), featuring a moment from the musical Mrs. Doubtfire, photographed by Joan Marcus. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
