Welcome attractions or perhaps distractions abound as the omicron threat diminishes and geopolitical danger spreads.
Monday, February 28
For a dopamine flood, head to Space Ballroom (295 Treadwell St, Hamden; $28.75 with fees), where The Beths perform their zippy, bouyant foursome rock after the “melodious guitars swirling atop propulsive, often psychedelic rhythm” of opener Lunar Vacation. 8 p.m.
Tuesday, March 1 – Mardi Gras
“All are welcome” at St. Mary’s Church (5 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven) for its annual Mardi Gras Dinner, a potluck starting at 5:30 p.m.
The New Haven Free Public Library’s annual Mardi Gras celebration kicks off at 7 on a phone or computer screen near you. Free to stream via the library system’s Facebook or Youtube pages, the itinerary includes “a conversation between bestselling author Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and New Haven’s own Reginald Dwayne Betts” and an award ceremony as well as “surprise guests, appearances, and announcements!” Attendance is free, though donations are encouraged to “help bridge the digital divide, nurture entrepreneurial innovation and economic recovery across New Haven, and revitalize our community.”
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Wednesday, March 2
Comedic magician Justin Willman, a prolific reality competition host and late-night TV guest “best known as the star and creator of the hit Netflix series Magic For Humans,” gives a 7:30 show at College Street Music Hall (238 College St, New Haven; $43.14-48.29 with fees).
Thursday, March 3
Bridget Riley: Perceptual Abstraction, starring work painted (and in this case curated) by the renowned midcentury op artist, opens at the Yale Center for British Art (1080 Chapel St, New Haven; 203-432-2800; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), which is itself reopening today now that the omicron variant is under control.
“Last spring, ProPublica reporter Ava Kofman was assigned a major story about an environmental catastrophe. There was just one problem: it wasn’t true. But as that story fell apart, she uncovered larger issues with the underlying environmental data.” During a virtual 6 p.m. talk organized by the Peabody Museum, “Kofman explains how she and her colleagues got the facts straight, and how their efforts resulted in exposing the worst toxic hotspots of air pollution in the country.”
Friday, March 4
Tonight at 8, Waitress, a play adapted from the well-known 2007 film about “a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams of a way out of her small town and rocky marriage,” begins a three-day, five-show stand at the Shubert (247 College St, New Haven; 203-624-1825; $53-150).
Saturday, March 5
Party three ways today. Starting earliest, at noon, a Lucky LepreCON Bar Crawl celebrates St. Patrick’s Day a dozen days in advance, spanning almost as many bars in downtown New Haven ($30.26-44.06 with fees). Second, at 2 p.m. at Koffee? (104 Audubon St, New Haven), a launch party comprising “food, drinks [and] speakers” signals the countdown to the upcoming Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, which raises funds for local nonprofits doing environmental work. Finally, at 8 p.m., a “Boogie Nights” night at Stella Blues (204 Crown St, New Haven; 203-752-9764) means “dancing shoes” and “disco vibes.”
Sunday, March 6
At 1:30 p.m., klezmer big band Nu Haven Kepelye hosts “The Secret Musical Treasures of Ukraine,” a virtual presentation by one of its former members, Christina Crowder, who’s now the executive director of the Klezmer Institute. Planned before the ongoing crisis in that country, the talk is billed as an introduction to the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project—an international klezmer history project catalyzed by “the unlikely release of thousands of unique musical manuscripts from a Kyiv archive”—and the music it examines, “from lively freylekhs to stately mazurkas and mesmerizing niggunim.”
Written by Dan Mims. Image, featuring the cast of Waitress, provided courtesy of the Shubert Theatre. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
