Yale seniors graduate today, but New Haven, as always, keeps chugging. There’s a musical that does its beloved source material justice, a benefit for a venue that spends most of its time benefitting the city and a springtime fete at a country farm, and that’s not even the half of it.
Monday, May 18
Dominique Diezi, an Olympic swimmer hailing from Switzerland who was a record-holding freestyle sprinter there and a national champion 32 times—and who’s spent much of her adult life coaching in the U.S., including for the SMU and Yale women’s swimming and diving teams—offers a diving clinic tonight at the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven (360 Amity Rd, Woodbridge; 203-387-2522). The clinic lasts from 5:15 to 7 p.m. and costs $35—or $30 for members of the center’s Blue Marlins swim club.
Tuesday, May 19
Author Roald Dahl’s twisted school-age classic Matilda is now a Tony-winning, by-all-accounts-spectacular musical in the middle of a weeklong stop at the Shubert. The next performance is tonight at 7:30, with tickets ranging from $20 at the back of the central balcony to $97 down in the orchestra, and a “Me + 3” special saving 25% on four-seat bundles. 247 College St, New Haven. (203) 562-5666.
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Wednesday, May 20
“Can Women be Romantic Artists?” That’s the question at the heart of a free 12:30 p.m. talk today inside the Yale University Art Gallery, investigating “the role that gender plays in defining the ‘Romantic artist.’” Featured speakers A. Cassandra Albinson and Izabel Gass seem sure to ping the very large ongoing exhibit The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art, 1760-1860, which the pair helped curate. 1111 Chapel St, New Haven. (203) 432-0600.
Thursday, May 21
Lyric Hall (827 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-389-8885), a unique events venue that also deals in antiques and conservation thereof, has been struggling of late with its own conservation. Tonight it’s hosting a “sustainability benefit” featuring chef Arlene Ghent, head honcho at Ghent Catering, who’s cooking “an authentic Spanish paella dinner for you, while you sip wine, house-made sangria and… regional beers.” Dinner starts at 6:30; at 8:30, gears switch to live music and an arts auction, which includes an Andy Warhol original from the early 1960s. Tickets go for $40, or $20 if you just want to attend the music and arts auction portion of the evening.
Friday, May 22
Sleep it off, then come back to Lyric Hall tonight, when an unorthodox show, Skin and Metal, features a Grammy-winning flutist, a corps of drummers and an original stage/lighting design that should stave off any feelings of déjà vu. The artist at the center of it all is Timothy Munro, who’s made his mark mixing vocal bombast with dexterous fluting. Untethered by usual performance mores, he pushes ideas to extremity, as in his “first solo album” one two three, which “casts Munro as flutist, singer, amateur mathematician and supervillain.” Tonight’s occasion, beginning at 8 p.m., is presented by HOWL, a local music/theater troupe that also thinks outside the box and is responsible for most of what’s going into Skin and Metal. Free.
Saturday, May 23
Massaro Community Farm (41 Ford Rd, Woodbridge) hosts its annual rain-or-shine “Celebrate Spring” event today from 10 in the morning ’til 3 in the afternoon. Festivities include a 1 p.m. maypole dance led by Bill Fischer of Bethany Music and Dance fame; a sale of “annuals and organic vegetable seedlings” in conjunction with the Garden Club of Woodbridge; a sunflower-planting session for kids; and a tour of the farm at 2:15, plus food from the Ay! Arepa food truck. Free to attend.
Sunday, May 24
Three Saturdays-and-Sundays ago, Grove Street Cemetery (227 Grove St, New Haven) kicked up its annual tour season. Held through November, the hourlong tours, which begin at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and noon on Sundays, are organized by Patricia Illingworth (203-389-5403) and focus on the more famous folks who reside among the cemetery’s verdant grounds.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
