Festival Time

Got the January blues? Well, don’t fret my friends—those Christmas winds will disappear faster than Santa on a Sym. In the meantime get out your pens and mark those calendars because there’s an exciting lineup of cultural, theatrical and musical events coming to town thanks to the 2010 Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts. There’ll be over a dozen performances from January through early March (many at the City Hall Theatre; see above) but just in case you’re having a tough time deciding which events you should attend, I’ve taken the time to pick some early favorites. Kicking off the festival from January 20-23 will be the Soweto Gospel Choir, a soulful South African ensemble that not only won Grammy Awards for best traditional world music album in 2007 and 2008, but also performed at the first of the legendary 46664 concerts for Nelson Mandela in the 2003 (sadly, 46664 was Mandela’s prison number). Next up, from January 29-31 will be the Moscow Circus—or as l like to call it, Cirque du Soleil Lite—featuring flying acrobats, zany Russian clowns (are there any other kind?) and a grand finale that’s rumored to involve dancing bears. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like fun for the whole family. February 6 is sure to be the festival’s highlight, when the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra takes the stage for one night only. Led by legendary pianist Arturo O’Farrill, the fiery orchestra will perform its brand of upbeat Cuban jazz (Note: Really, don’t miss this one. I’ve seen these guys play in New York City’s Jazz at Lincoln Center a handful of times and they are, how you say? En fuego). Shakespeare-a-philes shouldn’t miss the mid-February production of As You Like It, performed by none other than Manhattan’s own Aquila Theatre Company. And with early March comes a gala evening of ballet with performers and principals from the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre backed by a duo of live musicians—all in all a stellar line up of cultural events. For a full listing of what's playing at this year's Bermuda Festival of Performing Arts go here. In the meantime, I’ll see ya at the show!