Arts & Culture

Hollywood actor Richard Jenkins and his wife will return to Trinity Rep next year to co-direct the musical Oliver.

Richard Jenkins is best known for his role in HBO’s Six Feet Under and the 2008 film “The Visitor.” But before he hit it big in Hollywood Jenkins and his wife Sharon were part of Trinity Rep – she was a choreographer and he was an actor and later the artistic director.

The couple will return next season to co-direct the musical “Oliver.” Trinity Rep’s artistic director Curt Columbus said audiences can expect to see a smart production.

Back in the late 1940s and early ‘50s the talk along the New York Rialto was about whether Tennessee Williams could broaden his approach. Sure, the critics and others said, he’s written great plays such as the ever-so-human “Glass Menagerie” and the stinging “A Streetcar Named Desire.” But can he go in other directions, take us to new places?

Watching the Gamm’s splendid, perfectly sharp, gloriously acted production of “Beauty Queen” was, for me at least, a trip down two very different roads. On one hand, I kept thinking of the legions of travel advertisements we’ve all seen. Ahh, the green of Ireland, the rolling hills, the charming little towns, the friendly pubs. Where have you gone Rick Steves?

This Saturday the Rhode Island Philharmonic tackles Mahler’s massive second symphony.  Around 200 musicians will assemble at Veterans Memorial Auditorium Saturday, May 8th, to perform this gigantic work.

This is Gustav Mahler’s second symphony.  The Resurrection.  It’s a powerful piece of work, that requires a huge number of performers.  And it has impact.  It was recently performed by the New York Philharmonic for the tenth anniversary of September 11th.   As Rhode Island Philharmonic conductor Larry Rachleff says, it’s a symphony about life.