Half Price Tickets in Boston, MA

The biggest provider of half-price and other discounted tickets in Massachusetts is ARTS/Boston which is still going strong several decades after I helped create this umbrella organizaion. They have two BOSTIX booths with day of performance half-price tickets. Their half price kiosks are located in Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Copley Square. There are also advance on-line discount tickets, and you can find all the details on their website. Bostix has more than 160 participating arts organizations and theatres.

The ARTS Boston website

Julian Kuerti's BSO rescue has unintended consequenses

The father and son duo of Julian and Anton Kuerti in action

Unintended consequences. When Gennady Rozhdestvensky decided to walk out on his commitment to conduct last weekend's BSO concerts, Julian Kuerti stepped in and rescued the day.

But In order to do this, Kuerti then had to bow out of his appearance this week with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. He was scheduled to appear there with his dad, renowned Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti.

Wednesday's concert, entitled Kuerti: Father and Son, was meant to be a two-generation classical music collaboration. But Kuerti, assistant conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, had to step in there instead.

Earlier this summer, Kuerti also filled in for an ailing James Levine as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for early July performances in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood. Kuerti is the BSO's Assistant Conductor.

Kooza from Cirque du Soleil - The Best Road Show Yet

The acrobats (below) reach new heights (above) using stilts
The opening act of Kooza is spectacularly choreographed.

Kooza is worth a trip, and the expense for good seats. It is the ultimate spectacle, with both roll-in-the-aisles-laughter from the clowns, and heart-stopping, breath-taking acrobatic acts. Cirque du Soleil is often imitated, but all those second rate companies simply pale in comparison to the real thing, as this traveling edition of Kooza now playing in Boston proves. That includes the the horrible arena shows that Cirque inexplicably sends around the country with Clear Channel Entertainment. If you like beer signs and scoreboards to clutter up your view of the stage, and have very good eyesight, I suppose these horrid arena productions are ok, but my advice is to avoid them like the plague. Most seats are too far away from the stage to see much, and if I wanted to watch them perform on a flat two-dimensional screen, I would rent the DVD.
David Shiner wrote and directed Kooza

Kooza was written and directed by the immensely talented David Shiner, and he has done a magnificent job. You can read my full review at Berkshire Fine Arts, the online magazine

"Cirque du Soleil delivers an unforgettable evening of outrageous clowning, astounding acrobats and colorful spectacle that is best described as "Theatrobatics!" Best of all, Kooza is the newest and funniest of their touring shows and even given the pricey tickets, worth every penny."

Kooza is Clowns, Acrobats and Spectacle

Kooza's run in Boston has just been extended until October 12, and I would not be surprised if there was one more week's extension, since they do not have to be in D.C. until late in the month. Here is the schedule:


Boston, MA
Sept. 5 to Oct. 12

Washington, DC
Oct. 30 to Nov. 30

Atlanta, GA
Jan. 2 to Jan. 25 2009

Baltimore, MD
Spring 2009

New York, NY
Spring 2009

Tickets and information: The Cirque du Soleil Kooza site

Cirque du Soleil's Kooza and Saltimbanco in Boston and Amherst

A spectacular moment from Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco coming to Amherst September 3-7

Cirque du Soleil has remade the traditional circus into a true artistic experience. Their mission is to invoke the imagination, provoke the senses and evoke the emotions of people around the world. In the process of reinventing the art form, this Montreal based company has grown from a small troupe of twenty performers into a worldwide phenomenon. They have 4,000 employees, and 17 shows currently being performed all over the world. I am impressed that they dispensed with the circus animals that were often brutally forced to entertain us. Good thing too, since the handlers often utilized hurtful training methods on the animals in their care.

Cirque rethought the way everyone from the clowns to the trapeze artists perform, raising the bar to the point where even Ringling Brothers tries to copy their concepts, costumes and choreography. But nobody does it like the Cirque people. This coming month, there will be two Cirque du Soleil troupes visiting Massachusetts. One is a tent show, the other a touring arena production.

Arriving in Boston on September 5 for a month's stay at the Bayside Exposition Center, Cirque du Soleil will set up their Grand Chapiteau near the extensive parking lot and MBTA station. The show is fresh and new and "Kooza" tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world. The plot, of course, is just the connective tissue that holds together the half dozen acts that are presented with the most glorious costumes, lighting and special effects. Click here for Kooza information

One of the Cirque clowns in Kooza in Boston, September 5- October 5

The Arena Show is an old favorite of mine (I have seen almost all the Cirque shows - three of them multiple times) titled Saltimbanco. It will play the Mullins Center at the Univesity of Massachusetts in Amherst from September 3-7. Saltimbanco takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart of the city, celebrating the people who live there. Click here for Saltimbanco information

Either show will provide memories for a lifetime. I guarantee it. Like me, you may be bitten by the Cirque bug, and start thinking about seeing their five shows in Las Vegas (Mystère is still the best in my opinion) or Orlando to see La Nouba. If you are ever in Hong Kong, take the boat to Macau for Zaia.