MARK AUERBACH
Master Thieves
One of the most famous art heists in history took place at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Author Stephen Kurkjian discusses his new book, Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World’s Greatest Art Heist, at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford on Tuesday, August 4, at 7 p.m.
In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included priceless artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and others, its security was cheap, mismanaged, and out of date. And now, it seemed, the whole Boston criminal underworld knew it.
Darren Pettie stars in Frankie And Johnny In the Clair de Lune at Berkshire Theatre Group.
Nearly a decade passed before the museum was finally hit. But when it finally happened, the theft quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: thirteen works of art valued at up to $500 million, by some of the most famous artists in the world, were taken. The Boston FBI took control of the investigation, but 25 years later the case is still unsolved and the artwork is still missing.
Stephen Kurkjian, one of the top investigative reporters in the country, has been working this case for over nearly 20 years. In Master Thieves, he sheds new light on some of the Gardner’s most abiding mysteries. Why would someone steal these paintings, only to leave them hidden for 25 years? And why, if one of the top crime bosses in the city knew about this score in 1981, did the theft happen in 1990? What happened in those intervening years? And what might all this have to do with Boston’s notorious gang wars of the 1980s?
Elizabeth Aspenleider in Shakespeare and Company’s “Mother of the Maid”.
Kurkjian’s reporting is already responsible for some of the biggest breaks in this story, including a meticulous reconstruction of what happened at the museum that fateful night. Now Master Thieves will reveal the identities of those he believes plotted the heist, the motive for the crime, and the details that the FBI has refused to discuss. Taking you on a journey deep into the gangs of Boston, Kurkjian emerges with the most complete and compelling version of this story ever told.
For details: 860-280-3130 or www.marktwainhouse.org
Karen Murphy is Hollywood agent Sue Mengers in I’ll Eat You Last at Hartford’s Theaterworks.
Newsmakers
Misty Copeland, the first female African-American Principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre, joins the cast of Broadway’s On The Town as Miss Turnstiles for a limited run for two weeks beginning August 25. On The Town originated at Pittsield’s Barrington Stage Company. For details: www.onthetownbroadway.com.
Ella Baff, Executive Director of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, is stepping down at season’s end to take a position with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She’s been the leader of Jacob’s Pillow for 17 years.
Mike McGowan, who starred as the vain Fred and Petruchio in Hartford Stage’s acclaimed production of Kiss Me Kate, will play the vain Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in A Little Night Music, the Sondheim musical at Boston’s Huntington Theatre. The all-waltz musical opens September 11. For details: 617 266 0800 or www.huntingtontheatre.org.
Keep in Mind…
Frankie And Johnny In the Clair de Lune, Terrence McNally’s portrait of middle age people seeking love and connection, will be directed by actress and Berkshires resident Karen Allen (Raiders of The Lost Ark) at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Fitzpatrick Main Stage on the Stockbridge, MA campus July 29-August 22. Angel Desai and Darren Pettie head the cast. McNally, who has written the scripts for numerous plays and musicals from Masterclass to The Visit, adapted the play into a movie for Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. For details: 413- 997-4444 or www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org.
Mother of the Maid, the world premiere of a play by Emmy Award winner Jane Anderson, is featured at Shakespeare and Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox, MA through September 6. Tina Packer and Elizabeth Aspenleider star in the play about Joan of Arc, taken from a fresh perspective. For details: 413-637-3353 or www.shakespeare.org.
Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World, Yussef El Guindi’s romantic comedy, has its New England premiere on the Silverthorne Theater Company’s Greenfield, MA season through August 2. Winner of the American Theater Critics Association’s Best New Play Award for 2012, El Guindi’s work begins with a simple and attractive love story between Musa, an Egyptian immigrant cab driver (Julian Findlay) and Sheri (Kaitlin Creed Boyce), an American waitres. For details: 413-768-7514 or www.silverthornetheater.org.
I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers, John Logan’s play about famed Hollywood agent Sue Mengers, has its New England premiere at Hartford’s TheaterWorks through August 23. Karen Murphy, the Broadway actress from Forbidden Broadway, 42nd Street, and Mary Poppins takes on the role originated by Bette Midler on Broadway. Don Stephenson, who recently staged Guys and Dolls at Goodspeed (which featured Murphy) directs. For details:86-.527-7838 or www.theaterworkshartford.org.
StoryCorps, the acclaimed public radio documentary series, comes to The Berkshires, thanks to The Mahaiwe Theatre, who presents Dave Isay on August 5 in Great Barrington, and free StoryCorps community recordings at Berkshire Community College South County Center (343 Main Street in Great Barrington) on August 7-9. .For details: 413.528.0100 or .www.mahaiwe.org
The Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival presents a free day-long festival of jazz, Latin jazz, gospel, blues, funk and more at Springfield’s Court Square on August 8. from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Artists currently confirmed to perform at the 2015 Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival include: Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9, Big Chief Donald Harrison with special guest Dr. Lonnie Smith, Avery Sharpe’s New England Gospel Choir, Elan Trotman, Jesus Pagan and Conjunto Barrio, The Jeff Holmes Quartet and Charles Neville, of the famed New Orleans musical family. For details: www.springfieldjazzfest.com
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
