‘Something Rotten’ has fun with Broadway and The Bard

By R.J. Donovan
December 29, 2016
R.J. Donovan

Rob McClure and the company of the new musical “Something Rotten.” Joan Marcus photoRob McClure and the company of the new musical “Something Rotten.” Joan Marcus photo
It’s always a treat to see a new musical comedy. Revivals are great in celebrating successful shows from the past, but an original musical with a new story, music, and lyrics can unearth fresh theatrical discoveries and create new favorites.

With a tip of the hat to Shakespearean times, the new musical “Something Rotten” is just what the bleak mid-winter of our discontent calls for. 

The year is 1595 and William Shakespeare is a rock star among the masses.  Brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are frustrated playwrights who can’t break into the Bard’s hold on audiences.  Nick, in particular, hates Shakespeare for his preening ego.
Just when things look darkest for the Bottom brothers, a soothsayer has a vision: Forget sonnets. The next big thing in theater will involve singing, dancing, and acting, all at the same time.

BCMFest’s Nightcap Concert will hail tradition, renewal

By Sean Smith
December 29, 2016
Sean Smith

Rachel Reeds (pictured) will lead a Cape Breton “house party” as part of the BCMFest 2017 Nightcap concert, while Shannon Heaton presents a live multimedia performance of her “Irish Music Stories” project.Rachel Reeds (pictured) will lead a Cape Breton “house party” as part of the BCMFest 2017 Nightcap concert, while Shannon Heaton presents a live multimedia performance of her “Irish Music Stories” project.When a festival has gone on for almost 15 years, it’s bound to get a little introspective. And that’s a key element of the 14th annual Boston’s Celtic Music Fest (BCMFest), which takes place Jan. 13 and 14 at locations in Harvard Square, according to organizers, who see this year’s edition as celebrating renewal – within the Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, and other Celtic-related traditions, and also within Boston’s traditional music and dance community.

That theme of community, tradition, and renewal is reflected in the BCMFest 2017 Nightcap concert, the festival’s closing event, scheduled for Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in First Church, Cambridge (1446 Massachusetts Avenue). The concert will explore the theme in two parts: a live multimedia performance of the “Irish Music Stories” podcast by BCMFest co-founder and co-organizer Shannon Heaton, and a “house party”-style presentation of Cape Breton music and dance.

“Throughout BCMFest’s history, dominant themes seem to emerge each year,” explains Heaton. “This year, the BCMFest Committee saw numerous acts with a particularly strong appreciation and understanding of Celtic traditions. Even the newer fusion-type acts have that solid ‘trad’ foundation. Given how many younger performers will be featured this year, it shows how our local community has taken the tradition into its heart and home.

Does Trump’s Irish-American team know where they came from?

By Peter F. Stevens
December 29, 2016
Peter F. Stevens


Anyone who bet at the outset of 2016 that Donald Trump would win the White House is smarter—as well as richer, perhaps—than most of the “all-knowing” media, pundits, and pollsters in the world. An even longer bet, however, might have been that an inner Trumpian circle of Irish Americans would prove key in electing a man who stands for nativism, racism, religious bigotry, and misogyny.

Kellyanne Conway, retired US Gen. Michael Flynn, Speaker of the US House Paul Ryan, and Steve Bannon – all with blood ties to the old sod, and all of whom have helped bring smiles to the face of Vladimir Putin – are poised to help Trump “drain the Washington swamp” and replace it with a reeking bog of corruption by billionaires. That the majority of Irish Americans cast their votes for Trump is yet more proof that they are paying lip service to the misty-eyed, Danny Boy-esque heritage of their “Irish-Need-Not-Apply” forebears.

Formidable challenges face Ireland in the coming year

By Joe Leary
December 29, 2016
Joe Leary

Every New Year brings new challenges and new surprises. For Ireland, both North and South, 2017 will be a very critical year. The American election and the British vote to leave Europe (Brexit) will dramatically impact Ireland and could be very disruptive. Ireland is so small that neither the United States nor the UK worry too much about the island when it comes to solving their own problems.

Ireland’s diocesan priests called ‘a lost tribe’

By BIR News Room
December 29, 2016

The following are excerpts from a story by Sarah Mac Donald that was published in the National Catholic Reporter on Dec. 1, 2016:
DUBLIN – The ever-increasing workload of priests in Ireland is threatening to turn an aging, demoralized, and declining group into “sacrament-dispensing machines” who find pastoral work less and less satisfying, a co-founder of Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests has warned.

The year that truth took a brutal licking

By BIR News Room
December 29, 2016

By James W. Dolan
Special to the Reporter

Truth really took a beating this election cycle. Ignored, abused, stripped, and distorted, it seemed at times that its survival was in doubt. Nothing was true or false, only versions of what once was considered objective reality. Truth’s anchor line had parted and we were adrift in a storm, awash in a sea of misinformation. The more we heard, the less we knew.

New year likely to see a burgeoning of options for Boston-Ireland flights

By Ed Forry
December 28, 2016

Bostonians looking to book flights to Ireland this new year appear to be on the verge of having some new options.

Boston has long been a “gateway city” for Aer Lingus, Ireland’s former national airline. For more than a half century the carrier has transported hundreds of thousands of ex-pats and vacationers back to the Emerald Isle with regular non-stop flights direct from Logan Airport to Shannon and Dublin.

Kennedy Library plans events to mark JFK’s 100th birthday

By BIR News Room
December 28, 2016

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum will host a year-long celebration to honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of President John F. Kennedy, who was born in Brookline on May 29, 1917. To commemorate his centennial year, the JFK Library is spearheading a series of events and initiatives aimed at inspiring new generations to find meaning and inspiration in the enduring American values that formed the heart of the Kennedy presidency.

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