Sun. June 10

 “Rather than being macabre in any way, it’s beautiful, heartwarming.’ says Susan Wilson – photographer/historian/former pop music critic for the Globe, and, yes, a friend of the column. She is talking about Forest Hills Cemetery. Wilson and her partner, viola player Rebecca Strauss, visited Pere Lachaise cemetery and came up with an idea. “There are more famous people buried there than anywhere in the world,” says Wilson. Also, she realized famous musicians. They came up with an idea. Wilson would photograph the gravesites of some of the famous musicians buried there and put together an educational/informative slide-show. Strauss (with her string quartet plus a flautist) would play the music of those composers – people like Chopin, Rossini, Edith Piaf, Stephane Grappellli  and Jim Morrison. (That's his final resting spot, right.) They’ve done this before – they sold out in 2005 - and do so again at Forest Hills Chapel Sunday June 10 at 8 p.m. They call it "Sacred Grounds, Sacred Sounds."
Forest Hills (along with Mt. Auburn Cemetery) was modeled on the Pere Lachaise ideal – bucolic, landscaped, filled with gorgeous art work. This was Napoleon’s baby. They were places for picnics, destination locations. They were built in the 1830s. So, the transition from Paris to Jamaica Plain is not so radical. Wilson will do her photo-talk bit and Strauss and company will perform “La Vie en Rose” and “Light My Fire,” among others. (They call themselves Melodic Vision, when they do these pieces.) “There are smiles that come when people realize it’s ‘Light My Fire,’’’ says Wilson.
But that’s not all folks. Following the concert, Wilson will lead whoever wants to come on a flashlight tour of the cemetery, pointing out the famous folks and landmarks that are there. (We’ve been; there are many.) Tickets are $25.

95 Forest Hills Ave., Jamaica Plain, 617-524-3354 foresthillstrust.org

 Sun. June 10

Rock opera: Guilty pleasure or just pleasure? Doesn't really matter, does it. Boston Rock Opera kicked up the once-scorned genre when alt-rock was raging strong and no one wanted to hear multi-part story songs about fantasy worlds. Of course, that's not all rock opera was about. The Who's "Quadrophenia" is one the best albums period; The Kinks two "Preservation" records are right up there, too. BRO disbanded, but a different troupe, the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra, has formed under the direction of Sal Clemente and Alan Ware. They've assembled scads of singers and musicians and they recorded an elaborate, contemporized version of "Jesus Christ Superstar." This pissed Andrew Lloyd Webber off as you might expect. Then, Clemente and Ware wrote a mini-opera, "Will We Rock You?," about that gnarly experience. They also staged several non-thematic live shows where they simply attempted to put together the best rock opera-ish songs they could: from the Beatles, Bowie, Who, Queen and others. The music has its share of bombast and can be cited for being over-the-top, but it can also be emotionally trenchant and memory jolting. You might also think: Hmmm, They don't write 'em like that anymore. The URO brings make a more ambitious heyday, that its worst was pretentious and its best thought-provoking. And does "Bohemian Rhapsody" ever get tired? (Well, it did during "Wayne's World," but it's come back.) We still marvel over Freddie Mercury's journey through life ("I'm just a poor boy/Nobody loves me"), his cocksure defiance, his brush with the devil and his denoumenet - "Nothing really matters, to me." A soft sung ending to a line about a life lived passionately and for keeps. Magic then; magic now and these guys do it justice. URO's "A Night at the Rock Opera" closes its run at the Regent Theatre Sunday June 10, with a show at 8 p.m. Clemente promises the entirety of the Beatles'  second side of "Abbey Road" and "newly bombasticized" songs. Tickets: $35.

7 Medford St., Arlington, 781-646-4849 regenttheatre.com

Sun.  June 10

 We Googled “Harold Pinter” and “alcohol” and came up with 81,700 hits. Low, we thought. But alcohol certainly does frame the surreal play “No Man’s Land,” which Pinter first put up in 1975, the year it’s set, in a luxury Northwest London home. The stage at American Repertory Theatre's production – which closes today Sunday June 10, directed by David Wheeler – looks cozy and comfy, with a well-appointed bar. The owner, Hirst (Paul Benedict) is a successful writer; Spooner (Max Wright) is, perhaps, a failed poet and interloper (and maybe a friend in past years). He arrives for some unknown reason. “I’m too old for any expectations, don’t you think?” asks Spooner early on. “Yes,” replies Hirst, who much later says, “Tonight you find me in the last lap of a race I’d long forgotten to run.”
They drink at the beginning, drink at the end, and drink pretty much throughout. (At one point, they reminded us of the old men at the bar in John Cleese’s great sitcom “Fawtly Towers.”) They are joined by two younger men, Foster (Hirst’s son?, played by Henry David Clarke) and Briggs (Lewis D. Wheeler), a possibly malicious manservant. What goes on during one night and the following day is a whirlwind of deception, puffery, self-flagellation, recovered memory (or not) and ennui. Resolution? Don’t look here. Meaning? Jeremy Geidt, a member of the A.R.T. company not in this show but at the post-show party, laughed when asked if he knew what it meant. “Pinter didn’t now what it meant!” he answered. (Actually, Pinter delights in professing an inability – or maybe disinterest – in summing up any of his plays. By the way, Pinter played Hirst at one point.)
One interpretation: All the characters are stuck in a “No Exit” like purgatory, maybe dead and doomed to repeat their actions forever. Hirst says near the end, “Let us change the subject for the last time? What does that mean? What was the previous subject?” The younger men, possibly lovers, are by turns obsequious and nasty – maybe they want to caretake the rich old man to death and do away with Spooner. As the play winds down, Spooner says, “You are in no man’s land. It never changes. It remains forever, icy and silent.” Hirst: “I’ll drink to that.” Curtain. (Well, there’s no curtain, but you know …)
After the performance, we talked with the Wheelers, Lewis at the bar, and his father David, the next day by phone.

Sun. June 10

With a surname of "Sullivan" it's no surprise to you, I'm sure, that I grew up Catholic. An altar boy even. I haven't really called myself Catholic for many years, the initial separation happening, as comic Denis Leary says, when "I reached the age of reason." (This, considering the virgin birth, water walking, the fish-and-loaves trick, a resurrection, etc.) So, I might not be a part of the Church, but I've been stamped by it and thus what Father Aloysius Misgivings is offering at Sunday June 10  3 p.m. at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway has appeal. The good father is really comic Dave Kane, whose alter-ego was created many years ago when he produced a local talk radio show and created an Irish-Catholic character to banter with the host during a slow shift. A career was born. Kane calls Father Misgivings "the kind of priest you grew up with. a good and decent man dedicated to his collar, his religion and doing the right thing for all his parishoners, young and old." So, he's not the kind of scandalous priest we've seen on trial over the past few years, the kind that's tarnished the Church and ruined lives. Father Misgivings is a "Voice of the Faithful" kind of Father - that's the worldwide movement mainstream Catholics established to help victims of the clergy's sexual abuse. (It's also Jimmy Tingle's kind of organization. Tingle is not a lapsed Catholic.) It's a good guess that Father Misgivings will take you gently through the minefield of Catholicism (birth control, celibacy for priests, holy water, maybe, even,"The DaVinci Code" stuff) and tickle your funnybone or strike a nerve. Warning: This comedic show is interactive and includes a raffle and bingo game. Tickets: $25

255 Elm St., Somerville, 617-591-1616 jtoffbroadway.com

ongoing  - June 13

 There are many, many movies in the Boston International Film Festival, ranging (best we can tell) from 5 to 102 minutes and coming from 24 countries. There are 32 "sessions" or film blocks, all at the AMC Loews Boston Common. You can buy a ticket to a session for $10. What can we tell you about these films? That there will be a wide variety in quality? You know that. Going to a film fest means you're a cinematic gambler. Our best advice is to send you to their website below, and try to get a feel for what interests you from the descriptions given.

AMC Loews, 175 Tremont St. 617-482-3900 bifilmfestival.com
Felt, 533 Washington St. feltboston.com