ongoing – Sun. Feb. 5

Time stands still at Superior Donuts. It’s a small shop in uptown Chicago and the setting of Tracy Letts dramedy, also called, um, “Superior Donuts.” Has balding, pony-tailed owner Arthur Przbyszwski, played by great Boston actor Will LeBow, pissed his life away? Maybe. He’s 62. He fled the US for Toronto during the Vietnam War, and the last word his father said to him was a scream: “Coward!” He’s running the shop his father opened long ago because, well, it’s what he does. This place was here before Starbucks dominated the coffee landscape and before people began to view donuts as not the healthiest of breakfast options. The shop is certainly not bustling with customers – the only one we see is an old alcoholic woman, Lady Boyle (Ruth Gotha), who comes in for a morning freebee Most of what comes at him makes Arthur shrug; he’s past the point of caring much. His ex-wife is dead; he hasn’t spoken to his daughter in six years. Max Taresov (Steven Barkhimer) the Russian owner of a next-door electronics store would like to buy the place to expand his territory and Arthur resists. This may not be much, but it’s what he’s got and all he’s got.

As the play – directed by Spiro Veloudos and up at the Lyric Stage Theatre through Sunday Feb. 5 – opens we’re in the midst of that humble shop, just vandalized and graffiti tagged, with black and white cops James Bailey (De’Lon Grant) and Randy Osteen (Karen MacDonald) trying to figure out what happened. A feisty, but lonely, Randy wouldn’t mind dating Arthur, too.  

    Soon, a young African-American, Franco Wicks (Omar Robinson) comes into the shop, bursting with confidence and attitude (Arthur’s donuts “contributes to obesity and cardiac disease in the African-American community”), practically demanding to be hired. Turns out Franco has dropped out of college and needs to make some cash to pay off a gambling debt – working at minimum wage at Superior Donuts is his choice or only option. What he’s got though: An unpublished, apparently A-level novel, that he dreams might be his way up and out. Ya gotta have dreams, right? The thugs who need to collect the money, Luther Flynn (Christopher James Webb) and Kevin Magee (Zachary Eisenstat) have more immediate concerns about the $16,000 Franco owes.

These are the critic's picks I did that aired on WBUR's "Radio Boston" Thursday afternoon, "Superior Donuts," "Art," the Alloy Orchestra doing "Wild and Weird" and Shea Rose at Cafe 939

http://radioboston.wbur.org/2012/02/02/weekend-picks-6

Tues. Dec. 31

Is Yo-Yo Ma the hardest working man in showbiz?

We reached Ma, the world’s most acclaimed cellist, by phone in Atlanta in early January, where he was slated to perform a concert of Bach suites in Athens and then another Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the Atlanta Symphony. This came not long after he was honored at the Kennedy Center Awards in Washington. Soon, Ma would be jetting back to Cambridge home to rehearse for two concerts Tuesday January 31 with Goat Rodeo Sessions at House of Blues.

So, has he taken over the late James Brown’s sobriquet as that hardest-working man?

“Oh no, not at all, not by a long shot,”says Ma, 56, with a laugh. “I feel I’m more like Waldo. I’m in a lot of different places. So, if you don’t live my life and are looking at it from the outside, it looks like I just keep flopping down in a lot of different places. It feels as if it has no rhyme or reason, but there are always lots of reasons.”

The House of Blues concerts are with the bluegrass/classical quartet Ma formed last year with bassist Edgar Meyer, mandolin/banjo player Christ Thile (of Nickel Creek and the Punch Brothers) and fiddler Stuart Duncan. Crooked Still singer Aoife O'Donoovan will join them, as she did on last year's album, and sing two songs. (You'lll hear from her later in the piece.)

“As much as we think of this music as being tinged with bluegrass, it’s kind of genre-proof,” Ma said. “I like genre-proof music because you go deeply into something and you acquire all the necessary skills.”

This sort of cross-cultural music exploration – going beyond the Western classical tradition – is something Ma has been doing for years with his Silk Road Ensemble.

“When I was five I thought to myself my goal in life is I just want to understand things,” Ma said. “Because there were just so many things I didn’t understand and probably because of my background. I was born in France of Chinese parents who moved to America when I was seven. People would say different things that didn’t make sense, so I think I’ve spent my whole life wanting to listen to people and trying to make sense.”

Tues. Jan. 31

Kurt Vile and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore at the Somerville Theatre Tuesday, Jan. 31? Sweet. Moore you know – the noisemaker/guitarist out on his own right now, playing intricate acoustic music. Vile?

It’s a name that could have come from the 1976 punk rock revolution alongside Rat Scabies and Poison Ivy, with its nasty implications and pun on Kurt Weill. Yet, it also happens to be the real name of the 31-year-old singer-songwriter who fronts Kurt Vile & the Violators. Go figure. Maybe it’s fate. For what other job would the surname Vile be so viable?

There is some corrosive punk rock attitude in the Philadelphia-based former Bostonian, certainly when it comes to volume and cacophony. Vile and his backing trio played a steamroller of a set at the soldout Brighton Music Hall last year, an 80-minute onslaught of Stooges/Velvet Underground-like aggro rock.

But it was a bit of a shock to the system.

Because if you listen to Vile’s CDs, particularly his fourth and latest, “Smoke Ring For My Halo,” this full-bore attack is not what you’d expect. Vile’s studio sound is textured and nuanced, sometimes folksy and rural. Sure, it can get noisy and psychedelic, but it’s mostly dark and subtle music with arrangements that suck you into a sonic web. And Vile has a well-earned reputation as a melancholic, cryptic lyricist and conversational singer. Think Neil Young circa “On the Beach.”

That was pretty much blown away in concert. Think Dinosaur Jr.

Vile and the Violators had their full blare on - vocals and instruments all mixed to the max, at stun-gun level. Vocal clarity was a lost cause. And though Vile often played an acoustic guitar, he used multiple effects pedals to give it fully electric jolts. Vile, rhythm guitarist Jesse Turbo and bassist Adam Granduciel shook their shaggy manes and stared at their shoes up front. Mike Zeng was at the rear, banging drums.

Jan. 29 

Motorhead: Who'd have thought this band - forever fronted by singer-songwriter-bassist Lemmy Kilmister - would be around, and so vital, in 2009? Lemmy is always Mr. Motorhead. These days, his mates are guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee, though Dee drops off the tour Sept. 8  Believe it or not, he's filming a Swedish version of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" in Malaysia. His replacement is ex- G 'n R skin-pounder Matt Sorum, currently serving time with Velvet Revolver. But here at the House of Blues, Sunday Sept. 6, we got Mikky before they droop him in a jungle. Now, fans debate which if Motorhead's many lineups is the best, but, really, what we're talking about is a body of work - punk/heavy metal - that has remained remarkably consistent since 1977. Lemmy, god love him, is 63. I've interviewed him a bunch over the years, and I remember him grumbling something about Motorhead being described as "gorillas in leather jackets." I said, "Oh, yeah, right, that's good." And he said, no, that was the misconception. They play wild, fast, crunching and super-loud rock 'n' roll, but they're not goons. If you listen to "1918," you'll actually here one of the best anti-war ballads this side of Eric Bogle or Billy Bragg.