Things to Do This Week in Boston

MULTIPLE DAYS
Ongoing through June 8 (and Beyond)

FOOD + DRINK

Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl
All-you-can-eat ice cream pretty much sells itself, which is why it’s been a great fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund since 1983. Featuring 13 different ice cream makers, ranging from local standbys like Friendly’s to hip brands like Salt & Straw, that will be offering samples. At 4 p.m., the event transforms into Scoop & Sip for visitors over 21, with beer, wine, cider, and more.
$15-$28.52, Tuesday through Thursday, June 2-4, 88 Seaport Blvd., Boston

MUSIC

They Might Be Giants
The elder statesmen of geek rock, Massachusetts-raised duo They Might Be Giants released their second album of the 2020s and 24th overall, The World Is to Dig, in April. In typically random fashion, the 18-track collection includes a non-rap tribute to the Wu-Tang Clan and songs with intriguingly eccentric titles like “Outside Brain,” “Let’s Fall in Lava,” and “In the Dead Mall.”
$55-$312.10, Friday and Saturday, June 5-6, Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

Boston Gay Men’s Chorus: RISE!
Closing out their season at the start of Pride month, the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus honors the spirit of LGBTQIA+ resistance movements with “anthems of courage and liberation.” Founded in 1982 and directed since 1997 by Reuben Reynolds, the group has toured Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa.
$39-$138, Saturday and Sunday, June 6-7, Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston

COMEDY

Cat Cohen: Broad Strokes
In her Edinburgh Fringe sensation (soon to run off-Broadway), Cat Cohen turns her very unexpected stroke at the age of 31 into a full-on cabaret about the differences between anxiety and an actual fatal threat and the strange pleasures of being the center of medical attention.
$35-$54, Thursday through Saturday, June 4-6, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St., Boston

OUT OF TOWN

Clockwise from top left: Jenna Bush Hager, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Tayari Jones, Richard Russo, Ann Patchett, Dr. Joshua Bennett

Nantucket Book Festival
Now in its 15th year, this celebrated literary gathering transforms downtown Nantucket for a long weekend of book talks—with a lineup, this year, that includes Ann Patchett (Whistler), Tayari Jones (Kin), Norah O’Donnell (We the Women), Jenna Bush Hager, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo, and Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James, among others. Almost all events are free to attend—a quietly radical policy for one of the most expensive zip codes in the country.
Free (most events), Thursday through Sunday, June 11-14, Methodist Church and surrounding venues, downtown Nantucket

DANCE

DANCE NOW Boston
New York City’s Bang Group takes its annual pilgrimage north to collaborate with local dance entities Sara Hook, Bodies Moving (led by Kristin Wagner), Cassie Wang, and Emily Jerant-Hendrickson. Themes include the tragicomedy of being a dancer, motherhood, human patterns and conditioning, and finding the strength to respond to the need for change.
$17.85-$55.20, Saturday and Sunday, June 6-7, Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge

Boston Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty
Set in a world of fairies, curses, and princely heroics, Tchaikovsky’s enduring work returns to the Boston Ballet stage for the seventh time, its dancers clad in designer David Walker’s costumes from Ninette de Valois’s 1977 Royal Ballet revival. The choreography is Marius Petipa’s original, with later additions by Frederick Ashton.
$36-$359, through Sunday, June 7, Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston

THEATER

Black Swan
The American Repertory Theater revives Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 psychological thriller as a musical, with director and choreographer Sonya Tayeh at the helm, a book by Jen Silverman, and songs by Dave Malloy. The story of a ballerina collapsing under the pressure of perfection remains fundamentally the same, but you haven’t seen or heard it like this.
$88-$183, through July 5, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge

Eureka Day
Jonathan Spector’s well-received satire comes to Boston courtesy of the Huntington. The plot: an outbreak of mumps reveals a minority of anti-vaxxer parents at the prestigious Eureka Day School in Berkeley, California. Can the pro-vaccine majority keep the peace—and keep the kids safe—without abandoning their consensus-based principles?
$29-$192.50, through June 28, The Huntington Theater, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston

The Mystery of Irma Vep – A Penny Dreadful
Two actors (Gabriel Graetz and Paul Melendy) play every character in this gothic romp from playwright Charles Ludlam, closing out the Central Square Theater season. Werewolves, vampires, mummies, weird old houses, rapid costume changes—if you can hardly wait another six months for Halloween, this is the show for you.
$32-$103, through June 21, Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

My Home on the Moon
Currently in residence at the Boston Center for the Arts, CHUANG Stage presents playwright Minna Lee’s tale of Mai, a Vietnamese American restaurateur trying to process her neighborhood’s increasing gentrification while wrestling with the temptation of a tech consultant’s strategy to massively increase business.
Pay-as-you-are, through June 13, Plaza Theater, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St., Boston

Oedipus el Rey
The Huntington stages Luis Alfaro’s transposition of the ancient Greek tragedy of Oedipus to contemporary Chicano Los Angeles, where our hero has just gotten out of prison and is determined to make his own name—but his confidence may be no match for the two-pronged assault of a weird prophecy and a rigged system.
$29-$181.50, through June 14, Roberts Studio Theater, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston

Something Rotten
Shakespeare looms so large over English language theater that it is necessary, early and often, to make fun of him and his hallowed world. Lyric Stage Company contributes to this noble effort with their season closer, in which a fictional pair of the Bard’s Elizabethan rivals attempt to outdo him by inventing the Broadway musical three centuries too early—and with several screws too loose.
$25-$95, through Sunday, June 7, Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon St., Boston

The Wedding Party: A Dinner Theatre Escape Room
You’ll help determine the fate of a newly minted marriage in this interactive experience combining the puzzle-solving fun of escape rooms with the uncanny entertainment of immersive theater. The basic ticket includes a dinner of salad, a choice of chicken and pasta dishes, and an opera cake for dessert.
$163.90, through August 2, W Boston, 100 Stuart St., Boston 

MOVIES

The Last One for the Road
This Italian film follows a pair of boozy middle-aged criminals as they wind through the Venetian countryside to meet up with an old buddy just returned from a perhaps not entirely voluntary stint in Argentina. Along the way, they make a young friend and try to find some cash they buried long ago.
$13-$15, Friday through Monday, June 5-8, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

Power Ballad
Intergenerational pals Rick (Paul Rudd), an aging wedding singer, and Danny (Nick Jonas), an aged-out boy band star, develop a rift when Danny turns one of Rick’s songs into a career-reviving hit. Rick now has to ask himself what’s more important: getting credit, or everything else?
$16.50-$19.25, opens Thursday, June 4, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

Pressure (2026)
Brendan Fraser is General and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Anthony Maras’ historical drama about the hours leading up to D-Day. Key to Ike’s plans is British Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), a meteorologist whose identification of a small window of favorable weather will help change the course of modern history.
$15-$19.75, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Tuner
The first fictional film from documentarian Daniel Roher, Tuner stars Leo Woodall (Vladimir, White Lotus season two) as Niki, a musician turned piano tuner who also uses his acute sense of hearing to crack safes for shady characters on the side—but this less legal aspect of his work gets him in trouble just as love begins blossoming between him and a student, Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu).
$17.49-$19.68, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Backrooms
Inspired by a well-established creepypasta, this A24 sci-fi/horror flick might be best described as an architectural nightmare: a banal furniture store is found to lead to a nonsensical labyrinth of unfolding spaces generated and re-generated—always in a more absurdly degraded state—by unknown forces. A power of fascination draws the protagonists further, but will they be able to find their way back? All courtesy of A24’s youngest director, 20-year-old Kane Parsons.
$15-$19.75, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

The Mandalorian and Grogu
Instead of a fourth season, fans of The Mandalorian are getting this 132-minute adventure, in which the bounty hunter Din Djarin gets an assignment from the New Republic to rescue the gangster scion Rotta the Hutt (son of Jabba) in the hopes of gaining intelligence on a potential threat.
$13.99-$27.98, AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont St., Boston

I Love Boosters
Another comic but politically serious vision from writer-director Boots Riley, I Love Boosters centers on a squad of young women in Oakland who function as modern-day Robin Hoods with an entrepreneurial twist, shoplifting high-fashion clothes and flipping them for a fraction of their original prices. When the system starts pushing back, they up the ante with their biggest heist yet.
$12-$16, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

The Devil Wears Prada 2
Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci reprise their roles in this belated sequel to the beloved 2006 fashion comedy. Now well-established, former personal assistant Andy (Hathaway) returns to Runway magazine as a features editor, only to learn that notorious editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Streep) has completely forgotten who she is—but this time, Andy may leave a stronger impression.
$13.99-$19.98, AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont St., Boston

Hokum
Mixing the preternatural paranoia of The Shining with the rural anxiety of folk horror, Damian McCarthy’s latest film stars Adam Scott as Ohm, a writer who finds himself contending with a haunted inn after traveling to Ireland to pay his last respects to his parents.
$14.99-$19.68, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

The Drama
In this Boston-based dark comedy from director Kristoffer Borgli, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play a couple who are thrilled to be engaged until the bride-to-be confesses to a scandalous act in her past just a week before the wedding, cracking the foundation of trust between them.
$15.99-$18.48, AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont St., Boston

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
The diverse settings and anti-gravity fun of the Wii classic Super Mario Galaxy serve as a perfect anchor for the sequel to 2023’s colorful, star-studded The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Issa Rae, Luis Guzmán, and Brie Larson have joined the voice cast for this outing, which finds Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) fighting Bowser (Jack Black) again—this time in space.
$13.99-$25.98, AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont St., Boston

FRIDAY (6/5/26)

MUSIC

Vertical Horizon
This pop rock quartet is almost entirely remembered for their briefly ubiquitous double-Platinum 1999 single “Everything You Want” and its eponymous album. After poor major label promotion for their follow-up, Go, Vertical Horizon downshifted to indie status. In February, they dropped their first single since 2018, the preemptively melancholy “Last Night of Our Lives.”
$36, 8 p.m., Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston

Pete & Bas
A couple of posh white English boomers form a rap duo in their twilight years—it sounds like a fun joke, and it is, but Pete & Bas were a little too good at rapping to fade out after their initial hit “Shut Ya Mouth.” Close to 40 more singles have followed since, with titles like “The Old Estate,” “Dents in a Peugeot,” and “Golf.”
$30-$43.98, 8 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

Freddie Gibbs
Much-respected alt rapper Freddie Gibbs’ second duo album with producer The Alchemist, Alfredo 2, dropped last summer. Fans of its Grammy-nominated predecessor didn’t find any shocking twists or turns, just more sublime, crate-digging beats and well-honed, baritone rhymes from two of the best in the game.
$40-$84.82, 8 p.m., Roadrunner, 89 Guest St., Brighton

COMEDY

Chelsea Handler
Since the end of her popular Obama-era chat show Chelsea Lately in 2014, Chelsea Handler has (among other things) published two books, hosted a few episodes of The Daily Show, attempted to launch a pair of short-lived Netflix series, and released four standup specials, most recently 2025’s The Feeling.
$35-$312, 8 p.m., Boch Center Wang Theater, 270 Tremont St., Boston

Improv With My Friends From Work
Ben Marshall, Ceara O’Sullivan, Carl Tart, Ryan Gaul, Chloe Troast, Asha Ward, Alex Kagy, and Jimmy Fowlie, most of whom are writers or cast members on Saturday Night Live, present an evening of improv, standup, and maybe a few rejected sketches. Bostonians may have seen O’Sullivan, Gaul, and Kagy on the stage previously at Improv Asylum.
$45-$55, 7:30 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

SATURDAY (6/6/26)

FESTIVALS

Revelers march in the Boston Pride Parade in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 8, 2024. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

Boston Pride for the People Festival and Parade
The year’s biggest LGBTQIA+ party has two main hubs, Copley Square’s 21+ Block Party, running from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Boston Common’s all ages festival, running from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., with a parade between the two locations kicking things off at 11.
Free, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Copley Square and Boston Common, Boston

MUSIC

Dorchfest
Now in its fourth year, this free porchfest-style festival in the Ashmont-Adams neighborhood hosts 62 bands performing across 31 porches, yards, parking lots, and patios. Dorchfest sets itself apart from similar events by paying all its performers and this year’s lineup includes Boston funk-disco outfit SUPERPINK, Cambridge-bred hip-hop artist Illin’ P, and the 15-piece brass band FlyBy, among many others.
Free, 1 p.m.-6 p.m., various locations, Ashmont-Adams neighborhood, Dorchester

Boston Chilling
Boston Calling is taking a year off, but you were never about all that noise, were you? If so, Harpoon’s Boston Chilling mini fest is the low-key alternative you’ve been dreaming of, with sets from New York and New England indie acts Laundry Day, Lightfoot, Ali McGuirk, Lily Fitts, and Toledo, plus lawn games and, of course, beer.
Free, 1 p.m.-sundown, The Lawn on D, 420 D St., Boston

Jason Mraz
The amiable author of 2000s earworms like “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)” and “I’m Yours” returned in May with an album of gospel and country tracks, Grandma’s Gospel Favorites. While the record has plenty of Mraz’s earnest fedora guy charm, it’s quite a reverent, affecting outing, with Mraz taking a stripped-down, traditional approach to these classic songs.
$41.65-$202.80, 7:30 p.m., Boch Center Wang Theater, 270 Tremont St., Boston

The Sonder Bombs
Indie rock often aspires to aloofness and abstraction, but this Cleveland band is shameless about their theatrical streak, whether the tone is pop melodrama or punk sarcasm—the latter being the case on the humorous cut “Everything,” off their latest Bandcamp release, Quick and Painless.
$18-$20.72, 8 p.m., The Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge

DANCE

Dance for World Community Festival
José Mateo Ballet Theater hosts five stages of dance from around the world, bringing together more than 60 area companies. There will also be food trucks, info booths for local nonprofits (part of the festival’s mission to spread social and environmental awareness), and a concluding dance party in the evening.
Free, 12 p.m.-8 p.m., Harvard Square between Putnam Ave. and Bow St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Alex La
This New York City comic has a disarming way of shifting from goofy sweetness to edgy absurdity—witness, for example, this bit about the time he, a Vietnamese American, ran into a guy with a Vietnam War veteran hat. La will be performing his new show Fool as Hell ahead of its Edinburgh Fringe debut in August.
$17.85, 8 p.m., Democracy Brewing, 35 Temple Pl., Boston

SUNDAY (6/7/26)

FESTIVALS

SomerStreets: Carnaval
Promising “16 blocks of pure joy and energy,” SomerStreets’ Carnaval takes over East Somerville Sunday with performances from Grooveristy, Samba Viva, Pedro Secco & Friends, Trio Latino, and Mambiseros, food from neighborhood Latin American restaurants, and games for all ages, including a dunk tank, a bouncy house, and more.
Free, 2 p.m.-6 p.m., Broadway between Pennsylvania Ave. and McGrath Hwy., Somerville

MUSIC

Summer Walker
R&B singer Summer Walker may have titled her latest album Finally Over It, but the public is not over her—the album debuted at number two and earned strong reviews for its vintage Y2K sound. Her amusing promotional stunts included taking a polygraph test to answer questions about the release and creating a one-day escape room attraction in Atlanta.
$46.25-$696.80, 7:30 p.m., TD Garden, 100 Legends Way, Boston

VHOOR
Versed in hip hop, EDM, Miami bass, and baile funk, Brazilian producer VHOOR made his biggest impact so far with the tracks “Se Tá Solteira” and “Delírios,” both off his 2021 album BAILE. His latest album, De Keke!, opens in a house mood before taking the listener on a much more varied trip.
$28.25, 8 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

COMEDY

Matt Vita
Known to rove between New York City and Vermont (where he co-founded the Vermont Comedy and Film Festivals), Matt Vita secured a standup niche with his legit rap skills—he’s even made a song about Microsoft Excel—hey, somebody had to. Also on the bill for this show: Nikki MacCallum, Collen Doyle, and Zach “New England Dad” Remi.
$26.40-$31.20, 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

MONDAY (6/8/26)

MUSIC

Laura Mvula
The brilliant, classically trained British R&B/soul singer-songwriter Laura Mvula turned heads with her lushly orchestrated 2013 debut Sing to the Moon and pushed herself even further on subsequent releases, focusing more on her stunning vocal arrangements and embracing harder, funkier, 80s-style synth beats.
$40-$100, 8 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville

MOVIES

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
A Pride month classic, this 1994 Australian comedy stars Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce as a pair of drag queens travelling across the Outback with their trans woman pal (Terence Stamp) to perform at a casino in the remote city of Alice Springs. Note: this “craft-along” screening features partial lighting for attendees to work on personal projects while watching.
$13, 6 p.m., Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

TUESDAY (6/9/26)

BOOKS + READINGS

Jared Freid
The co-host of the U Up? podcast is already back after performing standup at The Wilbur in January, but this time he’s promoting his new book Walking Red Flag: Dating Advice from Your Favorite Guy Friend, offering perplexed man-seeking women invaluable insights into the male mind, from first date red flags to long term relationship milestones.
$39 (admission only) or $70 (book included), 7:30 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville

WEDNESDAY (6/10/26)

MUSIC

AVTT/PTTN
Few were expecting a collaboration between maverick 1980s alt rocker Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Faith No More) and 2010s Americana act the Avett Brothers, but here we are. Apart from two tracks, the supergroup’s eponymous debut album is far more Avettian than Pattonian, but those two, especially the lysergic Western mini-epic “The Ox Driver’s Song,” are among the most interesting.
$64-$127.15, 8 p.m., Boch Center Wang Theater, 270 Tremont St., Boston

FOOD + DRINK

Taste of Somerville
Over 50 local restaurants, breweries, and other establishments representing Somerville’s wide culinary diversity—BBQ, baked goods, burgers, chocolate, coffee, ice cream, sushi, seafood, pizza, multi-ethnic fusion, and more—are offering samples at this outdoor event, a benefit for the Elizabeth Peabody House.
$65-$95, 5 p.m.-8 p.m., Boynton Yards, 101 South St., Somerville

THURSDAY (6/11/26)

MUSIC

Hrishikesh Hirway
Known for both his deep-dive music podcast Song Exploder and his own music as The One AM Radio, Hrishikesh Hirway will perform some songs and speak with moderator Min Jin Lee for this hybrid event. In April, Hirway released a new album under his own name, In the Last Hour of Light.
$22.50-$32.95, 8:30 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Nick Callas
“Are you ready to have some fun?” Nick Callas asks his audience at the top of his 2024 special Wolf Pup, proceeding to do a full split. A Saturday Night Live reject whose leaked audition tape ironically made him famous, Callas dances in the tension between this abundant enthusiasm and his reflections on life’s struggles.
$28.95, 7:30 p.m., The Comedy Studio, 5¾ John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge

FOOD + DRINK

Ivan Ramen Pop-up
Featured on Chef’s Table and Billions, the hot New York City ramen shop visits Boston Thursday night with a special menu including three soup options (Tokyo Shio, Shoyu Wontonmen, and Cold Yuzu Shio) as well as Chicken Gyoza, Miso Caesar Salad, Buttermilk Kara-age with yuzu kosho dip, and more.
No cover, 5 p.m.-9 p.m., Uni, 370 Comm. Ave., Boston

BOOKS + READINGS

Ann Patchett
The PEN/Faulkner Award winner (for 2001’s Bel Canto) and Pulitzer Prize finalist (for 2020’s The Dutch House) discusses her latest novel, Whistler, with Kiss 108’s Lisa Donovan. Whistler tells of a writer, Daphne, whose chance encounter with her ex-stepfather, Eddie, dredges up memories of the trauma that led to his exit from her life many years ago.
$42.50, 5:30 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

FRIDAY (6/12/26)

MUSIC

Michaël Brun
Bringing more than just a concert by the NYC-based Haitian and Guyanese DJ-producer, this tour is a full-on celebration of Haitian culture with multiple artists, dance, music, and food, expanding on the BAYO block parties Michaël Brun began holding across his homeland back in 2016. Brun’s latest single, a collab with singer Mellissa, is “Genie Baby.”
$105-$258.30, 8 p.m., Agganis Arena, 925 Comm. Ave., Boston

Sarah Hanahan Quartet
Selected last year for the category of Rising Star Alto Saxophonist in the influential DownBeat Critics’ Poll, Sarah Hanahan successfully aims to stun from the first urgent, sustained notes of her 2024 debut album Among Giants, whose title simultaneously suggests that she respects her elders and knows she can hang with them musically—both true.
$42.45-$59.75, 7 p.m., Scullers Jazz Club, 400 Soldiers Field Rd., Allston

The fin.
Introduced to Americans in 2015 at South by Southwest, this Japanese duo started off with a hazy, guitar-based indie rock sound, increasingly relying on synths as their career went on. Their latest, 2025’s Somewhere Between, is a lightly psychedelic, sumptuously arranged collection taking full advantage of lead singer Yuto Uchino’s dreamy tenor voice.
$26.50, 7 p.m., The Red Room at Café 939, 939 Boylston St., Boston

COMEDY

Mike Cannon
“I don’t know how anybody feels good, ever,” jokes Mike Cannon in his latest standup special, Live From Gramercy. He prefers his own remedies, however: dismissing a friend’s suggestion of melatonin for sleep, he replies, “I just kind of lay down and let my demons fight to the death.”
$39.90, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston

A Twink and a Redhead: A Musical Comedy
Just a couple years after they started posting videos, comedy duo A Twink and a Redhead, aka Grant & Ash, scored their first TikTok hit with a fake ad for an app targeted toward Disney adult swingers, spawning several follow-ups and a host of other bits and characters. This show tells the whole story of their friendship in musical form, from sixth grade to their Panera era to microcelebrity glory.
$49.50-$95.50, 6:30 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville

OPERA

Project Creatine
Accompanied by pianist Danny Zelibor, opera-trained drag queen (or is it drag-trained opera singer?) Creatine Price stars in this semi-autobiographical one-person piece influenced by both classical opera and music theater, tracing a roller coaster journey through what one might call The Three C’s: cantatas, cabaret, and court.
$30, 8 p.m., Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

SATURDAY (6/13/26)

MUSIC

Leanna Firestone
Positioned between mainstream and indie pop, Nashville singer-songwriter Leanna Firestone offers an intimately confessional and ambitiously hooky set of tunes on her new debut album The Answer. “Thought I’d be smarter by 23,” she laments on highlight “Judas (Martyr To My Misery),” but only to celebrate the reviving power of new love a bit later on “Renaissance.”
$35.75, 8 p.m., Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Whistle Jacket
Led by Michael Leyden through nine lineups to date, this local indie pop band released a slew of recordings in the 2000s and 2010s, each full of melodic goodness and nervous, geeky energy. Reconstituted as a full band for the first time in several years, they have yet to release a follow-up to 2018’s Leaves.
$10, 7:30 p.m., The Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Samuel Comroe
Known for his frank discussion of life with Tourette’s syndrome, Samuel Comroe has appeared on Conan, America’s Got Talent, and elsewhere. His 2025 special Don’t Blink is a whirlwind of pure speech, Comroe’s jokes flying hard and fast with a rhythmic Southern cadence as he roasts pretty much the entire world.
$39.90, 6:30 p.m., Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston

Jamie Lee: My Friend Katy
A writer for several TV series, most recently Crashing (on which she also played Pete Holmes’ love interest Ali) and Ted Lasso, Emmy-winning comic Jamie Lee digs deep into her past in this hybrid of true crime and standup, recounting the out-of-the-blue death of her college friend Katy and her belated attempt to solve it two decades later.
$24.02, 9:30 p.m., The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Somerville

KID FRIENDLY

The Rock and Roll Playhouse
Finding a babysitter so you can go to a show can be a hassle, but what if you could just bring your kid and share your love of live music? That’s the idea behind this series of afternoon concerts for families, featuring cover bands playing songs by well-known artists at child-friendly volumes. Taylor Swift is this installment’s featured artist.
$25, 12 p.m., Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston

SUNDAY (6/14/26)

FESTIVALS

Boston Dragon Boat Festival
In addition to the spectacle of sleek dragon boats flying under the bridges of the Charles, this popular event also features a cultural festival with food, arts and crafts, vendors, music and dance performances, lion dances, martial arts demos, and more.
Free, 7:15 a.m.-5 p.m. (boat races) / 12 p.m.-5 p.m. (cultural festival), near Weeks Footbridge, Riverbend Park, 1001 Memorial Dr., Cambridge

Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain
A touch of Paris will be just a few blocks from Lechmere this weekend as professional and amateur bakers compete to make the best sourdough boules and seeded sandwich loaves, respectively, at this annual French-themed fest, which also includes food and art vendors and live music.
Free admission, 12 p.m.-4 p.m., Cambridge St. between Fulkerson & 5th St., Cambridge

MUSIC

42 Dugg and Babyface Ray
These two Detroit rappers have worked together many times—Ray appeared on Dugg’s first single, 2018’s “The Streets;” Dugg appeared on “Let Me Down,” off Ray’s 2022 debut FACE. Their best known collab, however, is 2023’s “Ron Artest,” a Platinum-certified single that’s racked up more than 100 million Spotify plays.
$54.10-$203.75, 8 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

Robyn Hitchcock
As punk and new wave were revolutionizing rock in the late 70s and early 80s, English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock displayed a far greater loyalty to 60s psychedelia than most of his contemporaries, first with his band the Soft Boys and later in his solo work, which has amounted so far to 24 studio albums, most recently 2024’s 1967: Vacations in the Past.
$42.50, 8 p.m., Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston

COMEDY

Tawanda Gona
Born in Africa and raised up and down the eastern seaboard, Tawanda Gona offered his audience some perspective in a half-hour set from last year: “It’s a hard time to be an American—the President’s corrupt, everybody’s poor—but I’m from Zimbabwe, so it’s just like, Tuesday.”
$23.95, 6 p.m., The Comedy Studio, 5¾ John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge

MONDAY (6/15/26)

MUSIC

Royal & the Serpent
On her recently released debut as Royal & the Serpent, Emptiness of Godly, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Ryan Santiago weds acoustic folk, noisy indie anthems, digital artifacts, and a voice reminiscent of Grimes to create an artsy but accessible platter of pre-apocalyptic pop.
$25-$35.55, 8 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

Ongoing

OUTDOORS

Berklee Summer in the City Concert Series
Each summer, the amazingly talented students, faculty, and alumni of Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory are dispersed throughout the area to perform in parks, neighborhood squares, on the waterfront, and even on Spectacle Island. With performances ranging from jazz to R&B to pop to folk classical, there’s sure to be something up your alley.
Free, through September 30, various venues, Boston area

Kayak and Paddleboard Rentals at Community Boating
You’ve seen the river from the city more times than you could count, but have you ever seen the city from the river? Rent a vessel, explore the Charles River basin and esplanade lagoon system at your leisure, and take in a view of Boston like no other.
$40, through October 31, Community Boating, 21 David G Mugar Way, Boston

SHOPPING

Copley Square Farmers Market
The Boston area has no shortage of farmers markets in the warmer months, but Copley Square hosts the largest, offering a cornucopia of local produce, meats, dairy, baked goods, and prepared meals, as well as some non-edible products.
Free, Tuesdays and Fridays, through November 24, Copley Square, 227-230 Dartmouth St., Boston

SoWa Open Market
This popular Sunday event features more than 375 farmers and vendors selling their own food, jewelry, clothing, household items, art, and more, plus special performances and events, a chance to check out the nearby open studios of dozens of local artists, and a rotating selection of food trucks.
Free, Sundays through November 15, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., 500 Harrison Ave., Boston

FITNESS

Seaport Sweat
Get a little closer to your best self with the help of these outdoor classes, taking place Monday through Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings until the end of summer. The regular weekday schedule features Pilates, yoga, Zumba, athletic conditioning, strength training, and more; some of Saturday’s rotating offerings include new brand-led classes from Equinox, Rhone, Remedy Place, and Beyond Yoga in addition to familiar independent instructors. Also back this year: the Sweatapalooza.
Free, through Wednesday, September 30, Seaport Common, 85 Northern Ave., Boston

ATTRACTIONS

Photo by Rainer Christian Kurzeder

Dino Safari
Dinosaur-obsessed kids will flip for this walk-through exhibit featuring more than 50 life-sized, scientifically accurate animatronic creatures of the distant past, from the sleek hunter Velociraptor to the perennial crowd favorite, Tyrannosaurus rex. They’ll also find a simulated fossil dig, a scavenger hunt, virtual reality elements, and more edutaining fun.
$20.50-$26.50, open Wednesday through Sunday, CambridgeSide, 119 First St., Cambridge

Sloomoo’s Slime Wall. / Courtesy

SlooMoo MiniMoo
If you’re looking for something unique for the kids on a weekend or vacation day, consider this tactile workshop, where they can make and customize their own “slime” with scents, textures, color, and charms, play games with the stuff, and enjoy other fun sensory experiences. See more here.
$23.99, open daily, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, South Market Bldg., Unit 43-44, Boston

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Activate
Billed as “the world’s first active gaming facility,” Activate drops you and your friends in a real-life video game, employing interactive technology to usher players through a varied series of physical and mental challenges.
$24.99-$39.99, open daily, 20 District Ave., Dorchester

Putt Across America
If you’ve ever visited Faneuil Hall Marketplace and thought, “What this place needs is a mini golf course,” your prayers have been answered. Familiar American landmarks dot the 18 holes, making for plenty of fun photo ops.
$25, open daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Faneuil Hall Marketplace, 4 S Market St., Boston

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Museum of Ice Cream
Yes, you can eat as much ice cream as you want at the Museum of Ice Cream, but there’s a lot more to this escapist wonderland, billed as “a place free from distractions, expectations, and inhibitions.” There are several colorful, slightly surreal spaces to explore at your leisure, including the Diner, Creamliner (an imaginary airplane interior), Hall of Freezers, Carnival, and Sprinkle Pool.
$25-$51, 121 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Museum of Illusions
Experience the delights of confusing your brain at this new downtown attraction, featuring a set of images, installations, and “illusion rooms” designed to make reality feel a little less normal—and to provide some fun and crazy photo ops for the ‘gram.
$38, 200 State St., Boston

View Boston
If you’ve got visitors and you want to give them a killer 360-degree view of the city, or if you just want a peep yourself, you can hardly do better than View Boston, at the top of the Prudential Center. You can spring for a guided tour or just take it in yourself. The view isn’t all you’ll find up there—there’s also a restaurant, The Beacon, and Stratus, a cocktail bar, which is decked out for the holidays. Higher-level ticket packages include a sample drink.
$29.99-59.99, open daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Prudential Center, 800 Boylston St., Boston

The Innovation Trail
This tour focuses not on colonial and revolutionary Boston—that’s been thoroughly covered—but on the city’s history, down to the present, as a hub of science, medicine, and technology. You can arrange for a private tour via an online form or opt for a self-guided experience whenever you want.
Free (self-guided), starts in Central Square, Cambridge or Downtown Crossing, Boston

WNDR Museum
This gallery space in Downtown Crossing features iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Let’s Survive Forever and more than 20 other immersive installations, including The Wisdom Project, where visitors can add their own response to the question “What do you know for sure?,” and WNDR’s signature Light Floor, which changes in response to visitors’ movement.
$32-$38, 500 Washington St., Boston

ART + EXHIBITIONS (Ongoing)

Lucy Raven: Rounds installation view. / Photo by Mel Taing

Lucy Raven: Rounds
Arizona-born artist Lucy Raven takes advantage of the generous space afforded by the Institute of Contemporary Art’s Watershed annex to stage the U.S. premieres of two works: Murderers Bar, a quadraphonic moving image installation about the removal of a dam from the Klamath River in Northern California, and Hardpan, an enormous, kinetic light sculpture.
Free, through September 7, ICA Watershed, 256 Marginal St., East Boston

View Master (2025) by Derrick Adams, the titular artwork in his exhibition at the ICA. / Derrick Adams, View Master, 2025. Acrylic and fabric collage on wood panel. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian. © Derrick Adams.

Derrick Adams: View Master
Dedicated to a celebration of, in his words, “Black people — not entertaining, just being, living,” NYC artist Derrick Adams utilizes a wide range of media to make the everyday iconic. View Master is the first exhibition to provide a mid-career survey of his bold, idiosyncratic, character-rich work.
$20, through September 7, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Pınar Öğrenci: Glück auf in Deutschland
Harvard Art Museums hosts the first major American exhibition of this German artist and filmmaker, featuring the titular 2024 film and a set of collages exploring and critiquing the process of rebuilding working class German identity in the years after World War II.
Free, through October 18, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Attaché: An ASB Group Show
The Boston Center for the Arts casts a spotlight on 30 of its Artist Studio Building occupants. With so many artists in various media, commonalities can be difficult to find, but curator Meclina Gomes notes how their practices “are shaped by inherited culture, migration, and lived lineage” and how their work functions in “carrying memory, tradition, and embodied knowledge from one context into another.”
Free, through July 11, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston

Performing Conditions: Artistic Labor and Dependency as Form
Most artists don’t want to have to think too much about business—it’s usually not particularly inspiring—but it can’t be avoided. The artists in this group show are all facing the demons of labor, debt, and the general dependence of art on factors outside it—historical, social, economic, etc.
Free, through August 2, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Bldg. E15-109, Cambridge

Subvert, Repair, Reclaim: Contemporary Artists Take Back the Nude
From ancient Greco-Roman sculpture to Picasso’s radical Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, nudes have been a constant presence in Western art, very often fraught, especially when it comes to female nudes, with questions of power and objectification. This show brings together 12 contemporary artists wrestling with these questions as they carry on and complicate the grand tradition.
$30, through August 2, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Fazendo a América: Rosângela Rennó and Histories of Memory and Migration in Brazil
It’s been almost three decades since Brazilian artist Rosângela Rennó has seen a solo exhibition in the United States. These six relatively recent immersive installations, made from personal, public, and anonymous photographs, address the ways collective memory is constructed and erased by the powerful, and the power of art to reassert what some have tried to make us forget.
$30, through August 2, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Unbraid: Hair, Clay, and Craft
Three artists, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, and Sonya Clark, explore the meaning of hair in their respective personal cultural histories, the first two through ceramics and the third through lithography. A notion of hair emerges as a foundational human artistic medium—”the fiber that we grow,” as Clark puts it.
$30, through July 26, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination
A well-maintained garden is a pretty thing, but also, as a celebration of natural beauty that is decidedly unnatural, a paradoxical thing. This spring, the Museum of Fine Arts is reveling in that tension with a themed exhibition exploring the diverse meaning and uses of gardens in art from around the world and across history.
$30, through June 28, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Split | Second
Our experience of time is defined largely by the ways we measure it, from stargazing to ancient sundials to atomic clocks. The MIT Museum explores our relationship with this strangest of phenomena through items from its own collection as well as Jonathon Keats’ piece New England River Time, which measures time by the movement of five local rivers.
$20, through January 4, 2027, MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Building E-28, Cambridge

Freezing Time: Edgerton and the Beauty of the Machine Age
Explore the legacy of 20th century MIT scientist Harold “Doc” Edgerton, whose photographic techniques, rooted in antiquated technology and updated for the 1930s, revolutionized the study of high-speed movement. Edgerton was as much artist as scientist, impressing with his pictures enough to be included in the Museum of Modern Art’s first-ever photo exhibition.
$20, through October 8, MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Building E-28, Cambridge

Celtic Art Across the Ages
“Celtic” is a slippery term in history, with scholars arguing to various ends about what cultures, past and present, can be meaningfully considered Celtic. Featuring artifacts stretching back to 800 BCE, this exhibition aims not so much to settle the debate as to highlight the creative diversity and achievements in craftsmanship that fall under the term’s umbrella.
Free, through August 2, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Imagined Nation
The Boston Athenaeum celebrates the United States Semiquincentennial by sharing a few of its holdings from George Washington’s library, including his copies of Common Sense and other pamphlets reflecting his engagement with the political discourses of his time. The exhibit also features other fascinating historical documents; it will be rotated with new content later this year.
$11, through November 14, Boston Athenaeum, 10½ Beacon St., Boston

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Discovering King Tut’s Tomb
Archaeologist Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb was a boon to Egyptology that continues to fire the popular imagination. In this interactive show, you’ll relive the iconic moment through virtual reality, learn about the art of mummification, and check out meticulously handcrafted replicas of artifacts associated with the Boy King.
$34.50-$37.50, through July 12, The Saunders Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave., Boston

The Road to Revolution: Massachusetts and the Independence Movement
Every student of American history learns that Boston was home to some of the most radical activity in the American Revolution, but it was also home to some its most vociferous debate. This exhibition takes a closer look with artifacts including an original broadside print of the Declaration of Independence, battlefield remnants, letters, and personal possessions.
$15, through January 3, 2027, Old State House, 206 Washington St., Boston

Say It Loud: AAMARP, 1977 to Now
Since 1977, Northeastern University’s African American Master Artists-in-Residence Program has provided space and support for Black artists and served as a crucial hub for the wider artistic community. This show features 60 works made or made or shown by nearly 40 different artists during their stints in the program.
$20, through August 2, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Music America: Iconic Objects from America’s Music History
The title says it all: you’ll see 100 artifacts containing the story of American music, from anonymous objects like a Civil War bugle to celebrity possessions like Jimi Hendrix’s guitar and Chuck D’s lyric sheet for “Fight the Power.” Note: apart from exhibit hours, there are three other ways to see the exhibition, each with different pricing—check the link for full details.
$17.40 (exhibit hours admission), through July 7, Boch Center Wang Theater, 270 Tremont St., Boston

Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone
Of mixed Black and indigenous heritage, master 19th century marble sculptor Edmonia Lewis broke multiple barriers, winning the respect of her American artist peers but remaining underexamined until the end of the 20th century, when renewed scholarly interest and the rediscovery of some of her lost works prompted a long-overdue canonization. This major exhibition gathers 115 of her works.
$25, through Sunday, June 7, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Davis Museum Modern and Contemporary Galleries
Closed for many years, the Modern and Contemporary Galleries at Wellesley’s art museum are back and fully reinstalled with works from prominent figures like Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Daniela Rivera, Horace Pippin, and others, including some pieces from the Davis’ collection that have never been displayed.
Free, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley

To My Best Friend
Lasting for nearly the whole of 2026, To My Best Friend celebrates the contributions of Fotene Demoulas and Tom Coté to the Institute of Contemporary Art’s collection, highlighting their focus on women and other historically underrepresented artists. The 50-plus selection includes works from Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Olga de Amaral, Sarah Sze, and many others.
$20, through December 31, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Press & Pull: Two Decades at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Coming of age during the Harlem Renaissance, printmaker Robert Blackburn helped to continue the movement’s legacy in 1947 by founding his Printmaking Workshop, which held classes and provided working space for artists. This exhibition brings together work from artists associated with the Workshop, a successor of which still operates today.
Free, through May 31, MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston

AI: Mind the Gap
As AI continues to insinuate itself into seemingly every corner of social and economic life, this MIT Museum exhibit becomes more and more relevant. Noting that the technology “often reveals more about human intelligence than machines themselves,” the show draws on the work of experts like Claude Shannon and Seymour Papert to explore AI’s promise and dangers across a variety of applications.
$20, ongoing, MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Building E-28, Cambridge

Reality and Imagination: Rembrandt and the Jews in the Dutch Republic
The Museum of Fine Arts’ Center for Netherlandish Art collaborated with Boston University graduate students on this examination of Rembrandt’s relationship with the Jewish community in Amsterdam. The artist was no alien to this community—he lived in the city’s Jewish Quarter for much of his life.
$30, through December 1, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Lighten Up! On Biology and Time
A roster of 15 artists—including Carsten Höller, Adam Haar Horowitz, Seth Riskin, James Carpenter, Liliane Lijn, and Helga Schmid—explore the relationship of life to the cycles of day and night through immersive art, installations, and experiential environments, touching on circadian rhythms, alternative concepts of time, and the mysteries of dreaming.
$20, through August 31, MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Building E-28, Cambridge

Faces in the Crowd: Street Photography
Offering a slice of the immediacy of everyday life and society, street photography has an irresistible power of fascination. Connecting the work of legends like Garry Winogrand with that of contemporary practitioners like Katy Grannan, Faces in the Crowd hops around the globe and through five decades to explore this genre of otherness in the age of the selfie.
$30, through July 13, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest
The Peabody Essex Museum casts a spotlight on one of Earth’s largest biome, which stretches nearly all the way around the world, from Canada through Siberia and into Scandinavia. You’ll learn about the region’s significance and diversity through personal testimonies, commissioned objects, photos and video, and interactive areas.
$25, through September 27, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination
Using historic illustrations, maps, artifacts, and specimens, this exhibition explores the exotic marine beasts cooked up in the dreams of sailors and bards down the centuries, as well as the real-life creatures, like the giant squid, whose scarcely believable existence inspired many of these legends.
$15, through June 26, Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

The Salem Witch Trials 1692
Even when the story of the Salem Witch Trials is told with accuracy, the distance of centuries can make it hard to imagine. With this ongoing exhibition, the Peabody Essex Museum tries to close that gap a bit, bringing the timeline and context of the infamous miscarriage of justice to life through original documents and artifacts.
$25, ongoing, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

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