Your weekly guide to staying entertained any day of the week
Your weekly guide to staying entertained any day of the week
May 1, 2026
Welcome back to The Big​ To-Do. It’s May, and college graduation season is underway. The Bruins face elimination at the hands of the visiting Sabres in Game 6 of their playoff series tonight. Also in danger of closing out their (post)season, the Celtics are home to Philadelphia Saturday. Up 1-0, the Boston Fleet
play host to the Ottawa Charge in their PWHL first-round playoff series Saturday. A bit later, “Saturday Night Live” returns, with Olivia Rodrigo doing double duty as host and musical guest.
The week’s streaming picks from the Globe’s Matt Juul all look good, but only one is super fun to say with a Boston accent. This week’s One Special Thing is a sculpture, presented in a way you almost certainly aren’t expecting. The arts brief section The Rundown includes a local angle on the long-running Broadway production of “Chicago.” And in case you missed it, the Globe’s Meredith Goldstein explains the “Love Letters” phone booth in the lobby of the main branch of the Boston Public Library. “The truth is, some people go in and cry about breakups, others cry about toxic workplaces,” writes the “Love Letters” columnist. “Joy abounds, too.”
Movies
From left: Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs, Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, and Stanley Tucci as Nigel Kipling in 20th Century Studios' "The Devil Wears Prada 2." MACALL POLAY/20TH CENTURY STUDIOS
Newton native B.J. Novak plays a juicy supporting role in “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” “Meryl Streep’s character is clearly the epitome of one type of perfectionism and belief set,” he tells the Globe’s Matt Juul. “And my character is, to great comic effect, the opposite.” They chat about the movie, Boston fashion, throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park, and his second career as a children’s author.
Amy K. Jenkins’s documentary “Adam’s Apple” is “something more than a home movie.” It tells the story of the gender transition of her son Adam Sieswerda. “We wanted to show a story that was not sensationalized, and show the more regular rhythms of growing up and how trans lives are deserving of that,” he says. “The drama of ‘Adam’s Apple’ is really the lack of drama,” writes Globe critic Chris Vognar. ”Its natural sense of acceptance is almost radical.”
The countless theories about the meaning of David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” are “all off the mark.” Globe correspondent Steve Greenlee lays out an interpretation — riddled with spoilers for the 25-year-old classic — that will make your head spin even as it nods in agreement. “Everyone is informing it with their own psychological package,” says Lynch collaborator Mary Sweeney. “It means different things to different people.”
Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root in "Widow’s Bay," premiering April 29, 2026 on Apple TV. APPLE TV
Set on a New England island, the comedy horror series “Widow’s Bay” is “a great deal of fun.” Matthew Rhys plays the tourism-thirsty mayor, who’s got his work cut out for him, because the island is cursed. “There’s a cosmic evil at work here,” writes Globe TV critic Chris Vognar. “And much of the pleasure in ‘Widow’s Bay’ derives from the ways that most of the residents try to ignore or elide such evils.”
The fictional community at the center of “Widow’s Bay” is the backdrop for “a distinctly New England story.” Cast members and creator Katie Dippold chat with the Globe’s Matt Juul about the inspiration for the series, filming in Massachusetts, and much more. “I really wanted to tap into that Stephen King atmosphere,” Dippold says. “Places like Gloucester and Rockport, for me, just gave you that essence for free,” said Matthew Rhys.
Medieval church music by Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses) and Chris Brokaw (Codeine)? “Early music and medieval music is something I’ve been interested in,” says Brokaw. An EP and two dates this weekend show off their “uncanny modern approximation of the polyphony of early music groups,” writes Globe correspondent Jon Garelick. “Donelly sings an ethereal throughline of melody while Brokaw weaves a separate guitar line along with an underlying drone ‘chant.’”
Derrick Adams “doesn’t demand a deep dive. He wants you to be happy, to drink in the froth of visual joy he serves up.” “View Master‚” at the ICA, captures that joy. And “once you’re seduced by the good-time sheen, you’ll find yourself settling into the subtle depths of his evocative world,” writes Globe art critic Murray Whyte. “Much of the history of the depiction of Black subjects has rarely been so blissfully mundane.”
Theater
Max Connor (left) and Peter DiMaggio with the ensemble of "Swept Away." NILE SCOTT STUDIOS
At just 25, Jaime José Hernández has gone from his hometown of Chelsea to the stage at The Huntington. “JJ is the real thing,” Loretta Greco tells Globe correspondent Terry Byrne, “a beautiful actor and a voracious student of theater who seizes every opportunity to grow.” She’s directing him in “Oedipus el Rey,” Luis Alfaro’s retelling of the Greek tragedy. “We are right in your face and things get really tense,” says Hernández. “I love that.”
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs Matthew Neenan's "Difference Between." PAUL KOLNIK
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s annual visit to Boston has a local angle this year. “Difference Between” choreographer Matthew Neenan grew up in Weymouth and performed and studied with Boston Ballet. “Boston Ballet was our life for a good decade,” he says of himself and his two older sisters. “I think the memories will just pop up galore, and I can’t wait,” he tells Globe correspondent Annie Sarlin.
Books
Author and scholar Caroline Bicks (right), the University of Maine's inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature; her new book, "Monsters in the Archives" peers into King's private archives. HOGARTH; LEAH RAMUGLIA
“I can’t talk to Shakespeare, but I can talk to Stephen King,” says Caroline Bicks. The author of “Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King” did just that while researching her new book at the author’s Bangor home. “The power of really great horror writing like his is that it taps into your humanity and it makes you feel again,” she says in a wide-ranging Q&A with Kate Tuttle, who edits the Globe’s books section.
Today’s newsletter was written by Marie Morris and produced by the Globe Living/Arts staff. Marie Morris can be reached at marie.morris@globe.com. Thanks for reading.
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