Things to Do This Week in Boston
Spooky season is here!
Boston Magazine
Keep your weekends full of the coolest things to do around Boston with the weekly Weekender newsletter from Boston Magazine
MULTIPLE DAYS Ongoing through Monday, November 7 (and Beyond)
FESTIVALS + FAIRS
Photo by Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
King Richard’s Faire Jousting, jesters, swords, fire eaters, acrobats, giant turkey legs, knights, kings, knaves, maidens, wenches, witches, an honest-to-god blacksmith—they’re all back, and much more, at New England’s premiere Renaissance festival, with eight stages of entertainment and exotic artisans from far and wide. The puritanical Pilgrims who founded Carver would definitely not have approved of any of it, but that just makes it all the more fun. $39-$43, through October 31, King Richard’s Fairgrounds, 235 Main St., Carver
VARIETY
Mr. Swindle’s Traveling Peculiarium Mr. Swindle’s Big Top is back for another season of offbeat, old school circus entertainment at Harpoon—think comedy, acrobats, a strongman, hula-hooping, and more. If you saw the show last year, don’t assume you’ve been there, done that: it’ll be full of new delights and curiosities. $65-$120, through November 5, Harpoon Brewery, 306 Northern Ave., Boston
THEATER
The Book of Will Hub Theater Company brings back this Lauren Gunderson play about early years after William Shakespeare’s death, when printers were turning out all sorts of wack versions of his plays, leaving it up to the people who actually knew him to produce a definitive volume and brush all the fakers aside. Pay-what-you-wish, through November 12, Plaza Theater, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St., Boston
The Rocky Horror Show The mad scientists of Central Square Theater have brought Richard O’Brien’s original queer-sci-fi-kitsch-rock musical back to life, as seen through the fresh eyes of co-directors Jo Michael Rezes and Lee Mikeska Gardner, who’ve put together a majority trans and nonbinary cast. $24-$83, through November 26, Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
Frozen With a book and songs written by the same folks who wrote them for the movie, Disney’s latter-day animated masterpiece transitioned both faithfully and successfully to the musical theater stage, scoring a 2018 Tony nomination for Best Musical and winning additional praise for its puppetry, costumes, and set design. $40-$200, through November 12, Citizens Bank Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Promising “a Brechtian take on a Sondheim classic,” Moonbox Productions is resurrects this perfectly morbid morsel of musical theater just as Halloween season is kicking into full gear. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of other stage or film versions, a warning: you may never look at pie quite the same way again. $65, through November 5, Arrow Street Arts, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge
COMEDY
Trae Crowder Small-town Tennessee native Trae Crowder bills himself, against cultural stereotypes, as a “liberal redneck.” He’s lived in Los Angeles for a while, and some of his most interesting material details the cultural friction he still feels there as a southerner, despite his agreeable politics. He self-released his latest special, Damn Boy! in May. $33-$38, Friday and Saturday, October 27-28, Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston
SPOOKY
Providence II Halloween Cruises What’s better than going to a Halloween party at the club? Going to a Halloween party on a boat boasting “the largest open deck in Boston.” Depending on your costume inclinations, you might prefer Friday’s Sinners and Saints theme or Saturday’s Witches and Zombies theme, but either way it’ll be all treat, no trick. $39-$99, Friday and Saturday, October 27-28, Bay State Cruise Company, Seaport Marine Terminal, 200 Seaport Blvd., Boston
Cirque of the Dead The Boston Circus Guild’s annual Halloween show is back for another round of thrills, chills and amusement, blending “creepy with campy and horror with humor.” This year, the Guild’s talented acrobats play ghost hunters who find more than what they were expecting in a haunted Somerville locale. $38-$1000, Friday, October 27 through October 31, Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville
See also: The Top Haunted Houses in Massachusetts
Salem Haunted Happenings It’s Halloween year-round in Salem, but October is a special month indeed, with art shows, ghost tours, magic shows, film screenings, historical theater, an outdoor marketplace, occult readings and workshops, a jack-o-lantern installation, and lots more—check the schedule and you’ll find a bit of spooky entertainment for any day of the week. Prices vary, through October 31, various locations, Salem
KID-FRIENDLY (8+)
The Addams Family Wheelock Family Theater invites you into the creepy, kooky, morbidly upbeat world of the Addams clan with this production of the 2009 musical adaptation. The plot, unrelated to either the 60s TV series or the 90s films, finds the family forced into engagement with the conventional world when Wednesday starts dating a boy. $24-$48, Friday, October 13 through November 12, Wheelock Family Theater, 200 The Riverway, Boston
MOVIES
The Killer David Fincher is back with this thriller, starring the always-interesting Michael Fassbender as an unnamed assassin who bungles a job, leading to the guns being turned on his loved ones and him, and, in turn, to him taking up a globe-hopping mission of vengeance. $13.50-$15.50, opens Friday, October 27, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
GlobeDocs Film Festival Although all the rest of its screenings are at the Brattle Theater, this documentary-only fest starts at the Coolidge Wednesday with The Highest Standard, which follows three students at Boston’s Beacon Academy. Other highlights include Nick Broomfield’s The Stones and Brian Jones (Friday) and The Pigeon Tunnel, Errol Morris’ profile of former British spy and novelist John le Carré (Sunday). $15-$150, Wednesday through Sunday, October 25-29, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge
I Heard It Through the Grapevine with James Baldwin This collection of documentaries finds the great James Baldwin traveling through key areas of the civil rights movement in the early 80s, visiting Europe in the late 60s and 70s, and touring San Francisco in 1964. Everywhere he goes, he makes sure to listen, acutely aware of his ability to give a platform to less heard voices. $10, through Sunday, October 29, Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
Independent Film Festival Boston Fall Focus Highlights of this curated selection of the best new indie films include the Ottessa Moshfegh adaptation Eileen (Thursday), Dream Scenario, in which a teacher played by Nicolas Cage starts appearing in people’s dreams, and Perfect Days, then latest from legendary German director Wim Wenders. Free bonus screenings, at the Coolidge Corner and Somerville Theaters, respectively, will bookend the main series at the Brattle. Free-$15, Wednesday through October 30, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge
Killers of the Flower Moon Based on a true story of the Osage Nation’s discovery of oil on their land and the white opportunists who tried everything, including murder, to sever them from their newfound wealth, this Martin Scorsese drama stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro. $13.50-$15.50, opens Friday, October 20, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
The Royal Hotel The Assistant director Kitty Green’s new film stars Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick as a couple of friends on a backpacking trip across Australia. When they go broke, they get jobs at a bar in a remote mining town, where they’re welcomed warmly by the bar owner, Billy (Hugo Weaving) and his community—but they may not want to get too comfortable. $13.50-$15.50, opens Friday, October 6, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
Dumb Money Sometimes great true stories take decades to become movies—as for the notorious GameStop short squeeze of 2021, which humiliated the Wall Street mainstream and made a few Redditors a fortune, it took just a couple years. Paul Dano stars as Massachusetts native Keith Gill, the instigator of the squeeze, who earned a heap of new problems along with his windfall. $13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
GOING OUT
Seaport Summer Cruises What’s better than going out to the club? Going out to the club that’s also a boat. Hop aboard the Provincetown II for three floors of live music, bars, and dancing, plus killer views of the city from what’s billed as “the largest open deck in Boston.” $29-$99, through October 28, Bay State Cruise Company, Seaport Marine Terminal, 200 Seaport Blvd., Boston
TOURS
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. 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
Boston Detective Tours Retired local police detective Joe Leeman is your guide to the long history of crime and other dark happenings in Boston, from the Boston Massacre to the Marathon Bombing and plenty in between, including Italian and Irish mobs, the Boston Strangler, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Gardner Museum art heist, the Cocoanut Grove fire, and more. $40, through November 30, meets at 425 Summer St., Boston
The Innovation Trail This new 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 pay for a guided tour on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday through the end of October, or opt for a self-guided experience whenever you want. Free-$20, now open, starts in Central Square, Cambridge or Downtown Crossing, Boston
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