WINTER BLUES The wild, wacky and wonderful Blue Man Group bring its delightfully entertaining show to Waterbury’s Palace Theater Feb. 13-15. Combining music, comedy, technology and imagination to create a theatrical experience unlike anything else—all without speaking a single word—the Blue Man Group promises a memorable evening, perfect for all ages. this month | the short list SPRING HOPES ETERNAL We interrupt the cold and snow of this winter for a spring interlude: the 34th annual Connecticut Flower and Garden Show on Feb. 19-22 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. In addition to more than an acre of gardens and 300 vendors, there will be seminars with Mar Jennings, Roger Swain and other horticultural experts. (860) 844- 8461, ctflowershow.com. CLASSIC EVENING On Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra presents Carnivale at the Garde Arts Center in New London. A shuffle concert, selections will include works by Gershwin, Ginastera, Copland and Ravel. (860) 444-7373, gardearts.org. TIME TO PLAY “Jim Henson’s Sid the Science Kid LIVE: Let’s Play!” will have families taking an entertaining—and educational—journey through their five senses during two big shows at the Palace in Stamford on Feb. 6. (203) 325-4466, palacestamford.org. MIGHT AS WELL JUMP On Feb. 6-8, the best ski jumpers from across the Northeast will descend upon Salisbury for the Jumpfest Winter Festival. In addition to the U.S. Eastern Ski Jumping Championships and the 89th Salisbury Invitational Championship, there will also be a chili cookoff , target jumping, human dogsled races, youth competitions, ice carving bonfires and even a snow “ball.” jumpfest.org. WHISTLER ON THE ROAD Yale University Art Gallery examines the artistic development of James Abbott McNeill Whistler in Whistler in Paris, London and Venice, which opens Jan. 30 and runs through July 19. Centered on three sets of Whistler’s etchings, the exhibition is the first at the gallery solely dedicated to the artist. (203) 432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu. CULT OF PERSONALITY Grammy award-winning Living Colour rocks the Ridgefield Playhouse on Feb. 13. Known for hits such as “Cult of Personality” and “Open Letter (to a Landlord),” the band—with its original lineup intact—promises an evening of hard-driving rock, funk and heavy metal fusion. (203) 438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org. this month | front row You could say that singer and actress Audra McDonald was always destined for Broadway stardom. She won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Carousel at the Lincoln Center Theatre just one year after graduating from Juilliard. This past year she outdid herself —and everyone else, too—when she took home her sixth Tony for her role as legend Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. On Feb. 13, McDonald will grace the stage at the Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts at the University of Connecticut with her mix of classics and favorites. The show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are available online at jorgensen.uconn.edu. You’ve performed in Connecticut before. What keeps bringing you back? Yes, I’ve performed in Connecticut and really enjoy performing there. I live in Westchester, so it feels like I am performing for my neighbors. What are you planning for the show? We’ll be doing a mix of standards from the great American songbook. I’ll also be performing a few fan favorites, some songs from my most recent release on Nonesuch, Go Back Home, and several new songs that I recently added to my repertoire. There should definitely be something for everyone. What did it feel like to win your sixth Tony award for playing Billie Holiday? It felt, and still feels, totally surreal. What is it like playing a legend like Holiday? Are there particular challenges? It’s a huge honor. The hardest part about doing Billie was making sure that no part of my singing voice or speaking voice made its way into the theater. The moment I got on stage it was all about Billie. Did you grow up on Holiday’s music? Growing up my dad played her music, but I didn’t think too much about her because she kind of scared me. She did drugs and died early. As a young kid, that was intimidating. Now as an adult, I admire her. I don’t want to say I pity her because she didn’t want anyone’s pity, but I do wish she was treated better by society. What’s on the horizon for you? I recently kicked off my concert tour, so am really looking forward to performing around the country. this month | art Coney Island in Hartford Coney Island has been an American touchstone for 150 years, a destination where families have flocked for fun in the sun and amusements aplenty. When you visit the Brooklyn, N.Y., beachfront, you step into a living, breathing piece of history. Beginning Jan. 31, the Wadsworth Atheneum mounts the first exhibition of its kind dedicated to the amusement park. Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland 1861-2008 uses visual art to explore the lure that Coney Island has exerted over Americans for over a century. It is curated by Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank, Chief Curator and Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture. The work of a wide range of artists will be coordinated to create this lens into American culture. The exhibit includes the Impressionist paintings of William Merritt Chase and John Henry Twachtman depicting “the people’s beach,” and contemporary images by photographers Diane Arbus and Walker Evans, Red Grooms, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and others. “What these artists saw from 1861 to 2008 at Coney Island and how they chose to portray it varied widely in style and mood over time, mirroring the aspirations and disappointments of the era and of the country,” explains the museum’s website. “Taken together, this tableaux of wonder and menace, hope and despair, dreams and nightmares, become metaphors for the collective soul of a nation.” More than 140 objects—paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, posters, architectural artifacts, carousel animals, ephemera and film clips—are featured in the museum’s newly expanded and renovated special exhibition galleries. The show is part of the debut of the Wadsworth Atheneum’s major renovation, which began in 2010. Thirty-two galleries and 15 public spaces were updated as part of this $33 million project. A variety of individual programs will take place throughout the Coney Island exhibition’s run including a “Tunnel of Love “exhibit on the first Thursday, Feb. 5; a symposium called “Coney Island: An Intersection of Art and Identity” on Feb. 27-28; viewings of the films Annie Hall and Sophie’s Choice on April 12; and much more. Visitors can take the magic home with them by purchasing a fully-illustrated 304- page catalogue that includes the first sustained visual analysis of great works of art about Coney Island by Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank and essays by distinguished cultural historians. The catalogue will be sold for $50 in The Museum Shop. This is an exhibition not to be missed during the beginning of this year. Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008 runs from Jan. 31 through May 31. (860) 278-2670, thewadsworth.org. this month | museum Big Halley Peter Halley has been marking the modern artistic landscape with his bold, geometric paintings for the last quarter century. In February, nine of those iconic works will come together in Peter Halley: Big Paintings at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. The show explores the changes the artist and his work has gone through over the years. Halley will stop by for an in-depth discussion of his work on Feb. 8. “Every exhibit is a big deal for us, but this one falls in line with a longer series of projects we’ve undertaken to look at…in Connecticut art, the modern and contemporary artists who have lived and worked here,” says Colman. “Through these projects we started to take a look at recent decades, and Peter’s name stands at top of that list.” Halley, who lives and works in New York City, attended Yale University before heading to New Orleans to earn his MFA. Afterward, he returned to NYC and forged his signature style—pairing bold, abrasive colors with texture and geometric patterns he calls “prisons” and “cells,” in an effort to comment on the “geometricization of social space in the world,” and commercialization. His work oft en uses industrial paints in artificial Day-Glo, metallic and pearlescent colors to “evoke the intensity of industrial and commercial products,” states the museum’s website. Many of the paintings included in the exhibit use Roll-a-Tex, a paint additive typically used in home improvements to create textured walls. The rough surface juxtaposes against Halley’s precise lines. “The exhibit came together organically,” says Colman. “It started with a studio visit to his workspace in New York in 2012. I got to know him and his work quite a bit better. It emerged out of a conversation between me and the artist.” Halley’s work has remained constant for nearly thirty years, utilizing the same symbols, but Colman assures there’s incredible diversity between decades. The Florence Griswold exhibit will be divided into three different sections—the 1980s, the 1990s to early 2000s and more recent works. Halley will also unveil a new work at the opening. “One aspect I hope visitors take away from the exhibit is how omnipresent his work really seems,” says Colman. “Types of phenomena he depicted in the 80s and 90s seem totally mundane today, like interconnected networks. We internalize that with Facebook and the Internet.” Peter Halley: Big Paintings runs Feb. 6 to March 31. (860) 434-5542, flogris.org. this month | family Winter Flight One of the biggest thrills of the winter season is the return of migrating eagles to the region around the lower Connecticut River. These magnificent creatures spend the cold months here, providing a unique opportunity to observe one of the biggest successes in species preservation. Connecticut River Expeditions and Connecticut Audubon are once again partnering to offer Eagle/Winter Wonderland Cruises on the Connecticut River, starting out of Haddam. Trips are aboard the RiverQuest, piloted by Capt. Mark Yuknat. “We get visiting eagles from up north that can’t catch fish through the ice there so they come down here, south of the swing bridge where the river doesn’t usually freeze and there’s plenty of fish, and they stay about five to six weeks,” says Yuknat, who along with his wife Mindy, has been leading the cruises for 14 years. “If we’re lucky, we can see as many as thirty visiting eagles, but it’s usually about ten to twenty. Obviously, with wild creatures, it varies.” Bald and golden eagles have been spotted during cruises, as well as an abundance of other winter wildlife, including falcons, cormorants, hawks, ducks and the occasional seal. “We’ve seen eagles do some interesting things,” says Yuknat. “Sometimes they’ll mirror each other’s flights. We’ve also seen them do mock battle of sort, where they lock talons, stop flying and just tumble down toward the water, and then at the last second, break apart and fly off, like a game of chicken. They are real cool birds to watch. You never know what they’ll do.” Departing from Eagle Landing State Park (and weather permitting), two-hour cruises begin Feb. 7 and run through March 15. Guests are encouraged to book in advance, dress warmly and to bring their own cameras and binoculars. Each cruise also offers a naturalist on board to answer questions as well as a spotter. (860) 662-0577, ctriverquest.com