Among this year’s winners at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 1 were Pittsford-Mendon graduate Isa Antonetti and several Eastman School of Music faculty and alumni. Antonetti is the daughter of Victor Antonetti Jr. (a 2025 CITY Rochester Ten), and performed with her father’s Latin band, Orquesta Antonetti, as a teenager before graduating […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inSports
Rochester’s forgotten NFL heroes
Before the Bills. Before billion dollar stadiums. Before the NFL became a national obsession, Rochester was already rewriting the rules of football. On dusty sandlots and roaring high school fields, a visionary owner, a Haitian-born trailblazer and a city that loved the game more than college or pro teams laid the foundation for a sport […]
Posted inBest of Rochester
Best of Rochester Staff Picks: Arts & Entertainment
A new rehearsal space for everyone, a place to spot future Broadway stars, the best millennial emo revival and more — here’s what was on our radar in 2025.
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘The Woman in Black’
When the first jump scare happened during Geva Theatre’s production of “The Woman in Black” on Tuesday, a woman two seats down grabbed her friend’s arm and yelped. By the fourth jump scare, she said (loudly), “I’m gonna fight him!” The decent-sized crowd that had shuffled in from an icy 10-degree January night to endure […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’ is not dead yet
“Monty Python’s Spamalot” galloped into the West Herr Auditorium Theatre this week on invisible horses, leaving behind a trail of flatulence, flesh wounds, flying cows and a lot of laughter, proving that this 20-year-old madcap musical of the highest disorder is“not dead yet.” If those references were lost on you, not to worry, not to […]
Posted inCulture
The search for truth among America’s trees
In his new book, Trent Preszler remembers cutting down a Christmas tree with his father on a snow-drifted South Dakotan prairie. He’s seven or eight years old, yet the memory remains vivid. He recalls that “the young pines stood motionless, waiting to learn which of them would die.” That moment, quiet and severe, opens “Evergreen: […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘End of the Rainbow’ at JCC CenterStage chronicles Judy Garland’s final months
In Celtic folklore, the end of the rainbow signifies the end of a treasure hunt, a triumphant place where one finds the leprechaun’s pot of gold. Of course, science is always here to dash whimsical lore — because rainbows are simply an optical illusion created by light refracting through raindrops, there is no actual ‘end […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘Rumors’ at Blackfriars Theatre is nonsense — but good for a laugh
When Neil Simon’s “Rumors” premiered in 1988 it was unlike anything Simon had ever written. Indeed, it would be unlike anything he would ever write again. The play is Simon’s only farce, which is hard to believe considering his vast body of acclaimed work and that he honed his comedic chops early in his career […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘& Juliet’ at RBTL
What would happen if you combined Lisa Frank, a Disney amusement park and a 90s music video? Probably something in the same aesthetic ballpark as the unabashedly over-the-top jukebox musical “& Juliet,” which is turning the West Herr Auditorium Theater into a nostalgic dance party through December 14. Set in a remixed Y2K version of […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘Persuasion’ at The Company Theatre
This month marks Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, which means there have been almost two centuries of adaptations of beloved novels that either make her readers upset or make them swoon. The Company Theatre gets it right. Their fresh and faithful theatrical adaptation of her final novel “Persuasion” plays in their new home on 28 Lawn […]
Posted inLiterature
5 local-ish books for the reader in your life
Garrison Keillor, longtime host of the Minnesota Public Radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” once said, “a book is a gift you can open again and again.” And while Kindles are convenient and alluring, nothing quite tops cracking a fresh book spine and breathing in the printed pages. Whether you’re stumped on what to buy […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Local arts organizations lost federal funding in 2025. What’s next?
Out of the many uses for the letterpress machines at Flower City Arts Center, this year has seen a rise in protest posters. The Trump administration’s myriad executive orders, immigration crackdowns and weaponization of the Department of Justice have galvanized artists and other community members to push back. Executive director Kristin Rapp said the machines […]
