Movies and Music in Maine

I love living just one block away from the beautiful City Theater in downtown Biddeford, Maine, which runs five excellent shows per season. This year, their Christmas production is Irving Berlin’s musical  Holiday Inn , a stage adaptation of the 1942 film that opened on Broadway back in 2016. Directed by Linda Sturdivant, City Theater’s staging of the musical is a spirited celebration of the holiday season, and of all holiday seasons for that matter, given that the songs are basically a revue of our various holidays themselves. The cast members all ably attend to their roles and to the demanding song & dance routines throughout the performance, the most famous of which is “White Christmas.” It’s remained a Christmastime mainstay in American culture for over 80 years now, although our white Christmases have become less reliable and more nostalgic in the face of climate change, even as far north as Maine. I’ve of...

I moved to Biddeford near the coast of Maine this past month, after 31 years of living in Boston, and my first post for my new blog about movies & music in Maine is about a local musical quartet right here in town, the wonderful singer/songwriter & guitarist John Redman’s superb band  The Biddeford Beat . Redman worked in public service for years with his wife Marianne in Washington, DC, before retiring here to Biddeford, where Marianne had spent many summers since childhood. One of John’s pursuits in retirement has been writing a fantastic set of folk & jazz-inspired songs that’s available to listen to for free on his website,  thebiddefordbeat.com , along with performing his songs live with vocalist & keyboardist Mesa Schubeck (who teaches music at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine), lead guitarist Patrick Sylvia, and percussionist Joe Beninati. The quartet’s next live show will take place ...