If you missed world-music diva Angelique Kidjo’s two previous performances at Dartmouth College, count on spending more time on your feet than in your seat at Spaulding Auditorium on Tuesday night.
And expect to head home pondering issues ranging from women seeking equal pay around the world to ordinary people, many from her native Africa as well as the more visibly fraught Middle East, fleeing drought, famine and war, not to mention some of the larger causes of their plight.
“I urge people not only to dance, but to think about what I’m singing,” the multiple Grammy winner said Wednesday during a telephone interview from California. “About how we need to work together, to find solutions. I always say to people, ‘You have the power. Don’t let people tell you you do not.’
“After you leave, the message should be sinking in to everyone.”
Along with winning three Grammy Awards for African-blended music across multiple genres — most recently her Angelique Kidjo Sings, recorded in 2015 with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra — Kidjo has been calling attention to global issues throughout her career of more than three decades. Her attention to humanitarian causes became magnified in the late 1980s, when she emigrated to Paris from her native Benin in western Africa because of repression from the ruling Communist regime. In addition to serving as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador since 2002, she started a foundation to widen educational opportunities for women and girls in Africa, campaigned for vaccinations and safe drinking water in developing countries and, most recently, focused on raising awareness of climate change, which she sees as a trigger for much of the dislocation going on in the world.
“The old order is no longer working,” Kidjo said. “We are trying to keep a car on the road when the tires are completely flat. … We can stop these things from going on. We have to have the guts.”
Kidjo added that she covers many of these themes in 2014’s Eve, the jazz-infused session in which she collaborated with guitarist Lionel Loueke, drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Christian McBride, and which earned her a Grammy last year. She expects to perform many of those songs on Tuesday with her regular touring band of guitarist-singer Dominic James, bassist-singer Ben Zwerin, drummer Yayo Serka and percussionist Magatte Sow.
The band, she added, is a microcosm of a lifelong effort to inform while entertaining.
“I’ve been a bridge-builder since I was young,” Kidjo said. “I always thought growing up, that was what I was going to do. I’ve always believed in people’s right to decide. You work with other people. It has become more urgent over the years to do that.
“There’s no way you can walk away from the fact that we’re all human beings.”
Three-time Grammy-winning world-music singer-composer Angelique Kidjo leads her four-member band into Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover on Tuesday night at 7. For tickets ($17 to $50) to the concert and more information, call 603-646-2242 or visit hop.dartmouth.edu. Kidjo also will talk about her music and her humanitarian work on Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 in Spaulding; admission is free.
With six stagings over the next week at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction, Northern Stage kicks off its collaboration with two other Vermont theater companies on Alan Ayckbourn’s comic trilogy The Norman Conquests. Performances of Living Together include previews tonight and Friday night at 7:30, the official opening Saturday night at 7:30, a matinee at 5 on Sunday afternoon, and stagings on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 7:30. After Northern Stage completes its run, under the direction of Peter Hackett, on May 8, the same six-member cast and production crew will take on the second installment, Table Manners, at the Dorset Theatre Festival between June 16 and July 2. And from July 21 to 30, the Weston Playhouse will produce the conclusion, Round and Round the Garden. For tickets to Living Together ($30 for the previews, $20 for Tuesday night’s show, $30 to $55 for all other performances), visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000. To learn more about the sequels, visit westonplayhouse.org and dorsettheatrefestival.org.
Decisions, decisions: Dartmouth College is screening two tempting movies on Friday night at 7 at the Hopkins Center in Hanover. At Spaulding Auditorium, you can catch the always-entertaining British Arrows compilation of the U.K.’s most decorated commercials of 2015. Meanwhile, Loew Auditorium will be showing Requiem for the American Dream, the documentary about heavyweight intellectual Noam Chomsky. Admission to both movies is $5 to $8. For more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Boston-based stand-up standouts Sam Ike, Tricia Auld and Maylin Pavletic perform at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club in Bridgewater on Friday night at 8. The club moved in 2015 from the first floor to the second floor of the Bridgewater Mill complex in downtown Bridgewater. Admission is by a suggested donation of $10; attendees can bring their own drinks. For more information, visit the Woolen Mill Comedy Club page on Facebook.
∎ To raise money for a program that pays sign-language interpreters at occasions with audiences that include deaf people, comedian Crom Saunders tells jokes and stories in American Sign Language at Bethel Town Hall on Saturday afternoon at 3. Voice interpreters will translate for hearing non-signers, and raffle tickets will be sold for a television and cash prizes. Proceeds from raffle tickets, refreshment sales and the admission fees of $5 to $12 go to the Yolande Henry Community Fund of the Vermont Interpreter Referral Service. For more information, visit virs.org or call 802-254-3920.
∎ For its annual spring concert in Norwich on Sunday afternoon at 3, the Camerata New England piano quartet performs at a new venue: the home of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley, across Route 5 from The Family Place. Cellist Linda Galvan, violist Peter Sulski, pianist Evelyn Zuckerman and violinist Omar Chen Guey share works of Beethoven, Faure and Schubert. Concert-goers should park at The Family Place, or on Palmer Court. For tickets ($28) and more information, visit cameratanewengland.org or call 802-785-4833 or email info@cameratanewengland.org.
∎ With Marjorie Drysdale conducting, the Randolph Singers celebrate the arrival of spring with a “Return to Light” program at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph on Sunday afternoon at 4. The program includes works of Brahms, Mendelssohn, Faure, Tallis, Rutter and Lauridsen. While admission is free, donations are welcome. For more information, visit randolphsingers.org.
∎In the spirit of public radio’s Moth Radio Hour, raconteurs Skip Sturman, Johanna Evans and Doug Harp deliver “True Tales without a Net” at the Canoe Club in Hanover on Sunday night from 8 to 9. Reservations required; call 603-643-9660.
The Sequentia ensemble will perform medieval songs of heroes, gods and strong women at Dartmouth College’s Rollins Chapel in Hanover next Thursday night at 7. For tickets ($17 to $20) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Folk singer-songwriter Ana Egge will lead her trio into the Flying Goose Brewpub and Grill in New London next Thursday night at 8. Reservations are required. For advance tickets and more information, visit flyinggoose.com or call 603-526-6899.
∎ With a supporting cast that includes a number of Upper Valley performers, Broadway veteran Ken Prymus will reprise his role as Old Deuteronomy during the production of Cats the Musical that Pentangle Arts and the ArtisTree Community Arts Center will present at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre between April 29 and May 8. To reserve tickets ($17 to $30) and learn more, visit pentanglearts.org or call 802-457-3981.
∎ The Northern New England Repertory Theatre Company will stage Tom Stoppard’s translation of the Gerald Sibleyras comedy Heroes at Whipple Memorial Town Hall in New London at 7:30 the nights of April 29 and 30 and at 2 the afternoon of May 1. Playing the trio of World War I veterans will be Lake Sunapee-area residents Charley Freiberg as Philippe, Mike Gregory as Gustave and Kevin Tarleton as Henri. Tickets, which cost $24 for adults and are free for students, are available in advance by visiting the Tatewell Gallery at the New London Shopping Center or NNERTC.org. For more information, email info@NNERTC.org.
∎ Under the direction of Ellen Satterthwaite, the Freelance Family Singers will perform at the First Congregational Church in Woodstock on April 30 at 7 p.m. and May 1 at 3 p.m. The chorus’ repertoire will range from Haydn’s Sing to the Lord a New Song and the Shaker hymn Bow Down Low to Ain’t She Sweet. While admission is free, donations of non-perishable items for the community food shelf are welcome.
The Thetford Chamber Singers will perform four concerts in early May on the theme of “Make Our Garden Grow: Seeking, Finding and Building Our Sense of Home.” Ranging among works of Bernstein and Palestrina as well as those of Vermont composers, the ensemble will sing at the United Church of Strafford on May 1 at 4:30 p.m., at the North Universalist Chapel in Woodstock on May 6 at 7:30 p.m., and at the First Congregational Church on Thetford Hill at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on May 8. Advance tickets cost $8 to $12, and are available at the Norwich Bookstore and the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, as well as by visiting thetfordchambersingers.org. Tickets at the door are $15.
The Old Church Theater in Bradford is inviting aspiring actors to auditions this weekend for the roles of three men and three women in the Ken Jones comedy Dead to the Last Drop, which the company will stage over the first two weekends of July. To learn more about the auditions, which will run from 2 to 3:30 on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, visit oldchurchtheater.org or the troupe’s Facebook page.
As part of its Issues Series, the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph stages central-Vermont playwright Jeanne Beckwith’s Shot in Baghdad on Sunday night at 7. Kim Ward directs the dark comedy about a young Iraqi-American actor encountering more than he bargained for while performing in a film about a tragic event in Baghdad. General-admission tickets cost $5 to $10 in advance and $5 to $12 at the door. For more information, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Four bands serenade the end of ski season during Killington Mountain Resort’s second annual Dazed & Defrosted Festival on Saturday afternoon at the K-1 base area. Performers include Andy Lugo and the Dirty Boost at 11:30 a.m., Sonic Malfunktion at 1:15 p.m., The Kind Buds at 3 and the Mark Mercier Band at 5. DJ Dave will play recordings between the acts.
∎ Men at Work alumnus Colin Hay sings at the Flying Monkey Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H., on Saturday night at 7:30. For tickets ($35 to $45) and more information, visit flyingmonkeynh.com or call 603-536-2551.
∎ During the next ChamberWorks recital at Dartmouth College’s Rollins Chapel in Hanover on Sunday afternoon at 1, faculty members John Muratore (guitar), Alex Ogle (flute) and Scott Woolweaver (viola) play works of Bach, Schubert, Francois Davienne, Astor Piazzolla and Jurriaan Andriessen, on the theme of “From the Old World and the New.” Admission is free.
Laura Barrett and Sharon Gouveia lead a workshop on Quebecois-style step dancing on Saturday night at 5:45 at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret. A community potluck follows. Admission is by donation. For more information, visit revelsnorth.org.
∎ The Moving Spirit Dancers join forces with the choir and readers of poetry during the Earth Day service at Woodstock’s North Universalist Chapel on Sunday morning at 10. On the theme of “Awakening: Delight and Challenge” and with choreography from Peggy Brightman, dancers Nicole Conti, Jenny Gelfan, Suzy Malerich and Hope Yeager will accompany the choir’s rendition of Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Linden Lea, recorded music by Vermont composer Eugene Friesen and poems of e.e. Cummings and Andrew Marvel.
Singer Linda Boudreault and guitarist Ted Mortimer collaborate on a set of jazz, soul and blues at the Lyme Inn tonight from 7 to 9.
∎The duo of singer Lydia Gray and guitarist Ed Eastridge plays at the Canoe Club in Hanover tonight at 6:30. Following them to the microphone with 6:30 to 9:30 shows over the coming week are jazz guitarist Billy Rosen on Friday and Wednesday, saxophonist Michael Parker and guitarist Ed Eastridge with a jazz conversation on Saturday, and the Sensible Shoes duo of Tim Utt and Barbara Blaisdell next Thursday. On Monday night starting at 5:30, Marko the Magician performs his weekly, tableside sleight-of-hand.
∎ Singer-songwriter Brian Warren pulls into Windsor Station tonight from 7 to 10. Next up over the coming week are Sensible Shoes with its first stop at the venue on Friday night from 8 to 11, the seven-member Eight Feet Tall ensemble with a set of hip-hop, reggae and funk on Saturday night at 9:30, and singer-songwriter-guitarist Leyeux, aka Jack Snyder, on Tuesday night at 6.
∎ Folk singer-songwriter John Paul O’Connor plays at Bentley’s restaurant in Woodstock tonight at 8.
∎ Second Wind performs a set of folk, rock and pop at Jesse’s restaurant in Hanover on Friday night starting at 5.
∎The Party Crashers set the rockin’ rhythm for dancing on Friday night at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners, and on Saturday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon.
∎ Singer-songwriter-guitarist Leyeux, aka Jack Snyder, performs at the SILO Distillery in Windsor on Sunday from noon to 2.
Enfield-raised acoustic rocker Brooks Hubbard returns to the Upper Valley from his new home base in Nashville with a performance at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon on Tuesday night at 7.
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
∎ String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
∎ Al Carruth and E.J. Tretter host the Sunapee Community Coffeehouse’s monthly open-mic on Friday night at 7, in the basement of the Sunapee Methodist Church. Singers, storytellers and other performers should sign up before showtime with the hosts.
∎ Salt hill Pub in Lebanon hosts an open-mic for comedians on Monday night at 8:30. Anyone planning to perform should arrive at 8 to register.
∎ Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights starting at 6.
∎ Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
∎ The Seven Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon runs an open mic on Tuesday nights, beginning at 8.
∎ Jim Yeager hosts an open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern, at 8:30 on Wednesday nights.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.