By Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff

Some of the biggest names in Boston music and beyond have signed on to perform at “Boston Strong: An Evening of Support and Celebration” at the TD Garden on May 30.

Aerosmith, James Taylor, Boston, New Kids on the Block, the J. Geils Band, Godsmack, Extreme, Steven Wright, Dane Cook, Jason Aldean, Jimmy Buffett, and Carole King will all play the show, whose net ticket proceeds will benefit The One Fund Boston, set up by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to help the people most affected by the Boston marathon bombings on April 15. More artists are expected to be added to the line up in the coming days. Tickets go on sale Monday May 6 at 1o a.m. through Ticketmaster.

By June Wulff, Globe Staff

A special gentleman and his special lady will be honored by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in July. The troupe’s production of “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” will be dedicated to Mayor Thomas M. Menino and First Lady Angela Menino who have been strong supporters of CSC’s Free Shakespeare on the Common and its mission to bring free theater to the folks of Boston.

Maler about Mayuh: Founding Artistic Director Steven Maler had this to say: “We are deeply grateful to have had the support and recognition of these influential and dedicated civic leaders, and we will honor them publicly at the July 11th performance on the Boston Common.”

This Shakespeare story about two buddies who go on a journey from Verona to Milan gets a Rat-Pack-in-Vegas-inspired treatment, and

By June Wulff, Globe Staff

According to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s newly appointed associate curator of the collection, Dr. Anne-Marie Eze, “The Gardner Museum is a very exciting place to be right now, so I am delighted to continue working here in a new capacity.” In her former role as the Museum’s first Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral curatorial fellow, Eze elevated the reputation of the Gardner’s manuscripts and rare books collection with “Illuminating the Serenissima: Books of the Republic of Venice,” publications, and public programs.

The associate curator hails from the United Kingdom, where she received a doctorate in art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the department of Western Manuscripts of the British Library.

By Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

The American Repertory Theater’s circus-themed production of “Pippin’’ was nominated Tuesday for a Tony Award for best revival of a musical, one of an impressive 10 nominations the show received.

Only “Kinky Boots,’’ with 13, and “Matilda the Musical,’’ with 12, received more Tony nominations than “Pippin.’’ Close behind are “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,’’ with nine nominations, and “Golden Boy,’’ with eight.

A 1972 musical with a score by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson, “Pippin’’ opened last week on Broadway. It premiered in January, after weeks of previews, at the ART’s Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge.

ART artistic director Diane Paulus, who helms “Pippin,’’ was nominated for a Tony Award for best direction of a musical.

By Erica Thompson and Boston.com Correspondent,

“Rocky” is heading to its new ring -- Broadway -- in February 2014, according to The New York Times.

The Oscar-winning film has been adapted into a Broadway play, envisioned by original “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone.

Big news from New York: The Huntington Theatre Company has won the 2013 Tony Award for regional theater. Led by artistic director Peter DuBois and managing director Michael Maso, the Huntington was singled out among hundreds of regional theaters across the country for presenting “exciting new works and classics made current,” including two shows that transferred to New York in 2012: the Broadway premiere of Lydia R. Diamond’s comedy-drama“Stick Fly,” and an off-Broadway production of Stephen Karam’s “Sons of the Prophet,’’ a finalist for a 2012 Pulitzer. Presented by the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, the Tonys will be awarded at Radio City Music Hall on June 9. “I couldn’t be more delighted,” said Maso, reached by phone on Cape Cod.

By Don Aucoin, Globe Staff

Broadway veteran André De Shields will play King Louie the orangutan; veteran Boston actor Thomas Derrah will play Kaa, the wily serpent; and 10-year-old Akash Chopra will play little boy Mowgli in Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of “The Jungle Book” when it opens at the Huntington Theatre Company in September.

Based on Rudyard Kipling’s stories and the 1967 Disney animated film, the world-premiere production will begin performances at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in June and come to Boston Sept. 7-Oct. 6.

Richard Sherman, who with his late brother Robert composed the songs for the Disney movie, is writing new lyrics for the stage show, in collaboration with Zimmerman. He has also granted permission to music director Doug Peck to adapt songs from the movie.

By Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff

The Boston Early Music Festival has announced details of its upcoming festival and exhibition (June 9-16). This year’s installment of the biennial festival, which attracts early music fans from across the country and abroad, will be titled “Youth: Genius and Folly” and will present as its theatrical centerpiece Handel’s first opera, “Almira,” directed by Gilbert Blin. It will also reprise a double bill of works by Charpentier — “La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers” and “La Couronne de Fleurs” — first staged for BEMF’s chamber opera series in 2011.

Among this year’s 16 festival concerts will be an evening of Mozart’s chamber music to be performed on the composer’s own violin and viola, traveling to the United States for the first time.

By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff

Want an easy way to get tickets to “The Book of Mormon?” The touring smash hit, all but sold out for its three-week run at the Opera House, will have an additional show Thursday at 1 p.m. to make up for Friday’s cancelled performance.

At last check, there were plenty of Thursday matinee seats listed on Ticketmaster.

Friday’s show was canceled amid the Boston-area lockdown as law enforcement personnel searched for Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

To try to accommodate Friday night ticketholders, who had their tickets refunded immediately when the show was canceled, Broadway in Boston reached out to them as soon as the Thursday show was added to give them a head start.

By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff

Want an easy way to get tickets to “The Book of Mormon?” The touring smash hit, all but sold out for its three-week run at the Opera House, will have an additional show Thursday at 1 p.m. to make up for Friday’s cancelled performance.

At last check, there were plenty of Thursday matinee seats listed on Ticketmaster.

Friday’s show was canceled amid the Boston-area lockdown as law enforcement personnel searched for Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

To try to accommodate Friday night ticketholders, who had their tickets refunded immediately when the show was canceled, Broadway in Boston reached out to them as soon as the Thursday show was added to give them a head start.

By Laura Collins-Hughes, Globe Staff

The American Repertory Theater has plucked a new managing director from off-Broadway: William Russo, currently the managing director of New York Theatre Workshop, the East Village company that premiered the hit musical “Once” last season after it was developed at the ART.

A full story will follow in The Boston Globe.

By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff

A slew of arts organizations have announced cancellations due to the Boston-area lockdown as police continue searching for marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

These include tonight’s Boston Baroque concert scheduled for Jordan Hall, Amon Tobin at the Paradise Rock Club, Joy Formidable at the House of Blues, Brown Bird at Brighton Music Hall, Ninety Miles at Berklee Performance Center, and all Blue Man Group performances. The Big Apple Circus canceled both its performances today, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Two organizations are also promising to decide by 3 p.m. about whether to hold their events tonight: The Huntington Theatre Company’s performance of Ryan Landry’s “M” at Calderwood Pavillion and the Boston Philharmonic’s concert at Symphony Hall.

By Laura Collins-Hughes, Globe Staff

Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, and Chita Rivera are among a bevy of Tony Award-winning musical theater stars slated to take the stage this summer at the Art House in Provincetown. In its third season, Seth Rudetsky will again be the host of the Broadway at the Art House series, playing both pianist and interlocutor to performers at the 130-seat theater on Commercial Street.

The procession of Tony winners will begin with Joanna Gleason, June 28-29, followed by Sutton Foster, July 4-5; McDonald, July 21-22; Christine Ebersole, Aug. 17-18; LuPone, Aug. 31-Sept. 1; and Rivera, Sept. 7-8.

Also on the series will be Broadway veteran Sam Harris, Aug. 3-4; cabaret star Marilyn Maye, Aug. 8-10; and Megan Hilty of “Smash,” Aug. 24-25.

By James H. Burnett III, Globe Staff

Vanessa O’Brien, the Boston-based mountaineer and adventurer who set out April 9 for Iceland, so she could attempt to walk to the North Pole in 10 days or less, has done it. With the completion of her North Pole trek, O’Brien, a native of Michigan, set the world record for the fastest time any woman has ever walked to the North and South poles and climbed the “Seven Summits,” the highest mountain peaks on all seven continents. It’s a challenge known as the Explorers Grand Slam, and O’Brien did it in 11 months, beginning with Mount Everest in May 2012. A former banking executive, O’Brien completed her North Pole trek in four-and-a-half days, arriving at the Pole Tuesday, April 16, at 5:21 PM EDT.

By James H. Burnett III, Globe Staff

In light of the bombing attacks at the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon, officials at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Institute for Contemporary Art are offering free admission Tuesday. In addition, the Boston Conservatory Theater announced that its upcoming production of “Reflections: Love, Loss and Living” would now be free of charge.

“Our entire community was affected by yesterday’s tragedy,” Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA, said in a statement.

At the ICA, Jill Medvedow, Ellen Matilda Poss Director, said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened by the tragic events that occurred yesterday during the Boston Marathon and our thoughts go out to the runners, friends, families, first responders, and all those impacted.

By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff

In response to the explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the Boston Symphony Orchestra postponed its 7 p.m. Monday concert, which was set to feature pianist Gabriela Montero and conductor Marcelo Lehninger in an all-Beethoven program. Among other events also cancelled or postponed: The sold-out Moth story hour event at Club Oberon in Cambridge; Rogue Burlesque at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge; author Adam Grant’s appearance at the Harvard Book Store; the comedy show at Dick’s Beantown Comedy Vault.

By Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff

The conductor and composer Nicholas White has been named music director of the Boston Cecilia. A resident of Concord, NH, where he is Director of Chapel Music and Organist at St. Paul’s School, White succeeds Donald Teeters, who concluded his 44-year tenure with the chorus at the end of last season.

Born in London, White moved to this country in 1989 and has been active as an organist, choir conductor, singer, composer, and educator. His March performance with Boston Cecilia featured British music drawn from over five centuries, and concluded with his own work, “From Earth to Heaven (Six Middle English Lyrics).” The news was announced by Cecila co-presidents Elizabeth Riely and John Whitlock.

By Ty Burr, Globe Staff

What are movie critics good for, anyway?

They don’t actually make anything. Worse, they judge what other people make, which sounds like the easiest and most parasitic job in the world until you sit down and try to do it responsibly — knowledgeably and fairly, honest about your own biases as well as the objects you’re seeing through them.

What good are movie critics? The question deserves to be asked because Roger Ebert — who a lot of us thought would never die and now, unaccountably, has — deserves to be memorialized. In large part, he matters for popularizing not just reviewing movies but thinking about them, talking about them, taking what they have to offer further into our minds and hearts.

By Ty Burr, Globe Staff

What are movie critics good for, anyway?

They don’t actually make anything. Worse, they judge what other people make, which sounds like the easiest and most parasitic job in the world until you sit down and try to do it responsibly — knowledgeably and fairly, honest about your own biases as well as the objects you’re seeing through them.

What good are movie critics? The question deserves to be asked because Roger Ebert — who a lot of us thought would never die and now, unaccountably, has — deserves to be memorialized. In large part, he matters for popularizing not just reviewing movies but thinking about them, talking about them, taking what they have to offer further into our minds and hearts.

By Peter Cocchia, Globe Correspondent

By June Wulff, Globe Staff

Anita, Velma, Rosie, Nickie, Charity, Aurora. Recognize these ladies? They have all been played by Chita Rivera, the two-time Tony winner for “The Rink” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” who made them her own on Broadway, on tour, and in the movies. Rivera even played herself on Broadway in the autobiographical revue, “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life.”

Wednesday, the Boston Theater Critics Association announced that Chita Rivera will receive this year’s Elliot Norton Lifetime Achievement Award on May 13 at the Paramount Center. Named for the esteemed Boston theater critic who died 10 years ago at the age of 100, Rivera will be in town to accept the honor.