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Salem: Make it go away

Both papers this morning cover yesterday's absurdist drama in Salem, where the TV Land cable channel used the city and its tragic history as a backdrop for a cheapo publicity stunt, erecting a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery as sitcom witch Samantha Stevens to promote "Bewitched Week."I could link to the Herald's picture of it, but it's just too awful. "I think it's worse than I imagined using my wildest imagination,'' former Salem Historical Commission member John Carr told The Herald's Laura Crimaldi. A "hunk of grotesque, grimacing kitsch" the Herald's T.J. Medrek rants entertainingly. "Product placement run amok." But the Globe's Kathy McCabe writes, "A handful of protesters, upset that a statue of a TV witch will stand in the home of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, were outnumbered by a crowd of about 1,500 'Bewitched' fans." Anyone else thinking of the word "boneheads?"

My earlier take on this is here, with comments from some Salemites.

The morning papers

In the Globe, Alex Beam writes about the hoopla surrounding next month's launch of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," asking some good questions, including why no marketing to kids at sleep-away camp and "Will the loons come out?" ... Suzanne Ryan talks to new WCVB general manager Bill Fine, the new successor to Paul LaCamera, who has been with the station since it opened. Fine promises not to change the station's higher-minded attitude or cancel "Chronicle." ... Joan Anderman  reviews the Pixies at Agganis Arena and says a frenzied finish "almost made up for the tepid start." But opener Kristen Hersh and her 50 Foot Wave delivered even more "astonishing noise."

In the Herald, Chris Blagg seems to have liked the Pixies more than Anderman, although he also has more fun with Frank Black's suburban wardrobe. ... T.J. Medrek previews two gigs this week by the avant garde ensemble The BSC. ... Medrek also has a nice piece on the Topf Center for Dance Education. Some Topf kids will take to the stage with top professional dancers in a benefit Saturday. I'd link to the event page, but there isn't one that I can find on the Topf site. ... Larry Katz reports that local boys the Click Five have landed the opening slot on most of the Backstreet Boys tour, including that Aug. 14 gig at the Tweeter. But I can't find a link to that item, either.

Both papers also report on this morning's launch of the redesigned Boston Phoenix. No more fold!

In the Patriot Ledger, Bob Jackman reports "an all-star exhibition of Eastern Massachusetts art is on display now at the Helen Bumpus Gallery in the Duxbury Free Library." The exhibit features 44 works by 22 former winners of the Conant Award. At the opening reception Kathy Ferrara of Hanson received the 2004 Conant award, and her new "Inn at Rockport" is part of the exhibition.

Theater: Huntington celebrates, two-for-one

To mark the conclusion of its first season at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in the South End, the Huntington Theatre Company is offering a "buy one, get one free" ticket deal for the last week of Christopher Durang's "Laughing Wild" at the Calderwood's terrific Virginia Wimberly Theatre June 21-26, as well as for the company's Boston University Theatre production of "Falsettos." As the Huntington rightly boasts, the Pavilion has become a hub of theatrical activity and attracted younger audiences. (A cynic might wonder if this special deal isn't also a good way of cleaning up empty seats late in a run.) The two-for-one tickets can be purchased at  www.huntingtontheatre.org (using code 436) or www.bostontheatrescene.com (code 436), at 617-266-0800, at the box offices for the BU Theatre and the Calderwood.

Hot Stove, Cool Music to rock Fenway

Kay Hanley, Ben Kweller, Theo Epstein and - gulp - New York Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams will be among the luminaries rocking Fenway Park on July 16 in the Hot Stove, Cool Music: Fenway Sessions benefit announced this afternoon. Peter Gammons, Bill Janovitz, Juliana Hatfield, the Gentlemen and Red Sox pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Lenny DiNardo are among the other performers on the bill for the evening show after the Saturday afternoon Red Sox-Yankees showdown. Epstein will play with Buffalo Tom. And comedian Mike O'Malley will have skits organized between the music.

This won't be a Rolling Stones-style mega-concert setup for Fenway. In an arrangement "designed to preserve the intimacy" of the winter Hot Stove, Cool Music events at the Paradise, the stage will be adjacent to the roof of the Red Sox dugout, and only first-base-side seats will be used.

"We're seeking a small, club-like atmosphere with Fenway Park as the backdrop," Epstein said in a statement. "It's a unique outing."

This time around the proceeds will go to benefit "A Foundation To Be Named Later," a branch of the Red Sox Foundation created by Epstein and his brother Paul to support eight community programs for at-risk and disadvantaged kids, including Horizons for Homeless Children and the Treehouse Foundation.

Tickets are $50 and $100, and will go on sale Thursday at noon via redsox.com or by calling the box office 877-RED-SOX9. Gates are expected to open at 6 p.m., with entertainment starting at 7.

Music: Thompson on the Merrimac

I prefer Richard Thompson in rock-guitar-god mode, perhaps only because it comes around so rarely. But his fleet-fingered English-folkie act is dazzling too. He's bringing his solo acoustic show to the Newburyport High School Theatre on Aug. 7, one day after his headlining gig at the Newport Folk Festival. Syd Straw is also on the bill. Tickets are $37 at your favorite North Shore independent record store or by calling 978-462-9630. If we're lucky, in addition to tales of doomed outlaws and lost loves, he'll also play the song about Janet Jackson's errant breast (Mp3 here).

Musical notes (and lutefisk) in the morning papers

Catherine Foster has a Globe profile today of Franklin teenager Andrea C. Ross, whose "clear, pure voice" in local musicals won her an Elliot Norton Award for best actress and has now brought her to the attention of Andrew Lloyd Webber. ... And the Globe's Richard Dyer says that the Boston Early Music Festival's  presentation of the Johann Mattheson's 300-year-old opera "Boris Goudenow" is "three hours of delightful music and that's plenty good enough." ... In the Go column, Jim Sullivan says don't pay online scalpers' prices for tickets to tonight's Pixies show at Agganis Arena. Surprisingly, there are still plenty o'tix left. ... In the Herald's , Linda Laban offers deets on the weekend's 26th annual Cambridge River Festival. ... She also notes an excellent Swedish two-fer at TT The Bear's on Friday. The Caesars - known for "Jerk It Out" on the iPod commercial - play a free FNX listener show early, and The Soundtrack of Our Lives play an acoustic show very late after opening for Robert Plant at the Pavilion. Headline of the day to Sande Kent for "But will there be lutefisk?" 

Theater: Tuesday with Broadway in Boston

Broadway in Boston announced its 2005-06 season with an event at the Opera House yesterday featuring Maureen McGovern; my invitation must have blown off the porch. The lineup features a dozen productions at the Opera House and the Colonial, including Tony-winner "Wicked," McGovern in "Little Women - The Musical" and, eeek, a new musical one-man show by Martin Short that's Broadway-bound. Boston Ballet's  "Nutcracker" moves to the Opera House to begin its four-year run there. Aside from Short, who many people unaccountably find hilarious, the biggest stars are McGovern and Hal Linden, who'll appear in "Tuesdays with Morrie." Most of it is predictable, likely profitable, but unexciting fare. I mean, "Annie" with Mackenzie Phillips?! The one dark spot  is the Wilbur. In the Herald, Terry Byrne wonders if Clear Channel might be unloading it; in the Globe, BnB President Drew Murphy tells Maureen Dezell that negotiations are underway for shows there.

Salem's new witch-related shame

Today brings the unveiling in a park in Salem of a 9-foot statue of the late Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha in "Bewitched." The Globe's Joanna Weiss tries hard to make a real story out of it, analyzing Samantha as "a pre-feminist role model" and the pop-cultural significance of the witch on the 1960s sitcom. But it's a heavy load to hang on this silly news peg. In the Herald, Franci Richardson and Laura Crimaldi go the straight news route, mentioning that some residents of the town where 19 men and women were executed during the 1692 witchcraft hysteria are less than thrilled. And they interview Salem Mayor Stanley Usovicz, who's resolutely upbeat. "It's actually kind of neat to set up the stage and no one has seen (the statue). It truly becomes an unveiling,''  he says. Ya think? Thank you Mayor Quimby.

Let's get real, folks. As noted in both stories, not prominently enough, this is a publicity stunt by the TV Land cable network. TV Land is having "Bewitched" Week to piggyback on promotion for the new "Bewitched" movie starring Nicole Kidman, which opens June 24. As Weiss notes, the first season of the original series is also coming out on DVD. So it's a giant publicity clusterfuck, and half the publicists in Hollywood are giggling up their sleeves that they actually got Witch City to play along with it. Yuck. A month from now, nobody will care but the pigeons.

Music: The other Puffy at the Somerville

The usual Tuesday info drop from Tea Party Concerts delivered Japanese duo Puffy AmiYumi at the Somerville Theatre on Aug. 24. Tix, $20, on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.. Also, 311 with Papa Roach and Unwritten Law, at the Tweeter Center Aug. 19. Tix, $27.50-$35, on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.. And also, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals at Avalon, July 26, $30, on sale Saturday at... wait for it ... 10 a.m. Tix for all three at the appropriate box office (for Harper, that's the Orpheum for some reason), plus Ticketmaster, 617/508) 931-2000, or (617) 228-6000, or www.teapartyconcerts.com.

Dance: Snappy decisions

Interesting times at Snappy Dance Theater. The nine-year-old company is gearing up for its Sept. 14-18 performances at the BCA's Wimberly Theatre, the first dance group to perform in that sharp new venue.  (Tickets go on sale in July.) And Artistic Director Martha Mason is leading the troupe to Russia in July to perform at a festival in St. Petersburg. But planning that trip got more complicated when that performances in half a dozen cities in the Urals -- intended to pay the travel bills -- were canceled by the presenters. So Snappy is now going into its pockets to pay $12,000-$15,000 expenses.

The troupe is also thinking of changing its name, Mason said today. "The feedback from presenters is that it sounds too much like a kiddie company, too L-I-T-E, that it just doesn't do justice to our work," she said. Snappy has always wanted Boston audiences to feel ownership of the company - in May, the audience gave notes during two performances of a work in progress. So now, Mason said, they're seriously considering some sort of audience input, perhaps even a contest, to settle on a new name. Getting the audience involved might also help reduce the confusion associated with a change, she said.