New York’s Cynthia Hopkins is a singing, songwriting, performance-art-making dynamo; imagine Laurie Anderson crossed with Dolly Parton and you’re on the right track. Her last On the Boards show—2004’s roots-rock amnesia musical Accidental Nostalgia—knocked me on my ass upon contact and kept me swimming in heady pleasures for days after. Must Don’t describes itself as both prequel and sequel to Nostalgia, and has been praised by the New York Times as “a triumph of disciplined thinking, narrative fluidity, and musical accomplishment.” (On the Boards, 100 W Roy St, 217-9888. 8 pm, $24.)
David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest... More by David Schmader