🎟️🔥 Boston’s HOTTEST ticket

It’s Monday, Boston.

🚨 New deals alert: Every month, B-Side members get a slew of new deals added to their membership perks. This drop includes WNDR Museum, Black Rose, Puttshack, Boston Baroque, and more. Sign up here!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Boston’s spring weather outlook

• South Station’s chic new look

• New England sweeps the Oscars

Up first…

ARTS & CULTURE

We’ve got the ticket

Boston is bursting at the seams with comedy shows, concerts, and musicals this spring. So we rounded up some of the best bang-for-your-buck options under $50 (prices are as of Sunday evening).

Here’s what’s worth a ticket:

COMEDY

🎤 Margaret Cho, The Wilbur, March 14. The actress, musician, and hilarious comedian is hitting The Wilbur for one night only with tickets starting at $30. We may or may not have laughed out loud at this joke. 

😂 Ziwe, The Wilbur, May 9. Are we the only ones who are shocked to see that Ziwe tickets start at $43? One look at this hilarious interview with Chet Hanks … or this one with George Santos (yes, that one) … and you’ll see why. 

MUSIC

🎷Jorja Smith, Wang Theatre, March 7. If you listen to a lot of R&B, you’ve probably heard Jorja Smith on her many collabs without even knowing it. We’d start by checking out “Lost & Found.” The cheapest tickets we found are $38.

🎸 mxmtoon, Roadrunner, April 2. You might know mxmtoon from her TikTok earworms like “Falling For U,” but the rest of her bedroom pop-style tunes are just as catchy. Tickets start at $48.

🎵 Kylie Minogue, TD Garden, April 9. If you weren’t dancing to “Padam Padam” last summer, what were you doing? We’d pay $23 for a ticket just to scream-sing “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”

🎟️ Note: If you’re down to check out up-and-coming artists, this roundup of the best smaller-venue acts in Boston this spring is another great resource.

THEATRE

🔥 “101 Damnations,” Farkas Hall, now to March 9. Long story short, if Cynthia Erivo likes it, we like it, too. 101 Damnations is the latest production by Hasty Pudding Theatricals, which is entirely written, produced, and performed by Harvard students. Tickets start at $35.

🌽 “Shucked,” Citizens Bank Opera House, April 8 to 20. This lighthearted musical comedy is unapologetically corny (yes, that’s a pun), but got stellar reviews from the Times, Variety, and a bunch of Gia’s theatre kid friends. Tickets start at $25.

💁‍♀️ “Kimberly Akimbo,” Emerson Colonial Theatre, May 6 to 18. This musical about a teen trying to live with a condition that makes her age rapidly won five Tonys in 2023 — but tickets start at just $25. 

🎭 Literally any show at The Huntington. Thanks to their HYPE program, theatre-goers under 40 can get $40 tickets to ANY show. We snooped around the spring offerings, and “The Triumph of Love” from March 7 to April 6 caught our eye.

TOGETHER WITH INDY PASS

Skiing, but make it ✨indie✨

⛷️🏔️ You know how the best coffee shops usually aren’t chains? Same goes for ski resorts. Skip the overcrowded hotspots and explore 250+ independent mountains across the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, and South America with Indy Pass. Starting at just $349, you get two days at each hidden gem, where the tracks are smooth, the vibes are chill, and the lift lines are way shorter. Passes for the 25/26 season are up for grabs now, but (just like a perfect powder day) they won’t stick around. Lock yours in now before everyone else catches on. The sale is only available while supplies last.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🌷 Boston’s spring weather outlook is … warm. It isn’t officially spring until March 20, but meteorological spring is HERE. Despite the relatively cold, icy winter season we had, New Englanders can expect a warmer-than-average spring with normal amounts of precipitation, according to the Globe. Why? The (very) simple answer is our weak La Niña and the jet stream placement, which have produced similarly warm and wet conditions in the past, especially when combined with more sunlight coming soon. Here’s to hoping! Keep up with the latest local weather happenings here.

👮 Mayor Michelle Wu is ramping up downtown safety measures. Boston will be cracking down on public drug use following repeated complaints from residents and officials about downtown safety. The plan: To continue connecting people experiencing homelessness to shelters or rehabilitative treatment while increasing police presence (again) at specific hotspots, including the Common and downtown. Officials emphasized the coordinated efforts of police and outreach workers to get folks the specific help they need. “We’re not trying to create a war on anything,” said police commissioner Michael Cox.

👀 South Station’s chic new look is turning heads. More specifically, turning heads UP. Recently, the station got a fancy new atrium, and its new, super-modern, green-glowing domed ceiling is the pièce de résistance (check it out here!). One commuter compared it to “walking into the Emerald City.” The new look is part of the massive South Station Air Rights project, which will eventually include an expanded bus terminal and a 51-story luxury skyscraper jutting out of the station, which the new atrium serves as the base for.

🛍️ Newbury Street just got a little more thrifty. Enter: Vivant Vintage! If Reformation, Anthropologie, and Alo Yoga are a few rungs out of your tax bracket, you’ll be happy to know that the iconic Allston vintage shop just opened its second location on Newbury, a few doors down from Trident Booksellers. The new spot is certainly bigger than the OG, with tons of vintage finds from jewelry to jackets to lots and lots of denim. Considering the line outside on day one … we’d say it's going over pretty well. 

MEDIA SPONSORSHIP

Looking to up your style game with spring and summer on the way? 

At Brighton Bazaar’s pop-up markets — and their brick-and-mortar store The Brighton Emporium — you’ll find fresh vintage and artisan clothing, accessories, vinyl, and decorative items. If you’re looking to shake up your style or find unique gifts for loved ones, this is your place. B-Side members get a free poster when they visit the store or a pop-up market!

Join the B-Side Membership to unlock this perk!

THINGS TO DO

Weekday plans

⚜️ Start Tuesday off with a beignet. Fat Tuesday is March 4, and South Street Dinner is going all out for Mardi Gras with a $10 all-you-can-eat jambalaya feast (also available on Uber Eats!), beads, and beignets.

💅 Put some sass in your step. Things are gonna get spicy at this Dance Sassy open-style choreography class on March 5. Expect fem-style, hip-hop, jazz-funk, heels, waacking, and voguing. All skill levels are welcome!

🏀 PSA: Cheap Celtics tickets! It’s not everyday you find ~$60 seats to a Celtics game at TD Garden, but today ain’t no ordinary day.

🍹 Find your boo without the booze. Leave the apps and absinthe at home. Instead, head to Dray Drinks on March 6 for a “dry” single mingle event. There will be plenty of mocktail-making demos and single 20- and 30-somethings — what more could you want?!

🎨 Phones, down! Crafts, up! The Screenless Project is hosting a phone-free craft night on March 6 at The Foundry. They’ll have the materials for everything from coloring to origami to sudoku. You just gotta leave your phone on DND. Sound good?

🔊 Jam out at Boston’s Bitdown. This three-day chiptune/digital fusion festival showcasing 50 artists kicks off March 6 in Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom. Not sure what chiptune is? Here’s a quick primer. 

💐 Pretend like spring is already here. Be among the daisies at Craft Loft’s floral-arranging class on March 7. You’ll learn everything from color theory to arranging techniques, and get an adult bev with your ticket. 

🐻 Watch Keytar Bear hit the big screen. Seriously! This short documentary on Boston’s favorite busking bear is premiering at Suffolk University on March 7. Even better: It’s free.

QUICK QUESTION!

🏆 Did you watch the Oscars last night? 

ONE LAST THING

New England sweeps the Oscars

Even if your fave didn’t take home an Oscar last night … it's safe to say that New England swept the show. Tons of this year’s nominated films boast local ties. 

To name a few: Brookline native Conan O’Brien will be hosting, Newton native and newly-inducted DunKing Jeremy Strong starring in “The Apprentice,” the constant Newport, R.I., features in Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” vocal performances from locals Ayo Edebiri and Amy Poehler in “Inside Out 2,” and pretty much everyone in “Nickel Boys.”

You can check out the rest of the local easter eggs here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🎥 Thanks for reading! We’re proud of everyone, but TBH, we’re mostly here for the red carpet looks.

📝 Correction: The B-Side Membership perk is to the Black Rose, an Irish pub, not Black Rose Bakery!

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Indy Pass, for supporting local journalism and giving New Englanders a chance to ski and snowboard off the beaten path.

🏙️ The results are in: B-Siders are almost perfectly split on whether you say “Seaport” or “the Seaport.” Literally, the results were split 50/50. One reader said: “Anyone that says ‘the Seaport’ is new to Boston.” Interesting …

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].