Ellen McLaughlin’s version of Aeschylus’s The Persians is both timely and dated (it foretold our current quagmire in Iraq). Excellent staging sets this production apart, but the text partly weakens the original play, and the performers, while adequate, aren’t up to the tragic standard.

The Persians. By Ellen McLaughlin; directed by Jade King Carroll. Through October 19, 2008 at People's Light and Theatre Company, 39 Conestoga Rd, Malvern, Pa. (610) 644-3500 or www.peopleslight.org.

George Crumb is one of the most outlandish living American composers and one of the most accessible, because you know he always has a reason for the things he does. At 80, he applied his inventiveness to ten American classics.

Orchestra 2001. Crumb, Voices from the Morning of the Earth; Vigue, Tides; Schwantner, Distant Runes and Incantations. Ann Crumb, soprano; Randall Scarlata, baritone; Marcantonio Barone, piano; William Kerrigan, Susan Jones, David Nelson, Angela Nelson, percussion. James Freeman, conductor. October 3, 2008 at Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center. (610) 544-6610 or www.orchestra2001.org.

As founder of the South Street Dance Company in the early ’70s, the late Ellen Forman introduced Philadelphia to post-modern dance. The humor, romanticism and ebullience that marked her life and work were appropriately recalled in a studio dedication in her honor.

Ellen Forman Memorial Dance Studio opening. October 3, 2008 at Mandell Theater, Drexel University, 33rd and Chestnut Sts. (215) 895-2787 or www.drexel.edu/comad.

Joan Becker’s eight large images of people, mostly couples, have a certain timeless quality. Like those couples sculpted on Etruscan sarcophagi lids, these are “in repose,” even when tapping away on their laptops.

"Nature/Human”: Works by Joan Becker and others. Through October 27, 2008 at Gross McCleaf Gallery, 127 South 16 St. (215) 665-8138 or www.grossmccleaf.com.

The Tempesta di Mare Baroque Orchestra artfully showcased the musical culture of an 18th-Century city governed by businessmen.

Orchestra Music from Hamburg: Tempesta di Mare Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra. Emlyn Ngai, concertmaster; Gwyn Roberts, flute. October 4, 2008 at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church. (215) 755-8776 or www.tempestadimare.org.

Villanova has opened its 50th drama season with a new production of Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey into Night. The play opened the Vasey Hall stage forty years ago under Robert Hedley’s direction, and Hedley returned to bring it richly to life again.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night. By Eugene O’Neill; directed by Robert Hedley. Villanova Theatre production September 23-October 5, 2008 at Vasey Hall, Dougherty Drive, Villanova U. (610) 519-7474 or www.theatre.villanova.edu.

Jonathan Larson’s Rent— a musical based on Puccini’s La Bohème and set in New York’s East Village— has finished its Broadway run but continues to tour. But what of its creator, who died before Rent took off?

Rent continues to tour and will visit Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, February 3 through 8, 2009. (215) 893-1999 or www.kimmelcenter.org.

Lorin Maazel’s tenure at the New York Philharmonic may be winding down, but Friday’s all-Tchaikovsky program displayed his expressiveness and emotionalism as well as his cultivation of beautiful sound.

New York Philharmonic: All-Tchaikovsky program. Lorin Maazel, conductor. October 3, 2008 at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center. (215) 893-1999 or www.kimmelcenter.org.

Perhaps because she’s a Soviet block refugee herself, the Wilma’s Blanka Zizka has made brilliant sense of Tom Stoppard’s incredibly ambitious though very disjointed take on the Cold War and its effects on individuals caught in ideological battles.

Rock and Roll. By Tom Stoppard; directed by Blanka Zizka. Through October 26, 2008 at Wilma Theater., 265 S. Broad St. (at Spruce). (215) 546-7824 or www.wilmatheater.org.

The Lyric Fest song series opened its season with a portrait of Gustav Mahler, consisting of letters, music and songs assembled by performers who've spent a significant portion of their careers mastering his work.