Best of the Week: Our Picks for November 2-6, 2015

Welcome to Best of the Week, our recommendations for what to check out around town this week. If you’re wondering what to do in Boston this week, check out these events.

Cuisine En Locale flyer

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
Monday, November 2
Muertos 5 at Cuisine En Locale

Haven’t had your fill of spooky dining events this fall? Not to worry—there’s still one last gasp, thanks to Cuisine En Locale’s Dia de Los Muertos dinner. This tribute to the Mexican feast holiday that serves as a remembrance to the dead features a Mexican-inspired buffet, plus live mariachi and dancing. On the menu: chicken mole made with Taza chocolate, baked triticale “red rice,” pan de muertos, and elote (a/k/a Mexican street corn). “Bring a memento (ofrenda) for the table if you wish,” event organizers tell us, “and definitely come hungry and ready to celebrate life”

$17-$25 (includes one drink ticket), November 2, 7-11 p.m., ONCE, 156 Highland Ave Somerville. For tickets, visit Eventbrite.

Britney Coleman, Rebecca E. Covington, Ashley Blanchet & Salisha Thomas as The Shirelles in the national tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical / Courtesy photo by Joan Marcus

THEATER
Tuesday, November 3
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Oh, to be 18—a time when we leave home to seek our fortunes, get swept up in larger-than-life romance, and maybe even write our first number-one Billboard hit. Oh, wait, that’s what songwriter Carole King was doing when she was 18, instead of squandering her time illegally downloading music and doing Jagermeister shots like the rest of us. To tell the story of her phenomenal life—in which she’s penned more than 100 pop hits—comes Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, a Jersey Boys-esque jukebox musical showcasing songs made famous by the Drifters, the Shirelles, and the Righteous Brothers.

$20-$125, November 3-15, Boston Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston, 617-259-3400, bostonoperahouse.com.

Marina and the Diamonds / Courtesy photo

MUSIC
Wednesday, November 4
Marina and the Diamonds

Marina and the Diamonds is bringing her “Neon Nature” tour to Boston, and—like she says in the title track off of her new album, Froot—this ain’t her first time at the rodeo. She’s wowed us at Boston Calling. And now that the primadonna girl has the spotlight all to herself, prepare for a show as epic as her most recent album’s subject matter: a meditation on time and humanity, on the cycle of birth and death, of ripeness and rot. Oh, and getting mad laid.

$30-$45, November 4, 7 p.m., House of Blues Boston, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston, 888-693-2583, houseofblues.com.

Sam Adams’s Jim Koch / Courtesy photo

BEER
Thursday, November 5
Beer Dinner with Sam Adams’s Jim Koch

Remember, remember the fifth of November. But this Guy Fawkes Day, instead of celebrating to the legendary gunpowder plot (which, by the way, was a fine raucous Boston holiday until the powers that be passed the Riot Act banning “riotous tumultuous and disorderly assemblies”), you can spend the day paying tribute to another revolutionary rabble-rouser: Sam Adams. Tonight, brewer Jim Koch hosts a special beer dinner at Post 390, featuring menu items from businesses helped by Brewing the American Dream, a Sam Adams-sponsored microlending program. Which means that no matter how much you gorge yourself on Karl’s weisswurst, Voltage-coffee-rubbed duck breast, and Angry Orchard ginger-apple sorbet, you can waddle away from the table feeling really good about it.

$90, November 5, 6:30 p.m., Post 390, 406 Stuart St., Boston, 617-399-0015, post390restaurant.com. For tickets, visit Eventbrite.

Boston Comedy Festival 2015 performers / Credits for courtesy photos below

COMEDY
Friday, November 6
Boston Comedy Festival

Boston looms large in the history of American standup over the last forty years—just look at the Ding Ho, the club that helped launch the careers of Steven Wright, Bobcat Goldthwait, Denis Leary, Paula Poundstone, and Lenny Clarke (who’ll be performing on November 8, incidentally). Now in its 16th year, the Boston Comedy Festival—which invades venues all over Boston for a full week—brings with it Flight of the Conchords’ Todd Barry, Simpsons writer Dana Gould, and Bob’s Burgers regular Andy Kindler. The comedic onslaught kicks off with an appearance by Wendy Liebman, who slayed on America’s Got Talent and has graced late-night talk shows aplenty. And you know where she got her start? At a Cambridge Center for Adult Education class, natch.

Runs November 6-14, multiple venues. For more info, visit bostoncomedyfest.com.

Boston Comedy Festival photo credits, left to right, top to bottom: Giulia Rozzi, Todd Barry, Dana Gould, Emo Philips, Mike McCarthy, George Wallace, Maria Falzone, Tom Shillue, Wendy Liebman, Andy Kindler, Kevin Meaney, Ginny Nightshade & Will Smalley.