Backed by the genre-spanning indie rock band Gloria Deluxe and plenty of ingenious stagecraft, the otherworldly singing of Cynthia Hopkins is at the center of this swirling tapestry of music, theater, video and dance. Blurring lines between confession and performance, concert and play, memory and creation, the Alpert Award winner intertwines two narrative threads: the final show of a fictional ’70s-era cult-pop singer before her mysterious disappearance, and her daughter’s making of a documentary film, many years later, about the mother she never knew. The music flows from twangy, hard-charging rock to plaintive Arabic chants while an accompanying cast of dancers and video artists completes the full spectacle. Written and composed by Hopkins, Must Don’t Whip ’Um is the second part of the Accidental Nostalgia Trilogy.

Listen to songs by Cynthia Hopkins and Gloria Deluxe here