Richard Marx goes solo at the Mahaiwe on Dec. 4

The hitmaker behind a jazz-leaning new album plays a stripped-down Friday night in Great Barrington’s 700-seat Mahaiwe, and tickets are already scarce.

There are not many 700-seat rooms where you can sit close enough to watch a songwriter's hands. The Mahaiwe is one of them, and on Friday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m., Richard Marx will be on its stage by himself.

The Mahaiwe announced the date on Oct. 16, and its event page bills it as a solo performance, with tickets at $49–$99 plus processing fees. That is a different proposition from the full-band, big-chorus shows a lot of people picture when they hear his name. Solo means the songs get stripped to the frame, and the stories between them get room to breathe.

Expect some of those stories to be about the newest record. The Mahaiwe’s announcement points to *After Hours*, a jazz-leaning album that features Rod Stewart and Kenny G and debuted at No. 14 on Billboard’s Traditional Jazz Albums chart. It is a left turn for a rock and pop songwriter, and a solo night in a hall like this is about the best setting there is for hearing how those standards-minded songs sit next to the older hits.

The rest of the evening is the point of a show like this. Marx’s catalog was built for radio, and hearing it in a quiet room tends to show how much craft was hiding under the production. If you came up with those songs, you already know which ones you’ll be waiting for. If you didn't, the Mahaiwe is a good place to find out why they lasted.

When to buy: now. Resale listings were already describing the night as close to sold out in late October, and a 700-seat house does not leave much margin. The Mahaiwe box office is the place to buy, and it is worth checking there first before paying a reseller's markup. The visit page has parking and access details for first-timers.

The venue does a lot of the work on a night like this. The Mahaiwe sits on Castle Street in downtown Great Barrington and runs a mix of live concerts, comedy, dance, and its Met Opera in HD screenings through the winter season. Its intimacy is the draw: no seat is far from the stage, and a single performer can fill the room without straining.

Early December is also a good time to give somebody a night out. A Friday show in town, dinner on Main Street before, and a drive home through the cold afterward is about as Berkshires as a holiday gift gets.

Just don't wait until the week of. When a songwriter with this many hits plays a room this size, the last tickets do not hang around.

Sources: Richard Marx live in Great Barrington on 12/4 (Mahaiwe) (mahaiwe.org); Mahaiwe presents Richard Marx on December 4, plus more (mahaiwe.org); Visit – Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center (mahaiwe.org); Mahaiwe announces Met Opera in HD 2026-27 season (mahaiwe.org); Mahaiwe tickets (mahaiwe.org)