Richard Marx made 14 No. 1 singles building one of the more durable catalogs in pop-rock. Then, on his 14th studio album, he pivoted to jazz. After Hours, out since January 2026, is a record of seven standards and six original compositions that Marx wrote as if, in his own words, he were “pitching them to Frank Sinatra in 1948.” On Friday, December 4, the After Hours Tour stops at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. It is a different kind of Richard Marx night, and a 681-seat theater turns out to be exactly the right room for it.
About the Show
The Grammy-winning songwriter recorded After Hours live with a 24-piece ensemble. The album features collaborations with Rod Stewart, Kenny G (on the lead single “Big Band Boogie”) and Chris Botti. When it landed in January, it debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums chart — a signal that the jazz world received it on its own terms. Marx’s explanation for why he made the record is as direct as the project itself: “I never seriously considered doing a standards or covers album before because at heart, I am a songwriter, first and foremost. The challenge of writing songs as if I were pitching them to Frank Sinatra in 1948 really appealed to me.”
He previewed the material in October 2025 with an “After Hours: Confessions at Café Carlyle” residency in New York City, performing with a 24-piece orchestra. The After Hours Tour has since run across three continents, with dates at the London Palladium (two nights in October), the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville alongside the Nashville Symphony, and venues across North America from Las Vegas to the Northeast. Recent setlists run around two hours and pull from both the new record and the catalog, with “Right Here Waiting” and “Endless Summer Nights” appearing regularly. No support act has been announced for the Mahaiwe date.
Venue & Logistics
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center sits on Castle Street in the center of Great Barrington, a southern Berkshires town worth the trip from anywhere in the Hudson Valley or across the border from the Capital Region. The theater seats 681, which makes it an unusually intimate room for a Grammy-winning artist of Marx’s stature. Showtime is 8:00 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets