What we know so far about the killing of Antonio Martin

What we know so far about the killing of Antonio Martin - The Week Magazine: Videos

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What we know so far about the killing of Antonio Martin - The Week Magazine: Photo Gallery

CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. Violence: Antonio Martin, 18,	Twitter backlash against prankster who pretended he was friends. Twitter backlash against prankster who pretended he was friends. victim Antonio Martin	Was Berkeley cop AMBUSHED by Antonio Martin before shooting. Was Berkeley cop AMBUSHED by Antonio Martin before shooting. They cant kill us all: The	More protests sparked after shooting near Ferguson | Daily Mail Online More protests sparked after shooting near Ferguson | Daily Mail Online Antonio Martin, mourns the
EXTREME LEFTIST..HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON EXTREME LEFTIST..HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON Courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/people/42107447@N00/	CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. Tragic cries of victim Antonio	CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. Heartbroken: Toni Martin sobs	CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. of Antonio Martin violence
CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. of Antonio Martins death	Andy Warhol Liz in the Ken C. Arnold Art Collection Andy Warhol Liz in the Ken C. Arnold Art Collection Courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/people/36570196@N07/	Video diary shows released 1HR ago SURVEILLANCE tape police. Video diary shows released 1HR ago SURVEILLANCE tape police. killing Antonio Martin	A Blind Man Sees With Sound - The Daily Beast A Blind Man Sees With Sound - The Daily Beast Reuters
Video diary shows released 1HR ago SURVEILLANCE tape police. Video diary shows released 1HR ago SURVEILLANCE tape police. A crowd gathers at the gas	Twitter backlash against prankster who pretended he was friends. Twitter backlash against prankster who pretended he was friends. shooting: Antonio Martin,	CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. SHARE PICTURE	Andy Warhol Kimiko: Ken C. Arnold Art Collection Andy Warhol Kimiko: Ken C. Arnold Art Collection Courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/people/36570196@N07/
More protests sparked after shooting near Ferguson | Daily Mail Online More protests sparked after shooting near Ferguson | Daily Mail Online Police guard the entrance to a	CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. CCTV shows Antonio Martin appears to point gun at St Louis cop. Police say Antonio Martin	Missouri mayor douses flames sparked by latest police killing. Missouri mayor douses flames sparked by latest police killing. The moment Antonio Martin

What we know so far about the killing of Antonio Martin - The Week Magazine: Latest News, Information, Answers and Websites

Sandy Hook Parents Sue Bushmaster: You Sold Weapon of Choice for Mass.

These defendants know that ���as a result of selling AR-15s to the civilian market, individuals unfit to operate these weapons gain access to them.. The families created estates in their childrens names (with parents as administrators) so they could.

Officer kills armed 18-year-old near Ferguson

BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) - The mayor of the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley called for calm Wednesday after a white police officer killed a black 18-year-old who police said pointed a gun at him.. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said the officer was.

A Blind Man Sees With Sound

Thanks to surveillance video of the incident, there are virtually no accusations that the as-of-yet unnamed officer from the Berkeley Police Department acted wrongly when he shot and killed 18-year-old Antonio Martin late Tuesday night. Martin. So.

The Listings

Theater A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy Broadway, Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway shows this weekend. Approximate running times are in parentheses. * denotes a highly recommended show. + means discounted tickets were available at the Theater Development Funds TKTS booth for performances last Friday and Saturday nights. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Broadway +BROOKLYN BOY One of the mortifications of middle age is being forced to admit the truth in those extra-mossy clichés that you mock when you are young and arrogant. The past always catches up with you; blood is thicker than water; be careful what you wish for. These are among the stale-but-true bromides that are acknowledged by the title character in Donald Marguliess sincere but doggedly unsurprising new play about the midlife crisis of a suddenly successful novelist (Adam Arkin). While this comic drama is steeped in an admirably humble and often touching spirit of acceptance, it seldom does what Mr. Margulies has achieved repeatedly before: make the familiar seem fresh. Polly Draper and Ari Graynor stand out in an excellent cast, smoothly directed by Daniel Sullivan (2:20). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $26 to $79. BEN BRANTLEY +FIDDLER ON THE ROOF From the moment it sounds its first word in David Leveauxs placid revival, the voice of Harvey Fierstein (who has replaced Alfred Molina in the central role of Tevye) makes the audience prick up its ears. Heard not so long ago issuing from the plus-size form of Edna Turnblad in the musical Hairspray, Mr. Fiersteins voice is one of the most distinctive in theater, variously evoking a kazoo, a congested saxophone, wind in a bottle and echoes from a crypt. It is, in a way, its own multicolored show. Whether it fits comfortably into the little Russian village of Anatevka is another issue. But at least it brings a bit of zest to Mr. Leveauxs abidingly bland production (2:55). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street, (212)307-4100. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $35 to $100. BRANTLEY +GOOD VIBRATIONS Even those who believe that everything on this planet has a purpose may at first have trouble justifying the existence of Good Vibrations, the singing headache that manages to purge all catchiness from the surpassingly catchy hits of the Beach Boys. But audience members strong enough to sit through this rickety jukebox of a show will discover that the production, directed and choreographed by John Carrafa, does have a reason to be. Good Vibrations sacrifices itself to make all other musicals on Broadway look good. As the shows washboard-stomached performers smile, wriggle and squeak with the desperation of wet young things hung out to dry, you feel their pain. It is unlikely, however, to be more acute than yours (2:15). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $76 to $101; a limited number of $25 student rush tickets are available at the box office on the day of the show. BRANTLEY +LITTLE WOMEN Sutton Foster never merely walks when she can scamper in this perky, sketchy adaptation of Louisa May Alcotts classic novel of a Civil War-era New England girlhood. Portraying Jo the tomboy, Ms. Foster creates a dizzyingly hyperkinetic creature who, were she living in the 21st century, would probably be on Ritalin. Ms. Foster (a Tony winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie) shows a gift for fresh, comic line readings. But her energy is often less infectious than exhausting. The same can be said of the show, directed by Susan H. Schulman and featuring a book by Allan Knee, with songs by Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein. Watching the production is rather like speed-reading Alcotts novel. And the cast members, who include the mellow-voiced Maureen McGovern, mostly bring to mind 1860s-themed editions of the American Girl series of dolls (2:20). Virginia Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $60 to $100. BRANTLEY Off Broadway +BELFAST BLUES The Belfast Blues of Geraldine Hughess solo show arent the kind youd expect. Yes, the troubles between Roman Catholics and Protestants that have roiled Northern Ireland for decades do cast an emotional shadow over this heartfelt and funny if unexceptional stage memoir, descriptively subtitled one wee girls story about family, war, Jesus and Hollywood. But Ms. Hughess title more directly refers to her big, inquisitive and exceptionally expressive eyes, which helped secure that wee girl a ticket to a happier life. Belfast Blues, which recounts her experience growing up amid poverty and violence in Belfast in the 1970s and 80s, does not bring any groundbreaking insights to familiar territory. But Ms. Hughes is a bright, inviting presence, and the surprising agent of her deliverance from the troubled atmosphere of her youth gives the show a modestly refreshing twist (1:25). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, (212)307-4100. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 4 p.m. Tickets: $45; a limited number of $20 student rush tickets are available at the box office one hour before the performance. CHARLES ISHERWOOD THE CHERRY ORCHARD In this stunningly powerful production, an intriguing balance arises between Lopakhin, the bourgeois former serf, and the aristocratic family that owns the cherry orchard and whose fortunes are all but dried up. The landowner Lyubov Ranevskaya (Petronia Paley), returning penniless from her life abroad, is as elegant as she is self-delusional. Against her beauty and her dignity, Lopakhin (Wendell Pierce), the archetype of the small-minded arriviste, is a hard man to like. But this production brings out their shared past in subtle but forceful gestures that complicate the audiences sympathies (2:00). Harlem School of the Arts Theater, 645 St. Nicholas Avenue, near 141st Street, (212)868-4444. Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $25. CAMPBELL ROBERTSON COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW Entertainment in abundance radiates from the Peccadillo Theater Companys new production of the old Elmer Rice drama Counsellor-at-Law. Starring the Tony Award-winning John Rubinstein, Counsellor-at-Law is a drama that throbs with New York life and brims with touchstones of another time, like George Whites Scandals and the Court of General Sessions. But it also retains relevance to ambition and success in the 21st century. It has a hero worth rooting for, a healthy dose of sacred and profane love, some sharp jabs at class difference, villains who merit a hearty hiss and plenty of New York attitude and humor (2:45). Theater at St. Clements, 423 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212)868-4444. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $55; $20 student rush tickets available at the box office 15 minutes before the performance. LAWRENCE VAN GELDER +SABINA Once a forgotten ghost in the annals of psychoanalysis, Sabina Spielrein is proving to have surprising staying power. A patient of Carl Jung and an acquaintance of Sigmund Freud who ultimately became a psychoanalyst herself, Spielrein has a history that has provided material for two movies and two plays. The first of these was Willy Holtzmans Sabina, first produced by Primary Stages in 1996 and now in revival as part of the companys 20th-anniversary season. The new production, directed by Ethan McSweeny, is hampered by an unsatisfactory performance from Marin Ireland in the title role. But the history of Spielreins relationships with the founder of psychoanalysis and his protégé turned apostate is nonetheless engrossing. It provides a provocative window into the much-studied relationship between Freud and Jung. Peter Strauss gives an admirably understated performance as a paternalistic Freud, and Victor Slezak, as Jung, gives persuasive dramatic life to a now-mythic figure. (2:15). Primary Stages, at 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212)279-4200. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays though Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $55. ISHERWOOD SHYLOCK Deconstructing Shakespeare is a dangerous sport; its impossible to be more imaginative or clever than the playwright himself, even if you are Harold Bloom. Gareth Armstrong gives it a game try, but Shylock, his 80-minute dissertation on the evolution of one of Shakespeares most memorable characters, although deftly performed, is no exception. While his pocket synopses of anti-Semitism, Elizabethan England, Marlowes Jew of Malta and even a Baedeker of famous actors renditions of Shylock are edifying, they are not sufficiently enlightening or entertaining. The most riveting lines of Mr. Armstrongs monologue belong to Shakespeare himself (1:35). Perry Street Theater, 31 Perry Street, Greenwich Village, (212)868-4444. Wednesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $55; a limited number of $20 student/senior rush tickets available at the box office 30 minutes before the performance. PHOEBE HOBAN +SLEEPING BEAUTY Trust a British Sleeping Beauty to pivot on a fairys flatulence. Yes, that surefire laugh trigger in old Blighty plays an unexpectedly large role in Rufus Norriss murky new version of the familiar fairy tale for the Young Vic Theater Company. Mr. Norris, a talented young British director whose Broadway-bound production of Festen snapped up many London theater awards, isnt interested in pretty pictures. His vigorously staged, grotesquely comic Sleeping Beauty, which unfolds in smoky darkness beneath a queasy yellow moon, is entirely in tune with the current vogue for teasing out thickets of disturbing subtext in childrens literature. The productions eccentric designs accentuate the predominantly eerie air (2:00). New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street, (212)239-6200. Tonight at 7; tomorrow and Sunday at 1 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $10, $20 and $30. ISHERWOOD +TEXAS HOMOS Often in theater, the provocativeness of a plays title correlates with quality, and not in a good way. But Texas Homos is a pleasant exception. The titles tone does serve a purpose: it signals that the language in this show is far filthier than some theatergoers might care for, but the play is artfully constructed and convincingly acted, especially by Reed Birney and Richard Bekins in the central roles. Cecil (Mr. Birney) and Jim Bob (Mr. Bekins) have been caught engaging in gay sex in a police sting at a public restroom in Tyler, Tex. Since one is the town doctor and the other a preacher, and since both have wives and children, this creates more than a few problems. Texas Homos is not really about gay men at all. It is about everyone who has a secret life, and the nightmare that envelops such people once they are discovered. Mr. Birneys portrait of desperation and defiance feels dead on, and so does Mr. Bekinss of resignation and surrender (2:00). June Havoc Theater, Abingdon Theater Complex, 312 West 36th Street, (212)868-4444. Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 3. Tickets: $25. NEIL GENZLINGER *THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) Is there such a thing as standup existentialism? If not, Will Eno has just invented it. This monologue, which runs just over an hour and requires minimal stagecraft, is as unassuming in its means as it is astonishing in its impact. Its one of those treasured nights in the theater -- treasured nights anywhere, for that matter -- that can leave you both breathless with exhilaration and, depending on your sensitivity to meditations on the bleak and beautiful mysteries of human experience, in a puddle of tears. Also in stitches, here and there. Mr. Eno and his performer, the actor James Urbaniak, hereby reinvent that seemingly moribund theatrical genre, the solo show. They are immeasurably aided by the work of the director Hal Brooks. Mr. Enos voice, or the voice of the narrator/protagonist/master of ceremonies played by Mr. Urbaniak, is alternately lyrical and affectless, ecstatic and flat, sardonic and sincere. Standup-style comic riffs and deadpan hipster banter keep interrupting the corrosively bleak narrative: Mr. Eno might be called a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation. Lets try that again, minus the conditional: Mr. Eno is a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation (1:10). DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 6 and 9 p.m.; Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets; $45. ISHERWOOD *THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE This lovably inconsequential, entirely adorable new musical brings to the stage the cultures current mania for celebrating that most revered of American virtues, the will to victory. A mock spelling bee, it pokes serious fun at its twitchy tween contestants -- in the loopy spirit of the movies Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show -- but also pays affectionate tribute to these quirky young spelling titans. William Finns nimble, upbeat score provides the emotional underpinning for Rachel Sheinkins more satirical -- indeed often riotously funny -- book. The director James Lapine, Mr. Finns collaborator on Falsettos, is also in impeccable form, managing to transform into virtues two of the theaters most reliable pitfalls, namely audience participation and the usually ghastly conceit of adult actors playing kids (1:45). Second Stage, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212)246-4422. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays at 2 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $75. ISHERWOOD WASTED (THE MYSTERY/HISTORY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES AND HOW IT GOT THAT WAY) In Wasted, the Irondale Ensemble Project tries to answer a very difficult question: How do you make a play about the history of the public school system in American without being terribly boring? While they came up with a number of solutions, none were satisfactory. History is reduced to good guys and bad guys, who both talk in slogans: should school teach kids to think for themselves or prepare them for the workforce? The decline of the school system is told simply as a story of dark conspiracies motivated by corporate greed. In the end, you get the sense that this show is made by people who have spent little time reflecting on the ideas of the other side (2:00). Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212)352-3101. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. Tickets: $25; $15 for seniors, students and New York City Public School teachers; on Thursdays pay what you can afford. JASON ZINOMAN Off Off Broadway THE CONFESSIONS OF PUNCH AND JUDY The anarchist Punch and his wife, Judy, have been beating each other senseless for centuries, but while the famously warring married couple is usually performed by puppets, two real-life actors do the quarreling in The Confessions of Punch and Judy, a rigorously performed modern update with a surplus of energy and a deficit of direction. Ker Wells and Tannis Kowalchuk, who wrote the drama with the director Raymond Bobgan, play the pair in this pedestrian production, which mixes mime, ballroom dance, first-person monologues, puppetry and naturalistic acting. The play has few original thematic or design ideas and never reinvents the stock characters in an interesting way. In the end, it has no insight that you wont learn later this year in the revival of Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1:10). Here Arts Center, 145 Avenue of the Americas, at Dominick Street, South Village, (212)868-4444. Wednesdays through Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets: $15. ZINOMAN DAY OF RECKONING This play about the anarchist and labor reformer Lucy Parsons is unevenly paced and clumsily staged, but it has this saving grace: unlike some other theatrical efforts associated with Black History Month, it is not shallow hero worship. Parsons was a decidedly flawed hero, and Melody Cooper, the playwright, leaves those flaws in plain sight. As a young woman, Parsons, played by Ms. Cooper, called herself Lucy Gonzalez and tried to pass as Mexican and American Indian, chafing at any suggestion that she was black. And in her militant-labor phase, with her white husband, Albert, she exhorted followers, Learn to use explosives. When the Parsonses domestic bliss is shattered by the Haymarket Riot of 1886, Lucy loses her bearings, and her son pays an appalling price. Ms. Coopers recounting of this fascinating life could benefit from a large infusion of understatement, but still, Parsonss story is one that deserves to be told, especially at a time when those with radical ideas are again under intense scrutiny (1:50). All Stars Projects Performing Arts and Education Center, 543 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)941-1234. Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $15. GENZLINGER THE FLID SHOW With the drug Vioxx making headlines because of its recent recall over adverse side effects, Richard Willetts play The Flid Show gains an unsettling topicality. The play traces the history of Thalidomide, the sleeping pill widely distributed in Europe in the late 1950s and early 60s that caused birth defects when taken by pregnant women. Mat Fraser, a seasoned and charismatic British actor who was himself a Thalidomide baby, stars as Duncan, a lounge singer coming to grips with the anger and resentment fueled by his lifelong struggles. In Mr. Willetts fanciful dramatic scheme -- borrowed from a certain Dickens holiday favorite, as he acknowledges -- Duncans psychological scars are healed by a series of ghostly visitors who sweep him through time and space. The documentary aspects of the play are absorbing and often poignant (particularly Amy Staats monologue as a bereaved Belgian mother), but Duncans personal story, centering on his rocky romance with a doctor and a reconciliation, in spirit at least, with his dead mother, is crudely drawn and clichéd. The director Eliza Beckwiths production is also on the clunky side, with most of the acting not up to the standard set by Mr. Fraser in the central role (2:15). Medicine Show Theater, 549 West 52nd Street, Clinton, (212)352-3101. Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 8 p.m. Tickets: $15; $30 for a special benefit performance on Feb. 24. ISHERWOOD Last Chance +THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA The role of Bernarda Alba has not changed in this production: she is still the tyrannical widowed mother of five daughters who are burning to free themselves from her stifling house. But here its Poncia (Joanne Camp), the maid, who sets the tone. Poncias world-weariness instills the play with an earthy, prosaic feel rather than a poetic one. Gone is the passion, and gone, too, is the terror when the tragic consequences of Bernardas tyranny are revealed. Gone, in other words, is the heat that permeates the play. In its place is a comfy warmth, a fireside instead of an inferno (1:45). Pearl Theater Company, at Theater 80, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212)598-9802. Tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets: $50 for tomorrow evening and Sunday; matinee tomorrow, $40. ROBERTSON *A NUMBER Since the 1970s, Caryl Churchill has produced studies of a world quaking under constant siege, in which style somehow always uniquely mirrors content. In this stunning, elliptical play about a fathers experiment with genetic engineering, this invaluable dramatist considers a threat to the very cornerstone of Western civilization since the Renaissance: the idea of human individuality, a subject she manages to probe in depth in a mere 62 minutes of spartan sentences and silences. Every word, gesture and pause in this dramatic fugue for two actors -- meticulously directed by James MacDonald and performed by Arliss Howard and Dallas Roberts -- sets off echoes of multiple meaning. The play trenchantly makes the point that we no longer have the apparatus, verbal or psychological, to accommodate the changes in a time when science is moving faster than society. It is hard to think of another contemporary playwright who combines such economy of means and breadth of imagination (1:05). New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212)239-6200. Tonight at 8; tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $65. BRANTLEY Movies A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy movies playing this weekend in the New York metropolitan region. * denotes a highly recommended film. Ratings and running times are in parentheses. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/movies. ALIENS OF THE DEEP Directed by James Cameron and Steven Quale. (G, 48 minutes). When the director James Cameron proclaimed himself king of the world on winning the Oscar for Titanic, who knew that he also had designs on the rest of the solar system? His newest film, Aliens of the Deep, is a grandiose hybrid of undersea documentary and outer-space fantasy that begins on our planets ocean floor and ends many miles under the ice crust that covers Europa, the second moon of Jupiter. The movies sneaky transition from undersea documentary to speculative fantasy of a journey yet to be undertaken is so seamless that you could easily mistake the last portion of the film for the record of an actual space voyage. Mr. Camerons theory, supported by astrobiologists, is that the life forms found at the deepest levels of the ocean where no light from the sun penetrates may hold clues to the nature of possible life in outer space. Filmed in Imax 3-D, it is a visual adventure worthy of that much-degraded adjective, awesome. STEPHEN HOLDEN ASSISTED LIVING Starring Michael Bonsignore and Maggie Riley. Directed by Elliot Greenebaum. (No rating, 77 minutes). As nursing homes go, Meadow View, the site of this hard-headed comedy that feels like a documentary, is a far cry from the hellholes we sometimes read about, where the elderly are dumped and treated like prisoners. The rooms are clean and the staff efficient. Life there is viewed through the institutions scruffy 27-year-old janitor (Mr. Bonsignore) who regularly sneaks off to smoke pot, is careless about punctuality, and plays affectionate pranks on the residents to relieve his boredom. The wisp of a plot follows Todds relationship with a patient (Ms. Riley) suffering from early Alzheimers disease. Assisted Living may be a comedy, but its images of physical frailty are inescapably unsettling. HOLDEN THE AVIATOR Starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Directed by Martin Scorsese (PG-13, 169 minutes). The famously eccentric and reclusive empire builder Howard Hughes was born alone and died alone -- two times when he was no different from anyone else. For the rest of his life, the high-flying Hughes seemed to have drifted in from some distant aerie, where exotic birds hatch far from everyday worries. At the age of 18, he was both an orphan and a millionaire, and while he could never be called ordinary, in the following two decades his wealth and all that it afforded brought him a very American kind of celebrity. It is that celebrity, fueled by money, stoked by matinee looks and playboy style, that preoccupies The Aviator, Mr. Scorseses visually sumptuous if disappointingly hollow account of Hughess early life. Written by John Logan, the story principally covers the late 20s through the 40s, when Hughes, played by Mr. DiCaprio, was gadding about both Hollywood and the aviation world. MANOHLA DARGIS BOOGEYMAN Starring Barry Watson. Directed by Stephen Kay (PG-13, 86 minutes). There are a lot of close-ups of doorknobs and water faucets in Mr. Kays would-be horror film. There is a supernaturally speedy killing accomplished with heavy-duty plastic wrap. There is frequent whooshing and rapid camera movement. Despite all of that, it isnt scary. Mr. Watson, of Seventh Heaven, plays Tim, a grown man who has been afraid of the boogeyman ever since he was 8, when something creepy sucked his father into a closet and out of this life. After his mothers death, Tim vows to spend a night in his childhood home to allay his fears, but, sure enough, the boogeyman is back and after him and everyone he cares about (well, an uncle and two girlfriends). The house is very creaky; so is the movie. ANITA GATES COACH CARTER Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Rob Brown, Robert Richard, Rick Gonzalez, Nana Gbewonyo and Antwon Tanner. Directed by Thomas Carter (PG-13, 137 minutes). In this solid, unsurprising inspirational-coach drama, Mr. Jackson plays Ken Carter, who returns to his old high school in the tough Northern California city of Richmond to turn a squad of underachieving misfits into winners, both on and off the court. Based on a true story, the movie combines sports-picture suspense with heroic-educator uplift when Carter, dismayed that his players are slipping academically, padlocks the gym in the midst of an undefeated season. Mr. Carter (the director, not related to the coach) infuses this sentimental warhorse with some flourishes of realism, which are bolstered by the hip-hop soundtrack and by the performances of the younger cast members, especially Mr. Brown as a talented forward struggling with his responsibilities, Ashanti as his girlfriend, and Mr. Gonzalez as a player sliding toward a life of crime. A.O. SCOTT *HEAD-ON Starring Birol Unel, Sibel Kekilli, Catrin Striebeck and Guven Kirac. Directed by Fatih Akin (Not rated, 118 minutes). In German and Turkish, with English subtitles. Love doesnt just hurt in the jagged German romance Head-On; it cuts and bleeds and even kills. A story about a lonely man and a still-lonelier woman fighting against their worlds and what often seems like their own best interests, the film has caused a stir in Germany for the murky, troubling light it sheds on the lives of the countrys Turkish immigrants. Its popularity made it a fleeting social phenomenon and a minor cultural footnote. But it doesnt explain why this film about two strangers with suicidal tendencies and a deep commitment to self-aggrandizing drama is the first very good movie of this very young year. One of the truisms about romances, even those shaded pitch black and set to banging rock music, is that you have to fall in love with the characters when theyre falling for each other. It takes a long time for Cahit (Mr. Unel) and Sibel (Ms. Kekilli) to get inside each others heads, much less anywhere else, but it doesnt take us long to care about these two perfectly imperfect beings. DARGIS HIDE AND SEEK Starring Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Irving, Dylan Baker and Melissa Leo. Directed by John Polson. (R, 105 minutes). In the downbeat, sufficiently unsettling Hide and Seek, Mr. De Niro plays a New York City shrink, David, whos married to a somnolent type (Ms. Irving), whose love for their daughter, Emily (Ms. Fanning), cant disguise her unhappiness. Soon after the story starts, violence descends on the family, and David and Emily move to the country for some healing. Once there, things go from lousy to worse, as Emily starts staring blankly into the surrounding woods and palling around with a sinister invisible friend called Charlie. Blood drips into the story; then it pours. One of the most gifted child actors around, Ms. Fanning has both chops and a preternaturally intense screen presence; even when you dont believe the setup, you buy what she is selling. Thats a good thing when it comes to this horror-thriller hybrid, which was written by Ari Schlossberg and needs all the help it can get from its actors. DARGIS *HOTEL RWANDA Starring Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix and Nick Nolte. Directed by Terry George (PG-13, 121 minutes). This wrenching political thriller, based on fact, performs the valuable service of lending a human face to an upheaval so savage that it seemed beyond the realm of imagination when news of it filtered into the West. The movie certainly isnt the first screen depiction of a nation consumed in ethnic strife. But its vision of the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis by the ruling Hutu tribe in Rwanda during a hundred-day bloodbath in 1994 offers a devastating picture of media-driven mass murder left unchecked. The story is based on the real-life experiences of Paul Rusesabagina (Mr. Cheadle), the soft-spoken Hutu manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines, in Kigali, who with his Tutsi wife, Tatiana (Ms. Okonedo), and children, narrowly escapes death several times. Mr. Rusesabagina was directly responsible for saving the lives of more than 1,200 Tutsis and Hutu moderates by sheltering them in the hotel and bribing the Hutu military to spare them. The movie, which is squeamish about showing the full extent of savagery, hammers every button on the emotional console. HOLDEN IN GOOD COMPANY Starring Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson. Written and directed by Paul Weitz (PG-13, 106 minutes). This gently revisionist fairy tale about good versus evil is set on the battlefield of contemporary corporate culture, a site of our leading blood sport. Mostly, though, the movie is about men. The two men at the storys engaging center are Carter Duryea (Mr. Grace), a young executive who has been promoted beyond his abilities to run the advertising department of a magazine with the resonant name of Sports America. The man whom Carter is meant to make redundant is the 51-year-old Dan Foreman, a ruggedly appealing adult who brings out the best in everyone. Dan has a picture-perfect family and is the kind of unabashedly old-fashioned masculine type that Mr. Quaid has been slow-cooking to perfection over the years and which, on American screens at least, has lately gone missing. DARGIS LOST EMBRACE Starring Daniel Hendler. Directed by Daniel Burman (not rated, 100 minutes; in Spanish, with English subtitles). Set in a shabby Buenos Aires shopping mall, this antic, melancholy comedy gives a Latin American twist to a story of young, male Jewish identity crisis that will be familiar to fans of Philip Roth, Neil Simon and Woody Allen. Ariel (the fast-moving, nervous-looking Mr. Hendler) is a young man in a hurry, without much of a sense of direction. He carries on an anxious affair with an older woman, pines for his former girlfriend, and fantasizes about emigrating to Poland, from which his family fled two generations before. Mostly, though, he is haunted by the absence of his father, Elias, who abandoned him as a baby to go to Israel to fight in the 1973 war. The film, while busy and diffuse, is also touching and funny, and its modesty and haphazardness are among its charms. SCOTT MEET THE FOCKERS Starring Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo and Owen Wilson. Directed by Jay Roach (PG-13, 114 minutes). Like Meet the Parents, the follow-up new comedy Meet the Fockers hinges on the well-traveled idea that theres something comic about being Jewish in America. Not the Philip Roth, take-no-prisoners funny, in which Jewish identity is good, bad, happy, sad, a historical chip on the shoulder, a sign of radical difference. Rather, the post-Borscht Belt funny of the genial sitcom Jew whose difference is amorphous enough to be thoroughly unthreatening; the Jew as an ethnic accessory that non-Jews on both sides of the camera can enjoy without anxiety, like the cute cabala string Madonna likes to wear. And so, just as Bernie loved Bridget, and Rhoda loved Mary, so does Greg Focker (Mr. Stiller) love Pam Byrnes (Ms. Polo). And because Greg loves Pam, Pams father, Jack (Mr. De Niro), doesnt love Greg. Not because no man could ever be good enough for his daughter, but because Greg doesnt look like Pams old squeeze, the fair-haired Kevin (Mr. Wilson). DARGIS *THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Lynn Collins. Directed by Michael Radford (R, 127 minutes). Shakespeares most problematic play -- at least with respect to modern sensitivities -- receives an intelligent interpretation from Mr. Radford and a superb cast. Mr. Pacino, showing welcome restraint after a series of overdone stage and screen performances, emphasizes Shylocks grief and estrangement, turning him into a fragile monster. But his villainy, however much it smacks of blood libel, cannot be discarded without compromising the plays complex ideas about justice and duty, and Mr. Radford does not try to wash away the stain of anti-Semitism that is woven into the heart of his source. He does remind us how much more is going on in the play, and along with his talented production designer and cinematographer, he renders Venice as a series of Renaissance paintings -- tableaus that in evoking Velázquez, Rembrandt, Titian and Vermeer immerse us in the ferment of early modern Europe. Mr. Irons is quietly mesmerizing in the title role, a creature of mysterious melancholy whose soul seems at once pure and rotted. The movie really belongs to Ms. Collins, who gives Portia her rightful wit and charisma, and makes her the plays cruel and lovely moral center. SCOTT *MILLION DOLLAR BABY Starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Directed by Mr. Eastwood (PG-13, 135 minutes). Mr. Eastwood takes what appears to be a conventional boxing-melodrama plot about a crusty old trainer whose heart is melted by a spirited young fighter and turns it into a glowing, somber meditation on friendship, ambition and death. The pictures scale is small, and its pacing leisurely, which gives you a chance to savor three lovely performances: from Ms. Swank as the young boxer, Mr. Freeman as a world-weary former contender and Mr. Eastwood as the trainer, Frankie Dunn. At 74, Mr. Eastwood has achieved a level of mastery that leaves him with nothing to prove, and so, unafraid of sentiment and willing to risk cliché, he has made a graceful, lyrical, devastating masterpiece -- the best film released by a major Hollywood studio in 2004. SCOTT *NOBODY KNOWS Starring Yuya Yagira.. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (PG-13, 141 minutes; in Japanese, with English subtitles). Based on the true story of four children abandoned by their mother in a small Tokyo apartment, Mr. Kore-edas fourth film is at once harrowing and tender, an urban horror story with overtones of fairy tale. Restricting himself to the childrens point of view, the director creates an almost unbearable sense of dread in the audience; you cant help suspecting that, at every moment, something terrible is about to happen. But at the same time, because the children themselves do not perceive the full terribleness of their situation, the terror is mitigated by a sense of wonder and adventure. The keys to this meticulous and deeply humane film are Mr. Kore-edas deft camera sense and the remarkable performance of the 12-year-old Mr. Yagira as Akira, the oldest of the four siblings, who must somehow preserve his own innocence while protecting his more vulnerable brother and sisters. SCOTT A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT Starring Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Jean-Pierre Becker, Dominique Bettenfeld, Clovis Cornillac and Marion Cotillard. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (R, 133 minutes; in French, with English subtitles). If you like battleground carnage delivered with aesthetic brio, the kind that ensures that when a soldier explodes into confetti, his flesh will dapple a trenchmate as decoratively as pink rosettes on a cake, this new French film will serve you nicely. Set during World War I and its immediate aftermath, and directed by the cult favorite Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it follows the adventures of a young woman, Mathilde (Ms. Tautou), who holds fast to the hope that her young soldier fiancé will return home from his apparent grave. Even when death seems to part them, the cord of her love remains unbroken. Best known for Amélie, a modern fairy tale also starring Ms. Tautou, Mr. Jeunet possesses a distinctive visual style thats part Rube Goldberg, part F.A.O. Schwarz, and generally enjoyable for about 15 minutes. DARGIS THE WEDDING DATE Starring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. Directed by Clare Kilner. (PG-13, 90 minutes). Either Ms. Kilner or Dana Fox, her screenwriter, must have adored Four Weddings and a Funeral, because their new romantic comedy struggles from beginning to end to capture that earlier films charm and ebullience. Their efforts are largely unsuccessful. Ms. Messing stars as Kat Ellis, a New Yorker en route to London for her younger half-sisters wedding. Since there is no man in Kats life, she turns to the classified ads for male escorts. In a fantasy worthy of Pretty Woman, the male prostitute she hires turns out to be a hunk (Mr. Mulroney) with beautiful manners and a degree in comparative literature from Brown. Both stars are highly appealing, despite a shaky script with aphorisms that dont quite deliver. After rowdy parties in London, everyone heads for the glorious English countryside for family-bonding activities. The Wedding Date proves that there is nothing inherently magical about a group of adults frolicking on a lawn with an old pop-music hit in the background. What charms it does have would be far more enjoyable if the movie werent so in love with its own supposed cuteness. GATES. THE WOODSMAN Starring Kevin Bacon. Directed by Nicole Kassell (R, 87 minutes). Ms. Kassell directs this story of a paroled child molester struggling to re-enter society after 12 years in prison in a lean, unassuming style, which suits the subject matter and gives the fine cast room to explore their complicated, unhappy characters. The story is not always plausible, and the atmosphere sometimes feels programmatically grim, but the film is a serious, compassionate attempt at psychological realism, anchored by Mr. Bacons precise, unsettling performance as a man trying to untangle his decent impulses from his destructive, predatory urges. SCOTT Pop A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy rock and pop concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended concert. Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. APOLLO SUNSHINE, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)599-5103. The tunefulness of folk-rock and the Beatles goes joyously off the rails in the songs of this Boston band, which tends to get more raucously enthusiastic somewhere around the second verse. Tonight at 9, with Falcon and Brian Bonz opening; admission is $10. JON PARELES *NEKO CASE, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212)533-2111. In one of her songs, Neko Case declares, Im a dying breed who still believes, haunted by American dreams. Her songs look back to the era when country music addressed death, sin and heartbreak. She sings honky-tonk and torch songs in a voice thats intimate with tragedy and desire. Sunday and Monday nights at 8, with the Sadies sharing the bill; tickets are $20, $18 in advance. PARELES C.J. CHENIER, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 576-1155. C.J. Chenier, the son of Clifton Chenier, who was the undisputed king of zydeco, picked up his late fathers accordion and his Red Hot Louisiana Band in the 1980s, carrying on the family tradition of bayou dance music laced with blues. Sunday afternoon as part of the Lets Zydeco series, with dance lessons at 1:30 and music at 2; admission is $22. PARELES SANDRA COLLINS, Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212)807-7780. Ms. Collins tends toward clean, energetic progressive-house tracks, letting misty atmospherics and grand synthesizers glide over precise rhythm tracks. Tomorrow night after 10, with Pete Tong, Eyal Hen and Eddie Lee; admission is $30. KELEFA SANNEH *BO DIDDLEY/GENYA RAVAN, B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42d Street, (212) 997-4144. When Bo Diddley plays his namesake beat and growls the metaphysical boasts of Who Do You Love, its easy to hear the fire and syncopation that made him a rock pioneer. Behind them is a profound education in the blues. Genya Ravan, who sang with the band Ten Wheel Drive and was a pioneering female rock producer, opens the show. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $30 in advance, $35 tomorrow. PARELES *THOMAS FEHLMAN, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7503. Mr. Fehlman, a German producer, has been tinkering with electronic beats since the 1980s. Last year he released Lowflow (Plug Research), a warm CD full of minimalist pulses and languid breakbeats. Tonight at midnight; admission is $5. SANNEH *HEART & SOUL VALENTINES CONCERT, Roseland Ballroom, 239 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212)247-0200. This is the kind of concert where the audience seems likely to outperform the performers. Not that theres anything wrong with the veteran R&B acts scheduled to appear. The lineup includes Harold Melvins Blue Notes, Ted Mills (formerly of Blue Magic), Melisa Morgan and, perhaps best of all, Staten Islands Force M.D.s, who were combining smooth R&B with bumpy hip-hop long before it was as popular (or, as the members probably know all too well, as lucrative) as it is today. Still the real thrill will probably be the crowd full of quiet men and notably unquiet women, clutching roses and drinks and -- if the singers are doing their job right -- one another. Tomorrow night at 9; tickets are $45, and you might as well obey the fliers and dress to impress. SANNEH *NORMAN JAY, APT, 419 West 13th Street, West Village, (212) 414-4245. One of Britains most popular D.J.s comes to this cozy (thats a euphemism) nightclub in support of Good Times 4 (Resist), a laid-back double-disc compilation put together by Norman Jay and his brother, Joey Jay. Expect a night of elegant funk, in the broadest sense -- the compilation includes appearances by everyone from the reggae act Zap Pow to the big band overseen by the British electronica producer Matthew Herbert. Tomorrow night after 10, with Citizen Kane; tickets are $8. SANNEH KOOL KEITH, B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)997-4144. Kool Keith is hip-hops definition of multiple personality syndrome, from his days with the Ultramagnetic M.C.s to more recent metamorphoses into Dr. Octagon and Reverand Tom. Depending on his chosen role, he could be rapping comedy, science or smut. Tonight at 11; tickets are $20. PARELES KITKA, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212)576-1155. The drones, dissonances and eerie beauty of Eastern European womens vocal music are the province of Kitka, which has been singing them since 1979. Tonight at 7:30; tickets are $20. PARELES *JENS LEKMAN/THE IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES/PARKER & LILY/THE SILENT LEAGUE, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212)260-4700. Pop gets twisted in highly personal ways on this quadruple bill. Jens Lekman, a Swedish songwriter whose lyrics are in English, writes wistful ditties that can be wry or depressive. The Impossible Shapes look back to the psychedelically warped pop of the late 1960s, while Parker & Lily sing slowly and quietly about the wreckage of romance in reverberant arrangements. Brian Wilsons legacy shimmers through the songs of the Silent League, which uses a handful of musicians to create grandly expansive orchestral pop. Tomorrow night at 8:30; tickets are $10. PARELES LOSERS LOUNGE TRIBUTE TO QUEEN: NO TIME FOR LOSERS, Fez (downstairs at the Time Cafe), 380 Lafayette Street, at Great Jones Street, East Village, (212)533-2680. Joe McGinty and his coterie of songwriting connoisseurs first applied themselves to the mixture of hard-rock grandiosity and campy arrogance that was Queen five years ago. Theyre back at it, with ingenious ways to reinterpret the multitracked splendors of songs like Bohemian Rhapsody. Tonight at 8; admission is $25. Tomorrow night at 7, admission is $25; tomorrow night at 10:30, admission is $20. PARELES *ENRIQUE MORENTE/TOMATITO, Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, at 57th Street, (212)247-7800. This concert brings together two musicians who combine flamencos austere tradition of volatile, smoldering passion with the urge to reinvent it. Enrique Morente is a singer who has reached back to old styles and also looked outside the tradition for forms and texts, from a flamenco Mass to rock fusions. This time, he will be in a more traditional format, collaborating with the remarkable guitarist Tomatito, whose improvising vocabulary includes both the deepest flamenco and the harmonies of jazz. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $22 to $69. PARELES ERICK MORILLO, Crobar, 530 West 28th Street, near 10th Avenue, Chelsea, (212)629-9000. This veteran house producer may still be best known for producing the huge 1993 hit I Like to Move It, but since then hes established himself as one of New Yorks most popular D.J.s, known for raucous, clattering sets that sometimes gesture toward his love of Latin music. This party celebrates his new release, a four-disc set called The 2 Sides of My World (Subliminal), which includes both original productions (one track, Dance I Said, features P. Diddy) and D.J. mixes. Tonight after 10; tickets are $30 in advance, more at the door. SANNEH JOHNNY PACHECO/LA SONORA PONCEÑA/TITO ROJAS, Copacabana, 560 West 34th Street, (212) 239-2672. The flutist and bandleader Johnny Pacheco was born in the Dominican Republic but fell in love early with Afro-Cuban music. He has been a prime mover in New York Latin music since the 1960s, when he helped start Fania Records; he went on to lead the Fania All-Stars, the band that defined New York salsa. La Sonora Ponceña has been one of the cornerstones of Puerto Rican salsa since it was founded in 1954. Its arrangements are at once transparent and propulsive, with pinpoint horns, percussion and keyboard behind ardent vocals; they have urged more than one generation of dancers into motion. Tito Rojas has been one of the leading Puerto Rican salsa singers since the 1980s, making hits with both ballads and dance tunes. Tomorrow night from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.; admission is $25. PARELES *SMOKEY AND MIHO/CHOCOLATE GENIUS, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7503. Miho Hatori sang and wrote songs for the funk-rap-lounge band Cibo Matto; Smokey Hormel has played guitar with Tom Waits and Beck. Leading a band, they delve into -- what else? -- Brazilian music. Theyre joined for this show, a benefit for Tonic, by the percussionist Cyro Baptista and the drummer Billy Martin from Medeski, Martin and Wood. Marc Anthony Thompson, aka Chocolate Genius, writes desolate, telling, unsparing songs about goodbyes, from doomed romances to senile parents. With his husky voice and the backup of Marc Ribot on guitar, hell have twilit ballads and, probably, some droll comments in between. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $20. PARELES MARCO ANTONIO SOLÍS/ANA GABRIEL, Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, (212)465-6741. Latin pop lives for love songs, and this pre-Valentines Day Concierto del Amor presents two Mexican ballad singers who wholeheartedly revel in romance. Marco Antonio Solís is suave and earnest in his yearning songs, while Ana Gabriel pours drama into songs with a streak of tragedy. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $59.50 to $99.50. PARELES SOULIVE, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, at Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)230-0236. Soulive is an organ-guitar-drums trio that harks back to the 1950s and 1960s, playing meaty, blues-centered jazz for dancers who like straightforward funk. Lately, it has been hooking up with a little hip-hop. Tonight at 9; tickets are $25. PARELES SUPER DIAMOND, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212)777-6800. A tribute to the songs of Neil Diamond, particularly his triumphal 1970s material. Smirking is optional. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $26. PARELES *KEITH SWEAT, Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212)496-7070. For the not-getting-any-younger slow-jam specialist Keith Sweat, every other weekend of the year must be merely preparation for this one -- no matter what else happens (or doesnt happen) in his career, hell probably always be a big draw around Valentines Day. Expect an audience full of longtime fans to scream and whoop for a set full of plaintive (but never, ever wimpy) love songs, sung by a man who knows how to find a balance between tenderness and rakishness. Sunday night at 7:30, with Atlantic Starr and Melisa Morgan; tickets are $53.50 to $73.50. SANNEH Cabaret A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy cabaret shows in Manhattan this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended show. Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. RUTH BROWN, Le Jazz au Bar, 41 East 58th Street, (212)308-9455. This rhythm-and-blues legend has weathered one personal disaster after another, but misfortunes that might have silenced a less determined performer have only added dimension to Ms. Browns already larger-than-life musical personality. Exhibiting a flamboyant showmanship that recalls her peer James Brown, she proudly presents herself as an indomitable member of royalty and stylistic descendant of the Queen of the Blues herself, Dinah Washington. Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 and 9:30, and Sunday night at 8. Cover: $50; no minimum. STEPHEN HOLDEN BARBARA CARROLL, Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, (212)419-9331. The Lady of a Thousand Songs is back in the Oak Room for Sunday brunch and evening performances. This elegant red-headed musician and singer is a poised entertainer whose impeccable pianism belongs to the school of jazz that maintains a sense of classical decorum at the keyboard. Even when swinging out, she remains an impressionist with special affinities for Thelonious Monk and bossa nova. Vocally, she belongs to the conversational tradition of Mabel Mercer, with a style thats blasé but never cold. Sunday at 2 and 8 p.m. Cover: $55 at 2, including brunch at noon; $42 at 8, with a $15 minimum. (An $80 dinner-and-show package is available.) HOLDEN *BLOSSOM DEARIE, Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212)265-8133. To watch this singer and pianist is to appreciate the power of a carefully deployed pop-jazz minimalism combined with a highly discriminating taste in songs. She remains the definitive interpreter, at once fey and tough, of the pop-jazz satirist Dave Frishberg, as astute and unforgiving a social critic as exists. The songs -- her own and other peoples -- date from all periods of a career remarkable for its longevity and for Ms. Dearies stubborn independence and sly wit, which have never gone stale. Tomorrow night at 7; Sunday night at 6:15. Cover: $25, with a $15 minimum; a $54.50 dinner-and-show package is available. HOLDEN UTE LEMPER, Cafe Carlyle, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, (212)570-7189. This imperious, Dietrichesque cabaret singer, who is performing with a pop quartet through Feb. 26, lends the entire nightclub enterprise a German Expressionist seriousness. If her latest show is entirely different from the program of original songs she performed last year at Le Jazz au Bar, its attitude is similar. Most of the material doesnt deal directly with politics, history and literature, like the sprawling topical broadsides of the earlier show. But she still invests it with a ferocity that infuses the art (and artifice) of cabaret with an unrelenting dramatic intensity. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8:45 and 10:45. Cover: $65; $40 at the bar; no minimum. HOLDEN Jazz A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy jazz concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended concert. Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. ERIC ALEXANDER QUARTET, Smoke, 2751 Broadway at 106th Street, Manhattan, (212)864-6662. A young tenor saxophonist with a beautiful sound, centering in the Coltrane-ish lower-middle register; if he is a little unabashedly entranced by a particular area of jazzs past, around 1955 to 1965, he does well by it. Sets are tonight and tomorrow at 9, 10:30 and midnight; cover charge is $25. BEN RATLIFF RASHIED ALI QUARTET, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626. Best known as John Coltranes drummer in his last few years and his foil on the duet album Interstellar Space, Mr. Ali has never stopped collaborating with up-and-coming musicians. Sets are tonight and tomorrow at 8, 10 and midnight; cover charge is $20 and there is a $10 minimum. RATLIFF J.D. ALLEN TRIO PLAYS THE MUSIC OF BUTCH MORRIS, Louis, 649 East Ninth Street, at Avenue C, East Village, (212)673-1190. J.D. Allen, an able young tenor saxophonist who has played with Betty Carter, Cindy Blackman, Eric Revis and others, is doing his part in Butch Morriss month-long Black February series of nightly performances. Hes playing in most of the large improvising ensembles conducted by Mr. Morris through the month, and hes also playing this weekly gig with his own trio. On the music stand will be Mr. Morriss own compositions going back to the 1970s, which graced a number of old David Murray albums. Theyre powerfully appealing melodies; its been too long since theyve been heard. Tomorrow night at 8:30 pm; free admission. RATLIFF COOPER-MOORE/WILLIAM PARKER, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center /LES Gallery, 107 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4080. The multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore needs no special context to be understood: he plays as if he is trying to grab the attention of pedestrians on a busy street. Hell play boogie-woogie piano, pushing form into abstraction; stamp out a rhythm with hand percussion; play beautiful ballads with home-made harps, or bark out a blues on the harmonica. This performance celebrates a Cooper-Moore boxed set, on the 50 Miles of Elbow Room label, which includes five seven-inch records and a booklet inside a small cedar box. It includes solo performances by Cooper-Moore and and William Parker on bass, and a duet between the two musicians. Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m; admission is $6. RATLIFF GOLD SPARKLE BAND, Zebulon, 258 Wythe Avenue between Metropolitan and North Third Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)218-6934. The Gold Sparkle Band has been in New York since the late 80s; it channels the East-Coast jazz avant-garde of the mid-1960s. Sunday night at 10; free admission. RATLIFF LEE KONITZ TRIO, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, midtown, (212)581-3080. Lee Konitz, the alto saxophonist, was one of Lennie Tristanos closest associates in the late 1940s and early 50s; that experience left a permanent impression on his subsequent career, in terms of repertory, instrumentation and many other things. Even so, he is as original a player as there is in jazz, with a sound that has remained limpid and innocent and an emphasis on melody that makes him always easy to follow. He plays this weekend with the brothers Ed and George Schuller, on bass and drums. Sets tonight and tomorrow are at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30 and there is a $10 minimum. RATLIFF JASON LINDNER GROUP, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, South Village, (212) 242-1073. Jason Lindner, a smart, rhythmic pianist who brings together bop, Cuban and all sorts of progressive influences, has become a regular feature at this club; this particular group includes the bassist Reggie Washington, the drummer Tony Escapa, and as guests, the saxophonist Jimmy Vass and the singer Baba Israel. Sets are tonight and tomorrow at 9 and 10:30; admission is $15 per set. RATLIFF SERGIO MENDES, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212)475-8592. Three decades before Bebel Gilberto could be heard in restaurants all across the country, Sergio Mendes was the populist face of Brazilian music, making albums that souped up bossa nova for international audiences. Sets tonight and tomorrow night at 8 and 10:30; cover charge is $40 at the tables, $30 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. RATLIFF *BUTCH MORRIS, Zebulon, 258 Wythe Avenue between Metropolitan Avenue and North Third Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)218-6934; Belt Theater, 336 West 37th Street, Manhattan, (212) 563-0487; Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, East Village, (212)614-0505. Butch Morris has set up performances every night during February; hes calling it Black February, and this month officially celebrates 20 years of Mr. Morriss conductions, performances in which he conducts groups of improvisers, jazz or otherwise, with his own language of signals and baton movements. Hes playing with different ensembles each night, and heres the weekend schedule: with Butchlandband at Zebulon, tonight at 10 and midnight; free admission; with the 18 piece Free Zone/Sound Infusion Orchestra tomorrow at 4 pm at the Belt Theater; admission is $10; with the New York Skyscraper Ensemble Sunday at 5 and 6 p.m., at Bowery Poetry Club; admission is $12. Check his Web site, www.conduction.us, for further information on these and other performances. RATLIFF HOUSTON PERSON QUARTET, Lenox Lounge, 288 Lenox Avenue near 125th Street, Harlem, (212)427-0253. A veteran tenor saxophonist who keeps things pleasurable. His background is in the 1950s, when a good deal of jazz was completely submerged in rhythm and blues, and he is one of the few mainstream jazz performers today who can routinely find access to the deep language of pleasure from that time. Mr. Person has an elastic, sequential solo-building style that links him to Sonny Rollins and occasionally a fat, breathy tone that links him to Ben Webster. Enjoy him. Sets are tonight and tomorrow at 8:30, 10 and 11:30; cover charge is $20 per set, and there is a one-drink minimum. RATLIFF *BEN RILEYS MONK LEGACY SEPTET, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, 5th Floor, (212)258-9595. Led by the drummer Ben Riley, who played regularly with Thelonious Monk through the 1960s, this seven-piece band will do something unusual: play new arrangements of Monk material with no pianist. Since Monks songs bear up beautifully through any number of reinterpretations, and since Mr. Riley is a lovingly sensitive drummer, it should be a worthwhile week. Sets through Sunday night are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum at the tables, $5 at the bar. RATLIFF *JIMMY SCOTT, Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, midtown, (212) 582-2121. This singer of sepulchral jazz songs keeps rolling along, with the cracks and crevices in his voice seeming either more authentic or more disturbing, depending on your point of view. But he is also one of the old-school jazz performers who know how to hold audiences tightly from beginning to end. Sets through Sunday night are at 8:30 and 10:30; cover, $35, and there is a $10 minimum. RATLIFF JOE WILDER WITH MICHAEL WEISS TRIO, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue at 38th Street, Manhattan, (212)885-7125. Mr. Wilder, a marvelous trumpeter who played with big bands in the 1940s and 50s and finally went full time into studio and television work, plays a kind of tabula-rasa swing language: theres very little slang in there to clog the music. Sets are tonight at 9 and 10:45; cover charge is $15, and there is a $10 minimum. RATLIFF BUSTER WILLIAMS QUARTET, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212)255-4037. Mr. Williams, an agile bassist with a liquid tone, has been setting up bands stocked with the best players in New York. This one includes the saxophonist Steve Wilson, the pianist George Colligan and the drummer Lenny White. Sets through Sunday night are at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30. RATLIFF MATT WILSONS ARTS AND CRAFTS, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232. Regardless of whos in his band -- and membership has changed several times over the last few years -- the jazz drummer Matt Wilson is a plenty good enough draw all by himself. Influenced by the late Billy Higgins, among others, Mr. Wilsons style swings with a fairly light touch; but he is fiendishly attentive to what his sidemen are doing, and he uses every bit they give him, playing off their gestures, stoking their furnaces in turn. He has a sense of play thats hard to miss. Sets through Sunday night are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $25, and $20 on Sunday. RATLIFF Classical A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy opera and classical music events this weekend in the New York metropolitan region. * denotes a highly recommended event. Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera ARIANNA IN CRETA With first-rate production values as well as musical ones devoted to professional revivals of virtually unknown works, the Gotham Chamber Opera can claim to be the pre-eminent small opera company in New York. This season is practically mainstream by the companys standards as it jumps onto the bandwagon of the current Handel fad with a work from the composers prime (1734), the first in a planned series of Ariadne-themed operas. The cast includes some notable young singers, Caroline Worra and Hanan Alattar among them; the conductor is the companys founder, Neal Goren; Christopher Alden will direct. Tomorrow night at 7:30, Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, (212)279-4200. Tickets: $30 to $60. ANNE MIDGETTE LA BOHÈME Its been some time since the Metropolitan Operas crowd-pleasing production of Puccinis Bohème has held much interest for adventurous opera buffs. But this seasons revival offers an impressive and intriguing cast. The golden-voiced coloratura soprano Ruth Ann Swenson continues her exploration of the rich lyric soprano repertory as she sings the role of Mimi, with the hardy tenor Roberto Aronica as Rodolfo. The vibrant soprano Patricia Racette sings Musetta, with the robust baritone Dwayne Croft as her off-again, on-again boyfriend Marcello. Daniel Oren conducts. Tomorrow at 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212)362-6000. Sold out; returned tickets may be available at the box office. ANTHONY TOMMASINI Classical Music AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Leon Botstein and his American Symphony Orchestra keep coming at us with irresistible repertory. Sunday afternoon brings the orchestras latest adventure into French opera: Le Roi Malgré Lui by Chabrier. This comedy for the opera stage will be performed at Avery Fisher Hall, and anyone interested in the byways of this strain of opera should try to go -- either for love or just curiosity. Sunday at 3 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500. Tickets: $25 to $53. BERNARD HOLLAND BARGEMUSIC There are few better places to hear chamber music in New York than this floating concert hall on the Brooklyn side of the East River. Once a coffee barge, it offers the intimacy that chamber music demands, as well as a wonderful view of lower Manhattan through the bay windows that make up the back wall of the stage. This weekend, Mark Peskanov, the violinst and Bargemusics executive and artistic director, presides over performances of two Mozart Divertimentos -- those in B flat (K. 287) and D (K. 334). The performers, along with Mr. Peskanov, include Aaron Boyd, violinist; Miranda Sielaff, violist; Eric Jacobsen, cellist; Timothy Cobb, bassist, and Wei-Ping Chou and Brad Gemeinhardt, hornists. Tonight and tomorrow nights at 7:30, and Sunday at 4 p.m., Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718)624-2083. Tickets: $40; $25 for students. ALLAN KOZINN CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER Ravel was a big admirer of jazz and couldnt understand why more American classical composers did not integrate it into their music. The composer himself suggested how it might be done in his catchy jazz-tinged Violin Sonata, to be performed at this concert by the fine French violinist Philippe Graffin and the pianist André-Michel Schub. Paul Neubauer (viola) and Gary Hoffman (cello) join for the remainder of the French-themed program, including music by Fauré and Saint-Saens. Tonight at 8 and Sunday at 5 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, (212) 875.5788. Tickets: $27.50 to $48. JEREMY EICHLER COLUMBIA SINFONIETTA This ambitious group was founded in 2000 to address a perceived dearth of larger scale New York ensembles devoted exclusively to contemporary music. The group closed up shop after one season but it has recently re-formed under its previous director, the conductor and percussionist Jeffrey Milarsky, to pick up where it left off presenting both classic works of recent decades that are rarely heard in New York, and new compositions. In the former category this weekend will be Messiaens Oiseaux Exotiques, an important piece from the mid-1950s that is derived, like so much of the composers music, from bird songs. Also on the program will be a 1979 percussion work by Michael Finnissy as well as more recent music by Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez, David Rakowski and Eric Chasalow. Sunday at 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212)501-3330. Tickets: $10. EICHLER *SHARON ISBIN Guitarists typically build their performances around either solo works, concertos or chamber music. Sharon Isbin, one of the finest guitarists performing now, both technically and interpretively, will draw on all three repertories in her concert on Sunday. She opens with Vivaldis Concerto in D (RV 93), and closes with a chamber score, the Boccherini Quintet in D (G. 448). Between them, she offers an arrangement by John Duarte of the Albinoni Adagio, Mr. Duartes own Joan Baez Suite in its New York premiere, Fallas Siete Canciones Populares Españolas and Rodrigos Aranjuez ma pensée. Ms. Isbins collaborators include Catherine Cho and Soovin Kim, violinists; Cynthia Phelps, violist; Carter Brey, cellist, and Daniel Druckman, percussionist. Sunday at 3, 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212)415-5500. Tickets: $40. KOZINN MET CHAMBER ENSEMBLE A few seasons ago, Dawn Upshaw joined James Levine and the Met Chamber Ensemble -- players from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra -- in remarkably sensual, eloquent rendering of Schoenbergs Pierrot Lunaire. Ms. Upshaw returns to sing the work again with Mr. Levine and company in an all-contemporary program that also includes Luigi Dallapiccolas Piccola Musica Notturna, Elliott Carters Luimen and Schoenbergs own chamber arrangement of his Five Pieces (Op. 16). Sunday at 5, Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800. Tickets: $48 to $64. KOZINN NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC In his last years with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, an ensemble with a great Mahler tradition, Riccardo Chailly was becoming a formidable Mahlerian. Now, in the first of his two weeks with the New York Philharmonic, an orchestra with its own personal connection to the composer, Mr. Chailly conducts Mahlers Seventh Symphony. And a fuller exposure to Mr. Chailly as a Mahlerian can be had in a recording of the Ninth Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, released late last year by Decca. Today at 2 p.m., tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500. Tickets: today, $22 to $74; tomorrow and Tuesday, $25 to $90. JAMES R. OESTREICH JOSÉ VAN DAM Both in opera and in the song repertory, the Belgian bass-baritone José Van Dam has been among the most vocally splendid and artistically refined singers of our time. A few seasons back, as Mr. Van Dam turned 60, his voice, understandably, showed signs of decline. But in the last two years he has gained new-found vocal vitality, most recently as Golaud in the Metropolitan Operas production of Debussys Pelléas et Mélisande. At 64 he is singing with uncanny freshness and incomparable artistry. His recital, the first of two programs for Lincoln Centers Art of the Song series, should be marvelous. With the pianist Maciej Pikulski, he will sing French works by Fauré, Debussy, Massenet, Berlioz and Bizet. (The second program is on Wednesday) Sunday at 2 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500. Tickets: $48. TOMMASINI GAY VALENTINE MUSIC CELEBRATION Tomorrow night Canticorum Virtuosi, the nonprofit organization that oversees the activities of two respected area choruses, the New York Virtuoso Singers and the Canticum Novum Singers, presents an elaborate and eclectic concert to honor same-sex love and affection, to quote the presenters. The distinguished and varied roster of performers includes the composer and pianist David Del Tredici, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the tenor John Wesley Wright, the Gay Gotham Chorus, the Ambassador Singers of the New York City Gay Mens Chorus, a roster of cabaret performers and Harold Rosenbaum directing the Canticum Novum Singers and the New York Virtuoso Singers. The program is a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Tomorrow night at 8, Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212)307-7171. Tickets: $20 to $100. TOMMASINI NIKOLAI MEDTNER This Russian pianist and composer, who died in 1951, is no longer a household name, but his passionate supporters during his lifetime included Rachmaninoff, who in 1912 labeled him the most talented of all the modern composers. Medtners late-Romantic solo and chamber works are the focus of a program tonight that, with David Dubal as host, features a selection of piano miniatures or Skazki (fairytales) as well as his Piano Quintet in C, among other works. Tonight at 8, Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street, West Village, (212)242-4770. Tickets: $15; $10 for students and 65+. EICHLER ORLANDO CONSORT Among the challenges of performing very old music are, first, figuring out how it went and, second, making it come alive. Both challenges are grist for the mill of this male vocal quartet, founded in 1988 (but recently joined by a new tenor), celebrated for its performances of music written before 1500, and supported by musicologists in preparing varied programs like this weekends, which includes music from their latest album, devoted to the 15th-century composer Antoine Busnois. Other star composers -- stars, at least, to specialists in this particular area -- are Hayne van Ghizeghem, Walter Lambe and Henry VIII. Tomorrow night at 8, Low Library Rotunda at Columbia University, Broadway at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212)854-7799. Tickets: $35; $21 for students. MIDGETTE TOKYO STRING QUARTET The Tokyo String Quartet is currently in residence at the 92d Street Y, and the theme of the series of concerts it has been performing is immigrant composers. Tomorrows program consists of the Rider Quartet from Haydns Op. 74, Zemlinskis Fourth Quartet and Hanns Eislers Septet No. 2 with added flute, piccolo, clarinet and bassoon. Viewing Haydn as an immigrant stretches the point. The Op. 74 may have coincided with his famous visits to London, but that is all. Still Haydn is always welcome regardless of passport status. Zemlinski and Eisler, who ended up back in East Germany, are legitimate topics. Tomorrow night at 8, 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212)415-5500. Tickets: $35. HOLLAND Dance A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy dance events this weekend in the New York metropolitan region. * denotes a highly recommended event. Full reviews of recent dance performances: nytimes.com/dance. BEIJING MODERN DANCE COMPANY A troupe founded in 1995 and one of the principal forces in contemporary Chinese dance makes its New York debut in Rear Light, an evening-long work to music by Pink Floyd that reflects the struggle of a young Chinese generation to reconcile traditional culture with influences from abroad and a thirst for intellectual freedom. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212)242-0800. Tickets: $34. JACK ANDERSON AKIM FUNK BUDDHA The ever-exuberant Mr. Buddha (or is it Funk Buddha?) specializes in dance-theater that combines unblinking stillness, storytelling, tap and Mongolian throat-singing. He adds martial arts, breakdancing, beat-boxing, and Japanese, Zulu and urban English talk to the mix in his new Amazulu: Dance as a Weapon: the Hip-Hop Circus -- Part I. Tonight and tomorrow (and next Thursday through Saturday) at 10 p.m.; Sunday (and next Sunday) at 5:30 p.m. La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street, west of Second Avenue, Manhattan, (212)475-7710 or www.lamama.org. Tickets: $15. JENNIFER DUNNING BUTTER MELTS AWAY MY LETTERS Choreographed by Stephanie Rafferty and conceived and directed by Gian Marco Lo Forte, this theater-dance piece visits a group of young runaways to New York City who cannot quite shrug off the past. Tonight and tomorrow (and Thursdays through Saturdays through Feb. 26) at 8 p.m.; Sunday (and Sundays through Feb. 27) at 2:30 and 8 p.m., La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street west of Second Avenue, Manhattan (212) 475-7710. Tickets: $15; TDF vouchers accepted. DUNNING *FLAMENCO FESTIVAL The festival closes with Flamenco at the Crossroads, in which the dancer Rafaela Carrasco will join traditional and new-style flamenco singers in an exploration of this age-old Gypsy art. Sunday at 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, (212)247-7800. Tickets: $22 to $69. And for those who wish to continue the exploration, there is a free series saluting the great Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura and his flamenco films, many made with Antonio Gades, ending on Feb. 23 with Mr. Sauras classic, all-encompassing Flamenco. Wednesdays beginning at 6 p.m. Instituto Cervantes, 211-215 East 49th Street, Manhattan, (212)308-7720 or www.cervantes.org. DUNNING I LOVE TANGO This tango musical boasts four dancers and live string, bandoneon, piano and vocal music. Tonight (and Thursdays and Fridays through March 25) at 8 p.m.; tomorrow (and Saturdays through March 26) at 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays (through March 27) at 4 p.m., Thalia Spanish Theater, 41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside, Queens, (718)729-3880 or www.thaliatheatre.org. Tickets: $30; $27 for students and 65+; $25 (on Thursdays). DUNNING MARK JARECKE A choreographer who has studied philosophy as well as dance and whose creations often have an architectural quality offers Dendron, an in-the-round piece during which the audience is free to move around the performance area. Theatergoers are also encouraged to bring portable radios with earphones to savor the shifts in the sound environment by Chris Peck and Jon Moniaci. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at 8:30, Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, Second Avenue at Tenth Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194. Tickets: $15. ANDERSON CLEO MACK DANCE PROJECT Ms. Mack and her New Jersey-based company specialize in modern dance that she describes as highly choreographed life. The program includes new and recent dances that explore emotional states and one in which a 30-foot long skirt is a character. Tomorrow and Sunday at 8 p.m., Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, at Washington Street, Manhattan, (908)561-5454. Tickets: $15. DUNNING MOISEYEV DANCE COMPANY Russias most famous folk-dance troupe makes its only New York appearance this season. Founded in 1936 by Igor Moiseyev, who at 98 continues to choreograph, the company is known for its spirited acrobatic dancing, theatrical flair and a repertory of works from Russia and many European and Asian nations. The dancing world travelers also perform American jazz and rock pieces. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn College, near Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues, Brooklyn, (718)951-4500. Tickets: $45, $40. ANDERSON PARSONS DANCE COMPANY The program includes four modern-dance pieces by David Parsons, a former Paul Taylor star, and music by the Ahn Trio, a group of three Korean-born sisters. Tonight at 8, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University, Route 25A, Brookville, (516)299-3100 or www.tillescenter.org. Tickets: $38, $50 and $60; $35; $47 and $57 (65+). DUNNING ROCHA DANCE THEATER This program of modern-dance choreography by Jenny Rocha and the guest artist Kelli Wicke Davis, explores hidden human behavior, in part to music by Marty Beller. It includes -- we like this -- a piece with interactive newspaper costumes. Tonight through Sunday at 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, Manhattan, (212)334-7479. Tickets: $15. DUNNING THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS Dances of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Inuit, Hop and Pueblo peoples will be included in this 30th annual Pow-Wow, along with a new modern-dance piece by Tom Pearson, a Creek Cherokee. Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 5 p.m., Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue at Tenth Street, Manhattan (212) 254-1109. Tickets: $10; $1 for children under 12 accompanying ticket-bearing adults on Sunday. DUNNING WAVE OF HUMANITY This four-part, eight-hour dance event, a benefit for tsunami relief efforts, features nearly 40 individuals and companies chosen by nine dance institutions. Participants include Earl Mosley, Amanda Loulaki and Short Mean Lady, Ivy Baldwin Dance, Noemi LaFrance, Clare Byrne, Erica Essner Performance Co-Op, 3rd Rail Dance and House Dance Project. Tonight from 6 to 8 p.m.; 8 to 10 p.m.; 10 to 11:30 p.m., and 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., New Dance Space Center, 280 Broadway at Chambers Street, Manhattan, (212)625-8369 ext. 55 or www.dancespacecenter.org. Tickets: $20 (first through third parts); $15 (fourth part); $60 for all four; $100 VIP tickets for all four. DUNNING Art A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy art, design and photography shows at New York museums and galleries this weekend. At many museums, children under 12 and members are admitted free. Addresses, unless otherwise noted, are in Manhattan. Most galleries are closed on Sundays and Mondays, but hours vary and should be checked by telephone. Gallery admission is free unless noted. * denotes a highly recommended show. Full reviews of recent shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums CONTEMPORARY VOICES: WORKS FROM THE UBS ART COLLECTION. Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, (212) 708-9400, through April 25. Whats wrong with this picture? The Museum of Modern Art, the most visionary museum of the 20th century, is inaugurating the temporary-exhibition galleries in its 21st-century home with an exhibition of gifts from a corporate collection. It is an ambitious, carefully selected corporate collection, but that doesnt keep the ensemble from feeling corporate, monotonous and by-the-book. The 40 (of 64) works given or promised to the Modern are nearly all by white, male artists and they are all already represented in the collection. Theres nothing wrong with the individual works by artists like Philip Guston, Jasper Johns and Vija Celmins that wont be cured by integrating them into the Moderns collection, but the ensemble effect is dispiriting. With an emphasis on a narrow swath of the 1980s mainstream, the show feels like an excessively edited letter in a bottle from an art world that no longer exists. Hours: Saturdays through Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Admission: $20; $16 for 65+; $12 for students. Free on Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m. ROBERTA SMITH RUTH DUCKWORTH, MODERNIST SCULPTOR, Museum of Arts and Design, 40 West 53rd Street, (212)956-3535, through April 3. A sculptor whose basic medium is clay, Ms. Duckworth makes everything from tiny, delicate vessels to monumental outdoor sculptures. Though her work fits in -- but not too neatly -- with the modernist tradition, her eye has roamed everywhere, resulting in a bewildering variety of styles and influences, from Brancusi to a beef bone found in her soup. Sometimes the influences combine awkwardly, making her work seem a little strained and quirky, but often enough her venturesomeness pays off, producing images of eloquence and power. Hours: Daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission: $9; $6 for 65+ and students. Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. is pay what you wish. GRACE GLUECK *FROM FILIPPO LIPPI TO PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA: FRA CARNEVALE AND THE MAKING OF A RENAISSANCE MASTER, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212)535-7710, through May 1. The Italian Renaissance artist-priest known as Fra Carnevale was an art-world somebody in his day, but a shadowy figure to modern historians, known primarily for two extraordinary paintings of tiny figures in fantastic architectural settings. Both paintings are in this intricate think-piece of a show that tries to reconstruct his career by bringing his known paintings together. At the same time, it uses his work, along with that of major figures like Filippo Lippi and Piero della Francesca, to explore larger ideas about self-created professional identity in a cultural epoch far more diverse than it is sometimes thought to have been. A few of the paintings mustered as evidence are pretty strange; many are glorious. Hours: Sundays, Tuesdays through Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays until 9 p.m. Admission: $15; 65+, $10; students, $7. HOLLAND COTTER IMAGES OF DON QUIXOTE: THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION AND PRINTMAKING, the Hispanic Society of America, 613 West 155th Street, (212)926-2234, through Feb. 20. A few years back, a poll of international writers voted Don Quixote the greatest book of all time. This year Cervantess novel is four centuries old, and the Hispanic Society of America is celebrating the occasion with this exhibition of illustrations of the story printed from the 17th through 20th centuries. Despite its small size, the show demonstrates how attitudes toward the book changed in different eras, from raucous comedy to Romantic tragedy. And in designs by artists like John Vanderbank, Fragonard and Gustave Doré, there are fascinating images and ideas to consider. Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Free. COTTER I WANNA BE LOVED BY YOU: PHOTOGRAPHS OF MARILYN MONROE, Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, (718)638-5000, through March 20. Monroe was one of the great movie stars of the 20th century, but does that make her a good subject for a museum show? Fans might enjoy the almost 200 photographs from a private collection presented in this exhibition, but though many are by famous photographers, including Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton and Henri Cartier-Bresson, the show as a whole is like a walk-in special issue of People magazine: diverting but superficial and enervating. Hours: Wednesdays to Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (to 11 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month). Admission: $8; students and 65+, $4. KEN JOHNSON Galleries: Uptown MIQUEL BARCELÓ, C&M Arts, 45 East 78th Street, (212)861-0020, through March 5. Paint as a natural force is the consuming interest of Mr. Barceló, a Spanish artist steeped in a grand realist tradition. His feeling for the past includes an admiration for the lush Spanish still lifes known as bodegónes. But his abstract-figurative use of paint, in thick impasto crusts and slathers, is also indebted to the dense pigment-plus canvases of post-World War II idols like Jackson Pollock, Antoni Tapiès, and Jean Dubuffet. His surfaces are often bulked up with vegetative matter, sand and other materials to suggest natural surfaces like the sea and its inner life. GLUECK Galleries: 57th Street LEON POLK SMITH: FORMS AND FUNCTIONS, Washburn, 20 West 57th Street, (212)397-6780, through March 5. Spaces and their boundaries fascinated this hard-edge abstractionist (1906-1996) and in this show of his biomorphic paintings from the 1950s his elegantly calculated contrivance of one space impinging on another pleasingly asks the eye to tease out figure-ground relationships. In Over Easy, a large, partly heart-shaped figure of mauve thrusts on to a black ground at an angle; or is it the curvy black space that cuts into the aggressor? Smiths clean, flat surfaces, each restricted to two colors, are shown with examples of sleek, minimal contoured furniture by front-line designers of the period, Charles and Ray Eames and Isamu Noguchi among them. The biomorphic shapes of the furniture and their colors play nicely off Smiths snart, snappy formats. GLUECK VIEW EIGHT: A FEW DOMESTIC OBJECTS INTERROGATE A FEW WORKS OF ART, Mary Boone, 745 Fifth Avenue, (212)752-2929, through Feb. 26. This canny show of artworks and objects of design includes Josiah McElhenys curvy mirrored coffee table bearing mirrored blobby objects; beautiful blobby ceramic sculptures by Ken Price; delicate, biomorphic hanging lights by Lionel Theodore Dean; a twisted, retro-futuristic orange bench by Sachio Hihara; and, like the nightmare that domestic utopianism tries to insulate us from, one of Lee Bontecous early, scarily militaristic reliefs. JOHNSON Galleries: SoHo *LOG CABIN, Artists Space,38 Greene Street, (212)226-3970, through Feb. 26. Given the cultural climate, wedding bells wont be playing Over the Rainbow any time soon, and men and women wont be coming out of the closet and going into the Army. So what can Log Cabin Republicans, gay supporters of the ruling party, be thinking? This is one of the questions posed, however indirectly, by the 33 participants in a snappy, discursive group show that serves as field report on what art with queer identity as a theme is looking like these days. As surveyed by the curator, Jeffrey Uslip, its looking good and heterogeneous: ambisexual, interracial and multigenerational, though short on lesbian artists, who are making some of the best work anywhere. COTTER WHO IS THE PROTAGONIST? Guild & Greyshkul, 28 Wooster Street, (212)625-9224, through Feb. 26. This engaging exhibition about approaches to storytelling includes a life-size space station interior handmade by Lisi Raskin; a Modernist theater environment with a mysterious sci-fi video called Moon Colony by Ohad Meromi, the shows organizer; a short, strange sci-fi story written by Halsey Rodman; a storyboard for a film about a father and his young son by Guy Ben-Ner; and a Pop-Cubist head of cut and painted paper by Ryan Johnson. JOHNSON Galleries: Chelsea KNUT ASDAM: FILTER CITY, Gasser & Grunert, 524 West 19th Street, (212)807-9494, through Feb. 19. This Norwegian artist who has exhibited extensively in Europe presents a slow, enigmatic, 21-minute film about two young women -- one small and white, the other tall and black -- who, between long pauses, emit oracular, world-weary utterances about social issues and obscure personal concerns. It is well-produced and nice to watch, though it borders inadvertently on a parody of pretentious avant-garde filmmaking. JOHNSON SANTE DORAZIO: PAM: AMERICAN ICON, Stellan Holm, 524 West 24th Street, (212) 627-7444, through March 5. Pamela Anderson -- yes, that Pamela Anderson -- in all her pneumatic, mostly unclothed glory is the subject of large and surrealistically vivid photographs that were originally commissioned but not published by Playboy magazine. Students: discuss criteria for judging the value -- aesthetic and otherwise -- of these artworks. JOHNSON JOHN LURIE, Roebling Hall, 606 West 26th Street, (212)929-8180, through Feb. 26. The stream-of-consciousness notational ink drawings and radiant gouaches of the musician John Lurie have precedents in the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and William Wegmans early Conceptual drawings and maybe the cartoons of Roz Chast, but they have their own sense of wiry line and texture, wordplay, sexual bluntness and radiant color. SMITH NATARAJ SHARMA, Bose Pacia, 508 West 26th Street, (212)989-7074, through Feb. 19. The first New York solo exhibition of this Indian painter who has exhibited internationally is too diverse to give a clear picture of what he is about, but the best works have an intriguing allegorical resonance. They are made in a neat and orderly style combining Pop, photo-based realism and hints of Indian traditionalism. Most impressive is the large picture in which a naked man peeps into a temple filled with an semiabstract orgy of interpenetrating pink bodies. JOHNSON Other Galleries MATTHEW ANTEZZO, Maccarone, 45 Canal Street, (212)431-4977, through March 13. Among works by the artist known for deadpan copies of art magazine ads are nondescript penciled copies of photographs of feminist heroines like Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem; copies in pencil of news photographs of American Indian protest events that took place in 1975; and a painting of an ancient statue of Diogenes of Sinope titled Cynic. What it all means could keep an undergraduate seminar busy for some time. JOHNSON NEW YORKS FINEST, Canada, 55 Chrystie Street, Lower East Side, (212) 925-4631, through March 5. This exhibition of paintings by 19 mostly young and emerging artists has an eclectic, anarchic spirit. The common ground includes an interest in material, be it the store-bought fabric with which Joe Bradley conjures up a Minimalist seaman, or the Expressionist effusions of Anke Weyer and Wallace Whitney. Variations on a knowing but unjaded Pop-Expressionism prevail, mixed in varying ratios by Katherine Bernhardt, Brendan Cass, Bill Saylor, Carrie Moyer and Josh Smith, who has lately abandoned paper for canvas to good effect. Laissez-faire, but mean it! might be the collective rallying cry. SMITH Last Chance THE AZTEC EMPIRE, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212)423-3500, closing on Sunday. When a big survey of Aztec art opened in London in 2002, everybody flipped out. It was one of the hottest ancient-art events since Tutankhamen. Now an expanded version of the London show is at the Guggenheim, and its a stunner. Objects from pre-Aztec Mexico set the stage, but it is material from the bloody-minded, deity-besotted Aztec culture that fills the museums darkened ramps. Set on jutting platforms and dark recesses are a skull-headed earth goddess in a skirt of writhing snakes, a warrior metamorphosing into a bird and a god of spring and fertility shedding his skin. Funky clay images of domestic life alternate with ultrasophisticated gold jewelry. Hours: Saturdays through Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission: $18; $15, students and 65+. COTTER COMIC GROTESQUE: WIT AND MOCKERY IN GERMAN ART, 1870-1940, Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, (212)628-6200, closing on Monday. The horrors of World War I are usually credited with inspiring the dark, often scathing humor that was used to comment on and combat some very unfunny developments in Germany in the first four decades of the century. But the Neue Galeries splendidly multimedia revisionist show takes a broader view. It identifies paintings by Arnold Bocklin from the 1870s as a point of origin and then sweeps forward in a selective yet encompassing manner, touching on painting, poetry, graphic design and popular entertainment. It places artists like Lionel Feininger and Alfred Kubin in context. It culminates in the films of the great Karl Valentin, a star of stage, screen and cabaret who was Germanys Charlie Chaplin. Hours: Saturdays through Mondays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission: $10; students and 65+, $7. SMITH CORY ARCANGEL, Team Gallery, 527 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 279-9219, closing tomorrow. In one of the seasons best debuts, the collaboratively inclined Cory Arcangel and his cohorts create quasi-interactive sound and video pieces of startling and subversive beauty by commandeering various electronic or digital staples including music videos, karaoke tunes, video games, the Internet and even a long phone message. The sense that anything man-made is grist for personal expression is exhilarating. SMITH ONE-ARMED BANDIT, DAmelio Terras, 525 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212)352-9460, closing tomorrow. This three-artist show is notable mainly for its playful installation. Presented in groups of three with each artwork framed by red tape applied to the wall, Polly Apfelbaums gridded drawings of cartoon blossoms on white velvet, Tony Fehers flattened, glitter-covered found boxes and Joanne Greenbaums buoyant abstract pictures are displayed in various permutations like slot machine icons. JOHNSON

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The Listings: April 7 - April 13

Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the New York metropolitan region this week. * denotes a highly recommended film, concert, show or exhibition. Theater Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, show times and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Previews and Openings FESTEN Opens Sunday. Based on the film The Celebration, this London transfer, starring Julianna Margulies, Larry Bryggman and Michael Hayden, is about a Danish man who confronts some old secrets at a family reunion (1:45). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. LOS BIG NAMES Opens Sunday. Marga Gomezs solo drama is about her parents, Latino entertainers who never achieved crossover success (1:30). 47th Street Theater, 304 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. BASED ON A TOTALLY TRUE STORY Opens Tuesday. A Hollywood deal makes a comic-book writer re-evaluate his relationships in this new play by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (2:00). Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. GUARDIANS Opens Tuesday. A favorite from the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this series of monologues juxtaposes the Abu Ghraib scandal in the United States with the release by a London newspaper of forged photos of English soldiers torturing detainees. Jason Moore directs (1:30). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 253-9983. PEER GYNT Opens Tuesday. Following their hit revival of Hedda Gabler, the Brooklyn Academy of Music presents another Henrik Ibsen play to honor the centennial of the playwrights death. Robert Wilson directs this 1867 verse drama (3:50). Howard Gilman Opera House at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100. STUFF HAPPENS Opens Thursday. The words of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company make up the script of David Hares docudrama about the run-up to war (2:50). The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200. AWAKE AND SING! Opens April 17. Lincoln Center revives Clifford Odetss classic fist-shaking drama about a Jewish family struggling to survive during the Depression. The impressive cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Ben Gazzara and Zoë Wanamaker (2:30). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. THE DROWSY CHAPERONE Opens May 1. This little-musical-that-could about an unscrupulous Broadway producer in the 1920s (some things never change) began at the Toronto Fringe Festival and now makes its unlikely premiere on the Great White Way (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE Previews start Thursday. Opens April 27. Redemption is a major theme of this musical fantasy adapted from a Peter S. Beagle novel about a recluse who lives in a Bronx cemetery (2:00). York Theater, St. Peters Lutheran Church, Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, (212) 868-4444. LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY Opens April 16. John Guare, never satisfied with an overly tidy play, throws comedy, tragedy, satire and mystery into this cult drama, which first opened almost three decades ago. Lili Taylor and Sherie Rene Scott star (2:15). Signature Theaters Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. LESTAT Opens April 25. Elton John and Bernie Taupin have a good track record making pop hits, but can they find success in the cursed genre of the vampire musical? Hugh Panaro stars (2:30). Palace Theater, 1564 Broadway, (212) 307-4100. SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE BIG BOB Previews start Thursday. Opens April 16. C. J. Hopkinss dark drama, a hit at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, is about a game show host even more bizarre than Bob Barker (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. TARZAN Opens May 10. Phil Collins lends his invisible touch to the score of the latest Disney musical. David Henry Hwang wrote the book (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4100. THREE DAYS OF RAIN Opens April 19. Julia Roberts stars in this years most closely watched star vehicle, a revival of the Richard Greenberg time-traveling drama about how we divide the legacy of our parents. Paul Rudd also stars (2:30). Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, 242 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. THE THREEPENNY OPERA Opens April 20. If any Broadway theater was made for a revival of Brechts classic, its the cabaret-style Studio 54, which will be host to an intriguing cast that includes Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper (2:40). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. THE WEDDING SINGER Opens April 27. Stephen Lynch plays the goofy title character in this musical adaptation of the Adam Sandler film about leg warmers, Billy Idol and other artifacts from the 1980s. John Rando (Urinetown) directs (2:20). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. Broadway BAREFOOT IN THE PARK For a work that celebrates the liberating force of spontaneity, this revival of Neil Simons 1963 comedy doesnt have one scene that feels organic, let alone impromptu. Directed by Scott Elliott, and starring Patrick Wilson and a miscast Amanda Peet as newlyweds in Greenwich Village, this Barefoot has the robotic gait of Frankensteins monster (2:20). Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Ben Brantley) * BRIDGE & TUNNEL This delightful solo show, written and performed by Sarah Jones, is a sweet-spirited valentine to New York City, its polyglot citizens and the larger notion of an all-inclusive America. In 90 minutes of acutely observed portraiture gently tinted with humor, Ms. Jones plays more than a dozen men and women participating in an open-mike evening of poetry for immigrants (1:30). Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles Isherwood) THE COLOR PURPLE So much plot, so many years, so many characters to cram into less than three hours. This beat-the-clock musical adaptation of Alice Walkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Southern black women finding their inner warriors never slows down long enough for you to embrace it. LaChanze leads the vibrant, hard-working cast (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS The arrival of Jonathan Pryce and his eloquent eyebrows automatically makes this the seasons most improved musical. With Mr. Pryce (who replaces the admirable but uneasy John Lithgow) playing the silken swindler to Norbert Leo Butzs vulgar grifter, its as if a mismatched entry in a three-legged race had become an Olympic figure-skating pair (2:35). Imperial Theater, 249 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) DOUBT, A PARABLE (Pulitzer Prize, Best Play 2005, and Tony Award, Best Play 2005) Set in the Bronx in 1964, this drama by John Patrick Shanley is structured as a clash of wills and generations between Sister Aloysius (Eileen Atkins), the head of a parochial school, and Father Flynn (Ron Eldard), the young priest who may or may not be too fond of the boys in his charge. The plays elements bring to mind those tidy topical melodramas that were once so popular. But Mr. Shanley makes subversive use of musty conventions (1:30). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) JERSEY BOYS From grit to glamour with the Four Seasons, directed by the pop repackager Des McAnuff (The Whos Tommy). The real thrill of this shrink-wrapped bio-musical, for those who want something more than recycled chart toppers and a story line poured from a can, is watching the wonderful John Lloyd Young (as Frankie Valli) cross the line from exact impersonation into something far more compelling (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA Love is a many-flavored thing, from sugary to sour, in Adam Guettel and Craig Lucass encouragingly ambitious and discouragingly unfulfilled new musical. The show soars only in the sweetly bitter songs performed by the wonderful Victoria Clark, as an American abroad (2:15). Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE ODD COUPLE Odd is not the word for this couple. How could an adjective suggesting strangeness or surprise apply to a production so calculatedly devoted to the known, the cozy, the conventional? As the title characters in Neil Simons 1965 comedy, directed as if to a metronome by Joe Mantello, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their star performances from The Producers, and its not a natural fit. Dont even consider killing yourself because the show is already sold out (2:10). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * THE PAJAMA GAME Sexual chemistry in a Broadway musical? Isnt that illegal now? If it were, then Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli OHara -- the white-hot stars of Kathleen Marshalls delicious revival of this 1954 musical -- would be looking at long jail terms. This intoxicating production, which features a charming supporting cast led by Michael McKean, allows grown-up audiences the rare chance to witness a bona fide adult love affair translated into hummable songs and sprightly dance (2:30). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) RING OF FIRE The man in black turns sunshine yellow in a show that strings songs associated with Johnny Cash into a big, bright candy necklace of a musical revue, created and directed by Richard Maltby Jr. In the current bio-flick Walk the Line, Cash wrestles demons; Ring of Fire wrestles with a really bad case of the cutes (2:00). Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SWEENEY TODD Sweet dreams, New York. This thrilling new revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheelers musical, with Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone leading a cast of 10 who double as their own musicians, burrows into your thoughts like a campfire storyteller who knows what really scares you. The inventive director John Doyle aims his pared-down interpretation at the squirming child in everyone who wants to have his worst fears both confirmed and dispelled (2:30). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE The happy news for this happy-making little musical is that the move to larger quarters has dissipated none of its quirky charm. William Finns score sounds plumper and more rewarding than it did on Off Broadway, providing a sprinkling of sugar to complement the sass in Rachel Sheinkins zinger-filled book. The performances are flawless. Gold stars all around (1:45). Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * WELL Lisa Krons sparkling autobiographical play about illness, integration and her mother (portrayed by with majestic warmth and weariness by Jayne Houdyshell) helps restore the honor of that tarnished literary form, the memoir. Though it shows the strain of scaling up for Broadway, this singular work, which stars Ms. Kron as herself, opens windows of insight and emotion found in no other show (1:40). Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway DEFIANCE The second play in John Patrick Shanleys cycle of morality dramas that began with Doubt, this ambitious tale of racial relations and the military mindset on a North Carolina marine base feels both overcrowded and oddly diffuse. If Doubt has an elegant and energy-efficient sprinters gait, Defiance progresses with a flustered air of distraction. The excellent Margaret Colin, as an officers wife, provides a welcome shot of credibility (1:30). Manhattan Theater Club, Theater 1, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. (Brantley) ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE Miscasting is the mother of invention. Or so it proves to be for Jan Maxwell, who retailors an ill-fitting part and makes it as snug as a glove in this underpowered revival of Joe Ortons scandalous 1964 comedy. Scott Elliss production of Ortons great farce of sexual hypocrisy, which also stars Alec Baldwin, is breezy, often funny and rarely convincing. (2:00). Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) GEORGE M. COHAN TONIGHT! The all-singing, all-dancing Jon Peterson summons the spirit of this legendary Broadway entertainer in this engaging one-man musical, devised and directed by Chip Deffaa (1:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (George Hunka) GREY GARDENS As the socialite in limbo called Little Edie Beale, Christine Ebersole gives one of the most gorgeous performances ever to grace a musical. Unfortunately, shes a pearl of incalculable price in a show that is mostly costume jewelry. Adapted from the Maysles brothers 1975 cult documentary movie, a camp favorite, and directed by Michael Greif, with the excellent Mary Louise Wilson as Edies bedridden mother (2:40). Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Brantley) JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS A powerfully sung revival of the 1968 revue, presented with affectionate nostalgia by director Gordon Greenberg. As in the original, two men (Robert Cuccioli and Rodney Hicks) and two women (Natascia Diaz and Gay Marshall) perform a wide selection of Brels plaintive ballads and stirring anthems. Ms. Marshalls captivating performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas, sung in the original French and with heart-stirring transparency, represents Brel at his best. (2:00). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE Please turn off your political correctness monitor along with your cellphone for Martin McDonaghs gleeful, gory and appallingly entertaining play. This blood farce about terrorism in rural Ireland, acutely directed by Wilson Milam, has a carnage factor to rival Quentin Tarantinos. But it is also wildly, absurdly funny and, even more improbably, severely moral (1:45). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. Closing Sunday. Moving to Broadway. Previews begin April 19; opens May 3 at the Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER A soccer game in Belfast is a catalyst for personal transformation in Marie Joness tour de force two-act monologue. Marty Maguire throws himself into the revival of this well-written, funny piece with an abandon that verges on hysteria. (1:30). Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444. (Anne Midgette) PEN David Marshall Grants sometimes preachy new three-character play is about an unhappy Long Island family in 1969. J. Smith-Cameron is fascinating to watch as she exposes the anguish behind the tough, angry exterior of the wheelchair-bound mother; Dan McCabe is uneven but believable as the troubled teenage son who wants to get away from her; and Reed Birney is less persuasive as the ex-husband who has already left. The title object is a gift from the author to himself: it allows something impossible to happen. (2:15). Playwrights Horizons, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Andrea Stevens) THE PROPERTY KNOWN AS GARLAND Adrienne Barbeau as Judy, backstage on the night of her last concert in Copenhagen. Billy Van Zandts play is tawdry and dull, and Ms. Barbeaus performance offers neither the minor rewards of a decent impersonation nor the guilty pleasures of an indecent one. (1:30). The Actors Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, at Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) RED LIGHT WINTER A frank, occasionally graphic story of erotic fixation and the havoc it can wreak on sensitive types. Written and directed by Adam Rapp, this play is both a doomy romantic drama and a morbid comedy about the anxieties of male friendship. Although somewhat contrived, it features a lovely performance by Christopher Denham as a lonely soul starved for intimacy (2:25). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) A SAFE HARBOR FOR ELIZABETH BISHOP The life of a great poet becomes the stuff of stale prose in this one-woman bio-play by Marta Goes, starring Amy Irving (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) SANDRA BERNHARD: EVERYTHING BAD AND BEAUTIFUL Sandra Bernhard was a proverbial rock star long before headline-making folks in even the most prosaic walks of life were being referred to as such. Her new show, a collection of songs interspersed with musings on her life and on public figures ranging from Britney Spears to Condi Rice, is casual to the point of offhand. That said, its invigorating to be in the presence of a true original (2:00). Daryl Roth Theater, 101 East 15th Street, at Union Square, East Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * [TITLE OF SHOW] Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell are the authors, stars and subject matter of this delectable new musical about its own making. The self-consciousness is tempered by a wonderful cast performing with the innocence of kids cavorting in a sandbox. Its a worthy postmodern homage to the classic backstage musicals, and an absolute must for show queens (1:30). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 353-0303. (Isherwood) * TRANSATLANTIC LIAISON A play fashioned from Simone de Beauvoirs love letters to the American novelist Nelson Algren and scenes from her novel The Mandarins (which tells the story of their affair). Wonderful performances by Elizabeth Rothan as de Beauvoir in love, and Matthew S. Tompkins as the emotional Algren (1:30). Harold Clurman Theater on Theater Row, 412 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Honor Moore) Off Off Broadway BURIED CHILD Tom Hermans revival makes something known new by revealing how close Sam Shepards play about a dysfunctional Midwest family is to tragic opera, speechlike arias included. The Michael Chekhov Theater Company is presenting 45 Shepard plays, and this first effort sounds a positive note. (2:30) Big Little Theater, 141 Ridge Street, near Houston Street, Lower East Side, (212) 868-4444. (Stevens) WE USED TO GO OUT Jason Mantzoukas and Jessica St. Clair revive the tradition of male-female comedy team in this appealing sketch about a disintegrating romance (1:00). UCB Theater, 306 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 366-9176. (Jason Zinoman) Long-Running Shows * ALTAR BOYZ This sweetly satirical show about a Christian pop group made up of five potential Teen People cover boys is an enjoyable, silly diversion (1:30). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200.(Isherwood) AVENUE Q R-rated puppets give lively life lessons (2:10). Golden, 252 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Cartoon made flesh, sort of (2:30). Lunt-Fontanne Theater, 205 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) CHICAGO Irrefutable proof that crime pays (2:25). Ambassador Theater, 219 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200.(Brantley) HAIRSPRAY Fizzy pop, cute kids, large man in a housedress (2:30). Neil Simon Theater, 250 West 52nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) MAMMA MIA! The jukebox that devoured Broadway (2:20). Cadillac Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Who was that masked man, anyway? (2:30). Majestic Theater, 247 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE PRODUCERS The ne plus ultra of showbiz scams (2:45). St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) RENT East Village angst and love songs to die for (2:45). Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) SPAMALOT (Tony Award, Best Musical 2005) This staged re-creation of the mock-medieval movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail is basically a singing scrapbook for Python fans. Such a good time is being had by so many people that this fitful, eager celebration of inanity and irreverence has found a large and lucrative audience (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance * ABIGAILS PARTY Scott Elliotts thoroughly delectable production of Mike Leighs 1977 comedy about domestic discord among the British middle classes. Jennifer Jason Leigh leads a superb ensemble cast as a party hostess who wields the gin bottle like a deadly weapon, resulting in an evening of savagely funny chaos (2:15). Acorn Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton,(212) 279-4200; closing tomorrow. (Isherwood) BERNARDA ALBA Michael John LaChiusas musical adaptation of Federico García Lorcas tragedy of sexual repression often feels wan and weary, though not for want of erotic imagery. The ominous, oppressive atmosphere that makes Lorcas play so much more than a potboiler is mostly missing in inaction. Graciela Daniele directs a game ensemble led by a miscast Phylicia Rashad (1:30). Mitzi Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200; closing Sunday. (Brantley) THE MUSIC TEACHER, A PLAY/OPERA A pair of interlocking monologues surrounding a little parody of an opera, with text by Wallace Shawn and music by his brother Allen. Written two decades ago and shelved when the authors failed to find a producer, this is a minor-key, underrealized work that hits a few elegiac notes but steps too gingerly around the psychosexual trauma at its core (1:45). Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village, (212) 307-4100, closing Sunday. (Isherwood) * RABBIT HOLE Thanks to a certain former American president, it has become almost impossible to say that you feel someone elses pain without its sounding like a punch line. Yet the sad, sweet release of David Lindsay-Abaires wrenching play, about the impact of the death of a small child, lies precisely in the access it allows to the pain of others, in its meticulously mapped empathy. With an emotionally transparent five-member cast led by Cynthia Nixon and Tyne Daly, directed by Daniel Sullivan, this anatomy of grief doesnt so much jerk tears as tap them (2:10). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200; closing Sunday. (Brantley) TRIAL BY WATER Qui Nguyen, raising worthwhile questions about how to live a humane and moral life in the real world, has based his play on the experiences of a cousin who survived a voyage of Vietnamese refugees in the South China Sea that ended in murder and cannibalism. Though the actors are not able to surmount the plays unfortunate didacticism and melodrama, Clint Ramoss stunning wooden set does. (1:30). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101; closing Sunday. ( Stevens) * ZOMBOID! (FILM/PERFORMANCe PROJECT #1) O, the heresy of it! Richard Foreman has introduced film into the realm of exquisitely artificial, abstract theater in which he has specialized for four decades. As it turns out, juxtaposing two art forms allows Mr. Foreman to underscore in resonant new ways what he has been saying for years: reality is, well, relative. And he continues to work in a style guaranteed to infect your perceptions for hours after (1:15). Ontological-Hysteric Theater, 131 East 10th Street, East Village; closing Sunday. (212) 352-3101. (Brantley) Movies Ratings and running times are in parentheses; foreign films have English subtitles. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, show times and tickets: nytimes.com/movies. ATL (PG-13, 103 minutes) A couple of rap stars make respectable starts on acting careers in this tale of black teenagers in Atlanta, despite a script marred by clichés and predictability. Tip Harris -- the rapper T. I. -- is intriguing as a young man who takes on the responsibility of raising his younger brother when their parents are killed, and Antwan Andre Patton -- Big Boi from OutKast -- makes a terrific drug lord. (Neil Genzlinger) BASIC INSTINCT 2 (R, 120 minutes) A joyless calculation, starring Sharon Stone and directed by Michael Caton-Jones, that is also a prime object lesson in the degradation that can face Hollywood actresses, especially those over 40. (Manohla Dargis) * THE BEAUTY ACADEMY OF KABUL (No rating, 74 minutes, in English and Dari) In the summer of 2004, a group of volunteer American hairstylists arrived in Kabul to open a school. In The Beauty Academy of Kabul, the director Liz Mermin documents the hilarious, moving and sometimes fractious meeting of diametrically different cultures, one having suffered unimaginable horrors and the other believing a good perm is the answer to everything. (Jeannette Catsoulis) * BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (R, 134 minutes) Annie Proulxs heartbreaking story of two ranch hands who fall in love while herding sheep in 1963 has been faithfully translated onto the screen in Ang Lees landmark film. (Mr. Lee won the Academy Award for best director.) Heath Ledger (in a great performance worthy of Brando at his peak) and Jake Gyllenhaal bring them fully alive. (Stephen Holden) * CAPOTE (R, 114 minutes) Philip Seymour Hoffmans portrayal of Truman Capote is a tour de force of psychological insight. (Mr. Hoffman won the Academy Award for best actor.) Following the novelist as he works on the magazine assignment that will become In Cold Blood, the film raises intriguing questions about the ethics of writing. (A. O. Scott) CRASH (Academy Award, Best Picture) (R, 107 minutes) A gaggle of Los Angeles residents from various economic and ethnic backgrounds collide, sometimes literally, within an extremely hectic 36 hours. Well intentioned, impressively acted but ultimately a speechy, ponderous melodrama of liberal superstition masquerading as realism. (Scott) DAVE CHAPPELLES BLOCK PARTY (R, 103 minutes) The setup is blissfully simple: a free block party on a dead-end street in Bed-Stuy, with a lineup of musicians, some of whom, like Kanye West and Mos Def, have put in appearances on Chappelles Show. The nominal idea, Mr. Chappelle explains on camera, was the concert Ive always wanted to see. The result, which ping-pongs between Brooklyn and Mr. Chappelles hometown in Ohio, is a tantalizing sketch-portrait of the artist amid an outpouring of hard beats and soul. (Dargis) DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (PG-13, 110 minutes) The romantic cliché that all artists are a little bit mad is put through its paces (if never seriously questioned) in this documentary about Daniel Johnston, a mentally ill songwriter whom Kurt Cobain, the lead singer for Nirvana, once called the greatest living. Jeff Feuerzeig, who won the best director award at the 2005 Sundance Festival, cobbles together a moving portrait of the artist as his own ghost, using a wealth of material provided by Mr. Johnston, from home movies to audiocassette diaries to dozens of original, and often heartbreakingly beautiful, songs. (Dana Stevens) * DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 (No rating, 135 minutes) Most of this stately film of few words, conceived and directed by the artist Matthew Barney, who co-stars with his wife, Bjork, takes place on a Japanese whaling ship afloat in Nagasaki Bay. Steeped not only in Japanese seafaring lore but also in centuries-old traditions of Japanese ritual, the film could be described as Mr. Barneys Moby-Dick. (Holden) * FIND ME GUILTY (R, 124 minutes) This gripping courtroom drama, directed by Sidney Lumet, now 81 and near the top of his game, is based on the 1987-88 trial of 20 members of the New Jersey-based Lucchese crime family on multiple counts. Vin Diesel turns in a sensational performance as Giacomo DiNorscio, better known as Jackie Dee, who broke from the ranks of his fellow defendants to be his own defense lawyer. (Holden) ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN (PG, 93 minutes) Creative exhaustion haunts Ice Age: The Meltdown, as the characters from 2002s Ice Age face global warming and the submersion of their valley. While the animals head for safety in a giant, arklike boat, the director, Carlos Saldanha, indulges in biblical imagery and bad science. Over all, a flat and uninspired follow-up to a vastly superior movie. (Catsoulis) * INSIDE MAN (R, 128 minutes) The latest from Spike Lee takes a familiar setup -- in this case, a Wall Street bank heist that mutates into a hostage crisis -- and twists it ever so slightly and nicely. Among the films most sustained pleasures are its holy trinity -- Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster -- and the best lineup of pusses and mugs outside The Sopranos. (Dargis) LONESOME JIM (R, 91 minutes) Steve Buscemi directed this deadpan comedy about a depressed 27-year-old writer (Casey Affleck) who returns from New York in defeat to his childhood home in rural Indiana and takes a job in his parents ladder factory. (Holden) MARILYN HOTCHKISS BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL (PG-13, 103 minutes) John Goodman plays a dying crash victim on his way to a 40-year-old appointment, and Robert Carlyle is the widowed baker entrusted with keeping it. Instead he meets Marisa Tomei, who teaches him to dance and, more important, throw away his wifes ashes. Toggling back and forth between past and present, Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School is a soggy, endless wallow in nostalgia and the healing power of very bad dancing. (Catsoulis) * SLITHER (R, 96 minutes) A horror film about an extraterrestrial monster with a hunger for flesh that slaloms from yucks to yuks, slip-sliding from horror to comedy and back again on its gore-slicked foundation. The writer and director James Gunn knows his icky, scary stuff. (Dargis) * SYRIANA (R, 122 minutes) Ambitious, angry and complicated, Stephen Gaghans second film tackles terrorism, American foreign policy, global trade and the oil business through four interwoven stories. There are at least a half-dozen first-rate performances, and Mr. Gaghan, who wrote and directed, reinvents the political thriller as a vehicle for serious engagement with the state of the world. (Scott) Thank You for Smoking (R, 92 minutes) The director Jason Reitman has made a glib and funny movie from Christopher Buckleys glib and funny novel about a Big Tobacco lobbyist, but the real attraction here is the hard-working star, Aaron Eckhart. (Dargis) TORO NEGRO (No rating, 87 minutes, in Spanish) A disturbed young matador stabs animals, beats his wife and drinks himself to the edge of oblivion in this harrowing, deeply suspect documentary set in rural Mexico. (Nathan Lee) * TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY (R, 91 minutes) Michael Winterbottom both confirms and refutes the assumption that Laurence Sternes 18th-century masterpiece of digression could never be made into a movie by making a movie about the making of such a movie. Steve Coogan is wonderful as Tristram, Tristrams father and himself, though Rob Brydon steals more than a few of Mr. Coogans scenes. (Scott) Tsotsi (R, 94 minutes) (Academy Award winner for best foreign film.) Written and directed by Gavin Hood, from a novel by Athol Fugard, this South African film centers on a 19-year-old thug who steals a baby and finds redemption. You dont have to read crystal balls to see into Tsotsis future; you just need to have watched a couple of Hollywood chestnuts. (Dargis) V for Vendetta (R, 131 minutes) James McTeigue directs this D-for-dumb future-shock story about a masked avenger (Hugo Weaving) and his pipsqueak sidekick (Natalie Portman) at war against a totalitarian British regime. (Dargis) * YANG BAN XI: THE 8 MODEL WORKS (No rating, 90 minutes, in Mandarin) In her documentary about Chinese propaganda of the campiest kind (think rosy-cheeked, chubby-kneed dancers leaping across the stage, guns clutched in one hand, Little Red Books in the other), the director Yan-Ting Yuen revisits the Cultural Revolution to explore the history and legacy of one of the strangest byproducts of totalitarian madness: the revolutionary spectacular. (Dargis) * NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD (PG, 103 minutes) Filled with country memories, bluesy regret and familiar and piercing sentiment, Jonathan Demmes concert film sounds like quintessential Neil Young, which, depending on your home catalog, will be either an enormous turn-on or a turnoff. (Dargis) Film Series AGAINST THE TIDE: REBELS & MAVERICKS IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE FILM (Through April 16) Japan Societys spring film series, which began yesterday, continues this weekend with films including Wild Berries (2003), Miwa Nishikawas satire of Japanese family values; and Kaza-hana (2001), the director Shinji Somais last work, a drama about a bureaucrat and a young widow trying to redefine their damaged lives. 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 715-1258; $10. (Anita Gates) PRIX JEAN VIGO (Through Dec. 30) The Museum of Modern Art is honoring Vigo (1905-34), the French filmmaker, with a series of 41 films from directors who have won the prize that bears his name. Paris Awakens (1991), Olivier Assayass drama about alienated urban teenage lovers, will be shown tomorrow. Judith Godrèche and Thomas Langmann star. (212) 708-9400; $10. (Gates) RECENT FILMS FROM DENMARK (Through April 19) Scandinavia House continues its overall Scandinavian film series with Rumle Hammerichs Young Andersen (2005), the story of Hans Christian Andersens encounter, at the age of 18, with a difficult school principal. 58 Park Avenue, between 37th and 38th Streets, (212) 879-9779; $8. (Gates) A ROAD MAP OF THE SOUL: THE COMPLETE KIESLOWSKI (Through April 23) To honor the 10th anniversary of Krzysztof Kieslowskis death, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Polish National Film Archive and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York are presenting a retrospective of his work. This weekends films include The Calm (1976), about an ex-convict and a workers strike; The Double Life of Veronique (1991); and all three parts of the Colors trilogy: Blue (1993), White (1994) and Red (1994). Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5600; $10. (Gates) DON SIEGEL (Through Thursday) Siegel, who died in 1991, was a master of several genres, including science fiction, westerns and police thrillers. Film Forums four-week, 25-movie retrospective of his work concludes with a weeklong run of Dirty Harry (1971), his biggest hit. This is Clint Eastwoods first and best interpretation of Harry Callahan, a tough San Francisco cop who has been known to ask deserving punks whether theyre feeling lucky. 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-8110; $10. (Gates) VILLAGE VOICE BEST OF 2005 (Through April 26) This annual series, which opened yesterday, continues this weekend with three films. Funny Ha Ha (2003), Andrew Bujalskis debut feature, is a study of post-college life. Claire Deniss Intruder (2004) is a drama about a dying man. The Sun (2005), a portrait of Emperor Hirohito (Issei Ogata), completes Aleksandr Sokurovs dictator trilogy. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; $10. (Gates) SHELLEY WINTERS VS. THE WATER (Through April 25) Beginning on Wednesday, BAMcinématek honors Winters, who died in January at 83, with screenings of four of her best-known films. Tuesday nights feature is The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughtons noir thriller with Robert Mitchum as a criminal pretending to be a preacher and Winters as his unsuspecting, doomed new wife. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; $10. (Gates) ANNA MAY WONG (Through April 16) Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, would have turned 100 last year. (She died in 1961.) The Museum of the Moving Images extensive seven-week retrospective of her work continues this weekend with Robert Floreys Daughter of Shanghai (1937), a thriller about a woman avenging her fathers murder; Floreys Dangerous to Know (1938), based on Wongs Broadway play about a mobsters girlfriend; and Nick Grindes King of Chinatown (1939), about a Chinese-American surgeon (Wong) who saves a criminals life. 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077; $10. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. YOLANDA ADAMS (Tomorrow) Blending gospel and rhythm-and-blues, Yolanda Adams has a powerful voice, though it is used more for purposes of warm inspiration and uplifting solace than quasi-sexual shudders of praise. 8 and 10:30 p.m., B. B. Kings Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Midtown, (212) 997-4144; $65. (Laura Sinagra) EVA AYLLON (Tomorrow) Eva Ayllon is a stadium-filling star in Peru who, for more than 30 years, has placed her own stamp on the Afro-Peruvian folk heritage: songs with crisp syncopations played on instruments as basic as the box drum called the cajón. She adds a husky voice that never shies away from drama. 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Midtown, (212) 840-2824; $25 to $45. (Jon Pareles) ANTI-FLAG (Thursday) You cant accuse this politically minded punk band of flip-flopping on the issues. Sure, it moved to the center on the subject of corporate record labels, but it still has lots of leftist bile to spew about topics like the lazy news media (The Press Corpse), big trade (The W.T.O. Kills Farmers) and plain old greed (1 Trillion Dollar$). 7 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $15.75 in advance, $17 at the door. (Sinagra) ASHA BHOSLE (Tomorrow) Ms. Bhosle is famous as a vocalist for Indian film. Here she performs reinterpreted Bollywood classics accompanied by the Kronos Quartet, with Zakir Hussaino on the tabla, and Wu Man on pipa. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 501-1390; $21 to $72. (Sinagra) NEKO CASE (Tonight) The clarion voice thats best known as the transcendent secret weapon of the Canadian pop group New Pornographers belongs to this alt-country chanteuse, who performs her own songs here. 7 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $20 in advance, $23 at the door. (Sinagra) KEYSHIA COLE (Tomorrow)The R&B singer Keyshia Cole presents a tough-cookie brand of diva soul that focuses less on fashionista posing than on righteous recrimination. On her single I Changed My Mind, she rides Kanye Wests hard-clapping track with sultry grit. 9 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, ticketmaster.com or (212) 307-7171. Sold out. (Sinagra) DONNA THE BUFFALO (Tomorrow) Donna the Buffalo is not named after its fiddler and singer, Tara Nevins. Its good-natured rock leans toward the Appalachian side of country music, though it also dips into reggae and Cajun music, with songs that ponder love and humanitys place in the universe. 6:30 p.m., Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780 or ticketmaster.com or (212) 307-7171; $16.50. (Pareles) FRANZ FERDINAND, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE (Thursday) At the vanguard of the post-post-punk trend, the poker-faced group Franz Ferdinand plays herky-jerky party music. Death Cab is a decorous diarist-rock band whose sound took on some added alternative-rock heft on its most recent album, Plans (Atlantic). 8 p.m., Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, garment district, (212) 485-1534; $40 in advance, $45 at the door. (Sinagra) GOGOL BORDELLO (Wednesday) Led by a gruff and extravagantly mustached Ukrainian singer, Eugene Hutz, Gogol Bordello calls itself a Gypsy punk band. Translating Eastern European cabaret to the Lower East Side, its songs work up to a frenetic oompah thats the makings of a rowdy party. 7 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $22. (Pareles) HEARTLESS BASTARDS, THE SOLEDAD BROTHERS (Tonight and tomorrow night) Because of her primal yowl, the singer and guitarist Erika Wennerstrom is often compared to Robert Plant and Polly Harvey. The hungry stomp of her power trio, Heartless Bastards, is heavy enough for classic rockers and post-ironic enough for hipsters looking for bar band sincerity. The members switch off headlining slots with the Soledad Brothers. 10:30, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; $12. (Sinagra) THE HOLD STEADY, P.O.S. (Tonight) With hipster savvy and bar rock swagger, the Hold Steady savant Craig Finn spews an almost unseemly amount of pop culture references in a voice that recalls Bruce Springsteens. The indie-rapper P.O.S. also performs. 8, Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $16.50. (Sinagra) THE iOS (Tuesday) Just like the Canadian band Stars, the iOs remind you of that exuberant 90s moment when bands like Mavis Piggott and Madder Rose made it seem that smart girl voices over big guitars were the way of the future. The iOs have a guy singer, too. But as in Stars, the female voice is the more affecting. 9:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; $10. (Sinagra) TALIB KWELI (Tonight) This brainy rappers agile attack still lacks Jiggas precision, 50 Cents swagger and Nass anguish. But his rapping can be beautiful when he laments things like Lauryn Hills exit from the music scene. 8 p.m., Pratt Institute Student Union, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, (718) 636-3422; free for Pratt students, $4 for nonstudents. (Sinagra) KYP MALONE (Tomorrow) With his ethereal falsetto and coronal afro, Kyp Malone is known to many as a vocalist and guitarist in the spacy local band TV on the Radio. For years, though, he was a fixture on San Franciscos indie scene. Lately hes been doing his own thing. 8 p.m., Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103; $8. (Sinagra) McCULLOUGH SONGS OF THUNDER, THE BIRMINGHAM SUNLIGHTS (Tomorrow) The 16-piece shout gospel brass band, McCullough Songs of Thunder, from the United House of Prayer for All People in Harlem, aims to blare its devotion so loudly and joyously that the angels have to sing along. They are joined here by the Birmingham Sunlights, a traditional a cappella gospel group. 8 p.m., Harlem Center for the Performing Arts, Aaron Davis Hall, City College, West 135th Street and Convent Avenue, Hamilton Heights, (212) 650-7100; Free. (Sinagra) SUSAN McKEOWN (Tonight) Susan McKeown interprets Irish traditionals with a distinctive intensity. Accompanying her here are some musicians who play on her most recent recording: the fiddler Dana Lyn and the guitarist Eamon OLeary. 9, Glucksman Ireland House at New York University, 1 Washington Mews, Greenwich Village, (212) 998-3950; $15. (Sinagra) BETH ORTON (Tuesday) Though her voice, which recalls the best of the English folk tradition, should be enough to put her songs across, the quality of Ms. Ortons work has often depended on her adept collaborations. Her most recent is with the post-rock gadfly Jim ORourke. 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600. Sold out. (Sinagra) QUASI (Monday and Tuesday) Sam Coomes and his ex-wife, the Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss, make tempestuous indie-rock that veers toward apocalypse blues. Monday at 8 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006; $12 in advance, $14 at the door. Tuesday at 8 p.m., Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103; $12 in advance , $14 at the door. (Sinagra) THE RACONTEURS (Tonight) Jack White of the White Stripes and the power-pop talent Brendan Benson team up with members of the Greenhorns in this assertive side project. They play garage-rock cut with incisive pop hooks. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800. Sold out. (Sinagra) RJD2, BEANS (Tonight) Representing an offshoot of the record-store scavenging D.J. tradition exemplified in the 1990s by the likes of DJ Shadow, RJD2 takes a cinematic approach. The rapper Beans, formerly of Antipop Consortium, has made a solo career out of meshing his surreal lyrics with the work of electronic-rock artists and culture-hopping D.J.s. 9, Guggenheim Auditorium, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500; $20 (cash at door only, free for members).(Sinagra) JOSH ROUSE (Tonight) This confessional singer-songwriter gives contemplative navel-gazing a Nashville twist. 8, Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Midtown, (212) 840-2824; $22.50 to $26.50. (Sinagra) SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR (Sunday) Gospel music and traditional South African harmonies and rhythms have found common ground and hybrid possibilities since Christian missionaries arrived in South Africa in the 19th century. This 32-member choir carries the fusion toward jubilation, performing traditional songs (and Mbube, the Zulu song better known as The Lion Sleeps Tonight), alongside gospel messages. 3 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722;$17 to $50. (Pareles) THE SOUNDS, MORNINGWOOD (Wednesday) The Sounds are a Swedish band that plays sugar-sharp arena pop with a pinch of bad-girl sass. Morningwood is more punky, though somehow less authentic. 7:30 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $18 in advance, $20 at the door. (Sinagra) REGINA SPEKTOR (Tuesday) The Russian-born singer and pianist Regina Spektor brings punk immediacy into a cabaret setting, reveling in knotty rhymes and unhinged melodrama. 8 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $20. (Sinagra) KREMENA STANCHEVA (Tomorrow) Ms. Stancheva is a member of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, the Bulgarian vocal group that created one of world musics first minibooms in the late 1980s. She has been with the group for 45 years. This concert and folklore presentation allows her to apply her many years of Bulgarian song scholarship. 8 p.m., Bulgarian Consulate General, 121 East 62nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 935-4646; $15. (Sinagra) THE SWORD (Tonight and Sunday) The Texans in the Sword do a great approximation of Black Sabbaths slow menace, at points also revealing hard-core punk underpinnings with thrash bravura. Tonight at 8:30, Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J.,(201) 653-1703; $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Sunday at 7 p.m., CBGB, 315 Bowery, at Bleecker Street, East Village; (212) 982-4052; $10 in advance, $12 at the door. (Sinagra) TINARIWEN (Tonight) This guitar band from the deserts of Mali turns Tuareg cultures acoustic music into a chant-based kind of distended electric blues, addressing the issues of exile, displacement and poverty. 8, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400; $26. (Sinagra) WOLFMOTHER (Tuesday) Part of a wave of whats been dubbed heritage metal, the Australian trio Wolfmother strives to sound like Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer. 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Sold out. (Sinagra) WOLF PARADE (Sunday and Monday) Part of Montreals wave of It art-pop bands that includes Arcade Fire and Unicorns, Wolf Parade has a Northern noir take on keyboard-heavy epics. 7:30 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600. Sold out.(Sinagra) Cabaret Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. BARBARA CARROLL (Sunday) Even when swinging out, this Lady of a Thousand Songs remains an impressionist with special affinities for Thelonious Monk and bossa nova. 2 p.m., Algonquin Hotel, Oak Room, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331; $55, including brunch at noon. (Stephen Holden) BLOSSOM DEARIE (Sunday) To watch this singer and pianist is to appreciate the power of a carefully deployed pop-jazz minimalism combined with a highly discriminating taste in songs. The songs date from all periods of a career remarkable for its longevity and for Ms. Dearies stubborn independence and sly wit. 6:15 p.m., Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 265-8133; $25, with a $15 minimum, or $54.50 for a dinner-and-show package. (Holden) BABY JANE DEXTER (Tomorrow) This booming pop-blues contralto may not be demure, but she is tasteful in a smart, regal, big-mama way, and she is astute in her choices of often obscure soul, blues and jazz songs that play to her contradictory mixture of the lusty and the philosophical. 7 p.m., Helens, 169 Eighth Avenue, near 18th Street, Chelsea, (212) 206-0609; $20, with a $15 minimum. (Holden) ANNIE ROSS (Wednesday) Cool, funny, swinging and indestructible, this 75-year-old singer and sometime actress exemplifies old-time hip in its most generous incarnation. 9:15 p.m., Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 265-8133; $25, with a $12 minimum. (Holden) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. ALPHABET LOUNGE BIG BAND (Sunday) Led by the pianist Deidre Rodman, this large ensemble expands on the mischievous eclecticism of the Jazz Passengers, with a lineup that includes Kate McGarry on vocals; Roy Nathanson, Ohad Talmor and Jay Rodriguez on saxophones; Sam Bardfeld on violin; and Curtis Fowlkes on trombone. 6 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Nate Chinen) MICHAEL BLAKE TRIO (Tonight) Pulse and texture shift perpetually in this trio, thanks to the earthy rhythm team of Ben Allison and Jeff Ballard, on bass and drums; but the groups capricious tone is set by Mr. Blake, on tenor and soprano saxophones. 9 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) GARY BURTONS GENERATIONS (Wednesday through April 15) Mr. Burton, the extravagantly proficient vibraphonist, educator and composer, features younger talent exclusively in this ensemble, reserving a central role for the teenage guitar prodigy Julian Lage. 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) BILLY CHILDS CHAMBER ENSEMBLE (Wednesday through April 16) The pianist and composer Billy Childs favors a billowy sound that often drifts perilously close to New Age. But behind a genteel front line of piano, saxophone, harp and guitar lurks the action-oriented rhythm team of Scott Colley on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. with 11:30 sets Fridays and Saturdays, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $25, $30 Fridays and Saturdays. (Chinen) LOU DONALDSON QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow) Bebop, blues and boogaloo are all fair game for the veteran alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, who receives strong support here from Dr. Lonnie Smith on Hammond B-3 organ, Randy Johnston on guitar and Fukushi Tainaka on drums. 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; cover, $35, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) SHANE ENDSLEY GROUP (Monday) An ethereal sense of groove guides this chamber ensemble, which enfolds Mr. Endsleys trumpet in a dark cocoon of Fender Rhodes piano, vibraphone, guitar, bass and drums. Sharing the bill is Common Thread, a flintier band featuring Mr. Endsley but led by another trumpeter, Jonathan Finlayson. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $10. (Chinen) GOOD FOR COWS (Tonight and tomorrow) The bassist Devin Hoff and the drummer Ches Smith constitute this Bay Area duo, which interrogates jazz and punk with equal rigor. Tonight they share the bill with another duo, Sonar, from Brooklyn; tomorrow their second set will feature a special guest, the pianist Vijay Iyer. Tonight at 8, Issue Project Room, 400 Carroll Street, between Bond and Nevins Streets, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, (718) 330-0313, issueprojectroom.org; cover, $10. Tomorrow at 8 and 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) JON GORDON QUINTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Gordon, an accomplished alto and soprano saxophonist, projects standards through a slightly warped lens, with the help of Mike Moreno on guitar, Aaron Goldberg on piano, Joe Martin on bass and Bill Stewart on drums. 10, Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue, West Village, (212) 675-7369; cover, $20. (Chinen) * BARRY HARRIS AND REGINA CARTER (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Harris, one of bebops stalwart pianists, and Ms. Carter, a violinist of sleek composure, both hail from Detroit, a fact that has some bearing on this concert of newly commissioned music, featuring each artist with a separate ensemble. 8, Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 721-6500; $105.50 and $135.50. (Chinen) BILLY HART QUARTET (Tuesday through April 16) Mr. Hart, a loose but focused drummer with a sterling résumé, fronts a dream team of younger players: the tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, the pianist Ethan Iverson and the bassist Ben Street. 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20 to $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) WILL HOLSHOUSER TRIO (Thursday) Mr. Holshouser is an accordionist in tune with his instruments folk legacy, but hardly constricted by it; his longstanding trio, with the trumpeter Ron Horton and the bassist David Phillips, manages a playful sort of melancholy. 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) STANLEY JORDAN TRIO (Through Sunday) Mr. Jordan applies a distinctive tapping technique to the fretboard of his guitar, producing a harmonic range more suggestive of pianism. His rhythm section consists of Zirque Bonner on bass and Ed Barattini on drums. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow night, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $30 tonight and tomorrow, $25 on Sunday. (Chinen) STEVE LEHMAN GROUP (Wednesday and Thursday) Mr. Lehman, an intense young saxophonist, features his own sharp-cornered compositions in this ensemble, which derives much of its heft from the drumming of Tyshawn Sorey. Wednesday at 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. Thursday at 8 and 10 p.m., Jimmys Restaurant, 43 East Seventh Street, East Village, (212) 982-3006; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) JIMMY McGRIFF GROUP (Tonight and tomorrow night) A powerfully bluesy presence on the Hammond B-3 organ since the early 1960s, Mr. McGriff marked his 70th birthday earlier this week and continues the celebration here. 9 and 11 p.m., and 12:30 a.m., Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662; cover, $25. (Chinen) CHARNETT MOFFETT (Monday) Mr. Moffett may be a few years late with his new album, Internet (Piadrum), but his bass playing is characteristically solid, and he surrounds himself with good musicians -- in this case, the alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, the pianist Mulgrew Miller and the drummer Eric McPherson. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $10 at tables with a $5 minimum or $5 at the bar, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) GRACHAN MONCUR III BAND (Tomorrow and Sunday) Mr. Moncur was one of the first trombonists to make sense of free improvisation, compellingly, in the 1960s; this modern ensemble includes such kindred adventurers as the saxophonists Billy Harper and Michael Blake and the pianist John Hicks. 8 and 10 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $27.50, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) PAUL MOTIAN QUARTET (Through Sunday) The teasingly suggestive drumming of Mr. Motian is just one of several enigmas posed by this ensemble, which is also distinguished by the tightly coiled alto saxophone scribbles of Greg Osby and the abstruse pianism of Masabumi Kikuchi. Larry Grenadier, on bass, serves a welcome clarifying purpose. 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20 to $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * DAVID MURRAY QUARTET/ODEAN POPE SAXOPHONE CHOIR (Through Sunday) In terms of sheer saxophone bluster, it would be tough to conjure a weightier double bill than this one, which pairs the avant-garde tenor titan David Murray (with Lafayette Gilchrist on piano, Jaribu Shahid on bass and Hamid Drake on drums) and Odean Popes signature ensemble (nine saxophones, including Mr. Pope, and a rhythm section). 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $30 at tables with a $5 minimum or $20 at the bar, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) SAXOPHONE SUMMIT (Tuesday through April 16) The alto saxophonist Charles McPherson has always nursed a fondness for Charlie Parkers blistering bebop, so his role in this Parker tribute makes perfect sense. So does the supporting cast: Tom Harrell on trumpet, Ronnie Mathews on piano, Ray Drummond on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11 set Fridays and Saturdays, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (For NYC & Company discount, (212) 484-1222.) (Chinen) SKIRL RECORDS LAUNCH PARTY (Tuesday) Skirl is an independent label with the stated objective of documenting new music by a Brooklyn-centered cadre of musicians. The first three bands on its roster will perform here: the Clarinets, featuring Anthony Burr, Oscar Noriega and Chris Speed (the labels founder); Ted Reichmans My Ears Are Bent; and Curtis Hasselbrings New Mellow Edwards. Also on hand is a pair of bands with Skirl releases in the foreseeable future: Tyft (Hilmar Jensson on guitar, Andrew DAngelo on reeds and Jim Black on drums) and Mr. Noriegas trio (with Trevor Dunn on bass and Tom Rainey on drums). 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $10. (Chinen) GRANT STEWART QUINTET (Tuesday) A big-toned tenor saxophonist in the hard bop mainstream, with a fine ensemble, including the pianist Bill Charlap and the guitarist Peter Bernstein. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $20. (Chinen) * HENRY THREADGILLS ZOOID (Through Sunday) The august composer and multi-reedist Henry Threadgill has always nursed a fascination with timbre; in this superb ensemble, his flute and alto saxophone are flanked by cello, oud, acoustic guitar, tuba, trombone and drums. 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063; cover, $20 (Chinen) ERNIE WATTS-LEW SOLOFF QUINTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Watts, a Los Angeles-based saxophonist, and Mr. Soloff, a New York trumpeter, present a formidable partnership, especially in the presence of Mulgrew Miller on piano, François Moutin on bass, and Jeff (Tain) Watts on drums. 8, 10and midnight, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera LA BOHÈME (Tomorrow) James Robinsons production punts the Puccini favorite forward by some 80 years, placing the action in the opening months of World War I and lending an extra tug of pathos. A mostly new cast has taken over, with Yunah Lee as Mimi, Gerard Powers as Rodolfo, Jennifer Black as Musetta, and Philip Torre as Marcello. David Wroe conducts. 8 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; remaining tickets, $45 and $79. (Jeremy Eichler) CARMEN (Tonight, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday) City Opera seems to be finishing its season with a new emphasis on voice. This Carmen looks as if it is worth hearing, with the strong mezzo Kate Aldrich in the title role, and the soprano Laquita Mitchell making her company debut as Micaëla. Robert Breault has already shown he has a strong if unvaried voice as Alfredo in La Traviata; lets see what he offers in a heavier part, Don José. George Manahan conducts. Tonight at 8, Sunday at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $25 tickets remaining tonight; $45 on Sunday; and $65 to $120 on Tuesday and Thursday. (Anne Midgette) DON GIOVANNI (Tomorrow) A largely decent cast helps bring across Mozarts nearly perfect opera at City Opera. Elizabeth Caballero, new to the company, is a feisty Donna Elvira who utters little squeaks of indignation when shes not pouring out her heart in melisma; Yeghishe Manucharyan shows his white-toned tenor to advantage as Don Ottavio. Alas, Christopher Schaldenbrand, a talented singer, has not quite grown into the demanding title role. 1:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; remaining tickets, $25. (Midgette) DON GIOVANNI (Tomorrow and Sunday) Amatos venerable recipe -- no rehearsals, changing casts at every performance -- should make for an unusual version of Mozarts classic, but at least the theaters small scale represents a kind of period fidelity. Tomorrow night at 7:30, Sunday afternoon at 2:30, Amato Opera, 319 Bowery, at Second Street, East Village, (212) 228-8200; $30; $25 for students and 65+. (Midgette) * DON PASQUALE (Tonight and Tuesday) The veteran Austrian director Otto Schenk, who is also an acclaimed comic actor in his homeland, understands that the way to make a rich comic opera like Donizettis Don Pasquale work is to treat it seriously. In his wonderful new production for the Met he has accomplished this vividly. He taps into the emotions -- jealousy, yearning, fear of death -- that swirl below the surface of this farcical tale about a crusty and miserly bachelor who foolishly decides to take a young wife and disinherit his shiftless nephew. The cast is splendid, especially the charismatic soprano Anna Netrebko; the robust, dynamic young baritone Mariusz Kwiecien; and, in the title role, the stylish Italian bass Simone Alaimo. Maurizio Benini conducts. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $70 to $205 tickets remaining tonight; $175 on Tuesday. (Anthony Tommasini) * FIDELIO (Tomorrow and Thursday) Jürgen Flimms strikingly contemporary and deeply humane production, which opened at the Met in 2000, is back. So is the soprano Karita Mattila, who gives a courageous and vocally radiant portrayal of Leonore, operas most valiant and devoted wife. The conductor Paul Nadler has taken over for James Levine, who has withdrawn for the rest of the season, and though Mr. Nadler is no Levine, he does honorable work. All in all, this production still delivers. And Ms. Mattila is astonishing. Erika Sunnegardh, who recently made her Met debut as Leonore when Ms. Mattila was ill, sings in the last performance on Thursday. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $26 to $220. (Tommasini) MANON (Tomorrow) The news is Renée Fleming, who closes out the run of a signature role in this venerable but appealing Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production, along with the tenor Massimo Giordano, under the baton of Jesús López-Cobos. Not news is the length of this grand opera; after hearing an opera by Massenet, a notable dramatic soprano is supposed to have said, And they say Wagner is long? 1:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; sold out, but returns may be available. (Midgette) LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (Wednesday) Jonathan Millers 1998 production, now directed by Robin Guarino, has the virtue of letting Mozarts music and Da Pontes libretto work their magic unhindered. The Met has assembled a strong cast that includes Andrea Rost as Susanna, John Relyea as Figaro, Alice Coote as Cherubino, Soile Isokoski as the Countess, and Peter Mattei as the Count. Mark Wigglesworth conducts. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $26 to $175. (Allan Kozinn) LA TRAVIATA (Monday) The Mets first-rate revival is back again with Hei-Kyung Hong, Frank Lopardo and Dwayne Croft in the major roles. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; remaining tickets, $175. (Bernard Holland) Classical Music AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Tonight) Gather all ye Anglophiles. Leon Botstein conducts Bridge, Bliss and Vaughan Williams. 8, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $25 to $53. (Holland) BARGEMUSIC (Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday and Thursday) A weekly presenter of chamber music performances, this floating concert hall also offers great views of Lower Manhattan. Tonight the pianists Gerald Robbins and Katya Mihailova play Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak and Shostakovich. Tomorrow and Sunday, Mark Peskanov and colleagues team up for Brahmss G minor Piano Quartet along with Beethoven and Mozart. Thursday brings the pianist Dmitri Alexeev in Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m., Fulton Ferry Landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083; $35. (Eichler) ELIOT FISK AND PACO PEÑA (Monday) Eliot Fisk, the great, high-energy classical guitarist, and Paco Peña, the fine flamenco player, join forces for a recital that includes music by Albéniz, Falla, Rodrigo, Granados, Paganini, Scarlatti, Mendelssohn and Bach, as well as Mr. Peñas own works. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 570-3949; $45. (Kozinn) VADIM GLUZMAN (Tonight) This violinists program goes all the way from Mozart to Castelnuovo-Tedesco. 7, Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 570-3949; $25. (Holland) GUARNERI STRING QUARTET (Tomorrow) The Guarneri is soldiering through another season as the de facto quartet in residence at the Met Museum. Each of the groups concerts features a Mozart chamber composition, along with other works. This time around, its Mozarts Clarinet Quintet (with David Shifrin), as well as Arriagas Quartet No. 2 and Dohnanyis Quartet in A minor. 8 p.m., (212) 570-3949; $50. (Eichler) JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA (Monday) Gerard Schwarz, a hometown conductor heard less in New York these days, conducts the Juilliards young professional-quality players in Mahler, David Diamond and Behzad Ranjbaran, with the violinist William Harvey. 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 769-7406; free, but tickets are required. (Holland) * KRONOS QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow) This ensembles wide-ranging Live Mix series continues with two concerts in which the boundaries between classical, pop and world music are exceedingly porous. Tonight the quartet plays works by Glenn Branca, best known for his huge electric guitar symphonies, as well as ones by Terry Riley, a founder of Minimalism; the eclectic rock composer J. G. Thirlwell; and the pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Tomorrow the quartet, with the Indian singer Asha Bhosle and the tabla player Zakir Hussain, plays music by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros and the composers Derek Charke, Ram Narayan and Rahul Dev Burman. Tonight at 7:30 at Zankel Hall, tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $28 to $35 tonight, $21 to $72 tomorrow. (Kozinn) MIAMI STRING QUARTET (Sunday) This excellent group, in residence at the Hartt School in Connecticut, has been admirably committed to contemporary music. But this time, in the essential (and affordable) Peoples Symphony Concerts series, the quartet is playing works by Haydn, Schumann and Sibelius. Intimate Voices, the Sibelius quartet, is a deeply personal and hauntingly eclectic work, and may strike some as a bolder score than many works of more recent decades. 2 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 586-4680; $9 and $11. (Tommasini) NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Tonight) Leonard Slatkin made a superb recording of John Coriglianos powerful Symphony No. 1 during his years with the St. Louis Symphony, and he is taking it up again with the National Symphony. The program also includes Elgars Introduction and Allegro (Op. 47) and Beethovens Piano Concerto No. 3, with Emanuel Ax. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $24 to $85. (Kozinn) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Today) The orchestra spotlights talent from among its own ranks, with the concertmaster Glenn Dicterow performing Mozarts Violin Concerto No. 3, and the principal trumpet player Philip Smith as the soloist in Ellen Taaffe Zwilichs American Concerto. Bramwell Tovey conducts, adding a Mozart overture and Francks Symphony. 11 a.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $23 to $76. (Eichler) PEABODY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Tonight) The prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore regularly sends its impressive student ensemble on tour to make music and spread the word about the institution. With its music director, Hajime Teri Murai, the orchestra plays an adventurous program with New York premieres of works by Christopher Theofanidis and Michael Hersch; Paquito DRiveras Gran Danzon (a flute concerto); and Mahlers mighty Das Lied von der Erde. 8 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $18. (Tommasini) * ROTTERDAM PHILHARMONIC (Sunday and Monday) The first installments of Valery Gergievs cycle of Shostakovichs symphonies, with the Kirov Orchestra last month, were both invigorating and revelatory. Mr. Gergiev takes up the project with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, with contributions on Sunday from the Riverside Choral Society and the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir. The programs include the Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 on Sunday, and Nos. 5 and 15 on Monday. Sunday at 3 p.m., Monday at 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $35 to $69. (Kozinn) * ST. MATTHEW PASSION (Tomorrow, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday) Jonathan Millers humble, eloquent staging strips Bachs masterpiece to its humane core. No sets, no costumes -- just casually dressed musicians sitting in a circle, and soloists singing in English. Paul Goodwin conducts Rufus Müller, Curtis Streetman, Krisztina Szabo, Suzie LeBlanc, Daniel Taylor, Nils Brown and Stephen Varcoe. Tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m.; Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; $30 to $90. (Eichler) ANDREAS SCHOLL (Tuesday) Countertenors are on the rise, and Mr. Scholl is one of the fastest-rising of the bunch, with a rounded, fluty instrument and a definite flair in how he sings with it. His program is a potpourri, ranging from the late Middle Ages to Haydn and Mozart. 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; sold out. (Midgette) TRIBECA NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL (Sunday) Music of the Avant-Pop is the title for this disparate festival of four concerts extending through May, presented by the avowedly eclectic New York Art Ensemble. This first concert focuses on Generation Y, with five so-called emerging composers exploring various permutations of acoustic and electronic instruments. 7 p.m., Flea Theater, 41 White Street, TriBeCa, (212) 352-3101; $15; $10 for students and 65+. (Midgette) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. THE ALLEN BODY GROUP AND JENNIE MARYTAI LIU (Thursday) Science is the inspiration for Malinda Allens Einsteins Dreams and Ms. Lius Learning in Lower Animals. (Through April 15.) 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077, www.dtw.org; $20. (Jennifer Dunning) BALLET BUILDERS (Tomorrow and Sunday) This group encourages choreographers to work in the classical ballet medium. This years dancemakers are Salim Gauwloos, a Belgian-born Broadway dancer; Helen Heineman, a reborn choreographer after leaving dance for the legal profession; Debra Jo Hughes, a ballet dancer who performed with Siegfried and Roy; Joseph Jeffries of Ballet Memphis and the Trocks; the New York teacher Lonne Moretton; Ted Thomas and Frances Ortiz, directors of their own company; and -- are you ready for this? -- Robert Sher-Machherndl of the Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet of Colorado. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100; $25. (Dunning) * LES BALLETS GRANDIVA (Monday) This all-male drag ballet company may seem to be performing for laughs, but there is a great deal of loving knowledge and technical expertise in the classical and contemporary pieces (including Peter Anastoss new Serenadiana) presented by these dancers, former members of troupes that include the Kirov Ballet, American Ballet Theater and the National Ballet of Canada. 8 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, or www.balletsgrandiva.com. Tickets: $10. (Dunning) ALEXANDRA BELLER/DANCES (Tonight and tomorrow night) A frustrated Broadway diva, a baby-killing debutante, a cowardly soldier and a lesbian tap dancer find themselves trapped together forever in You Are Here. 7:30, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077; $20 and $12. Also at Dance Theater Workshop this week is a free screening of work by four participants in the workshops Digital Fellows program, Monday at 7:30 p.m. (Jack Anderson) CHAN-CAN-DANCE THEATER (Tonight and tomorrow night) Abby Man-Yee Chans company makes its New York debut in Ms. Chans Lost and Found, inspired by the experiences of adopted Chinese girls in American families. 8, Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, (212) 334-7479; $15. (Dunning) CHILDREN OF UGANDA (Tuesday through Thursday) Twenty children, ages 8 to 18, will celebrate the culture of their country and of East Africa in song and dance to raise money for Ugandas 1.7 million AIDS and war-related orphans. (Through April 16.) 7 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, www.joyce.org; $25; $15 for children. (Dunning) CHRIS & JUSTIN (Tonight through Sunday) Chris Yon and Justin Jones get this weeks best-title award for Pear Cowboy Planet, which they describe, unfortunately, as a tragicomic triptych about the mysterious properties of addition and subtraction. Oh, well, so much for poetic ambiguity. Tonight and tomorrow night at 10, Sunday at 5:30 p.m., the Club at La MaMa, 74A East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 475-7710, www.lamama.org; $15. (Dunning) COLLECTIVE DANCE NY (Tonight and tomorrow night) New dances by five new choreographers from Goucher College, New York University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, with two collaborators. 8, Triskelion Arts, 118 North 11th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 302-3454; $12. (Dunning) DANCE COLLECTIVE (Tonight and tomorrow) The troupe will perform The Ravens Wife, an evening of dance, theater and myth conceived and created by the company director, Carol Nolte. Tonight at 9, tomorrow at 8 p.m., Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, at Washington Street, West Village, (212) 627-4275; $15 or T.D.F. voucher. (Dunning) DANCENOWNYC: PEPATIAN BRONX BURLESQUE SHOW (Tonight and tomorrow night) Eight individual choreographers and groups will participate in this show, among them Arthur Aviles, Richard Rivera, Merian Soto and Rokafella and Full Circle Soul Sistahs. 9:30, Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200, www.joespub.com; $20. (Dunning) * EMERGENCY FUND FOR STUDENT DANCERS (Tuesday) Proceeds from annual performances for this good cause usually go to help in sudden emergencies. This year, preprofessional dancers from five major modern-dance and ballet academies in New York City will perform for the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, in a program that includes excerpts from pieces by Martha Graham, Arthur Mitchell and Robert Garland and dances by Merce Cunningham, Alan Danielson and Darrell Moultrie. 7:30 p.m., Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 864-2277; $20; $15 for students and 65+. (Dunning) * FEST FORWARD: HIP HOP UNBOUND (Tonight and Thursday) The festival continues, through April 15, with performances, panel discussions and workshops. It includes a program tonight by two all-female companies, DecaDanceTheater and Full Circle Productions, and on Thursday, Deep*NYC: An Evening of Dance, Fashion, Music and Video by artists including Akim Funk Buddha and the Japanese dance group Bi-Trip. 7 p.m., Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place, at Washington Square South, Greenwich Village, (212) 279-4200, www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu; $25 tonight, $15 Thursday.(Dunning) LEADING LADIES: A BROAD CELEBRATION (Thursday) This festival of dances by women continues with Jalopy, a new multimedia, site-specific piece presented by Alethea Adsitt and company. (Through April 15.) 8 and 10 p.m., Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, SoHo, (212) 279-4200, www.ticketcentral.com or www.dnadance.org; $17. (Dunning) MIRAL AND FRIENDS (Monday) Miral Koth will present Mood Swings, a suite of dances that explore the paintings of Egon Schiele, life under water, battling cancer and hitchhiking across America. The music, much of it performed live, includes taped singing by Brigitte Bardot. 8 p.m., Theater 80, 80 Saint Marks Place, between First and Second Avenues, East Village, (212) 352-3101, www.theatermania.com; $20; $15 for students. (Dunning) 92ND STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE CENTER: FRIDAYS @NOON (Today) Featured artists in this free program are the Butoh dancer Tanya Calamoneri, Ellen Cornfield and Hilary Easton and company. Noon, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5553. (Dunning) OUT OF SPACE (Tonight and tomorrow night) Presented by Danspace Project, this program features dances by Andrea E. Woods, the Parijat Dance Company, Janessa Clark and Tru Essencia Cru. 8:30, BRICstudio, 57 Rockwell Place, at Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 855-7882, ext. 53; www.briconline.org; $12; $10 for students. (Dunning) DAVID PARKER AND THE BANG GROUP (Thursday) The irrepressible Mr. Parker will present dances that include his new Backward and in Heels, a piece for six dancers that is set to music. That music incorporates excerpts from the score from The Sound of Music; Hava Nagila, played by a hand-bell choir; and Schuberts Ave Maria. (Through April 15.) 8:30 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, www.symphonyspace.org; $21. (Dunning) JOHN PASSAFIUME DANCERS (Tomorrow and Sunday) A protégé of Paul Sanasardo and a former dancer with Anna Sokolow, Mr. Passafiumes new Fissures, inspired by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, examines the way everyday events can cause fault lines in our perceptions of ourselves. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m., Clark Studio Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 243-4370; $25. (Dunning) JAMES SEWELL BALLET (Tonight through Sunday) Mr. Sewell, a New York expatriate who now works in Minneapolis, returns with his company in a program of dances that include Guy Noir: The Ballet, a collaboration with Garrison Keillor; Anagram, a choreographic response to music by Schubert; and Involution, which mixes ballet and improvisation. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, www.joyce.org; $40. (Dunning) SHARING THE LEGACY: DANCE MASTERWORKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY (Tonight and tomorrow night) The masterworks in question are by choreographers who include George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Laura Dean, José Limón, Mark Morris and Antony Tudor. The performers are young dancers from 10 colleges across the nation, among them New Yorks own Hunter College, New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts and Purchase Colleges Conservatory of Dance. 8 p.m., Kaye Playhouse, 68th Street between Lexington and Park Avenues, (212) 772-4448; $20; $10 for students and 65+. (Dunning) SUGAR SALON LAUNCH (Monday) Five panelists, including the choreographer Susan Marshall and Wendy Perron, editor in chief of Dance Magazine, will participate in What Does the Future Hold for Women in Modern Dance? The free discussion initiates a new series of performances and residencies, sponsored by Barnard College and the Williamsburg Art neXus, whose focus is to return women to their former place in the American modern dance they founded. 7:30 p.m., 202 Altschul Hall, Barnard College campus, Broadway and 117th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 854-2995. (Dunning) TRINAYAN COLLECTIVE (Thursday) This New York-based company of Indian classical dancers will explore the notion of the witness in Sakshi/Witness, a dance in the Odissi style. (Through April 16.) 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, SoHo, (212) 334-7479; $25; $20 for students and 65+. (Dunning) URBAN BUSH WOMEN (Tonight through Sunday) Jawole Willa Jo Zollars popular African-American troupe performs in Dance New Amsterdams new theater. There are two programs, the first tonight at 8 and Sunday at 2 p.m.; the second tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 279-4200, www.ticketcentral.com; $25.(John Rockwell) WORK AND SHOW FESTIVAL (Tonight, tomorrow and Monday) The dance component of this festival ends with performances of work by Baraka de Soleil and D Underbelly (tonight) and a marathon of works by all participants (tomorrow). Tonight at 7, tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., TriBeCa Performing Arts Center, Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 220-1460, www.tribecapac.org; $10. (Dunning) KEVIN WYNN COLLECTION (Tonight through Sunday) Known for his high-energy, fast-sweeping group pieces, Mr. Wynn will present Tracing Sirocco, which he describes as a hallucinogenic ensemble work for 16 dancers that is set in an African desert and danced to a soundscape by Luna Reyes. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 7 p.m., Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444, www.smartix.com; $18. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * BROOKLYN MUSEUM: SYMPHONIC POEM: THE ART OF AMINAH BRENDA LYNN ROBINSON, through Aug. 14. This prodigious show, by an artist born and still living in Columbus, Ohio, celebrates her heritage in paintings, drawings, sculpture, stitchery, leather work and less classifiable forms of expression. Besides its sheer visual wizardry, using materials like leaves, twigs, bark, buttons and cast-off clothes, her art is compelling in that it ruminates on the history of black migration to, and settlement in, the United States, from early times to the present, in a garrulous, very personal way. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, (718) 638-5000. (Grace Glueck) * Brooklyn Museum: WILLIAM WEGMAN: FUNNEY/STRANGE, through May 28. Descended from Marcel Duchamp and Buster Keaton, Mr. Wegman has straddled high and low for more than three decades, using his signature Weimaraners to make the art worlds funniest videos, as well as television commercials, calendars and childrens books. His popular success has tended to obscure his originality and influence, along with a multifarious production that includes wittily captioned drawings, wonderfully irreverent paintings and a host of nondog photographic work. This thorough and thoroughly entertaining retrospective highlights not only the accessibility of his richly human art, but also its dedication to the 1970s notion that art should not look like art. (See above.) (Roberta Smith) * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: David Smith: A Centennial, through May 14. David Smith is best known for his worst work, bulky sculptures of the important kind that museums and banks like to buy. Much (though not all) of that material has been excised from this survey in favor of smaller, earlier, nonmonumental pieces that the curator, Carmen Gimenez, presents with plenty of air and light. The result is exemplary as a David Smith experience, an American Modernism experience and a Guggenheim Museum experience. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500. (Holland Cotter) * International Center of Photography: Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, through May 28. If Martians tuned into our television news broadcasts, theyd have a miserable impression of life on Earth. War, disease, poverty, heartbreak and nothing else. Thats exactly how most of the world sees Africa: filtered through images of calamity. The Nigerian-born curator Okwui Enwezor offers a bracing alternative view in this show of recent photography from Africa. He isnt interested in simply exchanging an upbeat Africa for a downbeat one, smiles for frowns, but in engineering a slow, complex, panoptical turn in perspective, one that takes in many moods and directions. The results are stimulating, astringent, brimming with life. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000. (Cotter) METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: HATSHEPSUT, through July 9. Can a queen be a king, too? Consider the case of Hatshepsut, an Egyptian ruler of the 15th century B.C. She assumed the supreme title of pharaoh and ruled Egypt in that powerfully masculine role until her death. Hatshepsut is the subject of a celebratory show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Mets department of Egyptian art. Organized by the Met and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, it includes many objects from the Mets own extensive holdings, excavated at its digs in the 1920s and 30s. But it isnt so easy to follow Hatshepsuts trail in this ambitious show, what with the number of relatives, subordinates, minor officials and such who also have a place in it, along with scarabs, jewelry, pottery, furniture and other artifacts. (212) 535-7710. (Glueck) Met: KARA WALKER AT THE MET: AFTER THE DELUGE, through July 30. The Metropolitan Museum of Arts first foray into artist-organized shows is a small tour de force of curatorial creativity. Inspired partly by Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Walker has combined works from the Met with examples of her own art, connecting shared themes of race, poverty and water to illuminate contemporary arts inevitable dialogue with past art. The show has as many crosscurrents and undertows as a river. (See above.) (Smith) THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: EDVARD MUNCH: THE MODERN LIFE OF THE SOUL, through May 8. This affecting, full-scale retrospective is the first survey of this Norwegian painter in an American museum in almost 30 years. Its more than 130 oils and works on paper cover Munchs entire career, from 1880 to 1944. (212) 708-9400. (Glueck) THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: ON SITE: NEW ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN, through May 1. Since the early 1970s, when Spain began to awaken from the isolation of a four-decade dictatorship, Spanish architects have produced designs of unusual depth, often with a firm connection to the land, a sense of humility and a way of conveying continuity with the past while embracing the present. Packed with pretty images and elegant models, this exhibition lacks the scholarly depth you might have hoped for on such a mesmerizing subject. (See above.) (Nicolai Ouroussoff) National Academy Museum: Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church, through April 30. Exquisite small landscape studies by the best of the Hudson River School painters. They are from the collection at Olana, the Persian-style Victorian mansion -- now a museum -- that Church built on an upstate hill overlooking the Hudson River. 1083 Fifth Avenue, (212) 369-4880. (Ken Johnson) NEUE GALERIE: KLEE AND AMERICA, through May 22. For a long time, the Swiss-born artist Paul Klee (1879-1940), regarded as a leading Modernist figure in Europe, didnt believe his delicate, chimerical work had much of a future in the United States. Yet, thanks to artists, collectors and dealers with close contacts in Germany who had begun to discover his work, by the early 1920s, Klees impact began to be felt here. This show of more than 60 paintings and drawings assembled exclusively from American holdings covers the wide spectrum of Klees work. 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, (212) 628-6200. (Glueck) P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center: The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now, through April 24. A snappy roundup of recent video, a favored medium among young artists in a digitally-savvy 21st-century China, this show has two fine pieces by Cao Fei, who has garnered much attention recently. It is also the occasion for several worthy New York debuts. Some of the art is light, slight, and MTV-ish, but artists like Cui Xiuwen, Xu Zhen, Li Songhua, Xu Tan, Meng Jin and Dong Wensheng give us a lot. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 784-2084. (Cotter) Whitney Museum of American Art: WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2006: DAY FOR NIGHT, through May 28. This biennial will provoke much head-scratching by uninitiated visitors. A hermetic take on what has been making waves, its packaged -- branded might be the better word -- as a show long on collaboration and open-endedness: several shows under one roof, including a revival of the 1960s Peace Tower, which rises like a Tinker Toy construction from the Whitney courtyard, with contributions by dozens of artists. As a counter to the image of the art world as rich, youth-besotted and obsessed with crafty little nothings, the ethos here is provisional, messy, half-baked, cantankerous, insular -- radical qualities art used to have when it could still call itself radical and wasnt like a barnacle clinging to the cruise ship of pop culture. That was back in the 1970s. And much of whats here (including works by bohemians and other senior eccentrics around then) harks back to that moment. (800) 944-8639 or www.whitney.org. (Michael Kimmelman) Galleries: Uptown * FRANCIS PICABIA: WORKS ON PAPER, 1901-1951 Consistent with the predominantly linear, sometimes kitschy imagery of the artists proto-postmodern transparency paintings, the 100 works on paper here reveal a lifelong involvement with drawing, marked by an indifference to notions of style, taste, consistency, skill or progress. It is both a challenge and a treat. Michael Werner, 4 East 77th Street, (212) 988-1623, through April 15. (Smith) 1968: All in a Dream In 1968 the photographer Lenny Gottlieb saved 30,000 snapshots that were supposed to have been thrown out at the photographic processing lab he was working in. Approximately 500 of them are on view here; collectively, they offer an enthralling cross-section of American life during a year of tremendous change. Andrew Roth, 160A East 70th Street, (212) 717-9067, through April 29. (Johnson) RECENT PAINTINGS BY QIN FENG Working in ink and tea on silk-cotton paper, this 45-year-old Chinese artist continues the long tradition of Chinese calligraphy and ink painting, with assists from Japanese sumi-ink painting and Abstract Expressionists like Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell. Goedhius Contemporary, 42 East 76th Street, (212) 535-6934, through April 17. (Smith). Galleries: 57th Street Darren Almond /Janice Kerbel: The Impossible Landscape Nothing is obvious in this handsome show of works by two London-based Conceptualists. The connection is that both make visible things that are in different ways impossible. Ms. Kerbels elegantly abstracted designs for gardens in an office, a Laundromat and other unlikely places are meant to be imagined but never actually built. Mr. Almonds sumptuous, subtly eerie landscape photographs were shot at night using long exposures, making visible what would be invisible to the naked eye. The Horticultural Society of New York, 128 West 58th Street, (212) 757-0915, through May 5. (Johnson) REFLECTIONS OF GODS Ensconced in a small, chapel-like gallery, this exhibition of nine sacred objects and one hanging screen includes a beautiful 16th-century mask and a 12th-century carved wood sculpture of a Shinto deity holding a Buddhist wish-granting jewel. Mika Gallery, 41 East 57th Street, (212) 888-3900, through April 15. (Smith) * SPRING MIST FROM SNOW This veritable wonder cabinet of furniture, objects and artworks conjures up the rarefied realm of the Chinese scholars study but also represents other Asian cultures. One stand-out is a Qing wish-granting scepter in carved boxwood that must be among the fountainheads of Art Nouveau; its provenance is listed as an old French collection. William Lipton Ltd., 41 East 57th Street, (212) 751-8131, through April 15. (Smith) Galleries: Chelsea Tara Donovan Known for creating improbable accumulations of ordinary things, Ms. Donovan here has arranged three million plastic cups in stacks from ankle-high to five feet. They make a 50-by-60-foot rectangle on the floor, resembling a lumpy field of snow. PaceWildenstein, 545 West 22nd Street, (212) 929-7000, through April 22. (Johnson) * Dan Fischer Velvety graphite drawings copied from Xerox copies of book and magazine images of well-known artists like Robert Smithson and Sol LeWitt and artworks like Jeff Koonss iconic Rabbit evoke and possibly satirize the reverence that some people feel for modern and contemporary art. Derek Eller, 615 West 27th Street, (212) 206-6411, through April 15. (Johnson) Great Performance: Contemporary Chinese Photography This group show updates the careers of artists who gained notice in the 1990s and gives some exposure to others who are still unfamiliar here. The real find is work by two women, Yin Xiuzhen and the formidable young performance artist Chen Qiulin. Max Protetch, 511 West 22nd Street, (212) 633-6999, through April 15. (Cotter) Anthony James Call it Industrial Surrealist Chic. Mr. Jamess works include old heavy-duty power tools displayed in gleaming, mirrored cases; a glass case of white birch tree trunks that seems to extend infinitely by virtue of two-way mirrors; and a life-size, digitally copied female nude of laser-cut aluminum. Holasek Weir, 502 West 27th Street, (212) 367-9093, through April 15. (Johnson) Daniel Johnston: The Story of an Artist The nearly 70 ballpoint and felt-tip drawings by this semi-outsider artist and rock musician and 2006 Whitney Biennial pick dont live up to the hype, but they are fun to look at. In a distracted but versatile, faux-adolescent style, the Texas-based Mr. Johnston creates sweet and sometimes hair-raising cartoon improvisations on themes of love, sex, hope, despair and death. Clementine, 632 West 27th Street, (212) 243-5937, through April 15. (Johnson) Eve K. Tremblay: Tales Without Grounds A rising young Canadian photographer presents glossy staged photographs of people doing enigmatic things in and around a large facility for hydroponic lettuce cultivation. With their cinematically intense colors, Ms. Tremblays pictures are like stills from a Tarkovskian science fiction movie. Buia, 541 West 23rd Street, (212) 366-9915, through April 22. (Johnson) Galleries: SoHo TIM BARBER A fresh, even touching reprise of the overused convention of walls papered with unframed photographs and small cartoonish drawings, this show has been culled from Mr. Barbers Web site, tinyvices.com. With 250 people represented, it blurs the line between professional and amateur and introduces a savvy curatorial eye. Spencer Brownstone Gallery, 39 Wooster Street, (212) 334-3455, through April 15. (Smith) Marcel Broodthaers This reverential exhibition of just three works by a Belgian Conceptualist regarded as a Duchampian saint in some sectors of the art world includes a hat painted white and attached to a canvas painted black and white; a work called LErreur, consisting of 45 eggshells attached to a canvas labeled moules, the French word for mussels; and a set of canvases neatly inscribed with words relating to the composition and sale of paintings. Peter Freeman, 560 Broadway, near Prince Street, (212) 966-5154, through April 15. (Johnson) Rico Gatson: African Fractals Mr. Gatsons suave geometric paintings and sculptures of symbolically charged vernacular objects -- a whipping post in the form of a Christian cross with wrist-holes, for example -- feature African-style stripe patterns, creating a dialogue between utopian Modernism and tragic social history. A video installation produces hypnotic patterns out of films of the pageantry surrounding the great boxing match between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman that took place in Zaire in 1974. Ronald Feldman, 31 Mercer Street, (212) 226-3232, through April 22. (Johnson) Joëlle Tuerlinckx: Drawing Inventory A prominent Belgian conceptualist presents a dry and oblique installation consisting of a large quantity of ordinary materials more or less related to the art of drawing. The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, (212) 219-2166, through April 22. (Johnson) Last Chance * ARTS OF ANCIENT CHINA A museum-quality selection that begins with an elegant Neolithic red pottery bowl includes rare examples of early lacquer and is especially notable for its profusion of bronze vessels and objects. J. J. Lally, 41 East 57th Street, (212) 371-3380; closes Wednesday. (Smith) THIERRY DE CORDIER AND PIERRE HUYGHE Mr. de Cordiers Female Drawings evoke blurred, semi-abstract Madonnas and also the recherché style of postwar European figuration. Mr. Huyghes puppet video, This is Not a Time for Dreaming, which ruminates on, and was commissioned for, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard -- suffers from obscurity, but is still one of the most beautiful videos made in recent years. Marian Goodman, 24 West 57th Street, (212) 581-5187; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * REALM OF THE GODS: ART FROM INDIA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA A lavish display of sculptures of Hindu deities and Buddhist monks offers excellent examples of several of Indias dynastic and regional styles in bronze, sandstone and terra cotta, along with works from Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia and, especially, Tibet. Carlton Rochell, 41 East 57th Street, (212) 759-7600; closes today. (Smith) Charlotta Westergren: Ahus Sommaren 1974 Preoccupied by her family and ancestry, Ms. Westergren presents a James Turrell-like room with artificial aroma added, designed to simulate the light and smell of a summer home in Sweden. She also presents Swedish wildflowers made of sugar by a professional confectioner and her own reprisals of old paintings by a beloved sister who once aspired to become an artist. Bellwether, 134 10th Avenue, near 18th Street, Chelsea, (212) 929-5959; closes tomorrow. (Johnson)

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New Yorks Next First Lady? - The Daily Beast

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THE WARREN COMMISSIONS REPORT

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Officer kills armed 18-year-old near Ferguson - 21 News Now, More Local News.

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Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Lady Gaga and the Baby.

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Retirement Makeover: 30 Years Old, and Already Falling Behind

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Petraeus for President? - The Daily Beast

But as shrewd as Obama has been about the politics of national security, his showdown with McChrystal still offers the GOP its best chance so far of getting up off the mat.. Thanks to surveillance video of the incident, there are virtually no accusations that the as-of-yet unnamed officer from the Berkeley Police Department acted wrongly when he shot and killed 18-year-old Antonio Martin late Tuesday. ���We had somebody who was pointing a gun at a police officer.

Rick Santorums Italian Family Speaks Out - The Daily Beast

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The Listings

Theater A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy Broadway, Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway shows this weekend. Approximate running times are in parentheses. * denotes a highly recommended show. + means discounted tickets were available at the Theater Development Funds TKTS booth for performances last Friday and Saturday nights. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Broadway +GOOD VIBRATIONS Even those who believe that everything in this planet has a purpose may at first have trouble justifying the existence of Good Vibrations, the singing headache that manages to purge all catchiness from the surpassingly catchy hits of the Beach Boys. But audience members strong enough to sit through this rickety jukebox of a show will discover that the production, directed and choreographed by John Carrafa, does have a reason to be. Good Vibrations sacrifices itself to make all other musicals on Broadway look good. As the shows washboard-stomached performers smile, wriggle and squeak with the desperation of wet young things hung out to dry, you feel their pain. It is unlikely, however, to be more acute than yours (2:15). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $76 to $101; a limited number of $25 student rush tickets are available at the box office on the day of the show. BENB RANTLEY +LITTLE WOMEN Sutton Foster never merely walks when she can scamper in this perky, sketchy adaptation of Louisa May Alcotts classic novel of a Civil War-era New England girlhood. Portraying Jo the tomboy, Ms. Foster creates a dizzyingly hyperkinetic creature who, were she living in the 21st century, would probably be on Ritalin. Ms. Foster (a Tony winner for Thoroughly Modern Millie) shows a gift for fresh, comic line readings. But her energy is often less infectious than exhausting. The same can be said of the show, directed by Susan H. Schulman and featuring a book by Allan Knee, with songs by Jason Howland and Mindi Dickstein. Watching the production is rather like speed-reading Alcotts novel. And the cast members, who include the mellow-voiced Maureen McGovern, mostly bring to mind 1860s-themed editions of the American Girl series of dolls (2:20). Virginia Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $60 to $100. BRANTLEY Off Broadway AFTER ASHLEY If the last two hours of Gina Gionfriddos play were as fine as the first 15 minutes, wed have something to cheer. But the spark of interest ignited by the fresh first scene, a disarming and funny heart-to-heart between a confused mother and her teenage son, is all but extinguished by the time this finger-wagging satire has concluded. Ms. Gionfriddo has set out to diagnose social ills, and nuanced characters are not required. Her target is Americas taste for blood, and its tabloid-tinged, sex-crime-addicted popular media. Despite some fine work from Anna Paquin and particularly Kieran Culkin, the director Terry Kinneys production is sabotaged by the conflicting impulses in the writing (2:15). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212)353-0303. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $50. CHARLES ISHERWOOD THE CONTROVERSY OF VALLADOLID The historical drama makes an unexpected return with this academic exercise in forensics. Written by Jean-Claude Carrière, the play, in an English version by Richard Nelson and directed by David Jones, is a fictionalized re-creation of an actual debate that took place in a monastery in 16th-century Spain. The topic: whether the Indians under Spanish rule in the New World were to be classified as human beings, with full rights as Christians, or a lesser species entitled to a more limited benefits package. The play has clearly been mounted for reasons of current resonance, touching as it does on the morality of dominant world powers imposing their ideologies on other cultures, and the destructive effects thereof. But its rigid dynamics are ponderous (1:45). Public Theater/Newman Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $50. ISHERWOOD COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW Entertainment in abundance radiates from the Peccadillo Theater Companys new production of this old Elmer Rice drama. Starring the Tony Award-winning John Rubinstein, Counsellor-at-Law is a drama that throbs with New York life and brims with touchstones of another time, like George Whites Scandals and the Court of General Sessions. But it also retains relevance to ambition and success in the 21st century. It has a hero worth rooting for, a healthy dose of sacred and profane love, some sharp jabs at class difference, villains who merit a hearty hiss and plenty of New York attitude and humor (2:45). Theater at St. Clements, 423 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212)868-4444. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $55; $20 student rush tickets available at the box office 15 minutes before the show. LAWRENCE VAN GELDER ENDGAME Tony Roberts, the actor often used by Woody Allen to epitomize suave charm in contrast to his own hapless shlubbery, moves into new territory as Hamm in this middling revival of Samuel Becketts caustic comedy about mans fumbling reckoning with extinction. Mr. Robertss urbanity is naturally translated into Hamms imperiousness, and his polished tones lend richly funny colorations to Hamms more high-minded monologues. But this production is sharper at etching the plays mordant humor than outlining the heaving shoals of dread on which it should rest. Nevertheless, its also notable for the performance of Alvin Epstein, a superlative Beckett interpreter, as Nagg (1:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, (212)727-2737. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $45 to $50. ISHERWOOD THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT This latest work from the author of Jesus Hopped the A Train brings to mind an unusually lively senior class project. Thank heaven -- a subject much discussed in this debate of a drama about the Bibles most famous betrayal -- that at least the person in charge is the class cutup. And that he is popular enough to recruit some really cool friends (including Eric Bogosian, Sam Rockwell and the shows director, Philip Seymour Hoffman). Still, the colorful vernacular speech and flashy performances cant disguise the impression that the play is a heavily footnoted position paper on a big, big subject (2:40). Public Theater/Martinson Hall, 425 Lafayette Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $50. BRANTLEY + ON THE MOUNTAIN Christopher Shinn, an up-and-coming playwright of exceptional talent, trains his focus squarely on the unexceptional in this gentle wisp of a play. Inspired by Henry Jamess Aspern Papers, the play tells a similar story of a determined collector on the trail of the jealously guarded secret work of a celebrated artist, now dead. The dialogue is impeccably true to the jagged rhythms and syntactical aberrations of real speech. But Mr. Shinn seems so enamored of how his people talk that he forgets to notice what it is theyre actually saying. In On the Mountain, nobody says anything of much interest, and its possible to admire Mr. Shinns sharp ear while still being bored (1:15). Playwrights Horizons, Mainstage Theater, 416 West 42nd Street, (212)279-4200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $55, with a limited number of $15 student rush tickets available at the box office one hour before the curtain. ISHERWOOD ROMANCE Listen up, you mugs. Nobody makes fun of David Mamet, see, because David Mamet can take care of that all by hisself. In the latest work from this most imitated and parodied of living American playwrights, Mr. Mamet knocks the four-letter stuffing out of his own staccato style. He then proceeds to beat up on the courtoom drama, the classic farce, ethnic and sexual stereotypes and his audience. Its a take-no-prisoners approach that, unfortunately, doesnt take any laughs either. Neil Pepe directs an irreproachable but ineffective cast that includes Larry Bryggman and Bob Balaban (1:35). Atlantic Theater Company, 336 West 20th Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m. Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $55. BRANTLEY + * SHOCKHEADED PETER A gorgeous nasty picture book of a musical, in which badly behaved Victorian tots come to ghastly ends. Inspired by Heinrich Hoffmanns droll collection of grisly bedtime stories from the mid-19th century, Shockheaded Peter is both the silliest and most sinister show in town. It is also one of the smartest. Directed by Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott, and featuring bizarrely beautiful songs by Martyn Jacques, Shockheaded Peter manages to wallow in and tear apart our enduring appetite for scaring ourselves. Though styled as a Victorian peep show, this British import makes contemporary self-spoofing horror exercises (like Wes Cravens Scream movies) look like, well, childs play (1:40). Little Shubert Theater, 422 West 42nd Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Thursdays at 10 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $21.25 to $66.24. BRANTLEY SHYLOCK Deconstructing Shakespeare is a dangerous sport; its impossible to be more imaginative or clever than the playwright himself, even if you are Harold Bloom. Gareth Armstrong gives it a game try, but Shylock, his 80-minute dissertation on the evolution of one of Shakespeares most memorable characters, although deftly performed, is no exception. While his pocket synopses of anti-Semitism, Elizabethan England, Marlowes Jew of Malta and even a Baedeker of famous actors renditions of Shylock are edifying, they are not sufficiently enlightening or entertaining. The most riveting lines of Mr. Armstrongs monologue belong to Shakespeare himself (1:35). Perry Street Theater, 31 Perry Street, Greenwich Village, (212)868-4444. Wednesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $55; a limited number of $20 student/senior rush tickets available at the box office 30 minutes before the performance. PHOEBE HOBAN * THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) Is there such a thing as stand-up existentialism? If not, Will Eno has just invented it. This monologue, which runs just over an hour and requires minimal stagecraft, is as unassuming in its means as it is astonishing in its impact. Its one of those treasured nights in the theater -- treasured nights anywhere, for that matter -- that can leave you both breathless with exhilaration and, depending on your sensitivity to meditations on the bleak and beautiful mysteries of human experience, in a puddle of tears. Also in stitches, here and there. Mr. Eno and his performer, the actor James Urbaniak, reinvent that seemingly moribund theatrical genre, the solo show. They are immeasurably aided by the work of the director Hal Brooks. Mr. Enos voice, or the voice of the narrator/protagonist/master of ceremonies played by Mr. Urbaniak, is alternately lyrical and affectless, ecstatic and flat, sardonic and sincere. Stand-up-style comic riffs and deadpan hipster banter keep interrupting the corrosively bleak narrative: Mr. Eno is a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation (1:10). DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 6 and 9 p.m.; Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets; $45. ISHERWOOD +THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS! The musical is the happy narcissist of theater. It is always paying homage to itself. Parody is the best form of narcissism. All it needs is smart writers and winning performers. Thats what we get in the case of The Musical of Musicals! Two of the performers are also the creators: Joanne Bogart (lyrics) and Eric Rockwell (music). Aided by Lovette George and Craig Fols, they offer spoofs in the styles of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Kander and Ebb. The best parodists dont sneer, they tease, and share the forms joie de vivre. Aficionados will get every joke and neophytes will laugh, too. The Musical of Musicals! creates its own lightly absurd world (90 minutes). Dodger Stages, 340 West 5oth Street, (212)239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $55 to $59.50. MARGO JEFFERSON Off Off Broadway HIDING BEHIND COMETS The dynamics of the guy-walks-into-a-bar play are tricky. Inject a set of twins into the mix, as Brian Dykstra does in his play, and youve pretty much doomed the venture. In fiction they too often seem like a cheap gimmick. The twins here are a male-female pair, 20-somethings named Troy (Robert Mollohan) and Honey (Moira MacDonald). They mind their fathers dingy bar. The stranger who intrudes is Cole (Dan Moran), an elliptical older fellow with a temper. After much verbal sparring, the point emerges: Cole was supposedly at Jonestown during the mass suicide there in 1978, and he has dropped by the bar to force Honey and Troy to rethink their parentage. Mr. Dykstras script sounds as if its banking on the shock value of Jonestown, hoping that the audience, like the idiot twins on the stage, will not have heard of it. Way too early for that (1:45). 29th Street Rep, 212 West 29th Street, (212)868-4444. Thursdays through Mondays at 8 p.m. Tickets: $19. NEIL GENZLINGER Last Chance SHAKIN THE MESS OUTTA MISERY These days the stories that most shape young minds often come from a television set. Too bad, because, as Shakin reminds us, a parent with a knack for storytelling can pass on more valuable truths and history than any sitcom can. The young black woman at the center of this compact play by Shay Youngblood is fortunate in that she has a half-dozen parents to fill the storytelling role, all women. Her real mother, though, is not among them; she disappeared when the girl -- known only as Daughter -- was young. Daughter has been raised by a boisterous collection of women in her Southern community, and each has a story to impart. Men receive a one-sided treatment: those who turn up in the womens tales are racists, rapists and philanderers. The play also often seems disjointed; its rarely clear when the various tales are taking place. But the cast is nicely in sync, and Ms. Youngblood conceals her platitudes well (1:30). Vital Theater Company, at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, above the Promenade Theater, 2162 Broadway, fourth floor, at 76th Street, (212)352-3101. Tonight and tomorrow at 8; Sunday at 7. Tickets $15, $10 for students. GENZLINGER Movies A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy movies playing this weekend in the New York metropolitan region. * denotes a highly recommended film. Ratings and running times are in parentheses. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/movies. THE AVIATOR Starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Directed by Martin Scorsese (PG-13, 169 minutes). The famously eccentric and reclusive empire builder Howard Hughes was born alone and died alone -- two times when he was no different from anyone else. For the rest of his life, the high-flying Hughes seemed to have drifted in from some distant aerie, where exotic birds hatch far from everyday worries. At the age of 18, he was both an orphan and a millionaire, and while he could never be called ordinary, in the following two decades his wealth and all that it afforded brought him a very American kind of celebrity. It is that celebrity, fueled by money, stoked by matinee looks and playboy style, that preoccupies The Aviator, Mr. Scorseses visually sumptuous if disappointingly hollow account of Hughess early life. (It won five Oscars, including best supporting actress for Cate Blanchett.) Written by John Logan, the story principally covers the late 1920s through the 40s, when Hughes, played by Mr. DiCaprio, was gadding about both Hollywood and the aviation world. MANOHLA DARGIS BEAUTIFUL BOXER Starring Asanee Suwan. Directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham. (No rating, 118 minutes; in Thai and English, with English subtitles). Beautiful Boxer tells the true story of Parinya Charoenphol, nicknamed Nong Toom (played by Mr. Suwan), a cross-dressing kickboxer from a poor family who saved his championship winnings to undergo a sex-change operation at the age of 19. The teenage Nong Toom enrolls in an elite training camp run by a tough coach and soon begins winning local matches across the country. When Nong Tooms trainer catches his young charge playing with makeup, he matter-of-factly decides to mine the boys eccentricity as a publicity stunt, and soon Nong Toom is winning matches dressed in drag, greeting his opponents with a lipsticked kiss on the cheek. Beautiful Boxer at times feels repetitive and haltingly paced, but its blazing emotional core is the real-life kickboxer Mr. Suwans joyously physical performance as Nong Toom. DANA STEVENS BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE Starring AnnaSophia Robb and Jeff Daniels. Directed by Wayne Wang. (PG, 97 minutes) Were it not for a couple of cars, a little girls pink poodle backpack and a reference to e-Bay, Mr. Wangs Because of Winn-Dixie could easily be mistaken for a film set in the 1950s. It has old-fashioned and heartwarming written all over it, in heavy black Magic Marker. Adapted from Kate DiCamillos best-selling childrens novel, this is the story of Opal Buloni (Ms. Robb), a very lonely 10-year-old since she and her father (Mr. Daniels), a minister, have moved to Naomi, Fla., a town so small (or odd) that church services are held in a convenience store. So when Opal sees a scruffy dog loose in a Winn-Dixie supermarket one day, she claims him, names him for the place they met and takes him home. Once Opal has Winn-Dixie at her side, she makes new friends easily. This is a harmless, pleasant comic drama, but elements that may have seemed delightfully eccentric in print take on unfortunate new tones when translated to film. Sometimes you cant tell the magic realism from the corn. ANITA GATES BOOGEYMAN Starring Barry Watson. Directed by Stephen Kay (PG-13, 86 minutes). There are a lot of close-ups of doorknobs and water faucets in Mr. Kays would-be horror film. There is a supernaturally speedy killing accomplished with heavy-duty plastic wrap. There is frequent whooshing and rapid camera movement. Despite all of that, it isnt scary. Mr. Watson, of Seventh Heaven, plays Tim, a grown man who has been afraid of the boogeyman ever since he was 8, when something creepy sucked his father into a closet and out of this life. After his mothers death, Tim vows to spend a night in his childhood home to allay his fears, but, sure enough, the boogeyman is back and after him and everyone he cares about (well, an uncle and two girlfriends). The house is very creaky; so is the movie. GATES BRIDE AND PREJUDICE Starring Martin Henderson and Aishwarya Rai. Directed by Gurinder Chadha (PG-13, 111 minutes). Because Ms. Chadha knows how to sell multiplex multiculturalism -- her last feature was Bend It Like Beckham -- the pitch for her new film probably ran something along the lines of: Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice recontextualized as a Bollywood musical (only shorter) and set against the backdrop of the new global economy. Whatever the case, the new film -- which transposes Austens 1813 novel to 21st-century India, with layovers in swinging London and sunny Los Angeles -- is as high concept and rife with cliché as anything churned out by Hollywood, but with worse production values and a load of sanctimony. Think My Big Fat Sari Wedding tricked out with clumsy song-and-dance numbers and delivered with much finger-wagging about cultural tolerance. The kicker here being that the wagging finger belongs to the storys heroine, here called Lalita (Ms. Rai, radiantly beautiful but inert), and the object of her high-mindedness is none other than a wealthy American, Will Darcy (Mr. Henderson, just inert). DARGIS CONSTANTINE Starring Keanu Reeves. Directed by Francis Lawrence. (R, 122 minutes). Hells bells! Sprung from the Matrix, Mr. Reeves glowers his way through another effect-heavy, convoluted journey between worlds, in this case defined by theology rather than technology. He is John Constantine, who travels back and forth between our world and the one below, working as a kind of freelance border guard, sending stray demons back into the fiery depths (where they appear to have cars). But something big is brewing, involving rebel angels, the son of Satan, and a whole lot of pseudo-biblical mumbo-jumbo. Assisting Mr. Reeves are Rachel Weisz, as a Los Angeles police detective whose sister has jumped off a roof, and Shia LeBoeuf as an eager dabbler in the occult. Tilda Swinton is the angel Gabriel, doing a bit of slumming after boffo work in Miltons Paradise Lost. A.O. SCOTT DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN Starring Kimberly Elise, Tyler Perry and Cicely Tyson. Directed by Darren Grant. (PG-13, 116 minutes). This movie is so oblivious to genre that it occupies its own special stylistic niche, if you can imagine such a thing as a romantic revenge farce. As the story of a cruelly abandoned wifes reascendance zigzags from soap opera to slapstick to church sermon and back, it goes from A to Z on the all-things-to-all-people meter: Cinderella meets Amos n Andy in Sunday school, so to speak. STEPHEN HOLDEN DOWNFALL Starring Bruno Ganz. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. (No rating, 155 minutes; in German, with English subtitles). Mr. Ganz plays Hitler, palsied and furious, as his Reich collapses around him, and the Red Army closes in. Surrounding him are his followers, some fanatically loyal, others wavering in the face of defeat, who must all play out the endgame of their ghastly world-historical project. Mr. Hirschsbiegels film, taking place at the moment when the energies of Nazism turned from murder to suicide, is engrossing and well made, but it does not generate much feeling beyond a queasy, prurient fascination. Its most daring gambit -- to treat Germanys monsters as human -- is also the source of its greatest failure, which is that it uses the conventions of wartime melodrama to elicit sympathy for people who hardly deserve it. Those who turn away from Hitler at the bitter end are restored to innocence, when in fact they were loyal Nazis whose convenient disillusionment -- coming as Russian soldiers appeared over the horizon -- is treated as a heroic exercise of conscience. SCOTT HITCH Starring Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin James and Amber Valletta. Directed by Andy Tennant (PG-13, 115 minutes). As soft and sweet as a marshmallow, and about as interesting, this genial romantic comedy features the ever-charming Mr. Smith as a dating coach who helps hapless Manhattan men snag women much better looking than they are. His own head is turned by Ms. Mendes, playing surely the most kindly gossip columnist ever to grace the pages of a New York tabloid. Complications, as always, ensue, but nothing too challenging or painful, either for the central couple or for the audience. Mr. James, best known as the portly King of Queens on television, is around for comic relief as an especially needy client, who is smitten with the willowy Ms. Valletta. SCOTT INSIDE DEEP THROAT Written and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (NC-17, 90 minutes). It was the image seen -- cheered and jeered, canonized and demonized -- around the world. In 1972 Linda Lovelace, nee Linda Boreman, star of the notorious hard-core movie Deep Throat, played the role that would bequeath her a tawdry and lasting celebrity. With a single act of extreme fellatio, this dazed and often confused 23-year-old became a pinup for the party animals sexual revolution and, in time, a martyr in the crusade against pornography. But as is clear from this lively, if maddeningly reductive documentary, Ms. Boreman was also little more than a pawn, an empty vessel for opportunists from both sides of the pornography divide. The documentary is a slam, bam, thank you, maam trifle of an entertainment, one strategically packaged for Generation A.D.D. DARGIS * MILLION DOLLAR BABY Starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Directed by Mr. Eastwood (PG-13, 135 minutes). Mr. Eastwood takes what appears to be a conventional boxing-melodrama plot about a crusty old trainer whose heart is melted by a spirited young fighter and turns it into a glowing, somber meditation on friendship, ambition and death. The pictures scale is small, and its pacing leisurely, which gives you a chance to savor three lovely performances: from Ms. Swank as the young boxer, Mr. Freeman as a world-weary former contender and Mr. Eastwood as the trainer, Frankie Dunn. At 74, Mr. Eastwood has achieved a level of mastery that leaves him with nothing to prove, and so, unafraid of sentiment and willing to risk cliché, he has made a graceful, lyrical, devastating masterpiece -- the best film released by a major Hollywood studio in 2004. (It won Oscars for best picture, best director for Mr. Eastwood, best actress for Ms. Swank and best supporting actor for Mr. Freeman.) SCOTT * NOBODY KNOWS Starring Yuya Yagira.. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (PG-13, 141 minutes; in Japanese, with English subtitles). Based on the true story of four children abandoned by their mother in a small Tokyo apartment, Mr. Kore-edas fourth film is at once harrowing and tender, an urban horror story with overtones of fairy tale. Restricting himself to the childrens point of view, the director creates an almost unbearable sense of dread in the audience; you cant help suspecting that, at every moment, something terrible is about to happen. But at the same time, because the children themselves do not perceive the full terribleness of their situation, the terror is mitigated by a sense of wonder and adventure. The keys to this meticulous and deeply humane film are Mr. Kore-edas deft camera sense and the remarkable performance of the 12-year-old Mr. Yagira as Akira, the oldest of the four siblings, who must somehow preserve his own innocence while protecting his more vulnerable brother and sisters. SCOTT ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR Starring Tony Jaa. Directed by Prachya Pinkaew (R, 101 minutes; in Thai, with English subtitles). Martial arts for purists who disdain wirework, computer-generated imagery and digital tweaking. Ting (Mr. Jaa) a country bumpkin trained in the deadly art of Thai Muay, travels to Bangkok to retrieve the stolen head of his village Buddha. Once there, his peaceful disposition is challenged by all manner of thugs and lowlifes. The story is beside the point: like the low-budget Hong Kong action pictures of the 1970s, this movie offers scrappy, ingenious fight choreography. The director is so enamored of some sequences that he treats himself -- and the audience -- to instant replays. SCOTT POOHS HEFFALUMP MOVIE With the voices of Jim Cummings, John Fiedler and Kyle Stanger. Directed by Frank Nissen. (G, 63 minutes). In A.A. Milnes Winnie the Pooh stories, Piglet once thought he had seen a heffalump, but it was really just Pooh with a honey jar stuck on his head. In this adorable animated film, he and the other animals finally encounter the real thing. And it (Lumpy, the baby heffalump) is too cute for words, largely thanks to the endearing voice and infectious laugh of 8-year-old Kyle Stanger. The plot involves Roo capturing Lumpy (who thinks a visit to the Roos part of Hundred Acre Wood sounds like a fine game) and Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and company learning that Heffalumps arent scary at all. There is a dash of child-pleasing animated slapstick, a few nice Carly Simon songs and a crucial lesson about the dangers of misjudging people just because they are different from you. GATES SON OF THE MASK Starring Jamie Kennedy. Directed by Lawrence Guterman. (PG, 86 minutes) Tim Avery (Mr. Kennedy) is a would-be cartoonist and full-time schlemiel, stuck at a low-level job at a cutting-edge animation company. Tim chances upon a wooden mask that his dog, Otis, dragged home. As viewers of the original 1994 film The Mask will know, this artifact is the property of Loki, the Norse god of mischief. Whoever dons it immediately becomes a computer-animated whirlwind of obnoxious egotism and untrammeled desire. In short order, Tim has gotten himself promoted at the company and impregnated his wife (Traylor Howard). But alas, their son, Alvy, is born of the Mask -- hes a semi-digitized superbaby, capable of shape-shifting, tap-dancing and feats of superhuman strength. When Loki (Alan Cumming) decides to come back for his mask, Tim is in for a roller-coaster ride of manic chase scenes and computer-assisted mayhem. Youngsters will suffer no lasting harm from this frantic, grating spectacle, but their less resilient parents may not be so lucky. STEVENS *SUNSET STORY With Irja Lloyd and Lucille Alpert. Directed by Laura Gabbert. (No rating, 73 minutes). I hesitate to describe the pocket-size documentary Sunset Story as a gem of a film. Lovingly directed by Ms. Gabbert, it is certainly a gem, small and, in its very modest way, perfect of its kind. But there is every reason to believe that the films subjects -- an elderly twosome named Lucille and Irja -- would find the word gem overly precious, perhaps insulting. These are women, after all, who regularly participate in protests and union rallies, and whose home is adorned with a sign reading Free Mumia, on behalf of the death row celebrity Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Mumia sign hangs off a metal railing overlooking the courtyard of a residence called Sunset Hall, which advertises itself as a nonprofit retirement home for free-thinking elders. No kidding! Founded in Los Angeles more than 80 years ago, Sunset Hall was established as a home for religious liberals. As the filmmakers soon make apparent, however, the current residents tend to lean rather more left. DARGIS UP AND DOWN Starring Petr Forman and Emilia Vasaryova. Directed by Jan Hrebejk. (R, 108 minutes; in Czech, with English subtitles). This engaging, unruly mix of comedy and melodrama follows the mood swings suggested by its title. Tracing the generally unhappy doings of a dozen or so loosely connected people in contemporary Prague, it skips from buoyant satire to domestic melodrama, leaving behind a curious mix of emotions. It is not often you see a movie so bracingly pessimistic about the human condition that dispenses its dose of bad news with such good cheer. A baby is illegally adopted by a former soccer hooligan; an émigré returns for a reunion with his broken family -- all in an atmosphere of petty crime, anxiety about immigration and general puzzlement at the state of the world (or at least the Czech Republic) -- 15 years after the end of Communism. SCOTT Pop A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy rock and pop concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended concert. Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. * BAD BOY BILL, DERRICK CARTER, Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212)807-7780. The popular house DJ Bad Boy Bill (who packs dance floors by using brute rhythmic force) is the headliner, but dont be surprised if Mr. Carter spins a more exciting, unpredictable set. Mr. Carter loves to enliven his thwacking house beats with squiggles and squelches; on Live at Om (Om), an appealing double-CD that also includes a set by Mark Farina, Mr. Carter gravitates toward robotic bass lines, disembodied voices and scrambled snippets of disco and jazz. Tomorrow night after 10, with Steve Smooth, DJ Dalton and Christine Renee; tickets are $30. KELEFA SANNEH LOU BARLOW, Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201)653-1703. Mr. Barlow, best known as the prime mover behind the indie-rock band Sebadoh, inspired many of the punk-influenced confessionalists who went on to find success (more success, perhaps, than he himself ever found) by pouring their hearts out in emo bands. The title of Mr. Barlows new solo album, Emoh (Merge) is both an acknowledgment of this unpaid debt and a backward reference to one of the albums main themes. Its a rather baggy, sometimes meandering album, but Mr. Barlows best love songs still find unexpected links between sentimentality and cynicism. Sunday night at 8:30, with Graham Smith and Mike Ferraro; tickets are $10. SANNEH * BONNIE (PRINCE) BILLY & MATT SWEENEY, Sound Fix, 110 Bedford Avenue, at North 11th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)388-8090; Kims Mediapolis, 2906 Broadway, at 113th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 864-5321; Built By Wendy, 7 Centre Market Place, near Broome Street, NoLita, (212)925-6538; Mondo Kims, 6 St. Marks Place, near the Bowery, East Village, (212) 598-9985. Other Music, 15 East 4th Street, East Village, (212) 477-8150. Bonnie (Prince) Billy is the indie-rock mainstay Will Oldham (aka Palace, among other things), who writes eerie, country-influenced songs. For a new collaborative CD, Superwolf (Drag City), Mr. Sweeney, an inventive guitarist, composed songs around a set of lyrics Mr. Oldham sent him; the two recorded the results together, and the album they made is a glimmering minor masterpiece. The two are to play New York City tomorrow, but no proper concerts are on the rather perverse itinerary: instead, city residents can take their pick from no fewer than five in-store appearances, which should get progressively stranger and more unraveled. Tomorrow at 1 p.m. (Sound Fix), 3 p.m. (Kims Mediapolis), 5 p.m. (Built by Wendy), 7 p.m. (Mondo Kims), and 9 p.m. (Other Music); admission to all appearances is free. SANNEH BREAKING BENJAMIN, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place at 15th Street, Union Square, (212) 777-6800. This grim-faced metal-grunge band sings about betrayal and alienation over bruising, down-tuned guitar riffs on its way to pop choruses. Like many other current bands, it owes a lot to Tool, but its edge comes from its collaborator in songwriting: Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. Tonight at 8, with Theory of a Deadman and the Exies opening; tickets are $20. JON PARELES * SOLOMON BURKE, B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)997-4144. Solomon Burke is a larger-than-life, gospel-rooted 1960s soul man whose vocal jabs taught Mick Jagger, among others, a few things about singing. He is still a vocal powerhouse, full of dramatic whims, who earns the right to perform from a throne. Tonight at 8; tickets are $35. PARELES CALLA/PALOMAR, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212)260-4700. Calla makes its musical home in the after-hours New York of the Velvet Underground, the haggard despair of Joy Division and the California retreats of Neil Young. Its songs brood amid tolling, inexorable guitar riffs haunted by the blues. Whimsy and sinew coexist nicely in the lean, peppy pop-rock of Palomar, a three-woman, one-man band whose songs jump from blithe choruses to wiry guitar patterns to hefty distortion, all at the service of the lyrics articulate ambivalence. Tonight at 8:30, with the Stands and Eastern Conference Champions opening; admission is $10. PARELES VINICIUS CANTUARIA AND MARC RIBOT, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7503. Vinicius Cantuaria, a Brazilian songwriter who has lived in New York since the mid-1990s, is steeped in the bossa nova: its gently brushed guitar chords, its quietly elaborate melodies, its shades of sensuality and melancholy. He knows the style well enough to stretch the form without losing its essence, and tonight hes performing with Marc Ribot, a guitarist whos equally at home with old Cuban tunes or the clanky, twangy sounds he brought to Tom Waitss band. Sunday night at 9, admission is $15. PARELES CHEVELLE/HELMET, Starland Ballroom, 570 Jernee Mill Road, Sayreville, N.J., (732)238-5500 and the Chance Theater, 6 Crannell Street, Poughkeepsie, (845) 471-1966; the show was formerly scheduled at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, 14 Civic Center Plaza, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., (845)454-5800. The muscular despair of grunge and the desolate, sinewy ballads of Tool live on in the grim, down-tuned, power-chorded dirges of Chevelle. Sharing the bill is the long-running New York band Helmet, a 1990s pioneer of sparse, deliberate, misanthropic hard rock. Theyre headlining the Snocore tour, which also includes the hard-rock bands Crossfade, Future Leaders of the World and Strata. At Starland Ballroom tonight at 7; tickets are $18. At the Chance Theater Sunday at 5; tickets are $23.50. PARELES CLEM SNIDE, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212)533-2111. This formerly local band (leader Eef Barzelay recently moved from Brooklyn to Nashville) just released End of Love (spinART), another CD full of wistful indie-rock songs that are sometimes clever and sometimes merely jokey -- the countryish Jews for Jesus Blues is barely better than its title. Tomorrow night at 9, with Marbles (aka. Robert Schneider from the Apples in Stereo) and Archer Prewitt; tickets are $13 in advance, $15 at the door. SANNEH * DR. DOG, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212)260-4700. This emerging Philadelphia band, enamored of light-headed riff-rock and off-kilter ballads, canceled a January appearance at this club because of a snowstorm. The members are to try again tomorrow night, in front of their small (but growing) cult of fans. On March 15, the group is to reissue its charming recent album East Beat, through National Parking Records. The album includes nine songs filled with breezy vocal harmonies and unexpected digressions, but the groups live show is much louder and more exuberant, especially when Scott McMicken unleashes one of his wailing, shape-shifting guitar solos. Tomorrow night at 9 (get there early -- Dr. Dog is the opening act), with the Centro-matic and the Baptist Generals; tickets are $10. SANNEH JOHN EDDIE, Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, N.J., (732)502-0600. John Eddie followed Bruce Springsteen up from the Jersey Shore in the mid-1980s, but never reached the arenas. Instead, he has settled into a career of steady performing at clubs, and his 2003 album, Who the Hell Is John Eddie? (Lost Eddie), shows he has a sense of humor about it, along with plenty of empathy for lifes also-rans. Tonight, one ticket covers two sets at 8:30 and 11:30; admission is $15. PARELES * MASTERS OF PERSIAN MUSIC: MOHAMMED REZA SHAJARIAN, HOSSEIN ALIZADEH, KAYHAN KALHOR, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Time Warner Center, Broadway at 60th Street, (212)545-7536. The singer Mohammed Reza Shajarian is one of Irans most celebrated classical singers, and he is joined on their third United States tour together by Hossein Alizadeh on tar (lute) and Kayhan Kalhor on kemancheh (spike fiddle) in new pieces rooted in the improvisations of Persian classical music and mystical Sufi poetry. Sunday night at 7; tickets are $30 to $50, or $26 to $45 for World Music Institute members. PARELES MIN XIAO-FEN, SUSIE IBARRA AND OKKYUNG LEE, BAM Cafe, 30 Lafayette Avenue at Ashland Place, Brooklyn, (718)636-4139. Min Xiao-Fen has brought the pipa, the Chinese lute tradtionally used for dramatic, virtuosic evocations of nature, into new music as well as the traditional repertory. Shes joined by the improvising percussionist Susie Ibarra, a mainstay of the downtown avant-garde, and the cellist Okkyung Lee, in a concert of solos, duos and trios. Tonight at 9; admission is free with a $10 minimum. PARELES MICK MOLONEYS IRISH-AMERICAN MUSIC AND DANCE FESTIVAL, Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia Place, (212)992-8484. Mick Moloney has been a linchpin of traditional Irish music in New York City: not just singing it and playing it on tenor banjo and mandolin, but producing albums, documenting traditional musicians and encouraging younger generations. This program is devoted to Irish musicians in America. It includes the singer and songwriter Tommy Sands; an All-Ireland harp and concertina champion, Michelle Mulcahy; the fiddler and banjo player Bruce Molsky; the button accordionist Billy Comiskey playing music of his mentor, Sean McGlynn, the uilleann piper Jerry OSullivan, the fiddlers Athena O Lochlainn and Dana Lyn, the guitarist Eamon OLeary and the stepdancer Niall OLeary. Tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $25 to $40, $22.50 to $36 for those 65+. PARELES MAURA OCONNELL, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212)219-3006. An Irish singer whose voice is suffused with melancholy warmth, Maura OConnell chooses songs from the most heartfelt songwriters on both sides of the Atlantic and fills them with kindly empathy. Tomorrow night at 7; tickets are $20 in advance, $25 tomorrow. PARELES SASHA, Crobar, 530 West 28th Street, Chelsea, (212)629-9000. Sasha, the wildly popular progressive-house D.J., comes to town for his monthly residency at Crobar. He has a knack for pleasing huge crowds without (for the most part) pandering to them: eschewing both the obvious and the unusual, he tops his steady, thumping beats with complicated electronic patterns that slowly decay and mutate. Tonight after 10, with James Zabiela; tickets are $30. SANNEH * JILL SCOTT, Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Avenue of the Americas, at 50th Street, (212)632-4000. Jill Scott spills out words, spoken like hip-hop poetry or sung with jazzy timing, to detail the aspirations and loves of a sensual, intelligent and self-assured woman. Fresh from winning a Grammy award, she should have plenty of exuberant insights. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; tickets are $40 to $67.50 PARELES * SECRET MACHINES, Irving Plaza, 7 Irving Place at 15th Street, Union Square, (212) 777-6800. The slowly unfolding, keyboard-driven compositions of Secret Machines have a stark minimalist side, a glimmer of country, some pulsating and a streak of Pink Floyd grandeur that swells to fill the room. Theres a haunted undercurrent amid the pomp. Show tomorrow night at 8 is sold out. Sunday night at 8, with Corecraft (including J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.) and Autolux opening; tickets are $18.50 in advance, $20 Sunday. PARELES THE SHIRELLES, Town Hall, 123 West 43d Street, Manhattan, (212)840-2824 or (212)545-7536. Girl groups from the Supremes to Destinys Child owe something to the Shirelles, who wrote their first hit, I Met Him on a Sunday, and had a string of hits in the early 1960s including Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and Dedicated to the One I Love. This trio is led by Beverly Lee, the original Shirelle member who holds the trademark to the group name. Tonight at 8; tickets are $30 and $35. PARELES SHONEN KNIFE, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212)219-3006. The female Japanese band Shonen Knife has been blasting out its primitive, cheerful punk squall for 20 years, and it hasnt gotten slick yet. Tomorrow night at 11, with Visqueen and Intl Shades opening; tickets are $15 in advance, $17 tomorrow. PARELES SLIPKNOT, Continental Airlines Arena, the Meadowlands, Route 120, East Rutherford, N.J., (201)935-3900. Slipknots music is a barrage of high-speed drumbeats and howling vocals, combining the pandemonium of Slayer and the turntable cacophony of Public Enemy with infrequent melodic interludes akin to Nine Inch Nails; lately, it has tried to raise the melody quotient enough to suit radio programmers, with mixed results. But its anthems of adolescent resentment can still draw arena crowds, particularly when it shares the bill with the up-and-coming, virtuosically whipsawing metal bands Lamb of God and Shadows Fall. Sunday night at 7; tickets are $33. PARELES * TRIPLE R, 107 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, lower level; information, www.klever.org/thebunkernyc/#upcoming. Triple R is Riley Reinhold, the German D.J. (and music critic) behind Friends (Kompakt), an excellent mix CD from 2002 that stitched together minimal but warm electronic tracks to evoke the outline of a single day, starting and ending with peaceful sleep. His latest mix CD is Selection 3 (www.traumschallplatten.de), a hazy but propulsive compilation of tracks from his record label Trapez. The basement of this beleaguered downtown nightclub Tonic (visit tonicnyc.com to learn more about its struggle to survive) is no ones idea of an ideal dance-music venue, but expect Triple R to spin an ecstatic, immersive set, regardless. Tonight after 9, with Smartypants, Marcos Cabral and more; admission is $5. SANNEH DAVID WILCOX/RAY BONNEVILLE, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, (212) 576-1155. David Wilcox has a handful of sterling folk-pop songs, a genial voice and enough guitar virtuosity to make even his lesser material sound convincing. He shares the bill with Ray Bonneville, who picks ragtimey blues on electric guitar. Sunday night at 7; tickets are $20 in advance, $23 Sunday. PARELES * YERBA BUENA, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)230-0236. Yerba Buena meshes traditional rumba rhythms, and other African-diaspora styles from boogaloo to Afrobeat to jazz, with gutsy, distorted guitars to create pan-American and pan-African party music that has both sly intelligence and deep roots. Tonight at 8, with the Pacha Sound System and LNegro; admission is $15. PARELES Cabaret A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy cabaret shows in Manhattan this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended show. Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. * BLOSSOM DEARIE, Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212)265-8133. To watch this singer and pianist is to appreciate the power of a carefully deployed pop-jazz minimalism combined with a highly discriminating taste in songs. She remains the definitive interpreter, at once fey and tough, of the pop-jazz satirist Dave Frishberg, as astute and unforgiving a social critic as exists. The songs -- her own and other peoples -- date from all periods of a career remarkable for its longevity and for Ms. Dearies stubborn independence and sly wit, which have never gone stale. Tomorrow night at 7; Sunday night at 6:15. Cover: $25, with a $15 minimum; a $54.50 dinner-and-show package is available. STEPHEN HOLDEN CHITA RIVERA, Feinsteins at the Regency, 540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street, (212)339-4095. Broadways ageless gypsy queen has a voice so lived-in that its cardboard tatters often seem patched together with chewing gum, scotch tape and paste, but that doesnt mean that she cant sing up a dramatic storm if the song demands it. Except for a silly gender-reversed his-hers medley of show tune fragments swapped with her pianist Mark Hummel, her show, And Now I Sing finds a likable mixture of sass and sentiment that reaches its height with a shimmying All That Jazz, a song from Chicago that she owns now and forever. Tonight and tomorrow at 8:30 and 11 p.m. Cover: $60; $40 minimum early shows, $30 late shows. HOLDEN * SINGING ASTAIRE, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212)581-3080. With Eric Comstock, Hilary Kole and Christopher Gines. The vocal trio that created the smart revue Our Sinatra has outdone itself with this lightly swinging 70-minute compendium of songs and lore associated with Fred Astaire. Suave and dry, and fleet on the piano, Mr. Comstock is a close stylistic relative of his idol, while Ms. Koles pop-jazz singing has a Ginger Rogers-esque edge. Mr. Gines fills in the difference with creamy vocal custard: witty, informative and fast-paced. Tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. Cover: $30; $20 at the bar; $10 minimum. HOLDEN Jazz A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy jazz concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended concert. Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. WESSELL ANDERSON QUARTET, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212)255-4037. A longtime member of Wynton Marsaliss Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the alto saxophonist Wessell Anderson has a warm, sweet tone; his playing can be radiant with soul and happiness. Sets through Sunday night are at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30. BEN RATLIFF * RAVI COLTRANE QUINTET, Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, Manhattan, (212)582-2121. The saxophonist Ravi Coltrane has taken his time to warm up, and his new album new In Flux (Savoy Jazz) shows that hes gotten somewhere good. He enlists different approaches: mysterious, moving ballads; short free-jazz scrimmages; free improvisation within tight rhythmic structures; rubato, layered time signatures, and the rhythmic complexities of the new Latin jazz, negotiated with the pianist Luis Perdomo, the bassist Drew Gress and the drummer E.J. Strickland. Its a good representation of what jazz in New York sounds like right now. Sets through Sunday night are at 8 and 10, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $30 tonight and Sunday night, $32.50 tomorrow night, with a $10 minimum at the tables, $5 at the bar. RATLIFF DON FRIEDMAN TRIO, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212)576-2232. The pianist Don Friedman has been leading his own groups since the early 60s, when he was a West-Coaster, soon to move to New York and collaborate with Booker Little, Jimmy Giuffre and others. More recently hes been a permanent part of Clark Terrys band, finessing standards. Sets through Sunday night are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover, $25 tonight and tomorrow night, $20 on Sunday. RATLIFF ROSARIO GIULIANI QUARTET, Smoke, 2751 Broadway at 106th Street, Manhattan, (212)864-6662. An Italian alto saxophonist with a long-standing group, Rosario Giulianis rare appearance in New York is part of Jazzitaliano, a citywide arrival of Italian jazz in New York. Sets through Sunday night are at 9, 11 and 12:30; no cover charge. RATLIFF BENNY GREEN TRIO, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, 60th Street and Broadway, Manhattan, (212)258-9595. A strong mainstream pianist with a dominant Oscar Peterson influence, Benny Green is keeping the glories of mid-century jazz at the surface of his music; hell play this weekend with Ray Drummond on bass and Rodney Green on drums. Sets through Sunday night are at 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow; cover charge is $30, with a $10 minimum at the tables, $5 at the bar. RATLIFF CHRISTIAN McBRIDE BAND, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)581-3080. One of the most virtuosic jazz musicians to emerge during the 1990s, the bassist Christian McBride indulges his interests in straight-ahead jazz as much as funk and pop and other areas. Sets are tonight and tomorrow at 9 and 11; cover charge is $30, and there is a $10 minimum. RATLIFF BEN MONDER, Barbes, 376 Ninth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)965-9177. A regular with bands led by musicians like Paul Motian and Lee Konitz, as well as a powerfully inventive guitarist in his own material, Mr. Monder plays widespread chords youve never heard, frequently going into a kind of gentle outer-space music. Tonight at 9; cover charge is $5. RATLIFF MADELEINE PEYROUX, Town Hall, 123 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-1003. A vocalist who emerged in the mid-90s from singing in the New Orleans streets, Ms. Peyroux could inhabit Billie Holiday and Édith Piaf, doing the tragic, pinched-voice thing perfectly. She still can and does -- that little voice remains somehow central to her -- but on Careless Love, her recent album and her first in eight years, she enlarges and updates the repertory, wading into the Elliott Smith and Jesse Harris catalogs. Tomorrow night at 8 pm; tickets are $35 and $50. RATLIFF * PLANET JAZZ, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212)675-7369. Its the first weekend of the reappearance of Smalls -- the little jazz club that nurtured talents through the 90s including Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Peter Bernstein, Avishai Cohen and Jason Lindner. (It has a liquor license now, but youre still invited to stay all night once you arrive.) Planet jazz is a cooperative band including Smalls regulars like Mr. Bernstein, Joe Magnarelli, Grant Stewart, Spike Wilner and Neal Miner. Tonight and tomorrow night beginning at 10 p.m., with sets running until 5 a.m.; cover charge is $10, with a two-drink minimum. RATLIFF ANDREW RATHBUN LARGE ENSEMBLE, Smiths Jazz Bar, 701 Eighth Avenue, at 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)246-3268. The saxophonist and composer Andrew Rathbun is using some of the better musicians in the New York scene for his smart, harmony-rich big-band music; he is also working with literary texts. Here hell be playing all new music for large ensemble including the premiere performance of an extended work with text by Margaret Atwood, The Two Islands Suite; the excellent Claudia Acuna will be singing. Sunday at 9 pm; $10 cover, with a one-drink minimum. RATLIFF BENNY POWELL 75th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. The trombonist Benny Powell, a longtime associate of Randy Weston and a carver of strong melody, is a local favorite; he spreads good will through a club. Musicians include T.K. Blue on saxophone and flute, Earl May on bass, and Vinnie Johnson on drums. Tomorrow at 9 and 10:30; admission is $15 per set, $10 for members. RATLIFF * NED ROTHENBERG, Location One, 20-26 Greene Street, SoHo, (212)334-3347. Over the last 25 years the improviser Ned Rothenberg has been developing his solo performances on saxophone, bass clarinet, shakuhachi and other wind instruments; they are elegant, diverse, full of strong ideas in tone and texture, to the point where his impressive technique almost becomes a side-issue. Tomorrow at 8:30; admission is $12; students and 62+, $8. RATLIFF ARTURO SANDOVAL, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212)475-8592. Mr. Sandoval, the expressive Cuban trumpeter, always looks as if hes having fun onstage; hes in love with his own virtuosity. Sets are tonight and tomorrow at 8 and 10:30; cover charge is $30 at the tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum at the tables and a one-drink minimum at the bar. RATLIFF Classical A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy opera and classical music events this weekend in the New York metropolitan region. * denotes a highly recommended event. Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA Several of the singers singing in tonights performance of Rossinis Barbiere di Siviglia appeared in their roles earlier this season when the Metropolitan Opera brought back its charming production by John Cox. So, you can depend on the appealing tenor Matthew Polenzani, singing Count Almaviva, and the rich-voiced mezzo-soprano Katarina Karneus to deliver the goods. The big news of the night was going to be the Met debut of the young Italian baritone Franco Vassallo as the barber, Figaro. But Mr. Vassallo is ill, and will be replaced by Earle Patriarco. Carlos Chausson sings Dr. Bartolo, Ferruccio Furlanetto sings Don Basilio, and the conductor Maurizio Benini will be in the pit. Tonight at 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212)362-6000. Tickets: $40 to $210. ANTHONY TOMMASINI CANDIDE Theres a lot of Lenny going around: a recent fine radio series about his life and work, the DVD release of some of the Young Peoples Concerts, and now, following more or less on the heels of the New York Philharmonic last season, another Candide. City Opera is devoting most of the next two weeks to a revival of its own Hal Prince production of Bernsteins flawed but tenacious classic, with some good young voices including William Ferguson, an admirable tenor, in the title role. Tonight and tomorrow at 8, tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon at 1:30, New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212)870-5570. Remaining tickets: $27 to $105. ANNE MIDGETTE SAMSON ET DALILA The portrayal of Samson by the Argentine tenor José Cura is the main reason to see the Metropolitan Operas revival of its 1998 production by Elijah Moshinsky. Mr. Cura had not been back to the Met since his 1999 debut, and in the years since he has maximized his strengths and minimized his shortcomings as a singer. Though purists will still fault his vocal rawness and sometimes rough legato, he gives his all in this role, singing with passion, burnished sound, fearless attack and energy. And with his hunky physique and bold physicality, he commands the stage. Though the mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves is a gorgeous and alluring Dalila, and her rich and warm voice is ideal for the role, her singing on opening nights was sometimes shaky and insecure. Bertrand de Billy was the impressive conductor. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212)362-6000. Sold out; returned tickets may be available before the performance. TOMMASINI Classical BALTIMORE CONSORT This ensemble, best known for its many fine recordings for the Dorian label (which recently folded), is performing Cancionero!, a program of Spanish songs and dances from around 1500, as well as improvisations on popular themes from the time. Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m., the Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights, (212)650-2290. Tickets: $35. ALLAN KOZINN BARGEMUSIC If the one-voice-to-a-part performance of Bachs St. Matthew Passion by the New York Collegium isnt sufficiently minimalist for you, a competing Bach concert tonight at this floating concert hall on the East River offers all six of Bachs Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. Its a lot of music for a single cellist to play at one sitting (although its been done), so Bargemusic is splitting the set between two, Amy Sue Barston and Amir Eldan. A more varied program is offered tomorrow and Sunday, when the violinsts Yuval Waldman and Robin Zeh are joined by Kathleen Foster, a violist, and David Calhoun, a cellist, in a program that includes Gershwins Lullaby for String Quartet, Janaceks Intimate Letters Quartet and works for solo violin by Biber and Bartok. The Bach Cello Suites are tonight at 7:30; the quartet program is tomorrow at 7:30 and Sunday at 4. Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718)624-2083. Tickets: $35; $20 for students. KOZINN DOUBLES AND TRIPLES The title refers not to Manny Ramirezs hits in the post-season but rather to a program this evening in Miller Theater featuring multiple string quartets piled together on a single stage. Mendelssohns Octet is the quintessential example of a work for double quartet, but Darius Milhaud also had the ingenious idea of writing his Quartets Nos. 14 and 15 such that they could be played independently or at the same time. Steve Reichs Triple Quartet has a title that says it all. The piece often requires a single quartet to pre-record the other two parts, but Mr. Reich also permits three separate ensembles to tackle his score at once. Thats just what will happen tonight as the Ying, the Pacifica and the Chiara String Quartets perform these works by Mendelssohn, Mihaud and Mr. Reich. Quartet traffic of this volume apparently requires something extra: a conductor, who will be Alan Pierson. Tonight at 8, Miller Theater, Broadway at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212)854-7799. Tickets: $25; students $15. JEREMY EICHLER THE END OF THE MOON Billed as a departure, Laurie Andersons latest evening-length performance piece actually uses new technology to traverse familiar terrain. In a sing-song lilt that smooths off the rough edges of what shes saying, the artist talks about a wide range of topics, some of them touching on her recent stint as NASAs first-ever artist-in-residence. The grab-bag includes anecdotes, aphorisms, stretches of self-consciously poetic meditation, and simple tunes on Ms. Andersons electric viola, sampled into digital importance. Ms. Anderson celebrates the way that technology has shrunk, enabling her to fit all of her equipment into a couple of suitcases; unfortunately her content seems to have shrunk along with it. Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30, Sunday afternoon at 3, BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718)636-4100. Tickets: $20 to $50. MIDGETTE LOUIS LORTIE This Canadian pianist comes to Carnegie Hall tomorrow night with waltzing on his mind. His fascinating program has at heart Schuberts two sets of waltzes and their French mirror image, Ravels Valses Nobles et Sentimentales. Liszt and Berlioz will do some three-in-a-measure dancing as well, and to add a more recent touch Mr. Lortie plays Helmut Lachenmanns Five Variations on a Theme of Franz Schubert. La Valse by Ravel also appears in its fiercely difficult reduction from orchestra to solo piano. Tomorrow night at 8, Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800. Tickets: $24 to $79. BERNARD HOLLAND NEW YORK COLLEGIUM Its been more than two decades since Joshua Rifkin published his groundbreaking study of Bachs choral music, in which he demonstrated that Bachs choruses were not the huge assemblies many of us grew up hearing, or even the comparatively trim groups favored by period instrument ensembles, but a mere one singer to a part. Given the musics heft, to say nothing of its difficulty, this is difficult to imagine. The compensation for the loss of big-chorus grandeur is clarity of texture and line, always essential and illuminating in Bach. One musician who sides with Mr. Rifkin is Andrew Parrott, the English conductor who directs New York Collegium. With his orchestra and eight singers, Mr. Parrott is performing the St. Matthew Passion tonight, giving listeners a chance to decide whether they prefer their Bach towering or intimate -- or whether Mr. Parrotts performance offers some of both. Tonight at 8, Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 980 Park Avenue, at 84th Street, (212)717-9246. There is a pre-concert lecture by Daniel R. Melamed, a musicologist from the Indiana University School of Music, at 7. Tickets: $30 to $50. KOZINN NEW YORK YOUTH SYMPHONY One of the best ways to reconnect with the adventure and excitement of works that have long been repertory staples is to hear them performed by eager and unjaded young musicians who are truly thrilled to be playing them. This always happens at the concerts by the excellent, highly skilled and hard-working New York Youth Symphony. So you expect Sunday afternoons performances of two Tchaikovsky war horses, the Fifth Symphony and the Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by Paul Maas, to be deeply rewarding. The soloist in the concerto is the brilliant Italian pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, winner of the Silver Medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition. The orchestra also assures adventure by playing the premiere of short work by a young composer at every concert. Sundays offering is The Nostalgia of the Infinite by Thomas Osborne. Sunday at 2 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800. Tickets: $7 to $55. TOMMASINI PETER SERKIN AND BRAD LUBMAN The composer Oliver Knussen, who wrote Where the Wild Things Are, is a bit of a wild thing himself: hirsute and unpredictable, with a tendency to blow deadlines. Not only did he not manage to finish his latest new work for the pianist Peter Serkin and the Zankel Band; at the last minute illness prevented him from conducting the concert. Brad Lubman will step in to lead the wild and woolly program, which includes pieces by everyone from Mark-Anthony Turnage (Snapshots) to Charles Wuorinen (Cyclops) to the absent Mr. Knussen, still represented by two pieces, Two Organa and A Fragment of Ophelias Last Dance. Never mind: Mr. Serkin is a fine pianist; the Zankel Band, a pack of crack soloists. Tomorrow night at 7:30, Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800. Tickets: $20 to $32. MIDGETTE RUSSIAN CHAMBER CHORUS OF NEW YORK This group, directed by Nikolai Kachanov, has performed an invaluable service by focusing New Yorkers attention on the great works written for the Russian Orthodox Church, especially those by the familiar masters Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. Here it presents mostly nonliturgical music: a celebration of the friendship of the great Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin and Rachmaninoff, including Rachmaninoffs cantata Spring, which had its premiere a century ago, with Chaliapin as soloist. In addition to more Rachmaninoff, the program offers music from Chaliapins repertory, including works by Rossini, Gounod, Mussorgsky and Gretchaninoff. Tonight at 8, St. Peters Lutheran Church, Lexington Avenue at 54th Street; tomorrow at 4 p.m., Broadway Presbyterian Church, at 114th Street, Morningside Heights, (212)928-1402. Tickets: $25; $15 for students and 65+. JAMES R. OESTREICH SILESIAN STRING QUARTET Contrary to popular belief, there is a Henryk Gorecki beyond that single work. This Polish composers elegiac Third Symphony enjoyed overwhelming popularity and commercial success after the release of a now famous 1992 recording. This symphony, however, had been written back in 1976, and Mr. Gorecki has stayed active since then. His String Quartet No. 2 appears on this all-Polish program along with works by Karol Szymanowski and Andrzej Panufnik. Steeped in its native Polish repertory, the Silesian Quartet would seem up to the task. Tonight at 8, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800. Tickets: $20 to $40. EICHLER Dance A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy dance events this weekend in the New York metropolitan region. * denotes a highly recommended event. Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. ACFDANCE The company, which features collaborative dance and visual arts work, will perform choreography by company director Adrienne Celeste Fadjo and her collaborators in light, set and costume design. Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., the Puffin Room, 435 Broome Street at Broadway, SoHo, (212)343-2881. Tickets: $10. JENNIFER DUNNING ALEXANDROV RED ARMY CHORUS AND DANCE ENSEMBLE This august troupe, which returns to the United States after a 15-year absence, is known for performing everything from traditional and modern Russian folk songs and dance to ballet-influenced hoofing and the Beatles. Sunday at 2 and 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500. Tickets: $38 to $120. DUNNING * ASPEN SANTA FE BALLET This fresh young classical ballet troupe will perform dances from a repertory that includes ballet by George Balanchine and new choreographers and modern dance. Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.,New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888)466-5722 or www.njpac.org. Tickets: $38. DUNNING DANCE AT THE 92ND STREET Y Two informal programs that explore dance are offered this weekend. In the free Fridays @ Noon series, four newish choreographers will present work that explores dance as metaphor in a program called Poetry in Motion, with discussion following. Today at noon. In the Sundays @ Three series, three choreographers and a performance group will show work in Drastic Action and Friends. Sunday at 3 p.m. 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 415-5500 or www.92ndsty.org. Tickets: $10. DUNNING DANCE BRAZIL The company director Jelon Veieras new Retratos de Bahia, set to music by Tote Gira, draws from the work of Pierre Verge, the French photographer and anthropologist, and from the Capoeira, the Brazilian martial arts form that is a main ingredient in the dancing of this troupe. Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212)242-0800. Tickets: $40. DUNNING DANCEMOPOLITAN This intimate, playful series continues with a program of work by 13 dance artists and groups and two surprise guests, including the trio of Stuart Hodes, Gus Solomons Jr. and Alice Teirstein (tonight only) and Paul Matteson and Brian Brooks (tomorrow only). Sybil Bruncheon is the host. Tonight and tomorrow at 9:30 p.m., Joes Pub, The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212)239-6200. Tickets: $15; $12 minimum food charge or two drinks. DUNNING * LEVI GONZALEZ AND RICHARD SIEGAL Mr. Gonzalez, who has worked with the New York choreographers Donna Uchizono, Chamecki/Lerner and John Jasperse, will present the whole world has suddenly disappeared, a group of solos performed simultaneously. Mr. Siegal, who danced with William Forsythes Ballett Frankfurt, will present a duet called If/Then, performed by Janis Brenner and Jeanine Durning, that records the changing relationship between a dying mother and her daughter. Tonight through Sunday at 8:30 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212)674-8194 or www.danspaceproject.org. Tickets: $15; TDF vouchers accepted. DUNNING RENNIE HARRIS This program is billed as an evening with Rennie Harris, the hot solo performer and hip-hop choreographer. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5733 or www.njpac.org. Tickets: $20. DUNNING * INTRODANS ENSEMBLE FOR YOUTH The accent is decidedly on youth in the presentations of this Dutch company from Arnhem. Freewheeling dances by such choreographers as Hans van Manen, Robert Battle, Ton Wiggers, David Parsons, Patrick Delcroix and Jiri Kylian feature deliberately mismatched ballroom dance partners, Mozart maniacs who glide about on wheels, a collision between a fuzzy torso and a some furry legs and games of hopscotch and tag for dancers in nightshirts. Tonight at 7, tomorrow at 2 and 7 p.m., Sunday at 12 and 5 p.m., New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. Tickets: $10 to $30. JACK ANDERSON LKB DANCE Leah Kreutzer Barbers new excavations uses video to provide what Ms. Barber describes as a voyeuristic toll to isolate and elaborate her gestural vocabulary and womens experience. Tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., Clark Studio Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, (732) 742-1523. Tickets: $25; $15 for students and 65+. DUNNING * AMANDA LOULAKI AND SHORT MEAN LADY Who needs to know anything about a company called Short Mean Lady? But for the literal-minded in the house, the four-member troupe performs dances by its director, Ms. Loulaki, that promise chaos, irony, sarcasm and political commentary, with video on the side in the new La la la la, Resistance (The Island of Breezes). Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212)924-0077. Tickets: $20. DUNNING PERU NEGRO A troupe from Lima dedicated to preserving Perus rich black cultural traditions offers earthy music and soulful dancing. The vibrant accompaniment features many unusual percussion instruments. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 545-7536. Tickets: $25 to $48. ANDERSON NEW GENERATION DANCE COMPANY Directed by Dardo Galletto, who has performed with Julio Boccas Ballet Argentino, the company will present Aires de Tango, a program of traditional tango and fusion choreography. Discussion (tonight), wine-tasting (tomorrow night) and tango classes (Sunday afternoon) will follow the performances. Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., Harry De Jur Playhouse, Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, (917)370-4628. Tickets: $25 to $45. DUNNING 92 ON 42: BRIDGMAN/PACKER DANCE Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer have collaborated as choreographers and performers for 27 years. In their new Under the Skin, the two bodies serve as screens and partners for electronic images with the aid of a live camera and prerecorded video. Live music will be provided by the composer and saxophonist Ken Field. Tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m., the Dukeon 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200. Tickets: $20; $15 for students and 65+ with identification. DUNNING PRINTZ DANCE PROJECT The company director Stacey Printz will present new dances in a multimedia program that also includes beat boxing and rap by Felonious, a hip-hop collective from the Bay Area. Tonight through Sunday at 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212)334-7479. Tickets: $15; $12 for students and 65+. DUNNING BETH SOLL AND COMPANY A choreographer known for expressive, and occasionally enigmatic, works offers dances inspired by recent developments in American political life (including the invasion of Iraq), the deaths of friends and the struggles of immigrants to America. Tonight and tomorrow at 8:30, Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, West Village, (212) 304-1845. Tickets: $12. ANDERSON * PEGGY SPINA TAP COMPANY A genial tapper calls her programs Tap Sprees. Theyre certainly not quite like ordinary tap concerts. In fact, they rather resemble house parties. The setting is informal and relaxed. The dancers radiate good cheer. And the musicians, led by Joel Forrester, play with a minimum of amplification. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 6 and 8:30 p.m., Spina Loft, 115 Prince Street, SoHo, (212)674-8885. Tickets: $20. ANDERSON REFRACTIONS DANCE COLLECTIVE The companys resident choreographers will present Beloved -- An Evening of Dance and Sufi Poetry. Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m., CRS, 123 Fourth Avenue, between 12th and 13th Streets, East Village, (212)677-8621. Tickets: $13. DUNNING TANGO PASIÓN Tango dancers and singers will do their stuff to instrumental music provided live by the Latin Grammy Award-winning orchestra Sexteto Major. Sunday at 7 p.m., Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Long Island University, C.W. Post campus, Route 25A, Brookville, N.Y., (516) 299-3100 or www.tillescenter.org. Tickets: $38 and $50; $35 and $47 for 65+. DUNNING * PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY Two premieres and some golden oldies and near-oldies will be performed in this first weekend of the companys three-week 50th anniversary season. Mr. Taylors new Dante Variations, a dark-sounding work set to music by Ligeti, will have its New York premiere tonight. The more cheerful new Klezmerbluegrass will be performed tomorrow at both performances. Other highlights include Taylor classics Aureole and 3 Epitaphs (tonight) and Company B, a bittersweet evocation of the World War II songs of the Andrews Sisters to which the piece is set. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212. Tickets: $15 to $75. DUNNING NAMI YAMAMOTO Ms. Yamamoto, a resident artist this year at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, will present the last word was PAPIREPOSE -- oh, these titles -- in which, the choreographer promises, small details, subtle emotional shifts and abrupt movement deviations will create understated landscapes. Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m., Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), 421 Fifth Avenue, at Eighth Street, Park Slope, (718)832-0018. Tickets: $8 to $15. DUNNING Art A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy art, design and photography shows at New York museums and galleries this weekend. At many museums, children under 12 and members are admitted free. Addresses, unless otherwise noted, are in Manhattan. Most galleries are closed on Sundays and Mondays, but hours vary and should be checked by telephone. Gallery admission is free unless noted. * denotes a highly recommended show. Full reviews of recent shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums CONTEMPORARY VOICES: WORKS FROM THE UBS ART COLLECTION. Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, (212) 708-9400, through April 25. Whats wrong with this picture? The Museum of Modern Art, the most visionary museum of the 20th century, is inaugurating the temporary-exhibition galleries in its 21st-century home with an exhibition of gifts from a corporate collection. It is an ambitious, carefully selected corporate collection, but that doesnt keep the ensemble from feeling corporate, monotonous and by the book. The 40 (of 64) works given or promised to the Modern are nearly all by white male artists, and they are all already represented in the collection. Theres nothing wrong with the individual works by artists like Philip Guston, Jasper Johns and Vija Celmins that wont be cured by integrating them into the Moderns collection, but the ensemble effect is dispiriting. With an emphasis on a narrow swath of the 1980s mainstream, the show feels like an excessively edited letter in a bottle from an art world that no longer exists. Hours: Saturdays through Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Admission: $20; $16 for 65+; $12 for students; children 16 and under and accompanied by an adult, free. Free on Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m. ROBERTA SMITH RUTH DUCKWORTH, MODERNIST SCULPTOR, Museum of Arts and Design, 40 West 53rd Street, (212)956-3535, through April 3. A sculptor whose basic medium is clay, Ms. Duckworth makes everything from tiny, delicate vessels to monumental outdoor sculptures. Though her work fits in -- but not too neatly -- with the modernist tradition, her eye has roamed everywhere, resulting in a bewildering variety of styles and influences, from Brancusi to a beef bone found in her soup. Sometimes the influences combine awkwardly, making her work seem a little strained and quirky, but often enough her venturesomeness pays off, producing images of eloquence and power. Hours: Daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission: $9; $6 for 65+ and students. Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. is pay what you wish. GRACE GLUECK FIRST SEEN: PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE WORLDS PEOPLES, 1840-1880, Dahesh Museum of Art, 580 Madison Avenue, at 56th Street, (212)759-0606, through May 1. Mothers nursing babies, vignettes of the Crimean War, high life under the British Raj, exploited child workers, holy men, Chinese women with bound feet, bare-breasted tribal women, Kirghiz tribesmen, Cossack hunters, American Indians and on and on, not to mention a snappy picture of the novelist George Sand in her accustomed male drag, wielding a cigarette. These are some of the 250 photographs taken all over the world by early lensmen. The idea of the show, chosen from the vast archives of the Wilson Center for Photography in London, was to focus on first glimpses of people rather than the more usual views of landscapes, mountains or relics that were easier subjects for the ponderous pioneer camera to handle. The profusion of images may cause the viewers mind to boggle, but it gives a good idea of the worldwide sweep of the early cameras lens. Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission: $9; $4 for 65+, students and educators. GLUECK * FROM FILIPPO LIPPI TO PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA: FRA CARNEVALE AND THE MAKING OF A RENAISSANCE MASTER, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212)535-7710, through May 1. The Italian Renaissance artist-priest known as Fra Carnevale was an art-world somebody in his day but a shadowy figure to modern historians, known primarily for two extraordinary paintings of tiny figures in fantastic architectural settings. Both paintings are in this intricate think-piece of a show that tries to reconstruct his career by bringing his known paintings together. At the same time, it uses his work, along with that of major figures like Filippo Lippi and Piero della Francesca, to explore larger ideas about self-created professional identity in a cultural epoch far more diverse than it is sometimes thought to have been. A few of the paintings mustered as evidence are pretty strange; many are glorious. Hours: Sundays, Tuesdays through Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays until 9 p.m. Admission: $15; 65+, $10; students, $7. HOLLAND COTTER Galleries: Uptown RICHARD HICKAM: BEYOND THE SURFACE, Allan Stone Gallery, 113 East 90th Street, (212)987-4997, through March 26. The faces in this group of quirky Expressionist portraits slip and slide into grotesque masks under the artists loose brushstrokes, rich textures and bold manipulations of color. But they hint at universals, like The Teacher, a particularly haunting welter of features that includes a strained toothy smile under a beaky nose, an unkempt thatch of straight, straw-colored hair and a dark scraggle of beard. The dyspeptic-looking Night Reader, with a yellowish head the shape of an Idaho potato held at a slight angle, a twisted gash of mouth and a pair of glasses that sit crookedly on the suggestion of a nose, evokes an aged and bedeviled aesthete (as well as the Wizard of Oz). At their peak, his faces seem to bare the souls of their wearers. GLUECK JOHN WALKER: COLLAGE, Knoedler, 19 East 70th Street, (212)794-0550, through March 19. This English artist who now lives in Maine produced the six powerfully imposing Cubist collages featured here while living and teaching in New York in the mid-70s. Each measures 10 by 8 feet and has leathery surfaces of painted, irregularly cut-up pieces of canvas. Today they seem old fashioned, even a little academic. Still, the rumbling, viscerally physical energy they exude remains exciting. KEN JOHNSON Galleries: 57th Street FACE TO FACE: DAN MASKS FROM THE IVORY COAST AND AQUATINTS BY HENRI MATISSE, Pace Primitive/Pace Master Prints, 32 East 57th Street, (212)421-3237, through March 19. This first collaboration between the Primitive and the Print departments of this wide-ranging gallery, this show brings together Matisses ultrasimplified female faces in aquatints from the 1940s and the refined, stylized late 19th-century and early 20th-century face masks from the Dan people of the Ivory Coast. While it cant be said that Matisses aquatints here were directly influenced by them, his spare faces drawn with a hand so practiced it could conjure up an image with a few strokes, seem to owe something to the often subtle stylizations of African art. Of all African masks, those by the Dan, with their minimal but expressively carved features, and smooth modulation of facial planes, seem to go particularly well with his less-is-more renderings. GLUECK Galleries: SoHo JOHN ALTOON: PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS, 1961-67, Luise Ross Gallery, 568 Broadway, at Prince Street, (212)343-22161, through April 16. In the last years of his short life, Altoon (1925-1969) broke out of the free-wheeling West Coast mode of Abstract Expressionism to zero in on more personal images that floated through his fantasy. One of the most amusing -- and accessible -- of these works is Untitled (Bathtub) of 1967, which could refer to Bonnards endless renditions of his wife in the tub. It depicts a woman bathing as poodle bearing her shoe awaits her emergence. But her attention is riveted, hands clenching the tub in horror, on a small demonic man who has set fire to her bath water. Altoons deft, light touch mates well with his fine sense of the silly. GLUECK ELEANOR ANTIN: ROMAN ALLEGORIES, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 31 Mercer Street, (212)226-3232, through March 12. The role-playing Ms. Antin has brilliantly assumed identities from Nurse Eleanor, a take-off on Florence Nightingale, to Yevgeny Antinov, an exiled Russian moviemaker of the 1920s, in films, videos, photographs, performance and installation art. But for this sequence of 12 large-scale color photographs, she directs a cast of other performers who play a troupe of traveling actors, in ancient garb, wandering through landscapes dotted with picturesque ruins. Their various tableaus send up painters from Poussin to Bouguereau. The work may not reflect Ms. Antin at her most obsessively focused; sometimes it looks like a college dramatic society on its own without a director. But it doesnt detract from her reputation as one of the wittiest Conceptual artists going. GLUECK Galleries: Chelsea TRICIA CLINE: SAINT AND EXILES FROM STORIES NEVER WRITTEN, Ricco/Maresca, 529 West 20th Street, (212)627-4819, through March 19. This Woodstock, N.Y-based sculptor is self-taught, which shows in her otherworldly narratives but not in her remarkable technique, which looks like that of a well-trained but slightly eccentric Beaux Arts revivalist. Her pedestal-scale, unglazed porcelain sculpture features different versions of a young Everywoman in antique clothing with a totemic animal strapped to her back -- a bird, a giant mouse, a fox -- who seems to be embarked on some kind of supernatural pilgrimage. JOHNSON LLYN FOULKES: THE LOST FRONTIER, Kent, 541 West 25th Street, (212)627-3680, through March 19. The main attraction of this maverick Californians first New York show since 1990 is a big, vehemently satiric multimedia picture about genocide, environmental destruction and the moral idiocy of mainstream American culture. A vast dump made of little toys and wood chips spills between cliffs made of mounds of dark paint inhabited by a mummified Indian and a dried hairless cat. A stupefied man watches television in the foreground and a gun-toting Mickey Mouse in a Victorian dress stands triumphantly at the summit of one rocky prominence. JOHNSON JAMES LITTLE: REACHING FOR THE SKY, G.R. NNamdi, 526 West 26th Street, (212)929-6645, through March 26. Mr. Little infuses 60s-style geometric abstraction with an expansive, sensuous new life. Using a mix of oil and wax on canvases as wide as nine feet, he creates hard-edged designs of diagonal and vertical bands and long triangles pointing up and down. The finely textured surfaces and pulsating colors effect visual and tactile seduction while the kinetic compositions project restless energies. JOHNSON SARAH LUCAS: GOD IS DEAD, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, (212) 206-9300., through March 14. In her brilliantly titled third solo show in New York, the most persistently grating talent of the original Y.B.A. (young British artists) generation adds religious and parental authority to her acidic depictions of male dominance. Her latest efforts, mobile-like figures made from pantyhose, wire hangers, bare light bulbs and buckets, dare you to accept them as art while managing to evoke dirty old men, vulnerable young women or both. The intimation of abuse is hard to miss, although too often what seems intended as subtlety turns into obscurity. SMITH CHRISTIAN MOELLER: HEAVEN, Frederieke Taylor, 535 West 22nd Street, (646)230-0992, through March 12. A professor of design/media arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, Mr. Moeller is known internationally for interactive sound, light and architectural installations. Here he presents a comparatively simple installation of fluorescent light works in which shadowy words like heaven, goat, lick, tryst and vodka emerge mysteriously from banks of thin, white parallel tubes. It is literally the brightest show in town. JOHNSON Other Galleries DONNA CHUNG AND LIZ LUISADA: 2 KOOL FOR MYSTERY SKOOL, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, 438 Union Avenue, near Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (917)912-5482, through March 20. In a moment when dazzling drawing and collage skills are the norm, the double debut of these two Los Angeles artists and recent graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design still stands out. Ms. Chung, a creative materialist, favors collage, eccentric lettering, unusual found paper and additions or sparkle or tape. Ms. Luisada likes to work on wet paper, creating blurred patterns and images with a festive, lighted-from-within ephemeralness. Both borrow from popular cultures, whether Eastern or Western, past or present, and proceed with a freewheeling purposefulness that brings to mind Sigmar Polke. The gallery is new and named for a fictional person. Nichtssangend is German for It says nothing. SMITH MICHAEL ZANSKY: AMERICAN PANOPTICON, GAS, 59 Franklin Street, TriBeCa, (212)226-6762, through March 12. Mr. Zansky assembles large plastic magnifying lenses, electronic motors, lights, mirrors, pipes, clamps and videos of busy microorganisms into kinetic sculptures that altogether tend not toward the comprehensive overview of the Enlightment idea of the panopticon but toward a dizzying, futuristic fragmentation of vision and consciousness. JOHNSON Last Chance PAT ADAMS: PAINTINGS 1954 - 2004, Zabriskie, 41 East 57th Street, (212)752-1223, closing tomorrow. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of her first solo show at this gallery, Ms. Adamss exhibition of small paintings takes an abbreviated look back over her long and distinguished career. Works from the last four decades typically feature richly textured fields punctuated by sharply defined abstract elements that seem to cavort like Platonic archetypes through the space of a universal collective consciousness. JOHNSON BLUE, American Folk Art Museum, 45 West 53rd Street, (212)265-1040, closing on Sunday. This cool, offbeat little show is made up of all-blue or mostly blue objects from the permanent collection, including, ceramics, quilts, Shaker gift drawings and some attractive portraits. In one, a chap named Jonathan Knight cuts a Romantic figure in an indigo dress coat and yellow striped pants, an outfit identified with the hero of Goethes Sorrows of Young Werther. An 1830 watercolor of a boy named Frederick Buxton was done on the cheap. But while his blue suit has faded with time, his big, candid eyes are as blue as the day they were painted. They make a perfect conclusion to this chromatic take on American social history. Hours: Today, 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Tomorrow and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Admission: $9; students, 62+, $7. COTTER SANTE DORAZIO: PAM: AMERICAN ICON, Stellan Holm, 524 West 24th Street, (212) 627-7444, closing tomorrow. Pamela Anderson -- yes, that Pamela Anderson -- in all her pneumatic, mostly unclothed glory is the subject of large and surrealistically vivid photographs that were originally commissioned but not published by Playboy magazine. Students: discuss criteria for judging the value -- aesthetic and otherwise -- of these artworks. JOHNSON PETER HUJAR: NIGHT, Matthew Marks, 523 West 24th Street, (212)243-0200, through tomorrow. A mythic aura surrounds the bohemian artists life -- cut short by AIDS in 1987 -- of the influential Mr. Hujar, but the 43 nocturnal photographs presented by this exhibition are formally conventional. The many architectural studies are expertly made but anonymous and only the subject matter of other pictures -- cruisers in the park, partying drag queens and ruined buildings -- hints at what kind of artist he might have become had he had more time to develop. JOHNSON LOREN MADSEN: GODS AND DEMONS: AN INSTALLATION, McKee, 745 Fifth Avenue, (212)688-5951, closing tomorrow. Mr. Madsen is a sculptor who has invented ingenious ways to combine formalist abstraction and socially motivated conceptualism. A wooden sculpture is a kind of three-dimensional chart illustrating the statistical ages at which people are killed by handguns. The main installation, an oblique commentary on the global impact of organized religions, consists of strings of glass beads hung from the ceiling, with beads of different colors representing quantities of key religious words inventoried in a search of three million book titles. JOHNSON ALEKSANDRA MIR: NEW DESIGNS, Roth Gallery, 160A East 70th Street, (212)717-9067, closing tomorrow. The ever-resourceful Aleksandra Mir designs her own antiwar pro-abortion campaign with posters proclaiming Be Gentle in Fallujah and Keep Abortion Legal, as well as small, slogan-bearing goody-bag items. But she takes a more ambivalent viewpoint with a series of drinking glasses printed with the faces of newborns that are identified as the reincarnations of various recently deceased celebrities. Mass culture has long borrowed the strategies of Conceptual Art; it is always nice to see artists borrow back. SMITH

Arts and Leisure Guide; Arts and Leisure Guide

Arts and Leisure Guide; Arts and Leisure Guide

No, the EPA is not banning argon

Theres more Argon in our atmosphere than anything other than molecular Nitrogen and Oxygen, and then Water. So now the science deniers in the Obama EPA are banning Argon. [Red State]. Its true, argon is common! It has important industrial uses as.

Isabelle Caro: Anorexic Model Dies, Her Mother Commits.

The billboard campaign ran during Milan Fashion Week across Italy and France���and was banned a week later after residents who lived near the billboards complained that the images were disturbing. The ad���for.. Thanks to surveillance video of the incident, there are virtually no accusations that the as-of-yet unnamed officer from the Berkeley Police Department acted wrongly when he shot and killed 18-year-old Antonio Martin late Tuesday night. Martin pulled a��.

The Listings: March 31 - April 6

Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the New York metropolitan region this week. * denotes a highly recommended film, concert, show or exhibition. Theater Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, show times and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Previews and Openings GUARDIANS Previews start tomorrow. Opens April 11. A favorite from the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this series of monologues juxtaposes the Abu Ghraib scandal in the United States with the release of forged photos of English soldiers torturing detainees in a London paper. Jason Moore directs (1:30). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 253-9983. LOS BIG NAMES Previews start tomorrow. Opens April 9. Marga Gomezs solo drama is about her parents, Latino entertainers who never achieved crossover success (1:30). 47th Street Theater, 304 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. THE CATARACT Opens Sunday. Two upstanding Midwesterners welcome a transient Southern couple into their home in Lisa DAmours sensual new play (2:15). Womans Project/Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. PEN Opens Sunday. A college-bound student struggles with his dysfunctional parents in this new play by David Marshall Grant (Snakebit). J. Smith-Cameron stars (2:15). Playwrights Horizons, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. THE DROWSY CHAPERONE Previews start Monday. Opens May 1. This little-musical-that-could about an unscrupulous Broadway producer in the 1920s (some things never change) began at the Toronto Fringe Festival and now makes its unlikely premiere on the Great White Way (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 279-4200. SANDRA BERNHARD: EVERYTHING BAD AND BEAUTIFUL Opens Wednesday. Miss Bernhard bares her soul, sings a few tunes and dishes some gossip in her latest solo (you know, the usual). (2:00). Daryl Roth Theater, 101 East 15th Street, at Union Square, East Village, (212) 239-6200. SHOW PEOPLE Opens Thursday. A new comedy by Paul Weitz (Privilege) about two actors who are hired by a banker to impersonate his parents. Debra Monk stars (2:00). Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422. TRYST Opens Thursday. A womanizing con man tries to seduce a love-starved shop girl in Karoline Leachs new drama, set in Edwardian England (2:00). Promenade Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, (212) 239-6200. FESTEN Opens April 9. Based on the film The Celebration, this London transfer, starring Julianna Margulies, Larry Bryggman and Michael Hayden, is about a Danish man who confronts some old secrets at a family reunion (1:45). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. BASED ON A TOTALLY TRUE STORY Opens April 11. A Hollywood deal makes a comic-book writer re-evaluate his relationships in this new play by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (2:00). Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. STUFF HAPPENS Opens April 13. The words of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company make up the script of David Hares docudrama about the run-up to war (2:50). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200. LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY Opens April 16. John Guare, never satisfied with an overly tidy play, throws comedy, tragedy, satire and mystery into this cult drama, which first opened almost three decades ago. Lili Taylor and Sherie Rene Scott star (2:15). Signature Theaters Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. AWAKE AND SING! Opens April 17. Lincoln Center revives Clifford Odetss classic fist-shaking drama about a Jewish family struggling to survive during the Depression. The impressive cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Ben Gazzara and Zoë Wanamaker (2:30). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. THREE DAYS OF RAIN Opens April 19. Julia Roberts stars in this years most closely watched star vehicle, a revival of the Richard Greenberg time-traveling drama about how we divide the legacy of our parents. Paul Rudd also stars (2:30). Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, 242 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. THE THREEPENNY OPERA Opens April 20. If any Broadway theater was made for a revival of Brechts classic, its the cabaret-style Studio 54, which will be host to an intriguing cast that includes Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper (2:40). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. LESTAT Opens April 25. Elton John and Bernie Taupin have a good track record making pop hits, but can they find success in the cursed genre of the vampire musical? Hugh Panaro stars (2:30). Palace Theater, 1564 Broadway, (212) 307-4100. THE WEDDING SINGER Opens April 27. Stephen Lynch plays the goofy title character in this musical adaptation of the Adam Sandler film about leg warmers, Billy Idol and other artifacts from the 1980s. John Rando (Urinetown) directs (2:20). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. TARZAN Opens May 10. Phil Collins lends his invisible touch to the score of the latest Disney musical. David Henry Hwang wrote the book (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4100. Broadway BAREFOOT IN THE PARK For a work that celebrates the liberating force of spontaneity, this revival of Neil Simons 1963 comedy doesnt have one scene that feels organic, let alone impromptu. Directed by Scott Elliott, and starring Patrick Wilson and a miscast Amanda Peet as newlyweds in Greenwich Village, this Barefoot has the robotic gait of Frankensteins monster (2:20). Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Ben Brantley) * BRIDGE & TUNNEL This delightful solo show, written and performed by Sarah Jones, is a sweet-spirited valentine to New York City, its polyglot citizens and the larger notion of an all-inclusive America. In 90 minutes of acutely observed portraiture gently tinted with humor, Ms. Jones plays more than a dozen men and women participating in an open-mike evening of poetry for immigrants (1:30). Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles Isherwood) THE COLOR PURPLE So much plot, so many years, so many characters to cram into less than three hours. This beat-the-clock musical adaptation of Alice Walkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Southern black women finding their inner warriors never slows down long enough for you to embrace it. LaChanze leads the vibrant, hard-working cast (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS The arrival of Jonathan Pryce and his eloquent eyebrows automatically makes this the seasons most improved musical. With Mr. Pryce (who replaces the admirable but uneasy John Lithgow) playing the silken swindler to Norbert Leo Butzs vulgar grifter, its as if a mismatched entry in a three-legged race had become an Olympic figure-skating pair (2:35). Imperial Theater, 249 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) DOUBT, A PARABLE (Pulitzer Prize, Best Play 2005, and Tony Award, Best Play 2005) Set in the Bronx in 1964, this drama by John Patrick Shanley is structured as a clash of wills and generations between Sister Aloysius (Eileen Atkins), the head of a parochial school, and Father Flynn (Ron Eldard), the young priest who may or may not be too fond of the boys in his charge. The plays elements bring to mind those tidy topical melodramas that were once so popular. But Mr. Shanley makes subversive use of musty conventions (1:30). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) JERSEY BOYS From grit to glamour with the Four Seasons, directed by the pop repackager Des McAnuff (The Whos Tommy). The real thrill of this shrink-wrapped bio-musical, for those who want something more than recycled chart toppers and a story line poured from a can, is watching the wonderful John Lloyd Young (as Frankie Valli) cross the line from exact impersonation into something far more compelling (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA Love is a many-flavored thing, from sugary to sour, in Adam Guettel and Craig Lucass encouragingly ambitious and discouragingly unfulfilled new musical. The show soars only in the sweetly bitter songs performed by the wonderful Victoria Clark, as an American abroad (2:15). Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE ODD COUPLE Odd is not the word for this couple. How could an adjective suggesting strangeness or surprise apply to a production so calculatedly devoted to the known, the cozy, the conventional? As the title characters in Neil Simons 1965 comedy, directed as if to a metronome by Joe Mantello, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their star performances from The Producers, and its not a natural fit. Dont even consider killing yourself because the show is already sold out (2:10). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * THE PAJAMA GAME Sexual chemistry in a Broadway musical? Isnt that illegal now? If it were, then Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli OHara -- the white-hot stars of Kathleen Marshalls delicious revival of this 1954 musical -- would be looking at long jail terms. This intoxicating production, which features a charming supporting cast led by Michael McKean, allows grown-up audiences the rare chance to witness a bona fide adult love affair translated into hummable songs and sprightly dance (2:30). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) * RABBIT HOLE Thanks to a certain former American president, it has become almost impossible to say that you feel someone elses pain without its sounding like a punch line. Yet the sad, sweet release of David Lindsay-Abaires wrenching play, about the impact of the death of a small child, lies precisely in the access it allows to the pain of others, in its meticulously mapped empathy. With an emotionally transparent five-member cast led by Cynthia Nixon and Tyne Daly, directed by Daniel Sullivan, this anatomy of grief doesnt so much jerk tears as tap them (2:10). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) RING OF FIRE The man in black turns sunshine yellow in a show that strings songs associated with Johnny Cash into a big, bright candy necklace of a musical revue, created and directed by Richard Maltby Jr. In the current bio-flick Walk the Line, Cash wrestles demons; Ring of Fire wrestles with a really bad case of the cutes (2:00). Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) SPAMALOT (Tony Award, Best Musical 2005) This staged re-creation of the mock-medieval movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail is basically a singing scrapbook for Python fans. Such a good time is being had by so many people that this fitful, eager celebration of inanity and irreverence has found a large and lucrative audience (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SWEENEY TODD Sweet dreams, New York. This thrilling new revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheelers musical, with Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone leading a cast of 10 who double as their own musicians, burrows into your thoughts like a campfire storyteller who knows what really scares you. The inventive director John Doyle aims his pared-down interpretation at the squirming child in everyone who wants to have his worst fears both confirmed and dispelled (2:30). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE The happy news for this happy-making little musical is that the move to larger quarters has dissipated none of its quirky charm. William Finns score sounds plumper and more rewarding than it did on Off Broadway, providing a sprinkling of sugar to complement the sass in Rachel Sheinkins zinger-filled book. The performances are flawless. Gold stars all around (1:45). Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) Off Broadway * ABIGAILS PARTY Scott Elliotts thoroughly delectable production of Mike Leighs 1977 comedy about domestic discord among the British middle classes. Jennifer Jason Leigh leads a superb ensemble cast as a party hostess who wields the gin bottle like a deadly weapon, resulting in an evening of savagely funny chaos (2:15). Acorn Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) BERNARDA ALBA Michael John LaChiusas musical adaptation of Federico García Lorcas tragedy of sexual repression often feels wan and weary, though not for want of erotic imagery. The ominous, oppressive atmosphere that makes Lorcas play so much more than a potboiler is mostly missing in inaction. Graciela Daniele directs a game ensemble led by a miscast Phylicia Rashad (1:30). Mitzi Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY Steven Fales, a sixth-generation Mormon, describes leaving his family and becoming a gay escort in this fairly conventional, although admittedly compelling, piece of confessional theater (1:30). SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, between Avenue of the Americas and Varick Street, (212) 691-1555. (Jason Zinoman) * CYCLONE Some skilled actors have a fine time with Ron Fitzgeralds black comedy about a young man (Hamish Linklater) who is wandering around New Jersey, carrying his fathers ashes. James Hendricks, playing his neighbor, has a second-act monologue that deserves some kind of award. (2:15) Studio Dante, 257 West 29th Street, Chelsea, (212) 868-4444. (Neil Genzlinger) DEFIANCE The second play in John Patrick Shanleys cycle of morality dramas that began with Doubt, this ambitious tale of racial relations and the military mindset on a North Carolina marine base feels both overcrowded and oddly diffuse. If Doubt has an elegant and energy-efficient sprinters gait, Defiance progresses with a flustered air of distraction. The excellent Margaret Colin, as an officers wife, provides a welcome shot of credibility (1:30). Manhattan Theater Club, Theater 1, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. (Brantley) ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE Miscasting is the mother of invention. Or so it proves to be for Jan Maxwell, who retailors an ill-fitting part and makes it as snug as a glove in this underpowered revival of Joe Ortons scandalous 1964 comedy. Scott Elliss production of Ortons great farce of sexual hypocrisy, which also stars Alec Baldwin, is breezy, often funny and rarely convincing. (2:00). Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) FAMILY SECRETS Performing old jokes with meticulous detail, Sherry Glaser in her solo show brings to life three generations of a Jewish family (1:30). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Zinoman) FAHRENHEIT 451 A visceral version of Ray Bradburys 1953 novel, staged by the Godlight Theater Company. No, firefighters dont burn books these days, but still you end up saying, Dang, that man had vision. (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. (Genzlinger) FRAGMENT Pavol Liska directs this assemblage of fragments from the lost works of Sophocles and Euripides, an ambitious venture featuring fine performances from Zachary Oberzan, Tony Torn and Juliana Francis. (1:15). Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, East Village, (212) 677-4210.(George Hunka) GEORGE M. COHAN TONIGHT! The all-singing, all-dancing Jon Peterson summons the spirit of this legendary Broadway entertainer in this engaging one-man musical, devised and directed by Chip Deffaa (1:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (Hunka) GREY GARDENS As the socialite in limbo called Little Edie Beale, Christine Ebersole gives one of the most gorgeous performances ever to grace a musical. Unfortunately, shes a pearl of incalculable price in a show that is mostly costume jewelry. Adapted from the Maysles brothers 1975 cult documentary movie, a camp favorite, and directed by Michael Greif, with the excellent Mary Louise Wilson as Edies bedridden mother (2:40). Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Brantley) * I LOVE YOU BECAUSE The plot line -- single New Yorkers in search of love -- couldnt be more familiar, but somehow this fluffy, funny musical makes it refreshing, helped along by an engaging six-member cast, with David A. Austin making a particularly hilarious impression. An impressive start for Ryan Cunningham (book and lyrics) and Joshua Salzman (music), both still in their 20s (2:00). Village Theater, 158 Bleecker Street, near Sullivan Street, East Village, (212) 307-4100. (Genzlinger) JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS A powerfully sung revival of the 1968 revue, presented with affectionate nostalgia by director Gordon Greenberg. As in the original, two men (Robert Cuccioli and Rodney Hicks) and two women (Natascia Diaz and Gay Marshall) perform a wide selection of Brels plaintive ballads and stirring anthems. Ms. Marshalls captivating performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas, sung in the original French and with heart-stirring transparency, represents Brel at his best. (2:00). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE Please turn off your political correctness monitor along with your cellphone for Martin McDonaghs gleeful, gory and appallingly entertaining play. This blood farce about terrorism in rural Ireland, acutely directed by Wilson Milam, has a carnage factor to rival Quentin Tarantinos. But it is also wildly, absurdly funny and, even more improbably, severely moral (1:45). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Living Room in Africa Bathsheba Dorans play, presented by the Edge Theater, is the disturbing but somewhat simplistic story of an English couples attempt to start an art gallery in a remote region in Africa -- only to discover that AIDS has gotten there first (1:45). Beckett Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Phoebe Hoban) MEASURE FOR MEASURE A solid revival of one of Shakespeares problem plays in which the director Beatrice Terry has opted to emphasize the humor, especially in the scenes of comic relief. A staging with handsome costumes and that for the most part boasts a fine cast, whose members have made some smart choices (2:30). Theater 80, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212) 598-9802. (Wilborn Hampton) mercy on the doorstep Religious faith faces down the allied forces of alcoholism and cynicism in Gip Hoppes drama. Laura Esterman is terrific as a gleefully unreformed libertine whose stepdaughter has found God and come to share the good news. The play itself is mostly bad news, unfortunately: meandering, repetitive and lacking in nuance (1:45). Flea Theater, 41 White Street, TriBeCa, (212) 352-3101. (Isherwood) THE PROPERTY KNOWN AS GARLAND Adrienne Barbeau as Judy, backstage on the night of her last concert in Copenhagen. Billy Van Zandts play is tawdry and dull, and Ms. Barbeaus performance offers neither the minor rewards of a decent impersonation nor the guilty pleasures of an indecent one. (1:30). The Actors Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, at Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) RED LIGHT WINTER A frank, occasionally graphic story of erotic fixation and the havoc it can wreak on sensitive types. Written and directed by Adam Rapp, this play is both a doomy romantic drama and a morbid comedy about the anxieties of male friendship. Although somewhat contrived, it features a lovely performance by Christopher Denham as a lonely soul starved for intimacy (2:25). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * [TITLE OF SHOW] Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell are the authors, stars and subject matter of this delectable new musical about its own making. The self-consciousness is tempered by a wonderful cast performing with the innocence of kids cavorting in a sandbox. Its a worthy postmodern homage to the classic backstage musicals, and an absolute must for show queens (1:30). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 353-0303. (Isherwood) * TRANSATLANTIC LIAISON A play fashioned from Simone de Beauvoirs love letters to the American novelist Nelson Algren and scenes from her novel The Mandarins (which tells the story of their affair). Wonderful performances by Elizabeth Rothan as de Beauvoir in love, and Matthew S. Tompkins as the emotional Algren (1:30). Harold Clurman Theater on Theater Row, 412 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Honor Moore) TRIAL BY WATER Qui Nguyen, raising worthwhile questions about how to live a humane and moral life in the real world, has based his play on the experiences of a cousin who survived a voyage of Vietnamese refugees in the South China Sea that ended in murder and cannibalism. Though the actors are not able to surmount the plays unfortunate didacticism and melodrama, Clint Ramoss stunning wooden set does. (1:30). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Andrea Stevens) WALK THE MOUNTAIN Jude Naritas one-woman show Walk the Mountain, about the hellish effects of the Vietnam War, offers nuanced accounts rather than a mere litany of horrors. (1:00). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200.(Laura Weinert) Off Off Broadway BACK OF THE THROAT An Arab-American playwright (Yussef El Guindi) addressing the harassment of Arab-Americans after 9/11? Interesting. But the play would have been even more interesting if the harassers were something other than cardboard characters out of the J. Edgar Hoover closet (1:15). Flea Theater, 41 White Street, TriBeCa, (212) 352-3101. (Genzlinger) BURIED CHILD Tom Hermans revival makes something known new by revealing how close Sam Shepards play about a dysfunctional Midwest family is to tragic opera, speechlike arias included. The Michael Chekhov Theater Company is presenting 45 Shepard plays, and this first effort sounds a positive note. (2:30) Big Little Theater, 141 Ridge Street, near Houston Street, Lower East Side, (212) 868-4444. (Stevens) 33 TO NOTHING A band break up while playing break-up music in Grant James Varjass comic, sometimes poignant play. Music performed by the actors. Argo Theater Company, at the Bottle Factory Theater, 195 East Third Street, East Village, (212) 868-4444. (Gwen Orel) * SHILOH RULES An inventive play by Doris Baizley gets excellent treatment by the cast of six actresses. The story is set not at the Civil War Battle of Shiloh, but at a modern-day re-enactment, and by the time its through, Ms. Baizley has served up a lot of humor and some drama, history and first-aid lessons as well. (2:05) Gene Frankel Theater, 24 Bond Street, East Village, (212) 868-4444. (Genzlinger) * ZOMBOID! (FILM/PERFORMANCe PROJECT #1) O, the heresy of it! Richard Foreman has introduced film into the realm of exquisitely artificial, abstract theater in which he has specialized for four decades. As it turns out, juxtaposing two art forms allows Mr. Foreman to underscore in resonant new ways what he has been saying for years: reality is, well, relative. And he continues to work in a style guaranteed to infect your perceptions for hours after (1:15). Ontological-Hysteric Theater, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Brantley) Long-Running Shows * ALTAR BOYZ This sweetly satirical show about a Christian pop group made up of five potential Teen People cover boys is an enjoyable, silly diversion (1:30). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200.(Isherwood) AVENUE Q R-rated puppets give lively life lessons (2:10). Golden, 252 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Cartoon made flesh, sort of (2:30). Lunt-Fontanne Theater, 205 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) CHICAGO Irrefutable proof that crime pays (2:25). Ambassador Theater, 219 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200.(Brantley) HAIRSPRAY Fizzy pop, cute kids, large man in a housedress (2:30). Neil Simon Theater, 250 West 52nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) MAMMA MIA! The jukebox that devoured Broadway (2:20). Cadillac Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Who was that masked man, anyway? (2:30). Majestic Theater, 247 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE PRODUCERS The ne plus ultra of showbiz scams (2:45). St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) RENT East Village angst and love songs to die for (2:45). Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance CHRISTINE JORGENSON REVEALS Bradford Louryk meticulously lip-syncs a fascinating hourlong interview about gender and sexuality with Ms. Jorgenson, whose sex-change operation in the 1950s was big news (1:00). The Studio Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200; closing Saturday. (Zinoman) SOLDIERS WIFE When this play first opened on Broadway, World War II was shuddering to a close, and those on the home front wanted to feel good. Despite flaws in the work, the Mint Theater Companys revival of Rose Frankens 1944 comedy is highly entertaining (2:00). Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 315-0231; closing Sunday. (Moore) Movies Ratings and running times are in parentheses; foreign films have English subtitles. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, show times and tickets: nytimes.com/movies. AQUAMARINE (PG, 109 minutes) In this sweet comedy for the crowd that has outgrown The Little Mermaid, two likable pals (Emma Roberts and Joanna Levesque, a k a the singer JoJo) try to help a mermaid (Sara Paxton) find love and learn how to use her feet properly.(Neil Genzlinger) Ask the Dust (R, 117 minutes) A story about being young and hungry -- for fame, for women, for food -- in Los Angeles during the 1930s. Robert Towne wrote and directed this adaptation of the John Fante novel, and Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek star. (Manohla Dargis) * THE BEAUTY ACADEMY OF KABUL (No rating, 74 minutes, in English and Dari) In the summer of 2004, a group of volunteer American hairstylists arrived in Kabul to open a school. In The Beauty Academy of Kabul, the director Liz Mermin documents the hilarious, moving and sometimes fractious meeting of diametrically different cultures, one having suffered unimaginable horrors and the other believing a good perm is the answer to everything. (Jeannette Catsoulis) * BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (R, 134 minutes) Annie Proulxs heartbreaking story of two ranch hands who fall in love while herding sheep in 1963 has been faithfully translated onto the screen in Ang Lees landmark film. (Mr. Lee won the Academy Award for best director.) Heath Ledger (in a great performance worthy of Brando at his peak) and Jake Gyllenhaal bring them fully alive. (Stephen Holden) * CAPOTE (R, 114 minutes) Philip Seymour Hoffmans portrayal of Truman Capote is a tour de force of psychological insight. (Mr. Hoffman won the Academy Award for best actor.) Following the novelist as he works on the magazine assignment that will become In Cold Blood, the film raises intriguing questions about the ethics of writing. (A. O. Scott) CRASH (Academy Award, Best Picture) (R, 107 minutes) A gaggle of Los Angeles residents from various economic and ethnic backgrounds collide, sometimes literally, within an extremely hectic 36 hours. Well intentioned, impressively acted but ultimately a speechy, ponderous melodrama of liberal superstition masquerading as realism. (Scott) DAVE CHAPPELLES BLOCK PARTY (R, 103 minutes) The setup is blissfully simple: a free block party on a dead-end street in Bed-Stuy, with a lineup of musicians, some of whom, like Kanye West and Mos Def, have put in appearances on Chappelles Show. The nominal idea, Mr. Chappelle explains on camera, was the concert Ive always wanted to see. The result, which ping-pongs between Brooklyn and Mr. Chappelles hometown in Ohio, is a tantalizing sketch-portrait of the artist amid an outpouring of hard beats and soul. (Dargis) * DONT COME KNOCKING (R, 122 minutes) The visually majestic but dramatically inert reunion of Sam Shepard (who stars) and the director Wim Wenders, 22 years after their auspicious collaboration on Paris, Texas, might be described as a magnificent ruin. (Holden) * FIND ME GUILTY (R, 124 minutes) This gripping courtroom drama, directed by Sidney Lumet, now 81 and near the top of his game, is based on the 1987-88 trial of 20 members of the New Jersey-based Lucchese crime family on multiple counts. Vin Diesel turns in a sensational performance as Giacomo DiNorscio, better known as Jackie Dee, who broke from the ranks of his fellow defendants to be his own defense lawyer. (Holden) * INSIDE MAN (R, 128 minutes) The latest from Spike Lee takes a familiar setup -- in this case, a Wall Street bank heist that mutates into a hostage crisis -- and twists it ever so slightly and nicely. Among the films most sustained pleasures are its holy trinity -- Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster -- and the best lineup of pusses and mugs outside The Sopranos. (Dargis) LARRY THE CABLE GUY: HEALTH INSPECTOR (PG-13, 89 minutes) Making his feature film debut, the blue-collar comedian known as Larry the Cable Guy (real name: Daniel Whitney) plays an unorthodox health inspector who is dispatched to investigate a series of food poisonings at upscale restaurants. Unpleasant, uncouth and painfully unfunny, Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector pursues its flatulence-based goals with a relentlessness that makes Dumb and Dumber seem the epitome of sophistication. (Catsoulis) * LENFANT (THE CHILD) (R, 100 minutes, in French) The latest from the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne involves a young thief (Jérémie Renier) who one day sells his newborn son for a fat envelope of cash. What interests the Dardennes -- what invests their work with such terrific urgency -- is not only how a man would sell a child as casually as a slab of beef, but also whether a man like this, having committed such a repellent offense, can find redemption. (Dargis) LONESOME JIM (R, 91 minutes) Steve Buscemi directed this deadpan comedy about a depressed 27-year-old writer (Casey Affleck) who returns from New York in defeat to his childhood home in rural Indiana and takes a job in his parents ladder factory. (Holden) MARDI GRAS: MADE IN CHINA (No rating, 74 minutes, in English, Mandarin and Fujian) A startling look at both the effects of globalization and a dramatic cultural divide among youth, David Redmons documentary contrasts the lives of indulgent Americans intent on having a good time in New Orleans and hard-working Chinese factory workers who slave away to manufacture those brightly colored beads so fundamental to the Mardi Gras festivities. (Laura Kern) * MUNICH (R, 164 minutes) With his latest, Steven Spielberg forgoes the emotional bullying and pop thrills that come so easily to him to tell the story of a campaign of vengeance that Israel purportedly brought against Palestinian terrorists in the wake of the 1972 Olympics. An unsparingly brutal look at two peoples all but drowning in a sea of their own blood, Munich is by far the toughest film of the directors career, and the most anguished. (Dargis) * SHADOW: DEAD RIOT (No rating, 90 minutes) An experimental womens prison is overrun by zombies in this berserk little B movie, the low-budget love child of The Evil Dead and Reform School Girls. (Nathan Lee) SHES THE MAN (PG-13, 105 minutes) Twelfth Night is recast as a hysterically peppy romantic comedy about a she-jock penetrating the boys soccer team. Because girls can do anything boys can do, although their ultimate ambition is to put on a nice dress and go steady with a stupid jock. (Lee) 16 BLOCKS (PG-13, 105 minutes) If Richard Donners presence suggests that his new action flick, 16 Blocks, is a throwback to the 1980s, so does one of the names holding pride of place above the title, Bruce Willis. Mr. Willis has always been an acquired taste, but for those who did acquire that taste, its a pleasure to see him doing what comes naturally. Which means holding a gun and fending off bad guys with as few words as possible. (Dargis) * SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL DAYS (No rating, 117 minutes, in German) The gripping true story of Sophie Scholl, an anti-Nazi student activist in the 1940s, arrested and executed for distributing leaflets at Munich University, challenges you to gauge your own courage and strength of character should you find yourself in similar circumstances. (Holden) STAY ALIVE (PG-13, 85 minutes) A computer game turns out to have the power to kill things, possibly including Frankie Munizs post-Malcolm in the Middle career. The high-tech premise cant hide the horror-film clichés. (Genzlinger) STONED (No rating, 102 minutes) This docudrama follows the last weeks in the life of Brian Jones, a founding member of the Rolling Stones and an androgynous, drug-addled fop, who was found dead in his swimming pool in 1969. Hedonism on the screen has rarely looked so dull. (Holden) SUMMER STORM (R, 98 minutes, in German) Yet another of those soft-core, simple-minded stories about a geeky young gay man struggling with his sexuality, this banal Bavarian import is a perfect storm of barely legal titillations and genre clichés. (Lee) * SYRIANA (R, 122 minutes) Ambitious, angry and complicated, Stephen Gaghans second film tackles terrorism, American foreign policy, global trade and the oil business through four interwoven stories. There are at least a half-dozen first-rate performances, and Mr. Gaghan, who wrote and directed, reinvents the political thriller as a vehicle for serious engagement with the state of the world. (Scott) Thank You for Smoking (R, 92 minutes) The director Jason Reitman has made a glib and funny movie from Christopher Buckleys glib and funny novel about a Big Tobacco lobbyist, but the real attraction here is the hard-working star, Aaron Eckhart. (Dargis) TORO NEGRO (No rating, 87 minutes, in Spanish) A disturbed young matador stabs animals, beats his wife and drinks himself to the edge of oblivion in this harrowing, deeply suspect documentary set in rural Mexico. (Lee) * TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY (R, 91 minutes) Michael Winterbottom both confirms and refutes the assumption that Laurence Sternes 18th-century masterpiece of digression could never be made into a movie by making a movie about the making of such a movie. Steve Coogan is wonderful as Tristram, Tristrams father and himself, though Rob Brydon steals more than a few of Mr. Coogans scenes. (Scott) Tsotsi (R, 94 minutes) (Academy Award winner for best foreign film.) Written and directed by Gavin Hood, from a novel by Athol Fugard, this South African film centers on a 19-year-old thug who steals a baby and finds redemption. You dont have to read crystal balls to see into Tsotsis future; you just need to have watched a couple of Hollywood chestnuts. (Dargis) ULTRAVIOLET (PG-13, 80 minutes) The latest in movies structured around eyewear and abdominals, Ultraviolet stars Milla Jovovich as a genetically modified human -- part vampire, part chameleon, all model -- and one of the many victims of a government experiment to improve on nature. Directed by Kurt Wimmer with a fine eye for the preferences of 12-year-old boys, Ultraviolet cleaves faithfully to its comic-book genealogy with a plot unobstructed by big words and images that rarely breach two dimensions. Ultrasilly. (Catsoulis) V for Vendetta (R, 131 minutes) James McTeigue directs this D-for-dumb future-shock story about a masked avenger (Hugo Weaving) and his pipsqueak sidekick (Natalie Portman) at war against a totalitarian British regime. (Dargis) * NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD (PG, 103 minutes) Filled with country memories, bluesy regret and familiar and piercing sentiment, Jonathan Demmes concert film sounds like quintessential Neil Young, which, depending on your home catalog, will be either an enormous turn-on or a turnoff. (Dargis) Film Series ANNA MAY WONG (Through April 16) Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, would have turned 100 last year. (She died in 1961.) The Museum of the Moving Images extensive seven-week retrospective of her work continues this weekend with J. Elder Willss Tiger Bay (1933), in which Wong plays a nightclub owner who protects a couple from a gang; and J. Walter Rubens Java Head (1934), about a Chinese princess who marries an Englishman and follows him back to Bristol. 35th Avenue, at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077; $10. (Anita Gates) DON SIEGEL (Through April 13) Mr. Siegel, who died in 1991, was a master of several genres, including science fiction, westerns and police thrillers. Film Forums four-week, 25-movie retrospective of his work continues this weekend with two movies about hit men: The Killers (1964), an adaptation of Ernest Hemingways story, which features a villainous Ronald Reagan in his last film role, and The Lineup (1958), with Eli Wallach and Robert Keith skulking through San Francisco. Next weeks films include Escape From Alcatraz (1979), with Clint Eastwood re-enacting the prisons only successful jailbreak; The Shootist (1976), about a dying gunfighter (John Wayne in his final performance); and The Duel at Silver Creek (1952), a western starring Audie Murphy and Stephen McNally. 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-8110; $10. (Gates) RECENT FILMS FROM DENMARK (Through April 19) Scandinavia House continues its overall Scandinavian film series with Erik Clausens Villa Paranoia (2004), a satire about an unemployed actress, the elderly man she nurses and the son who seems a little too eager to inherit. 58 Park Avenue, between 37th and 38th Streets, (212) 879-9779; $8. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. BURT BACHARACH (Monday and Tuesday) Elvis Costellos 1998 collaboration helped reveal the strange melodic contours and bitter melancholy in songs by Burt Bacharach with Hal Davids lyrics, spurring a rediscovery of the composer behind Walk on By, The Look of Love and Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head. On his own, Mr. Bacharach conceals his peculiarities behind a thick gauze of easy-listening arrangements. 8 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $75 to $150. (Jon Pareles) PIERRE BENSUSAN (Tuesday) Pierre Bensusan, an Algerian guitarist who lives in France, is a virtuoso who sings and fingerpicks his way through his own hybrids of Celtic music with Middle Eastern music, jazz and whatever else strikes his ear. 9:30 p.m., Makor, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 415-5500; $18. (Pareles) BLACKALICIOUS (Tomorrow) Blackalicious are Bay Area rappers and associates of DJ Shadow who offer a socially conscious message with dense yet elastic flow over funky beats. The like-minded rappers Lifesavas and Fat Lip, of Pharcyde fame, open. 10:30 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $19.50 in advance, $22 at the door. (Laura Sinagra) TONI BRAXTON (Sunday) Toni Braxton was a great R&B diva for the 90s, with her mix of preachers-daughter naïveté and a kind of wounded sensuality that found its apex in the hit Un-break My Heart. 8 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street; (212) 307-7171; $65 and $85. (Sinagra) BURNING SPEAR (Wednesday) Winston Rodney, who calls himself Burning Spear, has been a voice of conscience for Jamaican reggae since the 1970s, singing about oppression and Rastafarian faith. Yet while his messages are serious, hes also one of reggaes most ebullient singers, and as he gets older, he hasnt slowed down. 9 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $32 in advance, $36 at the door. (Pareles) NEKO CASE, MARTHA WAINWRIGHT (Thursday) The clarion voice thats best known to many as the transcendent secret weapon of the Canadian pop group New Pornographers belongs to the alt-country chanteuse Ms. Case, who performs her own songs here. The folk singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright, like her parents -- Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III -- can be roundly sad or quippishly tart. 7 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $20 in advance, $23 at the door. (Sinagra) CORDERO (Tonight) Mixing the open atmospherics of the Southwest with the gritty feel of the Brooklyn art scene, the bilingual Ani Cordero (who has worked with Calexico and Giant Sand) and her band make guitar rock that gives urban brashness some borderland mystery. 8, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236; $8. (Sinagra) ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Escovedos songs stare down loss and mortality with a mixture of unflinching memory and a rockers defiance. Backed by a rock band merged with a trio of strings, his songs move from chamber-music delicacy to two-chord stomps, and they can be stubbornly cathartic. Tonight at 7 and 9:30., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; sold out. Tomorrow night at 7:30, Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703; $15. (Pareles) MELISSA FERRICK, ERIN MCKEOWN (Sunday) The singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick is a folk force of nature, voicing her powerful plaints with shudder and shake. Erin McKeown has evolved since her days of spare, collegiate confessionals in the Ani DiFranco vein. Her newer material is more lushly produced, and her musing more universal. 7 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-211; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Sinagra) THE FLAMING LIPS (Tonight and tomorrow night) The indomitable optimist and indie-rock showman Wayne Coyne and his band of Oklahoma boys continue to make good-trip psychedelia. They play here with the Pink Mountaintops. 6:30, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; both shows sold out. (Sinagra) FOLK MUSIC OF AFGHANISTAN (Tonight) The Afghan singer Vaheed Kaacemy, the scion of a renowned musical family; the lutist Quraishi; and the dohl-player Chetram Sahni perform folk songs from the many traditions of their vast country. 8, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 545-7536; $30 and $40; children, $26 and $35; students, $15. (Sinagra) JUAN GABRIEL (Tonight) One of Mexicos most flamboyant and crowd-pleasing singers, Mr. Gabriel writes extravagantly romantic ballads, along with songs expressing trenchant thoughts on immigration and globalization. He works with slick pop bands, mariachi groups and brass bands, sometimes all in the same marathon concert. 8, the Theater at Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $69.50 to $139.50. (Pareles) DAVID GILMOUR (Tuesday and Wednesday) This erstwhile Pink Floyd lead guitarist has a rock-god following of his own, and as he tours here behind his solo album, On an Island (Columbia), written with his wife, expect some deep dives into the Floyd catalog. 8 p.m., Radio City Music Hall, (212) 632-4000; $64.50 to $154.60. (Sinagra) Gorillaz: DEMON DAYS LIVE (Sunday though Thursday) Damon Albarn, the wizard behind the animated rock band Gorillaz, has organized a star-laden cast to help him perform the groups latest album, the eerie but elevating rock-hop Demon Days in its entirety. That cast includes De La Soul, Ike Turner, Shaun Ryder, Roots Manuva, Martina Topley-Bird, Neneh Cherry and the Pharcydes Bootie Brown. 8 p.m., Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 531-5305; all shows sold out. (Sinagra) HARD-FI (Tomorrow) Using dub tactics like ominous echoes and faraway sirens to add dimension to its paranoid but melodic punk sound, this British band creates a more cavernous and even cinematic space than most. 8 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $16. (Sinagra) KID ROCK (Tonight) A couple of Sheryl Crow duets and a recent cameo in an unauthorized sex tape havent done a whole heck of a lot to renew interest in the Kid or his Southern-fried, Rust Belt rap-boogie. But he still likes to have trashy fun in his tank top, and the tour bus rolls on. 7, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 564-4882; $50. (Sinagra) GLENN KOTCHE, TEDDY THOMPSON (Tonight) The Wilco drummer Glenn Kotches new solo CD, Mobile (Nonesuch), finds him exploring questing realms of melodic percussion while still keeping a firm grip on the musical math. The British folk-rocker Teddy Thompson looks to distinguish himself from his parents, Richard and Linda, while still honoring their legacy. His baritone voice sounds like his fathers without the bite, not always a bad thing. 7, Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780; $17.50 (Sinagra) SONDRE LERCHE (Thursday) Since making an indie cabaret-rock splash in 2002, this Norwegian guitarist and crooners music has suggested life experience beyond his tender years. Lately he has taken a break from the baroque, applying his breathy yet urgent voice to a batch of lighthearted, stripped-down jazzy tunes. 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $20. (Sinagra) MASTERS OF INDIAN MUSIC (Tomorrow) The South Indian singer Sanjay Subramaniam began honing his intense voice as a young child, graduating early to the concert hall circuit. He will be accompanied by the violinist Nagai Muralidharan, the barrel drum percussionist Guruvayur Dorai and the tambourine player Neyveli Venkatesh. 8 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400; $26; $22 for children; $15 for students. (Sinagra) THE ORB (Tomorrow) In the 90s, the Orbs ambient house music made it one of the most popular mind-warp rave soundtracks. 7:30 p.m., Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780; $26. (Sinagra) THE PRETENDERS (Tomorrow) Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders is certainly a foremother of tough-but-tender rock chicks like Eleanor Friedburger and Karen O. Her Akron via England attitude comes across forcefully on hits like Brass in Pocket and Middle of the Road. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; sold out. (Sinagra) RYE COALITION (Tonight and tomorrow) Rye Coalition began as an angular rock band in the style of Fugazi but now mixes in more elements of 70s hard rock. This weekend the group screens a DVD about its struggles before each performance. Tonight at 10, Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703; $10. Tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., Pianos, 158 Ludlow Street, near Rivington Street, Lower East Side, (212) 420-1466; ticket price not available. (Sinagra) SASHA and JOHN DIGWEED (Tonight) Sasha and Digweed have been the dominant D.J.s in trance techno throughout its global rollout. They reunite tonight as a duo. 10, Crobar, 530 West 28th Street, Chelsea, (212) 629-9000; $40 to $60. (Sinagra) SERENA MANEESH (Tomorrow) This Norwegian band takes a lighthearted approach to distorted, textured rock blare. Its alternately screeching and orchestral atmospherics are mismatched with its vocal purr and squawk. 8 p.m., Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103; $10. (Sinagra) SAVES THE DAY (Tonight) More in the Death Cab for Cutie vein of contemplative emo rock than in the glut of full-on screamo bands that followed it onto the scene, Saves the Day returns to claim its place. 8, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; sold out. (Sinagra) SHE WANTS REVENGE, NIGHTMARE OF YOU (Tuesday) She Wants Revenge plays post-punk in the dark Interpol style. Chances are good the group will be upstaged by the opener, Nightmare of You, a lean and muscular group whose live show is more convincing than its recordings. 9 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; sold out. (Sinagra) SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR (Tomorrow and Sunday) Gospel music and traditional South African harmonies and rhythms have found common ground and hybrid possibilities since Christian missionaries arrived in South Africa in the 19th century. This 32-member choir carries the fusion toward jubilation, performing traditional songs (and Mbube, the Zulu song better known as The Lion Sleeps Tonight), alongside gospel messages. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824; $45. Family concert on Sunday at 1 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $8. (Pareles) THE STILLS (Tuesday and Wednesday) The Stills continue to sound like Strokes-era guitar rock, but theyve gotten away from their initial dark new wave and moved in the direction of gutsy bar-band revelation. 9:45 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; sold out. (Sinagra) GLENN TILBROOK (Tonight) Glenn Tilbrook, of the 80s melodic poppers Squeeze, continues his erstwhile bands quirky, hooky music, this time taking a crack at lyric-writing. 10, Coda, 34 East 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 685-3434; $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sinagra) WHAT I LIKE ABOUT JEW (Thursday) The cabaret-rock comedians Sean Altman and Rob Tannenbaum might be giants of Jewish joke-pop, but you can also hear some Beatles in their risqué borscht-belting. They play here with a full band, made up of members of Losers Lounge. 7 and 9:30 p.m., Canal Room, 285 West Broadway, at Canal Street, SoHo, (212) 941-8100; $18 in advance, $20 at the door. (Sinagra) Cabaret Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. BARBARA CARROLL (Sunday) Even when swinging out, this Lady of a Thousand Songs remains an impressionist with special affinities for Thelonious Monk and bossa nova. 2 p.m., Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331; $55, including brunch at noon. (Stephen Holden) * Barbara Cook (Tonight and tomorrow night) This Broadway legend is loose, down-home and, as always, magnificent, singing a 25-year retrospective of songs she has performed at the Café Carlyle. 8:45 and 10:45, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600; $85; dinner required at the 8:45 shows. (Holden) ANNIE ROSS (Wednesday) Cool, funny, swinging and indestructible, this 75-year-old singer and sometime actress exemplifies old-time hip in its most generous incarnation. 9:15 p.m., Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 265-8133; $25, with a $12 minimum. (Holden) * KT Sullivan and Mark Nadler (Tonight and tomorrow night) In the words of Cole Porter, whose songs are performed here by a ripened Botticelli Venus and a reincarnation of Danny Kaye, ooh-la-la-la, cest magnifique. 9 and 11:30, Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331; $50 cover, with a $50 prix fixe dinner (required at the early shows), or a $20 minimum. (Holden) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. CANNONBALL ADDERLEY LEGACY BAND (Tuesday through April 9) Cannonball Adderley was an alto saxophonist who balanced bebops harmonic precision with homegrown grit and soul. This tribute, led by his former drummer Louis Hayes, features Vincent Herring on alto saxophone, as well as the singer Paula West and the trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11 p.m. set Fridays and Saturdays, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (For NYC & Company discount, (212) 484-1222.) (Nate Chinen) ANDY BEY (Tomorrow) Intimacy is a hallmark of Mr. Beys vocal style, which alternates between a rich baritone and a burnished falsetto. Hes also a fine pianist, as hell surely demonstrate with his quartet here, on a concert stage in his old hometown. 7:30 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722, www.njpac.org; $37. (Chinen) STEFANO BOLLANI TRIO/FRANCESCO CAFISO QUARTET (Tomorrow and Sunday) Mr. Bollani, a pianist with extensive pop credentials, recently gave a fine performance on an album with the trumpeter Enrico Rava and the drummer Paul Motian; Mr. Cafiso, a teenage alto saxophone prodigy, just released a self-assured album called Happy Time (Cam). Both artists perform here, each with his own working band. 8 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JOE CHAMBERS BAND (Thursday and next Friday) Mr. Chambers, a veteran drummer with a gliding sense of swing, leads a hard-bop group featuring two good saxophonists -- Vincent Herring on alto and Javon Jackson on tenor -- as well as the versatile pianist Joanne Brackeen. 8 and 10 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) CARLA COOK (Tonight and tomorrow) A confident and vivacious jazz singer with a growing book of original tunes. 8 and 10 p.m. and midnight, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) DUDUKA DA FONSECA SEXTET (Through Sunday) On his new album, Samba Jazz in Black & White (Zoho), the percussionist Duduka Da Fonseca devises an ebullient small-group concept inspired by the sounds of his native Brazil. His ensemble includes the singer Maucha Adnet, the guitarist Vic Juris, and Paulo Levi or Anat Cohen on reeds. 8 and 10 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $27.50 to $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JORRIT DIJKSTRA AND JOHN HOLLENBECK (Wednesday) Mr. Dijkstra, an alto saxophonist from Amsterdam, and Mr. Hollenbeck, a percussionist from upstate New York, have been working as a duet for years, with an emphasis on extraordinary textures and extended techniques. This electro-acoustic performance precedes the release of a new album, Sequence (Trytone). 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) ROY HARGROVE BIG BAND (Tuesday) Mr. Hargrove, the trumpeter, has been a paragon of small-group hard bop since the early 1990s. But he has also led a big band, on and off, for roughly the same span of time; he recently rekindled the format here, with powerful results. 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063; cover, $30. (Chinen) HIGHLIGHTS IN JAZZ (Thursday) The longest-running jazz series in the city advances what it calls the Ultimate Jam Session, with David (Fathead) Newman and Ernie Andrews on saxophones, Steve Turre on trombone, Lew Soloff on trumpet, Mulgrew Miller on piano and Jimmy Cobb on drums. 8 p.m., TriBeCa Performing Arts Center, Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 220-1460; $30.00. (Chinen) THE JAZZ PASSENGERS (Monday) Since being formed almost 20 years ago by the saxophonist Roy Nathanson and the trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, this ensemble has fashioned a colorful mélange of retro pop, post-bop and ironic show-biz shtick. In addition to Mr. Nathanson and Mr. Fowlkes, the group includes Bill Ware on vibraphone, Sam Bardfeld on violin, Brad Jones on bass and E. J. Rodriguez on drums. 9:30 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) TONY MALABY TRIO (Tonight) Mr. Malaby, a versatile and increasingly prominent tenor saxophonist, convenes a promising exploratory trio with Marcus Rojas on tuba and John Hollenbeck on drums and percussion. 9 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village,(212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) DONNY McCASLIN GROUP (Tuesday) As he does on Soar (Sunnyside), a noteworthy new album, the tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin applies his extroverted style to a Latin American-inspired contemporary fusion, benefiting greatly from the contributions of the guitarist Ben Monder, the bassist Scott Colley and the percussionists Antonio Sanchez and Pernell Saturnino. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $20. (Chinen) MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD (Thursday) The pianist John Medeski, the drummer Billy Martin and the bassist Chris Wood make up this trio, which usually traffics in the kind of groove music once practiced by the Meters and Eddie Harris. This concert finds the group playing in an all-acoustic vein, the setting that most exposes their avant-garde proclivities. 8 p.m., the Concert Hall at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171; $35 to $40. (Chinen) JASON MORAN AND THE BANDWAGON (Tonight) Mr. Moran is a bright pianist who favors a jagged and delirious sort of polyphony; his group, the Bandwagon, features the earthy yet slippery rhythm team of Tarus Mateen, bassist, and Nasheet Waits, drummer. 8, Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts, One University Place, Long Island University, Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4181, ext. 2229, or www.651arts.org; $25. (Chinen) PAUL MOTIAN QUARTET (Tuesday through April 9) The teasingly suggestive drumming of Mr. Motian is just one of several enigmas posed by this ensemble, which is also distinguished by the tightly coiled alto saxophone scribbles of Greg Osby and the abstruse pianism of Masabumi Kikuchi. Larry Grenadier, on bass, serves a welcome clarifying purpose. 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20 to $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * DAVID MURRAY QUARTET/ODEAN POPE SAXOPHONE CHOIR (Tuesday through April 9) In terms of sheer saxophone bluster, it would be tough to conjure a weightier double bill than this one, which pairs the avant-garde tenor titan David Murray (with Lafayette Gilchrist on piano, Jaribu Shahid on bass and Hamid Drake on drums) and the Odean Pope Saxophone Choir (nine saxophones, including Mr. Pope, and a rhythm section). 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $30 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) KRESTEN OSGOOD TRIO (Thursday) Mr. Osgood, an energetic young Danish drummer, nominally leads this group with the guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson and the alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, but the power of Mr. Lakes instrumental voice may tip the scales in another direction. 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) JEAN-MICHEL PILC TRIO (Wednesday) Mr. Pilcs piano playing has a joyous bounce, no matter how dark or furious the extemporization; hes at his best in the company of assertive partners like the electric bassist Richard Bona and the drummer Clarence Penn, who join him here. 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, near Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) BOB REYNOLDS QUINTET (Wednesday) Mr. Reynolds is a self-assured tenor saxophonist and an unassuming yet effective composer, as he proves on Cant Wait for Perfect (Fresh Sound New Talent), a sturdy new debut. Hes joined here by some of the musicians on the album, including the pianist Aaron Goldberg, the guitarist Mike Moreno and the bassist Reuben Rogers. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $20. (Chinen) SCOTT ROBINSON (Tonight) Outer space and early swing are equal preoccupations for the multireedist Mr. Robinson, who is best known as a stalwart sideman. Here he applies his unique view of jazz repertory toward an expansive small-group performance. 7 p.m., Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 620-5000, ext. 344, www.rmanyc.org; $15. (Chinen) ELLIOT SHARPS LIMBIC TRIO (Tomorrow) Mr. Sharp, a saxophonist and polyglot experimentalist, introduces an ensemble with Kevin Ray on bass and Donald McKenzie on drums. 9 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) JAMES (BLOOD) ULMER (Tonight and tomorrow night) The guitarist and singer James (Blood) Ulmer fashions an oddly hypnotic combination of influences: Ornette Colemans polytonality crossed with the psychedelic swagger of Jimi Hendrix. Here, as on a 2001 album called Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions (Hyena), he focuses on the blues, in a seven-piece ensemble organized by a kindred spirit, the experimental rock guitarist Vernon Reid. 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $30. (Chinen) WHAT IS JAZZ? (Wednesday) This unanswerable question comes courtesy of Ropeadope Records, as do the stirrings of the funk-infused Christian McBride Band; the soul-inspired Charlie Hunter Trio; the cut-and-paste groove of DJ Logic; and the dynamic solo percussion of Bobby Previte. 8 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; cover, $20. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera LA BOHÈME (Tomorrow and Thursday) James Robinsons production punts the Puccini favorite forward by some 80 years, placing the action in the opening months of World War I and lending an extra tug of pathos. At the first performance, Kelly Kaduce made an appealing Mimi, pairing her characters physical weakness with focused vocal strength. Gerard Powers sang Rodolfo with a solid top but a thinner middle range. For Thursdays performance, a new cast comes in with Yunah Lee (Mimi), Jennifer Black (Musetta) and Phillip Torre (Marcello). Steven White conducts tomorrow, David Wroe on Thursday. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $45 remaining tomorrow; $16 to $120 on Thursday. (Jeremy Eichler) DON GIOVANNI (Tomorrow and Sunday) Amatos venerable recipe -- no rehearsals, changing casts at every performance -- should make for an unusual version of Mozarts classic dish, but at least the theaters small scale represents a kind of period fidelity. Tomorrow night at 7:30, Sunday afternoon at 2:30, Amato Opera, 319 Bowery, at Second Street, East Village, (212) 228-8200; $30; $25 for students and 65+. (Anne Midgette) DON GIOVANNI (Tomorrow and Tuesday) Neither objectionable nor particularly fresh or insightful, Harold Princes 1989 staging of this great Mozart opera is a good, basic presentation of the work. The companys opening cast includes Christopher Schaldenbrand in the title role; Robert Gierlach as Leporello; Hanan Alattar as Zerlina; Orla Boylan as Donna Anna and Elizabeth Caballero as Donna Elvira. Steven Mosteller conducts. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $45 remaining tomorrow; $16 to $120 on Tuesday. (Allan Kozinn) * DON PASQUALE (Tonight and Monday) Why mount a new production of a frothy opera buffa? At the Met this weekend, the answer is: hot young stars. Anna Netrebko is the soprano of the moment; Juan Diego Flórez, the best lyric tenor around; Mariusz Kwiecien, a fine baritone. They look good and they should sound great. Tonight at 8, Monday at 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $150 to $250 remaining tonight; sold out on Monday. (Midgette) * FIDELIO (Tomorrow and Tuesday) Jürgen Flimms strikingly contemporary and deeply humane production of Beethovens Fidelio, which opened at the Met in 2000, is back. So is the soprano Karita Mattila, who gives a courageous and vocally radiant portrayal of Leonore, operas most valiant and devoted wife. The conductor Paul Nadler has taken over for James Levine, who has withdrawn for the rest of the season, and though Mr. Nadler is no Levine, he does honorable work. All in all, this production still delivers. And Ms. Mattila is astonishing. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday at 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $220 remaining tomorrow; $26 to $175 on Tuesday. (Anthony Tommasini) LUISA MILLER (Tomorrow) Because of illness, there have been more substitutions in this run of Luisa than in the ninth inning of a spring training baseball game. But Veronica Villarroel and Neil Shicoff, the original leads, are both scheduled to sing this final performance, along with the solid if uninflected baritone Carlos Alvarez and, in lieu of James Morris, the fine bass Vitalij Kowaljow. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $42 to $220. (Midgette) LYSISTRATA (Tonight, Sunday and Wednesday) Mark Adamos fantastical operatic adaptation of Aristophanes antiwar comedy had its premiere last year at the Houston Grand Opera. That production is now at the New York City Opera. Mr. Adamos score is bustling and hyper-rhythmic, but sometimes too dense. Still, he takes seriously the story of Athenian and Spartan women who join forces to refuse their husbands and lovers sex until the men stop waging a seemingly endless war. At its best, the opera becomes a somber meditation on the intertwining of passion and aggression. Tonight at 8, Sunday at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 731-6500; $16 to $120 tomorrow and Wednesday; $45 remaining on Sunday. (Tommasini) MANON (Wednesday) The news is Renée Fleming, who returns to a signature role in the venerable but appealing production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, along with the tenor Massimo Giordano, under the baton of Jesús López-Cobos. Not news is the length of this grand opera; after hearing an opera by Massenet, a notable dramatic soprano is supposed to have said, And they say Wagner is long? 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; sold out. (Midgette) LA TRAVIATA (Thursday) The Mets re-energized production of this Verdi opera continues its long run with Hei-Kyung Hong as Violetta, Frank Lopardo as Alfredo and Dwayne Croft as Germont. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6200; sold out. (Bernard Holland) Classical Music SÉRGIO AND ODAIR ASSAD (Sunday) This Brazilian guitar duo touches on a wide variety of music, which ranges from Albéniz and Rodrigo to the contemporary Cuban composer Leo Brouwer to jazz-tinged works by Egberto Gismonti. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 570-3949; $40. (Kozinn) JONATHAN BISS (Sunday) The Peoples Symphony Concerts presents recitals by big-name artists and up-and-coming players for as little as the cost of a movie. This weekend, its the young American pianist Jonathan Biss performing Janacek, Schumann and Beethoven, as well as a recent work by Lewis Spratlan called Wonderer. 2 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 586-4680; $9 and $11. (Eichler) BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC (Tomorrow) Michael Christie, the orchestras new music director, has assembled a compelling slate of programs for his first season. The second of them looks at this years two anniversary celebrants, Mozart and Shostakovich, both directly -- by way of Shostakovichs Symphony for Strings and Mozarts King Thamos -- as well as through the eyes of Alfred Schnittke, whose amusing Moz-Art à la Haydn opens the concert. 8 p.m., Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100; $20 to $60; $10 for students. (Kozinn) CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE Y (Tuesday and Wednesday) The baritone Nathaniel Webster performs Ned Rorems Aftermath, written in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Ravels Violin Sonata and Brahmss G minor Piano Quartet fill out the program courtesy of Jaime Laredo, Cynthia Phelps, Sharon Robinson and Joseph Kalichstein. 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500; $35. (Eichler) ALICE COOTE (Sunday) This British mezzo-soprano, best known for her performances and recordings of early music, makes her Met debut later this month as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro. But those who want an early glimpse of Ms. Cootes artistry can hear her in a recital of songs by Mahler and Schubert. 2 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $48. (Tommasini) JEROME L. GREENE CONCERT (Tonight) Daniel Beckwith conducts an ensemble of Juilliard students in an all-Handel program. 8, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 769-7406; free, but tickets are required. (Eichler) QUINN KELSEY (Sunday) This young Hawaiian-born baritone, who has been coming up through the young artist program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, sings a recital as part of the On Wings of Song series, sponsored by the Marilyn Horne Foundation. His intriguingly titled program, Songs of Separation, offers works by Beethoven, Barber, Fauré and Mussorgsky. 3 p.m., St. Bartholomews Church, Park Avenue at 51st Street, (212) 378-0248; $20; $15 for 65+; free for students. (Tommasini) * YUNDI LI (Monday) Murray Perahia was to have given a recital at Carnegie Hall on this night, but when he withdrew, Carnegie turned to this fantastic young Chinese pianist, who will play Mozarts Sonata in C, Schumanns Carnaval and the Liszt Sonata in B minor, a work he plays brilliantly on his first Deutsche Grammophon CD. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $28 to $97. (Kozinn) * yO-YO MA (Wednesday) Mr. Ma plays three of Bachs six solo works for the cello. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; sold out. (Holland) NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Thursday) Its nice when a major performer plays a new work; its even nicer when he likes it enough to keep on playing it. The pianist Emanuel Ax has certainly taken to the concerto Melinda Wagner wrote for him, called Extremity of Sky, enough that hes played it a number of times since its first performance with the Chicago Symphony in 2003, and is now giving its first New York performance. Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony will also offer Medeas Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, a ballet Samuel Barber wrote for Martha Graham, and Rachmaninoffs Second Symphony. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $24 to $85. (Midgette) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Tonight) This one-time Philharmonic program conducted by Lorin Maazel offers works by Brahms, Kodaly and Dvorak. 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $26 to $92. (Holland) VADIM REPIN AND NIKOLAI LUGANSKY (Sunday) Two Eastern European virtuosos, the violinist Vadim Repin and the pianist Nikolai Lugansky, play Bartok, Schubert, Pärt and Franck. 3 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $30 to $56. (Holland) * ST. THOMAS CHOIR (Tuesday) This excellent choir, led by John Scott, performs Bachs St. John Passion. The soloists are Mark Bleeke, Craig Phillips and Christopher Trueblood. With the Concert Royal. 7:30 p.m., St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street, (212) 664-9360; $25 to $60. (Eichler) SKAMPA STRING QUARTET (Tonight) Having just played as part of the Peoples Symphony Concerts, this busy ensemble of young musicians from Prague comes to Weill Recital Hall. In an interesting stroke, excerpts from John Adamss impish homage to dance rhythms in classical music, Johns Book of Alleged Dances, will come between quartets by Mozart and Beethoven. 7:30, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $42. (Tommasini) MASAAKI SUZUKI (Tomorrow) A prophet of period-instrument Bach in Japan, Mr. Suzuki led his Bach Collegium Japan in a concert earlier in the week, but tomorrow he has the stage to himself for what promises to be a revelatory harpsichord performance of Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $38. (Kozinn) TALLIS SCHOLARS (Tomorrow) The rock stars of Renaissance vocal music (well, figuratively), the members of this a cappella ensemble return to New York in a program of 16th-century polyphony, exploring Mozarts Roots, that includes Praetorius, Schütz and, of course, Bach. 8 p.m., Riverside Church Nave, Riverside Drive at 122nd Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 854-7799; $35. (Midgette) * WU MAN (Thursday) The pipa, a Chinese lute, has been finding a place in Western classical music in recent years, not only through the works of Chinese composers, but also at Bang on a Can marathons and in concerts by the Kronos Quartet. Often, in New York shows, the instrument is played by Wu Man, a virtuoso offering a concert as part of Kronoss series at Carnegie Hall. With an ensemble including a banjo, dulcimer, Ukrainian zither, African harp and percussion, Ms. Wu offers a program that includes Chinese traditional music, bluegrass tunes and new works by Eric Moe, Chen Yi and Julian Kytasty. 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, (212) 247-7800; $28 to $35. (Kozinn) YOUNG CONCERT ARTiSTS (Wednesday) Every year, as part of its benefit gala, this organization presents its talented young prizewinners in various concertos with a full orchestra. This year, a Chinese double-bassist named DaXun Zhang will perform, improbably enough, Carmen Fantasy, originally a violin showpiece. Lise de la Salle, a French pianist, will perform Liszts Concerto No. 1, and Jose Franch-Ballester, a Spanish clarinetist, will play Coplands Clarinet Concerto. Keith Lockhart leads the Orchestra of St. Lukes. 7:30 p.m., Rose Theater, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 307-6656; $25 to $35. (Eichler) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. BARNARD DANCES AT MILLER (Tonight and tomorrow night) Student dancers collaborated with the choreographers Sean Curran, Keely Garfield, Adam Hougland and Colleen Thomas on the programs four premieres. (Through tomorrow.) 7:30, Miller Theater, Columbia University, 2960 Broadway, at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 854-7799; $15; $6 for 65+. (Jennifer Dunning) ALEXANDRA BELLER/DANCES (Wednesday through April 8) A frustrated Broadway diva, a baby-killing debutante, a cowardly soldier and a lesbian tap dancer find themselves trapped together forever in You Are Here. 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077; $20 and $12. (Jack Anderson) ALAIN BUFFARD/PI:ES (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Buffard explores the fragility and vulnerability of the body in his new Mauvais Genre, whose cast includes downtown-dance luminaries like Jennifer Lacey, DD Dorvillier, Neil Greenberg, John Jasperse, Ishmael Houston-Jones and Lucy Sexton. 8:30, Danspace Project at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194; $20 or T.D.F. voucher. (Dunning) CATCH SIXTEEN (Tomorrow) The choreographers in this performing arts showcase, chosen by the producers Jeff Larson and Andrew Dinwiddie, include Melissa Briggs, Adrienne Truscott and Chris Yon. Tomorrow at 7 and 9 p.m., Galapagos Art Space, 70 North Sixth Street, between Wythe and Kent Streets, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 384-4586, www.galapagosartspace.com; $10. (Dunning) CHAN-CAN-DANCE THEATER (Thursday) Abby Man-Yee Chans company makes its New York debut in Ms. Chans Lost and Found, inspired by the experiences of adopted Chinese girls in American families. (Through April 8.) 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, (212) 334-7479; $15. (Dunning) CONFIGURATION DANCE (Monday) A Cape Cod company presents works by Joseph Cipolla (co-director of the group with Catherine Batcheller), Graham Lustig, Harrison McEldowney and Michael Shannon. 8 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400; $27; students and 65+, $24. (Anderson) * DANSPACE PROJECT ANNUAL GALA (Tuesday) The events honoree this year is the stage director, visual artist and sometime choreographer Robert Wilson, with performances by Lucinda Childs, Deborah Jowitt, Christopher Knowles, Restu Imansari Kusumaningrum and Dana Reitz. 9 p.m., preceded by cocktails and dinner, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8112, danspaceproject.org; $75 to $300.(John Rockwell) * FEST FORWARD: HIP-HOP UNBOUND (Wednesday and Thursday) This two-week festival of performances, discussions and workshops opens with two dance programs. In the first, hip-hop will be performed by two all-female companies, DecaDanceTheatre and Full Circle Productions (Wednesday). Old hip-hop hands and newcomers will perform (Thursday) after the screening of Apache Line: From Gangs to Hip-Hop, a new, unfinished documentary by PopMaster Fabel of the Rock Steady Crew. (Through April 15.) Wednesday (and next Friday) and Thursday at 7 p.m., Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 La Guardia Place, at Washington Square South, Greenwich Village, (212) 279-4200, www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu; $25 (Wednesday), $15 (Thursday), festival passes, $100. (Dunning) SAEKO ICHINOHE DANCE COMPANY (Tomorrow). The troupe celebrates its 36th anniversary with a program that includes two premieres. Ms. Ichinohes Chuya Nakahara -- Poignant Poems is inspired by early Japanese modernist poetry. In Jeff Moens Shadows Pierce My Soul, spirits from three eras meet. Tomorrow at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m., Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 757-2531, www.ichinohedance.org; $20. (Anderson) FIFTH ANNUAL IMPROVISED AND OTHERWISE FESTIVAL (Tonight and tomorrow night) Nine groups will participate in two different programs that also include a chamber opera, The Rat Land, by Gordon Beeferman and Charlotte Jackson, featuring performances by K. J. Holmes (tonight) and Troika Ranch and Maya Ciarrocchi (tomorrow). 8 to 11 p.m., BRIC Studio, 57 Rockwell Place (next to the BAM Harvey Theater), Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 855-7882, ext. 53: $15; $10 for students and 65+; $25 for both performances. (Dunning) KIM IMA (Tonight through Thursday) Ms. Imas Travels, Tours and One-Night Stands is a movement theater piece that explores the experiences of those who explore the world. Guest musicians and writers will participate in each performance, among them this week Akiko Busch (tonight), Bill Ruyle and Elizabeth Swados (tomorrow) and Brian Nishi (Sunday matinee) and Bujo Kevin Jones (Sunday evening). (Through April 9.) Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 and 8 p.m., La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 475-7710; $15; T.D.F. vouchers accepted. (Dunning) MANDING JATA (tomorrow) A company that evokes the dance and music of the former Manding Empire of what became French West Africa. Community Theater, 100 South Street, Morristown, N.J., (973) 539-8008, communitytheatrenj.com; $20 to $35. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Walt Whitman Theater, Brooklyn College, Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues, Flatbush, (718) 951-4500, brooklyncenteronline.org; $15 to $30. (Rockwell) NEW CHAMBER BALLET (Tomorrow) Three ballets by the company director Miro Magloire will be performed to music by Mozart, performed live. 8 p.m., City Center Studio 4, 130 West 56th Street, Manhattan, (212) 868-4444, www.smarttix.com; $15; $10 for 65+ and students with ID. (Dunning) TERE OCONNOR DANCE (Tonight and tomorrow night) Audiences and reviewers tend to feel passionately about Mr. OConnors choreography, loving or hating it with equal intensity. Somehow Mr. OConnor has lived through it all and continued to produce dances. This one is called Baby, which he describes as exploding the metaphor of time passing. You decide. 7:30, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077; $25. (Dunning) OLLOM DANCE THEATER (Tonight and Sunday) John Ollom celebrates Womens History Month with Anatomy of Woman, which tells three stories about women. Tonight at 8, Clark Studio Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 592-0103; sold out. The piece will performed again on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Jeanne Rimsky Theater, Landmark on Main Street, 232 Main Street, Port Washington, N.Y., (212) 592-0103; $30 and $35. (Dunning) PERFORMANCE MIX FESTIVAL (Tonight through Sunday) Karen Bernard, who directs the festival, has chosen dance, music and multidisciplinary works from Italy, Canada, France and the United States (New York City, Minneapolis and Philadelphia) for this 20th-anniversary program. The history of the event will be chronicled in a preperformance video documentary. 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, (212) 334-7479; $15 or T.D.F. voucher. (Dunning) SECOND AVENUE DANCE COMPANY (Tonight through Monday) Student dancers from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University will perform premieres by Karole Armitage, Dwight Rhoden and Bill Young, and choreography by Merce Cunningham and Cheryl Therrien. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday and Monday at 8 p.m., Fifth Floor Theater, Tisch School of the Arts, 111 Second Avenue, at Seventh Street, East Village, (212) 998-1982; $10; $5 for students and 65+. (Dunning) SPIRIT OF THE DANCE (Tuesday) Irish dance, flamenco and salsa unite in a foot-stamping show of global rhythms. 8 p.m., Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, Lehman College, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, at Goulden Avenue, Bedford Park, the Bronx, (718) 960-8833, www.LehmanCenter.org; $20 to $35. (Anderson) SUNDAYS AT THREE (Sunday) A dance showcase offers the first full-length New York program by Peter Sciscioli. 3 p.m., 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, www.92Y.org; $10. (Anderson) * TERO SAARINEN COMPANY (Tonight through Sunday) Popular at home and increasingly successful throughout Europe, the Finnish choreographer presents a triple bill that ends with Hunt, a solo for himself danced to Stravinskys Sacre du Printemps. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, www.joyce.org; $36. (Rockwell) URBAN BUSH WOMEN (Wednesday and Thursday) Jawole Willa Jo Zollars popular African-American troupe in Dance New Amsterdams new theater. There are two programs, the first Wednesday and next Friday at 8 p.m. and April 9 at 2 p.m., the second Thursday and April 8 at 8 p.m., Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 279-4200, ticketcentral.com; $25. (Rockwell) WORK AND SHOW FESTIVAL (Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday) The festival continues with work by three choreographers in two programs. The first program features dances about families and religion by Christine Suarez and Katie Workum (tonight and tomorrow). Next comes Baraka de Soleil and the D Underbelly company in N This Hous, an exploration of African-American history (Thursday and next Friday). (Through April 10.) All performances are at 7 p.m., TriBeCa Performing Arts Center, Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, Lower Manhattan, (212) 220-1460, www.tribecapac.org; $10. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * BROOKLYN MUSEUM: SYMPHONIC POEM: THE ART OF AMINAH BRENDA LYNN ROBINSON, through Aug. 14. This prodigious show, by an artist born and still living in Columbus, Ohio, celebrates her heritage in paintings, drawings, sculpture, stitchery, leather work and less classifiable forms of expression. Besides its sheer visual wizardry, using materials like leaves, twigs, bark, buttons and cast-off clothes, her art is compelling in that it ruminates on the history of black migration to, and settlement in, the United States, from early times to the present, in a garrulous, very personal way. Her works do not lend themselves to easy deciphering, but her magic with materials and her daring compositional imagination draw you in. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, Brooklyn (718) 638-5000. (Grace Glueck) * Brooklyn Museum: WILLIAM WEGMAN: FUNNEY/STRANGE, through May 28. Descended from Marcel Duchamp and Buster Keaton, Mr. Wegman has straddled high and low for more than three decades, using his signature Weimaraners to make the art worlds funniest videos, as well as television commercials, calendars and childrens books. His popular success has tended to obscure his originality and influence, along with a multifarious production that includes wittily captioned drawings, wonderfully irreverent paintings and a host of nondog photographic work. This thorough and thoroughly entertaining retrospective highlights not only the accessibility of his richly human art, but also its dedication to the 1970s notion that art should not look like art. (See above.) (Roberta Smith) * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: David Smith: A Centennial, through May 14. David Smith is best known for his worst work, bulky sculptures of the important kind that museums and banks like to buy. Much (though not all) of that material has been excised from this survey in favor of smaller, earlier, nonmonumental pieces that the curator, Carmen Gimenez, presents with plenty of air and light. The result is exemplary as a David Smith experience, an American Modernism experience and a Guggenheim Museum experience. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500. (Holland Cotter) * International Center of Photography: Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, through May 28. If Martians tuned into our television news broadcasts, theyd have a miserable impression of life on Earth. War, disease, poverty, heartbreak and nothing else. Thats exactly how most of the world sees Africa: filtered through images of calamity. The Nigerian-born curator Okwui Enwezor offers a bracing alternative view in this show of recent photography from Africa. He isnt interested in simply exchanging an upbeat Africa for a downbeat one, smiles for frowns, but in engineering a slow, complex, panoptical turn in perspective, one that takes in many moods and directions. The results are stimulating, astringent, brimming with life. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000. (Cotter) Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, through May 7. Egypt was no picnic 5,000 years ago. The average life span was about 40 years. Wild animals were ever-present. Childbirth was perilous. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness were shots in the dark. Doctors were priests. Medicine was a blend of science, religion and art. The 65 or so objects in this beautiful show functioned as all three. Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212) 535-7710. (Cotter) Met: KARA WALKER AT THE MET: AFTER THE DELUGE, through July 30. The Metropolitan Museum of Arts first foray into artist-organized shows is a small tour de force of curatorial creativity. Inspired partly by Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Walker has combined works from the Met with examples of her own art, connecting shared themes of race, poverty and water to illuminate contemporary arts inevitable dialogue with past art. The show has as many crosscurrents and undertows as a river. One of the most interesting concerns the genteel technique of cut-paper silhouette that is the basis of Ms. Walkers scathing take-no-prisoners exploration of slavery and its tragic legacy. (See above.) (Smith) THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: EDVARD MUNCH: THE MODERN LIFE OF THE SOUL, through May 8. This affecting, full-scale retrospective is the first survey of this Norwegian painter in an American museum in almost 30 years. Its more than 130 oils and works on paper cover Munchs entire career, from 1880 to 1944. It also includes a large selection of prints -- many ingeniously adapted from his oils -- that played an important role in his art. 11 West 53rd Street, (212) 708-9400. (Glueck) THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: ON SITE: NEW ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN, through May 1. Since the early 1970s, when Spain began to awaken from the isolation of a four-decade dictatorship, Spanish architects have produced designs of unusual depth, often with a firm connection to the land, a sense of humility and a way of conveying continuity with the past while embracing the present. Packed with pretty images and elegant models, this exhibition lacks the scholarly depth you might have hoped for on such a mesmerizing subject. (See above.) (Nicolai Ouroussoff) NEUE GALERIE: KLEE AND AMERICA, through May 22. For a long time, the Swiss-born artist Paul Klee (1879-1940), regarded as a leading Modernist figure in Europe, didnt believe his delicate, chimerical work had much of a future in the United States. Yet, thanks to artists, collectors and dealers with close contacts in Germany who had begun to discover his work, by the early 1920s, Klees impact began to be felt here. This show of more than 60 paintings and drawings assembled exclusively from American holdings covers the wide spectrum of Klees work, from his dense, Cubist-style oil, When God Considered the Creation of the Plants (1913), to a beautifully stylized rendering of the jazz singer and dancer Josephine Baker (1927) to labyrinthine compositions like Or the Mocked Mocker (1930). 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, (212) 628-6200. (Glueck) P.S. 1: Jessica Stockholder: Of Standing Float Roots in Thin Air, through May 1. A soaring, cannily designed installation -- made of airborne plastic bins, electric lights, orange extension cords and an old armchair topping a wooden tower -- by a sculptor known for orchestrating productive collisions of formalism and consumerism. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 784-2084. (Ken Johnson) Whitney Museum of American Art: WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2006: DAY FOR NIGHT, through May 28. This biennial will provoke much head-scratching by uninitiated visitors. A hermetic take on what has been making waves, its packaged -- branded might be the better word -- as a show long on collaboration and open-endedness: several shows under one roof, including a revival of the 1960s Peace Tower, which rises like a Tinker Toy construction from the Whitney courtyard, with contributions by dozens of artists. As a counter to the image of the art world as rich, youth-besotted and obsessed with crafty little nothings, the ethos here is provisional, messy, half-baked, cantankerous, insular -- radical qualities art used to have when it could still call itself radical and wasnt like a barnacle clinging to the cruise ship of pop culture. That was back in the 1970s. And much of whats here (including works by bohemians and other senior eccentrics around then) harks back to that moment. Beauty is hard to come by. Check out, among other things, Paul Chans digital animation of shadowy objects like cellphones and bicycles, floating upward, Wizard of Oz-like, while bodies tumble down, the work cast as if it were light from a tall window slanting onto the floor of a dark room. And also Pierre Huyghes film, shot in Antarctica and Central Park. Its really gorgeous: crosscut between day and night, fiction and reality, it encapsulates the shows operative but ultimately airy metaphor about the slippery state of art now. (Day for Night is the biennials first-ever title, after the François Truffaut film.) 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (800) 944-8639 or www.whitney.org. (Michael Kimmelman) Galleries: Uptown Tony Cragg: Five Bottles In the early 1980s, this eminent English sculptor made flat, mosaiclike works out of found colored plastic objects and fragments. This show presents a set of five wall-works, each representing a different giant colored bottle composed of toys, combs, cigarette lighters and other pieces of ordinary commercial detritus. Vivian Horan, 35 East 67th Street, (212) 517-9410, through April 21. (Johnson) Galleries: 57th Street Darren Almond /Janice Kerbel: The Impossible Landscape Nothing is obvious in this handsome show of works by two London-based Conceptualists. The connection is that both make visible things that are in different ways impossible. Ms. Kerbels elegantly abstracted designs for gardens in an office, a Laundromat and other unlikely places are meant to be imagined but never actually built. Mr. Almonds sumptuous, subtly eerie landscape photographs were shot at night using long exposures, making visible what would be invisible to the naked eye. The Horticultural Society of New York, 128 West 58th Street, (212) 757-0915, through May 5. (Johnson) Galleries: Chelsea * MARK LECKeY: DRUNKEN BAKERS This cinematically gifted British artist raises his game with a stop-action animation made by simply shooting a raunchy, well-drawn comic strip for adults in close-up, turning its speech balloons into spoken dialogue and adding realistic sound effects. Shown in an increasingly grubby white-on-white cube, the work is elegantly efficient, funny and dark, and adds another twist to the convoluted history of appropriation art. GBE@Passerby, 436 West 15th Street, (212) 627-5258, through April 22. (Smith) Other Galleries Zoo Story A clay gorilla by Daisy Youngblood, a bronze she-wolf by Kiki Smith, a flock of concrete sheep by Françoise-Xavier Lalanne and works about animals by more than 20 other artists, including John Baldessari, Katharina Fritsch, Ross Bleckner and Rebecca Horn, turn the first floor of this sleek, three-story private museum into a diverting menagerie. Fisher Landau Center for Art, 38-27 30th Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 937-0727, through June 12. (Johnson) Last Chance * THE DOWNTOWN SHOW: THE NEW YORK ART SCENE, 1974-1984 Its a humongous time warp of more than 450 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, videos, posters, ephemera and things in between by artists, writers, performers, musicians and maestros of mixed media, from a photograph of the transvestite Candy Darling as she posed on her deathbed to a small, painted sculpture made of elephant dung by David Hammons. With so many clashing ideologies, points of view and attitudes toward art-making, this no-holds-barred hodgepodge generates the buzz and stridency of, say, Canal Street on payday. New York University, Grey Art Gallery, 100 Washington Square East, (212) 998-6780; and Fales Library, 70 Washington Square South, (212) 988-2596, Greenwich Village; closes tomorrow. (Glueck) * Anya Gallaccio: One Art The viscerally poetic single work occupying Sculpture Centers spacious main gallery is a 50-foot weeping cherry tree that was cut up and reassembled in the gallery, where it is held in place by steel cables and bolts. Sculpture Center, 44-19 Purves Street, at Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 361-1750; closes Monday. (Johnson) * DAVID HAMMONS: SELECTED WORKS A rare exhibition of 11 objects and drawings highlights the robust tactility and sculptural intelligence in this elusive, influential artists work. His use of eccentric discarded materials and found objects goes beyond Duchampian gesture to comment pointedly, but with elegance and wit, on poverty, deprivation and the ingenuity they can engender. Zwirner & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street, (212) 517-8677; closes tomorrow. (Smith) JEWISH MUSEUM: SARAH BERNHARDT: THE ART OF HIGH DRAMA This exhibition is devoted to the flamboyant 19th-century actress whose name was once invoked by mothers as a warning to melodramatic daughters: Who do you think you are, Sarah Bernhardt? Its almost overstuffed roster of items includes original Félix Nadar photos of Bernhardt at 20, the costumes she wore as Cleopatra and Joan of Arc, her own accomplished sculptures and relics of lovers and American tours. 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200; closes Sunday.(Edward Rothstein) * KEIZO KITAJIMA: NEW YORK The New York debut of this Japanese photographer consists of more than three dozen pictures taken during a six-month sojourn in New York in 1981. His subjects include immigrants, drag queens and club kids, celebrities and nascent celebrities, all portrayed with a magnetic combination of glamour, grit and gravitas. Cohen Amador Gallery, 41 East 57th Street, (212) 759-6740; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * MET: Robert Rauschenberg: Combines Big and handsome almost to a fault. Theres something weird about seeing once joyfully rude and over-the-top contraptions from the 1950s and 60s lined up like choirboys in church, with their ties askew and shirttails out. But even enshrined, the combines still manage to seem incredibly fresh and odd, almost otherworldly. I thought of a medieval treasury -- all the rich colors and lights and intricate details. The most beautiful tend to be the early ones: large but delicate, with a subtle, fugitive emotional pitch. Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212) 535-7710, closes Sunday. (Kimmelman) Rachel Whiteread: Bibliography Cardboard boxes cast in plaster are displayed in monotonous profusion singly and in groups by this British sculptor who once made a concrete cast of the inside of a whole house. Luhring Augustine, 531 West 24th Street, (212) 206-9100; closes tomorrow. (Johnson)

Whitey Bulger Captured: Why Boston Needed Him - The.

The notorious South Boston mobster (allegedly) beat people to death with bats, stabbed them, shot them, strangled them, and pulled out their teeth so that, in the days before DNA, they couldnt be identified.. One of his longtime lieutenants, Kevin Weeks, once told Boston magazine that Whitey could call on six FBI agents at any hour ���who would willingly hop in the car with a machine gun.��� Another. Surveillance Video Backs Up Cop in Antonio Martin Shooting.

The Listings: April 14 - April 20

Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the New York metropolitan region this week. * denotes a highly recommended film, concert, show or exhibition. Theater Approximate running times are in parentheses. Theaters are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, show times and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Previews and Openings LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY Opens Sunday. John Guare, never satisfied with an overly tidy play, throws comedy, tragedy, satire and mystery into this cult drama, which first opened almost three decades ago. Lili Taylor and Sherie Rene Scott star (2:15). Signature Theaters Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. SCREWMACHINE/EYECANDY OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE BIG BOB Opens Sunday. C. J. Hopkinss dark drama, a hit at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, is about a game show host even more bizarre than Bob Barker (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. AWAKE AND SING! Opens Monday. Lincoln Center Theater revives Clifford Odetss classic fist-shaking drama about a Jewish family struggling to survive during the Depression. The impressive cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Ben Gazzara and Zoë Wanamaker (2:30). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Opens Tuesday. Closes May 14. Sir Peter Hall stages Oscar Wildes indestructible comedy. Lynn Redgrave stars as Lady Bracknell (2:25). Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100. THREE DAYS OF RAIN Opens Wednesday. Julia Roberts stars in this years most closely watched star vehicle, a revival of the Richard Greenberg time-traveling drama about how we divide the legacy of our parents. Paul Rudd also stars (2:30). Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, 242 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. THE THREEPENNY OPERA Opens Thursday. If any Broadway theater was made for a revival of Brechts classic, its the cabaret-style Studio 54, which is host to an intriguing cast that includes Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper (2:40). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. THE CAINE MUTINY COURT-MARTIAL Previews start today. Opens May 7. Try not to think of Ross from Friends when you see David Schwimmer in this revival of Herman Wouks adaptation of his Pulitzer Prizewinning novel about a lawyer who defends a Navy lieutenant accused of mutiny. Jerry Zaks directs (2:15). The Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, 236 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. THE DROWSY CHAPERONE Opens May 1. This little-musical-that-could about an unscrupulous Broadway producer in the 1920s (some things never change) began at the Toronto Fringe Festival and now makes its unlikely premiere on the Great White Way (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. FAITH HEALER Previews start Tuesday. Opens May 4. Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid make up the dream cast of this revival of Brian Friels classic collection of Rashomon-like monologues about a man peddling salvation, his long-suffering wife and his manager (2:35). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE Opens April 27. Redemption is a major theme of this musical fantasy adapted from a Peter S. Beagle novel about a recluse who lives in a Bronx cemetery (2:00). York Theater, St. Peters Lutheran Church, Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, (212) 868-4444. THE HISTORY BOYS Previews start today. Opens April 23. Alan Bennetts acutely observed hit drama about English schoolboys arrives stateside with the best buzz of any new play this year. The National Theaters artistic director Nicholas Hytner directs (2:45). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. HOT FEET Previews start Thursday. Opens April 30. Earth, Wind and Fire get in on the jukebox musical trend with this new show about a woman who dreams of dancing on Broadway. Maurice Hines directs and choreographs (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. LESTAT Opens April 25. Elton John and Bernie Taupin have a good track record for making pop hits, but can they find success in the cursed genre of the vampire musical? Hugh Panaro stars (2:30). Palace Theater, 1564 Broadway, (212) 307-4100. THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE Previews start Wednesday. Opens May 3. The Atlantic Theater Companys acclaimed production of Martin McDonaghs very bloody, exceptionally black comedy about Irish terrorism moves to Broadway (1:45). Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. SHINING CITY Previews start Thursday. Opens May 9. A guilt-ridden man tells his therapist that he has seen the ghost of his wife in Conor McPhersons new play, which received good reviews at the Royal Court in London. Brian F. OByrne, Martha Plimpton and Oliver Platt star (1:45). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. TARZAN Opens May 10. Phil Collins lends his invisible touch to the score of the latest Disney musical. David Henry Hwang wrote the book (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4100. THE WEDDING SINGER Opens April 27. Stephen Lynch plays the goofy title character in this musical adaptation of the Adam Sandler film about leg warmers, Billy Idol and other artifacts from the 1980s. John Rando (Urinetown) directs (2:20). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. Broadway BAREFOOT IN THE PARK For a work that celebrates the liberating force of spontaneity, this revival of Neil Simons 1963 comedy doesnt have one scene that feels organic, let alone impromptu. Directed by Scott Elliott, and starring Patrick Wilson and a miscast Amanda Peet as newlyweds in Greenwich Village, this Barefoot has the robotic gait of Frankensteins monster (2:20). Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Ben Brantley) * BRIDGE & TUNNEL This delightful solo show, written and performed by Sarah Jones, is a sweet-spirited valentine to New York City, its polyglot citizens and the larger notion of an all-inclusive America. In 90 minutes of acutely observed portraiture gently tinted with humor, Ms. Jones plays more than a dozen men and women participating in an open-mike evening of poetry for immigrants (1:30). Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles Isherwood) THE COLOR PURPLE So much plot, so many years, so many characters to cram into less than three hours. This beat-the-clock musical adaptation of Alice Walkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Southern black women finding their inner warriors never slows down long enough for you to embrace it. LaChanze leads the vibrant, hard-working cast (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS The arrival of Jonathan Pryce and his eloquent eyebrows automatically makes this the seasons most improved musical. With Mr. Pryce (who replaces the admirable but uneasy John Lithgow) playing the silken swindler to Norbert Leo Butzs vulgar grifter, its as if a mismatched entry in a three-legged race had become an Olympic figure-skating pair (2:35). Imperial Theater, 249 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) FESTEN An intensely staged, indifferently acted production of David Eldridges adaptation of a 1998 Danish film about a grim family reunion, which was a big hit in London under the same director, Rufus Norris. While the mise en scène remains unsettlingly stark, the Broadway cast (which includes Michael Hayden, Julianna Margulies, Jeremy Sisto and Ali MacGraw) registers the tension and testiness of people suffering from a collective bad hair day. Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) JERSEY BOYS From grit to glamour with the Four Seasons, directed by the pop repackager Des McAnuff (The Whos Tommy). The real thrill of this shrink-wrapped bio-musical, for those who want something more than recycled chart toppers and a story line poured from a can, is watching the wonderful John Lloyd Young (as Frankie Valli) cross the line from exact impersonation into something far more compelling (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA Love is a many-flavored thing, from sugary to sour, in Adam Guettel and Craig Lucass encouragingly ambitious and discouragingly unfulfilled new musical. The show soars only in the sweetly bitter songs performed by the wonderful Victoria Clark, as an American abroad (2:15). Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE ODD COUPLE Odd is not the word for this couple. How could an adjective suggesting strangeness or surprise apply to a production so calculatedly devoted to the known, the cozy, the conventional? As the title characters in Neil Simons 1965 comedy, directed as if to a metronome by Joe Mantello, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their star performances from The Producers, and its not a natural fit. Dont even consider killing yourself because the show is already sold out (2:10). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * THE PAJAMA GAME Sexual chemistry in a Broadway musical? Isnt that illegal now? If it were, then Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli OHara -- the white-hot stars of Kathleen Marshalls delicious revival of this 1954 musical -- would be looking at long jail terms. This intoxicating production, which features a charming supporting cast led by Michael McKean, allows grown-up audiences the rare chance to witness a bona fide adult love affair translated into hummable songs and sprightly dance (2:30). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) RING OF FIRE The man in black turns sunshine yellow in a show that strings songs associated with Johnny Cash into a big, bright candy necklace of a musical revue, created and directed by Richard Maltby Jr. In the current bio-flick Walk the Line, Cash wrestles demons; Ring of Fire wrestles with a really bad case of the cutes (2:00). Ethel Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SWEENEY TODD Sweet dreams, New York. This thrilling new revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheelers musical, with Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone leading a cast of 10 who double as their own musicians, burrows into your thoughts like a campfire storyteller who knows what really scares you. The inventive director John Doyle aims his pared-down interpretation at the squirming child in everyone who wants to have his worst fears both confirmed and dispelled (2:30). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE The happy news for this happy-making little musical is that the move to larger quarters has dissipated none of its quirky charm. William Finns score sounds plumper and more rewarding than it did on Off Broadway, providing a sprinkling of sugar to complement the sass in Rachel Sheinkins zinger-filled book. The performances are flawless. Gold stars all around (1:45). Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * WELL Lisa Krons sparkling autobiographical play about illness, integration and her mother (portrayed with majestic warmth and weariness by Jayne Houdyshell) helps restore the honor of that tarnished literary form, the memoir. Though it shows the strain of scaling up for Broadway, this singular work, which stars Ms. Kron as herself, opens windows of insight and emotion found in no other show (1:40). Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway BASED ON A TOTALLY TRUE STORY A chatty, autobiographical comedy by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa about a writer for comic books who moonlights as a screenwriter and playwright. Juggling his two jobs, the busy writer begins backsliding in his unofficial third, being a loving, giving, emotionally available boyfriend. Minor-key angst ensues in this perky two hours of comic navel-gazing (2:00). Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. (Isherwood) DEFIANCE The second in John Patrick Shanleys cycle of morality plays that began with Doubt, this ambitious tale of racial relations and the military mindset on a North Carolina marine base feels both overcrowded and oddly diffuse. If Doubt has an elegant and energy-efficient sprinters gait, Defiance progresses with a flustered air of distraction. The excellent Margaret Colin, as an officers wife, provides a welcome shot of credibility (1:30). Manhattan Theater Club, Theater 1, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. (Brantley) ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE Miscasting is the mother of invention. Or so it proves to be for Jan Maxwell, who re-tailors an ill-fitting part and makes it as snug as a glove in this underpowered revival of Joe Ortons scandalous 1964 comedy. Scott Elliss production of Ortons great farce of sexual hypocrisy, which also stars Alec Baldwin, is breezy, often funny and rarely convincing. (2:00). Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) GEORGE M. COHAN TONIGHT! The all-singing, all-dancing Jon Peterson summons the spirit of this legendary Broadway entertainer in this engaging one-man musical, devised and directed by Chip Deffaa (1:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (George Hunka) GREY GARDENS As the socialite in limbo called Little Edie Beale, Christine Ebersole gives one of the most gorgeous performances ever to grace a musical. Unfortunately, shes a pearl of incalculable price in a show that is mostly costume jewelry. Adapted from the Maysles brothers 1975 cult documentary movie, a camp favorite, and directed by Michael Greif, with the excellent Mary Louise Wilson as Edies bedridden mother (2:40). Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Brantley) JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS A powerfully sung revival of the 1968 revue, presented with affectionate nostalgia by the director Gordon Greenberg. As in the original, two men (Robert Cuccioli and Rodney Hicks) and two women (Natascia Diaz and Gay Marshall) perform a wide selection of Brels plaintive ballads and stirring anthems. Ms. Marshalls captivating performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas, sung in the original French and with heart-stirring transparency, represents Brel at his best. (2:00). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) LOS BIG NAMES In the lesbian comic Marga Gomezs friendly new solo show, she measures out affection and mockery in equal doses as she recalls her parents, Willy and Margarita, a comic and a dancer who lived a splashy life on a small scale in the circumscribed world of New York Latino culture in the 1960s. Ms. Gomez pairs stories of their performing careers with comic tales of her own struggles to pursue success in the entertainment industry. A sendup of the movie Sphere is particularly delicious (1:30). 47th Street Theater, 304 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) MACRUNES GUEVARA The Young Mirror arm of Mirror Repertory revives John Spurlings odd 1969 play about an artist who left behind a wall full of drawings of Che Guevara and the man who saw something profound in them. Parts of the play read today like a funny sendup of art critics who see too much brilliance in outsider-art gibberish; other parts seem a bit like gibberish of their own (2:15). St. Clements, 423 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444. (Neil Genzlinger) RED LIGHT WINTER A frank, occasionally graphic story of erotic fixation and the havoc it can wreak on sensitive types. Written and directed by Adam Rapp, this play is both a doomy romantic drama and a morbid comedy about the anxieties of male friendship. Although somewhat contrived, it features a lovely performance by Christopher Denham as a lonely soul starved for intimacy (2:25). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) A SAFE HARBOR FOR ELIZABETH BISHOP The life of a great poet becomes the stuff of stale prose in this one-woman bio-play by Marta Goes, starring Amy Irving (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) SANDRA BERNHARD: EVERYTHING BAD AND BEAUTIFUL Sandra Bernhard was a proverbial rock star long before headline-making folks in even the most prosaic walks of life were being referred to as such. Her new show, a collection of songs interspersed with musings on her life and on public figures ranging from Britney Spears to Condoleezza Rice, is casual to the point of being offhand. That said, its invigorating to be in the presence of a true original (2:00). Daryl Roth Theater, 101 East 15th Street, at Union Square, East Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) SHOW PEOPLE Paul Weitzs eyebrow-pencil-thin comedy about a man who hires actors to impersonate his family feels like one long, occasionally amusing party game whose players dont know when to call it a night. The excellent four-member cast, led by Debra Monk and directed by Peter Askin, finds charm and energy amid the vaporous bait-and-switch plot reversals (2:00). Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422. (Isherwood) * [TITLE OF SHOW] Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell are the authors, stars and subject matter of this delectable new musical about its own making. The self-consciousness is tempered by a wonderful cast performing with the innocence of kids cavorting in a sandbox. Its a worthy postmodern homage to classic backstage musicals, and an absolute must for show queens (1:30). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 353-0303. (Isherwood) TRYST A suspense drama of a distinctly old-fashioned stamp about the romance between a handsome cad (Maxwell Caulfield) and a lonely spinster (Amelia Campbell). Will the wily predator seduce and abandon the mousy milliner? Karoline Leachs play springs a few twists that lack psychological credibility but keep the plot on the boil (2:00). Promenade Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) Off Off Broadway THE PRIVATE LIFE OF THE MASTER RACE Bertolt Brechts middle-period classic in a robust new translation by Binyamin Shalom and a spare and powerful production by the Roust Theater Company, directed by James Phillip Gates (2:45). Walkerspace, 46 Walker Street, SoHo, (212) 868-4444. (Hunka) Long-Running Shows * ALTAR BOYZ This sweetly satirical show about a Christian pop group made up of five potential Teen People cover boys is an enjoyable, silly diversion (1:30). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200.(Isherwood) AVENUE Q R-rated puppets give lively life lessons (2:10). Golden, 252 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Cartoon made flesh, sort of (2:30). Lunt-Fontanne Theater, 205 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) CHICAGO Irrefutable proof that crime pays (2:25). Ambassador Theater, 219 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200.(Brantley) DOUBT, A PARABLE (Pulitzer Prize, Best Play 2005, and Tony Award, Best Play 2005) John Patrick Shanley makes subversive use of musty conventions in the clash between the head of a parochial school and the young priest who may or may not be too fond of the boys in his charge (1:30). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) HAIRSPRAY Fizzy pop, cute kids, large man in a housedress (2:30). Neil Simon Theater, 250 West 52nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) MAMMA MIA! The jukebox that devoured Broadway (2:20). Cadillac Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Who was that masked man, anyway? (2:30). Majestic Theater, 247 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE PRODUCERS The ne plus ultra of showbiz scams (2:45). St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) RENT East Village angst and love songs to die for (2:45). Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) SPAMALOT (Tony Award, Best Musical 2005) This staged re-creation of the mock-medieval movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail is basically a singing scrapbook for Python fans. Such a good time is being had by so many people that this fitful, eager celebration of inanity and irreverence has found a large and lucrative audience (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance THE CATARACT Though it begins promisingly -- a funny Midwestern noir in the style of the Coen brothers -- Lisa DAmours play about Southern drifters unsettling upright Minnesotans soon loses its balance, swamped by a torrent of magical realism and psychobabble (2:15). Womens Project/Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200; closing tomorrow. (Miriam Horn) CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY Steven Fales, a sixth-generation Mormon, describes leaving his family and becoming a gay escort in this fairly conventional, although admittedly compelling, piece of confessional theater (1:30). SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, between Avenue of the Americas and Varick Street, (212) 691-1555; closing Sunday. (Zinoman) PEN David Marshall Grants sometimes preachy new three-character play is about an unhappy Long Island family in 1969. J. Smith-Cameron is fascinating to watch as she exposes the anguish behind the tough, angry exterior of the wheelchair-bound mother; Dan McCabe is uneven but believable as the troubled teenage son who wants to get away from her; and Reed Birney is less persuasive as the ex-husband who has already left. The title object is a gift from the author to himself: it allows something impossible to happen (2:15). Playwrights Horizons, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200; closing Sunday. (Andrea Stevens) * TRANSATLANTIC LIAISON A play fashioned from Simone de Beauvoirs love letters to the American novelist Nelson Algren and scenes from her novel The Mandarins (which tells the story of their affair). Wonderful performances by Elizabeth Rothan as de Beauvoir in love, and Matthew S. Tompkins as the emotional Algren (1:30). Harold Clurman Theater on Theater Row, 412 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200; closing tomorrow. (Moore) Movies Ratings and running times are in parentheses; foreign films have English subtitles. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, show times and tickets: nytimes.com/movies. AQUAMARINE (PG, 109 minutes) In this sweet comedy for the crowd that has outgrown The Little Mermaid, two likable pals (Emma Roberts and Joanna Levesque, a k a the singer JoJo) try to help a mermaid (Sara Paxton) find love and learn how to use her feet properly.(Neil Genzlinger) ATL (PG-13, 103 minutes) A couple of rap stars make respectable starts on acting careers in this tale of black teenagers in Atlanta, despite a script marred by clichés and predictability. Tip Harris -- the rapper T. I. -- is intriguing as a young man who takes on the responsibility of raising his younger brother when their parents are killed, and Antwan Andre Patton -- Big Boi from OutKast -- makes a terrific drug lord. ( Genzlinger) BASIC INSTINCT 2 (R, 120 minutes) A joyless calculation, starring Sharon Stone and directed by Michael Caton-Jones, that is also a prime object lesson in the degradation that can face Hollywood actresses, especially those over 40. (Manohla Dargis) * THE BEAUTY ACADEMY OF KABUL (No rating, 74 minutes, in English and Dari) In the summer of 2004, a group of volunteer American hairstylists arrived in Kabul to open a school. In The Beauty Academy of Kabul, the director Liz Mermin documents the hilarious, moving and sometimes fractious meeting of diametrically different cultures, one having suffered unimaginable horrors and the other believing a good perm is the answer to everything. (Jeannette Catsoulis) * CAPOTE (R, 114 minutes) Philip Seymour Hoffmans portrayal of Truman Capote is a tour de force of psychological insight. (Mr. Hoffman won the Academy Award for best actor.) Following the novelist as he works on the magazine assignment that will become In Cold Blood, the film raises intriguing questions about the ethics of writing. (A. O. Scott) CRASH (Academy Award, Best Picture) (R, 107 minutes) A gaggle of Los Angeles residents from various economic and ethnic backgrounds collide, sometimes literally, within an extremely hectic 36 hours. Well intentioned, impressively acted but ultimately a speechy, ponderous melodrama of liberal superstition masquerading as realism. (Scott) DAVE CHAPPELLES BLOCK PARTY (R, 103 minutes) The setup is blissfully simple: a free block party on a dead-end street in Bed-Stuy, with a lineup of musicians, some of whom, like Kanye West and Mos Def, have put in appearances on Chappelles Show. The nominal idea, Mr. Chappelle explains on camera, was the concert Ive always wanted to see. The result, which ping-pongs between Brooklyn and Mr. Chappelles hometown in Ohio, is a tantalizing sketch-portrait of the artist amid an outpouring of hard beats and soul. (Dargis) DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON (PG-13, 110 minutes) The romantic cliché that all artists are a little bit mad is put through its paces (if never seriously questioned) in this documentary about Daniel Johnston, a mentally ill songwriter whom Kurt Cobain, the lead singer for Nirvana, once called the greatest living. Jeff Feuerzeig, who won the best director award at the 2005 Sundance Festival, cobbles together a moving portrait of the artist as his own ghost, using a wealth of material provided by Mr. Johnston, from home movies to audiocassette diaries to dozens of original, and often heartbreakingly beautiful, songs. (Dana Stevens) * DONT COME KNOCKING (R, 122 minutes) The visually majestic but dramatically inert reunion of Sam Shepard (who stars) and the director Wim Wenders, 22 years after their auspicious collaboration on Paris, Texas, might be described as a magnificent ruin. (Stephen Holden) * DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 (No rating, 135 minutes) Most of this stately film of few words, conceived and directed by the artist Matthew Barney, who co-stars with his wife, Bjork, takes place on a Japanese whaling ship afloat in Nagasaki Bay. Steeped not only in Japanese seafaring lore but also in centuries-old traditions of Japanese ritual, the film could be described as Mr. Barneys Moby-Dick. (Holden) ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN (PG, 93 minutes) Creative exhaustion haunts Ice Age: The Meltdown, as the characters from 2002s Ice Age face global warming and the submersion of their valley. While the animals head for safety in a giant, arklike boat, the director, Carlos Saldanha, indulges in biblical imagery and bad science. Over all, a flat and uninspired follow-up to a vastly superior movie. (Catsoulis) * INSIDE MAN (R, 128 minutes) The latest from Spike Lee takes a familiar setup -- in this case, a Wall Street bank heist that mutates into a hostage crisis -- and twists it ever so slightly and nicely. Among the films most sustained pleasures are its holy trinity -- Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster -- and the best lineup of pusses and mugs outside The Sopranos. (Dargis) LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO (R, 93 minutes, in Spanish) Zoë (Bárbara Mori) is a gorgeous, vapid wife who longs for children, but her distant spouse (Christian Meier) makes love only on Saturdays. Enter the rebellious brother-in-law (Manolo Cardona), a smoldering artist whose schedule is less regimented. Bubbling with incest, adultery, religion and homosexuality, La Mujer de Mi Hermano is an overheated telenovela that considers procreation more important than honesty, and what we want more important than who we are. (Catsoulis) LOOK BOTH WAYS (PG-13, 100 minutes) Written and directed by the Australian animator Sarah Watt, Look Both Ways follows a group of disparate and desperate characters over the course of one of the most depressing weekends in movie history. The principal sufferers are Meryl (Justine Clarke), a morbid illustrator, and Nick (William McInnes), a terminally ill photographer, who discover that a mutual fixation on catastrophe can be quite the aphrodisiac. Bogged down by stylistic gimmickry, Look Both Ways aims for existential drama but succeeds only in reminding us that misery loves company. (Catsoulis) LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN (R, 110 minutes) This star-studded jigsaw puzzle of revenge and mistaken identity thinks that its terribly smart, although it amounts to an empty, self-satisfied imitation of Pulp Fiction that reputable actors like Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley cant salvage. (Holden) MARILYN HOTCHKISS BALLROOM DANCING AND CHARM SCHOOL (PG-13, 103 minutes) John Goodman plays a dying crash victim on his way to a 40-year-old appointment, and Robert Carlyle is the widowed baker entrusted with keeping it. Instead, he meets Marisa Tomei, who teaches him to dance and, more important, throw away his wifes ashes. Toggling back and forth between past and present, Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School is a soggy, endless wallow in nostalgia and the healing power of very bad dancing. (Catsoulis) ON A CLEAR DAY (PG-13, 99 minutes) Set in and around the dockyards of Glasgow, On a Clear Day follows Frank (the great Peter Mullan), a laid-off shipbuilder who decides to fix his life by swimming the English Channel. Despite a familiar crop of lovable eccentrics and predictably inspirational thrust, the movie balances the sentimentality with excellent performances and a healthy dose of working-class vulnerability. (Catsoulis) SHES THE MAN (PG-13, 105 minutes) Twelfth Night is recast as a hysterically peppy romantic comedy about a she-jock penetrating the boys soccer team. Because girls can do anything boys can do, although their ultimate ambition is to put on a nice dress and go steady with a stupid jock. (Nathan Lee) 16 BLOCKS (PG-13, 105 minutes) If Richard Donners presence suggests that his new action flick, 16 Blocks, is a throwback to the 1980s, so does one of the names holding pride of place above the title, Bruce Willis. Mr. Willis has always been an acquired taste, but for those who did acquire that taste, its a pleasure to see him doing what comes naturally. Which means holding a gun and fending off bad guys with as few words as possible. (Dargis) SISTERS IN LAW (No rating, 108 minutes, in English and pidgin) Grass-roots feminism thrives in a Cameroon village, thanks to the pair of warm-hearted, tough-minded women of law profiled in this excellent verité documentary. (Lee) * SLITHER (R, 96 minutes) A horror film about an extraterrestrial monster with a hunger for flesh that slaloms from yucks to yuks, slip-sliding from horror to comedy and back again on its gore-slicked foundation. The writer and director James Gunn knows his icky, scary stuff. (Dargis) TAKE THE LEAD (PG-13, 108 minutes) Hip-hop and ballroom dancing styles fuse in a South Bronx high school at which a dance teacher, Antonio Banderas, turns gawky ducklings into gliding swans. Its sloppy but mildly endearing. (Holden) Thank You for Smoking (R, 92 minutes) The director Jason Reitman has made a glib and funny movie from Christopher Buckleys glib and funny novel about a Big Tobacco lobbyist, but the real attraction here is the hard-working star, Aaron Eckhart. (Dargis) TORO NEGRO (No rating, 87 minutes, in Spanish) A disturbed young matador stabs animals, beats his wife and drinks himself to the edge of oblivion in this harrowing, deeply suspect documentary set in rural Mexico. (Lee) * TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY (R, 91 minutes) Michael Winterbottom both confirms and refutes the assumption that Laurence Sternes 18th-century masterpiece of digression could never be made into a movie by making a movie about the making of such a movie. Steve Coogan is wonderful as Tristram, Tristrams father and himself, though Rob Brydon steals more than a few of Mr. Coogans scenes. (Scott) Tsotsi (R, 94 minutes) (Academy Award winner for best foreign film.) Written and directed by Gavin Hood, from a novel by Athol Fugard, this South African film centers on a 19-year-old thug who steals a baby and finds redemption. You dont have to read crystal balls to see into Tsotsis future; you just need to have watched a couple of Hollywood chestnuts. (Dargis) V for Vendetta (R, 131 minutes) James McTeigue directs this D-for-dumb future-shock story about a masked avenger (Hugo Weaving) and his pipsqueak sidekick (Natalie Portman) at war against a totalitarian British regime. (Dargis) * NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD (PG, 103 minutes) Filled with country memories, bluesy regret and familiar and piercing sentiment, Jonathan Demmes concert film sounds like quintessential Neil Young, which, depending on your home catalog, will be either an enormous turn-on or a turnoff. (Dargis) Film Series AGAINST THE TIDE (Through Sunday) The Japan Societys spring film series concludes this weekend. 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 715-1258; $10. (Anita Gates) PRIX JEAN VIGO (Through Dec. 30) The Museum of Modern Art is honoring Vigo (1905-34), the French filmmaker, with a series of 41 films from directors who have won the prize that bears his name. Black Girl (1965), Ousmane Sembènes cultural-identity drama about a young African woman living with a French family, will be shown on Thursday. 11 West 53rd Street, (212) 708-9400; $10. (Gates) RECENT FILMS FROM DENMARK (Through April 22) Scandinavia House continues its overall Scandinavian film series tomorrow. 58 Park Avenue, between 37th and 38th Streets, (212) 879-9779; $8. (Gates) THE COMPLETE KIESLOWSKI : A ROAD MAP OF THE SOUL (Through April 23) To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Krzysztof Kieslowskis death, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Polish National Film Archive and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York are presenting a retrospective of his work. This weekends films include The Double Life of Veronique (1991), and all 10 parts of Kieslowskis 1989 Decalogue, inspired by the Ten Commandments. Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5600; $10. (Gates) SHELLEY WINTERS VS. THE WATER (Through April 25) BAMcinématek is honoring Winters, who died in January at 83, with screenings of four of her best-known films. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; $10. (Gates) ANNA MAY WONG (Through Sunday) Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, would have turned 100 last year. (She died in 1961.) The Museum of the Moving Images seven-week retrospective of her work concludes this weekend. 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077; $10. (Gates) village voice best of 2005 (Through April 26) This annual series, which opened yesterday, continues this weekend. BAM Rose Cinemas (see above); $10. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE (Wednesday) The manic Japanese guitarist Kawabata Makoto leads his long-running band in hard-rocking psychedelic explorations rooted in riffy dirt-rock. 8 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006; $15. (Laura Sinagra) ALKALINE TRIO, AGAINST ME (Monday) The drummer and bandleader Mike Skiba continues to add 80s brood-pop wrinkles to the straightforward pop punk that made his bands reputation when it began almost a decade ago. 7:30 p.m., Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780; (sold out). (Sinagra) B. B. KING (Monday through Wednesday) The great bluesman B. B. King and his latest guitar called Lucille can, on a good night, summon all the tribulation and joy and resilience of the blues. This show was moved from May 31, and those tickets will be honored. 8 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, (212) 997-4144; (sold out). (Jon Pareles) BRAIN SURGEONS NYC (Monday) With Blue Oyster Cult, Albert Bouchard inspired a generation of metal and punk bands. His current band also features the former Dictator Ross the Boss and the veteran rock critic Deborah Frost. 8 p.m., Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103; $12. (Sinagra) CHAMILLIONAIRE, LIL FLIP (Sunday) The Houston rapper Chamillionaire had been lending rhymes to regional records for years. His turns of phrase establish him as an MC, but by singing his own hooks in a deep authoritative voice, he stands out among his peers. Lil Flip is another Houston luminary with a sing-song flow and class-clown snaps. 9 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, (212) 997-4144; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Sinagra) ABDULLAH CHHADEH (Wednesday) Abdullah Chhadeh plays the qanun (an 81-string zitherlike instrument) with his ensemble Nara. The group uses jazz double bass and Western percussion, as well as the nay (reed flute), darbuka (hand drum) and Arabic accordion. 7:30 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $20. (Sinagra) CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH (Tonight and tomorrow) The Brooklyn quintet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah recalls the shamanic whine and thrum of the mid-1990s lo-fi rockers Neutral Milk Hotel, and sometimes the slippery paranoid quirk of the Talking Heads. 8:30 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; (sold out). (Sinagra) THE COUP (Tomorrow) The funky, political Coup took flak in 2001 for a pre-9/11 album cover featuring exploding twin towers. But the groups main man, Boots Riley, has lost none of the oppositional fervor. 10 p.m., Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place, at Washington Square South, Greenwich Village, (212) 992-8484; $25 general admission; $15 for New York University faculty and staff; $7 for N.Y.U. students. (Sinagra) LILY CUSHMAN CULHANE, THE REPUTATION (Monday) Lily Cushman Culhane sings dry, breathy torch songs over rattletrap grooves that recall Tom Waitss early-90s albums. Elizabeth Elmore of the Reputation writes punchy melodic rock anthems about tricky romance. 8 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; $8. (Sinagra) ELBOW, THE CLOUD ROOM (Thursday) Elbow is one of many British bands that have emerged in the wake of Radiohead and Spiritualized, mixing cinematic sonic drift with pointillist emotional disclosure. The new-wave-influenced naïf rockers the Cloud Room garnered wild, though deeply underground, buzz for their best song, Hey Hey Now, which never broke into the larger indie-pop consciousness. 7 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $2o in advance, $23 at the door. (Sinagra) THE FIERY FURNACES (Wednesday) This brother-and-sister art-rock duos music cuts melodies with carnivalesque keyboard vamps and digressive skronk. 7:30 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $20. (Sinagra) FIGURINES (Wednesday) The Danish rock band Figurines distinguishes itself from the current glut of post-punk formalists by aping instead the frustrated eeriness of Northwestern indie-rock bands like Modest Mouse. The vocalist Christian Hjelm balances art-song archness and lonely busker frailty. 9 p.m., Rothko, 116 Suffolk Street, Lower East Side, (212) 475-7088; $10. (Sinagra) FRANZ FERDINAND, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE (Tonight) At the vanguard of the post-post-punk trend, the poker-faced Franz Ferdinand plays herky-jerky party music. Death Cab is a decorous diarist-rock band whose sound gets added alternative-rock heft on the recent Plans (Atlantic). 6, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, (212) 564-4882; $40. (Sinagra) JAMMY AWARDS (Thursday) This is the night when the jam band world proves that its vision extends beyond Grateful Dead approximations. This years performers include a grab bag of classic rock vets (Little Feat, Peter Frampton); legends of quick-fingered instrumentalism (Bela Fleck, Joe Satriani); and beat scientists (Mad Professor, DJ Logic), as well as the Senegalese great Baaba Maal, the august folkie Richie Havens and the road-tested heroes of the jam scene, Blues Traveler. 8 p.m., Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $39.50 to $54.50. (Sinagra) SHOOTER JENNINGS, DIAMOND NIGHTS (Tuesday) Mr. Jennings follows the outlaw tradition of his legendary father, Waylon, and shares his rough-hewn singing style. But while the younger Mr. Jenningss music is decidedly country, he adds his own classic-rock-informed sensibility. The Diamond Nights of New York play 70s hard-rock with a dollop of new wave. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $17.50 in advance, $18 at the door. (Sinagra) ROBERT EARL KEEN (Tomorrow) This gravel-voiced Texas songwriter, a contemporary of Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith, is a storyteller who can unfurl a sad-luck tale with genuine heart and a sardonic twinge. Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $25 in advance, $30 at the door. (Sinagra) R. KELLY (Tuesday) Few artists have turned their personal travails into unique pop music like R. Kelly, whose multi-part R&B saga Trapped in the Closet is a singularly strange psychosexual ramble. He is billing himself as Mr. Showbiz for this Light It Up tour, presenting a parade of hits that downplays any voyeuristic weirdness without skimping on the up-front sexuality that has made him famous and dangerous. 8 p.m., Radio City Music Hall, (212) 247-4777; $39.50 to $89.50. (Sinagra) TALIB KWELI (Tomorrow) The brainy rapper Talib Kwelis agile attack still lacks Jay-Zs precision, 50 Cents swagger and Nass anguish. But his thrust can be raw and his struggle beautiful when he laments things like Lauryn Hills absence from the music scene. 11 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $25 in advance, $30 at the door. (Sinagra) LADYTRON (Tomorrow) Influenced by 1980s synth-pops great songwriting as well as its style, Ladytron arrived before New Yorks fleeting electroclash moment, and it has survived it, playing dark, droning dance-pop cut with a romantic sense of alienation. 9 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; (sold out). (Sinagra) ALAN LICHT AND THE PRIX (Monday) For this get-together of indie-rock vets, the experimental guitarist Alan Licht will be backed by the guitarist Chris Brokaw (formerly of Come and Codeine), the bassist Doug McCombs (of Tortoise), and the drummer Elliott Dicks. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503; $8. (Sinagra) THOMAS MAPFUMO AND THE BLACKS UNLIMITED (Tuesday) A musical pioneer with a rebels courage, Thomas Mapfumo made music for the revolutionaries who unseated the white-ruled government from what was Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. The music transferred the brisk patterns of traditional thumb-piano music to guitar; the words sometimes sent coded messages. 9 and 11:30 p.m., S.O.B.s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Sinagra) JOAN OSBORNE (Tuesday) Best known for her hit song musing on the Almighty, One of Us, Joan Osborne has since focused on the blues and R&B tradition in which she got her start. Expect lots of classic covers and possibly a display of the Qawwali singing she learned from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. 8 p.m., Coda, 34 East 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 685-3434; $25. (Sinagra) ROBERT POLLARD, RICHARD DAVIES (Thursday) The prolific recording maven Robert Pollard may have disbanded his much beloved band, Guided by Voices, but he continues to record and perform with undeterred gusto. The Australian singer-songwriter Richard Davies has pursued a solo career after playing in the baroque-pop outfit the Cardinal. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sinagra) Sufi music with AHMET OZHAN AND THE WHIRLING DERVISHES (Tomorrow) Accompanied by the ritual Sufi dancers of the Istanbul Mevlevi Order, the singer Ahmet Ozhan will perform songs in the classical mystic tradition. 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $20 to $100. (Sinagra) TV ON THE RADIO (Tuesday) TV on the Radio tops its jittery rhythms and paranoid guitars with the haunting vocal yelps of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. They are soon to release a major-label debut, reportedly even more out-there than their indie releases. 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; (sold out). (Sinagra) DAR WILLIAMS (Tuesday) This adorable coffeehouse singer-songwriter augments her sweet voice with that rare quality of seeming like a real person. 7 p.m., Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780 or Ticketmaster.com or (212) 307-7171; $30. (Sinagra) Cabaret Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. * KAREN AKERS (Tonight and tomorrow, and Tuesday through Thursday) The regal cabaret singer and the brassy songs of Kander and Ebb that she is offering in her new show may not be an obvious fit. But Ms. Akers locates the heart inside the brass and sass. 9 p.m., with additional shows tonight and tomorrow night at 11:30, Algonquin Hotel, Oak Room, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331; $60 cover, with a $20 minimum; $60 prix fixe dinner required on Thursdays and at the early shows tonight and tomorrow. (Stephen Holden) BARBARA CARROLL (Sunday) Even when swinging out, this Lady of a Thousand Songs remains an impressionist with special affinities for Thelonious Monk and bossa nova. 2 p.m., Algonquin Hotel, Oak Room, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331; $75, including brunch at noon. (Holden) BLOSSOM DEARIE (Tomorrow and Sunday) To watch this singer and pianist is to appreciate the power of a carefully deployed pop-jazz minimalism combined with a highly discriminating taste in songs. The songs date from all periods of a career remarkable for its longevity and for Ms. Dearies stubborn independence and sly wit. Tomorrow at 7 p.m., Sunday at 6:15 p.m., Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 265-8133; $25, with a $15 minimum, or $54.50 for a dinner-and-show package. (Holden) BABY JANE DEXTER (Tomorrow) This booming pop-blues contralto may not be demure, but she is tasteful in a smart, regal, big-mama way, and she is astute in her choices of often obscure soul, blues and jazz songs that play to her contradictory mixture of the lusty and the philosophical. 7 p.m., Helens, 169 Eighth Avenue, near 18th Street, Chelsea, (212) 206-0609; $20, with a $15 minimum. (Holden) * MARY CLEERE HARAN (Tonight and tomorrow, and Tuesday through Thursday) A wonderful no-frills singer with a sophisticated wit, Ms. Haran has a remarkable talent for simultaneously interpreting standards in the spirit in which they were written and looking at them through 21st-century eyes. 8:45 p.m., with additional shows tonight and tomorrow night at 10:45, Café Carlyle, at the Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600; $60 tonight and tomorrow; $50 Tuesday through Thursday. (Holden) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. DARCY JAMES ARGUES SECRET SOCIETY (Tuesday) As the name implies, this 18-piece big band is calibrated for maximum intrigue, with a sound that suggests Steve Reich minimalism as well as orchestral jazz in the lineage of Bob Brookmeyer (one of Mr. Argues mentors). The ranks of the band include such hale improvisers as the trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, the tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin and the trombonist Alan Ferber. 10 p.m., Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, between Houston and Bleecker Streets, Lower East Side, (212) 614-0505; cover, $12. (Nate Chinen) OMER AVITAL GROUP (Thursday) The bassist Omer Avital, a staple of the West Village club Smalls during its premillennial first run, is back after a spell in his native Israel, with new music and a new stable of bands. This one consists of Joel Frahm on tenor saxophone, Avishai Cohen on trumpet, Omer Klein on piano and Greg Hutchinson on drums. 10 p.m. and midnight, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 675-7369; cover, $20; includes two drinks. (Chinen) TIM BERNES BIG SATAN (Wednesday) Mr. Berne, a vigorous and exploratory alto saxophonist, makes interplay the driving force in his band with the guitarist Marc Ducret and the drummer Tom Rainey. This one-night stand kicks off a month of touring. 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) RON CARTER/KARRIN ALLYSON (Tuesday through April 23) Mr. Carter, an august and influential bassist, has had mixed success as a bandleader; his best efforts usually involve the articulate pianist Stephen Scott, who joins him in this quartet. Ms. Allyson comes bearing a new album, Footprints (Concord), which delves into Jon Hendricks-style vocalese; as on the album, she digs in here with a strong ensemble spearheaded by the pianist Bruce Barth. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $35 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) LARRY CORYELL, VICTOR BAILEY AND LENNY WHITE (Through Sunday) Their recent album, Electric (Chesky), works hard to deserve the moniker; it relies equally on Mr. Coryells searing guitar, Mr. Baileys electric bass and Mr. Whites earthy drumming. 8 and 10 p.m., with 11:30 sets tonight and tomorrow night. Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) STEVE DAVIS QUINTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) A trombonist steeped in precise and pugnacious hard bop, with a group consisting of Steve Nelson on vibraphone, Larry Willis on piano, Nat Reeves on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums. 8 and 9:45, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, Manhattan, (212) 885-7119; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) THE FRANK AND JOE SHOW (Wednesday) Exuberance is the currency of this four-piece band, which finds equal inspiration in swing (both the American and Gypsy varieties) and Latin music (or some approximation thereof). Frank is Frank Vignola, a guitarist; the Joe in the equation is Joe Ascione, a drummer. 8 and 10 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * BILL FRISELL QUINTET (Tuesday through April 23; April 25 through 30) On his latest Nonesuch releases -- East/West and Further East/Further West, both partly recorded at the Village Vanguard -- the guitarist Bill Frisell conjures a compelling hallucination of the American popular songbook, with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen on bass and drums. The addition of the saxophonist Greg Tardy and the trumpeter Ron Miles should alter the ensembles chemistry as well as its size. 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20; $25 on Fridays and Saturdays, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) EDDIE GALES NOW BAND (Tomorrow through Monday) Mr. Gale is a trumpeter with serious avant-garde credentials, having worked closely with the trailblazers Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra, among others. Visiting from the West Coast, he makes three stops in as many days, with a group of estimable players including the trombonist Dick Griffin and the bassist Todd Nicholson. Tomorrow at 9 p.m., Sistas Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue, at Jefferson Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, (718) 398-1766. Sunday at 3 p.m., Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street, at Rivington Street, Lower East Side, (212) 696-6681; cover, $10 per set; $7 for students; free for ages 14 and under. Monday at 9 p.m., Zebulon, 258 Wythe Avenue, near North Third Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 218-6934; no cover. (Chinen) MARY HALVORSON AND JESSICA PAVONE (Thursday) Ms. Halvorson plays guitar in this duo, and Ms. Pavone plays viola. Their experimental instincts, sharpened by an affiliation with Anthony Braxton, commingle with a folksy lyricism; sometimes they even sing, without a trace of protective irony. 8 p.m., The Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village; cover, $10. www.thestonenyc.com. (Chinen) BILLY HART QUARTET (Through Sunday) Mr. Hart, a loose but focused drummer with a sterling résumé, fronts a dream team of younger players: the tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, the pianist Ethan Iverson and the bassist Ben Street. 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20 to $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JOHN HEBERTS BYZANTINE MONKEY QUARTET (Wednesday) A progressive ensemble featuring the original music and bass playing of Mr. Hebert, along with the typically thoughtful contributions of Ralph Alessi, trumpeter; Mat Maneri, violist; and Nasheet Waits, drummer. 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) JOHN HOLLENBECKS CLAUDIA QUINTET (Tomorrow) This improvising chamber ensemble pursues texturally oriented and often contrapuntal exploration; Mr. Hollenbecks drumming is one color on a palette that also includes Chris Speeds clarinet and tenor saxophone, Ted Reichmans accordion, John Heberts bass and Matt Morans vibraphone. 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) DAVID LIEBMAN QUARTET (Tuesday through Thursday) An incantatory saxophonist working in the post-Coltrane idiom, Mr. Liebman plays here with a group featuring a frequent foil, the guitarist Vic Juris. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $20. (Chinen) LIONEL LOUEKE TRIO (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Loueke, a distinctive guitarist and vocalist, favors a form of global jazz deeply informed by his West African homeland, Benin; his bandmates are the bassist Massimo Biolcati and the drummer Ferenc Nemeth. 9 and 10:30, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063; cover, $15. (Chinen) RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA QUARTET (Wednesday and Thursday) Mr. Mahanthappa uses both his razor-sharp alto saxophone tone and his compositional acumen in this group, with the pianist Vijay Iyer, the bassist François Moutin and the drummer Dan Weiss. The group is introducing Code Book, a work created with support from Chamber Music America, that will be the substance of Mr. Mahanthappas next release. 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063; cover, $15. (Chinen) REBECCA MARTIN (Thursday) A singer-songwriter with no small affinity for jazz harmony, Ms. Martin gets more than the usual support from her ensemble, which includes the tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry and the bassist Larry Grenadier, her husband. She shares a bill with Trevor Exter, a cellist and vocalist riding the contemporary current of acoustic pop. 7 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778; cover, $15, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen) PAT MARTINO QUINTET (Thursday through April 23) The guitarist Pat Martinos new Blue Note album, Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery, does exactly what it purports to do. And it works, because of the untroubled self-assurance of the emulation and the simple satisfaction of a hard-swinging band. 8 and 10 p.m., with 11:30 sets on Friday and Saturday, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) MULGREW MILLER QUARTET (Through Saturday) Mr. Miller is a smart pianist with roots firmly planted in jazz tradition, especially the blues. Here he corrals some strong younger players: Myron Walden, alto saxophonist; Ivan Taylor, bassist; and Rodney Green, drummer. 9 p.m., 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662; cover, $25. (Chinen) MARC MOMMAAS AND GLOBAL MOTION (Thursday) Mr. Mommaas, a Dutch tenor saxophonist, employs a fluid post-bop language in this band, with the Danish pianist Nikolaj Hess and the American rhythm team of John Hebert on bass and Tony Moreno on drums. Here the group workshops new pieces by Mr. Hess that draw inspiration from African music. 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, 212 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) FRANK MORGAN QUARTET (Tuesday through April 23) Now in his 70s, the alto saxophonist Frank Morgan is one of the last survivors of the bebop era (and in his case, survivor is truly the appropriate term). He leads a sympathetic group consisting of John Hicks on piano, Curtis Lundy on bass and Victor Lewis on drums. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11:30 set Fridays and Saturdays, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) JENNY SCHEINMAN TRIO (Tuesday) As a violist and violinist, Ms. Scheinman often goes for rustic charm, but she never ceases to be an exploratory improviser. Her more experimental side is purposefully exposed in this setting, featuring the darkly consonant bass playing of Todd Sickafoose and the explosively elastic drumming of Jim Black. 7 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) JANIS SIEGEL (Wednesday through April 21) With her new album, A Thousand Beautiful Things (Telarc), Ms. Siegel applies her self-assured alto to songs by Raul Midón, Suzanne Vega and Nellie McKay. Its the same sort of popular eclecticism she enjoys in Manhattan Transfer, but a few degrees less cloying. 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; cover, $30; $40 on April 21; with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JOHN TCHICAI TRIO (Sunday) The Danish saxophonist and clarinetist John Tchicai developed a reputation for fiery exertions during the first wave of free jazz, but Good Night Songs (Boxholder), his new double CD with the saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase and the guitarist Garrison Fewell, conveys an often tenderhearted intimacy. 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Cafe, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $12, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera ACIS AND GALATEA (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday) Mark Lamoss enchanting production of Handels opera, introduced in 2001, returns to the New York City Opera with two artists making their company debuts in the leading roles. The soprano Sarah Jane McMahon is Galatea, the sea nymph hopelessly in love with a young sailor, Acis, sung by the tenor Philippe Castagner. Ransom Wilson conducts. Sunday at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $25 to $110. (Anthony Tommasini) LA BOHèME (Tonight) James Robinsons production punts the Puccini favorite forward by some 80 years, placing the action in the opening months of World War I and lending an extra tug of pathos. A mostly new cast at the City Opera has taken over, with Yunah Lee as Mimi, Gerard Powers as Rodolfo, Jennifer Black as Musetta and Philip Torre as Marcello. David Wroe conducts. 8, New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $25 to $110. (Jeremy Eichler) CARMEN (Tomorrow and Wednesday) Devilish is what you want in a Carmen, and on opening night at the New York City Opera, Kate Aldrich came through in that role, capturing not only Carmens seductiveness but also her radical proto-feminist pride in her own independence. Unfortunately, there was scant chemistry between her and Robert Breault as Don José. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; sold out tomorrow; $25 to $120 on Wednesday. (Eichler) DON GIOVANNI (Tomorrow) A new cast takes over for the end of the spring run of Mozarts nearly perfect opera at the New York City Opera. Timothy Kuhn will make his company debut in the title role; Claudia Waite will make hers as Donna Anna; and Caroline Worra should be a credible Donna Elvira. Steven Mosteller conducts, adequately. 8 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $45 to $79. (Anne Midgette) DON GIOVANNI (Tonight and tomorrow night) Amatos venerable recipe -- no rehearsals, changing casts at every performance -- should make for an unusual version of Mozarts classic dish, but at least the theaters small scale represents a kind of period fidelity. 7:30, Amato Opera, 319 Bowery, at Second Street, East Village, (212) 228-8200; $30; $25 for students and 65+. (Midgette) * DON PASQUALE (Tomorrow and Tuesday) The veteran Austrian director Otto Schenk understands that the way to make a rich, comic opera like Donizettis Don Pasquale work is to treat it seriously. In his wonderful new production for the Met he taps into the emotions -- jealousy, yearning, fear of death -- that swirl below the surface of this farcical tale about a miserly bachelor who foolishly decides to take a young wife and disinherit his shiftless nephew. The cast is splendid, especially the charismatic soprano Anna Netrebko, the dynamic young baritone Mariusz Kwiecien and, in the title role, the stylish Italian bass Simone Alaimo. (On Tuesday, Lyubov Petrova sings Norina in place of Ms. Netrebko, and John Del Carlo replaces Mr. Alaimo.) Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday at 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; sold out tomorrow; $26 to $175 on Tuesday. (Tommasini) LOHENGRIN (Monday and Thursday) Robert Wilsons luminous production of this luminous opera is not to every taste, but many find that it shines, and Karita Mattila should shine in it as Elsa. The title role should also fit Ben Heppner well. Luana DeVol, an American soprano who has been active mainly in Germany, is Ortrud. Replacing James Levine in the pit is the promising conductor Philippe Auguin, who made his Met debut replacing Mr. Levine in Busonis Doktor Faustus. 7 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $26 to $175. (Midgette) LA TRAVIATA (Tonight) The Mets long-running and highly successful production finally comes to a close, here with Hei-Kyung Hong, Frank Lopardo and Dwayne Croft. 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; sold out. (Bernard Holland) Classical Music BARGEMUSIC (Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday and Thursday) A weekly presenter of chamber music, this floating concert hall also offers great views of Lower Manhattan. Tonight at 7:30, Dmitri Alexeev performs piano works by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Concerts tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. feature rarely heard music by the 18th-century Russian violinist Ivan Khandoshkin, along with Haydn, Shostakovich and Schubert. Sunday evening at 7:30 is a rescheduled performance of music by Messiaen, Beethoven and others. Thursday evening at 7:30, Carlos Prieto (cello) and Doris Stevenson (piano) survey more Shostakovich, as well as Piazzollas Grand Tango. Fulton Ferry Landing, next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083; $35, tomorrow and Sunday afternoon, $40. (Eichler) CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER (Wednesday) There will be Beethoven and Janacek quartets, and then the Pacifica and Miro Quartets will merge in the Mendelssohn Octet. 7:30 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5788; $30 to $52. (Holland) IL DOLCIMELO (Sunday) This German period-instrument ensemble makes its New York debut with works by Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Corelli and Telemann. 5 p.m., Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700; $20. (Eichler) JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET (Tuesday) The venerable Juilliard offers Mozart, Shostakovich and Brahms. 8 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 769-7406; free, but tickets are required. (Holland) * NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Wednesday and Thursday) Mstislav Rostropovich approaches the music of Shostakovich with more authority and close personal knowledge than just about anyone. He returns to the Philharmonic to lead the composers 10th Symphony and his gripping First Violin Concerto, with Maxim Vengerov as soloist. 7:30 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $33 to $104. (Eichler) ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (Sunday) The key names here are less the orchestras than that of René Jacobs, a conductor (and singer) who has reawakened many corners of period performance, and of Solomon, the title character in Handels oratorio. Handel switched largely from opera to oratorio in the 1740s and wrote new oratorios for each Lenten season, so this offering is seasonal as well as inherently appealing. 3 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $56 (Midgette) POMERIUM (Tomorrow) Alexander Blachlys superb early-music choir offers an Easter program with motets composed for Holy Week by Renaissance and early-Baroque composers, including Dufay, Senfl, Lassus, Gesualdo, Monteverdi and Byrd. 1 and 3 p.m., the Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights, (212) 650-2290; $35. (Allan Kozinn) * ST. MATTHEW PASSION (Tonight and tomorrow) After acclaimed presentations in 1997 and 2001, Jonathan Millers revelatory staging of Bachs astounding sacred work has returned to the Harvey Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The chorus members and orchestra musicians wear everyday clothing and sit facing one another in a circle so that they can enact the scenes from the story of Jesus Crucifixion. Instrumentalists and singers interact with and even comfort one another during the sublime arias. Rufus Müller is a charismatic Evangelist; Curtis Streetman makes an affectingly husky and noble Jesus. Paul Goodwin, who conceived the production with Mr. Miller, conducts. 7:30 p.m., 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; $30 to $90. (Tommasini) * SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY (Wednesday and Thursday) Michael Tilson Thomas has made this orchestra into one of the countrys best, and its visits to Carnegie Hall are invariably illuminating. His programs include a range of composers from the late-19th and early-20th centuries, among them, Debussy, Ravel, Wagner and Mahler on Wednesday, and Webern, Stravinsky and Ives on Thursday. Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in the Ravel Piano Concerto in G. 8 p.m., (212) 247-7800; $28 to $97. (Kozinn) FAZIL SAY (Tonight) This young Turkish pianist plays with energy and, when he is at his best, the improvisatory sensibilities of a jazz performer. His program includes the Brahms Intermezzi (Op. 117) and plenty of Bach, both straight (the Italian Concerto and the French Suite No. 6) or hyphenated (Busonis transcription of the Chaconne, along with arrangements by Liszt and Mr. Say himself). 8, Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 570-3949; $40. (Kozinn) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. ALLEN BODY GROUP AND JENNIE MARYTAI LiU (Tonight and tomorrow) Science is the inspiration for Malinda Allens Einsteins Dreams and Ms. Lius Learning in Lower Animals. 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077, dtw.org. Tickets: $20. (Jennifer Dunning) A BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT (Tomorrow) This benefit for Jonah Bokaers new Chez Bushwick Studios is a tribute to Charles Atlas, a filmmaker who has worked with Merce Cunningham. The evening includes a screening of a film and video work by Mr. Atlas (5 p.m.), a performance by artists who have collaborated with Mr. Atlas (7:30 p.m.) and a Shtudio Show (at 9 p.m. ) Chez Bushwick Studios, 304 Boerum Street, Apt. 11, Bushwick, Brooklyn, (917) 459-1072. Tickets: $50 and $150; $250 includes cocktails and dinner. (Dunning) BALLET FIESTA MEXICANA (Tonight through Sunday) Yloy Ybarras company returns in a program of music and dance from Mexico, with live music performed by the group Semilla. Through April 30. Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 4 p.m. Thalia Spanish Theater, 41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside, Queens, (718) 729-3880. Tickets: $25 to $30. (Dunning) CHILDREN OF UGANDA (Tonight through Sunday) Twenty children, ages 8 to 18, will celebrate the culture of their country and of East Africa in song and dance to raise money for Ugandas 1.7 million AIDS and war orphans. Tonight at 7, tomorrow at 2 and 7 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $25; $15 for children. (Dunning) SELMA JEANNE COHEN: A TRIBUTE TO HER LIFE AND WORK (Tomorrow) The last event in this free series is Next Week, Swan Lake: Approaches to Dance History and Criticism, a panel discussion including Mindy Aloff, Jack Anderson, Marcia Siegel and George Dorris. 3 p.m., Bruno Walter Auditorium, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 111 Amsterdam Avenue, at 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 642-0142. Free. (Dunning) DANCE PLUS SPRING (Thursday through April 23) The program includes dances by David Dorfman, Julia Ritter, John Evans, Randy James and Paulette Sears, all dance teachers, and Megan Hebert, a student choreographer. Thursday, next Friday and April 22 at 8 p.m.; April 23 at 2 p.m., Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street, between Route 18 and Ryders Lane, Douglass College campus, New Brunswick, N.J., (732) 932-7511 or masongross.rutgers.edu. Tickets: $20 (Dunning) * MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY (Tuesday) The company seems to be in transition, to put it mildly, but it is still the primary keeper of some of the great modern-dance repertory of the last century, and of some wonderful dancers. The major event is a gala on Tuesday that includes Richard Move, the Graham impersonator, performing a duet with Desmond Richardson, and a solo by Fang-Yi Sheu. 7:30 p.m., Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place, at Washington Square South. For $45 performance tickets, (212) 992-8484; for $150 and $500 gala tickets, (212) 521-3667, or marthagraham.org. Also on Tuesday, five generations of Graham performers will give a master class in the studio where Graham taught in the 1930s. 11:30 a.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5553. Audience: $15. Participants: $12 for professionals, $15 for others. Ancillary events continue on April 21 and 25. (John Rockwell) MARIA HASSABI (Tonight and tomorrow) Hip, rawly emotional and mysterious, Ms. Hassabi will present her new program, Still Smoking, which investigates the frenetic experience of city life. Tonight at 7 and 9:30; tomorrow at 8 p.m., the Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 255-5793, ext. 11, thekitchen.org. Tickets: $12. (Dunning) LEADING LADIES: ALETHEA ADSITT & COMPANY (Tonight and tomorrow) This festival of dances by women continues with the new jalopy, a new multimedia, site-specific piece presented by Alethea Adsitt & Company. 8 and 10 p.m., Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, SoHo, (212) 279-4200, ticketcentral.com or dnadance.org. Tickets: $17. (Dunning) NEWSTEPS (Thursday through April 22) Miriam Hess, Jessica Ray and Adrienne F. Westwood are among those featured, as the Mulberry Street Theaters semiannual choreographers showcase explores themes of power, relationship and memory. 8 p.m., 70 Mulberry Street, second floor (corner of Mulberry and Bayard Streets), Chinatown, (212) 349-0126. Tickets: $12. (Claudia La Rocco) DAVID PARKER AND THE BANG GROUP (Tonight and tomorrow) The irrepressible Mr. Parker will present dances that include his new Backward and in Heels, a piece for six dancers that is set to music. That music incorporates excerpts from the score from The Sound of Music; Hava Nagila, played by a hand-bell choir; and Schuberts Ave Maria. 8:30 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org. Tickets: $21. (Dunning) MARISSA PEREL (Tonight and tomorrow) Ms. Perel, who has worked with Miguel Gutierrez, will present her new Burden, a dance performance and installation that also features the dancer Kayvon Pourazar and the musician Jon Moniaci. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8. The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (212) 352-3101 or theatermania.com. Tickets: $15. (Dunning) * STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY (Tuesday through Sunday) What do you get when you mix the singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, the Young Peoples Chorus of New York City and Stephen Petronios extravagant movement language? A concert not to be missed. Tuesday through April 22 at 8 p.m., April 23 at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800. Tickets: $40. (La Rocco) PILAR RIOJA (Tonight through Sunday) It almost doesnt matter what this New York favorite performs, but for the record, the program will include some of Ms. Riojas favorite flamenco dances. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; Sunday at 3 p.m.; Monday at 11 a.m. Repertorio Español, 138 East 27th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, (212) 225-9920. Tickets: $25 to $50. (Dunning) RUSSIAN NATIONAL BALLET (Tomorrow) An indefatigable touring company based in Moscow, with guest stars from elsewhere in Russia, in Swan Lake, of all things. 8 p.m., Queensborough Performing Arts Center, Queensborough Community College, 222-05 56th Avenue, Bayside, Queens, (718) 631-6311. Tickets: $39 and $42. (Rockwell) * SOURCING STRAVINSKY (Wednesday through April 22) Six choreographers take on Stravinsky, with Yvonne Rainer (in a rare new dance work) using both Stravinsky and Balanchines Agon. The other choreographers are Cynthia Hopkins, Dayna Hanson and Linas Phillips, David Neumann and Rennie Harris. 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077 or dtw.org. Tickets: $15 and $25. (Rockwell) TRAS LADOS (Thursday through April 23) Artists from Mexico to Japan come together for the latest installment of Danspace Projects Global Exchange series. Choreographed by Eun Jung Gonzalez, in collaboration with Pulso Compañía de Danza. 8:30 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194 or danspaceproject.org. Tickets: $15. (La Rocco) TRINAYAN COLLECTIVE (Tonight through Sunday) This New York-based company of Indian classical dancers will explore the notion of the witness in Sakshi/Witness, a dance in the Odissi style. 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, SoHo, (212) 334-7479. Tickets: $25; $20 for students and 65+. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * BROOKLYN MUSEUM: SYMPHONIC POEM: THE ART OF AMINAH BRENDA LYNN ROBINSON, through Aug. 14. This prodigious show, by an artist born and still living in Columbus, Ohio, celebrates her heritage in paintings, drawings, sculpture, stitchery, leather work and less classifiable forms of expression. Besides its sheer visual wizardry, using materials like leaves, twigs, bark, buttons and cast-off clothes, her art is compelling in that it ruminates on the history of black migration to, and settlement in, the United States, from early times to the present, in a garrulous, very personal way. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, (718) 638-5000. (Grace Glueck) * Brooklyn Museum: WILLIAM WEGMAN: FUNNEY/STRANGE, through May 28. Descended from Marcel Duchamp and Buster Keaton, Mr. Wegman has straddled high and low for more than three decades, using his signature Weimaraners to make the art worlds funniest videos, as well as television commercials, calendars and childrens books. His popular success has tended to obscure his originality and influence, along with a multifarious production that includes wittily captioned drawings, wonderfully irreverent paintings and a host of nondog photographic work. This thorough and thoroughly entertaining retrospective highlights not only the accessibility of his richly human art, but also its dedication to the 1970s notion that art should not look like art. (See above.) (Roberta Smith) * FRICK COLLECTION: GOYAs LAST WORKS, through May 14. This compact show is sublime. The most humane portraits are mixed with sketches, like diary entries, in which society is an irredeemable mob of lunatics and murderers. In exile in Bordeaux, Goya spent his last days in physical misery, lamenting mans essential evil while experimenting with the new medium of lithography and inventing the most exquisite, luminous paintings on tiny chips of ivory. Like the late works of Titian or Rembrandt, Goyas late works achieve a whole new level of freedom and depth, haunted by death but exalted. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700. (Michael Kimmelman) * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: David Smith: A Centennial, through May 14. David Smith is best known for his worst work, bulky sculptures of the important kind that museums and banks like to buy. Much (though not all) of that material has been excised from this survey in favor of smaller, earlier, nonmonumental pieces that the curator, Carmen Gimenez, presents with plenty of air and light. The result is exemplary as a David Smith experience, an American Modernism experience and a Guggenheim Museum experience. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500. (Holland Cotter) * International Center of Photography: Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, through May 28. If Martians tuned into our television news broadcasts, theyd have a miserable impression of life on Earth. War, disease, poverty, heartbreak and nothing else. Thats exactly how most of the world sees Africa: filtered through images of calamity. The Nigerian-born curator Okwui Enwezor offers a bracing alternative view in this show of recent photography from Africa. He isnt interested in simply exchanging an upbeat Africa for a downbeat one, smiles for frowns, but in engineering a slow, complex, panoptical turn in perspective, one that takes in many moods and directions. The results are stimulating, astringent, brimming with life. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000. (Cotter) METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: HATSHEPSUT, through July 9. Can a queen be a king, too? Consider the case of Hatshepsut, an Egyptian ruler of the 15th century B.C. She assumed the supreme title of pharaoh and ruled Egypt in that powerfully masculine role until her death. Hatshepsut is the subject of a celebratory show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Mets department of Egyptian art. Organized by the Met and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, it includes many objects from the Mets own extensive holdings, excavated at its digs in the 1920s and 30s. But it isnt so easy to follow Hatshepsuts trail in this ambitious show, what with the number of relatives, subordinates, minor officials and such who also have a place in it, along with scarabs, jewelry, pottery, furniture and other artifacts. (212) 535-7710. (Glueck) Met: KARA WALKER AT THE MET: AFTER THE DELUGE, through July 30. The Metropolitan Museum of Arts first foray into artist-organized shows is a small tour de force of curatorial creativity. Inspired partly by Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Walker has combined works from the Met with examples of her own art, connecting shared themes of race, poverty and water to illuminate contemporary arts inevitable dialogue with past art. The show has as many crosscurrents and undertows as a river. (See above.) (Smith) THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: EDVARD MUNCH: THE MODERN LIFE OF THE SOUL, through May 8. This affecting, full-scale retrospective is the first survey of this Norwegian painter in an American museum in almost 30 years. Its more than 130 oils and works on paper cover Munchs entire career, from 1880 to 1944. (212) 708-9400. (Glueck) THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: ON SITE: NEW ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN, through May 1. Since the early 1970s, when Spain began to awaken from the isolation of a four-decade dictatorship, Spanish architects have produced designs of unusual depth, often with a firm connection to the land, a sense of humility and a way of conveying continuity with the past while embracing the present. Packed with pretty images and elegant models, this exhibition lacks the scholarly depth you might have hoped for on such a mesmerizing subject. (See above.) (Nicolai Ouroussoff) * The Museum of Modern Art: Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking, through May 22. This excellent group show considers what Islamic means in the work of several contemporary artists, and it means many things, none simple. Just to see the uses made of calligraphy by Shirazeh Houshiary, Rachid Koraichi and Shirin Neshat is to understand the lesson in variety put forward here. At the same time, the show is far from didactic. Its beautiful, sexy and, in the case of Raqib Shaws painting and Kutlug Atamans video of Sufi meditation, ecstatic. (See above.) (Cotter) National Academy Museum: Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church, through April 30. Exquisite small landscape studies by the best of the Hudson River School painters. They are from the collection at Olana, the Persian-style Victorian mansion -- now a museum -- that Church built on an upstate hill overlooking the Hudson River. 1083 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 369-4880. (Ken Johnson) NEUE GALERIE: KLEE AND AMERICA, through May 22. For a long time, the Swiss-born artist Paul Klee (1879-1940), regarded as a leading Modernist figure in Europe, didnt believe his delicate, chimerical work had much of a future in the United States. Yet, thanks to artists, collectors and dealers with close contacts in Germany who had begun to discover his work, by the early 1920s, Klees impact began to be felt here. This show of more than 60 paintings and drawings assembled exclusively from American holdings covers the wide spectrum of Klees work. 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, (212) 628-6200. (Glueck) P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center: The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now, through April 24. A snappy roundup of recent video, a favored medium among young artists in a digitally savvy 21st-century China, this show has two fine pieces by Cao Fei, who has garnered much attention recently. It is also the occasion for several worthy New York debuts. Some of the art is light, slight, and MTV-ish, but artists like Cui Xiuwen, Xu Zhen, Li Songhua, Xu Tan, Meng Jin and Dong Wensheng give us a lot. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 784-2084. (Cotter) * The Studio Museum In harlem: Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964-1980, through July 2. During one of the most radical periods in 20th-century American politics, the Black Power era, a group of African-American artists was working in one of the most radical forms of 20th-century art, abstraction. This show is stylishly installed (one gallery bursts with color, another has a cool platinum shimmer); the 15 artists are intensely individualistic and part of an important history. One, the sculptor Tom Lloyd (1921-96), opened the Studio Museum with a solo show in 1968. 144 West 125th Street, (212) 864-4500. (Cotter) Whitney Museum of American Art: WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2006: DAY FOR NIGHT, through May 28. This biennial will provoke much head-scratching by uninitiated visitors. A hermetic take on what has been making waves, its packaged -- branded might be the better word -- as a show long on collaboration and open-endedness: several shows under one roof, including a revival of the 1960s Peace Tower, which rises like a Tinker Toy construction from the Whitney courtyard, with contributions by dozens of artists. As a counter to the image of the art world as rich, youth-besotted and obsessed with crafty little nothings, the ethos here is provisional, messy, half-baked, cantankerous, insular -- radical qualities art used to have when it could still call itself radical and wasnt like a barnacle clinging to the cruise ship of pop culture. That was back in the 1970s. And much of whats here (including works by bohemians and other senior eccentrics around then) harks back to that moment. (800) 944-8639 or www.whitney.org. (Kimmelman) Galleries: Uptown PETER BEGLEY Parisian esprit enlivens Peter Begleys latest multipanel paintings. Their motif is the cornice: a ubiquitous emblem of Baron Haussmanns grand boulevards, which, abstracted and made delicately ornate, permits Mr. Begley to add illusory depth to his usual richly worked, waxy fields of warm color. Partly the filigree, partly the gentle rapture with his recently adopted city give to these new works a bit of the élan of old Raoul Dufy. Salander-OReilly, 20 East 79th Street, (212) 879-6606, through April 22. (Kimmelman) Tony Cragg: Five Bottles In the early 1980s, this eminent English sculptor made flat, mosaiclike works out of found colored plastic objects and fragments. This show presents a set of five wall-works, each representing a different giant colored bottle composed of toys, combs, cigarette lighters and other pieces of ordinary commercial detritus. Vivian Horan, 35 East 67th Street, (212) 517-9410, through April 21. (Johnson) 1968: All in a Dream In 1968 the photographer Lenny Gottlieb saved 30,000 snapshots that were supposed to have been thrown out at the photographic processing lab where he was working. Approximately 500 of them are on view here; collectively, they offer an enthralling cross-section of American life during a year of tremendous change. Andrew Roth, 160A East 70th Street, (212) 717-9067, through April 29. (Johnson) * NAGASAWA ROSETSU This rare survey of this eccentric painter of 18th-century Kyoto consists of 14 works that reveal a breathtaking command of different skills and styles in portraiture, landscape, nature painting and calligraphic minimalism, and an almost chameleonlike instinct for using them. Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts, 58A East 66th Street, (212) 744-5577, through Thursday. (Smith) Galleries: 57th Street Darren Almond /Janice Kerbel: The Impossible Landscape Nothing is obvious in this handsome show of works by two London-based Conceptualists. The connection is that both make visible things that are in different ways impossible. Ms. Kerbels elegantly abstracted designs for gardens in an office, a Laundromat and other unlikely places are meant to be imagined but never actually built. Mr. Almonds sumptuous, subtly eerie landscape photographs were shot at night using long exposures, making visible what would be invisible to the naked eye. The Horticultural Society of New York, 128 West 58th Street, (212) 757-0915, through May 5. (Johnson) Galleries: SoHo Rico Gatson: African Fractals Mr. Gatsons suave geometric paintings and sculptures of symbolically charged vernacular objects -- a whipping post in the form of a Christian cross with wrist-holes, for example -- feature African-style stripe patterns, creating a dialogue between utopian modernism and tragic social history. A video installation produces hypnotic patterns out of films of the pageantry surrounding the great boxing match between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman that took place in Zaire in 1974. Ronald Feldman, 31 Mercer Street, (212) 226-3232, through April 22. (Johnson) Joëlle Tuerlinckx: Drawing Inventory A prominent Belgian Conceptualist presents a dry and oblique installation consisting of a large quantity of ordinary materials more or less related to the art of drawing. The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, (212) 219-2166, through April 22. (Johnson) When Artists Say We This timely sociological experiment of a show features 17 artists or artist groups who were invited to create wall-diagrams or mini-exhibitions reflecting on the social networks out of which contemporary art emerges. Artists Space, 38 Green Street, (212) 226-3970, through April 29. (Johnson) Galleries: Chelsea Tara Donovan Known for creating improbable accumulations of ordinary things, Ms. Donovan here has arranged three million plastic cups in stacks from ankle-high to five feet. They make a 50-by-60-foot rectangle on the floor, resembling a lumpy field of snow. PaceWildenstein, 545 West 22nd Street, (212) 929-7000, through April 22. (Johnson) NAN GOLDIN: CHASING A GHOST A riveting if flawed three-screen video projection titled Sisters, Saints & Sibyls hauntingly details the trauma that drives Ms. Goldins invasive, yet oddly solitary photographs, as well as her lifelong battle with addiction: the suicide of her troubled older sister in 1965 at the age of 18. The piece mixes video, family snapshots and the artists photographs, and is heightened by a sensitive selection of music that may almost do too much of the work. But its unalloyed honesty offers extreme evidence that most art begins in an attempt to heal a deep psychic wound. Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 West 22nd Street, (212) 243-0200, through April 22. (Smith) Markus Hansen: Other Peoples Feelings Are Also My Own In high-definition video projections of pairs of photographs, Mr. Hansen, a Paris-based German artist, dresses like and adopts the facial expression of the man, woman or child in the picture next to his. Whatever his project means to say about modern identity, it is absorbing to study how closely he is able to match other peoples feelings, which range from carefree happiness to doleful anxiety. Virgil de Voldere, 526 West 26th Street, (212) 343-9694, through April 22. (Johnson) * MARK LECKeY: DRUNKEN BAKERS This cinematically gifted British artist raises his game with a stop-action animation made by simply shooting a raunchy, well-drawn comic strip for adults in close-up, turning its speech balloons into spoken dialogue and adding realistic sound effects. Shown in an increasingly grubby white-on-white cube, the work is elegantly efficient, funny and dark, and adds another twist to the convoluted history of appropriation art. GBE @ Passerby, 436 West 15th Street, (212) 627-5258, through April 22. (Smith) Eve K. Tremblay: Tales Without Grounds A rising young Canadian photographer presents glossy staged photographs of people doing enigmatic things in and around a large facility for hydroponic lettuce cultivation. With their cinematically intense colors, Ms. Tremblays pictures are like stills from a Tarkovskian science fiction movie. Buia, 541 West 23rd Street, (212) 366-9915, through April 22. (Johnson) Other Galleries B-Side This engaging group show includes Tim Spelioss beautifully made Surrealistic drum set in which the components are square rather than round; Matt Freedmans life-size sculpture of a boy with a lions teeth and elephant eyes; Mary Carlsons crocheted works resembling splats of blood on the wall; Joyce Pensatos expressionistically painted clown face; Judith Pages ghoulish and viscous small portraits; Meredith Allens funny and scary photographs of dogs; and a painting by Jim Torok that declares: You have no worries. Things are going well. Dont wake up. Sarah Bowen, 210 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 302-4517, through April 30. (Johnson) Zoo Story A clay gorilla by Daisy Youngblood, a bronze she-wolf by Kiki Smith, a flock of concrete sheep by Françoise-Xavier Lalanne and works about animals by more than 20 other artists, including John Baldessari, Katharina Fritsch, Ross Bleckner and Rebecca Horn, turn the first floor of this sleek, three-story private museum into a diverting menagerie. Fisher Landau Center for Art, 38-27 30th Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 937-0727, through June 12. (Johnson) Last Chance TIM BARBER A fresh, even touching reprise of the overused convention of walls papered with unframed photographs and small, cartoonish drawings, this show has been culled from Mr. Barbers Web site, tinyvices.com. With 250 people represented, it blurs the line between professional and amateur and introduces a savvy curatorial eye. Spencer Brownstone Gallery, 39 Wooster Street, SoHo, (212) 334-3455; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * BLUE GLAZE OF THE TANG This exceptional exhibition of Tang horses, court ladies, equestrian figures and grooms brings together rare examples of the unusually painterly sancai ware in which the traditional three-color glaze includes cobalt blue. Berwald Oriental Art, 5 East 57th Street, (212) 319-1519; closes tomorrow. (Smith) Marcel Broodthaers This reverential exhibition of just three works by a Belgian Conceptualist regarded as a Duchampian saint in some sectors of the art world includes a hat painted white and attached to a canvas painted black and white; a work called LErreur, consisting of 45 eggshells attached to a canvas labeled moules, the French word for mussels; and a set of canvases neatly inscribed with words relating to the composition and sale of paintings. Peter Freeman, 560 Broadway, near Prince Street, SoHo, (212) 966-5154; closes tomorrow. (Johnson) PHIL COLLINS In his third New York solo show, this British artist presents two video pieces in which interviews with Turkish reality show participants and a series of karaoke performances create a kind of ambient documentary about life, television and the pursuit of celebrity. While the show is a bit short on artistic nutrients, the cumulative effect says almost more than is bearable about the combination of delusion and oppression that fuels everyday life. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 521 West 21st Street, Chelsea, (212) 414-4144; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * Dan Fischer Velvety graphite drawings copied from Xerox copies of book and magazine images of well-known artists like Robert Smithson and Sol LeWitt and artworks like Jeff Koonss iconic Rabbit evoke and possibly satirize the reverence that some people feel for modern and contemporary art. Derek Eller, 615 West 27th Street, Chelsea, (212) 206-6411; closes tomorrow. (Johnson) Daniel Johnston: The Story of an Artist The nearly 70 ballpoint and felt-tip drawings by this semi-outsider artist, rock musician and 2006 Whitney Biennial pick dont live up to the hype, but they are fun to look at. In a distracted but versatile faux-adolescent style, the Texas-based Mr. Johnston creates sweet and sometimes hair-raising cartoon improvisations on themes of love, sex, hope, despair and death. Clementine, 632 West 27th Street, Chelsea, (212) 243-5937; closes tomorrow. (Johnson) * FRANCIS PICABIA: WORKS ON PAPER, 1901-1951 Consistent with the predominantly linear, sometimes kitschy imagery of the artists proto-postmodern transparency paintings, the 100 works on paper here reveal a lifelong involvement with drawing, marked by an indifference to notions of style, taste, consistency, skill or progress. It is both a challenge and a treat. Michael Werner, 4 East 77th Street, (212) 988-1623; closes tomorrow. (Smith)

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The Listings: July 22 -- July 28

Theater Approximate running times are in parentheses. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Previews and Openings AMERICAN LIVING ROOM FESTIVAL Through Aug. 21. One of the more unpredictable summer festivals presents new and multidisciplinary work. This years theme is Carousel of Progress. Here Arts Center, 145 Avenue of the Americas, at Dominick Street, South Village, (212)868-4444. DEDICATION, OR THE STUFF OF DREAMS Previews start Tuesday. Nathan Lane and Marian Seldes star in a new Terrence McNally play about a couple who want to buy a theater in upstate New York. (2:15). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212)279-4200. EAST TO EDINBURGH FESTIVAL Through July 31. A mix of Fringe-style shows that include A Clockwork Orange and The Booth Variations. 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212)279-4200. HOSPITAL Closes Aug. 27. Axis Companys annual serial examines the inner life of a person in a coma. Every two weeks, theres a new 30-minute installment, but each works on its own. Axis Theater, 1 Sheridan Square, off Seventh Avenue, West Village, (212)352-3101. LENNON Opens Aug. 4. Latest jukebox musical (with a Yoko-approved biographical story of the beloved singer) boasts three rare and unpublished tunes to go with all your old favorites (2:10). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2005 The chic-est festival of the summer puts a premium on cultural crosspollination. Among its offerings are the New York artist Robert Wilsons version of an Indonesian creation myth, I La Galigo; a show about the life and work of the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, created by Stephin Merritt, an American musician, and Chen Shi-Zheng, a Chinese director (and, incidentally, starring an Irish actress, Fiona Shaw); and the French master Ariane Mnouchkines epic spectacle about Iranian and Kurdish refugees. Through July 31. Sites in and around Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500. OEDIPUS AT PALM SPRINGS Opens Aug. 3. What hath gay marriage wrought? Find out in the Five Lesbian Brothers comic spin on Greek tragedy, which they are calling the feel weird lesbian tragicomedy of the year. (1:30). New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212)460-5475. ONCE AROUND THE SUN Previews start Wednesday. Opens Aug. 11. A musician/wedding singer gets an opportunity to sign on a major label, but that will mean leaving his bandmates behind. A musical about selling out. (2:00). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. Broadway ALL SHOOK UP In a pint-size theater with a campy young cast, All Shook Up might be a moderate hoot. Inflated to Broadway proportions, its a mind-numbing holler (2:10). Palace Theater, 1564 Broadway, at 47th Street, (212)307-4100.(Ben Brantley) THE BLONDE IN THE THUNDERBIRD With nary a sequin in sight, Suzanne Somers, the ex Threes Company star and perky Home Shopping Network pitchwoman, gives a guided tour of the highs and lows of her personal and professional lives. Devoted fans may savor this no-frills, quasi-intimate audience with a favorite celebrity. For all others, caveat emptor (1:35). Brooks Atkinson, 256 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212)307-4100. (Charles Isherwood) CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG The playthings are the thing in this lavish windup music box of a show: windmills, Rube Goldberg-esque machines and the shows title character, a flying car. Its like spending two and a half hours in the Times Square branch of Toys R Us (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212)307-4100. (Brantley) THE CONSTANT WIFE A stylish production of a creaky 1926 comedy by W. Somerset Maugham. Kate Burton stars as a well-heeled English wife who scarcely raises an eyebrow at her husbands philandering, scandalizing her friends. Maughams dialogue isnt quite as witty as the brisk Ms. Burton and Lynn Redgrave, who plays her imperious mother, manage to make it sound (2:15). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212)719-1300. (Isherwood) DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS On paper, this tale of two mismatched scam artists has an awful lot in common with The Producers. But if you are going to court comparison with giants, you had better be prepared to stand tall. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz, never straightens out of a slouch (2:35). Imperial, 249 West 45th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) *DOUBT, A PARABLE (Pulitzer Prize, Best Play 2005, and Tony Award, Best Play 2005) Set in the Bronx in 1964, this play by John Patrick Shanley is structured as a clash of wills and generations between Sister Aloysius (Cherry Jones), the head of a parochial school, and Father Flynn (Brian F. OByrne), the young priest who may or may not be too fond of the boys in his charge. The plays elements bring to mind those tidy topical melodramas that were once so popular. But Mr. Shanley makes subversive use of musty conventions (1:30). Walter Kerr, 219 West 48th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) FIDDLER ON THE ROOF From the moment it sounds its first word in this placid revival, the voice of Harvey Fierstein (who has replaced Alfred Molina in the central role of Tevye) makes the audience prick up its ears. Whether that voice fits comfortably into the Russian village of Anatevka is another issue. But at least it brings a bit of zest to this abidingly bland production (2:55). Minskoff, 200 West 45th Street, (212)307-4100.(Brantley) * GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (Tony Award, Best Play Revival 2005) Highly caffeinated bliss. Watching Joe Mantellos hopping revival of David Mamets play about a dog-eat-dog real estate office is like having espresso pumped directly into your bloodstream. But whats a little lost sleep when youve had the chance to see a dream-team ensemble, including Liev Schrieber and Alan Alda, pitching fast-ball Mamet dialogue with such pure love for the athletics of acting (1:50)? Bernard B. Jacobs Theater, 242 West 45th Street, (212)239-6200.(Brantley) JACKIE MASON: FRESHLY SQUEEZED Jackie Mason has so cunningly manufactured and marketed his dyspeptic comic persona -- the herky-jerky movements used to embellish the routines, the voice thats like a sinus infection with a bad back -- that he may soon be able to refine all actual jokes out of his act, and still slay em. Thats chutzpah. And quite a talent, too (2:05). Hayes, 240 West 44th Street, (212)239-6200. (Isherwood) LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA Love is a many-flavored thing, from sugary to sour, in Adam Guettel and Craig Lucass encouragingly ambitious and discouragingly unfulfilled new musical. The show soars only in the sweetly bitter songs performed by the wonderful Victoria Clark, as an American abroad (2:15). Beaumont, Lincoln Center, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) *THE PILLOWMAN For all its darkness of plot and imagery, Martin McDonaghs tale of a suspected child murderer in a totalitarian state dazzles with a brightness now largely absent from Broadway. Exquisitely directed and designed, The Pillowman features top-of-the-line performances from Billy Crudup, Jeff Goldblum, Zeljko Ivanek and Michael Stuhlbarg (2:40). Booth, 222 West 45th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) *PRIMO In his crystalline adaptation of If This Is a Man, Primo Levis memoir of the Holocaust, Antony Sher creates a portrait in which brutal memory penetrates the very marrow of existence. His great accomplishment is in doing so in an expressly theatrical language that never sensationalizes, lectures or begs for pity (1:30). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) SPAMALOT (Tony Award, Best Musical 2005) This staged re-creation of the mock-medieval movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail is basically a singing scrapbook for Python fans. Still, it seems safe to say that such a good time is being had by so many people that this fitful, eager celebration of inanity and irreverence will find a large and lucrative audience (2:20). Shubert, 225 West 44th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) STEEL MAGNOLIAS Despite an ensemble featuring high-profile veterans of stage, film and television, sitting through this portrait of friendship among Southern women, set in a beauty parlor in small-town Louisiana, is like watching nail polish dry (2:20). Lyceum, 149 West 45th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) SWEET CHARITY This revival of the 1966 musical, directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Wayne Cilento, never achieves more than a low-grade fever when whats wanted is that old steam heat. In the title role of the hopeful dance hall hostess, the appealing but underequipped Christina Applegate is less a shopworn angel than a merry cherub (2:30). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) *THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE The happy news for this happy-making little musical is that the move to larger quarters has dissipated none of its quirky charm. William Finns score sounds plumper and more rewarding than it did Off Broadway, providing a sprinkling of sugar to complement the sass in Rachel Sheinkins zinger-filled book. The performances are flawless. Gold stars all around. (1:45). Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212)239-6200. (Isherwood) *WHOS AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Everybody ultimately loses in Edward Albees great marital wrestling match of a play from 1962. But theatergoers who attend this revealingly acted new production, starring a superb Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin, are destined to leave the Longacre feeling like winners (2:50). Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway *ALTAR BOYZ This sweetly satirical show about a Christian pop group made up of five potential Teen People cover boys is an enjoyable, silly diversion (1:30). Dodger Stages Stage 4, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212)239-6200.(Isherwood) BEAST ON THE MOON Richard Kalinoskis musty romantic drama depicts the fractious marriage of two survivors of the genocide of Armenians during World War I. Larry Mosss production is respectable and effective, but the performances by Omar Metwally and Lena Georgas are exhaustingly busy (2:00). Century Center for the Performing Arts, 111 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212)239-6200. (Isherwood) * BORDER/CLASH: A LITANY OF DESIRES With razor-sharp cheekbones and two voluminous puffs of hair resting on top of a delicate wisp of a body, Staceyann Chin, the author and star of this new autobiographical solo show, is a caricaturists dream. Her appealing if not terribly original show follows her from a tumultuous childhood in Jamaica to New York City, where she starred on Broadway in Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam. (1:30). The Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, (212)307-4100. (Jason Zinoman) DRIVING ON THE LEFT SIDE Its called a reggae play, and the band Reggaelution is one of the best things about this story of an American womans fling with a Jamaican musician (watched by her father and his mother). Unfortunately, an actor plays the lead musician, which blunts the impact both of the band and of this too-pat play, which goes for laugh lines at the expense of credibility. (2:30). TBG Theater, 312 West 36th Street, Manhattan, (212)868-4444.(Anne Midgette) DRUMSTRUCK This noisy novelty at Dodger Stages is a mixed blessing. Providing theatergoers a two-foot drum on every seat, it offers an opportunity to exorcise aggressions by delivering a good beating; and on a slightly more elevated level, it presents a superficial introduction to African culture, lessons in drumming and 90 minutes of nonstop music, song and dancing by a good-natured cast. So, while literally and figuratively giving off many good vibes, it adds up to lightweight entertainment that stops just short of pulverizing the eardrums (1:30). Dodgers Stages, Stage 2, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212)239-6200.(Lawrence Van Gelder) * FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT This production features the expected caricatures of ego-driven singing stars. But even more than usual, the show offers an acute list of grievances about the sickly state of the Broadway musical, where, as the lyrics have it, everything old is old again (1:45). 47th Street Theater, 304 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) LAZER VAUDEVILLE If this isnt an ancient showbiz rule, it ought to be: things will look a lot more impressive if they are done in the dark with a heavy dose of fluorescence. That seems to be the guiding principle behind this hodgepodge of juggling, rope twirling and such, delivered wordlessly by the cast (1:30). Lambs Theater, 130 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. (Neil Genzlinger) MANUSCRIPT Three talented, attractive young actors and some skillfully shaggy dialogue are the only reasons to see Paul Grellongs inconsequential play, a revenge tale centering on the theft of an unpublished manuscript expected to be of great literary merit. Implausibility is a big problem: there are plot holes here you could easily drive a hardback copy of Infinite Jest through (1:30). Daryl Roth Theater, 101 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212)239-6200. (Isherwood) THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS! The musical is the happy narcissist of theater; parody is the best form of narcissism. All it needs are smart writers and winning performers. Thats what we get in this case (1:30). Dodger Stages, Stage 5, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212)239-6200. (Margo Jefferson) *ORSONS SHADOW Austin Pendletons play, about a 1960 production of Ionescos Rhinoceros directed by Orson Welles and starring Laurence Olivier, is a sharp-witted but tenderhearted backstage comedy about the thin skins, inflamed nerves and rampaging egos that are the customary side effects when sensitivity meets success (2:00). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, Greenwich Village, (212)239-6200. (Isherwood) THE PARIS LETTER Jon Robin Baitzs ambitious but schematic play is a morality tale about a misspent life and the dangers of sexual repression. Cleanly directed by Doug Hughes, it features a pair of excellent performances by the superb actors John Glover and Ron Rifkin. But Mr. Baitz gets himself trapped in the mechanical working of an overcomplicated plot (2:00). Roundabout Theater Company, at the Laura Pels Theater, 111 West 46th Street, Manhattan, (212)719-1300.(Isherwood) THE SKIN GAME A powerful performance by James Gale propels the Mint Theaters revival of The Skin Game. The Nobel Prize laureate John Galsworthys drama about two English families whose differences escalate into destructive conflict provides provocative and entertaining theater. (2:20) Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212)315-0231. (Van Gelder) SLAVAS SNOWSHOW Clowns chosen by the Russian master Slava Polunin are stirring up laughter and enjoyment. A show that touches the heart as well as tickles the funny bone (1:30). Union Square Theater, 100 East 17th Street, Flatiron district, (212)307-4100. (Van Gelder) *THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) Is there such a thing as stand-up existentialism? If not, Will Eno has just invented it. Stand-up-style comic riffs and deadpan hipster banter keep interrupting the corrosively bleak narrative. Mr. Eno is a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation (1:10). DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212)239-6200. (Isherwood) TWELFTH NIGHT Just because the Aquila Theaters broad, crowd-pleasing interpretation lacks subtlety doesnt mean that its not effective, in its way. Even if the costumes are a bit too cute -- are the oversize codpieces really necessary? -- the design is crisp and nicely realized, and the performances have more verve and clarity than most summer Shakespeare productions (2:15). Baruch Performing Arts Center, 25th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, (212)279-4200. (Zinoman) Off Off Broadway * BUSTED JESUS COMIX Based on the story of the only cartoonist ever to be tried and convicted of obscenity, this nicely performed 65-minute satire belongs to a rich dramatic tradition of turning dirty-minded artists into First Amendment heroes. David Johnstons script touches on the trial and fills out an invented biography that gives the play a satisfying arc. Access Theater , 380 Broadway, at White Street, TriBeCa, (212)868-4444. (Zinoman) TOP TEN Peter Gil-Sheridans Top Ten is a paint-by-the-numbers series of stereotypes. The cardboard characters and predictable permutations are, in fact, actually numbered. Each vignette is presented as a sort of plot equation that never really adds up. This two-hours-plus theatrical lottery may soon make you feel in need of a remedial math course. Top Ten is even less than the sum of its parts. Sanford Meisner Theater, 164 11th Avenue, near 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212)868-4444. ( Phoebe Hoban) 15 SCREEN PLAY A.R. Gurneys gleefully partisan retooling of the film Casablanca sets one tough saloon owners battle between idealism and cynicism in Buffalo in the 21st century. Staged by Jim Simpson as a deftly orchestrated reading, Screen Play turns out to be more than a quick collegiate caper; its a morally indignant work that fights frivolity with frivolity (1:10). Flea Theater, 41 White Street, TriBeCa, (212)352-3101.(Brantley) Long-Running Shows BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Cartoon made flesh -- sort of (2:30). Lunt-Fontanne Theater, 205 West 46th Street, Manhattan, (212)307-4747. (Brantley) BLUE MAN GROUP Conceptual art as family entertainment (1:45). Astor Place Theater, 434 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212)254-4370. (Brantley) CHICAGO Irrefutable proof that crime pays (2:25). Ambassador, 219 West 49th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200.(Brantley) HAIRSPRAY Fizzy pop, cute kids, large man in a housedress (2:30). Neil Simon Theater, 250 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212)307-4100. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)307-4100. (Brantley) MAMMA MIA! The jukebox that devoured Broadway (2:20). Cadillac Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) MOVIN OUT The miracle dance musical that makes Billy Joel cool (2:00). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, Manhattan, (212)307-4100.(Brantley) NAKED BOYS SINGING Thats who they are. Thats what they do (1:05). Julia Miles Theater, 414 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212)239-6200. (Anita Gates) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Who was that masked man, anyway? (2:30). Majestic Theater, 247 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) THE PRODUCERS The ne plus ultra of showbiz scams (2:45). St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) RENT East Village angst and love songs to die for (2:45). Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, Manhattan, (212)307-4100. (Brantley) STOMP And the beat goes on (and on), with percussion unlimited (1:30). Orpheum Theater, Second Avenue at Eighth Street, East Village, (212)477-2477. (Brantley) Last Chance BOOCOCKS HOUSE OF BASEBALL Paul Boocock finds beauty in great moments from New York Yankee history, and he hates President Bush, but his attempt to merge these two preoccupations into a one-man show is as lame and listless as the 2005 Yankee pitching staff (1:00). Closes tomorrow. Flea Theater, 41 White Street, TriBeCa, (212)352-3101.(Genzlinger). THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND Tom Stoppard acts out nearly every playwrights occasional fantasy -- killing off a few obnoxious theater critics. Indeed, by the time this 80-minute farcical whodunit ends, the critics within the play-within-a-play have already hoisted themselves by their own verbal petards, but Mr. Stoppard -- himself a former critic -- isnt satisfied until hes totally shot them down. While the meta-twists embellishing this deliberately creaky mystery are somewhat stale after three decades, the Performers Access Studio, a troupe of professional actors with disabilities, gives a sprightly rendition of this early Stoppard confection (1:10). Closes Sunday. Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, at 10th Street, East Village, (212)254-1109. (Hoban) Movies Ratings and running times are in parentheses; foreign films have English subtitles. Full reviews of all current releases, movie trailers, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/movies. *BATMAN BEGINS (PG-13, 137 minutes) Conceived in the shadow of American pop rather than in its bright light, this tense, effective iteration of Bob Kanes original comic book owes its power and pleasures to a director (Christopher Nolan) who takes his material seriously and to a star (a terrific Christian Bale) who shoulders that seriousness with ease. Batman Begins is the seventh live-action film to take on the comic-book legend and the first to usher it into the kingdom of movie myth. (Manohla Dargis) *THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED (No rating, 107 minutes) This electrifying French film is the story of an enforcer and would-be concert pianist that hinges on the struggle between the two sides of the male animal, the beauty and the beast. For the adult moviegoer, the film is a well-timed gift; its also essential viewing. (Dargis) THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY (R, 125 minutes, in English and Vietnamese) A young man leaves Vietnam hoping to find his father, an American soldier. Earnest and sometimes clumsy, but also affecting. (A.O. Scott) BEWITCHED (PG-13, 90 minutes) Nicole Kidman stars as a real nose-twitching witch cast in a sitcom redo of Bewitched. The movie is agreeably watchable for an hour, so its too bad that the director Nora Ephron forgot that a gimmick is no substitute for a screenplay, never mind a real movie. (Dargis) * CATERINA IN THE BIG CITY (No rating, 106 minutes, in Italian) In this contemporary political allegory from Italy, a disgruntled teacher and his family move from the country to Rome, where his 12-year-old daughter finds herself the object of a furious tug of war between two cliques, one left wing and bohemian, the other right wing and materialist. Bold, richly textured and entertaining.(Stephen Holden) CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (PG, 116 minutes) Flawed but fascinating. Some of the departures from the book will make Roald Dahl fans roll their eyes, but some of the visuals will make their eyes (and everyone elses) pop. (Scott) CINDERELLA MAN (PG-13, 144 minutes) The best parts of Ron Howards ingratiating Depression-era weepie about the boxing underdog-turned-topdog James J. Braddock are, unsurprisingly, Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti, actors who could steal a movie from a basket of mewling kittens and an army of rosy-cheeked orphans. Renée Zellweger also stars. (Dargis) CRÓNICAS (R, 98 minutes, in Spanish and English) John Leguizamo is an ambitious, unscrupulous Miami reporter for a tabloid television show on the track of a serial murderer of children in an Ecuadorian village. (Holden) DARK WATER (PG-13, 104 minutes) Make that dark, stagnant water.(Dargis) FANTASTIC FOUR (PG-13, 105 minutes) Mediocre at best. (Scott) *GEORGE A. ROMEROS LAND OF THE DEAD (R, 94 minutes) An excellent freakout of a movie in which the living and the zombies alternate between their roles as hunters and hunted. The twist here is that as the walking dead have grown progressively more human, the living have slowly lost touch with their humanity. You wont go home hungry.(Dargis) * HAPPY ENDINGS (R, 130 minutes) An ensemble piece about a miscellany of Angelenos bumping against one another with love and in anger, Don Rooss slyly subversive new movie is a drama disguised as a wisp of a comedy, and a road map to the way we live now. With Lisa Kudrow and the sublime Maggie Gyllenhaal. (Dargis) HERBIE: FULLY LOADED (G, 95 minutes) Herbie: Fully Loaded is a perfectly silly movie for a silly season that in recent years has forgotten how to be this silly. Lindsay Lohan, who combines a tomboyish spunk with a sexy, head-turning strut, gives it a charismatic star boost. (Holden) THE HONEYMOONERS (PG-13, 90 minutes) Not the greatest, baby, but not as bad as it might have been. (Scott) *HOWLS MOVING CASTLE (PG, 118 minutes) The latest animated enchantment from Hayao Miyazaki. Lovely to look at, full of heart and mystery. ( Scott) KICKING AND SCREAMING (PG, 90 minutes) A so-so family sports comedy with Will Ferrell acting goofy, and Robert Duvall (as the father of Mr. Ferrells character and a rival youth soccer coach) parodying his performance in The Great Santini. The story follows a venerable Hollywood formula: its lesson is that winning isnt everything, but of course once you learn this lesson, youll win big, anyway. (Scott) LADIES IN LAVENDER (PG-13, 104 minutes) Two dames of the British empire (Judi Dench and Maggie Smith) inhabit spinster sisters in Cornwall who nurse a handsome Polish violinist back to health in 1936. Amiably bogus. (Holden) MADAGASCAR (PG, 86 minutes) Like many computer-animated features, this one, about four celebrity-voiced animals exiled from the Central Park Zoo, expends most of its imaginative resources on clever visuals. These, in the end, are not enough to compensate for the lack of interesting narrative, real characters or jokes on subjects other than flatulence, excrement and contemporary pop culture. (Scott) MAD HOT BALLROOM (PG, 105 minutes) This documentary follows fifth graders from three very different New York City public schools as they prepare to compete in a ballroom dancing tournament. The sight of 10-year-olds trying to master the graceful, grown-up motions of the fox trot and the tango is charming, and the glimpses of their lives in and outside of school are fascinating, though unfortunately the film offers little more than glimpses. (Scott) *MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (G, 80 minutes) This sentimental but riveting documentary follows the one-year mating cycle of emperor penguins in Antarctica when they leave the ocean and march inland to breed and lay eggs. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film has no qualms about playing on our emotions. (Holden) MR. AND MRS. SMITH (PG-13, 112 minutes) What counts in a movie like this are stars so dazzling that we wont really notice or at least mind the cut-rate writing (from Simon Kinberg) and occasionally incoherent action (from the director Doug Liman). Sometimes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie succeed in their mutual role as sucker bait, sometimes they dont, which is why their new joint venture is alternately a goof and a drag. (Dargis) MONSTER-IN-LAW (PG-13, 102 minutes) Jane Fonda finds a zany, good-natured verve in a dragon-lady caricature that mirrors a comedy so desperate to avoid offending that it runs in panic from every issue it brings up but refuses to address. (Holden) *MURDERBALL (R, 86 minutes) The brutal, highly competitive sport of wheelchair rugby is the subject of the exciting and uplifting (but never mawkish) documentary about the redemptive power of fierce athletic competition. (Holden) *MYSTERIOUS SKIN (Not rated, 99 minutes) Gregg Araki, onetime bad boy of the New Queer Cinema, has made a heartbreaking and surpassingly beautiful film out of Scott Heims clear-eyed novel about two Kansas boys dealing with the consequences of their sexual abuse by a Little League coach. Superb performances, especially by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (Scott) *RIZE (PG-13, 85 minutes) A documentary about clowners and krumpers -- that is, fiercely athletic hip-hop dancers battling in (and with) the streets of Los Angeles. Kinetic and inspiring. (Scott) * SARABAND (R, 107, in Swedish) Ingmar Bergman has called his bleak, unbendingly severe made-for-television epilogue to Scenes From a Marriage his final statement on film. As you watch his swan song, which stars Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson as the embattled ex-spouses, you feel the crushing weight of time pressing in around them. (Holden) *STAR WARS: EPISODE III -- REVENGE OF THE SITH (PG-13, 142 minutes) George Lucas saved the best -- or at least one of the best -- for the end. Or for the middle. In any case, the saga is now complete and has regained much of its original glory. (Scott) WAR OF THE WORLDS (PG-13, 117 minutes) The aliens invade (again). Effectively scary and visually impressive. (Scott) WEDDING CRASHERS (R, 113 minutes) A wink-wink, nudge-nudge Trojan horse of a story, this amiably raunchy sex comedy pivots on two Lotharios persuasively inhabited by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, who love the ladies, but really and truly, cross their cheating hearts, just want a nice girl to call wife. Credited to the screenwriters Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, and directed by David Dobkin. (Dargis) Film Series AFTER VIGO (Through Thursday) When Jean Vigo died (in 1934 at age 29), he had made only one full-length feature film. This festival, which pays tribute to Vigos work and to films directly influenced by him, concludes with Michael Almereydas Another Girl, Another Planet (1992), which recalls Vigos Atalante and Zero for Conduct, on Monday; Léos Caraxs Lovers on the Bridge (1991) on Tuesday; and Ken Loachs Kes (1969) on Thursday. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718)777-3456 or (718)636-4100, $10. (Anita Gates) THE BECK MOVIES (Through Wednesday) The American-Scandinavian Foundation concludes its screenings of these made-for-Swedish-television movies with a double feature on Wednesday. Peter Haber plays Detective Martin Beck, and Mikael Persbrandt is his police-department partner, Gunvald Larsson, who has on-the-job problems relating to women. In Beck: The Ad Man, Detective Martin Beck (Peter Haber) and his partner investigate the death of a woman strangled with fishing line. In Beck: The Boy in the Glass Bowl, an autistic 11-year-old appears to have murdered his mother. Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, between 37th and 38th Streets, (212)879-9779, $8. (Gates) BROOKLYN INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY FILM FESTIVAL (Through Sunday) Features at this juried festival, with films and shorts by and about people with disabilities, include The Scary Lewis Yell-a-Thon (2004), Kiss My Wheels (2003), When Billy Broke His Head (1994) and, on Sunday afternoon, Christopher Reeves documentary The Brooke Ellison Story (2004). Long Island University, Brooklyn campus, corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue, downtown Brooklyn, (718)488-1406, $10; students and 62+, $5. The Brooke Ellison Story screening is free. (Gates) DIVAS! (Through Aug. 30) This summer festival, presented by Thalia Film Classics, honors great women in classical movies, with a double feature this weekend about ladies of slightly ill repute. Butterfield 8 (1960) stars Elizabeth Taylor in an Oscar-winning (if not Oscar-deserving) performance as a New York party girl who comes to a bad end. In Belle de Jour (1967), Catherine Deneuve plays a bored young newlywed who takes an afternoon job at a brothel. Both films play tomorrow and Tuesday. Leonard Nimoy Thalia, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212)864-5400, $10. (Gates) HISTORIC HARLEM PARKS FILM FESTIVAL (Through Thursday) This festival of free outdoor screenings continues on Wednesday night with Chicken Biznis (1998), a South African comedy about entrepreneurship. On Thursday night, the film is Mel Stuarts concert documentary Wattstax (1973). Jackie Robinson Park, the basketball courts, 150th Street and Bradhurst Avenue, Hamilton Heights, (212)360-3326, free. (Gates) IN DEPPTH (Through July 31) BAM Cinématek honors Johnny Depp with an 11-film, three-week retrospective, continuing today with Roman Polanskis Ninth Gate (1999), about a manuscript that can summon the Devil. The weekends other features are Terry Gilliams Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), based on Hunter S. Thompsons book, on Saturday, and Tim Burtons Sleepy Hollow (1999), in which Mr. Depp reinterprets the role of Ichabod Crane. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718)777-3456 or (718)636-4100, $10. (Gates) ERNST LUBITSCH FILM FESTIVAL (Through Aug. 6) Makor, a branch of the 92nd Street Y, is screening five films by Lubitsch (1892-1947) on consecutive Saturdays. Tomorrows feature is The Shop Around the Corner, the 1940 comedy about pen pals in love, starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212)601-1000, $9. (Gates) ROUTE 05: SCION INDEPENDENT FILM SERIES (Through July 26) This four-week series of independent films in six cities concludes its New York run on Tuesday with Dig!, Ondi Timoners documentary about two underground musicians, Anton Newcombe, of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor-Taylor, of the Dandy Warhols. A question-and-answer session with the director follows the screening. TriBeCa Grand Hotel Screening Room, 2 Avenue of the Americas, at White Street, (917)513-9867, free, but R.S.V.P. is required (at www.scion.com/route/dig-info.html). (Gates) RAOUL WALSH RETROSPECTIVE (Through Aug. 14) The Museum of the Moving Images 23-film tribute to Walsh (1887-1980) continues with They Drive by Night (1940), starring Humphrey Bogart, George Raft and Ida Lupino, tomorrow; The Strawberry Blonde (1941), in which James Cagney plays a dentist, on Sunday; and The Roaring Twenties (1939), a gangster film with Bogart and Cagney, on both days. 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718)784-0077, $10. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. ANITA BAKER, BABYFACE (Tomorrow) When she sings about love, as she almost always does, Anita Baker pours her lavish voice into songs that dissolve into wordless raptures. Babyface -- Kenny Edmonds -- has built a dynasty of smooth R&B, with both his own deep confections and the songs hes written and produced for the likes of Boys II Men and Mariah Carey. 8 p.m., Jones Beach Theater, 1000 Ocean Parkway, Wantagh, N.Y., (516)221-1000, $20 to $85.(Jon Pareles) ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS (Thursday) The transvestite warbler and outré art fixture Antony first took up the chanteuse mantle in homage to Isabella Rossellinis tragic character in Blue Velvet. His falsetto is affecting, its imperfections heightening a sense of torchy anguish. Having scaled back his band to the barest elements, he makes the most of these quavering tones. 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212)307-4100, $22.50 to $26.50. (Laura Sinagra) BACKSTREET BOYS (Wednesday) This boy bands sugary yet muscular mid-90s ballads like I Want It That Way melded R&B and machine-tooled Swedish pop. They suffered some when the fresher NSync brought hip-hop into the mix. All grown up, theyve taken to crooning vaguely spiritual anthems. 8 p.m., Radio City Music Hall, (212)247-4777, $34.50 to $74.50. (Sinagra) BORICUA FESTIVAL: EDDIE PALMIERI Y LA PERFECTA II, WILLIAM CEPEDAS BOMBASHE, AND OTHERS (Tomorrow) The Spanish-Harlem-born pianist Eddie Palmieris full-tilt blend of Latin rhythms and jazz dissonance has fueled a half-century-long career. The Puerto Rican trombonist Mr. Cepedas Bombashe group mines Carribbean styles. Bimbo El Oso Manoso rides hip-hops reggaetón wave. Other performers include the Boys Harbor Conservatory Youth Ensemble. 2 p.m., Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, $3 suggested donation. (Sinagra) COHEED AND CAMBRIA (Tonight) In a departure from the more self-referential bands in their emo cohort, Coheed and Cambria play a rough brand of metallic rock that veers into the prog preoccupation with supernatural lore and legend. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212)777-6800, $18 (sold out). (Sinagra) HOWIE DAY (Tuesday and Wednesday) Mr. Day is a stalwart of Bostons folksy coffeehouse scene, but now at the ripe old age of 23, his tastes have drifted closer to alt-rock, trading confessional acoustic outpourings for Radiohead-style refinement. 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212)840-2824, $25. (Sinagra) THE DIRTBOMBS (Thursday) The Detroit garage rocker Mick Collinss raw outfit tears through its live sets, unafraid of dissonance and rough edges. Mr. Collins has a more resonant voice than some of his shouty contemporaries. 9 p.m., Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201)653-1703, $12. (Sinagra) BUDDY GUY, SHEMEKIA COPELAND (Sunday) The Chicago blues guitarist Buddy Guy found a potent outlet when he recently joined forces with the spunky Delta preservationists at Fat Possum Records. His amused and incendiary licks at Radio Citys 2003 blues summit stole the show. And at that same event, the flirty Shemakia Copelands gravel and sass sent the concerts neo-soul stars back to diva school. 7 p.m., North Fork Theater at Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516)334-0800, $42.50. (Sinagra) BEN HARPER AND THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS (Wednesday) In the 10 years since his debut, the bluesy rock guitarist Ben Harper has evolved from lone spiritual singer-songwriter to groovy globetrotting collaborator. His work last year with the Blind Boys of Alabama showcased an easy, inspired give and take. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212)777-6800, $37.50, $40 at the door (sold out). (Sinagra) GARY HIGGINS (Tomorrow) Mr. Higginss lone album, Red Hash, from 1973, is a meandering set of dewy psychedelic folk-rock incantations. After recording it, he fell into obscurity but retained a following among free-form rockers. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7501, $12. (Sinagra) JAGUARES (Tonight) The Jaguares include former members of a leading Mexican rock band, Caifanes, and they add some alternative-rock touches to Caifaness moody, dynamic songs. 8 p.m., B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)997-4144, $35 to $38. (Pareles) TOBY KEITH, LEE ANN WOMACK, SHOOTER JENNINGS (Sunday) With his wholesomely dirty ditties, the country superstar Mr. Keith gets the most patriotic church ladies and their bar-lovin hubbies singing about illicit sex in Mexico while still towing the family-values line. His plainspoken cleverness complicates the bombast of his star-making post 9/11 hit, Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue. Ms. Womack is enshrined for the motherhood anthem I Hope You Dance. Shooter Jennings is the son of Waylon. 7:30 p.m., PNC Bank Arts Center, Exit 116, Garden State Parkway, Holmdel, N.J., (732)335-0400, $33 to $68. (Sinagra) DANIEL LANOIS (Wednesday) Mr. Lanois, the producer (U2, Bob Dylan) whose own songs have a spacious, yearning quality that hovers in his slide-guitar lines. 7 p.m., Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, Lower Manhattan, free. (Pareles) LIGHTNING BOLT (Tonight) Holding the microphone in his mouth, Brian Chippendale, the drummer of this Providence, R.I., noise band, hollers through electronic processors while the bassist Brian Gibson hammers on his strings till overtone squalls splice and recombine into new sonic arrangements. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7501, $10. (Sinagra) LOGGINS & MESSINA (Tomorrow and Sunday) After this seminal West Coast folk-rock duo split up in 1977, Kenny Loggins went on to fame as a footloose 80s radio hitmaker. The two now revive their songs about hazy love, watery peace and Winnie the Pooh, reprising their enduring hippie-family idyll Dannys Song. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., PNC Bank Arts Center, Exit 116, Garden State Parkway, Holmdel, N.J., (732)335-0400, $20 to $75. Sunday at 8 p.m., Jones Beach Theater, 1000 Ocean Parkway, Wantagh, N.Y., (516)221-1000, $20 to $75. (Sinagra) JOHNNY MATHIS (Tonight and tomorrow) The smoothy of smoothies, Johnny Mathis has been crooning for romantic moments ever since the late 1950s, setting a standard for effortless seduction that many pop Romeos still envy. 8 p.m., North Fork Theater at Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516)334-0800, $56.50. (Pareles) THE JUAN MACLEAN (Tomorrow) These know-it-all hipster musicologists play electro disco ornamented by clang and moogy warps. Its the sound of post-indistrial slackers partying in a junk shop, dancing freely. 10 p.m., TriBeCa Grand Hotel, 2 Avenue of the Americas, at White Street, (877)519-6600, free. (Sinagra) THOMAS MAPFUMO (Tomorrow) A musical pioneer with a rebels courage, Thomas Mapfumo made music for the revolutionaries who unseated the white-ruled government from what was Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. The music transferred the brisk patterns of traditional thumb-piano music to guitar; the words sometimes sent coded messages. 10 p.m. and midnight, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Manhattan, (212)576-1155, $20 to $25. (Pareles) OZZFEST FEATURING BLACK SABBATH, IRON MAIDEN, ROB ZOMBIE, MASTADON, ETC. (Tuesday) The heavy-metal rocker (and reality TV patriarch) Ozzy Osbourne still projects a weird menace onstage with convincingly dire pronouncements over Black Sabbaths guitar sludge. This lineup also features the 1970s crypt rockers Iron Maiden, the overweaning industrial metal of Rob Zombie and the drum-heavy monster rock of Mastadon, as well as several others. 9 a.m., PNC Bank Arts Center, Exit 116, Garden State Parkway, (732)335-0400, $50 to $125. (Sinagra) PORTION CONTROL, CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH (Wednesday) Portion Control was fashioning scary industrial music before Skinny Puppy or Nine Inch Nails came on the scene. The Brooklyn quintet Clap Your Hands Say Yeah recalls the shamanic whine and thrum of mid-1990s lo-fi rockers Neutral Milk Hotel, and sometimes the slippery paranoid quirk of the Talking Heads. 8:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212)260-4700, $15 (sold out). (Sinagra) THE RASPBERRIES (Tomorrow and Sunday) The Raspberries were beloved for playing music that recalled the innocent harmonies of the British invasion, and they remain a touchstone for power-pop acts. This is the first time their original lineup has toured since 1975. 8 p.m., B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)997-4144, $50. (Tomorrows show is sold out.) (Sinagra) TOSHI REAGON (Sunday) Singing about both love and politics with the same sense of independence, Toshi Reagon applies her gutsy voice and syncopated guitar playing to songs steeped in blues and funk. 7 p.m., Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212)539-8778 or (212)239-6200, $20. (Pareles) PETE ROCK (Tomorrow) This hip-hop D.J. and producers multilayered tracks for 1990s rappers and the records he released as a duo with CL Smooth exemplified the meditatively deep, jazz-inflected early-90s New York style. Tomorrow he spins a mix of hip-hop soul and funk. 10:30 p.m., Soul Sonic Sunday: Table 50, 643 Broadway, at Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, (212)253-2560, $5 to $10. (Sinagra) REGINA SPEKTOR (Wednesday) The music of this Russian-born singer and pianist (and Strokes collaborator) is of the jaggedly quirky cabaret variety. It brings punk immediacy into a chamber setting, reveling in knotty rhymes and slightly unhinged melodrama. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7503, $25. (Sinagra) TEENAGE FANCLUB (Tonight and tomorrow) Spin magazine spent the 1990s regretting that it chose this Scottish bands album Bandwagonesque (DGC) as 1991s best over Nirvanas debut. But these days, Teenage Fanclubs sludgy melodicism, realized through sad, dreamy guitar sprawl; spare, clever drums; and pained everyman vocals holds up just as well. Lately the band has been working with Chicago post-rock producers, incorporating electronic beeps and buzzes into its wistful power pop. 9 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212)533-2111, $22 to $25. (Sinagra) TSAR (Thursday) Energized but relatively charmless ambition fuels this Los Angeles groups belated follow-up to its 2001 glam-pop debut. That record failed to make the members stars, and naming their latest Band, Girls, Money only calls attention to its pop-punk overreach. 8:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212)260-4700, $10. (Sinagra) THE WAIFS, JIMMIE DALE GILMORE (Tuesday) The Waifs are a young, frisky Australian band in love with older American music like folk-rock and the blues, fronted by two women who sing about trains and city life and huff up a storm on harmonica. The guitar-slung Texas troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore has been equating wistful Western expanse with the mysteries of existence for three decades. 7 p.m., Hudson River Festival, World Financial Center, 200 Liberty Street, Lower Manhattan, (212)945-2600, free. (Pareles) M. WARD (Tonight) The echoing guitar folk-pop songs of this singer-songwriter combine heartfelt campfire zeal with the ruminative sadness of mid-tempo 1970s AM radio hits. His delicate ascents can also lilt upward into a cabaret falsetto reminiscent of Jeff Buckleys. 10 p.m., Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201)653-1703, $15. (Sinagra) DIONNE WARWICK (Monday) With a velvety voice that holds gospel fervor in reserve, Dionne Warwick makes songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David sound easy, even with melody lines that hop all over the place and words that have to be articulated just so. 8 p.m., B.B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)997-4144, $68 to $75. (Pareles) YELLOWMAN(Tuesday) More proof that Jamaican music is stranger than fiction. Yellowman is a great dance-hall reggae vocalist who also happens to be an albino. He has built his career on tongue-in-cheek sexual boasts, and although his popularity peaked about 20 years ago, he still puts on a good show, mixing wicked wit with sentimental old favorites. 11 p.m., S.O.B.s, 204 Varick Street, South Village, (212)243-4940, $18 to $22. (Kelefa Sanneh) Cabaret Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. *BLOSSOM DEARIE (Sunday) To watch this singer and pianist is to appreciate the power of a carefully deployed pop-jazz minimalism combined with a highly discriminating taste in songs. Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212)265-8133. Sunday night at 6:15. Cover: $25, with a $15 minimum; a $54.50 dinner-and-show package is available. (Stephen Holden) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. CANNONBALL ADDERLEY LEGACY BAND (Through Sunday) Cannonball Adderley was an alto saxophonist who balanced the harmonic precision of bebop with the homegrown grit of soul; this tribute, led by Adderleys former drummer Louis Hayes, features Vincent Herring, a worthy inheritor, on saxophone. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow night, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212)576-2232; cover, $20, $25 Fridays and Saturdays.(Nate Chinen) J.D. ALLENS VISION FUGITIVE (Monday) Rhythmic aggression and harmonic exploration cohabit in this trio, featuring the saxophonist J.D. Allen, the bassist Matt Brewer and the drummer Rodney Green. 8:30 p.m. to midnight, Charley Os, 218 West 45th Street, Manhattan, (212)977-0025; no cover. (Chinen) PECK ALLMOND KALIMBA COLLECTIVE (Tomorrow ) This unusual ensemble finds Mr. Allmond augmenting his usual arsenal of horns with a handful of kalimbas, or African thumb pianos; the groups other timbres include violin (Jenny Scheinman), marimba (Kenny Wollesen) and Haitian hand drums (Bonga Jean-Baptiste). 10 p.m., Zebulon, 258 Wythe Avenue, at Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)218-6934; no cover. (Chinen) LEIF ARNTZEN QUARTET (Monday) The romantic, slightly wounded style of Chet Baker has provided ample fodder for Mr. Arntzen, both as a trumpeter and a singer; his band includes Will Woodard and Vito Lesczak on bass and drums. 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212)989-9319; cover, $8, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) RONI BEN-HUR (Tonight and tomorrow) On Signature (Reservoir Music), Mr. Ben-Hur applies his hollow-body guitar skills to songbook standards and Heitor Villa-Lobos pieces, with equal charm and aplomb. He appears here with the excellent rhythm section from the album: the pianist John Hicks, the bassist Rufus Reid and the drummer Leroy Williams. 9 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and midnight, Lenox Lounge, 288 Lenox Avenue, between 124th and 125th Streets, Harlem, (212)427-0253; cover, $20, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) CHRIS BOTTI (Through Sunday) The smooth-jazz circuit has a small handful of consistently winsome stylists; among them is Mr. Botti, a trumpeter whose understated melodic instinct has landed him steady work with Paul Simon and Sting, as well as a durable solo career. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212)475-8592; cover, $25 at tables, with a $5 minimum or $15 at the bar and a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) BRAZILIAN NIGHTS: THE MUSIC OF ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM, STAN GETZ AND CAL TJADER (Through Sunday) An over-the-shoulder glance at the popular heyday of bossa nova, featuring the expatriate Brazilian group Trio da Paz, along with the singer Maucha Adnet, the tenor saxophonist Harry Allen and the vibraphonist Joe Locke. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11 p.m. set tonight and tomorrow night, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212)258-9595; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) RAVI COLTRANE QUARTET (Wednesday through July 30) In Flux (Savoy), Mr. Coltranes fourth album, is a significant milestone; his tenor and soprano saxophone playing have never sounded more confident, and his compositions have a sleek, modernistic hue. As on the record, he fronts a stellar band: the pianist Luis Perdomo, the bassist Drew Gress and the drummer E.J. Strickland. 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212)581-3080; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) DUAL IDENTITY (Thursday) The alto saxophonists Rudresh Mahanthappa and Steve Lehman travel roughly the same orbit in jazzs progressive solar system; as the name implies, this duo project underscores their aesthetic kinship. 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT (Wednesday) There isnt a young musician with more buzz at the moment than Mr. Glasper, a bright and well-rounded pianist recently signed to Blue Note Records. The experiment in the title is a license to go beyond jazz-trio territory and possibly indulge serious affinities for hip-hop, house and soul. 11 p.m., Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212)219-3132; no cover. (Chinen) NED GOOLD TRIO (Tomorrow) Ned Goold may be best known as a tenor saxophonist in the Harry Connick Jr. Orchestra, but hes best heard in trio, with bass and drums behind him. 8 p.m., Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212)675-7369; cover, $20. (Chinen) BUDDY GRECO (Through Sunday) A true show business survivor, Mr. Greco showcases his natural singing and piano playing in this jazz-cabaret engagement, backed by rhythm section pros. 8 and 10 p.m., with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow, Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, (212)582-2121; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) *JAZZ IN JULY FESTIVAL (Tuesday through Thursday) The 92nd Street Ys venerable concert series concludes this week with three more concerts reflecting the laudable taste of its new artistic director, Bill Charlap. Hoagys Children, on Tuesday, pays homage to Hoagy Carmichael, whom Mr. Charlap feted with a 2002 songbook album; among this partys celebrants are the singers Dave Frishberg and Barbara Lea, the guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli and the clarinetist Ken Peplowski. Wednesdays concert will recall the midcentury small-group jazz of Horace Silver and Kenny Dorham, with ace contributors from several jazz generations. On Thursday, the festival culminates in a Nat King Cole tribute, featuring that icons younger brother Freddy Cole, with backing by the Manhattan Symphony Jazz Orchestra. 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212)415-5500 or 92y.org, $45. (Chinen) JIMMY GREENE QUINTET (Through Sunday) Mr. Greene brings an athletic self-assurance to his saxophone playing; his top-shelf post-bop band includes the vibraphonist Stefon Harris, the pianist Xavier Davis, the bassist Vicente Archer and the drummer Eric Harland. 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212)255-4037; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) CHARLIE HADENS LAND OF THE SUN (Thursday through July 31) Charlie Haden won a Grammy this year for Land of the Sun (Verve), a stately homage to the Mexican composer José Sabre Marroquin. In performance, the music ranges from luminous to lugubrious; its strongest assets are the contributions of the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, the tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby and the pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who also wrote most of the arrangements. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212)475-8592; cover, $35 at tables, with a $5 minimum or $20 at the bar, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) STEFON HARRIS AND BLACKOUT (Wednesday) Mr. Harris, a mallet percussion whiz, brings megawatt showmanship to this dance-floor hybrid; hes ably abetted by the alto saxophonist Casey Benjamin, the keyboardist Marc Cary, the drummer Terreon Gully and the bassist Darryl Hall. 7 p.m., Madison Square Park, 23rd to 26th Streets, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, (212)538-5058; no cover. (Chinen) J.C. HOPKINS BIGGISH BAND (Tomorrow) Although conceived by the pianist-composer J.C. Hopkins, this ensemble borrows much of its power from the commanding presence of the singer Queen Esther; joined by a handful of accomplished jazz sidemen, the two will perform original material from a soon-to-be-released CD. (Howard Fishman, a guitarist-singer with a knack for well-worn Americana, shares the bill.) 9:30 p.m., Makor, 35 West 67th Street, at Central Park West, (212)601-1000; cover, $15. (Chinen) JAVON JACKSON BAND (Tonight and tomorrow) Mr. Jackson is an accomplished tenor saxophonist with a laid-back rhythmic approach; here, as on the new CD Have You Heard (Palmetto), he applies his talents to straightforward funk. 9 p.m., 11 p.m., and 12:30 a.m., Smoke, 2751 Broadway at 106th Street, (212)864-6662; cover, $25. (Chinen) AHMAD JAMAL TRIO (Tuesday and Wednesday) A touchstone of jazz piano since the 50s, Mr. Jamal still has his broad dynamic range and signature touch; his highly sympathetic rhythm section consists of the bassist James Cammack and the drummer Idris Muhammed. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212)475-8592; cover, $35 at tables, with a $5 minimum or $20 at the bar, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) SEAN JONES QUINTET (Monday) Mr. Jones, a surefooted and well-schooled trumpeter now in his mid-20s, recently assumed first chair in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; his own band, with the spirited pianist Orrin Evans, spikes the punch with contemporary flavors. He shares a record label, and part of his stage time, with the worldly vocalist Ilona Knopfler. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212)475-8592; cover, $10 at tables, with a $5 minimum or $5 at the bar, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) JASON LINDNERS PROGRESS REPORT (Tonight and tomorrow) A pianist and composer best known for his vamp-oriented big band, Mr. Lindner leads a smaller but no less polyphonic outfit here; in addition to his keyboards, the group features Jacques Schwartz-Bart on saxophones, Tony Escapa on bass, Baba Israel on vocals (spoken) and Claudia Acuña on vocals (sung). 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, South Village, (212)242-1063; cover, $15. (Chinen) DONNY McCASLIN GROUP (Monday) Mr. McCaslin has earned recent accolades for his sinewy, upward surging saxophone solos in the Maria Schneider Orchestra; his own ensemble, which features the guitarist Ben Monder, more directly harnesses the rhythmic thrust of rock. 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212)929-9883; cover, $8. (Chinen) BEN MONDER (Thursday) In the hands of Mr. Monder, the electric guitar is a coloristic instrument first and foremost; here he rides an undulant rhythmic foundation shaped by Chris Lightcap, bassist, and Jeff Hirschfield, drummer. 9 p.m., Barbes, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)965-9177; cover, $5. (Chinen) ROY NATHANSON QUARTET (Sunday) The saxophonist and Jazz Passengers co-founder leans here on his skills as a raconteur; his whimsical narratives take the form of sung choruses, spoken interludes and other vocal asides. 7 p.m., Barbes, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) JOHN STETCH TRIO (Tonight and tomorrow) A proficient and resourceful pianist who has recently focused strictly on solo settings, Mr. Stetch returns here to the trio format, with Sean Smith on bass and Rodney Green on drums; their repertory will consist entirely of Mr. Stetchs compositions. 8 and 9:45 p.m., Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212)885-7119; cover, $15, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) CRAIG TABORN (Tomorrow) Solo piano variations from an exceedingly gifted player with a taste for angular flourishes and unexpected moves. 8 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) VINNY VALENTINO AND JD WALTER (Thursday) Mr. Walters voice is a flexible instrument, given to soaring scat solos and growling burrs; he has a good partner here in Mr. Valentino, the guitarist. 6 p.m., West Bank Café, 407 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)695-6909; cover, $5. (Chinen) LARRY WILLIS QUINTET (Thursday through July 31) Mr. Willis, a bassist with a long and distinguished sideman career, steps out front to lead an ensemble with one foot in hard-bop and the other in groove; his illustrious bandmates are the alto saxophonist Gary Bartz, the trombonist Steve Davis, the bassist Buster Williams and the drummer Al Foster. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. with an 11:30 set Fridays and Saturdays, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212)576-2232; cover, $20, $25 Fridays and Saturdays. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera GLIMMERGLASS (Tonight through Thursday) To be counted among the countrys leading summer opera festivals, it helps to have imagination and unusual repertory, and Glimmerglass offers both in spades. A highlight of the season is a new production of Benjamin Brittens wonderful and too-seldom-performed Death in Venice, directed by Tazewell Thompson and featuring William Burden. Among the other offerings are Mozarts Così Fan Tutte and an unusual double bill of Portrait de Manon, Jules Massenets one-act sequel to his most famous opera, paired with Poulencs Voix Humaine, another one-acter that presents a one-sided dialogue: a woman on the phone. Così, tonight at 8, Tuesday afternoon at 2; Death in Venice, tomorrow night at 8, Monday afternoon at 2; Portrait and Voix, Sunday afternoon at 2, Thursday night at 8. Alice Busch Theater, Route 80, eight miles north of Cooperstown, N.Y., (607)547-2255, $17.50 to $97. (Anne Midgette) SHADOWTIME (Tonight) Brian Ferneyhough, the British dean of high-modernist complexity, has written his first opera, and the second of two performances will take place tonight as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Its a challenging thought opera about the life and work of the philosopher Walter Benjamin, with a libretto by the poet Charles Bernstein. Jurjen Hempel leads the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam. 8 p.m., Rose Theater, Broadway at 60th Street, (212)271-6500, $25 to $55. (Jeremy Eichler) Classical Music ALARM WILL SOUND (Sunday) Its hard to know exactly what to expect from this Lincoln Center Festival concert by this wildly adventurous contemporary music ensemble of voices, strings, winds and percussion. In this program, Unremixed, the ensemble takes on twisted techno-master Aphex Twin, its directors promise. Aphex Twins electronic music will be mixed with live acoustic music for an evening of electronica, to quote the performers. This ensemble is incapable of routine. 9 p.m., the Allen Room, Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, (212)721-6500, $28. (Anthony Tommasini) ASTON MAGNA (Tomorrow) The early-music scene in the Northeast has long shuttled between New York and Boston, and what better middle ground is there in the summer than the Berkshire foothills? The quaintly titled program here, All Ye Whom Love or Fortune Hath Betrayd, presents music of William Byrd, John Dowland, John Jenkins and Henry Purcell, performed by Deborah Rentz-Moore, soprano; Daniel Stepner, violinist; John Gibbons, harpsichordist; and others. 5 p.m., Daniels Arts Center, Simons Rock College, Great Barrington, Mass., (413)528-3595 or (800) 875-7156, $35, $30 in advance, $25 for students and 65+. The program will also be presented tonight at 8 in Olin Hall, Bard College, Route 9G, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., (845)758-7425; $25; students and 62+, $20. (James R. Oestreich) BANG ON A CAN SUMMER MUSIC INSTITUTE (Tomorrow and Monday through Thursday) Music for Airports may be an appropriate piece for the summer travel season. Tomorrow the Bang on a Can All-Stars offer what they say is the first-ever live performance of that seminal Brian Eno work. Since new music tends to find more sympathetic ears in the art world than in many concert halls, Bang on a Can takes its concerts into a museum, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where two informal concerts a day showcase the institutes faculty -- including Evan Ziporyn, who offers a clarinet recital this afternoon -- and participants. Theres even a childrens program tomorrow morning, with hands-on participation, called Kids Can Too. Mr. Ziporyn, today at 4:30 p.m.; childrens concert, tomorrow at 11 a.m.; Music for Airports, tomorrow night at 8; recitals Monday through Thursday at 1:30 and 4:30 p.m.; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, 87 Marshall Street, North Adams, Mass., (413)662-2111. Music for Airports, $22; other concerts are free with gallery admission, which is $10; students, $8; ages 6 to 16, $4. (Midgette) BARGEMUSIC (Tonight through Thursday) There are few cozier places to hear chamber music in New York than this floating concert hall (a former coffee barge) on the Brooklyn side of the East River. Tonight, Hamish Milne offers a piano recital, with works by Bach, Chopin and Schubert, and tomorrow and Sunday, he is joined by Mark Peskanov, the violinist, and Jiri Barta, a cellist, for the Beethoven Archduke Trio and sonatas by Mozart and Hummel. On Thursday, its back to solo piano: Steven Beck plays Bach, Beethoven and Mussorgsky. Tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday night at 7:30, Sunday at 4 p.m., Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718)624-2083, $35; $30 for 65+ on Thursday only; students, $25. (Allan Kozinn) BERKSHIRE CHORAL FESTIVAL (Tomorrow) For listeners who love choral music, this festival is an ideal refuge, combining the charms of the Berkshires and some of the highlights of the choral repertory, performed by a large choir of enthusiastic singers, led by renowned choral conductors. This week, Frank Nemhauser leads the choir and soloists in a hefty program that includes Dvoraks Mass in D, Stravinskys Symphony of Psalms and John Rutters Gloria. 8 p.m., the Berkshire School, Route 41, Sheffield, Mass., (413)229-1999, $25 to $40. (Kozinn) BRIDGEHAMPTON CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL (Wednesday) The flutist Marya Martin did not want to spend summers schlepping to far-flung festivals, so she and her husband, Ken Davidson, founded a festival of their own, now in its 22nd season. Most of the concerts take place in the local Presbyterian Church, but this opening performance is a free outdoor program of works by Bach, Telemann and Torelli, performed by Ms. Martin and a group of festival regulars. 6:30 p.m., Bridgehampton Historical Society, 2368 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, N.Y., (631)537-3507. (Eichler) CARAMOOR (Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday and Thursday) The event of note this weekend at this inviting festival is a production of La Traviata tomorrow, as part of the Bel Canto at Caramoor series, conducted by Will Crutchfield and starring the soprano Georgia Jarman. Mr. Crutchfield will present a version of Verdis beloved score that restores music usually cut in performances. La Traviata, though composed after the heyday of the Bel Canto era, is still a work beholden to that tradition, a quality Mr. Crutchfield promises to bring out in his performance. Tonight the steely-toned, formidable pianist Anton Kuerti plays works by Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. Sunday afternoon the Emerson String Quartet offers two Mendelssohn string quartets and Brahmss stormy Piano Quintet in F minor (with Wu Han). And if you like a Romantic strain even in your contemporary music, then a program with Music From Copland House on Thursday called The New Romantics is for you. Richard Danielpour, Lowell Lieberman, John Musto and Paul Moravec, among others, have all been called, for better or worse, Neo-Romantics. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 4:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Katonah, N.Y., (914)232-1252, $15 to $75. (Tommasini) COOPERSTOWN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL (Sunday through Thursday) If you miss them at Tannery Pond (see below), you can see them in Cooperstown: a highlight of the week at this energetic small festival is a performance on Sunday by the St. Lawrence String Quartet of works by Haydn, Beethoven and Christos Hatzis. There is also a Summer Winds concert on Wednesday with the festivals founder, the flutist Linda Chesis, and four colleagues; and on Thursday Hopkinson Smith, a lutenist, will play 17th-century music in the drawing room of a 19th-century home. Sunday night at 7:30 at the Farmers Museum; Wednesday night at 7:30 at Christ Episcopal Church; Thursday night at 7:30 at Hyde Hall, Cooperstown, N.Y., (877)666-7421, $25; ages 6 to 12, $12.50; lute concert, $18; ages 6 to 12, $9. (Midgette) ICEBREAKER (Tomorrow) This British new-music group covers a lot of contemporary ground, including pieces by David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Conlon Nancarrow and Frank Zappa, as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. 9 p.m., Allen Room, Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, (212)721-6500, $28. (Bernard Holland) MAVERICK CONCERTS (Tomorrow and Sunday) This concert series near Woodstock, N.Y., now in its 90th season, offers its performances in an open-backed barn that allows the sounds of nature to mingle with the music. Jason Vieaux, a young guitarist who has made some impressive recordings, is playing a rich program tomorrow, with works that range from Bachs Prelude, Fugue and Allegro and favorites by Tárrega and Albéniz to more contemporary scores, like Robert Starers Six Preludes; he also plays a concert for young people tomorrow morning. On Sunday, the Pacifica String Quartet nestles Elliott Carters String Quartet No. 5 between works by Schubert and Beethoven. Tomorrow at 6 p.m. (young peoples concert at 11 a.m.); Sunday at 3 p.m., the Maverick Concert Hall, Maverick Road, between Routes 28 and 375, West Hurley, N.Y., (845)679-8217, $20; students, $5. (Kozinn) MUSIC MOUNTAIN (Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday) Offering a smattering of choral music and jazz, but focusing on string quartets, this venerable festival offers the Tang String Quartet of Singapore this weekend playing Mozart and Dvorak, then joining forces with the pianist Pamela Mia Paul for Shostakovichs Piano Quintet. Also on the weekends program are a chorus called Dumka that performs traditional Ukrainian music in costume (tonight) and the New Black Eagle Jazz Band (tomorrow). Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday afternoon at 3, Gordon Hall at Music Mountain, Falls Village, Conn., (860)824-7126, $25; students under 24, $12. (Midgette) MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE HAMPTONS (Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday) Lukas Fosss small yet ambitious festival concludes its 10th season with a weekend of events ranging from chamber music (tonight, with the Daedalus String Quartet joined by Alexander Fiterstein, a clarinetist) to a violin recital by Joshua Bell (tomorrow night) and an anniversary concert dedicated to the pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch (Sunday). Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack, N.Y., and Festival Tent, Morriss Center School, 739 Butter Lane, Bridgehampton, N.Y., (800)644-4418, $35 to $75; more for reserved seating. (Eichler) NAUMBURG ORCHESTRA (Tuesday) Sure, the New York Philharmonic gets most of the attention, but Central Park has never been a one-orchestra green space. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, and Gregory Vajda conducts music by Stravinsky, Hindemith and Bartok, with the violist Hsin-Yun Huang joining as soloist. 7:30 p.m., Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, midpark at 70th Street, (718)340-3018, free. (Eichler) NORFOLK CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL (Tonight and tomorrow) Each summer the Yale Summer School of Music retreats north to this lovely spot, and the public reaps much of the benefit at concerts in the rustic Music Shed. This weekend the veteran pianist Claude Frank and the flutist and conductor Ransom Wilson anchor the programs, with works from the New World (Beach, Copland, Ginastera) and Old (Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Shostakovich). 8 p.m., Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Routes 44 and 272, Norfolk, Conn., (860)542-3000, $15 to $45; ages 18 to 25, $10; under 18, free with a paying adult. (Oestreich) PIANO SUMMER AT NEW PALTZ (Tomorrow) Currently in its 10th season, this festival features lectures, master classes and a competition for rising young pianists, as well as recitals by the festival faculty. Tomorrow night, Vladimir Feltsman, the artistic director, performs Bachs English Suite No. 2, Beethovens Pathétique Sonata and Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition. 8 p.m., McKenna Theater, State University of New York at New Paltz, (845)257-3880, $22 to $27. (Eichler) ST. LAWRENCE STRING QUARTET (Tomorrow) This excellent young quartet comes to Christian Steiners Tannery Pond Concerts with a program of Haydn, Shostakovich and Beethoven. 8 p.m., Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village, New Lebanon, N.Y., (888)820-9441, $23 to $28. (Midgette) TANGLEWOOD (Tonight through Wednesday) When James Levine opened his first Tanglewood season with a Mahler Eighth a couple of weeks ago, the orchestra played stunningly for him. In two programs tonight and tomorrow night, he leads his players through all four of the Brahms Symphonies. Tuesday, he returns to take part in Tanglewood on Parade, an annual shindig that features not only the Boston Symphony but also the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, in works by Berlioz, Bernstein, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. For the occasion, Mr. Levine shares the podium with his predecessor, Seiji Ozawa, as well as John Williams, Hans Graf and Bruce Hangen. Also on the schedule, Pinchas Zukerman plays the Beethoven Violin Concerto on Sunday, with Jens Georg Bachmann conducting, and on Wednesday he leads the Zukerman Chamber Players in works by Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms. Tonight, tomorrow night, and Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8:30; Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Tanglewood, Lenox, Mass, (888)266-1200, $19 to $96 Sunday through Tuesday, with lawn seats from $17 to $20; $29 to $46 on Wednesday, with $16 lawn seats. (Kozinn) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. ALL FOR LOVE (Through tomorrow) Andrew J. Nemrs choreographic love is tap, and he expresses it in a grandly scaled tap-dance event with the aid of a troupe called Cats Paying Dues. Tonight and tomorrow at 8, Main Stage Theater, Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)279-4200, $30 tonight, $38 tomorrow. (Jack Anderson) *BOLSHOI BALLET (Tonight through July 30) The Bolshoi Ballet and its opera company have been challenged of late by Valery Gergievs Kirov operation of St. Petersburg, but they remain the big (bolshoi means big) Russian brand name in the popular imagination, and recently the ballet in particular has shown signs of rejuvenation. The Bolshois two-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House continues tonight and tomorrow afternoon and evening with Spartacus, the ultimate showcase for muscle-flexing Soviet strongmen as righteous revolting slaves; well see if the current crop of Bolshoi men is as macho-athletic as their forebears. Monday through Wednesday comes The Bright Stream, a new version of a suppressed 1935 ballet about lighthearted frolics on a collective farm, with music by Shostakovich (by 1935, collective-farm ballets were supposed to be noble, not fun). Finally, on Thursday, is the beginning of four-performance, season-ending run of The Pharaohs Daughter, a reconstruction of an early Petipa extravaganza. Tonight and tomorrow and Monday through Thursday at 8 p.m.; tomorrow at 2 p.m. Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000 or www.metopera.org, $45 to $150.(John Rockwell) EVA DEAN DANCE (Wednesday through July 31) Bounce blithely combines bouncing balls and bounding bodies. Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., an abridged version for children will be danced Saturdays and Sundays and on Thursday at 2 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077, $13 to $25. (Anderson) DODGE DANCE COMPANY (Opens Thursday) Susan Dodge choreographically combines explosive energy with humor and musicality. Thursday through July 31, Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212)334-7479, $15, $12 students. (Anderson) FLAMENCO OLÉ! (Tomorrow) A flamenco revue features Melinda Marquez, Liliana Morales and guest artists. 8:30 and 11 p.m., Alegrías en la Nacional Flamenco Theater, 239 West 14th Street, West Village, (917)667-2695 or www.alegrias.com, $45 with dinner, $15 performance only. (Anderson) IMAGO DANCE THEATER (Tonight through Sunday) Stress Addicted Nation romps through the overscheduled lives of stressaholics. 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 334-7479, $20, $15 students, 65+ and dancers. (Anderson) *JACOBS PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL (Tonight through Aug. 3) Tonight through Sunday Garth Fagans company will perform along with A Poc A Poc, a Barcelona-born, Mexico City-based modern-dance troupe in its United States debut. Tuesday through next Sunday the Mark Morris Dance Group will be here, celebrating its 25th anniversary, joined Thursday through next Sunday by Aszure and Artists, a troupe led by Aszure Barton. Garth Fagan at the Ted Shawn Theater, tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m., tomorrow and Sunday at 2 p.m., $45; $40.50 for students, seniors 65+ and children. A Poc A Poc at the Doris Duke Studio Theater, tonight and tomorrow at 8:15 p.m., tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m., $20; $18 for students, seniors and children. Mark Morris at the Shawn Theater Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m., $55; $49.50 for students, seniors and children. Aszure Barton at the Duke Theater, Thursday at 8:15., $20; $18 for students, seniors and children. Details of the weeks free performances and exhibitions can be found on www.jacobspillow.org. Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, Mass., (413)243-0745. (Rockwell) JAXDANCE (Tonight and tomorrow) The title of Jaclyn Moynahans Whats Holding You Up? has a deliberate double meaning, for the work concerns both the limitations that impede us and the devices that help us cope with lifes challenges. 8:30 p.m., Studio 111, 111 Conselyea Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)387-2630, $12, $10 students and 65+. (Anderson) *LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL (Tonight through July 31) Random Dance and Shen Wei, on different nights, are sharing the New York State Theater this week, and closing out the festivals dance offerings for the summer. Tonight its Random Dance, another of the endless flood of edgy British modern-dance troupes. Their AtaXia is billed as a techno-multimedia dance. Tomorrow and Sunday are the last two performances of the much-hailed Shen Wei Dance Arts, which has sprung onto the international dance circuit seemingly from nowhere. Random Dance tonight at 8 p.m., New York State Theater. Shen Wei tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m., State Theater. Lincoln Center, $45, (212) 271-6500, www.lincolncenter.org. (Rockwell) MOVEMENT WORKS (Tomorrow and Sunday) A choreographic showcase features new works by Labyrinth Dance Theater, Kinetic Architecture, Alona Mor Dance Collective and Israeli choreographers Gali Wexler and Jenny Logan. 8:30 p.m., Center for Remembering and Sharing, 123 Fourth Avenue, East Village, (646) 479-7563, $12, $7 center members and student standby. (Anderson) NOCHE FLAMENCA (Wednesdays through Sundays) A fiery company headed by the passionate Soledad Barrio returns for an extended engagement, through July 31. Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and 10 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m., Theater 80, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212)352-3101, $40 Wednesdays and Thursdays, $45 Fridays through Sundays. (Anderson) PILOBOLUS (Through Aug. 6) Dancers bend like pretzels and tie themselves into knots in acrobatic choreography that stretches the performers bodies and viewers minds. Monday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212)242-0800 or www.joyce.org $42, $32 Joyce members. (Anderson) SOUTH PLEASANT COMPANY (Tonight through Sunday and Thursday) Cristina Septiens To One I Saw Small tells the story of a disenchanted spelling-bee champion with the aid of movement, dialogue and video. 9 p.m., Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, West Village, (212)352-7112, $15, $12 students.(Anderson) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums *AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: ANCESTRY AND INNOVATION, through Sept. 4. This selection of quilts, paintings, sculptures and drawings by several generations of self-taught artists jumps with color and talent and reflects a sharp curatorial eye. 45 West 53rd Street, (212)265-1040. (Roberta Smith) BROOKLYN MUSEUM: MONETS LONDON: ARTISTS REFLECTIONS ON THE THAMES, 1859-1914, through Sept. 4. This polished and studiously dry show has a dozen of Monets wildly, paradisaically pretty paintings at its center, surrounded by images of London, many of them prints and photographs by other artists, including James McNeill Whistler and figures now known primarily to art historians. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, (718)638-5000. (Holland Cotter) COOPER-HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM: EXTREME TEXTILES, through Oct. 30. Dont look for aesthetic pizazz in this intensely tech-y show of industrial fibers and fabrics, but dont rule it out. The shows raison dêtre is solely use, but a lot of whats on view, in the first museum display of material made to function in extreme conditions, is visually exciting. 2 East 91st Street, (212)849-8400.(Grace Glueck) *EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO: MEXICO, THE REVOLUTION AND BEYOND, PHOTOGRAPHS BY CASASOLA 1900-1940, through July 31. This extraordinary show of work from a photo agency established by Agustín Victor Casasola in Mexico City has the span of a Greek epic and the nested themes and subplots of a picaresque novel, with revolutionary heroes and a vivid cast of everyday people. 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 104th Street, East Harlem, (212)831-7272. (Cotter) THE FRICK COLLECTION: FROM CALLOT TO GREUZE: FRENCH DRAWINGS FROM WEIMAR, through Aug. 7. This show sprints through French art of the 17th and 18th centuries and reveals it to be a phenomenon of varying moods and accomplishments. The 70 drawings, including some by Claude Lorrain, Watteau and Boucher, are from the municipal holdings of the German city of Weimar. And many were acquired by that collections first curator, the great writer, philosopher and lover of all things French, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; 1 East 70th Street, (212)288-0700. (Cotter) *GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION: PHOTOGRAPHS AND MANNERIST PRINTS, through Aug. 24. This exhibition juxtaposes obsessively styled, drunkenly body-oriented art from the late 18th and late 20th centuries, achieving a fairly even rate of exchange in an unusually elegant installation. But the prints, having more to begin with, come out ahead and look remarkably fresh. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212)423-3500. (Smith) GUGGENHEIM: OTEIZA: MYTH AND MODERNISM, through Aug. 24. With the goal of paring down sculpture to an emptied (not empty) space that he saw as filled with spiritual energy, the Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003) worked intensively during the 1950s, creating the right containers. Experimenting with a number of different mathematical models, he undertook processes like opening polyhedrons and emptying spheres and cubes, to arrive at a series called Metaphysical Boxes, made from the opposition of two trihedrons. The dark, nearly inaccessible spaces he created here seem to take on a religious character. When, at the end of the 1950s, he felt he had met his goal, Oteiza turned to Basque political and social causes. But his work, mostly small in scale, smacks too much of theory to be of exciting visual interest. (See above.) (Glueck) *INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: YOUNG AMERICA, through Sept. 4. The daguerreotype, an early version of photography, though invented in Europe, was a huge hit in the United States, and you can see why in these extraordinary pictures of a countrys political and intellectual elite and its well-heeled citizens. Taken by two members of a well-known Boston studio, each picture glows on the wall like a stone in a mood ring, or a computer screen floating in space. At 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212)857-0000. (Cotter) METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: ALL THE MIGHTY WORLD, through Aug. 21. In one of the mediums shortest great careers, Roger Fenton helped establish photography as both an art and a profession in masterly landscapes, portraits and still lifes that, for all their prescience, also express a profound ambivalence about the very notion of progress. Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212)535-7710. (Smith) *MET: MATISSE: THE FABRIC OF DREAMS -- HIS ART AND HIS TEXTILES, through Sept. 25. This somewhat scattered yet astounding exhibition demonstrates that as African sculptures were to the Cubists, so textiles were to Matisse, and revolutionizes the understanding of both his life and his work. (See above.) (Smith) MUSEUM AT FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: FABULOUS! FASHIONS OF THE 1940S, through July 30. Constructed around a selection of dresses from the institutes collection, this thought-provoking exhibition briefly tells what happened when the Germans invaded Paris, forcing that city to surrender its role as leader of world fashion to New York City -- at least until the end of the war. Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, (212)217-7999.(Ken Johnson) *MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: LEE FRIEDLANDER, through Aug. 29. A gigantic retrospective of this great photographer of the American vernacular scene, whose sly and haunting works (grungy cityscapes, wild landscapes, portraits and nudes) can put you in mind of Audens remark that every original genius has something a bit shady about him. In Mr. Friedlanders case, its a compliment. 11 West 53rd Street, (212)708-9400. (Michael Kimmelman) *MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: PIONEERING MODERN PAINTING: CÉZANNE AND PISSARRO, through Sept. 12. The marriage of minds, sensibilities and influences that Cézanne and Pissarro shared is the subject of this rigorous, beautiful show. Unlike its predecessor, Matisse Picasso, it is less a grand opera than a lieder recital of deep-running, summer-green Schubertian pleasures. (See above.) (Cotter) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN: GEORGE CATLIN AND HIS INDIAN GALLERY, through Sept. 5. The portraits and landscapes here give an account of Plains Indian life in the 1830s in wonderful and sometimes harrowing detail. Viewing it is a remarkable experience. 1 Bowling Green, Lower Manhattan, (212)514-3700. (Glueck) P.S. 1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER: GREATER NEW YORK 2005, through Sept. 26. A youth-besotted, cheerful, immodestly ingratiating, finally disappointing survey of contemporary art, perusing a scene whose wide stylistic range, emphasis on drawing, persistent teenage infatuations and overall dexterousness are firmly entrenched characteristics of the marketplace. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, (718)784-2084. (Kimmelman) *WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: ROBERT SMITHSON, through Oct. 23. Who knows whether Robert Smithson is the most influential American postwar artist, as this show claims. Consisting mostly of drawings, photographs and films (Smithson didnt make that many sculptures, not ones that could fit into a museum, anyway), this is the first full-scale overview of him in the country. It is consequently dry but still compelling testimony to a great exuberance cut drastically short when Smithson died at 35 in a plane crash in 1973. Self-appointed spokesman for earth art, and scavenger of dirt, shells, slag and other materials from the industrial landscape, he helped to shove Minimalism, Conceptualism and Pop in various messy new directions during the 1960s and early 70s. Today, in an era of crabbed imagination and short-term profiteering, the sheer chutzpah of an artist like him is instructive. 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (212)570-3600. (Kimmelman) WHITNEY MUSEUM: BANKS VIOLETTE, through Oct. 2. In this labor-intensive installation, Romanticism, tragic violence and rock n roll are evoked as much by the detailed wall label as by the ghostly beams of a burned-out church made of gleaming salt. (See above.) (Smith) Galleries: 57th Street RALPH BACERRA: OPULENT FIRE Beautiful and technically awe-inspiring new teapots by this Los Angeles-based ceramicist have organically shaped, multipart bodies cast from tree branches and surfaces richly glazed in fine geometric patterns. Garth Clark, 25 West 56th Street, (because of renovations of the main lobby), (212)246-2205, through Aug. 12.(Johnson) Galleries: Chelsea ALLES. IN EINER NACHT The works on or of paper by 10 young artists from Hamburg doesnt live up to the appetite of the title (which translates as All. In One Night), but it is almost invariably appealing, focused and promising. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 521 West 21st Street, (212)414-4144, through July 29. (Smith) *ATOMICA: MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE This carefully orchestrated international group show marks the 60th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945. Shiva Ahmadi, Ellen Levy, Nancy Spero and Hiroshi Sunairi contribute subtle work. Esso Gallery (212)560-9728, 531 West 26th Street, second floor, and Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, (212)967-8040, 531 West 26th Street, fourth floor, through July 30. (Cotter) *BEBE LE STRANGE This tense, lively group show devoted to images of the figure includes strong work by a bunch of strong young artists, including Benjamin Degen, William Jones and Eileen Quinlan, and fascinating photographic work of documentary fiction by Zoe Crosher and Leslie Grant. DAmelio Terras, 525 West 22nd Street, (212) 352-9460, through Aug. 12. (Cotter) *BRIDGE FREEZES BEFORE ROAD The big, hot group show of the summer pays homage to Robert Smithson, and casually retools countercultural languages of yesteryear for the 21st century. Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, (212)206-9300, through Aug. 19. (Cotter) ELEVEN NGUYENS AND THE THIRTY YEAR LOSS The independent curator Trong G. Nguyen has conceived a novel and bittersweet way to celebrate the recent anniversary of the surrender of South Vietnam to the Communist North on April 30, 1975. He has gathered together works by 11 contemporary artists who all share the name Nguyen, which is pronounced win. He contributes a cake with thick frosting of yellow paint and lettering that reads Happy Birthday War. PH Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, (212)564-4480, through July 29.(Johnson) GOOD VIBRATIONS Op Art lives on in works by 16 artists in this groovy show. It includes eye-buzzing paintings by Julian Stanczak; cosmic dot paintings by Barbara Takenaga; sumptuously blurry stripes by Chris Gallagher; a luminous blue grid by Susie Rosmarin, a psychedelic painting of the word Substance by Bruce Pearson and much more. McKenzie, 511 West 25th Street, Chelsea, (212)989-5467, through July 30.(Johnson) *GREY FLAGS Organized by the artist Seth Price, this coolest of summer group shows puts New York art on an interesting track and looks to the future. Friedrich Petzel Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, (212)680-9467, through Aug. 12. (Cotter) IDOLS OF PERVERSITY Inspired by a 1980s book with the subtitle Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin de Siècle Culture, this show substitutes Surrealism for Symbolism for its prevailing mode, academic painting as its preferred style, and the contemporary art star John Currin as its patron saint. Bellwether, 134 10th Avenue, near 18th Street, (212) 929-5959, through Aug. 6. (Cotter) ITLL COST YOU In observance of the curious fact that Colonial American painters charged according to the number of human limbs visible in a picture, the collector Beth Rudin DeWoody has assembled a wildly pluralistic, often funny and kinky show of works that feature arms or legs by more than 40 artists. It ranges from a frieze of womans legs in high heels crisply painted by John Wesley to the hacked-off arm of an ape sculpted by Tony Matelli. Dont miss the tiny, finely made and well-shod wooden legs by Holly Laws in the back room. Kathleen Cullen, 526 West 26th Street, (212) 463-8500, through July 30.(Johnson). THE JEWELEIGHA SET The works in this sharply focused yet ecumenical show of six artists inspired by fractal geometry fits together like a kind of rebus about the joy of numbers and numerousness in art, mathematics and nature. Greene Naftali Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, (212) 463-7770, through July 29. (Smith) LIVING FOR THE CITY Organized by an institution-in-formation, the Brooklyn Institute of Contemporary Art, this group show has artists from Africa, Asia and Latin America, some making New York debuts. Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th Street, (212)645-1701, through Aug. 5. (Cotter) AERNOT MIK: REFRACTION In a plotless, silent 30-minute film, the camera slowly surveys the elaborately constructed aftermath of a bus accident on a rural highway. Though the show is well produced and absorbing to watch, you may find yourself wondering more about what it cost than what it means. New Museum, 556 West 22nd Street, (212)219-1222, through Sept. 10. (Johnson) MIRAGE The desert and hallucination are the intertwined images here, in fine work by Jennifer Bolande, Robert Bordo, Moyra Davey, Robert Kinmont, Mary Lum, Stephan Pascher and Florian Pumhösl. Alexander and Bonin, 132 10th Avenue, near 18th Street, (212)367-7474, through July 29. (Cotter) *MATTHEW MONAHAN This labyrinthean cabinet of inventively recycled sculptures and drawings rifles through the combined dustbins of history, art and the artists previous efforts to create a knockout first impression that ultimately wears a bit thin. Anton Kern Gallery, 532 West 20th Street, (212)367-9663, through July 29. (Smith) *SOMETHING IS SOMEWHERE With art by 20 young artists, all women, this show makes an implicit feminist statement and offers art of formal variety and narrative intensity. Monya Rowe, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 504, (646)234-8645, through July 30. (Cotter) STICKS & STONES Images of skulls dominate this group show of mostly drawings by John White Cerasulo, Santiago Cucullu and Andrew Guenther, with an ambitious, multipart marker-on-photocopy piece by Jay Heikes. Perry Rubenstein Gallery, 527 West 23rd Street, (212)627-8000, through Aug. 12. (Cotter) THE SUBJECTIVE FIGURE The infinitely malleable human body gets a workout. Highlights include Francesca Woodmans intimate photographic self-portraits; Judy Foxs life-size, extraordinarily realistic naked ceramic girl in beatific ecstasy; Nancy Davidsons sexually suggestive, aqua blue minimalist sculpture with a bra; Robert Greenes painting of two young men in a tree full of birds; and a sideshow of richly colored and blurred paintings of young girls by Leiko Ikemura. Robert Miller, 524 West 26th Street, (212)366-4774, through July 29. (Johnson) SUMMER SUSTENANCE: A GOURMANDS DELIGHT This visual feast of artworks representing food includes Will Cottons painting of a forest made of chocolate; Katherine Bradfords cartoon painting of a stack of pancakes; Mary Jo Vaths realistic watermelon; and Steve Gianakoss painting of Bad Mom putting a child into an oven. Edward Thorp, 210 11th Avenue, (212)691-6565, through July 29. (Johnson) *THIS SIDE TOWARD SCREEN With the arrival of digital imaging, slide projection became archaic technology, but as an artists medium, it has a long and continuing history, which is touched on in new work here. Murray Guy, 453 West 17th Street, (212)463-7372, through July 29. (Cotter) *WALLS N THINGS This show about illusion and ambiguity includes a big, tough graffiti piece lifted from Barbie packaging; wall braces that support nothing; and a wall painting that isnt there until you suddenly see it, after which it is really, really there. Nicole Klagsbrun, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 213, (212)243-3335, through Aug. 5.(Cotter) *WE COULD HAVE INVITED EVERYONE Depending on your interest, this excellent, sprawling show about the micronations and fictive states founded by artists, eccentrics, political malcontents and other subversives will either feel like the tip of the iceberg or overload. Andrew Kreps Gallery, 516A West 20th Street, (212) 741-8849, through July 29. (Smith) KARIN WEINER: FRONTIERA A camp site of cardboard logs, stuffed fabric stones and a rag rug around a television set; suspended stuffed clouds, like ornate patchwork mattresses; a mound of stuffed antlers; and collages of countless flowers comprise this industriously zany artists second solo. ZieherSmith, 531 West 25th Street, (212)229-1088, through July 29. (Johnson) Other Galleries ANIMAL TALES This entertaining show presents paintings of all kinds of animals in all kinds of styles: fantasy creatures painted naturalistically, real animals painted surrealistically, cartoon hybrids and old-fashioned allegorical beasts. Participating artists include Catherine Howe, David Humphrey, Elizabeth Huey, James Esber, Anton van Dalen and many more. DFN, 176 Franklin Street, TriBeCa, (212)334-3400, through Sept. 2.(Johnson) JOHN BEECH Mr. Beechs elegant, subtly humorous sculptures conjoin Minimalism and utilitarianism; a tall, aqua-blue box, for example, looks like a container for parts in a factory that Donald Judd might have built. Peter Blum, 99 Wooster Street, SoHo, (212)343-0441, through Sept. 10. (Johnson) *MIKE BOUCHET The main piece in this show is a re-creation of Walter De Marias gallery-filling 1977 New York Earth Room, in this case made of topsoil from Home Depot and compost from Rikers Island. To fill the craftsy requirements of the present art market, there are Tom Cruise sculptures and paintings of soft drink labels upstairs. Maccarone Inc., 45 Canal Street, Lower East Side, (212)431-4977, through Aug. 28. (Cotter) ALLAN DESOUZA: THE LOST PICTURES New pictures by this conceptualist photographer meditate on the photograph as a memorial object. Mr. deSouza placed prints made from old family slides around his home, allowing them to become faded and abraded and to accumulate hair, dust and other debris. He then turned them into large, glossy digital prints in which the ghosts of the original images haunt the new, busily textured, semi-abstract surfaces. Talwar, 108 East 16th Street, at Union Square, Flatiron district, (212) 673-3096, through July 29. (Johnson) *THE GENERALS JAMBOREE: SECOND ANNUAL WATERCOLOR EXHIBITION Watercolor is a chronically underestimated art medium -- paintings poorer, implicitly feminine cousin. This may be one reason so many young artists have embraced it, armed with all kinds of intentions and techniques, including a few pointed at three dimensions, and also why this exhibition is, indeed, an exuberant jamboree. With the vogue for multimedia, it is also clarifying to see more than three score artists concentrating on just one. Guild & Greyshkul, 28 Wooster Street, at Grand Street, SoHo, (212)625-9224, through July 30. (Smith) *I THROW HERRING TO THE DOG Lillian Ludlow and Marcella Mullins, the curators of this odd and charming group show, are both clothes-designers and artists, which may help explain the aesthetic of precision and improvisation that reigns here in work by Rita Ackerman, Kenneth Boyer Kloster, Sadie Laska and Patrick OLeary, among others. Canada, 55-59 Chrystie Street, between Canal and Hester Streets, Lower East Side, (212)925-4631, through July 31. (Cotter) VITALY KOMAR: THREE-DAY WEEKEND The work in Mr. Komars first solo show is more personal and less zanily satirical than the art he produced with his long-time collaborator Alex Melamid, but it does involve ingenious play with political and cultural signifiers. Ronald Feldman, 31 Mercer Street, SoHo, (212)226-3232, through July 29. (Johnson) SYLVIA SLEIGH Ms. Sleigh is best known for the male odalisques she painted in the 1970s. The ones in this seven-decade retrospective are comical and embarrassing but still wonderful documents of first-wave feminism, and so is the large 1977 group portrait of members of the all-female cooperative gallery A.I.R. Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Livingston, Staten Island, (718)448-2500, through Oct. 2. (Johnson) Last Chance EVERLAND This enchanting 11-person show of fantasy landscapes assembled by the independent curator David Gibson includes the watercolorist Russell Nachmans contemporary fairy painting; Kim Keevers constructed photograph of a scary, murky yellow mountainscape; and Sandra Bermudezs photograph of orchids whose petals turn out to be tiny Vegas showgirls. Annina Nosei, 530 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212)741-8695, closing tomorrow. (Johnson) GEES BEND QUILTS Quilts made by women of the tiny hamlet of Gees Bend, Ala., have been making the rounds of United States museums since 2002. For those who are still unacquainted with those extraordinary works of folk art, which resonate strikingly with Modernist abstraction, this small show is a good introduction. Ameringer Yohe, 20 West 57th Street, Manhattan, (212)445-0051, closing today. (Johnson) GREATER BROOKLYN This survey of small works by 30 emerging artists selected from 400 submissions by two members of the gallerys staff presents a veritable lexicon of current trends, vigorously pursued. CRG Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212)229-2766, closing today. (Smith) MONOCHROME IMAGE This show of single-color works in two and three dimensions includes a mans suit, hat and shoes cast in pink rubber by David Baskin; a life-size giant squid of yellow crocheted yarn by Mary Carlson; an orange sculpture resembling a big clowns smile by John Monti; and a yellow wooden relief like a section of wainscoting by Francis Cape. Elizabeth Harris, 529 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212)463-9666, closing today.(Johnson) NEW TAPESTRIES Tapestry is a loosely used term for the fabric works in this show, which include a three-dimensional guitar sewn together by Margarita Cabrera; inflated columns sprouting leaves by Lee Boroson; a politically motivated chain-link fence made of woven strips by Andrea Bowers; a comically vulgar insult in needlepoint by Type A; an expansive landscape of stitched-together pieces by Rowena Dring; and much more. Sara Meltzer, 516 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212)727-9330, closing on Wednesday. (Johnson) CHARLES SANDISON: HELLO WORLD Animated by Mr. Sandisons computer programs, projected words interact in a kind of digital ecosystem, and clouds of illuminated dots coalesce repeatedly into pairs of words that will eventually reiterate the entire text of Darwins Origin of Species. Yvon Lambert, 564 West 25th Street, Chelsea, (212)242-3611, closing tomorrow. (Johnson)

NASAs Kepler finds massive alien planet 180 light years away

. a thick atmosphere or a water world, Space.com reports. Kepler was launched in March 2009 with the goal of finding out how often Earth-like planets occur around the Milky Way, and so far it has found almost 1,000 confirmed planets and 3,200.