US has become notably less Christian, major study finds

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Mummy Mark fragment: Major find or modern post-it note

On the personal website of Josh McDowell, an American evangelical Christian apologist, there is a very interesting post about an event called Discover the Evidence, which took place on 5-6 December 2013.. The artifacts may be part of the collections amassed by Carroll, who was a main speaker at this event, since his bio at the bottom of McDowells article states that he and his wife have established both the Scott Carroll Manuscripts and Rare Books and a��.

Barry and Bobby | - CenLamar

As Barry and Bobby became older, both eventually converted to Christianity. Barry shed his nickname when he was an undergraduate at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He now preferred his given name, Barack, which��.

This Day, April 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

On Shemini Atzeres, 5734/1973, before the fourth hakafa, the Rebbe stood on the edge of the bima and began to sing ���Haaderes vehaemuna��� to the tune of the French national anthem, ���La Marseillaise.��� Rebbes rendition of. 1808: Birthdate of Gustav.

Dino Blood Redux - The Talk.Origins Archive

One small, and hopeful change from Schweitzers similar 1990s discovery is that this time both she and Horner have made direct statements that this find is neither a contradiction of the sciences, nor of an ancient Earth. Because I have written on the. The most absurd example of this was a 2 minute video Associated Press distributed on the Schweitzer dino-blood announcement which is linked from the LA Times and other news sources. In outline, we have 37��.

THE LISTINGS: March 9-March 15

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 BLACKBIRD Previews start on Thursday. Opens on April 10. Jeff Daniels stars in the United States premiere of this provocative play about a man coming to terms with a troubling relationship from his past. Joe Mantello directs. Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. CURTAINS In previews; opens on March 22. Kander and Ebbs satire of a murder mystery, which opened on the West Coast, is set in a theater during a 1959 out-of-town tryout. David Hyde Pierce and Debra Monk star (2:45). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE Previews start on Thursday. Opens on March 28. Romance blooms in the new Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter) play about a man who signs up to be an attack dummy (2:15). Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. JACK GOES BOATING In previews; opens on March 18. The Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in this new Labyrinth Theater Company play about marital problems and dating panic (2:00). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555. KING HEDLEY II In previews; opens on Sunday. Signature Theater revives August Wilsons operatic drama, set in Reagan-era Pittsburgh, about a man who has just returned from prison (2:45). Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. OUR LEADING LADY In previews; opens on March 20. A new comedy by Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergists Wife), about the actress who was to perform at Fords Theater on the night Lincoln was shot (2:00). Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. THE PIRATE QUEEN In previews; opens on April 5. A new musical from the Les Misérables team, about a 16th-century swashbuckler, brings to life a slice of Irish history (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. PROMETHEUS BOUND Performances begin on Tuesday. Opens on March 21. The English actor David Oyelowo stars in this new production of a tragedy about a man chained to a rock (1:20). Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. SOME MEN In previews; opens on March 26. Terrence McNallys episodic drama about gay life darts through history after kicking off with a marriage ceremony (2:00). Second Stage, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422. TALK RADIO In previews; opens on Sunday. Eric Bogosians darkly funny portrait of a late-night talk show host returns for a Broadway revival, starring Liev Schreiber. Robert Falls directs (1:40). Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. TEA AND SYMPATHY In previews; opens on Thursday. The Keen Company unearths this 1950s drama about a boy who is presumed to be gay (2:00). Clurman Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. WIDOWERS HOUSES In previews; opens on Wednesday. This adaptation of George Bernard Shaws play is about a slum landlord in 1990s Harlem (1:40). Kirk Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING In previews; opens on March 29. Vanessa Redgrave stars in this adaptation of Joan Didions heartbreaking memoir. David Hare directs (1:40). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. Broadway A CHORUS LINE If you want to know why this show was such a big deal when it opened 31 years ago, you need only experience the thrilling first five minutes of this revival. Otherwise, this archivally exact production, directed by Bob Avian, feels like a vintage car that has been taken out of the garage, polished up and sent on the road once again (2:00). Schoenfeld Theater, 236 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Ben Brantley) * THE COAST OF UTOPIA Lincoln Center Theaters brave, gorgeous, sprawling and ultimately exhilarating production of Tom Stoppards trilogy about intellectuals errant in 19th-century Russia. A testament to the seductive powers of narrative theater, directed with hot and cool canniness by Jack OBrien and featuring a starry cast (Brian F. OByrne, Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton, Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke, among others) in a tasty assortment of roles. Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * COMPANY Fire, beckoning and dangerous, flickers beneath the frost of John Doyles elegant, unexpectedly stirring revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furths era-defining musical from 1970, starring a compellingly understated Raul Esparza. Like Mr. Doyles Sweeney Todd, this production finds new clarity of feeling in Sondheim by melding the roles of performers and musicians (2:20). Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, it has theatergoers responding as if they were withering houseplants finally being watered after long neglect. Bob Martin and Sutton Foster are the standouts in the avid, energetic cast (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * GREY GARDENS Christine Ebersole is absolutely glorious as the middle-aged, time-warped debutante called Little Edie Beale in this uneven musical adaptation of the notorious 1975 documentary of the same title. She and the wonderful Mary Louise Wilson (as her bedridden mother), in the performances of their careers, make Grey Gardens an experience no passionate theatergoer should miss (2:40). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) HOWARD KATZ The subject of Patrick Marbers comedy of unhappiness about a rabid talent agent, starring a baleful Alfred Molina and directed by Doug Hughes, is nothing more nor less than your standard-issue midlife crisis. This familiar topic gets the better of all the talented people here trying to make it seem fresh (1:30). Laura Pels Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) * JOURNEYS END A splendid revival of R. C. Sherriffs 1928 drama of life in the trenches during World War I. Acutely staged (by David Grindley) and acted by a fine ensemble led by Hugh Dancy and Boyd Gaines, this production offers an exemplary presentation of that theatrical rarity, an uncompromising, clear-eyed play about war and the experience of day-to-day combat. An essential ticket (2:40). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) MARY POPPINS This handsome, homily-packed, mechanically ingenious and rather tedious musical, adapted from the P. L. Travers stories and the 1964 Disney film, is ultimately less concerned with inexplicable magic than with practical psychology. Ashley Brown, who sings prettily as the family-mending nanny, looks like Joan Crawford trying to be nice and sounds like Dr. Phil. Directed by Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne (2:30). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) LES MISÉRABLES This premature revival, a slightly scaled-down version of the well-groomed behemoth that closed only three years ago, appears to be functioning in a state of mild sedation. Appealingly sung and freshly orchestrated, this fast-moving adaptation of Victor Hugos novel isnt sloppy or blurry. But its pulse rate stays well below normal (2:55). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SPRING AWAKENING Duncan Sheik and Steven Saters bold adaptation of the Frank Wedekind play is the freshest and most exciting new musical Broadway has seen in some time. Set in 19th-century Germany but with a ravishing rock score, it exposes the splintered emotional lives of adolescents just discovering the joys and sorrows of sex. Performed with brio by a great cast, with supple direction by Michael Mayer and inventive choreography by Bill T. Jones (2:00). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles Isherwood) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a superdeluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) * TRANSLATIONS The estimable Irish director Garry Hynes (a Tony winner for Martin McDonaghs Beauty Queen of Leenane) has assembled an ensemble of an extraordinarily high caliber and consistency for the third major New York production of Brian Friels 1980 play. Set in rural Ireland in 1833, as the local tongue is being supplanted by the language of the English occupying forces, the play explores the seriocomic truth that language can divide as easily as it unites, and can never hope to translate the rich music in our souls with the delicacy we yearn for. A top-flight Broadway revival (2:15). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE VERTICAL HOUR David Hares soggy consideration of the Anglo-American cultural divide stars Julianne Moore (representing the Americans) and Bill Nighy (leading the British), directed by Sam Mendes. The Yanks dont stand a chance (2:20). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway BFF It is certainly possible to make fine art out of childhood experiences, but this play about two best friends forever smacks of an after-school special. It jumps back and forth between the friendship of two 11-year-old girls as they grow and grow apart, and the life of one of those girls 10 or so years later. The actors (including Sasha Eden and Laura Heisler) do a good job of conveying childhood. But it boils down to a story of 20-somethings needlessly complicating their lives -- something that may be credible, but is not necessarily interesting. (1:30). DR2, 103 East 15th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Anne Midgette) BLINDNESS Joe Tantalos adaptation of José Saramagos best-selling novel, about an unnamed city struck with an inexplicable epidemic of white blindness, is set in a cell-like space surrounded by white scrim. This setting and the mostly strong acting drive home the fearful basic circumstances. Unfortunately, the script also streamlines Saramagos reflective story to the point of draining it of moral complexity (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. (Jonathan Kalb) * DYING CITY Christopher Shinns crafty and unsettling play about grief and violence, set in the shadow of the Iraq war. Directed by James Macdonald, and fiercely acted by Pablo Schreiber and Rebecca Brooksher, this quiet, transfixing production turns passive aggression into a theatrical dynamic. (1:30). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-7600. (Brantley) * IN THE HEIGHTS Lin-Manuel Mirandas joyous songs paint a vibrant portrait of daily life in Washington Heights in this flawed but enjoyable show. Essentially a valentine to the barrio -- conflict of a violent or desperate kind is banished from the picture -- the musical contains a host of vibrant, funny performances and brings the zesty sound of Latin pop to the stage. (2:10). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Isherwood) THE MADRAS HOUSE A century-old drama about the woman question, this rare revival of Harley Granville Barkers fascinating play is more contemporary than you might think (2:30). Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 315-0231. (Jason Zinoman) MARY ROSE J. M. Barrie penned this distaff variation on themes from Peter Pan in 1920, and it has mostly lain on the shelf since. A young English girl (an exuberant Paige Howard) acquires the odd habit of disappearing and reappearing some time later, untouched by times passing. Gentle and melancholy, handsomely mounted by Tina Landau, Mary Rose is nonetheless itself touched by the mark of time (1:45). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212) 353-0303. (Isherwood) MY TRIP TO AL-QAEDA Lawrence Wright, author of a deeply researched book about the rise of Islamic terrorism, conducts a theatrical seminar about the events leading to the horror of 9/11. He combines a linear narrative of the development of Al Qaeda with reminiscences about the experience of writing the book. Absorbing, and chilling too (1:30). Culture Project, 55 Mercer Street, at Broome Street, SoHo, (212) 352-3101. (Isherwood) * SPALDING GRAY: STORIES LEFT TO TELL A disarming collage of selections from the monologues and journals of Mr. Gray, the ultimate stand-up solipsist, who died in 2004. Directed by Lucy Sexton, and read by five performers, none of whom resemble Mr. Gray, with an affection that shrewdly stops short of hero worship (1:30). Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE David Mamet has cleanly and cannily adapted Harley Granville Barkers 1905 play about corruption in the genteel world of Victorian finance. An excellent cast and a sumptuous production bring extra immediacy to a tale of embezzlement and entitlement that feels as fresh as tomorrows stock options (1:50). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * WAKE UP MR. SLEEPY! YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND IS DEAD! Richard Foremans latest film-theater hybrid is a memorial service, of sorts, for the intuitive self, killed by a surface-worshiping world. It is also a dazzling exercise in reality shifting that is as invigorating as it is mournful (1:05). Ontological Theater at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Brantley) Off Off Broadway BAAL The director Charmian Creagles bright idea for staging Bertolt Brechts often offensive first play -- about a poet and singer who is a monster of appetite -- was to cast the title role as a woman. The production is so poorly acted and drearily directed, however, that the casting does nothing to illuminate the play or open a meaningful inquiry into habitual reactions to it (2:15). Looking Glass Theater, 422 West 57th Street, Clinton, (212) 307-9467. (Kalb) CONFIDENCE, WOMEN! Robert Cucuzzas period piece about swindlers, liars and prostitutes is surprisingly sedate (1:30). Axis Theater, 1 Sheridan Square, Greenwich Village, www.acmeactinglab.com. (Zinoman) Long-Running Shows AVENUE Q R-rated puppets give lively life lessons (2:10). Golden Theater, 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) THE COLOR PURPLE Singing CliffsNotes for Alice Walkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd 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) JERSEY BOYS The biomusical that walks like a man (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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 A singing scrapbook for Monty Python fans (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE A Chorus Line with pimples (1:45). Circle in the Square, 254 West 50th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance ALL THAT I WILL EVER BE In this false-feeling comedy-drama by Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, a gay hustler undergoes an identity crisis when he finds himself falling for one of his clients. Slick but mostly stale in its analysis of a society afraid of emotional engagement (2:15). The New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 239-6200; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) THE APPLE TREE The amazing Kristin Chenoweth gives Imax-screen-size life to three curvaceous doodles who by rights shouldnt be any larger than figures in the Sunday funnies. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnicks 1966 musical, directed by Gary Griffin, shows its age but is given theatrical verve by Ms. Chenoweth, Brian dArcy James and Marc Kudisch (2:30). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300; closes on Sunday. (Brantley) THE FEVER Wallace Shawn performs his provocative monologue about a guilt-riddled bourgeois everyman sweating his way through a moral crisis. The rich, often hypnotic writing draws us into his tortured mindscape, as he shifts between shame over his sense of entitlement and reasoned arguments that sacrifice is unnecessary and pointless. Meanwhile, in the third world, the violence and poverty continue unabated (1:30). Acorn Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200; closes tonight. (Isherwood) GOODNESS Why do good people rush to do evil, Michael wants to know. And what do they become? The second question is the most daunting for a play, but the clarity of Michael Redhills language, the economy of Ross Mansons direction and the excellent cast succeed in dramatizing its complexities. The haunting score sung a capella is based on folk songs from as far north as the Ukraine and as far south as Zimbabwe (1:30). Performance Space 122, 150 First Avenue, at East Ninth Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Honor Moore) THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and THE JEW OF MALTA F. Murray Abraham plays two Elizabethan villains in repertory for the Theater for a New Audience. Mr. Abrahams sinister but still moving Shylock is the dark heart of Darko Tresnjaks chilly, powerful staging of one of Shakespeares unfunniest comedies. As Barabas in David Herskovitss goofy, postmodern Jew of Malta, hes the lively center of a carnival that doesnt do justice to Christopher Marlowes harsh satire on Christian hypocrisy and venality (each 2:30). The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, (212) 239-6200; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) ORESTEIA David Johnstons take on Aeschylus includes some of this irreverent playwrights trademark off-kilter sensibility but not his familiar flights of fancy (1:30). Access Theater, 380 Broadway, north of White Street, TriBeCa, (212) 868-4444; closes tomorrow. (Zinoman) A VERY COMMON PROCEDURE Courtney Barons play suffers from a very common problem: For at least half of this one-acts running time, the characters onstage are talking to us, not one another. Paradoxically, this intimacy between audience and actors keeps the story -- an odd love affair between a woman grieving the death of her baby and the doctor involved in the babys death -- at arms length (1:20). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 279-4200; closes tomorrow. (Isherwood) 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. THE ABANDONED (R, 95 minutes) The title of this dull, hysterical horror movie seems to refer to its release strategy. The greatest mystery is why it showed up in theaters at all, rather than going straight to DVD. (A. O. Scott) AMAZING GRACE (PG, 120 minutes) Michael Apteds prettified take on the life and times of the 18th-century reformer William Wilberforce carries a strong whiff of piety but is generally pleasing and often moving, and features fine performances from newcomers and veterans alike. (Manohla Dargis) THE ASTRONAUT FARMER (PG, 102 minutes) This sentimental fable about a Texas rancher who follows his dreams and builds a rocket ship in his barn is made bearable -- just -- by Billy Bob Thorntons underplayed performance in the lead role, and also by the wide-eyed visual wonderment of the director, Michael Polish, who is the co-writer of the picture with his twin brother, Mark. (Scott) * BAMAKO (No rating, 118 minutes, in French and Bambara) Abdelrahmane Sissakos new film is an indictment of the Wests complicity in Africas misery, staged as a public trial of the World Bank and its affiliates. The films passionate didacticism is both enriched and subverted by Mr. Sissakos deft, subtle attention to the details of daily life in the capital of Mali, where the movie takes place. (Scott) BLACK SNAKE MOAN (R, 116 minutes) Christina Ricci as a Tennessee nymphomaniac and Samuel Jackson as the blues singer who tries to cure her by fastening her half-naked self to his radiator with a chain. In spite of that summary, its mostly corny uplift, from Craig Brewer, who also wrote and directed the down-home pimp fairy tale Hustle & Flow. (Scott) BREACH (PG-13, 110 minutes) In his fine, no-nonsense account of the capture of the F.B.I. agent-turned-mole Robert Philip Hanssen, the director Billy Ray manages to excite and unnerve despite our knowing the ending. Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe star. (Dargis) * BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (PG, 95 minutes) Grounded more in reality than in fantasy, this adaptation of Katherine Patersons novel offers an affecting story of a transformative friendship between two gifted children. Beautifully capturing a time when a bully in school can loom as large as a troll in a nightmare, the director, Gabor Csupo, keeps the fantasy in the background to find magic in the everyday. (Jeannette Catsoulis) * THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI (No rating, 74 minutes, in English and Japanese) Linda Hattendorfs remarkable documentary follows her growing friendship with a homeless artist from her New York City neighborhood. Born in Sacramento in 1920 and raised in Hiroshima, Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani relives his painful past with vivid paintings of internment camps and blood-red cities. When his health is threatened by the dust clouds of Sept. 11, Ms. Hattendorf moves him into her home, and what began as an interesting portrait of an outsider artist becomes a fascinating story of injustice and endurance. (Catsoulis) * THE DEPARTED (R, 150 minutes) Winner of the Oscar for best picture, Martin Scorseses cubistic entertainment about men divided by power, loyalty and their own selves is at once a success and a relief. Based on the crackling Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, it features fine twinned performances from Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, and a showboating Jack Nicholson. (Dargis) DREAMGIRLS (PG-13, 131 minutes) The Broadway musical arrives on the screen, capably directed by Bill Condon, ardently acted and sung by Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé Knowles and (especially) Jennifer Hudson, who won a best-supporting-actress Oscar for her performance, but undone by mediocre and anachronistic songs. (Scott) GHOST RIDER (PG-13, 114 minutes) After a long string of financial flops, Nicolas Cage returns to play Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcycle rider whose soul belongs to the Devil. Despite the promise of the first 30 minutes -- when Johnny is played by the charming young actor Matt Long -- a witless script and a central character whos more funny than frightening suggest that the filmmakers franchise hopes may be dashed. (Catsoulis) HANNIBAL RISING (R, 121 minutes) This primer on Hannibal Lecter reduces a mythic villain to a callow, dysfunctional chef. Orphaned in World War II, our psychopathic hero hunts down his familys killers and snacks on their remains. But burrowing into the id of pop cultures most repulsive gourmet demands a sanguinary glee that the director, Peter Webber, may not possess; for all the movies spurting gore, theres no rush of blood to the head. (Catsoulis) * INTO GREAT SILENCE (No rating, 162 minutes, in English and Latin) Philip Grönings documentary about the lives of Carthusian monks living in a valley in the French Alps is slow, quiet and utterly spellbinding for the way it conveys the experience of spiritual devotion in simple, lovely images. (Scott) THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (R, 121 minutes) Kevin Macdonald paints a queasily enjoyable portrait of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin from inside the palace walls. Forest Whitaker, in an Oscar-winning performance, plays the mad king, while James McAvoy plays the fool. (Dargis) * LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (R, 141 minutes, in Japanese) Another masterwork from Clint Eastwoods astonishing late period, and one of the best war movies ever. Ken Watanabe is especially fine as the general commanding Japanese troops in the doomed defense of the island of Iwo Jima. (Scott) * THE LIVES OF OTHERS (R, 137 minutes, in German) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks debut feature, winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, takes place in East Berlin in 1984, and it is a smart, moving inquiry into the moral predicament facing good people in a bad system. Ulrich Mühes performance as a conscience-stricken Stasi officer is a tightly wound tour de force, and Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck are both superb as a playwright and his actress lover who are drawn into the cruel, absurd clutches of the Communist secret police. (Scott) MUSIC AND LYRICS (PG-13, 96 minutes) Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant phone in passable impersonations of themselves in this competent romantic comedy, which is somewhat enlivened by parodies of bad pop songs from both the 1980s and the present. (Scott) THE NUMBER 23 (R, 95 minutes) An accidental comedy starring a deadly serious Jim Carrey that owes something to David Fincher, a little something else to Robert Anton Wilson and next to nothing, at least intentionally, to the gods of laughter, be they Gelus (Greek) or Jerry Lewis (American). (Dargis) * PANS LABYRINTH (R, 119 minutes, in Spanish) Guillermo del Toros tale of a young girls ordeal in post-Civil-War fascist Spain is either a fairy tale in the guise of a political allegory or vice versa. In either case it is a moving, enchanting, strange and humane example of popular art at its very best. (Scott) * THE QUEEN (PG-13, 103 minutes) Directed by Stephen Frears from a very smart script by Peter Morgan, and starring a magnificent Helen Mirren (who won an Oscar) in the title role, The Queen pries open a window in the House of Windsor around the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, blending fact with fiction. (Dargis) RENO 911!: MIAMI (R, 81 minutes) The title more or less says all you need to know about the story, the action and the point. (Dargis) ROCK BOTTOM (No rating, 75 minutes) This graphic documentary by Jay Corcoran is a strong, scary examination of the crystal methedrine epidemic among gay men in New York. (Stephen Holden) STARTER FOR TEN (PG-13, 96 minutes) This amiable, nostalgic British comedy tackles a lofty subject -- the allure of knowledge --with down-to-earth charm, following a working-class kid (James McAvoy) during his first year at Bristol University and an appearance on the TV quiz show University Challenge. But beneath the formulaic embarrassments and fumbled learning curve lurks a more somber theme: the inevitable rupture between those who pursue an education and those left behind. (Catsoulis) TWO WEEKS (R, 102 minutes) Sally Field creates a powerful portrait of a middle-aged North Carolina woman tended by her family, as she succumbs to ovarian cancer. This well-intentioned film is contaminated by its detours into sitcom humor. (Holden) WILD HOGS (PG-13, 100 minutes) Tame slop. (Scott) WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN (No rating, 81 minutes) A lonely 13-year-old boys awakening to his own homosexuality is evoked in Cam Archers tender, excessively arty cinematic poem. (Holden) * ZODIAC (R, 158 minutes) David Finchers magnificently obsessive new film tracks the story of the serial killer who left dead bodies up and down California in the 1960s and possibly the 70s, and that of the men who tried to stop him. Set when the Age of Aquarius disappeared into the black hole of the Manson family murders, Zodiac is part police procedural, part monster movie, a funereal entertainment that is a testament to this cinematic savants gifts. (Dargis) Film Series CANADIAN FRONT 2007 (Wednesday and Thursday) The Museum of Modern Art presents eight new features from Canada in its fourth annual survey of filmmaking up north. Wednesdays opening attractions are Remembering Arthur, a documentary by Martin Lavut about the Canadian experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett, and Away From Her, a drama directed by the actress Sarah Polley about a long-married couple (Julie Christie and Gordon Pinset) faced with the onset of Alzheimers disease. There are six more films in the series, which runs through March 18. Museum of Modern Art Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, (212) 708-9400, moma.org; $10. (Dave Kehr) RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2007 (Tonight through Sunday) Perennially popular and frequently sold out, this annual series sponsored by the French film export union, Unifrance, continues this week at both uptown (the Walter Reade Theater) and downtown locations (The IFC Center), with a wide-ranging mix of commercial and art house movies. This weekends features suggest some of the spread: Murderers, directed by Patrick Grandperret, is a New Wavish road movie about two teenagers who escape from a psychiatric institution and take their love on the road; I Do stars one of Frances most popular comedians, Alain Chabat, in the tale of a toxic bachelor whose family forces him into a series of hideous blind dates. Saturday brings The Untouchable, the new feature by the prolific and always provocative Benoît Jacquot (Seventh Heaven), with the ravishing Isild Le Besco as an actress who discovers a life-changing secret about her parentage. And the great craftsman of French boulevard comedy, Francis Veber (The Dinner Game), returns with The Valet, a farce about a parking lot attendant (Gad Elmaleh) who is hired by a wealthy industrialist (Daniel Auteuil) to act as a beard for the millionaires mistress (Alice Taglioni). Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 975-5600, filmlinc.org; $10. IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 924-7771, ifccenter.com; $10.75. (Kehr) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. ANTIBALAS (Tomorrow) Antibalas delivers a New York makeover to Fela Kutis Afrobeat, the Nigerian funk propelled by burly saxophones, fierce percussion and righteous anger. At 9 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505, warsawconcerts.com; $18 in advance, $20 at the door. (Jon Pareles) * ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS (Tonight) Orchestras are always scheming to attract young people (that is, people under 50), and the Brooklyn Philharmonic has come up with a smart idea, presenting serious pop artists backed with something special: an orchestra. Tonight is Antony, the quivering, androgynous prince of woe. At 8, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100, brooklynphilharmonic.org; $25 to $105. (Ben Sisario) AQUALUNG (Monday) Matt Hales, the piano-playing Briton who records as Aqualung, borrows all the most tedious and indulgent aspects of Coldplay and Radiohead -- the slow-motion brooding, the epic self-pity -- while missing their joyful grandeur. With Sarah Bareilles. At 7 p.m., Hiro Ballroom, 371 West 16th Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-0212, bowerypresents.com; $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sisario) THE BRAVERY (Monday) Disco first met punk in Britain in the late 70s, but they have had quite a romance in turn-of-the-21st-century New York. The Bravery arrived a couple of years ago with catchy, radio-ready songs and buckets of hair gel; the band has been compared, accurately, to the Strokes, New Order, U2 and Franz Ferdinand. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Sisario) * CLINIC (Tonight) Dressed in surgical masks, this Liverpool band plays jabby, frantic rock with spikes of guitar noise and a beat that sounds like a countdown to something terrible. Its an invasive procedure, but when it gets going its impossible to look away. At 8:30, Gramercy Theater, 127 East 23rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171; $18.50. (Sisario) STEVE EARLE (Monday and Tuesday) Steve Earles America is a place full of mavericks, outcasts and stubborn hope. His voice is scarred and raspy, and his band is well rooted and far-reaching, playing generous sets that range across country and rock, from bluegrass to psychedelia. He makes his Blue Note debut with his new wife, the country-rocker Allison Moorer. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; $35 cover at tables, $25 at the bar; $5 minimum. (Pareles) FAB FAUX (Tuesday and Wednesday) There are Beatles tribute acts, and then there are Beatles tribute acts. This one, featuring the bassist Will Lee (of the Late Show With David Letterman band) and the guitarist Jimmy Vivino (from Late Night With Conan OBrien), recreates even the most complex studio work of the later Beatles without breaking a sweat. For these two concerts, it takes on some of the Beatles solo work. At 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; $35. (Sisario) GOMEZ, BEN KWELLER (Tonight) Gomez formed in the heyday of 90s Britpop with an against-the-grain obsession with tight, sharp blues-rock. On its latest album, How We Operate (ATO), the band has veered into folkier realms, but still plays with unusual precision and focus. Ben Kweller survived his time as a teenage rock prodigy and has carved out a niche as an ambitious singer-songwriter, playing all the instruments on his latest, self-titled album. At 6, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; $28. (Sisario) THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE QUEEN (Monday) The latest solo project by Damon Albarn of Blur and the Gorillaz has a stellar cast: Danger Mouse, the producer who is one-half of Gnarls Barkley; Tony Allen, Fela Kutis drummer; and Paul Simonon, bassist of the Clash. They might have made a brilliant ruckus together, but their debut album is a strangely pulseless picture of Englands wartime malaise. At 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; sold out. (Sisario) * ISIS, JESU (Wednesday) Isis creates a fearsome sludge out of atonal guitars and a permanently distorted bass. As the music heads to repeated climaxes, it can resemble an ecstatic release or the last thrashings of a captured animal. Jesu, led by Justin Broadrick of the British industrial-metal pioneers Godflesh, soars on clouds of rumbling guitar noise that inevitably turn turbulent. At 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800, irvingplaza.com; $16 in advance, $18 at the door. (Sisario) KEB MO (Thursday) Keb Mo (originally Kevin Moore) can sound like an old-time bluesman, with spiky guitar parts and gruff, knowing vocals; lately, he has also been writing songs that offer kindly advice in unassuming pop-folk settings. At 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171, the-townhall-nyc.org; $35 and $50. (Pareles) MANÁ (Wednesday and Thursday) Mexicos most popular rock group, Maná mingles its Police-derived groove with elements of norteño and reggae, and sings about human rights, environmentalism and AIDS. But plenty of the bands songs are about the good old battle of the sexes too: its latest album is Amar es Combatir (To Love Is to Fight). At 8 p.m., Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741, thegarden.com; $46 to $105.50. (Sisario) MATT AND KIM (Tonight) Meet indie-rocks ultimate birthday band: a Brooklyn couple who pound organ and drums through irrationally exuberant, major-key romps that seem equal parts garage-rock and Nintendo. With Professor Murder and Dynamite Arrows. At 9, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Sisario) * OF MONTREAL (Tonight and tomorrow night) Of Montreal, which emerged in the 90s with the Elephant Six collective of neo-psychedelic bands in Athens, Ga., plays giddy, harmonically rambling songs by Kevin Barnes, whos clearly a Beach Boys and Beatles fan. With Grand Buffett and Mixel Pixel tonight, and Loney, Dear tomorrow. At 9, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800, irvingplaza.com; sold out. Emil Svanangen, the Swedish songwriter who records moody, pulsating and melodic music as Loney, Dear, also plays on Monday at 8 at Union Hall, 702 Union Street, at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 638-4400, unionhallny.com; sold out. (Pareles) 120 DAYS, SHOUT OUT OUT OUT OUT (Tonight and tomorrow night) These two groups are separated by thousands of miles but are equally obsessed with erotic, electronic dance-rock. 120 Days, from Norway, adds rock n roll thrust and considerable gloom to the perpetual-motion techno of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder. Shout Out Out Out Out, a six-piece from Edmonton, Alberta, that includes four bassists, grooves along happily and sweatily with bubbling synthesizers and robotic vocals. Tonight at 8:30, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236, spsounds.com; tomorrow night at 8:30, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $10. (Sisario) * POGUES (Wednesday and Thursday) The band that made punk look like traditional music -- and vice versa -- plays the first two of three shows for what Guinness now calls the St. Patricks Day season. Last year the Pogues made their first appearances in New York in 15 years with Shane MacGowan, their Dionysian, damaged former singer, and Mr. MacGowan is back on board again. With the Holloways on Wednesday, and Langhorne Slim on Thursday. At 8 p.m., Roseland Ballroom, 239 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800, roselandballroom.com; $54 in advance, $57 at the door. (Sisario) RAVEONETTES (Tomorrow through Monday) This Danish duo is in love with all the sexy, silly rock of pre-hippie America: motorcycle vamps, Buddy Holly melodies and Sam Cooke chain gangs. It blares through a repertory of lean, minimalist tunes with a noisy nihilism derived from the Velvet Underground and the Jesus and Mary Chain. With the Pity Party. Tomorrow at 9 p.m., Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236, spsounds.com; Sunday at 9 p.m., Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703, maxwellsnj.com; Monday at 9:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $15. (Sisario) ANOUSHKA SHANKAR (Tonight) Ms. Shankar, the sitarist, 25, who has up to this point been an aesthetic acolyte of her fathers (Ravi Shankars) lithe, neo-traditional take on improvisatory raga, has recently been experimenting with a combination of acoustic and electronic backing instrumentation. At 8, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, LaGuardia Community College, 47th Avenue at Van Dam Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 482-5151, lagcc.cuny.edu; $30; $15 for students. (Pareles) * SHINS (Wednesday) The Shins emerged from Albuquerque at the turn of the millennium with a sound that slowly but inevitably catapulted them to the upper ranks of the indiesphere: wistful and acoustic, with an adventurousness that sometimes leads to something like psychedelia. (Natalie Portmans exhortation in Garden State that the bands music will change your life didnt hurt.) At 8 p.m., Theater at Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741, thegarden.com; $37.50. (Sisario) CHRIS SMITHER (Tonight) With a weary, well-traveled voice and a serenely intricate fingerpicking style, Mr. Smither turns the blues into songs that accept hard-won lessons and try to make peace with fate. Love You Like a Man, the song Bonnie Raitt borrowed from him in the 1970s, only hints at the thoughtful intensity of his more recent work. At 7, Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555, joespub.com; $22. (Pareles) BOB WEIR AND RATDOG (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Weir, the rhythm guitarist in the Grateful Dead and the kind of musician who lives to be on the road, winds up a three-night stand at the Beacon Theater with his six-piece band Ratdog, playing rock standards and Dead favorites. At 8, Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 307-7171; beacontheatrenyc.com; $39.50 and $49.50. (Sisario) THE WHO (Sunday) Anyone who missed Pete Townshends impassioned solo renditions of The Real Me, Acid Queen and Wont Get Fooled Again at Joes Pub a few weeks ago have another chance to hear them in a slightly larger context, the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Maybe Lou Reed, who at Joes Pub played Velvet Underground songs with Mr. Townshend as jaws dropped all around them, will make an appearance. But dont count on it. At 8 p.m., 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, N.Y., (631) 888-9000, nassaucoliseum.com; $52 to $97. (Sisario) * AMY WINEHOUSE, PIPETTES (Tuesday) Ms. Winehouse, an R&B singer who in her single You Know Im No Good is tough enough to tell Roger Moore shes too high-maintenance for him, is a budding star back home in England and has begun her American campaign. The Pipettes are a different kind of retro vocal act: three young British women who dress in identical polka dots and mimic 60s girl groups in harmonies that are strictly approximate. At 7:30 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. The Pipettes also play on Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. at the Luna Lounge, 361 Metropolitan Avenue, at Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, lunalounge.com; $10 in advance, $12 at the door (sold out on Monday). (Sisario) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. REZ ABBASIS BAZAAR (Tomorrow) On his most recent album, Bazaar (Zoho), the guitarist Rez Abbasi infuses Southeast Asian motifs with rock bombast and jazz flexibility. He revisits that material here with the alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, the bassist Carlo DeRosa and the drummer Sunny Jain. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Nate Chinen) MICHAËL ATTIAS AND TWINES OF COLESION (Wednesday) A saxophonist and composer with a taste for inquisitive frictions, Michaël Attias presents a group featuring his fellow saxophonist Tony Malaby, along with Russ Lossing on Wurlitzer piano, John Hebert on bass and Satoshi Takeishi on drums. At 8 and 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) GREGG AUGUST (Thursday) Mr. August, a capable bassist, has also proved himself a sensible small-group composer in the Cedar Walton vein. He leads his solid working sextet, which features the saxophonists Myron Walden and Joel Frahm. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $12. (Chinen) ERNESTO CERVINI QUARTET (Sunday) Ernesto Cervini is a young Canadian drummer with a likable new self-released album called Here. He leads a post-bop group with Joel Frahm on tenor and soprano saxophones, Kristjan Randalu on piano and Joe Martin on bass. At 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) GEORGE COLEMAN QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Fluent and fiery hard bop, from a well-traveled saxophonist and an excellent rhythm section that includes the pianist Harold Mabern. At 8, 10 and 11:30, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662, smokejazz.com; cover, $25. (Chinen) DICK & DEREK AT THE MOVIES (Tomorrow) The pianists Dick Hyman and Derek Smith lovingly interpret songs from movies like Gigi and Brigadoon, with a promising ensemble that includes the tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, the bassist Jay Leonhart and the drummer Winard Harper. A third pianist, Rossano Sportiello, also lends a hand (or two). At 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, www.92y.org; $45. (Chinen) DOWNRIGHT UPRIGHT ALL STARS (Monday) Brian Bromberg, a bassist with extensive studio credits, has a new album, Downright Upright (Artistry), that focuses on acoustic grooves. Here Mr. Bromberg leads an extroverted ensemble with Randy Brecker on trumpet, Gary Meek on saxophones, Jeff Lorber on keyboards and Dave Weckl on drums. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $20. (Chinen) ANAT FORT (Tuesday) Ms. Fort is a prepossessing young pianist with an auspicious new debut on the ECM label. She performs her own music with a quartet consisting of the multireedist Perry Robinson, the bassist Ed Schuller and the drummer Roland Schneider. At 7 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $15, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) DON FRIEDMAN QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Don Friedmans stylistic history as a pianist runs from traditional to left-of-center; his group here includes the baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, the bassist Doug Weiss and the drummer Tony Jefferson. At 8 and 9:45, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119, kitano.com; cover, $25, with a $15 minimum. (Chinen) LOUIS HAYES QUINTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) As propulsive a hard-bop group as you could hope for, led by the veteran drummer Louis Hayes and featuring the trumpeter Duane Eubanks, the saxophonist J. D. Allen, the pianist Anthony Wonsey and the bassist Richie Goods. At 8, 10 and midnight, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * THE HEATH BROTHERS (Tuesday through Thursday) Nearly two years after the loss of their brother, Percy, a bassist and cellist, the saxophonist Jimmy Heath and the drummer Albert (Tootie) Heath soldier on. Peter Washington handles bass duties, and Jeb Patton plays piano. (Through March 18.) At 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) ICTUS RECORDS 30TH ANNIVERSARY RENAISSANCE PROJECT (Tonight) The percussionist Andrea Centazzo throws a party for his Ictus Records, an indie label with a focus on free improvisation. He has the ideal fellow celebrants: Badal Roy on tabla, Nobu Stowe on piano and Perry Robinson on saxophones. At 7, Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 620-5000, rmanyc.org; $20. (Chinen) BRIGGAN KRAUSS, IKUE MORI AND JIM BLACK (Tuesday) Texturally minded open improvisation, courtesy of Mr. Krauss, a razor-edged alto saxophonist; Ms. Mori, an electronic percussionist; and Mr. Black, a dynamic drummer. At 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501, tonicnyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) * STEVE KUHN TRIO (Wednesday and Thursday) The pianist Steve Kuhn reconvenes an all-star trio he formed 20 years ago, with Ron Carter on bass and Al Foster on drums. Their last run here was recorded, and the resulting Blue Note release, Live at Birdland, is a knockout. (Through March 17.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * THE LATIN SIDE OF WAYNE SHORTER (Wednesday and Thursday) Continuing an experiment that has already tapped the songbooks of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, the trombonist Conrad Herwig tilts his ear toward another titan of jazz modernism. Among his partners in clave are the trumpeter Brian Lynch and the pianist Eddie Palmieri, who recently won a Grammy for their collaborative album, Simpático. (Through March 18.) At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $35 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) SABIR MATEEN (Thursday) Mr. Mateen, an adventurous multireedist, leads two separate projects here: his Shapes Textures and Sound Ensemble, which includes the trombonist Steve Swell (at 8 p.m.); and his Jubilee Ensemble, which conscripts more than a dozen improvisers in a shifting polyphony (at 10 p.m.). The Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10 a set. (Chinen) JOE MORRIS TRIO (Tomorrow) The fluidly inventive guitarist and bassist Joe Morris actually leads a pair of trios tomorrow night: one with the tenor saxophonist Peter Cancuree and the drummer Jason Nazary (at 8 p.m.), and another with the cellist Daniel Levin and the drummer Michael Evans (at 10 p.m.). At the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10 a set. (Chinen) MARK MURPHY (Tuesday through Thursday) Mr. Murphy is a singer known mainly for sly insouciance, but on his last album, Once to Every Heart (Verve), he opted for a burnished and broken romanticism. He performs here with a backing quartet let by the pianist Misha Piatigorsky. (Through March 18.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) ARTURO OFARRILL TRIO (Tonight and tomorrow night) Arturo OFarrill, the pianist and bandleader of Jazz at Lincoln Centers Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, knows how to energize in smaller settings; his regular trio features Alex Blake on bass and Jamie Affoumado on drums. At 9:15, 10:40 and midnight, Puppets Jazz Bar, 294 Fifth Avenue, near Second Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 499-2627, puppetsjazz.com; cover, $10 and a two-drink minimum. (Chinen) PARAPHRASE (Thursday) A collective trio -- Tim Berne, alto saxophonist; Drew Gress, bassist; and Tom Rainey, drummer -- engaging in an interplay thats unscripted but hardly formless. The visual artists Steve Byram and Jonathan Rosen add an additional layer of abstraction in this performance, which precedes a European tour. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Tea Lounge, 837 Union Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 789-2762, tealoungeny.com; donation, $5. (Chinen) MATT PAVOLKA (Sunday) Mr. Pavolka, a bassist, leads a group of freethinking but lyrical players: Ben Monder, guitarist; Pete Rende, keyboardist; and Ted Poor, drummer. In a preceding set, at 7 p.m., the saxophonist Igor Lumpert presents Vitamin Museum, a well-fortified young quintet. At 9 p.m., Bar 4, 444 Seventh Avenue, at 15th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 832-9800; suggested cover, $5. (Chinen) KEN PEPLOWSKI QUARTET (Thursday) Ken Peplowski, a versatile clarinetist and tenor saxophonist, works here with a crisp and accomplished set of rhythm-section players: the pianist Bill Charlap, the bassist Martin Wind and the drummer Joe LaBarbara. (Through March 18.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25. (Chinen) * TO PREZ, WITH LOVE (Sunday) The Lester Young Memorial Celebration, a benefit for the jazz ministry at St. Peters Church, is a sprawling affair by design; this 23rd edition boasts dozens of musicians and advocates, like the saxophonist Lee Konitz, the trombonist Benny Powell and the pianist Dick Katz. At 7 p.m., St. Peters Church, 619 Lexington Avenue, at 54th Street, (212) 935-2200, saintpeters.org; donation, $15. (Chinen) WALLACE RONEY (Tomorrow and Sunday) Mr. Roney leads a hard-hitting band with his brother, Antoine Roney, on tenor and soprano saxophone; Robert Irving on piano; Rashaan Carter on bass; Val Jeanty on turntables; and Eric Allen on drums. At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., with an 11:30 p.m. set tomorrow, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) KENDRA SHANK (Tuesday) A superbly skilled vocalist, Ms. Shank interprets jazz and pop liberally, but with an abiding respect for melody. On her new album, A Spirit Free: Abbey Lincoln Songbook (Challenge), she pays smart homage to one of her influences with a band that includes the saxophonist and clarinetist Billy Drewes, the pianist Frank Kimbrough and the guitarist Ben Monder, who all appear here. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $20. (Chinen) SONIC LIBERATION FRONT (Sunday) The percussionist Kevin Diehl is the de facto leader of this experimental Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble, but its sound -- as captured on a recent album, Change Over Time (High Two) -- reflects a deep and focused sense of collectivity. At Jimmys Restaurant, 43 East Seventh Street, East Village, (212) 982-3006, freestylejazz.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) GRANT STEWART (Tomorrow and Tuesday) Mr. Stewart is an uncommonly proficient tenor saxophonist, as he confirms on a bebop-steeped new album, In the Still of the Night (Sharp Nine). Tomorrow he leads a trio in the grotto adjoining La Lanterna di Vittorio restaurant; on Tuesday he holds down his weekly quartet gig. Tomorrow at 9 and 11:15 p.m., Bar Next Door, 129 MacDougal Street, near West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 529-5945, lalanternacaffe.com; cover, $8, with a one-drink minimum. Tuesday at 10:30 p.m., Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 675-7369, fatcatjazz.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) * CECIL TAYLORS AHA 3 / JOHN ZORNS MASADA (Tonight and tomorrow night) Cecil Taylor, the leonine patriarch of fiery free-jazz piano, has intuitive peers in the bassist Henry Grimes and the drummer Pheeroan akLaff. As for Masada, it is among the best-loved ensembles of the prolific alto saxophonist and composer John Zorn: a dynamic Jewish-tinged avant-garde quartet featuring Dave Douglas on trumpet, Greg Cohen on bass and Joey Baron on drums. At 8, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 721-6500, jalc.org; $37.50 to $127.50. (Chinen) DAVID S. WARE / MATTHEW SHIPP AND GUILLERMO E. BROWN (Sunday) The sound of Mr. Wares tenor saxophone can assume almost orchestral dimensions, as he demonstrated on a powerful recording, Live in the Netherlands, in 2001. This rare solo performance will precede a dialogue between two alumni of Mr. Wares acclaimed (and now defunct) quartet: Mr. Shipp, on piano, and Mr. Brown, on laptop computer. At 8 and 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $20 for the first set, $10 for the second. (Chinen) WAVERLY SEVEN (Wednesday) Marking the release of a new album, Yo! Bobby (Anzic), the smart young clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen leads a high-spirited instrumental tribute to Bobby Darin, with a blue-chip ensemble that includes Scott Robinson on baritone saxophone, Avishai Cohen on trumpet and Jason Lindner on piano. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $20. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera * DIE ÄGYPTISCHE HELENA (Thursday) Richard Strauss is among the greatest opera composers of the 20th century, yet for a long time the Santa Fe Opera was virtually the only place in the United States that many of his works could be heard. His opera about the most beautiful woman in the world is slow going and hasnt been staged at the Metropolitan Opera since its United States premiere production in 1928. But its worth hearing for its rich music and, in the Mets new production (by David Fielding) that opens on Thursday, a crack cast, led by Deborah Voigt and Diana Damrau, with Jill Grove in one of operas more unusual roles, the Omniscient Mussel. At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $50 to $550 tickets remaining. (Anne Midgette) * IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA (Wednesday) Bartlett Shers breezy new production of Rossinis Barbiere di Siviglia, introduced in November, conveys the comic confusions of the story through its fluid staging and a wonderfully abstract set: a matrix of movable doors, staircases and potted orange trees, behind which characters spy on one another. The heated sexuality of the characters also comes through strongly, thanks to Mr. Shers subtle directing of a handsome cast. The baritone Peter Mattei is a robust and agile Figaro. The tenor Juan Diego Flórez could not be more adorable as the amorous Count Almaviva, though his voice sounds pinched and shaky at times. Joyce DiDonato, a captivating young mezzo-soprano, takes over the role of Rosina. Maurizio Benini conducts. At 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; sold out. (Anthony Tommasini) DESSOFF CHOIRS (Tomorrow) Musicians Wrestle Everywhere is the attention-getting header for a concert of 20th- and 21st-century choral music by this fine choir; its actually the title of a piece on the program by the increasingly famous Elliott Carter. To the groups credit, it is exploring all kinds of directions off the beaten track: Mr. Carter is the most familiar name on a roster of composers that includes James Bassi, William Duckworth and Phillip Rhodes. The highlight is a world premiere by Kyle Gann, a composer, writer and teacher who is a strong advocate for moving away from well-worn musical paths; my father moved through dooms of love is the setting of a poem by e. e. cummings. At 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, (212) 501-3330; $20 in advance; $25 at the door; $15 for 65+ and students with ID. (Midgette) FAUST (Monday) Gounods lush score is back at the Met in Andrei Serbans staging, now less hyperactive than when it was introduced in 2005. Alas, someone appears to have gotten to its soul before Méphistophélès had the chance: the singers, though all fine, put the drama at arms length, so the works intense passions dont quite come through. In the cast: Ramón Vargas in the title role, Ruth Ann Swenson as Marguerite and Ildar Abdrazakov as Méphistophélès, with Maurizio Benini conducting. At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $80 to $375 remaining tickets. (Allan Kozinn) MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Sunday and Wednesday) All of the kudos for the Metropolitan Operas new Butterfly this season, deserved though they were, seemed rather to overlook the fact that City Operas elegant, beautiful and abstract Butterfly partakes of a similar aesthetic, and got there first. There is all the more reason to see the City Opera version, which returns tonight in another installment of the companys popular, $25-a-ticket series, Opera for All, and sticks around through April 22. Angela Maria Blasi, an established singer in Europe, makes her company debut as Cio-Cio San. Sunday afternoon at 1:30, Wednesday night at 7:30, New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $25 to $125. (Midgette) * DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG (Tomorrow and Tuesday) Otto Schenks captivating 1993 production of Wagners humanely comic masterpiece Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is back in the repertory, and the cast is exceptional. The voice of the veteran bass James Morris may be a little patchy these days, but he inhabits the role of Hans Sachs, the wise cobbler and beloved mastersinger, singing with compelling integrity and nobility. The tenor Johan Botha makes a portly Walther, but gives a vocally triumphant account of this demanding role. The fine soprano Hei-Kyung Hong is a lovely and lyrical Eva. And James Levine, in a score he has made a specialty, conducts a nuanced, elegant and stirring performance. (The American conductor John Keenan conducts the final performance on Tuesday night.) Tomorrow at noon, Tuesday at 6 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $72 to $220 tomorrow, $15 to $375 on Tuesday. (Tommasini) SIMON BOCCANEGRA (Tonight) This is the last performance of a revival by the Metropolitan Opera of Verdis dark melodrama. Angela Marambia takes over as Amelia, and Marcus Haddock as Gabriele. Thomas Hampson and Ferruccio Furlanetto remain. Fabio Luisi is the strong conductor. At 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $15 to $375. (Bernard Holland) LA TRAVIATA (Tomorrow) For its revival of Verdis Traviata, in Franco Zeffirellis extravagant 1998 production, the Met is rotating casts, with three sopranos sharing the role of Violetta this season. The earthy Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, who made her Met debut in 2001 and who was recently heard at the house as Nedda in Pagliacci, sings Violetta, the role of her debut. The compelling German tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings Alfredo, Violettas impulsive lover, with the veteran American baritone Dwayne Croft as Alfredos tragically interfering father, Germont. Marco Armiliato conducts. At 8:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $150 to $375 tickets remaining. (Tommasini) Classical Music BARGEMUSIC (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) The offerings at this intimate, floating chamber music hall this week are from the heart of the standard canon. This weekend its all Schubert, Schumann and Brahms: tonight and tomorrow Gerald Robbins plays Schuberts Sonata in A, Schumanns Grand Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor and the Brahms Handel Variations. On Sunday Mr. Robbins is joined by Glenn Dicterow, the violinist; Karen Dreyfus, the violist; and Frederick Zlotkin, the cellist, for Schuberts Adagio and Rondo Concertante, Schumanns E flat Piano Quartet and Brahmss G minor Piano Quartet. On Thursday the cellist Nathaniel Rosen and the pianist Doris Stevenson play the first installment of a traversal of Beethovens complete works for cello and piano. Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday nights at 8, Sunday at 4, Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083, bargemusic.org; $35; $20 for students; $30 for 65+ tonight and Thursday only. (Kozinn) JOSHUA BELL, STEVEN ISSERLIS AND JEREMY DENK (Sunday) The violinist, cellist and pianist, respectively, come to one of the Ys Sunday afternoon family concerts, this one entitled Why Handel Waggled his Wig. At 3, 92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, www.92y.org; $16. (Holland) * JONATHAN BISS (Thursday) This outstanding 26-year-old pianist, notable for the depth and finesse of his playing, returns to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to perform a recital as part of the Piano Forte series. He will perform Mozarts Sonata in F (K. 533/494); Weberns Variations for Piano (Op. 27); Beethovens Sonata in C Minor (Op. 13, Pathétique) and Schumanns Kreisleriana (Op. 16). Judging by his recent EMI recording, Kreisleriana should be a particular treat. At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 570-3949, metmuseum.org; $40. (Vivien Schweitzer) BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC (Tomorrow) Michael Christie may still be finding his way as music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, but he seems fully at home with what has long been an adventurous orchestra. His program includes two works by Osvaldo Golijov -- Last Round and a new orchestration of Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, with David Krakauer as the clarinet soloist -- set beside the Mahler First Symphony. Connections? Both Golijovs Dreams and the Mahler draw on klezmer moves. At 8, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100, brooklynphilharmonic.org. (Tommasini) COUNTER)INDUCTION (Sunday) This innovative new-music ensemble explores contemporary repertory by Japanese composers, including Dai Fujikuras Eternal Escape, for cello; Jo Kondos Standing, for open instrumentation; Misato Mochizukis All that is including me, for bass clarinet, violin and bass flute; Toshio Hosokawas Vertical Time Study, for cello, piano and clarinet; and Moto Osadas Kaguyama Dance, for viola and piano. At 8 p.m., Tenri Cultural Center, 43A West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 645-2800, tenri.org; $15 suggested donation. (Schweitzer) LEON FLEISHER (Tomorrow) This longstanding concert series on Irving Place, under the auspices of Peoples Symphony Concerts, offers quality music at reasonable prices in less than glamorous surroundings. This distinguished pianist visits, with older pieces by Bach, Brahms and Schubert and newer ones by Stravinsky, Leon Kirchner and Dina Koston. At 8 p.m., Washington Irving High School, Irving Place at 16th Street, Manhattan, (212) 586-4680, pscny.org; $9. (Holland) * JUAN DIEGO FLóREZ, VINCENZO SCALERA (Tomorrow) The young Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez is enjoying international popularity right now, understandably so. He brings dashing vigor, impressive vocal agility and undeniable charisma to his portrayals of Bel Canto roles. Some critics and buffs worry, though, that a pinched and hard-edged quality is affecting his sound of late. So his long-awaited Carnegie Hall recital should provide a revealing opportunity to hear him simply sing a program of songs by Mozart, Fauré, Bizet, Rossini and others. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $25 to $95. (Tommasini) LIONHEART (Sunday) This superb vocal sextet specializes in Medieval and Renaissance music. Its program, El Siglo de Oro, looks at 16th-century Spanish music. At 1 and 3 p.m., the Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights, (212) 650-2290, metmuseum.org; $35. (Kozinn) JON NAKAMATSU (Wednesday) The winner of the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Mr. Nakamatsu is an elegant player with a strong but not overtly showy technique. His recital program includes a handful of Scarlatti Sonatas; Rachmaninoffs Variations on a Theme by Corelli; works by Chopin (long a specialty of Mr. Nakamatsus) and Liszt; and the New York premiere of Loris Tjeknavorians Danses Fantastiques. At 8, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $20 to $40. (Kozinn) NEW YORK COLLEGIUM (Thursday) Andrew Parrott, music director of this period-instrument ensemble, leads a program called Leipzig 1723: Mr. Bach Comes to Town, featuring J. S. Bachs Cantatas (BWV 22, 23 and 75). Soloists for the concert include the soprano Emily van Evera, the tenor Marc Molomot, the bass Curtis Streetman, the violinist Cynthia Roberts and the oboist Stephen Hammer. At 8 p.m., Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, 66th Street at Lexington Avenue, (212) 717-9246, nycollegium.org; $30, $45 and $60. (Schweitzer) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Thursday) Young Alan Gilbert comes to the Philharmonic conducting Bach and Schumann. Christian Tetzlaff is soloist in the Ligeti Violin Concerto. At 7:30 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nyphil.org; $28 to $94. (Holland) ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKES (Thursday) Hans Graf, the Austrian conductor and music director of the Houston Symphony, leads the orchestra in a trio of lasts: the String Sextet from Capriccio, Richard Strausss final opera; Mozarts Symphony No. 40, one of the last works he wrote in the genre; and Beethovens Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor), with Garrick Ohlsson, a fine pianist, as soloist. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $23 to $52. (Schweitzer) * SUSAN PLATTS (Sunday) When Rolex sponsored yearlong mentoring projects between famous artists and rising young ones, this Canadian mezzo-soprano was selected to work with Jessye Norman. Some of the fruits of her labors, expressed in a voice agreeably light in weight and dark in color, will be displayed at a wide-ranging recital that includes songs by Brahms and Barber, Vaughan Williams, Robert and Clara Schumann, and the Scottish singer and folksong collector Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser. At 5 p.m., Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 547-0715, frick.org; $25. (Midgette) ORATORIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK (Tuesday) Kent Tritle is not only one of the best figures on the New York organ and choral music scene, but one of the most dizzyingly active. Named music director of the venerable Oratorio Society in 2006, he leads it this week in an interesting program that juxtaposes Honeggers King David with Stravinskys Mass. The soloists are Rachel Rosales, Anna Jablonski, Matthew Garrett and Alexander Hajek, with the 10-year-old treble Andres Felipe Aristizabal as the young David, and Katie Geissinger, a sometime member of Meredith Monks ensemble, as the Witch of Endor. Jeff Spurgeon, the WQXR announcer, makes his Carnegie Hall debut as the narrator. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $17 to $60. (Midgette) CHRISTIAN POLTÉRA (Tonight) Christian Poltéra, a Swiss cellist, and Polina Leschenko, a Russian pianist, present a Distinctive Debut recital, part of the Rising Stars project. The two young musicians will perform Schumanns Fantasiestücke (Op. 73), Prokofievs Cello Sonata and Rachmaninoffs Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor (Op. 19). At 7:30, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $28. (Schweitzer) RUSSIAN NATIONAL ORCHESTRA (Tuesday) Vladimir Jurowski conducts a program that will keep these Russian players thinking about home: music by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. Leonidas Kavakos is the violin soloist. At 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $35 to $69. (Holland) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. BRIDGMAN/PACKER DANCE (Tonight through Sunday) This troupe explores the concept of video partnering, as Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer put it. Their video collaborators are Peter Bobrow, Jim Monroe and Matthias Oostrik. On hand to provide the live music will be Robert Een, Ken Field and Glen Velez. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 3 p.m., Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, TriBeCa, (212) 279-4200, dnadance.org; $25. (Jennifer Dunning) BUGLISI DANCE THEATER (Tuesday through Thursday) A rich repertory includes new works by Jacqulyn Buglisi, among them Caravaggio Meets Hopper, which juxtaposes images from two painters, one passionate, the other detached in manner; Acapelorus (a walrus tale), inspired by a New Orleans wall of childrens drawings and writings; and Atom Hearts Club Suite No. 1, which combines several modern-dance techniques. (Through March 18.) Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $36. (Jack Anderson) CHUNK IN 9 PIECES (Tonight and tomorrow night) The four newish choreographers here -- Rebecca Alaly, Joanna Dee, Shelley Hardin and Ryuji Yamaguchi -- get the weeks award for most intriguing program title. Tonight at 9, tomorrow at 7:30, Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, at Washington Street, West Village, (917) 750-2361, chunk9@gmail.com; $10. (Dunning) TINA CROLL AND COMPANY (Thursday) A collage of images and emotions, Ancient Springs presents such visions as a ritualistic tea party, a karate minuet, a danced dream to Ethiopian jazz and a ceremony in which the Lords Prayer is recited in Cherokee and Zulu. (Through March 18.) At 8:30 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194, danspaceproject.org; $15. (Anderson) DANCE AT DIXON PLACE (Tomorrow and Sunday) In a series called Brink, work will be presented by Laura Berlin Stinger and Nancy Forshaw-Clapp, chosen by the curator Michael Helland. At 8 p.m., Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, between Houston and Prince Streets, Lower East Side, (212) 219-0736, dixonplace.org; $12; $10 for students and 65+. (Dunning) PHILIPPE DECOUFLÉ (Tonight and tomorrow night) This French choreographer is well known for his wonderfully entertaining and often poetic large-scale productions that blend dance, circus, music hall and theater. Its a surprise to find him performing a solo, called Solo: Le Doute MHabite (The Doubt Within Me), but there are likely to be visual tricks, humor and theatrical magic aplenty. At 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $38; $29 for Joyce members. (Roslyn Sulcas) EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (Wednesday and Thursday) Conceived, directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, this re-envisioning of Tim Burtons dark 1990 film of the same title revisits the theme of the outsider, here a gentle boy with scissors for hands. (Through March 31.) Wednesday at 7 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (Mr. Bourne will discuss the piece in a pre-performance talk on Thursday at 6 p.m.), Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100, bam.org; $30 to $80; $8 for discussion. (Dunning) THE 4 TANGO SEASONS (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) This show explores natures cycles as seen through a man and a woman in love. (Through April 1.) Tonight and Thursday night at 8, tomorrow at 3 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m., Thalia Spanish Theater, 41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside, Queens, (718) 729-3880, thaliatheatre.org; $30; $27 for students and 65+; all tickets $25 tonight and Thursday. (Dunning) IRISH MODERN DANCE THEATER (Thursday) The company director, John Scott, describes the repertory of this Dublin-based troupe as a mix of performance art, contact improvisation and mainstream modern-dance techniques. The program includes his own work and dances by the German choreographer Thomas Lehmen and by Chris Yon of New York. (Through March 18.) At 8 p.m., Performance Space 122, 150 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101, ps122.org; $20; $15 for students and 65+. (Dunning) * JOFFREY BALLET (Tonight through Sunday) The company, now based in Chicago, makes a rare visit to New York in performances, at two theaters, of Kurt Joosss Green Table, George Balanchines Apollo and Twyla Tharps Deuce Coupe. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, C. W. Post Campus, Long Island University, Route 25A, Brookville, N.Y., (516) 299-3100, tillescenter.org; $40 to $75. Sunday at 5 p.m., Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, N.Y., (914) 251-6200; $45. (Dunning) LE VU LONG/TOGETHER HIGHER (Thursday) In Stories of Us, the Vietnamese choreographer Le Vu Long mingles various dance forms with striking visual designs to comment on gender stereotypes and life-threatening illness. (Through March 17.) At 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077, dtw.org; $20; $12 for students and 65+. (Anderson) MAYDANCE (Thursday) Juliana F. Mays Endless House ranges in subject matter from the simple life of the amoeba to the complexities of the human experience. (Through March 17.) At 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 334-7479, joyce.org; $15. (Anderson) MOJITO -- THE LATIN MUSIC SERIES (Tonight and tomorrow night) Latin music is the theme, but the lineup of choreographers and performers, assembled by DancenOw/NYC for its DancemOpolitan series, is stylistically all-encompassing. Featured artists include Donlin Foreman, Max Pollak and a duo known as the Horny Girls. At 9:30, Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555 for ticket reservations, (212) 539-8778 for table reservations, joespub.com; $20. (Dunning) 92nd STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE FESTIVAL (Tomorrow, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) The Dusan Tynek Dance Theater performs dances that address decidedly unusual themes created by the troupes founder, a Czech-born choreographer who has a style that is vivid and quirky in a quietly powerful, folk-art way. His new Fleur-de-lis, for example, a three-part reimagining of religious paintings and the emotions contained in them, is a dance set to music by the Baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Zvi Gotheiners ZviDance closes the festival with his new Gertrud, inspired by an early mentor, the Israeli dance teacher Gertrud Kraus, and Les Noces. Tynek tomorrow at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. ZviDance on Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. (Through March 18.) Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 415-5500, 92Y.org/HarknessFestival; $20. (Dunning) * DESMOND RICHARDSON AND THE ALL STARS PROJECT (Tonight through Sunday) Mr. Richardson and 15 performers from All Stars, a cultural program for teenagers from New York City and Newark, have created Homeland Security: Bringing Dr. King Up to Date, a multimedia piece that questions American notions of homeland and security. (Through April 4.) Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30, Sunday at 2 p.m., All Stars Project Theater, 543 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 941-1234, allstars.org; $30 and $35, T.D.F. vouchers accepted. (Dunning) * 651 ARTS: JANT-BI COMPANY (Tomorrow) This lively, enterprising arts center continues its Black Dance: Tradition and Transformation series with a performance by the JANT-Bi Company of Senegal of Fagaala, which addresses genocide in choreography by Germaine Acogny and Kota Yamazaki. At 8 p.m., Brooklyn Academy of Musics Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4181, Ext. 2229, 651arts.org; $20 to $40. (Dunning) SUNDAYS @ THREE: DANIEL CHARON (Sunday) In the latest installment of this informal dance-and-discussion series, Mr. Charon will present works in progress that address how our relationships help us to understand ourselves. At 3 p.m., 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, www.92Y.org/dance; $10. (Dunning) * PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY (Tonight through Thursday) The company offers a little of everything this week. For premieres, there is Troilus and Cressida (reduced) (tonight, tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday) and Lines of Loss (tomorrow). For sexy good fun, keep Piazzolla Caldera in mind (tonight and Tuesday), with lush beauty to be had in Arden Court (tomorrow afternoon) and Roses (Sunday). Then there is the dark Taylor, in Banquet of Vultures (Tuesday). The facets all come together in Company B (Sunday), ostensibly a salute to the World War II-era songs sung by the Andrews Sisters but in reality a funny, sexy and heartbreaking look at love and loss that is pure Taylor. (Through March 18.) Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday at 7 p.m. City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212, citycenter.org; $15 to $125. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: MARTÍN RAMÍREZ, through April 29. Ramírez, a Mexican peasant who immigrated to Northern California and died there at 68 in 1963, spent the last 32 years of his life in a mental hospital, making some of the greatest art of the last century. He had his own way with materials and color and an unforgettable cast of characters (most notably, a mounted caballero and a levitating Madonna crowned like the Statue of Liberty.) But most of all, Ramírez had his own brand of pictorial space, established by rhythmic systems of parallel lines, both curved and straight, whose mesmerizing expansions and contractions simultaneously cosset and isolate his figures. This show should render null and void the distinction between insider and outsider art. 45 West 53rd Street, (212) 265-1040, folkartmuseum.org. (Roberta Smith) * ASIA SOCIETY: GLASS, GILDING, AND GRAND DESIGN: ART OF SASANIAN IRAN (224-642 A.D.), through May 20. With some 70 examples of silver, glass and silk textile fragments, many from European museums, this is first major exhibition of its kind in this part of the world for more than 30 years. For about four centuries, the Sasanians ruled territory stretching from present-day Iran and Iraq to North Africa. Their only rivals were Rome, Byzantium and, at the very end, the early Islamic dynasties. Much of their surviving art is a sterling example of empire in action. 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, (212) 288-6400, asiasociety.org.(Holland Cotter) FRICK COLLECTION: GEORGE STUBBS (1724-1806): A CELEBRATION, through May 27. One of the finest horse painters ever, Stubbs knew his subjects from head to hoof and skin to bones. Hes best known for his views of aristocratic race horses, but he painted other mammals too: dogs, lions, tigers, oxen, monkeys and humans. This intimate show of 17 Stubbs paintings from English collections reveals his admirable range, although the people he portrayed in two large, late canvases, elegiac celebrations of farm workers, have the stiffness of figures on a candy box. His horses are his true monuments. 1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 288-0700, frick.org. (Grace Glueck) GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: FAMILY PICTURES, through April 16. The museums news release extends the exhibitions exploration into representation of families and children in contemporary art and video. Images of children, you quickly realize, can operate as a completely different genre. Rineke Dijkstras Beach Portraits of adolescents posing awkwardly against stark seascape horizons are isolated (and isolating) images of children on the threshold of adulthood. You dont think about family when gazing at these photographs. Sally Mann is perhaps the best-known contemporary photographer of children, specifically her own. Ms. Mann, represented here by black-and-white photographs from the late 1980s and early 1990s of her ethereally gorgeous children, has been accused of everything from neglect to child abuse. The questions raised by her dual role as artist and mother, simultaneous protector and potential exploiter of the family, remain vitally interesting. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Martha Schwendener) INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: HENRI CARTIER-BRESSONS SCRAPBOOK: PHOTOGRAPHS, 1932-46, through April 29. Arrived by way of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, this show has more than 300 of the prints the photographer glued into an album and toted to New York for curators at the Museum of Modern Art to cull. Captured by the Nazis, he had been presumed dead when the Modern planned his retrospective. Then he turned up alive -- the posthumous exhibition opened, with him in attendance, in 1947. The current exhibition reconstructs as best as possible the layout of the scrapbook. It surveys the revolutionary work he shot in Spain, Italy, Mexico, Britain and France. His taste for uncanny detail linked him to Surrealism and Surrealist wit, but unlike many Surrealists, he remained committed to human values. Boys mug at his camera. Prostitutes swan. Their gazes equalize them with us. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000, icp.org. (Michael Kimmelman) INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN MUNKACSI: THINK WHILE YOU SHOOT! through April 29. Munkacsi, who inspired Cartier-Bresson, was, by contrast, self-taught, a creature of his own devising. This is the most complete retrospective, with a thick catalog (not too well researched) and dozens of vintage prints from the 1920s through the early 60s. He favored scenes of daily life, absorbing avant-garde ideas about odd angles and abstract compositions. In 1928 he moved to Berlin and traveled the world on assignment to Brazil, Algeria and Egypt. Munkacsi was a stylist, and he made catchy images the only way he knew how, in a modernist mode, which, being an opportunistic form, could serve any master. (See above.) (Kimmelman) * THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: ONE OF A KIND: THE STUDIO CRAFT MOVEMENT, through Sept. 3. Focusing on the postwar development of artist-craftsmen, this display of furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry and fiber includes funny, quirky, provocative and sometimes gorgeous things. Among its stars are a witty bust by the California funk ceramicist Robert Arneson (1920-92), portraying the mother of the 16th-century painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer, and Bonnie Seemans fetching ceramic coffeepot and tray, whose mock cabbage leaves and rhubarb stalks evoke the genteel tradition of 18th-century British and continental china, but can also be read as human rather than vegetative tissue. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Glueck) MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: ARTISTIC COLLABORATIONS: 50 YEARS OF UNIVERSAL LIMITED ART EDITIONS, through May 21. This exhibition marks the half-century milestone for Universal Limited Art Editions in West Islip, N.Y., and its association with the Museum of Modern Art: The museum has acquired one print from every edition made at Universal, more than 1,200 works by nearly 50 artists. Prints by 12 artists are in this show. Among them are lithographs by Jasper Johns, with his signature maps and flags. Robert Rauschenberg is represented primarily by lithographs from the 1960s that combine found images of figures like John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson with the freehand scrawling associated with Abstract Expressionism. Its hard to fault an exhibition that features prints by masters like Mr. Johns and Mr. Rauschenberg. But given the somewhat precarious position of prints in the contemporary art world, the inclusion of younger artists would make a good argument that traditional printmaking is still relevant and holds possibilities for this generation. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Schwendener) MOMA: COMIC ABSTRACTION: IMAGE-BREAKING, IMAGE-MAKING, through June 11. This unimaginative and uniformed treatment of a big idea -- the healthy and essential contamination of Modernist abstraction by popular culture -- should be seen if only because it is such a dispiriting symptom of the Moderns paralysis where contemporary art is concerned. Including 30 works by 13 artists from the last 16 years, it alternates between the literal and the arbitrary and favors sincere political intent over genuine artistic quality. Although it promises work that addresses perplexing questions, nearly everything here is perfectly pleasant and innocuous. The exceptions are provided by Gary Simmons, Ellen Gallagher and Sue Williams. (See above.) (Smith) * MOMA: JEFF WALL, through May 14. This majestic show makes a great case for Mr. Wall as the most complete, if traditional, of the untraditional artists who emerged from the turmoil of Conceptual Art. His often immense color transparencies are enthralling visual vehicles, intent on giving pleasure while making a point or two about society, art, history, visual perception, the human animal or all of the above. An imposing blend of painting, street photography and movies, they blur reality and artifice, narrative and form, detail and the big statement. You cant stop looking at them. (See above.) (Smith) * NATIONAL ACADEMY MUSEUM: HIGH TIMES, HARD TIMES: NEW YORK PAINTING, 1967-1975, through April 22. Organized under the auspices of International Curators Incorporated, this exhibition is the first to tackle a neglected subject: New York painting during the period it was supposed to be dead. The shows 42 works by 37 artists reveal that, far from dead, painting was in fact in an uproar that was commensurate with the artistic, social and political turbulence of the times. The alternation between artists who remained loyal to stretched canvas and those who abandoned it, which makes for clear installation, also tidies up history. The main problem is that the exhibition sticks too purposefully to the margins. Too much of this work is as derivative now as it was then, and functions more as artifact than art. 1083 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 369-4880, nationalacademy.org. (Smith) WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: GORDON MATTA-CLARK RETROSPECTIVE, through June 3. I have no doubt that Matta-Clark is now being turned into a hot commercial commodity, but at least at the Whitney you can see what he aspired to be. He came up with various wonderfully harebrained ideas. Literally, in one case: after letting his hair grow for a year, he cut it off as a kind of performance and phrenological gag. The preserved hair, dutifully tagged piece by piece, opens the show like a holy relic. At the center of the exhibition is Splitting. To a plain single-family suburban frame house in Englewood, N.J., he made a cut straight down the middle, bisecting the building, then severing the four corners of the roof. The retrospective consists of films, drawings, photographs and some of the architectural pieces he cut out of buildings. The big message was: Life as art, and art as life, a philosophy dependent on our being properly attuned and keen to the moment. (212) 570-3676, whitney.org. (Kimmelman) * WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: LORNA SIMPSON, through May 6. This tight, refined and impassioned survey covers more than 20 years of Lorna Simpsons career, from her photo-and-text meditations on race and sexism in the 1980s, to her more recent short films, which unite American history and personal history in forceful and lyrical ways. It would be easy to put some of this work on a shelf as identity art, but with an African-American woman holding one of the highest offices in the United States government, an African-American man running for president, and the nation embroiled in what some people view as an ethnic war, this art is entirely of the moment. (See above.) (Cotter) Galleries: Chelsea * WHAT F WORD? The F word in question in this group is feminism, though others come under its purview. The work spans decades, from an apt updating of a Flemish madonna and child by the estimable and too-long-overlooked Anita Steckel, to very recent art by Dana Frankfort, Jane Hammond and Shay Nowick. In a brand-new piece, Elaine Reichek brings Ezra Pound into the picture; Ulrike Muller pays tribute to Mina Loy. Patricia Cronin contributes an image of a tomb sculpture she designed, depicting herself and her lover, the artist Deborah Kass (also in the show) embracing on a bed. The sculpture is installed on a plot the two women own in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where it is intended to remain forever. Cynthia Broan Gallery, 546 West 29th Street, (212) 760-0809, cynthiabroan.com; through March 17. (Cotter) Last Chance GILLIAN CARNEGIE In this British painters second New York gallery show, surface brittleness and Conceptual dallying have decreased, which is good. Her subjects include landscape, still life, her own behind; Mondrian, monochromes and English painting are evoked. If less self-consciousness would be welcome, there is still enough to look at. Andrea Rosen Gallery, 525 West 24th Street, Chelsea, (212) 627-6000, andrearosengallery.com; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * JOE FYFE: PAINTINGS 2004-2007 Made with acrylic, crayon and sundry appliquéd fabrics on rough-grained burlap, these weirdly tactile, quietly opulent paintings evoke the history of Modernist painting with wit and homey craft. Motifs familiar from the art of Barnett Newman, Paul Feeley and Robert Motherwell, as well as more generic riffs, seem weirdly magnified, even brutal. The sharper palette of Color Field and the formal reticence of Minimalism are deployed. Like the more fashionable painter Sergei Jensen, Mr. Fyfe makes the argument that there is more than one way to be pictorial, but with greater deliberation and visual rewards. The problem is that beyond their engaging physicality and intelligence, these works often stay too close to their sources, which makes them feel cautious. J G Contemporary, 1014 Madison Avenue, at 78th Street, (212) 535-5767, jamesgrahamandsons.com; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * ROBERT MANGOLD: COLUMN STRUCTURE PAINTINGS A beautiful (sky-lighted) show from one of paintings most dedicated Minimalists, this group of 12 tall canvases continues his basic vocabulary of shaped canvases, monochromatic palette and spare lines (both ruled and freehand). They take the measure of themselves in ways that seem utterly simple and transparent. Yet they hover tantalizingly between puzzles and mysteries. Pace Wildenstein, 545 West 22nd Street, (212) 989-4258, Chelsea, pacewildenstein.com; closes tomorrow. (Smith) BOYD RICE Musician, writer, artist and all-purpose prankster, Boyd Rice was a big deal in the 1970s in Los Angeles, where he recorded industrial noise music under the name Non and produced all-black Color Field paintings. The abstract paintings in his first New York solo show, made from sprayed enamel and rust, feel somewhat demure, considering their live-wire source, though their looping, wavelike forms do suggest turbulence. Mitchell Algus Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, second floor, Chelsea, (212) 242-6242; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) * RICHARD STANKIEWICZ If you dont know the junk sculpture of Richard Stankiewicz (1922-1983), are puzzled by his staunch if insufficient reputation or just want a visual thrill, see this show of four excellent pieces from the 1950s and early 60s, standing sentinel-like in the gallery. They are resplendent in their evocations of the industrial, the tribal, the figurative and the abstract. Zabriskie Gallery, 41 East 57th Street, (212) 752-1223, zabriskiegallery.com; closes tomorrow. (Smith)

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The Listings: June 30 - July 6

Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the Northeast 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 SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS In previews. Opens on Thursday. Based on historical fact, José Riveras new play is about two days that Che Guevera spent trapped in a one-room schoolhouse. A co-production with the Labyrinth Theater company. John Ortiz and Patricia Velasquez star. (2:00). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200. SUMMER PLAY FESTIVAL Starts Wednesday. Through July 30. Fifteen emerging playwrights, including Peter Morris and Etan Frankel, strut their stuff in this eclectic annual showcase. Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. Broadway * BRIDGE & TUNNEL (Tony Award, Special Theatrical Event 2006) This delightful solo show, written and performed by Sarah Jones, is a sweet-spirited valentine to New York, 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. 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.(Ben 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) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, The Drowsy Chaperone has theatergoers responding as if they were withering house plants, finally being watered after long neglect. Bob Martin and Sutton Foster are the standouts in the eager, energetic cast (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) *FAITH HEALER In the title role of Brian Friels great play, Ralph Fiennes paints a portrait of the artist as dreamer and destroyer that feels both as old as folklore and so fresh that it might be painted in wet blood. Also starring Cherry Jones and the superb Ian McDiarmid, this mesmerizing series of monologues has been directed with poetic starkness by Jonathan Kent (2:35). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE HISTORY BOYS (Tony Awards, Best Play and Best Direction of a Play, 2006) Madly enjoyable. Alan Bennetts play about a battle for the hearts and minds of a group of university-bound students, imported with the original British cast from the National Theater, moves with a breezy narrative swagger that transcends cultural barriers. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, with a perfectly oiled ensemble led by the superb Richard Griffiths and Stephen Campbell Moore as schoolmasters with opposing views of history and education (2:40). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) HOT FEET A dancing encyclopedia of clichés set to the music of Earth, Wind and Fire. Numbing (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Isherwood) JERSEY BOYS (Tony Award, Best Musical 2006) 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 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). Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) *SHINING CITY Quiet, haunting and absolutely glorious. Conor McPhersons impeccably assembled ghost story about being alone in the crowded city of Dublin has been brought to American shores with a first-rate cast (Brian F. OByrne, Oliver Platt, Martha Plimpton and Peter Scanavino), directed by Robert Falls (1:45). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SWEENEY TODD (Tony Award, Best Direction of a Musical 2006) 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) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a super-deluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (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) THE WEDDING SINGER An assembly-kit musical that might as well be called That 80s Show, this stage version of the 1998 film is all winks and nods and quotations from the era of big hair and junk bonds. The cast members, who include Stephen Lynch and Laura Benanti, are personable enough, which is not the same as saying they have personalities (2:20). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway BURLEIGH GRIME$ A feeble-witted comedy by Roger Kirby about dirty dealings on Wall Street, featuring a pair of skilled actors known for recent television work -- Wendie Malick of Just Shoot Me and Mark Moses of Desperate Housewives -- and incidental music by David Yazbek, who wrote the score for Broadways Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. These putative assets are painfully ill served by Mr. Kirbys play, which is long on ludicrous plot and short on fresh humor. (2:10). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED With the Episcopal church in a tizzy about homosexuality and that intriguing new gospel of Judas the subject of much speculation, Keith Bunins play about conflicts of family and of faith arrives at a propitious moment. Jill Clayburgh stars as an Episcopal minister with a troublesome son and what may be an undiscovered Gospel. Engaging, if a little too tidy (2:00). Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) THE FIELD John B. Keanes portrait of rural life in Ireland in the mid-20th century, both sorrowful and censorious. This sturdy new production, directed by Ciaran OReilly, features Marty Maguire as Bull McCabe, a tough farmer who will stop at nothing to preserve his right to raise his cattle on a field about to be auctioned. A little moralistic, but powerful nonetheless (2:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (Isherwood) * 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) 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) NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN Brian Copelands solo memoir about his African-American family moving into a white suburb in the early 1970s is an engaging, if stiltedly performed, show (1:30). DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Jason Zinoman) PIG FARM A gleefully stupid comedy by Greg Kotis about lust and violence in the farm belt, with a few gristly bits of satire aimed at the fat-bellied American electorate thrown in for good measure. Powered by the frenzied commitment of the four skilled actors who make up its cast, the comedy careers around the stage like an interminable improv session for a still-unformulated sketch on Saturday Night Live. (2:15). Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (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, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) SOME GIRL(S) A slight and sour comedy from Neil LaBute that once again puts a morally bankrupt man under the microscope and watches him squirm. The central specimen is here played by Eric McCormack, who as a thoughtless heterosexual gives much the same performance he did as a thoughtful homosexual on Will and Grace. Jo Bonney directs a cast that also includes Fran Drescher, Judy Reyes, Brooke Smith and Maura Tierney as women done wrong by the same man (1:40). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 279-4200. (Brantley) * SPRING AWAKENING German schoolboys of the 19th century frolic like rockers in this adventurous new musical adapted from the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind about sex, death and adolescence. Staged with élan by Michael Mayer, and featuring alluringly melancholy music by the pop singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, this is a flawed but vibrant show that stretches the stage musical in new directions (2:10). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) SUSAN AND GOD The Mint Theater Companys fine revival of Rachel Crotherss 1937 comedy about religion, career and family features Leslie Hendrix of Law & Order, excellent in the role of Susan. Jonathan Bank directs (2:20). The Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, third floor, Clinton, (212) 315-0231.(George Hunka) TEMPEST TOSSED FOOLS This musical audience-participation childrens version of The Tempest is rowdy, colorful and not all that Shakespearean. Manhattan Ensemble Theater, 55 Mercer Street, SoHo, (212) 239-6200. (Anita Gates) TREASON The poet Ezra Pound was a repellent fellow, judging from this play by Sallie Bingham: racist, anti-Semitic, eager to exploit the affections of the women who loved him. Just why women were drawn to him is never clear, but the play is thoughtful, and the acting, especially by Philip Pleasants as Pound, is superb (2:10). Perry Street Theater, 31 Perry Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 868-4444. (Neil Genzlinger) THE WATERS EDGE In a bold surgical endeavor that recalls the experiments of the mad Dr. Frankenstein, Theresa Rebeck has tried to transplant the big, blood-engorged heart of a Greek tragedy into the slender body of a modest American comic drama. The resulting hybrid runs amok in a stylishly acted production, directed by Will Frears and starring Kate Burton and Tony Goldwyn (2:00). Second Stage, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422. (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) DRUMSTRUCK Lightweight entertainment that stops just short of pulverizing the eardrums (1:30).Dodger Stages, Stage 2, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Lawrence Van Gelder) 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). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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 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 ARABIAN NIGHT A blonde in a German apartment building sleeps too much; the super takes an unexpected trip to the desert; and a peeping Tom is properly punished in this stylish comedy whose title turns out to make perfect sense (1:05). The East 13th Street Theater, 136 East 13th Street, East Village, (212) 279-4200; closes tomorrow. (Gates) BACK OF THE THROAT An Arab-American playwright, Yussef El Guindi, addressing the harassment of Arab-Americans after Sept. 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; closes tomorrow. (Genzlinger) CRAZY FOR THE DOG Christopher Boals effective family melodrama about a brother, a sister, a wife and a boyfriend caught in a web of recrimination and confession, touched off by the kidnapping of a shih tzu (2:00). Bouwerie Lane Theater, 330 Bowery, at Bond Street, East Village, (212) 677-0060, Ext. 16; closes on Sunday. (Hunka) ELVIS AND JULIET This opposites-collide tale by Mary Willard and starring her husband, the television actor Fred Willard, looks like community theater and is just as unoriginal. The title characters are young lovers, he the son of an Elvis impersonator, she the daughter of overeducated snobs. Fred dons an Elvis suit, but its not enough (2:15). Abingdon Theater Arts Complex, 312 West 36th Street, (212) 868-4444; closes on Sunday. (Genzlinger) GETTING HOME Anton Dudleys Valentines Day card to New York, in which three lonely lovers finally find love in unexpected places, directed by David Schweizer. Determinedly angst-free (1:20). McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, (212) 246-4422; closes tomorrow. (Hunka) THE GOLD STANDARD A successful alumnus, his trophy girlfriend and an eccentric Korean professor form a romantic triangle at a campus bar in Daniel Robertss drama, which is occasionally original but often downright odd (2:30). The Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444; closes tomorrow. (Gates) THE HOUSE IN TOWN A wan new drama by Richard Greenberg about an American marriage slowly imploding in the days before the countrys economy did the same, more suddenly and spectacularly, back in 1929. A miscast Jessica Hecht stars as Amy Hammer, a well-to-do housewife sliding into despair as her remote husband looks on in frustration. Doug Hughess production is pretty but desultory, as is Mr. Greenbergs typically eloquent but atypically empty writing (1:30). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) 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; closes on Sunday. (Brantley) * THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE Blue Coyote Theater Group has a rollicking good time with this inventive tale of domestic disintegration by Matthew Freeman. Mother (Lenni Benicaso) and Father (Frank Anderson), after long years together, decide to unmarry, which isnt quite the same as divorce but just as unsettling for their already unsettled youngest child (Josephine Stewart). But that doesnt begin to convey how nutty this play is. Access Theater, 380 Broadway, at White Street, TriBeCa, (212) 868-4444; closes tomorrow. (Genzlinger) NERVE In Adam Szymkowiczs romantic comedy, an online couples first date is a frightening but satisfyingly comic escalation of confessions and demands (1:00). 14th Street Y, 344 East 14th Street, East Village, (212) 868-4444; closes tomorrow.(Gates) NOTHING A morsel of catnip for Anglophiles, flavorfully adapted by Andrea Hart from the novel by Henry Green. Simon Dutton and Sophie Ward play onetime lovers contemplating the possible marriage of their children in this comedy of manners about the string of upheavals that a romance in one generation causes in another (1:40). The 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) SATELLITES This tough-minded, soft-hearted and very likable play by Diana Son (Stop Kiss) portrays a world in which traditional ethnic, social, economic and sexual boundaries have become so porous that people are never quite sure who or where they are. Sandra Oh and Kevin Carroll play a couple who move into a Brooklyn brownstone that refuses (literally) to stay still. Michael Greif directs the appropriately fluid ensemble. (1:40). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; closes on Sunday. (Brantley) STOPPING TRAFFIC The actress Mary Pat Gleasons endearing one-woman show about making movies (and just getting through life) while bipolar is a play with both a message and some hearty laughs (1:30). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212) 353-0303; closes on Sunday. (Gates) 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. * AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (PG, 96 minutes) Al Gore gives a lecture on climate change. One of the most exciting and necessary movies of the year. Seriously. (A. O. Scott) * ARMY OF SHADOWS (No rating, 140 minutes, in French) Dark as pitch and without compromise, Jean-Pierre Melvilles 1969 masterpiece centers on the feats of a small band of Resistance fighters during the occupation. Brilliant, harrowing, essential viewing.(Manohla Dargis) THE BLOOD OF MY BROTHER (No rating, 84 minutes, in English and Arabic) Another documentary about the occupation of Iraq; another heartbreak; another protest; another dead brother; another necessity. (Nathan Lee) THE BREAK-UP (PG-13, 105 minutes) Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn split up and share custody of a Chicago condominium. Dull and cheerless, notwithstanding a handful of funny supporting turns, notably from Judy Davis and Jason Bateman. (Scott) CARS (G, 114 minutes) The latest 3D toon from Pixar just putt, putt, putts along, a shining model of technological progress and consumer safety. John Lasseter directed, and Owen Wilson provides the voice of the little red race car who learns all the right lessons from, among others, a 1951 Hudson Hornet given voice by Paul Newman. (Dargis) * CAVITE (No rating, 80 minutes, in English and Tagalog) Terrorism and cultural identity are only two of the themes wound into a tight knot of fear and bewilderment in this gripping, no-budget political thriller shot on the fly with hand-held cameras that scour the teeming streets and squatter shacks of Cavite, a city on the outskirts of Manila. (Stephen Holden) CLICK (PG-13, 98 minutes) Adam Sandler stars in this unfunny comedy about a harried family man who uses a universal remote to hop-scotch through time. Its a wonderful life, not. (Dargis) * LEONARD COHEN: IM YOUR MAN (PG-13, 104 minutes) This enthralling documentary combines pieces of an extended interview with Mr. Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and author, now 71, with a tribute concert at the Sydney Opera House in January 2005. Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright, and Antony are among the featured performers. (Holden) THE DA VINCI CODE (PG-13, 148 minutes) Theology aside, The Da Vinci Code is, above all, a murder mystery. And as such, once it gets going, Ron Howards movie has its pleasures. He and the screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have deftly rearranged some elements of the plot, unkinking a few overelaborate twists and introducing others that keep the action moving along. The movie does, however, take a while to accelerate, popping the clutch and leaving rubber on the road as it tries to establish who is who, what hes doing and why. So I certainly cant support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say that Im recommending that you go see it. (Scott) * DOWN IN THE VALLEY (R, 114 minutes) This allegorical neo-western set in the San Fernando Valley has dreams as big as the fantasies that consume its protagonist, a Stetson-wearing suburban cowboy (Edward Norton) who is not what he appears to be. How much you like it will depend on your appetite for the kind of cultural metaphors that David Jacobson flings onto the screen with a reckless abandon. (Holden) THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (PG-13, 98 minutes) The Fast and Furious formula (dudes + cars + babes = $) is recycled in Tokyo, where the cars are smaller, and the clothes are kookier, but the boys are still boys. (Lee) * GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS (No rating, 103 minutes) Affected but elegant, this digital video Death in Venice follows an art historian and her lover as they grapple, frequently in the buff, with life, death and the iconography of Bosch. (Lee) GARFIELD: A TAIL OF TWO KITTIES (PG, 80 minutes) It was the worst of times. (Dargis) THE HIDDEN BLADE (R, 132 minutes, in Japanese) Set in 1861 at the tail end of Japanese feudalism, The Hidden Blade focuses on a gentle samurai balancing his love for a low-caste servant girl and his mission to kill a traitorous friend. By taking samurai-movie conventions and placing them in the harsh light of daily survival, the director, Yoji Yamada, is illuminating the twilight of an entire way of life. (Jeannette Catsoulis) KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS (PG-13, 84 minutes) A rollicking bar mitzvah comedy begins as a growling, razor-toothed satire of carnivorous consumption in Hollywood. But after the first half-hour, those growls subside into whimpers, and the fangs are retracted, and the movie morphs turns into a feel-good family comedy oozing good vibes. (Holden) THE KING (R, 105 minutes) James Marsh uses clichés and some lived-in emotions and atmosphere for his fitfully engaging, exasperating film about a young Mexican-American (Gael García Bernal) whose search for his patrimony leads him into the bosom of a deeply religious Texas family (headed by a very fine William Hurt). (Dargis) THE LAKE HOUSE (PG, 108 minutes) Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, reunited 12 years after Speed, play would-be lovers separated by time and yet somehow able to communicate. The absolute preposterousness of this teary romance is inseparable from its charm, which is greater than you might expect. (Scott) LAND OF THE BLIND (R, 111 minutes) Watching this simplistic Orwellian fable set in a composite Everycountry that swings politically from extreme right to extreme left is like poring over a quadruple exposure. Its a jumble of ideas and images. (Holden) LOVERBOY (R, 86 minutes) This cautionary mother-child drama, directed by Kevin Bacon, is a star vehicle for his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, who plays a pathologically possessive single mother. After starting out warm and fuzzy, this tonally uncertain film stealthily pulls out the rug until you suddenly find yourself standing on a cold stone floor, barefoot and shivering. (Holden) MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III (PG-13, 126 minutes) Er, this time its personal, as Tom Cruise plays a dashing operative for a clandestine organization who sweeps a simpering brunette off her feet. Directed, without much flair, by J. J. Abrams, the small-screen auteur behind Lost and Alias. (Dargis) * LA MOUSTACHE (No rating, 86 minutes, in French) Emmanuel Carrières psychological mystery prepares you to bask in one of those sexy, bittersweet marital comedies that are a hallmark of sophisticated French cinema. Then, by degrees, it subverts those expectations to spiral down a rabbit hole of ambiguity and doubt. (Holden) * NACHO LIBRE (PG, 91 minutes) A sweet bliss-out from the writers Mike White, Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess, who also directed, that finds a glorious Jack Black as a half-Mexican, half-Scandinavian monastery cook who aches to belong to another brotherhood, that of the luchadores, or masked wrestlers. (Dargis) THE OMEN (R, 110 minutes) The supremely unnecessary remake of The Omen, the 1976 horror show that, along with Rosemarys Baby and The Exorcist, plunked everyones favorite baddie, Satan, into the Hollywood mainstream, wants to capitalize on the tabloid theology in the air. Except for a few contemporary touches (the World Trade Center in flames as a portent of Armageddon) it slavishly recycles the original. (Holden) ONLY HUMAN (No rating, 85 minutes, in Spanish) When a Jewish girl takes her Palestinian fiancé home to meet the parents, the encounter sets off a series of zany, romantic and potentially tragic misadventures during one eventful night in Madrid. (Laura Kern) OVER THE HEDGE (PG, 83 minutes) This tale about some woodland critters threatened by their new human neighbors has the technical trappings of a worthwhile Saturday matinee, so its too bad no one paid commensurate attention to the script. The writers, including Karey Kirkpatrick, who directed with Tim Johnson, pad the story with the usual yuks and some glop about family, but there is no poetry here and little thought. (Dargis) * A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (PG-13, 105 minutes) Garrison Keillors long-running Public Radio hootenanny turns out to be the perfect vehicle for Robert Altmans fluid, chaotic humanism. The performances -- especially by Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep as a pair of singing sisters -- are so full of relaxed vitality that you almost dont notice that the film is, at heart, a wry, sober contemplation of mortality. (Scott) * ROOM (No rating, 75 minutes) Engulfed by nightmares, blackouts and the anxieties of the age, a Texas woman flees homeland insecurity for a New York vision quest in this acute, resourceful and bracingly ambitious debut film. (Lee) RUSSIAN DOLLS (No rating, 129 minutes, in English, Russian, French and Spanish) The sequel to the international hit LAuberge Espagnole belongs to a long line of airy French films that induce a pleasant buzz of Euro-envy. Like its forerunner, it is a generational group portrait of young, smart, sexy, well-educated Europeans at work and play filmed in a style that might be called Truffaut Lite. (Holden) SAY UNCLE (R, 90 minutes) A comedy about a suspected gay pedophile is something even Mel Brooks might balk at, but Say Uncle would have benefited from his ability to turn bad taste into a good feature. When a childlike artist (Peter Paige, who also writes and directs) indulges his unhealthy, if innocent, interest in other peoples children, a lynch mob of local moms is formed to hunt him down. Aspiring to address gay persecution and social paranoia, the movie mostly comes off as a study of arrested development. (Catsoulis) SUPERMAN RETURNS (PG-13, 157 minutes) Last seen larking about on the big screen in the 1987 dud Superman IV, the Man of Steel has been resurrected in Bryan Singers leaden new film not only to fight for truth, justice and the American way, but also to give Mel Gibsons passion a run for his box-office money. Where once the superhero flew up, up and away, he now flies down, down, down, sent from above to save mankind from its sins and another bummer summer. (Dargis) * TWO DRIFTERS (No rating, 98 minutes, in Portuguese) From the dexterous mind of João Pedro Rodrigues comes a bizarre love triangle like no other. Two gay boys (one of whom is dead) are reunited with the help of an enigmatic girl on roller skates in a metaphysical melodrama about grief, love, hysterical pregnancy and the transmigration of souls. (Lee) UNITED 93 (R, 115 minutes) A scrupulously tasteful Hollywood re-creation of the downing of the fourth plane hijacked by Muslim terrorists on Sept. 11 and easily the feel-bad American movie of the year. Written and directed by Paul Greengrass, whose earlier films include Bloody Sunday. (Dargis) WASSUP ROCKERS (R, 105 minutes) The latest provocation from the director and photographer Larry Clark follows a group of teenage Hispanic skateboarders from South Central Los Angeles on a 24-hour adventure that takes them from one hell (the inner city) to another (decadent Beverly Hills) and back. (Holden) * WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? (PG, 92 minutes) A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, Chris Paines film about the recent rise and fall of the electric car is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of issue-oriented documentaries. ( Dargis) X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (PG-13, 104 minutes) As expected, the third and presumably last film about the powerful Marvel Comics mutants who walk and often fight among us pretty much looks and plays like the first two, though perhaps with more noise and babes, and a little less glum. The credited writers here are Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, who, like the director, Brett Ratner, are not mutant enough to fly. (Dargis) Film Series AFRO-PUNK WEEKEND (Through Tuesday) BAMcinémateks second annual program of films about revolution begins today. Films to be screened include Sandra Dickson and Churchill Robertss Negroes With Guns (2004), the story of Robert Williams, a founder of the Black Panthers and advocate of armed resistance; Paris Is Burning (1990), Jennie Livingstons portrait of drag queens and self-invention; and Punk: Attitude (2005), a documentary about the origins of punk from Don Letts, co-founder of the band Big Audio Dynamite. 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; $10. (Gates) ESSENTIAL WILDER (Through July 20) Film Forums three-week retrospective of the work of the great Polish-born director and screenwriter Billy Wilder (1906-2002) begins today and tomorrow with Double Indemnity (1944), Wilders noir classic about an insurance salesman (Fred McMurray) and an alluring married woman (Barbara Stanwyck), who hatch a murder plot with a big payoff. Sundays feature is the comedy masterpiece Some Like It Hot (1959), about an all-women band that includes Marilyn Monroe and, strangely enough, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-9110; $10. (Gates) STANLEY KUBRICK RETROSPECTIVE (Through July 9) The Museum of the Moving Images five-week series continues this weekend with A Clockwork Orange (1971), starring Malcolm McDowell as a young, violent type from the near future, and Barry Lyndon (1975), Kubricks Thackeray adaptation starring Ryan ONeal as an 18th-century Irish social climber. 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077; $10. (Gates) KUROSAWA (Through Sept. 18) The IFC Centers series honoring Akira Kurosawa continues Sunday and Tuesday with Yojimbo (1961), starring Toshiro Mifune as a 19th-century samurai drifter who manipulates two rival gangsters. 323 Avenue of the Americas, at West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 924-7771; $10.75. (Gates) NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL (Through tomorrow) Subway Cinemas fifth annual festival of high-grossing and/or award-winning new movies concludes tomorrow at the ImaginAsian Theater. The final films include Beetle the Horn King (2005), a Japanese sci-fi movie about Mexican wrestlers, and Linda Linda Linda (2005), the story of Japanese high school girls (and one Korean) who form a band. 239 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212) 371-6682; $9. (Gates) NORDIC NOIR: CRIME DRAMAS FROM SWEDEN AND DENMARK (Through Aug. 10) The American Scandinavian Foundation is screening Henning Mankells Kurt Wallander Mysteries, television films written by Mr. Mankell, the author of the internationally best-selling Wallander novels. In Mastermind, to be shown Wednesday and Thursday, a criminal has infiltrated the detectives hometown police station. Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, between 37th and 38th Streets, (212) 879-9779; $8. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. * BELLE AND SEBASTIAN (Tuesday) For a decade now, these members of Scottish indie royalty have made some of the most tasteful chamber pop on the planet: calm and elegant and clever, though sometimes a little bloodless. But the band loosened up a bit for its latest, The Life Pursuit (Matador), adding some bluesy vamps and -- could it be? -- some rock n roll. At 3:30 p.m., the Lawn at Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789; free, but tickets are required. (Ben Sisario) KURTIS BLOW (Thursday) The City Parks Foundations series of free concerts in parks throughout the five boroughs begins in Brooklyn with Kurtis Blow, who became one of the first heroes of rap with strutting and innocently street-smart rhymes like The Breaks (Brakes on a bus, brakes on a car/ Breaks to make you a superstar). At 7 p.m., Von King Park, Marcy and Tompkins Avenues, Bedford-Stuyvesant, (212) 360-8290; free. (Sisario) BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE (Thursday) This Toronto collective has mastered a kind of free-associative indie-prog, following melodies and rhythmic patterns along endlessly fascinating tangents. The band plays a benefit concert for the Celebrate Brooklyn series, with the Hidden Cameras, another inventive and well-populated Toronto band. At 6 p.m., Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 855-7882 or (866) 468-7619; $30. (Sisario) JOHNNY DOWD; MARY LORSON AND SAINT LOW (Thursday) Johnny Dowd applies his stoic Texas twang to songs about passion, sin and death; his band plays a version of honky-tonk that sounds as if it has been dragged through a swamp and encrusted with misfiring electronics. Mary Lorson, who was at the core of the band Madder Rose, has a pensive undertow behind her airy voice, floating in tunes that blend a folky delicacy with the lilt of jazz. Fans of Suzanne Vega or Mazzy Star owe it to themselves to discover her. At 7 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $12. (Jon Pareles) FUTUREHEADS (Tonight) The Futureheads, from the northern English city of Sunderland, play tight, nervy and exhilarating little tantrums of guitar, with four-part chants and an endless supply of clever riffs. The bands first album, released two years ago, was one of the best by the many recent bands to resuscitate the angular postpunk of Gang of Four and Wire, and its new one, News and Tributes (Star Time/Vagrant), shows that it was no accident. With the French Kicks. At 6:30, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111; $22 in advance, $24 at the door. (Sisario) GIPSY KINGS (Thursday) Strumming half a dozen guitars, singing in a husky rasp and stamping their heels on the floor, the members of this French pop group are to flamenco what Rice-a-Roni is to paella. Which is not to say that some of their international hits, like Bamboleo, arent fiendishly catchy. At 8 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888)466-5722; $31.50 to $81.50. (Pareles) * JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ, JUANA MOLINA, PSAPP (Monday) Connoisseurs of hip television soundtracks might recognize some of the music on this bill. José González, an Argentinean Swede, plays haunting, austere confessions with precision guitar picking and a deadpan hush; his song Crosses was played in the soap-opera season finale of The OC this spring. Juana Molina is another whispery Argentine, whose gentle, swirling lullabies draw a listener directly into her reveries. The English duo Psapp places soft vocals over beats constructed from found sounds like splashing water, creaking floorboards and even squeaking cats, creating a kind of hyperintimate electronica; Greys Anatomy uses one of Psapps songs as its theme. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $20. (Sisario) JOE JACKSON (Tonight) In songs like Is She Really Going Out With Him? and Steppin Out in the late 1970s and early 80s, Joe Jackson made his reputation as a cold-eyed master of British soul, bringing a cutting new-wave minimalism to stories of lonely lovers who cry that they are so tired of all the darkness in our lives. Since then he has proved remarkably versatile, releasing, among other projects, settings of the Seven Deadly Sins and a Grammy-winning recording of his Symphony No. 1. At 8, Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 840-2824; sold out. (Sisario) * SALIF KEITA (Tonight) Salif Keita, from Mali, has long been celebrated for a cosmopolitan ear and a voice that can melt hearts, but lately, with a devotion to acoustic guitars, his work has been even more entrancing than usual. His new album, MBemba (Decca), has songs of love and tribute to ancestors, its guitars joined by instruments from Hawaii, the Caribbean and even medieval Europe. At 8, Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 531-5305; $39 and $49. (Sisario) ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO, VUSI MAHLASELA (Tomorrow) Angélique Kidjo, from Benin, has a raw, gutsy voice, charisma that lights up a stage, and the determination to reach the world. Vusi Mahlasela was one of the most important songwriters of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, not just for his political courage but also for his sterling voice and for three-chord rockers that make earnest sentiments bounce. At 7 p.m., Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, (718) 855-7882; $3 suggested donation. (Pareles) BAABA MAAL (Sunday) Baaba Maal, one of the great singers and bandleaders from Senegal, merges the incantatory vocals and twinkling guitar lines of griot songs with elements of rock, reggae and Afro-Cuban music. His fusions embrace the world without leaving Senegal behind. At 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $34 in advance, $38 at the door. (Pareles) * MADONNA (Sunday and Monday) Part 10 (or so), in which our heroine strikes such poses as Jesus on the cross, James Brown in his cape and John Travolta in his white disco suit, all while performing dance-floor hits in new remixes and reconfigurations. Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $64.50 to $354.50. (Sisario) MATES OF STATE (Thursday) Most of the time Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, the married couple who make up Mates of State, sing insistent, almost nagging chants propelled by quick-pulse organ and drums; their latest, Bring It Back (Barsuk), also has some soothing, affectionate piano songs. At 7 p.m., Castle Clinton National Monument, Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789. Free; tickets available at 5 p.m., two per person. (Sisario) MIDSUMMER NIGHT SWING (Tonight through Thursday) Lincoln Centers annual outdoor series of low-dipping, high-kicking music and dancing continues tonight with western swing by the Bob Willss Texas Playboys (who have continued since Willss death 21 years ago); tomorrow features salsa with Alex Torres y Su Orquesta, a 13-piece band; on Tuesday, Jo Thompson sings swing favorites with the J. C. Heard Orchestra; Beth Meads Big Bandjo, on Wednesday, plays -- can you guess? -- classic swing songs in banjo-led arrangements; and Thursday features plena, the traditional Puerto Rican form of singing, dancing and social commentary, with Plena Libre. At 7:30 p.m., with dance lessons at 6:30 p.m., Josie Robertson Plaza, Columbus Avenue at 63rd Street, (212) 875-5460; $15 each night. (Sisario) AMY RIGBY, ROBBIE FULKS (Tonight) After years in various New York country-rock groups, Amy Rigby emerged on her own. She has made six worthy albums of succinct, tuneful songs about struggling through adulthood, when jobs, romance and motherhood arent exactly what shed hoped for. Robbie Fulks is fond of honky-tonk and the Beatles, and he comes up with tuneful, neatly phrased songs about near-psychotic characters. At 7 p.m., South Street Seaport, Pier 17, Fulton and South Streets, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789; free. (Pareles) * TV ON THE RADIO, MATT POND PA (Tonight) One of Brooklyns finest and most consistently intriguing bands, TV on the Radio casts a dark and seductive spell with swirling electronics, washes of Pixies-esque guitar and, most alluringly, vocals that draw from both early Peter Gabriel and doo-wop. The band has a fantastic and long-awaited new album, Return to Cookie Mountain, which is due to be released by Interscope Records later this year. Matt Pond PA adds some interesting colors to its indie-rock songs with touches of cello and strings. At 6:30, Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, (718) 855-7882; $3 suggested donation. (Sisario) RHONDA VINCENT (Wednesday) Rhonda Vincent sings, plays mandolin and pushes bluegrass in some modern directions without forgetting standards like Muleskinner Blues. At 7 p.m., Madison Square Park, Madison Avenue and 26th Street, Manhattan, (212) 538-6667; free. (Pareles) WALKMEN (Tonight) The Walkmen emerged five years ago, playing exquisitely articulated songs of exhaustion and disaffection, with Hamilton Leithausers weary whine surrounded by an echoey wash of guitar and keyboards. The bands new album, A Hundred Miles Off (Record Collection), begins intriguingly, with festive Mexican horns, but pretty soon its back to the familiar guitar-bleached anguish. At 8, Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $17.50. (Sisario) GARY WILSON AND THE BLIND DATES (Wednesday) The point is often made that not all the bands at CBGB in the late 1970s sounded like the Ramones. But perhaps no one was less like the Ramones than Gary Wilson, who played a kind of shattered lounge music with angst-ridden, unhinged vocals. (He also sometimes wrapped his face in plastic and wore two sets of sunglasses, something that might have actually looked cool on Joey Ramone.) Mr. Wilson disappeared from the scene in the early 80s but has played occasional dates since his re-emergence four years ago. At 9 p.m., Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103; $10. (Sisario) Cabaret Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. 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.(Stephen Holden) * Eartha Kitt (Tonight and tomorrow night) The latest edition of an act Ms. Kitt has been performing for decades is the lightest, swiftest and funniest one to date, and thats all to the good. More than ever, the singer, now a glamorous 79, pauses to poke fun at her status as the greatest and wittiest of all singing tigresses. At 8:45 and 10:45, Café Carlyle, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600; $100. (Holden) * JESSICA MOLASKEY (Tonight and tomorrow night) A theater singer with jazz chops, Ms. Molaskey combines sophisticated wit, fierce intelligence and a lightly swinging voice that hovers on the keen edge between happy and sad. A hybrid of the bossa nova standard Desafinado and Billy Joels Summer, Highland Falls performed Brazilian style is the pinnacle of a show whose material she describes as limbo songs. At 9 and 11:30, the Algonquin Hotel, Oak Room, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331; $50 cover; $60 prix fixe dinner required at the 9 p.m. shows; $20 minimum at the late shows. (Holden) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. THOMAS ANKERSMIT, BENTON-C BAINBRIDGE, BOBBY PREVITE (Tomorrow) Throughout July, the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn will present works specifically designed for its cylindrical space, and for the ceiling-hung 16-channel speaker system installed there. The first concert in the series features Mr. Ankersmit playing saxophones and electronics, Mr. Previte playing drums and electronics, and Mr. Bainbridge manipulating video images. At 8 p.m., Issue Project Room, 400 Carroll Street, between Bond and Nevins Streets, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, (718) 330-0313, issueprojectroom.org; cover, $10. (Nate Chinen) CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO (Wednesday through July 8) Mr. Chestnut is a stalwart straight-ahead pianist with a penchant for gospel and blues shadings. He is most comfortable with a trio; this one includes Michael Hawkins on bass and Neil Smith on drums. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $25; $30 next Friday and July 8. (Chinen) THE CLARINETS (Tomorrow) Three clarinetists walk into a bar and manage to make music thats not only serious but also mysterious and broadly textured. The clarinetists are Anthony Burr, Oscar Noriega and Chris Speed, and their improvisational chemistry is no joke. At 7 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) GEORGE COLLIGAN AND MAD SCIENCE (Tomorrow) Last year Mr. Colligan, a keyboardist with a powerful rhythmic presence, released a modernistic organ trio album called Realization (Sirocco Music). He pursues a similar purpose here, with the guitarist Tom Guarna and the drummer Kenny Grohowski. At 10 p.m., Ace of Clubs, 9 Great Jones Street, between Broadway and Lafayette Streets, West Village, (212) 677-6963, www.aceofclubsnyc.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) ERIK FRIEDLANDERS BROKEN ARM (Thursday) This tribute to the bassist Oscar Pettiford and the pianist Herbie Nichols features Mr. Friedlanders pizzicato cello playing against a simple rhythm backdrop of bass (Kermit Driscoll) and drums (Mike Sarin). The name is an oblique reference to Mr. Pettiford; both Mr. Friedlanders arms are fine. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) BEN GERSTEIN COLLECTIVE (Sunday) Mr. Gerstein, a trombonist, has led this free-improvising ensemble for the last half-dozen years, enlisting bright young players like Jacob Sacks (on keyboards), Eivind Opsvik (on bass) and Jacob Garchik (on accordion and electronics). At 8 and 10 p.m., Bar 4, 444 Seventh Avenue, at 15th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 832-9800, www.bar4.net; cover, $5. (Chinen) CURTIS HASSELBRINGS NEW MELLOW EDWARDS/JOHN HOLLENBECKS CLAUDIA QUINTET (Sunday) Two smart ensembles that harness the forward thrust of rock in the service of an almost chamberlike group cohesiveness. The trombonist Curtis Hasselbrings group is the more raucous of the two; the Claudia Quintet, led by the drummer John Hollenbeck, is the more refined. At 10 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $10. (Chinen) VINCENT HERRING QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Herring, an alto saxophonist, rolls out a locomotive brand of post-bop with the help of Anthony Wonsey on piano, Richie Goods on bass and Joris Dudli on drums. At 8, 10 and 11:30, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662; cover, $25. (Chinen) MALABY/SANCHEZ/RAINEY (Tonight) A trio that treads a middle ground between lyricism and abstraction, with Tony Malaby on saxophones, Angelica Sanchez on piano and Tom Rainey on drums. At 9 and 10:30, Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) JOHN MCNEIL/BILL McHENRY QUARTET (Sunday) Mr. McNeil, a trumpeter, and Mr. McHenry, a tenor saxophonist, mostly play obscurities by the 1950s West Coast pianist Russ Freeman in this solid and often delightful quartet, with Tom Hubbard on bass and Jochen Rückert on drums. At 8:30 p.m., Night and Day, 230 Fifth Avenue, at President Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 399-2161; cover, $5, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) DAVY MOONEY TRIO (Thursday) Mr. Mooney has a coolly casual tone on guitar, and a vocal style to match. He offers an accessible and thoughtful variety of small-group swing, with Mark Anderson on bass and Ari Hoenig on drums. At 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) * PAUL MOTIAN BAND (Through Sunday) This luminous ensemble consists of two contrasting pairs of improvisers (the tenor saxophonists Mark Turner and Chris Cheek, and the guitarists Steve Cardenas and Ben Monder); a couple of stabilizers (Jacob Bro and Jerome Harris, also guitarists); a lone anchor (the bassist Ben Street); and a mastermind (Mr. Motian, on drums). The bands last ECM album was excellent; its last Village Vanguard appearance, in January, was even better. At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $25 tonight and tomorrow, $20 on Sunday, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) RALPH PETERSON SEXTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) As a drummer, Mr. Peterson is a steamroller; as a bandleader, hes more like a sergeant. He has a way of producing strong results, as he probably will with this ensemble, featuring the trumpeter Igmar Thomas, the saxophonists Tia Fuller and Donald Lee, and the brotherly team of Zaccai and Luques Curtis on piano and bass. At 8, 10 and midnight, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) HERLIN RILEY AND FRIENDS (Through Sunday) Few contemporary jazz drummers groove as naturally as Mr. Riley, who presides here over a quartet composed of other strong musicians with ties to Wynton Marsalis: the tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Victor Goines, the pianist Eric Reed and the bassist Reginald Veal. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11:30 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) PETE ROBBINS AND CENTRIC (Tomorrow) Waits and Measures (Playscape), the new album by the alto saxophonist Pete Robbins, is an intimate sort of jazz-rock hybrid complete with Fender Rhodes electric piano and artfully fuzzed-out electric guitar. The group plays here without its guitarist, but is otherwise intact. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $6, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) GONZALO RUBALCABA TRIO (Through Sunday) Mr. Rubalcaba can be an astonishing pianist technically, and he plays with a sense of dramatic flourish instilled by the music of his native Cuba. He works here with a rhythm section that recently distinguished itself under the aegis of the alto saxophonist Greg Osby: Matt Brewer on bass and Jeff (Tain) Watts on drums. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $30; $25 on Sunday. (Chinen) ROMAN SKAKUN QUINTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Skakun, a newly minted graduate of the New School jazz program, features his vibraphone playing and a few of his original compositions in this ensemble, which is impressively stocked with supporting players: the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, the pianist Bruce Barth, the bassist Doug Weiss and the drummer Jason Marsalis. At 10 and midnight, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 675-7369; cover, $10, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen) TYFT (Monday) This adventurous trio -- the guitarist Hilmar Jenssen, the alto saxophonist and bass clarinetist Andrew DAngelo and the drummer Jim Black -- fashions roughly contoured music out of grainy texture and surging pulse. Their energy level is unflaggingly high, as is the caliber of their musicianship. At 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $10. (Chinen) KEVIN UEHLINGER QUARTET (Wednesday) Biochemistry and the I Ching are hardly common themes in jazz, but Mr. Uehlinger, a keyboardist, has used aspects of both in his compositional framework. He has also employed musicians independent enough to strain against those constrictions: the trumpeter Nate Wooley, the bassist Keith Witty and the drummer Tyshawn Sorey. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) * RANDY WESTONS AFRICAN RHYTHMS TRIO/ELDAR (Wednesday through July 9) Mr. Weston, the pianist, has been one of the principal agents of an Africanized jazz aesthetic since his fateful first visit to Nigeria more than 40 years ago. He has an unfailingly expressive outlet in the ensemble African Rhythms, which appears here in trio form. Also on the bill is Eldar, a piano prodigy from Kyrgyzstan celebrating the release of his new trio album, Live at the Blue Note (Sony Classical), in the most appropriate setting. At 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) STEVE WILSON QUINTET (Tuesday through July 9) An alto saxophonist with a dry tone but a rounded sense of phrase, Mr. Wilson recruits an established rhythm section -- Bruce Barth on piano, Ed Howard on bass and Adam Cruz on drums -- and locks horns with the fine trumpeter Terrell Stafford. At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20; $25 next Friday and July 8, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera BERKSHIRE OPERA (Wednesday) Opera companies and orchestras everywhere are celebrating the 250th birthday of Mozart, and on Wednesday night its the Berkshire Operas turn. For this festive event, titled The Soul of Genius: A Mozart Celebration, the company, founded in 1985, has lined up some exciting performers, including young stars of the Metropolitan Opera. The sopranos Maureen OFlynn and Christine Goerke, the tenor Mark Schowalter and the baritone Troy Cook will be joined by several members of the companys successful Resident Artists Program. The music director Kathleen Kelly conducts the Berkshire Opera Overture in a program including arias and ensembles from Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and lesser-known works. The event takes place at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Mass., and if you havent seen this enchanting old theater since its extensive renovation, it alone is worth a trip. At 8 p.m., 30 Castle Street, (413) 442-0099; $35 to $85. (Anthony Tommasini) LAKE GEORGE OPERA (Tonight through Thursday) Our Town, Ned Rorems opera based on the Thornton Wilder play, is getting its first professional production from a company that may not have all the resources of the music school (Indiana Universitys) that gave it its world premiere. The companys other two offerings of its summer season are I Pagliacci and The Barber of Seville. Our Town, tomorrow at 8, Wednesday afternoon at 1; Barber, tomorrow afternoon at 1, Thursday night at 8; Pagliacci, tonight at 8, Sunday afternoon at 1. Spa Little Theater, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., (518) 587-3330; $48 to $70; $5 off for children and 65+. (Anne Midgette) Classical Music ASTON MAGNA (Tonight and tomorrow) This 34-year-old festival dates back to the early days of the period-instruments movement. Mozart, the ubiquitous birthday boy this year, is the focus of the first of the seasons six concerts; it includes some perennial favorites (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Exsultate, Jubilate) as well as Bastien and Bastienne, the singspiel he wrote when he was 12. Dominique Labelle, a fine soprano, is one of the soloists. Tonight at 8, Olin Humanities Building, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., (845) 758-7425; tomorrow afternoon at 5, Daniel Arts Center at Simons Rock College, Great Barrington, Mass., (800) 875-7156. $35. (Midgette) BARGEMUSIC (Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday and Thursday) This floating concert hall on the Brooklyn side of the East River offers the intimacy that chamber music needs, as well as a wonderful view of Lower Manhattan through the bay windows behind the stage. Tonight Jeanne Mallow, a violist, and Vladimir Valjarevic, a pianist, collaborate on works by Brahms, Schumann, Rachmaninoff and William Keith Rogers. Tomorrow and Sunday the Brahms Trio No. 1 is the centerpiece of a program that also includes Arvo Pärts Fratres and the Schumann A-minor Violin Sonata. The players are Pavel Ilyashov, violinist; Efe Baltacigil, cellist; and Andrius Zlabys, pianist. And on Thursday, its back to viola music, with David Aaron Carpenter, violist, and Julien Quentin, pianist, playing works by Falla, Brahms, Hindemith, Zimbalist and Paganini. Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday nights 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+ tonight and Thursday, $20 for students. (Allan Kozinn) BETHEL WOODS CENTER FOR THE ARTS (Tomorrow) The New York Philharmonic and attractions like Audra MacDonald and Lang Lang kick off this new summer destination for music. At 7 p.m., Bethel, N.Y., (866) 781-2922; sold out. (Bernard Holland) CARAMOOR (Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) The festivals second week is crowded. Tonight the New York Festival of Song offers works by British composers; Bernstein on Broadway tomorrow night features Judy Kaye and other singers; Sundays program, Green Grass to Bluegrass, shows a wide range of American music; and two chamber concerts showcase the violinist Jonathan Chu (Wednesday) and the festivals quartet in residence, the Jupiter String Quartet, playing Dvorak, Mozart and a new piece by Paul Schoenfield (Thursday). Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday afternoon at 4:30, Wednesday morning at 11, Thursday night at 7:30, Caramoor, Katonah, N.Y., (914) 232-1252; $27 and $37 tonight, $32.50 to $87.50 tomorrow, $19 to $49 on Sunday, $16 on Wednesday (with museum tour), $17 and $27 on Thursday. (Midgette) INSTITUTE AND FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE (Tonight) Shortly after completing its extensive Beethoven Institute, the tireless Mannes College, the classical music division of the New School, turned its attention to new music, playing host to the institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance. The festival attracts composers and performers, both renowned figures and adventurous students, for 10 days of workshops, master classes and concerts, all open to the public. It ends tonight with a concert featuring solo and chamber works performed by the student participants. The program will be announced from the stage. At 7, Mannes College of Music, 150 West 85th Street, Manhattan, (212) 580-0210, Ext. 4884; $20; $10 for students. (Tommasini) MAVERICK CONCERTS (Tomorrow and Sunday) This concert series near Woodstock offers its performances in an open-backed barn that allows the sounds of nature to mingle with the music. Tomorrow Jie Chen, a pianist who won the Yamaha E-Competition, plays Mozarts Variations in C (K. 179), Schumanns Sonata No. 2, Harold Meltzers Toccata, Balakirevs fiery Islamey and works by Albéniz. On Sunday afternoon the Miami String Quartet joins forces with the pianist Melvin Chen to play the chamber version of Mozarts Concerto No. 14 (K. 449) and Arthur Footes Piano Quintet in A minor. Haydns Lark Quartet opens the program. Tomorrow at 6 p.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. (Kozinn) MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE HAMPTONS (Tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday) Dedicated to the memory of the pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch, whose niece founded it, this festival runs heavy on piano. Two installments of its Moiseiwitsch recital series feature Assaff Weisman (tonight) and Katya Sonina (Wednesday), both with programs of classics, he leaning toward the Viennese with Haydn, Brahms and Beethoven; she toward the East with Chopin and Prokofiev. Tomorrow the clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein offers Mozarts Clarinet Quintet and other works. At 8 p.m., Wölffer Estate Vineyards, Sagaponack, N.Y., and First Baptist Church, Main Street, Greenport, N.Y. (Fiterstein), (800) 644-4418; tonight and Wednesday, $50 reserved, $35 unreserved; tomorrow, $35. (Midgette) MUSIC MOUNTAIN (Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday) String quartets are a focus of this venerable institution in northwestern Connecticut, and on Sunday afternoon the Avalon Quartet will play works by Mozart and Debussy, as well as Schumanns Piano Quintet in E flat with the pianist Pamela Mia Paul. Tomorrow the jazz group Big Easy Rhythm plays its own brand of swing; and tonight the New Haven Oratorio Choir offers Schuberts Mirjams Siegesgesang. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday afternoon at 3, Gordon Hall at Music Mountain, Falls Village, Conn., (860) 824-7126; $25 at the door, $22 in advance, $12 for students. (Midgette) * NEW YORK GUITAR SEMINAR (Wednesday and Thursday) The Mannes College of Music has assembled a starry faculty for this five-day guitar festival of concerts and master classes. The opening faculty recital, on Wednesday, includes sets by the inventive Benjamin Verdery and the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo. On Thursday David Leisner and Dennis Koster share the bill. At 8 p.m., Mannes College, 150 West 85th Street, Manhattan, (212) 580-0210, Ext. 4883; $15. (Kozinn) NORFOLK CHAMBER FESTIVAL (Tonight) Norfolks traditional summer season begins to stir with a free concert featuring new and recent music and a special interest in percussion instruments. At 8, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Routes 44 and 272, Norfolk, Conn., (860) 542-3000. (Holland) TANGLEWOOD (Tonight) This festival offers the venerable Juilliard String Quartet at Ozawa Hall. The music is by Schubert Alejandro Viñao and Brahms. At 8:30, Lenox, Mass., (888) 266-1200; $16 to $49. (Holland) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. * AMERICAN BALLET THEATER (Tonight and tomorrow; Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) The last three performances of Kevin McKenzies Swan Lake are tonight and tomorrow. On Monday begins a mere four-performance run (the house will be dark on Tuesday) of Frederick Ashtons Sylvia, which was a critical hit last summer but which Ballet Theater apparently feels cannot sustain a full weeks run. Instead, next weekend, there will be three more performances of Le Corsaire. The Sylvia is worth seeing, though, both for itself and to provide a contrast to Mark Morriss version, coming next month with the San Francisco Ballet. Ballet Theaters season continues until July 15. Tonight, tomorrow night and Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8; tomorrow and Wednesday at 2 p.m.; Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000 or abt.org; $23 to $100. (John Rockwell) * BARD SUMMERSCAPE (Tonight and tomorrow night) This summer arts festival features two new dances by Donna Uchizono, performed by her company and by the guest artist Mikhail Baryshnikov, whose Hells Kitchen arts center commissioned one piece. Through tomorrow. The festival itself runs through Aug. 20. At 8, Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., (845) 758-7900 or summerscape.bard.edu; $25 to $55. (Jennifer Dunning) CATALYST (Tonight and tomorrow night) This Minneapolis-based dance company, making its New York debut, will perform Heat and Life, a multimedia dance about global warming by the company director, Emily Johnson. At 7:30 , Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077 or dtw.org; $20; $12 for students and 65+. (Dunning) * CILLA VEE MOVEMENT PROJECTS (Wednesday) The formal gardens, fields and rolling inclines of the Wave Hill environmental center will be planted with dancers in bright flowing costumes, according to the company director, Claire Elizabeth Barratt, in a performance installation set to violin, flute and vocal music performed live. At 7 p.m. (Garden tour at 6:30 p.m.) Wave Hill, West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Riverdale, the Bronx, (718) 549-3200 or www.wavehill.org; free with admission to the center: $4; $2 for students and 65+. (Dunning) LO-LO LO-LO DANCE PERFORMANCE COMPANY (Tonight and tomorrow night) From Japan, the company is making its New York City debut in As an Ugly Duck, a quintet choreographed by Kazumi Taoka that explores love and force by using bodies, space, eye contact, touching and voice. At 8, Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, (212) 334-7479; $15; $10 for students. (Dunning) * JACOBS PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL (Tonight through Sunday; Wednesday and Thursday) The Limón Dance company will be in the larger Ted Shawn Theater through the weekend, followed there on Wednesday and Thursday (and next weekend) by the Suzanne Farrell Ballet from Washington in an all-Balanchine program. In the smaller Doris Duke Studio Theater ASzURe & Artists perform this weekend, with Emanuel Gat Dance from Israel moving in on Thursday, through next weekend. Limón tonight and tomorrow night at 8, and tomorrow and Sunday at 2 p.m.; Farrell Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m.; Shawn Theater, $50. ASzURe tonight and tomorrow night at 8:15, tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. and Sunday at 5:15 p.m.; Gat on Thursday at 8:15 p.m.; Duke Theater, $24. Ten percent off all tickets for students, ages 65+ and children. Details of the weeks free performances and exhibitions can be found at jacobspillow.org. Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, Mass.; (413) 243-0745. (Rockwell) * LA MAMA MOVES! (Tonight through Sunday; Thursday) This eclectic whirl of a downtown-dance festival continues at three theaters in the La MaMa complex with Mavericks in Motion, whose choreographers include Abby Chen, Bhavani Lee and Deborah Lohse (tonight and tomorrow night at 8 and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.); the highly recommended Dancing Divas program of choreography by Pat Catterson, Ellen Fisher, Keely Garfield, Sally Gross, Deborah Jowitt, Jodi Melnick, Yvonne Meier and Vicky Shick (tonight at 10); Children of Ur, which includes dances by Karinne Keithley, David Neuman, Nicky Paraiso and the program curator, Chris Yon (tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.); Burlesque, whose stars include Julie Atlas Muz and Dirty Martini (tomorrow at 10 p.m.); Duet, with a roster of five pairs of dancer-choreographers (Sunday at 5:30 p.m.); and Border Jumping, with work by six artists, including Bill Irwin, representing the United States (Thursday at 7:30 p.m.). La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street, west of Second Avenue, East Village, (212) 475-7710 or www.lamama.org; $10 (Dunning) NICHOLAS LEICHTER ( Tomorrow) For its 10th-anniversary season, the company Nicholasleichterdance presents four pieces commissioned by Dance New Amsterdam, which date from 1997 (Animal) to 2006 (Sweetwash Special). It is an opportunity to see how much both the choreographer and Dance New Amsterday, which was formerly known as Dance Space and now has splendid new digs downtown, have grown. At 8 p.m., Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, TriBeCa, (212) 279-4200 or www.dnadance.org; $20, or $15 for members. (Erika Kinetz) * NOCHE FLAMENCA WITH SOLEDAD BARRIO (Tonight through Sunday; Thursday) Ms. Barrio is a remarkable dancer, serious and impassioned, and the hit of this winters Flamenco Gala at City Center. Her Spanish company, founded with her husband, Martin Santangelo, has settled into the intimate Theater 80 for this month and next, through July 30. Tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday night at 8; tomorrow and Sunday at 2 p.m.; Sunday at 5 p.m.; Theater 80, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212) 352-3101 or theatermania.com; $45. (Rockwell) * PARADIGM and BATTLEWORKS (Wednesday and Thursday) In their shared week at the Joyce, these two companies bring together some of the best names in modern dance, both old and new. Paradigm will perform works by Carmen deLavallade, Gus Solomons Jr., Wally Cardona, Larry Keigwin and Kay Cummings. Robert Battles gifted young ensemble will perform Primate, a world premiere set to music by Philip Hamilton; Communion, a New York premiere; Takademe; Two; and Promenade. (Through July 9.) Opening night, Wednesday, is a shared program; Battleworks performs alone on Thursday. Both are at 8 p.m. The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800; $30. (Kinetz) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * American Folk Art Museum: WHITE ON WHITE (AND A LITTLE GRAY), through Sept. 17. The importance of neo-Classicism to early American architecture, silver and fine furniture is not exactly news. This small, beautiful show follows its spread into more personal corners of visual culture: often exquisite, strikingly dimensional white-work bedcovers; luminously grisaille, sometimes wacky marble-dust drawings; and print-work embroidery mourning pictures. 45 West 53rd Street, (212) 265-1040. (Roberta Smith) * BROOKLYN MUSEUM: SYMPHONIC POEM: THE ART OF AMINAH BRENDA LYNN ROBINSON, through Aug. 13. 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 castoff 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, (718) 638-5000. (Grace Glueck) COOPER-HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM: FREDERIC CHURCH, WINSLOW HOMER AND THOMAS MORAN: TOURISM AND THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, through Oct. 22. It turns out that the Cooper-Hewitt owns thousands of rarely seen paintings, prints and sketches by Church, Homer and Moran. Studies of the countryside, mostly, they revere unspoiled nature and record tourism, a booming industry in 19th-century America. Here theyre combined with antique postcards, old Baedekers, stereoscopic photographs, playing cards with pictures of Yellowstone on them and souvenir platters, all to trace the nations transformation from primeval wilderness to Catskills resort. The show is extremely entertaining. 2 East 91st Street, (212) 849-8400. (Michael Kimmelman) COOPER HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM: YINKA SHONIBARE SELECTS: WORKS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION, through Sept. 24. A British sculptor of Nigerian descent organizes an absorbing small exhibition of objects related to travel from the Cooper Hewitt collection, and adds his own oblique comment on 19th-century imperialism in the form of two headless female mannequins in Victorian-style dresses cut from African-patterned fabrics, poised on six-foot stilts strapped to their feet. 2 East 91st Street, (212) 849-8400. (Ken Johnson) * Frick Collection : Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789): Swiss MasteR, through Sept. 17. Liotard is something of a specialty item now, but he was widely known in the Enlightenment Europe of his day. And even then he was seen as a maverick, a figure of contradictions. He was a stone-cold realist in an age of rococo frills. In a great age of oil painting, he favored pastel. He had ultrafancy sitters for his portraits, including the young Marie Antoinette. But his most vivid likenesses are of himself and his family. The Fricks perfectly proportioned sweetheart of a solo show is the artists first in North America. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700. (Holland Cotter) * FRICK COLLECTION: VERONESES ALLEGORIES: VIRTUE, LOVE AND EXPLORATION IN RENAISSANCE VENICE, through July 16. Paolo Veronese (1528-88), a superb colorist and one of the most suavely sensuous of Renaissance Venetian painters, used the age-old device of allegory to make abstract concepts visual, often by means of human or mythological figures. In this five-painting show, the first to include all of his large-scale allegories from American collections, high ideals mingle with earthy and sometimes erotic physicality, as in the painting Venus and Mars United by Love. (See above.) (Glueck) SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: ZAHA HADID: THIRTY YEARS IN ARCHITECTURE, through Oct. 25. This exhibition, Ms. Hadids first major retrospective in the United States, gives New Yorkers a chance to see what theyve been missing. The show, in the Guggenheims rotunda, spirals through Ms. Hadids career, from her early enchantment with Soviet Constructivism to the sensuous and fluid cityscapes of her more recent commissions. It illuminates her capacity for bridging different worlds: traditional perspective drawing and slick computer-generated imagery; the era of utopian manifestos and the ambiguous values of the information age. (212) 423-3500. (Nicolai Ouroussoff) * International Center of Photography: UNKNOWN WEEGEE, through Aug. 27. From the 1930s through the 50s, Weegee -- real name, Arthur Fellig (1899-1968) -- was one of the best known news photographers in the country. He specialized in capturing the sensational side of urban life: crime, disaster, demimonde nightlife. Tirelessly invasive, he lived by night. For him, the city was a 24-hour emergency room, an amphetamine drip. This show of 95 pictures gives a good sense of his range and calls particular attention to his awareness of social problems related to class and race. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000. (Cotter) JEWISH MUSEUM: EVA HESSE: SCULPTURE, through Sept. 17. Assembled by Elizabeth Sussman, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Fred Wasserman, a curator at the Jewish Museum, this show focuses on a pivotal Hesse exhibition, Chain Polymers, at the Fischbach Gallery -- known for promoting Minimalist painters -- in 1968. Arguably a compilation of her best work, it was her first and only solo show of sculpture during her lifetime, and most of the objects in it -- along with some earlier and later pieces -- are here. One of the earliest is Compart (1966), a four-panel vertical that starts at the top with a fully formed, round, breastlike image of neatly wound cord that mysteriously breaks up into part of the same image on each of the three panels beneath. The last, most startling and most impressive work is Untitled (Rope Piece), of 1970, made as Ms. Hesse was dying, finished with the help of friends. (An exhibition of her drawings is on view at the Drawing Center.) 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200. (Glueck) * METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: ANGLOMANIA: TRADITION AND TRANSGRESSION IN BRITISH FASHION, through Sept. 4. Ranging from early-18th-century gowns to next seasons evening wear, this show crowds 65 extravagantly clad mannequins into the Mets normally serene English period rooms, trying to connect the sartorial innovations of the English dandy, the aggressive tribal attire of punk and the deconstructive impulses of todays British fashion stars. A certain confusion, both intellectual and visual, reigns, but there is more than enough to look at. (212) 535-7710. (Smith) * met: GIRODET: ROMANTIC REBEL, through Aug. 27. Hugely famous in the early 19th century, Girodet dropped down the memory chute. His Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of French Heroes, painted for Napoleon, is one of the most deranged pictures in art history. Its so unhinged that its almost lovable, which is otherwise the last word to come to mind for an artist who, in his uptight, smarty-pants mode, could be a bore. But give the show a shot. Its sometimes brilliant, and Girodets strangeness and fairly repellent character make him at least fascinating to contemplate and heroic in his immoderation. (212) 535-7710. (Kimmelman) * Met: Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings, through Sept. 10. Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings gets a huge gold A for truth in advertising. The treasures are plentiful, rare and splendid. A carved wood figure of kneeling shaman, arms extended, time-raked face entranced, is simply one of the greatest sculptures in the museum. And wait till you see the painted ceramic vessel known as the Dazzler Vase, with its red and green patterns like jade on fire, youll understand its name. Much of the work has never traveled before; many objects have only recently come to light in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. They add up to an exhibition as a think-piece essay on how a culture saw itself in the world. (212) 535-7710. (Cotter) MET: 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. 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. (212) 535-7710. (Smith) * Morgan Library and Museum: Masterworks from the Morgan, through Sept. 10. Almost three years after closing to build an expansion, the Morgan is back and brilliant. Whats new: Renzo Pianos splendid four-story glass-and-steel court, a sort of giant solarium with see-through elevators; two good-size second-floor galleries; and a neat little strongbox of an enclosure, called the Cube, for reliquaries and altar vessels, medieval objects made with so much silver and gold that they seem to give off heat. Whats not new: almost everything in this exhibition, which fills every gallery with mini-exhibitions of master drawings and musical manuscripts, as well as illuminated gospels, devotional sculptures and historical and literary autograph manuscripts from the Brontës to Bob Dylan. 225 Madison Avenue, at East 36th Street, (212) 685-0008 or www.themorgan.org. (Individual show closings can be checked by telephone or through the Web site.) (Cotter) Museum of Arts AND Design: THE EAMES LOUNGE CHAIR: AN ICON OF MODERN DESIGN, through Sept. 3 Celebrating the 50th anniversary of a chair whose combination of declarative modernist structure and sheer creature comfort was both innovative and a bit alien, this exhibition is a successful design object in its own right. It pays homage with drawings, advertising ephemera, precursors, vintage television clips, a wonderful documentary and three versions of the chair itself, enshrined, exploded and useable. 40 West 53rd Street, (212) 956-3535. (Smith) MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: DADA, through Sept. 11. This is pretty much Dadas official survey (an oxymoron), and it makes nearly all 450 or so objects in it look elegant. That hat rack looks awfully stylish now. Its good to be reacquainted with a generation of artists who had no market to speak of and for whom societys corruption and exhaustion seemed golden opportunities to make themselves useful. Cynical and traumatized, the Dadaists were tireless young optimists at heart. They discovered a world full of wonders, and we are, on the whole, their beneficiaries. (212) 708-9400. (Kimmelman) Museum of Modern Art: Douglas Gordon: Timeline, through Sept 4. This selection of works by the artist known for appropriating and inventively manipulating Hollywood movies includes his projection of Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho, which runs so slowly that it takes 24 hours to complete, and a large-scale video installation that studies a circus elephant performing in an empty art gallery. Museum of Modern Art. (212) 708-9400. (Johnson) * New-York Historical Society: Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery, through January. Slavery, some would say, didnt really end in the United States until the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. That was a full century after the Emancipation Proclamation. Or the Emancipation Approximation, as the artist Kara Walker calls it in a series of hallucinatory silkscreen prints. They are among the high points of this large, powerful, subtle group show, the second in a trio of exhibitions on American slavery organized by the New-York Historical Society. 170 Central Park West, (212) 873-3400. (Cotter) New York Public Library: FRENCH BOOK ART/LIVRES DARTISTES: ARTISTS AND POETS IN DIALOGUE, through Aug. 19. Organized with the Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet in Paris, this lavish exhibition surveys some of the experimental ferment brought on by the combination of free verse, visionary publishers and the high rate of talent among French artists and poets, especially in the early years of the 20th century. New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, (212) 869-8089. (Smith) NOGUCHI MUSEUM: BEST OF FRIENDS: BUCKMINSTER FULLER AND ISAMU NOGUCHI, through Oct. 15. Great, lasting friendships are rare, but friendships that enlarge the spirit through ideas, ideals and new insights are in a class by themselves. Over a stretch of more than 50 years the sculptor Isamu Noguchi and the visionary designer R. Buckminster Fuller enjoyed such a friendship, which led to aesthetic and practical achievements that left their mark. The course of their varied collaborations is traced in this exhibition, which includes models, sculptures, drawings, photographs and films. 9-01 33rd Road, between Vernon Boulevard and 10th Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 204-7088. (Glueck) Galleries: Uptown * WANGECHI MUTU: EXHUMING GLUTTONY: A LOVERS REQUIEM In tandem with this artists Chelsea debut, an over-the-top installation made with the British architect David Adjaye includes fur-trimmed wine bottles dripping wine, animal skins and an enormous raw wood table. Conflating morgue, tannery and banquet hall, it brings the excess and color of paintings on Mylar into real space, but its main message seems to be: I built this because I can. Salon 94, 12 East 94th Street, (646) 672-9212, through July 28. (Smith) * Sarah Sze: Corner Plot The upper corner of an apartment building protrudes from the Doris C. Freedman Plazas pavement as if the whole edifice had toppled and sunk into the ground. Through the windows of Ms. Szes magical outdoor sculpture you can see a complicated interior that looks as if it were created by a mad architect. Doris C. Freedman Plaza, 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, (212) 980-4575, through Oct. 22. (Johnson) Galleries: 57th Street Eva Lundsager: Wherever Improvising with infectiously playful freedom on medium-large canvases, Ms. Lundsager creates hedonistic and trippy abstract landscapes composed of dots, squiggles, woozy stripes, smudgy areas, luminous open spaces, and colors ranging from neon bright to muddy brown. Greenberg Van Doren, 730 Fifth Avenue, (212) 445-0444, through next Friday. (Johnson) * Rudy Burckhardt: New York Paintings Known as a photographer and filmmaker, Burckhardt (1914-1999) also painted all through his career. His Manhattan cityscapes, mostly rooftop views of other buildings, have a fresh, almost naïve immediacy and a sophisticated way with relations between surface and depth and complexity and simplicity. Tibor de Nagy, 724 Fifth Avenue, (212) 262-5050, through July 28. (Johnson) Galleries: SoHo Philippe Decrauzat: Plate 28 A conceptually perplexing but visually striking installation by this young Swiss artist includes a black and white grid painted on the walls; a sculpture based on a Russian Constructivist design; and a grainy, flickering black-and-white film showing glimpses of ominous landscapes from The Twilight Zone. Swiss Institute, 495 Broadway, at Broome Street, (212) 925-2035, through July 15. (Johnson) EVA HESSE: DRAWING This show deals in depth with Ms. Hesses works on paper, ranging from rough sketches or notes, to test pieces made from various materials that function as drawings, to finished projects that stand on their own. A zealous researcher, Ms. Hesse made all kinds of thumbnail notations and calculations to explore the properties of her malleable materials. Many of these sheets, perhaps too many, are shown, too. Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, (212) 219-2166, through July 15. (Glueck) Galleries: Chelsea Nightmares of Summer This entertaining selection of dark, weird and nasty visions includes Marilyn Minters big photograph of dirty feet with toenails painted fashionably green; Barnaby Furnass explosive, cartoonish painting of a woman at the beach spilling blood-red wine; an otherworldly coppery seascape by Stuart Elster; photographs by Anders Petersen, Hans Bellmer and Diane Arbus; drawings by Carroll Dunham and Steve DiBenedetto; and more. Marvelli, 526 West 26th Street, (212) 627-3363, through July 8. (Johnson) Scarecrow The work in this show is supposed to be menacing and abrasive, but it is mostly interesting and amusing. Highlights include David Herberts giant, handmade replica of a 2001: A Space Odyssey videocassette; Rashid Johnsons life-size, photographic nude self-portrait; David Kennedy Cutlers model of the White House made of chewing gum and imbedded in dirt; and a short Matthew Barney-like film by Chris Larson. Postmasters, 459 West 19th Street, (212) 727-3323, through July 8. (Johnson) Martin Schoeller: Close Up Extraordinarily large and detailed mug-shot-like portraits of celebrities like Jack Nicholson, Angelina Jolie and Bill Clinton. Hasted Hunt, 529 West 20th Street, (212) 627-0006, through Sept. 1. (Johnson) * Stephen Shore The postcard-size color pictures of diners, restaurant meals, hotel rooms, roadside signs, ordinary people and other nondescript subjects taken by this eminent photographer on cross-country road trips in the early 1970s are enthralling, beautiful, nostalgic and romantic. 303 Gallery, 525 West 22nd Street, (212) 255-1121, through July 7. (Johnson) RICHARD SERRA: ROLLED AND FORGED The centerpiece of the latest Serra spectacular, which favors mass, compression and rectangles over stretched-thin curves and spirals, is a low-lying maze in which the shifting heights and staggered placement of 16 thick, hedgelike plates create one of the most spatially complex yet straightforward works of his career. Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th Street, (212) 741-1111, through Aug. 11. (Smith) Last Chance Jackie Gendel: Portraits With seemingly offhand painterly verve, smudgy colors and a sweet sense of humor, Ms. Gendel creates smart and sensuous, semi-abstract riffs on Modernist portraiture. Jeff Bailey, 511 West 25th Street, (212) 989-0156; closing tomorrow. (Johnson) * NEW VIDEO, NEW EUROPE A selection of 49 tapes by 40 artists from 16 Eastern European countries, several of which did not exist before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, presents bits and pieces of another world. Revolution, landmines, economic hardship and disappearing ways of life alternate with wit and artistic originality. The whole forms an inadvertent documentary, but many of the parts are well worth attention. The Kitchen, 512 East 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 255-5793; closing today. (Smith) * The Studio Museum In harlem: Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964-1980, 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. 144 West 125th Street, (212) 864-4500; closing Sunday. (Cotter)

The Listings: Sept. 23-Sept. 29

Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the New York metropolitan regions 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, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Previews and Openings FRANS BED Opens Sunday. The fall seasons celebrity sightings begin as James Lapine directs Mia Farrow and Julia Stiles in his surreal comedy about life, death and soap operas (1:45). Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)279-4200. GEORGE SAUNDERSS PASTORALIA Opens Sunday. Ed and Janet work in a historically themed amusement park in this adaptation of the cult writers work (1:25). P.S. 122, 150 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212)352-3101. NO FOREiGNERS BEYOND THIS POINT Opens Sunday. A new drama by Warren Leight (Side Man) about two American teachers in China during the Cultural Revolution (2:00). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street, East Village, (212)352-3101. THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL Opens Tuesday. A hit at the 2004 New York Musical Theater Festival, this comic musical features original songs about life in a trailer park (2:00). Dodger Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212)239-6200. COLDER THAN HERE Opens Wednesday. Judith Light, Brian Murray, Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe star in Laura Wades dark comedy about a woman planning her funeral (1:30). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212)279-4200. IN THE WINGS Opens Wednesday. Peter Scolari stars in a new play by Stewart F. Lane about a young couple, both actors, who are cast in a musical. Directed by Jeremy Dobrish (2:00). Promenade Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, (212)239-6200. CYCLING PAST THE MATTERHORN Opens Thursday. With her mother going blind, Amy, a mediocre psychic, worries that this means that she has to take care of her. Deborah Grimbergs comedy stars the Tony winner Shirley Knight (1:35). Harold Clurman Theater on Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)279-4200. ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR Opens Oct. 18. The latest comedy by the unstoppably prolific Alan Ayckbourn is about three couples and takes place over three holiday seasons (2:30). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212)239-6200. LATE FRAGMENT Previews start Wednesday. Opens Oct. 1. Matthew flees the attack on the World Trade Center only to find an impatient wife at home and a group of reporters looking to turn him into a hero. Michael Imperioli and Zetna Fuentes direct Francine Volpes play (1:30). Studio Dante, 257 West 29th Street, Chelsea, (212)279-4200. THE MASTER BUILDER Opens Oct. 2. The trusty old Pearl Theater presents Ibsens play, a cocktail of realism and expressionism about an architect reflecting on his own drive to succeed (2:20). Pearl Theater, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212)598-9802. SLUT Opens Oct. 1. A hit at the 2003 Fringe Festival, Ben H. Winters and Stephen Sislens musical is about two best friends and the rocker who comes between them (2:00). American Theater of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, Clinton, (212)(212)239-6200. A SOLDIERS PLAY Opens Oct. 17. The first major New York revival of Charles Fullers play about the trial of a black soldier during World War II. Taye Diggs stars (2:10). Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212)246-4422. THIRD Previews start Thursday. Opens Oct. 24. A professor played by Dianne Wiest accuses a student of plagiarism in Wendy Wassersteins latest. Daniel Sullivan directs (2:00). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212)239-6200. Broadway 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. (Ben Brantley) DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS On paper this musical 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 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 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) 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) 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 Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) SWEET CHARITY This revival of the 1966 musical 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. (Charles Isherwood) Off Broadway THE BLOWIN OF BAILE GALL Ronan Noones play concerns the complicated relationships among four laborers and a general contractor renovating a house in Ireland. Mr. Noone draws his characters sharply and surely, but the play is overburdened with conflict. Theres enough here to fuel a whole season of a television soap (2:00). Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street, Clinton, (212)868-4444.(Isherwood) DEDICATION, OR THE STUFF OF DREAMS Portraying a terminally ill, rancidly rich misanthrope in Terrence McNallys play about a small-town childrens theater troupe, Marian Seldes is a snappy advertisement for the time-defying benefits of a religious devotion to theater. She is, in fact, what Dedication is all about, or intends to be, anyway. Burdened with soap-opera-ish plot turns and artificially bright dialogue, this comedy of mortality never seems able to convince itself that life and art trump death and doubt. (2:15). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212)279-4200. (Brantley) * 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) * THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN OF JENNY CHOW In Rolin Joness fanciful comedy, playfully directed by Jackson Gay, a lonely young woman in California embarks on an ambitious science project to help conquer her agoraphobia and trace her origins in China. Brisk, funny and engaging, the play disappoints only in its emphasis on flights of fancy over a nuanced depiction of its heroines emotional dilemmas (2:10). Atlantic Theater Company, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212)239-6200. (Isherwood) KISSING FIDEL In Eduardo Machados overwrought new play, an emotionally incontinent novelist causes much havoc among a family of Cuban exiles in Miami when he announces that hes heading to the homeland to embrace the hated dictator. Much kissing, little coherence (2:00). Kirk Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212)279-4200. (Isherwood) THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR The Peccadillo Theater Company has revived this 1953 play by Dorothy Parker and Arnaud DUsseau. A comedy set in an East Side hotel populated by widows and divorcees, it is an unyielding and coruscating portrait of women before feminism, relieved by Parkers dead-on wit. East 13th Street Theater, 136 East 13th Street, East Village, (212)279-4200.(Honor Moore) MOTHER COURAGE An effort more commendable for its intention than its execution. A staging that fails to capture either the tragedy or the comedy of the play, let alone the ironies of war (2:45). Jean Cocteau Repertory, at the Bouwerie Lane Theater, 330 Bowery, at Bond Street, East Village, (212)279-4200. (Wilborn Hampton) *ORSONS SHADOW Austin Pendletons play, about a 1960 production of Ionescos Rhinoceros, which was directed by Orson Welles and starred 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) ONCE AROUND THE SUN The sun of the title could be the talent and energy of its impressive cast: you can warm your hands on them and on the catchy music. Unfortunately, the book fails to capitalize on these strengths, instead presenting a trite fable about a young rock singer seduced by celebrity, with cardboard characters, despite the actors best efforts to give them dimension. Still, the performances are very entertaining (2:00). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. (Anne Midgette) ONE-MAN STAR WARS TRILOGY With a storm trooper roaming the aisles and a woman in an Obi-Wan Kenobi get-up telling theatergoers to turn off their cellphones or they will be turned into cosmic dust, Charles Rosss sprint through Episodes IV through VI aims for the atmosphere of a Star Wars convention but ends up achieving something like a religious revival (which is sort of the same thing). True believers will love how Mr. Ross, a self-confessed geek who plays every major role in under an hour, simulates R2D2, but everyone else will scratch his head (1:00). Lambs Theater, 130 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200. (Jason Zinoman) THE PAVILION Craig Wrights play about the speedy wheels of times winged chariot and the dreams it grinds into dust is set at a small-town high school reunion. Brian DArcy James aches with longing as the cad who wants a second chance. Jennifer Mudge, as the girl he abandoned, is poignantly hopeless. Gracefully directed by Lucie Tiberghien (2:00). Rattlestick Theater, 224 Waverly Place, at 11th Street, West Village, (212)868-4444. (Isherwood) *SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL This hilarious collection of sketches may send up familiar targets -- the insecure thespian, the fraudulent acting teacher, the arrogant Juilliard grad -- but since its performed with such specificity and comic charm by actors firing on all cylinders, you wont care a whit. Written by and starring an all-Asian-American cast, this slight but consistently entertaining satire is a primer on what not to do in an audition room (1:15). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street, East Village, (212)307-4100. (Zinoman) *SPIRIT Three men and one slippery slope of a stage. From these simple elements, the inspired London-based Improbable troupe maps a funny, melancholy and altogether entrancing journey into a land of dreams, warfare and actorly neurosis. A magical demonstration that theater can go places that no other art form can. (1:30). New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212)239-6200. (Brantley) Off Off Broadway BELLY OF A DRUNKEN PIANO In this splendidly imperfect cabaret, Stewart DArrietta howls and growls convincingly through Tom Waitss three-decade song catalogue, backed by a snappy trio. His patter and his piano playing are variable, but Mr. DArrietta makes a genial tour guide through Mr. Waitss wee-hours world (1:45). Huron Club at SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, between Avenue of the Americas and Varick Street, (212)691-1555. (Rob Kendt) * COUCHWORKS On a set featuring a beat-up couch, this lively collection of one-acts by playwrights like Adam Rapp and Theresa Rebeck has the feel of a party thrown by the cool kids of downtown theater. By far the most fully realized play is Music for a High Ceiling, in which a potentially dry subject -- the history of the theremin and the trumpet -- is staged with panache and attention to detail by Steve Cosson, the artistic director of the excellent troupe the Civilians (1:30). The Tank at Chashama, 208 West 37th Street, Manhattan, (212)868-4444. (Zinoman) LIMITLESS JOY This muddled three-hour epic by Josh Fox, the experimental Brooklyn-based writer and director of dreamscapes like The Bomb, pulses with sex, violence and the kind of melodramatic music that would shame John Williams. Mr. Fox deserves credit for translating his bold and operatic visions to the stage, but his stage pictures -- his calling card -- are mechanical and overly familiar (2:50). The Flamboyán Theater in the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street, between Delancey and Rivington Streets, Lower East Side, (212)886-4551. (Zinoman) 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) SILK STOCKINGS A bubbly and amusing show about cold war politics and love that is still appealing 15 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The jokes are still funny. The songs are vintage Porter -- witty, sophisticated and lively (2:30). Florence Gould Hall in the French Institute Alliance Française, 55 East 59th Street, (212)307-4100. (Hampton) Long-Running Shows 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) FIDDLER ON THE ROOF The Shtetl Land pavilion in the theme park called Broadway. With Rosie ODonnell and Harvey Fierstein. (2:55). The Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street, (212)307-4100. (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) MOVIN OUT The miracle dance musical that makes Billy Joel cool (2:00). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212)307-4100. (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) *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.(Lawrence Van Gelder) 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) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, (212)307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance ALL SHOOK UP In a pint-size theater with a campy young cast, this 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, closing Sunday. ( Brantley) JOY John Fishers play with music, a lecture-prone valentine to San Francisco and gay life among college students, says less about human sexuality and longing than the classic, melancholy love songs the cast performs (2:00). The Actors Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, at Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212)239-6200, closing Sunday.. (Andrea Stevens) LENNON In the immortal words of Yoko Ono, Aieeeee! (2:10). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212)239-6200, closing Saturday. (Brantley) PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! Ciaran OReillys small but spirited production of Brian Friels mournful, funny 1964 play centers on a lonely young man preparing to flee the small-minded Irish backwater he grew up in for the big time in the U.S. of A. Michael FitzGerald and James Kennedy are nicely contrasted as the public and private faces of a man at a painful crossroads (2:20). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212)727-2737, closing Sunday. (Isherwood) 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. *THE ARISTOCRATS (No rating, 89 minutes) A rigorously scholarly documentary about the theory and practice of joke-telling that also happens to be one of the filthiest, vilest, most extravagantly obscene movies ever made -- and one of the funniest. (A.O. Scott) THE BAXTER (PG-13, 91 minutes) A Baxter, in the lingo of this romantic comedy written by, directed by and starring the comedian Michael Showalter, is the safe choice, the also-ran, the guy who is left at the altar when the hero shows up, as Dustin Hoffman did in The Graduate, to claim his true love. The films tragic flaw is that Mr. Showalter is miscast -- or has miscast himself -- in the title role. In the end, The Baxter is a Baxter of a movie: well meaning and mildly likable, but unlikely to sweep you off your feet. (Dana Stevens) * BROKEN FLOWERS (R, 105 minutes) Sweet, funny, sad and meandering, Jim Jarmuschs new film sends Bill Murrays aging Don Juan out in search of a son he never knew he had. He finds four former lovers, including Sharon Stone and Jessica Lange, and reveals once again that he is the quietest and finest comic actor working in movies today. (Scott) THE BROTHERS GRIMM (PG-13, 118 minutes) Despite a few early sparks of promise, Terry Gilliams big-screen adventure about the brother folklorists (played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger) sputters and coughs along like an unoiled machine, grinding gears and nerves in equal measure. (Manohla Dargis) CHAIN (No rating, 99 minutes) Jem Cohens sad, lyrical evocation of the homogeneity of the global landscape views it through the eyes of two young women: a Japanese corporate functionary researching theme parks in the United States and a glum temp worker eking out a living in shopping malls and motels. (Stephen Holden) *THE CONSTANT GARDENER (R, 129 minutes) A superior thriller with a conscience, from John le Carrés novel.( Scott) *EL CRIMEN PERFECTO (No rating, 105 minutes, in Spanish) In this antic and outrageous black comedy, Rafael González (Guillermo Toledo) is a salesman in the womens section of a Madrid department store. Rafaels fondest dream is to be floor manager; when his archrival for the position, Don Antonio (Luis Varela), is accidentally killed in a scuffle in the dressing room, Rafaels world begins to unravel. Like the Ferris wheel that serves as the setting for one of its climactic scenes, El Crimen Perfecto is a bright, gaudy and tremendously satisfying ride. (Stevens) EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED (PG-13, 104 minutes) From Jonathan Safran Foers novel, a sentimental Holocaust tale; tender and funny in places, but also thin and soft. (Scott) THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (PG-13, 114 minutes) If you must see only one demonic-possession courtroom drama this year, wait for the next one. (Scott) FINDING ELÉAZAR (No rating, 78 minutes) This documentary follows the great operatic tenor Neil Shicoff as he prepares to sing the lead role in Halevys 1835 opera, La Juive. (Holden) *THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (R, 111 minutes) A sex comedy turned romantic bliss-out, with Steve Carell, in which the sound of one prophylactic snapping is just a single sweet note in the glorious symphony of love. (Dargis) FOUR BROTHERS (R, 148 minutes) In John Singletons slick hybrid of urban western and modern blaxploitation movie, four young men, two black and two white, reunite in Detroit to avenge the shooting death of their saintly adoptive mother. Preposterous, amoral and exciting. (Holden) THE FUTURE OF FOOD (No rating, 88 minutes) Deborah Koons Garcias documentary polemic examines the history of genetically modified food and points an accusing finger at the biotech company Monsanto as a greedy villain. The heroes are organic farmers. (Holden) *GARÇON STUPIDE (No rating, 94 minutes, in French) Loïc (Pierre Chatagny) is a gay Swiss man who works in a chocolate factory and spends his nights cruising the streets and the Internet for anonymous sex. An intriguing examination of alienation and dysfunction, with Mr. Chatagny entirely convincing as a disconcerting blend of emotional innocence and sexual proficiency. (Jeannette Catsoulis) *GRIZZLY MAN (R, 103 minutes) Werner Herzogs bold, enthralling documentary about one mans journey into the heart of darkness (and the belly of the beast) traces the life and strange times of the self-anointed grizzly expert Timothy Treadwell. (Dargis) I AM CUBA: THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH (No rating, 90 minutes, in Spanish, Portuguese and Russian) An illuminating documentary on the making of I Am Cuba, Mikhail Kalatozovs legendary 1964 film about revolutionary Cuba. (Scott) * JUNEBUG (R, 107 minutes) A Southern Five Easy Pieces, this deep, bittersweet comedy about a young mans return from Chicago to his familys North Carolina home envelops us in the texture of a culture the movies seldom visit. Amy Adams gives an incandescent portrayal of the mans pregnant, childlike sister-in-law. (Holden) JUST LIKE HEAVEN (PG-13, 95 minutes) Reese Witherspoons disembodied spirit haunts Mark Ruffalo in a real estate dispute that runs into a sweet romantic comedy. Surprisingly lighthearted and brisk, considering its fairly morbid premise.(Scott) *KEANE (R, 93 minutes) A man goes searching for his lost daughter -- or does he? The irony of this very fine film is that while the director Lodge Kerrigans approach can verge on the entomological, he grants this troubled, difficult character the full measure of his humanity. (Dargis) LORD OF WAR (R, 122 minutes) A misfire of a political satire about the international gun market from Andrew Niccol, a filmmaker whose words say no, but whose overworked visual style says lock and load, baby. (Dargis) *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) *THE MEMORY OF A KILLER (R, 120 minutes, in Flemish and French) Directed by Erik Van Looy, this nicely kinked Belgian thriller features a range of good guys and bad, including one whose sense of morality and world-weariness seem straight out of a Jean-Pierre Melville film. (Dargis) *OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND (No rating, 79 minutes) In early 2004, eight members of the United States Armys 82nd Airborne Division allowed the directors Ian Olds and Garrett Scott to shadow them for six weeks in a rapidly destabilizing Fallujah. The resulting film is a respectful and determinedly nonpartisan portrait of regular guys -- the smart and the average, the blusterers and the introverts, the gung-ho and the conflicted -- all doing their best to carry out inchoate orders in an untenable situation. (Catsoulis) *PRETTY PERSUASION (No rating, 104 minutes) In this go-for-broke satire, Evan Rachel Wood plays a toxic 15-year-old alpha girl who joins with two sidekicks from her private Beverly Hills high school to falsely accuse their English and drama teacher of sexual harassment. Very funny and very nasty. (Holden) PROOF (PG-13, 100 minutes) A terribly serious adaptation of David Auburns prize-laden Broadway play, starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the daughter of a dead mathematician struggling to come to terms with both her fathers legacy and her own troubled mind. (Dargis) * RED EYE (PG-13, 85 minutes) The sights and sounds of two people talking become a nerve-jangling duet for cat and mouse, hunter and prey in Wes Cravens nifty, tense thriller. (Dargis) SEPARATE LIES (R, 87 minutes) A hit-and-run accident near the country house of an imperious British lawyer (magnificently played by Tom Wilkinson) leads him into an ethical labyrinth that tests his moral mettle as well as that of his wife (Emily Watson) and her lover (Rupert Everett). ( Holden) THUMBSUCKER (R, 96 minutes) A better-than-usual coming-of-age story, via Sundance but without the usual sensationalism or condescension, and with some very fine performances, notably by Lou Pucci as a teenage boy with a childish habit. (Scott) TIM BURTONS CORPSE BRIDE (PG-13, 90 minutes) A necrophiliac animation for the whole family about a melancholic boy, the girl he hopes to marry and the bodacious cadaver that accidentally comes between them. (Dargis) TRANSPORTER 2 (PG-13, 88 minutes) Ex-Special Forces operative Frank Martin (Jason Statham), the blank-faced professional driver with more tricks -- and lives -- than James Bond, is back in this purely shallow, but never dull, sequel to The Transporter. This time, hes in Miami and will do whatever it takes to save the life of a young boy whos been kidnapped and injected with a deadly contagious virus. (Kern) * 2046 (R, 129 minutes) An ecstatically beautiful story in which time is marked not by the hands of a clock, but by the women who pass through one mans life, 2046 is the eighth feature film from the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai and the long-awaited follow-up to his art-house favorite In the Mood for Love. A film about longing, loss and the delicate curve of a womans back, it is also an unqualified triumph. (Dargis) AN UNFINISHED LIFE (PG-13, 108 minutes) This contemporary Western starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez and Morgan Freeman is a solemn, sentimental bore that suffocates in its own predictability and watered-down psychobabble. All three stars recycle stereotypes theyve played before. (Holden) THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL (No rating, 70 minutes) Keith A. Beauchamps lean, harrowing documentary about the 50-year-old murder that catalyzed the civil rights movement offers new evidence that the crime was a broader conspiracy than originally thought. (Holden) VENOM (R, 85 minutes) A zombie tow-truck driver terrifies teenagers in a swampy Louisiana town. Jim Gillespies minor horror flick certainly cant be called a good movie, but within its genre, its perfectly palatable and relatively uninsulting. (Anita Gates) 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. They 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. (Dargis) FILM SERIES FOREVER GARBO: A RETROSPECTIVE (Through Dec. 17) The American-Scandinavian Foundation is sponsoring this 14-film program, which includes early Swedish and silent films as well as Garbos Hollywood work. The series continues tomorrow with George Cukors Camille (1937), in which she plays Dumass tragic courtesan with a cough, and on Wednesday with Ninotchka (1939), about a stern Russian woman who softens in Paris. Garbo, who died in 1990, would have turned 100 this month. Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, between 37th and 38th Streets, (212)879-9779; $8.(Gates) FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT (Through Nov. 27) The IFC Centers Weekend Classics program is presenting a dozen Truffaut features and two shorts. This weekends film, to be screened at noon today, tomorrow and Sunday, is Jules et Jim (1962), in which one woman (Jeanne Moreau) loves two men, and that turns out not to be a problem. 323 Avenue of the Americas, at West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212)924-7771; $10.75. (Gates) NEWSFAKERS/FILMMAKERS (Through Oct. 4 Beginning on Wednesday, the IFC Center is screening an evening of short comedy films from the writers of Comedy Centrals hit series The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. The program includes Zombie American, Sanford Van Johnson: A Life Near the Theater and The Catskills Chainsaw Massacre. (See above); $10.75. (Gates) NO VISA REQUIRED: FILMS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST (Through Nov. 19) The TriBeCa Film Institute and ArteEast are collaborating on a five-program screening of six films, followed by discussions with the filmmakers. The event begins tomorrow with Happy Birthday, Mr. Mograbi (Israel, 1999), a mockumentary about a film director with three conflicting deadlines. Other films to be screened include The Prince (Tunisia, 2004), a love story about a flower vendor, and The Lizard (Iran, 2004), a slapstick comedy about an escaped prisoner who disguises himself as a mullah. Cantor Film Center, New York University, 36 East Eighth Street, East Village, (212)941-3890; $10. (Gates) REPERTORY NIGHTS (Through Nov. 6) The Museum of the Moving Image continues its annual film series tomorrow and Sunday with Jean Cocteaus Beauty and the Beast (1946), his visually dazzling fairy tale with Jean Marais and Josette Day in the title roles. Other auteurs represented in the festival include Akira Kurosawa, F.W. Murnau, Stanley Kubrick and François Truffaut. 35th Avenue, at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718)784-0077; $10. (Gates) SHOAH (Sunday) On the 20th anniversary of Claude Lanzmanns unparalleled Holocaust documentary Shoah, the Museum of Jewish Heritage is screening this nine-and-a-half-hour documentary, which won BAFTA, César, Berlin Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle awards. Part 2 is being shown on Sunday. 36 Battery Place, Battery Park City, Lower Manhattan, (646)437-4202; $10. (Gates) SOME LIKE IT WILDER: THE COMPLETE BILLY WILDER (Through Nov. 13) The Museum of the Moving Image is sponsoring a 26-film retrospective of Wilder, the Austrian-born director-writer who gave the world Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity. This weekends features are Some Like It Hot (1959), Wilders brilliant comedy with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe; A Foreign Affair (1948), in which Marlene Dietrich and Jean Arthur play a Berlin café singer and an American congresswoman; and Stalag 17 (1953), a dark comedy set in a German prison camp. (See above); $10. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. KIRAN AHLUWALIA (Thursday) Born in India and raised in Toronto, Kiran Ahluwalia writes and performs ghazals, sung poems of courtship that originated in Persia 1,000 years ago and reached India 400 years later. 7:30 p.m., Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212)576-1155; $18 in advance, $20 at the door.(Laura Sinagra) JOSEPH ARTHUR (Wednesday) The self-absorbed singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur writes rapturous odes to loss, matching lyrics of grief to impressionistic soundscapes. 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212)533-2111; $18 in advance, $20 at the door. (Sinagra) BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB (Monday) Moving lately from the surly, noisy sound their name implies to a rootsier realm, these Los Angeles rockers now play harmonica and strum away on acoustic guitars. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212)777-6800; $17.50 in advance, $20 at the door (sold out). (Sinagra) BLACK MOUNTAIN (Tuesday and Wednesday) This Vancouver band makes fat-bottomed psychedelic art-folk. Its leader Stephen McBeans wayward structures and vocals are aided by Amber Webbers more pointed singing. Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201)653-1703; $8. Wednesday at 10:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212)260-4700; $12 in advance, $14 at the door. (Sinagra) BROOKS & DUNN, BIG & RICH, COWBOY TROY (Tonight) The long-running country duo Brooks & Dunn try to get their hillbilly on with a new batch of songs, including the Play Something Country. They are paired here with the upstarts Big & Rich, a duo for whom hip-hop is just another Southern form to draw on. The country singer and rapper Cowboy Troy is one of their protégés. 7, PNC Bank Arts Center, Exit 116, Garden State Parkway, Holmdel, N.J.; (732)335-0400, $20 to $75. (Sinagra) BROOKLYN RESPONDS: HURRICANE KATRINA BENEFIT (Sunday) Musicians playing here for Hurricane Katrina relief include the Wrens, whose meditative albums and up-tempo live shows offer two different rock responses to suburban tensions; the ambling 90s indie rock nostalgist Sam Champion; members of the reflective band Nada Surf; the songwriting brooder Richard Buckner; and others. 7 p.m., Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)230-0236; $15. (Sinagra) TRACY CHAPMAN (Tomorrow) This singer-songwriters angsty alto pop-folk song Fast Car, a kind of anti-Born To Run, became an instant classic when late-80s recession sunk in, offering a working-class escape fantasy so modest it was heartbreaking. 7 p.m., Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212)576-1155; $35. (Sinagra) CITIZEN COPE (Tonight and tomorrow night) Clarence Greenwood, better known as Citizen Cope, emerged from the spaced-out hip-hop group Basehead to present himself as a songwriter, mixing the moans of Southern rock with the looped, leisurely constructions of downtempo hip-hop. 8, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212)777-6800; $20 in advance, $22 at the door, $35 for a two-day pass.(Jon Pareles) MARSHALL CRENSHAW POWER TRIO (Tomorrow) Marshall Crenshaws songs seem to roll off the guitar in a casual blend of pre-1970s styles -- folk-rock, surf-rock, country and above all, the Beatles -- that put melody first. With his winsome tenor, he delves into the ways love goes right and goes wrong, from distant yearning to the aftermath of infidelity, hiding turmoil within the chiming tunes. 7 p.m., Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)230-0236; $15. (Pareles) DEERHOOF (Wednesday) This excitingly whimsical band harbors affection in equal amounts for No Wave angularity, exuberant noise-pop and outsider naif art like that of the Shaggs. Its latest material is more pacific than earlier work, which included an electronically augmented fractured fairy tale about a kidnapping milkman. 8 p.m., Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)599-5103; $12. (Sinagra) GAVIN DEGRAW, JOSS STONE (Sunday and Tuesday) Mr. Degraw is a middle-of-the-road, blue-eyed soul singer who was supposed to be a phenom, and Ms. Stone is a primly reverent British Janis Joplin acolyte turned Gap ad girl. Both are reliable singers, though unoriginal. 6:45 p.m., Roseland Ballroom, 239 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212)247-0200; $34.(Sinagra) THE ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO ORCHESTRA, LENNY KAYE (Thursday) Alejandro Escovedo was a member of pioneering punk-country groups like Rank and File and the True Believers. He often sings now about how to endure loss: with stoic clarity, steadfast guitar chords and a weary determination. The producer, garage-rock archivist, Patti Smith collaborator and local institution Lenny Kaye also performs. 9 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212)777-6800; $25. (Pareles) DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS (Thursday) The Alabama-born son of a Muscle Shoals session musician and polymath music fan, the Truckers leader Patterson Hood, works through regional identity issues through deeply felt Southern rock. His guitarist bandmates, the honky-tonk punk Mike Cooley and the gothic anthem whiz Jason Isbel, contribute to the overall mix. 9 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718)387-0505; $20. (Sinagra) BEBEL GILBERTO (Thursday) Brazilian music reaches out to the world with this double bill. Bebel Gilberto, the daughter of the definitive bossa nova singer João Gilberto, updates bossa nova with touches of electronics and substitutes her own ebullience for her fathers preternatural coolness. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212)475-8592; $30 to $40. (The 8 p.m. show is sold out.) (Pareles) JACKOPIERCE (Tonight) This bands folky acoustic rock, which hinges on vocal harmonies, gained college coffeehouse popularity in the early 90s. Later the group went electric and then broke up, only to reunite in 2002. 8, B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)997-4144; $25 in advance, $29 at the door. (Sinagra) JEWZAPALOOZA (Sunday) The Jewish Music and Heritage Festival closes with this full-day concert showcasing an array of Jewish music, food and culture. Musicians performing include the Orthodox breakbeat klezmerists Juez, the jazz bassist Avishai Cohen, the sacred-music explorers (and Oprah favorites) Joshua Nelson & the Kosher Gospel Singers, the local klezmer-rock band Golem, the psychedelic dervishes Pharaohs Daughter and the politically minded rockers Blackfield. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Riverside Park, Riverside Drive at 72nd Street, Manhattan, www.oyhoo.com; free. (Sinagra) ELTON JOHN (Tonight and tomorrow night) An earnest voice, sentimental or surreal lyrics and a piano style that can turn from Tin Pan Alley to gospel are the ingredients for Elton Johns huge string of hits. 8, Madison Square Garden, (212)465-6741; $49.50 to $129.50. (Pareles) LURA (Sunday) Raised in Portugal but of Cape Verdean descent, Lura sings the music of her Santiago Island ancestry. She concentrates on the West African-influenced batuku and funana styles, which are faster than the mornas popularized by Cesaria Evora. 7 p.m., Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212)864-5400; $26; students with ID, $15. (Sinagra) MAXIMO PARK (Sunday) Another neo-post-punk band in a crowded fray, this energetic Newcastle five-piece fuses jagged hooks to clever enough lyrics. The members play here with the Cloud Room. 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212)533-2111; $14 (sold out).(Sinagra) DELBERT MCCLINTON (Sunday) Delbert McClinton is the quintessential Texas roadhouse rocker, applying his well-traveled rasp to songs from the hard-loving intersections of blues, country and soul. 8 p.m., B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)997-4144; $42 in advance, $45 at the door. (Pareles) NEW DEAL (Tonight and tomorrow night) This Toronto jam band plays a danceable brand of improvisatory rock that appeals to ravers and jazzers alike, incorporating beatboxing and house rhythms. It has collaborated recently with the singer Feist. 8:30, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212)533-2111; $22 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sinagra) PARTING THE WATERS: HURRICANE KATRINA BENEFIT (Tomorrow) The New Yorker Festival branches out to include a Hurricane Katrina benefit featuring New Orleans and Delta music and relevant readings. Musical performers will include Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Woody Allen, Buckwheat Zydeco and the ReBirth Jazz Band. 7:30 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212)840-2824 or (212)545-7536; $50 to $250. Condé Nast Publications will match donations.(Sinagra) PBS (Tomorrow) Broadcasting funk from New Orleans, PBS is the Funky Meters minus the keyboardist Art Neville; it includes George Porter Jr. on bass, Russell Batiste on drums and Brian Stoltz on guitar, with some guest musicians. They play here for New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief. 11 p.m., B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)997-4144; $20. (Pareles) PERNICE BROTHERS, TIM FITE (Tonight) Possessed of one of the sexiest regular-guy voices in indie rock, Joe Pernice has been making charmingly dark, low-key pop for more than a decade. Tim Fite makes sample-based art-folk music drawing on obscure country and blues recordings. 9 p.m., Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)230-0236; $15. (Sinagra) RUPEE (Tonight) Rupee began his career as a dancehall toaster and gravitated to soca and calypso. His mix of soca and R&B modernizes the style, and the single Tempted to Touch fit in well recently on reggaetón radio. Midnight and 2 a.m., S.O.B.s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212)243-4940; $22 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sinagra) ASHLEE SIMPSON (Wednesday) Playing rocker to her sister Jessicas dance-pop princess, Ms. Simpson proved sassy enough to power the enjoyable rock songs conceived for her. Of course, her notorious lip-sync malfunction and spontaneous hoedown dance on Saturday Night Live slowed her meticulously meteoric rise a smidge. 8 p.m., Supper Club, 240 West 47th Street, Manhattan, (212)921-1940; $47.50. (Sinagra) SUPERGRASS (Tuesday) This buoyant, hooky mid-90s Brit-pop band had a sound more glammy than Oasiss and heftier than Blurs. By late in the decade, it was tired out, but now seems to have found a new conduit to the old excitement. 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212)533-2111; $25 in advance, $30 at the door ( sold out). (Sinagra) ALLEN TOUSSAINT: BENEFIT FOR NEW ORLEANS (Sunday) The legendary songwriter, producer and pianist Allen Toussaint, rumored missing after Hurricane Katrina hit, performs brunch time shows for Musicares Hurricane Relief Fund. Noon, Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212)239-6200; $30. (Sinagra) DAR WILLIAMS (Thursday) This adorable coffeehouse singer-songwriter augments her sweet voice with that rare quality of seeming like a real person. With the unfortunately named Girlyman. 8 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212)840-2824 or (212)545-7536; $30 to $50. (Sinagra) DWIGHT YOAKAM (Wednesday) Dwight Yoakam is a honky-tonk diehard, holding on to the Bakersfield country tradition of Buck Owens as he moans about the women whove broken his heart or done him wrong. His lyrics, which he recently published in book form, are models of concise storytelling; his songs find endless variations on classic honky-tonk forms, sometimes letting in a hint of folk-rock or Phil Spector. With Hannah McEuen. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212)777-6800; $35 to $40. (Pareles) Cabaret Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. BARBARA CARROLL (Sunday) This demure, gently swinging jazz pianist and sometime singer is back with a new Sunday afternoon program, Autumn in New York. Sunday at 2 p.m., Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)419-9331; $30, with a $15 minimum. A $55 brunch (including cover) begins at noon. (Stephen 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) *ELAINE STRITCH (Tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday through Thursday nights) In a courageous and successful leap into the unknown, Ms. Stritch makes her cabaret debut at 80. Dispensing with her theatrical signature numbers, she weaves 16 songs new to her repertory into a funny running monologue of her adventures in and out of show business. 8:45, Cafe Carlyle, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212)744-1600; $105; $125 tonight and tomorrow. (Holden) KT SULLIVAN AND MARK NADLER (Tonight and tomorrow night) ) The odd couple of cabaret offer a smart, zany survey of the life and lyrics of Dorothy Fields on her centenary. 9 and 11:30, Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212)419-9331. Cover is $50; a $50 prix fixe dinner is required at the early shows tonight and tomorrow.(Holden) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. BEN ALLISON NEW QUARTET (Wednesday) Mr. Allison, a bassist and composer, has a knack for assembling hardy and sophisticated ensembles; this one, his latest, includes Ron Horton on trumpet, Steve Cardenas on guitar and Mike Sarin on drums. 10 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7501; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Nate Chinen)RODRIGO AMADO (Wednesday) A baritone and alto saxophonist prominent in the free-improvising scene of his native Portugal, Mr. Amado works here with some of his American contemporaries: the trumpeter Herb Robertson, the bassist Ken Filiano and the drummer Lou Grassi. 8 p.m., Barbes, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) THE BAD PLUS (Through Sunday) The pianist Ethan Iverson, the bassist Reid Anderson and the drummer David King irritated jazz purists a few years ago with a spate of irreverent cover tunes; on Suspicious Activity? (Columbia), they shift the focus to epic-sounding original songs. 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) TIM BERNE (Tonight) With Feign (Screwgun), the alto saxophonist and composer Tim Berne continues to cultivate an unstable yet groovy approach to experimental chamber music; his bandmates are the slippery electric guitarist David Torn, the versatile keyboardist Craig Taborn and the dryly supple drummer Tom Rainey. 9:30 and 11:30, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212)929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) PETER BRÖTZMANN TRIO (Tomorrow) Few modern saxophonists can sound as powerfully abrasive as Mr. Brötzmann; this group, with the comparably more mainstream rhythm team of Eric Revis on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums, might stir some melodic undercurrents. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7501; cover, $12. (Chinen) REGINA CARTER GROUP (Tuesday through Oct. 2) Ms. Carter is unquestionably one of jazzs top violinists, equally comfortable with burnished romanticism and blazing post-bop; shes also a confident bandleader, as shell demonstrate here. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212)576-2232; cover, $25 to $30. (Chinen) GEORGE COLLIGAN QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow) Mr. Colligan has built his solid sideman career on a rhythmically intrepid piano style; here he commands a surefooted ensemble with the saxophonist Steve Wilson, the bassist Buster Williams and the drummer Ralph Peterson. 8 and 10 p.m., Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212)255-3626; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) LARRY CORYELL, VICTOR BAILEY AND LENNY WHITE (Through Sunday) Their new album, Electric (Chesky), works hard to deserve the moniker; it relies equally on Mr. Coryells searing guitar, Mr. Baileys blindingly proficient electric bass playing and Mr. Whites earthy drumming. 8 and 10 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212)582-2121; cover, $27.50 to $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) *MARILYN CRISPELL TRIO (Wednesday) Ms. Crispell, a pianist long known for an aggressively atonal style, has lately been extravagantly lyrical; this trio, with the Danish saxophonist Lotte Ancher and the American drummer Andrew Cyrille, should hover somewhere between the two extremes. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212)358-7501; cover, $15; $12 in advance; with a one-drink minimum.(Chinen) STEVE DAVIS sextet (Tonight and tomorrow night) Hard-bop is this trombonists native tongue, but an apprenticeship with the keyboardist Chick Corea has attuned him more to texture; his band features the tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander and the vibraphonist Steve Nelson. 8 and 9:45, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212)885-7119; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) *DIET COKE WOMEN IN JAZZ FESTIVAL (Through Oct. 2) This laudable series shines a spotlight on female instrumentalists and vocalists. Highlights in the coming week include Sherrie Maricles DIVA Orchestra, with the guest singer Ann Hampton Callaway, tonight and tomorrow; a postmodern hard-bop group led by the drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, on Monday; the singer and survivor Helen Merrill, on Tuesday; and a solo piano performance by Joanne Brackeen, on Thursday. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11:30 set Fridays and Saturdays, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, 60th Street and Broadway, Jazz at Lincoln Center, (212) 258-9595, www.jalc.org; cover: $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) ARMEN DONELIAN QUINTET (Tomorrow) Mr. Donelian is a pianist with a crystalline touch but a penchant for avant-gardism; his band includes the trumpeter John Carlson and the tenor saxophonist Marc Mommaas. 9 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212)989-9319; cover, $14 ($9 for students), with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) SARA GAZAREK (Tuesday) On her debut album, Yours (Native Language), Ms. Gazarek brings fresh energy to a familiar repertory; shes a young singer whose preternatural gift is surpassed only by her vast potential. 7:30 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212)539-8778; cover, $15, with a $12 minimum. (Chinen) JOHN HOLLENBECKS CLAUDIA QUINTET (Sunday) With Semi-Formal (Cuneiform), this improvising chamber ensemble renews its lease on textural and often contrapuntal experimentalism; Mr. Hollenbecks drumming is one color on a palette that also includes Chris Speeds clarinet and tenor saxophone, Ted Reichmans accordion and Matt Morans vibraphone. 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212)989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) *KEITH JARRETT (Monday) Mr. Jarrett, one of jazzs best and most recognizable pianists, can still carry a hall with free-improvised and deeply expressive solo piano peregrinations; last years live album, Radiance (ECM), provides a precedent but not a template for this concert, his first New York solo recital in a decade. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800; $45 to $100. (Chinen) KIDD JORDAN/WILLIAM PARKER/HAMID DRAKE (Tomorrow) Boisterous free improvisation by Mr. Jordan, a New Orleans saxophone elder; Mr. Parker, a stalwart bassist; and Mr. Drake, a responsive and powerful drummer. 7 p.m., Barbes, 376 Ninth Street at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)965-9177; cover, $10. (Chinen) *KANSAS CITY FESTIVAL (Tonight and tomorrow night) In Rose Hall, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra recreates the heyday of Midwest swing, with Count Basies longtime tenor saxophonist Frank Wess and the wildly precocious pianist Eldar. In the Allen Room, the Kansas City-reared alto saxophonist Bobby Watson leads his Boogie-Woogie Jump Band. 8, Frederick P. Rose Hall, 60th Street and Broadway, Jazz at Lincoln Center, (212)258-9595; $105.50 and $135.50. 7:30 p.m., Allen Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212)258-9595; $135. (Chinen) KATHY KOSINS (Monday) On Vintage (Mahogany), Ms. Kosinss nonstandard choice of standards is almost as winsome as her easygoing, swinging style; here, as on the album, the singer is backed by a stellar band. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212)576-2232; cover, $15. (Chinen) OLIVER LAKE/JOHN HICKS BIG BAND (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Lake is an alto saxophonist with a robust and piercing sound; Mr. Hicks is a pianist with an assertively rhythmic style. Their collaboration in this large ensemble reflects shared affinities for an aggressive variety of post-bop. 9 and 10:30, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212)242-1063; cover, $15; members, $10. (Chinen) JOHN LINDBERG QUARTET (Sunday) Mr. Lindberg, a bassist, has a talent for rigorous and imaginative compositions, as he demonstrates on the new album Winter Birds (Between the Lines); his quartet includes Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Steve Gorn on woodwinds and Susie Ibarra on drums and percussion. 8 and 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) DONNY McCASLIN GROUP (Wednesday) 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, $10. (Chinen) CHARLES McPHERSON QUARTET (Through Sunday) Charlie Parker serves as a clear model for Mr. McPherson, one of bebops premier alto saxophonists; his well-pressed band includes Ronnie Matthews on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212)576-2232; cover, $25 to $30. (Chinen) JASON MORAN AND THE BANDWAGON (Tuesday through Oct. 2) Mr. Moran is a bright pianist who favors jagged, delirious polyphony; his uncommonly cohesive group, the Bandwagon, features the earthy yet slippery rhythm section of Tarus Mateen, bassist, and Nasheet Waits, drummer. 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) MARK MURPHY (Wednesday through October 1) The cool and commanding Mark Murphy has been a musicians singer since the mid-1950s; his wiseacre quips occasionally give way to New Age platitudes these days, but the phrasing and vocal control are still intact. 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212)581-3080; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) OTHER DIMENSIONS IN MUSIC (Wednesday) A free-improvising supergroup, composed of the trumpeter Roy Campbell, the multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, the bassist William Parker and the drummer Rashid Bakr. 8 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) WILLIAM PARKER QUARTET (Monday) Mr. Parker is a pillar, musically and morally, of avant-garde jazz culture; he plays here with the alto saxophonist Rob Brown, the trumpeter Lewis Barnes and the drummer Hamid Drake. 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) TED POORS THIRD WHEEL (Tuesday) The drummer Ted Poor is a relative newcomer, but he has earned his place in progressive jazz circles; he features his own music in this trio with the trumpeter Ralph Alessi and the guitarist Ben Monder. 9 and 10:30 p.m., Koze Lounge, 676 Fifth Avenue, at 20th Street, Park Slope, (718)832-8282; cover, $7. (Chinen)RANDY SANDKE AND FRIENDS (Sunday) Mr. Sandke, a fine trumpeter best known for buoyant traditionalism, assembles a cadre of compatriots, including Ken Peplowski, clarinetist; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophonist; and Carolyn Leonhardt, singer. 8 and 10 p.m., Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212)255-3626; cover, $15, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) TRAVIS SULLIVANS BJORKESTRA (Tonight) A big band with a muse, a method and a strong stable of young musicians. 8:30 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212)864-5400; $21; students, $18. (Chinen) OHAD TALMORS NEWSREEL (Wednesday and Thursday) The saxophonist Ohad Talmor features his own provocative compositions in this new ensemble, with the trumpeter Shane Endsley, the keyboardist Jacob Sacks, the bassist Matt Pavolka and the drummer Dan Weiss. Wednesday at 10 p.m., Barbes, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718)965-9177; cover, $8. Thursday at 10 p.m., Zebulon, 258 Wythe Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718)218-6934; no cover. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. OPERA ARIADNE AUF NAXOS (Tomorrow and Thursday) The soprano Deborah Voigt has won so much acclaim for her portrayal of the title role of Strausss Ariadne auf Naxos that she has dubbed her career Ariadne Inc. She has been a Met favorite in the role. But there are other Ariadnes, and tomorrow afternoon the Met will give the dusky-voiced soprano Violeta Urmana a chance. The splendid mezzo-soprano Susan Graham sings the Composer, and the vibrant tenor Jon Villars makes his company debut as Bacchus. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. and Thursday at 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212)362-6000; $26 to $220. (Anthony Tommasini) LA BOHÈME (Wednesday) Puccinis most popular opera has returned to heavy rotation at the Met in Franco Zeffirellis lavish, audience-pleasing production. Hei-Kyung Hong sings the part of Mimì, and Roberto Aronica lends his sturdy tenor to the role of Rodolfo. The rest of the cast includes Alexandra Deshorties, Vladimir Chernov, Sebastian Catana and Richard Bernstein. Philippe Auguin conducts. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212)362-6000; $26 to $320. (Jeremy Eichler) CAPRICCIO (Tomorrow) Strausss final opera, Capriccio poses an aesthetic question: In opera, which is more important, the words or the music? The issue is dramatized through a love triangle between Flamand, a composer, and Olivier, a poet, who are vying for the affection of a young widow, Countess Madeleine, in 18th-century France. For all its ingenuity and musical refinement, the opera can seem chatty and inert. To lend the work more immediacy, the director Stephen Lawless of this New York City Opera production updates the story to the mid-20th century and moves the setting from the countesss intimate salon to the inside of her fancy private opera house. Though the updating idea has its merits, Mr. Lawless turns the comedic scenes, which are already jarring, into laugh riots. Still, the cast, headed by the soprano Pamela Armstrong as the countess, is greatly appealing, and George Manahan conducts an assured and supple performance. 8 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500; $16 to $120. (Tommasini) FALSTAFF (Tonight and Monday night) These days the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel owns the title role of Falstaff, Verdis miraculous final opera. Mr. Terfel brings his portrayal back to the Met tonight. With James Levine, who reveres the score, conducting, and a strong cast, including Matthew Polenzani and Heidi Grant Murphy as the young lovers Fenton and Nannetta, this revival of Franco Zeffirellis production looks promising. 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212)362-6000; $26 to $205. (Tommasini) MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Tomorrow and Thursday) Mark Lamoss production of Puccinis Japanese classic is one of New York City Operas best. And theres a lot else to like here, from the intermittently good conducting of Ari Pelto to Jake GardnersSharpless; but Brandon Jovanovich and Jee Hyun Lim dont quite have the voices to pull off the two leading roles. Tomorrow afternoon at 1:30; Thursday night at 7:30; New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212)870-5570; $45 to $120. (Anne Midgette) MANON (Tomorrow and Tuesday) Jean-Pierre Ponnelles production of Massenets tragedy, absent from the Met since 2001, returns with Renée Fleming as the conflicted Manon, and Marcelo Álvarez as a passionate, and unusually well-rounded, des Grieux. Both are in fine voice, and have the support of a well-balanced cast, as well as vibrant conducting by Jésus López-Cobos. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212)362-6000; $42 to $320 on Saturday; $26 to $320 on Tuesday. (Allan Kozinn) PATIENCE (Tonight) New York City Operas jokey and brightly colored version of Gilbert and Sullivans Patience has the distinct virtues of Michael Ball and Kevin Burdette in key roles. 8, New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212)870-5570; $45 to $120.(Bernard Holland) TOSCA (Tomorrow and Sunday) Diminutive, venerable, and unbowed, the Amato Opera, a salty old-school denizen of New York, is presenting an even more venerable standby as the first production of its 58th season: Puccinis Tosca. Tomorrow night at 7:30; Sunday afternoon at 2:30; Amato Opera Theater, 319 Bowery, at Second Street, East Village, (212)228-8200; $30; 65+, students with ID and children, $25. (Midgette) IL VIAGGIO A REIMS (Sunday) Conceived as an over-the-top tribute to a leading politician, Rossinis Viaggio is a wacky, unserious froth of delightful bel canto singing and slapstick; and with 10 principal roles, its a chance for the company to show off its young voices -- like those of Cheryl Evans, Maria Kanyova, Daniel Mobbs and Marcus DeLoach -- led by the capable George Manahan. 1:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212)870-5570; $45 to $120.(Midgette) CLASSICAL MUSIC AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Sunday) After devoting two weekends in August to the theme of Aaron Copland and His World, the American Symphony Orchestra continues exploring the roots and offshoots of this countrys native classical tradition. Leon Botstein leads a program titled Inventing America, featuring music from the late 1920s and early 30s: Roger Sessions Symphony No.1, Randall Thomsons Symphony No.2 and Ernest Blochs America, an Epic Rhapsody. 3 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500; $25 to $53. (Eichler) BARGEMUSIC (Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday and Thursday) Great views and typically fresh performances help make this floating concert hall one of the citys more inviting settings for chamber music. Tonight, a piano trio (David Salness, violin; Evelyn Elsing, cello; Rita Sloan, piano) plays music by Brahms, Schumann and Shulamit Ran. Tomorrow night and Sunday, a second trio surveys more small-ensemble works by Mozart, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. Thursday, its a piano recital by Valida Rassoulova-Suk featuring Beethoven, Chopin, Scarlatti and others. 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. (Eichler) WENDY BRYN HARMER (Sunday) The Marilyn Horne Foundation, which does essential work offering young singers opportunities to perform song recitals, begins this seasons On Wings of Song series with a young soprano, Wendy Bryn Harmer. Her program is titled Women in Love, which could cover a lot of territory, but in this case involves songs by Donizetti, Griffes, Rachmaninoff and Strauss. 3 p.m., St. Bartholomews Chapel, Park Avenue at 51st Street, (212)378-0248; $20; 65+, $15; students, free. (Tommasini) JUPITER SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS (Monday) The pianist William Wolfram and the violinist Stefan Milenkovich are the guests of this feisty ensemble, which in the spirit of its founder, Jens Nygaard, offers programs that combine oddities and major works. This time the fare includes works by Vanhal, Hoffmeister and Martinu, as well as Dvoraks Piano Quintet. 2 and 7:30 p.m., Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church, 152 West 66th Street, Manhattan, (212)799-1259; $10 to $25. (Kozinn) MARTIN KASIK (Tuesday) A young Czech pianist who made a strong impression five years ago in New York with a recital presented by Young Concert Artists, Martin Kasik returns for a Tuesday matinee program at Merkin Concert Hall. He will play works by Martinu, Janacek, Novak and Mussorgsky. 2 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212)501-3330; $12.50. (Tommasini) LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Wednesday) The first of three concerts by this distinguished orchestra led by Sir Colin Davis offers Verdis barnburner of a liturgical piece, the Requiem. Concert is at 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212)721-6500; $35 to $75. (Holland) MOSTLY MODERN (Monday) The Austrian Cultural Forum describes its festival as music from the age of anxiety. In this concert, the cellist Ingrid Wagner-Kraft and the pianist Josef Mayr survey works by Beethoven, Gruber, Schulhoff and Zeisl, among others. At 8 p.m., Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212)319-5300, ext. 222; free. (Eichler) SOHEIL NASSERI (Tuesday) This young Californian pianist has both a magnificent technique and an inventive interpretive spirit, assets that served him well in the early installments of the Beethoven cycle that he completes this season. In the first of his three concerts, he offers the three Opus 10 and two Opus 49 Sonatas, as well as the Waldstein (Op. 53). At 8 p.m., Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800; $33 to $45; students, $10. (Kozinn) NEW JUILLIARD ENSEMBLE (Tomorrow) Composers sometimes complain that they can get premieres of new work, but that second or third performances are much harder to come by. With this problem no doubt in mind, Joel Sachs leads his intrepid players in a program of works already given premieres by the ensemble within the last decade. The composers include Suren Zakarian, Jack Beeson, Kenji Bunch, Valentin Bibik and John Psathas. At 8 p.m., Peter Jay Sharp Theater, the Juilliard School, 155 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212)769-7406; free tickets have been distributed, but a standby line for seating begins at 7:30. (Eichler) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Today through Thursday) The top of the Philharmonic season is certainly keyboard-heavy: Evgeny Kissin played Beethoven on opening night, but now the young Chinese firebrand Lang Lang has taken over, offering the Chopin Piano Concerto No.1, as an elaborate prelude to Lorin Maazels rendering of the Mahler First Symphony. On Thursday, the pianist Jonathan Biss takes over the solo spot to play Mozarts Concerto in A (K. 488), and Mr. Maazel leads Elliott Carters Holiday Overture and two works by Strauss. Today at 11 a.m.; tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212)875-5656; $33 to $86 today, and $26 to $92 on Thursday. Tomorrow and Tuesday are sold out, but returned tickets may be available at the box office. (Kozinn) NATASHA TARÁSOVA (Tonight) Born in Russia, trained in Ukraine, now resident in Mexico, this mezzo-soprano likes to include her own compositions on her programs. William Hicks is the piano accompanist. 8, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800; $25. (Midgette) NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA OF HUNGARY (Sunday) In honor of the 60th anniversary of Bela Bartoks death, the Hungarian Cultural Center is simulcasting the end of an all-Bartok concert, with the Concerto for Orchestra, live from the Palace of the Arts in Budapest to -- in fine immigrant tradition -- the Lower East Side. Sunday night at 6 (doors open at 5:15), Orensanz Center for the Arts, 172 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, (646)229-5509; free admission, though there is a suggested donation of $15. (Midgette) *ST. PETERSBURG PHILHARMONIC (Thursday) In some crucial ways, you havent really heard the big works of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff until youve heard them played by this great orchestra under its longtime music director, Yuri Temirkanov. Here, to open the Carnegie season officially, they offer a couple of the biggest, Tchaikovskys Fifth Symphony and Rachmaninoffs Third Piano Concerto, with Yefim Bronfman as the burly soloist. 7 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212)247-7800; $89. (James R. Oestreich) KENT TRITLE (Sunday) Probably best known as a choir director these days, Kent Tritle is also a superb organist. His program looks broadly at the instruments repertory, with works by Bach, Marchand, de Grigny, Buxtehude, Mendelssohn, Franck, Jongen and John Corigliano. 4 p.m., Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Park Avenue at 84th Street, (212)288-2520; $20, students and 65+, $15. (Kozinn) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. *BLACK GRACE (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) This modern-dance troupe from New Zealand, composed of six male dancers of Pacific Island and Maori descent, and the work they perform are gutsy, funny and strangely, bracingly spiritual. Through Oct. 9. Tonight and Thursday at 7 p.m.; tomorrow at 2 and 7 p.m.; Sunday at noon and 5 p.m. New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212)239-6200 or www.newvictory.org; $10 to $30.(Jennifer Dunning) RICHARD DANIELS (Thursday through Oct. 2) Apparently, these days even the immortals grow old. Mr. Daniels reimagines Stravinskys Apollo & the Muses with two gods, one youthful, one older. In Telling Tales, the choreographer collaborated with various partners to produce a dance diary. The pianist Nurit Tilles accompanies throughout. 8:30 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212)674-8194; $20.(Claudia La Rocco) DIXON PLACE: BODY BLEND (Tuesday) This installment of the series features four choreographers, chosen by the curator Isabel Lewis, who are making names for themselves in cutting-edge new dance. They are Charlotte Gibbons, Beth Kurkjian, Jamie Philbert and Arturo Vidich. 8 p.m., Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, between Houston and Prince Streets, SoHo, (212)219-0736 or www.dixonplace.org; $12 or T.D.F.; students and 65+, $10. (Dunning) *FALL FOR DANCE (Tuesday through Oct. 2) The second annual installment of City Centers wildly successful dance showcase, offering five diverse companies or artists each night for $10 a ticket. What makes this series unusual is the high profile of so many of the companies involved, and the range of dance styles on display. Tuesdays program, for instance, offers Black Grace, the all-male New Zealand/Polynesian modern-dance company; Bill Irwin; the Ballet National de lOpéra de Lyon; Jody Sperling; and Philadanco. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Limón Dance Company, the Houston Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Urban Bush Women, Keigwin & Company and Eva Yerbabuena will be among those on hand, with more to come through Oct. 2. 8 p.m., City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212)581-1212 or www.nycitycenter.org. (John Rockwell) *FIRST ANNUAL SHADY CORNERS AMERICAN MAVERICK PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL (Tonight through Sunday) A little off the beaten Manhattan dance track, this new festival, directed by Pooh Kaye, is notable for its lineup of genuinely maverick artists, among them Mary Overlie, Eva Karczag, Sally Silvers and Kathy Rose in different programs daily. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sun day at 5 p.m., Upper Susquehanna Cultural Center, 7 North Main Street, at Route 28, Milford, N.Y., (607)397-7510 or www.shadycorners.com; $12; students and 65+, $8; children, free. (Dunning) MICHAEL FLATLEYS CELTIC TIGER (Tuesday) This Chicago-born progenitor of all things glitzy that are related to Irish step dancing -- Riverdance, Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames -- returns with his new Celtic Tiger in its United States debut, leading off a national tour. And hes back on the boards himself. 8 p.m., Madison Square Garden, (212)307-7171 or www.celtictigerlive.com: $39.50 to $89.50. (Rockwell) BETH GILL/KAKUYA OHASHI (Thursday and Friday) The Fall for Dance festival isnt the only $10 ticket in town. Tokyo meets Brooklyn at the Kitchen, with Ms. Gills wounded giant and Mr. Ohashis Wish You Were Here. While Ms. Gill looks outward, Mr. Ohashi, in his American debut, examines interior neurosis in contemporary Tokyo. 8 p.m., the Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212)255-5793, thekitchen.org. (La Rocco) MARTITA GOSHENS EARTHWORKS (Tonight through Sunday) Ms. Goshens new Breathing Water, performed by a cast that includes Christian Holder, is a site-specific piece inspired by the pristine stillness of St. Marks Church. 8:30 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street , East Village, (212)674-8194; $15. (Dunning) HUMAN FUTURE DANCE CORPS (Tuesday through Oct. 1) No Change or freedom is a psycho-kinetic skill might be worth it for the name alone. The Bessie Award-winning choreographer DD Dorvillier collaborated with artists in several countries to create this solo. The nomadic process led her to this industrial recording studio in Brooklyn. 8:30 p.m., Context Studios, 1 North 12th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (212)674-8194, www.contextnyc.com; $12 (La Rocco) *BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE COMPANY (Tonight and tomorrow night) The final two of the three world premiere performances of Mr. Joness full-evening Blind Date, which addresses the subject of patriotism and its uses and misuses. 7:30 p.m., Montclair State University, Alexander Kasser Theater, College Avenue and Red Hawk Road, Montclair, N.J., (973)655-5112 or www.montclair.edu/kasser; $35. (Rockwell) JUILLIARD DANCE ENSEMBLE (Wednesday through Oct. 2) Eliot Felds new Sir Isaacs Apples is billed as another of his ramp dances. The vision of the Juilliards young dancers tumbling down like ripe Deliciouses is entrancing. The piece, commissioned in celebration of the schools centennial, is set to Steve Reichs Drumming, performed by the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble. Wednesday through Oct. 1 at 8 p.m.; Oct. 2 at 3 p.m., Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212)769-7406; $20; students and 65+, $10; T.D.F. accepted. The dance, theater and music conservatorys rich history is on view in The Juilliard School, 1905-2005, a free exhibition that will run through Jan. 14 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 111 Amsterdam Avenue, at 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212)870-1630 or www.nypl.org. (Dunning) NOEMIE LAFRANCES AGORA (Tonight and tomorrow night) An abandoned, perhaps too huge old city pool is the latest setting for Ms. Lafrances imaginative site-specific explorations. 8, McCarren Pool, Lorimer Street, between Driggs Avenue and Bayard Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718)302-5024 or www.sensproduction.org; $25 and $40; students and 65+, $18; children under 12 with an adult, $7. (Dunning) ADITI MANGALDAS DANCE COMPANY (Thursday and Friday) This Kathak-inspired contemporary Indian company gives a preview at the Fall for Dance Festival on Wednesday, with the full American debut of Footprints on Water at the Asia Society. Expect explosive speed, virtuosic footwork and lively rhythms. 8 p.m., 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, (212)517-2742, asiasociety.org; $20. (La Rocco) JENNIFER MONSON (Tonight and tomorrow night) Not content with following the migratory paths of osprey and gray whales in her recent Bird Brain project, Ms. Monson will get her audiences migrating through the building in her new Flight of Mind. 7:30 (preshow event at 6:30), Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212)924-0077; $15. (Dunning) JENNIFER MULLER/THE WORKS (Tuesday through Sunday) The company celebrates 30 years with Essentially Muller, presenting classics like The Spotted Owls and the recent Flowers, as well as several premieres. Tuesday gala at 7 p.m.; Wednesday through Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday 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; $42. (La Rocco) NATYA DANCE THEATeR (Tomorrow) This troupe specializes in Bharata Natyam, the South Indian classical dance tradition, using rhythmic footwork and mime. The Chicago-based company of nine dancers and musicians from India on flute, vocals and percussion is celebrating its 30th year. 8 p.m., Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212)864-5400; $32. ( La Rocco) NEW YORK BAROQUE DANCE COMPANY (Tonight and Sunday) New Yorks premiere company devoted to the re-creation of dance from the 18th century and before presents a program saluting Marie Sallé, who died 250 years ago and helped French dance evolve from the court to the theater. 8 tonight, 4 p.m. Sunday, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212)307-4100, $30. (Rockwell) *PHILADANCO (Tonight through Sunday) These sleek, propulsive dancers are performing work by Ronald K. Brown, Lynne Taylor-Corbett and Jawola Willa Jo Zollar, and Geoffrey Holders seldom seen Blues and the Bible: Genesis. 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 or www.joyce.org; $36. (Dunning) TAMAR ROGOFF: CHRISTINA OLSON: AMERICAN MODEL (Tonight through Oct. 2) Claire Danes will star as the disabled woman Andrew Wyeth made famous in his painting Christinas World. Tonight and Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8; tomorrow at 4 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 4 p.m.; P.S. 122, 150 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212)352-3101 or www.ps122.org; $20; students and 65+, $15. (Dunning) *GLEN RUMSEY DANCE PROJECT (Tonight through Sunday night) A former Merce Cunningham dancer and the drag artist known as Shasta Cola, Mr. Rumsey has created a magical, scrappy new piece, ignored in my heaven. It blends his dance and drag experiences with his dream and travel journals; intriguing excerpts from those are murmured throughout Andy Russs mix of sounds and music. 8, Location One, 26 Greene Street, SoHo, (212)334-3347 or www.locationone.org; $12. (Dunning) *WATCHING LIGETI MOVE: THREE BALLETS BY CHRISTOPER WHEELDON (Wednesday, next Friday and Oct. 1) To inaugurate its season and a festival devoted to the music of Gyorgy Ligeti, the Miller Theater will present dancers from the New York City Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet in three works choreographed by Mr. Wheeldon to Mr. Ligetis music and never before presented in one program. 8 p.m., Miller Theater, Columbia University, 2960 Broadway, at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212)854-7799 or www.millertheatre.com.(Rockwell) KRIOTA WILLBERG/DURA MATER (Tonight through Oct. 8) In her ambitious-sounding new multimedia work, Bentfootes, Ms. Willberg tells the story of 200 years of dance by the downtown choreographer Susan Bentfoote and her family. Tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday night at 8, Dixon Place at University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street, Lower East Side, (212)219-0736 or www.dixonplace.org; $10 to 15; T.D.F. accepted on Thursdays. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: OBSESSIVE DRAWING, through March 19. In the museums first emerging talent show, one of the five artists selected is 83, lives in a home for the elderly in Pennsylvania and stopped painting two years ago because of failing eyesight. Overall, the work in the exhibition is abstract and spare, giving the problematic outsider category a new spin. 45 West 53rd Street, (212)265-1040. (Holland Cotter) *BROOKLYN MUSEUM: LUCE CENTER FOR AMERICAN ART VISIBLE STORAGE/STUDY CENTER Sleek vitrines house 1,500 objects from four departments, representing 15 centuries of art and design of the Americas. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, (718)638-5000. (Roberta Smith) GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: RUSSIA!, through Jan. 11. This survey of nine centuries of Russian art ranges from 13th-century religious icons to a smattering of 21st-century works, achieving its astounding effect without resorting to a single egg, or anything else, by Fabergé. It immerses us in two enormous, endlessly fascinating narratives: the history of painting and the history of Russia itself, forming a remarkable tribute to the endurance of the medium and the country, and the inescapable interconnectedness of art and life. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212)423-3600. (Smith) METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: THE BISHOP JADES, through Feb. 12. Jade has been treasured since ancient times, though the almost preposterously exquisite objects on display in the Mets reinstalled galleries for Chinese decorative arts date from the 18th century, when the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) brought Chinese jade work to a peak of virtuosity. Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212)535-7710. (Cotter) EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO: THE (S) FILES/THE SELECTED FILES 05, through Jan. 29. The definition of what Latino art means is changing in a post-identity-politics time, and this modest biennial, drawn mostly from unsolicited proposals submitted by artists in the greater New York area, is an indicator of what that change looks like. 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 104th Street, (212)831-7272. (Cotter) MUSEUM OF BIBLICAL ART: THE NEXT GENERATION: CONTEMPORARY EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH, through Nov. 13. Works in this juried show of artists who belong to the organization Christians in the Visual Arts range from traditional paintings and sculptures to an interactive video and photo documentation of a shamanistic performance in the woods. Ambitious, optically captivating collages by Mary Fielding McCleary and Anita Breitenberg Naylor are among the few pieces that exceed familiar generic limitations. 1865 Broadway, at 61st Street, (212)408-1500. (Ken Johnson) BRONX MUSEUM OF THE ARTS: AIM 25/ARTIST IN THE MARKETPLACE, through Oct. 2. This show is the culminating event of an annual 12-week museum residency that focuses on the mechanics of career development. The work is as diverse as the backgrounds of the more than 30 artists, who all live in New York, though many were born elsewhere, including Brazil, Croatia, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Libya, Mexico and the Philippines. 1040 Grand Concourse, at 165th Street, Morrisania, (718)681-6000.(Cotter) MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: NEW YORK CHANGING: DOUGLAS LEVERE REVISITS BERENICE ABBOTTS NEW YORK, through Nov. 13. During the 1930s, the Modernist photographer Berenice Abbott photographed the architectural fabric of New York City with a keen eye for contrasts of new and old. Between 1997 and 2003, Douglas Levere returned to the scenes that she photographed and photographed them again. Seeing 50 of his paired with her originals is a fascinating education in how things change. 1220 Fifth Avenue, at 103rd Street, (212)534-1672. (Johnson) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN: FIRST AMERICAN ART, through April 9. That American Indian art can provide the same aesthetic and emotional pleasure as European and American Modernism is the premise of this show, made up of 200 objects from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, and it affirms American Indian arts worthy aesthetic place in world culture. 1 Bowling Green, Lower Manhattan, (212)514-3700. (Grace Glueck) NATIONAL ACADEMY MUSEUM: JEAN HÉLION, through Oct. 9. Hélions conversion, around 1940, from a suave, smartly synthetic mode of geometric abstraction to a like-minded figurative style doesnt put him in a league with great 20th-century apostates like Giacometti, Picabia or Guston. Still, he produced a weirdly fascinating body of work that influenced Americans before and after World War II. This meager show does not give a full account of his strengths or weaknesses, but is well worth a look. 1083 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212)369-4880. (Smith) QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART: DOWN THE GARDEN PATH: THE ARTISTS GARDEN AFTER MODERNISM, through Nov. 6. This big, messy and uneven show, still a thought-provoking one for patient and interested viewers, surveys how artists like Vito Acconci, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Mel Chin, Ghada Amer, Stan Douglas and many more have cultivated gardens in fantasy and in reality. Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, (718)592-9700.(Johnson) * STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM: SCRATCH: 2004-2005 ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE: WILLIAM CORDOVA, MICHAEL QUEENLAND AND MARC ANDRE ROBINSON, through Oct. 23. Rap, religion, Minimalism and Malcolm X all figure in this intricate, multilayered show of work by the three young residents, organized by the museums associate curator, Christine Y. Kim. 144 West 125th Street, (212)864-4500. (Cotter)WHITNEY MUSEUM: REMOTE VIEWING, through Oct. 9. The vast information overload the world struggles with -- scientific theory, technological data, geopolitical facts, historical material and on and on -- is whipped into visual cosmologies by eight painters of widely different approaches and sensibilities. If the premise is fuzzy, the show has some sharp art., 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (212)570-3600 (Glueck) *WHITNEY MUSEUM: ROBERT SMITHSON, through Oct. 23. Who knows whether Smithson is the most influential American postwar artist, as this show claims. Consisting mostly of drawings, photographs and films (he 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. (See above.) (Michael Kimmelman) WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART AT ALTRIA: PAST PRESENCE: CHILDHOOD AND MEMORY, through Oct. 13. This modestly resonant show of works relating to juvenile experience presents a glass cabinet filled with 2,000 miniature white ceramic vessels by Charles LeDray; small, finely drawn, photo-based pictures of children by Peggy Preheim; drawings copied from hunting manuals by Robert Beck; and a politically suggestive chalkboard drawing by Gary Simmons. 120 Park Avenue, at 42nd Street, (917)663-2453. (Johnson) Galleries: Uptown MAURICE FREEDMAN: A RETROSPECTIVE Though his paintings are not widely recognized today, Freedman (1904-85) enjoyed considerable success in pre-Abstract Expressionist New York for engagingly blending influences of Max Beckmann and Marsden Hartley. D. Wigmore, 22 East 76th Street, (212) 794-2128, through Sept. 30. (Johnson) Galleries: 57th Street BIRTH OF A CULTURE: 60S AND 70S SURF PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEROY GRANNIS Big, new color prints of surfing action shot during the sports golden age by a photographer who earned major awards for his work for surfing magazines and initiation into the International Surfing Hall of Fame. Bonni Benrubi, 41 East 57th Street, (212)888-6007, through Oct. 1. (Johnson) INTRODUCTIONS Three solo minishows: oblique, conceptually evocative photographs by Tim Davis; lurid and juicy paintings of ornate theater interiors by Emi Avora; and diverse drawings and photographs, some funny, some poetic, by Barry Ratoff. Greenberg Van Doren, 730 Fifth Avenue, (212)445-0444, through Sept. 30. (Johnson) FREDERICK SOMMER AT 100 This show economically surveys the career of one of Americas most interesting if not best-known photographers. Sommer worked ingeniously in the space between Westonesque formalism and Surrealist fantasy and horror. Pace/MacGill, 32 East 57th Street, (212)759-7999, through Oct. 1. (Johnson) Galleries: Chelsea DENNIS ADAMS: MAKE DOWN This brainy political artist presents a video in which he uses film stills from the movie Battle of Algiers to wipe dark green makeup off his face and body. Its about terrorism, gender, masking and unmasking. Kent, 541 West 25th Street, (212)627-3680, through Oct. 16. (Johnson) ANN AGEE: BOXING IN THE KITCHEN A ceramicist with a playful and not too fussy touch, Ms. Agee has created a whimsical, tabletop landscape in which painted terra-cotta representations of friends and family members in different sorts of costumes cavort among cartoonish pink rock formations. P.P.O.W., 555 West 25th Street, (212)647-1044, through Oct. 8. (Johnson) ASK THE DUST: JEDEDIAH CAESAR, CASE CALKINS, PATRICK HILL A substantial show featuring three young Los Angeles sculptors who pour, cast and stain their way to works that negotiate interesting truces between 1970s Process Art sculpture and 60s Formalist painting. Sheets of jagged glass, mounds of high-tech detritus and stacked balloons figure in the works, along with purple wood, white resin and pigmented plaster. Figuring out what was done and in which order is part of the fun. Everything has a fresh intelligence and an occasionally scary but affecting sense of precariousness. DAmerlio Terras, 525 West 22nd Street, (212)352-9460, through Oct. 1. (Smith) LAURA BATTLE Mathematically patterned spots and dots combine with fields of loose painterly abstraction in Ms. Battles cosmically suggestive paintings and watercolors. Lohin Geduld, 531 West 25th Street, (212)675-2656, through Oct. 8. (Johnson) *TOM BURCKHARDT: FULL STOP A painter of eclectically layered abstractions has produced a surprising environmental installation: a slightly old-fashioned, fully equipped painters studio made of brown corrugated cardboard and black paint. Caren Golden, 539 West 23rd Street, (212)727-8304, through Oct. 15. (Johnson) ADAM CVIJANOVIC: LOVE POEM (TEN MINUTES AFTER THE END OF GRAVITY) With a deft, representational touch, Mr. Cvijanovic has painted an expansive, airy mural depicting what could be a scene in a Spielberg movie: a Los Angeles suburb that appears to have been violently uprooted and elevated into the sky. Bellwether, 134 10th Avenue, near 18th Street, (212)929-5959, through Oct. 15. (Johnson) IAN HARTSHORNE: IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY This English landscape painter constructs moody images of vacation houses in woodsy settings. Alterations reflecting digital manipulations and distortions of his photographic sources add to the dreamy and slightly ominous effect. Rare, 521 West 26th Street, (212)268-1520, through Oct. 1. (Johnson) IM A CHILD OF DIVORCE GIMME A BREAK The clear leader for best title of the moment. This exhibition, featuring media-saturated collages and sculptures by Michael St. John, and single works by 10 others, is worth a visit, too. Highlights include a sweet , glossy cartoon painting of a hippopotamus by Adrian Ting; a tenderly painted portrait of a cherubic demon by Elizabeth Olbert; a painterly Pop-style picture of a Bromo Seltzer bottle from 1984 by Walter Robinson; and aggressively physical abstract paintings by Suzanne McClelland, Gary Stephan and Josh Smith. Cynthia Broan, 546 West 29th Street, (212)760-0809, through Oct. 8. (Johnson) INTERSTATE Organized by the artist Adam McEwen, Interstate continues last summers Boys in Black trend of smart, dystopic group shows that rage against the status quo with counterculture bravado but include far too few artists of the opposite sex. However, the selection here tempers the summers enthusiastic machismo with a more thoughtful and nuanced examination of the traffic between different realms, whether sexual, artistic, topographical or political. Nicole Klagsbrun, 526 West 26th Street, (212)243-3335, through Oct. 1. (Smith) *PHILIP JONES GRIFFITHS For half a century, this documentary photographer has been placing himself squarely in harms way to record military violence. His pictures of the American war in Vietnam, which make up a substantial part of this show, amount to one of the great tragic portraits of their time, and are required viewing in ours. Denise Bibro Fine Art Gallery, 529 West 20th Street, fourth floor, (212)647-7030, through Oct. 1. (Cotter) LAURA LARSON: APPARITION For mysterious reasons, a lot of people these days are interested in photography of the supernatural. Ms. Larson creates rich color photographs of forest interiors and rooms in an abandoned psychiatric asylum in which wisps of smoke or mist suggest spiritual presences. Lennon, Weinberg, 514 West 25th Street, (212)941-0012, through Oct. 8. (Johnson) MUD This exceptional four-artist show of small sculpture features lively, insouciant ceramics by the painter Joanne Greenbaum; crusty, off-white ceramics by Elliott Levine that look like ancient artifacts; cartoonish sculptures about modern machines by Aga Ousseinov; and rough, semiabstract sculptures in Styrofoam and papier mâché, alluding to landscapes and furniture, by Yuh-Shioh Wong. Dinter, 547 West 27th Street, (212)947-2818, through Oct. 29. (Johnson) DANICA PHELPS: WAKE In her third solo show, this diligent Neo-Conceptualist keeps on keeping track in charts that record daily expenditures of time and money and in adept but similarly rotelike line drawings that show her bathing. The effect is mesmerizing but feels more and more like an interesting prelude to something completely different and less controlled. Zach Feuer Gallery (LFL), 530 West 24th Street, (212)989-7720, through Oct. 1. (Smith) *MONIQUE PRIETO AND LYNDA BENGLIS Ms. Prieto has, in effect, boarded over her abstract paintings with rough-hewn monolithic letters quoting Samuel Pepyss famous diary. Both the wordiness and the klunkiness are a bit familiar, but extracting Pepyss phrases, which are all deliberately disembodied in reference, can be strangely satisfying. In The Graces, Ms. Benglis continues to evoke figures by other means, in this case three shimmering stacks of vaselike forms made of heavily textured, lavender-tinted resin. The material is perfect for the process-oriented Ms. Benglis, even if her current applications are similar to the work of Andrew Lord and Beverly Semmes. Cheim & Read, 547 West 25th Street, (212)242-7727, through Oct. 15. (Smith) BILL RICE: THE VIEW FROM 13 EAST 3RD The New York artist Bill Rice has been pioneeringly busy in so many disciplines over the last five decades, including writing, film and theater, that his art has been only sporadically visible. This small show is a chance to catch up with some of his paintings and collages from the 1960s onward. Mitchell Algus Gallery, 511 West 25th Street, second floor, (212)242-6242 , through Oct. 8. (Cotter) Other Galleries GROUP SHOW This four-man show includes prints from the 1970s by Robert Rauschenberg and studies in popular iconography by Matt Mullican. The main interest, however, is in a series of large photographic collages by John Baldessari that play with visual rhymes and puns, and examples of the simulated Minimalist paintings called Surrogates that Allan McCollum started making more than 25 years ago. Brooke Alexander, 59 Wooster Street, SoHo, (212)925-4338, through Oct. 1. (Johnson) SIMON MARTIN: WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON Working against the grain of more flamboyant depictions of museums in recent art, this short video meditation on their ambiguities is a minor masterpiece of poetic discretion as well as the New York debut of a British artist known for keeping a low profile. White Columns, 320 West 13th Street, West Village, (212)924-4212, through Oct. 15. (Smith) OHAD MEROMI: CYCLOPS The jarring mixtures of mediums, narratives and genres in the video and installation work of this young Israel-born artist need more focus and entertainment value, but they smartly see that the field of set-up video is relatively open right now, with plenty of room for worlds to collide. Harris Lieberman, 89 Vandam Street, between Greenwich and Hudson Streets, South Village, (212)206-1290, through Oct. 8. (Smith) Last Chance *MET: MATISSE: THE FABRIC OF DREAMS -- HIS ART AND HIS TEXTILES 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 his life and work. Closing on Sunday. (See above.) (Smith) MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: MOUNT ST. HELENS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRANK GOHLKE A year after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington in 1980, this well-known landscape photographer began documenting the explosions effect on the surrounding terrain. His expansive black-and-white pictures are formally and technically impeccable, but because they err on the side of understatement, they only partly convey a sense of the volcanos destructive violence. 11 West 53rd Street, (212)708-9400, closing on Monday. (Johnson) *NEUE GALERIE: WAR/HELL: MASTER PRINTS BY OTTO DIX AND MAX BECKMANN War, the German artist Otto Dixs great graphic condemnation of battle, a portfolio of 50 etchings rife with grisly images of trench life and death, battlefield corpses, civilian bombings and other horrors, published after World War I, is paired here with Max Beckmanns Hell, 10 lithographs from 1918 that comment on wars brutality but also give a sardonic view of the inhumanities he saw as the hell of everyday existence. Their presentation together heightens the impact of each. 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, (212)628-6200, closing on Monday. (Glueck) *BILL OWENS: AMERICA In new 16-by-20-inch prints, Mr. Owenss photographs of white suburbanites from the 1970s remain poetically beguiling and dryly comical. James Cohan, 533 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212)714-9500, closing tomorrow. (Johnson)

The Listings: March 2 - March 8

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 BE In previews; opens on March 13. The Tel Aviv troupe Mayumana mixes dance, music and spectacle in this globe-trotting show aiming for the Stomp audience (1:30). Union Square Theater, 100 East 17th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100. BILL W. AND DR. BOB In previews; opens on Monday. This history play portrays the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous -- and their wives (2:15). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. BLINDNESS In previews; opens on Tuesday. An adaptation of Jose Saramagos Nobel Prize-winning novel about a city hit by an epidemic of blindness (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. BOYS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN Opens today. From the creators of My Big Gay Italian Wedding comes this new romantic comedy about a New York City policeman who falls for a guy he meets when going undercover in a gay bar (2:10). Actors Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, at Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 239-6200. CURTAINS In previews; opens on March 22. Kander and Ebbs satire of a murder mystery, which opened on the West Coast, is set in a theater during a 1959 out-of-town tryout. David Hyde Pierce and Debra Monk star (2:45). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. DYING CITY In previews; opens on Sunday. Lincoln Center presents a new play by Christopher Shinn (Four) about a therapist who receives a visit from her deceased husbands twin brother (1:30). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-7600. JACK GOES BOATING In previews; opens on March 18. The Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in this new Labyrinth Theater Company play about marital problems and dating panic (2:00). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555. KING HEDLEY II In previews; opens on March 11. Signature Theater revives August Wilsons operatic drama, set in Reagan-era Pittsburgh, about a man who has just returned from prison (2:45). Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. KING LEAR In previews; opens on Wednesday. He played Hamlet. He played Falstaff. It was only a matter of time before Kevin Kline took on this proud, misguided patriarch. James Lapine directs (3:00). The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555. MY TRIP TO AL-QAEDA In previews; opens on Monday. Laurence Wright explains the history of the terrorist organization in this monologue based on his book on the subject (1:30). Culture Project, 55 Mercer Street, at Broome Street, SoHo, (212) 352-3101. OUR LEADING LADY In previews; opens on March 20. A new comedy by Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergists Wife), about the actress who was to perform at Fords Theater on the night Lincoln was shot (2:00). Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. THE PIRATE QUEEN Previews start on Tuesday. Opens on April 5. A new musical from the Les Misérables team, about a 16th-century swashbuckler, brings to life a slice of Irish history (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. PRELUDE TO A KISS In previews; opens on Thursday. The Roundabout revives Craig Lucass fantastical play about a young romance that takes a very bizarre turn (2:00). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300. SOME MEN Previews start today. Opens on March 26. Terrence McNallys episodic drama about gay life darts through history after kicking off with a marriage ceremony (2:00). Second Stage, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422. SPALDING GRAY: STORIES LEFT TO TELL In previews; opens on Tuesday. Kathleen Russo, Spalding Grays widow, and Lucy Sexton assembled these monologues, letters and stories. Kathleen Chalfant and Frank Wood star (1:30). Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village, (212) 307-4100. TALK RADIO In previews; opens on March 11. Eric Bogosians darkly funny portrait of a late-night talk show host returns for a Broadway revival starring Liev Schreiber. Robert Falls directs (1:40). Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. TEA AND SYMPATHY Previews start on Tuesday. Opens on March 15. The Keen Company unearths this 1950s drama about a boy who is presumed to be gay (2:00). Clurman Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. WIDOWERS HOUSES Previews start on Monday. Opens on March 14. George Bernard Shaws play about a slum landlord is reset in 1990s Harlem (1:40). Kirk Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING Previews start on Tuesday. Opens on March 29. Vanessa Redgrave stars in this adaptation of Joan Didions heartbreaking memoir. David Hare directs (1:40). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. Broadway THE APPLE TREE The amazing Kristin Chenoweth gives Imax-screen-size life to three curvaceous doodles who by rights shouldnt be any larger than figures in the Sunday funnies. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnicks 1966 musical, directed by Gary Griffin, shows its age but is given theatrical verve by Ms. Chenoweth, Brian dArcy James and Marc Kudisch (2:30). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Ben Brantley) A CHORUS LINE If you want to know why this show was such a big deal when it opened 31 years ago, you need only experience the thrilling first five minutes of this revival. Otherwise, this archivally exact production, directed by Bob Avian, feels like a vintage car that has been taken out of the garage, polished up and sent on the road once again (2:00). Schoenfeld Theater, 236 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE COAST OF UTOPIA Lincoln Center Theaters brave, gorgeous, sprawling and ultimately exhilarating production of Tom Stoppards trilogy about intellectuals errant in 19th-century Russia. A testament to the seductive powers of narrative theater, directed with hot and cool canniness by Jack OBrien and featuring a starry cast (Brian F. OByrne, Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton, Josh Hamilton and Ethan Hawke, among others) in a tasty assortment of roles. Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * COMPANY Fire, beckoning and dangerous, flickers beneath the frost of John Doyles elegant, unexpectedly stirring revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furths era-defining musical from 1970, starring a compellingly understated Raul Esparza. Like Mr. Doyles Sweeney Todd, this production finds new clarity of feeling in Sondheim by melding the roles of performers and musicians (2:20). Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, it has theatergoers responding as if they were withering houseplants finally being watered after long neglect. Bob Martin and Sutton Foster are the standouts in the avid, energetic cast (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * GREY GARDENS Christine Ebersole is absolutely glorious as the middle-aged, time-warped debutante called Little Edie Beale in this uneven musical adaptation of the notorious 1975 documentary of the same title. She and the wonderful Mary Louise Wilson (as her bedridden mother), in the performances of their careers, make Grey Gardens an experience no passionate theatergoer should miss (2:40). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * JOURNEYS END A splendid revival of R. C. Sherriffs 1928 drama of life in the trenches during World War I. Acutely staged (by David Grindley) and acted by a fine ensemble led by Hugh Dancy and Boyd Gaines, this production offers an exemplary presentation of that theatrical rarity, an uncompromising, clear-eyed play about war and the experience of day-to-day combat. An essential ticket (2:40). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) MARY POPPINS This handsome, homily-packed, mechanically ingenious and rather tedious musical, adapted from the P. L. Travers stories and the 1964 Disney film, is ultimately less concerned with inexplicable magic than with practical psychology. Ashley Brown, who sings prettily as the family-mending nanny, looks like Joan Crawford trying to be nice and sounds like Dr. Phil. Directed by Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne (2:30). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) LES MISÉRABLES This premature revival, a slightly scaled-down version of the well-groomed behemoth that closed only three years ago, appears to be functioning in a state of mild sedation. Appealingly sung and freshly orchestrated, this fast-moving adaptation of Victor Hugos novel isnt sloppy or blurry. But its pulse rate stays well below normal (2:55). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SPRING AWAKENING Duncan Sheik and Steven Saters bold adaptation of the Frank Wedekind play is the freshest and most exciting new musical Broadway has seen in some time. Set in 19th-century Germany but with a ravishing rock score, it exposes the splintered emotional lives of adolescents just discovering the joys and sorrows of sex. Performed with brio by a great cast, with supple direction by Michael Mayer and inventive choreography by Bill T. Jones (2:00). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles Isherwood) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a superdeluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) * TRANSLATIONS The estimable Irish director Garry Hynes (a Tony winner for Martin McDonaghs Beauty Queen of Leenane) has assembled an ensemble of an extraordinarily high caliber and consistency for the third major New York production of Brian Friels 1980 play. Set in rural Ireland in 1833, as the local tongue is being supplanted by the language of the English occupying forces, the play explores the seriocomic truth that language can divide as easily as it unites, and can never hope to translate the rich music in our souls with the delicacy we yearn for. A top-flight Broadway revival (2:15). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE VERTICAL HOUR David Hares soggy consideration of the Anglo-American cultural divide stars Julianne Moore (representing the Americans) and Bill Nighy (leading the British), directed by Sam Mendes. The Yanks dont stand a chance (2:20). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway ALL THAT I WILL EVER BE In this false-feeling comedy-drama by Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, a gay hustler undergoes an identity crisis when he finds himself falling for one of his clients. Slick but mostly stale in its analysis of a society afraid of emotional engagement (2:15). The New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN? Think of two gifted and smart gay men with years of life together deploying their considerable talents from the two pianos you happen to have in your living room. The result is a hilarious and very touching memoir of two decades of love and the funky glories of show business life (2:00). Actors Temple Theater, 339 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Honor Moore) THE FANTASTICKS A revival -- well, more like a resuscitation -- of the Little Musical That Wouldnt Die. This sweet-as-ever production of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidts commedia-dellarte-style confection is most notable for Mr. Joness touching performance (under the pseudonym Thomas Bruce) as the Old Actor, a role he created when the show opened in 1960. Mr. Jones also directs (2:05). Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE FEVER Wallace Shawn performs his provocative monologue about a guilt-riddled bourgeois everyman sweating his way through a moral crisis. The rich, often hypnotic writing draws us into his tortured mindscape, as he shifts between shame over his sense of entitlement and reasoned arguments that sacrifice is unnecessary and pointless. Meanwhile, in the third world, the violence and poverty continue unabated (1:30). Acorn Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL A very funny if not terribly original satire of musical theater features what must be the worst backers audition of all time. The excellent duo Jeremy Shamos and Christopher Fitzgerald make the pitch (2:05). The Actors Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, at Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 239-6200. (Jason Zinoman) * IN THE HEIGHTS Lin-Manuel Mirandas joyous songs paint a vibrant portrait of daily life in Washington Heights in this flawed but enjoyable show. Essentially a valentine to the barrio -- conflict of a violent or desperate kind is banished from the picture -- the musical contains a host of vibrant, funny performances and brings the zesty sound of Latin pop to the stage. (2:10). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Isherwood) A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN You dont have to be Jewish or Brooklynish to empathize with Jake Ehrenreich, but in terms of fully appreciating his essentially one-man show, it probably helps. Especially the Catskills jokes (2:05). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 560-8912. (Anita Gates) THE LAST WORD Oren Safdies comedy about cultural generation gaps amuses as it goes along but lands at a predictable nowhere. Daniel J. Travanti stars as a Viennese Jew and aspiring playwright who does battle with a young student angling to become his writing assistant and find his voice (1:30). Theater at St. Clements, 423 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Ginia Bellafante) THE MADRAS HOUSE A century-old drama about the woman question, this rare revival of Harley Granville Barkers fascinating play is more contemporary than you might think (2:30). Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 315-0231. (Zinoman) MARAT/SADE The first New York production of Peter Weisss classic 1963 play captures the rawness and shock of the original with a harrowing production. The inmates of this all-male asylum fling themselves against the chain-links of their enclosure; realistic-looking vomit and feces feature in one key scene; the audience is sprayed with water from the attendants hoses and reminded that theater is not always a safe place. Its undeniably powerful; unfortunately, it remains a blunt instrument rather than a polished one, since the language is not mined as deeply as the emotion. Marat and Sades philosophical debate, and the plays topicality, tend to be obscured by the sheer brute force of whats happening onstage (2:10). The Classical Theater of Harlem, Harlem School of the Arts Theater, 647 St. Nicholas Avenue, near 141st Street, (212) 868-4444. (Anne Midgette) MARY ROSE J. M. Barrie penned this distaff variation on themes from Peter Pan in 1920, and it has mostly lain on the shelf since. A young English girl (an exuberant Paige Howard) acquires the odd habit of disappearing and reappearing some time later, untouched by times passing. Gentle and melancholy, handsomely mounted by Tina Landau, Mary Rose is nonetheless itself touched by the mark of time (1:45). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212) 353-0303. (Isherwood) THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and THE JEW OF MALTA F. Murray Abraham plays two Elizabethan villains in repertory for the Theater for a New Audience. Mr. Abrahams sinister but still moving Shylock is the dark heart of Darko Tresnjaks chilly, powerful staging of one of Shakespeares unfunniest comedies. As Barabas in David Herskovitss goofy, postmodern Jew of Malta, hes the lively center of a carnival that doesnt do justice to Christopher Marlowes harsh satire on Christian hypocrisy and venality (each 2:30). The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) MY MOTHERS ITALIAN, MY FATHERS JEWISH AND IM IN THERAPY Steve Solomon does skillful impersonations in his one-man show, but some of his jokes are as old as the hills (1:30). Little Shubert Theater, 422 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) NO CHILD Teachers will love Nilaja Suns one-woman show about the challenges of teaching drama at Malcolm X High School (1:10). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) ROOM SERVICE The Peccadillo Theater Company puts a charge into this comedy from the 1930s, thanks to a brisk pace by the director, Dan Wackerman, and a dozen dandy performances. David Edwards is the would-be producer whose bills threaten to swamp his efforts to put a show on Broadway, and Fred Berman is particularly fine as his director (2:00).SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, South Village, (212) 691-1555. (Neil Genzlinger) 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER This is the comedian Judy Golds fiercely funny monologue, based on her own life as a single Jewish lesbian mother and interviews with more than 50 other Jewish mothers (1:20). St. Lukes Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Phoebe Hoban) A VERY COMMON PROCEDURE Courtney Barons play suffers from a very common problem: For at least half of this one-acts running time, the characters onstage are talking to us, not one another. Paradoxically, this intimacy between audience and actors keeps the story -- an odd love affair between a woman grieving the death of her baby and the doctor involved in the babys death -- at arms length (1:20). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) * THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE David Mamet has cleanly and cannily adapted Harley Granville Barkers 1905 play about corruption in the genteel world of Victorian finance. An excellent cast and a sumptuous production bring extra immediacy to a tale of embezzlement and entitlement that feels as fresh as tomorrows stock options (1:50). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * WAKE UP MR. SLEEPY! YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND IS DEAD! Richard Foremans latest film-theater hybrid is a memorial service, of sorts, for the intuitive self, killed by a surface-worshiping world. It is also a dazzling exercise in reality shifting that is as invigorating as it is mournful (1:05). Ontological Theater at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Brantley) Off Off Broadway AT LEAST ITS PINK Bridget Everett and her big, bad attitude co-star in this mini-musical about sex and unsatisfying jobs in the city. Directed by Michael Patrick King (of Sex and the City, as it happens), who is also the co-author, and with songs written by Ms. Everett and Kenny Mellman, the piano-playing half of Kiki & Herb. Raucous and rude, its a bit like a one-woman episode of Jerry Springer (1:20). Ars Nova, 511 West 54th Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444. (Isherwood) JACKIE WITH A Z Delectably outrageous (1:30). Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555. (Lawrence Van Gelder) ORESTEIA David Johnstons take on Aeschylus includes some of this irreverent playwrights trademark off-kilter sensibility but not his familiar flights of fancy (1:30). Access Theater, 380 Broadway, north of White Street, TriBeCa, (212) 868-4444. (Zinoman) T J AND DAVE The comics T. J. Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi miraculously improvise a one-hour play at every performance. This is an impressive feat of mental athletics, but the results are also observant, complex and frequently enormously funny (1:00).Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) 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 Theater, 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) THE COLOR PURPLE Singing CliffsNotes for Alice Walkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Often more entertaining than the real thing (1:45). 47th Street Theater, 304 West 47th Street, Clinton, (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) JERSEY BOYS The biomusical that walks like a man (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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 A singing scrapbook for Monty Python fans (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE A Chorus Line with pimples (1:45). Circle in the Square, 254 West 50th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance ADRIFT IN MACAO Christopher Durang wrote the book (cute) and lyrics (crude) for this fortune-cookie-size musical set in a Chinese port in the 1950s. Flimsy but fun, this spoof of old movies is lovingly acted by a swell cast, although an hour after its over, you may be hungry for reruns of The Carol Burnett Show (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) ART******* Michael Domitrovich shows a good ear for dialogue in this play about five 20-somethings wallowing in the New York art scene and in their own vacuousness, but its not quite enough to make them anything other than irritating (2:00). Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212) 254-1109; closes on Sunday. (Genzlinger) THE JADED ASSASSIN Imagine mediocre professional wrestling mixed with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and you get the idea (1:15). The Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster Street, SoHo, (212) 868-4444; closes on Sunday. (Zinoman) NELSON Three arresting performances catch your attention in this creepy play by Sam Marks about a young man who is an office flunky by day but films gang videos at night. But having set a lot of intriguing things in motion, Mr. Marks is afraid to let them collide head-on (1:10). The Lion Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200; closes tomorrow. (Genzlinger) A SPANISH PLAY The great Zoe Caldwell returns to the New York stage after an absence of a decade, in the fine company of Linda Emond, Denis OHare and Larry Pine. Thats the good news. The bad? The play. Yasmina Rezas pseudo-philosophical and metatheatrical trifle is utterly forgettable (1:50). Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) 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. THE ABANDONED (R, 95 minutes) The title of this dull, hysterical horror movie seems to refer to its release strategy. The greatest mystery is why it showed up in theaters at all, rather than going straight to DVD. (A. O. Scott) AMAZING GRACE (PG, 120 minutes) Michael Apteds prettified take on the life and times of the 18th-century reformer William Wilberforce carries a strong whiff of piety but is generally pleasing and often moving, and features fine performances from newcomers and veterans alike. (Manohla Dargis) THE ASTRONAUT FARMER (PG, 102 minutes) This sentimental fable about a Texas rancher who follows his dreams and builds a rocket ship in his barn is made bearable -- just -- by Billy Bob Thorntons underplayed performance in the lead role, and also by the wide-eyed visual wonderment of the director, Michael Polish, who is the co-writer of the picture with his twin brother, Mark. (Scott) BABEL (R, 143 minutes, in English, Spanish, Japanese, Berber, Arabic and sign language) This hugely ambitious movie tells four loosely linked stories set on three continents. The themes, to the extent they are decipherable, include loss, fate and the terrible consequences of miscommunication. Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, the movie is an intellectual muddle but a visceral tour de force, and the power of the filmmaking almost overcomes the fuzziness of the ideas. Almost. (Scott) * BAMAKO (No rating, 118 minutes, in French and Bambara) Abdelrahmane Sissakos new film is an indictment of the Wests complicity in Africas misery, staged as a public trial of the World Bank and its affiliates. The films passionate didacticism is both enriched and subverted by Mr. Sissakos deft, subtle attention to the details of daily life in the capital of Mali, where the movie takes place. (Scott) BLOOD DIAMOND (R, 138 minutes) The makers of this foolish thriller about illegal diamond trafficking in Africa, starring an excellent Leonardo DiCaprio, want you to know there may be blood on your hands, specifically your wedding finger. Too bad they havent thought through what it means to turn misery into entertainment. (Dargis) BREACH (PG-13, 110 minutes) In his fine, no-nonsense account of the capture of the F.B.I. agent turned mole Robert Philip Hanssen, the director Billy Ray manages to excite and unnerve despite our knowing the ending. Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe star. (Dargis) * BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (PG, 95 minutes) Grounded more in reality than in fantasy, this adaptation of Katherine Patersons novel offers an affecting story of a transformative friendship between two gifted children. Beautifully capturing a time when a bully in school can loom as large as a troll in a nightmare, the director, Gabor Csupo, keeps the fantasy in the background to find magic in the everyday. (Jeannette Catsoulis) * THE DEPARTED (R, 150 minutes) Winner of the Oscar for best picture, Martin Scorseses cubistic entertainment about men divided by power, loyalty and their own selves is at once a success and a relief. Based on the crackling Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, it features fine twinned performances from Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, and a showboating Jack Nicholson. (Dargis) DREAMGIRLS (PG-13, 131 minutes) The Broadway musical arrives on the screen, capably directed by Bill Condon, ardently acted and sung by Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé Knowles and (especially) Jennifer Hudson, who won a best-supporting-actress Oscar for her performance, but undone by mediocre and anachronistic songs. (Scott) GHOST RIDER (PG-13, 114 minutes) After a long string of financial flops, Nicolas Cage returns to play Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcycle rider whose soul belongs to the Devil. Despite the promise of the first 30 minutes -- when Johnny is played by the charming young actor Matt Long -- a witless script and a central character whos more funny than frightening suggest that the filmmakers franchise hopes may be dashed. (Catsoulis) HANNIBAL RISING (R, 121 minutes) This primer on Hannibal Lecter reduces a mythic villain to a callow, dysfunctional chef. Orphaned in World War II, our psychopathic hero hunts down his familys killers and snacks on their remains. But burrowing into the id of pop cultures most repulsive gourmet demands a sanguinary glee that the director, Peter Webber, may not possess; for all the movies spurting gore, theres no rush of blood to the head. (Catsoulis) THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (R, 121 minutes) Kevin Macdonald paints a queasily enjoyable portrait of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin from inside the palace walls. Forest Whitaker, in an Oscar-winning performance, plays the mad king, while James McAvoy plays the fool. (Dargis) * LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (R, 141 minutes, in Japanese) Another masterwork from Clint Eastwoods astonishing late period, and one of the best war movies ever. Ken Watanabe is especially fine as the general commanding Japanese troops in the doomed defense of the island of Iwo Jima. (Scott) * LITTLE CHILDREN (R, 130 minutes) Todd Fields adaptation of Tom Perrottas novel of suburban adultery is unfailingly intelligent and faultlessly acted. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson are superb as the parents of young children who meet at the playground and enact a two-handed variation on Madame Bovary against a backdrop of social paranoia and middle-class malaise. (Scott) * Little Miss Sunshine (R, 101 minutes) A bittersweet comedy of dysfunction that takes place at the terminus of the American dream. The excellent cast includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano and that national treasure, Alan Arkin, who won an Oscar for best supporting actor. (Dargis) * THE LIVES OF OTHERS (R, 137 minutes, in German) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks debut feature, winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, takes place in East Berlin in 1984, and it is a smart, moving inquiry into the moral predicament facing good people in a bad system. Ulrich Mühes performance as a conscience-stricken Stasi officer is a tightly wound tour de force, and Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck are both superb as a playwright and his actress lover who are drawn into the cruel, absurd clutches of the Communist secret police. (Scott) MUSIC AND LYRICS (PG-13, 96 minutes) Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant phone in passable impersonations of themselves in this competent romantic comedy, which is somewhat enlivened by parodies of bad pop songs from both the 1980s and the present. (Scott) NOTES ON A SCANDAL (R, 92 minutes) Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett play a misogynistic game of cat and mouse from which no one emerges unscathed, including the audience. Adapted by Patrick Marber from a novel by Zoë Heller and directed by Richard Eyre. (Dargis) THE NUMBER 23 (R, 95 minutes) An accidental comedy starring a deadly serious Jim Carrey that owes something to David Fincher, a little something else to Robert Anton Wilson and next to nothing, at least intentionally, to the gods of laughter, be they Gelus (Greek) or Jerry Lewis (American). (Dargis) * PANS LABYRINTH (R, 119 minutes, in Spanish) Guillermo del Toros tale of a young girls ordeal in post-Civil-War fascist Spain is either a fairy tale in the guise of a political allegory or vice versa. In either case it is a moving, enchanting, strange and humane example of popular art at its very best. (Scott) THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (PG-13, 117 minutes) How you respond to this fairy tale in realist drag may depend on whether you find Will Smiths performances so overwhelmingly winning that you buy the idea that poverty is a function of bad luck and bad choices, and success the result of heroic toil and dreams. (Dargis) * THE QUEEN (PG-13, 103 minutes) Directed by Stephen Frears from a very smart script by Peter Morgan, and starring a magnificent Helen Mirren (who won an Oscar) in the title role, The Queen pries open a window in the House of Windsor around the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, blending fact with fiction. (Dargis) RENO 911!: MIAMI (R, 81 minutes) The title more or less says all you need to know about the story, the action and the point. (Dargis) STARTER FOR TEN (PG-13, 96 minutes) This amiable, nostalgic British comedy tackles a lofty subject -- the allure of knowledge --with down-to-earth charm, following a working-class kid (James McAvoy) during his first year at Bristol University and an appearance on the TV quiz show University Challenge. But beneath the formulaic embarrassments and fumbled learning curve lurks a more somber theme: the inevitable rupture between those who pursue an education and those left behind. (Catsoulis) VENUS (R, 91 minutes) A modest, diverting, touching tale of a young woman who attracts the interest -- avuncular and also erotic -- of an aging actor, played with effortless aplomb by the great Peter OToole. (Scott) * VOLVER (R, 121 minutes, in Spanish) Another keeper from Pedro Almodóvar, with Penélope Cruz -- as a resilient widow -- in her best role to date. (Scott) THE WAYWARD CLOUD (No rating, 112 minutes, in Mandarin) The latest from the Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang is a musical, with very little dialogue and a good deal of explicit sex. Unfortunately, Mr. Tsais energetic provocation, a notable contrast to his usual rigorous, dryly kinky style, seems more like a sign of artistic frustration than like an audacious new direction. (Scott) Film Series FRENCH SEVENTIES: CINEMA AFTER MAY 68 (Tuesday) The protests of May 1968 left an indelible mark on French society and French cinema, a link that will be explored in a series of screenings organized by Jean-Michel Frodon, the editor in chief of Les Cahiers du Cinéma. The program begins on Tuesday with Le Diable Probablement, Robert Bressons dark 1977 look at the lives of Parisian students fatally disenchanted with the adult world. The 7 p.m. screening, which has a special admission price of $12, will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Mr. Frodon and the director Benoît Jacquot (whose Assassin Musicien will be shown on March 13). French Institute/Alliance Française, Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street, Manhattan, (212) 355-6100, fiaf.org; $9. (Dave Kehr) ABBAS KIAROSTAMI: IMAGE MAKER (Today through Thursday) The Museum of Modern Art asserts that this 33-film retrospective of the work of the Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami is the most complete examination of his career yet mounted in the United States. Mr. Kiarostamis minimalist aesthetics and deeply felt humanism make for a rare and profound combination, as demonstrated in masterworks like Close-Up (1990) (screening on Monday) and Through the Olive Trees (1994) (Wednesday). This weekends programs concentrate on the first part of Mr. Kiarostamis career, when he was making short educational films for children under the auspices of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Iran, and includes his first feature-length film, the 1974 The Traveler (tonight). Meanwhile, Mr. Kiarostamis 2006 video installation Five will play continuously in MoMAs Yoshiko and Akio Morita Gallery, and an exhibition of his photographs will continue at MoMAs Queens ally, P.S. 1. Museum of Modern Art Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, (212) 708-9400, moma.org; $10. (Kehr) OUT 1 (Tomorrow and Sunday) When the Museum of the Moving Image presented all 12 and a half hours of Jacques Rivettes famously hard-to-see French film, Out 1, last fall, it proved to be one of the movie events of the year, and even won the museum a special citation from the National Society of Film Critics. This weekend, the museum is offering an encore presentation of this fascinating, unwieldy film, which revolves around the on- and offstage lives of avant-garde actors in Paris. The first four episodes will be shown tomorrow, starting at 2 p.m., with a dinner break at 5:30 (box dinner available by advance order); the final four at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077, movingimage.us; $32 for both days. (Kehr) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. BATTLEFIELD BAND (Monday) Old-fashioned bagpipes and whistles and up-to-date synthesizers drive the Battlefield Band, which has been having its way with traditional and traditionalist songs since it was founded three decades ago in Scotland. At 7:30 p.m., S.O.B.s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940, sobs.com; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Jon Pareles) THE BIRD AND THE BEE (Tonight) The Bird and the Bee, a well-dressed duo from Los Angeles, toys with two fashionable ideas: retro French pop glittering with electronics, and Sex and the City-style sexual conundrums. The singer Inara George mulls the ways of noncommittal boyfriends and promises in a catwalk soprano -- to herself or a man, its never clear -- I would be so winning, so absolutely winning. With Foreign Islands. At 9:30, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $10. (Ben Sisario) * SOLOMON BURKE (Sunday) 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. At 8 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144, bbkingblues.com; $35 in advance, $37 at the door. (Pareles) MARC COHN (Thursday) His 1991 hit Walking in Memphis sums up Marc Cohns style: smoothly rolling chords; a supple, soul-inflected voice; and a kindly outlook. He has been known to sing not only his songs but also his stage patter. At 8:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7000, carnegiehall.org; sold out. (Pareles) * JUDY COLLINS (Tonight) What Ms. Collins brings to a song , whether she wrote it or not, is perspective. You have the sense of a woman standing alone in the night air, gazing at a star and directing a beam of psychic energy into the cosmos. Or maybe she is the receiver of this cool, steady light; it cuts both ways. At 8:45, Café Carlyle, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600, thecarlyle.com; $100 cover at tables, $65 at the bar. (Stephen Holden) ROB DICKINSON (Tonight) In the 90s Mr. Dickinson led the Catherine Wheel, a British band that created a muscular, dramatic sweep with fogs of guitar noise. He has since refashioned himself as a cynical balladeer in the Warren Zevon mode, the kind who may or may not be sarcastic when saying that the secret to life is merely to smile and hang out with intelligent people. At 7:30, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $15. (Sisario) GOMEZ, BEN KWELLER (Thursday) Gomez emerged in the heyday of 90s Britpop with an against-the-grain obsession with tight, sharp blues-rock. On its latest album, How We Operate (ATO), the band has veered into folkier realms, but still plays with unusual precision and focus. Ben Kweller survived his time as a teenage rock prodigy and has carved out a niche as an ambitious singer-songwriter, playing all the instruments on his latest, self-titled album. At 7:30 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; $28 in advance, $30 at the door. (Sisario) NANCI GRIFFITH (Tuesday and Wednesday) A Texas songwriter with an affinity for acoustic guitars, little-girl vocals and lifes small but resonant epiphanies, Ms. Griffith stepped way out of character on her newest album, Rubys Torch (Rounder), immersing herself in the dramatic sweep of In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning and torch songs by Jimmy Webb and Tom Waits. For her Blue Note debut, the club promises that she will be going the distance with the new role, appearing in a red velvet dress and singing into an old-school hanging mic. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; $35 cover at tables, $20 at the bar; $5 minimum. (Sisario) * GRIZZLY BEAR (Tuesday and Wednesday) The acoustic guitars, strings, brushed percussion and library voices say cozy folk, but the enormous ambition of this Brooklyn band pushes its dreamlike, bewitching songs past psychedelia and prog and into uncharted realms. With Beach House and the Papercuts. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Sisario) IZZYS (Tomorrow) With a repertory of lean, uncomplicated blues-boogies, this New York band worships at the twin retro-rock altars of the Rolling Stones and the Stooges (with a little Gram Parsons country thrown in as well). At 11 p.m., Lakeside Lounge, 162 Avenue B, between 10th and 11th Streets, East Village, (212) 529-8463, lakesidelounge.com; free. (Sisario) ESSIE JAIN (Tuesday) A British singer and songwriter who lives in New York, Ms. Jain builds stark miniatures out of a few light strums of guitar and her haunting alto. On her captivating new album, We Made This Ourselves (Ba Da Bing), her voice is multitracked in precise harmonies that can be warm or ghostly. With Pepi Ginsberg and the Lost Americans. At 8 p.m., Tap Bar at the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006, knittingfactory.com; $7. (Sisario) * CHARLIE LOUVIN, LAURA CANTRELL (Thursday) Four years ago the Nashville establishment offered its obeisance to the Louvin Brothers, the close-harmony country-gospel duo from Arkansas whose influence was greater than their record sales: a tribute album, Livin, Lovin, Losin, with Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash and others, which won a Grammy. Now its the alterna-crowds turn. The new, self-titled album by Charlie Louvin (his brother and partner, Ira, died in 1965), fragile of voice but not of spirit at age 79, features Elvis Costello and members of Wilco, Bright Eyes, Lambchop and Clem Snide in spare, affectionate duets. Laura Cantrell, the sweetheart of the alt-country rodeo, opens the show. At 8 p.m., Gramercy Theater, 127 East 23rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171; $16.50 in advance, $18 at the door. (Sisario) MOONLIGHTERS (Monday) Few would expect members of Helmet and the Pain Teens to play ukulele-strumming, steel-guitar-sliding, sweetly harmonized, optimistic Hawaiian-style songs. But the Moonlighters do just that, writing anachronistic ballads and swing-style tunes that Bliss Blood sings without a hint of campiness. At 10 p.m., Rodeo Bar, 375 Third Avenue, at 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 683-6500, rodeobar.com; free. (Pareles) NICKELBACK (Monday) This quartet of Marlboro men from the tiny Canadian prairie town of Hanna, Alberta, scored the fourth-best-selling album of 2006 with All the Right Reasons (Roadrunner), whose painfully ordinary commercial rock has one big (and super-popular) standout: Photograph, a post-grunge ballad the way Ray Davies would write one, tangy and reflective. With Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin. At 7 p.m., Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J., (201) 935-3900, meadowlands.com; $41.50 and $51.50. (Sisario) * ELVIS PERKINS (Sunday) Having established himself on the singer-songwriter circuit with a discursive acoustic style derived from groups like Clem Snide, Mr. Perkins has finally released his bittersweet and beautiful debut album, Ash Wednesday (XL). He began it in 2002, a decade after his father, the actor Anthony Perkins, died of AIDS, and a year after his mother, the fashion photographer Berry Berenson Perkins, died in one of the planes that was crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. With Patrick Watson. At 7:30 p.m., Luna Lounge, 361 Metropolitan Avenue, at Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, lunalounge.com; $12 in advance, $14 at the door. (Sisario) RADIO 4, TEDDYBEARS (Tonight) Radio 4 was among the first local bands to mine the frantic dance-punk of early-80s groups like the Gang of Four and Public Image Ltd., which it does studiously but not very imaginatively. The Teddybears, from Sweden, have one of the years bigger head-scratchers with Punkrocker, a paranoid jaunt with new-wave synthesizers and a deadpan vocal by Iggy Pop that is being used in a Cadillac ad -- makes perfect sense, right? At 11:30, Studio B, 259 Banker Street, between Meserole Avenue and Calyer Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 389-1880, clubstudiob.com; $10. (Sisario) IKE REILLY ASSASSINATION (Tonight) An eloquent wiseguy whose songs evoke Bob Dylan and Paul Westerberg, Mr. Reilly, a former bellhop and gravedigger from Chicago, has the kind of high-energy, hook-heavy folk-rock sound that turns every head in a bar, while his nasal vocals are unsparingly sardonic: The friends that you rely on are the train tracks that you lie on. At midnight, Mo Pitkins, 34 Avenue A, near Third Street, East Village, (212) 777-5660, mopitkins.com; $15. (Sisario) SCISSOR SISTERS (Tomorrow) You would be forgiven if you didnt know this was one of the most popular New York City bands in the world: despite Top 10 success in Britain with its almost parodically falsetto-heavy disco-soul, the Scissor Sisters have struggled for attention at home. Its main songwriters, the singer Jake Shears and the bassist Babbydaddy, can crank out some very entertaining dance-floor anthems, but as its latest album, Ta-Dah (Universal), makes clear, this sound can go on forever without much development, and the Bee Gees and George Michael wrote better songs. At 8 p.m., the Theater at Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741, thegarden.com; $41. (Sisario) STEEL PULSE (Tuesday) The close harmonies and steadfast reggae beats of Steel Pulse have carried righteous sentiments about topics including revolution, dancing, Rastafarianism and racist taxi drivers. With Lionize. At 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; $28 in advance, $30 at the door. (Pareles) STELLASTARR (Wednesday) The first booking in the newly restored Gramercy Theater is Stellastarr, a Brooklyn band made up of former Pratt Institute students greatly and transparently influenced by the Cure, Joy Division and the Pixies. At 8 p.m., 127 East 23rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171; sold out. (Sisario) * THERMALS (Sunday and Monday) A lo-fi but high-energy and high-volume indie band from Portland, Ore., the Thermals have the rare distinction -- maybe soon to be less rare in this post-Inconvenient Truth era -- of refusing $50,000 to license a song for a Hummer commercial. (What would you be making an ad for, the singer Hutch Harris told the Web site Pitchfork, a new tank that people can drive down the street?) With the Big Sleep. Sunday at 7:30 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. Monday at 8 p.m., Studio B, 259 Banker Street, between Meserole Avenue and Calyer Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 389-1880, clubstudiob.com; $12 in advance, $14 at the door. (Sisario) WALKMEN (Thursday) The Walkmen play exquisitely articulated songs of exhaustion and disaffection, with Hamilton Leithausers weary whine surrounded by an echoey wash of guitar and keyboards. Last fall they also revealed a surprising prankster side with a song-by-song cover of Pussy Cats, the bizarre, boozy 1974 album by Harry Nilsson that was a product of his lost weekend period with John Lennon. With the Broken West and Ferrababy Lionheart. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Sisario) BOB WEIR AND RATDOG (Thursday) Mr. Weir, the rhythm guitarist in the Grateful Dead and the kind of musician who lives to be on the road, begins a three-night stand at the Beacon Theater with his six-piece band Ratdog, playing rock standards and Dead favorites. At 7:30 p.m., 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 307-7171; $39.50 and $49.50. (Sisario) WORLD MUSIC INSTITUTE (Tonight and tomorrow night) This weekend features a tour through the British Isles. Tonight the fiddler Martin Hayes and the guitarist Dennis Cahill rhapsodize on traditional Irish tunes, and tomorrow is Waterson-Carthy, led by some of the royalty of English folk, the singer Norma Waterson and her husband Martin Carthy, a widely influential guitarist. At 8, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org; $27 tonight, $32 tomorrow night. (Sisario) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. J. D. ALLEN TRIO (Thursday) An assertive and harmonically adventurous tenor saxophonist, J. D. Allen enjoys strong support from Gregg August on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. At 9 p.m., Rose Live Music, 345 Grand Street, between Havemeyer and Marcy Streets, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-0069, liveatrose.com; suggested donation, $5. (Nate Chinen) BALLIN THE JACK (Thursday) This midsize ensemble, led by the clarinetist and saxophonist Matt Darriau, customarily spikes a swing-era repertory with madcap irreverence. Thats especially true on this engagement, which features music from Marx Brothers film soundtracks, complete with Grouchoesque vocals by the alto saxophonist Roy Nathanson. At 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) MICHAEL BISIO (Sunday) The physicality of Mr. Bisios bass playing puts him in touch with numerous predecessors in the avant-garde, but his expressive touch is distinctive; he plays first with a quartet featuring the saxophonists Avram Fefer and Stephen Gauci, and then in a duo with another bassist, William Parker. At 8 and 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10 per set. (Chinen) MICHAEL BLAKE QUARTET (Tonight) Mr. Blake, a resourceful tenor and soprano saxophonist, leads a groove-minded band with Gary Versace on electric piano, Tim Luntzel on electric bass and Jeff Ballard on drums. At 10, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) BROOKLYN REPERTORY ENSEMBLE (Tonight) Led by the drummer Wade Barnes, this large ensemble includes strong improvisers like James Zollar on trumpet and Vincent Chancey on French horn. But as the group demonstrates on a new album, Pragmatic Optimism (360 Degrees), its strength lies in its overall sound. At 8, Sugar Hill Supper Club, 609-615 Dekalb Avenue, at Nostrand Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, (718) 797-1727; $20. (Chinen) MAURICE BROWN (Tonight and Monday) The trumpeter Maurice Brown plays an extroverted strain of modern jazz that borrows from soul as well as bop. Tonight at 12:30, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $8, with a $5 minimum. Monday at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $15. (Chinen) BRUBECK BROTHERS (Thursday) Chris Brubeck, a bassist and trombonist, and Dan Brubeck, a drummer, jointly lead this group, a quartet; as on a recent album, Intuition (Koch), it also includes Taylor Eigsti on piano and Mike DeMicco on guitar. (Through March 9.) At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $35, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) GEORGE COLLIGAN (Tuesday) Mr. Colligan has built his sideman career on a rhythmically intrepid piano style; he plays here with Steve Wilson on alto and soprano saxophones, Vicente Archer on bass and E. J. Strickland on drums. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $20. (Chinen) * MARILYN CRISPELL TRIO (Tonight through Sunday night) Marilyn Crispell, a pianist equally celebrated for aggressive atonality and delicate lyricism, regroups with the bassist Mark Helias and the drummer Paul Motian, the same team as on her exquisite album Storyteller (ECM). At 9 and 11, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) DAPP THEORY (Tomorrow) The keyboardist Andy Milne fashions a contemporary fusion explicitly indebted to hip-hop, with help from John Moon on vocals, Loren Stillman on saxophones, Chris Tordini on bass and Sean Rickman on drums. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $15. (Chinen) DENA DeROSE TRIO (Tonight and tomorrow night) A crisp pianist and an effortless singer, Dena DeRose leads a longtime working trio with Martin Wind on bass and Matt Wilson on drums. At 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25. (Chinen) DJANGO A GOGO FESTIVAL (Tonight through Sunday) The guitarist Stephane Wrembel oversees a scrappy tribute to his hero, Django Reinhardt, by gathering present-day adherents of Gypsy jazz, including the French guitarists Emmanuel Kassimo and Laurent Hestin. Tonight at 8:30, the Cornerstone, 1502 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn, (718) 282-9600; $20. Tomorrow at 7 and 9:30 p.m., Sunday from 7 p.m. to midnight, Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $20 per set. For more information: stephanewrembel.com. (Chinen) ANNE DRUMMOND (Thursday) Ms. Drummond is a flutist with a taste for Brazilian rhythm, as she confirmed last year on an album by the bassist Nilson Matta. She leads a band consisting of Mr. Matta, the drummer Duduka Da Fonseca and the pianist Klaus Müller. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $12; $10 for members. (Chinen) RAY DRUMMONDS EXCURSION (Tonight and tomorrow night) The unflappable bassist Ray Drummond leads one of his signature ensembles with Craig Handy on tenor saxophone, Stephen Scott on piano and Billy Hart on drums. At 8, 10 and 11:30, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662, smokejazz.com; cover, $25. (Chinen) JOE FIEDLER TRIO/RADIO I-CHING (Wednesday) The trombonist Joe Fiedler previews material from an adventurous new album, with John Hebert on bass and Satoshi Takeishi on drums; a preceding set will feature Radio I-Ching, which consists of the drummer Dee Pop, the guitarist Don Fiorino and the multireedist Andy Haas. At 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) JIM HALL AND PETER BERNSTEIN (Wednesday) The venerable Jim Hall engages in duologue with a former student and fellow guitarist, the accomplished Peter Bernstein. At 8 p.m., New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, 55 West 13th Street, fifth floor, Greenwich Village, (212) 229-5896, Ext. 4591, jazz.newschool.edu; $10; free for students. (Chinen) ROY HARGROVE BIG BAND (Tuesday) The trumpeter Roy Hargrove 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; whenever he rekindles the format, there are powerful results. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $25. (Chinen) * MICHEL LEGRAND (Tuesday through Thursday) Mr. Legrand, the celebrated French composer and pianist, has more than a casual connection to jazz, having worked with Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan. To celebrate his 75th birthday, he leads a sterling trio with the bassist Ron Carter and the drummer Lewis Nash. (Through March 11.) At 8:30 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $40 and $65, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JED LEVY (Wednesday) Mr. Levy, a saxophonist working convincingly in the jazz mainstream, enlists a formidable rhythm section: Bill Mays on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on bass and Billy Drummond on drums. At 8 and 9:45 p.m., Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119, kitano.com; no cover. (Chinen) JUNIOR MANCE (Tonight and tomorrow night) A veteran pianist with tendencies toward both bebop and blues, Mr. Mance leads a trio with the drummer Jackie Williams and the bassist Aaron James. At 8 and 9:45, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119, kitano.com; cover, $25, with a $15 minimum. (Chinen) * MYRA MELFORD (Tomorrow) Last year the pianist Myra Melford released a sharp and thoughtful album, The Image of Your Body (Cryptogramophone), featuring a powerfully elastic ensemble she calls Be Bread: Cuong Vu on trumpet, Brandon Ross on guitar, Stomu Takeishi on bass and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums. At 9:30 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778, joespub.com; cover, $15 in advance, $20 at the door, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen) VALERY PONOMAREV (Sunday) Mr. Ponomarev is an incisive Russian-born hard-bop trumpeter perhaps best known for his four-year stint with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He performs as part of a series called Russian Sundays, complete with a tea and vodka tasting. At 4 p.m., Weill Art Gallery at the 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $30. (Chinen) REV-ELATION (Tonight through Sunday night) Milt Jackson, who died in 1999, was one of the top two or three vibraphonists in the history of jazz. Here, as on the album Rev-Elation (Sharp Nine), he receives a boppish tribute from the mallet virtuoso Joe Locke, the pianist Mike LeDonne, the bassist Bob Cranshaw and the drummer Mickey Roker. At 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) PETE ROBBINS AND CENTRIC (Tonight) Mr. Robbins, an alto saxophonist and clarinetist with a cool tone and an off-kilter sensibility, leads an electro-acoustic ensemble consisting of Jesse Neuman on trumpet, Mike Gamble on guitar, Eliot Cardinaux on keyboards, Eivind Opsvik on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. At 9 and 10:30, Tea Lounge, 837 Union Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 789-2762, tealoungeny.com; suggested donation, $5. (Chinen) * MATANA ROBERTSS COIN COIN (Tuesday) The alto saxophonist Matana Roberts weaves history, folklore and genealogy into Coin Coin, an ambitious and audacious performance piece. She also enlists imaginative colleagues like the guitarist Mary Halvorson, the violist and bassist Jessica Pavone, the cellist Daniel Levin, the bassist Keith Witty and the drummer Tyshawn Sorey. At 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501, tonicnyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) JENNIFER SANON AND JONATHAN BATISTE (Tonight and tomorrow night) Ms. Sanon is about to make waves as the poised young singer on Wynton Marsaliss new album; Mr. Batiste has already been turning heads as an up-and-coming pianist with an ebullient style. At 9 and 10:30, the River Room, Riverbank State Park, Riverside Drive at 145th Street, Harlem, (212) 491-1500, theriverroomofharlem.com; cover, $5. (Chinen) MATTHEW SHIPP TRIO (Tomorrow) Matthew Shipps pianism is often prickly but rarely off-putting, because even his free improvisations tend to follow a faintly linear path. He has strongly intuitive partners here in Joe Morris, on bass, and Whit Dickey, on drums. At 8 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) EDWARD SIMON TRIO (Tonight through Sunday night) On his fine recent album, Unicity (Cam Jazz), the pianist Edward Simon explores a sensitive but adventurous trio dynamic with the bassist John Patitucci and the drummer Brian Blade, who both join him here. At 8:30 and 10:30, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) CAROL SLOANE (Tuesday through Thursday) Ms. Sloane, a singer, first appeared at the Village Vanguard in the early 1960s, opening for Oscar Peterson. These days she headlines, bringing a trio and a lifetime of experience with her. (Through March 11.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) STEVE SWELLS NATION OF WE (Tuesday) As the name implies, this is an ensemble of many voices, wedded to an ideal of collectivity. In addition to the trombonist Steve Swell, its ranks include the violinist Jason Hwang, the trumpeter Lewis Barnes and the drummer Jackson Krall. At 10 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501, tonicnyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) CEDAR WALTON TRIO (Tonight and tomorrow) The pianist Cedar Walton pursues an articulate species of hard bop, never more effectively than in a trio setting. At 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * KENNY WERNER QUARTET (Tuesday through Thursday) A probing pianist with superior harmonic and rhythmic command, Mr. Werner celebrates the release of a new electro-acoustic album, Lawn Chair Society (Blue Note), with a cast of younger heavies: the trumpeter Nicholas Payton, the saxophonist Chris Potter, the bassist Hans Glawischnig and the drummer Brian Blade. (Through March 11.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera * EUGENE ONEGIN (Tomorrow) The final performance this season of the Metropolitan Operas affecting revival of its 1997 production of Tchaikovskys Eugene Onegin comes tomorrow night. In his first Met performances of the title role, the charismatic Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky is riveting, singing with earthy richness and fully conveying this worldly, entitled and dashing young mans aloofness, until the final tragic scene. The surprises come from the soprano Renée Fleming, in her first Russian role at the Met, who gives a vocally exquisite and vulnerable portrayal of Tatiana, and the tenor Ramón Vargas, a Bel Canto specialist, who makes an ardent and endearing Lenski, Onegins well-meaning but fatally impulsive friend. You will seldom see better acting in opera than from this excellent cast. Taking over for Valery Gergiev, Paul Nadler conducts. At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; sold out. (Anthony Tommasini) LA FORZA DEL DESTINO (Tomorrow and Sunday) Some people, faced with a theater that seats 100 people, would stage chamber opera. But the tiny Amato Opera endears precisely because it refuses to recognize realistic limits, preferring to lose itself in a haze of opera idolatry. This weekend, therefore, it brings back its staging of one of Verdis largest works, for some of Verdis largest singers; probably a few people in the companys perennially rotating casts will even do the spirit of the music justice. Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m., 319 Bowery, at Second Street, East Village, (212) 228-8200, amato.org; $35; $28 for students and 65+. (Anne Midgette) * DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG (Monday) Otto Schenks stylistically realistic and captivating 1993 production of Wagners humanely comic masterpiece is back in the repertory. That this score is a James Levine specialty is just one reason to expect the best from this revival. The veteran bass James Morris, acclaimed for his affecting portrayal of the wise and conflicted shoemaker Hans Sachs, is back, along with the powerhouse tenor Johan Botha as the young knight Walther, a role he has sung splendidly at the house. Branching out, the fine soprano Hei-Kyung Hong sings Eva for the first time at the Met. At 6 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $15 to $175. (Tommasini) THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (Tomorrow, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) The very model of the major Gilbert and Sullivan light opera rolls into the New York State Theater to open City Operas spring season, with two Tony Award winners, Marc Kudisch and Mark Jacoby, in a cast led by Matt Morgan (Frederic), Sarah Jane McMahon (Mabel) and the wonderful Myrna Paris (Ruth). Gerald Steichen conducts. Tomorrow at 1:30 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (preview performances); Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nycopera.com; $16 and $37 remaining tomorrow and Sunday; $45 to $125 for Wednesday and Thursday. (Midgette) SIMON BOCCANEGRA (Tomorrow and Tuesday) Verdis dark operatic tale of love and politics continues at the Metropolitan Opera with an excellent cast that includes Angela Gheorghiu, Thomas Hampson, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Marcello Giordani. (Angela Marambio replaces Ms. Gheorghiu on Tuesday as Amelia.) Go, too, for a splendid conductor, Fabio Luisi. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday at 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; sold out tomorrow; $15 to $175 on Tuesday. (Bernard Holland) LA TRAVIATA (Wednesday) For its revival of Verdis Traviata, in Franco Zeffirellis extravagant 1998 production, the Met is rotating casts, with three sopranos sharing the role of Violetta this season. The earthy Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova, who made her Met debut in 2001 and who was recently heard at the house as Nedda in Pagliacci, sings Violetta, the role of her debut. The compelling German tenor Jonas Kaufmann sings Alfredo, Violettas impulsive lover, with the veteran American baritone Dwayne Croft as Alfredos tragically interfering father, Germont. Marco Armiliato conducts. At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $65 to $175. (Tommasini) DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (Tonight and Thursday) The revival of Julie Taymors production of Mozarts Zauberflöte continues at the Met, complete with the magical puppets and stage effects that made it an audience hit when it opened in 2004. James Levine conducts a cast that includes Lisa Milne as Pamina, Cornelia Götz as the Queen of the Night, Michael Schade as Tamino, Rodion Pogossov as Papageno, Eike Wilm Schulte as the Speaker and Vitalij Kowaljow as Sarastro. (Morris Robinson replaces Mr. Kowaljow on Thursday.) At 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $205 tickets remaining tonight; $175 on Thursday. (Vivien Schweitzer) Classical Music BARGEMUSIC (Tonight, tomorrow, Sunday and Thursday) Tonight and tomorrow on the barge there will be music for clarinet, violin and piano by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Milhaud, Stravinsky and Igor Raykhelson. Julian Milkis is on clarinet, Mark Peskanov on violin and Vladislav Kovalsky on piano. On Sunday the lineup includes Mendelssohns Piano Trio in D minor and Schuberts Piano Trio in B flat. On Thursday the pianist Gerald Robbins performs works by Mozart, Schumann, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday nights at 8, Sunday at 4 p.m., Fulton Ferry landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083, bargemusic.org; $35; $20 for students; $30 for 65+ tonight and tomorrow. (Schweitzer) CHIARA STRING QUARTET (Thursday) Young chamber groups and soloists are increasingly taking their work to clubs that more typically present pop and jazz, in the hope of finding new listeners. For its concert at the Caffe Vivaldi, this superb quartet promises a varied program with music by Beethoven, Andean folk songs and transcriptions of Prince songs. At 7:30 p.m., Caffe Vivaldi, 32 Jones Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 691-7538, caffevivaldi.com; no cover. (Allan Kozinn) GILBERT AND SULIVAN CELEBRATION (Thursday) Glimmerglass Opera presents a concert of familiar and lesser-known works of Gilbert and Sullivan, among them Utopia Limited and The Grand Duke. Performers including the soprano Brenda Rae, the mezzo-soprano Sandra Piques Eddy, the tenor Vale Rideout, the baritone Matthew Worth and the bass-baritone Daniel Gross, will also read from letters, diaries and reviews from Gilbert and Sullivans contemporaries. Djordje Nesic provides musical direction and piano accompaniment. At 7:30 p.m., Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, Manhattan, (212) 685-0008, morganlibrary.org; sold out. (Schweitzer) JUPITER SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS (Monday) Continuing its mission in the quirkily enterprising spirit of its founder, Jens Nygaard, this ensemble offers an appealing mixture of rarities and familiar scores. Its program this week includes string quintets by Onslow and Glazunov, and a Nonet by Coleridge-Taylor. At 2 and 7:30 p.m., Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church, 152 West 66th Street, Manhattan, (212) 799-1259, jupitersymphony.com; $10 to $25. (Kozinn) LEIPZIG GEWANDHAUS ORCHESTRA (Tonight, Monday and Tuesday) Lean, mean and admired over the last generation, the Leipzig players return to the New York area for three concerts. The pianist Yundi Li sits down with the orchestra tonight and Monday, and it will be interesting to hear how glitter and Central European sobriety mix. Other music, all conducted by Riccardo Chailly, will be by Strauss, Schumann and Mahler. Tonight at 8, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722, njpac.org; $22 to $78. Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $29 to $90. (Holland) MET CHAMBER ENSEMBLE (Sunday) James Levine continues to champion the venerable American composer Elliott Carter, here with A Mirror on Which to Dwell. Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 12 (one of my favorites) and the Brahms Second Serenade will also be performed. Lucy Shelton sings, and Mr. Levine plays the piano. At 5 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $58 and $68. (Holland) METROPOLITAN MUSEUM ARTISTS IN CONCERT (Tonight) Members of the Metropolitan Museums resident chamber group present a program featuring Schuberts Five German Dances, Seven Trios and Coda for String Quartet (D. 90); Kodalys Duo for Violin and Cello (Op. 7); Kurtags 12 Microludes for String Quartet (Op. 13); and Brahmss String Quintet in G (Op. 111). The musicians are Edward Arron, cellist; Nicholas Cords, violist; Jennifer Frautschi and Yosuke Kawasaki, violinists; and Colin Jacobsen, violinist and violist. At 8, (212) 570-3949, metmuseum.org; $30. (Schweitzer) MUSIC FROM JAPAN (Tomorrow and Sunday) Joji Yuasa is a veteran composer; an erstwhile colleague of Takemitsu; a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego; and the subject of a retrospective tomorrow that will include a world premiere. The biwa is a kind of lute (not unlike the Chinese pipa), which the player-singer Junko Tahara has formed into a distinctive ensemble that will perform everything from a brand-new work by Masataka Matsuo to a medieval epic called The Tale of the Heike on Sunday afternoon. Both are part of the small Music From Japan festival, which offers a compact look at musical worlds many of us still dont know well enough. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 501-3330, kaufman-center.org; $20, or $35 for both concerts. (Midgette) NEW YORK CONSORT OF VIOLS (Sunday) This expert early-music ensemble, joined by a choir of men and boys, offers medieval and Renaissance works from Spain. At 3 p.m., Church of the Transfiguration, 1 East 29th Street, Manhattan, (212) 684-4174, josephpan.com/nycv; $20 in advance; $25 at the door; $15 for students and 65+. (Kozinn) ORION STRING QUARTET (Wednesday) Under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orion players honor one of Americas distinguished composers when they play four string quartets by Leon Kirchner. At 7:30 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5788, chambermusicsociety.org; $30 to $52. (Holland) * THOMAS QUASTHOFF (Monday and Wednesday) Mr. Quasthoff is reputed to be as gifted a teacher as he is a recitalist, and with his latest recording, The Jazz Album: Watch What Happens (Deutsche Grammophon), he aims to show that he is as gifted a jazz singer as a classical one. He will demonstrate several facets this week at Carnegie Hall. On Monday a program at Zankel Hall called Thomas Quasthoff and the Art of Song will showcase some of his best current students in Berlin; on Wednesday he takes the main stage with a jazz combo for a concert of his own. Unusual, perhaps, but it could also be pretty hot. Monday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday at 8 p.m., (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $15 for Monday; $18 to $64 for Wednesday. (Midgette) * MICHAEL SCHADE (Tuesday) The dulcet-voiced Swiss-born tenor Michael Schade, an artist especially noted for his Mozart roles in the opera house, is also an elegant lieder singer. For his unusual song recital at Zankel Hall with the pianist Malcolm Martineau, Mr. Schade will focus on the German Romantic poet Joseph von Eichendorff, as set to music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Wolf. While in New York, Mr. Schade is also appearing as Tamino in the Metropolitan Operas production of Die Zauberflöte. At 7:30 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $36 to $42. (Tommasini) VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (Tonight through Sunday) These days the Vienna Philharmonic is as famous for its resistance to hiring women as for its playing, but lets not forget that purely as a music-making machine, its a glorious thing. Daniel Barenboim leads it in three concerts: Schubert and Bruckner symphonies tonight; all Bartok (including the Second Piano Concerto with Lang Lang) tomorrow; and the Schumann Fourth Symphony and orchestral music from Wagner operas on Sunday. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 2, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $51 to $200. (Kozinn) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO (Tomorrow and Sunday) This zany all-male troupe of ballerinas will perform at two New York-area theaters this weekend. The ballerhinos invade Princeton tomorrow at 8 p.m. McCarter Theater Center, 91 University Place, Princeton, N.J., (609) 258-2787, mccarter.org; $32 to $38. Then they will chassé on to Newark for a performance on Sunday at 3 p.m. New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722, njpac.org; $20 to $58. (Jennifer Dunning) * DANCE AT DNA (Tomorrow and Thursday) Amy Pivar, known for brainy, powerfully emotional choreography, teams up tomorrow with the mezzo-soprano Elaine Valby and the composer-performers Paula M. Kimper and Gilda Lyons for the latest installment in a five-year collaboration. The musical texts include poetry by Paul Bowles and a setting in Hebrew of the 23rd Psalm. Sharing the program are Alexandra Shilling and Ann Robideaux, who create a surreal landscape in their new Long Night. And tomorrow afternoon, six choreographers will participate in the theaters informal Works in Progress series, which consists of excerpted dance and audience feedback. Bridgman-Packer Dance will follow on Thursday, through March 11, in a dance that explores the concept of video partnering, as Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer put it. Their video collaborators are Peter Bobrow, Jim Monroe and Matthias Oostrik. On hand to provide the live music will be Robert Een, Ken Field and Glen Velez. Works in Progress, tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., $10 suggested donation; Pivar tomorrow at 8 p.m., $17; Bridgman-Packer Thursday at 8 p.m., $25. Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, TriBeCa, (212) 279-4200, dnadance.org. (Dunning) Philippe Decouflé (Tuesday through Thursday) This French choreographer is well known for his wonderfully entertaining and often poetic large-scale productions that blend dance, circus, music hall and theater. Its a surprise to find him performing a solo, called Solo: Le Doute MHabite (I Am Filled With Doubt), but there are likely to be visual tricks, humor and theatrical magic aplenty. (Through March 11.) Tuesday and Wednesday at 7.30 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $38; $29 for Joyce members. (Roslyn Sulcas) THE 4 TANGO SEASONS (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) This show explores natures cycles as seen through a man and a woman in love. (Through April 1.) Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 3 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Thalia Spanish Theater, 41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside, Queens, (718) 729-3880, thaliatheatre.org; $30; $27 for students and 65+; all tickets $25 tonight and Thursday. (Dunning) Sally Gross and Company (Tonight through Sunday night) There are a few choreographers who epitomize a certain kind of downtown spirit: dedicated, talented and tenacious. One is Ms. Gross, who has been making austere, economical dances since the 1960s and still has much to say. Two new works, The Pleasure of Stillness and Songs, a solo for Ms. Gross, are on the program, along with two pieces from last year; With Music #2 and With Words #2. At 8, Joyce Soho, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 334-7479, joyce.org; $15. (Sulcas) MIGUEL GUTIERREZ AND THE POWERFUL PEOPLE (Tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday) In his new Everyone, Mr. Gutierrez examines the always topical issue of how and why a dance may be made in a world filled with incoherent current events. (Through March 11.) Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 and 9:30, Sunday at 3 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand Street, at Pitt Street, Lower East Side, (212) 352-3101, abronsartscenter.org; $20, $10 for students; $50 for gala program and reception on Wednesday. (Dunning) Marcia Milhazes Dance Company (Thursday) Marcia Milhazes danced with Maurice Bejart and studied at the Laban Center in London before returning to her native Brazil in 1994. Her company makes its New York debut with Tempo de Verão (Summertime), which a recent article in Dance Magazine described as cultured and trendy. Which could be good. (Through March 10.) At 7.30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 691-6500, dtw.org; $20; $12 for students, 65+ and artists. (Sulcas) * 92nd STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE FESTIVAL (Tomorrow, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum, a percussive-dance group from Minneapolis-St. Paul, creates rhythmic patterns with taps, found objects and vocalizing, tomorrow and Sunday. The festival continues on Wednesday with performances by the Dusan Tynek Dance Theater. Mr. Tynek, a Czech-born choreographer, has a style that is vivid and quirky in a quietly powerful folk-art way, in dances that address decidedly unusual themes. His new Fleur-de-lis, for example, a three-part reimagining of religious paintings and the emotions contained in them, is a dance set to music by the Baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum, tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Dusan Tynek Dance Theater, Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 415-5500, 92Y.org/HarknessFestival; $20; $10 for students and 65+. (Dunning) ROYSTON DANCE COMPANY (Tomorrow and Sunday) Robert Roystons new StreetSwing draws on his experiences as a multiple winner of the ballroom championships in United States Open Swing Dance and World Country Dance. Tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, (718) 760-0064, queenstheatre.org; $37; $33 for 65+; $20 for students. (Dunning) * PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY (Tonight through Sunday, and Tuesday through Thursday) The company opens its spring season tonight with the lush Roses, the jaunty yet sad Company B and Mr. Taylors new Lines of Loss, a meditation on different kinds of loss set to eight pieces of music by composers including Guillaume de Machaut and John Cage. Popular Taylor favorites to be performed this week are the haunting Sunset (tomorrow and Wednesday nights) and the sexy and funny tango piece Piazzolla Caldera (tomorrow night), and the death-defying yet serene Esplanade (Sunday afternoon and Wednesday night). Another of the weeks highlights promises to be a one-time performance of Mr. Taylors Aureole, that luminous 1962 modern-dance classic, on Tuesday in a gala program that also includes the premiere of Troilus and Cressida (reduced). The new work may well represent the choreographer at his most wicked, set as it is to music by Ponchielli (the well-known tune for Allan Shermans novelty song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!). (Through March 18.) Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday at 7 p.m. City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212, nycitycenter.org; $15 to $125. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * American Folk Art Museum: MARTíN RAMíREZ, through April 29. Ramírez, a Mexican peasant who immigrated to Northern California and died there at 68 in 1963, spent the last 32 years of his life in a mental hospital, making some of the greatest art of the last century. He had his own way with materials and color and an unforgettable cast of characters (most notably, a mounted caballero and a levitating Madonna crowned like the Statue of Liberty.) But most of all, Ramírez had his own brand of pictorial space, established by rhythmic systems of parallel lines, both curved and straight, whose mesmerizing expansions and contractions simultaneously cosset and isolate his figures. This show should render null and void the distinction between insider and outsider art. 45 West 53rd Street, (212) 265-1040. (Roberta Smith) * American Museum of Natural History: GOLD, through Aug. 19. This astounding array of art, artifacts and natural samples -- larded with fascinating facts and tales -- ranges from prehistoric times to the present. Stops along the way include pre-Columbian empires, sunken treasure, Bangladesh dowry rituals and the moon landing. It turns out that gold comes from the earth in forms as beautiful as anything man has thought to do with it. You are certain to emerge with mind boggled and eyes dazzled. Central Park West and 79th Street, (212) 769-5100, amnh.org. (Smith) * Asia Society: Glass, Gilding, and Grand Design: Art of Sasanian Iran (224-642 A.D.), through May 20. This glinting, glowing show is a reduction of a much larger Paris exhibition that included material from Iranian museums impossible to bring to the United States. But with some 70 examples of silver, glass and silk textile fragments, many from European museums, it is still substantial and the first major exhibition of its kind in this part of the world for more than 30 years. For about four centuries, the Sasanians ruled territory stretching from present-day Iran and Iraq to North Africa. Their only rivals were Rome, Byzantium and, at the very end, the early Islamic dynasties. Much of their surviving art is a sterling example of empire in action. 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, (212) 288-6400. (Holland Cotter) Guggenheim Museum: Family Pictures, through April 16. This show sounds ripe with possibilities. The results, however, are more mixed. The exhibition is drawn from the museums collection, which explains some of its exclusions and limitations. Many artists you associate with contemporary photography and the family are not in attendance: Richard Bellingham, Tina Barney, Malerie Marder. There is also a sense of false advertising in the exhibitions title. The museums news release extends the exhibitions exploration into representation of families and children in contemporary art and video. Images of children, you quickly realize, can operate as a completely different genre. A good portion of the work falls under this rubric. Rineke Dijkstras Beach Portraits of adolescents posing awkwardly against stark seascape horizons are isolated (and isolating) images of children on the threshold of adulthood. You dont think about family when gazing at these photographs. Sally Mann is perhaps the best-known contemporary photographer of children, specifically her own. Ms. Mann, represented here by black-and-white photographs from the late 1980s and early 1990s of her ethereally gorgeous children (now grown), has been accused of everything from neglect to child abuse. The questions raised by her dual role as artist and mother, simultaneous protector and potential exploiter of the family, and her choice of family as the central focus of artistic practice, remain vitally interesting. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Martha Schwendener) FRICK COLLECTION: GEORGE STUBBS (1724-1806): A CELEBRATION, through May 27. One of the finest horse painters ever, Stubbs knew his subjects from head to hoof and skin to bones, having dissected them for his famous study The Anatomy of the Horse (1766). Hes best known for his views of aristocratic race horses, seen purely as beautiful animals with no attempt at anthropomorphosis, but he painted other mammals too, dogs, lions, tigers, oxen, monkeys and humans. This intimate show of 17 Stubbs paintings from English collections reveals his admirable range, although the people he portrayed in two large, late canvases, elegiac celebrations of farm workers raking and reaping grain, have the stiffness of figures on a candy box. His horses are his true monuments. 1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 288-0700. (Grace Glueck) International Center of Photography: Henri Cartier-Bressons Scrapbook: Photographs, 1932-46, through April 29. Arrived by way of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, this show has more than 300 of the prints the photographer glued into an album and toted to New York for curators at the Museum of Modern Art to cull. Captured by the Nazis, he had been presumed dead when the Modern planned his retrospective. Then he turned up alive -- the posthumous exhibition opened, with him in attendance, in 1947. The current exhibition reconstructs as best as possible the original layout of the scrapbook. Its an eye-straining affair, but it surveys the revolutionary work he shot in Spain, Italy, Mexico, Britain and France. His taste for uncanny detail linked him to Surrealism and Surrealist wit, but unlike many Surrealists, he remained committed to human values. Boys mug at his camera. Prostitutes swan. Their gazes equalize them with us. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000, icp.org. (Michael Kimmelman) International Center of Photography: Martin Munkacsi: Think While You Shoot! through April 29. Munkacsi, who inspired Cartier-Bresson, was, by contrast, self-taught, a creature of his own devising. This is the most complete retrospective, with a thick catalog (not too well researched) and dozens of vintage prints from the 1920s through the early 60s. He favored scenes of daily life, absorbing avant-garde ideas about odd angles and abstract compositions. In 1928 he moved to Berlin and traveled the world on assignment to Brazil, Algeria and Egypt. Munkacsi was a stylist, and he made catchy images the only way he knew how, in a modernist mode, which, being an opportunistic form, could serve any master. (See above.) (Kimmelman) * The METropOlitan museum of art: ONE OF A KIND: THE STUDIO CRAFT MOVEMENT, through Sept. 3. Focusing on the postwar development of artist-craftsmen, this display of furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry and fiber includes funny, quirky, provocative and sometimes gorgeous things. Among its stars are a witty bust by the California funk ceramicist Robert Arneson (1920-92), portraying the mother of the 16th-century painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer, and Bonnie Seemans fetching ceramic coffeepot and tray, whose mock cabbage leaves and rhubarb stalks evoke the genteel tradition of 18th-century British and continental china, but can also be read as human rather than vegetative tissue. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Glueck) * Morgan Library & Museum: Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings, through April 8. This show is drawn entirely from an anonymous private collection. Despite the veil of secrecy, a couple of things are obvious: the collector had significant capital for investing in old masters and either an exceptional eye or a good adviser (or both). The works span more than 400 years, from the 16th to the early 20th century, and include drawings in ink and pencil, watercolor, chalk and gouache. The earliest works come from a period when drawing wasnt an autonomous practice but was used as a form of exercise, to apply ones craft, to experiment and to make preliminary sketches for larger works. The best example -- and the most historically significant work here -- is a black chalk drawing, The Dead Christ (1529-35), by Agnolo Bronzino. With more than 90 drawings in the show, being a diligent observer quickly becomes exhausting. In which case, put down the guide, find a few drawings you like, and enjoy them while you can. After all, you dont know where they came from, where theyre going, or when youll see them again. 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 685-0008, morganlibrary.org. (Schwendener) Museum of Modern Art: Artistic Collaborations: 50 Years of Universal Limited Art Editions, through May 21. This exhibition marks the half-century milestone for Universal Limited Art Editions in West Islip, N.Y., and its association with the Museum of Modern Art: The museum has acquired one print from every edition made at Universal, more than 1,200 works by nearly 50 artists. Prints by 12 artists are in this show. Among them are lithographs by Jasper Johns, mostly from the 1960s, with his signature maps and flags. Robert Rauschenberg is represented primarily by lithographs from the 1960s that combine found images of figures like John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson with the freehand scrawling associated with Abstract Expressionism. Its hard to fault an exhibition that features prints by masters like Mr. Johns and Mr. Rauschenberg. But given the somewhat precarious position of prints in the contemporary art world, the inclusion of younger artists would make a good argument that traditional printmaking is still relevant and holds possibilities for this generation. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. (Schwendener) * MOMA: Armando ReverÓn, through April 16. Unless you spotted his single smoke-puff of a painting at MoMA months ago, Armando Reverón probably means nothing to you. Why should he? The artist, who died in 1954, spent most of his life in a shack by the sea in his native Venezuela. Many of his contemporaries dismissed him as nuts. His white-on-white pictures are practically unphotographable. But chances are that if you visit this retrospective, youll find yourself thinking about him a lot. His art and his story are like few others, and so is the museums inspired installation: a single, longcorridor with cabinetlike rooms of paintings on either side and, at the very end, against a sea-green wall, a life-size doll with giant bat wings floating overhead. (See above.) (Cotter) * National Academy Museum: HIGH TIMES, HARD TIMES: NEW YORK PAINTING, 1967-1975, through April 22. Organized under the auspices of International Curators Incorporated, this brave if confused exhibition is the first to tackle a neglected subject: New York painting during the period it was supposed to be dead. The shows 42 works by 37 artists reveal that, far from dead, painting was in fact in an uproar that was commensurate with the artistic, social and political turbulence of the times. The alternation between artists who remained loyal in their way to stretched canvas and those who abandoned it, which makes for clear installation, also tidies up history. The main problem is that the exhibition sticks too purposefully to the margins, mixing generations and levels of achievement and continuing the neglect of the main story. Too much of this work is as derivative now as it was then, and functions more as artifact than art. 1083 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 369-4880, nationalacademy.org. (Smith) Galleries: Chelsea * BAKER OVERSTREET: NEW PAINTINGS Like Keegan McHargue and Devendra Banhart, this young artist has a penchant for tribal motifs, which he flattens into symmetrical compositions and renders with an outsider roughness. The works in his debut show evoke the imagery of the space-ship-obsessed, self-taught artist Ionel Talpazan, as well as Alfred Jensen and Forrest Bess. Their notion of the visionary is both self conscious and familiar, but they are painted with energetic dispatch and a sure sense of scale, color and wit that encourages you to stay tuned. Fredericks & Freiser, 536 West 24th Street, (212) 633-6555, through March 17. (Smith) Last Chance Dia:Beacon: Agnes Martin: A Field of Vision: Paintings from the 1980s, Dia:Beacon, a bulwark of Minimalism on the banks of the Hudson River north of Manhattan, has three permanent galleries devoted to the artist Agnes Martin. Over the last two years they have been used for a retrospective of her paintings, installed in decade-long increments. The fourth installment is now in place. If Ms. Martins spare, lucid compositions of drawn lines and painted bands feel different from much of the art around them here, that is because she was not a Minimalist. In fact, she called herself an Abstract Expressionist, and she was adamant on this point. The 18 paintings here confirm her conviction, in a show as deep, light-glinting, restless and purposeful as the river flowing nearby. Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, 3 Beekman Street, Beacon, N.Y., (845) 440-0100, www.diacenter.org; closes on Monday. (Cotter) * MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM: SAUL STEINBERG: ILLUMINATIONS, A cartoonist-artist extraordinaire, Saul Steinberg (1914-99) was a veritable Leonardo of graphic drollery. His famous New Yorker cover positioning Manhattan at the center of the world may be his best-known drawing, but he took on everything -- Floridians, linguistic concepts, erotica, cowboys, Cubism, nature, architecture and women -- with visual puns, manic doodles, grandiloquent calligraphy and other inspired artifice. As this show of more than 100 Steinberg drawings, collages and constructions goes on, Steinbergs progress is evident: from relatively simple cartoons like Feet on Chair (1946), in which a fellow reading a newspaper parks his feet on the seat of an ornate Victorian monstrosity, to complex comments on the state of the world, like Street War (Cadavre Exquisis) (about 1972-74), derived from news clips of postcolonial troubles in the Middle East and Africa (and possibly influenced by his growing interest in underground comix), a premonitory take on the precarious situation of the world today. The flow of his work amazes. 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 685-0008, morganlibrary.org; closes on Sunday. (Glueck) * Spectral Evidence This group show, organized by the sharp young artist Steven Lam, is about the hard shell of illusion that surrounds official history, and about arts attempt to crack open that shell. These histories range from lynchings and United States government surveillance in the 1930s, to propaganda and the Vietnam War in the 1960s, to the destruction of the Buddhist sculptures at Bamiyan in the 2000s. Terry Adkins, Jill Godmilow, Sreshta Rit Premnath and Elaine Reichek are among the artists who explore the authenticity of facts woven from ideology and desire. Rotunda Gallery, 33 Clinton Street, near Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights, (718) 875-4047; closes tomorrow. (Cotter)

The Man Who Made God His ATM - The Daily Beast

She ended up being thrown off the plane and fined $3,000. As if that. Though very much part of the right wing, Oral Roberts was less overtly political than celebrity televangelists like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and thus made less of an impact on the secular culture. But as the. She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, and her work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, Glamour, and many other publications.

The 50 Best Christian Colleges in the U.S.

This liberal arts institution has 3 regional locations in addition to their main campus in Nampa, Idaho. Academic offerings are served up through 60 areas of study in five academic schools: School of Arts, Humanities and Social��.

Top 20 Theological Schools or Seminaries in the U.S.

Each have their own strengths, weaknesses, foci, and constituency, but each one offers a choice for anyone who is aspiring to grow his or her knowledge of God and his Word. Note. Those who wish to engage in early church studies and scholarly research will find Notre Dame to be beneficial, but it is not considered an ideal choice for those who are considering a pastoral ministry in a Protestant church... Evangelical | La Mirada, California | Established in 1952.

The Queen makes the most of the sunshine during trot through Windsor Great Park

Recent years have seen her cut down on the amount of time she spends in the saddle - the result of a niggling knee injury that also forced her to give up presiding over Trooping the Colour on horseback. Nevertheless, the Queen remains an enthusiastic .

The Listings: Nov. 3 - Nov. 9

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 THE AMERICAN PILOT In previews; opens on Nov. 21. After a production at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, David Greigs play, about an American whose plane crashes in a war-torn country, moves to New York. Lynne Meadow directs (2:00). Manhattan Theater Clubs City Center, Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. THE COAST OF UTOPIA: VOYAGE In previews; opens on Nov. 27. Tom Stoppards three-play epic about the forebears of the Russian Revolution begins with Voyage, set in 1833 in the Russian countryside. The all-star cast includes Billy Crudup, Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Ehle, Richard Easton and many, many more (2:45). Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. COMPANY In previews; opens on Nov. 29. Liked last seasons Sweeney Todd? Actors will pick up instruments again for another Stephen Sondheim revival. Raúl Esparza stars (2:20). Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. DR. SEUSSS HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS: THE MUSICAL In previews; opens on Wednesday. You loved the book. You hated the movie. Now see the musical (1:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. THE INTERNATIONALIST In previews; opens on Tuesday. This new play by Anne Washburn (Apparition) is about an American businessman making do abroad (2:00). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212) 353-0303. THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED In previews; opens on Nov. 13. Douglas Carter Beanes play, about a rising Hollywood male star who falls in love with a gay hustler, transfers to Broadway (2:00). Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. MARY POPPINS In previews; opens on Nov. 16. Disney looks to find its old magic touch with this new blockbuster, which transfers from London with good buzz. Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne direct (2:30). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. MIMI LE DUCK In previews; opens on Monday. A Mormon housewife leaves her husband, Idaho and a QVC Network job for a new life in Paris in this comic musical (2:05). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. LES MISÉRABLES In previews; opens on Thursday. And you thought the romance was over. Three years later, the famous revolve returns to Broadway (2:55). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 34th Street, (212) 239-6200. REGRETS ONLY In previews; opens on Nov. 19. The Manhattan Theater Club presents the world premiere of Paul Rudnicks new zinger-filled comedy of manners set in high society (2:00). City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER In previews; opens on Nov. 15. The always lovely Blythe Danner stars in a revival of Tennessee Williamss brutal psychological drama. Mark Brokaw directs (1:30). Laura Pels Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. TWELFTH NIGHT Starts on Tuesday. Declan Donnellan directs an all-male cast in a new production by Cheek by Jowl and the Chekhov International Theater Festival. In Russian, with English titles (2:35). Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100. Broadway BUTLEY In this uneasy revival of Simon Grays portrait of a toxic English professor, directed by Nicholas Martin, Nathan Lane fires off witticisms as if they were silver bullets with Made in Britain engraved on them. A less-than-perfect marriage of a first-rate actor with a first-rate play (2:30). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Ben Brantley) A CHORUS LINE If you want to know why this show was such a big deal when it opened 31 years ago, you need only experience the thrilling first five minutes of this revival. Otherwise, this archivally exact production, directed by Bob Avian, feels like a vintage car that has been taken out of the garage, polished up and sent on the road once again (2:00). Schoenfeld Theater, 236 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) 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 (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, it has theatergoers responding as if they were withering houseplants finally being watered after long neglect (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * HEARTBREAK HOUSE A ripping revival of Shaws comedy about the English gentry waltzing toward the abyss as the shadow of World War I looms. Philip Bosco, as the admirably sane madman Captain Shotover, and Swoosie Kurtz, as his swaggeringly romantic daughter, lead the superb cast, under the sharp direction of Robin Lefevre. Nearly a century after its composition, the play still sparkles with wit and sends a shiver down the spine too (2:30). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300. (Charles Isherwood) JAY JOHNSON: THE TWO AND ONLY A genial 90-minute entertainment giving Broadway audiences a chance to get reacquainted with the (almost) lost art of ventriloquism. Jay Johnson, the onetime star of the television comedy Soap, gives a pocket history of the profession, in addition to an ample demonstration, with partners including a vulture who sings My Way, a foul-mouthed wooden tyke, a talking tennis ball and a monkey purveying some of the corniest shtick this side of a Friars roast (1:30). Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) LOSING LOUIE This second-rate English import depicts the impact of an adulterous liaison on two generations of a family in Pound Ridge. Indifferently directed by Jerry Zaks, its a queasy mixture of coarse comedy and soap operatic contrivances (2:10). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) MARTIN SHORT: FAME BECOMES ME This eager and amiably scattershot satire of celebrity memoirs and Broadway musicals, starring the immodestly modest Mr. Short, arrives a little late to the table for such parody to taste fresh. With serviceably tuneful songs by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman (of Hairspray fame) (1:45). Jacobs Theater, 242 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a superdeluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN The brilliant choreographer Twyla Tharp interprets the Bob Dylan songbook less than brilliantly. And when a genius goes down in flames, everybody feels the burn (1:30). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE WEDDING SINGER An assembly-kit musical that might as well be called That 80s Show, this stage version of the 1998 film is all winks and nods and quotations from the era of big hair and junk bonds. The cast members, who include Stephen Lynch and Constantine Maroulis, , are personable enough, which is not the same as saying they have personalities (2:20). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway ARMS AND THE MAN Shaws story of a mercenary who breaks into a young Bulgarian womans bedroom while fleeing a battle seems not to have much social bite in this rendition, but the humor still works nicely, particularly when in the hands of Robin Leslie Brown and Dominic Cuskern as the invaded households matriarch and patriarch. Bradford Cover has an appealing, offhand delivery as the soldier (2:15). The Pearl Theater Company, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212) 598-9802. (Neil Genzlinger) ASCENSION Brandon Ruckdashel makes a stunning debut in Edmund De Santiss clever comic mystery about a priest, a beautiful young man and a mothers accusation of sexual abuse (1:30). The Lion Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Anita Gates) BHUTAN Daisy Footes drama may not be working the freshest territory -- dead-end lives in a small town -- but it sure is well told and well acted. A widow and her two teenagers are struggling financially and feeling dislocated by their towns changing social alignments; Sarah Lord is especially good as the daughter whose fascination with a neighbors trip to Bhutan gives the play its title and overarching metaphor (1:20). Cherry Lane Theater, 38 Commerce Street, between Barrow and Bedford Streets, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Genzlinger) *THE CLEAN HOUSE Sarah Ruhls comedy about the painful but beautiful disorder of life has arrived in New York at last in a gorgeous production directed by Bill Rauch. Blair Brown and Jill Clayburgh delight as sisters with different views on the meaning of cleaning, and Vanessa Aspillaga is equally good as the depressed maid with little affection for her work but a deep conviction that a good joke can be a matter of life and death (2:15). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) EMERGENCE-SEE! Daniel Beatys solo show takes stock of the urban African-American mind in the new century, as dozens of men and women flock to Liberty Island when a slave ship mysteriously appears in New York Harbor. The performance captivates; the material doesnt (1:15). The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) esoterica Eric Waltons very entertaining one-man show is a mix of magic, mentalism and intelligent chat. He does all three impressively (1:30). DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) THE FANTASTICKS A revival -- well, more like a resuscitation -- of the Little Musical That Wouldnt Die. This sweet-as-ever production of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidts commedia-dellarte-style confection is most notable for Mr. Joness touching performance (under the pseudonym Thomas Bruce) as the Old Actor, a role he created when the show opened in 1960. Mr. Jones also directs (2:05). Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * 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) THE GIVEN Grim without being rewarding, Francine Volpes drama involves a stripper, a gay man with H.I.V., another gay man who wants to become infected with H.I.V., and a married man who becomes a bit more than a good customer at a strip club. The playwright seems to be hoping that the mixture proves explosive, but its merely distasteful (2:20). Studio Dante, 257 West 29th Street, Chelsea, (212) 868-4444. (Genzlinger) * THE HAIRY APE The Irish Repertory Theater has put together a startling production of Eugene ONeills tale of a galoot called Yank who goes looking for his place in the world, one that vividly conveys what a gut-punch this work must have been when it was first seen in 1922. Eugene Lees set is something to see, and the soundscape, by Zachary Williamson and Gabe Wood, is something to hear (2:00). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (Genzlinger) 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 Drew Sarich) 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) A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN You dont have to be Jewish or Brooklynish to empathize with Jake Ehrenreich, but in terms of fully appreciating his essentially one-man show, it probably helps. Especially the Catskills jokes (2:05). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 560-8912. (Gates) MY DEAH The mind of a beauty queen is a thing to fear! John Epperson, a k a Lypsinka, brings his love of cultural deconstruction and reconstruction to this lovably trashy spoof of a certain exalted Greek tragedy, in which a scorned woman sets about chicken-frying her own children to get even with the no-account man who done her wrong. Nancy Opel and Maxwell Caulfield lead the cast in offering big servings of honey-baked ham (1:30). Abingdon Theater, 312 West 36th Street, (212) 868-4444. (Isherwood) MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE A small, intense and loudly heralded one-woman drama that tells the true story of its title character, a pro-Palestinian activist killed in the Gaza strip by an Israeli Army bulldozer. Yet for all the political and emotional baggage carried by this production, adapted from Ms. Corries writings and starring Megan Dodds, it often feels dramatically flat, even listless (1:30). Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) NO CHILD Teachers will love Nilaja Suns one-woman show about the challenges of teaching drama at Malcolm X High School (1:10). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE A slow, airless revival of Jay Presson Allens 1966 play (adapted from Muriel Sparks novel) about a dangerous Scottish schoolteacher, directed by Scott Elliott and starring the wonderful (but miscast) Cynthia Nixon, who seems much too sane and centered as the deluded Miss Brody. (2:40). The Acorn Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Brantley) SHOUT! A miniskirted, go-go-booted zombie of a musical about women searching for love in London in the 1960s. You wont see anything this groovy, this far-out, this with-it outside of, oh, maybe the showroom of a Carnival cruise ship (1:30). Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) TEMPEST TOSSED FOOLS This musical audience-participation childrens version of The Tempest is rowdy, colorful and not all that Shakespearean. Manhattan Ensemble Theater, 55 Mercer Street, SoHo, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) THE TIMEKEEPERS Dan Clancys play, which throws a Jewish artisan and a gay hustler together in a concentration camp workroom, transcends standard Holocaust psychodrama on the strength of its characterizations and definitive performances by Seth Barrish and Eric Paeper (1:35) Barrow Group Theater, 312 West 36th Street, third floor, (212) 760-2615. (Rob Kendt) 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER This is the comedian Judy Golds fiercely funny monologue, based on her own life as a single Jewish lesbian mother and interviews with more than 50 other Jewish mothers (1:10). St. Lukes Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Phoebe Hoban) THE VOYAGE OF THE CARCASS The playwright Dan OBrien succeeds admirably at evoking an atmosphere of tedium and claustrophobia. His play-within-a-play -- a vehicle for Dan Fogler-- is about a failed expedition of Arctic explorers frozen up together for seven years, who turn out to be a trio of sophomoric actors bickering in embarrassing dialogue about their lives, their relationships and their gas pains as they work together on a play about a failed expedition of Arctic explorers frozen up together for seven years. If this seems repetitive, it gives only a hint of the tedium in store for audiences (2:30). SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, South Village, (212) 691-1515. (Anne Midgette) WRECKS The tail wags the scorpion in the latest play by Neil LaBute to be propelled by a poisoned punch line. This slender, prickly tease of a monologue -- whose whole raison dêtre is its last-minute revelation -- is given substance by an expert performance by Ed Harris as a newly bereaved widower (1:15). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555. (Brantley) Off Off Broadway THE FLOOD This eager, accomplished show about a devastating deluge in a small Illinois town has a majestic score by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel and an able, ingratiating cast. Unfortunately theyre playing uninvolving, cookie-cutter characters (2:00). The American Theater of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, Clinton, (212) 352-3101. (Kendt) THE THUGS Rumors of death at a law firm make Adam Bocks new play a chilling little nightmare (1:15). SoHo Rep, 46 Walker Street, between Church Street and Broadway, TriBeCa, (212) 868-4444. (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 Theater, 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) DRUMSTRUCK Lightweight entertainment that stops just short of pulverizing the eardrums (1:30). New World Stages, Stage 2, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Lawrence Van Gelder) HAIRSPRAY Fizzy pop, cute kids, large man in a housedress (2:30). Neil Simon Theater, 250 West 52nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) JERSEY BOYS The biomusical that walks like a man (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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) SLAVAS SNOWSHOW Clowns chosen by the Russian master Slava Polunin stir 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, (212) 307-4100. (Van Gelder) SPAMALOT A singing scrapbook for Monty Python fans. (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE A Chorus Line, with pimples (1:45). Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance THE CARTELLS Douglas Carter Beane is giving some of his actor friends something constructive to do on Monday nights with this ridiculous staged soap opera about a dysfunctional oil family. Each week brings a different episode, rehearsal time is minimal (cue cards are involved), and the actors -- Brian dArcy James, Joanna Gleason and Elizabeth Berkley among them -- are having a great time (50 minutes). Comix, 353 West 14th Street, West Village, (212) 524-2500; closes on Monday. (Genzlinger) THE FORTUNE TELLER This morality tale for grown-ups is told through marvelously grotesque puppets and a cast, evoking Edward Gorey and Tim Burton. Written by Erik Sanko, it is an allegory of the Seven Deadly Sins, a lovely thing to look upon and listen to (the dark, brooding music is by Mr. Sanko and Danny Elfman), but for all its macabre grisliness, it needs more drama. The detailed puppets are hard to read even in this small theater, and not all of the vignettes live up to the shows initial promise. Still, theres a lot to like, starting with the narrator: an alligator named Silas Leech, voiced in the plummy tones of the musician and actor Gavin Friday (1:00). Here Arts Center, 145 Sixth Avenue, at Dominick Street, South Village, (212) 352-3101; closes on Monday. (Midgette) KING LEAR The promised end comes with disarming swiftness in this Classical Theater of Harlem production, starring André De Shields, which clocks in at just over two hours, not including an intermission. Theres nothing distilled about Mr. De Shieldss vigorous performance in the title role, but his impressive energy is not always productively channeled, and the supporting cast is uneven (2:10). The Harlem School of the Arts Theater, 645 St. Nicholas Avenue, near 141st Street, (212) 868-4444; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) KRANKENHAUS BLUES Sam Formans bizarre tale of an actress, a playwright and a clown in a Nazi camp goes off the deep end fast, but theres a great monologue about cheese (1:15). Abingdon Theater Arts Complex, 312 West 36th Street, (212) 868-4444; closes on Sunday. (Gates) SHAY DUFFIN AS BRENDAN BEHAN: CONFESSIONS OF AN IRISH REBEL Mr. Duffins uneven, often charming one-man show offers Behans thoughts on drinking, great men, drinking, politics and drinking (1:15). The Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444; closes on Sunday. (Gates) A SMALL MELODRAMATIC STORY Small, yes, melodramatic, not so much. Stephen Belbers minor drama about a woman in Washington and the two men and two mysteries in her life benefits from sharp but unshowy performances, but feels like cop-show leftovers nonetheless (1:40). The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) TRUTH $(the heart is a million little pieces above all things$) The virtuoso storyteller Mike Daiseys new monologue, which addresses issues about lying, memoir and the James Frey scandal, is less funny than his previous work but just as engaging and intellectually curious (1:40). Ars Nova, 511 West 54th Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444; closes tomorrow. (Zinoman) YOHEN Philip Kan Gotendas drama about an interracial marriage may not be completely believable but has two lovely low-key performances and genuine warmth. The West End Theater, 263 West 86th Street, (212) 868-4030; closes on Sunday. (Gates) 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. ABSOLUTE WILSON (No rating, 105 minutes) This appreciative look at the life and work of the theater artist Robert Wilson includes a notably candid interview with the man himself, as well as mostly friendly testimony from friends and experts and glimpses of his strange, difficult and often thrillingly original work. (A. O. Scott) AS THE CALL, SO THE ECHO (No rating, 74 minutes, in English and Vietnamese) Keir Moreanos muted yet moving record of his fathers experience as a volunteer physician in Vietnam documents a journey thats substantially more philosophical than medical. Following Dr. Alex Moreano, an ear, nose and throat surgeon from Albuquerque, as he treats advanced disease and reflects on his profession, the movie presents a portrait not of a saint but of a complicated man who understands that one of the lives hes saving is his own. (Jeannette Catsoulis) BABEL (R, 143 minutes, in English, Spanish, Japanese, Berber, Arabic and sign language) This hugely ambitious movie tells four loosely linked, not-quite-simultaneous stories set on three different continents, with dialogue in several languages. The themes, to the extent they are decipherable, include loss, fate and the terrible consequences of miscommunication. Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inñáritu, the movie is an intellectual muddle but a visceral tour de force, and the power of the filmmaking almost overcomes the fuzziness of the ideas. Almost. (Scott) THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (No rating, 76 minutes) David Lee Fisher has used cinematic magic to superimpose living, speaking actors onto the original sets of the silent-film classic. Its discombobulating, but interesting. (Neil Genzlinger) CATCH A FIRE (PG-13, 102 minutes) The director Phillip Noyce revisits, with energy and a lot of bad editing, the ordeal of an ordinary black South African who became a foot soldier in the war against apartheid. (Manohla Dargis) * CLIMATES (No rating, 97 minutes, in Turkish) The story of a man and a woman, one of whom murders the others love, and a haunting portrait of existential solitude. The Turkish writer and director Nuri Bilge Ceylan also stars. (Dargis) COCAINE COWBOYS (R, 118 minutes) A hyperventilating account of the blood-bathed Miami drug culture in the 1970s and 80s, Billy Corbens bottom-feeding documentary chronicles the explosion of South Floridas cocaine economy and the ensuing turf wars between the Colombians and the Cubans. Overflowing with cops and coroners, snitches and smugglers, the movie struggles with an atmosphere of unrepentant greed and a director overly impressed with his subject matter. (Catsoulis) CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD (PG, 109 minutes) This movie ostensibly depicts the enlightenment of Neale Donald Walsch, the author of the popular series of inspirational books. But it merely becomes a maudlin feature-length advertisement for him and for them. (Andy Webster) DEATH OF A PRESIDENT (No rating, 93 minutes) This fake-umentary, the subject of much hyperventilation since it was shown at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, imagines what might happen if George W. Bush were assassinated. Condemned as irresponsible wishful thinking by some, hailed as a brave artistic statement by others, the movie, directed by Gabriel Range, is far too banal to merit such strong responses. Its formal cleverness wears thin and after a while exposes a lazy, pretentious form of provocation. (Scott) * THE DEPARTED (R, 150 minutes) Martin Scorseses cubistic entertainment about men divided by power, loyalty and their own selves is at once a success and a relief. Based on the crackling Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, it features fine twinned performances from Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, and a showboating Jack Nicholson. (Dargis) * 51 BIRCH STREET (No rating, 88 minutes) The mysteries of ordinary life drive this moving, engrossing documentary, in which the director, Doug Block, tries to figure out his parents 54-year marriage. (Scott) * FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS (R, 132 minutes) Clint Eastwood raises the flag over Iwo Jima once more in a powerful if imperfect film about the uses of war and of the men who fight. The fine cast includes Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach, who delivers heartbreak by the payload. (Dargis) FLICKA (PG, 110 minutes) A ridiculous redo of Mary OHaras 1941 childrens novel that confirms that nothing should ever come between a girl and her horse, especially a saddle. (Dargis) * A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS (R, 98 minutes) Rough, ragged and full of life, this autobiographical movie, written and directed by Dito Montiel, about his youth on the streets of Astoria, Queens, is a remarkable debut, stuffed almost to bursting with bold performances and operatic emotions. (Scott) JAAN-E-MANN (No rating, 165 minutes, in Hindi) This good-natured Bollywood musical is a romantic triangle set in New York. Personable stars partly make up for the excesses of the genre. (Anita Gates) * JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE (No rating, 85 minutes) The scariest aspect of this powerful, meticulously chronicled history of Jim Jones and his flock, who committed mass suicide in Guyana on Nov. 18, 1978, is that so many of the followers of this demented demagogue appear to have been intelligent, idealistic, life-loving people. Watch this documentary and shudder. (Holden) * LITTLE CHILDREN (R, 130 minutes) Todd Fields adaptation of Tom Perrottas novel of suburban adultery is unfailingly intelligent and faultlessly acted. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson are superb as the parents of young children who meet at the playground and enact a two-handed variation on Madame Bovary against a backdrop of social paranoia and middle-class malaise. (Scott) * MARIE ANTOINETTE (PG-13, 123 minutes) In this elaborate, bittersweet confection, Sofia Coppola imagines the last pre-revolutionary queen of France (played with wit and charm by Kirsten Dunst) as a bored, pleasure-seeking teenager trapped in a world of artifice and rigid protocol. Dreamy and decadent, the film is also touching, funny and bracingly modern. (Scott) * THE PRESTIGE (PG-13, 128 minutes) Entertaining, spirited and shamelessly gimmicky, Christopher Nolans new film tells the intricate tale of two rival magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman) practicing their art in late-Victorian London. Scarlett Johansson is the lovely assistant. (Scott) * THE QUEEN (PG-13, 103 minutes) Directed by Stephen Frears from a very smart script by Peter Morgan, and starring a magnificent Helen Mirren in the title role, The Queen pries open a window in the House of Windsor around the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, blending fact with fiction. (Dargis) RUNNING WITH SCISSORS (R, 116 minutes) From Augusten Burroughss best-selling memoir, this movie is a showcase of high-quality acting (especially from Annette Bening) without much in the way of dramatic coherence or emotional power. (Scott) SAW III (R, 107 minutes) The franchise rasps on with Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), the masked sadist whose fondness for men in chains continues unabated, playing marriage counselor to a couple whose young son has been killed in a car accident. Having learned the (knotted) ropes on Saw II, the 27-year-old Darren Lynn Bousman returns to direct, while James Wan and Lee Whannell push their original story to ever new heights of monstrousness. In the end, the most depressing thing about this franchise is not the creativity of the bloodletting but the bleak view of human nature, specifically our talent for ruining the present to avenge the past. (Catsoulis) * SHUT UP & SING (R, 93 minutes) Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Pecks revealing documentary follows the Dixie Chicks around for three years as the group deals with the consequences of a remark by its lead singer, Natalie Maines, who said from a London stage that they were ashamed that the president of the United States was from Texas. The movie is a fascinating study of the relationship between the media, politics and the music industry in an era in which pop musicians are marketed like politicians. (Holden) THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING (R, 84 minutes) A prequel to a remake of a 1974 movie that spawned several sequels and numberless copycats, this hateful trash asks: how many chainsaw massacres can one state possibly contain? (Lee) 20 CENTIMETERS (No rating, 113 minutes, in Spanish) During narcoleptic spells, a pre-op transsexual prostitute dreams that she is the star performer of huge, spicy (and frustratingly hit or miss) song-and-dance numbers. (Laura Kern) * THE WILD BLUE YONDER (No rating, 81 minutes) An artful mixture of carefully culled and originally produced material, Werner Herzogs self-described science fiction fantasy purports to tell the story of an alien species beset by misfortune. Brad Dourif stars alongside some floating astronauts and a few exquisitely beautiful underwater drifters. (Dargis) Film Series HEROIC GRACE II: SHAW BROTHERS RETURN (Through Nov. 28) BAMcinématek and the U.C.L.A. Film & Television Archive are sponsoring this sequel to their Shaw Brothers series, honoring the Chinese movie studio that spread the gospel of martial arts films. It begins on Monday with Chung Chang-Whas King Boxer (1972), better known here as The Five Fingers of Death, about an injured fighter who finds a way to have his revenge. Tuesdays film is Chor Yuens Magic Blade (1976), an epic set in a fantasy underworld. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100, www.bam.org; $10. (Gates) KINO! 2006: NEW FILMS FROM GERMANY (Through tonight) The Museum of Modern Arts survey of contemporary German cinema ends tonight with a comedy and a program of short films. Andreas Dresens Summer in Berlin (2005) is about a single mother, her roommate and the men in her life. Next Generation (2006) is a 90-minute sampling of new works from German film schools, including Tim Weimann and Tom Brachts My Date From Hell, in English. Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, 11 West 53rd Street, (212) 708-9400, moma.org; $10. (Gates) NEW CZECH FILMS (Through Sunday) BAMcinématek and the Czech Center New Yorks three-day festival of new films from the Czech Republic begins today. Features include Jan Svankmajers animated and live-action Lunacy (2005), about a traveler who meets the Marquis de Sade, and Dan Wlodarczyks Indian and the Nurse (2006), about a Romany woman who falls in love with a Czech sawmill worker. BAM Rose Cinemas, (718) 636-4100, www.bam.org; $10. (Gates) REEL JEWS FILM FESTIVAL (Through Nov. 11.) Makors seventh annual festival honoring young Jewish filmmakers begins on Monday. The features include Erez Laufers Darien Dilemma (2006), a docudrama about Austrian Jews stranded on the Danube River in 1941; Amy Gutersons Becoming Rachel (2005), a Depression-era coming-of-age story; and Ruth Goldmans And These Are Jews (2005), a documentary about 19th- and early-20th-century German Jews assimilating in Cincinnati. 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 601-1000, www.makor.org; $9. (Gates) RESISTANCE AND REBIRTH: HUNGARIAN CINEMA, 50 YEARS AFTER 56 (Through Nov. 15) On the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is screening more than two dozen films reflecting on that event. This weekends features include three directed by Miklós Jancsó: The Round-Up (1965), about peasants imprisoned after a failed 1848 uprising; Winter Wind (1969), the story of Croatian activists seeking refuge in Hungary; and Red Psalm (1972), about farmers in revolt against landowners. Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, (212) 875-5600, www.filmlinc.com; $10. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. TRACE ADKINS (Wednesday) A brawny performer who likes to sing about his scars and working-class bona fides, Mr. Adkins already had 10 hits in the country Top 10 before Honky Tonk Badonkadonk last year. But that ode to the voluptuous -- which brought a nugget of black slang to truckstop jukeboxes across the country -- cemented his image as a drawling ruffian who is not above a kinky gimmick. At 7:30 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 307-7171, nokiatheatrenyc.com; $45. (Ben Sisario) BLACK KEYS (Tonight) This guitar-drums duo from Akron, Ohio, aims to summon elemental forces with gruff, spare blues-rock, though a lack of imagination (My hearts on fire/With a strange desire) impedes its progress. With the Black Angels. At 9, Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 307-7171, nokiatheatrenyc.com; $25. (Sisario) * THE CLIPSE (Tomorrow) Four years ago this Virginia rap duo rose all the way to No. 4 with sly rhymes about the criminal life and brilliantly minimal rhythm tracks by the Neptunes. Since then the Clipse, made up of the brothers Gene and Terrence Thornton, have struggled in music-industry purgatory but remained active in the underground, and at the end of the month will release Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang/Jive), one of the most eagerly awaited hip-hop albums of the year. A CMJ Music Marathon show, with Trae, Kidz in the Hall, Jokaman, Catchdubs and DJ Chill. At 10:30 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006, knittingfactory.com; $18 in advance, $20 at the door. (Sisario) DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS (Wednesday and Thursday) Not all rock revolutions are loud. Death Cab for Cutie, one of the handful of groups that defined emo at the turn of the millennium, launched a thousand bands with gentle, sinewy guitar; library-level vocals; and songs that found heartbreak everywhere, including glove compartments. For loudness, make sure to come early for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, a veteran pop-punk band from New Jersey whose leader is one of the best songwriters in the game. At 8 p.m., Theater at Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741, thegarden.com; Wednesday sold out, $39.50 on Thursday. (Sisario) DECEMBERISTS (Tonight) He might not exactly have a lot of competition, but Colin Meloy, the songwriter and strategist of this ascendant band from Portland, Ore., can set old Irish epics and alliterative fables about Dickensian chimney sweeps to shambling folk-rock like nobody else. The band recently released The Crane Wife -- based on a classic Japanese story -- on Capitol Records, and plays at the CMJ Music Marathon as an example of success. With Alasdair Roberts, a Scottish folk singer. At 8, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171, mcstudios.com; $29.50. (Sisario) THE FALL (Tomorrow) Nearly 30 years ago, this British band laid out with jagged guitars and the tuneless slur of its leader, Mark E. Smith, a reductionist three Rs of pop: Repetition, repetition, repetition. Umpteen albums later, the Fall is a cornerstone of post-punk, and Mr. Smith still finds ways to make repetition sound new. A CMJ Music Marathon show, with Yikes, Iran, and Women and Children. At 6 p.m., Hiro Ballroom, 363 West 16th Street, Chelsea, (212) 260-4700, bowerypresents.com; $22. (Sisario) KEVIN FEDERLINE (Tomorrow) Schadenfreude has a face, and it is Mr. Federline, the husband of Britney Spears, who, despite vicious ridicule online and elsewhere, has persisted with his feeble rap career. At 7 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sisario) GOB IRON (Wednesday) Jay Farrar of Son Volt and Anders Parker of Varnaline have built careers on the idea of ragged, rock-tinged roots music: a little less grungy than Neil Young, a bit more plebeian than Bob Dylan. They delve deeply into country, blues and folk on Death Songs for the Living (Transmit Sound/Legacy), their new joint album as Gob Iron. With liberal interpretations of songs by the Carter Family, Josh White and Stephen Foster, Mr. Farrar and Mr. Parker repaint centuries of American music in gray, relentlessly bleak tones: even Clarence Ashleys sprightly and elliptical Coo-Coo Bird gets a despondent rewrite as Nicotine Blues. At 9 p.m., Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103, northsix.com; $15. (Sisario) AL GREEN (Tonight and tomorrow night) As unpredictable as Al Green concerts can sometimes be -- maybe he will perform only gospel, maybe he will do some of his transcendent 1970s soul ballads -- the pattern is always the same: he throws some roses to the women in the front rows, begins to sing, and the rest is rapture. At 8, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144, bbkingblues.com; $175. (Sisario) * GUNS N ROSES (Sunday) Only Michael Jackson inspires more morbid curiosity than Axl Rose, who has spent 12 years and a reported $13 million recording the next Guns N Roses album with a steadily rotating cast of replacements, only occasionally coming up for air and paparazzi. But he has been a common sight lately -- showing up in public (which is unusual) and completing tours (even more unusual) -- fueling speculation that the album, Chinese Democracy, is ready for release soon. Patient fans are not holding their breath. At 8:30 p.m., Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J., (201) 935-3900, meadowlands.com; $39.50 to $89.50. (Sisario) PADDY KEENAN (Tonight) Mr. Keenan, who plays uilleann pipes, comes from a family of itinerant Irish musicians, and has been one of Irelands most influential traditional players since he helped start the Bothy Band in the 1970s. At 9, Glucksman Ireland House at New York University, 1 Washington Mews, Greenwich Village, (212) 998-3950, nyu.edu/pages/irelandhouse; $15. (Jon Pareles) * THE MUSIC OF BOB DYLAN (Thursday) Paying tribute to Bob Dylans genius is the easiest thing in the world: rock bands, folk singers, pop stars and everybody in between have been doing it for four and a half decades by simply singing his songs. But this starry benefit for the Music for Youth Foundation, which supports music education, has some intriguing angles: Natalie Merchant and Philip Glass; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; Ramblin Jack Elliott with the young singer-songwriter Jennifer OConnor; Cat Power; Bob Mould; Allen Toussaint, the musical statesman from New Orleans; Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth; and Sandra Bernhard; not to mention Patti Smith, Rosanne Cash, Joan Osborne, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar, Al Kooper, Warren Haynes and Medeski Martin & Wood. At 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 836-1853, musicforyouth.org; sold out except for V.I.P. packages. (Sisario) REGGAE CULTURE SALUTE 2006 (Tomorrow) The big reggae concert this fall should be relatively free of the controversy that has dogged so many other recent reggae shows: homophobia. With a tribute to Joseph Hill, the stalwart leader of the socially conscious group Culture (Share the riches with the poor/Before they share the poverty with you), who died in August at 57, and performances by Steel Pulse and the struggle-for-survival singer Luciano, this is a celebration of reggaes old-fashioned family values. At 8 p.m., Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171, mcstudios.com or tsoproductions.com; $45 to $75. (Sisario) SECRET MACHINES (Tonight and tomorrow night) 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. At 9, Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505, warsawconcerts.com; sold out tonight, $27 tomorrow. (Pareles) SIMON SHAHEEN AND QANTARA (Tomorrow) A virtuoso on the violin and the oud, Mr. Shaheen, a Palestinian who has long lived in New York, is a master of traditional styles who also likes to experiment. His band, Qantara, bends toward jazz, Western classical and Latin music. Also on the bill is Chiara Civello, a stylish young Italian jazz-cabaret singer. At 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $30 in advance, $35 at the door. (Sisario) STUART A. STAPLES (Tomorrow) Mr. Staples, the singer of the British band Tindersticks, has apparently taken his woeful, hesitating baritone and gone solo: he has moved to France and released two albums by himself. The latest, Leaving Songs (Beggars Banquet), has a not-so-subtle theme that comes through in songs like Goodbye to Old Friends, That Leaving Feeling and Already Gone. At 8 p.m., St. Anns Warehouse, 38 Water Street, at Dock Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn, (718) 254-8779, stannswarehouse.org; $30. (Sisario) ELAINE STRITCH (Tonight and tomorrow night) The third autobiographical go-round by this feisty 81-year-old legend features 10 astutely chosen new songs (including the theme from The Sopranos) performed with verve and humor. But her between-song patter finds her at a loss to come up with amusing or enlightening new stories from her glittering show business life. At 8:45 p.m., Café Carlyle, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600, thecarlyle.com; $125; dinner required. (Stephen Holden) JAMES TAYLOR (Thursday) The Mr. Nice Guy of baby-boom pop, James Taylor is all mild-mannered vocals and gentle guitar, turning memories of fire and rain into lullabies. At 8 p.m., Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070 or (212) 307-7171; sold out. (Pareles) * VOXTROT (Monday and Tuesday) Like Morrissey and Ray Davies, Voxtrots Ramesh Srivastava uses the small scale, tight script and jangly energy of the pop song to focus emotionally compelling character studies, and surrounds the antsy guitars with tasteful chamber arrangements. The combination has catapulted this Austin, Tex., band from the handmade-CD level to indie darlings in just a year or two. With Annual and Finally Punk on Monday, and Mahogany and the Ballet on Tuesday. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; $15. (Sisario) WITCHCRAFT (Wednesday) No, thats not Black Sabbath playing some long-lost track from 1971. Its Witchcraft, a Swedish band that even in a deeply retro metal culture stands out for a remarkable simulacrum of its heroes knuckle-dragging fuzz-blues, even down to Magnus Pelanders helium-voiced Ozzy Osbourne. If Black Sabbath made it look easy, Witchcraft makes it look even easier. With Alana Amram and the Rough Gems, and Danava. At 8:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $10. (Sisario) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. BILL BRUFORDS EARTHWORKS (Tonight through Sunday night) Twenty years ago the drummer Bill Bruford, best known for his work with the progressive rock band King Crimson, formed Earthworks, a group that served both sides of the jazz-rock divide. Its current incarnation features the saxophonist Tim Garland, the pianist Gwilym Simcock and the bassist Laurie Cottle. At 8:30 and 10:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow night, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $35, with a $10 minimum. (Nate Chinen) BILL CHARLAP TRIO (Tuesday through Thursday) Bright and breezy yet unfailingly precise, the pianist Bill Charlap keeps a standard repertory percolating in the present tense. (Through Nov. 19.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) COLEMAN PLAYS COLEMAN (Wednesday) Anthony Coleman, a pianist with a pan-everything sensibility, takes on Ornette Coleman, the free-jazz pioneer, in a program of solo keyboard interpretations. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) CHICK COREA ELEKTRIC BAND (Tuesday through Thursday) An unapologetic (though intermittent) fusion institution for the last 20 years, this group features the synthesizers and other assorted keyboards of Chick Corea, along with the energetic contributions of Eric Marienthal on alto saxophone, Frank Gambale on guitar and Dave Weckl on drums. This engagements substitute bassist, Victor Wooten, is likely to adapt easily to the groups hyperrhythmic style. (Through Nov. 12.) At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $50 at tables, $35 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) PATRICK CORNELIUS QUARTET (Thursday) Celebrating the release of his new album, Lucid Dream (available on cdbaby.com), the young alto and soprano saxophonist Patrick Cornelius convenes a supporting cast that includes the pianist Luis Perdomo and the bassist Sean Conly; the singer Gretchen Parlato and the trombonist Nick Vagenas join as special guests. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $12 (members, $10). (Chinen) * KURT ELLING (Wednesday) Mr. Ellings sure-footed musicality and literary sensibility have made him one of the premier vocalists of our time. He comes with a flexible rhythm section -- the pianist Laurence Hobgood, the bassist Robert Amster and the drummer Willie Jones III -- along with a guest saxophonist, Bob Mintzer, and the Escher String Quartet. At 8:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $44. (Chinen) BEN GERSTEIN COLLECTIVE (Sunday) The trombonist Ben Gerstein has led this experimental ensemble since 2000, enlisting some of the brightest young inside-outside players in the city. Here he presents the band as well as some sympathetic colleagues, like the guitarist Miles Okazaki and the tenor saxophonist Jonathan Moritz, in groupings of various sizes. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) ROY HARGROVE BIG BAND (Tonight through Monday night) The trumpeter Roy Hargrove, a paragon of small-group hard bop since the early 90s, has also intermittently led a big band over the years. Its current roster includes prime talent like the saxophonist Ron Blake, the trumpeter Maurice Brown and the pianist Stephen Scott. At 9 and 10:30, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $25. (Chinen) * HIGHLIGHTS IN JAZZ (Thursday) The latest installation of this long-running jazz series features a bluesy trio led by Mose Allison, the irrepressible singer-songwriter and pianist; a swing-oriented duo consisting of the clarinetist Ken Peplowski and the guitarist Marty Grosz; and a bebop quartet led by the alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, with Ronnie Mathews on piano, Ray Drummond on bass and an unannounced drummer. At 8 p.m., TriBeCa Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, between Greenwich and West Streets, (212) 220-1460, tribecapac.org; $30; students, $27.50. (Chinen) DAVE HOLLAND QUINTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Characterized by rhythmic assertiveness, tight counterpoint and an unconventional blend of timbres, this widely acclaimed ensemble features the bassist Dave Holland alongside the trombonist Robin Eubanks, the saxophonist Chris Potter, the vibraphonist Steve Nelson and the drummer Nate Smith. At 9 and 11, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $35, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) GEORGE LEWIS, IKUE MORI, MARINA ROSENFELD AND MIYA MASAOKA (Tuesday) Electronic textures and open-form improvisation provide the common ground for this ensemble, with Mr. Lewis on trombone, Ms. Mori on laptop computer, Ms. Rosenfeld on turntables and Ms. Masaoka on koto. At 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA (Tonight) Mr. Mahanthappa is an alto saxophonist with quick reflexes and a razor-sharp tone, and he has lately pursued some conceptual and compositional ambitions. Here, leading something he calls the Sporty Brown Trio, he focuses more on pure interplay; his improvisational partners are the pianist Craig Taborn and the percussionist Gerry Hemingway. At 10, the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) RUSSELL MALONE AND ROMERO LUBAMBO (Tuesday through Thursday) Mr. Malone and Mr. Lubambo are two of the finest guitarists working in the jazz idiom, with Mr. Malones emphasis on post-bop and Mr. Lubambos on modern Brazilian dialects. Camaraderie will probably eclipse competition in their encounter, which also involves the bassist Esperanza Spalding. (Through Nov. 12.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25. (Chinen) * ROSCOE MITCHELL/CONNIE CROTHERS (Thursday) Mr. Mitchell, the estimable avant-garde saxophonist and composer, presents two new pieces: White Tiger Disguise, performed by the vocalist Thomas Buckner and members of the S. E. M. Ensemble; and Far Side, a tribute to his former Art Ensemble of Chicago colleague Malachi Favors Maghostut, featuring the bassists Reggie Workman, Harrison Bankhead and Jaribu Shahid. Ms. Crothers will perform a separate solo piano program, freely improvised but divided into four sections. At 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 501-3330, kaufman-center.org; $10. (Chinen) PALLADIUM MEMORIES (Tonight) Evoking the heyday of the Palladium Ballroom -- but with a view of Columbus Circle -- this concert features the current iteration of the Tito Puente Orchestra. At 7:30, Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 721-6500, jalc.org; $82.50. (Chinen) JEREMY PELT QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Jeremy Pelt has an incisive trumpet style, evocative at times of Freddie Hubbard, but he is by no means a derivative talent. His working quartet, with the pianist Frank LoCrasto and the bassist Vicente Archer, welcomes the firepower of a guest drummer, Lenny White. At 8, 10 and 11:30, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662, smokejazz.com; cover, $25. (Chinen) * DJANGO REINHARDT NY FESTIVAL (Tuesday through Thursday) What began as a salute to this immortal Gypsy guitarist has evolved into a smorgasbord of buoyant swing. This seasons stars include the guitarists Dorado Schmitt, Samson Schmitt and Tchavolo Schmitt -- Gypsy swing tends to be a family affair -- along with the accordionist Ludovic Beier and others. Special guests will include the trumpeter Dominick Farinacci (Tuesday) and the saxophonists James Carter (Wednesday) and Joel Frahm (Thursday). (Through Nov. 12.) At 8 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $40, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * ROSWELL RUDD AND THE MONGOLIAN BURYAT BAND (Tomorrow) The irrepressible trombonist Roswell Rudd recently made a fascinating album, Blue Mongol (Sunnyside), which chronicled his collaboration with traditional Mongolian throat singers. He reprises that experiment here, with an ensemble that includes the vocalists Badma Khanda and Battuvshin Baldantseren. At 8:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $30 to $42. (Chinen) JOHN STETCH (Tonight) Mr. Stetch has often worked in a solo piano setting; he has no fewer than three albums in that vein. Selections from each will be featured in this recital at Fazioli Salon, a solo piano series at the Klavierhaus workshop. At 8, Klavierhaus, 211 West 58th Street, Manhattan, (212) 245-4535, pianoculture.com; $20. (Chinen) MARCUS STRICKLAND QUARTET (Tonight) Marcus Strickland, a thoughtful young tenor saxophonist, leads an ensemble of fellow up-and-comers: Robert Rodriguez on piano, Luques Curtis on bass and E. J. Strickland, his brother, on drums. At 7, Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, (212) 620-5000, Ext. 344, rmanyc.org; $20. (Chinen) VISION CLUB SERIES (Tomorrow) This off-season outreach of the Vision Festival presents two very different ensembles: a trio consisting of the guitarist Joe Morris, the alto saxophonist Rob Brown and the drummer Whit Dickey, followed by a group called Local Lingo, featuring Jason Kao Hwang on violin and Sang Won Park on vocals and East Asian stringed instruments. At 7:30 and 9 p.m., Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street, at Rivington Street, Lower East Side, (212) 696-6681, visionfestival.org; cover, $10 a set (students, $7). (Chinen) JEFF (TAIN) WATTS (Tuesday through Thursday) Mr. Watts, a dynamic and often riveting drummer, leads a post-bop quartet composed of the tenor and soprano saxophonist Marcus Strickland, the pianist Stephen Scott and the bassist Eric Revis. (Through Nov. 12.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) KENNY WERNER (Tonight through Sunday night) Mr. Werner is a well-seasoned pianist who tempers his technique with a kind of questing spiritualism. He corrals a group comprising the tenor saxophonist George Garzone, the trumpeter Matt Shulman, the bassist Scott Colley and the drummer Antonio Sanchez. At 8 and 10:30, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $30 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) ZINC NINE PSYCHEDELIC (Sunday) The percussionist Kevin Norton, the guitarist Nick Didkovsky and the trumpeter Dave Ballou constitute this collective, which applies electronic textures toward strenuous free improvisation. At 7 and 9 p.m., Jimmys Restaurant, 43 East Seventh Street, East Village, (212) 982-3006, freestylejazz.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera CARMEN (Tonight) In her first season at City Opera, Vanessa Cariddi plays the Gypsy; Kerri Marcinko and Daesan No, two other newcomers, are Micaëla and Escamillo. Scott Piper, who has a promising voice, is Don José, and Gary Thor Wedow conducts. At 8, New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nycopera.com; sold out. (Anne Midgette) CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA AND PAGLIACCI (Tonight) The Metropolitan Operas famous double bill featuring lust, murder and beautiful music continues, still starring Maria Guleghina, Franco Farina, Patricia Racette and Salvatore Licitra. At 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $15 to $205. (Bernard Holland) COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Tomorrow and Thursday) This intelligent, well-sung New York City Opera production of what may be the most perfect opera ever written has another performance. Key singers in the ensemble cast are Julianna Di Giacomo and James Maddalena. Julius Rudel conducts. At 8 p.m. tomorrow and 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nycopera.com; $25 t0 $125. (Holland) The Elixir of Love (Wednesday) The director Jonathan Miller has created an all-American version of Donizettis Elisir dAmore, transposing the action to a vintage roadside diner to create something thats dramatically consistent but also dramatically slight. Yet Elisir is a delightful opera, and that prevails whatever you think of the directors conceit (using the word advisedly). A new cast takes over this week, with the American tenor Leonardo Capalbo making his company debut as Nemorino, and Georgia Jarman, a fine soprano, as his Adina. Gerald Steichen will conduct. At 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nycopera.com; $25 to $125. (Midgette) HANSEL AND GRETEL (Tomorrow and Sunday) In James Robinsons 1998 production for the New York City Opera, Engelbert Humperdincks Hansel and Gretel is updated to the 1890s, the time of its composition, and transplanted to New York. The woodsy cottage where the children live is a Lower East Side tenement. They run off into a snowy Central Park. And the witchs abode? A fancy Fifth Avenue mansion, of course. Jennifer Rivera and Jennifer Tiller share the role of Hansel; Jennifer Aylmer and Julianne Borg share the role of Gretel. Steven Mosteller conducts. The opera is performed in English. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Sunday at 1:30 and 5:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nycopera.com; $25 to $125 tomorrow and Sunday at 1:30; $37 to $125 on Sunday at 5:30. (Anthony Tommasini) * MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Tomorrow and Wednesday) In the Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghellas visually beautiful production, the abstract staging deftly employs movable screens, billowing fabrics, stylized costumes and, most daringly, a life-size puppet manipulated by three black-clad puppeteers to portray Butterflys 3-year-old son. Vocally, neither of the leads, the earthy-voiced soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domâs as Butterfly and the robustly Italianate tenor Marcello Giordani as Pinkerton, is ideal. But they do honorable work. Asher Fisch conducts. At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; sold out. (Tommasini) RIGOLETTO (Monday and Thursday) Three artists made their Metropolitan Opera debuts when the company recently revived Otto Schenks grimly realistic 1989 production of Rigoletto. On opening night on Oct. 25, each artist showed promise but performed unevenly. The tenor Joseph Calleja was an expressive and youthful though vocally tentative Duke of Mantua. The coloratura soprano Ekaterina Siurina as Gilda was almost his opposite: technically exquisite, with a sweet and sizable voice, but emotionally cautious. Friedrich Haider conducted an animated performance that sometimes turned driven. The veteran baritone Juan Pons was the powerful, if blustery, Rigoletto. (Olga Makarina fills in for Ms. Siurina on Thursday.) Monday at 8 and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $15 to $175. (Tommasini) TOSCA (Tomorrow and Tuesday) The news was supposed to be that Andrea Gruber was singing her first Tosca, decked out in the stage jewelry Swarovski created for Callass first Met Tosca in 1956. The real news on opening night on Saturday turned out to be the debut of the conductor Nicola Luisotti, who actually conducted this piece as if it mattered. José Cura was a bad-boy Cavaradossi who hid his own light under an air of nonchalance, and whose climaxes seemed to be torn out of him against his will (it worked for everything but E lucevan); James Morris was animated into a semblance of flexibility by all the excitement. Ms. Gruber had to cancel on opening night because of illness, but plans to sing the rest of her scheduled performances. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday at 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $220 tickets remaining tomorrow, $15 to $175 on Tuesday. (Midgette) Classical Music BARGEMUSIC (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) This converted coffee barge is one of the most intimate chamber music halls in the city, and its programs are growing more varied. Tonight the cellist Leslie Parnas and the pianist Doris Stevenson collaborate on sonatas by Britten, Chopin and Shostakovich. Ms. Stevenson is joined by Mark Peskanov, the violinist, and Jeffrey Solow, the cellist, for the Mendelssohn C minor Trio (Op. 66) tomorrow and Sunday, in a program that also includes the Brahms Violin Sonata No. 1 and Barbers rich but too infrequently heard Cello Sonata. And on Thursday Ariadne Daskalakis, a violinist, and Roglit Ishay, a pianist, take over for an adventurous program of works by Lutoslawski, Raff, Fauré and Mozart. Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday nights at 7:30; Sunday afternoon at 4, Fulton Ferry Landing, next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083, bargemusic.org; $35; $20 for students; $30 for 65+ tonight and Thursday only. (Allan Kozinn) * BAVARIAN RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Tonight through Sunday night) Classical music is a field given to hyperbole, so the statement that this is one of Germanys best orchestras, led by one of the worlds best conductors, might sound like empty hype. But its true. As if to underline it, Mariss Jansons, music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, is showcasing three of the classical worlds most notable stars: Karita Mattila sings Four Last Songs tonight; the eccentric Gidon Kremer plays Bartoks First Violin Concerto tomorrow; and the gifted but controversial pianist Lang Lang makes a bid at seriousness by appearing with the orchestra on Sunday in Beethovens First Piano Concerto. The orchestra will also play symphonies by Shostakovich (the Sixth), Sibelius (the Second), and Beethoven (the Seventh). At 8, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $30 to $98. (Midgette) YEFIM BRONFMAN, GIL SHAHAM AND LYNN HARRELL (Sunday) Chamber collaborations by star soloists often have an ad hoc quality, a sense that coming together to make music is rewarding for the musicians but not always so enlightening for listeners. Whether that will be the case here remains to be seen, but Mr. Bronfmans piano playing, Mr. Shahams approach to the violin and Mr. Harrells work on the cello have several qualities in common, most crucially warmth of tone and attention to detail. They are performing Mozarts Piano Trio in C (K. 548), Shostakovichs Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor (Op. 67) and Schuberts Piano Trio in E flat (D. 929). At 2 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $26 to $82. (Kozinn) ELLIOTT CARTER: TIME PRESENT (Tomorrow) They call it a docu-concert: an evening devoted to Mr. Carter, the 97-year-old composer, that mingles live performance and excerpts from films created by Frank Scheffer. The full-length documentary A Labyrinth of Time will be shown in the afternoon. In the evening, performances of Mr. Carters music by Fred Sherry, Tara Helen OConnor, Charles Neidich and others alternate with film excerpts, including the world premiere of a short film Mr. Scheffer made about Mr. Carters cello concerto. Film screening at 4:30 p.m., performances at 8 p.m., Roy and Nina Titus Theaters, Museum of Modern Art, (212) 708-9400, moma.org; $10; $8 for 65+; $6 for students. (Midgette) * THE CAVE (Tonight and tomorrow night) This collaboration between the composer Steve Reich and the video artist Beryl Korot explores Jewish, Muslim and Christian perspectives on the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron, where Abraham and Sarah are buried. Tensions have run high at the site for centuries, but when Mr. Reich and Ms. Korot, who are married, wrote the work in 1993, they envisioned its more peaceful potential: Abrahams sons, Isaac and Ishmael (the fathers of the Jews and Arabs, respectively), had, after all, come together to bury their father at the site. Ms. Korots video interviews with Israelis, Palestinians and Americans offer fascinating glimpses of divergent beliefs, and here as in other Reich scores, the vocal inflections of the speakers yield ample melodic and rhythmic material. Mr. Reich and his ensemble perform the work, with Brad Lubman conducting. At 8, John Jay College Theater, 899 10th Avenue, at 59th Street, Clinton, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $45. (Kozinn) EMMANUEL CEYSSON (Monday) Mr. Ceysson, a 22-year-old harpist, makes his New York debut playing Bachs French Suite No. 3 in B minor, Faurés Châtelaine en sa tour, Marius Constants Harpalycé, Marcel Grandjanys Rhapsody for Harp and String Quartet, Henriette Reniés Ballade Fantastique, the premiere of Benjamin C. S. Boyles Suite Sylvanesque and Ravels Introduction and Allegro for harp, string quartet, flute and clarinet. Guest artists are Marya Martin, a flutist; Jose Franch-Ballester, a clarinetist; and the Jupiter String Quartet. At 7:30, Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $25 and $35. (Vivien Schweitzer) CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER (Sunday and Tuesday) A program of serious Central European music led by the equally serious American composer Leon Kirchner. The other music by Webern, Korngold and Brahms is for piano (one and two hands), strings and clarinet. At 5 p.m. on Sunday and 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5788, chambermusicsociety.org; $28 to $50. (Holland) EARLY MUSIC NEW YORK (Tomorrow and Sunday) This period-instrument ensemble, led by Frederick Renz, offers a program called The Kings Musick: Henry VIII and the Tudor Court, Circa 1500. The performance consists of pieces from Henry VIIIs Song Book, which includes the kings own compositions, part songs, instrumental consorts and other tidbits from composers of his court and the Chapel Royal. The group will play selections for singers and instruments including sackbuts, lutes and recorders. Tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.; Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, at 112th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 280-0330, earlymusicny.org; $40. (Schweitzer) FRETWORK (Tomorrow) This viol consort is making its Miller Theater debut with Jewish Musicians at the Tudor Court, featuring music by Bassano, Lupo, van Wilder, Duarte and Gough. The program is inspired by the recent research of Roger Prior, a musicologist who says the majority of the instrumentalists in the Tudor royal household were Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had settled in Italy after 1492 and were then recruited by Henry VIII. At 8, Miller Theater, Broadway at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 854-7799, millertheater.com; $35; $21 for students. (Schweitzer) GLENN GOULD FILMS (Tomorrow) Glenn Gould Unveiled, Lincoln Centers retrospective about the enigmatic Canadian pianist, continues with two black-and-white films made in 1959. Off the Record and On the Record depict Mr. Goulds private and public lives, respectively; On the Record includes clips of him at a recording session in Manhattan, playing the Italian Concerto. Later tomorrow, an interview with Humphrey Burton will be shown, which includes Mr. Gould performing excerpts from Strausss Metamorphosen, Three Ophelia Songs and Burleske in D minor for piano and orchestra. At 2 and 4 p.m., Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $15. (Schweitzer) HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD (Wednesday) This French pianist, also an author and the founder of the Wolf Conservation Center, begins her recital with Busonis transcription of the Bach Chaconne. It will also include Chopins Berceuse in D flat and Barcarolle in F sharp, and Brahmss Two Rhapsodies (Op. 79). At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $23 to $76. (Kozinn) JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET (Wednesday) Those old enough to remember this quartet as a pack of cutting-edge youngsters will be shocked that it is celebrating 60 years of existence, and is still playing the music that made it famous, namely Bartoks six String Quartets. (Through Nov. 10.) At 8 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; free, but tickets are required. (Holland) * LYRIC CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF NEW YORK (Wednesday) For the second program of its ninth season, this music society presents the dynamic, technically nimble American violinist Timothy Fain, a 1999 winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions and a performer with a burgeoning career. He plays in recital with the pianist Richard Bishop. The program includes a premiere by Randall Woolf and a recent work by Kevin Puts, as well as music by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Chausson and Saint-Saëns. At 7:30 p.m., Kosciuszko Foundation, 15 East 65th Street, Manhattan, (212) 279-4200, lyricny.org; $45. (Tommasini) ZUKERMAN CHAMBERPLAYERS (Sunday) This group was formed three years ago when Pinchas Zukerman, the violinist and music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, teamed up with four young protégés: Amanda Forsyth, a cellist (and his wife); Jethro Marks and Ashan Pillai, both violists; and Jessica Linnebach, a violinist. On Sunday the ensemble plays Mozarts String Quintet in G minor (K. 516) and Brahmss String Quintet No. 2 in G (Op. 111.) F. Murray Abraham, who played Antonio Salieri in the film Amadeus, kicks off the proceedings by performing Salieris soliloquy on Mozarts genius. At 3 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $40. (Schweitzer) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. LUCIANA ACHUGAR (Thursday) Ms. Achugar, who is from Uruguay, explores the similarities between the theater and the church in her new Exhausting Love at Danspace Project. (Through Nov. 12.) At 8:30 p.m., Danspace Project at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194, danspaceproject.org; $15. (Jennifer Dunning) * AMERICAN BALLET THEATER (Tonight and tomorrow) The companys more venturesome fall season -- compared with the parade of evening-length story ballets at the Metropolitan Opera House in the late spring and early summer -- ends with three performances offering its typical mixed repertory; all three should give pleasure. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, tomorrow at 2 p.m., City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212, abt.org; $26 to $93. (John Rockwell) ANEMONE DANCE THEATER (Tonight and tomorrow night) In Mikros Kosmos, the choreographers Sara Baird and Erin Dudley blend Butoh-inspired dance with video projections, sculptural costumes and Kenneth Kirschners music. They journey through treetops and icy Arctic and monsoon-drenched landscapes. At 8, Center for Remembering & Sharing (C.R.S.), 123 Fourth Avenue, near 12th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101; $18; $15 for students and 65+. ( Dunning) BALLET MESTIZO (Tonight through Sunday) This music and dance company will present Viva Colombia! (Through Dec. 10.) Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 4 p.m., Thalia Spanish Theater, 41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside, Queens, (718) 729-3880, thaliatheatre.org; $25 for all tickets tonight; $30 tomorrow; $27 for students and 65+. (Dunning) CHAMBER DANCE COMPANY (Tonight through Sunday) The company will perform new works by its director, Diane Coburn Bruning, and by the Bessie Award-winning choreographer Wally Cardona. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 7, Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, chamberdance.org, or smarttix.com; $30 and $75. (Dunning) ESTAMPAS PROTENAS (Sunday) This Argentine troupe will perform -- what else -- the tango. Sunday at 2 p.m., Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn College, Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues, Flatbush, (718) 951-4500, or brooklyncenteronline.org; $15 to $35. (Dunning) LAWRENCE GOLDHUBER (Tonight through Sunday) O.K., O.K., we know this is billed as theater, that dull alternative art form. But Mr. Goldhuber has many dance fans, so we thought wed let you know hes performing SWELL(ing) Relatives, an excursion into the world of a man who must hold down his floating possessions with 1,000 potatoes. Valeria Vasilevski is the director. (Through Nov. 12.) Tonight and tomorrow night at 10, Sunday at 5:30 p.m., La MaMa, 74A East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 475-7710, lamama.org; $15. (Dunning) SIN-CHA HONG LAUGHING STONE DANCE THEATER COMPANY (Monday through Wednesday) Ms. Hong, who is from Korea, will present performances of the American premiere of Pilgrimage, a classic piece in her powerfully minimalist, metaphorical style. Monday through Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 475-7710, lamama.org. Free. (Dunning) LARRY KEIGWIN/KEIGWIN + COMPANY (Thursday) Mr. Keigwin is that rare blend of humanism and sly humor. (Through Nov. 12.) At 8 p.m., Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street, TriBeCa, (212) 279-4200, ticketcentral.com; $20. (Dunning) LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY DANCE FACULTY CONCERT (Tonight and tomorrow night) No glazing eyes, please. The faculty in question includes the Alvin Ailey star Matthew Rushing, Nathan Trice and Earl Mosely, with a fascinating-sounding 1939 dance by Hortense Liberthal Zera called Never Sign a Letter Mrs. At 8, Kumble Theater, Long Island University Brooklyn campus, Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn, (718) 488-1624; $15; $10 for students. (Dunning) PROPEL-HER DANCE COLLECTIVE (Tonight and tomorrow night) This new company will present choreography by its founders: Amy Tennant Adams, Maggie Bennett, Ani Javian, Cara Liguori and Betsy Miller. Tonight at 9, tomorrow at 8, Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, at Washington Street, West Village, (212) 464-4029; $15. (Dunning) Valery mikhailovskys SAINT-PETERSBURG STATE MALE BALLET (Tomorrow) On national tour, the lads will soar -- and perhaps clunk a little -- through dances that include pas de deux from La Syphide, Esmeralda and Don Quixote. At 7 p.m., Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn College, Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues, Flatbush, (631) 727-0222, maleballet.spb.ru; $35 to $75. (Dunning) MERIAN SOTO DANCE AND PERFORMANCE (Tonight) The weeks prize for the most evocative dance titles goes to Ms. Sotos Three Branch Songs and States of Gravity, pieces developed partly through improvisation. At 7, Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture, 450 Grand Concourse, at 149th Street, Mott Haven, the Bronx, (718) 518-4455, www.hostos.cuny.edu/culturearts; $12; $8 for students. (Dunning) WAVE RISING SERIES (Tonight through Sunday) Clearly a workaholic, Young Soon Kim, director of the White Wave studios in Brooklyn and presenter of the Dumbo Dance Festival, has moved on to another ambitious event. Fourteen emerging and established choreographers, chosen by Ms. Kim and other panelists, are presenting 17 pieces in eight programs over two weeks in Wave Rising. Tonight at 7:30; tomorrow and Sunday at 4 and 7:30 p.m., John Ryan Theater, 25 Jay Street, Dumbo section of Brooklyn, (718) 855-8822, whitewavedance.com; $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (Dunning) DEBRA WANNER AND AMY LARIMER (Tuesday and Wednesday) These two modern-dance choreographers promise to twist the familiar, braiding the comic and tragic into shapes revealing the underbelly of our lives. At 8 p.m., Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, between Houston and Prince Streets, Lower East Side, (212) 219-0736, dixonplace.org; $12 to $16; $10 for students and 65+. (Dunning) WITNESS RELOCATION (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) This dance theater group will present Dan Safers Dancing vs. the Rat Experiment, which sees scientific experiments with rats as an analogy for the everyday world. Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday nights at 7:30; Sunday at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 475-7710, lamama.org; $20. (Dunning) ELLIS WOOD DANCE (Thursday) In August Ms. Wood offered 20 women cavorting in red fabric among the neo-Classical columns of Cipriani on Wall Street; her piece was short, feminist and a little forced. Now she is back with an evening-length indoors work about the relationship between women and the elements: air, fire, earth and water. (Through Nov. 12.) At 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 431-9233, joyce.org; $15. (Rockwell) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * Bronx Museum of the Arts, Tropicalia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, through Jan. 28. Tropicalia, or Tropicalism, wasnt a style or a movement as much as an atmosphere, a rush of youthful, cosmopolitan, liberating optimism that broke over Brazil in the late 1960s like a sunshower, and soaked into everything -- art, music, film, theater and architecture -- until a military government clamped down. This show is an attempt to recapture the moments fugitive spirit, and with the presence of artists like Helio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, the architect Lina Bo Bardi, and musicians like Gilberto Gil, it comes close. 1040 Grand Concourse, at 165th Street, Morrisania, (718) 681-6000, bronxmuseum.org. (Holland Cotter) Brooklyn Museum: ANNIE LEIBOVITZ: A PHOTOGRAPHERS LIFE, 1990-2005, through Jan. 21. With photographs of her close-knit family and her companion, Susan Sontag; bits of photojournalism; and a pretentious foray into landscape photography, this large exhibition tells you more about Ms. Leibovitz than you probably want to know. The first-person text labels dont help. Not surprisingly, her well-known celebrity portraits are strongest, and at their best in a re-creation of the large pin-up boards on which she plotted the lavish book that accompanies the show. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, (718) 638-5000. (Roberta Smith) * Frick Collection: Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804): A New Testament, through Jan. 7. The 60 ink drawings by Domenico Tiepolo, son of the Italian master painter Giambattist, have a funny kind of jitter. They look as if they were maybe woven from hair-fine brambles, or done on a ride over rough ground, or in a state of agitated elation. Illustrations of episodes from the four Gospels, they are among some 300 drawings the artist did in a project that seems to have been an extended exercise in personal peity. In them the Christian story of salvation becomes an operatic epic, gravely serious, but with notes of homely sweetness: Jesus in Gethsemane delivers his aria of mortal doubt and pain high up on a bare stage, all alone; the Virgin Marys mother, Anna, aged and stooped, is cosseted by angel-nurses, who guide her every step. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700. (Cotter) * SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: LUCIO FONTANA: VENICE/NEW YORK, through Jan. 21. If the Italian artist Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) was dazzled by Venice, he was positively awestruck by New York, which he first visited in 1961. For each city he created a group of works that he felt expressed its individual spirit. For Venice, a group of richly sensual oil paintings, with his signature slashes and punctures, evoked his personal experience of the lagoon city in glowing colors during the passage of a day. For New York he chose shiny metal surfaces, slashed and pierced to give a semblance of the wired energy and architectural vivacity he saw as the essence of the futuristic metropolis. The two groups are united for the first time, and well attended by works and photographs of works that trace from 1949 the career of an artist seeking to transcend the boundaries of his era. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Grace Glueck) Metropolitan Museum of Art: Americans in Paris: 1860-1900, through Jan. 28. The Americanization of the world may be a done deal now, but not so long ago the United States was a buyer rather than a seller of cultural information, and France was a major source between the Civil War and World War I. Thats the story told in this exhibition. The basic ideas, though undeveloped, are inherently interesting, and the art, with some notable exceptions, is conservative and staid, especially when compared with work in the Mets Vollard show, done at the same time. (212) 535-7719, metmuseum.org. (Cotter) The Met: Coaxing the Spirits to Dance, through Sept. 3, 2007. How the Papuans practiced their beliefs on the remote Pacific island of New Guinea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when they still had little contact with the West, is the complex and fascinating story told in this exhibition of some 60 objects and 30 rare photographs of the works on site or in actual use. The carved and painted spirit boards made throughout the gulf region, on the south coast of present-day Papua New Guinea, are probably the most easily recognized of the areas traditional artworks. Their central designs typically represent a bush or river spirit, with a heavily stylized face and perhaps a small body, surrounded by various totemic symbols. More daring in concept are the masks used in ritual dances. Papuan art may not be as varied or exciting as that of many African or Amerind peoples, but it records a vibrant community. (See above.) (Glueck) MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM: FRAGONARD AND THE FRENCH TRADITION AND MOZART AT 250: A CELEBRATION, through Jan. 7. Memorializing Mozarts 250th birthday and the 200th anniversary of the death of the French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, these small, paired shows reflect the elegance and brio of 18th-century culture. The Fragonard display consists only of his drawings and those of some compatriots, among them François Boucher, Hubert Robert and Jean-Baptiste Greuze; 40 works in all, drawn almost entirely from the Morgans collection. The show effectively displays the virtuosity and variety of Fragonards many styles, from his skills at depicting foliage-filled landscapes and the play of water in fountains and streams, to his keenness at capturing people, mythological scenes and ephemeral creatures. Although the works in the Mozart display -- letters and musical scores -- are in quite a different visual language, they go very happily with the Fragonard group. And you can hear excerpts from the manuscripts at two different listening stations in the show. 255 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 685-0008, morganlibrary.org. (Glueck) * Museum of modern art: BRICE MARDEN: A RETROSPECTIVE OF PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS, through Jan. 15. This quietly magnificent 40-year retrospective pays tribute to an artist who helped rebuild painting in the 1970s, working back from the brink of single-panel monochromes to elegant tangles of thick line on vibrant monochrome grounds that encompass a tremendous emotional range and sense of physical energy, and give the lie to the idea that any art can be purely formal or completely abstract. Mr. Marden converted the rule-ridden zone of Minimalist abstraction into a capacious yet disciplined place, pushing it toward landscape, the figure and its roots in Abstract Expressionism and beyond, in non-Western art. And he may have saved the best for last. (212) 708-9400. (Smith) NEWARK MUSEUM, the Jewish Museum: Masters of American Comics, through Jan. 28. Organized by the Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, where it made a splash, this show has come east, cut in size and split between the far-flung Newark and Jewish museums, in which it looks cramped. Art Spiegelman, one of the masters who helped instigate the exhibition, felt so aggrieved by the circumstances that at nearly the 11th hour he pulled his work. Still, the show shouldnt be missed. It spotlights artists like Chris Ware and Gary Panter, amazing state-of-the-art talents and endearing in the tradition of all those shy, gifted kids who drew endlessly in their rooms when other kids wouldnt play with them, dreaming about someday telling the world, I told you so. Newark Museum, 49 Washington Street, (973) 596-6550, newarkmuseum.org; and the Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org. (Michael Kimmelman) P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center: Katrin Sigurdardottir: High Plane, through May 7. Cut into a space between two levels of P.S. 1 is the Icelandic artist Katrin Sigurdardottirs High Plane V, a miniature artificial landscape of glacial mountains arranged in a naturalistic, faux-snow-covered setting against a painted white background. Visitors climb ladders and peer into one of two holes in the ceiling to view the work. The installation works best when two people mount the ladders and poke their heads in at the same time: then they can both see a disembodied head floating in the middle of the icy landscape. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 784-2084, ps1.org. (Benjamin Genocchio) The Whitney Museum of American Art: Picasso and american art, through Jan. 28. Despite the glamorous pictures in it, this is one of those dull affairs incubated in the world of academe: a walk-through slide show that states the obvious. Picassos Woman in White, a picture of heavenly arrogance, hangs between Arshile Gorkys Artist and His Mother and de Koonings Standing Man, terrific paintings too. We are meant to register the plain insinuation of Picassos neo-Classicism, then move on. Next slide, please. The show ends with a virtual retrospective of Picasso-inspired works by Jasper Johns. In picture after picture, Johns buries allusions to the great Spaniard, aspiring presumably to Picassos own late meditations on Velázquez. Except that even when he was old and running out of steam, Picasso still had joie de vivre. Johns doesnt so much enthrone Picasso as repeatedly entomb him. See above. (Kimmelman) Galleries: Chelsea Robert Colescott: A Survey of Paintings Its good to have Robert Colescott back in town for his first New York solo show here since 2000. Now 81, Mr. Colescott has been dealing in a slap-in-the-face way with race, class, sex and American life for nearly 40 years. His early pictures, like George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware (1975), were riffs on museum classics; the five paintings from the 1990s in this mini-survey are a lot harder to pin down. Theyre richly and expressively painted; they dont hinge on a joke or a clear-cut contrast between good and bad, though they tend to feel bad, in a bad-dream way, and sick-joke funny. Kravets/Wehby, 521 West 21st Street, (212) 352-2238, kravetswehbygallery.com, through Nov. 11. (Cotter) Other Galleries Anant Joshi Cities in Asia are changing fast. Theyre going up and coming down at about equal speed. Urban culture, flooded with global goods and media, is changing too. Inevitably, such transformations have a big impact on art, and they are the subjects of new work by Anant Joshi, who lives and work in Mumbai. Paintings show a vision of the city modeled on commercial packing materials. Small sculptures, monuments to consumerist chaos, are assembled from hundreds of miniature toys, all made in China. Talwar Gallery, 108 East 16th Street, (212) 673-3096, talwargallery.com, through Nov. 18. (Cotter) Last Chance TAUBA AUERBACH: YES AND NOT YES Operating in the gap between Conceptual Art, abstraction and graphic design, this San Francisco artist makes large ink drawings based on naval semaphore, the binary language of digital technology, the interior shapes of capital letters and much else. The results might be called abstraction by other means and are rife with hidden meanings, arcane facts and other conundrums, especially if the gallerys description sheet is studied. Deitch Projects, 76 Grand Street, SoHo, (212) 343-7300, deitch.com; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * Karen Kilimnik This sharp, witty, low-key show is spun around a Napoleonic theme, with a full-scale battle tent sitting in the gallery and paintings of Géricaultian steeds and soldiers inside and out. But any incipient Romanticism is cut with impurities -- walk-ons from Hollywood, refugees from Allure magazine -- as if to keep everything off-balance and confused. Although Ms. Kilimnik has a reputation as a celebrity fantasist, shes a conceptual artist with a cool, watchful, resistant eye. Everyone agrees that full recognition of her accomplishment and influence is long overdue. May it begin here. 303 Gallery, 525 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 255-1121, 303gallery.com; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) Michaela Meise This ultra-space show by the Berlin-based artist Michaela Meise is filled with oblique references to the city and its history of undergrounds and outsiders. There are pictures from the film Hair, shot in Central Park; excavation pictures of the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan; and one of the British composer Benjamin Britten, who lived in New York as a pacifist during World War II. Greene Naftali, 508 West 26th Street, Chelsea, eighth floor, (212) 463-7770, greenenaftaligallery.com; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) KEN PRICE: SCULPTURE AND DRAWINGS, 1962-2006 The largest New York exhibition yet devoted to Mr. Prices polymorphous ceramic sculptures reviews four decades of progress, offers an array of powerful new small pieces and introduces his first attempt at something bigger. It invites us to contemplate his transubstantiation of Los Angeles finish fetish and the relationship of his jewel-like surfaces to the random vastness of Jackson Pollocks drip paintings. When will a New York museum give this amazing artist the retrospective he deserves? Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 243-0200, matthewmarks.com; closes tomorrow. (Smith)

Pick and mix

Ah, in our church, Christ is risen, Mr Miranda explained. The difference goes beyond theology, suggests Mr Miranda, who is based in Los Angeles, home to almost 5m Catholics, some 70% of whom are Hispanic.. Republicans have long seen Protestant.

Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?

For half a century, memories of the Holocaust limited anti-Semitism on the Continent. That period has ended���the recent fatal attacks in Paris and Copenhagen are merely the latest examples of rising violence against Jews. Renewed vitriol among right.

The Kings of the Desert

Credit Illustration by Shout. When Glenn Stewart enrolled at the University of Oxford, in 1975, he was not a typical first-year student: a twenty-year-old American with mediocre grades, he had taken neither A-level exams nor Oxfords entrance test.

US Chides Netanyahus Party After Israeli Election Win

Frustrated by both Israel and the U.S., Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has become increasingly aggressive in efforts to secure a Palestinian state through other means, including the UN Security Council. The U.S. has veto. But on.

Movie Listings for April 24-30

Child 44 (R, 2:16) Grim, grisly and confusing, this sort-of-thriller, set in the Soviet Union at the end of the Stalin era, is notable mainly for the Russian accents attempted by its impressive cast, most notably Tom Hardy, playing a sensitive.

The Listings

Theater A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy Broadway and 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. ++ means discounted tickets were available at the TKTS booth for last Friday night. Full reviews of current shows, additional listings, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Many theaters will be closed today, tomorrow or Sunday for the holiday. Some will add special performances for the week or vary their schedules (see below). Check with the box office before venturing out. Broadway *++ DAME EDNA: BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! It was nearly a half-century ago that Edna Everage (damehood still awaited her) was invented by a young Australian drama student named Barry Humphries, whose body the mauve-haired entertainer continues to take over for public appearances. Rather like the plant in The Little Shop of Horrors, the initially blowsy Edna kept becoming larger, glitzier and hungrier as she fed on the adulation of fans over the years. As her exhaustingly funny new show makes clear, that growth process hasnt stopped. When she last appeared on Broadway five years ago, she was merely a megastar, Dame Edna condescendingly tells her audience; now she is a glittering gigastar. In this singing, dancing shrine to herself, she proves it by brilliantly exploiting our cultures masochistic obsession with the rich and famous (2:30). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. This week, performances have been added on Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $67.50 to $87.50. BEN BRANTLEY * DEMOCRACY Michael Frayns glorious study of the mutations of politics and the men who practice them, directed by Michael Blakemore, is one of those rare dramas that dont just dare to think big but that fully translate their high aspirations to the stage, with sharp style and thrilling clarity. For New York theatergoers who have endured the recent spate of dutiful revivals and misconceived star vehicles, watching this gripping study of the fraught glory years of Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany and the spy who loved him is like riding a wave after dog paddling in shallow waters (2:30). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, (212) 307-4100. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $60 to $95. BRANTLEY ++ GEM OF THE OCEAN Theatergoers who have followed the work of August Wilson will find in this grandly evangelical drama a touchstone for his great cycle of plays chronicling the African-American experience in the 20th century. Set in 1904 in Pittsburgh, Gem is chronologically the first chapter in the cycle. As such, it is a swelling overture of things to come, a battle hymn for an inchoate republic of men and women just beginning to discover the price of freedom. It is also the least dramatically involving of Mr. Wilsons plays. Directed by Kenny Leon, with a strong cast led by Phylicia Rashad as a former slave who is more than 280 years old, Gem has passages of transporting beauty. But the metaphorical resonance of events and relationships eclipses dramatic immediacy here (2:30). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. This week, a performance will be added on Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets: $25 to $86. BRANTLEY ++ NIGHT, MOTHER As your grandmother or therapist probably told you, there is something to be said for staying busy in a time of crisis. Playing a pair of women whose shared life is about to be torn asunder, Edie Falco and Brenda Blethyn have an ocean of household chores to swim through in the strangely uninvolving revival of Marsha Normans Night, Mother. Putting candy in jars, cleaning out the refrigerator, bagging garbage: such tasks are sometimes enough even to eclipse the harsh awareness of Thelma Cates (Ms. Blethyn) that her daughter, Jessie (Ms. Falco), has announced that she will be killing herself in a couple of hours. On the other hand, all that domestic industry only rarely disguises our suspicion that these first-rate actresses are never quite at home in their roles. Or the uneasy realization that Ms. Normans Pulitzer-winning drama is looking more artificial than it did 20 years ago (1:30). Royale Theater, 242 West 45th 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: $66.25 to $86.25. BRANTLEY ++ PACIFIC OVERTURES. The director Amon Miyamoto dazzled New Yorkers at the Lincoln Center Festival two years ago with his visiting Japanese-language production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidmans 1976 musical about American gunboat diplomacy as visited on 19th-century Japan. Now Mr. Miyamoto has revisited the show with an English-speaking, predominantly Asian-American cast, including B. D. Wong as the wryly omniscient narrator. The shows scenic and conceptual elements are essentially the same. including the amusing representation of Commodore Perry as a feral barbarian. But something has definitely been lost in the retranslation. The production does give beguiling due to Mr. Sondheims silken, silvery score. with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. But an uneasy tentativeness pervades the stage like a mist of perspiration (2:30). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $36.25 to $91.25. BRANTLEY ++ THE RIVALS Here she is at last! Dear old Mrs. Malaprop! The delightful Mrs. M, who, with a disdainful nod to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, misspoke her way to immortality in the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary. You know the word, youve probably made the mistake, and now, courtesy of the new Broadway revival of The Rivals, Sheridans celebrated 1775 comedy of manners, you can finally make the acquaintance of the famous dame who generously bequeathed her name to a linguistic error. As personified by Dana Ivey, an actress of blissfully well-honed comic instincts, Mrs. Malaprop is indeed the main event in Mark Lamoss plumply upholstered production. But despite a largely zesty cast and a first-class production, the uncomfortable truth is Sheridans comedy is one of those approved-and-certified classics that require unexpected reserves of patience and fortitude. Intermittently adorable, it is also, and not infrequently, tedious (2:30). Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $60 to $85; $75 to $100 on Friday. CHARLES ISHERWOOD 700 SUNDAYS. This one-man memoir of a play by Billy Crystal, the beloved comic actor and perennial Oscar host, has been carefully set up to suggest a night of home movies with a buddy from your high school days who is equal parts attention-grabbing showoff and softhearted sweetie pie. In resurrecting the boy he was and the parents who made him the man he is, Mr. Crystal does indeed show flickering faded films from his childhood, projected onto the windows of a replica of the house on Long Island where he spent his youth. You would be hard-pressed to find a Broadway show with a more artfully calculated comfort factor. Directed by Des McAnuff, 700 Sundays makes the characters in Neil Simons domestic comedies look as tortured as figures out of Eugene ONeill. And Mr. Crystal has a way of making even the ostensibly exotic feel as wholesome as apple blintzes (2:20). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200 Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m. This week, performances will be added on Sunday at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $71.25 to $91.25; extremely limited. BRANTLEY *++ TWELVE ANGRY MEN This stage adaptation of Reginald Roses celebrated television drama from 1954 (made into a film in 1957) suggests that sometimes the best way to present a fossil is just to polish it up and put it on display without disguise, annotation or apology. As a tidy portrait of clashing social attitudes in a jury room, it definitely creaks with age. But somehow the creaks begin to sound like soothing music, a siren song from a period of American drama when personalities were drawn in clean lines, the moral was unmistakable and the elements of a plot clicked together like a jigsaw puzzle without a single missing piece. Even those who like their theater hip and cerebral might want to lower their eyebrows for this 90-minute production. With an ensemble that includes Boyd Gaines, Philip Bosco, Mark Blum and Peter Friedman, this is a showcase for some of New Yorks finest character actors, who all manage to chew the scenery without smacking their lips (1:30). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $46.25 to $86.25. BRANTLEY ++ WHOOPI Whoopi Goldberg has been working in Hollywood for two decades now. Presumably she has met a lot of directors out there. But scan the program for Ms. Goldbergs solo show, which has returned to Broadway for a 20th-anniversary engagement, and youll find none listed. This movie star and television personality has chosen to dispense with one in remounting her collection of monologues, just as she did when this career-igniting show made its debut on Broadway. Twenty years ago the omission could be forgiven as the boundless confidence of a bright young talent. At 49 Ms. Goldberg is an established performer and the oversight looks more like folly. Ms. Goldbergs most ardent fans may be happy to make the acquaintance of the half-dozen characters she portrays here. But even the funniest monologues would benefit from judicious editing (1:30). Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 7 and 10 p.m.; Sundays at 3 and 6 p.m. Tickets: $26.25 to $76.25. ISHERWOOD Off Broadway ++ THE BALTIMORE WALTZ. Paula Vogel is indisputably the author of The Baltimore Waltz, but a decade of collective grief, rage and confusion surely played a part in its authorship, too. Ms. Vogel began work on the play shortly after her brothers death from AIDS in 1988. It was a deeply personal, even idiosyncratic expression of sorrow and love. But in the dozen years since its premiere at Circle Repertory, emotion surrounding the AIDS epidemic has inevitably cooled, and the play now must stand up to less emotionally inflected scrutiny. Sadly, on the evidence of Mark Brokaws smart but dry production, the second in the Signature Theaters season devoted to Ms. Vogels work, it mostly sags. This is partly due to a crucial piece of miscasting. Kristen Johnston is a talented actress, but she doesnt do poignancy convincingly. She makes all the right noises, but the submerged emotional charge that should bind the jumbled gambits of Ms. Vogels comedy never fully emerges (1:25). Signatures Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $55. ISHERWOOD ++ BELLE ÉPOQUE. The époque doesnt seem so very belle in Martha Clarke and Charles L. Mees ambitious attempt to distill onstage the seedy, absinthe-tinted glamour that Toulouse-Lautrec captured in oils and pastels in late 19th-century Paris. Mark Povinelli, an actor whose small stature belies a sizable force, plays Toulouse-Lautrec. He is surrounded by an eccentric array of performers who plied their trade in the clubs of Montmartre. With the aid of Jane Greenwoods plush, gorgeously detailed costumes and Christopher Akerlinds invigorating lighting, the production casts a seductive visual spell. But the musical and visual enticements of Belle Époque are encumbered by Mr. Mees text, which often strikes an arch, discordant note (1:25). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets: $70. ISHERWOOD *++ DOUBT, A PARABLE. This tight, absorbing and expertly acted play by John Patrick Shanley is far more complex than surface descriptions might suggest. Set in the Bronx in 1964, it 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 balance of conflicting viewpoints, its austere institutional setting and its sensational front-page subject at first bring to mind those tidy topical melodramas of truth and falsehood that were once so popular. (Think The Childrens Hour crossed with Agnes of God.) But Mr. Shanley makes subversive use of musty conventions. Doubt hews closely to its reassuringly sturdy, familiar form, the better to explore aspects of thought and personality that are anything but solid. And under the eloquently reserved direction of Doug Hughes, Ms. Jones and Mr. OByrne, both superb, find startling precision in ambiguity (1:30). Manhattan Theater Club, at New York City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $60. BRANTLEY FAT PIG. Neil LaButes latest work is on one level yet another demonstration that men are paragons of bad faith and cowardice, a judgmental tradition that this writer established with his screenplay for In the Company of Men. Yet Fat Pig, directed by Jo Bonney, is also the most emotionally engaging and unsettling of Mr. LaButes plays since Bash five years ago. A show that might have been merely a point-proving exercise is immeasurably enriched by Mr. LaButes empathy and by the skill and honesty of Jeremey Piven (of The Entourage on HBO) as a charming rising executive, and Ashlie Atkinson, the overweight woman he falls for. Andrew McCarthy and Keri Russell (late of Felicity) round out the taut ensemble (1:40). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 279-4200. Mondays and Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Tickets: $50. BRANTLEY *+ FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Gerard Alessandrini, the writer and creator of the 22-year-old Forbidden Broadway series of satirical revues, would seem to be as steamed-up and homicidal as Dirty Harry in a den of crooked cops. This means he is in particularly good form. The New York theaters favorite practitioner of tough love has put on the brass knuckles for this round. The production features the expected caricatures of ego-driven singing stars (Patti LuPone, Hugh Jackman). But even more than usual, the show offers an acute list of grievances about the sickly state of the Broadway musical, where, as Mr. Alessandrinis lyrics have it, everything old is old again (1:45). Douglas Fairbanks Theater, 432 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:15 p.m.; Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 4 p.m.; Sundays at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. This week, a performance has been added on Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. Tickets: $60. BRANTLEY THE FOREIGNER. Matthew Broderick brings his sad-sack slouch and adenoidal uneasiness to The Foreigner, Larry Shues deliberately doltish comedy of improbabilities from the mid-1980s. There is no denying that Mr. Broderick, who plays a gray-souled British proofreader on vacation in rural Georgia, has this persona as securely nailed down as any performer since (he should pardon the comparison) Jerry Lewis. Directed by Scott Schwartz, the production allows Mr. Broderick a few joyous interludes of precisely rendered, raging goofiness. But despite a top-drawer supporting cast, whats between the bright comic riffs brings to mind the sort of contrived television sitcom that you wind up watching, passively and masochistically, when youre too depressed to change the channel (2:45). Roundabout Theater Company at the Pels Theater, Steinberg Center, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets: $61.25 to $71.25. BRANTLEY ++ JEWTOPIA In a word, oy. Actually, even that small but spectacularly useful Yiddish word, with its infinite capacity for inflection, wont suffice to register the proper dismay at this slapdash, feeble-witted comedy. Written by and starring Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson, the cheerfully vulgar Jewtopia is aimed squarely at Jewish audiences not above indulging in a little lowbrow ribbing of their common ground. Make that a lot of lowbrow ribbing, most of it is about as fresh as a kugel from last years Seder. Mr. Fogel and Mr. Wolfson flail away at hoary old stereotypes with a lack of ingenuity and a coarseness that are as numbing as they are dispiriting. The director John Tillinger, hired to polish the production for its New York engagement (it ran for more than a year in Los Angeles), has done little to tame its tacky excesses or shore up its slipshod construction (2:00). Westside Theater (Downstairs), 407 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $59.50 for Tuesdays through Thursdays; $65 for Fridays through Sundays. ISHERWOOD ++ MODERN ORTHODOX It is said that God works in mysterious ways. Daniel Goldfarbs new play suggests that the Lord is not above employing obnoxious ones, too. In this snappy if superficial romantic comedy with a glossy cast (Molly Ringwald, Jason Biggs and Craig Bierko), Hannah and Ben, a young Jewish couple comfortably ensconced on Manhattans Upper West Side, are provoked to question their commitment to each other -- and the depth of their religious feeling -- when Hershel Klein, an ill-mannered interloper from another borough and another sect, arrives on their doorstep demanding to be given harbor. Since the abrasive behavior of Hershel, played by Mr. Biggs, tends to indicate colossal bad manners more powerfully than spiritual enlightenment, the characters deployment as a catalyst is more than a little specious. But the soul-searching is primarily filler supplementing Mr. Goldfarbs bright comic swipes at intrafaith cultural clashes (1:30). Dodger Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. This week, a performance has been added on Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets: $46 to $66. ISHERWOOD * NINE PARTS OF DESIRE The voices are a study in contrasts: vivid and subdued, sophisticated and naïve, seductive and standoffish. But they cohere to form a powerful collective portrait of suffering and endurance in Heather Raffos impassioned theatrical documentary about the lives of contemporary Iraqi women. A solo piece written and performed by Ms. Raffo, an actress of Iraqi and American heritage, the play is a welcome reminder that the costs of tyranny and violent conflict are borne not by some amorphous, insentient collective population but by individuals, in this case women whose lives have been frayed and fractured, sometimes beyond repair, by the tortured history of their country (1:30). Manhattan Ensemble Theater, 55 Mercer Street, SoHo, (212) 239-6200. Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets: $55; limited number of $20 student rush tickets available at box office one hour before the show. ISHERWOOD * 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 Sam Shepard (yep, that one) 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. Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets: $65. BRANTLEY A SECOND HAND MEMORY Woody Allens unrelentingly glum new play at the Atlantic Theater Company is a drama about two generations of defeated dreamers in 1950s Brooklyn. As the play opens, Eddie Wolfe (Nicky Katt) has been called home from Hollywood to help turn around the family jewelry business, for which he never had much affection. Eddie has an unwanted new wife and a baby on the way, but his permanently darkened brow telegraphs despair and a burning desire to escape. Eddies moral quandary -- should he stay or should he go? -- generates little suspense. The actors provide some leavening warmth, but its hard to escape the feeling that Mr. Allens characters are simply serving out their sentences, railing against an unjust fate by incessantly flailing away at one another (2:15). Atlantic Theater Company, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (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. This week, a performance has been added on Friday at 3 p.m. Tickets: $60. ISHERWOOD Last Chance ++ BOMBAY DREAMS Colors dont come any juicier than those that saturate this $14 million musical about movie love, Bollywood-style. Scarcely a scene goes by that isnt splashed with gorgeous heaping helpings of oranges, golds, greens, purples, yellows and more shades of pink than even Estée Lauder had names for. Yet such is the perverse spell cast by this friendly, flat and finally unengaging tale of glamorous movie stars and lovable untouchables that everything seems to melt into one neutral blur before your eyes, like a monochromatic symphony in the key of beige. A R Rahmans score has a certain rhythmic infectiousness. But under the direction of Steven Pimlott, this retooling of a hit from London feels trapped in a listless limbo between tipsy spoof and sober sincerity (2:30). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. Tonight at 8; tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets: $26.25 to $101.25. BRANTLEY ++ DRACULA, THE MUSICAL And here it is, looming like a giant stuffed bat on a stick, the easiest target on Broadway. This show, which sets the familiar tale of old snaggletooth to the familiar music of Frank Wildhorn, bristles with all the animation, suspense and sex appeal of a Victorian waxworks in a seaside amusement park. Take your shots. Say something, if you must, about toothlessness or bloodlessness or the kindness of hammering stakes into the hearts of undead shows. But you may concede that it isnt much fun to trash something so eminently trashable. Dracula, the Musical, which features a book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and is directed by Des McAnuff, isnt simply bad, which is an aesthetic state of being that is kind of fun if youre in the right mood. It is bad and boring. Among the talents wasted here are Melissa Errico and, looking like a butlers butler in the title role, Tom Hewitt (2:10). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. Today at 2 p.m.; tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets: $36.25 to $101.25. BRANTLEY + GOLDAS BALCONY In October 1973 a 75-year-old woman who grew up in Milwaukee nearly started a nuclear holocaust. The woman, of course, was the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir; the occasion was the 1973 Middle East War. As a story, it needs very little help from a dramatist or, for that matter, from a director, a designer, an actor or any other theatrically creative type. Moreover, the elements of the pure narrative are so colossally charged with tension and consequence that understatement is the way to go. Goldas Balcony doesnt go that way, however. It is not the story of a crucial moment in world history but a ponderous essay wrapped in melodramatic autobiography, acted with a soulless verve by Tovah Feldshuh and presented in a cheesily overwrought production directed by Scott Schwartz (1:30). Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. tomorrow at 5 and 8:30 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets: $46.25 and $86.25; a limited number of student rush tickets are available on the day of the performance for $26.25. BRUCE WEBER ++ LAUGH WHORE For indisputable evidence that comedy is fueled by anger, take a gander at Mario Cantones face as he approaches a payoff line in Laugh Whore, his gussied-up stand-up comedy show. The dancing eyebrows flatline. The jaw settles into a strained grimace. The soft brown eyes are transformed into bottomless pools of hostility. Mr. Cantone is most appealing, and most hilarious, when hes seething his way through a tale of irritation, the voice spiraling suddenly from a friendly hum to a train whistle. Probably best known as one of the gay accessories sported by the Sex and the City gals, Mr. Cantone is himself gay. Much of the funniest material in Laugh Whore is an expression of a buoyantly, exuberantly, even belligerently gay sensibility. The director Joe Mantello oversees this production, but much of it retains the formless feeling of a club routine. Structure and thematic design, not necessities in an hourlong club set, are more important for a two-hour, two-act Broadway engagement, and they are missing here. But if Laugh Whore may not prove to be the shapeliest of the many solo shows, it is certainly a fine first salvo (2:15). Cort, 138 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. Tonight at 7 p.m.; tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 3 and 7 p.m.; Monday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $25 to $81.25. ISHERWOOD ++ TRYING The indignities of aging assume aspects both touching and comic in Trying, a slight and sentimental new play by Joanna McClelland Glass that is given a measure of ballast by a gracious, subtly turned performance from Fritz Weaver. Mr. Weaver plays Francis Biddle, a lawyer whose distinguished career included stints as the attorney general under Franklin D. Roosevelt and as a judge at the Nuremberg trials, in Ms. Glasss stage memoir about her youthful days as Biddles secretary. Ms. Glasss stand-in, Sarah Schorr (Kati Brazda), is a young wife fresh from academe and new to Washington, when she begins working for Biddle, here a frosty curmudgeon whose pride in his achievements and his patrician heritage is affronted by the unmistakable signs of his declining physical and intellectual powers. Mr. Weaver, with more than 50 years on the stage, gives a wonderfully conscientious performance, imbuing his character with a moving sense of aggrieved dignity that tempers the writings occasional tendencies to reduce him to a cutely exasperating old fogy. The actor also allows the audience to take note of the declining powers of a once-powerful intellect. But the scope of Mr. Weavers performance is limited by the writing (2:15). Promenade, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, (212) 239-6200. Tomorrow night at 8; Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets: $66.25. ISHERWOOD 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. Now Playing * BAD EDUCATION Starring Gael García Bernal, Fele Martínez and Javier Cámara. Directed by Pedro Almodóvar (NC-17; 110 minutes; in Spanish, with English subtitles). This Spanish directors newest film is a delirious, headlong immersion and reinvention of film noir, a style that has lured countless filmmakers onto its treacherous shoals. Mr. Almodóvar, unlike other filmmakers who lose their bearings, fully understands the degree to which the genre is synonymous with fantasy and a primal longing for the forbidden. The coup de grâce of Bad Education is that here the femme fatale is a predatory transsexual named Ignacio. Bad Education contemplates the wonder of storytelling and the human instinct to embroider reality to make the tales we tell more real and conclusive, if less strictly factual. STEPHEN HOLDEN BEYOND THE SEA Starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and John Goodman. Directed by Mr. Spacey (PG-13, 118 minutes). The matching of two slithery chameleons, the singer Bobby Darin (who died in 1973 at the age of 37) and his latter-day doppelgänger, Mr. Spacey (now 45), sparks a weird bluish flame that suggests a wax yule log posing as wood in the seasons teeming fireplace of movie biographies. When ignited, it releases acrid, waxy fumes that feel queasily chemical. The movie, which the star directed and helped write and in which he sings (wonderfully), smacks of the same kind of obsession that brought Bob Fosses All That Jazz to creepy reptilian life. Its vision of show business in the 50s and 60s is as tawdry as Fosses and as incisive in suggesting its a grubby rags-to-riches circus. (Ms. Bosworth plays Sandra Dee, the bimbo movie princess Darin strenuously wooed and married.) The movie also touches on the ugly reality of show business mothers who force their children to act out their dreams and line their pocketbooks. HOLDEN BLADE: TRINITY Starring Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson and Jessica Biel. Directed by David S. Goyer (R, 114 minutes). Mr. Snipes may have achieved the Hollywood dream of starring in a comic-book franchise that doesnt require real acting, but he doesnt seem to appreciate his good fortune in the disjointed, overlong Blade: Trinity, which bills itself as the series finale. The Blade movies demand only that the 42-year-old actor stay pumped up and ready for kung-fu action. But the only emotion his character, a glowering half-human, half-vampire hunter of the undead, can muster in the third installment is a sense of mild irritation at having to go through the hassle. This episode is a choppy, forgetful, suspense-free romp that substitutes campy humor for chills. HOLDEN CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS Starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. Directed by Joe Roth (PG, 94 minutes). Lockstep suburban conformism enforced with a fascist rigor is the ugly (but admittedly sometimes funny) joke driving this family comedy. The movie is as slick and treacherous as the sheet of ice its Scrooge-like protagonist (Mr. Allen) freezes in the yard of his lawn to discourage holiday panhandlers. For all you fancy-schmancy snobs who jet off to St. Barts for the holidays, the movie has an important message, and youd better pay attention. If you shirkers refuse to stay home and celebrate Christmas like the rest of us, we dont want you in our community. HOLDEN FAT ALBERT Starring Kenan Thompson and Kyla Pratt. Directed by Joel Zwick (PG, 93 minutes). One of the truisms of contemporary pop culture is that just when you think it couldnt get any worse, its purveyors any more shameless, you are proved decisively wrong. Based on Bill Cosbys corpulent charmer and his band of brothers, the Fat Albert movie opens just days after the release of the DVD compilations of the original show. DVDs for the program are featured so prominently in the movie and the movie feels so much like an extended-play sitcom, I half expected Mr. Cosby to pop up on-screen to sell me the discs along with a Coke. From 1972 through 1984, the animated television series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids enjoyed enormous success. The cartoon was austere but eminently watchable and featured one of those sitcom tunes that etch a permanent groove in your head. Just as memorable was Mr. Cosbys basso-profundo delivery of Fat Alberts trademark hey, hey, hey, a mantra that signaled that no matter what happened, all would be right in the end. In Fat Albert, that trademark is resurrected to depressingly diminished ends. MANOHLA DARGIS FINDING NEVERLAND Starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. Directed by Marc Forster (PG, 108 minutes). Steeped in melancholy, the strange story of J. M. Barrie, the Victorian who wrote Peter Pan, has the makings of a marvelous tale and one doozy of a case history. Barrie was a playwright and novelist who, after meeting a family stuffed with young boys, created in 1904 a classic of childrens literature. Peter Pan has been revisited numerous times. Mary Martin soared as Peter Pan; Michael Jackson crashed. As Barrie in Finding Neverland, a handsome-looking film about the writer and his unripe inspirations, Mr. Depp neither soars nor crashes, but moseys forward with vague purpose and actorly restraint. The film mainly concerns the period when Barrie met and befriended the widowed Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Ms. Winslet) and her brood of boys. The filmmakers work hard to let us know that its the mother whos the more obvious focus of the writers attention than her children. Its all terribly polite, not a little dull and remote. DARGIS FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX Starring Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson and Giovanni Ribisi. Directed by John Moore (PG-13, 115 minutes). The moth-eaten plane-crash-in-the-desert yarn, a cynical update of the far superior 1965 movie, directed by Robert Aldrich and starring James Stewart and Richard Attenborough, throws in every cheap trick in the manual to pump up your heartbeat. Watching it is the equivalent of having the soles your feet tickled; you react, but involuntarily. The setting has been moved from the Sahara to the Gobi Desert and the revamped characters make up a cunningly chosen and unlikely mosaic of types that include a pretty woman, a one-eyed African-American guitarist, a Mexican-American chef and a Saudi. Mr. Quaid is the brawny, hard-bitten pilot and Mr. Ribisi the brainy airplane designer who, against all odds, supervises the reconstruction of the downed plane into an aeronautical phoenix. HOLDEN * HOTEL RWANDA Starring Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix and Nick Nolte. Directed by Terry George (PG-13, 121 minutes). This wrenching political thriller performs the valuable service of lending a human face to an upheaval so savage it seemed beyond the realm of imagination when news of it filtered to the West. The movie certainly isnt the first screen depiction of a nation consumed by ethnic strife. But its vision of the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis by the ruling Hutu tribe in Rwanda during a 100-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 * HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS Starring Zhang Ziyi. Directed by Zhang Yimou (PG-13, 119 minutes; in Mandarin, with English subtitles). In the latest chapter of Mr. Zhangs triumphant reinvention as an action filmmaker, Ms. Zhang plays Mei, a blind courtesan who turns out to be a member of the Flying Daggers, a shadowy squad of assassins waging a guerrilla insurgency against the corrupt and decadent government. She is pursued by two government deputies, Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), whose loyalties come into question as the chase turns into a love triangle. Everyone is engaged in several layers of deceit, and some of the third-act revelations are more likely to provoke laughter than gasps of amazement. But realism is as irrelevant a criterion here as it would be in an Italian opera. The movie is about color, kineticism and the kind of heavy-breathing, decorous sensuality that went out of American movies when sexual candor came in. Though it is in constant, breathtaking motion, the picture is not especially moving. Unlike the greatest operas (in whatever medium), it inspires you to gasp, but not to weep. A. O. SCOTT * THE INCREDIBLES With the voices of Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter. Written and directed by Brad Bird (PG, 118 minutes). A family of superheroes tries to fit in in the suburbs after a public backlash against costumed crime fighters has forced superheroes into dull, ordinary lives. Mom and especially Dad -- once known as Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible -- are stuck in a midlife, middle-class malaise until a supervillain named Syndrome emerges to call them back to their old identities. Mr. Bird uses the plight of the superheroes as a way to protest against the celebration of mediocrity in a world in which everybody is special, so no one is. His fusion of Ayn Rands philosophy with classic comic-book aesthetics results in a film that is witty, elegant and heartfelt. It falls short of its potential, though, when it succumbs to the imperatives of blockbuster ideology. SCOTT LEMONY SNICKETS A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS Starring Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Kara Hoffman and Shelby Hoffman. Directed by Brad Silberling (PG, 108 minutes). Since the publication of the first installment in Lemony Snickets (a k a Daniel Handlers) charmingly malignant book cycle A Series of Unfortunate Events, the three Baudelaire children -- Violet, Klaus and Sunny -- have been trying to find safe harbor in a world fraught with danger. For 11 consecutive books, the children have passed from the care of one well-intentioned adult to another, braving the sort of peril usually faced by silent-screen heroines named Pauline and leaving a trail of corpses in their wake. To date, the cause of their misfortunes has been their onetime guardian, Count Olaf, who hopes to steal their fortune. But now the characters have embarked on one of the most dangerous adventures known in literature: their story has been turned into a major Hollywood movie -- and with Jim Carrey, no less. DARGIS THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU Starring Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum. Directed by Wes Anderson (R, 118 minutes). More elaborate whimsy from Mr. Anderson, who confected a parallel-universe Manhattan in The Royal Tenenbaums and who now goes even further, inventing tropical islands and species of exotic fish when the mood strikes him. Somehow, though, this movie is more charming than irritating, partly thanks to Mr. Murrays performance -- a tour de force of comic minimalism -- as Steve Zissou, an ocean adventurer with a boatload of problems. The Life Aquatic is thick with potential narrative complications -- involving, for starters, Zissous long-lost son (Mr. Wilson), estranged wife (Ms. Houston), slimy archrival (Mr. Goldblum) and needy first mate (Mr. Dafoe) -- but Mr. Anderson is less a storyteller than a curator of odd specimens and curious situations. The pleasures of this movie are like those of a beautifully illustrated, haphazardly plotted picture book, which precocious children (and nostalgic adults) can linger over, feeding their reveries and fantasies. 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 * 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 this year. SCOTT NATIONAL TREASURE Starring Nicolas Cage. Directed by Jon Turteltaub (PG, 125 minutes). Maybe, just maybe, an 8-year-old could pick up an interest in American history from watching National Treasure, that is if the child can stay awake through this sluggish two-hour trudge through landmarks in Washington, Philadelphia and New York. Its far more likely, however, that a child who can stay awake through the movie will come away believing the bogus mythology that detonates this fanciful reality game show with a squishy thud. That mythology, derived from Freemasonry, holds that a map, drawn in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence, contains clues to the whereabouts of the Greatest Treasure Ever Told About. A more cynical (and witless, shoddy) chase for Hollywood gold is hard to imagine. HOLDEN * OCEANS TWELVE Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Scott Caan. Directed by Steven Soderbergh (PG-13, 120 minutes). At a certain point in the enjoyable, unabashedly trivial caper flick Oceans Twelve, crooks played by Mr. Damon, Mr. Cheadle and Mr. Caan start running through the different ways they can get out of their immediate jam. Things have gone badly for these likable rogues and now most of their crew -- including the smooth piece of work who gives the film its title, Danny Ocean -- played by the equally silky Mr. Clooney -- has landed in the clink. The crooks are looking for a get-out-of-jail-free card, which given the films criminally underdone plot and smog of self-satisfaction is something that Mr. Soderbergh may have wanted to stash up his own sleeve. As anyone within spitting distance of a television set knows, Oceans Twelve is the high-profile sequel to Mr. Soderberghs big box office entertainment Oceans Eleven. Once again Mr. Clooneys Danny is the leader of the pack, Mr. Pitt plays his second-in-command, Rusty Ryan, and Mr. Damon plays Linus, a puppy that desperately wants to be a dog but may not have sprouted the requisite fangs. DARGIS THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Starring Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum and Minnie Driver. Directed by Joel Schumacher (PG-13, 143 minutes). Far too many notes for my taste, a minor character remarks, apropos of the threatening letters being sent by the micromanaging phantom. That pretty much sums up the problems with Andrew Lloyd Webbers bombastic score, which is well matched by Mr. Schumachers production. For all the invocations of the angel of music, this film, adapted from the curiously popular stage musical, will most likely leave you with a devilish headache. The songs are unlistenable, which also makes them hard to sing, but Ms. Rossum and Mr. Butler show some impressive vocal technique, and Ms. Rossum, in addition to being lovely, has enough movie star luminosity to avoid being buried in the busy sets and elaborate costumes. This 2-hour-and-20-minute barrage may drive you back to the 1925 version of Phantom, which starred Lon Chaney and which has many virtues. For one thing, it is short. For another, its silent. SCOTT THE POLAR EXPRESS With the voices of Tom Hanks, Michael Jeter, Peter Scolare, Nona Gaye, Eddie Deezen and Charles Fleischer. Directed by Robert Zemeckis (G, 97 minutes). Based on the 32-page childrens book by Chris Van Allsburg, this new animated feature has received attention for the advanced technology used to make the film and the heart-skipping amount of money reportedly spent to transpose the story from page to screen. I suspect that most moviegoers care more about stories and characters than how much money it took for a digitally rendered strand of hair to flutter persuasively in the wind. Nor will they care that to make Polar Express Mr. Hanks wore a little cap that transmitted a record of his movements to a computer, creating templates for five animated characters. Its likely, I imagine, that most moviegoers will be more concerned by the eerie listlessness of those characters faces and the grim vision of Santa Clauss North Pole compound. DARGIS * RAY Starring Jamie Foxx. Directed by Taylor Hackford (PG-13, 152 minutes). Mr. Hackfords biography of Ray Charles does not entirely avoid the psychologizing, sentimental traps of the genre, but it is nonetheless a potent and invigorating portrait of genius, thanks to Mr. Foxxs performance and to the music of Charles himself. The filmmakers have the good judgment to place the music at the center of the drama, and the movie is full of insights into Charless innovations and working methods. The story of musical accomplishment is framed by the usual trials and triumphs of celebrity, but a handful of fine supporting performances gives it a feeling of life being lived, rather than just acted out. SCOTT THE SEA INSIDE Starring Javier Bardem and Belén Rueda. Directed by Alejandro Amenábar (PG-13, 125 minutes; in Spanish with English subtitles). As the camera restlessly circles the sky and the ocean, taking in the radiance of northern Spain, the story of a quadriplegic activist fighting for the right to die, struggles to transcend the disease-of-the-week genre to which it belongs. Yet there is no escaping the fact that the true story of Ramón Sampedro, a former ships mechanic seeking a final exit after three decades of agonizing immobility, is defined by its theme. To its credit it avoids becoming a formulaic dialogue that pits religious and secular cheerleaders against each other in predigested arguments. Sensitively portrayed by the great Spanish actor Javier Bardem, Ramón, 55, regards his life in the wake of a crippling accident in his mid-20s as a cruel, cosmic joke. In the emotional kernel of the movie, Ramón contemplates the impossibility of consummating his passion for his beautiful new lawyer (Ms. Rueda) who suffers from a debilitating disease. HOLDEN SPANGLISH Starring Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni and Paz Vega. Directed by James L. Brooks (PG-13, 110 minutes). Mr. Brooks, one of the smartest and sunniest men in Hollywood, turns his attention to class division, cultural misunderstanding and marital discord in Los Angeles, all subjects ripe for the kind of warm-hearted comedy in which he specializes and all treated with astonishing smugness and dishonesty. Mr. Sandler plays John Clasky, a successful chef who almost falls for his maid, Flor (Ms. Vega), a situation that Mr. Brooks rescues from sleaziness by making Jacks wife, Deborah (Ms. Leoni), a thoroughgoing monster: irredeemably selfish, vain and ridiculous. Deborah, a bad mother and a useless wife, serves as the films scapegoat, and her demonization contrasts with the idealization of Flor in a way that manages to be both overtly misogynist and implicitly racist. Mr. Sandler smiles through it all, playing a nice guy who unwittingly personifies the films self-adoring liberal bad faith. SCOTT THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE With the voices of Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown and Rodger Bumpass. Directed by Steven Hillenburg (PG, 88 minutes). If nautical nonsense is something you wish for, then this big-screen expansion of the popular Nickelodeon show will be just the ticket. SpongeBob and his best pal Patrick set off on a rambling quest to recover a stolen crown and prevent Plankton from taking over Bikini Bottom and driving poor Mr. Krabs out of business. If none of this makes sense to you, fear not; it wont necessarily make any more after the movie is done. In any case, the point of SpongeBob is not sense but nonsense, and the film, like the series, is a giddy celebration of pure childishness, which makes it a refreshing antidote to the glowering machismo that dominates so much pop culture. SCOTT A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT Starring Audrey Tautou. 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, the film 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 is in the possession of a distinctive visual style thats part Rube Goldberg, part F. A. O. Schwarz, and generally enjoyable for about 15 minutes. DARGIS THE WOODSMAN Starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. 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 programatically 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 Rock/Pop A selective listing by critics of The Times: New or noteworthy rock and pop music concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend, including special New Years Eve celebrations tonight. * denotes a highly recommended concert. Full reviews of recent rock and pop music concerts: nytimes.com/music. ASOBI SEKSU, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700. What was once called shoegazer rock -- shimmering, multilayered guitars enfolding confessions of longing and ambiguity -- is back in Asobi Seksu, a New York band that wraps its guitars and keyboard around well-made pop melodies and the girlish ache of Yuki Chikudates voice. Tonight at 8, topping a bill with Other Passengers, the Winter Pageant, Levy, Sylophone and Autodrone. Admission is $20, with a Champagne toast at midnight. JON PARELES BLACK 47, Connollys Pub, 121 West 45th Street, Manhattan, (212) 597-5126. Black 47 represents Irish rock, New York style, where memories of jigs and reels and Irish history run into immigrant tales, politics and hip-hop. Tonight at 10:30; admission is $20. PARELES * BRAZILIAN GIRLS, the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. Electronica, a live rhythm section and a wildly cosmopolitan spirit meet a charismatic and unpredictable singer, Sabina Sciubba, in the Brazilian Girls. The music dips into reggae, samba, funk and house, never staying in one place long. Tonight at 10:30, with the disc jockeys James and Justin spinning dance music until dawn. Admission is $20. PARELES DISCO BISCUITS, Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 279-7740. The Disco Biscuits have worked their way up the jam-band circuit with blithe rock that veers toward funk and jazz, hovers in circling, hypnotic riffs and sometimes turns into a live version of electronic dance music, replacing computer drumbeats with muscle. Tonight at 9; tickets are $45. PARELES DJ SPOOKY, Rothko, 116 Suffolk Street, at Rivington Street, Lower East Side, www.rothkonyc.com. Paul Miller, also known as DJ Spooky, spins theories along with discs, and his collection runs to Stockhausen and Coltrane as well as breakbeats; whether hell be ambient, uptempo or both is anyones guess. Hell be joined by guests including the rapper Dalek. Tonight at 9; admission is $30. PARELES * DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Drive-By Truckers treat Southern rock as both music and mythos, reaching back to the Americana of the Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young. Their latest album, The Dirty South (New West), finds populist connections among Wal-Mart workers, musicians, moonshiners and drug dealers, all struggling to get by. Tonight at 1 a.m.; tickets are $35. Also appearing tomorrow at 9 p.m., with the garage-psychedelic trio Runner and the Thermodynamics opening; tickets are $20 in advance, $25 tomorrow. PARELES STEVE FORBERT, Joes Pub, 425 Layfayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778. Steve Forbert, from Meridian, Miss., has outgrown the new-Dylan comparisons he drew in the late 1970s. Persevering through the years, he has turned into a winsome, determinedly optimistic folk-rock songwriter with more mileage on his voice and in his lyrics. Tomorrow and Sunday nights at 7; admission is $22 with a $12 food or drink minimum at a table. PARELES FORT BRAGG, Rodeo Bar, 375 Third Avenue, at 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 683-6500. A country band of Texans transplanted to New York City, Fort Bragg looks toward Austin, Nashville and Bakersfield, Calif., to sing about whiskey, the road and woman trouble. Tonight, the first set begins at 10; admission is free. PARELES GOGOL BORDELLO, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103. Gogol Bordello, led by a gruff and extravagantly mustached Ukrainian singer, Eugene Hutz, calls itself a Gypsy punk band. Translating Eastern European cabaret to Brooklyn, Its songs work up to a frenetic oom-pah thats the makings of a rowdy party. Tonight at 9; tickets are $35. PARELES TIM GOLDSWORTHY, APT, 419 West 13th Street, (212) 414-4245. Tim Goldsworthy is a partner in the production team and label DFA and also the man behind the electronica group Unkle, reaching back to the funk-punk-electro hybrids of the early 1980s. Hes doing a rare disc-jockey set for New Years Eve, along with Tim Sweeney, Duane Harriott, Dante Cafargna and others. Tonight from 10; admission is $100, including an open bar from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., hors douevres and a Champagne toast. PARELES * GOVT MULE, Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, Manhattan, (212) 496-7070. Warren Haynes, the guitarist and leader of Govt Mule, is now a member of both the Allman Brothers Band and the Dead. With Govt Mule, he brings the gravity of the blues and the rolling grooves of Southern rock together with the bleary determination of grunge. His songs are haunted by death and memory, and he leads them into jams that can be both soaring and unsparing. Tonight at 9; tickets are $53.50 to $73.50. PARELES GARLAND JEFFREYS AND THE CONEY ISLAND PLAYBOYS WITH MICK JONES, Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, East Village, (212) 539-8778 or (212) 239-6200. The songwriter Garland Jeffreys is a longtime voice of multiethnic New York, mixing rock, reggae and touches of everything from doo-wop to samba. Along with love songs and reminiscences of running Wild in the Streets, he doesnt flinch from tough topics like racism. Tonight at 8; tickets are $65, with a two-drink minimum. PARELES HANK-O-RAMA, Arlenes Grocery, 95 Stanton Street at Ludlow Street (212) 358-1633. Hank Williamss songs are still a foundation of country music, even though theyre considerably more stark than their latter-day successors. Local country bands including the Lonesome Prairie Dogs, the American String Conspiracy, Sean Kershaw and the New Jack Ramblers, the Blue State Band and Alex Battles Whiskey Rebellion delve into the repertory. Tomorrow night at 8; admission is $7. PARELES EARTHA KITT, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, near Times Square, (212) 997-4144. She purrs, she growls, she teases and she rasps as she insinuates exactly what she wants from her man. Although its a week late, she might still sing Santa Baby. Tonight at 8; tickets are $125, including dinner and a glass of Champagne, and $50 for general-admission seats plus a $10 food or drink minimum with a complimentary glass of Champagne. At the 10:30 p.m. set, tickets are $150, including dinner and a glass of Champagne. General admission is $75 with a $10 food or drink minimum, which includes a free glass of Champagne. PARELES AMEL LARRIEUX, S.O.B.s (Sounds of Brazil), 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940. Amel Larrieux, who used to sing with Groove Theory, is a high-minded pop-soul songwriter, singing about ambition and integrity. On albums, she floats her supple, girlish voice among twinkling starscapes of electric piano and phantom choruses of herself overdubbed; live, shes likely to be less ethereal. Tonight at 8:30, with Eric Roberson opening; admission is $95 with dinner, $45 for standing room. PARELES FRANK LONDONS KLEZMER BRASS ALL-STARS/SCOTT KETTNERS MARACATU NEW YORK, the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. Party music from two continents: the oom-pah of klezmer in a band led by the trumpeter Frank London, and the Brazilian carnival beat of maracatu from Maracatu New York. Tonight at 8; admission is $15. PARELES JESSE MALIN, Maxwells, 1039 Washington Street, at 11th Street, Hoboken, N.J., (201) 653-1703. Jesse Malin led D Generation, the glam-rock kings of St. Marks Place, and has gone on to a solo career thats considerably more earnest. Tonight at 10; tickets are $35, including a buffet and a Champagne toast. PARELES PARTICLE/BUCKETHEAD, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Union Square, (212) 777-6800. Particle is a jam band rooted in funk whose marathon sets might include a jam on Planet Rock, a long meditation on a single sustained chord, or a gospelly, organ-driven buildup fit for the Allman Brothers. Sharing the bill is the guitarist Buckethead, who hides his face behind a fried-chicken bucket and plays zooming, cutting hard-rock guitar leads that earned him a spot in Guns N Roses. Tonight at 9; tickets are $45. PARELES * MIKE PATTON AND JOHN ZORN, the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006. The singer Mike Patton has countless voices, from yowl to cackle to heroic and mock-heroic rock belting; the saxophonist and composer John Zorn loves both melodies and goofy noises. They have worked together in the band Mr. Bungle, and theyre capable of both tightly plotted works and wildly spontaneous improvisations. Tonight at 8; admission is $30. Tonight at 11, the band Trans Am -- which has traversed 1970s rock from prog-rock excursions to terse electro songs -- is added to the New Years Eve bill; tickets are $35. PARELES PEACHES, TriBeCa Grand, 2 Avenue of the Americas, at Church Street, (212) 519-6677. With deadpan calm and rhyming skills so modest that Lil Kim wont be losing any sleep, Peaches raps about sex, sex and more sex over bare-bones drum-machine beats and sampled power chords. Its a dopey high-concept shtick that can turn into stupid fun. Tonight, doors open at 10 p.m., and the disc jockeys including Spencer Product, DJ Language, Edward Newton and others until 8 a.m. Tickets are $99. PARELES * MARC RIBOT Y LOS CUBANOS POSTIZOS, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. The guitarist Marc Ribot, who has been in Tom Waitss band, can thread melodies through chord changes or make his guitar clank and boing. With his band Los Cubanos Postizos, he lovingly reaches back to the elegant Cuban melodies of Arsenio Rodriguez, giving them just a little modern edge. Tonight, the group is joined by Joe Bataan, who grew up in Spanish Harlem and, in the 1960s, began merging Engligh lyrics, Latin rhythms and funk into boogaloo and what he called Latin soul. Shows at 9:30 and 11:30; admission is $30 for the early show, $40 for the late show, or $60 for both, including a Champagne toast at midnight. PARELES * PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. Love, death, transfiguration and pushy guitars have been Patti Smiths staples in the quarter-century since she turned her poetry into punk-rock. Always unpredictable and passionate, she still seeks shamanic revelation with every gig. Her New Years Eve shows are reflections on the year past and rallying cries for the year to come. Tonight at 9; admission is $55, including a Champagne toast at midnight. PARELES SOUKOUS STARS, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-1155. Soukous is the Congolese music that sends guitars twining over a lilting rumba beat, and the Soukous Stars include two seasoned Congolese musicians, the guitarist Lokassa Ya Mbongo and the bassist Nguoma Lokito, not to mention four female dancers. Tonight, doors open at 8 p.m., the Soukous Stars begin at 10, and three disc jockeys will continue with African and world music until 4 a.m. Admission is $35 with a one-drink minimum. PARELES THE STAR SPANGLES, CBGB, 315 Bowery, at Bleecker Street, East Village, (212) 982-4052. Punk lives on in the hoarse vocals, speed-strummed guitars and revved-up pop melodies of the Star Spangles, whose songs have titles like I Live for Speed and Stay Away From Me. Tonight at 8, with River City Rebels, Lady Unluck, Electric Shadows and Thee Minks opening; tickets are $17.50. PARELES STRING CHEESE INCIDENT, Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Avenue of the Americas, at 50th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171. This rather, uh, dopey jam band interrupts the Rockettes for a New Years Eve show at Radio City Music Hall: the group is known for long, leisurely songs that sometimes draw from bluegrass; whereas Phish often used solos to send songs spiraling off in unexpected directions, String Cheese Incident favors more linear digressions, usually returning to the theme sooner rather than later. Tonight at 9; tickets are $70. KELEFA SANNEH THE TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7503. The Trachtenburg Family -- Jason Trachtenburg on keyboard and his young daughter Rachel on drums -- picks up collections of slides from garage sales and thrift stores and invents stories and songs around them that can be mocking or oddly moving. Tina Pia Trachtenburg, Jasons wife, runs the slide projector. Tonight at 7:30; tickets are $20. PARELES * PAUL VAN DYK, Ikon, 610 West 56th Street, Clinton, (212) 582-8282. The disk jockey and producer Paul van Dyk came out of East Berlin to become one of the leading figures in trance, the steady-pulsing, eternally upbeat dance music that fills club floors around the world. Various Playstation 2 games, including some still unreleased, will be available for play. Other disk jockeys in the lineup include Jon Obir, Jonathan Ojeda and Powerstar IM; there will also be stilt walkers, trapeze acts and other performers. Tonight at 12:30; tickets from $75 to four-person VIP packages, including hors doeuvres and a Champagne toast,for $1,100. PARELES * WILCO/THE FLAMING LIPS/SLEATER-KINNEY, Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue, (212)465-6741. After years on the indie-rock and alt-rock circuit, these bands probably cant believe theyre playing Madison Square Garden, but their music is big enough for the room. Wilco was once an alt-country band, but those days are long gone. Now its songs mutate on the spot, from straightforward strumming to washes of texture, from minimalist patterns to electronic rumbles, from ballads to brute force. Its moody, unpredictable music that can be testy or simply gorgeous. The Flaming Lips are fond of goofy theatrics and stately, concept-heavy songs carried by Wayne Coynes plaintive voice, while Sleater-Kinney pours passion into songs that hurtle along but never stop thinking, with jagged guitar lines, wailing vocals and heartfelt lyrics. Tonight 8; tickets are $37.50 to $57.50. PARELES ZEN TRICKSTERS, TriBeCa Rock Club, 16 Warren Street, (212) 766-1070. The Zen Tricksters got started two decades ago playing Grateful Dead songs. While they now have their own songs to jam on, they havent forgotten their early repertory; no less a figure than Phil Lesh of the Dead has called on the expertise of Rob Barraco, a former Trickster keyboardist who will be rejoining his old band for this show. Tonight at 9; tickets are $25. PARELES ZLATNE USTE, Satalla, 37 West 26th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-1155. Balkan brass bands run like old motorcycles: fast, loud and unstoppable. The 12-piece Zlatne Uste, which means golden lips, is a New York group with a repertory from the former Yugoslavia and beyond, and it turns tricky meters and zigzag melodies into high-octane party music. Sunday night at 7:30; admission is $10 with a one-drink minimum. 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. * MICHAEL FEINSTEIN, Feinsteins at the Regency, 540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street, (212) 339-4095. The smoothest crooner in show business and one of the most dedicated archivists of popular song salutes Christmas, Hanukkah and the classic ballad in his show, Holiday Heart Songs. Mr. Feinstein has developed into such an accomplished stand-up entertainer that if it were 1965, he would be the host of his own network variety show. The ballads at which he excels include Two for the Road, I Concentrate on You, and John Bucchinos semiclassical Grateful. Tonight from 10 to 11:15, with dinner at 8:30. Cover: $550, including signed CD, dancing, hats, noisemakers, table arrangements and a bottle of Champagne. Ann Hampton Callaway performs tonight in the Regency Ballroom from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., with a 20-minute set by Mr. Feinstein. Cover: $600, including signed CD, dancing, hats, noisemakers, table arrangements and a bottle of Champagne. STEPHEN HOLDEN BOBBY SHORT, Cafe Carlyle, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, (212) 570-7189. After announcing his semiretirement from performing at the Cafe Carlyle last year, this singer and pianist changed his mind and is back in action for another season. Mr. Short never fails to conjure up ebullient party spirits and has impeccable taste in songs. Expect to hear at least one of his signature songs -- Guess Whos in Town?, Just One of Those Things and Romance in the Dark -- along with something by one of the two Dukes (Ellington and Vernon). Tonight at 8:30, with sets at 11:15 and 1:30 a.m. Cover: $500, including Champagne, a bottle of wine per couple, and party favors. Sold out. HOLDEN * SINGING ASTAIRE, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, (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 Rogersesque 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: $40. 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. HIRAM BULLOCK BAND, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, above Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626. Hiram Bullock, a powerful jazz-funk-rock guitarist -- he played with Gil Evanss latter-day groups a lot at this same spot, when it was called Sweet Basil -- is an old favorite on the New York scene. Sets are at 9:30 and 11:30 tonight; cover charge for first set is $35 with a $15 food or drink minimum; for second set, $50 with a $25 minimum. Tomorrow night, sets are at 9 and 11; cover charge is $20 with a $10 food or drink minimum. BEN RATLIFF * CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO WITH GUESTS, Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 258-9595. Cyrus Chestnut, a pianist, swings the way the old guard used to; thats why he was so dazzling when he came on the scene in the early 1990s. But he is also a sentimentalist. Trios happen to be his best setting: they discourage his excesses and push him to his rhythmic limits. His guests include the saxophonist Frank Morgan and trumpeter Marcus Printup. Tonight, the club opens at 7, with a first set from 8:15 to 9:45; a three-course dinner is included for $95. The room opens for the second set at 10 p.m., with music pushing well past midnight; that cover, including a three-course dinner and Champagne toast, is $155. The music will be broadcast live on WBGO-FM (88.3) from 11 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. Sets are tomorrow night at 7:30, 9:30 and 11, and Sunday at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.; cover charge for each set is $30 with a $10 minimum at a table and a $5 minimum at the bar. RATLIFF SASHA DOBSON WITH CHRIS BYARS OCTET, Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 675-6056. The young singer Sasha Dobson performed a lot with the saxophonist Chris Byars at the old jazz club Smalls, whose owner changed locations and calls his new place the Fat Cat. With the recent launching of Smalls Records and her own release on the label, The Darkling Thrush, Ms. Dobson returns to her old audience in a new setting. Shes a canny improviser with classic Ella-and-Sarah tastes and good pitch; Mr. Byarss arrangements of standards fit her handsomely. Tonights sets begin at 10 and continue through the night; the cover charge for the entire evening is a thrifty $25. RATLIFF JOE FARNSWORTH AND FRIENDS, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7125. Seemingly the No. 1 drummer for the current crop of hard-bop revivalists -- hes a fixture at Smoke, playing with Harold Mabern, George Coleman, Eric Alexander and others -- Joe Farnsworth will jam past midnight with his friends and colleagues. Tonights first set runs from 9:30 to 10:45 and second set from 11:15 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.; the cover charge is $15, and the minimum, $10 for each set. RATLIFF FUNKBOX, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662. A sextet playing funk, soul and 1960s- and 70s-style R&B. Tonight, there are two sets of music plus D.J.s spinning records in the intervals; there is an open bar from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. and a Champagne toast at midnight. The cover is $125. RATLIFF * ROY HARGROVE AND FRIENDS, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063. In Roy Hargroves band are the singer Renee Neufville, the saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, the pianist Stephen Scott, the bassist Ugonna Ukegwo and the drummer Johnathan Blake. Tonight, the first set is 8 to 10; admission is $50. The second set is from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.; admission is $75 and includes a Champagne toast. The third set runs from 1:30 to 3 a.m. and costs $40. Beer, wine, soda and coffee are free. (The club is closed tomorrow and Sunday.) RATLIFF * SHIRLEY HORN, Le Jazz Au Bar, 41 East 58th Street, Manhattan, (212) 308-9455. Like so many great American singers, Shirley Horn has Louis Armstrong inflections stamped on her style. They take the form of rhythmic risks over a steady pulse; you listen to her and sense that she could phrase a line however she wanted. But what has always made her different is her ice-menthol delivery in slow tempos, which tends to be more commanding in performance than on record. Shell be recording a new live album for Verve during this engagement at Le Jazz Au Bar. Tonights sets are at 8 and 10:30; the cover charge is $100 for either set, which includes a Champagne toast during the second set. The second set is sold out. Sets tomorrow night are at 8 and 10:30 and Sunday at 8 p.m.; cover charge for those sets are $50. RATLIFF * CHRISTIAN McBRIDE QUARTET, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232. 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; hell play here with a quartet including the saxophonist Ron Blake, the pianist Geoff Keezer and the drummer Terreon Gully, with the singer Melissa Walker accompanying the band. Tonight, doors open at 6:30 for a 7:30 show; the cover charge is $95 and includes a three-course dinner. Doors open at 9:30 for the 10:30 p.m. show, and the cover charge is $150, including a three-course dinner and Champagne at midnight. (The club is closed tomorrow and Sunday.) RATLIFF DONNY McCASLIN, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883. Mr. McCaslin, the saxophonist who has recently had regular work with Danilo Pérez, works in a young, strong style, with rapid, bravado phrasing, using long breath lines and racing up and down between extremes of the horns pitch. The quartet includes the guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Ben Street, and drummer Adam Cruz. Sunday night at 9:30, the cover charge is $7 with a two-drink minimum. RATLIFF JANIS SIEGEL, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080. Famous as a member of the a capella jazz group Manhattan Transfer, Janis Siegel has been making solo records as well; the most recent, Sketches of Broadway, features jazz arrangements of theater songs. Here shes backed by a quartet including the guitarist Romero Lubambo. Tonight, her first set is at 8; the cover charge is $40 and the minimum is $20. The second set is at 11, with a $75 cover and $20 minimum, and includes Champagne. Sets tomorrow night are at 9 and 11; cover charge is $40 with a $10 minimum. RATLIFF CHRIS WASHBURNE AND SYOTOS, Smoke, 2751 Broadway at 106th Street, Manhattan, (212) 864-6662. A trombonist and ethnomusicologist who has put in plenty of time around New Yorks Latin music scene, Mr. Washburne leads a hard-driving Latin jazz band -- a quintet, this weekend -- that puts sophisticated arrangements next to a pan-Latin rhythmic foundation. Sets are tomorrow and Sunday night at 9, 11 and 12:30; there is no cover but there is a $15 drink minimum per person, per set. RATLIFF * DR. MICHAEL WHITES ORIGINAL LIBERTY JAZZ BAND OF NEW ORLEANS, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037. The doors open at 8:30 tonight and the first set begins at 9:30; a second set starts at 11:30. The charge for the entire evening is $125, which includes the $25 drink minimum and New Orleans-style food. Reservations and a deposit are necessary. Tomorrow and Sunday, sets are at 9 and 11 p.m., with a $30 cover. RATLIFF * CASSANDRA WILSON, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592. Cassandra Wilson plays to jazz audiences, but isnt concerned with old definitions of the music. Shes vaguely bohemian, though no one is more cosmopolitan; she has invented a playhouse of Southern-rustic allusions, jazz standards, singer-songwriter music and pop-art radio hits, from Corcovado to Cyndi Lauper. She reshuffles the deck for instrumentation, putting a conga player next to a harmonica player who makes cello noises, next to a jazz guitarist playing folk or rural blues. Somehow -- her dusky alto voice helps -- the result is original, self-conscious art, mellow and conspiratorially playful. Her band now includes the harmonica player Gregoire Maret, the guitarist Marvin Sewell, the bassist Reginald Veal and the percussionist Jeffrey Haynes. Each set begins with the opening act of Cephas & Wiggins, the Piedmont-blues guitar-and-voice duo. The first set tonight begins at 7; the $55 cover charge at the bar and $75 at tables include a Champagne toast. A $5 minimum applies for all tickets. The second set is sold out. Sets tomorrow and Sunday night are at 8 and 10:30, and the cover charge is $50 with a $5 minimum. RATLIFF THE WOLLESONS, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883. A funk-jazz group led by the drummer Kenny Wolleson, who has played all over the map of New York jazz. Music starts at 11 tonight; the cover is $20, with a two-drink minimum, including a Champagne toast. 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 For its New Years Eve offering, the Metropolitan Opera presents a revival of its colorful and appealing 1983 production of Rossinis timeless comedy Il Barbiere di Siviglia. The first performance last weekend seemed one rehearsal or so away from being settled, but the spirited cast -- headed by Dwayne Croft as Figaro, Katarina Karneus as Rosina, Matthew Polenzani as Count Almaviva and Carlos Chausson as Dr. Bartolo -- was amusing and endearing. Maurizio Beninis conducts a lithe and breezy account of Rossinis clever and delightful score. Word is already out that Dame Edna Everage will show up at this gala performance and perform, along with several other surprise guests who will be tucked, somehow, into the show. Tonight at 7:30, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000. Remaining tickets: $250. ANTHONY TOMMASINI KATYA KABANOVA Fresh from her triumph as Strausss Salome last season, the radiant soprano Karita Mattila is back at the Metropolitan Opera in another riveting portrayal: the title role of Janaceks great 1921 opera Katya Kabanova, a revival of Jonathan Millers starkly powerful 1991 production. The tragic story tells of a winsome young woman in a 19th-century rural Russian town and her decent but weak-willed husband, who lets his reproachful widowed mother rule his life. Desperately lonely, Katya commits adultery and is driven by her guilt to drown herself in the Volga. Janaceks haunting, harmonically restless music takes you to the core of the story. So does Ms. Mattila, who sings with an affecting blend of cool Nordic sound and gleaming power. Jorma Silvasti as her lover, Boris, Chris Merritt as her blustery husband and Judith Forst as her withering mother-in-law give strong performances. Jiri Belohlavek, in his Met debut, conducts a stylistically authoritative and rhapsodic performance. Tomorrow night at 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000. Tickets: $40 to $215. TOMMASINI NEW YORK GILBERT AND SULLIVAN PLAYERS This popular and venerable (well, relatively speaking) G&S troupe offers its traditional New Years Eve Champagne gala, featuring light-opera favorites, send-ups and, as a challenge to aficionados, any G&S song the audience requests. Tonight at 8, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400. Tickets: $55 to $75. ANNE MIDGETTE RODELINDA Most of Handels operas were introduced at the Kings Theater, a house of 850 seats in London. But for its premiere production of Handels Rodelinda, a musically rich and psychologically complex masterpiece, the Met proves that with the right approach and the right cast Handel can be presented effectively in a grand-size house. Renée Fleming brings her radiant voice and courageous vulnerability to her performance of the title character, the despairing queen of the Lombard king of Milan, Bertarido, who has been usurped and is thought dead. The incomparable countertenor David Daniels sings Bertarido. The refined tenor Kobie van Rensburg, the powerhouse mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and the sweet-voiced countertenor Bejun Mehta are also excellent. The handsome production, directed by Stephen Wadsworth in his Met debut, sets the seventh-century story in early 18th-century Milan. Harry Bicket, also making his company debut, conducts with fleetness and assurance. Tomorrow at 1 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000. Sold out, but returns may be available at the box office. TOMMASINI Classical Music BARGEMUSIC The holidays at this intimate floating concert hall are apparently a time to get back to the basics: namely, Bach. Christmas Eve featured the Goldberg Variations and tonight the barge rings in the New Year with three of the six Brandenburg Concertos (Nos. 2, 4 and 5), the Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin (BWV 1060) and other works. The ensemble is made up of barge regulars like Olga Bloom, the soft-spoken yet fiery octogenarian who bought this onetime coffee-hauling vessel back in 1975 and had the pluck and vision to turn it into one of New Yorks loveliest concert halls. Ms. Bloom, a violinist, performs rarely these days, but tonight she will be on stage with the musicians. Tonight at 7:30, Fulton Ferry Landing, under the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083. Tickets: $125. JEREMY 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 dance performances: nytimes.com/dance. ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER. This closing weekend is the last time to see these smart, passionate and technically impressive Ailey dancers, who perform as if they believe in the power of communication. Tonights program begins with two of the seasons new works and ends with Aileys Revelations, which certainly rises to the occasion of a years ending. The company begins the new year tomorrow night with the ballet, in a program that includes Aileys restaged Hidden Rites. Tonight at 7:30; tomorrow night at 8; Sunday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan (212) 581-1212. Tickets: $25 to $110. (Related review, Page 2.) JENNIFER DUNNING LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO The ladies will celebrate New Years Eve tonight with an early show that they promise will be full of surprises. Given the kind of surprises this all-male troupe produces in ordinary programs -- from giddy high jinks to true virtuoso dancing and lovingly knowledgeable ballet restagings -- the evening might well be a good way to send off the old year with cheerful high spirits. There will be no performance on New Years Day. The company will end its winter season with two performances of a program that includes Les Sylphides, Go for Barocco, Dying Swan and the underwater scene from the 19th century Humpbacked Horse. Today at 5 p.m.; Sunday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Manhattan (212) 242-0800. Tickets: $42. DUNNING NEW YORK CITY BALLET The Nutcracker is here. What more can be said? The company is performing George Balanchines magical production of Tchaikovskys fairy-tale ballet, complete with lovely snowflakes and sugar plums and malicious marauding mice. Theres lots of sumptuous spectacle and delicious dancing. No performances today or tomorrow; Sunday at 1 and 5 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 307-4100. Tickets: $26 to $96. JACK ANDERSON 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 museums and galleries are closed on New Years Day. Most galleries are closed on Sundays and Mondays, but holiday 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 * THE ART OF ROMARE BEARDEN, Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (212) 570-3600, through Jan. 9. Its a pity only that this retrospective is so big. Art like Beardens -- mostly small, intense and intricate -- deserves close scrutiny. His genius, aside from his poetic knack for piecing scraps of photographs and other tiny tidbits together, was to see collage as an inherent social metaphor: that its essence was to turn nothings into something, making disparate elements cohere, a positivist enterprise. His collages celebrated black culture and personal history, combined elements of East and West, high and low, old and new: African masks with ancient Greek art, Matisse with patchwork quilts. Literature and music shaped the work no less than Picasso, George Grosz and Vermeer did. Hours: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays, 1 to 9 p.m. Admission: $12; $9.50, students and 62+. MICHAEL KIMMELMAN * THE AZTEC EMPIRE, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, through Feb. 13. 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 metamorphizing into a bird and a god of spring and fertility shedding his skin. The show may be a little too heavy on theater and too light on information, but its totally mesmerizing. 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+. HOLLAND COTTER * THE CASTELLANI AND ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL JEWELRY, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, 18 West 86th Street, (212) 501-3000, through Feb. 6. A dazzling look at the redoubtable Castellani jewelry firm that lasted in Rome from 1814 to 1927 and its production of exquisitely wrought jewelry modeled on the Etruscan, Greek and Roman relics being dug up all over Italy. The more than 250 objects on view include examples of one of the firms specialties, micromosaics: minuscule, highly labor-intensive mosaic insets on gold that depicted classical, religious and other motifs; carved gems like cameos and intaglios; and stagey productions of shimmering gems in ornate, drop-dead settings for its really privileged clients. This is not a show for dilettantes, requiring strength of eye and the patience of Job for exquisite detail. How much you enjoy it depends on your appetite for jewelry in depth. But its a spectacular, even for over-the-top, bling-blingy New York. Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays to 8 p.m. Admission: $3; students and 65+, $2. GRACE GLUECK KERRY JAMES MARSHALL, ONE TRUE THING: MEDITATIONS ON BLACK AESTHETICS, the Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125th Street, (212) 864-4500, through Jan. 9. Partly to provoke a discussion about freedom and Black Aesthetics, the MacArthur prize-winning, Chicago-based Mr. Marshall is exhibiting recent works in a variety of media, including photographs, videos and installation. Painting is still his strong suit, however. Among the exhibitions high points are a huge, Hopperesque street scene in which a few people seem to be waiting for a warehouse-size liquor store to open; and a satiric vision of ecstatic Afro-centrism featuring a black couple running joyfully naked through a pastoral landscape. Hours: Wednesdays through Fridays and Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission, $7; 65+ and students, $3. KEN JOHNSON * RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD, International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000, through Feb. 27. Maybe the most oddball of all the photographers of the ordinary, Meatyard gives reality a flip that often puts it into the realm of surreality. His creepy, staged shots of family and friends in strange masks but homey settings, or unmasked in derelict places that turn spooky, are weirdly unsettling while at the same time involved with the familiar actions of everyday life. His idea of family photographs was to take his wife and three children to broken-down houses around Lexington, Ky., the town they lived in, and depict them playing, jumping and rolling around, wearing masks or making faces, in dank interiors with broken windows or standing aimlessly in front of ruined facades. Wanting to convey the mysterious, inexpressible ties among people, Meatyard did not coax smiles or pleasing body language or any sentiment at all from his subjects. Vacant stares and brooding countenances are more the rule. Hours: Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission: $10; $7, students and 65+. GLUECK * WILD: FASHION UNTAMED, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, (212) 535-7710, through March 13. This sumptuous assemblage of fur, feathers, leather and such used to keep humans warm, make them look good and ratchet up their social status displays more than 100 costumes and accessories by big-name designers, from the House of Worth to Karl Lagerfeld. The symbols of wealth, status and sexuality run from the maximal white swans-down coat, plucked from male swan breasts and owned by Marlene Dietrich, to the minimal bikini recently wrought of badger fur by Jordan Betten, a reprise of the next-to-nothing get-up that revealed most of Raquel Welch in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C. The show, certainly one of the most politically incorrect exhibitions the Met has ever mounted, confidently assures us in its catalog that animal-rights protests peaked in the 1980s and that since the mid-90s we have seen a revival of wearer interest in fur in its natural state. Hmmm. Hours: Sundays, Tuesdays through Thursdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays until 9 p.m. Admission: $12; students and 65+, $7. GLUECK Galleries: Uptown ROGER BROWN, Adam Baumgold, 74 East 79th Street, (212) 861-7338, through Jan. 15. Roger Brown (1941-1997) was one of the most original artists to emerge from Chicago after World War II. He blended influences from Indian miniature painting, Giorgio DiChirico, Grant Wood, outsider art and old comics to create mysteriously enchanting landscapes and cityscapes populated by tiny, silhouetted people. The nine canvases dating from 1968 to 1982 on view here are the first Brown exhibition to be presented in New York in 10 years. JOHNSON ANTOINE VOLLON: A PAINTERS PAINTER, Wildenstein, 19 East 64th Street (212) 879-0500, through Jan. 7. The realist painter Antoine Vollon (1833-1900) was a technical wiz, known as the Chardin of his day for his skill at still lifes. A steady exhibitor at the annual salons in Paris, he also did all-but-Impressionist country and urban scapes. At his best he was a master of the paint medium, slathering on pigment in quick Manet-like strokes. A beautiful example here is a simple but wonderfully expressive rendition of a pile of butter, so real-life in color and energetically laid-on texture that it might have been painted with butter itself. More complex still lifes are devoted to writhing fish, dead rabbits and compositions rife with fruit, flowers and vessels that evoke the bravura extravaganzas of Dutch masters. Vollons work smacks too much of other artists to make him Truly Important, but his sensuous wallows in paint are well worth wider notice. GLUECK Galleries: 57th Street JOAN FONTCUBERTA: PIN ZHUANG, Zabriskie Gallery, 41 East 57th Street, (212) 752-1223, through Jan. 8. Prompted by a 2001 incident in which an American spy plane that crashed in China was thoroughly picked over and returned to the United States in pieces, this show depicts model planes carefully misconstructed by the mischievous Spanish artist Joan Fontcuberta. Photographed against backdrops suggesting outer space, the planes look like flying piles of engineered debris but also suggest advanced weapon systems, NASA-conceived orbiters and techy sculptures by the American constructivist Theodore Roszak. Starfighter, for one, a fearsome assemblage of miscellaneous parts with a terrifying needle nose, hovers like a hungry bird of prey. GLUECK JULIO LARRAZ, Marlborough, 40 West 57th Street, (212) 541-4900, through Jan. 8. Mr. Larraz, who came to the United States from Cuba as a teenager in 1961, produces a generously painterly realism that often veers into surrealistic fantasy. His canvases record scenes of ordinary beauty, like the images of a melting block of ice or potted bougainvilleas for sale on a sunlighted boat deck. Then there is Vincent van Gogh visiting a modern aquarium in which a big shark hovers behind the thick glass. JOHNSON Galleries: SoHo SU-MEI TSE, Peter Blum, 99 Wooster Street, (212) 343-0441, through Jan. 22. This exhibition features the work that won the prize for best national pavilion -- Luxembourgs -- at the 2003 Venice Bienale. It consists of a white neon sign that reads [E:r] conditionné, and two dreamlike video projections. In one, the artist plays the cello on a grassy, alpine prominence; in the other, men in green janitorial uniforms in a desert use green-bristled brooms to sweep sand into small piles. JOHNSON Galleries: Chelsea AMY ELLINGSON: SEMPER AUGUSTUS, Charles Cowles, 537 West 24th Street, (212) 741-8999, through Jan. 15. This California-based artists first New York solo show presents paintings that are optically enthralling and sensuously tactile. Ms. Ellingson generates complex, layered patterns of gridded ovals on a computer, and converts them into satiny, subtly color-coordinated oil-painted fields, on top of which she applies grids of thick, white or black ovals made in encaustic. JOHNSON MATERIAL AS METAPHOR, Tanya Bonakdar, 521 West 21st Street, (212) 414-4144, through Jan. 15. An exhibition of works that are emphatically physical yet poetic includes comically anthropomorphic sculptures by Miroslaw Balka; a darkly surrealistic sculptural landscape by Mark Manders; an arrangement of mostly yellow found and hand-made objects by Ian Kiaer; roses wrapped in spirals of cotton by Valeska Soares; elegantly spare fabric works by Helen Mirra; and lumps of fat in a cardboard box by Joseph Beuys. JOHNSON * MARTHA ROSLER, Photomontages: 1965-2004, Gorney Bravin & Lee, 534 West 26th Street, (212) 352-8372, through Jan. 8. Martha Rosler made her first series of photomontages in the 1960s and 70s as responses to the Vietnam War, sexism and Americas consumer culture, phenomena that she presented as closely related. This year she returned to collage and the same subjects, the difference being that the war is now in Iraq. Both old and new series are brought together in this major show. And the fact that they form a seamless flow has every bit as much to say about the consistencies of American political history as it does about the vigilant career of one of our most astute commentarial artists. COTTER Other Galleries * A. BALASUBRAMANIAM, Talwar Gallery, 108 East 16th Street, (212) 673-3096, through Jan 22. The work of this exceptional young artist, based in India, is about the play of material solidity and illusion. His first show at Talwar two years ago included a full-size human form that seemed to pass through a gallery wall; for the current show he has cast his own head in an opaque, waxy substance of a kind used to produce air fresheners, so that the self-portrait will dissolve through slow evaporation. Time and change are also the subjects of other work here, including a burnt drawing that measured the passing of a day with a slow-burning fuse. And the whole, spare, resonant show comes together in a sculpture of a single slender branch bristling with sharp thorns and cast in solid gold; the more alluring illusion is, the more be painful it can be. COTTER Last Chance EUROPEAN BRONZES FROM THE QUENTIN COLLECTION, the Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700, through Sunday. During the last few decades there has been a revival of interest in the collection and technical exploration of small-scale bronzes from the Renaissance, depicting gods, goddesses, religious figures, nymphs, fauns, satyrs, animals and simple folk. About 35 of these 15th-to-mid-18th-century statuettes, assembled by an Argentine collector, star in this lively show. Originally inspired by mythological themes or classical marble statuary, and often reconstructed in innovative ways by well-known artists, the statuettes were eagerly sought by European connoisseurs, who admired their masterly modeling, subtle surfacing and elegant finishes. A wonderful example here is a rendition -- by an unknown 16th-century Italian sculptor -- of Hercules. Happily, these bronzes are displayed without vitrines, so they can be examined closely from every angle. Today and tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m. Admission: $12; $8 for 62+; $5 for students. GLUECK * FORM FOLLOWS FASHION, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, (212) 217-7999, through today. This ravishing show emphasizes fashion as a formal, abstract art, implicitly geometric, architectural, even in moments of excess. So it is not surprising in this context that formal also means evening wear, the genre in which garments are freed most decisively from function, or that couture gowns by designers from Charles James to Ralph Rucci, enhanced by the invisible mannequins, make this show a garden of unearthly capricious, silken delights. The art of the times is also startlingly palpable, notably in the pyramidal black and white gown that Michel Goma designed for Patou in the early 60s, which is a near knockoff of a motif used by Myron Stout and Ellsworth Kelly. Hours: today, noon to 8 p.m. Free. ROBERTA SMITH ODILI DONALD ODITA: NOTES FROM PARADISE, Florence Lynch, 531-539 West 25th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-3290, closing today. The Nigerian-born, Tallahassee, Fla.-based Mr. Odita paints hard-edged, gridded, beautifully color-coordinated abstractions with intimations of landscape and African textile design. They are a pleasure to view, and the wedding of modernism and traditionalism is something to ponder. JOHNSON JIM SULLIVAN, Nancy Hoffman, 429 West Broadway, at Prince Street, SoHo, (212) 966-6676, through Tuesday. Made with a fine, sensuous touch on long horizontal panels, Mr. Sullivans paintings present panoramic views of fantastic primeval landscapes. In places they look as if they were sampled from paintings by Thomas Cole, Frederic Church and Martin Johnson Heade, but they are not postmodernist jokes. Rather, they project a genuinely romantic vision of Edenic wholeness and divine beneficence. JOHNSON JOEL-PETER WITKIN: HEART BEATS DUST, Ricco-Maresca, 529 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 627-4819, closing today. This pioneer of high-art, gross-out, postmodernist photography continues to produce faux-antique pictures of amputees, hermaphrodites, severed body parts and absurdly overwrought erotic tableaux. He has also ventured, unconvincingly, into Surrealistic collage, and he has applied paint by hand to some of his prints. A good title for this exhibition would be Lost in Transition. JOHNSON XAVIER VEILHAN: THE PHOTOREALIST PROJECT, National Academy Museum, 1083 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 369-4880, through Sunday. This inventive French sculptor has conceived an unusual installation for five photorealist paintings from the 70s by masters of the genre: Robert Bechtle, Robert Cottingham, Richard Estes, Ralph Goings and Richard McClean. The paintings are installed flush with walls of glossy, stretched black plastic and lighted by low, cylindrical floor lamps. The effect approaches but doesnt quite reach a magical, dematerialized illusionism. It is interesting but not an improvement on the standard white cube gallery. Hours: today through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission: $10; $5 for students and 65+. JOHNSON

Denise Van Outen reveals the REAL reason she hasnt spoken to Johnny.

In the latest interview, despite revealing that they hadnt spoken since their ill-fated reunion in 2008, Van Outen still spoke fondly of her former co-host. Im a girls girl but Ive got quite a male sense of humour so I get on with guys, she said.

Anne Rice ditches Christianity - The Freethinker

Commenting on Rices defection, William Lobdell, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer and author of Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America �������� and Found Unexpected Peace, said: Rice is merely one of. Pollsters �������� most notably evangelical George Barna �������� have reported repeatedly that they can find little measurable difference between the moral behavior of churchgoers and the rest of American society. Barna has found��.

Critics Picks: May 8 - May 14, 2015

Los Angeles Times entertainment, arts and culture critics choose the weeks most noteworthy openings, new releases, ongoing events and places to go in and around Southern California. Our fashion critic may be going barefoot for a good cause, while at.

The Groupies Who Wanted Casey Kasem Dead

The Daily Beast has learned in a recent FBI document dump that Kasem, who cemented his Hollywood star as the inventor of the American Top 40, was secretly ducking death threats from a few fanatics���and at least one lover of an art-rock band, too.

Notable Books of the Year 1997

This list has been selected from books reviewed since the Holiday Books issue of December 1996. It is meant to suggest some of the high points in this years fiction, poetry, nonfiction, childrens books, mysteries and science fiction. The books are arranged alphabetically under genre headings. FICTION & POETRY. List of notable books of 1997; drawing (L)

Japans Once-Powerful Nuclear Industry is Under Siege by.

Now, for the time being at least, work has halted on the Kaminoseki project. ���We have to stop it,��� Masae Yuasa, a professor of International Studies at Hiroshima City University and a leading opponent of the plant, told me��.

The Snooty Dame at the Block Party

We are Where America Shops -- at Sears, in Glendale, Calif. And Americans -- college students, Hispanic moms with toddlers, old people -- are gawking at a striking apparition poised on the stairway to the womens fitting room. Cindy Crawford, supermodel, Hollywood wife and hostess of MTVs fashion program House of Style, is calling out her bra size -- off camera -- above the racks of industrial-gauge corsets.

THE LISTINGS | JULY 14-JULY 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 ALL THIS INTIMACY Previews start Monday. Opens July 27. A romantically ambitious poet balances relationships with three women in this new play by Rajiv Joseph. Presented by Second Stage Theater (1:45). McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway; (212) 246-4422. AMAJUBA: LIKE DOVES WE RISE Previews start Thursday. Opens July 25. Based on the lives of the five cast members, this play, which incorporates dance and song, is about growing up in apartheid-era South Africa (1:30). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street; (212) 307-4100. BULLY In previews. Opens on Tuesday. William Walsh plays Theodore Roosevelt in this solo show (2:00). Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street, Manhattan; (212) 868-4444. CLOUD TECTONICS In previews. Opens on Tuesday. School of the Americas playwright José Rivera revives this Los Angles romance about a man who picks up a hitchhiker who says she has been pregnant for two years (1:30). Culture Project-45 Below, 45 Bleecker Street; (212) 868-4444. LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL Through July 30. This always buzzed-about summer showcase includes DruidSynge, the complete works of John Millington Synge; and Grendel, an opera directed by Julie Taymor. Sites in and around Lincoln Center; (212) 721-6500. NO CHILD In previews; opens on Sunday. The chameleonic Nilaja Sun returns with her acclaimed solo show about the New York public school system (1:10). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, at Seventh Avenue, West Village; (212) 239-6200. * [TITLE OF SHOW] Starts previews tonight; opens Thursday. When it originally opened in February, Charles Isherwood wrote: 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) 279-4200. Broadway 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.(Ben 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) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, The Drowsy Chaperone has theatergoers responding as if they were withering house plants, finally being watered after long neglect. Bob Martin and Sutton Foster are the standouts in the eager, energetic cast (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) *FAITH HEALER In the title role of Brian Friels great play, Ralph Fiennes paints a portrait of the artist as dreamer and destroyer that feels both as old as folklore and so fresh that it might be painted in wet blood. Also starring Cherry Jones and the superb Ian McDiarmid, this mesmerizing series of monologues has been directed with poetic starkness by Jonathan Kent (2:35). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE HISTORY BOYS (Tony Awards, best play and best direction of a play, 2006) Madly enjoyable. Alan Bennetts play about a battle for the hearts and minds of a group of university-bound students, imported with the original British cast from the National Theater, moves with a breezy narrative swagger that transcends cultural barriers. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, with a perfectly oiled ensemble led by the superb Richard Griffiths and Stephen Campbell Moore as schoolmasters with opposing views of history and education (2:40). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) HOT FEET A dancing encyclopedia of clichés set to the music of Earth, Wind and Fire. Numbing (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Charles Isherwood) JERSEY BOYS (Tony Award, best musical, 2006) 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 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). Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SWEENEY TODD (Tony Award, best direction of a musical, 2006) 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) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a super-deluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (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) Off Broadway * BRIDGE & TUNNEL (Tony Award, special theatrical event, 2006) This delightful solo show, written and performed by Sarah Jones, is a sweet-spirited valentine to New York, 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. Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) CRAZY FOR THE DOG Christopher Boals effective family melodrama about a brother, a sister, a wife and a boyfriend caught in a web of recrimination and confession, touched off by the kidnapping of a shih tzu (2:00). Bouwerie Lane Theater, 330 Bowery, at Bond Street, East Village, (212) 677-0060, Ext. 16. (George Hunka) THE FIELD John B. Keanes portrait of rural life in Ireland in the mid-20th century, both sorrowful and censorious. This sturdy new production, directed by Ciaran OReilly, features Marty Maguire as Bull McCabe, a tough farmer who will stop at nothing to preserve his right to raise his cattle on a field about to be auctioned. A little moralistic, but powerful nonetheless (2:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (Isherwood) * 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) THE HOUSE IN TOWN A wan new drama by Richard Greenberg about an American marriage slowly imploding in the days before the countrys economy did the same, more suddenly and spectacularly, back in 1929. A miscast Jessica Hecht stars as Amy Hammer, a well-to-do housewife sliding into despair as her remote husband looks on in frustration. Doug Hughess production is pretty but desultory, as is Mr. Greenbergs typically eloquent but atypically empty writing (1:30). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) 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 Drew Sarich, who replaces Rodney Hicks) and two women (Natascia Diazand 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) PIG FARM A gleefully stupid comedy by Greg Kotis about lust and violence in the farm belt, with a few gristly bits of satire aimed at the fat-bellied American electorate thrown in for good measure. Powered by the frenzied commitment of the four skilled actors who make up its cast, the comedy careers around the stage like an interminable improv session for a still-unformulated sketch on Saturday Night Live. (2:15). Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Isherwood) SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS José Rivera, who wrote the screenplay to The Motorcycle Diaries, penned this rickety piece of historical speculation about the final two days of Che Guevaras life (2:00). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200. (Jason Zinoman) SHAKESPEARE IS DEAD Orran Farmers two-character drama about a struggling playwright and a drug-addicted actress-stripper is well-meaning but tedious and often trite (1:00). Paradise Factory, 64 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 868-4444. (Anita Gates) * SPRING AWAKENING German schoolboys of the 19th-century frolic like rockers in this adventurous new musical adapted from the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind about sex, death and adolescence. Staged with élan by Michael Mayer, and featuring alluringly melancholy music by the pop singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, this is a flawed but vibrant show that stretches the stage musical in new directions (2:10). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) SUSAN AND GOD The Mint Theater Companys fine revival of Rachel Crotherss 1937 comedy about religion, career and family features Leslie Hendrix of Law & Order, excellent in the role of Susan. Jonathan Bank directs (2:20). The Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, third floor, Clinton, (212) 315-0231. (Hunka) TEMPEST TOSSED FOOLS This musical audience-participation childrens version of The Tempest is rowdy, colorful and not all that Shakespearean. Manhattan Ensemble Theater, 55 Mercer Street, SoHo, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) TREASON The poet Ezra Pound was a repellent fellow, judging from this play by Sallie Bingham: racist, anti-Semitic, eager to exploit the affections of the women who loved him. Just why women were drawn to him is never clear, but the play is thoughtful, and the acting, especially by Philip Pleasants as Pound, is superb (2:10). Perry Street Theater, 31 Perry Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 868-4444. (Neil Genzlinger) TROUBLE IN PARADISE Ernst Lubitschs 1932 film comedy about a con man, the con woman he loves and a wealthy Parisian widow lives again as a giddy, good-looking, quietly amusing play (1:30). Hudson Guild Theater, 441 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 352-3101. (Gates) Off Off Broadway CHEKHOV & MARIA Jovanka Bachs final play is a touching, beautifully acted if sometimes slow-paced study of Anton Chekhovs near-final days and his relationship with his sister, who cared for him (2:00). The Barrow Group Theater, 312 West 36th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, (212) 868-4444. (Gates) FOOD FOR FISH Adam Szymkowiczs fabulously weird and weirdly fabulous new comedy fools around with cross-dressing, suicidal writers and Chekhovian characters who long for New Jersey (2:00). Kraine Theater, 85 East Fourth Street, between Second and Third Avenues, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Gates) 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) DRUMSTRUCK Lightweight entertainment that stops just short of pulverizing the eardrums (1:30).Dodger Stages, Stage 2, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Lawrence Van Gelder) 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). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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 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 BURLEIGH GRIME$ A feeble-witted comedy by Roger Kirby about dirty dealings on Wall Street, featuring a pair of skilled actors known for recent television work -- Wendie Malick of Just Shoot Me and Mark Moses of Desperate Housewives -- and incidental music by David Yazbek, who wrote the score for Broadways Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. These putative assets are painfully ill served by Mr. Kirbys play, which is long on ludicrous plot and short on fresh humor (2:10). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200; closing on Sunday. (Isherwood) NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN Brian Copelands solo memoir about his African-American family moving into a white suburb in the early 1970s is an engaging, if stiltedly performed, show (1:30). DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, (212) 239-6200; closing on Sunday. (Zinoman) *SHINING CITY Quiet, haunting and absolutely glorious. Conor McPhersons impeccably assembled ghost story about being alone in the crowded city of Dublin has been brought to American shores with a first-rate cast (Brian F. OByrne, Oliver Platt, Martha Plimpton and Peter Scanavino), directed by Robert Falls (1:45). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200; closing on Sunday. (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. * AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (PG, 96 minutes) Al Gore gives a lecture on climate change. One of the most exciting and necessary movies of the year. Seriously. (A. O. Scott) * ARMY OF SHADOWS (No rating, 140 minutes, in French) Dark as pitch and without compromise, Jean-Pierre Melvilles 1969 masterpiece centers on the feats of a small band of Resistance fighters during the occupation. Brilliant, harrowing, essential viewing.(Manohla Dargis) BEOWULF & GRENDEL (R, 102 minutes) The director Sturla Gunnarsson boils this classic epic down into a generic action flick, complete with sweeping vistas, clanging fights, a chiseled hero and a witchy woman who keeps her front door unlocked for both the good guy and the bad. Every so often a severed head lazily rolls across the frame, though, alas, not often enough. (Dargis) THE BLOOD OF MY BROTHER (No rating, 84 minutes, in English and Arabic) Another documentary about the occupation of Iraq; another heartbreak; another protest; another dead brother; another necessity. (Nathan Lee) THE BREAK-UP (PG-13, 105 minutes) Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn split up and share custody of a Chicago condominium. Dull and cheerless, notwithstanding a handful of funny supporting turns, notably from Judy Davis and Jason Bateman. (Scott) CARS (G, 114 minutes) The latest 3D toon from Pixar just putt, putt, putts along, a shining model of technological progress and consumer safety. John Lasseter directed, and Owen Wilson provides the voice of the little red race car who learns all the right lessons from, among others, a 1951 Hudson Hornet given voice by Paul Newman. (Dargis) CLICK (PG-13, 98 minutes) Adam Sandler stars in this unfunny comedy about a harried family man who uses a universal remote to hop-scotch through time. Its a wonderful life, not. (Dargis) * LEONARD COHEN: IM YOUR MAN (PG-13, 104 minutes) This enthralling documentary combines pieces of an extended interview with Mr. Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and author, now 71, with a tribute concert at the Sydney Opera House in January 2005. Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright, and Antony are among the featured performers. (Stephen Holden) THE DA VINCI CODE (PG-13, 148 minutes) Theology aside, The Da Vinci Code is, above all, a murder mystery. And as such, once it gets going, Ron Howards movie has its pleasures. He and the screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have deftly rearranged some elements of the plot, unkinking a few overelaborate twists and introducing others that keep the action moving along. The movie does, however, take a while to accelerate, popping the clutch and leaving rubber on the road as it tries to establish who is who, what hes doing and why. So I certainly cant support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say that Im recommending that you go see it. (Scott) THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (PG-13, 106 minutes) Lauren Weisbergers score-settling best seller about a terrible (and famous) boss is reimagined and reversed. Anne Hathaway plays the beleaguered assistant, but she is much less interesting -- and in the end less sympathetic -- than the boss, Miranda Priestly, incarnated by Meryl Streep as a subtle and searching (and very funny) portrait of glamour and power. (Scott) * DOWN IN THE VALLEY (R, 114 minutes) This allegorical neo-western set in the San Fernando Valley has dreams as big as the fantasies that consume its protagonist, a Stetson-wearing suburban cowboy (Edward Norton) who is not what he appears to be. How much you like it will depend on your appetite for the kind of cultural metaphors that David Jacobson flings onto the screen with a reckless abandon. (Holden) THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (PG-13, 98 minutes) The Fast and Furious formula (dudes + cars + babes = $) is recycled in Tokyo, where the cars are smaller, and the clothes are kookier, but the boys are still boys. (Lee) GARFIELD: A TAIL OF TWO KITTIES (PG, 80 minutes) It was the worst of times. (Dargis) THE GREAT NEW WONDERFUL (R, 88 minutes) The post-9/11 self-absorption of a handful of New Yorkers. Occasionally well observed, but mostly irritating and contrived. (Scott) * HEADING SOUTH (No rating, 105 minutes, in English and French) Sex tourism involving middle-age white women and black beach boys at a Haitian resort in the late 1970s is the subject of Laurent Cantets third film, one of the most truthful explorations of desire, age and youth ever filmed, with a politically charged subtext about capitalist imperialism. (Holden) KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS (PG-13, 84 minutes) A rollicking bar mitzvah comedy begins as a growling, razor-toothed satire of carnivorous consumption in Hollywood. But after the first half-hour, those growls subside into whimpers, and the fangs are retracted, and the movie morphs turns into a feel-good family comedy oozing good vibes. (Holden) KILL YOUR IDOLS (No rating, 71 minutes) S. A. Crarys glib, unfocused music documentary examines the New York No Wave scene of the late 1970s -- an offshoot of punk, the anti-New Wave -- when the music was noisy (and genuinely noncommercial) and the clothes were black (and genuinely secondhand). (Dargis) THE LAKE HOUSE (PG, 108 minutes) Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, reunited 12 years after Speed, play would-be lovers separated by time and yet somehow able to communicate. The absolute preposterousness of this teary romance is inseparable from its charm, which is greater than you might expect. (Scott) LOVERBOY (R, 86 minutes) This cautionary mother-child drama, directed by Kevin Bacon, is a star vehicle for his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, who plays a pathologically possessive single mother. After starting out warm and fuzzy, this tonally uncertain film stealthily pulls out the rug until you suddenly find yourself standing on a cold stone floor, barefoot and shivering. (Holden) MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III (PG-13, 126 minutes) Er, this time its personal, as Tom Cruise plays a dashing operative for a clandestine organization who sweeps a simpering brunette off her feet. Directed, without much flair, by J. J. Abrams, the small-screen auteur behind Lost and Alias. (Dargis) * LA MOUSTACHE (No rating, 86 minutes, in French) Emmanuel Carrières psychological mystery prepares you to bask in one of those sexy, bittersweet marital comedies that are a hallmark of sophisticated French cinema. Then, by degrees, it subverts those expectations to spiral down a rabbit hole of ambiguity and doubt. (Holden) * THE OH IN OHIO (No rating, 91 minutes) A feel-good movie about feeling good, this fresh and very funny sex comedy stars Parker Posey as a woman in search of an orgasm, Paul Rudd as her frustrated husband and a delirious supporting cast: Danny DeVito as a swimming pool salesman, Heather Graham as a sex shop clerk and Liza Minnelli as a masturbation guru who encourages frigid women to liberate your labia! (Lee) * NACHO LIBRE (PG, 91 minutes) A sweet bliss-out from the writers Mike White, Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess, who also directed, that finds a glorious Jack Black as a half-Mexican, half-Scandinavian monastery cook who aches to belong to another brotherhood, that of the luchadores, or masked wrestlers. (Dargis) THE OMEN (R, 110 minutes) The supremely unnecessary remake of The Omen, the 1976 horror show that, along with Rosemarys Baby and The Exorcist, plunked everyones favorite baddie, Satan, into the Hollywood mainstream, wants to capitalize on the tabloid theology in the air. Except for a few contemporary touches (the World Trade Center in flames as a portent of Armageddon) it slavishly recycles the original. (Holden) ONLY HUMAN (No rating, 85 minutes, in Spanish) When a Jewish girl takes her Palestinian fiancé home to meet the parents, the encounter sets off a series of zany, romantic and potentially tragic misadventures during one eventful night in Madrid. (Laura Kern) OVER THE HEDGE (PG, 83 minutes) This tale about some woodland critters threatened by their new human neighbors has the technical trappings of a worthwhile Saturday matinee, so its too bad no one paid commensurate attention to the script. The writers, including Karey Kirkpatrick, who directed with Tim Johnson, pad the story with the usual yuks and some glop about family, but there is no poetry here and little thought. (Dargis) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest Although there are memorable bits and pieces, this is a movie with no particular interest in coherence, economy or feeling. (Scott) * A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (PG-13, 105 minutes) Garrison Keillors long-running Public Radio hootenanny turns out to be the perfect vehicle for Robert Altmans fluid, chaotic humanism. The performances -- especially by Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep as a pair of singing sisters -- are so full of relaxed vitality that you almost dont notice that the film is, at heart, a wry, sober contemplation of mortality. (Scott) THE ROAD TO GUANTÁNAMO (R, 91 minutes) Michael Winterbottoms powerful, slippery new film mixes documentary and fictional techniques to tell the true story of three British Muslims imprisoned by the United States government in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. (Scott) RUSSIAN DOLLS (No rating, 129 minutes, in English, Russian, French and Spanish) The sequel to the international hit LAuberge Espagnole belongs to a long line of airy French films that induce a pleasant buzz of Euro-envy. Like its forerunner, it is a generational group portrait of young, smart, sexy, well-educated Europeans at work and play filmed in a style that might be called Truffaut Lite. (Holden) A SCANNER DARKLY (R, 100 minutes) Identities shift and melt like shadows in Richard Linklaters animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick semispeculative novel A Scanner Darkly, a look at a future that appears an awful lot like today. With the voices and gestures of Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and a wonderful Robert Downey Jr. (Dargis) STRANGERS WITH CANDY (R, 87 minutes) High school high jinks, adapted from the beloved Comedy Central series. The comedy is stretched a little thin by the feature length, but there are still some laughs. (Scott) SUPERMAN RETURNS (PG-13, 157 minutes) Last seen larking about on the big screen in the 1987 dud Superman IV, the Man of Steel has been resurrected in Bryan Singers leaden new film not only to fight for truth, justice and the American way, but also to give Mel Gibsons passion a run for his box-office money. Where once the superhero flew up, up and away, he now flies down, down, down, sent from above to save mankind from its sins and another bummer summer. (Dargis) WAIST DEEP (R, 97 minutes) Tyrese Gibson plays an ex-convict trying to rescue his son from ruthless criminal kidnappers in this far-from-terrible B movie, directed with style and heart by Vondie Curtis Hall. (Scott) WASSUP ROCKERS (R, 105 minutes) The latest provocation from the director and photographer Larry Clark follows a group of teenage Hispanic skateboarders from South Central Los Angeles on a 24-hour adventure that takes them from one hell (the inner city) to another (decadent Beverly Hills) and back. (Holden) * WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? (PG, 92 minutes) A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, Chris Paines film about the recent rise and fall of the electric car is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of issue-oriented documentaries. ( Dargis) X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (PG-13, 104 minutes) As expected, the third and presumably last film about the powerful Marvel Comics mutants who walk and often fight among us pretty much looks and plays like the first two, though perhaps with more noise and babes, and a little less glum. The credited writers here are Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, who, like the director, Brett Ratner, are not mutant enough to fly. (Dargis) Film Series ANIMATION AROUND THE WORLD (Through July 31) BAMcinémateks festival of animated films begins Monday with a program of shorts by the Dutch director Paul Driessen, who worked on Yellow Submarine. Tuesdays program is Best of Ottawa 2005, a selection of shorts from the animation festival in that city, including Mary Newlands very short (50 seconds) comedy Signal Film. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue, between St. Felix Street and Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100; $10. (Anita Gates) ESSENTIAL WILDER (Through Thursday) Film Forums three-week retrospective of the work of the Polish-born director and screenwriter Billy Wilder (1906-2002) continues today and tomorrow with Ace in the Hole (1951), starring Kirk Douglas as an unscrupulous newspaper reporter. Sundays feature is The Apartment (1960), Wilders Oscar-winning comedy about a corporate love nest. The retrospectives closing-night film is The Fortune Cookie (1966), one of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthaus lesser-known collaborations. 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-9110; $10. (Gates) FRANK BORZAGE, HOLLYWOOD ROMANTIC (Through Aug. 20) A 24-film retrospective of Borzage (1893-1962), the first director to win an Oscar (for Seventh Heaven), begins tomorrow at the Museum of the Moving Image. This weekends films include Mans Castle (1933), a naughty romantic comedy with Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young, and History Is Made at Night (1937), a romantic drama set on a Titanic-like ship, starring Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer. 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077; $10. (Gates) GREAT VILLAINS IN CINEMA (Through July 30) BAMcinématek is honoring movie bad guys, including Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931) and Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). The weekends other features are Hitchcock classics: Psycho (1960), starring Anthony Perkins as the disturbed motel owner Norman Bates, and Rebecca (1940), which stars Laurence Olivier (but the films real villain is the dead title character). BAM Rose Cinemas, (718) 636-4100; $10. (Gates) HEROIC GRACE: THE CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS FILM, PART II (Through Thursday) The U.C.L.A. Film & Television Archive and the Film Society of Lincoln Centers sequel to a 2003 festival focuses on movies from the 1970s and early 80s. This weekends films include Lau Kar-leungs kung-fu comedy My Young Auntie (1980) and Zhang Ches Five Venoms (1978), about a dying master seeking revenge on his former disciples. Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5600; $10. (Gates) HISTORIC HARLEM PARKS FESTIVAL: THROUGH AFRICAN EYES AND PRIZED PIECES (Through Aug. 3) This fifth annual outdoor festival continues Wednesday night with Cheik Doukourés Golden Ball (1992), a film from Guinea about a very young football fan. Thursday nights feature is Buckle Brothers (2005), Marquette Williamss documentary about cowboys in South-Central Los Angeles. St. Nicholas Park, 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, (212) 352-1720; free. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. DAVE ALVIN (Tonight) In the Blasters, in X and now on his own, Mr. Alvin has written and sung about outcasts, lovers and criminals, some of the people who share the road with an itinerant musician. He sets his narratives in country and rockabilly tunes that strive for classic American simplicity, though his words detail an uncertain moral landscape. At 7, South Street Seaport, Pier 17, Fulton and South Streets, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789; free. (Jon Pareles) * AMADOU AND MARIAM (Sunday) Known throughout West Africa as the Blind Couple From Mali, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia have reached American listeners with a smooth eclecticism that on their album Dimanche à Bamako, last year, folded in reggae and some loose-limbed rock. With Daby Touré and Birdy Nam Nam. At 3 p.m., Central Park SummerStage, Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street, (212) 360-2777; free, but a donation is suggested. (Ben Sisario) AMERICAN IDOLS LIVE (Tonight through Sunday) The 10 finalists from Season 5 of American Idol logged about a million yeah-yeahs and baby-babys on television, and here they come on tour with who knows how many more: Taylor Hicks (the winner), Katharine McPhee (the runner-up), Ace Young, Bucky Covington, Chris Daughtry, Elliott Yamin, Kellie Pickler, Lisa Tucker, Mandisa and Paris Bennett. Tonight at 7, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J., (201) 935-3900; tomorrow and Sunday nights at 7, Nassau Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, N.Y., (631) 888-9000; $36.50 to $70.50. (Sisario) BON JOVI (Tuesday and Wednesday) Bon Jovi, the band that titled its 1998 album New Jersey, is back in its home state. Jon Bon Jovis band conquered the airwaves in the 1980s and 90s by sticking together everything catchy about 70s rock: Bruce Springsteens earnestness, Led Zeppelins crunch, Bostons harmonies, and lyrics that paint romance as nothing less than a titanic adventure. A photogenic lead singer doesnt hurt, either. With Nickelback. At 5 p.m., Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J., (201) 935-3900; $37.50 to $125. (Pareles) BRAVE COMBO (Wednesday) Brave Combo, on a lifelong mission to prove the malleability of polka, plays an all-request show at Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Centers outdoor series of low-dipping, high-kicking music and dancing. At 7:30 p.m., with a dance lesson at 6:30 p.m., Josie Robertson Plaza, Columbus Avenue at 63rd Street, (212) 875-5460; $15. (Sisario) BRAVO SILVA, RAISING THE FAWN (Wednesday) Drawing on the spiky and melodic sound of the early Police and U2, the New York band Bravo Silva sings deadpan odes to the city of strangers, though not so deadpan as to exclude playing soaring, ecstatic choruses and having some fun with kitschy keyboards. This month the band has a Wednesday-night residency at Pianos. Also on the bill this week is Raising the Fawn, a group connected to the great Toronto indie-prog collective Broken Social Scene. At 6:30 p.m., 158 Ludlow Street, near Rivington Street, Lower East Side, (212) 505-3733; $8. (Sisario) KELLY CLARKSON (Tomorrow) The first American Idol champion, who won two Grammys and had the third-best-selling album of 2005, Ms. Clarkson is the best proof yet that reality television might not be a bad idea. With Rooney. At 8 p.m., New England Dodge Music Center, Hartford, (860) 548-7370; $25 to $75. (Sisario) * DIPLO, CSS, BONDE DO ROLE (Wednesday and Thursday) Diplo, born Wesley Pentz -- his stage name is taken from diplodocus, a dinosaur -- is the influential and eclectic D.J. who has worked with the Sri Lankan-British rapper M.I.A., and is also half of Hollertronix, a virtuoso mixtape team from Philadelphia. He has been borrowing from Brazilian baile funk for years, and the first release on his new record label, Mad Descent, is by the Brazilian group Bonde do Role. Diplo is touring with that band and another Brazilian group, CSS, whose come-ons are shouted in robotic, broken English (Kiss-kiss-kiss will make this earth quake) over bare but exuberant art-funk. Wednesday at 8 p.m., Avalon, 662 Avenue of the Americas, at 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 807-7780; Thursday at 8 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $20. (Sisario) JOHN HIATT, NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS (Tuesday) Mr. Hiatt has rhymed amoeba with Queen of Sheba; his songs get to the heart of human frailty, loyalty and love, even if they take a sidelong route. He performs with a deep-diving baritone, a twang-happy band and enough strange facial expressions to rival Jim Carrey. The North Mississippi Allstars play an asymmetrical, cantankerous blues from the hill country near where the members grew up, then turn it into jam-band music. At 8 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 307-7171; $30. (Pareles) I LOVE YOU BUT IVE CHOSEN DARKNESS (Wednesday) All is cold, echoey gloom in the music of this five-piece band from Austin, Tex., which borrows its spacious sound from Joy Division and its faint vocals from the shoe-gazer British bands of the late 1980s like My Bloody Valentine. With the Big Sleep and Asobi Seksu, a Brooklyn group whose new album, Citrus (Friendly Fire), shows a fine command of the shoe-gazer sound. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $14 in advance, $16 at the door. (Sisario) * MADONNA (Tuesday and Wednesday) Part 10 (or so), in which our heroine strikes such poses as Jesus on the cross, James Brown in his cape and John Travolta in his white disco suit, all while performing dance-floor hits in new remixes and reconfigurations. At 8 p.m., Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $354.50 tickets remaining. (Sisario) MISSION OF BURMA (Tonight) In the early 1980s this innovative and widely influential Boston band brought sharp, brainy guitar minimalism to American postpunk, and since reuniting in 2002 after almost 20 years, it still plays with passion and smarts. With Major Stars. At 8 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $20. (Sisario) MOBB DEEP, RAEKWON (Wednesday) Mobb Deep, a rap duo from Queens long admired by connoisseurs for its grim and vivid rhymes, was recently taken under 50 Cents wing, with one result that you might expect: its new album, Blood Money (G Unit/Interscope), had its debut in the Top 10. Also on the bill is Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan, and a long lineup of opening acts including the Boot Camp Clik. At 9 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 307-7171; $35. (Sisario) MUNICIPAL WASTE (Tonight) Seemingly everything about the mid-1980s thrash metal of groups like D.R.I. and Anthrax is lovingly and skillfully recreated by this band from Richmond, Va., from the high-octane riffs and stomping mosh-pit rhythms all the way to the cartoonish, apocalyptic album-cover art. With Annihilation Time, Splitting Headache, Clockcleaner and Dustheads. At 9, Northsix, 66 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-5103; $9. (Sisario) NORTEC COLLECTIVE (Tomorrow) A loose confederation of musicians and visual artists, the Nortec Collective is devoted to the cutting, rearranging and pasting of norteño, the vibrant border style of oompah brass and accordion known on this side of the border as Tex-Mex. With Grupo Soñador. At 7:30 p.m., Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, (718) 855-7882; $3 suggested donation. (Sisario) OZOMATLI (Tonight) Ozomatli makes what might be called political party music. Its a Los Angeles band that is determined to annex every pan-American party groove from funk to samba to Mexican cumbia in its consciousness-raising songs. With Outernational. At 7 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Pareles) RBD (Tomorrow) This teen-pop sextet began on a spinoff of a Mexican soap opera and is now aiming for the American market with an English-language album. Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $49.50 to $115. (Sisario) JOSH ROUSE (Thursday) Mr. Rouse wraps folk-rock melodies around wistful thoughts about regrets, near-misses and forlorn hopes. At 7 p.m., Castle Clinton National Monument, Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789; free tickets available at 5 p.m., two per person. (Pareles) * SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL (Tomorrow) One of the most tastefully programmed indie-rock festivals in the country, The Village Voices annual afternoon of noise and sea mist takes place on two stages beside the Coney Island boardwalk, surrounded by hot-dog vendors and the screams of roller-coaster riders. The lineup this year includes the neo-disco Scissor Sisters; the exuberantly sarcastic Art Brut; the Stills, a Canadian band with a moody, shimmering take on the sound of New York bands like Interpol and the Strokes; Stars, a witty and eloquent indie-cabaret band from Toronto; She Wants Revenge and Dirty on Purpose, two more groups with gloom fetishes; Tapes n Tapes, from Minneapolis, whose dry rhapsodies recall Pavement and the early Pixies; the bluesy and rough-hewn Deadboy and the Elephantmen; and Man Man, the Rogers Sisters, Priestess, Celebration, Serena Maneesh and the Cribs. From noon to 9 p.m., Surf Avenue, Coney Island, Brooklyn, (212) 475-4022; free. (Sisario) SOUNDS OF THE UNDERGROUND TOUR (Tomorrow) An afternoon of fast, pummeling heavy metal characterized by lots of death-and-gore-obsessed lyrics, with As I Lay Dying, Cannibal Corpse, In Flames, Trivium, Terror, Black Dahlia Murder and Through the Eyes of the Dead. And since the vaudevillian horror-metal band Gwar is on the bill, there will also be a fair complement of monsters with ripped limbs spurting fake, multicolored blood. At noon, Starland Ballroom, 570 Jernee Mill Road, Sayreville, N.J., (732) 238-5500; $32 in advance, $36 at the door. (Sisario) MATTHEW SWEET AND SUSANNA HOFFS (Monday) Mr. Sweet, the power-pop songwriter with a sensitive side (Girlfriend), and Ms. Hoffs, the lead singer of the Bangles, indulge their love of jangly 1960s pop, playing songs from Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (Shout Factory), their recent joint album of loving versions of songs by the Beatles, Love, the Zombies, the Mamas and the Papas, and others. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $25. (Sisario) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. A.C.T.I.O.N. 4 (Wednesday) It may sound like a coalition of superheroes, or a TV news team, but this quartet is actually a progressive jazz ensemble built around the compositions of the bassist Sean Conly. The groups other members are Michaël Attias and Tony Malaby, saxophonists, and Take Toriyama, drummer. At 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Nate Chinen) BRUCE BARTH TRIO (Tonight and tomorrow) As a pianist, Mr. Barth prefers subtlety and fluency to any kind of flash. His trio, with the bassist Doug Weiss and the drummer Montez Coleman, performs original compositions alongside less-than-obvious covers, including material by the Grateful Dead. At 8, 10 and 11:30 p.m., Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, Manhattan, (212) 864-6662; cover, $25. (Chinen) LOU DONALDSON QUARTET (Through Sunday) Bebop, blues and boogaloo are all fair game for Mr. Donaldson, a veteran alto saxophonist who receives strong support here from Kyle Koehler on Hammond B-3 organ, Randy Johnston on guitar and Fukushi Tainaka on drums. At 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $30. (Chinen) MAYNARD FERGUSON & HIS BIG BOP NOUVEAU BAND (Tuesday through Thursday) His signature high notes have inevitably lost some luster, but Mr. Ferguson is still a bravura trumpeter and charismatic front man, and this 11-piece ensemble, under the musical direction of the drummer Stockton Helbing, suits both sets of skills. (Through July 23.) At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $30 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) 4INOBJECTS (Sunday) An experimental but tuneful collective composed of Yoon Sun Choi on vocals, Jacob Sacks on keyboards, Jacob Garchik on trombone, Dave Ambrosio on bass and Dan Weiss on drums. At 9:30 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $5. (Chinen) CLARK GAYTON QUINTET (Tuesday and Wednesday) Mr. Gayton, a sharp trombonist, has worked in a colorful array of horn sections, including his current gig with Bruce Springsteens Seeger Sessions Band. As a leader, he brings a jazz flexibility to dub and reggae, gospel and soul. At 9 p.m., 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., Zinc Bar, 90 West Houston Street at LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, (212) 477-8337; cover, $5, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) GOOD FOR COWS (Tonight and tomorrow) The bassist Devin Hoff and the drummer Ches Smith comprise this Bay Area duo, which interrogates jazz and punk with equal rigor. On the second night, theyre joined by the guitarist Mary Halvorson and the violist Jessica Pavone, two musicians with a duo rapport of their own. At 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) * JAZZ IN JULY (Tuesday through Thursday) A year ago, the pianist Bill Charlap presided over his first season as artistic director of this venerable traditional jazz series, successfully clearing the bar set by his predecessor, Dick Hyman. The new season begins next week, with guest-laden tributes to Duke Ellington (Tuesday), Mr. Hyman (Wednesday) and Thelonious Monk (Thursday). Wynton Marsalis, making an appearance on the Monk evening, provides the most potent dose of jazz celebrity; but among this festivals regular patronage, Mr. Hyman himself looms just as large. Tickets will go quickly, if they havent already. At 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, (212) 415-5500 or www.92y.org, $50. (Chinen) LATIN IN MANHATTAN FESTIVAL (Through Thursday) Dizzys Club Coca-Colas second annual Latin jazz festival started this week with Claudia Acuña, a vocalist guided by the pulse and passion of her native Chile, who plays through Sunday with a strong quintet. Tuesday marks the start of a six-night engagement with Grady Tate and Latin Flavor, a heavily rhythmic sextet led by Mr. Tate on vocals. (Through July 30.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., with an 11:30 set Friday and Saturday, 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) CHUCK MANGIONE (Through Sunday) Mr. Mangiones fluegelhorn has been a staple of instrumental pop for more than 30 years, and his trademark hit, Feels So Good, helped pave the way for smooth jazz. He leads a polished group that includes the saxophonist and flutist Gerard Niewood and the guitarist Coleman Mellett. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $35 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) KATE McGARRY (Tomorrow) Ms. McGarry is a quiet but potent singer who recasts jazz and folk material alike with a quavering sincerity. She performs here with the guitarist Keith Ganz, the keyboardist Gary Versace and the drummer Dan Rieser. At 6 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; no cover. (Chinen) BEN MONDER GROUP (Sunday) Oceana (Sunnyside), the most recent album by the guitarist Ben Monder, is a small-scale but ambitious suite of original music that doesnt sound quite like anything else. Mr. Monder presents much of the same material here, with the bassist Chris Lightcap and the drummer Ted Poor. At 8 and 10 p.m., Bar 4, 444 Seventh Avenue, at 15th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 832-9800, www.bar4.net; suggested donation, $5. (Chinen) MARK MURPHY (Tomorrow) Mr. Murphy is a singer known mainly for sly insouciance, but on his recent album Once to Every Heart (Verve), he opted for a burnished and broken romanticism. He performs here in the most intimate of settings, accompanied only by the guitarist Jack Wilkins. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) DAVID (FATHEAD) NEWMAN QUINTET (Through Sunday) Mr. Newman, a surefooted tenor saxophonist best known for his long and fruitful tenure with Ray Charles, leads an ensemble consisting of Javon Jackson on tenor and soprano saxophones, David Leonhardt on piano, John Menagon on bass and Yoron Israel on drums. At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., with midnight sets tonight and tomorrow. Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) SANGHA QUARTET (Monday) This ensemble, led by the keyboardist Kevin Hays, creates an electronic jazz hybrid with a sensibility that hovers somewhere between pop and experimental fusion. In addition to Mr. Hays, the group consists of the saxophonist Seamus Blake, the bassist Doug Weiss and the drummer Bill Stewart. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) TODD SICKAFOOSE GROUP (Wednesday) Mr. Sickafoose is a bassist-composer equally fond of rough edges and rounded forms, as he demonstrated on an evocative recent album, Blood Orange (Secret Hatch). He performs here with the trumpeter Russ Johnson and the trombonist Alan Ferber; the guitarists Adam Levy and Mike Gamble; and the percussionists Mike Dillon and Ches Smith. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) DR. LONNIE SMITH TRIO (Tuesday through Thursday) Under Dr. Smiths command, the Hammond B-3 organ can be subtly atmospheric or growlingly ecstatic; together with the guitarist Peter Bernstein and the drummer Alison Miller, he delivers a searching brand of soul jazz. Continues through July 23. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $25. (Chinen) * HENRY THREADGILLS ZOOID (Thursday) The august composer and multireedist 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, and drums. Continues through July 23. At 8 and 10 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) BEN WALTZER TRIO (Thursday) Mr. Waltzer, a pianist, manages a thoughtful modernism that coexists more than peaceably with a buoyant, un-self-conscious sense of swing. His trio, with Matt Penman and Gerald Cleaver on bass and drums, is first-rate. At 8 and 9:45 p.m., Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119; no cover, $10 minimum. (Chinen) DAVID WEISS AND THE POINT OF DEPARTURE QUINTET (Thursday) An assertive trumpeter and accomplished arranger, Mr. Weiss leads an ensemble well stocked with young talent: J. D. Allen on tenor saxophone, Nir Felder on guitar, Luques Curtis on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums. At 10 p.m., Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue, West Village, (212) 675-6056; cover, $20. (Chinen) MICHAEL WEISS QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow) Mr. Weiss is an exceedingly proficient pianist, well versed in a multitude of jazz styles. Leading a quartet, he spotlights another versatile player, the alto and soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson. At 8 and 9:45 p.m., Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) FRANK WESS QUARTET (Tonight) Mr. Wess, a venerable tenor saxophonist and flutist, marks the release of a likable new album, Hank & Frank, with this one-night engagement. His ensemble here does not include Hank Jones, the Hank in the album title; but it does feature the bassist John Webber, the drummer Leroy Williams and a guitarist, Ilya Lushtak, who released the album on Lineage, his own new label. At 10 p.m., Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 675-7369; cover, $15, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen) * JOE WILDER QUARTET (Tuesday through Thursday) The trumpeter Joe Wilder, still playing well in his mid-80s, has had a wealth of professional experience both in and out of jazz. But he has hardly ever led his own group in a New York club residency: only once, in fact, at the Village Vanguard this year. He returns to the club next week with the same supporting cast of Michael Weiss on piano, John Webber on bass and Lewis Nash on drums. Continues through July 23. At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera GLIMMERGLASS OPERA (Tomorrow and Sunday) This companys productions almost invariably end up at the New York City Opera, and lots of people drive up to Cooperstown, N.Y., to get an early glimpse of whats on the way. But Glimmerglass, with its intimate, comfortable and up-to-date house, is a vastly superior place to see and hear these productions than the cavernous New York State Theater. The company opened its season with a light work, the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance in a production by Lillian Groag. This weeks schedule also includes Rossinis Barbiere di Siviglia, in a production by Leon Major. Pirates: tomorrow night at 8; Barbiere: Sunday at 1:30 p.m., Route 80, north of Cooperstown, N.Y., (607) 547-2255; $64 to $112. (Allan Kozinn) GRENDEL (Tomorrow and Sunday) The wall works! The Lincoln Center Festival is breathing easy. As everyone seems to know by now, the Los Angeles Operas premiere of Grendel, the operatic adaptation of John Gardners 1971 novel, a retelling of the epic poem Beowulf, composed by Elliot Goldenthal and directed by Julie Taymor, had to be postponed when the 16-ton rotating wall that dominated the set would not rotate. Now installed at the New York State Theater, the wall is operating smoothly and the elaborate production, complete with Ms. Taymors trademark puppets, tree-man creatures and flying dancers, seems glitch-free. Alas, Mr. Goldenthals derivative music is like an ominous and obvious film score and the opera is weighted down with philosophical mumbo-jumbo. At 7:30 p.m., (212) 721-6500; $40 to $200. (Anthony Tommasini) New Jersey Opera Theater (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) Founded in 2002, the New Jersey Opera Theater is striving to become the pre-eminent opera company for the state. Besides presenting performances, the company offers master classes and educational outreach programs. The productions include Donizettis Elisir dAmore, directed by David Grabarkewitz and conducted by Brent McMunn, and an intriguing double bill of Puccinis comedy Gianni Schicchi and Buosos Ghost, a one-act work from 1996 by Michael Ching, which picks up the story of the clever Schicchi where Puccinis opera leaves off. Steven Condy sings Schicchi in both works; James Caraher conducts. LElisir dAmore: tonight at 8, Sunday at 2 p.m. and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Schicchi and Buoso: tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Berlind Theater at the McCarter Theater Center, 91 University Place, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., (609) 258-2787; $42 to $49. (Tommasini) Classical Music ASTON MAGNA (Tonight and tomorrow) This venerable early-music festival focuses on Mozart and Schubert this weekend, with Sharon Baker as the soprano soloist in groups of songs by each composer, and the violinist Daniel Stepner and the fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout offering sonatas and fantasies. Tonight at 8, Olin Humanities Building, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., (845) 758-7425; tomorrow at 5 p.m., Arts Center at Simons Rock College, Great Barrington, Mass., (800) 875-7156. $35. (Kozinn) BARGEMUSIC (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) This floating concert hall on the Brooklyn side of the East River offers the intimacy that chamber music needs, as well as a wonderful view of Lower Manhattan through the bay windows behind the stage. Tonight Steven Beck, the pianist, plays works by Stravinsky, Brahms, Haydn and Schubert. The Sequenza Trio, with the violinist Mark Kaplan, the cellist Adrian Brendel and the pianist Yael Weiss, takes over tomorrow and Sunday to play works by Martinu, Schubert (the great E-flat Trio, Op. 100) and Paul Chiharas Aint No Sunshine. On Thursday, the Gala String Quartet and Olga Vinokur, the pianist, join forces for Mozarts chamber version of his Piano Concerto No. 12 (K. 414) and the Schumann Piano Quintet (Op. 44). 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 tonight, tomorrow and Sunday; $40 on Thursday. (Kozinn) BEOWuLF (Tuesday and Wednesday) The Lincoln Center Festival offers Benjamin Bagbys smaller, faster take on Beowulf as a complement to the opera Grendel playing nearby. At 8:30 p.m., Drama Theater at La Guardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts, Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street, (212) 721-6500; $45, with limited availability. (Bernard Holland) CARAMOOR (Tonight through Sunday, Thursday) The chamber ensemble Opus One frames its program of piano quartets tonight in favorites, with Mozarts Quartet in E flat (K. 493) to begin and Dvoraks Quartet in E flat (Op. 87) to close. Between them it offers a more recent adventure, George Tsontakiss Piano Quartet No. 3. Tomorrow night Michael Barrett conducts the Orchestra of St. Lukes in the premiere of a Piano Concerto by John Musto, Caramoors stylistically omnivorous composer in residence. Also on the program are Beethovens Leonore Overture No. 3 and Schumanns Spring Symphony. On Sunday afternoon, Will Crutchfield leads an all-Mozart program that includes Exsultate, Jubilate and arias and ensembles from Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and other works. The soloists are Sumi Jo, soprano; Maria Zifchak, mezzo-soprano; Steven Tharp, tenor; and Daniel Mobbs, bass-baritone. On Thursday, the brilliant American pianist Christopher Taylor will perform Messiaens complete Vingt Regards sur lEnfant-Jésus, a two-hour workout that includes some of the most difficult and complex yet sublime and ecstatic music ever written for piano. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8; Sunday at 4:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Caramoor, Katonah, N.Y., (914) 232-1252; $27 and $37 tonight, $17.50 to $67.50 tomorrow, $19 to $49 on Sunday, $17 and $27 on Thursday. (Kozinn) * INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARD INSTITUTE AND FESTIVAL (Sunday through Thursday) This expansive festival of master classes and concerts runs through the rest of July, and tends to draw the biggest crowds of all the Mannes College of Musics summer series. Jerome Rose, the institutes director, plays the first faculty concert on Sunday, with works by Mozart, Schumann, Chopin (the four Ballades) and Paul Schoenfield. On Monday Fabio Bidini plays Schumanns Carnaval and Beethovens Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas. On Tuesday Steven Mayer offers a virtuoso program that moves from Weber and Schumann through Ives, Gottschalk and James P. Johnson into jazz pieces by Jelly Roll Morton and Art Tatum. On Wednesday Nikolai Demidenko plays Schubert, Liszt and Bach. On Thursday Jeffrey Swann offers a lecture-recital, In Search of Lost Time: Music in the World of Marcel Proust, that includes works by Franck, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Reynaldo Hahn and Wagner. At 8 p.m., Mannes College, 150 West 85th Street, Manhattan, (212) 580-0210, Ext. 4858; $25. (Kozinn) NEW YORK PHILHARMONICS CONCERTS IN THE PARKS (Tonight, tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday) The Philharmonic has left the air-conditioned confines of Avery Fisher Hall for its annual series of free concerts in the parks. Notably, the conductors and soloists for both programs this summer are dynamic women. The orchestras impressive associate conductor, Xian Zhang, offers two Tchaikovsky works, the Coronation March and the Violin Concerto (with the charismatic violinist Jennifer Koh as soloist), and Dvoraks exuberant Symphony No. 8. The series ends on Tuesday with the adventurous Marin Alsop conducting John Adamss Chairman Dances, Prokofievs Violin Concerto No. 1, with the virtuosic Leila Josefowicz as soloist, and Beethovens always-popular Fifth Symphony. Expect these concerts, as usual, to draws tens of thousands of people for picnics in the parks and music under the stars (if nature cooperates). There will be fireworks after each performance. Tonight at 8, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island; tomorrow at 8 p.m., Heckscher State Park, East Islip, N.Y.; Monday at 8 p.m., Van Cortlandt Park, Broadway and West 246th Street, the Bronx; Tuesday at 8 p.m., Great Lawn, Central Park; (212) 875-5709. (Tommasini) NORFOLK CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL (Tonight) A host of chamber musicians play an all-Russian evening. At 8, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Routes 44 and 272, Norfolk, Conn., (860) 542-3000; $15 to $45. (Holland) SVET STOYANOV (Monday) The River to River Festival this week includes a performance by Mr. Stoyanov, a Bulgarian percussionist. At 7:30 p.m., Schimmel Center for the Arts, 3 Spruce Street, near Park Row, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789; free tickets available after 4 p.m. (Holland) TANGLEWOOD (Tonight through Sunday) James Levines return to action with the Boston Symphony Orchestra includes Schoenbergs gigantic oratorio Gurrelieder tonight, and Strausss equally large opera Elektra, performed in concert tomorrow. Andrew Davis conducts a mixed program on Sunday afternoon. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8:30, Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Lenox, Mass., (888) 266-1200; $18 to $87 tonight, with $8.50 lawn tickets; $18 to $87 tomorrow and Sunday, with $17 lawn tickets. (Holland) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. * AMERICAN BALLET THEATER (Tonight and tomorrow) The companys spring season ends with three performances of Kenneth MacMillans highly theatrical Romeo and Juliet, to Prokofievs haunting score. Julie Kent (celebrating her 20th anniversary with Ballet Theater) and Marcelo Gomes take the lead roles tonight, Paloma Herrera and David Hallberg tomorrow afternoon, and Alessandra Ferri and José Manuel Carreño tomorrow night. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000 or abt.org; $23 to $100. (John Rockwell) CAPACITOR (Tonight through Sunday, and Wednesday and Thursday) From San Francisco, Capacitor creates pieces based on science. In Digging in the Dark the focus is on modern geophysics and acrobatic, virtuosic movement. Through July 30. Tonight through Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8, American Theater of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, Clinton, (212) 352-3101 or capacitor.org; $35. (Jennifer Dunning) CENTRAL PARK SUMMERSTAGE (Tonight) The Stephen Petronio Company, known for its stylish, cheeky, high-energy dance, will perform a program featuring two pieces set to music by Rufus Wainwright that will be sung live in part by the Young Peoples Chorus of New York City. At 8 p.m. Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, enter at Fifth Avenue and 69th Street or Central Park West and 72nd Street, (212) 360-1399 or summerstage.org; free. (Dunning) CHASHAMA OASIS FESTIVAL 2006 (Today and Monday through Thursday) Artists of all disciplines -- some, we suspect, wildly undisciplined, in the grand tradition of Chashama productions -- will perform in a Midtown window. Today, and Monday through next Friday from noon to 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 7 p.m., 217 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third Avenues, chashama.org; free. (Dunning) Chunky Move (Tonight and tomorrow) Australian men apparently have dancing difficulties too; perhaps not these particular men, though. Using video montages and interviews, the members of the physical Australian troupe Chunky Move channel their inner wallflowers in I Want to Dance Better at Parties. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800; $36. (Claudia La Rocco) COMPANY C CONTEMPORARY BALLET (Opens Thursday). A 12-member ballet troupe from San Francisco with an eclectic repertory presents works by Twyla Tharp, Patrick Corbin, Alexander Proia and its director, Charles Anderson. Through July 23. At 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, SoHo, (212) 334-7479; $25, $20 students and 65+. (Jack Anderson) PAULA HUNTER (Today through Thursday) Ms. Hunter will perform I Am Karen Finley, an absurdist performance solo, as a free dance installation in a window in the Theater District. Through July 22. Today through Thursday at 5 and 7:30 p.m., Chashama, 112 West 44th Street, (212) 391-8151 or chashama.org. (Dunning) LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2006 (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company examines issues relating to patriotism in Blind Date. At 8 p.m., LaGuardia Concert Hall, Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street, (212) 721-6500 or lincolncenter.org; $50. (Anderson) * NOCHE FLAMENCA WITH SOLEDAD BARRIO (Tomorrow, Sunday and Wednesday) Ms. Barrio is a remarkable dancer, serious and impassioned, and the hit of this winters Flamenco Gala at City Center. Her Spanish company, founded with her husband, Martin Santangelo, has settled into the intimate Theater 80 until the end of the month. Tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 5 p.m., Wednesday at 8 p.m., Theater 80, 80 St. Marks Place, (212) 352-3101 or theatermania.com; $45. (Rockwell) * PILOBOLUS (Monday through Thursday) The grandfather of the current crop of Nikolais-inspired, Cirque du Soleil-like acrobatic dance troupes with spectacular visual effects. A little mindless, maybe, but enormously popular for people of all ages. Monday is a special opening event combining parts of the two programs that will alternate for the rest of the run. Through Aug. 12. Monday through Thursday nights at 8, Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800 or joyce.org. $42. (Rockwell) RIVER DEEP, A TRIBUTE TO TINA TURNER (Tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday through Thursday) Gabrielle Lansner pays tribute to this singer, who is played by Pat Hall, in a multimedia production set to music by Philip Hamilton. Through July 29. Tonight, and Tuesday through Thursday nights at 8; tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m. Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, (212) 279-4200 or gabriellelansner.com; $35. (Dunning) SUMMER IN THE SQUARE (Wednesday). A series of Wednesday events featuring music, storytelling, yoga and dance, this week includes modern dance by the Battery Dance Company. Through Aug. 16. At 6 p.m., Union Square Park, Broadway and 14th Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 460-1208 or unionsquarenyc.org; free. (Anderson) * TAP CITY 2006 (Tonight through Sunday, and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) The festivities continue with performances of Tap Internationals tonight; Tap Forward, a program of contemporary choreography, tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday nights; and Tap and Song, whose performers include Mable Lee and the festival director, Tony Waag, on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Tonight at 7 and 9:30; tomorrow and Sunday at 7 and 9:30 p.m.; Wednesday at 7 and 9:30 p.m.; and Tuesday and Thursday at 7 and 9:30 p.m. The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, (212) 239-6200 and atdf.org; $40. (Dunning) THOMAS/ORTIZ DANCE (Wednesday through Thursday) Ted Thomas and Frances Ortiz combine urban athleticism and Latin sensuality in choreographic explorations of socially relevant themes. Through July 22. At 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077; $15, $25. (Anderson) DUSAN TYNEK DANCE THEATER (Tonight through Sunday) Dusan Tynek, from Czechoslovakia, trained with Aileen Passloff at Bard College. He will present two premieres, one inspired by sinister 19th-century Czech ballads and set to string music by classical and contemporary composers, and the other set to music by Michael Galasso. Tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 924-0077 or dtw.org; $20; $12 for students, artists and 65+. (Dunning) VON USSAR DANCEWORKS (Tonight through Sunday) Astrid von Ussar, a Slovenian modern-dance choreographer now based in New York City, will present four new and recent pieces, including her new 23 hours, set to music by Graeme Ravell. The program features a dance by Mojca Ussar, her sister. Tonight through Sunday at 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, between Houston and Prince Streets, (212) 334-7479; $20; $15, 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: Graffiti, through Sept. 3. Twenty paintings on canvas from the early 1980s by formerly famous subway graffiti artists who went by names like Crash, Daze and Lady Pink. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, (718) 638-5000. (Ken Johnson) * BROOKLYN MUSEUM: SYMPHONIC POEM: THE ART OF AMINAH BRENDA LYNN ROBINSON, through Aug. 13. 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 castoff 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. (See above.) (Grace Glueck) Bruce Museum: Best in Show: Dogs in Art From the Renaissance to the Present, through Aug. 27. This show is a dog lovers picnic, with paintings that celebrate canis lupus familiaris and its wayward ways. 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, Conn.; (203) 869-0376. (Glueck) COOPER-HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM: FREDERIC CHURCH, WINSLOW HOMER AND THOMAS MORAN: TOURISM AND THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, through Oct. 22. It turns out that the Cooper-Hewitt owns thousands of rarely seen paintings, prints and sketches by Church, Homer and Moran. Studies of the countryside, mostly, they revere unspoiled nature and record tourism, a booming industry in 19th-century America. Here theyre combined with antique postcards, old Baedekers, stereoscopic photographs, playing cards with pictures of Yellowstone on them and souvenir platters, all to trace the nations transformation from primeval wilderness to Catskills resort. The show is extremely entertaining. 2 East 91st Street, (212) 849-8400. (Michael Kimmelman) Dahesh Museum of Art: NAPOLEON ON THE NILE: SOLDIERS, ARTISTS AND THE REDISCOVERY OF EGYPT, through Sept. 3. Napoleons invasion of Egypt was a military disaster, but the squadron of scholars and scientists that went with him lay the foundation for Egyptology and Egyptomania, gave Orientalism a big boost and was commemorated by the 1,000 engravings of the 23-volume Description de lÉgypte. Examples of the books prints form the backbone of this strange and sometimes piecemeal show, which includes Orientalist paintings and a cache of fascinating ephemera. 580 Madison Avenue, at 56th Street, (212) 759-0606. (Roberta Smith) * Frick Collection : Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789): Swiss MasteR, through Sept. 17. Liotard is something of a specialty item now, but he was widely known in the Enlightenment Europe of his day. And even then he was seen as a maverick, a figure of contradictions. He was a stone-cold realist in an age of rococo frills. In a great age of oil painting, he favored pastel. He had ultrafancy sitters for his portraits, including the young Marie Antoinette. But his most vivid likenesses are of himself and his family. The Fricks perfectly proportioned sweetheart of a solo show is the artists first in North America. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700. (Holland Cotter) SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: ZAHA HADID: THIRTY YEARS IN ARCHITECTURE, through Oct. 25. This exhibition, Ms. Hadids first major retrospective in the United States, gives New Yorkers a chance to see what theyve been missing. The show, in the Guggenheims rotunda, spirals through Ms. Hadids career, from her early enchantment with Soviet Constructivism to the sensuous and fluid cityscapes of her more recent commissions. It illuminates her capacity for bridging different worlds: traditional perspective drawing and slick computer-generated imagery; the era of utopian manifestos and the ambiguous values of the information age. (212) 423-3500. (Nicolai Ouroussoff) * International Center of Photography: UNKNOWN WEEGEE, through Aug. 27. From the 1930s through the 50s, Weegee -- real name, Arthur Fellig (1899-1968) -- was one of the best known news photographers in the country. He specialized in capturing the sensational side of urban life: crime, disaster, demimonde nightlife. Tirelessly invasive, he lived by night. For him, the city was a 24-hour emergency room, an amphetamine drip. This show of 95 pictures gives a good sense of his range and calls particular attention to his awareness of social problems related to class and race. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000. (Cotter) JEWISH MUSEUM: EVA HESSE: SCULPTURE, through Sept. 17. Assembled by Elizabeth Sussman, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Fred Wasserman, a curator at the Jewish Museum, this show focuses on a pivotal Hesse exhibition, Chain Polymers, at the Fischbach Gallery -- known for promoting Minimalist painters -- in 1968. Arguably a compilation of her best work, it was her first and only solo show of sculpture during her lifetime, and most of the objects in it -- along with some earlier and later pieces -- are here. One of the earliest is Compart (1966), a four-panel vertical that starts at the top with a fully formed, round, breastlike image of neatly wound cord that mysteriously breaks up into part of the same image on each of the three panels beneath. The last, most startling and most impressive work is Untitled (Rope Piece), of 1970, made as Ms. Hesse was dying, finished with the help of friends. 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200. (Glueck) * Metropolitan museum of art: RAPHAEL AT THE METROPOLITAN: THE COLONNA ALTARPIECE, through Sept. 3 This exhilarating show reunites the central panel and lunette of Raphaels Colonna Altarpiece (owned by the Met) with all five panels of the predella. Additional works by Raphael, Perugino, Fra Bartolommeo and Leonardo place the work in context and sharpen the understanding of Raphaels budding genius. Further sharpness comes from the placement of all parts of the altarpiece at eye level, creating a viewing intensity that more than compensates for the fact that they have not been reassembled. (212) 535-7710. (Smith) * Met: Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings, through Sept. 10. Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings gets a huge gold A for truth in advertising. The treasures are plentiful, rare and splendid. A carved wood figure of kneeling shaman, arms extended, time-raked face entranced, is simply one of the greatest sculptures in the museum. And wait till you see the painted ceramic vessel known as the Dazzler Vase, with its red and green patterns like jade on fire, youll understand its name. Much of the work has never traveled before; many objects have only recently come to light in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. They add up to an exhibition as a think-piece essay on how a culture saw itself in the world. (212) 535-7710. (Cotter) * Morgan Library and Museum: Masterworks from the Morgan, through Sept. 10. Almost three years after closing to build an expansion, the Morgan is back and brilliant. Whats new: Renzo Pianos splendid four-story glass-and-steel court, a sort of giant solarium with see-through elevators; two good-size second-floor galleries; and a neat little strongbox of an enclosure, called the Cube, for reliquaries and altar vessels, medieval objects made with so much silver and gold that they seem to give off heat. Whats not new: almost everything in this exhibition, which fills every gallery with mini-exhibitions of master drawings and musical manuscripts, as well as illuminated gospels, devotional sculptures and historical and literary autograph manuscripts from the Brontës to Bob Dylan. 225 Madison Avenue, at East 36th Street, (212) 685-0008 or www.themorgan.org. (Individual show closings can be checked by telephone or through the Web site.) (Cotter) Museum of Arts AND Design: THE EAMES LOUNGE CHAIR: AN ICON OF MODERN DESIGN, through Sept. 3. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of a chair whose combination of declarative modernist structure and sheer creature comfort was both innovative and a bit alien, this exhibition is a successful design object in its own right. It pays homage with drawings, advertising ephemera, precursors, vintage television clips, a wonderful documentary and three versions of the chair itself, enshrined, exploded and useable. 40 West 53rd Street, (212) 956-3535. (Smith) Museum of Biblical Art: The Word on the Street: the photographs of Larry Racioppo, through Aug. 20. Photographs documenting vernacular expressions of religious devotion in New York, including spray-painted murals, private shrines and tattoos. Museum of Biblical Art, 1865 Broadway, at 61st Street, (212) 408-1500. (Johnson) * MUseum of modern art: ARTISTS CHOICE: Herzog & DE MEURON, PERCEPTION RESTRAINED, through Sept. 25. In an unusually accessible bit of institutional critique, the architects who failed to win the commission to design the new Museum of Modern Art bite the hand that didnt feed them. They create a kind of deprivation chamber with a black gallery, where excerpts from American movies play on video screens on the ceiling and 110 works of art and design are crammed into enormous niches that are all but sealed from view. Perverse and cerebral, it may be the best one-liner youll encounter this summer, and it makes some interesting points about the spectacle of the museum, the Modern included. (212) 708-9400. (Smith) MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: DADA, through Sept. 11. This is pretty much Dadas official survey (an oxymoron), and it makes nearly all 450 or so objects in it look elegant. That hat rack looks awfully stylish now. Its good to be reacquainted with a generation of artists who had no market to speak of and for whom societys corruption and exhaustion seemed golden opportunities to make themselves useful. Cynical and traumatized, the Dadaists were tireless young optimists at heart. They discovered a world full of wonders, and we are, on the whole, their beneficiaries. (212) 708-9400. (Kimmelman) * New-York Historical Society: Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery, through Jan. 7. Slavery, some would say, didnt really end in the United States until the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. That was a full century after the Emancipation Proclamation. Or the Emancipation Approximation, as the artist Kara Walker calls it in a series of hallucinatory silkscreen prints. They are among the high points of this large, powerful, subtle group show, the second of three exhibitions on American slavery organized by the New-York Historical Society. 170 Central Park West, (212) 873-3400. (Cotter) NOGUCHI MUSEUM: BEST OF FRIENDS: BUCKMINSTER FULLER AND ISAMU NOGUCHI, through Oct. 15. Great, lasting friendships are rare, but friendships that enlarge the spirit through ideas, ideals and new insights are in a class by themselves. Over a stretch of more than 50 years the sculptor Isamu Noguchi and the visionary designer R. Buckminster Fuller enjoyed such a friendship, which led to aesthetic and practical achievements that left their mark. The course of their varied collaborations is traced in this exhibition, which includes models, sculptures, drawings, photographs and films. 9-01 33rd Road, between Vernon Boulevard and 10th Street, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 204-7088. (Glueck) P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center: Into Me/ Out of Me, through Sept. 25. Often with repulsive immediacy and occasionally with wit and subtlety, works by more than 130 artists in this ambitious exhibition explore the body and all its possible experiences along the pleasure-pain continuum. P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, (718) 784-2084. (Johnson) * The Whitney Museum of American Art : Full House: Views of the Whitneys Collection at 75, through Sept. 3. The Whitney celebrates a significant birthday this summer with an attic-to-basement display of hundreds of pieces of art from its permanent collection. There are terrific things, arranged mostly by loose theme rather than date. And as an ensemble, they deliver an impressionistic story, through art, of a staggeringly contradictory American 20th-century culture, diverse and narrow-souled, with a devotion to the idea of power so ingrained as to make conflict inevitable and chronic. If Full House is about one thing, it is about discord, about how harmonious America never was. 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (212) 570-3676. (Cotter) Galleries: Uptown * WANGECHI MUTU: EXHUMING GLUTTONY: A LOVERS REQUIEM In tandem with this artists Chelsea debut, an over-the-top installation made with the British architect David Adjaye includes fur-trimmed wine bottles dripping wine, animal skins and an enormous raw wood table. Conflating morgue, tannery and banquet hall, it brings the excess and color of paintings on Mylar into real space, but its main message seems to be: I built this because I can. Salon 94, 12 East 94th Street, (646) 672-9212, through July 28. (Smith) * Sarah Sze: Corner Plot The upper corner of an apartment building protrudes from the Doris C. Freedman Plazas pavement as if the whole edifice had toppled and sunk into the ground. Through the windows of Ms. Szes magical outdoor sculpture you can see a complicated interior that looks as if it were created by a mad architect. Doris C. Freedman Plaza, 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, (212) 980-4575, through Oct. 22. (Johnson) Galleries: 57th Street * HANS BELLMER: PETITES ANATOMIES, PETITES IMAGES. This extraordinary show of more than 70 images takes you beyond the surface obsessions of Bellmers girl-crazed art to unveil some of his working processes as a sculptor, installation artist, photographer, editor and hand-colorist whose preference for small scale intensifies the voyeuristic nature of his art. Ubu Gallery, 416 East 59th Street, (212) 753-4444, through July 28. (Smith) * Rudy Burckhardt: New York Paintings Known as a photographer and filmmaker, Burckhardt (1914-1999) also painted all through his career. His Manhattan cityscapes, mostly rooftop views of other buildings, have a fresh, almost naïve immediacy and a sophisticated way with relations between surface and depth and complexity and simplicity. Tibor de Nagy, 724 Fifth Avenue, (212) 262-5050, through July 28. (Johnson) Galleries: SoHo * A Four-Dimensional Being Writes Poetry on a Field with Sculptures Organized by the sculptor Charles Ray, this beautiful, spare and mysterious exhibition presents sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Mark di Suvero and the folk artist Edgar Tolson, and a giant photograph by Jeff Wall. Matthew Marks, 522 West Second Street, (212) 243-0200, through Aug. 11. (Johnson) Small Wonders Bucking the big-picture trend, this absorbing show presents 45 black-and-white photographs ranging from palm to postage-stamp size. They include classic portraits by Edward Weston and Berenice Abbott; André Kerteszs William-Blake-like image of a naked man walking into a field of tall grass; and Walter Auerbachs picture of Willem de Koonings studio circa 1950. Robert Mann, 210 11th Avenue, (212) 989-7600, through Aug. 25. (Johnson) Galleries: Chelsea About Light Some works in this show, like Sean Scullys blocky grid painting and Philip Gustons smudgy gray abstraction, absorb more than emit light. Others, including Thomas Pihls smooth, pink monochromes; Alex Katzs small nocturnal pictures of lighted apartment-building windows; and Richard Pousette-Darts pulsating, pointillist field, seem to glow from within. Galerie Lelong, 528 West 26th Street, (212) 315-0470, through Aug. 4. (Johnson) Air This appealing, understated show organized by the painter Amy Sillman includes Benjamin Butlers lush, Mondrian-style painting of trees; Pat Palermos semi-abstract drawings of wrecked cars and other curious subjects; John White Cerasulos watercolor of a bare-chested wilderness giant; Pamela Wilson-Ryckmans flickering picture of a scattering crowd of people; and abstractions in various styles by Robert Bordo, Jenny Monick, Howard Smith, Laura Newman and Patricia Treib. Monya Rowe, 526 West 26th Street, (646) 234-8645, through July 28. (Johnson) * CRG PRESENTS: KLAUS VON NICHTSSAGEND GALLERY Including works by Liz Luisada, Samuel Lopes and Thomas Ovilsen, this group show of work by 17 emerging artists definitely has its moments, but the strongest impression is made by the gallery-within-a-gallery effect resulting from the re-creation of the storefront facade and reception desk of the small Von Nichtssagend Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. CRG Gallery, 535 East 22nd Street, (212) 229-2766, through July 28. (Smith) Everywhichway This lively show of artists working inventively between abstraction and representation includes Katherine Bradfords whimsical images of ships and the sea; Chris Martins updated Tantric art; Sigrid Sandströms Arctic icescapes; suave, retro-Modernist pattern paintings by Jennifer Riley and Colin Thomson; Harvey Tulcenskys finely textured ballpoint-pen fields; and compact, sensuous ceramic slabs by Joyce Robins. Edward Thorp, 210 11th Avenue, at 24th Street, (212) 691-6565, through July 28. (Johnson) Im not here. This isnt happening With possibly the best title of the summer season, this group show includes Michelle Lopezs canny, neo-Surrealistic sculptures; Ronnie Basss incantatory sound-and-video installation in a simulated old ships cabin; Terry Haggertys mesmerizing pattern paintings; Katarina Burins noirish combinations of watercolor and found photography; Damien Cadios enigmatic, painterly narratives; and Jim Gaylords explosive, loosely Cubist paintings of natural and artificial fragments. Grimm/Rosenfeld, 530 West 25th Street, (212) 352-2388, through Aug. 4. (Johnson)Smith) * THE NAME OF THIS SHOW IS NOT GAY ART NOW Characterized by its organizer, the artist Jack Pierson, as an ode to the passing of the notion of Gay Art, this exhibition embraces the work of about 60 artists (gay, straight and otherwise) to create a cacophonous celebration and suggest that everyone is a little bit gay, if they are lucky. Paul Kasmin Gallery, 293 10th Avenue, at 27th Street, (212) 563-4474, through tomorrow. (Smith) The Sanctuary and the Scrum A diverting, pluralistic show inaugurates a new Northwest Chelsea exhibition space. It includes good abstract and semi-abstract paintings by Jessica Dickinson and Andrew Guenther; a stuffed swan shorn of its feathers from the head down by Jane Benson; a gleaming crutch covered by tiny mirror facets by Kristian Kozul; and a funny photo-conceptual project about grocery store shopping carts by Julian Montague. Black & White, 636 West 28th Street, (212) 244-3007, through July 29. (Johnson) Martin Schoeller: Close Up Extraordinarily large and detailed mug-shot-like portraits of celebrities like Jack Nicholson, Angelina Jolie and Bill Clinton. Hasted Hunt, 529 West 20th Street, (212) 627-0006, through Sept. 1. (Johnson) * Vivan Sundaram: Re-Take of Amrita The photographs in this beautiful, time-haunted show are all of past generations of the Indian artist Vivan Sundarams family, and include images of his aunt, the famed modernist painter Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941). Thanks to digital technology, those generations mix in logically impossible combinations. The resulting pictures embody the past the way it survives in the mind: edited, layered, compressed, as if in a dream. Sepia International, 148 West 24th Street, 11th floor, (212) 645-9444, through July 28. (Cotter) Other Galleries How I Finally Accepted Fate The memoir is the loosely defined theme of this interesting 10-person show. It includes Matt Keegans video of cheerleaders celebrating his grandmothers 90th birthday; Angela Dufresnes vivid painting of a shirtless man called Me as a Communist Male in The Red and the White ; Carolee Schneemanns patchwork tale about modern love in photographs and typewritten words; and Maureen Duncans three-and-a-half-hour monologue about her CD collection. EFA Gallery, 323 West 39th Street, (212) 563-5855, through July 28. (Johnson) Christine Osinski: Notes From West Brighton Ms. Osinski took the visually and sociologically gripping photographs in this exhibition on Staten Island, where she lives, in the early 1980s and the early 90s. These exceptionally lucid black-and-white pictures of nondescript neighborhoods, grocery store customers, small-town parades, self-consciously posing teenagers and abandoned wrecked cars were made with an affectionately cool, clear eye for the beauty and weirdness of ordinary people and places. Silo, 1 Freeman Alley, East Village, (212) 505-9156, through July 30. (Johnson) Last Chance Philippe Decrauzat: Plate 28 A conceptually perplexing but visually striking installation by this young Swiss artist includes a black-and-white grid painted on the walls, a sculpture based on a Russian Constructivist design, and a grainy, flickering black-and-white film showing glimpses of ominous landscapes from The Twilight Zone. Swiss Institute, 495 Broadway, at Broome Street, (212) 925-2035, closes tomorrow. (Johnson) * FRICK COLLECTION: VERONESES ALLEGORIES: VIRTUE, LOVE AND EXPLORATION IN RENAISSANCE VENICE, Paolo Veronese (1528-88), a superb colorist and one of the most suavely sensuous of Renaissance Venetian painters, used the age-old device of allegory to make abstract concepts visual, often by means of human or mythological figures. In this five-painting show, the first to include all of his large-scale allegories from American collections, high ideals mingle with earthy and sometimes erotic physicality, as in the painting Venus and Mars United by Love, depicting the goddess of love and the god of war in an intimate moment brokered by Cupid, as Marss sexy horse looks on. The other works are a little more staid, but the painting in them is equally gorgeous. (See above.) 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700, closes Sunday. (Glueck) EVA HESSE: DRAWING This show deals in depth with Ms. Hesses works on paper, ranging from rough sketches or notes, to test pieces made from various materials that function as drawings, to finished projects that stand on their own. A zealous researcher, Ms. Hesse made all kinds of thumbnail notations and calculations to explore the properties of her malleable materials. Many of these sheets, perhaps too many, are shown, too. Drawing Center, 35 Wooster Street, (212) 219-2166; closes tomorrow. (Glueck) Cosima von Bonin: Relax, Its Only a Ghost Various two- and three-dimensional objects -- including stuffed animals like the ones you might find in a high-end toy store -- and Rorschach test patterns stitched to colorful bedspreads add up to a familiar critique of consumerism. Friedrich Petzel, 535 West 22nd Street, (212) 680-9467; closes today. (Johnson) Invisible Might: Works from 1965-1971 This luminous group show about the euphoric convergence of Minimalism and new technologies in the late 1960s and early 70s includes a smoky glass cube by Larry Bell; a solid black plastic cube by John McCracken; a tall, clear acrylic prism by Robert Irwin; a beautiful aqua-green light projection by James Turrell; a yellow molded plastic relief by Craig Kauffman; and a corner composition of elastic cords and bent metal rods by Fred Sandback. Nyehaus, 15 Gramercy Park South, (212) 995-1785; closes today. (Johnson)

Massive number of U.S. cities abandon Bible

Find out which places have most (and least) respect for Scripture. Published:. But with the nation facing drastic financial and social challenges in recent years, a new study ranking American support for the Holy Bible reveals an astounding 91 out of 96 U.S. cities ��� a whopping 95 percent ��� are not. Christian leaders should recognize that most of the major cities in the nation continue to have basis for biblical engagement among a significant share of the population.���.

The Listings: Feb. 16 - Feb. 22

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 BILL W. AND DR. BOB Previews start today. Opens on March 5. This history play portrays the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous -- and their wives (2:15). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. BFF Previews start tomorrow. Opens on Feb. 24. In Anna Zieglers memory play, a woman, haunted by her past, has a sexual awakening (1:30). DR2, 103 East 15th Street, (212) 239-6200. THE COAST OF UTOPIA: SALVAGE In previews; opens on Sunday. Tom Stoppards epic trilogy about 19th-century Russian intelligentsia comes to an end with this final installment, which once again stars a vigorous and immense cast, including Brian F. OByrne, Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton and Ethan Hawke. Jack OBrien directs (2:30). Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. DYING CITY In previews; opens on March 4. Lincoln Center presents a new play by Christopher Shinn (Four) about a therapist who receives a visit from her deceased husbands twin brother (1:30). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-7600. HOWARD KATZ In previews; opens on March 2. Roundabout Theater presents a new play by Patrick Marber (Closer) about a down-on-his-luck talent agent. Doug Hughes directs (1:30). Laura Pels Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. JOURNEYS END In previews; opens on Thursday. This English transfer of R. C. Sherriffs early-20th-century antiwar play stars the Tony winners Boyd Gaines and Jefferson Mays (2:40). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. KING HEDLEY II Previews start on Tuesday. Opens on March 11. Signature Theater revives August Wilsons operatic drama, set in Reagen-era Pittsburgh, about a man who just returned from prison (2:45). Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. KING LEAR In previews; opens on March 7. He played Hamlet. He played Falstaff. It was only a matter of time before Kevin Kline took on this proud, misguided patriarch. James Lapine directs (3:00). The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555. MARY ROSE In previews; opens on Tuesday. Although it can sometimes seem otherwise, J. M. Barrie wrote stories besides Peter Pan, including this one about a girl who might be a ghost. Tina Landau directs (1:45). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212) 353-0303. OUR LEADING LADY Previews start on Thursday. Opens on March 20. A new comedy by Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergists Wife), about the actress who was to perform at Fords Theater on the night Lincoln was shot (2:00). Manhattan Theater Club at City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. PRELUDE TO A KISS Previews start today. Opens on March 8. The Roundabout revives Craig Lucass fantastical play about a young romance that takes a very bizarre turn (2:00). American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300. SEALED FOR FRESHNESS In previews; opens on Feb. 24. Set in the 60s, Doug Stones new play features a group of Midwestern housewives at a Tupperware party. Comedy ensues (2:00). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. SPALDING GRAY: STORIES LEFT TO TELL Previews start on Tuesday. Opens on March 6. Kathleen Russo, Spalding Grays widow, and Lucy Sexton assembled this collection of his monologues, letters and stories. Kathleen Chalfant and Frank Wood star (1:30). Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village, (212) 307-4100. TALK RADIO In previews; opens on March 11. Eric Bogosians darkly funny portrait of a late-night talk show host returns for a Broadway revival starring Liev Schreiber. Robert Falls directs. Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. Broadway THE APPLE TREE The amazing Kristin Chenoweth gives Imax-screen-size life to three curvaceous doodles who by rights shouldnt be any larger than figures in the Sunday funnies. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnicks 1966 musical, directed by Gary Griffin, shows its age but is given theatrical verve by Ms. Chenoweth, Brian dArcy James and Marc Kudisch (2:30). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Ben Brantley) A CHORUS LINE If you want to know why this show was such a big deal when it opened 31 years ago, you need only experience the thrilling first five minutes of this revival. Otherwise, this archivally exact production, directed by Bob Avian, feels like a vintage car that has been taken out of the garage, polished up and sent on the road once again (2:00). Schoenfeld Theater, 236 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE COAST OF UTOPIA The exhilarating first two installments of Tom Stoppards trilogy about 19th-century Russian intellectuals dreaming of revolution, these productions pulse with the dizzy, spring-green arrogance and anxiety of a new generation moving as fast as it can toward the future. Jack OBrien directs a fresh, vigorous and immense cast that includes Brian F. OByrne, Jennifer Ehle, Billy Crudup and Ethan Hawke (2:45). Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * COMPANY Fire, beckoning and dangerous, flickers beneath the frost of John Doyles elegant, unexpectedly stirring revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furths era-defining musical from 1970, starring a compellingly understated Raul Esparza. Like Mr. Doyles Sweeney Todd, this production finds new clarity of feeling in Sondheim by melding the roles of performers and musicians (2:20). Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, it has theatergoers responding as if they were withering houseplants finally being watered after long neglect. Bob Martin and Sutton Foster are the standouts in the avid, energetic cast (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * GREY GARDENS Christine Ebersole is absolutely glorious as the middle-aged, time-warped debutante called Little Edie Beale in this uneven musical adaptation of the notorious 1975 documentary of the same title. She and the wonderful Mary Louise Wilson (as her bedridden mother), in the performances of their careers, make Grey Gardens an experience no passionate theatergoer should miss (2:40). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) MARY POPPINS This handsome, homily-packed, mechanically ingenious and rather tedious musical, adapted from the P. L. Travers stories and the 1964 Disney film, is ultimately less concerned with inexplicable magic than with practical psychology. Ashley Brown, who sings prettily as the family-mending nanny, looks like Joan Crawford trying to be nice and sounds like Dr. Phil. Directed by Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne (2:30). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) LES MISÉRABLES This premature revival, a slightly scaled-down version of the well-groomed behemoth that closed only three years ago, appears to be functioning in a state of mild sedation. Appealingly sung and freshly orchestrated, this fast-moving adaptation of Victor Hugos novel isnt sloppy or blurry. But its pulse rate stays well below normal (2:55). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SPRING AWAKENING Duncan Sheik and Steven Saters bold adaptation of the Frank Wedekind play is the freshest and most exciting new musical Broadway has seen in some time. Set in 19th-century Germany but with a ravishing rock score, it exposes the splintered emotional lives of adolescents just discovering the joys and sorrows of sex. Performed with brio by a great cast, with supple direction by Michael Mayer and inventive choreography by Bill T. Jones (2:00). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles Isherwood) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a superdeluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) * TRANSLATIONS The estimable Irish director Garry Hynes (a Tony winner for Martin McDonaghs Beauty Queen of Leenane) has assembled an ensemble of an extraordinarily high caliber and consistency for the third major New York production of Brian Friels 1980 play. Set in rural Ireland in 1833, as the local tongue is being supplanted by the language of the English occupying forces, the play explores the seriocomic truth that language can divide as easily as it unites, and can never hope to translate the rich music in our souls with the delicacy we yearn for. A top-flight Broadway revival (2:15). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE VERTICAL HOUR David Hares soggy consideration of the Anglo-American cultural divide stars Julianne Moore (representing the Americans) and Bill Nighy (leading the British), directed by Sam Mendes. The Yanks dont stand a chance (2:20). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway ALL THAT I WILL EVER BE In this false-feeling comedy-drama by Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, a gay hustler undergoes an identity crisis when he finds himself falling for one of his clients. Slick but mostly stale in its analysis of a society afraid of emotional engagement (2:15). The New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN? Think of two gifted and smart gay men with years of life together deploying their considerable talents from the two pianos you happen to have in your living room. The result is a hilarious and very touching memoir of two decades of love and the funky glories of show business life (2:00). Actors Temple Theater, 339 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Honor Moore) THE CRYING WOMAN An imaginative play that manages to transform what begins as a tired culture-clash comedy involving a Mexican and United States couple sharing a house in Mexico City into a sinister tale involving strange superstitions and a ghost from the 16th century (2:30). The Beckett Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Wilborn Hampton) DAI (ENOUGH) Iris Bahrs unnerving one-woman show doesnt have much to add to the Middle East debate, but it sure leaves a lasting impression. Ms. Bahr plays an assortment of characters who have the misfortune of being in a Tel Aviv cafe that is about to be visited by the havoc common to such establishments. The attack is rendered in jarring fashion, repeatedly; you watch the play on pins and needles, waiting for the next burst. Gimmicky? Sure. But viscerally effective (1:40). Culture Project, 55 Mercer Street, at Broome Street, SoHo, (212) 253-9983. (Neil Genzlinger) DUTCHMAN A revival of the poet Amiri Barakas screed on race and American values, 43 years after its Greenwich Village debut, aims for all the fire and might of a Malcolm X speech but none of the rhetorical elegance. It shouts so loudly that you cant hear a thing (1:00). Cherry Lane Theater, 38 Commerce Street, between Barrow and Bedford Streets, West Village (212) 239-6200. (Ginia Bellafante) THE FANTASTICKS A revival -- well, more like a resuscitation -- of the Little Musical That Wouldnt Die. This sweet-as-ever production of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidts commedia-dellarte-style confection is most notable for Mr. Joness touching performance (under the pseudonym Thomas Bruce) as the Old Actor, a role he created when the show opened in 1960. Mr. Jones also directs (2:05). Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE FEVER Wallace Shawn performs his provocative monologue about a guilt-riddled bourgeois everyman sweating his way through a moral crisis. The rich, often hypnotic writing draws us into his tortured mindscape, as he shifts between shame over his sense of entitlement and reasoned arguments that sacrifice is unnecessary and pointless. Meanwhile, in the third world, the violence and poverty continue unabated (1:30). Acorn Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) THE FRUGAL REPAST This sweet, compact story by Ron Hirsen dabbles in the high concepts of art, but not too deeply, which makes it just right. Two circus performers see Picassos Frugal Repast in a dealers window and realize they were the models for it; when they steal the print, their lowbrow world and Picassos highbrow one amusingly collide (1:20). The June Havoc Theater, Abingdon Theater Arts Complex, 312 West 36th Street, (212) 868-4444. (Genzlinger) GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL A very funny if not terribly original satire of musical theater features what must be the worst backers audition of all time. The excellent duo Jeremy Shamos and Christopher Fitzgerald make the pitch (2:05). The Actors Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, at Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 239-6200. (Jason Zinoman) * IN THE HEIGHTS Lin-Manuel Mirandas joyous songs paint a vibrant portrait of daily life in Washington Heights in this flawed but enjoyable show. Essentially a valentine to the barrio -- conflict of a violent or desperate kind is banished from the picture -- the musical contains a host of vibrant, funny performances, and brings the zesty sound of Latin pop to the stage. (2:10). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Isherwood) 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 and two women perform a wide selection of Brels plaintive ballads and stirring anthems (2:00). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE JADED ASSASSIN Imagine mediocre professional wrestling mixed with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and you get the idea (1:15). The Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster Street, SoHo, (212) 868-4444. (Zinoman) A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN You dont have to be Jewish or Brooklynish to empathize with Jake Ehrenreich, but in terms of fully appreciating his essentially one-man show, it probably helps. Especially the Catskills jokes (2:05). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 560-8912. (Anita Gates) THE LAST WORD Oren Safdies comedy about cultural generation gaps amuses as it goes along but lands at a predictable nowhere. Daniel J. Travanti stars as a Viennese Jew and aspiring playwright who does battle with a young student angling to become his writing assistant and find his voice (1:30). Theater at St. Clements, 423 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Bellafante) THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and THE JEW OF MALTA F. Murray Abraham plays two Elizabethan villains in repertory for the Theater for a New Audience. Mr. Abrahams sinister but still moving Shylock is the dark heart of Darko Tresnjaks chilly, powerful staging of one of Shakespeares unfunniest comedies. As Barabas in David Herskovitss goofy, postmodern Jew of Malta, hes the lively center of a carnival that doesnt do justice to Christopher Marlowes harsh satire on Christian hypocrisy and venality (each 2:30). The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM Shakespeares comedy, so dependent on things that arent what they appear to be, makes an inspired choice for Theater by the Blind, a group that mixes blind, vision-impaired and fully sighted actors. The most intriguing thing, though, is how the company stages the play with just six actors (1:50). The Barrow Group Theater, 312 West 36th Street, (212) 868-4444. (Genzlinger) MY MOTHERS ITALIAN, MY FATHERS JEWISH AND IM IN THERAPY Steve Solomon does skillful impersonations in his one-man show, but some of his jokes are as old as the hills (1:30). Little Shubert Theater, 422 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) NO CHILD Teachers will love Nilaja Suns one-woman show about the challenges of teaching drama at Malcolm X High School (1:10). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) ROOM SERVICE The Peccadillo Theater Company puts a charge into this comedy from the 1930s, thanks to a brisk pace by the director, Dan Wackerman, and a dozen dandy performances. David Edwards is the would-be producer whose bills threaten to swamp his efforts to put a show on Broadway, and Fred Berman is particularly fine as his director (2:00). SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, South Village, (212) 691-1555. (Genzlinger) A SPANISH PLAY The great Zoe Caldwell returns to the New York stage after an absence of a decade, in the fine company of Linda Emond, Denis OHare and Larry Pine. Thats the good news. The bad? The play. Yasmina Rezas pseudo-philosophical and metatheatrical trifle is utterly forgettable (1:50). Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Isherwood) 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER This is the comedian Judy Golds fiercely funny monologue, based on her own life as a single Jewish lesbian mother and interviews with more than 50 other Jewish mothers (1:20). St. Lukes Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Phoebe Hoban) VICTORIA MARTIN: MATH TEAM QUEEN Must all stage teenagers speak in that exaggerated surfer-dude style in which awesome and totally make up about 50 percent of any conversation? Yes, apparently they must, from the evidence presented in this thin comedy, which is about a high school girl who finds herself on the all-male math team. The playwright, Kathryn Walat, seems to have been trying to grab the coattails of a certain spelling-bee-related show. She missed (2:00). The Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Genzlinger) * THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE David Mamet has cleanly and cannily adapted Harley Granville Barkers 1905 play about corruption in the genteel world of Victorian finance. An excellent cast and a sumptuous production bring extra immediacy to a tale of embezzlement and entitlement that feels as fresh as tomorrows stock options (1:50). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) * WAKE UP MR. SLEEPY! YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND IS DEAD! Richard Foremans latest film-theater hybrid is a memorial service, of sorts, for the intuitive self, killed by a surface-worshiping world. It is also a dazzling exercise in reality shifting that is as invigorating as it is mournful (1:05). Ontological Theater at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Brantley) Off Off Broadway AT LEAST ITS PINK Bridget Everett and her big, bad attitude co-star in this mini-musical about sex and unsatisfying jobs in the city. Directed by Michael Patrick King (of Sex and the City, as it happens), who is also the co-author, and with songs written by Ms. Everett and Kenny Mellman, the piano-playing half of Kiki & Herb. Raucous and rude, its a bit like a one-woman episode of Jerry Springer (1:20). Ars Nova, 511 West 54th Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444. (Isherwood) T J AND DAVE The comics T. J. Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi miraculously improvise a one-hour play at every performance. This is an impressive feat of mental athletics, but the results are also observant, complex and frequently enormously funny (1:00). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) 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 Theater, 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) THE COLOR PURPLE Singing CliffsNotes for Alice Walkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Often more entertaining than the real thing (1:45). 47th Street Theater, 304 West 47th Street, Clinton, (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) JERSEY BOYS The biomusical that walks like a man (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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 A singing scrapbook for Monty Python fans (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE A Chorus Line with pimples (1:45). Circle in the Square, 254 West 50th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance ANON. Kate Robins savvy, dark romantic comedy about sexual addiction doesnt live up to its potential (2:10). Atlantic Theater Company, Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200; closes on Sunday. (Zinoman) EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL This likable horror comedy based on Sam Raimis gory movies wants to be the next Rocky Horror Show. To that end, it offers deadpan lyrics, self-referential humor and geysers of stage blood (2:00). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200; closes tomorrow. (Gates) FRANKS HOME Peter Weller plays Frank Lloyd Wright in Richard Nelsons dreary bio-drama, which lingers lovingly on its subjects feet of clay while paying arid lip service to his genius (1:45). Playwrights Horizons Mainstage, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 719-4200; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) * THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED The comedy of manners, a form widely believed to be extinct in the American theater, has actually resurfaced on Broadway with all its vital signs intact in Douglas Carter Beanes breezy but trenchant satire about truth and illusion, Hollywood style. With the wonderful Julie White as the movie agent you hate to love (but just cant help it) (2:00). Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200; closes on Sunday. (Brantley) MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS This musical is too big for its stage, but the young turn-of-the-last-century sweethearts have great chemistry, and there are four terrific songs (2:00). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737; closes on Sunday. (Gates) * TOYS IN THE ATTIC Austin Pendletons fine revival of Lillian Hellmans last play faithfully attacks the corrosive attachments of family. What good is a family, and thus a society, the play implicitly asks, that can only look in the mirror? (2:30) Pearl Theater, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212) 598-9802; closes on Sunday. (Bellafante) 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. ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES (PG, 94 minutes) Luc Besson serves up a hybrid of live actors and computer-generated figures to tell a not-endearing-enough story about a boy (Freddie Highmore) who shrinks to microscopic size to find some gems and his missing grandfather. Lots of famous names (Madonna, Robert De Niro, David Bowie, Snoop Dogg) lend their voices to the computerized part of the movie, but only briefly near the end does everything click. (Neil Genzlinger) BABEL (R, 143 minutes, in English, Spanish, Japanese, Berber, Arabic and sign language) This hugely ambitious movie tells four loosely linked, not quite simultaneous stories set on three different continents, with dialogue in several languages. The themes, to the extent they are decipherable, include loss, fate and the terrible consequences of miscommunication. Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, the movie is an intellectual muddle but a visceral tour de force, and the power of the filmmaking almost overcomes the fuzziness of the ideas. Almost. (A. O. Scott) BECAUSE I SAID SO (PG-13, 102 minutes) Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore as mother and daughter. What did she say, exactly? Whatever it was, it wasnt as funny as it should have been. (Scott) * BLACK FRIDAY (No rating, 143 minutes, in Hindi) Set in 1993, this is an exploration of how religious hatred between Indias Hindu majority and Muslim minority manifested itself in institutionalized discrimination, race rioting and, ultimately, a series of terrorist bombings by Muslim guerrillas that killed 257 people in Mumbai. The upshot is an exhaustive, exhausting, often moving thriller that spreads both empathy and condemnation around democratically. (Matt Zoller Seitz) BLOOD DIAMOND (R, 138 minutes) The makers of this foolish thriller about illegal diamond trafficking in Africa, starring an excellent Leonardo DiCaprio, want you to know there may be blood on your hands, specifically your wedding finger. Too bad they havent thought through what it means to turn misery into entertainment. (Manohla Dargis) BREAKING AND ENTERING (R, 119 minutes) This high-toned, feel-bad exercise in liberal guilt comes from Anthony Minghella, who brings the same earnest humorlessness to present-day London that he has brought to the historical past. Jude Law is an architect; Juliette Binoche is a Bosnian seamstress; and Vera Farmiga provides a glimmer of wit and liveliness as a Russian prostitute who shows up to drink coffee, show her underwear and discuss the themes of the movie. (Scott) * CHILDREN OF MEN (R, 100 minutes) The end is nigh in this superb thriller directed by Alfonso Cuarón about a nervously plausible future. Based on the P. D. James book, the film stars an excellent Clive Owen and features equally sterling support from Michael Caine, Danny Huston and Chiwetel Ejiofior, among others. (Dargis) * DAYS OF GLORY (R, 120 minutes, in French) Rachid Boucharebs tale of North African soldiers fighting to free their French colonial masters from German Occupation during World War II is a potent combat picture, and also a searching and complex political drama. (Scott) * THE DEPARTED (R, 150 minutes) Martin Scorseses cubistic entertainment about men divided by power, loyalty and their own selves is at once a success and a relief. Based on the crackling Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, it features fine twinned performances from Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, and a showboating Jack Nicholson. (Dargis) DREAMGIRLS (PG-13, 131 minutes) The Broadway musical arrives on the screen, capably directed by Bill Condon, ardently acted and sung by Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé Knowles and (especially) Jennifer Hudson, but undone by mediocre and anachronistic songs. (Scott) EPIC MOVIE (PG-13, 86 minutes) A cheap, dumb parody of expensive, dumb movies. (Scott) FACTORY GIRL (R, 91 minutes) Its not entirely inappropriate that this film, George Hickenloopers biography of Edie Sedgwick, the most glamorous of Andy Warhols so-called superstars, should suggest a magazine layout masquerading as a film. The world through which Ms. Sedgwick (Sienna Miller) blazed and burned out was one that lived and died by the camera. It existed to be seen and drooled over. But God help you if you actually lived in it. (Stephen Holden) HANNIBAL RISING (R, 121 minutes) Marked by too much respect and too little energy, this primer on the early years of Hannibal Lecter reduces one of our most mythic villains to a callow, dysfunctional chef. Orphaned in World War II, our psychopathic hero hunts down his familys killers and snacks on their remains. But burrowing into the id of pop cultures most repulsive gourmet demands a sanguinary glee that the director, Peter Webber, may not possess; for all the movies spurting gore, theres no accompanying rush of blood to the head. (Jeannette Catsoulis) THE ITALIAN (PG-13, 99 minutes, in Russian) This dark fairy tale from Russia pulls you into a richly atmospheric, persuasively inhabited world teeming with young foundlings and pathos, and upended by one remarkable little boy. (Dargis) THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (R, 121 minutes) Kevin Macdonald paints a queasily enjoyable portrait of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin from inside the palace walls. Forest Whitaker plays the mad king, while James McAvoy plays the fool. (Dargis) * LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (R, 141 minutes, in Japanese) Another masterwork from Clint Eastwoods astonishing late period, and one of the best war movies ever. Ken Watanabe is especially fine as the general commanding Japanese troops in the doomed defense of the island of Iwo Jima. (Scott) * LITTLE CHILDREN (R, 130 minutes) Todd Fields adaptation of Tom Perrottas novel of suburban adultery is unfailingly intelligent and faultlessly acted. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson are superb as the parents of young children who meet at the playground and enact a two-handed variation on Madame Bovary against a backdrop of social paranoia and middle-class malaise. (Scott) * Little Miss Sunshine (R, 101 minutes) A bittersweet comedy of dysfunction that takes place at the terminus of the American dream. The excellent cast includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano and that national treasure, Alan Arkin. (Dargis) THE LIVES OF OTHERS (R, 137 minutes, in German) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks debut feature takes place in East Berlin in 1984, and it is a smart, moving inquiry into the moral predicament facing good people in a bad system. Ulrich Mühes performance as a conscience-stricken Stasi officer is a tightly wound tour de force, and Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck are both superb as a playwright and his actress lover who are drawn into the cruel, absurd clutches of the Communist secret police. (Scott) * MAFIOSO (No rating, 99 minutes, in Italian) This 1962 film, revived by Rialto Pictures, is a rambunctious, astonishing blend of farce, thriller and social satire. The director, Alberto Lattuada, follows an up-and-coming Fiat manager (Alberto Sordi) on a visit from Milan to his native village in Sicily. His homecoming is full of surprises -- painful for him, altogether delightful for the audience. (Scott) NORBIT (PG-13, 97 minutes) Eddie Murphy plays a nebbish, a fat woman and a Chinese restaurant owner in this crude, sometimes mean, but often funny farce. (Scott) NOTES ON A SCANDAL (R, 92 minutes) Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett play a misogynistic game of cat and mouse from which no one emerges unscathed, including the audience. Adapted by Patrick Marber from a novel by Zoë Heller and directed by Richard Eyre. (Dargis) NOTES ON MARIE MENKEN (No rating, 97 minutes) Martina Kudlaceks documentary shines a quavering if welcome ray of light on a largely forgotten figure in the American avant-garde film scene, whose sphere of influence included Edward Albee, Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. (Dargis) * PANS LABYRINTH (R, 119 minutes, in Spanish) Guillermo del Toros tale of a young girls ordeal in post-Civil-War fascist Spain is either a fairy tale in the guise of a political allegory or vice versa. In either case it is a moving, enchanting, strange and humane example of popular art at its very best. (Scott) THE PAINTED VEIL (PG-13, 125 minutes) Nicely directed by John Curran, this version of the W. Somerset Maugham novel draws you in by turning a distaff bildungsroman into a fine romance with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. (Dargis) THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (PG-13, 117 minutes) How you respond to this fairy tale in realist drag may depend on whether you find Will Smiths performances so overwhelmingly winning that you buy the idea that poverty is a function of bad luck and bad choices, and success the result of heroic toil and dreams. (Dargis) PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS (No rating, 81 minutes) Snappy repartee with the ring of real conversation among people who are never at a loss for a remark is something every self-respecting Manhattan sophisticate imagines can be channeled into a screenplay with the crackle of vintage Woody Allen. That elusive tone is sustained through enough of Maria Maggentis film Puccini For Beginners to make this screwball comedy of sexual confusion with lesbian inclinations a rarity. (Holden) * THE QUEEN (PG-13, 103 minutes) Directed by Stephen Frears from a very smart script by Peter Morgan, and starring a magnificent Helen Mirren in the title role, The Queen pries open a window in the House of Windsor around the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, blending fact with fiction. (Dargis) * REGULAR LOVERS (No rating, 175 minutes, in French) Philippe Garrels tender portrait of late-1960s French youth stars the filmmakers son, Louis Garrel, as a 20-year-old Parisian struggling through the fires of revolutionary promise and its smoldering remains. Magnificent. (Dargis) THE SITUATION (No rating, 106 minutes, in English and Arabic) Connie Nielsen stars as a correspondent sniffing around wartime Iraq in a narcoleptic thriller directed by Philip Haas from a screenplay by the journalist Wendell Steavenson. (Dargis) SMOKIN ACES (R, 107 minutes) Absolute garbage. (Scott) STOMP THE YARD (PG-13, 109 minutes) Brotherhood is powerful in this sometimes compelling, sometimes complacent movie about stepping and African-American fraternity life at an Atlanta institution called Truth University. D J (Columbus Short), a street-style dancer, needs to find his place in a university ruled by Gammas and Thetas and stepping. (Rachel Saltz) AN UNREASONABLE MAN (No rating, 122 minutes) A very reasonable documentary about the long career of Ralph Nader as a consumer advocate and, more recently and vexingly to some of his former admirers, a perennial presidential candidate. (Scott) VENUS (R, 91 minutes) A modest, diverting, touching tale of a young woman who attracts the interest -- avuncular and also erotic -- of an aging actor, played with effortless aplomb by the great Peter OToole. (Scott) * VOLVER (R, 121 minutes, in Spanish) Another keeper from Pedro Almodóvar, with Penélope Cruz -- as a resilient widow -- in her best role to date. (Scott) Film Series FILM COMMENT SELECTS (Tonight through Thursday) A series of critically acclaimed films that were not released commercially, chosen by the editors of Film Comment, continues tonight with Pedro Costas Colossal Youth, one of the most divisive titles of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. A slow-moving study of the immigrants from Cape Verde who live in a run-down corner of Lisbon, the film evoked both the standard comparisons to paint drying and high praise comparing Mr. Costas work to that of the avant garde masters Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet (whose final film will be shown in this series next weekend). Also this week: Bardo (2005), by the Taiwanese director Lin Tay-jou; the controversial Chinese film Summer Palace (2006), by Lou Ye; and a new, arty thriller, Retribution, (2006), by the Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa. (Through Feb. 27.) Walter Reade Theater 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5600, filmlinc.org; $10. (Dave Kehr) FIST AND SWORD: AN AFTERNOON WITH RON VAN CLIEF (Sunday) This African-American martial arts star appears with a program of clips from the many films and television programs he has worked on since 1974, including Way of the Black Dragon (1978) and Touch of Death (1980). Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077, movingimage.us; $10. (Kehr) GRAHAM GREENE NOIR (Thursday) A series of four weekly screenings of films based on thrillers by Graham Greene begins with a rarely seen 1944 film by Fritz Lang, Ministry of Fear, a spy tale loosely based on Greenes novel of the same title, filled out with haunting, surrealist imagery. Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds star. (Through March 30.) Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Street, at Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100, www.bam.org; $10. (Kehr) MORRICONE (Tonight through Thursday) The third and final week of a tribute to the Italian film composer Ennio Morricone features some very rare titles, including Giuliano Montaldos 1968 Machine Gun McCain, starring John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, on Sunday and Monday, and Samuel Fullers fatally misunderstood fable on race relations, White Dog (1982), on Tuesday. Film Forum 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-8110, filmforum.org; $10.50. (Kehr) A VIEW FROM THE VAULTS: WARNER BROs., RKO PICTURES AND FIRST NATIONAL PICTURES (Tonight through Thursday) Ten features from the aforementioned studios, shown in prints recently acquired by the Museum of Modern Art. This weeks screenings include Irving Rappers 1945 The Corn Is Green, with Bette Davis; Michael Curtizs lurid 1949 carnival melodrama, Flamingo Road, with Joan Crawford; Raoul Walshs 1940 tale of high-speed truck drivers, They Drive by Night; and Gunga Din, George Stevenss rousing colonialist adventure of 1939. (Through Feb. 24.) Museum of Modern Art Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, (212) 708-9400, moma.org; $10. (Kehr) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. JON ANDERSON AND THE SCHOOL OF ROCK ALL-STARS (Sunday and Monday) As seen in the documentary Rock School, Paul Green offers an extensive curriculum at his Philadelphia school, teaching youngsters the rock n roll canon, as well as the fundamentals of power chords and budda-budda bass lines. Here his students get the equivalent of a dissertation defense: backing up Jon Anderson, the helium-voiced former singer of Yes, in that bands hair-pullingly complex, neoclassical prog-rock songs. At 8 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144, bbkingblues.com; $35 in advance, $40 at the door (sold out on Sunday). (Ben Sisario) * ARCADE FIRE (Tonight and tomorrow night) Three years ago, with its jubilantly clamorous album Funeral, this Montreal group performed a kind of musical miracle: making navel-gazing indie-rock seem not only fresh and sincere but also deeply meaningful. Its brilliant second record, Neon Bible (Merge), to be released next month, is darker and more preoccupied but nearly as cathartic. At 7:30, Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, Greenwich Village, (212) 260-4700, bowerypresents.com; sold out. (Sisario) BARR (Tonight and tomorrow night) Over bare stutters of piano and drums, Brendan Fowler of Barr lets loose an endlessly self-regarding logorrhea, questioning his every thought and instinct in a naked, paratactic melancholy. What is the saddest thing I can say? he asks on Barrs new album, Summary (5RC). Words arent sad enough. Music isnt sad enough. How could it bear to be? It doesnt need to be cause life is there to do it for real. With Lucky Dragons. At 8, the Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 255-5793, thekitchen.org; $10. (Sisario) RICHARD BUCKNER (Tomorrow and Sunday) With a dry baritone and a creaky acoustic guitar, Richard Buckner broods about women, booze and death. And hes serious about all this American Gothic stuff: his 2000 album The Hill was an appropriately bleak setting of 18 poems from Edgar Lee Masterss Spoon River Anthology. With Six Parts Seven. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 9:30 p.m., Union Hall, 702 Union Street, at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 638-4400, unionhallny.com; $10. (Sisario) JUDY COLLINS (Tonight and tomorrow night, and Tuesday through Thursday) A folk songbird for seemingly longer than anybody else has been a folk songbird, Ms. Collins is at the Café Carlyle for her debut cabaret engagement. At 8:45 p.m., Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600, thecarlyle.com; $100 cover at tables, $65 at the bar. (Sisario) BOBBY CONN (Thursday) Bobby Conn is a wiseguy iconoclast from Chicago who never skips his daily dose of irony as he turns pop songs into excursions all over the musical landscape. He wanders amid retro-funk, jazz and noise as he proclaims his romantic intentions in sardonically overwrought vocals. With Detholz and the Victoria Lucas. At 9 p.m., Trash Bar, 256 Grand Street, at Roebling Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718) 599-100, thetrashbar.com; $10. (Sisario) KEVIN DEVINE, JENNIFER OCONNOR (Tomorrow) Mr. Devine, once of the band Miracle of 86, has carved out a niche as a sharp and unassuming singer-songwriter in the Elliott Smith mold. Ms. OConnors portraits of the lovelorn, in poker-faced, half-sung, half-spoken vocals, are dry but not unsympathetic: Maybe shes on her lunch break thinking of you. With Pablo and Koufax. At 8 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3132, knittingfactory.com; $10 in advance, $12 at the door. (Sisario) DUB TRIO (Monday and Tuesday) Made up of well-traveled session players for the likes of the Fugees and Mos Def, Dub Trio plays spacious reggae grooves spiked with high-adrenaline punk, affectionately recalling Bad Brains. At 8 p.m., Union Pool, 484 Union Avenue, at Meeker Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 609-0484; $5. (Sisario) EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY (Monday and Tuesday) The epic instrumentals by this band from Austin, Tex., begin in peace, with single notes twinkling amid darkness, and gradually build to turbulent vortexes of noise. Borrowing a few tricks from Pink Floyd, Explosions in the Sky keeps the pace majestic and the vistas cinematic, and takes its time. Monday at 9 p.m., with Mountains, at Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505, warsawconcerts.com; Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., the Concert Hall at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street, Manhattan, wordlessmusic.org; both shows sold out. (Sisario) MELISSA FERRICK, TIM FITE (Tonight) Somewhere between Ani DiFranco and Melissa Etheridge, Ms. Ferrick slings an acoustic guitar and belts songs filled with bravado. Tim Fites songs about kicking every can in New York City are booby-trapped with quick changes, from clean country-pop to corrosive punk. At 9, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236, spsounds.com; $18. (Sisario) GANG GANG DANCE (Tomorrow) Like radio waves converging somewhere in outer space, this New York groups music -- made from tribal rhythms, pulsating electronic noises and Bollywoodesque vocals -- is a tangle of disparate sounds that seem slightly out of sync but in time develop their own hypnotic patterns. At 9 p.m., Studio B, 259 Banker Street, between Meserole Avenue and Calyer Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 389-1880, clubstudiob.com; $12.50. (Sisario) GYM CLASS HEROES (Thursday) It was inevitable: emo rap. Gym Class Heroes, from Geneva, N.Y., were as obscure a hip-hop act as could be when they made Taxi Driver, which winkingly name-checks a Warped Tours worth of emo bands. (I took a cutie for a ride in my death cab. Before she left she made a dashboard confessional.) By last summer, when they released New Friend Request, about MySpace etiquette, they were rubbing shoulders with all those groups -- on the Warped Tour, of course. With RX Bandits, P.O.S. and k-os. At 5:30 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; sold out. (Sisario) IN THE ATTIC (Tuesday) Its good to be connected. Rachel Fuller, a British songwriter, presents this informal musical salon with her companion, a little-known guitarist named Pete Townshend. In the Attic is usually a live Web cast from Mr. Townshends studio, but lately Ms. Fuller has been taking it on the road, and on Tuesday she and Mr. Townshend preside over a jam session with surprise guests. At 9:30 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555, joespub.com; sold out. (Sisario) RICKIE LEE JONES (Tonight) With a new album, The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard (New West), that sets sayings by Jesus to raw, droney rock songs, Rickie Lee Jones, the beret-wearing neo-Beat with the girlish slur, offers yet another twist in a career full of odd turns. At 8, the Concert Hall at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171, concertstonight.com; $49.50. (Sisario) KIKI AND HERB (Sunday) A few years ago this brilliantly perverse cabaret duo played their farewell show at Carnegie Hall. Then came a run on Broadway. And some late-night gigs at Joes Pub. And the annual, inimitable Christmas show. (Highlight: a medley of Smells Like Teen Spirit and Frosty the Snowman.) Kiki and Herb cant stay away from the stage, and New York is the better for it. At 11:30 p.m., Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555, joespub.com; $20. (Sisario) B. B. KING (Thursday) With his latest guitar called Lucille, B. B. King can, on a good night, summon all the tribulation and joy and resilience of the blues. At 8 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722, njpac.org; $35 to $95. (Jon Pareles) LINCOLN CENTERS AMERICAN SONGBOOK (Wednesday and Thursday) Now in its ninth season, this series has expanded greatly from its origins as a home for the midcentury pantheon of Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers and the like. On Wednesday Ute Lemper, one of the few performers who can make cabaret seem dangerous, sings songs by Kurt Weill, Tom Waits and Van Morrison, as well as some of her own. Thursday is a triple bill of young New York songwriters who have long shared (small) stages together: Sasha Dobson, whose songs float on a breeze of bossa nova; Jesse Harris, who wrote Dont Know Why for his friend Norah Jones; and Richard Julian, who is endlessly enamored of, and frustrated by, his most frequent subject, New York. At 8:30 p.m., Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $30 to $60 (sold out on Wednesday). (Sisario) MALAJUBE, SNOWDEN (Tomorrow through Monday) Trading places as the headliner in three shows: Malajube, a Montreal band whose seductively surreal songs (sung in French) riffle through decades of influence, from happy Beatles pop to rap and stomping grunge-pop; and Snowden, whose members are from Atlanta but play stylishly depressive postpunk riffs like true Brooklynites. Tomorrow and Sunday at 8:30 p.m., Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; sold out. Monday at 8:30 p.m., Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236, spsounds.com; $10. (Sisario) PELA, HIGH STRUNG (Tonight) All Friday nights at the Mercury Lounge should be like this, and many are: two excellent, underhyped bands and a cover charge that doesnt necessitate a trip to the A.T.M. Pela, from Brooklyn, calls its style pastoral punk, which means wide-open skies of bouncy, Pixiesesque basslines and sharp, sparkling guitars that recall the Strokes and U2. The High Strung, whose members are based in Detroit but did time in New York, live up to their name with antsy, accelerated songs that draw from both the raggedness of garage rock and the bright, clear lines of New Wave. The band gets extra points for touring dozens of public libraries. With XYZ Affair and the Teeth. At 8:30, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700, mercuryloungenyc.com; $10. (Sisario) * SAVAGE REPUBLIC (Tomorrow) Between 1980 and 1989, this Los Angeles band released four albums of droning, pounding, brawling postpunk that could be assaultive or hypnotic -- a West Coast counterpart to early Public Image Ltd., Swans and Sonic Youth. Touring sporadically since the reissue of its complete catalog in 2002, the group comes to Club Midway in the East Village. Tomorrows Friend, Va Va China and Oliver North open the show. At 8 p.m., 25 Avenue B, at Second Street, (212) 253-2595, clubmidway.com; $15 in advance, $18 at the door. (Pareles) * SONIC YOUTH (Tonight) Conventional wisdom would say it should have burned out years ago: Sonic Youth has been treading the same shaggy avant-indie path since the early 1980s, and each of its members has had plenty of other interests to pursue. But since its 2002 album Murray Street, partly about life after 9/11, the band has hit a wonderful new stride, and on its latest album, Rather Ripped (Geffen), sounds as comfortable, focused and invigorated as ever. With Wooden Wand. At 6:30, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; sold out. (Sisario) ROD STEWART (Wednesday) His four Great American Songbook albums may not represent the most distinguished readings of those songs -- ditto his Bob Seger and Creedence Clearwater Revival covers on the recent Still the Same Great Rock Classics of Our Time (J) -- but when Rod Stewart lets go of his smugness, that whisky tenor of his can be a powerful interpretive instrument. Doesnt happen often, though. At 8 p.m., Madison Square Garden, (212) 307-7171, thegarden.com; $55 to $129.50. (Sisario) SUPER DIAMOND (Tonight and tomorrow night) A tribute to the songs of Neil Diamond, particularly his triumphal 1970s material. Smirking is optional. At 9, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800, irvingplaza.com; $25 in advance, $30 at the door. (Pareles) * LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE (Tomorrow) One of the most popular and longest-running bands in the Americas, Los Tigres del Norte, from the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, have for 35 years been setting gritty stories of drug smugglers, immigrants and other hardscrabble characters to the bopping, accordion-driven polkas of norteño (a sound better known on this side of the border as Tex-Mex). The group regularly draws thousands to its shows in New York, and tomorrow it plays the 60,000-square-foot Bedford Avenue Armory in Brooklyn. At 8 p.m., 1579 Bedford Avenue, at President Street, Crown Heights, (646) 261-1588; $40. (Sisario) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. ALL-STAR ORGAN SUMMIT (Tonight and tomorrow night) This descriptively titled engagement features no fewer than three Hammond B-3 organists -- Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Reuben Wilson -- together with the tenor saxophonist Jerry Weldon and the guitarist Peter Bernstein, among others. At 8, 10 and 11:30, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662, smokejazz.com; cover, $30. (Nate Chinen) SAM BARSH BAND (Tonight) The sharp young keyboardist Sam Barsh leads a groove-minded working band with Tim Collins on vibraphone, Ari Folman-Cohen on bass and Jaimeo Brown on drums. At 10, 11 and 12:30, Rose Live Music, 345 Grand Street, between Havemeyer and Marcy Streets, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 599-0069, liveatrose.com; cover, $7. (Chinen) * BRIAN BLADE FELLOWSHIP (Tuesday through Thursday) Brian Blade is an unusually sensitive drummer, as he has proven not only with Wayne Shorter but also with Joni Mitchell. He turns the spotlight to his own painterly compositions in this influential ensemble with the saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Butler, the guitarist Peter Bernstein, the pianist Jon Cowherd and the bassist Christopher Thomas. (Through Feb. 25.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JOHNATHAN BLAKE QUARTET (Tomorrow) The drummer Johnathan Blake propels a band with two sure-footed saxophonists -- Jaleel Shaw, on alto, and Joel Frahm, on tenor -- as well as the pianist Orrin Evans and the bassist Joe Martin. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $15; $10 for members. (Chinen) BROOKLYN QAWWALI PARTY (Tomorrow) The Sufi devotional music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan provides a repertory mandate for this ensemble, led by the trumpeter Jesse Neuman. Faithful to its source mainly in terms of exuberance, the group creates a roiling polyphony of percussion, saxophones, brass, bass, harmonium and guitar. At 9 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) CYRUS CHESTNUT QUARTET WITH CARLA COOK (Tuesday through Thursday) Cyrus Chestnut is a pianist with a penchant for gospel harmonies, as he will demonstrate here with a rhythm section and Ms. Cook, a powerful singer. (Through Feb. 25.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) KURT ELLING (Tonight through Sunday night) Mr. Ellings deep musicality and literary sensibility have made him the leading male jazz vocalist of our time, though perhaps not the most consistent. He comes with a rhythm section, led by the pianist Laurence Hobgood, and a handful of special guests. At 8 and 10:30, Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $35 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) EXPLODING HEART/EXPLORATIONS (Tomorrow) Explosion and exploration are sure to be closely related processes in both these ad hoc ensembles. Exploding Heart consists of Tony Malaby on saxophones, William Parker on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums; Explorations features the alto saxophonist Matana Roberts and the drummer Tyshawn Sorey. At 8 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) FIVE OF A KIND (Tuesday) This collaborative quintet, which makes its debut here, features ambitious musician-composers with a shared interest in world music: the trumpeter Avishai Cohen, the saxophonist Joel Frahm, the pianist Jason Lindner, the bassist Omer Avital and the drummer Johnathan Blake. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $20. (Chinen) DON FRIEDMAN (Tonight) Mr. Friedmans stylistic history as a pianist runs from traditional to slightly left of center; hes likely to range freely in this recital at Fazioli Salon, a solo piano series at the Klavierhaus workshop. At 8, Klavierhaus, 211 West 58th Street, Manhattan, (212) 245-4535, pianoculture.com; $25. (Chinen) AARON GOLDBERG 3 PLUS STEFON HARRIS (Wednesday and Thursday) On his last album, Worlds (Sunnyside), the pianist Aaron Goldberg showcased the strong rapport of his working trio, with the bassist Reuben Rogers and the drummer Eric Harland. Here he has a substitute drummer, Greg Hutchinson, and a dynamic guest soloist, the vibraphonist Stefon Harris. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $20. (Chinen) MARY HALVORSON AND JESSICA PAVONE (Wednesday) Ms. Halvorson plays acoustic guitar in this duo, and Ms. Pavone plays viola. Their experimental instincts, honed by an affiliation with the composer Anthony Braxton, commingle with folksy lyricism; they even sing, without a shred of protective irony. At 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) * AHMAD JAMAL TRIO (Tuesday through Thursday) A touchstone of jazz piano since the 1950s, Mr. Jamal still has his broad, dynamic range and signature touch, as he proved on a recent live album, After Fajr (Dreyfus). He also has a no-nonsense rhythm team: the bassist James Cammack and the drummer Idris Muhammad. (Through Feb. 25.) At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $40 at tables, $30 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA QUARTET (Tonight) Codebook (Pi), the latest album by the alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, investigates the topic of cryptography, not the most promising theme for an improviser. What lifts the project off the ground is the brazen imaginative exertion of his band, with Vijay Iyer on piano, Carlo DeRosa on bass and Dan Weiss on drums. At midnight, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $10; $5 for students; with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JOE MARTIN QUARTET (Thursday) Joe Martin, a reliably supportive bassist, turns the spotlight on his own compositions and on the interplay of a promising quartet, with John Ellis on saxophones, Aaron Parks on piano and Marcus Gilmore on drums. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $12; $10 for members. (Chinen) T. S. MONK (Wednesday and Thursday) Thelonious Sphere Monk Jr., a loquacious drummer whose taste skews less idiosyncratic than his fathers, leads a polished hard-bop band. (Through Feb. 24.) At 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $40, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * MY BAND FOOT FOOT (Tomorrow) The Shaggs, a trio of sisters from New Hampshire -- and by common consensus one of the very best truly awful rock bands of all time -- receive a jazz makeover from a sextet led by the wry trumpeter John McNeil. This is the projects first performance; results could be bad, which might be all the better. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) OREGON (Tonight through Sunday night) This influential and worldly ensemble, formed more than 35 years ago, has continued making its distinctive light fusion over the years, sometimes in orchestral settings. Its lineup features the guitarist Ralph Towner, the bassist Glen Moore and the woodwind player Paul McCandless -- all founding members -- along with the drummer Mark Walker. At 8:30 and 10:30, with a midnight set tonight and tomorrow, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) JEAN-MICHEL PILC TRIO (Tonight and tomorrow night) Jean-Michel 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 bassist Boris Kozlov and the drummer Ari Hoenig, who join him here. At 8 and 9:45, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119, kitano.com; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) ODEAN POPE TRIO (Tomorrow) Odean Pope is best recognized for his Saxophone Choir, a powerful and vivid post-Coltrane assembly based in his hometown, Philadelphia. Here the only saxophonist on hand is Mr. Pope himself, though his full-blown style might make it seem otherwise. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Sistas Place, 456 Nostrand Avenue, at Jefferson Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, (718) 756-7600, sistasplace.org; cover, $25 in advance, $30 at the door. (Chinen) * DAFNIS PRIETO AND THE ABSOLUTE QUINTET (Tonight) The drummer Dafnis Prietos Absolute Quintet (Zoho) might not have won the Grammy for best Latin jazz album, but that doesnt diminish its power. Dramatic and serious, it makes references to the avant-garde and early fusion, but always with a lifeline to Latin rhythm; its cast includes Yosvany Terry on saxophones, Christian Howes on violin, Dana Leong on cello and Jason Lindner on piano and organ. At 7:30, Harlem Stage at the Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue, at West 135th Street, (212) 650-7100, harlemstage.org; $25. (Chinen) * RECONNECTED: THE FREDDIE REDD QUARTET (Monday) In the late 1950s, the pianist Freddie Redd wrote music for The Connection, a landmark Off Broadway play in which he also appeared onstage. Released on Blue Note, the subsequent album became a hard-bop classic, though that didnt prevent Mr. Redd from slipping into obscurity. He resurfaces here with the bassist Mickey Bass and the drummer Louis Hayes; Donald Harrison inherits the alto saxophone part memorably played by Jackie McLean, who died last year. Another alto saxophone veteran, Lou Donaldson, appears in the concerts first half. At 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, (212) 501-3330, kaufman-center.org; $30 in advance, $35 on Monday. (Chinen) KENDRICK SCOTT ORACLE (Tomorrow) Kendrick Scott, the drummer of choice for the trumpeter Terence Blanchard, previews some of the ambient neo-fusion material from The Source, the debut album by his band Oracle, due this spring. At midnight, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $10; $5 for students, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) * SCULPTURED SOUNDS MUSIC FESTIVAL (Sunday) This avant-garde concert series, organized by the bassist Reggie Workman, continues with performances by three powerful ensembles: a trio led by the intense alto saxophonist and pianist Charles Gayle; Billy Harper and Friends, a project of Mr. Harper, a searching tenor saxophonist; and Ashantis Message, led by Mr. Workman and featuring the multireedist J. D. Parran, the pianist Yayoi Ikawa and the percussionists Tyshawn Sorey and Kevin Jones. At 7 p.m., St. Peters Lutheran Church, 619 Lexington Avenue, at 54th Street, (212) 642-5277, sculpturedsounds.com; suggested donation, $20. (Chinen) SEX MOB (Tonight) Fresh off a Grammy nomination for its album Sexotica (Thirsty Ear), this scrappy downtown band returns to its home turf. The slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein leads the charge, but equal weight is pulled by Briggan Krauss on alto saxophone, Tony Scherr on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. At 8, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501, tonicnyc.com; cover, $12. (Chinen) LOREN STILLMAN ORGAN PROJECT (Wednesday) Loren Stillman, an alto saxophonist with an inquisitive relationship to jazz conventions, introduces a quartet with Gary Versace on Hammond B-3 organ; the guitarist Nate Radley and the drummer Ted Poor round out the band. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) MARK TAYLOR QUARTET (Wednesday) Mr. Taylors French horn playing has been heard in avant-garde ensembles led by the august composers Henry Threadgill and Muhal Richard Abrams. His own material is fodder for this group, which features two strong reed players, Marty Ehrlich and Michaël Attias. At 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) DAN WILLIS (Tomorrow) Mr. Willis, a saxophonist, recently released an album, Velvet Gentlemen (OmniTone), inspired by the classical composer Erik Satie but suffused with post-bop sonorities. Here he regroups most of its cast: Chuck MacKinnon on trumpet, Ron Oswanski on Fender Rhodes piano and accordion, Kermit Driscoll on bass and John Hollenbeck on drums. At 8 p.m., Nightingale Lounge, 213 Second Avenue, at 13th Street, East Village, (212) 473-9398, nightingalelounge.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) TIM ZIESMERS AMPERSAND (Wednesday) The guitarist Tim Ziesmer features his own rock-influenced compositions in this mutable band, featuring Chris Speed on tenor saxophone, Drew Gress on bass and Take Toriyama on drums. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Tea Lounge, 837 Union Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 789-2762, tealoungeny.com; $5 donation. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera * EUGENE ONEGIN (Tomorrow and Tuesday) The dynamic conductor Valery Gergiev and the baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky bring stylistic authority to the Metropolitan Operas affecting revival of its 1997 production of Tchaikovskys Eugene Onegin. In his first Met performances of the title role, Mr. Hvorostovsky is riveting, singing with earthy richness and fully conveying this worldly, entitled and dashing young mans aloofness until the final tragic scene. The surprises come from the soprano Renée Fleming, in her first Russian role at the Met, who gives a vocally exquisite and vulnerable portrayal of Tatiana, and the tenor Ramón Vargas, a Bel Canto specialist, who makes an ardent and endearing Lenski, Onegins well-meaning but fatally impulsive friend. You will seldom see better acting in opera than from this excellent cast. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; sold out. (Anthony Tommasini) IPHIGÉNIE EN AULIDE (Monday and Wednesday) The opera productions at the Juilliard School have generally been thoughtfully staged and vocally polished, with casts of student singers who may be heard from on grander stages. The school is also judicious in its repertory choices, presenting works not normally offered at the Met or the New York City Opera. Iphigénie en Aulide has much to recommend it, as Glucks dramatically focused and supremely lyrical operas invariably do. The cast for Robin Guarinos production includes Tharanga Goonetilleke in the title role; Paul LaRosa and Sidney Outlaw sharing the role of Agamemnon; Faith Sherman as Clytemnestra; and Paul Appleby as Achille, with Ari Pelto conducting. At 8 p.m., Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 769-7406, juilliard.edu; free. (Allan Kozinn) * JENUFA (Tomorrow) The charismatic Finnish soprano Karita Mattila is riveting in the title role of Leos Janaceks grim, insightful and, by the end, consoling Czech opera Jenufa, in the Mets revival of its 2003 production by Olivier Tambosi. Ms. Mattilas gleaming voice, with its cool, Nordic colorings and vibrant sensuality, are ideal for this character, a foolishly trusting young woman in a Moravian village who has become pregnant by her cousin, the town rake who owns the local mill. The ageless German soprano Anja Silja is at once terrifying and pitiable as Jenufas stern stepmother, Kostelnicka. Jiri Belohlavek conducts a sensitive and sweeping account of Janaceks teeming score, presented in its 1908 version. Tomorrows matinee is the final performance of the season. At 1:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $42 to $220. (Tommasini) * THE Maid of Orleans (Thursday) The Collegiate Chorales annual opera-in-concert presentations focus on infrequently performed works. This year Daniele Callegari conducts Tchaikovskys Maid of Orleans, which the composer based on Friedrich Schillers play Die Jungfrau von Orleans. According to the company, the work has never been fully staged by the Metropolitan Opera or the New York City Opera. The mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick sings the title role; Carol Vaness is Agnes; Oleg Kulko is Charles VII; Igor Tarasov is Lionel; and Andrei Antonov is Thibaut. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $25 to $155. (Vivien Schweitzer) * SIMON BOCCANEGRA (Monday) Boccanegra is the kind of opera that gives opera plots a bad name: the action begins with a prologue and then scoots ahead 25 years (requiring some prodigious feats from the makeup artist), after which half the characters seem to be appearing under assumed names. Verdi himself took nearly 25 years off from it before going back and revising large chunks, creating some magnificent music but uneven dramaturgy. Yet there is much to love in Boccanegra, and the Mets cast -- Thomas Hampson, who has done it in Vienna; Angela Gheorghiu; Marcello Giordani; and Ferruccio Furlanetto -- should be able to do it credit. At 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $175 tickets remaining. (Anne Midgette) THÉRÈSE RAQUIN (Tonight through Sunday) Admirers of Tobias Pickers opera An American Tragedy, which had its premiere at the Met last season, will want to attend the New York premiere of his 2001 opera, Thérèse Raquin, with a libretto by Gene Scheer. Mr. Pickers adaptation of Zolas piercing and, at the time, scandalous novel of adultery and murder (an oppressed young woman, married to a weak mothers boy, falls for a hunky and boisterous office worker, with fatal consequences) had its premiere at the Dallas Opera, where it received a mixed critical reception. The composer has recently revised the score and thinned down the orchestration. Steven Osgood conducts; Michael Capasso directs. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8, Sunday at 4 p.m., Dicapo Opera Theater, at St. Jean Baptiste Church, 184 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 288-9438, dicapo.com; $47.50. (Tommasini) LA TRAVIATA (Tonight and Thursday night) For its revival of Verdis Traviata, in Franco Zeffirellis extravagant 1998 production, the Met is rotating casts, with three sopranos sharing the role of Violetta this season. Mary Dunleavy, who made her company debut in 1993, is currently singing the role. Wookyung Kim, a promising young Korean tenor with a robust, lyrical voice, sings Alfredo, the role of his Met debut this season, and the baritone Charles Taylor sings Germont. Carlo Rizzi conducts. At 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $220 tickets remaining tonight; $80 and $175 on Thursday. (Tommasini) DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (Wednesday) The revival of Julie Taymors production of Mozarts Zauberflöte continues at the Met, complete with the magical puppets and stage effects that made it an audience hit when it opened in 2004. James Levine conducts a cast that includes Lisa Milne as Pamina, Cornelia Götz as Queen of the Night, Michael Schade as Pamino, Rodion Pogossov as Papageno and Eike Wilm Schulte as the Speaker. At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $80 and $175 tickets remaining. (Schweitzer) Classical Music ACADEMY OF ST. MARTIN IN THE FIELDS (Sunday and Monday) The venerable and ever-prolific conductor Neville Marriner returns to the area with his orchestra of choice, performing Stravinsky and Beethoven. The talented and not at all venerable Jonathan Biss is pianist in Mozarts C minor Concerto. Sunday at 3 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722, njpac.org; $24 to $88. Monday at 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $28 to $96. (Bernard Holland) AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Tuesday) Steven Mercurio conducts Beethoven, Debussy and Delius, but the evening is perhaps more about the soprano Sumi Jo, who will do a collection of operatic numbers. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $25 to $85. (Holland) BORROMEO STRING QUARTET (Tonight) This formidable and, with more than 100 concerts a year, very busy quartet plays a demanding if fairly familiar program, with Stravinskys Concertino, Bartoks Fifth Quartet and Beethovens Quartet in E minor, the second of the three astounding Razumovsky Quartets. At 7:30, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $44. (Tommasini) * RENAUD CAPUÇON (Sunday) The violinist Renaud Capuçon is fast making a name for himself as a soloist and chamber musician, often performing with Gautier Capuçon, his talented cellist brother. Here he makes his New York recital debut with the pianist Nicholas Angelich in a program featuring the three Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano, as part of the affordably priced Peoples Symphony Concerts lineup. At 2 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 586-4680, pscny.org; sold out. (Schweitzer) CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE Y (Tuesday and Wednesday) The pianist Peter Serkin and the violist Peter Tenenbom join the 92nd Street Y perennials Jaime Laredo, a violinist, and Sharon Robinson, a cellist, to perform music by Dallapiccola, Reger and Mozart. At 8 p.m., 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $40. (Holland) JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA (Tonight and Tuesday night) The conductor Andreas Delfs led the premiere last April of Lowell Liebermanns opera Miss Lonelyhearts. He returns tonight to conduct the talented young musicians of the Juilliard Orchestra in Mr. Liebermanns Piano Concerto No. 2, with the pianist Vasileios Varvaresos. The program also includes Prokofievs Symphony No. 5 and Heiner Goebbelss D&C (the third movement from his 1994 work Surrogate Cities). On Tuesday James DePreist leads the Julliard Orchestra in Haydns Symphony No. 88 in G, Strausss Oboe Concerto and Elgars Violin Concerto. Tonight at 8, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center; $10 and $20; free for students and 65+. Tuesday at 8, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; free, but tickets are required. Information: (212) 769-7406, juilliard.edu. (Schweitzer) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday) Lorin Maazel and his orchestra continue their exploration of Brahms tomorrow and Tuesday, with performances of the Serenade No. 2 -- which isnt heard nearly enough -- and the Piano Concerto No. 2. Emanuel Ax, a superb Brahmsian, is the soloist in the concerto. On Thursday Mr. Maazel offers a varied program intended to show off soloists within the orchestra. Included are Mozarts Concerto for Flute and Harp, with Robert Langevin, the flutist, and Nancy Allen, the harpist; Schumanns taxing Konzertstück for Four Horns, in which the soloists are Philip Myers, Erik Ralske, R. Allen Spanjer and Howard Wall; and a Trombone Concerto by Melinda Wagner, with Joseph Alessi as the soloist. Also on the program is Gershwins American in Paris. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nyphil.org; $35 to $101 tomorrow; $33 to $99 on Tuesday; $28 to $94 on Thursday. (Kozinn) ORLANDO CONSORT (Sunday) This remarkable English vocal quartet builds its programs of medieval and Renaissance works around literary or historical themes and has released recordings of several on the Harmonia Mundi label, packaged as CD-size hardcover books, with artwork and text translations. The groups 2005 disc, The Rose, the Lily and the Whortleberry explores works inspired by medieval gardens and flora (and their metaphorical imagery), including works by Machaut, Power, Agricola, de Rore and other composers from England, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Those works will make up the heart of the ensembles program in its two performances at the Cloisters. At 1 and 3 p.m., Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights, (212) 650-2290, metmuseum.org; $35. (Kozinn) JOHN SCOTT (Tomorrow) Mr. Scott, the organist and music director at St. Thomas Church, plays the fourth concert in his 10-part series exploring the organ works of Buxtehude, in honor of the 300th anniversary of the composers death. Built in a style similar to that of north Germany and the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries, St. Thomass Taylor & Boody organ is ideal for this venture. At 4 p.m., Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street, (212) 757-7013, saintthomaschurch.org; free. (Schweitzer) * TONDALS VISION (Sunday) Early-music fans, take note. Dialogos, the acclaimed ensemble that took part in Chant Wars here in 2005, is returning to New York (thanks to Music Before 1800) with a production that has won awards throughout Europe: a 12th-century story of a knight who leaves his body, told through medieval Croatian vocal music. The six-woman piece was conceived by Dialogoss director, Katarina Livljanic, and staged in collaboration with Yoshi Oida, an actor who has worked frequently with Peter Brook. At 4 p.m., Corpus Christi Church, 529 West 121st Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 666-9266, mb1800.org; $25 to $40; $5 off for students and 62+. (Midgette) VENICE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA (Thursday) This Italian ensemble, led by Andrea Marcon, with Giuliano Carmignola as its violin soloist, sounds vital and energetic on the handful of Vivaldi recordings it has made for the Sony Classical and Archiv labels. There is plenty of Vivaldi -- seven concertos -- on its Thursday evening program, with one by Tartini for at least minimal variety. At 7:30 p.m., Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $60, with limited availability. (Kozinn) VOICES OF ASCENSION (Thursday) Verdis Requiem gets a church performance on lower Fifth Avenue. At 8 p.m., Church of the Ascension, Fifth Avenue at 10th Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 358-1469, voicesofascension.org; $15 to $45. (Holland) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. * ASSOCIATION NOA/COMPANY VINCENT MANTSOE (Tuesday and Wednesday) Vincent Mantsoe, one of South Africas leading choreographers, joins forces with Anthony Kaplan and the African Music Workshop Ensemble in Men-Jaro, which explores the relationships between African contemporary dance, ritual and music. At 8 p.m., Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues, downtown Brooklyn, (718) 488-1624, brooklyn.liu.edu/kumbletheater; $20; $13 for students and 65+. (Jack Anderson) BODY BLEND (Tuesday) This showcase series will feature Malika Green and Beth Maderal, Lisa Parra and Maré Hieronimus, and April Biggs, all chosen by Isabel Lewis. At 8 p.m., Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, near Houston Street, Lower East Side, (212) 219-0736, dixonplace.org; $12; $10 for students and 65+; T.D.F. accepted. (Jennifer Dunning) CHINESE NEW YEAR SPECTACULAR (Today and tomorrow) Well, it certainly does sound spectacular, celebrating the Year of the Pig with dance and music presentations that include a multimedia depiction of heaven, complete with angels, fairies and gods drifting by on clouds. Today at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.; tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Radio City Music Hall, (212) 307-7171, radiocity.com; $42.50 to $184.50. (Dunning) * COMPAÑÍA METROS (Wednesday and Thursday) Ramón Ollers new choreographic adaptation of Carmen for a company from Barcelona condenses the action to a single act and lets it unfold on a rooftop in contemporary Spain. (Through March 8.) Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $44. (Anderson) DANCEBRAZIL (Tonight through Sunday) Jelon Vieira, the artistic director of this vibrant company from Bahía, has been particularly successful at fusing the techniques of capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art, with modern dance forms. To celebrate the companys 30th anniversary, he has created a new work, The Ritual of the Roda, that traces the history of capoeira; the kickboxing fireworks artfully transformed into dance should be well worth seeing. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $42; Joyce members, $32. (Roslyn Sulcas) THE 4 TANGO SEASONS (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) The show promises to explore the cycles of nature as seen in a man and a woman in love. (Through April 1.) Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 3 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m., Thursday at 8. Thalia Spanish Theater, 41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside, Queens (718) 729-3880, thaliatheatre.org; $30; $27 for students and 65; $25 for all tonight and Thursday. (Dunning) FRIDAYS@NOON (Today) Chris Ferris, Anthony Ferro and Eva Dean will show new and unfinished works in this free dance and talk series. At noon, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92Y.org. (Dunning) EUN JUNG GONZALEZ AND CATEY OTT (Tonight through Sunday night) Choreographers who are both collaborators and friends offer Corridors, a program of dances on themes like confinement, compassion and freedom. At 8:30, Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194, danspaceproject.org; $15. (Anderson) GUTA HEDEWIG DANCE (Thursday) Guta Hedewigs Dog Days: Or 19 Ways of Looking at a Shrub expresses the choreographers disquiet over the Bush administration and satirizes the presidents rhetoric. (Through Feb. 25.) At 8:30 p.m., Danspace Project, St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194 or danspaceproject.org; $15 (Anderson) KO-RYO DANCE THEATER (Thursday) Sunwha Chungs Bi-Sang: Ascending Timeless is a suite of seven dances expressing a womans changes in her way of life as she makes a transition between her original culture and a new one. (Through Feb. 25.) At 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 334-7479, joyce.org; $20; $15 for students and 65+; $10 for children in fifth grade and younger. (Anderson) MOVEMENT COLLECTIVE (Sunday) This Brooklyn-based modern-dance company will perform works by Alaine Handa, Jenny Schworm, Renee Gonzalez and Molly Campbell. At 2:30 p.m., La Tea Theater, 107 Suffolk Street, between Delancey and Rivington Streets, Lower East Side; $10. (Dunning) NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY (Tomorrow and Sunday) Year of the Boar celebrates the Chinese New Year with Chinese dragons, twirling ribbons, martial arts and traditional and contemporary music and dance. At 2, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722, njpac.org; $19; $10 for children. (Anderson) REGINA NEJMAN & Company (Tonight through Sunday night) Ms. Nejmans new Frozen Baby is described as a dance installation, which might indicate that there wont be too much dancing. But Ms. Nejman is a choreographer who revels in sheer physicality, and there should be plenty of high-energy movement to watch. The work is set to commissioned music by Mio Morales, whose last score for Ms. Nejman was a compelling mix of Brazilian pop and sharp electronic rhythyms. At 8, Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 334-7479; $20; $17 for students. (Sulcas) NEW YORK CITY BALLET (Tonight through Sunday, and Tuesday through Thursday) Just one more week to see the company in its winter season. This weeks programs are A Banquet of Dance (Raymonda Variations, Afternoon of a Faun, Antique Epigraphs and Evenfall (tonight and Tuesday); For the Fun of It (Circus Polka, Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Jeu de Cartes and Firebird) (tomorrow afternoon); Visionary Voices (Klavier, Russian Seasons and The Four Temperaments) (tomorrow night, Sunday afternoon and Thursday); and Contemporary Quartet (Carousel (A Dance), Intermezzo No. 1, Slice to Sharp and Friandises) (Wednesday). New and interesting casting includes Craig Halls role debut in Jerome Robbinss Afternoon of a Faun tonight, dancing with Janie Taylor. Tonight and Thursday at 8; tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 870-5570, nycballet.com; $20 to $95. (Dunning) NEW YORK FLAMENCO FESTIVAL (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) Two of the great contemporary Spanish flamenco divas promise to get the weekend off to a fiery start, beginning with Rafaela Carrasco and her company tonight, and Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras tomorrow and Sunday. Ms. Carrasco threatens to explore new concepts in flamenco. Perhaps she will go easy on that august art. Ms. Baras, known particularly for her fast feet, is air to Ms. Carrascos earth. And Carmen Cortés, fast approaching divadom, will offer examples of Gypsy flamenco puro in a program on Thursday with the flamenco guitarist Gerardo Núñez and his quintet. (Through Feb. 24.) Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday night at 8; Sunday at 7 p.m., City Center (Carrasco and Baras), 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan; and Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (Cortés), 566 LaGuardia Place, at Washington Square South, Greenwich Village, (212) 545-7536, worldmusicinstitute.org; $30 and $70 (Carrasco/Baras); $42 and $50 (Cortés). (Dunning) 92ND STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE FESTIVAL (Tomorrow, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) LeeSaar the Company, a gutsy, brainy modern-dance troupe founded seven years ago in Tel Aviv, is performing this weekend in this five-week festival with new and repertory dances. On Wednesday through Feb. 24, Claire Porter/Portables mixes dance, storytelling and blithe and nutty humor in her work, which here includes her new Words Away From Home. LeeSaar tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.; Claire Porter/Portables Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 415-5500, 92Y.org/HarknessFestival; $20; $10 for students and 65+. (Dunning) OYU ORO (Tonight through Sunday) This company of Afro-Cuban performers will present Palenque, which incorporates popular and traditional dances from both cultures. (Through Feb. 25.) Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30, Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m., La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 475-7710, lamama.org; $20; $15 for students. (Dunning) THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS (Tonight through Sunday) A pow-wow and performing of dances from the Iroquois and other American Indian tribes. Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 3 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101, theaterforthenewcity.net; $10; $1 for children under 12 accompanied by an adult. (Dunning) VISION DANCE/MUSIC: DRUMMING DANCE AND SOUNDING STRINGS (Wednesday and Thursday) This focus of this festival is collaborations between dancers and jazz musicians. The eight pairs include Carmen de Lavallade and Todd Nicholson, and Treva Offutt and Jean-Baptiste Bocle. (Through Feb. 24.) At 7:30 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 696-6681, visionfestival.org; $25. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * American Folk Art Museum: MARTíN RAMíREZ, through April 29. Ramírez, a Mexican peasant who immigrated to Northern California and died there at 68 in 1963, spent the last 32 years of his life in a mental hospital, making some of the greatest art of the last century. He had his own way with materials and color and an unforgettable cast of characters (most notably, a mounted caballero and a levitating Madonna crowned like the Statue of Liberty.) But most of all, Ramírez had his own brand of pictorial space, established by rhythmic systems of parallel lines, both curved and straight, whose mesmerizing expansions and contractions simultaneously cosset and isolate his figures. This show should render null and void the distinction between insider and outsider art. 45 West 53rd Street, (212) 265-1040. (Roberta Smith) * American Museum of Natural History: GOLD, through Aug. 19. This astounding array of art, artifacts and natural samples -- larded with fascinating facts and tales -- ranges from prehistoric times to the present. Stops along the way include pre-Columbian empires, sunken treasure, Bangladesh dowry rituals and the moon landing. It turns out that gold comes from the earth in forms as beautiful as anything man has thought to do with it. You are certain to emerge with mind boggled and eyes dazzled. Central Park West and 79th Street, (212) 769-5100, amnh.org. (Smith) * Grey Art Gallery: Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle, through March 31. The artist Wallace Berman (1926-76) may ring only a faint bell to many New Yorkers, but he was a central, charismatic figure in an underground of West Coast artists and poets in the 1950s and 60s. A collagist, poet, photographer and the publisher of an influential journal, Semina, he inspired others to make art too, sparking hidden aptitude in startling places. After meeting him, drifters, movie stars, ex-marines and petty criminals found themselves starting to paint and write. And a traveling love company of them has come to Grey Art Gallery, trailing dreams, delusions and marijuana clouds. New York University, 100 Washington Square East, Greenwich Village, (212) 998-6780. (Holland Cotter) * GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso, TIME, TRUTH, AND HISTORY through March 28. This show is carried along on its sheer star power and optical finesse. There are dozens of Goyas and Velázquezes and Zurbaráns and El Grecos and Riberas and Dalís and Picassos, many famous, many not. I cant tell you how often I was stopped by a picture so good or unexpected that it made me do a double take. Velázquezs painting of a dwarf is alone worth crossing a continent to see. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Michael Kimmelman) International Center of Photography: Henri Cartier-Bressons Scrapbook: Photographs, 1932-46, through April 29. Arrived by way of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, this show has more than 300 of the prints the photographer glued into an album and toted to New York for curators at the Museum of Modern Art to cull. Captured by the Nazis, he had been presumed dead when the Modern planned his retrospective. Then he turned up alive -- the posthumous exhibition opened, with him in attendance, in 1947. The current exhibition reconstructs as best as possible the original layout of the scrapbook. Its an eye-straining affair, but it surveys the revolutionary work he shot in Spain, Italy, Mexico, Britain and France. His taste for uncanny detail linked him to Surrealism and Surrealist wit, but unlike many Surrealists, he remained committed to human values. Boys mug at his camera. Prostitutes swan. Their gazes equalize them with us. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000, icp.org. (Kimmelman) International Center of Photography: Martin Munkacsi: Think While You Shoot! through April 29. Munkacsi, who inspired Cartier-Bresson, was, by contrast, self-taught, a creature of his own devising. This is the most complete retrospective, with a thick catalog (not too well researched) and dozens of vintage prints from the 1920s through the early 60s. He favored scenes of daily life, absorbing avant-garde ideas about odd angles and abstract compositions. In 1928 he moved to Berlin and traveled the world on assignment to Brazil, Algeria and Egypt. Munkacsi was a stylist, and he made catchy images the only way he knew how, in a modernist mode, which, being an opportunistic form, could serve any master. He became a celebrity in America. He photographed Fred Astaire dancing and Joan Crawford poolside. In the breezy layouts of Harpers Bazaar, the work looked brilliant. (See above.) (Kimmelman) * The MET: ONE OF A KIND: THE STUDIO CRAFT MOVEMENT, through Sept. 3. Focusing on the postwar development of artist-craftsmen, this display of furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry and fiber includes funny, quirky, provocative and sometimes gorgeous things. Among its stars are a witty bust by the California funk ceramicist Robert Arneson (1920-92), portraying the mother of the 16th-century painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer, and Bonnie Seemans fetching ceramic coffeepot and tray, whose mock cabbage leaves and rhubarb stalks evoke the genteel tradition of 18th-century British and continental china, but can also be read as human rather than vegetative tissue. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Grace Glueck) Morgan Library & Museum: Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings, through April 8. This show is drawn entirely from an anonymous private collection. Despite the veil of secrecy, a couple of things are obvious: the collector had significant capital for investing in old masters and either an exceptional eye or a good adviser (or both). The works span more than 400 years, from the 16th to the early 20th century, and include drawings in ink and pencil, watercolor, chalk and gouache. The earliest works come from a period when drawing wasnt an autonomous practice but was used as a form of exercise, to apply ones craft, to experiment and to make preliminary sketches for larger works. The best example -- and the most historically significant work here -- is a black chalk drawing, The Dead Christ (1529-35), by Agnolo Bronzino. With more than 90 drawings in the show, being a diligent observer quickly becomes exhausting. In which case, put down the guide, find a few drawings you like, and enjoy them while you can. After all, you dont know where they came from, where theyre going, or when youll see them again. 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 685-0008, morganlibrary.org. (Martha Schwendener) * Museum of Modern Art: Armando ReverÓn, through April 16. Unless you spotted his single smoke-puff of a painting at MoMA months ago, Armando Reverón probably means nothing to you. Why should he? The artist, who died in 1954, spent most of his life in a shack by the sea in his native Venezuela. Many of his contemporaries dismissed him as nuts. His white-on-white pictures are practically unphotographable. But chances are that if you visit this retrospective, youll find yourself thinking about him a lot. His art and his story are like few others, and so is the museums inspired installation: a single, long corridor with cabinetlike rooms of paintings on either side and, at the very end, against a sea-green wall, a life-size doll with giant bat wings floating overhead. (212) 708-9400. (Cotter) Neuberger Museum of Art: FUGITIVE ARTIST: THE EARLY WORK OF RICHARD PRINCE, 1974-77, through June 24. This artist is one of the most elusive, perverse and sardonic of all of the important appropriation artists to emerge in the early 1980s, so perhaps it is not surprising that he has boycotted this exhibition of little-known early work, all from public and private collections. But that doesnt stop the 50 pieces on view from revealing his roots in 1970s Conceptual Art; his progress from generic to original and radical; or the depth and duration of his fascination with language, photography, print-making, the more banal forms of urban postwar Americana and a disconnected, decidedly male blankness. If anything, it increases his stature. Purchase College, State University of New York, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, N.Y., (914) 251-6100. (Smith) Last Chance * Tony Conrad In 1973 the conceptual artist, composer and filmmaker Tony Conrad decided to make a movie that would last a lifetime, so he painted white squares on big, scroll-like sheets of paper and hung the results on the wall for a one-night screening. In fact, those Yellow Movies have been playing ever since, the action being physical change through the effects of time and light. Displayed in a gallery more than 30 years later, they are an exhilarating sight: Zen thankas that are also abstract paintings that are also existential projection screens. The film of a lifetime is still in progress. Greene Naftali, 526 West 26th Street, eighth floor, Chelsea, (212) 463-7770, greenenaftaligallery.com; closes tomorrow. (Cotter). * Let Everything Be Temporary, Or When Is the Exhibition? Some of the best art ever made was meant to fade away, and in these days of serious object-glut, a little ephemerality comes as a relief. Thats the point of this barely-there show organized by Elena Filipovic. To a Felix Gonzalez-Torres pile of freebie candy, she adds Gabriel Kuris display of ripening avocadoes; Joëlle Tuerlinckxs site-specific confetti floor piece; Oksana Pasaikos disappearing soap; and Michel Blazys mashed-potato mural. A wall text by Tomo Savic-Gecan speculates on giving market value to art that is in a constant state of change. The artist Boris Belay is filming the whole disappearing show through tomorrow. Apexart, 291 Church Street, TriBeCa, (212) 431-5270, apexart.org; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) * THE METropolitan museum of art: GLITTER AND DOOM: GERMAN PORTRAITS FROM THE 1920s, The 100 paintings and drawings on display here are by 10 artists, including George Grosz, Christian Schad and Karl Hubbuch, and most conspicuously the unrelentingly savage Otto Dix and his magnificent other, Max Beckmann. In their works the Weimar Republics porous worlds reassemble; we look into the faces of museum directors and cabaret performers, society matrons and scarred war veterans, prostitutes and jaded aristocrats who were watching their world slide from one cataclysm to the next. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org; closes on Monday. (Smith) * The MET: SET IN STONE: THE FACE IN MEDIEVAL SCULPTURE One of those revelatory close-ups at which the Metropolitan Museum of Art excels, This show brings together nearly 80 carved, mostly limestone heads, mostly from the 12th and 13th centuries, mostly torn during bouts of iconoclasm from the sculptures and reliefs that turned Gothic cathedrals and abbey churches into Bibles in stone. There are excellent side trips, into the grotesque, the influence of the antique, the glimmers of the Renaissance and a new isotope-matching technique that helping to divine which heads come from where. The treatments of hair and beard with which medieval sculptors were more at ease than they were with, say, eyes or smiles, are almost a show within a show, as, in their own way, are the haunting, seemingly modernist works that look like nothing else here. (212) 535-7710; closes on Monday. (Smith) * Vera Iliatova For her New York solo debut, the Russian-born artist Vera Iliatova delivers a group of small, detailed, atmospheric paintings in which groups of young women -- all self-portraits of the artist -- gather in bucolic settings that make Eden a place of exile. In one painting we are simultaneously in a Poussinian glade, a Brooklyn tenement and a ruined resort. Autumn trees blaze; fighter planes pass overhead. Two women appear in the poses of Masaccios Adam and Eve after the Fall; others talk, wrestle and wail. Monya Rowe Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, Room 605, Chelsea, (212) 255-5065, monyarowegallery.com; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) * Networked Nature This cool little show, organized by Marisa Olson for Rhizome, a new-media organization associated with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, filters that old Romantic standby, Nature, through the new-fangled technology. Philip Ross powers hydroponic plant environments with LED lighting; Shih-Chieh Huang creates an inflatable flower through concepts from robotics. A California collective, C5, evokes sublime locales through global positioning systems. Stephen Vitiello has the voices George W. Bush whispering in an ivy bush; Gail Wight, in a video called Creep, makes slime mold look sort of beautiful. Foxy Production, 617 West 27th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-2758; closes on Sunday. (Cotter) MARIO SCHIFANO: PAINTINGS 1960-1966 All but indivisible in New York for 40 years, the work of this Italian artist, who died in 1998 at the age of 64, receives a stirring welcome back in this exhibition of 20 drawings and paintings. In monochromes on brown paper and in canvases involving the Coca-Cola logo and pieces of Plexiglas, Pop and Minimalism are joined almost before they were invented. The more homegrown influence of Arte Povera is visible in the startling nonchalance and even roughness of some works. Sperone Westwater, 415 West 13th Street, Chelsea, (212) 999-7337; closes tomorrow. (Smith)

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The Listings: Feb. 9 - Feb. 15

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 ADRIFT IN MACAO In previews; opens on Tuesday. Primary Stages presents Christopher Durang and Peter Melnicks new musical sendup of the sexy, shadowy world of film noir (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. THE COAST OF UTOPIA: SALVAGE In previews; opens on Feb. 18. Tom Stoppards epic trilogy about 19th-century Russian intelligentsia comes to an end with this final installment, which once again stars a vigorous and immense cast, including Brian F. OByrne, Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton and Ethan Hawke. Jack OBrien directs (2:30). Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. DYING CITY Previews start on Thursday. Opens on March 4. Lincoln Center presents a new play by Christopher Shinn (Four) about a therapist who receives a visit from her deceased husbands twin brother (1:30). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, 150 West 65th Street, (212) 362-7600. THE GAZILLION BUBBLE SHOW Fan Yan holds the worlds record for the largest bubble ever blown, and in an even more amazing feat, hes parlayed this oddball stunt into a bubble-themed, family-friendly show (2:00). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. HOWARD KATZ In previews; opens on March 2. Roundabout Theater presents a new play by Patrick Marber (Closer) about a down-on-his-luck talent agent. Doug Hughes directs. (1:30). Laura Pels Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. JOURNEYS END In previews; opens on Feb. 22. This English transfer of R. C. Sherriffs early-20th-century antiwar play stars the Tony winners Boyd Gaines and Jefferson Mays (2:40). Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. KING LEAR Previews start today. Opens on March 7. He played Hamlet. He played Falstaff. It was only a matter of time before Kevin Kline took on this proud, misguided patriarch. James Lapine directs. The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 260-2400. THE MADRAS HOUSE In previews; opens on Thursday. Yet another modern-sounding play by Harley Granville Barker (Waste) comes out of the woodwork: a 1909 drama about business battles, family values and sex (2:30). Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 315-0231. MARY ROSE In previews; opens on Feb. 20. Although it can sometimes seem otherwise, J. M. Barrie wrote stories besides Peter Pan, including this one about a girl who might be a ghost. Tina Landau directs (1:45). Vineyard Theater, 108 East 15th Street, (212) 353-0303. SEALED FOR FRESHNESS Previews start on Thursday. Opens on February 24. Set in the 60s, Doug Stones new play features a group of midwestern housewives at a Tupperware party. Comedy ensues (2:00). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. TALK RADIO Previews start on Thursday. Opens on March 11. Eric Bogosians darkly funny portrait of a late-night talk show host returns for a Broadway revival starring Liev Schreiber. Robert Falls directs. Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. A VERY COMMON PROCEDURE In previews; opens on Wednesday. Michael Greif (Rent) directs MCC Theaters new play about a married woman who has an affair with a doctor (1:20). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 279-4200. Broadway THE APPLE TREE The amazing Kristin Chenoweth gives Imax-screen-size life to three curvaceous doodles who by rights shouldnt be any larger than figures in the Sunday funnies. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnicks 1966 musical, directed by Gary Griffin, shows its age but is given theatrical verve by Ms. Chenoweth, Brian dArcy James and Marc Kudisch (2:30). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Ben Brantley) A CHORUS LINE If you want to know why this show was such a big deal when it opened 31 years ago, you need only experience the thrilling first five minutes of this revival. Otherwise, this archivally exact production, directed by Bob Avian, feels like a vintage car that has been taken out of the garage, polished up and sent on the road once again (2:00). Schoenfeld Theater, 236 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE COAST OF UTOPIA The exhilarating first two installments of Tom Stoppards trilogy about 19th-century Russian intellectuals dreaming of revolution, these productions pulse with the dizzy, spring-green arrogance and anxiety of a new generation moving as fast as it can toward the future. Jack OBrien directs a fresh, vigorous and immense cast that includes Brian F. OByrne, Jennifer Ehle, Billy Crudup and Ethan Hawke (2:45). Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * COMPANY Fire, beckoning and dangerous, flickers beneath the frost of John Doyles elegant, unexpectedly stirring revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furths era-defining musical from 1970, starring a compellingly understated Raul Esparza. Like Mr. Doyles Sweeney Todd, this production finds new clarity of feeling in Sondheim by melding the roles of performers and musicians (2:20). Barrymore Theater, 243 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, it has theatergoers responding as if they were withering houseplants finally being watered after long neglect. Bob Martin and Sutton Foster are the standouts in the avid, energetic cast (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) * GREY GARDENS Christine Ebersole is absolutely glorious as the middle-aged, time-warped debutante called Little Edie Beale in this uneven musical adaptation of the notorious 1975 documentary of the same title. She and the wonderful Mary Louise Wilson (as her bedridden mother), in the performances of their careers, make Grey Gardens an experience no passionate theatergoer should miss (2:40). Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED The comedy of manners, a form widely believed to be extinct in the American theater, has actually resurfaced on Broadway with all its vital signs intact in Douglas Carter Beanes breezy but trenchant satire about truth and illusion, Hollywood style. With the wonderful Julie White as the movie agent you hate to love (but just cant help it) (2:00). Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) MARY POPPINS This handsome, homily-packed, mechanically ingenious and rather tedious musical, adapted from the P. L. Travers stories and the 1964 Disney film, is ultimately less concerned with inexplicable magic than with practical psychology. Ashley Brown, who sings prettily as the family-mending nanny, looks like Joan Crawford trying to be nice and sounds like Dr. Phil. Directed by Richard Eyre and Matthew Bourne (2:30). New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) LES MISÉRABLES This premature revival, a slightly scaled-down version of the well-groomed behemoth that closed only three years ago, appears to be functioning in a state of mild sedation. Appealingly sung and freshly orchestrated, this fast-moving adaptation of Victor Hugos novel isnt sloppy or blurry. But its pulse rate stays well below normal (2:55). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SPRING AWAKENING Duncan Sheik and Steven Saters bold adaptation of the Frank Wedekind play is the freshest and most exciting new musical Broadway has seen in some time. Set in 19th-century Germany but with a ravishing rock score, it exposes the splintered emotional lives of adolescents just discovering the joys and sorrows of sex. Performed with brio by a great cast, with supple direction by Michael Mayer and inventive choreography by Bill T. Jones (2:00). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles Isherwood) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a superdeluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (Brantley) * TRANSLATIONS The estimable Irish director Garry Hynes (a Tony winner for Martin McDonaghs Beauty Queen of Leenane) has assembled an ensemble of an extraordinarily high caliber and consistency for the third major New York production of Brian Friels 1980 play. Set in rural Ireland in 1833, as the local tongue is being supplanted by the language of the English occupying forces, the play explores the seriocomic truth that language can divide as easily as it unites, and can never hope to translate the rich music in our souls with the delicacy we yearn for. A top-flight Broadway revival (2:15). Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE VERTICAL HOUR David Hares soggy consideration of the Anglo-American cultural divide stars Julianne Moore (representing the Americans) and Bill Nighy (leading the British), directed by Sam Mendes. The Yanks dont stand a chance (2:20). Music Box Theater, 239 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway ALL THAT I WILL EVER BE In this false-feeling comedy-drama by Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, a gay hustler undergoes an identity crisis when he finds himself falling for one of his clients. Slick but mostly stale in its analysis of a society afraid of emotional engagement (2:15). The New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) ANON. Kate Robins savvy, dark romantic comedy about sexual addiction doesnt live up to its potential (2:10). Atlantic Theater Company, Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Jason Zinoman) THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN? Think of two gifted and smart gay men with years of life together deploying their considerable talents from the two pianos you happen to have in your living room. The result is a hilarious and very touching memoir of two decades of love and the funky glories of show business life (2:00). Actors Temple Theater, 339 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Honor Moore) DAI (ENOUGH) Iris Bahrs unnerving one-woman show doesnt have much to add to the Middle East debate, but it sure leaves a lasting impression. Ms. Bahr plays an assortment of characters who have the misfortune of being in a Tel Aviv cafe that is about to be visited by the havoc common to such establishments. The attack is rendered in jarring fashion, repeatedly; you watch the play on pins and needles, waiting for the next burst. Gimmicky? Sure. But viscerally effective (1:40). Culture Project, 55 Mercer Street, at Broome Street, SoHo, (212) 253-9983. (Neil Genzlinger) DUTCHMAN A revival of the poet Amiri Barakas screed on race and American values, 43 years after its Greenwich Village debut, aims for all the fire and might of a Malcolm X speech but none of the rhetorical elegance. It shouts so loudly that you cant hear a thing (1:00). Cherry Lane Theater, 38 Commerce Street, between Barrow and Bedford Streets, West Village (212) 239-6200. (Ginia Bellafante) EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL This likable horror comedy based on Sam Raimis gory movies wants to be the next Rocky Horror Show. To that end, it offers deadpan lyrics, self-referential humor and geysers of stage blood (2:00). New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Anita Gates) THE FANTASTICKS A revival -- well, more like a resuscitation -- of the Little Musical That Wouldnt Die. This sweet-as-ever production of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidts commedia-dellarte-style confection is most notable for Mr. Joness touching performance (under the pseudonym Thomas Bruce) as the Old Actor, a role he created when the show opened in 1960. Mr. Jones also directs (2:05). Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE FEVER Wallace Shawn performs his provocative monologue about a guilt-riddled bourgeois everyman sweating his way through a moral crisis. The rich, often hypnotic writing draws us into his tortured mindscape, as he shifts between shame over his sense of entitlement and reasoned arguments that sacrifice is unnecessary and pointless. Meanwhile, in the third world, the violence and poverty continue unabated (1:30). Acorn Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) FRANKS HOME Peter Weller plays Frank Lloyd Wright in Richard Nelsons dreary bio-drama, which lingers lovingly on its subjects feet of clay while paying arid lip service to his genius (1:45). Playwrights Horizons Mainstage, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 719-4200. (Isherwood) GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL A very funny if not terribly original satire of musical theater features what must be the worst backers audition of all time. The excellent duo Jeremy Shamos and Christopher Fitzgerald make the pitch (2:05). The Actors Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, at Fourth Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 239-6200. (Zinoman) 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 and two women perform a wide selection of Brels plaintive ballads and stirring anthems (2:00). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN You dont have to be Jewish or Brooklynish to empathize with Jake Ehrenreich, but in terms of fully appreciating his essentially one-man show, it probably helps. Especially the Catskills jokes (2:05). 37 Arts, 450 West 37th Street, (212) 560-8912. (Gates) MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS This musical is too big for its stage, but the young turn-of-the-last-century sweethearts have great chemistry, and there are four terrific songs (2:00). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (Gates) THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and THE JEW OF MALTA F. Murray Abraham plays two Elizabethan villains in repertory for the Theater for a New Audience. Mr. Abrahams sinister but still moving Shylock is the dark heart of Darko Tresnjaks chilly, powerful staging of one of Shakespeares unfunniest comedies. As Barabas in David Herskovitss goofy, postmodern Jew of Malta, hes the lively center of a carnival that doesnt do justice to Christopher Marlowes harsh satire on Christian hypocrisy and venality (each 2:30). The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) MY MOTHERS ITALIAN, MY FATHERS JEWISH AND IM IN THERAPY Steve Solomon does skillful impersonations in his one-man show, but some of his jokes are as old as the hills (1:30). Little Shubert Theater, 422 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) NO CHILD Teachers will love Nilaja Suns one-woman show about the challenges of teaching drama at Malcolm X High School (1:10). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) ROOM SERVICE The Peccadillo Theater Company puts a charge into this comedy from the 1930s, thanks to a brisk pace by the director, Dan Wackerman, and a dozen dandy performances. David Edwards is the would-be producer whose bills threaten to swamp his efforts to put a show on Broadway, and Fred Berman is particularly fine as his director (2:00). SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, South Village, (212) 691-1555. (Genzlinger) A SPANISH PLAY The great Zoe Caldwell returns to the New York stage after an absence of a decade, in the fine company of Linda Emond, Denis OHare and Larry Pine. Thats the good news. The bad? The play. Yasmina Rezas pseudo-philosophical and metatheatrical trifle is utterly forgettable (1:50). Classic Stage Company, 136 East 13th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Isherwood) * TOYS IN THE ATTIC Austin Pendletons fine revival of Lillian Hellmans last play faithfully attacks the corrosive attachments of family. What good is a family, and thus a society, the play implicitly asks, that can only look in the mirror? (2:30) Pearl Theater, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212) 598-9802. (Bellafante) 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER This is the comedian Judy Golds fiercely funny monologue, based on her own life as a single Jewish lesbian mother and interviews with more than 50 other Jewish mothers (1:20). St. Lukes Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Phoebe Hoban) VICTORIA MARTIN: MATH TEAM QUEEN Must all stage teenagers speak in that exaggerated surfer-dude style in which awesome and totally make up about 50 percent of any conversation? Yes, apparently they must, from the evidence presented in this thin comedy, which is about a high school girl who finds herself on the all-male math team. The playwright, Kathryn Walat, seems to have been trying to grab the coattails of a certain spelling-bee-related show. She missed (2:00). The Julia Miles Theater, 424 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Genzlinger) * THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE David Mamet has cleanly and cannily adapted Harley Granville Barkers 1905 play about corruption in the genteel world of Victorian finance. An excellent cast and a sumptuous production bring extra immediacy to a tale of embezzlement and entitlement that feels as fresh as tomorrows stock options (1:50). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) WAKE UP MR. SLEEPY! YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND IS DEAD! Richard Foremans latest film-theater hybrid is a memorial service, of sorts, for the intuitive self, killed by a surface-worshiping world. It is also a dazzling exercise in reality shifting that is as invigorating as it is mournful (1:05). Ontological Theater at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Brantley) Off Off Broadway AT LEAST ITS PINK Bridget Everett and her big, bad attitude co-star in this mini-musical about sex and unsatisfying jobs in the city. Directed by Michael Patrick King (of Sex and the City, as it happens), who is also the co-author, and with songs written by Ms. Everett and Kenny Mellman, the piano-playing half of Kiki & Herb. Raucous and rude, its a bit like a one-woman episode of Jerry Springer (1:20). Ars Nova, , 511 West 54th Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444. (Isherwood) T J AND DAVE The comics T. J. Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi miraculously improvise a one-hour play at every performance. This is an impressive feat of mental athletics, but the results are also observant, complex and frequently enormously funny (1:00). Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, West Village, (212) 239-6200. (Gates) 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 Theater, 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) THE COLOR PURPLE Singing CliffsNotes for Alice Walkers Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Often more entertaining than the real thing (1:45). 47th Street Theater, 304 West 47th Street, Clinton, (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) JERSEY BOYS The biomusical that walks like a man (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE LION KING Disney on safari, where the big bucks roam (2:45). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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 A singing scrapbook for Monty Python fans (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE A Chorus Line with pimples (1:45). Circle in the Square, 254 West 50th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL Five vignettes about finding love and keeping it as immature in attitude as they are thin in substance. The filmmaker Anthony Minghella, whose offering here is a short play called Hang Up, provides the silliest (1:30). Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street, (212) 868-4444; closes tomorrow. (Bellafante) GONE In this 90-minute meditation on grief and mourning, composed as a pastiche of texts from Proust, Sophocles, Allen Ginsberg and others, the playwright Charles Mees habitual postmodern techniques prove utterly inadequate to his subject matter. The piece is fuzzy and diffuse and leaves an impression of evading the suffering it refers to (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200; closes on Sunday. (Jonathan Kalb) THE GREAT DIVORCE The Magis Theater Company makes a creditable effort to explore spiritual matters in this adaptation of C. S. Lewiss story about a bus trip through the afterlife. In well-acted vignettes, characters are led to examine their lives and ruling loves. Its often intriguing, and rarely preachy (1:30). Salvation Army Theater, 315 West 47th Street, Clinton, (212) 868-4444; closes on Sunday. (Genzlinger) NO GREAT SOCIETY The brainy experimentalists of Elevator Repair Service provide a madcap and almost dreamlike re-enactment of a 1968 episode of William F. Buckleys Firing Line, which features Mr. Buckley squaring off with Jack Kerouac (1:30). New York Theater Workshop, 79 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 239-6200; closes on Sunday. (Zinoman) THE SCENE Theresa Rebecks latest is a sharp-witted, sharp-elbowed comedy about the savage economies of sex and show business in Manhattan. Tony Shalhoub plays an out-of-work actor, Charlie, happily married -- but not really -- to Patricia Heatons frazzled chat show booker. Enter the femme fatale Clea, played by the gifted Anna Camp, and goodbye, Charlie (2:00). Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422; closes on Sunday. (Isherwood) 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. ALPHA DOG (R, 117 minutes) Based on a true Southern California crime, Nick Cassavetess entertaining exploitation flick features a lot of attractive, talented young actors shimmying across the screen while embodying the collective parental nightmare. Do you know where your children are? Well, in this film theyre getting busy, chilling out, smoking blunts and chugging coolers faster than a toothless wino. Oh, and committing murder. (Manohla Dargis) ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES (PG, 94 minutes) Luc Besson serves up a hybrid of live actors and computer-generated figures to tell a not-endearing-enough story about a boy (Freddie Highmore) who shrinks to microscopic size to find some gems and his missing grandfather. Lots of famous names (Madonna, Robert De Niro, David Bowie, Snoop Dogg) lend their voices to the computerized part of the movie, but only briefly near the end does everything click. (Neil Genzlinger) BABEL (R, 143 minutes, in English, Spanish, Japanese, Berber, Arabic and sign language) This hugely ambitious movie tells four loosely linked, not quite simultaneous stories set on three different continents, with dialogue in several languages. The themes, to the extent they are decipherable, include loss, fate and the terrible consequences of miscommunication. Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, the movie is an intellectual muddle but a visceral tour de force, and the power of the filmmaking almost overcomes the fuzziness of the ideas. Almost. (A. O. Scott) BECAUSE I SAID SO (PG-13, 102 minutes) Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore as mother and daughter. What did she say, exactly? Whatever it was, it wasnt as funny as it should have been. (Scott) BLOOD DIAMOND (R, 138 minutes) The makers of this foolish thriller about illegal diamond trafficking in Africa, starring an excellent Leonardo DiCaprio, want you to know there may be blood on your hands, specifically your wedding finger. Too bad they havent thought through what it means to turn misery into entertainment. (Dargis) BREAKING AND ENTERING (R, 119 minutes) This high-toned, feel-bad exercise in liberal guilt comes from Anthony Minghella, who brings the same earnest humorlessness to present-day London that he has brought to the historical past. Jude Law is an architect; Juliette Bi noche is a Bosnian seamstress; and Vera Farmiga provides a glimmer of wit and liveliness as a Russian prostitute who shows up to drink coffee, show her underwear and discuss the themes of the movie. (Scott) BURNING ANNIE (No rating, 95 minutes) This thoroughly postmodern romantic comedy concerns a college student (Gary Lundy) whose obsession with Woody Allens movie Annie Hall stunts his ability to live in reality and have normal relationships. While thoroughly professional in its execution, it unfortunately has no life of its own, apart from its fascination with Mr. Allens film. (Matt Zoller Seitz) CATCH AND RELEASE (PG-13, 124 minutes ) Jennifer Garner is a young woman in Boulder, Colo., coping with the sudden death of her fiancé, who she discovers had another, secret life. Although there are signs that the first-time director Susannah Grant (screenwriter of Erin Brockovich) was reaching for something more layered than a formulaic chick flick, the story never achieves basic credibility. At least its affection for its characters doesnt seem cynical. (Stephen Holden) * THE CHILDREN OF MEN (R, 100 minutes) The end is nigh in this superbly directed political thriller by Alfonso Cuarón about a nervously plausible future. Based on the P. D. James book, the film stars an excellent Clive Owen and features equally sterling support from the actors Michael Caine, Danny Huston and Chiwetel Ejiofior, among others, as well as the great cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. (Dargis) CONSTELLATION (PG-13, 96 minutes) The writer-director Jordan Walker-Pearlmans drama about a biracial extended family of Alabamans convening to bury a matriarch, Carmel (Gabrielle Union), explores the generational aftershocks of racist violence with frank honesty and manages to be a decent ensemble romantic comedy in the bargain. If only the film werent so boringly conceived. The powerhouse cast -- which includes David Clennon, Billy Dee Williams and Lesley Anne Warren -- escapes unscathed. (Seitz) * THE DEPARTED (R, 150 minutes) Martin Scorseses cubistic entertainment about men divided by power, loyalty and their own selves is at once a success and a relief. Based on the crackling Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, it features fine twinned performances from Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, and a showboating Jack Nicholson. (Dargis) DREAMGIRLS (PG-13, 131 minutes) The Broadway musical arrives on the screen, capably directed by Bill Condon, ardently acted and sung by Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé Knowles and (especially) Jennifer Hudson, but undone by mediocre and anachronistic songs. (Scott) * EAST OF HAVANA (No rating, 82 minutes, in Spanish) With Jauretsi Saizorbitoria and Emilia Menocal as co-directors, this compelling nonfiction feature shows young Cuban rappers exercising the artists prerogative to tell the truth in a country that muzzles free speech. The filmmakers -- who are Cuban-American themselves -- zero in on a collective called El Cartel. Although the film is set in 2004 -- during the run-up to the International Festival of Rap Cubano and in the shadow of Hurricane Charley -- theres no phony urgency to the setup. The filmmakers are mainly interested in hearing the music and learning about the musicians compelling personal stories. (Seitz) EPIC MOVIE (PG-13, 86 minutes) A cheap, dumb parody of expensive, dumb movies. (Scott) FACTORY GIRL (R, 91 minutes) Its not entirely inappropriate that this film, George Hickenloopers biography of Edie Sedgwick, the most glamorous of Andy Warhols so-called superstars, should suggest a magazine layout masquerading as a film. The world through which Sedgwick (Sienna Miller) blazed and burned out was one that lived and died by the camera. It existed to be seen and drooled over. But God help you if you actually lived in it. (Holden) IN THE PIT (No rating, 84 minutes, in Spanish) In his absorbing documentary about work and the transformation of men into laborers, the Mexican filmmaker Juan Carlos Rulfo gets down and dirty, literally and existentially. (Dargis) THE ITALIAN (PG-13, 99 minutes, in Russian) This dark fairy tale from Russia pulls you into a richly atmospheric, persuasively inhabited world teeming with young foundlings and pathos, and upended by one remarkable little boy. (Dargis) THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (R, 121 minutes) Kevin Macdonald paints a queasily enjoyable portrait of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin from inside the palace walls. Forest Whitaker plays the mad king, while James McAvoy plays the fool. (Dargis) * LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (R, 141 minutes, in Japanese) Another masterwork from Clint Eastwoods astonishing late period, and one of the best war movies ever. Ken Watanabe is especially fine as the general commanding Japanese troops in the doomed defense of the island of Iwo Jima. (Scott) * LITTLE CHILDREN (R, 130 minutes) Todd Fields adaptation of Tom Perrottas novel of suburban adultery is unfailingly intelligent and faultlessly acted. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson are superb as the parents of young children who meet at the playground and enact a two-handed variation on Madame Bovary against a backdrop of social paranoia and middle-class malaise. (Scott) * Little Miss Sunshine (R, 101 minutes) A bittersweet comedy of dysfunction that takes place at the terminus of the American dream. The excellent cast includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano and that national treasure, Alan Arkin. (Dargis) * MAFIOSO (No rating, 99 minutes, in Italian) This 1962 film, revived by Rialto Pictures, is a rambunctious, astonishing blend of farce, thriller and social satire. The director, Alberto Lattuada, follows an up-and-coming Fiat manager (Alberto Sordi) on a visit from Milan to his native village in Sicily. His homecoming is full of surprises -- painful for him, altogether delightful for the audience. (Scott) NOTES ON A SCANDAL (R, 92 minutes) Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett play a misogynistic game of cat and mouse from which no one emerges unscathed, including the audience. Adapted by Patrick Marber from a novel by Zoë Heller and directed by Richard Eyre. (Dargis) * PANS LABYRINTH (R, 119 minutes, in Spanish) Guillermo del Toros tale of a young girls ordeal in post-Civil-War fascist Spain is either a fairy tale in the guise of a political allegory or vice versa. In either case it is a moving, enchanting, strange and humane example of popular art at its very best. (Scott) THE PAINTED VEIL (PG-13, 125 minutes) Nicely directed by John Curran, this version of the W. Somerset Maugham novel draws you in by turning a distaff bildungsroman into a fine romance with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. (Dargis) THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS (PG-13, 117 minutes) How you respond to this fairy tale in realist drag may depend on whether you find Will Smiths performances so overwhelmingly winning that you buy the idea that poverty is a function of bad luck and bad choices, and success the result of heroic toil and dreams. (Dargis) PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS (No rating, 81 minutes) Snappy repartee with the ring of real conversation among people who are never at a loss for a remark is something every self-respecting Manhattan sophisticate imagines can be channeled into a screenplay with the crackle of vintage Woody Allen. That elusive tone is sustained through enough of Maria Maggentis film Puccini For Beginners to make this screwball comedy of sexual confusion with lesbian inclinations a rarity. (Holden) * THE QUEEN (PG-13, 103 minutes) Directed by Stephen Frears from a very smart script by Peter Morgan, and starring a magnificent Helen Mirren in the title role, The Queen pries open a window in the House of Windsor around the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, blending fact with fiction. (Dargis) * REGULAR LOVERS (No rating, 175 minutes, in French) Philippe Garrels tender portrait of late-1960s French youth stars the filmmakers son, Louis Garrel, as a 20-year-old Parisian struggling through the fires of revolutionary promise and its smoldering remains. Magnificent. (Dargis) SERAPHIM FALLS (R, 111 minutes) Archetypes and symbols solemnly parade through Seraphim Falls, a handsome, old-fashioned western of few words and heavy meanings that unfolds with the sanctimonious grandeur of a Biblical allegory. In this drama of pursuit, revenge and forgiveness, set in 1868, Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson are soldiers who fought on opposite sides of the Civil War and are now engaged in a life-and-death chase that takes them from the Ruby Mountains of Nevada to a final showdown in the desert. (Holden) THE SITUATION (No rating, 106 minutes, in English and Arabic) Connie Nielsen stars as a correspondent sniffing around wartime Iraq in a narcoleptic thriller directed by Philip Haas from a screenplay by the journalist Wendell Steavenson. (Dargis) SMOKIN ACES (R, 107 minutes) Absolute garbage. (Scott) STOMP THE YARD (PG-13, 109 minutes) Brotherhood is powerful in this sometimes compelling, sometimes complacent movie about stepping and African-American fraternity life at an Atlanta institution called Truth University. D J (Columbus Short), a street-style dancer, needs to find his place in a university ruled by Gammas and Thetas and stepping. (Rachel Saltz) TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER (No rating, 113 minutes, in Thai) A western weepie from Thailand, filmed in garish color. In spite of the relentless genre pastiche, it has a charming sincerity. (Scott) AN UNREASONABLE MAN (No rating, 122 minutes) A very reasonable documentary about the long career of Ralph Nader as a consumer advocate and, more recently and vexingly to some of his former admirers, a perennial presidential candidate. (Scott) VENUS (R, 91 minutes) A modest, diverting, touching tale of a young woman who attracts the interest -- avuncular and also erotic -- of an aging actor, played with effortless aplomb by the great Peter OToole. (Scott) * VOLVER (R, 121 minutes, in Spanish) Another keeper from Pedro Almodóvar, with Penélope Cruz -- as a resilient widow -- in her best role to date. (Scott) Film Series FRANK BEYER: IN MEMORIAM (Tonight through Sunday, and Thursday) Mr. Beyer, who died in October at 74, was one of the few filmmakers in East Germany able to establish a personality of his own, while occasionally slipping subversive political messages into his work. This two-film program at MoMA includes the internationally successful Holocaust drama Jacob the Liar. Starring Vlastimil Brodsky as a Jewish man who broadcasts falsely optimistic news from his apartment in a Polish ghetto, Jacob will be introduced tonight by Professor Barton Byg, the director of the East German film collection at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. (The film will be repeated on Sunday). Tomorrow, Mr. Beyers Naked Among Wolves (1963) is set at the Buchenwald concentration camp, where a group of inmates sacrifice everything to protect a small boy, unaware that the Allied liberation forces are approaching. Naked will be repeated on Thursday. (Through Feb. 22.) Museum of Modern Art, Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, (212) 708-9400, moma.org; $10. (Dave Kehr) CRITICS CHOICE: GREAT DOCUMENTARIES (Tomorrow and Sunday) This two-month program of recent documentaries chosen and introduced by members of the New York Film Critics Circle continues with Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer presenting Barbet Schroeders 1974 film General Idi Amin Dada (tomorrow); Marshall Fine of Star introducing Barbara Kopples 1991 American Dream, with Ms. Kopple present (tomorrow, followed by a screening of her own new film, directed with Cecila Peck, Shut Up and Sing); Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly showing Adam Curtiss epic The Century of the Self (Sunday); and David Edelstein of New York magazine presenting Our Brand Is Crisis, Rachel Boyntons study of James Carville working on the 2002 Bolivian presidential campaign (Sunday; Ms. Boynton will attend a post-screening discussion.) (Through Feb. 25.) Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077, www.movingimage.us; $10. (Kehr) FILM COMMENT SELECTS (Wednesday and Thursday) A two-week series of overlooked recent films chosen by the editors of Film Comment, the publication of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The series begins on Wednesday with Jean-Claude Brisseaus controversial Exterminating Angels, his loosely autobiographical account of how a French filmmaker was brought before the justice system for taping auditions of young actresses masturbating for his camera. On Thursday its the local premiere of one of the most accomplished, elegant and exciting action films of the year, Johnnie Tos Hong Kong gangster film, Exiled, in which two gangs of Triad hoodlums cross swords over the lucrative Macau market. (Through Feb. 27.) Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, (212) 975-5600, filmlinc.org; $10. (Kehr) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. LILY ALLEN (Tomorrow) A 21-year-old British singer who became a MySpace favorite with deceptively sweet, ska-infused pop songs, Ms. Allen is at her best putting down exes and disagreeable suitors. Smile, a No. 1 hit in England, is pure schadenfreude, and Knock Em Out is a catalog of snappy answers to bad pickup lines: Ive got to go cause my house is on fire. Ive got herpes. No, Ive got syphilis. At 6:30 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111, bowerypresents.com; sold out. (Ben Sisario) APPLES IN STEREO (Thursday) This Denver band made a splash in the mid-90s with power-pop songs in loud primary colors, like the Beach Boys reborn as a New Wave act. After five years of silence, they have a new album, New Magnetic Wonder, released by the actor Elijah Woods record label, Simian. It makes one thing clear: it wasnt really the Beach Boys or the Beatles that Apples in Stereo was emulating all those years; it was Electric Light Orchestra. With Casper and the Cookies, and Cause Commotion. At 7:30 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; $15. (Sisario) * ARCADE FIRE (Tuesday through Thursday) Three years ago, with its jubilantly clamorous album Funeral, this guitars, violins and accordion collective from Montreal performed a kind of musical miracle: making navel-gazing indie-rock seem not only fresh and sincere but also deeply meaningful. Its brilliant second record, Neon Bible (Merge), to be released next month, is darker and more preoccupied but nearly as cathartic, and next week the band begins a five-night stand at the Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. At 7:30 p.m., 55 Washington Square South, (212) 260-4700, bowerypresents.com; sold out. (Sisario) DAVID BROMBERG (Tuesday) Mr. Bromberg can play just about anything with strings -- guitar, dobro, mandolin, fiddle -- and his knowledge of American music spans blues, bluegrass, country and rock. He also has a gift for elaborate verbal riffs that turn his long-suffering blues into comedy. At 7:30 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555, joespub.com; $25. (Jon Pareles) BARBARA CARROLL (Sunday) This ageless queen of genteel piano bar jazz plays everything from Sondheim to Monk with grace and authority. She sings too. Her rendition of Old Friends, from Merrily We Roll Along, will bring tears to your eyes. At 2 p.m., Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331, algonquinhotel.com; $58, with brunch at noon. (Stephen Holden) JUDY COLLINS (Tuesday through Thursday) Ms. Collins, a folk songbird for seemingly longer than anybody else has been a folk songbird, begins a three-week cabaret engagement at the Café Carlyle. At 8:45 p.m., Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600, thecarlyle.com; $100 cover at tables, $65 at the bar. (Sisario) * CONCIERTO DEL AMOR (Tomorrow) Someday all Valentines Day music will be Latin pop, which revels in both the passionate and the treacly. This annual concert at Madison Square Garden features two salsa giants: Victor Manuelle, a leading young sonero, or improvising singer, who is not above dipping into reggaetón to score a hit, and Gilberto Santa Rosa, an unswerving traditionalist for three decades. Also on the bill are the great Latin jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri; Don Omar, a reggaetón star; the merengue regulars Elvis Crespo and Millie Quezada; and the Mexican pop duo Sin Bandera. At 8 p.m., (212) 307-7171 or (212) 465-6741, thegarden.com; $59.50 to $129.50. (Sisario) MARSHALL CRENSHAW (Wednesday) Mr. Crenshaws songs seem to roll off the guitar in a casual blend of pre-1970s styles -- folk-rock, surf-rock, country and above all the Beatles -- that put melody first. With his winsome tenor, he delves into the ways love goes right and goes wrong, from distant yearning to the aftermath of infidelity, hiding turmoil within the chiming tunes. With Matt Roach. At 8 p.m., the Tap Bar at the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006, knittingfactory.com; $12 in advance, $15 at the door. (Pareles) * PACO DE LUCÍA (Tomorrow and Sunday) One of the worlds greatest guitarists, Mr. de Lucía is both a traditionalist and an adventurer, dipping into jazz and salsa but always retaining a solid grounding in flamenco. Tomorrow at 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7000, carnegiehall.org; sold out. Sunday at 7 p.m., New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, (888) 466-5722, njpac.org; $22 to $78. (Sisario) * DIAMANDA GALÁS (Wednesday) Though she is invariably dressed in black, with her face in witchy streaks of makeup, Ms. Galás needs only her voice to terrify and seduce. She slides from a low, sensual growl to painful yet musically precise shrieks, and has a vast repertory; for two Valentines Day Massacre sets, she will tear apart love songs by Peggy Lee, Marlene Dietrich, Chet Baker and Édith Piaf. At 6:30 and 9:30 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006, knittingfactory.com; $20. (Sisario) GIRL TALK, PARTS AND LABOR (Tonight) Girl Talk is a Pittsburgh musician named Gregg Gillis who, when not on his computer job at a medical instrument company, makes a zany and frequently hilarious kind of short-attention-span dance-pop by stitching together brief samples from hit songs. He shares a bill with Parts and Labor, a squally Brooklyn three-piece that manages the tricky task of being both anarchic and anthemic. At 9, Studio B, 259 Banker Street, between Meserole Avenue and Calyer Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 389-1880, clubstudiob.com; $15. (Sisario) * GYUTO MONKS (Sunday) The Gyuto monks of Tibet studied Buddhism and meditated for five centuries in their college in Lhasa before the Chinese invasion of 1959. One-tenth of the 900 monks followed the Dalai Lama into exile, and they re-established their monastery in India. They chant as they meditate with a technique that produces multiple overtones over their deep bass notes: an otherworldly sound that seeks to heal the world, punctuated by the clang of cymbals and the roar of long trumpets. At 7 p.m., Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 545-7536, the-townhall-nyc.org or worldmusicinstitute.org; $35 and $40. (Pareles) HINDER (Tuesday) This Oklahoma band has little to distinguish it from the dozen or two other well-coiffed, heavily commercialized groups being pushed on hard-rock radio -- some day try a taste test of Hinder, Nickelback, Three Days Grace and Fuel -- except for its hit Lips of an Angel. An unfairly addictive power ballad about falling back in love with your ex (My girls in the next room/Sometimes I wish she was you), it helped make Hinders Extreme Behavior (Universal) the 10th-best-selling album of 2006. With Finger Eleven and Black Stone Cherry. At 7:30 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 307-7171, nokiatheatrenyc.com; sold out. (Sisario) KIKI AND HERB (Sunday) A few years ago this brilliantly perverse cabaret duo played their farewell show at Carnegie Hall. Then came a run on Broadway. And some late-night gigs at Joes Pub. And the annual, inimitable Christmas show. (Highlight: a medley of Smells Like Teen Spirit and Frosty the Snowman.) Kiki and Herb cant stay away from the stage, and New York is the better for it. At 9:30 p.m., Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555, joespub.com; $20. (Sisario) LIFETIME (Tomorrow) In most ways, this New Jersey band was standard-issue 1990s hardcore punk, with lots of slashing guitars and angry, accusatory lyrics. But in a genre that is virtually uniform in sound as well as attitude, Lifetime stood out for slightly more attention to melody and a slightly more uplifting tone, and it became an important influence on emo. The band reunited recently after almost a decade, and just released a new, self-titled album on Decaydance, the label run by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy. With World/Inferno Friendship Society and Crime in Stereo. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Sisario) LINCOLN CENTERS AMERICAN SONGBOOK (Tonight and tomorrow night) Now in its ninth season, this series has greatly expanded from its origins as a home for the midcentury pantheon of Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers and the like. Tonight features the 36-year-old theater composer Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Urban Cowboy), and tomorrow Betty Buckley is joined by Kenny Werner and Quintessence for some music that is actually a little underrepresented in this series: classics of the American songbook. Tonight at 8:30, tomorrow night at 8:30 and 10:30, Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; sold out tonight, $40 to $90 tomorrow (8:30 show sold out). (Sisario) RAUL MALO ( Wednesday and Thursday) The leader of the Mavericks, Mr. Malo has never let himself be bound by the strictures of country. His music looks back to the 1950s and 60s with a clear-eyed nostalgia, and he has the soaring tenor voice of a dedicated Roy Orbison fan. At 7:30 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 967-7555, joespub.com; $30 (Wednesday sold out). (Pareles) MIDLAKE (Tonight) This Texas quintet specializes in a lilting acoustic folk-rock sprinkled with soft piano and winds. With the Czars and St. Vincent. At 8:30, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; sold out. (Sisario) MOONEY SUZUKI (Thursday) One of the sharpest and loudest garage-rock bands in town -- in sound as well as in dress -- Mooney Suzuki draws on the frantic energy of mid-60s British mod groups like the Who, as well as on the bruising blues-rock of Led Zeppelin. With General & Majors and Johan. At 8:30 p.m., Rebel, 251 West 30th Street, Manhattan, (212) 695-2747, rebelnyc.com; $12 in advance, $14 at the door. (Sisario) SHIYANI NGCOBO (Tonight) Making his American debut, this singer and guitarist is a master of maskanda, a Zulu folk style in South Africa that relies on virtuosic guitar picking and arrangements of fiddle and concertina that sound comfortingly country. At 8:30, Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7000, carnegiehall.org; $30 to $42. (Sisario) STEVE RILEY AND THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS (Sunday) The accordionist Steve Riley leads one of the best bands from the Louisiana bayous. It reaches back to some of the oldest Cajun tunes and can play them in traditional style, but its not afraid of swamp-rock or a touch of country, either, and this weekend comes to New York for a Mardi Gras show. At 7:30 p.m., with a free zydeco dance lesson at 6:30, Connollys, 121 West 45th Street, Manhattan, (212) 685-7597 or (212) 597-5126, letszydeco.com; $22. (Pareles) SLAYER (Thursday) One of the architects of modern heavy metal, Slayer emerged in the early 1980s with a hellish, claustrophobic sound -- all foreboding skies and tormented vocals, delivered at whip-crack speeds -- and has stuck steadfastly to it. With Unearth. At 7:30 p.m., Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-7171, mcstudios.com; sold out. (Sisario) ROD STEWART (Wednesday) His four Great American Songbook albums may not represent the most distinguished readings of those songs -- ditto his Bob Seger and Creedence Clearwater Revival covers on the recent Still the Same Great Rock Classics of Our Time (J) -- but when Rod Stewart lets go of his smugness, that whisky tenor of his can be a powerful interpretive instrument. Doesnt happen often, though. At 8 p.m., Madison Square Garden, (212) 307-7171 or (212) 465-6741, thegarden.com; $55 to $129.50. (Sisario) VETIVER, VASHTI BUNYAN (Tomorrow) Last weekend Ms. Bunyan, an obscure light in the 1960s British folk scene with an impossibly fragile voice, and Vetiver, a hushed neofolk band that is one of the inheritors of her tradition, played at Carnegie Hall as part of David Byrnes Perspectives series. Their small sound was somewhat dwarfed by the place, but this gig, at Southpaw in Brooklyn, is more their size. At 9 p.m., 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, (718) 230-0236, spsounds.com; $15. (Sisario) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. ERNESTINE ANDERSON (Tuesday through Thursday) Ms. Anderson, a soulful and underrated jazz singer, reunites with another estimable veteran, the reliably gallant tenor saxophonist and flutist Frank Wess. (Through Feb. 18.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $30. (Nate Chinen) SAM BARDFELDS STUFF SMITH PROJECT (Thursday) Mr. Bardfeld, a violinist with a wide-ranging résumé, pays tribute to a swing-era hero of his instrument with help from the pianist Anthony Coleman, the bassist Sean Conly and the guitarist and vocalist Doug Wamble. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) ELI DEGIBRI QUARTET (Sunday and Tuesday) An Israeli saxophonist with a taste for burnished sonorities, Eli Degibri explores his own music with help from the bassist Ben Street, the drummer Jeff Ballard and either the pianist Aaron Goldberg (on Sunday) or the guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg (on Tuesday). Sunday at midnight, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $10; $5 for students, with a $10 minimum. Tuesday at 10, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) JOHN ELLIS QUARTET (Tonight) John Ellis is a tenor and soprano saxophonist drawn to loose-limbed funk, but he also has an interest in spacious modern jazz. His quartet features a guitarist with similar inclinations, the versatile and thoughtful Mike Moreno. At midnight, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $10; $5 for students; with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) VICTOR GOINES QUINTET (Tuesday through Thursday) While best known as a big-band player and educator, the multireedist Victor Goines knows how to put together a solid combo. Here he cedes a portion of the spotlight to a guest singer, Vanessa Rubin. (Through Feb. 18.) At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595, jalc.org; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) AYELET ROSE GOTTLIEB (Tuesday) Ms. Gottlieb is a commanding vocalist whose recent album Mayim Rabim (Tzadik) featured scriptural texts in the original Hebrew. She appears here with stalwart accompanists, like Michael Winograd on clarinet and Loren Stillman on saxophone. At 8 and 9:30 p.m., Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626, sweetrhythmny.com; cover, $15, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) ONAJE ALLAN GUMBS (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Gumbs, a pianist with extensive credits in film and television, celebrates the release of his latest album, Sack Full of Dreams (Showplace). At 9:30, Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778, joespub.com; cover, $20, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen) BARRY HARRIS (Tuesday) A crisp and courtly pianist firmly in the bebop idiom, Mr. Harris performs a recital for the Abby Whiteside Foundation, the venerable piano institution for which he is an instructor. At 8 p.m., Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $35. (Chinen) VINCENT HERRING (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Herring, a voluble alto saxophonist, rolls out a locomotive brand of post-bop with colleagues like the pianist Gerard DAngelo and the drummer Carl Allen. At 8 and 9:45, Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119, kitano.com; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) WILLIAM HOOKER QUARTET (Monday) Strenuous abstraction, courtesy of the drummer William Hooker, the trumpeter Matt Lavelle, the multireedist Joe Rigby and the bassist Todd Nicholson. At 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501, tonicnyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) ARTHUR KELL QUARTET (Tomorrow) On his last album, Traveller (Fresh Sound New Talent), the bassist and composer Arthur Kell pursued a searching strain of modern jazz. He has worthy partners here in the alto saxophonist David Binney, the guitarist Brad Shepik and the drummer Gerald Cleaver. At 8 p.m., Tillies of Brooklyn, 248 DeKalb Avenue, at Vanderbilt Avenue, Fort Greene, (718) 783-6140, tilliesofbrooklyn.com; cover, $5. (Chinen) * GUILLERMO KLEIN (Thursday) Mr. Klein, a restlessly creative Argentine pianist and composer now based in Barcelona, returns to New York for the premiere of Tetris Suite, featuring Mr. Klein and Jorge Rossy on dual pianos; Diminished Suite, based on a diminished scale; and Present Suite, for a group of musicians including the tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry and the guitarist Ben Monder. At 8 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 501-3330, merkinconcerthall.org; $25; $20 in advance. (Chinen) ADAM LANE QUARTET (Wednesday) The bassist Adam Lane leads a free-form ensemble consisting of Avram Fefer on reeds, Reut Regev on trombone and Igal Foni on drums. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10 per set. (Chinen) MICHAEL MARCUS AND TED DANIEL (Sunday) The prospect of unaccompanied clarinet-trumpet duets may not sound inherently promising, but Mr. Marcus (clarinet) and Mr. Daniel (trumpet) make it work on Duology (Boxholder), an effervescent new album. At 9 p.m., Jimmys 43 Restaurant, 43 East Seventh Street, East Village, (212) 982-3006, freestylejazz.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) BEN MONDER (Sunday) Mr. Monder is an uncommonly proficient guitarist, and an assertive though introspective one; he leads a trio with the bassist Chris Lightcap and the drummer Mark Ferber. At 9 p.m., Bar 4, 444 Seventh Avenue, at 15th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 832-9800, bar4.net; cover, $5. (Chinen) * NUBLU ORCHESTRA (Wednesday) To celebrate the release of its self-titled debut on Nublu Records, this ambient avant-garde groove ensemble, conducted by the sagacious Butch Morris, headlines a concert with half-hour opening sets from the coolly cosmopolitan bands Brazilian Girls, Kudu and Love Trio. Doors open at 7 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111, boweryballroom.com; $17. (Chinen) MILES OKAZAKI (Sunday) Mr. Okazaki, a confident and well-traveled guitarist and composer, revisits music from Mirror, his recent self-released album, with help from the alto saxophonist David Binney, the multireedist Christof Knoche, the bassist Thomas Morgan and the drummer Dan Weiss. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) JEAN-MICHEL PILC (Tonight) Mr. Pilcs piano playing has a joyous bounce no matter how dark or furious the extemporization, as he is likely to demonstrate in a solo recital at Fazioli Salon, a series at the Klavierhaus piano workshop. At 8 p.m., Klavierhaus, 211 West 58th Street, Midtown, (212) 245-4535, pianoculture.com; $25. (Chinen) CHRIS POTTERS UNDERGROUND (Tuesday through Thursday) The saxophonist Chris Potter has an improvisational approach thats intellectual and athletic in equal measure. He dives headlong into tumultuous fusion with this group, featuring Adam Rogers on guitar, Craig Taborn on keyboards and Nate Smith on drums. (Through Feb. 18.) At 9 and 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) WALLACE RONEY (Tonight) Mr. Roney has lately been advancing a variety of Afrocentric futurism inherited and adapted from his trumpet mentor, Miles Davis. His working band includes Robert Irving on piano, Clarence Seay on bass, Eric Allen on drums, Val on turntables, and Antoine Roney, his brother, on saxophone. At 8, Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand Street, at Pitt Street, Lower East Side, (212) 352-3101, henrystreet.org; $25. (Chinen) JIM ROTONDI QUARTET (Tonight and tomorrow night) Jim Rotondi is an accomplished trumpeter with a predilection for hard bop; his band includes the tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, the pianist David Hazeltine, the bassist John Webber and the drummer Joe Farnsworth. At 8, 10 and 11:30, Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th Street, (212) 864-6662, smokejazz.com; cover, $25. (Chinen) * SCULPTURED SOUNDS MUSIC FESTIVAL (Sunday) This artist-run avant-garde concert series continues with Great Friends, a dream-team collective of Billy Harper and Sonny Fortune on saxophones, Stanley Cowell on piano, Reggie Workman on bass and Billy Hart on drums; and a quintet led by the accomplished drummer Rashied Ali. At 7 p.m., St. Peters Lutheran Church, Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, (212) 642-5277, sculpturedsounds.com; suggested donation, $20. (Chinen) TODD SICKAFOOSE AND JENNY SCHEINMAN (Tonight) Mr. Sickafoose, a bassist, and Ms. Scheinman, a violinist, share an attraction to streamlined harmonic progressions and texture-conscious grooves. Their rhythm section here consists of Mike Gamble on guitar and Ches Smith on drums. At 10, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $8. (Chinen) JANIS SIEGEL (Wednesday) On A Thousand Beautiful Things (Telarc), Ms. Siegel explores the same brand of popular eclecticism she enjoys in Manhattan Transfer, but in a way thats a few degrees less cloying. She has good company on Valentines Day: Edsel Gomez on piano, Edmar Castaneda on harp, Ben Street on bass and Steve Hass on drums. At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121, iridiumjazzclub.com; cover, $40, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) TESSA SOUTER (Tonight and Wednesday) Ms. Souter, a singer of broad imagination, regularly works with the guitarist Spiros Exaras and the percussionist Kahlil Kwame Bell. On Valentines Day her cohort expands to include the cellist Dana Leong, the bassist Essiet Essiet and the drummer Marco Pellitteri. Tonight at 6, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; no cover. Wednesday at 8 and 10 p.m., Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626, sweetrhythmny.com; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) E. J. STRICKLAND QUINTET (Thursday) The drummer E. J. Strickland -- like his brother Marcus, who joins him here on tenor saxophone -- hails from a generation fluent in jazz conventions but not beholden to them. The alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, the pianist Luis Perdomo and the bassist Hans Glawischnig round out his quintet. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $12. (Chinen) TIERNEY SUTTON (Tuesday) With her new album, On the Other Side (Telarc), Ms. Sutton applies her pristine vocal style to a bouquet of songs about happiness or unhappiness in love. Her emotional oscillation is purposeful, sometimes transparently so: the Harold Arlen tune Get Happy appears first as a puzzling dirge and then, more convincingly, as a fizzy delight. At 9:30 p.m., Joes Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8778, joespub.com; cover, $20, with a two-drink minimum. (Chinen) JOHN TCHICAI QUINTET (Tonight through Sunday, and Wednesday) The Danish saxophonist and clarinetist John Tchicai performs tonight and tomorrow with a version of the band heard on Good Night Songs (Boxholder), his most recent album; on Sunday and Wednesday he joins forces with the bassist Adam Lane. Tonight and tomorrow night at 9 and 11, Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. Sunday at 7 p.m., Jimmys 43 Restaurant, 43 East Seventh Street, East Village, (212) 982-3006, freestylejazz.com; cover, $10, with a one-drink minimum. Wednesday at 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) YOSVANY TERRY (Tonight and tomorrow night) Mr. Terry, a dynamic saxophonist and percussionist, chases post-bop ideals without abandoning the pull of his native Cuba. For his Afro Cuban Roots, a new piece inspired by Yoruban cultural traditions, he features the accomplished batá drummer Orlando (Puntilla) Rios and the dancer Felix (Pupi) Insua, along with an ensemble that includes Osmany Paredes on piano and Yunior Terry, Mr. Terrys brother, on bass. At 9 and 10:30, Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; cover, $15. (Chinen) TORN + BERNE + RAINEY = CHOURMO (Tonight) The resourcefully subversive guitarist David Torn recently recorded an album for ECM Records featuring his longtime colleagues Tim Berne, on alto saxophone, and Tom Rainey, on drums. Until its release this spring, the only way to hear the music is in person, at one of Mr. Torns infrequent performances. At 9 and 10:30, Tea Lounge, 837 Union Street, near Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 789-2762, tealoungeny.com; suggested donation, $5. (Chinen) * VANDERMARK 5 (Wednesday and Thursday) The Chicago-based multireedist Ken Vandermark applies a go-anywhere ethos to his signature ensemble, along with a dash of punk-rock cohesion. His co-conspirators are the saxophonist Dave Rempis, the cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, the bassist Kent Kessler and the drummer Tim Daisy. Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., Pianos, 158 Ludlow Street, at Stanton Street, Lower East Side, (212) 505-3733, pianosnyc.com; cover, $15. Thursday at 8 p.m., Union Hall, 702 Union Street, at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, (718) 638-4400, unionhallny.com; cover, $12. (Chinen) MATT WILSONS ARTS AND CRAFTS (Tonight through Sunday night) The Scenic Route (Palmetto) is the latest appealing album by this ebullient band, led by the drummer Matt Wilson and featuring the trumpeter Terell Stafford, the pianist and organist Gary Versace and the bassist Dennis Irwin. At 7:30 and 9:30, with an 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow night, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25; $20 on Sunday. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA AND PAGLIACCI (Tomorrow) Salvatore Licitra again plays iron-man tenor, singing both ends of this beloved double-header. Dolora Zajick and Krassimira Stoyanova are the noteworthy sopranos. At 1:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; sold out. (Bernard Holland) * EUGENE ONEGIN (Tonight and Tuesday night) For her first Met performances in the Russian role of Tatiana, the impressionable heroine of Tchaikovskys Eugene Onegin, the soprano Renée Fleming will be inspired, no doubt, and possibly a little daunted by her Russian colleagues in this revival of Robert Carsens 1997 production. The baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Onegin, a role he seems born to portray, and Valery Gergiev will conduct. The Mexican-born tenor Ramón Vargas sings Lenski. This looks to be a highlight of the season. At 8, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; sold out. (Anthony Tommasini) * JENUFA (Tomorrow and Wednesday) The charismatic Finnish soprano Karita Mattila is riveting in the title role of Janaceks grim, insightful and, by the end, consoling Czech opera Jenufa, the Mets revival of its 2003 production. Ms. Mattilas gleaming voice, with its cool Nordic colorings, and vibrant sensuality are ideal for this character, a foolishly trusting young woman in a Moravian village who has become pregnant by her cousin, the town rake who owns the local mill. The ageless German soprano Anja Silja is at once terrifying and pitiable as Jenufas stern stepmother, Kostelnicka. Jiri Belohlavek conducts a sensitive and sweeping account of Janaceks teeming score, presented in its 1908 version. (The mezzo-soprano Judith Forst sings Kostelnicka in tomorrow evenings performance.) At 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $42 to $220 tomorrow, $15 to $175 on Wednesday. (Tommasini) I PURITANI (Thursday) The reason the Met dusted off its stodgy, old 1976 production of Bellinis Puritani was to present the glamorous and brilliant soprano Anna Netrebko as Elvira. For the final performance on Thursday, the admirable soprano Elizabeth Futral takes over for Ms. Netrebko, not an enviable assignment. Still, Ms. Futral is an impressive vocalist and an exciting interpreter of the Bel Canto repertory. She made her 1999 Met debut in the title role of Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor, and recently created the role of Princess Yueyang in Tan Duns First Emperor. At 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $15 to $175. (Tommasini) LA TRAVIATA (Monday) For its revival of Verdis Traviata, in Franco Zeffirellis extravagant 1998 production, the Met is rotating casts, with three sopranos sharing the role of Violetta this season. Mary Dunleavy, who made her company debut in 1993, takes over the role on Monday night, with the tenor José Luis Duval as Alfredo, and the baritone Charles Taylor as Germont. Carlo Rizzi conducts. At 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000, metopera.org; $15 to $175. (Tommasini) Classical Music AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Tonight) Leon Botsteins latest interesting program looks at conductors who compose, including George Szell, Paul Kletzki, Harold Farberman and Leonard Bernstein. At 8, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, lincolncenter.org; $27 to $55. (Holland) BARGEMUSIC (Tonight through Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) Tonight on the barge, the pianist Jonathan Irving plays Schubert Impromptus and the Sonata in A minor (D. 784). Tomorrow and Sunday the DaPonte String Quartet plays Beethovens Quartet in F (Op. 135), Gershwins Lullaby and Wolfs Italian Serenade. The program concludes with Dvoraks Quintet for Piano and Strings in A (Op. 81), for which the quartet will be joined by Michael Kimmelman, a pianist and chief art critic (and a former music critic) of The New York Times. On Valentines Day -- champagne and chocolates included -- the pianist Steven Beck plays Liszt, Chopin and Beethoven, and on Thursday, the program includes piano trios by Brahms and Beethoven. Tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday night at 7:30; Sunday at 4 p.m.; and Wednesday at 7 p.m., Fulton Ferry landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083, bargemusic.org; $35 tonight and Thursday, $40 tomorrow and Sunday, $50 on Wednesday. (Vivien Schweitzer) * BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Monday) Not quite an oratorio, nearly an opera, Berliozs Damnation de Faust skips back and forth between the opera house and the concert hall, and more and more frequently, it seems, in recent years. The nonstaged option allows the listener a novel-readers freedom of imagination and perhaps a deeper immersion in the colors of the score, probably mined deeply in the reading of James Levine. Heading his cast is the veteran bass-baritone José van Dam as Mephistopheles. Yvonne Naef, Paul Groves and Andrew Gangestad are the other accomplished soloists, backed up by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $39 to $127. (Anne Midgette) CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER (Sunday and Tuesday) For what it is calling its Winter Festival, the Chamber Music Society is exploring English music, with an emphasis on works composed between 1900 and 1930. On Sunday the ensemble begins a bit earlier, with a Fantasia by Purcell, and then offers music by Vaughan Williams, Bliss and Warlock. The centerpiece on Tuesday is the Vaughan Williams song cycle On Wenlock Edge, to be sung by Russell Thomas, the tenor, on a program that also includes works by Goossens, Ireland and Bax. Sunday at 5 p.m., Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5788, chambermusicsociety.org; $28 to $50. (Allan Kozinn) * CONTINUUM (Tuesday) The Israel Philharmonic recently played two concerts in New York without offering music by a single Israeli composer. For that, you have to turn to Continuum, which is looking at Israeli music, with an emphasis on works by immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The composers represented include Josef Bardanashvili, Michael Liebman, Benjamin Yusupov, Uri Brener, Valentin Bibik and Hana Ajiashvili. At 8 p.m., the J.C.C. in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Avenue, at 76th Street, (646) 505-5708, continuum-ensemble-ny.org; $15. (Kozinn) PHILIP GLASS AND WENDY SUTTER (Tuesday) As part of the Baryshnikov Arts Centers Movado Hour series of free, informal concerts, the composer and pianist Philip Glass and the cellist Wendy Sutter are collaborating on a program of Mr. Glasss music, including the premiere of his Songs and Poems for cello. At 7 p.m., 450 West 37th Street, Manhattan, (917) 934-4966, baryshnikovdancefoundation.org; free, but reservations are required. (Kozinn) HUNGARIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Tomorrow) Welcome to the brave new world of arts sponsorship in the ex-East Bloc: while on this 100-year-old orchestras first United States tour, its conductor announced during a concert that the ensemble had lost its main sponsor and would be dissolving. (Distressed spinmeisters countered that it would only be shrinking into a chamber ensemble.) So tomorrow may be both a first and a last chance for New Yorkers to hear this particular survivor of Central European tradition in Liszts Second Piano Concerto (with Paavali Jumppanen), Dvoraks mighty Eighth Symphony and Mussorgskys Night on Bald Mountain. At 8 p.m., Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University, Brookville, N.Y., (516) 299-3100, tillescenter.org; $48 to $90; $3 off for 65+. (Midgette) * JOHANNES STRING QUARTET (Tomorrow) The members of this acclaimed quartet make time in their busy outside careers to perform together. Peter Stumpf is the principal cellist of the Los Angles Philharmonic, and C. J. Chang is the principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The violinists are both based in New York: Soovin Kim, the first American to win the Paganini Violin Competition in 24 years, and Jessica Lee, who won the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Music lovers can hear them at a bargain price tomorrow when the essential Peoples Symphony Concerts presents the quartet in works by Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart. At 8 p.m., Washington Irving High School, Irving Place at 16th Street, Manhattan, (212) 586-4680, pscny.org; $9. (Tommasini) JENNIFER KOH (Wednesday) The dynamic violinist Jennifer Koh, who has proven her mettle in repertory from Bach to Ligeti, is a vigorous champion of new music. On Wednesday she will perform the New York premiere of Jennifer Higdons String Poetic, which was written for Ms. Koh and the pianist Reiko Uchida, her frequent collaborator. The lively program also includes Janaceks Sonata, Schuberts Sonatina in D and Schumanns Sonata No. 2. Ms. Koh will also perform excerpts from Kurtags Signs, Games and Messages. At 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $40; $25 for age 35 and under. (Schweitzer) METROPOLITAN MUSEUM ARTISTS IN CONCERT (Tonight) The Metropolitan Museums resident chamber group -- Andrew Armstrong, pianist; Colin Jacobsen and Yosuke Kawasaki, violinists; Nicholas Cords, violist; and Edward Arron and Raman Ramakrishnan, cellists -- opens its season with an eclectic program. Included are a Purcell Fantasia, a Boccherini String Quintet, the Brahms F minor Piano Quintet and a recent work, Viaggio in Italia, by the Italian post-Minimalist Giovanni Sollima. At 8, (212) 570-3949, metmuseum.org; $30. (Kozinn) * MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA (Tuesday and Wednesday) The Finnish conductor Osmo Vanska has helped make the Minnesota Orchestra one of the most compelling in America right now, not least with a vivid Beethoven symphony cycle on CD thats satisfying, fresh, and continuing. (Symphonies 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 have all been released.) Beethovens delightful and underplayed Fourth Symphony and his classic Fifth feature on consecutive nights in concerts that balance them against the fourth and fifth symphonies of Mr. Vanskas compatriot Jean Sibelius. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $26 to $88 (Midgette) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Today, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday) Piano fans, rejoice. This weekend offers a chance to hear the conductor Alan Gilbert, whose sobriquet is morphing from rising to simply hot, in Debussys Images; a piece called Parodos by Daniel Börtz, a Swedish composer; and Beethovens first piano concerto with the soloist Lars Vogt. Next week, Lorin Maazel leads off the orchestras Brahms festival with the Serenade No. 1 and the first piano concerto as played by Emanuel Ax. Today at 11 a.m., tomorrow at 8 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500, nyphil.org; $24 to $99. (Midgette) ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKES (Thursday) The British conductor Roger Norrington returns to St. Lukes with music by Goldmark and Brahms. The American violinist Hilary Hahn plays Goldmarks elaborate A minor Concerto, and Mr. Norrington conducts the Brahms Fourth Symphony. At 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800, carnegiehall.org; $23 to $ 75. (Holland) JOHN SCOTT (Tomorrow) Mr. Scott, the organist and director of music at St. Thomas Church, plays the third concert in his 10-part series exploring the complete organ works of Buxtehude, in honor of the forthcoming 300th anniversary of the composers death. Built in 1996 in a style similar to those of north Germany and the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries, St. Thomass Taylor & Boody organ is ideal for such a venture. At 4 p.m., Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street, (212) 757-7013; saintthomaschurch.org; free. (Schweitzer) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. * BIG DANCE THEATER (Tonight and tomorrow) Annie-B Parsons and Paul Lazar, Bigs wildly imaginative choreographer and director, explore the stories of the contemporary novelist Masuji Ibuse just in time for the start of Japan Societys celebration of its yearlong centennial. Tonight at 7:30, tomorrow at 3 and 7:30 p.m., Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan, (212) 715-1258, japansociety.org; $35. (Jennifer Dunning) * CHEZ BUSHWICK PRESENTS (Tomorrow) Performing in this cheerfully subversive series will be Jennifer Allen, Malinda Allen, American Bob, David Hammons and Dean Moss, with conversation from Barbara Bryan and Kim Doegler, the new directors of Movement Research. At 8 p.m., Grace Exhibition Space, 840 Broadway, between Ellery Street and Park Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn, (718) 594-0642, gracespace.multiply.com; $5. (Dunning) CHINESE NEW YEAR SPECTACULAR (Wednesday and Thursday) Well, it certainly does sound spectacular, celebrating the Year of the Pig with dance and music presentations that include a multimedia depiction of heaven, complete with angels, fairies and gods drifting by on clouds. (Through Feb. 17.) Wednesday at 8 p.m., Thursday at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., Radio City Music Hall, (212) 307-7171, radiocity.com; $42.50 to $184.50. (Dunning) DanceBrazil (Tuesday through Thursday) Jelon Vieira, the artistic director of this vibrant company from Bahia, has been particularly successful at fusing the techniques of capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art, with modern dance forms. To celebrate the companys 30th anniversary, he has created a new work, The Ritual of the Roda, that traces the history of capoeira; the kickboxing fireworks artfully transformed into dance should be well worth seeing. (Through Feb. 18.) Tuesday and Wednesday at 7.30 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800, joyce.org; $42; Joyce members, $32. (Roslyn Sulcas) DANCEWAVES KIDS COMPANY (Tomorrow and Sunday) These child performers will dance pieces created by children throughout the city, as well as choreography by Twyla Tharp and Andrea Woods. At 3 p.m., Kumble Theater, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues, downtown Brooklyn, (718) 488-1624, www.kumbletheater.org; $20; $12 for children 12 and younger. (Dunning) * D D DORVILLIER (Tonight and tomorrow night) Ms. Dorvillier describes her new Nottthing Is Importanttt as a cinema performance, incorporating video and a dark and sound environment. Whatever all that means, Ms. Dorvilliers wild, intuitive and visual imagination is usually reason enough to take the plunge. Tonight at 10:30, tomorrow at 8, the Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 255-5793, Ext. 11, thekitchen.org; $12. (Dunning) Alex Escalante (Thursday) A new trio, Swallow Sand, by Mr. Escalante, has a live score by Jon Moniaci. According to press materials, the piece features an installation of hundreds of copper tin cans and investigates social desensitization bought on by a hyper frenetic environment. Would that be New York? (Through next Friday.) At 7.30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 691-6500, dtw.org; $20; $12 for students, artists and 65+. (Sulcas) KINETIC DANCE THEATER (Sunday) Directed by Joanna and Ryan Greer, the company will perform Ill Take Summer, a new cabaret-dance piece that celebrates that sunny season. (Repeated next Friday at 8 p.m. and Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.) At 8 p.m., Dont Tell Mama, 343 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 757-0788, kineticdancetheater.org; $10 cover, with a two-drink minimum. (Dunning) Regina Nejman & Company (Thursday) Ms. Nejmans new Frozen Baby is described as a dance installation, which might indicate that there wont be too much dancing. But Ms. Nejman is a choreographer who revels in sheer physicality, and there should be plenty of high-energy movement to watch. The work is set to commissioned music by Mio Morales, whose last score for Ms. Nejman was a compelling mix of Brazilian pop and sharp electronic rhythyms. (Through Feb. 18.) At 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, SoHo, (212) 334-7479; $20; $17 for students. (Sulcas) * NEW YORK CITY BALLET (Tonight through Thursday) The companys marketers have devised snappy titles for 10 winter season repertory programs. But words appear to have failed them when it came to tonights collection of ballets, repeated on Sunday and Thursday, which is rather dully called Contemporary Quartet. It consists of Carousel (A Dance), Intermezzo No. 1, Slice to Sharp and Friandises. No matter. We still have Balanchine and Robbins: Masters at Work (Serenade, Dybbuk and Stravinsky Violin Concerto, tomorrow afternoon); Essential Balanchine (Square Dance, Liebeslieder Waltzer and Stars and Stripes, tomorrow night); Visionary Voices (Klavier, Russian Seasons and The Four Temperaments, on Tuesday) and For the Fun of It (Circus Polka, Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Jeu de Cartes and Firebird, on Wednesday). (Through Feb. 25.) Tonight and Thursday night at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. and Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 870-5570, nycballet.com; $20 to $95. (Dunning) * NY FLAMENCO FESTIVAL (Thursday) Paco de Lucia, the renowned guitarist, actually precedes the first dance programs of this passionate and ambitious celebration of an ancient Gypsy art. But who cares about music? The dance component opens with Gala de la Bienal de Sevilla, featuring Joaquin Grilo, Isabel Bayón and the rising flamenco stars La Moneta, Manual Liñan, Olga Pericet and Marco Flores. At 7:30 p.m., City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 545-7536, worldmusicinstitute.org; $30 to $85; $200 for a gala ticket, which includes a reception. (Dunning) 92ND STREET Y HARKNESS DANCE FESTIVAL: LEE SAAR THE COMPANY (Wednesday and Thursday) This gutsy, brainy modern-dance company, founded seven years ago in Tel Aviv, will open this five-week festival with new and repertory dances. (Through Feb. 18.) Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 West 55th Street, Clinton, (212) 415-5500, 92Y.org; $20. (Dunning) OYU ORO (Thursday) This company of Afro-Cuban performers will present Palenque, which incorporates popular and traditional dances from both cultures. (Through Feb. 25.) At 7:30 p.m., La MaMa E.T.C., 74A East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 475-7710, lamama.org; $20; $15 for students. (Dunning) REBECCA RICE DANCE (Tonight and tomorrow night) From Boston, Ms. Rice and her modern-dance company focus on what she describes as organically centered dance rich in energy and texture. Tonight at 9, tomorrow night at 8, Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune Street, at Washington Street, West Village, (978) 852-3863, rebeccaricedance.com; $20 and $35; $15 for students.(Dunning) Jill Sigman/thinkdance (Tonight through Sunday) A serious calf injury and travels in India, Berlin and New Orleans were among the ingredients that prompted Jill Sigmans new Rupture, which features hundreds of broken eggshells, an original score for voice and electronics, live video and actual dancers. Ms. Sigman has a reputation for quirky originality that she seems to be about to live up to. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8:30, Sunday at 7.30 p.m., Danspace Project, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (212) 674-8194; $15; $10 for members. (Sulcas) SUNDAYS @ THREE (Sunday) Magbana Drum and Dance will present new and reconstructed pieces rooted in Guinean traditional and modern styles. At 3 p.m., 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92Y.org; $3. (Dunning) THE 2007 A.W.A.R.D. SHOW! (Sunday) Participants in this months installment of this series, which features short dances and discussion, are Kate Weare, Dana Ruttenberg, Evangelos Dance, Daniel Clifton and Nelly van Bommel. At the end of the evening, the audience chooses a choreographer or work that will be featured as a finalist, in May. At 7 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 334-7479, netacompany.org; free. (Dunning) WIDEMAN/DAVIS DANCE (Tonight) This company, starring the former Dance Theater of Harlem principal Tanya Wideman-Davis, will perform Thaddeus Daviss new piece, The Bends of Life, a dance that follows two characters from slavery to sharecropping to gaining the right to vote, focusing on the quiltmaking women of Gees Bend, Ala. At 7:30, Mary Johnson Performing Arts Center, Calhoun School, 433 West End Avenue, at 81st Street, Manhattan, (212) 497-6528, calhoun.org; $10; $5 for students. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums * American Folk Art Museum: MARTíN RAMíREZ, through April 29. Ramírez, a Mexican peasant who immigrated to Northern California and died there at 68 in 1963, spent the last 32 years of his life in a mental hospital making some of the greatest art of the last century. He had his own way with materials and color and an unforgettable cast of characters (most notably, a mounted caballero and a levitating Madonna crowned like the Statue of Liberty.) But most of all, Ramírez had his own brand of pictorial space, established by rhythmic systems of parallel lines, both curved and straight, whose mesmerizing expansions and contractions simultaneously cosset and isolate his figures. This show should render null and void the distinction between insider and outsider art. 45 West 53rd Street, (212) 265-1040. (Roberta Smith) * American Museum of Natural History: GOLD, through Aug. 19. This astounding array of art, artifacts and natural samples -- larded with fascinating facts and tales -- ranges from prehistoric times to the present. Stops along the way include pre-Columbian empires, sunken treasure and the moon landing. It turns out that gold comes from the earth in forms as beautiful as anything man has thought to do with it. Central Park West and 79th Street, (212) 769-5100, amnh.org. (Smith) * Chelsea Art Museum: DANGEROUS BEAUTY, through April 21. A timely update of a well-worn idea, this show of contemporary works in a variety of mediums by 18 artists examines the beauty myth in art, advertising and the fashion industry. Eloquent but blunt imagery of anorexic girls, chiseled male beefcake and close-ups of surgically deformed faces predominates, reminding us of the violent extremes to which some people will go in pursuit of societys ideal of beauty. The rest of the show -- often pointing an accusatory finger at skinny models, cosmetic labels and the mass media -- feels familiar in its critique, but the premise about the ideology of beauty is beyond argument. 556 West 22nd Street, (212) 255-0719, chelseaartmuseum.org. (Benjamin Genocchio) * Grey Art Gallery: Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle, through March 31. The artist Wallace Berman (1926-76) may ring only a faint bell to many New Yorkers, but he was a central, charismatic figure in an underground of West Coast artists and poets in the 1950s and 60s. A collagist, poet, photographer and the publisher of an influential journal, Semina, he inspired others to make art too, sparking hidden aptitude in startling places. After meeting him, drifters, movie stars, ex-marines and petty criminals found themselves starting to paint and write. And a traveling love company of them has come to Grey Art Gallery, trailing dreams, delusions and marijuana clouds. New York University, 100 Washington Square, Greenwich Village, (212) 998-6780. (Holland Cotter) * GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso, TIME, TRUTH, AND HISTORY through March 28. This show is carried along on its sheer star power and optical finesse. There are dozens of Goyas and Velázquezes and Zurbaráns and El Grecos and Riberas and Dalís and Picassos, many famous, many not. I cant tell you how often I was stopped by a picture so good or unexpected that it made me do a double take. Velázquezs painting of a dwarf is alone worth crossing a continent to see. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org. (Michael Kimmelman) International Center of Photography: Henri Cartier-Bressons Scrapbook: Photographs, 1932-46, through April 29. Arrived by way of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris, this show has more than 300 of the prints the photographer glued into an album and toted to New York for curators at the Museum of Modern Art to cull. Captured by the Nazis, he had been presumed dead when the Modern planned his retrospective. Then he turned up alive -- the posthumous exhibition opened, with him in attendance, in 1947. The current exhibition reconstructs as best as possible the original layout of the scrapbook. Its an eye-straining affair, but it surveys the revolutionary work he shot in Spain, Italy, Mexico, Britain and France. His taste for uncanny detail linked him to Surrealism and Surrealist wit, but unlike many Surrealists, he remained committed to human values. Boys mug at his camera. Prostitutes swan. Their gazes equalize them with us. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000, icp.org. (Kimmelman) International Center of Photography: Martin Munkacsi: Think While You Shoot! through April 29. Munkacsi, who inspired Cartier-Bresson, was, by contrast, self-taught, a creature of his own devising. This is the most complete retrospective, with a thick catalog (not too well researched) and dozens of vintage prints from the 1920s through the early 60s. He favored scenes of daily life, absorbing avant-garde ideas about odd angles and abstract compositions. In 1928 he moved to Berlin and traveled the world on assignment to Brazil, Algeria and Egypt. Munkacsi was a stylist, and he made catchy images the only way he knew how, in a modernist mode, which, being an opportunistic form, could serve any master. He became a celebrity in America. He photographed Fred Astaire dancing and Joan Crawford poolside. In the breezy layouts of Harpers Bazaar, the work looked brilliant. (See above.) (Kimmelman) * THE METropolitan museum of art: GLITTER AND DOOM: GERMAN PORTRAITS FROM THE 1920s, through Feb. 19. The 100 paintings and drawings on display here are by 10 artists, including George Grosz, Christian Schad and Karl Hubbuch, and most conspicuously the unrelentingly savage Otto Dix and his magnificent other, Max Beckmann. In their works the Weimar Republics porous worlds reassemble; we look into the faces of museum directors and cabaret performers, society matrons and scarred war veterans, prostitutes and jaded aristocrats who were watching their world slide from one cataclysm to the next. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith) * The MET: ONE OF A KIND: THE STUDIO CRAFT MOVEMENT, through Sept. 3. Focusing on the postwar development of artist-craftsmen, this display of furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry and fiber includes funny, quirky, provocative and sometimes gorgeous things. Among its stars are a witty bust by the California funk ceramicist Robert Arneson (1920-92), portraying the mother of the 16th-century painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer, and Bonnie Seemans fetching ceramic coffeepot and tray, whose mock cabbage leaves and rhubarb stalks evoke the genteel tradition of 18th-century British and continental china, but can also be read as human rather than vegetative tissue. (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Grace Glueck) Morgan Library & Museum: Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings, through April 8. This show is drawn entirely from an anonymous private collection. Despite the veil of secrecy, a couple of things are obvious: the collector had significant capital for investing in old masters and either an exceptional eye or a good adviser (or both). The works span more than 400 years, from the 16th to the early 20th century, and include drawings in ink and pencil, watercolor, chalk and gouache. The earliest works come from a period when drawing wasnt an autonomous practice but was used as a form of exercise, to apply ones craft, to experiment and to make preliminary sketches for larger works. The best example is a black chalk drawing, The Dead Christ (1529-35), by Agnolo Bronzino. With more than 90 drawings in the show, being a diligent observer quickly becomes exhausting. In which case, put down the guide, find a few drawings you like, and enjoy them while you can. After all, you dont know where they came from, where theyre going or when youll see them again. 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 685-0008, morganlibrary.org. (Martha Schwendener) Storefront for Art and Architecture: Clip/Stamp/Fold, through Feb. 24. This show examines the world of those small magazines from the early 1960s to the end of the 1970s, when the field of architecture was still marked by a playful intellectual and political independence. Often thrown together on a shoestring budget, the magazines have an intoxicating freshness that should send a shudder down the spine of those whove spent the last decade in the glow of the computer screen. But this is not an exercise in nostalgia. Its a piercing critique, intended or not, of the smoothness of our contemporary design culture. These magazine covers map out an era when architecture was simmering with new ideas. Youre bound to leave the show with a nagging sense of what was lost as well as gained during the last three decades. 97 Kenmare Street, Little Italy, (212) 431-5795, storefrontnews.org. (Nicolai Ouroussoff) Galleries: Chelsea * JACCO OLIVIER Yet another painter working in animation might seem a little tiresome. But these wistful filmed animations of loosely brushed seascapes and landscapes by Mr. Olivier are perfectly lovely. It is no revelation that he is from the Netherlands -- Dutch artists more or less invented landscape imagery in the late 16th century. This artist updates the genr. The imagery is marvelously painterly, with the individual frames sometimes bordering on abstraction, though the narrative structure owes much to the techniques of film. Mr. Oliviers peculiar genius is to have effortlessly combined them. Marianne Boesky Gallery, 509 West 24th Street, (212) 680-9889, www.marianneboeskygallery.com, through Feb. 17. (Genocchio) Last Chance * COSMOLOGIES This flawed but also irresistible survey of the longstanding human desire to account for the universe in a holistic, often holy manner ranges eclectically across continents, centuries, mediums and religions. Its nearly 70 objects and artworks include African ritual objects, Tibetan and Mongolian mandalas, rare European prints and books and the efforts of over 30 contemporary artists. Unsurprisingly, the circle is the dominant form here, which befits the way you may find yourself orbiting through the panoply of material. James Cohan Gallery, 533 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 714-9500; closes tomorrow. (Smith) * Freeman/Phelan: The Long Goodbye As a collaborative duo, Jonah Freeman and Michael Phelan turn the American cultural landscape into a kind of job lot shop of the damned. Synthetic carpeting heaves across the gallery floor. Glass display cases display only themselves. Pictures that look abstract and a little Chinese-y are actually photographs of aluminum foil. Some interesting young artists are turning design into a lethal critical weapon, and Mr. Freeman and Mr. Phelan are two of them. Josh Connelly Presents, 625 West 27th Street, Chelsea, (212) 337-9563, johnconnellypresents.com; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) * Material for the Making This auspicious first show organized by Elizabeth Dees new director, Jenny Moore, has work by four good artists. Mai Braus heap of shredded newspaper is a realistically undecipherable edition of the news of the day. Gail Thackers sequential Polaroids of a dancing man covered in shaving cream is Dada Eadweard Muybridge. Kori Newkirk fills a wall with a giant snowflake painted in pomade. An eerie video by Kerry Tribe recreates, in sonambulistic shock-time, the experience of a car accident in a snow storm. Elizabeth Dee, 545 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 942-7545, elizabethdeegallery.com; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) * CARRIE MOYER: THE STONE AGE, NEW PAINTINGS Although a little cautious, Ms. Moyers new paintings have a bracing visual and conceptual complexity. Feminism, biology, geology, prehistoric goddesses and vessels are evoked in thin, precisely calibrated layers that add new twists to both the geometry and the gesturalism of male-dominated formalist painting. Its post-political abstraction. Canada, 55 Chrystie Street, near Hester Street, Lower East Side, (212) 925-4631; closes on Sunday. (Smith) * Museum of Modern Art: DOUG AITKEN: SLEEPWALKERS Produced in concert with Creative Time Inc., this monumental video projection, screened nightly (from 5 to 10) on three sides of the sleek exterior of the newly expanded Museum of Modern Art, consists of short, silent and rather too glamorous meditations on the working nights of five emblematic New Yorkers played somnolently by actors and musicians who include Donald Sutherland and Tilda Swinton. But Mr. Aitkens astute and restless cinematic ambition and commanding sense of scale are in full force, especially in the more abstract portions of the piece, resulting in a fitting ode to the city that never sleeps and that the camera has always loved. (212) 708-9400; closes on Monday. (Smith) * Stephen G. Rhodes: Recurrency Its great when someone gets ambitiously complicated and makes it work, as the young Los Angeles-based artist Stephen G. Rhodes does in his first solo show. Formally, he juggles video, sculpture, photographs and drawings, and hooks them up in a circling narrative that ricochets from 19th-century fiction to B films to Hurricane Katrina. The play of history, fiction and recent reality that results is memorably atmospheric. Guild & Greyshkul, 28 Wooster Street, SoHo, (212) 625-9224, www.guildgreyshkul.com; closes tomorrow. (Cotter) * Saul Steinberg: works from the 50s-80s Steinbergs side-winding art may be in full cry at the Morgan Library, but this wonderful short-form retrospective doesnt skimp. Ranging from the early 1950s to the late 1980s, its 40 objects include one of the artists studio-table sculptures, accoutered with whittled versions of tools and works-in-progress and a facsimile of his many notebooks that feels like the real thing, especially since it can be handled. Adam Baumgold Gallery, 74 East 79th Street, (212) 861-7338; closes tomorrow. (Smith) Whitney Museum of American Art: Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980-2005 Many things fly and float here: men and women, harpies and angels, birds and beasts, toadstools and stars. And some things fall to earth, or rather to the museums black stone floors, maybe to rise again, maybe not. The whole show, a midcareer retrospective, suggests a Victorian fairy tale, its tone at once light, grievous and dreamlike. But fanciful as it is, Ms. Smiths art is also deeply, corporeally realistic. It wears moral and mortal seriousness on its sleeve, if not tattooed on its wrist. It is about life and death, the essential things. 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (212) 570-3676, whitney.org; closes on Sunday. (Cotter)

The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived On

His mother, May, was obsessed with her work at the Salvation Army, abandoning her own kids, and the descriptions of his lonely life exist in many accounts, most notably biographies by Ben Bradlee Jr. and Leigh Montville. San Diego. When she is up.

THE LISTINGS -- JULY 21-JULY 27

Selective listings by critics of The New York Times of new and noteworthy cultural events in the Northeast 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 ALL THIS INTIMACY In previews; opens Thursday. A romantically ambitious poet balances relationships with three women in this new play by Rajiv Joseph. Presented by Second Stage Theater (1:45). McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway; (212) 246-4422. AMAJUBA: LIKE DOVES WE RISE In previews; opens Tuesday. Based on the lives of the five cast members, this play, which incorporates dance and song, is about growing up in apartheid-era South Africa (1:30). Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, at Lafayette Street, East Village; (212) 307-4100. INDIAN BLOOD Previews start Tuesday. Opens Aug. 9. Primary Stages presents A. R. Gurneys new comedy about a rebellious American Indian boy coming of age in the 1940s. Mark Lamos directs (1:30). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street; (212) 279-4200. LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL Through July 30. This always-buzzed-about summer showcase includes DruidSynge, the complete works of John Millington Synge (see below), and Grendel, an opera directed by Julie Taymor. Sites in and around Lincoln Center; (212) 721-6500. MIDTOWN INTERNATIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL Through Aug. 6. The seventh annual showcase often gets lost in the shuffle, despite its large and diverse collection of shows. There should be more than 60 productions this season, at four locations on 36th Street. Schedules and information; (212) 868-4444. Broadway 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.(Ben 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) THE DROWSY CHAPERONE (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece. But in a dry season for musicals, The Drowsy Chaperone has theatergoers responding as if they were withering house plants, finally being watered after long neglect. Bob Martin and Sutton Foster are the standouts in the eager, energetic cast (1:40). Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) *FAITH HEALER In the title role of Brian Friels great play, Ralph Fiennes paints a portrait of the artist as dreamer and destroyer that feels both as old as folklore and so fresh that it might be painted in wet blood. Also starring Cherry Jones and the superb Ian McDiarmid, this mesmerizing series of monologues has been directed with poetic starkness by Jonathan Kent (2:35). Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * THE HISTORY BOYS (Tony Awards, best play and best direction of a play, 2006) Madly enjoyable. Alan Bennetts play about a battle for the hearts and minds of a group of university-bound students, imported with the original British cast from the National Theater, moves with a breezy narrative swagger that transcends cultural barriers. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, with a perfectly oiled ensemble led by the superb Richard Griffiths and Stephen Campbell Moore as schoolmasters with opposing views of history and education (2:40). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) JERSEY BOYS (Tony Award, best musical, 2006) 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 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). Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SWEENEY TODD (Tony Award, best direction of a musical, 2006) 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) TARZAN This writhing green blob with music, adapted by Disney Theatrical Productions from the 1999 animated film, has the feeling of a super-deluxe day care center, equipped with lots of bungee cords and karaoke synthesizers, where children can swing when they get tired of singing, and vice versa. The soda-pop score is by Phil Collins (2:30). Richard Rodgers Theater, 226 West 46th Street, (212) 307-4747. (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. (Charles Isherwood) THE WEDDING SINGER An assembly-kit musical that might as well be called That 80s Show, this stage version of the 1998 film is all winks and nods and quotations from the era of big hair and junk bonds. The cast members, who include Stephen Lynch and Laura Benanti, are personable enough, which is not the same as saying they have personalities (2:20). Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) Off Broadway * BRIDGE & TUNNEL (Tony Award, special theatrical event, 2006) This delightful solo show, written and performed by Sarah Jones, is a sweet-spirited valentine to New York, 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. Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) CRAZY FOR THE DOG Christopher Boals effective family melodrama about a brother, a sister, a wife and a boyfriend caught in a web of recrimination and confession, touched off by the kidnapping of a shih tzu (2:00). Bouwerie Lane Theater, 330 Bowery, at Bond Street, East Village, (212) 677-0060, Ext. 16. (George Hunka) THE FIELD John B. Keanes portrait of rural life in Ireland in the mid-20th century, both sorrowful and censorious. This sturdy new production, directed by Ciaran OReilly, features Marty Maguire as Bull McCabe, a tough farmer who will stop at nothing to preserve his right to raise his cattle on a field about to be auctioned. A little moralistic, but powerful nonetheless (2:30). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (Isherwood) * 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) THE HOUSE IN TOWN A wan new drama by Richard Greenberg about an American marriage slowly imploding in the days before the countrys economy did the same, more suddenly and spectacularly, in 1929. A miscast Jessica Hecht stars as Amy Hammer, a well-to-do housewife sliding into despair as her remote husband looks on in frustration. Doug Hughess production is pretty but desultory, as is Mr. Greenbergs typically eloquent but atypically empty writing (1:30). Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) 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 Drew Sarich) and two women (Natascia Diazand 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) * [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) 279-4200. (Isherwood) PIG FARM A gleefully stupid comedy by Greg Kotis about lust and violence in the farm belt, with a few gristly bits of satire aimed at the fat-bellied American electorate thrown in for good measure. Powered by the frenzied commitment of the four skilled actors who make up its cast, the comedy careers around the stage like an interminable improv session for a still-unformulated sketch on Saturday Night Live. (2:15). Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Isherwood) * ROOM SERVICE The Peccadillo Theater Company puts a charge into this old comedy from the 1930s, thanks to a brisk pace by the director, Dan Wackerman, and a dozen dandy performances. David Edwards is the would-be producer whose bills threaten to swamp his efforts to put a show on Broadway, and Fred Berman is particularly fine as his director (2:00). Bank Street Theater, 155 Bank Street, West Village, (212) 868-4444.(Neil Genzlinger) * SPRING AWAKENING German schoolboys of the 19th-century frolic like rockers in this adventurous new musical adapted from the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind about sex, death and adolescence. Staged with élan by Michael Mayer, and featuring alluringly melancholy music by the pop singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, this is a flawed but vibrant show that stretches the stage musical in new directions (2:10). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) SUSAN AND GOD The Mint Theater Companys fine revival of Rachel Crotherss 1937 comedy about religion, career and family features Leslie Hendrix of Law & Order, excellent in the role of Susan. Jonathan Bank directs (2:20). The Mint Theater, 311 West 43rd Street, third floor, Clinton, (212) 315-0231. (Hunka) TEMPEST TOSSED FOOLS This musical audience-participation childrens version of The Tempest is rowdy, colorful and not all that Shakespearean. Manhattan Ensemble Theater, 55 Mercer Street, SoHo, (212) 239-6200. (Anita Gates) TREASON The poet Ezra Pound was a repellent fellow, judging from this play by Sallie Bingham: racist, anti-Semitic, eager to exploit the affections of the women who loved him. Just why women were drawn to him is never clear, but the play is thoughtful, and the acting, especially by Philip Pleasants as Pound, is superb (2:10). Perry Street Theater, 31 Perry Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 868-4444. (Genzlinger) Off Off Broadway CHEKHOV & MARIA Jovanka Bachs final play is a touching, beautifully acted if sometimes slow-paced study of Anton Chekhovs near-final days and his relationship with his sister, who cared for him (2:00). Barrow Group Theater, 312 West 36th Street; (212) 868-4444. (Gates) FOOD FOR FISH Adam Szymkowiczs fabulously weird and weirdly fabulous new comedy fools around with cross-dressing, suicidal writers and Chekhovian characters who long for New Jersey (2:00). Kraine Theater, 85 East Fourth Street, between Second and Third Avenues, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Gates) 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) DRUMSTRUCK Lightweight entertainment that stops just short of pulverizing the eardrums (1:30).Dodger Stages, Stage 2, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Lawrence Van Gelder) 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). Minskoff Theater, 200 West 45th Street at Broadway, (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 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 HOT FEET A dancing encyclopedia of clichés set to music by Earth, Wind & Fire. Numbing (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street; (212) 307-4100; closing Sunday. (Isherwood) MANHATTAN MADCAPS of 1924 A not-very-madcap story is indeed included, but this is essentially a revue made of up of Rodgers and Hart songs, many of them fairly obscure. Better singing voices in the cast might help show them off to fuller advantage; as it is, the main attraction is a trio of songs with unfamiliar lyrics, but a very familiar tune: the one that, on the fourth try, became Blue Moon (1:20). Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400; closing Sunday. (Genzlinger) SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS José Rivera, who wrote the screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries, penned this rickety piece of historical speculation about the final two days of Che Guevaras life (2:00). Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; closing Sunday.(Jason Zinoman) SHAKESPEARE IS DEAD Orran Farmers two-character drama about a struggling playwright and a drug-addicted actress-stripper is well-meaning, but tedious and often trite (1:00). Paradise Factory, 64 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 868-4444; closing tomorrow. (Gates) TROUBLE IN PARADISE Ernst Lubitschs 1932 film comedy about a con man, the con woman he loves and a wealthy Parisian widow lives again as a giddy, good-looking, quietly amusing play (1:30). Hudson Guild Theater, 441 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 352-3101; closing tomorrow. (Gates) 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. * AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (PG, 96 minutes) Al Gore gives a lecture on climate change. One of the most exciting and necessary movies of the year. Seriously. (A. O. Scott) * ARMY OF SHADOWS (No rating, 140 minutes, in French) Dark as pitch and without compromise, Jean-Pierre Melvilles 1969 masterpiece centers on the feats of a small band of Resistance fighters during the occupation. Brilliant, harrowing, essential viewing.(Manohla Dargis) THE BREAK-UP (PG-13, 105 minutes) Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn split up and share custody of a Chicago condominium. Dull and cheerless, notwithstanding a handful of funny supporting turns, notably from Judy Davis and Jason Bateman. (Scott) CARS (G, 114 minutes) The latest 3-D toon from Pixar just putt, putt, putts along, a shining model of technological progress and consumer safety. John Lasseter directed, and Owen Wilson provides the voice of the little red race car who learns all the right lessons from, among others, a 1951 Hudson Hornet given voice by Paul Newman. (Dargis) CLICK (PG-13, 98 minutes) Adam Sandler stars in this unfunny comedy about a harried family man who uses a universal remote to hop-scotch through time. Its a wonderful life, not. (Dargis) * CHANGING TIMES (No rating, 95 minutes, in French and Arabic) Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve star in André Téchinés rich, warmhearted exploration of cultural collision in contemporary Tangier. A half-dozen skillfully interwoven subplots create a set of variations on the theme of divided sensibilities tugging one another into states of perpetual unrest and possible happiness. (Stephen Holden) * LEONARD COHEN: IM YOUR MAN (PG-13, 104 minutes) This enthralling documentary combines pieces of an extended interview with Mr. Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and author, now 71, with a tribute concert at the Sydney Opera House in January 2005. Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright and Antony are among the featured performers. (Holden) THE DA VINCI CODE (PG-13, 148 minutes) Theology aside, The Da Vinci Code is, above all, a murder mystery. And as such, once it gets going, Ron Howards movie has its pleasures. He and the screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have deftly rearranged some elements of the plot, unkinking a few overelaborate twists and introducing others that keep the action moving along. The movie does, however, take a while to accelerate, popping the clutch and leaving rubber on the road as it tries to establish who is who, what hes doing and why. So I certainly cant support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say that Im recommending that you go see it. (Scott) THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (PG-13, 106 minutes) Lauren Weisbergers score-settling best seller about a terrible (and famous) boss is reimagined and reversed. Anne Hathaway plays the beleaguered assistant, but she is much less interesting -- and in the end less sympathetic -- than the boss, Miranda Priestly, incarnated by Meryl Streep as a subtle and searching (and very funny) portrait of glamour and power. (Scott) EDMOND (R, 76 minutes) William H. Macy gives what may be the performance of his career in the faithful screen adaptation of David Mamets raw, epithet-spattered spiritual fable about a buttoned-up milquetoast who heeds his inner demons and plummets into free fall; hateful and unforgettable. (Holden) * EXCELLENT CADAVERS (No rating, 92 minutes, in English and Italian) Based on the book by Alexander Stille, this tough, brisk documentary follows Mr. Stille to Italy, where he reconstructs the recent history of the Italian mafia, focusing on the careers of two courageous prosecutors who took on organized crime and the political system that protected it. (Scott) THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (PG-13, 98 minutes) The Fast and Furious formula (dudes + cars + babes = $) is recycled in Tokyo, where the cars are smaller, and the clothes are kookier, but the boys are still boys. (Nathan Lee) GARFIELD: A TAIL OF TWO KITTIES (PG, 80 minutes) It was the worst of times. (Dargis) * GABRIELLE (No rating, 90 minutes) A film of eccentric beauty and wild feeling, directed by the consistently inventive Patrice Chéreau and starring the supremely well-matched Pascal Greggory and Isabelle Huppert, about the dissolution of a haute bourgeoisie Parisian marriage, circa 1912. (Dargis) THE GROOMSMEN (R, 93 minutes) Just when it seems Edward Burns might have pulled off an American I Vitelloni, his X-ray vision into life in an Irish-American enclave in New York glazes over and he resolves his characters anxiety and despair with tearful hugs and phony reassurances. (Holden) * HEADING SOUTH (No rating, 105 minutes, in English and French) Sex tourism involving middle-age white women and black beach boys at a Haitian resort in the late 1970s is the subject of Laurent Cantets third film, one of the most truthful explorations of desire, age and youth ever filmed, with a politically charged subtext about capitalist imperialism. (Holden) KEEPING UP WITH THE STEINS (PG-13, 84 minutes) A rollicking bar mitzvah comedy begins as a growling, razor-toothed satire of carnivorous consumption in Hollywood. But after the first half-hour, those growls subside into whimpers, and the fangs are retracted, and the movie morphs turns into a feel-good family comedy oozing good vibes. (Holden) KILL YOUR IDOLS (No rating, 71 minutes) S. A. Crarys glib, unfocused music documentary examines the New York No Wave scene of the late 1970s -- an offshoot of punk, the anti-New Wave -- when the music was noisy (and genuinely noncommercial) and the clothes were black (and genuinely secondhand). (Dargis) THE LAKE HOUSE (PG, 108 minutes) Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, reunited 12 years after Speed, play would-be lovers separated by time and yet somehow able to communicate. The absolute preposterousness of this teary romance is inseparable from its charm, which is greater than you might expect. (Scott) LITTLE MAN (PG-13, 90 minutes) A belligerent midget jewel thief assaults groins and molests women in this infantile comedy from the Wayans brothers. (Lee) MINIS FIRST TIME (R, 91 minutes) Yet another poor little rich girl tends to her festering inner wounds by becoming one of Southern Californias children of the damned. Nikki Reed stars alongside the slumming likes of Alec Baldwin, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jeff Goldblum and Luke Wilson. (Dargis) * LA MOUSTACHE (No rating, 86 minutes, in French) Emmanuel Carrières psychological mystery prepares you to bask in one of those sexy, bittersweet marital comedies that are a hallmark of sophisticated French cinema. Then, by degrees, it subverts those expectations to spiral down a rabbit hole of ambiguity and doubt. (Holden) * THE OH IN OHIO (No rating, 91 minutes) A feel-good movie about feeling good, this fresh and very funny sex comedy stars Parker Posey as a woman in search of an orgasm, Paul Rudd as her frustrated husband and a delirious supporting cast: Danny DeVito as a swimming pool salesman, Heather Graham as a sex shop clerk and Liza Minnelli as a masturbation guru who encourages frigid women to liberate your labia! (Lee) * NACHO LIBRE (PG, 91 minutes) A sweet bliss-out from the writers Mike White, Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess, who also directed, that finds a glorious Jack Black as a half-Mexican, half-Scandinavian monastery cook who aches to belong to another brotherhood, that of the luchadores, or masked wrestlers. (Dargis) OVER THE HEDGE (PG, 83 minutes) This tale about some woodland critters threatened by their new human neighbors has the technical trappings of a worthwhile Saturday matinee, so its too bad no one paid commensurate attention to the script. The writers, including Karey Kirkpatrick, who directed with Tim Johnson, pad the story with the usual yuks and some glop about family, but there is no poetry here and little thought. (Dargis) PEACEFUL WARRIOR (PG-13, 120 minutes) As ludicrous as the title promises yet supremely unembarrassed, this New Age enlightenment parable has its heart in the right place, but a mind of corny mush. (Lee) PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MANS CHEST Although there are memorable bits and pieces, this is a movie with no particular interest in coherence, economy or feeling. (Scott) * A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (PG-13, 105 minutes) Garrison Keillors long-running Public Radio hootenanny turns out to be the perfect vehicle for Robert Altmans fluid, chaotic humanism. The performances -- especially by Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep as a pair of singing sisters -- are so full of relaxed vitality that you almost dont notice that the film is, at heart, a wry, sober contemplation of mortality. (Scott) THE ROAD TO GUANTÁNAMO (R, 91 minutes) Michael Winterbottoms powerful, slippery new film mixes documentary and fictional techniques to tell the true story of three British Muslims imprisoned by the United States government in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. (Scott) RUSSIAN DOLLS (No rating, 129 minutes, in English, Russian, French and Spanish) The sequel to the international hit LAuberge Espagnole belongs to a long line of airy French films that induce a pleasant buzz of Euro-envy. Like its forerunner, it is a generational group portrait of young, smart, sexy, well-educated Europeans at work and play filmed in a style that might be called Truffaut Lite. (Holden) A SCANNER DARKLY (R, 100 minutes) Identities shift and melt like shadows in Richard Linklaters animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick semispeculative novel A Scanner Darkly, a look at a future that appears an awful lot like today. With the voices and gestures of Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and a wonderful Robert Downey Jr. (Dargis) 71 FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANCE (No rating, 95 minutes) This 1994 film from that great provocateur Michael Haneke follows a handful of seemingly unrelated characters, all of whom -- perhaps by chance, perhaps by divine intervention, though mostly through artistic contrivance -- have the grave misfortune to be in an Austrian bank when a student starts unloading his revolver. (Dargis) STRANGERS WITH CANDY (R, 87 minutes) High school high jinks, adapted from the beloved Comedy Central series. The comedy is stretched a little thin by the feature length, but there are still some laughs. (Scott) SUPERMAN RETURNS (PG-13, 157 minutes) Last seen larking about on the big screen in the 1987 dud Superman IV, the Man of Steel has been resurrected in Bryan Singers leaden new film not only to fight for truth, justice and the American way, but also to give Mel Gibsons passion a run for his box-office money. Where once the superhero flew up, up and away, he now flies down, down, down, sent from above to save mankind from its sins and another bummer summer. (Dargis) WAIST DEEP (R, 97 minutes) Tyrese Gibson plays an ex-convict trying to rescue his son from ruthless criminal kidnappers in this far-from-terrible B movie, directed with style and heart by Vondie Curtis Hall. (Scott) WASSUP ROCKERS (R, 105 minutes) The latest provocation from the director and photographer Larry Clark follows a group of teenage Hispanic skateboarders from South Central Los Angeles on a 24-hour adventure that takes them from one hell (the inner city) to another (decadent Beverly Hills) and back. (Holden) * WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? (PG, 92 minutes) A murder mystery, a call to arms and an effective inducement to rage, Chris Paines film about the recent rise and fall of the electric car is the latest and one of the more successful additions to the growing ranks of issue-oriented documentaries. ( Dargis) X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (PG-13, 104 minutes) As expected, the third and presumably last film about the powerful Marvel Comics mutants who walk and often fight among us pretty much looks and plays like the first two, though perhaps with more noise and babes, and a little less glum. The credited writers here are Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn, who, like the director, Brett Ratner, are not mutant enough to fly. (Dargis) YOU, ME AND DUPREE (PG-13, 108 minutes) Owen Wilson stars as the dude who comes to dinner and stays way past dessert in Joe and Anthony Russos generally unfunny comedy. A fine Matt Dillon and a decorative Kate Hudson also star, rather more wanly. (Dargis) Film Series GREAT VILLAINS IN CINEMA (Through July 30) BAMcinématek is honoring movie bad guys, from Dracula to Michael Corleone. This weekends features include White Heat (1949), starring James Cagney as a psychotic killer with a mother fixation; and A Clockwork Orange (1971), with Malcolm McDowell as a hooligan with a taste for ultraviolence. BAM Rose Cinemas, (718) 636-4100; $10. (Anita Gates) FRANK BORZAGE, HOLLYWOOD ROMANTIC (Through Aug. 20) A 24-film retrospective of Borzage (1893-1962), one of the first directors to win an Oscar (for Seventh Heaven), continues at the Museum of the Moving Image. This weekends films include the western Until They Get Me (1917); Lazybones (1925), starring Buck Jones as a single father; and the original Humoresque (1920). 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077; $10. (Gates) HISTORIC HARLEM PARKS FESTIVAL: THROUGH AFRICAN EYES AND PRIZED PIECES (Through Aug. 3) This fifth annual outdoor festival continues Wednesday night with Zézé Gamboas Hero (2004), about a homeless veteran of the civil war in Angola. Thursday nights feature is Beyond Beats and Rhymes (2006), Byron Hurts study of sex roles in hip-hop and rap. Jackie Robinson Park, the basketball courts at 150th Street and Bradhurst Avenue, (212) 352-1720; free. (Gates) KUROSAWA (Through Sept. 18) The IFC Centers series honoring Akira Kurosawa continues Sunday and Tuesday with The Bad Sleep Well (1960), which places the Hamlet story in postwar corporate Japan. 323 Avenue of the Americas, at West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 924-7771; $10.75. (Gates) PREMIERE BRAZIL! (Through Sunday) The Museum of Modern Arts fourth annual program of contemporary Brazilian film concludes this weekend with the screening of seven features. They include If I Were You (2006), Daniel Filhos satire about sex-role stereotypes, and Black Orpheus (1959), Marcel Camuss classic retelling of the Greek legend, set at Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 708-9400; $10. (Gates) SCANNERS: THE 2006 NEW YORK VIDEO FESTIVAL (Through July 30) The Film Society of Lincoln Centers 15th annual showcase of new media begins on Wednesday. The first offerings include The Magic Bus, an 80-minute program of shorts done in mixtape style; and Believe the Hype, a tribute to the music-video director Hype Williams. Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5600; $10. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. DICKEY BETTS AND GREAT SOUTHERN (Wednesday) Kicked out of the Allman Brothers, a band he founded, the guitarist Dickey Betts wasted no time in going back on tour with his own group. His chiming, symmetrical guitar solos and the weary but amiable voice from songs like Blue Skies are intact, and he may even have something to prove. With Kenny Wayne Shepherd. At 9:30 p.m., Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, (212) 496-7070 or (212) 307-7171; $52. (Jon Pareles) MARY J. BLIGE (Tonight) Mary J. Blige has long been emoting through hip-hop and soul for all my sisters, my troubled sisters. Her latest, The Breakthrough (Geffen), also finds her in a duet with U2. (She steals the show.) With Jaheim and LeToya. At 8, Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $59.50 to $129.50. (Ben Sisario) * BRAND NEW (Thursday) This Long Island emo band made a quantum leap with its second album three years ago, from whiny and unchallenging breakup songs to tangles of explosive melody with brooding, sometimes horrific lyrics. What the band will come up with on the as-yet-unscheduled album No. 3 is a subject of intense speculation among fans, who quickly snatched up all tickets for this tour. At 6:30 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111; sold out. (Sisario) JIM CAMPILONGO, JESSE HARRIS, MIKE VIOLA (Monday) Just another night at the Living Room, a plain Lower East Side cabaret that puts on one guitar-cradling singer-songwriter after another, some of them world-class. Mr. Campilongo is a well-traveled guitar whiz who plays with Norah Jones in her country band the Little Willies; here he leads his Electric Trio. Jesse Harris, who wrote Ms. Joness hit Dont Know Why, sings in the graceful and guileless manner of Paul Simon and James Taylor when on his own. Mike Viola, jumping from piano to guitar, sings strident power-pop with some jagged wit. At 9 p.m., 154 Ludlow Street, near Stanton Street, Lower East Side, (212) 533-7235; no cover. (Sisario) * CAT POWER (Tuesday) For her most recent album, The Greatest (Matador), Chan Marshall, the superbly rueful singer known as Cat Power, recorded with a group of veteran Memphis soul players, yielding some of the most stirring -- and happiest -- music of her career. Performing solo, she is spellbindingly intense and mercurial. At 8 p.m., Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel, 371 West 16th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-4300; $20. (Sisario) CHEB I SABBAH (Tomorrow) Indian devotional music meets the beat, now and then, in the music of DJ Cheb I Sabbah, who swirls together various styles into heady meditations. He is joined on vocals by the singer Riffat Salamat Sultana, daughter of the Pakistani singer Ustad Salamat Ali Khan. At 7 p.m., Central Park SummerStage, Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street, (212) 360-2777; free, but a donation is suggested. (Pareles) 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.(Stephen Holden) DON CABALLERO (Tonight) In the mid-1990s, Don Caballero, from Pittsburgh, was one of a handful of overachieving guitar bands whose knotty, laser-precise and deliberately undanceable instrumentals exemplified the fittingly named subgenre math-rock. The band broke up six years ago, but its drummer, Damon Che, has repopulated it with new players; its new album, World Class Listening Problem (Relapse), suggests that there was more to the old groups appeal than just math. With Blind Idiot God, Alger Hiss, Houston McCoy and the Victoria Lucas. At 8, Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006; $13. (Sisario) DOT DASH YEAR IV (Thursday) Each summer Dot Dash, a little concert promoter in Brooklyn devoted to punk and garage-rock, throws a festival with some big-deal reunions -- big deals in the small and passionate world of garage-rock, anyway. This year its three-day series begins on Thursday with the return of the Dicks, a Texas band from the early 1980s that sang ragged and churlish complaints with titles like Hate the Police. Also on the bill are the Marked Men, the Carbonas and Live Fast Die. The highlight of the festival will be an appearance by Rocket From the Tombs on July 29. At 8 p.m., Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, near Sterling Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 230-0236; $17. (Sisario) EARLY MAN, BAD WIZARD, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD (Tuesday) The best retro bands do not just conjure up an old artist or even a specific era, but freely toy with their influences to suggest a past that never quite existed. Three Inches of Blood updates the galloping, swords-and-goblins rock of early-1980s groups like Iron Maiden and Manowar with harsh streaks of violence that recall later death-metal. Early Man, on its debut album, Closing In (Matador), begins in the comforting mud of Black Sabbath and ends airborne, with a speed and control that comes down from Metallica. Also on the bill is Bad Wizard, whose plodding re-creations of Grand Funk Railroad and Kiss illustrate a less imaginative kind of retro-rock. At 8 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3132; $12 in advance, $14 at the door. (Sisario) MELISSA ETHERIDGE (Monday through Wednesday) Love takes on heroic dimensions in the songs of Melissa Etheridge. She puts her own mark on the brawny guitar riffs and raspy-voiced melodies of 1980s heartland rock, as adoring audiences sing along. At 8 p.m., Theater at Madison Square Garden, (212) 465-6741; $39.50 to $104.50. (Pareles) GOLDEN SMOG (Wednesday) Even heartsick alt-country has its celebrity supergroups. Golden Smog includes Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum, Gary Louris and Marc Perlman of the Jayhawks, and Kraig Johnson of Run Westy Run. Opening the show is David Poe, a singer and guitarist, whose wit and sparkle come through largely between songs. At 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; sold out. (Sisario) HOLD STEADY (Thursday) Like the E Street Band fronted by Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, the Hold Steady -- from Brooklyn, though with Minneapolis origins -- plays bare-knuckled guitar-rock while its singer, Craig Finn, free-associates about religion and sex in a boozy snarl. I guess I heard about original sin, he growls. I heard the dude blamed the chick. At 7 p.m., Castle Clinton National Monument, Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789. Free; tickets available at 5 p.m., two per person. (Sisario) JONATHAN KANE (Tomorrow) John Lee Hooker meets La Monte Young in the droning, bluesy incantations of Mr. Kane, a mainstay in the downtown avant-garde scene who has played drums with Swans, Rhys Chatham and Gary Lucas. He has a drummers sense of steady dynamic development and an unapologetic love of noise. He plays two shows. At 2 p.m., with Dragons of Zynth, Home and Taiko Masala, East River Amphitheater, East River Park, south of Delancey Street, Lower East Side, ermp.org; free. At 9 p.m., with Golden Tongues, Mahi Mahi and Ambitious Orchestra, Sin-é, 150 Attorney Street, Lower East Side, (212) 388-0077; $10. (Sisario) * JASON LYTLE (Tomorrow and Monday) In Grandaddy, Mr. Lytle sang as if he were Neil Young trapped inside a computer chip: with a voice tiny and yet infinite, yearning to be fully human yet stuck within the strictures of the information age. Grandaddy recently released its final album, Just Like the Fambly Cat (V2), but it is an unsatisfying epitaph; fans will crowd these rare solo shows for hints of a new direction. Tomorrow at 7 p.m., Monday at 9:30 p.m., Joes Pub, Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $20. (Sisario) MALDITA VECINDAD, KONONO NO. 1, DAARA J (Sunday) What do a ska-flavored Mexican hard-rock band, a Congolese group that makes trance music from amplified thumb pianos and a Senegalese rap trio have in common? Not much except that they can all be lumped into the world-music category, however puzzlingly. Maldita Vecindad paints its ska rhythms with ominous, distorted metal. Konono No. 1 titled one album Congotronics, an apt term for its polyrhythmic bubblings of amplified likembés -- hand-held thumb pianos made from thin strips of medal. Daara J speed-raps in at least four languages: English, French, Spanish and Wolof. At 3 p.m., Central Park SummerStage, Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street, (212) 360-2777; free, but a donation is suggested. Maldita Vecindad also plays Sunday night at S.O.B.s, and Konono No. 1 plays there on Monday. At 8 and 10:30, 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940; $22 in advance, $25 at the door on Sunday; $25 in advance, $28 at the door on Monday. (Sisario) 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. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., S.O.B.s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940; $20 in advance, $22 at the door. (Pareles) JOHN MAYALL AND THE BLUESBREAKERS (Tonight) In the 1960s John Mayall ran the premier finishing school for British blues-rock guitarists: at various times his band -- still called the Bluesbreakers despite 40-odd years of lineup changes -- included the young Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor (later of the Rolling Stones) and Peter Green (later of Fleetwood Mac), among others. At 8 and 10:30, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, (212) 997-4144; $30. (Sisario) OAKLEY HALL (Tonight) Patient country-folk mutates into dense psychedelic drones in the songs of this Brooklyn band led by Pat Sullivan, a former member of Brooklyns other masters of psychedelic minimalism, Oneida. With Mike Wexler, Black Taj and Endless Boogie. At 8:30, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, at Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, (212) 260-4700; $10. (Sisario) * OS MUTANTES (Tonight) The oddest, most exuberant and most wonderfully innovative band of the late-1960s tropicália movement in Brazil -- when there was no shortage of odd, exuberant and wonderfully innovative musicians -- was Os Mutantes (the Mutants), which filtered American and British psychedelic and garage-rock through bossa nova and a do-what-thou-wilt pop-art philosophy. The band broke up in 1978, and before this brief tour -- with some but not all of its original members -- had never performed in the United States. With Death Vessel. At 6:30, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 533-2111; $50. (Sisario) PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES, JASON LYTLE (Sunday) In the weeks before the concert giant Live Nation begins to put on big-ticket concerts at the McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (its first there is Bloc Party on July 29), a number of smaller, scrappier promoters have been using the space -- a 50,000-square-foot public pool closed since 1984 -- for free shows. Sunday afternoon features Pretty Girls Make Graves, a Seattle band with a knack for angular, heartfelt melodies that cut through clouds of noise; and Mr. Lytle, the lead singer of Grandaddy, who is in town this weekend for a few appearances (see above). With Bon Savants. At 3 p.m., Lorimer Street, between Driggs Avenue and Bayard Street, thepoolparties.com. (Sisario) RASPUTINA (Tonight) Rasputina is a charmingly improbable project: part Marie Antoinette, part metal. Three women who are cellists in corsets (as well as a drummer) sing about Transylvanian concubines as their music seesaws between elaborate chamber-music counterpoint and grunting hard-rock chords, complete with distortion. At 9, Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, at Eckford Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $20. (Pareles) BUTCH WALKER AND THE LETS GO OUT TONITES (Wednesday) Mr. Walker first revealed his fondness for muscular mid-1970s pop-rock and his mocking obsession with stardom as the leader of the Marvelous 3. Now on his own, he hasnt lost his ambition or his sense of irony. With Boys Like Girls and As Fast As. At 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; sold out. (Pareles) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. STEVEN BERNSTEINS MILLENNIAL TERRITORY ORCHESTRA (Tonight and Monday) This little big band, led by the irrepressible slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein, has a forthcoming album called MTO Volume 1 (Sunnyside) that is full of signature touches, like effervescent swing arrangements and covers of hits by Prince and Stevie Wonder. Tonight at 7, Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, at Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, (212) 620-5000, Ext. 344, www.rmanyc.org; $20. Monday at 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $12. (Nate Chinen) MICHAEL BLAKES EULIPION ORCHESTRA (Sunday) Mr. Blake, a resourceful tenor and soprano saxophonist, leads a group inspired partly by the classic work of composer-arrangers like Gil Evans and Yusef Lateef. Its ranks include Marcus Rojas on tuba, Steven Bernstein on trumpet, Peck Almond on woodwinds and G. Calvin Weston on drums. At 9:30 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $8. (Chinen) DON BYRON QUARTET (Wednesday through July 30) Mr. Byron is justifiably known for his independent-minded concept albums -- his next one will shine a spotlight on the rhythm-and-blues saxophonist Junior Walker -- but he is, first and foremost, a daring clarinetist. He plays here with several longtime associates: the trumpeter Ralph Alessi, the bassist Lonnie Plaxico and the drummer Billy Hart. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $25, $30 on July 28 and 29. (Chinen) STEVE CARDENAS TRIO (Monday) A guitarist with a modern harmonic concept and a clear yet supple style, Mr. Cardenas features his own compositions in this group, which includes the established rhythm team of Ben Allison on bass and Matt Wilson on drums. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $8. (Chinen) * CELEBRATION OF RAY BARRETTO & HILTON RUIZ (Tuesday through July 30) Standards Rican-ditioned, recently issued on Zoho Music, was the final studio album of the conga virtuoso Ray Barretto. It also turned out to be the last recorded effort by the pianist Hilton Ruiz. Both were New York-born musicians of Puerto Rican heritage and were pillars of Latin jazz. This tribute, fittingly programmed as the culmination of Dizzys Club Coca-Colas monthlong Latin in Manhattan Festival, includes Mr. Barrettos son Chris Barretto, as well as a two more-established saxophonists, Sonny Fortune and David Sánchez. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. with an 11:30 p.m. set July 28 and 29, 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) KARL DENSON TRIO (Monday) Funk and soul are at the heart of Mr. Densons music, whether hes leading his signature band, Tiny Universe, or spotlighting his alto saxophone in this smaller unit, with Anthony Smith on keyboards and Brett Sanders on drums. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $25 at tables, $15 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) ORRIN EVANS QUINTET (Tomorrow) Mr. Evans is a percussive pianist equally attuned to hard bop and hip-hop, and he often surrounds himself with rhythmically assertive sidemen. Here that company includes the saxophonists Abraham Burton and J. D. Allen, the bassist Luques Curtins and the drummer Donald Edwards. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063; cover, $15. (Chinen) MICHAEL FORMANEK, TIM BERNE, TOM RAINEY (Tomorrow) These three -- respectively a bassist, an alto saxophonist and a drummer -- have worked together often over the years, usually under the leadership of Mr. Berne. Here they perform as a collective, though the order of billing seems intentional: Mr. Formanek will also lead a preconcert instrumental workshop from 4 to 6 p.m. The concert begins at 8 p.m., Center for Improvisational Music, 295 Douglass Street, near Third Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (212) 631-5882, www.schoolforimprov.org; cover, $12, with a separate $25 charge for the afternoon workshop. (Chinen) JON GORDON QUINTET (Tuesday) Mr. Gordon, an 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 Adam Cruz on drums. At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $20. (Chinen) WYCLIFFE GORDON QUARTET (Wednesday) Mr. Gordon, a high-spirited trombonist and one of the most authoritative soloists in the Jazz and Lincoln Center Orchestra, leads a swing-minded small group in a free outdoor show. At 7 p.m., Grants Tomb, 122nd Street and Riverside Drive, Manhattan, www.jazzmobile.org; free. (Chinen) DAVID HANEY TRIO +1 (Sunday) Mr. Haney is a pianist drawn to experimental settings, and he creates a promising one here, with the bassist Mike Bisio, the drummer Adam Lane and as a featured guest, the veteran trombonist Julian Priester. At 8:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, West Village, (212) 989-9319; cover, $12, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen) FRED HERSCH TRIO (Wednesday) Mr. Hersch, a pianist strongly associated with solo recitals, leads a trio for this outdoor performance, and not with his usual partners. But the bassist John Hebert and the drummer Eric McPherson should make an excellent rhythm section, and each has experience with Mr. Herschs literate and cosmopolitan style. At 7 p.m., Madison Square Park, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, (212) 538-6667, www.madisonsquarepark.org; free. (Chinen) THE INBETWEENS (Tuesday) Based in Brooklyn but with origins in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music, this exploratory trio consists of the guitarist Mike Gamble, the bassist Noah Jarrett and the drummer Conor Elmes. At 8 p.m., Zebulon, 258 Wythe Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 218-6934; no cover. (Chinen) * JAZZ IN JULY (Tuesday through Thursday) A year ago the pianist Bill Charlap presided over his first season as artistic director of this venerable traditional jazz series. The new season, which started a few days ago, concludes next week with a professional nod to the bossa-nova auteur Antonio Carlos Jobim on Tuesday; a piano summit involving Barry Harris and Cedar Walton, among others, on Wednesday; and a songbook salute to Harold Arlen, featuring Mr. Charlaps mother, the accomplished singer Sandy Stewart, on Thursday. At 8 p.m. each night, 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500 or www.92y.org, $50.(Chinen) LAGE LUND QUINTET (Tonight) Mr. Lund is an introspective guitarist whose compositional style can suggest the pastoral warmth of Brian Blades Fellowship. Its no accident that his quintet includes a member of Fellowship, the pianist and composer Jon Cowherd, along with the alto-saxophonist Will Vinson, the bassist Matt Penman and the drummer Rodney Green. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063; cover, $15. (Chinen) DONNY MCCASLIN GROUP (Wednesday) As on Soar (Sunnyside), his most recent 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 drummer Antonio Sanchez. At 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) MODULAR THEATER (Tonight) Collective improvisation is the mode and mission of this ensemble, comprising the trumpeter Ralph Alessi, the alto saxophonist Peter Epstein, the vocalist Will Jennings, the bassist Chris Lightcap and the drummer Mark Ferber. At 8 p.m., Center for Improvisational Music, 295 Douglass Street, near Third Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (212) 631-5882, www.schoolforimprov.org; cover, $12. (Chinen) The MPTHREE (Wednesday) Mike Pride, an intense and industrious drummer, introduces his song cycle Sour Work Dreams with an adventurous if goofily titled ensemble that also features Ken Filiano on bass and Mary Halvorson on guitar. At 8 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) KEVIN NORTON AND JOHN LINDBERG (Wednesday) Mr. Norton is a probing drummer, vibraphonist and composer, although not always in that order; Mr. Lindberg is a versatile and imaginative bassist who also has a way with orchestration. Their interplay promises to be engagingly multilayered. At 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) GREG OSBY QUARTET (Tuesday through July 30) Mr. Osby is an alto saxophonist with a predilection for jagged edges, and yet hes squarely within the jazz tradition. His rhythm section here consists of the pianist Frank LoCrasto, the bassist Matt Brewer and the drummer Tommy Crane. 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) PAN ASIAN CHAMBER JAZZ ENSEMBLE (Wednesday) Led by the violinist, violist and vocalist Meg Okura, this six-piece group explores a contemporary chamber music infused with multicultural echoes and an ethos of improvisation. At 7:30 p.m., Makor, 35 West 67th Street, near Central Park West, (212) 415-5500; cover, $12. (Chinen) THE PAVONE SHOW (Thursday) An evening organized around the compositions of the violist Jessica Pavone, with such like-minded explorers as the trumpeter Peter Evans, the saxophonists Matana Roberts and Matt Bauder and the percussionist Aaron Siegel. At 8 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) TIERNEY SUTTON (Wednesday through July 29) Ms. Suttons clear, sweetly sonorous voice isnt inherently a jazz timbre, but she is irrefutably a jazz singer, as she proved on her fine recent album, Im With the Band (Telarc), which was recorded at Birdland. 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; cover, $40, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) CLARK TERRY BIG BAND (Tuesday through July 30) Mr. Terrys big-band experience is extensive: from the late-1940s on, he served successively in the orchestras of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones. Here Mr. Terry, an octogenarian trumpet and flugelhorn player, applies a lifetime of wit and experience to his swinging ensemble. 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) * HENRY THREADGILLS ZOOID (Through Sunday) Mr. Threadgill, the august composer, saxophonist and flutist, has always nursed a fascination with timbre. He indulges it best with this superb ensemble, with Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Dana Leong on cello, Jose Davila on tuba, Tarik Benbrahim on oud and Dafnis Prieto on drums. At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., with an additional midnight show tonight and tomorrow night, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) TAKE TORIYAMA QUARTET (Sunday) Mr. Toriyama divides his attention between drumming and computer programming in this modern-sounding ensemble, which features the alto saxophonist and bass clarinetist Andrew DAngelo, the bassist Chris Lightcap and the guitarist Ben Monder. At 7 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera DON GIOVANNI, AN EVENING OF OPERA ACTS (Tonight through Sunday) The New York-born soprano Martina Arroyo, who had a long career at the Metropolitan Opera, has in recent years been immersed in the work of the Martina Arroyo Foundation, which provides training and performance opportunities for fledgling singers. This weekend the foundation presents a fully staged production of Mozarts Don Giovanni, directed by Laura Alley and conducted by Steven Crawford, and An Evening of Opera Acts, with excerpts from Don Pasquale, Madama Butterfly and Falstaff, conducted by Willie Anthony Waters, the general and artistic director of the Connecticut Opera Association. Don Giovanni, tonight at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.; opera acts, tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.; El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 104th Street, East Harlem, (347) 677-3854; $15 in advance, $20 at the door, $10 for students and 65+. (Anthony Tommasini) * GLIMMERGLASS OPERA (Tonight through Monday, and Thursday) The drive from New York City to the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., typically takes four hours, no matter what route you choose. But it is worth the trip. The companys intimate, airy and well-equipped house is an ideal place to hear opera. And the imaginative productions, which often wind up at New York City Opera, are best seen in their tryouts at Cooperstown. Tomorrow brings the major event of the season: the premiere of Stephen Hartkes opera The Greater Good, or the Passion of Boule de Suif. Also playing this week are Gilbert and Sullivans Pirates of Penzance in a production by Lillian Groag and Rossinis Barbiere di Siviglia in a production by Leon Major. Pirates, tonight and Thursday night at 8; The Greater Good, tomorrow night at 8 and Monday at 1:30 p.m.; Barbiere, Sunday at 1:30 p.m.; Route 80, north of Cooperstown, N.Y., (607) 547-2255; $64 to $112 tonight through Sunday; $36 to $99 Monday and Thursday. (Tommasini) * HANSEL AND GRETEL (Monday and Thursday) Humperdincks orchestration for his opera Hansel and Gretel is rich and Wagnerian. But in some performances it can overwhelm this lyrical fairy tale. Kathleen Kelly, the music director of the Berkshire Opera, has prepared a chamber orchestra arrangement for that companys new fully staged production of the opera, to be performed in a new English translation by Cori Ellison at the intimate and magnificently restored theater of the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Mass. Ms. Kelly, an assistant conductor and coach at the Met, conducts. At 8 p.m., (413) 442-0099; $35 to $85. (Tommasini) NEW JERSEY OPERA THEATER (Tonight through Sunday) Founded in 2002, the New Jersey Opera Theater is striving to become the states preeminent opera company. Besides presenting performances, the company also offers master classes and educational outreach programs. The final weekend of its summer season features Mozarts Così Fan Tutte in a production by Albert Sherman, conducted by Steven Mosteller; and an intriguing double bill of Puccinis comedy Gianni Schicchi and Buosos Ghost, a one-act work from 1996 by the composer Michael Ching. Buosos Ghost picks up the story of the clever Schicchi where Puccinis opera leaves off. Steven Condy sings Schicchi in both works; James Caraher conducts. Schicchi and Buoso, tonight at 8 and Sunday afternoon at 2; Così, tomorrow night at 8; Berlind Theater at the McCarter Theater Center, 91 University Place, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., (609) 258-2787; $42 and $49. (Tommasini) Classical Music BANG ON A CAN SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL (Tomorrow) Each summer since 2002, New Yorks dynamic new music collective Bang on a Can has moved north for its annual Banglewood residency at Mass MoCA. Tomorrow is its All-Stars program, which includes the premiere of David Langs Sunray, Michael Nymans score to the classic silent film Manhatta, a new work by Don Byron and pieces by Annie Gosfield and Edward Ruchalski. At 8 p.m., 7 Marshall Street, North Adams, Mass., (413) 662-2111; $35. (Vivien Schweitzer) BEOWULF (Tonight and tomorrow night) Benjamin Bagbys short, fast, one-man take on the Beowulf story is part of the Lincoln Center Festival. At 8:30, Drama Theater at La Guardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts, Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street, (212) 721-6500; $45. (Bernard Holland) Christine Brewer (Tomorrow) This fine soprano will sing Wagners Wesendonck Lieder in the intimate barn at the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, as part of the Tannery Pond Concerts series. She will be accompanied by the pianist Craig Rutenberg in an eclectic program that also includes songs by Richard Strauss, Joseph Marx, John Carter, Harold Arlen, Samuel Barber and Edwin McArthur. At 8 p.m., New Lebanon, N.Y., (888) 820-9441; $25 and 30. (Schweitzer) INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARD INSTITUTE AND FESTIVAL (Tonight through Thursday) During the slow summer months, concertgoers who love the piano have plenty to keep them happy during the two weeks of this series at Mannes College, directed by the pianist Jerome Rose. Tonight Leslie Howard explores The Russian Romantic Piano Sonata with works by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Rachmaninoff and Anton Rubinstein. There are also recitals by the veteran pianists Fou Tsong (Tuesday) and Philippe Bianconi (Wednesday). At 8 p.m., Mannes College, a division of the New School for Music, 150 West 85th Street, Manhattan, (212) 580-0210, Ext. 4858; $20 for evening recitals, $15 for master classes, $10 for afternoon concerts. (Tommasini) MARLBORO MUSIC FESTIVAL (Tomorrow and Sunday) Public concerts are the byproduct of this intensive-study chamber-music retreat. Beethoven and Brahms quintets and a Dvorak trio are offered Saturday at 8:30. Its Mozart, Shostakovich and more Beethoven Sunday at 2:30, Marlboro Music School and Festival, Marlboro, Vt., (802) 254-2394; $15 to $30; $5 for canopy areas. (Holland) * MAVERICK CONCERTS (Tomorrow and Sunday) This concert series near Woodstock, N.Y., offers its performances in an open-backed barn that allows the sounds of nature to mingle with the music. Tomorrow, Trio Solisti plays music by Gershwin and Paul Schoenfield, as well as an arrangement of Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition. On Sunday, the Pacific String Quartet plays Shostakovichs searing Quartet No. 8, Brittens Quartet No. 2 and Mozarts Dissonant Quartet. Tomorrow at 6 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m., Maverick Concert Hall, Maverick Road, between Routes 28 and 375, West Hurley, N.Y., (845) 679-8217; $20; $5 for students. (Allan Kozinn) THOMAS MEGLIORANZA (Monday) Mr. Meglioranza, a young baritone who is fast making a name for himself singing a wide repertory, appears in the annual River to River Festival, accompanied by the able Reiko Uchida. Mr. Meglioranzas intriguingly eclectic program ranges from Schubert lieder to works by Derek Bermel and Milton Babbitt. At 7:30 p.m., Schimmel Center for the Arts, 3 Spruce Street, near Park Row, Lower Manhattan, (212) 835-2789; free, but tickets are required. (Schweitzer) NORFOLK CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL (Tonight and tomorrow night) Bach and Kurtag occupy tonights concert by the Keller Quartet. Tomorrow its all Mozart, with instrumental duos, songs and arias. At 8, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Routes 44 and 272, Norfolk, Conn., (860) 542-3000; $15 to $45. (Holland) S.E.M. ENSEMBLE (Tuesday) The composer Petr Kotiks daring S.E.M. Ensemble performs the works of established and emerging composers in John Zorns avant-garde performance space, the Stone. The 8 p.m. set features Reiko Fütings Leaving Without/Palimpsest for piano and clarinet, Sam Hillmers the night sweats and the day sweats , Anne Guthries Margaret or Olivier and Morton Feldmans Why Patterns? The 10 p.m. program includes Julius Eastmans Piano 2, La Monte Youngs Composition #7 1960 and John Cages Ryoanji. Avenue C at Second Street, East Village, thestonenyc.com; $10. (Schweitzer) * SUMMERGARDEN (Sunday) The student ensembles from the Juilliard School who play these concerts tend to be devoted to contemporary music and play it with virtuosity and polish. The works, all new to New York, include Pablo Ortizs Falling From Grace, Betty Oliveros Bashrav, Alberto Collas Fugue on Thin Ice, Philip Carlsens Landscape With Ladyslipper, Wen Deqings Traces II and Martin Butlers Jazz Machines. At 8 p.m., Museum of Modern Art Sculpture Garden, West 54th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, (212) 708-9491; free. (Kozinn) TANGLEWOOD (Tonight through Sunday) With all the hoopla over James Levines return to conducting, dont forget its still the Mozart year. Tanglewood and Mr. Levine, leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra, remember this weekend. Tonight its Mozart with the singer Susan Graham and the pianist Richard Goode. Tomorrow its Don Giovanni in concert, and on Sunday more Mozart. Tonight and tomorrow night at 8:30, Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Lenox, Mass., (866) 266-1200; $18 to $87 tonight, with $8.50 lawn tickets; $18 to $87 tomorrow and Sunday, with $17 lawn tickets. (Holland) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. CAPACITOR: DIGGING IN THE DARK (Tonight through Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) From San Francisco, for hard-core fans of dances about geology. Call first to make sure the theater fans have been turned on. Through July 30. Tonight through Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m., American Theater of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, Manhattan, (212) 352-3101 or www.capacitor.org; $35.(Jennifer Dunning) * CELEBRATE BROOKLYN: RONALD K. BROWN/EVIDENCE (Tomorrow) The company will perform three works, including Grace, created for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater by Mr. Brown, whose African-influenced modern-dance choreography has had a major influence on dance today. 8 p.m. Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-8999 or www.prospectpark.org; $3 suggested contribution. (Dunning) CHASHAMA OASIS FESTIVAL 2006 (Today and Sunday) Artists of all disciplines -- some, we suspect, wildly undisciplined in the grand tradition of Chashama productions -- will perform in a Midtown window and outdoors. Today from noon to 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 7 p.m., Chashama window performance, 217 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third Avenues, Manhattan. Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 6 p.m., Red Shade Plaza, Riverside Park South, 62nd Street at the Hudson River, Manhattan, (212) 391-8151 or www.chashama.org. (Dunning) COMPANY C CONTEMPORARY BALLET (Tonight through Sunday) A 12-member ballet troupe from San Francisco with an eclectic repertory presents works by Twyla Tharp, Patrick Corbin, Alexander Proia and its director, Charles Anderson. 8 p.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 334-7479; $25, $20 students and 65+. (Jack Anderson) DANCE TACTICS PERFORMANCE GROUP BY KEITH THOMPSON (Thursday) The company makes its formal debut with dances choreographed by Keith A. Thompson, who performed with Trisha Brown, and set to music by Pergolesi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Een and Nate Aldrich. Through July 29. 7:30 p.m. Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea; (212) 924-0077 or www.dtw.org; $12, $20. (Dunning) DECADANCETHEATER (Thursday) This all-female hip-hop group from Brooklyn won plaudits for its reworking of Stravinskys Firebird two years ago. Now its members are trying their hand at a 12th-century Japanese ghost story. But not to worry: there will be a live D.J. 8 p.m. Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street; (212) 334-7479. Thursday benefit tickets begin at $50.(Roslyn Sulcas) HEIDI DUCKLER COLLAGE DANCE THEATER (Tonight through Sunday) Ms. Duckler is known as Los Angeless queen of site-specific performance, the press release says. This production of Laundromatinee, part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Councils Sitelines performances, may well show she deserves claim to the title. It involves dancers spinning in dryers and hanging from clotheslines, then -- this sounds like the best bit -- removing their clothes to sing Stand By Your Man. 8.30 p.m., Laundromat, 168 Elizabeth Street, between Spring and Kenmare Streets; (212) 219-9401, www.lmcc.net/sitelines; free. (Sulcas) * JACOBS PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL (Tonight through Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday) Dance companies from Finland, Spain, India and Denmark occupy the week. The highly regarded Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen and his company, accompanied by Shaker vocalists, will be in the larger Ted Shawn Theater through the weekend. They will be followed there on Wednesday and Thursday (and next weekend) by Eva Yerbabuenas Ballet Flamenco from Spain. In the smaller Doris Duke Studio Theater, Nrityagram, a highly regarded Indian ensemble specializing in Odissi dance, plays through the weekend, and moving in on Thursday through next weekend is the Danish Dance Theater, billed as that countrys leading modern-dance ensemble. Mr. Saarinens company, tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.; $50. Yerbabuena, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8, Shawn Theater, $50. Nrityagram tonight and tomorrow night at 8:15, tomorrow at 2:15 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.;.$24. Danish Dance Theater, Thursday at 8:15 p.m., Duke Theater, $24. Ten percent off all tickets for students, seniors 65+ and children. Details of the weeks free performances and exhibitions are at jacobspillow.org. Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, 358 George Carter Road, Becket, Mass., (413) 243-0745. (John Rockwell) PAULA HUNTER (Tonight and tomorrow) Ms. Hunter will perform I Am Karen Finley, an absurdist performance solo, as a free dance installation in a window in the Theater District. 5 and 7:30 p.m., Chashama, 112 West 44th Street, (212) 391-8151 or chashama.org. (Dunning) JPMORGAN CHASE LATINO CULTURAL FESTIVAL (Wednesday) The ubiquitous Noche Flamenca will open this festival, with dancing by Soledad Barrio, Alejandro Granados and Juan Ogalla. 8 p.m. Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens, (718) 760-0064 or www.QueensTheatre.org; $30 in advance, $35 at the door. (Dunning) * LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL (Tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday through Thursday) The Batsheva Dance Company continues its performances of Ohad Naharins new Telophaza tonight and tomorrow night at 8 at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center; $25 to $65. Also this weekend, Saburo Teshigawa, the Japanese master solo dancer, is performing his new Bones in Pages tonight and tomorrow night at 8 at the Rose Theater, 60th Street and Broadway, at Columbus Circle; $20 to $50. Next week the San Francisco Ballet performs at the New York State Theater starting Tuesday. The opening-night gala, at 8, includes solos, pas de deux and excerpts from repertory dances by choreographers, including Jerome Robbins; the company director, Helgi Tomasson; Lar Lubovitch; and Yuri Possokhov. The San Francisco Ballets production of Mark Morriss Sylvia is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8; $30 to $75. And Yasmeen Godder and the Bloody Bench Players will perform Ms. Godders new Strawberry Cream and Gunpowder on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the La Guardia Drama Theater, Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street. Through July 29; $35. For reservations and information on all performances: (212) 721-6500 or www.lincolncenter.org. (Dunning) NEW GENERATION DANCE COMPANY (Thursday) Company founder and director Dardo Galletto mixes ballet, tango and modern dance and his Black-White Tango, whose cast includes guest dancers from American Ballet Theater and Forever Tango. Through July 30. Thursday at 8 p.m. Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand Street, Lower East Side; (646) 342-9910; $30, $45 for opening-night gala. (Dunning) *NOCHE FLAMENCA WITH SOLEDAD BARRIO (Saturday, Sunday and Thursday) Ms. Barrio is a remarkable dancer, serious and impassioned, and the hit of last winters Flamenco Gala at City Center. Her Spanish company, founded with her husband, Martin Santangelo, is winding down its two-month run at the intimate Theater 80, which will end July 30. Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 5 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Theater 80, 80 St. Marks Place, East Village, (212) 352-3101 or theatermania.com; $45.(Rockwell) * PILOBOLUS (Tonight and tomorrow, Monday through Thursday) The grandfather of the current crop of Nikolais-inspired, Cirque du Soleil-like acrobatic dance troupes with spectacular visual effects. A little mindless, but enormously popular for people of all ages. Three programs alternate for the run ending Aug. 12. Tonight, tomorrow and Monday through Thursday at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800 or joyce.org, $42. (Rockwell) RIVER DEEP: A TRIBUTE TO TINA TURNER (Tonight, tomorrow and Tuesday through Thursday) Gabrielle Lansner pays tribute to Ms. Turner, who is played by Pat Hall, in a multimedia production set to music by Philip Hamilton. Through July 29. Tonight and Tuesday through Thursday at 8 p.m.; tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m. Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton; (212) 279-4200 or gabriellelansner.com; $35. (Dunning) SUMMER IN THE SQUARE (Wednesday) As part of the Union Square Parks outdoor performance series, Performance Space 122 will present excerpts from the coming season. Saar Harari, whose Herd of Bulls was enthusiastically received last fall, will perform a section from Moopim; the Palissimo dance company will perform Pavel Zustiaks Le Petit Mort; and Chris Yon will dance with Taryn Griggs in the mysteriously titled Elephant (Terrible) Assisted Suicide [in ought 6]. 6 p.m., Union Square Park, East 14th to East 17th Street, Manhattan; free. (Sulcas) * TAP CITY 2006 (Tonight and tomorrow) This spirited summer festival suggests that camaraderie and a sense of community are not dead in tap dance, on stage and in the audience. It includes two programs. Tap and Song, a celebration of traditional vaudeville, comedy and classic song-and-dance, stars the irrepressible Tony Waag, the festivals founder and director. He will be joined by a generous roster of artists, including the veteran tapper Mable Lee, the German Tap and Tray duo, the chic two-woman Tapage and the hoedown tapper Nate Cooper. Tap Forward features familiar tap soloists, cutting-edge types and up-and-comers. Tap and Song is tonight at 7 and 9:30 p.m.; Tap Forward is tomorrow at 7 and 9:30 p.m., the Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street; (212) 239-6200 or www.atdf.org; $40. (Dunning) THOMAS-ORTIZ DANCE (Tonight and tomorrow) Ted Thomas and Frances Ortiz combine urban athleticism and Latin sensuality in choreographic explorations of socially relevant themes. 7:30 p.m., Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea; (212) 924-0077; $15, $25. (Anderson) * CASSIE TERMAN AND SHINICHI MOMO KOGA (Tonight and tomorrow) Ms. Terman and Mr. Koga create a world full of humor and pathos out of empty space and perfectly attuned physical-theater skills. 8 p.m., Center for Remembering and Sharing, 123 Fourth Avenue, between 12th and 13th Streets, Manhattan; (212) 352-3101; $15. (Dunning) YOUNG DANCEMAKERS COMPANY (Thursday) These choreographers -- New York City high school students chosen by audition for a summer intensive in dance technique, performing and making dances -- know how to put on a very good show. Its free, too. Their tour of city sites continues through Aug. 3. Thursday at 2 p.m. Stern Auditorium, Mount Sinai Hospital, Fifth Avenue at 100th Street, Upper East Side; (718) 329-7250 or www.ecfs.org/ydc.asp; reservations required. (Dunning) Art Museums and galleries are in Manhattan unless otherwise noted. Full reviews of recent art shows: nytimes.com/art. Museums Brooklyn Museum: Graffiti, through Sept. 3. Twenty paintings on canvas from the early 1980s by formerly famous subway graffiti artists who went by names like Crash, Daze and Lady Pink. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, (718) 638-5000. (Ken Johnson) COOPER-HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM: FREDERIC CHURCH, WINSLOW HOMER AND THOMAS MORAN: TOURISM AND THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, through Oct. 22. It turns out that the Cooper-Hewitt owns thousands of rarely seen paintings, prints and sketches by Church, Homer and Moran. Studies of the countryside, mostly, they revere unspoiled nature and record tourism, a booming industry in 19th-century America. Here theyre combined with antique postcards, old Baedekers guides, stereoscopic photographs, playing cards with pictures of Yellowstone on them, all to trace the nations transformation from primeval wilderness to Catskills resort. The show is extremely entertaining. 2 East 91st Street, (212) 849-8400. (Michael Kimmelman) DAHESH MUSEUM OF ART: NAPOLEON ON THE NILE: SOLDIERS, ARTISTS AND THE REDISCOVERY OF EGYPT, through Sept. 3. Napoleons invasion of Egypt was a military disaster, but the squadron of scholars and scientists that went with him lay the foundation for Egyptology and Egyptomania, gave Orientalism a big boost and was commemorated by the 1,000 engravings of the 23-volume Description de lÉgypte. Examples of the books prints form the backbone of this strange and sometimes piecemeal show, which includes Orientalist paintings and a cache of fascinating ephemera. 580 Madison Avenue, at 56th Street, (212) 759-0606. (Roberta Smith) * FRICK COLLECTION : JEAN-ÉTIENNE LIOTARD (1702-1789): SWISS MASTER, through Sept. 17. Liotard is something of a specialty item now, but he was widely known in the Enlightenment Europe of his day. And even then he was seen as a maverick, a figure of contradictions. He was a stone-cold realist in an age of rococo frills. In a great age of oil painting, he favored pastel. He had ultrafancy sitters for his portraits, including the young Marie Antoinette. But his most vivid likenesses are of himself and his family. The Fricks perfectly proportioned sweetheart of a solo show is the artists first in North America. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700. (Holland Cotter) SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: ZAHA HADID: THIRTY YEARS IN ARCHITECTURE, through Oct. 25. This exhibition, Ms. Hadids first major retrospective in the United States, gives New Yorkers a chance to see what theyve been missing. The show, in the Guggenheims rotunda, spirals through Ms. Hadids career, from her early enchantment with Soviet Constructivism to the sensuous and fluid cityscapes of her more recent commissions. It illuminates her capacity for bridging different worlds: traditional perspective drawing and slick computer-generated imagery; the era of utopian manifestos and the ambiguous values of the information age. (212) 423-3500. (Nicolai Ouroussoff) * INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: UNKNOWN WEEGEE, through Aug. 27. From the 1930s through the 50s, Weegee -- real name, Arthur Fellig (1899-1968) -- was one of the best known news photographers in the country. He specialized in capturing the sensational side of urban life: crime, disaster, demimonde nightlife. Tirelessly invasive, he lived by night. For him, the city was a 24-hour emergency room, an amphetamine drip. This show of 95 pictures gives a good sense of his range and calls particular attention to his awareness of social problems related to class and race. 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000. (Cotter) * METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: RAPHAEL AT THE METROPOLITAN: THE COLONNA ALTARPIECE, through Sept. 3 This exhilarating show reunites the central panel and lunette of Raphaels Colonna Altarpiece (owned by the Met) with all five panels of the predella. Additional works by Raphael, Perugino, Fra Bartolommeo and Leonardo place the work in context and sharpen the understanding of Raphaels budding genius. (212) 535-7710. (Smith) * MET: TREASURES OF SACRED MAYA KINGS, through Sept. 10. Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings gets a huge gold A for truth in advertising. The treasures are plentiful, rare and splendid. A carved wood figure of kneeling shaman, arms extended, time-raked face entranced, is simply one of the greatest sculptures in the museum. And wait till you see the painted ceramic vessel known as the Dazzler Vase, with its red and green patterns like jade on fire, youll understand its name. Much of the work has never traveled before; many objects have only recently come to light in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. They add up to an exhibition as a think-piece essay on how a culture saw itself in the world. (212) 535-7710. (Cotter) * MORGAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM: MASTERWORKS FROM THE MORGAN, through Sept. 10. Almost three years after closing to build an expansion, the Morgan is back and brilliant. Whats new: Renzo Pianos four-story glass-and-steel court, a sort of giant solarium with see-through elevators; two good-size second-floor galleries; and a neat little strongbox of an enclosure, called the Cube, for reliquaries and altar vessels. Whats not new: almost everything in this exhibition, which fills every gallery with mini-exhibitions of master drawings and musical manuscripts, as well as illuminated gospels and historical and literary autograph manuscripts from the Brontës to Bob Dylan. 225 Madison Avenue, at East 36th Street, (212) 685-0008 or www.themorgan.org. (Cotter) MUSEUM OF BIBLICAL ART: THE WORD ON THE STREET: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF LARRY RACIOPPO, through Aug. 20. Photographs documenting vernacular expressions of religious devotion in New York, including spray-painted murals, private shrines and tattoos. Museum of Biblical Art, 1865 Broadway, at 61st Street, (212) 408-1500. (Johnson) * MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: ARTISTS CHOICE: HERZOG & DE MEURON, PERCEPTION RESTRAINED, through Sept. 25. In an unusually accessible bit of institutional critique, the architects who failed to win the commission to design the new Museum of Modern Art bite the hand that didnt feed them. They create a kind of deprivation chamber with a black gallery, where excerpts from American movies play on video screens on the ceiling and 110 works of art and design are crammed into enormous niches that are all but sealed from view. Perverse and cerebral, it may be the best one-liner youll encounter this summer. (212) 708-9400. (Smith) NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN : CHIHULY AT THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDENS, through Oct. 29. Dale Chihuly, the worlds most famous contemporary glass artist, has created ambitious installations of his large-scale, technically virtuosic and materially extravagant works inside the spectacular Haupt Conservatory and outside in formal reflecting pools and smaller gardens. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx River Parkway and Fordham Road, the Bronx, (718) 817-8700. (Johnson) * NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: LEGACIES: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS REFLECT ON SLAVERY, through Jan. 7. Slavery, some would say, didnt really end in the United States until the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. That was a full century after the Emancipation Proclamation. Or the Emancipation Approximation, as the artist Kara Walker calls it in a series of hallucinatory silkscreen prints. They are among the high points of this large, powerful, subtle group show, the second of three exhibitions on American slavery organized by the New-York Historical Society. 170 Central Park West, (212) 873-3400. (Cotter) P.S. 1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER: INTO ME/OUT OF ME, through Sept. 25. Often with repulsive immediacy and occasionally with wit and subtlety, works by more than 130 artists in this ambitious exhibition explore the body and all its possible experiences along the pleasure-pain continuum. P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, (718) 784-2084. (Johnson) * THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART : FULL HOUSE: VIEWS OF THE WHITNEYS COLLECTION AT 75, through Sept. 3. The Whitney celebrates a significant birthday this summer with an attic-to-basement display of hundreds of pieces of art from its permanent collection. There are terrific things, arranged mostly by loose theme rather than date. And as an ensemble, they deliver an impressionistic story, through art, of a staggeringly contradictory American 20th-century culture, diverse and narrow-souled, with a devotion to the idea of power so ingrained as to make conflict inevitable and chronic. If Full House is about one thing, it is about discord, about how harmonious America never was. 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (212) 570-3676. (Cotter) Galleries: Uptown * WANGECHI MUTU: EXHUMING GLUTTONY: A LOVERS REQUIEM In tandem with this artists Chelsea debut, an over-the-top installation made with the British architect David Adjaye includes fur-trimmed wine bottles dripping wine, animal skins and an enormous raw wood table. Conflating morgue, tannery and banquet hall, it brings the excess and color of paintings on Mylar into real space, but its main message seems to be: I built this because I can. Salon 94, 12 East 94th Street, (646) 672-9212, through July 28. (Smith) * SARAH SZE: CORNER PLOT The upper corner of an apartment building protrudes from the Doris C. Freedman Plazas pavement as if the whole edifice had toppled and sunk into the ground. Through the windows of Ms. Szes magical outdoor sculpture you can see a complicated interior that looks as if it were created by a mad architect. Doris C. Freedman Plaza, 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, (212) 980-4575, through Oct. 22. (Johnson) Galleries: 57th Street * HANS BELLMER: PETITES ANATOMIES, PETITES IMAGES. This extraordinary show of more than 70 images takes you beyond the surface obsessions of Bellmers girl-crazed art to unveil some of his working processes as a sculptor, installation artist, photographer, editor and hand-colorist whose preference for small scale intensifies the voyeuristic nature of his art. Ubu Gallery, 416 East 59th Street, (212) 753-4444, through July 28. (Smith) * RUDY BURCKHARDT: NEW YORK PAINTINGS Known as a photographer and filmmaker, Burckhardt (1914-1999) also painted all through his career. His Manhattan cityscapes, mostly rooftop views of other buildings, have a fresh, almost naïve immediacy and a sophisticated way with relations between surface and depth and complexity and simplicity. Tibor de Nagy, 724 Fifth Avenue, (212) 262-5050, through July 28. (Johnson) GEORGE HERMS Starting out as a beatnik in the 1950s, Mr. Herms has been creating and exhibiting his richly poetic assemblages of grungy found materials in California, his home state, for more than a half century. This shows eight works, from 1965 to 2002, variously call to mind Ernst, Duchamp, Cornell and Rauschenberg, but they have as well their own spiritually generous, heartfelt mix of hermetic imagination and Whitman-esque populism. Franklin Parrasch, 20 West 57th Street, (212) 246-5360, through July 28. (Johnson) Galleries: SoHo * A FOUR-DIMENSIONAL BEING WRITES POETRY ON A FIELD WITH SCULPTURES Organized by the sculptor Charles Ray, this beautiful, spare and mysterious exhibition presents sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Mark di Suvero and the folk artist Edgar Tolson, and a giant photograph by Jeff Wall. Matthew Marks, 522 West Second Street, (212) 243-0200, through Aug. 11. (Johnson) Galleries: Chelsea JOE BIEL With an exacting illustrators touch, Mr. Biel draws large, dreamily perverse images of children, like the one of a girl with rabbit ears and a whip peeking out of a cardboard box and the knife-wielding boy crouching atop a pile of rubble and examining a bone he found. Goff + Rosenthal, 537B West 23rd Street, (212) 675-0461, through Aug. 12. (Johnson) * CRG PRESENTS: KLAUS VON NICHTSSAGEND GALLERY Including works by Liz Luisada, Samuel Lopes and Thomas Ovilsen, this group show of work by 17 emerging artists definitely has its moments, but the strongest impression is made by the gallery-within-a-gallery effect resulting from the re-creation of the storefront facade and reception desk of the small Von Nichtssagend Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. CRG Gallery, 535 East 22nd Street, (212) 229-2766, through July 28. (Smith) Material Abuse Unconventional uses of nontraditional materials include Shinique Smiths massive bale of all-white clothing; Michael Arcegas fleet of 300 tiny, balsa-wood tanks; Richard Kleins assemblage made from 10 years worth of blown-out light-bulb filaments; Jean Shins stacks of prescription pill bottles; Ray Beldners dust-covered assemblages made of ordinary objects stolen from other people; and a star-and-stripe-patterned bikini made of map tacks by Devorah Sperber. Caren Golden, 539 West 23rd Street, (212) 727-8304, through Aug. 4. (Johnson) Money Changes Everything A show of artworks made at least partly out of actual money: dollar bills, mostly, but Iraqi dinar notes, too. Schroeder Romero, 637 West 27th Street, (212) 630-0722, through July 28. (Johnson) Photography Is Not An Art! More than 100 examples of vernacular, often anonymous photographs from fields of medicine, forensics, space exploration and advertising prove that nonart photography is often as interesting as the fine-art variety. Alan Klotz, 511 West 25th Street, (212) 741-4764, through Aug. 19. (Johnson) * Vivan Sundaram: Re-Take of Amrita The photographs in this beautiful, time-haunted show are all of past generations of the Indian artist Vivan Sundarams family, and include images of his aunt, the modernist painter Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941). Thanks to digital technology, those generations mix in logically impossible combinations. The resulting pictures embody the past the way it survives in the mind: edited, layered, compressed, as if in a dream. Sepia International, 148 West 24th Street, 11th floor, (212) 645-9444, through July 28. (Cotter) Last Chance * THE NAME OF THIS SHOW IS NOT GAY ART NOW Characterized by its organizer, the artist Jack Pierson, as an ode to the passing of the notion of Gay Art, this exhibition embraces the work of about 60 artists (gay, straight and otherwise) to create a cacophonous celebration and suggest that everyone is a little bit gay, if they are lucky. Paul Kasmin Gallery, 293 10th Avenue, at 27th Street, (212) 563-4474, closes today. (Smith)

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