 #Repost @abscbnnews with @repostapp.・・・A boy puts candles on the street as supporters of death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso gather during a vigil near the Indonesian embassy. Less than 24 hours before Mary Janes scheduled execution, support for the Filipi #Repost @abscbnnews with @repostapp.・・・A boy puts candles on the street as supporters of death row inmate Mary Jane Veloso gather during a vigil near the Indonesian embassy. Less than 24 hours before Mary Janes scheduled execution, support for the Filipi |  Praying for Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso (filipina who was duped to offer work abroad but instead unknowingly became a drug mule) family, as well as for the people of Nepal. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. #martinplacev Praying for Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso (filipina who was duped to offer work abroad but instead unknowingly became a drug mule) family, as well as for the people of Nepal. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. #martinplacev |  MARY JANE VELOSOs execution suspended to give way to the Philippines investigation on her case, according to local TV report. via @ryan_chua MARY JANE VELOSOs execution suspended to give way to the Philippines investigation on her case, according to local TV report. via @ryan_chua |  Pilipino sa kapwa Pilipino nagtutulungan..Dyan kinilala, ang Pagmamahalan at pagkakaisa..katulad noon ni Flor Contemplacion..hanggang kaya natin ipagdasal mapigilan lang ang pag BITAY pero..Opinion ko lang Hindi na Bata si Mary jane Veloso..Sana Bago Pilipino sa kapwa Pilipino nagtutulungan..Dyan kinilala, ang Pagmamahalan at pagkakaisa..katulad noon ni Flor Contemplacion..hanggang kaya natin ipagdasal mapigilan lang ang pag BITAY pero..Opinion ko lang Hindi na Bata si Mary jane Veloso..Sana Bago |
| Australia appeals to Indonesia over preparations to execute drug. Australia appeals to Indonesia over preparations to execute drug. Mary Jane Veloso | mashable.com mashable.com | Case Profile: MARY JANE VELOSO | Migrante International Case Profile: MARY JANE VELOSO | Migrante International Case Profile: Mary Jane Veloso | P-Noy to seek mercy for Veloso | Headlines, News, The Philippine. P-Noy to seek mercy for Veloso | Headlines, News, The Philippine. Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta |
 Reddit, this woman will be dead in less than 48 hours. This is MARY JANE VELOSO, a Filipina maid who was a victim of human trafficking and is innocent of knowingly carrying drugs. She along with 8 others will be executed by firing squad in Indonesia on Tu Reddit, this woman will be dead in less than 48 hours. This is MARY JANE VELOSO, a Filipina maid who was a victim of human trafficking and is innocent of knowingly carrying drugs. She along with 8 others will be executed by firing squad in Indonesia on Tu |  Its Done. Kecuali Mary Jane Veloso yg ditunda Eksekusi Mati nya 😞 Its Done. Kecuali Mary Jane Veloso yg ditunda Eksekusi Mati nya 😞 | Inilipat na sa execution island sa Indonesia, MARY JANE VELOSO. Inilipat na sa execution island sa Indonesia, MARY JANE VELOSO. si Veloso sa Nusakambangan | Bali Nine executions: Mary Jane Veloso on death row Bali Nine executions: Mary Jane Veloso on death row Mary Jane Veloso is due to be executed this week and has always maintained |
| Death row convict executions imminent: Attorney General | The. Death row convict executions imminent: Attorney General | The. Last ditch effort: Mary Jane |  I believe we are all on our toes awaiting news of Mary Jane Velosos execution, then I saw this. Ugh. So, for Philstar, Manny Pacquiao arriving in Vegas is more worthy of the headline. I believe we are all on our toes awaiting news of Mary Jane Velosos execution, then I saw this. Ugh. So, for Philstar, Manny Pacquiao arriving in Vegas is more worthy of the headline. | Last three days: Mary Jane Velosos execution date announced. Last three days: Mary Jane Velosos execution date announced. worker Mary Jane Veloso | Philippine national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, left, who is on death. Philippine national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, left, who is on death. Philippine national Mary Jane |
| Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso Among Those Set for Execution in. Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso Among Those Set for Execution in. Philippine national Mary Jane |  Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares asked the Indonesian government to hold off the execution of MARY JANE VELOSO now that her alleged recruiter has surrendered. #savemaryjane #StopTheExecution Source: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/121807/hold Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares asked the Indonesian government to hold off the execution of MARY JANE VELOSO now that her alleged recruiter has surrendered. #savemaryjane #StopTheExecution Source: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/121807/hold |  Re PNoys last-minute call to save Mary Jane Veloso: Marsudi asked Aquino why the suggestion came up only now. Aquino explained to Marusdi that details of the case came into light only in the last few days. He also pointed out that Veloso did not cooper Re PNoys last-minute call to save Mary Jane Veloso: Marsudi asked Aquino why the suggestion came up only now. Aquino explained to Marusdi that details of the case came into light only in the last few days. He also pointed out that Veloso did not cooper | Terpidana Mati Mary Jane Sebut Opo hingga 4 Kali - JPNN.com Terpidana Mati Mary Jane Sebut Opo hingga 4 Kali - JPNN.com Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso. |
| Miracles are real: Veloso spared from execution | Headlines, News. Miracles are real: Veloso spared from execution | Headlines, News. worker Mary Jane Veloso | The tragic circumstance of MARY JANE VELOSO | Asian Correspondent The tragic circumstance of MARY JANE VELOSO | Asian Correspondent Philippine national Mary Jane |  Década de 1960 | FAST FACTS: The case of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso FAST FACTS: The case of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso |
 Axl Rose pens letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo Axl Rose pens letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo | APPEAL for URGENT ACTION Save the Life of Filipina Mary Jane. APPEAL for URGENT ACTION Save the Life of Filipina Mary Jane. Mary Jane Veloso is a | Filipino drug courier to be executed alongside Andrew Chan and. Filipino drug courier to be executed alongside Andrew Chan and. Mary Jane Fiesta Vesolo was |
 UB: MARY JANE VELOSO, naghabilin na sa kanyang. UB: MARY JANE VELOSO, naghabilin na sa kanyang.Unang Balita is the news segment of GMA Networks daily morning program, Unang. |  Mary Jane Veloso, Nepal quake, boxers pick. Mary Jane Veloso, Nepal quake, boxers pick.An Indonesian court rejects Filipino maid Mary Jane Velosos second case review. The death. |  Notice of execution, hindi pinirmahan ni Mary Jane. Notice of execution, hindi pinirmahan ni Mary Jane.Hindi nilagdaan ng Pinay drug convict na si Mary Jane Veloso ang 72-hour notice of. |  MIGRANTE: Save the Life of MARY JANE VELOSO - YouTube MIGRANTE: Save the Life of MARY JANE VELOSO - YouTubeMary Jane Veloso is a 30-year-old Filipina mother-of-two sentenced to death by the. |
 MARY JANE VELOSOs sister travels to Indonesia. MARY JANE VELOSOs sister travels to Indonesia.Darling Veloso was overjoyed when she found out that she would go to Indonesia to see her. |  The fate of MARY JANE VELOSO - YouTube The fate of MARY JANE VELOSO - YouTubeThe parents of Mary Jane Veloso insist their daughter has been framed up Follow Rappler on. |  Rappler Talk: The fate of Mary Jane Veloso - YouTube Rappler Talk: The fate of Mary Jane Veloso - YouTubeCan we still #SaveMaryJane from the Indonesian death row? |  Recruiter ni Mary Jane Veloso: Inosente ako. Recruiter ni Mary Jane Veloso: Inosente ako.Mariing itinanggi ng sinasabing recruiter ni Mary Jane Veloso na siya ang dahilan kung. |
 PNoy, iaapela na iligtas sa bitay si Mary Jane. PNoy, iaapela na iligtas sa bitay si Mary Jane.Nasa Malaysia na si Pangulong Aquino para dumalo sa ASEAN summit. Nangako siyang. |  Mary Jane Veloso gibalhin sa Indonesia island. Mary Jane Veloso gibalhin sa Indonesia island.Sun.Star Pilipinas April 24, 2015 for more information, visit http://www.sunstar. com.ph. |  Indonesia rejects clemency for Mary Jane Veloso. Indonesia rejects clemency for Mary Jane Veloso.Base sa pinakahuling Reuters report, sinasabing tuloy ang pagbitay kay Mary Jane. |  Mary Jane Velosos message to her sons - YouTube Mary Jane Velosos message to her sons - YouTubeDelivered by her sister, Maritess Veloso-Laurente, Follow Rappler on Social Media. |
 Saksi: Mary Jane Veloso, nagpapasalamat sa. Saksi: Mary Jane Veloso, nagpapasalamat sa.Saksi is GMA Networks late-night newscast hosted by Arnold Clavio and Pia Arcangel. |  A letter from MARY JANE VELOSO - YouTube A letter from MARY JANE VELOSO - YouTubeOverseas Filipino Worker Mary Jane Veloso was convicted of drug smuggling in Indonesia in. |  MARY JANE VELOSO to see mom, kids before. MARY JANE VELOSO to see mom, kids before.The mother and kids of Mary Jane Veloso are currently on their way to Indonesia to see her, she. |  Sister wants to save Mary Jane Velosos life - YouTube Sister wants to save Mary Jane Velosos life - YouTubeThe sister of Mary Jane Veloso, the Pinay who is in the death row due to drug sumggling, went. |
The Internet Is Begging the Indonesian Government to Spare a Filipina Single.
As the executions of 10 drug convicts loom in Indonesia, a massive social-media campaign has kicked off in support of Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina maid set to face the firing squad. The hashtag #MaryJane was the No. 2 trending topic on Indonesias .
MARY JANE VELOSO spared; 8 others executed
A spokesman for the Attorney Generals Office said the execution of Mary Jane Veloso, a mother of two who was arrested in 2010 after she arrived in Indonesia with 2.6 kg of heroin hidden in her suitcase, had been delayed. He said the delay came in .
Mary Jane Veloso: Dont harm ties with Indonesia - Rappler
MANILA, Philippines ��� Days after she prayed for her alleged recruiter, Filipina migrant worker Mary Jane Veloso requested her family not to harm the Philippines ties with Indonesia, the country that will execute her.
PNoy makes last-minute call to save Mary Jane
LANGKAWI���President Aquino has not given up on the fate of Mary Jane Veloso and appealed anew to Indonesia to spare her from the death row. Before flying back to Manila at the conclusion of the ASEAN summit, Aquino made a last-minute call to .
Indonesia Moves to Execute Foreign Convicts
Diplomats from five countries whose citizens will soon face a firing squad for drug trafficking were called to receive the required 72-hour notice.. Indonesia gives 72-hour notice, as required by law, that nine foreigners from Australia, France, Brazil, Philippines and Nigeria will be executed for drug trafficking; exact date for executions will not be set until Indonesian Supreme Court rules on appeal of one Indonesian member of group.
Countdown Appears to Start for Execution of Foreigners in Indonesia
Indonesia has asked foreign embassies to send representatives to a maximum security prison for the expected execution of 10 drug convicts, although an official 72-hour notice of execution has not been given yet, diplomats said on Friday.
Mary Jane Veloso execution delayed
Filipino death-row prisoner Mary Jane Veloso, wearing an Indonesian traditional costume, poses during a fashion show to mark Indonesian womans emancipation Kartini day at Wirogunan prison in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on April 21, 2015. File photo by Bimo .
Australia appeals to Indonesia over preparations to execute.
Filipino maid Mary Jane Veloso, one of 10 drug smugglers facing death, transferred to island prison where execution will take place.
MARY JANE VELOSO execution delayed - Rappler
Filipino death-row prisoner Mary Jane Veloso, wearing an Indonesian traditional costume, poses during a fashion show to mark Indonesian womans emancipation Kartini day at Wirogunan prison in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on��.
Indonesia Attorney General: Executions will proceed - Rappler
The meeting was reportedly called after the President was informed of the surrender of Mary Jane Velosos recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio, in the Philippines. Sergio, along with two others, face illegal recruitment, human��.
POP AND JAZZ GUIDE
Here is a selective listing by critics of The Times of new or noteworthy pop and jazz concerts in the New York metropolitan region this weekend. * denotes a highly recommended concert. * ARLING AND CAMERON, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111. The disc jockeys, producers and remixers Gerry Arling and Richard Cameron sift the last few decades of pop for campy pleasures and lively rhythms -- 1970s funk, giddy Japanese pop, sputtering breakbeats, French crooning -- and they mix them into tracks that can induce dancing or giggles. They are touring with live musicians on flute and guitar, and a video show. Tonight at 9, with Thunderball and DJ Otefsu opening; admission is $12 (Jon Pareles).
MARY JANE VELOSOs execution a cruel form of justice - Rappler
The Philippines Commission on Human Rights calls for clemency after local and international human rights advocates intensify their appeal to save Mary Jane Veloso from Indonesias death row.
Aquino to Indonesia: Make Mary Jane Veloso state witness
SOLIDARITY. Indonesian activists wearing masks depicting Filipino OFW Mary Jane Veloso who is facing execution attend a candle light vigil outside the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, 27 April 2015. Photo by Mast��.
VIRAL: Pacman Appeals to Save Mary Jane Velosos Death.
Manny Pacquiao appealing to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to save or spare Mary Jane Velosos life from the death row.
MARY JANE VELOSO: Mother of Filipina spared from Indonesia firing squad hails.
A Philippines woman who was due to face an Indonesian firing squad alongside Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran has been given a last-minute reprieve. Mary Jane Veloso was due to be executed on the Nusakambangan prison island this .
Indonesia Gives 72-Hour Execution Notice to Drug Traffickers
Indonesia notified nine foreigners and a local man convicted of drug trafficking that their executions will be carried out within days, ignoring appeals by the U.N. chief and foreign leaders to spare them.
Mary Jane Veloso spared from execution
Mary Jane Veloso. Officers take Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso (C) of the Philippines, to her first judicial review trial in the District Court of Sleman inYogyakarta in this March 3, 2015 file photo. Indonesia said the execution of nine drug traffickers.
Aquino to Indonesia: Make Mary Jane Veloso state witness
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) ��� In a last-ditch effort to save Mary Jane Veloso, President Benigno Aquino III has proposed to the Indonesian government to make the Filipino death convict a state witness against the drug syndicate that reportedly.
Envoy Says Indonesia Leader Too Busy to Take Australia Call
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has been too busy during the past three weeks to accept a phone call from the Australian prime minister to plead for the lives of two death row prisoners, an Indonesian envoy said Thursday.
UPDATES: Indonesia executions - Rappler
Filipina worker Mary Jane Veloso and 8 others from Africa, Australia, Brazil, and Indonesia are set to be executed on Wednesday, April 29. Get up-to-date reports from Rappler, its Indonesia bureau, and its civic engagement��.
Filipina drug mule MARY JANE VELOSO spared execution
Filipina drug mule Mary Jane Veloso spared execution. Mary Jane Veloso was spared execution at the last minute. The reprieve comes after a woman handed herself into Philippines police claiming to have tricked her into being a drug mule. John Wellard .
An Abundance of Performing Arts Nationwide
The following list of performers and concert dates is selective. Performances are subject to change. Alaska. Roundup of pop and jazz msical events and festivals scheduled for this summer around nation; photo (M)
Sonic Booms, Mellow Croons Fill the Air
This list is selective, and performances are subject to change. Alaska FAIRBANKS SUMMER ARTS FESTIVAL University of Alaska (907-474-8869). Vista Trio, Julie Wilson, Mark Hummel, others (July 25-Aug. 10).. Roundup of summer popular and jazz musical performances planned around the nation; drawing; photos (L)
Convicts in Isolation Cells, Await Execution in Indonesia
Nine drug traffickers were being held in isolation cells at an Indonesian maximum security prison awaiting execution by firing squad, after Indonesian authorities notified them they had no hope of reprieve.
Indonesia eksekusi 8 napi, MARY JANE VELOSO ditunda
Terpidana mati Mary Jane Veloso dikabarkan batal dieksekusi. Menurut laporan TV nasional di tanah air, Indonesia membatalkan eksekusi untuk Mary Jane untuk hormati proses hukum di Filipina.
The Listings: Dec. 23 - Dec. 29
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, showtimes and tickets: nytimes.com/theater. Previews and Openings CANDIDA Opens Wednesday. George Bernard Shaws play about that very immoral -- his words -- title character who must choose between her husband and the poet who has fallen in love with her (1:55). Bouwerie Lane Theater, 330 Bowery Lane, at Bond Street, East Village, (212) 279-4200. ALMOST, MAINE Opens Jan. 12. A comedy featuring 11 episodes, which all take place at 9 p.m. on a Friday, about love and heartbreak in a cold town in Maine (2:00). Daryl Roth Theater, 101 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 239-6200. BEAUTY OF THE FATHER Opens Jan. 10. The New York premiere of a new play by Nilo Cruz (Anna in the Tropics) about a young woman who travels to Spain to reconcile with her father (2:10). Manhattan Theater Club, at City Center, Stage II, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212. THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED Opens Jan. 10. If youre pining for the television series Entourage, currently on hiatus, you might want to try Douglas Carter Beanes new comedy, which covers similar territory: Hollywood agent, cute movie star, tabloid gossip (2:10). Second Stage Theater, 307 West 43rd Street, Clinton, (212) 246-4422. Broadway CHITA RIVERA: THE DANCERS LIFE At 72, Ms. Rivera still has the voice, the attitude and -- oh, yes -- the legs to magnetize all eyes in an audience. If the singing scrapbook of a show that surrounds her is less than electric, theres no denying the electricity of the woman at its center (2:00). Schoenfeld Theater, 236 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Ben Brantley) CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG The playthings are the thing in this lavish windup music box of a show: windmills, Rube Goldbergesque machines and the shows title character, a flying car. Its like spending two and a half hours in the Times Square branch of Toys R Us (2:30). Hilton Theater, 213 West 42nd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) THE 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 Prizewinning novel about Southern black women finding their inner warriors never slows down long enough for you to embrace it. LaChanze leads the vibrant, hard-working cast (2:40). Broadway Theater, 1681 Broadway, at 53rd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS 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 Theater, 219 West 48th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) JERSEY BOYS From grit to glamour with the Four Seasons, directed by the pop repackager Des McAnuff (The Whos Tommy). The real thrill of this shrink-wrapped bio-musical, for those who want something more than recycled chart toppers and a story line poured from a can, is watching the wonderful John Lloyd Young (as Frankie Valli) cross the line from exact impersonation into something far more compelling (2:30). August Wilson Theater, 245 West 52nd Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) LATINOLOGUES Created and written by Rick Najera and directed by Cheech Marin, long since de-Chonged, this is a series of loosely linked monologues delivered in character by Mr. Najera and three other talented Latino performers. Mr. Najera and his compadres can be skillful slingers of one-liners, but the characters cooked up to transmit them are neither fresh nor fully realized. In contrast to the colorfully individualized portraits in John Leguizamos solo shows, the men and women of Latinologues are composites of worn, easy stereotypes (1:30). Helen Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Charles 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. (Brantley) THE ODD COUPLE Odd is not the word for this couple. How could an adjective suggesting strangeness or surprise apply to a production so calculatedly devoted to the known, the cozy, the conventional? As the title characters in Neil Simons 1965 comedy, directed as if to a metronome by Joe Mantello, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their star performances from The Producers, and its not a natural fit. Dont even consider killing yourself because the show is already sold out (2:10). Brooks Atkinson Theater, 256 West 47th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) SEASCAPE While George Grizzard sounds affecting depths in this audience-friendly revival of Edward Albees 1975 Pulitzer Prizewinner, Mark Lamoss production is most notable for being likable and forgettable, traits seldom associated with Albee plays. The ever-vital Frances Sternhagen plays life-affirming wife to Mr. Grizzards curmudgeonly husband, while Frederick Weller and the wonderful Elizabeth Marvel are the sea creatures who confront the old couple one afternoon at the beach (1:45). Lincoln Center Theater, at the Booth Theater, 222 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200.(Brantley) SPAMALOT (Tony Award, Best Musical 2005) This staged re-creation of the mock-medieval movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail is basically a singing scrapbook for Python fans. Such a good time is being had by so many people that this fitful, eager celebration of inanity and irreverence has found a large and lucrative audience (2:20). Shubert Theater, 225 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) * SWEENEY TODD Sweet dreams, New York. This thrilling new revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheelers musical, with Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone leading a cast of 10 who double as their own musicians, burrows into your thoughts like a campfire storyteller who knows what really scares you. The inventive director John Doyle aims his pared-down interpretation at the squirming child in everyone, who wants to have his worst fears both confirmed and dispelled (2:30). Eugene ONeill Theater, 230 West 49th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) 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) SOUVENIR Stephen Temperleys sweet, long love letter of a play celebrates the unlikely career of Florence Foster Jenkins, a notoriously tone-deaf soprano socialite. Its a show that could easily have been pure camp, and at over two hours it still wears thin. But with Vivian Matalon directing the redoubtable Judy Kaye as Mrs. Jenkins, and Donald Corren as her accompanist, the plays investigative empathy turns the first act into unexpectedly gentle, affecting comedy (2:15). Lyceum Theater, 149 West 45th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) A TOUCH OF THE POET It takes Gabriel Byrne, playing a self-dramatizing monster father, roughly an hour to find his feet in Doug Hughess lukewarm revival of Eugene ONeills drama. But when he does, in the shows second half, audiences are allowed a rare glimpse of a thrilling process: an actors taking hold of the reins of a runaway role and riding for all its worth. Unfortunately, nothing else in this underdirected, undercast production begins to match his pace (2:40). Studio 54, 254 West 54th Street, Manhattan, (212) 719-1300. (Brantley) * THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE The happy news for this happy-making little musical is that the move to larger quarters has dissipated none of its quirky charm. William Finns score sounds plumper and more rewarding than it did on Off Broadway, providing a sprinkling of sugar to complement the sass in Rachel Sheinkins zinger-filled book. The performances are flawless. Gold stars all around (1:45). Circle in the Square, 1633 Broadway, at 50th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) THE WOMAN IN WHITE Bravely flouting centuries of accepted scientific theory, the creators of this adaptation of Wilkie Collinss spine tingler have set out to prove that the world is flat, after all. This latest offering from Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Trevor Nunn, seems to exist entirely in two dimensions, from its computer-generated backdrops to its decorative chess-piece-like characters (2:50). Marquis Theater, 211 West 45th Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Off Broadway * ABIGAILS PARTY Scott Elliotts thoroughly delectable production of Mike Leighs 1977 comedy about domestic discord among the British middle classes. Jennifer Jason Leigh leads a superb ensemble cast as a party hostess who wields the gin bottle like a deadly weapon, resulting in an evening of savagely funny chaos (2:15). Acorn Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Isherwood) ALMOST HEAVEN: SONGS OF JOHN DENVER Almost 30 of John Denvers songs are rediscovered and reinvented, as the shows publicity material says, but not generally improved upon. But Nicholas Rodriguez hits the high notes of Calypso spectacularly (2:00). Promenade Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Neil Genzlinger) APPARITION Anne Washburns gothic shorts are like an excellent late-night storytelling session at the Vincent Price camp for disturbed children (1:20). Connelly Theater, 220 East Fourth Street, East Village, (212) 352-3101. (Jason Zinoman) BINGO Play bingo, munch on popcorn and watch accomplished actors freshen up a stale musical about game night (1:20). St. Lukes Theater, 308 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200.(Zinoman) * CELEBRATION and THE ROOM The Atlantic Theater Companys production of the first and most recent plays by Harold Pinter gets only the later work right. (Thats Celebration, an unexpectedly boisterous comedy from 2000.) But if the italicized acting scales down dramatic effectiveness, it heightens thematic clarity. Essential viewing for anyone wondering why Mr. Pinter won the Nobel Prize this year (1:45). Atlantic Theater, 336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) A CHRISTMAS CAROL Spirited entertainment (1:30). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 279-4200. (Lawrence Van Gelder) DOG SEES GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE BLOCKHEAD The Peanuts characters grow up, do drugs and have sex in this dark, disposable parody. Good grief (1:30). Century Center for the Performing Arts, 111 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 239-6200. (Zinoman) DRUMSTRUCK This noisy novelty is a mixed blessing. Providing a two-foot drum on every seat, it offers an opportunity to exorcise aggressions by delivering a good beating, and, on a slightly more elevated level, it presents a superficial introduction to African culture, lessons in drumming and 90 minutes of nonstop music, song and dancing by a good-natured cast (1:30). Dodger Stages, Stage 2, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200. (Van Gelder) FIVE COURSE LOVE This musical is pleasantly fluffy, but Heather Ayers may make a star vehicle out of it, thanks to an energetic, versatile performance in five roles. She, John Bolton and Jeff Gurner search for love in five restaurants, with a too-generous portion of bad accents and phallic jokes along the way, but lots of laughs (1:30). Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane, Greenwich Village, (212) 307-4100. (Genzlinger) HIS ROYAL HIPNESS LORD BUCKLEY IN THE ZAM ZAM ROOM Jake Broders scrupulous (and rigid) re-creation of the influential nightclub comic Lord Buckley, an unlikely mix of English royalty and Dizzy Gillespie (1:50). 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, (212) 279-4200. (Zinoman). INFERTILITY A harmless, insubstantial and highly amplified musical about the struggles of five people hoping to become parents (1:20). Dillons, 245 West 54th Street, Manhattan, (212) 868-4444. (Zinoman) * IN THE CONTINUUM Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter are both the authors and the performers of this smart, spirited and disarmingly funny show about two women: one a middle-class mother in Zimbabwe, the other a 19-year-old at loose ends in Los Angeles whose lives are upended by HIV diagnoses. Emphatically not a downer (1:30). Perry Street Theater, 31 Perry Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 868-4444. (Isherwood) *MEASURE FOR MEASURE The joyous surprise of this Shakespeares Globe production, directed by John Dove, is how it floods this famously dark play with continuously roaming beams of comic light. In particular Mark Rylance, the troupes outgoing artistic director, is an endearingly clueless Duke Vincentio (3:05). St. Anns Warehouse, 38 Water Street, at Dock Street, Brooklyn, (718) 254-8779. (Isherwood) MISS WITHERSPOON This poignant, funny mess of a comedy by Christopher Durang, set in an antechamber of the afterlife, cheerfully suggests that there are worse fates than death for sensitive souls in this self-destructive world. The play meanders but has the good fortune to star the priceless Kristine Nielsen as a dead woman who intends to stay that way (1:20). Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Brantley) MR. MARMALADE A zany comedy by Noah Haidle about emotionally disturbed children. Yes, you read that right. Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under plays the now-cuddly, now-abusive imaginary friend of a neglected 4 year old. Unfortunately, Mr. Haidle never truly capitalizes on his provocative conceit, choosing instead to draw us a scary but ultimately hollow cartoon (1:50). Roundabout Theater Company, Laura Pels Theater, at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. (Isherwood) *MRS. WARRENS PROFESSION An absolutely splendid Dana Ivey takes the title role in Charlotte Moores sensitively acted production of Bernard Shaws famously provocative play, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary on the New York stage this year (2:20). Irish Repertory Theater, 132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2737. (Isherwood) THE OTHER SIDE In Ariel Dorfmans ponderous comedy-drama, an old couple standing in for all of Suffering Humanity endure the trials of warfare and the bureaucratic absurdities that come with peace. Even the redoubtable Rosemary Harris and John Cullum can do little to enliven the proceedings (1:30). Manhattan Theater Club, City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street, (212) 581-1212. (Isherwood) PETER PAN (2:00). Entertaining without being exhilarating (2:00). The Theater at Madison Square Garden, 4 Penn Plaza, (212) 307-7171. (Van Gelder) Radio City Christmas Spectacular It remains prime entertainment (1:30). Radio City Music Hall, (212) 307-1000. (Van Gelder) TIGHT EMBRACE Jorge Ignacio Cortiñass political hostage drama wants to show, with its dash of magic realism and flickering poetic fire, how human beings use language as a weapon to betray one another. Good acting, especially by Zabryna Guevara, helps the play toward its goal (2:00). Intar Theater at the Kirk on Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200. (Andrea Stevens) * THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL Led by Lois Smith in a heart-wrenching performance, the cast never strikes a false note in Harris Yulins beautifully mounted revival of Horton Footes drama, finding an emotional authenticity in a work largely remembered as a tear-jerking chestnut. This is not to say you should neglect to bring handkerchiefs (1:50). Signature Theater, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 244-7529. (Brantley) Off Off Broadway BIG APPLE CIRCUS -- GRANDMA GOES TO HOLLYWOOD Long on sweetness, rich in color and highly tuneful, but short on eye-popping, cheer-igniting wows (2:10). Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center, Broadway and 63rd Street, (212) 307-4100. (Van Gelder) FEAR ITSELF: SECRETS OF THE WHITE HOUSE In the latest cartoonish send-up of the Bush administration, the simple task of translating ideas into dramatic form seems to have been overlooked (1:45). Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, at 10th Street, East Village; (212) 352-0255. (Zinoman) * JACKIE HOFFMAN: CHANUKAH AT JOES PUB The return of a beloved ritual for those wanting a reprieve from enforced benevolence and good cheer. The fearless, explosively funny Ms. Hoffman radiates anything but love and charity as she reviews the year in outrage, both global and personal (1:10). Joes Pub at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village; (212) 239-6200. (Isherwood) WALKING IN MEMPHIS: THE LIFE OF A SOUTHERN JEW Part memoir, part stand-up routine, this autobiographical piece is endearing, but not quite as colorful as it thinks it is. Jonathan Ross, the pieces creator, grew up Jewish in Memphis: anecdotes about his life may make for good theater, but will probably be better when he gets a little older (1:20). Abingdon Theater Arts Complex, 312 West 36th Street, Manhattan, (212) 868-4444. (Anne Midgette) 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). 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) THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Who was that masked man, anyway? (2:30). Majestic Theater, 247 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) THE PRODUCERS The ne plus ultra of showbiz scams (2:45). St. James Theater, 246 West 44th Street, (212) 239-6200. (Brantley) RENT East Village angst and love songs to die for (2:45). Nederlander Theater, 208 West 41st Street, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) WICKED Oz revisited, with political corrections (2:45). Gershwin Theater, 222 West 51st Street, Manhattan, (212) 307-4100. (Brantley) Last Chance HAYMARKET Zayd Dohrn, son of Weather Underground members Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, mixes documentary, fiction and memory in this play about the bomb that exploded at an 1886 workers rally in Chicago and the anarchists who were hanged for the crime (2:05). Beckett Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200, closing today. (Miriam Horn) * KLONSKY & SCHWARTZ Romulus Linneys amusing if thin drama follows the unbalanced friendship between the poet Delmore Schwartz and his protégé (1:30). Ensemble Studio Theater, 549 West 52nd Street, Clinton, (212) 352-3101, closing today. (Zinoman) ROPE The key revelation of this revival of the Patrick Hamilton play that became a Hitchcock movie: The whole darn thing was originally set in a fancy London parlor stuffed with fancy British people. David Warrens staging of this theatrical relic boasts a juicy cast, but the play just lies there, like the corpse in the chest at center stage (2:05). Zipper Theater, 336 West 37th Street, (212) 239-6200, closing today. (Isherwood) THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) Is there such a thing as stand-up existentialism? If not, Will Eno has just invented it. Stand-up-style comic riffs and deadpan hipster banter keep interrupting the corrosively bleak narrative. Mr. Eno is a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation (1:10). DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 239-6200, closing tomorrow. (Isherwood) THREE DOLLAR BILL Three exhaustingly clever one-acts by Kirk Wood Bromley about being gay, conservative and miserable (2:00). Center Stage, 48 West 21st Street, Flatiron district, fourth floor; (212) 501-4528, closing today. (Zinoman) 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. AEON FLUX (PG-13, 95 minutes) Adapted from MTV animated shorts from a decade ago, this glossy, incoherent movie sends Charlize Theron 400 years into the future, where she runs around and does somersaults in a spandex body suit. (A. O. Scott) BE HERE TO LOVE ME (No rating, 99 minutes) Margaret Browns documentary biography of the brilliant, deeply troubled Texan singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt is a tender, impressionistic labor of love. (Stephen Holden) * BREAKFAST ON PLUTO (R, 129 minutes) Candide meets Tom Jones in drag heaven might describe Neil Jordans picaresque fairy tale about a foundling who becomes a transvestite in 1970s and 80s London, against the backdrop of the Irish troubles. (Holden) * BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (R, 134 minutes) Annie Proulxs heartbreaking story of two ranch hands who fall in love while herding sheep in 1963 has been faithfully translated onto the screen in Ang Lees landmark film. Heath Ledger (in a great performance worthy of Brando at his peak) and Jake Gyllenhaal bring them fully alive. (Holden) CHICKEN LITTLE (G, 80 minutes) The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Well, its not as bad as that. Almost, though. (Scott) THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (PG, 135 minutes) This honorable adaptation of C. S. Lewiss novel has much of the power and charm of the source. The fusing of live action and computer-generated imagery is adequate, if rarely inspiring. Adult viewers are likely to imbibe the films wonders indirectly, through the eyes of accompanying children, who are likely to be delighted and sometimes awed. (Scott) ELECTRIC SHADOWS (No rating, 99 minutes, in Mandarin) The fanciful Chinese tear-jerker, which spans several decades from the Cultural Revolution to the present, wants to be an Asian Cinema Paradiso, but doesnt quite live up to its prototype. (Holden) THE FAMILY STONE (PG-13, 102 minutes) A home-for-the-holidays movie about a tribe of ravenous cannibals that bares its excellent teeth at anyone who doesnt accommodate its preening self-regard, most recently a big-city executive played by a very good Sarah Jessica Parker. (Manohla Dargis) GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN (R, 134 minutes) This lumbering vehicle for the rap star 50 Cent blends gangster intrigue with follow-your-dream striving. The story is a mess, and the star is no actor, but a fine supporting cast and Jim Sheridans warmhearted direction make it watchable. (Scott) *GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. (PG, 90 minutes) George Clooney, with impressive rigor and intelligence, examines the confrontation between the CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow (a superb David Strathairn) and Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (himself). Plunging you into a smoky, black-and-white world of political paranoia and commercial pressure, the film is a history lesson and a passionate essay on power, responsibility and the ethics of journalism. (Scott) * HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (PG-13, 150 minutes) Childhood ends for the young wizard with the zigzag scar in the latest addition to the Potter saga, even as the director Mike Newell keeps its British eccentricity, fatalism and steady-on pluck irresistibly intact. (Dargis) IN THE MIX (PG-13, 97 minutes) This predictable, one-dimensional romantic comedy is all about its star, Usher, who plays a New York D.J. beloved by one and all. Beautiful women lust after him, but when a Mafia princess (Emmanuelle Chriqui) joins their number, her mobster father (Chazz Palminteri) disapproves. Even though Darrell (Usher) once took a bullet for him. (Anita Gates) ISNT THIS A TIME!: A TRIBUTE TO HAROLD LEVENTHAL (No rating, 90 minutes) Jim Browns touching documentary cuts between onstage musical numbers and behind-the-scenes recollections from the Weavers; Arlo Guthrie; Peter, Paul and Mary; and other folk musicians who organized and performed a Thanksgiving 2003 tribute concert to this distinguished manager and promoter, who helped establish their careers. (Laura Kern) * KING KONG (PG-13, 180 minutes) Peter Jacksons remake is, almost by definition, too much -- too long, too big, too stuffed with characters and effects-driven set pieces -- but it is also remarkably nimble and sweet. Going back to the Depression-era setting of the 1933 original, Mr. Jacksons film is as much a tribute to the old, seat-of-the-pants spirit of early motion pictures as it is an exercise in technological bravura. Naomi Watts as the would-be movie star Ann Darrow and Andy Serkis as the big monkey who loves her have a rapport that gives the spectacle the pathos and sweetness it needs, and help to turn a brute spectacle into a pop tragedy. (Scott) MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (PG-13, 144 minutes) Think As the Geisha Turns with devious rivals, swoonworthy swains, a jaw-dropping dance number recycled from Madonnas Drowned World tour and much clinching, panting and scheming. Directed by Rob Marshall from the Arthur Golden book, and starring Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh. (Dargis) MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT (No rating, 108 minutes) This weepie about the tender friendship between a 70-something British widow (Joan Plowright) and a struggling young writer (Rupert Friend) is as anachronistic as the notion of a Terence Rattigan play set in the present. (Holden) * PARADISE NOW (PG-13, 90 minutes, in Arabic and Hebrew) This melodrama about two Palestinians, best friends from childhood, chosen to carry out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv is a superior thriller whose shrewdly inserted plot twists and emotional wrinkles are calculated to put your heart in your throat and keep it there. (Holden) * PRIDE & PREJUDICE (PG, 128 minutes) In this sumptuous, extravagantly romantic adaptation of Jane Austens 1813 novel, Keira Knightleys Elizabeth Bennet exudes a radiance that suffuses the movie. This is a banquet of high-end comfort food perfectly cooked and seasoned to Anglophilic tastes. (Holden) THE PRODUCERS (PG-13, 127 minutes) At a fraction of the Broadway ticket price, its no bargain. (Scott) RENT (PG-13, 135 minutes) Jonathan Larsons beloved musical is as loud, earnest and sentimental as ever. But somehow, as it has made the transition to the screen almost a decade after its theatrical debut (with much of the original stage cast), the show has dated less than the objections to it. Yes, the East Village was never really like this, but in Chris Columbuss hands, the hectic updating of La Bohème to the age of AIDS and gentrification feels surprisingly sweet and fresh. (Scott) * SHOPGIRL (R, 107 minutes) This delicate, deceptively simple film, taken from Steve Martins novella, spins perfect romance out of loneliness, compromise and the possibility of heartbreak. As a young retail clerk adrift in Los Angeles, Claire Danes gives a flawless performance, and Mr. Martin and Jason Schwartzman, as the very different men competing for her affection, bring gallantry, farce and sweetness to this funny, sad, insightful movie. (Scott) * SYRIANA (R, 122 minutes) Ambitious, angry and complicated, Stephen Gaghans second film tackles terrorism, American foreign policy, global trade and the oil business through four interwoven stories. There are at least a half-dozen first-rate performances, and Mr. Gaghan, who wrote and directed, reinvents the political thriller as a vehicle for serious engagement with the state of the world. (Scott) TRANSAMERICA (R, 103 minutes) Felicity Huffmans performance as a preoperative transsexual on a cross-country journey with her long-lost son is sensitive and convincing, and helps the picture rise above its indie road-picture clichés. (Scott) WALK THE LINE (PG-13, 138 minutes) Johnny Cash gets the musical biopic treatment in this moderately entertaining, never quite convincing chronicle of his early years. Joaquin Phoenix, sweaty, inarticulate and intense as Cash, is upstaged by Reese Witherspoon, who tears into the role of June Carter (Cashs creative partner long before she became his second wife) with her usual charm, pluck and intelligence. (Scott) YOURS, MINE AND OURS (PG, 90 minutes) Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo inhabit roles originated by Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball in this snug, airtight remake of the 1968 comedy about the combining of two antagonistic families with 18 children between them. Cutesy unreality prevails. (Holden) ZATHURA: A SPACE ADVENTURE (PG, 113 minutes) In this extraterrestrial fantasy, adapted from a Chris Van Allsburg story, a magical board game sends two squabbling young brothers into space to fend off invaders and learn the meaning of brotherhood. The movie is sweeter, gentler and more family-friendly than Jumanji, to which it is the unofficial sequel. (Holden) Film Series ARTISTS CHOICE: STEPHEN SONDHEIM (Through Jan. 8) The Museum of Modern Arts 15-film series of works selected by Mr. Sondheim, the Broadway composer and lyricist, continues. This weeks films include Kontrakt (1980), a Polish comedy that Mr. Sondheim describes as having for my money, the most devastating last shot in cinema; The Sea Wolf (1941), the Jack London story, starring Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino and John Garfield; Hal Hartleys Henry Fool (1997); and Gus Van Sants Elephant (2003). Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 708-9400; $10. (Gates) ESSENTIAL HITCHCOCK (Through Jan. 12) Film Forums five-week retrospective of Alfred Hitchcocks films continues. This weeks features include Psycho (1960), about a mamas boy running an out-of-the-way motel; Hitchcocks second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956); and a double feature of Suspicion (1941) and Spellbound (1945). 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-8110; $10. (Gates) FASSBINDER (Through Feb. 26) IFC Centers Weekend Classics Program is presenting 11 feature films and 2 shorts by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1946-82). This weekends film is The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978), his portrait of one German womans postwar struggles. 323 Avenue of the Americas, at West Third Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 924-7771; $10.75. (Gates) MAYSLES FILMS: FIVE DECADES (Through Dec. 31) The Museum of Modern Arts monthlong retrospective of films by the documentarians Albert and David Maysles continues. This weeks features include Grey Gardens (1975), the sad profile of two of Jacqueline Onassiss Bouvier relatives in reduced circumstances; Gimme Shelter (1970), about the Rolling Stones and Hells Angels at the tragic Altamont concert; Whats Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (1964), filmed during one of the Fab Fours first visits here; and Umbrellas (1995), one of five Maysles films about the installations of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 708-9400; $10. (Gates) PIXAR: 20 YEARS OF ANIMATION (Through Feb. 6) A complete retrospective of Pixar animated films continues at the Museum of Modern Art. This weeks features include Toy Story (1995), about the rivalry between Woody the cowboy and Buzz Lightyear; Monsters, Inc. (2001), in which terrifying creatures reconsider scaring children; and Finding Nemo (2003), a father-and-son fish story. 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 708-9400; $10. (Gates) Pop Full reviews of recent concerts: nytimes.com/music. ASSEMBLY OF DUST, THE HACKENSAW BOYS (Thursday) Assembly of Dust is a jam band featuring the former Strangefolk singer Reid Genauer and members of the band Percy. The eight-member Virginia band Hackensaw Boys play raw traditional bluegrass with lots of fast fiddling, banjoing, stomping and hollering. 8 p.m., Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $16.50 in advance, $18 at the door.(Laura Sinagra) SARAH AROESTE BAND, SMADAR, PHARAOHS DAUGHTER (Tuesday) Taking part in the Sephardic Music Festival, Sarah Aroestes band plays Ladino rock, with lyrics in the Castilian Spanish developed by Spanish Jews after 1492. Born in Israel to a Moroccan family, Smadar plays sings in five languages and incorporates accordion, Turkish clarinet, bass, drums and darbuka. They are joined by the jazzy klezmer group Pharaohs Daughter. 8 p.m., Makor, Steinhardt Building, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 601-1000; $12. (Sinagra) YOEL BEN-SIMHON AND SULTANA ENSEMBLE, DIVAHN (Wednesday) The Israeli-born Moroccan vocalist and oudist Yoel Ben-Simhon and his Sultana Ensemble (playing here as part of this weeks Sephardic Music Festival) combine original arrangements and traditional music from the Jewish Sephardic and Arabic cultures. The all-woman group Divahn, featuring Galeet Dardashti on lead vocals, finds inspiration in music and poetry from 19th-century Persia as well as the Ashkenazi cantorial tradition. 9 p.m., Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $15. (Sinagra) BILAL (Tuesday) The Philadelphia neo-soul singer Bilal has been doing his jazz-inflected thing under the pop radar for a while now, though he has not yet enjoyed the attention conferred on contemporaries like DAngelo. 9 p.m., S.O.B.s, 204 Varick Street, at Houston Street, South Village, (212) 243-4940; $25 in advance, $28 at the door. (Sinagra) BURNT SUGAR (Tuesday) The acid-funk, jazz and rock band led by the writer Greg Tate has grown into an improvisatory institution. As he explains on the bands Web site, Spontaneous combustion being an occupational hazard in Gotham, Burnt Sugar is how we keep it real, surreal, arboreal, aquatic, incendiary. 10 p.m., Zebulon Café Concert, 258 Wythe Avenue between Metropolitan and North 3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 218-6934; free. (Sinagra) EARTH, WIND AND FIRE (Thursday) In the 1970s, Earth, Wind and Fire was the glossy, horn-powered hit machine that covered all bases, from idealism (Keep Your Head to the Sky, Shining Star) to dance tunes (Boogie Wonderland) to lovers pleas (Reasons). 8 p.m., Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, ticketmaster.com, (212) 307-7171; $65 and $90. (Jon Pareles) ELYSIAN FIELDS (Tonight) Led by the guitarist Oren Bloedow and the vocalist Jennifer Charles, the quintet Elysian Fields plays dark, romantic rock. For this Sephardic Music Festival show, Mr. Bloedow and Ms. Charles will draw from their side project La Mar Enfortuna (Tzadik), a collection of Moorish-tinged songs sung in Ladino. 9:30 p.m., Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $15.(Sinagra) THE FAB FAUX (Tuesday and Wednesday) This Beatles tribute band isnt trying to win a costume contest. Its here to channel the original Fab Fours music, tone for tone and interval for interval. This week the group takes on the Beatles white album. 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600; $30 (sold out). (Sinagra) IRVING FIELDS AND SEPTETO RODRIGUEZ (Wednesday) The 90-year-old lounge pianist and bandleader Irving Fields has been combining Cuban and Jewish music since his 1950s Bagels and Bongos mambo heyday. Here he is joined by the Cuban-born percussionist Roberto Juan Rodriguez and his septet. 8 p.m., Makor, Steinhardt Building, 35 West 67th Street, Manhattan, (212) 601-1000; $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (Sinagra) RUBÉN FLORES: THE LATIN AMERICAN SONGBOOK (Thursday) Rubén Flores, an actor and singer, will be performing popular songs, novelties and rarities culled from several Latin American pop traditions. 7:30 p.m., Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $15. (Sinagra) THE FUNK BROTHERS (Wednesday) Its been more than three decades since this legendary band, whose most famous member was the bassist James Jamerson, ended its run as the cohesive backup group for scores of Motown hits. In 2003, the living members jammed and recounted their sometimes hardscrabble history for the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. 7:30 and 10 p.m., B. B. Kings Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $40 in advance, $45 at the door. (Sinagra) GOVT MULE (Thursday) Govt Mules guitarist and leader Warren Haynes 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. 8 p.m., Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th Street, Upper West Side, (212) 496-7070; $39.50 to $59.50. (Pareles) VIVIAN GREEN (Tuesday) The R & B singer-songwriter Vivian Green has not distinguished herself with the searing vocals of a Keyshia Cole, but her voice is sweet and her songs about love and rocky romance display a jazz-inflected sense of muted drama. 8 p.m., B. B. Kings Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $22.50, $25 at the door. (Sinagra) G-UNIT CHRISTMAS (Monday) Working off some of that holiday feasting will be an array of rappers and singers associated with the hip-hop federation G-Unit: Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Keyshia Cole and Bobby Valentino. 8 p.m., Nassau Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, N.Y., (631) 888-9000; $38.50 to $78.50. (Sinagra) THE LEEVEES (Monday) This indie pop duo plays funny Hanukkah songs, aiming for an Adam Sandler-meets-They Might Be Giants mix of melodic and parodic. 8 p.m., Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Lower East Side, (212) 533-2111; $15. (Sinagra) JOHN MCEUEN (Tuesday) The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member and country renaissance man John McEuen displays the deft mastery of acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin that has made him a Nashville collaborator of choice for the likes of Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. 7 p.m., Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $20. (Sinagra) MOUTHUS (Tuesday) Brooklyns Mouthus is a feedback-heavy, droning noise outfit led by Brian Sullivan and Nate Nelson. It is part of a wave of chaotic bands that employ chanting over crammed clatter, rumble and clang. The group plays on this bill with Axolotl and Dead Bush. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; $8. (Sinagra) MIKE PATTON AND RAHZEL (Wednesday and Thursday) Faith No Mores Mike Patton can be called, for better or worse, a progenitor of rap-metal. His avant-garde foray into the post-lingual has led him to collaborate with Rahzel, who supplies the beats under Mr. Pattons yammers, mantras and squeaks. 7 p.m., Warsaw, 261 Driggs Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 387-0505; $20. (Sinagra) RAQUY AND THE CAVEMAN , RASHANIM (Monday) The dumbek player Raquy Danziger and the hard-rocker Liron Peled team up to make heavy rock with Arab rhythms. The power trio Rashanim is the guitarist Jon Madof, the bassist Shanir Blumenkranz and the drummer Mathias Kunzli. 10 p.m., Mo Pitkins, 34 Avenue A, East Village, (212) 777-5660; $10. (Sinagra) AMY RIGBY (Wednesday) This singer-songwriter opines about romance and decline with biting wit. She gave Nashville a try, but shes back home in New York, where her brand of real-life feistiness has always found a better fit. 9 p.m., Lakeside Lounge, 162 Avenue B, Lower East Side, (212) 529-8463; free. (Sinagra) KENNY ROGERS (Tonight) You would assume that the man famous for the countrified radio smash The Gambler knows when to fold em. Evidently that time has yet to come. This is a show with a holiday theme, but it will hopefully still include the singalong recrimination Lucille and the casual tale of gnarly violence Coward of the County. 8 p.m., North Fork Theater at Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, N.Y., (516) 334-0800; $51.50. (Sinagra) SLAVIC SOUL PARTY (Tuesday) Part of the Gypsy-rock set that includes Gogol Bordello, this brass bands combination of East European, Mexican and Asian influences is undergirded by a sense of fun. 9 p.m., Barbes, 376 Ninth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; $8 suggested admission. (Sinagra) CIDINHO TEIXEIRAS BRAZILIAN SHOWFEST (Sunday) The pianist and composer Cidinho Teixeiras band plays standards by the likes of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. A rotating cast of singers includes some of the areas prominent Brazilian vocalists. 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., Zinc Bar, 90 West Houston Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 477-8337; $5.(Sinagra) TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS (Tonight) In this familial performance-art project, Jason Trachtenburg plays lo-fi pop tunes inspired by slides found at yard sales while his wife, Tina, runs the projector. Their daughter, Rachel, plays drums. For this show they branch out into holiday critique, suggesting that the Christmas red and green are emblematic of blood and money. 7:30 p.m., Performance Space 122, 150 First Avenue, at Ninth Street, East Village, (212) 477-5288; $20, $15 for 62+, $10 for children. (Sinagra) ULTRAMAGNETIC MCs (Tonight) The Bronx rap group Ultramagnetic MCs, founded by the shape-shifting rapper Kool Keith with Ced Gee and DJ Moe Love, was a critical hit in the late 80s, helping to nudge old-school dozens-playing forward with imaginative grooves and space-is-the-place lyrics. 11 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006; $15 in advance, $20 at the door. (Sinagra) BRYAN VARGAS, YA ESTá, JAY RODRIGUEZ (Thursday) This long evening of Latin soul stylings features a set by the electric Afro-Latin soul band Bryan Vargas and Ya Está at 9:30, one by the saxophonist Jay Rodriguez and members of his Groove Collective (playing here as the Latin All-Stars) at 10:30, and a jam session with all the players at midnight. Joes Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 239-6200; $12. (Sinagra) WHAT I LIKE ABOUT JEW (Tomorrow and Sunday) The cabaret-rock comedians Sean Altman and Rob Tannenbaum might be giants of Jewish joke-pop, but you can also hear some Beatles in their risque borscht-belting -- not to mention a reverence for tradition that always holds up to their wacky auto-critiques. Tomorrow at 7 and 9 p.m., Sunday at 6 and 9 p.m., Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, TriBeCa, (212) 219-3006; $18 in advance, $22 at the door. (Sinagra) Cabaret Full reviews of recent cabaret shows: nytimes.com/music. Michael Feinstein (Tonight, and Monday through Thursday) From crooning to clowning, Christmas meets Hanukkah in this singer-pianists jolly one-man variety show, A Holiday Romance. 8:30 p.m., with a late show at 11 tonight, Feinsteins at the Regency, 540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street, Manhattan, (212) 339-4095; $60 cover and $40 minimum.(Stephen Holden) * Andrea Marcovicci (Tonight and tomorrow night, and Tuesday through Thursday) In her spellbinding retrospective Ill Be Seeing You Love Songs of World War II, Ms. Marcovicci balances nostalgia for songs associated with the good war with acknowledgment of the real pain and sacrifice that inspired so many of them, providing a dusting of reality. 9 p.m., with a late show at 11:30 tonight, Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 419-9331; $65 cover, $60 Tuesday through Thursday, with a required $60 prix-fixe dinner at the early shows from Wednesday to Saturday, and a $20 minimum on Tuesday and at the late shows. (Holden) ANNIE ROSS (Wednesday) Cool, funny, swinging and indestructible, this 75-year-old singer and sometime actress exemplifies old-time hip in its most generous incarnation. 9:15 p.m., Dannys Skylight Room, 346 West 46th Street, Clinton, (212) 265-8133; $25, with a $12 minimum. (Holden) SINGING ASTAIRE (Tomorrow and Sunday) This smart, airy revue, which pays tribute to Fred Astaire, has returned, featuring Eric Comstock, Hilary Kole and Christopher Gines. 5:30 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; $30, with a $10 minimum. (Holden) STEVE TYRELL (Tonight and tomorrow night, and Tuesday through Thursday) Mr. Tyrell has one of those where-have-I-heard-it-before growls that sounds great on a movie soundtrack, but loses its charm in a club, as he rolls standards off the assembly line as if they were all the same song. 8:45, with additional shows at 10:45 tonight, tomorrow and Thursday nights, Cafe Carlyle, Carlyle Hotel, 35 East 76th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-1600; $100 tonight and tomorrow; $90 Tuesday through Thursday. (Holden) Jazz Full reviews of recent jazz concerts: nytimes.com/music. MONTY ALEXANDER AND FRIENDS (Through Sunday) Mr. Alexander, an effervescent pianist originally from Jamaica, focuses on Christmas songs and Sinatra songs, with collaborators like the saxophonist Red Holloway, the trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and the drummer Herlin Riley. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $35 at tables with a $5 minimum, or $20 at the bar, with a one-drink minimum. (Nate Chinen) J. D. ALLEN TRIO (Monday) A muscular and harmonically adventurous tenor saxophonist, Mr. Allen has strong support from Eric Revis on bass and Jeremy (Bean) Clemons on drums. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $10 at tables, $5 at the bar, with a $5 minimum. (Chinen) GREGG AUGUST SEXTET (Wednesday and Thursday) With Late August (Iacuessa), Mr. August, a bassist, proves himself a sensible small-group composer in the Cedar Walton vein; his band includes the saxophonists Greg Tardy and Myron Walden, the trumpeter John Bailey, the pianist Helen Sung and the drummer Eric McPherson. Wednesday at 9:30 p.m., Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue South , West Village, (212) 675-7369; cover, $10. Thursday at 9:30 p.m., Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 675-7369; cover, $10 with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) BALLIN THE JACK (Tonight) The clarinetist and saxophonist Matt Darriau heads this midsize ensemble, which spikes its swing-era repertory with madcap irreverence. 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, near Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $8. (Chinen) GATO BARBIERI (Thursday through Jan. 1) The Argentine saxophonist, best known for his theme to the film Last Tango in Paris, brings his dramatic atmospherics to the vicinity of Times Square; prices will soar on New Years Eve but, one hopes, so will the music. 8 and 10 p.m. (8 and 11 on New Years Eve), Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $32.50, with a $10 minimum ($55 and $95 on New Years Eve, with minimums of $20 and $25). (Chinen) DAVE BINNEYS BALANCE (Tuesday) The alto saxophonist Dave Binney heeds an avant-gardism that embraces harmony, melody and rhythm, along with amplification; he receives sinuous support from the keyboardist Craig Taborn, the bassist Thomas Morgan and the drummer Dan Weiss. 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, near Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) AVISHAI COHEN GROUP (Tonight and tomorrow) Mr. Cohen is an accomplished Israeli trumpeter with a taste for modernism; his ensemble features the guitarist Lionel Loueke, the saxophonist Yosvani Terry, the bassist Barak Mori and the drummer Eric McPherson. 10 p.m., Fat Cat, 75 Christopher Street, at Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 675-7369; cover, $15. (Chinen) FREDDY COLE (Tonight and tomorrow) A charismatic and offhandedly urbane vocalist, Mr. Cole takes a broad approach to repertory that nearly disarms comparisons to his older brother Nat. 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080; cover, $30, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) ANTHONY COLEMANS SEPHARDIC TINGE (Thursday) Mr. Coleman, a keyboardist with a pan-everything sensibility, leads an ensemble inspired by Iberian Jewish music as part of the Sephardic Music Festival; the following set, at 10 p.m., features a trio led by another fascinating pianist and conceptualist, Uri Caine. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $12 for each set. (Chinen) GEORGE COLLIGAN TRIO (Thursday) Mr. Colligan has built his solid sideman career on a rhythmically intrepid piano style; he plays here with Josh Ginsburg on bass and E. J. Strickland on drums. 8 and 9:45 p.m., Kitano Hotel, 66 Park Avenue, at 38th Street, (212) 885-7119; no cover, $10 minimum. (Chinen) * PAQUITO DRIVERA AND PANAMERICANA (Tuesday through Jan. 1) Few musicians have a better claim to pan-Americana than Paquito DRivera, the clarinetist, saxophonist and longtime Cuban exile who toured extensively with Dizzy Gillespies United Nation Orchestra. Headlining the club that bears Gillespies name, Mr. DRivera features a diverse array of sidemen, including the trumpeter Claudio Roditi, the cellist and trombonist Dana Leong and the steel drum player Andy Narell. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595. Cover: $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar ( on New Years Eve, first set, $130; second set, which begins at 11 p.m., is $195. Both sets include dinner). (Chinen) FREEDOMLAND (Thursday) Boisterous, unscripted improvisation is the lingua franca of this collective, with the percussionist Dee Pop, the multi-reedist Daniel Carter, the saxophonist Dave Sewelson and the bassists William Parker and David Hofstra; a preceding set, at 8 p.m., will feature a trio led by the restless violinist Billy Bang. 10 p.m., Jimmys Restaurant, 43 East Seventh Street, basement, East Village, (212) 982-3006; cover, $10, includes one drink. (Chinen) DONNY McCASLIN GROUP (Thursday) Mr. McCaslin has earned accolades for his sinewy, surging saxophone solos in the Maria Schneider Orchestra; here he gets a sparser setting, backed only by the bassist Omer Avital and the drummer Daniel Freedman. 10 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, near Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883; cover, $10. (Chinen) MARYANNE DE PROPHETIS (Tonight) Marking the release of a stark and haunting new album, At a Glance (LoNote), the singer Maryanne de Prophetis corrals the trumpeter Ron Horton and the pianist Frank Kimbrough, who is also her husband; joining the group as a guest is the bassist Dean Johnson. 6 p.m., 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, near Seventh Avenue South, West Village, (212) 929-9883; no cover. (Chinen) THE ORGAN SUMMIT (Through Sunday) This descriptively titled engagement features no fewer than three Hammond B-3 organists -- Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Reuben Wilson -- together with the saxophonist Houston Person and the guitarist Melvin Sparks, among others. 8 and 10 p.m., with an additional 11:30 set tonight and tomorrow night, Iridium, 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, (212) 582-2121; cover, $30 with a $10 minimum. (Chinen) REUBEN RADDING TRIO (Wednesday) Mr. Radding, an intense young bassist, leads this texturally oriented ensemble, with the clarinetist and saxophonist Oscar Noriega and the vibraphonist Matt Moran. 8 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) BEN RILEYS MONK LEGACY SEPTET (Tonight) Mr. Riley, one of the most buoyant drummers ever to serve in Thelonious Monks band, honors the pianist and composers memory with this rock-solid septet, stocked with players like the trumpeter Don Sickler and the baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber. 8, 10 and 11:45 p.m., Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $30. (Chinen) * PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND (Tuesday through Dec. 31) The granddaddy of traditional New Orleans revival ensembles, the Preservation Hall band plays too seldom in these parts; this engagement closes out a tough year in defiantly high spirits. 8 and 10 p.m. with an 11:45 p.m. set on Dec. 30; sets at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. on New Years Eve, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232; cover, $30 to $35 ($125 and $175 on New Years Eve). (Chinen) VANESSA RUBIN SINGS DAMERON (Through Sunday) Ms. Rubin, a likable singer, rounds up an impressive cast in this evening of songs by the bebop composer Tadd Dameron; among them are the trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, the alto saxophonist Antonio Hart, the pianist John Cowherd and the drummer Carl Allen. 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Dizzys Club Coca-Cola, Frederick P. Rose Hall, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 258-9595; cover, $30, with a minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. (Chinen) DAVE SCOTT QUINTET (Wednesday) Mr. Scott, a prominent trumpeter and educator on the San Francisco scene, features his own compositions in this traditionally grounded but open-minded ensemble, with Rich Perry on tenor saxophone, Gary Versace on piano, John Hebert on bass and Take Toriyama on drums. 10 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-9177; cover, $8. (Chinen) SONNY SIMMONS ALL-STAR FREE JAZZ ENSEMBLE (Wednesday) The term all-star has relative connotations when it comes to free jazz; the alto saxophonist Sonny Simmons fits the bill, as do the guitarist Bern Nix and the multi-reedist Daniel Carter. 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $12. (Chinen) CEDAR WALTON QUARTET (Through Sunday) As a pianist and composer, Mr. Walton heeds an articulate, almost courtly variety of hard bop; hes at his best when his forms spark solos from collaborators like the trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who plays through Sunday, and the alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, who comes aboard next week. 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) * DR. MICHAEL WHITES ORIGINAL LIBERTY JAZZ BAND (Tuesday through Jan. 1) The New Years Eve residency of this traditional New Orleans jazz outfit, led by a knowledgeable clarinetist and scholar, is a hallowed tradition at the Village Vanguard; this year it takes on a wrenching poignancy, but pointedly swings on. 9 and 11 p.m. (9:30 and 11:30 p.m. on New Years Eve), Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037; cover, $20 to $25, with a $10 minimum ($100, and a $25 minimum on New Years Eve). (Chinen) * CASSANDRA WILSON (Tuesday through Jan. 1) A jazz singer by training and temperament, Ms. Wilson takes obvious pleasure in a genre-blind repertory; she has the right accompanists, including Brandon Ross and Marvin Sewell on guitars, Grégoire Maret on harmonica and Reginald Veal on bass. On New Years Eve, Ms. Wilson will play a special double bill with the guitarist Alvin Youngblood Hart, for a special price. 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592; cover, $55 at tables, with a $5 minimum, or $35 at the bar and a one-drink minimum(sets at 7 and 10 p.m. on New Years Eve, with $85 cover at tables $55 at bar for first show; and $125 at tables and $85 at the bar for second show). (Chinen) OTOMO YOSHIHIDE FESTIVAL (Sunday through Dec. 30) Mr. Yoshihide, a prominent figure on Japans free-jazz and noise-rock scene, plays both turntable and guitar in this nearly weeklong celebration; his clutch of collaborators, which changes nightly, will include the trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, the guitarist Bill Laswell and the saxophonist John Zorn. 10 p.m., the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village, www.thestonenyc.com; cover, $10. (Chinen) Classical Full reviews of recent music performances: nytimes.com/music. Opera AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (Tomorrow and Wednesday) Tobias Pickers much-anticipated opera, based on Theodore Dreisers landmark 1925 novel, a rare Metropolitan Opera commission, breaks no new ground for musical originality and dramatic inventiveness. This is an unabashedly conventional melodrama. Whole stretches of Mr. Pickers Neo-Romantic score would not be out of place on Broadway. Still, with an effective libretto by Gene Scheer that reduces the 900-page novel to its essential narrative strands, An American Tragedy has its own kind of sweep and passion. And every time Mr. Picker summons his modernist vein, the music becomes more challenging and consequently more involving. The production by Francesca Zambello, with its three-tiered set, is impressive to see and flows deftly. And the cast could not be better, with the dashing baritone Nathan Gunn as Clyde Griffiths, the ambitious social-climber, the soprano Patricia Racette as the wistful factory worker Roberta, and the mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as the moneyed and dazzling Sondra. James Conlon conducts. Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday at 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $26 to $220.(Anthony Tommasini) DIE FLEDERMAUS (Monday, Thursday and Dec. 31) Most stagings of Strausss ever-popular operetta, including some revivals of the Mets 1986 Otto Schenk production, seem uncomfortable with the mix of silliness and cynicism in the story of playful infidelities in 1870s Vienna. But the Mets current presentation boasts a winning cast of singers who, for the most part, take the story seriously and give subtle portrayals, especially Bo Skovhus as the ladies man Gabriel von Eisenstein, Sondra Radvanovsky as his knowing wife, Marlis Petersen as the perky chambermaid Adele and Earle Patriarco as the wily Dr. Falke. Jacques Lacombe conducts a lithe and fresh performance. And with the masterful comedic actor Bill Irwin as the drunken jailor Frosch, the show has plenty of hilarity. Those attending the New Years Eve performance can count on surprise guests showing up to sing during the party scene in Act Two. Monday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Dec. 31 at 7 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $26 to $250. (Tommasini) LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (Tonight) On opening night of the Mets revival of Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor in late October the admirable American soprano Elizabeth Futral gave a vocally top-notch and sensitive performance of the touchstone title role. Still, determined to sing this daunting role with musicianly honesty, she seemed reticent to plumb the emotional recesses of this unstable and fascinating character. So it should be interesting to hear her Lucia now that she has gotten the jitters out and lived with the role in Nicolas Joëls production. The veteran Bel Canto tenor Ramón Vargas sings Edgardo. Edoardo Müller conducts. 8 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, (212) 362-6000; $36 to $205. (Tommasini) THE MERRY WIDOW (Tonight and tomorrow) The tiny Amato Opera can pick up on a holiday tradition with the best of them. For the 100th anniversary of Franz Lehars classic operetta, its offering the piece in a new English translation. 7:30 p.m., Amato Opera, 319 Bowery, at Second Street, East Village, (212) 228-8200; $30, $25 for students and 65+.(Anne Midgette) Classical Music BARGEMUSIC (Tomorrow) Seasonal music is in the eye, or ear, of the beholder. And to hear Bachs Goldberg Variations in their entirety performed by a skilled pianist, Steven Beck, seems a wonderful holiday present. 7:30 p.m., Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (718) 624-2083; $60. (Midgette) A BOHEMIAN CHRISTMAS (Sunday) The Bohemians of the title are not funky artists, but residents of medieval Prague. The ensemble Early Music New York is offering a program of 13th- to 15th-century music from Bohemia and, incongruously, Poland; it isnt all Christmas music by any means, but its a nicely organized program. 3 and 8 p.m., St. James Chapel, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Amsterdam Avenue at 110th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 280-0330; $40. (Midgette) HANDELS MESSIAH (Tonight) Andrew Megill leads the veteran Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra in the second of its two annual Messiah performances in Carnegie Hall. Julianne Baird, Margaret Lattimore, Philippe Castagner and Brian Mulligan are the soloists. This is typically a solid competitor in a crowded Messiah field. 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $20 to $100.(Jeremy Eichler) NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC (Wednesday and Thursday) Lorin Maazel leads the orchestra in Sibeliuss Fifth Symphony along with Tchaikovskys Violin Concerto with Julia Fischer as soloist and Webers Bassoon Concerto with Judith LeClair. 7:30 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721-6500; $26 to $92. (Eichler) NEW YORK STRING ORCHESTRA (Tomorrow and Wednesday) Every year around this time, the New York String Orchestra Seminar assembles talented young players from the nations high schools and conservatories for 10 days of intensive rehearsals and coaching capped by two performances. First up is an all-Mozart program including the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro and the Piano Concerto No. 21 with Jonathan Biss as soloist. Next, on Wednesday, comes a more eclectic program ranging from Bach to Barber with Beethoven and Spohr in between. Hilary Hahn joins as soloist and Jaime Laredo conducts both nights. Tomorrow at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 8 p.m., Carnegie Hall, (212) 247-7800; $17 to $47. (Eichler) P. D. Q. BACH (Tuesday through Thursday) Believe it or not, its been 40 years since the composer and satirist Peter Schickele first discovered the music of his own creation, P. D. Q. Bach, whom he describes as the last and certainly the least of Johann Sebastian Bachs interminable children. Mr. Schickele marks the anniversary this week with three performances of his 40-Year Retrogressive program, in which hell reprise various P. D. Q. favorites while no doubt gleefully skewering the conventions of musicology and concert life along the way. 8 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400; $26 to $56. (Eichler) Dance Full reviews of recent performances: nytimes.com/dance. * ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER (Tonight through Sunday, Tuesday though Thursday) More shifting repertory from this vibrant company, performing mixed bills. Ailey Classics tonight and Wednesday night, and a program of seasonal novelties tomorrow afternoon. (The season runs to Jan. 1.) Tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m., tomorrow and Wednesday at 2 p.m., Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday at 7 p.m., New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212 or www.alvinailey.org or www.nycitycenter.org; $25 to $75.(John Rockwell) SAVION GLOVER (Tonight, tomorrow and Monday through Thursday) This Tony Award-winning tap stylist (Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk) is back again, doing what he does best. (Through Jan. 15. ) Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 and 8 p.m., Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday at 8 p.m., Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 242-0800; $34 to $42. (Jennifer Dunning) * THE NUTCRACKER (Through Thursday) The last week of the New York City Ballet in George Balanchines perennial holiday favorite, with ever-shifting casts. This afternoon, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and next Friday at 2 p.m., tonight and next Friday (the last performance of the run) at 8 p.m., and Monday through Thursday at 6 p.m., New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 870-5570, www.nycballet.com; $20 to $99. (Rockwell) THE NUTCRACKER (Today, Monday and Tuesday) For those who prefer Long Island to Lincoln Center, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet soloist Bonnie Pickard performs the role of the Sugarplum Fairy in the Eglevsky Ballets Nutcracker. Today at 5 p.m., Monday and Tuesday at noon and 5 p.m.. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Brooksville, N.Y., (516) 299-3100; $25 to 45. (Claudia La Rocco) THIS WAY THAT WAY (Tonight through Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday) The show, developed by Mark Lonergan of Parallel Exit, follows two con men on a cross-country adventure in a production that blends vaudeville, physical theater and dance, with the stars Joel Jeske and Ryan Kasprzak. (Through Dec. 31.) Tonight at 7:15, tomorrow and Sunday at 2:15 p.m., Tuesday at 7:15 p.m., Wednesday at 2:15 and 7:15 p.m., 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues, Manhattan, (212) 279-4200, www.59E59.org; $35; $15 for children. (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. Over all, 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) Asia society: Vietnam: Destination for the New Millennium -- The Art of Dinh Q. LE, through Jan. 15. Born in Vietnam, Mr. Le moved to the United States at 11 and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York. This small exhibition presents high-concept photographic and sculptural works about the Vietnam War and its effects, as well as a pair of sleek sculptures representing communications satellites that satirize Vietnams plans to enter the Space Age and the global consumerist economy. 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, (212) 288-6400.(Ken Johnson) Brooklyn Museum: Edward Burtynsky: Manufactured Landscapes, through Jan. 15. Large, expertly made color images by a Canadian photographer show industrial subjects like marble quarries in India, a tire dump in California and modern development in China. 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, (718) 638-5000. (Johnson) * Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum: FASHION IN COLORS, through March 26. Drawn from the collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute in Kyoto, Japan, this sumptuous show arranges 68 often lavish Western gowns and ensembles according to the colors of the spectrum and reinforces their progress with a posh color-coordinated installation design. For an experience of color as color, it is hard to beat, but it also says a great deal about clothing, visual perception and beauty. 2 East 91st Street, (212) 849-8400. (Roberta Smith) * THE FRICK COLLECTION: MEMLINGS PORTRAITS, through Dec. 31. Just over 30 portrait paintings by Hans Memling survive from the 15th century. Of those, about 20 are on view at the Frick Collection. Thats a whale of a lot of paintings by any major early Northern European artist to be in any one place at one time, and there is little question that this show -- two compact rooms of compact pictures, each picture a main event -- will figure on any shortlist of outstanding events of the year. 1 East 70th Street, (212) 288-0700. (Cotter) * 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. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, (212) 423-3600. (Smith) African-American Vernacular Photography, through Feb. 26. These days collectors and curators prize vernacular photographs -- commercial studio portraits, postcards, snapshots and other sorts of often anonymous photographic kitsch. Here that trend intersects with a commitment to photography as a form of social documentation in a exhibition of about 70 vernacular photographs depicting African-Americans from 1860 to 1940. International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, (212) 857-0000. (Johnson) * JAPAN SOCIETY: HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: HISTORY OF HISTORY, through Feb. 19. A personal, whimsical exhibition by this well-known Japanese photographer, who incorporates into his work artifacts he has collected, particularly from East Asia and Japan. Mr. Sugimotos reach is long and his range is broad, from fossils to textiles to undersea dioramas to Japanese calligraphy to the Trylon and Perisphere (a minisculpture) that symbolized the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. 333 East 47th Street, (212) 832-1155. through Feb. 19th (Grace Glueck) JEWISH MUSEUM: SARAH BERNHARDT: THE ART OF HIGH DRAMA, through April 2. This exhibition is devoted to the flamboyant 19th-century actress whose name was once invoked by mothers as a warning to melodramatic daughters: Who do you think you are, Sarah Bernhardt? Its almost overstuffed roster of items includes original Félix Nadar photos of Bernhardt at 20 and the costumes she wore as Cleopatra and Joan of Arc. 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200. (Edward Rothstein) * JEWISH MUSEUM: THE JEWISH IDENTITY PROJECT: NEW AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY, through Jan. 29. Whos Jewish, who isnt, and, by the way, what is a Jew, anyway? These are not easy questions, as this intense who-are-we exploration makes clear. Ten projects by 13 artists try to help break the stereotype of American Jews as uniformly white, middle class and of European descent. Using photography and video, the artists have interpreted their missions broadly, from the Korean-born Nikki S. Lees meticulous staging of a Jewish wedding with herself as the bride, to Andrea Robbins and Max Bechers look at the thriving shtetl established by Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews in rural Postville, Iowa. (See above.) (Glueck) * Metropolitan Museum of Art: FRA ANGELICO, through Jan. 29. An exhibition as rare as it is sublime brings the divine Angelico down to earth, showing how he had the best of both worlds, using the innovations of the Renaissance to parlay the radiant colors, gilded surfaces and doll-like figures of Gothic art into a final flowering. Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212) 535-7710. (Smith) METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: DAVID MILNE: PAINTING TOWARD THE LIGHT, through Jan 29. Watercolors by a Canadian painter little known in the United States, although he spent some 25 years in New York City and other parts of the state. In his quiet, spare renditions of urban vignettes, country landscapes, trees and domestic life, David Milne (1882-1953) focused mainly on aesthetic matters, like color, line and light, while skirting the avant-garde. Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, (212) 535-7710. (Glueck) * METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: THE PERFECT MEDIUM: PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE OCCULT, through Dec. 31. Hands down the most hilarious, not to mention the most charming, exhibition the Met has done in years: an assemblage of 19th-century and early-20th-century spirit photographs, séance reportage and other examples of transparent tomfoolery. Like all examples of great humor, it is, at heart, also a sneakily serious affair. Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, (212) 535-7710. (Michael Kimmelman) * Met: VINCENT VAN GOGH: THE DRAWINGS, through Dec. 31. Think again before deciding youve got a case of van Gogh fatigue and skipping this exhibition -- not just because the focus is on drawings, which on the whole are less well known than the paintings and were so important to the early spread of his reputation, but also because in the flesh, great art, no matter how often it has been dully reproduced or mistaken for a price tag or overrun by crowds, retains its dignity and originality and utter strangeness. (See above.) (Kimmelman) * Museum of Modern Art: Beyond the Visible: The Art of Odilon Redon, through Jan. 23. The timing was off for the big Odilon Redon retrospective in Chicago in 1994. The art worlds mind was on identity politics and neo-conceptualism. Fin-de-siècle drawings of moony monsters and lamp-bright flowers existed on some other planet. Now theres another Redon survey, smaller, very beautiful, culminating in his lush, pixilated late paintings. And the timing for it is just right. 11 West 53rd Street, (212) 708-9400. (Cotter) * Museum of Modern Art: ELIZABETH MURRAY, through Jan. 9. Here is the complete range of shape-shifting, dizzily colored pictures that Elizabeth Murray has produced over four decades. The colors are noisy, the harmonies pungent, the scale big and bold. While art-world fashion has drifted here and there, Ms. Murray has stuck to her craft, with all its difficulties and at the occasional cost of failure and neglect. Her show is a meaty, openhearted, eye-popping event. (See above.) (Kimmelman) Museum of Modern Art: PIXAR: 20 YEARS OF ANIMATION, through Feb. 6. With more than 500 drawings, collages, storyboards and sculpted models by 80 artists, numerous projections and a mesmerizing three-dimensional zoetrope, this exhibition offers a detailed glimpse of the creative and technological processes behind such computer-animation wonders as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo. In the end, nothing has as much art or magic as these films themselves, but the concentrated effort and expertise that goes into them is nonetheless something of a wonder too. (See above.) (Smith) * The Museum for African Art: Lasting Foundations: The Art oF Architecture in Africa, through Jan. 6. Like most architectural shows, this one uses lots of photographs and texts, and more than many, it also incorporates objects: Dogon door locks from Mali; carved Igbo doors from Nigeria; Swahili window frames, rich with Indian and Islamic motifs, from Kenya. World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, 220 Vesey Street, Lower Manhattan, (718) 784-7700. (Cotter) neue galerie: Egon Schiele: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections, through Feb. 20. This extensive exhibition mostly of works on paper gives an informative account of the regrettably brief career of one of the 20th centurys great draftsmen and romantic rebels. Schieles self-portraits, drawings and watercolors of sexy young women still burn with fires of narcissistic yearning, erotic desire and bohemian dissent. 1048 Fifth Avenue, (212) 628-6200. (Johnson) * New York Public Library: THE SPLENDOR OF THE WORD: MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS, through Feb. 12. Few objects encapsulate their times like the exquisite full-service concentrations of text, image and decoration that are illuminated manuscripts, and few institutions in North America have as many great ones as New York Citys favorite library. Fifth Avenue, at 42nd Street, (212) 869-8069. (Smith) * Rubin Museum of Art : What is it? HimalAyan Art, For a basic guide to the art of Tibet and Nepal, you will do no better than to take a slow walk through this new show, which, using an array of gorgeous objects, distills knotty visual and spiritual systems to a soothing but stimulating entry-level form. 150 West 17th Street, Chelsea, (212) 620-5000. (Cotter) The Noguchi Museum: The Imagery of Chess Revisited, through March 12. In 1944, the artists Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp and the gallery director Julien Levy organized an attention-getting New York exhibition devoted to chess, once a chic pastime for members of the artistic intelligentsia. Organizers of this historically intriguing show managed to find most of the works that were in the original exhibition, including chess sets designed by the artists Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Calder and Man Ray. 9-01 33rd Road, at Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens, (718) 204-7088. (Johnson) * Studio Museum in Harlem: FREQUENCY, through March 12. Despite some marked unevenness, this display of new and recently emerged talent confirms the current vitality of black art, contemporary art and midsize New York museums. Names to look out for include Kalup Linzy, Leslie Hewitt, Jeff Sonhouse, Shinique Amie Smith, Demetrius Oliver, Michael Paul Britto, Nick Cave, Mickalene Thomas and Michael Queenland, but dont stop there. 144 West 125th Street, (212) 864-4500. (Smith) * Whitney Museum of American Art: THE ART OF RICHARD TUTTLE, through Feb. 5. For 40 years Richard Tuttle has murmured the ecstasies of paying close attention to the worlds infinitude of tender incidents, making oddball assemblages of prosaic ephemera, which, at first glance, belie their intense deliberation and rather monumental ambition. Out of cord, tin, Styrofoam, florists wire and bubble wrap he has devised objects whose status is not quite sculpture or drawing or painting but some combination of the three, and whose exquisiteness is akin to that of jewelry. His outstanding retrospective is a cross between a kindergarten playroom and a medieval treasury. 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street, (800) 944-8639. (Kimmelman) Galleries: Uptown Charles Biederman: Works from the Thirties One of the most interestingly maverick and talented of between-the-wars American Modernists, Biederman left New York in 1942 for Minnesota, where he continued to make art and write art theory until his death in 2004. This small exhibition of biomorphic abstract paintings and one glossy construction of squares and knobs from the 1930s shows what an excellent student he was of European Surrealism and Constructivism. Meredith Ward, 60 East 66th Street, (212) 744-7306, through Jan. 14. (Johnson) Richard Pousette-Dart: Presences: The Imploding of Color Though routinely associated with Abstract Expressionists, Pousette-Dart had metaphysical and symbolist interests that distinguished him from better-known members of that group. In the 1960s and 70s, he turned to what you could call Pointillist Color Field Painting, and though the sensuous impact of light, color and thickly stippled paint is strongly asserted, the works are also animated by intimations of cosmic mysticism. Knoedler, 19 East 70th Street, (212) 794-0550, through Jan. 7. (Johnson) Galleries: 57th Street Gerhard Richter This celebrated German master presents two sets of paintings. One set, made in his familiar manner of squeegeeing layers of wet paint, is enigmatically punctuated by a photograph of Mr. Richters own painting of flying fighter planes from the 1960s. The other, consisting of large canvases bearing blurry, all-gray patterns based on silicate molecules, casts a spell of visionary pessimism. Marian Goodman, 24 West 57th Street, (212) 977-7160, through Jan. 14. (Johnson) Structure Hardly any artist today takes geometry as seriously as certain American Modernists did following the lead of Mondrian in the mid-20th century. So this well-produced show of geometric relief sculptures by Ilya Bolotowsky, Nikolai Kasak and Charles Biederman among others comes as a nice surprise. Eli Bornsteins truly beautiful, neatly gridded constructions of floating wood blocks painted lovely confectionery colors are alone worth the trip. Forum, 745 Fifth Avenue, at 57th Street, (212) 355-4545, through Jan. 14. (Johnson) Richard Walker: Beacon Road Paintings Working on compact panels in a deft, painterly style that mixes influences of Alex Katz and Neil Welliver, this Scottish artist creates vividly atmospheric views of snowy woods and other quiet nature scenes. Alexander, 41 East 57th Street, (212) 755-2828, through Dec. 30. (Johnson) Galleries: Chelsea Abetz/Drescher The Berlin-based collaborators Maike Abetz and Oliver Drescher paint large, busily detailed pictures of Renaissance ruins densely populated by fashion models, broken guitars, televisions and naked figures from pagan myth in a style you might call psychedelic Pre-Raphaelite. Though not impressive formally or technically, they do capture a certain wildly eclectic and deeply narcissistic state of youthful consciousness. Goff & Rosenthal, 537B West 23rd Street, (212) 675-0461, through Jan. 7. (Johnson) Carolina Raquel Antich: All of a Sudden An Argentine who lives in Venice, where she was included in last summers biennale, Ms. Antich makes extremely spare paintings and drawings of children that exude moods of such sweet innocence that you cant help suspecting something malevolent lurking just beyond the outer edges of her imagery. Florence Lynch, 531-539 West 25th Street, (212) 924-3290, through Jan. 7. (Johnson) Nobuyoshi Araki, Painting Flower and Diaries Mr. Araki is one of Japans great photographers, but his installation of pictures of tied-up nude young women interspersed with pictures of exotic flowers garishly slathered with paint is too fashionably transgressive. Anton Kern, 532 West 20th Street, (212) 367-9663, through Jan. 14. (Johnson) Miki Carmi: Psychic Readymades This young Israel-born painter makes strangely creepy pictures of senior citizens oversize bald heads based on members of his family. He lavishes painterly attention on veins, age spots, baggy eyes, wrinkles and drooping lips, and he floats the heads like weird balloons against white backgrounds. The paintings are far from beautiful, but their unsettling impact feels right for the often confusing roles that elders play in our psychic lives. Stux, 530 West 25th Street, (212) 352-1600, through Jan. 21. (Johnson) * ROY DE FOREST: NEW PAINTINGS At 75, this underappreciated West Coast artist, a sort-of Neo-Expressionist before the fact, brings a new vehemence of color and texture, amplified by clearer compositions, to his comic-sinister universe of bright-eyed, zoned-out men and animals. George Adams, 525 West 26th Street, Chelsea, (212) 564-8480, through Jan. 28. (Smith). Paula Scher: The Maps Big paintings in the form of maps of Europe, North America, Los Angeles and Long Island combine abstraction and eccentric cartography with invigorating, subtly comical verve. Maya Stendhal, 545 West 20th Street, (212) 366-1549, through Jan 21. (Johnson) Catherine Sullivan: The Chittendens In a multiprojection video work, professional actors, none speaking, perform scripted sequences of actions. At first the effect is comical, but humor is overridden by an academic mission to deconstruct codes of behavior in film, theater and real life. Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street, (212) 206-7100, through today. (Johnson) Galleries: SoHo * JIM DRAIN and ARA PETERSON: HYPNOGOOGIA With a kaleidoscopic, mirrored DVD installation and multifaceted sculptures that resemble gaudy 12-foot-high soccer balls, two of contemporary arts most interesting collaborators have masterminded a kind of wonderland of digital and analog psychedelia. The best piece is best experienced by descending into a kind of rabbit hole on a ladder. The total effect is amazing, if a little vacant. Deitch Projects, 18 Wooster Street, (212) 343-7300, through Jan. 28. (Smith) Last Chance CHARLES BURCHFIELD: PAINTINGS, 1915-1964, The best landscapes of this underappreciated American modernist, seen here in a rare, well-selected survey of his watercolors, depict a natural world that is lighted from within. D. C. Moore Gallery, 724 Fifth Avenue, near 57th Street, (212) 247-2111, closing today. (Smith) Dave Cooper: pictorial ruminations on the volume and density of mostly pillowy girls Comically weird illustration is enjoying great popularity among artists under 40. The Ottawa-based Mr. Cooper is a master of the genre. His manically surrealistic paintings and drawings of toothy, pop-eyed women in hectic situations mix attraction and repulsion with infectious verve. Jonathan Levine, 529 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 243-3822, closing today. (Johnson) GEORGE GROSZ: HIS VISUAL AND THEATRICAL POLITICS This small banquet of George Groszs drawings from 1914 to 1930 -- before he came to the United States -- shows his work in two arenas, for publication and for the stage, at the height of his wit and moral indignation. Achim Moeller Fine Art, 167 East 73rd Street, (212) 988-4500, closing today. (Glueck) Hans Haacke: State of the Union People say that the days of politically minded art are over. The market, that monstrous sponge, absorbs and neutralizes all. But there may be at least one resistant margin left: uncoolness. Uncool art can do and say whatever it wants, because the market doesnt care. Hans Haackes art has been doing and saying what it wants for 40 years. Sometimes his socially engaged Conceptualism is in synch with fashion; at other times, like now, it is not. But he keeps to his course, changing the forms, adjusting the themes, renewing the commitment. In this show he carries the case for art as political argument into the post-9/11 present. Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st Street, Chelsea, (212) 255-1105, closing today.(Cotter) Gwen Hardie: Face Paintings Each of Ms. Hardies quietly arresting, medium-size canvases depicts a much enlarged part of someones face -- an eye, a nose, the top of a lip -- realized in thin layers of smudgy color. Detail is suppressed, and the paintings veer toward an evocatively blurry and enigmatic generalization that verges in some cases on abstraction. Dinter, 547 West 27th Street, Chelsea, (212) 947-2818, closing today. (Johnson) BYRON KIM: ODDLY FLOWING In this rambling show by an artist who made a splash in the early 1990s by comparing the skin tones of different people in monochromatic canvases, most interesting are the photographic assemblages under the rubric of What I See. These impressions of important places in his life, like the one of his backyard in Park Slope, Brooklyn, have a sweet, nostalgic poignancy. Each is the result of a 360-degree sweep with a digital camera, with the images reassembled into an intensified whole. They tweak the landscape in a lively fashion. But the show needs focus; the inclusion of other, unrelated works weakens its impact. Max Protetch, 511 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, (212) 633-6999, closing today. (Glueck) * Helen Levitt: Slide Show: Color Photographs 1959-1984 For some artists, Ms. Levitt is one, the camera is less an expertly operated tool than a seamless extension of mind, eye and heart. Made from slides, the 21 color pictures in this show of things happening in the street are small miracles of form, story-telling and metaphor. Laurence Miller, 20 West 57th Street, (212) 397-3930, closing today.(Johnson) * Mary Ellen Mark: Falkland Road When the American photographer Mary Ellen Mark started visiting India in the 1960s, she didnt head for the Taj Mahal. She hung out on a jammed and noisy street in Bombay called Falkland Road, the citys busiest low-rent red light district. Her goal was to photograph the prostitutes -- men and women, children and adults -- who lived and worked there. The complete series of pictures, exhibited only once before in the United States in 1981, is on view in two Chelsea galleries. The images are as startling and engrossing as ever. And with the devastating spread of AIDS in India since they were made, they are something more. Marianne Boesky Gallery and Yancy Richardson Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea. Boesky: (212) 680-9889; Richardson: (646) 230-9610, closing today. (Cotter) TIM NOBLE & SUE WEBSTER: THE GLORY HOLE The latest gimmickry from this British art team consists of metal scrap assemblages that conjure up 1950s junk sculptures and, properly lighted, cast shadows of the artists faces or bodies in profile. Briefly diverting side-show humanism. Bortolami Dayan, 510 West 25th Street, Chelsea, (212) 727-2050, closing today. (Smith) * Claes Oldenburg This excellent show of works from the 60s by this seminal Pop artist includes paint-splattered objects like oversize sneakers and a slice of pie à la mode and soft, stuffed objects like a toilet and a giant house key. Zwirner & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street, (212) 517-8677, closing today. (Johnson) Lari Pittman New, weirdly antic pictures of domestic interiors rendered in a luminous, splintery Cubist style by this Los Angeles-based painter are visually captivating and poetically mysterious. Gladstone, 515 West 24th Street, Chelsea, (212) 206-9300, closing today. (Johnson) Traffic As usual for its big group exhibitions, Exit Arts current Biennial, this one devoted to the theme of traffic -- vehicular and otherwise -- is messy, youthful, noisy, crowded and entertaining. Highlights include a miniature model of a sidewalk construction site walkway by Chantel Foretich; portraits of 10 New York art dealers -- i.e., art traffic controllers -- by Tom Hébert; a finely made plywood tower mimicking a mold for pouring concrete highway bridge supports, by Mike Wsol; a set of ceramic train cars by David Packer; and many variously amusing, tedious and distracting videos. Exit Art, 475 10th Avenue, at 36th Street, (212) 966-7745, closing today. (Johnson) CY TWOMBLY: BACCHUS Eight paintings deliver a red-hot visual tsunami via the artists characteristic spiraling scribbles writ large across amazing, angry, joyful enveloping surfaces that are in the grand tradition of the aging painter letting it rip. Gagosian Gallery, 980 Madison Avenue, at 77th Street, (212) 744-2313, closing today. (Smith) REBECCA WARREN: PAS DE DEUX A young British sculptor who works in unfired, sometimes painted clay, makes an impressive debut with sculptures that roam the history of sculpture and decorative objects with juicy abandon, sprouting snoutlike breasts and frazzled roses and culminating in large figures of dancers that split the difference between Degas and de Kooning, with a little Francis Bacon thrown in for good measure. Matthew Marks Gallery, 523 West 24th Street, Chelsea, (212) 243-0200, closing today at 3 p.m. (Smith).
Family prepares for Mary Jane Velosos final day - Rappler
Mary Jane Velosos requests for the day include a copy of the Jubilee song and some durian.
Who is MARY JANE VELOSO, and why is she on death row?
Mary Jane Veloso, along with two members of the Bali Nine, is scheduled to face death by firing squad in Indonesia. What was her crime, and is there still a chance for mercy amidst international outcry?
Mary Jane may be executed at 1 am - Migrante
MANILA - Migrante Chairperson Connie Bragas-Regalado said Mary Jane Velosos execution will be at midnight in Indonesia (1 a.m., Manila time). In an interview with dzMM, Bragas-Regalado said she and her colleagues were monitoring the preparations .
Indonesia Rebuffs Last-Ditch Bids to Delay Drug-Convict Executions
Indonesia said the execution of nine drug traffickers would go ahead this week, rebuffing last-minute appeals from Australia and the Philippines to spare their nationals and ignoring a decision by the Constitutional Court to hear a final challenge.
The story of MARY JANE VELOSO, in her own words - Rappler
MANILA, Philippines ��� Below is a narrative by Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, shared by her parents with Rappler. Veloso is a Filipino formerly working as a domestic worker, set to be executed in Indonesia by firing squad over drug��.
MARY JANE VELOSOs alleged recruiter surfaces
MANILA (UPDATED) - Maria Kristina Sergio, the alleged recruiter of Filipina death convict Mary Jane Veloso, turned herself in on Tuesday despite not having a warrant for her arrest. DZMM reported Sergio appeared at the Nueva Ecija provincial police.
PH on MARY JANE VELOSO: God answered our prayers
IN SOLIDARITY. Indonesian activists wearing masks depicting Filipino migrant worker Mary Jane Veloso attend a vigil outside the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 27, 2015. Photo by Mast Irham/EPA.
Despite Protests, Indonesia Moves Forward to Execute Drug Convicts
Nine people, most of them foreigners, are scheduled to go before firing squads in what is believed to be the largest mass execution in the nation in decades.
New CD’s
New releases from Fergie, Lupe Fiasco, Cibelle, Nels Cline and DJ Shadow.
Aside from MARY JANE VELOSO, 77 other Pinoys facing death penalty abroad
Aside from Mary Jane Veloso, the 30-year-old Filipina facing execution in Indonesia for drug smuggling, over 70 other Filipinos are on death row in other countries for various crimes, most of them involving illegal drugs. According to the Department of.
Pacquiao, umapela kay Indonesian Pres. Widodo na iligtas si MARY JANE VELOSO
FB. Twitter. Google Plus. Email. Linked In. Disqus. Pacquiao, umapela kay Indonesian Pres. Widodo na iligtas si Mary Jane Veloso. April 27, 2015 1:08pm. TAGGED IN maryjaneveloso mannypacquiao. FEATURED VIDEOS. LATEST VIDEOS .
Indonesia Defers Execution of 10 Drug Traffickers
Indonesias vice president said Wednesday that the execution of 10 drug smugglers, nine of them foreigners, might not happen in the near future because some of them have legal appeals pending.
Arethas Latest, Screamos Newest, Sineads Last
All dates subject to change. September JOHN ZORN -- As he did 10 years ago at the old Knitting Factory for his 40th birthday, the saxophonist and composer Mr. Zorn will celebrate himself with a month of continuous performances, amounting to an exhaustive, if not quite complete, retrospective. Tonight he plays his string quartets; tomorrow he duets with the drummer Milford Graves; Tuesday he plays his scores to films by Kenneth Anger, Maya Deren and Harry Smith; and so on through September. Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, (212) 358-7503. www.tonicnyc.com NICHOLAS PAYTON -- Well, now its official: every major young trumpeter in jazz keeps a funk band on the side. Mr. Paytons Sonic Trance has come up with a first, self-titled album, and it alters the cluttered landscape of these backbeat side-projects. It is, in places, legitimately weird and thoughtful; its post-electric-Miles scuffs and skids transcend the jazz musicians common desire to make a soigné mood album or a blunt attempt at hip-hop. Tuesday. Warner Brothers.. Ben Ratliff provides schedule and briefly describes jazz and pop concerts planned for new season; photos (L)
Indonesian Court Rejects Appeal by Australian Drug Smugglers
An Indonesian court on Monday rejected appeals by two Australian drug traffickers who challenged President Joko Widodos decision to refuse them clemency and spare their lives.
MARY JANE VELOSOs Second Appeal Is Rejected
A Yogyakarta court is said to have rejected the second appeal that Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso of the Philippines filed. She is set to face the firing squad. ���The rejection for the second appeal filed by Mary Jane is based on the law that stipulates there.
Australia Cant Do More for Death Row Prisoners in Indonesia
Australias foreign minister on Tuesday defended Prime Minister Tony Abbott against online criticism that he had not done enough to save the lives of two Australians on death row in Indonesia.
Indonesia Executes Drug Convicts, Sparks Anger From Australia, Brazil
An Indonesian firing squad executed eight convicted drug-traffickers from several countries on Wednesday, prompting Australia to recall its envoy to Jakarta and bringing an angry reaction from Brazil.
Court does not accept MARY JANE VELOSOs 2nd appeal
SAVE MARY JANE. Posters with pictures of Mary Jane Veloso are seen next to candles during a vigil outside the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 26, 2015, to support Veloso, a Filipino maid who is facing��.
Pacquiao begs Indonesian leader: Save Mary Jane - Rappler
Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao says clemency for Mary Jane Veloso will serve as a great morale booster for his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mary Jane Velosos recruiter surrenders to police - Rappler
(3rd UPDATE) Maria Kristina Sergio voluntarily surrenders on the execution day of Mary Jane Veloso. The Department of Justice has set the preliminary investigation on Mary Jane Velosos case on May 8.
Indonesia executes drug convicts, sparks anger from Australia, Brazil
A spokesman for the Attorney Generals Office said it had delayed the execution of Mary Jane Veloso, a housemaid and mother of two who was arrested in 2010 after she arrived in Indonesia with 2.6 kg of heroin hidden in her suitcase. He said the delay.
Jokowi on Mary Jane: Its about the supremacy of law
JAKARTA, Indonesia ��� Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo appears to have crushed the final hope that Mary Jane Veloso could be spared from execution. In an interview aired on state-owned television station TVRI��.
Australia Offers to Pay for 2 Prisoners Keep in Indonesia
Australia has offered to cover Indonesias costs for keeping two Australian heroin traffickers in prison for life if Jakarta grants permanent stays of execution, the foreign minister said Thursday.
The Pop Life; Tributaries to the Musical Mainstream
Last year record labels released about 27,000 CD titles in the United States. Though that it is a hefty number, it is actually low for the business, which released nearly 39,000 titles just a few years ago. Considering that only several hundred of those CDs even make the Top 40, that leaves thousands upon thousands of CDs that few people ever hear. Thus, every year, the pop music critics at The New York Times compile a list of the CDs that almost got away the previous year. The choices here include CDs on small independent labels; groups whose music has never been released domestically; acts who work in genres that are far too experimental or avant-garde for mainstream radio; older legends making a comeback; and younger musicians with the potential to become legends.. Favorite non-mainstream CDs of 2002 are named by New York Times critics, including Neil Strauss, Jon Pareles, Ben Ratliff and Kelefa Sanneh; photos (L)
Indonesia Rejects Australia Offer of Swap to Stop Executions
Indonesian officials said Thursday they will reject an Australian offer to swap prisoners as part of a last-ditch attempt to save the lives of two Australian drug smugglers expected to face a firing squad within days.
Family to visit Mary Jane Veloso in Indonesia prison
The family of Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina facing death penalty in Indonesia for smuggling huge quantities of drugs, is scheduled to fly to the Southeast Asian nation on Thursday to visit her in prison, a senior Foreign Affairs official said.
