Events on Friday, May 15

Dan Deacon & Ensemble

Music: Electronic

Dan Deacon & Ensemble

Friday 5/15 @ 979 Broadway Backyard

Madcap songsmith Dan Deacon usually performs solo, convincing sweaty audience members to engage in dance-offs, group chants, and mass fits of... 

Azita

Music

Azita

Friday 5/15 @ Bruar Falls

Azita Youssefi's sudden transformation from no-wave gadfly (as the frontwoman of Chicago's beloved Scissor Girls) to solo cocktail chanteuse wasn't so... 

Overboard: a FIGMENT Fundraiser

Party

Overboard: a FIGMENT Fundraiser

Friday 5/15 @ Battery Maritime Building

We're not really suggesting you jump ship tonight, but over-the-top antics are encouraged at this all-night fundraising throwdown for FIGMENT —... 

Sound Noir feat. Rick Wade and Mike Servito

Music: DJ

Sound Noir

Friday 5/15 @ TBA

We love a warehouse party that hearkens back to our old-time raving days. Not when we used to wave glowsticks around... 

Ongoing Events

<em>C.H.U.D.Z.</em>

Art

C.H.U.D.Z.

Friday 5/15 @ Cinders Gallery

"Chudz," according to Urban Dictionary, is a term that can mean either sex or a "complete and utter" pimp (although said... 

Hernan Bas: <em>Works from the Rubell Family Collection</em>

Art

Hernan Bas

Friday 5/15 @ Brooklyn Museum of Art

Hernan Bas is Miami's biggest home-grown art star, known for darkly poetic, romanticized works that read as chapters in an epic,... 

Paragraph

City Gems

Paragraph

Friday 5/15 @ Paragraph

Joy Parisi and Lila Cecil understand the importance of having a room of one's own. At Paragraph, their Union Square writing... 

Theatre

God of Carnage

Friday 5/15 @ Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre

A playground altercation between two preteen boys escalates to full-on war when their parents get involved in French playwright Yasmina Reza's... 

<em>Never Late Than Better</em>

Art

Never Late Than Better

Friday 5/15 @ EFA Project Space

On the Futurist Manifesto's centennial anniversary, Never Late Than Better aesthetically evaluates our notion of time. Rethinking, defying, or just palling... 

<em>Surrendering the Absolutes, New Works by Robert Longo</em>

Art

Surrendering the Absolutes

Friday 5/15 @ Metro Pictures

In Robert Longo's Surrendering the Absolutes, his signature large-scale charcoal drawings explore the atmospheric effects of light, and the ways in... 

Martha Graham Dance Company

Dance

Martha Graham Dance Company

Friday 5/15 @ Skirball Center NYU

The Company's two programs at Skirball are excellent ways to either become acquainted with or rediscover Martha Graham's genius. Told from... 

Art

Klaus Moje

Friday 5/15 @ Museum of Art and Design

As a German Down Under, glass-art virtuoso Klaus Moje has single-handedly made Australia a hub for that fine art's evolution. Artist... 

Jessica Stockholder: <em>Swiss Cheese Field</em>

Art

Jessica Stockholder

Friday 5/15 @ Senior & Shopmaker Gallery

Jessica Stockholder gets wild with layered compositions of paint blobs, handmade paper, laser-cut textiles (some furry, some shiny), and other collaged... 

Dance

Go-Go Killers!

Friday 5/15 @ The Sage Theatre

In the year 2019, the economy is in permanent economic downturn; the rich are richier and bitchier; New Jersey  becomes "Old"... 

charity: water at Chelsea Market

Special Event

charity: water at Chelsea Market

Friday 5/15 @ Chelsea Market

Flavorpill is a longtime fan of charity: water, a non-profit org dedicated to building sustainable, clean, freshwater wells in some of... 

Open Tables

Workshop/Class

Open Tables

Friday 5/15 @ Sputnik

Sometimes it feels like NYC's got as many "DJ"s as it does "actors." But, if you're a budding turntablist serious about... 

<em> Distracted </em>

Theatre

Distracted

Friday 5/15 @ Laura Pels Theatre

In Distracted, ADHD permeates the entire play, down to its structure: short, fast scenes shift focus on a dime. Even the... 

<em>Tangled Alphabets</em>: Le&oacute;n Ferrari and Mira Schendel

Art

Tangled Alphabets: León Ferrari and Mira Schendel

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

For all its fundamental utility, language can also warp into an abstract whatsit — at least in the artful hands of... 

Music: Classical

Mahler: The Symphonies in Sequence

Friday 5/15 @ Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin (one of the world's oldest orchestras) for nearly two weeks to play the complete symphonies... 

<em>Sleepwalk With Me</em>

Comedy

Sleepwalk With Me

Friday 5/15 @ The Culture Project @ 45 Bleecker

Comedian Mike Birbiglia walks a fine line between standup and theatre in his one-man off-Broadway debut Sleepwalk With Me. He tells... 

Art

Claes Oldenburg

Friday 5/15 @ Whitney Museum of American Art

With public-art dandy Claes Oldenburg, Pound's dictum seems especially true: all great art is born of the metropolis. The Whitney's Oldenburg... 

Sophie Calle: <em>Take Care of Yourself</em>

Art

Sophie Calle

Friday 5/15 @ Paula Cooper Gallery

Displaying a unique approach to what might otherwise inflict emotional trauma, artist Sophie Calle rose to challenge an ex's breakup email... 

Theatre

Pretty Theft

Friday 5/15 @ Access Theater

Allegra, the teenage heroine of Adam Syzymkowicz's play, Pretty Theft, is as pretty as her name. She's also had a great... 

Ward Shelley: <em>Who Invented the Avant Garde</em>

Art

Ward Shelley

Friday 5/15 @ Pierogi

The Byzantine details of Ward Shelley's "timeline drawing" mind-maps bear a fuzzy likeness to American Splendor. Applying ultimate to-do list techniques... 

Art

\'flō\: art, text, new media

Friday 5/15 @ Center for Book Arts

A motley collection of works by 30 artists makes up the \'flō\: art, text, new media exhibition, which examines the use... 

<em>Waiting for Godot</em>

Theatre

Waiting for Godot

Friday 5/15 @ Studio 54

Master comic actors Bill Irwin, Nathan Lane, and John Goodman infuse a bit of glee in the cosmic questions posed by... 

Ahmed Alsoudani

Art

Ahmed Alsoudani

Friday 5/15 @ Goff + Rosenthal Gallery

Iraqi-born American painter Ahmed Alsoudani builds tumultuous compositions about violence, war, and human suffering, juxtaposing human and bestial figures whose violent... 

Art

The Pictures Generation, 1974-84

Friday 5/15 @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Pictures Generation pulls the curtain on the young laboratory of the New York art scene in the '70s and '80s.... 

<em>In the Heights</em>

Theatre

In the Heights

Friday 5/15 @ Richard Rodgers Theatre

There's a lot more color and zing on the Great White Way with the addition of In the Heights, an ebullient... 

Marc Ribot Birthday Week

Music: Experimental

Marc Ribot

Friday 5/15 @ Various locations

It's a good week indeed, with a handful of shows celebrating the 55th birthday of singular avant-garde guitarist Marc Ribot. While... 

<em>A Play on Words</em>

Theatre

A Play on Words

Friday 5/15 @ 59E59 Theaters

True to its title, Brian Dykstra's A Play on Words is an English major's idea of non-stop fun. A Play on... 

Theatre

True West

Friday 5/15 @ 181 Ave B

"I wanted to write a play about double nature, one that wouldn't be symbolic or metaphorical or any of that stuff,"... 

<em>Polish Posters 1945-1989</em>

Art

Polish Posters 1945-1989

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

Bracketed by those historic "falls" in nearby Berlin (of the city itself and, later, its Wall), the Polish Poster School's expressionistic,... 

<em>Il Divo</em>

Film

Il Divo

Friday 5/15 @ Landmark Sunshine

Il Divo is a searing political biopic of three-time Italian Prime Minister and Senator-for-life Giulio Andreotti, which focuses on his unparalleled... 

Theatre

West Side Story

Friday 5/15 @ The Palace Theatre

Argentine opera singer Josephine Scaglione's magnetically angelic presence contrasts beautifully with the unforgiving world around her in Arthur Laurents' gritty revival... 

<em>Kenneth Anger</em>

Film

Kenneth Anger

Friday 5/15 @ P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

Kenneth Anger's supernaturally influential, six-decade-long career is not without its sighing what-ifs: several adaptations never went past maybe steps; famed shorts... 

Nam June Paik: <em>Live Feed, 1972-1994</em>

Art

Nam June Paik

Friday 5/15 @ James Cohan Gallery

With his passing in 2006, Nam June Paik left a legacy as one of the ancestors of early video art. Paik's... 

Theatre

Christmas Is Miles Away

Friday 5/15 @ Connelly Theatre

British playwright Chloe Moss has received a number of awards and commissions, but her work hasn't been produced in the US... 

Art

KRAZY!

Friday 5/15 @ Japan Society

For all the otaku and hikikomori out there, this exhibition needs no further explanation — but for anyone curious about how... 

Huang Yong Ping

Art

Huang Yong Ping

Friday 5/15 @ Gladstone Gallery

Viewers walk in spirals from a snake's tail to its head, and back again through the arches of this massive installation... 

Theatre

Our House

Friday 5/15 @ Playwrights Horizons

Whip-smart playwright Theresa Rebeck's newest play, Our House, is a dark send-up of television and how the news and reality TV... 

<em>Billy Elliot</em>

Theatre: Broadway

Billy Elliot

Friday 5/15 @ Imperial Theatre

The dark economic times spurred by Wall Street and the new political landscape serve as the perfect backdrop for Billy Elliot,... 

Theatre

The Merchant of Venice

Friday 5/15 @ BAM Harvey Theater

All-male British troupe Propeller stages Shakespeare with an eye towards how the work was done during playwright's day: their version of... 

<em>Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West</em>

Art: Photography

Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

From Zane Grey's far-fetched dime novels to homespun images describing a seemingly limitless stretch of adventure, the American West — as... 

<em>The Norman Conquests</em>

Theatre

The Norman Conquests

Friday 5/15 @ Circle in the Square Theatre

Norman's plan for a "dirty weekend" with his sister-in-law Annie turns into a couple days of chaos with the whole family... 

Company XIV presents <em>Le Serpent Rouge: A Titillating Tragedy</em>

Dance

Le Serpent Rouge

Friday 5/15 @ 303 Bond Street

The original "origin" story is another glittery triumph for choreographer/director Austin McCormick and XIV. With the assistance of a demonic Ringmistress... 

Art

Jenny Holzer

Friday 5/15 @ Whitney Museum of American Art

Jenny Holzer thrives outside the more traditional, brick-and-mortar art world of paint and photography, using LED and light projection as her... 

<em>Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea</em>

Art

Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea

Friday 5/15 @ Brooklyn Museum of Art

Thirty-odd years after reintroducing Gustave Caillebotte to American audiences, the Brooklyn Museum offers another marvelous paean to a figure whose posthumous... 

<em>Exit the King</em>

Theatre

Exit the King

Friday 5/15 @ Ethel Barrymore Theatre

400-year-old King Berenger (Geoffrey Rush) doesn't know he has only 90 minutes left to live at the beginning of Ionesco's rarely... 

Spring Exhibitions

Art

Spring Exhibitions

Friday 5/15 @ Artists Space

Flowers that manage to exist in cement-road crevices: a timeless analogy for nature's resiliency in the face of man, and also,... 

Art

Surveillance from the Doll House

Friday 5/15 @ Mireille Mosler Ltd.

Laurie Simmons' 2006 mini-musical film in three acts, The Music of Regret, eloquently captures the tone of this bittersweet and poignant... 

Theatre

Desire Under the Elms

Friday 5/15 @ St. James Theater

Robert Falls' strikingly visceral production breathes new life into Eugene O'Neill's problematic, oedipal love triangle of a play. In other hands,... 

Martha Friedman: <em>The Organization of Batter</em>

Art

Martha Friedman

Friday 5/15 @ Wallspace

Riffing on Rosalind Krauss' essay, "The Double Negative," in which the author considers the "organization of matter" through systems and repetition,... 

Art: Photography

Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard

Friday 5/15 @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art

From setup to snap and on through to print, the picture postcard of the early 1900s aimed to be a simple,... 

<em>South Pacific</em>

Theatre

South Pacific

Friday 5/15 @ Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is one of those rare, magical experiences that makes musical theater... 

Art: Photography

Avedon Fashion 1944–2000

Friday 5/15 @ International Center of Photography

For photographer Richard Avedon, the decisive moment came as a flash of mischief. Picture: two lovely femmes, their coated backs shielding... 

Human Group presents Gertrude Stein's <em>The Geographical History of America</em>

Theatre

The Geographical History of America

Friday 5/15 @ The Red Room

"Geography does not look like it does in relation to the human mind" wrote Gertrude Stein. Like her portrait by Picasso... 

<em>Our Town</em>

Theatre

Our Town

Friday 5/15 @ Barrow Street Theater

David Comer's justly praised production (he took home the '09 Obie for Outstanding Director, the play won the Lucille Lortel Award... 

<em>Performance 1</em>: Tehching Hsieh

Art

Tehching Hsieh

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

Art and life are inseparable for Tehching Hsieh. The Taiwan-born artist, who literally jumped ship into the US in 1974, created... 

<em>Anvil</em>

Film: Documentary

Anvil

Friday 5/15 @ Angelika Film Center

Based on cultural stereotypes involving maple syrup, socialized health care, and general congeniality, heavy metal wouldn't seem to be Canada's forte.... 

<em>Hair</em>

Theatre: Broadway

Hair

Friday 5/15 @ The Al Hirschfeld Theatre

Although Hair was written over 40 years ago, capturing the spirit of a certain movement and period in our history, its... 

Art

Jonathan Horowitz

Friday 5/15 @ P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

The connection between Paris Hilton and America's ill-fated military interventions might seem tenuous, but after viewing Jonathan Horowitz's sculptures and video... 

<em>David Seidner: Paris Fashions, 1945</em>

Art

David Seidner: Paris Fashions, 1945

Friday 5/15 @ International Center of Photography

By August 1944, France had been liberated from the clutch of the Vichy regime, but war had left its proud-as-a-peacock couture... 

<em>Coraline</em>

Theatre

Coraline

Friday 5/15 @ Lucille Lortel Theatre

It's no fluke that beloved songwriter Stephin Merritt chose to set Neil Gaiman's book-turned-movie Coraline to music. The darkly droll circumstances... 

Art

Malcolm Morley

Friday 5/15 @ Sperone Westwater

Careening motocross and NASCAR racers skid across Malcolm Morley's new paintings — one even leaps through a monumental sculpture in a... 

Performing Arts: Spoken Word

Berlin/Wall

Friday 5/15 @ The Public Theater

Following a premiere last month at London's Royal Court Theatre, playwright David Hare performs Wall, his latest monologue on the Middle... 

Gregory Crane: <em>Thirty Years of Drawings 1979-2009</em>

Art

Gregory Crane

Friday 5/15 @ Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts

A champion of the good old-fashioned methods of observation and draughtsmanship, Gregory Crane populates urban and rural landscapes with spirited sets... 

The Late Film

Film

The Late Film

Friday 5/15 @ BAM Rose Cinemas

If an auteur's debut is their "Dear reader," then their last few films come into sight as postscripts: variations on a... 

<em>Fuerza Bruta: Look Up </em>

Theatre

Fuerza Bruta: Look Up

Friday 5/15 @ Daryl Roth Theatre

Avid fans of spectacular spectacle De La Guarda are rejoicing with the arrival of Fuerza Bruta: Look Up, a sort of... 

The Con Film Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

The Con Film Festival

Friday 5/15 @ Film Forum

A few albums back, Jay-Z flowed, "I'm living proof that crime do pay/Say hooray to the bad guy." Behold Film Forum's... 

Theatre

The Dishwashers

Friday 5/15 @ 59E59 Theaters

Morris Panych's dark comedy The Dishwashers is reminiscent of a Samuel Beckett work, complete with existential philosophizing and dialogue that prompts... 

Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge

Art

Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

Design is not always pretty. Sometimes it is blunt and aggressive, especially when it is meant to deliver a clear message... 

In Situ: Architecture and Landscape

Art

In Situ: Architecture and Landscape

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

In recent decades "landscape" has taken on an expanded definition in architecture. In the first half of the twentieth century, the... 

Stage Pictures: Drawing for Performance

Special Event

Stage Pictures: Drawing for Performance

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

Visual artists have long been interested in the stage as an arena for experimentation, and their interdisciplinary collaborations have immeasurably enriched... 

What Was Good Design? MoMA's Message 1944–56

Art

What Was Good Design? MoMA's Message 1944–56

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

At mid-century MoMA played a leading role in the definition and dissemination of so-called Good Design, a concept that took shape... 

Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest

Film

Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest

Friday 5/15 @ Asia Society and Museum

Check out the premiere U.S. museum showing of Yang Fudong's Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest. The five-part cinematic masterpiece depicts... 

Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection

Art

Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection

Friday 5/15 @ MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, acquired by the Museum in 2005, is an extraordinary collection of over 2,500 contemporary...