THEATER: The two most dreaded words in theater, "staged reading", get a shot at redemption with tonight's free reading of Stuff Happens. The show has cut and run from the Public Theater, so this is your last chance to catch David Hare's satire about the ramp-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. In an interview with NPR, Hare described it as "a play about how a supposedly stupid man, George W. Bush, gets everything he wants..." Laugh the pain away. - John Del Signore

Tickets can be picked up today (two per person) at the Public Theater (425 Lafayette St) from 1:00 - 3:00pm and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park beginning at 1:00 pm. The performance is at 8:00 pm

READINGS: Anna Quindlen, Newsweek columnist and queen of nice, has just released her fifth novel, Rise and Shine, about two sisters and their lives in New York, and she's reading from the book at the 17th St. Barnes and Noble tonight. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras

7pm // 33 E 17th St [between Park Ave South and Broadway] // Free

ART: Michel Gondry takes over Deitch tonight, with The Science of Sleep: an exhibition of sculpture and pathological creepy little gifts. The exhibit coincides with the release of his new movie The Science of Sleep. The gallery will have the movie sets "presented and elaborated on as to allow their more concerted consideration as sculpture. A walk through the exhibition will immerse the viewer in the sculptural experience of the movie in three dimensions."

6 to 9pm // Deitch Gallery [76 Grand Street] // Free

MUSIC: The Fever, Fxxxing Lion and The Dives play Galapagos tonight. Fever frontman, Geremy, is also displaying some of his original artwork in the space beginning tonight - along with work by Anna Denbo, Joshua Bruce and Elizabeth Weinberg.

10pm // Galapagos Art Space [ 70 N 6 Street] // $7