Pencil This In

THEATER: From the author of underdog hit musical Urinetown comes The Truth About Santa, a comedy about a middle-manager who discovers that sneaky St. Nick fathered his children. Among other imponderables, the play wonders if "Mrs. Claus will finally make good on her threat to submerge humanity in a lake of fire?" Jason Zinoman at the Times calls it "a giddy, pleasingly sloppy downtown satire... staged with gusto."

8 p.m. // Kraine Theater [85 East Fourth Street] // $18

EVENT: 3rd Ward in East Williamsburg is welcoming "geeksters and the geek-curious" to Handmade Music tonight; it's a recurring party, science fair, and performance opportunity all in one. They'll have interactive digital and visual instruments on display along with all sorts of new DIY music technology to mess around with. As a bonus, Michael Una will demonstrate his optical theremin synthesizer Beep-it and conduct a workshop wherein attendees will build their own optical theremin. — Elisa Winter

7:30 p.m. // 3rd Ward [195 Morgan Avenue, Brooklyn] // Free

DRINK: The Bowery Beer Room at Whole Foods is offering a crash-course on how to brew your own ales and lagers. If things don't go well, drink away your sorrows with free samples after the class (which includes filling a growler with one of the Beer Room's limited-release brews). — Elisa Winter

6:30 p.m. // Whole Foods Bowery Beer Room [95 East Houston Street] // $30

MUSIC: Still listening to Nirvana's MTV Unplugged episode? You know we are. So come reminisce with us and The Meat Puppets tonight at Maxwell's. They're promoting their new album, Rise to Your Knees, but maybe, just maybe, they'll play Oh, Me or Lake of Fire. And opener Oakley Hall is definitely worth taking the PATH early.— Elisa Winter

9 p.m. // Maxwell's [1039 Washington Street, Hoboken] // $15

Photo courtesy Colin D. Young.