MOVIE: The Rubin Museum presents their "Proverbial Pictureshow," which features films that illustrate Bhutanese proverbs. Tonight's is: The tiger may die, but his paw never withers. They will screen the 1950 movie The Furies, starring Barbara Stanwyck. "A ranch owner butts heads with his daughter over her dowry, choice of husband, and the ownership of their land." The New Yorker's Richard Brody had this to say: "The director Anthony Mann, an early master of the film noir, turned to the Western in mid-career, and his second, The Furies, from 1950, is one of the greatest—in effect, a frontier noir with epic ambitions and Shakespearean audacities."
Friday // 8 p.m. // Rubin Museum of Art [150 West 17th St] // Free
COMEDY: Start the new year off with a smile on your face. Tonight Todd Barry (who you may know as Mickey Rourke's boss in The Wrestler) will be taking the stage at Comix for night one of his two-night stand. Revisit his 2004 interview with us, which remains one of the best ever.
Friday and Saturday // 10:30 p.m. // Comix [351 W 14th St] // $20
WALKING TOUR: The Union Square Partnership and Big Onion Walking Tours present a 90-minute walking tour called Union Square: Crossroads of New York. The free tour will zero in on "the social and political history of the Union Square neighborhood through discussions of the people, history, architecture, and forces that have shaped this community. You’ll hear how Union Square got its name, see where the legendary Tiffany & Co. once stood, and learn how to read the clock (yes, it’s a clock!) on 'The Metronome' sculpture and so much more!" Details here.
Saturday // 2 p.m. // Meet at Abraham Lincoln statue, Union Square // Free
THEATER: Kevin Spacey and Sam Mendes have joined forces to create a new theatrical venture called The Bridge Project, dedicated to casting both British and American actors in productions of classic plays to be staged in New York and London. Their inaugural season starts tonight at BAM with Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, starring Richard Easton, Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton on the Yankee side and, for the Anglos, Simon Russell Beale, Sinead Cusack and Rebecca Hall. Speaking about the new venture to the Times, Mendes, who lives in New York with his wife Kate Winslet and their two children, says, “I didn’t want to cut myself off from working with great English actors but still wanted to take my kids to school.” - John Del Signore
Saturday // 7:30 p.m. // BAM Harvey Theater [651 Fulton Street] // Tickets
EVENT: Bhutanese monk Lama Karma Namgyel will be at the SI Tibetan Museum "for a weekend of special blessings, teachings, fire ceremony, and dance." Check the site for more details; tomorrow he will conduct "a Buddha of Compassion Fire Ceremony and Dance of Vajrapani outdoors, during which offerings of food and herb medicines are given to the fire to offer healing while Lama Karma chants and recites special prayers."
Saturday and Sunday // Various times and prices // Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art [338 Lighthouse Ave, Staten Island]
MUSIC: This Sunday check out Uninhabitable Mansions at Cake Shop. The band features Robbie Guertin and Tyler Sargent of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Annie Hart of Au Revoir Simone, and Chris Diken and Danny Comer. The band doesn't just make music, they even create handmade books!
Sunday // 7 p.m. // Cake Shop [152 Ludlow St] // $6
THEATER: In 1959, The Living Theatre made an international stir with their production of Jack Gelber's play The Connection, which concerns a group of junkies waiting in a loft for the man. The production's emphasis on improvisation, audience confrontation, and meta-realism—the junkies are being filmed for a documentary during the performance—was hugely influential in the '60s avant garde theater scene. Fifty years later, Living Theatre co-founder Judith Malina has directed a revival of the seminal play, which, like the original, features live jazz. - John Del Signore
Sunday // 4 p.m. // The Living Theatre [21 Clinton St] // $30
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