It's not a totally new idea, but how has this not become a thing yet? Why aren't we all rushing off to jazzercise after work? Camille Eroy-Reveles, owner of a Williamsburg-based fitness training company called The L Trainer, tells us she's currently hosting a free '80s aerobics class every Tuesday night from 8 to 9 p.m. in (where else) Williamsburg. The next session is tomorrow, and Eroy-Reveles suggests you drop by in your spandex and legwarmers, because '80s gear is encouraged! (Luckily American Apparel has been mass producing '80s aerobics gear for years; Dov Charney, prepare for a spike in sales if this thing takes off!) more ›

Beethoven's 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli are among the most exceptional pieces written for piano, but why Beethoven decided to focus so much attention on a single, some say simplistic, waltz, has been cause for great debate. In Moisés Kaufman's new Broadway play, 33 Variations, musicologist Dr. Katherine Brandt (Jane Fonda) becomes obsessed with figuring out Beethoven's fascination with the variations. During the span of the play, we witness not only Beethoven's dark spiral into complete deafness, but Dr. Brandt's own struggle with a fatal illness, as both geniuses come to terms with the final phases of their lives. more ›

Actor Roy Scheider died yesterday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, after battling multiple myeloma for several years and suffering complications from a staph infection. He was 75 and had been living in Sag Harbor, New York (after moving out his house in Sagaponack that Billy Joel purchased). more ›

Barry Manilow, who is out promoting his Greatest Songs of the Seventies, has refused to share a stage with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who was barely walking in the 70s. The crooner left a little message on his website yesterday for his fans letting them know he wouldn't be on The View today, saying "I had made a request that I be interviewed by Joy, Barbara or Whoopi, but not Elisabeth Hasselback. Unfortunately, the show was not willing to accommodate this simple request so I bowed out. It’s really too bad because I've always been a big supporter of the show, but I cannot compromise my beliefs." more ›

THEATER: New York Magazine called Kanene Holder’s last solo show, SITCHAASSDOWN “21 pitch-perfect snapshots of the black experience”. His current multimedia performance art installation, Committing that Black on Black Crime Called Blackface, goes down in the front window of chashama on 37th Street. Between the hours of 5:30pm and 8pm, curious passers-by can behold Holder paying satirical homage to Buckwheat “via a self-muzzled/pantomiming character who navigates a racist cauldron of images while staring into circus mirrors for glimpses and reconfirmations of reality, by repetitively applying and removing black-face makeup. The menacing screens around him “flash a motley crew of visual memorabilia and supplanted nostalgic references to "the good ole' days" of minstrel shows then and now.” - John Del Signore more ›

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, it's always a joy to see Bateman on screen, and he does some hilarious work as the obnoxious, wheelchair bound Ex. You want to punch him in his ascot-wearing face nearly every time he's on screen, and that's quite a feat for a guy who most recently played such a winning TV lead. In addition to Bateman nearly every other supporting part is filled by a solid comedic performer like Rudd, Charles Grodin, Donal Logue, Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler and Amy Adams. Each of them take totally throw away moments and sell them with such comedic sincerity. Also the plot line about career woman Sofia trying to adjust to being a stay-at-home mom is done with welcome deftness. It'd be great to see Peet in even more roles like this where her sensitivity and likability can shine through. Producers Ted Hope, Anne Carey and Anthony Bergman (ie. former nurturers of directors like Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener and Michel Gondry) obviously understood that even though screenwriters David Guion and Michael Handelman as well as Jesse Peretz are just starting out in the biz, they all have the goods. more ›

THEATER: Previews start tonightfor the first U.S. production of Australian Gordon Graham's play The Boys, ferried here across the bigger pond by Outhouse Theatre Co. The title characters aren't boys in age, but they certainly are in their attitudes toward women: at a party celebrating one man's release from jail, he and two buddies grow increasingly angry at their girlfriends, and leave in a misogynistic huff. The next day a woman is found raped and murdered -- was it them? The play should provoke plenty of heated -- but hopefuly not too heated -- discussion among audience members. - Mallory Jensen more ›

There are a ton of shows we want to catch this week, most of them fall on Tuesday night - so we'll be consulting the magic 8 ball and various street psychics on what show to go to. Let's get to it, shall we? more ›

On March 20th this year, the 3rd Anniversary of the US Invasion of Iraq, a group of artists will come together for the Bring 'em Home concert. Michael Stipe, Bright Eyes, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, Rufus Wainwright, Steve Earle, Fischerspooner, Peaches and Devendra Banhart will join forces for the event which will benefit the Iraq War Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace. more ›

This might be the most alarmist issue of New York magazine ever! The city's weekly takes the time to summarize the insane saga of strange bird Peter Braunstein, the suspected Halloween sexual attacker. There are some choice tidbits about Braunstein's iex-girlfriend and interactions with colleagues, there are also some withering critiques of his style:

In this [cutthroat fashion magazine] environment it was normal for people to be working a persona, but no one quite got Braunstein’s—the Jheri-curl mullet, Huckapoo shirts, velvet blazers, an unironic briefcase (for shame!), and the daily parade of leather pants. “Studio 54 by way of the electronics shop,” says one co-worker; “as if he discovered mousse ten years too late”; “a hair trope like Robert Townsend in The Hollywood Shuffle”; “could’ve been the drummer from Boston circa 1971.”

- Atheists rejoice in non-believing by watching PBS-NOVA’s Origins at Southbridge Towers, tonight at the NYC Atheists Dinner and Movie Nite at 6PM @Pier 17 at South Street Seaport (212-330-6794). more ›

As for this weekend, so many new movies are coming out: If you’re a Will Ferrell fan then there’s soccer-comedy Kicking and Screaming ;documentary fans should definitely catch the heartwarming Mad Hot Ballroom; those who loved Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels might appreciate the producer’s new Layer Cake, the tale of a British coke dealer trying to exit the underground drug world; Gothamist saw Monster-in-Law and while J.Lo was Nutra-sweet annoying, menacing Jane Fonda was hysterical, and not only because she indulged in what so many have yearned to do: slap J. Lo around (really, the audience was cheering). more ›