Damn Manhattan, this is just cold: First the Ohio Theater announced its imminent demise, and now the funkiest venue in town, The Zipper Factory, is getting bagged and tagged. Time Out NY reports that the deceptively capacious room (located in a former Garment District zipper factory) and the attached bar will cease operations immediately. Since opening in 2001, The Zipper Factory has become well-regarded as a hotspot for burlesque, music, comedy and other eclectic performance art; we most recently caught A Murry Little Christmas there. Speaking to Variety, proprietor Lee Z. Davis attributed the closure to "a disagreement over real estate." But what's there to disagree about? The NYC real estate market has been sucking the soul out of this town for years. Goodnight, sweet Zipper Factory; we'll miss your recycled vintage bus benches. Oh, and the Cutting Room closes tonight, too! more ›

Tradition dictates that holiday variety shows be structured around a loose plotline of impending doom; Christmas is about to be canceled, Santa's under indictment, a rabid bear is mauling Elvis Costello. In A Murray Little Christmas, the rollicking and ribald burlesque comedy show now packing them in at The Zipper Factory, Xmas '08 is critically endangered by the multi-headed hydra of recession, Proposition 8, and, naturally, gentrification. Oh, also, there wasn't room in the production budget to install a working chimney in the "illegal gingerbread squatting apartment" that serves as the set, so there's no way for Santa to make his grand entrance. more ›