John, but not forgotten
Commemorating the death of John Lennon is an ironclad New York tradition, and this year, the 33rd Annual John Lennon Tribute show at Symphony Space will see the likes of Joan Osborne, Bettye LaVette and Steve Earle turning out to pay homage. “Normally I turn down things that commemorate people dying,” Earle says. “But as a hard-core Beatles fan and a transplanted New Yorker, I didn’t think about this so much.” The Americana master saw the Beatles in Houston in 1966, and aside from being greatly affected as a lover of Lennon’s music, he also admits that the slaying forced him to change his views on firearms. “I was quite pro-gun at one point, but John dying was when my opinion started to change. They’re bad things to have floating around the world.”
Friday, 8 p.m., Broadway at 95th Street; 212-864-5400, symphonyspace.org. Tickets start at $65. – Hardeep Phull
Nutcracker, sweet
The sugarplum fairies dancing in your head after seeing Austin McCormick’s “Nutcracker Rouge” might just be pole dancing.
“You’ve got to have a pole dancer!” McCormick jokes, but in his Company XIV, where court dance and burlesque elements fuse, a pole dancer is as natural as a baroque one — and you’ll see both in “Nutcracker Rouge.” The choreographer promises the iconic candy sections of the original ballet but adds more decadent treats, such as French Macarons and the bondage-influenced Licorice.
The show uses recorded versions of the beloved score by Tchaikovsky and a swinging revamp by Duke Ellington, but also adds in a cover of a Lana Del Rey song.
Add to that live opera singers and gloriously eclectic designs of junkshop glitter and it all works somehow.
Friday at 8 p.m. (and others shows through Jan. 5) at the Minetta Lane Theater, 18 Minetta Lane; 212-420-8214, nutcrackerrouge.com. Tickets start at $39.— Leigh Witchel
Serving bard time
New York critics are notoriously tough, but they have nothing on the audiences the Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit found on its recent mini-tour of senior-citizen centers, shelters, rec centers and jails.
“Our Beatrice had to hold for 10 to 15 seconds at Rikers because the audience was out of their seats, screaming,” recalls Michael Braun, who plays Benedick in the troupe’s abridged “Much Ado About Nothing.”
“There were some off-color remarks thrown at us, but always engaging with the story,” he adds. “If they felt one of the male characters wasn’t living up to his masculine duties, he would hear it immediately.”
The production is now playing a short run at a regular venue — the Public Theater — but this may be a letdown for Braun.
“In a lot of ways, we got spoiled by prison audiences and how engaged they are,” he says.
Through Dec. 15 at 425 Lafayette St.; 212-967-7555, publictheater.org. Tickets, $20. — Elisabeth Vincentelli
Child’s play
Never mind Furbies and Tickle Me Elmos — a new holiday exhibit is focusing on great toys of yesteryear.
“Batteries Not Included: Toys and Trains at the New-York Historical Society” features a sampling from the museum’s 3,500 toys in the permanent collection. Open now through Jan. 5, the display incorporates cast-iron, carved-wood and tin toys made between 1850 and 1945, with such standouts as a 1945 Lincoln Tunnel wind-up roadway and a standing dog pull toy, circa 1860 to 1890.
“A lot of what’s in here are things that are very collectible,” says Debra Schmidt Bach, the installation’s curator, waving off giving any dollar values. “[But] we just try to take care of things that are representative of a period in time.”
170 Central Park West, at 77th Street; 212-873-3400, nyhistory.org. — Gregory E. Miller
Grave situation
Florence La Badie was the very first person known to the public as a movie star ever to die — at age 29, of injuries sustained in a mysterious automobile accident near Ossining, NY, in August 1917. For nearly a century, there have been whispers of foul play linking the beautiful actress to an extramarital affair with President Woodrow Wilson. One of La Badie’s short comedies, “Petticoat Camp,’’ is being shown Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of Green-Wood Cemetery as part of a program of silent films featuring actors who, like La Badie, are buried there. Pianist Ben Model will provide accompaniment.
Fifth Avenue and 25th Street, Brooklyn; green-wood.com. Tickets, $30. — Lou Lumenick