DON’T MISS!: FLYING AWAY
This time it’s really the end for “End of the Rainbow.” The Broadway drama closes shop Sunday, which means you only have a few days to catch Tracie Bennett’s blistering performance as a late-in-life Judy Garland — boozed-up and doped-up, but still singing up a storm.
To tackle that demanding part, the British actress remained level-headed. “You take your wig off, and then you’re back to being yourself again,” she says. “You have to serve the piece, and to do that, you have to stay strong in yourself.”
At least she’ll have a breather before the show reopens on the West Coast in the spring, with hopes for a future movie version. As Bennett puts it, “It’s not over until the thin lady sings.” Through Sunday at the Belasco Theatre, 111 W. 44th St.; 212-239-6200.
— Elisabeth Vincentelli
CAROL ROSEGG
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SEE THIS!: SPARKLING MOVEMENT
Dance alone is beautiful, but it’s even better with a little help from its artistic friends. This weekend, the Collaborations in Dance Festival in Williamsburg celebrates teamwork with 17 pieces that combine movement with innovative music, design and lighting.
Choreographer Maya Kite equips her cast with LEDs, so the dancers look like twinkling stars in the darkness. A local electro-pop duo, Teen Commandments, accompanies a mix of dancers and nondancers in “Dead Denim.” And high concept can still have a sense of humor. Megan Mazarick and Mason Rosenthal offer “Mining the Mine of the Mind for Minderals,” donning lab coats to present a TED talk gone wild.
Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at 8 p.m., Triskelion Arts, 118 N. 11th St., Willamsburg. Tickets are $15; call 718-599-3577.
— Leigh Witchel
LARRY PRATT
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WATCH THIS!: A GAGGLE OF GAGS
Preston Sturges directed several screwball comedy masterpieces in the 1940s, and a pair of them starring Joel McCrea are showing today as part of BAM’s 50-film “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams’’ series devoted to actor/director combos. In “The Palm Beach Story’’ (at 4:30 and 9:15 p.m.) Claudette Colbert leaves her penniless architect hubby (McCrea) to pursue a daffy Florida millionaire (Rudy Vallée) with a sex-obsessed sister (Mary Astor), while in “Sullivan’s Travels’’ (6:50 p.m.) McCrea has his best role as a Hollywood director who decides to pose as a tramp to research an upcoming movie — and, among other hilarious and horrifying adventures, he meets wannabe-actress Veronica Lake. BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. Info: bam.org
— Lou Lumenick
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LISTEN TO THIS!: IDOL WORSHIP
Kelly Clarkson is hitting the beach next week . . . Jones Beach. It could be called her 10th anniversary tour. Back in 2002, the earthy Texas soprano won the debut season of “American Idol.” (Simon Cowell has called her the most talented “A.I.” winner ever.) On Tuesday, she’ll be joined by pop-rock band the Fray. Clarkson’s best songs are about self-assertiveness and control. One of her latest, “You Love Me,” off “Stronger,” has a chorus that ends, “You’re not good enough.” And that album’s title track is a worthy, disco-leaning sequel to 2004’s dynamite rocker “Since U Been Gone.” Clarkson’s outspokenness, whether endorsing Ron Paul or calling many of her own career shots, makes her more relatable than Lady Gaga: “The question I love to get asked is: What’s the hardest part of your job?” she told NPR in January. “The answer is probably real sad, but it’s to just to be me . . . If I’m the pop star, then it should be whatever I am.”
Tuesday, 7 p.m., Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, 1000 Ocean Parkway, Wantagh; jonesbeach.com
— Michaelangelo Matos
AP
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GO HERE!: A FEST FOR JAPAN FANS
The closest you can get to Japan this weekend is a parking lot in Edgewater, NJ. Tomorrow the Mitsuwa Marketplace’s lot will hold an Obon festival, a traditional summer celebration that’s been observed in Japan for centuries. It’s a multi-generational event during which people pray for the spirits of dead ancestors, whose spirits are believed to return during Obon.
People celebrate “a good harvest, a good catch of the oceans, being healthy through the year,” says Takayuki Ono, manager of the store, the country’s largest Japanese market.
Some 15,000 to 20,000 people are expected for the daylong festival, which will feature traditional food, including ramen, yakitori (skewered chicken) and okonomiyaki (savory pancakes), games, dance and taiko drumming. Free shuttle buses will run every 20 minutes from Port Authority, leaving from Gate 51 in the south terminal.
Free, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., 595 River Road, Edgewater, NJ; mitsuwa.com/tenpo/newj
— Chris Erikson
Getty Images
