Putting the Shine on Grime
The UK Grime scene is on fire. Try counting the sheer number of Brit mix-tapes, compilations and DVDs hitting the streets over the past few months. Yup, too many to count. More noticeable and significant though is the energy radiating from the scene. In a lot of ways it's similar to NYC's hip-hop beginnings in the Bronx during the late '70s. Hard to believe that there are already grime elders. OK, there are a few elders, but there is only one crowned king: ROOTS MANUVA has been putting down sharp, witty and often times, dark lyrical tales of his harsh upbringings for over 12 years. Roots has been breaking ground so long, the term grime wasn't invented. (Was it trip-hop? Was it dub/two-step?). His beats are also undeniable classics. In 2001, he was nominated for England's forefront Mercury Music Prize for his timeless LP, Run Come Save Me. Roots performs a NY exclusive DJ set while in the States on his current tour with The Gorillaz. Best of all-and quite surprisingly-it's a free show. (Jon Handel)
April 7. Cielo, 18 Little W. 12th St. (betw. 9th Ave. & Washington St.); 9?4 a.m., free.
Film Vets
The focus of the New School's 4th Annual Dorothy H. HIRSHON FILM FESTIVAL is the war movie. More specifically, a selection of anti-war documentaries that have taken some hard looks at Vietnam, Iraq and Rwanda. Award-winning filmmakers Peter Davis (Hearts and Minds), Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) and Garrett Scott and Ian Olds (Occupation: Dreamland) will all be on hand to screen and discuss their films.
Perhaps the Festival's most interesting evening will be opening night, April 11, at which a panel of combat vets will discuss the way they've been portrayed onscreen. Do these guys more closely identify with Rambo or John Wayne in The Green Berets? Given that it's The New School, it seems doubtful-but you never know. The festival closes on May 5 with a night of short films made by New School students. Best of all, the whole festival's free! (Jim Knipfel)
April 10-May 5. Various venues. 212-229-5353. www.mediastudies.newschool.edu
La Grand Drag
It would be easy to misinterpret the calm with which ballet master Paul Bowes and company director Victor Treviano conduct rehearsal. The dancers all seem at ease and a jocular atmosphere reigns throughout. But as the saying goes, appearances can be deceiving, especially when the company is LES BALLETS GRANDIVA, the famed dancers in drag who perform humorous takes on classical ballet. Grandiva's dancers are all men who perform as ballerinas, each one with his (or her) own drag name, or, as the company explains, "19 men in tutus and toe shoes." And while the dancers make even the most difficult steps look easy, the choreography is both grueling and sophisticated. During a recent rehearsal, Bowes puts Kirk Ruben-otherwise known as Tiffany Ann Cartier-through the moves of "Star Spangled Banner," a clever riff on Balanchine's 1958 ballet "Stars and Stripes," then the dancers regroup for the hilarious "Nightcrawlers," a parody of Jerome Robbins' piano ballets to Chopin. As a celebration of the company's 10th anniversary season, it's the only show Les Ballets Grandiva will perform this year in the city. One night to see the spectacle, the muscles, the makeup. (Chris Atamian)
April 10, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (at 95th St.), 212-864-5400; 8, $50/$10.
Winter Water
If you've seen enough of her movies, maybe you've noticed-Shelly Winters just had one hell of a time with water.
We all remember The Poseidon Adventure, where her swimming skills save everyone right before she has that heart attack and slides back under the surface. And there's Night of the Hunter, that beautiful and disturbing shot of her in the car at the bottom of the lake where Robert Mitchum dumped her.
Don't forget A Place in the Sun, in which Montgomery Clift rows her out into the middle of another lake and drowns her after she announces that she's pregnant. And if you want to stretch things just a little bit, you can toss Lolita in there as well, in which a distraught and humiliated Winters runs out into the rain and gets hit by a skidding car.
The glorious BAMCINÉMATEK has brought all four hydrophobic films together for a three-week celebration of the late, great Ms. Winters and her ongoing troubles with dampness. It's also a nice reminder of what a consummately great character actress she was (and a great lover-read her autobiographies). Winters came out of '50s Method Acting, and she certainly brought fluidity to all of her varied roles. (JK)
April 5-25. BAMcinématek, 30 Lafayette Ave. (betw. Ashland Place and St. Felix St.), B'klyn, 718-636-4100; $10/$7, for a schedule visit BAM.org.
Oh, Baby Baby
In the world of cabaret, where the adjective "legendary" with a singer's name means as much as "touchy" with "tenor," BABY JANE DEXTER sings in a realm all her own. From early Broadway classics to the day-before-yesterday pop standards, this baby has been belting since she first made a splash back in the '60s. Think Rita Coolidge meets Rosemary Clooney, with a dollop of Janis & Lady Day. Don't expect soft crooning: Even in the tiny back room at Helen's, a hole-in-the-wall tucked into Chelsea's Eighth Avenue Strip, she sings to the (nonexistent) balcony. After battling myriad health and personal problems, Dexter is the classic comeback kid. This is what New York cabaret is supposed to be-and all too often isn't: a highly personal journey of a performer who makes you believe you're the only other person in the room. (Steve Weinstein)
April 8-29. Hideaway Room at Helen's, 169 8th Ave. (at 19th St.), 212-206-0609; Sat. 7, $20 + $15 drink min.
TEENAGE TIME WARP
If reality TV's got you down and reading a dozen blogs a day just doesn't give you the icky, vicarious pleasure you desire, CRINGE READING NIGHT has you covered. Funny people read from old diaries, letters, songs, poems and other general representations of their first kisses and rock star crushes during their humiliating adolescence.
But it's OK cuz now they're using all that teen sturm & drang so you're laughing with them, not at them. (Jerry Portwood)
April 5. Freddy's Bar & Backroom, 485 Dean St. (at 6th Ave.), 718-622-7035; 8:30, free.