Dial 718for Party
At last month's "718 Sessions," DJ Danny Krivit spun non-stop, as he often does, for the seven-hour party. "I was just getting warmed up actually," he explains, adding that one time in Japan he spun for 22 hours straight! But such things come easily to the legendary New York club DJ/producer who, since the young age of 14, has DJ'd consistently for the past 35 years. He has become an integral part of NYC's disco and house club scenes at hot spots like the Loft, the Gallery and Paradise Garage. It was at the Garage that he nurtured long term collaborations with the late DJ Larry Levan and Francois Kevorkian-with whom he and Joe Claussell later launched the "Body & Soul" parties. Krivit has also witnessed firsthand four decades of the NYPD and clubland's oft-strained relationship. According to Krivit, the latest wave of attacks on NY clubs, which forced one of his recent parties to be relocated at the last minute, are about one thing: real estate. "Rising property values are changing the face of New York nightlife," he laments. For this Sunday's "718 Sessions" Danny Krivit gets a bit of a break from spinning from special guests DJ/producer/musician Osunlade and vocalist Rosin Murphy of Moloko. (Billy Jam)
May 7. Deep, 16 W. 22nd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-978-8869; 6-midnight, $5 for first 100 people/$17.
Playing (Not) Nice
There are going to be some mighty shady characters living at Film Forum for the next month and a half. With good reason, too-it's the biggest film noir spectacular Film Forum's ever hosted, with over 70 films, more than half of which aren't (legally) available on home video. Better still, most are being shown as double or triple bills. Best of all, these aren't the same old slick big-budget noirs everyone knows-these are the low budget, gritty, nasty B Noirs, from basics like Detour and The Killing, to obscurities like Man in the Dark and The Sleeping City. These are the noirs that gave the genre its name. This is Lawrence Tierney and Marie Windsor, Lee J. Cobb and Edmond O'Brien just not being nice to each other at all. At night. In the alley. While it's raining. (Jim Knipfel)
May 5-June 15. Film Forum, 209 W. Houston (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-727-8110.
In The Momix
Call them dancers, gymnasts, master illusionists-the ever-surprising members of Momix create fantastical visions and scenarios set to rich, pulsating scores. The feisty troupe-now 25 years old-is the brainchild and vehicle for Moses Pendleton, one of the original guys in Pilobolus, whose imagination knows no bounds. Their annual season at the Joyce Theater is always a treat. The first performance features their visionary, sensual interpretation of Peter Gabriel's majestic score for the Martin Scorcese film "The Last Temptation of Christ." For the following two weeks, they offer last year's brilliant and trippy "Lunar Sea," in which Pendleton-who in the past has drawn inspiration from sunflowers and the giant cactus of Arizona-transports us to the moon and beyond. The 90-minute work is a procession of dreamlike sequences performed mostly in black light, featuring glowing phosphorescent shapes rather than identifiable human forms. Swathed in cleverly designed second-skin unitards that allow only selected portions of the body to be visible, the ten dancers morph from strange blob-like profiles to sensuous amoebas, regularly defying gravity and catching the viewer by surprise. For the analytically minded, trying to get one's bearings-deciphering exactly how many bodies are on stage and how they are arranged-is often tricky. But "Lunar Sea" offers a fluid, charmingly psychedelic journey into the imagination, concocting scenarios where you can't be sure what is what-and shouldn't want to. The point is to let go and dive into his array of undulating, levitating shapes and forms as they are transformed and manipulated. (Susan Reiter)
May 9-28. Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave. (at 19 St.),
212-242-080; $42.-
One day only-comics for free
Longer days and warm summer air once invited classroom daydreams of the aimless pleasures waiting to be had in the lazy months ahead. These days, the eyes still turn to the sunny windows, and old fantasies still follow the same bright light back outside, down to the green trees and streets below; but now there is no promise of relief. The office proves a sturdier cage than the schoolhouse. Summer vacation itself may now be nothing more than a fantasy, but some young distractions, neglected, remain waiting to be picked back up. Comic bookstore owners nationwide are ready to reacquaint the occupied world with their simple, little stories, and they've set aside a Saturday to do it. On May 6, Free Comic Book Day offers just what it should to anyone who wanders into a participating store. Their Web site, FreeComicBookDay.com, provides a store locator and a list of the titles being given away, including X-Men, Justice League, The Simpsons, Archie and more. There are no secret fees or sign-up sheets, so no room for world-weary cynicism. Even if you can't escape from lunch breaks and due dates, at least now you can keep your desk stuffed full of comic books. (Steven McCauley)
Keeping up with the Jones'
It's the repetition of the daily chit-chat in cul-de-sacs that is enough to drive you up the wall. Staged as three interlocking scenes about three sets of couples on a suburban block, John Cariani's dark comedy cul-de-sac evokes the absurd nihilistic world of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano. Here, too, there is a series of coincidences that includes the pizza each couple orders for Friday night dinner, their shopping trips to the SuperCenter as well as their underlying experience of ennui and the shared perception that the Jones' have achieved the happiness they're missing.
Meanwhile, the Jones' appear, silently offering grins of self-satisfaction as the others confer about the need to keep up with them. So Stepford, so predictable, so quotidian it all seems! And then, to top it all off, the action finally turns to the Jones'. Having worked their way to the top of the status quo, their only concern is keeping everything as usual, literally reading from a book in which they report their own behaviors so that they can duplicate them. Why they need to maintain appearances leads to the play's jarring, unpredictable discovery.
As Mr. Jones, John Cariani is singularly compelling. His ability to capture subtle emotional nuances with facial expression, his clown-like affect with legs that look like they're made of rubber, his intensity and his ability to make it all believable is fascinating. Cariani, by the way, received the 2004 Tony nomination for his role in Fiddler on the Roof, turning the innocuous tailor into a major presence with his idiosyncratic and skittish behaviors.
As a playwright, however, Cariani is uneven, creating characters for himself to shine as an actor while the others appear as merely cookie cutter. And then there's the hard driving moral, which carries throughout the play, finally articulated by Mr. Jones, "that true happiness and satisfaction are privately felt." That alone feels too belabored. But for what's its worth, this production will leave you bewitched, bothered and bewildered. (Isa Goldberg)
Through May 13. Connelly Theater, 220 E. 4th St. (betw. Avenues A & B), 212-352-3101; $19-$75.