STAGE

Happy Days Through Sun., March 13 Worth Street Theatre brings Beckett's raucously mordant Happy Days to Classic Stage Company, where comic Bill Irwin did the Nobel laureate's caustic Texts for Nothing back in 2000. The play's age-old couple leaves almost everything for her to say-while buried to her waist in a parched hillock, and that's just the first act. One of the great roles in modern theater, Winnie is as lively and randy as she is doomed, and Worth Street's hired on Lea DeLaria (Vagina Monologues, Broadway's Rocky Horror Picture Show) to give the play an updated bent. David Greenspan plays her hat 'n' spats man Willie and Jeff Cohen directs, but Happy Days is allllll Winnie.

DeLaria may be best off bucking trends, as competition from past Winnies is stiff: Ruth White, Peggy Ashcroft and Beckett's main stage lady, Billie Whitelaw, have all taken on the character's chipper persistence, blazing parasol and bottomless handbag. Famed choreographer Maurice Bejart wrote in his Letters to a Young Dancer that he learned to move watching Madeleine Renaud's Winnie (recall that this is the last word in legless roles)-and that paragon of post-WW2 classical theater and her husband, renowned actor/director Jean-Louis Barrault, had to lobby the playwright hard to premiere the French version.

But edge will be the measure in DeLaria's sing-song monologues and ready laughs: The best Beckett's always equal parts funny and excruciating. Writing in an era of nuclear brinksmanship just a few years before Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove hit the big screen, Beckett cut out original material describing the set's barren bake as post-ICBM wasteland, then made the play his directorial swansong in '79 in a Royal Court production that reviewer/biographer James Knowlson wrote "hover[ed] much more perilously close to madness than in earlier productions" and felt "more deeply sunk in terror." Joyce Aaron waxed pleasant in Joseph Chaikin's '02 Cherry Lane Theater celebration of the play's West Village world premiere, but Rosaleen Linehan kicked against the pricks at the first Lincoln Center Summer Festival in the mid 90s, then starred in director Patricia Rozema's (Mansfield Park) intriguing version for the big Beckett on Film project.

Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St. (betw. 3rd & 4th Sts.), 212-279-4200; Tues.-Sat. 8, Sat. 2, Sun. 3 & 7, $45, weekend $50.

-Alan Lockwood

Keigwin & Company Feb. 16-17 & 19-20

Contrast in composition is a popular trend in fashion, art and dance: dark vs. light, masculine vs. feminine, abstract vs. realist. Larry Keigwin's work is no different. Months after debuting Natural Selection at the American Dance Festival, Keigwin describes the performance as a physical interpretation of survival of the fittest; the militant undertone is no surprise. The beauty of Keigwin's work is his ability to make aggressive moves graceful-limbs move elegantly despite a structured form. His work is a response to pop culture, and most performances involve a study of interpersonal relationships. While critics have praised the dancers, Keigwin's ability to develop characters and supply challenging choreography has been questioned.

Two short pieces follow: Angel of Anxiety and 10th Floor. The former is an 80s-style short the latter, an autobiography and Keigwin's debut as a choreographer. The program ends with Mattress Suite, an amusing examination of human sexuality, complete with seven mini performances. Naturally a mattress is the main prop and focal point, visualizing the different experiences that transpire in the bedroom: love, war, games. A strange mix of music from classical to blues and soul enhances the movements at times, but at other points the melodies don't synchronize well with the contemporary vein. If nothing else, the music adds variety and color to a witty if undeveloped project.

The Duke Theater on 42nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 646-223-3042; call for times, $20.

-Andrea Toochin

Racoco + The It Girls

Weds.-Sat., Feb. 16-19

If the Shoe Fits is a delicious hybrid concoction of garage, circus and catwalk. Directed by Rachel Cohen, this revision of the Cinderella story-as if told in a sideshow through the rabbit hole-hooks you with wit, balletic feet mincing under gladrags and throwaway absurdist visuals. Agata Olek's fey crochet couture is more 90s Lower East Side than 80s Alphabet City. The Prince seems to go off on a tangent with the Fairy Godmother that I don't recall from Grimm, and the Ugly Stepsisters live happily ever after. Original music by Daniel Kelly, Chris Michael, Lynn Wright, Lainie Diamond. P.S.: Some of the It Girls are boys.

Walkerspace, 46 Walker St. (betw. B'way & Church St.), 718-381-4074; 8, Sat. also at 2:30, $15/$12 st., s.c.

-Chris Dohse

They Are Not Falling

Thurs.-Sun., Feb. 17-20

Puerto-Rican choreographer Alejandra Martorell, whose amazing m.o marked her evening-length debut last year at P.S. 122, returns with They Are Not Falling, a work inspired by the photography of Michal Rovner. Those familiar with the Israeli-born artist will know to expect a sense of muted movement and strong emphasis on the spatial relationship between the dancers. Utilizing variations in grouping, Martorell sets up three separate yet intertwining expressions: a crowd of several dancers, the duet and a solo. Shifting emphasis from the slight gesture between the numerous figures on stage to the very detailed, specific move of a soloist, Martorell's exploration into the interaction of people will prove as interesting as her stylized command of movement. Accompanied by a video installation by Maya Ciarrocchi. On Sunday, check out P.S. 122's weekly "Talkback Series" with Martorell after the performance.

P.S. 122, 150 1st Ave. (9th St.), 212-477-5288; Thurs.-Sat. at 8, Sun. at 5, $15.

-Steven Psyllos