Happenings

MUSIC | Jamily Feud

Proving that there will truly be no end to the punnery even at the price of mining second-rate game shows, The Veritones and Callbacks team up for “Jamily Feud” tonight. Promotional posters for the event seem alternately inspired by Mortal Combat, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Superfly. Tickets $10, $7 for students. 8 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (NAS)

DANCE | Just Jazz

Just jazz. Nothing else. Tickets $7, $5 for students and seniors. 8 p.m. Rieman Center for the Performing Arts. (NAS)

MUSIC | Han Ma Eum, Han So Ri: Unity and Harmony

Finally, the Han Ma-Eum Korean Drum Troup have a chance in the sun, showing their distinctive and authentic appreciation of Korean music and culture. $3 Regular, $2 Students (2 per I.D.), $5 at the door. 7 p.m. Lowell Lecture Hall. (SAW)

Saturday May 1

MUSIC | Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah

The Old Testament comes alive! The Masterworks Chorale presents the tale of everybody’s favorite bad boy prophet, Elijah, in Mendelssohn’s classic piece. Mendelssohn’s operatic, dramatic choral style promises to make the chorale’s last performance of the season something special. Tickets $36, $26, $16 with discounts, $3 off for Mass. Teachers Association, WGBH, WCRB, Chorale members and Groups of 10 or more, $5 off for Outings & Innings Harvard Faculty & Staff, student rush $5 starting 1/2 hour prior to curtain time. 8 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (NAS)

CULTURE | Cinco de Mayo

Harvard Raza hosts a celebration of all things Mexican with traditional food, music and dance. Cinco de Mayo (the fifth of May) commemorates the triumph of a small Mexican force over a much larger French force back, giving it potential to be Bill O’Reilly’s new favorite holiday. Tickets $9, $8 for students and seniors. 8 p.m. Lowell House Dining Hall. (NAS)

MUSIC | The Notables

The Harvard Notables will take this stage for their spring concert “bursting with emotion.” Singing and dancing, they will be performing songs from Rent, Camelot,, Urinetown, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and more. $7 Regular, $5 Students. 8 p.m., Lowell Lecture Hall. (ACE)

MUSIC | Bach Society

Harvard’s self-proclaimed “premier chamber orchestra” takes the stage for yet another night of tranquilizing classical music. The program will feature pieces by Beethoven, Cooman, Ravel, Rossini. $8 Regular, $6 Students. 8 p.m. Paine Hall. (ACE)

DANCE | Southeast Asian Night

The Harvard Vietnamese Association, the Harvard Philippino Forum, the Thai Society, and the Indonesian Student Association will host a party to appeal to all cultures. With dance, music, and a fashion show featuring traditional Asian dress, such a festival would be tough to miss. It will all be topped off with ethnical cuisine from four different regions. Tickets $8. 8:15 p.m. Leverett House Dining Hall. (ACE)

Sunday, May 2

MUSIC | Boston Philharmonic Orchestra

The world-renowned Boston Philharmonic will stop in Cambridge on a local tour featuring the music of Gustav Mahler. Founding conductor Ben Zander will lead the orchestra through Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 as well as a brief discussion on the composer and the music to take place at 1:45. Tickets $23-$63, Student Rush $5 at 1:30 day of concert. 3:00 p.m. Sanders Theater. (ACE)

MUSIC | Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus

The Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus will perform their spring concert featuring German favorites by Brahms and Schoenberg. Phillip Lima, bass, and Andrea Matthews, soprano, will solo in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. $12 and $15 Regular, $8 and $6 Students. 3 p.m. First Church Congregational, 11 Garden St. (ACE)

Monday May 3

FILM | Stroszek

Werner Herzog’s 1977 work remains one of his most enjoyable, showing the tongue-in-cheek travails of three Berliners who optimistically venture to America, only to find a depraved community obsessed with sports, television and trailers. The title character is an alcoholic with minimal musical skills and even less intelligence, whose world-view is forever skewed by the tragedy of the corrupted nation he stumbles upon. Tickets $6. 7 p.m. Harvard Film Archive. (BBC)

Thursday, May 6

MUSIC | Currier House ARTS FIRST Recital

This annual event spotlights talented house musicians for an evening of classical tunes. Refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public. 7:30 p.m. Currier House Senior Common Room. (WBP)

MUSIC | Liz Carlisle CD Release Party

Come celebrate the release of singer-songwriter the second album by Liz Carlisle ’06. Liz has played at venues like the Kendall Café and Club Passim, and she will be playing some of her new pop-ready folk tunes live. Hors d’oeuvres will be served. Free and open to the public. 5:30 p.m. Quincy Junior Common Room. (WBP)

THEATER | A Perfect Disorder

The Athena Theater Company is presenting a production of A Perfect Disorder, a one—act play that addresses eating disorders among college-age men and women. The event is a joint project with ECHO to increase awareness about eating disorders and where students can turn to for help. Tickets $5 regular, $4 students, $3 Adams House residents. 8 p.m. Kronauer Space. (SLS)

THEATER | PS04

Aliens will take over the Loeb Ex to lure the audience into becoming the unwitting participants in this interactive dance performance. The result will be a constantly morphing mythology of universal themes. Presented by Experience This and directors Austin Guest ’05 and Andrew Boch ’04. Free, but tickets are required. 9 p.m. Loeb Experimental Theatre. (BBC)

THEATER | William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline

Join the lovers Imogen and Posthumous in this enchanting production of one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays. Fairy tale realism and great performances brought to you by the Winthrop House Drama Society. Tickets $3 General, $2 Harvard Students (2 per I.D.), $1 Winthrop Residents. 4 p.m. Winthrop Courtyard. (WBP)

THEATER | Sunken Garden Children’s Theater

An energetic group of thirteen undergraduates are performing a unique adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” for children of all ages ready for a inventive comedy spectacular. Free and open to the public. 4 p.m. Radcliffe Yard. (WBP)

MUSIC | Veritas Records Release Party

The Roxy will host the campus record label’s first official release, a compilation CD featuring notable Harvard musicians such as Tha League, “Harvard Idol” Amy Zelcer, The States and the Half-Nelsons. Every band on the CD is slated to perform, as well as a special guest. Co-sponsored by Adidas Originals Cambridge, who will be handing out free merchandise at the door. $5 tickets are now available from the Harvard Box Office. 18+. 8:15 p.m. The Roxy, 279 Tremont St., Boston. (BBC)

FILM | Boba Love

As part of Arts First festivities, the Taiwanese Entertainment Corporation and the Taiwanese Language Project are presenting a 30 minute digital video entitled “Boba Love.” The movie, an action film involving love, loyalty, guns and Boba (bubble tea), was produced and directed by Eric Chang ’05 and explores Taiwanese heritage through Taiwanese-American eyes. Free. 8 p.m. Mather House Big TV Room (SLS).

DANCE | Interrobang: Collaborative Art Event

The class of Dramatic Arts 16, “Dance as a Collaborative Art,” perform for this concert presented by the Office for the Arts dance program. The event will incorporate dance, music, text, video and visuals to create compelling imagery. Tickets $5. 8 p.m. Rieman Center for the Performing Arts. (SLS)

Ongoing

VISUALS | George Balanchine and Modern Ballet

An exhibition in celebration of the centenary of the most influential choreographer of the twentieth century, drawn from the Balanchine Archive and other dance collections in the Harvard Theatre Collection. Through May 28. Hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Pusey Library. (JJH)

VISUALS | Bussewitz Photography Exhibit

The exhibit presents the work of naturalist-educator Albert Bussewitz, a dedicated student of the Arboretum landscape. His photographs are on loan from the Masachusetts Audubon Society’s Visual Arts Center in Canton, Mass. Through May 17. Hunnewell Building Lecture Hall, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain. (BBC)

VISUALS | Design-Recline

Chair enthusiasts won’t want to miss this new exhibit at the Busch-Reisinger, which tracks the development of the chaise lounge from 1928 to 1955. The exhibit promises to examine “in a fresh way the now well-known tenets of modern architecture, from the radical use of new materials and technology to concepts of indoor-outdoor living and issues of sickness and health.” Runs March 20 through July 11 at the Busch-Reisinger Museum. (NAS)

VISUALS | Gary Schneider: Portraits

The first major exhibition to bring together a full range of photographer Gary Schneider’s work. Schneider’s fascination with science, work with found objects, and use of biography and autobiography are all part of the new exhibit, and display his roots in the post-minimal conceptual art of the 1970s. Runs through June 13. Tickets $5, free admission for Harvard I.D. holders and visitors on Saturdays until noon. Sackler Museum, 32 Quincy St. (LFL)

FILM | Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

Deeply troubled festival organizers Spike and Mike celebrate their 25th year of showcasing crude, ultra-violent and occasionally thought-provoking shorts. This year’s show is all new, featuring such titles as “How To Cope With Death,” “Mama I’m a Thug” and “The Big Abandoned Refrigerator Adventure.” Approach with caution and a strong stomach; once you’ve paid the admission fee, you’ll feel obligated to sit through even the most shudder-inducing clips. Tickets $9. Fridays and Saturdays, midnight. Runs through May 22. Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline. (BBC)

THEATER | Travesties

The Adams House Drama Society is putting on Travesties, a Tony Award-winning play by Tom Stoppard. Set in 1917 Zurich, the witty comedy follows a fictive plot involving Irish novelist James Joyce and Russian revolutionary Lenin. Tickets $10 regular, $5 students, $4 Adams House residents. Through May 1. Adams House Pool Theatre. (SLS)

THEATER | Measure for Measure

The Hyperion Company, Harvard’s only student-run Shakespeare company, will help to kick off Arts First with a rollicking comedy. Calling it one of Shakespeare’s most intense (yet bawdy) and probing (yet hilarious) plays,” this one is sure to entertain. Free to all. Through May 8. Adolphus Busch Hall, 29 Kirkland St. (ACE)

THEATER | Guys and Dolls

This production of Guys and Dolls, the musical based on a story by Damon Runyon, is being presented by the Cabot House Musical Theatre. The romantic comedy follows a cast of colorful characters in New York City as they weave in and out of one another’s lives, singing songs like “Luck be a Lady Tonight,” “Adelaide’s Lament” and “Rockin’ the Boat.” Tickets $7 regular, $5 students. Through May 1. Cabot House Junior Common Room. (SLS).

Theater | Crazy for You

This 90s reworking of the Gershwin classic Girl Crazy won rave reviews when it played Broadway a decade ago. Harvard STAGE and Galper & Rubins productions take the reins of this tale of everyman Bobby Child’s quest to find himself through music, which features several Gershwin favorites. Proceeds go to arts education for Boston Youth. Through Saturday May 8th. Tickets $10, $7 for students and seniors. 8 p.m. Agassiz Theatre. (NAS)

VISUALS | George Balanchine: Father of Modern Ballet

George Balanchine, the hugely influential Russian choreographer, left his unique touch on ballet throughout the 20th century, and is revered as one of the great masters of the art of dance. This centenary exhibit contains items spanning his entire career, and is drawn from the Harvard Theatre Collection. Free and open to the public. Through May 29. Pusey Library. (WBP)

Theater | Gasoline Rainbow

The Adams House Drama Society pulls another off-beat offering out of its hat with Gasoline Rainbow, a tale of fast-living and the Lower East Side. WIth an insight into the lives of the degenerate classes, Gasoline Rainbow follows anti-lovers Christine and Gabe in a journey through “squatters, ketamine…kidnapping, credit card fraud, urban decay and subversion.” The first rule of Gasoline Rainbow is….Tickets $2. Thursday and Friday, April 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. Saturday May 1 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Adams House Kronauer Space. (NAS)

THEATER | Sunday in the Park With George

Although ostensibly a fictional account of legendary painter George Seurat’s attempts to create his classic large-canvas masterpiece “Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte,” composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer-prize winning musical, featuring a book written by James Lapine, is about a whole lot more, particularly love and how you get it. Act One takes place in the 1880s and Act Two takes place in the 1980s. Through May 8 $12 Regular, Students (2 per I.D.) $8, Seniors: $8, Groups of 10 or more $7. Loeb Main Stage, Cambridge. (SAW)

THEATER | The Rainy Season

This performance, put on by the madcap AAA Players, tells the story of a thirty-year-old loser whose life changes after meeting a beautiful Brazilian. Erotic pastries are implicated in the affair. Through May 8. Tickets $5 General, $4 Harvard Students (2 per I.D.), $3 Adams House residents. 7:30 p.m. Adams House Pool Theatre. (WBP)

Films

BON VOYAGE

Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s latest film mixes the chaos in Paris just before the Nazi occupation with a hearty dash of scandal, intrigue and romance. Although Rappeneau’s recreation of this war-torn era is undeniably excellent, his grasp of plot and characters is tenuous at best and not enough to redeem the film’s many faults. Newcomer Gregori Derangere is the perpetually bemused Frederic, an impoverished writer still in love with his childhood crush. She’s now the popular actress Viviane Denvers (Isabelle Adjani, who looks like she’s been given a severe dose of Botox). So intoxicating is Viviane’s hold on Frederic that he doesn’t mind being imprisoned for a crime she committed, later following her across France to Bordeaux’s Hotel Splendide. A crop of rabid aristocrats have also gathered at the Splendide to escape the madhouse of Paris and badger the wait-staff nonstop for rooms—God forbid they sleep in their cars, with their suitcases and hatboxes! Serendipity and coincidences abound in Bon Voyage—but then everyone’s running around so frantically that it would be impossible for them not to bump into each other at the most opportune, or most inopportune, moments. So do subplots, many of which are left maddeningly unresolved. At times the film verges on self-parody—Viviane’s hammy, melodramatic antics, for example: the way she throws herself on her bed, her eyes oozing crocodile tears. Bon Voyage is not all bad—it’s just silly, unoriginal, and pointless. (TIH)

CONNIE AND CARLA

Writer-star Nia Vardalos’ follow-up to indie smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding treats gay transvestites with the same loving care she previously slathered over the Greeks: she reduces them to the sparest possible stereotypes in order to make as many “ain’t this wacky” jokes as is possible in this wildly mediocre rehash of Some Like It Hot. Like in that classic comedy, two performers witness mob violence and go on the run. This time the heroes find refuge on the gay circuit, where they pretend to be men dressing up as women. Eventually David Duchovny shows up to provide a heterosexual love interest. (SAW)

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

In director Michel Gondry’s latest effort, a company named Lacuna Incorporated has acquired the technology to erase the foul taste of a past partner. Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) discovers this after tracing a note to ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet), asking mutual friends not to raise his name in conversation with her. Since the ex is not supposed to see these notes, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), the inventor of the treatment and the founder of Lacuna, agrees to perform the operation on Joel as well. The centerpiece of the movie begins as Joel slowly realizes that, though his final memories of the relationship are tough to handle, he wants to remember at least some of the more pleasant aspects. Jim Carrey is actually quiet for significant pieces of the role: he underplays, giving Joel a quiet dignity that makes the eventual disgrace in losing control over his own mind that much sadder. Exiting Sunshine is looking at the world with new eyes, possibly the highest tribute that can be paid to art. (SAW)

GOOD BYE LENIN!

Good Bye Lenin! centers on the experience of East Berliner Alex Kerner, played by wide-eyed 24-year-old Daniel Brühl, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. After fainting during the Berlin riots, Alex’s mother (Katrin Sass) enters a deep coma for several months. Upon his mother’s release, the doctor cautions Alex that he must insulate her from any shocks, because a stressful event could kill her. Since his mother was fiercely loyal to the idealism of the DDR, Alex makes it his goal to keep her from finding out about the dramatic political changes through which she slept. Good Bye Lenin! is dotted with distilled illustrations of the many facets of the reunification, some of which shine much brighter than others. He does not fall into the trap of romanticizing the past at the expense of historical fact; his characters cherish their new conveniences and freedom of expression, and don’t miss the panoptic party structure of socialism. (WBP)

HELLBOY

Although this had all the makings of a routine genre exercise—only one man can stop a madman from taking over the world—director Guillermo del Toro and star Ron Perlman are too witty to settle into cliché. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable action-comedy that takes obvious pleasure in its faith to its comic book roots and Jeffrey Tambor. Really, what more can you ask? (SAW)

JERSEY GIRL

After the death of wife Gertrude (Jennifer Lopez), Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck), a workaholic music publicist whose pathological impatience is both his greatest asset and worst liability, is left to take care of their baby, a daughter he names Gertie. Unable to cope with his wife’s death or his new role as parent, Trinke immerses himself in work until his father, Bart (George Carlin), refuses to take care of Gertie any longer. Flustered, abandoned, and completely covered in baby powder, Trinke has a very public nervous breakdown at a news conference. Though Affleck should never attempt to cry on film (or say the line “I’m gonna be the best daddy in the world!”), Jersey Girl nevertheless benefits from his non-method approach to acting, which fits in with the film’s down-to-earth style and subject matter. Like all of Smith’s previous movies, Jersey Girl is almost as littered as New Jersey itself with curse words, sex jokes, and an long list of A-list cameos (some amusing if predictable, others genuinely surprising). Having based his career thus far on sexual innuendoes and pot references, Smith has produced a surprisingly insightful movie about definitions of family and success in an ever-accelerating world. With an ending that is predictable without being formulaic, Jersey Girl should appeal to a wide spectrum of moviegoers. (NKB)

JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION

Take another trip with this update on the Chevy Chase vacation saga. Cedric the Entertainer is the patriarch of an adorably wacky family—which features the no longer lil’ Bow Wow—traveling cross-country for a family reunion. Watch as the antics get more and more clichéd, but enjoy the random bursts of dumb fun, like the hot tub antics with two obese white women and the legitimately humorous guest appearance of frequent Cedric collaborator Steve Harvey as Cedric’s brother. (SAW)

KILL BILL: VOL. 2

Kill Bill: Vol. 2, is an ode to the most cunning and sensuous lips ever to grace the screen. Under the lens of Robert Richardson, an emerging master of the close-up, Uma Thurman’s lips star in Vol. 2 as though they were themselves a separate character. Indeed, an entire subplot could be drawn merely among the players’ lips, which Tarantino leaves under scrutiny through his final scene. Surely most moviegoers will reject this lip thesis in favor of the fairly blatant kung fu theme which runs through—and, admittedly, uplifts—both volumes of Kill Bill. And certainly Quentin Tarantino has created a mildly epic tribute to his favored genre. But Vol. 2 makes a compelling case for a more serious interpretation of Tarantino’s talent, and the film justifies the otherwise vapid (and very cool) Vol. 1, which should never have existed as a separate film. Indeed, Tarantino’s lip fetish is itself enough to empower Vol. 2 with far more powerful scenes than Vol. 1: when a tied-up Beatrix must wrap her lips around a flashlight, the degrading image is worth more than any moment in the first volume. Here Tarantino employs the same technique as in Reservoir Dogs, where he subtly focused on his characters’ ears before slicing one off in the end. It’s a cruel trick, but a crafty one—and proof that Tarantino plays more than lip service to the art of film. (ZMS)

THE LADYKILLERS

The Coen brothers’ limp remake of a classic Alec Guinness comedy has its occasional laughs, but ends up becoming boring in its pursuit of essentially sweet comedy. Tom Hanks is the leader of a gang of robbers forced to masquerade as a band in order to rent church-lady Irma P. Hall’s basement because it connects to the basement of their target. Although the Coens’ affection for southern tradition is sweet and the manic third act brings things up a notch, it isn’t enough to save this essentially mediocre film. (SAW)

MAN ON FIRE

A certain populist auteur made his feature-length debut with 1983’s underappreciated The Hunger, giving world-wide audiences the distinct pleasures of an extraordinarily well-cast David Bowie as an emaciated vampire and a steamy love scene between Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve. Since then, Tony Scott has audaciously continued to hijack mainstream film. Now, he is reunited with Crimson Tide costar Denzel Washington for the story of Creasy, an alcoholic former Special Forces operative recruited by his old friend Rayburn (Christopher Walken) to guard Pita (Dakota Fanning), the young daughter of Mexico City businessman Samuel (Latin heartthrob Marc Anthony). Pita is kidnapped during a shootout with unknown assailants, and in response, Creasy begins his campaign to “do what I do best,” as he puts it to Pita’s mother: “Kill everyone who profited from this action in any way.” And he does, with impressive sadism. A moderate audience’s sympathies don’t always stay with the vengeance seeker but Scott wants us to care. His actors play their melodramatic roles with a grace that gives what is essentially a well-written straight-to-HBO Rutger Hauer flick a core that Mystic River never achieved. The kidnapping plot is incoherent, but in the end, certain flaws are inherent in every entry in the B-revenge genre. Tony Scott’s latest effort may have as many gaps as The CIA’s last intelligence report, but the man who brought the world Ice Man still knows how to smoulder. (SAW)

THE PUNISHER

Thomas Jane is Frank Castle, a former undercover cop whose family is massacred by Howard Saint (a flamboyant John Travolta) whose son had been killed in one of Castle’s undercover operations. In return, Castle seeks what he says “isn’t revenge. This is punishment.” Watch as Saint’s minions are brutalized in a variety of intriguing fashions with a Guns and Ammo fetishist’s dream array of tools. Often though, this revenge flick is a bit too strong for genre tourists, just for those who have come to stay. (SAW)

13 GOING ON 30

The painful yet delightful flashback scenes, wonderfully adept at tugging on adolescent girl anxieties, set the tone for 13 Going On 30, a Big story of suburban New Jersey girl Jenna Rink’s ascension into kitten-heeled city-girl life with the help of a boy, a wish, and a “seven minutes in heaven” game gone wrong. 13 year-old Jenna is, like, so not cool, until she wakes up in possession of a Fifth Avenue apartment and an editorial position at Poise magazine with her former nemesis as her right-hand woman. This Jenna (“Alias” star Jennifer Garner) is her adolescent worst nightmare—a cheating, backstabbing, lying bitch. It takes the help of her old chum Matt (Mark Ruffalo), who has morphed from the loser boy-next-door to a tanned, buff, hot-but-doesn’t-know-it in that aw-shucks way photographer, to set things right. Garner’s performance may lend itself to a Julia Roberts reference or two—both have the full-lipped, hearty laugh and smile perfectly complemented by a suitably charming on camera presence. Though the plot could have been written during a middle school sleepover, the movie is cute for cute’s sake. If nothing else, the pleasantly sappy coupling of Garner and Ruffalo is just enough to make the zits start to heal, the teeth straighten, the bra fill-out, and the baby fat and other adolescent anxieties melt away or at least until the credits roll. (LMP)

—Happening was compiled by Ben B. Chung, Adam C. Estes, Jayme J. Herschkopf, Lucy F. Lindsey, Halsey A. Meyer, Will B. Payne, Lisa M. Puskarik, Zachary M. Seward, Nate A. Smith, Sarah L. Solorzano, and Scoop A. Wasserstein.