Listings

WEDNESDAY

SEPTEMBER 3

Books

HAPPY ENDING READING SERIES PREMIERE

The first evening of this new series sounds promising: A.M. Homes, Mary Gaitskill, and Nelly Reifler read from their work, while Purple America novelist Rick Moody eschews the lectern and picks up his ax to perform with his group, the Wingdale Community Singers (whose other members are also known as Hannah Marcus and David Grubbs). DE KRAP

At 8, Happy Ending Bar, 302 Broome Street, 212.334.9676

Dance

COMPAGNIE FELIX RUCKERT

An underground techno sound environment surrounds both the audience, some of whom recline in beds or inflatable chairs, and the performers, who are likely to interact with the supine viewers of Deluxe Joy Pilot, by one of Berlin's most audacious choreographers. You can just watch, but be careful where you sit. ZIMMER

Through Friday, at 7, Saturday at 7 and 10, Dance

Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, 212.924.0077

Music

BILL CHARLAP TRIO

The pianist is a key exemplar of the way mainstreamers couch progressive ideas. His most resonant moves are pointedly strategic—this music overflows with thoughtful design. Insinuation breeds vitality, but placing melody up front satisfies the audience's entertainment jones. During individual nights of its week-long run, the band is joined by Peter Bernstein, Phil Woods, and Houston Person—lyrical masters all. MACNIE

Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 and 9:30; Friday and Saturday at 7:30, 9:30, and 11:30; Sunday at 7:30 and 9:30; Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, 212.576.2232

WHIRLWIND HEAT+KAITO

Not surprisingly, the opening band without the major-label hype machine behind it is the true star on this bill. Norwich, England's Kaito sound and look like Elastica on speed, with their wonderfully loopy pop-punk and pre-Avril skinny ties. Headliners Whirlwind Heat are a synth-bass-drums trio that play neo-new wave that's been done much better by bands like Numbers and Arab on Radar. PHILLIPS

At 8:30, Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, 718.230.0236

Theater

THE THIRD MAN

Written as a draft for a future screenplay, Graham Greene's novella of post-war Vienna murder and conspiracy was meant to inspire other artists. Certainly, the work owes its great fame to Carol Reed's wryly noir 1949 film, which features a vertiginous appearance on a Ferris wheel by Orson Welles as the supposedly murdered Harry Lime, whose strange disappearance sets in motion the puzzling geopolitical plot. Equally intriguing to us is the question of whether Godlight Theatre Company can capture the same angular suspense with its world premiere stage adaptation. MCNULTY

Through September 27, Manhattan Theatre Source, 177 MacDougal Street, 212.501.4751

THURSDAY

SEPTEMBER 4

Art

DANICA PHELPS

Keeping track of everything she spends, earns, and does, with green and red marks and doodled sketches, Phelps makes compulsive work that questions the value of an artist's time. Now Phelps, who recently came out, tries to integrate her new sex life into her accounting system. She plans to live in the gallery with her girlfriend for the month. LEVIN

Opens today, through October 4, LFL, 530 West 24th Street, 212.989.7700

Music

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO BENEFIT

The alt-country elder—Nuns, Rank and File, True Believers before his long solo career—is fighting hepatitis C with the usual portion of music-life medical and disability insurance, namely none. An impressive lineup that includes Lenny Kaye, Garland Jeffreys, the Star Spangles, Ivan Julian, and Jon Langford's terrific new Ship and Pilot band will put cash he needs in his pocket. CHRISTGAU

At 8, Knitting Factory Main Space, 74 Leonard Street, 212.219.3006

Photo

PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA

DiCorcia's "A Storybook Life," a sequence of 76 modestly sized color photos made over the past 25 years, is this influential photographer's most personal and engaging show so far. Like so much of his work, it shifts between artifice and naturalism, public and private, including pictures of his infant child, his former girlfriends, and utter strangers before concluding with a shot of his father in a coffin. DiCorcia has never seemed so definitively contemporary, or so irrefutably important. ALETTI

Opens today, through October 11, PaceWildenstein, 534 West 25th Street, 212.929.7000

FRIDAY

SEPTEMBER 5

Film

LATINBEAT 2003

Resurgent Mexico and Argentina are particularly well represented among the two dozen recent Latin American films—which also include the Dominican crime drama Red Passport, shot largely in New York, and Eryk Rocha's documentary portrait of his father, cinema novo great Glauber Rocha. Sidebars include a tribute to Argentine producer Lita Stantic and a series of documentaries on Cuban music. HOBERMAN

Through September 28, Walter Reade Theater,

70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212.875.5600

Music

MARTY EHRLICH

There's a natural melancholy in the saxophonist's sound. Sometimes it's steeped by the blues, sometimes it's European and autumnal. Always it's a good gauge of the unusual gravitas at the center of his work. There's a great symmetry to the music on his romantic new Palmetto disc. This quartet gig is sure to illustrate it. MACNIE

Friday and Saturday at 8, 10, and midnight, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, 212.255.3626

Photo

SAMUEL FOSSO

In 1978, at the age of 16, Fosso began making self-portraits after-hours in his Central African Republic photo studio, transforming himself with borrowed clothes into a playful, sexy, and charmingly eccentric hipster. The results are reminiscent of early Cindy Sherman, and their naïveté only makes them more irresistible. Shown alongside recent color shots of the artist as a pirate, a sailor, and a woman, these photos make Fosso's American solo debut one of the new season's events. ALETTI