Mon+Tue 7/24-25

[Film]

Showdown

Cooper and Kelly in the park

Spend a warm summer night with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. Tonight, these Hollywood icons fill up Bryant Park’s big screen in Fred Zinnemann’s classic western

High Noon (1952). Cooper stars as Will Kane, a marshal who, on the morning of his wedding to Amy Fowler (Kelly), has to decide whether to leave on his honeymoon or stick around town to face enemies from his past. At the beginning of the film, Cooper’s acting is so bad that you almost want to see him filled with lead. Hang in there, though. As the plot starts to thicken, you’ll forget about the actor’s mechanical delivery and get caught up in the raucous gun-slinging scenes and sweeping landscape shots. Keep an ear outfor the film’s theme song “Do Not Forsake

Me, Oh My Darling”—it was sung by John Ritter’s dad, Tex. At sunset, 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, 212- 512-5700, free KEN SWITZER

[Comedy]

Role Reversal

Top comedy writers laugh at themselves

Thinking up new characters for Saturday Night Live or The Daily Show as a comedy writer certainly falls into that coveted category “dream job.” But sometimes these lucky few find that it’s not enough to laugh at other people’s lives when, hey, they have funny lives too. At Say the Word, a show presented by the L.A.-based alt-comedy troupe Un-Cabaret and co-hosted by the Moth, the industry’s top yuk-meisters finally get a chance to share their amusing personal stories. Alan Zweibel (one of the original SNL writers), Ben Karlin (executive producer of The Daily Show), Todd Hanson (head writer at The Onion), John Riggi (writer for The Larry Sanders Show), and Un-Cabaret’s creator Beth Lapides read their witty tales, using the show’s theme, “The New Me,” as a springboard for laughs. At 8, Players’ Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, uncabaret.com/ny.html, $15–$20 ANGELA ASHMAN

[Music]

Hear His Roar

Thomas Mapfumo rises up

That trancey click-clack you hear is Thomas Mapfumo‘s and the Blacks Unlimited’s pulsing backbone of mbira rhythms, the African thumb piano. Back in his exiled homeland they call him “Zimbabwe’s Lion,” but Mapfumo’s dancey, hypnotic beats and the complex, interwoven guitar lines prove that his roar is actually utterly joyous. If his full band got into the country, expect all smiles and all asses shaking. And if they didn’t, no worries—he always finds enough key players to summon the magic. Tonight he celebrates the release of Rise Up, out on Real World Records. At 8, S.O.B.’s, 204 Varick Street, 212-243-4940, $20 D. SHAWN BOSLER

[Theater]

Bows and Arrows

Indian Blood begins previews

A.R. Gurney, the prolific playwright known for his satirical works about Waspish behavior, said in a recent interview that theater is “a scary, tricky business.” But for a man who’s experienced so much success over the years, including 2004’s Mrs. Farnsworth, starring Sigourney Weaver, his more-than-40-year career has most likely been smoother than most. This month Gurney takes another leap of faith with the world premiere of Indian Blood. Set after World War II in Gurney’s hometown of Buffalo, New York, the play is a coming-of-age story about a budding artist who uses his Native American ancestry as a cause and excuse to attack the privileged class around him. The eight-member cast includes Matthew Arkin, Jeremy Blackman, Jack Gilpin, and Rebecca Luker. Mark Lamos directs the Primary Stages production. Previews begin tonight, opens August 9, through September 2, Primary Stages, 59 East 59th Street, 212-279-4200, $60 ANGELA ASHMAN