Friday

friday 04/25

[THEATER]

THE FINAL CURTAIN

Wham, BAM, thank you, ma’am

Rumor has it that Elaine Stritch has been scaring the staff of BAM since rehearsals began for Endgame. The supper-club and Broadway regular—best known for her bitter, throaty rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch”—has, on occasion, snuck up behind people and shocked them with her gravelly growl, as befits her character in the Beckett play: Nell, an elderly woman who lives in a trash can, raising her lid to spout out keen observations such as, “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.” Joining Stritch are Beckett-vet Alvin Epstein, Max Casella (The Sopranos‘ Benny Fazio), and, starring as Hamm, the chair-ridden old man facing the countdown to the end, John Turturro. At 7:30, through May 18, BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100, bam.org, $25–$75 SHARYN JACKSON

[MUSIC]

BACK IN BUSINESS

EPMD bring New York back

The consummate New York rap duo EPMD helped spark hip-hop’s first golden age with their 1988 debut, Strictly Business, and their comeback album, 1997’s Back in Business, capped what was perhaps the best year for hip-hop in the era since. The artists that the group first put on—Redman, Keith Murray, Das EFX—have long since become titans in their own right, but at every turn, Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith have matched, or even surpassed, those who came for their spot. A 2006 appearance at B.B. King’s was the group’s first in eight years, and by all accounts, they are no more or less rusty than any other potential industry saver: Diddy, whose pitiable microphone style descends directly from theirs; Jay-Z, who ably carried the torch when they put it down; and 50 Cent, who, as his own crew now reportedly deserts him, can presumably only envy the loyalty that EPMD still inspire. Tonight, they appear with rap’s best circa ’93: Naughty By Nature, Lords of the Underground, and OC. At 7, Nokia Theater Times Square, 1515 Broadway, 212-930-1950, $35 ZACH BARON

[FILM]

LOST TAPES

That exercise video you tossed is here

It’s not just that comedians Nick Prueher (The Late Show With David Letterman) and Joe Pickett (The Colbert Report) spent the last two years hunting down strange and forgotten videotapes in thrift stores, garage sales, and Dumpsters—it’s the way they show scenes from bizarre industrial-accident films, sexual-harassment sensitivity videos, and disturbing home movies while narrating with a funny patter that makes the Found Footage Festival an unexpected pleasure. Look for an exercise video featuring Playgirl‘s 1985 Man of the Year, an instructional video on how to toilet-train cats, and tons more. At 7 and 9 through Saturday, Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue, 877-278-4824, $10 ARACELI CRUZ

Fabulous foursome: the cast of Endgame