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To Do: November 5–19, 2014

Twenty-five things to see, hear, watch, and read.


Film
1. See Foxcatcher
A movie to wrestle with.
Bennett Miller’s true-life drama staggers in under a load of angst. Channing Tatum is a depressed Olympic wrestler sponsored by a du Pont heir—played by Steve Carell, who’s airy, abstracted, confirming the notion that the rich are very different from you and me. Carell is amazing for a time, the story itself is a corker, and Mark Ruffalo as Tatum’s brother acts like a real human being, giving the last half-hour emotional punch. —David Edelstein
In theaters November 14.

Pop
2. Listen to Jessie Ware’s Tough Love
Hey, soul sister.
The British singer first made waves Stateside with her 2012 single “Wildest Moments,” an understated torch song that showed off her quiet charisma. Her latest album dispenses with that cool minimalism in favor of a more lively energy. Ware ­deserves to be as well known in the U.S. as her sometime collaborator Sam Smith; with any luck, this’ll make that happen. —Lindsay Zoladz
Universal Island Records/PMR.

Art
3. See Sharon Horvath’s Cosmicomics
You’ll be seeing things.
Absorbed in the waves of retinal wonder and psychic delight coming from Horvath’s superb paintings, I had one overriding thought: She nailed it. Her canvases picture a pathwork of abstract ­cosmic space, imaginary maps, tantric details, wispy brushwork, and color like Creamsicles and peach cobblers. —Jerry Saltz
Lori Bookstein Fine Art, through November 8.

TV
4. Watch The Comeback
Second life.
Finally! The one-season wonder by Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, about a middle-aged actress named Valerie Cherish, itself gets a second go. This time out, she’s cast in another dramedy, created by her nemesis—and based on said nemesis’s experiences working with Valerie on season one’s show-within-a-show. How masochistically meta can you get? —Matt Zoller Seitz
HBO, November 9 at 10 p.m.

Theater
5. See Saturday Night
Better late than never.
What was supposed to be Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway debut, in 1955, was scuttled when its producer died, and has rarely been seen since. Sondheim now finds fault with a lot of its lyrics, but how can you not love this couplet: “In the movies, life is finer, life is cleaner. / But in Brooklyn, it’s a minor misdemeanor.” —Jesse Green
York Theatre Company at St. Peter’s, November 8 through 16.

Books
6. Read Denis Johnson’s The Laughing Monsters
Diamond from Sierra Leone.
The writer of Jesus’ Son never goes to the same place twice. In his eighth novel, he barnstorms the country of Sierra Leone and the genre of Graham Greene’s “entertainments”—a thriller of spies and black marketeers that’s hard to put down for all the right reasons. —Boris Kachka
FSG, November 4.

Film
7. See The Theory of Everything
Physics of a life.
The sweet-sad (and lightly fictionalized) story of the young Stephen Hawking’s love life, featuring a breakthrough performance by Eddie Redmayne, who captures Hawking’s vaulting Über-wonk ­ambition as his body begins to fail him. —D.E.
In theaters November 7.

Classical Music
8. See Winterreise
Frosty beauty, before the real snow.
The greatest singers—Matthias Goerne, for ­example—give Schubert’s song cycle a theatrical dimension even when they only stand and sing. This time, William Kentridge transforms Goerne’s performance with his hand-drawn videos, turning the piece into an animated monodrama. —Justin Davidson
Alice Tully Hall, November 11.

Pop
9. Listen to Sleater-Kinney
Grrrl power!
It’s often a little scary when an indisputably Great Band returns from a long hiatus. But “Bury Our Friends,” the Olympia punk pioneers’ first new song in almost a decade, is a relief, every bit as buzzing and ferocious as their masterful 2005 album, The Woods. Even better news: A new album will be out in January. —L.Z.
On YouTube.

Dance
10. See American Dance Machine for the 21st Century
The chance to dance for you.
This “living archive” of theater choreography will perform 15 numbers (with live music), including Michael Bennett’s “The Music and the Mirror” from A Chorus Line and Gower Champion’s “Audition” from 42nd Street. —J.G.
Joyce Theater, November 11 through 16.

Pop/Film
11. See Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films
Pop art.
Dean Wareham corralled songwriters including Eleanor Friedberger and Tom Verlaine to perform a dreamy new soundtrack to 15 Warhol films shown for the first time here.
BAM Gilman Opera House, November 6 through 8.

Opera
12. Listen to the Score of The Death of Klinghoffer
On at least one point, no protest.
John Adams has written a score of many beauties soldered to a questionable premise and a clumsy libretto. The terrorist Rambo’s electronic ­blurp-spattered ravings, the “Chorus of Exiled ­Palestinians,” the aria that Klinghoffer sings after his death: This is the kind of music that makes ­Adams worth arguing over, and justifies both outrage and spirited defense. —J.D.
Metropolitan Opera, through November 15.

Film
13. See The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Major macabre moment.
One of the most influential films ever made—the 1920 movie that would establish the German Expressionist look of American horror and noir to come. The sets show the world through a madman’s eyes—though there’s some question, given the Weimar and Nazi eras that followed, whether that vision was paranoid after all. —D.E.
Film Forum, through November 6.

Theater
14. & 15. See Velvet Oratorio and Protest
Prague in New York, parts 1 and 2.
To mark the 25th anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, Untitled Theater Company #61 is co-presenting Velvet Oratorio—a staged retelling of the events through text, choral music, and scenes “inspired by” Václav Havel’s trio of one-act “Vanek” plays. One of those is Protest, in which Vanek, recently out of jail, confronts an old friend now working for the government, and it’ll be read at the Public by Salman Rushdie, Wallace Shawn, and David Remnick. —J.G.
Bohemian National Hall, November 8 and 9; Public Theater, November 9.

Books
16. Read Men: Notes From an Ongoing Investigation
Dudes between covers.
The essayist Laura Kipnis switches on her ­female gaze, filing sharp and freewheeling thoughts under four rubrics: operators, ­neurotics, sex fiends, and haters. —B.K.
Metropolitan Books, November 18.

Dance
17. See Batsheva Dance Company
Teamwork onstage, in a U.S. premiere.
Ohad Naharin’s Sadeh21, with a varied score by the likes of Brian Eno and Angelo Badalamenti, incorporates the vision of his 18 versatile dancers as well. —Rebecca Milzoff
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, November 12 through 15.

Books/Art
18. Read Group f.64
Historic images, twice over.
A visual biography of the collective that helped drag photography from the drawing room into the realm of fine art, assembled by former Ansel ­Adams staffer Mary Street Alinder.
Bloomsbury USA.

Theater
19. See The New York Philharmonic’s Show Boat
The orchestra isn’t half bad, either.
Vanessa Williams headlines this New York Philharmonic concert production, and the talent is deep, including Lauren Worsham as Magnolia and Broadway’s current Phantom, Norm Lewis, as Joe (a.k.a. He Who Sings “Ol’ Man River”).
Avery Fisher Hall, November 5 through 8.

TV
20. Watch Banksy Does New York
Mystery man, captured.
Chris Moukarbel’s documentary chronicles the prankish conceptual/performance artist’s “New York streets residency” last fall, made entirely from amateur video and smartphone footage. —M.Z.S.
HBO, November 17 at 9 p.m.

Opera
21. See Lady Macbeth of Mtensk
Screw your courage to the sticking point.
Stalin quashed Shostakovich’s crackling 1934 tragedy about adultery and murder, and it’s easy to see why he was uneasy about all that provincial discontent, adultery, and murder. Graham Vick’s gloriously gaudy 1994 production returns with Eva-Maria Westbroek in the title role. —J.D.
Metropolitan Opera, opens November 10.

Pop
22. See Waxahatchee
Up close and personal.
The Alabama-raised songwriter Katie Crutchfield has put out two elegantly confessional ­albums in the past few years as Waxahatchee. She’ll play new material at LPR, a perfect setting for her bracingly intimate sound. —L.Z.
(Le) Poisson Rouge, November 10.

Comedy
23. See Women of Letters
Here’s to the ladies who write.
A panel of sassy, smart ladies read letters they’ve written responding to a theme (at this show, “a ­letter to my wake-up call”). This evening, ­inaugurating a monthly series at the Pub, ­includes SNL’s Sasheer Zamata, author Siri ­Hustvedt, and Vulture’s Julie Klausner.
Joe’s Pub, November 6.

Art
24. See Glittering World
Family jewels.
Nearly 300 kaleidoscopic pieces of jewelry made by one very prolific Navajo family.
National Museum of the American Indian, opens November 15.

Classical Music
25. Hear Art Song on the Couch: Lieder in Freud’s Vienna
Lend them your ear.
Many art songs are like mini–therapy sessions: The singer complains, the audience listens. Wolf, Mahler, Schoenberg, and Strauss knew their ­neuroses, and a century later, the New York ­Festival of Song is there to help. —J.D.
Merkin Concert Hall, November 11.