Top Five

All the World's Onstage

Lincoln Center is doing its best to prop up the airline industry, flying in a veritable world congress of talent for this summer's Lincoln Center Festival. (For a full list, visit lincolncenter.org; for tickets, call 212-362-6000.)

By Logan Hill

Long Cool Summer: From the filmed portion of the Lincoln Center Festival's multimedia Logic of the Birds.

(Photo: Photograph Courtesy of Barbara Gladstone)

1. Ta'ziyeh
This three-play cycle is the festival's sprawling centerpiece. A cast of 29 Iranian actors and musicians will perform a sprawling ta'ziyeh epic (the only form of musical theater condoned in Islam) that recounts the martyrdom of Muhammad's grandson Imam Hussein. (Damrosch Park, July 12–21; $55 per show, $126 for the entire three-play cycle.)

2. Logic of the Birds
A Persian fable recast as fanciful multimedia myth, this piece -- a hit in a workshop preview at the Kitchen in 2001 -- refines the striking visual style that artist Shorin Neshat has honed in her video work and adds Sussan Deyhim's otherworldly vocals. (La Guardia Concert Hall, July 12–13; $40.)

3. Kirov Ballet
St. Petersburg's premier company brings Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Balanchine's Jewels, and the North American premiere of the restored Petipa ballet La Bayadère. (Metropolitan Opera House, July 8–20; $20–$130.)

4. Pacific Overtures
Preeminent Tokyo director Amon Miyamoto deploys Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku, and Rokyoku techniques to stage an inventive revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical. (Avery Fisher Hall, July 9 to July 13; $60–$75; see interview, page 77.)

5. The Silver River
David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) collaborates with composer Bright Sheng and Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen to reinvent a 5,000-year-old Chinese love story. (John Jay College Theater, July 16–21; $45.)