Theater This week, White Bird Productions turns Barbie’s camper into an extraordinarily campy performance. The cabaret-style show, set insider her van, combines song, dance, and visual art in a tribute to America’s most famous plastic doll. Highlights include a monologue about an “out of Barbie” experience, a how-to on accessorizing your Barbie home, and a mystery guest who explains how Barbie and Ken taught her the birds and the bees in the back of her car. Tickets $15. Opens November 10, through the 19. Ohio Theater, 66 Wooster St., between Spring and Broome (212-352-3101; whitebirdproductions.org)
Film Nothing sticks to Sarah Silverman. The comic pops shots at Chinks, Jesus, and deaf black people—and for the most part, she gets away with all of it. Though she’s been cracking raunchy, racist jokes for over a decade, she really began generating buzz after her cameo in this year’s comedic documentary, “The Aristocrats,” in which she claimed, in characteristic deadpan, that talk show host Joe Franklin raped her. Her media spotlight is burning even brighter now with “Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic,” the movie version of her 2004 Off Broadway stand-up show. It opens Friday. Regal Union Square Stadium 14, 850 Broadway between E. 13th and 14th (800.326.3264).
Worth the Trek Shipyards, oil refineries, and polluted rivers may not seem like picturesque subjects, but in Edward Burtynsky’s hands, these scenes of industry make for stunning photography. With his trademark, large format camera, the Canadian artist travels to working ports and quarries worldwide, from Bangalore to China, where he recently documented its booming factories, sprawling cities, and rapidly changing countryside. Not surprisingly, many of these foreign landscapes, now on view in his first major retrospective, seem like carbon copies of our own industrial age. Through January 15 at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway (718-638-5000; brooklynmuseum.org).
Music Jazz enthusiasts searching for an exciting, mid-week hang will want to check out the Grant Stewart Quintet Tuesday nights at Smalls. Stewart (tenor saxophone) is rare in that he has developed his own voice while still remaining rooted in the jazz tradition of masters such as Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins. His huge sound, creativity, and beautiful, melodic sense combine to easily place him among the finest saxophonists on the scene today. Joining Stewart is guitarist Joe Cohn, whose swinging touch and sophisticated linear concept is perfectly suited for the role of a second horn, and a sensitive rhythm section that includes Ehud Asherie (piano), Joel Forbes (bass) and Phil Stewart (drums). Stewart has recorded several records for the Criss Cross label, the latest being “Grant Stewart + 4.” $10 cover + $10 minimum. Tuesdays 10 PM-1:30 AM, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street at 7th Avenue, 212-929-7565. —Lee Metcalf
Reading Adrian Tomine is an illustrator best known for his literary comic series “Optic Nerve” and the boy-meets-girl-on-the-subway New Yorker cover that adorns many a book nerd’s bedroom wall. Seth is an illustrator best known for his “Palooka-Ville” comic series and nostalgia-rich Alice Munro-esque stories of quiet Canadian towns. Since the early 1990s, these immensely popular artists have helped to debunk the notion that comic books are for pimply-faced teenage boys who only want to read about superheroes, super villains, or Archie and the Riverdale gang. Tomine and Seth appear together as part The Strand Bookstore’s new event series to discuss their work, their inspirations, and the current state of cartooning, which owes a great deal to their talents and recent mainstream success. Wednesday, November 9th at 6:30pm, 828 Broadway @ 12th Street, 2nd Floor, (212-473-1452; strandbooks.com)—Rachel Fershleiser
