The A List

Man Versus the Volcano The Nerve Ensemble, a multimedia production company that strives to “find beauty and meaning in things otherwise overlooked in our everyday life” has chosen the relatively mundane day before Mount St. Helens erupted as the subject of its current work, “Phenomenon,” now at HERE Arts Center. Using digital media, dance, and music, the production tells the story of townspeople in Toutle, Washington, painting an intimate portrait of human nature in the face of a monumental, natural disaster brought on by Mother Nature. Nerve Ensemble, one of HERE’s resident artists, developed the show over a period of three years, drawing (in part) on a geologist’s recollections for the show. It runs through March 25. 145 Sixth Avenue, a block below Spring St. (212-868-4444; here.org).

American Schmidol The comedy crew behind “Stella,” the cult Web site and the hit Comedy Central television series (left), comes together Monday night on the Lower East Side for a peculiar musical event. Sponsored by JDub Records and Heeb Magazine, “American Schmidol Karaoke Showdown” pits an ensemble of unlucky contestants against one another to compete “American Idol-” style for top honors. Guest judged by the “Stella” crew — including Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain — “Schmidol” will take over the Bowery Ballroom for a do-or-die competition that could only be waged by amateur karaoke fanatics. Sure to be a hilarious spoof of the reality TV series, the event also gives audience members a chance at weeknight glory. 8 pm, March 13 at Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. btwn. Bowery and Chrystie, (212-533-2111;

Blue Crush “Blue Velvet,” which opened in 1986 and won a number of film critics’ awards, has just been reissued on its 20th anniversary in a new 35mm print, and remains as imaginative as I remember it to be. It begins with a stylized version of sunny, aqua blue-skied, serene small town America, where well-kept homes, manicured green lawns and overly bright yellow tulips abound. But underneath David Lynch’s mythic small town façade lays a dark, bizarre world where ominous bugs nest, and murderous violence, kidnapping, and perversity are the rule. His vision of life on the underside is so excessive that it is as comic as it is terrifying. Through March 16 at Film Forum, 209 W. Houston below Sixth Ave. (212-727-8110; filmforum.org). — Leonard Quart. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Repertory