THEATER
Ben Brantley
Surely New York theater can beat the Lifetime Movie Network at its own game. That, anyway, would seem to be the implicit challenge behind the selection of plays opening this week devoted to what publicity copywriters love to describe as "women at the crossroads."
The most high-profile of these is "FRAN'S BED" (a Lifetime title if ever there was one), JAMES LAPINE's drama opening tonight at PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, about a dying woman (played by MIA FARROW, no less) with a fractured family. 416 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200.
But there is also the MCC production, opening Wednesday, of LAURA WADE's "COLDER THAN HERE" about - hold on - a dying woman, evidently a bit of a control freak, who is determined to organize her own funeral. JUDITH LIGHT (a Lifetime favorite) plays the departing perfectionist, and the impressive supporting cast includes BRIAN MURRAY, SARAH PAULSON (late of "The Glass Menagerie") and LILY RABE (late of "Steel Magnolias"). Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 279-4200.
Raising the quota of domestic soap suds is DEBORAH GRIMBERG's "CYCLING PAST THE MATTERHORN," in which the estimable SHIRLEY KNIGHT portrays a woman who has not only been left by her husband but is also going blind. This final entry in the week's cope-a-thon opens Thursday at the Harold Clurman on Theater Row. 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 279-4200.
FILM
Stephen Holden
It would be an overstatement to suggest that without KILLER FILMS, the New York-based production company founded by Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, there would be no American independent film movement. But how influential would that movement be today if films like "Happiness," "Boys Don't Cry" and "Far From Heaven," produced by the company, hadn't been made?
And what direction would the careers of directors like Todd Solondz, Todd Haynes and Larry Clark and actors like Hilary Swank have taken without Killer's early support? Ms. Swank, who won an Academy Award for her portrayal, in "Boys Don't Cry," of Teena Brandon, a woman raped and murdered after it was discovered she was posing as a man, might still be straining at the starting gate.
In addressing issues of gender and sexuality, no film company has done more to widen the boundaries of acceptable movie subject matter than Killer, which is enjoying a 19-film retrospective at the MUSEUM OF MODERN ART.
The director whose work best distills the adventurous spirit of Killer is probably TODD HAYNES, whose 1991 film "Poison," inspired by Jean Genet, along with Tom Kalin's movie "Swoon," about the Leopold and Loeb murder case, established the inflammatory genre labeled New Queer Cinema. This week two of Mr. Haynes's later films, "Safe" and "Far From Heaven," will be screened. The latter (shown today and next Saturday) is a masterly evocation of 1950's sexual repression conceived as a homage to Douglas Sirk.
Wednesday brings a screening of "Kids," LARRY CLARK's incendiary horror story about the seductions of a promiscuous, HIV-positive teenage skateboarder. Thursday Mr. Solondz's "Happiness," still the ultimate (and wittiest) depiction of suburban dysfunction and malaise, will be shown. Friday brings JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL's gender-bending drag rock musical, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," a film adapted from the Off Broadway show, that is still ahead of its time. 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, (212) 708-9400.
TELEVISION
Anita Gates
With MARTIN SCORSESE as director, "NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN" (Monday and Tuesday, 9 p.m., Channel 13) is not going to be your average music documentary. One of Mr. Scorsese's many talents is the ability to evoke a past era (in this case, 1961-66) viscerally. So the film, punctuated with long-ago, previously unseen performances, isn't just about Mr. Dylan, now 64. It's about what he meant.
On Sunday at 9 p.m., ABC's "DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES" reaches the horrible moment that comes to every hit series: the second-season premiere, after which everything will be compared unfavorably with the past. The show has already gone in a couple of desperate-soap-writer directions, with a hostage situation (JAMES DENTON will surely rescue TERI HATCHER from it), a prison sentence (for RICARDO ANTONIO CHAVIRA) and an accompanying demand (made to EVA LONGORIA) for a paternity test.
If the role fits, you must stick with it. YUL BRYNNER did it as the King of Siam, and CYBILL SHEPHERD is giving it a try as MARTHA STEWART. She played Ms. Stewart in a 2003 television movie. Now, in "MARTHA: BEHIND BARS" (CBS, Sunday night at 9), she stars in the story of Ms. Stewart's five months in a federal prison and the events that led her there. Chances are her character will not be shouting at anybody on her staff about merlot.
Have the producers of "WILL & GRACE" learned nothing from the live "E.R." episode, from JULIE ANDREWS and CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER in the CBS "ON GOLDEN POND," from GEORGE CLOONEY's "FAIL SAFE"? Apparently not, because they're doing their season premiere (NBC, Thursday at 8:30 p.m.) live. ERIC STOLTZ guest-stars as a married man who may tempt Grace (DEBRA MESSING) into an affair. If only one of the actors would take a cue from the live-telecast scene in the film "TOOTSIE" and reveal some fabulous secret to the world.
DANCE
Claudia La Rocco
You have two chances to catch the ADITI MANGALDAS DANCE COMPANY, first at City Center's FALL FOR DANCE festival on Wednesday, when the Indian company will give a 20-minute preview of its Kathak-inspired work, and then the full United States debut at ASIA SOCIETY on Thursday and Friday, with the premiere of "Footprints on Water." Either way, expect explosive speed, virtuosic footwork and complicated, lively rhythms from the five dancers and three musicians, led by the choreographer and principal dancer, Ms. Mangaldas. 8 p.m., City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Midtown, (212) 581-1212, $10. 8 p.m., Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, at 70th Street, (212) 517-2742, asiasociety.org, $20.
Tokyo meets Brooklyn at the KITCHEN, where BETH GILL's "wounded giant" will rub shoulders with KAKUYA OHASHI's "Wish You Were Here." The choreographer and curator YASUKO YOKOSHI chose the works as a study in opposites; while Ms. Gill examines our connection to external space in her work for seven dancers, Mr. Ohashi, in his United States debut, looks inward with a psychological study of neurosis brought on by life in contemporary Tokyo. Perhaps some New Yorkers will be able to relate. Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., 512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, (212) 255-5793, thekitchen.org, $10.
GERMAUL BARNES earned numerous fans and a Bessie while dancing with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. On Friday, his newly formed DANCE 4U PROJECT makes its New York debut at the 92nd Street Y's Fridays at Noon series, a free, informal opportunity to see works in progress and speak with choreographers. Dance 4U was created with an eye toward preserving the work of black male choreographers. Friday's Black Bones program features an excerpt from Mr. Jones's "Ballad" and Leni Williams's "Sweet in the Morning," as well as "Immaculate Conception," a new piece by Mr. Barnes for nine dancers. The company will also perform next Sunday at 3 p.m., when Mr. Barnes will dance Eleo Pomare's "Phoenix Rising," last seen in New York in 1972. 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org, $10.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Bernard Holland
Most music is best heard standing alone, free from history and political context. But JEAN SIBELIUS's "KULLERVO" is inseparable from its circumstances. Sibelius's music has faded in and out of prominence since his death in 1957, but COLIN DAVIS is an active fan, and he will be doing us a favor next Friday night when he and the LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA bring "Kullervo" to LINCOLN CENTER.
"Kullervo" is not just a 70-minute symphonic poem for soprano, baritone and male chorus; it is a cry for a country. In 1892, when Sibelius wrote it, Finland was under the political control of czarist Russia and the cultural domination of Sweden. "Kullervo" draws from Finnish mythology and it dares to be rough and raw - qualities that Sibelius kept refining during the productive years of his life.
Such a sudden, epic history with music to match brought Finnish nationalism to a high heat. Sibelius was 26 when he conducted the first performance under near-hostile conditions. News of the event penetrated all of Europe, and his reputation was secured at an early age.
With "Kullervo" on Friday will be more Sibelius in the same vein: the symphonic fantasy "POHJOLA'S DAUGHTER," which again draws on ancient stories, here told with unashamed naïveté and simplicity. "Pohjola's Daughter" appeared 14 years after "Kullervo." The music is notable for its sweeping cello solo at the beginning.
The London Symphony is, of course, one of our world-class orchestras and notable for its ability to do well in any style. Its association with Sir Colin is long and deep. The male chorus is the orchestra's own; he soloists for "Kullervo" will be MONICA GROOP, mezzo-soprano, and RAIMO LAUKKA, baritone. Friday at 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, (212) 875-5030; $35 to $75. The orchestra plays different programs Wednesday and next Sunday.
POP/JAZZ
Jon Pareles
Current country music, with its arena-pop trappings and happy-talk songs, revisits the music's old honky-tonk spirit like a suburbanite at a theme park. But there are still some diehards who savor the idea of a honky-tonk as a place for hell-raising, heartbreak and down-home hybrids.
One is DWIGHT YOAKAM, who has made a long career of writing terse songs that sum up romances gone wrong in three minutes and a twang. He's rooted most deeply in the Bakersfield style of Buck Owens but also able to dip, on his new album "Blame the Vain" (New West), into the legacies of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Sharing the bill is a new band, HANNA-McEUEN. Jaime Hanna and Jonathan McEuen are the sons of twin sisters who married members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and they like the same honky-tonk Mr. Yoakam does, complete with wordplay titles like "Read Between the Lies." 8 p.m., Wednesday, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place at 15th Street, Manhattan, (212) 777-6800; $35.
DELBERT McCLINTON is the voice of Texas honky-tonk, where country meets a lot of rhythm and blues. His new album, "Cost of Living" (New West), is a tour of Southern styles, from rolling New Orleans R & B to Memphis soul to Texas two-step and Tex-Mex bolero. 8 p.m., Sunday, B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 237 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 997-4144; $45.
And there's another Texas mainstay in town: ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO, an eloquent chronicler of mourning and steadfast determination. His songs can touch on profound sorrows, even as the band stomps along. 8 p.m., Thursday, Irving Plaza; $25.
ART
Grace Glueck
Musical instruments can offer art not only for the ear, but for the eye. The vivid shapes and forms of the string, wind and percussion instruments in "SOUNDS OF THE SILK ROAD: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN ASIA" at the MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON come from a civilization that produced the earliest known musical instruments in the world. The more than 100 objects on view - most from the museum's own awesome collection - cover a geographical range from Japan in the East to Turkey in the West. They range from a small, ornately decorated dung-dkar, a Tibetan trumpet that started out as a seashell, to a full gamelan orchestra (an ensemble in which bronze gongs and other metallophones predominate) from Java.
Like Western instruments, these can be strummed, struck, pounded, plucked, blown, bowed and tinkled. And some of them are close enough to their Western counterparts to be easily recognizable, like a Japanese shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute; a Chinese bofu, or barrel drum, and a pair of Tibetan dung-chen, humongously long trumpets used in Buddhist liturgical rites. But then there are the khong mon lek, an ornately decorated gong in the shape of a U from Thailand; the chang, an unusual daggerlike jew's-harp from Turkestan (recently acquired by the museum) and the Burmese mi-gyaung, a three-stringed zither whose shape is derived from a crocodile.
The merchants, traders, pilgrims and other wayfarers who followed the silk road between Asia and Europe exchanged not just material goods, but also cultural traditions, including music and its instruments. But basically, as this show points up, each civilization hewed to its own. We know about the West, but this show opens an expansive window to the fascinating East. 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, (617) 267-9300, through Jan. 5.