PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 22 - 27 (continuing through JULY 15)
8:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Basil Twist:  Symphonie Fantastique
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan

$35-$100
http://here.org/shows/detail/1934/

Not to put too fine a point to it, this piece -- premiered at this venue 20 years ago -- is one of the best things I've ever seen.  A miracle of puppetry creates perfectly calibrated first-part-of-Fantasia-style visual effects to Berlioz's unhinged visionary masterpiece.  It's just so apt, so unexpected -- and so much fun -- you can't believe it.  If you haven't seen it, you MUST.  If you've already seen it, you'll want to see it again.  (One possible caveat:  the past performances I've seen were performed to an orchestral recording.  Now it's being done to a live piano reduction -- played by the redoubtable Christoper O'Reilly, no less.  While I usually prefer live musical accompaniments on general principle, however, so much of the appeal of this weird musical masterpiece stems from Berlioz's tangy, unique, unprecedented orchestrationthat I'm not sure I can see how a piano reduction would be nearly as effective.  Shouldn't the music be as colorful as the visuals?) (But GO anyway!!!!!  This is GREAT!!!!!!)

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:   Chef Floyd Cardoz is a kind of a Big Deal.  He ran the Indian fusion restaurant Tabla for many years; then, after some other ventures, he opened a straighter Indian restaurant, Paowalla, in Soho.  But that place never took off:  something about the vibe seemed off.  Cardoz has now reconfigured it to be livelier, more colorful -- more fun:  The Bombay Bread Bar.  Should be just right after this show.