Dan's Papers - June 20, 2008 - Take Five 2008 with Jan Silver

Summer officially begins this Saturday, but Hamptons entertainment and events are already in full summer mode. Tony Award-winning singer/actress Christine Ebersole and gifted Broadway musician/performer Billy Stritch are tonight's opening act for Guild Hall's summer season followed by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Schultz's reading on Sunday afternoon. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center presents the rhythmic Brazilian musican/singer Gilberto Gil on Saturday and the multi-talented Howie Mandel with his comedy act on Sunday. Playwright/actor Charles Busch and company continue to camp it up in Shanghai Moon at Sag Harbor's Bay Street Theatre, where comedian Richard Lewis will appear on Monday night. The musical comedy spoof Forbidden Broadway just opened at the Gateway Playhouse, Bellport.

The classical Perlman Music Program begins its informal public musicales with a faculty chamber music concert on Friday, followed by a works-in-progress program performed by some of its talented campers on Saturday. Marianne Koerner sings Ira Gershwin's songs (he wrote brilliant lyrics for composers Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern as well as brother George) at the Southampton Cultural Center tonight, and Pianofest opens its 20th season there late Monday afternoon. There are several film screenings and noted authors speaking at local venues, and the Israeli youth group Caravan Ramon dances and sings in East Hampton late Sunday afternoon.

There are benefits for important local organizations this weekend. Tonight, Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch perform at a gala dinner at East Hampton Point for the John Drew Theater restoration at Guild Hall (tickets $200 for those under 40, $500 over 40; call 631-324-0806). The American Heart Association has a complimentary forum of heart-disease experts speaking on "Preventing Heart Disease: Are There Really Differences Between Men and Women?" from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Hayground School, Bridgehampton, followed by the big Heart of the Hamptons Gala dinner dance/casino games/auction starting at 6 p.m. ($450, call 516-777-8447 or email Barbara.Poliwoda@heart.org). The Retreat, the only local nonprofit agency for domestic abuse victims, holds its 13th anniversary gala "Artists Against Abuse" cocktail party, dinner and artist-designed plate auction at the Ross School, East Hampton, from 6 p.m. Saturday ($500, 631-329-4398 or AAA@TheRetreatInc.org). The environmental advocacy Group for the East End holds its "Summer Solstice" dinner dance and auction Saturday evening at Wölffer Estate Vineyard, Sagaponack ($450, call 212-245-6570 ext. 16 or 19). The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons has a self-guided tour of lovely South Fork gardens from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, followed by a party at an oceanfront estate from 4 to 6 p.m. (tour, $75. tour & party $175; call 631-537-0400 ext. 214 or email Kathy@ARFhamptons.org).

Perlman Music Program, the summer camp for gifted string-instrument students on Shelter Island founded by Toby and Itzhak Perlman, begins its informal works-in-progress evenings tonight with a faculty chamber music concert followed by campers playing on Saturday. Both programs start at 7:30 p.m. under the big tent at the 73 Shore Road campus. There is no admission charge.

"Marianne Koerner Sings Ira Gershwin" tonight, 7 p.m., at the Southampton Cultural Center, hosted by Richard Barons. She will perform some of lyricist Ira Gershwin's wonderful rhymes to music by Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern and others. This is a joint program with the Rogers Memorial Library and reservations are requested (631-287-4377); tickets are $10 at the door. (Miss Koerner conducts a "So You Always Wanted to Sing" class for teens to seniors starting June 24 for six weeks at the Center.)

Sensual Brazilian musician/singer Gilberto Gil will perform his fusion blend of Brazilian jazz, Afro pop, rhythm & blues and reggae at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sat., 8 p.m. Tickets ($100-135) are sold at the box office (631-288-1500) or online at whbpac.org.

The Jewish Center of the Hamptons opens its fifth Summer Institute with a music and dance performance by Scout Caravan Ramon on Sunday, 5 p.m. The Israeli youth group comes to East Hampton from Mitzpe Ramon, a town near the Negev desert (everyone welcome, free admission).

Pianofest, a summer program dedicated to developing concert pianists, founded and still led by Paul Schenly of the Cleveland Institute of Music, begins its 20th season on Monday, 5 p.m., at the Southampton Cultural Center. Tickets are $12 at the door (no charge for students) and a reception follows the recital. The program moves to the Avram Theater at Stony Brook Southampton on June 30 and continues through August 9; for more information, call 631-329-9115 or go online to Pianofest.com.

Recommended music at local clubs and restaurants: Montauk - live band Sat. at Surf Lodge; Amagansett - live music weekends at Surf Shack, at the Stephen Talkhouse on Fri. singer/songwriter Dave Mason then Nancy Atlas, on Sat. Ricky Lee Jones (7 p.m.) followed by Kharma Bums then Booga Sugar; East Hampton - Mambo Loco on Sat. at Fiddler's Cove, Mamalee Rose & friends at Turtle Crossing on Thurs.; reggae Sun. 6 to 9 p.m. at East Hampton Point; Sagaponack - wine & jazz Thurs. at Wolffer Estate; Bridgehampton - light jazz with Dennis Raffelock on Sun. & and Jody Carlson on Tues. at Pierre's, singer Monica Hughes at One Ocean on Thurs.; Water Mill - singer/guitarist Steve Fredericks on Thurs. at Muse; Southampton - live music weekends at 75 Main and Regulars (new café on North Sea Rd.), Sunnyland Jazz Band at Le Chef on Thurs., Hampton Bays - live music Fri. at Buckley's; Westhampton Beach - live music Fri. at Annona, live music Thurs. to Sat. at The Patio, live music weekends at Westhampton Steakhouse (Swingset Quartet on Thurs.), live music weekends at Artful Dodger, live music Thurs. to Sun. at Starr Boggs; East Quogue - at Dockers Waterside on Fri., Dave Tyler, and Sun., Paul Mahos; Riverhead - live music weekends at Tweed's and Eastenders Coffee House.

Actor/playwright and ultimate drag campist Charles Busch and troupe enact his spoof of 1930 Asian mystery movies, Shanghai Moon, evenings and matinees at Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, through June 29. Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays ($50-65). On Monday, 8 p.m., Bay Street's Comedy Club presents neurotic "obsessive/compulsive" Richard Lewis ($50). For tickets, call the box office after 11 a.m. at 631-735-9500 or go online to baystreet.org.

Actor, TV star, comedian Howie Mandel takes the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center stage on Sunday, 8 p.m., to do his stand-up comedy show. Tickets are $100-150 at the box office (631-288-1500) or online whbpac.org.

Forbidden Broadway, created by Gerard Alessandrini, is his Off Broadway comic take on Broadway stars and hit shows. The show's targets change every year, and Bellport's Gateway Playhouse just opened a revue of Forbidden's most popular send-ups including Julie Andrews, Ethel Merman, Wicked, Annie and Les Miz. Tickets are $39 to $43 for adults, $25 for children 12 and under; call 1-888-4TIX-NOW or online gatewayplayhouse.com.

Dan Rattiner will read an excerpt about Billy Joel from his memoir In the Hamptons at the Coecles Harbor Marina & Boatyard on Sat., 11 a.m. Contributors to Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex, including editor Ellen Sussman, will read selections from the compendium on Saturday, 6 p.m., at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor. Novelist Victoria Lustbader will read from her new book Stone Creek on Sat., 5 p.m., at BookHampton, Southampton, and Jane Green will read from her latest novel The Beach House at BookHampton, Sag Harbor on Sat. at 7 p.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Schultz reads from his acclaimed collection Failure at Guild Hall, East Hampton, 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Dan Rattiner will read from his well-received memoir In the Hamptons, at a Parrish Art Museum party next Wed., 6 p.m., at Wölffer Estate Vineyard ($35 museum members, $45 non-members).

Sag Harbor's John Jermain Library screens recent films every Friday, 6:30 p.m. (free admission); this week's feature is The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The Bridgehampton library has complimentary screenings on Wednesday afternoons (call 537-0015) and Southampton's Rogers Memorial Library will show The Kite Runner on June 30.