Dan's Papers - July 27, 2007 - Take Five 2007 with Jan Silver

We have almost reached the halfway point in this South Fork summer's cultural marathon. Obviously, one can't attend everything, but here are some suggestions. For theater, there's the boisterous rock/wrestling opera Turandot: The Rumble for the Ring at Bay Street Theatre, the family-friendly Wizard of Oz at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center (tonight only), a staged reading of Harry & Edie with Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach on Sunday in East Hampton, and Julie Andrews narrating a concert staging of the new family musical Simeon's Gift next Monday in Sag Harbor. For comedy, Avi Hoffman brings his new show "Too Jewish, Too!" to Westhampton Beach on Sunday.

The Neville Brothers perform in Amagansett tonight at a benefit for East Hampton Daycare Center, and the next Social@Ross dinner show with headliners Dave Matthews and Tom Reynolds is Saturday in East Hampton. Al Jardine, one of the original Beach Boys, brings his surfin' sound and band to Westhampton Beach PAC stage on Saturday, and the accomplished Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival artists play three concerts this week. Several distinguished authors speak locally including Pete Hamill, Wilfrid Sheed, Louisa Hargrave; the Hon. Joel Cohen "prosecutes" King David and Bathsheba in Westhampton Beach next Thursday. There are also a few,good independent movies at local venues.

Benefit gridlock continues, but here are my recommendations: Neville Brothers tonight for East Hampton Daycare Center (dinner & show in Amagansett, $250, 631-324-5560); Hoops for Hope basketball children's clinic with NBA pros Larry Brown, Doc Rivers and others 9 a.m.-noon Sat. (Southampton Rec. Center, $20 or pair of gently-used sneakers) followed by 6 p.m. cocktail party & auction with sports celebs ($225, Bridgehampton home of Mike & Taylor Lupica, 631-267-8682); "Super Saturday" designer-clothing sale for Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (1 to 6 p.m., from $400 adults, $100 children 6 and up, Bridgehampton, www.ocrf.org); Israel Tennis Centers children's clinics (ages 5 and up) plus exhibition and reception to meet young Arab and Jewish players (3 to 5:30 p.m., 5 Jericho Lane, East Hampton, donation suggested,www.israelchildren.org); South Fork Breast Health Coalition receives the $20-per-carload entrance fee to the Mercedes Benz professional high-goal polo game at Bridgehampton Polo Club (4 p.m., Sat. Hayground Rd.); Kimora Lee and Russell Simmons host "Art For Life" party honoring Brooklyn Academy of Music, Alvin Ailey artistic director Judith Jamison, actor Forest Whitaker and others (Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, 7 p.m., East Hampton, (212) 810-4490 or artforlife@havenlic.com); Child Development Center of the Hampton's "Fairy Tales & Dreams" story hour plus party (5:30 p.m., East Hampton, 631-267-2734 or www.cdch.org); "Voom Zoo" dinner dance/animal costume party at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center ($1000, celeb hosts, art auction, 212-253-7484); St. Ann's 39th House and Garden Tour (next Thurs., Bridgehampton-Sagaponack-Wainscott, $45 in advance, $55 at the door, 631-537-1527).

THEATER and COMEDY
Bay Street Theatre's premiere run of the rock opera Turandot: The Rumble for the Ring plays Tuesday through Sunday evenings with Wednesday and Saturday matinees through August 5 ($65-75, 631-725-9500 or www.baystreet.org.) Next Monday, Bay Street Theatre has a concert performance with Julie Andrews of the new family musical written by Ms. Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, Simeon's Gift. It starts at 7 p.m., Old Whalers Church (First Presbyterian), Sag Harbor, followed by a talk-back with the authors. Tickets are $100 for adults, $25 for children 8 to 12 years old; call (631) 725-0818 ext. 106 or email Irene@baystreet.org.

East Hampton's John Drew Theater, undergoing a major restoration, is trouping its performances to special locations around the village. On Sunday at 7:30 p.m., in the handsome Jewish Center of the Hamptons sanctuary, Mark Weston's play about Pres. Harry Truman's 1948 reluctant acceptance of Israeli statehood, Harry & Eddie, will have a staged reading with Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Rik Collitti and others, directed by James Larocca. Tickets at the door are $33 for Guild Hall and JCOH members, $35 for others.

Missoula Children's Theatre completes its theater camp at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center this week with tonight's performance of The Wizard of Oz (7 p.m., all tickets $12). Comedian Avi Hoffman performs his newest take on classic vaudeville-through-1960s comedy routines with music, "Too Jewish, Too!," at PAC this Sunday, 8:30 p.m. ($40-60, 631-288-1500).

MUSIC
Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival continues this week with an elegant benefit dinner and concert at the Atlantic Golf Club on Saturday evening, the "Music Masters I" (Debussy, Schoenfield, Ravel, Schubert) program on Sunday at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, 6:30 p.m., and the "Great String Sextets" (Brahms, Schoenberg) program next Wed., 7:30 p.m. Regular concert tickets are $30; call BCMF at (631) 537-6368 or go online to www.bcmf.org.

The Neville Brothers' benefit performance is listed under Amagansett's Stephen Talkhouse at the end of the Music section. Dave Matthews and his band plus talented fusion guitarist Tom Reynolds are this Saturday's exclusive Social@Ross performers in the exclusive East Hampton dinner/show series ($3000 per ticket; www.discoversocial.com; Billy Joel performs next weekend). Al Jardine, one of the original Beach Boys, and his Endless Summer Band take their surfin' music to Westhampton Beach Performing Arts stage Sat, 8:30 p.m. ($55-85; call 631-288-1500).

Perlman Music Program informal works-in-progress concerts continue at the Shelter Island music camp Fri. & Sat., 7:30 p.m. (call 631-749-0740 to confirm schedule). Pianofest weekly recital continues next Mon, 5 p.m. at Avram Theater, Stony Brook Southampton ($10 at the door). Composer/conductor Mira J. Spektor and the Aviva Players present an evening of music and poetry at the Montauk Library, Sun., 7:30 p.m.

Recommended performers at local clubs and restaurants: Montauk-Wed. 9:30 p.m. comedy at Gurney's Inn; Amagansett - at the Stephen Talkhouse (631-267-3117) on Fri., Neville Brothers (benefit for EHDC, $250) then alt. rock with Little Head Thinks, Sat., Latin/roots/country with Raul Malo then reggae with Winston Irie; Sun., roots rock with Olds 97; Wed., country/roots/folk Jimmie Dale Gilmore; Thurs., contemp. singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke. Estia Cantina, Amagansett (631-267-6320) - next Tues. & Wed. soul singer/songwriter Ola Onabule, salsa Thurs. with Mambo Loco. East Hampton - jazz Fri. at Almondito, Coco Restaurant (Maidstone Arms) pop and jazz standards with Jane Hastay and Peter Martin Weiss (Fri.) and country/pop/blues with Jim Turner (Sat.); Prime 103 has Annie Morgan Band on Fri.; Turtle Crossing has Mama Lee & Friends on Fri.; Fiddler's Cove has Jim Turner on Sun., East Hampton Point has reggae Sun, improv comedy at The Lodge on Tues. Sagaponack - Twilight Thursdays (5-7:30 p.m.) at Wolffer Estate Vineyard with live music. Bridgehampton - World Pie jazz brunch Sat. with Sari Kessler Trio, jazz brunch Sun. with Stefanie Cardinali Group, Pierre's Restaurant--light jazz with Dennis Raffelock on Sun. and Jody Carlson next Tues. Water Mill - acoustic guitarist Steve Fredericks on Thurs. at Muse. Southampton - Latin rhythms with Ludmilla on Thurs. at Le Chef, reggae Fri. at Wildthyme, open mike Thurs. at Tugboat's North Sea House. Hampton Bays - live music Fri. at Buckley's Inn Between. Westhampton Beach - acoustic musicians Fri.& Sat, in Annona's lounge, acoustic guitarist Steve Fredericks (Fri.) and Mambo Loco Cuban jazz band (Sun.) at The Patio, weekend jazz with Swingset Quartet at Westhampton Steakhouse; East Quogue - Paul Mahos Band on Fri. & Sun., Annie Morgan Band on Wed. at Dockers.

SPEAKERS
(no admission charge unless noted)
Best-selling novelist, essayist, journalist Pete Hamill is the Bridgehampton Library's "Fridays at Five" speaker today ($15; rainsite, Bridgehampton School). Canio's Books, Sag Harbor, has poet Sandy McIntosh reading from his new collection 49 Ways to Escape Death on Saturday, 6 p.m. On Sunday at Canio's, 2 p.m., theater historian/journalist Lee Davis interviews distinguished cultural writer Wilfrid Sheed about his new American popular music tome The House That George Built: With A Little Help from Irving, Cole and Crew of About Fifty. BookHampton, Southampton, has chef/author David Shalleck discussing his new book Mediterranean Summer on Sat., 6 p.m. At BookHampton, East Hampton, on Sat. at 8 p.m., novelist Kurt Wenzel will read from his new book Exposure.

Louisa Thomas Hargrave, co-founder of the first North Fork winery and now director of the Stony Brook Center for Wine, Food and Culture, will speak about "Wine: God's Gift or Biblical Scourge?" at Jewish Center of the Hamptons, East Hampton, Sat. at 5 p.m. The Amagansett Marine Museum's "Poetry Marathon" continues Sun., 4 p.m., with poets Marjorie Appleman and Grace Shulman reading. Mireille Guiliano talks about her books French Women Don't Get Fat and French Women for All Seasons at the Quogue Library, Sunday, 5 p.m. ($15). Attorney Joel Cohen will hold a mock trial of King David and his consort Bathsheba, presided over by Judge Joan Lefkowitz, based on his book David and Bathsheba: Through Nathan's Eyes next Thurs., 7:30 p.m., at The Hampton Synagogue, Westhampton Beach.

FILMS
The Parrish Art Museum screens Touch of Sound (2005), the documentary about Grammy Award-winning deaf classical music percussionist Evelyn Glennie tonight, 8 p.m., in its "Six Artists" series ($5 Museum members, $7 others). Southampton's Rogers Memorial Library screens Clint Eastwood's acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima (USA, 2006), the WWII assault seen from the Japanese soldiers' viewpoint, on Monday at 7 p.m. (please call 631-283-0774 to reserve seats; voluntary donations accepted). The Hampton Arts Cinema, Westhampton Beach, shows Close to Home (Israel, 2006) a female soldier-buddies story, on Monday at 7:30 p.m.