Today’s “Fab 5″/ Selected NYCity Events  – SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2014.

Patti LuPone
Last night of  a two week residency. Two-time Tony Award winner and 54 Below favorite Patti LuPone returns to 54 Below with her critically-acclaimed show The Lady with A Torch. Patti performs an eclectic collection of torch songs by such composers and lyricists as Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz, Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn, Billy Barnes, Harold Arlen, George and Ira Gershwin, and Cole Porter.

Enjoy what Don Heckman of The Los Angeles Times described as “a beautifully paced, marvelously delivered torch-song exploration of the pleasures and pains of love; LuPone’s remarkable, larger-than-life qualities and stunning musicality are distilled into the pure essence of her art.”
54 Below, 254 W 54th St., (btw Broadway and Eighth Ave)
(646) 476-3551 / 866-468-7619 / 54below.com
8pm & 11pm / $85-$155

SummerStage: Dr. John and Hurray for Riff Raff
“A session musician from the late 1950s, it was when pianist Mac Rebennack reinvented himself as a “hoodoo man” named Dr. John that his solo career began in earnest. His earliest albums from the late ’60s are eerie, hazy affairs, as if recorded during a “True Detective”-esque ceremony. But on a run of popular ’70s hits, Dr. John embraced the bright, buoyant side of New Orleans music.

His career spans from the Rolling Stones to the children’s program “Curious George.” In 2012, he worked with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach on his comeback album “Locked Down,” which found Dr. John adding Ethiopian rhythms to his sonic bouillabaisse.” (WSJ)
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, midpark at 70th St.
At 3 p.m./ FREE
212-360-2777, summerstage.com

Henry Threadgill Zooid
“The composer and multi-instrumentalist’s most recent album, the 2012 “Tomorrow Sunny/The Revelry,” has two titles, so perhaps it’s significant that his set at the Vanguard is divided into two halves: the comparatively contemplative sounds he makes with his flute and the more aggressive, rough-and-tumble music he plays on the alto sax.

It’s a unique sextet, together now for 14 of the bandleader’s 70 years, in which he and guitarist Liberty Ellman, cellist Christopher Hoffman, bassist Stomu Takeishi, drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee, and Jose Davila on trombone and tuba often sound like pieces from six puzzles that somehow, inexplicably wind up fitting together. The direction of this challenging music isn’t always clear, but it’s always going somewhere.”(WSJ)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th St., West Village,
212-255-4037, villagevanguard.com;
At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. / $25 and $30 cover, with a one-drink minimum.

Elsewhere, but worth the short detour:

Summer Streets (through Aug. 16)
For three consecutive Saturdays, starting this weekend, a seven-mile stretch of city streets — largely Lafayette Street and Park Avenue, from the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street — will be traffic-free zones in which visitors can ride bicycles, walk, dance, attend crafts workshops or just people-watch. A venture of the city’s Department of Transportation, this free event, which runs from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., also features a climbing wall, a zip line and an art installation. More information is at nyc.gov/html/dot/summerstreets.
Open House NY Architectural Cruise
On Saturday at 12:30 p.m., an annual motor yacht cruise sponsored by Open House New York will give visitors a bird’s-eye view of construction projects along the East River, with commentary by architects and others.
It costs $40 ($30 for members), and leaves from Pier 15 at the East River Esplanade (east of South Street, between Maiden Lane and John Street, Lower Manhattan). Information: 212-991-6470, ohny.org.

=============================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.

♦ NYCity is a big town with many visitors, where quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
==============================================================================

WHAT’S ON VIEW: Special Exhibitions @ 4 MUSEUMS (Manhattan’s WestSide)

Museum of Modern Art:
‘Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948-1988’ (through Aug. 24)
‘Jasper Johns: Regrets’ (through Sept. 1)
‘Robert Heinecken: Object Matter’ (through Sept. 7)
‘A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio’ (through Oct. 5)
‘Designing Modern Women 1890-1990’(through Oct. 5)
Here’s what the NYT said about ‘A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio’
“This mostly lively if repetitive overview traces the history of photography as the Modern never has — with images taken in the studio rather than out in the world. Its roughly 180 works span 160 years and represent some 90 portraitists, commercial photographers, lovers of still life, darkroom experimenters, Conceptual artists and several generations of postmodernists. Including film and video, it offers much to look at but dwells too much in the past, becoming increasingly blinkered and cautious as it approaches the present. 212-708-9400, moma.org.” (Smith-NYT)
Museum of Modern Art: 11 W 53rd St. (btw 5th /6th Ave.)
(212) 708-9400 / moma.org.

Designing Modern Women 1890-1990:

American Folk Art Museum: ‘Self-Taught Genius: Treasures From the American Folk Art Museum’ (through Aug. 17)
This exhibition is not only an enthralling display of about 100 works from the museum’s permanent collection; it’s also an intellectually provocative effort to rethink the nature of artistic creativity. There are paintings and drawings, quilts, ceramics, handmade books, pieces of elaborately decorated furniture, duck decoys and weather vanes dating from the mid-18th to the early-21st centuries, all produced by people from many different walks of life who had no formal training in art. The inspirationally democratic message is that potential for creative genius is wired into the consciousness of everyone.
American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street, 212-595-9533, folkartmuseum.org. (Ken Johnson-NYT)

International Center of Photography: ‘Urbes Mutantes: Latin American Photography 1944-2013’ and ‘Caio Reisewitz’ (through Sept. 7)
It’s a Latin American summer at New York City art museums, with a high number of shows of work from South America and the Caribbean. This institution, as usual one step ahead of the curve, has two. The larger, “Urbes Mutantes: Latin American Photography 1944-2013,” is a roomy survey of some 200 small, mostly black-and-white pictures that fit, with trimming and squeezing, into the genre of “street photography.” The second is a solo devoted to a single artist, the contemporary Brazilian photographer Caio Reisewitz, whose big color images of threatened tropical rain forests offer a lush antidote to urban grit — Manhattan’s included.
International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street, 212-857-0000, icp.org. (Cotter-NYT)

Museum of Arts and Design: ‘NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial’ (through Oct. 12) This plunge into the biennial format makes a big, messy splash sampling the visual culture across the city — whether opera set design, art or new technologies. An expansive, invigorating move, it still contains too much that is fun, cute, clutter-making or useless, aimed at those with plenty of disposable income and homes to decorate.
Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle,
212-299-7777, madmuseum.org. (Smith-NYT)

The Art of the Brick by Nathan Sawaya (ongoing)
This exhibition by artist Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of intriguing and inspiring works of art made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world — LEGO® bricks. The Discovery Times Square exhibit is the world’s biggest and most elaborate display of LEGO® art ever and features brand-new, never-before-seen pieces by Sawaya. This show was named ‘One of CNN’s Ten Global Must-See Exhibitions.’
Discovery Times Square, 226 West 44th St. (btw 7th/8th ave)
866.987.9692 / http://www.discoverytsx.com

For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in the right Sidebar: “Selected Events + Special Exhibitions : Manhattan’s WestSide” dated (07/31) and (07/29).