Guide to what’s happening in Boston this week
Theater
‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’
Friday, 6 p.m.
Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St.,
Watertown
Free, 617-923-8487
www.newrep.org
New Repertory Theatre pre- sents an adaptation by Ross MacDonald of the immortal Twain novel whose broad and complex social critique ranges from hilarious to harsh, but is also tender and life-affirming. They’re going on tour with this production in the fall, but tonight is a Free Fun Friday preview; tickets are free on a first-come, first-serve basis.
‘Valve’
Friday, 8:30 p.m.
Oberon
2 Arrow St., Cambridge
$18-$24, 866-811-4111
www.bostoncircusguild.com
The Boston Circus Guild teams up with SHOW Circus Studios to present this showcase of vaudevillian circus acts, including single point and partner trapeze, aerial double slings, partner acrobatics, hand balancing, contortion, diablo, tumbling and aerial chains. Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band provides musical accompaniment. The plot: Time stops at a tea party. Ain’t that always the way?
Music
Berklee Music Fest on Georges Island
Saturday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Georges Island
Ferry from Long Wharf North, Free, 617-266-1400
www.berklee.edu
The lineup for the last of Berklee’s summer Georges Island concert series includes hip-hop/R&B/soul singer-songwriter Katrina Bellow, R&B combo Will Wells and Dynamic Sound and blues-rocker Troy Cartwright. So, in summary, you get to visit the Harbor Islands in late summer and hear great music. Win-win for the win! Check out Bostonharborislands.org for ferry info.
JD Samson
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave., Boston
$10-$15, 617-478-3103
www.icaboston.org
The ICA’s final “DJs on the Harbor” dance night features this Le Tigre member (she’s the mustachioed, tuxedoed one on the cover of their album “This Island”) on the turntables. The ICA quotes her as desiring through her DJing to create “space for rad people to dance and smile and hold each other.” What more could you ask of music?
Boston Landmarks
Orchestra ft. Boston Ballet
Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Hatch Shell, Esplanade
One David G. Mugar Way, Boston, free, 617-987-2000
www.landmarksorchestra.org
The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, guest-conducted by Jonathan McPhee, teams up with the Boston Ballet to present some of the most beloved snippets from Tchaikovsky’s legendary oeuvre, drawing from “Swan Lake,” “The Nutcracker,” “Sleeping Beauty” and his sixth symphony. Fear not — none of the dancers will sprout bloody bird-wings during the “Swan Lake” sequences — this is Tchaikovsky, not Aronofsky!
Comedy
Bobby Lee
Saturday, 7 p.m.
Wilbur Theatre
246 Tremont St., Boston
$25, 800-745-3000
www.thewilburtheatre.com
Lee, a Korean-American, plays gleefully with the absurdity of Asian-American stereotypes and the ignorance with which whites often apply them. In one bit from a couple years back, he says he’s often been recognized on the street for his tenure on “MADtv,” but also as the guy from “Heroes,” the woman from “Grey’s Anatomy” and the Virginia Tech shooter.
Art
‘Invisible Cities’
Through Oct. 22
Boston Society of Arts and Crafts
175 Newbury St., Boston
Free, 617-266-1810 ext. 13
www.societyofcrafts.org
This exhibition is a collaboration between Turkish artists from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul and local artists from MassArt facilitated by an organization called Floating World Projects. The works, silk-screened on glass panels, are a mishmash of images — abstract patterns, handprints, maps, human figures — suggesting a common social reality of contemporary life that goes beyond words.
‘Virtual Kinetics, and the Art of the Image’
Through Wednesday
Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation
154 Moody St., Waltham
Free to $7, 781-893-5410
www.crmi.org
Artist Dave Gordon has taken the motion studies of pioneering filmmaker Eadweard Muybridge and, using modern technology like micro controllers and Hall-effect sensors, recreated them — along with original works like them, in three dimensions.
Going out
Fire and Wine
Saturday, 6:30 p.m.
Diablo Glass School
123 Terrace St., Boston
$35, 617-442-7444
www.diablo
glassschool.com
Ever thought your wine tastings needed a little something more? How about this one, which includes a glass-blowing demonstration? It’s a fascinating process to observe; plus you get all the wine, crackers, cheese and thin meats you’re accustomed to. And one lucky participant gets to take home a piece of glassware created by the masters at Diablo.
Film
‘Gallants’
Friday, 8 p.m.
Chinatown Park
Kingston and Edinboro streets, Boston, free
Films at the Gate 2011 continues with this comedy featuring aging martial arts film stars from the ’70s trying to reclaim some former glory in what the festival’s website calls “an affectionate comedy about finding the soul of old Hong Kong in the modern day.” A Kung Fu demo by Wah Lum Kung-Fu Athletic Association precedes the screening at 7:30.
