City Sightings

Shivering Timbers, Off-Broadway

Once upon a time, there was a Yale grad named Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum who dreamed of a show about buccaneers. A year ago, a mysterious patron named Johnny Dirt financed Jacob's fantasy in a 40-minute production in the back of Rudy's Bar and Grill. This week, The Tank, a brand-new 46-seat off-off-Broadway theater, presents the next chapter of the high-seas epic, again written and directed by Jacob. The Buccaneer, Episodes I-IV is a comedy-melodrama performed in Spanish--though only one cast member spoke Spanish before rehearsals--with live English translation. The show in fact presumes its audience speaks no Spanish whatsoever. It's all part of the fun.

Rumor has it there may or may not be a small cult audience developing from the first run. If you're lucky, you'll sit next to someone in a full Quixote get-up. Performances of The Buccaneer are this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, June 12-14, at 8 p.m. at The Tank, 432 42nd St., between Ninth and 10th Avenues. Tickets are $10. And they lived swashbucklingly ever after. --Casey O'Donohoe

Paddling Along the River in TriBeCa

This Sunday, a friend and I trekked downtown to the Hudson River Park, enticed by an advertisement for free boat rides and mini golf. After emerging from the Chambers Street station and traversing the few blocks, we came upon an odd sight: 20 kayaks traveling up and over the waves between two rotted-out piers. No, we hadn't stumbled upon some Being John Malkovich-like portal to the coast of Maine: below the tall buildings crowding the skyline, skirting the edge of downtown Manhattan and beneath the view of New Jersey across the river, the Hudson River Park offers visitors the chance to kayak on weekends for free.

While the murky waters of the Hudson might not be as picturesque as the New England seaside, the surreality of paddling alongside shipping vessels, yachts and the skyline that formerly boasted the World Trade Center is worth the experience. The park and area piers are also home to a 1907 tugboat, an outdoor trapeze school, a volleyball league, the aforementioned mini golf course, and a skate park.

The Hudson River Park stretches along the river from Battery Park to 59th Street. Kayaking is offered at TriBeCa's Pier 26, between Canal and Chambers Streets. --Jennifer Preissel

Great Voices on the Great Lawn

Every summer, the Metropolitan Opera presents a series of free outdoor performances of full-length operas. This year, the Met will perform Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in Central Park on Monday, June 16 with Edoardo Müller conducting Olga Makarina as Lucia, Bruno Caproni as Enrico, and Dimitri Kavrakos as Raimondo. Francisco Casanova, who won acclaim after his Met debut last spring when he replaced an ailing Pavarotti, sings Edgardo.

The performance will be held on a stage set up on the Great Lawn, which runs in the middle of the park from 80th Street to 86th Street. While the performance begins at 8 p.m., plan to arrive early to get a good spot on the lawn.

Police routinely ignore the ban on alcohol consumption in the park for this event, and so, in addition to their picnics, almost everyone brings a bottle or two of wine. Be sure to brink a blanket: there are no chairs. --D.G. Fulton

From Justin to Kelly to the Upper East Side

Whether you're a self-professed American Idol junkie, you watch it on the sly while pretending you haven't been sucked into the reality TV craze, or you make a point of avoiding the TV when the show comes on and attack anyone who starts talking about it, one way or another, you've almost certainly been influenced by ABC's blockbuster contest and the culture that has sprung up around it. Writers at Chicago City Limits, the comedy troupe that has had an outpost on the Upper East Side for 25 years, know an opportunity when they see one, and they are capitalizing on the phenomenon (as everyone seems to be).

Starting Thursday, June 12, the troupe will be presenting a new long-running revue, American Idles. According to press materials, the interactive show intends to "take a no-holds-barred look at today's society to ask where we went wrong" and to address pressing sociopolitical issues through comedy. American Idles will likely be lighthearted, but--if the comedic skills on display in Chicago City Limits's other shows are any guide--highly intelligent and well-executed. Now the troupe just has to hope that their show's popularity mimics that of the one they're skewering.

Chicago City Limits Theater is located at 1105 First Avenue at 61st Street. Shows are Thursday at 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 8 and 10:30 p.m.; tickets will cost you $20. --Mallory Jensen