If you can’t beat ’em, scrotum
Australian cock wranglers Simon Morley and David Friend, purveyors of a riotuous two-man tackle-mangling show titled Puppetry of the Penis, have been playing with themselves to the amusement of audiences the world over for nearly a decade. Since the mid ’90s, the duo have been giving live-on-stage displays of "astonishing stamina, an unbelievable stretch factor, and an amazing level of testicular fortitude" that include such scrotal contortions as the Pelican, the Windsurfer, the Eiffel Tower, the Loch Ness Monster, and their signature move, the Hamburger. Now their demonstrations of "the ancient Australian art of genital origami," which had the honor of following The Vagina Monologues into Toronto’s New Yorker Theatre, is making its Boston debut at the Copley Theatre, 225 Clarendon Street, beginning February 26. Tickets are $35 and $39; call (617) 931-2787.
Bayou bound
Lacking a plane ticket to New Orleans, your next best bet for that authentic born-on-the-Bayou sound and flavor is the 11th annual Mardi Gras Ball, a two-day extravaganza held February 21 and 22 at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet Ballroom in Cranston, Rhode Island. The weekend’s Cajun and zydeco wonders include Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Road Runners, C.J. Chenier, and the Savoy Family Cajun Band, plus plenty of Creole cuisine. Tickets are $25 each night, or $45 for both; call (401) 783-3926, or visit www.mardigrasri.com.
Dutch drawings at Harvard
Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum is set to unveil "Bruegel to Rembrandt: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection," which is drawn from what constitutes the foremost group of 17th-century Dutch drawings in private hands. The Abrams’s collection includes landscape drawings from Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his followers, figural drawings from the 1590s through the 1620s, rare drawings by Rembrandt and his pupils, and a group of landscapists and marine artists from the 1640s through 1700. The Fogg last mounted a show from the Abrams collection in 1991-’92; two-thirds of this year’s exhibit consists of major works not included in the previous show. "Bruegel to Rembrandt" runs March 22 through July 6, and the Fogg is at 32 Quincy Street in Harvard Square; call (617) 495-9400.
Renewed Contact
Hot director/choreographer Susan Stroman’s mostly dialogue-less dance extravaganza Contact, which won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical and enjoyed a run at the Colonial at the beginning of last year, is headed back to Boston for a run at the Wang March 4 through 9. A triptych of danced fantasies rooted in the human need for connection and set to music ranging from Rodgers & Hart to the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and from Bizet to the Beach Boys, the musical is best known for its title piece, the tale of a suicidal ad man who gets a new lease on life through his dream of a girl (wearing that now-iconic yellow dress) in a swing-dance dive. The Wang is at 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District, and tickets are $28 to $73; call (800) 447-7400.
