Also this issue: Momma Drama David Wise channels his grandmas into a show with everything and the kitchen sink. -Debra Auspitz Jazz It Up -Juliet Fletcher Trio with Brio -David Shengold Street Smart -David Anthony Fox Q&A with Merián Soto -Interview by Deni Kasrel Cry Havoc -Toby Zinman PROK -David Anthony Fox Tied with Strings Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim ponder music’s place in the world. -Andrew Ervin

January 23-29, 2003

artpicks

Get Lost

When I saw Lost Soles here two years ago, I was both dazzled and charmed by the range and economy of Thaddeus Phillips' talent and imagination (this is the same guy who did Lear in a suitcase). This tap-dancing saga of a trip to Cuba, written by Tatiana Mallarino and Pamela Riley, is both narrative drama and virtuosic dancing, a one-man show in every sense of the word -- Phillips performs it, he handles the lights and the clever props, he shot the video, created the costumes and acts in Spanish and in English, in wigs and tux and a variety of old and new tap shoes. Virtuosity is the name of this game.

The plot follows The Wyoming Wonder, whose tap-dancing career ends with a spiteful review by a New York Times critic. "Who," the critic wonders nastily in print, "taught this kid to dance?" And then the show shows us: his first tap teacher, Dottie, back in Wyoming, then an old Jewish guy whose tap-dancing lessons depend on "geometry," and an old Cuban in 1953 in Chicago who tells him how he would have tapped all over Havana if his mother hadn't brought him to this "stupid country."

The show went on to garner raves in New York, and goes on to Boston and Seattle after the brief reprise here. Catch it while you can.

Lost Soles, Thu., Jan. 23-Sat., Jan. 25, $7.50-$20, Painted Bride, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914.

—Toby Zinman