Oneohtrix Point Never’s Sense of the Uncanny
The year 2025 presented a full distillation of the Daniel Lopatin experience. The distinguished electronic artist, who performs as Oneohtrix Point Never, co-produced one of the biggest pop records of that year, the Weeknd’s dark finale, “Hurry Up Tomorrow”; scored Josh Safdie’s adrenalized Best Picture nominee, “Marty Supreme”; and released his own mutative album, “Tranquilizer,” an ambient archival project that mimes since-deleted nineties sample libraries that Lopatin discovered in the Internet Archive. His music has spanned genres and mediums, with the composer filling various roles, but its through line is its sense of the uncanny and Lopatin’s understanding of how warping sonic textures can tap into surreality. His process, which bridges the neoclassical, the avant-garde, and even the kitsch, has made him one of the defining trackmasters of the twenty-first century. “I’m an amateur musician. I’m a professional recordist,” he told the Creative Independent.
Lopatin’s instincts serve him well across all of his creative endeavors, but chiefly in his own compositional work, which now spans eleven LPs that feel committed to creating a repository of every possible sound—from the eerie, liminal minimalism of “Replica” (2011) to the turbocharged rave-pop of “Garden of Delete” (2015) to the psychedelic collage “Magic Oneohtrix Point Never” (2020). On April 29-30, Oneohtrix Point Never opens Bang on a Can’s four-day Long Play Festival, at Pioneer Works, for his only currently slated shows in America this year. His set, which follows a performance by the jazz keyboardist John Medeski, features accompanying visuals from the experimental digital artist Freeka Tet.—Sheldon Pearce
About Town
As dramatic stakes go, the question of whether to install a stop sign on a picturesque block might seem low. But that’s only until you meet the Vernon Point Neighborhood Association in “The Balusters,” a sharp comedy by David Lindsay-Abaire, for Manhattan Theatre Club. The association’s newest member is Kyra (Anika Noni Rose), who joined after moving to the affluent enclave it is in charge of preserving—or policing, depending on your perspective. Neighborhood gossip delivers revelations; seemingly minor matters involving porch railings swell into arguments about social justice. Lindsay-Abaire’s multidirectional repartee gets added zip from the first-rate cast, especially Margaret Colin as the unapologetically blunt Ruth. With propulsive direction by Kenny Leon.—Dan Stahl (Friedman; through May 24.)
What if the birth of John the Baptist was celebrated at a black-lit basement rave? The French singer-songwriter Oklou conjures such a scene on “Harvest Sky”—an anthemic dance tune inspired by her memories of la Fête de la Saint-Jean—from her 2025 record, “Choke Enough.” The album is full of strange, brilliant contradictions; Oklou slides masterfully between fun and eccentricity, pump and pathos. On the title track, she threatens to crash a car for a good photo, and then ponders whether her dad might appreciate an especially pretty moonlit night. Synthesizers warble and phasings range from gritty-grindy to flip-phone-keypad mellow. Oklou is taking “Choke Enough” on tour after postponing for a year to spend time with her newborn. And monolinguals needn’t worry, she sings in English.—Leo Lasdun (Terminal 5; May 2-3.)
Parsons Dance has long been known for its high-energy, high-spirited style. That’s also the trademark of Courtney (Balenciaga) Washington, a choreographer from the worlds of competition dance and vogue ballrooms. “Fearless,” her first work for the Parsons troupe, has fun in the crossover space, demanding precision and fierceness from the dancers as they arrange themselves in one formation after another. The program also features a première by the choreographer David Parsons himself, set to the second movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and one by Mayte Natalio, a former company member who’s made a name for herself as a choreographer of theatre, including “Suffs” on Broadway.—Brian Seibert (Joyce Theatre; April 29-May 10.)
Even amid Broadway’s queer renaissance, Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” stands out as a transgressive blast. Luke Evans is a gloriously seductive Frank-N-Furter; Josh Rivera an adorable Rocky; Amber Gray a sharp Riff-Raff; Michaela Jaé Rodriguez a sweet Columbia; and Stephanie Hsu a spicy standout as Janet, wriggling with horndog virtuosity through “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a Me.” Rachel Dratch is perfectly arch as the smoking-jacketed narrator, riffing effortlessly with the audience. (No one threw toast, but we yelled “asshole” and “slut.”) There’s no ironing out the kinky plot, thank the Lord—Frank tricks the couple into sex; gender identities remain queenily chaotic. The director Sam Pinkleton (“Oh, Mary!”) uses simple, clever devices such as tiny, neon-green castles and wacky placards, lending the show a shaggy pro-am energy. Give yourself over to ultimate pleasure.—Emily Nussbaum (Studio 54; through July 19.)
“Big Mistakes,” on Netflix, co-created by Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott, has a manic, overheated energy: Nicky (Levy), a quasi-closeted pastor, and his sister Morgan (Taylor Ortega), an elementary-school teacher, are unhappy in their jobs; when Morgan steals a necklace, they’re kidnapped by a Turkish gangster named Yusuf, who forces them to perform odd jobs. Nicky and Morgan’s narcissistic mom, Linda, is played by a wonderfully typecast Laurie Metcalf. The gangland drama is deeper and darker than the domestic one, strengthened by the unexpected portrayal of the Russian toughs as bumbling in their own way. The show comes close to making a point about criminal and family hierarchies—but it, like its characters, has a policy of shooting first, asking questions later.—Inkoo Kang
“Michael,” the story of Michael Jackson’s rise to fame, presents a surprisingly detailed view of the behind-the-scenes dealings on which his career depended. As a child performing with his brothers at the family home in Gary, Indiana, young Michael (Juliano Krue Valdi) is beaten by his father, Joe (Colman Domingo), who demands obedience along with musical discipline. The Jackson Five find success; then, in the late seventies, the adult Michael (played, with extraordinary flair, by Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s real-life nephew) seeks a solo career—and confronts Joe’s domineering maneuvers. The director, Antoine Fuqua, working with a script by John Logan, portrays Michael as an emotionally stunted and grievously wounded artist of historic greatness. The movie omits allegations that the singer sexually assaulted children (which he denied).—Richard Brody (In wide release.)
Pick Three
Sarah Larson on podcasts in which families and mysteries converge.
1. “The Idiot,” from the journalist M. Gessen and Serial Productions, explores the case of Gessen’s “least favorite cousin” and a murder-for-hire plot. Cousin Allen, a shady-seeming braggart living in Russia, shows up to Gessen’s father’s house in Cape Cod with his young son, having apparently abducted the boy; Gessen—a wryly appealing narrator-detective—is immediately suspicious, and unspools the head-spinning details of Allen’s behavior while treating the listener like an intelligent friend.
2. In “Passenger Seat,” the independent journalist and first-time podcaster Tom Joudrey explores the strange case of a retired lawyer who was kidnapped at gunpoint in 2012 while walking her dog in rural Ohio. She survived, and now Joudrey wants to know why she helped her captor—and thanked him in the courtroom. The revelations get familial, psychological, and stunning, as do Joudrey’s conversations with the kidnapper, now in prison. The series’ earnestly naïve sound design (horses neighing, cars revving) only enhanced my appreciation of Joudrey’s sophisticated storytelling.
3. The African American Wax Museum, in Harlem, was the singular creation of the artist and eccentric Raven Chanticleer, a sharecropper’s son from South Carolina who reinvented himself, spectacularly, in Manhattan. After he died, in 2002, his relatives sold the museum’s building and, it was rumored, destroyed its contents. In “Raven,” the journalist Gavin Whitehead investigates what happened to Chanticleer’s wax Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes, and other creations, and unearths unexpected wonders galore, set to subtle background music that riffs on “Take the A Train.”
P.S. Good stuff on the internet: