Saturday
April 30
Comic in bloom
Graphic novelist Kensuke Okabayashi will be on hand at the Botanic Garden’s cherry blossom festival this weekend to sign copies of his new classic, “The Foreigner.” It’s not about flowers, of course, but about how the Seven Deadly Sins — envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth and wrath — can consume us (present company excluded!). Okabayashi told us that he suffers from envy the most, so why not buy one of his books and make him feel better?
11 am-5 pm. Kensuke Okabayashi at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden [900 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights, (718) 623-7200]. For info, visit www.bbg.org.
Sunday
May 1
What the Dickens?
Sure, it won three Tonys in 1963, but you haven’t seen “Oliver!” until you see the Gallery Players’ version. To us, it still seems a little weird to turn Charles Dickens’s morose take on Victorian England into a toe-tapping musical, but, hey, we don’t pack ’em in on Broadway, so what do we know? But we do know this: “Food, Glorious Food” is the greatest song about hunger that we’ve ever heard.
3 pm. “Oliver” at the Gallery Players [199 14th St. between Fourth and Fifth avenues in Park Slope, (212) 352-3101]. Tickets, $18, $14 (seniors and children under 12). For info, visit www.galleryplayers.com.
Friday
May 6
All in the family
The girls of Sweet and Nasty Burlesque are making an offer you can’t refuse: now they’re stripping with a Mafia theme. Nasty Canasta and her “family” will kick off their randy season kicks off with “Family Night,” featuring the “sexiest Sicilians and the mafiosas with the most,” said Canasta, who will be joined by criminal cutie Ruby Valentine (pictured) and her nunchucks striptease act.
10 pm. “Family Night” at Burlesque at the Beach [1208 Surf Ave. at W. 12th Street in Coney Island, (718) 372-5159]. Tickets $15. For info, visit www.sweetandnastyburlesque.com.
Saturday
May 7
Swamp bugs
Catch the second day of the Bayou ’n’ Brooklyn Music Festival at Jalopy, the borough’s unofficial roots music headquarters. There’ll be a full day of guitar, fiddle and accordion workshops, plus community jams, a gumbo dinner, and, of course, music, as swamp music legends rock Columbia Street.
Noon-1 am. Bayou ’n’ Brooklyn Music Festival at Jalopy [315 Columbia St. between Hamilton Avenue and Woodhull Street in Red Hook, (718) 395-3214]. Tickets $12 in advance. For info, visit www.bayou-n-brooklyn.com.
Saturday
May 7
Dirty clean good fun
The Strivelli Players bring the laugh-a-minute, Tony Award-winning musical “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” to Gravesend in a production — starring Alex Amarosa and Karen Mascolo (pictured) — aimed to make you forget the movie of the same name. “It’s not ‘Hamlet,’ ” said director Danielle Giovinazzi. “I just want to make people laugh.” That ain’t no con.
“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at The Block Theatre [376 Bay 44th St. near Shore Parkway in Gravesend, (347) 492-0534], Fridays and Saturdays, May 6-21, 8 pm. Tickets, $20. For info, visit strivelliplayers.com.
