NYT > Arts

The first production of this season’s Encores! series, Stephen Sondheim and Gorge Furth’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” comes across as oddly quaint and self-conscious.

The emphasis in this fashion-conscious show is less on the clothes than on the traditional portrait format and the imposing scale that displays them to best advantage.

From mutts to purebreds, dogs are immortalized in New York City’s art collections.

A show about Gertrude Stein’s family as art patrons is coming to the Met. Also: paintings by Walter De Maria at the Menil Collection and Bomb Magazine’s Web site is posting more material by and about artists.

“Testimonios: 100 Years of Popular Expression” at El Museo del Barrio is a kaleidoscopic display of more than 300 works taken almost entirely from the museum’s collection.

In this story about the bad, bad things that agents sometimes do in the name of country and company, Denzel Washington is put through his action-flick paces.

In a romantic tale, Rachel McAdams plays an artsy young wife happily married until a car accident sends her into a coma from which she emerges with amnesia.

Liza Johnson’s sober feature film debut, about a soldier returning from overseas duty, is a study of depression in a depressed environment.

The Hungarian director Bela Tarr’s black-and-white film “The Turin Horse” (he has said it’s last) is a thorough and systematic statement of intellectual despair.

There is a dark undertow to many of Nathan Englander’s stories, reminding us of the human capacity for evil and appetite for revenge.

“The Descendants,” slipping from front-runner to underdog in the Oscar race, tries a new tack.

“Oscar Nominated Short Films” programs present documentary, live action and animated movies from around the world.

The fire hydrant was painted black in "The Artist" while the makeup artist for "Albert Nobbs" studies the wrinkles of everyone he comes across. More on the tricks of the trade of nominees in the so-called craft categories at the Academy Awards.

Tabatha Coffey of “Tabatha Takes Over” on Bravo shares her picks for the Oscar.

The Visual Effects Society gives a boost to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "Hugo," while Justin Bieber's film winds up on the short list of inspirational films up for the Epiphany Prize

Nominated for a Grammy as producer of the year, Paul Epworth describes what went into Adele’s monster hit “Rolling in the Deep” and other songs he worked on with her.

Bill Callahan brought his bone-dry baritone and the deadpan philosophy of his lyrics to Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series.

“The Lighthouse,” the 1980 opera by Peter Maxwell Davies, is being performed at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

“Stick Fly,” the Broadway play about an emotionally stormy weekend at the vacation home of an African-American family, will close on Feb. 26.

Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, two dancers with the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, also happen to dance with American Ballet Theater.

Bjork has cancelled her Thursday-night performance at the New York Hall of Science in Queens because of health issues.

A collection that flaps in the wind; a paper trail for rare furniture; and everyday items and small luxuries from the glory days of American rail travel.

The 17 contemporary works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition “Spies in the House of Art: Photography, Film and Video” were inspired by museums.

Andres Chulisi Rodriguez portrays two brothers in the one-man show “Growing Up Gonzales” at the Jan Hus Playhouse.

Couples’ therapy is usually intended for two, but in “Psycho Therapy” the relationship in question is a moving target.

Alison Bagnall’s film “The Dish & the Spoon” follows the relationship between a woman upset by her husband’s infidelity and a British teenager.

“Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit,” on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, is a gripping exhibition of an African-American painter in search of a race-blind environment.

The Akram Khan Company performed “Vertical Road,” inspired by Sufi tradition and the Persian poet Rumi, at the Peak Performances series at Montclair State University.

Mr. Gianakos’s disjunctive, cartoon allegories of surrealistic perversity are displayed as part of his “New Paintings” exhibition.

Marianne Vitale’s first solo show at Alan Feuer Gallery features performance-driven sculptures that suggest a strong presence in search of the right vehicle.

“Looking Back/The 6th White Columns Annual — Selected by Ken Okiishi and Nick Mauss” is an indispensible year-end review of alternative art.

Klara Liden’s “Pretty Vacant” at Reena Spaulings Fine Art creates a quasi-secret space out of 80 used Christmas trees.

The director Alan Brown redirects the “Romeo and Juliet” narrative from interfamily rivalry to intrainstitutional homophobia.

The fictional couple in this animated film about Cuba and its music mingle with real-life legends like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Chano Pozo.

Another island goes kablooey in this sequel to the film “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which again gives a Jules Verne tale a 3-D treatment.

The border between business and philanthropy is a rocky platform in a documentary about the microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus.

The search for some notable bowls of bouillabaisse in Manhattan.

A hot-chocolate lover compares the chocolateries of New York with those of Paris.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, the Miser finds affordable, romantic whiffs of Paris.

The popularity of banda music, in which the tuba plays a dominant role, is seen by some as the cause of a recent rash of thefts.

Mr. Hecht, who sold the Euphronius krater to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972 for $1.3 million, was long suspected of illegal trafficking in looted artifacts.

Mr. Bona, along with Mason Wiley, wrote an encyclopedic, usually affectionate but sometimes acerbic guide called “Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards.”

A free weekday e-mail newsletter featuring the best local offerings from all areas of NYTimes.com — business, arts, sports, dining, style and more.

Get a selection of the listings on your iPhone with The Scoop, The Times’s guide to what to eat, see and do in New York.

A selection of cultural events this week.

A selected guide to exhibitions, performances, celebrations, walks, talks and other events, including several tied to Valentine’s Day.

Events for, by and about children, teenagers and families in New York.