(The Playhouse, Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street, New York, NY 10002) (May 7 at 7:30pm, May 8-10 at 8pm, May 10-11 at 2pm) Staged by maverick director/choreographer Karole Armitage and featuring one singer, six musicians, and the Armitage Gone! Dance Company, ARIADNE UNHINGED has sets by internationally-renowned photographer Vera Lutter. Ariadne has just been abandoned by her lover and savior Theseus on the island of Naxos, where she alternates between near-madness and madness. In Ariadne Unhinged, Gotham's new version of the classic story, three musical works from different centuries intertwine to reflect Ariadne's emotional and psychological states: Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna, Haydn's solo cantata Arianna a Naxos, and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. ($30 - $70) (212-279-4200) Event Website

(Milk Can Theatre Company, 311 West 43 S, New York, NY 10036) Three gay men, a widow, and a funeral set the stage to answer the questions -- can we escape our past? What happens when we have to confront the lies we tell ourselves? Running not only tackles the issue of coming out about ones sexuality, but also what everyone must face when confronting the truth about ourselves. ($18/$15) [email protected] Event Website

(Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, 508 West 26th St, New York, NY 10001) A group exhibit of artists, Mark Demott, Daniel Wheelter and Samira Abbassy, Mark Chamberlain present superhero creations of your dreams. Event Website

(Kraine Theatre, 85 East 4th St, New York, NY 10003) (Thu - Sat 8pm) This is the story of Travis and Tommy, a gay couple, and how they confuse their own personal problems with the problems in their relationship. Travis uses Sam, their paperboy, to work out his frustrations. Tommy seeks escape with Max, his outside lover. All four are seeking a connection with another human being, as they use sex to make that connection. ($18) (917-224-0071) Event Website

(American Museum of Natural History, 175 Central Park West, New York, NY 10023) Celebrate the 10th annual return of this re-created tropical forest environment filled with over 500 live butterflies. Event Website

(Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128) Cai Guo-Qiang is internationally acclaimed as an artist whose creative transgressions and cultural provocations have literally exploded the accepted parameters of art making in our time. This is especially true of Inopportune: Stage One, Cai�s largest installation to date, which presents nine real cars in a cinematic progression that simulates a car bombing, occupying the central atrium of the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda. Event Website

(Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave at 75th St, New York, NY 10021) This will be the 74th in the series of Whitney Annual and Biennial exhibitions inaugurated in 1932 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Event Website

(New York Botanical Garden, 200th Street and Kazimiroff Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10458) During this Garden-wide celebration of Charles Darwin's life and his groundbreaking work, explore his theories of evolution and natural selection. Event Website

(Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, 150 West 65th St, New York, NY 10023) During World War II in the South Pacific, love is found between a young nurse, Nellie Forbush and an older French plantation owner, Emile de Becque. The war is tearing them apart. Event Website

(Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th St, New York, NY 10036) Set at the Top Girls Employment Agency in London in the early 1980s, this play tells the story of Marlene, an ambitious career woman who has just been appointed head of the firm. (Top Girls) Event Website

(Museum of Sex, 233 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016) Highlights the best and most compelling sexually inspired contemporary designs from around the world. Event Website

(World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery, 200 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10281) Objects by contemporary designers from the Amazon region who utilize raw materials in their work. Event Website

(Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11238) The most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of internationally acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami includes more than ninety works in various media that span the artist�s entire career, installed in more than 18,500 square feet of gallery space. ($10/$8) Event Website

(Battery Maritime Ferry Building, 10 South St, New York, NY 10004) David Byrne's massive installation in the historic Battery Maritime Building features an organ that triggers sounds from its metal beams, pipes and electrical conduits that invites you to play along. Event Website

(Winter Garden, World Financial Center) This colorful crocheted panoply of kelps, corals and anemones is an homage to Earth�s endangered coral reefs. Event Website

(Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave at 75th St, New York, NY 10021) This special exhibition traces Robert Mapplethorpe's use of instant photography from 1970 to 1975. Included are self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, and portraits of lovers and friends including Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff, and Marianne Faithfull. Many of these small, intimate photographs convey tenderness and vulnerability. Others depict a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form. Unlike the highly crafted images Mapplethorpe staged in the studio and became famous for, these disarming pictures are marked by spontaneity and invention. Event Website

(Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11238) How the Egyptians, known throughout the ancient world for their expertise in magic, addressed the unknown forces of the universe is explored in this exhibition of twenty objects from the Brooklyn Museum's world-famous collection. Event Website

(By Request) This tour is based on new and unique research into the people and places Oscar Wilde visited in the NY of the gilded age. Event Website