DON’T MISS!: ABOUT FACE What it lacks in size, the Met’s newest exhibition makes up for in imagination. Opening Tuesday, “Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents,” showcases 20 pieces from six artists, each taking a unique look at traditional African masks. The show includes a 1926 Man Ray photo contrasting a mask and a woman’s face, as well as a newer work from Romuald Hazoumé using an empty plastic can, a brush and stereo speakers. “The things [the artists] are doing are very lighthearted and satirical in reflecting on the notion the African mask is the icon Westerners associate with Africa,” says curator Alisa LaGamma. “They’re not carving it out of wood, they’re constructing it out of detritus.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street; 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. — Brian Niemietz The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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CHECK IT OUT!: FLOWER POWER Orchids are the divas of the plant world: Brilliant to look at, they command attention or they wither and die. “The Orchid Show: On Broadway,” opening tomorrow at the New York Botanical Garden, is a fabulous fusion of flora and theater. “People who come to the orchid show are dying for color and drama,” says Todd Forrest, horticultural VP at the garden, which asked Tony-winning set designer Scott Pask to create a proscenium arch, a chandelier and other theatrically inspired works, covered by 5,000 tropical blooms. “You end up using the orchids as a paintbrush,” Pask muses. “They’re going to steal the show and chew the scenery!” The exhibit fills three galleries of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory with a riot of color and spicy and sweet scents. The theme continues in the Library building with live cabaret and a show of Al Hirschfeld’s caricatures. Go and be dazzled! Bronx River Parkway and Fordham Road, nybg.org. — Barbara Hoffman
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WATCH IT!: RADIO WAVES Now, live from heaven, it’s God! “The Next Voice You Hear” (1950) — getting a rare screening Monday at 7 p.m. at BAM Rose Cinemas — is an oddity in which the big man upstairs shocks the world by interrupting regular programming and speaking on the radio every night for six days. (The movie audience never hears Him.) The story is seen through the eyes of an all-American family: Joe Smith (James Whitmore), his pregnant wife (Nancy Davis, the future Mrs. Ronald Reagan) and their young son, Johnny (Gary Gray). The film, directed by William Wellman, provides a glimpse into a long-gone America, and will be introduced by Village Voice critic J. Hoberman. 30 Lafayette Ave., near Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn; bam.org. — V.A. Musetto Courtesy Everett Collection
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SEE THIS!: ASHES TO ASHES Until one fateful day in A.D. 79, Pompeii was a lively place of fountains and frescoes, marketplaces and brothels. Then Mount Vesuvius erupted, smothering its people and livestock under ash and soot. So they remained — frozen in time — until their discovery, 16 centuries later. Now the doomed Italian city is as close as the Discovery Times Square, where “Pompeii the Exhibit: Life and Death in the Shadow of Vesuvius” opens today. Among the more than 250 artifacts on display are coins, furniture, erotica and plaster casts made of the impressions of the dead. “There was no time to save anyone,” says historian Judith Harris. “A blast of hot gas, and they were gone.” You can sense the horror in the “eruption room,” with its floor-shaking speakers and time-lapse video of destruction. 226 W. 44th St.; discoverytsx.com. — Hoffman Discovery Times Square
