fri, oct 24

MUSIC | HRO

Kicking off Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra music director James Yannatos’ 40th year at Harvard is this spectacular concert featuring works by two legendary heavyweights of classical music, Dmitri Shostakovich and Ludwig von Beethoven. Yannatos conducts this majestic evening of top-notch music. Tickets $8-16, student $6-10. 8 p.m. Sanders Theatre. (SAW)

READINGS | Jhumpa Lahiri and Lan Samantha Chang

Jhumpa Lahiri is well known as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her debut short-story collection Interpreter of Maladies and her recent bestseller The Namesake. She sets her stories mainly in the Cambridge area and is one of literature’s most promising young talents. Her only competition might come from her co-reader Lan Samantha Chang, who has received lavish praise for her own debut work Hunger. 7 p.m. MIT, Rm. 10-250, 77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. (SAW)

MISC | Apollo Night

To all the insomniacs who have enjoyed a little post-SNL “It’s Showtime at the Apollo,” this one’s for you. Based on the show originating in Harlem, N.Y., Apollo Night offers student performances that run the full entertainment gamut from song to dance to comedy. The talent show competition will be almost entirely judged by the audience, so remember your two-finger golf claps. The Black Students Association host and will donate all the proceeds to charity. Tickets $8, BSA members $5. 8 p.m. Lowell Lecture Hall. (SAW)

THEATER | Temptation

The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club presents Temptation, a Faust-inspired, biting satire from Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic. Watch as tempted scientist Dr. Foustka exposes the evil in all of us. 7:30 p.m. Tickets $6, $4 students. Loeb Mainstage, 64 Brattle St. (MRR).

THEATRE | Six Degrees of Separation

Directed by Matt Weinstock ’05, this 1990 John Guarre play kicks of the regular fall season at the Loeb Experimental Theater. Featuring the first fully nude scene in recent undergraduate theater memory, the script treats on issues of identity and race in New York City’s upper social echelons. 7:30 p.m. Tickets free. Loeb Experimental Theater, 64 Brattle St. (BHC)

THEATRE | Gheri Dosti

Sponsored by the Harvard South Asian Association, this four week run brings together five short plays originally developed in New York City and exploring issues of same-sex relationships in South Asia. 8 p.m. Tickets $20, $7 students. Leverett Old Library Theater.

sat, oct 25th

COMEDY | Eddie Izzard