Following Barneys’ unveiling— WHOOSH!—of Simon Doonan’s brilliantly whimsical hippie-chic tableau, Saks and Bergdorf’s unveil their holiday windows, featuring a more traditional “Snowflake Spectacular” lit by Tory Burch (Saks) and fully clothed, non-titillating “Calendar Girls” theme (Bergdorf’s). Later, what will avant-garde theater types carry on about now that the election’s over? Well, the election, of course! The latest theatrical interpretation of La Clinton, HILLARY: A Modern Greek Tragedy With a (Somewhat) Happy Ending, opens at the Living Theater on the Lower East Side. “The premise is that fate is much more determining of characters than their own choices are,” said Susan Bernfield, the artistic director of New Georges, the theater company responsible. “It kind of posits that everything we know about Hillary is because she was a disciple of Athena, the Greek goddess of war. As a smart girl, she’s Athena’s disciple.” This, unfortunately, makes another goddess, Aphrodite, jealous. “Aphrodite doesn’t like the fact that Hillary is worshipping Athena. So she sends in Bill Clinton to woo Hillary. Aphrodite has a weapon, and that weapon is Bill Clinton, a man of mythical charm and appetite. So once he walks into the room and interrupts Hillary’s studying, all hell breaks loose.” Pretty much everything one could wish for in a secretary of state.
[Saks Fifth Avenue holiday windows unveiling, sponsored by Swarovski, Fifth Avenue and 49th Street, 6:30 p.m.; Bergdorf Goodman windows unveiling, 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, all day; HILLARY: A Modern Greek Tragedy With a (Somewhat) Happy Ending, Living Theater, 21 Clinton Street, 7 p.m., 212-868-4444]
mbryan@observer.com
