Identical Cousins

APR 19 2025

6:30pm DOORS 7:30pm EVENT

WONDERFUL & STRANGE

Crystal Ballroom / Somerville Theatre

SOMERVILLE, MA

TICKETS

Who could overstate the impact this director’s wild visions have had on our collective unconscious—from dark depictions of small-town depravity to hilarious, whimsical flights of fancy, as Lynch and his casts and crews colored with every crayon in the box of human emotion and surrealist imagery?

Join us for an eery, nighttime drive to Lynchian dreamscapes, starting with a mini-festival of movie screenings, and culminating in an April 19th ballroom bash!

Screenings leading up to the party include:

• April 16th: a newly-rediscovered, pristine 70mm print of David Lynch’s DUNE!
• April 17th: Modern masterpiece MULHOLLAND DRIVE with a free screening of EPISODE 8 of Twin Peaks: The Return (the watershed, enigmatic episode known as “GOTTA LIGHT?”)!
• April 18th: A double-feature of BLUE VELVET and WILD AT HEART!
• April 19th: I KNOW CATHERINE THE LOG LADY a new documentary!

Festivities and remembrances include:

• David Lynch collaborator ANNIE HART (of Au Revoir Simone, featured in Twin Peaks: The Return)
• The finger-snapping Twin Peaks soundtrack with all-femme/nonbinary music supergroup JULEE CRUISE DIRECTOR
• A recreation of the Double R Diner featuring the damn finest pie and other fare, catered by FEAST AND THE FABLE
• Disturbingly predatory yet seductively entrancing Killer Bob drag from CELIA SMOKINBUTTS
• Blue Velvet Burlesque with SZANDORA LAVEY
• An interactive RED ROOM PHOTO BOOTH you can inhabit with a live Venus de Medici statue
• A COSTUME CONTEST: wear your fave Lynch character on your sleeve, from the Eraserhead baby to Dougie—and every sweater set, snakeskin suit, and saddle shoe in between.

And much more: DJ Sir Richard Wentworth, Twin Peaks tarot with Holy Crow, spoken word (including a special appearance from THE SATANIC CHEF), immersive installations, and signature cocktails, all inspired by Lynch’s unusual oeuvres!

So grab your mysterious blue key and come together with community, to celebrate the life and work of an artist whose haunting hellscapes were eclipsed only by his enormous heart and humanity.

NOV 26 2023

5:30pm MOVIE 7:00pm PARTY

WE ‘R’ ALL PEE-WEE!

Crystal Ballroom / Somerville Theatre

SOMERVILLE, MA

Screen PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE at Somerville Theatre followed by Immersive Performance After Party in Crystal Ballroom.

What other entertainer has had the sheer cultural, aesthetic, and psychic impact of Pee-Wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens 1952–2023 R.I.P.-W,)—let alone one so subversive, deranged, arty, and queer?!

Cast off your Thanksgiving torpor with your own Big Adventure, as the Somerville Theatre & Crystal Ballroom X Identical Cousins grants your wish to fly directly into the heart of the Playhouse. After a screening of Tim Burton’s revolutionary 1985 film (served with a warm-up of highlights of the TV show), float upstairs to the ballroom for a raucous celebration of the icon’s legacy.

A Super Friends-style cast includes comedy (co-hosting: TOOKY KAVANAUGH, ANGELA SAWYER), drag (CELIA SMOKINBUTTS, LUKE WARM), and oodles of live music from Pee-Wee’s universe, featuring local luminaries like Red Sox organist JOSH KANTOR, Patriots / Bruins deejay TJ CONNELLY as D.J. Conky-2000, rock gods HILKEN MANCINI (as Cyndi Lauper / Pee Wee Aerobics for puppets) and THALIA ZEDEK (brass/crooning), Teenbeat Records’ COTTON CANDY (’80s commercial breaks), and a WALTER SICKERT cameo.

Inhabit Pee-Wee’s world with an immersive BICYCLE PHOTO BOOTH, an interactive PICTURE PHONE, CARTOONS fit for a King, a Burton-esque NIGHTMARE, a Pee-Gee-Rated PEEPSHOW, a commemorative ACTIVITY BOOK, on-theme COCKTAILS, and reimagined PLAYHOUSE SETS and props galore.

Bust out your best elevator shoes for a TEQUILA DANCE PARTY—bonus points and a shot at a prize for wearing your favorite Pee-Wee & friends COSTUMES.

THE WORD OF THE DAY is…
you’ll just have to join the party to find out!