Mar. 25 - 31 - NYTimes.com A FAMILY reunion of sorts is taking place at the Vineyard Theater, where the new musical "NOW. THIS." opens this week. The gang that brought the world "[title of show]," the infectious and seriously self-referential musical with a similarly eccentric title, has reunited to create a show that promises to be just as idiosyncratic and as personal as their first. Hunter Bell and Susan Blackwell have written the book, while the songs are by Jeff Bowen. Mr. Bowen and Mr. Bell were the authors of "[title of show]," which began life at the Vineyard before moving to Broadway. Mr. Bowen and Mr. Bell starred along with Ms. Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff, who is also aboard for the ride this time. All four appear in the new musical, which they describe as "autobiofictionography" - based on their lives but with the stories scrambled and rearranged a bit to recount how they came to be friends and collaborators. The show is described as encompassing "birds, bees, reptiles, early man, ancient civilizations and outer space. Also, loneliness, friendship, hoarding, hiding, laughing, living and dying. And middle school. And dinosaurs. All this, and singing and dancing, too. Opens Wednesday, 108 East 15th Street, Manhattan, $75; (212) 353-0303, vineyardtheatre.org. BACK in 2008 the Swedish sister folk duo FIRST AID KIT first made a name for itself by retreating to the woods. In a forest near their home Johanna and Klara Soderberg recorded an intoxicating cover of Fleet Foxes" "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" that became a YouTube hit, getting the attention of the Foxes themselves. A few years later First Aid Kit retreated again, this time to Omaha to work with Mike Mogis. He's a producer, studio owner and musician who was central to the rise of the influential Omaha indie-rock label Saddle Creek Records, home to Bright Eyes, Cursive and more. The Soderbergs met Mr. Mogis on tour - they played alongside Bright Eyes, which Mr. Mogis had joined - and he agreed to produce their second full-length album, "The Lion's Roar" (Wichita), which was released in January. Vigorous Saddle Creek pastoralism is the mood of the new album. The Soderbergs" vocals sound robust, and the music is more urgent and fuller bodied than the duo's previous work, which was winningly naïve. Now the songs are sturdy; they announce themselves loudly, hiding from nothing. Wednesday at 8 p.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600, websterhall.com; $20. IT'S hard to conceive of a time when electricity was a tough sell, but in the early 20th century the light we now take for granted required its own promotional campaign. The Museum of Modern Art has ELECTRIC CURRENTS, 1900-1940, a collection of the posters that were designed for this purpose and a dozen of them will be on view in the museum's third-floor Architecture and Design Galleries, starting Wednesday. Following the first arc lamps and incandescent filament bulbs of the mid-19th century, electricity transformed every aspect of life, from living rooms to streetscapes. Although it offered myriad possibilities for progress, the innovation was not universally welcomed. To help make the case for electric light, industry leaders like AEG and Bosch enlisted modern designers like Jacques Nathan-Garamond, whose 1938 lithograph from about 1938 radiates in 2-D. Lester Beall's posters for the Rural Electrification Administration used bold, patriotic graphics to educate the public about the benefits of electricity in America's homes and on farms during the Great Depression. The designers drew on their subject matter for inspiration, exploring images of the bulb itself and the effect of electric light. Through Sept. (212) 708-9400, moma.org. THE composer David Del Tredici has spun out a large part of his output around the works of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass." He's not the only one inspired by Alice and her adventures. OPERA ON TAP, born as a barroom presenter of arias, and AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS, a champion of new music-theater works, are offering two evenings of Alician performances, on Sunday and Monday. The major work on the programs is "Haddock's Eyes," a 1986 piece for soprano and large chamber ensemble by Mr. Del Tredici. It is named after the title of a poem sung by the White Knight in "Looking Glass." The programs veer off into very different territory with "Through the Peeping Glass," described as a "burlesque/cirque" performance by the burlesque artist Rita MenWeep. Sunday's show includes excerpts from the opera "Dreaming of Wonderland" by Manly Romero and on Monday with portions of Susan Botti's opera "Wonderglass." The works are at Galapagos Art Space in OPERAtion Brooklyn. 16 Main Street, at Water Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn, operationbrooklyn.com/upcoming-events-1; $25. IN 1987 a program called "Parallels in Black" went to Europe, showcasing the work of a group of little-known African-American choreographers. Blondell Cummings, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Fred Holland and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar were all part of that tour, as was Ishmael Houston-Jones, who organized the first series of Parallels concerts in 1982. Danspace Project has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of Parallels with a series of performances, and on Tuesday it hosts a number of events under the rubric "THIS & THAT: A DAY OF WALKING, TALKING AND WATCHING." At 5.30 p.m. Thomas F. DeFrantz, a professor of dance and African-American studies at Duke University, presents "Performance Black," a lecture of sorts about histories of black dance in the United States. It won't be dull; Mr. DeFrantz is charisma incarnate. It also won't be long: at 6 p.m., Mr. Houston-Jones and Mr. Cummings will talk to Henry Pillsbury and Barbara Watson, the director and assistant director of the American Center in Paris at the time of the group's 1987 performances there. And at 8 p.m. Will Rawls offers "Coining," a screening of works made for film and video that investigate sexuality, politics, gender and black culture - this and that. St. Mark's Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village, (866) 811-4111, danspaceproject.org; free. WITH Snooki pregnant and a sixth season in limbo, "Jersey Shore" as we know it may have come to an end. But for Paul DelVecchio, the peacockish housemate otherwise known as Pauly D, the party is just getting started. "THE PAULY D PROJECT," a spinoff to have its premiere Thursday at 10:30 p.m. on MTV, follows Mr. DelVecchio as he resurrects, with a little help from some childhood pals, the D.J. career that flagged when he joined the reality show. It's "Entourage," Rhode Island style, with a cast featuring Ryan Labbe, Mr. DelVecchio's best friend and wingman; Gerard Gialanella, known as Big Jerry, his security force; and Michael Morgan (Biggie), his mentor, and the only man with a girlfriend. "No strip clubs, no whores," that girlfriend advises the posse as it departs for Las Vegas, where Mr. DelVecchio will man the turntables at the Palms Casino Resort and conquer the town under the guidance of Jason Craig (JROC), before opening for Britney Spears's "Femme Fatale Tour." And along with Mr. DelVecchio's ubiquitous wind-tunnel blowout there's the requisite fresh ink - this time in the form of his signature on a contract with G-Note Records, the a label of the rapper 50 Cent. A shining era is captured in "ORDINARY MIRACLES: THE PHOTO LEAGUE'S NEW YORK," a documentary account of the Photo League, a cooperative that in the 1930s and "40s exerted a pivotal influence on American photography. Its prevailing aesthetic, a byproduct of the Great Depression, combined ambitious composition with a social-minded agenda. Created by two City College dropouts, Sol Libsohn and the passionate, imposing Sid Grossman, the league attracted luminaries like Dorothea Lange, Weegee and Lisette Model. Its school and exhibitions drew guests like Margaret Bourke-White, Henri Cartier Bresson and Ansel Adams. The league encouraged its members to roam the city and direct an intimate eye at urban subjects, and its newsletter addressed the role of photography in the political climate. But its progressive sensibility made it a victim of the cold war: in 1949 a government informer accused Grossman of being a Communist, and by 1951 the league collapsed. But its spirit endures in this record, narrated by the actor Campbell Scott and featuring 350 wondrous images spanning 15 years. A conversation with the directors, Nina Rosenblum and Daniel Allentuck, follows. Thursday at 8 p.m., IFC Center, 23 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village; (212) 924-7771, ifccenter.com.