SATURDAY

Sometimes it’s good when an artist abandons a format or style that has made him famous. If Miles Davis hadn’t switched from classical jazz and gone down the twisted path that would lead to fusion, the world might never have heard a masterpiece like Bitches Brew. But sometimes, change is for the worse: Try listening to any post-Master of Puppets Metallica or Sting sans the Police. Or, for that matter, reading the new work of Spalding Gray (pictured with family). The monologist/ author/actor’s latest project, Morning, Noon and Night, isn’t about growing up in picturesque, small-town Rhode Island. It isn’t about losing his virginity or the orgasmic responses of his girlfriends. It isn’t about having man-on-man sex in a Dutch bathhouse. Gray’s new book is about his kids and his new wife and the little house where they all live in the country. It’s cute, it’s touching, and it just doesn’t work. When I read Gray, I want to read about his convoluted string of girlfriends, wives, and mistresses. I want the tantric sex camps and the being an extra in a porn film. If I want cute and touching, I’ll read The Giving Tree. Gray on children and domesticity is like Charles Bukowski on AA. So I guess if you’re into boring stories about how kids say the darnedest things, then make sure to check out tonight’s Gray performance. Otherwise, you might want to make it a Blockbuster night. Gray performs his new monologue at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 5, at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW. $20-$30. (202) 994-6800. (Stefan Grudza)