FRI 12.26
Home Alone
john williams is our hero

There is literally no better way to enjoy slapstick this holiday season than by watching Home Alone with Pops Laureate and legend John Williams’ score played by a live orchestra. There’s just something special about the sinister stylings of Pesci and Stern in Symphony Hall that really accentuates all those blows to the brows and balls.

Symphony Hall, 301 Mass Ave., Boston. 12.26 at 8pm + 12.27 at 3pm, 7:30pm/all ages/$43+. bso.org

WED 12.31

NYE at Aeronaut
cheers to beer

The midnight champagne toast maybe be tradition, but saying hey to the new year with a new single barrel is a welcome alternative. At Somerville’s splendiferous multipurposed brewery, Aeronaut, sip the first suds of 2015 while enjoying live music, snacks, and more suds. There will also be a photobooth. Because on NYE, your phone’s camera just isn’t up to snuff.

Aeronaut Brewing Company, 14 Tyler St., Somerville. 7pm/21+/$50. aeronautbrewing.com

WED 12.31

John Oliver
stand up for stand-up

While Stephen Colbert reigns supreme, John Oliver has had quite the year. His show “Last Week Tonight”—as if you didn’t know—debuted to over one million viewers this April. And we’re talking paid HBO subscribers. And, you know, however many people have hijacked their parents’ accounts. Anyways, the point is, he’s worth paying to see, especially in the flesh at The Wilbur’s stage, where he’ll wrap up 2014.

The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston. 7:30pm, 10pm/all ages/52+. thewilbur.com

MON 1.5

Vanya + Vanya
chekhov complex

To compliment Huntington Theatre’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”—billed as a “wickedly wonderful Chekhovian mashup” and “a rollicking and touching new comedy”—opening Friday, January 2, the Coolidge is screening Vanya on 42nd Street . Riffing off of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” the 1994 flick stars a delightful Julianne Moore without a Boston accent. Thank God.

BU Theatre + Coolidge Corner Theatre. For showtimes and ticket prices, visit huntingtontheatre.org or coolidge.org

FRI 1.2

Trailer Apocalypse!
slicing and dicing short bits

Got an appetite for rare vintage blaxploitation, sexploitation, horror, martial arts, and slicing and dicing trailers? We thought so. You’re drooling. Here’s a tissue, and a map to Trailer Apocalypse!, the showing of an all-35mm collection of trailers dug up by the crew over at Grindhouse Releasing. And with the mention of GR, allow us to hand you another tissue.

Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline. FRI 1.2 + SAT 1.3 at 11:59/NR/$10.50. coolidge.org

SAT 1.3

One-Minute Play Fest
three shakes of a lambs tail theater

Come one, come all, come those with a pint-sized attention span. Featuring oodles of playwrights and a canoodles of directors, the One-Minute Play Fest returns to Boston Playwright’ Theatre for its fourth installment. Note: There isn’t an intermission between each of the productions, but there is plenty of room for applause, and and there’s no shortage of talent to inspire it.

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Comm Ave., Boston. SAT 1.3 – TUE 1.6. For schedule and ticket prices, visit the event Facebook page.