At the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, where clarinetist Woody Allen has played for years with his New Orleans Jazz Band, admission throws you back a cool $125 (add $50 for the premium deal). It’s a princely cost, even for New York, but for fans of Allen and his films, peppered with iconic soundtracks of hot jazz—including some of his own stuff in Sleeper—it’s a necessary expense to see him in the flesh. Allen is an infrequent visitor to the Northwest, which makes the $46 mezzanine level price a screaming deal to catch the musician and filmmaker perform selections from a repertoire of over 1200 songs that have set the tone for his many movies, most recently on the tender, whimsical fantasy Midnight in Paris. And no Woody Allen experience would be complete without a little self-depreciating schtick, so there’s that to look forward to, too. GWENDOLYN ELLIOTT
Mon., Dec. 26, 7:30 p.m., 2011