“Yoselyn Ortega is charged with taking the lives of two innocent children who were incapable of defending themselves,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. “This crime shocked and horrified parents around the city, many of whom entrust their children to the care of others both by necessity and by choice. My heart goes out to the family of those beautiful young children, and I hope that, with time, this family will heal.”

Ortega pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder in the first degree and two counts of murder in the second degree. Her exact motive for the stabbing has yet to be determined. She is currently undergoing psychiatric examinations and will return to court on Jan. 16.

BRAZILIAN SCULPTURES ON BROADWAY
Sculptures by Brazilian artist Saint Clair Cemin are now on display on Broadway between West 57th and 157th Streets. The public art exhibit, organized by the Broadway Mall Association, features seven surreal pieces at various intersections along the avenue, such as “Portrait of the Word ‘Why’ ” on West 73rd Street and “Aphrodite” on West 117th Street. The exhibit continues through January and includes a dial-in audio tour in English (212.901.3310) and Spanish (212.901.3311).

FIRE DAMAGES APTS. IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS
An early-morning blaze in a Morningside Heights building displaced tenants of five apartments on Thursday, Nov. 29. The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. on the fifth floor of 200 W. 109th St., a 40-unit apartment building, when a machine that pushes steam out windows ignited in a young tenant’s bathroom. The flames spread and severely damaged five apartments, as well as caused water damage to more apartments below. No tenants were injured.

CASTING CALL FOR BAKERS; SOUTINE BAKERY CLOSES
An upcoming competitive baking show on CBS is seeking skilled amateur bakers, and its casting producers are holding an “open call” audition on Saturday, Dec. 15, on the Upper West Side. All non-professional bakers are welcome, so aspiring television stars should bring their best baked good to Flatotel at 135 W. 52nd St. between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. “Whether you’re an athlete, teacher, truck driver or retiree,” the casting call’s promotional flyer says, “as long as you have a zest for baking, we want to hear from you!” More details can be found at cbsbakingshow.com.

In other UWS baking news, Soutine Bakery, the tiny shop at 104 W. 70th St., just closed on Friday after 30 years of business. The shop faced a rent increase, so it sold its lease to Muffins Cafe, according to the West Side Rag. Perhaps local amateur bakers can look here for work if they don’t make the cut for CBS?

Photo by Joan Marcus

One of the more improbably entertainment victories scored in the last half-decade has been the emergence of Jim Parsons as a star thanks to The Big Bang Theory, Chuck Lorre’s middle-brow CBS sitcom ode to geekdom. Parsons, an incredibly gifted actor of lanky stature and a protracted drawl, plays Sheldon Cooper, a misanthropic science genius fascinated by facts but with little use for other people. For him, friends are a convenience and entitlement that requires no reciprocation.

Elwood P. Dowd, however, the protagonist of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvey, the chestnut being reincarnated by Roundabout Theater Company and director Scott Ellis at the Studio 54 Theater, has no problem making attachments. As many fans will remember, either from the 1944 play or its famous film version starring James Stewart as Elwood, he has a best friend. The only worries concerning those around him are that no one can see Harvey and that Elwood claims him to be a real, talking six-foot-tall rabbit.

Despite a substantial cast of characters, Chase’s play is both stuffy and yet under-stuffed, plot-wise. It contains but a few mildly entertaining misunderstandings and some mildly sharp musings. There are barely enough to fill one act, let alone the show’s two. When Veta (Jessica Hecht, in the role that own Josephine Hull a Supporting Actress Oscar), Elwood’s society-minded sister, tries to have her son committed, on-call therapist Lyman Sanderson (Morgan Spector) ends up putting her away instead. When she is released, chief psychologist William Chumley (Charles Kimbrough), fascinated in Elwood as a subject, opts to inject him with a drug that will make him “normal” (read into that what you will about any group’s decision about what accounts for wrong or right behavior in a person, but you’re on your own; Chase broaches the subject but then avoids probing it further).

Harvey dances somewhere between the literal and metaphorical, however. Is it possible that Harvey actually exists? The play posits no, while through some resourceful sleight-of-hand, Ellis’s production itself answers a firm maybe. The production also dials down Elwood’s alcoholism to make him more reliably aware.  What Parsons, the first to play Elwood since Stewart, then does is to make Elwood seem like the one with the tightest grip on reality among those he encounters. His calmness unnerves everyone around him. He shows how Elwood’s remarkable observation has left him in the minority, and subjected him to speculation. Elwood has dealt with people his entire life, and almost all of them have disappointed or hurt him to some degree. Real or not, to him, Harvey is the first true friend he has made. It isn’t that he is afraid for the others in his life to actually see Harvey at all. It’s that he feels Harvey doesn’t deserve to be forced to encounter all the others.

Ellis directs the Harvey ensemble to a win-some-lose-some effect. Kimbrough and Tracee Chimo (as Veta’s daffy daughter Myrtle Mae) are wonderfully in period, creating subtly comic caricatures that reveal themselves a bit more from scene to scene. Hecht and Spector, on the other, are a bit more obvious; they occasionally cheapen the material they think they are raising, and add to its dated feel. On the other hand, David Rockwell’s revolving set suggests the perfect amount of period detail and commentary on both the Dowd home and Chumley’s sanitarium.

The main reason for Harvey’s revival seems to be as a vehicle for Parsons, who is perfectly suited to filling Stewart’s shoes, offering a gentility that masks Elwood’s observations of human flaw without totally disguising them. But all of the actor’s prominent roles – in Harvey, Big Bang, even last year’s The Normal Heart revival, in which he played a featured part – ask him to speak in non-contemporary rhythms. (Elwood even shares Sheldon’s quirky specificity. When a taxi driver responds to a dinner invitation by saying “Glad to,” Elwood’s response is to say “When? When would you be glad to?”) What this actor needs to do to maintain his currency – and it would be a real shame for his to be misspent – is grab onto something a bit more modern, something that taps into the zeitgeist and allows him to show off grittier edges. (This also applies to two other performers, Amy Adams and Kelli O’Hara, who have yet to grab onto a signature role that fully puts all of their versatile skills on display). The greater question is not whether Harvey will ever be seen, but what kind of career one can expect from the wonderful actor portraying his best friend.

Harvey

Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St. 212-719-1300. www.roundabouttheatre.org. Through Aug. 5.

Apparently, being a rich doctor who doesn’t work in a free clinic is a crime, because Michael is rendered foolish at every turn. A trip to his ex’s free clinic to open her password protected files (at her posthumous request) ends with him being put in his place at least three times during one conversation; his sleek office is eventually humanized by some of those free clinic patients wandering aimlessly around, a homemade cake in hand. Aw!

Except Michael is hardly the kind of rich asshole who needs to be put in his place, at least not with Wilson playing him. He’s there for his wayward nephew; he worries and frets over a recalcitrant friend; after a beat, he’s eager to help out the uninsured. The result is a limp medical procedural with the dressings and cinematography of a spiritual conversion (the lighting is so sterile and bright that Michael seems perpetually on the verge of walking into the light himself). The cast may be gifted, but this Man is merely talented.

Too bad, because Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs have a lovely, tart rapport as a Recession-made odd couple. Dennings is tough-talking waitress Max, who reluctantly takes recently de-trust funded Caroline (Behrs) under her prickly wing. Not content to leave well enough alone, however, King and Cummings have crammed the series with annoying eccentricities (see: the horse Caroline brings with her to Max’s Brooklyn backyard) and unnecessary gimmicks. Armed with a degree from Wharton, Caroline sees a way out for herself and Max via Max’s talent with cupcakes. They’ll pool their savings and open a bake shop! So every episode ends with the new tally of their savings. One can only assume that this modern day Laverne and Shirley will eventually wend their way to a beer factory.

Set in a fantasy New York, where Williamsburg is vaguely dangerous and subway cars are scary because they’re filled with black people. 2 Broke Girls tries hard to be edgy but feels as comforting and familiar as a TV Land rerun. These girls will bicker, sure, but they’ll always have one another’s back. Unless you have a thing for retro-style sitcoms and are going into withdrawal now that Hot in Cleveland has gone on hiatus, there’s really no reason to give these Girls your time.