-
Tuesday, January 31, 2023, 9:30 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
Joey Arias: Strange Résumé
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, JANUARY 31 & FEBRUARY 2, 2023
9:30 PM
Joe’s Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A meeting of Beethoven and Paganini with African beats? Can we leave Paganini out?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kenka, an izakaya as colorful as this show.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
-
Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 5, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
John Cowherd: The Mercy Project
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 – FEBRUARY 5, 2023
8:00 & 10:00 PM
Village Vanguard
178 7th Avenue South, West Village, Manhattan
$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
It’s been almost 10 years since pianist/composer John Cowherd — best known for his work with Brian Blade (who drums here) — released his own album as a leader, Mercy. It is somewhat astonishing that an album that good — that clear, that melodic, that harmonically inventive — was never followed up. But now Cowherd is touring it again. I hear saxophonist Chris Potter has been tearing it up on this tour.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really delicious — and really interesting — Southern Indian at Semma.
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Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 4, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Lightning Rod Special: The Appointment
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 – FEBRUARY 4, 2023
7:30 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
WP Theater
2162 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$49
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A funny musical look at the abortion debates (if you can imagine such a thing). Anyone who saw Lightning Rod Special’s Underground Railroad Game (a funny if not musical look at toxic race relations in America) will know what to expect.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy French at Essential by Christophe.
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Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Feb 5, 2023, 9:58 PM
THEATER
Hansol Jung: Wolf Play
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 – FEBRUARY 5, 2023 (continuing through MARCH 5)
7:30 PM TUESDAY – SUNDAY
2:30 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
MCC Theater
511 West 52nd Street, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
$58-$78
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Hansol Jung’s play, a sold-out smash at Soho Rep. last year, is an allusive look at chosen and unchosen families.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The delightful Ardesia wine bar is right across the street.
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Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 4, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
Cullberg
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 – FEBRUARY 4, 2023
7:30 PM TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan
$26-$61
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The leading Swedish modern dance company Cullberg does a piece created on them remotely from Austin during Lockdown by Post-Modern heroine Deborah Hay.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bistro that’s been there forever (the restaurant, not the food) at Le Singe Vert.
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Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Feb 5, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Wakka Wakka: The Immortal Jellyfish Girl
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 – FEBRUARY 5, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 12)
7:00 PM TUESDAY – FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
59E59 Theaters
59 East 59th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$40-$55
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Mass extinction! PUPPETS!!!!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You could do a lot worse in this neighborhood than the Sicilian food at Piccola Cucina Uptown.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC / THEATER
Edward Einhorn & Jenny Lee Mitchell: Cabaret in Captivity
TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2023
7:00 PM
153 West 88th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free-$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The Potemkin Village concentration camp of Terezín/Theresienstadt housed many artists and musicians (until they were deported elsewhere for extermination). They created a lot of very attractive music there in the racy 1920s/30s Czech Neoclassical style. And, along similar lines, some very appealing cabaret — the focus of this show. Less appealing is that it was written, knowingly, in the shadow of death — but of course the whole point of cabaret is a dark underbelly. (Also, if you want intimate, this is in the home of one of the performers!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Inevitable Medditerranean at Dagon.
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Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 7:00 PM – Wed, Feb 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Hahn Rowe: Something about the Weather
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31 & FEBRUARY 1, 2023
7:00 PM
The Lantern, Lenfest Center for the Arts
615 West 129th Street, Manhattanville, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
If sonic explorer Hahn Rowe asks whether his new piece is “An expedition in the wilderness? A cooking show gone awry? A negotiation of inclement conditions?”, who are we to question more?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: People are loving Oliva Tapas off the new Manhattanville Market.
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Tue, Jan 31, 2023, 10:00 AM – Sun, Feb 5, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell & Joseph White: Meander
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 – FEBRUARY 5, 2023 (ongoing)
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Tuesday-Friday pay what you wish; Saturday & Sunday $18; $12 students 12 and over/seniors; free children under 12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Having created a wonderful sound walk through Green-Wood Cemetery, the dream team of Gelsey Bell and Joe White do the same for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (one of my favorite places on earth, if you want to know). The soundtrack is available on the BBG website.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before, the best pancakes in town (and other great stuff) at Tom’s. After, meet the Guadalajaran Torta Ahogada — sure to become your new obsession — at Cruz del Sur.
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Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 8:00 AM – Sun, Feb 5, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 5, 2023 (ongoing)
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
TICKETS + INFORMATION
One of the first shows that you could actually Go Out! to back in the days of The Lockdown (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White (whose terrific new album you really ought to hear). The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 6:00 AM – Sun, Feb 5, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Ellen Reid: New York, New York
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 5, 2023 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
What do you know? The New York Phil has gone and renamed Ellen Reid’s SOUNDWALK. Reid, one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers, put together a highly allusive soundtrack, played by members of the Philharmonic and a bunch of Alt Classical players about town. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga.
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Sunday, January 29, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Michael Sarian/Amar El-Saffar
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
8:00 PM
The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
$12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Michael Sarian is a melodic trumpet player with a personal approach drawing on his South American roots. But Amir El-Saffar’s Maqam-infused jazz is just some of the most interesting and beautiful stuff around.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Seafood (and wine!) at Kingfisher.
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Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
Justin Peck: Copland Dance Episodes
THURSDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 28 & 29, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 7)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$38-$208
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Choreographer Justin Peck has been in the doldrums lately. But there’s every reason to believe he’ll be energized by the opportunity to present his first full-length ballet — especially because one of his very best prior pieces, Rodeo, was also set to Copland, whose open American style suits Peck to a “T”.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Seems like a good night (or day, depending) for Bar Boulud.
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Saturday, January 28, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Sanda Weigl: Ballads and Doine
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
8:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Former ‘60s East German rock star Sanda Weigl bears the same relation to the Roma music of her native Romania as the Rolling Stones do to American R&B: her approach is appreciatively ironic, unsubtle, and more intelligible to Europeans. Good stuff, if in no way “authentic”.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Another chance to fail to get into unapologetic Indian sensation Masalawala & Sons.
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Saturday, January 28, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Sunny Jain: Wild Wild East
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
7:30 PM
Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, Symphony Space
2537 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$20-$30
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Sunny Jain — a percussionist who’s totally Sikh — plays Cowboys and Indians with his Spaghetti Western fusion band.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tacos and fun at Taqueria 86 (which despite what you’d think isn’t on 86th Street but rather commemorates the year Mexico City hosted the World Cup).
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Saturday, January 28, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Vagabonds
SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2022
7:30 & 9:30 PM
The Jazz Gallery In Person & Live Stream
1158 Broadway (entrance on West 27th Street), NoMad, Manhattan
$30-$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Rajna Swaminathan leads a like-minded ensemble interested in starting from South Asian music and experimenting/improvising trom there.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, José Andés cocktails and bar snacks at the sky-high Nubeluz. Streaming at home, have a Veracruz: pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, 1/2 oz. lemon juice, and 1/3 oz. each of Absinthe and Simple Syrup, with 1 dash of Angostura and bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Saturday, January 28, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC / THEATER
Edward Einhorn & Jenny Lee Mitchell: Cabaret in Captivity
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023 (also on JANUARY 31)
7:00 PM
153 West 88th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free-$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The Potemkin Village concentration camp of Terezín/Theresienstadt housed many artists and musicians (until they were deported elsewhere for extermination). They created a lot of very attractive music there in the racy 1920s/30s Czech Neoclassical style. And, along similar lines, some very appealing cabaret — the focus of this show. Less appealing is that it was written, knowingly, in the shadow of death — but of course the whole point of cabaret is a dark underbelly. (Also, if you want intimate, this is in the home of one of the performers!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Inevitable Medditerranean at Dagon.
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Saturday, January 28, 2023, 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tim Berne: Residency
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
6:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tim Berne, the tough in-and-out altoist, concludes a month-long residency.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not likely, perhaps, but if you’re really lucky Reyes Deli & Grocery will have some of their fabulous weekend tamales and barbacoa left.
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Saturday, January 28, 2023, 5:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Sam Newsome/William Parker, Ellen Christie & Patricia Nicholson
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
5:30 PM
FiveMyles in Person & Live Stream
558 St. Johns Place, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$15 advance in person; $20 door in person; $5 live stream
IN PERSON TICKETS + INFORMATION
LIVE STREAM TICKETS + INFORMATION
For whatever reason, I’ve been listening to Free Jazz bassist William Parker obssessively lately — indeed, I got up to put some on before I started writing this blurb. What a mind! What fingers! What rock solidity! Soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome, in contrast, is merely excellent.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, solid Italian at Cent’Anni. Streaming at home, have a Diamondback: pour 2 oz. Rye and 1/2 oz. each of Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy and green Chartreuse into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
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Saturday, January 28, 2023, 5:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Loren Connors & Alan Licht
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
5:00 & 7:00 PM
Blank Forms
468 Grand Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
$10 advance; $15 day of
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Avant-blues guitarist Loren Connors — a truly unique musical thinker — matches guitars with the exploratory Alan Licht.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The newly revived, slightly relocated Nigerian spot Buka is now fully reopened. And boy is it good.
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Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 10:30 PM – Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
NY Neo-Futurists: The Infinite Wrench
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 27 & 28, 2023 (ongoing)
10:30 PM
Kraine Theater
85 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Theater for people who think they don’t like theater. Thirty short plays crammed into an hour, semi-improvised, semi-not, non-illusionistic, spur-of-the-moment, real (whatever that means).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I dunno why, but it seems like you’d go to Phebe’s.
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Friday, January 27, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Thorgy Thor: Queen of the Night
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
8:00 PM
The Greene Space In Person & Live Stream
44 Charlton Street, Hudson Square, Manhattan
$35 in person; $10 live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Drag violinist Thorgy Thor — who points out that Mozart and Haydn also knew how to rock a wig — is reason enough to show up. But add guests like Lucy Dhegrae and Isabel Hagen . . . .
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, is there a more delightful NYC spot that the vaguely Italian(ish) King? Streaming at home, have a Thor’s Forest: muddle 1/4 lemon and 2 sprigs of rosemary at the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add ice. Pour in 1 oz. each of Gin and Brennivin. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
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Friday, January 27, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Brandon Ross: “Glyph/Sonic”
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance in person; $30 door in person; $20 students/seniors at door in person; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
It’s guitar week at Roulette, it seems — and here’s where we go apeshit. Brandon Ross, the great great great Black Jazz-Rock guitarist who’s so much more — a veritable sound factory — presents three different ensembles incorporting three different styles. Chance of not being great: none.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, neighborhood French at French Louie. Streaming at home, have a Division Bell: pour 1 oz. Mezcal, 3/4 oz. Aperol, 1/2 oz. Maraschino liqueur, and 3/4 oz. lime juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaler. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
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Friday, January 27, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Dave Treut, Matt Nelson & Tim Dahl Trio/Patrick Holmes, Andrew Barker & Jim McHugh Trio
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
8:00 PM
P.I.T.
411 South 5th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Ticket price TBD
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Avant-jazz players who know their way around rock bands.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Pizza!
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Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Miss Lady Salad: ADMIN REVEAL
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 27 & 28, 2023
8:00 PM
Exponential Festival
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20-$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An IRL sort-of-variety-show featuring various internet figures.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It would be nice if you could get into the neo-Cantonese-American sensation Bonnie’s — especially since you get to walk past the Manhattan Special factory on the way.
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Friday, January 27, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Novus NY & Experiential Orchestra: Four Last Songs Reimagined
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
8:00 PM
St. Paul’s Chapel
209 Broadway, FiDi, Manhattan
$54.98-$81.58
TICKETS + INFORMATION
It’s interesting that, having adopted a sort of plush form of Neoclassicism in his late period, Richard Strauss should have returned for his last masterpiece to what the uncharitable among us (very much including me) would call Overblown Romanticism. But like the style or not, a masterpiece is what the Four Last Songs is. Here we get them played straight, with Sarah Brailey as the soprano. Then, intriguigingly, we get them “reimagined” by vanguard cellist Andrew Yee in what is described as an “immersive” performance. There’ll be some Caroline Shaw in between!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Wonder of if the new iteration of Manahatta is better than the mediocre original one. It certainly is high up.
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Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Hansol Jung: Wolf Play
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 27 – 29, 2023 (continuing through MARCH 5)
7:30 PM FRIDAY – SUNDAY
2:30 PM SUNDAY
MCC Theater
511 West 52nd Street, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
$58-$78
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Hansol Jung’s play, a sold-out smash at Soho Rep. last year, is an allusive look at chosen and unchosen families.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The delightful Ardesia wine bar is right across the street.
-
Friday, January 27, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Kronos Quartet
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
7:30 PM
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$54-$64
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Kronos Quartet does one of their typically eclectic — some would say overly eclectic — programs. But this List is grateful for any chance to hear a piece by the extremely pop-culture-aware Montrealer Nicole Lisée.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic Cuban at Victor’s Café.
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Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 7:03 PM – Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Black Arts Movement: Examined Part III—POETRY: Thulani Davis & Wadada Leo Smith
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 27 & 28, 2023
7:30 PM
Harlem Stage
150 Convent Avenue, Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
$25-$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The poetry is supplied by Thulani Davis, the music by Wadada Leo Smith. If you think you can do better than that, let me know how.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ramen at Rai Rai Ken Harlem.
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Friday, January 27, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Nadah el Shazly/Masma Dream World
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023
7:00 PM
Public Records
233 Butler Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$25.75
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Nadah el Shazly, out of punk and jazz, is now engaged in an electronic reconfiguration of the early 19th Arabic classical music of her hometown of Cairo. If that sounds like exactly what this List likes, it’s cuz it is: her six-year-old album Ahwar remains one of the best things around, in this List’s estimation. Masma Dream World’s music can get a little therapeutic at times — but the Gabonese half of her Gabonese/Singaporean background keeps things moving.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good, fresh Korean at Insa (as always, forego the barbecue and east in the lounge/bar room, which is much nicer than the drab dining room).
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Thu, Jan 26, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Marco Martinelli/Teatro delle Albe: Fedeli d’Amore
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 26 – 28, 2023
8:00 PM
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$30; $25 students/seniors; $10 first 10 tickets to each performance
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Taking off from Dante, what genuinely looks, from its notices abroad, to be a fairly staggering piece of music-theater.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great Burmese at Little Myanmar.
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Thursday, January 26, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Joel Harrison: New Works
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance; $30 door; $20 students/seniors; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
When I first came across composer-guitarist Joel Harrison’s music, I was like, “where have I been?” He’s called jazz, but he’s classical and pop, too. It’s all good.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, a new bar around the corner from Roulette! The Little Pig. Streaming at home, if you’re listening to guitar, might as well have a Gibson: pour 2 oz. Gin and 1 oz. dry Vermouth into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail onion.
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Thursday, January 26, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tashi Dorji & Alex Zhang Hungtai/C. Spenser Yeh & Kwami Winfield/Ka Baird
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2023
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room @ First Unitarian Congregational Society
116 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
$22
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Every one of these performers is a genuine star of vanguard sonic exploration.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It is so nice that there’s now a place in Brooklyn Heights that can be recommended without qualification: the absolutely wonderful Inga’s Bar.
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Thursday, January 26, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
EXTERNALITIES (Bob Bellerue & Katie Porter)/Reg Bloor/David Grubbs & Eli Winter Duo
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2023
8:00 PM
Shift
411 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Clarinet and electronics, and a whole lot of guitar.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Riverside sea food at Sea Wolf Waterfront.
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Thu, Jan 26, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
Addie Ulrey: Circus Trick/Joey Weiss: Presentation on Colonialism
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 26 - 29, 2023
8:00 PM THURSAY – SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY
Exponential Festival
Brick Aux
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
One piece examines the place of live performance in this Age Of Internet (a topic with which this List is obsessed itself). The other looks at – wait for it! — colonialism.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Free pizza at the Alligator Lounge!
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Thursday, January 26, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
DANCE
Justin Peck: Copland Dance Episodes
THURSDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 28 & 29, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 7)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$38-$208
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Choreographer Justin Peck has been in the doldrums lately. But there’s every reason to believe he’ll be energized by the opportunity to present his first full-length ballet — especially because one of his very best prior pieces, Rodeo, was also set to Copland, whose open American style suits Peck to a “T”.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Seems like a good night (or day, depending) for Bar Boulud.
-
Thu, Jan 26, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
New York City Players: Field of Mars
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 26 – 29, 2023
7:30 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Skirball Center, NYU
566 Laguardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$60-$75
TICKETS + INFORMATION
By all rights, I ought to love Richard Maxwell’s theatrical work. He does with theater what I love in punk music: removes the distracting filter of technique, so you can see right through to the artist’s ideas. Why do I love this when The Stooges do it in music and dislike it when Maxwell does it in theater? It’s my problem: you should just go.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Marc Forgione (feat. father Larry Forgione)’s new Italian venture at One Fifth looks pretty boring. But I’ll bet there’s no way it’s bad.
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Thu, Jan 26, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE / THEATER
Cosimo Pori & Travis Amiel: Das Sofortvergnügen
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 26 – 28, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 4)
7:30 PM
Life World
Address provided upon ticketing, Brooklyn
$15 advance; $20 door
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A dance-theater spectable and insatiable desires and impatience (two things that go together).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I may be wrong, but I’m thinking you might be near the Modern Peruvian at Surfish Bistro.
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Thursday, January 26, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
New York Polyphony: From the Gyfard Partbooks
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2023
7:30 PM
Saint Thomas Church In Person & Live Stream
1 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$30 in person; $27 students/seniors in person; $10 live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Local Renaissance heroes New York Polyphony take you to Tudor City.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person,Prospect Heights’s Olmsted branches out to the Outer Borough with Five Acres. Streaming at home, have an Episcopal Cocktail: pour 1-1/2 oz. green Chartreuse and 3/4 oz. yellow Chartreuse into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass over ice.
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Thu, Jan 26, 2023, 12:00 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
S.J. Norman & Joseph M. Pierce: Knowledge of Wounds
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 26 – 29, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 4)
12:00 – 6:00 PM
Performance Space New York
150 1st Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An immersive audiovisual installation of Indigiqueer knowledge, culture, and ritual.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Rowdy Rooster: putting the heat in hot fried chicken.
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Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 8:30 PM – Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
The Stone Residencies: Miles Okazaki
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 25 – 28, 2023
8:30 PM
The Stone
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The Monk-conquering guitarist Miles Okazaki shows all the other stuff he can do.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It’ll be nice to go back to the comfortable Emilia-Romagnan food at Da Andrea (do yourself a favor and start with the Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto).
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Lollise/Walk Talk
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023
8:00 PM
C’mon Everybody
325 Franklin Avenue, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
$12.36
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Great Art-Nu R&B from Lollise (closing out her January residency here at C’Mon Everybody). Opening is the very groovy Walk Talk.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Pilar Cuban Eatery really is astonishingly good.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tom Chiu & Michael Schumacher/David Galbraith & Serge Tcherepnin
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023
8:00 PM
Shift
411 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Violin and electronics.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Amazingly good pub grub at Meckelberg’s.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Free Birds
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023
7:30 & 9:30 PM
The Jazz Gallery In Person & Live Stream
1158 Broadway (entrance on West 27th Street), NoMad, Manhattan
$20-$30 in person; $20 live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The stylistically wide-ranging bassist Russell Hall leads a quartet that also excitingly includes vibraphonist Sasha Berliner and Lesley Mok, a drummer you can hear think.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, José Andrés goes Middle Eastern at Zaytinya. Streaming at home, pretend it’s Summer with a Chapala: pour 2 oz. Tequila Blanco, 1 oz. each of orange juice and lemon juice (or — the advantage to making this drink in January — 2 oz. Meyer lemon juice), 1/4 oz. Grenadine, and 1/8 teaspoon orange blossom water into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with an orange (or Meyer lemon) wedge.
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Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Beckett: Endgame
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 25 – 29, 2023 (continuing through MARCH 12)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Irish Repertory Theatre
132 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$50-$95
TICKETS + INFORMATION
If you love Beckett, then Endgame is what you love: as Chekhov’s plays are comedies, Beckett’s are knockabout vaudeville farces — but bleak bleak bleak. It’s no surprise that Bill Irwin is a master of this stuff. John Douglas Thompson is, quite simply, one of the best actors out there.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Once-fashionable Greek at Periyali.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Ping Chong & Company: All Islands Connect Underwater: A Celebration of Ping Chong and Bruce Allardice
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023
6:00 PM
The Chelsea Factory
547 West 26th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$10-$45
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A celebratory cocktail party with ambient performances: just the kind of thing this List avoids. But even putting aside the sensible pricing, this particular celebration celebrates the retiring Ping Chong, a crucial artist for this List. Chong didn’t invent the non-narrative, imagistic, tech-savvy but never slick type of theater we advocate around here — but he sure perfected it (some 50 years ago), and became an exemplar. Anyway, among the Chong collaborators providing the ambient performances is . . . Merideth Monk!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not really Ethopian/Swedish fusion, but Ethiopan/Swedish coexistence on the same menu, at Marcus Samuelsson’s new Hav & Mar.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Michael Formanek Drome Trio feat. Angelica Sanchez
TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance in person; $30 door in person; $20 students/seniors at door in person; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A set by Michael Formanek’s trio improvising on notated scores derived from graphic represenations. Then a set by the trio joined by pianist Angelica Sanchez improvising on the graphic representations themselves.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, nice enough bistro at Bacchus. Streaming at home, have a Storm King (a drink that originated at the nearby Grand Army Bar, as it happens) (I keep repeating this recipe cuz it’s so good — and season-appropriate): pour 2 oz. blended Scotch, 1/2 oz. Nocino (meaning, walnut liqueur), and 1/4 oz. Bénédictine, with 3 dashes of Angotastura bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Satellite: Isabel Crespo Pardo/Dorothy Carlos
TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023
8:00 PM
Bar Laika
224 Greene Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
$10
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Isabel Crespo Pardo is a multidisciplinary artist, concentrating on vocalism, who’s really been coming into their own: their music (only part of what they do — but to me, at least, the most important part), rooted in their Latinx background, turns the Gelsey Bell-ish trick of being extended in form and technique, but very enjoyable to listen to. Their concepts are clear, their multimedia meld seamless. Cellist/sound artist Dorothy Carlos is (dare I admit this?) not known to me.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Outrageously good pub grub at Meckelburg’s.
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Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 28, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
tanzmainz/Sharon Eyal: Soul Chain
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 24 – 28, 2023
7:30 PM TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan
$51-$71
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Mainz’s main dance company in an extended piece by Gaga choreographer Sharon Eyal.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: How nice that Basque fave Txikito is open again.
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Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Lightning Rod Special: The Appointment
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 – 29, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 4)
7:30 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
1:00 & 5:00 PM SUNDAY
WP Theater
2162 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$49
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A funny musical look at the abortion debates (if you can imagine such a thing). Anyone who saw Lightning Rod Special’s Underground Railroad Game (a funny if not musical look at toxic race relations in America) will know what to expect.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy French at Essential by Christophe.
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Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Wakka Wakka: The Immortal Jellyfish Girl
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 – 29, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 12)
7:00 PM TUESDAY – FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
59E59 Theaters
59 East 59th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$40-$55
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Mass extinction! PUPPETS!!!!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You could do a lot worse in this neighborhood than the Sicilian food at Piccola Cucina Uptown.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2023, 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Pop-Up Concert: Argus Quartet
TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023
6:00 PM
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
New stuff by, inter alio, Juri Seo, Katherine Balch, and the Argus Quartet’s new cellist, Mariel Roberts. Old stuff by Taillefaire — and if there’s one thing this List loves (make that six things) it’s the pop-loving Satie-following Cocteau-associating French demi-Neoclassisist composers’ group she was part of, Le Six.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This List is on a Hunan kick, and Happy Hunan makes it happy indeed.
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Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 10:00 AM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell & Joseph White: Meander
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 – 29, 2023 (ongoing)
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Tuesday-Friday pay what you wish; Saturday & Sunday $18; $12 students 12 and over/seniors; free children under 12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Having created a wonderful sound walk through Green-Wood Cemetery, the dream team of Gelsey Bell and Joe White do the same for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (one of my favorite places on earth, if you want to know). The soundtrack is available on the BBG website.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: New Orleans at Lowerline.
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Monday, January 23, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Parker Ramsay, Arnie Tanimoto & Nola Richardson: A Golden Wire
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2023
8:00 PM
Zürcher Gallery
33 Bleecker Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Renaissance English and Early Baroque French music for harp, viol, and soprano voice. Expect lots of lovely melancholy.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Southern (U.S., that is)/Korean mash-up at C as in Charlie.
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Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 23– 29, 2023 (ongoing)
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
TICKETS + INFORMATION
One of the first shows that you could actually Go Out! to back in the days of The Lockdown (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White (whose terrific new album you really ought to hear). The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Monday, January 23, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2023
7:30 PM
Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
154 West 57th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$75
TICKETS + INFORMATION
You can go decades without hearing Caplet’s Conte Fantastique Poe setting played live in New York — and here it is being done the second time this season! This performance, aside from the luxury casting of MET Orchestra members as players, boasts the luxury casting of Liev Schreiber as the narrator. The rest of the program is terrific French stuff, mostly early 20th Century (although it must be noted that you can hear Debussy’s Danse Sacrée et Danse Profane FOR FREE tonight at Music Monday), with perhaps the most terrific of all being Poulenc’s rollicking song cycle Le Bal Masqué.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gabriel’s lost a lot of its charm when it moved to its new Central Park South location. But they can still fix a proper Martini, I’ll tell you that.
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Monday, January 23, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
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Monday, January 23, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Music Mondays: Bridget Kibbey & Borromeo Quartet
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2023
7:30 PM
Advent Lutheran Church
2504 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Music for harp and/or string quartet by (mostly) Debussy and (briefly) Fauré. This will be so fucking exquisite you’ll pinch yourself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Korean fried chicken (and ramen) at Chick Chick.
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Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 7:30 PM – Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
Israel Galván: SOLO
MONDAY & TUESDAY, JANUARY 23 & 24, 2023
7:30 PM
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Make no mistake, Modern Flamenco dancer Israel Galván is a major artist — and this solo performance should be a concentrated distillation of his art.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I’m not gonna stop pushing Central Asian powerhouse Farida until each and every one of you has gone there.
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Monday, January 23, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Dana Lynn & Kyle Sanna
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2023
7:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Trad Irish goes mod, and thinks about the environment.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Better-than-Neighborhood Mexican at Fonda.
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Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 6:00 AM – Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:59 AM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Ellen Reid: New York, New York
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 23 – 29, 2023 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
What do you know? The New York Phil has gone and renamed Ellen Reid’s SOUNDWALK. Reid, one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers, put together a highly allusive soundtrack, played by members of the Philharmonic and a bunch of Alt Classical players about town. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga.
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Sunday, January 22, 2023, 9:00 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Sasha Velour: Nightgowns
SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2023
9:00 PM
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25-$55
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Drag variety show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fun Indian at Masala Times.
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Sunday, January 22, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Michael Evans Tribute
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance in person; $30 door in person; $20 student/seniors at door in person; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A bunch of Downtown types get together the pay tribute to the deceased renegade Downtown percussionist Michael Evans.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, drown your sorrows over Evans’s passing at Grand Army Bar. Streaming at home, have an Old Pepper: pour 2-1/4 oz. Bourbon, 3/4 oz. lemon juice, and 1/2 oz. each Cholula and Simple Syrup, with 1 dash of Worcecestershire sauce, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with cracked black pepper.
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Sunday, January 22, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Atlantic Collective/Mariel Mayz
SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2023
7:30 PM
The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
$12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Atlantic Collecitve is a chamber ensemble that formed during The Lockdown, and boy are they good — and they have great taste in material (by which I mean it’s very close to my own). Mariel Mayz recently released an album of the unkown-to-me piano music of Leo Brouwer, and I just love it to pieces.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Seafood (and wine!) at Kingfisher.
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Sunday, January 22, 2023, 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM
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Sunday, January 22, 2023, 2:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Claire Chase: A Day of Listening: Listening Out Loud
SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2023
2:00 PM
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Superflautist Claire Chase leads a program of participatory tribute to composer Pauline Oliveros and her hypnotic, enveloping music. There’s also a morning program geared to families with small children.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good basic Greek at Souvlaki GR.
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Saturday, January 21, 2023, 9:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Claire Chase: Pauline Oliveros at 90
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2023
9:00 PM
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$54-$64
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Superflautist Claire Chase leads a program paying all-star tribute to composer Pauline Oliveros and her hypnotic, enveloping music. For this show, the stage will be placed in the center of Zankel Hall.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic Cuban at Victor’s Café.
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Saturday, January 21, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Lucian Ban & Mat Manieri: Transylvanian Concert
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2023
8:00 PM
Barbès In Person & Live Stream
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
It’s been a decade since Transylvanian pianist Lucian Ban got together with American violist Mat Manieri to make composed/improvised music (you know: Jazz) that it is highly evocative (although not of anything cheery). Be warned, though: if there’s on this music isn’t, it’s fast.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: See if you can get into Indian sensation Masalawala & Sons (and who ever thought there’d be any kind of sensation in Park Slope?).
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Saturday, January 21, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Ekmeles: Premieres
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2023
7:30 PM
Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church
178 Bennett Avenue, Washington Heights, Manhattan
$20; $15 students/seniors
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The expert, questing vocal ensemble ekmeles do a night of brand new stuff: electronics, extended vocal technique, auditory surprise upon surprise.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Unserious but fun local bar Monkey Room.
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Saturday, January 21, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Cantata Profana: Arie Antiche: John Taylor Ward Spotlight
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2023
7:30 PM
Tenri Cultural Institute
43A West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$15-$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Cantata Profana continue their wind-up season with a show focusing on one of their favorite singers, bass-baritone John Taylor Ward. And as you’d expect from the best programmers in town, the program is enticing in the extreme: a Xenakis Aeschylus setting, some real arie antiche (charming old Italian art songs now used mainly for training) and even earlier Renaissance pieces, and something new by Celeste Oram.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The broth is particularly rich at E.A.K. Ramen.
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Saturday, January 21, 2023, 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tim Berne: Residency
SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2023
6:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tim Berne, the tough in-and-out altoist, continues a month-long residency.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not likely, perhaps, but if you’re really lucky Reyes Deli & Grocery will have some of their fabulous weekend tamales and barbacoa left.
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Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 10:30 PM – Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
NY Neo-Futurists: The Infinite Wrench
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 20 & 21, 2022 (ongoing)
10:30 PM
Kraine Theater
85 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Theater for people who think they don’t like theater. Thirty short plays crammed into an hour, semi-improvised, semi-not, non-illusionistic, spur-of-the-moment, real (whatever that means).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I dunno why, but it seems like you’d go to Phebe’s.
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Friday, January 20, 2023, 10:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Juan Atkins
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2023
10:00 PM
H0L0
1090 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Respect: one of the Techno ancestors — a person whose influence on late 20th Century music is incalculable — returns to New York.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Nepalese-New York fusion you didn’t know you wanted at While in Kathmandu.
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Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Lightning Rod Special: The Appointment
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 20 – 22, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 4)
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
1:00 & 5:00 PM SUNDAY
WP Theater
2162 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$49
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A funny musical look at the abortion debates (if you can imagine such a thing). Anyone who saw Lightning Rod Special’s Underground Railroad Game (a funny if not musical look at toxic race relations in America) will know what to expect.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy French at Essential by Christophe.
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Friday, January 20, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Third Coast Percussion/Movement Art Is feat. Cameron Murphy & Lil Buck: Metamorphosis
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2022
7:30 PM
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$65
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Music by Philip Glass, Jlin, and Tyondai Braxton — with accompanying movement in an exciting vernacular style by Cameron Murphy and the fabulous Lil Buck.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy Greek at Iris.
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Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Wakka Wakka: The Immortal Jellyfish Girl
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 20 – 22, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 12)
7:00 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
59E59 Theaters
59 East 59th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$40-$55
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Mass extinction! PUPPETS!!!!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You could do a lot worse in this neighborhood than the Sicilian food at Piccola Cucina Uptown.
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Thursday, January 19, 2023, 9:30 PM – 11:59 PM
THEATER / MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Eszter Balint: I Hate Memory
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2023
9:30 PM
Joe’s Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Actress singer-songwriter Eszter “Stranger than Paradise” Balint gives a concert version of a musical she’s developing about late-20th Century NYC heyday — with songs she wrote with Stew!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fun Taiwanese at 886.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
IMPROV NIGHTS — A Tribute to Derek Bailey
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 – 21, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance; $30 door; $20 students/seniors at door
TICKETS + INFORMATION
John Zorn continues the long-ongoing series of concerts he assembles inspired by and in tribute to the towering British improvisational guitarist Derek Bailey. Each of the three nights features Zorn and Bill Frisell (a very different guitarist from Bailey, it must be said), along with a different bunch of improvising musicians — take a look a the line-up lists; you won’t believe them — who willl play in various combinations.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, nice enough bistro at Bacchus.
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Thursday, January 19, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Fire Over Heaven
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2022
8:00 PM
Outpost Artists Resources
1665 Norman Street, Ridgewood, Queens
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Improvisation, noisy and not.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming, delightful New American Tavern food at Rolo’s.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Devon Wade Granmo: (untitled human composting play)
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 – 22, 2023
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY
Exponential Festival
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
As you might imagine, it’s about death.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Roman pinza at Montesacro.
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Thursday, January 19, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Razor-N-Tape Presents: Make a Joyful Noise
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2023
8:00 PM
Public Records
233 Butler Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$30.90
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Another of those fun nights where a Nu Jazz ensemble weaves in and out of tracks played by really good DJs.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Oaxacan at Claro.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Ahmed Moneka, Jesse LaVercombe, & Seth Bockley: King Gilgamesh & the Man of the Wild
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19 – 22, 2023
8:00 THURSDAY – SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$30; $25 students/seniors; $10 first 10 tickets to each performance; $35 both shows
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A Maqam music-theater piece interweaving the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu with an account of contemporary male friendship. There are extended concerts after the Saturday and Sunday shows, which seems like a good idea.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Now I have another friend raving about the Southern Thai at MayRee.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
New York City Players: Field of Mars
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 19 – 22, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 29)
7:30 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Skirball Center, NYU
566 Laguardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$60-$75
TICKETS + INFORMATION
By all rights, I ought to love Richard Maxwell’s theatrical work. He does with theater what I love in punk music: removes the distracting filter of technique, so you can see right through to the artist’s ideas. Why do I love this when The Stooges do it in music and dislike it when Maxwell does it in theater? It’s my problem: you should just go.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Marc Forgione (feat. father Larry Forgione)’s new Italian venture at One Fifth looks pretty boring. But I’ll bet there’s no way it’s bad.
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Thursday, January 19, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tal Yohalom Quintet
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2022
7:30 & 9:30 PM
The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway (entrance on West 27th Street), NoMad, Manhattan
$20-$30
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Combining jazz, Brazilian, and Alt Classical.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: José Andés cocktails and bar snacks at the sky-high Nubeluz.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Annie Saunders & Becca Wolff: Our Country
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 19 – 22, 2023
7:30 PM THURSDAY & FRIDAY
2:00 & 5:00 PM SATURDAY
8:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
This takes off from Antigone, but it moves to the Wild Frontier (Annie Saunders’s real-life brother apparently was actually an outlaw) and childhood memories (as I just said).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Get your momo working at Lhasa Tibetan Restaurant.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
Tiresias: cryptochrome
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 – 21, 2023
7:30 PM
Exponential Festival
We Are Here
563 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$12.24-$33.46
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tiresias, the queer oracle of the Underworld, does a mulitimedia exploration of animal perception.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Cheffed-up Vietnamese Falansai serves some of the best food in the City.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
Timothy White Eagle: The Indigo Room
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 19 – 22, 2023
7:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$30; $25 students/seniors; $10 first 10 tickets to each performance
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An immersive ritualistic piece exploring — indeed recreating — the recurring mything of a hero’s being swallowed alive and then returned.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Udon and things at Raku.
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Thursday, January 19, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
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Thursday, January 19, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Bethany Collins: America: A Hymnal
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2023
7:00 PM
Society of Friends
15 Rutherford Place, Stuyvesant Square, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Among multidisciplinary artist’s Bethany Collins’s output are some art books she calls
Hymnals, which trace iconic patriotic songs over the centuries, showing how their lyrics were changed at various times to make different (often repellant) uses of them. On of these Hymnals is devoted to “America” (“My country ‘tis of thee . . . .”). This musical presentation focuses on one version the song current during the Civil War, whose lyrics are presented in several different musical realizations. The singing (and realization) is by The Unsung, a local choral collective devoted to celebrating the Black experience.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Martiny’s (more than) pick’s up where Angel’s Share left off.
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Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 12:00 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
S.J. Norman & Joseph M. Pierce: Knowledge of Wounds
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 19 – 22, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 4)
12:00 – 6:00 PM
Performance Space New York
150 1st Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An immersive audiovisual installation of Indigiqueer knowledge, culture, and ritual.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Rowdy Rooster: putting the heat in hot fried chicken.
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Wed, Jan 18, 2023, 8:30 PM – Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
The Stone Residencies: Ches Smith
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 18 – 21, 2023
8:30 PM
The Stone
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Ches Smith is a good, distinctive drummer — and boy has he put together some good bands for this week’s residency.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It’ll be nice to go back to the comfortable Emilia-Romagnan food at Da Andrea (do yourself a favor and start with the Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto).
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
The John King Trio/Lesley Mok
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2023
8:00 PM
Shift
411 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Great night. Not-just-a-guitarist John King plays with bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Michael Wimberly. And speaking of great drummers, Lesley Mok, who has emerged as one of the most fascinating drummers on the New York scene, plays an electronically enhanced solo set.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Incredibly fun Brazilian at Miss Favela.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC / THEATER
Lollise/”Goodnight Irene”
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2023
8:00 PM
C’mon Everybody
325 Franklin Avenue, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
$12.36
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Great Art-Nu R&B from Lollise. And the opening act is a theater piece.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Pilar Cuban Eatery really is astonishingly good.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Cory Smythe
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
7:30 & 9:30 PM
The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway (entrance on West 27th Street), NoMad, Manhattan
$20-$30
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Pianist Cory Smythe possesses one of the more interesting minds on the current music scene (and he doesn’t believe in genre any more than this List does). Tonight he plays from his new solo album.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, Italian-Ashkenazi mashup at Mark Strausman’s Mark’s Off Madison (you’ll want the brisket — but the new mixed grill looks mighty good) (oh wait: and the duetto of venison!).
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
THEATER
Roger Guenveur Smith: Otto Frank
WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 18 & 21 – 22, 2023
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY
9:30 PM SATURDAY
2:00 & 4:30 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Kind of like the “Rose’s Turn” of Ann Frank. Music by Tessa Thompson’s Dad!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Incendiary Hunanese at Chef Tan.
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Wed, Jan 18, 2023, 3:00 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
600 Highwaymen: A Thousand Ways (Part Three: An Assembly)
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 18 – 22, 2023
3:00, 4:30, 6:00 & 7:30 PM WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
2:00, 3:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM FRIDAY
12:00, 1:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, New York Public Library
455 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
600 Highwaymen present the concluding third of their series of pieces exploring mutual interdependence through encounters between strangers (it got pretty meta when The Lockdown forced them to provide that experience by means of distanced communications). Just so you know how experiential this is, they ask audience members to come in groups no larger than two, as they want an audience of strangers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent Sichuan at Cafe China.
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Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Jasmine Lee-Jones: seven methods of killing kylie jenner
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 – 22, 2023
8:00 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:30 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Cultural appropriation, queerness, friendship, and the ownership of Black bodies online and IRL.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sensational Shanghainese at Che-Li.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Artist Spotlight: Conrad Tao
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2022
7:30 PM
Kenneth C. Griffin Sidewalk Studio, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Conrad Tao has the physical equipment to be a virtuoso pianist, but he wants to be something more interesting than that. As well as playing solo, he’ll be joined by experimental vocalist Charmaine Lee (yay!) and brass quintet The Westerlies (meh).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You can make it to Kwame Onwuachi’s in-house Afro-Caribbean restaurant Tatiana (not to be confused with the one in Brighton Beach) for dinner after the show!
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Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
Ronald K. Browne/Evidence
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 – 22, 2022
7:30 PM TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan
$51-$71; children aged 6-16 $16 SATURDAY matinée
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Ronald K. Browne’s vernacular-inflected dance is just on the edge of what we List here: it’s really pretty mainstream. But it’s also pretty great — and the newer piece on the program has a score by Jason Moran.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bistro that’s been there forever (the bistro, not the food) at Le Singe Vert.
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Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Gelsey Bell: Morning/Mourning
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 - 22, 2023
7:30 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
PROTOTYPE Festival
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Soho, Manhattan
$10-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Major Event Alert, Alt Division: Gelsey Bell finally gets to present her delayed (you know why) new opera, about a world in which all humans have disappeared from Earth. Sounds like pure gain to me! (Anything Bell does is well worth attending to.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sicilian at Piccolo Cucina Osteria.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Bing & Ruth/A Space for Sound
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2023
7:00 PM
Union Pool
484 Union Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
I won’t lie: I find Bing & Ruth’s ambient sortaMinimalism too Easy Listening. And while we’re at it, I find Rena Anakwe’s A Space for Sound too therapeutic. If you disagree, God bless: the price is right.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Peruvian at Llama Inn.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Migguel Anggelo: LATINXOXO
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2023
7:00 PM
Under the Radar Festival
Joe’s Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Defeating machismo with camp.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kenka, an izakaya as colorful as this show.
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Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 10:00 AM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell & Joseph White: Meander
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 – 22, 2023 (ongoing)
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Tuesday-Friday pay what you wish; Saturday & Sunday $18; $12 students 12 and over/seniors; free children under 12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Having created a wonderful sound walk through Green-Wood Cemetery, the dream team of Gelsey Bell and Joe White do the same for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (one of my favorite places on earth, if you want to know). The soundtrack is available on the BBG website.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: New Orleans at Lowerline.
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Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
Ella Davidson: The Ben Shapiro Project/Sarah Finn: our bodies like damns
MONDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 – 21, 2023
7:30 PM
Exponential Festival
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20-$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A Black socialist woman tries to imagine a world without the odious Ben Shapiro — but it isn’t happening, so she’s forced to confront him instead. The curtain-raiser is a film with PUPPETS.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been for barbecue to Fette Sau in a while (probably because they dumbed down their menu since their freewheeling opening days).
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Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 7:00 PM – Wed, Jan 18, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Winter Jazzfest
MONDAY – WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16 – 18, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 18)
Various times
Various locations, Manhattan & Brooklyn
Various prices for individual shows
TICKETS + INFORMATION
This massive jazz festival, with shows throughout Manhattan and in Brooklyn, is back and as awesome as ever.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It’s like all over the place.
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Monday, January 16, 2023, 2:00 PM – 11:59 PM
DANCE / PERFORMANCE
Live Artery 2023 / Theater
MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2023
2:00 & 7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$25-$35; $20 students/seniors
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Pieces by emerged choreographers and performance artists. Joanna Kotze, a choreographer who likes to work across disciplines, offers her Lockdown piece at 2 PM. Shamel Pitts, at 7:30 PM, combines performance/spoken word with GAGA — so you know his stuff is intense.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic pub burgers at Peter McManus.
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Monday, January 16, 2023, 1:00 PM – 11:59 PM
DANCE
Live Artery 2023 / Studio
MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2023
1:00, 3:00 & 6:00 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A series of shows by emerging or deserving choreographers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I’m sounding the downhill alarm for Spanish funspot El Quijote. But see what you think.
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Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 8:00 AM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 16 – 22, 2023 (ongoing)
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
TICKETS + INFORMATION
One of the first shows that you could actually Go Out! to back in the days of The Lockdown (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White (whose terrific new album you really ought to hear). The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Mon, Jan 16, 2023, 6:00 AM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 16 – 22, 2023 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train. The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga.
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Sunday, January 15, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tomas Fujiwara & Mariel Roberts/Alta Quartet
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2023
8:00 PM
The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
$12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Not really sure what this is But drummer Tomas Fujiwara and cellist Mariel Roberts are two musicians who are never boring.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Seafood (and wine!) at Kingfisher.
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Sunday, January 15, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
loadbang: Premieres Vol. 20
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2022
7:30 PM
OPERA America’s National Opera Center In Person & Live Stream
330 7th Avenue, Garment District, Manhattan
$23.05 in person; $12.45 students/seniors in person; $20 suggested donation live stream
IN PERSON TICKETS + INFORMATION
LIVE STREAM TICKETS + INFORMATION
The exciting and unique voice/reeds/brass quartet loadbang brings another show of premieres, by composers including Chen Yi and Erin Rogers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, stylish Hong Kong dim sum at Hey Yuet. Streaming at home, have a Brass Rail: pour 2 oz. light Rum, 1/2 oz. each Bénédictine and lemon juice, 2 teaspoons Simple Syrup, and 1 egg white, with 1 dash of orange bitters, into a cocktail shaker WITHOUT ice. Dry shake. Add ice. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Flame an orange peel into the drink and then dust the drink with cinnamon.
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Sunday, January 15, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
globalFEST
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2023
7:00 PM
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$60
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Now that David Geffen Hall has several stages, it can host a multi-stage event like this, presenting a panolply of vernacular styles from around the world — including the Fake Cumbia of our friends the Meridian Brothers! Aside from the scope and excellence of the program, you’ll be able to hear how the acoustics of the main hall work for purely amplified music — while I try not to be too bitter that the Hall’s desire to accomodate amplified music is probably one of the things that have queered the acoustics for unamplified (still materially better than before, though!).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Oysters, Martini, Cadallac burger at P.J. Clarke’s.
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Sunday, January 15, 2023, 4:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Twelfth Night
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2023
4:00 PM
Music Before 1800
Corpus Christi Church
529 West 121st Street, Mornigside Heights, Manhattan
$10-$55; $5 students
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Twelfth Night, a new Baroque voices-and-instruments ensemble featuring a lot of people you’ve been seeing around if you attend Early Music concerts in New York regularly, presents an all-Handel program centering on one of his delightful pastoral cantatas.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Eritrean at Massawa.
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Sunday, January 15, 2023, 4:00 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Migguel Anggelo: LATINXOXO
THURSDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 & 15, 2023 (also on JANUARY 17)
9:30 PM THURSDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Joe’s Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Defeating machismo with camp.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kenka, an izakaya as colorful as this show.
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Sunday, January 15, 2023, 2:00 PM – 11:59 PM
THEATER
Roger Guenveur Smith: Otto Frank
THURSDAY, FRIDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 – 13 & 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
9:00 PM THURSDAY
8:30 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Kind of like the “Rose’s Turn” of AnnFrank. Music by Tessa Thompson’s Dad!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Incendiary Hunanese at Chef Tan.
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Sunday, January 15, 2023, 2:00 PM – 11:59 PM
DANCE / PERFORMANCE
Live Artery 2023 / Theater
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2023 (continuing on JANUARY 16)
2:00 & 8:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$25-$35; $20 students/seniors
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Pieces by emerged choreographers and performance artists. Shamel Pitts, at 2 PM, combines performance/spoken word with GAGA — so you know his stuff is intense. Joanna Kotze, a choreographer who likes to work across disciplines, offers her Lockdown piece at 8:30 PM.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic pub burgers at Peter McManus.
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Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 9:30 PM – Sun, Jan 22, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Roger Guenveur Smith: Otto Frank
WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 18 & 21 – 22, 2023
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY
9:30 PM SATURDAY
2:00 & 4:30 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Kind of like the “Rose’s Turn” of Ann Frank. Music by Tessa Thompson’s Dad!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Incendiary Hunanese at Chef Tan.
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Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE / PERFORMANCE
Live Artery 2023 / Studio
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 14 & 15, 2023 (continuing on JANUARY 16)
8:00 PM SATURDAY
1:00, 3:00 & 8:00 PM SUNDAY
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A series of shows by emerging choreographers and perforance artists. I’m going to especially recommend the two 8 PM shows, by MX Oops and Holland Andrews, respectively — both more on the performance side of things, as it happens.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Oh wait the excellent Crown Heights Burmese spot Rangoon has opened a branch in Chelsea.
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Saturday, January 14, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Morgan Guerin
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance in person; $30 door in person; $20 students/seniors at door in person; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Morgan Guerin is a sax player! No, he’s a drummer! No, he’s a keyboard player! No, he’s a producer! Well, tonight he’s a sax player.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, a new bar around the corner from Roulette! The Little Pig. Streaming at home, have a Division Bell: pour 1 oz. Mezcal, 3/4 oz. Aperol, and 1/2 oz. Maraschino liqueur, and 3/4 oz. lime juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaler. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
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Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
Baye & Asa: Hot House
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 14 & 15, 2023
8:00 PM SATURDAY
6:30 PM SUNDAY
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$30
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Punk-hip hop dance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A really fine burger — and a really really fine shrimp cocktail — at Red Hook Tavern.
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Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
David Lang: Note to a Friend
THURSDAY & SATURDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 & 14 – 15, 2023
7:30 PM THURSDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
PROTOTYPE Festival
Japan Society
333 East 47th Street, Turtle Bay, Manhattan
$60; $48 disabled
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An opera by David Lang based on texts by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa sung by Theo Bleckmann and directed by Yushi Oida (of Peter Brook fame). Excited yet?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You can make it to the excellent izakaya Aburiya Kinnosuke — but Thursday and Saturday nights, you’ll have to hustle.
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Saturday, January 14, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
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Saturday, January 14, 2023, 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tim Berne: Residency
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2023
6:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tim Berne, the tough in-and-out altoist, begins a month-long residency. Tonight he’s joined by Mat Manieri on violin and Oscar Noriega on alto.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not likely, perhaps, but if you’re really lucky Reyes Deli & Grocery will have some of their fabulous weekend tamales and barbacoa left.
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Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 5:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Peter Mills Weiss & Julia Mounsey: Protec/Attac
WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 11 & 14 – 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
8:30 PM WEDNESDAY
5:00 & 9:00 PM SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
The Chelsea Factory
547 West 26th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$30-$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey’s work sometimes seems to be earnestly autobiographical — but not really! This one is kind of about Nihilism as a state of grace (or a source of monsterous manipulation).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Overrated Middle Eastern at Shukette.
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Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 10:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
NY Neo-Futurists: The Infinite Wrench
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 13 & 14, 2022 (ongoing)
10:30 PM
Kraine Theater
85 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Theater for people who think they don’t like theater. Thirty short plays crammed into an hour, semi-improvised, semi-not, non-illusionistic, spur-of-the-moment, real (whatever that means).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I dunno why, but it seems like you’d go to Phebe’s.
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Friday, January 13, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Dana Lyn: Baby Octopus
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022
8:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Art pop with Irish folk overtones. Or something.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Is the new Mexican spot Alma Negra good, or just pretentious? Only one way to find out.
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Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Du Yun: In Our Daughter’s Eyes
TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 10 – 11 & 13 – 15, 2023
8:00 PM TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$35-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Du Yun, a terrific opera composer, has written an opera about impending fatherhood for (and with the parcipation of) the terrific baritone Nathan Gunn. That’s all you need to know.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: English char-grilled steak at Hawksmoor (although frankly they’re dead to me since they truncated their dine-at-the-bar menu).
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Friday, January 13, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
New Fermament Presents: MONAD
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance; $30 door; $20 students/seniors; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Synth player Nick Podgurski’s New Firmament project presents an extension of previous solo pieces into works for an ensemble in which Podgurski is joined by drone violist Jessica Pavone, bassist Tristan Kasten-Krause, and vibraphonist Cory Braken. How the LA Dream Pop trio Nadoyel fit into this is anybody’s guess.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, eclectic cuisine at As You Are. Streaming at home, have a Star: pour 1-1/2 oz. each of Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy and sweet Vermouth, 1/8 oz. teaspoon of gomme syrup (look, you can use Simple and I won’t tell anybody) and 1 dash of Peychaud’s bitters into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Emma O’Halloran: Trade/Mary Motorhead
TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 – 11 & 13 – 14, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 14)
7:00 PM TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
7:30 PM FRIDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY
PROTOTYPE Festival
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$35-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Emma O’Halloran — a wildly inventive and unpredictable electroacoustic composer who doesn’t see much point in distinguishing between the “classical” and the vernacular — brings us two new operas. And they got the powerful singing actor Mark Kudisch to perform in one.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Straightforward fare done well at Corner Bar. (Yeah right you’re going to get in there: I crack myself up.)
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Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Dmitri Barcomi: A Jury of Our Queers
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 13 – 15, 2023
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Exponential Festival
The Doxsee @ Target Margin Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$15-$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Mae West (whose arrest onstage is legendary) and Helen Mencken (who was arrested onstage at the same time for playing — gasp — a lesbian) are hauled before a metatheatrical court.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The tacos are good at Ricos Tacos.
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Friday, January 13, 2023, 6:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
CUMBIA VORTEX: Son Rompe Pera/Meridian Brothers/Milagro Verde
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2023
6:30 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Meridian Brothers aren’t only Fake Salsa, they’re Fake Cumbia, too (they’re also one of this List’s favorite bands, anywhere). Mexican Cumbia fusioneers Son Rempe Pera are pretty great, too. As for Brooklyn’s Milagro Verde, well, they’re Fake Chicha (Cumbia’s surf cousin) — but not Fake in the conceptual way Meridian Brothers are. They’re trying to be good, though.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All the mead you want at Honey’s (I recently realized I’ve known one of the proprietors since he was a young boy — but we’re not here to talk about how old I am!).
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Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 1:00 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Annie Saunders & Becca Wolff: Our Country
TUESDAY & FRIDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 & 13 – 14, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
7:30 PM TUESDAY
1:00 PM FRIDAY
2:00 & 5:00 PM SATURDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
This takes off from Antigone, but it moves to the Wild Frontier (Annie Saunders’s real-life brother apparently was actually an outlaw) and childhood memories (as I just said).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Get your momo working at Lhasa Tibetan Restaurant.
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Thursday, January 12, 2023, 9:30 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Migguel Anggelo: LATINXOXO
THURSDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 & 15, 2023 (also on JANUARY 17)
9:30 PM THURSDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Joe’s Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Defeating machismo with camp.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kenka, an izakaya as colorful as this show.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 9:00 PM – Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Roger Guenveur Smith: Otto Frank
THURSDAY, FRIDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 – 13 & 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
9:00 PM THURSDAY
8:30 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Kind of like the “Rose’s Turn” of AnnFrank. Music by Tessa Thompson’s Dad!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Incendiary Hunanese at Chef Tan.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 8:30 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
-
Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Ahmed Moneka, Jesse LaVercombe, & Seth Bockley: King Gilgamesh & the Man of the Wild
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 – 15, 2023
8:00 THURSDAY – SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$30; $25 students/seniors; $10 first 10 tickets to each performance; $35 both shows
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A Maqam music-theater piece interweaving the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu with an account of contemporary male friendship. There are extended concerts after the Saturday and Sunday shows, which seems like a good idea.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Now I have another friend raving about the Southern Thai at MayRee.
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Thursday, January 12, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Sita Chay: unburdened i
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2023
7:30 PM
the cell theatre
338 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An interdisciplinary (music, movement, performance) of psychotherapy. Here’s hoping it’s heavy on the performance and light on the psychotherapy — but I’m not optimistic.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm going to keep sending you to Qanoon: their home-style Palestinian is SO good.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / THEATER
Eve Beglarian: The Vicksburg Project
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 –14, 2023
7:30 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Harlem Stage
150 Convent Avenue, Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
$25-$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
List hyper-fave Eve Beglarian explores the historical and current experiences of women (and female-identifying people), Black and White, in this pivotal Southern city.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ramen at Rai Rai Ken Harlem.
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Thursday, January 12, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
OPERA
David Lang: Note to a Friend
THURSDAY & SATURDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 & 14 – 15, 2023
7:30 PM THURSDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
PROTOTYPE Festival
Japan Society
333 East 47th Street, Turtle Bay, Manhattan
$60; $48 disabled
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An opera by David Lang based on texts by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa sung by Theo Bleckmann and directed by Yushi Oida (of Peter Brook fame). Excited yet?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You can make it to the excellent izakaya Aburiya Kinnosuke — but Thursday and Saturday nights, you’ll have to hustle.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
-
Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
-
Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
Vertigo Dance Company: PARDES
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 – 14, 2023
7:30 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
$25
TICKETS + INFORMATION
More tough, physical dance from Israel.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I’m not gonna stop pushing Central Asian powerhouse Farida until each and every one of you has gone there.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
Plexus Polaire: Moby Dick
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 – 14, 2023
7:30 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Skirball Center, NYU
566 Laguardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The great Franco-Norwegian puppet theater company Plexus Polaire takes on Moby Dick.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: While we’re wallowing in American culture, Knickerbocker Bar & Grill. Have a Martini, then have a Caviar Pie, and after that stick with the steak if you know what’s good for you.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:00 PM – Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 11:59 PM
-
Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
Timothy White Eagle: The Indigo Room
MONDAY & THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 9 & 12 – 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY – SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$30; $25 students/seniors; $10 first 10 tickets to each performance
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An immersive ritualistic piece exploring — indeed recreating — the recurring mything of a hero’s being swallowed alive and then returned.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Udon and things at Raku.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Winter Jazzfest
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 – 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 18)
Various times
Various locations, Manhattan & Brooklyn
Various prices for individual shows; Marathon (JANUARY 13 & 14): $65 per day; $105-$195 both days
TICKETS + INFORMATION
This massive jazz festival, with shows throughout Manhattan and in Brooklyn, is back and as awesome as ever. Special mention must be made of the Marathons, Friday in Manhattan and Saturday in Brooklyn, where all-access tickets permit you to pop among venues.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It’s like all over the place.
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Thursday, January 12, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Shawn E. Okpebholo: Songs in Flight
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2023
7:00 PM
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
If anybody’s written a better song in the last few years than Shawn E. Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches, I haven’t heard it. This is an evening-length presentation embodying the stories of fugitive slaves. It’s sung by a stellar list of singers, including Will Liverman (who introduced Two Black Churches) and Rhiannon Giddens, who contributes some additional material.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Maybe recreating a Viennese “American” cocktail bar in actual America is a step too meta — but everybody who goes to Jeremy’s is just happy to have a good cocktail bar on the UES again.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 6:00 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / THEATER
Silvana Estrada: Marchita
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 – 14, 2022
6:00 & 9:00 PM
PROTOYPE Festival
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Soho, Manhattan
$35-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The Mexican singer-songwriter Silvana Estrada expands her album Marchitainto a music-theater piece.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Altro Paradiso: not the best Italian restaurant in New York, far from the worst — but it’s right there.
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Thu, Jan 12, 2023, 12:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
S.J. Norman & Joseph M. Pierce: Knowledge of Wounds
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 – 15, 2023 (continuing through FEBRUARY 4)
12:00 – 6:00 PM
Performance Space New York
150 1st Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An immersive audiovisual installation of Indigiqueer knowledge, culture, and ritual.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Rowdy Rooster: putting the heat in hot fried chicken.
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Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 8:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
The Stone Residencies: Ingrid Laubrock
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 11 – 14, 2023
8:30 PM
The Stone
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
If any musician is interesting enough to maintain interest (yeah you pay for this writing) over a four-night residency with a different permforming context each night, it’s saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It’ll be nice to go back to the comfortable Emilia-Romagnan food at Da Andrea (do yourself a favor and start with the Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto).
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Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 8:30 PM – 11:59 PM
THEATER
Peter Mills Weiss & Julia Mounsey: Protec/Attac
WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 11 & 14 – 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
8:30 PM WEDNESDAY
5:00 & 9:00 PM SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
The Chelsea Factory
547 West 26th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$30-$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey’s work sometimes seems to be earnestly autobiographical — but not really! This one is kind of about Nihilism as a state of grace (or a source of monsterous manipulation).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Overrated Middle Eastern at Shukette.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Pool
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2023
8:00 PM
Shift
411 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Lotsa really good musicians improvising in various combinations.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Maybe some good cocktails, great interior, and snacky seafood at Deux Chats.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Lollise/Miles Francis
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2023
8:00 PM
C’mon Everybody
325 Franklin Avenue, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
$12.36
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Great Art-Nu R&B from Lollise. Great Queer Pop from Miles Francis. Lollise’s residency is shaping up as something really good.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Pilar Cuban Eatery really is astonishingly good.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tomas Fujiwara: Percussion Quartet
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance in person; $30 door in person; $20 students/seniors at door in person; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tomas Fujiwara, a drummer with a uniquely fluid style, premieres a new percussion quartet called Dream Up, for himself, another drummer, vibist Patricia Brennan (who’s going from strength to strength these days), and a Taiko drummer(!).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, nice enough bistro at Bacchus. Streaming at home, have a Modern Old Tom Cocktail: pour 2 oz. Old Tom Gin and 1/4 oz. Absinthe, with 1/4 teaspoon of sugar and 1 dash of orange bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Kaneza Schaal: KLII
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 9 & 11 – 14, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
8:00 PM MONDAY
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
Under the Radar Festival
The Chelsea Factory
547 West 26th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Let’s be honest: most of the new topical art being foisted on us right now is lame, because it’s single-minded to the point of non-minded in conveying a message, because the creators aren’t very interesting as political thinkers, and because the creators think it’s enough to convey a message and forget about things like imagination, indirection, and esthetic value. Well, theater-maker Kaneza Schaal doesn’t have any of those problems. (Not that I’m expecting a theater piece about King Leopold II in the Congo to be two-sided!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Enjoyabe fake Southern at Porchlight.
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Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 3:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
600 Highwaymen: A Thousand Ways (Part Three: An Assembly)
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 11 – 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
3:00, 4:30, 6:00 & 7:30 PM WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
2:00, 3:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM FRIDAY
12:00, 1:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, New York Public Library
455 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
600 Highwaymen present the concluding third of their series of pieces exploring mutual interdependence through encounters between strangers (it got pretty meta when The Lockdown forced them to provide that experience by means of distanced communications). Just so you know how experiential this is, they ask audience members to come in groups no larger than two, as they want an audience of strangers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent Sichuan at Cafe China.
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Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Jasmine Lee-Jones: seven methods of killing kylie jenner
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 10 – 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
8:00 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:30 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Cultural appropriation, queerness, friendship, and the ownership of Black bodies online and IRL.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sensational Shanghainese at Che-Li.
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Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 8:00 PM – Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 11:30 PM
OPERA
Du Yun: In Our Daughter’s Eyes
TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 10 – 11 & 13 – 15, 2023
8:00 PM TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$35-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Du Yun, a terrific opera composer, has written an opera about impending fatherhood for (and with the parcipation of) the terrific baritone Nathan Gunn. That’s all you need to know.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: English char-grilled steak at Hawksmoor (although frankly they’re dead to me since they truncated their dine-at-the-bar menu).
-
Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Tristan Allen: Tin Iso and the Dawn
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 – 14, 2023
8:00 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Exponential Festival
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20-$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tristan Allen revives his affecting puppet theater piece about the birth of a world — but suffused with loss. Every show there’s an opening set by a different guest artist (one of whom I’ve known since he was a young boy — but we’re not here to talk about how old I am!).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It would be nice if you could get into the neo-Cantonese-American sensation Bonnie’s — especially since you get to walk past the Manhattan Special factory on the way.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
THEATER
Annie Saunders & Becca Wolff: Our Country
TUESDAY & FRIDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 & 13 – 14, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
7:30 PM TUESDAY
1:00 PM SATURDAY
2:00 & 5:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
This takes off from Antigone, but it moves to the Wild Frontier (Annie Saunders’s real-life brother apparently was actually an outlaw) and childhood memories (as I just said).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Get your momo working at Lhasa Tibetan Restaurant.
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Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company: Curriculum II
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 – 14, 2023
7:30 PM TUESDAY – FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$55-$65; $44 students/seniors/dancers
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Bill T. Jones is a deeply intellectual person, so this piece incorporates (and takes off from) texts by Achille Mbembe, Louis Chude-Sokei, and Sylvia Wynter. But Bill T. Jones is a stage animal, so in this piece (as usual) he creates riveting movement patterns that you can’t take your eyes off.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Chelsea Hotel Lobby Bar: good!
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Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
DANCE
American Dance Platform
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 10 – 15, 2022
7:30 PM TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan
$10-$55
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Ronald K. Browne curates a series of showcases for emerging dance companies, a different company at each performance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bistro that’s been there forever (the bistro, not the food) at Le Singe Vert.
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Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 7:00 PM – Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Emma O’Halloran: Trade/Mary Motorhead
TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 – 11 & 13 – 14, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 14)
7:00 PM TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
7:30 PM FRIDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY
PROTOTYPE Festival
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$35-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Emma O’Halloran — a wildly inventive and unpredictable electroacoustic composer who doesn’t see much point in distinguishing between the “classical” and the vernacular — brings us two new operas. And they got the powerful singing actor Mark Kudisch to perform in one.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Straightforward fare done well at Corner Bar. (Yeah right you’re going to get in there: I crack myself up.)
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Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 10:00 AM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell & Joseph White: Meander
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 10 – 15, 2023 (ongoing)
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Tuesday-Friday pay what you wish; Saturday & Sunday $18; $12 students 12 and over/seniors; free children under 12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Having created a wonderful sound walk through Green-Wood Cemetery, the dream team of Gelsey Bell and Joe White do the same for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (one of my favorite places on earth, if you want to know). The soundtrack is available on the BBG website.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: New Orleans at Lowerline.
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Monday, January 9, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
THEATER
Kaneza Schaal: KLII
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 9 & 11 – 14, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
8:00 PM MONDAY
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
Under the Radar Festival
The Chelsea Factory
547 West 26th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Let’s be honest: most of the new topical art being foisted on us right now is lame, because it’s single-minded to the point of non-minded in conveying a message, because the creators aren’t very interesting as political thinkers, and because the creators think it’s enough to convey a message and forget about things like imagination, indirection, and esthetic value. Well, theater-maker Kaneza Schaal doesn’t have any of those problems. (Not that I’m expecting a theater piece about King Leopold II in the Congo to be two-sided!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Enjoyabe fake Southern at Porchlight.
-
Mon, Jan 9, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Gelsey Bell: Morning/Mourning
MONDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 9 - 14, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
7:30 PM
PROTOTYPE Festival
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Soho, Manhattan
$10-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Major Event Alert, Alt Division: Gelsey Bell finally gets to present her delayed (you know why) new opera, about a world in which all humans have disappeared from Earth. Sounds like pure gain to me! (Anything Bell does is well worth attending to.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sicilian at Piccolo Cucina Osteria.
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Monday, January 9, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Max Johnson & Sam Newsome
MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2023
7:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
In-and-out soprano player Sam Newsome is always worth a listen.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not-bad neighborhood Italian at Bar Toto.
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Monday, January 9, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
Timothy White Eagle: The Indigo Room
MONDAY & THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 9 & 12 – 15, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY – SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$30; $25 students/seniors; $10 first 10 tickets to each performance
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An immersive ritualistic piece exploring — indeed recreating — the recurring mything of a hero’s being swallowed alive and then returned.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Udon and things at Raku.
-
Mon, Jan 9, 2023, 8:00 AM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 9 – 15, 2023 (ongoing)
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
TICKETS + INFORMATION
One of the first shows that you could actually Go Out! to back in the days of The Lockdown (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White (whose terrific new album you really ought to hear). The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Mon, Jan 9, 2023, 6:00 AM – Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 9 – 15, 2023 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train. The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga.
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Sunday, January 8, 2023, 2:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Daniel Bernard Roumain: The All Sing: “Here Lies Joy”
SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2023
2:00 PM
PROTOTYPE Festival
Duffy Square, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
You can sing in this massive choral piece, or you can listen to other people sing. If you want to sing, you have to register, study the score and/or rehearsal tracks, and attend a rehearsal Sunday morning. If you want to listen, you just have to show up at Duffy Square by 2.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: People who find themselves in the Theater District have been going to Trattoria Trecolori for just about as long as I can remember.
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Saturday, January 7, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
EXO-TECH
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2023
7:30 PM
Public Records
233 Butler Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$30.90
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tonight this marvelous avant-pop collective brings a collection of special guests that includes, among many others, Cleek Shrey(!), L’Rain(!!), and Yuka Honda(!!!) (I TOLD you they were special).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good, fresh Korean at Insa (as always, forego the barbecue and east in the lounge/bar room, which is much nicer than the drab dining room).
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Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Emma O’Halloran: Trade/Mary Motorhead
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JANUARY 7 & 8, 2022 (continuing through JANUARY 14)
7:30 PM SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
PROTOTYPE Festival
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$35-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Emma O’Halloran — a wildly inventive and unpredictable electroacoustic composer who doesn’t see much point in distinguishing between the “classical” and the vernacular — brings us two new operas. And they got the powerful singing actor Mark Kudisch to perform in one.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Straightforward fare done well at Corner Bar. (Yeah right you’re going to get in there: I crack myself up.)
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Saturday, January 7, 2023, 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Tim Berne: Residency
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2023
6:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Tim Berne, the tough in-and-out altoist, begins a month-long residency. Tonight his quartet is joined by the formidable Chris Potter on tenor.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Yet another chance to fail to get into unapologetic Indian sensation Masalawala & Sons.
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Fri, Jan 6, 2023, 10:30 PM – Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
NY Neo-Futurists: The Infinite Wrench
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 6 & 7, 2022 (ongoing)
10:30 PM
Kraine Theater
85 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Theater for people who think they don’t like theater. Thirty short plays crammed into an hour, semi-improvised, semi-not, non-illusionistic, spur-of-the-moment, real (whatever that means).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I dunno why, but it seems like you’d go to Phebe’s.
-
Friday, January 6, 2023, 10:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Yotoco
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2022
10:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Yotoco plays Pan-Latin American dance-rock music. Usually, such musical syncretism is a recipe for disaster (or at least anodynity) — but they pull it off.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The band is named after a town in Colombia. So OF COURSE you’d go to Colombia in Park Slope.
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Friday, January 6, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Muyassar Kurdi: Where My Olive Trees Grow
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2023
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on Third Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 advance; $30 door; $20 students/seniors; free live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Haunting otherwordly music created in response to large scale oil paintings.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, superb Palestinian at AlBadawi. Streaming at home, have a McGavin: pour 1 oz. each of Gin and green Chartreuse, 1/2 oz. each of Meyer lemon juice and olive oil, and 1/4 oz. of Simple Syrup, with 1 egg white and a small sprig of basil, into a cocktail shaker WITHOUT ice. Dry shake. Add ice. Shake. Train into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Sprinkle a few drops of olive oil on top. Garnish with a big sprig of basil.
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Friday, January 6, 2023, 7:30 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Brooklyn Art Song Society: The World at War: Recovered Voices
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2022
7:30 PM
First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn
119 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A recital of songs by composers murdered (or at the very least stifled) by the Nazis. That’s not the reason to go, though: it’s just backstory — and if backstory were enough we’d be enjoying rather than enduring all the Florence Price now being foisted upon us. No, the reason to go is that in the ‘20s, when these people were active, Berlin and Prague were centers for the amalgamation of classical music with the lively and fecund vernacular music of the time (not the mention the stylishly ironic recasting of past classical music called Neoclassicism). In other words, exactly the kind of thing this List is about.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: SO by far the best restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, Inga’s Bar.
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Fri, Jan 6, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
an_outskirt: saklob
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 6 & 7, 2023
7:30 PM
Exponential Festival
JACK
20 Putnam Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Multimedia musicdreams from inside a womb. Or so they say.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go for the wine at Place des Fêtes if you must, but stay for the food.
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Fri, Jan 6, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Gelsey Bell: Morning/Mourning
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 6 & 7, 2023 (also JANUARY 9 – 14)
7:30 PM FRIDAY
5:00 PM SATURDAY
PROTOTYPE
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Soho, Manhattan
$10-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Major Event Alert, Alt Division: Gelsey Bell finally gets to present her delayed (you know why) new opera, about a world in which all humans have disappeared from Earth. Sounds like pure gain to me! (Anything Bell does is well worth attending to.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sicilian at Piccolo Cucina Osteria.
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Fri, Jan 6, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
Timothy White Eagle: The Indigo Room
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 6 – 8, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
7:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
Friday 1/6 pay what you wish; therafter: $30; $25 students/seniors; $10 first 10 tickets to each performance
TICKETS + INFORMATION
An immersive ritualistic piece exploring — indeed recreating — the recurring mything of a hero’s being swallowed alive and then returned.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Udon and things at Raku.
-
Friday, January 6, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Armando Bayolo: Memorias Vagabundas
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2023
7:00 PM
Here and Now Winter Festival
Bargemusic
1 Water Street, Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn
$35
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Not sure if this involves five or 10 pianists — not sure they could fit 10 pianists onto the barge — but the five I know for sure will be playing are Vicky Chow, Geoffrey Burleson, Mikael Darmani, Erika Dohi, and Blair McMillen — and that’s enough! As for composer Armando Bayalo, let me just say that his Mix Tape — ‘80s pop goes Bach cello — is one of my very favorite things.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before, world famous ramen at Tsuta. After, Dominican barbecue at Bark, on the roof of the Time Out Market.
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Thu, Jan 5, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 11:59 PM
OPERA
Du Yun: In Our Daughter’s Eyes
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 5 – 7, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 15)
8:00 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$35-$150
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Du Yun, a terrific opera composer, has written an opera about impending fatherhood for (and with the participation of) the terrific baritone Nathan Gunn. That’s all you need to know.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: English char-grilled steak at Hawksmoor (although frankly they’re dead to me since they truncated their dine-at-the-bar menu).
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Thu, Jan 5, 2023, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 3
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 5 – 7, 2023 (also on JANUARY 10)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
11:00 AM FRIDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$98.50-$294.50
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Major event alert, Mainstream Division: a new Third Piano Concerto from ear-grabbing Modernist Magnus Lindberg (the Second certainly was pretty great) — and it’s played by Yuja Wang and conducted by Santu-Matthias Rouvali.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You can make it to Kwame Onwuachi’s in-house Afro-Caribbean restaurant Tatiana (not to be confused with the one in Brighton Beach) after the Thursday concert, but after the Saturday they’ll only be serving bar snacks — and as for Friday, it’s not open for lunch. So maybe Bar Boulud on those days.
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Thursday, January 5, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
XYLOSMA (Greg Fox, M Geddes Gengras + Grey McMurray)/Cyrus Gengras/Tristan Dahm
THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2023
7:00 PM
Union Pool
484 Union Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$18.54
TICKETS + INFORMATION
You’d be hard pressed to come up with three more interesting musicians on the experimental pop scene than drummer Greg Fox, electrician M Geddes Gengras, and guitarist Grey McMurray. So their band should be something.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic Brooklyn Red Sauce at Bamonte’s. You know you want it.
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Wed, Jan 4, 2023, 8:30 PM – Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
The Stone Residencies: Matthew Shipp
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 4 – 7, 2023
8:30 PM
The Stone
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
You’d have a hard time coming up with a more consistently thought-provoking musician than pianist Matthew Shipp.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It’ll be nice to go back to the comfortable Emilia-Romagnan food at Da Andrea (do yourself a favor and start with the Tigelle Modenesi con Prosciutto).
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Wed, Jan 4, 2023, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jan 7, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Barnett Cohen: The Complaint Society
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 4 – 7, 2023
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Exponential Festival
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20-$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
You probably don’t need to go to the theater to know that everything sucks — but it helps if you’re told that by means of an imaginative and innovative presentation.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent Roman pinsa at Montesacro.
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Wednesday, January 4, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
-
Wednesday, January 4, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
The Andy Statman Trio
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2022
8:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Andy Statman, a Klezmer musician playing avant-jazz (and Klezmer).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Modern Mexican at Fonda.
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Wednesday, January 4, 2023, 8:00 PM – 11:59 PM
-
Wed, Jan 4, 2023, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
Ontroerend Goed: Are we not drawn onward to a new erA
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 4 – 8, 2023
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY
9:30 PM THURSDAY – SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
BAM Fisher
321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$45
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Belgian avant-theater is always a good bet. This wordless, palindromically-titled piece explores what it would be like if we could turn back time and undo the damage we’ve (collectively, individually) done. If only!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious snacky Korean at Mokbar.
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Wed, Jan 4, 2023, 5:00 PM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Studio Rivbea Revisited
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 4 – 8, 2023
5:00 PM WEDNESDAY
7:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Gene Frankel Theatre In Person & Live Stream
24 Bond Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$25/show in person advance; $30/show in person door; $15 live stream festival pass; $5/show live stream
TICKETS + INFORMATION
In the mid-‘70s, the late reedsman Sam Rivers kick-started the great New York Loft Jazz scene at his Studio Rivbea. Indeed, the seminal document of that scene, the multi-artist multi-disc set Wildflowers, was recorded at Rivbea. Now, a bunch of musicians who either played at Rivbea or would have if only they had been born sooner assemble over five days at Rivbea’s actual location, not so much to pay tribute as to bring the spirit back.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, all-day Mexican at Atla. Streaming at home, have a Green River: pour 2 oz. silver Tequila, 2/3 oz. green Chartreuse, and 1 oz. lime juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lime twist.
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Wed, Jan 4, 2023, 3:00 PM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
THEATER
600 Highwaymen: A Thousand Ways (Part Three: An Assembly)
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 4 – 8, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 22)
3:00, 4:30, 6:00 & 7:30 PM WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
2:00, 3:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM FRIDAY
12:00, 1:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Under the Radar Festival
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, New York Public Library
455 Fifth Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
TICKETS + INFORMATION
600 Highwaymen present the concluding third of their series of pieces exploring mutual interdependence through encounters between strangers (it got pretty meta when The Lockdown forced them to provide that experience by means of distanced communications). Just so you know how experiential this is, they ask audience members to come in groups no larger than two, as they want an audience of strangers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent Sichuan at Cafe China.
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Tue, Jan 3, 2023, 10:00 AM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell & Joseph White: Meander
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 3 – 8, 2023 (ongoing)
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Monday-Friday pay what you wish; Saturday & Sunday $18; $12 students 12 and over/seniors; free children under 12
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Having created a wonderful sound walk through Green-Wood Cemetery, the dream team of Gelsey Bell and Joe White do the same for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (one of my favorite places on earth, if you want to know). The soundtrack is available on the BBG website.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: New Orleans at Lowerline.
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Monday, January 2, 2023, 7:00 PM – 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Ilsusha & Gocha Tsinadze
MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2023
7:00 PM
Barbès
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$15
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Modern Georgian!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I only wish there were some Georgian restaurant nearby to send you to. Instead I’ll ask you to try Mikhuy Peruvian and let me know how it is.
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Monday, January 2, 2023, 4:30 PM – 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Lightscape
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 2 & 4 – 8, 2023
4:30 – 9:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
990 Washington Avenue, across the street from Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$45 adult; $24 children 3-12; free babies 0-2
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Because this is Brooklyn, what you’d normally expect to be a corny set of light sculptures strewn throughout the Garden actually turns out to be kind of great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Guadalajaran Tortas Ahogadas are unbelievably good at Cruz del Sur.
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Mon, Jan 2, 2023, 4:30 PM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Lightscape
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 2 & 4 – 8, 2023
4:30 – 9:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
990 Washington Avenue, across the street from Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$45 adult; $24 children 3-12; free babies 0-2
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Because this is Brooklyn, what you’d normally expect to be a corny set of light sculptures strewn throughout the Garden actually turns out to be kind of great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Guadalajaran Tortas Ahogadas are unbelievably good at Cruz del Sur.
-
Mon, Jan 2, 2023, 12:00 PM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Julian Rosefeldt: EUPHORIA
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 2 – 8, 2023
12:00 – 8:00 PM MONDAY – THURSDAY
12:00 – 10:00 PM FRIDAY
12:00 – 4:00 PM SATURDAY
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM SUNDAY
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$18
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A film installation (you enter when you want; an entire loop takes about 2 hours) involving chorus, a phalanx of famous jazz drummers, and philosophical and social ruminations — in surround.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back to Donahue’s Steak House (not really a steakhouse) for more Mad Men larping. If you go early, you might want to skip a Martini — unimaginable as that might be.
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Mon, Jan 2, 2023, 8:00 AM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 2 – 8, 2023 (ongoing)
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
TICKETS + INFORMATION
One of the first shows during Quarantine that you could actually Go Out! to back in the days of The Lockdown (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White (whose terrific new album you really ought to hear). The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Mon, Jan 2, 2023, 6:00 AM – Sun, Jan 8, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MONDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 2 – 8, 2023 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train. The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga.
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Wed, Dec 28, 2022, 2:00 PM – Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Circus Abyssinia: Tulu
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2022 - JANUARY 1, 2023
2:00 & 7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY
12:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
New Victory Theater
209 West 42nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$27-$68.50
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Circus! From Ethiopia! Honoring Olympic track and field great — the first African gold medalist ever — Daratu Tulu (who could run amazingly fast but probably couldn’t do the stuff these folks do)!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Well I mean OF COURSE you’re going to walk over to Queen of Sheba, right?
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Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC
Chris Potter Quartet
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2022 – JANUARY 1, 2023
8:00 & 10:00 PM TUESDAY – FRIDAY & SUNDAY
9:00 & 11:00 PM SATURDAY
Village Vanguard
178 7th Avenue South, West Village, Manhattan
$40
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Chris Potter is a good solid forceful-but-focused sax player. His quartet is sterling.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Through Friday, really delicious — and really interesting — Southern Indian at Semma. Don’t even THINK of eating out on Saturday, and Sunday’s pretty gone.
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Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 10:00 AM – Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell & Joseph White: Meander
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27 – 31, 2022 (ongoing)
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Pay what you wish
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Having created a wonderful sound walk through Green-Wood Cemetery, the dream team of Gelsey Bell and Joe White do the same for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (one of my favorite places on earth, if you want to know). The soundtrack is available on the BBG website.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: New Orleans at Lowerline.
-
Mon, Dec 26, 2022, 4:30 PM – Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
PERFORMANCE
Lightscape
MONDAY – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2026 – JANUARY 1, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 8)
4:30 – 9:00 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
990 Washington Avenue, across the street from Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$45 adult; $24 children 3-12; free babies 0-2
TICKETS + INFORMATION
Because this is Brooklyn, what you’d normally expect to be a corny set of light sculptures strewn throughout the Garden actually turns out to be kind of great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Guadalajaran Tortas Ahogadas are unbelievably good at Cruz del Sur.
-
Mon, Dec 26, 2022, 12:00 PM – Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Julian Rosefeldt: EUPHORIA
MONDAY – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022 – JANUARY 1, 2023 (continuing through JANUARY 8)
12:00 – 8:00 PM MONDAY – THURSDAY
12:00 – 10:00 PM FRIDAY
12:00 – 4:00 PM SATURDAY
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM SUNDAY
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$18
TICKETS + INFORMATION
A film installation (you enter when you want; an entire loop takes about 2 hours) involving chorus, a phalanx of famous jazz drummers, and philosophical and social ruminations — in surround.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back to Donahue’s Steak House (not really a steakhouse) for more Mad Men larping. If you go early, you might want to skip a Martini — unimaginable as that might be.
-
Mon, Dec 26, 2022, 8:00 AM – Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MONDAY – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022 – JANUARY 1, 2023 (ongoing)
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
TICKETS + INFORMATION
One of the first shows during Quarantine that you could actually Go Out! to back in the days of The Lockdown (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White (whose terrific new album you really ought to hear). The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Mon, Dec 26, 2022, 6:00 AM – Sun, Jan 1, 2023, 11:59 PM
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MONDAY – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2022 – JANUARY 1, 2023 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
TICKETS + INFORMATION
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train. The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga.
