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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Outline: Winter: John Maus
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
8:00 PM
Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, Queens
$30 advance; $35 door
https://knockdown.center/event/outline-winter/
Avant/psych popster John Maus – a Syd Barrett for our times (no I'm not trying to curse him) — heads a long provcative bill of musical and interdiscliplinary artists.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Have dinner at Faro before and walk over. Hope the superior separate bar is open inside the venue, so you don't have to use the no-good bar in the music room.
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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Holland Andrews: Onè
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
Free ($10 suggested donation)
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/holland-andrews-on%C3%A8
A long-form vocal/clarinet piece concerning the loss at birth of twins by the composer/performer Holland Andrews's mother, leading to her eventual suicider.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's a bit of a walk to the new Quebecois-tinged French bistro Bar Bête. But it's worth it.
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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Missy Mazzoli / Kelly Moran
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
7:30 PM
Ecstatic Music Festival
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$25; $20 two+ festival concerts
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/ecstatic-music-missy-mazzoli-kelly-moran/
Wow. One one stage together: Missy Mazzoli, the greatest single exponent of A Certain Tendency Of The Brooklyn Classical Music, and Kelly Moran, the poster girl for, not the fusion of, but rather the consubstantiality of, contemporary classical and various advanced pop forms. Together, they'll do one world premiere piece each for two pianos, with preparation or electronics. Separately, they'll each survey their own great stuff. It is hard to communicate how major this is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A show this awesome can only be followed by something as awesome as the Tennessee Chili at Old John's Luncheonette.
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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Composer's Concordance / Pas Musique: Spectrum 8th Anniversary Party
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Spectrum started eight years ago on the Lower East Side; now it's raised itself to a garage in Brooklyn. Celebrate with Composer's Concordance doing a Wingjammer session (New Music and chicken wings!) and insane soundcreators Pas Musique.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Keep the party going with the good vibe, decent pub grub at Putnam's Bar & Cooker.
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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 6:00 PM
Hideki Noda: One Green Bottle
THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 29 & MARCH 1, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 8)
7:00 PM SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$35; $30 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/one-green-bottle/
Absurdist gender-bending Japanese distillation of the relationship of tech and consumerism.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ukrainian East Village Restaurant is pretty absurd itself.
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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Nona Hendryx & The Disciples of Sun Ra: In the Temple
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
7:00 PM
Temple of Dendur, Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$85; $1 accompanying children
https://rsecure.metmuseum.org/event/ticket/577854
This is the kind of things that High Culture Snobs view as The Death Of Western Culture, and I view with unmitigated glee. Forty or fifty years ago, who'd have thought that the Metropolitan Museum of Art would put on (this isn't a rental, but a Met co-production with Harlem Stage) a tribute to interplanetary jazz weirdo (said with respect: he was a genius) Sun Ra, starring punk-sould diva Nona Hendryx? The Temple of Dendur is just awesome (and Egyptian) enough to encompass the awesomeness of Ra's musical/mythical conception. Music direction by no less than former Ra trombonist Craig Harris; spoken word invocations by Carl Hancock Rux.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Papaya King?
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Saturday, February 29, 2020, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Handel: Agrippina
OPERA
TUESDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25 & 29, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM TUESDAY
1:00 PM SATURDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/agrippina/
Imagine a prequel to L'Incoronazione di Poppea, played for laughs, focusing on Nero's mother — and chockfull of some of the catchiest music that catchiest of composers, Handel, ever wrote. Wait, you don't have to imagine it: it's here. I can't think of anyone you'd rather hear perform the juicy, camped-up title role than Joyce DiDonato. This is the kind of thing — not regie (this is stupid conservative mainstream New York, for God's sake), but thoughtful and entertaining treatments of the material at hand — the Met should be doing all the time. But isn't.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hope that P.J. Clarke's stays open as late as it claims to.
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Friday, February 28, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Man Forever a/k/a Kid Millions: The Accident
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/man-forever-aka-kid-millions-the-accident/
Wondering where post-rock percussionist John Colpitts (a/k/a Man Forever a/k/a Kid Millions) has been for the last two years? Well, he was in a horrible car crash, with horrible sequelae (and moments of transcendece). Now, he's turned it all into a musical performance piece — sort of like Spalding Gray at the drum kit.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kind of Soul, right?
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Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 9:00 PM
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Friday, February 28, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Friday, February 28, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 8:30 PM
Toshiki Okada / chelfitsch / Teppei Kaneuji: Eraser Mountain
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 & 29, 2020
7:30 PM
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$35-$50
https://nyuskirball.org/events/toshiki-okada-eraser-mountain/
As anyone who saw his The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise at JACK in Brooklyn a few years will attest, Toshiki Okada is a major major force in contemporary Japanese (and, for that matter, world, theater. His pieces take reality beyond reality; they're not fantasist, but they're also not linear. This piece, performed by Okada's own company and created with the assistance of Japanese visual artist/mass culture explorer Teppei Kaneuji, treats with the reconstruction of the city of Rikuzentakata after the 2011 tsunami, done in a "human-centric" manner that has endangered the surrounding mountains.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Finta Red Sauce Carbone may not be quite as much fun as when it opened. But it's still fun. (It's certainly at least as expensive.)
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Friday, February 28, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Friday, February 28, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 4:00 PM
Taylor Mac: The Fre
THEATER
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28 – MARCH 1, 2020 (continuing through APRIL 12)
7:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Bats
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$37-$102 Friday & Saturday; $27-$102 Sunday
http://theflea.org/shows/the-fre/
The divine Taylor Mac is back with a phantasmagoria pitting queers against fun-loving anti-intellectuals. Wait, do I read the promotional materials right in saying "the audience will literally and figuratively jump into the mud . . . to hash out the current cultural divide"? (I have no idea what the hyper-expensive "VIP Tickets" get you — but even if it's absolute freedom from mud exposure, it can't be worth it.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After mucking about in the mud, nothing could be better than the fried bologna sandwich at Au Cheval.
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Friday, February 28, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Stephen Marotto / Steven Long
MUSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Manhattan
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
The pieces played by solo cellist Marotto include one by John Luther Adams, which should be as time-stopping and transporting as all his work. Solo pianist Long will play improvisations.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you can get into Miss Ada, you'll really LOVE their Modern Israeli.
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Friday, February 28, 2020, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
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Thursday, February 27, 2020, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
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Thu, Feb 27, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 4:00 PM
Jack Waters & Peter Cramer: Generator (Pestilence Part 1)
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27 – MARCH 1, 2020
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
LaMama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/generator/
The first installment of a three-part cycle that traces the development of life and then social organizations on Earth, all the while engaging in a metaphorical meditation on the AIDS epidemic. This is the kind of theater this List strongly favors: do NOT expect linear narrative or psychological realism; expect stylized imagery and spectacle.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good hearty Italian at Il Buco Alimentari & Vinieri.
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Thursday, February 27, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Dave Ruder & Cory Bracken: What Is New Music? II
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2020
8:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
A second installment in a series, curated by composer/musician Brian McCorckle, of discussion and performances exploring the nature and characteristics of "New Music", apparently (given the participants) from an Alt Classical perspective (which, as it happens, is pretty much this List's perspective). Tonight's performers are new collaborators Dave Ruder (composer/guitarist/clarinetist/whatever) and Corey Bracken (composer/percussion).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Japanese speakeasy The Hidden Pearl.
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Thursday, February 27, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Thu, Feb 27, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 6:00 PM
Fornés: Mud / Drowning
THEATER / OPERA
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 1, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
Mabou Mines
150 First Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
https://www.maboumines.org/production/mud-drowning/
The María Irene Fornés revival continues apace. Here are two short pieces directed by Mabou veteran JoAnne Akalaitis. Mud, set in the Depression '30s, would be social realism if Fornés had any inclination toward realism. Which, thank God, she doesn't. Drowning has some remote inspiration in Chekhov — although I'd call it Beckett (an old Akalaitis antagonist) crossed with early Albee, all through the unique lens of Fornés. (You've got to read this review by the unlamented John Simon: how is it possible to be wrong about so many things in so short a space?) Philip Glass (who was married to Akalaitis long ago) has written new incidental music for Mud, and has newly turned Drowning into a chamber opera. As you'd expect, the entire run is almost entirely sold out; look for cancellations etc.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's a lot of Mod Korean in New York these days. Thursday Kitchen is a particularly delightful example.
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Thursday, February 27, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Marbelous / Leah Asher / Jason Anastasoff
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2020
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Marbleous is a violin/bass duo from Graz, playing theatrically oriented improvisations using their trad instruments, found objects, and movement. Leah Asher is a local composer/musician who tonight plays extended pieces on her violin with a lot of textural play, sound effects, etc. Jason Anastasoff trained as jazz bassist; but tonight he plays an extended piece about an extended depression on instruments other than his bass.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's crab boil night! Cap't Loui.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
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Wed, Feb 26, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 9:00 PM
Jillian Walker: SKiNFoLK: An American Show
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 29, 2020 (continuing through MARCH)
8:00 PM
The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.thebushwickstarr.org/skinfolk
A concert/play exploring the African-American experience, female division — and boy does it look great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Depending on how you look at it, the Venezuelan loaded hot dogs and other street food at Santa Salsa are either kind of gross or incredibly delicious. Actually, why choose? The drinks are deceptively potent.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Daniel Romano
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020
8:00 PM
The Sultan Room, The Turk's Inn
234 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$15 advance; $17 day of show
https://thesultanroom.com/events/#event=90013239021
Poet/visual artist/leather craftsman/musician Daniel Romano has done fake folkie singer-songwriter, fake classic country, fake psych country. This tour seems to be fake power pop/rock. Whatever. It's all been pretty great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It would be a pity to be at The Sultan Room and not eat in the associated Turk's Inn, for its stunning recreation of a Midwestern "Middle Eastern" supper club dining room (if not for the rather wan food).
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
loadbang: Plays Well With Others
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020
8:00 PM
The Hebrew Tabernacle
551 Fort Washington Avenue, Washington Heights, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4523306?fbclid=IwAR3u4W-IrGiv8mh7PzA8unQDjzvDxv0HQLfP_LsBIeescIT4lqUXZPMnojs
The exciting vocal/wind/brass ensemble loadbang is commissioning a bunch of concrti grossi for it to play along with a string ensemble. Here are five. One is (an uncharacteristic serial piece) by List idol Eve Beglarian: enough said. The others are a "quotation" piece (Mahler, Ives, etc.) by rising Euro-Modernist Reiko Füting, a "field recordings" piece by sonic explorer Paula Mathhusen, an electoacoustic piece by Heather Stebbins, and a pop culture exploration by Scott Wollschleger. You know what? This looks GOOD.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: First, be sure to cross the street to Bennett Park to visit the highest natural point in Manhattan. Beyond that, before the show try the basic French at The Pandering Pig. After the show, you may be kind of stuck up there.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Mary Prescott: Loup Lunaire
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/mary-prescott-loup-lunaire/
Composer/pianist/vocalist/interdisciplinary artist Mary Prescott presents a prequel to an upcoming piece she has here. This one is a study, through music and movement, of a character/concept called Mother Wolf. The performing team Prescott has assembled is splendid.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go Grand Army Bar and drink to my gullability. Good food, too.
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Wed, Feb 26, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 4:00 PM
New York City Ballet: Classic NYCB II
DANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 1, 2020
7:30 WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$200
https://www.nycballet.com/Ballets/N/New-Peck-Winter-2020.aspx
The big deal here is a brand-new Justin Peck piece called Rotunda. It's hard to believe Peck has never worked with Nico Muhly before — they seem sort of made for each other — but this is their first collaboration. Don't worry if you can't make it this week: Rotunda will be back in May on a program of entirely new or newish works.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not that you don't already know about it, but Bar Boulud.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Tibet House U.S. Benefit
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020
7:30 PM
Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$210
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2020/02/26/Tibet%20House%20US%20Benefit%20Concert%200730PM
Philip Glass's annual benefits for the Tibet House always attract an impressive line-up — and they're nice enough to make some tickets available at non-benefit prices. The long list of performers this includes among otherse, along with Glass, Laurie Anderson, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith (and Group), and Bettye Lavette.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Even after the show (and this show may go on a while), Donburiya will still be serving good Japanese.
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Wed, Feb 26, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 8:00 PM
Christopher Chen: The Headlands
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – MARCH 1, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 22)
7:00 WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
LCT 3
Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30
https://www.lct.org/shows/headlands/
A neo-noir with all the usual hard-boiled-fiction stuff about labyrinthine family secrets — although in this case, it's the sleuth's own family. Being a neo-noir, this will explore self-delusion and the fallibility of memory: playwright Christopher Chen has a knack for drawing audiences down rabbit holes.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You're practically right at Lincoln Ristorante — mediocre as it is.
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Wed, Feb 26, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 8:00 PM
Leegrid Stevens: A Peregrine Falls
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 29, 2020
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Loading Dock Theater
The Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street, East Village, Manhattan
$46-$76; $31 students/seniors
http://loadingdocktheatre.org/peregrine-falls/
Playwright Leegrid Stevens made quite an impression last year and the year before with his (literally) spectacular Spaceman. This follow-up seems like it might be more kitchen-sinky — but somehow I doubt Stevens is capable of writing like that (fingers crossed). Spaceman's splendid star (and the playwright's life partner) Erin Treadway returns to this cast.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good Georgian at Oda House.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Miles Okazaki & Dan Weiss
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020
7:00 PM
John Zorn's Stone Commissioning Project
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/miles-okazaki
As this List never tires of pointing out, Miles Okazaki acheived the seemingly impossible when he recorded Thelonious Monk's entire corpus on solo guitar — and made it work. Now he's teaming up for a new project with drummer Dan Weiss, whose band Starebaby, combining jazz and metal, wasn't as implausible, but was just as successful.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The new Chez Ma Tante–affiliated brasserie Le Crocodile, in the Wythe Hotel, is so much better than everything else around here that I'm tempted to reccommend it for every National Sawdust show.
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Wed, Feb 26, 2020, 7:00 PM – Thu, Feb 27, 2020, 8:00 PM
Shots
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 & 27, 2020
7:00 PM
Blank Forms
488 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$15
https://blankforms.org/events/shots/
Actually, Shots has been described as making "non-music": (usually) very soft sounds made by moving around and rustling found objects. There live shows also involve stabs at choreography. They've also been described as doing "meditative slapstick". You know if this is for you.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I remain very partial to the Japanese/Jewish mash-up at Shalom Japan.
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Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 8:30 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 11:30 PM
Cécile McLorin Salvant
MUSIC
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – MARCH 1, 2020
8:30 & 10:30 PM
Village Vanguard
178 7th Avenue, West Village, Manhattan
$35
https://villagevanguard.com/
Jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant is a little more mainstream than what usually gets Listed here. But she's so damned good: the kind of unique stylist that comes around once a generation. See her before she settles into legendhood.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before or after the early shows and before the late shows, P.F. Pasta al Forno may be no more than a storefront, but their baked pasta is mighty good. After the late shows, you might just be able to book a table at 4 Charles Prime Rib.
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Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 8:30 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 9:30 PM
Jon Irabagon
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – 29, 2020
8:30 PM
The Stone Residencies
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
The irrepressible saxophonist Jon Irabagon plays solo (Thursday night) and with various fun-seeming ensembles.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Victoria Blamey's revivification of the Gotham Bar & Grill remains the place to eat around here. I continue to prefer the simpler bar menu to the more complicated dishes on the dining room menu — and also continue to urge you look at the end of the wine list for the natural wines section instead of at the preceding pages of overpriced and underaged unnatural wines.
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Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 8:00 PM
Alice Birch: Anatomy of a Suicide
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – MARCH 1, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 15)
8:00 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
7:00 PM SUNDAY
Atlantic Theater
Linda Gross Theater
336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$71.50-$91.50
https://atlantictheater.org/production/anatomy-of-a-suicide/
A few years ago, playwright Alice Birch brought us Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., a ferocious kaleidoscopic — and, if it isn't wrong to say so, tremendously entertaining — feminist howl. Now she's back (with the same great director), and it's hard not to be very excited. THIS is the future of theater.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Intersect by Lexus is now featuring the fantasy Goan food — a mash-up of Indian and Portuguese — of Mumbai restaurant O Pedro. Starting with the lamb's brain "guacamole", surely the best snack now available in New York, this stuff is a blast!
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Handel: Agrippina
OPERA
TUESDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25 & 29, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM TUESDAY
1:00 PM SATURDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/agrippina/
Imagine a prequel to L'Incoronazione di Poppea, played for laughs, focusing on Nero's mother — and chockfull of some of the catchiest music that catchiest of composers, Handel, ever wrote. Wait, you don't have to imagine it: it's here. I can't think of anyone you'd rather hear perform the juicy, camped-up title role than Joyce DiDonato. This is the kind of thing — not regie (this is stupid conservative mainstream New York, for God's sake), but thoughtful and entertaining treatments of the material at hand — the Met should be doing all the time. But isn't.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hope that P.J. Clarke's stays open as late as it claims to.
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Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 8:30 PM
Simon Stone aft. Euripides: Medea
THEATER
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – 29, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 8)
7:30 PM
BAM Strong Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$45-$195
https://www.bam.org/medea
Simon Stone made a big impression here with Yerma at the Armory last year. Having hit it with Lorca, now he goes back to one of the most intense Greek tragedies, Euripides's Medea. I guess Stone is attracted to depictions of fraught mother/children relationships — although in this case, unlike in Yerma, for most of the play the children actually exist. If you're the kind of person who needs stars to motivate him or herself to go to the theater, this one has Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale (partners with children IRL — but we're not gonna think about that).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm sure Jason and Medea liked to sit down for beers and sausage before things went south: Black Forest Brooklyn.
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Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 7:30 PM – Wed, Feb 26, 2020, 8:30 PM
Cherylyn Lavagnino & Martin Bresnick: Tales of Hopper
DANCE
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 & 26, 2020
7:30 PM
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$30; $15 students/seniors
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4418307
Choreographer Cherylyn Lavagnino notwithstanding, I'm excited about this because of the new music from Martin Bresnick, the godfather of the Bang on a Can gang and one of the best (and perhaps most underappreciated by non-specialists) American composers now working. His music is crisp and contemporary, the fruit of a tangible sensibility, offering the kind of rewards traditional audiences seek but in new ways. In this piece, the dancers will enact characters from Edward Hopper paintings.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious, hearty, meaty Central Asian fare at the ever-jolly Farida.
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Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Mar 1, 2020, 6:00 PM
Haruna Lee: Suicide Forest
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – MARCH 1, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 15)
7:00 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
Ma-Yi Theater Company
Mezzanine Theater, A.R.T./New York
502 West 53rd Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$30-$50
http://ma-yitheatre.org/shows/suicide-forest/
Haruna Lee's play about Japanese and Asian-American identity (Lee also gives a shattering performance), grappling with issues of sexuality, gender, and community (both its good side and its bad), proved to be amazingly affecting in its smash run at the Bushwick Starr last year. It's back — and if you missed it before, don't miss it now.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good wine, cocktails, and snacks at Ardesia Wine Bar.
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Austin Wulliman & Conrad Tao
MUSIC
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020
6:00 PM
Pop-Up Concert
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/austin-wulliman-conrad-tao
Austin Wulliman is a violinist in the JACK Quartet, so it goes without saying he's a phenomenal musician. Conrad Tao on the piano is the very definition of phenomenal. Tonight, Wulliman shows off his composing chops as well, alongside some guys named Feldman and Carter — and, as Ed Sullivan used to say, for all you kiddies: world premieres by Anne Cleare and Andrew Greenwald.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: As always with these Pop-Up Concerts, I urge you to take advantage of the early closing curtain and make it to Manna's (Frederick Douglass Boulevard branch) splendiferous soul-food steam table before the spot's ridiculously early closing time.
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Pascal Charrier: Petite Montagne / Hinton+Neufeld Duo / Josh Sinton
MUSIC
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020
6:00 PM
Muchmore's
2 Havermyer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$10
https://www.facebook.com/events/557659431501005/
French jazz guitarist Pascal Charrier is also doing his Southern French folk guitar piece Petite Montagne, recommended in this week's List at Spectrum on Sunday, at Muchmore's tonight. Moreover, the bill at Muchmore's also includes the guitar/percussion Hinton+Neufeld Duo and a solo woodwind set by Josh Sinton.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This show will let out early enough to permit you to visit Red Sauce legend Bamonte's! As at most Red Sauce legends, though, don't expect the food to live up to the hugely enjoyable nostalgia.
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Monday, February 24, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Bill Morrison: Dawson City: Frozen Time
MUSIC
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020
8:00 PM
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$10
https://www.bricktheater.com/event/brickflix-presents-bill-morrisons-dawson-city-frozen-time-2016/
OK, OK, Bill Morrison is a (great) filmmaker, and Dawson City: Frozen Time is a (reputedly great) film. But this showing is going to be accompanied by live music. Although the performer won't be announced until the day of the show, I'm betting on a certain exceedingly great guitarist.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There are a lot of really good places opening up around The Brick. "Pizza Beer Garden" Ainsley isn't one of them: it looks kind of mediocre. But it's big, the space is inviting, and it'll still be open after this show.
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Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 9:00 PM
Bernstein: West Side Story
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 29, 2020 (indefinite run currently scheduled through SEPTEMBER 6)
8:00 PM MONDAY- SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Broadway Theater
1681 Broadway, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$229
https://westsidestorybway.com/
When the world's leading avant-garde theater director, Ivo van Hove, teams up with the world's leading avant-garde choreographer, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, for a Broadway production of West Side Story, there are only two possible (and mutually consistent) responses: what the fuck?????????????, and "I need to see this!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Russian Samovar: more fun that a barrel full of matryoskas.
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Monday, February 24, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Mon, Feb 24, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sat, Feb 29, 2020, 8:00 PM
Ethan Lipton: Tumacho
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 29, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY – WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Clubbed Thumb
Connelly Theater
220 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$45-$60; students $30; $25 rush
https://www.clubbedthumb.org/tumacho/
When this musical western spoof played a few years ago, the general consensus was that it was hilarious. I doubt it's gotten less funny since.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Late shows, Vietnamese charmer Van Da is right next door. Matinée, go to my friends at Foxface before or after for amazing sandwiches.
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Sunday, February 23, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Sunday, February 23, 2020, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Cardew: Treatise
MUSIC
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2020
6:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
https://tammen.org/Cardew-Treatise
Treatise is a great work from British composer Cornelius Cardew's experimental avant-garde period in the '60s — before he went Marxist-Leninist and forswore experimentalism as bourgeois. This graphic score gives the performers a good deal of latitude in formulating how the music will come out (another aspect of the piece Cardew later renounced, having come to feel it gave the composer too little control over the work). Here, the three-hour piece is performed by some 40 musicians led by Hans Tammen, no stranger to the creation of new kinds of sound.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A nice glass of wine, some conservas or other snacks at Rhodora.
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Sunday, February 23, 2020, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Academy of Sacred Drama: The Victim of Love: Oratorio by Antonio Gianetti
MUSIC
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2020
4:00 PM
Music Before 1800
Corpus Christi Catholic Church
529 West 121st Street, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$10-$55
https://mb1800.org/concert/academy-of-sacred-drama-2/
The modern-day premiere of a 17th Century baroque oratorio about the death of Christ. Early music fans won't want to miss this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I realize that Chinese isn't as much of an imperative after a Sunday-night Christian program as after a Jewish one. Nevertheless, Dun Huang: hearty lamby Northwester Chinese food isn't what you think of as Chinese anyway.
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Sunday, February 23, 2020, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
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Saturday, February 22, 2020, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
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Saturday, February 22, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Oliveros: The Nubian Word for Flowers: Pocket Edition
OPERA
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020
8:00 PM
International Contemporary Ensemble
Astor Gallery, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
111 Amsterdam Avenue, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free
https://www.iceorg.org/events/2020/02/22/the-nubian-word-for-flowers-pocket-edition
Pauline Oliveros's last work — left unfinished at her death three years ago and completed by admirers and loved ones — is an opera that surprised in how operatic it was: notably less afectless than Oliveros's usual hypnotic soundscapes. It was also enormously rewarding. So a chance to hear a scaled-down "pocket" version (let alone to hear it for free) is welcome.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Old standby Cafe Luxembourg. Because in this neighborhood you could do worse.
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Saturday, February 22, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Qucksilver: Stile Moderno
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020
8:00 PM
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$30-$45; $25-$38 seniors; $18-$25 students and under age 25
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/quicksilver
The excellent Baroque ensemble Quicksilver takes us back to the very dawn of the Baroque era, with some of the founding instrumental pieces of the Baroque style.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fried fish and lots of it at Shaking Crab.
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Saturday, February 22, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ambient Chaos
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020
8:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Monthly collection of sonic madness.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Still waiting for someone to go to the attractive pizzeria/osteria Il Porto and tell me how it is.
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Saturday, February 22, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Handel: Agrippina
OPERA
MONDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 & 22, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM MONDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/agrippina/
Imagine L'Incoronazione di Poppea, played for laughs, focusing on Nero's mother — and chockfull of some of the catchiest music that catchiest of composers, Handel, ever wrote. Wait, you don't have to imagine it: it's here. I can't think of anyone you'd rather hear perform the juicy, camped-up title role than Joyce DiDonato.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hope that P.J. Clarke's stays open as late as it claims to.
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Saturday, February 22, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 8:30 PM
Florentina Holzinger: Apollon
DANCE
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22 & 23, 2020
7:30 PM
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25-$35
https://nyuskirball.org/events/florentina-holzinger-apollon/
Amsterdam-based choreographer Florentina Holzinger cheerfully and fiercely demolishes the neo-liberal cult of the body, the distinction between high and vernacular culture, and, glancingly, Balanchine's Apollo.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Astonishing cocktails, quite good food (get the Pommes Deragon) at Existing Conditions.
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Saturday, February 22, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Oren Ambarchi & crys cole
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2020
7:00 PM
Public Records
233 Butler Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$17.25
https://dice.fm/partner/public-records/event/59r3l-oren-ambarchi-crys-cole-22nd-feb-public-records-new-york-tickets?_branch_match_id=355459898100475391
Creative and life partners Oren Ambarchi and crys cole make good music separately and make good music together (as it happens, I'm listening to their duo album as I type this). Nice spacey music with hints of melody, wafting through the air like particularly intoxicating insence — and then we enter found-sound field-music land and things get a little freaky.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really, Insa (the bar/lounge, please — not the rather bare dining room) is the place to go from Public Records. The Korean food is just terrific (as are the cocktails and the natural wine) (the sake is just good). It's also worth noting that the cocktails in Public Records's Sound Room are, unusually, actually worth drinking.
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Friday, February 21, 2020, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Petite Feet
MUSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2020
8:30 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Petite Feet's album Nude Piano: Iconic Rags of Scott Joplin combined acoustic jazz-based music (free, rep, etc. — with toes dipped into all the mod pools: Minimalism, techno/electronica, dance music) with electronic post-production. And boy was it fun. Live, they do it all without the post-production. Still fun.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Cajun-style crab boil at Capt. Loui.
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Friday, February 21, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
John Zorn's Simulacrum
MUSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2020
8:00 PM
The Sultan Room, The Turk's Inn
234 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://thesultanroom.com/events/#event=71995304895
What would the Tony Williams Lifetime have been like if it were masterminded by John Zorn? You no longer have to wonder.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It would be a pity to be at The Sultan Room and not eat in the associated Turk's Inn, for its stunning recreation of a Midwestern "Middle Eastern" supper club dining room (if not for the rather wan food).
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Fri, Feb 21, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 9:00 PM
Alvin Lucier: Orpheus Variations / Glaciers
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21 & 22, 2020
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
$25
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/alvin-lucier-orpheus-variations-glacier-performed-charles-curtis-abigail-levine-dancers-wind
Alvin Lucier has been doing sonic explorations longer than just about anyone now active. I wouldn't say his work makes sound do new things as much as it does new things with objects, instruments, and electronics and sees how they sound. The results, however, are almost always deeply compelling. Tonight's program focuses on Lucier's longtime interpreter (if that's the word) Charles Curtis, Downtown cellist par excellence. Glaciers is for solo cello; in Orpheus Variations, Curtis will be joined by a wind ensemble and by dancers performing choreography newly commissioned for these performances of a piece that explores a particular sonority in Stravinsky's Orpheus that has particularly haunted Lucier over the years (see, that's how Lucier thinks: not about tunes, not about harmonies, not about rhythms — but about sonorities).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's a bit of a walk to the new Quebecois-tinged French bistro Bar Bête. But it's worth it.
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Fri, Feb 21, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 6:30 PM
Fornés: Mud /Drowning
THEATER / OPERA
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21 – 23, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
Mabou Mines
150 First Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
https://www.maboumines.org/production/mud-drowning/
The María Irene Fornés revival continues apace. Here are two short pieces directed by Mabou veteran JoAnne Akalaitis. Mud, set in the Depression '30s, would be social realism if Fornés had any inclination toward realism. Which, thank God, she doesn't. Drowning has some remote inspiration in Chekhov — although I'd call it Beckett (an old Akalaitis antagonist) crossed with early Albee, all through the unique lens of Fornés. (You've got to read this review by the unlamented John Simon: how is it possible to be wrong about so many things in so short a space?) Philip Glass (who was married to Akalaitis long ago) has written new incidental music for Mud, and has newly turned Drowning into a chamber opera. As you'd expect, the entire run is almost entirely sold out; look for cancellations etc.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's a lot of Mod Korean in New York these days. Thursday Kitchen is a particularly delightful example.
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Friday, February 21, 2020, 7:15 PM – 8:15 PM
Bush Tetras / 75 Dollar Bill
MUSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2020
7:15 PM
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20 advance; $25 day of show
https://lpr.com/lpr_events/bush-tetras-special-40th-anniversary-show-february-21-2020/
I don't have much time for Boomer nostalgia — even when it's my own (remember when "Too Many Freaks" seemed like the coolest thing ever?). So I'd probably not List this 40th Anniversary Show by groovy post-punks Bush Tetras if they didn't have the good taste to enlist current world/psych/drone phenoms 75 Dollar Bill* as openers. They're still listening!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Some early-days inconsistency in the kitchen notwithstanding, Michael Toscano's gutsy Italian Da Toscano is an exciting addition to this neighborhood. And it stays open late!
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Friday, February 21, 2020, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
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Thursday, February 20, 2020, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Thu, Feb 20, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 4:00 PM
Jack Waters & Peter Cramer: Generator (Pestilence Part 1)
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 – 23, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 1)
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
LaMama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/generator/
The first installment of a three-part cycle that traces the development of life and then social organizations on Earth, all the while engaging in a metaphorical meditation on the AIDS epidemic. This is the kind of theater this List strongly favors: do NOT expect linear narrative or psychological realism; expect stylized imagery and spectacle.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good hearty Italian at Il Buco Alimentari & Vinieri.
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Thursday, February 20, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Kamasi Washington
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
8:00 PM
Kings Theater
1027 Flatbush Avenue, Flatbush, Brooklyn
$40-$50
http://www.kingstheatre.com/calendar/kamasi-washington/
Saxman/bandleader Kamasi Washington successfully recreates the moment in the late '60s when hard bop jazz players took a lot of acid and integrated elements of free jazz and Coltrane raga into their music. It was immensely appealing then, and it's immensely appealing now. Washington's large-band concerts are events — one struggles to stop oneself from calling them "love-ins" — and this exquisitely detailed, overwhelmingly ornate theater will provide a perfect setting.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, stop into Jen's Roti Shop, which is truly a cut above.
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Thu, Feb 20, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 4:00 PM
Fringe and Fur: The Hopelessly Hopeless Story of All Good Girls
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 – 23, 2020
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.bricktheater.com/event/the-hopelessly-hopeless-story-of-all-good-girls/2020-02-13/
A play with film and music exploring the inner lives of a grandmother and granddaughter who have experienced an unspeakable loss. Along with the film clips, movement, and scripted dialogue are texts from Adrienne Rich, Gloria Steinem, Julie London, Judy Garland, and Andy Warhol.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I can't imagine anyone not being as absolutely batshit (oops, wrong time to use that word) crazy as I am — borderline obsessive, really — about the Roman pinza pizzas (and the other stuff, too!) at Montesacro.
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Thursday, February 20, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Oscar Bettison: Composer Portrait
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
8:00 PM
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$20-$30; $17-$25 seniors; $12-$18 students and under age 25
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/oscar-bettison
It is a huge mystery to me why composer Oscar Bettison isn't better known. So thanks to Miller Theater for giving him this showcase. Bettison's music is inventive and surprising and even somewhat exploratory (while intentionally staying within the confines of sheer listenability) (and not being at all afraid of pop inflections). But what's best to me is how lively it is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Looooooongtime Greek standby Symposium.
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Thursday, February 20, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Fire Over Heaven: Sue Garner & Talice Lee // J / C / C Trio
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
8:00 PM
Outpost Artists Resources
1665 Norman Street, Ridgewood, Queens
$10-$15
https://www.facebook.com/events/182728246151770/
An extraordinarily enticing edition of this series curated by a member of 75 Dollar Bill. Sue Garner and Talice Lee combine improvised experiments with song-form roots music. J/C/C Trio does free-form Minimalist synth-pop (and one of the Cs is the excellent opera composer Jason Cady!).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, pizza at Houdini Kitchen Laboratory. After the show, some of the best beer in the world at Evil Twin.
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Thu, Feb 20, 2020, 8:00 PM – Fri, Feb 21, 2020, 9:00 PM
Daniel Fishkin: Composing the Tinnitus Suites: 2020
MUSIC
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20 & 21, 2020
8:00 PM
Old Mis_En Place
278 Hart Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Free
https://www.facebook.com/events/187692992591495/
Composer/sound installation artist Daniel Fishkin came down with tinnitus. Instead of giving up music, he incorporated his incapacity into his work, crafting music he was able to listen to. Among other things, he invented an instrument called The Lady's Harp, 20-foot-long piano wires activated by mixer feedback, creating glacial, very gradually changing sounds. Then, Fishkin developed a back problem that prevented him from continuing to haul a 20-foot feedback mechanism around. He's done some work transcribing Lady's Harp music for conventional instruments by means of a trigonometric analysis. It's not clear whether for these performances he'll break out The Lady's Harp again, but we can applaud his indomitable spirit while enjoying this hypnotic music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, the wonderful if unexpected Italian-Basque-Colombian mash-up at the exceedingly pleasant Maite. After the show, walk over to Ops for natural wine and pizza.
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Thursday, February 20, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Jenny Beck: If Not, Winter
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
7:30 PM
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$20; $15 students
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/winter
Jenny Beck composes dreamy elusive soundscapes: you know you've heard something, and you know you liked it — but what was it? Tonight she's setting Ann Carson's translations of Sappho.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Japanese noodles and curries at Cocoron.
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Thu, Feb 20, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 9:00 PM
New York Philharmonic: Renée Fleming, Ellen Reid, and Bruckner
MUSIC
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20 – 22, 2020
7:30 PM THURSDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$29-$99
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/renee-fleming-sings-bjork?clicklocation=hp_ue_2
This is a puzzler, as I can't detect any logic at all connecting the first and second parts of this concert, other than it's stuff I really am interested in hearing — and since I don't think anyone who does programming at the Phil knows me, it can't be that. So before intermission, you get a new piece by Ellen Reid, whose award-winning opera p r i s m contained some of the best new music heard over the past few years — with vocals tonight by three of the most exciting singers on the local contemporary classical scene. Then, you get another singer who has resided in New York, name of Renée Fleming, going all New Nordic on us with songs by Anders Hillborg and Björk. Then, after the intermission . . . Bruckner! Listen, I'm a Bruckner obsessive. But what his work has to do with the first part of this program I couldn't begin to guess. Also, I wish conductor Jaap had a temperament more attuned to this maniacal yet strangely static Viennese master, who stretches tonality to — but never beyond — the breaking point, and constructs seemingly granitic structures that, for all their evident solidity, turn out to exist only by virtue of the intensity of their creator's exultant belief.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Exceedingly pleasant pan-Mediterranean at Boulud Sud.
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Thu, Feb 20, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 4:30 PM
Richard Alston Dance Company
DANCE
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 – 23, 2020
7:30 PM THURSDAY & FRIDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Peak Performances
Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair State University
1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey
$30
https://www.peakperfs.org/event/richard-alston-dance-company/2020-02-20/
The British choreographer Richard Alston — a choreographer whose sheer musicality is on the same exalted level as Mark Morris and Balanchine — is breaking up his company; this is their final U.S. tour. You'll want to know that his pieces here are to Britten (the last piece he'll create for the company), Monteverdi, and Brahms. And if you've been wondering what the ab fab Gelsey Bell would sound like singing Britten, here's your chance to find out.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: While you're in Montclair, it wouldn't hurt to visit the excellent Laurel & Sage.
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Thursday, February 20, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Thu, Feb 20, 2020, 2:00 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 5:00 PM
James IJames: TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 – 23, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 29)
2:00 PM & 7:30 PM THURSDAY
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
JACK.BROOKLYN
18 Putnam Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
$15-$22
http://www.jackny.org/tj-loves-sally-4-ever.html
At a Virginia university established by a Founding Father, TJ is a dean and Sally his work-study student. History is explored. But is it escaped? Playwright James IJames is really good at this kind of thing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everybody loves the vaguely Mediterranean Hart's.
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Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Lua Noah & Orchestra de Voce
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020
9:00 PM
LunÀtico
486 Halsey Street, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
https://www.barlunatico.com/calendar/2018/11/6/ix8407ldlhbh5w3ef9zfv2nacy62be
Lau Noah is a very good, very eloquent Spanish singer-songwriter (residing, of course, in Brooklyn). Orchestra de Voce is her new project — and if, as the name suggests, she's fleshing out her usual voice-and-guitar textures, this is a great development. It's even a greater development if, as the promotional materials suggest, the loopy Brooklyn alt-chamber-pop vocalist Julia Easterlin is involved.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You should at least buy some drinks from the venue, which after all isn't even charging a fixed admission price for the music. But if you want some more interesting and substantial food than LunÀtico serves, you're practically right across the street from the excellent pizza and good tapas at Saraghina.
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Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 8:00 PM – Fri, Feb 21, 2020, 9:00 PM
Mixology Festival 2020: Psychedelia
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – 21, 2020
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 per night
https://roulette.org/mixologyfestival/
A three-night festival dedicated to musics that in various ways can be called "psychedelic": sonic exploration leading to euphoria. Boy does it look great! Will I be there? No: I stupidly committed myself to rehashing the Beethoven symphonies at Carnegie Hall for the 88 millionth time. Don't make my mistake.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go Grand Army Bar and drink to my gullability. Good food, too.
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Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Underorder
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020
8:00 PM
C'Mon Everybody
325 Franklin Avenue, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
$10 advance; $13 door
https://cmoneverybody.ticketfly.com/e/underorder-tiny-gun-grey-mcmurray-93014674395/
Underorder plays noise-rock interlaced with calm, almost melodic interludes. And one of the openers is Grey McMurray, an invaluable guitarist on the New York scene who released a solo album last year containing some of the most skewed sortapop you've heard in years.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, Pilar Cuban Eatery, whose Cuban food is so much better than any other you've eaten outside Cuba and Miami that you won't believe it. After the show, OG Mekelberg's, for great beer and awesome bar snacks (they'll have switched to a limited late-night menu by the time you get there).
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Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Shrines / NOIA
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020
8:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$18
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/shrines
Two women who make smart, bouyant electropop, inflected by each of their native musics (although they both reside at least part-time in Brooklyn): Irish in Shrines's case, Catalan in NOIA's. They're both very good — although NOIA's music is beatier, if that means as much to you as it does to me.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: While we're getting all inflected, how about the Latin-inflected natural wine bar inside National Sawdust, Cosmico?
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Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 8:30 PM
Brecht: The Good Soul of Setzuan
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – 22, 2020
7:30 PM
Irondale Ensemble
Irondale Center
85 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$35; $25 students/seniors
http://irondale.org/show-good-soul/
It should come as no surprise that this List loves the theater of Bertolt Brecht, both for its anti-realist anti-emotionalist "Epic Theater" style and for its helpful reminders of how much capitalism sucks. And people are saying good things about this production of a stone classic (it had better be good — the last NYC production was off the hook).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: As far as I'm concerned, Miss Ada remains the finest Modern Israeli restaurant in New York, and one of the best dining spots of any kind in Brooklyn.
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Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 8:00 PM
Christopher Chen: The Headlands
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17 & 19 – 23, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 22)
7:00 MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
LCT 3
Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30
https://www.lct.org/shows/headlands/
A neo-noir with all the usual hard-boiled-fiction stuff about labyrinthine family secrets — although in this case, it's the sleuth's own family. Being a neo-noir, this will explore self-delusion and the fallibility of memory: playwright Christopher Chen has a knack for drawing audiences down rabbit holes.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You're practically right at Lincoln Ristorante — mediocre as it is.
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Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 3:00 PM
Leegrid Stevens: A Peregrine Falls
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – 23, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 29)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Loading Dock Theater
The Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street, East Village, Manhattan
$46-$76; $31 students/seniors
http://loadingdocktheatre.org/peregrine-falls/
Playwright Leegrid Stevens made quite an impression last year and the year before with his (literally) spectacular Spaceman. This follow-up seems like it might be more kitchen-sinky — but somehow I doubt Stevens is capable of writing like that (fingers crossed). Spaceman's splendid star (and the playwright's life partner) Erin Treadway returns to this cast.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good Georgian at Oda House.
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Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
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Tue, Feb 18, 2020, 8:30 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 9:30 PM
Linda May Han Oh
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18 - 22, 2020
8:30 PM
The Stone Residencies
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Linda May Han Oh — a constantly thought-provoking bass player and an excellent bandleader — uses her Stone residency to display an even more varied set of ensembles than usual in this series.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Victoria Blamey's revivification of the Gotham Bar & Grill remains the place to eat around here. I continue to prefer the simpler bar menu to the more complicated dishes on the dining room menu — and also continue to urge you look at the end of the wine list for the natural wines section instead of at the preceding pages of overpriced and underaged unnatural wines.
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Tue, Feb 18, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 23, 2020, 9:00 PM
Alice Birch: Anatomy of a Suicide
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18 – 23, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 15)
8:00 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
7:00 PM SUNDAY
Atlantic Theater
Linda Gross Theater
336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$71.50-$91.50
https://atlantictheater.org/production/anatomy-of-a-suicide/
A few years ago, playwright Alice Birch brought us Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., a ferocious kaleidoscopic — and, if it isn't wrong to say so, tremendously entertaining — feminist howl. Now she's back (with the same great director), and it's hard not to be very excited. THIS is the future of theater.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Intersect by Lexus is now featuring the fantasy Goan food — a mash-up of Indian and Portuguese — of Mumbai restaurant O Pedro. Starting with the lamb's brain "guacamole", surley the best snack now available in New York, this stuff is a blast!
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Tue, Feb 18, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 8:30 PM
Simon Stone aft. Euripides: Medea
THEATER
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18 – 22, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 8)
7:30 PM
BAM Strong Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$45-$195
https://www.bam.org/medea
Simon Stone made a big impression here with Yerma at the Armory last year. Having hit it with Lorca, now he goes back to one of the most intense Greek tragedies, Euripides's Medea. I guess Stone is attracted to depictions of fraught mother/children relationships — although in this case, unlike in Yerma, for most of the play the children actually exist. If you're the kind of person who needs stars to motivate him or herself to go to the theater, this one has Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale (partners with children IRL — but we're not gonna think about that).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm sure Jason and Medea liked to sit down for beers and sausage before things went south: Black Forest Brooklyn.
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Tue, Feb 18, 2020, 7:30 PM – Wed, Feb 19, 2020, 8:30 PM
Olivier Dubois: My Body
DANCE
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18 & 19, 2020
7:30 PM
Florence Gould Hall, FIAF
22 East 60th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$35
https://fiaf.org/event/2020-02-olivier-dubois/
Olivier Dubois is a fabulous dancer. But is his choreography riveting or boring? Now that he's making his New York debut, you get a chance to decide. Indeed, he's making it easy for you: in this solo piece, the audience sits on stage with Dubois and selects the dance excerpts from past pieces to be performed, and the music and costumes to be used.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After deciding whether Olivier Dubois's dances are riveting or boring, you can decide whether fancy French Majorelle is excellent or just expensive.
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Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 9:00 PM
Bernstein: West Side Story
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – 22, 2020 (indefinite run currently scheduled through SEPTEMBER 6)
8:00 PM MONDAY- SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Broadway Theater
1681 Broadway, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$229
https://westsidestorybway.com/
When the world's leading avant-garde theater director, Ivo van Hove, teams up with the world's leading avant-garde choreographer, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, for a Broadway production of West Side Story, there are only two possible (and mutually consistent) responses: what the fuck?????????????, and "I need to see this!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Russian Samovar: more fun that a barrel full of matryoskas.
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Monday, February 17, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Monday, February 17, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Handel: Agrippina
OPERA
MONDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 & 22, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM MONDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/agrippina/
Imagine L'Incoronazione di Poppea, played for laughs, focusing on Nero's mother — and chockfull of some of the catchiest music that catchiest of composers, Handel, ever wrote. Wait, you don't have to imagine it: it's here. I can't think of anyone you'd rather hear perform the juicy, camped-up title role than Joyce DiDonato.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hope that P.J. Clarke's stays open as late as it claims to.
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Monday, February 17, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Kurt Schwerdtfeger: Reflektorische Farbrlichtspiele
Lary 7, Bradley Eros, Rachel Guma & Joel Schlemowitz
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2020
7:30 PM
Microscope Gallery
1329 Willoughby Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$12; $10 students
https://microscopegallery.com/reflektorische-farblichtspiele-performance-feb17/
I may just be fantasizing, but I have this recollection of comedian David Steinberg doing this painfully funny comedy routine in the late '60s in which he played a philosophy prof giving some unfortunate Ph.D. candidate an oral exam. At one point, the examiner asks sharply, "Who was Wolfenschmertzler?" The candidate mumbles and stutters, obviously unfamiliar with that name, let alone any person it might ever have been attached to. "Wolfenschmertzler is my greatest influence, the foundation of all my work," the examiner muses. He then becomes consoling. "That's alright," he says, "I didn't expect you to be familiar with Wolfenschmertzler. You needn't know him. Let's go on to the next question." He pauses, then continues. "WHEN DID HE LIVE?????????" Just in case any of you are unfamiliar with Kurt Schwerdtfeger, he was a student at the Bauhaus. His Reflecting Color-Light-Play (as we call it in English) was a student work, performed in Kandinsky's house. But it nevertheless has been recognized as one of the most radical works of the Bauhaus and, indeed, of the 20th Century. It uses a large hand-built cube projection apparatus in which performers activate stencil shapes and a switchboard of colored lights to form a complex, abstract light play appearing on its screen surface. This will be something.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You should just be able to make it, after the show (and you could easily go before), to the new taco sensation Taqueria Al Pastor.
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Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 8:30 PM
Sarah Einspanier: House Plant
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – 22, 2020
7:30 PM
Next Door at NYTW
Fourth Street Theater
83 East Fourth Street, East Village, Manhattan
$29-$44
https://www.nytw.org/show/house-plant/
Playwright Sarah Einspanier had a big off-off hit last year with Lunch Bunch (coming back next month: watch this space!). Here's her new play, about relationships, millennial finances, artmaking, and climbing a mountain that may or may not be imaginary.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hustle over to Chefs Club for the New York residency of the tiny Florentine truffle specialists Osteria delle Tre Panche (they're not kidding: in Florence, three benches is all they have) (Chefs Club is rather bigger).
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Mon, Feb 17, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 8:00 PM
Ethan Lipton: Tumacho
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – 22, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY – WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Clubbed Thumb
Connelly Theater
220 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$45-$60; students $30; $25 rush
https://www.clubbedthumb.org/tumacho/
When this musical western spoof played a few years ago, the general consensus was that it was hilarious. I doubt it's gotten less funny since.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Late shows, Vietnamese charmer Van Da is right next door. Matinée, go to my friends at Foxface before or after for amazing sandwiches.
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Monday, February 17, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Christopher Chen: The Headlands
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17 & 19 – 23, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 22)
7:00 MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
LCT 3
Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30
https://www.lct.org/shows/headlands/
A neo-noir with all the usual hard-boiled-fiction stuff about labyrinthine family secrets — although in this case, it's the sleuth's own family. Being a neo-noir, this will explore self-delusion and the fallibility of memory: playwright Christopher Chen has a knack for drawing audiences down rabbit holes.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You're practically right at Lincoln Ristorante — mediocre as it is.
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Monday, February 17, 2020, 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Donnacha Denehy: Tessellatum
MUSIC
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2020
6:30 & 8:00 PM
Rosemary & Meredith Wilson Theater, Juilliard School
155 W. 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$10
https://www.juilliard.edu/event/145351/tessellatum-creative-associate-nadia-sirota
https://www.juilliard.edu/event/145356/tessellatum-creative-associate-nadia-sirota?division=All&tags=2061
A piece by that excellent Irish Post-Minimalist Donnacha Denehy, accompanied by animation by Steven Mertens, performed by no less a star instrumentalist than violist Nadia Sirota (yeah there are star violists) with a bunch of Juilliard students, conducted by Alan Pierson.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Indie Food and Wine, off the lobby of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, is one of the better food values in a notoriously low-value area.
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Monday, February 17, 2020, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Sunday, February 16, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Sxip Shirey's Hour of Charm
MUSIC / OPERA
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020
7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/sxip-shireys-hour-of-charm-mother-tree-prayers
Sxip Shirey, whom I'm going to continue to call the American Tom Zé until he or somebody else stops me, presents his annual variety show, featuring music and music-theater works by himself and likeminded (meaning incredibly eclectic) (and antic) artists.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I can't think of a nicer place to go near here on a Sunday night than the Sardian-leaning D.O.C. Wine Bar.
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Sunday, February 16, 2020, 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
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Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:30 PM – Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 5:30 PM
Elena Demyanenko: welter // Paul Matteson: how many times
DANCE
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15 & 16, 2020
8:30 PM SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
HERE
145 Sixth Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$20
https://here.org/shows/welter-how-many-times/
Two choreographers present pieces with strong extra-dance elements, in one case colored lighting, in the other sculpture.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The new Soho Diner in the Soho Grand Hotel: open all day and all night, presenting tricked-up vernacular/diner food.
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Saturday, February 15, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Hypercube plays ICEBERG
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2020
8:00 PM
Tenri Cultural Institute
43 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hypercube-plays-iceberg-tickets-88431806915
The fascinating sax/guitar/piano-accordian/percussion quartet Hypercube plays music by members of the polystylistic ICEBERG composers' collective.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The concert is preceded by an open bar — although I usually find that the drinks on offer at New Music open bars are worth no more than what is charged for them. For better food and drink, while Da Andrea may no longer be as essential a representation of Emilia-Romagnan cuisine in New York as it was before Rezdôra arrived, it's still solidly good. (Also, unlike Rezdôra, you can actually get in here.)
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Saturday, February 15, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Gigi Masin / Lights Fluorescent
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2020
7:00 PM
Public Records
233 Butler Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$28.75
https://publicrecords.nyc/event/kingdoms-gigi-masin-lights-fluorescent/
Headliner Gigi Masin, an ambient musician from Venice, is just too soft-edged for me: where ambient becomes muzak. But openers Lights Fluorescent have something going with their shoegazy ambient spacepop. Go for them.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really, Insa (the bar/lounge, please — not the rather bare dining room) is the place to go from Public Records. The Korean food is just terrific (as are the cocktails and the natural wine) (the sake is just good). It's also worth noting that the cocktails in Public Records's Sound Room are, unusually, actually worth drinking.
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Saturday, February 15, 2020, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
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Friday, February 14, 2020, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Friday, February 14, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Bridget Kibbey & Avi Avital: Harp & Mandolin Recital
MUSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2020
8:00 PM
Crypt Sessions
Church of the Intercession
55 West 155th Street, Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
$80
https://www.deathofclassical.com/cryptsessions/bridget-kibbey-avi-avital
Expect a lot of plinking when Brooklyn's favorite harpist, Bridget Kibbey, gets together with superstar (for a mandolinist) mandolinist Avi Avital for Bach, Rodrigo, Falla, and — because when you're in love the whole world is Jewish — Jewish stuff. It's sold out; look for cancellations and last-minute availability.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: With the caveat that you can't really go there (or anywhere) tonight, the oysters, Japanese snacks, and cocktails at ROKC are really terrific — and the place couldn't be a better hang.
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Friday, February 14, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Marcia Bassett feat. Barry Weisblat / Kyle Eyre Clyd
MUSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2020
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
$15
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/marcia-bassett-barry-weisblat-kyle-eyre-clyd
Two audiovisual sets. Marcia Bassett is more well-known — and sure, she's really good — with her small-scale durational works (meaning they aren't that long, but their parts are static), tonight incorporating film and visual elements by herself and slides by artist Barry Weisblat. But the opener if anything sounds even more enticing: Kyle Eyre Clyd presenting a noise-and-visual representation of a medieval artisan as a half-mad individual addressing the cosmos (with the audience induced to experience the same state).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After the viscerally unpleasant experience Kyle Eyre Clyd might put you through, relax with some delicious, eclectic seafood at Saint Julivert Fisherie.
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Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 9:30 PM
Grand Band
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14 & 15, 2020
7:30 PM FRIDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
Peak Performances
Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair State University
1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey
$30
https://www.peakperfs.org/event/grand-band/2020-02-14/
A constellation of excellent pianists from the NYC contemporary classical/New Music scene aggregates into a great — OK, grand — band. And they're playing one of those rare programs where every single piece is something to get really excited about. The highlight has to be a newish piece by Missy Mazzoli (still living down having been called "Brooklyn's post-millenial Mozart" — but you know what? there was a kernel of truth there) — with accompanying animation by Joshua Frankel! But there's also Julius Eastman's Gay Guerilla: how did the world miss the significance of Eastman's infusion of Minimalism with emotion and anger — a hitherto unimaginable mix — when he was alive? And a piece by Kate Moore, who for my money is one of the very best composers of piano music now operating. And, Grand Band's greatest hit: Julia Wolfe's my lips from speaking, which takes a piano riff from Aretha's "Think" and runs with it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I doubt you can go out on Valentine's Day in Montclair any more than anywhere else. But prime meatery Turtle + The Wolf, which wouldn't be out of place in Brooklyn, at least seems not to be imposing a fixed menu (as far as you can tell from their website).
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Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 3:30 PM
Concrete Temple Theatre: Packrat
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14 & 15, 2020
7:30 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Streeet, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$19 advance; $22 door; students/seniors $17 advance; $20 door
http://dixonplace.org/performances/packrat-2020/
Puppets explore humanity's relationship with nature by following the exploits of a desert packrat. But forget about that: the point here is that this piece looks like it will be visually stunning.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm in the mood for Cantonese. So let's walk over to the current kingpin, Green Garden Village. You can probably even go there on Valentine's Day.
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Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:00 PM
Thomson: The Mother of Us All
OPERA
TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – 12 & 14, 2020
7:00 PM
New York Philharmonic
Charles Engelhard Court, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$115-$145
https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/FY20-the-mother-of-us-all
This is, I think, my favorite American opera — even more so than the same team's Four Saints in Three Acts. The skewed Americana music of Virgil Thomson (my personal hero as a music critic, as I'm sure you don't care to know) perfectly backs Gertrude Stein's astonishingly witty libretto — and what's more, the subject matter of Susan B. Anthony and the women's suffrage movement brings some wonted coherence to the proceedings (don't worry, though: Stein and Thomson couldn't be pious if they wanted to). This is a fully-staged production (with video by Kit Fitzgerald, to give a taste of the quality of the participants), with singers from Juilliard and musicians from our own New York Philharmonic (an institution Thomson famously dissed). Oh, and it's to be performed in a perfect setting: the federal-style confines of the Charles Engelhard Court. It's sold out — who wouldn't want to go? — but look for cancellations and last-minute availability.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Little Frog is a perfectly nice bistro, for which we can be grateful.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Roomful of Teeth
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
8:30 PM
American Songbook
Appel Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center
10 Columbus Circle, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$75
https://www.lincolncenter.org/american-songbook/show/roomful-of-teeth
You know what's better than a show by the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth (including among its numbers the heavenly composer/vocalist Caroline Shaw)? Nothing. Taking extended vocal techniques from throughout the world, they're playful with an underliyng seriousness of purpose and commitment — just like the best pop music, although despite the name of the series this is a part of, pop music is not what this is about. Come and see why Alt Classical is where it's at. If you can, that is — the show is sold out. Look for cancellations and last-minute availability.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There'll be more music — and fine Cuban food — at Guantanamera.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Odeya Nini / The Chutneys: VOICES
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/odeya-nini-the-chutneys/
Odeya Nini's explorations of the capabiities of the solo voice are formidible indeed. But I'm really plugging this for The Chutneys, a trio comprising the ab fab she'll-do-anything-except-can-do-no-wrong singer Gelsey Bell, guitarist Chris Cochrane, and almost-as-crazed-as-Gelsey-(I-mean-that-in-a-good-way) percussionist Fast Forward.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Underrated Neapolitan pizza at Sottocasa.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 8:00 PM – Fri, Feb 14, 2020, 9:00 PM
Raphael Sadiq: "Jimmy Lee" Tour
MUSIC
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13 & 14, 2020
8:00 PM
THURSDAY: Terminal 5
610 West 56th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
FRIDAY: NJPAC
1 Center Street, Newark, New Jersey
THURSDAY: $35 advance; $40 day of show
https://www.terminal5nyc.com/shows/detail/382339-raphael-saadiq-jimmy-lee-tour
FRIDAY: $39.50-$69.50
https://www.njpac.org/event/raphael-saadiq/
I think neo-soul star Raphael Sadiq is brilliant. Sure, I the formalist style riffs he did around the turn of the last decade more than the more personal music he dropped last year; but fuck it: even if Jimmy Lee isn't exactly to my taste, it's a fine album, and Sadiq remains one of our best pop musicians. And look who's opening: Jamila Woods, whose exploration of R&B styles and antecedents was absolutely one of the best albums of last year (better than Sadiq's, to be honest), and whom a lot of us are itching to see live.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: THURSDAY, Terminal 5 might be one of the worst venues in New York — but at least it's near the fairly wonderful Ardesia Wine Bar. FRIDAY, I don't think you can go out on Valentine's Day in Newark any more than you can in NYC. But I doubt the one-night-out-a-year dating crowd will make it to McGovern's Tavern.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Wubbels-Lee Duo / Wet Ink Ensemble: Collaborative Premieres
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
8:00 PM
Scholes Street Studio
375 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$10; students free
http://wetink.org/pages/events.html
All world premieres. A new work for voice and piano by Eric Wubbels; the voice accompanying his piano will be suppled by the phenomenal Charmaine Lee. Then a set of collaborative pieces by Wubbels's band, the Wet Ink Ensemble. Expect the unexpected: sounds you haven't heard before.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After the show, it might be late enough to get into Taiwanese hotspot Win Son without a struggle.
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Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 4:00 PM
Fringe and Fur: The Hopelessly Hopeless Story of All Good Girls
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 16, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 23)
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.bricktheater.com/event/the-hopelessly-hopeless-story-of-all-good-girls/2020-02-13/
A play with film and music exploring the inner lives of a grandmother and granddaughter who have experienced an unspeakable loss. Along with the film clips, movement, and scripted dialogue are texts from Adrienne Rich, Gloria Steinem, Julie London, Judy Garland, and Andy Warhol.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I can't imagine anyone not being as absolutely batshit (oops, wrong time to use that word) crazy as I am — borderline obsessive, really — about the Roman pinza pizzas (and the other stuff, too!) at Montesacro.
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Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 6:00 PM
Lisa Lucassen & Antonio Cerezo: Wir / Us / Nosotrxs, a declaration of love
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 16, 2020
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/love/
A German-Mexican "post-drama" production that was well received in Mexico City last year. It examines love in its varying aspects and implications — a compelling enough subject. If you know who Tigger! is, you'll be excited to hear he's in the local cast.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You know that Nowon isn't your everyday Korean spot when you learn that their most famous dish is an umami-laden cheeseburger.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Okay Kaya
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
8:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/adhoc-okay-kaya
Okay Kaya is the very picture of a Brooklyn alt-R&B singer-songwriter (even if she's originally from Norway): chill, thin-textured (but still textured), personal. Her music draws you — or at least me — in (and keeps you — or least me — there).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'll bet Kaya herself likes the fresh vibrant food at Xi'an Town.
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Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:30 PM
Bonobo: Tú Amarás
THEATER
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 15, 2020
7:30 PM
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$25
https://bacnyc.org/performances/performance/bonobo
This Chilean theater company presents a piece in which a group of doctors is preparing for a conference on prejudice in medicine, but find the topic has been complicated by the arrival on Earth of aliens escaping genocide.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everybody's talking about how good the Mod Korean Momofuku Kāwi has gotten, so let's try that. On Friday, grab a not-great slice at Rocky's Pizza Bar or go straight home.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Handel: Agrippina
OPERA
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/agrippina/
Imagine L'Incoronazione di Poppea, played for laughs, focusing on Nero's mother — and chockfull of some of the catchiest music that catchiest of composers, Handel, ever wrote. Wait, you don't have to imagine it: it's here. I can't think of anyone you'd rather hear perform the juicy, camped-up title role than Joyce DiDonato.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hope that P.J. Clarke's stays open as late as it claims to.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Tom Foster
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
7:30 PM
Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
154 West 57th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$56-$67
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2020/02/13/Tom-Foster-Harpsichord-0730PM
Everyone who saw the English Concert's concert performance of Handel's Rinaldo in Carnegie's main auditorium a couple of years ago had to be stunned by Tom Foster's dazzling account of the virtuoso harpsichord solos, ringing out in hall like a carrillion, eliciting palpable delight on the part of the audience. And I'm sure everyone in the hall decided then and there that they wanted to see the hitherto unknown harpischordist in a solo recital. Here's our chance. Of course he's playing Handel's Fifth Harpsichord Suite, with its "Harmonious Blacksmith" finale that rings out like the solos in Rinaldo. The rest of the program is pleasing and interesting stuff from composers like Froberger, Moffat, and Mattheson (the latter a current obsession of Your Compiler: how can this striking music be so little known?).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Trattoria Dell'Arte has been a favorite of Carnegie audiences from the day it opened.
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Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:30 PM
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker: Mitten Wir im Leben Sind
DANCE
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 15, 2020
7:30 PM
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$40-$50
https://nyuskirball.org/events/anne-teresa-de-keersmaeker-mitten-wir-im-leben-sind/
I assert elsewhere that Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is the world's leading avant-garde choreographer, and I'm sticking with it. Her great contribution was to imbue Minimalism with Expressionism; the first time I saw her breakout piece Rosas Danst Rosas, the night of its U.S. premiere, I was floored: I didn't know Minimalism could pack such an emotional punch (OK OK I didn't know Julius Eastman's music back then). De Keersmaeker has kept on since then; her work may no longer be surprising (well West Side Story will be surprising), but it's still engrossing — and it still packs that punch. Here, she and her Rosas company set Bach's six Cellos Suites: music of great intellectual acuity with a strong emotional/spiritual undertow, perfect for De Keersmaeker's ministrations. And it will be played, live, by no less than Jean-Guihen Queyras (whose recording of these towering pieces I commend to you with all possible enthusiasm)!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you want to spend more money than you thought possible for the best raw-bar food you'll think possible, ZZ's Clam Bar is your spot. (On Friday, stay away from this or any restaurant: either go to Joe's for a slice or eat at home.)
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Thu, Feb 13, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:00 PM
En Garde Arts: Fandango for Butterfies (and Coyotes)
THEATER
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 15, 2020
7:00 PM
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/fandango/
A bunch of Latinx people in Queens get together for a fandango — a night of music and storytelling — on the eve of an ICE raid.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Food and natural wine of the Adriatic at Kindred.
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Thursday, February 13, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
TENET Vocal Artists: The Sounds of Time: Springtime in Medieval England
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
7:00 PM
Rare Book Room, Strand Book Store
828 Broadway, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$40
https://tenet.nyc/201920/springtime-in-medieval-england
For this very special show, the excellent TENET Vocal Artists comandeer the Strand's Rare Book Room for a recital of English medieval music. Expect music that's robust, sprightly — and strangely communicative. Also, expect not to get in: it's sold out. Look for cancellations and last-minute availability.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The kaiseki at Shuko isn't cheap — but you won't find better in New York.
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Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 4:00 PM
David Byrne: American Utopia
MUSIC / DANCE / THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12 – 16, 2020
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY
5:30 & 9:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Hudson Theatre
141 West 44th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$86-$449
https://americanutopiabroadway.com/
I suppose it's time to remove the stick from my ass about this show. If David Byrne and Annie-B Parson were collaborating on an extravaganza production at, say, Skirball Center, or Peak Performances in Montclair, I'd almost certainly List it. So just because this is on Broadway, that's no reason to disregard it, right? OTOH, although I try to keep my recommendations price-blind, if this were at Skirball or Peak Performances, the prices wouldn't hover around $300 for decent but not top tickets. Is it worth paying $300 to see this when my two top picks of this week top out at $30 and $50, respectively? I certainly wouldn't have dreamed of spending whtever the then-equivalent of $300 was to see the Talking Heads when they were in their absolute prime. I'm on the fence, then. But if you want to spend a few hundred dollars to see superannuated '70s/'80s pop avant-garde, don't let me stop you.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's surprising how good Theater District Italian standby Osteria del Doge is, considering how bad you'd assume it to be.
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Wednesday, February 12, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Nanaco Tarui & Pete Drungle
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2020
7:30 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Pete Drungle is a major talent, a composing improviser at the piano. Tonight he'll play with violinist Nanaco Tarui. They promise music ranging from avant-garde to free jazz to neo-Baroque.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good night for that totally delightful Vietnamese charmer Di An Di.
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Wednesday, February 12, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
New York City Ballet: New Combinations
DANCE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2020
7:30 PM
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$200
https://www.nycballet.com/Season-Tickets/19-20-Season-Page/Winter-2020/NEW-COMBINATIONS.aspx
The main draw from this List's perspective is a fantastic new piece by Alexei Ratmansky, almost certainly the leading ballet choreographer right now, whose differing combinations of classical and modernist tendencies can run from the fascinating to the infuriating. Intriguingly, this time he's setting music by the electroacoustic multi-media composer Peter Ablinger — much more modern than Ratmansky usually goes. And he totally nails it: this is the best new ballet I've seen in ages. Among the other pieces on the bill is Justin Peck's Bright, which readers of this List will want to know sets music by the NOW Ensemble's Mark Dancingers. It's another of those rather slight pieces that makes you wonder whether the perpetually promising Peck is frittering away his considerable talent. Speaking of disappointing careers, the program also includes Christopher Wheeldon's Polyphonia (on Ligeti!): if, as time goes on, this looks like it's the only great ballet Wheeldon ever has and perhaps ever will make, it's still great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bar Boulud is a good French bistro, for somewhere across the street from Lincoln Center.
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Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:30 PM
Brecht: The Good Soul of Setzuan
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12 – 15, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 22)
7:30 PM
Irondale Ensemble
Irondale Center
85 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$35; $25 students/seniors
http://irondale.org/show-good-soul/
It should come as no surprise that this List loves the theater of Bertolt Brecht, both for its anti-realist anti-illusionist anti-emotionalist "Epic Theater" style and for its helpful reminders of how much capitalism sucks. People are saying good things bout this production of a stone classic (it had better be good — the last NYC production was off the hook).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: As far as I'm concerned, Miss Ada remains the finest Modern Israeli restaurant in New York, and one of the best dining spots of any kind in Brooklyn.
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Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 8:00 PM
Christopher Chen: The Headlands
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10 & 12 – 19, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 22)
7:00 MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
LCT 3
Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30
https://www.lct.org/shows/headlands/
A neo-noir with all the usual hard-boiled-fiction stuff about labyrinthine family secrets — although in this case, it's the sleuth's own family. Being a neo-noir, this will explore self-delusion and the fallability of memory: Playwright Christopher Chen has a knack for drawing audiences down rabbit holes.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You're practically right at Lincoln Ristorante — mediocre as it is.
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Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 4:00 PM
Leegrid Stevens: A Peregrine Falls
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12 – 16, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 29)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Loading Dock Theater
The Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street, East Village, Manhattan
$46-$76; $31 students/seniors
http://loadingdocktheatre.org/peregrine-falls/
Playwright Leegrid Stevens made quite an impression last year and the year before with his (literally) spectacular Spaceman. This follow-up seems like it might be more kitchen-sinky — but somehow I doubt Stevens is capable of writing like that (fingers crossed). Spaceman's splendid star (and the playwright's life partner) Erin Treadway returns to this cast.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good Georgian at Oda House.
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Tue, Feb 11, 2020, 8:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 9:30 PM
Marc Ribot
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11 — 15, 2020
8:30 PM
The Stone Residencies
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Marc Ribot is a great great guitarist with eclectic tastes and a good feel for music as culture (and good politics to match). Any night of this residency is worthwhile — but I'm giving the nod to the opening night's big-band exploration of Haiti's propulsive, colorful (and political in effect) Rara music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Victoria Blamey's revivification of the Gotham Bar & Grill remains the place to eat around here. I continue to prefer the simpler bar menu to the more complicated dishes on the dining room menu — and also continue to urge you look at the end of the wine list for the natural wines section instead of at the preceding pages of overpriced and underaged unnatural wines.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Tue, Feb 11, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 9:00 PM
Alice Birch: Anatomy of a Suicide
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – 16, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 15)
8:00 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
7:00 PM SUNDAY
Atlantic Theater
Linda Gross Theater
336 West 20th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$71.50-$91.50
https://atlantictheater.org/production/anatomy-of-a-suicide/
A few years ago, playwright Alice Birch brought us Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., a ferocious kalaidoscopic — and, if it isn't wrong to say so, tremendously entertaining — feminist howl. Now she's back (with the same great director), and it's hard not to be very excited. THIS is the future of theater.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Intersect by Lexus is now featuring the fantasy Goan food — a mash-up of Indian and Portuguese — of Mumbai restaurant O Pedro. Starting with the lamb's brain "guacamole", surley the best snack now available in New York, this stuff is a blast!
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Tue, Feb 11, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:30 PM
Simon Stone aft. Euripides: Medea
THEATER
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – 15, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 8)
7:30 PM
BAM Strong Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$45-$195
https://www.bam.org/medea
Simon Stone made a big impression here with Yerma at the Armory last year. Having hit it with Lorca, now he goes back to one of the most intense Greek tragedies, Euripides's Medea. I guess Stone is attracted to depictions of fraught mother/children relationships — although in this case, unlike in Yerma, for most of the play the children actually exist. If you're the kind of person who needs stars to motivate him or herself to go to the theater, this one has Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale (partners with children IRL — but we're not gonna think about that).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm sure Jason and Medea liked to sit down for beers and sausage before things went south: Black Forest Brooklyn.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Nina C. Young: Tread softly
MUSIC
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020
7:30 PM
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$133
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/project-19?clicklocation=hp_mc
The Phil kicks off its Project 19, featuring newly commissioned works by composers unencumbered by Y chromosomes, with a world premiere by electroacoustician Nina C. Young. Although one gathers this piece will be strictly acoustic, what will not be absent is Young's unerring flair for timbre and texture. And guess what? The other pieces on the program are things you want to hear, too. Like, Haydn's wonderful, alternately catchy and grave (and surprisingly virtuosic for a Classical period piece) First Cello Concerto, played by the Philharmonic's splendid principal cellist, Carter Brey. And . . . Mozart's (unfinished) "Great" Mass — catnip for fans of grandeur, exultance, or melody — with a starry quartet of vocal soloists. Jaap conducts.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's see how the new chef at The Leopard at des Artistes is faring. The murals will still be the same.
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Tue, Feb 11, 2020, 7:00 PM – Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 8:00 PM
-
Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 9:00 PM
Bernstein: West Side Story
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 15, 2020 (indefinite run currently scheduled through SEPTEMBER 6)
8:00 PM MONDAY- SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Broadway Theater
1681 Broadway, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$229
https://westsidestorybway.com/
When the world's leading avant-garde theater director, Ivo van Hove, teams up with the world's leading avant-garde choreographer, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, for a Broadway production of West Side Story, there are only two possible (and mutually consistent) responses: what the fuck?????????????, and "I need to see this!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Russian Samovar: more fun that a barrel full of matryoskas.
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Monday, February 10, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Sound ON: Leading Voices
MUSIC
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2020
7:30 PM
New York Philharmonic
Appel Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center
10 Columbus Circle, Upper West Side, Manhttan
$45
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/sound-on-feb-10?clicklocation=hp_ue_2
This is a really first-rate concert, worth schlepping Uptown for. World premieres by Paola Prestini, Joan La Barbara, and Nicole Lizée (a Canadian composer I thought I'd never heard of — until I realized she was a member of The Besnard Lakes at the time they recording their psych shoegaze classic Are the Dark Horse). Really great — and extremely listenable (for all you New Music scaredy-cats) vintage pieces by Berio (Folk Songs) and George Crumb (the intoxicating Night of the Four Moons). Guest vocals by New Music goddesses La Barbara and Lucy Dhegrae, and mainstream mezzo Kelly O'Connor. Hard to imagine skipping.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's very hard not to send you to Momofuku Noodle Bar Columbus Circle, soulless though it may be.
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Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 15, 2020, 8:30 PM
Sarah Einspanier: House Plant
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 15, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 22)
7:30 PM
Next Door at NYTW
Fourth Street Theater
83 East Fourth Street, East Village, Manhattan
$29-$44
https://www.nytw.org/show/house-plant/
Playwright Sarah Einspanier had a big off-off hit last year with Lunch Bunch (coming back next month: watch this space!). Here's her new play, about relationships, millenial finances, artmaking, and climbing a mountain that may or may not be imaginary.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hustle over to Chefs Club for the New York residency of the tiny Florentine truffle specialists Osteria delle Tre Panche (and they're not kidding: in Florence, three benches is all they have) (Chefs Club is rather bigger).
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Monday, February 10, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Christopher Chen: The Headlands
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10 & 12 – 19, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 22)
7:00 MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
LCT 3
Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30
https://www.lct.org/shows/headlands/
A neo-noir with all the usual hard-boiled-fiction stuff about labyrinthine family secrets — although in this case, it's the sleuth's own family. Being a neo-noir, this will explore self-delusion and the fallability of memory: Playwright Christopher Chen has a knack for drawing audiences down rabbit holes.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You're practically right at Lincoln Ristorante — mediocre as it is.
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Monday, February 10, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Face the Music: Home with Nathalie Joachim, Trevor New, and Peter Askim
MUSIC
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2020
7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$15
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/face-the-music-with-nathalie-joachim
Nathalie Joachim's Fanm d'Ayiti, for Joachim's voice and flute with strings and electronics, is a gorgeous, affecting tribute to the women of Joachim's native Haiti. Any chance to hear it is welcome — especially in a new arrangement Joachim will play with New York's favorite all-kid New Music ensemble, Face the Music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You might wish the bar snacks were more substantial at National Sawdust's in-house Pan-Latin wine bar, Cosmico — cuz they're certainly good. So is the (natural) wine.
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Sunday, February 9, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Brandon Lopez: Presents
MUSIC
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
I don't usually recommend unknown quantities. But whatever the stunningly talented jazz/noise/New Music bassist/composer Brandon Lopez is "presenting" is worth considering.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sunday night! So, uber-cozy echt-Brooklyn New American Vinegar Hill House.
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Sunday, February 9, 2020, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Stile Antico: Breaking the Habit: Music by and for Renaissance Women
MUSIC
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020
4:00 PM
Music Before 1800
Corpus Christi Church
529 West 121st Street, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$10-$55
https://mb1800.org/concert/stile-antico-2/
Stile Antico bring a vitality to Renaissance vocal music that contrasts nicely with the chiseled perfection of the mighty Tallis Scholars. Here they sing music written either by women (mostly cloistered) or at their behest (mostly queens and empresses).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I really like the hearty silk road food of Northwestern China — and Dun Huang Upper West is a good place to get a fix.
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Sunday, February 9, 2020, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Handel: Agrippina
OPERA
THURSDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 & 9, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/agrippina/
Imagine L'Incoronazione di Poppea, played for laughs, focusing on Nero's mother — and chockfull of some of the catchiest music that catchiest of composers, Handel, ever wrote. Wait, you don't have to imagine it: it's here. I can't think of anyone you'd rather hear perform the juicy, camped-up title role than Joyce DiDonato.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hope that P.J. Clarke's stays open as late as it claims to.
-
Sunday, February 9, 2020, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
-
Sunday, February 9, 2020, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
-
Saturday, February 8, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Nina C. Young: Tread softly
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY – THURSDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 6 & 8, 2020 (also on FEBRUARY 11)
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$133
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/project-19?clicklocation=hp_mc
The Phil kicks off its Project 19, featuring newly commissioned works by composers unencumbered by Y chromosomes, with a world premiere by electroacoustician Nina C. Young. Although one gathers this piece will be strictly acoustic, what will not be absent is Young's unerring flair for timbre and texture. And guess what? The other pieces on the program are things you want to hear, too. Like, Haydn's wonderful, alternately catchy and grave (and surprisingly virtuosic for a Classical period piece) First Cello Concerto, played by the Philharmonic's splendid principal cellist, Carter Brey. And . . . Mozart's (unfinished) "Great" Mass — catnip for fans of grandeur, exultance, or melody — with a starry quartet of vocal soloists. Jaap conducts.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's see how the new chef at The Leopard at des Artistes is faring. The murals will still be the same.
-
Saturday, February 8, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Saturday, February 8, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Saturday, February 8, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
OPERA
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 14)
7:00 PM
New York Philharmonic
Charles Engelhard Court, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$115-$145
https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/FY20-the-mother-of-us-all
This is, I think, my favorite American opera — even more so than the same team's Four Saints in Three Acts. The skewed Americana music of Virgil Thomson (my personal hero as a music critic, as I'm sure you don't care to know) perfectly backs Gertrude Stein's astonishingly witty libretto — and what's more, the subject matter of Susan B. Anthony and the women's suffrage movement brings some wonted coherence to the proceedings (don't worry, though: Stein and Thomson couldn't be pious if they wanted to). This is a fully-staged production (with video by Kit Fitzgerald, to give a taste of the quality of the participants), with singers from Juilliard and musicians from our own New York Philharmonic (an institution Thomson famously dissed). Oh, and it's to be performed in a perfect setting: the federal-style confines of the Charles Engelhard Court. It's sold out — who wouldn't want to go? — but look for cancellations and last-minute availability.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Little Frog is a perfectly nice bistro, for which we can be grateful.
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Friday, February 7, 2020, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
-
Fri, Feb 7, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 8, 2020, 9:00 PM
-
Fri, Feb 7, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 8, 2020, 4:00 PM
-
Fri, Feb 7, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 8, 2020, 8:30 PM
Concrete Temple Theatre: Packrat
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7 & 8, 2020 (also on FEBRUARY 14)
7:30 PM
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Streeet, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$19 advance; $22 door; students/seniors $17 advance; $20 door
http://dixonplace.org/performances/packrat-2020/
Puppets explore humanity's relationship with nature by following the exploits of a desert packrat. But forget about that: the point here is that this piece looks like it will be visually stunning.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm in the mood for Cantonese. So let's walk over to the current kingpin, Green Garden Village.
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Friday, February 7, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Spectral Friday
MUSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2020
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Tonight is special even for this great series of monthly music salons curated by Gabriel Zucker, because among the acts is Nordic Affect, a fabulous chamber ensemble that plays both Baroque/early Classical and contemporary classical — but with the inestimable advantage of springing from the lively Icelandic music scene (where they don't bother too much about what's classical and what's pop).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After a show like this, you really have to go someplace as utterly pleasing as LaRina Pastifico e Vino.
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Thu, Feb 6, 2020, 11:00 PM – Fri, Feb 7, 2020, 12:00 AM
-
Thursday, February 6, 2020, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Rapsody
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020
9:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$22-$69 advance; $25 day of show
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2020-02-06-rapsody/
Rapsody is coming off her second terrific album in a row of soulful, wise, feminist rap. How could she not be excellent live?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I've heard there's a pretty good neo-Sechuan spot right in the same building. (Oh, and BTW, inside the venue, don't forget to get your drinks at the decent upstairs cocktail bar rather than the waste-of-time service bar at the rear of the auditorium.)
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Thursday, February 6, 2020, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
-
Thursday, February 6, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Caroline Shaw: Composer Portrait
MUSIC
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020
8:00 PM
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$20-$40; $17-$36 seniors; $12-$24 students & under age 25
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/caroline-shaw
How delightful to be around at the same time as composer(/vocalist/violinist) Caroline Shaw! Her pieces are nice to listen to, nice to think about, and I imagine nice to play. (Don't let their immense surface appeal blind you to all the interesting stuff going on under the hood!) This is contemporary classical to convince anti–New Music sourpusses, classical music to convince anti-classical faux Sans Coulottes. The pieces in this survey will be played Shaw specialists the Attacca Quartet and by The Beatles of percussion ensembles, Sō Percussion.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Another nod to Atlas Kitchen, with a more distinctive Chinese menu than you'd expect to find around here.
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Thu, Feb 6, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 9, 2020, 6:00 PM
Lisa Lucassen & Antonio Cerezo: Wir / Us / Nosotrxs, a declaration of love
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 9, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 16)
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/love/
A German-Mexican "post-drama" production that was well received in Mexico City last year. It examines love in its varying aspects and implications — a compelling enough subject. If you know who Tigger! is, you'll be excited to hear he's in the local cast.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You know that Nowon isn't your everyday Korean spot when you learn that their most famous dish is an umami-laden cheeseburger.
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Thursday, February 6, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Thursday, February 6, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Handel: Agrippina
OPERA
THURSDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 & 9, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 7)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/agrippina/
Imagine L'Incoronazione di Poppea, played for laughs, focusing on Nero's mother — and chockfull of some of the catchiest music that catchiest of composers, Handel, ever wrote. Wait, you don't have to imagine it: it's here. I can't think of anyone you'd rather hear perform the juicy, camped-up title role than Joyce DiDonato.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hope that P.J. Clarke's stays open as late as it claims to.
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Thu, Feb 6, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Feb 9, 2020, 4:00 PM
En Garde Arts: Fandango for Butterfies (and Coyotes)
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 9, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 15)
7:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/fandango/
A bunch of Latinx people in Queens get together for a fandango — a night of music and storytelling — on the eve of an ICE raid.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Food and natural wine of the Adriatic at Kindred.
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Thursday, February 6, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Wed, Feb 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 9, 2020, 4:00 PM
David Byrne: American Utopia
MUSIC / DANCE / THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 9, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 16)
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY
5:30 & 9:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Hudson Theatre
141 West 44th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$86-$449
https://americanutopiabroadway.com/
I suppose it's time to remove the stick from my ass about this show. If David Byrne and Annie-B Parson were collaborating on an extravaganza production at, say, Skirball Center, or Peak Performances in Montclair, I'd almost certainly List it. So just because this is on Broadway, that's no reason to disregard it, right? OTOH, although I try to keep my recommendations price-blind, if this were at Skirball or Peak Performances, the prices wouldn't hover around $300 for decent but not top tickets. Is it worth paying $300 to see this when you can see Caroline Shaw for $40 or A Hunger Artist for $35 — and even The Mother of Us All tops out at $145? I certainly wouldn't have dreamed of spending whtever the then-equivalent of $300 was to see the Talking Heads when they were in their absolute prime. I'm on the fence, then. But if you want to spend a few hundred dollars to see superannuated '70s/'80s pop avant-garde, don't let me stop you.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's surprising how good Theater District Italian standby Osteria del Doge is, considering how bad you'd assume it to be.
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Wed, Feb 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – Fri, Feb 7, 2020, 9:00 PM
Oren Barnoy: future erasure
DANCE
WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 7, 2020
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY: $15 advance; $20 door
FRIDAY: $18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/oren-barnoy-future-erasure/
A dance exploration of the space between the initial impulse to create and the moment before the meaning appears.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: My campaign to get everybody around the corner and into Kind of Soul continues.
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Wednesday, February 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Wed, Feb 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 8, 2020, 9:00 PM
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Wednesday, February 5, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Wed, Feb 5, 2020, 7:30 PM – Thu, Feb 6, 2020, 8:30 PM
Nina C. Young: Tread softly
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY – THURSDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 – 6 & 8, 2020 (also on FEBRUARY 11)
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$133
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/project-19?clicklocation=hp_mc
The Phil kicks off its Project 19, featuring newly commissioned works by composers unencumbered by Y chromosomes, with a world premiere by electroacoustician Nina C. Young. Although one gathers this piece will be strictly acoustic, what will not be absent is Young's unerring flair for timbre and texture. And guess what? The other pieces on the program are things you want to hear, too. Like, Haydn's wonderful, alternately catchy and grave (and surprisingly virtuosic for a Classical period piece) First Cello Concerto, played by the Philharmonic's splendid principal cellist, Carter Brey. And . . . Mozart's (unfinished) "Great" Mass — catnip for fans of grandeur, exultance, or melody — with a starry quartet of vocal soloists. Jaap conducts.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's see how the new chef at The Leopard at des Artistes is faring. The murals will still be the same.
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Tue, Feb 4, 2020, 8:30 PM – Sat, Feb 8, 2020, 9:30 PM
Sylvie Courvoisier
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4 — 8, 2020
8:30 PM
The Stone Residencies
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Pianist Sylive Courvoisier, of the silken touch and expansive mind, plays with varying ensembles — every one of which looks pretty good.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Victoria Blamey's revivification of the Gotham Bar & Grill remains the place to eat around here. I continue to prefer the simpler bar menu to the more complicated dishes on the dining room menu — and also continue to urge you look at the end of the wine list for the natural wines section instead of at the preceding pages of overpriced and underaged unnatural wines.
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Tue, Feb 4, 2020, 8:00 PM – Wed, Feb 5, 2020, 9:00 PM
Argento Ensemble: Double Take
MUSIC
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4 & 5, 2020
8:00 PM TUESDAY
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY
TUESDAY: Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
WEDNESDAY: Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
TUESDAY: Suggested donation $20; $10 students/seniors
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
WEDNESDAY: Free (with R.S.V.P.)
https://www.acfny.org/event/double-take/
In this fascinating program, the estimable Argento Ensemble presents two iterations each of two featured pieces: Schoenberg's poignant, luminous Verklärte Nacht (presumably in its original luminous-with-a-bullet chamber version) and its virtually unknown, unfinished precursor, Totel Winkel ("blind spot") (don't count on ever having a chance to hear Totel Winkel again); and Erin Gee's Mouthpiece 29, for voice and three strings — which, after hearing Argento play behind her last year, Gee felt moved to enrich with more strings to form the brand new Mouthpiece 29c, world premiering tonight. Vocalizing along with Gee will be the phenomenal Charmaine Lee!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: TUESDAY in Greenpoint, nice basic bistro at Le Gamin. WEDNESDAY in Midtown, I personally am very excited about the homey new bar menu at Aquavit. Of course, if you want something fancier, you can eat from the lovely dinner menu in the dining room.
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Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
New York City Ballet: New Combinations
DANCE
TUESDAY, FRIDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 7 & 8, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 12)
7:30 PM TUESDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$200
https://www.nycballet.com/Season-Tickets/19-20-Season-Page/Winter-2020/NEW-COMBINATIONS.aspx
The main draw from this List's perspective is a new piece by Alexei Ratmansky, almost certainly the leading ballet choreographer right now, whose differing combinations of classical and modernist tendencies can run from the fascinating to the infuriating. Intriguingly, this time he's setting music by the electroacoustic multi-media composer Peter Ablinger — much more modern than Ratmansky usually goes. This will be interesting. Among the other pieces on the bill is Justin Peck's Bright, which readers of this List will want to know sets music by the NOW Ensemble's Mark Dancingers. It's another of those rather slight pieces that makes you wonder whether the perpetually promising Peck is frittering away his considerable talent. Speaking of disappointing careers, the program also includes Christopher Wheeldon's Polyphonia (on Ligeti!): if, as time goes on, this looks like it's the only great ballet Wheeldon ever has and perhaps ever will make, it's still great. On Tuesday, it's being given by an all-star cast, including Your Compiler's future wife Lauren Lovette. On Friday and Saturday, though, you can see Lovette dance the bill's remaining piece, Jerome Robbins's Opus 19/The Dreamer, in a dream duo with the ineffable Taylor Stanley.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bar Boulud is a good French bistro, for somewhere across the street from Lincoln Center.
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Tue, Feb 4, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 8, 2020, 8:30 PM
Simon Stone aft. Euripides: Medea
THEATER
TUESDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4 – 8, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 8)
7:30 PM
BAM Strong Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY $35-$185; $45-$195 thereafter
https://www.bam.org/medea
Simon Stone made a big impression here with Yerma at the Armory last year. Having hit it with Lorca, now he goes back to one of the most intense Greek tragedies, Euripides's Medea. I guess Stone is attracted to depictions of fraught mother/children relationships — although in this case, unlike in Yerma, for most of the play the children actually exist. If you're the kind of person who needs stars to motivate him or herself to go to the theater, this one has Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale (partners with children IRL — but we're not gonna think about that).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm sure Jason and Medea liked to sit down for beers and sausage before things went south: Black Forest Brooklyn.
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Tue, Feb 4, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Feb 9, 2020, 3:30 PM
Matthew Bourne: Swan Lake
DANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 – 9, 2020
7:30 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
New York City Center
131 West 55th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$35-$150
https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2019-2020/matthew-bournes-swan-lake/
Wow, it's been 25 years since Matthew Bourne's canny all-boy-swan production of Swan Lake became an international sensation. It's still a new and gratifying experience to see a version of this arch-Romantic warhorse that isn't deeply stupid (it evens stops for a few moments to make fun of stupid arch-Romantic story ballets). I'll tell you one thing, though: coming out seems to have gotten less traumatic since 1995.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This is a long show. But Donburiya will still be slinging their delicious Japanese rice bowls and other great dishes long after it's over.
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Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 7:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Gabriel Kahane
MUSIC
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2020
7:00 PM
Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Free (R.S.V.P. recommended)
https://rockwoodmusichall.com/event/gabriel-kahane/
On paper, Gabriel Kahane is just the guy for me and this List. He does pop, he does contemporary classical — and he doesn't treat these endeavors as being separate from each other. I only wish I liked his music more.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Perhaps New York's best Neapolitan pizza at Una Pizza Napoletana (now offering completely unidiomatic pepperoni pies!).
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Mon, Feb 3, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 8, 2020, 9:00 PM
Bernstein: West Side Story
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 – 8, 2020 (indefinite run currently scheduled through SEPTEMBER 6)
8:00 PM MONDAY- SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Broadway Theater
1681 Broadway, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$229
https://westsidestorybway.com/
When the world's leading avant-garde theater director, Ivo van Hove, teams up with the world's leading avant-garde choreographer, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, for a Broadway production of West Side Story, there are only two possible (and mutually consistent) responses: what the fuck?????????????, and "I need to see this!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Russian Samovar: more fun that a barrel full of matryoskas.
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Monday, February 3, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Pedestrian conducted by Will Shore
MUSIC
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2020
8:00 PM
H0L0
1099 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
$10
https://www.facebook.com/events/584992859017160/
Will Shore both plays vibes and creates vibes, making music that sits on that typical Brooklyn confluence of minimalism, jazz, and club dance music. Tonight he's conducting an all-star big band of musicians who themselves touch one or more of those bases.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Listo El Chimi is a Dominican counter spot with several out-of-the-way Dominican specialties that look incredibly appealing.
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Monday, February 3, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Honey and Bunny: eat / GOLD / art
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2020
7:30 PM
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
Free (with R.S.V.P.)
https://www.acfny.org/event/eat-gold-eat/
This is another case where I can do no better than to quote the promotional materials for this piece, one of a series on this general topic by this Austrian performance duo: "In this interactive boundary-crossing live performance, Austrian artists Sonja Stummerer and Martin Hablesreiter explore the relationship between food (over)consumption and the reaction of the body both as a physiological phenomenon and an artistic display. They challenge the audience to interact with their own digestive tract and their individual bodily functions. The artists' bodies are at the guests' disposal during the performance. EAT THAT!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If we're talking food and excess, we've got to go to The Grill, right?
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Sunday, February 2, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Sunday, February 2, 2020, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Saturday, February 1, 2020, 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM
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Saturday, February 1, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Saturday, February 1, 2020, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Funneled Smoke: Vito Ricci feat. Lise Vachon / Pontiac Streator & Ella Straus
MUSIC
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2020
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
$15
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/funneled-smoke-vito-ricci-lise-vachon-pontiac-streator-ulla-straus
A night of very interesting music with what we can hope will be very interesting visuals. Vito Ricci came out of punk and Ornette Coleman to write absolutely gorgeous (which is not to say New Agey Easy Listening) minimalistish electronic music; tonight he'll be accompanied by his life partner, the slightly more conventional rockish jazz/jazzish rock singer Lise Vachon. Pontiac Streator & Ulla Straus similarly make what has to be about the least relaxing ambient music you've ever heard. Meanwhile, the Funneled Smoke collective will be doing technologically elaborate projections and giant paintings.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Natural Italian wines and coastal-Italianish small plates at Pips, the best thing to hit Brooklyn Heights in ages.
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Saturday, February 1, 2020, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 9:00 PM
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Fri, Jan 31, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 8:30 PM
Concrete Temple Theatre: Packrat
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 & FEBRUARY 1, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 14)
7:30 PM
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Streeet, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$19 advance; $22 door; students/seniors $17 advance; $20 door
http://dixonplace.org/performances/packrat-2020/
Puppets explore humanity's relationship with nature by following the exploits of a desert packrat. But forget about that: the point here is that this piece looks like it will be visually stunning.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm in the mood for Cantonese. So let's walk over to the current kingpin, Green Garden Village.
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Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 9:00 PM
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Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 6:00 PM
Object Collection: You Are Under Our Space Control
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 2, 2020*
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/space-control/
A political sci-fi fantasia that is totally nuts (I mean that in the best way possible) — but that most certainly has a point.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You know that Nowon isn't your everyday Korean spot when you learn that their most famous dish is an umami-laden cheeseburger.
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Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 9:00 PM
Matthew Bourne: Swan Lake
DANCE
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 2, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 9)*
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
7:30 PM SUNDAY
New York City Center
131 West 55th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$35-$150
https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2019-2020/matthew-bournes-swan-lake/
Wow, it's been 25 years since Matthew Bourne's canny all-boy-swan production of Swan Lake became an international sensation. It's still a new and gratifying experience to see a version of this romantic warhorse that isn't deeply stupid.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This is a long show. But Donburiya will still be slinging their delicious Japanese rice bowls and other great dishes long after it's over.
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Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 8:30 PM
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Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 4:00 PM
Wooster Group: A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique)
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 2, 2020
7:30 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$35-$50
https://nyuskirball.org/events/the-wooster-group-a-pink-chair/
The Wooster Group do their non-linear low-tech multi-media thing with the legacy of the legendary Polish avant-garde theater director Tadeusz Kantor. Never gets old.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's just ignore the fact that you're never going to get into Nikkei sensation Llama San.
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Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 7:00 PM – Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 4:00 PM
Theodora Skipatares: The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker
THEATER
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 2, 2020
7:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/benjamin-banneker/
A puppet play about a self-educated free black man in late-18th/early 19th Century America who made important astronomic discoveries and became a noted participant in the country's intellectual life. Students from a Clinton Hill high school named after Banneker participate, both as musicians as contributing authors.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It may not be saying much, but Malai Marke is probably the best spot on the 6th Street Indian Strip.
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Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 5:00 PM – Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 10:00 PM
Talya Chalef, Christopher Ross-Ewart, Jess Kaufman, David Blackman, Johanna Kasimow: Assemble
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 27 & 30 – FEBRUARY 2, 2020
5:00 – 9:00 PM (at 15-minute intervals) MONDAY & FRIDAY – SATURDAY
6:00 – 9:00 PM (at 15-minute intervals) THURSDAY
5:00 – 9:15 PM (at 15-minute intervals) SUNDAY
Exponential Festival
Super Secret Location, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.projectassemble.org/
A big-box store becomes a site for worlds, fantasies, and meditations as the members of the audience are given an app to download and set loose to wander, creating their own guided adventures that somehow cumulatively have to do with the experience of turning 40. You get the location and assembly point after you buy a ticket.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don't know where this is! (I have my suspicions.)
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Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 4:00 PM
David Byrne: American Utopia
MUSIC / DANCE / THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 29 – FEBRUARY 2, 2020 (continuing through FEBRUARY 16)
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY
5:30 & 9:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Hudson Theatre
141 West 44th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$86-$449
https://americanutopiabroadway.com/
I suppose it's time to remove the stick from my ass about this show. If David Byrne and Annie-B Parson were collaborating on an extravaganza production at, say, Skirball Center, or Peak Performances in Montclair, I'd almost certainly List it. So just because this is on Broadway, that's no reason to disregard it, right? OTOH, although I try to keep my recommendations price-blind, if this were at Skirball or Peak Performances, the prices wouldn't hover around $300 for decent but not top tickets. Is it worth paying $300 to see this when you can see Ghost Train Orchestra do Moondog for $15 or $20 — and even Matthew Bourne tops out at $150? I certainly wouldn't have dreamed of spending whtever the then-equivalent of $300 was to see the Talking Heads when they were in their absolute prime. I'm on the fence, then. But if you want to spend a few hundred dollars to see superannuated '70s/'80s pop avant-garde, don't let me stop you.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's surprising how good Theater District Italian standby Osteria del Doge is, considering how bad you'd assume it to be.
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Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 9:00 PM
underlords: BLOODSHOT
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 29 – FEBRUARY 1, 2020
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Exponential Festival
Target Margin's The Doxee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$20-$25
https://www.theexponentialfestival.org/bloodshot
A neo-noir set in a world subject to rampant mass insomnia. Is it a coincidence that this mass inability to sleep, and the anomie that followed, would have started around the time of the inauguration of the current administration? Only the underlords know. But are they telling?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If, as I do, you consider Cantonese food one of the supreme achievements of human culture, then you'll love King's Kitchen as I do.
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Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 9:00 PM
Thomas Frances: They Need a Horse
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 29 – FEBRUARY 1, 2020
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Exponential Festival
Patch Works
98 Moore Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.theexponentialfestival.org/theyneedahorse
Another account of love and need among the Youngs. Except playwright Thomas Frances is actually funny.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ho hum, might as well go up the street to Roberta's.
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Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 9:00 PM
James & Jerome: The Conversationalists
THEATER
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 29 – FEBRUARY 1, 2020
8:00 PM
The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.thebushwickstarr.org/the-conversationalists
The enchanting performance duo James & Jerome do their first full-scale theater piece, with an ensemble of actors, music, characters, a plot, the whole shebang. It supposedly plays as a movie, described onstage but actually playing inside the audience's head.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Homey delicious Nigerian at Hills Kitchen.
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Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 8:30 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 9:30 PM
Kris Davis: 40th Birthday Celebration!
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, JANUARY 28 – FEBRUARY 1, 2020
8:30 PM
The Stone Residencies
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php?month=1
Jazz pianist/composer Kris Davis has been very good for a while. But last year, she had her breakthrough with her skewed masterpiece (original usage) Diatom Ribbons, which lifts her up there with the greats: an original, angular conception, incorporating elements of hip-hop and experimental music, beautifully realized. Just in time for her turning 40! Go any night.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Victoria Blamey's revivification of the Gotham Bar & Grill remains the place to eat around here. I continue to prefer the simpler bar menu to the more complicated dishes on the dining room menu — and also continue to urge you look at the end of the wine list for the natural wines section instead of at the preceding pages of overpriced and underaged unnatural wines.
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Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 7:30 PM – Sun, Feb 2, 2020, 8:30 PM
Simon Stone aft. Euripides: Medea
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, JANUARY 28 – FEBRUARY 2, 2020 (continuing through MARCH 8)
7:30 PM
BAM Strong Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY $35-$185; $45-$195 thereafter
https://www.bam.org/medea
Simon Stone made a big impression here with Yerma at the Armory last year. Having hit it with Lorca, now he goes back to one of the most intense Greek tragedies, Eurpides's Medea. I guess Stone is attracted to depictions of fraught mother/children relationships — although in this case, unlike in Yerma, for most of the play the children actually exist. If you're the kind of person who needs stars to motivate him or herself to go to the theater, this one has Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale (partners with children IRL — but we're not gonna think about that).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm sure Jason and Medea liked to sit down for beers and sausage before things went south: Black Forest Brooklyn.
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Mon, Jan 27, 2020, 8:00 PM – Sat, Feb 1, 2020, 9:00 PM
Bernstein: West Side Story
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 27 – FEBRUARY 1, 2020 (indefinite run currently scheduled through SEPTEMBER 6, 2020)
8:00 PM MONDAY- SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Broadway Theater
1681 Broadway, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$229
https://westsidestorybway.com/
When the world's leading avant-garde theater director, Ivo van Hove, teams up with the world's leading avant-garde choreographer, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, for a Broadway production of West Side Story, there are only two possible (and mutually consistent) responses: what the fuck?????????????, and "I need to see this!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Russian Samovar: more fun that a barrel full of matryoskas.
