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Thu, May 31, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Brave New World Repertory Theatre
- 290 Conover Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11231
- United States
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Thu, May 31, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 9:00 PM
- La Mama
- 66 East 4th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 31 - JUNE 3
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
Theodora Skiptares: There's Blood at the Wedding
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25/$20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/songs_for_lorca/
Theodora Skiptares creates theater pieces, usually involving puppets, that are visually imaginative and highly thought-provoking. They're never perfect works of art, exactly; rather, they're experiences you're glad you had, despite any imperfections. Isn't that what we're looking for from live performances? This one uses giant pop-up book constructions to reflect on victims of police violence. As the piece's title indicates, Garcia Lorca is also brought in. Music by the intriguing genre-bending Sxip Shirey, who makes the term "eclectic" seem inadequate.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still kind of excited about the red-hot (in more ways than one) Beijing skewered street food and spicy crayfish spot Le Sia.
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Thursday, May 31, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Russ & Daughters Cafe
- 127 Orchard Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
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Thursday, May 31, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
OPERA
THURSDAY, MAY 31
8:00 PM
Gabrielle Herbst: Ashes
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$15 advance; $20 door
http://roulette.org/event/residency-gabrielle-herbst-ashes/
I'm not sure if anyone can say for sure whether the vocally centered music ofGabrielle Herbst (who performs with a band as GABI) is pop or classical. Or why it matters. Here, she'll perform a new opera for voices, chamber ensemble, and electronics; and a vocal/instrumental piece from last year. So for this show, at least, I'm voting classical. As if it matters.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: French-Korean fusion Brasserie Seoul continues to present an attractive option.
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Thursday, May 31, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC/PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY, MAY 31*
7:30 PM
Ambient Chaos
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$10-$20
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Another of these shows featuring number of acts presenting various permutations of multi-media, electroacoustical, multi-genre chaos. I hope that sounds as great to you as it does to me. Tonight's bill is perhaps a little less threatening than last week's.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm feeling Karasu, the izakaya hidden in the back of Walter's.
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Thu, May 31, 2018, 7:30 PM – Mon, Jun 4, 2018, 8:30 PM
- Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center
- 10 Columbus Circle
- New York, NY, 10019
- United States
OPERA
THURSDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 31 & JUNE 2 - 3 (continuing through JUNE 4)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Charles Wourinen: Brokeback Mountain
New York City Opera
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center
10 Columbus Circle, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$10-$150
https://nycopera.com/brokeback-mountain/
Uptown Academic Modernist Charles Wourinen isn't a guy you'd normally go to for sentiment. So his decision to set Annie Proulx's famous short story (also of course made into a famous movie) seems like more evidence of the détente-moving-to-an-entente between Uptown and Downtown. Even the Modernists may be loosening up. Wonder what it'll sound like?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gabriel's is a good illustration of The March Of Time as it affects restaurants. When the place opened 25 or so years ago, it was still fairly uncommon to find Italian-Italian restaurants in New York (as opposed to the then-prevalent "Red Sauce" Italian-American, now undergoing a quasi-ironic revival). So the place had a certain cachet. Now the City is overriden with such restaurants, and Gabriel's is nothing more than a good reliable place to eat. That can be enough, though.
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Thursday, May 31, 2018, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- St. Paul's Chapel
- 209 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10007
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 31
1:00 PM
TOTAL EMBRACE: Leonard Bernstein at 100
NOVUS NY
St. Paul's Chapel
209 Broadway, FiDi, Manhattan
Free
https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/music-arts/2017-2018/total-embrace
Kicking off the final stretch of Trinity Church's Leonard Bernstein centenary tribute, this concert uncharacteristically focuses on orchestral music. They'll want you to get excited about a new orchestral piece by Music Director Julian Wachner. But my money's on the other pieces: Connotations, a late piece byAaron Copland that ditches his populist style for a more austere High Modernist approach -- and succeeds very admirably. And one of the more delightful pieces in the standard rep, for my money: Mahler's Fourth -- all the more delightful because its whimsy is etched in acid.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Lenny would have wanted you to go to Harry & Ida's Luncheonette for hipster pastrami. He'd probably have gone himself.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30
9:00 PM
George Hurd
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Price information unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Broken record time: San Francisco composer George Hurd writes music that makes you wonder, why isn't this stuff popular? Why don't as many people listen to it as, I dunno, Midori Takada? Hurd writes acoustic chamber music with electronic elements; but the main thing is that his music is positivelytuneful (not in the banal sense, but in the good-to-listen-to sense). Classical music fans need to stop avoiding stuff because it wasn't written in the 1860s and doesn't get played in the Isaac Stern Auditorium; pop fans need to stop avoiding stuff because it's labeled "classical" instead of "electronic".
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Looks like Argentine fire restaurant METTĀ tonight.
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Wed, May 30, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Bushwick Starr
- 207 Starr Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 30 - JUNE 3 (continuing through JUNE 12)
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
7:00 PM SUNDAY
Erin Markey: Singlet
Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.thebushwickstarr.org/singlet
Performance artist Erin Markey says her new two-person theater piece (the other person is Emily Davis) was inspired by a dream she had about "a version of The Maids but the characters are assistants to an Olympic weightlifting champion, and instead of trying on mink coat's from their mistress's closet, they're trying on wrestling singlets" -- and she takes it from there. I don't know what else you need to know to get you over to Bushwick for this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Big news! The Venezuelan hot dog bar up the street from Bushwick Starr hasn't closed! It's just changed its name (and possibly management)! It's now called Santa Salsa! Exuberantly overloaded hot dogs! (Overloaded burgers, too!) Fun tropical cocktails you don't have to be ashamed to drink! This place is fun on a stick (or at least, on a bun)!
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
OPERA
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30
8:00 PM
thingNY & Varispeed: Musical Voices Around a Table *
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$20 advance; $25 door
http://roulette.org/event/thingny-and-varispeed-musical-voices-around-a-table/
Two overlapping NYC New Music-Theater collectives unite to present an incredibly enticing program of vocal-theatrical works (all performed by people sitting around a table). There's an avant-garde classic, Kenneth Gaburo's late-'60s vocal piece Maledetto, where seven "virtuoso speakers" recite texts about screws (this is one of those things where your response to the description gives a good indication of whether you'd like it: I hear something like that and I'm like, I'm THERE!). And there's a new piece: Passover, by the guy who wrote the analysis of Maledetto linked above, Rick Burkhardt (one of the Three Pianos guys! what a night that was!), in which a group of singer-musicians sit around the table, each relating a story of a friend's escape from adverse personal circumstances. This music-theater will interest you, it will appeal to you, it will make you think (about screws and escape).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Three's Brewing, a brewpub run by a local brewery, serves very good beer (and not just from Three's) -- and food from The Meat Hook butchers! (Kitchen closes at 11 -- so hurry!)
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- The Kitchen
- 512 West 19th Street
- New York, NY, 10011
- United States
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30
8:00 PM
The Hands Free
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$20
http://thekitchen.org/event/the-hands-free-album-release
The Hands Free is a new band fronted by Caroline Shaw, whose improbable career merits some discussion. Many of us got to know her as a violinist in various NYC ensembles, or as a vocalist in Roomful of Teeth and various NYC choirs. But then -- very few of us saw this coming (including, I have to guess, Shaw) -- she emerged as one of the great compositional voices of her generation: the youngest person ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for composition (and, as a Kanye collaborator, we can only assume a complete supporter of the current Pulitzer to Kendrick Lamar). This is her new acoustic band (violin/guitar-banjo/accordion/bass). Shaw's rough equivalent in the jazz-guitar world, Mary Halvorson, guests!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to El Quinto Pino. Order an uni panino. Have some sherry. You'll thank me.
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Wed, May 30, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 8:30 PM
- A.R.T./New York Theatres
- 502 West 53rd Street
- New York, NY, 10019
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 30 - JUNE 3 (continuing through JUNE 10)
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
7:00 PM SUNDAY
Toshiki Okada: Time's Journey Through a Room
Play Company
A.R.T./New York Theatres
502 West 53rd Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$35-$45
https://playco.org/plays/times-journey-room/
Toshiki Okada writes plays that reflect the experiences of his generation, coming of age during the 1990s bubbleburst in Japan. His dialogue sounds more overheard than written -- but his presentation of characters is highly stylized, not realistic. This one deals with people's reactions to a more recent signal event in Japan: 2011's earthquake and consequent nuclear disaster.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This might seem overly programatic, but it is nearly impossible not to send you down 53rd Street to Torishin, which gets my highly enthusiastic vote as the best yakitori in New York.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Austrian Cultural Forum
- 11 East 52nd Street
- New York, NY, 10022
- United States
OPERA
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30*
7:30 PM
Press Play Backwards
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
http://www.acfny.org/event/press-play-backwards/
The world premiere of what is billed as an opera for two improvisers. What will it even sound like? Since the two improvisers are solid members of their respective cities' jazz-on-the-edge-of-improvisational-New Music scenes -- the Irish-born vocalist Laura Kinsella in London, the Austrian-born Elias Stemeseder in Brooklyn -- we can certainly expect the best.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: To say that people who follow food in New York are excited about Saar Bistro is an understatement. It is supposed to mark the return to serious cooking (after a few years of executive-chef "consulting") ofHemant Mathur -- one of the very very best Indian chefs ever to have graced this City. The fare is billed as "inventive Indian" -- and fans of Mathur's work atDevi and Tulsi can only be eager to try it.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30
7:00 PM
Annie Gosfield
Stone Commissioning Series
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/john-zorn-presents-annie-gosfield/
Annie Gosfield uses found sound sources to make music that can be noisy, sure -- but is almost always interesting and fun to listen to. To seal the deal, for her brand-new piece tonight she'll be accompanied by violinist Jennifer Choi and pianist Kathleen Supové -- two NYC New Musicians who are almost a guaranty of a good show themselves.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A hungry composer like Annie Gosfield would surely enjoy the huge portions of tasty, imaginative Georgian food at Cheeseboat. (And I can't stop myself from mentioning that first-rate cocktail bar Hotel Delmano is right across the street.)
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Tue, May 29, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 9:30 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 29 - JUNE 3 (continuing through JULY 15)
8:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Basil Twist: Symphonie Fantastique
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$35-$100
http://here.org/shows/detail/1934/
Not to put too fine a point to it, this piece -- premiered at this venue 20 years ago -- is one of the best things I've ever seen. A miracle of puppetry creates perfectly calibrated first-part-of-Fantasia-style visual effects to Berlioz's unhinged visionary masterpiece. It's just so apt, so unexpected -- and so much fun -- you can't believe it. If you haven't seen it, you MUST. If you've already seen it, you'll want to see it again. (One possible caveat: the past performances I've seen were performed to an orchestral recording. Now it's being done to a live piano reduction -- played by the redoubtable Christoper O'Reilly, no less. While I usually prefer live musical accompaniments on general principle, however, so much of the appeal of this weird musical masterpiece stems from Berlioz's tangy, unique, unprecedented orchestrationthat I'm not sure I can see how a piano reduction would be nearly as effective. Shouldn't the music be as colorful as the visuals?) (But GO anyway!!!!! This is GREAT!!!!!!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Chef Floyd Cardoz is a kind of a Big Deal. He ran the Indian fusion restaurant Tabla for many years; then, after some other ventures, he opened a straighter Indian restaurant, Paowalla, in Soho. But that place never took off: something about the vibe seemed off. Cardoz has now reconfigured it to be livelier, more colorful -- more fun: The Bombay Bread Bar. Should be just right after this show.
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Tue, May 29, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 9:00 PM
- The Performing Garage
- 33 Wooster Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 29 - JUNE 2
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
The Wooster Group: A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique)
The Performing Garage
33 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
$40 evenings; $30 matinee
http://thewoostergroup.org/a-pink-chair
Is there any existing company from the 1970s New York theatrical avant-garde efflorescence that is still as good today as The Wooster Group? This piece explores one of the international icons of 20th-Century avant-garde theater,Tadeusz Kantor, by way of a meditation on one of his last pieces, which you may or may not have seen when La Mama imported it 30 years ago. It really isgood.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back in the day I would have told you to go toChanterelle around the corner -- but those days are long past. We can relive past days elsewhere in the neighborhood, though. There was a time when the most exciting Italian restaurant in New York was a place called Coco Pazzo on the Upper East Side; it helped create the template for the kind of finto rustic Italian trattorias that now litter the City. It's been closed for years -- but legendary owner Pino Luongo has now revived it in Soho. There's been a lot of Chianti under the bridge since Coco Pazzo's glory days. So let's see if there's any magic left.
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Tue, May 29, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 8:00 PM
- New York Theater Workshop
- 79 East 4th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 29 - JUNE 3
7:00 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
Caryl Churchill: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire
New York Theater Workshop
79 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$69
https://www.nytw.org/show/light-shining-buckinghamshire/
Caryl Churchill is a consistently thought-provoking playwright whose work needs no recommendation from me. This play is set at the height of theEnglish Civil War -- but you can be sure there will be contemporary implications. It's almost icing on the cake that this production is directed byRachel Chavkin, surely one of the best theater directors working in New York right now.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not only is the new food program at the Momofuku Ko bar just great, but the bar stays open late (crucial after a long play like this). Closed Sunday, though. Then, brunch or early dinner at Prune.
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Monday, May 28, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
- 1047 Amsterdam Avenue
- New York, NY, 10025
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, MAY 28
8:00 PM
Annual Free Memorial Day Concert*
New York Philharmonic
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1718/memorial-day-concert
The Phil gives its annual free Memorial Day concert at St. John the Divine. Opening is Vaughan Willams's supernal Tallis Fantasia -- one of the few pieces in the orchestral repertoire that could actually benefit from St. John the Divine's echoey ecclesiastical acoustic. The other piece -- Saint-Saëns's gloriously tuneful Organ Symphony -- perhaps not so much: it'll likely sound like soup. But with a real pipe organ (played this evening by the invaluableKent Tritle), it'll at least be strong, powerful soup. David Robertson conducts (those three words alone present a compelling case for attending). The problem, of course, is that you have to spend a good part of the afternoon on line to get into this free concert; ticket distribution starts at 6 PM -- but you have to get there a good deal earlier in order to be sure of admittance. How much your time is worth to you is your own call.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It is virtually impossible to recommend a concert at St. John's without also recommending that you go to the absolutely wonderfulHungarian Pastry Shop across the street. Hope they're open this Memorial Day!
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Monday, May 28, 2018, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, MAY 28
6:00 PM
Jamie Branch/Cooper-Moore/New World Pygmies/Oliver Lake Big Band
Vision Festival
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$40
http://roulette.org/event/vision-festival-5-28-18/
The Free Jazz Vision Festival closes out with yet another strong line-up. The big draw is the effervescent saxophonist Oliver Lake leading a big band. But don't count out onetime Loft Jazzer Jemeel Moondoc's New World Pygmies ensemble, or up-and-coming trumpeter Jaimie Branch.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Last time (this week) I have to find you a late-night bite in this early-night district. So last time (this week) I'm going to send you toBuilding on Bond for a burger and its affiliated bar Robert for semiswanky cocktails. (Open Table, at least, thinks they'll still be open late on Memorial Day!)
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Monday, May 28, 2018, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
- Knockdown Center
- 52-19 Flushing Avenue
- Maspeth, NY, 11378
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, MAY 28
2:00 PM
Nina Kraviz
Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, Queens
$30-$50
https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1686915?utm_medium=bks
Nina Kraviz is a techno DJ with a truly personal style: dark, almost paranoid, disjoint, highly energetic but intriguingly chilly, you could even say joyless (in agood way). Just what you want for a sunny outdoor Memorial Day party!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: They have good cocktails at the Knockdown Center (in the cocktail bar, not the bar at the back of the performance area). Afterwards, tacos at Los Hermanos!
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Sunday, May 27, 2018, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 27
6:30 PM
Frode Gjerstad/Cleaver, Lopez, Potter, Virelles/Arthur Jafa/Craig Harris Brown Butterfly
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$40
http://roulette.org/event/vision-festival-5-27-18/
One great thing about jazz is the practically infinite possible combinations of players that exist. So it shouldn't be surprising that a major jazz festival would keep coming up with them. While tonight's teaming of the excellent drummerGerald Cleaver with the fluent sax player Chris Potter, the mind/body-melding Latin jazz pianist David Virelles, and the advanced improviser Brandon Lopezon bass might not quite match last night's all-star trio in terms of sheer jaw-dropping awe-inspiringness, it's certainly something you'd want to hear. Especially on a bill that also includes trombonist/composer Craig Harris and his ensemble playing his Brown Butterfly, an extended meditation on Muhammad Ali (I don't have to insert a hyperlink for him, do I?).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Finally (for this week): the open-late Building on Bond/Robert combo of casual burgers and semislinky cocktails seems apt.
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Sunday, May 27, 2018, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 27
4:00 PM
ICE: The Music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$29; $34 door
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/ice-presents-the-music-of-anna-thorvaldsdottir-with-cory-smythe-and-the-international-contemporary-ensemble/
The International Contemporary Ensemble playing the music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir is almost self-recommending. Thorvaldsdottir is the crown jewel of Iceland's exciting New Music scene; her music is expansive, compelling, seemingly static but full of detail and, over time, incident. ICE is, of course, one of the premier New Music ensembles in the world. This show focuses on Thorvaldsdottir's music for piano, both solo and concertante; somehow the audience will encircle ICE's ace pianist, Cory Smythe, with the ensemble then encircling the audience. This will be interesting and engaging and, if the stars align, memorable.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If it's Memorial Day weekend, maybe it'll be easier to get into elemental Englishish Chez Ma Tante, which has really taken off.
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Saturday, May 26, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- MISE-EN-PLACE
- 678 Hart Street #1B
- Brooklyn, NY, 11221
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 26
8:00 PM
Shared Space: composer.performer
MISE-EN-PLACE
678 Hart Street #1B, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.facebook.com/events/186304618669184/
A program of works composed and performed by composer-performers (you needed me to tell you that), curated by a composer-performer, Teodora Stepačić, who won't herself be performing. I'm only familiar with two of the composer-performers on the bill -- but I like them enough that I'd rate this show as highly intriguing on their basis alone. Lucie Vítková makes multi-media multi-genre multi-referent pieces that are almost impossible to describe. Liisa Hirsch's work is more strictly musical, almost improvisatory, drawing the attentive listener in with a stealthily compelling force. I'd make a bet on this one.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Right nearby is the almost criminally appealing mother-daughter French restaurant Le Garage (guess what kind of space it's in).
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Saturday, May 26, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Saint Peter's Church
- 346 West 20th Street
- New York, NY, 10011
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 26
8:00 PM
Ekmeles: End Words and Stimmung
Saint Peter's Church
346 West 20th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$20; $15 students
http://ekmeles.com/wp/2018/03/end-words-and-stimmung/
I would call this a night of microtonal choral music, but I don't want to scare you off. Because here's the thing: Stimmung, a bedrock work of the genre by a composer (Stockhausen) known for his impenetrability, is actually one of the most accessible Modernist classical pieces for listeners who like electronic pop music -- even EDM, but more particularly glitch and microhouse. Premiered in 1968 and very much of its era, it also forecast the sounds of today. The singers sit in a circle, like hippies, and sing simple tonal phrases, but it isn't all Mellow Yellow: the phrases overlap each other to create overtones -- which, again, might sound kind of forbidding, but really is both exciting and transporting. Perhaps despite itself, the piece even at times develops a beat! It comes to sound something like . . . glitch or microhouse! Also on the bill is a new microtonal choral work by Christopher Trapani. Ekmeles is a New Music choir that is beyond praise. This is another instance of music that fans of advanced pop would like if they would only listen to it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A good opportunity to check out how the reboot ofMomofuku Nishi, from a rather contrived attempt at Italian-Asian fusion to more of an "interesting" Italian spot, has worked.
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Saturday, May 26, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC/PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, MAY 26*
7:30 PM
Ambient Chaos
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$10-$20
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
A number of acts presenting various permutations of multi-media, electroacoustical, multi-genre chaos. I hope that sounds as great to you as it does to me. But not perhaps for the faint-hearted.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm feeling Karasu, the izakaya hidden in the back of Walter's.
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Saturday, May 26, 2018, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 26
6:00 PM
Fay Victor/Afro-Algonquin/Patricia Spear Jones/Ambrose Akinmusire/AfroHORN
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$40
http://roulette.org/event/vision-festival-5-26-18/
The main draw at tonight's installment of the Vision Festival is an astonishing trio* consisting of three of the very best and most distinctive young players in jazz -- master improvisers who are all formidable composers as well: trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, pianist Kris Davis, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. The mind boggles at what they might come up with.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Again: the open-late Building on Bond/Robert combo of casual burgers and semislinky cocktails.
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Friday, May 25, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 25
7:00 PM
Irreversible Entanglements/Douglas Dunn + Dancers/Nasheet Watts/Matthew Shipp
Vision Festival
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$40
http://roulette.org/event/vision-festival-5-25-18-2/
Cross-genre night at the Vision Festival. So we have master postmodern choreographer Douglas Dunn creating a new piece with live jazz accompaniment; Irreversible Entaglements featuring free jazz accompaniment to the words of slaveship punk Moor Mother; drummer Nasheet Waits's band EQUALITY; and two ensembles featuring Matthew Shipp, a stunning pianist who is truly, in Duke Ellington's words, beyond category (one of the ensembles playing to the abstract paintings of Marilyn Sontag).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's face it, the post-show recommendation for all these long-lasting Vision Festival concerts is going to be the same: the open-late Building on Bond/Robert combo of casual burgers and semislinky cocktails.
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Thursday, May 24, 2018, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 24
8:30 PM
Thomas Bartlett & Nico Muhly: Peter Pears: Balinese Ceremonial Music
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25 advance; $35 door
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/lpr-x-bartlett-muhly-peter-pears-may-24th-2018/
OK, just stay with me for a few minutes. Colin McPhee was a Canadian-American composer who moved to Bali and, as one would, became fascinated with the local gamelan music played by orchestras of gongs. Returning to North America, he moved into the famous February House in Brooklyn Heights, where -- along with W.H. Auden, Carson McCullers, and Gypsy Rose Lee -- lived the great (although then at the start of his career) English composer Benjamin Britten. McPhee made gamelan transcriptions for two pianos and played them with Britten (who himself became fascinated with gamelan) (as one would). Which brings us to another February House resident: Peter Pears, Britten's partner and one of the most distinctive tenors of the 20th Century. Now we come to this show, where the not-really-Freak-Folk/pop singer-songwriter Thomas Bartlett (a/k/a Doveman) and the not-really-Minimalist composer Nico Muhly will play some of McPhee's two-piano gamelan transcriptions, as well as a new song cycle they wrote together inspired by McPhee's pieces. Why it's all named after Peter Pears, we'll have to go to the show to find out. But otherwise, this could hardly be more enticing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still pushing the homey and adorable Bessou, for delicious Northern Japanese cuisine.
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Thu, May 24, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 27, 2018, 9:00 PM
- La Mama
- 66 East 4th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 24 - 27 (continuing through JUNE 3)
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
Theodora Skiptares: There's Blood at the Wedding
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25/$20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/songs_for_lorca/
Theodora Skiptares creates theater pieces, usually involving puppets, that are visually imaginative and highly thought-provoking. They're never perfect works of art, exactly; rather, they're experiences you're glad you had, despite any imperfections. Isn't that what we're looking for from live performances? This one uses giant pop-up book constructions to reflect on victims of police violence. As the piece's title indicates, Garcia Lorca is also brought in. Music by the intriguing genre-bending Sxip Shirey, who makes the term "eclectic" seem inadequate.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still kind of excited about the red-hot (in more ways than one) Beijing skewered street food and spicy crayfish spot Le Sia.
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Thu, May 24, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 26, 2018, 8:30 PM
- David Geffen Hall
- 10 Lincoln Center Plaza
- New York, NY, 10023
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 24 - 26
7:30 PM THURSDAY
2:00 PM FRIDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
Berio: Sinfonia
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$22-$99
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1718/bychkov-conducts-alpine-symphony-and-roomful-of-teeth?clicklocation=hp_ue_2
New York seems to be experiencing an unplanned, unofficial Luciano BerioFestival -- all to the good, as Berio is a major late-20th Century composer in danger of fading from view, whose High Modernism yet has much to say to followers of the kind of classical music being composed now. His most popular work, Sinfonia, is a case in point. A mash-up mid-20th Century Modernism with Mahler, pop, Martin Luther King, Jr., and every common-practice orchestral cliche you could think of: it's an intriguing listen that is by no means off-putting or unenjoyable. What's more, the chamber-choir vocal part -- taken in the original performances by the Swingle Singers (for those who join me in being old enough to remember them) -- will be performed here by none other than Roomful of Teeth. So this seems like a major event -- something the New York Philharmonic would be proud of, and would recognize as important and appealing to an engaged audience it should want to attract. So how do they bill this string of concerts on their website? "Bychkov Conducts Alpine Symphony"! You wouldn't know, without a lot of clicking, scrolling, and reading fine print, that this major performance ofSinfonia was taking place if you didn't have someone like me to tell you. And take it from me, the bombastic retrograde An Alpine Symphony isn't even good Strauss, much less good music. The Philharmonic continues almost to revel in its cultural irrelevance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You might consider leaving this concert after the Berio. Then, the world is your oyster -- and you'll probably want to get the fuck out of the Upper West Side. If you choose to tough it out through the Strauss (or want to hang in the neighborhood in any event), reward yourself with a visit to Tom Valenti's new American comfort-food spot, Oxbow Tavern.
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Thursday, May 24, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Mayday Space
- 176 Saint Nicholas Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 24*
7:00 PM
La Folía in Sound and Vision
Groupmuse
Mayday Space
176 St. Nicholas Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.groupmuse.com/events/6435-la-folia-in-sound-and-vision-our-may-massivemuse?utm_content=featured_event
Good Baroque music played in an intriguing multi-media setting. Well, with a ringer: the Norwegian nationalist Johan Halvorsen's neo-Baroque Sarabande con Variazioni after Handel (a moving piece you don't get to hear everyday) will be played while Brooklyn visual artist Lila Nadelmann creates an accompanying work in real time. The Third Brandenburg (by Bach, duh) will simply be played. But then, Filmelodic's short film La Folìa, dramatizing issues of body image in ballet, will be shown to a live performance of its soundtrack work, Geminiani's Concerto Grosso based on Corelli's Violin Sonata based on the titular theme (the Baroque was, well, baroque) -- an unforgettable chord progression much riffed on during that period. The musical performances will be by Ensemble Leonarda.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Free beer at the show!!!!!!!!!! Before or after, the venue is like a block and a half away from Ops Pizza, my most favorite new natural wine-and-pizza place (really one of my most favorite new places, period).
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Thursday, May 24, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 24
7:00 PM
Mary Halvorson/Whit Dickey/Women with an Axe to Grind/SPACE
Vision Festival
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$40
http://roulette.org/event/vision-festival-05-24-18/
The highlights of this entry in this year's Vision Festival are Mary Halvorson, a fantastic guitarist who is one of the most exciting jazz musicians to have emerged in recent years, with her genre-hopping new band Code Girl; and SPACE, a revival of a fascinating old trio formed by AACM multi-reed playerRoscoe Mitchell (one of the greatest living American musicians, if I may say) and the avant-garde baritone Thomas Buckner.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Just like last night's, this show is likely to end pretty late. So the open-late Building on Bond/Robert combo of casual burgers and semislinky cocktails still seems apt.
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Thursday, May 24, 2018, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- St. Paul's Chapel
- 209 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10007
- United States
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Wed, May 23, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, May 26, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Chocolate Factory
- 5-49 49th Avenue
- Queens, NY, 11101
- United States
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Wed, May 23, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, May 26, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Bushwick Starr
- 207 Starr Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 23 - 26 (continuing through JUNE 3)
8:00 PM
Erin Markey: Singlet
Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.thebushwickstarr.org/singlet
Performance artist Erin Markey says her new two-person theater piece (the other person is Emily Davis) was inspired by a dream she had about "a version of The Maids but the characters are assistants to an Olympic weightlifting champion, and instead of trying on mink coat's from their mistress's closet, they're trying on wrestling singlets" -- and she takes it from there. I don't know what else you need to know to get you over to Bushwick for this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Big news! The Venezuelan hot dog bar up the street from Bushwick Starr hasn't closed! It's just changed its name (and possibly management)! It's now called Santa Salsa! Exuberantly overloaded hot dogs! (Overloaded burgers, too!) Fun tropical cocktails you don't have to be ashamed to drink! This place is fun on a stick (or at least, a bun)!
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Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23*
6:30 PM
Celebrating Dave Burrell
Vision Festival
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$40
http://roulette.org/event/vision-festival-5-23-18/
The Vision Festival pays tribute to the distinguished jazz modernist pianistDave Burrell, who's been very very good for a very long time without ever quite becoming a household name. The night-long show features Burrell performing with various different ensembles -- all great. Let's just look at some of the sax players: '60s/'70s in-and-out legend Archie Schepp; New Orleans free jazz legend Kidd Jordan; Darius Jones, too young to be a legend, but one of my personal fave current avant-gutbucket players. It would be very hard to overstate how highly I recommend this show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This show is likely to end pretty late. So the open-late Building on Bond/Robert combo of casual burgers and semislinky cocktails seems apt.
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Tue, May 22, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sun, May 27, 2018, 9:30 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 22 - 27 (continuing through JULY 15)
8:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Basil Twist: Symphonie Fantastique
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$35-$100
http://here.org/shows/detail/1934/
Not to put too fine a point to it, this piece -- premiered at this venue 20 years ago -- is one of the best things I've ever seen. A miracle of puppetry creates perfectly calibrated first-part-of-Fantasia-style visual effects to Berlioz's unhinged visionary masterpiece. It's just so apt, so unexpected -- and so much fun -- you can't believe it. If you haven't seen it, you MUST. If you've already seen it, you'll want to see it again. (One possible caveat: the past performances I've seen were performed to an orchestral recording. Now it's being done to a live piano reduction -- played by the redoubtable Christoper O'Reilly, no less. While I usually prefer live musical accompaniments on general principle, however, so much of the appeal of this weird musical masterpiece stems from Berlioz's tangy, unique, unprecedented orchestrationthat I'm not sure I can see how a piano reduction would be nearly as effective. Shouldn't the music be as colorful as the visuals?) (But GO anyway!!!!! This is GREAT!!!!!!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Chef Floyd Cardoz is a kind of a Big Deal. He ran the Indian fusion restaurant Tabla for many years; then, after some other ventures, he opened a straighter Indian restaurant, Paowalla, in Soho. But that place never took off: something about the vibe seemed off. Cardoz has now reconfigured it to be livelier, more colorful -- more fun: The Bombay Bread Bar. Should be just right after this show.
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Tue, May 22, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, May 26, 2018, 9:00 PM
- The Performing Garage
- 33 Wooster Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 22 - 26 (continuing through JUNE 2)
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
The Wooster Group: A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique)
The Performing Garage
33 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
$40 evenings; $30 matinee
http://thewoostergroup.org/a-pink-chair
Is there any existing company from the 1970s New York theatrical avant-garde efflorescence that is still as good today as The Wooster Group? This piece explores one of the internaonal icons of 20th-Century avant-garde theater,Tadeusz Kantor, by way of a meditation on one of his last pieces, which you may or may not have seen when La Mama imported it 30 years ago. It really isgood.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back in the day I would have told you to go toChanterelle around the corner -- but those days are long past. We can relive past days elsewhere in the neighborhood, though. There was a time when the most exciting Italian restaurant in New York was a place called Coco Pazzo on the Upper East Side; it helped create the template for the kind of finto rustic Italian trattorias that now litter the City. It's been closed for years -- but legendary owner Pino Luongo has now revived it in Soho. There's been a lot of Chianti under the bridge since Coco Pazzo's glory days. So let's see if there's any magic left.
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Tue, May 22, 2018, 8:00 PM – Thu, May 24, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Park Avenue Armory
- 643 Park Avenue
- New York, NY, 10065
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 22 - 24*
8:00 PM TUESDAY
7:00 & 9:45 PM THURSDAY
Oneohtrix Point Never: MYRIAD
Red Bull Music Festival
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$40
http://armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/myriad
Daniel Lopatin a/k/a Oneohtrix Point Never and associated artists take over the Armory's massive Drill Hall for a multi-media presentation -- and you can be sure they'll know what to do with it. Oneohtrix Point Never is a brilliant brilliant experimental electronic pop musician: one of the best America has produced. This show -- if you can figure out a way to finagle a ticket to these sold-out performances -- is something of a must, at least for fans of the genre. Or fans of sheer spectacle.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's not overthink this: JoJo.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Anable Basin Sailing
- 440 44th Drive
- Queens, NY, 11101
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 22*
7:30 PM
Rupert Boyd
East River Guitar Series
Anable Basin Sailing
440 44th Drive, Long Island City, Queens
$20
https://www.facebook.com/events/171066500197339/
Regular readers of this List know how highly I recommend the East River Guitar Series -- and it only gets more attractive as the weather gets nicer (pay no attention to those predictions of rain on Tuesday: there can't be any rainleft!). Classical solo guitar music is some of the most appealing stuff there is. This huge window-fronted warehouse on the LIC riverfront is a marvelous setting for it. And the warehouse is attached to a mad open-air Serbian riverfront bar and grill that is just pure fun! This installment of the festival features Rupert Boyd, an extremely good guitarist from Australia, who will play selections by Bach, Sor (whose music I just adore, if you care), and -- I said last week he was the greatest living composer of guitar music, and I'm not gonna walk that back -- Leo Brouwer.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: What part of "mad open-air Serbian riverfront bar and grill that is just pure fun" didn't you catch? This is your night, right here. If you need more to eat than hearty grilled sausages, go up the street to John Brown Smokehouse for good barbecue (but hurry: it closes at 10).
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Tue, May 22, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sun, May 27, 2018, 8:00 PM
- New York Theater Workshop
- 79 East 4th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 22 - 27
7:00 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
Caryl Churchill: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire
New York Theater Workshop
79 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$69
https://www.nytw.org/show/light-shining-buckinghamshire/
Caryl Churchill is a consistently thought-provoking playwright whose work needs no recommendation from me. This play is set at the height of theEnglish Civil War -- but you can be sure there will be contemporary implications. It's almost icing on the cake that this production is directed byRachel Chavkin, surely one of the best theater directors working in New York right now.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not only is the new food program at the Momofuku Ko bar just great, but the bar stays open late (crucial after a long play like this). Closed Sunday, though. Then, brunch or early dinner at Prune.
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Mon, May 21, 2018, 8:00 PM – Tue, May 22, 2018, 9:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
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Mon, May 21, 2018, 12:30 PM – Sun, May 27, 2018, 7:30 PM
- A.R.T./New York Theatres
- 502 West 53rd Street
- New York, NY, 10019
- United States
THEATER
MONDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 21- 27 (continuing through JUNE 10)
7:30 PM MONDAY - SATURDAY
7:00 PM SUNDAY
Toshiki Okado: Time's Journey Through a Room
Play Company
A.R.T./New York Theatres
502 West 53rd Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$35-$45
https://playco.org/plays/times-journey-room/
Toshiki Okado writes plays that reflect the experiences of his generation, coming of age during the 1990s bubbleburst in Japan. His dialogue sounds more overheard than written -- but his presentation of characters is highly stylized, not realistic. This one deals with people's reactions to a more recent signal event in Japan: 2011's earthquake and consequent nuclear disaster.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This might seem overly programatic, but it is nearly impossible not to send you down 53rd Street to Torishin, which gets my highly enthusiastic vote as the best yakitori in New York.
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Sunday, May 20, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 20
7:00 PM
Jay Sorce
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
This excellent guitarist has managed to fit at least three of my personal favorite composers onto this program: Luciano Berio (see above), the antic Fausto Romitelli, and the way underplayed Spectralist Philippe Hurel. So highly recommended to me, at least.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The New American food at Vinegar Hill House, to me, never quite lives up to the extremely, almost unbelievably, charming room. But the food is good enough; that room is a lot to live up to. Anyway, the cocktails and wine program sure do. So while it may be that you can't eat ambiance, you can certainly use it to line your stomach while you drink it in.
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Saturday, May 19, 2018, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 19
10:00 PM
Stephanie Richards: Fullmoon
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/stephanie-richards-fullmoon/
Or, stick around National Sawdust for trumpeter-about-town Stephanie Richards and her FULLMOON project, for which she's accompanied by drummer Qasim Naqvi of acoustic-jazz-trio-playing-music-that-sounds-like-electronica Dawn of Midi and sound sampler Dino J.A. Deane. Aside from performing stuff from Richards's new FULLMOON album, they'll accompany an animated film by Cossa.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you're sticking around between shows, then the obvious thing to do is to go to National Sawdust's good in-house restaurant, Rider. Otherwise, Delaware and Hudson before the show. After the show, cocktails and bar snacks at Hotel Delmano might be your best shot.
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Saturday, May 19, 2018, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
- Trans-Pecos
- 915 Wyckoff Avenue
- Ridgewood, NY, 11385
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 19
10:00 PM
Tall Juan
Trans-Pecos
915 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
$10-$12
http://www.thetranspecos.com/cal/2018/5/5/tall-juan-trans-pecos-residency
This Buenos Aires transplant makes music that mostly sounds like The Ramones, but occasionally sounds more psych than that. Needless to say, I love it to pieces.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After the show ends at 2 AM or so, you're on your own. Before, I'm going to send you to one of the hottest and best new places in New York. Yes, it's a 15-minute walk -- but it's a straight shot down Wyckoff (OK, and around the corner at Himrod). At Ops Pizza, people (very much including me) are raving about the Neapolitan pizza. But what we're really going crazy about is the off-the-hook (and low markup!) natural wine program (no list: you talk to the waitron and try some huge pours). And it's open till midnight -- not that that'll help you tonight.
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Saturday, May 19, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 19
7:00 PM
Alicia Svigals: The Yellow Ticket
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$29 advance; $34 door
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/alicia-svigals-the-yellow-ticket/
The Yellow Ticket is an old German silent film about a Jewish woman in Tzarist Russia who is compelled by circumstances to get a "yellow ticket" registering her as a prostitute, which permits her to get around the travel restrictions imposed on Jews and pursue her medical studies in St. Petersburg during the day while working at a brothel at night (this is all historically accurate, by the way). Who better to compose, play, and sing an accompanying score thanAlicia Svigals? She was, of course, co-founder of the great klezmerrevitalization band The Klezmatics and has powered on since: a fabulous stylist, deeply imbued with the klezmer tradition but keenly attuned to contemporary styles. She'll be accompanied by Marilyn Lerner, an improvising pianist from Toronto who herself has a foot in the klezmer camp. (They're also putting this on in the Ashokan Center in the Catskills tomorrow, SUNDAY, MAY 20.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I have too much respect for Alicia Svigals to send you to Traif after this. No, Ms. Svigals deserves a recommendation of Delaware and Hudson,* the wonderful Mid-Atlantic restaurant that, despite its Michelin star, remains one of New York's most criminally under-appreciated dining spots.
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Thursday, May 17, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 17
8:00 PM
Sandbox Percussion x Ricardo Romaneiro: SUPPERCLUB
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20-$30 advance; $25-$35 door
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/supperclub-may-17th-2018/
You're probably sick of hearing me insist that contemporary classical and electronic dance music aren't all that far apart from each other. Here's more proof: an NYC producer of electronic dance parties presents a solid contemporary classical concert featuring another one of the coterie of ace Indie Classical percussion ensembles we're now blessed with, along with a dance-oriented electronic/minimalist composer/sound designer, playing a set of compositions by such New Music luminaries as Steve Reich, Andy Akiho, and Viet Cuong -- as well as a brand new piece by the composer/sound designer, Ricardo Romaneiro. This show is aimed solidly at the producer's usual dance-music crowd (which is why they promote it as a "supperclub", with food and beverage service, rather than just stating it's the kind of sit-down concert their patrons dread; LPR habitués know, of course, that beverage and food service are always available during LPR table shows). Which means, in the end, that this should be even more fun than concerts of this type of music usually are.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: What with the food, drink, and an after-party after the performance and all, this is presented as an entire night in itself. (Too bad the food at LPR isn't very good.) Far be it from me to contravene them. Nevertheless, if you care about what food you put into The Temple That Is Your Body, you might prefer to sneak over to the homey and adorable Bessou after the show, for delicious Northern Japanese cuisine.
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Thu, May 17, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 20, 2018, 9:00 PM
- La Mama
- 66 East 4th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 17 - 20 (continuing through JUNE 3)
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
Theodora Skiptares: There's Blood at the Wedding
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25/$20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/songs_for_lorca/
Theodora Skiptares creates theater pieces, usually involving puppets, that are visually imaginative and highly thought-provoking. They're never perfect works of art, exactly; rather, they're experiences you're glad you had, despite any imperfections. Isn't that what we're looking for from live performances? This one uses giant pop-up book constructions to reflect on victims of police violence. As the piece's title indicates, Garcia Lorca is also brought in.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still kind of excited about the red-hot (in more ways than one) Beijing street food spot Le Sia.
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Thursday, May 17, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Church of the Ascension
- 5th Ave & W 10th St
- New York, NY
- 10011
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 17
8:00 PM
Bloch: Sacred Service/Bernstein: Chichester Psalms
Voices of Ascension
Church of the Ascension
Fifth Avenue at 10th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$10-$85
https://www.voicesofascension.org/3172018-bloch-bernstein/
Ho-hum, yet another performance of Leonard Bernstein's wonderful Chichester Psalms, with which we've been happily inundated in this Bernstein centenary year. This piece is, to me, one of the Top Two (with a bullet) of Bernstein's classical compositions -- perhaps because it incorporates some pages left over from the Top One of Bernstein's pop compositions, West Side Story. But that isn't the Big News about the concert. The Big News is a piece Bernstein memorably conducted, Ernest Bloch's Sacred Service (one hopes in the original version in Hebrew -- to go with the Hebrew Chichester Psalms -- and not the bland alternative English translation) -- which you almost never see performed anywhere. If you're a Reform Jew -- even (or maybe especially) a lapsed one like me -- it's an inordinately moving experience to hear the familiar text of the Reform Sabbath service set to first-rate music in the Western classical tradition, just like the Bruckner mass setting I'm listening to as I type this (remember that there's no tradition of composed instrumental Jewish liturgical settings because of long-standing religious proscriptions against the use musical instruments during prayer). So, recommended at least to my co-religionists.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This is most certainly an Old Skool concert, so let's have an Old Skool dinner. Go to the Knickerbocker and have a caviar pie and a steak. I guarantee you you won't be sorry: no one ever is. Moreover, this place is so Old Skool that they haven't heard that NYC restaurants don't stay open late anymore.
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Thursday, May 17, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Elsewhere
- 599 Johnson Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 17*
8:00 PM
Pussy Riot
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$25 advance; $30 door
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2018-05-17-pussy-riot/
We all know Pussy Riot, the Russian punk arts collective whose members were thrown in jail after staging an anti-Putin and anti-religion piece in a church. Over the last couple of years, its members have participated in a number of different theatrical presentations regarding the band's storied history. But this appears to be an actual concert presentation (the band's music has moved from punk to electro), featuring two of the band's three original principals, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. And while some of us were concerned about Alyokhina's recently commenced romantic involvement with an extreme-right activist who had had actually campaigned for Pussy Riot's imprisonment, the band was back earlier this year with asingle protesting Vladimir Putin's "reelection". This show should be one for the history books.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Enticing new place just as ridiculously close to Elsewhere as Bunker: Chica, with Nuevo Nicaraguan food and cocktails. Open very late, too!
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Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 19, 2018, 8:30 PM
- Performance Space New York
- 150 1st Avenue
- New York, NY, 10009
- United States
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 17 - 19
7:30 PM
Penny Arcade: Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!
Performance Space New York
150 First Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $15 student/senior
https://performancespacenewyork.org/shows/bitch-dyke-faghag-whore/
More avant-garde nostalgia for us nostalgic avant-gardeists. Performance artist Penny Arcade reprises her classic 1990 NEA-defying cris de coeur (to the extent Downtown performance artists have coeurs) against censorship and reactionary anti-sex culture. Fortunately, it has absolutely no contemporary relevance (sarcasm emoticon). (Penny's performance starts at 8 -- but I can't imagine anyone would want to miss the go-go dancers pre-performing at 7:30.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Momofuku Noodle Bar. For old times' sake.
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Thursday, May 17, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 17*
7:00 PM
BerioFest
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
https://www.facebook.com/events/1981313268796703/
It's always a good time to celebrate Luciano Berio, a great mid-20th Century composer who seems in danger of fading from our concert life. His pre-postmodern work presents challenges to the listener, sure -- but he had a clear eye on the vernacular in a way that anticipated what's happening in contemporary classical today, and he always made sure to tickle the his listeners' ears. This tribute -- curated by the Baltimore New Music duo The Witches -- features a selection of Berio's astonishing Sequenzas for various solo instruments and of his classic Folk Songs, as set for his then-wife, the great vocalist Cathy Berberian, as well as of a lesser-known set of Violin Duets.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Finally some people I know have eaten at the high-design Thai spot Samui! They report they'd recommend it as better-than-average neighborhood Thai -- with, of course, a high design.
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Thursday, May 17, 2018, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- St. Paul's Chapel
- 209 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10007
- United States
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Wed, May 16, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, May 19, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Bushwick Starr
- 207 Starr Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 16 - 19 (continuing through JUNE 3)
8:00 PM
Erin Markey: Singlet
Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.thebushwickstarr.org/singlet
Performance artist Erin Markey says her new two-person theater piece (the other person is Emily Davis) was inspired by a dream she had about "a version of The Maids but the characters are assistants to an Olympic weightlifting champion, and instead of trying on mink coat's from their mistress's closet, they're trying on wrestling singlets" -- and she takes it from there. I don't know what else you need to know to get you over to Bushwick for this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Big news! The Venezuelan hot dog bar up the street from Bushwick Starr hasn't closed! It's just changed its name (and possibly management)! It's now called Santa Salsa! Exuberantly overloaded hot dogs! (Overloaded burgers, too!) Fun tropical cocktails you don't have to be ashamed to drink! This place is fun on a stick!
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Tue, May 15, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sun, May 20, 2018, 9:30 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 19 - 24 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 2)
8:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Basil Twist: Symphonie Fantastique
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$35-$100
http://here.org/shows/detail/1934/
Not to put too fine a point to it, this piece -- premiered at this venue 20 years ago -- is one of the best things I've ever seen. A miracle of puppetry creates perfectly calibrated first-part-of-Fantasia-style visual effects to Berlioz's unhinged visionary masterpiece. It's just so apt, so unexpected -- and so much fun -- you can't believe it. If you haven't seen it, you MUST. If you've already seen it, you'll want to see it again. (One possible caveat: the past performances I've seen were performed to an orchestral recording. Now it's being done to a live piano reduction -- played by the redoubtable Christoper O'Reilly, no less. While I usually prefer live musical accompaniments on general principle, however, so much of the appeal of this weird musical masterpiece stems from Berlioz's tangy, unique, unprecedented orchestrationthat I'm not sure I can see how a piano reduction would be nearly as effective. Shouldn't the music be as colorful as the visuals?) (But GO anyway!!!!! This is GREAT!!!!!!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Chef Floyd Cardoz is kind of a Big Deal. He ran the Indian fusion restaurant Tabla for many years; then, after some other ventures, he opened a straighter Indian restaurant, Paowalla, in Soho. But that place never took off: something about the vibe seemed off. Cardoz has now reconfigured it to be livelier, more colorful -- more fun: The Bombay Bread Bar. Should be just right after this show.
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Tue, May 15, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, May 19, 2018, 9:00 PM
- The Performing Garage
- 33 Wooster Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 15 - 19*
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
The Wooster Group: A PINK CHAIR (In Place of a Fake Antique)
The Performing Garage
33 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
$40 evenings; $30 matinee
http://thewoostergroup.org/a-pink-chair
Is there any existing company from the 1970s New York theatrical avant-garde efflorescence that is still as good today as The Wooster Group? This piece explores one of the international icons of 20th-Century avant-garde theater,Tadeusz Kantor, and his treatment of the return-of-Odysseus myth. The dramaturge for the piece is Kantor's daughter, Dorota Krakowska.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back in the day I would have told you to go toChanterelle around the corner -- but those days are long past. We can relive past days elsewhere in the neighborhood, though. There was a time when the most exciting Italian restaurant in New York was a place called Coco Pazzo on the Upper East Side; it helped create the template for the kind of finto rustic Italian trattorias that now litter the City. It's been closed for years -- but legendary owner Pino Luongo has now revived it in Soho. There's been a lot of Chianti under the bridge since Coco Pazzo's glory days. So let's see if there's any magic left.
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Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, May 20, 2018, 8:30 PM
- Duke Theater
- 229 West 42nd Street
- New York, NY, 10036
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 15 - 20*
7:30 PM TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
David Ives: The Metromaniacs
Duke Theater
229 West 42nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$75-$95
http://www.redbulltheater.com/the-metromaniacs
This is a bit more mainstream than what usually gets touted around here. But if any performances have given me more pure pleasure over the last several years than David Ives’s adaptations ("transladaptations", he calls them) ofFrench Baroque comedies, I can’t think of them. This one is an adaptation of a comedy from the late 1730s by Alexis Piron making fun of a then-current Parisian poetry craze. You might not be guffawing constantly, but expect a continuous titter that could actually end up hurting.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Burger & Lobster is a chain originated in London several years ago with the intention of (I'm quoting from their website here) "perfecting the craft of just one or two main ingredients" (as you might guess, burgers and lobsters). It may sound like The Frog and Peach. But everybody says that the lobster, at least, is a remarkably good deal.
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Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sat, May 19, 2018, 8:00 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, MAY 15 - 19
7:00 PM
Purva Bedi, Kristin Marting & Marianna Newhard: Assembled Identity
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$25-$45
http://here.org/shows/detail/1965/
Twin sisters find out they're actually clones. An exploration of ethnic ambiguity, race, genetics, and eugenics ensues. A theater piece incorporating live cinematography, found texts, and music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The food at Raoul's may not be quite as good as it once was, nor the scene as glittery. But it's still a very appealing and enjoyable room to be in.
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Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sun, May 20, 2018, 8:00 PM
- New York Theater Workshop
- 79 East 4th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 15 - 20 (continuing through MAY 27)
7:00 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
Caryl Churchill: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire
New York Theater Workshop
79 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$69
https://www.nytw.org/show/light-shining-buckinghamshire/
Caryl Churchill is a consistently thought-provoking playwright whose work needs no recommendation from me. This play is set at the height of the English Civil War -- but you can be sure there will be contemporary implications. It's almost icing on the cake that this production is directed by Rachel Chavkin, surely one of the best theater directors working in New York right now.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not only is the new food program at the Momofuku Ko bar just great, but the bar stays open late (crucial after a long play like this). Closed Sunday, though. Then, brunch or early dinner at Prune.
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Mon, May 14, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, May 20, 2018, 8:30 PM
- A.R.T./New York Theatres
- 502 West 53rd Street
- New York, NY, 10019
- United States
THEATER
MONDAY - SUNDAY, MAY 14 - 20 (continuing through JUNE 10)
7:30 PM MONDAY - SATURDAY
7:00 PM SUNDAY
Toshiki Okado: Time's Journey Through a Room
Play Company
A.R.T./New York Theatres
502 West 53rd Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$35-$45
https://playco.org/plays/times-journey-room/
Toshiki Okada writes plays that reflect the experiences of his generation, coming of age during the 1990s bubbleburst in Japan. His dialogue sounds more overheard than written -- but his presentation of characters is highly stylized, not realistic. This one deals with people's reactions to a more recent signal event in Japan: 2011's earthquake and consequent nuclear disaster.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This might seem overly programatic, but it is nearly impossible not to send you down 53rd Street to Torishin, which gets my highly enthusiastic vote as the best yakitori in New York.
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Monday, May 14, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- 1 Rivington Street
- 1 Rivington Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, MAY 14
7:00 PM
Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti/Nina Young: Sound Constructions
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$20/$15 students
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/sound-constructions
Two composer-performers play their own compositions for violin or viola and electronics. Expect a lot of fascinating textures.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Right up the alley across the street from 1 Rivington (and upstairs from Freemans), the new Antarctic-themed cocktail barBanzarbar is so small it hasn't established a major presence yet. But, if you can get in (may be best to reserve), the cocktail menu is appealing and the bar snacks are solid. You can even get a full-on cocktail-paired dinner tasting menu if you're so inclined.
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Monday, May 14, 2018, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- Miller Theater at Columbia University
- 2690 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10025
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, MAY 14
6:00 PM
Ensemble Signal: Plays Helmut Lachenmann*
Pop-Up Concerts
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2690 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
http://www.millertheatre.com/events/ensemble-signal-plays-lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann is a truly important contemporary composer in the late Modernist tradition. His work is kind of hard core; this is for committed New Music followers rather than people who want to dip their toes in. Lachenmann specializes in extended playing techniques: his instruments are almost never made to sound the way they normally do. So expect to hear combinations of sounds you've never heard before.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The great thing about Miller Theater's Pop-Up Concerts -- other than that they're beautifully programed and free -- is that (if you can get that far Uptown that early at all) they let you out early enough to beat the closing time at Manna's Soul Food (nearest branch: Frederick Douglass Blvd. & W. 127th St.). Wonderful soul food laid out on the steam table for you to choose and eat. No one has ever left hungry.
