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Saturday, June 30, 2018, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
- Secret Project Robot
- 1186 Broadway
- Brooklyn, NY, 11221
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, JUNE 30
10:00 PM
Secret Project Robot
1186 Broadway, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
$10 advance (will go up to $15 if first ticket release sells out); $10 door until midnight; $15 door after midnight
https://www.secretprojectrobot.org/calendar/2018/6/30/hyphoria
If you didn't make it to PS1 earlier today, you can still see Nídia (along with a slew of others) here in Bed-Stuy.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After this late-night show, you're on your own. Before, funky French (and an irresistible bar) at Chez Oskar.
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Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jul 1, 2018, 8:00 PM
MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JUNE 30 & JULY 1
7:00 PM SATURDAY
8:00 PM SUNDAY
(Le) Poisson Rouge (SATURDAY)
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
Murmrr Theater (SUNDAY)
17 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
$35 advance; $45 door (SATURDAY)
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/olafur-arnalds-june-30th-2018/
$40 advance; $55 ticket exchange; $45 door (SUNDAY)
https://www.murmrr.com/event/1672436-olafur-arnalds-brooklyn/
Ólafur Arnalds is an ambient-electronica-into-pop-but-really-it-isn't-that-far-from contemporary-classical composer/performer from Iceland. Here, he'll play with a string quartet, a percussionist (and not just any one: Manu Delago!), and his own electronic and acoustic keyboards. (These shows are sold out, but the Murmrr show, at least, has a ticket exchange by which you can apply to purchase tickets whose holders no longer want them.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: On a Saturday night in the Village, a neighorhood spot like Georgian standby Old Tbilisi Garden is your best bet for someplace that won't be a madhouse. For Sunday in Brooklyn, Gold Star Beer Counter has a truly awe-inspiring beer selection. The snacky food is fine for what it is -- but you're not there for the food.
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Saturday, June 30, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- The Brick
- 579 Metropolitan Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11211
- United States
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, JUNE 18 (also JUNE 30)
9:30 PM
Amnesia Wars: Ciphered Bridges: Hudson Exhibit III!
The Festival of Lies
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
http://www.bricktheater.com/
The extremely hypothetical international conceptual artist Køvvånng remotely relays performance decrees to a company of improvisers, who then comply with them in what the company describes as "the bastard orgy-child of a performance art installation, a modern music-dance concert, an improvisational comedy spectacle, and a Monty Python fever dream". DirectorRob Reese -- Prime Executor (North American Sector) of the mysterious Køvvånng's art-will -- has done good work in the past.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent cocktails and better-than-average bar snacks at The Richardson.
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Saturday, June 30, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
-
Saturday, June 30, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, JUNE 30
7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/john-zorns-cobra/
As a further part of National Sawdust's Hildegard Month, celebrating women's contributions to the arts, John Zorn presents an almost all-female ensemble version of his famous game piece Cobra. It's hard to explain, but Cobra is a group improvisation in which the ensemble is instructed what, in general, to do by cue cards held up by a "prompter", who in turn is guided in his or her selection of cues by what the ensemble did in response to the last cue. It all depends, of course, on the imagination and acuity of the players in the ensemble -- and this one includes (among many others) (and not to make any invidious selections) such luminaries as Downtown harp goddess Zeena Parkins, composer/keyboardist Annie Gosfield, pianist Sylvie Courvousier, and electronics whiz Ikue Mori.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I haven't been yet, but a friend swears by Sardinian restaurant and wine bar D.O.C. And you can't deny that the menu is really appealing (and OMG so is the wine list!).
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Saturday, June 30, 2018, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
- The Brick
- 579 Metropolitan Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11211
- United States
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, JUNE 30
3:30 PM
The Festival of Lies
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
http://www.bricktheater.com/
The extremely hypothetical international conceptual artist Køvvånng remotely relays performance decrees to a company of improvisers, who then comply with them in what the company describes as "the bastard orgy-child of a performance art installation, a modern music-dance concert, an improvisational comedy spectacle, and a Monty Python fever dream". Director Rob Reese -- Prime Executor (North American Sector) of the mysterious Køvvånng's art-will -- has done good work in the past.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'ma send you to Pheasant for brunch again. Cuz the brunch looks so good (for a brunch).
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Saturday, June 30, 2018, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
- MoMA PS
- 122-25 Jackson Avenue
- Long Island City, NY, 11101
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, JUNE 30
12:00 PM
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
$18 advance; $22/$18 students door
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/4442?locale=en
The PS1 Saturday summertime Warm Up electronic dance music series is another thing you hardly need me to tell you about. But, needed or not, I'm telling you it's starting up again. To me, the big deal on this opening bill is the Lisbon DJ Nídia, whose exuberant (imagine exuberant music from Portugal: this is something new!) music combines elements from all over Portuguese-speaking Africa. But I'm also always good for a shout-out to just about anything from Oslo -- very much including Cashmere Cat, whose EDM is positively poppy. And, of course, lots more.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I recently ate at Manducatis, and I was almost surprised at what a great time I had. Sure, as at almost almost any of the classic Red Sauce places, you can find flaws with the cooking. But the menu is more consistently interesting than at most of them -- and whatever flaws there may be in the cooking don't get in the way of the deep satisfaction and pleasure that even merely decent iterations of this beloved cuisine can provide. Most of the fun, though, comes from the wine program: someone apparently forgot to tell them about marking to market, so you can find a large number of well-stored old bottles at less than their current market prices (if you could even find them). Don't even think about ordering by the glass here.
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Friday, June 29, 2018, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
-
Friday, June 29, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Bargemusic
- 1 Water Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11201
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 29
8:00 PM
Bargemusic
1 Water Street, Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn
$40; $35 seniors; $20 students/children
http://bargemusic.org/calendar.html#june
It goes without saying that David Starobin is beyond praise as a classical guitarist. And that the music barge off the Fulton Ferry Landing is as pleasant a venue as New York City offers. This recital features many of the usual classical guitar suspects -- as well as the Bohemian/Viennese Classical-into-Romantic guitar music of Wenzeslaus Matiegka, which you don't get to hear every day.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sure, it's a splurge (and worse, a splurge with a dress code). But let's keep the utter pleasantness going with a visit to River Cafe -- where the food is infinitely better than a putative tourist trap has any need to serve.
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Friday, June 29, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 29
7:00 & 10:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25 each show; $35 "bundle" for both
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/john-zorn-presents-women-visionaries-inspirations-from-hildegard-von-bingen-hilma-af-klint-and-agnes-martin/
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/john-zorn-presents-films-by-maya-deren-marie-menken-and-raha-raissnia/
These two shows are part of National Sawdust's Hildegard Month, honoring women artists. John Zorn isn't a woman, but in these shows he pays tribute. In the early show, various ensembles play music written by Zorn in honor of visionary woman artists: his famous The Holy Visions, a mystery play inspired by Hildegard von Bingen herself; and pieces honoring the Abstract Expressionist-into-Minimalist painter Agnes Martin and the visionary early Abstract painter -- indeed, she may have been the very first -- Hilma Af Klint(whose profile is going to get a major boost from a Guggenheim retrospectivelater this year). The late show has Zorn and various other musicians playing along with some silent films. I'm going to get personal here. Maya Deren's hallucinatory Meshes of the Afternoon is one of my favorite movies -- indeed, one of my favorite works in any genre -- ever; it was the first non-narrative film I ever saw, I think (at least the first one I really liked), and that initial viewing remains one of the signal aesthetic experiences of my life. Marie Menken, whose Go! Go! Go! is being shown, is not only a great film artist in her own right but mentored Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger, thus creating the very aesthetic world in which I live. So this show means a lot to me. Also on the bill is a new film by the Iranian-Brooklyn artist/filmmaker Raha Raissnia; obviously that hasn't had a chance to change my life yet.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to both shows -- and why wouldn't you? -- your best option may be to hightail it over to Sauvage afterward in time for its midnight closure. Before? Do what you want. Maya Deren was born in Ukraine, which borders on Poland -- so maybe the delicious, slightly cheffy food at Dziupla. Or, Hilma Af Klint was from Sweden, part of which was once ruled by Denmark -- so maybe the Danish-controlled Norman.
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Thursday, June 28, 2018, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
-
Thursday, June 28, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, JUNE 28
8:00 PM
Modern Piano (+) Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Pianist/composer Gabriel Zucker would always be worth a recommendation, even if (DISCLOSURE UPCOMING) I didn't go to college with his parents. He's one of those artists who blur the line between jazz and New Music -- and well might it be blurred. Here, accompanied by a drummer, he plays piano pieces by the great Wadada Leo Smith, and a piece by himself as well.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hudson Jane serves fairly light and fairly simple food that really makes it.
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Thursday, June 28, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Russ & Daughters Cafe
- 127 Orchard Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, JUNE 28
8:00 PM
The Stone Series
Russ & Daughters Cafe
127 Orchard Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Free
http://www.russanddaughterscafe.com/news/2018/1/5/the-stone-series-curated-by-john-zorn-music-nights-at-russ-daughters-cafe
It's funny in a way for pianist Anthony Coleman to be playing at Russ & Daughters. He was part of John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture mob years ago, but he remarked onstage at LPR recently that he now considers himself "post-radical, post-Jewish, and post-culture". Nevertheless, here he is. Whatever he does, it'll be thought-provoking, underlyingly sardonic, and reflective of a steel-trap mind -- and, no matter what he says, it'll sound at least vaguely Jewish, just like Mahler.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm repeating myself, but you'd have to be some unfortunate combination of a fool and a churl to be listening to a free concert at Russ & Daughters Cafe and not avail yourself of the best (albeit admittedly pricey) appetizing in the world, along with surprisingly good cocktails.
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Thursday, June 28, 2018, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
- The Rooftop, Elsewhere
- 599 Johnson Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, JUNE 28
5:00 PM
The Rooftop, Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$12 advance; $13 door
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2018-06-28-teen/
I am happy to report that, despite some appearances to the contrary, this delightful rock band is still together. Three quarters of its members are sisters whose father was the great composer Peter Lieberson (I remember chatting with one of the sisters once after a show and remarking that, although I was sure she sick of hearing people talk about her father, I was a huge admirer of his work -- to which she replied, "No, no: I liked my father!"). TEEN is one of those bands with excellent, clever, songwriting; excellent, clever arrangements; and marvelous singing and playing. And I have a sneaking suspicion that Elsewhere's new Rooftop is going to be one of The Places Of The Summer.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Eat and drink right there on The Rooftop.
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Wed, Jun 27, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 8:00 PM
- Abrons Arts Center
- 466 Grand Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
-
Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- The Kitchen
- 512 West 19th Street
- New York, NY, 10011
- United States
-
Wed, Jun 27, 2018, 2:00 PM – Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 8:00 PM
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 27 - 30
VARIOUS TIMES
Various Locations
Brooklyn & Manhattan
Some free; some $15/$10 students
https://festival.mise-en.org/2018/schedule.html#schedule8
A trans-borough New Music festival, put on by this Bushwick New Music ensemble. The pieces were mostly selected from submissions, so you may be forgiven if you haven't heard of the composers. But there's also a retrospective concert devoted to a late composer you also probably haven't heard of, but unforgivably: Klaus Huber, a composer whose is almost as important and influential as his contemporaries Boulez and Stockhausen, but perhaps because of his personal diffidence is much less known. He started out doing High Modern updates of Medieval music, and went on to incorporate all sorts of things into his work (which nevertheless remained utterly distinctive and characteristic). He even inserted tonal passages!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: These shows are all over the place. But I'll note, with respect to the ones at the ensemble's home base, Mise-En_Place in Bushwick, that it's a couple of blocks from the delightful mother-daughter French spot Le Garage.
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Tue, Jun 26, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sun, Jul 1, 2018, 9:30 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 26 - JULY 1 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 2)
8:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
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 orchestration that 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, Jun 26, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 9:30 PM
- Glass Box Theater, The New School
- 55 West 13th Street
- New York, NY, 10011
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 26 - 30
8:30 PM
The Stone
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
There is no more stalwart nor consistently interesting figure on the New York music scene than Free Jazz bassist William Parker. Here he does a residency at John Zorn's venue, newly ensconced in the New School. Parker leads a different ensemble playing a different program each night. My personal picks would be the Aquasonic Waterphone ensemble on Tuesday or the ensemble on Thursday featuring horns, electronics . . . and didgeridoo!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Impeccably cool contemporary Indian at Rahi.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Murmrr Theater
- 17 Eastern Parkway
- Brooklyn, NY, 11238
- United States
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Tue, Jun 26, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jul 1, 2018, 8:30 PM
- St. Ann's Warehouse
- 45 Water Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11201
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 26 - JULY 1
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
St. Ann's Warehouse
45 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
$21 each for Programs A&B; $40 Combo Pack for both programs
http://stannswarehouse.org/show/labapalooza-2018/
Every year, St. Ann's puts on a series of puppet theater pieces-in-progress as developed over the year in its Puppet Lab. There are two programs. Hard to know what to expect -- but quality is generally high.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Definitely Celestine -- for the spectacular river view, but also for the Mediterranean food, better than at any of the other new spectacular-view spots on the DUMBO riverfront (but see the River Cafe -- which is far from new).
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Tue, Jun 26, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jul 1, 2018, 8:30 PM
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 26 - JULY 1 (continuing through JULY 22)*
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65; 99¢ first-come first-served tickets SUNDAY
http://sohorep.org/fairview
They may call this a "family drama". But what it really is, is an extremely canny -- and scathing -- and funny (to a point) -- exploration of race in America. At least if you're Caucasian, don't go to this first-rate production of an explosive work if you prefer to leave the theater comforted and uplifted. But in that case, you probably shouldn't be reading this List in the first place. (Tickets for the SUNDAY performance are only 99¢, on a first-come first-served basis; you can't reserve them but have to show up early and wait for them.) (Note also that the run has been extended another three weeks.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tweaked-up bistro Frenchette is the best new restaurant in New York. Period.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY, JUNE 26
7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/jonah-sirota-presents-strong-sad/
Violist Jonah Sirota -- yeah, brother of that Sirota and son of that other Sirota -- presents a calling card for his solo career following the upcoming breakup of his band, the marvelous Chiara String Quartet: pieces from his new solo album of elegies for viola. The composers are a bunch of people whose work you like to hear, among them Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Valgeir Sigurõsson, Jonah's father Robert, and Jonah himself. Looks like a very nice program.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Speaking of very nice, it doesn't get any nicer than Mid-Atlantic dining spot Delaware & Hudson.
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Tue, Jun 26, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sat, Jun 30, 2018, 8:00 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 26 - 30
7:00 PM
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$25-45
http://here.org/shows/detail/1985/
Chris Green does puppet-based multi-media pieces (maybe you remember the Noh adaptation starring Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto he did at BAM a few years ago). This one, taking daily life in America as its theme, involves live music (Green composes; Sxip Shirey music directs), movement, puppetry, found texts, and animation. Audience participation is threatened.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Some friends just conveyed to me the startling (and happy) news that Aquagrill is still good. If you're willing to eat oysters in summer, theirs have always been excellent. But there's plenty of other seafood on offer as well. It's nice to know this place is still in play.
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Monday, June 25, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Murmrr Theater
- 17 Eastern Parkway
- Brooklyn, NY, 11238
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, JUNE 25
8:00 PM
Murmrr Theater
17 Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
$37.50 advance; $45 door
https://www.murmrr.com/event/1672387-ten-terri-lyne-carrington-brooklyn/
This is a jazz supergroup if ever there was one. A great drummer, a great bass player, and a great trumpet player. You really don't need to know any more.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Olmsted may no longer be the absolute hottest restaurant in Brooklyn -- but it's still one of the hottest. It pretty much succeeds in realizing its concept of applying the most advanced cooking techniques to ingredients that, while of the highest quality, are for a few different reasons not that expensive. So it offers a style of food you usually have to pay a lot for -- but not here. Of course, it's almost impossible to get in. Monday nights are no-reservation walk-ins only. Do you feel lucky, punk?
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Monday, June 25, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- The Kitchen
- 512 West 19th Street
- New York, NY, 10011
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, JUNE 25
7:00 PM
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Free
http://thekitchen.org/event/vijay-iyer-the-what-of-the-world
The excellent Portuguese jazz singer Sara Serpa presents a multi-media work exploring her family's history in colonial Angola (this is Portuguese colonialism week here in New York: see Nídia below). She's backed by two stellar musicians, saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist David Virelles. The musical performance is accompanied by a film made by Serpa herself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: When you hear that Brooklyn's Maison Premiere team has opened up a restaurant -- called The Golden Hour -- in the garden of the Highline Hotel, all you can do is go.
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Sunday, June 24, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, JUNE 24
8:00 PM
Giorgio Moroder: I Feel Pride
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$55
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/lpr-x-giorgio-moroder-june-24th-2018/
If you put a gun to my head and made me tell you what I thought was the most significant pop single of the last quarter of the 20th Century, Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" would be very strongly in the running: it was a more valid and compelling integration of Minimalism and pop/dance music than anything theTalking Heads came up with, for example. Giorgio Moroder was, of course, the auteur of that momentous single. Hard to know exactly what this show will be like. Among other things, lots of special guests are promised. The only one we know of for sure is Le Tigre's JD Samson, who will only add to the fabulosity of the proceedings.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not that it's easy to get in or anything (maybe easier on a Sunday?), but Red Sauce Revival spot Don Angie is one of the Restaurants Of The Moment. Not having been yet, I can't comment on whether their food lives up to their Instagram feed (the very fact that the question arises makes me skeptical). Pete Wells seems to think it does.
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Sunday, June 24, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, JUNE 24
7:00 PM
Miranda Cuckson/Ethan Iverson
Modern Piano (+) Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Now this is an intriguing pairing. Miranda Cuckson is one of the best New Music violinists in the City, with a broad repertoire that she plays splendidly. Ethan Iverson is a questing jazz musician, whose style manages to be cerebral and fun at the same time. They'll play solo pieces and duos: Cuckson's solo pieces and the duos having been written by a roll-call of leading neo-classicists, modernists, and avant-gardists from the second half of the 20th Century (and one brand new piece); Iverson playing a set of his own jazz compositions.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sunday night is perfect for the eminently homeyVinegar Hill House. If the food sometimes underachieves, the beverages and the ambiance never fail to overperform.
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Saturday, June 23, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Elsewhere
- 599 Johnson Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
-
Friday, June 22, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 22
7:00 PM
Blair McMillen: Lang Night Out
Modern Piano (+) Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
There can't be much doubt that David Lang is one of the very best composers now composing in these United States. His music can be quiet; it can be rowdy -- either way it grabs you. This recital explores a little-known corner of Lang's oeuvre, solo piano music. It could not have a better advocate thanBlair McMillen.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back to Samui for stylish Thai in stylish surroundings.
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Thursday, June 21, 2018, 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM
-
Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 9:00 PM
- St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery
- 131 East 10th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 21 - 23
8:00 PM
Molissa Fenley & Company: Their Mark
DanSpace Project
St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$22 advance; $25 door
http://www.danspaceproject.org/calendar/molissafenley/
What a major presence was Molissa Fenley in '80s with her Minimalism-with-guts choreography. And she's still going strong. This show includes some very new stuff and some very old stuff. Very very highly recommended.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Momofuku Ssam Bar is back! They're cooking like they mean it again!
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Thursday, June 21, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Dixon Place
- 161A Chrystie Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
THEATER
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 21 - 23
7:00 PM
Jerry Lieblich: The Barbarians
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Advance: $17; $14 students/seniors/ID NYC
Door: $20; $17 students/seniors/ID NYC
http://dixonplace.org/performances/the-barbarians/
This absurdist fantasia presents another of those cases where I can't do better than quote the promotional materials: "A encyclopedic rambunctious gollywompus of a play concerning speech acts, political power, fractal geometry, eusociality, theater, and some other stuff too, in which a witness at a trial describes to us a play in which a team of scientists attempts to use real speeches from real US Presidents to nullify the language-power of the fake US President (but also maybe the real US President) while the rest of us bozos try to go on living lives of picturesque American normalcy, unaware that this isn’t a theater at all it’s an aircraft carrier and we’re headed for war." The cast includes Geoff Sobelle, who, as I note in another context above, can do no wrong. It doesn't hurt that the director is Big Dance Theater's Paul Lazar, either.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There may be only one restaurant in New York that lives up to the fantastic absurdity of this piece -- and it's right next door: Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse.
-
Thursday, June 21, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- ISSUE Project Room
- 22 Boerum Place
- Brooklyn, NY, 11201
- United States
OPERA
THURSDAY, JUNE 21
8:00 PM
Alberto Savinio: Les Chants de la Mi-Mort
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
$15
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/alberto-savinio-les-chants-de-la-mi-mort-1914-nick-hallett-music-scene-3-2018
Bet you didn't know that di Chirico had a younger brother who (among many other things) wrote an avant-garde opera in the early 20th Century. Actually, revivals of early 20th Century avant-garde theater pieces are risky: they frequently come off as stilted and kind of pointless; once the pieces lose the capacity to shock, it sometimes seems, there's not much left. But this one has the tremendous advantage of the participation of such sterling performers as soprano Lucy Dhegrae and pianist Kathleen Supové, which provides its own recommendation of the production. To seal the deal, the program also includes a new section of an opera-in-progress that the excellent Brooklyn composer Nick Hallett is working on.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After all that avant-gardery, you'll want a good cocktail and a burger: Long Island Bar.
-
Thursday, June 21, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
MUSIC
THURSDAY, JUNE 21
VARIOUS TIMES
Make Music New York
Various Locations, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island
Free
http://www.makemusicny.org/summer-schedule/
An annual City-wide solstice music festival presenting an almost bewildering number of stylistically diverse free performances. All I can do is direct you to the schedule. Every summer there's one improbable major water-born performance; this year it's Downtown noise improviser Elliott Sharp leading a flotilla of canoes down the Gowanus Canal at dusk bearing a phalanx of speakers that will amplify Sharp's solo guitar improvisations.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's, like, all over the City. If you check out Elliott Sharp, though, you might want to follow it with a visit to Three's for local beer and MEAT.
-
Wed, Jun 20, 2018, 11:00 PM – Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 12:00 AM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, JUNE 10
9:30 PM
ACME: The Music of Jóhann Jóhannsson
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25; $30 door
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/lpr-x-acme-performs-music-of-johann-johannsson-june-10th-2018/
Jóhann Jóhannsson, a popular constituent of Iceland's abundant New Music scene,* died unexpectedly earlier this year. Like everyone on that scene, Jóhannsson failed to recognize any strict boundaries between classical music and various forms of pop; his work was a fluent blend of orchestral/chamber writing with electronica (maybe too fluent: some of his music tended to perhaps be overly easy on the ears). There could not be more eloquent advocates of his work than ACME.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Need another late-night spot if you want anything after this show: 4 Charles Prime Rib.
-
Wednesday, June 20, 2018, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20
9:00 PM
Miki Sawada/Mikael Dermanie
Modern Piano (+) Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Two pianists who mix things up intriguingly. Sawada specializes in both New Music and historically informed performance. Dermanie mixes his New Music with elements of hip-hop, electronica, and rock. Wonder what they'll each be doing tonight?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mettā for vaguely Argentine food.
-
Wed, Jun 20, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 9:00 PM
- The Performing Garage
- 33 Wooster Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 20 - 23
8:00 PM
Alessandro Magania: Radio Delirio
The Performing Garage
33 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
$20
http://theperforminggarage.org/events/alessandro-magania/
A crime manhunt story centering on the page turner at a classical music concert -- the person nobody's supposed to notice? Too literal. A reflection on self, assimilation, and the fear of inconsequence? Too dry. An antic night at the theater? Closer. Alessandro Magania's piece is directed by Geoff Sobelle, who can do no wrong.*
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All-day French cafe Le Mercerie is charming, adorable, and absolutely wonderful -- and just try to find a better dish in New York than their crêpes complète!
-
Tue, Jun 19, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sun, Jun 24, 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.
-
Tue, Jun 19, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 24, 2018, 8:59 PM
- 466 Grand Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
-
Tue, Jun 19, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 8:30 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 19 - 23 (continuing through JUNE 30)
7:00 PM
Chris Green: American Weather
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$25-45
http://here.org/shows/detail/1985/
Chris Green does puppet-based multi-media pieces (maybe you remember theNoh adaptation starring Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto he did at BAM a few years ago). This one, taking daily life in America as its theme, involves live music (Green composes; Sxip Shirey music directs), movement, puppetry, found texts, and animation. Audience participation is threatened.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Some friends just conveyed to me the startling (and happy) news that Aquagrill is still good. If you're willing to eat oysters in summer, theirs have always been excellent. But there's plenty of other seafood on offer as well. It's nice to know this place is still in play.
-
Tue, Jun 19, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jun 24, 2018, 8:30 PM
- Soho Rep.
- 46 Walker Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 19 - 24 (continuing through JULY 8)*
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Jackie Siblies Drury: Fairview
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65; 99¢ Sunday
http://sohorep.org/fairview
If you're anything like me, you see the words "family drama" and your eyes glaze over. But playwright Jackie Siblies Drury's prior works have been brutal and hilarious -- and there's no reason to doubt that, "family drama" or not, this will be, too. (Note that all tickets this Sunday are 99¢ -- but they are not available in advance; you have to get there early and wait for one.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tweaked-up bistro Frenchette is the best new restaurant in New York. Period.
-
Tuesday, June 19, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Areté Venue & Gallery
- 67 West Street #103
- Brooklyn, NY, 11222
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY, JUNE 19
7:00 PM
Bit Flip Radio/Popebama
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events/
A night of new sounds from a flute/electronics duo and a sax/percussion duo. And the sax player is Erin Rogers! Another show where you can leave wondering whether you've just listened to classical or pop music -- and whether you care.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Did you think I'd be able to resist recommending personal fave Chez Ma Tante? Nope.
-
Tuesday, June 19, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY, JUNE 19
7:30 PM
Righteous Girls
Modern Piano (+) Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
A contemporary piano/flute duo that's been playing together under one name or another -- but this one's the best! -- for a few years. Fresh programming, excellent playing: what's not to like?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: LaRina Pastificio e Vino is a cut or two above your standard neighborhood pasta spot. The food is imaginative and well thought-out -- and very well prepared. As befits a neighborhood spot, though, the staff could not be nicer.
-
Monday, June 18, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Nublu
- 151 Avenue C
- New York, NY, 10009
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, JUNE 18
8:00 PM
JD Allen Trio: Love Stone
Nublu
151 Avenue C, East Village, Manhattan
$15 advance; $20 door
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/jd-allen-trio-nublu-june-18th-2018/
JD Allen is a very fine sax player, In The Tradition but not afraid to go a little Outside. His best album is his next-to-the-last one, Americana: Musings on Jazz and Blues -- one of the very best jazz albums of the last few years, really. Now he and his ace trio are releasing a ballads album called Love Stone, around which this show is built -- and expectations (at least of your compiler, who loves tenor sax ballads albums) are high.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Some might say I'm too apt to recommend German beer halls. But come on: beer! sausage! What could be better? Zum Schneider.
-
Monday, June 18, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, JUNE 18*
8:00 PM
Stew & The Negro Problem: The Total Bent/Notes of a Native Song
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25 advance; $30 door
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/lpr-x-stew-negro-problem-june-18th-2018/
Stew is an excellent songwriter and charismatic performer. Here, aided and abetted by his essential songwriting/performing accomplice Heidi Rodewaldand their band, he performs songs from two theatrical works he and Heidi composed. Notes of a Native Song was a reflection on James Baldwin; its score was merely excellent. The Total Bent told a story of generational conflict and the move of African-American pop music away from the church; its score was sensationally great. It will be great to hear all these songs again -- even outside their theatrical contexts.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Did you know that the really very nice eclectic Nolita eatery Jack's Wife Frieda opened a branch on Carmine Street? Well, it did.
-
Monday, June 18, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Areté Venue & Gallery
- 67 West Street #103
- Brooklyn, NY, 11222
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, JUNE 18
8:00 PM
Mary Prescott/Darius Jones: He Disappeared Into Complete Silence/Angélica Negrón
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15 advance; $20 door
https://www.aretevenue.com/events/
What a great program. Pianist/composer/performance artist Mary Prescottpresents a song cycle, inspired by the work of Louise Bourgeois, played with her co-composer, the fabulous avant-gutbucket alto sax player Darius Jones. Then, nifty ambient pop from Brooklyn (originally Puerto Rico) composer Angélica Negrón.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Highly superior bar food at Achilles Heel.
-
Mon, Jun 18, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 8:00 PM
- St. Paul's Chapel
- 209 Broadway
- Manhattan, NY, 10007
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY - THURSDAY & SATURDAY, JUNE 18 - 21 & 23
1:00 PM
Time's Arrow: Webern Part 2
NOVUS NY/The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
St. Paul's Chapel
209 Broadway, FiDi, Manhattan
Free
https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/music-arts/2017-2018/times-arrow-2
This is a festival devoted to Anton Webern, one of those figures who have reputations of being formidable and unwelcoming, but whose music, when listened to without prejudice, turns out to have immense appeal. I mean, a student of Schoenberg, a part of the Second Viennese School. But just listen: his very short pieces are gorgeous, diamond-like. Aside from music of Webern, this series of concerts features works by subsequent composers (including the great great Ligeti, the very un-Webern-like Christopher Rouse, and local fave Christopher Cerrone) as well as a predecessor in the form ofBrahms's A German Requiem (one of the best things in all of Western music, if you ask me) (as you implicitly did by opening this newsletter). Also, a lot of stuff by Marti Epstein, whose post-romantic style I don't care for much myself -- but maybe you will.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In other words, grab some lunch. If Pisillo Italian Panini were anywhere else in New York but the FiDi, it would be famous. Their Italian heroes are as good -- make that GREAT -- as those you get at legendary sandwich shops like Alidoro. But it isn't anywhere else, so it isn't famous. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't make a bee-line for it from St. Paul's. Word to the wise: it is virtually impossible for one person to finish one of these sandwiches (which nevertheless cost all of something around $12) in one sitting; plan on making a second lunch of it the day after.
-
Monday, June 18, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- The Brick
- 579 Metropolitan Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11211
- United States
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, JUNE 18 (also JUNE 30)
9:30 PM
Amnesia Wars: Ciphered Bridges: Hudson Exhibit III!
The Festival of Lies
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
http://www.bricktheater.com/
The extremely hypothetical international conceptual artist Køvvånng remotely relays performance decrees to a company of improvisers, who then comply with them in what the company describes as "the bastard orgy-child of a performance art installation, a modern music-dance concert, an improvisational comedy spectacle, and a Monty Python fever dream". DirectorRob Reese -- Prime Executor (North American Sector) of the mysterious Køvvånng's art-will -- has done good work in the past.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent cocktails and better-than-average bar snacks at The Richardson.
-
Sunday, June 17, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, JUNE 17
8:00 PM
Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25; $30 door
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/lpr-x-marc-ribot-los-cubanos-postizos-june-17th-2018/
Another of genre-hopping guitarist Marc Ribot’s great bands. This one -- a revival from the '90s -- plays modish arrangements of, and updates inspired by, pieces by the signal Cuban musician Arsenio Rodriguez, godfather of son montuno, one of the roots of salsa and possibly even more arresting. Great music, great band.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not that it's easy to get in or anything (maybe easier on a Sunday?), but Red Sauce Revival spot Don Angie is one of the Restaurants Of The Moment. Not having been yet, I can't comment on whether their food lives up to their Instagram feed (the very fact that the question arises makes me skeptical). Pete Wells seems to think it does.
-
Sunday, June 17, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Rockefeller Park
- 75 Battery Place
- New York, NY, 10280
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, JUNE 17*
7:00 PM
Marisa Michelson: Naamah's Ark
Master Voices
River to River Festival
Rockefeller Park
75 Battery Place, Battery Park City, Manhattan
Free
https://www.mastervoices.org/events/naamahs-ark/
This comes from the music-theater rather than the opera side of things: composer Marisa Michelson is an accomplished composer in that field, and the cast features Victoria Clark, no less. This oratorio tells the Flood story -- but from the point of view of Noah's wife Naamah, who was charged with the actual care of all those animals. The libretto is by ace New Opera librettistRoyce Vavrek -- which is its own recommendation.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke doesn't serve the best barbecue in New York -- but you can do a lot, lot worse.
-
Saturday, June 16, 2018, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- The Glove
- 885 Lexington Avenue
- New York, NY, 10065
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, JUNE 16
9:00 PM
Trigger/Faun and a Pan Flute/Jessica Pavone/ M/S/T
The Glove
885 Lexington Avenue, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
https://www.facebook.com/events/447189879027920/
The wonderful venue The Glove puts together a nice night of various post-rock musics. List fave Jessica Pavone comes from the jazz and classical sides -- although she also does folkish pop. Faun and a Pan Flute are slo-mo jazz, sort of. Two-percussionists-and-sax combo M/S/T are more improvisatory and sparer. Power trio Trigger are noisier.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Forget about grabbing any food after this long late show. For drinks after, Flowers for All Occasions may be a little twee for my taste, but really is quite nice. For dinner before, Haitian at Grandchamps.
-
Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 17, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Brave New World Repertory Theatre
- 290 Conover Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11231
- United States
-
Saturday, June 16, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 58 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
-
Saturday, June 16, 2018, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- Coney Island Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY
- United States
-
Saturday, June 16, 2018, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- The Brick
- 579 Metropolitan Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11211
- United States
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, JUNE 16 (also JUNE 18 & 30)*
1:00 PM
Amnesia Wars: Ciphered Bridges: Hudson Exhibit III!
The Festival of Lies
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
http://www.bricktheater.com/
The extremely hypothetical international conceptual artist Køvvånng remotely relays performance decrees to a company of improvisers, who then comply with them in what the company describes as "the bastard orgy-child of a performance art installation, a modern music-dance concert, an improvisational comedy spectacle, and a Monty Python fever dream". DirectorRob Reese -- Prime Executor (North American Sector) of the mysterious Køvvånng's art-will -- has done good work in the past.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: An afternoon, actually. Brunch at Pheasant is too attractive a proposition for me not to double down on my previous recommendation.
-
Friday, June 15, 2018, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
- The Stone at the New School
- 55 West 13th Street
- New York, NY, 10011
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 15
8:30 PM
Hypercolor/New Thread Quartet
The Stone at the New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Lukas Ligeti is ever so much more than his father's son. An intriguing composer in his own right -- and an expert percussionist. Here he's the drummer in the collective jazz-rock power trio Hypercolor. Also, the New Thread saxophone quartet plays a new work by composer James Ilgenfritz, Hypercolor's bass player.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Middle Eastern food at Kubeh -- centering on the eponymous ground-protein dish (gosh doesn't that make it sound appealing?) -- really makes it.
-
Friday, June 15, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 15
7:00 PM
Majel Connery & Kristina Dutton: Hae Voces
Women Composers' Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Majel Connery and Kristina Dutton are two singer/instrumentalists in the friendly "indie classical" style whose work can be very haunting. This is their voices/violin/keyboards pop/electronica-inflected project, which should be even friendly and more haunting than usual. There's also a hint that the evening might "perhaps" include an extra related event. Hmmmmm.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Fort Greene offshoot of an LES standby,Gentleman Farmer serves attractive Mediterranean-inflected (but NOT light!) food with the expected good craft beer and natural wine selection.
-
Fri, Jun 15, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 8:00 PM
- Winter Garden, Brookfield Place
- 230 Vesey Street
- New York, NY, 10080
- United States
-
Thu, Jun 14, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 9:00 PM
- St. Mark's Church
- 131 East 10th Street
- New York, NY, 10003
- United States
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 14 - 16
8:00 PM
Joan Jonas: Moving Off the Land
DanceSpace Project
St. Mark's Church
131 East 10th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$22; $25 door
http://www.danspaceproject.org/calendar/joanjonas/
Performance legends don't come any more legendary than Joan Jonas, who pioneered video performance and installation art in the '60s and '70s. This new piece focuses on the ocean, involving video, readings from literature dealing with the sea, an installation, and music by Ikue Mori. An event.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mimi Cheng's: good dumplings.
-
Thursday, June 14, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, JUNE 14
7:30 PM
Reinier van Houdt
Modern Piano (+) Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Another opportunity to hear some music from the Wandelweiser composers' collective, which takes the quietude of Cage and Feldman and builds an entire gossamer sonic universe from it. Tonight, the pianist Reinier van Houdt plays an extended piece by Michael Pisaro. If this music connects with you, it transports you like little else.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm thinking this is another night for the charming and delightful Vinegar Hill House. If the food sometimes underachieves, the beverages and the ambiance always overperform.
-
Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Mabou Mines Theater, The 122 CC
- 50 1st Avenue
- New York, NY, 10017
- United States
THEATER
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 13 - 16
8:00 PM
Mabou Mines: This Was the End
Mabou Mines Theater, The 122 CC
150 First Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $15 students/seniors
http://www.maboumines.org/production/this-was-the-end-2/
This is a production by the venerable Mabou Mines experimental theater company that's been kicking around for a while -- and boy am I excited about it. The text is Uncle Vanya -- but performed by four Actors Of A Certain Age, decades older than the characters in Chekhov's play, vivifying the sense of perpetual entrapment that permeates the work, and layering on meditations on memory and the constant presence of the past. This is Mabou Mines, though, so this isn't a simple traversal of the (edited) text: there's a video DJ doing a live video remix of the stage action as it proceeds -- projected on a wall recovered from Mabou Mines's old demolished studio in this same recently renovated building. Audience Members Of A Certain Age will be thrilled to learn that the Actors Of A Certain Age include NYC experimental theater legend Paul Zimet as well as (!!!) Black Eyed Susan of the Ridiculous Theater Company. Mallory Catlett conceived and directs.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everybody loves Superiority Burger. So I guess my own skepticism about vegetarian hamburgers can be disregarded.
-
Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 9:00 PM
- The Performing Garage
- 33 Wooster Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 13 - 16 (continuing through JUNE 23)
8:00 PM
Alessandro Magania: Radio Delirio
The Performing Garage
33 Wooster Street, Soho, Manhattan
$20
http://theperforminggarage.org/events/alessandro-magania/
A crime manhunt story centering on the page turner at a classical music concert -- the person nobody's supposed to notice? Too literal. A reflection on self, assimilation, and the fear of inconsequence? Too dry. An antic night at the theater? Closer. Alessandro Magania's piece is directed by Geoff Sobelle, who can do no wrong.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All-day French cafe Le Mercerie is charming, adorable, and absolutely wonderful -- and just try to find a better dish in New York than their crêpes complète!
-
Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- The Brick
- 579 Metropolitan Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11211
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13 (also JUNE 19)
7:00 PM
Trav S.D.: Tall Tales
The Festival of Lies
The Brick
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
http://www.bricktheater.com/
New Vaudevillian Trav S.D. has been awfully funny for an awfully long time. This show -- mining American folklore, pop culture, and history, and Trav's own life -- deals with America's four-century love affair with being conned. No contemporary relevance there.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: As we mourn the closure of Brooklyn Star around the corner from the Brick, we soldier on to the new Pheasant:* Mediterranean food with the kinds of twists you'd expect from an alumnus of the kitchen of the absolutely bonkers Isa.
-
Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sun, Jun 17, 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, Jun 12, 2018, 6:30 PM – Sun, Jun 17, 2018, 7:30 PM
- Soho Rep.
- 46 Walker Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 12 - 17 (continuing through JULY 8)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Jackie Siblies Drury: Fairview
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65
http://sohorep.org/fairview
If you're anything like me, you see the words "family drama" and your eyes glaze over. But playwright Jackie Siblies Drury's prior works have been brutal and hilarious -- and there's no reason to doubt that, "family drama" or not, this will be, too.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tweaked-up bistro Frenchette is the best new restaurant in New York. Period.
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Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 6:30 PM – Sun, Jun 17, 2018, 7:30 PM
- Abrons Arts Center
- 466 Grand Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
-
Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 6:30 PM – Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 7:30 PM
-
Tuesday, June 12, 2018, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- Miller Theater at Columbia University
- 2690 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10025
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY, JUNE 12
6:00 PM
Olivia De Prato
Pop-Up Concerts
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2690 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/olivia-de-prato-violin
Olivia De Prato has played violin (extremely well) in a bunch of sterling New Music ensembles. Here she heads a formidable pick-up ensemble in a great program. A piece by De Prato's former bandmate Missy Mazzoli (the best young composer in New York, if you ask me). A piece by jazz-into-New Music clarinetist Ned Rothenberg (who plays in this show). A piece by Reiko Füting, whom I'd never heard heard of until a couple of weeks ago, but whose work now seems to be all over New York -- and what I've heard is really good! And more.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Caribbean/New England (but mainly Caribbean) mash-up Lolo's Seafood Shack just screams summer.
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Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 8:00 PM – Tue, Jun 12, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Bushwick Starr
- 207 Starr Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
THEATER
MONDAY & TUESDAY, JUNE 11 & 12
8:00 PM
Erin Markey: Singlet
Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.thebushwickstarr.org/singlet
A two-person piece by performance artist Erin Markey (the other person beingEmily Davis) that skips, fancifully and hilariously, through a series of relationships, most of them almost but not quite sexual. Non-stop fun! (These shows are sold out -- but I've never failed to get into a sold-out performance here off the waitlist.)
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 I guess management)! It's now called Santa Salsa! Exuberantly overloaded hot dogs! (Overloaded burgers, too!) 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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Monday, June 11, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
MONDAY, JUNE 11*
7:00 PM
New Amsterdam Records: Deerhoof/Tigue/Subtle Degrees/itsnotyouitsme/Molly Joyce/No Lands
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$12
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/ten-years-together-deerhoof-june-11th-2018/
A show marking the joint tenth anniversaries of (Le) Poisson Rouge, a longtime outer-borough showplace for Brooklyn "indie classical" music,* and New Amsterdam Records, the primary recorded repository of such music. This selection of artists definitely highlights the (here I go again) consanguinity of this genre of classical music and pop (or, to put it another way, that this is classical music written by people who are comfortable with pop music) -- leading up to a set by an actual (great) rock band (well, art punk, but whatever), Deerhoof, whose drummer is an actual classical composer. Really, this show can't be beat.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I've always thought the Italian spot Via Carota slightly disappointing. But that's only because the two chefs who run it -- Tuscan goddess Rita Sodi and French expert Jody Williams -- are so terrific that you'd hope their collaboration would go all the way to heaven. When, instead, it's just well above average . . . well, I guess it's unfair to be disappointed; this food is good. AND, it'll still be open after this rather lengthy show!
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Saturday, June 9, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Church of St. Luke in the Fields
- 486 Hudson Street
- New York, NY, 10014
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY JUNE 9
8:00 PM
C4: Water Music
Church of St. Luke in the Fields
486 Hudson Street, West Village, Manhattan
$21; $6 children 11-17; free children 10 and under
http://www.c4ensemble.org/june-2018-concerts.html
The choral composer-conductor collective C4 reliably ferrets out good and thought-provoking new choral music. So the fact that I have never heard of a single composer on this bill -- which features, among many others, three winners of a C4 composer competition -- gives no pause whatsoever.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For the Baruch show, Miami transplant Broken Shaker, the new bar on the rooftop of the Freehand Hotel, looks awesome. The cocktails may look a bit over-elaborate, but their burger -- while perhaps also over-elaborate -- looks really awesome. For the St. Luke's show, tricked-up Chinese Red Farm is another widely loved restaurant that I don't really get. But don't listen to me; everybody else loves it. I feel constrained to remind you in addition that the Church's gardens are quite possibly the most restful spot in Lower Manhattan. Go early and bring a book.
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Sat, Jun 9, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Brave New World Repertory Theatre
- 290 Conover Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11231
- United States
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Saturday, June 9, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
- East 72nd Street & Fifth Avenue
- New York, NY
- United States
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Friday, June 8, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- David Geffen Hall
- 10 Lincoln Center Plaza
- New York, NY, 10023
- United States
MUSIC/DANCE
FRIDAY, JUNE 8*
8:00 PM
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Foreign Bodies
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-55
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1718/foreign-bodies?clicklocation=hp_ue_2
What is this? The New York Philharmonic doing an evening of contemporary music from Scandinavia with multi-media presentations? Major Esa-Pekka Salonen pieces choreographed by Wayne McGregor and danced by theBoston Ballet? A brand new Salonen piece accompanied by videos by Tal Rosner? (The composer conducts the whole program -- which is a good thing since he's one of the best conductors in the world as well as one of the best composers.) A violin concerto by one of the best of the new Icelanders, Daníel Bjarnason? Where did this come from? (A guess: it's leftover from the New Music Biennial that the Phil was supposed to present this year but didn't.) It's almost . . . cool. Don't think too much: just go.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm sticking with Tom Valenti's New American comfort food spot, Oxbow Tavern.
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Thursday, June 7, 2018, 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
THURSDAY, JUNE 7*
9:30 PM
Sō Percussion: Benefit and Night of Awesomeness
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20; $300 VIP Gala tickets (including dinner, special Sō performance, reception, and party)
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/so-percussion-benefit-june-7th-2018/
Sō Percussion isn't just the best New Music percussion ensemble in New York -- it's one of the best bands in New York, period. But things are tough in the not-for-profit world, so this is their annual benefit, supporting their various commissioning and educational initiatives. It's a variety show featuring performers the band likes -- and as you'd figure, it's an eclectic and high-quality bunch, highlighting the porous border between jazz and pop and New Music/"indie classical" these days. Among them are the Nuevo Latino electronica/dance band Balún -- which happens to include Angélica Negrón, a quite wonderful composer active on the New York New Music/"indie classical" scene. And the great guitar quartet Dither. And jazz-shading-into-New Music drummer/composer Bobby Previte. And Shara Nova/My Brightest Diamond, who can't decide whether she's pop or classical (and could not seem to care less). And more!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: On the assumption that you're not really going to pay $300 for a VIP Gala ticket, you'll either want dinner before the 9:30 PM show or a late-night spot afterward. For before, Chef Harold Moore has opened a new bistro up Bleecker Street (and across the playground/park), Bistro Pierre Lapin. What with all the bistros and brasseries opening up around town, maybe the day will come when we're all sick of French bistro food -- but, speaking for myself, this is my favorite kind of food in the world, and I'm as happy as a pig in Sauce Robert that there's so much of it around now. Afterward, my late-night recommendation is Buvette -- which preceded the current French craze and remains absolutely delightful.
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Thursday, June 7, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
MUSIC
THURSDAY & SATURDAY, JUNE 7 & 9
8:00 PM
C4: Water Music
THURSDAY: Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Kips Bay, Manhattan
$21; $6 children 11-17; free children 10 and under
http://www.c4ensemble.org/june-2018-concerts.html
The choral composer-conductor collective C4 reliably ferrets out good and thought-provoking new choral music. So the fact that I have never heard of a single composer on this bill -- which features, among many others, three winners of a C4 composer competition -- gives no pause whatsoever.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For the Baruch show, Miami transplant Broken Shaker, the new bar on the rooftop of the Freehand Hotel, looks awesome. The cocktails may look a bit over-elaborate, but their burger -- while perhaps also over-elaborate -- looks really awesome. For the St. Luke's show, tricked-up Chinese Red Farm is another widely loved restaurant that I don't really get. But don't listen to me; everybody else loves it. I feel constrained to remind you in addition that the Church's gardens are quite possibly the most restful spot in Lower Manhattan. Go early and bring a book.
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Thu, Jun 7, 2018, 7:00 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 8:00 PM
MUSIC
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 7 - 10
VARIOUS TIMES
Northside Music Festival
Various Locations
Williamsburg & Bushwick, Brooklyn
Various prices
https://www.northsidefestival.com/schedule-music/
This has been a major event each year over the last decade -- but it's almost beginning to seem like a nostalgia fest, trying to recreate a time when the Northside of Williamsburg was cool and rock music had a pulse. This year's festival looks a bit constricted: no big outdoor shows in McCarren Park, less packed schedule (at least as of the time of writing). The Big Deal Show is pretty clearly Liz Phair doing Exile in Guyville (more nostalgia!) with Soccer Mommy as opening act at National Sawdust on Thursday (but good luck getting in!). Also of note are the Parquet Courts on a boat on Sunday (but good luck getting in!). A double bill of the overrated Protomartyr and the ever-fabulous Deerhoof at Elsewhere Saturday night. And -- a relief from all that rock music -- R&B rebel Shamir at a light-night show at Baby's All Right on Saturday. But really, what's fun is stumbling from venue to venue catching acts you might never have heard of before.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don't even know where you'll be. Anyway, I think you can find places to eat and drink in Williamsburg and Bushwick.
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Wed, Jun 6, 2018, 9:30 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 10:30 PM
- Green-Wood Cemetery
- 500 25th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11232
- United States
OPERA
WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY & SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 8 & 10*
7:30 PM
David Hertzberg: The Rose Elf
The Angel's Share Series
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$80
https://www.green-wood.com/event/the-rose-elf/2018-06-06/
A new opera based, fittingly, on a morbid fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, performed in catacombs underneath Green-Wood Cemetery that are not usually open to the public! What could be better? It's preceded by a tasting of local whiskeys is what (in a cheerier spot than the catacombs). What else? It's directed by R.B. Schlather, one of the more imaginative opera directors on the local scene, who will know just what to do with this space. The composer, David Hertzberg, writes in a pleasing post-Impressionist style. As you can guess, these shows are sold out (give folks a whiskey tasting and they will come). There's a wait list, though. This opera kicks off a series of vocal and chamber concerts in the Green-Wood Catacombs called The Angel's Share; as the series title indicates, the pre-catacombs whiskey tasting is a core component throughout. Watch for these!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Unless you're much hardier than me, you're not going to want to go out on any kind of rampage after the whiskey tasting. I think what you'll need is some tasty, substantial Eastern European food to soak the whiskey up. Korzo. You're welcome.
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Wed, Jun 6, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Bushwick Starr
- 207 Starr Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11237
- United States
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 6 - 10 (continuing through JUNE 12)
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM FRIDAY
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. (This run is almost entirely sold out, but (a) Bushwick Starr often extends sold-out runs, and (b) I have never failed to get into a sold-out performance here off the waitlist in any event.)
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!) 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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Wed, Jun 6, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 8:59 PM
- 466 Grand Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
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Wed, Jun 6, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 9:00 PM
- Mabou Mines Theater, The 122 CC
- 50 1st Avenue
- New York, NY, 10017
- United States
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 6 - 10 (continuing through JUNE 16)
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Mabou Mines: This Was the End
Mabou Mines Theater, The 122 CC
150 First Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $15 students/seniors
http://www.maboumines.org/production/this-was-the-end-2/
This is a production by the venerable Mabou Mines experimental theater company that's been kicking around for a while -- and boy am I excited about it. The text is Uncle Vanya -- but performed by four Actors Of A Certain Age, decades older than the characters in Chekhov's play, vivifying the sense of perpetual entrapment that permeates the work, and layering on meditations on memory and the constant presence of the past. This is Mabou Mines, though, so this isn't a simple traversal of the (edited) text: there's a video DJ doing a live video remix of the stage action as it proceeds -- projected on a wall recovered from Mabou Mines's old demolished studio in this same recently renovated building. Audience Members Of A Certain Age will be thrilled to learn that the Actors Of A Certain Age include NYC experimental theater legend Paul Zimet as well as (!!!) Black Eyed Susan of the Ridiculous Theater Company. Mallory Catlett conceived and directs.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everybody loves Superiority Burger. So I guess my own skepticism about vegetarian hamburgers can be disregarded.
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Wednesday, June 6, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6*
8:00 PM
Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Price information unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
In case you missed the performance of Rzewski's titanic spoken-word-and-music piece at the Bang on a Can Marathon last month, you now get another chance, with a band of Spectrum regulars. Also on the bill is one of London composer Louis d'Heudieres's Laughter Studies, where two performers describe and imitate sounds coming to them through headphones.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hudson Jane is a very fine all-day cafe, serving fresh, well-sourced, well-made food.
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Wed, Jun 6, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 8:30 PM
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 6 - 10 (continuing through JUNE 16)
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Friedrich Schiller: Love and Intrigue
Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$35-$110
https://www.bam.org/theater/2018/love-and-intrigue
Lev Dodin is one of the best theater directors in the world -- and one of the gloomiest. Here with his Maly Drama Theatre he presents Schiller's tragedy of class and power. Wonder why the promotional materials fail to mention that this play is the basis of Verdi's opera Luisa Miller? Lose too many cool points, I guess. I can't say I blame them.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I think you might want a few beers after this Russian gloom heaped on German gloom. Some wurst wouldn't hurt, either. Black Forest Brooklyn.
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Tue, Jun 5, 2018, 8:30 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 9:30 PM
- HERE
- 145 6th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 5 - 10 (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 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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Tuesday, June 5, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Carnegie Hall
- 881 7th Avenue
- New York, NY, 10019
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY, JUNE 5
8:00 PM
MET Orchestra feat. Pretty Yende: Ruggles/Mozart/Mahler
Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$28-$185
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2018/06/05/THE-MET-ORCHESTRA-0800PM
This is, in its way, an exemplary mainstream orchestral concert. True, there's nothing new or contemporary on the bill. There is, however, a masterpiece by the rarely played American Modern Maverick Carl Ruggles, Evocations -- conducted, moreover, by Michael Tilson Thomas, who can safely be said to play this music better than anyone else in the world. The standard rep, meanwhile, is represented by the teenaged Mozart's gorgeous (and exultant) soprano showcase Exsultate, Jubilate (the title is no accident) and Mahler's delightful Fourth Symphony, which, as I said last week, is all the more delightful for having its whimsy etched in acid. Now one reason to go to MET Orchestra concerts is that the orchestra is fabulously, world-beatingly good. But the other reason is that they poach the Met's roster for great guest vocalists. Here, the Mozart and the boy's vision of heaven that ends the Mahler will be sung by new star soprano Pretty Yende. Truth to tell, her voice may be a little voluptuous for this material (I don't hear her sounding boyish). But when faced with a voice of such sheer gobsmacking beauty, you just stop niggling and listen with overwhelming pleasure.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Chef Hemant Mathur's new Theater District restaurant, Saar Indian Bistro, stays open till 11 -- and they mean it! This place is probably not quite as fine as his previous Devi and Tulsi were -- but the menu is inventive and wide-ranging, and if you have any liking at all for Indian food, you're going to find it a neighborhood lifesaver.
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Tue, Jun 5, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 8:30 PM
- Soho Rep.
- 46 Walker Street
- New York, NY, 10013
- United States
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 5 - 10
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Jackie Siblies Drury: Fairview
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$60
http://sohorep.org/fairview
If you're anything like me, you see the words "family drama" and your eyes glaze over. But playwright Jackie Siblies Drury's prior works have been brutal and hilarious -- and there's no reason to doubt this so-called "family drama" will be, too.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tweaked-up bistro Frenchette is the best new restaurant in New York. Period.
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Tuesday, June 5, 2018, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
- Miller Theater at Columbia University
- 2690 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10025
- United States
MUSIC
TUESDAY, JUNE 5
6:00 PM
Spektral Quartet
Pop-Up Concerts
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2690 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/spektral-quartet
You'd figure a fertile New Music scene like Chicago's would feature a really good string quartet -- and Spektral is it. They bring to this recital a piece by a Chicago composer, Eliza Brown. They in turn play a piece by one of the stars of their host institution, George Lewis -- although Chicago native Lewis of course has deep musical roots in his home city by way of the AACM. Then there's a piece by another Columbia-affiliated musician, David Fulmer (whom I, for one, know as an excellent violinist and conductor, but who is an award-winning composer as well). This should all be completely absorbing -- and superbly played.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: People have been so happy with my Manna's steam-table soul food recommendation that I can't help but repeat it. The location at Fredrick Douglass Boulevard near 127th St. is the closest. And with a concert this early, you can get there afterwards before their punishing 9:00 PM closing!
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Monday, June 4, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center
- 10 Columbus Circle
- New York, NY, 10019
- United States
OPERA
MONDAY, JUNE 4
7:30 PM
Charles Wuorinen: 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) seemed like it might be more evidence of the détente-moving-to-an-entente between Uptown and Downtown. In the event, though, the dense complexity of the music prevents both narrative thrust and emotional engagement; and the music is too urban and sophisticated in affect for the unsophisticated rural milieu the opera seeks to portray. How could you see a dramatization of this story and not be moved? Now we know. (This is not an inherent problem with dodecaphony, BTW -- asBerg showed in Wozzeck.) I saw a lot of opera last week, and Clara Latham’s new opera and thingNY/Varispeed's double bill at Roulette both wiped the floor with this effort. Very good performances, though.
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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Mon, Jun 4, 2018, 7:30 PM – Sat, Jun 9, 2018, 8:30 PM
- American Ballet Theater
- 30 Lincoln Center Plaza
- New York, NY, 10023
- United States
DANCE
MONDAY - SATURDAY, JUNE 4 - 9*
7:30 PM MONDAY - FRIDAY
2:00 PM & 8:00 PM SATURDAY
Alexei Ratmansky: Harlequinade
American Ballet Theater
Metropolitan Opera House
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$22-$245
http://www.abt.org/events/harlequinade-2/
Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky may be culturally retrograde in many ways -- but he's undeniably a major talent, one of the best people working in any medium right now. He understands dance, how to order movement and gesture and to use stage space; he understands drama; and he understands comedy, too. This brand new (world premiering) piece is a restaging of an oldPetipa piece (based, obvs, on commedia dell'arte) from the time of the birth of Russian ballet. You can bet that Ratmansky will restage it with a good deal of wit, and that the result will create massive delight.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Old Skool ballet, so why not Old Skool dinner? The Leopard at des Artistes. They're having a special discounted promotional menu this week (although as far as I'm concerned it's missing a course -- but you can also order à la carte from the full menu). The paccheri with "Genvose" sauce -- a Southern Italian dish that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Genoa -- is not to be missed.
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Sunday, June 3, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Roulette
- 509 Atlantic Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11217
- United States
OPERA
SUNDAY, JUNE 3
8:00 PM
Clara Latham: Bertha the Mom
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$15; $20 door
http://roulette.org/event/clara-latham-bertha-the-mom/
A New Opera presenting a fantasized "farcical melodrama" about Bertha Pappenheim, who as "Anna O." became famous as the subject of one ofFreud's case studies. What, this piece asks, if everyone insisting that Poppenheim was "hysterical" were wrong, and she really was pregnant by herhighly respected doctor -- Freud's mentor -- as she claimed? Composer Clara Latham is very much on the pop side of contemporary classical, and this should be very entertaining.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grand Army, for excellent cocktails and decent food.
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Sunday, June 3, 2018, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- (Le) Poisson Rouge
- 158 Bleecker Street
- New York, NY, 10012
- United States
MUSIC
SUNDAY, JUNE 3
7:30 PM
New Music for Strings
LPR X: NEXT Festival of Emerging Artists
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$15-$20 advance; $20-$25 door
http://lpr.com/lpr_events/next-festival-emerging-artists-june-3rd-2018/
It's appropriate that many of the composers at an "emerging artists" would be unfamiliar. But the one "emerging" composer on the bill that I know -- Liisa Hirsch, who combines improvisatory elements into her timbrally fascinating works -- is good enough to give you confidence about the whole thing. And isn't it fun to hear pieces by people previously unknown to you? There's something of a ringer here in Brett Dean, who has a world premiere on the program but who emerged a long time ago (and is always well worth listening to). Dean's piece features Tony Arnold, an aristocrat of the New York New Music scene, on vocals -- the very opposite of an untried emerging talent!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I am so in love with everything about Bessou -- from the homey Northern Japanese food to the appealingly comfortable room to the warm friendly service -- that I'm going to keep sending you there.
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Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 3, 2018, 9:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 8th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY - SUNDAY, JUNE 2 & 3
8:00 PM SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Cantata Profana: Voi(Rex)
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$29; $34 door
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/cantata-profana-2/
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/cantata-profana/
The instrumental and vocal chamber company Cantata Profana can almost always be counted on to come up with interesting and appealing programs, and this is no exception. The program is named for a vocal and instrumental piece by the Spectralist Philippe Leroux. Let's talk for a minute aboutSpectralism,* a style of composition that arose in France in the '70s and '80s. It focuses almost solely on timbre (the way notes sound), to the exclusion of such usual musical concerns as harmony and rhythm -- and uses computer analyses of such as a basis of composition, isolating timbre from the other elements and permitting its independent manipulation. But the main thing, for this listener, isn't the science or the theory, but how good the music sounds. Moreover, for all its supposedly objective bases in computer analyses of sonic phenomena, this pungent plangent music sounds characteristically French -- suggesting that in music, at least, culture wins out. For Leroux's Voi(Rex), the ensemble will be joined by guest vocalist Lucy Dhegrae, one of the essential musicians in New York right now. But that's not all! The program also contains pieces by a bunch of genre-bending composers you like to hear, but aren't performed that much in New York: the well-known but too infrequently played (for this fan, at least) Mauricio Kagel (who often managed even to befunny), Jukka Tiensuu (who manages to be funny even though he's from Finland), and Simon Steen-Andersen, of whom it can honestly be said you cannever know what to expect (so you can't really tell if he means to be funny or not). And if that's not enough, some Guillaume de Machaut from 14th Century France, to send you out bathed in sublimity.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: OK, Philippe Leroux lives in Montreal, and the delightful Chez Ma Tante is named after a Montreal eatery, and some people mistakenly think its food is Quebecois (really it isn't). So, after this show, Chez Ma Tante it is.
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Saturday, June 2, 2018, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- St. Paul's Chapel
- 209 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10007
- United States
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Saturday, June 2, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
SATURDAY, JUNE 2
7:00 PM
Margaret Leng Tan
Women Composers' Festival
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Price information unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
It is almost impossible to speak of Margaret Leng Tan without using the phrase "doyenne of the toy piano" (and let's not forget the prepared piano as well). Any recital of hers is a sure bet. This one, part of the Women Composers' Festival being held this month at Spectrum, features pieces by, among others, fellow toy piano mistress Phyllis Chen and (this is important) the wrenching, criminally underperformed Bunita Marcus. Not to mention a reprise of the spectacularly difficult new piece by List fave Kelly Moran that Tan premiered at the Ecstatic Music Festival last month.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This should end early enough to permit a nice stroll around the Navy Yard over to the ineffably charming Vinegar Hill House.
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Fri, Jun 1, 2018, 8:00 PM – Sat, Jun 2, 2018, 8:59 PM
- 466 Grand Street
- New York, NY, 10002
- United States
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Friday, June 1, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- National Sawdust
- 80 North 6th Street
- Brooklyn, NY, 11249
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 1
7:00 PM
Brooklyn Art Song Society: New Voices
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$29
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/brooklyn-art-song-society/
Don't know how "new" Harrison Birtwistle and Kaija Saariaho are, but there certainly are no better (the post-Spectralist Saariaho is a particular favorite of mine: her music draws you in in a way that New-Music skeptics deny such music can do -- but it can, it does).* Truly new is a song cycle by West Coast composer Kurt Rohde that I just listened to: it's a good one, spiky but with underlying melodic appeal. If you want a contemporary liederabend, this seems truly fine -- especially with singing by Charlotte Mundy and Zach Finkelstein.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Maison Premiere doesn't have quite the food program it once did, but the food's still fine, the wine is fine, the cocktails are more than fine. And -- except for the fact it's always packed -- you couldn't find a more pleasing room. Good luck getting in.
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Friday, June 1, 2018, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Spectrum
- 70 Flushing Avenue
- Brooklyn, NY, 11205
- United States
MUSIC
FRIDAY, JUNE 1
7:00 PM
Gabriel Zucker: Friday at the Spectrum
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Price information unavailable
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
This is the last of the Friday night programs composer/pianist Gabriel Zucker is curating at Spectrum this season -- and, maybe it's sentimentality, but it looks like a particularly good one. There are two intriguing vocal sets: one where Zucker backs the active (for good reason) NYC New Music vocalist Stephanie Lamprea on songs by Cage, Fueting, Webern (his songs are like diamonds!), and Saariaho (about whom I overenthuse elsewhere today); and one where the jazz singer Gaya Feldheim Shorr sings songs of Connie Converse, a charming and unique sort-of-faux-naif singer-songwriter from the 1950s who (literally) vanished from sight. Instrumental offerings are an improvisatory bass duo anddrums-and-electronics. Looks really good.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I think I'm sending you to the popular pasta place La Rina tonight.
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Friday, June 1, 2018, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
- St. Paul's Chapel
- 209 Broadway
- New York, NY, 10007
- United States
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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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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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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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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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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.
