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Monday, September 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
OPERA
MONDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 & OCTOBER 5, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 16 and then again from JANUARY 8 through FEBRUARY 1, 2020)
7:30 PM MONDAY
1:00 PM SATURDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$53-$495
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/porgy-and-bess/
I'll admit to a good deal of ambivalence about Porgy and Bess. For one thing, much as I worship George Gershwin as a songwriter, when he moves out of pop forms — either in his orchestral music or in this stab at opera (OK, his solo piano pieces are marvelous) — his work becomes soggy. And then there's the issue of cultural appropriation haunting this opera like a specter. That said, who'd want to miss this Metropolitan Opera production of a major American work (no matter what reservations you might have about it) by a major American composer with a dream cast and an excellent conductor?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: P.J. Clarke's is your best bet, both from the Americana standpoint and the should-still-be-open-after-curtain standpoint.
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Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 9:00 PM
Sophocles / Satoshi Myagi: Antigone
THEATER
MONDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 6, 2019
7:30 PM MONDAY - THURSDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY - SUNDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Shizuoka Performing Arts Center
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$35-$175
http://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/antigone
Sophocles done as Noh and Indonesian shadow puppet play by a stone theatrical genius. And holy shit, how fortuitous that this should be playing right now: the parallels to our current situation here in the U.S. could not be more manifest (and, of course, could never have been intended).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After the evening shows, or for brunch before the Sunday show if you must, have light post-Nouvelle Cusine at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's old standby JoJo, at one long-ago time the best restaurant in New York.
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Monday, September 30, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Monday, September 30, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Sandalwood Box / The Fez
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 & OCTOBER 3 - 5, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 1)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$37-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-sandalwood-box-the-fez/
A genuine, single-ticket double by Mac Wellman. The Sandalwood Box deals, if not with the end of the world, with catastrophes that could lead up to it. The Fez is the first production of a play that has heretofore only appeared on a tee shirt.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Odeon, for old times' sake.
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Monday, September 30, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 & OCTOBER 3 - 6, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a world premiere by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, often writing about the end of the world. This piece, though, deals with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
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Saturday, September 28, 2019, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Andrea Lodge & Allison Adam
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2019
10:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Know nothing about the program, nor, as far as I can remember, about saxophonist Adam. But if New Music pianist Andrea Lodge has ever participated in a boring recital, I haven't been there.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fun, delicious Modern Israeli (with some Old World touches) at Miss Ada.
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Saturday, September 28, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 5:00 PM
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Fri, Sep 27, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:00 PM
Cécile McLorin Salvant: Ogresse
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 & 28, 2019
8:00 PM
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center
10 Columbus Circle, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$40-$145
https://www.jazz.org/events/t-9052/Cecile-McLorin-Salvant/
Cécile McLorin Salvant, consensus choice for best jazz singer of her generation (and the consensus in this case seems pretty hard to contravene), brings back her try at long-form composition. One sensed at the world premiere at the Met Museum last year that this piece will not be be Salvant's peak achievement in this area — but one hears that the work has tightened in subsequent performances (which it could have used). In any event, if you don't want to watch a major talent stretch, I don't understand why not. Backing by a little big band led by Darcy James Argue as well as the Mivos Quartet sure doesn't hurt.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: One thing you've got to give somewhat-overwrought-in-my-book Italian seafood spot Marea: you could do worse (and after this long show in this neighborhood, almost certainly would).
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Friday, September 27, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Constellation Chor: An Immersion in Voice, Movement, and Spirit
MUSIC / DANCE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019
8:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Marisa Michelson's Constellation Chor combines music and dance/performance in a way that isn't so much seamless as enveloping.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A Massachusetts version of New Orleans seafood boils at Cap'n Loui.
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Friday, September 27, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
OPERA
MONDAY & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 & 27, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 16 and then again from JANUARY 8 through FEBRUARY 1, 2020)
6:00 PM Monday
8:00 PM Friday
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$53-$495
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/porgy-and-bess/
I'll admit to a good deal of ambivalence about Porgy and Bess. For one thing, much as I worship George Gershwin as a songwriter, when he moves out of pop forms — either in his orchestral music or in this stab at opera (OK, his piano pieces are marvelous) — his work becomes soggy. And then there's the issue of cultural appropriation haunting this opera like a specter. That said, who'd want to miss this Metropolitan Opera production of a major American work (no matter what reservations you might have about it) by a major American composer with a dream cast and an excellent conductor?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: P.J. Clarke's is your best bet, both from the Americana standpoint and the should-still-be-open-after-curtain standpoint.
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Fri, Sep 27, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Friday, September 27, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
A Night of Women Composers: From Clara Schumann to Meredith Monk
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019
7:30 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$35
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/timo-andres-nico-muhly-samora-pinderhughes-and-national-sawdust-ensemble/
National Sawdust pulls out the stops for its season opener. The composers: Clara Schumann, Mary Lou Williams, Meredith Monk, Missy Mazzoli, Paola Prestini, Ellen Reid, and Emma O’Halloran! The performers range from indie-classical stars Nico Muhly and Timo Andres to classical-indie stars the Son Lux rhythm section — with assists from the Young People's Chorus of New York City and the newly formed National Sawdust Ensemble.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The good old Cheeseboat (Modern Georgian)/Hotel Delmano (smashing cocktails) double play.
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Friday, September 27, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Hotel Elefant: 2019 Opening Night
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019
7:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Pay what you want
https://www.hotelelefant.org/s8-opening-night
The elegant classical ensemble Hotel Elefant opens its season with pieces by soundsculptor Alexandra Gardner (whose music I love love love but never get to hear); greatest living composer Kaija Saariaho (who like Gardner — but in a totally different way — creates the most compelling textures); Totalist-back-when-that-meant-something Lois V Vierk; another interesting texturalist, Patrick Castillo; and two younger guys I've never heard of.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: We still need to see how the new chef at the marvelous Brit-inflected meatery Cherry Point is doing.
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Fri, Sep 27, 2019, 8:30 AM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 9:30 AM
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Thursday, September 26, 2019, 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Ricardo Gallo: Solo Piano
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2019
9:30 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
This List has made no secret of its affection for the music of Ricardo Gallo, the Colombian Andrew Hill (OK: he's not as great as Andrew Hill, at least not yet — but who is?).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you want to eat, hurry over to the endlessly charming and delicious Chez Ma Tante (it's always dangerous to go to a restaurant when management is turning its focus to a new venture — watch this space for news of their new place in Williamsburg — but the Chez Ma Tante guys couldn't serve a non-delightful meal if you put a gun to their heads). Or you could bag the food and head on over to Ramona for delightful cocktails.
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Thursday, September 26, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Thursday, September 26, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:00 PM
Meta–Phys Ed.: The Talmud
THEATER
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 - 28, 2019
8:00 PM
The Doxsee
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$20-$25
https://www.targetmargin.org/talmud/
Take two personal obsessions of Your Compiler: the Talmud and Kung Fu movies. Mix. Rinse. Repeat.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Can it really be 25 years since Eric Asimov of The TImes anointed Taquelitas one of the few worthwhile Mexican restaurants in Sunset Park? A lot of salsa under the bridge in Sunset Park since then, certainly. Wonder how it still is?
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Thursday, September 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Sly Horizon
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2019
7:30 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
It's a funny thing about trombone/guitar/drums — all through electronics — trio Sly Horizon: their reviews talk about how raw and uncompromising their sound is, but to us habitues of the noise avant-garde what's notable is how mellow and relaxed their somewhat spacey music sounds. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Stroll over to Coast and Valley, for a truly great selection of mostly natural California wines and lovely food that almost loves them.
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Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:30 PM
Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle / Schoenberg: Ewartung
OPERA
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 - 28, 2019
7:30 PM THURSDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side Manhattan
$29-$79
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/bluebeards-castle
Two masterpieces of Expressionist music-theater. You might say that Bluebeard's Castle explores marriage while Ewartung explores an extreme form of breaking up. (You might say also that Your Compiler should stop with the glib japery when such towering works are at issue.) Or you might just say that Bluebeard's Castle provides an almost unmatchable musico-dramatic experience, with tonal sound made to do things you didn't know it could; while the music of Ewartung captures such extreme emotional intensity that you can understand why Schoenberg soon thereafter abandoned this freely atonal Expressionism for a much more constrained idiom: you sense that he almost couldn't go on writing this stuff. This will be a semi-staged production (personally, I prefer semi- or even unstaged performances of at least Bluebeard, as the physical productions never seem to live up to the one I've formed in my head) by the Swedish stage designer Bengt Gomér. But the real casting coup is Gomér's wife as the female protagonist in the Bartók: Nina Stemme is one of the great dramatic sopranos of our time — worthy of comparison, in terms of vocal security and emotional projection, with the greats of the past.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Pan-Mediterranean at Boulud Sud.
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Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 8:30 PM
Anna Lublina: BAb(oo)shka
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 - 28, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 5)
7:30 PM
14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $15 students/seniors
https://14streety.secure.force.com/ticket/#details_a0S1R000009gYI0UAM
The playwright's actual grandmother sits on stage telling an anecdote about her life, but soon finds herself surrounded by dancers, puppets, klezmerim, and G-d knows what else. (Still better than living in Russia, I'm sure.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Smoked and smokey food at Duck's.
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Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 & 26 - 29 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a world premiere by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, often writing about the end of the world. This piece, though, deals with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
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Thursday, September 26, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Sandalwood Box / The Fez
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 - 29, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 1)
7:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$37-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-sandalwood-box-the-fez/
A genuine, single-ticket double by Mac Wellman. The Sandalwood Box deals, if not with the end of the world, with catastrophes that could lead up to it. The Fez is the first production of a play that has heretofore only appeared on a tee shirt.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Odeon, for old times' sake.
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Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:00 PM
Maria Bauman-Morales / MBDance: (re)Source
DANCE
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 - 28, 2019
8:00 PM
BAAD!
2474 Westchester Avenue, Westchester Square, Bronx
$20; $15 students/seniors
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/maria-bauman-morales/
Dancer-choregrapher Maria Bauman-Morales dances and speaks inside an installation, mainly about race and otherness (and her family, which is probably the same thing).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, it's a bit of a hike, but wouldn't you walk 20 minutes for some of the best slice pizza in all New York? I thought so: Louie and Ernie's. After the show, rib-sticking belly-filling Puerto Rican at La Cocina Boricua.
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Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 3:00 PM
Arca: Mutant;Faith
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 - 28, 2019
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$45
https://theshed.org/program/64-arca-mutant-faith
Arca is a really great electronic musicmaker (and Kanye and Björk collaborator) from Venezuela, making music that is moody, hypnotic, oddly devotional, engrossing — and occassionally even melodic. Here she collaborates with a squad of artists to create an immersive performance environment that should really be something to experience. Each of the first three nights features one part of a three-part megawork. Saturday gives audiences a look at the artist working in process in a live shoot for a new project.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Find something Spanish to eat at Mercado Little Spain.
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Jérôme Bel: Isadora Duncan
DANCE
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2019
7:30 PM
Crossing the Line Festival
Florence Gould Hall, FIAF
55 East 59th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$15-$35
https://crossingthelinefestival.org/2019/events/isadora-duncan/
"Non-dance" choreographer Jérôme Bel has that characteristic French knack for being philosphically conceptualist and hugely entertaining at the same time. Here, local Isadora Duncan specialist Catherine Gallant performs Bel's study of that Modern Dance pioneer.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to The Viand, have a turkey club (made from real, fresh turkey!) and then a rice pudding. All will be right with the world.
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Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 3:30 PM
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Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 4:30 PM
Elli Papakonstantinou: OEDIPUS: Sex with Mum Was Blinding
OPERA
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 - 29, 2019
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
ODC Ensemble
BAM Fisher
321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$30
https://www.bam.org/oedipus
Myth! Pop culture! Gender fluidity! Free will! Immersive technology! Neuroscience! All in one night!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good Persian food at Sofreh.
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Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:30 PM
Fred Frith Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 - 28, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
English alt-prog guitarist Fred Frith (once of Henry Cow — and that's just the start!) possesses one of the most interesting musical minds in the world. Even more than usual, it really doesn't matter which of this run of shows you choose to go to.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm not sure that I absolutely love new Chef Victoria Blamey's menu at the Gotham Bar & Grill — but it's worth checking out. (Note that there's a fairly priced "natural wine" section stuck at the back of the wine list, after you get good and angry at the too-young wines at too-high prices on the main list.)
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Tuesday, September 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
CupcakKe: The $10K Tour
MUSIC
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
8:00 PM
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25-$75
https://lpr.com/lpr_events/cupcakke-september-24-2019/
Chicago rapper CupcakKe is raunchy, humane, hilarious. And she's giving away a large amount of money to a lucky audience member each show on this tour!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Llama San isn't a strict imitation of Lima Nikkei food — it's more an inventive extension. It's very good, if not quite as good as the OG best — but then you can't stroll over to Lima after a show at LPR.
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Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 3:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 - 28, 2019 (continuing through JANUARY 5)
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Golden Theater
252 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$227
https://slaveplaybroadway.com/
Another corrosive play by an African-American playwright treating issues of race in a formally inventive, narratively skewed manner. It's amazing how much great theater has fit that description in the last couple of years — on the whole, the best American theater there's been. It's even more amazing to have something like this playing on Broadway. I'm skeptical of attempts to bring characteristically Downtown/Brooklyn stuff Uptown — but it would be nice for one of those attempts to succeed for once. Go.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Blue Ribbon was once exciting for re-introducing elemental brasserie-style dining to New York — and for staying open late. Now, the menus seem kind of boring — but decently late hours are rarer than ever, even in even the putative Theater District. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the The Ribbon Midtown, though, is the fancy cocktail bar underneath.
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Tuesday, September 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Robert Een and Musicians: Subtle Electric Fire
MUSIC
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/robert-een-and-musicians-subtle-electric-fire/
Cellist/composer Robert Een is perhaps best known for his music for dance pieces. But his long (former) association with Meredith Monk might give you a better idea of how his music combines immediate accessibility with great formal inventiveness. Een is accompanied tonight by an all-star (at least in New York) agglomeration of singers and players (and a special Mystery Guest!), on hammered dulcimer/vibes, reeds, guitar, cello, and vocals.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Well-received soul food newcomer Kind of Soul: I can't wait to try it!
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Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 4:30 PM
Peter Brook & Marie-Hélène Estienne: Why?
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24-29 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 6)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Theater for a New Audience
262 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$90-$115
https://www.tfana.org/current-season/why/overview
Uh-oh: a theater piece exploring the nature of theater. Well, Shakespeare did pretty well with that in The Tempest. Peter Brook is certainly one of the great theater artists of the last 50-some-odd years. And cast member Kathryn Hunter one of the best actors now onstage.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to La Caye and decide whether it's the best Haitian food in Brooklyn or just some of the best.
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Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 8:30 PM
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker: Fase
DANCE
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 - 28, 2019
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$35-$50
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/fase/
This List's Very Favorite Choreographer brings back her first work, made when she was still studying at NYU. It's set to early Steve Reich (when he was in his "phase" phase), and while it barely hints at the Expressionism with which de Keersmaeker would soon suffuse her Minimalism to create her unique style, its formal qualities are enthrallling.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's a great Jewish mash-up restaurant (Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Middle Eastern) in Buenos Aires, because why not? Now Meshiguene is doing a residence at Intersect by Lexus. As far as I'm concerned, this place is sheer heaven. I've never seen so many variations on gribenes on a menu before. And — this is, in my experience, unprecedented — you don't even feel sick after eating it!
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Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:00 PM – Fri, Sep 27, 2019, 7:00 PM
Liszt: Poetic and Religious Harmonies
MUSIC
TUESDAY - FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 - 27, 2019
6:00 PM
Adam Tendler & Jenny Lin
Angel's Share
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$85
https://www.deathofclassical.com/angelshare/liszt-poetic-and-religious-harmonies
Liszt generally wrote the kind of tawdry, showy Romantic music that's about the opposite of what this List stands for. But his latish Harmonies Poétiques e Religieuses are something else again. They tend toward austerity — but not simplicity, not forgoing Lizst's usual technical intensity (nor his harmonic adventerous) (nor, unfortunately, his sentimentality — but here it isn't rampant). As such, they're not only unlike most Liszt, but unlike most music. They're also some of the only music by Lizst that Your Compiler can stand to listen to. Emphasizing the point, here they're split between a pair of stunningly good pianists who usually specialize in modern music. Also emphasizing the point, they'll be played in a catacomb. Pulling the other way is the unlimited whiskey they'll pour you before the recital.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Neighborhood Italian at Nostro Ristorante.
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Monday, September 23, 2019, 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM
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Monday, September 23, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Charlotte Mundy / Weston Olenki & Ted Moore / Nick Dunston, Anna Webber & Rahrah Saucy
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
8:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable (should be $10 or $20)
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
A singer with a gorgeous voice and taste a mile wide. A pair of electronics guys with a good sense of fun. A jazz trio led by a brilliant bassist/composer with a fluent new-Chicago-style sax player and a singer from Venus.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Finding places that are open decently late in Greenpoint on Mondays is no easy matter. So it is not a mere lack of imagination that has me sending you back to Paulie Gee's Slice Shop. Not there's anything bad about a visit to that highly superior place. (Pro tip: if you sit at the bar in the back, you get served rather than having to bus yourself — and you avoid the wait at the front.)
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Monday, September 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Founders: Songs for the End of Time
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
7:30 PM
Five Boroughs Music Festival
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25-$45; $15 students/seniors
http://5bmf.org/founders/
This may sound disastrous: a sort of neo-baroque/folk/jazz/pop crossover songwriting chamber ensemble does an arrangement of Messiaen's titanic Quartet for the End of Time (as if you could possibly improve on one of the most transporting, distinctive, and oddly beautiful pieces of music in the Western canon) and then a bunch of songs responding to it. But I say, hey let's give it a chance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tipsy Shanghai is an unsung old Shanghainese Village spot. Their house specialty Wuxi pork ribs are almost as good as they claim they are.
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Monday, September 23, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 & 26 - 29 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a world premiere by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, often writing about the end of the world. This piece, though, deals with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
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Mon, Sep 23, 2019, 7:00 PM – Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 7:59 PM
Adrienne Truscott: Adrienne Truscott's (Still) Asking for It (A Stand-Up Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else!)
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY - WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 - 25, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 13)
7:00 PM
Joe's Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$25
https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2019/a/Adrienne-Truscott/
If anyone can take on rape culture humorously, while still maintaining a proper level of outrage, it's Adrienne Truscott.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everybody's getting all sentimental about Italian charmer Il Buco as it approaches its 25th anniversary — but what a wonderful place!
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Monday, September 23, 2019, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
OPERA
MONDAY & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 & 27, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 16 and then again from JANUARY 8 through FEBRUARY 1, 2020)
6:00 PM Monday
8:00 PM Friday
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$53-$495
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/porgy-and-bess/
I'll admit to a good deal of ambivalence about Porgy and Bess. For one thing, much as I worship George Gershwin as a songwriter, when he moves out of pop forms — either in his orchestral music or in this stab at opera (OK, his piano pieces are marvelous) — his work becomes soggy. And then there's the issue of cultural appropriation haunting this opera like a specter. That said, who'd want to miss this Metropolitan Opera production of a major American work (no matter what reservations you might have about it) by a major American composer with a dream cast and an excellent conductor?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: P.J. Clarke's is your best bet, both from the Americana standpoint and the should-still-be-open-after-curtain standpoint.
-
Monday, September 23, 2019, 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Joshua William Gelb & Nehemiah Luckett: jazz singer
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 - 28, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 12)
8:00 PM
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$26
https://www.abronsartscenter.org/program/jazz-singer/
How can you untangle the various strands of The Jazz Singer? One oppressed American minority's appropriation of the culture of another, much more oppressed American minority. Supremely good popular music. Assimilation. Blackface! This is a work that begs to be interrogated — and theater artist Joshua William Gelb and musician Nehemiah Luckett are just the guys to do it. See this in conjunction with Porgy and Bess and think about the issues the Met is eliding (to be fair, it's not wholly the Met's fault: the Gershwin Estate won't let them).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Big news! Asian fusion diner Golden Diner is now open for dinner!
-
Sunday, September 22, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Sunday, September 22, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Sunday, September 22, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Innovator Lab: Lester St. Louis
MUSIC
MONDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 22, 2019
7:00 PM
ChaShaMa
37-18 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens
$15
https://qubitmusic.com/
Cellist Lester St. Louis is another of those composer/improvisers whose music dances around the line between jazz and classical. On Monday, he does music for solo cello and electronics which will probably end up leaning slightly classical. On Saturday, he plays a set with his MODA ensemble, which includes the great improvising trumpeter Joe Moffet — that's on the jazz side.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Venezuelan gem Arepas Cafe is one of those small so-called "ethnic" places where the food is so good — so beautifully and unexpectedly flavored, so evidently well prepared — that you literally can't believe what you're eating.
-
Saturday, September 21, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Saturday, September 21, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Dudock Quartet Amsterdam: Haydn and Ligeti
MUSIC
THURSDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 & 21, 2019
7:30 PM THURSDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
Board of Officers Room, Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$65
http://armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/recital_series_dudok_quartet_amsterdam
The highly touted Dudock Quartet Amsterdam devotes a pair of recitals to Haydn and Ligeti, both of whom had ties to Hungary and both of whom, at some point during their lifetimes, were the greatest living composers of Western classical music. The first program explores polyphony, and adds (in addition to a bunch of short examples of early music, as you'd kind of expect in an exploration of polyphony) Beethoven's late Op. 130 quartet, which is one of the best pieces of music ever written. (If they're exploring polyphony, I guess they're going to play the original "Große Fugue" finale?) The second program is dedicated to dramatic Romanticism," and adds Mendelssohn's sixth and last quartet, which is not.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Donahue's Steak House: tonight we're gonna party like it's 1959.
-
Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 8:30 PM
Peter Brook & Marie-Hélène Estienne: Why?
THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 & 22, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 6)
7:30 PM
Theater for a New Audience
262 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$90-$115
https://www.tfana.org/current-season/why/overview
Uh-oh: a theater piece exploring the nature of theater. Well, Shakespeare did pretty well with that in The Tempest. Peter Brook is certainly one of the great theater artists of the last 50-some-odd years. And cast member Kathryn Hunter one of the best actors now onstage.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to La Caye and decide whether it's the best Haitian food in Brooklyn or just some of the best.
-
Saturday, September 21, 2019, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Ambient Chaos
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2019
6:30 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
For once, the program title tells you just what to expect. Go with open ears and an open mind, and relax and float downstream.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, Peruvian at Pollo d'Oro (you can just feel the owners' pride in this place). After, beer, wine, and spirits produced exclusively in New York State at Cardiff Giant.
-
Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 5:00 PM
-
Fri, Sep 20, 2019, 11:00 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 12:00 AM
Ellen Allien
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
11:00 PM
Basement, Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, Queens
$20 advance; $25 day of show
https://basementny.net/event/ellen-allien-volvox-juana/
Berlinette Ellen Allien, a giant of Berlin techno, can go micro, can go pop — she just can't go boring.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kick off the night at Gottscheer Hall, a step back in time, run by and serving a community of Bavarians who found themselves living in an enclave in Slovenia (and now in Ridgewood). You won't find better sausages in New York City.
-
Friday, September 20, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Fri, Sep 20, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, September 20, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
The Cosmic Synthesis of Sun Ra and Afrofuturism: Order Out of Chaos
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
7:30 PM
Harlem Stage
150 Convent Avenue, Manhattanville, Manhattan
$15
https://www.harlemstage.org/events-list/afrofuturism-order-out-of-chaos
An exploration of the legacy of Sun Ra as a progenitor of Afrofuturism, featuring two movies and a panel discussion, culiminating in a performance by — wait for it — Nona Hendryx, the former girl-group singer who is repositioning herself as a proponent of Afrofuturism (and more power to her), along with the amazing Brobot Johnson, an insanely funny performance artist who takes Afrofuturism out to play.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Did you know that East Village ramen pioneer Rai Rai Ken had an Uptown branch in Manhattanville? Me neither. (Hurry over if you want to eat there after the show.)
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Fri, Sep 20, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 8:30 PM
Daniel Fish: White Noise
THEATER
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 - 22, 2019
7:30 PM
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$55-$65
https://nyuskirball.org/events/daniel-fish-white-noise/
Theater artist Daniel Fish — he could not be hotter right now — brings his adaptation of Don DeLillo's Postmodernist breakout novel White Noise to New York. Is it a further irony, given the work's protagonist, that this production originated in Germany? Live music by Bobby Previte is an inducement.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm gonna keep pushing the Llama Inn guys' new Peruvian-Japanese Nikkei place, Llama San — cuz it's just so exciting.
-
Friday, September 20, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Friday, September 20, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 9:00 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 10:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 19 - 21, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
9:00 PM
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/sincerity-forever/
In this piece, which (except this Sunday) forms a sort of de facto double-bill with the separately-ticketed Bad Penny, language-drunk absurdist Mac Wellman is actually sort of about the run up to the end of the world, among the putative believers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great cocktails, OK snacks at Ward III.
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Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 4:00 PM
Meta–Phys Ed.: The Talmud
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 - 22, 2019 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 28)
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$20-$25
https://www.targetmargin.org/talmud/
Take two personal obsessions of Your Compiler: the Talmud and Kung Fu movies. Mix. Rinse. Repeat.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Can it really be 25 years since Eric Asimov anointed Taquelitas one of the few worthwhile Mexican restaurants in Sunset Park in The Times's old "$25 and Under" column? (So long ago that you can't find the review on the internet — not even in The Times's rather erratic database.) A lot of salsa under the bridge in Sunset Park since then, certainly. Wonder how it still is?
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Thursday, September 19, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
yMusic feat. Emily King
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019
8:00 PM
The Bell House
149 Seventh Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$25-$30
https://www.thebellhouseny.com/e/an-evening-with-ymusic-featuring-emily-king-64975060154/
You like to think your tastes are rigorous, but your responses to pop music can be pretty random. Why do I find Emily King's white soul-pop perky and emotionally convincing when I find most such music trivial and derivative? I really can't figure it out. Here King's a guest artist with yMusic, the redoubtable indie-classical ensemble that features in its awesome line-up the violist Nadia Sirota, one of the signal musicians of her generation.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you want something before the show, Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue has what may be the best Nouvelle 'Cue in Brooklyn. After the show, Brooklyn Heights pizza star Table 87 has opened a branch in Gowanus.
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Thursday, September 19, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Alarm Will Sound
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019
7:30 PM
Ecstatic Music
Merkin Hall
129 West 67th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35; $20 each for two or more festival performances; $162 10-concert pass
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/ecstatic-music-alarm-wil-sound-eartheater-the-hunger/
Ecstatic Music presents collaborations between alt-classical and alt-pop musicians. From this List's admittedly haughty standpoint, success or failure usually stands or falls on the quality of the pop musicians, the general quality of alt-classical being pretty consistently high. So we can have optimistic expectations for the ace contemporary classical ensemble Alarm Will Sound's performance of a piece written for them by Queens future-popster Eartheater (a/k/a Alexandra Drewchin), another artist this List thinks does the sort-of-Björk thing better than Björk does. Also on the bill is Donnacha Dennehy's cantata about the Great Irish Famine, The Hunger. Your Compiler usually enjoys Dennehy's work tremendously, but couldn't help but wonder, when first hearing this piece a few years ago, whether musical dramaticization is perhaps not Dennehy's métier.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic UWS bistro La Boite en Bois, for old times' sake.
-
Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 8:30 PM
-
Thursday, September 19, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Dudock Quartet Amsterdam: Haydn and Ligeti
MUSIC
THURSDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 & 21, 2019
7:30 PM THURSDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
Board of Officers Room, Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$65
http://armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/recital_series_dudok_quartet_amsterdam
The highly touted Dudock Quartet Amsterdam devotes a pair of recitals to Haydn and Ligeti, both of whom had ties to Hungary and both of whom, at some point during their lifetimes, were the greatest living composers of Western classical music. The first program explores polyphony, and adds (in addition to a bunch of short examples of early music, as you'd kind of expect in an exploration of polyphony) Beethoven's late Op. 130 quartet, which is one of the best pieces of music ever written. (If they're exploring polyphony, I guess they're going to play the original "Große Fugue" finale?) The second program is dedicated to dramatic Romanticism," and adds Mendelssohn's sixth and last quartet, which is not.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Donahue's Steak House: tonight we're gonna party like it's 1959.
-
Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Bad Penny
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 19 - 22, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)*
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/bad-penny/
This piece, which (except on Sunday) is effectively part of a separately-ticketed double bill with playwright Wellman's Sincerity Forever — is indeed about the end of the world. It was originally presented by the lake in Central Park and will be presented here in a courtyard; the Flea warns that performances are to proceed rain or shine, so be prepared.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy barbecue at Holy Ground.
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Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 8:00 PM
Ensemble Pamplemousse: Chance and Circumstance Festival
MUSIC
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 - 21, 2019
7:00 PM
Chocolate Factory Theater
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
$10 advance; $15 door
http://www.jackny.org/chance-and-circumstance-3.html
Fun sonic explorers Ensemble Pamplemousse curate their annual festival of new sounds. They care about expanding sonic frontiers — but they also care that everybody has a good time while doing so. Go whenever works: the entire festival line-up is worth hearing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back to starry Mexican Casa Enrique.
-
Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 19 - 22 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a world premiere by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, often writing about the end of the world. This piece, though, deals with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
-
Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ursula Scherrer feat. Marcia Bassett: time_untime
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/ursula-scherrer-with-marcia-bassett-time_untime/
The highly poetic video artist Ursula Scherrer combines pre-existing visual objects — videos, pixel paintings, texts, what have you — into a new assemblage, while multi-instrumentalist Marcia Bassett creates new sounds on analog synthesizer.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You might think an Asian-fusion bar and lounge on the rooftop of a Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Brooklyn is an iffy proposition — but Kimoto isn't bad.
-
Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Wed, Sep 18, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 8:30 PM
-
Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 9:30 PM
Matt Mitchell Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 - 21, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Matt Mitchell is a pianist with a very interesting in-and-out style. All these ensembles are promising — but Tuesday's has Craig Taborn.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm not sure that I love new Chef Victoria Blamey's menu at the Gotham Bar & Grill — but it's worth checking out. (Note that there's a fairly priced "natural wine" section stuck at the back of the wine list, after you get good and angry at the too-young wines at too-high prices on the main list.)
-
Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 9:30 PM
Kamala Sankaram: Looking at You
OPERA
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 - 21, 2019
8:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY
HERE
145 Sixth Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$25-$50
https://here.org/shows/looking-at-you/
A techno-noir look at surveillance capitalism by two masters of playful seriousness: Kamala Sankaram, one of the better young composers of vocal music out there right now, and her frequent collaborator, librettist Rob Handel. Should be great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don't know why I've been so dismissive of stylish Italian Café Altro Paradiso. It's really quite good.
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Tue, Sep 17, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 9:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 - 21, 2019 (continuing through JANUARY 5)
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Golden Theater
252 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$227
https://slaveplaybroadway.com/
Another corrosive play by an African-American playwright treating issues of race in a formally inventive, narratively skewed manner. It's amazing how much great theater has fit that description in the last couple of years — on the whole, the best American theater there's been. It's even more amazing to have something like this playing on Broadway. I'm skeptical of attempts to bring characteristically Downtown/Brooklyn stuff Uptown — but it would be nice for one of those attempts to succeed for once. Go.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Blue Ribbon was once exciting for re-introducing elemental brasserie-style dining to New York — and for staying open late. Now, the menus seem kind of boring — but decently late hours are rarer than ever, even in even the putative Theater District. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the The Ribbon Midtown, though, is the fancy cocktail bar underneath.
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Monday, September 16, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 19 - 21, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
9:00 PM
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/sincerity-forever/
In this piece, which (except this Sunday) forms a sort of de facto double-bill with the separately-ticketed Bad Penny, language-drunk absurdist Mac Wellman is actually sort of about the run up to the end of the world, among the putative believers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great cocktails, OK snacks at Ward III.
-
Monday, September 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Monday, September 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Claremont Trio
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
7:30 PM
Music Mondays
Advent Lutheran Church
2504 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free (registration preferred)
https://www.musicmondays.org/september-2019
Music Mondays kicks off what looks to be an especially good season even for them with a highly attractive concert. The passionately precise Claremont Trio — two identical twins and a pianist — plays new or newish pieces by Helen Grime, who I'm sorry to call a sort of generic contemporary-modern composer but who is yet capable of creating music of considerable appeal, and Gabriella Lena Frank, whose work is basically irresistible when, as in the piece on tonight's program, she's in Peruvian mode. The standard-rep pieces are about as good as they come: Brahms's Third Piano Trio, which is bracingly terse while still managing to be, well, Brahmsian; and Dvorak's sweet-and-sour Dumky Trio, one of those popular warhorses that actually deserve the status.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really great slice pizza at Mama's TOO!
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Monday, September 16, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Bad Penny
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 19 - 22, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/bad-penny/
This piece, which (except on Sunday) is effectively part of a separately-ticketed double bill with playwright Wellman's Sincerity Forever — is indeed about the end of the world. It was originally presented by the lake in Central Park and will be presented here in a courtyard; the Flea warns that performances are to proceed rain or shine, so be prepared.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy barbecue at Holy Ground.
-
Monday, September 16, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 19 - 22 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a world premiere by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, often writing about the end of the world. This piece, though, deals with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
-
Monday, September 16, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Innovator Lab: Lester St. Louis
MUSIC
MONDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 & 22, 2019
7:00 PM
ChaShaMa
37-18 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens
$15
https://qubitmusic.com/
Cellist Lester St. Louis is another of those composer/improvisers whose music dances around the line between jazz and classical. On Monday, he does music for solo cello and electronics which will probably end up leaning slightly classical. On Saturday, he plays a set with his MODA ensemble, which includes the great improvising trumpeter Joe Moffet — that's on the jazz side.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Venezuelan gem Arepas Cafe is one of those small so-called "ethnic" places where the food is so good — so beautifully and unexpectedly flavored, so evidently well prepared — that you literally can't believe what you're eating.
-
Sunday, September 15, 2019, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Treesearch
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2019
8:30 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Exploratory violin/bass duo compositions, starting from contemporary classical and then lighting out for the territories.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This late on Sunday in Fort Greene, it's pretty much Walter's or nothing.
-
Sunday, September 15, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Sunday, September 15, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Sunday, September 15, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Sarah Bernstein & VEER Quartet
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
If you're like me, you mainly know composer/violinist Sarah Bernstein for her work with post-rock drummer Kid Millions. Here, this post-genre musician plays with her (improvising) string quartet — which is absolutely not to say that there won't be strong jazz and even rock elements.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: My kneejerk Sunday dinner recommendation in this area: uber-cozy New American Vinegar Hill House.
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Sunday, September 15, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Robert Binet / Missy Mazzoli: Orpheus Alive
DANCE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2019
3:00 PM
National Ballet of Canada
Works & Process
Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$25-$90
https://us17.admin.mailchimp.com/campaigns/wizard/neapolitan?id=1276969
I personally don't like workshop presentations: I've been burned too often by frankly substandard, underdeveloped early versions of works that turned out, when finished, to be quite good. This piece is about to premiere in Toronto, though, so it should be pretty much ready. But another thing I don't like is seeing excerpts of complete works, especially when I haven't seen the whole work yet. That's what we're getting here, though. So, notwithstanding the excellence of choreographer Binet, the dancers of the National Ballet of Canada, the Mivos Quartet, and most especially composer Mazzoli, I'm going to cross my fingers and wait for a full performance of this piece in New York. (There will also be a panel discussion by the creative team moderated by no less a personage than Wendy Whelan — but to be perfectly honest with you, there are few things I'm less interested in hearing than what artists think about their own work.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic bistro at Demarchlier.
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Saturday, September 14, 2019, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Aïsha Devi
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
10:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/aisha-devi/
Electropop songstress Aïsha Devi presents herself as highly spiritual — but that's not what's good about her. What's good about her is that she's pop: like Björk without the musical pretensions. This Swiss performer's Tibetan-Nepalese background shows through, in the context of this music, as '60s pyschedelic raga-pop. Her videos are great, and this show will feature live A/V elements from Emile Barret. What can I tell you? I really enjoy this stuff — even if I don't take it as seriously as its creator would like.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, stop into brand-new X'ian Town: you could say that New York doesn't need yet another X'ian noodle shop — but you can also say we all can't get enough of them. After the show, excellent cocktails at Hotel Delmano.
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Saturday, September 14, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 5:00 PM
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Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 11:00 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 12:00 AM
JLin
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019
12:00 AM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$15-$25
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2019-09-13-jlin/
JLin takes the drum-based footwork style of Chicago dance music and runs with it. She makes some of the most interesting music around, taking a highly rhythmic style and making it intricate.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don't have to tell you where to go before a club show at Elsewhere, do I?
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Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 9:00 PM
Ying Liu: PIGTAIL — A Swivel Seat Stool Dance(TM)
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 & 14, 2019
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
Free ($10 suggested donation)
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/ying-liu-pigtail-swivel-stool-dance%E2%84%A2
A five-person "dance" using office chairs deconstructed into "swivel stools"!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not the closest place you could imagine — but since everyone's all about Filipino food these days, how about Filipino barbecue at F.O.B.?
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Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, September 13, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Charlotte Mundy, Laura Cocks & Amir Farid: The Divine Feminine
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019
7:30 PM
St. John's in the Village
218 West 11th Street, West Village, Manhattan
$20 suggested donation
https://www.facebook.com/events/443639782902182/
Well, if you wanted to put a program together that caters exactly to my own personal taste, this would be it: a voice (and what a voice!)/flute/piano trio playing Mozart's Exultante Jubilate, some Cage, Florence Price cuz we need to be hearing more of her, the Abbess Hildegarde(!!!!), Szymanowski (his day will come!), and local fave Gelsey Bell. I mean, could this be more enticing?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Basic diner-inspired food, but with very high-quality ingredients, at Hudson & Charles Dinette.
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Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 8:30 PM
Phliippe Quesne: Night of the Moles
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 & 14, 2019
7:30 PM
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20-$30
https://nyuskirball.org/events/philippe-quesne-moles/
I was going to rest on the promotional materials' assertion that "giant mole costumes + a punk rock band = PARTY". But, delightful and provocative as this sounds, something got me to wondering how substantial this stuff is: rack my memory as I might, I can't get myself to recall whether I saw Philippe Quesne's last piece in NYC a couple of years ago. This looks like enough fun, though, to induce me to find out. There's also a free "Parade of the Moles" through the neighborhood at 2 PM on Thursday (SEPTEMBER 12) and a full-price family-friendly version of the show, "Afternoon of the Moles", at 3 PM on Saturday (SEPTEMBER 14).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The big news in this area is Llama San, the brand-new, highly credentialed Llama Inn guys' take on Peru's Nikkei cuisine, a naturally occurring, uncontrived fusion of Japanese and Peruvian foods that resulted from the influx of Japanese immigrants to Peru starting in the 19th Century. Just to give you a hint of the possibilities here, one of the best meals I've had in the past decade or so was at the top Nikkei restaurant in Lima.
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Friday, September 13, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
UHHM / Ledah Finck / Retumbra
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Ho-hum, another night of surprising exploratory music by great players at Spectrum. Out-there jazz-rock from UHHM. Sometime Witch Ledah Finck plays music about life, love, death, hills, and bugs — "mainly bugs" — on her violin and viola. Almost folksy chamber-jazz-whatever from drumless trio Retumbra.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back to LaRina Pastaficio & Vino. Not just cuz I like it so, but cuz so does everyone I send there.
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Friday, September 13, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 9:00 PM – Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 6:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Bad Penny
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 & 12 - 15, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
9:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - FRIDAY
7:00 PM SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/bad-penny/
This piece, effectively the the second half of a separately-ticketed double bill with playwrithgt Wellman's Sincerity Forever — is indeed about the end of the world. It was originally presented by the lake in Central Park and will be presented here in a courtyard; the Flea warns that performances are to proceed rain or shine, so be prepared.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy barbecue at Holy Ground.
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Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 8:30 PM
Cyril Teste: Opening Night
THEATER
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 - 14, 2019
7:30 PM
Crossing the Line Festival
Florence Gould Hall, FIAF
55 East 59th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$65; $45 students/under 30
https://crossingthelinefestival.org/2019/events/opening-night/
What's the point, you might ask, of doing a stage version of John Cassevetes's brilliant theater film Opening Night when Ivo van Hove did one in living memory? Well, how about if you have Isabelle Adjani playing the Gina Rowlands part? And Cyril Teste, an exciting young(ish) director who combines video and live performance in a manner different from the signature von Hove video style, is no slouch either. Unfortunately, famous movie stars lead to sell-outs, so availability is limited.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Man am I going to have a recommendation for you around here soon. Until then, Vaucluse, helas.
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Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 4:00 PM
Meta–Phys Ed.: The Talmud
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 - 15, 2019 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 28)
7:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$20-$25
https://www.targetmargin.org/talmud/
Take two personal obsessions of Your Compiler: the Talmud and Kung Fu movies. Mix. Rinse. Repeat.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Can it really be 25 years since Eric Asimov anointed Taquelitas one of the few worthwhile Mexican restaurants in Sunset Park in The Times's old "$25 and Under" column? (So long ago that you can't find the review on the internet — not even in The Times's rather erratic database.) A lot of salsa under the bridge in Sunset Park since then, certainly. Wonder how it still is?
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Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 8:30 PM
-
Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 & 12 - 15 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a world premiere by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, often writing about the end of the world. This piece, though, deals with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
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Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 & 12 - 14, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - FRIDAY
9:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/sincerity-forever/
In this piece, which forms a sort of de facto double-bill with the separately-ticketed Bad Penny, language-drunk absurdist Mac Wellman treats racism and other pleasant matters in the small-town South.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great cocktails, OK snacks at Ward III.
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Thursday, September 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
NOVUS NY
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019
7:00 PM
St. Paul's Chapel
209 Broadway, FiDi, Manhattan
Free
https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/music-arts/2019-2020/season-opener
Trinity Church's contemporary classical ensemble, NOVUS NY — accompanied by Trinity's ace choir — opens its season with a set of short choral/instrumental pieces by an all-star list of contemporary composers, including among others Philip Glass, Du Yun, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Paola Prestini, Jessie Montgomery, and the current Pulitzer Prizeholder, Ellen Reid. Another perfect show for people who think they don't like contemporary classical — and you don't even have to pay to get in.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Crown Shy absolutely nails NYC (upper-)mid-priced (for NYC) dining.
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Tuesday, September 10, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 9:30 PM
Zeena Parkins Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 - 14, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
This week's residency is by Downtown harp goddess Zeena Parkins, who couldn't play an uninteresting note if you put a gun to her head. Every single show looks great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I like the food at the Brit-derived meatery The Beatrice Inn so much that I can only wish the prices were lower and the crowd less resolutely douchey.
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Tuesday, September 10, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
James & Jerome: Piano Tales No. 19
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019
8:00 PM
New York Theater Workshop, Rehearsal Studio
83 East Fourth Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25
https://pianotales.brownpapertickets.com/
The consistently perceptive and endearing performance duo James & Jerome do a night of improvised piano-accompanied storytelling, with the audience selecting three tales to be told out of a list of 10. Promises to be perceptive and endearing. Also seems to be sold out — look for cancellations and such.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Snacks included with the ticket price. For food (and wine!), Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria: never as good as Pete Wells said it was; not quite as good as it was when it opened; still kind of great.
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Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 9:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 - 14, 2019 (continuing through JANUARY 5)
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Golden Theater
252 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$227
https://slaveplaybroadway.com/
Another corrosive play by an African-American playwright treating issues of race in a formally inventive, narratively skewed manner. It's amazing how much great theater has fit that description in the last couple of years — on the whole, the best American theater there's been. It's even more amazing to have something like this playing on Broadway. I'm skeptical of attempts to bring characteristically Downtown/Brooklyn stuff Uptown — but it would be nice for one of those attempts to succeed for once. Go.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Blue Ribbon was once exciting for re-introducing elemental brasserie-style dining to New York — and for staying open late. Now, the menus seem kind of boring — but decently late hours are rarer than ever, even in even the putative Theater District. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the The Ribbon Midtown, though, is the fancy cocktail bar underneath.
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Tuesday, September 10, 2019, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Stephen Gosling: Music of John Zorn
MUSIC
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2019
6:00 PM
Pop-Up Concert
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/stephen-gosling
You know the drill by now with these Pop-Up Concerts: you sit on the stage, you grab a (complimentary) drink, you have a good time. This time, the estimable Stephen Gosling plays a brand-new lengthy piano suite by John Zorn inspired by the work of J.M.W. Turner (of all painters).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I always like to send you to the wonderful steam-table soul food–buffet at Manna's from these early Miller Pop-Up Concerts, cuz otherwise Manna's early closing times becomes obstructive. (From Miller Theater, you want the Frederick Douglass Boulevard branch.)
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Monday, September 9, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Bad Penny
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 & 12 - 15, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
9:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - FRIDAY
7:00 PM SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/bad-penny/
This piece, effectively the the second half of a separately-ticketed double bill with playwrithgt Wellman's Sincerity Forever — is indeed about the end of the world. It was originally presented by the lake in Central Park and will be presented here in a courtyard; the Flea warns that performances are to proceed rain or shine, so be prepared.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy barbecue at Holy Ground.
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Monday, September 9, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 & 12 - 15 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a world premiere by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, often writing about the end of the world. This piece, though, deals with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
-
Monday, September 9, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 & 12 - 14, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - FRIDAY
9:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/sincerity-forever/
In this piece, which forms a sort of de facto double-bill with the separately-ticketed Bad Penny, language-drunk absurdist Mac Wellman treats racism and other pleasant matters in the small-town South.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great cocktails, OK snacks at Ward III.
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Monday, September 9, 2019, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Hamid Al-Saadi feat. Amir ElSaffar
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019
6:30 PM
Blank Forms at James Cohan Gallery
48 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
Free (with R.S.V.P.)
https://blankforms.org/events/hamid-al-saadi-w-amir-elsaffar/
Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar is one of the most interesting jazz musicians out there: he perceived relationships between microtonal jazz playing and the sonorities and structures of Iranian traditional music. This is his duo with Hamid Al-Saadi, by consensus the greatest living performer of the Iraqi urban vocal form Maqam. Fascinating, compelling, seductive.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to Au Cheval and contemplate why the NYC outpost of this fatty, eggy neo-diner kind of sucks when the Chicago original was so great. Or, go the opposite way down Walker Street to Frenchette, and contemplate why that place just rules.
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Sunday, September 8, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
-
Sunday, September 8, 2019, 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Second Sundays: September
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019
12:00 - 6:00 PM
Nolan Park, Governors Island, Manhattan
Free
https://govisland.com/things-to-do/events/second-sundays-september
A whole host of interesting stuff. Among other things, sonic packrat P. Spadine turns detritus into music; Gil Kuno and Akaihirume, and then Ben Manley with Peter Zummo and Michael Evans, conduct audio and sound-art experiments; and actors perform computer-generated mini-plays.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You know the drill: plenty of food and drink on the island. Afterward, on the bigger islands, try Jean-Georges Vongericthen's new seafood spot, The Fulton, off the Manhattan ferry landing (go soon: it's quite good now — but you can just tell that in a few months it's going to suck); coal-oven pizza at Table 87 (where I've never been — but some people sitting next to me at a bar a few nights ago were absolutely raving about it) off the Brooklyn ferry landing.
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Sat, Sep 7, 2019, 11:00 PM – Sun, Sep 8, 2019, 12:00 AM
-
Saturday, September 7, 2019, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
-
Saturday, September 7, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Saturday, September 7, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Sat, Sep 7, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 8, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 & 8 (continuing through OCTOBER 14)
7:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$17-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-invention-of-tragedy/
A world premiere by language-drunk absurdist Mac Wellman, dealing not with the end of the world, but rather the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
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Saturday, September 7, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Black Rock Coalition: History of Our Future
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2019
7:00 PM
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 5th Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$40; $1 children ages 6-16
https://rsecure.metmuseum.org/event/ticket/513998?program=all&location=main%7Cbreuer%7Ccloisters&startDate=8%2F30%2F2019%203:57:55%20PM&page=9
Rock (as distinct from rock and roll) is a form of music created by Europeans and European-Americans on the basis of (stolen from, if you're feeling less charitable) African-American music. The Black Rock Coalition was formed decades ago as an attempt by African-American musicians to stake a claim to that stolen music, whose audience seemed to actively reject musicians of color. Back then, rock was a vital style that was the dominant form of pop music, so this was an important mission; now, rock is essentially irrelevant, and you almost wonder why they still bother. Still, the line-up for this show is eye-popping: three-quarters of Living Colour; Stew; Nona Hendryx; "Captain" Kirk Douglas of The Roots; Fantastic Negrito; The Family Stand; Carl Hancock Rux; Toshi Reagan. If you have any lingering affection at all for rock music, this amazing concert is unmissable.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Some friends and I were just talking about how much we like the avant-Roman pizza at PQR.
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Saturday, September 7, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Justin Cabrillos: as of it
DANCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2019
7:00 PM
Chocolate Factory Theater
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
Free (with R.S.V.P.)
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/justin-cabrillos/
Justin Cabrillos is very conscious, as a choreographer, that he is dealing with bodies in an environment. This piece, which he describes as a "kaleidoscope of trance and emotion", seems like it will go even farther.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Well, looks like the Chocolate Factory hasn't moved into its new space quite yet. Which means we can still go to the extraordinarily good Mu Ramen from the old space.
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Saturday, September 7, 2019, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
The Kinship Spaceship
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2019
6:30 PM
We Are Here Festival
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$5-$20
https://www.abronsartscenter.org/program/the-kinship-spaceship/
"Astral sounds", from punk to noise to hip-hop.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Spiritually helpful herbal elixirs will be on sale at the venue. For those of us more interested in spirits than spirituality, Chinese-oriented cocktails and bar snacks at Mr. Fong's.
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Sat, Sep 7, 2019, 4:00 PM – Sun, Sep 8, 2019, 5:00 PM
soundinitiative
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 7 & 8, 2019
7:00 PM TUESDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
TUESDAY: Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: ChaShaMa
37-18 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens
TUESDAY: $15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: $15
https://chashama.org/event/transients/
Soundinitiative, a New Music ensemble from Paris, incorporates elements of dance, theatrical presentation, and installation in its performances. In its very first U.S. appearances, soundinitiative presents works by composers local either to them or to us.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tuesday in Fort Greene, stylish Pan-Latin at Colonia Verde. Saturday and Sunday in LIC, Beja Flor is a very good, very cheery, very welcoming Brazilian charmer.
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Saturday, September 7, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
-
Saturday, September 7, 2019, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
-
Fri, Sep 6, 2019, 11:00 PM – Sat, Sep 7, 2019, 1:00 AM
-
Fri, Sep 6, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sun, Sep 8, 2019, 4:30 PM
Kamala Sankaram: Looking at You
OPERA
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 - 8, 2019 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 21)
8:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
HERE
145 Sixth Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$15-$50 Friday & Saturday; $25-$50 Sunday
https://here.org/shows/looking-at-you/
A techno-noir look at surveillance capitalism by two masters of playful seriousness: Kamala Sankaram, one of the better young composers of vocal music out there right now, and her frequent collaborator, librettist Rob Handel. Should be great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don't know why I'm so dismissive of stylish Italian Café Altro Paradiso. It's really quite good.
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Fri, Sep 6, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 7, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, September 6, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
James & Jerome: Piano Tales No. 19
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 (also on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10)
8:00 PM
fleursBELLA
55 East 11th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$45
https://pianotales.brownpapertickets.com/
The consistently perceptive and endearing performance duo James & Jerome do a night of improvised piano-accompanied storytelling, with the audience selecting three tales to be told out of a list of 10. Promises to be perceptive and endearing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The ticket price seems steep -- but it includes cocktails and snacks. If you're still feeling peckish afterward, you can be one of the first to try the revamped menu at Gotham Bar & Grill by new Chef Victoria Blamey, who did such good work at Chumley's.
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Friday, September 6, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Spectral Fridays: Piano Marathon
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Spectrum celebrates its acquisition of a Steinway D by inviting a galaxy of pianists — including, among many others, Taka Kigawa, Ethan Iverson, Eric Wubbels, Eleonor Sandresky, and, of course, series curator and all-around exemplary musician Gabriel Zucker — to come and play, well, whatever they want.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back to LaRina Pastaficio & Vino. Not just cuz I like it so, but cuz so does everyone I send there.
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Friday, September 6, 2019, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
-
Thu, Sep 5, 2019, 11:00 PM – Fri, Sep 6, 2019, 12:00 AM
Max Cooper
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
11:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20-$25
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2019-09-05-max-cooper/
Max Cooper is kind of ambient. Kind of pretty. Kind of backgroundy. And, if you're in the mood, really kind of good. This show will also feature visuals — which is a good thing, as Cooper's videos are great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Superb pasta from local grains and roasts out of a huge oven at Faro.
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Thu, Sep 5, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Sep 7, 2019, 9:30 PM
Du Yun Residency
MUSIC
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 - 7, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php?month=1
Du Yun is absolutely one of the best of the younger composers working in the United States right now. She has all the characteristics of her cohort — distrust of genre, openness to pop elements — combined with an acute sonic imagination, formidable intelligence, and emotional impactfulness. (Let's not even mention Pulitzers.) I'd give the nod to Saturday's show, featuring her skewed blues-punk (and now, apparently, World) band OK Miss. But this is another series where any night will do.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I like the food at the Brit-derived meatery The Beatrice Inn so much that I can only wish the prices were lower and the crowd less resolutely douchey.
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Thursday, September 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
J D Emmanuel / James Ferraro / Eve Essex
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
8:00 PM
First Unitarian Congregational Society
116 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
$25
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/j-d-emmanuel-james-ferraro-eve-essex
Texas hippy mystic Minimalist J D Emmanuel — who returned to performing at the beginning of this decade after an extended layoff — now gives what he asserts will be one of his last performances ever. Electronic musician James Ferraro is also pretty psychedelic — but in a more self-aware, pop way. Eve Essex is spacy rather than psychedelic — so she fits in on the other side.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you hustle, the homey Sardinian River Deli will still be serving.
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Thursday, September 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thursday, September 5, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Paula Matthusen / Spacepants
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Paula Matthusen is an electroacoustic/acoustic composer, creating eloquent architectural washes of sound. Spacepants describe themselves as a "viola, voice, and way beyond" duo — and that seems exactly right. This antic band could be your life.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If — as I am right now — you're in the mood for a nice Cali-style burger, then Bar Bolinas is just the ticket.
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Wed, Sep 4, 2019, 9:00 PM – Sun, Sep 8, 2019, 5:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 - 8, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
9:00 PM WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & SATURDAY
7:00 PM FRIDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$102; $10 student rush
http://theflea.org/shows/sincerity-forever/
In what is effectively the second half of a separately-ticketed double-bill with Bad Penny, Wellman treats racism and other pleasant matters in the small-town South.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great cocktails, OK snacks at Ward III.
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Wed, Sep 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Sep 8, 2019, 9:00 PM
The HawtPlates: Waterboy and the Mighty World
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 - 8, 2019
8:00 PM
Bushwick Starr
207 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.thebushwickstarr.org/waterboy-and-the-mighty-world
The family trio The HawtPlates examines the fraught relationship between people of color and law enforcement in America through the lens of the historical figure Bass Reeves, one of the first U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi and the first one who was African-American, period. Unfortunately, also through the lens of the folky music of Odetta (great politics — but that insipid music). The HawtPlates are sharp and eclectic enough, though — they also promise Korean Pansori, Mantra, dirge, Gospel, and experimental R&B — that the earnest folk music shouldn't be too much of a problem.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Turk's Inn recreates the premier Middle-Eastern supper club in Hayward, Wisconsin. The dining room is a blast and a half. If only the food were better . . . .
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Wed, Sep 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – Thu, Sep 5, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Wednesday, September 4, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Dave Douglas feat. Charles Tolliver: A Homage to Booker Little
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
7:30 & 9:30 PM
Festival of New Trumpet Music
Jazz Standard
116 East 27th Street, NoMad, Manhattan
$30 per set; $100 Festival Pass (good for one set)
https://fontmusic.org/event/20190904/
Booker Little was a very great jazz trumpeter from the early '60s, moving from a heavy Clifford Brown influence (I mean, why not the best?) to an in-and-out style Little developed before such an approach had been codified — until his life was cut tragically short by disease at the shocking age of 23. What could be more exciting than a tribute to Little by Dave Douglas, maybe the premier trumpet player on the current jazz scene? How about a guest appearance by Charles Tolliver, a fixture of the loft jazz scene in the New York '70s whose work sounds even better now, in retrospect, than it did then? Lots of other good horn players — and a Cadillac rhythm section.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don't like to keep repeating myself. But when a venue is right around the corner from a place as awesome as The NoMad Bar, what can I do?
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Wed, Sep 4, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sat, Sep 7, 2019, 8:00 PM
DANCE NOW
DANCE
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 - 7, 2019 (also on SEPTEMBER 26, 2019)
7:00 PM
Joe's Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$25 advance; $30 door
https://publictheater.org/Tickets/Calendar/PlayDetailsCollection/Joes-Pub/2019/D/DANCE-NOW-Festival-and-Encore/?SiteTheme=JoesPub
A staggering array of contemporary choreographers presents samples from things they're working on. As always with a festival like this, any night is worth attending. But special note must be made of Friday's show, whose long line-up includes both the playful Post-Modernist Doug Elkins and the psychologically acute, theatrical-but-non-narrative Kate Weare.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fresh, stylish Thai seafood at Fish Cheeks.
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Wed, Sep 4, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 8, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Bad Penny
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 - 8, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & SATURDAY
9:00 PM FRIDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$102; $10 student rush
http://theflea.org/shows/bad-penny/
The Flea kicks off its season-long tribute to "the Macs" — Flea co-founder Wellman (last name) and fellow Mac Taylor (first name) — with a revival of a short piece by Wellman, a language-drunk absurdist who makes existential and political despair fun, about the end of the world (actually a lot of his plays are about the end of the world). This piece — which forms a sort of de facto separately-ticketed double bill with Wellman's Sincerity Forever — was originally presented by the lake in Central Park and will be presented here in a courtyard; the Flea warns that performances are to proceed rain or shine, so be prepared.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fancy barbecue at Holy Ground.
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Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
A Night for Laurie Frink: Chloe Rowlands / Zen Demon Snaps
MUSIC
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2019
8:00 PM
Festival of New Trumpet Music
Threes Brewing
333 Douglass Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$10; Festival Pass $100
https://fontmusic.org/event/20190903/
A commemoration of the progressive big band trumpeter/pedagogue Laurie Frink. The reconvened Zen Demon Snaps ensemble revisits the highly exploratory music it made with Frink at the first iteration of this Festival in 2003. Chloe Rowlands brings some new music for trumpet, rhythm, voice, and "effects".
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You don't have to leave Threes Brewing, with their own good beer and food by The Meat Hook.
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Tue, Sep 3, 2019, 7:30 PM – Thu, Sep 5, 2019, 8:30 PM
Resonant Bodies Festival
MUSIC
TUESDAY - THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 - 5, 2019
7:30 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$20 per night; Festival Pass $50-$75
https://roulette.org/genre/resonant-bodies-festival/
https://roulette.secure.force.com/ticket/#sections_a0F1R00000RlyqCUAR
The Resonant Bodies Festival is it: the best way I know to catch up on the (no longer quite) new genre-defying audience-friendly kind of New Music afoot in the world (and most particularly the world's epicenter, Brooklyn). Music that can surprise, even startle, you with its formal and tonal adventurousness — but that will almost always draw you right in. Music that is accessible to anyone who enjoys any of the more advanced forms of current pop — and whose creators and performers listen to that kind of music as well. It probably helps that the Festival focuses on vocal music, since the human voice seems to make even abstruse music relatable (although little of this music really isabstruse). As always, each night of the Festival gives three different vocal performers their heads for a 45-minute set each (hmmmm, looks like this year it's down to 30 minutes each). This year's edition edges closer than before to the Classical Music Mainstream, including two Certified Opera Stars — which would be a cause for concern, if not for the nearly flawless taste of the Festival's organizers. So Mainstream Opera fans can see two particularly adventurous denizens of the Met roster: the questing counter-tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo on Tuesday and — skip this at your own risk — star mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe doing a tenorino drag show on Thursday. Wednesday, meanwhile, gives you a chance to hear two of the very best proponents of the kind of New Music I've been talking about: Kate Soper and Ted Hearne. And the other equally exploratory performers filling out each night's bill are all quite compelling in their own rights (I mean: the shimmering Arooj Aftab backed by Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily????!!!!!!!). To tell the truth, my strong advice is: go all three nights. You will NOT be sorry.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: To be completely candid, I don't much like eating and drinking before a show: you lose concentration, you can get sleepy. I prefer to drink and dine afterwards. Multitudes disagree with me, though (they're wrong, of course). Before these shows, the Festival has arranged a $50 prix-fixe at one of the very best nearby places, the Grand Army Bar (many may find the chosen menu a bit on the light side, though — which could solve the concentration/staying awake problem, but not the "I want dinner" problem). After the shows, the Resonant Bodies crew decamps to local bar the Hollow Nickel, which will feature a couple of dedicated cocktails created for the Festival (one of them concocted by notional tenorino Blythely Oratonio!). The company, if not the food and drink, will be great.
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Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
soundinitiative
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 7 & 8, 2019
7:00 PM TUESDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
TUESDAY: Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: ChaShaMa
37-18 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens
TUESDAY: $15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: $15
https://chashama.org/event/transients/
Soundinitiative, a New Music ensemble from Paris, incorporates elements of dance, theatrical presentation, and installation in its performances. In its very first U.S. appearances, soundinitiative presents works by composers local either to them or to us.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tuesday in Fort Greene, stylish Pan-Latin at Colonia Verde. Saturday and Sunday in LIC, Beja Flor is a very good, very cheery, very welcoming Brazilian charmer.
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Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Cantata Profana: John Taylor Ward
MUSIC
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2019
7:00 PM
Joe's Pub, Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street, NoHo, Manhattan
$15
https://www.publictheater.org/Tickets/Calendar/PlayDetailsCollection/Joes-Pub/2019/C/Cantata-Profana/?SiteTheme=JoesPub
The Early/New Music vocal/instrumental ensemble Cantata Profana are some of New York's canniest programmers; anything they put on is worth considering. This show centers on the talents of bass-baritone John Taylor Ward (with an assist from the absolutely wonderful soprano Molly Quinn), who will sing a program comprising Medieval and folk, backed by violin/recorders-winds/lute-guitar-banjo.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Joe's Pub has a $12-food or two-drink minimum. The food, while not actively bad, isn't really worth spending money on. So drink your minimum, and grab a bite at the delightful all-day Mexican café Atla.
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Monday, September 2, 2019, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Natacha Diels & Sam Scranton: I Love Myself Fully and Unconditionally
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Building 10A, Nolan Park, Governors Island, Manhattan
Free
http://www.harvestworks.org/aug-24-25-31-sept-1-and-2-i-love-myself-fully-and-unconditionally-by-natacha-diels/
An installation in which visual effects subtly transform the interior of a house into . . . something else. Visitors are led on individual guided tours, starting at five-minute intervals throughout the day and lasting about half an hour. The composers, Natacha Diels and Sam Scranton, are both very good at transforming sounds into . . . something different. They promise this piece will be optimistic and life-affirming (which is not what you usually get from either of them). To me, it was only the inclusion of a Velvet Underground reference amid a plethora of references to truly crummy rock and pop songs that made me begin to think it might all have been sufficiently sarcastic.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Plenty of food and drink available on Governors Island(let me put in a special plug of the loaded Venezuelan hot dogs at Perros y Vainas). Afterward, stop for cocktails at Dead Rabbit near the ferry landing in Manhattan or The Long Island Bar near the landing in Brooklyn. (Watch out for odd Labor Day hours, though.)
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Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Sep 1, 2019, 6:00 PM
Natacha Diels & Sam Scranton: I Love Myself Fully and Unconditionally
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 2)
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Building 10A, Nolan Park, Governors Island, Manhattan
Free
http://www.harvestworks.org/aug-24-25-31-sept-1-and-2-i-love-myself-fully-and-unconditionally-by-natacha-diels/
An installation in which electronic effects subtly transform the interior of a house into . . . something else. Visitors are led on individual "guided tours", starting at five-minute intervals throughout the day and lasting about half an hour. The composers, Natacha Diels and Sam Scranton, are both very good at transforming sounds into . . . something different. They promise this piece will be optimistic and life-affirming (which is not what you usually get from either of them).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Plenty of food and drink available on Governors Island. Afterward, stop for cocktails at Dead Rabbit from the Manhattan ferry landing and The Long Island Bar from the Brooklyn.
