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Thursday, October 31, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Halloween Live Score & Party
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019
8:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25 film screening; $30 after-party
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/ricardo-romaneiro-little-cinema-halloween
Foundational silent German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one great movie — and Ricardo Romaneiro has composed (and performs live with an ensemble) a terrific score for it, drawing on classical and electronica (to the extent those two genres can be distinguished). Then, there's a separately-ticketed Halloween after-party, featuring sound and visuals by Brian Close and Soundwalk Collective, and a performance by avant-synth-popster Vandana.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before, carb up with some hand-pulled noodles at Xi'An Town. After, chill with some cocktails at Hotel Delmano.
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Thursday, October 31, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Nov 3, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Sandalwood Box / The Fez
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28 & OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 3, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 4)
7:00 PM MONDAY & 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 double bill of new plays 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, Oct 30, 2019, 8:00 PM – Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 9:00 PM
Sleater-Kinney
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30 & 31, 2019
8:00 PM
WEDNESDAY: Kings Theater
1027 Flatbush Avenue, Flatbush, Brooklyn
THURSDAY: Hammerstein Ballroom, Manhattan Center
311 West 34th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
WEDNESDAY: $47.50-$62
http://www.kingstheatre.com/calendar/sleater-kinney/sleater-kinney/
THURSDAY: $49-$50
https://mc34.com/upcoming/#event=30644153
I was really going to pass on this. Sleater-Kinney has taken to using road musicians, which for a punk band is truly unacceptable. Their sparkplug drummer just quit the band over the change in direction evidenced by its new album. And, yeah, that album: the first time I listened to it, I didn't like it at all. Too structured, too constricted, too pop. But I like structured pop music, and maybe you no longer feel like playing like wildwomen into your middle age. Over the last several weeks, it's grown on me. Team leaders and remaining members Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker are smart: socially, politically, and emotionally perceptive; verbally adept. And the poppy, newly eclectic music is smart, too. As between these two shows, I myself can't imagine preferring the Hammerstein Ballroom to the Kings Theater — but my father's house has many mansions.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: For Kings Theater, if only nearby Peppa's had jerk pork along with its supernal jerk chicken, it would be the best thing in the universe instead of just the best thing in Flatbush/Prospect Lefferts Gardens. For Hammerstein Ballroom, I hate to say it, but Hudson Yards' Mercado Little Spain — and in particular Leña — might be your best bet.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
TEEN
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
8:00 PM
Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com/shows/detail/380189-teen-final-show
The Lieberson girls will always be sisters — but after tonight they'll no longer be bandmates. This is the final show of TEEN, which for the last decade has been one of the best rockish bands around. They had good songs, good arrangements, a good synthpopy/even-R&B-almost neo-Talking Heads kind of rock sound. It's a pity to see them go. I'll be the old guy sobbing in the back.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: And then you can go drown your sorrows with cocktails and oysters at Hotel Delmano.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Max Johnson Trio / Sly Horizon
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
8:00 PM
Balboa Restaurant
1655 Bedford Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
https://www.facebook.com/events/2612763328768519/
Max Johnson is a good bassist/composer, but it's especially nice that he has Anna Webber, that gem of the Brooklyn jazz scene, on sax. Sly Horizon plays surprisingly listenable improvised electroacoustic music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Well, Balboa is a Caribbean(-American) restaurant and bar itself. But I'd say the power play here is to drink at Balboa during the show but to eat beforehand at The Food Sermon for some of the best (and most distinctive) Caribbean in town.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
MACE (Mannes American Composers Ensemble)
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
7:30 PM
John L. Tishman Auditorium, The New School
66 West 12th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
Free (R.S.V.P. requested)
https://events.newschool.edu/event/mace_mannes_american_composers_ensemble_with_david_fulmer_conductor_1365
Pieces by two British New Complexiteers: Brian Ferneyhough, the most recondite of the lot, and Michael Finnissy, the most sensuously appealing (and if you don't think the phrases "New Complexity" and "sensously appealing" can appear in the same sentence, then you haven't been listening to enough Finnissy). A piece by Unsuk Chin, who combines Modernism with sensual appeal in a wholly different way (and is on the verge, I think, of attaining actual popularity, as she deserves). And a world premiere by the young Iranian composer Bahar Royaee, who leaves all that Modernist stuff behind and creates new sounds.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Getting chilly. Time to go to the Beatrice Inn and spend immense amounts of money on MEAT.
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Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Nov 3, 2019, 4:00 PM
Ben Kidde & Bush Mukarzel: Hamnet
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 3, 2019
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Dead Centre
Next Wave Festival
BAM Fisher
321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.bam.org/hamnet
This Irish play takes off on Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son, who died at age 11, and about whom virtually nothing is known. The catch is, these guys have to do it better than Neil Gaiman.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This will end early enough to give you time to get to the marvelous Persian restaurant Sofreh — if you can snag a table.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Jen Shyu: Zero Grasses
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
7:00 PM
John Zorn's Stone Commissioning Series
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/jen-shyu/
Jen Shyu is one of those scarily accomplished people: she speaks something like 10 languages, and she's trained in classical violin and piano, as well as opera singing and ballet. She initially emerged as an exotic singer with progressive jazz bands; she then took up several Asian string and percussion instruments and started creating these unique quasi-theaterical shows that draw on her ballet training as well as her wide-ranging vocal and instrumental skills and her immersion in various Asian cultures. These pieces are usually deeply felt as well as sonically and visually arresting. If you haven't seen Shyu, you should.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sardinia in Williamsburg at the charming and homey D.O.C. Wine Bar.
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Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Nov 2, 2019, 9:30 PM
The Stone Residencies: Trevor Dunn
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 2, 2019
8:30 PM
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
http://www.thestonenyc.com/calendar.php?month=1
Bassist Trevor Dunn started out playing avant-rock and then went outward from there. Any of these nights is worth your attention.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Victoria Blamey's revivification of the Gotham Bar & Grill remains the place to eat around here. I continue to prefer the bar menu to the dining room menu — and also continue to urge you look at the end of the wine list for the natural wines section instead of at the preceding pages of overpriced and underaged unnatural wines.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
OPERA
TUESDAY OCTOBER 29, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
8:00 PM
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$445
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/orfeo-ed-euridice/
Gluck's reform opera is genuinely touching (even if he forces on a stupid happy ending) and has at least one really great aria — and Gluck's rather hieratic style is perfect for retelling of timeless myth. Mark Morris's whimsical-but-stark-when-it-needs-to-be production is one of the Met's current best (not the competition is fierce). Bi heroine and rising-star mezzo Jamie Barton assumes the role of Orfeo; fan favorite Hei-Kyong Hong is Euridice.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Best of all, this opera is SHORT; for once you don't have to worry about finding someplace to eat and drink afterward. Let's celebrate by going to Boulud Sud for pan-Mediterranean.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Aaron Burnett & The Big Machine: Compound Gravity
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/aaron-burnett-presents-compound-gravity/
The sharp young saxophonist/composer Aaron Burnett and his Big Machine quintet promise music that combines classic jazz, modern jazz, serial composition, world music, Drum and Bass, hip-hop, electronics, and more.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grand Army Bar: the cocktails are great and the food is better than you'd expect.
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Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Nov 3, 2019, 3:00 PM
Barbara Hammond: Terra Firma
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 3, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
8:00 PM TUESDAY
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The COOP
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$36-$96; $16 students
https://www.thecoopnyc.org/terra-firma
The COOP, a spin-off company from Bedlam, will further foster that company's stripped-down approach to staging and dedication to entertaining cultural progressivism. This piece portrays the building of a tiny tiny nation-state on an abandoned aircraft platform off Essex.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming Korean at Her Name Is Han.
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Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:30 PM – Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 8:30 PM
Zauberland
MUSIC / THEATER
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29 & 30, 2019
7:30 PM
White Light Festival
Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College
524 West 59th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$35-$75
http://www.lincolncenter.org/white-light-festival/show/zauberland
Schumann's Dichterliebe (to marvelous texts by Heine) is the greatest Austro-German Romantic song cycle that isn't by Schubert — or maybe the greatest that isn't Winterreise. Here, it's surrounded by new songs by the organist/composer Bernard Foccroulle (to texts by Martin Crimp, who's on a roll) and theatricalized to address, instead of the vicissitudes of love, the circumstances of Middle Easterners trying to immigrate to a magic land that one presumes stands for Europe. When the singing is by the biting, incandescent Julia Bullock, and the piano-playing is by the eloquent, precise Cedric Tiberghien, you know you don't have to worry about musical values.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Taboon — named for its magnificent wood-fired oven — has been superseded by other Modern Israeli restaurants in New York. But they aren't down the street from John Jay College.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Unheard-of // Ensemble: Trios
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
7:30 PM
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15; $10 students
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/unheard-of
An evening of trios for clarinet, violin, and cello by members of yet another excellent New Music ensemble. The Old Modern side is upheld by really terrific pieces by Elliot Carter and Ursula Mamlok (pay attention to Mamlok: she's the best High Modern composer you've never heard of). The new side is led by Du Yun, surely one of the very best exponents of The Current Tendency Of Contemporary Classical Music (dealing with everyday concerns, taking textures from pop blahblahblah).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Zhen Wei Fang's hot pots are slightly tarted up — but don't worry too much when they start calling them "fusion"; they're quite good anyway.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Christian Gerhaher: Mahler Songs
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
7:30 PM
White Light Festival
Alice Tully Hall
1941 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$45-$90
http://www.lincolncenter.org/white-light-festival/show/mahler-songs
This List only recommends standard rep concerts/recitals when they're really special. Well, this one is. When you think of great classical vocalists, you tend to think there was some past Golden Age that can never be recaptured. Well, I'm here to tell you that Christian Gerhaher is a better singer of Austro-German Romantic song than anyone else I've ever heard, live or on record (including the most historical of historical records). He has all the attention to detail and interpretive acuity of a Fischer-Dieskau — but none of the mannerism, instead singing in a direct manner accessible to pop as well as classical fans. To ice the cake, the connection he has forged with his longtime accompanist/school friend Gerold Huber verges on the telepathic. Past experience has shown that Mahler is a perfect playground for these guys.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Elegant Southern Italian in a spectacular room at The Leopard at des Artistes.
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Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Nov 3, 2019, 2:00 PM
Desi Moreno-Penson: Ominous Men
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 3, 2019
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
MultiStages
14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$35-$45; $15 students/seniors
https://14streety.secure.force.com/ticket/#details_a0S1R000009gYRPUA2
Race, class, and the toxic masculinity inequality engenders explored by means of Dark Gothic and Magical Realism — in the basement of a derilect abandoned Grand Concourse hotel in 1977!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hearty Albanian Dua Kafe is ready for its closeup.
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Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:00 PM – Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 8:00 PM
Tina Satter: Is This A Room
THEATER
TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 - 30 & NOVEMBER 1-3 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Half Straddle
Vineyard Theater
108 East 15th Street, Gramercy, Manhattan
$45-$100
https://www.vineyardtheatre.org/is-this-a-room/
How amazing is it that the Air Force linguist charged with leaking information of Russian interference with the 2016 election is named Reality Winner? You almost have to write a play about her. Tina Satter stages the verbatim transcript of the FBI's incursion into Winner's home and the ensuing interrogation. As anyone who saw this piece at The Kitchen in January will tell you, it's rather chilling.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Speaking for myself, I prefer the light snacks and great sherry list at Bar Jamon to the heavier-than-you'd-ever-see-in-actual-Spain fare at its next-door big brother Casa Mono.
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Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
counter)induction: Music of Jessica Meyer
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
6:00 PM
Pop-Up Concerts
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
MFree
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/counterinduction
Counter)induction, expert players of gnarly New Music, showcase the gnarly (but lyrical) music of their own violist, Jessica Meyer. As always at these free Pop-Up Concerts, you grab a free beverage and sit on the stage. It's fun (this time gnarly fun).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Also as always, I'm going to very strongly recommend that you take advantage of the Pop-Up Concert's early finish and visit the Frederick Douglass Boulevard branch of the wonderful soul food steamtable Manna's — before its own usually-too-early closing time.
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Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 7:30 AM – Sun, Nov 3, 2019, 8:30 AM
Zawe Ashton: for all the women who thought they were Mad
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 3, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 24)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65
https://sohorep.org/for-all-the-women-who-thought-they-were-mad
New York is getting a taste of Zawe Ashton's amazing acting chops in Betrayal; now we can sample her playwrighting as well. If someone this awesomely talented feels herself blocked because she's female, well . . . .
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Frenchette STILL roolz.
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Monday, October 28, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Monday, October 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bushwick Improvised Music Series
MUSIC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019
7:00 PM
Downstairs@Bushwick Public House
1288 Myrtle Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
https://gaucimusic.com/bushwick-series#FSContact1
Another marathon night of improvised music in Bushwick. I'll just note the presence of the rather awesome guitarist Anders Nilsson toward the middle of the program.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Well, you're in a bar, so you don't have to worry much about drinking. Eating, it's unfortunate how many of my faves in the immediate area are closed Monday. Before the show, why not stop at Ops for pizza and great wine?
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Monday, October 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
A Night with George Crumb
MUSIC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2019
7:00 PM
Chris Grymes Open G Series
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$29
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/george-crumb-birthday-celebration/
George Crumb is an original. He doesn't belong to any school and doesn't sound like anyone else. His compositions employ extended vocal and instrumental techniques — but always in the interest of creating interesting sonorities and textures; his music is always good to listen to. Tonight, in celebration of Crumb's 90th birthday last week, we'll hear one of his very best pieces, the Lorca setting Night of Four Moons (a response to the Apollo 11 moon landing) for mezzo, banjo, flute, electric cello, and percussion: you haven't heard anything like it. There'll also be a new short film about Crumb by Zac Nicholson.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Vinnie's isn't the best pizza in Brooklyn, or even Williamsburg. But it's far from the worst. Avoid their more elaborate creations, though.
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Monday, October 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Nov 3, 2019, 4:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
MONDAY - WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28 - 30 & NOVEMBER 1 - 3, 2019 (continuing through JANUARY 5)
7:00 PM MONDAY & TUESDAY
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
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, when you can’t walk down the street without stepping in bone marrow, 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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Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Nov 3, 2019, 8:00 PM
Kristen Kosmas & Leon Finley: The People's Republic of Valerie, Living Room Edition
THEATER
MONDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 3, 2019
TIME DISCLOSED UPON TICKETING
Location disclosed upon ticketing
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$20
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/kristen-kosmas-leon-finley/
Seattle multidisciplinary artists/theater-makers Kristen Kosmas and Leon Finley explore the horrible political state of the world in a Fort Greene living room. It's sold out — even in Fort Greene, living rooms have limited seating — but watch for cancellations and last-minute availability.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The good-time jolt of Modern Israeli Miss Ada might be just what you need.
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Monday, October 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Sandalwood Box / The Fez
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28 & OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 3, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 4)
7:00 PM MONDAY & 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 double bill of new plays 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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Sunday, October 27, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Sunday, October 27, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Capella Pratensis: A Renaissance Masterpiece: Jacob Obrecht's "Missa Maria Zart"
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2019
4:00 PM
Music Before 1800
Corpus Christi Catholic Church
529 West 121st Street, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$10-$55
https://mb1800.org/concert/cappella-pratensis-3/
Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer Jacob Obrecht's music was very popular and influential in his time, although it was overshadowed by Josquin's after Obrecht's death (now there's a sentence that'll be comprehensible only to Renaissance vocal devotees). It's true that Obrecht's music makes the listener work more than that of the other Renaissance greats: it's very structured, and very complex. And the Missa Maria Zart is the most structured and complex of all his works. But in this case, the complexity takes on an aural life of its own, resulting in an almost phantasmagorical sound that's unlike anything else in Renaissance vocal music. The excellent Dutch ensemble Cappella Pratensis, combining deep learning with staggering vocal accuracy, should put it across splendidly.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Newly reopened Eritrean Massawa.
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Sunday, October 27, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
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Sunday, October 27, 2019, 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tina Satter: Is This A Room
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY & SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 - 25 & 27, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Half Straddle
Vineyard Theater
108 East 15th Street, Gramercy, Manhattan
$45-$100
https://www.vineyardtheatre.org/is-this-a-room/
How amazing is it that the Air Force linguist charged with leaking information of Russian interference with the 2016 election is named Reality Winner? You almost have to write a play about her. Tina Satter stages the verbatim transcript of the FBI's incursion into Winner's home and the ensuing interrogation. As anyone who saw this piece at The Kitchen in January will tell you, it's rather chilling.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Speaking for myself, I prefer the light snacks and great sherry list at to the heavier-than-you'd-ever-see-in-actual-Spain fare at its next-door big brother Casa Mono.
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Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:30 PM
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Saturday, October 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Nathalie Joachim & Spektral Quartet: Fanm d'Ayiti
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019
7:30 PM
Ecstatic Music
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$25; $20 per concert for 2+ Ecstatic Music shows
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/ecstatic-music-nathalie-joachim-spektral-quartet-fanm-dayiti/
Composer/flautist/singer Nathalie Joachim (she does popish stuff! she co-leads Eighth Blackbird!) uses music to explore her Haitian background in ways that are sonically fetching and intellectually interesting. Here, she and Chicago's commanding Spektral Quartet perform a long-form piece for flute, voice, and string quartet about women in Haiti, incorporating tapes of the composer's grandmother and a local Haitian girl's choir (you'll wish the choir stuff would never end) and arrangements of Haitian popular song.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Just noticed French wine spot Le Pif on Broadway. It looks nice enough. Wonder if it's any good?
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Saturday, October 26, 2019, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
TENET Vocal Artists: The Secret Lover: Strozzi@400
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019
6:00 & 8:00 PM
House of the Redeemer
7 East 95th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$50
https://tenet.nyc/201920/strozzi-400
We don't perform Venetian Baroque composer Barbara Strozzi now because she's female; we perform her because so excellent a composer would have been ignored so long only because she was marginalized on grounds such as gender. In this celebration of the quadricentennial of Strozzi's birth, you can count on the sterling TENET vocal/instrumental ensemble to do this excellent music justice.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You think of Venetian Baroque, you think of beer and cheese: Earl's (and don't forget the adjacent Guthrie Inn for cocktails!).
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Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 5:00 PM
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Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 8:30 PM
BalletCollective & The Knights: Faraway
DANCE
WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 & 25 - 26, 2019
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center
29 Jay Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
$20-$75; $12 students
https://balletcollective.com/tickets
BalletCollective was started by City Ballet dancer Troy Schumacher to showcase his choreographic activities, as well as those of like-minded choreographers working in the contemporary ballet field. He gets dancers from City Ballet to dance with him — and always has great collaborators on his artistic teams. On this program, BalletCollective is joined by Brooklyn's favorite chamber orchestra, The Knights. Two world premieres, choreography by Schumacher and Preston Chamblee to new music by Judd Greenstein and Paul Moravec (I TOLD you Schumacher gets great collaborators). Also, existing pieces by Gabrielle Lamb to music by people like Juliana Barwick, Caleb Burhams, and Geörgy Kurtág (be still my heart). On Wednesday, you can pay $250-$1000 to pretend to be friends with the artists afterward.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Instead, go to Celestine and make your own fun, what with the fabulous river views and good Mediterranean food.
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Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 8:30 PM
Armitage Gone! Dance: You Took a Part of Me
DANCE
WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 & 25 - 26, 2019
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$15-$35; $15 students/seniors (limited)
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/you-took-a-part-of-me/
This piece by the onetime "Punk Ballerina", originally presented at the Japan Society earlier this year, is modeled on Noh. So why are they promoting it by emphasizing how dirty it supposedly is?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Italian with some vestigial Asian and New American inflections at Momofuku Nishi.
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Friday, October 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Carolina Eyck
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2019
7:30 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/Carolina-Eyck
If there's one thing we all love, it's a theremin recital. Carolina Eyck sings, too. And her show will make use of National Sawdust's fancy new in-the-walls spatially dispersive sound system.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A national Neapolitan pizza chain staking a claim in Williamsburg? I'm suspicious. But let's give MidiCi a chance. (Just disregard their "signature" Nutella calzone — for your sake and theirs.)
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Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 8:30 PM
Britten: The Turn of the Screw
OPERA
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25 - 27, 2019
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
On Site Opera
Wave Hill
4900 Independence Avenue, Hudson Hill, Bronx
$75
https://osopera.org/productions/tots/
If there was a tale Benjamin Britten was born to tell, it's Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, rife with ambiguity about innocence and perversity. And Britten's opera is aptly chilling and terse. Here's a production with a difference: the cast and audience move around inside and outside the grand Wave Hill House: just like the house and grounds the story takes place in. This sold out long ago. But, as this story tells you, things can happen to people.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You just KNOW I'm going to tell you to walk on down to Liebman's Deli, don't you? And with that food, you're gonna need a walk.
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Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 8:00 PM
Puppet Slam
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25 - 27, 2019
7:00 PM
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$20; $15 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/puppet_slam/
La MaMa's annual festival of puppet theater: always worth a viewing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Classic brasserie fare (with the occasional Ukrainian ringer because: the East Village) at brand-new Brasserie Saint Marc. I don't know about you, but there's nothing — NOTHING — I like better.
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Friday, October 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Jay Som
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2019
7:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2019-10-25-jay-som/
Indie bedroom-popster Jay Som almost approaches professionalism on her new album. And, almost uniquely among indie bedroom-popsters, it doesn't ruin everything. This show is sold out, but you can find a way in if you really want to.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You may have heard about the fun neo-Sichuan hotspot that's right in the same building as Elsewhere.
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Friday, October 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Cat Toren's Human Kind / David Leon Quartet
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
A good Brooklyn jazz double-header. Cat Toren is a pianist/composer whose work harkens back to late '60s semi-free jazz — but with all sorts of sharp contemporary touches of her own. David Leon is an up-and-coming alto player who has — wait for it — Nick Dunston playing bass.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Massachusetts Cajun seafood at Cap't Loui.
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Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 8:00 PM
Oliver Lake
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25 & 26, 2019
7:00 PM FRIDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY
Jazz on a High Floor in the Afternoon
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
$25; $18 students/seniors/disabled; Friday night pay what you wish
https://whitney.org/events/oliver-lake
One of a series of jazz sets performend in the installations created by jazz conceptualist Jason Moran for his current Whitney exhibition. These shows feature alto sax legend Oliver Lake, who makes some of the liveliest exploratory music you could imagine. The Saturday show has reached stand-by status.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The best spot in the immediate area is the Standard Grill as reconceived by Rocco DiSpirito — who has evidently remembered how to make good food.
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Thursday, October 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thursday, October 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Mario Diaz de Leon: Cycle and Reveal
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019
8:00 PM
Queenslab
1611 Cody Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
$20
https://thekitchen.org/event/mario-diaz-de-leon-cycle-and-reveal
Mario Diaz de Leon skirts classical and experimental electronic (he had a whole separate career as the electronic musician Oneirogen). His work is both viscerally and intellectually engaging in the extreme. Here, he'll do a solo audiovisual set on electronics, and then have pieces played by the Talea Ensemble and the International Contemporary Ensemble — merely two of the best bands in New York.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gosh, this is right across the street from where I have my off-site wine storage. But for your purposes, it might be more useful to know about Houdini Kitchen Laboratory, whose whole-pie pizza, while not perhaps an all-City leader, is very very popular in the neighborhood.
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Thursday, October 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ne(x)tworks: Then > Now > Next? A Farewell Concert
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
$15
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/nextworks-then-%E2%9E%A4-now-%E2%9E%A4-next-farewell-concert
Venerable New Music ensemble Ne(x)tworks calls it a day after 16 years. What a send-off! Excerpts from Cage's Song books (avant-garde FUN!); some Cornelius Cardew (avant-garde FURY!); some Kate Moore to bring things into the present; stuff by illustrious members of this splendid ensemble, a true network of stars. Speaking of which, have I mentioned that their vocalist is Joan La Barbara? Yes, that's how great this group is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Since there's nothing I like better than good slice pizza, I can only welcome the new efflorescence of neo-slice-pizza places — upping the game with improved ingredients and technique — with open arms and mouth. Norm's Pizza is another good one.
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Thursday, October 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Composer Portrait: Vijay Iyer
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019
8:00 PM
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$20-$40; $17-$36 seniors; $12-$24 students & under age 25
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/vijay-iyer-composer-portrait
You're tempted to say that the best thing about pianist/composer Vijay Iyer is his range: he can be abstract, he can be exploratory, he can be uptempo; he can write music that sounds in jazz, he can write music that sounds in classical (I know, I know: and the difference is, what?). Whatever he does, he does with great rigor. But all the range and rigor in the world wouldn't matter if his ideas weren't so good. Here we have a world premiere and other pieces played by Brooklyn's favorite chamber orchestra, The Knights. One of them is a violin concerto featuring no less a player than the ab fab Jennifer Koh (a word to the wise, BTW: get her new album!). And Iyer himself will chime in on piano.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Serious cocktails with bar snacks at Sugar Monk.
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Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 8:30 PM
Anne Maurer: A Performance Dinner: Taking Care
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24 & 25, 2019
7:30 PM
The Invisible Dog Arts Center Le Salle a Manger
57 Bergen Street, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Ticket info with invitation in response to email request
https://www.theinvisibledog.org/all/2019/5/23/a-performance-dinner-taking-care-anne-mourier-td2yx
Conceptual artist Anne Maurer hopes to help her guests to "take care" with a dinner of organic food, white tea, and soft music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you're like me, you're going to want a series of very stiff Martinis after that. And The Brooklyn Inn is just the place to get them.
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Thursday, October 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Jordi Savall: Journey to the East
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019
7:30 PM
White Light Festival
Alice Tully Hall
1941 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$110
http://www.lincolncenter.org/white-light-festival/show/journey-to-the-east
Sometimes I think that if I had to choose a single person as the World's Greatest Living Musician, it would be violist/conductor/bandleader Jordi Savall. Here, he and his chamber orchestra Hespèrion XXI and chorus La Capella Reial de Catalunya, with guest musicians playing various Asian instruments, trace the musics St. Francis Xavier would have heard on his missionary travels from Lisbon to Mozambique, India, Malaysia, Japan, and China. Despite the fact that you'll have to sit through a narration to hear the music, don't expect this to be very easy to get into.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Elegant Southern Italian in a spectacular room at The Leopard at des Artistes.
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Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 9:30 PM
Jennifer Higdon / Roussel / Beethoven/Ravel
MUSIC
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 - 26, 2019
7:30 PM THURSDAY
2:00 PM FRIDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
New York Philharmonic
David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$32-$148
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/emanuel-ax-performs-beethoven
OK, you get Jennifer Higdon's greatest hit, blue cathedral, a moving and quite beautiful memorial to her brother. You get Emanuel Ax playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 — a combination made in musical heaven. You get Ravel's depiction of European culture going to hell, La Valse. But you know why I'm really recommending this concert? Roussel's Third Symphony, one of the great symphonies of the 20th Century, punchy and pungent — and, God knows why, almost never performed. Guest conductor Stéphane Denève is an excellent Roussel interpreter, too.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After all that French music, I guess we might as well go to Bar Boulud.
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Thursday, October 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice
OPERA
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:30 PM
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$30-$445
https://www.metopera.org/season/2019-20-season/orfeo-ed-euridice/
Gluck's reform opera is genuinely touching (even if he forces on a stupid happy ending) and has at least one really great aria — and Gluck's rather heiratic style is perfect for retelling of timeless myth. Mark Morris's whimsical-but-stark-when-it-needs-to-be production is one of the Met's current best (not the competition is fierce). Bi heroine and rising-star mezzo Jamie Barton assumes the role of Orfeo; fan favorite Hei-Kyong Hong is Euridice.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Best of all, this opera is SHORT; for once you don't have to worry about finding someplace to eat and drink afterward. Let's celebrate by going to Boulud Sud for pan-Mediterranean.
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Thursday, October 24, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Jessie Montgomery: Loisada
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019
7:00 PM
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15; $10 students
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/loisaida
Jessie Montgomery is one of the better young composers out there in New York — inventive, vibrant, down-to-earth without being in any way simple or sentimental — and she's a pretty great violinist as well. Tonight, with a crew of excellent accompanists, she celebrates her Lower East Side roots.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's take a nice fall stroll to star bartender Kenta Goto's splendid Bar Goto, for excellent Japanese-inflected cocktails and highly addictive Kenta's-mom-inspired Japanese bar snacks.
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Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 7:00 PM – Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 8:00 PM
Fall Immersive Dance Festival
DANCE
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24 & 25, 2019
7:00 PM
Triskelion Arts
106 Calyer Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$20 advance; $25 door
https://fallimmersivedf.brownpapertickets.com/
An excellent chance to catch up with several of the small forward-thinking dance companies that grace Brooklyn and Queens and, who knows, maybe even Manhattan (but I doubt it).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: And, you're just down the street from one of the most wonderful dining spots in New York, French Canadian/British charmer Chez Ma Tante.
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Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Sandalwood Box / The Fez
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24 - 27, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 1)
7:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$37-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-sandalwood-box-the-fez/
A double bill of new plays 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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Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 9:00 PM
Houston Ballet
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 - 26, 2019
7:30 PM THURSDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
New York City Center
131 West 55th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$35-$135
https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2019-2020/houston-ballet/
Mark Morris is funny but serious; Haydn is funny but serious. So the New York premiere of a Mark Morris piece to Haydn is a big big deal. Especially when the piece sets Haydn's great Symphony No. 88 "The Letter V", an otherwise cheerful work whose slow movement is one of the most deeply beautiful things Your Compiler has ever heard. Also, the New York premiere of Justin Peck's new tribute to classical ballet (set to Sufjan Stevens — but nothing is perfect). And something by the endlessly enjoyable Azsure Barton.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It is very difficult not to send you to Benoit for freshly reinterpreted bistro.
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Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 26, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 4:30 PM
Christiane Jatahy: What if they went to Moscow?
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 - 27, 2019
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
BAM Fisher & BAM Rose Cinemas
321 Ashland Place/30 Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$65
https://www.bam.org/moscow
Time for another Three Sisters revamp! But here's one with a difference: half the audience assembles in the BAM Rose Cinema and half in the BAM Fisher theater. They watch the same performance, one live in the theater and one by live transmission to the movie house. Then, after a break, they switch places!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: This sucker ends late. I'm afraid I'm going to have to send you to Junior's, and hope for the best.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Armitage Gone! Dance: You Took a Part of Me
DANCE
WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 & 25 - 26, 2019
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$15-$35; $15 students/seniors (limited)
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/you-took-a-part-of-me/
This piece by the onetime "Punk Ballerina", originally presented at the Japan Society earlier this year, is modeled on Noh. So why are they promoting it by emphasizing how dirty it supposedly is?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Italian with some vestigial Asian and New American inflections at Momofuku Nishi.
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Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 8:30 PM
Circa: En Masse
DANCE / PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23 - 25, 2019
7:30 PM
White Light Festival
Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College
524 West 59th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$25-$45
http://www.lincolncenter.org/white-light-festival/show/en-masse
Dance! Circus! Schubert!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Modern Greek Ouisa isn't all that great. But it's not like there's a lot of great stuff over there.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
BalletCollective & The Knights: Faraway
DANCE
WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 & 25 - 26, 2019
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY
Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center
29 Jay Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
$20-$75; $12 students
https://balletcollective.com/tickets
BalletCollective was started by City Ballet dancer Troy Schumacher to showcase his choreographic activities, as well as those of like-minded choreographers working in the contemporary ballet field. He gets dancers from City Ballet to dance with him — and always has great collaborators on his artistic teams. On this program, BalletCollective is joined by Brooklyn's favorite chamber orchestra, The Knights. Two world premieres, choreography by Schumacher and Preston Chamblee to new music by Judd Greenstein and Paul Moravec (I TOLD you Schumacher gets great collaborators). Also, existing pieces by Gabrielle Lamb to music by people like Juliana Barwick, Caleb Burhams, and Geörgy Kurtág (be still my heart). On Wednesday, you can pay $250-$1000 to pretend to be friends with the artists afterward.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Instead, go to Celestine and make your own fun, what with the fabulous river views and good Mediterranean food.
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Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 3:00 PM
Barbara Hammond: Terra Firma
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21 & 23 - 27, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The COOP
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$36-$96; $16 students
https://www.thecoopnyc.org/terra-firma
The COOP, a spin-off company from Bedlam, will further explore that company's stripped-down approach to staging and dedication to entertaining cultural progressivism. This piece portrays the building of a tiny tiny nation-state on an abandoned aircraft platform off Essex.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming Korean at Her Name Is Han.
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Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 7:00 PM – Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 8:00 PM
Tina Satter: Is This A Room
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY & SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 - 25 & 27, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Half Straddle
Vineyard Theater
108 East 15th Street, Gramercy, Manhattan
$45-$100
https://www.vineyardtheatre.org/is-this-a-room/
How amazing is it that the Air Force linguist charged with leaking information of Russian interference with the 2016 election is named Reality Winner? You almost have to write a play about her. Tina Satter stages the verbatim transcript of the FBI's incursion into Winner's home and the ensuing interrogation. As anyone who saw this piece at The Kitchen in January will tell you, it's rather chilling.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Speaking for myself, I prefer the light snacks and great sherry list at to the heavier-than-you'd-ever-see-in-actual-Spain fare at its next-door big brother Casa Mono.
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Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 11:00 PM
Robert Glasper Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 - 27, 2019
8:00 & 10:30 PM
Blue Note
131 West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$75
http://www.bluenotejazz.com/newyork/schedule/index.shtml#october
Pianist Robert Glasper closes his long Blue Note residency with a bang. This week, Glasper pays tribute to two influences who died way to young. Tuesday and Wednesday, the tribute's to trumpet great Roy Hargrove, who in addition to be being one of the best jazz players of his generation played a key role in Neo-Soul. And then, the rest of the week is devoted to hip-hop/Neo-Soul pioneer J Dilla, in my estimation one of the very greatest American musicians (in any genre) straddling the turn of the century — featuring T3 from Dilla's formative band Slum Village!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gotta be new Nikkei Llama San.
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Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 3:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 - 27, 2019 (continuing through JANUARY 5)
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY
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, when you can’t walk down the street without stepping in bone marrow, 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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Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 3:30 PM
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Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 2:00 PM
Desi Moreno-Penson: Ominous Men
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 - 27, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 3)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
1:00 PM SUNDAY
MultiStages
14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$35-$45; $15 students/seniors
https://14streety.secure.force.com/ticket/#details_a0S1R000009gYRPUA2
Race, class, and the toxic masculinity inequality engenders explored by means of Dark Gothic and Magical Realism — in the basement of a derilect abandoned Grand Concourse hotel in 1977.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hearty Albanian Dua Kafe is ready for its closeup.
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Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 27, 2019, 8:30 PM
Zawe Ashton: for all the women who thought they were Mad
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 - 27, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 17)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65
https://sohorep.org/for-all-the-women-who-thought-they-were-mad
New York is getting a taste of Zawe Ashton's amazing acting chops in Betrayal; now we can sample her playwrighting as well. If someone this awesomely talented feels herself blocked because she's female, well . . . .
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Frenchette STILL roolz.
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Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 7:30 PM – Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 8:30 PM
William Forsythe: A Quiet Evening of Dance
DANCE
TUESDAY - FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22 - 25
7:30 PM
Griffin Theater, The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$40-$90
https://theshed.org/program/66-william-forsythe-a-quiet-evening-of-dance
William Forsythe must be the greatest — and most determinedly modern — ballet choreographer alive. He must also be one of the most uneven. But if you care at all about dance, missing this program of existing and new stuff isn't a possibility. And if you think you don’t like ballet, you really ought to see what it can be like.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The TAK Room is ridiculously expensive, ridiculously retrograde — and quite good.
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Monday, October 21, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
JACK Quartet: Lines Made by Walking
MUSIC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2019
8:00 PM
Crypt Sessions
Church of the Intercession
55 West 155th Street, Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
$80
https://www.deathofclassical.com/cryptsessions/lines-made-by-walking
For once, the programming of this Crypt concert seems inappropriate to the venue: the music of John Luther Adams, featured here, evokes wide-open spaces if any music does. OTOH, one wouldn't readily forgo the opportunity to hear this transporting music played by this unbeatable quartet. Too bad it's sold out (watch for cancellations).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's wine and snacks in the Crypt before the show (7:00 PM). Afterward, The Grange Bar and Eatery is kind of generic New Americanish. But it's nice enough.
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Mon, Oct 21, 2019, 7:30 PM – Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Monday, October 21, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Barbara Hammond: Terra Firma
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21 & 23 - 27, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The COOP
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$36-$96; $16 students
https://www.thecoopnyc.org/terra-firma
The COOP, a spin-off company from Bedlam, will further explore that company's stripped-down approach to staging and dedication to entertaining cultural progressivism. This piece portrays the building of a tiny tiny nation-state on an abandoned aircraft platform off Essex.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming Korean at Her Name Is Han.
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Sunday, October 20, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Shintaro Sakamoto
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2019
9:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$35
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2019-10-20-shintaro-sakamoto/
Japanese psych legend Shintaro Sakamoto promises to be both psychedic and legendary. The opener is great, too: like-minded Brazil/NYC psychster Sessa. Sold out — but try.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Although there is a cool place in the same building as Elsewhere, in the interest of variety I'm sending you to the excellent Italian Faro before this show (during, don't forget to go to the upstairs cocktail lounge at Elsewhere for drinks rather than the bar in the back of the performance hall).
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Sunday, October 20, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Jason Hardink: The Ives Concord Centennial Anniversary Concert
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2019
7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/jason-hardink-featuring-claire-chase/
Ives's great, multivalent Concord piano sonata, now 100 years old, was so far ahead of its time that it sounds, at most, 50. It presents quite a challenge to the player, so thanks to the estimable Jason Hardink just for sitting down and playing it (he will undoubtedly be splendid). Also on the program is a new piece by metal-to-Webern composer Jason Eckardt taking off from the Concord. The presense of Claire Chase indicates that the Concord's flute obligatto will be played. With or without the flute part, you almost never get a chance to hear this magnificent piece played live. You know what to do.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mekelburg's Domino.
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Sunday, October 20, 2019, 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Les Arts Florissants: Responsories for Maundy Thursday: The Sacred Madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2019
1:00 & 3:30 PM
Fuentidueña Chapel, The Cloisters
99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan
$65-$85
https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/fy20-carlo-gesualdo
Carlo Gesualdo wrote some of the most chromatically weird — disturbing, almost — music of the Italian Baroque. Which I guess makes sense, since when Gesualdo wasn't composing he was engaging in activities such as adultery, sposal abuse, and murder. The World's Greatest Baroque Vocal Ensemble will bring this odd music to life (although we'll have to "settle" for Paul Agnew as conductor rather than the venerable Willliam Christie). These shows are sold out, but see if anything pops up.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Elsa la Reina del Chicharron (Broadway at Academy Street branch): her kingdom is where I wanna be.
-
Saturday, October 19, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Ambient Chaos
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019
9:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Just what it says.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT Wine, snacks, late hours, and NO WASTE at Rhodora.
-
Saturday, October 19, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Saturday, October 19, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Christopher Tignor
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019
7:30 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/Christopher-Tignor
Violinist/engineer Christopher Tignor creates mesmerizing sonic landscapes, and then wanders through them very slowly. You'll either be bored or transfixed (I'm happy to find myself in the "transfixed" camp). Cello fans may be surprised to learn that one of the opening acts, Rasputina, is still together.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm feeling the Sardinian-inflected D.O.C. Wine Bar tonight.
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Saturday, October 19, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Saturday, October 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Ragas Live Festival 2019
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019
7:00 PM
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
24-Hour Pass: $50 advance, $60 day of show; 12-Hour Passes (7 PM or AM to 7 AM or PM): $30 advance, $35 day of show
https://pioneerworks.org/programs/ragas-live-festival-2019/
You can really torture yourself this weekend by going to this 24-hour marathon right after the 24-hour theater piece at BAM. Here, members of the lively Brooklyn neo-raga scene perform with sympathetic jazz, experimental, and Minimalist musicans — and dancers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: With all due respect to Hindu tradition, it wouldn't hurt to grab a burger at Red Hook Tavern.
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Saturday, October 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Altin Gün
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019
7:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $22 day of show
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2019-10-19-altin-gun/
The very existence of a Dutch/Turkish band playing Turkish-derived pop-rock-dance music has more sociopolitical impact in their native Netherlands than it does here. We can just enjoy the distinctive grooves and textures.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Right in the same building as Elswhere . . . .
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Saturday, October 19, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
-
Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 1:00 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 7:30 PM
Desi Moreno-Penson: Ominous Men
THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19 & 20, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 3)
1:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
7:30 PM SUNDAY
MultiStages
14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$35-$45; $15 students/seniors
https://14streety.secure.force.com/ticket/#details_a0S1R000009gYRPUA2
Race, class, and the toxic masculinity inequality engenders explored by means of Dark Gothic and Magical Realism — in the basement of a derilect abandoned Grand Concourse hotel in 1977.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hearty Albanian Dua Kafe is ready for its closeup.
-
Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:00 PM
-
Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:00 PM
Arts for Art at Weeksville
MUSIC
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18 - 20, 2019
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
Weeksville Heritage Center
158 Buffalo Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$15 per day
https://www.artsforart.org/weeksville.html
A festival featuring the cream of Brooklyn/Downtown's African-American Free Jazz scene. The setting — a 19th Century free black settlement in Brooklyn — is well worth a visit on its own.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The contiguity of West Indians and Chasids has not led to the development of a lively restaurant scene in Eastern Crown Heights. I guess I'll have you walk a mile into an adjoining 'hood for stylish Southern at Peaches.
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Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 8:30 PM
George Lewis: Soundlines
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18 & 19, 2019
7:30 PM
International Contemporary Ensemble
Skirball Center
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$35-$45
https://nyuskirball.org/events/ice-soundlines/
George Lewis is a composer erasing any meaningful boundary between contemporary classical and contemporary jazz. Here are two pieces played by the splendid International Contemporary Ensemble. The one to watch for is Soundlines, a musical monodrama in which Lewis has master percussionist Steven Schick reenact (not literally!) a 700-mile walk Schick took from the Mexican border to San Francisco.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All that walking is making me hungry (and thirsty!). Knickerbocker Bar & Grill for a Martini, a caviar pie, and a steak.
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Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 4:00 PM
William Forsythe: A Quiet Evening of Dance
DANCE
TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 - 16 & 18 - 20 (continuing through OCTOBER 25)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Griffin Theater, The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$40-$90
https://theshed.org/program/66-william-forsythe-a-quiet-evening-of-dance
William Forsythe must be the greatest — and most determinedly modern — ballet choreographer alive. He must also be one of the most uneven. But if you care at all about dance, missing this program of existing and new stuff isn't a possibility. And if you think you don’t like ballet, you really ought to see what it can be like.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The TAK Room is ridiculously expensive, ridiculously retrograde — and quite good.
-
Friday, October 18, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 & 18 - 20, 2019
7:00 PM
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 major piece 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 (VERY abstractly) with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world (and American democracy) as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
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Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 4:00 PM
Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra: What Keeps Me Awake
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18 & 19, 2019
7:00 PM FRIDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
FRIDAY: George Washington Educational Campus
549 Audobon Avenue, Washington Heights, Manhattan
SATURDAY: Fort Washington Collegiate Church
729 West 181st Street, Washington Heights, Manhattan
$5 advance; $7 door; age 17 & under free
https://www.washingtonheightsorchestra.org/what-keeps-me-awake
This concert, by the Little Neighborhood Orchestra That Could, is named for a piece by Brooklyn's own (well, she'd say she's Puerto Rico's own) Angélica Negrón, whose music is never less than interesting and enjoyable. Villa-Lobos's Guitar Concerto has an entertainment value that goes through the roof — and it's almost never performed around here. As for Brahms's Fourth Symphony, certainly one of the great statements in the symphonic literature (and a piece that could itself be called "What Keeps Me Awake"): well, is it too big for a chamber orchestra? Maybe. But this is The Little Orchestra That Could!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Friday, La Cabaña Salvadoreña: you will NOT leave hungry. Saturday, neighborhood fave Tampopo Ramen.
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Friday, October 18, 2019, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Nat Randall & Anna Brekon: The Second Woman
THEATER
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2019
5:00 PM
Next Wave Festival
BAM Fisher
321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.bam.org/secondwoman
Alia Shawkat plays and replays a scene based on the Cassavetes film Opening Night 100 times over a 24-hour period, each time differently. Ticketholders can come and go as they please.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Assuming you're not in it for the duration, a beer-and-sausage run to Black Forest Brooklyn might be in order.
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Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 5:00 PM – Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 5:00 PM
Fay Victor
Jazz on a High Floor in the Afternoon
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18 & 19, 2019
5:00 & 7:00 PM FRIDAY
2:00 & 4:00 PM SATURDAY
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
$25; $18 students/seniors/disabled; Friday night pay what you wish
https://whitney.org/events/fay-victor
One of a series of jazz sets performend in the installations created by jazz conceptualist Jason Moran for his current Whitney exhibition. These shows feature Fay Victor, who started out some years ago as a normal jazz singer and then lit out for the territoritory — to riviting effect.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The best spot in the immediate area is the Standard Grill as reconceived by Rocco DiSpirito — who has evidently remembered how to make good food.
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Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 7:30 PM – Fri, Oct 18, 2019, 8:30 PM
Dan Siegler: Concrète Jungle
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17 & 18, 2019
7:30 PM
The Invisible Dog Arts Center
51 Bergen Street, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Free ($15 donation recommended)
https://www.theinvisibledog.org/all/2019/10/17/concrte-jungle-dan-siegler
Dan Siegler uses found sounds, and comes up with pieces with jazz, blues, and folk inflections. This one concerns two matters of great personal interest to Your Compiler: NYC neighborhoods, and fathers with dementia. There are guest performers each night, and it's worth noting that Thursday's include frequent Siegler collaborator and constant Siegler spouse Pam Tanowitz (back from her London triumph!) and List regular Pauline Kim Harris on violin.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Saint Julivert Fisherie for eclectic, delicious seafood.
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Thursday, October 17, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Barbara Hannigan
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 & 17, 2019
7:30 PM
Board of Officers Room, Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$75
http://armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/recital_series_barbara_hannigan_2019
Barbara Hannigan may or may not be the very best singer in the world (she's certainly up there), but she has a very solid claim to being the most interesting. Her piercing interpretive intelligence, her questing taste — and a musical command that makes her an excellent conductor as well as singer. Tuesday's program will include a local John Zorn premiere that she'll sing with a Zorn expert, pianist Stephen Gosling. Thursday's program will include Schoenberg's anguished-tonal-to-serene-atonal String Quartet No. 2 (there's a vocal part), performed with with the Emerson String Quartet. Both shows are long sold out, but last-minute availability does occur at this venue — so keep checking.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Enjoyable Old Skool Cuisine Bourgeoise at Sel et Poivre.
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Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Sandalwood Box / The Fez
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 - 20, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 1)
7:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$37-$102
http://theflea.org/shows/the-sandalwood-box-the-fez/
A double bill of new plays 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, Oct 16, 2019, 8:00 PM – Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 9:00 PM
Amina Henry: The Johnsons
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16 - 19, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 26)
8:00 PM
JACK.BROOKLYN
18 Putnam Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
$25; $18 "Young Artists"
http://www.jackny.org/the-johnsons.html
JACK opens its new facility with a new play from JACK regular Amina Henry, tracing the aftermath of the death of the American Dream.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Locanda Vini e Olii: get the Piedmontese beef. And don't forget the vino.
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Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 8:30 PM
Zawe Ashton: for all the women who thought the were Mad
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 & 16 - 20, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 17)
7:30 PM
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65
https://sohorep.org/for-all-the-women-who-thought-they-were-mad
New York is getting a taste of Zawe Ashton's amazing acting chops in Betrayal; now we can sample her playwrighting as well. If someone this awesomely talented feels herself blocked because she's female, well . . . .
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Frenchette STILL roolz.
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
OPERA
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2019 (resuming from JANUARY 8 through FEBRUARY 1, 2020)*
7:30 PM
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? That further said, having declined to miss it, I myself kind of hated this stale, boring, brain-dead, cowardly production. OTOH, Sunday's matinée is the first Sunday opera performance at the Met, like, ever (if you care about that kind of thing).
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-evening-curtain standpoint.
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Tuesday, October 15, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
-
Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 8:00 PM – Thu, Oct 17, 2019, 9:00 PM
koosil-ja / danceKUMIKO: Open Data Story of Profit and Death
PERFORMANCE / DANCE
TUESDAY - THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 - 17, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$15 advance; $20 door
https://roulette.org/event/koosil-ja-dance-kumiko-open-data-story-of-profit-and-death/
A performance piece exploring the reduction of human lives to data (and the de(con)struction of theater by technological communications devices).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Still kind of excited about new soul food spot Kind of Soul.
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Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 19, 2019, 3:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 - 19, 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, when you can’t walk down the street without stepping in bone marrow, 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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Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 3:30 PM
Kyle Abraham & A.I.M.
DANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 - 20, 2019
7:30 PM TUESDAY
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan
$41-$101
https://www.joyce.org/performances/aim-0
A stand by uber-hot choreographer Kyle Abraham and his A.I.M. company — and you can just feel the excitement. Some new (a world premiere Abraham solo accompanied by a gospel choir!) and newish Abraham pieces — including, for all you personality cultists, a new solo for ballet star Misty Copeland on the sold-out opening night only — a new piece by company member Keerati Jinakunwiphat, and — this is interesting — an old Trisha Brown piece.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I can't help but send you to Argentine pan-Jewish mash-up Mishiguene at Intersect by Lexus. It's my nature.
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Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 4:00 PM
Michael Keegan-Dolan / Teac Damsa: Swan Lake / Loch na hEala
DANCE / THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15-20, 2019
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Next Wave Festival
BAM Harvey
651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$30-$95
https://www.bam.org/swanlake
Swan Lake retold as Irish myth, but contemporary. Happily, Tchaikovsky is replaced by Irish-Nordic neo-folk music. Word is this piece is sheer magic (if bleak). (Also: your chance to see the newly renovated Harvey Theater!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Drinks, food, and VIBE at The Rockwell Place.
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Tuesday, October 15, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Barbara Hannigan
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 & 17, 2019
7:30 PM
Board of Officers Room, Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$75
http://armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/recital_series_barbara_hannigan_2019
Barbara Hannigan may or may not be the very best singer in the world (she's certainly up there), but she has a very solid claim to being the most interesting. Her piercing interpretive intelligence, her questing taste — and a musical command that makes her an excellent conductor as well as singer. Tuesday's program will include a local John Zorn premiere that she'll sing with a Zorn expert, pianist Stephen Gosling. Thursday's program will include Schoenberg's anguished-tonal-to-serene-atonal String Quartet No. 2 (there's a vocal part), performed with with the Emerson String Quartet. Both shows are long sold out, but last-minute availability does occur at this venue — so keep checking.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Enjoyable Old Skool Cuisine Bourgeoise at Sel et Poivre.
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Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 3:00 PM
Barbara Hammond: Terra Firma
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 - 20, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
12:30 PM THURSDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The COOP
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$36-$76 Tuesday & Wednesday; $36-$96 Thursday & Saturday-Sunday; $16 students
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?&eventidn=70568&view=EventDetails&information_id=939286
The COOP, a spin-off company from Bedlam, will further explore that company's stripped-down approach to staging and dedication to entertaining cultural progressivism. This piece portrays the building of a tiny tiny nation-state on an abandoned aircraft platform off Essex.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming Korean at Her Name Is Han.
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Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 7:00 PM – Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 8:00 PM
-
Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 11:30 AM – Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 12:30 PM
Robert Glasper Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 - 20, 2019
8:00 & 10:30 PM
Blue Note
131 West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$75
http://www.bluenotejazz.com/newyork/schedule/index.shtml#october
Robert Glasper, a pianist whose hip-hop fusion is one of the better things that's happened to jazz in the last decade, continues his long fall residency with two different shows this week. Tuesday and Wednesday's band, a trio featuring bassist Esperanza Spalding, is as gold-plated as they come. Thursday through Sunday's Stevie Wonder tribute, you'll have to decide for yourself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gotta be new Nikkei Llama San.
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Monday, October 14, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Zawe Ashton: for all the women who thought the were Mad
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 & 16 - 20, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 17)
7:30 PM
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65
https://sohorep.org/for-all-the-women-who-thought-they-were-mad
New York is getting a taste of Zawe Ashton's amazing acting chops in Betrayal; now we can sample her playwrighting as well. If someone this awesomely talented feels herself blocked because she's female, well . . . .
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Frenchette STILL roolz.
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Monday, October 14, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 & 18 - 20, 2019
7:00 PM
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 major piece 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 (VERY abstractly) with the aftermath of 9/11: the end of the world (and American democracy) as we knew it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extraordinarily good falafel at Nish Nush.
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Monday, October 14, 2019, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
OctFest 2019
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019
3:00 PM
Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, Queens
$45 advance; $50 day of show
https://knockdown.center/event/octfest-2019/
Pitchfork gathers some of the few good guitar rock bands still making current music: Parquet Courts! Mogwai! Priests! A band you'd be excited about but their new album disappoints in exactly the same way as the new Sleater-Kinney: Lower Dens! And lots more! October gathers the beer! Also, food!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: What with the food and the beer (18 oz. of samples are included with your ticket), you won't need to wander out in the Maspeth night wondering what there is to eat.
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Monday, October 14, 2019, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
William Forsythe: A Quiet Evening of Dance
DANCE
TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 - 16 & 18 - 20 (continuing through OCTOBER 25)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Griffin Theater, The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$40-$90
https://theshed.org/program/66-william-forsythe-a-quiet-evening-of-dance
William Forsythe must be the greatest — and most determinedly modern — ballet choreographer alive. He must also be one of the most uneven. But if you care at all about dance, missing this program of existing and new stuff isn't a possibility. And if you think you don’t like ballet, you really ought to see what it can be like.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The TAK Room is ridiculously expensive, ridiculously retrograde — and quite good.
-
Monday, October 14, 2019, 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
-
Sunday, October 13, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
OPEN GROUND: Devin Gray Trio / Gabriel Zucker
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2019
7:30 PM
The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
http://theowl.nyc/calendar/
Devin Grey is a very good drummer, but forgive me if I'm even more excited about the other members of his trio: Ralph Alessi, one of the better trumpet players on the scene (his brother's a pretty good horn player, too) and the very sharp pianist Angelica Sanchez. Also, the exemplary pianist/composer Gabriel Zucker plays an extended piece showcasing (among other kaleidoscopic things) his singer-songwriter side.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good drinks, edible food at Blue Bird.
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Sunday, October 13, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Sunday, October 13, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Post Moves / Sandy Ewen / Emilie Weibel
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2019
4:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable (should be $10 or $20)
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Post Moves plays new solo music for pedal steel guitar — and anyone who says his influences include Henry Flynt, Susan Alcorn, Tom Zé, and Olivier Messiaen is A-OK with me. In two other sets, Sandy Ewen and Emilie Weibel will exercise extended techniques on the guitar and voice, respectively.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mediterranean food in very nice surroundings at Madre.
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Sunday, October 13, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
ACRONYM: Cantica Nova: Discoveries from Upsalla's Düben Manuscripts
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019
4:00 PM
Music Before 1800
Corpus Christi Church
529 West 121st Street, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$10-$55
https://mb1800.org/concert/acronym-2/
There are at least two things that are remarkable about this concert. First is that New York, which after '50s/'60s heyday of the Pro Musica Antiqua has supported only a lame Early Music scene, now is the home to one of the best Early Music bands in the world: ACRONYM. Second is the incredible treasure trove of Early Baroque manuscripts forming the Düben Collection, since the early 18th Century housed in Uppsala University. This afternoon, ACRONYM and several distinguished (New York based!) singers peform pieces from that great collection.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious, hearty, not-what-you'd-expect Northern Chinese at Dun Huang Upper West Side.
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Sunday, October 13, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
OPERA
THURSDAY & SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 & 13, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 16 and then again from JANUARY 8 through FEBRUARY 1, 2020)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
3:00 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? That further said, having declined to miss it, I myself kind of hated this stale, boring, brain-dead, cowardly production. OTOH, Sunday's matinée is the first Sunday opera performance at the Met, like, ever (if you care about that kind of thing).
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-evening-curtain standpoint.
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Saturday, October 12, 2019, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Adam Holmes & Guest Bands: "Platform" Album Release — All Night!
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2019
8:30 PM
Freddy's Bar
627 Fifth Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
Free
https://freddysbar.com/upcoming-events/
Sharp percussionist/composer Adam Holmes celebrates the release of his debut solo album by sharing the stage with a bunch of composer/sound artist/friends.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You're in one of the best bars in Brooklyn, for God's sake. (If you don't fancy Freddy's entirely edible pub grub, grab a slice at Luigi's beforehand.)
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Saturday, October 12, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
B&B Festival (Music of Brian Eno & Brian Ferneyhough)
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2019
8:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
If there's any connection between the music of ambient pop star Brian Eno and New Complexity godfather Brian Ferneyhough — other than that their composers are both English and both named Brian (and both brilliant) — it's oppositional: Ferneyhough's New Complexity was developed as a corrective to the kind of music Eno writes. You can follow the twists and turns tonight At 8 PM, pianist Jana Luksts will play Ferneyhough and other arch-modernists. At 9 PM, an oboe/piano duo will play Ferneyhough and then an ambient specialist will play some of the more pop-oriented of Eno's ambient music. At 10 PM, a solo guitarist tackles Eno's (No Pussyfooting) collaboration with Robert Fripp. It's not clear whether each hour is separately ticketed or not.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Italian charmer LaRina Pastificio & Vino leans more toward Enoesque surface simplicity than Ferneyhoughesque surface complexity — and is all the better for it. After the last set, Cardiff Giant for purely local spirits, or Walter's if you want food.
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Saturday, October 12, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 8:00 PM
Barbara Hammond: Terra Firma
THEATER
TUESDAY - THURSDAY & SATURDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 - 10 & 12 - 13, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM TUESDAY - THURSDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The COOP
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$36-$76 Tuesday & Wednesday; $36-$96 Thursday & Saturday-Sunday; $16 students
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?&eventidn=70568&view=EventDetails&information_id=939286
The COOP, a spin-off company from Bedlam, will further explore that company's stripped-down approach to staging and dedication to entertaining cultural progressivism. This piece portrays the building of a tiny tiny nation-state on an abandoned aircraft platform off Essex.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming Korean at Her Name Is Han.
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Saturday, October 12, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Masters at Work: Balanchine & Cunningham
DANCE
THURSDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 & 12, 2019
7:30 PM THURSDAY
2:00 & 8:00 PM SATURDAY
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$200
https://www.nycballet.com/season-tickets/19-20-season/fall/oct-10-2019-balanchine-cunningham.aspx
https://www.nycballet.com/season-tickets/19-20-season/fall/oct-12-2019-mat-balanchine-cunningham.aspx
https://www.nycballet.com/season-tickets/19-20-season/fall/oct-12-2019-eve-balanchine-cunningham.aspx
I used to wonder why it was that ballet people have embraced arch-Post-Modernist Merce Cunningham while remaining indifferent to the hardcore Judson dancers and their aesthetic progeny. But the last Cunningham piece I saw, it hit me: whereas the other Post-Modernists were intent on remaking dance by introducing everyday motions into the vocabulary, Cunningham's movement vocabulary remains resolutely technical and dancelike: Cunningham just introduces indeterminacy and musical independence into the mix. So it makes perfect sense that (a) the City Ballet dances Cunningham's Summerspace (to Feldman!!!!) splendidly, and (b) its audience eats it up. It seems odd to me that Summerspace is being paired with two of Balanchine's more Classical/Romantic, less overtly modern, pieces — but maybe that's the point.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Evenings, let's kick it old skool at The Leopard at des Artistes. Before the matinée, lunch at Épicere Boulud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extreme Mexican at The Black Ant.
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Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 5:00 PM
-
Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 11:00 PM – Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 12:00 AM
Elseworld
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2019
11:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$20-$25
https://www.takroomnyc.com/
Elsewhere's monthly party, featuring electronic dance music and immersive psychedelic visuals.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: One bizzare party deserves another: Guadalupe Inn.
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Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, October 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Sonnambula: Sound Carving: Sacred and Profane Music of the Austrian Baroque
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2019
7:30 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$36; $16 students
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?=&eventidn=70577&view=EventDetails&information_id=937482&utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=CenterBox&utm_campaign=Sonnambula
Sonnambula, an excellent local viol consort, explores the genuinely strange, mystically inspired music that arose in Austria in the Early Baroque.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Roman ristorante Maialino is one of those places that I can't figure out why I don't visit more often. Great food (and just the kind of basic, hearty, meaty stuff I like — those of you with more delicate tastes might want to watch out), great wine — and great snacks and wine selections at the bar. Don't make my mistake: GO.
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Friday, October 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Juilliard415
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2019
7:30 PM
Peter Jay Sharp Theater, The Juilliard School
155 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
https://www.juilliard.edu/event/139876/richard-egarr-leads-juilliard415
It's easy to forget that Juilliard performances are some of the best deals in New York. Here you have the great conservatory's period-instruments ensemble — as good as any in the country — with a really solid guest conductor, Richard Egarr, playing exactly the music that Egarr does best: English High Baroque orchestral music by Handel and Avison. You really can't go wrong with this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A concert this nice deserves a nice dinner: longtime Upper West Side French standby La Boite en Bois.
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Friday, October 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Molly Herron & Argus Quartet: "Three Sarabandes" Album Release Party
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2019
7:30 PM
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$20; $15 students
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/herron-argus
Molly Herron is exactly the kind of composer this List loves: formally and sonically inventive, tied into and reflective of contemporary life and sounds — and extremely pleasing and fun (though not necessarily easy) to listen to. This concert celebrates the release of a new album of Herron's music (of which a free download will be given to all attendees) by the Argus Quartet.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Late-night dim sum at Nom Wah Nolita.
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Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 8:30 PM
François Chaignaud: Dumy Moyi
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 & 12, 2019
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
9:30 PM SATURDAY
Crossing the Line Festival
The Invisible Dog Art Center
51 Bergen Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
Free ($15 suggested donation)
https://crossingthelinefestival.org/2019/events/dumy-moyi/
East and West, high and low, male and female, sacred and profane: François Chaignaud's singing dancing performances allude to them all.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you squint when you're in Bar Tabac, you just might convince yourself you're in Paris.
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Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 8:30 PM
-
Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 8:30 PM
William Forsythe: A Quiet Evening of Dance
DANCE
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11 - 13 (continuing through OCTOBER 25)
7:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Griffin Theater, The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$40-$90
https://theshed.org/program/66-william-forsythe-a-quiet-evening-of-dance
William Forsythe must be the greatest — and most determinedly modern — ballet choreographer alive. He must also be one of the most uneven. But if you care at all about dance, missing this program of existing and new stuff isn't a possibility. And if you think you don’t like ballet, you really ought to see what it can be like.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The TAK Room is ridiculously expensive, ridiculously retrograde — and quite good.
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Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 5:00 PM
Arts for Art: Healing for a Suffering World
MUSIC
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11 - 13, 2019
7:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
El Taller Latino Americano
215 East 99th Street, East Harlem, Manhattan
$20 per night
https://www.artsforart.org/eltaller.html
Arts for Art has put together a really terrific local modern/progressive jazz festival. Among the participants — and I'm just providing a sampler — are Aruán Ortiz, Lester St. Louis, Angelica Sanchez, William Parker, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Brandon Lopez, Tony Malaby, Joe McPhee, and of course Nick Dunston: the kind of players you wouldn't want to miss separately. Together . . . . Go any day.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Earl's Beer & Cheese covers the beer and cheese food groups. The Guthrie Inn right next door covers the cocktail food group. So you get the whole food pyramid from these two contiguous places.
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Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 9:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Bad Penny
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7 & 10 - 13, 2019
9:00 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, 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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Thursday, October 10, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
-
Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 4:00 PM
Fall for Dance
DANCE
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 - 13, 2019
8:00 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
New York City Center
131 West 55th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$15
https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/FallforDance/
Fall for Dance isn't for me, nor probably for you. If you already know dance, and have formed opinions about what you like and what you don't, the scattershot programing means that no program is going to please you all or even most of the way through. I guess the sampler approach has some merit if you don't already know dance — but it I think it would be more likely to confuse you. Add to that the fact that many of the performances are excerpts rather than full pieces, and I really wonder what the appeal of this is. (Other than that it's cheap, of course.) Since it's all sold out, though, my misgivings are pretty irrelevant.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Consistently good, underappreciated bistro Benoit.
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Thursday, October 10, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Thursday, October 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Masters at Work: Balanchine & Cunningham
DANCE
THURSDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 & 12, 2019
7:30 PM THURSDAY
2:00 & 8:00 PM SATURDAY
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$35-$200
https://www.nycballet.com/season-tickets/19-20-season/fall/oct-10-2019-balanchine-cunningham.aspx
https://www.nycballet.com/season-tickets/19-20-season/fall/oct-12-2019-mat-balanchine-cunningham.aspx
https://www.nycballet.com/season-tickets/19-20-season/fall/oct-12-2019-eve-balanchine-cunningham.aspx
I used to wonder why it was that ballet people have embraced arch-Post-Modernist Merce Cunningham while remaining indifferent to the hardcore Judson dancers and their aesthetic progeny. But the last Cunningham piece I saw, it hit me: whereas the other Post-Modernists were intent on remaking dance by introducing everyday motions into the vocabulary, Cunningham's movement vocabulary remains resolutely technical and dancelike: Cunningham just introduces indeterminacy and musical independence into the mix. So it makes perfect sense that (a) the City Ballet dances Cunningham's Summerspace (to Feldman!!!!) splendidly, and (b) its audience eats it up. It seems odd to me that Summerspace is being paired with two of Balanchine's more Classical/Romantic, less overtly modern, pieces — but maybe that's the point.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Evenings, let's kick it old skool at The Leopard at des Artistes. Before the matinée, lunch at Épicere Boulud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extreme Mexican at The Black Ant.
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Thursday, October 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
OPERA
THURSDAY & SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 & 13, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 16 and then again from JANUARY 8 through FEBRUARY 1, 2020)
7:30 PM THURSDAY
3:00 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? That further said, having declined to miss it, I myself kind of hated this stale, boring, brain-dead, cowardly production. OTOH, Sunday's matinée is the first Sunday opera performance at the Met, like, ever (if you care about that kind of thing).
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-evening-curtain standpoint.
-
Thursday, October 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Laura Farré Rozada: The French Reverie
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2019
7:30 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Pianist/mathematician Rozada plays music by Messiaen, Dutilleux, and the French composers who followed them — certainly some of my favorite music, at least: crystaline, harmonically tart, and timbrally advanced yet precise.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Guess what Dosa Royale's specialty is?
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Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 8:30 PM
John Heginbotham & Maira Kalman: HERZ SCHMERZ
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 - 12, 2019
7:30 PM
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$25
https://bacnyc.org/performances/performance/dance-heginbotham
To say that you can easily tell that John Heginbotham came out of Mark Morris's company is not to say that his work is derivative; it's just that it has that Morrisanian combination of whimsy and deep attention to structure, albeit in a different way. But if you love Morris's stuff, you'll at least like Heginbotham's (and Heginbotham's company always has splendid, characterful dancers). This piece is based on the writings of Robert Walser (who forever dispells any notion that Swiss people are never amusing) (something that can't be said about the Romantic composer Hans Huber, whose music is used). Higinbotham could not have a more fitting accomplice than the equally whimsical — and wholly wonderful — illustrator Maira Kalman.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Into the belly of the beast for very good Nouvelle Korean at Momofuku Kāwi.
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Thursday, October 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Sputter Box: Music for 8x11 Rug
MUSIC / DANCE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2019
7:30 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
A voice/clarinet/percussion trio performs brand new music "rang[ing] from an exploration of a soundworld inspired by the physical act of writing to a satirical G on the contemporary classical music field in relation to the Millennial generation" — all the while performing choreography created for this show!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Extremely pleasant French bistro at Le Gamin.
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Thursday, October 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Olivier Tarpaga: When Birds Refused to Fly
DANCE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2019
7:30 PM
Crossing the Line Festival
FIAF Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$35; $15 students & under 30
https://crossingthelinefestival.org/2019/events/when-birds-refused-to-fly/
Dancer/choreographer/musician Olivier Tarpaga's father was in a really terrific band, Super Volta, in Burkina Faso in the '70s. Toparga uses that music as a soundtrack to a dance-theater exploration of civil and political rights struggles in Sub-Saharan Africa in that time and the decade before.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Distinctive-for-New-York Indian at Chola.
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Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 8:00 PM
Adrienne Truscott: Adrienne Truscott's (Still) Asking for It (A Stand-Up Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else!)
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 - 13, 2019
7:00 PM THURSDAY & SUNDAY
9:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
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: Taiwan one at hip, stylish, friendly 886.
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Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 6:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7 & 10 - 13, 2019
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
5:00 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 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, Oct 10, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7 & 10 - 13, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 20)
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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Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
-
Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Nick Dunston's Atlantic Extraction
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019
8:00 PM
Balboa Restaurant
1655 Bedford Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
https://www.facebook.com/events/468336170563121/
Out of all of the (brilliant) hyperactive Brooklyn bassist/composer Nick Dunston's projects, Atlantic Extraction is my favorite. The combination of styles you can hear underlying this music — jazz, folk, No Wave, classical if you squint your ears — is fascinating; the music turns out just great. And the flute/violin/guitar/bass/drums lineup includes two Witches! Also on the bill is another fabulous bassist, Matthias Pichler, playing in a trio.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Well, Balboa is a Caribbean(-American) restaurant and bar itself. But I'd say the power play here is to drink at Balboa during the show but to eat beforehand at The Food Sermon for some of the best (and most distinctive) Caribbean in town.
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Wed, Oct 9, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 9:00 PM
Joshua William Gelb & Nehemiah Luckett: jazz singer
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9 - 12, 2019
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
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!
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
-
Tuesday, October 8, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Tim Berne
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019
9:00 PM
The Sultan Room
234 Starr Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$15
https://thesultanroom.com/events/#event=69009837281
Tim Berne is a distinctive, angular stylist on the alto and baritone saxes, and a distinctive, spiky composer. Here he'll play a duo set with the imaginative drummer Nasheet Waits, with Bad Plus bassist Reid Anderson then joining in to make it a trio.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You don't have to go far: the Sultan Room is located in The Turk's Inn, a reconstruction in Bushwick of the finest Middle Eastern supper club in Hayward, Wisconsin. The food is nothing to write home about — but get a load of that dining room!
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Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 9:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8 - 12, 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, when you can’t walk down the street without stepping in bone marrow, 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, October 8, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Large Furniture
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 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 contrabass quartet plays music of, among others, Julia Wolfe.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Coast and Valley for Calfornia food and, principally, wine.
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Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 11:00 PM
Robert Glasper Acoustic Trio
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 - 13, 2019
8:00 & 10:30 PM
Blue Note
131 West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$75
http://www.bluenotejazz.com/newyork/schedule/index.shtml#october
Robert Glasper, a pianist whose hip-hop fusion is one of the better things that's happened to jazz in the last decade, continues his long fall residency at the Blue Note with shows with his acoustic trio. It may seem formally conventional — but, hey, it's still Robert Glasper.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gotta be new Nikkei Llama San.
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Tuesday, October 8, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Benedicte Maurseth, David Rothenberg & Charles Lindsay
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Benedicte Maurseth plays a modern extension of Norwegian Hardanger fiddle folk music. David Rothenberg has a highly distinctive, very quiet approach to the clarinet. Charles Lindsay is a multi-disclinary installation etc. artist who focuses on tech and philosophy. Maurseth and Lindsay will read from books recently published by Rothenberg, accompanied by music by Maurseth and Rothenberg and visuals by Lindsay. Then, Maurseth and Rothenberg will play music inspired by/reacting to Messiaen's bird music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Cali burger at Bar Bolinas.
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Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 7:00 PM – Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 8:00 PM
Barbara Hammond: Terra Firma
THEATER
TUESDAY - THURSDAY & SATURDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 - 10 & 12 - 13, 2019 (continuing through NOVEMBER 10)
7:00 PM TUESDAY - THURSDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY
The COOP
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on East 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$36-$76 Tuesday & Wednesday; $36-$96 Thursday & Saturday-Sunday; $16 students
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?&eventidn=70568&view=EventDetails&information_id=939286
The COOP, a spin-off company from Bedlam, will further explore that company's stripped-down approach to staging and dedication to entertaining cultural progressivism. This piece portrays the building of a tiny tiny nation-state on an abandoned aircraft platform off Essex.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming Korean at Her Name Is Han.
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Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 6:00 PM – Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 7:00 PM
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
MUSIC
TUESDAY - THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8 - 10, 2019
6:00 PM
String Orchestra of Brooklyn
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Green-Wood Heights, Brooklyn
https://www.deathofclassical.com/angelshare/pergolesi-stabat-mater
Pergolesi's Stabat Mater is one of the prettiest things in Western music: not beautiful, not sublime, just pretty — which can be reward enough. Nevertheless, its subject matter — a reflection on Mary watching the death of her son (oops, "Son" for those of you who believe in such things) — seems appropriate to the Catacombs. The other pieces on the program — Barber's indelible Adagio (that funeral regular) and Pärt's piquantly dour Fratres — are also pretty Catacomb-appropriate. And there'll be appropriately somber video projections up and down the long corridor of the Catacombs. Undercutting it all is the unlimited whiskey to be poured for audience members before the show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All that reflection on death will make you want MEAT. Serbian at Korzo. (The fried burgers are legendary — and eating one will definitely raise thoughts of mortality.)
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Tue, Oct 8, 2019, 6:00 PM – Fri, Oct 11, 2019, 7:00 PM
Uwe Mengel: Everyday Murder
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8 - 11, 2019
6:00 - 7:00 PM
La Mama
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
Free
http://lamama.org/everyday-murder/
Two performers hang out on East 4th Street, in front of La MaMa. One of them is portraying someone who has committed a murder. You can stop by any time between 6 and 7 PM and ask them questions, follow-ups, etc.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Best of all, Wednesday through Friday, you can then go to Foxface, take a number, and buy a sandwich that is so ridiculously good you won't believe it. On Tuesday, go to Momofuko Ko Bar, which, come to think of it, is also ridiculously good.
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Monday, October 7, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Bad Penny
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7 & 10 - 13, 2019*
9:00 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, 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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Monday, October 7, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Jessica Pavone String Ensemble: Brick and Mortar
MUSIC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/jessica-pavone-string-ensemble-brick-and-mortar/
I personally preferred violist/composer Jessica Pavone's music back when it was more melodic, even popsong-like. But her newer more abstract, microtonal style certainly has its interest.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: People like the neighborhood bistro Bacchus.
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Monday, October 7, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Monday, October 7, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Andy Guhl: You Hear What You See
MUSIC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019
7:30 PM
Microscope Gallery
1329 Willoughby Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$8; $6 students
https://microscopegallery.com/andy-guhl/
Sound and media artist Andy Guhl comes over from Switzerland to present an array of treated electronic devices that create a complex feedback system in which projected visuals are transformed into sound and then retransformed into visuals; all the while, Guhl himself causes further complications by physically interfering with the light beams going into the loop. If you like this kind of thing (and I'm sorry for you if you don't), this is kind of a big deal.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I always go to Ops for natural wine and pizza after Microscope. It may be rut — but it's one I'm happy to be in.
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Monday, October 7, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
NOW Ensemble
MUSIC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019
7:30 PM
The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Avenue, Prospect Leffert Gardens, Brooklyn
$18 advace; $20 door
http://theowl.nyc/
The NOW Ensemble is sort of a quintessential Indie Classical band — not that they'd ever use that dread term. Classical structural rigor; pop textures and brightness.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Inventive post-Mayan stews and sandwiches at Ix.
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Monday, October 7, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: The Invention of Tragedy
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7 & 10 - 13, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 20)
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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Monday, October 7, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7 & 10 - 13, 2019
7:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
5:00 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 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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Sunday, October 6, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
OPEN GROUND: Lucas Kudish Trio / Nick Dunston Trio
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019
7:30 PM
The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
http://theowl.nyc/
It's Nick Dunston night at The Owl Music Parlor. (You could say that every night in Brooklyn is Nick Dunston night, but that's not really true: it just seems that way!) First, Duston provides his estiimable services as a bass player in a trio led by guitarist Lucas Kadish. Then, Dunston adds on his equally impressive skills as a bandleader composer, leading a trio with alto sax and banjo(!).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good drinks, edible food at Blue Bird.
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Sunday, October 6, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Sunday, October 6, 2019, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
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Sunday, October 6, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
ACRONYM: Cantica Nova: Discoveries from Upsalla's Düben Manuscripts
MUSIC
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019
4:00 PM
Music Before 1800
Corpus Christi Church
529 West 121st Street, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$10-$55
https://mb1800.org/concert/acronym-2/
There are at least two things that are remarkable about this concert. First is that New York, which after '50s/'60s heyday of the Pro Musica Antiqua has supported only a lame Early Music scene, now is the home to one of the best Early Music bands in the world: ACRONYM. Second is the incredible treasure trove of Early Baroque manuscripts forming the Düben Collection, since the early 18th Century housed in Uppsala University. This afternoon, ACRONYM and several distinguished (New York based!) singers peform pieces from that great collection.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious, hearty, not-what-you'd-expect Northern Chinese at Dun Huang Upper West Side.
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Sunday, October 6, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Mac Wellman: Sincerity Forever
THEATER
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 7)
3:00 PM
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 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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Saturday, October 5, 2019, 10:30 PM – 11:30 PM
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Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 6:00 AM
Max Kutner: Discreet Music (Eno)
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2019
8:30 PM
B&B Festival (Music of Brian Eno & Brian Ferneyhough)
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
And now the Eno side of things: Discreet Music was where he moved solidly from pop to ambient. I suppose there's music that sounds less like Ferneyhough than this — but I don't want to spend any time trying to think of it. Here, Discreet Music is played on solo guitar by the estimable Max Kutner.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The pleasantness of Discreet Music deserves the pleasantness of New American Vinegar Hill House.
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Saturday, October 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Resonator Festival
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2019
4:00 PM & 8:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$10 advance; $15 day of show; $20 festival pass (both shows)
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/resonator-festival-2019
A gaggle of local artists, most having hip-hop roots or inflections, go wild, singly and together.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Keep the party going, Trinadadi-style, at Pearl's (and their lounge Clyde's).
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Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Saturday, October 5, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Taka Kigawa
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2019
7:00 PM
B&B Festival (Music of Brian Eno & Brian Ferneyhough)
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
If there's any connection between the music of ambient pop star Brian Eno and New Complexity godfather Brian Ferneyhough — other than that their composers are both English and both named Brian (and both brilliant) — it's oppositional: Ferneyhough's New Complexity was developed as a corrective to the kind of music Eno writes. If anyone should be able to tease this all out, it's Taka Kigawa, a pianist whose great intellectual and interpretive gifts are matched by his technical ones (he's more on the Ferneyhough side of things). And don't forget: the last time Brian Eno was associated muscially with another English guy named Brian, the results were pretty fabulous.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Italian charmer LaRina Pastificio & Vino leans more toward Enoesque surface simplicity than Ferneyhoughesque surface complexity — and is all the better for it.
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Saturday, October 5, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Saturday, October 5, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Resonator Festival
MUSIC
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2019
4:00 PM & 8:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$10 advance; $15 day of show; $20 festival pass (both shows)
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/resonator-festival-2019
A gaggle of local artists, most having hip-hop roots or inflections, go wild, singly and together.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Keep the party going, Trinadadi-style, at Pearl's (and their lounge Clyde's).
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Saturday, October 5, 2019, 1:00 PM – 2:00 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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Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 6:00 PM
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Fri, Oct 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 9:00 PM
Rhys Chatam: The Sun Too Close to Earth / Jonathan Kane & Zeena Parkins: On, Suzanne
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4 & 5, 2019
8:00 PM
Crossing the Line Festival
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
$25
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/rhys-chatham-sun-too-close-earth-jonathan-kane-zeena-parkins-suzanne
We all argued, back in the day, that New York Punk was an outgrowth of Minimalism. But it was the No Wave classical composers Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca (being played later this weekend) who made that manifest. Here's a new piece by Chatham, played by an ensemble that amazingly includes, among others, Jonathan Kane, Anthony Coleman, original Modern Lover Ernie Brooks, and Jaimie Branch. While drummer Kane is around, he'll play a new piece with Downtown harp goddess Zeena Parkins, setting poetry by Holly Anderson, who was married to Kane until she died recently of post-9/11 cancer.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Is La Vara the best Spanish restaurant in New York? Certainly with it's historical Spanish/Sephardic/Moorish mash-up, it's the most distinctive. (Frankly, I'd say it's the best.)
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Fri, Oct 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Friday, October 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Friday, October 4, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
andPlay: Playlist Release Party
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2019
7:30 PM
1 Rivington
1 Rivingston Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/andplay
The violin/viola duo andPlay celebrates the release of a new album by playing pieces by, among others, 1 Rivington mainstay (this week) David Bird, an interesting multi-media electro-acoustitian, and Clara Ionnotta, who views musical sound as a physical object. Opening act singer-songwriter/cellist Meghan Burke provides a further inducement. But here are the real inducements: 1. Cocktails! 2. The hint of a possibility of baked goods made by andPlay themselves! (No guarantees on the latter — but we can hope!)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to Pasquale Jones and order the pork shank. Don't not order the pork shank. Got it?
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Friday, October 4, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Friday, October 4, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Spectral Friday #20
MUSIC
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Gabriel Zucker usually puts together Spectral Friday salons that are interesting and compelling — but this one is off-the-charts great. Zucker himself does a solo singer-songwriter-type piece with his piano, vocals, and electronics. Aaron Roche is a Brooklyn singer-songwriter/guitarist/multiinstrumentalist who does exactly the kind of spacey melodic '60sesque guitar-driven rock that I personally (still) adore. The first-ever public performance by Very Still Life, a Brooklyn-Toronto free jazz trio. And then there's avant-vocalist Nina Dante, who can make her voice do, like, anything.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A Massachusetts version of New Orleans seafood boils at Cap'n Loui.
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Fri, Oct 4, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 4:00 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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Thu, Oct 3, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Thursday, October 3, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thu, Oct 3, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 8:30 PM
Anna Lublina: BAb(oo)shka
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3 - 5, 2019
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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Thursday, October 3, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Pamelia Stickney
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019
7:30 PM
The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation
http://theowl.nyc/
Theremin master Pamelia Stickney and her ensemble play original music interwoven with arrangements of Messaien, Bartók, Lili Boulanger, and Ravel. Could not be more enticing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You won't find a more pleasant (mostly natural) wine bar (with the obligatory snacks) than Glou.
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Thursday, October 3, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Natti Vogel feat. Starling String Quartet: Avant Cabaret
MUSIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Tuneful queer pop — with a string quartet backing the piano/vocals!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Rhodora, a zero-waste (which is not to say there will be zero wasted customers) natural wine bar with extremely attractive-seeming snacks.
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Thu, Oct 3, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 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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Thu, Oct 3, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 8:00 PM
Adrienne Truscott: Adrienne Truscott's (Still) Asking for It (A Stand-Up Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else!)
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3 - 6, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 13)
7:00 PM THURSDAY & SUNDAY
9:30 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
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: Taiwan one at hip, stylish, friendly 886.
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Wed, Oct 2, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Wed, Oct 2, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 3:00 PM
Joshua William Gelb & Nehemiah Luckett: jazz singer
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2 - 6, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 12)
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
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!
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Wednesday, October 2, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Magos Herrera: A Tribute to João Gilberto
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019
7:30 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/magos-herrera-a-tribute-to-joao-gilberto/
I guess Bossa Nova founder/icon João Gilberto, who died over the summer, was more like The Beatles than like Bob Marley or James Brown — like all three, he had an almost immeasurable international musical impact, but unlike the last two it wasn't entirely positive. Listen to his own stuff, however, and it's almost impossible not to be (quietly) (tastefully) blown away: his rhythms are so subtle that they fooled generations of easy listeners into believing they were tame. And boy, did he choose great songs! And is the force with which he very quietly sang them something! Avant-Mexican singer Magos Herrera leads this tribute to Gilberto, with the cream of the local Brazilian-music players (which is not to say they're all from Brazil). Expect to be (quietly) (tastefully) blown away.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm far too programatic to send you anywhere other than the funky Brazilian Miss Favela. (NB: Cash only.)
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Tuesday, October 1, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Tuesday, October 1, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Tue, Oct 1, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 9:30 PM
Brian Marsella Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 - 5, 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?month=1
Good as pianist/composer Brian Marsella is — and make no mistake about it, he's very good — this residency is almost more exciting for the guests he's playing with. For example, the Gatos do Sul large ensemble on Wednesday, with the fabulous Cyro Baptista on percussion — not to mention the duo with Baptista on Saturday. Irrepressible sax player Jon Irabagon on Tuesday; Downtown electronics queen Ikue Mori on Thursday; and cellist Erik Friedlander on Friday (this is a big week for musician sons of famous jazz photographers).
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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Tue, Oct 1, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 4:00 PM
Fall for Dance
DANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 - 6, 2019 (continuing through OCTOBER 13)
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
New York City Center
131 West 55th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$15
https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/FallforDance/
Fall for Dance isn't for me, nor probably for you. If you already know dance, and have formed opinions about what you like and what you don't, the scattershot programing means that no program is going to please you all or even most of the way through. I guess the sampler approach has some merit if you don't already know dance -- but it I think it would be more likely to confuse you.. Add to that the fact that many of the performances are excerpts rather than full pieces, and I really wonder what the appeal of this is. (Other than that it's cheap, of course.) Since it's all sold out, though, my misgivings are pretty irrelevant.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Consistently good, underappreciated bistro Benoit.
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Tue, Oct 1, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 9:00 PM
Jeremy O. Harris: Slave Play
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 - 5, 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, when you can’t walk down the street without stepping in bone marrow, 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, October 1, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Sound ON: Telling Tales
MUSIC
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2019
7:30 PM
New York Philharmonic
Appel Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center
10 Columbus Circle, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$45
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1920/sound-on-telling-tales?clicklocation=hp_ue_1
A rather boring edition of this New York Phil New Music initiative. Maybe it seems like that cuz it leads off with a piece by the late Old Skool Modernist Jacob Druckman, who for all his quite evident excellence is not where classical music is heading right now. Nor is Thea Musgrave, for all her music's appeal. Which leaves us with the very on-point John Luther Adams and the piece from Ellen Reid's prize-winning opera that seems to be establishing itself as a freestanding hit.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Uptown Momofuku Noodle Bar: it seems like a soulless template for expansion — but it's still a lot better than most of what you can eat around Columbus Circle.
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Tuesday, October 1, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Jad Abumrad's "Coming Home": Caroline Shaw / Bora Yoon / Shelley Washington
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2019
7:30 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williasmburg, Brooklyn
$25
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/national-sawdust-presents-jad-abumrads-covering-home/
Let me be upfront: I don't like spoken word, I don't like story-telling, I don't like concerts themed by lectures, and I don't have much patience for the smug non-news programming on NPR. But when the musical portion of a program convened by Radiolab's Jad Abumrad is supplied by such stone personal faves as Caroline Shaw (doing "abstract" covers of ageless Appalachian tunes), Bora Yoon, and Shelley Washington (tonight playing solo baritone sax) . . . well, I have to take notice.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Now that it's cooling off at night, I can recommend the somewhat cheffed-up Polish at Dziupla with a clear conscience.
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Tue, Oct 1, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 8:30 PM
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker: Rosas Danst Rosas
DANCE
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 - 5, 2019
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$35-$50
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/rosas-danst-rosas/
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's breakout piece from 1983. Now let me go all personal on you. We all have performances we saw that were signal events for us, that turn out to be exactly what we like (even if we didn't know it before), and that stay with us the rest of ours lives. This piece provided one of mine. I was at what I think was the U.S. premiere of the work in 1986, at BAM. (The start of the performance was delayed because the chairs that de Keersmaeker brought with her for the performance from Belgium — chairs loom very large in this piece — got held up at customs, and BAM had to scramble to find a bunch of replacements.) But once it started, it was, I realized, just what I'd been waiting for — even if I didn't know it. The piece had all the concision and rigor of the Minimalism that I and everyone else was obsessed with then — but, rather than the usual Minimalist chill, it was suffused with very strong emotions. Subsequent viewings have disclosed that the sight of a bunch of young women clomping around the stage in heavy shoes with great determination and agency no longer generates the frisson it did in the '80s; now we expect such things (that's a good thing) — but that's all this work has lost.
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, Oct 1, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 3:30 PM
Peter Brook & Marie-Hélène Estienne: Why?
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 - 6, 2019
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Crossing the Line Festival
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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Tuesday, October 1, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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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.
